Shai Linne - theology rapper?

how do you feel about this? i tend to think it's fine, and not only fine but kinda of amazing. this guy puts more theology into one rap then most preachers put into a year of sermons! and that is the sad fact. the man is preaching flows that are biblically sound in doctrine, exalting Christ, Glorifying God, faithful to scripture, and not only that...... he is good. but i would like to know, what do you think about it?

by this time he stinketh:

john 11:39 Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath been dead four days.
Joh 11:40 Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God?
Joh 11:41 Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me.
Joh 11:42 And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me.
Joh 11:43 And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth.
Joh 11:44 And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go.


we all know this story front and back, but tonight when talking about this with a friend i saw something i have never seen or heard anyone else say about this text before.

let me just say ahead of time that this maybe a stretch, and maybe totally wrong. but i thought it was cool.

ok, so lets set the stage. Lazarus is dead, he has been in that state for 4 days. and like Martha said "by now he stinks". he had layed there wrapped up in his graveclothes rotting and stinking, thus he is in a cloud of stink. this no doubt had started to permeate the graveclothes, and they themselve now stank and where putrid. it is in this condition that Jesus comes to him. as the Spirit of God comes over this lifeless body, it sits up and he takes his first breath as a "born again" man. this breath is a lung full of rotting stench, you see. though he was born a new the clothes he was wrapped in where still full of the stink of death. are we not the same? inside, we are a fresh new man. born again by the grace of God, but outside! we are still wrapped in stinking rotting death clothes. but the story does not end there. the sweet words of our Lord cut through the stink, "Loose him, and let him go". praise God for the Day cometh when we to will be loosed of our graveclothes, loosed by the Lord of Glory!!

off to the woods...

so i spent my memorial day in a cabin with friends and family. it was really nice to get away, and even better to do it in a place that was so beautiful. for the first time in my life i saw a haron rookery. and now your saying what in the world is that? that's where harons give birth to their little babies. or lay and hatch eggs i guess, being birds and all. anyway, we where walking through this lush nature park when all of a sudden we come to this wide open wet lands. at first all i saw was dead trees and stinky swamp. but then i look up and these huge nests full of harons, i love these birds. not only are they big, but they look so cool in flight. then i got to thinking how God used this dead place to bring forth abundant life. what a contrast, rotting trees as dead as dead gets. but up in the old branches that once where so full of life, life springs forth once again. God is great!!

(these are not my pics)

Calvinist's are so negitive...

on ask Pastor John today a guy wrote in and asked why Calvinists are so negative. are they? here is what i think is going on, the arminian tends to think about God as all Loving. it seems to come out in every debate i have ever heard. that unless there is a free will choice then God is not loving. i have heard them say things like this, "imagine you come home to your wife and bring a beautiful bunch of flowers, now if she has to force you to buy those flowers she will not feel loved. its only when she knows you bought them of your own free will that she knows you love her." and i have heard this, "imagine you and your wife are on an island your entire life, now until you get off the island and have other choices of women, your wife will never know if you truly love her." now, i could go on for hours about whats wrong with those two analogy's, but this is not what i am getting at though so ill try and stick to it. the problem is this, Arminian theology paints a loving God who would not break this so call "love code" thing that they use to debate with. if thats how they see God then how do you think they see a group of people who say God is not that way, not good i'm sure. so i think we need to try and keep that in mind when we talk and debate with Arminian's. that way we can be loving to!

Institutes of the Christian Religon

i have wanted to read Calvin's Institutes for some time now. well, i finally bought a two volume set tonight. i have read only two pages so far so i do not have much to write about but i wanted to do a small introduction.

The book was written as an introductory textbook on the Protestant faith for those with some knowledge of the Christian Faith, he ended up addressing it to the King of france as a kind of Christain apoligetic. First published in 1536 Calvin was just 27 years old, and save for a few revisions it remains pretty much the way he first penned it to this day. after reading just a taste of he work in the institutes i can see why it has rfemained one of the staples of the Christian faith. Calvin's writing is very deep and thoughtful, but not to hard to grasp. so far i have found it more reader friendly then Jonathan Edwards Religious Affections, but time will tell. i will post more about the theology of the Institutes as i get into them. so till then...ttfn

midnight thoughts

so, it's no longer mothers day, but i thought i would post a fast HAPPY MOTHERS DAY!! to all mothers out there. I lost my mother very suddenly about three years ago, hence this is not the easyest of all days for me. but, I talked to a buddy of mine a few hours back and he said something that reminded me and helped me get through. See, his mother passed about a year ago and he was having a hard time today as well, but he was struggling with something that never even crossed my mind today. "where is my mom now?" he asked. She never had a chance to get saved before she died, leaving her son to wonder this very ominous question. This was a question (like i said that i had not thought of) see my mother was saved before she died. That made me think back to the day i found out. I remember sitting in Bible class and my ex girlfriend showing up. All i could think was what in the world is she dong in my church. I was waiting for her to burst into flames or something i had never seen her in a church. But no, my phone was off yet they knew where to find me and they sent her to get me. I ran down to my phone and called my sister (in Hawaii) she told me right away our mother was gone. She had drown in a shallow swimming cove at a resort in Oahu Hawaii. Even though there was i rock wall to break the waves and current, a freak wave had crashed over the wall just as she was swimming on the other side and just like that..... she was gone .The very first thing i did was thank God he saved my mother. I just kept saying over and over in my head, Oh Thank you God! Thank you Jesus! for saving my mother. Having that knowledge and faith that my mother was happy and safe with our God and our Saviour got me through one of the hardest times of my life. It got me through today as well.

a new look,

so, as i said it's not always going to be about God! today it's about the blog. as you can see we have a new look here at thoughtsongodbydave.blogspot.com , i did not really think there was anything wrong with it before but.. it gets old looking at the same old lay out over and over ya know. i had been playin around with this template for some time and i never put it up cuz it's one you see alot. but i liked this lay out to much to not keep it. so hope everyone likes it. enjoy!