I've been around a few times,

Never caught a fever like you.
-The Horrible Crowes, "Ladykiller"

Every year, there are a handful of records that I can't stop spinning. Albums that seep deep beneath your skin and infect you in a way that is hard to articulate. As good music should. This year, for me, these have included albums by Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside, Dawes, and The Horrible Crowes (THC).

THC represents the side project of Brian Fallon (of the tremendous Gaslight Anthem) with his guitar technician, Ian Perkins. The album starts out with songs (Sugar, Behold the Hurricane) that don't venture far from the American Rock-n-Roll sound of the Gaslight Anthem. But, from there, Ian and Brian pull out trick after trick in songs that allow them to tap their Tom Waits, U2, and PJ Harvey roots. Fallon's Springsteen-esque growl gets more Waits-esque on songs like "Go Tell Everybody" and "Mary Ann" before he slows down for gorgeous U2-esque songs like "Ladykiller."

Lyrically, Fallon said, "the record is about three relationships that I had -- one when I was 18, one when I was 19 or 20, and my current one now...[They] ended up causing me a lot of grief and a lot of sorrow from the process of living through [them]." While we've felt some of the resulting anger in Gaslight songs like "Film Noir" and remorse in Gaslight songs like "We did it when we were young," this album (musically) let's Fallon put all of his cards (feelings) on the table. Behold the Hurricane portrays a "man being lost." Black Betty & The Moon reflects on a former lover throwing her life away. "Ladykiller" starts out beautifully promising, as Ian sings "I've been around a few times, never caught a fever like you." Then, in his Springsteen-esque growl, Brian comes in singing, "and you must've met a man, tall and handsome at that" and you know the song's headed on a downward spiral of tragedy.

But the reason I love this album is the last two songs, towards which the entire album builds. The penultimate song, "Blood Loss", builds on the pent-up rage seen fleetingly on "Go Tell Everybody". The lyrics cut deep and are tough to swallow, reminiscent of Bob Dylan's Idiot Wind. The song starts slow and, as the guitars uproariously enter, Fallon growls, "I'll tell you when you cried long enough till your blood fills my cup and my footsteps they hung in your hallways enough for you to be truly haunted." The softspoken resignation expressed in the repeated lines "sirens they come and the sirens they leave" allows the song to simmer to its finish.

If Fallon ended the album here, you'd either be depressed or ready to give up on him as a masochist who takes things too personally. But then comes the finisher, "I believe Jesus brought us together." Fallon goes for a minimalistic style here, crooning softly and soulfully over a muted organ. But despite its minor-key tempo, this song holds out the most hope of any on the album. On lines like "did you say your lovers were liars? all my lovers were liars too" and "In the engines of desire, in the come down daylight, I believe my trouble and your trouble shook hands," Fallon recognizes that every human carries baggage. From past experiences and relationships. Into present experiences and relationships. But he also recognizes the other side of the coin: how beautiful relationships can be. The song, and the album at that, ends with the beautiful lines "did you wanna come over? I was just about to miss you. did you say you were lonely? I was just about to call you. do you believe there's a heaven? do you think we're invited?"

There is something to be said for tenacity...

...I'll hold onto you if you hold onto me.

Happy Sunday, everybody:



Here's the lyrics from Over the Rhine's cover of Angel Band that got me thinking of them. And are a bit more geared for a Sunday:

"Bear my longing heart to him, who bled and died for me. Whose blood now covers me from all sin and gives me victory. Oh come, angel band. Come and around me stand."

Antsy in Vail

An intensely awesome at Newport Folk Festival with little sleep followed by a crazy busy week followed by a lipid conference in Vail, CO has me worn out. Add to that two piling frustrations: 1) I missed the deadline of the rigid ten day window to turn in my classmate's thesis after he left for a roadtrip and this conference and 2) who knows what I'm doing for housing come September and I'm flattened. Not to mention my flight back tonight is a redeye flight getting me to Boston at 5AM tomorrow morning and...I definitely have to go into lab tomorrow. Needless to say, in this 5 hour waiting period between the end of the conference and my ride to Denver International Airport, I'm rather antsy.

So I'm going to take time to reflect on three things:

1) God's provision. The Psalms have become my friend the past few days as I need to rely on God's ever-sustaining provision. If God "raises the poor from the dust and lifts the needy from the ash heap" and "gives the barren woman a home, making her the joyous mother of children" (Ps. 113:7,9 ESV), I must put my absolute faith in God to get me through these situations that seem stressful in the moment. And He is abundantly worthy of my praise, in all circumstances.

2) As a reflection of God's provision, my day in Denver was a testament to that. Going for economy, my motel 6 was on the outskirts of Aurora, the sketchy part of Denver. It took me three public buses to get from the airport to the hotel. While waiting for the third bus, I started to realize I may not be in the best of areas. First, I let a stranger use my cell phone. Probably not the smartest thing, but if she took my phone I didn't really care. Second, I got advice on when the bus comes from a woman going for food stamps. And, finally, walking up (with my luggage) to the motel 6, a woman and her dog ran up to me, hoping I was a fellow homeless person. Her stuff had been robbed from the rundown motel next to the motel 6 and she was looking for a church or a shelter to stay at. Sadly, with my lack of knowledge of the area, I couldn't help her much. From there, I took two buses to get to downtown Denver and spent the entire day there, going to a Rockies game at night. But, let me tell you, I was praying for safety on my bus rides back at midnight. God watched over me.

3) My dreams. In Colorado, I have had a vivid dream every night I have been here. And different friends appear in each one, so you've probably been in one. They've ranged from interacting with Elvis Costello (last night) to waking up (in my dream) to find that a bomb had been thrown through my motel 6 window into the building behind the motel 6 (my night in Denver). That dream had heavy Sherlock Holmes influences as I've been reading some Conan Doyle quite recently.

Miles

That day your kindness shown through.
Pictures and stories told of you.
I felt as if I had known you for miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles and miles

-Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside, Miles

Buy this album if you don't have it, I think it's my frontrunner for album of the year.

With the terrible traffic to get into Newport, I was lucky enough to catch the last four songs of Sallie's set (Cage, Danger, Miles, and I Swear) first off on Saturday. And, boy howdy, they were a delight. I also hear she powered through a power outage, belting Dolly Parton's "Jolene" in the meantime.

P.S. I took that picture; more Newport pictures to come...eventually.

Amy Winehouse; Sherlock Holmes

First, the tragic news of Amy Winehouse cuts deep. 'Back to Black' was a phenomenal record, both for her tremendous musicianship on it (she has incredible pipes) and for the wave of female UK pop stars that rose to prominence (Adele, Duffy, etc.) on the trail of Winehouse and Lily Allen. Personally, Amy's death takes me back to the end of my freshman year at Calvin, when I trekked to the Best Buy on the Beltline to snag 'Back to Black' the day it came out. But her death reminds us of two things: even with tremendous talent (if put to Godly use), all our righteous acts "are like filthy rags" in the eyes of God (Isaiah 64:6). And we're also reminded that God's common grace sustains all of humanity, preventing mankind from falling into utter depravity (Ps. 119:64, Ps. 145:9, Luke 6:35, Acts 17:25). Absence of that common grace allows people to fully yield to the true passions of their heart (Romans 1:24-27). Hence, it is tragic to see someone created in the image of God feed her drug addiction to the extent of death.

Second, in honor of the first part of the fantastic BBC miniseries (on Netflix) on 'modern takes' of classic Sherlock Holmes mysteries, I snagged 'A Study in Scarlet,' the very first Holmes mystery from the BPL. I love the scientific nature of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's writing and here's a quote I greatly appreciated:

"'You see,' he explained, 'I consider that a man's brain originally is like a little empty attic, and you have to stock it with such furniture as you choose. A fool takes in all the lumber of every sort that he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful to him gets crowded out, or at best is jumbled up with a lot of other things, so that he has a difficulty in laying his hands upon it. Now the skillful workman is very careful indeed as to what he takes into his brain-attic. He will have nothing but the tools which may help him in doing his work, but of these he has a large assortment, and all in the most perfect order. It's a mistake to think that that little room has elastic walls and can distend to any extent. Depend upon it there comes a time when for every addition of knowledge you forget something that you knew before. It is of the highest importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones.'"

I'm sure responses would be rather different, based on your theory of education. :-)

Fighting the Appetites pt. 2: Fighting Desire with Desire

So a few weeks back I posted a quote from Russell Moore which you can read here. In it, he focuses on how our struggles against our appetites come in the form of constantly resisting temptations; temptations that could last for days, years, or lifetimes. As I was running yesterday, I was thinking of the nature of courage. And I honestly think it takes more courage to constantly fight one's sinful desires, to daily live as a "living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God" (Rom. 12:1) and "to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him" (Col. 1:10) than it does to jump in front of a bullet. Because, let's be honest; you receive praise and respect from your fellow man for sacrificing yourself for a cause or a fellow human. But you rarely receive praise for putting to death "what is earthly in you: sexual immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry" (Col. 3:5). But if indeed, "On account of these the wrath of God is coming" (Col. 3:6), the daily, hourly courageous struggle against these sinful desires should be greatly praised.

But if our sins are first and foremost against God (see this recent blog post), then how do we put to death the sinful desires that come from our very own hearts (Matt. 15:18-19)? If we put them to death, but don't put anything in their place, we will surely fall back into them. In my devotional today, Kevin DeYoung, reflects on the Heidelberg Catechism section dealing with the Seventh Commandment. He offers 12 verses and reflections thereof as a source of strength and encouragement to those fighting lustful desires. This one I found particularly encouraging, no matter what sins you are fighting and/or conquering:

"Matthew 5:8: "Blesses are the pure in heart, for they shall see God." This has been the most helpful verse for me in fighting lust and temptation to sexual immorality. We need to fight desire with desire. Satan tempts us by holding out something that will be pleasurable to us. We aren't tempted to gorge ourselves on liverwurst, because for most it doesn't hold out the promise of great pleasure. But sex does. Pornography does. A second look does. The Bible gives us many weapons to fight temptation. We need to fight the fleeting pleasure of sexual sin with the far greater, more abiding pleasure of knowing God. The fight for sexual purity is the fight of faith. It may sound like nothing but hard work and gritting your teeth, the very opposite of faith. But faith is at the heart of this struggle. Do we believe that a glimpse of God is better than a glimpse of skin? Do we believe that God's steadfast love is better than life (Ps. 63:3)? We'd probably sin less if we spent less time thinking about our sins, sexual or otherwise, and more time meditating on the love and holiness of God." -KDY, The Good News We Almost Forgot

Just like they took away the Polaroid picture

They're gonna take away everything that means something.
Today I think I saw ten thousand cellphones
But not one decent conversation.
-Sallie Ford & The Sound Outside, Write Me a Letter

One of the frustrations of Newport Folk Festival now that the printable schedule is out is making the tough decisions of Emmylou Harris or M. Ward (or the Civil Wars), Gillian Welch or Tegan and Sara, etc. But one of the perks is figuring out what to see when there are no scheduling conflicts. Hence, over the weekend I checked out The Head and The Heart, with whom I am quite impressed. Rivers & Roads is one of the most gorgeous arrangements I've heard in a while. And while their lyrics need work, the driving force of the piano and Charity's violin make this young band one I'm considerably looking forward to seeing (and dancing to).

However, today my ears feasted on another band from the Pacific Northwest. Namely, Sallie Ford & the Sound Outside, and I am blown away. Drawing on inspirations such as Tom Waits and Cat Power, the band is extremely talented, ranging from ragtime to jazz to blues, rocking a mean upright base and a vast array of other instruments the whole way through. But the carrying power rests in Ford's unrestrained voice. In its rawness, it jerks you out of your seat and takes you down a wonderful road. I urge you to buy their album, Dirty Radio, as it's easily one of the best I've heard in a while. And if you need convincing, check out this video for Cage (where Ford's use of the megaphone is a direct shout-out to Waits' Chocolate Jesus).

How do we view sin?

"The Bible focuses on the vertical breach of God's law as the source of weal or woe in horizontal relationships. The curse of original sin and guilt is God's judgment based on his unalterable holiness and righteousness. The word "curse" belongs to the world of ancient Near Eastern diplomacy, with its threats for violating a treaty. God's curse upon humanity (and creation because of humankind) was the sanction that God warned about when he commissioned Adam as his covenant servant.

It is striking that even though he had seduced Bathsheba and then had her husband sent to his death in battle, David's confession begins with the cry, "Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps. 51:4-5). Can we identify today with that sharply vertical sense of sin--even horrible atrocities committed against our neighbor--as first and foremost an offense against God?

The impression that we often get today is that sin offends God only indirectly--because it hurts other people or ourselves, not because it is first and foremost an act of treason against our good and faithful Creator. Ironically, fundamentalism and the emergent movement sound alike at this point. The former may single out sex, drugs, and rock and roll while the latter targets militarism, greed, and environmental recklessness. However, both reduce sin primarily to sins (bad behaviors) apart from seeing the latter as the fruit of a moral condition that has swallowed our entire race and provoked the wrath of God: "None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one" (Rom. 3:10-12, citing Ps. 14:1-3; 53:1-3).

Once we lose the vertical dimension of sin--that makes it truly sinful--there is no longer any place for understanding the cross as that marvelous paradox of love and wrath, mercy and justice. No longer a vicarious and propitiatory sacrifice (as if there was anything like God's wrath to worry about), Christ's work simply becomes a paradigmatic act of healing and restoring relationships between human beings and the environment."

-Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission

God's Presence and Our Presence in His Script

"The main point to always bear in mind is that God is present where he promises to be present. We don't pull him down out of heaven or bring him up from the grave; rather, he comes to us through his Word, especially as it is preached. God is omnipresent, but the question for us is not where he is present in his majesty and glory, but where he is present in his mercy and grace toward us as sinners. Surely God is present in a beautiful sunset, in a violin concerto, in the grandeur of the Grand Canyon, and in the kindness even of my non-Christian neighbors. However, the question is where God is present in peace, with the assurance that he accepts me, forgives me, and adopts me as an heir of his estate. This comes only through the gospel--a strange and surprising report that we do not know as a matter of course or learn about through common culture. It is a story that can only be told, Good News that can only be announced...
The Bible is a grand story, from Genesis to Revelation, with Christ as the lead character. The more we hear the story, the more we find ourselves being written into it as characters. We discover ourselves not in the fading scripts of this age or in glossy magazine images but in the story of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation. We are there with Adam and Eve, capitulating to the lie. We are there with Abraham and Sarah, hearing and believing the gospel and being justified. We are walking along with the disciples, not getting it, then getting it, then not getting it again, and then really discovering what his journey was all about. And we are there with the company of heaven, worshiping the Lamb. It is the purpose of preaching and sacrament to put us there, to kill our dead-end character and to write us into God's script."
-Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission

Bold I Approach

In my Bible study, we're working through a study on prayer called Bold I approach. Admittedly, I thought it was Bold-Roman Numeral I-Approach. It's Bold, I Approach. They seriously need a comma. But I'm reading through the third book in what is one of the best trilogies ever written, Michael Horton's Christless Christianity, The Gospel-Driven Life, and The Gospel Commission. If there's one word I could choose to sum up why I am appreciative for Michael Horton, it's for his boldness. Both in arguing against what the Gospel is not and in arguing for what it is. While Christless Christianity (which is so, so worth reading) provides a much-needed critique of Christianity in America, The Gospel-Driven Life offers the alternative, the solution, to many of those issues. As I read The Gospel Commission, I am challenged in a gut-wrenching way as I see what we are called to do in this time between Christ's first coming and His return. So many passages have weighed on my heart thus far, but I thought I'd share this one, as he sums things up so clearly:

"The mere fact that we live in a religiously pluralistic society today creates new pressures to soften the message, to remove its offense, and to present it as helpful for everybody rather than saving for those who believe.
In recent years, different views regarding the destiny of the unevangelized have been grouped under three classifications: pluralism, which holds that all paths lead to God; inclusivism, which teaches that although Christ is the only Savior, explicit faith in Christ is not ordinarily necessary for salvation; and exclusivism, which maintains that ordinarily there is no salvation apart from hearing and believing in Jesus Christ.
I am not a fan of these terms. Although I believe that the third view is consistently and clearly taught in Scripture, calling it "exclusive" stacks the deck against it. God loves the world and sent his Son so that whoever believes in him has eternal life (John 3:16). God includes in Christ a vast number from every nation who would have excluded themselves if it were not for God's sovereign, gracious intervention. It hardly seems appropriate to denigrate this announcement with the epithet "exclusive.""
-Michael Horton, The Gospel Commission

Fighting the Appetites

"Sometimes we actually empower Satan by the way we speak of Christian conversion. We highlight the testimony of the ex-alcoholic who says, "Since I met Jesus I've never wanted another drink." Now that happens sometimes, and we should give thanks for God's power here. But this liberation is no more miraculous, indeed in some ways less so, than the testimony of the repentant drunk who says, "Every time I hear a clink of ice in a glass I tremble with desire, but God is faithful in keeping me sober."
The girl with same-sex desires might conclude she is doomed to be a lesbian because she isn't drawn to boys and still fights her attraction to girls. Family members who have to cut up their credit cards to keep from spending every paycheck on what they see advertised may conclude they're just not "spiritual" enough to follow Christ because they still war against their wants. Nonsense. You are not what you want. You are who you are. And that's defined by the Word of God. It might be that God frees your appetite from whatever it's drawn toward, but usually he instead enables you to fight it. This might go on for forty days, for forty years, for an entire lifetime. That's all right. There must be room then in our churches for a genuine bearing of one another's burdens when it comes to the appetites. Pretending the appetites are instantly nullified by conversion is a rejection of what God has told us--that we are still in the war zone."
-Russell Moore, Tempted and Tried

There's plenty of time to make you mine

"We expect Jesus to have endured temptation as we endure temptation--and he did. But much of what we include in "temptation" isn't temptation at all. It's beyond our good, created desires being appealed to. It's instead those embryonic stages of sinful desire. Jesus' desert testing was indeed forty days of torture, but his torture was not because he, like we, longed to do the forbidden. It is because embedded with those good, natural human desires, he longed for what was good in each of the things he was (temporarily) denied." -Russell Moore, Tempted and Tried

Seriously, though, buy this book or let me buy it for you. It's been a personally convicting and challenging page-turner thus far. The chapter "Starved to Death: Why We'd Rather Be Fed Than Fathered" hit me on so many levels. Buy it or let me buy it for you, seriously: Tempted and Tried: Temptation and the Triumph of Christ

I am very far

And I want to tell her, "your love isn't lost"
Say, "my heart is still crossed"
Scream, "you're so wonderful!"
-Okkervil River, Unless it's Kicks

The Hold Steady wisely penned the line, "certain songs, they get scratched into our souls." This statement is certainly true, but true in so many forms. On the one hand, the lyrics to a particular song can help you through troubling times or allow you to weep with joy as they express feelings you could never find words for. On a different note, the beat to a particular song may have you dancing for days. On the other end of the spectrum, certain songs and albums can be so ingrained in you that they take you to a particular place. You identify those albums with a certain place in time.

For me, the albums The Stage Names and The Stand Ins by Okkervil River do just that. They take me back to 1916 Eastern, junior year of college. They bring back joyous memories of living with some of the coolest guys on the planet. And those memories started to come up full-boar last night as I saw Okkervil River live. While Boston's thrown at me one of the worst concerts I've been to (The Decemberists), it's also thrown at me some of the best (Julieta Venegas, Lucinda Williams, and now OR). Despite breaking down in New York, the band hauled to get to Boston and played for as long as they could (~2 hours) before the show had to end so no one missed the last train. They did an absolutely phenomenal job of playing a variety of songs from across their discography, including a handful of tunes from Black Sheep Boy, one from Don't Fall in Love with Everyone You See, several from The Stage Names and The Stand Ins, and, of course, quite a bit from their new album, I am Very Far. Highlights included a gorgeous Will Scheff solo acoustic rendition of "A Stone", ending the set with an extended version of "Lost Coastlines", melting my heart with "A Girl in Port" with Lauren on the slide (see picture), and ending the encore with "Unless it's Kicks."

And everything from their new album. Seriously, if you don't have I am Very Far, you must get it. With a big budget, Scheff goes big. The instrumentation is explosive and the production is maximalist, in contrast to OR's previous albums. But live, the songs are incredible, rich with layers of musical genius.

Visual Aids for (Modern) Men and Women

"Too many churches overlook God's preferred visual aids--the sacraments--and jump right to video, drama, and props to get people's attention. We are making a big mistake when we think these "signs and seals" will be anywhere as effective as the ones instituted by Christ Himself. Pastors who don't explain the sacraments and very rarely administer them are robbing their people of tremendous encouragement in their Christian walk. We can hear the gospel every Sunday, and eat it too.

Of course, this eating and drinking must be undertaken in faith. The elements themselves do not save us. But when we eat and drink them in faith, we can be assured that we receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life. More than that, we get a picture of our union with Christ. As we eat His flesh and drink His blood, we literally have communion with Him, not by dragging Christ down from heaven but by experiencing His presence through His Spirit. Shame on parishioners for coming to the Lord's Supper with nothing but drudgery and low expectations. And shame on pastors for not instructing their people in the gospel joy available to us in Communion."

-Kevin DeYoung

Why there is division in the church...

...and ultimately why we fight for the gospel.

"I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel--not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed. For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God? Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ." -Galations 1:6-10 (ESV)

As I was reading these verses this morning, a few things struck me. First, verse 8 rang home. We have the extremely hard privilege of holding high the gospel of Christ, but in a day and age (like any other) where Biblical ideas such as 'original sin' and 'hell' and 'God is love' are thrown aside or greatly cheapened, we cannot back down on our stance to uphold the gospel. Paul says "even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed." That's some mighty strong language. But it also means we should be more firmly planted in the Word of God than in the teachings of our most revered pastor, or scholar.

Second, in verse 10 Paul asks us twice if we are trying to please men. Repetition is key to driving home a point and this question is so challenging he asks it twice. Then, he writes, "If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ." It's like Paul gets you to realize that in some, if not many, areas of your life, you esteem man higher than you esteem God. Only to then make another extremely strong statement, challenging you to realize that, in Christ, your new identity defines you.

How many ears must one man have

before he can hear people cry?
Yes, how many deaths will it take til he knows
that too many people have died?
The answer my friend, is blowin' in the wind
The answer is blowin' in the wind.
-Bob Dylan, Blowin' in the Wind

One day after Lady Gaga's new album caused an amazon overload because it was $1, Bob Dylan turned 70. On the one hand, we have a woman capable of entertaining like the best of them. Of writing songs so catchy, we could care less about the content, but download her album like crazy because it's $1. On the other hand, we have someone who pissed people off because he wouldn't fit one music mold, but still wrote songs that became anthems for a generation (i.e. 'Blowin' in the Wind', 'The Times They are a-Changing', 'Forever Young'). Someone who's personal life remains an enigma. Someone who, along with the likes of Tom Waits, Bruce Springsteen, and Neil Young, remains one of the greatest living song-writers. Someone who's voice is so raspy that it takes nothing less than a long journey to appreciate his music. To that end, I offer 7 brief reflections based on my 7 favorite Bob Dylan songs that shed light on my journey to a full-boar appreciation of Bob Dylan's music:

7. Desolation Row, off Highway 61 Revisited
This 11-minute ballad has no chorus, taking your imagination down countless trails, ranging from Cinderella to the Hunchback of Notre Dame to the Phantom of the Opera to Einstein disguised as Robin Hood. To me, the largest impact comes in the verse on Ophelia, sadly, but vividly portraying someone who grew old long before her time: "Now Ophelia, she's 'neath the window. For her I feel so afraid. On her 22nd birthday, she already is an old maid. To her, death is quite romantic...And though her eyes are fixed on Noah's great rainbow, she spends her time peeking into desolation row."

6. It Ain't Me Babe off Another Side of Bob Dylan
Yeah, this song was NOT written by Johnny Cash. And Bob Dylan's version is better. Bob Dylan was the master of writing all kinds of love songs, whether it's on a worked-at, enduring love (i.e. Nettie Moore, Make You Feel My Love), on love that dissolves into animosity (i.e. Idiot Wind, Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat), or, as in this case, on mistaken love (also see: Visions of Joanna).

5. Lay Lady Lay off Nashville Skyline
Suffice it to say I totally thought the chorus to this song was something different. And sung it that way until my roomates laughed at me and corrected me on the way home from a Dylan concert. This song is the one that brings back great memories of good times with friends and actually seeing Bob Dylan (though, ironically, he didn't play this song that night).

4. Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again off Blonde on Blonde
The first Bob Dylan song I fell in love with. As such, it holds a special spot in my heart. The lyrics to this song are amazing, as Bob subtly interchanges verbs. For example, "And I would send a message, to find out if she's talked. But the post office has been stolen, and the mailbox is locked."

3. Tangled up in Blue off Blood on the Tracks
For one, I would argue that Blood on the Tracks is Dylan's most accessible album, as his voice is the most melodic. Additionally, my favorite authors include Steinbeck and Irving, two authors who fully embrace the 'americana theme.' So much so that Irving quotes this song in his latest novel: "I had a job in the great north woods working as a cook for a spell. But I never did like it all that much and one day the ax just fell."

2. Mississippi off Love & Theft
With an 'americana' setting, this song represents a tragic reflection on and the desire to rekindle a love that went south. It's also proof that Dylan can still make some of his best music in his 60's. "Only one thing I did wrong, stayed in Mississippi a day too long."

1. Positively 4th Street found on Bob Dylan's Greatest Hits
At the Newport Folk Festival in 1965, Dylan went electric, creating an uproar from fans who thought he was 'selling out.' He wrote this in response, criticizing his fans for trying to keep him in a particular mold, while lamenting on how difficult it is to be a musician. "You say, how are you? Good luck. But you don't mean it, when you know as well as me, you'd rather see me paralyzed. Why don't you just come out once and scream it?"

Happy 70th, Robert Zimmerman!

Rain Down, Summer!

It may be raining outside and I may be burying my head into science paper-writing for the next couple weeks, but it's starting to feel like summer for these amazing reasons:

1) No more classes!! (duh...)

2) I now have time to read 'Conversacion en la Catedral' again! And this book just gets better with every page turned.

3) Several rousing games of ultimate frisbee last night simply felt so good and summertastic.

4) Moby's and Company of Thieves' new albums came out today! Their last two albums were my faves of 2009. Additionally, my summer last year ended with seeing CoT (among other bands) at Lollapalooza. Hence, the picture on this blogpost was taken by...me! Seriously, this Chicago band rocks like very few bands can and Genevieve's vocals are so wistfully powerful, it's mind-numbing. Use this coupon and get the album for FREE at FYE (I did!). And, what's not to love about Moby when he's at his best; producing the sweetest chill music known to mankind. So pick up Destroyed too, you won't be disappointed.

So let the Boston rain pour down; summer's here!

Thinking about our Nonbiblical Terminology

Among the phrases Christians toss around as if they make complete sense, is the notion that you "accept Jesus into your heart" and thereby receive the gift of salvation. Over the past year or so, I've been struggling with this idea, as this language is found nowhere in Scripture (though ideas behind this idea are) and can overly personalize the gospel. The gospel is the greatest news this world has and will ever see: that God in flesh, came as Christ, dying for our sins and rising from the dead so that we, too, one day will do the same and glorify Him forever. On the one hand, this is personal as Christ took on flesh to become like us and die for us. But in addition to subjectively moving us, this gospel is objective: it is the greatest event in human history. Ever. In discussing the Holy Spirit, I think this quote provided me with some much-needed illumination:

"The first thing the [Heidelberg] Catechism notes here is that the Holy Spirit "has been given to me personally." The Holy Spirit is not simply an omnipresent being who is with us in the sense that He is everywhere and so wherever we go there He will be also. The Spirit lives within us (1 Cor. 6:19) and makes His dwelling in our hearts (2 Cor. 1:22, Gal. 4:6). We have fellowship with Him (2 Cor. 13:14). This physical imagery should not be understood spatially as if the Spirit gets His mail delivered in the upper left chamber of that beating muscle in the chest. Rather, the Spirit dwells in us by animating our personality, shaping our character, renewing our mind, and stirring our emotions. His presence is not a physical residence as much as an experienced reality."
-KDY, The Good News We Almost Forgot

A loaded quote, especially the last two sentences. But I hope if grants you joy as you reflect on the amazingness of the Holy Spirit working within you!

Man is a Giddy Thing

Having finished another round of finals and my first year of graduate school, these next couple days are going to be rather relaxing. Among things I'm now finding time to do, today I wrote a letter to my grandparents (!) and dived into the devotional I've been picking at for some time now. I know eternity scares the living daylights out of many people, but my favorite theological topic remains eschatology (studying the "end things"). Eschatology echoes through the core of my being, because there is so much that is broken. Both in my personal life and globally. And while it's often difficult (try as hard as I might) to have faith that God's going to fix things now (which, sometimes He will, sometimes He won't), it's immeasurably uplifting to think about that day when the whole earth will be transformed and the tears wiped from every believer's eye.

So....today's devotional was on the Ascension and the importance of it to our faith. Here are a few selections that tickled my heartstrings, and I hope they may encourage you as well:

"Christ's ascension benefits us because we now have our own flesh in heaven; our lives are hidden with Christ who dwells in glory above (Col. 3:3-4). Christ's flesh in heaven is a guarantee that ours will be there too someday. Our hope is not an eternity as disembodied souls but real, resurrected, material human bodies in God's presence forever. Christ's body is the first one there, but not the last."

"The ascension also implies that "asking Jesus into your heart" does not mean inviting a kind friend or comforting therapist into your life. It means--if we are using the nonbiblical phrase in a biblical way--that we are expressing our desire to be one with the king of the universe. The Jesus who lives within our hearts is sitting exalted at the right hand of God the Father Almighty."

He to rescue me from danger, interposed His precious blood

Happy Easter!

I, for one, walked out of Gordon Hugenburger's sermon at Park Street this morning a bit disappointed. I suppose it's because what I wanted was a sermon scratching through the layers of dragon scales and reaching my heart. He preached a solid sermon on the apologetic bases for why Christ actually physically died and I know the man next to me loved it. But I think (my spiritual man crush) CJ Mahaney puts it best when he says...

"It's possible for us to study the resurrection technically, to affirm the resurrection theologically, and to argue for the resurrection historically and yet fail to apply the resurrection to our hearts, particularly in relation to death."

I encourage you to watch/listen to this sermon, even if you just put it on in the background.

Before leaving you, two other CJ quotes that resonated with me:

"Death is God's determination to limit our arrogance."

"The resurrection prepares us for death by assuring us that what awaits us on the other side of death is not eternal judgment and condemnation, but instead eternal life. Because the Savior went before us into death, we have no reason to fear death. And because He died as a substitute for sinners like you and me, satisfying the wrath of God, we have been forgiven of our many sins. And because He was raised from the dead, we will be raised as well."

Amen.

Good Friday; Pet Peeve

"Seen your face in every child that smiles,
but I can't help but rejoice.
And I've heard the song called thunder,
but I knew it was your voice.
Touched the holes in your calloused hands,
stuck my fingers in your side.
oh I was six-feet-deep in doubt but
now I'm sure that you're alive."
-Dustin Kensrue, I Believe

Lately I've been worn out, tired out, and exasperated. Slightly with the church not living like the church, but mainly with myself not living like Jesus paid the ultimate cost to save me. This is a loaded statement and if you want me to unpack the facets of it (or try to), let's grab coffee sometime. Here, suffice it to say much of it has come from being kicked in the pants lately through Mark Driscoll sermons.

In one of them, he was talking about how parents must be careful to punish their children for sins, and not simply for mistakes. On Good Friday, we remember how sin renders us all wrecked, destroyed, dead...without a pulse....dead. Enter God: "But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved--and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Ephesians 2:4-6, ESV, emphasis mine).

Needless to say, we rarely feel this dependence on Christ's atoning work; we rarely see how wretched we are and how urgently we need to adopt attitudes of repentance. Trigger my pet peeve: apologizing to others for mistakes, instead of sins. In lab today, a German visitor apologized profusely to me for mistaking me for someone else. I completely understood what she was getting at, but my stomach was knotting up. I often internally cringe when people apologize for simple mistakes (or for nothing at all such as stepping on the back of your shoe), though I understand their intentions. I think it's because I used to do it all the time...apologizing for trivial things. I did it so much I had a friend tell me I had to stop using the word 'sorry' and we made a bet to see how long I could go. I think, in this way (by apologizing for mistakes) we can 1) cheapen the act of repentance and forgiveness and can 2) avoid apologizing for the significant sins we have done to others. So I urge us, as a Christian community, let's bring 'sorry' back into 'sorry.' Let's not cheapen what it means to be repentant or we will fail to build real relationships with others and fail to understand how much we truly depend on Christ.

Intimacy with God

"If you want to be a Christian, of course you'll repent of your sins. But after you've repented of your sins you'll have to repent of how you have used the good things in your life to fill the place where God should be. If you want intimacy with God, if you want to get over this sense that something is missing, it will have to become God that you love with all your heart and strength."
-Tim Keller, King's Cross

Your heart is still young: how Jesus emptied Himself

"Allow me to give you an illustration of what subtraction by addition might look like and how it might take place. Imagine for a moment that someone, say, an older brother of yours, was shopping for a new car. He went to a BMW car dealership and asked to test-drive a beautiful, shiny, brand-new sports car. The dealer handed him the keys, and off he drove. Now, you need to know that for the past several days it had rained buckets in your area, and your brother decided to drive this shiny new car on the dirt roads out in the country. Well, as you can imagine, the roads were muddy as could be, and your brother drove this car wildly, turning and sliding every which way in the mud before he brought it back to the showroom floor. When he drove it in, absolutely covered in mud, the car dealer exclaimed, "What have you done to my car!" But to this, your brother calmly said, "Oh, you needn't worry. I've not taken anything away from the car, I've only added to it." And, of course, your brother was right. Every quality of that car was still there. It still had its beautiful coat of paint and its luster; nothing had been removed from what was there before. Rather, something had been added to it--a thick coat of mud! But notice what this mud did. It covered over that beautiful shine so that, even though it was still there, you couldn't see it. You might even say that the mud worked to hide the glory and brilliance of the car even though those qualities were still there, just hidden.
In a similar way, the fullness of the Son with every quality of his deity was poured out. Nothing from his deity was lost, but rather his full life was poured out as he took on the form of a servant. As that human nature enveloped, as it were, his divine nature, something of the glory and splendor of who he is as God was covered over--not lost or given up, mind you, but covered over. Since he chose now to live fully as a man, this required that certain aspects of his deity would have to stay hidden. To be a man, for example, he would have to accept the limitations of being at one place at one time, of learning new things as he grew from infancy to manhood, of experiencing hunger, thirst, tiredness, and weakness as all human beings do, and so on. Given this, are we required to say that Jesus gave up these qualities of his deity? No, and again I say, no! Rather, we say that Christ willingly gave up the rightful use of some of the abilities of his divine nature in order to experience fully his life now as a man. So, while he was in nature fully God, yet in order to live in nature fully as a man, he gave up the expression or exercise of some of his divine abilities. He did not give up those divine abilities themselves. In this way, Christ emptied himself by adding; there was a subtraction of the use of certain aspects of his deity by taking on the full experience of his humanity. And why? All for the purpose of humbling himself to become our servant, a full human being who would obey his Father to the point of death, even death on the cross. What a humbling he underwent. What a Savior he is!"
-Bruce Ware, Big Truths for Young Hearts, pg. 111-113

Worshipful Brain-Dumpings

First, a quote:

"How can you live with the terrifying thought that the hurricane has become human, that fire has become flesh, that life itself became life and walked in our midst? Christianity either means that, or it means nothing. It is either the most devastating disclosure of the deepest reality of the world, or it is a sham, a nonsense, a bit of deceitful playacting. Most of us, unable to cope with saying either of those things, condemn ourselves to live in the shallow world in between."
-N.T. Wright

Chew on this. Read it several times. It should be smacking you upside the head, hopefully in a wonderfully challenging way as it has me.

Second, my recent individual worship has led me back to wonderfully rich hymns. The thing I miss most about not ending up in Louisville is Mike Cosper and Sojourn Community Church, what a blessing. That's what makes the opening worship night of TGC so epic.

More importantly, I recommend you download these two worship albums for free:

Page CXVI's hymns sampler, including one of the most beautiful, unique versions of 'Be Thou My Vision.'

And Ascend the Hill's hymns project. Do it, it's free so I almost guarantee you won't regret it.

P.S. get this when it comes out, it will be the most amazing worship CD you've perhaps ever heard. Right now, volume I holds that spot in my book.

How is that love?

'Do we get what we want?...the answer to that is a resounding, affirming, sure and positive yes. Yes, we get what we want.

God is that loving.

If we want isolation, despair, and the right to be our own god, God graciously grants us that option. If we insist on using our God-given power and strength to make the world in our own image, God allows us that freedom; we have the kind of license to that. If we want nothing to do with light, hope, love, grace, and peace, God respects that desire on our part, and we are given a life free from any of those realities. The more we want nothing to do with all God is, the more distance and space are created. If we want nothing to do with love, we are given a reality free from love."
-Rob Bell, Love Wins, 116-117

That sounds awful. That sounds like a parent should be loving by letting their kid run in the middle of the street to fetch a lost ball, with a car barreling down the middle of it. That sounds like loving your best friend by letting them drink poison. That's awful...how is that love?

Is not the love of Christ in the Bible that we don't get what our sinful nature wants? Because of the fall and original sin, we all choose a way of destruction...we all choose hell. "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander" (Matthew 15:19, emphasis mine). "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned--every one--to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6a, emphasis mine).

Whenever God gives us up to our sinful desires, it's because we've chosen them over Him. And it's not a 'gracious' thing God is doing here (like Bell suggests)...it's horrendous. "For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal men and birds and animals and creeping things. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen" (Romans 1:21-25).

No, God's gracious love is that in Christ, we have salvation! We are set free from our sin...we are set free from what our sinful nature desires and given a new heart. "In this is love, not that we have loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins" (1 John 4:10). "So then, brothers, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh. For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God" (Romans 8:12-14). "And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh" (Ezekiel 36:26). etc.

Note: the restoration of Israel in Ezekiel 36:26 is because God wants to preserve His holy name...His holiness! Despite how Israel has sinned by their deeds (read from verse 16 on, or the whole chapter).

Lesson(s) Learned

Sometimes the greatest lessons learned in life come from simple song lyrics. Hence, even the title of this post is a Ray LaMontagne song. Having been on a Lucinda Williams and National tear, here's a sampling of what's been running through my head lately:

"Ada, hold onto yourself by the sleeves, I think everything counts a little more than we think." -The National, Ada

"Everything means everything." -The National, Conversation 16

"I'll try to be more romantic. I want to believe in everything you believe." -The National, Conversation 16

"It takes an ocean not to break." -The National, Terrible Love

"We were blessed by the minister who practiced what he preached. We were blessed by the poor man who said heaven is within reach." -Lucinda Williams, Blessed

"I drove my car in the middle of the night, I just wanted to see you so bad. The road was dark, but the stars were bright, I just wanted to see you so bad." -Lucinda Williams, I Just Wanted to See You so Bad

"You wait in the car on the side of the road, lemme go and stand awhile. I wanna know you're there but I wanna be alone. If only for a minute or two, I wanna see what it feels like to be without you." -Lucinda Williams, Side of the Road

With that, I'm out. Time to go pick up babes at the laundromat.

Addendum, including Natalia LaFourcade

First, watch this. And try not listening to 'Ella es Bonita' on repeat for the rest of your life. Natalia LaFourcade is the real deal, get your mitts on Hu Hu Hu if you don't have it. Seriously. Now.

Second, Kevin DeYoung wrote (easily) the best thing I've read yet on the Rob Bell Brouhaha that's taking the interwebs by storm (and, admittedly, I hopped into). Please follow this link and read what he says.

Subtly Selling Lies as Truth

Follow this link. Read Justin Taylor's blog, but more importantly watch the Rob Bell video. But you might not want to watch it more than once, it has the ability to put a bad taste in your mouth. **Note: I saw this by Kevin DeYoung right after I posted this entry. If you skip my blog and read it instead, it's even more enlightening.

And if Rob Bell turns out to be either a full-blown universalist or Karl Barth-type universalist (i.e. his arguments lead him to the logical conclusion of universalism, but he can't quite go there) it wouldn't surprise me. But the philosophically-appealing idea of universalism is unfortunately found nowhere in the Bible, so it simply isn't something we can hold to as Christians.

But what raises an internal sorrow and an internal uproar are the following comments Rob Bell makes in his video:

"Millions and millions of people were taught that the primary message of the gospel...is that God is going to send you to hell unless you believe in Jesus. And so what gets subtly caught and taught is that Jesus rescues you from God."

Everything about this statement is as Biblically unsound as the idea of universalism and it grieves my heart that Christians can buy even these ideas as truth...The truth is that we chose hell, we chose to disobey God and our sin brought upon us all the punishment we deserved. But in His love, God sent Christ to die to offer salvation to all. So ultimately Jesus rescues you from YOURSELF, and from the wrath of God that your actions merit. Romans 5 gives an excellent picture of what our sin has brought upon ourselves and the righteousness Christ's obedience grants us.

Consequently, "we should rejoice that God is gracious and merciful in saving anyone" (Mark Driscoll). And this grace should change us so much that the gospel truly becomes good news--good news that we wish to share with a lost and broken world. Read this book for lots of amazing tidbits, especially the chapters on Predestination and Grace.

So, I guess in the end, I'm worried that Rob Bell, while fighting against this untruth, replaces it with the untruth of universalism. And I'm worried that part of the major reason he may do this is because he fails to see our responsibility and place as ill-deserving sinners who have spat in the face of God. And because he ultimately fails to see what true grace is: a divine miracle that God, through Jesus, offers salvation to all, though only some will respond. A salvation that empowers us, like Paul, to spread it like the good news that it is.

When you met me you were numb...

...from the voice in your head
Conspiracy delusions that your boyfriend kept fed
I swear I want nothing, just give me your hand
I've got the cure for the shape that you're in
-The Low Anthem, "Apothecary Love"

I think I've found my calling. If Jocie Adams worked at NASA and then left that life behind to play a mean clarinet for the Low Anthem, I can easily leave science, take up a woodwind instrument, and join a folk band...

But seriously, the Rhode Island (semi-local!) band, The Low Anthem, make some of the most gorgeous music known to mankind. 'Smart Flesh' (out today) delivers with moving lyrics, sweeping harmonies, heart-stopping clarinet, crooning pedal steel, and the Low Anthem staple, the pump organ. Watch their performance on Letterman here.

Well, so long grad school, I've gotta go learn me a woodwind instrument.

We set controls for the heart of the sun

one of the ways we show our age...

For some reason, I've been excessively tired over the past couple weeks. So with the warmer weather, I had this idea that if I went running, it would give me more energy. You know, like finally burning all that energy I've been storing up in my heavy-carb diet? You see the logic, and you're not even a biophysicist.

Well, instead I'm extremely tired and gave up all attempts at productivity. On the positive side of things, I ran in shorts and ran 6 miles!

Anyways, watch this video. And, as a bonus, this one. James Murphy is seriously one of the coolest people and best songwriters alive. Seeing the end of LCD Soundsystem is quite sad.

Why the Trinity matters...

In his devotional on Lord's Day 8 of the Heidelberg Catechism, KDY ends his discussion on the doctrine of the trinity with highlight three ways this doctrine should affect our lives as Christians. Here, I share two:

"Two, the trinity matters for evangelism and cultural engagement. I've heard it said that the two main rivals to a Christian worldview at present are Islam and postmodernism. Islam emphasizes unity--unity of language, culture, and expression--without allowing much variance for diversity. Postmodernism, on the other hand, emphasizes diversity--diversity of opinion, beliefs, and background--without attempting to see things in any kind of meta-unity. Christianity, with it understanding of God as three in one, allows for diversity and unity. If God exists in three distinct persons who all share the same essence, then it is possible to hope that God's creation may exhibit stunning variety and individuality while still holding together in a genuine oneness.

Three, the Trinity matters for relationships. We worship a God who is in constant and eternal relationship with Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Community is a buzz word in American culture, but it is only in a Christian framework that communion and interpersonal community are seen as expressions of the eternal nature of God. Likewise, it is only with a Trinitarian God that love can be an eternal attribute of God. Without a plurality of persons in the Godhead, we would be forced to think that God created humans so that He might show love and know love, thereby making love a created thing (and God a needy deity). But with a biblical understanding of the Trinity, we can say that God did not create in order to be loved, but rather created out of the overflow of the perfect love that had always existed among Father, Son, and Holy Spirit who ever live in perfect and mutual relationship and delight."

-KDY, The Good News We Almost Forgot

M. Horts & Biblical Testimonies

Whenever I think of what a 'testimony' should be, I'm reminded of, humbled by, and challenged with this quote. But I can never find it when I want it. So I sat down and spent about 40 minutes finding it. It's long, but at least chew on the bolded sections:

"Evangelicals, of course, have courageously defended the historicity of Christ's bodily resurrection and return in glory against the dogmatic anti-supernaturalism of liberalism. At the same time, when it comes to popular piety, both evangelicals and liberals (to the extent that they share a common heritage in pietism) often emphasize the immediacy of Jesus to our experience more than the reality of his bodily resurrection, ascension, and return. Whenever this happens, however important these dogmas may be for defending Christ's diety, his humanity seems to play a minor role. For example, why should we long for Jesus Christ's appearing in the flesh when he already lives in our heart? As one gospel song puts it, "You ask me how I know he lives, he lives within my heart," but this is a sentiment that could just as easily warm the heart of any liberal protestant. It makes no difference whether Jesus rose from the dead in the flesh two thousand years ago, as long as he is somehow "still with us" in our personal experience today.

In sharp contrast, Paul defended the resurrection in the flesh as a datable event with eyewitnesses. John begins his letter of warning about the "antichrists" who deny that Christ has come in the flesh by immediately stating, "That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life--the life was made manifest, and we have seen it, and testify to it" (1 John 1:1-2). Similarly, Peter testifies, "For we did not follow cleverly devised myths when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of his majesty" (2 Peter 1:16). It is significant that for the apostles, offering their testimony meant witnessing to the concrete person and work of Christ in history, where for us today it usually means witnessing to our personal experience and moral improvement."

-Michael Horton, Christless Christianity, p. 182-3

Guerra del Fin del Mundo

"Desde el fondo de esa ambigua realidad de fuego y hielo que era su cuerpo encogido en la oscuridad de la gruta, siguió oyendo todavía el relato de Antonio el Fogueteiro, reproduciendo, viendo ese fin del mundo que él ya había anticipado, conocido, sin necesidad de que ese resucitado de entre los carbones y los cadáveres se lo relatara." -Mario Vargas Llosa, La Guerra del Fin del Mundo

This past week, I've definitely been a recluse, using all my free time to read. And it was worth it, Guerra was so good it was ridiculous. I mean, Vargas Llosa did just win the nobel prize in literature. So read it, whether you do in English or in Spanish (I chose the latter). As his first book to take place out of his native Peru, Guerra is a wonderfully written, engrossing, fictional retelling of Brazil's bloodiest war.

Tom Waits, Total Depravity, & Grace

Tom Waits continues to impress me as a musician, songwriter, and human being. Today, he released an amazing poem, whose purchase will help fund agencies providing relief to the homeless (Redwood Food Bank, Sonoma County's Homeless Referral Services, & Family Support Center).

But, as to why his lyric-writing greatly impresses me (drawing mostly from Blood Money and Mule Variations) is Tom's recognition of total depravity and God's grace. How often we forget that we are dead in trespasses and sin (Eph. 2:1), "bad through and through (in head and heart and will)" (KDY), and even (as Christians) our righteous deeds are like filthy rags before God (Isa. 64:6).

Though the Bible does it better, T$Waits helps us out:

"If there's one thing you can say about mankind, there's nothing kind about man." -Misery is the River of the World

"All the good in the world you can put inside a thimble and still have room for you and me." -Misery is the River of the World

"I don't believe you go to heaven when you're good, everything goes to hell, anyway." -Everything Goes to Hell

"We are all lost in the wilderness, we're as blind as can be." -Eyeball Kid

"Man's a fiddle that life plays on. When the day breaks, and the earth quakes, life's a mistake all day long...a man must test his mettle in a crooked ol' world." -Starving in the Belly of a Whale

But, luckily, Tom doesn't leave it there. Again, while the Bible does it much better, Tommy boy has songs pointing to God's common grace evidenced among mankind (so that we don't bask in utter depravity) and in God's grace through His own action. But this grace can only be appreciated upon understanding our fallen state.

"The face forgives the mirror, the worm forgives the plow, the questions beg the answer, can you forgive me somehow? Maybe when our story's over, we'll go where it's always spring, the band is playing our song again and all the world is green." -All the World is Green

"So if you find someone, someone to have, someone to hold, don't trade it for silver, don't trade it for gold. I have all of life's treasures and they are fine and they are good. They remind me that houses are just made of wood, what makes a house grand ain't the roof or the doors, if there's love in a house...it's a palace for sure." -House Where Nobody Lives

"We are all lost in the wilderness, we're as blind as can be. He came down to teach us how to really see." -Eyeball Kid

"Does life seem nasty, brutish and short? Come on up to the house. The seas are stormy and you can't find no port. Come on up to the house...And you been whipped by the forces that are inside you. Come on up to the house." -Come on Up to the House

"Come down off the cross, we can use the wood. Come on Up to the House." -Come on Up to the House

Amigos en Boston: La Oportunidad de su Vida

Julieta Venegas, la leyenda de Mexico

Saturday, February 26 here in Boston!!

$42, but that's cheap for this Mexican Legend. Serious vocals, serious street cred.

I'm definitely going and would love to go with friendz. so if anyone in B*town is interested in going, please hit me up soon as I want to purchase tickets soon!

You are always mine to keep when you're gone

I knew what you were doing
That summer when Candy came around
But I had too much hurt to bother you
When we lost our first child I thought a little payment was overdue
And I want you so bad...

Cause you are always mine to keep when you're gone
Two silver rings, one's on my finger and the other one's gone
It went underground with you, oh John.

-Ryan Adams & Norah Jones, 'Dear John'

I love songs that capture the bleakest of human emotions, yet hold out hope at the end. This song, as well as almost every song on Jacksonville City Nights does just that. Though perhaps this song's bleak points are even drearier than most. Do yourself a mighty big favor and pick up this album if you don't have it.

KDY

"We are unable to do good and are bent toward evil, unless we are born again by the Spirit of God. Unfortunately, the phrase "born again" has become just another sociopolitical category. We have forgotten where it comes from. Jesus, borrowing from the prophet Ezekiel, is the one who first used the phrase. "You must be born again," He told Nicodemus (John 3:7).
We must not forget this command from Jesus. Yes, Jesus wants us to love, to forgive, to pray, to be humble, to do justice, and to love mercy. But we must not forget the fountainhead command from which the river of obedience flows. Trying to live a Jesus life won't help us get into heaven and it will only discourage us over the long haul if we are not born again. This is where well-meaning socially minded Christians sometimes get off track. They want the world to live like Jesus, but forget that we can't live like Jesus unless the Spirit of Jesus first changes us.
We must be given a new heart. We must be regenerated. We must be converted. We must be changed. The Christian life--the life of faith in God, hope in Christ, and love for others--necessitates, first of all, a life that has been given a supernatural new start by the Holy Spirit. We must be born again."
-Kevin DeYoung, "The Good News We Almost Forgot," pg. 31
seriously good stuff (reflections on each Lord's Day from the Heidelberg Catechism). and my devotional for this first part of the year.