Surf, Don’t Paddle
March 25th, 2011You Can’t Make Your Own Waves
I’m amazed that anyone still comes here to read this blog. I rarely show up these days. I keep in touch with my church friends via Facebook, and I have had to take up texting and Twittering, but I don’t have a lot of time for blogging, and aside from that, blogging died in 2005.
If you want to understand how dead blogging and personal websites are, start a forum and try to get people to show up. I started one for the armorbearers at my church, and even when the leaders push, getting people to log in is like pulling teeth. And we really need it! It’s not for fooling around. We use it for scheduling and so on. So it’s not like they don’t have motivation.
Personal sites are dead. Texting has taken over. People used to sit around glued to the TV all day. Then they sat around glued to the Internet. Now they walk around staring at their phones, ignoring everyone around them. I have predicted that someone will eventually invent a device that plugs into the brain, and after that, we’ll just lie on our sides, drooling.
Last night I dreamed that a reader named Chang (I think) emailed me and begged me to keep blogging, because the religious stuff was helping him. I don’t know nobody named Chang. Some other reader wrote, too. That made me feel like writing today.
I got an email (real, not dream) from a reader saying that my writing on Christianity speaks to him, and that it makes Christianity seem logical. He asked for more input. That’s sobering. I hope I’m not writing anything stupid or dangerous.
I am not a Bible scholar. What I am is a witness. I feel I’m on solid ground with my accounts of what has happened to me, because testimony, unlike teaching, can’t be wrong. If you personally observe something, it happened. I know the things I say are happening really are happening. As to whether I’m right on the interpretation, all I can say is, God answers prayer, and you should ask him to tell you.
I don’t believe God can be analyzed with the unaided mind. Ninety or so generations of Jews have tried. Jews are the most scholarly people on earth. If they can’t do it, what chance do you have? Seems stupid to try, or at least to claim success. The Bible tells us its truths are discerned spiritually. That tells me that the Holy Spirit explains the Bible to us, and that the mind’s role is to understand and retain the explanation. The mind is the student, not the teacher.
This comports with my experience. When I read the Bible now (as a Spirit-filled person who prays in tongues a great deal), stuff jumps out at me, and I see how it connects to other parts of the Bible. I’m a smart guy; no doubt about it. But that’s not where this understanding comes from. It’s handed to me, free of charge. I can’t take any credit. If I were stupid, I would still receive this understanding (see Isaiah 35).
I believe God wants to prevent us from thinking we figured these things out for ourselves, and that’s why he gives it to us instead of letting us puzzle it out with our little monkey-like brains. God gives alms, not salaries. A salary is something to which your work entitles you. God gives us things on which we have no claim. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, he discounted these things tremendously, to the point where they are nearly free. To get them, you accept the covenant, and you focus primarily on spiritual matters. God handles the material concerns. You have to make an effort, but if you’re working really hard, something is wrong.
Capitalism is right for earth. Governments belong to man and Satan, and all systems other than capitalism give man and Satan too much power, and they limit the exercise of free will, which is essential to God’s plan. But the kingdom of heaven is socialist. I would go beyond that. I’d say “kingdom” is a well-chosen word, because in the kingdom of heaven, everything belongs to the king. It’s a welfare state run by a monarch. God owes you absolutely nothing, even though he created you, and you can’t earn anything. The fact that he created you does not make you his child. What you deserve is the absence of God’s blessings. But he rewards faith (not need or self-justifying works) and gives us things we could never earn.
Earthly socialism limits free will and therefore virtue. When you have to do a thing, there is no virtue in doing it. And under earthly socialism, the rulers are stupid and misguided, so when they direct our actions, they tell us to do things that are sinful or just wrong. In the kingdom of heaven, God allows free will, and he makes all the major decisions, so they’re always right. Usually, it’s hard to believe how right they are. So God’s system doesn’t have the problems the earthly imitations have.
I believe we are to be filled with the Spirit, and that we are to live by faith. We do things for God, and he rewards us, but when you do a thing because of faith, it’s not purely “works.” It’s faith expressed in action. The faith, not the action it produced, is what God really rewards. On the other hand, if you do something that seems good, but God isn’t behind it, you get nothing, or punishment. Sometimes killing a man pleases God, and sometimes feeding the poor makes him angry. You have to be hooked up to the Holy Spirit in order to know what to do at a given moment. You have to progress from the general to the specific.
This shows why mainstream churches are so awful. They took all the “be nice” material in the Bible and made it law, regardless of the circumstances, and they took out all the chastisement, punishment, and sin. They think Jesus was a really nice gay man, just like Buddha, who showed people they would get eternal life if they were warm, loving, pacificst blobs of Jell-O, who never criticized or even acknowledged the existence of sin or hell.
Jesus was not that nice. The Bible says he will personally show up on earth and make his garment red with the blood of his human enemies. Jesus told the ancient Hebrews to slaughter women and children. Jesus told the disciples to carry arms, and he let Peter cut a man’s ear off (a symbolic act which had purpose), even though he discouraged him from further violence. The Holy Spirit (whose will is in line with that of Jesus) killed Ananias and Sapphira for lying. Jesus told us about the horrors of the Tribulation, in which he would participate. Jesus told us hell existed, and that it was a place of suffering. If hell exists, he created it.
And Jesus was not gay. Perry Stone has pointed this out: had Jesus married and had kids, the children would have been worshiped. The wife too, probably. Letting Jesus marry would have been like letting Satan have the body of Moses. Satan wanted the body to become an idol. Besides, Jesus is married to the church. Scripture says it over and over. We are the Body of Christ. It’s even shown in the structure of the Temple, which resembles a female body.
Jesus lived the way he did for practical reasons. For example, he had no house. Because poverty is holy and pleasing to God, we are told. Does that make sense to you? The Bible promises people material blessings over and over.
I can give you two reasons why he had no house. First, it would have become an object of worship. Chunks of it would sell on Ebay for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Second, his house is our physical bodies. We are the Body of Christ, and Jesus made it clear that a body is a spirit’s house.
Mainstream churches don’t preach Jesus. They preach Richard Simmons with nail holes. Look at all the horrors God inflicted on people in the Bible and tell me that makes sense. Jesus was a carpenter (“tekton”), not an interior decorator. Carpenters build houses and tools, not wedding cakes.
We’re supposed to do what the Holy Spirit tells us to do, in the moment. Mainstream churches tell us to live by the very general guidelines of the New Testament, as bowdlerized by committees of emasculated and faithless jellyfish. So when the Holy Spirit says one thing and the traditions of the mainstream churches say another, the Holy Spirit loses, and so do you.
This all seems right to me. I don’t believe I came up with it myself, and it has the virtue of tying seemingly unrelated and apparently contradictory parts of scripture together, without rationalizing.
It’s working for me. I have enemies, and God keeps defeating them for me. God keeps providing for me. My prayer life gets better and better, and I get answers to very specific prayers. My overall happiness increases continually, and I am being allowed to do things I’ve long dreamt of doing (Psalm 37:4). My character gets better and better, too, which is a relief. I’m getting great results, and I hope people who come by this blog will try the Spirit-filled life and have similar success.
March 25th, 2011 at 12:59 PM
Steve,
As a long time Methodist, I have read you regularly for years. As I answer the call to move to live in the spirit, I find your writings on this blog have been very helpful. While my Pastor is great at making the Bible relevant to our current life, the congregants are too scared to live the right way. To me, your writings on your experiences provide me with real world examples of the rewards for living this way.
I value them as continued positive reinforcement of what I can do and also as a cornerstone to know I am doing the right thing the right way.
Regardless of how often you write here, I appreciate all you have done for me.
Ohio Steve
March 25th, 2011 at 1:53 PM
You do know someone named ‘Ochieng’ and reading your blog is helping me greatly.
March 25th, 2011 at 3:08 PM
Keep it up, I have you on google reader so I don’t check in unless you have something new.
It is good; your writing and your spirit are helping everyone who reads you whether you they know it or not. How could it not be? You are preaching the truth.
I have taken pleasure from some of the bloggers I read, I’ve watched as you grew in the spirit; I’ve watched Sarah’s child grow; I’ve watched as a war widow grows her life and that of her son. I’ve had the pleasure of knowing that if I ask for prayer you will pass it on, and believe me, I know it has been answered. I know those answer’s are God’s will (sometimes in ways we cannot comprehend) and that probably I will be writing you again for prayers for someone I know or love. Thank you for all of us. Keep it up.
March 25th, 2011 at 4:01 PM
Tell me more about when you first start speaking in tongues (prayer language?). Are you just still and in prayer, and the words come out? I know I’ve heard it done in an insincere way, and wonder when you know it’s the real deal. Also, do you understand what you’re saying, or is it a private conversation between your spirit and God, and you’re really just a bystander?
Finally, I echo what Ohio Steve says (and interestingly, I was also raised Methodist). I hope you will continue to share as much as you can as often as you can about your spiritual journey.
March 25th, 2011 at 4:01 PM
Thank you for continuing to write; I find your testimony extremely encouraging. I don’t visit the website often–that’s what RSS is for :), but I check up on comments, and enjoy reading those also.
Please pray for me/my family; my mother is dying.
Thanks.
March 25th, 2011 at 7:44 PM
Grateful for your blog as we wave to each other from our respective paths.
.
I don’t have access to your Facebook and Twitter stuff. Twitter is so ephemeral, I find it hard to appreciate. But it’s hard to expect depth from most people these days.
March 25th, 2011 at 9:58 PM
I still read you. And I’m still not on Facebook.
March 26th, 2011 at 1:36 AM
Yes, please keep writing. I learn so much from your writing.
March 26th, 2011 at 9:07 AM
I believe that your blog here is part of your calling.
And that you are neglecting it.
I’ve been wrong before, and obviously you have your own opinion on the matter. And you’ll probably let me know.
But the proof is in the pudding, the calling is known by it’s fruit.
For every 5 comments you get telling you that they are blessed by what you write, perhaps 500 are blessed and say nothing.
Paul had a dream of a man calling him to bring the Gospel.
You have a dream of a man calling you to blog.
I’m sure that hasn’t escaped your notice.
I wish I could reach a fraction of the number of people you encourage and bless (including me) in my Bible class.
March 27th, 2011 at 5:13 AM
I stop by here most days. Your writings have helped me immensely. Since I’ve been praying more and counting my blessings, I see them increasing. Thank you for inspiring me to start praying again.
March 27th, 2011 at 8:15 PM
I started reading your stuff years ago when you were mostly political (and you were awesome!) and stayed lurking through your shift to more spiritual matters.
While we are probably pretty far apart on the belief spectrum, your writings did prompt me to crack open the family Bible a few weeks ago for the first time in decades and start re-engaging with my Christian roots. You are probably having more of an impact than you realize. For what’s it’s worth. And thanks.
March 27th, 2011 at 11:41 PM
I’m with Ed.
And unlike you I don’t discount the power of the “personal blog” or “personal blogging” in this day and the times we live in because I didn’t really get started reading or writing until 2006.
I’m still weak and still get mad and write ugly stuff sometimes but I’ve matured and in the process of reading your writing and answering the questions you ask I’m a better person I think.
I do miss your detailed tool blogging and the bird stories and all of the other stuff you used to write about–me and og and the Workmate debates–but I still stop by to see what is going on.
The parallels we’re all dealing with as a community of like minded people that communicate here on the Internet–regardless of the shape and style of the forum–is truely amazing.
Guys like you are moving forward toward the truth and success in ways most people never quite understand, and drag guys like me that drag another half dozen people along in the course of things and thus we all benefit from the dialogue.
DON’T STOP WRITING STEVE…
March 28th, 2011 at 7:09 AM
Definitely keep blogging, Steve… your walk with Jesus has been really inspiring and helpful to me as a Christian, and I always enjoy your insights and stories. I learn so much from your blog that it saddens me to think that it wouldn’t be there. Thank you for being such a blessing to my life.
March 28th, 2011 at 10:22 AM
Blogging in general may indeed be in decline, however, your words and this blog are appreciated, you have certainly guided me back to my Christian roots, I feel very blessed because of that. Perhaps your calling is probably not internet blogging in the long run, however, your testimony is guidance, your thoughts and observations are thought provoking it surely has helped some of us who were out looking around with nothing in particular in mind.
I came here for the pork and stayed for the religion.
March 28th, 2011 at 4:30 PM
You are a witness, and a wonderful one at that. It has been so exciting seeing God transform your life, and I have enjoyed reading about it. I understand your feeling about blogging (my own poor site has been languishing, I have neglected it horribly), but I am glad that you continue to post. As long as you do, I will read and be encouraged.
I’d close with “God bless you”, but it’s clear that he already has!
March 29th, 2011 at 10:11 AM
Jesus told people things they did not want to hear. Yet he told them things they needed to hear.
With some, that made him their great friend. With others, it made him their fierce enemy and so they nailed him to the cross.
Friendship, like happiness, needs to be a byproduct, otherwise it will not be attained. You can fool yourself (and others) of the presence of friendship or happiness, but it would be empty if that was the primary goal.
I haven’t been ‘here’ (on the head of this specific pin) in an age. As usual, I have enjoyed the visit.
Thanks, Steve.
March 29th, 2011 at 4:39 PM
Be that as it may, I still come by from time-to-time, just to see what’s up.
April 3rd, 2011 at 6:12 PM
Take from this what you will, but you’re the main reason I started praying daily and trying to walk the path. If you stay or go won’t change that, but the fact that you were here and helped me in the right direction puts me in your debt forever. I am grateful for the interactions we’ve had over the years, and am appreciative of the time you’ve spent with me in that regard. May God bless you.
April 5th, 2011 at 9:19 AM
Think you’ll like this article. It supports your thesis about modern Christianity avoiding the “unpleasant” side of God.
http://www.jewishworldreview.com/0411/prager040511.php3
April 5th, 2011 at 10:12 AM
I love that Prager piece, Gayle. Some Christians might get annoyed at a Jew who criticizes our policies. Not me. He’s right on the money.
April 8th, 2011 at 5:46 AM
I’ve felt the presence of the spirit and felt the absence of it. Other than that, I have no clue what I am doing, so I don’t really have any strong opinions on your spiritual path. What I can say is that it is a joy to watch someone drop their bitterness and cynicism and become filled with hope and joy. Telling people about your journey can help people.
Secretly I was hoping that salsa dancing lessons and fatty foods were the secret to happiness, but I always knew that was a false hope. Dagnabbit.