Author Archives: Senti

“Morality cannot be legislated, but behavior can be regulated.  Judicial decrees may not change the heart, but they can restrain the heartless.” Martin Luther King Jr.

When does human life and personhood begin?  If one is declared dead when heart beat and brain waves die, can we not say that life should at least be declared when heartbeat and brainwaves begin?

Is Texas therefore wrong then in outlawing abortion at 12 weeks, when those 2 things are clearly present?  We ought to all uphold women’s rights, but what if we are also dealing with a separate person?  Don’t they have rights too?

I agree when people say we cannot legislate morality, but also I agree with Dr. King that we must have moral legislation.  There is no neutral legislation.  Those that want better laws for distributing wealth to the poor also want moral legislation.  We all do, otherwise we will only have immoral legislation. 

If we say that it is not a person if it is dependent on others, what do we do with disabled folks who are dependent on others, let them die?  Have we become that utilitarian? Is this not a human life worth living?

What of those who have had abortions then?  Are they guilty of murder?  Yes, but so am I when I have hated another human being, according to Jesus’ teaching.  So we’re all guilty, not just some lady who is struggling, who needs compassion, but all of us.  We all need God’s grace that I believe can only be found in receiving forgiveness from the One who said, “Father forgive them, they know not what they do.”  Trusting in the One who died for our sins and rose again on the third Day- Jesus- is our only hope in my opinion.  Then we can forgive each other in a very divisive time. 

What do you think? 

I wrote the book titled Torath during Post-modernism. We could still engage in frank discussions back then. In our coffeehouse people who totally disagreed with each other listened and shared without folks attacking each other either verbally or worse.  But I predicted this change through the character Mortaf.  Mortaf represents those who have opposed the Truth throughout time. 

She is largely violent and seeks to destroy her sister who she envies.  But towards the end of the book she becomes suddenly tolerant and will allow whatever to happen. She becomes apathetic and has a live-and-let-live attitude towards her sister.  But one of her daughters murders her in cold blood and goes on the warpath after her towards her cousins. 

That’s what I see STARTING to happen in our society presently. That is the beginning of the moral revolution. And unfortunately some extreme conservatives have reacted to that violently as well.  But disciples of Jesus, true disciples, will not do so.  In fact, quite the opposite. We will respond with love and yet also speak prophetically to powers about these things.  So let it be and I hope there is a waking up to Truth sooner than later.  Maybe, at least, there could be a backlash that desires traditional values to be restored.  We will see. 

That backlash must do so in love, not in hatred or violence. That is not the Way. But the Way is real. If folks search for it they will find it. Check the book out and consider these themes with me.

There is hope. There is always hope. I find that hope in a source greater than myself. I hope all of us will.

Check out other books on our website: http://www.envisionmission.org/media

Also check out previous entries to this blog: http://www.envisionmission.org/senti

Postmoderism is Dead: Truth exists whether our perception of it is accurate or not.  I believe truth is a Person: Jesus Christ.  And He does not change with what people want or don’t want. 

Now folks can disagree with that, of course.  But if we are not free to share a dissenting opinion and our reasons why, then we are well on our way to a Nazi type of society. Only narrow views can be shared in public life without threat of being sidelined.  Historically such things start as a taboo. Then they affect economics. And then they become matters of life and death.  Time is the only part of the recipe that is needed from there. 

I for one will not bow my knee to this new morality.  I will question it respectfully whatever the consequences. The consequences of not doing so are far worse not only for me but especially for my children and grandchildren. 

Now when I ask if I can share the Gospel with folks I’m frequently told to “go away!”  And when I ask if people have read the New Testament I’m frequently told, “No, and I never will!  But Jesus would never do what you’re doing right now.”  And when I ask how they know that if they’ve never read the New Testament I only get a more adamant answer: “I know enough to know that much about Jesus.  He just told us all to do good and that all religions were the same.”  It strikes me as unbelievably blind, dogmatic and intolerant to refuse to read the words of a Teacher and then claim you know more about him than those who have spent their entire lives being mastered by him.  But that is the climate I’m finding myself in. (final part next time…)

Postmodernism is Dead: In a presidential debate Al Gore and George W Bush struck the media by how similar they were in their stances and how much they agreed. Both stayed close to the center and they had a close election because of that fact. 

But folks began to react to what was perceived as a more leftist agenda from Barak Obama. Young people sought social justice without connection to history.  By the time Trump was elected debates were anything but ambiguous.  Folks reacted to each other more and more, especially getting into corners of the “ring” through social media. Here they could hear their own views echoed back to them over and over. And they didn’t have to have discussion with those they disagreed with. 

So now the Woke contingency holds the moral high ground in the culture. They have started a moral revolution that entered into the vacuum of Post-modernism’s lack of a place to stand.  What does that mean?  It means that a new morality has arisen, that has no connection to historically what is considered truth.  It is a new truth that if anyone contradicts they are black-listed. They are kept from speaking on the media, at universities, kept from playing roles in Hollywood, kept from jobs, kept from being able to voice their opinion. 

The new morality is dogmatic and will eventually lead to more violence from both sides of the “ring”.  It suggests that gender definitions are entirely defined by an individual’s whim. Those who are white and male should have no voice because they’ve had the only voice for too long. Those with Conservative views are bigots, haters and ought to be silenced. Even if prejudice or aggression is perceived by an individual then that perception is absolute truth and cannot be questioned.  All religions must be the same, all positions must be equal. All financial advantage must be relinquished to those without it, and anything less is unjust. (more next time…)

Post-modernism is dead!  Or at least it is dying.  What is post-modernism?  Well, first, what is modernism?  Modernism was the philosophy that emerged from the Enlightenment, suggesting that humanity could discover truth through scientific and rational means. 

Post-modernism started ironically through a philosopher named Nietzsche. He was influenced by the prediction of a Christian writer named Dostoevsky in his book “The Possessed” concerning where especially Russian society was headed.  Unfortunately Nietzsche ran with this prediction. He later declared “God is dead” along with the suggestion that there was no such thing as truth that could be discovered. 

This happened in American society starting in the 1970’s as well.  It was as if the culmination of Modernism came in the 1960’s when young people believed that a new truth could be arrived at through social activism, through science, in some cases even through medications that became the drug culture.  But when that culture fell apart it was replaced by an apathy that just wanted affluence. 

That affluence was realized in the 1980’s in America and relativism fully flowered in the 1990’s and early 2000’s.  That is, it no longer mattered if there was such a thing as truth.  If it worked for folks then it was great.  Truth was simply relative to people’s perspectives. 

At that time if someone shared the Christian message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, for instance, folks would respond, “Hey, if that works for you great!  It’s all how you look at it.  But that’s not for me.  Just keep it in your private life, don’t impose it on me.”

But starting in about 2015 moral relativism began to give way to a new moral revolution.  That’s because folks can’t live with ambiguity for very long.  We’re not wired that way.  Post-modernism and moral relativism gives humanity nowhere to stand.  (More next time…)

I wrote this song in a time when we were totally overwhelmed in our ministry.  We didn’t have a clue what to do with half of the problem in folks’ lives.  And so I wrote this song in great anguish.  But it reminded me when enemies surrounded Judah who wanted to kill them in the book of 2^nd Chronicles in the days of Jehoshaphat the King.  And he prayed and said, “We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on you.”

At the time one of the couples in our church was on the edge of divorce, one of our long time folks became homeless, one of the new believers fell away into sinful living, a number of folks were searching in vain for housing, folks were doing drugs. Others were lost in mental illness and would not listen to reason, others were struggling with domestic violence, some had been in car crashes or sicknesses unhealed, and still others were departing from our ministry on bad terms.  And there was nothing we could do to change any of it. 

We felt so helpless.  Have you ever felt like that?  We actually have many times, though that was one of our worst seasons.  Maybe this song will encourage you in a strangle way, maybe in solidarity with us:

“So many have left us alone, but we keep pressing on.  Those that stay are trying to learn, but don’t know how to love.  While sickness and crashes abound, we’re hanging on tight, to whatever of your voice makes a sound, we can’t see in the night.  There is pain and sadness and fear, but we trust in you.  They’re sitting in jail in tears, we don’t know what to do.  As time keeps on trucking along, tick, tick tock, tick tick tock on the clock.  We’ll keep on singing this song, trying to fit the key in the lock.  We don’t know what to do, but our eyes are on you…”

This album is now also on Spotify as well as our website: http://www.envisionmission.org/media

One of the benefits that the pandemic had for our culture early on was that it caused us to stop the busyness and consider what we were doing and why.  I think that is a practice we should consider for next year as well.  We need to just stop sometimes and be still.

In this song, “Only Be Still” we are reminded of that important truth.  It’s based on Moses words from Exodus to the Israelites as they perceived the threat of Pharoah’s armies at the base of the Red Sea.  Was God going to let them all die at the hands of their enemy?  Moses tells them, “only be still”. 

We often wonder, if we don’t push really hard will God take care of us?  He tells us to stop from time to time and just be still and know that He is God.  Not us, but Him. 

Do not be afraid, stand firm and see today.  The LORD is mighty to save and He will fight for you, only be still. 

Be still and know that I am God, and I will quiet you with love.  On Eagles’ wings you will soar and I will sing over you…

I will sing over, you need only be still…

Maybe it’s time to sit back and consider God’s love again and that He is in control and we are going to be okay in that knowledge. 

It is when we fight and push and try to control things that aren’t ours to control that we become upset, worried, stressed and not at peace.  God help us to let go and let Him show us the way.  That doesn’t mean we just do nothing all the time, but it does mean we need to take time to listen, to pray and to consider. 

See this song on our album from the media page for a small donation: http://www.envisionmission.org/media

Who is like the Lord?

This is actually the meaning of my name- Mitchell.  Michael or Michelle also mean the same thing.  It is first and foremost a question.  Who is like the Lord?  And the answer is no one. 

By that we don’t mean that folks aren’t like him in the sense that they are made in His image or can remind us of Jesus.  But at the end of the day, none of us are God the Lord.  All of us had to be created; all of us rely on God to live. 

He is self-existent, eternal with no beginning, the I AM.  He alone is set apart as the only true God. 

This song is based on a number of Bible passages including Proverbs 3:5, Psalm 113 and Micah/Isaiah- various passages.  In first is about God and His transcendence.  Then it shows Him stooping down and caring for humanity, especially the poor. 

He raises the poor from the dust, lifts them from the ashes, makes them sit with princes with the princes of His people.  Who is like the LORD?  Who is like the LORD our God?  He gives the barren woman a home and makes her the happy mother of children.  Who is like the LORD?

He has saved those who know they have need of Him.  And He has made them spiritually sit with Him in the heavenly places.  That’s good news.  But folks have to admit they need it- if they are proud He will honor their insistence not to be saved. 

I pray we all will receive Him!  That’s why He came at Christmas, for instance.  God became human that we might become one with God.  HalleluYah!

You can download this album “Our Eyes Are On You” from our website:http://www.envisionmission.org/media

Often we want to write our own story and have it go the way we think it should go.  But it is best for us to say to God, “Write our story”.  He is the Creator and knows all things.  We are the created. 

We do not often know what is best for us.  I know that is an unpopular thing to say in an individualistic culture that insists that each person is the captain of their own ship and decides their own identity.  But we will be a much more joyful people, let me suggest, when we are aligned with our Creator’s intentions for us. 

I must confess, though, that I don’t always understand God.  He does allow suffering to a great extent.  He is mysterious and well beyond us.  But I’ve learned to trust Him and hope that others will learn to trust Him too.  As with our current situation, it’s not easy to figure it all out. 

In this song, “God of Glory” I begin with a verse that asks God to write our story:

God of glory, Lord of Light- write our story, make day from night

God of wisdom, Love of loves…

And then the chorus is taken from the words of St. Paul in Romans 11:

Oh the depth of the riches of the wisdom and the knowledge of God-

How unsearchable His judgments and His paths beyond tracing out…

But that is a part of God that I’m learning to enjoy as well.  It would be boring if we had Him figured out.  Instead we will learn for eternity the depths of God.

And for us who trust in Him our story will also go on for eternity. I find that very comforting in this time of uncertainty. 

You can still download the CD with this song on it at: http://www.envisionmission.org/media

This song is called, “Your Attitude Should Be”.  It’s taken from Philippians 2:5-11 which is considered to be a hymn of the early church concerning Jesus the Christ.  The hymn describes Jesus as being God, but becoming human and even taking the nature of a servant. He emptied Himself and was even willing to die on a cross.  He was and is the ultimate servant leader.

Your attitude should be the same as his, the same as Jesus Christ. Who being in nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped.  But made Himself nothing, taking the nature of a servant. 

That’s where we got the idea of “serving” in government or “serving” in the school system.  Jesus taught the world that to serve God and others is to be great.  By putting aside his rights, becoming as nothing, he conquered the world, went right into death and conquered it, and was thus given the greatest name of all.  So to serve is the greatest thing we can do. 

How do we do that for each other?  The first verses of that chapter describe us not looking only to our own interests but also to the interests of others.  We could even consider others as better than ourselves. 

The thing is, then God Himself will also raise us up.  In Jesus’ case, even though He became human, He is worthy to be called the Lord of the universe.  I hope you have made him your Lord also because He has surely demonstrated His great love for all of us, even though we treated Him like He didn’t really matter, or even worse.  But that kind of love conquers! That is what being a servant leader is all about.

To listen to the song from the album give a small donation on our website and you can access the whole CD for download: http://www.envisionmission.org/media