The Revolution

"The flashing spirit of Jesus Christ breaks new paths everywhere.  His sentences stand like quivering swords of flame because he did not come to bring peace, but a revolution" (emphasis mine)

Brennan Manning wrote these words in his book "The Furious Longing of God."  

I wonder if you've ever considered such a statement, because when I read it the first time I immediately stopped...then read it again.  Now, I am not a person who has dedicated his whole life to saving the whales and giving peace a chance.  I am after all a Marine. I am very into love.  The love Christ showed us and taught us to give.  However these words brought a whole new way of thinking my way.  I wonder if you agree. I also wonder if you disagree.  

I mean let's think about it. What if those words were absolutely true.  Not bring peace? The Savior of Man and creator.  Not only did he not come to bring peace, but a revolution!  Let's take another read through the Gosples and keep that idea in the back of our heads and see what we come up with.  If you believe in this Christ and believe He is who He said He was...then you believe that He is all knowing...right?  

Well I would think that an all knowing God would be aware of the repercussions that would come from a baby born in a major, who grew up as a carpenter claiming after 30 short years to be the Messiah.  Almost everything He did was controversial in some way to some groups of people.  Is this an underlying message of peace? He must have known our human nature and how we would react.  And by we I mean all man kind. Whether you believe in Him or not He has drastically and  radically changed your world.  For better and for worse.  

The controversy, the arguments, the laws and the changing of laws.  All done because of Him.  Wars have been fought.  Babies have been saved.  Lives have been changed.  He must have known that His presence on earth would forever create turmoil because of  two gifts he gave us. The gift of salvation and the gift to choose.     

His plan is always perfect and always unfailing.  So what if next time you read through the Gospels you think about this revolution and it's cost.  Think about the actions of this God/Man and not only what he was teaching and illustrating with his life, but what He knew would be the outcome of those actions. 

I think maybe he just cared for us so much that it was worth if for the love.  I also think never before in the history of creation has any one person uttered a more controversial statement...Luke 23:3

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Do we miss "the point"

I recently read a couple of things that are quickly changing the way I think.  The first one was a book by an amazing author named Brennan Manning called " The Furious Longing of God".  Brennan, (cause he'd be insulted if I called him Mr. Manning) in my opinion understands God's Grace and Love just about better then any other person I've ever encountered in word or in person.  This book is about just that, God's unconditional love for his people and how much he desires to be with us.  There are some choice passages from the book but I really suggest just buying it.  It's a quick read.  One of the main things I took away from my experience with this written work was that we miss "the point" a lot. At least I do. 

I also recently read a little article on home schooling.  This was a propaganda piece where the writer used many verses and a story about a bunch of kids in 1212 that tried to evangelize a nation only to meet their demise, to his points benefit.  I am not posting a link to this article because I don't really think anybody else needs to read it.  It is my opinion that the author of this article, and many others like it, have manipulated scripture to fit their agenda.  This is what I'd like to call Christian propaganda.  It certainly doesn't appeal to me and I would venture a guess it does even less for those who don't know Christ yet. 

There is a lot of this around these days in many aspects of life with a lot of "hot topics".  Christians are always on the forefront of the arguing ground.  I am not above it.  Until now I hope.  I have often gotten caught up in the fight and the rules, what is right, what is wrong.  A lot of this arguing is going on between only the Christians, with the rest of the world just looking on and laughing. 

This brings me back to Brennan's message.  Something he took a lot of heat for in the upper level theological circles.  That's the message of Christ.  I'm not going to use this blog to preach at you.  If you have a bible get it out and read it.  If you don't you can get one free on the Internet at youversion.com.  Read about His life.  What did He come to do and how did He do it.  After all, His life is the one in which Christians are to model theirs after right? Did He use propaganda or sling hate?  Was there bullying or strong arming people to do things His way?  Throughout history these types of tactics don't seem to get anybody anywhere. 

But Love.  Maybe that's one of the biggest examples and gifts we were given and always seem to over look.  What if love was just a little more important than the rules?  Just a little.  Then what would happen?  It's too easy to forget the real message in these times of right's and wrongs and competitions and pride.     

I'm going to wrap up today by saying I'm very grateful there are parents out there that are willing and capable of home schooling their children.  It is a gift to be able to spend so much time with them and pass on a legacy of knowledge.  I also want to say how grateful I am for all those out there who have taken public education on as a profession and a calling.  There is no greater calling in this world then passing on the gift of education and a society's history.  With all the rules and regulations today these teacher have a tuff job.  I believe both are following the scriptures, putting children first, and raising them up in The Lord.

                                                                                                                                Gal 5 (emphasis 6)

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Honesty is costly!!

“Great to see you folks, I’m glad you could all make it today. The reason I wanted to gather all you media giants together today is really pretty simple.  See we seem to have a major piracy issue on our hands.  It really isn’t getting any better.  So I wanted to throw this idea at you and get your thoughts. 

~ Let’s increase the cost of production DVD’s. 

~We can start charging people basically the same price for digital copies and just give it to them a few weeks early.  Then we don’t even have to print or ship.

~We’ll add a new kind of disk called a Blu-ray and charge even more for that.  Then we can put them together and bump the cost even more for the combo. 

~I also want to delay DVD release for as long as possible and then when it does release only release it to certain vendors like Blockbuster.  Everybody else will have to wait an extra month.   

~We can also continue to pay “the talent” more and more every year into the tens of millions so ticket prices at the theater are astronomical.

With all those new and improved options out there,  I believe nobody will want to get their Smartphone out of their pocket and watch our movies for free any longer!”

I don’t believe that those words have ever been spoken.  Although to be honest I’m getting a little tired of the game here.  Let me tell you why. 

Due to the fact that my wife and I have young children and are both busy and broke we were able to get to the theater a grand total of 3 times in the last 15 months.  I am a self-proclaimed movie buff, or was at one time, so that is very sad and pathetic.  That means we have to wait until it comes out on DVD or Netflix.  In my area there are a few choices.  Blockbuster, Redbox and Netflix are really the big three.  Then there are of course online renting deals such as Apple.

Well I waited until Tuesday of this week for my movie to finally come out on DVD.  It must be said that it came out digitally a month before this week.  I went to the local Blockbuster to finally satisfy my cravings only to find out that blockbuster is closing its doors and no longer renting DVD’s.  So they don’t have it.  Redbox won’t get it for at least 3 or four weeks if I’m lucky.  That leaves me a little stranded (and as you can tell irritated).  I can buy the DVD for a minimum of 17.99 or rent it from Apple for 5.00 dollars!!  This is all after an insanely long DVD release time.  Considering the DVD was probably just about ready at the time the movie came to theaters. 

So I’m mad and it’s not even because I just want to see my movie.  I can truly live without it.  We don’t even subscribe to a TV service in my house for basically the same reason (and haven’t missed it for one second). I’m mad because we have crazy technology right at our fingertips.  I live just barely north of Hollywood, and there is currently no way for me to rent this new release movie without paying a premium.   I wonder if the studios ever take a look around and think before they make their anti-piracy plea’s.  By the way quite a bit of this happens in other countries where it’s not illegal so are we being charged for their loss overseas?

Nobody wants to bend a little bit and meet the public half way?  I understand that everybody needs to make a living but REALLY?  There’s nothing better we can come up with.  No better solution to this problem on either side of the coin. 

We’re being charged the same basic rate for a digital copy of something today that we got in a case a few years ago.  So where’s all the extra money for printing and shipping and so forth going?  What’s the incentive to buy digital?  I wonder what people’s limit on what they will spend for 2 hours of entertainment is? And how long they will wait.  A hundred years ago we could pass our books around and going to a state park was free. 

Now??  Not so much…