where am i?

Been playing with wordpress:

http://comatosesoul.wordpress.com/

not sure what I'm going to do here yet ;)

how

trying to remember who i was

before i became who i am

twisting back behind the now

searching for something then

how did we get here

Blokus!

http://www.blokus.com

For anyone that has not heard of this game - one of my favorites :) Wish more people played online. Kind of a mix between Go and Chess.

Trinity Baptist Church

I have tried very hard to avoid talking about the struggles of my church. Mainly because I wanted to not tear into people with whom I do not agree. Bottom line would be that people don't agree about a number of things and some have chosen to leave (are they all gone yet?)

I keep going back to two sets of scripture:

1 Corinthians 13 - Hard Stuff
Galations 5:19-21

Key 'works of the flesh':
enmity, strife, rivalries, dissensions, divisions

Obviously we can disagree (Acts 15:38-40,) but I think we need to be careful not to let the flesh take over. My personal assessment of my church's situation is that the flesh has taken over. I fight with the flesh as well - one of the key reasons I've not posted much on this topic. I won't lie, I get pissed off something fierce.

My hope is that people's hearts will be filled to the same extent they've filled their heads (I think too often we encourage nothing more than head knowledge and abandon the heart, the relationship.) I pray that those who are leaving find what they are looking for, and have enough decency to make a clean cut.

Is it almost over?

Void of Posts

Just wanted to apologize for the lack of posts. I have had a ton on my mind, and plenty of material but have really struggled with what is and is not appropriate to blog about. The majority of my thoughts have been about my church and struggles inside it.

Ass, Shit & Conforming...

Some random thoughts that have been stuck in my head for a little while. I thought I would share. Please feel free to add to this stream of thought or correct my course as you feel led.

I have often wondered what exactly defines 'coarse' or 'obscene' language.

Ephesians 5:4
Colossians 3:8

Who gets to define what words can be used and what words are inappropriate? What is the true goal of these scriptures? More recently I listened to the following sermon:
http://gracelifepulpit.media.s3.amazonaws.com/SC-2009-03-06-PJ.mp3
(Pornification of the Pulpit)

Based mainly on Titus 2:7-8

So all these got my brain flowing, and basically resulted in the following:

1. I don't really understand how some words are ok based on their usage and others are not. The two examples are Ass or Jackass vs Shit. I have friends, and know many in my church that won't let their kids say Ass (at anytime really,) but they can sing it in church if we sing the right hymnal. However shit is never ok, even if your talking about taking a shit. Or stepping in horse shit. Etc...

If a non-believer heard an entire congregation singing about an ass, would they still think of it as a 'bad word'? Does it matter if its in context or not? Going even a bit further, both piss and damn are considered obscene by many (who I assume don't use a king james bible.) Would it be wrong to read verses out loud about those that 'pisseth on the wall' and 'damnation'? Would this be 'coarse'? Obscene? Would reading Song of Solomon out loud be obscene?

2. As best I can tell, our list of 'bad words' is nothing more than accepted norms for a society. What becomes difficult for me is when I consider this against Romans 12:2

Now I know this verse is not directly related to how and what we say, but I have a difficult time understanding how we filter our speech based on the 'world' (our society) while not 'conforming to this world'.

I do not want to be a potty mouth, and to be honest I wouldn't say these words out loud. I said ass two weeks ago, and spelled shit. Too many visits with a bar of soap I guess. But what are we striving for? What is sound speech? How do we avoid 'conforming to this world'?

I am not trying to rationalize anyone's usage of certain words. I just want to better understand scripture. I enjoyed the sermon I posted above, but I am probably on a very different page than that preacher. I personally think God cares a great deal more about our hearts than specific words but then I'm confronted by things like 'sound speech' and my head just begins to spin.

Am I the only one?

Drink, Mourn, Grow

Like a raging thunderstorm your word approaches.
Light drizzle grows into a sheet of glass stretching from heaven to earth.
And the thirsty land celebrates.
The storm continues.
We drink.

Lightning illuminates ominous clouds like a camera’s flash.
A large field ignites into dance.
Yellow, orange and blue melt into white.
The fire is raging.
We mourn.

Scorched earth lives among the quenched.
Destruction mingles with restoration.
The rain’s punches subside and the lightning ceases.
The storm is ending.
We grow.