Moving to Tumblr

Just a heads up, for the single few that read this, I won't be posting anything here anymore - not that I did that much anyways, but will try and be more active from tumblr.

http://www.tumblr.com/tumblelog/transparentcitizen

Thanks! and God Bless!

Brandon

Birds Falling and Fish Floating

"Therefore the land mourns, and all who dwell in it languish, and also the beasts of the field and the birds of the heavens, and even the fish of the sea are taken away." Hosea 4:3


Have you ever heard the adage, "Natural disasters have always happened, therefore no need to get alarmed."? The question that always ticks in my mind when I hear such things, when is the tipping point? When do we get to the point where we are alarmed. Does that point come when L.A. is crumbling and in the process of becoming Arizona Bay? Is the point when Manhattan completely submerged under 25 ft. of water. Or should that point be now? I don't believe in living in fear or running to the cave in complete isolation, but I do believe that we need to be ready for something that is going to come as an overwhelming surprise.  These disasters are happing all around the globe at an exponential rate.  http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/world/historical.php  Is that still not good enough? Do we need more proof? When do we wake up as a people, to start preparing ourselves for the traumatic events that will soon take place. More importantly when do we start preparing for eternity. As I study the Bible and read that the events that unfolding all around the world, to me they are just mere fulfillments of prophecy, signs that are to be visible reminders the end is near, that Jesus is coming very soon. Maybe its time to start preparing the ark.

The Battlefield Hollywood was a blessed success!! Thank you Upland Indonesian SDA church! And food was incredible. The people were lovely. A rich cultural church family experience! Thank you for inventing Little Light Studios!

Battlefield Hollywood

Packing up the car, tomorrow 6:00AM and heading south. Traveling the I-5 and praying that the weather won't keep us down. That is why we pray for traveling mercies, right? But why is the Little Light Studios team going to Southern California? Drum roll!!....

There is an Battlefield Hollywood weekend starting:


Friday night at 7:30 pm. 



For all you curious cats who might be wondering
where, none other than the:

            Upland Indonesian SDA Church.  

Be there and be square!!

            




            www.littlelightstudios.tv

One, Two, Clip...

As Fall and Winter bring a time of yard clean up and brush removal from the previous season, this time includes pruning the fruit trees, blackberry, blueberry, and raspberry bushes.  However of all the clipping and pruning, the experience that sticks with me  was that of grapevines. According to the old timers (and I suppose it is the industry standard) any vine branch that you intend to keep for the next growing season must be clipped two buds from stock. Counting up from the vine, One, Two...Clip. One, Two... Clip.  In addition any dead branches or branches that you anticipate will not receive any sunlight must be removed. One, Two...Clip. One Two...Clip. Clip, Clip. I find the job to be it to be therapeutic and contemplative - it is a nice reprieve from the ubiquitous techno world that I live in. 

While I was pruning my mind was jumping from one subject to the next, One, Two...Clip, I looked back on what I had finished and alas my vines looked naked, bare, cold and sad. As I looked at the branches that I had cut back I could see that they were secreting a fluid, almost as if weeping in pain. Taking all this in, my mind, as if in automatic response mode, jumps to the Biblical Gospel of John, chapter 15. In this chapter Jesus once again draws a powerful example from nature.  Ahh the simplicity of nature, the ABC’s of true education. Throughout the gospels Christ was often drawing on the surrounding environment to make examples of the Kingdom of Heaven that could readily be understood. This teacher from Nazareth, broke it down to such an elementary level that young children understood it as clear as day and yet to learned men, it was perceived to be of the most profound philosophical statements they had ever heard. 

Christ breaks it down this way: God the Father, He is the vinedresser, the gardener, the farmer, He is the one that does the pruning.  One, Two...Clip. Jesus is the Vine, He is the main stock that is rooted in the earth. Through Him, the branches (you and I) are nourished. You and I, are the branches. We are the ones that Christ enables to bear fruit. [“The fruit being Love, Joy, Peace, Longsuffering, Gentleness, Goodness, Faith, Meekness, Temperance” Galatians 5:22] . But it doesn’t stop there, Jesus told his disciples, “Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit.” John 15:2 ESV. There is this refining process that takes place which often times hurts, One, Two...Clip, it may be cold, it may be extreme, but the promise is that a bumper crop will follow! The branch however that will produce fruit, will not produce fruit in it of itself, but can only produce when it is connected to the vine. We are all called to bear much fruit but there is an order of things. We must grow in Christ and come out of Christ or as the Biblical text says, we must abide or remain in Christ. We must be pruned, refined and redfined, cut back by the Father. God the Father does this that we may be more like His son Jesus and the fruit that we bear as a result will be a testament of His love for us and humanity and in that love we are to abide. One, Two...Clip. One, Two...Clip.

Broken Hands

As I finished watching Citizen Architect: Samuel Mockbee and the Spirit of Rural Studio, I was struck with a sense of a selfless man, who by all appearances had no religious promptings (Christian that is) and who was driven to better the human condition in one of the most impoverished communities in the nation. This led me to re-evaluate my service to humanity and ask a few inward questions. 

What does it mean to alleviate the suffering, poor and down-trodden? Is it something that we as humans are called to do? And by taking measures to make sure these things take place, what is our motive? Does the motive drive the action or does the action drive the motive? Do we help the suffering because of a mindset that it will enhance the Christian experience and place us higher on God’s “atta boy” list? Or is it possible that we help, nurture, care for, and love the destitute because of the pure motive that we love God so much that we will do whatever He asks of us, that we are so intimately involved and in love with Christ that we will truly love our neighbor as ourselves.

“Is not this the fast that I choose:to loose the bonds of wickedness, to undo the straps of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into your house when you see the naked, to cover him...” Isaiah 58:6-7 ESV

“When the Son of man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory: and before Him shall be gathered all nations: and He shall separate them one from another.” Thus Christ on the Mount of Olives pictured to His disciples the scene of the great judgment day. And He represented its decision as turning upon one point. When the nations are gathered before Him, there will be but two classes, and their eternal destiny will be determined by what they have done or have neglected to do for Him in the person of the poor and the suffering. In that day Christ does not present before men the great work He has done for them in giving His life for their redemption. He presents the faithful work they have done for Him. DA 637                                                                                                                                

Christ has not called us to live a life of solitude but one of servitude. A servitude that is not for selfish gain, but one that is driven for a love of humanity. Be a follower of Christ and a leader of man. By following Christ, we become a leader of men; a leader that will be an exemplifies helping mend broken hands. 

As The Deer Panteth

As the deer pants for streams of water, so
my soul pants for you, my God. Psalms 42:1

Have you ever had that parched feeling in the back of your mouth because you were so thirsty that anything liquidous would satisfy. Have you ever been hiking and ran out of water only to realize that the car that has more water, is still three miles away. When that realization comes to fruition the tongue instantaneously becomes swollen, you get an headache, and your mouth in general becomes exceedingly hot (reminds of me those gum commercials that showed the temperature of your mouth before chewing their gum). Just as the Psalmist painted a picture of thirst that was only to be quenched by the cool, refreshing, pristine water, so we are to have our spiritual thirst quenched by Jesus via the Holy Spirit.

If there is or was ever the desire to have more than what the world is offering. A longing to have quenching of an dried and parched soul. An yearning to replace an lifeless Christian experience. An craving to be part of a movement that is more than an lifeless theory. “Then this is an evidence that Christ has wrought upon your heart, and created this sense of need in your soul, in order that He may be sought unto to do for you, through the endowment of the Holy Spirit, those things which it is impossible for you to do yourself.” [To Be Like Jesus” pg.350]

I know I long for these things. I know my sin ridden life thirsts for righteousness. I know my soul wants that which is beautiful, pure and Holy. But this quenching, this void that imminently wants to be filled, can only and must only be filled by the Holy Spirit. For as the Ten Virgins [Matthew 25] needed their vessels filled with the Holy Spirit in order to enter the wedding party, so to we need a daily “fill-up”. But this “fill-up” isn’t a patch work, its a transforming work, an quenching work that creates new motives, desires and thoughts.  

“I counsel you to by from me gold refined by fire, so that you may be rich and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and shame of your nakedness amy not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes, so that you may see.” Revelation 3:18