What is it that has my mind so hypnotized?

A state of definition. A state of being. From the birth we don’t remember and to the death we can’t predict we just shuffle onward, balancing our lives in between what we know as concrete and what we feel as possible. These are some of the things I feel the Eluvium song, The Motion Makes Me Last, is trying to channel to me. The song, in essence, is stripped down to bare essentials yet containing the concreteness of words to direct the emotions felt from within the song. My favorite line:

“What is it that has my mind so hypnotized?

Shapes are for looking at

and their colors create my mood

I’m a vessel between two places I’ve never been.”

There is no “fat” in this song, no sounds or noise that are unnecessary and detract from the overall message conveyed. And that simplicity is what makes it so beautiful. Just like the Gospel that we make so complicated, so wordy, so bloated that often times detract from the amazing love that God bleeds for us everyday of our lives.

Founder’s Week

The pastor’s illustration:

He was driving a car in Scotland and turned the wrong way on a one way street. There was a large collision of two vehicles. The person in the other vehicle came out with a look of fury on his face and said, “Somebody’s going to pay!” pointing at the wreckage.

And isn’t that true? Somebody has got to pay when things are ruined. It doesn’t ever just go away and won’t just disappear. When we mess up, we have to pay. The downfall of man is two sided, one from man’s point and one from God’s point. Man goes on to think that he’s just not that bad. He does his best to do what he can and sometimes messes up but he doesn’t ever think in his heart that he is evil. The denial of the necessity of God is at the heart of man. From God’s view, He in all His Holiness, can not overlook any of our sinfulness. So then if the damager can not realize his damage and the damagee can not overlook it, what is to happen?

And this is the debt that Christ pays. The debt that is too large for God to overlook and for us to pay. He came to pay the price for the sins He had never committed. Because somebody had to pay, He was tortured, nailed on a cross between two criminals in a bitter wasteland. He came to do what he could not do for ourselves in an unbelievably, foolish loving way. And there’s no mistake about how foolish it was to save us, just like how foolish it is to pay the cost of the accident for a person who makes the wrong turn on a one way street. It’s inconceivable the love that flowed that day to set the guilty free.

Christ has paid the price for our sins at enormous cost. So let’s not go on living like we can attain purpose and salvation but rather live like we have been freed from a debt that could never be payed off for something that was completely our faults.

*EDIT*

Recently I just had a spiritual revelation and I must attribute it all to God just working in my life. While things weren’t going right all the time, God really started showing me where I have fallen short for years, ever since I started serving. To really some it up, God lead me to hear Phil Vischer’s  (the creator of Veggietales) testimony which really completely my realization and helped me desire God in a way I haven’t for years. Really I urge people to listen to his testimony but I know people are going to think whatever and not listen or think they’re too busy. But I really can’t help but share this just for the chance that it might speak to someone, even a small portion of the way it spoke to me. I realize I was missing one of the most fundamental parts of being a Christian, truly loving God. So with no further ado, here is a recording of Phil Vischer speaking for Founder’s Week at Moody!

Phil Vischer speaking at Moody