A bad taste is sometimes left in the mouths of music enthusiasts at the mere mention of any band’s sophomore album. Not so with Rend Collective Experiment’s second full-length release, Homemade Worship by Handmade People, especially since their first album dropped just a little more than a year ago. And, in keeping with their devotion to produce a true live sound with a Holy Spirit-led feel, the band presents a recording that was fused together in church halls and in homes during their latest tour.

The album’s opening song, “Praise Like Fireworks”—striking a key difference from their first album’s introduction—is upbeat with a lot of energy that does justice to its title. Exploding with a variety of musical color and vocal dynamic, bandleader Gareth Gilkenson jumps into the verses and choruses with an unmistakable celebratory declaration of God’s goodness. This track is packed with cymbals and driving toms that help to encourage energetic worship.

The vivacity continues into the next two songs…

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Eight friends and I journeyed up to South Lake Tahoe, last weekend, and we were welcomed with a gorgeous white blanket that covered the California and Nevada mountain range. And, even though most of the snow dumped on the Heavenly ski resort the weekend prior, we were still blessed with great snowboarding conditions that did justice to the resort’s name.

Yes, our weekend was heavenly.

We stopped, during one of our runs to take a picture and capture the celebratory weekend (we were there to celebrate my best friend’s upcoming commitment to marriage-hood), and I couldn’t help but pause to soak in the breath-taking alpine. After the picture was snapped, and as we began our way down the mountain, I also couldn’t help but think about the artistic genius that is God.

As a writer, I’m always searching for inspiration to keep the wheels of my creative cog going. There are seasons where I pump out material left and right, but there are also seasons where nothing seems to flow. It always amazes me to think that all God had, in the beginning, was His words.

He spoke and life came to be. He whispered and the stars materialized. He shouted and the oceans were filled.

He looked at the empty mass and told the Tahoe mountain range to peak.

God, the ultimate artist, recited a sonnet, breathed into the earth and we came to life.

It’s in this context—in a committed relationship with our Creator—that we, too, can become artists who bring life to those who, perhaps, are staring up at a heart crushing summit. As we embrace God’s creative caress on our lives, we can more easily extend our hands to those searching for life’s cascading beauty.

When we realize that God unconditionally loves us, we can begin to love others more deeply.

How about you? How are you showing God’s love to others or how have you experienced God’s love in a remarkable way?

Let’s talk.

I always cringe when I think about the religion we have come to know—the careful, clean cut, compartmentalized corporation it has become. Whether Muslim or Buddhism and whether Christianity or Atheism, the world’s religions have created a chasm between humanity and the God of the universe. Religions have seemingly fashioned a protective orb that surrounds its members from those who aren’t like them. Religion has seemingly taken the place of God and have dictated what living a godly life means.

And it’s nothing new.

The teachers of the Law in Jesus’ day were no different. Their interpretation of the original laws became a set of standards that one needed to live by in order to be counted worthy of God’s grace. They surrounded God’s laws with so many traditional laws that it became nearly impossible for someone to be counted as God’s children—unless, of course, you were one of the religious teachers or a follower of this hierarchal way.

Don’t get me wrong. I love traditions. Traditions allow for a sense of connectedness to a particular people group and allow a pathway for rich history to take place within said group of people. Traditions allow generations to continue and thrive. Traditions allow for family holiday parties to continue over the years. Traditions, in the context of religion, allow for points of beginnings to be identified. And that’s a good thing.

But when man allows traditions to become God’s laws and are used as a means to control others, then the grace of God becomes distorted. God, in light of man’s manipulated mandates, is shrunk down to humanity’s level and, at times, even lower.

This is where Jesus comes in.

One of the first things that Jesus said when He stepped on the scene was, “I didn’t come to abolish the Law and the Prophets. I came to fulfill them (Matthew 5:17).” In other words, God stepped into human history and told these pre-first century religious folk that they got everything wrong. And, in Hugh Halter’s book, “Sacrilege,” that same spirit (of getting everything wrong in the Christian sense), flows throughout the folds of his writing.

Hugh asks the Christian a simple question: “Would Jesus call you a Pharisee?”

And this is the question a small group of “Christians” and I are also seeking to answer. What started out as a church’s young adults ministry has now become an intimate group of people exploring what it means to boldly and uncompromisingly  follow Jesus. It, as one person retells the story of a night where she couldn’t go to sleep after reading the first chapter of the book, has become the springboard away from the prettiness of the religion and into the arms and lap of the God of the universe.

Join me, over the next season, as I recount some of our conversations through this journey. Or, better yet, join us every Friday night at Portfolio Coffee House, in Long Beach, to explore what it means to stare religion in the face and choose to turn around and follow Jesus.

Thoughts?

Let’s talk.

I came across this TED Talk a while ago, but I thought it would be appropriate to repost for the new year. Enjoy!

“People don’t buy what you do, the buy why you do it.”

How Great Leaders Inspire Action

Thanks for all the support in the 2011. I’m definitely looking forward to a great 2012. Keep reading and keep commenting!

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 3,400 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 57 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.