Shocking!!!

I know, I know, you haven't heard from me in forever and you're wondering why I randomly picked today to start writing again.  Well, perhaps it is because I have a few moments . . . or because I rarely see any of you and wanted to get back in touch with the outside world.  Either way, I hope I haven't lost all my subscribers!

I have been thinking about something of late that seems important enough to talk about.  Why are we protestants?  Before you get the stake and a torch, I am not asking this leading to the error that some have made of returning to catholicism, but rather asking why Christian young people today seem stuck on being a rebellious without any real direction or understanding.  Are we rebels without a cause?  I think much of the younger generation of Christians today are.  They rebel because young people rebel, not because there is actually something in particular they are trying to change.

Seriously, you can call yourself a 'Jesus freak' all you want but you just look like freaks to me.  You who are so stuck on not doing things traditionally that you throw out the baby with the bath water.  On the other hand, you who want to do things traditionally, you're really just scared to death of rocking the boat.  There is an important medium to be found, and it is found in purpose.  Let's do everything we do for a reason that is both pure in motive and thought out well.  Martin Luther may have been the greatest rebel ever to be a part of the church, but he was not happy to be rebelling, it was a thing of great seriousness to him.

Christ was a rebel.  Well . . . yes and no.  Christ did go against much of the thinking of his day, but this was in order to bring people BACK to what they should have understood all along.  Christ was teaching something new that should have been very clear to the people of his time from the old.  We are not called to be "new" or "cool" or even in some sense "relevant".  We are called to follow Christ and what his Word says.  Which will probably make the world see us as "old fashioned" and "out of touch" and "irrelevant", but the Bible says we will be hated and right now we're just ignored.

Percent

Rank

Item

(100%) 1: Presbyterian/Reformed

(94%) 2: Baptist (Reformed/Particular/Calvinistic)

(93%) 3: Congregational/United Church of Christ

(62%) 4: Anglican/Episcopal/Church of England

(62%) 5: Lutheran

(61%) 6: Eastern Orthodox

(54%) 7: Seventh-Day Adventist

(44%) 8: Methodist/Wesleyan/Nazarene

(44%) 9: Roman Catholic

(39%) 10: Baptist (non-Calvinistic)/Plymouth Brethren/Fundamentalist

(36%) 11: Church of Christ/Campbellite

(32%) 12: Pentecostal/Charismatic/Assemblies of God

(25%) 13: Anabaptist (Mennonite/Quaker etc.)

This quiz would actually have gotten me just right if it had not been for one question: How do the Church and State relate?  Because I do not believe it is possible for a government to function and completely remove itself from all matters of conscience, religion, and sexual morality--thus I fell in the line of the magisterial reformers.

The Glory of Salvation

Lately I have noticed that my xanga is looking extremely neglected-and that I haven't made a theological post in nearly forever-thus I have decided that, on this beautiful Sunday afternoon, I should take up the task of theological insight.
On a CD entitled Depth of Mercy I heard a song that I have never heard before.  I was riding home from church and I was listening to one of Katie's CDs-one which I hadn't heard-and I heard a song which expressed salvation in such an inter-testamental way, bringing to bear the totality of Scripture, and I had to share it.
It is entitled "Wedding Dress" and some of you may be shocked that I have never heard it before; I am shocked that more churches do not sing it.  It is, in my own estimation, one the best Christian songs I've heard.
The lyrics are these:

If you could love me as a wife
and for my wedding gift, your life.
Should that be all I'd ever need,
or is there more I'm looking for?

and should I read between the lines,
and look for blessings in disguise?
To make me handsome, rich, and wise
Is that really what you want?

I am a whore I do confess.
I put you on just like a wedding dress
and I run down the aisle,
and I run down the aisle.
I'm a prodigal with no way home.
I put you on just like a ring of gold
and I run down the aisle to you.

So could you love this bastard child?
Though I don't trust you to provide.
With one hand in a pot of gold
and with the other in your side.

I am so easily satisfied
by the call of lovers so less wild
that I would take a little cash
Over your very flesh and blood.

These are gripping lyrics, and shocking as well, but no less shocking than the words of Scripture itself.  I fear that many may hear this song and be unfaithful to God by denying the beauty of His words.  Thus, I intend to show that these are God's words.

Hosea 1:2-3
When the LORD first spoke through Hosea, the LORD said to Hosea, "Go, take to yourself a wife of whoredom and have children of whoredom, for the land commits great whoredom by forsaking the LORD." So he went and took Gomer, the daughter of Diblaim, and she conceived and bore him a son.

Hosea 9:1
Rejoice not, O Israel!
   Exult not like the peoples;
for you have played the whore, forsaking your God.
   You have loved a prostitute's wages
   on all threshing floors.

 We are not God’s children through birth, we are God’s children through adoption in Christ Jesus. (Eph. 1:14, Rom. 8)

 Furthermore, it is Christ who sanctifies us as His bride. (Eph. 5:22-33, Rev.19:6-10)  If you cannot admit that we are nothing more than whores and bastards without Christ-that this language is necessary to explain the shocking nature of Salvation-then you are allowing an uptight, legalistic mindset to blunt your view of the violent grace of God.

Interesting, I never could have figured this one out by myself!

Okay, so I was tagged for this survey, but the first question is really odd for a guy to answer so I'm modifying it.

Five Things in My Wallet
1. A picture of my gorgeous fiancee Katie
2. My class schedule 
3. Lots of receipts
4. My Lifeway discount card (good on all items) 
5. The combination to my UU P.O. box 

Five Things in My Freezer 
1. I don't have one so the next four answers are just interesting things I've found in various freezers.
2. one shoe 
3. a baseball
4. oatmeal(uncooked)
5. a silver ring 

Five Things in My Closet
1. Clothes
2. Shoes
3. Swords
4. A .50 cal muzzleloader rifle
5. Two Radio Controlled Airplanes 

Five Things in My Car
1. My Dad 
2. My homemade metal knight's helmet
3. A flat tire
4. 8 bags of clothes on their way to goodwill
5. A dual plug power converter

And I tag...um...Kelly Mi...Mik...Mikh...my sister, also let Taras fill out one and post on your xanga or get his own.  I also tag...um...three other people whose names have been changed to protect the innocent.  We will simply refer to them as John, John, and Jane.