God vs "god"

I have long held that the God I know, is not the God I see worshiped, nor referenced on the internet, and strangely not in print anymore.  I recently have read several authors whom claim Christianity has gone through a metamorphosis across the past 30 years.  What “worked” in the 1980’s no longer does and we as Christian leaders must be a part of the change to catch up with this culture or we will lose them and become irrelevant.

Irrelevant?  Just the fact that this statement was made by the top grossing Christian writer ever, I think shows just how irrelevant we have become as Christians.  It is not that we are in a post-Christian culture, or age, so much as we now find ourselves the victims of two or three generations of complacent Christians whom have handed over to us a broken religion.  Note I did not say Christianity.

For decades I have blamed this on Hollywood, TV, a culture gone mad with decadence (sex, drugs, rock-n-roll, and almost limitless money!).  I then switched to the idea that it must be the fault of the American theological system – the rot had to have started in the schools and mind you, there is plenty of evidence that there has been poison pushed into the Christian ministry from decades of un-Godly teachers in our seminaries.  But, still there has to be more.  Could it be the difference between a Reformation viewpoint and one based upon the Renaissance Movement had a difference we are just beginning to see?  The Renaissance, for all its incredible feats – produced religion based solely upon man’s reaching out to God.  Conversely, the Reformation believed that God reached out to man.  Many believe there is no difference, what do you think?

Well, I believe there is a huge difference.  If man can initiate any form of Godly activity, then salvation becomes something you are responsible for, not God.  The Holy Spirit is not something given when God decides, it is something you demand.  Etc.  The effect on your faith and your witness can be devastating spiritually.

Now what if you were to create the ultimate perfect spiritual storm?  A Renaissance faith, led by men not schooled in the true faith, a multi-media driven culture, intent upon self-service and caring little about what happens outside their closed doors?  Ultimately, we are discussing paganism, by those believing themselves to be Christian.

Hmmmmm.

So, what does this contrast look like?

(The following is not approved by anyone, is not a reflection upon this Church or its staff or leadership.  It is not intended to have you draw value based judgments in any manner.  It is to show the sharp contrasts which exist within our Church culture, which still claims to be Christian.  Don’t you just love weasel words?)

	God of Western Culture			God of the Bible
	Asceticism		Epicureanism	Asceticism	Epicureanism
Nature of God		God is limited by man’s rules	God works by our desire/command	Bound by His “rules”	Limitless
Primal Sin		A choice	Everybody does it	Born into it	What separates you from God
Salvation		Grown into	Many ways	New life, grow/learning	New life, new person
Faith		Belief in something	An expression of belief	Personal basis for belief	A walk
Works		Proves salvation	None required, a choice	Limited by willingness	Evidence of salvation
Worship		Form, no freedom	Freedom, no form	God’s form	God’s freedom
Holy Spirit		Does not exist in this age	No constraints	Within constraints	Used as God desires
Sacraments		Done on a schedule	As convenient	As commanded	Part of worship, love
Witness		“the church”	Paid professionals	Scheduled, practiced, managed	Your life
Tithing		Percentage required	Blessing by % given	Limited by willingness	Expects all you have
Missions		Church uses left over funds	High visibility projects	% based on budget	Give as needs are identified
Post-Sin		Self-denial	Caused by lack of faith	Blocks God’s blessings	Covered by sanctification

 

Asceticism or Epicureanism?

From the Greeks, via the Romans whom loved Greek philosophy, and a series of 19^th century philosophers - came our understanding of these two contrasting thoughts: Asceticism and Epicureanism.

Asceticism is a philosophical understanding that there is virtue in abstaining from all physical pleasures including sex, alcohol, luxurious foods, etc.  Ascetics tended to think of the body as evil, or at least out of control, and as something to be brought into the firm control of the will through punishment.  For them, abstinence became an on-going way of life.  In the religious version of this philosophy, the suffering caused by abstaining was offered as a sacrifice to God.  A little self-serving since they believe they do not deserve pleasures or anything nice or pleasurable in the first place.

This photo on the left is the classic example of an ascetic, perched high aloft a column, no food, no water, no where to sleep, they would often stay in such situations until they either fell to their death, starved or dehydrated.  It was their way of showing their piety to their god and all others.

The opposite is Epicureanism, which takes the opposite tack in all situations. The epicureans are devoted to pleasure, and believed that peace, freedom, absence from pain and the simple pleasures of good food and wine are the greatest good in life.  But the epicureans would sometimes fast too, because they felt that there was a greater pleasure in returning to food when you’re really hungry for it than forcing it down when you’ve been over-eating.  This “magnification” was to the point of sickness and the tales of their orgies are well known in ancient literature.

So, we find the competing poles of the behavior observed by all mankind.  Probably 90% or better are of one persuasion or another in this world.  Moderation is not a human condition recognized nor practiced very much these days.

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Ascetic                                                                                                         Epicurean

A.   Where would you put your life on this scale?

B.     Where would you put your friends on this scale?

C.    Where would you put this church on this scale?

D.   Where would you put America on this scale?

E.     Where would you put Mexico on this scale?

F.     Where would you put Uganda on this scale?

What is right or wrong with Asceticism?

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What is right or wrong with Epicureanism?

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Is balance between the two possible?

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If so, what would it take or look like?

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What do you think it would take for you to become more Ascetic?

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What do you think it would take for you to become more Epicurean?

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What would it take for you to aim for the middle of the scale?

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As humans we often will move back and forth across this scale, how you feel about yourself is number one on the list for moving either way!  Some will either purposefully or subconsciously deny themselves even the basic needs for life, even to the point of death, or conversely, over indulge to the extent of again jeopardizing their life.  And, as you more than likely know, there are lots of other reasons for overdoing it both directions.  Point is for you to find something in the middle which reflects a balanced healthy you.

Spirit of "---"

Last week I mentioned that one of my friends is involved in an activity which is common to the distraction of the Christian by evil and almost always ends with the Christian being mislead and ultimately defeated by that same evil.  The activity is Spiritual Warfare and how Christians get mislead is by seeing demons behind every yowling cat or flickering leaf.  Seeing evil becomes their focus - not the Sovereignty of God nor the Deity of Jesus - which we are told to concentrate on.

My dear sister Becka went to a Christian missions training camp back in the early 1980's, she was going to serve in the underground church in Albania.  She called me up so excited one night because she was learning about Spiritual Warfare and shared all.  Now, I had never heard of such a thing, but I knew what she shared was in direct opposition to what the Bible tells us: flee from evil!  This group was trying to hunt down Satan and make his efforts harder by turning people to God.  My Bible tells me that Satan is an Angel and as such much more powerful than man.  It would presume upon God to think He would back us up in attacking Satan, when we are told to flee from him in the first place!  Hmmmmmmm ...

As for Becka, well she was ultimately defeated seeing demons behind the steering wheel of every car which got in her way on the freeway!  She had taken her eyes off of God and literally was overcome by evil to such an extent that I was forced with her sister to institutionalize her and she is not "normal" to this day!  So, I am leery of anyone whom tells me of their success in Spiritual Warfare, I have seen the Christian casualties and those whom are truly successful have nothing to brag about because they know the cost at which it came.

Unfortunately, for a few years, against my will, I was dragged into Spiritual Warfare.  I do not care for it, I made all attempts to remain in-line Scripturally and I have to admit that there were some mighty odd encounters during that time frame which laid a very vivid foundation in me that evil is real, Satan is real and you had darn well better be drenched in Jesus blood if you expect to come out with your body, mind and soul intact!

I bang my drum against Western Theology and what America has done to destroy the Christian faith from the inside - corrupt Biblical teachers in its seminaries, publication of books for whom trees should have never died, all creating a shrinking Church because of the irrelevance of the Church today in the lives of the unbeliever (which includes most in a church service these days!).  And if the Church is irrelevant, so are your testimony and witness - because the Church has nothing to offer a lost world other than promises of materialism any longer or open acceptance of your sin.  Yeah, let us openly celebrate sin in the Church!

This is called the Spirit of Adultery.

The Church has left God and is following another doctrine, another god, another lover.  The vast majority of what is Christendom today will not fare well before God come judgment day I fear.

Anyone out there think they can turn an adulterous Church around?  Me either, but I can and do pray for God to raise up a revival - i just do not see it happening though and I worry as to why.  Is there no one gift of evangelism any longer?  Is the Holy Spirit no longer moving amongst us?

There are lots of "spirits" out there.  But the Bible covers what I just talked about - a corrupt people overcome by adultery to a false god (and boy do we have false gods by the handfuls these days!).  In fact it would seem that most of the Ten Commandments seem to have at their heart spirits or what we can call demons.

God is concerned about Himself and His relationship to us. (idolatry)
God is concerned that we appropriately respect His image He has built into each of us.  (murder, adultery, theft)
God is concerned when our focus is wrong. (pride, jealousy, envy, greed, coveting)
God is concerned that we respect marriage. (adultery)
God is concerned that we respect our bodies in purity of mind, thought and deed. (adultery)
God is concerned that we respect what is our neighbors. (adultery, theft, false testimony, coveting)

So you seeing the trend here?  What are the biggies of sin before God, all can have compelling, driving spiritual forces behind them!  But, you are not just suddenly afflicted out of the blue!  No you actually have to ask them for their help in dragging you down, which they will do willingly - fortunately, rare is the person whom would do this willingly!

Take lying.  I have known world class liars, they had NO ability not to lie, they were compelled to lie and could not understand why they always lied.  It was not until I became involved in a war against evil that I suddenly understood a few things:

My father was not a liar because he lied.
My father lied because he was a liar.
The spirit which drove him was one of lies, he never recognized this because he could not understand.
He had invited that spirit to help him lie because he wanted to lie and was willing to play evil's game.
In the end he never could see because he was blinded by this spirit.
And not being a Christian, could never have free himself (or be freed) from it.

Substitute your sin of choice in here and see how it reads out:

I was not an idolator became I was proud.
I was proud in my spirit because I was an idolator.
In being proud or participating willing in sin, I set myself up for oppression by evil, in this case pride. (idolatry)

(I have to use past tense here because that was shattered in my life in January.  And the one person I wish whom could understand and see this ... well I fear is past tense was well.  In fact, there is so little left of old me any longer ... )

What is important to understand here is that spiritual oppression, or possession, is the direct result of willingly falling into sin.  My fall was when my church turned on me and fired me as a pastor because I believed in the Holy Spirit (I refused to say the Holy Spirit was no longer active in the believer's life), my bride left me for my best friend, my friends at church abandoned me because I was in sin to had been disfellowshipped and my father believing me to be in idiot ordered me home and told me I was marrying a girl from the House of Burgundy!  No, sorry no lurid tales of sin here, I was in flat out rebellion to God because He had stripped me of everything.  I hated God.

And I had lots of future problems thanks to that period of "Good Bye to God".

I had to learn that there are consequences for every act of rebellion.  Nothing in my life did not affect those I cared for or whom surrounded me.  Sin always comes at a cost and one of them was my opening myself up to spiritual oppression.

So what to do?  You are suffering in this life trapped by a spirit of "---".  And not only are you not unaware of it but you have been lied to by Western Theology that you are strong enough to stand up to the very spirit which is oppressing you.  You probably have no idea if you are opposed or even what it is unless you can see yourself objectively.  And when you can, well, you need some Christian friends to help overcome this.

Your friends help, you are "freed", now what?

You had better be darn sure that you are now in right standing with God.
You had better be darn sure you renounce any and every sin you have ever thought of  or committed, and confessed all!
You had better have someone in place to be held accountable by!

These are not trivial matters, nor to be taken lightly.

I could write so much more, this is just the basics of a world that is not well defined for us and so much garbage you can read comes from the superstitions within the Roman Catholic Church, the corrupt Western Church and Hollywood.

Stay away from sin, if you can.
If you fall back into sin, you set yourself up for failure right off the bat.
Run if you are opposed.
Stand strong if you have to face the demonic world.
Understand that you have No authority or power over the spiritual world, only Jesus does.
Remember, demonic fate was sealed long ago.

Missionary Wife Falls

Unfortunately, we are now going to be discussing a friend, a very dear friend, someone so close it was originally thought 20 years ago that she was my wife!  So we put distance between us physically so that assumptions would go away but not mentally.  We have remained in close contact up until a few months ago.

Through the years, her husband became a very good friend as well of mine. He used to own one of the Munich hotspot techno bars!  He was a mess back then - PTSD from what went on the Balkans, too much death.  He was at the site where my cousin Bernard was executed in Bosnia - he told me things which have not even appeared in the Hague trials about what happened.  So yeah, blood brothers.

You might remember my mentioning many years ago about a wife, whom decided against her husband's wishes to go on the mission field and leave him with the kids.  He was a bit outraged, she really did not care less and told me from Chile that she may well not return.

Return she did, in time to have two more children, brought about by a couple's weekend for marriage counseling away.  Okay, I thought it was funny - and true according to him.  She was devasted and wanted to abort them ... and I thought, what has happened to my friend?

So, you know Kris, I confronted her.  It seems in Chile she had become romantically involved.  It wasn't serious, she left him behind, but it was physical.  We prayed together about this and I encouraged her to never return to Chile and only go on mission trips with her husband after this.

All was well for a number of years, but well, last August I got a note from her that she was leaving the church - too much gossip and evil things were being said about her husband.  So, I encouraged the both of them to find another church.  There are plenty of offerings in my little town.

And, silence.  Occasionally, I would get a recipe from her but never any real communication.  The husband was growing increasing upset and at one point was arrested for for hollering at the oldest son.  It was bogus, but it made him wake up and start to evaluate what was going on around him.  Why was he reacting this way?  It was too weird.

Then Thursday, he and I talked on the phone for many hours.  It seems she has been having an affair dating back to August with the same man, it is now out in the open and the husband has been pushed out to make room for this new guy.

I only learned this when I called him, because she had sent me nude pictures of herself.  The first ones were inappropriate, by evening time, they had become quite - uhm, heartbreaking.  My dear Elspeth had broken.  (yes, her real name!)

I as floored!

But, I meditated on this over the weekend.  Warning signs were there:

• her personality change
• willingness to kill her children
• the affair in Chile husband still does not know about
• the stresses of more children
• the stress of a PTSD husband
• the stress of poverty as he lost his job
• the willingness to offer her body, for ... what?

And she crumbled because she had walked away from her faith, the church and her friends.

God gave us friends to help support us, a church to help guide us and a faith built on rock.

Equally, God gave us a task to represent Him and when we fail and fall into sin, He will strip away our blessings.  It is painful to know, to witness, to comfort the casualties ...

I do not know what to do or say.  I can only offer distant statements of shock and sorrow for my vet friend.  She is not really talking still to me, so nothing I can do there.  And perhaps it is best I go away from her life ...

Prayer, lots of prayer.

What is Emotion

What is emotion, but a veil of tears behind which life is viewed through?
How can man succeed when all life is impacted by this thing called emotion?
Why should man ever been given something which only hinders all life, all desire, all success?

Driven to serve a God of standard.
Hindered by how created.
Guaranteed failure.

Then how can man stand judged?
How can man ever endure?
How can man ever have a defense?

Stripped of defense.
Condemned we stand.
Sentenced we are vanquished.

And the problem.
We are born sentenced.
Our only hope in God's mercy.

As I have been in prayer this week, I have come to understand things I only vaguely grasped before.  Slowly I learn and understand.  What I thought was sharp in my mind, I now understand was only dim and fuzzy.  Things I wrote even in January were not sharply defined, though I thought they were.  I understood long ago the beginnings and endings of much, the path less determined.  But, in pain, I have watched the endings become more viable.

Yeah, I know, you have no clue what I am talking about or if you do, know you are wrong.

My mind dwells on this creation and this problem I opened with.  James death last Friday only focused my mind more sharply.  Death is at the end of the trail for each of us.  Does not even matter how you get there, you are going to die - as almost all have through time.  Save for those after God's own heart (Enoch and Elijah being the exception).

How does one do that, be after God's own heart?

The answer must lie within the depths of emotion, the essence of man - desire, love, commitment - to an un-seeable God.
It must lie within the depths of discipleship - to not only follow but actually strive to be like our Savior, to do as He did.
Can anyone make it?  Well, I guess we each get to find that out on the other-side, but only if you tried in the first place ...

And so I return the concept I mentioned in passing on Saturday, that Germanic longing inexpressibly embedded within me - Sehnsucht, a place, a state, a set of mind, what is longed for and yet so unattainable.  I long for my home, I long for my peace, I long for my destiny, I long for my Creator.  This not an expression of ego or vanity, we each should desire this, yet we allow the world to cloud our minds.

The unattainable, will never be reachable in this lifetime.  So, abandoning - so, frustrating - so, humbling!

Maybe I am waking up ...

Culture according to Big Bang Theory

My youngest daughter has gotten hooked on the TV show, The Big Bang Theory.  I therefore catch snippets of reruns as I am usually cooking when it is on.  The other day they are revolving around the concept of dating and sex.  The nerdy guys are clueless, the females in question not sure having sex with them is "right".  (and she has never been on a date, so this kind of stuff does worry me!)

So, one of the guys is on date number three and learns that the female expects them to have sex since this is the important date.  Really?  Is this what the California perspective has dropped to?  See you three times and then I have to decide to have sex with you or drop you?  Really?

I know from a 1970's study they found that if you spent 50 hours in total with someone, across a short period of time, you could expect to either be in bed with them or "friended".  I remember laughing at that one.  But, I observe, make measured estimates and I would guess that 50 hours was certainly true for teenagers and singles I have seen in the church through the decades.  But near as I can tell, if you truly are a nerd, it might be closer to 5,000 hours - at which point you are friended anyways so it is all a mute point.  And if you are created hopeless, well, you will never actually understand the whole perspective even if you are made aware, because it is nonsense.

So, as I thought on this, as my numb fingers worked on loosing frozen bolts (I was having to pour hot water on the nuts to help loosen them without snapping them), I realized just how hopeless natural man really is.  And oh so much suddenly made more sense.

You go to the grocery store and the magazine racks are covered with cover after cover with sex topics that are supposed to lure you into buying the magazine.  The message?  Sex is where it is at, it is what there is, good sex is the basis of your "loving" relationship, sex is how you can find  your partner, sex is how you will keep your partner (that was the list from yesterday's visit to the grocers).  Yeah, I never quite got that message before.  This is the lie being shoved down our youth's throat, this is the lie our young adults have come to believe, this is the lie that leads to broken marriages, relationships and badly damaged people whom never should have been.  It is the lie my daughter bought into, as well as her mother, it is the lie I tried to show them without success, it is lie my son and all of "his" bought into, it is the lie my two oldest daughters bought into, it is the damage that is hard to walk away from because it is experiential and therefore more true than what reality is supposed to be.

If the above paragraph describes you, I do not have an answer for you apart from walking away from that lifestyle, repenting (for real this time), and living a life glorifying to God and not your hormones.  And yeah, that is not going to be easy because you are going to be fighting a drug called sex and an evil agent whom knows exactly how to pull your strings to make you come back into the world.

So, if the nerd gathering is a reflection upon truly natural man, if the state of man is so hopeless that sex is the only thing seen as having any real value in a relationship, then it also stands to reason that natural man can not understand the pull/lure of God because it is not based on sexual tension or allure.  (Which explains oh so much about crossed wires in 2012 for me!)  And yet, there is this thing called friendship which each of the TV show's nerds have mostly attained without sexual orientation.

But, if friendship is understood, then why is friendship no longer understood within a romantic context?  A friendship, a real friendship, seems to run about three years to define and to form the commitments necessary to form long term relationships.  The time period I mentioned is from studies done through the years, it seems to have been verified by my faithless bride.  We did not have three years, more like nine months.  We met, we "knew" we were the one, we engaged, we committed religiously and she lost it before the governmental seal of approval could be applied.  So, yeah, I like the idea of three years now.  She should have been my best friend beforehand.  (Conversely, thank you God from saving me from the disaster that one would have become!  And for the record, I was doing my best to be a Godly man - apparently my best friend was not.)

And I guess that is the point of the Big Bang Theory - friendship has nothing to do with sex, sex has nothing to do with a desire for more than self satisfaction, and self satisfaction actually has nothing to with love or you - it is all about me, my desire, my satisfaction.  Yeah, the ultimate egotism ...

Historically, we can look back to the Epicurean Movement of the ancient Greek world.  Whatever the male's desire, it is good for the body, both positive and negative.  Pursue your passions with gusto because you are only going to go through life once, so grab all the life you can!

Paul did not care much for the Epicureans, the Roman empire loved them however, and with the objectification of all females - it meant all females, any female, any time, any where, were created only for your (male) use and pleasure.  That is what this pagan trend of thought leads to and will again and again and time again!

If you are male, do you honestly love and care for the females in your life?  Do you believe they were created solely for your and/or other's pleasures?  And oh by the way, you have nothing to say about some other man taking the females in your life by force for his pleasure when he deems fit ...

If you are female, how do you feel about being valued only for your ability to be part of a sex act?  We are not talking any form of love here, we are talking violence at the hands of strangers!  That is where you are headed if this trend continues.

To disagree at this point is to disagree with history, which has repeated itself many times in this regard, in various forms!

Of course, to disagree with the culture and the way it is headed is to set  yourself apart.  To make a spectacle of yourself, to draw undue attention to yourself, to invite every form of attack.

Just as discussions over the female slave trade in our culture, the concept of a female's desire for purity or commitment is not really appreciated in this male centric western culture we have created.

Face it, your body is your body, you can do as you wish with it.  But, why you would not desire the best for yourself - simply by walking away from culture and healing, then beginning to find love in earnest - defeats me.