She Said Yes

Tonight I asked a girl to marry me; a girl I don't deserve; a girl I can't begin to thank God enough for; a girl I cannot wait to share the rest of my life with.

What's more, she said yes.

New Album - "Providence"

Now available from www.resoundingmusic.com - Music from the Founding Fathers Project which blends the stereotypical fife-and-drum sounds of colonial America with the heart-on-sleeve passion and orchestral grandeur of modern film music.

Buy it here.

Hear it here:

EXALTATION: A Cinematic Christmas Collection

I had the immense pleasure of working with seven other composers on an album of music celebrating the birth of The Lord Jesus Christ in a cinematic style.  This album presents a musical take on Christmas not quite like anything you've ever heard before- and I think that's a good thing.  You can hear a bit of one of my contributions to this project below, and check out the album on iTunes, find it on Spotify, and look for it in the near future on many other online music stores like AmazonMp3.

Time

"Therefore be careful how you walk, not as unwise men, but as wise, making the most of your time, because the days are evil. So then do not be foolish, but understand what the will of the Lord is." - Eph. 5:15-17

It's a new year.

Already.

That happened so fast.

It always does, I guess.

Truth is, "the grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the LORD blows upon it; surely the people are grass."  70 years go by and the baby shower and the bridal shower and the funeral become pictures in an album in a dusty attic.  Remaining is the question which has haunted so many on their deathbed:

So what?

What was all that about?  What was it for? 

What a waste.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

It has been said that every runner has two great fears. The first; he fears finding himself spent before he has reached the finish line; whether by lack of training or by overzealous exertion, he cannot finish the race.  The second; he fears reaching the end of the race successfully, gleefully crossing the finish line, his laborious task complete- and then realizing, in the pit of his stomach-

"I could have done more."

Of course, we are all are runners in a race far more important than one of meters and finish lines.  Every year that ticks past is another mile marker.  But, in this race, we cannot stop.  The race will be run.  The mile markers will continue to fly past- even if we are sitting still.

We cannot stop, but we can fail; we cannot rest, but we can slow to a walk; we cannot give up, but we can give in.

Or.

We can run.  Fighting and clawing and climbing and reaching and sprinting and jumping and panting breathlessly.  We can run in such a way as to win the prize.  We can run a race that will stand the test of time, for though this race is run by every person, it is only conquered by a few.

As children of the King, we have been given a marvelous opportunity.  A breath of life- a window of time, swiftly closing- an epic journey which lasts for the blink of an eye- and the chance to take that momentary blade of grass which is ours and throw it into the great and eternal blaze of The Kingdom of God.

That we, here today and gone tomorrow, should be given the title of ambassadors for The King Who was, Who is, and Who is to come; that we, the dust of the earth, could become bricks in the construction of a celestial Kingdom; that the leprous and sick cesspool of sin and evil which is us should be chosen, redeemed, called, transformed, into the spotless bride of the Son of God- oh, what a marvelous opportunity is ours!

For we are not lost and losing in a race which can only leave us defeated.  We are more than conquerors; the race is ours, and is ours to win, and our victory is not one of hollow applause and trophies which tarnish and medals which collect dust and are forgotten.  We have been given a Kingdom to live for- and to die for.  These moments which we call lifetimes can be invested in eternity.  Our death will come in the blink of an eye, but our legacy can become a part of forever.

If we are faithful.

Will we be faithful?  Will we run with patience the race set before us?  Will we fill every "unforgiving minute with 60 seconds of distance run?"  Will we pant, and scrape, and sweat, and bleed, and weep, and laugh, and run, and come to the end of our race, breathless and amazed and victorious?  Or will we take our glorious birthright and trade it in for a mess of pottage?  Will we walk when we should have run, smile when we should have laughed, turn our eyes when we should have wept, be clean when we should have been soaked in mud and sweat and blood?

When our race is over, will we cross the finish line knowing that we could have done more?

On Christians Coming Out Of The Closet

What exactly does separation of Church and State mean?  Can pastors endorse candidates from the pulpit?  Should politicians allow their religious beliefs affect their political decisions?  Should Christians keep their faith to themselves, relegating it to the personal aspects of their lives?

Or should Christians just grab their Bibles and come out of the closet?

That's what I explore in this episode (and part 2- stay tuned) of Church & State.

Disobeying Orders

Our culture trains us to always obey orders. Police officers- soldiers- whenever someone objects and tries to explain why you are not protecting justice, what is the response? "Just following orders."

But is there ever a time to disobey orders?

The second (and first, since the last one was really an introduction) episode of The Babylon Effect.



Also, more music from "Act Like Men." One of my biggest takeaways from this project is that melodies are crucial and distinctive- but rhythms can be very unique too. This piece is driven by a morse code distress call rhythm which is very unique. I want to continue finding unique and fitting rhythms- and not just falling back on my old standbys.

Here's the morse code- can you hear it in the piece?

CQD - "Act Like Men" by gabrielhudelson

Christ Shall Have Dominion / Music: Critical Mass

Dominion. Not only is it an awesome word, but it's a word with a freight-train size load of theological connotations that are- to be simplistic- rather controversial.

And rather awesome.

So let's start at the beginning.

"And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." (Gen. 1:28, KJV)

Here we see the initial command given to man. Rule the earth. Man tends the earth and brings it into obedience to God.

This is, of course, much harder after the fall- in fact, it can only be accomplished apart from God's Grace.

But that doesn't mean that we should not still strive towards it- and pray for the Grace that it necessitates.

Some will say that we are no longer "under" this initial mandate, since we are now under the New Covenant. To these, my reply is threefold:

1. This is our initial created purpose. It doesn't just go away- it's what we were made to do.
2. Both our Lord Jesus Christ and the apostle Paul refer back to creation order. ("From the beginning, it was not so.") Why do we retain the model for things like one-man-one-woman marriage yet reject the Dominion Mandate?
3. This objection arises from what I believe to be a dangerous misunderstanding of the New Covenant. The New Covenant was the fulfillment of The Law in Christ. The ceremonial and sacrificial laws are done away with in Him. The New Covenant is not a "liberation" from the moral laws of God, nor is it a repudiation- an abolishing- of all the things contained in the Old Testament. This includes the Dominion Mandate.
   

So what does this dominion-taking look like, practically? In a nutshell, it looks like applying all of God's Word to all of life.

Instead of seeing this world as a lost cause, "going to hell in a hand-basket," we should see this world as God's. He owns it. We are His ambassadors come to claim His domain back from those who have usurped Him.

"And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth." (Matt. 28:18)

Scripture paints a picture, not of a monastic separation from the world, nor of an antinomian revelry in sin, but of an aggressive expansion, an in-this-world-but-not-of-it march forward which calls every area of life- politics, art, culture, education, all of it- to submit to Christ.

Which leads to discussing eschatology- what we think about the end-times. The dominion worldview can seem inherently postmillenial. Postmillenialists believe that there will be no tribulation- the church will obey God more and more and His Kingdom gradually will advance and fill the earth. "All the earth will be filled with the glory of the LORD."

But for someone who believes that the earth will get worse and worse until Jesus comes back, it might seem like dominion is a silly and irrelevant idea.

It's not.

Though it does kinda make better sense from a post-mil standpoint.

My point with this post, however, isn't to start a debate on eschatology. I'd rather leave that for another time. My point here is that this world is God's. His Kingdom will reign. Perhaps that reign will be inaugurated by Divine fiat, where the world gets worse and worse and then BAM. Christ returns and brings justice. Perhaps it will indeed be by the faithfulness of the remnant.

Either way, His Kingdom is inevitable.

Either way, it is for us to obey. To live as if all authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Christ. Because it has.

Christianity isn't another part of our life. It is our life. It's not the thing we put in the "religion" box on Facebook. It's the foundation, the worldview, the root of everything that we do. It must be so.

And it gets bigger. The dominion-minded believer desires to see things like politics and the arts conquered for Christ. This does NOT mean using physical force to overthrow governments, but it does mean striving for the conformation of the institutions of this world to The Word of God.

Yes, I firmly believe that our national legal system should be built on The moral Law of God. What other option do we have as believers?

The retort may come back, "you're advocating saving the nation through politics!"

Not at all. Nations are lost or won one soul at a time. Politics cannot save. But, as has been said- if Christians are faithful, and God is willing, politics will be saved.

So the dominion-minded believer isn't just "waiting at the bus stop" for Jesus' return. He is actively striving to expand the real-life Kingdom of God on this earth.

"Your kingdom come. Your will be done, On earth as it is in heaven." (Matt. 6:10)

That's what I see Scripture exhorting us to. This earth belongs to Christ. Let's act like it.

I hope that this woefully short epistle attempting to define dominion proves helpful and edifying to some. I might have inspired more questions than I answered, but that might be a good thing. Please ask the questions below, though I can't guarantee that I'll be able to answer them. Oftentimes, my answers aren't even necessary- others will pitch in and answer the questions for me, and sometimes better than I could've. I enjoy learning from you all, so thanks again for the discussions.

Speaking of dominion, here's one of my latest dominion-taking endeavors in the area of music. I think it's fitting to the topic at hand, both in title and in genre. Because God's Kingdom, one way or another, will reach Critical Mass.

Critical Mass by gabrielhudelson

"Christ shall have dominion, over land and sea,
Earth’s remotest regions shall His empire be;
They that wilds inhabit shall their worship bring,
Kings shall render tribute, nations serve our King."