Quote of the Day:

"Love is not fantasy. Love is real, and true love is forever. True love comes without condition. It comes with sacrifice and selflessness. It comes in the form of freedom. I have felt it. I still feel it burning inside me like a raging fire that will not be contained. It sweeps over barren landscapes and devours the bleak darkness and the empty sorrow. It washes over pain and hopelessness until nothing remains but these: Faith, Hope, and Love… but the greatest of these is love.“

—	"The Spinal Cord Perception" by Joshua S. Porter

"I Am Afraid I Am Me" - Showbread

"Lately i have found frustration among the incongruence
a movement of peasants and pacifists drowning in patriotic affluence
i feel as though i should do something but I'm staggered by the ramifications
they've baptized the empire into the church and heralded its sanctification

sometimes i feel as though I'm taking place outside of myself
but I'm afraid that i am me
I am me
 I'm me
 I'm me

"blessed are the meek" succumbs to "might makes right"
"turn the other cheek" succumbs to per-emptive strike
"love your enemies" is fossilized beneath the frozen tundra
and "blessed are the poor in spirit" is devoured by "God bless America"

you file the children into the classrooms, make them stand and say an oath
and when we ask "should i love God or my country?"
you smile and tell us "both."
we've hidden the God we claim we serve and driven him beneath the floorboards
but i can still hear this still, small voice
and i can't take it anymore"

Interesting Article:

http://joshdies.com/2013/02/08/the-jesus-follower-vs-the-arts/

" Maybe if Christians continue to flee in the face of art and culture they will continue to run the risk of creating tired, dishonest and irrelevant art and culture of their own. This is a risk our King calls us away from as he engages the criminals, the crooks, the hookers and the sinners like you and me. For those called to be creative, as their heavenly Father is creative, there is no private Christian culture, no umbrella for believers to hide beneath. The gospel is a powerful and dangerous thing, a lamp that cannot be covered by a shade."

"is it difficult to speak your mind when the world hates the things you have to say?
oh they screech and they bray, there is doubt and dismay, may the sun set on this day
when you dragged all of them effortlessly straight into the dark
while they where there they wondered:
what if the kings that we've put on their thrones aren't really kings at all?
what if they should fall?
and all of the false gods that we're prostrated before have no gracious reign in mind
what if we wake up to find ourselves coiled in their ashes?

we will finally start to wonder what it is that we should leave behind
we'll see the signs and realize there's never been a better time to overthrow the principalities
in all our words, in all our deeds
and storm the gates of hell to show them they will not prevail

if all our hopes and all our dreams fall on deaf ears
then let them see
the gates of hell will not prevail
and You've broken the chains on me

i needed to be vindicated for all of my frustrations
but dragging all my grievances was heavy as damnation
i don't need to feel so right, but I badly want to feel alive
i'm done with a contest of wills
and i'm not afraid to die"

Quote of the Day:

"How do I turn this into something I believe,
When it’s something I’ve been told and something I’ve been taught?
How do I turn this into something that I need?
I’ll be lavishly controlled and be someone that I’m not.

Believing in love, believing in hope, surrendering all of my will,
Believing in nothing is scary, believing in something is scarier still.

Believing in love, believing in hope, surrendering all of my will,
Believing in nothing is scary, believing in something is scarier still."
-Showbread, "Precursor" 

"You Will Die in a Prison" - Showbread

"sometimes i feel broken
and there are things that i never say to anyone
like sometimes i don't feel rescued
and sometimes i don't believe you love me at all

when i allow myself the fantasy that i might have made you proud
i feel ashamed

i honestly believe with all of my soul that you love the whole world
just maybe not me

it's not that i feel overlooked or that you've done me wrong
maybe at the end of the day, i just don't love myself

when i try to impress you i hate myself
and i could run better if i could stay on track
and every time i turn around, every time you welcome me back
it's hard to love someone so big and be someone so small
and i'm afraid that you're the one who thinks that i don't love you at all
but i do

you rend the veil that hides your face
you speak light into the dark
you've beaten back the hoards of death
you tear their crowns apart
no more aching and crying
you lift the burden of my shame
no more breaking and dying
you remember my name

(i can see it coming:)
the ill and the affirmed leave their sickness behind
all disease is crushed in defeat
the shadows shrinking back, disappear in the light
the paralyzed rise to their feet

the broken and oppressed overflow with joy
the abused become royalty
darkness and despair are banished for good
and death can find no loyalty

the tormented see peace in the fading night
and all the brokenhearted feel their hearts begin to mend
the lowercase gods are all crushed by the King
the hungry and the destitute will never go without again

war and poverty are vanquished
no pain, no suffering, no dismay
evil, death and all their friends are forever washed away

our faith in you will cry out for the day
our hope in you will not be misplaced
for now we see through a fogged piece of glass
but soon we will see face to face

you rend the veil that hides your face
you speak light into the dark
you've beaten down the hoards of death
you've torn their crowns apart
come Lord, come! let the last be first
wipe every tear from the face of the earth
put all wrongs to right
make everything new
the cancer of death is defeated by You"

"Two-Headed Monster" - Showbread

I needed to be vindicated for all of my frustrations
but dragging all my grievances was heavy as damnation
I don't need to feel so right, but I badly want to feel alive
I'm done with a contest of wills
and I'm not afraid to die

we will finally start to wonder what it is that we should leave behind
we'll see the signs and realize there's never been a better time to overthrow the principalities
in all our words, in all our deeds
and storm the gates of hell to show them they will not prevail

if all our hopes and all our dreams fall on deaf ears
then let them see
the gates of hell will not prevail
and You've broken the chains on me

"Maybe there is good to be done
where darkness abounds
we dare to hope
use love to beat evil down"
-Showbread, "Escape Planet Cancer"

"
death, it doesn't scare me thinking that you're somewhere on your way
i can't go on pretending i might never see the day
it's not hard for me to picture but makes me feel out of place
i hope i'm not afraid when i see you face to face

to some you're like a prison when they've yet to taste freedom
and maybe you feel bitter because Jesus broke your kingdom
once you felt so powerful and power made you happy
but now you're like a ferry boat
now you're like a taxi

when i die whatever you might say, don't say i'm gone
gone is not the word for someone who finally found his way back home"

"Where is the light that I thought I was promised?
Where is the truth and the hope and the way?
I’ve lost my footing, my spine, my eyes
Everything keeps slipping away
Where is the storybook ending?
The love, the joy, the laughter?
Is all there is just nothing at all?
Is there anything that matters?
Is this all we get for our lives?
And after everything, why is it still so lonely?
So blank, so dry, so numb?
Are we brought up just to crack and bleed out?
Unravel, coming undone?
Is this all we get?

Is this all we get for our lives?
Is this all we get?"