To Speak Life and Love

murraymelder:

In Jesus’ earthwalk He was labeled a radical. Every position He took was considered radical. He loved people radically. He preformed radical miracles. He preached radical spiritual principles. He was martyred radically. HE ROSE FROM THE DEAD RADICALLY.

…but Jesus was no radical. He was just being Himself, walking in the fullness of who His Father said He is.

Confidence in who you are doesn’t make you a radical. It makes you; YOU. Be who JESUS says you are. Be yourself.

I speak my mind to unresponsive ears

I pour out my heart along with these tears

I send myself to the war and make myself vulnerable  

But because i’m honest i’m sent back to the wolves

I speak my heart cause i care and you don’t

Your tapped in this trapped, the vault of all vaults

Because theres no life i put my throat to the knife

I pour out this Love But you cannot see the Light

These ears, so unresponsive, so unloving, so uncaring 

These ears, so unresponsive, so unloving, so uncaring 

She only comes out after trials and heartache 

She only comes out after you’ve seen hell

She will come when called if you know who to ask

And because of her you’ll live to tell the tail

Rejected by many, thats just the life of her part

Oh ears of unresponse just listen to my heart

My motives are clear, my heart is on the line

You need her now but you say your just fine

I would Love for your love to be Loved by many

But you must know the Source before you speak any

Don’t be thrown to the wolves like a have before 

Just follow me and I’ll show you the Door

The door to life, the door to freedom, the door to Love, and to a kingdom

She comes with the Source that leads to the door 

When they come together they change who you are

Oh unresponsive hearts! open your ears!

There is only Love to be shown, no reason for fear

I speak my heart cause i care and you don’t

Your trapped in this trap, the vault of all vaults 

You are my Supernatural Romance

You removed the blanket that covered my heart

You removed the veil that covered my eyes

You pursued me in this never-ending dance

Because of You I’ve obtained the highest mark

Because of You I have the freedom from lies

You’ve opened my heart and poured in your Trust 

You’ve filled my heart with Your overflowing Love

You’ve taken my soul that I have given away

You came and died so that my spirit is set free

You will reach out Your hand and take me like a dove

You will reach out and no longer will there be rust

My mind has been opened to understand Your Word

My eyes have been unsealed to see your Truth

So that i may trust You with everything that I have

so that I can Love You with everything that I am

So i can be Christ to this Loveless world

So You can see me as a pearl

There’s an empty hole in your heart, you won’t admit it to anybody

You know its there but your just scared

Just accept this forgiveness that He has presented 

Just relay the gift of Love that He has given

Your past doesn’t matter when you step into this new conception

Old things have passed away

God’s forgiveness in beyond comprehension to those who try

But just believe like a child and you will find life

Life more abundant in forgiveness and grace 

Life more fulfilling and a reason for this race

As we grow in this compassion and discover anew His Love

We see that His word in more than just a book to be read or melody to be sung

There’s a life to be lived because of His forgiveness 

A life of freedom and Love to be passed on to generations to come

There is no price to be paid or sacrifice to be made

 Just receive this forgiveness He gave

But don’t abuse Grace, thats not what its there for

Live in Him and He in you 

For to be intertwined with Christ and his will is to be the dust of the earth, caught up in the wind, never to be let down again

Because of His grace He gave us a choice

A choice undeserved to make our own decisions

A choice to turn to the path of self-righteousness

But we also have the choice to Love

A choice to praise God

A choice to experience the power and presence of the Spirit

To except this gift would be the key to it all

To know that you are Loved

And to know that you are forgiven 

DALLAS (AP) — To get to church on a recent Sunday morning, the Yeldell family walked no farther than their own living room to greet fellow worshippers.

The members of this “house church” are part of what experts say is a fundamental shift in the way U.S. Christians think about church. Skip the sermons, costly church buildings and large, faceless crowds, they say. House church is about relationships forged in small faith communities.

In general, house churches consist of 12 to 15 people who share what’s going on in their lives, often turning to Scriptures for guidance. They rely on the Holy Spirit or spontaneity to lead the direction of their weekly gatherings.

“I think part of the appeal for some in the house church movement is the desire to return to a simpler expression of church,” said Ed Stetzer, a seminary professor and president of Lifeway Research, which is affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. “For many, church has become too much (like a) business while they just want to live like the Bible.”

House church proponents claim their small groups are sort of a throwback to the early Christian church in that they have no clergy and everyone is expected to contribute to the teaching, singing and praying.

They are more commonly seen in countries where Christianity is not the dominant religion. Organizers say they’re just starting to take off in the U.S.

A study by the Barna Group, a firm specializing in data on religion and society, estimates that 6 million to 12 million Americans attend house churches. A survey last year by the Pew Forum found that 9% of American Protestants only attended home services.

“The only consistent thing about house church is that each one is different,” said Robin Yeldell, who, in 2006, left a traditional church where he was a missions committee chairman.

The gathering at the Yeldell’s home is a lively, sometimes chaotic event, with noisy and mostly happy young children flitting about.

After a time of fellowship, everyone gravitates to the kitchen table to observe the Eucharist with prayer, pinched-off pieces of sourdough bread and red wine in plastic cups. There’s grape juice for the kids.

The celebration continues with a potluck meal. When they return to the living room, one member picks up a guitar to strum praise-and-worship songs that others softly sing.

Sparked by a previous discussion about whether they should start collecting an offering for the needy, Yeldell shares a Power Point presentation he created about “corporate giving” on his big screen TV.

The majority seems averse to a regular offering, preferring to take up a collection only when a need or charitable cause arises.

As if on cue, Sean Allen, a laid-off welder who is now homeless with health issues, joined their gathering late. The soft-spoken 39-year-old said he had been sick and struggling to pay some bills.

“I’m just here,” Allen told fellow worshippers. “Do what you want. Let the Lord lead your heart.”

Allen, who recently converted to Christianity from Islam, said a friend at a traditional church introduced him to the house church, which he prefers and occasionally attends because “they’re more down to earth.”

A few people agreed to write checks directly to the companies Allen owes while some debated whether money is the best way to help the man. A couple with five young children told him they couldn’t afford to assist financially but he was always welcome to join them in their home for meals.

“I’d say the vast majority of house churches we know are Christians honestly trying to live 24-7 for Jesus,” said Tony Dale of Austin. He and his wife, Felicity, are pioneers in the American house church movement which is also referred to as home church, organic church or simple church.

There aren’t any signs out front so house churches are difficult to find. Prospective worshippers usually locate them by searching the Internet or through word of mouth.

Members rotate the services from house to house and take turns facilitating the gatherings. Anything more than about 15 people and the small group loses its ability to interact with each person, churchgoers say.

When they get too large, they divide and multiply.

“We view it as natural to grow, flourish and disband into three or four new ones,” Dale said. “Not everything multiplies. Sometimes it shrinks and dies.”

Sometimes congregations with diverse religious backgrounds break up over doctrinal issues or personality conflicts, moving on until they find or create a better fit.

In Texas, home to several megachurches, the house church movement is beginning to catch on, judging from the chatter on social networking sites and interest in a national house church conference organized by House2House Ministries held in the Dallas area in recent years.

“Often when you see a trend (like the growing number of megachurches) you see a counter-trend, like the proliferation of micro-churches,” Stetzer said.

The Dales are among those actively working to bring mega- and micro-churches together.

Tony Dale cites the Apex Community Church in Dayton, Ohio, and The Austin Stone Community Church in Austin as examples of the complementary approach. They operate a network of dozens of small house churches, which can band together to become big.

Some who embrace the concept “have become kind of disillusioned, maybe bored with what’s going on in traditional church and looking for a way to be more passionate in church,” said Dale, who co-founded House2House magazine.

Bill Benninghoff of Arlington, a former pastor of charismatic churches in Texas and North Carolina, has been attending house churches exclusively since 2005.

“You get to know people in their good and bad times,” said Benninghoff, a software engineer. “You get to pray with one another and have an incredible sense of camaraderie and community.”

Benninghoff said he and his wife “felt lost in the big church on Sunday.”

Reggie McNeal, a church leadership consultant based in South Carolina, said many people experimenting with house church have been doing so “under the radar,” especially in Bible Belt states.

“It’s kind of seen as an alternative or radical kind or approach,” he said. “An increasing number of people are saying that they don’t want to go to (any) church so there better be a way for church to just be where people already are.”

Although house churches emphasize shared leadership and lack hierarchy, there doesn’t seem to be a backlash from accredited seminaries devoted to training clergy to take leadership roles in traditional churches.

Dr. Nancy Ramsay, executive vice president and dean of Brite Divinity School in Fort Worth said interpreting Scripture for people of faith is an important responsibility but they respect those who see it differently.

“I wouldn’t want to say that we feel threatened by that,” Ramsay said. “We are concerned.”

She stressed that a greater challenge for various denominations is being able to financially support a full-time religious leader during these tough economic times.

House church advocates say that’s not an issue for them because they don’t have paid professional leaders.

“You don’t have to be dependent upon someone you hear at church to translate for you,” said author Neil Cole, who directs Church Multiplication Associates in Southern California, which has helped start hundreds of organic churches in the U.S. and abroad.

“God is capable of speaking your language and talking to you where you live and I think that’s attractive to people,” Cole said.

Drifting away from the Love of your life, you sway with the waters that cover the sea.

Going through motions and routines.

Drifting from the Light of Love, falling into this world and into its traps.

The Love that was once so close and so true has now become a small part of you.

Taken over by habits of Sunday morning and limiting church to a building.

The time spent with your Lover becomes more and more shallow and more and more habit.

But what can you do?

Where’s that desire that you once had to be adored by Christ, the Lover of your soul, to be filled with the Spirit and to be made whole?

The lukewarm water that surrounds the church has just become another part of this earth.

Don’t try and dig yourself out of this hole because you can’t, but summit to this Love and accept this Grace.

Don’t get stuck in routine that you forget to truly worship, don’t become lukewarm and not even know it.

Gone with the silence that left with the wind, gone with life not spoken by your fellow Christians.

The passion you had seems gone or disguised, you’ve become lukewarm and now you’ve realized the dangers of routines and dangers of life unspoken.

Realized that drifting is easier than staying unbroken.

But if you cling to this Love then life will prevail.

Don’t drift away from Hope but stay in Prayer.

Sent across the wires of deception.

But we know it’s only thrown to the impressionable generation expressing what’s needed to win this race we call life

But we see through what others don’t.

Built on the pyramid of lies that sex, drugs, and money is contentment. Not relationships and love, not God and truth.

Sex replacing love, drugs replacing relationships, money replacing God, and truth has disappeared with the true purpose of music which is to praise God and his design.

Poisoned with your words they live their lives, not knowing how much your message had changed them.

Slowly pulling them away from truth you creep into their ears and spread your lies.

What’s labeled as music is now just a message.

Oh undecided generation listen to these words and listen to the words of Christ.

Your music is your lifestyle, music is powerful, music will change your thoughts, and music can change the world.

Fellow followers don’t be trapped by music of this world and the lies that keep us from Christ.

But rejoice in your freedom that He has given.

Don’t be controlled by the message sent across your wires of deception, it is the pyramid of lies built by Satin himself only to influence the vulnerable and fracture the fragile.

But stand your ground in the reality of Truth and be Instruments of His hand.

What’s labeled as music is now just a message.

You’re so caught up in your self righteous ways that you miss the part that Love has played.

The point that Love is what to strive for not guidelines and religions, denominations and authority.

You judge those who are different and don’t follow your system.

Unlock the freedom given by Grace, given by the demonstrator of Love, the foundation of Love, and the possessor of Love.

He will judge you by the amount of Love that was shown, the seeds that were sown, not the rules that were fashioned and religions established by generation past.

Unlock the freedom given by grace.

I don’t care what’s tradition, what you’ve done for years. We were called to Love by submission to Christ.

We are called to be instruments of his hand, following the Spirit that was given, the Spirit that displays His plan and shows us we are forgiven.

Unlock the freedom given by grace.

Okay, so we’re different than those of religions; different than those following tradition.

Don’t look at us less. God sees us as Christ, not striving to be.

No judgment to you, nor pride to us. Don’t be bound by the regulations set before you.

Through Love disciples were made, through Love Christ’s work is displayed, through Love and Love alone were our transgressions paid.

Unlock the freedom given by grace.