Children’s Script— Grown Up Truth

I had the pleasure of attending a children’s nativity pageant on Christmas Eve and, in the innocence and simplicity of the adorable production, I was struck by the preposterous nature of the whole affair. That the God of all creation, the Almighty who keeps the universe in motion, would abandon His place to save those who would eventually kill Him will never not astound me. But I was taken aback by a new facet of the glorious story. It was a line that one of the little shepherds had. It’s not that I didn’t already know it, but rather that I had never really paid attention to the symbolism of the whole affair until this moment (or what’s more likely is that the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to be destroyed by the naked truth). “Why would the angel come to us? We’re nothing special,” the one said to another. “What gift could we bring to such a great King?” As I sat in that quaint little church I realized God didn’t tell the shepherds merely because He was extending His love to the outcasts, although He most certainly was also doing that. He called those who had nothing but themselves to bring to the manger throne. This is the heart of the Gospel. Chris Tomlin sings it best, “/if I were a wise man/I would travel far/and if I were a shepherd/I would do my part/but poor as I am/I will give to him my all/“ He paid the price that a thousand lifetimes could never repay, and the response He desires is a life lived in seemingly reckless abandon for Him. It is a response to a the gift, not an earning of that gift. I pray that, despite my lack of eloquence, you’ll see the heart of what I’m saying. We can’t ever give a gift that compares to the One we’ve been given, but we can live our lives in humble reflection of the gratitude we have for that most wondrous gift. 

Merry Christmas, guy,

Simeon

That Book Post

Woooooah, two blog posts in as many weeks? What is happening? Haha, don’t get used to it because I can’t guarantee this type of consistency, but— as promised— here is a post that will include a couple reviews of books that I have devoured recently.

Gospel-Formed by J.A. Medders

I cannot — I repeat “CANNOT”— recommend this book highly enough. I believe I got it a year or two ago through a special deal on either Tim Challies’ website or the Gospel Coalition’s. Regardless, I regret not picking it up earlier. I had no idea the treasure trove of encouragements, tender rebukes, and exhortations to joy in Christ are hidden in the pages of this devotional. It is so packed full of scripture that, although I am being slightly hyperbolic, if every Bible on earth was destroyed, you could still have it entirely from the pages of this book. Paired with my personal devotion time (and by the wonderful power of the Holy Spirit) my love for and devotion to Christ has expanded so much more than I thought it could! Now, I only want more. Seriously. MUST READ.

To Live is Christ, To Die is Gain by Matt Chandler and Jared C. Wilson

Another “wow, Simeon, if you had only known” moment (actually, many of those moments). I’ve had this in my iBooks library for at least three years, and although I started it around the time I bought it, I lost interest a couple chapters in. HOW?! HOW DID YOUNGER ME LOSE INTEREST IN THIS GEM?! I thought that I understood what Paul means by the verse which is the title of this book. So much, in fact, that I have Ж Х С П (the first letter in every word in the Russian translation: Жизнь (life)- Христос  (is Christ), Смерть (death)- Приобретение (is gain)) tattooed on my arm. I was so wrong. Now, although I do have a more thorough understanding, I feel like there is so much more to learn. I’m not going to say much else besides “Dear friend. Read. This. Book.” (It’s only twelve chapters). Your faith will be so very uplifted and the truth of Philippians will ring true in your hearts. I’ll leave you with the final quote of the book “To live truly is Christ. And to die is incomparable, infinite gain.” May those words be truer than ever in your life.

Sovereign Grace by D.L. Moody

This one is a collection, mainly, of sermons by him on the title, but the end has three pretty cool interviews that he did with other prominent pastors of his day (sadly, my hero Charles Spurgeon is not one of those). This one was free in iBooks some time ago and, again, I had no idea what I’ve been sitting on. Please don’t make the mistake I did, but rather, go find a copy and read it! I honestly did not realize how deep into reformed theology Mr. Moody was, but now, my goodness, I want to read more of his writings! It has been said by many a Christocentric pastor, but I will quote him here (hopefully this will inspire you to crack open Sovereign Grace’s pages) “We work from the cross, not to it. We work because we are saved, not in order to be saved. We work from salvation, not up to it. Salvation is the gift of God.”  

Although there are several more books that I would like to tell you about (most by Pastor John Piper), I will leave it be... for now. I would like to clarify, too, that all these books have given me a better love for Scripture and —thank you so much, Holy Spirit!— I am able to more fully see and savor Christ and “the treasures of wisdom and knowledge that are hidden in him” (paraphrase of Colossians 2:3). I hope that you will pick up one of these priceless writings and that, through them, you will gain a deeper love for our wonderful Savior and Friend, Jesus Christ. 

I will try very hard to write again soon!

Not since February? This is getting ridiculous.

I’m done saying “I’m going to try to be more consistent” because... well, apparently that’s not going to happen. I don’t get paid for this (could you tell?) and my real job has me pretty busy as of late. A few songs have been written, tattoos gotten, and a lot of life has been lived.  I hope this post finds you guys in good health, if my two readers are still around haha. Have I told you about my church? I am blessed to be a part of the Passion City Church house.  w o w  g u y s . Let me tell you what, best eight-hour work day of my week. “Eight hours?!” you may say, and yes. I GET to wake up at 4:45am so that I can make it to church by 5:30am and help prepare the house ready for the gathering. We rent the Howard Theatre in DC and get there early so that we can, not only load in all our equipment, but also clean up from whatever event happened the night before. It’s a blast. Is it a saying that  “work is only as fun as the people you work with”?  Well, it should be, because this day of work doesn’t feel like it. Not even at 14-1430 when I get home not even needing a nap. The song says it so well “Greater things have yet to come, greater things are still to be done in the city.” (God of this City, artist). God is moving in DC people, and I am so thankful to be along for the ride. If you ever in the DC area on a Sunday, stop by! The gathering (the Passion City word for ‘service’— you’ll have to come to find out why) starts at 10:30am, but doors open at 9:45am! 

I am going to call this next section “A little late to the party” because, well, you’ll see...

The year is already so close to being over. There is so much that I have not written about that I probably should have at some point. I mean, it feels like just yesterday was A Quiet Place. Anyone? I only saw it once in theaters because, honestly, I don’t think I could have handled any more times. As a rule, I don’t care for horror movies, but oh. my. gosh. Masterpiece. Speaking of shock, I’m not going to talk in detail about how I feel in regards to Infinity War except to say that I was for sure in stunned by the ending (familiarity with the comics still doesn’t prepare you for that). Oh, one more thing, they probably should have killed off far fewer characters that have more movies coming out because after the initial “what. the. heck?” moment that the audience is left in, any reasonable person knows that (excepting Bucky, Falcon, Vision, and Scarlet Witch) every one of those characters is coming back for part two or three of their own trilogies. Ant-man delivered again and I think that it was, as far as sequels go, definitely one of their best— maybe even better than the original. Speaking of sequels, did anyone else feel that Incredibles II hit a little below the mark? Don’t get me wrong, I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, but generally, Disney•Pixar delivers sequels that are  equal to, if not better than, the original (Toy Story 2, Monsters University, TOY STORY 3) not to mention it was Brad Bird! Still, D•P has failed us a couple times before (I mean, Brave? Need I say more?) and this wasn’t a failure of that caliber— let me rephrase that, this wasn’t a failure. Just... sub-Parr (I’m trying, guys). 

In keeping with the “Late to the Party” theme, I recently saw “Shutter Island” for the first time and, man, talk about tragic. Another first, “The Prestige.” I’ve gotta say, not a fan. Also, “No Country for Old Men,” not a fan. “I Can Only Imagine,” sobbed my eyes out. “Case for Christ”? ehhh. True story or not, the plot felt disjointed. I love the book though. 

Speaking of books,  I reread “This Present Darkness” and “Piercing the Darkness” again and is it just me, or would those make great thirteen part Netflix shows? I hope it’s not just me because, as long as they were executed properly, I would for sure buy those. Now, to segue into more books or Netflix? We’ll stick with Netflix because the book tangent will be its own post later. Has anyone watched TrollHunters? Sure, it’s a kid’s show, but don’t let that reason shy you away from this gem. For starters, it’s Anton Yelchin’s final work (Yelchin was killed in a tragic car accident a few years ago, he recorded seasons one and two for his character but had to be replaced by Emile Hirsch for season three), but don’t let that be the only reason! It’s a del Toro work of art full of intrigue and mystery, dark (but again, geared towards children, so not too dark) but with a rich story that shouldn’t be left to the kids. Luke Cage’s second set was a step above its already well-done pilot season, and season two of Iron Fist was light years better than it’s maiden thirteen, amiright? I have high hopes for Daredevil Season 3, especially seeing as how the Devil of Hell’s Kitchen has been the best of the Defenders on Netflix. Agree? Disagree?

I think that’s going to wrap up this extended look into my mind from the past few months. If you have any comments or questions, leave it for me down below and I’ll be sure to get back to you. Thanks for reading all the way through! 

The Problem

America is in turmoil. What's new? The most recent cause of division is a shooting in Florida. Everyone knows about it. I am not going to talk about politics or gun rights or gun control, etc. What I want to discuss here, if anyone still reads this (I understand that I haven't been very active in the past few years), is ideology. Beliefs. There are those who want to blame things. Those who want to blame the people who promote those things. They desperately want to point fingers at anything but the actual problem, which is in the heart of man. The cause of this shooting is not some big corporation that has millions of people in membership. The cause is not a government who failed to act on much evidence (although that may have been a factor). The cause of horrific acts of violence like this is something that those who do not believe in a biblical worldview cannot account for. It is sin. Guns do not cause people to want to kill people. Knives do not cause people to want to kill people. Bombs do not cause people to want to kill people. The evil in the heart of man is what causes a human to want to the lives of other humans. The problem is not those who oppose our own viewpoints. For someone to have another viewpoint does not automatically make them a monster. It does not make them a murderer. We need to stop dehumanizing our political opposition, because in dehumanizing them- in reducing them to their opinion- we make them less than human. And (I am paraphrasing Ben Stuart) when we have reduced our thinking about someone to one of their opinions, we can treat them as an opinion. When we have dehumanized someone, we can treat them as less than human. This is the problem with our social media saturated culture. We have begun to see people as words on a screen and have ceased to see our humanity. We have divided into our groups and villified those who aren't in our own groups. We have fallen into an "us vs. them" mentality. Out of this comes the "those who disagree with me are nazis" mentality. This is baseness. This is stupidity. It shows the lack of education, the lack of knowledge we have about who nazis were, about what nazism really is. As a society, we need to focus more on those issues which unite us, rather than on those which divide us. This is not a time for division and divisiveness, but for unity and peace making. We must learn again how to disagree with civility. We must learn how to listen to each other and how to discuss our differences with respectful dignity and not with angered hostility. It is a spirit of division causing the problems not people who think differently. Diversity need not divide us. 

In closing, when you come up against someone with whom you disagree, rather than becoming angry with them for that different opinion, take a moment and listen to them. Be respectful of them, hopefully they will be respectful of you, and let yourself be challenged. Formulate opinions. Don't be reactionary. Be thoughtful. Obviously, this is a good way to approach situations, but there are times when this won't work. In those moments, don't enter into the insults and derogatory behavior. Walk away. Not in an arrogant "I'm better than that" attitude, but in respectful humility. Treat others as human, even if they don't return that kindness. But don't belittle them by saying that you are doing that, though, because that defeats the point.

Don't forget that we are in this together. We all want what is best for OUR country, so let's work together to that end. Not against one another. 

Simeon

I’m back... again.

Wow, I really have to get better at this posting thing. One day I’ll get consistent.
2018. Another year that I am grateful to be living the only life I have to the glory of our great and gloriously precious Savior. I get so caught up in my selfish living that I forget to stop and think about everything that the Father has done for me. Big things like sending the Son to become sin and, in doing so, redeem mankind (not to mention the Son sending the Spirit to dwell in us). But also the little things, like opening up parking spots when there seem to be none. So much has happened this last year, I can’t even begin to write it down for lack of space. One thing that I do want to share, however, is this song that I wrote.
It “came to me”, I guess one might say, during a time of deep depression last fall. Not like, “oh bummer, I had a rough day” blues, but never ever “what’s the point of going on” (by the grace and mercy of Christ, I have never been at that point). Still, it was bad. My point in sharing this is because of what happened next. The Holy Spirit, as He is known to do, convicted me in my self-centered lonely groaning and showed me all the things that He had accomplished in my life. All the people that He had used to help change me. All the work that was yet to be done. Work that could not be accomplished by sitting on the carpet in my living room, depressed about things I couldn’t change. He reminded me that some of the greatest songs of our faith were written by tortured souls in the midst of far worse situations than I was in, and that thought caused me to pour out my own heart to the Father in that moment. I’m not comparing my plush situation with that of the likes of Cowper or Spafford, but this song still comes from a low point in my life and I want to share it with whoever it is reading this now. I pray it will come as an encouragement and a reminder that the Author has written your story perfectly and He works all things together for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. Notice that key word “the”. What Scripture does not tell us is that the Lord works all things together for good. Rather, it is for the good of those who love Him... you may not see it now, but later, you’ll look back and thank Him for His mercy in letting you weather this storm now to learn lessons that will help you in tests to come later. Here it is, if it speaks to you, please share it. Hopefully it will bless others too. (I apologize for the audio quality, I have no other tools at this time)

I would say “I’ll try to be more frequent” but I’m not fooling anyone.

Simeon.