Sorry

Forgot to post this. It’s from Heather.

Mom has to have stent replacement surgery later this morning(don’t have a set time yet, hospital will be calling me). She had both stents replaced in March, but the left one has gotten blocked and is causing the left kidney to be swollen. Hopefully this will help her kidneys to heal. Please keep her in your prayers for a successful procedure and recovery.
Thank you & God Bless,
Heather Page

That was on the 27th. At least you can pray for her recovery.

Eat Your Heart Out, Bang & Olufsen

Here’s what I have so far on the Firefly amp.

I still have to put handles and feet on everything, smooth out the speaker cabinet, and paint everything. But it works right now.

I’m amazed at how loud it is. I can’t turn it all the way up because of feedback. It won’t make you deaf, like a 5-watt amp. But it’s loud enough to make the neighbors mad, if they’re outdoors.

The next project will have to be a Murder One amp. This is a less powerful design, and it’s the size of a pedal.

I like the Firefly, but it’s a little dark. It’s supposed to sound like a Marshall, and if the Marshall/Fender comparisons I’ve seen are any guide, that means somewhat tinny. I think I prefer the Fender sound. Of course, I don’t know how to get it.

This project took considerable work. One of my friends from church wants me to make him a Fender Super Reverb clone. That’s a huge amp, but it would be way easier, because there would be no fabrication. In fact, it’s barely fit to be called “building.” You just put the parts together.

Let’s see. Soon I’ll be playing an amp I made, through a cabinet I made, using a guitar I made. Weird.

Or Something

I got more input on the “seven blessings of Passover” thing. Aaron chimed in and pointed out a few things. Here is one comment:

Each festival has its own offering with minor variations. Passover initiates the omer offering which is done daily until Shavuot. Whether Shavuot is a “major” offering versus other festivals isn’t clear. It’s “first fruits”. Never heard of an offering where volume was a factor. The most sacrifices were during Sukkot, but that was because there were sacrifices by Jewish priests on behalf of other nations as well as the Jews.

There were freewill offerings, but there is no linkage to volume.

Some offerings differed upon the means of the person making an offering, reducing an expensive animal to an inexpensive dove or even a handful of grain.

Also:

Ultimately, even in a time where there is no Temple, the prophet Daniel proves that sacrifices and even a Temple aren’t necessary for a connection to G-d.

Hosea 14:3 “Take with you words, and return unto the LORD; say unto Him: ‘Forgive all iniquity, and accept that which is good; so will we render for bullocks the offering of our lips.’”

Sacrifices are an exercise in the process of tshuvah. They are not the primary focus or goal of Jewish scripture.

I suppose a Christian could jump up and say I shouldn’t listen to a Jew and overrule a Christian. The fatal problem with that argument is that the seven blessings doctrine purports to be based on Jewish practice, so Jews are the ultimate authorities. Jews did not believe in seven special offering-related blessings at Passover or Yom Kippur, so the doctrine can’t be right.

The whole idea of giving monstrous offerings in order to get God’s favor is dubious. Jesus said his yoke was easy and his burden was light; it’s hard to reconcile that with giving away your kids’ college money. I recall Aaron telling me that Jews think it’s generally a bad idea to give away more than 20% of your increase, and that makes sense to me, barring some sort of miraculous command delivered by an angel. You have a responsibility to avoid becoming dependent on others, which is what happens when you impoverish yourself.

The whole “give to get” gospel is a problem. It does not work. Churches are full of people who give and don’t get! We keep hearing that our miracles are just around the corner, but…they’re not! We don’t see huge numbers of Christians raking in large sums of cash as a result of tithing and giving offers. If the “give to get” message were true, there would be Christian billionaires all over the place, and people would be trampling each other to get to churches so they could join up and get rich.

I want to be careful. I am positive God rewards charity right here on earth; he promised to do this in the Psalms, and I have seen it happen. I also believe God rewards people who tithe and give offerings. The promise in the book of Malachi probably reflects a principle that applies to Christians as well as ancient Jews. But I do not believe God gives money to people who can’t handle it, and I don’t believe you can force God to give you great wealth. And I don’t think you have to give extravagantly, except in unusual circumstances.

If you have a good job, a house, money to pay for good things, no debts, you enjoy life, and things go well for you, you’re prosperous. That’s a fantastic standard of living. I think God provides these things to people who are generous and who seek his kingdom first. There is a lot of scriptural evidence for that. But I don’t think God wants everyone to have a helipad and a castle, nor do I believe you have to give yourself into poverty in order to give God an opportunity to rescue you.

I’m also disturbed that preachers encourage people to give borrowed money to God when they can’t pay their debts. I’m disturbed that preachers don’t criticize covetousness and overspending. I’m disturbed that preachers don’t caution people not to give money they should be spending on their families or the poor.

As I understand it, the Jews believed you had to do right by man in order to get favor from God, so if you were a deadbeat, or if you were stingy with everyone but God, your offerings would be rejected. I know someone who gave stolen money to ministries. And I know there are millions of deadbeat, spendthrift Christians who put donations on their credit cards. I’m sure there are millions of Christians who give money to ministries while neglecting the poor, simply because most–MOST–prosperity preachers don’t talk much about charity. They say, “Pay ME, and God will pay YOU.” I don’t believe that kind of offering is acceptable. If anything, it should lead to curses and lack.

Jesus said you shouldn’t dedicate something to God in order to avoid giving it to your needy parents. That makes sense to me. God doesn’t need money, but people do. Our purpose in the world is to undo evil and spread salvation. We are the earth’s managers. We should be looking to do as much good as possible, with the resources we have.

The thing about borrowing in order to donate is very troubling, because the Bible tells us over and over again not to borrow. Debt is a horror. It’s a form of slavery. When you take on debt, you promise to give your future time and work to the lender. You become his slave, as the Bible says. I can’t believe God would ask a human being to get involved in that, in order to give a donation to a ministry.

Jesus told us not to promise or swear. What’s the first thing you have to do, if you go into debt? You have to swear. You sign a piece of paper, swearing you will pay. Jesus said anything beyond “yes” or “no” is from Satan, and loan notes are great examples.

Satan loves it when we make rules. He loves law. As soon as you make a rule, he has a new tool to use against you. He looks for a way to make you break the rule. And a promise is a rule you apply to yourself. So when you promise to pay a debt, presumably, Satan does his best to see to it that repaying it is a hardship, so you will be tempted to break your word.

This is what I believe, so I avoid signing promises, and I hate debt. I’ll sign a Mastercard receipt, because the world is set up so using cash is just too hard, but I won’t run a balance from month to month, and I don’t have any long-term loans. I know you can generate a lot of wealth through debt, but you can also lose your reputation and your standard of living. I love knowing that what I own, I OWN. Have you ever asked yourself what a typical parking lot would look like, if all the cars that weren’t paid for disappeared? What would a typical block look like, if only paid-up houses remained? America would look like the middle of Australia!

This is an important thing to think about, because we’re headed for a financial meltdown, and when it hits, it will matter whether your car and house belong to you. A lot of people who are driving BMWs and living in big houses right now will be wandering around begging, because their possessions will be gone, their jobs will be gone, and they will have no savings. Most Americans have little or no net worth. Many have negative net worths.

So anyway, I would never borrow money in order to make a donation to a church. I would quit donating to ministries (except tithing) before I would give up charity. And I would never donate or even tithe unless I had my debts in order. I don’t believe God will bless me for being a parasite and a thief.

Truthfully, I don’t even believe in mortgages. I know that’s a scary thing to say, but it’s true. I don’t want to go to bed at night knowing a bank owns my future and my house. The government (especially the courts) belongs to Satan, and so do the banks. I don’t want to get involved in that mess, just so I can have a bigger home sooner. If you’re going to believe, BELIEVE. Don’t say, “Oh, I walk by faith, but EVERYBODY has a mortgage. EVERYBODY has a car loan.” Walk by faith or admit you don’t. I don’t believe in mortgages. Call me crazy.

I’ve heard preachers say it’s a blessing to qualify for a car loan. I’ve heard them cite car loans as evidence that tithers got blessed. That seems insane to me. A car is a blessing. But a note that says you’re allowed to pay twice the car’s value in order to get it right now? How can that be a blessing? It’s a hook in your jaw, and it devours your money by causing you to get less for it. It’s like buying a bag of locusts.

In law school, I knew a guy who bought a convertible using a student loan. His friends used to ridicule him. They called it “the Ferrari,” implying it would cost as much as a Ferrari by the time he paid the interest. People used to say that if you bought a pizza in law school, it would cost $30 by the time you paid Sallie Mae. It’s funny that they didn’t extend this logic to the loans they incurred after entering the job market. How is a mortgage any different?

Student loans are particularly horrendous, because you can’t get rid of them. Bankruptcy doesn’t affect them. You pretty much have to prove you’re paralyzed in order to escape. Or you can die. Other than that, you’re owned. And when you don’t pay, they add the interest to the capital. I know someone who owes almost $200,000 because of that. The original loan was probably five figures. Now that I think about it, I know a couple of people in that situation, and they’re not going to make it as lawyers, so you have to wonder what they’ll do. They promised. Satan observed and acted. Now the walls of the pits are a thousand feet high. The strongholds are built.

Not only do they have permanent debt, but their credit ratings are wiped out. That means no one will hire them, because employers check these things. It means they’ll pay more for insurance, too. It even means no one will want to marry them, unless they manage to hide their debts.

Don’t borrow unless you have to. That’s all I can say.

I don’t want to fall into offense over this. I just saw a timely message from John Bevere, about avoiding getting into confrontations with other Christians. But I don’t think he explained it as well as he could have. He said Satan uses Christians who are “in opposition” to do his work. He cited 2 Timothy 2. But that’s not quite what it says. It doesn’t forbid opposition or correction. In fact, 2 Timothy suggests we are supposed to correct others. Here:

2 Tim 2:23-26
But stay away from stupid and ignorant controversies — you know that they lead to fights, and a slave of the Lord shouldn’t fight. On the contrary, he should be kind to everyone, a good teacher, and not resentful when mistreated. Also he should be gentle as he corrects his opponents. For God may perhaps grant them the opportunity to turn from their sins, acquire full knowledge of the truth, come to their senses and escape the trap of the Adversary, after having been captured alive by him to do his will. [CJB]

So, what I take away from this is that I have an obligation to point out error, when it comes to important disputes. That’s the farthest thing from wrong. But I have to do it gently and with humility, which is always a challenge. And when it mentions doing Satan’s will, it’s referring to those who are corrected, not those who correct.

Interesting stuff. I hope I’m right.

One thing I’m sure of: the “seven blessings” teachings are wrong.

So Someone Cancel God’s Backstage Pass

Still thinking about the “seven blessings of Passover.”

I consulted a couple of authorities about this. One is an expert on both Judaism and Christianity, and he is a charismatic. His take? He knew of no such thing as a Passover offering. The closest major offering on the Jewish calender comes at Shavuot, or Pentecost. So unless he is mistaken, the notion that Jews went to Jerusalem and gave big offerings on Passover is wrong. I think this is a bad doctrine which has many good people deceived, just like the doctrine that says we can command angels.

The person I consulted did not flat-out state that the blessings idea was crazy, but he did say it sounded like “a gimmick.”

I haven’t heard from the other guy–“Rabbi” Aaron–yet. He’s no Christian, but he would definitely know if there were a special offering requirement at Passover.

This new doctrine concerns me, because it seems to be part of a bigger pattern of heaping excessive burdens on believers, to no constructive effect. Charismatics have developed a habit of begging people for money, and sometimes they are downright obnoxious. It doesn’t hurt the people who never give, but what about those who do? Do they really need to be told they’re still not doing enough for God? It’s a good way to drive the sincerest, most supernaturally powerful people to other churches, or out of church completely. Especially when the money the churches are already getting is being spent badly. People see that, and they think about it when they are asked to give.

I think Satan comes up with this prosperity stuff in order to destroy the reputation of Christianity, and to kill churches by discouraging the core members.

Some teachers tend to give us the impression that the more money we give God, the more money he will give us. But Obadiah mortgaged his house to keep a bunch of prophets alive, and he died in debt, with his house in foreclosure. God gave his widow enough oil to sell to pay off the loan. But the Bible doesn’t say anything about riches.

I believe that if you’re in God’s will, he will give you no more money than you can handle safely, regardless of how much you give him. If you had a maladjusted, greedy kid who did things for you in order to get you to jack up his allowance, and you knew he would spend it on porn and $750 alligator shoes and tobacco and other such garbage, would you give in? Of course not. Not if you loved him. People try not to give their kids things that will reinforce their weaknesses. Surely God is as smart as a human parent or an addiction counselor. If God lets you have more money than is good for you, it has to mean he’s chastising or giving up on you, even though it looks like a blessing.

God does give up on people. Read the Bible before you contradict me. I could give you a dozen proofs. Here’s one word that will suffice. “Herod.”

I know of a couple of addicts. One is filthy rich. His name is Charlie Sheen. No one can help him, because he has so much money, he doesn’t have to listen to people who want to save him. He lives in a Satanic stronghold with money walls. Barring divine intervention, they’ll wheel his dead body out of one of his homes pretty soon.

The other addict had a lot of money and spent it all, plus money taken from others. This person is clinging to a miserable existence, trying to avoid going to rehab, but it’s not going to work. Poverty, probably a gift from God, is going to force the issue soon. Which addict is more blessed? Which one is God helping? The rich one or the poor one?

Incidentally, the poor one has given a lot of money to prosperity preachers. This person even gave ill-gotten money to them. How about that? Where is that hundredfold return they like to talk about? My answer: it’s not coming. Call me the devil. I repeat myself: unless God decides to let this person fall deeper into depravity, it’s not coming.

Rehab is coming, and that’s better than money, which would only act as a poison.

The other day I heard Perry Stone admit that maybe God wasn’t going to give all of us a huge financial return on our donations. That’s a huge thing for a charismatic preacher to say. He believes we are supposed to be prosperous, so he’s not on the other team.

He probably got a thousand angry emails from greedy preachers. I’ll bet there are other TV preachers who would ban him from their shows for saying things like that. I believe he’s an honest man, and I’m positive God reveals things to him, so I would listen to him before I paid attention to one of the many preachers whose TV shows are really just infomercials.

Incidentally, I’ve come to see ministries and charities the way parents see kids. You want to bless them, but over time, you learn that giving foolishly will not help them, and it will reduce your own wealth. You have to be very, very careful what you give to ministries and charities. Jesus said, “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.”

As a believer, I am holy. My money is holy. My possessions are holy (hmm…maybe I should thin out my CD collection). So what Jesus said applies to the things I give to ministries and charities. If they behave like dogs and swine, I have no business spoiling them further.

God told us we have to be good stewards. In parables, he showed us that he rewards those who take their blessings and use them to advance his kingdom. Remember the servants with the silver talents? If we throw our money at irresponsible clergymen, we are not good stewards. If I give (or withhold) stupidly, I am destroying the wealth God gave me, instead of using it to do his will. Why should I expect him to give me his backing?

If you go to a church and see waste and neglect, you have to realize that if you give them things without thinking, those things will be taken for granted and destroyed, giving victory to Satan. So you have an obligation to God, who gave you good things, to try not to give anything that will be abused. You can’t expect perfection, and a certain amount of waste is inevitable, but when it’s egregious and systematic, it’s time to look for other places to put your disposable money, time, and possessions.

This obsession with giving money in order to get rich is disturbing, because it has turned Christianity into a supernatural Ponzi scheme. They tell you to give, and God will give you money. Then you give, and you don’t get blessed. So they tell you you didn’t give enough. So you give more, and you’re still not blessed. Then they tell you that you’re being tested, so you have to keep giving until you get your miracle harvest. A few years down the road, your savings are diminished, your earnings have not increased, you’re still as carnal as you can be (because they didn’t want to “judge” you by teaching you different) and they’re still telling you the money is right around the corner. But it’s not. Because you listened to men and not God.

Will God bless you for supporting ministries? Sure. I believe it. But which ministries? And how much money should you give? I don’t think God is going to bless you for giving your 401(k) to Kenneth Copeland or to a pastor who is focusing on the wrong things. I really don’t. How is God supposed to teach us, if he blesses us when we do stupid things?

Here is my question for the over-the-top prosperity preachers. If what you’re teaching is true, why isn’t it working?

Seriously, where are the millionaires you promised us? I mean ordinary church members, not people who live on tithes and offerings. Show them to me, and I’ll shut up. Show me this works for most people. I’ll settle for 75%. Ten or twenty people out of an entire church…that doesn’t even begin to cut it. If it’s not working, it must be wrong, so why do you keep teaching it?

Every church has a few people who get rich while they are members. That proves nothing. The same thing would be true of any large group of people chosen at random, whether or not they went to church. For this doctrine to appear true, we would have to see huge numbers of newly rich Christians. They do not exist.

And if giving in order to receive is so important, why do you talk so little about the real promises God made? Over and over, he promises to bless us with earthly prosperity for giving to THE POOR. We almost never hear about those promises. No, it’s always Malachi, because Malachi talks about giving to the temple, i.e. some TV preacher who won’t even open his books.

I may be a Christian, and I guess that means I’m stupid, but I didn’t just fall off the turnip truck. I fully understand why people say self-serving things a lot and talk very little about things that help others. It’s because greed and lust for glory have blinded them to that which is obvious. Preach Psalm 41, which is about the poor, and no one will give you any money. It will go to the awful poor instead! What good is that? Please turn to the book of Malachi…

Otherwise-reasonable teachers have come up with a hundred different ways to rationalize sating their flesh; they have even decided that it’s God’s idea. And people who disagree…servants of the devil! Pray for them! They’re being used to keep God’s church in poverty!

Anyway, the ancient Jews did not believe in seven blessings of the Passover, nor did they take huge offerings at that time of year, so until I hear a good defense of this notion, I won’t believe in it, either. If we’re going to flirt with Judaizing, let’s at least be consistent with Jewish beliefs.

Speaking of Jews, I believe the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews is a very safe charity. I believe God created it, and he is blessing it powerfully, to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars per year. The work it does is beyond reproach, as far as I can tell, and it appears to be part of biblical prophecy. They feed the poor, they move poor Jews to Israel, they defend Israel from the lies of the left-wing press, they provide care for abandoned elderly Jews in the former USSR…I just can’t say enough about them. They are even giving Christians a good name in Israel, and that has never happened before. I believe God will reward you, right here on earth, if the Spirit tells you to give to this charity.

As for well-known ministries, I think Perry Stone is worthy of support. I believe he was called by God; I don’t think he called himself, the way so many others have. I also like John Bevere.

If I’m wrong, I’m wrong, but right now, I just don’t see it.

You Can’t Pick God’s Locks

Years ago–almost 25–I decided I had to find a church. And then I got sick. I got something like a severe cold, but unlike a cold, it lasted for weeks. I could not get rid of it.

At that time, I was listening to people I no longer trust. Kenneth Copeland is an example. He said that if you wanted a miracle, you had to “confess” (say) that it was done, and keep confessing it until you saw the result.

I prayed about the cold and confessed that it was gone and so forth.

One day I was in my dad’s house, and my parents were in the dining room. I went into the kitchen and looked into the freezer. While I was doing this, a dark shape left my body. It was just a dark place in the air, with no borders around it. It was transparent. It flew into the freezer, turned around, and flew out threw the back door of the house. I was instantly healed of the cold. I went into the dining room and told my parents. My mother was amazed. I don’t recall my dad’s reaction, but I’m sure he didn’t react positively.

Over the years, my dad forgot about this. When I reminded him, he said he didn’t remember. That is truly sad, because it was a bona fide miracle. Not something you would want to waste.

I still don’t trust or like Kenneth Copeland. He seems like a nasty person, and he appears to be obsessed with money. Back when I used to watch him, be berated and ridiculed his viewers. He always had a reason why God wasn’t blessing them (as Kenneth Copeland had promised). They weren’t “maintaining their confession.” They were tithing but not personally carrying their tithes into the church. They were holding their pens in the wrong hand when they wrote their checks. The moon was in the wrong phase. God only blesses people when they wear their socks inside out. Whatever. They were always wrong, and he was always up there, telling them this in a disrespectful tone and jabbing his finger at them.

I wonder what percentage of people who sent him money got financial blessings.

I still don’t trust him, but it appears that he was right about holding onto your “confession.” It worked for me.

A week or two, my dad got a cold. I’m always nervous when someone I know gets sick, because I hate getting sick. I hate that feeling you get when you think something may be getting started in your body, and you hope against hope, and you concentrate on the symptoms, trying to convince yourself they’re imaginary or going away.

I prayed for my dad, but I also prayed for myself. Then on Thursday, I started to get sick. It was amazing. I felt like something flew up my nose, almost as though I had inhaled pepper. I felt powerful itching begin, instantly. My nose started running.

I prayed and rebuked and confessed and so on. I prayed in the Spirit. And I could feel this thing weakening when I focused on God. A few hours later, it was gone. I didn’t feel totally normal; I felt like a person who had gotten over a cold. But I had no headache. I had no congestion. My energy was great. Food tasted normal. I was fine.

The great thing about this is that it was so similar to the thing that happened to me in 1987. I got to tell my dad I was healed, AGAIN. And he was still sick! That’s hard to beat. Surely that made an impression.

This doesn’t have much to do with what I intended to write. Mainly it serves to show that I have good reason to believe in God. I have had supernatural experiences. I have seen spirits. The result of this is that I can’t instantly discard what pastors and teachers tell me about God and his blessings. I have heard some kooky things that turned out to be true, so when I hesitate to reject odd claims from pastors, it’s not just that I’m gullible. My history colors my decisions.

Lately I’ve been going through an evaluation procedure regarding “the seven blessings of Passover.” This comes from a guy named Steve Munsey; he pastors a megachurch and pals around with Benny Hinn. If I don’t like Kenneth Copeland, you can probably guess how I feel about Benny Hinn. And I’ve seen Munsey preach. He seems like a nice guy, but as a preacher, he did not make a good impression on me. Critics call him a fundraiser, and if you’ve seen him at work, it’s easy to understand their reaction.

I’ve seen Munsey brag that R. Kelly and Beyonce have been to his church. R. Kelly is a notorious pervert and hardly a role model, and Beyonce made a video where she opened her legs and waved her genitals at the camera, so it bugs me to see a pastor honor her. Could God be in it? I can’t tell you what’s on God’s mind, but it would be very strange for him to use people this carnal to promote his kingdom.

I should preface this by saying that Munsey’s ideas seem connected to a concept taught by Larry Huch, who says God opens windows in heaven. You’ve probably seen this in Malachi. Huch loves to talk about our Judaic roots, and he tells people to wear prayer shawls. He claims there are certain seasons when God is closer to us and does more for us. These are windows, like NASA launch windows. The Passover season is such a window.

Another preacher–Renny McLean–teaches about “portals.” He says there are places where God sort of touches the earth. Some people say the Temple Mount is such a place. McLean says Moses was at a portal when he stood at the edge of the Red Sea and God parted it. I think I have this right; I may be wrong. McLean seems to believe there are geographic locations where it’s easier to get in touch with God.

I have totally rejected Larry Huch. I bought his book and threw it out. I thought it was ridiculous. I thought it was legalism and Judaizing. Paul said we did not have to become Jews, nor did we have to obey the law or become circumcised. And here Larry Huch is, telling us to observe Passover and wear prayer shawls and so on. I have no doubt that he’s wrong.

McLean, on the other hand, seems much more sincere, so I can’t write him off. He has mentioned the idea of “windows of heaven,” so I ordered some stuff he produced, in order to learn more. Is he pushing the Huch ideas? More importantly, is he affirming what Steve Munsey teaches? If it comes from a source I respect, I have to pay attention.

Munsey says the Jews assembled in Jerusalem on Passover, and every male brought the best possible offering he could bring. In return, God gave that man and his family seven blessings. From Benny Hinn’s site:

Here are the seven blessings of the Passover that Steve taught:

1. God will assign an angel to you.
2. God will be an enemy to your enemies.
3. God will give you prosperity.
4. God will take sickness away from you.
5. God will give you a long life.
6. God will cause increase in your life.
7. God will give a special year’s blessing.

Now, there ARE Torah passages referring to this stuff, but there is no direct connection to Passover. Moreover, I know of no requirement that Jews bring giant offerings to the Temple at Passover. Furthermore, the Temple is gone, and it may not even be lawful to give offerings under the Jewish law, until it’s rebuilt. Finally, Gentiles were never required to keep the Passover. Never.

You can see why I am reluctant to buy into this stuff. It is becoming widely accepted at Spirit-filled churches, but so is a lot of worldly garbage. And the Passover blessing idea is particularly suspicious, because it’s self-serving. If they were telling us to give LESS to the church, I would be inclined to listen, but when someone tells you it’s a good idea to do things that benefit him, you have to suspect bias.

I am very disturbed by the nutty things that are happening in big churches. They’re getting so worldly, you might as well stay home. Pastors used to teach us that it was great to be poor and sick and defeated, and they were wrong. Now, we’re going off in the opposite direction. We know God wants to bless us, so whenever we see a big, rich church, we assume they’re doing everything right. So we become seeker-friendly and greedy.

“Seeker-friendly” means you never criticize your flock, and you use all sorts of worldly tools. If the kids like Eminem, you play Eminem songs. Eminem writes about raping his mother, right? So now the kids “know” that Jesus likes that kind of music. If the kids like R. Kelly, you play R. Kelly. That means it’s okay to have sex with minors and beat a statutory rape charge, as long as you go to church. I think you understand what I’m talking about. In order to avoid “judging” (in spite of Jesus’s command to point out sin in others), you become so friendly and receptive you no longer represent Christ. You imitate the world until you become the world. You lose your saltness and become useless to God.

As for greed, that’s obvious. Solomon was rich, therefore your pastor should have an air-conditioned doghouse, like one of the famous TV preachers of the 80s. Never mind that your contributions come from people who are poor and hurting. God will make them rich, too, right? It’s WRONG not to take their money, because you’re blocking the blessing! The only problem is that they tend to die poor, because the prosperity gospel, as currently taught by many preachers, does not work.

God blesses some tithers and givers; no doubt about it. But what about the people who give and go broke? Maybe God didn’t want them to buy a giant church with TV cameras. Maybe he wanted them to feed the poor or sponsor missionaries or send poor Jews to Israel.

If you give money to a crooked preacher, what exactly do you expect God to do about it? Should be bless you with a huge return, just because you thought you were doing the right thing? God doesn’t bless people just for having good intentions. He blesses people for having HIS intentions. Saul thought he was doing right when he took over for the priests, but God took away his kingdom and cursed his line for it. God killed two priests for bringing strange fire to the altar, in his service. God has a long history of refusing to bless people who do “good” things he didn’t ask them to do. He will let you die poor if you screw up your giving. I’m sure of it.

We keep saying “GIVE GIVE GIVE” and “BLESSINGS BLESSINGS BLESSINGS” and “LOVE LOVE LOVE,” but we are filling people’s minds with useless mush and failing to provide them with knowledge that will give them power. The Bible says God’s people perish for lack of knowledge, and we’re so obsessed with attendance and conversions, we are letting people starve for the knowledge that will save them and their families.

Yesterday a smart, committed, serious young man called me. He started asking about things involving the occult. Was it okay to be a Mason (it is not)? Was it okay to use a Ouija board (it is not)?

I was shocked. This is a guy who should understand what holiness is all about. He should know that you can’t kneel down and swear oaths, the way Masons do. You can’t involve yourself with any type of occultism or fortune-telling. If you do these things, you might as well worship Satan. It’s no different to God.

If no one is teaching him and the other young people these important things, what exactly ARE they teaching them? What do youth ministries do? For that matter, what do adult ministries do?

Man has a long history of taking God’s ways and perverting them to serve the flesh. The current obsession with seeker-friendliness and worldly success is just another manifestation of this ancient problem. You want money, power, and success, because you’re a selfish, flesh-driven Christian baby? Great! Now the church says you can force God to give you this stuff! Forget about duty. Forget about putting God’s kingdom first. Observe these magic rules, and God will have to do what you want. You don’t have to let him change your desires. You don’t have to crucify the flesh through fasting. Make God your genie!

Incidentally, “genie” is a corruption of the Arabic word “djinn,” which refers to demons and evil spirits.

I’m going to see what Renny McLean has to say, and I have emailed my personal rabbi about the “seven blessings,” but I think I already know what I’m going to decide. I think the “seven blessings” idea is a fundraising tool. Sorry to say it, but I would rather tell the truth than please men. As anyone who knows me can tell you.

All that being said, I do believe God responds to giving. Proverbs tells us we will not lack, if we give to the poor. The Psalms tell us we will give and be blessed, while the wicked borrow and don’t repay. They say the givers will possess the land, which probably refers to God’s kingdom under the new covenant. The Psalms also tell us that if we consider the poor, God will 1) bless us HERE ON EARTH, 2) strengthen us when we are sick, 3) deliver us from trouble, and 4) not allow our enemies to defeat us. Proverbs says that when we give to the poor, we lend to the Lord, and he WILL repay.

The Bible told the Jews they had to support the Temple, and it says God blessed them for it, but most of the material about giving is about people in need. Jesus himself told a rich man to sell what he had and give it to the poor; he didn’t say, “Give me a big ol’ SEED GIFT so I can have six TV cameras instead of three.” I can’t think of a single example of Jesus telling people to give to his ministry.

I think the dollar is going to dry up and become worthless, and it concerns me. I wish I had taken my own advice and bought a lot of silver. It has doubled in value this year. I can’t see anything I want to invest in, except maybe land. The only answer I know of is God’s advice on giving to the poor. My money may not be safe in the bank, but if I give to the poor, and God promises to repay, surely I’m prepared.

I hope I manage to please God well enough to get the blessing of the 37th Psalm, which says I will not be ashamed in the evil time, and in the day of famine, I will be satisfied. I really don’t want to end up wandering in the dust, wondering who will help me put a roof over my head.

I pray for God to purge the ranks of useless and corrupt preachers. True knowledge of God’s will and his ways is a must. In the hard times ahead, Americans will need God more than ever. We need to be sure we’re pushing the right buttons.

Have the Groupies Clean his Perch

What a day. I got my Telecaster working yesterday, and I fired up the Super Champ XD and the Fat Sandwich pedal and started working on “I Know a Little.” It turned out that the Telecaster, with its long scale and super-tall frets, was actually easier to play than my amazing Epiphone Riviera P93. Slides are somewhat unpleasant, because my fingers smash into the frets from the side, but still, it worked great. It felt like it was harder to play, but I was undeniably playing better.

Today I decided to make a recording to see just how bad I sounded. I figured it would be horrible, because the timing on my last recordings was really jerky and awful. Also, recording makes my timing even worse, because it seems like my joints quit working. I worry about what the mike is picking up, and there goes any hope of playing loose.

Incredibly, it sounds like music. WAY better than I hoped. There are three passages which are still technically not under control, but basically, it’s sound. In a week, I should be able to play it for real. I don’t know that I’ll be able to play full speed, though. Today I cranked it up to 78%.

I don’t know that I like it at 100%. You lose many of the guitar subtleties, and there isn’t as much opportunity to play with the vocals.

I recorded this on a Sansa clip, which is a tiny, cheap MP3 player. And Marv was “helping” in the background. I’m posting it anyway. Whatever the problems are, it proves this is going to work!

I Know a Little, With Marv as Background Vocalist

I have a new wonder pick. My teacher recommended a Dunlop jazz pick, which is a very hard, small nylon job. They’re very fast, but they make a somewhat dull sound, and the tiny size is hard on your hands. Last week I took a Dunlop triangle pick, which is huge, and modified it so it would still be easy to hold, but it would not interfere with my movements or rotate out of position. The result is the greatest pick of all time. I can’t put it down. I’m wondering if I should make my own version and sell it.

Anyway, this is fantastic. When I get it cleaned up, I’ll post a better version. Probably without Marv.

If I can do this, it proves I’ll be able to play decent Christian music.

Kidney Problems

From Heather:

Hi everyone,
Mom’s edema has been worsening and the home health nurse just called her doctor and they want her taken to the ER.
So please keep us in your prayers.
Please ask that her kidney function returns to normal to remove this fluid from her body.
Also please ask that she is protected from the nephrologists at our local hospital(we have serious doubts about his competency and motives). Because her mobility is limited I can’t get her to her regular nephrologist in Lexington, so it has to be our local hospital(Ky law dictates that ambulance has to take to closest hosp).
Thank you all. God Bless.

Worse Than Fool’s Gold

Today I saw someone talking about creativity on the Internet. I get so sick of this. It’s always an uncreative person, talking about something he or she has not personally experienced.

People talk about creativity as though it’s the answer to all of life’s problems, and they have the insane idea that it can be taught. They even pay people to teach it.

I’m creative. I’m so creative, it’s a problem. That means I can speak with authority here. Creativity is nearly worthless. It generally does not bring success. In fact, it usually produces distractions and tends to keep you from pursuing your goals.

It’s fun to be able write music or throw great recipes together or write things that impress people. It’s fun to be able to throw out clever things in conversation. But this isn’t what puts money in people’s bank accounts. A small percentage of creative people get rich from their gifts. Most are ignored or put to work and cheated by noncreative people who spent their lives learning practical things.

Creativity makes people jealous. It annoys them. It makes them resent you. It causes them to scheme and plot to prevent you from succeeding, or to get the benefit of what your mind produces.

If you’re not creative now, you never will be. Accept it and be glad. I don’t care what some idiot motivational speaker told you at a seminar your employer forced you to attend. Maybe you got all excited because your horizons were expanded to the point where you considered wearing brown shoes with a blue suit, or maybe you decided to get really crazy and put mustard on your scrambled eggs. That’s about as far as you’re going to get, barring a brain transplant, and it’s not real creativity. True creativity means a constant bombardment with original ideas that seem to come from outside your mind. You can’t get that at a seminar.

Don’t try to be creative. Work on things like self-discipline instead. Develop skills that generate income. Learn good manners; they will take you far. And of course, get right with God and develop a strong prayer life. Walk by faith, with God’s favor.

Whatever you do, don’t listen to teachers who encourage your kids’ creativity. Can you imagine a creature that is less creative than a teacher? They live secure lives, doing the same thing over and over for decades. They have no idea what life is like for creative people. If your kid is a really good fingerpainter or whatever, tell him to do that as a hobby while he works at a bank.

It amazes me that employers force people to try to be creative. Nothing could possibly be worse for your career. The way to succeed, in a typical office environment, is to make yourself indispensable and develop a reputation for making your superiors look good. If you’re creative, you will unbalance the machine, and it will try to expel you.

Remember Jerry Maguire? That was a pretty realistic scenario. You have a moment of creativity and lucidity, you point out the systematic flaws in your company, and the next thing you know, you’re fired. Jerry would have been much better off keeping his mouth shut. In the movie, he started a new company, and everyone loved him. In real life, he would have ended up waiting tables. No athlete would have gone near him, and employers would have considered him poison.

I’m grateful to God for making me creative, but I envy people who are steady, disciplined, and dependable. They’re the ones who make it big. Van Gogh’s brother was a rich art dealer. Van Gogh himself died a one-eared suicide. Who would you rather be?

Get over the notion that creativity will save you. On the whole, it should probably be considered a disability.

To Kill the Tree, Poison the Roots

I’ll tell you what. It’s time to renew my decision to avoid sinking into the septic tank that is political discourse.

Things are heating up now, and the left has gone even crazier than it was to begin with. Their methods and words have become so vicious, it is now easy to believe that we could see things like concentration camps and killing fields in the United States.

The right, on the other hand, is having an internal battle. Do we acknowledge God and risk alienating gays, atheists, Jews, and other people who are put off by Christianity, or do we turn from God and rely on earthly tools? Suddenly, Republicans like Donald Trump, who is about as worldly as they come. Do we like him in spite of his worldliness? I don’t think so. I think we like him because of it. We look at him, and we say, “Here is a man who is highly capable and understands capitalism, and who is so able, he has a high likelihood of succeeding, and he won’t bother voters who find Jesus offensive.”

Of course, the problem with that is that there is no such thing as a man who succeeds in spite of God or without God’s help. We could elect Superman, and it wouldn’t matter, unless God backed him up. God uses foolish things (and people) to confound the wise. He is not all that interested in our earthly talents. We would be better off with a moderately capable Spirit-filled President than a genius who thinks he creates his own success.

The left hates everything about God except for the phrase “Judge not.” The right basically likes God, but we don’t want him coming in the house and disturbing our guests. We want him to wander around in the yard, blessing us and watching over us, but not freaking people out or telling them to quit sinning.

I get caught up in the nonsense a lot. I know high taxes are stupid. I know government handouts are stupid. I know we need a real immigration policy. I know we borrow too much. And I get upset about it. But these are not fundamental matters. When you focus on the economy or our debt or our immigration problems, you’re looking at symptoms. The diseases are pride and rebellion. That’s where the problems come from.

If you don’t attack the root, you don’t cut off the things on which the sickness feeds. You run around putting out fires, when you should be bulldozing the headquarters of the chief arsonist.

We don’t pray enough. We have no interest in a holy lifestyle, because sin is–let’s be honest–a blast. We don’t try to get close to God on an individual level and talk to him, because we’re afraid he might tell us to do things for him and change our lives for him. So we lack God’s guidance and power, and we lack the transforming energy of the Holy Spirit. And therefore, life stinks. It stinks for individuals, and it stinks for the USA.

Leftism is unquestionably Satanic. It’s all about human beings taking over for God. Doing what he would do, if he were real and politically enlightened. But that doesn’t matter. Attacking leftism is like putting an antibiotic on a sore without cleaning it out first. Leftism’s support is supernatural, and if we attack it supernaturally, it will fail. Fifteen minutes of daily prayer will do more good than five Tea Party rallies a week.

Look at the Bible. Moses showed up at the shore of the Red Sea, and God opened it for him. Elijah prayed, and it didn’t rain in Israel for months. God held the sun still for Joshua. Prayer is not a joke. It’s the most powerful thing we do, far and away. When we get caught up in slogans and verbal abuse, we waste time, we accomplish little, and we risk grieving the Holy Spirit, who is our link to all power.

With all this in mind, I am trying to avoid getting sucked into the mud wrestling arena. I don’t want to be a puppet any more. I want to be one of the puppeteers. God gives us that authority and that power, but not if we fool around with earthly tools. If you want to use a rounded-off screwdriver and a hammer with a broken handle, God will pull back and let you. I prefer God’s power tools.

Today I was reading John Bevere’s book, Extraordinary: The Life You’re Meant to Live. He talks about the power of faith. Old-time Christians like to tell us faith means suffering like a whipped dog and sticking with God even though we will always lose. As John notes, that’s not what faith is about. Jesus told us we could literally command mountains to be thrown into the sea, and John also reminds us that Jesus is not a liar. Faith is power. It’s the power God used to create suns and planets. It’s the only real power we have, and we have to learn to use it and rely on it.

I don’t plan to stand around at political rallies until November of 2012. I know that Christians have the power to bless and curse; I’ve seen it work. I just curse the careers of the politicians who are destroying this nation, and I pray for revival and intercession, so God will see fit to give us good leaders. I pray God will humble Americans and put an end to our spoiled, self-indulgent decadence. When I start messing with harsh words and silly Internet movements, I accomplish nearly nothing, and God does not have my back. The supernatural approach is the way to go.

I also pray for God to help secular, anti-Christian politicians accept Christ and get filled with the Spirit. I think it’s wrong to pray for anyone to fail, unless you also ask God to change them and help them succeed on his terms.

There is nothing wrong with cursing someone’s actions. People I respect do it. Jude said some people need to be put in fear. I have cursed lawsuits filed against me. I have cursed the things my enemies have tried to do to me. I have asked God to bring them failure and despair, and to take the evil they intended for me and give it to them, as the Psalms say he will.

Here is what Jude said: “Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.” It seems obvious to me that the part about fear applies to people who are too proud or depraved to be reached with kindness. I pray for God to knock such people flat on their rear ends, terrify them, and fill them with worry. I ask him to do this for me, and for their own good.

I forgive; I don’t take up earthly tools to fight people, and I don’t hold onto anger. I never take revenge. I ask God not to keep my enemies out of paradise or the kingdom of heaven because of the evil they do to me. I pray for God to change them and help them make peace with me and get free of his enmity. But forgiveness doesn’t mean you don’t ask God to oppose your persecutors here on earth. At least I don’t believe it does, because the Psalms are full of references to God hammering our enemies for us, usually with their own weapons. I believe forgiveness means you only fight your enemies in a constructive, supernatural, godly way. God humbles and afflicts people all the time, and I see nothing wrong with asking him to do this in our defense. Otherwise, we might as well go on and die, because we are defenseless here on earth.

If we’re defenseless, why does the Bible keep telling us God is our refuge? Why does it call him a fortress, over and over?

We have to start admitting that the Bible is not full of idle talk. My grandmother used to say my grandfather liked to talk just to hear his head rattle. God is not like that. His words are chosen for well-thought-out reasons, and they are true. It’s not just Middle Eastern puffery. God’s words tell us what he will do, and we have to learn to rely on them and take them seriously.

To become absorbed in worldly spats and tiffs is to believe that Jesus’s kingdom is of this world. Jesus did not come to save the entire world. The book of John makes that clear. He kindly chose certain individuals to become his flesh and to partake in his power and deliverance, and the rest of the world is on its own, no matter how pitiable things get. We should not be expending excessive time and energy trying to perfect civilization. We can’t do it, and God does not plan to help us. That may sound harsh, but it’s what the Bible says.

Modern clergymen who rewrite the Bible like to tell us all human beings are God’s children, and God never judges. All I can say is, I wish those things were true. I live with the rules God made, and I do not question them, because I realize the one who wrote them is perfect in every way.

I hope I can avoid sinking back into this mess. To say I have better things to do would not even scratch the surface.

Feminism = Recipe for Celibacy, Cats & Ice Cream

Today I caught a few minutes of He’s Just Not That Into You while I was eating lunch. MAN, is that movie on target. There is nothing sadder than a career girlfriend a few years away from menopause. If you’re over 35, you’ve never married, and you still get introduced as a girlfriend, you need to wake up. Your situation is not healthy. A middle-aged girlfriend is like a thirty-year-old man who rides a skateboard.

One of my college buddies lived with a girl until she was 38, and then I noticed she wasn’t around any more. I asked what had happened, and he said, “I MADE her LEAVE.” This is not a rare scenario. Men will let you waste your youth on them, especially if you’re on your best behavior because your life is a perpetual audition for marriage.

I actually laughed when he said he made his girlfriend leave, because she was annoying. I was an idiot. He helped her ruin her life. That’s not funny.

After that, he dated a stunning young Asian girl from a rich family. He was ecstatic. For all I know, he married her. I have a feeling his ex did not go on to date a stunning alpha male.

The other day I was talking to a friend from church, and I said I knew a lady I thought had potential, but she was so much younger than I, I felt it was inappropriate to do anything about it. Then he reminded me that if you expect to have kids, you pretty much have to get the woman started by the time she’s thirty. After that, things get much harder. So while I still feel that dating someone that young is a dubious idea, I now realize that a woman who doesn’t start husband-hunting when she’s twenty is taking a big chance.

As usual, the oldest wisdom is right, and the young punks are wrong.

Another thing the movie makes clear: if a man doesn’t want you today, he almost certainly never will. I’ve known women who thought I would come around if they refused to go away. It doesn’t work. Most of the time, you know instantly whether you could ever force yourself to have a romantic relationship with a woman. Sometimes it takes a month or two to figure it out. But once you know, you know. It won’t help if she loses weight. It won’t help if she does nice things for you. If she increases the amount of time she spends with you, it will probably make you take her for granted, and it may just creep you out. She should move on! The Bible says God pairs people up, and if that’s true, you’re slowing things down by trying to force a match.

Now I have to go outside and put another coat of paint on the screen for my tube amp head.

Cabinet!

The amp is taking shape. It’s about 10 1/2″ long, in case you can’t judge.

I’m sorry I chose to form a chassis from sheet aluminum, because the aluminum is so flimsy. It will work fine in the plywood cabinet I’m building, but I think it would have been better to make the whole thing from wood. I am told the fire risk is pretty low with tubes this small, and I think it would be easier to fireproof the wood than it is to drill and bend a chassis with precision.

It’s funny; sometimes precision woodworking is easier than precision metalworking, but usually, it’s the other way around.

I’ve learned a few things about holes in thin materials. I stupidly figured I could cut nice holes in thin aluminum, using metal bits and Forstner bits. The Forstner holes aren’t too bad, but some of the metal-bit holes are triangular. No one will ever see them, but still. Another thing: I should have pre-punched the metal to keep the bits from wandering. Even on a drill press, bits roam.

Apparently, I should have used knockout punches. These are chisely sort of things that cut round holes in metal. They’re usually used on electrical boxes. I found an incredible tool while researching this. Harbor Freight sells them for $90. It’s a hydraulic pump that attaches to a device that pops holes out of metal. You drill a guide hole, attach a die to the metal and pump, pump the handle, and pop out holes up to 3″ in diameter, in steel up to 1/8″ thick. That’s astounding. And the reviews say the tool WORKS. Think of the hilarious pranks you could do with a tool like that.

I’ve also discovered step bits, and I bought a set of 4.

I’ve been using scrap wood to make the cabinet. I can see why Doug Stowe (the box guy) uses the table saw so much. If you can rout, resaw, and thickness on the table saw, you can save a ton of time and get extremely precise results. The only problem is that there are limits to the types of cuts you can do. And anyone who knows his stuff will realize instantly that you used the table saw.

I cut dadoes inside the plywood to hold the screen and wood panel, as well as the divider between the screen and panel. I also put dadoes in the top and bottom of the divider, which, itself, was created on the table saw. I plan to run a 1/4″ radius router around the whole box when it’s done.

Someone just suggested Tolex to cover it. Maybe I’ll do that. But the wood panel will be lacquer or solid paint. I’ll hose the screen with grill paint. I have to get the rust off somehow. Maybe naval jelly.

I don’t know how to install Tolex, or if it will work with this front panel. I guess I can look at my Fenders and see how it works.

I should be able to get this thing finished and running tomorrow. The speaker hasn’t arrived, but I can use my Super Champ as a cabinet.

This is so much easier than making guitars. I can’t even tell you.

Next amp: a submini I can put in the pocket of my cargo shorts.

Ps. 37:4!

More

Something I forgot to post: if you’re trying to fab an aluminum electronics chassis, don’t bother with the souped-up foil they sell at Home Depot. Buy a pizza pan for four bucks. It’s much more rigid, and it will make a fairly big chassis. You can find them at Gordon Food Service or other restaurant supply stores.

Self-Help Preachers Deliver Believers From Their Cash

All sorts of amazing things are happening in my life. All the things I started to suspect about the Holy Spirit about 20 years ago are turning out to be true, and I’m also learning that many conventional notions about God are wrong.

It can be frustrating, seeing things work for me and then being unable to convince other people to try them. But at least I’m getting mine! I would rather see everyone move forward, but if I can only help myself and a few others, I’m still doing something worthwhile. Fixing one life is a major achievement, and that’s especially obvious when that life is your own.

The Jews say that if you save a life, you save a nation. That’s a reference to the descendants who could have been erased. But when Christians interpret that saying, they take it a step further. We believe a person can have spiritual descendants who are not related to him genetically. We believe we are spiritual descendants of Abraham. I suppose if I help two or three people, they may go on to help a lot of others. So I should not be concerned.

Jesus managed to get through to 12 primary spiritual heirs, and then he added Saul of Tarsus. He did pretty well with that small group.

This morning I started thinking about the fatherless. Who are they? I’ve always taken this term to refer to people whose fathers have died. But is that right? I don’t think so. Biblically, it refers to something else.

Generally, human parents do a bad job. They don’t pass on useful knowledge or habits. They would rather watch TV and waste time in stupid, worthless, selfish pursuits than get involved with their kids. They don’t know who their children’s teachers are. They squander the money they should have passed on. They provide horrific examples. And the things we inherit from them–their legacies–are corrupt and disappointing. Some of the things we inherit are addictions and filthy character traits. Instead of being blessed by what they pass on, we may be poisoned.

Proverbs 13:22 says a good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children. But what does that mean? If you don’t pass on a big pile of money when you die, are you unrighteous? I don’t think so.

What is an inherited fortune? Is it money and possessions? Is this what you really want to inherit from your parents? It shouldn’t be the main focus. Because if you receive these things, without receiving the ability to make use of them, they will be a curse to you. You’ll lose your money. You’ll be surrounded by people who contemn you and take advantage of you. You’ll spend on things that bring you no advantage.

On the other hand, what if your parents raise you correctly? What if they put you in touch with God, teach you good habits, force you to become educated, and show you how to earn and handle money? What if they pack you with useful wisdom that blesses you every day of your life? You’ll be blessed all the time, regardless of what you possess at a given moment.

Miami is full of rich Cubans. Almost none of them were rich when they got to America. Many were rich in Cuba and lost everything when they left. How did they get it back? The answer is simple. They took their inheritances with them. Their real fortunes were inside them. They had the skills and knowledge and habits of successful people, so as soon as they got away from socialism, they began to succeed again. This is why charity is so frustrating. Take a thousand random people, separate them from their money, turn them loose in a foreign country, and in ten years, the poor ones and their kids will generally still be poor, and the rich ones will be rich again.

This explains what the word “inheritance” means to me, in Proverbs 13:22. It means things of lasting value, accumulated over time. If you have a real, lasting inheritance, the other things–money and possessions–will come to you in time.

This is the essence of conservative thought. Liberals think they love the poor because they throw other people’s confiscated money at them. Conservatives know that mindless charity is harmful. You may look righteous and feel wonderful about yourself when you give a bum twenty dollars, but then you’re not around to see him smoking the crack you bought for him. You don’t see the junkie aspirate the vomit you bought for him.

Conservatives know that the best thing you can do for a poor person is to motivate and empower him to care for himself. We know that money plus poor people equals more poor people, unless the money is spent correctly.

Christianity goes beyond mere conservatism. Spirit-filled Christians know that merely thinking about the best way to help the poor will not get us far. Only the Holy Spirit can tell us what to give and whom to give it to.

On Saturday, a bum waved a cup at me while I was driving. I don’t just look away from bums. That’s cowardly. I looked right at him and shook my head. He needed to know that his guilt trips weren’t fooling everyone. He needed to have that knowledge inside him after I drove away, so he would question his choices. Shame is the beginning of growth. It is spiritual penicillin.

Later in the day, I had an opportunity to help someone out, not just in the natural, but with prayer and practical, applicable knowledge concerning how to get blessed by God. When I shook my head at the guy with the cup (who was probably a drunk), it was done in public. The things I did for the other person were done privately. Only three people will ever know what I did. That’s how Christianity is. It’s not about grandstanding and winning approval. It’s not about singing in a charity video, which drives millions of people to your concerts and makes you even richer. It’s not about performing in a telethon and crying and hugging babies for the camera. It’s about doing what the Holy Spirit tells you to do, and counting on God to decide what the proper reward is.

Our parents raise us poorly. They don’t give us the tools we need to become blessed and stay blessed. Only God’s transforming power can keep us prosperous and happy. Parents can’t do it. They fail as a matter of course. So in a sense, we are all fatherless.

The Psalms say that when our mothers and fathers abandon us, God will take us up. They say he will guide us with his eye (this is a gift of the Spirit, which comes through prayer in tongues). They say he will deliver us from our enemies and teach us his ways. I now believe this is what God means when he says he will be a father to the fatherless. He has a magnificent inheritance prepared for every one of us, and we are supposed to receive a huge down payment right here on earth, but we can’t get it as long as we expect other people to take care of us, or as long as we expect to be able to take care of ourselves.

God gives advances. Read Paul’s writings, and you’ll see it. Think in terms of earnest money and down payments. The language is there, right in front of you. The fruit and the gifts of the Spirit are advances on the inheritances we will receive, in their fullness, in paradise. With them come earthly blessings like health, peace, and success. Jesus said we were to seek God’s kingdom and his righteousness, and that then the other things would be added to us. “Kingdom” refers to the gifts of the Spirit, which are God’s power. “Righteousness” refers to the fruit of the Spirit, which are God’s righteous nature. These things will come into us as we drink the “living water,” which means praying in tongues.

God is our GPS, and like GPS, he works through signals that originate outside us. If you don’t turn on the receiver, expect to keep driving in circles.

In my church, some people are getting this, and many are not. We are distracted by intinerant teachers who give great speeches but don’t know anything. We have a real problem with self-help gurus coming in, disguised as holy men. These guys come in and pump us up with positive thinking and material stolen from Werner Erhard and the Landmark Forum and Dr. Phil, and they try to tell us it’s Christianity. And we buy their expensive DVDs, books, and seminars.

They always give some stuff away, because that makes them look generous. Give away a nickel in order to make a dollar. But they sell, sell, sell. And we buy.

Real Christianity cannot be learned in a seminar. I think Tony Robbins is great, and you will probably get some benefit if you pay him money. You will probably benefit from any positive-thinking coach, to a limited extent. But Jesus is FREE, and his path is SIMPLE. You don’t need a ridiculous seminar. You don’t need to think positive. You don’t need stupid slogans. You don’t have to run around shouting, “My SINKING is caused by my THINKING,” or, “My bank account will RISE because my EYES are on the PRIZE,” or whatever.

I just made those up, by the way, so don’t bother Googling them. We hear things that are just as dumb, so I felt entitled to make up a couple on the fly.

Here’s how real Christianity works. Here is real power that will save you and your descendants and fill you with power. Admit you sin. Admit you can’t help yourself. Accept Jesus. Get baptized in water. Get baptized with the Holy Spirit. Then pray in tongues as much as you can stand, every day. THAT’S MY SEMINAR. I will not charge you a thousand dollars a day to sit in a smelly hotel ballroom and be emotionally abused by cynical “trainers.” I will not tell you you’re not allowed to get up and pee. I will not sell you a $2 DVD for $50. I will not torment you for four days and THEN TELL YOU THERE IS ANOTHER SEMINAR YOU HAVE TO TAKE, IF YOU REALLY, REALLY WANT TO MAKE JESUS HAPPY AND SEE YOUR WARTS FALL OFF.

I used to wonder if God would give me a ministry that would make me money. I wondered if that would be my job. But there’s just no way. Everything I know, I just gave away in six sentences. There’s nothing left to charge for! I’m totally serious! Take those six sentences and RUN! Don’t ever read this blog again, unless you feel like it. You know every truly useful thing I can teach you. Do what I say, and God will do the rest.

You want a Proverbs 13:22 inheritance? You want wisdom other people have accumulated over the courses of their lives? Here’s a juicy piece: anyone who calls himself a life coach or motivational speaker is almost certainly useless. The true goal of a life coach is not to help you change your life. The true goal is to CONVINCE YOU TO OVERPAY HIM FOR BAD ADVICE.

Take that to the bank. It’s gold. I will gladly repeat it while they’re lighting the wood to burn me at the stake.

You want proof? Pay a life coach thirty grand, attend his seminar, and then fail as a human being. See if he comes to help you, while you’re holding the razor to your wrists. Obviously, he won’t. Your misery will mean absolutely nothing to him, in the unlikely event he ever learns of it. He’ll be busy nailing other suckers. Now, pay a life coach thirty grand and then cancel the charge on your credit card. WOW, will he spring into action! Lawyers! Collection agencies! Credit bureaus! The works, baby! Where his treasure is, there his heart will be also!

Here’s what the con artists say: change your thinking, and you will change your circumstances. Here is what God says: “Not by power, nor by might, but by my SPIRIT.” Positive thinking never healed anyone of anything. It never raised a single dead person. It never got anyone God’s favor. Those things come through faith, and faith is not positive thinking. Faith is a supernatural belief that pours through you after you’ve been baptized with the Holy Spirit. It is the Holy Spirit himself, believing and letting you share in the sensation. It is not the same thing as ordinary belief.

Positive thinking just helps you to do better with your natural tools. Faith activates God’s supernatural tools. Positive thinking didn’t part the Red Sea. Supernatural forces did, in response to one man’s willingness to walk by faith.

If your parents blew it, forgive them. You shouldn’t have relied on them in the first place. At their very best, they could not have done what only God can do. God will be your father, for real. He will fix. He will repair. He will restore. He will be with you–inside you–moment by moment. God is all about the present and the future, so don’t glue yourself to the past and blame the people who let you down. Move on, as you were born to. This is the single best reason to forgive people. Living in resentment, bitterness, and unforgiveness is like trying to drive while looking out the rear window. Every good thing God has planned for you is in the other direction, and unlike the things behind you, they can be changed.

If you want to send me thirty grand, I would sure appreciate it. After all, I saved you airfare and a nasty hotel bill. But if you choose to be stingy instead, I forgive you. Mr. Holy; that’s me.

& Someone Slap Biff

Okay, here is my tube amp.

That’s a Firefly PCB I bought on Ebay. In retrospect, I wish I had used a generic PCB, so I could arrange stuff however I wanted. But this is much faster and less intimidating.

Here’s how it looked when I started.

Here it is a day or two later.

The white thing is a sheet of aluminum with a template glued to it with 3M spray adhesive. The Internet is amazing. I printed out a Firefly build guide and glued this page to the metal. After that, it was just a matter of drilling and cutting. As of this moment, the paper is off, the holes are drilled, the power cord hole has been cut, and the adhesive has been removed. It turns out the adhesive doesn’t REALLY come off all that well with denatured alcohol or acetone. Brake part cleaner is the way to go.

Cutting out the sheet on the table saw was pretty terrifying. Perhaps I need to rethink that method. You need fingers to play the guitar.

I’m already unhappy with this amp! It turns out you can make one that’s even less powerful. It’s called a “Murder One,” and the designer put the schematic on the web, so any idiot (not naming names here) can download it and make the amp.

The Murder One is about the size of a miniature cereal box, with a tube or two sticking out of the side. THAT is small.

I’m only starting to realize how badly most guitarists get ripped off. They go to Guitar Center and see 40-watt tube amps, and they think, “Man, is that the biggest I can afford?” Then they take them home and find out they’re so loud they can literally cause partial deafness. Not only that; they can’t make good sounds at comfortable sound levels. So people end up with big, expensive amps that are nearly useless in a home setting.

The market for small amps should be huge. Every guitarist needs one, except for those who are already deaf. I guess people are just too ignorant to want them. I certainly was.

I’ve read that you can drive two 4×12 speaker cabinets with one of these tiny amps. Can that possibly be right? The term “4×12” means four twelve-inch speakers.

I love working on this thing. It’s so much easier than building a guitar. Making electronic devices is not hard, if you have a schematic. Making the wooden parts is what sucks.

It should be up and running by Tuesday. I receive the remaining electronic parts tomorrow, and I should have the wooden stuff done sometime Monday. I’ll let you know how it works.

I am well on my way to becoming a mad scientist. I feel like I should build a guy with scissors for hands. Or a Delorean that will take me back to 1985, so I can somehow prevent Lady Gaga and American Idol from happening. Or maybe I could go back to 1975 and abort rap. And disco.

I’ll tell you how bad it is. I accidentally ordered two pineapple-sized 0.22mF Orange Drop capacitors for this thing, instead of 0.022mF. Looking through my capacitor collection, I found I had THREE spares. Same brand. Same everything. I thought I had failed to order 1N4007 diodes, so I looked through my diode drawer. Yes, I have a diode drawer. I managed to find a 1N4007 in there before realizing the new ones were in the stuff that’s coming Monday.

If civilization collapses, my garage will be a pretty good place to hole up. Unfortunately, it’s taken. And I have enough ammunition to create a very discouraging crescent of bodies around the doors. Not that I would do that. On account of I am all holy and whatnot.

Ps. 37:4!

I Know Very Little

Thought I’d update people on my musical progress.

I now have…I am too lazy to count…maybe six electric guitars? I got three Japanese jobs, which are very slick, quality items. I got my Chinese Epiphone Riviera P93. I got a Telecaster American Special. Plus my older instruments.

I got them all for different reasons. None were expensive. I planned to get myself a really sweet high-end guitar on January 8 (Elvis’s birthday), as a reward for studying for 6 months, and I got various affordable instruments to simulate the expensive guitars I was considering. The Japanese Les Pauls are sort of like Gibson Les Pauls. The Riviera and the Japanese ES335 clone are sort of like ES335s. You can see what I was trying to do.

I stuck a Stetsbar vibrato on the Telecaster. You’re not really supposed to do that, but you can imagine how much I care about tradition. The Stetsbar is made by an entrepreneur named Eric Stets. It’s very nice, but it doesn’t really fit a Telecaster without substantial grief. The bridge pickup hole presses against the pickup wires and shorts them out, and it prevents you from raising the pickup to the correct height. And you have to shim the neck to make it work, and the shim he provides is real garbage, so you have to make one, using your garage full of expensive woodworking machines. Which you probably don’t have, but I do.

I had to put the Stetsbar on my milling machine and hollow out an area on the underside to provide clearance for the pickup wires. How many people, realistically, are going to be able to get something like that done? Finding a machine shop is a real pain for most people. For me, it amounted to walking five feet across the garage.

Now it fits, but I would not recommend it to anyone else. Unless you know me or someone like me, you may have serious problems putting one of these on a Telecaster. Hopefully the manufacturer will find the time to make the needed changes. Everyone gives the vibrato rave reviews, so it appears to be worth the effort.

I have not completed my walnut Telecaster clone. I got to the point where it was nearly ready to finish, and and there was a problem with the grain matching where I redid the neck pocket, so I procrastinated for months instead of deciding what to do. I promise I’ll get it done.

My History Les Paul clone sat idle for a long time, because I could not get the Harmonic Designs Z90 pickups to work. For some reason, the bridge pickup gave me a resistance figure of 0Ω, which was something like 10,000Ω short. In other words, a short. I got them to agree to look at it, but before I packed it up to send it in, I checked the resistance, and it was back to normal. So I must have caused the problem. Now it’s installed, along with big American potentiometers and Orange Drop capacitors. The neck pickup is really nice. The bridge pickup is not quite as wonderful, but that may just reflect my love of neck pickup sounds. The guitar looks magnificent. I bought tortoise-shell pickup covers, which have a pretty severe pimp quotient.

I stuck Pearly Gates humbuckers on my ES335 clone. Very nice. I think I have the action a little too low, however. That can adversely affect the sound. Seems a little thin at the bridge.

The surprising winner, out of all the instruments, is the Epiphone Riviera. If you like the blues, BUY one of these things. Don’t fool around. Just buy it. Make sure you get one that has a good neck and no major QC problems. Then put Lollar P90s on it, and change the tone capacitor. You won’t believe the sounds that will come out of it. Just beautiful.

You’ll have to learn how to work the knobs and switch. This thing has three pickups, which seems like a dumb idea, but it works. To isolate the end pickups, you have to turn the middle volume down to zero. To isolate the middle pickup, turn the end pickups down. The selector switch will not mute the middle pickup, so you have to do it with the knobs. Once you get this straight, the guitar starts to make sense.

I’m taking lessons now, from a guy at church. He’s one of the Armorbearers. He’s a fantastic blues guitarist and vocalist. Just a blast to listen to. I took the ES335 clone to him, and he liked it a lot. Keep in mind: this is a top-quality instrument, put together better than a Gibson. A week later, I let him try the $500 Chinese Epiphone, and he said it was better. I have to agree. It plays a little easier, and the tones are sweeter. All told, I have about $1000 in it, which isn’t bad for a semihollow with a Bigsby, three boutique pickups, and a great SKB case.

I have a pile of amps. I got a Vox AC4TV with a 1/4-watt setting, figuring it would be good for low level play. It’s not bad, but it’s not phenomenal. I also tried a Bugera V5, which attenuates to 1/10 watt. Again, nice, but not amazing. At the moment, I really like my Blues Jr. and my Super Champ XD. Between the two, I’d probably keep the Super Champ. It’s easier to work with at low levels, and it has built-in effects which are useful when you have to go somewhere and you don’t want to carry pedals. But the Blues Jr. is also very good.

My lesson guy wants to build amps. I told him about my insane tool collection, and we made a decision. Free lessons for me; free tool access for him. We’re going to try to build a Super Reverb clone, if he ever gets around to buying the parts. It won’t be very hard. It’s just soldering and turning screws. You don’t have to build anything from scratch.

As preparation, I’ve decided to build a Firefly amp. This is a well-known DIY design. It puts out less than a watt, without attenuation. I’m hoping it will give me improved sound at low levels. I’m going to put a crappy, insensitive 12″ Weber speaker on it. The description on the Weber site gives me hope that this speaker will strain the amp and improve the sound, and that it will have the kind of coarse sound a blues amp should have. If not, it will still be fun to put together. The only hard part (far as I know) is building the external cabinet, and I’ve already designed it and roughed out the wood. I want to use a separate cabinet so I can take the Firefly head with me and use it on different cabinets.

The junk to make the amp is on order. I hope to have the cabinet basically finished before anything arrives.

Zach (lesson guy) has me working on F scales, which will make my left hand work better. The scales have all sorts of hideous stretches in them. My finger joints are actually sore these days. I hope this stuff works out.

On the music side, I’m practicing “I Know a Little” every day. Steve Gaines was an incredible guitarist, and the intro to this song is murder. I thought I would never get it. He plays at 220 beats per second, and the moves would take some effort at a third of that speed. I’ve been pounding on it for weeks. I think most people would have given up by now, but I remember two things. First, I went back to school at age 30 and got a physics degree, after failing math in high school. That makes almost anything look easy. Second, when I learned to flatpick, I was convinced it would never work, because after several months, I still could not do it. Then it came together, showing me that the body and brain can develop brand new abilities over time. Flatpicking is a totally unnatural activity. It took me about 6 months to grow the right neurons or whatever. Fretting works the same way, so I know I’ll eventually overcome the left-hand challenges in this song.

I have changed the way I hold the pick twice, which means I’ve done it three different ways. This is irritating, because every time I change it, I have to get new muscles to work, and I have to get the brain connections going. But I think it was necessary. I played for years, not realizing I was making very dumb ergonomic choices.

I’ve also tried different picks. I started out with the rubbery black and grey nylon Dunlop picks I used for bluegrass, and I’ve tried other things. I bought some stubby Dunlop jazz picks, decided they were worthless, and gave them to Zach. He went off to college, returned after a number of months, and came back and thanked me for the great picks. Naturally, I had to try them again, and it turned out they were very well-suited to my new way of holding the pick, and to playing fast passages like the ones in the Skynyrd tune. Live and learn.

I keep trying new picks. This week I received some Greg Koch instructional DVDs, and I noticed he was using a giant triangular pick. This guy can REALLY play, so I dug through my mountain of unused picks and got out a hard green Dunlop triangle. Sure enough, it works. Don’t ask me to explain this, but it’s just as fast as the tiny stubby pick, but it’s much, much easier to hang onto, so my hand feels more relaxed, and I get more “swing” in the music. I have other picks which are physically much more like the little pick, but the huge Dunlop is the only one that gives similar performance. Weird.

For SRV tone, Koch uses a Super Reverb with a Tube Screamer and a Clyde pedal. The tone is perfect. That got me thinking about my Tube Screamer, which I had given up on, and I started rooting around the web. I learned something strange. To get SRV-type grit, you turn up the volume and turn down the drive. Isn’t THAT special? What could be more irritating than finding out the knobs don’t do what their names say they do? I started turning up the volume on my distortion and overdrive pedals, and now I’m in a whole new world of tone. Even my Pork Loin is doing great things.

Tonight I got the Epiphone out and fired up the Super Champ. I used the big green pick and various pedals, and I worked on “I Know a Little.” The picking started to work correctly. The swing kicked in. Finally, I got some expression into it. And I was even able to throw in some filler notes to make me happy. I started to realize this was eventually going to work, and that it wouldn’t be long. I began hearing wonderful variations in my head. I just have to keep working on sight-reading, so I can write this stuff down.

I’m trying to avoid working on my only other tune, “Tube Snake Boogie.” I just don’t like working on a song about cheap sex. I had a breakthrough tonight, so I guess I’ll be able to put that song behind me and replace it.

I keep finding myself thrown together with musicians at church. I’ve gotten to know the two main guitarists pretty well, and I do what I can for them. They give me a lot of great tips. Zach is an Armorbearer, and he’s also a fan of my pizza. One of the other Armorbearers plays twelve instruments and writes arrangements. He’s supposed to be a brutal talent. I talked to him the other day about his future, and about the frustration of putting up with bad Christian music, and I suggested he and some of the people he knows come to my house to work on music. I have a big piano, five guitar amps, and a big living room. And my dad would love to meet some good musicians. So we’re planning to do that. We have a world-class vocalist. Guy from Haiti. Maybe we can drag him into this. I keep telling him he’s going to be famous. He’s so humble, I’m afraid he’ll underestimate his gift and end up doing something else with his life.

So to recap, I’ll be making guitars in the garage. The guys will be jamming and writing music in the living room. And Zach and I are going to build an amp. Crazy.

Psalm 34 says God gives us the desires of my heart. My dream has always been to make music. I know that sounds wrong, to anyone who thinks of me as a writer or a cook, but those are my second and third choices. And building things I design has also been one of my dreams. I wonder where God is going to go with this.

He definitely knocked a bunch of frustrating barriers out of my way. I have the right instrument. I have the time and wherewithal and tools to do the things I want to do. I even learned which pick to use and how to hold it. The little bricks are arranging themselves into a coherent structure. I could not have done that on my own.

I have a feeling things are going to start moving for me in a little over two weeks. I’ll be passing a major milestone in my life, and for reasons I don’t want to go into here, I think it will be a pivotal time. Things are being cleared out of my way. I believe real progress is going to start toward the end of the month. I’m just mentioning it here so that if I talk about it after it happens, no one will be able to accuse me of faking a prediction. Not that it’s a prediction. Just a strong hunch, based on certain facts.

Forget Wind Farms; This is the Real Thing

I want to thank everybody who commented on the last piece I wrote. It shocks me to learn that God has managed to impact people through this site. It’s very encouraging, and it makes me feel that my effort has not been wasted, even with the drastic dropoff in traffic.

It’s funny; whenever I mention my lack of enthusiasm for blogging, people seem to get the idea that I’m threatening to quit. I don’t have any reason to quit, and the piece wasn’t about quitting. Maintaining this site at the present pace requires virtually no effort, and the hosting bill is paid, so I have no plans to disappear.

All sorts of stuff is happening in my life. It’s hard to decide what to write about.

Here’s something good. Maybe from a selfish standpoint, this is the most important thing that has happened. I think I now walk in the spiritual gift of joy.

As readers know, I am a big Holy Spirit man. I don’t believe human effort amounts to much. Human beings can’t even diet successfully, yet somehow, we think we create our success and our blessings. Does that make sense? I think it’s stupid. I believe every good thing–every breath–comes from God’s generosity. I think we are powerless to affect our circumstances in meaningful, lasting ways. I believe that only the transforming power of the Holy Spirit can improve us. And I think this comes through the baptism with the Spirit and prayer in tongues.

In the first letter to Timothy, Paul said, “For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.” He was talking about self-denial and hard work. He was talking about the things we do for God in our own strength. And he didn’t say these things were “pretty important” or even “a little less important than prayer and faith.” He said they profited little. He used a word meaning something like “puny” or “disesteemed.”

Think about that. “Puny”! That’s you, driving the church bus for 20 years. That’s you, swearing off all forms of alcohol. That’s you, becoming a nun or a priest and giving up normal, healthy sexual activity. That’s you, making a ridiculous pilgrimage on your bloodied knees, carrying a cross you made in your garage. This is what your extraordinary effort and self-sacrifice amount to, when they’re not initiated by the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, Paul could cure someone of cancer and lead him to eternal life by obediently handing him a handkerchief.

Seriously, think about it. What do you think God prefers? The hard work you do after trying to GUESS what he wants, or the easy jobs you do after you wait for him to guide you?

Mainstream Pharisees–oops, I meant “Christians”–will never agree with me on this. People love to punish themselves. They love to feel cleansed by suffering. They love to think they earned God’s forgiveness, and that they’ve obligated him through their wondrous works. And they like doing what they want to do for God, instead of the scary things he might tell them to do, if they listened!

They hate to give that stuff up. The sad (he said facetiously) truth is, that stuff is all “dung,” to use Paul’s expression. Worthless. You can’t earn anything. You are a welfare recipient. God owes you nothing, nothing, NOTHING. You will never be able to make up for the evil you’ve done, and you will never be able to stand in God’s presence without shame. Not in this lifetime.

The up side of this is that good things come from shame. We give shame a bad rap, but it’s really a blessing. It gives you perspective. It helps you not to get carried away by your own super-amazing holiness. It reminds you where you came from. It keeps gratitude and humility alive in you. Never criticize shame. It’s like criticizing penicillin.

Anyway, I keep seeing my understanding of the Holy Spirit and tongues confirmed. Now that I think about it, I have never seen it disproven in even the smallest way. I get confirmation after confirmation. I believe that the more you pray in tongues, the more God makes you similar to him, if you are willing to be changed. Part of the change is the fruit of the Spirit, and one of the fruit is the gift of joy.

I don’t think “joy” refers to bizarre religious ecstasy of the type that leads to you becoming the inspiration for gaudy concrete statues people put on their lawns. I don’t think it means you stand around with your hands spread out, staring at heaven with goofy look on your face. I think it means you feel like you’re winning. You have energy. You have gratitude. You have positive expectations which flow from a supernatural source inside you. You constantly sense the too-wonderful things God is doing for you. And this makes you strong. Like Nehemiah said (or like Ezra said, depending on who wrote the book), the joy of the Lord is our strength.

Let’s see what the Greek says. In Galatians 5:22, it’s something the Greeks call “chara,” and it is defined as something like cheerfulness, or being calmly happy or well-off. In Nehemiah 8:10, the Hebrew word is “chedvah,” which means “gladness” or “rejoicing.” This works for me. When I feel what I believe to be supernatural joy, I feel calm and assured, and I feel that the reason for the joy is God’s generosity. In other words, I feel sure God is at work doing great things for me. That makes me “well-off.” Therefore I have the sensation of rejoicing. The word “rejoice” is like “celebrate.” It suggests happiness that comes after something good occurs. That’s what I feel. It’s a reaction. I react to the good things God has done for me, and the good things my faith says he is DOING for me (and for others).

I feel this a lot of the time. I highly recommend it. It’s much better than caffeine, cocaine, Ritalin, or even (this is high praise) a good steak followed by cheesecake. It’s better than the hypomania I used to feel as a result of my peculiar brain chemistry.

I have often said that I believed drug abuse was a sad effort to fake the sensations God wants to put in us supernaturally, and now I believe it more than ever. I’ve tried antidepressants. I’ve tried alcohol. I’ve had those wonderful pills dentists give people after they pull their wisdom teeth. This is better, and it doesn’t come with a crash or a rebound. It’s like a stock market average that keeps going UP and UP and UP. It’s clean. It’s safe. It’s beneficial. It’s hypoallergenic, gluten-free, low in carbon emissions, and organic. It IS addictive, but that turns out to be a plus.

When you read the Bible, you see some pretty ridiculous examples of happy behavior. For example, Paul and Silas got flogged, which is a horrible, bloody, scarring torture, and then they were thrown in a filthy jail. Instead of venting and whining, which is what I would have done, they started singing and praising God, even staying up late to do it. And then God released them from jail, and the jailer and his house got saved, and everybody REJOICED. They must have been nuts. When I see things like this, the only explanation that makes sense to me is the supernatural gift of joy.

To most people, joy is…well, let’s be real. To many people, joy is a rumor. Something they will never experience. Everyone experiences misery, but not everyone knows joy. Anyway, to people who occasionally have happiness, joy is generally linked to circumstances. You land a great job. You find someone to have sex with on a given night. You manage to get a high enough credit limit to charge a $2000 Chanel purse. Stupid things like that. To a Spirit-filled Christian, joy is different. It wells up inside you. It isn’t external circumstances, reaching inside you and transforming you. It’s your Spirit-given understanding of your circumstances, seemingly reaching out from inside you and transforming THEM.

Our perception of the world around us changes because of the work of the Spirit within us. We know that all things work together for our good, regardless of how they look at a given instant. And the scripture that confirms this is about prayer in tongues! See for yourself! Some preacher on TV or a disk pointed this out to me the other night. It’s in Romans 8:

Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered. And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.

And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

We are to be conformed to the image of Jesus. How do we do that? By gaining his power and his character or righteousness. What is his power? The gifts of the Spirit. What is his character? The fruit of the Spirit. How do we get these things? Prayer in tongues! “The Spirit itself maketh intercession for us.” Incidentally, the Spirit is actually a “he,” not an “it,” but still. We are the little brothers and sisters of Jesus, and we are expected to grow to be like him, and tongues make this happen.

The older I get, the better I feel. Life gets better and better and better, and it won’t even stop when I die. Good things keep happening to me. My enemies can’t get at me, because as a member of God’s team, I now have reason to expect to be defended. My dreams are coming true. I’m not swimming in oatmeal any more. Life is no longer one step forward followed by five steps back.

I don’t understand non-charismatics who claim to be full of joy, just because they’re forgiven and somewhat cleaned up. I am suspicious of them, truthfully. I think sometimes Christians exaggerate their happiness. They feel like they SHOULD be happy, so they pretend. Maybe they think that admitting they’re not happy is insulting to God. Or they feel that they have to claim to be happy, in order for their faith to bring them happiness. I don’t know how other people feel, or whether their joy is real, but I know I’m telling the truth. I believe this is a supernatural gift, so I am here to testify. See if it works for you.