In the world…but not of it.

For a Christian trying to live as Christ leads…it doesn’t take very long to realize that the world is not a very conducive place for Christ-like aspirations.  **NEWSFLASH: It’s under the “dominion” (though we all know who is ultimately in control of all things) of Satan!!…for now**

I’ve struggled a lot with trying to figure out how to maintain my Christian walk, but also how to keep in step socially and culturally, at the same time.  By “keep in step” I don’t mean conform.  I mean existing in a way that is acceptable and befitting a “modern-day 19 year old” but at the same time does not compromise my personal standards or take my focus off Christ.  Over the years I’ve heard lots of theories on how to be a Christian in a non-Christian world.  They have ranged from the highly legalistic to the dangerously conformist, and ultimately I have come to the mind that for a Christian to be in but not of, his heart needs to be right with God, not with another model or standard held up by a Christian leader or theologian.

So then, if the duty falls on me to accept Christ’s leading specifically in this area, I have to pray for wisdom and discernment to actually follow that leading and not take worldly freedoms where they have not been given to me.  An example of a “worldly freedom” might be going to a movie, a sporting event, or reading a book by a secular author.  Things not necessarily forbidden to all Christians.

But I digress slightly; this is not a post on Christian freedom, it is a post meant to highlight a verse I recently read that put into perspective for me the whole of our purpose in interacting with — and even existing in — the world

If you utter worthy, not worthless words, you will be my spokesman.  Let this people turn to you, but you must not turn to them. (Jeremiah 15:19b (NIV))

It was really that last sentence that stood out to me.  A Christian should not be elitist or exclusive.  A Christian should be someone that people “turn to”…and are then redirected to Christ as a result of our example of Christ-like living.  Of course we don’t always do a good job of keeping our lights shining like a city on a hill, but douse them under the proverbial bushel when we find that identifying with Christ isn’t expedient.

There is a whole lot more to that verse when put in context of the entire chapter.  We find that God is on the brink of destroying his people, and Jeremiah’s starting to get scared of all the threats spewing from God’s mouth and he starts to wonder if God’s got it in for him too, so he starts spitting out reasons why he should be saved from the wrath to come.  Verse 19 is part of God’s answer to Jeremiah, where he basically states that if Jeremiah wants to be set apart from the world’s punishment then he needs to live set apart from it’s sin.  But this setting apart isn’t a monasterial thing.  God’s not saying to Jeremiah “run away from all people and live on an island somewhere where you can be free to worship me how you want without any distractions…”  No.  God is saying to Jeremiah, “Look, this is where I’ve put you — with these people.  You’ve got a choice, to either be like them, or be the man I designed you to be.  Your love for me will show through how you live, and people will notice.”

Experience has taught us that merely being a Christian, or being different does not automatically make us attractive.  The world isn’t going to want what we’ve got just because we’ve got something different.  This is why we need to be so careful in living a Christian life on the earth as God uniquely guides us.  Following a “godly standard of living” is not the answer.  Following God is.  There is a difference, and it is critical.

To draw this to a close, the point is that however we interact and interface with the secular world, we should always be aware of our mandate to let them do the “turning” (the King James Version uses the word “return” in reference to Isreal’s needed return from apostasy).  We are not to turn (ie: be enticed) to their sin.  That is never the answer, and such behavior will not receive God’s blessing.

“Are you not thirsty?” – Aslan

I’ve always loved the way the imagery of C. S. Lewis’ Narnia series speaks so clearly of the eternal truths of God’s Word. Like it or not, the seven books that make up The Chronicles of Narnia are packed full of pictures of Christ and the Christian walk. Recently, while reading some of The Silver Chair, I came across a passage that I hadn’t read in a while, and it struck me so powerfully that I had to write it down. It’s a conversation between the great Lion Aslan and a new arrival to the land of Narnia named Jill, who knows little of the strange land and even less about the “not tame Lion.” She knows only that she is very thirsty, but the only stream she can find appears to be this canine’s hangout.

“Are you not thirsty?” said the Lion.

“I’m dying of thirst”, said Jill.

“May I – could I – would you mind going away while I do?”, said jill.

The Lion answered this only by a look and a very low growl. And as Jill gazed at its motionless bulk, she realized that she might as well have asked the while montain to move aside for her convenience.

The delicious rippling noise of the stream was driving her nearly frantic.

“Will you promise not to – do anything to me, if I do come?”, said Jill.

“I make no promise”, said the Lion.

Jill was so thirsty now that, without noticing it, she had come a step nearer.

“Do you eat girls?”, she said.

“I have swollowed up girls and boys, women and men, knigs and emperors, cities and realms”, said the Lion. It didn’t say this as if it were boasting, nor as if it were sorry, nor as if it were angry. It just said it.

“I daren’t come and drink”, said Jill.

“Then you will die of thirst”, said the Lion.

“Oh dear!”, said Jill, coming another step nearer. “I suppose I must go and look for another stream then.”

“There is no other stream”, said the Lion.

And there is…no other stream but Christ. The Living Water has but one source.

Let it sink in: Scripture of the day

I attended the New Attitude conference in Louisville, Kentucky a couple weeks ago, and was there encouraged by the speakers and the personal study time, to spend more time meditating on God’s Word and its truth. Having been raised in a Christian home, I’ve heard this exhortation often, though I’ve seldom carried it through on my own initiative. The challenge that Josh Harris made in his first keynote session at New Attitude (on May 24) has broadened my perspective on why we memorize and meditate. Josh said:

If, then.

It’s more than a cutesy little phrase. It means, that IF we view scripture as the inerrant Word of God and the specific “rule book” given intentionally to us as followers of Christ–THEN we should naturally desire to read, apply, and share it. Meditation — besides being a discipline the Bible over and over commands us to engage in — is an amazing way to keep scripture on the edge of one’s mind; always right there to bring up in conversation, to encourage another believer, or to simply speak truth to oneself.

I have Psalm 119:9 written out and framed on my desk. To me, the words “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your Word” have ceased to be a quick-fix-that-doesn’t-apply-to-my-situation kind of phrase. I have found that I can’t forcefully keep my way pure. I simply can’t do it without God’s truth encouraging and driving me to flee sin and seek His Word instead.

With that somewhat lengthy intro, here are the verses I’m actually meditating on today (Eph 1:3-5):

3Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ.

4For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love

5he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will…

There is so much in these three verses. To really just sit back and study each concept thoroughly would blow the mind of the reader. The reality of God’s blessing, God’s choosing of each of us individually before the world was even created! The reality of our created purpose to be holy and blameless. What does that mean? Was that God’s original purpose for creation which sin screwed up, or does he still intend that we achieve such a status? We could spend hours dissecting that idea and what it means (though the succinct answer from Christ is in Matthew 5:48, I think), but there is still much, much more in this Ephesians passage worth getting exciting over. The idea that Christ predestined us in love and ADOPTED us as His sons . . . because, essentially, it was His pleasure to do so. The greek word here implies a sense of intense delight. It was with this delight, this pleasure, that God predestined us before he spoke the world into existence, and caused us to be adopted as sons and joint-heirs with Christ (as Romans 8:17 states). What a powerful truth! What an amazing Savior!

It should never be anything but a true blessing (certainly not a tiresome chore!) to meditate upon and memorize splendid, encouraging scripture verses like these. And the Bible is stuffed full of them, because it’s all about God — all about HIM.

Free ‘downhere’ album download

Giving away an entire album for free is not exactly a revolutionary idea anymore. Radiohead made the world pause and take notice, but In Rainbows was hardly the first CD to be given up for a free and legal download. The latest noteworthy band to do this is the Christian melodic alternative rock band–downhere. Though their most recent album Wide-eyed and Mystified was released just over two years ago, the Canadian band has today made that album available as a free download via musicchristian.com.

For the month of June only you can download this excellent, critically acclaimed album for free. The CD is full of accessible, radio-friendly hits, but downhere carves a unique niche, due to its great vocalist (listen to “Remember Me”) and thoughtful lyrics. Due to the saturation of piano-driven, brit-influenced pop these days, there’s a tendency to not even give a group like downhere a listen, but when the choice is free, why not take a chance, download the album, and see what you think?

Tracks to start with:

“The More” and “Remember Me”

Specs:

• Album download link: HERE
• Album length: 13 tracks; 54 minutes
• Release date May 23, 2006 to rave reviews (including 4 1/2 stars from ChristianityToday and 5 from Jesusfreakhideout.com)

If you download the album, why not leave a comment and tell me what you think of it? Positive thoughts? Negative? Let me know.

Have a blessed day!

-Sam

This Is Home.

Yesterday was a big day for Switchfoot fans who’ve been eagerly awaiting the studio release of the band’s song “This Is Home.”  A step back from their Alternative-rock roots, “This Is Home” was recorded for the second Chronicles of Narnia movie: “Prince Caspian,” and carries a much more accessible sound to it that will fit nicely in any of the AC Christian radio playlists.

Yesterday was the song’s internet debut, and its impact on the airwaves is soon to follow.  Listen to the entirety of the song here:

This Is Home

Here are the lyrics to “This Is Home” by Switchfoot:

I’ve got my memories
They’re always inside of me
But I can’t go back, back to how it was
I believe now, I’ve seen too much
But I can’t go back, back to how it was
Created for a place I’ve never known

[Chorus] :
This is home
Now I’m finally where I belong,
where I belong
Yeah this is home
I’ve been searching for a place of my own
Now I’ve found it
This is home,
Yeah this is home

Relief over misery
I’ve seen the enemy
And I won’t go back, back to how it was
And I got my heart set on what happens next
I got my eyes wide it’s not over yet
We are miracles
and we’re not alone
[chorus]

And now after all my searching
After all my questions
I’m gonna call it home
I got a brand new mindset
I can finally see the sunset
I’m gonna call it home
[chorus]
Now I know
Yeah this is home

I’ve come too far
Now I won’t go back
This is home.

There is a strong movement today in postmodern Christianity to “bring heaven to earth,” a big and lofty–if sometimes misguided–agenda.  I’m just happy that Heaven is my true home; not this Platonic form called earth we see, touch, taste, and smell.  This song by Switchfoot is indeed simple, but a great encouragement to me to stay focused and remember that I was “created for a purpose” that links me to an eternal destiny, not temporal failure.

When just doing “right”…just isn’t right

All my life I’ve heard the quote “when all is said and done, only what’s been done for Christ will last.”  I’ve only just recently begun to understand what it means, or at least, what it means to me.  I am a Christian, and I am secure in that fact; but I don’t want to be the Christian that makes it into Heaven only as one who barely “escapes the flames,” as Paul says.  It is my goal to reach that glorious place and hear Christ say, “Well done, good and faithful servant — enter into your reward.”

So I endeavor to be a good person.  Not in the self-righteous, self-edifying way, I hope, but in a way that shows God I am grateful for my salvation, and truly want to walk in the newness of life into which I was raised with Christ.  A good person does good things and makes good choices, recognizing that every moral choice in life is a crossroads between something good and something ultimately bad.  The problem with this is, of course, that you begin to get this idea of what a “good person” looks like; what Mr. Super Christian would do.  The inevitable slide progresses downwards toward an emulation of an idea rather than an emulation of the actual person of Christ.  This is the trouble the Pharisees got into when they set up all sorts of laws called “The Tradition of the Elders” which they extrapolated from the basic principles of the Mosaic Law.

The more you think in terms of what a Christian would do, the more this picture forms in your head of THE Christian, and so eventually you end up trying to do all the things THE Christian would do because–obviously–that’s what someone living their life for Christ would do, right?  Maybe I just lost you in all of that, but, for me, understanding this point was when things started to make sense to me.  Once I saw in my life how I had begun to do things because that was what I thought a good Christian would do, all I had to do was connect the dots to see that my goal had suddenly become–not always living for Christ, but living for a set of rules and principles which were supposed to make me feel like I was living for Christ.  Essentially, the rules and principles–my picture of THE Christian–became an end in and of itself.  It was not my dominant outlook, but it did pervade my spiritual vision much too often.

And this is when Satan gets excited, because now you’re sold on the rights and wrongs (the “taste not”s and “touch not”s), not on the reason behind the right and wrong.  Basically, God is all but eliminated from the process.  He may have some token spot in one’s mind’s eye, but if we’re honest, the goal isn’t really to please Him anymore…it’s to do the “right” thing and not do the “bad.”  Because of this, we find ourselves doing things, not necessarily with God in mind, but spurred on by the best motivation we can come up with at the time.  Maybe you praised your co-worker because you know that you want a favor from him later and need him on your good side.  Or you’re letting your little sister get the front seat because you know your Mom will praise you for it.  Or perhaps you’re fighting those thoughts of lust because you can’t bear to imagine what she would think of you if she knew what was in your mind that instant.  You see?  These are all things we can tell ourselves in order to get us to do what we know is right, when really, why are we supposed to do the right thing in the first place?  Is it so we feel better about ourselves?  Is it because we want others to think highly of us?  Or…is it because doing the right thing is what God requires of us and we simply want to obey Him.

I think this is a big part of why Christians burn out.  One moment they’re on fire for Christ and a short while later, they’re veering into depression.  Maybe they just got disenchanted with Christianity or found it too difficult to keep up with.  Or maybe…maybe they got focused on doing everything they could to BE a certain way because that was the way they felt most Christ-like.  Except they removed Christ from the forefront of their gaze because sometimes the image of Him nailed, bleeding to a cross just isn’t enough motivation for us to do something just to please him.  Just to give him honor and glory.

The purpose of the Christian life is not to tie yourself down to your own version of the “Tradition of the Elders.”  Christ isn’t about this prototype Christian whom all must perfectly model themselves after.  He’s after a heart that looks to him, seeks him daily, and wants–above all–to give him glory through every word and every action.  He must ever be our sole motivation for living and doing good.  When the motivation becomes something else, our efforts will ultimately fail because, it is true that “only what’s done for Christ will last.”

What’s your testimony?

While I was reading in the gospel of Mark an account of Christ casting out demons, I was struck with a curious detail the author added.  The verse (Mark 1:34) says that “[Christ] drove out many demons, but he would not let the demons speak because they knew who he was.”  This is interesting, isn’t it?  Why wouldn’t Christ allow demons to speak because they knew who he was?  Was he trying to hide?  Was his intention to keep his divinity a secret?  Remember that this was fairly early in his public ministry, so wouldn’t he need all the exposure he could get?  The Greek word for “knew” in this verse is also translated many times in the Bible as our English word “see,” and here gives the idea that the demons knew who Christ was and what he was all about because they’d witnessed it.  Pretty strong testimony right?  Here we have eyewitness proof from someone ready to talk–that Christ is God, and Jesus shuts the voice up.  Why?

The answer may seem fairly obvious; Jesus doesnt want the demons to testify about him because, well, they’re demons.  Do you think Barack Obama would like to have Jeremiah Wright go around introducing him at all of Obama’s rallies, saying, “this is the guy you should vote for?  This is our modern-day Messiah?”  That’s the kind of endorsement savvy politicians call a “kiss of death,” and it basically means that the right words coming from the wrong person, can have a bad effect.  Jesus is afraid that the testimony of His divinity (however true) coming from such an evil source, will damage his reputation rather than boost it.

There is a similar story in Acts.  Remember the time Paul and Silas got thrown in jail and they ’sung their way out’? (Man, I wonder what songs those were…)  Well, the reason they were there in the first place was because Paul cast a demon out of a slave girl, and her master didn’t like it.  She’d been following Paul and Silas around town yelling that everyone should listen to their words because they revealed the way to be saved, but Paul was finally so tired of her rantings (“fed up” in the Message) that he turned around and expelled the demon

I think that there is a more important lesson here than simply making sure that only people you like are saying nice things about you.  Here is Christ on earth, his sole mission to seek and save the lost (and in so doing: die), and he doesn’t want demons telling what they know about Him, which was a lot!

Their sordid testimony will damage the beautiful truth of who Christ is.

As Christians we are told to proclaim Christ, to preach his word unashamedly.  But this is more than just letting on that we know God, know who Christ is, and what he came to the earth to do.  We have a responsibility to be true witnesses of Christ’s nature so that when we walk up to someone and say we love Jesus and Jesus loves them, they will not be turned off because of our appearance or the way we carry ourselves.  This is not to say that we have to go all “suit-and-tie” whenever we witness, but we should think very carefully about how we’re acting and carrying ourselves because, when we open our mouth to someone who doesnt know Christ and say “can I tell you about him?” they’re likely going to respond based on what their initial impression is of you, the messenger.

Bringing the gospel to others is central to our purpose here on earth, but if we’re identifying ourselves with Christ by calling ourselves Christians, let’s act in a manner befitting one who is a Christ-follower.  This is the spirit of light that shines in the darkness.  A darkness that has neither understood the light, nor overcome it.

-Sam Van Eerden

Best Christian “Pick Up lines”

I’m stepping away from the normally serious nature of this blog to post something that I found very funny and couldn’t resist putting on here.

I’m not sure who the original author is so I unfortunately can’t give any credit where it’s due.

My favorites are #74, #68, #47, #43. What about you?

1. “Nice Bible.”
2. “Is this pew taken?”
3. “I just don’t feel called to celibacy.”
4. “For you I would slay two Goliaths”
5. “I would go through more than Job for you”
6. “You are perfect, except with all the sin.”
7. “When Moses struck the rock, water flowed from it like a river. I promise I will never strike you.”
8. “You are so unblemished that I would sacrifice you.”
9. “What, this here? oh.. that’s my study bible – it’s a little bigger but I can handle the extra spiritual and physical weight.”
10. “Shall we tithe?”
11. “At points in my life I have been referred to as Samson”
12. “The word says ‘Give drink to those who are thirsty, and feed the hungry’; how about dinner?”
13. “I didn’t believe in predestination until tonight.”
14. “I believe one of my ribs belongs to you.”
15. “I went on a mission trip but all I ended up doing was missing you.”
16. “I can be your Boaz.”
17. “My spiritual gift is my good looks… it lifts peoples spirits”
18. “Is this the transfiguration.. because you are glowing”
19. “Hey.. I would work 7 years for your sister.. but I would work 7 more years for you.”
20. “Hey good-looking, Ecclesiastes 4:11…”
21. “Absolutely. I often throw clothes into the Samaritan bin.”
22. “Marry me.”
23. “Can I buy you a non-alcoholic beverage?”
24. ” I’m one of the fortunate ones..Greek and Hebrew come pretty easily to me.”
25. “My favorite species of vegetation is the church plant.”
26. “Did I just have mud rubbed in my eyes?”
27. “Now I know why Solomon had 700 wives… Because he never met you.”
28. “I used to believe in natural theology, but since I met you I’ve converted to divine revelation”
29. “I look after widows”
30. “Why don’t I have a Bible dictionary? Well, I don’t really need it.”
31. “Bathsheba had nothing on you”
32. ”You put the ‘cute’ back in persecution…”
33. “Your hair is like a flock of goats descending from Gilead”
34. “How many times do I have to walk around you to make you fall for me?”
35. “How would you like to join my Purpose Driven Life?”
36. If you say no, I will rip out my hair and my beard”
37. “Unfortunately I can’t perform miracles and I’ve only got enough bread and fish for 2 people.”
38. “So, my parents are home, you wanna come over?”
39. “Let me remove my sandals before I come any closer..”
40. “Let’s say, hypothetically, you were married. I would send your husband to the front line against the Amorites”
41. “It’s obvious to me that you sprouted from the good kinda soil…”
42. “Feel free to meet me at the threshing floor.”
43. “You can lie at my feet..”
44. “If I had to choose between a romantic date with you or a night with the fellas… I would sit at home and read my bible.”
45. “I really like your spirituality, it goes well with that shirt.”
46. “You’re totally depraved but I’d still like to go out with you…”
47. “I’m a proverbs 32 kind of guy and you’re a proverbs 31 kinda woman…”
48. “I’m interested in full time ministry, and not only that… I also play the guitar.”
49. “If we were around in the time of Noah… then you, me… pair.”
50. “I arrange the substantial Christian section of my bookshelf into alphabetical order. coffee?”
51. “Let me sell you an indulgence because it’s a sin to look as good as you do.”
52. “Not a big fan of your last name, but that’s cool, I can change that.”
53. “Solomon had 700 wives. You can be my 2nd girlfriend. But bring your friends.”
54. “I have a Bible verse tattoo. It’s permanent. It’s also in ancient Greek.”
55. “I consider myself to be fisher of women. this would be referred to as “casting my net”.”
56.” Me. You. Song of Songs: the remix.”
57. “When I read Philippians 4:8, I think about you.”
58. “I would leave 99 sheep to come and find you… and then I would carry you home joyfully on my shoulder”
59. “I prayed up the front at church tonight.”
60. “My general biblical knowledge is quite vast, probably because I finished Bible trivia as a child.”
61. “Who’s your favorite apostle?”
62. “You make the Queen of Sheba look like a hobo.”
63. “I have familiarized myself with all 5 love languages, in fact, I invented 4 of them.”
64. “Let’s go for a ride in my zondervan”
65. “I like to think that I’m all things to all women.”
66. “Have you died before? because that looks like a resurrection body to me..”
67. ‘You float my ark.’
68. “as Shammah the son of Agee a Hararite protected the field of lentils, so I wish to protect you.”
69. “You make me want to be a better Christian.”
70. “I will never give you reason to hammer a tent peg through my skull.”
71. “I predicted David over Goliath… now I’m betting on you and me.”
72. “If you were a leper, I would still hold your hand.. even if it wasn’t attached.”
73. “I would have asked you out to dinner, but I just put all my money in the offering plate.”
75. “Unlike the Israelites, who forgot the Lord, I will remember your name most of the time.”
76. “I mentioned you in my testimony.”
74. “Hi, I’m Calvin. You were meant to choose me.”

Foreman’s “Spring” is a brilliant blend of life, love, and lessons (his best solo work yet)

Folks that have followed Jon Foreman’s work since the first Switchfoot album came out in 1997 have long been aware of the fact that he is a brilliant songwriter. Jon has always seemed able to deftly pen a song or ballad that both provokes the muse in all of us, and also cuts deep to the heart and soul.

With the release of his first EP “Fall,” last autumn, it became apparent that Jon’s talents go beyond the lyrics, and extend to truly innovative and probing instrumentation. From the opening chords of “Cure for the Pain” to the lingering falsetto lines of “My Love Goes Free,” it was clear that Jon Foreman’s solo work would find a stable position in the good graces of fans and critics alike. Turns out “Fall” did pretty well on the digital charts too, scaling iTunes’ best-selling albums list to clear the top 10 the first week of release. Jon’s second EP, “Winter” was fittingly bleak and meloncholy, containing the painfully beautiful highlight “Somebody’s Baby”, a song which AbsolutePunk argued would be hard for ANY band or artist to top in ‘08. Strong words for an album released in the first calendar month!

Now comes “Spring,” the third of the four promised seasonal EPs. For a songwriter as prolific as Foreman, the question never was, “could he write enough songs?” but rather, how would the solo work of the frontman for the dynamic rock group–Switchfoot–translate to the intimate setting of a mostly acoustic-based musical endeavor. More than that, the EPs are seasonal, a distinction which Jon takes seriously. The titles “Fall,” “Winter,” “Spring,” and “Summer,” are more than names; they set the thematic and musical tone for their respective albums.

I think “Spring” is Foreman’s most ambitious EP yet. In recent years, his songwriter has taken on a bleaker tone (one need only look at the tracklisting for the last two Switchfoot records to know what I mean). “Spring” is quite a mood shift from the first two EPs, and the instrumentation reflects this wonderfully. From the opening bars of the first track (“March – A prelude to Spring”) you will realize you are being treated to the best, the indie music scene has to offer: honest, intelligent lyricism treated to a lush backdrop of graceful guitar chords and up-beat brass. There is a hint of style of Beirut in this track, a style which complements Jon’s distinct vocals.

The theme of “love” runs strong throughout this EP–as a record about life should. As Jon has often explored through Switchfoot, he again delves into the ways in which we’ve bought and sold our love like a commodity (in “Love Isn’t Made”), removing the intangibles and making it a stale commercial exchange. As in the past two EPs, Jon is not afraid to take his voice to the next level, hitting high notes with more ease in “Spring” than he has in the past. Still, the emotive power of Jon’s singing is best experienced when he softly croons a love song like he’s whispering into his beloved’s ear (a la “In My Arms”).

“Baptize my mind” will doubtless remind listeners of a more stripped-down Sufjan Stevens song, but it the message of spiritual regeneration that propels this song. Jon makes the listener pause, think, and then go “aaaah!” with smiling admiration when lines like “for these seeds to give birth to life, first they must die” grace his ears.

My favorite track is the enduring “Your Love Is Strong,” a song that Switchfoot fans have long awaited. For a EP that is full of words sung, whispered, breathed, and crooned to a human lover, it is very refreshing to see Jon sing this–the arguably best love song on the record–to his Heavenly Father. Most of the verses on this 5 minute song either quote or paraphrase a section of scripture, but the poignancy comes in the repeated chorus lines “Your love is…strong enough” and Formena’s request for “the kingdom of the heavens” to “invade [his] heart, invade [his] town.” True to form, Jon’s graceful lyrics (“Will you sell yourself to buy the one you’ve found?”) are like a choice morsel put on the top shelf; the deliciousness sitting in full view, but the reality of the tastiness unknown until it is brought down and thoroughly digested.

The last song “Revenge” is sung from a broken man who has lived his life for sin and revenge, but when he looks back he realizes that the only “revenge” exacted on him for his sin was the sacrifice of Christ. In the immediate wake of easter it is critical to remember that this is our position: deserving of TRUE revenge for our sin. What we got instead though, was not really revenge at all…it was grace. Boundless and free. Appropriately, this song contains the least amount of musical accompaniment; Jon obviously wants the focus to be on the words, which are–though seemingly esoteric at times–truly amazing.

In summary, Jon somehow topped his efforts in “Fall” with this latest EP; some of the best solo work I’ve heard in a long while. I am almost breathless in my expectation for “Summer.” Having reached the mountain top, one’s first inclination is to take a second or two to breathe the air up there, relish the moment…and then look around for any other peak that may be higher. The search for perfection, being never fully acheivable, is never fully ‘enough.’

But that has never stopped Jon from trying, and he inexplicably continues to draw closer.

(NOTE: You can stream/listen to this entire EP at Jon’s myspace: LINK)

-Sam Van Eerden

No marriage in Heaven (or is there?)?

Let me begin this by admitting that I haven’t read any commentaries or other opinions on this passage. I was just studying this scripture, came across some interesting ideas, and then did a little primary source research.

The passage in question comes from Luke 20:27-39, and also in the gospel of Matthew (22:23-33) and Mark (12:18-27). In all accounts we have Jesus answering an honest question made by a group of Sadducees (a politico-religious sect). In a nutshell, the question was: if a woman has more than one husband throughout her lifetime (due to the fact that one after the other has died, leaving her to lawfully remarry), who will she be married to in Heaven? Will she have one husband, perhaps the first one she was married to, or will she be joined with all that she was at one time married to?

In Luke, the answer Christ gives is this:

34. . .”The children of this world marry, and are given in marriage:

35But they which shall be accounted worthy to obtain that world, and the resurrection from the dead, neither marry, nor are given in marriage:

36Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection.

37Now that the dead are raised, even Moses shewed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.

38For he is not a God of the dead, but of the living: for all live unto him.”

With the exception of a few words or differing sentence-structure, all three gospel accounts essentially mirror each other. I quoted from the KJV because my next step is to do a word study on a couple Greek words Christ used here.

Marriage: The word (used in v. 34 and 35) is “marriage” in the traditional sense; the act of giving one(self) away in marriage to another. Although the other gospels use different greek words for “marriage,” they all echo the same general definition.

World: Christ qualifies his answer about marrying to “those who [have] obtain[ed] that world (v.35).” Just to be clear, the word used here IS speaking of Heaven, and means a universe that is eternal or an age that is unbroken.

Living: When the text says that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living, that word also is pretty clear in its meaning. The greek word is the same in all gospels, and means 1) “to live, breathe, be among the living (not lifeless, not dead) 2) to live i.e. pass life, in the manner of the living and acting.” Further delving into the word shows that there is a lot of “life” to this particular living; not just mere existing. The idea is that Heaven will be a place of boundless joy, and the living its inhabitants are doing will be euphoric and vivacious.

What is the conclusion of the matter? As I said before, this is my own research…and it is rather minimal, but it seems pretty straight-forward from the text that there will be no continuation of our earthly marriage relationships once we are in Heaven, nor will there be an option to marry once we’re there. At the same time however, we know that it will still be a perfect, exuberant existence in that eternal age where God reigns supreme. Even so, I would prefer to still experience that earthly covenant of marriage before I pass on to a place where it does not exist (however wonderful that place will definitely be!).

You may say that I sound like the Children of Israel pining for Egypt because there they had onions to color their diet (and you may be right) . . . but I hold my opinion.

 Any thoughts on this matter?  Agree with me?  Disagree?  If anyone has any rationale for why they think there will (or won’t) be marriage in Heaven, I’d love to hear it!