The official trailer for john language's first movie, the stop-motion animation EPIC movie "CRAPOCALYPSE NOW." You betta recognize!

yeah

ive spent the last month juggling between my "real" job, digging frigging holes and shoveling rocks, and doing what i actually enjoy doing: film stuff. Well, not exactly film stuff but a stop motion animation project thats like a half hour long..



half hour of stop motion = like 2600 still shots

so ive got like 2600+ still shots, edited out like 300 or so, and ive got a last "scene" to shoot. ive edited the first 4/5ths of it to prepare it for voice/audio. all in all, ive already put in about 70 hours or so on this thing and it'll be probably more like 90-100 before its done and ready for release. i went and got a youtube director's account to enable a post of longer than ten minutes, and hopefully HOPEFULLY it'll be released in the middle of february. HOPEFULLY.

unfortunately the work of ingenuity that is windows movie maker has a bug or something on my pc and keeps crashing... i cant do transitions anymore! WTF!


so anyway, thats what im doing...

i'll go back to my 3 month hiatus now

while the republicans are seemingly making a mess of everything (including, unfortunately, the concept of true christianity) , the dems are busy calculating exactly when and how high to throw their hands up to best suit their own desires. the big stinks over every republican morsel the past few months profited them towards gearing up for their november elections. its like slander-in-digsuise. Find a reason, exploit said reason , hopefully win an election or push forward some agenda, then get caught with pants down just like said republican. Then the republicans will step back in all shocked and appalled and campaign that if they get voted in the next election, this type of thing would never happen. big deal. lieberman got voted out , in part, for being painted the republicans favorite dem. meanwhile john mccain fills the same roll vice versa and nobody says a peep. its all lights and mirrors and standing on the x's and smiling on cue. thank you hillary, thank you W. , thank you Al Gore and the internet you invented, thank you john kerry and howard dean and dick cheney and whoever else. it really doesnt matter anymore. Liberalism sells and dudes like jon Stewart, michael moore, and whatever other new face are peddling. entertainment becomes political. Who owns the Daily show and Colbert report? Comedy Central. And comedy central leans left just like Fox News leans right. And theyre both in turn owned by big business with big agendas. It's all a b.s. rap to sucker your vote and take your dollar, often times through an intentional strongarm of manipulative plans in action. Neither side is immune because once someone gets into office, the special interest homies come through with their "benefits packages" of plane tickets and nice dinners and big game seats and expense accounts. and who can resist big business or big tobacco or big whoever? Money is the real guy in office. Even the presidents themselves are on the office of the dollar bill. i put no stock in this world "Come to me all who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest." matt11:28 (?)

MY GOSH it is so nice to be out of Los Angeles and be away from the mega-church.

Not that it didn't help me out and not that God didn't use it to teach me a "butt-load of crap," as Nacho Libre would say, but now that I'm out of the scene and can once again think with somewhat of a sober mind I can see how that place was eating me, and is currently eating many others, alive from the insides out.

I think it's interesting how the concept of preaching the gospel turned into an almost exclusively narrow sighted event, focused on people in the streets and on drugs and in crisis situations who are far more willing to accept the invitation to altar call than your normal average Joe person.  Why else would someone be stepping into a "seeker friendly" church for the first time, as an outsider to the body of Christ?  

Not that I see a problem with the concept of going after the hurting.  Jesus rolled with prostitutes and lepers, and I think we are correct in following his example.  Hang out with the hurting and the destitute, and tell them the "good news"  [which is what the word "gospel" actually means].  Eternal life with a good God etc...

But I have a few bones to pick with the byproducts of OUR faults as humans, trying to run seeker friendly churches like the one I lived at/worked at full time for the past three years. 

 What exactly *IS* the gospel??????  Do we even know anymore?  What is this "good news" that people are all amped up on, running around with spiritual pride and a virtual complete lack of self-control when it comes to the fruits of the spirit and spiritual maturity?

Let me tell you something:  WHO GIVES A FLYING F#CK ABOUT NUMBERS!??!?  Who cares about altar call numbers, who cares about how many people are in your church, who cares about number of people you got to say the sinner's prayer last week??????  WHO CARES?  And this is why you SHOULDN'T care:  We don't know people's hearts.  You could get 100 people to say the sinner's prayer (i was the outreach director of a major outreach ministry in arguably the biggest missionary field in the US, I've SEEN this with my own eyes) and it won't mean a thing! Why?  Because sometimes people feel pressured to pray, or convicted by man and not by the Holy Spirit, or are appeasing the person witnessing or whatever.

Well, what about altar calls??  Same exact deal.  I've seen "altar calls" of 200 people week after week after week after week after (snore....) week after week after week after (zzzzZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzz) week.  And the pastor's are pretty much pinching their own asses, trying to goose themselves into feeling some sort of feeling for the same old routine that brings many of the same exact people to the front week after week.  So, in my experience and to the best of my discernment - I'd say there's maybe ....    15-25 of those "200" per altar call who are new to the front or who are genuinely giving their hearts to Christ.  NO small number indeed, considering one is enugh to make the angels rejoice.  But i think sometimes our faithlessness in God's power is manifested collectively after dripping down from the people at the top who are so concerned, so often, with looking good and having fantastic P.R. and keeping the show rolling that they don't realize/can't bring themselves to realize that this "evangelistic counting" is really just bold-faced lying that eventually trickles down and poisons their own people.   Discounting all the staff, altar workers, repeaters who'd go up to the front for a bake sale or tire alignment as fast and indifferently as they'd go for the altar call (some people are HIGHLY encouraged to go forward.  Trust me),  and people who are like the seeds from Jesus' parable that eventually prove to have fallen amongst thorns (get choked out of following Christ by the cares of the world) or who fall on rocky ground (those who get all excited at first but fall away because they have no root ------------------------  then you've only got a good handful of people going up there genuinely getting "saved."   And the leaders all know it yet continue in their "exaggerations" of the numbers.

Again, not to say God doesn't move and touch people's lives greatly during these moments.  Just that He doesn't need our help to try and finish His awesome work.  It's not like His work is found lacking at the end of the day and we need to pad His numbers to redeem Him to His own people.

And church numbers.  If i hear another pastor of a mega-church talking about "church growth" and the fact that if you're church isn't growing rapidly from year to year that you have a stale church and a big problem, Im going to throw up.  In fact, I think it's HEALTHY for a church to sometimes go through a decline;  weed out the ones who aren't really interested in hearing God's true voice.   Too often, churches tip toe on eggshells while trying not to offend their members so they preach like one island verse a Sunday and then "expound" on it with whatever life's lessons they have from their own personal lives, tell some jokes, and then hit the doors by 11:30.  It keeps people coming back because many people HATE the concept of sitting in church and being bored by the pastor so if the pastor keeps it to 20 mins, the chances they'll come back are huge.

But the point is this:  if you actually PREACH the word of God, His sheep know His voice.  You will gain who you are supposed to gain, find who you are supposed to find.  And if you lose 300 full-yet-empty seats in the process, oh well!  At least you genuinely tried to get them saved too, genuinely tried to give them a chance to hear what the Bible really has to say.  What God really has to say.

One of the fastest quoted scriptures in the Bible is Hosea 4:6 "my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge,"  yet there are very few pastors and preachers out there who are actually preaching the Bible and not instead just a bunch of tangents en route to another "incredible, super-duper, ridiculously successful" altar call after the likes of which we can chalk up numbers, pat eachother on the asses, and call it a day. 

It's this type of fakeness that turns off God's own people.  It this whole "frost-tip my hair, im a dude but i wear foundation, metrosexual, fake smiling fake handshakes fake "good to see you/nice to meet you", fake salvation, FAKE CHURCH FALSE IDOL" type of mentality that dupes poor people into thinking this is the way the church is really supposed to be. 

NEWS FLASH YOU CORNY, LOST & POOR SONSOFBITCHES - God doesn't care what we look like on the outside!  God doesn't care about all the good works in the world if our heart isn't right!  Stop trying to redeem yourselves to the world.  No more "hey guys, look here - we're cool too!  Look, LOOK!!!! We're Hollywood, check out our lighting and cool guitar riffs!  We're cool too!!!"

We're called to be the head and not the tail, and when a church runs around trying to grab onto and hang onto the coat heels of some "celebrity" so and so to get them and come visit their church and hype the crap out of it before hand - thats what I call being the tail.  Chasing after the world.  Yknow what?  I dont care if Billy Blanks the Tae Bo guy comes to your church.  I don't care if the supporting actress girl from "You Got Served" or whatever comes to your church.  I don't care if Harrison Ford's body double is coming to speak at your church!  WHO CARES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Stop grab-assing the world with little tic tac testimonies to boost your numbers when the people that are already in your church are dying like flies in their ignorance.

 

sometimes that title seems like an oxymoron to me...

I was the intern director of a name ministry at a BIG name ministry in Los Angeles.  Been here for three years.  Been a staff for like a year an a half of that. 

Always loved to smoke the weed.  Seriously.  Loved it.  My whole life.  Never had a problem with hard drugs, never really liked to drink.  Always loved the bud. 

Stayed clean my entire time in Los Angeles minus the annual trips back to the homeland.  But in L.A. , was always clean.

One of my best friends here is an ex heroin addict.  Junkie of junkies.  Not like the "junkie" that the SWPD cop called me when he arrested me for a dimebag and $5.00 bowl.  Real junkie junkie.  LIKE, almost died junkie.

To be fair, even before i took off and smoked bud with him, I was looking.  Which, to the secular (nonchristian) ear, is absolutely not a big deal to smoke some weed here and there.  But in ministry, I might as well be jamming needles in my arm while looking at child pornography while shoving razor blades up my ass.  That's just the way the church is - liking to be clean on the outside while on the inside they're full of the same exact s**t everyone else is.

So, eventually I was living that old churchy double-life everyone's come to expect from us christians.  Smoking bud, driving around with possession on me, ducking the powers that be, etc... 

Smoking bud with old christian friends...  ducking my pastor's daughter girlfriend's calls.  Or beating around the truth of where i was or what i was doing.

Finally, I felt i loved her (and God) enough to tell her i was smoking again.  To her, being the churchy churchy churched girl her whole life, it was like a brick to the face.  But she bounced back.  Told her I'd quit.  No big deal.

Next day my buddy shows up with bomb hash.  Man the devil knows how to work it with me.  So i was like, all chivalrously turning down the hash for a few days.  But, like I said, the devil knows me and that if he keeps persisting like that, I'm done for.  So i was done for.  Smoking the good buds, the medical prescription buds that'll shut your mind off on you.  The high life for weed connoseurs.

Dodging phone calls, dodging accountability, dodging the powers that be.  Dodging the heart of my fiancee.  Dodging my own heart.  Dodging, most importantly to a man who firmly believes and has set himself a part for the purposes thereof, God Himself.

Then old church buddy number two starts rolling around everyday.  Bringing them good smokes.  But he's slipping.  Drinking now.  Occasionally and then more occasionally and then driving occasionally after drinking occasionally and occasionally being a little bit too f**ked up to drive but occasionally driving occasionally after occasionally drinking a bunch of beers and smoking a bunch of weed, occasionally driving his ministry vehicle back to the ministry house where he NOT so occasionally lives.  He's occasionally there full-time.

Church buddy # 3.  Known this guy forever, too.  He's the type of guy who you have to worry about.  Quiet.  Lonely.  Insecure.  But has a great heart and is actually probably the most anointed worship leader I've ever seen in my life.  Which says a lot, to a dude who's been INSIDE the church full-time for the last four years. 

Number 3 started smoking cigarettes again, then started smoking bud again.  Then smoked bud like everyday, driving around his ministry vehicle (both vehicles belonging to ministries and NOT them personally) and getting pulled over acouple times just for LOOKING messed up.  Which says a lot, considering this is L.A. and like half an hour ago i saw some dude spun on crystal or something almost run down an older lady in a crosswalk out in Hollywood and nobody cared.

Number 3 has a friend, who's not my friend, we'll call him Tom.  Tom is also a heroin addict.  Tom has a buddy we'll call Frank who is addicted to crack rock.  Both these dudes, Tom and Frank, are from Park City Utah and come from filthy rich white families.  Both these dudes call themselves christians and both went to church here for at least a good number of months.  In case it sounds familiar, Park City is where they do the Sundance music festival every year.

So church buddy 3 and these two clowns hit the bars, get ripped and go down to skid row to score their perspective drugs.  H and C.  Heroin and crack.

Tom shoots up and turns white immediately.  Passed out.  3 thinks he's dying, starts slapping him on the face and freaking out.  Frank is cracked out, which means calloused and detached and therefore not realizing his homey is about to die on his livingroom couch.

Tom's lips turn blue, face goes so pale, and comes an inch away from death.  Wakes back up, says "i'm hungry," and goes back to life as normal.  f**king junkies.

Ahhh the church.  a point:

When i went back to the weed after i swore to the girl i LOOOOVE so much that I'd stop, i realized something:  If smoking weed is not a big deal, why can't i stop for the one i love so much?  Why did it lead to my homeboys getting back into their old patterns and driving drunk, smoking crack, or shooting dope?  Why was it harder to break than I'd ever thought it would be?

Because it's deceptive.  We do it in dark places, where people can't see.  It's deceptive.  Hiding in the darkness, hiding from the threat of punishment and consequence.  And it can get on top of you.  Look at the burnouts in this world.

 That stuff can't be happening in the church.  We aren't called to smoke herb and get drunk like we used to.  We're supposed to be done with that stuff; have something better than that stuff. 

So i got rid of the sack i had just bought, confessed to my fiancee that i was smoking again- and what happens?  The next day my homeboy shows up and says "you wanna meet god?" 

"god" was the name of the new bud he had gotten, and it was trying real hard to live up to its name.  I was tempted, but stayed straight and havent smoked ever since.  Just funny to SEE with my own eyes the devil try and get at me for real. 

Stood up in front of the whole ministry, in front of people i've been a role model and an example to.  In front of people i've disciplined and counseled. People i've reamed out and people i've cried over. And told the whole thing.  Admitted the whole thing.  And I'm done.  I'm walking in the light now and not hiding in the darkness. 

Tom...  Tom will probably die.  And it's interesting to look into someone's face who's young and vibrant and handsome and know that he's one day going to be found dead in some Super8 hotel room, somewhere far away from his family.  Somewhere far away from everyone that loves him.  Surrounded by people who don't give a s**t and won't bat a lash at another dead white kid being wheeled out of a hotel.

Frank will probably downward spiral.  If he doesn't plug back into church and have people to lift him up, he'll probably be there when Tom dies and will probably kill himself after he comes sober and realizes what just happened.

Number 3 will probably get kicked out of the ministry and the church if he doesnt come clean and clean up his act, and will probably end up living in his parents house, sleeping on the living room couch.

Number 2 will probably get pulled over for D.U.I. eventually, in a ministry vehicle...  which will completely ruin his life and lose his job and his place.

Number 1 will hopefully stay clean.  But it's always tough when you're an ex-junkie.  Cuz you're never really an EX-junkie, you're just a junkie who hasn't shot in awhile.  Sometimes situations turn to slip-n-slides and you're back to your old mess in a matter of minutes.

These, of course, are worst case scenarios.  but these people have been flirting with worst case scenarios for awhile now.  Real life people flirting with real life disaster...

I will stay clean. 

 

 

myspace.com/johnlanguage

 

anybody on my b4me friendslist can hit me up for an add ;)

 

 

this guy is totally right out in hollywood from last night.  i bet it ends up on tv through some other person out there who was filming, but we got it first ;)

 

yeah

moving to hawaii in a little over a month.  got a girl and a job and a place and im pretty excited.  Kona is apparently one of the nicest islands out there and its gonna be awesome.  im almost more excited to get back to working with my hands (carpentry) , considering ive done nothing but counsel and outreach and office work for the past 3 years.  May marks 3 years in los angeles for me, and I'll be back next year.  I believe God straight up told me to go to Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena starting next year.  Which will absolutely take a miracle of God for me to get into that place, considering its a graduate school and i've never even gotten an associates.             HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHa seriously.  If i gave the list of reasons why I *DONT* qualify for this school next year they'd look like this:

1.) no undergraduate degree

2.) no money

3.) no housing

4.) no transportation

5.) brand new marriage w/ a girl who's a fulltime student elsewhere and doesn't graduate until a year from this fall

6.) Fuller is a TOP seminary in the nation that doesn't fool around

yeah thats right, i said it.  Im also getting married.  she's from colombia and she's like the sweetest thing on earth in the history of my life.  known her for a year now.  hopefully get married in early '07.  no ring yet but its coming.

hows that for an update

 

what if all the water that has been evaporating into the atmosphere from the polar ice caps is not really, in fact, gone but is only displaced and is now residing in our atmosphere, ready to be rained down to the measure and intensity that we've melted the glaciers on the poles with global warming over the past 100 years.

Or perhaps better simplied, to get the point across :    100 million years of glaciers dissipated over 100 years = 100 million years of water displaced into the oceans through melting and into the atmosphere through evaporation that comes back on us over a type of  automechanical earth process of re-balancing itself over another 100 year period.

Now, if the poles melt and the oceans raise, as well as great and increased storm strength and frequency (ie hurricane katrina to new orleans) ...... then we could see the sea reclaim many of the lowlands like new orleans, hawaii, etc.

Here at the equator we have what i would presume to be lowlands, full of marshes and waters and bogs and rain........      combined continual heavy rains with increased ocean sea level could cause, over time , the distinct separation of the two hemispheres.  Where over time these waters would bring what are now the moderate northern and southern hemispheres under water or at sea level, with only the more southern and northern parts of the hemispheres remaining above water.

And if there's a big deal of water where the once hot equator lands used to lay, the excessive rains would probably keep the temperature down in the equator regions and and cause a chain reaction up and down the hemispheres.  If the waters first reclaimed thin and low lands like Panama, they'd probably take large portions of central america as well as the tides continued to rise and the rains continued to fall. 

 People would push north and south in droves over a relatively short span of time-like a few generations, bringing disease , poverty, class wars, real wars, etc.  The tumult in places where oceans like the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans meet would be incredible.  Where Panama used to be could become the next Cape Horn. 

The dispersion of the peoples of central america would have great effect on overpopulating areas in places like the southern united states and Mexico and northern south america.  Where there are refugee camps, there are plagues.  Where there are famines, there are deaths. 

White americans would push north to Canada.  But as they push north, the global warming trends have pushed south and now it's MEN whom the sun scorches and not ice glaciers. 

The poles and the equator change roles.  The equator is now frozen solid, the poles scorching hot.  White man with fair skin become unfit for the conditions and can't evolve fast enough to stop the sun from killing them.  Dark men freeze for poor conditions and little technological advancement.  Their deforested forest areas are too few for their overpopulated people regions and don't give enough resources.  People fight for scraps, die over logs, and eat eachother out of hunger.

Survivors will be few and maybe none.

the earth is a heavenly body and men are earthly.  we're lower on the food chain.

 

 

it might not all happen exactly like that, but i could see something very similar to this happening in the not too distant future.

me posting an Easter blog.           Or , well, i guess technically it would still be Easter but you get what I'm saying.  So , prepare to be informed/bored/something because here we go:   If you're going to read it - read the whole thing.  Otherwise go away now :)

little do Americans know, but Easter was actually something else before it became known as "easter," before the typification of the holiday with the chocolate and bunnies and eggs deal. 

According to the Venerable Bede, Easter derives its name from Eostre, an Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring. A month corresponding to April had been named "Eostremonat," or Eostre's month, leading to "Easter" becoming applied to the Christian holiday that usually took place within it. Prior to that, the holiday had been called Pasch (Passover), which remains its name in most non-English languages.

      so, we see here that the traditions of Easter were actually things assimilated by the christians over time - therefore we get the traditions of easter eggs and bunnies and whatnot - symbols of fertility and corresponding to the pagan re-birth holiday celebrating spring. 

This is comparable to what happened to the Israelites back in the day.  The israelites were strictly jewish and God had even told them to destroy the nations around them completely lest they be turned away from their true God by being corrupted with the traditions of the surrounding nations.  This actually was a theme time and time again the Old Testament.  God tells the Israelites to be faithful, and the Israelites run away to some other god or whatever and turn their backs on the God who brought them out of Egypt.   The following verse is just one example of the jews bringing concepts from another religion into their judaism and "polluting" themselves and the purity of the word of their God.

Jeremiah 7:17 "Do you not see what they are doing in the towns of Judah and in the streets of Jerusalem? 18 The children gather wood, the fathers light the fire, and the women knead the dough and make cakes of bread for the Queen of Heaven. They pour out drink offerings to other gods to provoke me to anger. 19 But am I the one they are provoking? declares the LORD. Are they not rather harming themselves, to their own shame?"

- So, burning incense to the queen of heaven is the , well, atrocity in God's eyes here because the Queen of Heaven was a pagan god and to burn incense to a pagan God was going against the entire book of the Law that the jews were supposed to adhere to.  NOW, this is fascinating because this is strikingly similar to what happened with the whole concept of  the christian "Easter." 

ORIGINALLY, the concept of the christian "easter" was based out of the Judeo holiday "Passover."  In fact, considering that Jesus was a jewish man and his disciples jewish men, living in a jewish society - the idea of passover plays an integral role here:

The Origins of Passover go all the way back to the time of Moses and the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt.  I'm sure you all at least vaguely remember the story of Moses and the ten commandments and whatever.  Well VERY briefly here - Moses is born, lives 40 years as an adopted egyptian prince even though he was biologically hebrew.  He killed an egyptian man for beating one of his own people (a hebrew) and runs away from egypt and spends the next 40 years having a family and eventually, he runs into God on the mountain top - aka the burning bush.  Right?  So what we have here is GOD choosing Moses to lead his people out of Egypt.  The hebrews were slaves in Egypt for generations and the egyptians treated them badly.  The hebrews had already previously received promises from God and were already called God's chosen people long before they were slaves, but they were enslaved and the Bible says their cries for help reached God's ears and therefore God called Moses. 

So, God tells Moses - "hey, im gonna use you to bring out my people" and Moses is all like "yeah right man, egypt is powerful and i'm a peasant."   So God's like, "no, seriously, go back to Egypt and I will perform miracles and use you as my mouthpiece before pharoah, the king of egypt, and he will eventually LET MY PEOPLE GO."

- this happens.  you might remember a bit about the ten plagues of Egypt, but God brings about plagues one after another to convince pharaoh to let His people go.  PASSOVER comes from one night in particular, from the last plague of Egypt - the plague that got the Egyptians to finally let God's people go.

The tenth plague was the plague of the firstborn, right?  And God told Aaron and Moses to tell the hebrews that they needed to sacrifice a lamb to God that night and mark their doorposts with the blood of the lamb and be prepared to go on a journey.(see all of exodus ch 12)  That the angel of the Lord was coming to slay the firstborn of all the houses who didn't mark their doorposts with the blood.

Exodus 12:11 This is how you are to eat it: with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste; it is the LORD's Passover.  12 "On that same night I will pass through Egypt and strike down every firstborn—both men and animals—and I will bring judgment on all the gods of Egypt. I am the LORD. 13 The blood will be a sign for you on the houses where you are; and when I see the blood, I will pass over you. No destructive plague will touch you when I strike Egypt."

 

SOOOOOO, this is, like i said, the last plague in a series of plagues.  Outlandish stuff was happening to Egypt and pretty much most of the people around began to understand that it was the God of the hebrews that was doing it.  So this BLOOD that the hebrews put on their doorposts, was actually a symbol of FAITH.  Only the people who BELIEVED in the word/warning of God that the plague was coming put the blood on their doorposts.  SO, in the middle of the night the angel of the Lord came and slew the firstborn of everyone in egypt without the blood on their doorposts and the pharaoh woke up and called Moses and told him to take him and all his people and leave Egypt with all their belongings and so the Israelites began their physical exodus from their physical land of bondage.

NOW - NOW - NOW - we fast forward to semi-modern day.  The whole concept of Christianity actually stems out of Judaism and jewish heritage.  Christians claim Jesus is the Messiah spoken of (prophecied about) in jewish literature.  Here are a few of those prophecies from the mouths of the jews themselves:

Pretty much one of the most foundational prophecies for the concept of the jewish messiah comes from Moses himself in Deutoronomy 28.  He's talking to his people towards the end of his life and he says this :

15 The LORD your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him...  18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. 19 If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account.

NOW - throughout the rest of the Old Testament (the jewish Bible doesnt include the New Testament, so the O.T. is pretty much the whole thing) this theme of messiah is harped on again and again and again.  Actually, one could say it's the prevelant theme of this and it's also the concept that almost all jews put their hope in to this day.  Listen to what Isaiah has to say about this dude, the projected messiah:  (keep in mind Im not making this up)

Isaiah 53:1 Who has believed our message
       and to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?

 2 He grew up before him like a tender shoot,
       and like a root out of dry ground.
       He had no beauty or majesty to attract us to him,
       nothing in his appearance that we should desire him.

4 Surely he took up our infirmities
       and carried our sorrows,
       yet we considered him stricken by God,
       smitten by him, and afflicted.

 5 But he was pierced for our transgressions,
       he was crushed for our iniquities;
       the punishment that brought us peace was upon him,
       and by his wounds we are healed.

 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
       each of us has turned to his own way;
       and the LORD has laid on him
       the iniquity of us all.

 7 He was oppressed and afflicted,
       yet he did not open his mouth;
       he was led like a *lamb to the slaughter*,
       and as a sheep before her shearers is silent,
       so he did not open his mouth.

****  Notice what Isaiah refers to Him as :  a "lamb" to the slaughter.  Interesting concept containing a clear echo of the passover rite.  You should read all of Isaiah 53 - it's fascinating.  But I'll just quote from the last verse in the chapter and move on.

12 Therefore I will give him a portion among the great, 
       and he will divide the spoils with the strong, 
       because he poured out his life unto death,
       and was numbered with the transgressors.
       For he bore the sin of many,
       and made intercession for the transgressors.

Bore the sin of many and made intercession for the transgressors?  Sounds like a lot of "christianese" to me.   But in case you want it from a different book, a different source, a different jewish hero - here's King David's writing in the psalms:  Psalm 22:

1 My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?    [sound familiar?!?]
       Why are you so far from saving me,
       so far from the words of my groaning?

7 All who see me mock me;
       they hurl insults, shaking their heads:

 8 "He trusts in the LORD;
       let the LORD rescue him.
       Let him deliver him,
       since he delights in him."

13 Roaring lions tearing their prey
       open their mouths wide against me.

 14 I am poured out like water,
       and all my bones are out of joint.
       My heart has turned to wax;
       it has melted away within me.

 15 My strength is dried up like a potsherd,
       and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;
       you lay me  in the dust of death.

 16 Dogs have surrounded me;
       a band of evil men has encircled me,
       they have pierced my hands and my feet.             [fulfilled]

 17 I can count all my bones;
       people stare and gloat over me.

 18 They divide my garments among them                    [fulfilled]
       and cast lots for my clothing.

24 For he has not despised or disdained
       the suffering of the afflicted one;
       he has not hidden his face from him
       but has listened to his cry for help.

NOTICE i quoted out of order.  Feel free to read the whole psalm - i encourage you do to so.  I could go on for ages from different jewish prophets and books but I think you get the picture and will now make an attempt to close this thing up. 

 

THE LAST SUPPER was actually on the same day as the Passover meal (aka - the sacrificial lamb slaughter from exodus). 

Luke 22:7Then came the day of Unleavened Bread on which the Passover lamb had to be sacrificed. 8Jesus sent Peter and John, saying, "Go and make preparations for us to eat the Passover."

THEN comes the communion (this is my body this is my blood)

THEN on that SAME DAY comes the betrayal and crucifixion of Christ!!!!!!  The same day as the passover feast of old!  The ENTiRE old testament points to Christ!  let out eyes be opened to this!

Luke chapters 22 and 23 depict the single day of the passover, and all the events that occured that day in Christ's time.   The last supper, the communion, the washing of the disciples feet, the betrayal by judas, the mount of olives/garden of gesthemane prayer by Jesus, the arrest and subsuquent trial of christ by Pilate, the "conviction" of the crime of heresy and blasphemy as he wouldnt' back down the claim of being the Son of God, and the crucifixion.  All on the same day. 

One might think that Jesus planned this out himself, but Mark chapter 14 speaks of the pharisees wanting to kill Jesus but not wanting to do it during the passover feast!

Mark 14:  1Now the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread were only two days away, and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some sly way to arrest Jesus and kill him. 2"But not during the Feast," they said, "or the people may riot."

So, the jews wanted by any means to AVOID killing Jesus during the passover!  But exactly what they tried to avoid happened anyway!  jesus was killed on the passover and became the spiritual fulfillment of the prophetic events of the physical exodus!  God back in the Exodus day delivered the Israelites from physical bondage but the israelites were unfaithful and God let in ALL the nations and not just have the Jews as His chosen people.  SO God brought in the gentiles through the sacrifice of Christ (christians are gentiles, there's few who are biologically hebrew and adhere to christ)......   and there's tons of prophecies and forementions of this as well so don't think im running out of sources to cite! :)  this is the abbreviated version for time and attention span's sake.  So Christ becomes the SPIRITUAL passover sacrifice.  Yes, He was sacrificed in the flesh BUT the exodus this time is not a physical exodus from Egypt (slavery) but a SPIRITUAL exodus from the Law and Sin and Death and Hell!!!  The physical passover of exodus day was a foreshadow of the coming of Christ!  In fact, the entire Old Testament is a foreshadow to Christ - with all the prophecies and the Law and such....

The Law was the code of ethics the jews were to live by, but ALL men fell short of this and that's why their Law commanded that if you sinned, you must make a sacrifice.  So BRIEFLY here, Christ was the atonement sacrifice FOR ALL SIN therefore those previous sacrifices of animals and such were unnecessary because they were only a foreshadow of the PERFECT sacrifice to come , the one that would make atonement once and for all and woulnd't have to be repeated time and time again like the Law required them with the animals!!!!

1st Corinthians 5:7-8  For Christ, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed. 8Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old yeast, the yeast of malice and wickedness, but with bread without yeast, the bread of sincerity and truth.

Hebrews 9:13The blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkled on those who are ceremonially unclean sanctify them so that they are outwardly clean. 14How much more, then, will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself unblemished to God, cleanse our consciences from acts that lead to death, so that we may serve the living God! 15For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance—now that he has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first covenant.

Hebrews 10:1The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. 2If it could, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. 3But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, 4because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.

 

 

TrUst me.  I could go on forever.  and the more I go on, the more i could quote scripture and solidify the argument. 

So the next time you see "Easter,"  you can think of how ignorant we are of what it really was about in the first place. 

in the Bible Paul says:  Romans 1:16 I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile.

And this is true in my life.  I didn't believe, and many people consider me foolish for believing in such a thing.  But that verse in Romans has been demonstrated in my life.  I read it, studied it, tested it, and found it to be true.  I'm not a fool to fall for anything, especially something like this.  The power of God is in that thing.............. and i, Randy, witness and testify to it.

 

Happy Easter.

 

see, the worst thing to do at Subway when there was a big line was hot subs - they take like a guaranteed 2 minutes to cook in the microwave while i could do like 3 cold subs in the same amount of time.  so if somebody came in and ordered like 3 footlong hot subs, you'd be there all stinking day waiting in ackward silence (small talk's for weirdos)...

one lady told me chicken so i put it in the microwave, and when it came out she got everything on it, and when she was finished i started to wrap it up and then she was like "ohh, wait, is that chicken? i said turkey."  heh and i got all bent out of shape and threw the sandwich at the wall, said "i hate my f#cking job," and walked into the back room...

heh. then there was the guy who didnt read the coupon for a free sandwich correctly (sub club cards) which CLEARLY state you have to buy a medium drink to go along with the free sandwich.  So i rang up the medium drink and he accused me of switching out his coupon with another one and cussed me out in front of his 9 year old kid, to which i responded that indeed, i had switched out his coupon and pocketed the real one so that after work, i could go to the other subway down the street and use his coupon.

man, 3 years at subway was seriously probably 50% of the reason i ended up homeless...

oh yeah, and let's not forget the guy who came in (im not kidding) with a section of a 2x4 scrawled on with 2nd grader handwriting in thin tipped dark blue marker - "Good for one free six inch sub at Subway"  and then seemingly got annoyed we wouldn't take it and slammed it in the trash on the way out....

i so hope that he was kidding.  (he was like 40)

when i haev children theyre not going to be spoiled like everyone elses children.  oh no.  when they ask me for that new bikini blast barbie im going to teach them a lesson or two.  ive been thinking, we overlook so much of our natural resources in a given day and so much gets thrown out or goes to waste that other cultures would absolutely die for.  so i've decided that my children will make their own barbie dolls made from pipe cleaners and you could do something sensible like 2 pipe cleaners for a torso and glue two large grapes on it, 3/4 of the way up the body and call it good. 

lets just say if they want a mr. potato head, its gonna be similar to a potato yet easier to come by.  ive been known to generate a 7 inch long brown poopatroopa now and then, and with a couple deft moves with toothpicks, tinsel, and some dental floss - i think we'd have mr potato head looking good as new in no time.  and on some nights, if we think it right to give mr potato head a friend or something you should just squeeze him off 3/4 of the way out and leave the other 1/4 for whatever purpose.  a new dog?  cat?  designer handbag?  accessories make the outfit, people.

maybe we could even market it...  *NEW* playdough and potpourri pretty pretty princess playset.....  or something.  theyd prolly never even get to the bottom of it.  holy smoke you could probably use it as warpaint as well.  did i just invent the most useful product of the 21st century?  quite possibly...

 

 

 

about schmidt - jack nicholson and a naked kathy bates.  need i say more?  probably not but i will anyway.  BORRRRRING.  jack nicholson as an oooollllld man.  although i did chuckle a few times.

as good as it gets - another jack nicholson blah.  i didnt plan this, trust me.  although this was slightly better than about schmidt.  certainly.  but helen hunt is like made for tv movie in a big screen world......... and greg kinnear kinof crakcs me up as a gay guy.

ROMANCING the stone - aww yes.  Kathleen turner.  whatever happened to that chick.  and a young michael douglas.  this was by far the most entertaining of any of this weekend's movies (i cant believe i watched about schmidt).  it reminds me of BIg Trouble in little china, with kurt russel.  i have an idea, lets get michael douglas, kurt russell, alec baldwin, donald sutherland, and CCH Pounder all together in a 45 minute made for tv movie about Helen Hunt's entire life.

 

sorry, im old and bitter today with nothing to say.

yeah

so tonight we're throwing a show here at The Land.  been a little while.  an interesting and difficult little while.  but i expect somewhere between 100 and 200 ppl to show up to this deal.  its actually a band of nomadic christian hippies who live in a bus and tour the country and play shows with accordians and hippie drums and violins and stuff.  tons of hippie drums.  and theyve got dreads and piercings and tattoos and bones through their noses and stuff.  its gonna be interesting.  i love being the weirdo arouind here who gets to expose the whitey white christian folks to real life and different culture.     i was totally a hippie and had a huge beard for awhile, which is incidentally how i know one of the girls from the band. 

www.myspace.com/psalters

 

seriously i think the reason man invented socks was so that when theyre playing nintendo 64, four player Perfect Dark and eating greasy potato chips at the same time - they can take two seconds after every time they die and befoer they regenerate to roll up their pant leg a little and wipe that grease all over their socks.  i mean, if you do it on your shirt it might leave a noticeable stain - CMON, how many of us have had that happen over grease dripping off of our slice of pizza and onto our shirts?  i know i have.  and the same goes with pants.  but socks, I mean, who gives a crap?  right? 

on a side note (as if that was worthy of being called a main point)  - i went deep sea sport fishing the other day.  it was soo cool.  except for the fact that it was a small boat and people somehow kept managing to catch eachother by getting their lines tangled in the current underneath.  (catch of the day - 160 lb little angry asian man), although it wasnt me who caught him.  i caught a couple nice sized - uhh, i tnhink one was a rock cod and a few fish called "chilli peppers."  but, its intereting cuz when you catch a fish and pull it up from the deep real fast, they have like a reaction similar to that of  the sudden loss of cabin pressure in a submarine.  It comes up and it's tongue is like massive and engorged - hanging out of its mouth like an erection made of squash...   seriously.  i think you pull it up so fast, it "gets light" because its brain explodes or something due to the rapidly changing pressure.

oh yeah, and - heh - i stepped on the vice president for some fishing reel company's line while he was tying his hook to it.  i didnt see the stinking thing so i stepped on it with my big boot and it cinched his finger and snapped real quick and he yelled in pain.  heh.  good thing the line snapped.   and then later, when he was fishing next to me, i caught a fish and when i brought it over the side of the boat - i slapped him like right on the shoulder/almost in the fact with it and he yelped a little.  it was great.  you can tell im from suburban connecticut im sure.

 

 

so.  generic brand Q-tips are like the worst things ever made.  stick them in your ear and the .0000000001 percent of cotton at the end of the stick falls off and you end up gashing your eardrum with the hard plastic stick. 

not that this has happened to me, lately, but its happened.  sortof.  which reminds me of the time i stuck a raisin up my nose and my grandmother had to lay me down on the kitchen table and pull it out with a pair of tweezers.   That, and I used to bite glass whenever i had a glass cup to drink from.  I distinctly remember an adult asking me if I was going to be good and not bite the glass, and then them giving it to me and me biting a mouthprint of glass out of the rim of the cup anyway.  It was a smurf glass - people probably pay good money for those off of ebay these days.  Although im sure if they wait another 6 months, Animal Planet or somebody will come out with like a Smurfs: 3030  , where all the Smurfs are flying around space on starcruisers shaped like mushrooms and all the inbreeding it took to perpetuate their existence due to the fact that they only had one female has finally taken its toll.  In 3030, the Smurfs look oddly like the Snorks.  And instead of Smurfette, they have Eve the rapper Smurf.  And instead of Papa Smurf they have Captain Planet.  And instead of a tv show, they actually just do improv episodes at a little theatre in West Hollywood starring Eve and the guy who was the voice of three of the six main characters in the Captain Planet series.  It's a hoot.

Eat at Joe's.

 

 

 

Revelation 13:16He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, 17so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.

 

for a long time, people have assumed that this thing - if it were going to come to pass - would be in computer chip form holding all your identity - such as bank account, ss#, medical history etc and therefore you'd be unable to buy or sell without this thing which would be like your, virtual wallet or something.  

i know this video's a bit of a stretch, but its ABC news and i think its vastly interesting.  listen to what the newscaster says at the very end.....        

 

http://news.search.yahoo.com/news/search?p=love&c=av

click on the link "Computer chip love"

 

yeah.  it's cool to be a pimp, right?

Well, this is the real deal, friends.  At the annual PLAYER'S BALL in Hollywood at the Key Club this past weekend, hundreds of the biggest pimps and players from the west coast came to town for their award show and pimp convention.

I'm not kidding.  A pimp convention and award show for the men who make the most money pimping women.  And we're not talking just hundreds of thousands here.  and we're not talking per year either.  We're talking, the winners of this thing make like millions - A MONTH. 

There's a prostitute outreach at the ministry that i work for, and they go out every weekend to Hollywood and talk to the pimps and prostitutes.  So they decided to go and check out the pimp convention for themselves.

 

the winners receive trophies, and the absolute winner of them all received a gold and diamond encrusted goblet that he gets to keep for the whole year and then hand off to the next pimp of the year the next year.

media attend, and it's endorsed by businesses such as "NO LIMIT" entertainment.  it's an award show, much like the oscars............

 

Oh yeah.  and some of these guys kidnap girls and keep them in dog cages and have them gang raped by entire gangs while getting them addicted to drugs like crack and coke to completely get inside their minds.  This is true stuff.  Kidnap/gang rape/drug inducing.  We knew a girl that we got off the streets who had a child with her pimp.  One night he shot the 4 year old in the head and killed him.  Later, he shoved a hot curling iron up her vagina so she is now unable to bear children.

 

Still think it's glamorous?

this guy does:

 

So yeah.  I'm a pimp, you da' ho.  Whatever.  but this lingo stems from real life events and this image stems from violent, greedy, evil men who roam the streets like lions looking for girls to devour...

And the surprising thing is that it's not about the lust.  It's about the greed.  Lime green pimp suits with color coordinated prostitutes, driving lime green cadillacs - the color of money.  their god is their bankroll, and their stomach is hungry as the grave.

big pimpin' with the pimp track in hand.

the church:  once again, the only ones trying to make a difference.

Who wants a dissertation on Mexico?  Great.  I'll write one to myself.

I just got back from Mexicali - for all you gringos, that's literally two minutes across the US border in Baja California. 

and this is a pic from there

 

these people, lots of them, live in places called Colonias (colonies).  Often they work for something like 1.20 an hour, for , GUESS WHO, our great American hero companies like Coca Cola, who moved their plant right across the border to exploit mexican labor.  Go capitalism, go.

See, Mexico actually runs and owns their own gas stations, nationally.  Meaning that every gas station in MExico is called PEMEX and is run by the national government.  Why? You might ask.  Well, because back in the early to mid 1900s, America basically tried to come in and take over Mexico commercially.  Mexico has a lot of their own oil, but the US corporations wanted to come in and tax the country on their own oil - bringing in Exxon and Mobil and Texaco to sweep the would-be Mexican profits into capitalist american pockets.  So the Mexican government nationalized its gas distribution to protect itself.  And now faces heat and pressure from the big US corporations to open itself up for capitalism under seeming accusations of communist practices.

We worked with a mexican indian family, up from the south of mexico who had moved up north for a better opportunity.  This woman had like at least 5 kids and her husband had run off and it was just this poor woman.  She worked 10 hours a day for 5 days a week, 50 hours a week for like 60 bucks a week.  She has to leave her children at home in a bad neighborhood (we're talking like 10 yr olds babysitting 2 yr olds here) while she works.  her kids dont go to school because she doesnt yet have the money to pay to buy them the uniforms to send them to school.

We moved another indian family from that previous picture to this place here.  This lady had her husband still and they had 5 kids.  in the previous shanty, they had a neighbor next door who was a perverted guy who was commenting to the 13 yr old and 11 yr old girls about how he was going to violate them sometime when their parents werent home.  He went so far as to come over with a giant stick and wield it around and demand the girls for sex.  The 11 year old was pretty much traumatized...

The family are christians, and that was pretty much all the hope they had.  They'd try and sing hymns in their house and the landlords would come over and forbid them from having visitors or from singing praise to God.  When they left, the landlords screwed them out of their 500 pesos (50 dollar) deposit.

these are the two youngest kids from that family.  the boys.  beautiful kids, man.  they were playing on a random dirty mattress in front of their new house.

 

we came in and spoke at a few different rehabilitation centers.  We also visited two different orphanages where these kids were just incredible.  many of their parents could no longer afford to feed or clothe their children and turned them over to privately funded orphanages.  by privately funded meaning, funded almost entirely by either small mexican churches or american missionaries.  Say what you will about the church- but tarot cards, healing crystals, psychiatrists, psychologists, neurology, scientology, buddhism, catholicism, atheism, hinduism, etc ARE typically NOT the ones keeping starving people alive in 3rd world countries.  By and large, it is the christian church - and down in Mexico we saw this literally at work.   Children literally on the verge of starvation, two minutes across the US border.

Meanwhile, back here in LA we could probably feed that entire city of like 1 million people for 5 years based on what we throw away in LA in one day.  it was such a good eye opening experience for us.  sad as hell, but so good. 

i think many different cultures offer different explanations to the state of mankind.  psychologists refer to the 'id' somewhat similarly to what christians call 'sin nature'. 

Romans 7:18I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it...

and again, the bible claims, through the seemingly nursery school story of Adam and Eve, that sin entered the world through Adam and therefore all his descendents are as a result, fallen. 

Genesis2:16 And the LORD God commanded the man, "You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die."

God gave the first man and woman ONE commandment in the garden (Eden means paradise btw) - and they broke it.  which is where we get the term "original sin" from.  then they were forced from the garden.

Rm. 5:12Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned—

This is tricky and one needs to understand this.  This verse is speaking of an inherited sinful nature. We as man when we hear the word SIN think of the old method of "have you ever lied, cheated, stolen? - then you're a sinner."  deal.  But it's beyond that.  It's the fact that, according to the Bible, we're born INTO this sinful nature because of the original fall of man.  It's not individual sins that makes us sinners, it's the fact that we're born according to the image and likeness of Adam.  According to the Bible, ALL men are fallen.  which is the reason why we all sin.

Rm 3:23for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,

and

Rm 11:32For God has bound all men over to disobedience so that he may have mercy on them all.

some believe a somewhat heavenly coexistance can be attained here on earth, some believe earth is bound over to futility just like man is and will never achieve this utopia - and, in fact, will only get worse.  personally, i adhere to the latter.  man will not fix this world, cannot and will not.  we may get a quality band aid on this thing, but in the end man is full of deception and greed and will exert himself over his neighbor eventually.

i make no mistake.  I am a liar.  I lie to myself at times.  I am a cheater.  I'll cheat and not even realize it.  I'm a hater.  I'm a violent person.  I'm a maniupator.  etc...  I will do all these things at one time or another, regardless of whether i want to do it or not.  It's in my nature.  It's in all of our natures.

But the funny thing is that everyone realizes this is imperfection.  that there is SOME sort of taint in humanity.  a darkness.  a "sin nature,"  or whatever.  The idea that man is broken and needs to be fixed permeates societies.  Why else would we go to psychiatrists and psychologists to prescribe us this and that and this other thing?  It's interesting that we are trying to fix ourselves and eachother, yet never being able to do so because even the "fixers" are bound over into this same futility that we all share in.  even they go home and lie to themselves or cheat or hate...

So, and here is nothing i heard back when i was super against christianity, what the whole deal is with Jesus is that according to the Bible - MEN are fallen naturally and have been bound over under sin/disobedience.  What man does is try and do good works here and good works there to try and develop a righteousness.... but it's a self righteousness.  For example, maybe I don't swear a lot.  And my neighbor swears all the time.  i could easily think myself holier than him because of the fact that I don't swear.  BUT , according to the Bible, God cut out all room for men to boast by binding all over unto sin.  Adam fell, and everyone sucks because of it.  So God was like "ohh, you think you're good or great or righteoues because of you're own merits ;  what about according to MY moral standard???"  and then came the Law to the jews.  And all men fell short of it.  They couldn't handle the perfect standard of God, and man realized that they needed to rely less on their own works and merits and more (completely) on the mercy and grace of God for righteousness, for standing upright, for a reversal to the fall. 

So, accoridng to the Bible it goes from a works based righteousness that all men, i think, secretly adhere at least partially to (im better than this guy cuz he's an asshole, im better than that guy cuz he cheats on his girlfriend)... to a faith based righteoussness based not on man's works but on God's mercy and grace.

Rm 5:17For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God's abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ.  18Consequently, just as the result of one trespass was condemnation for all men, so also the result of one act of righteousness was justification that brings life for all men. 19For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.

According to the Bible, man is born under Adam (and into sin) according to the flesh - according to our bodies - according to our humanity.  BUT, through faith in Christ, we are BORN AGAIN into/under Christ (you've probably heard the term "body of christ" referring to the church) and are now not according to the fleshly Adam but the spiritual Christ.  Jesus stepped in and took the punishment for the sins of mankind (the death God spoke of when he commanded Adam not to eat of the tree) and has liberated us from the Law that kept us in bondage to knowledge of sin (i cant live up to this law, i sinned - i cant live up to that law, i sinned). 

1 corinthians 15:If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45So it is written: "The first man Adam became a living being" ; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. 48As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. 49And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.  50I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.

Do i still sin?  yes and no.  Yes, in the flesh, I do still sin.  I'll never stop.  BUT

Gal 2:20I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.

Rm 6:8Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

I'm dead to sin.  dead to my sin nature.  been born again.  spiritually.  and since the flesh is dead, the falleness is gone because im a completely new identity.  in this world, but not of this world. 

and this is the BASIC BASICS of christianity.  i could go forever, but im gonna cut it here.  i dont expect comments or anyone to agree with me or anything, but this is who and what i am and i cant help being me.