Stick a Bow On It

I've been on one passage in scripture for a couple of days now. At first, its sting caught me off guard. I began to look at different versions, different translations, root words, all in a very vain effort to repackage, reword and take the edge off.
Nope. It's like wrapping a baseball bat for Christmas. No matter what, it's gonna look like a bat. I guess with some things we just need to stick a bow on it, and it is what it is.

Anybody out there got a problem with your tongue? With mouthing off, snapping, flipping your lid, trash talking....gossip? No? How about tearing people down or belittling, maybe swearing? Hold onto your knickers, cause it's a bumpy ride from here...

If anyone considers himself religious and yet does not keep a tight rein on his tongue, he deceives himself and his religion is worthless.
(James 1:26)

There's a harshness about it isn't there? And it just won't be repackaged. I've tried with every translation of the bible that I could find. If we deceive ourselves with an uncontrolled tongue:
KJV-our religion is in vain.
MSG-our religion is hot air, and only hot air.
NIRV-our beliefs are not worth anything at all.
ESV,GWT,NASB,NET,WEB-our religion is worthless.
AMP-our religious service is worthless.
CEV,HCSB-everything you do is useless.
NCV-our 'religion' is worth nothing.
Even the original word meaning is 'empty and profitless'.

Ouch. I had to take a Band-Aid off for my son this morning. He had a huge blistered burn and the bandage mom had put on just wasn't big enough, so it had actually become part of the wound. The skin was stuck to it. No matter what, there was just no easy way to do what had to be done. It had to come off, the wound had to be cleaned. The peroxide had to do it's work, and the Neosporin had to be rubbed in. It was absolutely unpleasant for him, but still necessary, and he'll heal properly for persevering through the sting. So will you and I. Some things you just can't dress up and put a Band-Aid over.

There's no room for misinterpretation, no way to rephrase it.

It's not that the text says our faith is in danger, or that our salvation is in jeopardy, but that our religion, our system of beliefs and practices, is empty, useless, pointless and futile.

But if the definition of faith is trust, to have belief in something of which there is no proof, then isn't it possible for us to lose our faith? To set it down, because our religion, our beliefs have become corroded and useless? If your practice of religion is faulted, then your faith will follow suit.

Is this making you think a little more about your choice of words?

Ahhhh, the tongue. Say "elelelelel" right now out loud... Yeah, that thing flopping around in your mouth. If any closet or corner of your house is missed by the broom, what happens? We've all seen that spot behind the toilet where the mop doesn't reach...no man's land. In the same way, if any closet or corner of our souls are left unchecked under the brooming sweep of God's perfect law, we can expect a gathering of filth and cobwebs. And friends, nowhere is that sin more blatantly revealed than in the words we choose to paint with.

'Out of the overflow of our heart the mouths speaks' the bible says. As uncontrollable as vomit. That's why it's a true reflection of what we're feeling inside, and why I think this verse is so stark. But, isn't it good to know that we have this built in thermometer, to check ourselves, to evaluate?

Are the white bubbles fizzing in the wound, pulling the dirt out and cleaning out the gunk?
Praise God for peroxide, amen?

Shut it!

Lead with your ears, follow with your tongue, and let anger straggle along in the rear...(James 1:19 from The Message)

Get out a little nail and hammer, because this is a great message to hang on the wall of our hearts, and a perfect gut-check for every relationship, whether it's at home or at work, with the kids or with your somewhat incompetent co-worker...God.
Some verses just really drive it home don't they? That's one of the things I love about the bible. You don't find that kind of honesty in the every day humdrum. Getting hammered with a verse now and then is actually good for the soul, wouldn't you agree? After all, if it was all so agreeable and natural for us, what would be the point?

This verse falls in line with the teaching of Christ. Set in such stark contrast from the worlds ways, the best leaders are the ones who serve, and so of course, the best way to lead would be to....listen?
Yes. Not always whipping out the arsenal of summaries or theologies to be pitched or delivered, giving our 2 cents, but instead to just be still and listen.

To sum it up: Shut it!
Open your ears and make room for patience to persevere, squelching that natural anger and allowing, even yielding the right of way to real wisdom. Even when your light was green. Even when your wheels came to a stop first.

The Quarrelsome Wife

Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.
(Pro 21:9)
Better to live in a desert than with a quarrelsome and ill-tempered wife.
(Pro 21:19)
Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife.
(Pro 25:24) (yes, it's in their twice, it's that serious!)
A quarrelsome wife is like a constant dripping on a rainy day;
(Pro 27:15)

I always got a good laugh out of these verses, and right up to this morning I read them them out loud as I was flipping the pages. Loving it! The words were so choice! Better to live not in a corner of the house, not in another room, but on the roof top, har-har-har, in the farthest possible spot, from the quarrelsome wife... get as far away from that tornado as possible! Whooo-eee, that guy nailed it! Hilarious.....until this morning.

Then after I got my good laugh today, reading that one out loud, the Lord brought the hammer down, pulled away the wool, opened my eyes, humbled me, whatever you want to call it...it dawned on me that the verse wasn't written to give husbands a good chuckle, to use as ammo on their wives... it was written as instruction to the man, to give wisdom to the man. Yes, a quarrelsome wife is a very, very unpleasant experience, but why, WHY, is she quarrelsome? What put her in that position, that mood, that dripping?

Dirty socks two inches away from the hamper, almost there, but not quite.

Dishes, stacking up, with dried bits of food that are now concrete sculptures, waiting to be chiseled. Ooh, they were under the sink, directly under the gaze of the faucet, but the lever was never lifted...too heavy to exert the energy to bring the water.

None of this hitting home? Maybe it's because you're not looking at the root like me? What is the cause of the quarrelsome wife? Most of the time, it's us men.

How is it that the car keys are always misplaced, and it's never our fault, but hers? She has to find everything for me.

How about plain exhaustion? She's tired, eyes drooping and just wanting a few minutes of quiet, and we come in and say those lovely, heartfelt words, "What's for dinner?"

Or my #1 quarrelsome wife instigator: "What's your problem?"

What about when they need our help, our pitching in, and we are unavailable, we've drifted off to another room, we're surfing the internet, we're 'busy'. We've been working all day and we think we just deserve to come home and unplug.

Not too funny anymore, not for me anyway. I feel like I'm the puppy that just pooped on the floor and the the Lord is the master, dragging my nose through it so I don't forget. When He decides to humble, it can really be a drag...

As I was laughing about those verses this morning, I felt the knock...and the Lord turned the tables. What can we do to honor and respect them, make them feel loved and cherished, and then what don't we do, to bring about the wife mentioned in these verses? Something to think about, but something that also requires hands and feet. Action. Not just words and thoughts...

I could just erase this blog, instead of posting it, making myself accountable. I could just delete, backspace....never admitting that anything ever dawned on me... I could do that, how many guys are wishing I had?

Iron Sharpens Iron

Iron sharpeneth iron; so a man sharpeneth the countenance of his friend.
(Pro 27:17)


Ever tried to cut into something with a dull, raggedy old knife, when the edge of the blade is pitted and worn round?
Not only are the results frustrating, but getting the job done is just more work. And getting the job done right just isn't going to happen. You just make do with what you've got.

Christians are the same way. In the ancient days soldiers didn't have the shiny, oily, beautiful works of art strapped to their belts like they do in Hollywood. They had big, meaty, ugly looking weapons that packed a punch, and there was nothing polished about them. But, and this is a big but, they did have great workmanship in keeping sharp edges. A good soldier worked his blade to a sharp edge, because that was his tool, not because it was pretty.

The verse gives us a great visual about how friends can sharpen one anothers countenance. The word means "face". What? Yes. Picture it this way, when you're happy, you smile. When you're mad, your eyebrows and forehead wrinkle up, and when you're tired your eyes droop. Your face, your countenance, shows your mood, your demeanor, at any given time of the day.

So when friends come together, it's biblical. We aren't meant to be islands, isolated from fellowship. It may not always be appealing since by nature even I'm a good hermit, but it is still necessary if I expect to be any kind of a useful tool in the hands of Christ, to keep that sharp edge. To work and rub through the burrs and pits in life.

When you encourage, admonish, lift up or even rebuke out of love for one another, you are in effect, sharpening the demeanor, the mood of your friend, and yourself. Iron sharpens iron.

But it's a two way street.

By sharpening, we grow stronger together, because we show one another that we care.
In contrast, if you do any of those things without love, you may as well be hacking away at your friend. While you're tearing them down you're really tearing yourself down, and you both wind up dull and uninteresting. The tool master finds Himself working harder than He needs to get the job done, and when the results are mediocre at best, how long will it be until that tool gets set off to the side or even thrown out, replaced by another? The job will get done with or without you, Christian. It's up to you to keep yourself in working condition.

The Shame of the Cross

Reading Corrie Ten Boom last night in the book The Hiding Place, she gives an account about a routine health inspection that was forced on the prisoners in her concentration camp during WWII. The guards made them all strip naked and it was very shameful. Yet while the guards were smirking and making faces as the women were paraded in front of them, Corrie had the revelation that Jesus had endured that same shame... while hanging on the cross. He met her there, in her agony, in her most awful moment, and reminded her of His love. It was enough to help her endure that pain.

We don't picture Jesus naked on the cross. All of those famous artists renditions always depict Him with a loincloth around his groin, and while they painted with the purpose of showing respect to the sacrifice, I think we lose something in affording Christ the dignity that He didn't really have.

Matthew 27 records the events, in that they stripped Jesus and placed a scarlet robe and a crown of thorns on Him to mock the majesty of who He claimed to be. After they were finished, they then took it off. It goes on to say that they put his own clothes back on Him, but it wouldn't have been for long.

In the days of crucifixion, the Romans made certain to strip the victims down to nothing, to humiliate them and add to their shame. They wanted the visual impact to be as mortifying as possible to the public, and so Jesus, just another Jew to them, wouldn't have been any different.

He truly gave everything for us, right down to His dignity. There was nothing more that could have possibly been snatched away. He was cut, lacerated to the bone, bruised and beaten to the point of being unrecognizable, He was given a sour drink when He was thirsty, and He was ridiculed while He slowly succumbed to the most painful death known to mankind....because He loved You. Could anyone love you more?

One of the verses to a song we're still composing really makes me stop and ponder just how much Jesus really loves us...

"He didn't have to hang there,
But He did.
On rough lumber, carved into the cross.
Splinters ran deep into
already open wounds...
and He still prayed for the lost."

Set Me On Fire

I said, "I will watch my ways and keep my tongue from sin; I will put a muzzle on my mouth as long as the wicked are in my presence." But when I was silent and still, not even saying anything good, my anguish increased. My heart grew hot within me, and as I meditated, the fire burned; then I spoke with my tongue:
(Psa 39:1-3)

I love this passage because I can completely relate to it. I've been there. So have most of you. When you don't understand God, you see an injustice, or you hear someone ranting, and they're completely off the mark, and a part of you says to just leave it alone, walk away, pipe down, don't make waves, just forget it... and then you feel that stirring. :) You know it. This spark that starts from deep within. Soon as you feel it, you know what's going to happen, and for that reason alone, there's this flutter of anquish, this 'uh-oh!' that streaks across your mind.
The battle begins, to shut up, to speak up, and your insides heat up. Before long there's a forest fire, a blaze flashing, crashing in your soul, and by the time you open your mouth, it's not usually because you want to, it's more that you have to.
You cry out, it bursts out, and you may as well be vomiting, because there's no stopping you until it's all said, and only then will you be finished and at rest.

That's passion.

We just wrote and recorded our latest song... in 2 days.
We came together, prayed, and then David played a few lines of a verse and chorus he'd come up with. He started talking about what he was envisioning for the song, and the rest came flowing out in this awesome collaboration. By the time I finished writing the song I couldn't type fast enough.

We still needed a feedback, powered monitor to play live, so David put his 1967 Galaxie on Craigslist at 1:30. It sold not 8 hours later, and today the monitor is sitting here with all the rest of the equipment. Praise God.

Set Me On Fire

I was walking,
I was thinking
about what would happen
if it all came down today.

Would I be good enough?

Being a good guy,
having the right words
doesn't get me through the gates
or so I've heard.

It just ain't good enough.

Waiting til midnight
to make it all right,
then i die at 11:59.

It just ain't good enough.

Set me on fire
for you Jesus.
Keep me rooted in your word
through the message that I've heard

Set me on fire
for you Jesus.
Give me your law so I don't fall.
Shine your light on me so I can be

On fire, for you Jesus.
On fire, for you Jesus, for you Jesus.

Going to church,
just filling the pews,
thinking that you've paid your dues
and that's good enough,

Well it just ain't good enough.

Working out life
by your own hands,
thinking you can get God
to fit your plans
and He'll fix you up...

just ain't good enough.

Bridge:
Bow your head, bend your knee
to the One who sets the sinner free.
Give your life, give your love
to the only One ever good enough.

Set me on fire
for you Jesus.
Keep me rooted in your word
through the message that I've heard

Set me on fire
for you Jesus.
Give me your law so I don't fall.
Shine your light on me so I can be

On fire, for you Jesus.
On fire, for you Jesus, for you Jesus.

(Psalm 39:1-3, James 2:8-12, James 1:22-25, Luke 13:1-5)

My Testimony - Jeremy Klumper

When I was young probably about 7, I was exposed to pornography for the first time. As I grew older with more exposure through my own will, I fed my addiction as often as I could find it. What started out as pictures in magazines turned into movies, and internet later on. The only way I can explain the fix is the way it made me feel, the warmth, the feeling that I was needed and it also put my mind in crazy places doing crazy things that for some reason made me feel like I was on cloud 9.

When I first started seeing my soon to be wife, my fix turned into the real deal. For some while this seemed to take care of my addiction and lessened it. Problem being the enemy knew that it wouldn’t take much to get a hold of me knowing my walk with Jesus was pretty much scarce. And low and behold he capitalized on it and drug it out for a very long time.

Its crazy how the enemy can make you reach even further into darkness for what we think will bring us satisfaction. When I was about 22 years old I was diagnosed with severe depression and severe anxiety. I was put on prescription drugs and tried to deal with it on my own. As long as I was taking my medications I seemed to be fine and feeling for the most part fulfilled.

Through out the next couple of years I battled taking my medication and dealing with ordinary everyday life. I for some reason thought that smoking marijuana occasionally was ok also. Not an everyday thing but occasionally. You know just to take the edge off. Or at least that is what I would tell myself.

When I was 26, I was under a lot of stress at work and was bringing it home with me. I had stopped taking my medications and was tired of the ups and downs and the feelings that it wasn’t doing what it was supposed to. So I started searching for a fix that would do that for me. Low and behold the enemy knew just what to prescribe.

The place where I was working was full of drugs. You name it and they either had it on them or the could run home and get it.

I told a guy what I was looking for and he showed me exactly what would fix this.
I was welcomed to the wonderful world of methamphetamines. What I didn’t realize until it was too late was that you can be addicted after the first time you use it. I also didn’t realize that you would need the fix very frequently and it wasn’t cheap. Of course it took a hold of me like nothing I had ever experienced in my life time.

I knew I had one roadblock that would keep this addiction very hard to carry out and that would be my wife. You see when we met she made it very clear to me that she didn’t like drugs, she had never done drugs and she would not be a part of anyone that was doing drugs. This was definitely going to be a difficult thing to overcome.

My solution was to keep it from her and do it when I wasn’t around her. Aka lying through my teeth. I would tell her I was going here and there and doing this and doing that. When in fact I was just leaving her presence so I could do more. Let me tell you she is a very smart woman who without a ton of help from supposed friends and tons of lies, I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I did.

My next roadblock was trying to keep it from my family and close relatives. It was hard and as time went on the more comfortable and sloppy I got with trying to keep it a secret.

I found out one more detail of this wonderful addiction, that the meth would intensify my pornography addiction which felt like a thousand times worse than before. So I not only had a new addiction but it intensified and complimented my other worst enemy.

After being a Meth user for all of 3 years and spending $1,200 a month for this wonder drug that made my life a total disaster, the Good Lord started to break me down and started to make me realize that he was the answer I was looking for and he was the fix I needed all along.
You see methamphetamines is a drug with such a powerful hold on you that you have to seek rehab to kick it. I want to share with you today that the Lord gave me the strength to quit cold turkey. No relapses, no major break downs and with only slight side effects that with prayer was fixed. The other awesome thing is he offered me full forgiveness for my sins and has since then changed my life forever. PRAISE GOD!!!!

He also gave me the strength to do one more unthinkable task, tell my WIFE. I have done some really hard things in my life but this was the absolute hardest thing I have ever done in my life. I knew this was going to kill her inside an I knew there was a chance she would leave and take my children with her. I felt like I was telling her that I had been having an affair on her for three years with another woman. Don’t get me wrong, I was really having an affair with two addictions.

She, in her Loving Heart, found a way to forgive me and my stupidity. I know now that there was a lot of help there from the Lord. I tell her now that if she can put up with me through all of this, she is stuck with me forever. I love her to death and wouldn’t trade her for the world.

I Thank God so much and I owe my life to him for everything he has done for me. He has shown my family and I so many blessings and miracles that I have lost track of how many. The best part of this is he continues to provide for us and show us the way to live.

I know that I have broken every one of the ten commandments either physically or mentally. The best part and most comforting thing to me is that Jesus Christ died on the cross for yours and my sins combined. Ask for his forgiveness and change the way we live - not for ourselves but for him who died for us in our place -and we will live for ever with Him and Our Father in Heaven for Eternity.

Have you ever really thought about that? I mean really thought. No matter what we have done up to today, right now, we can still be forgiven. That blows my mind. I look at my life and think of all the terrible things I’ve done and get chills thinking that I have been forgiven. So think about that and digest that and see if you think that you have done anything that God’s Grace can't fix. I will be the first to tell you there is nothing too big for our God. Try him. He will show you.

Measure yourself to his commandments and see if you need someone to save you from eternal damnation. I don’t know about you but I’m not a gambler. I cant wait to get to Heaven, I hope you feel the same way.

Your Brother in Christ
Jeremy Klumper
Amen