Killer Man's Son

Everyone feels safe

Around the guy with the gun --
That is, until they find out
That he's the Killer Man's son...

And the pressure on your temple
Signals immediate distress
Your point of view is no longer clear
Now that you're under duress

Staring down the barrel
As the questions begin to narrow
Life flashes before your eyes
As you answer at your own peril

Your money or your life; 
Hide your kids, hide your wife
Because he's taking aim at everything
Try to run, you'll die tired

Man down, shots fired
Death from above --
Murder for higher
Holiest of Holy
Public Enemy No. 1
A trigger finger that never retires

So get down and lay low
Or get lit up like it's HALO
Stand up and say goodnight
And let the redeemed of the LORD say so:

"I ain't the Killer Man
I'm the Killer Man's son
But I'll do the killin'
'Til the Killer Man comes..."


(cf. Psalm 107:2; Jeremiah 23:24; Amos 9:2; Matthew 10:28; Romans 8:13-14; Galatians 5:24; Colossians 3:5; 1 Peter 1:14-16; 2 Peter 3:10) 



Soli Deo Gloria,
Shon

Hands High

Just when you think we're getting past it...
We're going right back at it 
Like a nightmare that you thought was gone
It reappears like it was magic
Is this travesty an act of a miscarriage of justice
Or just a knee-jerk reaction to distrust
A system never meant to protect us?

It's us against them...
But is it "us" or is it "them"?!
'Cause sometimes I'm Trayvon...
Sometimes I'm Mike...
Sometimes I'm Zimmerman...
Sometimes I'm Wilson...

At times I'm Malvo
Ducked low in a blue Chevy Caprice
Manipulated by my own kind
To go a pick up a piece

Our peace of mind is assailed
In a hail of bullets 
Another young one in ground
Never knowing life to the fullest
And foolspeak that follows
In the aftermath of a disaster -

How exactly should a native son 
Get over the fact
That he's being treated 
Like a bastard?

They tell me that my views
Are from another time and place
Yet I'm the same color...
In the same country...
And it's still all about race

And unless the Lord's grace intervenes
We'll never make it to the finish
Of a long-running history
That never seems to diminish

Remember: the anger of men 
Will never produce godly righteousness
But the righteousness of Christ 
Is the only reason I fight for this -
Liberty and justice 
From a corruptness
That has plagued us 
In his absence;
From rulers that wield the sword in vain
To the masses that give way to the malice

He drank from wrath's chalice
And took on the sins of Adam
So those who bear the mark of Cain
Can one day enter the heavenly palace

A King's dream finally realized
"One Nation Under God" reimagined
Guns down and hands high
As the final enemy is moving backwards

"Let your reasonableness be known to everyone. The Lord is at hand; do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." - Philippians 4:5-7 ESV

Soli Deo Gloria,
Shon

Anastasis

Committin’ crimes of necessity

Ancient Greek ἀνάστασις (anástasis, “resurrection”).

The world’s gettin’ the best of me
Street life got me twisted
Plus baby’s mama been stressin’ me
Fools always out here flexin’
So I  pack  a piece for my protection
Still no peace of mind from the struggle
Goin’ numb is my only weapon

Am I the next in line to hang
Like strange fruit  from the family tree?
Chokin’ on the vine...
I come from a  long line of leavers
“Underachiever…”
‘Cause success to me
Is stay hungry and keep breathin’
Whatever keeps my daughter fed
(Prayin' she don’t turn out to be a heathen)

Schemin’ and stead’y dreamin’
I know this trap money is fleetin’
But when you’re runnin’ outta options
There ain’t too much left to believe in
I’ve been grievin’ since my daddy’s gone
Momma raised me on her own
Now the doctor says she’s dyin’ too
Won’t be long before I’m all alone

Truth be told
All my friends really repulse me
And the lifestyle that I’m livin’
I might end up under dust quick
If the Lord is my shepherd
Have mercy and come get me
‘Cause the wolves are preyin’ as I speak
And I’m prayin’ that you can fix this

The Devil wants me dead
Yet, ironically, so does Jesus -
One leads to life as a felon
The other leads to anastasis

As it's written:
“Cursed is everyone who hangs from a tree…”
He hung Himself on that wood, so now I can hang one from me
I’m clingin'...


(cf. Prov. 30:7-9; Luke 9:23-24; John 10:7-18; Rom. 6:4, 8:13; Gal. 3:13; Eph. 2:1-10; Col. 3:1; 1 Peter 5:8)


Soli Deo Gloria,
Shon

J.O. (An Open Letter)

"As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear."  - 1 Timothy 5:20 ESV

You've been lying a long time
Selling people the wrong kind
Of faith - it's unkind
Pumping poison into their minds
It's the blind leading the blind
A rocket ship to perdition
Dope lines and a nice smile
Without the slightest hint of contrition

I'm suspicious -
That's not in the Bible
Your rhetoric's become an idol
An opiate of false hope
For the masses who eagerly swallow -
Down the hatch, check the latch
Katie's barred the doors to heaven
Convinced them they're living in victory
But the sacrament you feed them is leaven

No need for flesh and blood
Just tell people what's good
Speaking promise into the lives
Of those who've never understood
The battle of attrition -
A will unwilling to submit
To the truth about the God who's there
And the final fate that awaits the sinner

So they don't want the Father
They want a vending machine
And Jesus suffered and died
So we could have nicer things
And the Holy Ghost is reduced
To being the author of confusion
Long gone is the Hound of Heaven...
He's just a U.N. interpreter trying to fool you

You're an evangelical pragmatist
Simon Magus meets the alchemist
Feeding egos may be your steelo
But your breadth of theology is ridiculousness
Short-sighted, misguided
Out of context and never striving
To find the truth within the text
You don't rightly divide; you just contrive it

And no, you're not the only one
There's plenty others just like you
Who deny the merit of the Cross
Through sensuality and false virtue
So I urge you - return to the path of old
And be healed of your pathological need to please
Abandon "discovering the champion in you"
For finding a life that's hidden in Jesus


(cf. Ezekiel 22:28; Matt. 7:15; Acts 20:28-30)


Soli Deo Gloria,
Shon

How To Be Perfect: The Righteousness of Christ

"God's standard isn't progress. God's standard is perfection...We have broken every single commandment. Jesus has fulfilled each and every one on our behalf. Only when we are crushed by God's demand for perfection can we be cured by His grace. Jesus came to fulfill the law for you and me...When God looks at us, he doesn't see how we've failed - He sees how Jesus succeeded. That's salvation. That's the gospel. When God looks at us, He doesn't see our unrighteousness - He sees Christ's righteousness. Because of Jesus, we are perfect as our Heavenly Father is perfect. Before God, the righteousness of Christ is all we need. Before God, the righteousness of Christ is all we have." - Tullian Tchividjian

(cf. Leviticus 19:2; Matthew 5:17, 20; Philippians 3:9)


Soli Deo Gloria,
Shon

Love Like Suicide: Our Hope In Christ

I've been there.

So I'm always saddened to hear stories like this one. It's hard to make sense of it all...

But I think that the pattern of depression and suicide within the entertainment industry has to do with the fact that they give and give without ever being able to take off the mask - or so they perceive. The cameras are always on them. So the profession becomes a coping mechanism. They become very good at being "on" all of the time (I also believe that this is a reason that some turn to drugs). In the struggle to find emotional, mental, and spiritual balance they still have to perform... "the show must go on". Eventually, it's only a matter of time before we (as well as they themselves) lose the person behind the carefully crafted persona.

It's yet another sobering reminder that we need to see people as human beings. The identity of being human goes much deeper than the masks that we all have a tendency to wear. There is a inherent God-given dignity bestowed on all of us - regardless of how fractured we may be - that is greater than any character or facade we create (Gen. 1:26; 5:2). We often love people for what they do...but that is always mutable. Therefore, let this tragedy be a catalyst for us to love the person for what is beneath the surface as well, if not more so (John 7:24).

We all need hope...
And there's only one place that we can turn to truly find it.

(cf.  Ps. 42:5; Is. 53:3-9; Matt. 5:4, 11:28-30; John 11:35; Rom. 12:15; 2 Cor. 1:8-10, 4:7-10; Heb. 4:15, 5:2)


"Looking back it is clear to me that a man is more than the sum of his deeds; and how you made good of this mess I've made is a profound mystery..." - Aaron Tate (Lead of Love)


Soli Deo Gloria,
Shon

Gone With The Wind: The Wisdom of Malcom Muggeridge

"We look back upon history and what do we see? Empires rising and falling, revolutions and counter-revolutions, wealth accumulating and wealth dispersed, one nation dominant and then another. Shakespeare speaks of ‘the rise and fall of great ones that ebb and flow with the moon.

I look back on my own fellow countrymen ruling over a quarter of the world, the great majority of them convinced, in the words of what is still a favorite song, that, ‘God who’s made the mighty would make them mightier yet.’ I’ve heard a crazed, cracked Austrian announce to the world the establishment of a German Reich that would last a thousand years; an Italian clown announce that he would restart the calendar to begin his own ascension to power. I’ve heard a murderous Georgian brigand in the Kremlin acclaimed by the intellectual elite of the world as a wiser than Solomon, more humane than Marcus Aurelius, more enlightened than Ashoka. I’ve seen America wealthier and in terms of weaponry, more powerful than the rest of the world put together, so that had the American people desired, could have outdone an Alexander or a Julius Caesar in the range and scale of their conquests.

All in one lifetime. All in one lifetime. All gone with the wind.

England part of a tiny island off the coast of Europe, threatened with dismemberment and even bankruptcy. Hitler and Mussolini dead, remembered only in infamy. Stalin a forbidden name in the regime he helped found and dominate for some three decades. America haunted by fears of running out of those precious fluids that keep her motorways roaring, and the smog settling, with troubled memories of a disastrous campaign in Vietnam, and the victories of the Don Quixotes of the media as they charged the windmills of Watergate.

All in one lifetime, all gone. Gone with the wind.

Behind the debris of these self-styled, sullen supermen and imperial diplomatists, there stands the gigantic figure of one person, because of whom, by whom, in whom, and through whom alone mankind might still have hope. The person of Jesus Christ."

-Malcolm Muggeridge (1903-1990)

History is HIS story...

Solo Deo Gloria,
Shon

Nexus

"When you tug at a single thing in the universe, you find it's attached to everything else." - John Muir

We de-vine from the Divine
In hopes to refine our process
And progress in the endeavor
To fashion a better Deity after ourselves

One of our own kind –
Snatched from the clutches of Providence
And placed firmly in the palm of modern science
Zion in a test tube;
The refuge for the so-called Transcendent Man
The more that we download
The harder it becomes to land

As we fan the flame of Prometheus
And cross our fingers
For the undoing of our weakness
Seeing this as the light
At the end of the tunnel of history
The dual core spark of genius
That replaces miracle and mystery alike
Now the truest religion
Can only be found
In the highest number of megabytes

The great heist of our humanity has begun
Hoist the flag of the Singularity
As our DNA breaks down to zeroes and ones
And the mechanized heart
Is seen as a thing of beauty
A work of art that consists of moving parts
In the chest of a duck-faced cutie

Conscience rusted out and worse for the wear
Tethered to an operating system
Of cold, blank stares
Such a lack of action
Long gone are the notions
Of compassion and love

"There is no nexus where there is no blood."
"There is no nexus where there is no blood."

(cf. John 1:1-4;15:5; 1 John 2:18-20,22)


Soli Deo Gloria,
Shon

Spark

I'm a consummate failure

That pales in comparison to righteousness
A constant success
At exceeding expectations

For messing up
Only to dress up any indications of fractures
By acting out...

I pretend to have no doubts
But the cacophony of questions
Just gets louder and louder
Until my conscience is drowned out
By the swelling of my pride

Sleeping dogs don't bark
They lie in wait; one eye open
Right outside of Hell's gates
Preying on my need to feed my ego
Because the high of self-inflation
Is better than any needle (it's a steeple)

Now I'm ripe for the taking
Fattened up for the kill
As the ghost of Aleister Crowley
Haunts my ears: "Do what thou wilt" 

No regard for man or God
Brokenness spoken out of the human heart
Leaves nothing to chance for divine intervention...

Waking new life requires dying in the dark.


(cf. Psalms 34:18; 51:17; 138:6, Isaiah 42:3; 57:15, Colossians 3:5-11)

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Esther

"The young woman had a beautiful figure and was lovely to look at..."  - Esther 2:7

I’m trying…
Trying my best to get her out of my mind
But after I saw her on the screen that one time
It was a wrap for me -

All of a sudden
Everything started to move in slow motion
And from that day forward
My whole world was taken over

Never quite able to fully recover
Because my thoughts are held captive and smothered by
Her eyes…
Her lips…
(My lies…)
Her hips…
Got me trippin’ on an apparition
Comprised of natural beauty and nonsense

And my conscience bears witness
To the consciousness of my decision
To view her barely dressed in these images
And I’m considering this a privilege
This raven-haired, beautiful
Brown-skinned, mocha, diva
A cross between Foxy Brown
Cleopatra and the Queen of Sheba

I’ve probably said more than enough
And I don’t like where this conversation is headed;
I'm turning something the Lord made
Into something entirely different to be regretted
She’s my own private apocalypse
Revelation of the darkness of my heart
Reminding me to save some things for later
And at times, it’s best to admire from afar

It's hard because she's fine
And I try to play it off with laughter
But before I even finish the statement
All I'm thinking about is Ms. Baxter

For what it's worth,
I'm at a loss for words
And can't think of any way
To say it better

Except...

Now, I see through the mirror darkly
While constantly dreaming of Esther


(cf. 2 Samuel 11:2; Proverbs 4:23, 11:16, 30:18-19, 31:3,30; Song of Solomon 2:7; 1 Corinthians 13:12; 1 John 2:16; Matthew 5:27-30; 2 Corinthians 10:5-6; James 1:17)



Soli Deo Gloria,
Shon

War

"When life and death go to battle, ain't no tellin' what'll happen." - Trip Lee ("War")

A war within my heart
These voices in my head
Are battling for my soul
Against the thief under my bed
 
A knife within my grasp
A gun tucked in my waist
I struggle with the cause of death
But never worry about the taste
 
It rages on and on
Like an unforgiving song
A parade just for the damned
Who have truly known it all along
 
So raise another glass
Middle fingers to the sky
No reason to hold out my hands
Just let the arrows fly
 
This is war…


(cf. James 4:1; Romans 7:23, 8:13; Ephesians 6:10-18; 1 Peter 3:18)

Soli Deo Gloria,
Shon

Pandemonium

But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has authority to cast into hell.

Yes, I tell you, fear him! - Luke 12:5

The other side of paradise
Aftermath of the afterlife
Where darkness falls
And madness reigns
Never again to see the light

Never again to make it right
Never an end to the constant fright
Never to find a hiding place
From the terrible things
That go bump in the night

That's just the way it is
When you're livin' in Pandemonium
The strife is never-ending
And you'll forever feel alone in here

Worse than any inner city
Our feeble minds
Could conceive of -
An inner sanctum of the departed
The end of the line
For the unbelievers

The deceived and the deceivers
The disconsolate and fire-breathers
Such a high price to pay
To say you did it your way
Now there's no way
For you to flee from here

The hurt...
The pain...
The wrath of YHWH being sorted
With the fury of a thousand wars
And he's only just begun
To get it started

Altogether torn asunder
By a sorrow that forever plummets
'Til the feet touch down in Gehenna
Never again to see the Summit

Nightmare of nightmares
The hounds of Hell
Constantly on the attack
"Abandon hope all ye who enter"
As the heat from the lake of fire
Licks your back...

And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done.  - Revelation 20:13


Soli Deo Gloria,
Shon

TGIF

"Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you,

and learn from me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light." - Matthew 11:28-30

Days go by and turn into weeks
They take a toll on my soul
And the nights become beastly
Awakened in the early hours
By thunderstorms and cold showers
Of sweat soaking in bed sheets
Body fatigued from the lack of sleep
And since I'm being honest
I'm never really honest
I've made up my mind and my bed
And they're way too close to the furnace
This heat on my face
Has got me wondering where the grace is
Now, I'm contemplating a way out
(The kinds of thoughts I haven't had in years)

My work seems fruitless
The Adversary is ruthless
He may very well be a barking dog
But he's far from being toothless
Breathing in, breathing out
But this ain't what I'd call living
I can't find the words of gratitude
For the gifts I've been given
Money can't save me
Because my bills ain't gettin paid either
"The Lord is my Shepherd... "
But sometimes I find it hard to believe Him

My girl is still trippin'
So I think I wanna leave her
It's ignorance on fire
And the whole world's got the fever
Stuck in the middle
Between silver or salvation
I'll be thirty pieces richer
Dying on a reservation
Or I'll be living in paradise
On a permanent vacation
When I hear it that way
Why's there so much hesitation?

We only have one life to live
And time never likes wait
Lord, I'm too weak to do this on my own...

Thank God it's Friday.


Soli Deo Gloria,
Shon

Canvas

As the clock strikes midnight
The bell tolls
And the curtain closed
Enter the dawn of a new day
Yet another chance at finding
A better way of existence
To become complete
To be more consistent...

But can the art say to the Maker
"Why have you made me this way?"
His ways are not my ways
Could it be that the imperfections
That I detect are indeed
A thing...of beauty?

Suited for the tapestry
Into which they have been placed
Bringing character through
Tension and grace
Every shadowed line of my face
Tells a story -
Subtle shades of mercy
That play off of the light

The canvas of my skin
Stretched and healed over time
To err is certainly human
But the salvation so sublime
While just over the horizon
To me remains the unknown
Providence paints away in every corner
Creating a masterpiece within my soul

(cf. Psalm 139:14; Romans 9:20-24; 2 Corinthians 4:7; Philippians 1:6)


Soli Deo Gloria,
Shon