Creating A New Future, ©2010 Shiloh Sophia McCloud

Creating A New Future by Shiloh Sophia McCloud ©2010

Though the storms of doom will rage against our bright windows opened to the day

And the perils of Main street and Wall street bid us foreboding

while we linger under feather coverlets

While the headlines glorify mayhem and madness,

we shall leap forward with red shoes made for dancing

We, a people of an unreasonable dream, will not be undone.

Our very bones are made for this bright longing.

This faith which against the odds of empty houses,

white houses, houses of financial ill repute and houselessness.

This faith will see us through and cause us to throw open our doors to our futures

and shout: DAY! We cometh forth from the depths of yester-year!

We will wear orange dresses and feathered hats,

READY OR NOT! HERE WE COME!

And while we claim the wreckage

still piling up in the junkyard of ’soul work’ still to be done

We shall not be put under the tires of commerce or commercial or cynicism

We cannot be talked out of our joy!

Hard won joy for which we have clung for dear life

with bended knee in prayer and bended head in sorrow,

we have fought for joy.

For had we listened to the voices within and without -

we would have gone mad with fear! Some of us did.

Our joy we have labored for cannot be taken,

NO! We stand firm against joylessness.

Oh yes we see the signs posted everywhere

intended to cause ceaseless fear and submission

But our hearts are reckless revolutionaries -

we of the American Dream who know

that it is not white picket fences that have held us together

but the consistent stitches

of the laboring man, woman and child into the great fabric or our nation.

White colar, blue colar, green colar and gold colar alike

gather under the red threaded cloak of hope.

We are hopeless optimists we are.

And we believe love will be triumphant.

The tragedy of our individual lives threatens our daily hope,

and we cling to making sense of the senseless.

And that is why we must gather together,

one with another, sharing the light and lighting up the dimming light.

Oh let us continue to believe it is for justice we fight,

while not losing sight of ways we are deceived -

Oh, heart! How we long to gather together with all those who hunger and thirst

and hold each hand in warmth and serve soup and bread and water.

The suffering presses hard against our throats,

forcing tears of love for what we cannot reach with our kiss of healing.

But still. Each day we must punctuate with exclamation points!

Each day, we, who dream and vision and will not let our light be put out

We who will not let the stories go untold or the poems go unhymned

We will will lift up voices of justice and spread beauty wherever we may.

Lady of All Nations, gather us into your garment of compassion

and lead us forward, let us not cease to hymn God with praise

though we may feel faint. We shall recover from this dark night of the soul!

In Gratitude we shall move step by step by step by step by step.

Dancing in rhythm with the prayers said in a blue moon.

New Years Day, Twenty Ten – Sitting at Electric Rose Gallery

Prayer for Twenty-Ten while at Electric Rose Gallery moments ago...

“The best way to fight poverty is to turn the poor people into active producers. Communities can only be developed by involving all the members as productive and valuable contributors.” ~ Songhai Project

Much of Africa is difficult … no, hard to live in. You can literally be eaten by something. Wild animals, disease, or the greediness of the World Trade Organization that has systematically imposed crippling financial restrictions on Africa that has burdened it for decades.

But Fr Nzamujo Godfrey looked at starvation, the restlessness of youth, and poverty and came up with the Songhai Project. By teaching people to grow crops, raise farm animals, and create “Value Added” food-based products, Songhai is able to instil moral values that uplift both the individual and the wider culture as a whole.

The objectives of the Songhai Project is to develop technical skills, moral awareness, and empower people with entrepreneural techniques that lead to socially relevant, environmental consciousness and sustainability so that people can lift themselves out of poverty and become productive members of society.

Naturally, the State of any country doesn’t have to worry about farmers involving themselves in demoralizing crime nor involving themselves in activities that threaten civil society. People who are taught social consciousness along with integral facets that foster living balanced, happy, and productive lives with others are able to free themselves from hopelessness, addiction, and the mental illnesses that come out of self-hatred.

Please watch the video below and view the others posted on YouTube. You’ll quickly see why I–and others, view agriculture as a much needed “emerging field” for people who live in cities and country sides throughout the world.

The topic of the post may unnerve some folks, but dealing with spiritual insanity is quite necessary.

What am I talking about?  Insanity can be simply defined as:  a deranged disorder of the mind.  So then, we can conceptualize insanity as where the mind is not in order, because the normal order has been upset.  For preaching folks, we can “run” with this;  “Upseting the normal” and the list goes on.  However, with God, THERE IS ORDER.  God is not a lunatic, and neither are those whose minds are renewed in Christ Jesus. God is not insane, His order just often defies human logic and conventional wisdom.   Being deranged in one’s thinking-which is supposed to be ordered by the way and will of God-and therefore consequent decisions, and actions is not commensurate with Godliness.  The man who walks with God must learn to have the mind of Christ, think and therefore, LIVE, like Christ.

Yet, we see a boat-load of spiritually insane activity within the Body of Christ.  Let me be specific.  What are some examples of spiritual insanity?

1.  God told me through a prophet that I was going to get “an illegal blessing”.  So, I committed fraud and forged employment stubs, fake employer references, and submitted mortgage documents where I lied to get my brand new house, which is the illegal blessing.

2.  God told me to go to a ministry where the pastor IS MARRIED, but told me I’m his wife.  I’m upset ten years later because the pastor is still married to his wife, and I’m still waiting to be the First Lady. I thought when she had a bout with cancer, that was surely the avenue in which God’s promise for me to be the pastor’s wife was going to come to fruition. Meanwhile, I attend the ministry and scrutinize every move the pastor’s wife make because she is living the life I’m supposed to be living, and has my life on delay.

3.  I believe Ms. X is my wife; God gives me whatever I desire.  I know how to get what I want.  So, I have never met Ms. X in the flesh, speak to her five times, and am ready to re-locate and start a new life with Ms. X, regardless of the fact that Ms. X is in love with someone else, and hasn’t even severed emotional ties with her current relationship.  After our first few verbal communications, Ms. X does not really call me at all, or communicate unless she is politely returning my calls, and I think she has something to hide because she won’t reveal her “life” to me.  Ms. X doesn’t even know me, and wonders if my readiness to marry her because I believe it is God,  is the way of faith, or foolishness.

4.  God told me the house at 888 Xanadu Lane was mine.  There are 3 cars in the driveway, 2 children running around the front yard playing, and a man rolling a garbage bin to the curb.  I walk up to the doorbell, ring the bell, and tell the current residents (who own the property) that this house is mine, and they’ve got to move, in Jesus name, after I’ve stood on the property five times in the middle of the night, claiming my house while speaking in tongues and declaring that everywhere I put my feet, the land and the promise of God is mine.

5.  Since I was 12 years old, everywhere I go, someone tells me that I am “marked for greatness”.  God is going to make me great and send me all over the world.  Yet, I am promiscuous and have a diagnosis of AIDS.  I am becoming sicker and sicker, yet, am still promiscuous.  God would not ever let me die before my time because God has made me a promise and He knows my struggle.  Even though I cannot function on a day to day basis, I know that God is going to heal me and do exactly what He said he would do with my life, regardless of my “struggle”.

6.  I have a wife and six children.  I’m being “raised up” in ministry now, so I’ve got to spend all of my time helping out at the church or carrying the Bishop’s bags.  My wife and children are neglected, but they don’t understand that this is the process for “my destiny” and “getting what God has for my life”.  Ministry requires me to miss family events and be an absent parent and spouse,  because I’m in the press for Jesus. 

Is the picture becoming clearer?  These are not mere hypotheticals.  They are real life incidents of people who profess to be mature believers.  Key to our walk with God is our ability to represent Him and not be delusional.  Christians cannot commit fraud, sit in a ministry coveting someone’s spouse, expecting someone to marry them without investing wisdom and any significant relationship skills, expect to move into a bigger and better home, live sinful lifestyles, andengage in all of these grandiose delusions without recognizing that there is ORDER in all things.  Don’t just seek what you want.  Seek the will of God and God’s order, and we’ll find that much of what we want will not ever happen, or happen in ways that we don’t anticipate, that may be many years down the line.

The Word of God is supreme and God will not bless any one of us, in any manner, that contravenes His Word.  If the Word of God tells us to be honest in our dealings with the government, and one another, then we cannot think that we can be fraudulent liars to get a mortgage, and God has used this avenue to “bless”.  I’ve heard of stories where lovers were re-united after years of being apart, and all of that wonderful stuff.  Yet, the course that life takes does not give us the right to ENGAGE IN WITCHCRAFT, hoping that people die, or praying that marriages see demise, because we want to be with someone in particular.   We must be SANE and mature enough to seek the will of God, and make decisions within our God-given authority to live a good Godly life.  Skipping steps like waiting to see if the house occupied by a family who is rightful possession, leave it first, is key to being zealous without knowledge.  Zeal without knowledge is tantamount to foolishness, and makes a horrible representation of the Kingdom of God.

So what do we do? 

1.  Recognize that the devil speaks, and loves fools.  Make sure we are hearing from God.  God only speaks His Word.  So, if the so-called message is something that is Biblically unsound, God is not speaking it.

2.  When we believe something, seek God concerning His will.  What is the timing?  Will He reveal more about how this promise will come to pass?  Abraham has instructions about a promised seed through which God’s covenant with Abraham would make him the father of many nations.  Abraham did not find out about how, until after he and his wife concocted a plan which produced Ishmael.  Live long enough, and God will show us exactly what He has willed for our lives.

3.  Recognize our own desires that are rooted in flesh, or foolishness and stop trying to make them God’s desires for our lives.  God doesn’t need any one of us to sit in a ministry for years coveting a spouse in order to help the man or woman of God, or to do a great and mighty exploit for the Kingdom.  God is not telling his own to keep commiting adultery with the pastor because his/her needs aren’t met, because we are just “covering” the man or woman of God.  God does not will sin for our lives to get to to a place of blessing.  That is deranged, delusional, and disorderly thinking.

4.  Engulf ourselves in the Word of God.  The more we STUDY the Word of God, the more we will know exactly what He thinks and what He wills.  Much of this nonsense will look like insanity through our spiritual lenses and not like the delusional promised treasure, that will add sorrow, because our deranged pursuits are  not a blessing from the Lord.

Again, this type of stuff may not be roses, but neither is the reality of people that jump, shout, read the Bible all day long, and keep on making spiritually insane decisions.  Let’s turn around and DECIDE to disavow and disconnect with everything that is not like God, and ask the Lord to forgive us, and to restore us to a place of soberness. 

Blessings as we walk in TRUTH,

KS

December 27, 2009

He makes all things NEW!

Friends, this has been a tough year.  Many are losing heart and many have lost heart  -  each with his or her own personal discouraging situation(s).  But there is hope in hard times.  There is hope when things look bleak.  There is hope when you feel broken, lost and alone.  There is hope because He makes all things NEW!

Please take a moment to visit needhim.org.  Read through the website and ask yourself the question, “Do I need him?”  I would suggest YES.  We all need him.

Hang in there friend.  You have a hope, a future and a destiny.

Much love to you this day.

Sincerely, blog editor,

Steven Joseph
promotionsforLIFE.com
Coming soon: politicsforLIFE.com

I’ve just started reading this health column and found this commentary on CNN about depression:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/expert.q.a/12/22/depression.hope.raison/index.html

What he says about hopelessness and therapeutic nihilism struck a chord. And that instead of being afraid of having to remain on medications for the rest of my life, I should practice gratitude that I have found relief, no matter how it happens! I’ve felt ashamed that I could not handle my depression “on my own” and that meds have helped so significantly. I suppose I learned from a young age that anything outside my self-will that helps me feel better is a “crutch.” But this is a whole different way of looking at the struggle–why shouldn’t I be grateful at how my life has turned around since I began taking them? And yes, it took a few tries to come up with the right concoction. And the most recent switch has been the most beneficial.

That doesn’t say therapy hasn’t helped either–it has. It is overwhelmingly assuring that my practitioner is there for when I can’t handle things on my own and when it all becomes a bit too much for my meds to control, which does of course happen.  Expressing with her helps lessen the sense of helplessness and hopelessness, allows me to see another perspective to things, and take in a different point of view than that which is in my head–the angry, harsh inner parent.  It’s taught me that sometimes these voices are simply tapes that spin around and all I need to do is push the stop button for a while. And that’s not all–EMDR helps to release the stuck energy, as does hypnosis, and past-life regression therapy has probably been the most beneficial, as I have been blessed to experience the bigger picture. As kooky as it may sound, I urge an open mind and giving it a chance. Some matters are too spiritual, universal, and all-encompassing to be dealt with in a conscious and conventional matter. Especially when an  issue seems to be permanently stuck, immovable like a thousand-ton boulder, for example, a pattern or addiction that one can’t break no matter how many methods one attempts.

Another thing that helps is compassion toward yourself in knowing that some issues are too big to handle alone. And that sometimes, you do need to save yourself at the expense of a relationship,  no matter what kind. When you step back and leave the person alone, it might just be the best thing you’ve done for you AND the other. And maybe, someday, when you’re ready and have boundaries and have healed enough, you can invite that person back into your life. See, there’s always hope.

And then, spirituality. That’s a HUGE source of hope. Only one can’t be “prescribed” spirituality–I’ve found that spirituality finds you when you are open to it. And there’s no way to explain how to be “open” to it, either. It just is what and when it is, unfortunately.

And no, I’m not standing on my high horse and saying everything is perfect in my world, not by a long shot. I like to say I’m “stable” on the meds, and I’m physically able to hold down a full-time job, which I wasn’t even a year ago. And if I slip and stay away from therapy or support for too long, it’s back down the shaft again. It’s a life of constant vigilance, and I don’t think there truly is a cure–I agree with the good doctor. It probably is like living with diabetes–manage your dis-ease and you can get through life reasonably well and happily. In my humble opinion (and the doctor’s).

FACT CHECK > Too vague to even be tested

DISTORTED BECAUSE

• Life – Not specific enough
• Sucks – Too harsh and vague

RESULT > Hopelessness

FIGHT IT!

• There are certain things like ____ (be specific) I don’t like about my life
• There are certain things like ____ (be specific) I want to change
• There are certain things like ____ (be specific) I can influence and other things like ____ (be specific) I may need help with

The problem here is that the entire thought is way too vague. “Life” is a very broad topic. Even when you narrow it down to, “My Life",” it is still not specific enough and therefore unsolvable. Similarly, “Sucks” is open to many interpretations. The entire statement gives you nothing to work with but leaves you feeling pessimistic and hopeless.

Work on this one by getting very specific about what you don’t like about your life and exactly what you want changed. Determine how much you have a part in the change and how much help you could use from others. You can also list the things about life that do not suck. Don’t give up. Keep working on it.

Offer other suggestions for rephrasing this distortion in the Comments Section for THIS post.

Sunrise, Walhalla, North Dakota ©Weatherstone/Ron Almberg, Jr. (2009)

shuttered windows
darkened rooms
save one dim light

closed doors
drawn shades
secured in one corner

swollen eyes
deadened spirit
stolid in solitude

clamped mouth
defeated soul
surrounded only
with one’s own arms

streaming tears
drained emotions
shaken with sobs

curled body
damaged heart
seeks one dim light
hope

©Weatherstone/Ron Almberg, Jr. (2009)

I open my eyes
And the first I see
Is the greyest sky
And black barren trees.

So cold and desolate
I wonder, desperate
Are they really just dormant
Life strong, deep inside?

Or actually dead
Empty and dry.

Comes again a constricting ache of falling consternation,
fear’s damp chill coupled with searing heat of shadowy frustration,
recurring pain that ebbs,
when caves the chest a curling crush,
and with images to flood the mind,
the story told of heartbreak,
whispers of ugly worth–
this is hopelessness,
a place approached during the long dark night,
where beloved frowns with any expedition.

When treads great light in such forsaken region,
the cold place of flagellation,
where dance demons fell mortification,
her anger grows a quick vexation,
to reach out while love slips away,
and her claws dig deep to pull me back,
ripping hope into the light–
love roars triumphant.

Darkness howls in frustration,
each time love enters the battlefield,
each cycle broken results a shift in how it is,
and note well the rhythm within,
how echoes well this flow,
a match with cosmic dance–
winter days grow short,
solstice comes again,
light emerges from the dark,
love shines evermore.

I have lost touch with my mundane routine…..(can I say I have lost touch with reality? hmmm not just yet…)

Coming back feels good…..but it is a bit daunting as well……

It started to snow when I was just about to leave….and the flakes came down beautifully…. just like the ones you see in a snow globe

I wish I could have captured the moment to share….

Antique or just Unwanted?

Ever walked into an antique shop? I love it…… it has a mood about it….. all the things in there old, new, broken, stolen, lost, snatched….I feel have a little story of their own…… makes me wonder tho….why do people give these things away? jewellery…..tables….paintings

I am sure they meant something to someone at some point in time…….it always intrigues me……I have this obsession with the past and the things in the past….

anyways before I drift away again…..lets talk about music….

Lost – Anouk

Her voice literally makes my hair stand….in a good way or a bad way? I still can’t tell …..

I honestly do not know what she is singing about….but I have my own interpretation

This song symbolises a strange hopelessness…a  human incapacity to do something …. she sings about being lost in someone…… lost in the contradiction of character in that person……and her own love and hate towards those contradictions …..

“If the roses are meant to be red…..violets to be blue…….but why isn’t my heart meant for you?” with lines you’d would think can it get any more cheesy?…..

and then

“Lost in this world……I even get lost in this song “ and with those lines she conveys perfectly that emotion of despair…..

I guess the guy was a musician…..as she carries on about his music being irresistable and then she says “Your voice makes my skin crawl” It is left for the listener to decide whether she hates his voice or loves it…… contradiction? I do not know….

She asks “Mr.Inaccessible, will this ever change? one thing that remains the same…..you’re still a picture in a frame”….. I love the way she calls him inaccessible……  she wants something to change but she is convinced there is something that will remain the same..again contradiction…… Does picture in the frame signify a memory?

What should change? why should something remain the same…….

“Lost in this world ……I even get lost in this song” she says,  “Am I the only one?”

After writing this out I just realized how random this post is……I know this doesn’t make sense….but I love the fact it doesn’t…

I want to break away from this constant need I feel to “make sense all the time” to everyone…..and even though I envy people who can…. Sometimes a Little No Sense helps…..

TODAY’S VERSE
“The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”
Genesis 2:7 (NIV)

TODAY’S THOUGHT
When asked, a group of people who suffered with addictions, gave the answer to what they “felt” just before they gave into the craving of their addiction. What was the trigger, what was the deep painful impulse that was driving them? Some of the answers were, “worthlessness, lost, disconnection, lack of existence, invisible, bad, evil, void, abandoned, alone, powerless, wrong, not breathing, non being, humiliated, ashamed and unloved.” Then the same group was asked to visualize taking the drug and verbalize what the drug did for them. What was the promise, what was the relief? They wrote:
“self discovery, focus for my life, meaning, surrender, will, acceptance by group, feeling of being alive, freedom, acceptance of desire, living in the moment.” Now here is the catch. Although the desire for positive meaning is real, the lie is that drugs do not give them the solution. It only mocks it. It is like the song, “Looking for love in all the wrong places.” It is God that gives the “breath of life.” Jesus provides real meaning. The healing power of God and Christian fellowship is the answer to our deepest pain! God has created us for life. We are not supposed to go around feeling like a non-being. Instead Paul prays that we would have the power to understand how wide, how long, how high, and how deep Christ’s love for us is. It is in experiencing God’s love for us that we are made complete with all the “fullness of life and power that comes from God.” Today, let the love of Christ breathe life deep into your soul and make you alive.

TODAY’S PRAYER
Father, I want to live, really live. Help me find true meaning and purpose in Your love for me. Fill me with Your life-giving breath. Fill me with Your Spirit and make me more alive today than I have ever been.
AMEN

______________________________________________________________

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Another early winter photo showing hoar frost as it paints another ethereal picture.  It’s a scene that is mundane in its content – a culvert and grass – yet it is so much more, isn’t it?  This is why I love photography, it is an incredible doorway to another world.

This other world is an inner world and an outer archetypal and alchemical world that allows us to safely look at “stuff” that would otherwise overwhelm us.  If we wander too deeply within our complexes, it is easy to get lost and give up.  This has been a problem with drugs and alcohol.  roaming these innerscapes without a guide or map is a recipe for fear which can result in loss of hope and being frozen in place.

Though the tunnel is dark in this frozen wilderness, the tunnel does have a light at the end of it, a light that beckons.  Now if only could keep our hope focused on that light …

The Tale of the Ragman (version 2)
an attempt at a less cliche poem

Mailcars amply filled bring
a most telling import
brides are doomed to weep and die
her death, filled with so many failed strivings
a trained psychiatrist sees through the lies we tell ourselves
reckless abandonment, caring naught for form or function
animated pretending with a thousand guises
blunt miscreants verging into vibrant madness
should follow a line of precast behavior
evolutionary survival disfavors individuality
outcast expression in a wasteland
speaks out in desperation
thought lost in a recursive loop
a sound, a light, an abrupt shove
until the time to play is realized
the delineated scribblings of tattered clothes
coughs out skilled trance stutterings
girls with swagger meet guys with funk
a idea forms, glimmering eruptions
small and large become one
struggling to hold the invisible
but the time was not yet to be
it sang an ensnaring endless music
and those who hid in the darkness gathered
unnoticed attendees
gorging on broken dreams
with sporadic sharp sounds
awaken to light
light adorns you
shadow clings to chaos
the quiet within one speaks
microscopic pointless zeroes
that we fain such attachment for
existence is filled with treasures
and knowledge commands all
indelicate sorrowful cruelties baffle
so slave on, because hopelessness insists

FACT CHECK > Every word in this statement is distorted

DISTORTED BECAUSE

• Nothing – Too extreme and general
• Will Ever – Predicting the future
• Change – Not specific enough

RESULT > Hopelessness

FIGHT IT!

• Of course things change, the weather changes, feelings change …this is really too vague
• List positive things that have changed in your life in the past
• What I really mean is I’m concerned that…(be very specific)

This is a great example of just how distorted our thinking can get. This statement, if true, means that we can predict the future about overly-generalized vague things. Change in the world is one of the certainties of life. Specific things can change for the better. They can also change for the worse. The real question is exactly what are you afraid of or concerned about? By making the statement specific it changes the emotion from hopelessness to a realistic problem needing resolution.

How does change occur for bad situations in our life? Positive change usually involves continued effort, even if it is effort to obtain help. Change for the worse can sometimes happen when we give-up. Keep fighting for positive change.

Offer other suggestions for rephrasing this distortion in the Comments Section for THIS post.

This will be the last 24 hours that The Fall: The Rift Book I will be available for purchase. As a sort of holiday sale, I’ve halved the price of the book for today and today only. The digital format can be purchased here:

In other news, the process of publishing the print formats is gaining speed. Jesse Young is working hard to deliver high-quality illustrations, and I am telling you all that the results of his efforts will not disappoint. Here is an example of what you will be seeing from him throughout the book.

This is purely an example, mind you. The illustration presented above will not be found within the actual book. But the style is what is important here. The cross-hatching does its job to create a creepy, surreal image, as if the monstrosities contained within are attempting to claw out of the very page. I find this very exciting. I’m sure you do, as well.

I’ll be back soon. Until then, support new artists! We all need it.

I recently wrote a couple posts on video games looking at how Christians can play them in a healthy and even encouraging ways as well how video games (and perhaps more pointedly the industry) lend themselves to certain temptations that Christians should be aware of.

One of my points in the second article about the weaknesses of video games, I mentioned that morality is often being approached in a rather muddy, gray-scale sort of way.  More and more video games are presenting gamers with difficult moral choices that don’t necessarily have clear answers.  Let me be clear, I do not necessarily think this is a danger for the mature Christian (though it could certainly be a danger for the brother with a weak conscience).  In fact, I think this development makes video games a unique medium that challenges us to think about moral choices–which, overall, I believe to be a healthy exercise.

On further reflection, the criticism I leveled at postmodern ethics should more pointedly be leveled at relativism and not postmodernism directly–which to be fair is a little harder to nail down than out and out relativism.  Also upon further reflection, I realized that its not so much the painting of our world in moral grays that bothers much so much as the theme of hopelessness (in which muddled morality plays a part).  I think the theme of hopelessness is pervasive in pop culture today–just take two of the biggest winners at last year’s Oscars–There Will be Blood and No Country for Old Men for example–these two critically acclaimed movies have dark characters, protagonists that possess few redeeming qualities, and end with with very little character growth and injustice winning the day.

How should a Christian respond to such movies (or games or books)?  Should we boycott them?  Should we go see them and then criticize them in our blogs?  Should we see them so that we will be able to talk to the folks around the water cooler?  What is the appropriate response?  For the Christian, what is the biblical response?

Is there danger in mindlessly consuming such movies?  Is it possible to check our Christianity at the door when we experience art?  In other words aren’t movies, games, and books entertainment?  Can’t we just be entertained without being engaged?  Is there value in carefully and thoughtfully engaging such movies from a biblical worldview?

In short, I will say that we live in a dark world–this shouldn’t surprise anyone (John 1:5, 12:46; 1 Peter 2:9; 2 Cor. 4:6).  Christians are those who once walked in darkness but now walk in the light of Christ and thus are to be those who “walk in the light of Christ” (Eph. 5:8).  We don’t take part in the works of darkness but instead “expose them” (Eph. 5:11).  We do not belong to this world (1 Peter 2:11), we are not of the world but we live in it and are to be the lights of the world (Matt. 5:14).  So in short, I think we as believers need to be like Martin Luther and get out of the “cloister and into the world.”  We must learn how to live productively in this world and not continually look for ways to escape it out of fear of what the world might do to us.  The world is a dangerous place but  a place in which we must learn to live faithfully for the sake of Christ.  We cannot let fear of the world paralyze us from living boldly in it, engaging it an exposing the darkness of it (2 Tim. 1:7; Heb. 13:6; Phil. 1:14).

I think we should be careful to honor man’s conscience–everyone’s conscience is sensitive in different areas.  And certainly we need to be patient with the weaker brothers and be careful not to flaunt our freedom in front of them and sear their conscience (Rom. 13; 1 Cor. 10).

So in short, I think that the arts provide a tremendous ground for cultural engagement–and though the primary way that Christians are to engage the culture is by making disciples of individuals in the culture, part of that process is speaking truth to those in the culture, examining the messages and themes of the art in the culture for the sake of Christ.  Being a light of the world means “always being ready to give an answer to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you” especially in the face of so much hopelessness (1 Peter 3:15).

This is really just an introductory piece.  I will post at least two more articles on these issues of cultural engagement and particularly on hopelessness in art and how Christians interact with such art and respond to it.