The Temptation: Baking Stones in the Desert

Have you ever wondered why Jesus didn’t give us some sort of concrete proof for everything? Why did his entire mission and purpose end up on some scrappy old parchments? Jesus could have, at least, given some sort of irrefutable proof to silence all the skeptics, atheists and the lot. I’m sure that at any moment, he could’ve shut them up with some divine, dynamic, mind-altering, psychotropic knowledge; something undeniable and indubitable; to tilt things into God’s favor, to topple the odds and deaden all questions and theories. Which if I were Jesus I would’ve probably done and ashamed them all. As it is, for us, God is one so-called ‘concept’ that’s very easy to deny; we’re actually free to fly in the face of God.

God got on His knees

Bob Hamp

She hated herself, almost as much as she hated him. She had not always been the hating type. She had once been gentle and kind, but life had not been gentle and kind to her. Today, she hated that she had followed one more time. She had followed her fear, instead of her heart, and she had followed this man into this room, because of another set of empty promises, and smooth words. But all the kindness went away as soon as she had consented.

Once he had heard her “Yes” he looked at her differently. Suddenly his touch was not so much about her, as it was about him. He became rough with her as he led her into the back room. Moments ago, he had seemed so attentive, and almost thoughtful. It had all shifted when she nodded her head to his proposition. It was clear that when their encounter ended she would never see him again. That’s not what his words said earlier, but his actions and tone spoke louder than his words ever had.

He began roughly pulling at her clothing, and bodily moving her into a position of submission and weakness. She gave in, her heart breaking again into little pieces as she silently refused to stand up for herself. Her body and her heart were dying hundreds of tiny deaths, and she choked back everything that was true about herself. How had she ended up here again? But she knew the role she was supposed to play, and she gave in to the actress who had betrayed her before. This painfully familiar scene had played out before, and here she was again. Each act was familiar, and she knew her lines all too well.

Grace and a Discussion

If I ever keep a list of bestest pastors I’ve heard; Judah Smith would be tops, hands down. Only for one particular reason: he mixes attitude with humility (now there’s an oxymorn!), in all he keeps his focus on Jesus. He’s got this molecular thinking which at the same time is contemporary, yet bible adhering AND uncannily funny! With his knack of keeping his listeners captivated as they listen to stories they’ve heard a million times over… Totally inebriating! And all he preaches is Jesus, nothing more nothing less! Though I’m a critic of many things, I’ll be honest here; almost every one of Judah’s messages have moved me, made me pay more attention to things in the bible, and have influenced my prayers.

His talks on God’s Grace are only outdone by Max Lucado’s books. By the way, Grace can be a weird (read 'illogical') little (read 'unmerited') concept (read 'personality') that’s sorta hard to grasp, especially for the noobs (no offense! :D ), but it’s by far *the* most outtathisworld, free (read the letters, “FREE”) gift given to anyone who believes that such a thing exists (it’s that simple, just believe!). I’ll get into the topic of Grace in another post, soon. Though the reason I brought up Grace was because I stumbled upon this goldmine of a pastor a couple of months back while watching the 2008 series of Hillsong Conference where he did a message on the topic of ‘Embrace Grace’. I became a hardcore fan right after... (of Jesus, of course! :P )

I’m not going into much with this post, cos it’s got two forty minute videos embedded right underneath, both of Judah’s. The first being the talk on ‘Embrace Grace’ (which he gave at Foreward 2009, couldn’t find the same he gave at Hillsong Conference 2008) and the second (aired very recently) where he and his wife answers some really funky questions that’s relevant to our society today. The answers they give are as humbly attitudinal as they come and by far the best I’ve heard... (Especially his reply to “Is dancing in clubs or schools bad? What about grinding, cat daddy and dougie?”)

Embrace Grace [Live @ Foreward 2009]

The Discussion Q&A [Live @ The City Church, Seattle]

You can watch most of Judah’s messages over the past year from http://www.thecity.org

Jonah: The Square Peg in a Round Hole

The book of Jonah was written anonymously, though most believe that Jonah himself was the writer. It is one book of the bible where people would easily go, "Been there, done that". We all know the story; he was a ‘chicken’ prophet who was too scared to do the will of God. God punished him by getting a fish to macerate him. He realized his mistake, repented and went back to doing what God called him to do. And we all know he was just, as most theologians would put it, a ‘minor’ prophet. But in all this, there is more to him than what meets the eye. As anyone from RZIM would say, "Let’s put this stuff into context..!", and it’s to the context where I’m going.