Megaphone

Lack of gratitude is a symptom

Of a greater problem;
Our attitude is a side effect
That creates a rejection of law and grace...

And that duplicity has been duplicated 
Reproduced in our DNA 
Until it's become 
All the rage...

All the bitterness.
All the lust.
All the fickleness.

The richness of our humanity
Is buried beneath mediocrity
And a downward slope towards Gomorrah
A corner office view of Sodom

Welcome to where the weather is always autumn
And the trees bear no fruit 
Because the roots are rotten
So they might as well stay there...

Dead and buried.

Ever receiving the blood of martyrs and prophets
While the profit for delivering their heads
Has skyrocketed most
To a more comfortable life...

The bride takes another husband 
And never thinks twice

A harlot's heart in a wedding gown

That's a sullied white

And while we cry for freedom from ISIS

The No. 1 killer of mankind is "niceness"

We have our cake and eat it too

And pay no attention to a missing tooth

(or two)

Regardless of what we've been through

It always comes back around again

The danse macabre of a tone def mob

Waltzing to cacophonous megaphone of pain

(cf. Psalm 14:1-3; Romans 3:10-12, 5:3, 8:35-39; 2 Corinthians 12:7-10)

“Pain insists upon being attended to. God whispers to us in our pleasures, speaks in our consciences, but shouts in our pains. It is his megaphone to rouse a deaf world.” - C.S. Lewis

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

Firebrand

"Behold, I have refined you, but not as silver; I have tried you in the furnace of affliction." - Isaiah

48:10

I was a hard-wired screw up
Given righteousness in lieu of
The punishment that was due
I got a one way ticket to true love

Redeemed and blood-bought
From the stain of my offenses
Imputed with Christ’s perfection -
Propitiation for the defenseless

I was shown relentless grace
In the pursuit of my own glory
Went from being a vessel of wrath
To an instrument of his mercy

Trying to live out my dash
Was only coming up ashes
I was a masterpiece in the making
The magnum opus of a disaster

By the design of the Refiner
That was the day the fire started
Ignited in my bones
‘Til all impurity has departed

Old ways aborted
And old habits tend to die hard
But what’s left amidst the flame
Will be incorruptible and unharmed


"...so that the tested genuineness of your faith—more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire—may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ." - 1 Peter 1:7


Soli Deo Gloria,
Shon

Newtown

“Let the little children come to me and do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of heaven.”  - Matthew 19:14 ESV

"Evil has visited Newtown today..."


But despite the ages of most of the victims
We're seeking a higher education
In the face of a tragedy so senseless
'Cause the definition of wickedness
Ain't so elementary...

Not anymore.

Dark days like these
Leave us clamoring
And grasping for the door
From Columbine, to Virginia Tech, to Sandy Hook;
Leaves no doubt in my mind
That Screwtape's up to his old tricks
Doing everything he can
To make sure that our faith is shook

"Look...where is God now?
Where's the goodness he promised?
Love don't let little kids die, man!
Stop frontin' and be honest."

As I read the countless status updates
And timelines filled with fear and rage
I'm reminded of the words
That the Rock of Ages said:


"Let the little children come to me..."

You can't stop em -
Don't try to hold em back
There in the arms of the Good Shepherd
So they'll never again want or lack

It was an act of the most vicious kind
Orchestrated with the intent
Of distracting from God's sovereignty
And get us to question his omnipotence
But yea though we walk through valley
Of the shadow of death
His grace is still consistent

He gives us a peace that surpasses all understanding
His overwhelming mercy still abounds
Even amidst the unspeakable atrocities
That puts young loved ones into the ground


The graveyard is the Farmer's field
And he will one day reap what he has sown
And we will all behold the glory
Of the greatest harvest

The world will ever know

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon 

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

Trafficking the Girl Next Door

During the 1980s, mothers used the phrase "stranger danger" to caution their children about the possibility of kidnappings. It was the idea of seeing your missing child's photo on the side of a milk carton that caused many U.S. families to warn their kids about abductions. The possibility of human trafficking wasn't even on most parents' radar screen.

Yet during the same time period, a 13-year-old Miami girl became one of the countless children to fall prey to a sex trafficking scheme. Only in recent years have U.S. officials realized the trend is just as alarming at home as it is abroad. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, human trafficking ranks second only to drug trafficking as the fastest growing criminal industry worldwide. And half of those trafficked are children.
In 1985, Katariina Rosenblatt, her teenage brother, and their mother left their South Florida home to escape Kat's abusive father. Katariina's mother was trying to hold down a job while caring for her children. The family lived out of a Miami Beach hotel, where the kids spent most days unsupervised at the swimming pool. There, Katariina was approached by Mary, a sophisticated 19-year-old who took an interest in the young teen. "She was everything I thought I wanted to be," Katariina says. "Thin, pretty, blond hair, and blue eyes."
The sexual, verbal, and physical abuse Katariina had endured from her father left her damaged and vulnerable, a weakness Mary quickly sensed. Offering her friendship and sisterly advice, Mary began telling Katariina about local men who would take care of her, give her money for food, and offer fatherly love. In reality, Mary was a recruiter for a local child trafficking ring.
"The devil doesn't come with a pitchfork," Katariina says. "He's much more deceptive. For me, he came in the form of a girl in a red bikini."
Led by Mary, Katariina soon found herself sequestered in a room with a 65-year-old man who attempted to purchase her, still a virgin, for $550. Refusing the marijuana she was offered, Katariina narrowly escaped the exchange and fled back to her hotel room. It was the first in a series of trafficking scenarios she would face as a young teen, and the only one she would manage to escape unscathed.

 God's Whispers

 In the following years Katariina became ensnared in a series of trafficking exchanges, all unbeknownst to her mother. In one instance, she went to a sleepover at a friend's whose father was a pedophile and worked as a trafficker. Katariina was taken to an apartment-style brothel in a neighboring county and exploited by a 40-year-old man who fostered her cocaine addiction and began making her dependent on him and the future men who would exploit her in exchange for drugs, food, and temporary affection.
Continued...

via todayschristianwoman.com

Marvel

I, alone…
I’m not enough to handle this on my own
My metropolis is in trouble
And all of the supermen are gone
Fade to black – everything is whack
And these dark nights keep risin’ –
These jokers say that I’m tokin’
To believe that there’s anyone who can stop it

No secret identity
Or hideout with slick amenities
Are needed to win this war
‘Cause we're battlin’ a different enemy –
Long ago defeated
Still severely pissed and heated
And he and his minions will stop at nothing
Until everyone else can feel it

So we need a hero
Who’s far beyond the discussions –
No hiding behind a mask
To deal with the repercussions
Not just an alien that got stuck
Not just some vigilante we trust
But someone who can justify the guilty
And at the same time dispense justice

From the punishment due
To wholeheartedly renewed –
Avenging us from the impenitent
And putting an end to the feud
With web-sight, he catches predators
His strength is so incredible
Takes the shame and turns it to gain
So it wouldn’t eventually fetter us

Even though death still remains
It’s now no longer in vain
And the suffering serves a purpose
Since he auto-tuned it with “T-Pain”
Does it all through a Ghost Protocol –
Impossible for evildoers to shake him
Marvel at this Man on a mission…
Who can stop him?! Any takers?

 Cf. Revelation 6:2, 19:11-21, 21:5, 22:12

Soli Deo Gloria,
Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

East of Eden

"But let us now, as in bad plight, devise

What best may for the present serve to hide

The Parts of each from other, that seem most

To shame obnoxious, and unseemliest seen,

Some Trees whose broad smooth Leaves together sew'd,

And girded on our loins, may cover round

Those middle parts, that this newcomer, Shame,

There sit not, and reproach us as unclean".

So counsell'd hee, and both together went

Into the thickest Wood, there soon they chose

The Figtree....

John Milton, Paradise Lost (1667), Book IX, lines 1091-1101.

Unknown –

Living bad to the bone

Thinking like a three year old child

Even though my body’s fully grown

Traded the very best 

For an absolute mess

Now the stress is gonna to kill me

While I’m breaking a sweat

Wet from the waist down

Because I’ve pissed away my future

Wife was dead wrong 

And the serpent’s a bad tutor 

Passed over the fruit of the vine

For knowledge not mine

Only to whine about the outcome

Because I fell for the lie

 

Hook, line and sinker

This shattered image is tanking my demeanor

Until a Fisher of men stepped in

And played the role of Redeemer

My disease was my disease –

Couldn’t see the garden for the tree

So I went from naked and unashamed

To using the foliage to cover me

Until it begins to wither away

In the heat of the day

And the ground is spitting up seeds

Because it’s starting to betray me

Reminds me of where I come from

And where I’ll be going 

We’re all keepers of a dirty little secret

With nothing to show for it

 

No “S” on my chest or bulletproof vest

Is going to stop the fate of a defective heart

And a mind covered in darkness

Living east of Eden for committing high treason

Forgetting all the while 

That we never had a good enough reason

To leave it all to chance

And face the coin toss 

To see who’d get to be the boss

In the land of the lost

Found by the Good Shepherd 

Because he paid the cost

To bring us into the fold

Never again to be tossed

 

Laid it all on the table

No Cain because he’s able

He truly is his brother’s keeper

And his hand is stable

The one true Prodigal

Who makes life eternal possible

By justification through his blood

For completely unworthy hostiles

 (Genesis 3)

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Zeros and Ones: Importance of the Resurrection (Week 3)

We continue our study and discussion on the implications of the resurrection of Christ...
This week as we go further up and in, we cover the significance of the Last Supper leading up to the resurrection and the validity of the eyewitness accounts. Also, how the resurrection serves as hope for us in our current lives when faced with trials and suffering and how this translates into the hope that we articulate in our evangelism.

 

 

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)