This is Discipling

Here's a short video I found on the Verge Network website that does a great job illustrating a church as a discipling community. Check it out!


This is Discipling from The Foursquare Church on Vimeo.

True Liberation: A 4th of July Poem

Redemption...

Reconciliation...

Restoration...

...All just simple words...

Mere nouns and “tions” without the defining point of Christ's Liberation they hold no sound.

You may say that the colors of the day are red, white and blue.

I say that the color of every Right day of a soul made white is Red.

Because through His Red spilled blood on the cross, Christ paid the price of the only True Freedom.  

All for helpless souls like me and you.

Today I thank God for this land of which I was born in the flesh.

And pray for help to always remember that it is not my home.

No!

My home is not of this world because I was born again from above!

So above all else this day my God I thank you for Christ and His Love!

Wooden Heart

Yesterday I heard this poem about a church making their building out of shipwrecked pieces of wood. The poem is about how as the church we come together as broken people and are made whole through the headship of Christ. This imagery is strongly portrayed in Scripture. Here are few verses that came to mind:     

"Blessed are the poor in spirit, because the kingdom of heaven is theirs."

-Matthew 5:3 

"He is before all things, and by Him all things hold together." 

-Colossians 1:15

"Come to Me, all of you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest." 

-Matthew 11:28 

"In Him you are being built together, creating a sacred dwelling place among you where God can live in the Spirit."

-Ephesians 2:22

WOODEN HEART 

We’re all born to broken people on their most honest day of living
and since that first breath... We’ll need grace that we’ve never given
I've been haunted by standard red devils and white ghosts
and it's not only when these eyes are closed
these lies are ropes that I tie down in my stomach,
but they hold this ship together tossed like leaves in this weather
and my dreams are sails that I point towards my true north,
stretched thin over my rib bones, and pray that it gets better
but it won’t won’t, at least I don’t believe it will...
so I've built a wooden heart inside this iron ship,
to sail these blood red seas and find your coasts.
don’t let these waves wash away your hopes
this war-ship is sinking, and I still believe in anchors
pulling fist fulls of rotten wood from my heart, I still believe in saviors
but I know that we are all made out of shipwrecks, every single board
washed and bound like crooked teeth on these rocky shores
so come on and let’s wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief
and fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach
come on and sew us together, tattered rags stained forever
we only have what we remember

I am the barely living son of a woman and man who barely made it
but we’re making it taped together on borrowed crutches and new starts
we all have the same holes in our hearts...
everything falls apart at the exact same time
that it all comes together perfectly for the next step
but my fear is this prison... that I keep locked below the main deck
I keep a key under my pillow, it’s quiet and it’s hidden
and my hopes are weapons that I’m still learning how to use right
but they’re heavy and I’m awkward...always running out of fight
so I’ve carved a wooden heart, put it in this sinking ship
hoping it would help me float for just a few more weeks
because I am made out of shipwrecks, every twisted beam
lost and found like you and me scattered out on the sea
so come on let’s wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief
and fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach
come on and sew us together, just some tattered rags stained forever
we only have what we remember

My throat it still tastes like house fire and salt water
I wear this tide like loose skin, rock me to sea
if we hold on tight we’ll hold each other together
and not just be some fools rushing to die in our sleep
all these machines will rust I promise, but we'll still be electric
shocking each other back to life
Your hand in mine, my fingers in your veins connected
our bones grown together inside
our hands entwined, your fingers in my veins braided
our spines grown stronger in time
because are church is made out of shipwrecks
from every hull these rocks have claimed
but we pick ourselves up, and try and grow better through the change
so come on yall and let’s wash each other with tears of joy and tears of grief
and fold our lives like crashing waves and run up on this beach
come on and sew us together, were just tattered rags stained forever
we only have what we remember

Three Bibles You Need to Know About

This past weekend I went out and bought a new Bible that I had read about online. I like it so much I decided that I am long past due writing about a few Bibles that are relatively new on the "translation scene" that you need to know about. 

HCSB

The first is the HCSB (Holman Christian Standard Bible). Although this translation has been around for almost ten years very few people know about it, and it is hands down my over translation of choice. The HCSB is a very readable and accurate translation. Some translation focus strongly on a “literal” or “word-for-word” translation from the original text -like the New American Standard Bible. So that each word is the most accurate English word from the original language. Others, like the NIV, go for a “thought-for-thought” principle since translating one language into another word-for-word can leave the end result sounding choppy at times, or like it came out of the mouth of Yoda. The HCSB basically strives to deliver both of these translation methods making it both a clear and accurate translation. One more feature that the HCSB strives for is the visual appearance of the words on each page. This makes the Bible pages actually look nice. In the end, the HCSB is a promising all around Bible.

The Voice
The next translation you should check out is called The Voice. The Voice is unique in that it strives to bring back some of the artistic and poetic elements that are often lost when translating the Bible into modern English. The Voice delivers God’s Word in a dynamic way through collaboration with scholars, screen play writers, artist, writers, and even musicians. One of the things I like the most about The Voice is that it really steers clear of “High Religious” and “Christiany” sounding language. For example, rather than using the words “Christ” or “Messiah” the Voice uses “Liberating King”, which although doesn’t mean “anointed one” (which is what the words Christ and Messiah mean) it still paints a great mental picture of who Christ is and what He came to do for us. This makes The Voice a great Bible for teaching young people, and non-Christians. In a nutshell the Voice is kind of like the HCSB meets The Message at a coffee shop playing Radiohead and Sufjan Stevens.

The Action Bible
Now the Bible I bought this weekend isn’t a translation but a kids Bible called The Action Bible. The name says it all -this is one action packed picture Bible! I make no joke as dorky as it my sound I while reading it could not put this thing down! What sets this Bible apart from all of the other children’s/tweener Bibles out there is Sergio Cariello. Sergio is a comic strip artist who’s worked for Marvel and DC comics. Each and every page is fully illustrated in a modern comic book format. The pages look awesome. And the scriptural content that is found in each of the stories is really impressive. The Action Bible has more Bible stories in it than any other picture before it. With over 700 pages, this is the largest graphic novel I’ve ever seen. Each Bible story has scriptural references to where the account comes from, making The Action Bible a great teaching tool. If you have kids and/or tweeners this is the story Bible to get them. And if you’re a Bible reading comic lover like myself, The Action Bible is simply a dream come true.   

There you have it, my top three reasons to never read the King James.