Well, just a quick update on life; the SOL band is done recording, and now it's time to lay down vocal tracks. I'm sure that will put me in the studio some time this week. Later today is going to be a busy day for me. I have a lot of obligations and responsibilities to see to, and not a whole lot of time in which to do it. The good thing is that most of my obligations are to friends, and that's a good reason to be inconvenienced and pressed for time; when you're doing something for friends. Anyways, that's my quick update.

Now to leave you with some thoughts from Erwin McManus' book "The Barbarian Way", which I started on Friday.

"Jesus is being lost in a religion bearing His name. People are being lost because they cannot reconcile Jesus' association with Christianity. Christianity has become docile, domesticated, civilized. We have forgotten that there is a kingdom of darkness stealing the hopes and dreams and souls of a humanity without God."

"In its primitive state the good news could never be separated from the invitation of Jesus to 'come, follow Me'. He never lied about the danger or cost associated with becoming His follower. He told them up front, 'I am sending you out like sheep among wolves. Therefore be as shrewd as snakes and as innocent as doves'. (Matthew 10:16). One danger of civilized faith is that we become so domesticated, we begin to live as shrewd as the dove. We are blind to the spiritual nature of life and the unseen reality in which we reside. Another danger is that we become as innocent as snakes. For far too long, sincere followers of Christ have had to live with the consequences of those who use religion to manipulate others and to camouflage hypocrisy."

"Somewhere along the way the movement of Jesus Christ became civilized as Christianity. We created a religion using the name of Jesus Christ and convinced ourselves that God's optimal desire for our lives was to insulate us in a spiritual bubble where we risk nothing, sacrifice nothing, lose nothing, worry about nothing. Yet Jesus' death wasn't to free us from dying, but to free us from the fear of death. Jesus came to liberate us so that we could die up front and then live."

"Is it possible that the transforming power of the church has been lost because we keep inviting people to step into the comfort, safety, and security of Jesus Christ? We've created a religious culture in which-even though we're the most blessed society in the history of the planet-our best-selling literature still focuses on how we can be more blessed. Maybe we need to step way back to the beginning of this movement. The original call of Jesus was so simple, so clean, so clear: 'Follow Me'"

"In the civilized view of discipleship, everything and everyone moves toward the center. Discipleship is translated into standardizing everyone into the same pattern. We have equated the promise that we would be conformed into the image of Christ with a belief that all of us will be the same. Discipleship has become the mechanism for uniformity rather than uniqueness... God steers us in the direction of His kingdom, His purpose, His passions. His desire is not to conform us, but to transform us. Not to make us compliant, but to make us creative. His intent is never to domesticate us, but to liberate us."

"Confronted by John (the Baptist) we have to stop and ask ourselves: 'If this is what the person looked like who prepared the way for Jesus, then what should a disciple of Christ look like who comes after Jesus? How is it possible that, for many of us, being a good Christian is really nothing more than being a good person?' The entire focus of our faith has been the elimination of sin, which is important but inadequate, rather than the unleashing of a unique, original, extraordinary, wonderfully untamed faith."

Sure is something to think about. I wish my life were a consistent example of unhindered belief in the God of Israel, in Yahweh, the Creator God, who calls me out of the safety and comfort and familiarity of my all-too-often routine and indifferent life, and into the brutal, unknown, but ultimately beautiful path of a life lived in complete and utter surrender to His ways and His plans. Unfortunately, much more often than I would like to admit, this is not so. God help my unbelief. And enable me to follow You.