The Tree of Hostility

I wrote this song lyrically in about 3 minutes... It just overwhelmed me while Pastor Brian was preaching last Sunday in first service... Here's the Lyrics:

Friendship, forgiveness love thats shown to me

Oh how Jesus heals, His stripes were bore for thee

Healed from our hostility and broken there to be

Full of love to see the glory of he who resides next to me

Fear has no future for us

Love conquers all through our trust

On the tree of hostility He bore our hate to be

Forever forgotten in Thee

Healed from a cancer we choose not to see

broken in our righteous indignity

by He who received the hanging on this tree

from enemy's hostility

Oh Love rescue us from this

Oh love take our enemies

and make them friends to be

For Hayley...

We're as sick as our secrets...

First read this...

MTV Article on Hayley Williams indiscriminate twitpic

Whether it was a stunt, an honest mistake, or a hack. The fact that a topless picture of the singer/songwriter (of which I am a huge fan) that hit her twitter for over 600,000 of her followers to see is disturbing and sad. For many this will effect the way many see her. I for one don't know what to think except...

For over a week now I've been meditating on what Pastor Michael Welchert said during his sermon a couple of Sundays ago. "We're as sick as our secrets" he said. And then kept right on moving through his sermon which was on anger from the Sermon On The Mount. The whole purpose of his message is that God looks upon our hearts. For this is where the sinful nature which constantly breaks God's laws is found.

I wish once and for all when something like this happens and it becomes easy to ridicule, that we all look at ourselves with honesty and in humility realize we are ALL guilty of sin. In that light we love and forgive. Period. No strings attached. Jesus died on the cross. He is our judge and jury. We have no place in the matter but to do what we have seen Him do and that is in any occasion where someone is embarrassed or defamed we hold them in high regard and forgive and defend. For she is human. Just like me. Just like you. I'm still going to buy her records. I'm still going to support Paramore. They have a great message. There music is killer and they have saved many lives. Whether they know it or not Good is using them.

Let this be a lesson to us all before we slander one another...

WE ARE AS SICK AS OUR SECRETS

From my point of view...

I try to be an observant dude. And I've noticed in my short 26 year existence that history keeps repeating itself... Its simple. Things change. As soon as they do people gravitate towards the change or away from the change. The thing that sucks about this little paradox is that each side develops enmity toward the other... I'm not sure I understand the cause. But the issue of humanity (other than sin and separation from God) is that we hate anything different.
Hence nationalism, racism, sexism, policialpartyism and any other ism we can create that causes segregation. No government is going to end this little problem... Only Christ can end this problem. Only through loving your neighbor as yourself... and loving your enemies, and turning the other cheek can we unite into something powerful that will actually make an impact across the economical, social, racial, national and political lines we have drawn.

It all comes down the Jesus answer to the question, "What is the greatest commandment?"

"And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets." Matthew 22:37-40 ESV

What a Night.....

Ive been having some rough nights at work recently, but this one takes the cake. If I could've picked the most horrible thing to happen t any time or location in the warehouse, this would have been it.
It all starts with a phone call yesterday from my boss telling me to come in early so that we can scrape the snow off of the ceiling in the ice cream freezer. Now before we go on let me explain. That means I have to be 35 feet in the air and the "snow" had become ice more solid than a brick. Mind you this is in a room that is kept at -25 degrees or lower. So My boss and I get on this little lift as seen here...
You can see some snow on the floor... Its brutally cold in there.
So My boss and I finish one corner and move to the main area we had to deal with. We spent 30 minutes or so hacking away at thick ice that had cemented itself to the ceiling. One piece fell right on me and as I turned away it hit me right on the right hip bone. It hurt. But its whatever you know. I'm tough. I can handle this. I mean hell, I'm handling the 35 ft in the air pretty well to this point. So after the 30 minutes working on this section our fingers and toes were starting to freeze. The top of the lift was overhanging the rack so we could get close enough to use the ice picks. Well, as we get ready to get down, the lift wont move forward! Its stuck in this position, which means the rack is blocking the descent. Ummm... PROBLEM!
So after 5 minutes of failing to get this piece of faulty equipment to move, I ask, "should I call Kevin?" Kevin is my awesome coworker who was taking care of the normal duties at this point. And its against warehouse rules to have your cell. But this makes it okay!!!! My boss said, "Yes, Call him now. ...Hope he answers!"
I got a hold of him. He couldn't get anything done from ground level either! So now it has been 45 freak'n minutes in the frigid cold and I'm 35 FEET IN THE AIR! I begin to plan my escape route... I will climb down the rack if there isn't anything happening in another fifteen minutes. Kevin goes and gets the supervisors. They can't figure it out either. I'm literally shaking uncontrollably from the cold now. My feet and hands are burning. I was getting pissed.
Ten minutes later the supervisors finally get another forklift in there with a cage on it. They lift the rickety cage and my boss and I climb on. Down we go! and I head straight for the "hotbox" which is a 4 foot by 8 foot little room with a gigantic heater made for moments lie this. It took me an hour to thaw out. When I left work this morning the lift was still stuck there. They think the mechanical hardware couldn't handle the extreme cold for that long... I hour and the machine broke down in the cold. We were in there for 90 minutes!!!!!
Thank God this night is over. I'm proud of myself for not freaking out completely... But it was a close call. like I said. 5 more minutes and I was going to climb down because after that 5 more minutes my hands would've been too cold to grip anything.
I'm not looking forward to finishing this job. I hope Kevin gets a shot at it next time. haha.

Recording gear and a fantastic weekend!

I purchased an m-box and pro tools 8 essentials last weekend along with an st51 mic and have been playing music nonstop since I got it all set up. Im so excited to start laying down tunes that have been in my head for almost 18 months now. I feel so energized its just unfair...

If you want to check out my rough demo tunage then head over to my myspace.

Once a watchman, Always a watchman...

This is my last night in the Upper Room as Watchman. To say I am a little emotional about it is quite an understatement. I'm going to attempt to explain what this position has and does mean to me.

First of all I want to dispute the assumption that this job is one that consists of only Xbox games and goofing off. These things have happened on occasion, but that's part of life - distractions. I'd like to say that I prayed for an hour or two every night, but not so. I'd like to say that I spent hours worshipping in song every night, but also not so. 

Neither is that a failure. As I reflect on the time I have been a watchman, (almost 4 years now), I realize that the things that were most important were things that most people would find foolish. Two things come to mind...

First - As a watchman you get the incredible opportunity to experience the discipline of solitude. This discipline is why I am who I am today. Without it the decisions I make throughout the ever day grind would be simply reactionary. Instead I am much more methodical and purpose driven in each situation I come across. Its in these moments of solitude that I reflect on past decisions and take note of how to practically become a better man and Christian. This makes the greatest commandments quite a bit easier to achieve. 

  "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind..." - Luke 10:27a

This is the easier part of the law. To love the One who died for my punk ass screwed up self isn't really that difficult. I mean... He saved a wretch like me. Get it?! We are all wretched bastards undeserving of the greatest Love in the universe of universes. Yet, we still receive it freely by the phenomenal Grace of God.

"...and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself" Luke 10:27b

Now this is the part of the commandment where we are called by God to be like God and love the undeserving just as He has. He made great example of it on the cross and continues to show mercy by allowing us to experience that exact way of life through the Holy Spirit. It is only with the help of the Holy Spirit do we even have a chance of loving our neighbors as ourselves. Without His constant guidance we are selfish murderers with nothing to gain and everything to lose. Its when you give yourself away to help someone in need that we truly experience the love of Christ. For in this moment we find Christ at work within us. I'm mean WOW!!!  Does that not stir you?!

Second - As a watchman I have been able to be a great many things to many different people. All of them important. 

"To the weak became I as weak, that I might gain the weak: I am made all things to all [men], that I might by all means save some" - I Cor. 9:22 

From praying for a woman in need of a pastoral type prayer at 4am when there are no pastors around, to spending quality time with the a bro, to being the only friend of a 400lb social outcast - these are my favorites. These are the things that make differences in peoples lives. Sermons, worship songs, and great sayings pail in comparison to the love of one person to another. Relationship - This is when we are living all these things out in real life. - This is true discipleship - A phone call at 3am from someone asking if they could just spill there guts to you or someone hanging out shooting the breeze just so they don't feel the loneliness for an hour or two.

This has been my heart and my life for the past 4 years. Of course I've screwed up just as much as anyone else. But one thing I will not concede is that I wasted precious time. I loved on people. This is my life. My goal. My greatest Passion. I am only able to love because HE FIRST LOVED ME.

Its the miraculous at work that I'm even able to love.

 - Justin Pickerel - Once a watchman, always a watchman...

Forgiveness

   My life has been very interesting lately. I've been reading a lot, listening to a lot of worship music and J.E.W. accompanied by a new workout routine!

  Friendships are more and more precious to me. And every friendship seems to have a 'glory' about it. God has just been tearing me up recently and I guess it has been showing up there too. I'm getting teary eyed just thinking about how good I have it (even though I'm single ha ha). Jesus is amazing and I have a longing for Him again. There was a time not that long ago that the only feeling I had towards Christ was that of disregard. 

  It all changed while I was watching a movie (as these things often do!) Pay It Forward was the movie. I had never seen it before and caught up to it about halfway. I'm not going to ruin it for you if you haven't seen it but the end is killer. Anyway, I got towards the end and something happens in the movie that deals with forgiveness. And the Holy Spirit just whispered the words I FORGIVE YOU as this one character in the movie says them. I was obviously floored. Literally! I hit the floor and freaking lost it like everyone I had ever known just died. Convulsing.

   You see, I prayed only one prayer the previous 11 months (along with a ton of messing up my life, my way). That prayer was simple and had only been whispered about 10 days prior to this incident. The prayer was, "Bring me back. I don't care how. Just start me towards You."

    Its funny how we forget our prayers sometimes. But faithfully and thankfully He remembers!

"If we are faithless, He will remain faithful..."

God is ALWAYS listening. And He will remember...

 Kind of puts our own personal goals of revenge/bitterness into perpsective. Forgiveness is ours to give just as it is for us to receive. We are instruments of forgiveness. Let us all be like Christ.

...Lord, I love You with all I am. I long for You. I want to see You... I want to touch You and thank You in person for what You've done for me. You are the very definition of greatness. I will worship You for the rest of  my days...