"The Catalyst" by Linkin Park, Part 1

Linkin Park is not, nor has ever been a Christian band. In the album booklet for A Thousand Suns, they state, "the imagery personified herein is neither dogma nor political premeditation." All interpretations of this song are not exactly, to my knowledge, the same as the band's interpretations. They are mine as a professed Christian, as God has used this music to impact me. I sincerely hope and pray that the same will be true for you.

GOD CAN USE ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING FOR HIS GLORY.

A few years ago while younger in my Christian faith, I threw out all my secular CDs, feeling strongly that it was from God and that I had to get rid of every evil thing I owned. The music I listened to represented years of depression, sorrow and regret. Linkin Park, one of my favorite bands, was part of that music collection. However about two years ago, as my faith gained stability, I found myself led by the Holy Spirit to go back to listening to them again. Linkin Park's music used to aid me into welcoming thoughts of hopelessness, but lately I have found some of their songs literally bringing me to my knees.

The nice thing about Linkin Park's lyrical content in their music is that it is incredibly vague. They never use names, or describe specific situations, but purposefully make their lyrics as broad and general as possible. Anything specific is described using poetic imagery and symbolism, which allows any listener to interpret what they say for themselves.

In their song "The Catalyst", there is a lot of beautiful poetic imagery, which shows definite maturity for Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda (the band's singers). The song has simple lyrics, many of them sung repeatedly, like a chant.

God bless us everyone, we're a broken people living under loaded gun,
and it can't be outfought, it can't be outrun, it can't be outmatched, it can't be outrun.
NO!

The band took a very bold step in this song, using the words "God" and "sins". People today, even in churches, don't like saying the word "sin". The same goes with the word "God." They oftentimes instead use words like "Higher Power" or "force". Even some Christian artists nowadays won't use those words in their lyrics, but Linkin Park flat out calls them as they are!

This verse emphasizes brokenness and hopelessness. In using "us", it shows that this is a whole group of people, probably society in general. This verse very accurately represents our world today. The words, "living under loaded gun" stress that these people are under the authority of evil and are being broken by it and are completely and utterly hopeless. They can't fight, they can't run, because they can't even match up to the incredible size of their oppressor. Romans 3:23 says, "All have sinned", and Jesus says, "Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin" (John 8:34).

The words, "God bless us everyone", I don't think emphasize the fact that they are crying out to God, but I think they have more of a sarcastic tone to them. God has NOT blessed them. The people in this song are in pain. They don't feel blessed, they feel cursed! I think they do want blessing, and may even think that they have it or deserve it. Romans 6:23 says, "For the wages of sin is death." A wage is something you earn. Sin blinds us, deceives us and ultimately kills us.

And when I close my eyes tonight to symphonies of blinding light,
(God bless us everyone, we're a broken people living under loaded gun)
Like memories in cold decay, transmissions echoing away,
Far from a world of you and I, where oceans bleed into the sky.

The words here stress a hope for something more. The speaker portrayed in this DREAMS of a world filled with light, bliss and harmony. The light is even blinding. In the Bible, when certain people saw God, they saw blinding light. Paul was literally blinded by it when God showed up to him. The speaker longs for something bigger than they are. However, when the speaker opens his eyes in the morning after dreaming, he is back in this dark world he is trapped in. Whether we're Christian or not, we've all felt this way before. That bigger thing is the God of the Universe.

The old world is only a memory, one in "cold decay". Every memory progressively loses more of its luster as its "transmissions echo away." This was probably just how Adam felt during the ticking days after he was excommunicated from Eden. Adam was alive 930 years (Genesis 5:5). That is a lot of reflection time! He had no more face to face interaction with God. No more peace, and no more harmony. He became just like God (Gen. 3:5), and I'm sure he completely regretted it.

This is the state of humanity today. Once freely able to seek and serve the God who loves us, now in bondage by the sin that consumed us.

"The Catalyst" is written by Linkin Park, copyright 2010 Universal Music.

Confessions of a Recovering Facebook Addict

"THE WAGES OF SIN IS DEATH." (Romans 6:23)

Recently I decided to take a break from Facebook for 40 days. I found myself in a bit of a dry spell with God, and one of the things I literally felt consumed by was Facebook. It felt like my thoughts, my time, everything revolved around it. I couldn't work at home without checking it every five minutes, and I constantly had thoughts of: "Hey, this could make a cool status update..."

Whether it was to check my profile, change my picture, post status updates, view other people's status updates, or even spy on "friends" I haven't talked to since high school (some even elementary school), I could only imagine how many countless hours I wasted being consumed by it.

It got to the point where even when I just typed in the "www." in my web browser, it automatically guessed as a first choice that I'd be going to Facebook. My last weekly Covenant Eyes report before the break said I went to Facebook.com over 1,000 times in one week! I don't know about you, but I had a serious problem. It consumed me. It was hard going even a day without it.

That's what idols do. They consume you. They KILL you.

I find that when people pour out their entire lives for something other than Jesus, and it can be anything: sports, their job, music (I'll get to that one later), sex, whatever, it will leave you feeling empty and drained. Idols demand lots from you and give absolutely nothing back but a temporal, worthless high.

Facebook consumed me. Does it consume you? If it doesn't, then you can easily walk away from it. If you can't imagine your life without it, it's time for a break.

When people pour out their lives for Jesus, they find rest. Living for Jesus is hard, but pouring ourselves out for Him is the best thing you can do. Nothing compares to it. That's what He wants and that's what we need. If we pour ourselves out to other things: caffeine, Facebook, friends, social situations, etc. we will get drained. We will not be satisfied. We will be consumed. We will be slaves. We will be killed. We will be EMPTY!

By the grace of God I saw my flaw. Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not anti-Facebook. As of today, I'm actually back on Facebook. Facebook can be a very valuable tool when used for the glory of God. It can also be even more valuable when Christ is at the center of how we the users view it. Yes, those are separate things. Remember, God can glorify Himself through a thought provoking status update, even though it was not initially used with the purpose of glorifying Him (God is really sovereign like that).

Does that also mean that one needs to only post "super duper spiritual" Bible and sermon things? No, I don't think so. People have personalities. It's okay to have funny things posted, but as long as Christ remains the center of them in your heart, soul, mind, and strength when you post them. Is Christ the center? Because everything is about Him. It's not just about commandments, but about Him.

So in regards to Facebook, I am still recovering. I can still be prone to idolatry again, because though I'm dead to sin, I still wrestle with it. I am not over this by a long shot, but I have just made a first step. I also rejoice, because in Christ I am not a slave to sin, but free in Christ (who I'm now a slave to, by the way).

One amazing thing about Jesus is that we can come to Him how we are, no matter the sin struggle. That verse I quoted at the beginning of this post has an end: "...BUT THE FREE GIFT OF GOD IS ETERNAL LIFE IN CHRIST JESUS OUR LORD."

Thanks for reading, being my friend, praying for me and standing by me.

God bless you,

Steve

Do you struggle with an idol? Check and ask God: "Search me and know my heart, test me and know my anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me and lead me in the way everlasting." -Psalm 139:23-24

The "S" Word

SIN! We don't like to talk about it. We like talking about the love of Jesus more than the presence of sin in our own hearts and lives. We as people do not like looking at our own sin. We avoid it and it makes us feel awkward and exposed. We don't like being exposed. Christian Science, a religion I grew up in, actually believes that sin is an illusion. Isn't that crazy?

I think it is, because sin is most definitely NOT an illusion. If you put a child in a room alone with a freshly painted wall with a sign next to it saying, "DO NOT TOUCH! WET PAINT!" I guarantee you that child will touch that wall.

Sin is real. It's in you, and it's in me. It's been in us ever since Adam and Eve deliberately disobeyed God by eating fruit from a tree. Some people call that a fairy tale, and I'm not going to lie, in a way it sounds like it. However the more I look at myself and my sin, the more I see the reality of what Adam did on that tree.

What's crazy about sin and how it affects us is that we not only do terrible things, but we encourage other people to do terrible things too. It's in our nature to make other people stumble. In Isaiah 53:6 it says, "We all like sheep have gone astray, we have turned every one to his own way." Also in Romans 1:32, Paul says about us, "They know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them." Remember though Paul says "they" in this verse, he is not discounting himself or looking at himself as being less sinful than them. The rest of his letter to the Romans makes that clear.

Now, you probably read in that Romans verse that "those who practice such things deserve to die." It sounds extreme, right? We deserve death? Why? What did we do?

It's funny because we say death is an extreme punishment for doing wrong against God, but have we ever wished death on someone who has done wrong to us? We love seeing justice and seeing people get what they deserve for the crimes they've committed. Someone does wrong against us and we demand that justice be served against them. We watch Law & Order, see the bad guy go down and we love it. However as soon as the justice card is flipped on us, we get defensive and say that it's too extreme. That is a flaw in our logic and it is a result of our sin.

So we're all sinners. It's in our nature and we're born right into it. God is perfect and despises sin, so by default God should despise us. Is there a solution? Are we just left to rot in the filth of our own immorality?

The second part of that verse in Isaiah 53:6 says this, "and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all." Who is this "Him"? It's Jesus Christ! God sent His only Son on a rescue mission to save our souls. So God should despise us, but in reality God loves us deeply and desires to restore us not only from our own sin, but also to Himself. The perfect God of the universe actually wants a relationship with us, the sinful people. So He sent Jesus to live a sinless life and then He died a brutal death on a cross, bearing not only the physical pain of His execution, but more importantly the spiritual pain of the wrath of God that we deserve.

So what should we do? I'll close with the chorus of a favorite hymn:

"Turn your eyes upon Jesus,

Look full in His wonderful face.

And the things of earth will grow strangely dim,

In the light of His glory and grace."

God bless,

Steve