Scratch That Itch!

I remember one Sunday morning a few years back. My family and I were suck at home because of car trouble ans so we were having home church which was being led by my daughter. She had prepared a short message that she shared on what it means to have a relationship with Jesus. I thought it was pretty good for an eight year old and after she finished we talked a little more and thats when this analogy occurred to me.

I asked her,

"What if someone cleaned your room when it was so messy that there was no way that you could ever do it yourself! Picked up all your toys, made your bed, vacuumed the rug, we're talking immaculately clean! And then, after they were finished they leaned against the door frame and just watched you because they love you and enjoy seeing you play in your restored to order room. Would it change how you played? Would you try your best to keep it that way and never let it get dirty like it was before? If you answered yes then know something about what it means to have a relationship with Jesus!"

Since that day I've continued to search for answers to my own questions about what it means to live your life in Gods Presence. The subject of how we are to live as Christians is one that plays out daily in the many details and choices we all face. I know that there will come a time when my simple analogy to my daughter will no longer suffice and so I want to be ready when perhaps she'll come to me saying,

"I want to honor God in this way but I'm afraid some people might not understand"

I want her to know then as she did before that the reason God always has His eye's on her isn't because He's watching to see if she does wrong, it's because He loves her so much that He can't take His eye's off her!

I also hope she know's that in her relationship with Jesus there's an intimacy between her heart and His and that He understands her motives. His judgments are based in a love that not only "thinketh" no evil but one that,

1 Corinthians 13:7

Beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.

I don't want her to live her life as if she's automatically guilty by association if she should become involved with things that might be thought of as being inappropriate for Christians.

I've dug myself quite a hole there, here's what I mean...

There are some who might see a person being involved with the Martial Arts as such based on it's links to Eastern philosophies and Buddhism. I just hope they don't try to sell that to Chuck Norris who's Kick Start program has helped thousands of kids find their way out of drug's and gang's and put their lives on the right track! I can't imagine a Christian having any objection to other Christians participation in the Olympic's even though originally they were intended as a competition to honor the Greek god Zeus! And Christmas? Oh come on! Ironically, in the two predominant holidays Christians observe there's more Pagansymbolism than there is Christian, does that mean we should stop celebrating them? I know at least a few that have for just those reasons...

If, in an effort to maintain the temple of the Holy Spirit which our bodies are to be we decide to employ the stretching exercises used in Hatha Yoga I hope we aren't shunned or looked down upon by other church members. Also, if your faith is such that you find exercise threatening to it perhaps yoga's not your real problem. I'm saddened that I can't tell people the whole story of how God has revealed His plan of redemption in the stars starting with Virgo the Virgin and ending with Leo the Lion of Judah's return without people thinking I'm a heretic of some kind because of the acceptance of our enemies perversion in our minds of yet another of Gods precious gifts to us!

Romans 12:21

Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.

Several years ago I attended a revival given by a local church, during the service the kids were entertained down stairs by a Christian magician. Should I have turned around and left because of not wanting my child to be exposed to the occult? Some Christian's would say YES! Even though no where in the Bible does it say anything about theatrical magic being forbidden!

2 Timothy 4:3

For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;

I thought Id just go ahead and get this verse of scripture into the mix as well, according to the Strong's Concordance Itching ears are those which are "desirous of hearing something pleasant" as opposed to sound doctrine which is defined as,

a) of Christians whose opinions are free from any mixture of error

b) of one who keeps the graces and is strong

I'll leave it to you to decide what I am...or am not, but whatever conclusions you reach regarding me I've said all these things to make a point which is this.

I have an itch to see Gods church rise up in these last days and be all He intended it to be and for it to complete the purpose for which it was established! A burning and uncomfortable itch to see the church cast aside it's fears and it's dogma and allow The Holy Spirit to move among them in whichever way He choses! To stop allowing counterfeit spiritual perversions of practically everything God's given us to keep us from using those real gifts that we must employ if we're going to be the generation that He'll use to bring in the great harvest!

1 Corinthians 8:9

But take heed lest by any means this liberty of yours become a stumbling block to them that are weak.

If more Christian's would get a similar uncomfortable burning itch, and would scratch it, who knows...

We might just have a wildfire on our hands instead of no-fire.

How Dare You?

Are you an investor? I think it must take a lot of nerve to put large sums of money into stuff and then hope that someday it'll pay off! I suppose it's kind of like the lottery, they say you can't win if you don't play but there are others who believe that you can't lose what you don't bet...I've been told that relationships are work, as if they're a task or a job that has to be done and that may be true...it would explain why so many don't work! I think it's also true that you first must venture something before it's possible to see a return of it, let alone to see a return on it! We sow seeds hoping for a crop and although there's a reasonable expectation of a result it's still not a for sure thing. I'm drawing comparisons here to various things that involve risk so that I can talk about what most people perceive to be the greatest one of all,

loving people!

Allow me to clarify, I feel as though I need to because there are so many concepts people have about what that means. I'm talking about the type of love that can and most likely will cost you everything. The type that never stops to count the cost before acting or that leaves no room for compromise or half measures. It's an all consuming obsession that's primarily characterized by selflessness and a concern for what's in the best interest of it's "object" which of course is so much more than a thing to them...

it's their everything!

Many people practice a much more conditional definition of love as in,

"I love you as long as times are good or until you do something I disapprove of."

Another common example is the idea that I love you until it becomes inconvenient for me or until my feelings for you result in a "heartache" on my part at which point we're through. Some people do see love as an investment, and as such they have some very definite ideas about what they expect in return and while I do believe that love always comes back to us I don't think that anyone truly gives love only because of what they expect to receive in return.

Having said that I'd also like to say that even though expecting a return on our love investment is not in character, that when we do give, sow, invest, or commit ourselves to truly loving someone the return is guaranteed! Perhaps not in the way we might expect or from the person whom we've loved but just as the rising sea levels of a harbor lifts all ships we benefit from bringing more love into the world! Like am electrical wire with current flowing through it, we're warmed by it's passage!

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM-gZintWDc&w=640&h=390]

I'd like to be able to say that I've loved that way, but what Robin Williams said about loving something more than yourself kind of left me hollow, I find it's quite a struggle for me to love something more than I fear being rejected by it...

I'm also floored to know that this is how God loves each of us, except it's actually so much more than I can even comprehend. He sent His only Son Jesus to be our redeemer even though I'm sure He knew that many would reject this supreme act of love!

Thank You Father for Your infinite love, please change my heart to allow Your love to shine through me more, and for me to see the fear in my life for the liar that it is!

Do I dare?

How dare you?

It's Only Money!

For anything of real value in this world there's always a counterfeit. Something that has the appearance of the genuine article but is actually nothing but a cheap imitation. It may look, smell or even provide us with comparable performance in the short term but that's usually where the similarities end.

Money is kind of like that, many people often mistake it for love or happiness...

Can you imagine anyone purposely choosing a fake Rolex watch over a real one or a Cubic Zirconia over a real diamond? You might be unaware of it but most if not all of us do something very similar to that on a daily basis! It's evident in some very significant aspects of our lives, from the way we treat each other on a personal level to the corporate structures we patronize. When we purchase food's that have been commercially processed by large corporations we become part of an industry that has little or no respect for life, certainly not for the lives of the animals they inhumanely raise and slaughter or for the lives of the workers they hire for sub-standard wages to work in dangerous pesticide saturated environments and who not surprisingly also have no respect for us either! Is life sacred to you? From my perspective that's a simple yes or no question, and if the answer is yes then the truth of that belief should extend to all life regardless of whether it's born or unborn or walks on two feet or twenty!

Instead of approaching peoples health from a holistic perspective that takes into account the root sources of our maladies which are physical, spiritual and nutritional, we're a nation of people who'd rather choose a pill that only masks the problem by eliminating symptoms to some degree. We're willing participants in a system that disrespects us by seeing our health as a business with profit as the real objective. We'd rather pay the sometimes exorbitant monetary cost and expose ourselves to the possible side effects than do the real thing which no doubt would include us making some of the different food choices and lifestyle changes as well.

Nope, hunt-uh, no thanks!

As I thought about all of this I really struggled to understand why people,myself included, seem to be more comfortable with fake than they are with real...and this is what occurred to me. Maybe it's because before we'd be comfortable with real,which is respectful, caring and is based in ethics we'd have to insist on those same qualities in ourselves...We'd need to have a healthy self respect that wouldn't allow us to be a part of such a thing, or consider doing the unthinkable...caring about others more than ourselves! Give us just one reason to choose something less and we'll swoop down on it like no tomorrow which is smack dab on the doorstep of where this sort of unsustainable thinking has landed us.

We've chosen what we think makes economic sense, and on both a corporate and personal level we've gone with what will make us the biggest profit or save us the most money with not much thought being given to the long term consequences.

1 Timothy 6:10 For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

I'm certainly not against people making a living and based on Paul's writing in the above verse I don't think he was either. It's placing money or the power it conveys above people, to love it, which is merely a representation of value more than we do others is to sow seeds of sadness into our own lives. What we've failed to understand is that it is truly "Only Money" and that someday, maybe even today, we'll live a life that reflects our accountability for the choices we've made.

Sick and Tired...

There are always good and bad examples within any industry or profession and here in America our health care system is certainly no exception. However I don't think it would be unfair, or an overstatement to say that the business of health care in this country has gone way beyond that! At the onset I want to make it clear that I have the utmost respect for the many people of integrity who work in the medical field and who's passion it is to ease human suffering. Having said that, my intent here is to heap scorn onto the purveyors of what I see as being the primarily profit motivated, patient abusing quackery so sadly common in this country.

But first, who am I and what are my qualifications, what makes me think I could possibly have anything relevant to say on this topic? My answer is that that is exactly the perspective held by too many people both in and out of the health profession, that we're too dumb to have a valid opinion about our own health or understand there's something wrong when a listing of the side effects following a drug ad takes 20-30 seconds to recite. I'm sorry but it's just hard for me to place a lot of trust in an industry that based on the frequency of it's malpractice supports an army of lawyers or that can't seem to make up their mind about something as simple as an egg! One thing's for sure, our ill's aren't the result of a lack of drugs in our bodies...so how can they cure anything?

The list of things that science has gotten wrong throughout history is a long one. The world wasn't flat, the practice of bleeding people doesn't cure or help anyone, and so, we need to remind ourselves that there's no doubt we've still got a few things wrong today! In another hundred years will they look back at how we currently treat people with mental illness and wince at our crude methods? What about cancer, is it the best we can do to poison ourselves with chemotherapy and hope that it kills the renegade cells before it kills us? And yet some who work in the healing arts have the audacity to be offended when we question whether a prescribed therapy is right for us, seek out a second opinion, or opt for an alternative treatment. It's not the unavoidable ignorance of medical treatment that bothers me the most it's the eye's wide open snake oil peddlers who profit from peoples misery I'm against.

However unlikely the realization of it may seem I believe that the American people must take back responsibility for their health from the existing medical establishment. It's not really the insurmountable task that some might think, many people live long and very healthy lives by following simple principles of balance such as work eight hours, sleep eight and spend the other eight doing something you enjoy! Also why not give our overworked digestive systems a break and cut back on the amount of red meat we consume, I suspect that many peoples lack of energy is in part due to the constant demands placed on our blood supply to digest this habitual over consumption. If we could stop eating anything that's been bleached, overly processed, that contains high fructose corn syrup or comes from a drive through window I believe our collective health would improve so much that it would put big pharma and big agra out of business!

Yes, I'm sick...

Sick of the way people in this country have been brainwashed into self destructing...

And I'm tired of pretending that somehow everything is going to be "okay"...

Next post...It's Only Money!