finding Monsuun | est. 2005

Do you have your own Rapture Survival Kit? If not, the end of the world has not yet begun and you can still get your own — you only have 8 hours left if you live in the Southwestern United States. If you live in China, well, its 6-7-06 now and you have nothing to worry about for now — congratulations.

Link via Finding Rhythm

**Rant - proceed with caution**

I’m not a gamer. And this utter piece of unrighteous anti-what-Jesus-would-have-preached-if-He-were-here garbage is precisely the reason why. It is also why I have never endorsed the gimongous cash cow that is the Left Behind series and grow ever increasingly tired of Christian-marketed products — usually marketed by nominal, pew-sitting Christians looking for a way to tap into the enormous pool of wealth that is the also-nominal American Christian market (and yes, many of them vote Republican and voted for Bush and support the war on terror — or at least Iraqi-grown terror — and support the death penalty and anything else that doesn’t involve turning the other cheek and loving one’s enemies).

Players participate in “battles raging in the streets of New York,” according to the game’s fact sheet. They engage in “physical and spiritual warfare: using the power of prayer to strengthen your troops in combat and wield modern military weaponry throughout the game world.”

Prayer and weaponry? Do the Crusades and the Inquisition ring a bell? Humanity has tried prayer and weaponry and they don’t work. Ever wonder why? Because they’re polar opposites. Prayer is humility. Weaponry is superiority. If the Gospels aren’t enough evidence for that fact, at least look at human history. *Blah.* I’m tired of the dogmatic religion that is Christianity. I’m tired of the historical baggage and of the baggage that is added day after day by numerous wolves in sheep’s clothing. I’m tired of having to defend the Christian name, and tired of the need to dance around the negative connotations crafted by temple-peddlers making money from ignorant and naive, propoganda-swallowing “Christians” that eat up the latest trend and marketing craze like a cookie fresh from the oven.

Oh, and read this article in the Christian Post if you want a less blatantly opinionated viewpoint.

via Inbreaking.com

*Post Rant*

And yet I am called to love the temple-peddlers and the pew-sitting “Christians” as much as the streetperson and the orphan and the widow. And so I do. I merely get frustrated the way a parent does when his/her child goes astray. I forgive them and plead for their forgiveness before the Judge of humanity, even as I plead for my own. I love Jesus and I love his Church and the people that are humbly seeking a life that reflects Jesus’ and I will never give up on the vast, untapped potential that the Church has to minister to this dying, lost world. I am here to stay, Church, and I will see You move into the future a vibrant, colorful, holy, humble, loving, salty, light-giving estranged presence in this world. Amen.

As I learn and study and pray and grow, the defining line that has traditionally divided sacred from secular in my life is slowly, but consistently diminishing.

At first assumption, some may fret at this astonishing realization and fear that I am becoming worldy, compromising, overly secularized, or even overtly relevant. If that is the case, let me offer some clarification. While the line that separates sacred from secular grows thinner, the line that separates sin from righteousness is undoubtedly growing thicker. By thinking outside of currently accepted paradigms, I find I am no longer able to distinctly associate sinfulness with the secular and righteousness with the sacred. For you see, every day I find sin in that which has been called sacred and I find righteousness in that which has been deemed secular.

However, while sin and righteousness claim elements of both the sacred and secular, they cannot overlap. They cannot coexist. They are polar opposites. They are as Yin and Yang. They are of two seperate desires — one born of selfishness, the other of selflessness.

Sin is a permanent quality of this world as it currently exists — a world tainted by the Morning Star’s self-love and Adam & Eve’s desire for a knowledge equal to that of their Creator. Righteousness, while always vividly visible through the elements of nature and the relationship between God and His Chosen, was publicly and humanly embraced in the human/divine form of Jesus Christ and now continues in the human/spiritual form of the Church.

No longer can I place sacred and secular on opposite scales — for both are cultural gauges set within the bounds of this world and of this age. At the same time I am unable to allow sin to taint that which is righteous. I am a citizen of this world — born of this Earth and thus both elementally sacred and secular — but I am also a citizen of another world — born as a child of God and as such cannot be both sinful and righteous.

Thus if the righteous and sinful cannot co-exist, and if I am a citizen of the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Kingdom is the dwelling place of the righteousness, then I must embrace all that is righteous and cast off all that is sinful. And if I am also a citizen of Earth then I must embrace all that is righteous within the sacred and secular — henceforth disavowing any segregation between the two and embracing all of the righteous qualities of sacred and secular humanity.