Who Really Chains You Down?

Today I’m doing something interesting. I’m throwing out compact disks.

For maybe 9 years, God has been helping me understand that iniquity and sin ruin our relationship with him. If you go to a charismatic church in the US, you won’t hear that. You’ll hear, “It doesn’t matter what you do. God is crazy about you! All you have to do is believe…AND GIVE US A HUGE PERCENTAGE OF YOUR INCOME!” If you talk about repentance and the common demons that attach themselves to Christians who don’t get sanctified, they get very angry, and they drive you out of their churches.

I have been asking God to change me for a long time, and he has been doing it, but I was so corrupted in the beginning, it took me a long time to improve.

I had a dream a number of years ago. I was in a big boat, cruising up a dirty canal in Miami. The canal was full of floating trash and dying fish. The canal was only open to the bay on one end. In order to get to the clean water of the bay, I had to turn around and go past all the filth I had seen on the way up the canal.

God was showing me that when I turned back to him, I would have to revisit my sins. I would have to go back, past all the rotten things I had done in the past. It would take time.

I have improved in steps. I would give this or that up, and then I would plateau. Then I would give something else up. There were things I couldn’t get rid of.

Last night I started thinking about my music collection. It has been sitting in boxes in a storage room for a year. I haven’t bothered fooling with it. A lot of it is also stored on electronic devices.

A while back, I threw out my only Aerosmith CD. Maybe that was before I left Miami. I can’t recall. I figured I would eventually get around to deleting it, and everything else that was offensive, from my devices.

I wake up in the middle of the night a lot, worried. I have help from my smoke detectors. I didn’t know how they worked until a week ago. It turned out I had two sets of detectors. One belonged to the alarm company, and one was built into the house. Even though the house detectors are connected to AC, they still have batteries, and the batteries don’t charge. You have to replace them. When you don’t replace them, they start going off in the middle of the night. Never during the day.

I found a great deal on batteries, on Amazon. I ordered them. They cost about a third as much as batteries from the drugstore. I figured I could deal with the beeping for a couple of days while I waited for the batteries.

Amazon canceled my order without explanation. I ordered the batteries again. Amazon canceled again. I suppose I spent almost two weeks waiting for the batteries. During this time, I was being awakened a lot. When I awakened, I had to pray and use my supernatural tool set to get peace.

Yesterday I deleted Aerosmith from my main computer. When I woke up, I thought about it. I thought about the problems that still cling to me. I felt that I needed to get into my CD’s, throw out the ones that were problematic, and ask for forgiveness. I’ve been doing this today.

I can’t believe how much garbage I’m throwing out, and I’m amazed that I allowed so much of it to remain so long.

Get this: I had two Enya CD’s. I bought them ages ago. Enya’s music is lowbrow, but it’s relaxing, and it makes a good stereo sound great. Why did I have this filth, after turning back to God? Enya is a pagan. Her music is for people who worship demons. I was very angry with myself when I saw the CD’s.

I also had relaxation CD’s. I am very wary of these. Relaxing in God’s presence is wonderful. We’re supposed to do it every day. Relaxing without him can open doors. Relaxation and hypnosis are tools demons use to get at us. Even though my relaxation CD’s were not religious in nature, I threw them out.

I had music from a company called Hearts of Space. I don’t know if they still exist. They used to produce collections of music to show off stereos, and it leaned toward the occult. A good stereo will simulate a large space very well, and New-Agey music is heavy on ambience effects.

I had a little bit of rock and roll. Gone. I don’t need it. How much brains do you need to realize rock culture belongs to Satan? It celebrates rebellion, drugs, and fornication. What else do you need to know? It embarrasses me that I didn’t throw it out a long time ago.

I threw out blues music. I guess I’ll get rid of all of it. I’m not done yet. I threw out B.B. King, Albert King, Big Joe Turner, Lazy Lester, Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, Howlin’ Wolf, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Johnny Winter, and a pile of other things.

I have excellent taste in music, so I’m throwing out a lot of things that have real artistic quality. I’m not a teeny bopper or a woman. I don’t listen to Hanson, Kenny G, Beyonce, or Lady Gaga.

It’s amazing, the junk women like.

I’m wondering if I should dump Johnny Cash. People think of him as a country musician, but he started out in rockabilly, and he was an amphetamine addict. He had problems with the law. He broke up June Carter’s marriage. Not a great role model.

It’s tough, throwing out my blues CD’s. Pete Johnson, Jimmy Yancey, Ben Waters, Willie Smith, Albert Ammons, Meade Lewis…most people don’t even know who they are.

I pitched almost every Cuban album I had. Cuba is extremely screwed up. Cubans are passionate about voodoo; it’s why Cuba fell to Castro. The famous song “Babalu” is about a demon Cubans worship. I threw out Cugat, Beny More, Orquesta de la Playa, and Miguelito Valdes. I have been throwing out albums that are not easy to find. To buy them, I had to look them up on obscure websites.

Freddie King. Jackson Browne. Buddy Guy. Duane Allman. It’s a massacre.

When I’m done with the trash, I have to start deleting things.

For months, I’ve been asking God to show me the ropes that attach demons to me, and I know these CD’s are among them.

I wonder if I’ll be able to keep my jazz and classical music. It’s less offensive, but apart from a few classical tunes, it’s not pro-God. Jesus said those who were not for him were against him.

Whatever. I can’t have this mess clinging to me any more. How can I ask God to set me free while I hold onto my chains?

One reason I didn’t do this sooner is that I was afraid of going too far. When I was in my twenties, I went through a period when I wanted to get rid of everything that seemed ungodly, and I threw out things I should have kept. I burned some diaries I wish I still had. Having been through that, I was afraid of going overboard again.

Is it really possible to go overboard? Isn’t it better to overdo it and then have things restored to you than to refuse to go far enough? I’m not sure. The main thing is to be guided by the Holy Spirit. If you do the sorting yourself, you’ll be guessing, and you’ll make mistakes.

I have DVD’s I should dump. The entire Blackadder collection, for example. I loved The Big Lebowski, but I threw it out a long time ago because of the nudity. Anything that has nudity is already gone, as far as I know.

If I were a parent, I’d probably be taking a hard look at Pixar and Disney. Disney has always been creepy, because they struggle so hard to avoid promoting Christianity. They look for substitutes. I would also get rid of everything remotely related to Harry Potter. I can’t believe parents let their children look at that filth.

Later on, I’ll visit the dump. If you were to meet me there, you could make a huge CD score. You could get a lot of carefully collected top-quality music for nothing. It’s not going to happen. This stuff will be crushed and buried.

Might as well do it now. There will be no ZZ Top in heaven, so why listen to it on earth?

Christian entertainment is pretty thin. I can’t replace the things I’m discarding with Christian material of equivalent quality. It doesn’t exist. That’s too bad, but then we live in a sick world that ignores God.

I expect what I’m doing to improve my life. I wish I had started sooner. Take a look at your house, and see if there’s anything you should get rid of. Ask yourself how you would feel if Jesus walked in and saw it. Maybe that will help.

More

I finally found the last big box of CD’s. Thank God, it was mostly box sets. That made sorting it a faster job. All of the CD boxes have been purged.

I still have some box sets somewhere. Really nice stuff. Howlin’ Wolf. Buddy Guy. It has to go.

I’m wondering what to do with my copy of the movie Schindler’s List. It’s a remarkable movie about a pivotal event in human history, but it has full frontal nudity in it. This was not necessary, but you know how filmmakers are. They have to shock and titillate. Spielberg should have created a version with no nudity, for younger audiences.

I guess I’ll dump it. I can live without it.

I still have a few music books related to rock and the blues. I will dig them up and consign them to the dumpster.