Soul Searching 101 – A Thank You to Bill

Bill, I appreciate your help while I was 30,ooo feet high above the Rockies.  Your writing always grabs me and it was a blessing to have you “guest” write for Soulah Gratia.

For everyone who reads here, you need to read even more so Bill’s website.  It is daily updated and it’s always worth the extra couple minutes to read through.  He truly has a mind geared towards grabbing his reader with his words and forcing them to introspectively asses their own hearts.  If you are brave enough to walk into this then check out his blogs at William Petruzzo

Juno – Best Movie of the Year

I have found my new favorite movie of the year. By far the number one movie people need to see is Juno. It’s the story of a 16 year old girl, Juno MacGuff, who discovers her senior year of high school that she is twelve weeks pregnant. (This opening scene is by far one of the most hilarious scenes I’ve come across.) The father is her best friend Paulie Bleeker, a boney and, perhaps to some, a nerdy track runner, who has been in love with Juno throughout high school. Juno decides to give her baby to a seemingly in love and really nice suburban family who is unable to conceive but willing to adopt. The story, in a comically hysterical fashion, revolves around Juno’s quick and sharp tongue as she deals “with subject matter way beyond [her] own maturity level.” Juno is played by Ellen Page and she does an amazing job. The writer, Brook Busey-Hunt, aka Diablo Cody, wanted to create an indie type film in which the protagonist was a witty female because she said she was sick of seeing films today which never placed a female in that role. Ellen Page excelled in that role. Seriously, go into this movie with a pen and pad and just jot down the one liners you hear…they’re genius!!! I’ve seen it twice and can’t wait to get the DVD when its out. If you don’t come out of the movie absolutely loving it than you must have fallen asleep. And if you fell asleep during this film than you must be narcoleptic.

                                                  

The Sole and Soul Creator

Hello everyone! Currently, Mr. Unthank is soaring somewhere through the air on a voyage back to Maryland after a short sojourn in Reno, Nevada. In the hectic schedule that has affronted him, he requested that I’d share something with his readers today. I’m honored and obliged to be able to do just that.

I considered today what I might write about; double blogging isn’t usually my forte. Generally, if I write more than once in one day, I save it and the next day give myself a break. Not today though. I was thinking about God, as a creator; the Creator. The only creator, the sole and soul creator. Creator of the skies and stars; creator of the earth, waters and vegetation; creator of the animals in all their amazing intricacies; creator of the man with his most profound implantation of a soul. This of course leads me down something of a rabbit hole of thought. We are favored by God, human beings, yet we have chosen to be at enmity with God, yet even still God favors us.

I heard a sermon a while back by Francis Chan. I can’t remember right now exactly what the sermon was about, but he said something that has stuck with me through the years. “God is not a duplicator,” says Mr. Chan, “God is a creator.” When man chose their own vain glory over God’s, God would not simply correct the problem with photocopies of a marred original, nor would he produce some mock upgrade to humanity. No, God is a creator! God’s solution will be unforgettable, unmistakable, unimpeachable, completely profound and well scream over all existence that God is a glorious creator! What could be more glorious than God making a fallen and broken race a brand new creation? I submit to you that there is nothing more impressive.

Charles Spurgeon writes, “Be it never forgotten by us that the salvation of a soul is a creation.” I think these are words we must remember, that he who is in Christ is a new creation; the old has gone and the new has come (2 Corinthians 5:17)! That is an inspiring truth that through faith God has created something beautiful where there was only blood and soul damning evidence of heinous crimes committed and repeated.

Video Of the Week

Every Friday I’m going to try and post a video of the week. Usually a music video that stands out as unique and creatively exalted amongst its peers. Something that is visually and aesthetically pleasing and/or musically brilliant. Last week was the post of Stevie Wonder on Sesame Street and the 6 year old back up dancer that simply exemplified his music with her funk’d out moves. This week is a video that most of you should know but none the less deserves the post. It is genious in its way it has pushed the envelope in making a music video. Though many have done this style before, especially such groups as Daft Punk, no group has gotten such play as this weeks Video of the Week. It’s Justice with their song D.A.N.C.E.

A Step Back Into Time: 1950 Nuclear Holocaust

While in Reno I had an amazing opportunity to take part in this tour of an old 1950’s bomb shelter. It was underneath the Reno Library (You must keep in your mind that Reno is in the middle of the Nevada desert which should bring to mind the nuclear testing that was done not too far from the area.) but was actually built before the library during that period in our nations history when nuclear holocaust seemd inevitable. Getting to it was rather different in that we had to go inside the actual library, get down to its basement, find this incredibly small airvent, open it up and crawl through to what spilled out into this cement corridor. Not there yet. This part of the journey weeded out a lot of the would be explorers. There is still some light from the library seeping in but we then had to take this cold, rusty ladder down about ten or eleven feet to what was a much colder and much darker corridor. Images of London during WWII started playing through my mind, the city above being demolished and taken away and me and my family down underground, stuck in this cold dark cement coffin not knowing what to expect and what would come of my return to the world above.
To the imediate left was this long circular corridor which seemed to evaporate into darkness with this eerie breeze coming out of nowhere. I would shine my much needed flashlight down the hall and its beam could not find the end.
I knew that if I went down that path the “Dark-lovers” from I AM LEGEND would be following my every move waiting for me to seperate from the group and devour me in a violent death.
Didn’t happen though and the tour, actually, carried on. It was really cool. There was still about a years worth of rations for survival all according to the U.S. government of 1950. The sleeping bags had solidified and the water had gone. What was mostly left was rock candy, flavors “blue” and “red”, which the tour guide said tasted like disgusting chemicals. My sisters and I decided to see what it would be like living there when the flashlight batteries died out. That lasted for about two seconds and and resulted in piercing loud screams from my youngest sister. Needless to say the rest of the tour didn’t think it was as funny as I did.
Leaving the bomb shelter was like leaving a paranoid nation of a by gone era that loomed on a total apocalypse and stepping into a nation just as paranoid today.
So if you’re ever in the Reno area, make sure you go by to the City Library and ask if you can take a tour of their freaky bomb shelter. It’s definitly worth it.

Been Traveling and Without Internet

The title explains it all, but I’m now able to write, write, write and post. Maybe I’ll put up 5 posts in one day? who knows, I’m feeling adventurous. Stay tuned…

Suffering Unto Life

The Suffering Soul is he who is being wrought by God to a state of grace in forcing him to look to and rely on Him. This is becoming truer for me everyday. Not only because life demands suffering but because my life has demanded me to take a look at what suffering is. I am not going to write a thesis on suffering today but I am going raise some questions that deserved to be looked at.

Paul in Romans seven paints a beautiful picture of a suffering soul, a man torn by conflicting desires when he asks, “13Did that which is good, then, bring death to me? By no means! It was sin, producing death in me through what is good, in order that sin might be shown to be sin, and through the commandment might become sinful beyond measure. 14For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. 15For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. 16Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. 17So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. 18For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

21So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. 22For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, 23but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. 24Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? 25Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I myself serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.”

Without looking too deeply both theologically and exegetically at this, I just want to bring to your attention the struggle that is so very evident within the soul of Paul. You can hear the suffering and agony he is dealing with when he honestly looks at himself through the lens of Gods perfection, oh what a wretched man he is, what wretched men and women we are! The very next chapter Paul brings to light a cure so potent and sweet that it is almost impossible for me not to read this wthout seeing Paul’s eyes fill with tears. He writes in a beautifully climactic style that “1There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 2For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. 3For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, 4in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.”

How wonderful is the answer of Gods grace to our evidently contradictory lives. (I am speaking to Christians here.)

Can there be this struggle in those who are willfully at enmity with their Creator? I tend to say no, but upon further inspection and a recent conversation I had with my Aunt Kitty, I can not help but think of Judas. His actions of betrayal were clearly sinful and opposed to the actions of one who truly loved Christ, hence his title as the son of Perdition. Yet after his betrayal of Christ he felt incredible sorrow and suffering in his soul, so much so that he committed suicide. I can think of no other verse that address this than 2 Corinthians 7:10 which says that “Godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death“

How sure we must be than that our sorrow, our suffering, is that which is of God. Can we know? How can we be aware of such differences within ourselves? I echo Paul in soul wrenching gladness, thankfulness and hopeful longing when I say “far be it from me to boast in anything but in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world”

Christmas with Family: A look into the Past

I have been looking forward to coming out here to Reno for quite a while now.  A break from the frantic and weekly norm back home has made me long for our trip and so being here has been a great time of relaxation as well as time together with the family.  What I’ve enjoyed most is just sitting and listening to the stories my Aunt and Grandmother tell about the family. What has struck me most though is the ties our family has and the stories that seem to derive from upper England/Lower Scotland.  I did not know how connected we are to our English past and this has definitely excited me to do some research on where it is I’ve come from.  The Unthank family has always been Presbyterian from what I’ve heard and I’m most curious to see what part my ancestors have played in shaping the religious landscape of both England and America.  Can I just hire Ian Murray to do a research project on my history?  Probably not, but none the less, I feel very positive about digging into the crates of the Unthank history.  Perhaps some puritan writers and pastors?  “Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a desire fulfilled is a tree of life.” Proverbs 13:12.  We’ll see what comes of it, ugly spots and all.

Proverbs Seven and God’s Grace

My day has been spent completely and enjoyably tied up with family and eating, lots of eating! So I now present for your reading enjoyment a piece that I wrote a while back. Its theme becomes clear the more you read through and though this isn’t exactly Christmas material I do think for many Christian single men this is in fact everyday material. Please feel free to comment.

If you had ever taken the time to stop me and ask

The time was now but if you’d asked me I’d laugh

When it was you plus me plus us it was a joke not math and

I’ve subtracted you out of my life and there’s no remainder, When you remain I’m in danger, danger to remain, its better that you’re a stranger. Stranger than fiction, I can’t make this up. I make my fiction strange, estranged from you but you had me locked up!

…..from the minute you walked up.

 

[Deep Breath]This is my poem of a story of a life of letters on a page from my mind, out my mouth to your ears. [Exhale and Breathe Deep]

[Speak to Your Self] Stop. Slow Down.

 

I CAN’T! I’m in love with my own words and the Lord gave me a mouth to proclaim messages like my sidekick to your heart, from start to finish here’s the story of my life.

My life, my life, my life, in the sunshine. Everybody loves the sunshine

And my sunshine is the son shine. I reflect like a broken mirror put back together, forever I reflect the son, but when I was with you the Lord wasn’t looking at me, so the shine that shun was just residue left over, and now I’m going through spiritual atrophy.

Please God don’t be mad at me, I’m like the demi-godz and only know apathy.

I’m Addicted to these chics who take me away from what I had to be. It’s sad to see but I’m glad to be free from such afflictions and affections which has the effects of drug prescriptions, diseases, addictions, all misconceptions of love.

And I get my high on your low because this game is soooo fun just to flirt, just to go slow. Let’s just talk and pretend to be friends, but we both know what we want, it’s just fun to pretend. Damn, I stepped over the edge, its no longer a game, no longer the same, things just got so serious, I just walked into the flame, got burnt and now I’m changed, chained to emotions and physically chained to your frame. Girl your frame is so insanely fine. And I wish you could be so insanely mine. I look you down in insidious ways, and I replay your/my/our frames together in my mind. I don’t mind your flirtatious demeanor, in fact it’s good for my pride and feeds my self esteem, I mean, your sexy but don’t let me forget my purpose is directly influenced by higher powers, and you just seem to be an influence contrary to nature. I do what I don’t want to do, and I oh so want you…but I don’t.

Like a duel, double barreled shot gun loaded with two different desires, and it’s pointed at my head and whichever bullet hits my temple first I become its victim, its slave.

I thank God His bullet is more effectual than yours cus His divine rape of my soul is the most gracious thing happening to me, and I only want to worship at your temple because you look fine. God’s made me His temple, so my friend, I must decline – resist your presence. I’m in love with I AM and stuck in a relationship of spiritual transcendence.

My life, my life, my life, my life in the Son shine. I’m so in love with that Son shine!

Father, protect me from the woman of Proverbs 7. Amen.

Christmas and the Tragedy of Christ’s Birth

I’m here in Reno finally enjoying my Christmas Eve. We just finished a great lunch at a local Indian restaurant and I’m now back at the house waiting for the airport to bring by my lost luggage, lots of fun! In thinking on what I wanted to write, many ideas came to mind. Do I write about William Wilberforce; I just finished reading his work and have a lot of fuel to feed some good blogging. Do I write about loosing your luggage on Christmas Eve and then strain to push it into some sort of spiritual message? Probably not. Being it Christmas Eve though I do feel it appropriate to talk about what it is we are supposed to be celebrating tomorrow morning, Christ’s birth. Sunday’s service At Trinity Community Church was really good, the carols were great, the worship was God honoring I believe, but over all, I really loved the sermon. It was shorter than usual due to all the singing, but none the less it was quite powerful and very Christ-centered.

The sermon came out of John 1:9-13 and was a look at how the author John first saw, and rightly viewed, the birth of Christ – basically as a tragedy.

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. 12But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

Christ, who was described as the creator of all things, the person in whom all things are sustained, the very cause of life that we so unfairly have been given, came into the world, the world which he created and upheld, and that very same world looked with disdain upon Him, looked with anger on Him, even unto death- the world eventually crucified Him.

Here’s how my pastor explained it. Before being a pastor he worked as a director of an archaeological dig out somewhere in Israel. The whole project was funded by one man, by which, the money going into this project was what started and sustained, inspired and paid for the project and its workers. This one man was the sole reason why any of these workers were able to be there. Every year the founder would come and visit the site for about three days. When this happened, the red carpet was of course rolled out for him and the site open to whatever he wanted to do. Whatever he wished to do there was always allowed and reasonably so, he was paying for it all. If by chance anyone would do something to really upset or put off this guy they would be fired, gone, fin! It was this guys project/money and therefore his prerogative to have who he wanted on his site.

Christ is the creator of all things and upholder of all things and thus he decided to become man, and visit as a mere man, a babe, his creation. What happened was that his creation looked with disgust and hatred towards who he was and what he came to do. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. His own chosen people whom He had given and showed a special love to did not receive Him. The Jewish nation, called out and made separate by God in order to point to and show the coming of the Messiah, Christ himself, they did not recognize him and did not love him.

And what is even more tragic, even more hopeless, is the fact that no one would ever seek and receive Him. Christ is but bitterness to the soul of every man, yes all men have strayed so far from the Truth that when the Truth is presented and offered, man turns in disgust at the idea of a savior. Mankind was then and is now in total disarray when it comes to grasping the truth that is Christ and his rightful Lordship over all creation. This was the Tragedy of Christ’s Birth.

But do not loose hope just yet. John keys us in to something that is more glorious and way sweeter than anything else. He says this.

But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

But to all who did receive Him, God made them His own children. This is the Bible’s beautiful doctrine of adoption. That we can be adopted as heirs of God. That those who would but just believe in Christ’s name, the name above all names, and receive him for the work that he came to do, his death on the cross as payment for our sins against God, than we would become the children of God!

Even more, this gift from God is not of our-selves, this is not something we can lord over others as something we have accomplished or even something we have sought for our selves. No, those who would believe in His name were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. We did not willingly seek after Him who came to save us. He came as light and we were to used to the dark. Our flesh did not long for His Lordship in our lives. We were dead in sin and loved it. We were not born into salvation, but in our mothers wombs we have been condemned in iniquity. Yet Christ came to save and that he did. His work of salvation secured those whom God would have as His heirs, all of grace, saved by the work of Christ, chosen by the Father, wrought near and made born again by the Spirit, what a wonderful salvation God has accomplished! Christ was born in tragic terms, yet has saved us in wonderful glory and all praise goes to Him! All praise! None to us but all to Him. Amen.