Confessions of A Moving Target

“We are set free, but unto what? If the thing that I’ve been talking about on these records, if the message is about being set free and liberated by Christ, if that’s true, then the big question becomes, How do we live in light of that freedom? What are the fruits of that freedom? There’s a point at which the rubber of our theology must hit the road of ethics. There’s a point at which, if we pride ourselves in knowing about God’s character, our knowledge of that character must inform the way that we love and live with people.”

- Derek Webb at a show in Souderton, PA August 19

 ”One might have hoped that, with so gracious a creature as wine, even the most ardent religionists and secularists would have made an exception to their universal custom of missing the point of things . . . Consider first the teetotalers . . . Something underhanded has to be done to grape juice to keep it from running its appointed course. Witness the teetotaling communion service . . . Do they seriously envision St. Paul or Calvin or Luther opening bottles of Welch’s Grape Juice in the sacristy before the service? . . . One of the most fanciful pieces of exegesis I ever read began by maintaining that the Greek word for wine, as used in the Gospels, meant many other things than wine. The commentator cited, as I recall, grape juice for one meaning, and raisin paste for another. He inclined, ultimately, toward the latter. I suppose such people are blessed with reverent minds which prevent them from drawing irreverent conclusions. I myself, however, could never resist the tempation to read raisin paste for wine in the story of the Miracle of Cana . . . Does it not whet your appetite for the critical opera omnia of such an author, where he will freely have at the length and breadth of Scripture? Can you not see his promised land flowing with peanut butter and jelly; his apocalypse, in which the great whore Babylon is given the cup of the ginger ale of the fierceness of the wrath of God?

(Robert Farrar Capon, The Supper of the Lamb, pp. 89-90).

( HT: Douglas Wilson  )

“Christopher Love was beheaded for alleged conspiracy against the current Lord Protector of England, Oliver Cromwell.  Love, Thomas Watson and William Jenkyn were among those imprisoned for treason.  Cromwell charged them with conspiring to bring back the monarchy and the King after parliament had charged the king with treason and beheaded him.  Watson was released, Jenkyn died in prison, and Christopher Love was beheaded.  The following letter is one of many to Mr. Love’s wife.  However, this is Mr. Love’s last letter to his wife on the day he suffered.”

Read the rest of this entry »

“As we gather in the presence of the living God on the Lord’s Day, He is pleased to use our right worship of Him as a battering ram to bring down all the citadels of unbelief in our communities. Just as the walls of Jericho fell before the worship and service of God, so unbelievers tremble when Christians gather in their communities to worship the living God rightly. Jesus promised us that the gates of Hades would not prevail against the church. It is not often noted that the gates of Hades are not an offensive weapon. Hades is being besieged by the Church; it is not the other way around. We need to learn to see that biblical worship of God is a powerful battering ram, and each Lord’s Day we have the privilege of taking another swing. Or, if we prefer, we might still want to continue gathering around with our insipid songs, dopey skits, and inspirational chats in order to pelt the gates of Hades with out wadded up kleenex.” 

- Douglas Wilson

“Modern evangelicals have gained money, power, and influence, and it has been like giving whiskey to a two-year-old. The need of the hour is theological, not political. The arena is the pulpit and the table, not the legislative chamber. Before we are equipped to proclaim His lordship to the inhabitants of all the earth, we must live as though we believed it in the Church.”

 -Douglas Wilson

Very soon,  I will start posting my top 25 Redone Hymns*. I will begin with #25 and post a hymn each day.  I will make a little youtube “video” that will have the music and lyricsfor each hymn.

I hope you enjoy the list. Feel free to comment about each hymn or the list in general.

See you tomorrow,

MT

*A Redone hymn is a pre-existing  hymn text that has been put to new music.

What you see above is a widget for a new website created, in part, by my friend, singer/songwriter Derek Webb. The premise of this site is simple. “Artists want to know, connect with, and be supported by music fans. Music fans want high-quality, free (or variably priced) music and to be rewarded, not punished, for sharing the music they love with their friends. We believe that if artists and fans work together, everyone can get what they want. ”

“A great record is its own best marketing tool,” says Derek Webb, singer/songwriter and Co-Founder of NoiseTrade. “All the marketing dollars in the world can’t accomplish what one great record can, especially if it’s set free to roam around and connect with the right people.” In 2006 Webb gave away his ‘Mockingbird’ record for free online, asking in return for a little information (name, email address, and postal code), and as part of the process, for fans to invite their friends to download as well.

In three month’s time Webb gave away over 80,000 full downloads of his record and collected valuable information for as many new fans. In addition, Derek has since seen many sold out shows and increased merchandise and record sales, including a curious spike in sales of the very record that was given for free.

It was the massive success of this experiment that inspired Webb, with the help of a few trusted friends, to start NoiseTrade. Now any artist can freely distribute their music online, via NoiseTrade’s remarkable and embeddable widget, offering fans the choice to tell 3 friends or to pay any amount in exchange for an immediate download.

“Who needs peer-to-peer when you can have artist-to-fan?” Derek concludes, “If artists and fans realized how they could help each other and started making direct connections, without a middleman, the whole industry would change overnight. It would start a revolution.”

SO go check out the site. Come on…trade the noise!

Oh my name it is nothin’
My age it means less
The country I come from
Is called the Midwest
I’s taught and brought up there
The laws to abide
And that land that I live in
Has God on its side.Oh the history books tell it
They tell it so well
The cavalries charged
The Indians fell
The cavalries charged
The Indians died
Oh the country was young
With God on its side.

Oh the Spanish-American
War had its day
And the Civil War too
Was soon laid away
And the names of the heroes
I’s made to memorize
With guns in their hands
And God on their side.

Oh the First World War, boys
It closed out its fate
The reason for fighting
I never got straight
But I learned to accept it
Accept it with pride
For you don’t count the dead
When God’s on your side.

When the Second World War
Came to an end
We forgave the Germans
And we were friends
Though they murdered six million
In the ovens they fried
The Germans now too
Have God on their side.

I’ve learned to hate Russians
All through my whole life
If another war starts
It’s them we must fight
To hate them and fear them
To run and to hide
And accept it all bravely
With God on my side.

But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we’re forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God’s on your side.

In a many dark hour
I’ve been thinkin’ about this
That Jesus Christ
Was betrayed by a kiss
But I can’t think for you
You’ll have to decide
Whether Judas Iscariot
Had God on his side.

So now as I’m leavin’
I’m weary as Hell
The confusion I’m feelin’
Ain’t no tongue can tell
The words fill my head
And fall to the floor
If God’s on our side
He’ll stop the next war.