Handouts Welcome

Thanks to all who prayed concerning the thing I was working on, on Wednesday night. God came through, and it went as well as could be hoped. I wouldn’t say I had a giant victory, but that wasn’t a likely outcome anyway. What I got was the absence of a loss. Can’t explain beyond that.

Today I have some free time. I can’t decide what to do with it. I hope I don’t squander it before I figure it out.

I’ve been dealing with things for the church and my family, and I’ve had a few little problems of my own, and it has added up. Yesterday my dad pointed out that I never had any time for myself. That surprised me, because I’m not spending any time working on my career, and you would think I’d have tons of time on my hands, but he was right. I want a career in Christian books, and maybe Christian songwriting, but that won’t happen while I’m doing household repairs, getting bogged down helping with my sister’s illness, and being less than optimally selective in my church volunteerism.

My sister mentioned a book by John Bevere. I can’t recall the name. He’s a teacher and evangelist. He said something you probably know already if you’re a Christian, but he articulates it in a very clear way.

There are two books in heaven. The first is the Book of Life. You get into this book by accepting salvation. You confess your sins, you ask for salvation, you acknowledge that Jesus paid the price, and you get in. Great. But then you have to deal with the second book. That book lists your works. If they’re in good shape, you get rewards in heaven. Don’t ask me what the rewards are. I know the Bible mentions crowns, which don’t sound all that great, but I’m sure there is other stuff, and whatever it is, you want it.

If my sister related it correctly, John Bevere says a lot of people will get to heaven and find out that they have zip in the second book, even though they’ve done many, many good things for God. Why would this happen? Because they did things God did not want them to do. Maybe you become an evangelist, when God wants you to be a corporate CEO who has the gift of giving money and goods to the church and the poor. So you get little or no credit for the souls you’ve helped save. That’s the idea.

I think this makes perfect sense. Jesus talked about people who would come to him at judgment, citing the things they had done for him. He said some would cite miracles and works using God’s power, such as casting out demons. His response? “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”

I think many people interpret this to mean that these individuals go to hell. I find that hard to swallow. Jesus saved a thief as he hung on the cross. This was a man who probably never did anything good in his life, and who was dying when he was saved, so there was no hope he would do anything good in the time remaining. Jesus saved him anyway. I don’t think God would save a person like that and then roast a pastor who was born again yet screwed up afterward. I don’t think “depart from me” means “fry in hell for eternity” in this case. I think it means something more like, “Are you kidding me? You never listened. You did what you wanted, not what I wanted. And now you expect a reward?”

The remarkable thing is that sometimes, God–apparently–permits people to use his power, even if they’re doing it stupidly. Jesus referred to this when he was making his point.

The high priest back in OT times wore a garment that had pomegranates (fruit) and golden cymbals attached to the hem. Some Christians believe these symbolized the fruit of the Spirit and the gifts of the Spirit, which would manifest themselves in the New Testament, via the baptism of the Holy Spirit. The fruit are character traits God puts in us through the Holy Spirit. They include things like love, compassion, and self-control. The gifts are supernatural powers, like the ability to pray in tongues and the ability to see spirits.

Paul talked about the importance of a righteous character. We are to be renewed on the inside, purely by God’s grace and power, so we are good in our inclinations as well as our actions. Some think that in 1 Corinthians 13, he was teaching the importance of acquiring the fruit of the Spirit–good character–as well as the gifts, and that he actually referred to the ornaments on the priest’s garment. Without the fruit between them, the cymbals would bang against each other and make a cacophonous racket.

If I speak in human and angelic tongues but do not have love, I am a resounding gong or a clashing cymbal. And if I have the gift of prophecy and comprehend all mysteries and all knowledge; if I have all faith so as to move mountains but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give away everything I own, and if I hand my body over so that I may boast but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Look what he is implying. You can do things that unquestionably require God’s power, without pleasing God! This notion is found elsewhere. The Jews mention things like this in the Talmud, and the Orthodox view is that Jesus’s miracles were performed in rebellion, using the tetragrammaton, or the name of God. Some ancient literature says Adam had a first wife, Lilith, who disobeyed God and flew away from Eden, using the name of God for power.

Have you ever wondered how a pompous or arrogant evangelist could end up with a multi-million-dollar-a-month ministry while appearing to be completely and transparently consumed with greed and a desire for attention? Maybe this is the answer. Gifts without fruit.

The 37th psalm says, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way.” And the Bible calls our own interests “vanity,” which is a word that refers to things that have no lasting value. The word “vanish” comes from the same root. It seems reasonable to conclude that if we do what we want instead of what God wants, our efforts are vain, because at judgment, the rewards will vanish. The things we thought were permanent will turn out to be passing illusions.

So it looks like it’s possible to turn your own version of God’s plan into an idol. You can be deep in rebellion while serving the church full-time, as hard as you can. You’re not supposed to find something you want to do and then do it for God. You’re supposed to use the Holy Spirit to find out what God wants, and you’re supposed obey while evincing Spirit-imbued good traits such as love and patience and generosity. You’re supposed to know God personally and communicate with him every day, and you’re supposed to pray constantly, asking for help and guidance even in the smallest things. You’re supposed to find out what he wants you to do.and then get him to do most of the work, through power he puts in you. And then you get the credit! It may sound selfish to pester God relentlessly and ask him for things, and it is selfish. But that’s how grace is. We have to humble ourselves and admit we are asking for much more than we deserve. We’re like Private Pyle in Full Metal Jacket, eating his unwanted, undeserved doughnut not because he earned it, but because he doesn’t deserve it.

We are welfare cases. We are not supposed to earn. We are supposed to beg and take and be grateful and a little ashamed. That’s what I think. If you earn, you have a right to be proud, and you can say you deserve your blessings. That isn’t consistent with the New Testament. You have to make an effort, but you have to acknowledge that your effort is not what gets the job done. Like it or not, “the battle is the Lord’s.”

That’s how I see it, anyway. I want to take a look at John Bevere’s book and see if that’s his position.

Grace is a wonderful thing for the enemy to attack, because it sounds so lazy and selfish. “God helps those who help THEMSELVES!” “I’m not worthy to ask God to help me!” “I’m so pious and unselfish, I wouldn’t dream of asking God to clean up my mess!” “I can’t ask God to help me all the time; he has better things to do, and I caused my own problems.” How righteous those things sound, when the enemy sends brainwashed people to put out the fires grace lights. When he sends them out to protect his doomed kingdom from destruction and blight. It sounds so reasonable; no wonder it has been so easy for people to kill evangelists who taught it, while the murderers believed they were serving God. But the message of self-reliance is evil, and the message of taking handouts from God is righteous.

Speaking of handouts from God, yesterday I dropped down to the fifth notch on my new belt. I know eventually I’ll get the same kind of progress in every area of my character, and I’ll do a better job handling things like anger, unforgiveness, impatience, and so on. I do what I can on my own, but I know that when I see success, it will come from God, not my sad efforts.

Yesterday I tried to remember what it used to feel like to feel compelled to gluttonize. I tried to recall the sensation of compulsion, pushing me to take another bite. I couldn’t do it! That amazed me. I have an incomplete memory of it. I recall part of the sensation, but not all of it. I can’t explain that. It would be nice to get that effect with my other shortcomings.

Let the earners get what they can earn. I’d rather get what has been set aside for me as gifts. It’s humbling to realize that, but then humility is a gift, too.

Bring Your Rubber Duck

My Ebay Jacobs Super Chuck arrived. It’s a beauty. I went for the 16N, which goes up to 5/8″. I don’t know how I managed this, but I got an unused chuck for about $67. That’s half of what Enco charges. There’s no key, but I have two that will fit.

I already have an old 14N I got on Ebay. I thought I was so smart, buying used. The 14N acts like it has wadded-up metal obstructing the parts when you turn it. The 16N is nearly as smooth as my Albrecht. I was stupid, buying a used chuck just because it looked good in the pictures. And the 14N was a little small. I guess I could use it on the lathe, if I got it working right.

The guy who sold me the chuck wrapped it in about seven layers of bubble wrap, with packing tape around each layer. Using a big Gerber folding knife, it took me several minutes to get to the chuck. As I cut and pulled, I heard myself say, “This guy must be retired.”

Do you ever say things to yourself that you find funny? It happens to me from time to time. In a sermon, my pastor told our church that the way to control lust worked like this: when you see a hot tamale an attractive woman walking down the street, you praise God for his work. Today while walking out of a restaurant I passed a lady with a remarkable endowment, and before I realized what I was doing, I thought, “Way to go, LORD!”

That was bad.

I’m getting better. The last time something like this happened, I saw a lady walking down the sidewalk, and I thought, “Way to GO, lady!” I totally forgot the praise part. You can see how I’ve improved.

I keep telling people I expect to be perfect in a couple of months, but there have been unexpected delays.

I am not alone. Last night at my prayer meeting, I learned that one of my church’s members makes a living selling sex pills to to convenience stores. I did not know what to make of that. And the pastor who leads the pill guy’s regular prayer group said their group was going to be hot-tubbing together. I thought he was kidding, so I laughed. And it turned out I was wrong.

Call me overly cautious. I see a recipe for problems here. I’m glad the last time I got together with guys from the church, all we did was shoot pistols and talk about killing people. You know. Holy stuff.

I don’t know what I’d do if I were invited hot-tubbing. I’m not fond of other people’s dirt and germs. I don’t know if I could bear to sit chest-deep in man soup. Wasn’t one of the Apostles boiled to death? I would hate to get martyred by a malfunctioning jacuzzi. Next to the guy who sells sex pills.

“The bottle was empty when we found them, Chief.” “Okay, let the news photographers in now.”

Last night someone suggested doing a tailgating thing at the stadium where the Dolphins play. We’d have food and drinks, and we’d hang out and try to win souls by distributing ribs or something. “God took Adam’s. We’ll GIVE you ours.” Something like that. Sounded great to me. I love barbecuing. Then someone pointed out that the line of cars is like a thousand miles long at seven in the morning, and my righteous zeal to win souls for Jesus disappeared instantaneously. So I have to ask myself, “Would I rather see people go to hell than sit in line for five hours?”

I prefer not to reach a conclusion.

I’d do it, but man, I hate lines.

We might start chauffeuring people to services. We tossed that around. Problem is, you need drivers with chauffeurs’ licenses, and you have to get a physical and pay over $300 to take a written exam. I don’t know if we’re capable of that level of effectiveness. Right now, we have trouble getting people through the church cafe’s waiting line in under an hour and a half.

We will definitely do something. We just don’t know what it will be. Figuring things like this out is where the Holy Spirit comes in handy. Otherwise, each of us is just listening to his own internal Pointy-Haired Boss.

We Elected a Grinch

Obama knocked Charlie Brown off the air so he could hold a Tuesday night press conference. Does anyone else think this is completely appropriate?

Obama is a humanist. He is nominally Christian, but he opposes Christian goals as a matter of course, and he thinks Israel is no more important than any other nation. To many, including me, he appears to see himself as a secular messiah who will fill in the gaps where God (in the humanist mind) has failed. The Charlie Brown Christmas special is one of our nation’s few prime-time, network-TV celebrations of God’s greatest gift. It only makes sense that Obama would have no feelings for this beautiful program, and it may very well be that hidden forces motivated him to oppose it. God was supposed to be glorified last night. Instead, Obama got the spotlight.

You’ll notice that he didn’t mess with “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” which is a cartoon that denies God glory. Dr. Seuss and liberal Chuck Jones removed all mention of Jesus from the holiday and turned it into an exaltation of pretty but powerless and limited earthly love. Jesus was not primarily about good behavior or warmth or kindness; those are only parts of the picture. He was about total submission to God’s will, and he was about the baptism of the Holy Spirit. He was about the Torah and sacrifice and sin and redemption. He did not save humanists or Muslims or Buddhists, no matter how nice they may be. He saved only those who admit their sins and their need for salvation. He works in our lives today, not just by moralizing and correcting, but by giving us the supernatural power to behave righteously. You can’t get that from philosophy or self-help books.

People forget that the Bible says Jesus will eventually make his robe wet with the blood of his human enemies. He will literally kill them in person, just as the Holy Spirit executed Ananias and Sapphira in the book of Acts. He sent an angel to kill 185,000 soldiers in a single night. He killed the firstborn males of Egypt, including babies and puppies. He allowed Hezekiah’s descendants to be taken captive and castrated by the Babylonians. He caused Herod to be eaten alive by worms. He turned Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt. Lovey-dovey pacifist humanists don’t act that way. There is more to Jesus than hugs and kisses. Maybe pastors don’t talk about it much, because God is not blessing their ministries with followers, and they think the answer is to tell people what they want to hear. But anyone who makes an effort to read the Bible will see that our loving God can be the most terrible enemy imaginable. This, after all, is the person who created hell.

I love Dr. Seuss, but even I am not dumb enough to prefer his work to the gospel.

The pleasant thing about God’s severe side is that he uses it to chastise us, for our own instruction, and to fight our battles. When your enemies attack you unfairly and without reason, you don’t want a pacifist on your side. You want the God who sent his angel to kill 185,000 Assyrians. At the very least, you want the God who closed the mouths of the lions for Daniel.

It seems like Obama’s behavior is calculated to offend Christians and observant Jews. I’m sure it’s not (at least not in Obama’s mind), but it works out that way, over and over. We all need to pray this man gets a clue.

I’ll be pretty busy today. I’m working on something important, and I would appreciate prayers for my success. I have learned that there is absolutely nothing I can be sure of accomplishing without God’s favor.

ABC says Charlie Brown will return next week. Let’s hope Obama does not return in 2012.

Am I Dreaming a Dream?

I am listening to a Shavuot sermon by Rabbi Ira Brawer of Ayts Chayim Messianic Synagogue. I have been invited to attend this Saturday, and I can’t wait. Don’t ask me why; I just can’t wait.

It’s so weird hearing a Jew talk about Shavuot as a charismatic Christian would. To Jews, Shavuot is the day God gave Moses the Torah. To Christians, it’s the day God gave man the Holy Spirit, writing the Torah on man’s heart. We see the first Shavuot as a shadow of the one that occurred on Pentecost after the resurrection. It’s odd to hear a Jew who believes the same thing.

Aaron likes to call Messianics “Christians of Jewish birth,” but they are different from ordinary Christians. They don’t have their roots in the Christian church. Their roots are in Judaism. They are Jews (“people of Jewish descent,” whatever) who continue to practice Judaism but believe Yeshua is their promised messiah. It’s not really the same as being a Baptist or a Catholic. You can’t call these people Protestants, the way we generally refer to non-Catholic Christians. They’re in a class by themselves.

I know it’s not very likely the Orthodox would respect the Messianic brand of Judaism, even if Yeshua were not part of it. But it’s more like Judaism than anything else.

I guess the reason I find this exciting is that I have been around Jews since I was three years old, yet I have never known one with whom I could cross the bridge of faith. There was always a “middle wall” of separation between us. This was true even of close friends. It’s wonderful to see Jews I can relate to with less restraint.

Actually, my ninth-grade algebra teacher was a major babe, and she was Messianic. I should have made her wait a few years so I could marry her. She was only six years older than me. We could have made it work! Maybe I could have gotten her to change those D-minuses she gave me.

These guys are probably going to start having a big impact on Christianity, because their knowledge of Judaism gives them insights the rest of us can only have by direct inspiration of God.

It’s wonderful. It’s like listening to Perry Stone or Robert Morris, except this guy is talking about Judaism from the inside.

The Old Testament foreshadows New Testament events in ways that are mind-blowing, and the Messianics must be more aware of it than anyone.

Jewish holy-rollers. How can you beat that?

Listen.

Mighty Morphin’ Mormon Marsupial

I turned Fox News on while I was eating a mid-afternoon pork snack, and Glenn Beck was on.

I can’t shake the feeling that I am being lectured by a koala bear.

You May be Next

If I pray for someone, and that person gets what he needs, it does not mean I’m special or that I have a gift. It just means God did something generous and I was in the supply chain.

That being said, let me refer you back to November 22. I mentioned a prayer request I got from a reader. This lady said her husband was severely alcoholic and had been for several decades. Before I managed to get the request blogged, she sent this:

“Steve,
did you pray for him or something? WHile he was sleeping it off today he saw in him mind’s eye a beer can and “heard” the statement that he was giving his whole life to alchohol. Uh, wowie.
Don’t let up and I won’t either.

He was pretty sober when he woke up and I was friendly and told him that that well, you got a pretty clear message.

Amazed,
_____”

I was shocked.

It gets better. Look what I received today:

I think I should let you know how the miracle is going.

After the day he received the message about his beer he had to try to drink a little one more time. He ended up terribly drunk one more time. He slept for about 36 hours and woke up and told me he couldn’t drink
even one beer. That it just doesn’t work for him. No kidding?

He is doing fine. He was told by doctors that he would become ill if he tried to just quit because of the level of his alcoholism. But he hasn’t become ill at all. He is just fine. Now the scary part is trying to grow a relationship with him again. This is not nothing. Forty years of me taking care of him while he gets drunk whenever he is not at work is hard on the old relationship.

I am excited for the grandchildren who live with us, and his kids, to see him become sober. It will be quite a witness to them. Only God could have stopped him. He always stated that he had no interest in stopping. I sound a little flat I know. But I am a little scared. Trying to have faith and be encouraging to him.

Thank you for prayers, Means more than you will ever know.

I want to point something out. I didn’t get much prayer in before the first miracle, but God performed it anyway. Since then, readers have been praying, and I have kept this man on my daily prayer list. I have put some effort into it, but it hasn’t been the focus of my life. I don’t want anyone to even dream of giving me credit. Even if I had been praying and fasting around the clock, only God could have made this happen.

I hope people who read this will be encouraged. God delivers people from addiction and strong habits that are harmful. This case is a little unusual, but then so was my case. Over the course of a day, I was delivered from gluttony and given increased self-control in other areas. Sometimes God acts very quickly. When he doesn’t, it should not discourage you. Your answer may be coming later.

I just don’t know what to say about this story. If any Christians have advice for these people, I hope they will feel free to leave it in comments. Satan will surely try to reverse this miracle, and they need to be ready.