The Bourgeois Blues

Home of the brave, land of the free
I don't wanna be mistreated by no bourgeoisie
Lord, in a bourgeois town
Uhm, the bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around

Well, me and my wife we were standing upstairs
We heard the white man say "I don't want no niggers up there"
Lord, in a bourgeois town
Uhm, bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around

Well, them white folks in Washington they know how
To call a colored man a nigger just to see him bow
Lord, it's a bourgeois town
Uhm, the bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around

I tell all the colored folks to listen to me
Don't try to find you no home in Washington, DC
`Cause it's a bourgeois town
Uhm, the bourgeois town
I got the bourgeois blues
Gonna spread the news all around

Leadbelly

You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet only your brothers, what more are you doing than others? Do not even the Gentiles do the same? You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

Matthew 5:43-48

Whipping Post

Sometimes I feel, sometimes I feel,
Like I been tied to the whipping post,
Tied to the whipping post,
Tied to the whipping post,
Good lord, I feel like I’m dyin’.
Greg Allman

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord;
James 1:5-7

Is it wrong to doubt? Is it wrong to question? What leads believers to doubt the providence of God, to doubt the goodness of God, to even doubt his existence? Is it our sinful hearts lashing out against the Spirit that is working within us to transform us into the image of Christ? Is it our emotions and feelings pleading for validation? Christ often encountered doubt. He often encountered people seeking a miracle. Even after performing miracles, people still left him and doubted his authority. How much more so, in the western church, do we doubt when we have never seen Christ and few of us have witnessed a miracle the magnitude of those performed by Christ and the apostles? How much more do we doubt because we don't get what we want?

But is it wrong to doubt? When we base our faith and our spiritual growth on our feelings, then doubt can be dangerous. Our feelings are like the waves in the ocean. James says that person is driven by the wind. The ebbs and flows of the christian life can lead to inconsistencies and strongholds that keep the believer from living the life that God called them to live. However, for the believer whose faith is grounded, not on emotions, but in the fact that Christ died for their sin and has purchased them with his own blood, doubt can be a tool that God uses to mature their faith. When the storms of life come, their faith is built on the undeniable truth of the supremacy of Christ, which will use moments of doubt to only strengthen their resolve.

When life ties me to the whipping post and beats me down, I admit that it can be hard to trust Christ. I think to myself, "Is it really worth it? What if all this is some big joke?" Those thoughts are quickly vanquished when I look at the life of the Apostle Paul. Paul was a Jew of such high esteem that he may have been in line to become the Chief Priest in Jerusalem. He was a prominent Roman citizen. His influence was key in the persecution of the early church. By all accounts, he was a young man that had the whole world in his hand. But all that was gone in the blink of an eye on the road to Damascus. He gave up everything for the sake of Christ. He suffered mightily for it. Paul says of his struggles,
I have been constantly on the move. I have been in danger from rivers, in danger from bandits, in danger from my own countrymen, in danger from Gentiles; in danger in the city, in danger in the country, in danger at sea; and in danger from false brothers. I have labored and toiled and have often gone without sleep; I have known hunger and thirst and have often gone without food; I have been cold and naked. Besides everything else, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches. 1

What would posses a man that had it all to give up everything? What would posses a man to give up his prosperous life to endure starvation and nakedness. Secular history attests to Paul's testimony. Logically, from the world's point of view, Paul gained nothing by converting. He lost everything. But we know that he considered all his previous accomplishments rubbish for the sake of knowing Christ Jesus. And in fact, by losing his life, he gained everything. Two thousand years later, his life and his words are bearing such immeasurable fruit. This is such a powerful testimony, that when I think of Paul's life, I am immediately humbled and brought back to the cross. This is when my doubt is made submissive to the cross of Christ. This is when my doubt works for me, instead of against me.

I encourage anybody that reads that suffers with the occasional doubts to rest in God's grace. He is indeed big enough to handle your doubt, and if you let him, He will use it to make you more than a conqueror.

I am praying for you.


1. 2 Corinthians 11:26-28

Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground

For there is no distinction: for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and are justified by his grace as a gift, through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God put forward as a propitiation by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God’s righteousness, because in his divine forbearance he had passed over former sins.

Romans 3:23-26

Has anyone ever given you a gift or showed you unwarranted kindness? What sort of feelings did it inspire? When my girlfriend goes out of her way to make me coffee to help keep me awake for a long drive or cooks me dinner and cooks enough to give me the leftovers for lunch the next day, those acts of love and kindness inspire me to love her and be more fully devoted to her. Such gracious acts invoke a response of gratitude and love. Yet, the ultimate gift given by the creator of the universe invokes in me, a much more tempered response. While I want to love God and grow in His love daily, I find a constant war within me to rebel. This war is not present in me in regards to relationships with others, yet is there in regards to Christ. Why would I continue to take advantage of His grace when such love and devotion has been given to me?

Praise God for this grace! For without it, we would be hopeless wanderers, guilty of sin against an almighty God. Words cannot express the love of Christ towards His own. It pleased God to sacrifice his Son for our sin. I've often wondered why God chose to atone for our sins in this way. What greater amount of love could be shown towards men that God, in his veracity for justice, would send his beloved to pay the debts for our sin! The atonement contains the fullness of God's love for us and the fullness of His hatred for sin.

So let us always remember the sacrifice of Christ and the ultimate love shown toward us, while we were still yet sinners. Let us be holy as Christ is holy. Let us keep his commands, not out of fear or duty, but out of love.

Preachin' Blues

Oh, I went in my room, I bowed down to pray
Oh, I went in my room, I bowed down to pray
Till the blues come along, and they blowed my spirit away

Son House

And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea.

Matthew 14:23-25

The Christian walk is not an easy walk. Christ calls it the narrow road. He calls his people to carry their cross, to sell their possessions, to eat his flesh and to drink his blood. He commands us to pray and then gives us a simple five second example as a prayer, yet when we look at his life, we see a life devoted to service and prayer.

In the verse posted above, the fourth watch is considered to have occurred between 3 and 6 am. Christ, after the feeding of the five thousand, dismisses the crowd around dusk. The Word says he immediately goes into the mountain to pray. From the text, we can deduce that he prayed approximately 6-9 hours! I often look at my life and wonder what it could be like if I devoted half of that time per WEEK in prayer. Paul commands us to pray without ceasing, and I suppose that as I go about my daily activities, that I could make my thoughts obedient to Christ, but to devote 6-9 hours a DAY, on my face, in prayer seems far outside the capabilities of this feeble human mind. What type of fruit would be born from that type of obedience? Would my flesh have the same power over me as it currently does? At what rate would my faith grow in Christ?

These questions cannot be answered with any sort of formulaic or quantitative response, however, one should only look at the lives of those who have counted the cost for the sake of the gospel and see that prayer is firmly rooted in their lifestyle. I am not one for resolutions but I would very much desire to pray as Jesus prayed. This is the first step in the pursuit of holiness. So my desire is that everyday I would pray and seek holiness just a little more than the day before. That through time, I could develop the mind of Christ, that I would be transformed to his image. Let 2010 be the year of broken hearts and calloused knees