Boots and Bibles

Viral

I guess we're all still in shock right now
I guess everything will work itself out
Everything's gonna' be okay
Once the bloodstains wash away
Nobody meant to give you hell
Nobody meant to take your mother
Nobody cared that you were broken
Nobody meant to let you suffer

Gary's dead at fourteen
Ice cold and buried, just a dream
The biting virus in his soul
Won the battle, he let go
Now where the sunlight hit his face
There's only cessation and decay
Every moment slipped away
Every daydream dreamt in vain

And every day
I ask myself
How could I have stopped you
But still I wake
heartsick and dazed
Because I can't sleep through another replay

You're killing yourself again.

So many things I should have said
What was it running through your head
That made you throw yourself away
Too many questions,far too late

Nobody meant to give you hell
Nobody meant to take your mother
Nobody cared that you were broken
Nobody meant to let you burn.

And every day
I ask myself
How could I have stopped you
But still I wake
heartsick and dazed
Because I can't sleep through another replay

You're killing yourself again.

Wake me up
I cannot sleep through this again
You look dead long before
The bullet hits the wind

You're killing yourself again.

-"Viral" by Tendril (lyrics slightly modified)

You can't even find the CD that this song came from. For the longest, it seemed like Tendril (by far one of the best bands to ever come from the Dallas/Fort Worth area) simply disappeared. When I bought it some twelve years ago, I hadn't had any friends die of an overdose. No one I knew had gotten killed in a car wreck. No one had been murdered. No one had committed suicide.

Things changed.

On Simon Magus and Bad Revivals

Discussions with several friends have had me looking at what the New Testament says about focusing on the spiritual. This is a well and good thing, it seems, when balanced with the right priorities. But what happens when people come to God with the wrong motives? What happens when it isn't so much God that people want, as the nifty little things that happen when God comes to town?

One of the first incidents of a conversion gone bad occurs in Acts 8. It focuses on man named Simon the Sorcerer. In Samaria, Simon would woo the crowds with displays of supernatural power. He soothsaid, he enchanted, he cast spells. Early Church historians relate his also having a consort whom he claimed to be a manifestation of the godhead¹, and within whom was a pearl of the purest heaven. Through her intervention, and the secret knowledge he held, mere men – heavenly beings imprisoned in these cells of flesh – could ascend back to the state of bliss whence we originated. Or so he claimed.

False messiah, Gnostic syncretist, spiritualist huckster, spellcaster, soothsayer,  enchanter... by the standards of Deuteronomy 18, he should have had his head lopped off.

But something happens to him – Simon sees a spiritual power that goes beyond his abilities. He is perhaps scheming the entire time, perhaps genuinely moved. Whatever the case, he decides to listen to Phillip. He gets baptised. He joins the Congregation.

Now, in just a little while, the Disciples down in Jerusalem get wind of this. They're glad. They praise God. But they know water baptism is only half the deal. They need the baptism (immersion) of the Holy Spirit up there in Samaria, so John and Peter go to lay hands and pray.

Now note how essential baptism of the Holy Spirit is. Like I intimated earlier, "baptism" is just a fancy, Greek way of saying "immersion." In the Disciples' eyes, the new Samaritan believers need this blessing in order to truly be a part of the Congregation². Along with the baptism of the Holy Spirit undoubtedly come the usual signs, wonders, tongues, prophecies and everything else. Indeed, the manifestations and dynamis of the Spirit's work makes Simon's magic pale. Simon saw this and thought this is it!

Where is the God of Elijah?

Where is the God of Elijah
And the King that leadeth me?
Where's the power that came to Moses
And preserved the burning tree?
Where is the Almighty Father
Who said He'd never leave?
Where is the Spirit of love
By Whose guidance we could see?
Despair now clouds the people's minds,
Ill will now fills our hearts.
The Maker shunned with pride and greed,
Soul and strength now torn apart.
Where is the promised Counselor?
Where is the Source of hope and peace?
Can He not go where we have gone,
Are we now beyond His reach?
Where are the words of the prophets,
Where are the convictions true?
Will anybody say the things
That God would command him to?
Where are the signs and wonders
That light the way to the Kingdom?
Have charlatans all taken over,
Or do honest men still bring them?
O! we are broken and besieged,
Defeated by what we woke,
But the Spirit moves in this time
To fulfill all that He spoke.
Among the saints the Kingdom dwells
Though our holiness is weak.
Yet in the truth, which we preserve,
Is the freedom people seek.
Hope abounds, for He never left,
Though His glory descends on few.
Call out to the Lord, cry for Christ!
Revival begins with you!
There are yet those who have not bowed,
For whom the Enemy still stands in fear.
And I know where Elijah's God is at,
And He is here!