• On May 7, 2010 by

    Can You Feel the Falsehood?

    A one quote blog worthy of much meditation.

    “The first precondition of being called a spiritual leader is to perceive and feel the falsehood that is prevailing in society, and then to dedicate one’s life to a struggle against that falsehood. If one tolerates the falsehood and resigns oneself to it, one can never become a prophet. If one cannot rise above material life, one cannot even become a citizen in the Kingdom of the Spirit, far less a leader of others.” –Vladimir Solovyov regarding Fyodor Dostoevsky

    Now think.
    Now pray.
    Now rise.
    Forsake falsehood.
    Abandon Babylon.

    BZ

    PS: Recommended music: The True False Identity by T-Bone Burnett

  • On April 29, 2010 by

    End of the Line

    This is an article I wrote for the May issue of Charisma Magazine at the request of the new editor, Marcus Yoars.

    END OF THE LINE
    By Brian Zahnd

    God is shifting the church from one seasonal platform to another. Are we ready?

    Western Christianity is at a critical juncture. Those who care deeply about the church are aware of this. Things are not as they once were. Things are changing. Dramatically so. Even if we don’t understand what is happening, we can certainly feel it. There is an uneasy feeling throughout evangelicalism that everything is changing. Long-held certitudes are being challenged from both within and without the Christian faith. The way things were even ten years ago is no longer the way things are today. It’s easy to be disconcerted by it all. Read more

  • On April 25, 2010 by

    Crazy Love

    Why is there something instead of nothing?
    The only feasible answer is an Absolute Being (God).

    But why would God create?
    Why would God bother?
    Why would Absolute Being sufficient in itself create other?

    The only feasible answer is… Read more

  • On April 9, 2010 by

    Practice Resurrection

    Manifesto: Mad Farmer Liberation Front
    Wendell Berry

    Love the quick profit, the annual raise,
    vacation with pay. Want more
    of everything ready-made. Be afraid
    to know your neighbors and to die.
    And you will have a window in your head.
    Not even your future will be a mystery
    any more. Your mind will be punched in a card
    and shut away in a little drawer.
    When they want you to buy something
    they will call you. When they want you
    to die for profit they will let you know. Read more

  • On March 14, 2010 by

    When The Cock Crows

    When The Cock Crows
    Blind Man At The Gate

    When the cock crows
    It crows for us too
    To crow the sad truth
    That when we become a mob
    We’ll likely be the last to know Read more

  • On March 1, 2010 by

    The Joke’s On Caesar

    The Joke’s On Caesar
    by Blind Man at the Gate Read more

  • On February 11, 2010 by

    “Conversion”

    This is one of my favorite poems. It seems to go with my Red Letter Living topic this week.
    Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Read more

  • On February 8, 2010 by

    On The New Idol

    The book of Revelation is primarily a prophetic critique of empire—a prophetic denunciation of the all-powerful state as a devouring, dehumanizing beast. In John the Revelator’s day the Beast took the form of the Roman Empire. In subsequent history the Beast has flown other flags. The drama of the Apocalypse is found in the contest between the monstrous Beast which devours humanity with its military and economic might and the Lamb of God who redeems humanity with his blood. The hope we find in the final book of the Bible is in the prophetic picture of the ultimate triumph of Jesus and his kingdom over the satanic empires of Babylon. And thus the Bible is a book which gives us the happiest of all possible endings.

    But the Beast is subtle. Like the serpent which is its father. And though the shed skin of the Beast is easily recognized once it is relegated to the realm of history, the Beast can be difficult to spot in its contemporary incarnation. It takes a prophetic eye to spot the shape-shifting monster that is the Beast.

    Today I read one of these prophetic observations. Allow me to share it with you (in a somewhat edited form). Read more

  • On January 27, 2010 by

    Humiliation and Dignity

    In his humiliation justice was denied him.
    Who can describe his generation?
    For his life is taken away from the earth.
    -Acts 8:33

    Someone showed me a picture and I just laughed
    Dignity never been photographed
    I went into the red, went into the black
    Into the valley of dry bone dreams
    -Bob Dylan, Dignity

    Life is a struggle. A struggle against humiliation. A struggle to gain dignity. And in the battle against humiliation in the hope of gaining dignity we may experience some triumphs. The dignity of courage. The dignity of wisdom. The dignity of noble gesture. The dignity of rising above base animal instinct and becoming fully human. But in the end its a war we all lose. Death sees to that. Death is the final and ultimate humiliation. In death we are laid low. In death we return to dust. In death we are humiliated. In death we return to the humus. Humiliation and humus are related. We strive for the stars, but we return to the soil. Humus. Humiliation.
    Read more

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