Are You Afraid?

"You're busy living now, aren't you
You're busy making vows
You're coming unglued
Time is shorter than you know
The light is blinding to the naked eye, so why don't you take
Steps away from being alone, I swear, it's not to late for you"

                                                     ~Underoath

Are you Afraid?

Look a hypocrite.

Look someone that has two sides. 

They are both black and gray. 

A man or woman diving into the fray.

  

Are you afraid?

Is anything worthy of looking up to?  

Is there a fear that is able to be used for good? 

Somebody is watching. 

Can we escape the whispers we use as a crutch? 

Are our opinions a secret revealed to anyone? 

Someone is watching.  

Someone never leaves,  even when we wish He would. 

My possessions and secrets are meaningless.  

My pride does not make me a better man. 

It hurts just to try and make it on my own. 

Someone is there,  someone is watching.

During the times when we think we are alone.

During the moments where hope is lost and fear of the world takes hold. 

During the fears we wish to hide. 

Someone is there, no matter what type of love you are showing. 

Who is watching? 

Who are you giving your fear to? 

Whose respect makes you whole? 

Shut the world and fear the Love of the one who never fails. 

I shout and scream

I dance and sing

I look up and then look down 

And at the end I am never alone. 

I respect the one deserves respect. 

I love the loveless and fear True love. 

Fear is respect when done out of reverence. 

My life is better when I look up and not around. 

Give into Love and give into hope. 

Make me a man who fears the one who is watching. 

I am never alone even when I am alone. 

And I am lost but always have someone who is there. 

Are you afraid? 

Are you fearful of the one who deserves to be feared?

Are you afraid of getting caught when you are alone? 

You should be. 

Falling Down Past the Floor

By the way you brought me here,
It makes believe the best is yet to come and I don't want to leave.

                                                                       ~Mae 

~Falling Down Past the Floor~

What is your religion?
What do you curse?
What do you give?
How do you display your love to those around you?

If you receive one hundred prayers how many do you give back?
When you must collect from the people, do you ever overcharge?
Is it all about your prosperity?
Or do you wish it to be about another?

Giving back and giving more than I want to give.
To stay the same or change my ways to fulfill your will, not mine. 
Giving till I am blue in the face.
Turning gifts to riches by the grace of love and tithe. 

Nothing is ours.
Nothing exists without Love.
Look past your pride and selfishness.
Look past your own eyes to see the others who need. 

When we go down, and hit the ground.
It is so hard to get back up.
When we go down past the floor.
It is so hard to give when we have nothing. 

If you have nothing to give,
Give more.
If you have nothing to give,
You have more than you think.

Give with a selfless heart.

Cleanse your mind and give understanding. 
Worshiping prosperity does not give you happiness.
Give and give even when it seems nothing is coming back.

What is your religion? 
Do your grasp on to what is not yours?
What is your religion?
Selflessness and faithfulness giving and blessing. 
What is your religion?
Is it what you hold onto and what you do not give back?

Nothing is ours, so give it away.
Blessings come, so give it back.
Nothing is ours, so give it away.
Blessings can come and light your way.
And it is our job not to let it placate the ego in the fray. 

But to continue to give to love and hold nothing back. 

What is your religion?
What do you believe?
What are you becoming?
For the way you give and the way you receive hold more truth than what you keep.

And where you stay.

This Fire Likes to be Water

That's a love that, cant be broken,
That's the sting of a, heart cut open,
That's the thing about, blind devotion,
That's a love that, can't be broken
                                           ~Twin Forks 

                                              This Fire Likes to be Water

Baptize me with fire and water.
Wash me clean and burn me free.
Let the water wash over my soul.
Cover my sins with fire and bring me to a place where my obedience longs for only you.

Is it strange that I believe while I doubt?
Is it strange that I want both fire and water?
Is my strength determined by my own understanding?
Is my strength anchored by your Holy name? 

I have water in my blood and fire in my soul.
I have flesh that covers my spirit and I long for the other side.
I have sins that seem divine, and sins that put me in the ground.
I have an underlying agenda to be a better man than the man I have been before. 

I want to crucify myself and bleed until I am dry.
I want to be nailed to a cross and cry out to God.
My God,  oh my God,  why did you forsake me.
My God,  oh my God baptize my blood.

Set me on fire my Lord and make me be a light that burns for the sea.
Baptize me and you will hear a man that runs to see.
More and more the ice becomes water.
By using the fire to melt the cold to cleanse the soul by water and flame. 

Baptize me with water and fire.
Wash me clean and burn me free.
I stand by the ocean and I breathe in the life.
Salt in the wound that cleanses me.

I stand at the edge.
I stand in the tide.
I want to feel the waves washing over the pain.
I drown in the water to baptize my blood.

Life doesn't take a backseat to belief.

And my life doesn't destroy my love because I am obedient to a King.

My obedience makes me strong.

It energized my mind to jump start the love that is in my heart. 

Crucify me and let me feel longing.

Make my mind, body, and soul a sacrifice to love.

Use this baptism to make me realize all I need is you.

Please Lord, guide my eyes into the sea.

Set flames to the ocean so that I may be cleansed by both fire and water.

Set the world on fire with obedience unlike any other.

May my world be the beacon that guides ships through the sea.

May my world be a living baptism for the one who gave it all for me. 

Baptize me with fire and water.
Wash me clean and burn me free. 

Let the water wash over my soul.
Cover my sins with fire and bring me to a place where my obedience longs for only you.

So Far Things Seem to be Working Out

"Awake in this cold cell I, I just hope you're happy
Awake in this cold cell I break my body against the wall
Awake in this cold cell... I am my only devil
Why can't I be you and put those hands away
I go through this everyday"

                                                          ~Further Seems Forever

So Far Things Seem to be Working Out

I am bound by flesh. 

I am a faker

I am a phony

I am a hypocrite.

My life is bound by human desire. 

Taken from my eyes,  to my head,  and never my heart. 

I listen to my own understanding. 

I listen to me,  myself,  and I.

So far things seem to working out. 

I am a man with minimal struggle. 

And minimal success. 

I am getting by and that's okay.

Some man behind a pulpit keeps telling me to pray. 

He keeps telling me this Jesus is the only way. 

Well, that is all fine and dandy.

Hell seems far more fun than those clouds you claim as free. 

I am bound by flesh. 

I am a faker. 

I am a phony. 

I am a hypocrite.

My life is bound by limited understanding.  

Taken by my world. 

Subjected to death.

Looking through eyes that glass over at night. 

Things are not right. 

My once happy life has taken a turn towards the ground. 

I keep having this nagging feeling and pulling around my chest. 

Something seems missing.

Some man behind the pulpit tells me I need to fill this feeling. 

I tried to do so. 

Philosophy,  education,  I tried it all. 

But all the knowledge in my head does not seem to seep into my chest. 

I am bound by flesh. 

I am a faker. 

I am a phony. 

I am a hypocrite

.

Today a friend of mine passed away.

He died from a broken heart. 

The surgery did not work. 

Yet,  the man behind the pulpit says he is in a better place.

I am told to fill my life with Jesus and love.

I am told to go and be a light. 

How do I shine when I am dead?

How do I fill up my life with a man I cannot see?

I am bound by flesh. 

I am a faker. 

I am a phony. 

I am a hypocrite.

I guess I am dead. 

My body is in the ground,  yet I am still conscious. 

I look up and I see my friend rejoicing and singing. 

The clouds look more like a city. 

A city that is never lonely.

Down here I am floating.

In a river run by a man causing me to rethink my desires. 

All I wish for now is water. 

All I wish for is another chance to live not for power. 

Not For Me

"We're on your shore again
I can feel the ocean
I can feel your open arms
That pure emotion
I'm finally free again
Like my own explosion
We're on your shore again
I can feel the ocean"
                              ~Switchfoot

~Not For Me~

Can I enter the kingdom if I am just a good person? 

Is my morale compass what will save me? 

Am I too scared to speak the truth, 

Even if it offends?

The gate of religion needs to be torn down. 

The morality compass without God needs to cease.

True life is what I seek. 

Living for my God is how I wish to live. 

My morals could never be perfect. 

I am unworthy of inheriting the other side. 

But I have a hope. 

And I have a savior who let's me be more than what I am. 

My world gets torn apart. 

My world spins to the left and I try and run to the right.  

I wait on a promise. 

I wait and if not now, maybe later.

My faith is being tested when I wait. 

My faith is being stretched and strengthened by my belief. 

I wait on true love to guide my soul. 

I wait on God because I can never do it on my own. 

Bring me peace when I have no more work to give. 

Bring me tears when my heart is hardened. 

Let my eyes become water as the fire burns my calloused soul. 

I offer my faith up to you,  as I did to myself and take up your words as my own.

If I offend let it be. 

If I fail let it be. 

If I must wait let it be. 

But let me see, oh, Lord please let me see. 

Nothing is nothing without you. 

Everything is everything when your around. 

I am yours,  I am yours. 

I am the boat and you are the wind. 

Take my sails where you want them to be. 

Take my life and let me live not by me,  please God not for me. 

Front Lines

"For all we know, these days are all numbered. But things could get better, I know
God, 'cause I'll be the first and the last one to go. Lord, it's a cruel, cruel world without love."

                                                                         ~Further Seems Forever

~Front Lines~

I am on the front lines. 

I am fighting a war on which I know I will win.

I am on the front lines. 

Where are you?

What is this gray area you speak of? 

What is this wishy washy way you have about you? 

I am on the front lines. 

I have made my choice.

What are you choosing? 

What side do you fight for? 

You must choose a side. 

You cannot be in the middle of the battle field. 

I want to live like today is my last.  

I want to be free from the chains that the word has shackled me with. 

I am on the front lines. 

And I  believe. 

I believe in the things unseen. 

I believe in a quiet voice that speaks through the wind. 

I believe in trials that can cleanse. 

I believe in a war that is already won.

Over thinking calloused souls. 

War torn hearts hardened by this world. 

Runners who leave when things get hard. 

A message spoken goes in  in one ear and out the other. 

There is a day coming when you will have no more time to choose.  

At that time you will wish to be free. 

You will wish to take back the cruel words said out of fear.  

There is a day coming when the new world will not be yours.

I am on the front lines. 

I am fighting a war of the heart,  mind and soul. 

My life is not easy and it never will be.  

My life is fulfilling even in the trials and the pain. 

Hypocrites and Pharisees

"This paper posed as photographs. This promise snapped with time elapsed. You think you do, but you don't know me at all. Last chance to find what we believe. I hope you save those you've deceived. You think you do, but you don't know me at all"                                                                         ~Sullivan

~Hypocrites and Pharisees~ 

Why do we pray to gain favor from others?

Why do we think our prayers are higher than our brothers?

Hypocrites and Pharisees are to shallow to know. 

Hypocrites and Pharisees are to knowledgeable to truly understand.

How are we praying? 

How are we going about talking to the ruler of this world and the next? 

He knows the heart of his people.

He knows the mind of the individual.

Why do we only pray when it is convenient?

Why do we pray when we are trying to get prideful gain?

Hypocrites and Pharisees are blind to the simple and true.

Hypocrites and Pharisees pray just to hear their own words.

Take this heart and let it be an offering up to thee. 

Take this mind and wash it clean, so I may pray with meaning and with glee. 

I fall short so let it be an offering up to thee.

I fall short so let it be a way to repentance and glee.

All of my words stand before me.

As I pray and ask for Him to take away the pain.

My voice cries out to my maker.

As my eyes become wet and bloods flows through my veins.

I have flesh that follows up on my faults. 

It prevents me from the perfection I wish to achieve.

One day I will be ushered, into eternity.

One day I will be with my King.

But for now here I am on this Earth.

Humbling myself before the throne. 

I do not want to be like the hypocrites and Pharisees.

I do not wish to die with only riches that make me feel alone.

Why do we pray to gain favor from others?

What is the point of shooting our God?

Why do we pray to light fires and burn the ones we love?

What is the point of killing them when they deserve to be saved?

Hypocrites and Pharisees try to save themselves through Religion and spirituality.

They gloat and show how perfect they can be.

They sign their letters they send to men, God.

And  at the bottom the P.S. reads, "Let me take your sins away."

No man can take away sin.

No man can be spiritual enough in this day.

Religion does not have the answer.

Religion is the crutch that people use when they do not know how to pray.

I choose to depend on my maker.

I choose to pray with an attitude that humbles me to Love. 

I choose to live and grow based on the words of God.

I choose to be a real individual and pray, not to impress those around me.

But to pray my sins and doubts away.