I am utterly amazed at how lost most people actually are. Watching my own family members wander in misery, with no direction at all in their lives I often feel guilty that my wife and I live such a peaceful existence.

Purpose

So thy destiny is as the star moving swiftly in the night,
burning brilliance for a moment on the horizon,
Timeless though in the eye of the watcher.

Burning brilliance for a moment in the darkness of this time.



Tony Dingess

Anguished Sounds

Does the anguish sound, as the echos of days lost and never found?
Tumultuous days, never found again,
and no desire to find them.
Does the anguish sound like the waves that never cease to roar against the sands?
Tumultuous days, never found again,
and no desire to find them.

Tony Dingess

"The Passion"

I thought I would mention a word, or two about the Mel Gibson movie “The Passion of the Christ,” which has generated an ludicrous amount of controversy as of late. My wife and I saw the movie when it opened on Ash Wednesday and I have to say that I don’t like using the word “movie” at all when I speak of it. For individuals to understand my view of things, they must first understand that I am (if someone feels the need to identify me within some category) essentially a ultra-conservative, radical, non-demoninational, charismatic Christian. This should help people understand where I am coming from. Personally I believe that Mel Gibson has actually been inspired and motivated by the Holy Spirit. I believe the movie is quite simply a vision that God put in Mr. Gibson’s heart, and mind, and I personally rejoice that he has had the courage to do what thousands of unbelievers would have preferred him not to do.

The movie itself is really a gut level experience, at least in my mind, far more than a film. It is an experience that confronts every individual that is open in their heart to such a confrontation, with a personal indictment for the death of Jesus of Nazareth; God manifest in human vestment. As much as I may have meditated on the Passion of Christ before, during times of prayer, I have never had the vision so clear before me in my mind. Some element of the horrific nature of His sufferings has been indelibly printed in my heart now, in a way that I could not have imagined before. In simple terms, I can never quite think of His sufferings in the same light as I had before seeing this expression of such. Isaiah the prophet declared around 600 years before the birth of Christ “Surely he hath borne our grief, and carried our sorrows, yet we esteemed him stricken, and smitten of God...” and this film has impressed the reality of this in my heart, in a way that is for me, beyond words, or at least my ability to convey such.

I have told numerous individuals that I think the movie should most properly be viewed while on one’s knees, and I think it would be quite profitable for Christians to watch it on a routine basis, lest we forget the price that has been paid for our deliverance from our own miserable failures.

As for the anti-Semitic arguments against the film, I should say that I find the whole thing quite comically sad. The disciples of Jesus pulled no punches in blaming the Jews, and in particular the Jewish leadership for the death of Christ. The Acts of the Apostles records Saint Peter as accusing the Jewish leaders of murdering the Lord of Glory numerous times in the first five chapters of the book. The Apostles don’t apologize, and perhaps they are not politically correct, but they held the Jews as being responsible for the direct death of Jesus. This is quite simply the way it is written, like it or not. Does this make the Jews monsters, or more worthy of punishment than the rest of the world? Hardly, since this was indeed why Christ came, that is to be rejected, and to suffer death, that we might partake of eternal life. The truth is all men are indeed guilty in the sight of God, and thus all men are responsible for the death of Jesus. All men were not literally, historically there, and involved directly in His death, but we are no better than those individuals that screamed “Crucify Him!” It is my personal sins that Jesus suffered for, and He bore the stripes on His back for my personal healing. People that view the film as being an indictment against the Jews are absolutely missing the entire message of the film, and indeed the Gospel.

For those of you who haven’t seen it yet, I encourage everyone to do so, with the exception of children that may be too young to understand, or appreciate the reality of this portrayal.

Night Fall

Night falls long and hard on the soul,
troubled by itself.
Imagined, and un-imagined sounds in the darkness,
these no longer trouble,
but the darkness itself, speaks the soul that glimpsed its' image
in the moonlit waters so deep and clear.

Tony Dingess

I hope those who may stumble across the thoughts I post here, that they would realize that Christianity is is indeed the central element of my existence. Those who know me, know something of Christianity, whether they like it, agree with it, or dismiss is altogether. Those who do not know me, and will likely never know me, perhaps they may gather a useful morsel of bread here in these reflections.