love this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tq_SURMi1Mo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAPKB6-DYOY

The Christian paradox

Something I read through recently has been on my mind alot, and I have spent a lot of thought on this when I really should be studying for 2 finals tomorrow, what can I say... I had to read this for sociology. Its really sad to see the state of "Christianity" in America, and it has only gotten worse since 2005 when this article was written, the full text can be found here

Only 40 percent of Americans can name more than four of the Ten Commandments, and a scant half can cite any of the four authors of the Gospels. Twelve percent believe Joan of Arc was Noah's wife. This failure to recall the specifics of our Christian heritage may be further evidence of our nation's educational decline, but it probably doesn't matter all that much in spiritual or political terms. Here is a statistic that does matter: Three quarters of Americans believe the Bible teaches that “God helps those who help themselves.” That is, three out of four Americans believe that this uber-American idea, a notion at the core of our current individualist politics and culture, which was in fact uttered by Ben Franklin, actually appears in Holy Scripture. The thing is, not only is Franklin's wisdom not biblical; it's counter-biblical. Few ideas could be further from the gospel message, with its radical summons to love of neighbor. On this essential matter, most Americans—most American Christians—are simply wrong, as if 75 percent of American scientists believed that Newton proved gravity causes apples to fly up.

Asking Christians what Christ taught isn't a trick. When we say we are a Christian nation—and, overwhelmingly, we do—it means something. People who go to church absorb lessons there and make real decisions based on those lessons; increasingly, these lessons inform their politics. (One poll found that 11 percent of U.S. churchgoers were urged by their clergy to vote in a particular way in the 2004 election, up from 6 percent in 2000.) When George Bush says that Jesus Christ is his favorite philosopher, he may or may not be sincere, but he is reflecting the sincere beliefs of the vast majority of Americans.

And therein is the paradox. America is simultaneously the most professedly Christian of the developed nations and the least Christian in its behavior. That paradox—more important, perhaps, than the much touted ability of French women to stay thin on a diet of chocolate and cheese—illuminates the hollow at the core of our boastful, careening culture...

A rich man came to Jesus one day and asked what he should do to get into heaven. Jesus did not say he should invest, spend, and let the benefits trickle down; he said sell what you have, give the money to the poor, and follow me. Few plainer words have been spoken. And yet, for some reason, the Christian Coalition of America—founded in 1989 in order to “preserve, protect and defend the Judeo-Christian values that made this the greatest country in history”—proclaimed last year that its top legislative priority would be “making permanent President Bush's 2001 federal tax cuts.”

Similarly, a furor erupted last spring when it emerged that a Colorado jury had consulted the Bible before sentencing a killer to death. Experts debated whether the (Christian) jurors should have used an outside authority in their deliberations, and of course the Christian right saw it as one more sign of a secular society devaluing religion. But a more interesting question would have been why the jurors fixated on Leviticus 24, with its call for an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. They had somehow missed Jesus' explicit refutation in the New Testament: “You have heard that it was said, ‘an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also.”

If I believed in myself
As much as I believe in you
This would be so much easier
But it's not


so come and get me.

TIE ME UP, UNTIE ME!

mewithoutyou lyrics

I was looking at the leaves, climbing to the tops of the trees...
But you were nowhere to be found;
Just beneath all the green you were buried like a little seed...
Among the roots and underground.
I was licking at the leaves, but I was in short sleeves and you,
You were like some sickness that I caught;
And my sweetheart moved away, swept off like garbage in the alleyway...
And I need more grace than I thought.

(Oh, please, brother, I am far...brother, I am far away...brother, I am far away from everything.
Oh, brother, I am far...brother, I am far away...brother! I am far away from everything good!)

She's like a hot cloth on a fevered head,
And like a needle she leads me (while I follow like thread)
Tie me up! Untie me! All this wishing I was dead is getting old...
IT'S GETTING OLD!!
...it goes on, but it's old.

I was swimming through the waves for what must have been days...
But could find no relief;
When I started sinking down I thought for certain I would drown...
Until I saw you in the ocean,
Underneath all the bright colored fish tell of a treasure in a dull shell...
"Such subtlety, so easily missed!"
You, my hidden pearl of pure and perfect love,
And I'm the living example of 100% the opposite of this.

(If I ask the same questions...well, yes, sir, I ask the same questions...
Well, maybe I repeat myself from time to time.
But if I ask the same questions...and then I know I ask the same questions,
It's because everyone who answers me is a liar!!)

She's like the hot cloth on a fevered head,
And like a needle she leads me (while I follow like thread)
But you untied me...didn't You untie me, Lord?
And now I haven't even thought about killing myself in almost five months.

old writing

Im on the road again, im riding on a bus
You told me “oh don’t worry”, but still you lack my trust
With Galilee behind me, and Jerusalem up ahead
The mount where Jesus taught, the 4000 he fed
Samson and Delilah, a story of light vs. dark
Gezer was a city on a hill, still they missed their mark
You told me “choose living water”, yet still I dug a well
I stood in the valley, where goliath fell
Give me faith like David, help me to protect my sheep
The lion and the bear are here, and it’s time for them to eat
Up on Mount Arbel, You came for solitude
Then spend 40 days in prayer, 40 days without food
40 years in the dessert, until a generation passed
You would think they learned their lesson, but the lesson didn’t last
You said “throw out the wrong net, on the wrong side of the boat”
Then they pulled up so many fish, that the boat couldn’t float
In Christ I am weak, NO- In Christ I am strong
I feel like 2000 years ago, is where I belong
The sermon on the mount, Matthew 5- chapter 7
I’ve asked, seeked, and knocked, I’m ready to come to heaven
There is no song that I could sing, no poem I could write
My throats an empty grave, but yet I sing with all my might
To attempt to bring you something, that you don’t already own
I’m afraid my fire’s burned out, that my heart’s turned to stone

Now I’m ready to start living be the air that I’m breathing
Be my strength be my might, Jesus be my delight
In my darkness, be my light, in my weakness be my might
Be my shield, be my sword, be the life I can’t afford
Be the peace to my world, be my Savior- BE MY LORD
I am a worm not a man, oh God take my hand

freegan

It's just common sense, when someone's throwing it away to eat that as long as it's still healthy, rather than going and buying something new. It's more just me being a cheapskate, knowing I can ride my bicycle and get around a lot cheaper than putting gas in a car and maintaining it... It's not an ideology that I would want to push on anybody... I'm happy that my brother has a cell phone so I can borrow it right now. And I'm obviously happy that many people have houses so I have so many places to sleep.

-Aaron Weiss

earings

So I am raising money for Haiti, I am going to Haiti on a missions trip. I am making and selling earrings, and all profit that is made is going to purchase airfare. I am heading to Haiti on August 29th, with a team of 4 other members, we are building and rebuilding churches and schools, also doing some work around the Baptist Haiti Mission.

So buy a pair, Or two.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Zach-Way-Earings/110417488999680?v=app_2373072738#!/pages/Zach-Way-Earings/110417488999680?ref=sgm