Fight for the Beauty.

As we approach Independence Day, it is powerful to reflect on the fight which took place here for freedom _ which is beautiful. It is one thing to have a sense that something is wrong and should be addressed, it is another thing altogether to actually address it and seek a remedy. The amount of courage needed for something such as a fight for independence, against tyranny is, incalculable. And such courage is truly beautiful.

We must fight for Beauty in a world spinning ferociously out of control in rejection of the God of creation, where created things are worshipped rather than the Creator Himself. Rom. 1:21-25 speaks to this quite powerfully. And such is the spirit of our age.

Freedom, true freedom, is beautiful because it is the heart of the Gospel; God has set us free in Christ. And still there is a fight, a fight in which we must be engaged. Psalm 45 is instructive. We fight for the King and all that He values.

Life. What a Beautiful Choice.

Francis Mooney links to a great article which cogently speaks about our culture and the very real struggle of life versus death.

Of particular interest in the article was the observation that our culture is based on marketing principles which seek to get us to purchase some commodity, which is directly opposite to a thinking and reasoning approach to life.

And yet God is still triumphant, bringing all of us back from wreckage and ruin . . . creation, fall, redemption constantly happening around us.

Bill Mallonee's song Earth Has No Sorrow is a great reminder.

Something old, something new.

With the CDs on back order, i received just yesterday the two releases by Bill Mallonee, titled Fetal Position and My Year in Review.

Fetal Position is a new "solo" disc after the untimely demise of Mallonee's band Vigilantes of Love. Year in Review is a CD issue of what was formerly a limited edition audio cassette release only to members of the old VOL fan club. Sampling both discs together makes for an interesting experience as two eras in Mallonee's creative journey are represented.

Many delights on both discs and worth every penny.

In the liner notes to Year in Review, Mallonee talks about loss and the difficulties of our pilgrimmage here on earth. He says:

But here, in the present, there are opportunities enough to be about the business of recovering what is lost, diminishing some of those woes and making those oppressed voices heard . . . the doing of such things, whether big or small, seems to be part and parcel of what living in Jesus' kingdom is about . . . if we have become deaf and blind to all that is being "lost" around us, God can open our ears and eyes if we ask Him to . . . He's "good like that."

Indeed, He is good like that.

Great Adventure.

I was sitting in church listening to a sermon yesterday which began promisingly with the pastor talking about being caught up into the adventurous life of God and not settling for a domesticated or tamed version of Christianity, only to have him go right back to talking about very domesticated things like the construction of new facilities.

It got my heart going and then dropped it, as so often happens in life. I was reminded of how sterile it seems when the life of God and the Gospel are bookends to an otherwise uninteresting story; and this is often what Christianity has become for so many. Our churches don't exactly help the situation in many cases, simply going from program to program and calling for more service out of congregants. Again, i refer you to John Eldredge for more on that.

Eldredge once said: There is a reason more women are in church than men; and when men are in church they would rather be somewhere else. O that the pastor would have resisted the urge to tame his sermon

But i was also thinking of folks who really do live a wonderful, adventurous life with God, and i was humbled. In particular, The Voice of The Martyrs is constantly telling the stories of Christians worldwide who put their lives and their faiths on the line.

Closer to home, i thought of Art Canning, a friend and brother two years graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, and walking through his own wilderness as he battles cancer.

Esse Quam Videri