Well, Altered Paradigm’s website is nearly finished. (At least for now.) It has been a lot of fun doing graphics and web design for fellow musicians. Check it out at:
alteredparadigm.net
I’ve also been doing some updating to our own site:
reachingforembrace.yolasite.com
Last night, we had the opportunity to reintroduce live worship to the youth at Hidden Springs. Everything went really well. God is moving, as always, and it is really amazing to see the next generation begin to focus their hearts on the Master. Hmmm… The Master. I’m think about how often I’ve been less than half a person by just trying to be myself. I’m learning that it’s when I’m dependant on the Master that I become whole. Adding myself is like adding a negative number.
So, here’s the song I played Saturday night:
Words:
Take me to where I’ve never been / Under the surface, passing the threshold of all who I am / I’m falling so far, deep in your arms, safe from all harm / and go deeper still, inside your heart, inside your heart / Break off these chains that keep me from you / I’ve been so close but I’m still not consumed / I won’t be satisfied if I leave the way that I came / I’m not okay with being the same.
To Do This
1 – Go to “wikipedia.” Hit “random”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.
2 – Go to “Random quotations”
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.
3 – Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.
4 – Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.
5 – Share! I want to see what you got! If you don’t have a blog, put it on Facebook and tag me.
I’ve been messing around with wix.com – a free flash website and web content creation tool that is entirely on-line. I’ve basically been using it to host mp3 files and images. I have really enjoyed using it. Click the pic below to check it out in action:
Check out Arnie McCall’s blog to understand this comment:
That’s right on! Here’s another question I’d like to add – what makes pastors and church leaders… Let me ask it this way, “What makes ME presume I can even correctly communicate the heart of the Groom to His Bride if I assume a position as shepherd or someone over the Bride, and not actually as part of the Bride?”
If we know the Word, we should know how much pride and arrogance lives in the hearts of men. Church leadership positions and the “brilliant” ideas we have tend to magnify such deception in our own hearts that we think we are a better fit for our congregations than the Savior. To me that sound like lesbianism or incest – The Church can’t be married to the Church!
To explain a little more about my last post, I think it is important to understand that I am talking about my own heart. There are clearly some things I write as I am continually processing internal challenges and transformations. My desire for this blog, and for anything I write, is to be real and transparent with the work that my Savior does on the inside of me. I’m not at all opposed to buildings, stages, organizations, doctrines, or anything that God can use to communicate His love. My thoughts on those things are more about what qualifies or causes us to assume we are perpetuating the Gospel and advancing the Kingdom.
My heart is never to tear down others or point the finger of judgment at anyone; on the contrary, my desire is to share the conviction of my heart and the correction of my thinking as the Father mercifully prunes away my own ideas of ministry and misunderstandings of who He is.
My prayer for whoever reads the words I write is that they will be shaken. This is the same prayer for myself. “God shake me until my heart falls apart – until my life falls apart, and all the remains is you and me in your powerful grasp. Let me never be anything than utterly desperate and desperately dependant on YOU! God, I need your Holy Spirit to correctly interpret your revelation because I know my heart will misinterpret and misunderstand if I do not recognize my wretchedness apart from your mercy. Keep me in your secret place!”
A lot of my ideas about church, ministry, and the Kingdom of God have changes drastically in the past 2 years. Many of these thoughts have come up in The Harbor when talking about what we’re not going to like. I am beginning to see 2 different pictures becoming stronger, and increasingly opposite. One, is a picture of a Church like no other – it’s services are different, it’s music is different, it’s building and look is different, it’s method of operation is different. The second picture is of a Church with no services, no music, no building, and no apparent method of operation. Not too long ago, I would have been the first to ask, “how do you have a church without any of these things?”
I’m not about to say any of those things are bad, but are you willing to trade your life for them? We trade a little bit of life for everything we spend our time on, so, in light of the knowledge that God has created us in His image to exist and function in a physical realm for a limited amount of time, What the hell are we doing building stages and auditoriums and spending so much time on things to try to get people to come to our segregated body of Christ? God already said He’s not impressed even by our very best – meaning even if I lived without flaw, God doesn’t think any differently about me than He does about the people He created me to teach about Him. So, who are we trying to impress? If you’re offended by any of this, take another look at the life of our Savior.
Here is my conclusion – the only thing that I can trade my life for that truly brings glory to God and actually advances the Kingdom of Heaven on this Earth, is seeking the heart of the Father and teaching others about Him. That’s it. Simple. But here’s the thing – how much life is wasted on “ministry?” Is the church even supposed to be an organization? If those 2 things – seeking the heart of the Father and teaching others about Him – are really the only things that count, shouldn’t the Church be moving and breathing and spreading – not growing and gathering? My life should have an impact on my community and change the face of the world around me because I have the Master, not because I have a 501c3. Jesus came to establish His Kingdom on hearts not on doctrines or politics.
On our trip to Florida, God continued to show up and blow me away. Tuesday night He spoke to me in a way that I haven’t really heard before. As I laid on the floor being completely delivered of past hurts and wounds, I heard God speak to my spirit, “You stupid bootch! Give me that Shit!” He was talking about all that junk I had been holding on to that was actually holding me down and keeping me away from an intimate place with my Savior. You might be saying, “God would never say something like that!” To that I would say read your bible! Christ had no problem calling things what they were. I have a greater sense of freedom knowing that God wants me to be that transparent with Him. This experience has deepened my relationship with my Father and has brought me greater understanding of His heart. Be free from past hurts and religious pride that keep you from the heart of the Father today.
So, I’ve been getting to know this Wacom tablet and I have to say, “Pretty nice.” I’ve started a sires of videos on YouTube that are basically screen recordings of some sketching/ painting I’ve been doing with this nifty, little tool. You can see them all here: www.youtube.com/user/pomeroyjoshua
I just finished a piece that started with a quick sketch. I scanned it into Photoshop and finished it off there. It took me about 25min, but this vid shows it in about 4. The music is something I actually had been working on for a soundtrack piece for a youth series called Gifts coming out of the heart of Arnie McCall. This drawing is really just a representation of the experience of God’s intimate presence. Click the pic below to see it full-size:
