Tag: American Dream

Sermon At My Church

On By jareddiehl88In 3415612, ADDICTION, Blogroll, Book Reviews, California, CHRSTIAN LIVING, CHURCH, Community, Culture, CULTUREPOP, DAILY LIFE, DEPRESSION, Eternity, FAMILY, FILM, Film Reviews, Football, HighSchool, Hollywood, Hunger and thirst, ihop, Jesus, Jesus Christ, Kingdom Of God, Los Angeles, LOVE, MANHOOD, Mental Health, MISSION STATEMENTLeave a comment

I got to preach last month at our Sunday night service. Got to speak on Righteousness. It has been such a blessing being at New Life in Pomona. I love this place! Thank you Cody, Craig and Billy.

Teenager

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Older Poem from a couple years ago..

To all the teens that have passed through Kansas City and to all the
teens that skate in my neighborhood, this is for you. The song
‘Teenage Wasteland” by The Who ring real loud. For I don’t want to be
one that wastes that time I have been given and I don’t want to see a
generation wasted away either. Here’s my reflection.
Teenager
Teenage wasteland cries out from
The ground, there are souls all
Around, their skateboards
Hit the ground, their dreams
Hit the clouds, their memories
Are real loud

The teen and the American dream
Hit me in the chest and take me
To the best places

Hope they need, can they succeed,
Kickflipped they live, hardflipped
Over and over by a world that
Forgets living forever, skaters
Jaded, jeans ripped, sun stripped
With the beach in the purview,
With dreams in the rear view,
Goths and punks, smoke
Smelling of skunks, dried
And tried they are, tired of
Corporate lies, the machine
Doesn’t faze them, the world
Does haze them

For misunderstood they walk
For parenthood is the chalk
That chases and draws the
Dead bodies in the cement
Does it ever occur that these
Kids are the future? The change,
The groove, the point to prove
Or have I lived to long in my
Own waste of time and gadgets
And endless sunsets of days
Gone by, have I been to busy
To see the skaters and the haters
That walk by me daily, hopped
Up on their ipods, hopped up
On drugs, have I become just
As needed as them—in need of
The wasteland to end and life
To begin
To the teens of America
Help me understand these
Gaps I live in

Ever Changing Terrain

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Down with the roaches

Now I have all these approaches

Lowly on a colt

Lightning in the bolt, I am full of the cult

I sipped it for years—

Are we sick with wondering

Or are we just wandering?

Hopeless romantic,

Feeling pedantic,

The rules have changed

The terrain has shifted

No longer does man choose love or

Choose good or choose anything anymore?

Lovers of self, lovers up on the shelf,

Saving mercy for a rainy day,

A storm to come,

Our love is on numb,

This pain is growing

The gadgets are losing their grip

Its an endless maze of what is next—

Bigger, faster but worse and worse it

Gets—cycles of regret, adulthood is

An ever evolving force–

Its remorse, but really it is not

Its regret but really its apathy

Its pleasure, its endless pleasure

But to what measure? To what end?

To where now can we comprehend?

Its evil all around, its a lie to believe anything else

Its still a choice, I choose heaven, not Hell

Putting Away Childish Things

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1Cor.13:11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.

How you mature into an adult is largely based on your revelation and experience of God’s love. If fear is a result of no love or very little then a fear of growing up takes place. Taking ownership of your emotions, experiences, and choices all flows from a high vision of God’s goodness. If we are immature then it could be from a low vision or no vision of who God says He is. I seek to mature and to help others do the same. Paul is also telling us to put away childish ways in community not just as individuals. Thoughts?

Thoughts On Prophecy

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If the prophetic word is people repeating what everyone else repeats then either it seems original but it’s not or God uses fluffy empty words to test the church. It seems like the abundance of words that all sound the same says more about our lack of depth in the word then the words themselves.

I love prophecy for edification and building up but on the other side is the fact that I don’t need anymore words or confirmations.I have the written word and is that not enough? Sometimes we crave direction from the “prophet” instead of abiding in the one that we are to follow with our all of our hearts. The tension will always be what has already been said and how to test what is being said. I crave the real thing. (Ephesians 4:14-15)

Just A Thought On Some Sermons

On By jareddiehl88In 3415612, ADDICTION, Blogroll, Book Reviews, California, CHRSTIAN LIVING, CHURCH, CommunityLeave a comment

Their is a common misconception to how we are to present the truth. Most of our approach aims at getting people to do three things: 1. Stop your bad thoughts 2. Say good things over yourself 3.tap into some inner goodness and when you do you will and can treat people better.

I don’t know everything but I do know that many sermons can have these three semi true things in them. It hurts our ears to hear that none is righteous no not one! But freedom comes when we rejoice in the good news because of the bad news. I am awesome in God and also not awesome ever because of my pride and arrogance. Their is no such thing as stopping bad thoughts or simply just conjuring up positive phrases for morning mirror time(though I look in the mirror all the time smile emoticon ) yes and no to all of this. I replace the bad with something true and I speak what is true but part of being a truth lover is realizing both sides of the story. I am royalty and I am also homeless. I am blessed but I also don’t deserve anything God has chosen to give me. I am not special even if my third grade teacher said I was. Jesus is special but not always does it need to be my unique traits have to outweigh who God is.

A little rant for you. The older I get the more I realize what I need and what we need is both sides of this sword called the Gospel. Thoughts?

Mercy List

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Inspiration comes from many places. Most of the time it is from a reaction to what is happening around you that goes to a deeper place of what is going on inside of you mixed with some music that plays in your ipod…this is one of those reflections in light of the last few days..(the endless barrage of facebook comments on gay marriage)

Plane Mercy on the runway

Living like a runaway—carried

Away with darkness, at the edge

Of night, with bright eyes for the

Fight, Skinny love for the skinny latte,a

For the drinks you never drink,

For the shots on the jetway,

For the Samsonite of dreams

You carry so closely, endless

Nights of the getaway—the world

Is ready for a change, a change of

Heart—mercy cries out from inside

Of me, blinders for the blunders,

Pain for the miracles we don’t see—

Faith is of little substance to the

Stubborn heart—

Mercy for the start,

O God, mercy for the finish.

Mercy for the bumper sticker

Fish and its Darwin defeat,

Mercy for the politics in the

Name of love, mercy for the

Next president that sleeps in

Arrogance, that blinks with

Weary eyes, mercy for the

Red eyes in me, that want to

Live what I say,

Mercy for the jetway,

This plane is leaving soon

Mercy for the travels soon

To come, for the mission You

Give us

Mercy for the form

Mercy for the form without power

Mercy for the self-righteous parts of

This fight,

Mercy for the marriages on display

Mercy for the kids not yet spoken

For, mercy for the little sister,

Mercy for the boredom,

Mercy for the borders,

Mercy for the edges of Your ways

For where are they recently?

Mercy for the grace I need,

Mercy to try and succeed

Mercy for the love You have

Mercy for the vapid sentences

For the rapid memories of this

Small existence,

Mercy for the colors in the rainbow

For the division in me, for the racist

Slurs beneath my breath, for

The slow giving of second chances

For the debts I collect when love

Has no record of owing anything, no loans,

No recollection of dysfunctions way past

Your bed time, mercy for the bad dreams,

Mercy for the depressed lost in the dark,

Mercy for the spark we call zeal, we call

God willing I die in red, white and blue!

Mercy for this land we call freedom,

Mercy for bleeding abortion,

Mercy for the hemorrhage of

Judgment that seems to be rising

On the inside, mercy for the flames

We call the future, mercy for the Lake

Of Fire, but mercy for Daniel’s fire,

A fiery river of righteous,

Mercy for the way we say it

Mercy for the way we must live it

Mercy for the cracks we have

Caused, for the apples we have

Taken without Your permission,

Mercy for the three day rule of

Speaking things out, mercy for

The thrice days of resurrection

Ways, of dying again to being

The center of attention,

Mercy for the things I say

But more mercy for the

Things I don’t do,

Mercy for the lack of

Follow through, for not

Really following You,

Til death do us part

In sickness and in health

In rainbows or in puddles

Of quicksand, of problems

Just for living on this land

For saying Yes to Christ

No matter the cost,

For seeking the lost

For living for love

Mercy for our lack of

Grace and our zealous

Love for the truth diplayed

In the wrong ways

Mercy for the future

That you hold in the

Palm of Your hands

Father’s Day Thoughts

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From my Facebook page:

Sometimes I wonder if pain from parents in our child hood has a dynamic connection to who we are in Christ and where we are going in God. It can be a form of warfare from the enemy. But the key is to honor and be a peacemaker in our relationships. I do believe in generational curses/sin but the way in which the curse gets broken is in one word: change. Change and do what it takes to not follow any form of brokenness that has been passed down to you. All of this starts with gratitude and honor for where you are at today and how much Father’s are apart of our journey.

Some comments from my FB page:

Facebook Discussions: Love and Lawlessness

On By jareddiehl88In ADDICTION, CHRSTIAN LIVING, CHURCH, Community, Culture2 Comments

It seems controversial to say that God’s love is the most important thing we could ever pursue and in just reading Paul we see that we gain nothing, we are nothing and we have nothing without God’s love. However, it is just as controversial to only talk about love apart from the entirety of who God is apart from love but not seperate from love. The book Love Win’s stirred so much confusion yet in essence the title itself is part of the problem. It is not just about God’s love. In regards to Hell it is not just about love. Hell is not for those who didn’t learn how to love. Hell is for those that did not repent. It is for those that did not believe. It is for those that lived in wickedness. I know what many would think in hearing this: this is just what us Christians do..we condemn people and tell everyone they are going to Hell!

Well, yes and no. All I am saying is that God’s love is one part of the story and in its own sort of revolving way the main part of the story. Yet, lawlessness is what causes people’s love to grow cold. A love of pleasure rather then the love of God is what marks the end-time heart posture. We cannot preach love without also preaching repentance. We cannot talk just about loving without also realizing how depraved and wicked we are and can be.

I think the response of the “world” that Christians just condemn other people is probably true a lot of the time but we have to ask ourselves why that is? If we just talk about love with sentiment attached to it then what difference do we make? THe Gospel has all of God and all of God is scary good. Clearly from 1 Cor. 6 and Ephesians 5 love is not really mentioned in those who do not inherit the Kingdom of God. Love and holiness and God’s righteousness all flow together and all work together. It is also interesting to add that John the Baptist didn’t talk about love He talked about repentance for the Kingdom was near’ and the result of his ministry was getting his head chopped off. Thoughts?

Business Card

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It’s a Sunset boulevard kind of hard

The one with the fancy business card

Apostle it should say for this Prophet

To pay to stay—I am wild now in a newer

Kind of way, bus stops daily in this city called

A cavity, called a dearth of ideas and an earth

Of repairs needed—I hoist up this pride for

Lord Stanley to take it from me, nothing in

This life ever seems free—free fall for the

Past days of sunset getaways, to much

Sand to sift through now but I am lost

Never for the wrong reasons, it was once

With the many seasons but better is getting

Bigger for this heart is expanding for You—

Happy is a disease that eats away at us,

Fast cars and tight clothes, the more skin

The more sin to peel back, naked and ashamed

In that garden rain, sin was plain to paste, to

Private to post—where are you now?

I am hiding on Sunset boulevard

I am passing out my starry business

Card—Apostle is me for have I not seen

The Lord? He is risen, He is in heaven but

Is He living in me? Hard is overrated, rather

Impossible is the future—how to love better

Than the past warfare seasons—we have not seen

Anything yet

The best storms are the one’s You create,

Love like an umbrella, better than Coachella is

A sound to come, a new Song to sing, but deep

Is where we got to go, deep into that uncomfortable

Are the blind at our feasts? Or are we to blind to see?