Fat Strings Make for Fast Picking

Well this is weird.

I’ve been working on the intro to Lynyrd Skynyrd’s “I Know a Little” for weeks, and I was having a miserable time with some of the flatpicking. There’s a place where you play the first string at the twelfth fret, then the second string at the tenth fret, then the third string at the eighth fret, and then you move everything down a fret and play it again. You do this at 150% of the song’s normal 220 beat per second speed. It is not easy. I’ve been screwing it up over and over.

The other day I took my Strat out of the case. I hadn’t played it in a while. It has elevens on it. My other guitars generally have tens on them (or tens with heavy bottom strings). When I played the Strat, the flatpicking was easier. This was what I had hoped for when I took it out. It’s not surprising, since it’s generally easier to flatpick heavy strings. I decided to consider putting elevens on my other guitars.

The Strat is great, but I can’t cope with the volume knob that sits where my picking hand should be. It forces me to play near the neck, where the strings are wobbly and hard to find. I figured I should try elevens on another guitar and get used to picking fast near the bridge, where it’s easiest. Eventually, I would be able to go back to the Strat and play fast, regardless of the position. I’d get used to picking fast, so the knob would no longer matter. This was the plan.

Today I got a set of D’Addario jazz/blues strings (couldn’t find the normal ones at Best Buy) and put them on my amazing Chinese Epiphone. Suddenly I was able to play that difficult lick! The clouds had parted! You can’t imagine how hard I’ve worked on this, and how little progress I made until I tried the new strings. Suddenly I was able to feel the strings properly with my left hand, and they didn’t run away from my right hand any more. The thinner strings didn’t give my left hand much feedback, and they were hard to find with the pick.

Since then I’ve played “I Know a Little” until I’m wiped out. It’s so satisfying, hearing it work. Now I just have to fix one piece of fretting, and I’m in business. I’ll be able to play the song well at 90% speed and adequately at 100%. That’s a big deal. I’ve never seen anyone else do it. If I can do this, I know I’ll be able to play blues guitar well.

Most people like to use little strings to play fast. It doesn’t work well for me. They bend much easier, and that’s nice, but when you’re really flying, they seem to let you slide around the guitar neck too much, making your fretting inaccurate. When you fret guitar strings, sometimes you actually use one string for support while you reach for another, and that doesn’t work well with nines or tens. And because they’re hard to feel, you don’t always know what’s going on.

Maybe it’s because I learned on thirteens, playing bluegrass. Those things are fantastic for fast picking. You can forget about bending them to any useful degree, and stretches and playing up the neck are really rough, but your right hand will cook, and your left hand will always know exactly what’s happening.

I wonder if this is why Stevie Ray Vaughan liked thick strings. Perhaps when your hands get strong, playing on thin strings gets harder. He played very, very fast, so I can see how thin strings would confuse his picking hand. I’m sure someone will point out that he tuned down half a step, making the strings easier to bend. I think that would make the need for stiffer strings even greater.

This is fantastic. I’m so relieved. When you’re a musician, every time you hit a technical problem you can’t solve, you wonder if you’ve hit the limit of your talent. Now I know I can flatpick the electric guitar as fast as anyone needs to. I may not be the fastest, but almost no material will be off limits to me because of speed issues. That’s good enough for me. It’s the best result I could have hoped for.

It’s also comforting to know my age is not limiting me. I remember watching Roy Clark complain about losing speed, and he was probably five or more years younger than I am. I think he had arthritis. Anyway, when you’re old and you try to develop a skill, you always have to worry that it’s something your body or mind can’t do.

Finally, I’m going to have music in my life, and I’m going to do it well. The problems I had with the piano were extremely disappointing, so I feel like I have a new lease on life. I also have friends who are interested in amps, guitars, music, and serving God, so I won’t be alone in this.

I can’t wait until next week. With this new development, I should be playing this song correctly by then.

On top of that, I found a new tube amp design that I like, so I’m getting ready to order the parts and get to work. I now have two guys at church who want me to build amps for them.

Psalm 37:4!

We Could Get a Few Things DONE

Today I’m thinking about signs that show that a church is successful.

It’s an interesting subject. Sometimes God does things that are impressive from an earthly perspective, and it demonstrates that he’s on the scene, so if your church is big and rich, it could mean God is with you. On the other hand, what if a pastor sees a big, healthy church and decides to make his church big, too, even if he has to cut spiritual corners to get there? It’s like an anorexia victim puffing up her cheeks with air to look fat.

I’m concerned about the trend toward building megachurches. I don’t see the point. How does that please God? What does he care how big your church is? When we say “the church,” we’re not referring to one building. We’re referring to over a billion people, wherever they may be. It doesn’t matter if A church is big, as long as THE church is big.

I can understand wanting to reach as many people as possible, if you have a good message, but what if you’re corrupting the message to reach more people? That’s stupid. You’re defeating your fundamental purpose. You’re like a woman who uses sex as a lure to get a loving, supportive, faithful husband. You’re using catfish bait, but you expect to catch a marlin. That’s nutty.

Here’s the bottom line: the size of a church proves nothing. If you run a big church, you need to realize you may be a much worse pastor than the guy down the street, so think twice before you tell someone else how to make it. You may be leading him straight to hell. TV cameras don’t make you a great man of God. You may be a total zero, headed for a major fall.

How many megachurch TV pastors have we seen, who turned out to be utter failures as Christians? That proves my case. Unfortunately, we can’t see the great pastors who have unknown churches. But they’re out there.

When the Christian church really got started, there were 120 people involved. This was after Jesus had worked for at least three years. That was the net, for the greatest pastor of all time.

It wasn’t a megasynagogue or a megashul. You could put the whole core of the church in two buses. But the Bible says they were all “in one accord.” That doesn’t mean they were muzzled, or that they mindlessly agreed with every mistake their leaders made; it means they were serious. The Holy Spirit rewarded them by blowing into the room and filling them with supernatural tongues. They went out and conquered the world for Christ. Meanwhile, the big religious organization of the day, which was Judaism, went on to stagnate for two thousand years.

Jesus only had 120 people to work with. Would anyone say God didn’t approve of his ministry? Would anyone say that it would have been bigger, if he had been doing things right? Actually, some of the guys on TBN might.

Last year, I was in DC for the National Day of Prayer. Mike and I visited a great Assemblies of God Church. There was no light show when the band played. The music wasn’t deafening. There was no rap. There were no TV cameras. The service was organized, but they were flexible enough to let the Holy Spirit interrupt. While the pastor’s wife was talking, she changed course and started talking about a different topic the Holy Spirit had put on her mind, and it was extraordinary, because what she said was tailored to Mike’s specific need.

The church wasn’t huge. I would guess it held a thousand people when packed. But it was clean and nicely decorated, and the people looked good. It seemed like a very healthy church. The Holy Spirit definitely moved while we were there.

I wish I knew of a church like that near me. I’ll be honest. I love the people at my church, but we are working so hard to attract people, and at putting on a slick show, the place seems to be getting somewhat sterile. We have lasers and smoke machines, but I can’t remember the last time I saw a spontaneous Holy Spirit move on the stage. I don’t think there’s room for it in the schedule. And sometimes we use music by people like Eminem, who wrote about raping his mother. That can’t be good for the kids. I can’t see Jesus coming back and snapping his fingers to an Eminem number while they introduce him.

I don’t recognize crappy rap music when I hear it, but many people in the church do, and they have come to me and commented negatively on it. It has offended people. I was oblivious, because fortunately, I have great taste in music. If they played Lionel Hampton, I’d notice.

Churches imitate the secular world in order to attact members. But that which you imitate, you become. These days, mainstream churches deny the virgin birth, the second coming, the existence of sin and hell, and even the deity of Jesus. They got that way by trying to attract members! Spirit-filled churches are headed the same way. Whether they admit it or not, it proves they don’t trust God to attract crowds. We think we’re better than the mainstream churches, but we are no different. We just found a different way to fail.

What would happen if the church closest to you started experiencing miracles? What would happen if a prophet arose there, and that prophet started saying things only God could know? What would happen if the people who attended the church started changing dramatically, due to the power of the Holy Spirit? What if people started feeling God’s addictive presence powerfully? Wouldn’t crowds show up? Am I crazy? Isn’t this what the world is thirsting for?

You can’t get those things by using the world’s tricks. God isn’t going to show up because you print snazzy flyers and do phone marketing, or because you talk about love all the time and never mention sin, or because you promise people God will give them money. Linus said the Great Pumpkin looked for the sincerest pumpkin patch when choosing the place for his manifestations. Surely God is as smart as the Great Pumpkin.

The prosperity gospel is a problem, because it’s exaggerated way beyond anything God ever promised, and it does not work. Churches promise people more money than they know what to do with, and they give to the church, and the money doesn’t show up. So instead of real miracles, which would raise attendance, some churches deliver promises of financial miracles that never occur. Then what happens when you try to get people to go to church? “My aunt gave away half of her retirement money, and we had to pay for her funeral. Why would I associate with those thieves?” “But God will change your life and fix your problems and heal your family!” “Right, like he fixed my aunt’s problems?”

My church has little prayer cells called GAP groups (“God Answers Prayer”). I belong to one. Every so often, I have to lead it. On those occasions, I refuse to prepare. I used to try to put things together, but then I remembered what Jesus told us about appearing in public. He said that if we were called before the authorities, the Holy Spirit would tell us what to say. He commanded us not to prepare. Was he a liar? Was he stupid? I don’t think so. Therefore I choose to take him seriously; that’s what walking by faith is all about. If he will help us talk to the cops, he will also help us talk to each other. So far, it has been working like you would not believe. I show up with nothing, and we end up with so much to talk about, we can’t finish it.

We also pray in the Spirit, as a group, using a timer to make sure we don’t skimp. And we put on gentle Christian music, because God inhabits the praises of his people, and because the Bible says the Holy Spirit is grieved by clamor. This stuff is working. It changes the atmosphere in the room, and it makes things happen.

We don’t see this kind of thing much in the main area of the church, except during prayer meetings. Maybe the services aren’t always as powerful as they should be. The GAP group makes up for it, to a great extent.

On the one hand, you don’t want to be so supernaturally kooky and obsessed with correction that you drive people away. On the other, you have to acknowledge that what people really want is God, not you or your big giant church. Paul said he hooked people with God’s power, not man’s fancy words.

Maybe we need smaller churches where people are in one accord. A good seed is better than a rotten plant that bears no fruit. The problem with seeker-friendliness is that you end up attracting people who aren’t seekers, and in order to keep them, you have to put their whiny demands above God’s plan. Suddenly you don’t say much about sin or hell. You talk all the time about love, as if God were Oprah. You decide “Thou shalt not judge” is a commandment, even when people are dying for lack of correction. Sin brings curses on people; a pastor has to tell his flock about it. Otherwise, he can’t say he loves them.

It seems to me that if you have to resort to secular methods in order to succeed, your ministry didn’t come from God. It proves he doesn’t want you to make it, so you should quit and try to find out what he really wants you to do. Maybe you were supposed to be a dentist. Who knows? To find out God’s plan, you should start relying on his power. Hey, maybe he can do a better job than you.

Walking by faith works like this: God tells you to do certain things, and you trust him, and you do those things, counting on God to make them work. You don’t cheat. Moses didn’t go down to the shore of the Red Sea and try to push the water back with his foot while no one was looking, and when Elijah burned people alive with God’s fire, he didn’t bring lighter fluid, just in case. In fact, God punishes people who try to “help” him in ways that deny faith. He destroyed Saul’s kingdom because Saul tried to fill in for some priests who were late. He judged Moses for whacking a rock twice to make water pour out of it, instead of hitting it once, as ordered by God.

Either this stuff works, or it doesn’t. If it doesn’t, God is a liar or a fantasy, and we should all quit and go to a nice strip club and get drunk. If it does, let’s quit adding our worthless, hypocritical nonsense to God’s perfect way.

I’m getting wonderful results. If God ever starts letting me down, I’ll see you at the strip club. Don’t bet the rent on that.

More

Aaron popped up and corrected me. The big mistake Moses made at Meribah was not hitting the rock twice, but hitting it, period. That was what I originally intended to write, but I didn’t trust my memory, and when I Googled it, I got it wrong somehow. Moses was supposed to speak to the rock, not hit it.

The interesting thing is that this makes the citation even more appropriate. Look what Moses was called on to do. He had to walk by faith. Sure, he had to use his natural strength to walk up to a rock and talk to it, but he did not have to use natural means directly related to the goal. In other words, the things he was asked to do were easy things in the natural; he was not called on to work, in any meaningful sense. God didn’t say, “Start digging a well, and I’ll make sure it pays off.” The most important thing was to do precisely what he was told, even though it was not something that ordinarily solves irrigation problems. The intended result was a purely supernatural event: a rock opening up and giving water. It wasn’t an ordinary spring which God simply chose to make productive.

Now, what would have happened, had God given the same order to one of our modern, carnal prosperity preachers? First, he would have begged a local businessman to lend him a bulldozer. Then he would have made his drama team find him a big hardhat. He would have had his band prepare some dramatic music. He would have sent out twenty thousand flyers, inviting people to see him BRING FORTH WATER FROM THE BARREN ROCK! And he would have called the local TV stations. He would have jumped on the bulldozer, made a speech about how your financial problems were “like this ROCK,” and shoved the rock out of the way while the band played behind him.

If water had come out, people would have said, “That idiot broke a spring open, and he’s trying to tell us God did it so we’ll give him money. He probably wiped out a water main.”

This is why you don’t do things for God. At least, you don’t force his promises to come true. God can’t get his glory if you bust your rear end and stay up nights working to make things happen. Any idiot can get things through hard work. Only a man of God can get things by walking by faith.

Think about Jesus. Is there even one example of him giving people medicine? No, but he healed a whole lot of people. Think about Elisha, who purified a well by throwing salt in it. Think about Naaman, who got healed of leprosy by going swimming. How about Joshua, who destroyed the walls of Jericho by walking around them in a circle?

Either it’s about God’s power, or it’s not. If your walk with God is about hard work and your wonderful talents and gifts and social connections, you might as well be a Buddhist.

Introducing a Fantastic New Blogger: Mr. N.Y. Times

Here’s an interesting fact. Real blogs have been driven out of Google News results.

I just Googled the bin Laden story, bringing up 100 “blog” results. My blog used to appear in these searches, as did the blogs of other people I knew. Guess what? Things have changed. In the current results, the closest things to blogs are Newsbusters and The American Thinker. I don’t even see Instapundit in there!

It’s so funny, being this right. Years ago, I complained that big businesses were going to take over blogging and drive the little guys out. Now look! ABC and NPR and The New York Times appear in “blog” searches, but we don’t! We are HISTORY! KAPUT! OVER!

I didn’t realize it had gotten this bad. There is really nothing left now.

It’s the craziest thing. For about seven years, a loophole opened up, and ordinary people were able to get their feet into it and hold it open and talk to the world. Then it snapped shut! What’s left? Is Youtube still doable? I don’t even know.

I underestimated the ruthlessness and selfishness of the big time press, which is saying a lot, given how much I talked about these things. I knew they resented us, and that they would try to kill us, but I didn’t know they would proactively push us out. They have to be using search engine experts and so on in order to do this, unless Google is doing it for them. This kind of thing doesn’t just happen. It has to be deliberate and premeditated.

I don’t know what to say, except for, “Thanks for all the fish!”

It doesn’t matter what I say. No one will read it!

He Sleeps With the Fishes

Osama (I keep typing “Obama” by mistake) is dead. Hooray, hooray. It’s good news. No doubt about it. But here’s my question: what has he done to us lately?

As I understand it, under President Bush, America and her allies neutered Obama…I mean “Osama”…years ago. Al Qaeda has been on the run for quite some time, and they don’t get a lot done. So I’m not all that excited about Osama’s death. He wasn’t running the show.

There are some good things about it. It shows that there is a price to pay for killing US civilians. We didn’t quit. It shows that even a dainty, pampered, self-adoring amateur like Obama will support this kind of action. I’m also glad they dumped Osama’s body in the ocean, because now there is no hope of building a mosque over it. It will probably lead to Osama Elvis sightings, but that’s better than having them put him in a nitrogen-filled glass case at the Ground Zero Mosque.

Still, Osama was not our biggest problem. Right now, the Muslim Brotherhood is trying to assemble a coalition of Islamist nations, and they’re probably going to succeed. And we’re helping them. Our tireless terrorist-busting President is pulling yet another Carter tribute. Carter gave Iran to the thugs, and Obama is handing them a big chunk of the rest of the Muslim world. It’s funny how our two least Jew-friendly Presidents of the last twenty-five years have both ended up handing giant tracts of real estate to Israel’s sworn enemies.

Bush made the mistake of supporting land for peace, and so did Clinton, but they were nothing like Carter or Obama. There is no longer much room to doubt that Carter is an anti-Semite, and Obama has been extremely bold in changing our policy toward Israel. He has made it clear that he thinks we have been too good to Israel, and he has established a pattern of humiliating the Israeli Prime Minister. Say what you want about Bush and Clinton. Neither of them would have criticized the US for favoring Israel to the point where more “even-handedness” was needed. Obama did that.

The Muslim Brotherhood concerns me. It seems that their aims are the same as Al Qaeda’s, but they are much more effective, and they are using common sense. It’s much smarter to take over a Muslim nation and use it than to slaughter American civilians and invite a crushing response.

In the past, the US and Israel have generally benefited when Muslims didn’t get along. When they fought among themselves, they didn’t have much energy to fight us. Now we may be looking at a multi-nation alliance that is cohesive enough to deal us severe blows, possibly of a biological or nuclear nature.

Perry Stone thinks the Antichrist will be a Muslim. He believes the Antichrist will be the Twelfth Imam, AKA the Mahdi. Many Muslims hoped Osama would turn out to be the Mahdi. The Bible also tells us the Antichrist will rule ten nations, or at least that’s how people interpret it. Right now, the Muslim brotherhood is putting nations together. Are they building the Antichrist’s confederacy?

God and Satan have a way of rotating their employees. Elijah arose, and then his anointing–his supernatural “commission”–fell on Elisha. I suspect that Satan got everything he wanted out of Osama, so he gave him up to die and go on to get what he deserves. Now someone else is on the rise, and we don’t know who it is. Osama was Madonna; the new person will be Lady Gaga. Maybe.

God is going to severely squash the nations that divide Israel, and the United States is currently one of those nations. We need to get Obama out of the White House and replace him with someone who will support God’s nation. We need to quit voting for legislators who don’t believe in prophecy. America needs to repent. People need to turn back to God, start walking by faith, quit killing their unborn children, stop glorifying themselves, and get into the flow of God’s blessings.

I think people who walk by faith will come through the upcoming economic and political upheavals unscathed. In the Revelation, Jesus told the destroyers not to touch the oil or the wine. Oil represents the anointing and the baptism with the Holy Spirit. Believers who are full of the Spirit are like vessels filled with new wine (this is what the miracle at the wedding of Cana means). Maybe Jesus was telling the destroyers to shake the world but pass by his faithful, as the destroyer passed over the homes of the Hebrews in Egypt. I think we’ll be fine, and people will hate us for it. But the rest of the US, well, that depends on how we treat the Jews, the poor, the unborn, and so on. And socialism is not charity, so voting for liberals is not the way to be good to the poor.

Wow, read Psalm 105 and see how it lines up with our current situation. It’s all about God’s people, being enriched and delivered during hard times, and it’s about the plagues that hit Egypt but missed the Jews. I found it accidentally by Googling the bit about the oil and the wine, and it says something very similar: “Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.”

It turns out Revelation 6:6 is the relevant verse. I’m not enough of a prophecy scholar to tell you whether it has to do with the Tribulation or the current shaking, but I think the principle is eternal. God’s people are often delivered from the mess around them. “A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand and thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.” Noah, Joseph, Jesus at the cliff in Nazareth, Lot and his family…even Peter, standing on the Sea of Galilee.

I know I sound like a kook, but there is so much I’m not telling people, they really can’t judge. Last night one of the young people from my church called me about bin Laden, and we started talking about evidence that God is real and that Jesus is the Messiah, and even I was amazed at the words that came out of me. God has show me a ton of stuff. He’s up there, believe me. More importantly, he’s down here.

There are worse things than sounding like a kook. I probably have forty years left, if I get to live my entire span. That time is going to pass in a flash. I still remember watching new episodes of Batman and Mission Impossible. I don’t perceive the passed time as very great, but I know these things happened over 40 years ago. In what will seem like a minute, in the same way, I’ll be looking back at today. I’m going to die. It’s as good as done. Why should I sweat about what people think of me here? They’re as good as dead, too. None of this is permanent. And when it’s over, we’ll all know who was right.

Actual Noise, as Contrasted With Aspirations and Theory

I got the Firefly amp and speaker cabinet working. I thought the amp was too dark, so I dug up a 200pF capacitor and stuck it in the magic “bright” holes in the PCB. I think it made a big difference. Now the amp sounds a lot better.

Here I am, continuing to work on “I Know a Little,” with the mighty Chinese Epiphone Riviera P93 with Lollar pickups. I’m using a Way Huge Pork Loin pedal. I’m at 80% of the album speed. I can play it faster, and the mistakes don’t get much worse, but I like it better at this speed.

05 01 11 i know a little intro epiphone riviera firefly amp pork loin

It craps out when the boost is too high. Probably something loose in there.

I recorded this on a Tascam GT-R1, which is a very small recorder with a cheap built-in mike. Take it for what it is.

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.

Guitar Improvement

Five days ago I posted a cheesy recording of me, playing the intro to “I Know a Little” on a Telecaster. I had just gotten it sort of together, and it was really shaky. But I was thrilled I knew it well enough to play it. Here it is.

I Know a Little, With Marv as Background Vocalist

Today I decided to post a new recording I just made. It shows what you can learn in five days. I played it on a Strat, which is very annoying to work with, because the volume knob is in the way of the picking hand. Still, it’s way smoother and more competent than the first recording. I think I should be on top of this by the end of May.

I Know a Little, played on Strat.

That’s actually not so bad. Working on one piece for weeks sounds awful, but this is a very hard bit to play. As fast as it is, it’s only up to 80% of the album speed, and there are slides and stretches and other difficult things in there. The triplets come in at about 260 beats per minute, and they’re flatpicked, one at a time.

One of the hard passages has been smoothed out completely. The others are improving fast. I’m even getting a little more swing, as the piece gets easier to play. It’s hard to think about music when you’re terrified of missing a note or getting lost.

Today I decided to check out my Greg Koch instructional DVD to see what he could do to help me. In my memory, his playing was right on target, so I figured he might have some tips. I was shocked when I watched his demo. He’s not even close. He can really play, but he’s way off on “I Know a Little.” Maybe the work I’ve done since I bought the DVD has changed my ability to hear the music correctly. I’m going to be able to play this better than he does. Apart from that, however, I will still basically be a wart on a germ on a flea on Greg Koch’s rear end.

This is pretty exciting. Someone else might listen to these recordings and hear only hopeless crap, but I know how fast I’m making progress, and I can tell where I’m headed. I’m going to be able to play blues guitar well. What a relief.

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.

SOUND!

I got my new Firefly amp working. I am too lazy to post another photo.

The sound is very good, although a little dark. I think a pedal will fix that. You can brighten the sound by adding a capacitor; I don’t know if that will make it warmer or just tinny.

The amp has a boost channel. I don’t really understand the circuit, but I assume this just recycles the amplified sound, using the main circuit as a preamp. Anyway, it’s pretty danged loud. But with the boost off, you can turn the main circuit gain up all the way without getting loud. The sound is nice and coarse, so it sounds like the tubes are actually working, but the plaster doesn’t fall off the walls of the house, as it would if I turned up any of my other amps.

I have advice for anyone who builds one of these using a PCB. First of all, why use a PCB? It’s easy and small, but the amp will still be small if you use an ordinary circuit board, and you’ll save forty bucks or something.

Second, don’t use the onboard stuff, like the pots and jack and switches. There are places to mount these items directly to the PCB. This forces you to drill very precise mounting holes in the cabinet. It all has to line up. That’s stupid. Just run wires to the PCB and mount this junk wherever you want.

When I finished getting this thing into working condition, I had no cabinet to plug it into. I found a solution. I borrowed the jack from the Telecaster I’m building, and I wired it to the Weber speaker I’m going to use in the cabinet. I stuck the speaker on the couch and plugged it in. Works great. Not elegant, but I was in a hurry.

It turns out the tubes have to be mashed pretty hard to get them into the sockets. One of mine fell out. Also, the little screw-tightened wire connectors on the PCB are hard to get right. The wires tend to fall out, which is bad.

I attached the top using only glue, and so far, it has worked. They tell me a good glue joint is stronger than the wood around it, so why not put it to the test? If it breaks, I’ll put it back together with screws and supports.

I have to figure out how to paint it. I think I’ll just blast it with leftover truck bed paint. It will be very tough, and I won’t have to blow twenty bucks on a vinyl covering.

It needs knobs. If I can’t find anything around here, I may machine a couple out of aluminum. That would be fast, and it would look good, and I could rub it in the noses of all the non-mechanical people who already think I’m superhuman because I can solder resistors onto a board.

Now all I need is a tiny cabinet for super portability. The speaker I bought is a 12″ job, and it sounds good, but for convenience, it would be good to have something really small, like a car speaker. And dang it, I KNEW I’d need the old Dodge and Ford speakers I threw out when I upgraded vehicle stereos. DANG it. I just realized that. Maybe I still have the Dodges. I wonder how sensitive that speaker is. And how do you check the impedance? Can you just stick an ohmmeter on it? I might have to stick a resistor in there somewhere.

This is beyond cool. Now I have to make the big cabinet, the little cabinet, and a Murder One clone, which is a sub-one-watt amp using submini tubes, whatever they are. It’s the size of a pedal. I may even try to make a PCB for it. You can do that, if you’re a big enough nerd. I already have the PCB and photo paper, plus free circuit design software.

Man, what is happening to me? I’m turning into My Favorite Martian.

I’ll try to record this thing eventually.

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.

Take me Where I Cannot Clamp…

I got my Firefly tube amp running today. When I first turned it on, it blew a fuse. I let it sit while I waited for new fuses to arrive. Today I opened it up, and I saw the problem. I felt so stupid. I put one of the rectifier diodes in backward. I knew about this hazard before I started, and I still did it!

Luckily the fuse saved the diode. I put it back in, and I turned the amp on, and I got a power light and no smoke. Does it work? Can’t say until I build the cabinet.

Right now the top is glued to the sides, and it’s setting up. I don’t know if it’s necessary to brace it from inside. It’s only about 6″ tall. It can be very difficult to line things up when you try to screw or glue a support in a corner, so I decided to go ahead with glue, which is much easier. If I decide to put a support in, hopefully, the glue joint will keep everything aligned.

I’m not a good woodworker. This is the best I could do. I don’t know how I’ll apply a finish after all this, but I don’t care any more. I have to get it working. I can always build a nicer box later.

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.