War & Peace

To those sitting,

I discovered that many people in our country have a fundamental flaw in their view of Jesus: they see a man of peace and not a man of war.

 

Many of you may be quick to assert that Jesus is “the lamb” and that he is a gentleman through and through. A God who is the author of love couldn’t possibly be anything other than soft spoken, gentle, and “slow to anger” (James 1:19) correct? But what happens when the New Testament, specifically the Gospel tells us differently?

Many of us when we picture Jesus inherently come to an image of a long haired, robe wearing man walking in a meadow carrying a lamb (or some slight variation). We seem to overlook the fact that Jesus was a vagabond, a wanderer, and a man who spent so many days in the wilderness alone that even Bear Grylls couldn’t hang with him. We seem to skip over the passage where Jesus, screaming and over turning tables, drives out people from His temple with a whip (see John 2). We seem to miss the whole book of Revelations, specifically the part where Jesus will be riding through a river of blood ( see Rev 19).

Jesus, himself goes so far as to say in Matthew 10:34, “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” 

Jesus foresaw our tendencies to pacify Him, and our beliefs. Jesus knew that left alone we would seek peace and not war. However, whether we want peace or war is not an option. “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8, NIV). The devil has already begun the war. He won’t wait for you to realize that were on the frontlines, before attacking. We are already knee deep in battle.

Open your eyes, and see the battles all around you

Open your ears, and hear the heavenly clashes 

Open your heart, and see the Warrior inside of yourself and inside God

Were in the middle of a war, we can’t afford not to cry out

 So…“Shout it! Go on and scream it from mountains! Go on and tell it to the masses! That He is God!”

 – All Sons & Daughters

Merely,

Chris Gerac

“They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” Revelation 12:11, NIV

A Neverending Father & A Always Forgetful Son

I guess you could say I grew up without the presence of a father figure. Yes, I have a father who loves me very much, but the simple truth was he wasn’t able to be around much. He didn’t get to witness the first time I triumphed over the infamous two wheel riding machine. He didn’t get to witness the time I won the flag football championship. He didn’t get to witness the first time I shaved (which sadly is a relatively new thing). I do not say any of this to offend my father nor do I say any of these to throw a pity party for myself. I merely mention these things to give reasons for why I had such difficulties in trusting and relating to God.

Not having a male role model left me in an interesting predicament. Because I grew up without a dad present 24/7 in my life I felt like I had to become independent, like I had to be the “man” of the house, like I needed to figure out things for myself. And for the majority of my life this do-it-yourself philosophy worked wonders. That is until God began to knock so loudly on my door that I couldn’t possibly ignore Him any longer.

You see, by definition allowing God to enter into your life, means that you need to realize that you can’t do it on your own.

I know this isn’t mind blowing to a lot of you, but to a 15 year old boy who thought he was a “man”, this concept was revolutionary. God is our father, and I don’t mean in some intangible abstract terminology sort of way. I mean literally he is our Father. He is our Creator. He is our maker. He loves us unconditionally. He is eternally proud of us. Guess what? Any curriculum you use to classify someone as a good dad, He does all of it but much better. 

Romans 8:15-16 (arguably one of my most favorite passages) guarantees us that God not only loves us, but more so loves us so much that he counts us as his sons and daughters.

“The Spirit you received does not make you slaves, so that you live in fear again; rather, the Spirit you received brought about your adoption to sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” ¹⁶ The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”

 

This wonderful relationship and testimony to God’s Father heart is only further reiterated in the story of the Prodigal Son (in which the proverbial father runs to greet his son who turned his back on him).

 I am writing this for every person who came from a broken or incomplete family; for every person who thought they were “fatherless”; for every person who doesn’t know what it’s like to be the apple of a father’s eye; for every person who has never felt the embrace of a dad.

I write this to encourage. 

I write this to bring hope

I write this to unite sons and daughter with their Eternal Father

I often forget to remember that I am the son of a King!

Don’t forget that He is and will always be your bedrock of comfort and security

Merely,

Chris Gerac

“See what kind of love the Father has given to us that we should be called children of God; and so we are.” 1 John 3:1, ESV

LOTR & Looney Tunes

To those following,

One of my favorite series of all time is undoubtedly the Lord of the Rings series written by J.R.R Tolkien. Released over 50 years ago, the series still dominates all forms of western media, including my Mass Communications class. Being a former Biology major and a current Religion major, I have grown accustomed to long lectures over the smallest of microbial details and the art of Christian history lessons. Needless to say it came as a complete and utter (although pleasant) surprise when on the first day of class my professor for Mass Comm informed us that not only were videos to be included on a daily basis in our class, but also that on that first day alone we were to watch a clip from Lord of the Rings and Looney Tunes. I must have looked like a kid about to open Christmas presents. I mean how often do you get to watch your childhood cartoons and your favorite series of all times in one class? However, I have found out that I am not the kind of person who can just be content with watching videos. For almost immediately after both videos were done playing I began to try and see the seemingly non visible connections between a cartoon duck and a fictional hobbit.   

I mean obviously both characters were the creations of imaginative people, but beyond this was something buried much deeper.

The Lord of the Rings series and Looney Tunes each deal with issues of being in control.

The whole Premise of the LOTR trilogy is to destroy a ring that possesses the ability to bewitch and corrupt all who wear it. In this case it is the ring which controls the characters movements. It is the ring which causes the epic story to begin. It is the ring in which many fall victims to. The Looney Tunes classic cartoons are the same way. Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny are nothing more than marionettes forced to dance across the page when the writer says, “dance”. They have no control. Their story lines are not up to them, they are up to the author.

Some of the very last words of Jesus recorded in the book of Matthew give insight into this same idea. Matthew 28:18 says, “Then Jesus came to them and said, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.’” Jesus Christ makes it clear He, the creator of everything that has ever been, is, and will be, is the One and only one who is in control.

We can spend our lives fighting Him. We can spend our lives giving up our control to the people and the world around us. We can spend our lives like puppets on a string. Or we can spend our lives giving all authority to the only One who possesses it and watch as we discover what it means to truly live.

We can spend our lives as slaves of this World or we can spend our lives as slaves to the loving and just Father.

We can spend our lives how we please

Just remember who really is in control of our lives anyways.

Life is a privilege… don’t waste it 

Merely,

Chris Gerac

“He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it” Matthew 10:39, NASB

Words & Worship

To those wondering,

If you think worship is the songs you sing before your pastor comes up on stage YOUR WRONG.

It’s sad but when it comes to American perceptions of worship I often feel like the last thing thought of is God. Instead of turning to Him, we turn to our friends or our phones. Instead of focusing on the Man who saved and redeemed us, we focus on our voices or if we should be lifting or hands or not based upon the actions of the person standing next to us. Instead of singing with our hearts we sing with heavy eyes and half-hearted voices.

Now I’m not attacking anyone who does this for I feel that the Church is equally to blame for this pseudo-worship experience, nor am I saying that every single person has been lulled into thinking that this is worship. 

All I am saying is that Worship is more than words.

Robert Foster says, “Singing, praying, praising all may lead to worship, but worship is (far) more than any of them.” Worship is the essence of our souls. Worship is when our flesh dies and God rises. Worship is when we give ourselves wholeheartedly to Jesus. Worship is when our actions, our thoughts, our minds all focus on Him. True worship isn’t for 30 minutes every Sunday. True worship is our acknowledgment of God and His goodness every single moment of our lives. True worship doesn’t harden our hearts but melts the hardest of stone and brings us closer in intimacy with our Father.

True worship isn’t standing at the front of your church with your arms held high because that’s what you feel like you should do. True worship doesn’t even have to deal with song.

True worship is entering the activity/mindset, which takes your focus off of you and allows God out of his box.

Whether dancing, writing, drawing, coloring, singing, rapping, painting, or just laying face down on your floor, I encourage you to let God move through you instead of you trying to move God

 

Worship is inviting God to move

Worship is Freedom

Merely,

Chris Gerac

“Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. ²⁴ God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.” John 4:23-24, NIV

Music & Melodies

Three things happened to me yesterday that are the direct reasons for the conclusion that is to come. 

1)I noted that people with accents lose their accents when singing. 

2)I watched the movie August Rush yesterday and got swept away by the World’s rhythmic melodies. 

3)I went to my friends apartment and played guitar for the first time in months (the reason its been months is because I admit that I have never been able to play)

It seems to me that there are only two things in life that can cross all cultures, all languages, all genders, all social stratospheres, and all continents: music and Jesus. Whether you agree with me or not it’s hard to refute that these two things seem to have a deeply rooted sense to life in general. What other name has reached as many ears as the name of the man who died and rose again for the sake of sinners? What other thing besides music conducts beautiful symphonies of sound that can be heard all around at all times?

I have always felt an attachment to music but have never been able to see the reasons as to why. It’s an unexplainable attachment almost like a gentle tug encouraging me to come back home. I know not how it came to be nor the moment I first became conscious of this connection, but I do know the purpose behind it: music universally exist so that we may universally connect to the universe and its maker.

Psalm 47:6-7 says, “Sing praises to God, sing praises; sing praises to our King, sing praises. For God is the King of all the earth; sing to him a psalm of praise.”

Music and Christ are two things that cannot be separated from each other nor can they be pried apart by this world.  God gave music to us as a gift to understand his heart and his desires for us and for this world.

Deeply engrained, they will forever remain apart of our lives, whether we chose to listen though is our own decisions

Merely,

Chris Gerac

“Sing to the LORD a new song,

   his praise from the ends of the earth,

you who go down to the sea, and all that is in it,

   you islands, and all who live in them.

11 Let the wilderness and its towns raise their voices;

   let the settlements where Kedar lives rejoice.

Let the people of Sela sing for joy;

   let them shout from the mountaintops.”

Isaiah 42:10-11, NIV