You Males Are Slipping Again! Etc.

Rather than go back over this AGAIN!  Males, please click this link and find out what I know about you and why!  You will note the link is to one of my earlier posts, so quite safe.

And some of you believe that you can use proxy servers to hide whom you are or where you are coming in from.  Really, it is a waste of your time.  If I wanted to collect NIC ids I could do this even if you are hiding behind a proxy server.  Honestly, I do not care.  Even if you are my daughter in hiding, your NIC is already known so not a big deal to find you if I wanted.  But, I do not, I am content to allow God His timing in everything.

Then there has been the continuous attempts to crack this site now for over two weeks!  Yeah, I get a little note from CISCO, Norton and Google on what is going on over attempts to break into the site and/or gather my NIC id!  I should feel honored that anyone cares enough about me to dedicate such an effort to kill me and this site.  Hint: you can give up.  I sit behind a state of the art firewall and you can nor more find my NIC as my IP address.  Sorry.

So dear readers, I am not sure what is going on but I seem to have attracted a host of interest and I am not exactly sure why.  I know in the past that I have garnered attention by attacking high visibility pastors whom are spreading lies within the Christian body - but I have not taken on one of them in quite sometime.  Outside of my sister in the Lord and her daughter, I had not said much in a long time to make anyone irate I am aware of.  So, interesting.....

And with this post, I am hoping that I can return to were I was back when I wrote about cars.  Yeah, my goal was to write common sense stuff for my children, or anyone looking at doing normal things, and might be clueless on how to proceed.  We will see if I am to be allowed such power!  The past several weeks has been incredibly odd at what I have been told to post.....

Well, back to math homework!

Knowing God's Will - False Idols

This post is to be a continuation of the one a while back on Superstitions. The point of superstitions is that we as Christians have allowed good old pagan superstitions to creep into our body. Check out that post and I am sure you know of people whom are directed by such beliefs. But, a whole lot of non-superstitious Christians I run into have an entirely different problem: false idols.

No, I don't imagine that they have a Buddha in their doorway that they feed rice to, but they have idols all the same and I am not talking about the typical ones mentioned these days - like sports. Just an example, I have addressed what I think of sports in the past and that is not the point of this one.

I am surrounded by Christians whom worship these false idols:

• Material Blessings
• Money
• Health
• Lack of Opposition
• Emotional Highs
• Peace

Yeah, I think that is enough for this post anyways!

Of course, the Health and Wealth Gospel has been around for decades. People flock to have their ears smoothed to the sounds of having lots of money, cars, houses, jewelry, vacations, etc. All the benefits of being a Christian. God is showering you with His blessings. And yet, I do not find a single scripture to support what represents a vast percentage of believers; not only in America but other countries like Australia, New Zealand, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Germany - to just name a few countries I have been to in the past decade where this abomination has reared its head. According to them, you can judge where you stand with Jesus, by the bank account you possess.

Contrary to popular American belief, the goal of your Christian existence is not to accumulate vast amounts of wealth for your old age, so that you might live in comfort. It is to reach the lost with the message of Jesus' salvation for a world lost in sin. That takes your resources to do this. All of your resources. We are not told to build awesome buildings to fill one morning a week, nor to have cars which make my heart purr to see on the roadway, nor any of the thousands of ways the world has for us to part with what God gives us of His abundance. Nope. You get to live on what He gives you but He also expects to see a healthy return on His investment in you.

But, well we know how that one goes - if only I have more money, I could tithe/tithe more/support whatever. Um, you do have enough money right now. You have what He gives you. Need more? Better be wiser with what He gives you. No one needs a $30,000 car nor $500,000 home or jewels or stocks or bonds or rents to cover your future. You need your faith in God that He will cover your future and then have the gumption to step out and start reaching a world lost in sin. Your provision is to come from God supplying you with work to provide the funds He needs to get His work done.

Unfortunately, I have two friends heavily invested in this approach to life. One attends a church I would call outright apostate, the other a normal church, he is just seen as one of the more "secure" members. For me? I have lived my life as best I could at being a good steward. Yeah we all make mistakes (like buying needless spoilies!) but that does not happen all that often. Even then it is often to help a brother out of some financial mess and the items go for sale to recoup their cost or increase for another service for Christ.

Just to clarify: God can bless you financially and materially in life. That is His right. But, He also expects you to walk away from it at the drop of a hat to help others with all of it! Not an easy task for us humans, but expected none the less.

Also in tow with the apostate Health and Wealth Gospel is the belief that you will know you are in God's will because you are completely and totally healthy. Really? My Bible says that somewhere? Nope but then again it is a grand idea which can be used to help you feel superior to others. Just like wealth, health is God's loving gift to His righteous followers. I can even remember this guy claiming he was so godly that he never even had a cavity in his whole life! It was a lie, it turned out all of his teeth were capped and he thought no one could find out. Yeah, my God does not deal nicely with those whom misrepresent him.

Can God keep your health and out of danger? Sure, but to what end? Pearly whites are not going to reach the lost for Him. No, it is the broken man whom will be the one to reach out, to witness, to sacrifice for the sake of the Gospel. And health is another way God has of directing you. You might be needed to lead a sedate life, injured, in order to fulfill your role in life and ministry. Hmmmmmm, sounds painfully familiar.

The next set hits too close to home, it addresses issues with those I love, whom do not listen. Lack of opposition, being nothing stands in your way in your attempts at life or ministry is a really a poor condition for inspection. If you are not threatening Satan, there will be no opposition at all! It is when we are crossing the line into his realm that suddenly our entire world will turn upside down. If you want opposition and to have your faith tried - do anything to break Satan's hold over what is in your area. And expect your brothers and sisters in Christ to be at the front of the line in slandering you, opposing you, doing all there is to stop you. As Christians we do shoot our own far too often.

But ... but, if you are doing God's work then He will protect you, He will hold the opposition back, He ..... Yeah, well tell that to my two friends whom went on a mission trip to Uganda. Idi Amin, personally ate one of them..... No, Satan is the ruler of a vast domain and he will do all he can to retain what he has. You have to have the faith of those two friends of mine in Uganda, whom stood and faced martyrdom.

Just this past week I have had no less than five in my church go out of their way to tell me that if I was walking closer to God, i would have the peace I seek in my life. Really? So, just write off my prayer life, write off people that mean something to me, write off the very basis of the term love - to no longer be concerned for the troubles of my loved ones. REALLY!?!?!?!?

Turning your troubles over to God is not to ignore them, nor to stop praying for them! It is to but the results into His hands, but you still play in active role through prayer and by whatever means you have to reach and witness to them. Peace is a luxury for those untroubled by a world gone mad, nor reaching others for Christ. I will talk another time about faith and peace.....

And finally, emotions. Prior to May I never could have written something on this. I really did not know what an emotion was. And my introduction to a single emotion was more trouble than I could have expected. Its assassination was sudden, a surprise and followed by death - well there are a few random resurrections at the most oddest times and places. Emotional highs are awesome, you can conquer the world, but emotions are fickle and very doubtful from God. Sure He can use them but I would be mighty cautious in ever trusting in emotion as a way to guide me in discovering God's will.

All of these items I have talked about are common. They are sought by tens of millions of "believers" as proof of God's blessings and therefore His ultimate direction for your life. Yet, each points away from God and ultimately become idols we worship, forgetting whom could be the source for each of them. So we drive our BMW to church, wearing our over priced clothing that is just a "name", we have our Coach purse collection, maybe matching shoes, we sit with others just like us, smiling with our pearly whites and comment on their new attire, purse, car, whatever is so wonderful. And, outside the doors of the beautiful building dedicated to Sunday mornings, lives a world dying in its sin.

Happy, Angry, Sad.....

Stumbling around on my my computer today and found pictures of my first three girlfriends on the internet!  Wasn't exactly looking for them but it was one of those "guess whom has been searching for you on the internet" things.  Just for laughs I clicked the button.

So, I am HAPPY to have found pictures of them, as I did not have a camera that film was available for here in America (closest thing was a 136 and no longer made when I came over), so no photos or really bad ones from friends.  ANGRY because this stirred up a great many memories for me.  And SAD because, well, I hate losing friends and each was very special in my life.

And throwing caution to the wind, as I do try and respect people's privacy:

HAPPY - This is Helen.  She was my first girlfriend and the only one through all of high school whom pretty much would even talk to me.  I thought life would have kept us together.  I guess I was wrong, we were both young and idealistic and probably stupid as well.  Lesson: long distance relationships do not work - was driven home terribly hard.  It did not help that her older sister became my father's seventh wife - though I never saw her again as it was.

Seeing this picture really has cut into my heart.  I guess unresolved wounds really do not go away.  I trusted her unconditionally and never had the chance to really get to what did happen to have sucked her into the arms of another.  I am sure it was for the best, the whole father marrying her sister thing really would have made for a real mess a decade later!

Thirty years later my father went way out of his way to try and get me to call her and see if she would have me back.  I can't think of why he did this, unless it was some form of dementia setting in.  It is possible she never wants to see or hear from me again!  But, I still covet her friendship, if that ever should happen again (pssst! I am on facebook!).

ANGRY - Second up and several years later was Deborah.  You know her as the Swedish Model in this blog.  This probably is the WORST photo I have ever seen of her!  She really did not look much like this at all and I think this must have been taken from her driver's license!  And yes, she really is Swedish and was a model, as was her mother on both counts!

We met at her church, I had popped in for Sunday services and something "happened".  I think if she had looked like this, nothing would have ever "happened"!  LOL!  I was very happy with my bachelor status, was not looking for anyone in my life.  Somehow, with neither of us even trying we captivated each other.  But, her parents hated me - I was German and had no understanding of their customs or Christian ways.  I was just barely even a Christian myself!  And having now been a father of three daughters, I guess I can better understand their reaction to me - especially if she was anything like my daughters at home!

Well, enough said about her, her story is documented elsewhere in this blog.  Lesson: females are fickle and never to be trusted with your heart.....

SAD - Which brings us to Patricia.  Poor Patricia, she had the worse of it from me.  My heart was destroyed by the two women I had trusted and there was nothing left.  Our parents were actually behind this mess up - they decided that we would be great together.  From father's stand point I was Hapsburg/Kyburg and titled, she was House of Burgundy - so, close enough for government work!  Unfortunately, I doubt Patricia really liked men, she trusted me and thought me an oddity, but no there was no love in her for me.  And as I said, my heart was dead.

We did not exactly part company on very amiable terms, for which I am eternally sorry.  I really did want to be her friend but she had these ignoble ideals about men and I just got tired of fighting with her.  It was so bad that believe it or not I never talked to another blonde woman again!  Yeah, it was in God's humor he gave me two blonde daughters to adopt and then a "pseudo-blonde" internet friend whom was to be very pivotal in changing my life.

As for Patricia, we are again friends albeit on FaceBook anyway.  I guess she has gotten beyond the problem and I look forward to seeing her again one day - without all of the "pressure".  Was there a lesson to be learned from my relationship with Pat?  Yeah, do not let parents interfere with your love life!  Sheesh!

As I think about on all of these young women, they all had the same traits in common: strong willed, self assured, very intelligent.  They had their difference too: Helen was musically gifted, Deborah was an artist and Patricia super organized (think of administrator type!).  And they all had the same problem: incredibly low self esteem.  Honest I do not know why any of them should have - they all had way too much going for them!

Well, I am past the memories now and can get on with my day.....
:^)