So, I just got back from the one of the greatest experiences of my life! I went to converge tonight. There was this band there called The Afters. They were pretty good. Then we did some other stuff. Eventually I witnessed literally hundreds of teenagers giving their lives to Christ (I definitely want to be a youth minister). The feeling was incredible. Then Pillar played. I eventually worked my way up to the front. I was like a foot away from the band at most. The concert was amazing. My throat hurts from screaming. Then, to cap off a perfect weekend. I got a poster, and then I got it autographed. I got to talk to the guys (if only briefly) and even got to shake Kalel's hand. I'm so incredibly stoked right now, I don't know what to do with myself. That's all.
Hang loose,
Moses

Here's a fun thing to think about: exactly how much does Jesus love us? Well, let's look at what we know. Jesus gave up the glory of Heaven for us. Take it deeper. What exactly is Heaven like for Jesus? Well, He has millions, if not billions of angels that constantly worship Him. That's all they do. They just stand around Him and tell Him how incredibly awesome and amazing He is. Next, He lives in this place where everything is so extravagant that they pave the roads with gold. Can you imagine a place where gold is so worthless that you can't find a better use for it than to put it on the ground and walk on it? Then, Jesus is constantly in the presence of the Father while in Heaven. Imagine what that must be like. Now, He gives all that up so He can come to earth. First, He spends a third of His life just to be told "you're not rabbi material." (Being King of the Universe apparently doesn't make you an authority on the Word you wrote. Who knew?) So He spends the next twenty or so years mastering the back breaking trade of carpentry. In the meantime, He is tempted by every sin that we're all tempted by and is pretty much just an average Joe. Then He starts His ministry. He spends three years pouring Himself into other people. He performs miracles, he preaches, he prophesies, all the time knowing the end result. Next, Jesus is betrayed. First by one of His best friends, and then by most of the people in general. He's turned over to the religious leaders who want Him dead because His message doesn't line up with their way of thinking. He was then humiliated, beaten, humiliated, whipped, humiliated, starved, humiliated, abandoned, and crucified. Did I mention that He was humiliated (as opposed to being worshipped)? Oh, by the way, crucifixion is basically THE most painful way to die. Jesus knew in Heaven that this was what He would endure. Yet He chose to give up Heaven so that some of us might make the right choice and join Him in Heaven. Now, why is it so hard for us to take a few moments out of our ay to help another human being? "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Just food for thought.
Hang loose,
Moses

Before I say anything, I want to share an excerpt from Bill Bright and Ted Dekker's book, Blessed Child.

"'And some of you who call yourslef Christians need to learn how to walk in the kingdom of God, not just sleep there,' Caleb said. 'Dadda told me that just because you are born into a palace doesn't mean that you know how to rule. You are children who are blind to the power of God's Spirit. I think you might still be babies in the place. Maybe you are still playing with mud pies.'"

Think about that for a minute. How many of us were born into to the kingdom of God just to immediately go to sleep? There's no denying we're there, but it's kinda like being in a spiritual coma. Sure we're alive, but we have no interaction with the world around us. Shouldn't Christians be walking in power? I'm not even talking signs and wonders here, by the way. Christians should have the amazing power to heal the human heart. We should be putting psychologists out of business. There are millions of people walking around dying on the inside. And do we even take time to notice? What separates those who know Christ from those who don't? Hopefully it's a little more than where we go when we die. It's not that hard, really. Pay attention to people. Take enough time to step out of your own world and into someone else's. We're supposed to love our neighbours as ourselves. How do we manage that without doing as much as talking to our neighbors? How can we love anyone when we don't pay enough attention to notice that the person we just asked to take our picture is crying? Or if we did notice, but were to afraid totalk to the person about it. Is this what the church is supposed to be? Are we supposed to be the inverted, uncaring, "you're all going to hell" church? I don't think so. God is love. God loves us. God commands us to love others. Period.

Hang Loose,
Moses

I'm a Christian. It's a simple phrase, but it's packed with a lot of meaning. Most people who throw the phrase don't understand half of what they mean when they say it. I'm probably included, but here's my attempt at unpacking what the word Christian means. First of all, it means that you follow Christ. Think about that. Do you follow Christ? Do you take up your cross every day? Are you willing to deny yourself in order to more fully understand Christ? I don't know about the rest of Christendom, but I'm still working on that one. How about this? Here's a challenge to the Western Church. If the president passed a bill tomorrow that made being a Christian punishable by death, what would you do? Would you follow Christ to the death? People die for Christ every day, just not in America. We don't even have to deal with our own problems if we don't want to. We don't have to depend on God to feed, clothe, or shelter us. We barely have to suffer for Christ at all. I'm not complaining. I don't want to be faced with the decision to be killed or tortured for my faith. But the question is, would I go through the torture or deny Christ? I could tell you that I would die for Christ, but you all would tell me the same thing, and in the end it wouldn't matter. It's just talk. But death aside, there's a self sacrifice involved in true Christianity. Unfortunately, I don't now how much of that is going on. I'm a prime example of it myself. I have problems deny myself those hours in front of my computer. I could just as easily spend that time talking to Jesus, reading the word, or God forbid that I use that time to serve others. But this actually boils down to something deeper still. Why do Christians sacrifice themselves for Christ? The answer is really quite simple. It's because we love Him. And I'm not talking about that "I love my car" or that "I love my new toy" or even that "I love my brother/sister/mother/father" kind of love. I'm talking about that "I'm passionately in love with someone that I could never live without" kind of love. That kind of love that connects two people so intimately that they could never dream of being apart. That's the kind of love that Jesus has for us (and it's rather poorly expressed by me, but it's the best my puny little mortal mind could come up with). That's the kind of love we should be returning to Him. We shouldn't be praying because "that's what Christians do." We should be praying, or reading the Bible, or serving people, or being tortured, or being killed, because we are so in love with Jesus that we couldn't do or say anything that would speak to the opposite. We say that we love Jesus, but I fear that the word love has lost it's meaning. Church, it's time to wake up. Instead of saying we love Jesus, we should start showing that we love Him. I know that we've all heard this before, but very few seem to have taken it to heart. That's all I've got for right now, but I'm sure there'll be more in future publications.

HANG LOOSE
Moses

So, most of you have probably never read any of my poetry. Here's my latest song.

On the Rainy days


Grey clouds crowd together above my head.
On days like this, it seems like the whole world is dead.
I think about the night after the fish and the bread,
When the disciples mistook you for a person long dead.
The wind was against them, they were worked to the bone.
But you walked across the water in the mist and the foam.
When your disciple lost faith, he sunk like a stone,
But you pulled him up, you didn't leave him alone.

Jesus, in this storm, I will sing your praise.
Let me bring you glory in all my days.
Help me to follow in all of you ways.
I sing your praise on the rainy days.

I don't know what I'm doing or where my life is going.
It seems the world is speeding up while I conitnue slowing.
I stumble 'round not knowing. I guess that I've stopped growing.
Even though I try to hide, my sin is out there showing.
I can't continue going in circles forever.
I don't know how much longer I can bear this weather.
The storm is so rough. Right now it's worse than ever.
I fell I'll be blown in the wind just like an eagle's feather.

But Jesus, in this storm, help me sing your praise.
Let me bring you glory in all my days.
Help me to follow in all of your ways.
I sing your praise on the rainy days.

Tell me what you think

Hang loose,
Moses

So, I haven't blogged in a while. To all my faithful readers (lol), I apologize. I've been struggling through a lot of random crap in my life lately, and haven't had much of a will to write. However, I'm doing better, so I may start writing a lot more. I'm hoping to start posting poetry and stories soon, but I have to decide what I want to post. Anyway, some coming attractions - I've started looking into what the Bible has to say about the soul. I'm starting on a story called If We Are the Body, which is loosely based on the Casting Crowns song of the same title. I'm always working on poetry, so some is sure to pop up sooner or later. That's what's coming for now. Always watch for more rants, but I would like to point out right now that usually the reason I write these things is because God is pointing out stuff in my own life. For now, everyone just remember that Jesus loves you (trite, I know). That's all for now.
Hang loose,
Moses