This morning I was worshiping and played Carman's song "R. I. O. T" where he equates those letters to the terms "Righteous Invasion Of Truth".  I love that pickup! 

Anyway, I decided I would view the lyrics online as there were a couple words I did not make out.  As I sat there reading, I realized how this simple song is so close to what is needed in every church today.  Here are the lyrics (continued at the bottom after the lyrics):

Webster's dictionary say a riot is like an unrestrained
Uproar in a public place, turbulent right in your face
With the facts we're gonna spread God's word
And attack every lie you've heard
Like the doctrines of men that are still fallen prey
To the silvery sword of God's word today
It's true, we look to heaven and our mansions in the sky
And it's true we've got the gaze of eternity in our eyes
But before this church is raptured
There's no way we're gonna leave here quiet

We want a righteous invasion of truth
We want a R.I.O.T.

Jesus we're callin' on your name
Jesus, we're gonna see a change
Jesus, we're taking in Goliath
With a righteous invasion of truth
We want a R.I.O.T.

Righteous to conform to the bible
Invasion an armed attack
Of truth the real state of affairs
Like a church on the move that will not double back
From the fight, 'cause we're salt and light
And we thrive on Jesus, the theme of our lives
And there's a spin
Love nothin' but God, hat nothin' but sin
It's true, now's the time to win nations for the Lord
And it's true, now's the hour, the saints must go to war
We'll preach it, we'll sing it
We'll shout it, we'll cry it
'cause desperates times need desperate
Action and that means
We need a R.I.O.T.

Satan is a madman, a relentless entity
He's the source of every plague known to the human family
We understand the mortal conflict in which we are engaged
And the gates of hell come crashing down
When the saints of God begin to praise

Jesus we're callin' on your name
Jesus, we're gonna see a change
Jesus, we're taking in Goliath
With a righteous invasion of truth
We want a R.I.O.T.

Jesus we're callin' on your name
Jesus, we're gonna see a change
Jesus, we're taking in Goliath
With a righteous invasion of truth
We want a R.I.O.T.
With a righteous invasion of truth
We want a R.I.O.T.

As your read down through the lyrics, you first run into bring the message to a "public place"  and the fact of people being in a group, not just a single person standing out and proclaiming, it is the large group of people.

Next we use God's Word as the weapon of our attack, the truth that will bring down the doctrines of man, the thoughts of their minds which are in direct opposition to the Word.

Then we have the comfort in our minds of the security of our future, knowing this is not it, we have a future that is so vast all waiting for us.  With that in mind, we should wake up and get to work before we leave here, it is the hour to work, it is not for play, we have a job to do and we need to get to it!  When we leave we need to go while deep in the work!

The following portion shows us how we are empowered through our prayers calling on Jesus and then by knowing the Word.

Then we have the definition:

Righteous - To keep in line with the Word, trusting in Jesus through the Holy Spirit to help to keep us inline.

Invasion - Our (the Body's) attach, outreach, gathered together all sharing the same goal everyone on the planet, not just in one place.

Of Truth - Our fight to stand and defend, to take the message of Truth to the masses with drawing back, onward Christian Soldiers comes to mind.  It is time to stand against those things that oppose what is right and that embrace what is wrong.  In the Bible it says that in the last days Good will be called Bad and Bad will be called Good.  We live in those times and that means the Body is not being the salt of the world, the preserving force and we need to regain our saltiness which only comes from pulling away from our fleshly desires and seeking God's face!

This is followed with the understanding that the second biggest battle (our fleshly desire, they "Old Man"  is the first) is Satan and the powers of darkness attack us at every point, trying to split up the family, trying to get us to cater to our fleshly desires, trying to beat us down with sickness.  Then it mentions our weapon against those powers, praise and worship.  The Bible says God inhabits the praises of His people.  Where there is heartfelt, Spirit lead praise and worship there is God dwelling and no evil spirit be in the presents of God.  This was obvious in the Bible where Jesus would go, the evil spirit would cry out as if in pain being in His presence.  Yes, we also have the power to command those evil spirits as the Bible says He has given us power of the darkness.

What a message to motivate, to get with others and be busy working, spreading the truth.  This is typical of Carman's songs, the bring us to focus on what is important, that this world is not our home, our life really begins when this one is over after a full life here of work, preparing us for what is ahead.

Of all the Christian artists, Carman is my favorite and has been from day one of my new birth.  When God reached down and eliminated my past, giving me an eternal home and hope, empowering me for this life to live as I could not do without him, in that time, 1990,  the first step I took was to pick up a Carman "Radically Saved" cassette tape from the store.  I am not sure I could have picked a better tape at the time.  The songs were moving and passionate!

For more on Caman:

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carman_%28singer%29

That man will have such a mighty blessing when we get to heaven.  I cannot imagine when God tells him to look around for great is his reward, Carman looking out over that huge multitude of people, seeing all those faces he helped without ever even knowing it.  I will be one that is in that group thanking him for giving his life and passion to the Lord ....  I cannot thank him enough! 

While thinking about the rewards, another meeting I will attend in heaven will be that of Paul Crouch of TBN, who God has used to put together the largest Christian broadcasting network on the planet.  If it were not for his dedication to God and the desire to reach the world with the Gospel, I may not have been reached.  When God pulled on those heart strings and I finally responded, it was TBN that was my church, my beginning education that launched me into my new life.  I do not want to think what would have happen had TBN not been around.

While TBN may not be like it was (use to be heavy Word studies and great worship and praise), the reward of Paul and Jan will be one of the greatest when we stand there to receive in heaven.  I cannot imagine the sea of faces that will be before them of those that have been helped by their loyalty to the passionate call within them!

Got a little off the point of the song.  I just thought it was wonderful how much passion is in this song that many may dismiss without really listening to the words.