Naaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaature! [I was asked to write about a tree].

My dad and I were driving around Jacksonville at some point while I’ve been here for school, and he said to me something about how he appreciated the scenery. Jacksonville, for those that don’t know, is very woodsy. Tampa, on the other hand, is where my dad lives and it is almost entirely conquered by concrete and skyscrapers. It’s depressing. It feels skeevy to me when I’m there. It’s part of why I didn’t go to USF.

I once had to study the field of environmental psychology for a class presentation and referred back to some studies I’d learned in my Stress Management course sophomore year; cities with high crime rates have implemented what they call “green spots” consisting of trees and patches of grass to break the cement scene and have seen drastic reductions in crime. Apartment buildings in similar inner-city areas have hosted balcony beautification projects, which united the apartment residents in community and experienced less crime, theoretically as a result of the endeavor. Hospital patients with views of nature have better chances for smoother recoveries; those with pictures of nature to compensate for the lack of sparkling mountains and lakes in their windows experience similar effects. Those with neither have lower rates of recovery, and typically recovery is slower. Office workers with a view enjoy their jobs more than those without views; cubicles with pictures of nature are daytime homes to more productive employees.

In short, nature makes people happy.

God once told Paul to write some words [I believe they’re in the book of Romans, but my internet is broken as I write this and I’m not prepared to read the entire book looking for it right now] about nature, about this power trees have over us. They say something to the effect that creation exists to point to the Creator, so no man [or woman] will be left without accountability when they meet God. No one can say they didn’t know He existed, because He’s going to say “that’s most certainly not true. I set eternity in your heart. I created you to think of me. I’ve pursued and loved you desperately since before you took your first breath. And if all else failed, I made the trees.”

I was in church this morning and I was standing in the aisle with some people near the back, and the woman standing in front of me was in one of those positions so that the small boy who was trying to get through our group and to the other side couldn’t quite get around her. He certainly didn’t want to go through her. And then she shifted, which only made his situation more difficult. This is all happening in seconds, and I’m watching the whole thing. I stood there watching, and could have helped him walk in the clear path I could see from my towering view nearly five and a half feet in the air, but I chose not to. I figured he’d get it on his own and I didn’t feel like crossing any social boundaries at the time. Call it keeping to myself. In any event, in seconds the two of them figured things out [once she saw him] and she moved and smiled and he went on his merry way. None of this is of eternal consequence, but I feel like God used the moment to tell me that there will be times when I will see the way out for other people. At those times, I’ll probably need to tell them if I want to call myself a fair person. That might mean you’re an alcoholic and won’t admit to it. That might mean you’re in a significantly unhealthy relationship and cling to it for redemption. That might mean you’re simply looking for the way. It’s only fair that if I see it, I tell you. I can’t say I’m loving if I stand back and let people wallow in their own self-destruction, dying to old wounds.

For this reason, I want you to be exposed to the fact that Jesus Christ loves you. Desperately. And now you’re read it. You can’t say you didn’t know. Maybe we all go to Heaven around the same time so we stand in line. I don’t think so, but let’s say that’s the case for a second. We’re all in a line outside the gates as the book with the names of those covered in the blood of the Lamb are found. If you get to the front of the line and find with crushing dismay that your name is not in this book, you can’t pass me on the way out and say I never told you about it. You can’t blame me for an eternity of dying without death, knowing no finality or conclusion. Hell is going to suck. Forever.

Forever.

If you don’t believe me about this Jesus-rescues-everyone thing, you have to wonder why the trees reach upwards [weeping willows being an exception to my metaphor, though they are pretty and you still have to wonder how they got here in the first place]. You have to wonder why it’s trees that make the exact elemental conversion we need to trade off of for our oxygen supply. There it is, conveniently built into our environment.

Next time you see a tree, look up.

A Word from the LORD....

July 8-9, 2007

I had a dream while I was sleeping the night of July 8, 2007 [technically it was the 9^th because I woke up at four in the morning to the end of it]. I've wondered before what it felt like to have a dream from God; I figured it'd just be one of those things you knew when you got it. And that's the case. I've had weird dreams my brain has conjured up, mixing chemicals and memories. I've had a dream from the enemy, which really scared the hell right into me. And now I've had a dream from God. I'm not bragging. But it's been a month now and I've only told a handful of people because I felt like if I told anyone other than pastors and close friends in the faith, I'd be bragging that Jesus shared a dream with ME, not you. But that's not important, and I know that, and I'm not bragging. I want to make that clear. In fact, I feel I've been wrong to guard it. It wasn't a word for me. It was for everybody. And with that, here is the dream:

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I was with the OakLeaf Christian Fellowship youth group, at a hotel/nursing home…in reality, we had just returned from a trip going to Student Life and ending it with The Call in Nashville on 7-7-07. The next night God gave me this dream, as I said at a hotel/nursing home. It was the environment of Student Life but the purpose of The Call, that young people had intentionally gathered in the old folks' territory for intercessory prayer. Rebekah or Taylor, of the youth group, had told me that there were also homeless people there, that the hotel staff [or staff of wherever we were] didn't mind. I'm thinking of this as I am getting myself some food, but Will and Ian [of the youth group] came to get me so I grabbed some bread to take back with me. I grabbed bread and butter for my bread, I may have forgotten it at first, but as I walked by the table I noticed that all of the bread broke into two halves, the regular consistency of bread but a clean cut in the break each time, the same way. I thought to myself how it reminded me of the body of Christ, the bread being broken as communion bread, and decided against the butter on the bread and put it back down on the table. In doing so I noticed a homeless man with short dark hair and shabby dark clothing sitting in a chair facing the dining room to the left of the step down to the platform before the stairwell. I thought to myself how maybe he was waiting for us "normal folk" to finish before he'd see if there were leftovers to eat off the table. But on the table there was just bread…the body of Christ. As polite as he was trying to be, I didn't think it was necessary.

I stepped down to the platform before the stairs with the boys and surveyed the room below. Immediately I got a sense that something terrible has happened, and evil has moved in. All along the perimeter of the room was furniture, on which were afflicted peoples. They were no small afflictions. All were possessed or falling prey in some undisclosed way to the enemy; all of the people sitting around the walls of the room were in his clutch. There was nobody that I particularly saw in the room necessarily; all were sitting up against the wall. The only person in this state that caught my eye specifically was a homeless man with a dark-haired woman kneeling in front of him and laying hands on him, praying for him. One of the girls in the youth group, it may or may not have been the same one from before, came to meet us at the top of the stairs to tell me "it's because we stopped refuging." There was no exchange. That's all that was said. In my dream I wondered if "refuging" was a real word, though I figured it meant to give refuge to. Dictionary.com confirmed this once I woke up.

I began to hear wicked, incoherent speech to my left. The voice then said "our names are Sugar and Haziel* [or "Heziel," I'm not sure right now]." I was reminded instantly of the Scriptures when the demons say "our names are Legion, for we are many" and Jesus cast them out into the pigs. This terrified me because it seemed to give authority to the voice. I turned to look, and it was an older woman with short, dark gray hair and a blank stare on her face. Her mouth was gaping open. I hear moaning behind me so as I turn my neck to look behind me, I also hear chocking and gurgling. The moaning is from an old man standing directly behind me, dressed in all white, with high creased pants and a button-up collar shirt tucked in. I realize as I look into his distorted face that the choking and gurgling is me, though there is nothing visibly choking me. My face and throat are frozen stiff and I cannot be saved from where I am—or it feels that way, with the presence of the enemy so thick. I consciously say "Jesus" and instantly wake up. My cheeks were burning and my face was flushed, but my body relaxed as I continued to pray.

From what I understand at this point, the church has obviously failed in being a safe-haven in the way that Jesus' arms are open to everyone, such as the homeless. As for the man waiting to eat, he shouldn't feel so different and marginalized that he has to wait to eat the crumbs off of the richer folks' table, even in the environment he was in. The Church, the Body of Christ, isn't offering itself to feed the hungry, though it looks clean on the outside. The old man dressed in white behind me was from the place we had gathered. As good as things look, our lack of action has given the enemy room for his own movement and the more this generation steps in to counteract, the more we'll see we've done wrong that needs to change.

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There are a number of things I could say, because in many ways I hate the Church. Rather, I hate what the Church is doing and has done, which is probably the more righteous attitude to have. I once heard a man say that the Church may be a whore, but it's the whore Jesus died for. That's very true. I may be a whore, but I'm the whore Jesus died for. You don't have to sleep around to commit a betrayal of intimacy.

The Church is not gated. The Church is not an institution. The Church is not a building with pretty windows. The Church is not tradition. In fact, the only traditions I feel have a place in the Church are communion and baptism.

If you've ever run into those "crazy Christian folk" I hear about so much and run into now and then—you know who I'm talking about, the ones who judge you for having piercings, tattoos, or a different worldview—I'm terribly sorry, from the very bottom of me. Really I am. That's not Jesus. But this is a spiel for another day.

The Church is a body of people, a collection of very good friends. The Church is the light in the dark. So it's particularly a bad thing when we seem closed off with a "no sinners allowed" sign on the door. It's just unhealthy in every respect. I'm sorry. Jesus probably isn't who you think He is, even if you think you know Him pretty well. He is LORD, Savior, Son of God, my only hope, lover of my soul. Everyone knows or has heard John 3:16 at least once, that God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten son so that anyone—anyone—who believed in Him wouldn't know what it meant to be defeated by death, but instead how it feels to conquer it. Jesus Christ conquered death for you. For me.

No one follows it often with the next verse, verse seventeen, but it might just be my favorite. These are the words of Jesus, mind you:

"God didn't go to all the trouble of sending His Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again."

This is the message the Church needs to convey, to be a refuge for people. For everyone, regardless of their image or worldview. We can't shut the Bible, nor can we write it our own way. God has spoken. These are His words. Love. Love. Love. Love. Because He loves me, because He loves this whore so much, He'll change us. He'll make us more like Him, and less corrupt. Less full of hatred. Less conquered by death. May it be so.

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*The whole name thing here is under a little bit of dispute because I don't know how it would be spelled, and therefore what it would mean. I thought when I woke up that it was "Haziel" or "Heziel," and in researching them I have been led to "Hazael," which I am thinking suffices just fine. It means "God sees" in Hebrew, and was the name of a king of Aram during the time of the prophet Elijah. You can read a little bit about him in 1 Kings 19 and 2 Kings 8. He wasn't good. He said he was, but he wasn't. And as we know, actions speak louder than words. In this case, those are the words for the Church right now. We are a white-washed tomb.

I think that's what God was saying to us in the dream. I am human, I can hear wrong for sure, but I am totally at peace delivering this message, which I think is a good sign [John 14:27]. SO. Mull on that one.

The Rebel Generation and the Perfect Kingdom

Let's play that association game where I say something and you think fast and respond the first word that comes to your head. Game? Game. Go.

Peanut Butter.

Jelly.

Winnie.

Pooh.

Gotham City.

Batman.

Van Gogh.

Paint.

Guitar.

Music.

The-same-stupid-commercial-filmed-a-thousand-different-ways.

Corona.

America.

Freedom.

Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Indeed. Here we are, the United States, proclaiming freedom into all the world. "Come into our land and prosper." This is no commentary on what you may think of our current politics, economy or immigration policies. This is just our ideal. Freedom. The American Dream. I wonder, though.

Our Constitution created within itself the option to improve, change and alter the rules. I suppose we've interpreted this as ultimate freedom, superior to the rest of the world. Even Darius, the Mede-Persian king who overthrew the mighty Babylonian Empire tangled himself up at least once because he made a bad law and even as king was unable to change it. A dear friend of his nearly died as a consequence. I feel like giving ourselves leniency to change our rules leads to some sort of legal relativism, which permeates our morality as much as it reflects it. But obviously if you have a bad law that you cannot change and discover its nature only when confronted with its consequence, then you're screwed. Maybe your friend comes face-to-face with a lion or two because of your ill-advised logic as a political leader. So it seems to be that we are damned if we do, damned if we don't. Is it possible to have flawless laws in a world that changes with every sunrise?

If it were, we'd have to wonder what that would look like. It would be a kingdom, with an absolute ruler, because if he were to be flawless then there would be no need to impeach, replace, or assassinate. He would speak truth, because if he were a liar then we wouldn't want him in charge of a flawless kingdom. There's no room for falsehood in this place. His subjects would love him, because he would do only good things for them because he loved them as well, perhaps even before they loved him. He was probably the first one on the scene for that to work out. I would venture so far as to say that this kingdom would therefore be ruled by this love. Consequently, people would be inspired to obey the laws because they would respect the kingdom intrinsically. [Remember, this kingdom has flawless laws that never need to go under the Congressional knife]. Any violations of the law would go against the character of the kingdom, its king, and to that degree its subjects as well. It would be a threat. Perhaps even a betrayal.

If we're going to go so far as to speculate that there could exist perfect laws, we might as well go out on a limb and guess what they would be. Personally, I would think that they'd address relational respect, even love, to guide the actions and relationships amongst the people. The king would have to be a flawless example of these laws just because he's the leader. He can't get away with screwing up. The people could though, because if they were perfect too then we wouldn't need the laws at all. But we do have laws, so I'm guessing that the people are screwed up a little bit. But they like these laws so they try their best to honor them. That's what it is, anyway; a matter of honor. By abiding in it, people would defend this honor from things not of their kingdom, their home. While we're at it, let's say too, that because the king is perfect and good, he is very generous and though he's not going anywhere anytime soon, he wants to let some subjects inherit the kingdom. It would still be his, mind you, but they'd get to share in it on a deeper level just because this good king would have to like to share.

Now, the king would probably present this proposition at some point to all of the people in his rather large kingdom, so they would all know what was up. It's only fair. That might take longer than a day or two, because there are a lot of people, so he'd have to send messengers from the central area to the far reaches of the kingdom so all the distant folk heard the word as well. I imagine he would tell them that immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissentions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing and things like these would violate this perfect relational law he's created because it hurts other people's feelings, and his as well just because it's mean and wrong. But things like love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control would form the right kind of attitude to pursue this good law and share in the kingdom on a deep level. The king would be very proud of you, I'm sure, since he'd be a good king. Good kings have pride in good people. It would be a very good kingdom. If only.

I don't think that good exists because bad exists, or that right exists because wrong exists, but I do think that we've labeled good "good" and right "right" because we've been presented with an alternative. We've seen "bad," and we've done "wrong." [Go ahead, you can admit it to yourself]. So we've contrasted white with black and dark with light so we can wrap our heads around what we're dealing with in life. But my black probably isn't your black because we don't live in the kingdom I just talked about. We live in America, Land of the Free Thinkers. Land of Relativism. There is no place on earth you could get away with more, I'm sure of it. Even more than in Amsterdam. No one in Amsterdam has completely revolutionized the theories of the entire developed world. Tell me if I'm wrong. But we have the power to do that in America. So we put this thinking and speaking freedom to use and talk and discuss and challenge. And rebel. It's in our nature. It's why even in my good kingdom, there are laws. There would be a right and wrong. Now, in a perfect kingdom we wouldn't have to worry about it but I would imagine that any good king could eventually figure out a way to perfect his people so they didn't run around killing each other with words or stones all the time, if at all.

Do you think it would be okay to say that maybe we are so delighted in thinking all over the place that that is why we can change our laws? Because this isn't my good kingdom, so we'd probably have a few wrinkles to iron out as we went along. Do you think that we would be able to get the whole population to agree on even just one principle to found our laws on? Just one. We'll use the example of my good kingdom earlier, which was founded on love. Can we all agree on love? Probably, but then we'd argue over what love really is. Pure, true love; not just any love. My pure and true love could very well be the next person's lust. I think the love we would found our laws on would have to present itself to us somehow, which demands that this love would be bigger than us, bigger than America, bigger than our borders, bigger than our oceans, bigger than our world, bigger than our galaxies, bigger than our universe. It would have to be the center of it all, otherwise it would fall apart. If the foundation of a flawless kingdom can't measure up to a star, which blows up with time, or a galaxy, which could slowly fall victim to a black hole…then it probably isn't worth our time. I know it wouldn't be worth mine. Let me propose the characteristics of this love of which I speak, and you tell me if you think I'm hot or cold about the whole thing: what if it were patient? kind? not jealous? not boastful? not arrogant? appropriately flattering? selfless? What if this love didn't keep a record of any wrongdoing, but with its patience it taught us its ways because this love hates evil and rejoices in truth? [Remember, there's no room for falsehood]. What if this love would bear my burdens for me? Believed in me for all of the best things love could offer? What if this love hoped all things, endured all things [even rebellion, even betrayal]? What if?

The world would be beautiful for it. You and I, we'd be beautiful. We probably wouldn't even understand it. There is faith; there is hope; there is love. The greatest of these is love. Love would conquer rebellion against it, as it endures all things. Love would pursue, even through the deepest betrayal, because it endures all things, hopes for all things. Love is the action that defends honor and preserves the perfect Kingdom, the embodiment of its King.

Put that soda down!

I feel worse about working at Starbucks now...All around, America needs to revolutionize its dietary practices.

8 Ways Soda Fizzles Your Health

We would wager money that many of you are “doing the dew” or “doing what tastes right” this very moment. Before you take another gulp from your soft drink can, here are 8 facts about soda to consider that may drastically affect the quality of your health.

pH of Soda = pH of Vinegar
For one, soda, no matter who makes it, is the most acidic beverage you can buy, with a pH of about 2.5, about the same as vinegar. Why does that matter? Acid oxidizes whatever it comes in contact with. If you put soda or vinegar on metal, it will rust it quickly. Check out this table of acid levels of your favorite sodas.

Drink Soda, Leach Calcium
If you drink soda, which also contains high levels of phosphorous, you will leach calcium from your bones. Dr. Michael Murray from the Encyclopedia of Natural Medicine concluded, “It appears that increased soft drink consumption is a major factor that contributes to osteoporosis.” Furthermore, Dr. Elson Haas, author of The Detox Diet states, “Tooth loss, periodontal disease, and gingivitis can be problems, especially with a high phosphorus intake, particularly from soft drinks.”

Soda Will Dissolve your Tooth Enamel
Weak bones is just the beginning. According to Dr. James Howenstein. author of A Physician’s Guide to Natural Health Products That Work, the high sugar content of soda is awful. He states, “”In an interesting experiment the sugar from one soft drink was able to damage the white blood cells’ ability to ingest and kill bacteria for seven hours.” Dr. Marion Nestle from his book Food Politics states, “Sugar and acid in soft drinks so easily dissolve tooth enamel.”

Each Additional Soda Increases Risk for Obesity by 1.6 times
So now we’ve got weak bones, weakened immune system, and dissolving teeth. What’s next? Weight gain! Dr. Nestle also concluded, “The relationship between soft drink consumption and body weight is so strong that researchers calculate that for each additional soda consumed, the risk of obesity increases 1.6 times.”

Children Who Drink Soda Break Bones More Easily
Our children aren’t safe, either. Dr. Nestle states, “Adolescents who consume soft drinks display a risk of bone fractures three to four-fold higher than those who do not.” Dr. William Duffy from the Naval Research Institute states, “The high sugar hides the acid. Children little realize they are drinking this strange mixture of phosphoric acid, sugar, caffeine, coloring, and flavoring matter.” Greg Critser from his book Fat Land: How Americans Became the Fattest People in the World states: “A joint study by Harvard University and Boston Children’s Hospital researchers in February 2001 concluded that such excess liquid calories inhibited the ability of older children to compensate at mealtime, leading to caloric imbalance and, in time, obesity.”

Diet Soda Isn’t Any Better
For those of you with a diet soda in your hands, the news isn’t any better, in fact it’s worse! Carol Simontacchi from her book The Crazy Makers: How the Food Industry Is Destroying Our Brains and Harming Our Children states, “One liter of an aspartame-sweetened beverage can produce about fifty-six milligrams of methanol. When several of these beverages are consumed in a short period of time (one day, perhaps), as much as two hundred fifty milligrams of methanol are dumped into the bloodstream, or thirty-two times the EPA limit.” So, you’re poisoning your body, too.

And when it comes to saccharin, which is a noncaloric petroleum derivative estimated to be three hundred to five hundred times sweeter than sugar: “More than a dozen animal tests over the last thirty years have demonstrated the carcinogenic effects of saccharin in the bladder and other sites, particularly female reproductive organs, and in some instances at doses as low as the equivalent of one to two bottles of diet pop daily.”

With diet soda, you’ve gone from high calories to poisonous levels of methanal and an increased chance of developing cancer. Not a very good trade.

Could Caffeine Jeopardize the Human Race?
Then there’s the caffeine. Jean Carper from her book Food: Your Miracle Medicine : How Food Can Prevent and Cure over 100 Symptoms and Problems states, “tests at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine by Roland R. Griffiths, MD, show caffeine withdrawal can strike people who drink a single cup of strongly brewed coffee or drink caffeinated soft drinks everyday. Further, Dr. Griffiths discovered that caffeine-withdrawal symptoms include not only headache, but also fatigue, mild depression, muscle pain and stiffness, flu-like feelings, nausea and vomiting. And for women: “Those consuming at least one cup of a caffeine-containing beverage per day, such as coffee, tea or soft drinks, were more prone to PMS. And the more caffeine they consumed, the more severe their PMS symptoms.”

Caffeine causes withdrawal with symptoms mimicking a flu and for women it makes PMS even worse. But could caffeine really jeopardize the future of the human race? Yes! “A study on the relationship between caffeine and fertility found that… just one caffeinated soft drink per day was associated with a reduced monthly chance of conception of 50 percent.”

If All That Wasn’t Enough Watch Out for a Asthma and a Rash
And finally there’s the preservative used in soda. Dr. Marcia Zimmerman, author of The A.D.D. Nutrition Solution : A Drug-Free 30 Day Plan states, “Sodium benzoate Sodium benzoate is used as a preservative (microbial control) in foods, including soft drinks, fruit juices, margarine, confections, pickles, and jams. Sodium preservatives add sodium to the diet and reduce the availability of potassium. Some reported reactions to sodium benzoate include recurring urticaria (rash), asthma, and eczema.”

Still Drinking that Soda…..?
Hard to believe that so much mayhem can come from a little can or bottle, but there is absolutely nothing good or redeemable about soda. The sooner you can remove it from your diet, the better. If the FDA were doing its job, it wouldn’t be allowed on the market. If you care about your health and the quality of your life, put the Mountain Dew down!

Taken from Water For Life USA, 1 August 2007

http://www.waterforlifeusa.com/blog/uncategorized/8-ways-soda-fizzles-your-health/