The Cost of a Penny

I've said it before and I'll say it many more times: there are always negative corollaries to every positive maxim or proverb.  I think of it as the yin-yang symbol of Taoism [dow-ism], a positive and negative in moving balance, whether that's proper interpretation by the pan Chinese religions who have adopted that symbol I won't debate - it's just what I think of when I realize I am seeing a negative outcome to an almost wholly positively quoted proverb.

The example I frame this around today is Proverbs 22:6:

Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it.

I find things stirring in my soul lately with the publicly told tragedies of Aurora fresh in my heart, the angry diatribes of intolerance redefined regarding the same sex marriage debate Chic-Fil-A drug itself into, and the witness of promising young people refusing to fit into molds of adult responsibility.  I have little to say regarding the first two topics, my two cents is less than relevant or necessary and like two actual pennies the price of weighing in on them will cost me more than they are worth to make.  Maybe in touching on the third I will inadvertently speak to the first two, maybe not.  There are elements of personal responsibility woven through all three so maybe that is what precipitated the tie ins.

Young people today, funny I include myself in that category at 40 years old... just a passing observation from someone who more often feels they are a cantankerous old fart.  Maybe the 'cantankerous old fart' title speaks more to my relearned values than my actual age.  I find I have looked into the old ways and reestablished foundations that were moved by others.  I certainly find it easy to digress like an old man whittling around a small chunk of wood to reveal the creation within.  Chronological adults in today's worldwide culture often metaphorically buck and kick and scream and balk at being molded into anything resembling conformity, inspiring a strong desire to paddle them repeatedly in public humiliation.  Part of me is quieting down now rather than risk said paddling, but the old fart in me is nodding in agreement, the black pentecostal in me is working up a "preach it brother!" and clearing my throat for a hearty amen or three.

Chronological Adults, I believe is where I meant to pick this up rather than Young People.

We live in broken times with abandoned children not taken under any wings, and though there are heartbreaking poverty situations of orphanage and war torn country examples I could advocate for, bring to a readers attention, I speak to my own culture in the United States today.  The witness of an affluent society, made affluent not by greed and other nefariously evil machinations but by traditional values of hard work and Judeo-Christian work ethic underpinned by a religious realization traditionally called "The Fear of God."  A healthy fear in knowing we would be held accountable by a power greater than ourselves, and in this country that was originally defined as the revealed God of the Bible whether we like it or not.  The truth that most of what resembles progress or success today is actually fueled by greed and nefariously evil machinations is just a sad fact.  That fact, however, no more changes the original roots of our God given blessings than calling good evil or evil good - and we are certainly not clever in thinking so by rewriting history.

I live daily working through my own past and pin pointing where my own character defects tend to come from, and as I search myself and root out the underlying sinful weeds that crop up or deform the attempts at healthy growth in my own life, I can't help but reach conclusions about the lives of people around me.  Today I will be forced to face the negative corollary of Proverbs 22:6 in that we all work with chronological adults who will expect they can do whatever they want, because their daddy did when he walked out on their pregnant mother, or their mother did when she walked out on their daddy.  Or my alcoholic parent wasn't a good example so who are you to judge me?  I was raped... I was molested... I was beaten... I lived a life essentially abandoned by all parents and hope...  We live in a broken world where the scenarios are numerous and few of them pretty.  The 99% lash out and demand retribution from the 1% they suppose to have withheld their bounty.  The conservatives rake the liberals, the liberals vilify the conservatives,  while few of us objectively acknowledge anything like rational thought in public discourse of any type.  We fail a fair examination of the content of character because we've redefined what character looks like.  It looks like whatever I say it looks like, so screw you buddy!  To a kid Love looks like giving them all the candy they want, and then it's still your fault when their abscessed teeth explode and the funeral home has to make an extra wide casket to bury the fat creature killed by infection being driven into their brain - by loving parents - what?  Hello? 

It doesn't take long for the logic to get convoluted and irrational.  The foundations have been destroyed.  Excuses and blame and striving for hope in man or princes rather than the only source of goodness.

Psalm 118:8-9, 6
It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in man.
It is better to trust in the LORD than to put confidence in princes.
The LORD is on my side; I will not fear, what can man do to me?

There are inherent consequences to our every choice.  Even in situations where divorce is pursued as the absolute last desired outcome, damage is done.  I would never advocate someone staying in an abusive, adulterous relationship, but gravity isn't suspended by extenuating circumstances.  Only love binds the wounds created by the bottom falling out.  Our hearts don't respond to extenuating circumstances and rational justifications.  Our heart says: I am insecure and unwanted and wickedly defective because they didn't care enough to provide me a loving foundation.  If my parents are the bedrock foundation of what it means to be loved and secure and brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, what unspoken messages were heard and learned in that child's life.  People are disposable.  There are no rules to follow except maybe "whatever feels good - do it."  Sex - grab it where you can.  Work - just enough to keep the lights on or at least feed your funnest habit.  Blame - if it gets the attention off you.  Personal responsibility?  What?  Is that Spanish?  Greek?  What language could that phrase come from and what could it possibly mean?  Survive because you have to... life strives and clings in the most unlikely locations.  I found tiny fish in a long standing mud puddle around a foundation pillar the other day - they're doomed but they were there.  If I ever learn how to insert pictures in my blogs I will prove it to you.  How like those fish are we?  Striving to live in a puddle where our doom is a foregone certainty.  Maybe I should strap myself to the temporary brace for the canopy until their life cycle is complete.

Other situations occur to me, like the formally married couple who divorced long ago in fact.  Abusive behavior or addiction housed within the shell of an otherwise 'normal' ideal home.  Shame and humiliation perpetrated within the blighted landscape of a dysfunctional family who has no ultimate desire to see the best outcomes in others or their children.  Adults who wrongly expect that going through the traditional motions of their society will somehow 'fix' their personal issues and bring them into something resembling a straight line.  They have essentially made a conscious decision to use others for their benefit, expecting it all to shake out in the end.  Beloved it doesn't work that way, it never has, it never will.

So we are daily faced with a dilemma as to how we react, what do we do, how do we live?  And we each come up with our own solutions and pick and choose what works for us today.  Put ourselves at the center or on the throne - because that's what we learned - right?  "Train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it."  Regardless how tragic or relatively kind our childhood was we learn our lessons well.  And we see the fruit surrounding us daily.  We get glimpses of kindness, and beauty and awe inspiring life experiences along the way to be sure, but far too often our daily walk is tainted with at least the gnats that follow rotten fruit.  Sometimes we seem to be bathed in the putrid refuse whether we would or not.  Thank God for being able to wash in the water of the Word and walk into the next day unstained.

The good news in all this is that sin can be dealt with, unspoken messages can be identified and rebuked as falsehood.  Chronological adults can become spiritually responsible adults.  The childhood ripped from them by others can be patiently released and partially experienced in cultivating a joyful adulthood with right foundations.  Amends for our wrongs can be made - and if they can't be made directly to those we hurt, we can still live those amends to others who will benefit though they know not why.  The fruit of the tree can be made good.  The root can be cut loose from the poisonous nature of our past and relocated and grafted in to a righteous vine which provides soul enriching nourishment.  We can produce good fruit for food and leaves for healing the hurts of those around us.  But that is a personal decision and a reoriented lifestyle choice few of us ever make.  And so we live with the exorbitant cost of making a penny when God wants us to experience the boundless riches of heaven.

"If I find in myself a desire which no experience in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is that I was made for another world."
C.S. Lewis -- Mere Christianity

No realistic hope of better things to come can be drawn from the ways of the modern world.  What follows?  Is there nothing good to hope for at all?  There is, but we must seek this good hope outside the socio-politico-economic process.  And this, by the grace of God, we may do.  J.I. Packer -- Never Beyond Hope

There are two kinds of people: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, "All right, then, have it your way."   C.S. Lewis

The Feed Trough is Open

None of us want to be "judged", we'd rather be praised or appreciated which I guess are really just positive judgments rather than condemnations.  It is incredibly hard to hold back caustic words though when you see someone doing something that just appears asinine or ignorantly/apathetically stupid.  We've all been there, and if you haven't been yet today then it's only because you haven't watched the news or scrolled far enough down your FB screen yet to see the digital delivery of stupid stuff that drives you nuts.

I read this morning in Proverbs 27:7 "A satisfied soul loathes the honeycomb, but to a hungry soul every bitter thing is sweet." (NKJV)

I've had a surface understanding of that verse and a few others nearly identical to it.  This morning I really got it on a much deeper more practical level, see if this makes more sense:

When someone is hungry (an analogy for missing something in their life) they will eat ANYTHING to fill the void.

Thus the stupid stuff that drives us nuts, puts us in a rage of righteous anger, or breaks our hearts.  It runs rampant around all of us.  Here are a couple examples one from my life and one from a friend watching the news last night - if these don't fit please feel free to fill in the blank with your own examples like your promiscuous friend or your belligerent relative or __________. 

My friend recovered from cancer who after months of treatment and detoxification is given a clean bill of health and immediately returns to smoking and daily alcohol consumption and is dehydrating, truly desiccating himself (he's at least 60lbs under weight and dropping daily) in front of my eyes because life without alcohol is impossible to face.  I want the friend under the mess, and will never have him.  I love him from a distance though he once thought I couldn't stand him - truthfully, he still doesn't understand my refusal to accept alcoholic abuse from him but my steadfast admiration for his knowledge and experience.  I like him, I just do.  Watching him die all over again after being delivered from the hand of death drives me nuts, knowing he won't change his personal behavior breaks my heart.

Last night on the local news in a town I don't live in, two men broke in to an 82 year old woman's home, brutalized and raped her precipitating a heart attack where she ended up in the hospital - what kind of crazy crap is that?  If it didn't put my friend into a state of righteous anger I would have been concerned for my friend's sanity and relationship with Jesus, as it is she was more concerned that she no longer has a desire to pray for those people's Salvation.  Sadly maybe, I reached that point long ago.  Some people only benefit this world by leaving it in my opinion.  Two thieves on the crosses to either side of Jesus, one had an honest view of his predicament and asked for God's mercy and received the assurance of paradise that day, the other made a different assessment of his situation, mocked Jesus, blaming his unfair lot in life on others and met his father the devil later that day.  It will always be this way.

While it is yet day however we must work, we must be in this world but not of it.  We must be the ones who provide food for the hungry soul or all they will ever eat is bitterness.  Stop saying you don't have enough, it couldn't be you, Jesus left an example in feeding thousands with table scraps and meager provisions finding baskets full of leftovers afterward.  Jesus makes every bit of the difference.  You can do this, people do do this everyday in myriad small ways and a plethora of huge ways.  Beloved we are the royal priesthood God has always intended, it is not for a priest, a minister, a professional Christian to do the work God put in front of YOU.  You can't even begin to estimate what unconditional love might do for the crazy maker in your life.

Let's Go!  Feed those around you with the good stuff, because if you don't they will eat anything they can stuff in their mouth.

Good Stuff Happens to Bad People

"A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out."  Isaiah 42:3a (NIV)

People say "you cant fix stupid" - but if by stupid you mean ignorant that can be fixed with knowledge or facts.  Apathy on the other hand, which is what I think of when people say "stupid", can only be fixed by the person suffering the ailment.  The most dangerous form of "Stupid" though is the highly educated apathete.  I know I just made that word up, but it should be a word in my humble opinion.  It may be, in actual etymology and Latin roots that it is a legitimate construction... regardless you heard it here first.  Apathete: person characterized or motivated by an uncaring lifestyle, they cross the entire spectrum of this life without distinction in nationality, station, class, gender or race.

The funny because it's true joke about the difference between ignorance and apathy gives its own answer:  What's the difference between IGNORANCE and APATHY?  "I don't know" and "I don't care".

You can't help anyone who doesn't care and they are highly unlikely to help themselves or anyone else while they blunder around like proverbial bulls in a china shop.  Methinks apathy is actually the greatest problem facing humanity today - a total lack of care about anyone other than yourself.  Apathy causes even the most knowledgeable people in the world to be - well, stupid.  Apathetes are hurtful with their knowledge and facts, drawing no practical applications while purporting to do just that.  Their logic works something like this: "If you do A - B is the result.  Since we are seeing B then we must not be doing A."  Although that has root appearance of Truth, the callous fruit of indifference and the haughty spirit it engenders declares to me that it is essentially Salvation by works theology which inadvertently denies both the cosmic effects of sin and the cosmic effects of redemption through Jesus Christ.  In the practical world of politics that line of logic can be even more convoluted and the worldwide consequences more devious.  With no foundation in righteousness logic is likely to have even little net positive benefit to humanity.  Is it any wonder that the relatively few pieces of sound logic from centuries of philosophers happen to stringently adhere to Biblical Truth?  But I digress into a discussion not to be had this day.

If I had to point to one item as the starting point for this blog today it would be the article linked to a friends Facebook page regarding Christians being their own worst enemies.

Here's the link:   http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/24/opinion/granderson-christians/index.html

My personal take is the article is well framed, and well presented as far as it goes.  I don't think it needed to go farther, it really did what it set out to do in every way.  I particularly appreciated the linked articles within the column itself accurately supporting his positions. Good article and thanks to my Facebook and personal friend Mackie now known as Maxx for bringing it to my attention.  The reader commentary following was enlightening as well, in a mostly sad way.  Only two of the commentators out of the 50 I took the time to read (4600+ were just too many), accurately expressed a balanced view of Christian response and lamented the unfortunate examples of public misrepresentation.  I hope that little amount of salt will be enough to season what someone takes from the discussion, and just enough to make them curious enough to seek the Living Water.

If we have genuine care and love for one another, we're much less likely to ever break a piece of pottery while we experience the china shop that is God's Creation through Jesus Christ.  If we say that Jesus is our example we must spend a greater time meditating on the description of the Messiah recorded by the Old Testament Prophet Isaiah in 42:3 reiterated in the quotation of the New Testament Gospel of Matthew in 12:20.  Jesus 'healed them all' in Mt 12:15, do we, do I?  Or do I spend more time applying Scripture and drawing parallels and extrapolating reasons for unfolding world events because it's easier to sit in my man cave with my bookshelves full of Bibles and commentaries and books than getting my hands and feet dirty in the real world, where real, muscular, Biblical love would actually change someone's experience of this china shop.  For me it is not either/or - it is both/and.  I have very Biblically, Spiritually informed and well founded opinions on a host of issues.  But I agree with some points made by Joyce Meyers in her book Love Revolution:

 I have learned that some people are hurting too badly to hear the good news that God loves them; they must experience it and one of the best ways for that to happen is for us to meet their practical needs, in addition to telling them they are loved.

We must beware thinking words are enough.  Jesus certainly preached the good news, but He also went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed (see Acts 10:38).  Talking is not expensive, nor does it require much effort, but real love is costly.  It cost God His only Son, and allowing real love to flow through us will also cost us.

People don't care how much I know until they know how much I care.  Simply explained regarding my personal walk:

For when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.  For scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone would even dare to die.  But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.  Romans 5:6-8 (NKJV)

I love because Christ first loved me, and that means following His example in keeping love as a verb and unconditional.  It does not mean I will like every one.  It does not mean I agree with you on every point.  It does not mean I nod my head or shrug my shoulders when you are deceived and espousing a lie that leads to death or destruction on micro or macro scale (Eph 4:14-15 says we don't just go with popular teaching we speak the Truth in love so everyone can grow up into Christ).  True love snatches people from the flames or pushes them out from in front of a bus about to run them over (Jude 23).  It does not mean I tolerate unacceptable behavior or abuse, I'm not meant to be your door mat (Isaiah 51:23 tells me only afflicting tormentors want to walk all over me).  It does not mean I keep my mouth shut when an argument is set up against the Love and Truth of God (2Cor 10:4-5).  And just because you say I'm paranoid doesn't mean 'they' aren't out to get me.  There is a real Hell.  There is a real Heaven.  Heaven isn't for people afraid of going to Hell, it's a prepared place for a prepared people who love God and accept Him according to His terms as He has presented Himself.  We want people to accept us for who we are, but we have a different expectation or standard we falsely try to apply to God.  We want God as we want Him/her/it to be.  My understanding of the Bible is that's idolatry, but I digress from my topic of apathy.

If someone has come to repentance and placed their faith in Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, then you will know the difference, you will see the difference in their life.  They won't just abide by the inhibitions of Galatians 5:19-21, they'll produce the fruits of 5:22-23.   Without the love of God in us, working through us by the cleansing of Jesus' blood on the cross and the guidance of the Holy Spirit who is the promised deposit of our security until the day of redemption - all we can be is apathetic because all we can care about is ourselves.  We may make a life of social activism that has the outward appearance of caring and righteousness, but if the root of the tree isn't Jesus, it's a dead idol we have carved out and nailed down and we parade it around and point to it as proof when all along it was simply a tree we decorated. 

The theological conclusions and public declarations of those who think God is doing anything other than weeping at the tragedies in your life and throughout this present Creation, are puffed up knowledge making them look good rather than Christ Jesus.  They are knowledgeable apathy.  They may even present 100% Truth, but if they have not Love they are worthless.  Bad stuff happens to good people, good stuff happens to bad people.  God makes his rain to fall on the evil and the good.  There are inherent consequences and personal responsibilities to our every action.  Your every action has effects outside yourself whether you like it or not, whether you can easily draw a causative line of logic or not.  The effects of sin are real and cosmic, not just personal.  Earthquakes, hurricanes, famines, mass murders, may all indeed have their roots from the tree of sin, but LOVE doesn't take the time to analyze them, draw unwarranted parallels and conclusions, and wrap it up in a definitive and concise theology - it grabs the towel and washes the feet of the those invited to supper.  Love reaches out and touches the leper, and righteousness becomes contagious.

A Rose By Any Other Name

I want you to try and just read these Scriptural quotes straight through, tune out the references and citations if you can. Their contexts only add to the depth of the power behind them, though some are initially addressed directly to the actual events of another time and place. They were written for our admonition upon whom the end of the ages has come. They inform a Scriptural perspective on what I want to talk about in this post and are worthy of meditation in and of themselves as they stand singly, and as they are grouped here today as a whole.

"What sorrow for those who say that evil is good and good is evil, that dark is light and light is dark, that bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter. What sorrow for those who are wise in their own eyes and think themselves so clever." Isaiah 5:20-21 (NLT)

 "The wicked conceive evil; they are pregnant with trouble and give birth to lies."  Psalm 7:14 (NLT)

"As a well keeps its water fresh, so she keeps fresh her evil; violence and destruction are heard within her; sickness and wounds are ever before me."  Jeremiah 6:7 (ESV)

"Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?  [Are they ashamed of their disgusting actions?]  No, they were not at all ashamed; they did not know how to blush. {They can no longer feel humiliation}  Therefore they shall fall among those who fall [they will lie among the slaughtered]; at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown {when I punish them, they will collapse}, says the LORD."  Jeremiah 6:15 (ESV) [NLT] {HCSB}

"But they were urgent, demanding with loud cries that he should be crucified.  And their voices prevailed.  So Pilate decided that their demand should be granted... he delivered Jesus over to their will."  Luke 23:23-25 (ESV)

"...And my people love to have it so..." Jeremiah 5:31 (NKJV)

Has the Normalizing of Pedophilia Begun?

The above link is the genesis of this specific blog today.  You may want to read it before you continue.

I also thought of subtitling this one "Independent Businessman (Part 2)"

Pedophilia. The succinct latinized name for sexual abuse of children. Sexual abuse sounds coarse, abrasive, raw - but pedophilia is clinical, soft, deceptive. Abortion. How about that one? Legalized murder sounds rude, judgmental, argumentative.  I'll lose virtual friends over this blog and the Facebook post  about this link on my page last night where I stated

Pedophilia is clinical and deceptive - let's call it what it is: sexual abuse of children. It's like calling abortion a choice or an ethical debate - it's neither - it's legalized murder and it is one of the greatest evils of our age. The effects of these misnamed sins are life long and catastrophic and healing only begins when they are rightly named in the victim's life. 

Well Shakespeare asked quite lyrically in Romeo and Juliet: "What's in a name?..." My position is that we should call it as it is in reality, let's not disguise the matters in this case.  With the strategically intentional dumbing down of our society, of which we are all victim to some degree, we need to be greatly attentive to making sure that what we say is actually what is heard today.  Pedophilia and abortion ring alarms in my ears, but not everyone hears those clanging warnings.  The word abortion to some engenders good feelings of progress and women's rights and respect.  My adopted mother certainly demanded I recognize it that way.  Hardly - the reality is all the opposites. This is not something on which we can agree to disagree.  The Truth is never dependent upon your belief in, or agreement with, it to be true.  We are not talking the life of the mother versus the life of the child, incest, or rape in 99.9% of the cases where abortion is practiced, we're talking convenience and multi-tiered irresponsibility code worded "CHOICE."  I'm truly pro-choice in my beliefs, PRO-CHOICE BEFORE CONCEPTION.  If God chooses to knit a child together in it's mother's womb He has a reason, the CHOICE has been made by a higher authority than you or I.  Word games, unintentional or not, will not behoove us in this matter.  It has always been so that there are many word games played in our culture, and cultures throughout the world.  Another of my favorite peeves is "lifestyle choice".  Attach that forcefully vague phrase to something and it's suddenly acceptable, WRONG.  Sin is sin is sin.  No one thing weighs heavier in the scale than another beloved, hard as that is to truly understand.  We think there are grades and shades and scales ranking our least favorites higher on the chart than others.  There are differences in effect of sin, akin to the differences between a pop-it, firecracker, a charge of TNT, a carefully shaped/carved wad of C4, a cluster munition, and a nuclear bomb.  All of these are explosives.  That's as clear as I can make it.  The Bible teaches explicitly that our refusal to acknowledge and repent of our sin separates us from the love of God.  A pop-it is enough beloved.  You don't need to be guilty of dropping a nuke.

My friend Lee Clements got it right with the first part of his comment on that post last night:

I think it's an indication of the selfishness evident in our current culture--by saying "it's not their fault, they're born that way" we simultaneously excuse the behavior and ignore the victims.

We have bought into the philodoxical lie [philosophy is love of truth, philodoxy - love of opinion] that we live in a world where black and white aren't appropriate, we need shades of grey - which makes the pornographic eroticism of the current popular book "Fifty Shades of Grey" that much more ironic.  I'm quite certain the British author Erika Leonard writing as E.L. James knew full well the ironies she was capitalizing on in creating that title for her juggernaut [here's a word game for you, look up juggernaut in the dictionary and see if every single definition doesn't apply philosophically] trilogy; and as well with the not at all subtle choice of the main character's name Christian Grey.  Rarely does an author accidentally stumble on something, and if they do, they finesse it for full effect and praise their god or God accordingly.

Childhood sexual abuse is a nuclear bomb beloved, it is wildfire unleashed, it is indiscriminate in the the devastation it wreaks - and it is not contained or targeted in who is affected.  Ground Zero will spill forth radiation for the remaining decades of that person's life and even those on the farthest fringes of the initial event will suffer at least the repercussions of the shock waves produced.  Abortion is not far different.  If you think I jest or exaggerate feel free to message me, we'll sit down at length and discuss the topic.  Take off a Friday and plan to stay with me over the weekend because we'll just be getting into it when you have to leave Sunday evening.   It's that serious.  I'm 40 years old.  I've been at sorting this topic out for at least 33 years, and helping others out of the black holes of abuse for a touch over 22 years.  The lies are that insidious, the misconceptions that complicated, it's just plain bad stuff any way you want to analogize it.  Therapists who write books take helicopter rides over the landscape of childhood sexual abuse, because driving through the wilderness takes volumes.  Authors have to separate recovery tomes for women and men, because the roots of this evil bring forth different trees of devastation.  We share a whole common ground of issues in some ways, but Men are from Mars Women from Venus.

Sin takes myriad paths once it enters the gate beloved, make no mistake, do not delude yourself with soft words and lies.  Promiscuity, transgender issues, homosexuality, dissociative disorders, ADHD, multiple personality disorders and blatant demonic possessions, alcohol and drug abuse to falsely escape the pain, violence perpetrated against people who had absolutely nothing to do with the abuse, robbery, suicide, incarceration, insanity... the untreated, unhealed outcomes are never good, and never precisely predictable.  Sin is never pretty, nor are the secondary results victims exemplify throughout their lives.  Oh the Bible calls this fruit by the way, fruit of a bad tree.  The unredeemed heart of humanity will always produce these if left untended - the victims of abuse are much more likely to exhibit all of them in abundance.  This kind of tree is good for nothing, but to be cut down and burned in the fire.  The repentant, redeemed heart, has another list which can take years to cultivate and produce in any abundance, but always begins showing at least little buds soon after Jesus is accepted and the Holy Spirit seals you: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control; against such things there is no law." Galatians 5:22-23 (ESV).  The somewhat good news in this issue is also something that corrects a misconception that victims becomes perpetrators.  Here's one of the things I posted last night:

The few untreated, unhealed individuals who do survive rarely become perpetrators themselves, they often are some of the angriest or most volatile individuals and die of bitterness exacerbated issues. There are an extremely high percentage of survivors who become homosexual or transgendered as a result, and live otherwise 'normal' lives with semi-successful integration in their culture. With extremely rare exception, however, almost every perpetrator was a victim themselves. Men and women who have both survived and recovered make up less than 5% of the total victims by generous estimates. There is so much stigma and shame and false assumption out regarding the issue of childhood sexual abuse that percentages and numbers are strongly educated estimates rather than concrete certainties. Survival is only the first step in a long road for childhood sexual abuse victims, rape victims, abuse victims, or those who choose abortion or have it forced upon them. Survival is the first step, recovery is another journey altogether... few actually make it down that healing path. Without Jesus I most certainly would not have made it, that is a concrete fact. I am one, and I am not alone.

Childhood sexual abuse is not a joking matter popularly accepted by promotion in such songs as Van Zant's "I Know My History" where he winkingly invites us to accept this kind of thing with the catchy lyrics "I was cuttin' the grass when she asked me in - learned everything I needed to know when I was sixteen (know what I mean?)";  or the melodic 50's and 60's songs about forbidden young love, or________ fill in the blank.  Belief check: are your beliefs more informed by the Bible or traditional and popular music?  Think about that another time friends.  The truth of the matter is that a sixteen year old boy was willingly abused in that Van Zant song.  Because the lady had an itch she wanted scratched and she used him knowing his ego and hormones would override any sense the boy had.  Pop-it, firecracker, half stick of TNT?  I don't know but it was definitely an explosive event, and it is far more common than we think.  I have friends who were their mother's sexual partners because their alcoholic fathers were out drinking and whoring while mom was left at home neglected... I've just about ruined that whole Van Zant album for myself writing this blog.  $16.99 I'll never get back.  Sin is priceless.  Sin is like a drop of oil that seems insignificant at first drip, but ends with an indelible, creeping ring stain all out of proportion to the initial event.

This paragraph isn't nice, it's pretty raw actually.  Sometimes the truth comes out that way before you get to the redemption parts.  Proceed with that warning or go away now.  To have a homosexual news anchor plead for understanding and even admit sympathy for a serial pedophile is beyond words - it is beyond insulting - it is re-traumatizing for childhood sexual abuse victims.  And I'm not even addressing his open homosexuality and the hurtful, harmful, self inflicted wrongness of that whole issue which has been forcefully shoved down our public throat in almost justified retaliation for our hypocritical inability to love the human caught in sin.  I have homosexual acquaintances and a few who call me friend.  I don't treat them inhumanly but they don't think I agree with what they're doing to themselves or that I'll ever promote or advocate their 'lifestyle choice'.  I sat here numb for three hours after I read that article last night.  I mean vaguely tingling over my whole body, numb.  It's one of the milder manifestations of PTSD resulting from my own childhood sexual abuse.  I actually cried for a few minutes, a healing, cathartic thing not possible for me in years gone by.  I thought about faces of victims I've known over the last two decades and what their reactions would be.  Sympathize with perpetrators?, hardly - they need to be killed and cremated and their ashes flushed into the sewer where human waste belongs.  Even if they are repentant.  They aren't worth a patch of ground or another moment's oxygen.  Extensive re-trials and incarcerations - why?  For the cost of a bullet we victims would be happy to help society out by greatly reducing the monetary costs of everything following the conviction.  If they sincerely repent they'll get to be with their Lord that much sooner, if they don't, they'll get to be with their father the devil post haste - but to allow them to live while the innocent victim and their family have to live with the fall out is unconscionable.  The thief on the cross next to Jesus repented and we'll talk with him in Heaven, but he still died justly for his crimes against humanity.  Therapists who have worked in this area for decades estimate that most of us victims don't live past our mid twenties, our coroners and police reports read causes of death that don't say "pedophile victim" BUT THEY SHOULD.  Why should the perpetrator get three hots and a cot while we struggle to piece together a life that falls apart at every turn?  We have to read books and pay for therapists out of our own pocket and attend self help groups with non-judgmental people who have been victims themselves - all while life goes on without stopping.  Keep yourself together and buttoned up properly in public life, act like nothing's wrong.  Read Daniel Goleman's Emotional Intelligence book and figure how to make something out of your PTSD having life since you're obviously incapable of living up to your potential...  On and on the confusing self talk and 'helpful' suggestions go.  And don't bring it up in Church during Sunday School prayer time either, well meaning ignorance will twist it to be your fault somehow and the victim leaves the fold chased by the devil himself rejoicing that another one of God's children is isolated from the Body and will have their healing path confused and the results delayed by shame, anger, and bitterness.  And your Sunday School class decides you've backslidden and need extra prayers but they never call or visit and find out why they are the ones who need to apologize.  There's something to be said for not going to the hardware store for a loaf of bread, but there's also a strong word in something I read by Reinhard Bonnke:

Churches are not clubs for the perfect.  They are clinics for the sick, the wounded and the maimed, where those a bit stronger help those who are still weak.  The forgiven forgive.  The healed heal.  The comforted comfort others.  Our role is not to kick people when they are down.  They are the devil's victims and rather than scorn we should pour on them the oil of understanding and bring recovery and joy.

 I've wept with people over the devastating affects - I have zero sympathy.  I've puked reading stories of survivors who carried this evil into their tragic adult lives and experience re-abuse in their attempts to obtain healing.  I rinsed my mouth, brushed my teeth and forced myself to return and face the truth they live with daily.  I believe God was onto something when he said to cut the sin out of the body, remove the evil from among you, let the nations see and fear.  There's a time and place for everything beloved, coddling criminals the way we do is dragging us all down.  What about forgiveness, healing, love?  Yeah what about that for the victims?  What about reasonable defense from future crimes, not reliving the trauma every time we see someone's face, not living in fear that someone will find us and repeat their depredation [there's another word game for you]?  Why does the criminal get our sympathies and monies while the victims are given a pat on the back and encouraged to move on with their life?  Victim's copays aren't waved at the therapist's office, (if they can find a therapist in the field at all, and if they can afford it).  We (rightly) say they need to make sure they are investing in their recovery and valuing the therapist's time accordingly.  We're reteaching them respect and boundaries.  So what is it the perpetrator learns by the converse actions?  Just askin'.  The same God who is steadfast and healing and the very personification of everlasting love also teaches our hands to make war and guides us to fight for what is right and reflective of His nature.  What about the fear of God being instilled in humanity?  That's the purpose and end result of capital punishment and He is not going to do for us what He created us capable of doing for ourselves.  If you disagree with me on this I want you to go back and read the Bible where the most revered Israelite king David has his story told.  If it helps you make more sense out of it get the Chronological Study Bible which attempts to put the passages in event order.  Objectively read it.  Start in 1st Samuel after he's out on his own dodging Saul's pursuit.  David was ruthless and surrounded by unsavory characters and yet he was God's anointed, and received the accolade of being 'a man after God's own heart.'  Read where he killed entire villages of people from oldest to youngest so that not a single survivor remained, why?  Because God had told the Israelites to purge the evil inhabitants of their Promised Land, to remove the evil from among them so that they would not be ensnared again.  Israel failed during the initial years and they routinely suffered accordingly.  David picked up some of their slack and helped everybody out.  A man after God's own heart indeed.  If you read my very first post on this blog I alluded to there being a sermon in the phrase 'people taken captive', there's a huge chunk of it, David always killed man woman and child, and yet his enemies took the occupants of Ziklag captive so that they could utlimately be rescued.  There's some additional exegetical reasoning for David's ruthlessness but it's all an irrelevant tangent to this post.

My main goal here today is to warn that as the article link suggests 'normalization' and sympathy will infiltrate our main stream culture like sewage overflowing a treatment facility tank.  We accept abortion today, we accept homosexuality, we accept every religion except Christianity, we accept lying and cheating politicians who rob us blind, we have little understanding of how to speak the Truth in love as we are commanded to do because we haven't faced the skeletons in our own closets thoroughly enough to exorcise the demons.  We no longer believe that spiritual warfare is real, that it is indeed the everyday normal Christian life we are called to.  We no longer acknowledge that we are the recipients of the Abrahamic Covenant and that we too are blessed to be a blessing.  We live in a pluralistic society where acceptance of everything is preached and the refusal to tolerate or even just separate our personal lifestyle from evil is called 'prejudice' 'bigotry' 'hate speech' 'hate crimes' etc., ad nauseum.  The most intolerant religion of our day is tolerance.  I can love you unconditionally, but if I tolerate everything you do I'm in for a world of hurt.  If I fail to be the watchman on the wall and warn you that your sin is leading to your physical and spiritual death and maybe even our parting ways as friends- I will be held accountable by a higher authority than friends and acquaintances. 

Beloved God is not mocked.  He's seemingly turned His cheek for now, but have no doubt about it He is the righteous judge and He is the standard by which we must measure ourselves.  You aren't getting into Heaven because you're better than Hitler, or your adulterous greedy neighbor, or ________ fill in the blank.  God does not judge on the curve.  Thank God that Jesus Christ died as our atoning sacrifice and rose again proving our redemption was possible if we would but believe and call on His name.  Repentance involves calling things by their right name however, and if we can't rightly name our sins we can't rightly repent.  If we say we have no sin, well then we have no hope of Salvation either, because God is not mocked.  We will have made our choice as certainly as the person who repented in tears.  The one who was forgiven much will love much, the one who had no sin in their eyes will have no love in their life at all.

I've said my piece for today.  I hope me willingly and openly talking about these things will bring peace.  I wish I could have woven humorous anecdotes into this one but it would have just been insulting to every one of us who have walked this path.  I can usually even dig up morbid humor just to ease the tension, but not today.  This is the gym where Superman really get's his superhuman strength and it's just no fun pushing the weight.

Be blessed.

Things That Make You Go: "Hmmm?"

As I stepped out on my deck this morning to let my dog go through her morning routine while my girls still peacefully snooze from their busy Saturday, I was hit first with the mild heat and wall of humidity so representative of two separate worlds on either side of a sliding glass patio door.  Standing sipping my coffee I was surrounded by the sounds of strong winds which made the outdoor environment actually tolerable and borderline pleasant.  Overcast skies and lightning in the distance issued the hopeful threat of rain or more likely the dangerous potential for kindle dry fire being set a couple miles over.  I grabbed one of my Bibles and sat at the patio table to just rest and begin listening to the Lord speak this morning while Sophy, well you know... does doggy stuff.

Today is the first of July, so I thumbed over to Psalm 1, the first of today's five Psalms, and I contemplate what it might truly mean to be a righteous man planted by streams of living water.  I look back from verse 3 into verse 2 and see that my delight must be in the laws of the Lord and meditation on how they apply in my daily walk if I want to be that man.  I realize with humble gratitude, that though most of the time I'm all too aware of my failures and shortcomings, I have shown a constancy resembling firm planting in God, He has yielded fruit in due seasons, and in spite of all my struggles and challenges, I prosper in the things I put my hands to, though frequently God's economy and that word prosperity aren't dollar signs the world around me (and let me be transparent, I would like to see more of) longs to see as proof.  So I happened to grab my NASB MacArthur study Bible from the kitchen table when I stepped back out on the deck.  After a few minutes with Psalm 1 I flipped the pages over to today's chapter in Proverbs, 1 of course.  I was reading introductory commentary to the whole book of Proverbs when MacArthur noted a tangent I frequently chase down throughout the Bible.  Jesus is personified as Wisdom in numerous places, especially throughout the OT if we have eyes to see.  I strongly suspect that Elihu in the book of Job was a personification as well, though it isn't wholly relevant.  Anyway, John MacArthur writes "The sum of this wisdom is personified in the Lord Jesus Christ (1Cor1:30)."  And that's all it took to get me off to the races flipping over to the NT in search of that reference.

A.W. Tozer said "The word of God well understood and religiously obeyed is the shortest route to spiritual perfection."  Perhaps for that reason, I rarely read a single verse reference by itself, I almost always end up reading the chapter(s) or paragraphs surrounding it for context and then revisit the reason for the reference.  I suggest you make that a practice as well, it will greatly deepen your understanding of Scripture's proper applications in so many facets of daily life - Scripture never just says one thing for one time to one person or people group in history, there is always more if we'll listen and meditate as Psalm 1:2 tells us this morning.  Paul wrote "these things were written as examples, for our admonition, for our instruction, etc.," (1Cor10:11).  Keep that verse in mind as you find Jesus and the Disciples pulling single verses and combinations of verses (seemingly) out of context and going down tangent laden roads you would have never seen if you were reading that particular passage of Isaiah or the Psalms or the Pentateuch for yourself with a mindset of "God's talking to the tribe of Judah here and they're in this historical frame of reference...blah blah blah...snoozing snore."  Both sides of this manner of thinking are good and necessary and instructive, but don't ever forget there's more in that dry confusing passage than you might ever know if you get stuck on one side of the coin.  The Bible is a living Word, not a history book you are forced to read or get a failing grade in some meaningless general education class.  As a living Word it isn't most concerned with history per se, it is concerned with your relationship to a living God who created and loves you in spite of... well, in spite of every willful rejection you've made over the years.  If you prayed before reading one verse or section of Scripture a day you would be blown away within a weeks time at how much more He will open to you in just a few days as you earnestly seek His wisdom through His Word, as you trust Him to open it to you.  You don't need to set out three or four translations and read 11-20 chapters a day like some of us strive to.  Transparent side note here: my wife says things to me like I've "...got to be the only idiot on that kind of track with your seven ribbon book mark spread from the Torah to the Epistles - and the rest of us humans are lucky to get 20 minutes in on one passage a day a few times a week..."  [This is my paraphrase - think Message - mind you, she's never called me an idiot (out loud, anyway) to my face]. She always says the sweetest things, with a gentle chiding smile to soften the blow as she jerks me back to reality for everyone else.  I asked her yesterday riding in the car if she always had to be the seamstress walking around with the little wristband tomato full of pins popping peoples balloons - and my 9 year old daughter Kira chimes in from the back seat: "yeah, seamstresses are just mean... really."  I love my girls :-D

Here's where I need to come back to my reading and the things I received as I sat there prayerfully considering the whole of the situation with life today... fires devastating Colorado, storm damage destroying cars, homes, and lives elsewhere; numerous random diagnoses of cancer in healthy people; our government giving sign after sign of complete departure from all foundations of right governance and the apathetic defeat with which we the people shrug our shoulders; the economic uncertainty even those of us currently employed face... there will be no rain from these clouds, I know as sure as I'm breathing that the lightning did land and spark fire though no one has realized it yet, the winds will move on and dismantle the potential of what I'm witnessing from my patio deck.  All of this wrapped in the context of the reference I flipped over to chase regarding Jesus embodying wisdom.

1Corinthians 1:30
But by His doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption.

He became the very definition of wisdom.
He became righteousness, 'right relatedness' of humanity to God, 'right relatedness' of humanity to humanity.
He became sanctification - setting us apart for good works prepared beforehand.
He became redemption, our redemption from our broken relationship with God.  He made redemption possible for whosoever would call on the name of the Lord.

And all that is available if Jesus lives in you - if you are in Christ Jesus.

And as a culture, as individuals demanding independence - we all want to be "Independent Businessmen" in charge of our own destination, our country (and world) as an overall majority wants nothing to do with a God who might have something to say about their conduct or the rightness thereof.  We have a wrongful image of God's righteousness that we're terrified He will rob us of all fun and joy in our daily life.  He came that we might have joy and peace to the full, but we can't reconcile those verses with not being allowed to do whatever we want however we want whyever we want and under whatever justifications we might manufacture.  And that's why even while it looked to have the potential for drenching rain, I knew in my core being we would see maybe teaser drops and nothing more.

He has allowed us the fill of our ways in every arena beloved, the consequences of our own actions are what we reap, He has bound us but still we do not cry out for healing.

Proverbs 1:23-33
Turn to my reproof, behold I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.  Because I called and you refused, I stretched out my hand and no one paid attention; and you neglected all my counsel and did not want my reproof; I will also laugh at your calamity, I will mock when your dread comes; when your dread comes like a storm and your calamity comes like a whirlwind, when distress and anguish come upon you.  Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; they will seek me diligently but they will not find me, because they hated knowledge and did not choose the fear of the LORD.  They would not accept my counsel, they spurned all my reproof.

SO SHALL THEY EAT OF THE FRUIT OF THEIR OWN WAY AND BE SATIATED WITH THEIR OWN DEVICES.

For the waywardness of the naive will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them.

BUT HE WHO LISTENS TO ME SHALL LIVE SECURELY AND WILL BE AT EASE FROM THE DREAD OF EVIL.

(emphases mine)
By the way, in keeping with wisdom being personified and likely being the representation of the preincarnate Jesus, Wisdom is the one 'shouting' in that last passage.


There will be no community lament and repentance, and therefore our land will not be healed.  And the righteous trapped right up here in the middle of it all will be impacted accordingly.  Each day is a new day, each day dawns with the possibility of redemption, wisdom, righteousness, sanctification - all readily available.  All freely given by the Giver of all good gifts, but the cost is more than we are willing to pay.  Surrender.  Surrender of our own broken ways, exchange for His life giving ways, and walking daily with His Holy Spirit living in you and guiding your steps.  Too costly indeed.  If we keep doing the same things expecting different results, well, twelve steppers of all persuasions call that 'insanity'.  That's also one of the things praying Christians are called by those who don't understand - insane.  That's fine, I can live with that.

Job 34:21-22

For His eyes are upon the ways of a man, and He sees all His steps.  There is no darkness or deep shadow where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.

 Job 36:8-13

And if they are bound in fetters, and are caught in the cords of affliction, then He declares to them their work and their transgressions, that they have magnified themselves.  He opens their ear to instruction, and commands that they return from evil.  If they hear and serve Him, they will end their days in prosperity and their years in pleasures, but if they do not hear, they shall perish by the sword and they will die without knowledge.  But the godless in heart lay up anger; they do not cry for help when He binds them.

We are boiling in our own ways - this is what the heat is trying to tell us.  "Yet you said, 'I am innocent; surely His anger is turned away from me.'  Behold I will enter into judgment with you because you say, 'I have not sinned.'" Jeremiah 2:35

We have left the streams of living water that only come from God - this is what the droughts are trying to tell us.  "For my people [and that is what the USA in particular is, although ultimately Ps 24:1 lays out that the whole earth and all its people are his as well] have committed two evils: They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water." Jeremiah 1:13

Sin is uncontrollable once unleashed - this is what the wildfires are trying to tell us.  Sin will always cost more than you are willing to pay, take you farther than you were willing to go, and leave you stranded down a dead end street with the only way out being to walk back through the carnage and havoc you chose to wreak on your way by the first time.  We're all in this together, so understand others will lay down their life to put out the fires of your sin... are you okay with that?

We can have no idols and false means of security - this is what the storm damage is trying to tell us.

Will we, will you listen?  Or will we, will you, cherish anger and flip God off?  The choices are yours.  You are only responsible for you at the end of the day, you can have it however you want and God will allow you to eat the fill of your own ways.

God is gracious and polite, He knocks and waits for you to invite Him in - He will never push in and demand His way, He only accepts what you willingly surrender.  Our country has demanded He get out of our business, so He obliges and we cry at injustice and suffering at each others hands.  He allows us to be Independent Businessmen.

2 Peter 3:9 "The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance."

 So which side of the patio door do you want to be on beloved?  By the way, the sirens are sounding as the fire department's trucks are rolling to put out that lightning sparked fire someone finally noticed.  I think I'll step back on the other side of the patio door.  Come on Sophy, let's go in...
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all Scripture quotations in this post taken from (NASB).