Contempt for God is a Major Problem

I am having a good week. I’ve been asking God to help me spend more time in his presence, especially praying in tongues, and he has been coming through.

It may sound strange, but after all I’ve been through, I still have difficulty motivating myself to pray enough. You would think it would be automatic by now, but it seems like something always comes up to distract me when I try to start the day’s second session. For example, it may suddenly seem very important for me to look something up on the Internet. First thing you know, an hour has passed, and I no longer have time to do what I should.

I know spirits work to distract and discourage us. I would do the same thing, if I were headed for the lake of fire. I would do anything to delay it.

Youtube has turned out to be very helpful. If you like, you can turn Youtube into a source of frivolous viral entertainment. You can watch all sorts of garbage. It doesn’t have to be that way, though. There are all sorts of helpful Christian videos on the site, and once you start looking at them, Youtube seems completely different. I’ve been looking at a lot of videos by people who say they’ve seen hell.

I’m not as interested in learning about heaven. The desire to go to heaven can’t motivate you like fear of hell.

Yesterday I came across a remarkable video. A young man said he had had a number of dreams of hell. The thing that struck me about it was that he reminded me so much of myself. He said things I say. He emphasized things I emphasize.

He discouraged people from getting caught up in church. Church buffs would have fits watching that. We think church is the answer to everything. Sit in church once a week, and you go to heaven. The man in the video said he saw pastors in hell. Their problem was that they taught people to serve them, not God.

Boy, can I relate to that. I belonged to two churches that turned pastors into cult leaders.

I belonged to Trinity Church in Miami. It was just an apparatus designed to make the Wilkerson family rich and famous. They sucked up to anyone they thought might have money, power, or the ability to put them in front of cameras. They made the armorbearers treat Luther Campbell and Kim Kardashian like VIP’s. They demonized anyone who talked about the church’s problems. This is how things work in megachurches and would-be megachurches like Trinity. The stoning of prophets didn’t stop or even slow down with the crucifixion.

After that, I belonged to New Dawn Ministries, also in Miami. The pastors were treated to repeated “Pastor Appreciation Days,” and they were never held accountable for anything. We sent them to spas and hotels while the church was failing financially. The head pastor got up and lectured us once, because we had not given his family enough money on his birthday.

The church is gone. All the rosy “prophecies” about its success have been exposed as fantasy. The pastor is awaiting trial on very serious charges. What’s happening to all the people who idolized him? They have suffered a lot of damage, and much of it is his fault.

Churches are very dangerous. Each one of us is supposed to be taught directly by God, and a preacher’s real purpose is to connect us, not to get us to pay for thrones and jets.

When a pastor is a church’s only source of information, he becomes a choke point. Everything has to pass through him. All Satan has to do is take down one fool, and the rest of the crowd follows. When every person knows the Lord and hears from him every day, that’s not possible.

If Mormons and Muslims knew the Holy Spirit, Mormonism and Islam would not exist. These cults were started by individuals, not God. God doesn’t want a Pope or a Twelfth Imam. He wants all of his children to have knowledge and authority. A church that depends on one man is like a dog that balances on one sore foot.

When you try to help by pointing out the problems, they call you rebellious and self-righteous. They say, “Look what we do for the poor. Look at our charities.” Al Capone did the same thing. He used soup kitchens to excuse his crimes. Who cares what you do for the poor, if you steal and send people to hell?

I see a theme in many videos. They cover a topic most preachers ignore: the problem of Christians going to hell. The witnesses mention a problem which boils down to one issue: people don’t repent of their sins. Some don’t repent at all, so their salvation is fake to begin with. Others repent and then let it go. They go back to sinning, and instead of repenting, they mumble, “God please forgive me,” every time they do what they please. Then they end up in hell, claiming they don’t belong there.

Salvation is by faith, not acts, and you will probably sin from time to time after you’re saved, but you’re not allowed to keep sin in your life, deliberately. This is why Christians are so upset by gays who pretend to be saved. You can be gay and be saved if you repent. You can’t be saved if you continue in your lifestyle and insist God is all for it.

I find these videos disturbing. I’ve sinned casually many times since becoming a Christian. I wonder how many people I know are in hell or headed that way, in spite of their religion.

Most people go to hell, but I wonder…what’s the ratio? Is it 51%? Is it 75%? What if it’s 98%? Things may be much worse than we think.

I have to ask myself: why take a chance? Why try to find out how much I can sin and still enter heaven? It’s not good to sin, ever, even if you’re forgiven.

I’m beginning to think I need to do more to isolate myself from bad influences. I don’t watch much TV, apart from old movies and non-trashy reality TV (Forged in Fire, etc.). Maybe I need to keep cutting back, and I definitely need to reduce the amount of news I read, because it stirs up worry and anger. God is looking after me. I don’t really need to know about every problem that faces society. I don’t need to read Internet comments. It’s like watching demons bicker.

Preachers tell us that when the Bible talks about the fear of the Lord, it’s really talking about “loving reverence” or something. The words translated as “fear” mean “fear,” however. Why are we afraid to say that? Read the Bible and see how people behaved in God’s presence. Often, they fell on their faces in terror, not reverence or joy.

Good kids are afraid of their parents, even though they know they are loved. Law-abiding citizens are afraid of the justice system. There is nothing wrong with being afraid of God. We need it, and we don’t have it. If we could see the loved ones and acquaintances who are thrashing and screaming in fire right now, we would probably look at God differently.

I am still screwing up a lot, and I have to be more serious. God has shown me that the more time I spend in prayer, the fewer problems I will have. I hope he gives me the time and ability to improve my performance.

Take a look at the video I’m writing about. See if it strikes a nerve.