I was invited by a Pastor friend of mine to speak at Foothill Covenant Church in Los Altos yesterday.  They have been spending the summer focusing upon various parables of Jesus.  I chose to speak on Luke 14:25-35 in which Jesus provides two cautionary tales to his increasing crowds of followers about the danger of building a tower or fighting a war without first counting the cost.  The passage is below:

25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said: 26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-- yes, even his own life-- he cannot be my disciple. 27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.

28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it? 29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him, 30 saying, 'This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.'

31 "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand? 32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace. 33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.

34 "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? 35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."

In the text Jesus draws parallels of a tower that is unable to be completed and a war that should not be fought, to those who ought to count the cost of being one of his disciples.  The insight I found from my exploration of this passage is that Jesus here is not primarily warning disciples to count the cost of following him, and coming to a final decision about whether they will try harder as spiritual performers, but rather is warning them to count the cost of not following him in light of their current and eternal existence.  

For each of us we can tend to build up our own towers to defend ourselves from threats (spiritual, emotional, physical, psychological, financial), and in the process lose sight of our need for God.  In response, Jesus is challenges his followers to count the cost of doing this, because in the end one will discover that they will eventually run out of the resources necessary to complete such a task.  In response, I challenged all of us to consider "structuring" our lives for intimacy with God in Christ, in order that we might have the proper supports in place to overcome our threats. 

Similarly, we also can tend to live to be our own king, content with the territory we have control over (family, friends, possessions, etc.), and not concerned with God's desires for its use.  Surprisingly, in this passage, Jesus is referring to himself as the advancing king with 20K men who is invading the land of the king with 10K men.  The point then for us, is that there is already a battle underweigh and Christ is on the offensive.  The decision we are to make is if we will allow his love and grace to invade our lives or if we will resist his advances.  In response to this, I encouraged those present to surrender all things in their lives to Christ.

This looks to be a great event of music and culture connect with the Jazz Festival here in SJ.

Jazz of Colour

click to enlargeFor the past couple months my printer/scanner has been having issues.  So haven't been able to post as many images here as I'd like.   Finally all is as it should be.  So thought I'd post a super cool collage that my wife Wendy made me for our 12th anniversary.   She'd be the first to say that she is not too creative, but saw a local artist friend Michael Denning's work, and was inspired.  I think it captures alot of the spiritual perspective here in Silicon Valley, I particularly liked the gospel visualization in the bottom right hand corner. 

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James 1:1-8, 12, 17, 22, 27  NIV

"James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ,To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.  2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,  3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.  5 If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.  6 But when he asks, he must believe and not doubt, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind.  7 That man should not think he will receive anything from the Lord;  8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all he does...

12 Blessed is the man who perseveres under trial, because when he has stood the test, he will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him...

17 Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows...

22 Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says...

27 Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world." 

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"Eye of the Storm" Lyrics - Killswitch Engage off As Daylight Dies

As time goes by nothing has changed I wont stand and watch you wither away

After all this time I stand by you Through all of the years I've been with you

Through pain and affliction with every addiction I will never let you down

I will live by this code never surrender You and I are one

Through the eye of the storm you are never alone

Even through, the shadows you are never alone

After all this time still you struggle. Even words of love ring so hollow

I have no regrets I have no remorse. And if you falter I won't let you down

Through the eye of the storm you are never alone

Even through, the shadows you are never alone

Come on together we stand never fall.  No matter the trial we will overcome

Together we stand never fall.  No matter the trial we will overcome

We in San Jose are trying to put ourselves on the culture map with Left Coast Live.  I wish there were a genre-bending national act or two that were headlining (Mars Volta, Cypress Hill, Roots, Coheed and Cambria, etc.), but think its great that at least something's going on.  Like the 01 Festival, it seems the focus is upon creating the future and highlighting the diversity present in the South Bay.  But unlike 01, technology seems to be taking a back seat.  Good Hustle is playing the main stage and I definitely recommend checking these guys out.   LCL info below:

Left Coast Live is a weeklong music experience that brings great regional and local live entertainment to downtown San Jose (May 11-15, 2009). Whether it is rock, jazz, rockabilly or urban soul, Left Coast Live has something that will make you tap your toes and get you movin’.

Monday thru Thursday events are free and open to the public. These include free concerts and the “Sound of Things to Come” Speaker Series.

The festivities culminate in a Friday night concert featuring a main stage in downtown San Jose’s SOFA District (South of First Area) and 30 separate venues with 60 bands spread throughout downtown San Jose. Friday evening is $25 for an advanced purchase ticket and $30 at the door.

***PLEASE NOTE: The Main Stage festival event on May 15 is ALL AGES, but some other venues that night may be 21+. Updated information on the website will guide you to which venues may have an age limit!


Events include:

•“Sound of Things to Come” Speaker Series: A forum to explore different aspects of music today from music history and industry trends to intimate artist discussions. (Monday thru Thursday)

•Free Preview concerts hosted by Alice 97.3 and Live 105: (Tuesday, May 12 and Wednesday, May 13)

•Outdoor Cinema screening of the documentary “Before the Music Dies” and music videos from Alice 97.3’s Three Minute Film Festival (Thursday, May 14)

•Live Music Festival at 30 venues throughout downtown San Jose featuring 60 bands. (Friday)

The Hollywood culture is saturated in the jostling for positions, the name-dropping, the cutthroat drive. Did you ever cave in to that?

Winter: I think I cave into that all the time. That’s part of the struggle, it’s a daily struggle. I’m not confronted with making Snow White or making a pornographic movie. It’s not that black and white; it’s always gray, it’s always tough. It’s about, am I going to slant a phone message or report that is going to make me look better than someone else? It’s a daily struggle in terms of ambition. Is it important for me to get ahead? Why am I here? To what end or for whose purpose? Who’s being honored, who’s being glorified? I think that gets to the bottom of making that decision on a daily basis.

Often it seems that the church and mainstream culture are dyametrically opposed.  I remember a time at a fairly fundamentalist youth camp essentially being encouraged to destroy all forms of "secular media" in exchange for "Christian" productions.  Films like Saved seem to communicate pretty clearly common perceptions of the Christian faith by American culture. Given the obvious distance between these two poles, it is refreshing to come across someone who genuinely practices his faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ, and yet is willing to live within the tension of maintaining legitimacy as a producer in the film world.  I found it insightful that his final decision-making process comes down to who's being glorified through his actions.  That seems to be a question we should all ask ourselves:  Who is it that is truly being glorified by our decisions and actions?

Music: "Some Will Seek Forgiveness, Others Escape" - Underoath off "There'll Only Chasing Safety"

Film Scenes: "Passion of the Christ"

Music: "Like Moths to Flame" - Thrice off "Vheissu"

Film Scenes: "Passion of the Christ"