Can't Out Give God

Something cool happend to me.

Every day, I drive pass the intersection of North Avenue and Mt. Royal Avenue. On this intersection, an elderly man is always there selling flowers. He would have a bucket of flowers on one corner of the intersection but he'd be walking from one corner to the other trying to sell flowers to the drivers who are waiting for the light to change.

I rarely see people buy flowers from him so I am always feeling bad for him.

During rush hour, while I was waiting for the light to change at that intersection, I watched, with disbelief, as an event unfolded. While the elderly man was on a different corner of the intersection than the corner where his bucket of flowers is, a teenager grabbed the bucket of flowers and took off. The elderly man tried to catch him but the kid was too fast.

Now, I really feel bad for the elderly man.

So, the next day, I decided to buy some flowers from him. He was selling a dozen roses for $3 but I handed him a $20 bill and told him to keep the change. Boy, did his face light up.

Since I didn't want to deal with wet flowers in my car, I told him to give the flowers to the woman in the car behind me. When the woman received the flowers, she was so excited that she stuck her torso out the window of her car and waved the flowers wildly at the driver behind her (evidently some one that she knows and was following her) and screaming something to her. Then, the driver behind her became excited, too.

Boy, that made my day! Can't out give God.

Preparing to Be a Husband

I had a conversation, with several single young Christian men, which started with one of the young men lamenting that he's in his late 20's and still single. The other guys chimed in, each asking in their own way, why hadn't the Lord allow him to find someone to marry, yet?

They were stunned when I said, "I know."

I explained that there's only two possible reasons that they are single.

The first is that God had called them to live a life of singleness.

The second is that they are not ready to be husbands.

And the way to determine if they are called to a life of singleness is by the following verses:

1 Corinthians 7:8-9
Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I am. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

If you burn with passion then you don't have the gift of singleness.

With that, all the guys agreed that they do not have the gift of singleness.

So I said, "Then the answer, to why you are not married, is that you are not ready to be a husband."

Of course, they all contested my assertion that they are not ready to be husbands.

So I asked, "Do you know how to love your wife?"

Before they answered, I quickly asked, "Do you know the definition of the word 'love'"?

Just as one of the guys started to open his mouth to answer, I added, "Love is a verb"

A verb is an action word. You do something when you love.

In fact, it is a transitive verb. i.e., The subject of the sentence does something to the object of the predicate when the subject of the sentence loves the object of the predicate.

If Jack loves Jill, what does Jack do to Jill?

Then I cited the following verse:

Ephesians 5:25-27
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.

Here we are not just talking about the husband having warm and fuzzy feelings for his wife.

What does love mean in this context?

Silence.

Let's look at all the famous love verses in the Bible.

John 3:16
For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.

John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

1 Corinthians 13:4-7
Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

These are all examples of love. What do they have in common? What are these all example of?

Suddenly, the light bulb turned on for one of the guys, "Sacrifice! The verses are all about the sacrifice of one's own interest."

Love is putting what's best for the other ahead of what is best for oneself.

So I asked, "So, are you ready to put what is best for your wife ahead of what's best for you?"

They all nodded, "Sure, I'm ready to die for my wife if I have to."

Really? Let's say that your wife has a church event at the same time as the Super Bowl so that she would not be able to take your child to the soccer game that is at the same time. Are you ready to sacrifice your need to watch the Super Bowl and take your child to the soccer game in your wife's stead?

One of the guys laughed and said, "I'll just bring my portable TV with me to the soccer game."

The other guys laughed in agreement.

I shot back, "Would you really be loving your child if your attention is not fully on the soccer game?"

Would you be putting what's best for your child ahead of what's best for you, if your attention is divided between the soccer game and the Super Bowl?

The laughing immediately stopped.

I think we can safely say that you guys are not really ready to truly love your wife and children as the Bible describes.

But let's say that you are, so that we can go on to the next criteria.

What are you doing for the Lord?

One of the guys asked, "What does that have anything to do with being prepared to be a husband?"

I answered with another question, "Why did God give Adam a wife?"

And then I cited the following verse from Genesis.

Genesis 2:18
The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him."

God gave Adam a wife to be his helper.

So if you are doing nothing for the Lord and you ask Him for a wife, it would be like saying:

Lord, I'm doing nothing, would you give me a helper to help me do... NOTHING.

BTW, the "helper" role is not a less important player. The Hebrew word for help(er), in Genesis 2:18, is ezer. It's where we get the name Ebenezer (1 Samuel 7:12). Eben means stone and ezer means help. Ebenezer is the stone erected by Samuel to commemorate God's help. Do we say that God is a less important player in our lives since He is a helper? Of course not!

One final criteria to consider.

Are you ready to be a spiritual leader?

Ephesians 5:23
For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church, his body, of which he is the Savior.

Do you know what is the original sin?

One of the guys answered, "It's being disobedient and eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But what does that have anything to do with anything?"

So, I asked, "Who ate first?"

He answered, "Eve"

Then, I cited the following verse:

Romans 5:12-15
Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned— for before the law was given, sin was in the world. But sin is not taken into account when there is no law. Nevertheless, death reigned from the time of Adam to the time of Moses, even over those who did not sin by breaking a command, as did Adam, who was a pattern of the one to come. But the gift is not like the trespass. For if the many died by the trespass of the one man, how much more did God's grace and the gift that came by the grace of the one man, Jesus Christ, overflow to the many!

And I asked, "Yes, but who brought sin into the world? Adam or Eve?"

Silence.

The original sin was Adam's failure to display spiritual leadership and stop Eve from eating from the forbidden tree.

Are you prepared to be a husband?

Are you prepared to love your wife as the Bible described?
Are you currently serving the Lord and need help doing so?
Are you prepared to be a spiritual leader?

Are you prepared to be a husband?

p.s., One of the guys, the joker, asked, "Well, how do you know that it's us being unprepared to be husbands and not the women being unprepared to be wives?"

Brainwashed by the Church Discussion Continues

The person, who wrote the discussion forum post that asserted that Christians become Christians through environments that are orchestrated to entrap non-believers' mind and keep them in the faith through isolation from the secular world, is at it again. He posted the following:

PSYCHOLOGICAL DAMAGE CAUSED BY CHRISTIANITY

Guilt and Regret

Guilt and regret are probably the two most debilitating emotions a human being can experience. Since guilt and regret are so powerful, they are at the core of the efforts to ensnare and control the Christian. Since these two emotions are used as a brainwashing and conversion tools and could easily be discussed in the brainwashing techniques chapter of the manifesto, but it is more suitable to discuss them now because of the long-term psychological damage both can create.

Guilt and regret are feelings that everyone has experienced at least at one point in their life. Usually individuals who are diagnosed with or are going through a period of depression experience feelings of guilt or regret, and in many cases, periods of extreme depression are caused by these two emotions. Since guilt, regret and depression coincide with each other so often, many people consciously or unconsciously link them together. It is not uncommon for one to reflect on a horrible period in their life and remember strong feelings of guilt and/or being regretful about something.

Christian leaders know the powerful, negative impact guilt and regret can have on an individual and have become very tactical in the use of these emotions. Christian leaders use a cycle of reminding believers of the things or events in their life that they should feel guilty about and then afterwards reminding them that only Jesus can save them from their guilt (sins) and regrets. It is a cruel game they play with your emotions.

They way Christian leaders toy with your motions can be compared to a doctor who purposely makes you ill and then later on gives you the medicine needed to cure your illness, and then repeats the process over again and again and again. Disturbing analogy, but that is exactly the psychological method that used to keep you coming back to and dependent on church.
What the Christian leader uses to make you feel guilty is the brainiest part of the psychological war he wages on the believer.

The Christian leader makes you feel guilty about fulfilling your natural human desires, the desires that all human beings possess and have little control over. You are made to feel guilty about having sex, thinking about sex, masturbating, putting your needs above others and God, desiring or thinking about something more than you desire or think about God, enjoying music that is not focused on God, dancing, drinking alcohol and socializing with nonbelievers.

By labeling natural desires as sins, there is no escape from continuingly sinning and perpetually being in a state of guilt, which is the goal. This is the goal because if you are always sinning or feeling guilty, you will always need to go to church and repent.

To make matters worse, the Christian leader will try to convince you that it is possible to change your "sinning" nature by getting closer to God. So logically, if getting closer to God and prevent one from sinning, the individual who can't seem to get him or herself to stop sinning will think they are not close enough to God. Once you develop this train of thought they really have got you!

A Christian who wants to get closer to God will search for ways to do so. He or she will pray more often and for longer periods of time, read the bible more often, attend and volunteer in church more frequently, evangelize more, and search for other ways to please God. They will continue to try to get closer to God until their whole life is consumed.

When a Christian's life becomes consumed trying to get closer to God with the hope of escaping from the guilt and sin, the real psychological damage begins because they will always find themselves sinning and therefore never feel close enough. At this point either one of two things generally happens.

The first thing that can happen is that the believer realizes that he or she is doing everything they can to live for God but they still can't stop sinning. This realization causes extreme guilt and depression to take hold of the Christian. The person begins to think something is seriously wrong with them. That individual will see the leaders of the church and other Christians acting as if they have somehow escaped their human nature, and it makes the guilty Christian's self esteem hit rock bottom. This individual my even begin to hate and not trust him or herself because they can't seem to get it together like everyone else in church. The psychological damage caused by the game Christian leaders play may take years of therapy to heal.

The second thing that can happen to a guilt ridden Christian is far worse than the first. Some Christians will be able to suppress their emotions and desires to sin to the point that they become people devoid of emotion and desires. They become walking zombies robbed of the feelings that make them human. This is an incredibly unnatural and dangerous condition for any human being to exist in and can cause extreme psychological damage. It is almost impossible for human being suppresses desires, especially sexual desires, in this manner for any length of time without needed some type of release to avoid insanity. This release can take the form of binging on sex, food, drugs or some other object, or the individual might explode in anger, rage or violence. It is no coincidence that quite a number of serial killers and rapist were raised in very religious or strict homes. The suppression of the natural desires caused a psychological imbalance that caused them to release their emotions in the form of anger.


Inability to Make Decisions

Christian leaders often encourage Christians to "wait on God" before making any major decisions. "Waiting on God," means to pray to God for help in making an important decision and then to wait for His answer. The result of this practice is the development of a stagnant human being that is incapable of or has great difficulty making decisions on his or her own. The practice of waiting for God for help in making decisions has long term implications for the Christian, even if he or she decides later on not to follow the religion.

One problem that arises when someone relies on God to help them is that that person has no way of knowing when or if God has given them an answer. Does the answer come in the form of a warm feeling inside one's heart? Does it come from some type of sign? Does God actually speak to the individual in search of an answer?

The indecisive Christian who is in search of some supernatural guidance will often wait and wait for some sign that will help them make a good decision. Since the human mind is very good at tricking itself into believing things are there when they actually aren't, especially if we want them badly enough, usually the Christian will get the sign he or she was looking for. For those who don't have a great ability to trick their own mind, they may spend a very long time waiting for an answer and may never make a decision at all.

Whether or not the Christian receives an answer to his or her prayer for guidance or not, the message to the Christian is very clear, "YOU CAN NOT MAKE A DECISION ON YOUR OWN!" Making a decision without praying to God first and assuring it's a decision He wants for your life is dangerous!

For the individual who does not rely on a higher power to make decisions, it is accepted that some decisions that one makes will end up with good results and others won't. This is an accepted risk and part of any decision making process that most mature human beings learn to cope with. Many people who can't come to terms with this reality, or have suffered from the results of a poor decision they made in the past, may want to live a life where God makes decisions for them instead of relying on their own judgments.

For the Christian who relies on God to guide their decisions, the decisions that end up with negative results can be disturbing and confusing. They may wonder, "how could a decision guided by God end with a negative result?" The Christian who had his divine guidance go wrong will typically come up with one of the following explanations for what went wrong: He made a mistake by thinking that God answered his prayer or he may think he was guided by God but more prayer and devotion was needed afterward.

The devout Christian who trusts in God's wisdom will not blame God for the negative consequences of a decision. Instead, the blame goes wholly on the Christian who is faced with the task of figuring out what went wrong. Since it is the Christian's fault, he or she will conclude that they have to do something differently the next time they have a decision to make. That Christian may decide to pray more, attempt to get closer to God, wait longer for an answer or live a life where the individual makes no decisions at all and just lets God to lead them throughout life like the wind leads a leaf through the air. The last approach leads to complete stagnation and lifelessness, which is sadly a state many Christian are in today.

By encouraging Christians to wait on God to make decisions, Christians become exactly what those in power want them to be, individuals who are afraid and incapable of making decisions independently.

Here's my response.

The writer of the post showed a complete ignorance of Christian doctrine.

1. All believers are relieved of guilt because all their sins (past, present, and future) are forgiven.
   


2. Because the believer knows that his/her future sin are forgiven, he/she is freed from the anguish of making a bad decision because any bad decision would be forgiven.


3. Christians will face trials irregardless of whether he/she makes good or bad decision

James 1:2-4
Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

So a true Christian would not be paralyzed by a decision due to the fear of the bad stuff of life that can result from the decision; bad stuff will come irregardless of whether the decision is a good or bad one.


4. Listening for the guidance of the Lord does not mean abandoning our responsibility to make decisions. When the President of the United States commissions a working group to study an issue and waits for their report, is he discarding his responsibility to make the final decision. Of course not, he is merely soliciting for advice.

Brainwashed by the Church?

Recently, I encountered a post in one of the Christian forums that infuriated me so much that my first reaction was to lash out at the person who posted it and point out how stupid he is. But I decided to take a breath before I post a response.

The post asserted that Christians become Christians through environments that are orchestrated to entrap non-believers' mind and keep them in the faith through isolation from the secular world. Here is the contents of the post:

BRAINWASHING TECHNIQUES

The Use of Fear to Convert and Trap

Many psychologist and other social scientists state that the mind is most susceptible to brainwashing during or after it has experienced shock, trauma or an intense state of fear. Knowing this fact, Christian leaders use fear during the process of brainwashing in order to convert or retain Christians within the religion.

Anyone who has been to a revival meeting can tell you how terrifying of an experience it can be, especially during the beginning phases of the preaching. Revivalist preachers usually begin their sermon giving the listening audience horrifying descriptions of hell, the devil and Armageddon. They will tell the audience stories about people who heard the gospel, decided to wait for a later time to accept Christ as their savior and then unexpectedly died shortly after hearing the good news and are now spending an eternity in hell. Preachers will tell tales of demon possessions, disturbing visions of the future and rule of the Antichrist. They will tell you anything to put you into a state of fear.

Preachers who use fear know that when the mind enters an intense state of fear, it will naturally seek relief or rescue from the state. Being in a constant state of fear is too much for the mind to handle, so it will naturally look for a way out of the state. The preacher that created the state of fear knows this and he will cleverly provide your mind with the escape it desires.
After about an hour of "fire and brimstone preaching" and filling the audience with fear, the preacher will switch gears and start preaching about the love of God and how God sent Jesus to rescue the world from sin and hell. By switching gears like this, the preacher is giving your mind, which overwhelmed with fear what it needs, an escape. The mind needs some relief from fear and it certainly doesn't want to go home like this, so it tells you to accept relief the preacher is offering you. When you accept Christ out of fear, the preacher's job is complete because he has set you up to live through a horrible pattern that keeps you coming back to him whenever fear takes over you. Whenever you return to church in a state of fear, you will be susceptible for further manipulation and brainwashing.

It is important to realize that if the preacher doesn't scare the audience with threats of an eternity in hell; few people in the audience would actually convert. And even if they do convert, they are less likely to come back for more preaching. If the preacher just told the audience about the love of God and never mentioned the alternative to going to heaven, hell, many people would put off following God until later in life. This is unacceptable to the preacher who wants control of believer now.


Isolation: Creating the "Christian against the World" Mentality

It is not long after the conversion of a new Christian that an important concept is impressed upon him or her. That concept is, "You are physically in this world but you are not of it." (John 16:17 NIV, Bible Gateway, 2006) The Christian is taught that the world is the enemy of Christ and his church because Satan influences it. Anyone who has not accepted Jesus into his or her heart is controlled by sin and is therefore dangerous to be around. The Christian is taught that, "Anyone who is not for Christ is against Him." Learning and accepting these extreme views are another step in the brainwashing process, which is isolation.

Isolation and convincing an individual that everyone, except the group he is being indoctrinated into, is against him is a well know brainwashing technique. Any knowledgeable social scientist will tell you that isolation is probably the most important step in the brainwashing process. Like most of the conversion techniques Christian leaders use, many brainwashers throughout history and today have used the isolation technique. Isolation was used to convert prisoners of war to Communism in concentration camps in China, by Hitler to persuade the Germans to go to war and commit inhumane acts and by almost every cult in existence.

Overtime, the new Christian victim is taught that they are only truly safe from the seduction of the devil within the church or among other Christians. New converts are also taught that God gave them a new mind when they accepted Jesus as their savior and that nonbelievers will have trouble understanding them because of that. Therefore, new converts should not be surprised if family and friends rejects their newfound faith because their mind is still controlled by the wisdom of the world and not God. Telling a new Christian this makes them highly sensitive to anyone who questions or criticizes their new belief, even if it is a valid criticism.

These concepts and methods are designed to increase the separation between the new convert and non-believing friends and family. The goal is for the current relationships that new Christian has with non-believing friends and family to be eventually replaced by members in the church who will slowly become their new "family in the Lord."

Isolating Christians from non-Christians is a method that is used to gain influence over new converts by eliminating the competition for their mind. By separating the convert from their family and friends there is little chance that someone will have the opportunity to be the voice of reason in their life to sway them away from Christianity.

The isolation of the Christian is further achieved by labeling common activities and conversations that nonbelievers take part in as sins. It is a sin for the Christian to enjoy non-Christian or secular music, go out for a night of drinks and dancing, talk about sex, and tell dirty jokes and to watch R rated movies. Labeling such trivial and common activities as sin makes spending time with nonbelievers complicated and awkward for the Christian. Overtime it becomes more convenient for the Christian to socialize exclusively other Christians who share the same values.

The Idle Mind is the Manipulators Workshop

"The idle mind is the Devil's workshop" is a popular phrase quoted by Christians. The notion behind this statement is that if one does not keep busy, the Devil will have an opportunity to tempt that person to sin or to stray away from God.

Christians are encouraged to avoid having an idle mind by keeping themselves busy with work, attending church, reading the bible, praying and worshipping God and doing Godly works by volunteering in church.

Preventing one's mind from being idle is actually another brainwashing technique. The reason why keeping a new convert busy is a brainwashing technique is because the mind is never actually idle. A healthy mind when not occupied with work or otherwise distracted is constantly thinking, reflecting and questioning. What the Christian leader is trying to avoid by keeping his congregation busy is allowing the believer to have the opportunity to think and question what they are being taught and programmed to believe by their church leaders.

Anyone who attends a new believer or new convert class will pick up on the effort to keep new Christian busy with things related to Christianity. New converts are strongly encouraged to attend church several times a week, spend hours studying the bible and to attend church functions. This is all done as part of an effort to overload mind the new believer with as much Christian propaganda and doctrine as possible while at the same time keeping them away from any information that questions Christianity.

The Small Details of Brainwashing

Along with the tools already mentioned in this manifesto there are many other brainwashing techniques that are used by Christian leaders. All of the techniques are too numerous to mention some of the most noticeable ones are: Creating a hypnotic environment with walls painting in soft and relaxing colors, using dim lighting and playing repetitive music; Tiring the mind and body by having hard wood seats in churches, giving extremely long sermons and suggesting that believers fast; and creating feelings of excitement by changing the tones and pace of the voice of the preacher. All of the above techniques are used for varying reasons but are all brainwashing and hypnotic techniques that can be researched and have been used for many years.

Here is my response:

I am a Christian and has never attended a revival nor was I ever isolated from the secular world by the Church (much less give the Church opportunity to "brainwash" me).

As a child and as a young man, I had viewed Christianity with distain, as a religion for the weak minded who need a mental crutch to prop up their guilt. I embraced the secular world and enjoyed what it offered.

It was not until my junior year in college when I accepted Jesus the Christ as my Lord and Savior. It was not due to someone convincing me of the Gospel (I would have scoffed at that). I accepted because, one night, when I was by myself, I had a personal encounter with the Creator and Lord of the universe.

OK, I didn't accepted Him as my Lord right away. I thought it would be nice to have an insurance policy against going to hell (if it actually existed), not to mention having its premium completely paid by the Almighty Creator (if it is indeed Him that is calling), but I was not willing to submit myself to the will of anyone else (including the Almighty Creator). My desire was to hold on to the treasures and pleasures of this world. And frankly speaking, I did not have any remorse for anything that I did in my young life. (After all, I didn't commit murder, sleep with someone else's wife, or rob a bank.)

But, He continued to call me, night after night. And each day, He made the treasures and pleasures of the world less enticing. The sexy hot girls no longer looked sexy and hot but sleazy and revolting. The thrills of college night life was no longer thrilling but mindless and boring (not to mention the headache inducing monotonic beat of the dance music). Each night, the serenity of His call became more desirable than the call of this world.

So, without a lick of knowledge about the Gospel (much less the rest of the Bible) I gave my life to my Lord, Jesus the Christ who called me. I gave Him my life without knowing what it meant; I simply said to Him, "Whatever you want from me, it's Yours."

Why? Because this life no longer offered me anything meaningful.

Afterward, Jesus led me to a Christian fellowship where I finally heard the Gospel for the first time.

And guess what? There I learned about the Great Commission:

Matthew 28:19
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them to the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Yes, immediately after joining the Christian fellowship, they pushed me out the door to engage with the world.

From that turning point in my life, I've traveled up and down the east and west coast of the U.S., to Mexico, to Europe, to Turkey, and to Central Asia. And boy, did the world offer a lot more treasures and pleasures than I can imagine. Of course, greater was the pleasure of allowing the Almighty to use me in the lives of broken people around the world. Ok, no, He didn't use me, it was all Him (the incredible miracles that He performed); I was just there for the ride.

As a witness for my Lord Jesus the Christ, I can assure you that I did not become a believer because I was manipulated by men to believe; I was called by the Creator and Lord of the Universe to follow His call.

As a witness for my Lord Jesus the Christ, I can assure you that it was not the avoidance of idle mind that kept me from straying from the faith; it was in these times of solitude in which my Lord and Savior met me where I am.

As a witness for my Lord Jesus the Christ, I can assure you that I do not stay in the faith because I was isolated from the secular world by the Church; I was called to travel the globe and engage the secular world through which I saw the glories of His miracles which build my desire for His presence in my life. (There's nothing like being rescued by the Lord from a third world jail in a Muslim country, for the cause of the Gospel, to strengthen you faith in the love and power of the Almighty.)