Every Day DOESN'T have to be the Same.

December 12, 2006The age old story lines about teenagers like yourself include these words, "lost, immature, searching, lazy, unsure, naive, easily influenced, and daring. The list can go on and on. From my own experience as a teenager I can attest to the above adjectives and affirm their meanings because I have been and still battle with those at 28. Nine Inch Nails wrote a song that I'm going to talk about in this blog and I want to hear back from you if this song is "your life." Is this song speaking about where your at in life? This song USED to describe me.

Every Day Is Exactly the Same
by Nine Inch Nails

I believe I can see the future
As I repeat the same routine
I think I used to have a purpose
But then again
That might have been a dream
I think I used to have a voice
Now i never make a sound
I just do what I've been told
I really don't want them to come around again

Oh, no

[Chorus]
Everyday is exactly the same
Everyday is exactly the same
There is no love here and there is no pain
Everyday is exactly the same

I can feel thier eyes are watching
In case I loose myself again
Sometimes I think I'm happy here
Sometimes, yet I still pretend
I can't remember how this got started
But I can tell you exactly how it will end

[Chorus]

I'm writing on a little piece of paper
I'm hoping someday you might find
I'll hide it behind something
They won't look behind
I am still inside here
A little bit comes bleeding through
I wish this could have been any other way
But I just don't know- I don't know what else I can do!

[Chorus]

I can look back in my life and see a lonely/searching young man/boy who desperately wanted someone to "show him the way." This song used to be me (emphasis on the past tense of the word "used.").

What part of YOU is in this song?

If you find yourself identifying to any part of these lines then let me be completely honest with you my friend, if I can. The identity you claim in this song can be traced back to some amount of pain and anguish and/or tragedy you have experienced. Do not let yourself be lied to that this is it; that it all stops here for you in these lyrics. That is where the lie is. It doesn't have to stop here. You have to choose whether or not you want to live in pain and anger your whole life or if you want Rescue. If you feel like there is, "no love here," I am here to awaken you to the fact that there is. This Love is waiting on you to reach out to Him and make Him the place where you run to and confide in. This Love is Jesus Christ.

Do you, "wish [there] could have been any other way,
But [you] just don't know- [you] don't know what else [you] can do!" If you feel your life is the epitomey of this song then change it. Your tears have you bitter and through with your life I'm sure. Depression has rendered you cynical, dry, and desolate. Wake up and be restored. Jesus said in John 4:14, "...whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
Jesus Christ is the "other way" in the lyrics. When Trent Reznor "didn't know what to do" Jesus was an option the whole time. What will you choose? Stop pretending. Stop focusing on the "bledding." This is the time to truly "find yourself." Everyday doesn't have to be exactly the same. When you drink from the Living Waters which is Jesus Christ everything changes. You become a "new creation" (2 Cor. 5:17). You are no longer a slave to your pain you have endured because Jesus died and rose again to take it away from you.

Stop "repeating the same routine" away from Jesus Christ. Or this song will continue to be all you know. Your indentity will be these lyrics. And you'll continue to act out the pain you don't want to show.

If you want to know more, ticked off, totally disagree with me, or somewhere inbetween email me. I would love to talk about this with you. I once held tightly to alot of what this songs says. Jesus Christ bailed me out. I just want to show others that are trapped that there IS a Way out.

clint@belleaire.org

The Hope behind the Cross.

April 15, 2006

"The cross and the resurrection stand as the pivotal events at the heart of the Christian faith. Christianity stands or falls with the substitutionary atonement wrought by the death of the incarnate Son of God on the cross and the resurrection of the Son of God on the third day. If Christ did not die in our place, then we are still under the divine verdict. If Jesus was not raised, He was merely a victim, and not the Victor.

The church comes each year to this celebration of resurrection because we must constantly remind ourselves and the world of the resurrection hope, and of the reality of the risen Christ. The church of the Lord Jesus Christ must always remain a company of resurrection witnesses, speaking the Gospel of the cross and the risen Christ to a world desperate for genuine hope.

Yet, the world is not always ready to hear the challenging clarity of the Easter message. Words such as sin, guilt, redemption, atonement, and salvation are often seen as intrusive, impolite, and unsophisticated. Individuals who flee from the admission of their own sinfulness know that the word of the cross and the witness of the resurrected Lord come as judgment, as well as grace.

Some within the church have decided to help the Easter message conform to cultural expectations. David Jenkins, the former bishop of Durham (England) prompted an outcry in the Church of England over his suggestion that the resurrection was "real," but not an historical fact. Christ's resurrection was real, in the sense that the disciples experienced the "livingness" of Jesus. Nevertheless, says the bishop, the resurrection of Jesus was not a bodily resurrection.

The modern flight from the reality of the empty tomb and the resurrected Christ is but another example of the revolt against classical Christian orthodoxy seen in some segments of the church. But the biblical message will not allow such compromise. The gospels record the bodily resurrection of Jesus from the dead and the appearance of the risen Christ to the disciples and to others.

Paul left no door open to misunderstanding when he stated: "If Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins." (1 Corinthians 15:17) If Christ was not raised "we are of all men to be pitied." But, Paul proclaimed, Christ has been raised, the firstfruits of the resurrection of the believers.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the vindication of the Gospel and the eternal sign of the atonement accomplished on the cross. The resurrection was recognized by the disciples as God's sign that Jesus was indeed the incarnate Son, that His messianic claims were true, that His preaching of the Kingdom of God would be realized, and that His sacrificial death was sufficient for the salvation of sinful humanity. The resurrection is also the sign of his return.

Furthermore, the Scriptures make clear the fact that Jesus's resurrection is the promise of our own resurrection and the concrete hope of life beyond the grave. The reality of the resurrection prompted Paul's triumphant cry: "Death is swallowed up in victory."

The church must never apologize for its celebration of the resurrection. Indeed, though Easter is celebrated as Resurrection Day, each Lord's Day is a resurrection day, and each congregation is a body of believers united in the hope and witness of the resurrection.

The two great annual festival celebrations of the church provide for worship and witness. Churches must be faithful witnesses to the reality of the bodily resurrection of Jesus and bold to speak the truth of His resurrection as both judgment and sufficient hope."

Excerpts from Albert Mohlor's commentary of "Death Swallowed Up in Victory."
http://www.albertmohler.com/commentary_read.php?cdate=2006-04-14

What do you see?

March 27, 2006
Take a few minutes and look at this picture...

How does this picture make you feel?...

What do you see?...

I'm curious to find out how this picture makes you feel. I'll tell you the title of this picture in a bit.

Hundreds protest reports Afghan convert to be freed

March 27, 2006KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- Hundreds of people protested in a northern Afghan city following reports that a man who faced a possible death penalty for converting to Christianity would be released, officials said.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/asiapcf/03/27/afghan.convert/index.html

The Diaper Change with Aslan Nadeau.

March 21, 2006
"My Daddy ain't got nothing on these big guns!...Cool I can stick my tongue out!"
         The face a 1am diaper change.


"Holla back, y'all."