Zeros & Ones: Importance of the Resurrection (Week 2)

A look inside our Bible Study discussion as we go further up and in on the reality and implications of the resurrection of Christ. We discuss the misunderstandings of Jesus' contemporaries and the overall cultural expectations of the the resurrection. Also, the coming of the kingdom of God and how this led into up to his crucifixion; even still, this was all providentially governed by God.

 

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

Dust with a Pen

“…then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.”

- (Genesis 2:7 ESV)

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us.”

- (2 Corinthians 4:7 ESV)

I'm just dust with a pen

Graciously given a talent for word play

And redemption from sin

So it’s by design that my mind conjures rhymes

Finds a scheme with meaning

Then puts it in time

Tune my phrases to praise

Doxology and sound doctrine

Influenced in every nuance

By the words of the Master and his apostles

 

Gospel saturated –

My mind is fascinated with the deep riches of the Almighty

Then give it to you in a category

That’s so nice and tidy

Precept upon precept, line upon line

I go stupid on the page

As so to never leave you blind

Or ignorant to your Maker

Who makes lovers out of haters

Renewed my mind to the craft

So now I break bread with my neighbors

Instead of breaking bones

I break up the Truth in my poems

So that when you’re done tweetin’

About what you’ve eaten

These crumbs will help to lead you home

 

‘Cause once you get a taste from this place

You’ll be coming back for seconds

He’s coming back to judge the quick and the dead

And that could be at any second

No second guessing – you won’t miss it

It’s gonna happen in an instant

When he cracks the sky for the last time

He won’t be looking for repentance

 

My Ebenezer and stronghold

Is tougher than ten walls of Jericho

He stands with us in the furnace

(Just ask Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego)

Man of War, Lamb of God, the mighty Lion of Judah

He’s got the whole world in his hands

And the government’s on his shoulders

What a privilege it is

For this earthen vessel to hold these treasures

So as soon as my pen hits the page

I'm scribbling for his pleasure

“Let everything that has breath praise the LORD! Praise the LORD!”

- (Psalm 150:6 ESV)

“So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”

- (1 Corinthians 10:31 ESV)

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

Righteous Kill

Since before the days of the Coliseum

People have been locked up and beaten

Relentlessly persecuted for the faith

By being mocked, maimed, and eaten

But they went to the rack, singing

Bodies burned for just believing

In the only one True Messiah

Never paying homage to heathens

Or posturing to imposters

Never taking the mark of the Beast

Refused to render to Caesar what belonged to Jesus

And so became a part of the feast

Fed to lions with eyes still fixed on Zion

Followed their master into martyrdom

Even though painful death was certainly common

They took it all with a reckless abandon

Forsaking the world and everything in it

Knowing their sins had been forgiven

They faced the sword with no regard

Knowing in Christ, now their lives had been hidden

So as I hear the sirens coming

And I see the war at home

I’m reminded of the greater war

And exactly who’s side I’m on

Come what may, we’re here to stay

We’ll never be dismayed

The history’s already been written

We will not be made ashamed

Abashed and in awe the Devil stood

And saw what was so incredibly good

That it stoked the embers of envy in his heart

Now, he’d kill us if he could

But over the wood and nails

Our Surety prevails

So even if our blood is to be spilled

“He was bruised for our transgressions

And by His stripes, we are healed.”

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written,

                “For your sake we are being killed all the day long;

                we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.”

 No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

- (Romans 8:31-39 ESV)

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

Beyond Repair

Toys get broken; so do hearts
Except in the case of the latter,
There sometimes is no repair

You can't heal the brokenness

With store-bought parts;

Nor can it be replaced by another

But how careless we are

With something that starts out

So fragile and pure

Thrown around, tossed about and wasted

On people and things like play things

No matter what the cost;

Paying the price every time

Receiving nothing in return

Until the delicate fixture of our souls

Becomes hardened and cold

And we're left like sad little children –
Toy all gone and crying mad
Waiting for another innocent to come along
With a new heart to be had



“Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life.”
- (Proverbs 4:23 ESV)

Shake the Dust

Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes.”

- (Genesis 18:27 ESV)

I am nothing more than dust…

Prone to feed my wanderlust

Made into a man from a collection of sand

But by the Lord’s mercy, now I am what I am

I am clean since I AM washed me in the blood of the Lamb

So, Here I stand; I can do no other

No, this is not a drill; I refuse to duck and cover

So you can go ahead; throw your stones, if you got ‘em

He’s the Chief Cornerstone, so I’m still gonna rock Him

I’m one of the elected…

A speck predestined to represent

After the order of Melchezidek -

A King with no precedent

A slave to the sentence

I’m the subject …He’s the Predicate

It’s in Him I trust, money

And not a bunch of dead presidents

Shake the dirt out of your pillow

Wake up your damned relatives

Because they’re sittin’ in a parlor room

With way too many elephants

They can’t see the light of day

Because the sun’s blocked out

And it won’t be much longer now

Before the rocks cry out…

With pachyderms, you better learn how to tell ‘em apart…

The difference between the back of the barn

Or the front of the Ark

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them.

 - (Ephesians 2:1-10 ESV)

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

Monster

Physically disturbed to see you standing there at my door

Ready and willing to take more of what I don't have left

A soul, a will; something of value I need

Yet to you, it's all the same: you cut, I bleed

From head to toe, I've given every bit, inch by inch

Over time I thought this would prove itself to be well spent

Rent all to hell without a thing to show

Miles and miles of life

Eroding beneath the blood-stained footprints on the floor

Husbands, love your wives, and do not be harsh with them.

- (Colossians 3:19 ESV)

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

Christ-Haunted Places

“I think it is safe to say that while the South is hardly Christ-centered, it is most certainly Christ-haunted.”
― Flannery O'Connor

 

We’ve boarded up the windows

Pulled up the floorboards

And removed all of the stains

But then again, what would you expect?

This is what happens when you treat sacrifice

Like a bloody crime scene

“What a mess…it really needs to be cleaned…”

 

Christ-haunted and undaunted by the fact that we are –

No one needs thorns when they’ve got their own scars

And who needs a new heaven

When you can blow up the moon to make stars?

Or who needs a new earth?

When the wells run dry, we’ll build a ranch on Mars

Everyday, stars are born:  from YouTube to Porn to Survivor

Except this time, no one gets out alive

Because we’ve fallen in love with a liar

 

Searching for what we’re missing

On the back of a milk carton that’s expired

Remember - Revivals never get worked up, my man

They get prayed down – inspired

 

But long gone are those days

It seems all of the preachers have retired

Gave up the pulpit for Disneyland

So now all we get are prophets for hire

Set the people on fire

And leave ‘em burnin’ for days

And when the flame subsides

They’re worse off than they were

When still in their former ways…

 

Shell-shocked and in a daze

They utter not a word

Now the Holy Ghost is reduced to rattlin’ chains

And a Tower of Babel preferred

"But I have this against you, that you have abandoned the love you had at first. Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent, and do the works you did at first. If not, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place, unless you repent."  - (Revelation 2:4-5 ESV)

 

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

Behold the Man

So Jesus came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold the man!”  - (John 19:5 ESV)

Animosity builds to an atrocity

That leads to amnesty for bandits

While exposing religious hypocrisy

A philosophy of demons

Justifying the reason

To ridicule the Creator

And falsely accuse him of treason

 

Covered in humility

Stripped now of his dignity

Unbeknownst to the world

That within him is all divinity

Public enemy No. 1

Blasphemy to blasphemers

Because he came to seek and save the lost

Not self-righteous deceivers

 

Behold the man…

 

Paraded around as a delusional fool

The very King of the world

Used as a political tool

Justifying the guilty

Through an unrighteous execution

So that the accusations of Satan

Would never bring them to ruin

 

The Lamb of God

Who though he was slain

Would resurrect the temple in three days

So it would forever remain

All those he claims

Are now without blemish or stain

So even when brought low

They too shall rise again

 

Numbered with the transgressors

So that we become confessors –

Witnesses to his craft

Escaping the cup of wrath

That he drank on our behalf

 

Behold the feet

Behold the hands

Behold the man

Who gives pardon to the damned

 

Amen.

 

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!  - (John 1:29 ESV)

 

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

Dog Days

 

Like a dog that returns to his vomit
 is a fool who repeats his folly.
 - (Proverbs 26:11 ESV)

 

Every dog has its day…

But that doesn’t mean

That every dog gets its own way

Or has the last say

The last word doesn’t belong

To the one who barks loudest or longest

No – the Final Word lives on

And is heard on its own accord

 

So while we woof and wail

And feign to bite

The Word sinks in deep - 

Takes the fight

And draws it out of us

Incapacitates -

Regenerates and devastates at will…

While we’re asking, “What would Jesus Do?”

Wrong question…

Ever wonder who would Jesus kill?

Even better still

Am I willing to die for his cause?

(You need to take pause with the query

Or the meaning gets lost)

 

As we chase every passing car

That comes along

Getting too brave for our own good

And fail to identify

What’s too big to handle

Until a blaring symphony of horns

Becomes our swan song…

 

My friends, we aren’t made

For howling at the moon

We were made to seek justice

And warn of the wrath to come

In a long, dog day afternoon

 

 

 

 

For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.
- (Hebrews 4:12-13 ESV)

 

 

They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”  - (2 Peter 2:19-22 ESV)

 

 

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

The Fugitive Mind

 In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
- (Judges 21:25 ESV)

Our minds are pragmatic

No thinking about the actions

Doin’ things just to do 'em
Without worrying about the tactics

Consequence be damned –

Don’t wait for the repercussions

Because truth wasn’t your idea

Why bother with a discussion?

So shut up with your fussin’

And just listen as the gears turn

“There’s so much left to do…

We don’t got time

For all that stupid learnin’?!”

Views on morality

Now become a casualty

While the heart is ever more corrupted

In a spiritually poor society

Where our ten commandments are:

Lust…Power…Capital...
Oh, yeah...we threw out the other seven

Because they just weren’t that practical

It’s a simple enough equation

Do the math and add it up

When the mind is blown

The first thing gone is:

“What the hell is truly wrong with us?!”

We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.
- (2 Corinthians 10:5-6 ESV)

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)