Middle Passage

From the Middle Passage to character assassination

To the assassination of leaders in a nation fueled by the hatred

Of lies propagated as truth; but at the root of it all was a sinister plan

To destroy the dignity of Man and lay waste to his beauty

Since the beginning, our adamic nature rejected divine legislature

Hating himself in the process by denouncing his most prominent feature

Self-made man hates the helping hand of another

So, inevitably, he can’t stand on his own two feet

So he’ll ride the backs of his brothers…

(Or what he calls, “others”)

And by that, we always mean “less than”, never “equal” or “greater”

Because to admit that would mean he’d have to give up some acres

Next thing you know, we’re down the road hundreds of years later

Hands and feet now unshackled, but hearts and minds remain in slavery

Fast forward …

Now our apathy toward our past has damned us to repeat it

Beat us down and left us in a coma

Only to wake up and find ourselves in a state of full-blown xenophobia

And everyone says, “Yay! Our president is black!”

But does it really matter when the state of the union is still whack?!

Think about this way:

They’ve had black leaders in Africa since way back

And over there, it’s still jacked up…seriously corrupt

(But we’ll save that for another discussion)

So what’s really the matter?

Our pockets got a little fatter

We got our seats back at the front of the bus

But, what does that really have to do with…us?

By us, I mean all of God’s people

Because our final destination leaves us all under one steeple…

Dr. King’s dream comes to fruition in Revelation 5 -

That’s why he knew he’d probably never get to see it in his lifetime

Anything less than that is a gross misinterpretation

As “We shall overcome” is reduced to bleak sensationalism

Sayin’, “YES WE CAN!” to “hope and change”

But without the true Agent of hope, everything remains the same

A dream deferred only dries up like a raisin in the sun

When we place our hope of its awakening

In something other than the Risen One

That’s why Phyllis Wheatley says that mercy brought her from a pagan land

And Jupiter Hammon took no issue with being another’s slave hand

They understood that captivity served a greater purpose

And they wouldn’t truly have freedom ‘til they reached the Kingdom of glory

The invisible hand of Providence makes all of the suffering relevant

Through the proclamation of the Gospel

Is where we see God’s truest benevolence

So I soldier on as a witness to posterity

As the witnesses who came before me who spoke with such boldness and sincerity

Emancipation through propitiation - blood bought freedom

The highest price that any could be paid with

Behind the dark and shameful past that we try to conceal

Is the mystery unfolding, just waiting for the glory to be revealed

God made flesh; crushed for our sins

Tending to our greatest need

To be freed from the master of death

And if the Son of Man has set you free

 Then you are free indeed

 So Jesus said to the Jews who had believed him, “If you abide in my word, you are truly my disciples, and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are offspring of Abraham and have never been enslaved to anyone. How is it that you say, ‘You will become free’?”
Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who practices sin is a slave to sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son remains forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed. I know that you are offspring of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me because my word finds no place in you. I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father.”
(John 8:31-38 ESV)


 And they sang a new song, saying,
 “Worthy are you to take the scroll
  and to open its seals,
 for you were slain, and by your blood you ransomed people for God
 from every tribe and language and people and nation,
 and you have made them a kingdom and priests to our God,
 and they shall reign on the earth.”
(Revelation 5:9-10 ESV)



Soli Deo Gloria,
 Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

Self-Sabotage

 "He must increase, but I must decrease."
   (John 3:30-36 ESV)

 

I have arrogantly waved my flag of independence.

But now it’s time for me to surrender…

I am guilty as charged; I waive my rights as the defendant

It finally caught up with me – all of the crimes I’ve committed

In the name of freedom have turned me into a captive and a drone

I now stand alone in the courtroom of my own tyranny;

Tattoo on my chest – “Only God can judge me”

But right now, that’s the last thing I wanna confess

If I truly believe my ink, then this is gonna stink…

Because I’ve got a fink of a conscious

And my sandcastle kingdom is about to start crumbling all around me

When sandcastles fall, do they make a sound? No.

They just collapse and fold; quietly suffocating everything and everyone inside

So this is what it feels like when ants die…who knew…

 

You’ve heard it a hundred times before:

Man gains the whole world and loses soul

But you never think you’ll be the one to make the headline

Because you know the score

But I forgot to factor in what would happen when I lost count

Of what should’ve counted most – I started counting in ounces

Now, the weight of self-glory doesn’t measure up on the scales of eternal justice

I’ve committed the crime of a lifetime

Only to find out that my getaway car has an engine that’s busted

Crime doesn’t pay because the Law never sleeps

The Judge owns the cattle on a thousand hills and He knows all of the sheep

 

Then there’s me; making my last stand with no leg to stand on

And my accomplice now stands as the prosecutor –

Accusing me of abusing and mistreating his daughter, even though he introduced us

And practically begged me to marry her

But our picture perfect matrimony ended in a bad scene -

Her standing there holding my coat

Playing the role of hapless victim (a performance worthy of the silver screen)

While I play the sucker and the scapegoat

I should’ve said no when he asked, but you know me and my ego

We love to impress people…

By the way, conversations never end well when they convene at the top of a steeple

And now all she wants them to do is give me the needle

 

I had a desire for her beauty and she was murder for hire

And I went along for the ride; running from this trial for a while now

And it’s left me used up and tired

At this point, invoking my Fifth Amendment right would be a mistake

And an attempt at a daylight escape, to say the least, would be fruitless

 

It’s useless…I stand in contempt

I’ve committed treason and for no other reason than I just wanted to be myself

But now in this moment, I can think of nothing sweeter

Than switching places with someone else

This is the hand I’ve dealt from the bottom of the deck

And there’s only one viable option …

 

‘Kill the mirage of yourself as God.’

Our Father who is in Heaven, with who I’m currently at odds…

 

 

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

The Greatest of These (That Hideous Strength)

  Set me as a seal upon your heart,
  as a seal upon your arm,
 for love is strong as death,
  jealousy is fierce as the grave.
 Its flashes are flashes of fire,
  the very flame of the LORD.
(Song of Solomon 8:6 ESV)

 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 8:38-39 ESV)

Some mismanage it

Manhandle and then abandon it

Left for dead under the overpass

After it’s been bruised up and damaged

Highly disregarded and discarded with ease

Unknown to the world, yet still, it’s the greatest of these

Still looking for answers while we put a band-aid on our cancer

It patiently waits in the dark; on the ready with the brightest of lanterns

Ready to guide us through the blinding mire of hostility

With the smoldering flame of an uncommon humility

Men say that they’d give up the world just to possess it

Only to rent it out for a meager profit, then strip it down and redress it

Even refusing to call it by its name –

Because it only responds to the truth

And they just want to defame it…

Punched, kicked, held in contempt and battered

But in spite of swollen eyes, its gaze is fixed

As if none of it matters

Never raises its voice to try to plead its case…

It carries on ‘til the end

Even if forever is however long that it takes

Pain is not the pleasure, but services as the vessel

Takes it to the final destination

Delivering the greater message

Delivered without measure – digging up the buried treasure

Hidden under the weight humanity’s mess

A task that no other could dare endeavor

To hell and back -

When we refused to bleed, it bled for us

Got stabbed in the robbery and still took on the death sentence

Parted the head of the warden and beat a path back up from the bottom

Set the captives free when it flooded their prison cells with that living water

Instead of coveting lust, it holds a covenant up in front of us

Reflects the beauty of its purity and shows us truly wonderful

Faith unwavering and a hope assured that never expires

Its power never ceases even after the world that we know is retired

Not to be confused with seductive bedroom eyes

Pursuit of the one night stand or catching a glimpse of her thighs

A strong back to hold onto while you’re lying in bed

Or lies that he’ll wanna tell so that you’ll open your legs

Sex out of context is only there for a moment

And involves giving up your ghost to someone who doesn’t own it

Less than and three may put a heart on your screen

But it’ll never give you a love that’s greater than these

When I’m worse it makes me better

When I wanna quit, it tells me, “never”

When I can’t stand, it keeps me movin’

When I fall apart, it holds me together

It reminds me that I’m cherished

And that I’ll never ever be severed

Forgives all of my inadequacy

And never lets me for get it

When I start to believe that redemption is completely impossible

It lifts up my heavy head through the grace of the Gospel

The same that gave sight to blind men and dead men life

Is the same that can take a whore and turn her into a wife

No matter how promiscuous, this thing is so relentless

It pursues to the end and will have your beggin’ for forgiveness

Yes, there’s only one thing that can remove our stain and our stench…

Love is stronger than death; such a hideous strength.

 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love.
(1 Corinthians 13:13 ESV)

 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love. We love because he first loved us.
(1 John 4:18-19 ESV)

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

"Piece" Sells...

as it is written:
  “None is righteous, no, not one;
  no one understands;
  no one seeks for God.
 All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;
  no one does good,
  not even one.”
 “Their throat is an open grave;
  they use their tongues to deceive.”
 “The venom of asps is under their lips.”
  “Their mouth is full of curses and bitterness.”
 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
  in their paths are ruin and misery,
 and the way of peace they have not known.”
  “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
  Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. For by works of the law no human being will be justified in his sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin.
  
(Romans 3:10-20 ESV)

 We taste death every time that we draw a breath

And it don’t any get better

No matter how many years we have left

On this planet, we inhabit to wreak havoc for generations to come

We live by the sword, and we die by the gun

The type to shoot first, no asking

I just reload when I’m finished

Watch the light leave your eyes, then turn and ask your wife,

“Hey babe, what’s for dinner?”

Because if I’m not carvin’, I’m starvin’;

You bet your life that I can eat for days

For me, Valhalla is always rising

And my left eye’s looking crazy

Just like bulls on parade

We rally with a pocket full of shells

Doing what’s right in our own eyes

And you know we love to give ‘em hell

So, I’m not buying in to what you’re saying

Because in the end, “piece” sells

Profit margins increasing every year

While filling up school lockers like prison cells

Click goes the hammer, clank goes the slammer

But that homeboy had new Jordans

And Gilbert Arenas was the answer

Because I’m a pro when it comes to this

Catch him slippin’ in the lunch line

Bullet wizardry, a masterpiece

My own private Columbine

So now I stand before the Judge

No period to my sentence

A life of run-on pain

Like I was Prefontaine (minus the finish)

Lines drawn in the sand

Crossed every time without repentance

Treated darkness like a friend

Only to find it to be the very bane of my existence

Pushed life to the limits

Until death started pushing me back

Now it’s too late for a plea…

Verdict:

Sin is still whack.

 What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.
  
(James 4:1-3 ESV)

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

Inexhaustible (Ever Since Ever Since)

“Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth?
 Tell me, if you have understanding.
(Job 38:4 ESV)

There He was, is, and is to come...ever since ever since.

Existing in the solitude of His Trinitarian excellence

A community of perfection to which no other can compare

Invisible. Spirit. Physical. With one voice They agree

Let there be…LIGHT!

BOOM! There’s your big bang

Voice echoing through the darkness to give it a name –

He owns it…

Before that it was nothing; just a figment of imagination

Until He brought it to fruition in an instant

Yet, thoughtful and patient

Two attributes which get lost in a humanistic sense

Because for us it’s microwaves, drive-thrus and art without evidence

But His attention to detail is a show of His benevolence

Inexhaustible…

Who would’ve thought to make every star, tree, plant, and animal?

They can’t be store-bought

A storehouse of works to behold

For, every eye to behold them since knows there’s a story being told

 “I AM that I AM” –

That’s the name that He gave

It implies that He don’t need you to breathe and He don’t need you to save Him

HE SAVES MEN

From Hell and everything that comes with it –

From pimps to false prophets to run-on sentences

Lustful deeds and all of the things I hide

Never get missed by His all-seeing eyes

Wiser than wise…I’m sick and He knows it, but He heals me by His Word

(Wow. A Great Physician and a Poet)

Or else please tell me what you could possibly comprehend

About One who can truly kill a man and then bring him back again?!

Amazing grace, how sweet the sound

Of the living Word who can take a man from six feet deep

To where mercy is found.

“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, “who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”
(Revelation 1:8 ESV)

Soli Deo Gloria,

 Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

Everyday, Apocalypse.

 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
  

(John 1:1-5 ESV)

And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place, that they should seek God, and perhaps feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us, for
  “‘In him we live and move and have our being’;
  as even some of your own poets have said,
  “‘For we are indeed his offspring.’
  Being then God's offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

 (Acts 17:26-29 ESV)

Everyday is an apocalypse…

From the cars on the street to the people that we meet

God is revealing…Himself.

 He is constantly letting us know that we are not alone.

Also, that we are not our own.

But still we press on.

We press on as if everything that has ever happened

In the course of our existence was nothing more than a random, happy little accident –

A very precise, everything just right…”accident”.

Nothing more than a big “Oops” or “Uh-oh” that brought about change.

From ooze to the zoo to you – we’re all the same

“You might be free, but your relatives swing from trees

And throw feces in cages…isn’t that amazing?!”

No, it’s scathing and seriously inconsiderate.

It’s akin to taking the Artisan’s work and using it in a birdcage to catch pigeon sh**.

Art without evidence is a scientifically manufactured illusion

To free us from the notion of Divine inclusion, or better yet intrusion

And yet, we ignore the body of work like a crime scene at the dinner table.

So Cain didn’t kill Abel…it was an “evolutionary process”.

“The survival of the fittest shows us how much we have progressed”.

What a mess; but it’s our best guess

That we feed to our sons and daughters

We’re ignoring the fact that chaos can only produce more chaos

And never produce order.

Creation’s primary goal is not to self-create or to replicate;

Creation resonates

It is the thumbprint of a Creator –

So let’s do away with just looking at scientific data

And all the other formulas to make us too scared to admit it

Ignore all you want, but the truth is you still need some dirt to play with…

Ex nihlo, nihlo fit –

Out of nothing, nothing comes

Yet still our textbooks read as if two zeros make a sum?!

But the only way that a zero can compute is with…One

The binary code of nature binds us to a Creator

But in a rebellion of thought mankind screams out:

“There is no God…and we hate him.”

Equating the concept of an almighty God to the Wizard of Oz

And yell at me to get off my yellow brick road

While clinging tightly to the curtain of “chance”

Trying not to reveal that it’s just fool’s gold

“Just click your heels three times to wake up from your dream

You’ll have all the answers you need if you simply believe…”

In what?! You know what the scarecrow, tin man and lion have in common?

They all have no chest, so they follow with no conscious

On the whims of a little girl’s dream, they reach the end of the road

Only to end up back in Kansas with nothing to show

But we behold Topeka it in its beauty; people of every tribe, tongue and nation

A place where wayward sons can stop along the journey to their final destination

Just one of the many havens that display the vast glory

Of a Maker who is benevolent

Who made Himself a God-send and not one of Maury’s guests

Never worry about second-guessing who our Father is

Because our DNA is the proof we need to show us that we are known to Him

None like Him, so there’s none like us

He is holy, wholly Other; so I’m wholly broken dust

Made whole again by the sacrifice of His offering

Of a Kinsman Redeemer’s love

Lisping to us in the spoken word

Healing us from the greatest lie we’ve ever heard

The hiss from the serpent’s lips

That has thrown the true origin of our species off course

And has left us an inheritance of a violent wind

And blindness as a curse

But our Creator heals the calloused eye

And He also masters the storm

So even if all around me were swept away

His eye is on the sparrow –

Amidst the turbulence, this is my calm

Remember this:

The Devil is only in the details

Because his Maker saw it fitting for him to exist

So, in other words, there are no “maverick molecules”…

Everyday is an Apocalypse.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

Dust To Glory: A Ghetto Love Story

Since then we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. Let us then with confidence draw near to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.   -  (Hebrews 4:14-16 ESV)

A king without a castle born to an unwed mother

All the while, rumors circulate that he was fathered by another

Homeless for a while, then raised in the ghetto

Along side the hoodlums, riff-raff, rebels and winos

But He went to synagogue

Because that’s how his mom and his step-dad raised him

He’d grow up to be famous

But who really knew that then?

Coming up poor ain’t a means to an end

It’s hated, it’s shameful and often equated with sin

But not Him…

He left the block for the wilderness to fulfill the call in His life:

“Hey, why don’t you slow down? Take it easy…maybe even get you a wife.

Word is your real father, man, is crazy rich.

You’d never have to work a day in your life if he broke you off a pinch.

But if not him, come with me…I got a grip you can hold.

You can have anything you want. I got it under control.”

“Hell, No.”

Home is where the heart is

So the hood was His home

And used His life to let the hood know

That they were never alone

He became the people’s champion

So they gathered around Him

Politicians start to panic

While His family starts to clown Him

Pharisees start hatin’

And they call Him a “Birther” :

“This dude is sayin’ he’s from heaven

But he ain’t nothin’ but an earthling.

Everybody here knows him from that Nazerene block

No good can come of that place, they’re some real bad stock.”

But He didn’t stop

So now they wanna stop Him

His friends start to worry

That somebody’s gonna pop Him

Cool by Him

Because He already knew the risk

His death was the outcome

For which he sought to exist:

“Don’t be scared, homies…

They’re comin’ to get me

But I’m takin’ all the heat

Because that’s why the Father has sent me

Dying for the lost

So that they could be found

So that the end of your life won’t be the end

But a crown of life eternal

Given because you’ve be down since the beginning

And you’ll carry on ‘til the finish

Because my Father gives you permission

And don’t begin to think you chose this life for a second

I chose you first so now we’re forever connected

Blessed be the one who hears the words that I speak

And doesn’t shrink away from danger in the face of the Beast

Because the Devil is a lion

He desires to eat you

He can feast all he wants

But He can never defeat you.”

So whatever happens below

Just remember He’s above it

So when you see the storms coming

Don’t worry…

Just love it

It was death by love

Love in humiliation

Stepped out of eternity

To become the promised seed of the nations

Subjecting Himself to the same perils and temptations as “we”

Because He cares for little men in really tall trees

And for prostitutes on the track who believe the lie that they’re stuck

And for the addicts who think they’ve had and they’re about to give up

Listen to what comes after…

He is still speaking

So put one ear to the floor and the other to the rafters

Feel the earth move and know for certain

If He ceased to speak, it won’t happen

In His hands, it is stable

No one can ever knock Him off course

Even when the kingdom of Heaven suffers violence

 And the violent take it by force

Solus Christus,

Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

Resolve

Resolved:

Not to make any empty resolutions of delusions of grandeur

Like losing 20 lbs. or not being a man-whore

Because everything that I could ever dream to be

Would be unattainable or unrealistic babble…

Just to end up coming up short

To watch the crows and vultures gather

To pick at the carcasses left scattered

On the boulevard of broken dreams

Of things that don’t even matter…

Yeah, it would be cool to get some fresh new clothes

But my skin is the issue and it’s getting old –

It’s not the complexion that’s the problem

But it covers up my intentions –

A heart full of apathy, neglect, impenitence and impotence

If I want to see real change in my current situation

I don’t need a new scene or diet

I need propitiation...

Vegan, egalitarian, legalistic behavior modifications

Won’t bring me lasting peace; just new sensations

Pragmatic emotions to feel as though I’m getting something accomplished

While I’m locked in the wardrobe waiting for Aslan

Eating Turkish Delight instead of the King’s meat

Because “man can’t live on bread alone”

(And this stuff is so sweet)

And there I go…

Trying’ to get back to old days via new ways

Like a has-been actor who thinks he’s still got the chops

But I’m just a hack character

Waiting to break out and my performance needs enhancement

But I’m already broken, so a new role ain’t the answer

I’ll do my best work when I’m just a feature

And my features improve drastically

When I’m not the star of this picture

Attributes augmented by the perfect performance

Of the Lead Role Majestic

Whose method is conformity

My independent work showed me

For what I was to the people

But it never portrayed the truth about problems that haunt me

Or how to defeat evil –

So I played myself to the bone

As a notorious scene-stealer

But it couldn’t pay the bills and never guaranteed a sequel…

I’m done with low-budget “the grittier, the better”

This may be the Year of the Dragon

But the Script says there’s gonna be rain in the weather

So I’m giving’ up on my best life now until Eden’s made right

And the only way to becoming a better man

Is by living out life as the Bride…

True resolve found in the love of Another

 Say hello to the married life.

Soli Deo Gloria,

Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

Night of the Meek

A night of the meek where the weak find wings
A night where the unlikely so mightily brings
True peace on and goodwill towards men
By turning the world upside down -
God covered in skin

Through blood and water
Comes the only consolation
For all of our shortcomings, sin and frustrations
Freedom for the nations
Which at once would be lost
If the Son of Man had not come
And leveled the cost

Meek and mild He came
Born of a virgin mother
Chosen to the task because the Father saw fit
That she had known no other
So that a lowly carpenter
Who could barely meet ends
Would become caretaker
Of the One in whom all ends meet
And would hold him in his hands

For the shepherds who were barely trusted
To care for a flock
Are now the first to hear the news
Of how redemption is sought
As kings from the east now make it their work
To lay gifts at the feet of a Prince
Who will never clamor for worth

For He is worthy...

I AM in a manger means we're no longer estranged
As far as the curse is found
Christ has engaged us

Lift every voice to sing
"Merry Christmas, everyone
The Meek has inherited the earth
YOUR KING HAS COME!"

Soli Deo Gloria,
Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)