Judgment and Salvation

Luke 6:46-49

The other day I was talking to someone and I mentioned that I believed there would probably be more Gay people in Heaven than christians.  The person was really surprised and asked me why I would say that.

I explained that most Gay people knew they were sinning.  Like Paul, they do that which is not allowed (Romans 7:15) and, Like Paul, may repent even as they sin.

Judgmental christians who rebuke those they believe are sinning without benefit of the Holy Spirit disobey Christ who told us "Judge Not" (Matt 7:1) and who also told us "I can of mine own self do nothing: as I hear, I judge: and my judgment is just; because I seek not mine own will, but the will of the Father which hath sent me." (John 5:30) and "And yet if I judge, my judgment is true: for I am not alone, but I and the Father that sent me." (John 8:16).

In addition Christ tells us: "He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him." (John 14:21)

In Luke 6:46-49 Christ tells us: "⁴⁶ And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say? ⁴⁷ Whosoever cometh to me, and heareth my sayings, and doeth them, I will shew you to whom he is like:⁴⁸ He is like a man which built an house, and digged deep, and laid the foundation on a rock: and when the flood arose, the stream beat vehemently upon that house, and could not shake it: for it was founded upon a rock.⁴⁹ But he that heareth, and doeth not, is like a man that without a foundation built an house upon the earth; against which the stream did beat vehemently, and immediately it fell; and the ruin of that house was great."

We have Gay people doing something repeatedly, like Paul, that they know the Bible tells them is a sin and so they may repent.

We have "christians" who judge without benefit of the Holy Ghost, breaking the commandment of Christ to Judge Not, and who believe they are righteous and so do not repent.

Who enters into Heaven?  The repent sinner or the self righteous and unrepentant christian?

How do we know the difference between the self righteous christian and a Christian following Christ?  Christ tells us in John 5:30-31,

"31 If I bear witness of myself, my witness is not true.  32 There is another that beareth witness of me; and I know that the witness which he witnesseth of me is true."  The Holy Ghost witnesses with those whose witness is directed by the Holy Ghost.  If the Holy Ghost is not witnessing with the person judging, the person is breaking the commandment of Christ not to judge.

There are those who believe the Bible gives them the authority to judge, they do so without the benefit of the Holy Ghost, and there are those who are called to servitude in Christ and to spread the Good News of the Forgiveness of Sin through Christ.

People will be rewarded as they deserve, those sinners who repent are forgiven, those sinners who believe that they are righteous do not seek repentance and are not forgiven.

Christ tells us, in Matthew 25, that people will be separated as sheep and goats.  In John 10 we are told that Christ's sheep will know his voice.  In Matthew 7 Christ tells us that there will be those who believe they are saved, and yet never knew Christ.

Listening is the most important part of any relationship.  We have to listen to God.  If we don't listen, hear and know God's voice then, on the last days, we won't respond to Christ's call and we will follow the goats out of the presence of God.  Even those who believe, and yet do not KNOW Christ, will end up in hell because they didn't know Christ, Christ's voice, and couldn't respond to the call.

So, do I think a repentant sinner ends up in hell while an unrepentant, judgmental and authoritarian pseudo-christian ends up in heaven?

Or, do I think a repentant sinner ends up in heaven while an unrepentant, judgmental and authoritarian pseudo-christian ends up in hell?

I could argue against most sinful behavior, including my own, from twenty different perspectives.  Yet, sin is inconsequential for people are saved by faith in the grace of Christ and not by law.  Romans 6:14-15: "¹⁴ For sin shall not have dominion over you: for ye are not under the law, but under grace.¹⁵ What then? shall we sin, because we are not under the law, but under grace? God forbid."  What constitutes "sin" before God?  For this we can depend on the instruction of people who teach a false doctrine OR we can depend on the Holy Ghost who teaches a true doctrine and gives understanding.

Look at whom you have received instruction from.  If you depend on instruction of people, if you give people authority over the definition of any word in scripture, your faith is false.  If you depend on God and don't open your mouth unless God talks to you your faith is true.

Is anyone perfect?  Can anyone always speak nothing but the Holy Ghost?  There is one, and one only, and that is Christ.  The rest of us struggle between placing our faith in ourselves, other people and God.  The truth is, only those (and this includes me) whose faith, whose belief in things unseen, is strong enough will hear Christ on that last day.

Practice listening to the Holy Ghost at all times and remember that it is not the judgment of people, nor the esteem among mankind, that will open the gates of heaven.  It is only through faith in the Grace of Christ that we may KNOW our Saviour and enter the gates of Heaven.

So pity those who judge, yet, always be open to the Holy Ghost whose judgment is perfect and who may choose to speak to us through the mouths of people.

Sunday School, Pseudo-Christians and life strategies

All righty then!

Anyone who has bothered to read the drivel I clog the web with knows I can argue against most things from about twenty different view points.  For the most part the only argument I have for anything is that I believe people need to focus on applying their rules to themselves instead of applying their rules to others.

I have gay friends and some of them are overjoyed about the death of Fred Phelps.  They are every bit as judgmental of him as he was of them.  I could argue against Fred Phelps or homosexuality, but, in both cases I think people have a right to free speech and to choose their own life styles.

Last week the church sent out an e-mail about changing the e-mail address, again.  About ten years ago the church asked me to put together a web site, so I did.  About a year and a half later the site was hijacked by someone else in the church and I was locked out.  No one even discussed changing web masters.  The guy who took it over put up a web site that linked to an embedded Google map.  Some of the more savvy out there are probably grinning right now about the band width issues related to embedding on web pages.  Occasionally the site would go down because the church exceeded band width.

Look, when I put up the site I paid for everything out of my pocket and I didn't bother with paying for high band width since the church is small and techno-deficient anyway.  Besides, I built the site to be fast, small web pages, not much scripting.  The guy who took it over, with a brand new degree in computer science, didn't understand band width.

Fast forward a year or two and the site goes down.  Oops, someone forgot to renew the domain.  Oh, someone else snatched up the domain and held it for ransom.  Total disaster, most people at church didn't notice.  (Yes, I transfered registration.  I'm not that spiteful)

Who ya gonna call when stuff goes to crap?  You guessed it.  No, I am not going to fix the site.  Ask Joe.  (a Freshman college kid with a much better understanding of networking and graphics design than our aforementioned CS grad).  Joe put together a nice site, but, the people at church didn't enable e-mail for the domain.  In fact, the CS grad and his hooligans disabled the e-mail and forwarders I had set up.

Yeah, some of you are shaking your heads.  Brand and domain recognition is marketing 101 in this information age.  Now you understand why membership is dwindling, essentially it is dying off.  Love my church, love the people, they just don't get it.  All of us are like that sometimes, some of us try to correct that using the gift of literacy and the humongo library we call the Internet.  Not everyone believes in knowledge though, some people believe they already have all they need.

"All I need is this chair....and what I already know"

So I send out a e-mail, some called a flame and some called a rant, that I considered simple criticism.  We need a permanent e-mail address based on the domain (marketing, brand recognition), just set up forwarders and we don't have to keep changing it.

Yeah, the uberknowledgable (sic) powers that maintain ignorance at our institution of judgmental authoritarianism decided on a gmail address in response to my criticism, thereby donating brand recognition of our organization to Google.

When I hit Sunday School one of my classmates suggested I had been ranting.  I disagreed and explained it was criticism.  Nothing heated, just a quick exchange.

The sermon had been on service.  How Christians are supposed to be servants.  A lot of Christians believe they have been endowed by the creator with a judgmental authortarianism that gives them the power to rebuke everyone for the speck in the eye of the sinner without needing to address the wooden box over their own heads, since Christ forgave them.

Actually, a lot of people (as in the gay Fred Phelps bashers mentioned earlier) do the same stuff without the benefit of Christian salvation.  I see it as, pretty much, a human condition.

Our teacher mentioned how many had been serving in the church for years and never had any recognition.  I interjected my 2 cents and explained that I appreciated the way she had been teaching the class for the many years I had been attending. I believed she served by helping people grow in Christ as opposed to being a judgmental authoritarian demanding adherence to a specific doctrine.  This, I believe, is a primary difference between the pseudo-christian and the true Christian.

This led to a discussion about correction and once again I donated my 2 cents.  Proverbs tells us, rebuke a wise man and he will love you, rebuke a fool and he will hate you.  This invited a discussion where some people are actually wrong in their rebuke.  Imagine that, Christians being wrong when they rebuke someone.

I explained, what God had explained to me, that when someone who rebukes us and is wrong, we can accept the rebuke as wrong and still love the person by accepting the rebuke as a genuine attempt to help us become better people.  I used the guy who said my e-mail was a rant as an example, I think he is wrong, but, I love him because he has genuinely tried to help me become a better person.

This is a different way of looking at schtuff, but, it is one I have been using for many, many years.

Three lessons here for anyone looking for a moral to the story.

1:  Sure, you can argue against someone's lifestyle from 20 different perspectives and there is nothing wrong with that.  What we should be doing is applying our own rules to our lives.  We can share those rules, but, we should not be demanding others adhere to our rules.  Not even our rules about being accepting and tolerant.  Insisting people be tolerant is showing intolerance.

2: Try to serve by helping people learn rather than being a judgmental authoritarian forcing people to accept a specific doctrine.  (yeah, this sounds similar to the first.  The first is "apply your rules to yourself" the second is "help others, don't try to force them")

3: When people criticize us, right or wrong, consider the critique. If right we have learned and become better.  If wrong we have learned that the critic cares about us and is trying to help us become a better person.

Is that last one always true?  Is a critic always loving and trying to help us become a better person?  No, some are assholes trying to make us feel bad (a good example is the player I dated recently).  Does believing that some people are scum improve our lives?  I don't think so, I think believing the best about people and rejoicing in love is better than accepting or believing that the vast majority are total and complete scumbags.

Sure, being open, trusting, giving people the opportunity to hurt us through deliberate and demented acts can be difficult.  People can hurt us, especially when we believe they care.  Some people enjoy going out of their way to lead us down a path just to jerk that path out from under us.  We can protect ourselves by living in a plastic bubble (or a cage, a prison, of our own construction).

I would rather be open to what life has to offer and rejoice in love so I choose to believe my critics are sharing love.

Does failure make us more determined, or less determined?

Tonight I had a pretty good date. I've also been talking with another woman who is pretty cool, and might be a better fit. In any case I dragged my butt out of the doldrums and actually did something even though I feel it is too early for me to try dating after my fiasco.

I've been reflecting a lot on the last twenty years and how I ended up here. I spent so many years traveling around teaching people about software and machine tools, working with Universities doing research, government organizations doing testing and development and corporations doing manufacturing technology implementation that I feel like my entire world stopped on a dime when I got sick.

I went from going gang busters for years to not being able to walk up a flight of stairs without being winded and getting a horrible headache. From a “road warrior” diet I tried to keep healthy to a seriously heart healthy diet. From when I was at my worse in 2011 when I couldn't walk a hundred yards without getting sick to the spring of 2012 when I had worked up to a 3 mile walk and my ejection fraction was measured at 50% I worked my butt off at getting better physically. My heart still does crazy things, but, I am in a lot better shape than I was in the spring of 2011.  Getting better too.

Then my life got thrown for another loop, I went from a husband with a potentially terminal heart condition to a widower with a poor heart.

Then I went from homeowner to foreclosure and apartment dweller.

Then I tried dating. What a disaster. I thought fighting through the loss of previous 3 years had given me enough strength to handle dating, but, I got played by someone whose idea of fun was causing emotional pain.

So here I am, a recovering emotional and physical wreck trying to share something worthwhile with women I don't know. I was sitting, waiting for this woman tonight, and thinking “what the heck am I doing?” But, I had a good time with a woman who might be smarter than I am. I love talking with people who are smarter. There are a lot of people who think they are smart, and not very many who really are smart. It was pretty cool.

So, maybe I am recovering. Somewhat anyway.

For me, this is pretty unusual. If I fall for someone really hard I generally wait about a year before I start dating again, but, I have never been played like this before. In spite of being a recovering emotional and physical wreck, double the emotional wreck because the first woman I date after recovering from my life implosion was a player. I decided that it would be a good idea to jump back on the horse.

Was it a good idea? I think so. Most women are not going to get a kick out of hurting a guy. More guys are scummy that way than women are. Have I led a woman on this way before? Deliberately hurt her on an emotionally pivotal day?  Not that I know of, but, I have done my share of scummy things.

The difference between breaking up with someone you care about, even a bad break up, and getting played is the difference between climbing off a horse and getting thrown.

You can fall on your ass getting your boot caught in a stirrup and not be frightened by the thought of riding again.

Let that horse throw you though, and the longer you take to climb back up in the saddle the harder that climb becomes.  Or does it?

My great grandfather forced my grandfather to climb back up on a horse after he was thrown, even though he had a broken arm. Then my great grandfather went and got a camera (this is about 1907) to take a picture of my 8 year old grandfather on the horse. I remember seeing the picture and thinking how big the horse looked under the little child. I remember thinking how that little child was my grandfather, and I remember thinking how big a bully my great grandfather had to have been to frighten my grandfather more than being frightened of the horse.

I was glad I didn't know my great grandfather.

Still, I thought a lot about that picture and I swallowed down that feeling that it was too soon and I went out with a woman tonight. And it was pretty good. Not great, but, okay. No bully forcing me, just a determination that the woman who enjoyed hurting me wasn't going to destroy my ability to enjoy the company of women. Just a determination that a horse throwing me wasn't going to stop me from riding. I didn't need to get right back on the horse, it has been over a month.

I think my grandfather had the same kind of balls. I think he could have waited until his arm healed to get back up on the horse, and I would bet he would have.

When I was a kid my father used to beat me for “playing” with his books when I read his old text books. It just made me more determined to read them.

This woman who played me has made me more determined to heal, physically and emotionally. Heal from the grief. Heal from the loss. Adapt. Overcome.

I think my grandfather was a better man than I am, I think he would have acted similarly with the horse. I think my grandfather would have been even more determined to ride that stupid horse after he had spent time healing. My grandfather hated horses after the experience my great grandfather put him through. I love books. I love women. No one forced me to deal with them after my “beating”, the “beating” just made me more determined.

Maybe that is the secret to my success at doing the impossible. Failure, in some ways, just makes me more determined to succeed.  Any which way, I'm back in the saddle again :-)

Anger, scale and Christ

Well, the other night some guy tried to get tough with me.  I don't have a "moderate" switch, I am either "on" or "off".

I took my daughter to a movie last Friday (March 14th).  She is pregnant.  We were leaving and some guy walked into me.  Then he tried walking right up against me and staring me down.  He was bigger than I am, which is saying something because I run 6'2" and 250lbs.  At first I tried to ignore him, but, he wouldn't let up so finally I asked him if he had a problem.  He told me I walked into him, I told him he had walked into me.  He tried being a little tough and I laughed at him, said something like, "do you think you're a tough guy?  I will fuck you up."  He asked if I wanted to go outside, but, he had scared eyes.  A lot of big guys are like that.  They expect people to back down.  I told him, damn right Mother Fucker and turned my back on him.

That is always the most dangerous moment.  Even though the guy had scared eyes when you turn your back they think they have an advantage.  I was listening for that heavy ass foot fall that would tell me he was charging so I could do a shoulder roll (Imagine Will Farrel in Land of the Lost) to the right, but, didn't expect anything and nothing happened.  Besides, my daughter was behind me and would have shouted a warning.

He didn't follow me out the back door.

Now, you would think that since it has been, almost, ten years since the last time I got into a fight and got tossed in jail I would have mellowed out.  Nope, that old violent streak came right back.  I was seriously disappointed.

My daughter asked me what happened, she called me childish and asked why I wanted to hurt the guy.  I explained that it just would have been enjoyable, like eating a candy bar.  You know it's bad for you, but, sometimes you just go ahead and scarf one down.

I didn't raise my daughter the way I was raised so the comparison didn't make sense to her.  To her there is a difference of scale between hurting people and eating a candy bar.  Both are bad, but, one is much worse than the other.  I didn't see her point.

I'm a Christian so any sin makes me a sinner and any sin separates me from Christ.  Christ made himself a weapon and attacked people in the temple.  There is a time and place for kicking ass.  Did I sin?  That's between Christ and I.  You are welcome to judge me, people judge.  To me there is no difference in scale between sins and not everything people think is wrong is a sin.

The Bible tells us not to kill, yet David who killed 10,000's was beloved of God and a man after God's own heart.

Truthfully, we are not wise enough to understand God's word and what a sin is.  Only through the Holy Ghost can people know what is and is not a sin.  But, people judge and they are going to judge and they are going to believe whatever they believe unless they submit their understanding to the Holy Ghost.

Of course, we end up in jail regardless of sin when the system judges me :-)

Violent abusers, pseudo-christians and stupid people

I was talking with a woman the other day and she told me that if there is a problem, I should confront it immediately.  That made me laugh.

My father was a piece of work.  When I was 6 he told me I wasn't his child because I didn't have a chin dimple.  He was always angry and frustrated with me and he hit me regularly.  As a child there was never any way to avoid being hit, no place I could hide and I couldn't out run him.  As I got older he stopped because I got bigger than he was.  He hated me my whole life and when he died I received nothing.

My mother was an alcoholic who actually rewarded me after my father punished me.  Essentially I was "Pavlov's dog"

Jumping around a bit?  No.

Children learn from their parents.  My father taught me to always react, to pretty much any situation, with anger and frustration and to hit people.  School taught me differently so I grew up without any real foundation in behavior.  I was always going to be punished so nothing was either good or bad.  What I learned is that since there aren't any real rules, whatever I could get away with was okay.  As I got older I got away with more and more.  It really isn't hard to get away with anything.

These days I rarely confront poor behavior immediately, because if I did I might confront it violently.  I'll just shut down and confront it when I am sure I can confront it without killing someone.  This means people often treat me like a door mat, and I would rather be a door mat than hurt people any more.  It is a Christian thing.....

Christianity is like that.  My childhood taught me a lot about relative morality and hypocrisy.

Christ tells us to witness the Good News of the forgiveness of Sin through Christ, whose sacrifice on the cross made salvation available to anyone who accepts the gift.

But, what do pseudo-christians witness?  The forgiveness of sin?  No, they witness their understanding of the LAW from which we have been released.  Pseudo-christians witness Creation, abortion, homosexuality, anything which can distract people from the Good News of Forgiveness.

The Bible is a good tool for learning how to live, when the Holy Spirit guides us in our study.

The Bible does not, in any way, give anyone authority to tell anyone else how they should live.

Christ tells us Christians should be servants.  Do servants have the authority to tell anyone how to live?  How to behave?  What to do?

Of course not.  Masters tell people what to do.

Very occasionally a trusted and beloved servant may get away with some critique of their master's behavior.  Occasionally.

So why do so many Christian's think the Bible gives them the authority to become the masters, giving orders which must be obeyed and criticizing everyone else's behavior?

Satan of course.  What better way to disrupt the Good News of Forgiveness than by convincing people that they must force others to follow a Law from which Christ released us?

The greatest sin, the unforgivable sin, is to witness along side the Holy Ghost.   The Greek word that is translated to "against" actually means "along side", as in "against the wall".  By convincing pseudo-christians to witness "along side" the Good News by constantly berating people about the Law, Satan drives "believers" into hell and "unbelievers" into hell.

Satan has a great plan and Satan is executing it brilliantly.  Twist the Good News spread by pseudo-believers into Criticism, Humiliation and Ridicule and enforcement of a Law from which we have been released.  That sends the Pseduo-believers to hell.  The pseudo-believers drive the unbelievers away from Christ and so the unbelievers end up in hell.

In the meantime guys like me, who refuse to follow the pseudo-christians, who insist on applying the Bible to themselves and not to others, who talk about Forgiveness and Love and who rebuke pseudo-christians, are berated and called blasphemers.

Could Satan have a more perfect plan?