Face of the Earth (Terra Cotta)

"And when they came to the threshing floor of Nacon, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled. And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah, and God struck him down there because of his error, and he died there beside the ark of God." - 2 Samuel 6:6-7


We hastily presume that our hands
Are cleaner than the dirt
Beneath our feet

But the reality is that the dirt
(Unlike me)
Is just being what it was meant to be
And that we’ve been deceived
Into believing the lie
That it makes us filthy
 

We hate the dirt
Because it is a reminder
That removes all blinders
Never letting us forget
Where we come from

Because you may very well
Be able to escape the ghetto’s aura
But you will never be able
To escape your skin color

Explore any avenue that you wish
But we all have to dismiss
The notion of black and white
And any shades of grey fade
In light of the knowledge
That we’re just different shades of brown
All made from the same lump

Molded and shaped
Fearfully and wonderfully made
“Oh, the distinctiveness of the human race!”
And yet, we bite off our own noses
In spite of the familiarity of the faces
Simply because they come from other places

And we leave it to the ground
To soak up the blood from wars
And we leave it to the ground
To soak up the tears from the scarred;

Age after age -
It bears witness to the trauma
And eagerly awaits redemption
From a history of violence and dishonor

But the ownership has been rescinded
And when the world is returned to its Sender
The face of the earth will crack a smile
As it relinquishes its descendants

I am the ground…
I am the dirt…
And I’ve been trying to find my way home
Since the day of my birth

(cf. Genesis 2:7; Romans 8:18-23; Revelation 20:13)


Soli Deo Gloria,
Shon

Don't Feed the Animals

If you tell them that it’s an impossible notion
That we come from God’s spit
Don’t be surprised when you start feeding lines
About how we descended from monkeys
And people start going ape-shit
Seeking more mayhem than Miller
A bunch of highly evolved gorillas
That spent the last four years in University
To become a more sophisticated killer

Tell me again why I should be elated
That the Simian is kin to me?
So what you’re saying is that Planet of the Apes wasn’t a movie…
It was actually a documentary
What a relief – I was starting to get perturbed
Because some Uber-geek says we’ll be cyborgs before 2043
But he’s a genius…and I’m disturbed?! I’m obsurd?!
Nerds…

It’s like Hannibal Lecter
Stepped down from a lectern
And started leading lambs to slaughter
Without even so much as a head turned
“Man can’t live on bread alone
Because it’s in his nature to be a cannibal.”
Ladies and gentleman:
Cesar has just left the zoo
So please resist the urge -
 DON’T FEED THE ANIMALS.

(cf. Genesis 2:7; John 9:6)

Soli Deo Gloria,
Shon

Posted via email from THE CENTER (ROOM 116)

Nobody

"Nobody's perfect, but he's a decent guy and he works hard." 

- Brian Humke

What if nobody ever told you that the sky was blue?
Or what if nobody ever told you that there was nothing else to choose?
Would you still believe in things like fact, faith, and fiction?
Would you still hold on to hope of beauty in a world that’s broken, ugly, and addicted?
Nobody doing right
Nobody condemning wrong -
Everything is permissible
Because there’s really “Nobody home”
Nobody’s out there
We’re just out here all alone
On a big blue marble
Waiting for a meteor or a headstone…

What if nobody ever told you that a lie exists?
And everything you’ve ever heard about “the myth” was the myth
If ignorance is bliss
Then we should all be elated
Because as the information ages
The further we get from the pavement
Nobody debates it
Nobody wants to know
What lies just beyond the pale
Or exactly how far the mystery goes…

Nobody made you
Nobody made me
You’re nobody ‘til somebody kills you
Or loves you for no reason
Good deeds never go unpunished
Because justice is never what we’ve really wanted

So, I’m just a nobody
Trying to tell everybody
About somebody who runs this...

For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.
(Romans 1:19-20 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)

For all you Ben Stein Fans...

I've heard a lot of buzz about this film. I can't wait to see it when it comes out (I hope). Go to the website, check out the trailers...

Also don't forget to sign up for updates so you can find out ways to get this movie played in your area.

Oh yeah...one more thing...TELL YOUR FRIENDS!!!

BEN STEIN'S "EXPELLED" (April 18)


http://www.expelledthemovie.com/

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. - Genesis 1:1 ESV

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. - John 1:1-3 ESV

Soli Deo Gloria,
Shon