Showing posts with label Life and God. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life and God. Show all posts
Friday, February 19, 2010
1 in 7 or 24/7
I do not sit in front of this screen and assume to speak at you, holier than thou. If I pose a question, my answer should be foremost and without hesitation. I am ashamed to report to you that I cannot even meet the minimum standard of spirituality and adherence to my beliefs. I am not a 1 in 7 Christian, let alone 24/7; I am a 3 and 1/2 hour Christian. A church attendee, if you will. Please don’t get me wrong. This self-chastisement is only a public recognition of my humanity. The fact of the matter is, I try everyday and look forward to that day on which I can proclaim myself a 24/7 believer and follower of the Creator and Lawgiver of the universe.
You see, there is something quite unique about the human species. We were created with the ability to understand right from wrong, good and evil. We also are a sinful creature and cannot help ourselves away from the circumstance of doing that which we know to be against our best interest. Therefore, each one of us must be diligent in a daily reflection of what we want the world to see. To accomplish that goal, we must set our sights on becoming a 24/7 Christian.
First, we must start with this anatomical contraption called a body. Radio host and Ph.D in Physiology, Dr Laura, recently wrote a book called “The Proper Care and Feeding of Husbands”. The book has been the salvaging of countless marriages. Isn’t it interesting that we have had a handbook for centuries that lays out a step-by-step approach to the spiritual and physical maintenance of this human vehicle? Later, I would like to explore into the deeper micro aspects of that discussion. As you ascend the ladder in your Christian or spiritual experience, your body changes. Its outer shell, in health and expression, changes. Your assurance of belief becomes evident and is witnessed by those in your family. The community in which you live reaps the reward of your new life. You have become active in making this a better place to live. The 24/7 Christian closes in on the macro, in so much as he influences outcomes of living in a state, his country, and finally, the world.
And what would my offering in this forum be, if there where not a problem? Well, of coarse there is! However personal you view your walk with God, you can not allow your country to fall into the abyss of a secularized mantra that states that you as a Christian have no right to bring forward your moral values into the procedural and legal entanglements of government. The 24/7 Christian must and will effect how a secular government does business. A 24/7 Christian will, by his action and deed, affect the world. It is in this age, we find our western values challenged by a different faith. A group dedicated to the worship of our God but with a different enthusiasm and often compared to a 24/7 Christian. Our country fights their radical wing while beseeching the vast majority of Muslims to fight with us. They are hesitant at best for one major reason. Our lifestyle and our doctrine do not connect. Are we 24/7 believers, or not?
Monday, December 7, 2009
A PACK OF NEURONS
The competition of ideas, as in any other arena, makes for a healthier and /or better product. Sporting events or capitalistic undertakings are given to rules that support what can be proven. Some suggest the competition of the religious/spiritual nature is often led by words based in faith and the unknown. I suggest the latter is becoming increasingly untrue.
Frances Crick, co-discoverer of DNA's double helix structure, in his book "The Astonishing Hypothesis, points to you being no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. That is, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, all crammed into a pack of neurons.
So if their is no design or purpose, what of evil? Atheists and "New Age" believers would have you believe that religion is the blame for what ails the world, "comparable to the small pox virus but harder to eradicate", as stated by Richard Dawkins, who also believed in the blind pitiless indifference of nature, where some people are going to get hurt and others get lucky. That explains why this white pack of neurons should have no problem owning and selling some other black pack of neurons. That presents a wonderful contrast and immediately disproves Dawkins.
It is in the "outcomes of living", where we can study what shows up as good and evil, where we witness the relevancy of our belief, and realize the validity of its fact. It has become obvious that this nations designation, as Christian, has come under attack. But you can not pull away from our nation it's Cristian roots, or characterize it other than that, as its traditional identity, nor can you define it apart from the words, "all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights." The diluting of Christianity will create a vacuum, where it's detractors and so called "spiritualists" will reel in hoar at what gets sucked into our land.
The Gospel speaks not only to eternal salvation of men's soals; it addresses family and education, law and economics, international relations and scientific endeavors. It condemns rebels and thugs and taught us about banking and insurance, while researching maps and roads. It shamelessly proclaimed Jesus Christ as King over every single aspect of life. Christianity was not always perfect but it had in itself the seeds of its own perfection, and wrote The Book on how to attain your own. Inspired by Whom, you might ask. Read it with an open mind without preconcieved prejudice. It will become entirely unmistakable, by Whom. B.C.
Frances Crick, co-discoverer of DNA's double helix structure, in his book "The Astonishing Hypothesis, points to you being no more than the behavior of a vast assembly of nerve cells and their associated molecules. That is, your joys and your sorrows, your memories and your ambitions, your sense of personal identity and free will, all crammed into a pack of neurons.
So if their is no design or purpose, what of evil? Atheists and "New Age" believers would have you believe that religion is the blame for what ails the world, "comparable to the small pox virus but harder to eradicate", as stated by Richard Dawkins, who also believed in the blind pitiless indifference of nature, where some people are going to get hurt and others get lucky. That explains why this white pack of neurons should have no problem owning and selling some other black pack of neurons. That presents a wonderful contrast and immediately disproves Dawkins.
It is in the "outcomes of living", where we can study what shows up as good and evil, where we witness the relevancy of our belief, and realize the validity of its fact. It has become obvious that this nations designation, as Christian, has come under attack. But you can not pull away from our nation it's Cristian roots, or characterize it other than that, as its traditional identity, nor can you define it apart from the words, "all men are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights." The diluting of Christianity will create a vacuum, where it's detractors and so called "spiritualists" will reel in hoar at what gets sucked into our land.
The Gospel speaks not only to eternal salvation of men's soals; it addresses family and education, law and economics, international relations and scientific endeavors. It condemns rebels and thugs and taught us about banking and insurance, while researching maps and roads. It shamelessly proclaimed Jesus Christ as King over every single aspect of life. Christianity was not always perfect but it had in itself the seeds of its own perfection, and wrote The Book on how to attain your own. Inspired by Whom, you might ask. Read it with an open mind without preconcieved prejudice. It will become entirely unmistakable, by Whom. B.C.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
IT'S ALL GREEK TO ME......An Acient Hope, part 2
I sit here on this Sabbath morning pondering our recent celebration of July 4th and its importance. In a way, Christians place the same kind of relevance to AD 33. Sort of, freedom day, if you will. But as Jesus walked around an occupied and fallen Hebrew nation, a country who’s history was rife with examples of being the conquered, He had prepared for those final 3 ½ years, for His great sacrifice and the culmination of the great prophesies and revelation, by a lifetime, crammed into 30 years of studying the ancients.
Why care? Why not take some specialists word for it, then, individually just start at AD 33? The New Testament is all you need for salvation. Right? Give me a break, you silly Christian! You’ll soon mirror the Jewish nation in bondage!
Look! The New Testament was written in Greek, not King James English. If you want to read what John read, the Old Testament, the Septuagint, you’ll need to understand Greek, or if not, then understand the language’s origin and from where it came before translation. To understand the New Testament, you have to understand that it was created out of great philosophical works, from Homer to Plato and Aristotle.
As I sat and reviewed the pod cast of a discussion Hugh Hewitt had with John Mark Reynolds and David Allen White, about the importance of ancient Truth, I began to realize how parochial my primary Christian education had been, and even more concerned that the portions of Greek philosophy sprinkled into it were vast, taking into account that children in secular education today are not sincerely introduced to “When Athens Met Jerusalem".
You see, when John wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”, he was sitting in a pagan city called Ephesus, and he was using language created by one of that city’s most famous residents, Heraclitus. You don’t have to care about Heraclitus unless you have grandkids like mine who have viewed the movie Pokohauntus, over and over and over…you get the picture. In the movie, Pokohauntus says, “You can never step in the same river twice”. She is not stating some kind of great North American wisdom. She is quoting Heraclitus. John, witting his poetic and prophetic statement of whom and what he believed the nature of Jesus and God to be, was being inspired by the very words of Heraclitus and his Greek words “en arche”, “in the beginning”, and then “en ho legos”, “was the word” Yes sir! Great Christian philosophy built right there in a pagan city on the words of a Greek philosopher. That does not diminish what John wrote. As David Allan White states it, “He was building on a language that was old and making something new of it, revealing something new to the world. It is as if he dropped an ideological atom bomb on a pagan culture, utterly destroying that culture, and replacing it with a Christian culture".
Those of us who enjoy the fruits of the greatest story ever told, whether by just tagging along, or by being one who has what some call, the fullness of faith, salvation, if you will, need to understand something important. “If you’re going to understand the fullness of time, you must understand the fullness of what the world brought to everything that made that thought possible and what occupied the minds of serious thinkers for a long while”. And that’s all Greek to me! B.C.
Why care? Why not take some specialists word for it, then, individually just start at AD 33? The New Testament is all you need for salvation. Right? Give me a break, you silly Christian! You’ll soon mirror the Jewish nation in bondage!
Look! The New Testament was written in Greek, not King James English. If you want to read what John read, the Old Testament, the Septuagint, you’ll need to understand Greek, or if not, then understand the language’s origin and from where it came before translation. To understand the New Testament, you have to understand that it was created out of great philosophical works, from Homer to Plato and Aristotle.
As I sat and reviewed the pod cast of a discussion Hugh Hewitt had with John Mark Reynolds and David Allen White, about the importance of ancient Truth, I began to realize how parochial my primary Christian education had been, and even more concerned that the portions of Greek philosophy sprinkled into it were vast, taking into account that children in secular education today are not sincerely introduced to “When Athens Met Jerusalem".
You see, when John wrote, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”, he was sitting in a pagan city called Ephesus, and he was using language created by one of that city’s most famous residents, Heraclitus. You don’t have to care about Heraclitus unless you have grandkids like mine who have viewed the movie Pokohauntus, over and over and over…you get the picture. In the movie, Pokohauntus says, “You can never step in the same river twice”. She is not stating some kind of great North American wisdom. She is quoting Heraclitus. John, witting his poetic and prophetic statement of whom and what he believed the nature of Jesus and God to be, was being inspired by the very words of Heraclitus and his Greek words “en arche”, “in the beginning”, and then “en ho legos”, “was the word” Yes sir! Great Christian philosophy built right there in a pagan city on the words of a Greek philosopher. That does not diminish what John wrote. As David Allan White states it, “He was building on a language that was old and making something new of it, revealing something new to the world. It is as if he dropped an ideological atom bomb on a pagan culture, utterly destroying that culture, and replacing it with a Christian culture".
Those of us who enjoy the fruits of the greatest story ever told, whether by just tagging along, or by being one who has what some call, the fullness of faith, salvation, if you will, need to understand something important. “If you’re going to understand the fullness of time, you must understand the fullness of what the world brought to everything that made that thought possible and what occupied the minds of serious thinkers for a long while”. And that’s all Greek to me! B.C.
Saturday, July 4, 2009
GET OUT THE DITCH, BRO..........An Ancient Hope, part 1
You might think the world changed on July 4th, 1776. I love my country's birthday, I do. It sure is a cool spot on the historical chart. But look, I see it as a great place to be catapulted back to ancient time, not to slip forward to a sliding scale of thought that makes all things new, the value measure, and intellectual trends, foundations on sand. Christian theology was borne to a new world by those who sought out to form an environment for their children, to grow in understanding and reason, shaped by a philosophic language that was a gift from the ancients, not just passed forward to generations of a reformed Christianity, but in greater part, Western Civilization. Could they observe us today, one would see a dismayed group of Greeks, horrified at the ignorance and the shrugging off of centuries of intellectual history.
So, why do we care? Recently I listened to Hugh Hewitt discuss this very concept with two smart and valuable intellectual giants, John Mark Reynolds and David Allen White. In that conversation lies the answer. "People who care about the fact that their children and grandchildren are buying into a set of lies that are awful, that are destroying our nation and destroying our children and grandchildren, need to go to deeper causes for those lies and find viable solutions that can create the kind of culture that produces 1776 instead of 1966". A good place to start is an introduction to classical and Christian thought that can be found in a new book by John Mark Reynolds, titled "When Athens Met Jerusalem".
Today, we find ourselves treating symptoms manifested from lies, not willing to confront and educate about the core disease, to perform preventative care, if you will. The affliction is a rejection of some basic ideas bought into by the Founding Fathers, and we don't even know we have rejected those ideas. For various reasons, the modern world is obsessed with progress and obsessed with that which is new. We are heading down a road, on which, we have no idea where we are going. No guidance! No sense of where we've been! We have veered off into a ditch! Where were the guideposts? Did we see them but not understand their importance?
It is clear understanding of reason and reasonable thought, handed down for centuries by ancient philosophers, an intellectual endeavor that will lead one to Truth, capital "T" Truth, objective, outside the self, eternal Truth. There is the road map that we found less than appetizing to consume and ignored what would have kept us out of the proverbial ditch. It's clear, the Founding Fathers and most of the great minds of the past recognized the source of wisdom. It is clear we do not, by our infatuation with things constantly new and seeking constant change, have any idea how to get out of the ditch. Study to show thyself! Get out the ditch, bro! B.C.
So, why do we care? Recently I listened to Hugh Hewitt discuss this very concept with two smart and valuable intellectual giants, John Mark Reynolds and David Allen White. In that conversation lies the answer. "People who care about the fact that their children and grandchildren are buying into a set of lies that are awful, that are destroying our nation and destroying our children and grandchildren, need to go to deeper causes for those lies and find viable solutions that can create the kind of culture that produces 1776 instead of 1966". A good place to start is an introduction to classical and Christian thought that can be found in a new book by John Mark Reynolds, titled "When Athens Met Jerusalem".
Today, we find ourselves treating symptoms manifested from lies, not willing to confront and educate about the core disease, to perform preventative care, if you will. The affliction is a rejection of some basic ideas bought into by the Founding Fathers, and we don't even know we have rejected those ideas. For various reasons, the modern world is obsessed with progress and obsessed with that which is new. We are heading down a road, on which, we have no idea where we are going. No guidance! No sense of where we've been! We have veered off into a ditch! Where were the guideposts? Did we see them but not understand their importance?
It is clear understanding of reason and reasonable thought, handed down for centuries by ancient philosophers, an intellectual endeavor that will lead one to Truth, capital "T" Truth, objective, outside the self, eternal Truth. There is the road map that we found less than appetizing to consume and ignored what would have kept us out of the proverbial ditch. It's clear, the Founding Fathers and most of the great minds of the past recognized the source of wisdom. It is clear we do not, by our infatuation with things constantly new and seeking constant change, have any idea how to get out of the ditch. Study to show thyself! Get out the ditch, bro! B.C.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
DUMB DOGS
The set of laws Moses received from God in no way defined a new national structure but in it, as personal adherence to it followed, allowed a societal cohesiveness which provided God’s people the opportunity to organize into the nation of Israel. At the founding of our nation a standard was set forth to limit government. Our Constitution was put in place to be the foundation and guideline for all law thereafter. Under both mantles, your attention is drawn to God. On the tablets, the first command is; Thou shalt have no other gods before me. At the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin urged his fellow participants to call upon the “God [who] governs in the affairs of men”.
In “Twilight of the Idols”, arch-atheist Fredrich Nietzsche makes the observation that breaking one’s faith in God pulls Christian morality right out from under your feet. “Christian morality is a command; its origin is transcendent; it is beyond all criticism, all right to criticism; it has truth only if God has truth--it stands or falls with faith in God”, he wrote. Nietzsche went on to profess, “no God, no moral imperatives; no “thou shalt”, and no “thou shalt not”. Only, “I will”. To bad that today’s atheists are not as honest or consistent as Nietzsche, enjoying the peace and tolerance derived from Christendom, all the while denying the existence of the Rule-giver.
Today we are faced with the ever-deluding definition of what is acceptable as moral behavior. Moral relativism runs rampant. There is one important factor that has promoted this problem. As individuals, assisted by the world wide web and technologies that further separate us from each other face to face, we have been pushed into a scenario of “one” and not community. This leaves each one of us as gatekeepers of our own values, without the guidance or checks and balance found in the “fear“ of God. Fewer find the importance of fellowship in the pews of Christian chapels and the seeking out of good advice and leadership. The allure to the guidance of a secular nations political class that promotes “I will” has allowed each of us to become the dumb dogs of Isaiah 56: 10-11. While we put on a good show at times (why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things I say? Luke 6:46), our actions show us to be in defiance of the First Command. Whoever or whatever might take God’s place determines the laws by which that individual or nation lives by. But Christ said, “If ye love Me, keep my commandments”. (John 14:15) He does not refer to some new age idea (Oh, it’s all about love, man) interpretation of the Ten Commands.
Our quest today should be to restore God’s law to its legitimate place on our nations mantel. To do otherwise would be to succumb to the direct assault on the Christian religion, the only belief system that puts limits on government. The dumb dogs lay sleeping, allowing biblical law to be reinterpreted, relegating God to some distant corner of the universe, or worse, redefining Him in the image of the politically empowered, emboldening government to act without any regard for a fixed moral foundation, which is, “Thou shalt have no other gods”. Will you wake the dogs, or lay down with them? B.C.
In “Twilight of the Idols”, arch-atheist Fredrich Nietzsche makes the observation that breaking one’s faith in God pulls Christian morality right out from under your feet. “Christian morality is a command; its origin is transcendent; it is beyond all criticism, all right to criticism; it has truth only if God has truth--it stands or falls with faith in God”, he wrote. Nietzsche went on to profess, “no God, no moral imperatives; no “thou shalt”, and no “thou shalt not”. Only, “I will”. To bad that today’s atheists are not as honest or consistent as Nietzsche, enjoying the peace and tolerance derived from Christendom, all the while denying the existence of the Rule-giver.
Today we are faced with the ever-deluding definition of what is acceptable as moral behavior. Moral relativism runs rampant. There is one important factor that has promoted this problem. As individuals, assisted by the world wide web and technologies that further separate us from each other face to face, we have been pushed into a scenario of “one” and not community. This leaves each one of us as gatekeepers of our own values, without the guidance or checks and balance found in the “fear“ of God. Fewer find the importance of fellowship in the pews of Christian chapels and the seeking out of good advice and leadership. The allure to the guidance of a secular nations political class that promotes “I will” has allowed each of us to become the dumb dogs of Isaiah 56: 10-11. While we put on a good show at times (why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things I say? Luke 6:46), our actions show us to be in defiance of the First Command. Whoever or whatever might take God’s place determines the laws by which that individual or nation lives by. But Christ said, “If ye love Me, keep my commandments”. (John 14:15) He does not refer to some new age idea (Oh, it’s all about love, man) interpretation of the Ten Commands.
Our quest today should be to restore God’s law to its legitimate place on our nations mantel. To do otherwise would be to succumb to the direct assault on the Christian religion, the only belief system that puts limits on government. The dumb dogs lay sleeping, allowing biblical law to be reinterpreted, relegating God to some distant corner of the universe, or worse, redefining Him in the image of the politically empowered, emboldening government to act without any regard for a fixed moral foundation, which is, “Thou shalt have no other gods”. Will you wake the dogs, or lay down with them? B.C.
Sunday, December 7, 2008
THE SABBATH
The fact of the matter is that the Bible has never disenfranchised the Sabbath or separated its significance from the final day of the week or the reasons for which it begins at sun down and culminates on Saturday at sundown. If you believe the biblical account of creation, the Sabbath was made for man (Mark 2:27) not just Jews or world religionists. Adam didn’t have a clue who Abraham was. God created a world and inhabited it with one people. The sacrificial system the Israelites had imposed on them because they couldn't control their lifestyle used as highlights and markers, specific Sabbaths. No logical thinker would conclude that the Sabbath relationship to creation and its significance to helping mankind remember and celebrate it was in any way diluted or changed at that systems conclusion. We know Jesus wandered around for a while after He rose (I’ve not been with my Father yet), and during that time continued to keep the seventh day. I may say what I will about the nature of Him but I strive for clarity and the Bible suggests no change in day but a very important change from the strict legalistic manner which temple elites carried out their tyrannical policing of its observance. Was He confused about the significance of His “role” in the modern Christian belief of a "big shift"? Two or three hundred years later, Christians were starting to use Sunday because, well, all the pagans were, why not? Just like the Jews of old, hey Moses? This country, my father used to say is a Christian nation. I think not dad, just a bunch of pagans.
To tell you the truth, I don’t care if you keep the Sabbath on Tuesday; it’s your call. Get your family together and love each other. Its time to stop and rest from the rat race. I choose these days to spend it on the soccer fields with my grand kids and when we can in Sabbath School and Church. My friends down at "Second and Robinson" will forgive my belief that the specific day matters not but that the down fall of this country is centered on the unholy and unnatural and that is evidenced by the attack on marriage and the blurring of lines between right and wrong and good and evil. Diminishing the Sabbath to irrelevance does likewise to honor and faithfulness and truthfulness and a more close relationship with the Creator of all things no matter how I believe that occurred (you'll learn that next). Love is the greatest command and you all ought to fall in love with the Sabbath and its connection to nature. B. C.
To tell you the truth, I don’t care if you keep the Sabbath on Tuesday; it’s your call. Get your family together and love each other. Its time to stop and rest from the rat race. I choose these days to spend it on the soccer fields with my grand kids and when we can in Sabbath School and Church. My friends down at "Second and Robinson" will forgive my belief that the specific day matters not but that the down fall of this country is centered on the unholy and unnatural and that is evidenced by the attack on marriage and the blurring of lines between right and wrong and good and evil. Diminishing the Sabbath to irrelevance does likewise to honor and faithfulness and truthfulness and a more close relationship with the Creator of all things no matter how I believe that occurred (you'll learn that next). Love is the greatest command and you all ought to fall in love with the Sabbath and its connection to nature. B. C.
Saturday, December 6, 2008
REMEMBER
I find myself on a Saturday, the first in December, and almost through another Sabbath day. I wanted to buck my intuition and continue writing on a very important subject, to be posted as soon as possible on my blog, titled, “In The Beginning”. It is not complete and I just wanted to call your attention to something our country desperately needs.
When Moses compiled the Ten Commandments, he had a wealth of knowledge about life and the nature of our world. Though his frustration with the people of Israel is documented in the books he penned and demonstrated by the harshness and arduous complexity of “the law”, there can be no doubt that the original intent on the tablets was to provide a simple yet comprehensive documentation of the natural law which had
spiritual and social components. It is easy to determine the defining line between the two areas of concern except for the fourth, which I believe is a mixture of the two. It was wise and appropriate to place it exactly where he did. You should take note that while a secular country like ours may be tempted to diminish the spiritual, to tolerate the personal nature of that side of the law, governing outside of the spiritual influences of the law will and has depreciated the understanding and adherence of the remainder of the law. You can witness the consequence of this reckless inattention to God’s will, and while the appeal of our constitution is that no spiritual philosophy can or should be subjugated or dispensed of, the idea that the very basis and nature of that constitution could be written out of it, and our daily lives, by secular government mandate, is appalling.
So why the importance of remembrance? The Fourth Command is by far the longest of the ten and in its entirety, can be read I Exodus 20: 8-11. The general meaning of the Sabbath is a call to rest but that does not identify the importance and acknowledgment that emanates from the very beginning and throughout the text. The Hebrew word, “zakhor”, translated (remember) means more than merely recalling something past, but suggests actively focusing the mind upon something in the present, a call to mind, that on all other days, we are to look towards this day. It is not the laborious Deuteronomy version where the Hebrew word is “shamor” which has a more legalistic translation of keeping or observing as opposed to remembering. More importantly, the Sabbath is a perpetual testimony that God alone is the unique Creator of all things, that no other day could graduate to its importance and that Moses recognized that by writing it into the Holy Ten. The significance of that fact propels its applicability far beyond Sinai and is supported by going further back to the unique calling of Abraham who recognized God as Creator of all things, and the Sabbath.
Memorializing Creation does not complete the significance of The Day. That is the natural side of things. Tying The Fourth to the spiritual, that which the Christian church today has diminished, that which our country so desperately deserves reformed, which is the appreciation of God’s work and observed by experiencing the liberation from the toil of labor for all of God’s creatures. It must be administered in a way that by resisting the usual cares and concerns of the secular world, we can unite and be fulfilled by study, rest, and the enjoyment of reflection with each other and by God’s blessing. Should we as a country restore our celebration of this day, we re-establish unity of community and family so abhorrently lost in our society. We deny the absurdity of the unnatural and dream of a restored spiritual and, in my opinion, Christian nation.
B. C.
When Moses compiled the Ten Commandments, he had a wealth of knowledge about life and the nature of our world. Though his frustration with the people of Israel is documented in the books he penned and demonstrated by the harshness and arduous complexity of “the law”, there can be no doubt that the original intent on the tablets was to provide a simple yet comprehensive documentation of the natural law which had
spiritual and social components. It is easy to determine the defining line between the two areas of concern except for the fourth, which I believe is a mixture of the two. It was wise and appropriate to place it exactly where he did. You should take note that while a secular country like ours may be tempted to diminish the spiritual, to tolerate the personal nature of that side of the law, governing outside of the spiritual influences of the law will and has depreciated the understanding and adherence of the remainder of the law. You can witness the consequence of this reckless inattention to God’s will, and while the appeal of our constitution is that no spiritual philosophy can or should be subjugated or dispensed of, the idea that the very basis and nature of that constitution could be written out of it, and our daily lives, by secular government mandate, is appalling.
So why the importance of remembrance? The Fourth Command is by far the longest of the ten and in its entirety, can be read I Exodus 20: 8-11. The general meaning of the Sabbath is a call to rest but that does not identify the importance and acknowledgment that emanates from the very beginning and throughout the text. The Hebrew word, “zakhor”, translated (remember) means more than merely recalling something past, but suggests actively focusing the mind upon something in the present, a call to mind, that on all other days, we are to look towards this day. It is not the laborious Deuteronomy version where the Hebrew word is “shamor” which has a more legalistic translation of keeping or observing as opposed to remembering. More importantly, the Sabbath is a perpetual testimony that God alone is the unique Creator of all things, that no other day could graduate to its importance and that Moses recognized that by writing it into the Holy Ten. The significance of that fact propels its applicability far beyond Sinai and is supported by going further back to the unique calling of Abraham who recognized God as Creator of all things, and the Sabbath.
Memorializing Creation does not complete the significance of The Day. That is the natural side of things. Tying The Fourth to the spiritual, that which the Christian church today has diminished, that which our country so desperately deserves reformed, which is the appreciation of God’s work and observed by experiencing the liberation from the toil of labor for all of God’s creatures. It must be administered in a way that by resisting the usual cares and concerns of the secular world, we can unite and be fulfilled by study, rest, and the enjoyment of reflection with each other and by God’s blessing. Should we as a country restore our celebration of this day, we re-establish unity of community and family so abhorrently lost in our society. We deny the absurdity of the unnatural and dream of a restored spiritual and, in my opinion, Christian nation.
B. C.
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
A Great Disappointment
William Miller led a movement of Christian believers in the 1840’s who attempted to determine the date of Christ’s return. It splintered on Oct 22nd 1844 when He did not. Out of the unbelievable disappointment, enlightenment was received and rekindled an understanding of mans relationship with God. The Christian church was challenging itself to return to a stricter adherence to the law of God. Understanding that law, and adhering to it, might have kept the church in Gods favor. Christians today may think they are doing Gods will, but I believe you are wrong.
Some may dismiss my remarks because you are familiar with my belief that the scripture is not inspired but is a human endeavor to understand the will of God. My belief, “inspired” by logic, disqualifies the need for a savior but that is another days subject.
Recently, I submitted this very post to the "Religion" page of the local newspaper. That forum affords testimony to be given by the followers of Jesus who think one of two things. He did away with the law and/or diluted it. By dying for our sins, and becoming the only avenue for forgiveness, he inserts the insinuation of accountability after death. Judgment commencing at a later date for spiritual sins allows the Christian community the lackluster activity of setting aside “spiritual” law due to the inability to enforce what is not our responsibility to enforce. Sure, crimes against each other we enforce by allowing a secular entity to do so. During the days of Moses, the law had a spiritual quotient to it. Understanding that could bring the Christian church back to God and save this country.
One would first have to know who or what God is. Christians have come up with the Trinity theology to support their need to be saved. Saving could not happen otherwise. Christians readily acknowledge that God is a spirit. Early “inspired” humans say God wrote with His own finger that you should have no other Gods before Him. Now that’s just silly. You mean to tell me there are more “gods” than God. Would these “gods” be at odds with the Hebrew/Christian God? Are they benevolent entities, as “our” God is? If not, would there be more war in heaven should their power be equal to His. Please, do not comment that I do not understand the first commandment, I do. I digress and was a bit sarcastic only to show my belief there is but one God and that He has given us the opportunity to benefit from the observations (read inspirations, if you must) of ancient writers who came up with a set of laws, which when adhered to can benefit civilization to the extent that heaven on earth is possible. The opposite is true with out it. What a disappointment that would be. The law is that set of principles, better defined as the manual for human existence. Inside you will find how to live your life, which includes but not limited to, what to eat, when to work, what to give, and how to live with yourself and others. Save your Christian country and return to your God. B.C.
Some may dismiss my remarks because you are familiar with my belief that the scripture is not inspired but is a human endeavor to understand the will of God. My belief, “inspired” by logic, disqualifies the need for a savior but that is another days subject.
Recently, I submitted this very post to the "Religion" page of the local newspaper. That forum affords testimony to be given by the followers of Jesus who think one of two things. He did away with the law and/or diluted it. By dying for our sins, and becoming the only avenue for forgiveness, he inserts the insinuation of accountability after death. Judgment commencing at a later date for spiritual sins allows the Christian community the lackluster activity of setting aside “spiritual” law due to the inability to enforce what is not our responsibility to enforce. Sure, crimes against each other we enforce by allowing a secular entity to do so. During the days of Moses, the law had a spiritual quotient to it. Understanding that could bring the Christian church back to God and save this country.
One would first have to know who or what God is. Christians have come up with the Trinity theology to support their need to be saved. Saving could not happen otherwise. Christians readily acknowledge that God is a spirit. Early “inspired” humans say God wrote with His own finger that you should have no other Gods before Him. Now that’s just silly. You mean to tell me there are more “gods” than God. Would these “gods” be at odds with the Hebrew/Christian God? Are they benevolent entities, as “our” God is? If not, would there be more war in heaven should their power be equal to His. Please, do not comment that I do not understand the first commandment, I do. I digress and was a bit sarcastic only to show my belief there is but one God and that He has given us the opportunity to benefit from the observations (read inspirations, if you must) of ancient writers who came up with a set of laws, which when adhered to can benefit civilization to the extent that heaven on earth is possible. The opposite is true with out it. What a disappointment that would be. The law is that set of principles, better defined as the manual for human existence. Inside you will find how to live your life, which includes but not limited to, what to eat, when to work, what to give, and how to live with yourself and others. Save your Christian country and return to your God. B.C.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
GOD LIVES IN ME
Down through the centuries of chronicled human lore, mankind has grappled with the concept of a higher power. All cultures have been unequivocal in presuming this power to be reality. Each has placed on “It” an identity which could be filtered into the language thereby allowing individuals an understanding of one’s relationship with this, to put it in modern terms, super icon. I’m not going to attempt to list nor will I research all of the ways this entity is described as being or realized to be. Millennium of time has given us “God”.
On this Thanksgiving Day 2008, I wonder if you are ready to bring yourself somewhere with me. You see, its not enough to claim a belief in something, to give thanks for our bounty and good fortune to God, to ask forgiviness for our short comings, unless you are honest with yourself about your understanding of who you precieve God to be. I am not here to judge your understanding nor be critical of the path that led you to it. However, superficiality is a trait of disbelief, a façade for the hidden, not the onlooker. The decay of society is a sure sign that most of us are in that boat heading for the falls and I’m not going over with you. I will not presume to be the Martin Luther of our time nor cast myself as the captain of the boat headed for demise. All souls on board must save themselves and therefore the rationale for study of what you believe. By my childhood upbringing, I have seen this very fall of humanity coming, not by my own foresight, but by those wise folk and kin before me, from biblical patriarchs to founders of the SDA church and my parents. The church and I split where value assigned to contributors may not be equal but has at least an equal consideration, which, to get to the crux of my belief, the bible included. “They” would quote, “As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:9) “They” would be well advised to relinquish the model set forth by the children of Israel, where precious few years of dedication to God were sprinkled in and amongst the hundreds more of idol worship and consortion with evil. The heritage assumed by its appellation, Judaeo-Christian, is rife with separation from God, usually followed by reformation. Moses was; he wrote the law. Christ was; he challenged the temple hierarchy. Martin Luther was; he broke the chokehold of Catholic dogma.
By accepting certain parameters, giving logic its due, but not shunning hope that gives faith credence, then shoveling in the centuries of historical documents that thinkers, authors and prophets have given for the betterment of our understanding, coming out on the other side with what fit’s the modern age you will find a true understanding of God. It’s not hard, and is absolutely achievable. You must start here not there. Here is where you can study the affects of Christian thoughts and deeds. Here is where you find freedom to choose. Here is a country where for most of its history, not throughout, but in its very founding and in great segments, God is placed foremost, and so to, believers in rolls of great leadership. In these United States of America, until the 1960’s, vast majorities believed in God. It is our general conceptual view of Him that led to the elimination of slavery. Here is where women claimed their equal rights. It has been under the influence of Christianity, sometimes at odds with old theology, that the freedom bell rings. It has been mans understanding of God that has changed, not God.
It is my understanding that God is a spirit, manifested by each one of us, by nature, that which we are caretakers of, and by the science that is indisputable. Degeneration leads to new generation, but also, creation leads to new creation and the two are mutually supporting. In a fashion that we can only speculate, God kicked it off, allowing us the controlls, but always present to influence. Wise thinkers have written about this relationship and Christians have accepted that Christ, a human, should intercede, to facilitate this relationship. The value of the spirituality of Christ cannot be overstated and His words often explain the connection we should foster with our God. However, my belief is that God live’s in me and that any intercessor is a disconnection of the involvement and participation in my day-to-day life this spirit has.
So, I place Christ in the elevated group that includes some of the previously mentioned influences, and that we can debate in the future, heaven and hell, the trinity, and we will discuss the importance of words that have been written, such as God’s physicality whether in word or structure. Since I believe that many of Christ’s words were antidotal, left to inspire the enslaved to rise up and carry that cross to the “new world”, a new people, and a new belief system that would someday regenerate His Jewish state. He is the architect, but it is God who lives in me, and Christ can only and always be, the son of a man.
Next up, THE LAW. B. C.
On this Thanksgiving Day 2008, I wonder if you are ready to bring yourself somewhere with me. You see, its not enough to claim a belief in something, to give thanks for our bounty and good fortune to God, to ask forgiviness for our short comings, unless you are honest with yourself about your understanding of who you precieve God to be. I am not here to judge your understanding nor be critical of the path that led you to it. However, superficiality is a trait of disbelief, a façade for the hidden, not the onlooker. The decay of society is a sure sign that most of us are in that boat heading for the falls and I’m not going over with you. I will not presume to be the Martin Luther of our time nor cast myself as the captain of the boat headed for demise. All souls on board must save themselves and therefore the rationale for study of what you believe. By my childhood upbringing, I have seen this very fall of humanity coming, not by my own foresight, but by those wise folk and kin before me, from biblical patriarchs to founders of the SDA church and my parents. The church and I split where value assigned to contributors may not be equal but has at least an equal consideration, which, to get to the crux of my belief, the bible included. “They” would quote, “As we have said before, so now I say again: If anyone is preaching to you a gospel contrary to the one you received, let him be accursed.” (Galatians 1:9) “They” would be well advised to relinquish the model set forth by the children of Israel, where precious few years of dedication to God were sprinkled in and amongst the hundreds more of idol worship and consortion with evil. The heritage assumed by its appellation, Judaeo-Christian, is rife with separation from God, usually followed by reformation. Moses was; he wrote the law. Christ was; he challenged the temple hierarchy. Martin Luther was; he broke the chokehold of Catholic dogma.
By accepting certain parameters, giving logic its due, but not shunning hope that gives faith credence, then shoveling in the centuries of historical documents that thinkers, authors and prophets have given for the betterment of our understanding, coming out on the other side with what fit’s the modern age you will find a true understanding of God. It’s not hard, and is absolutely achievable. You must start here not there. Here is where you can study the affects of Christian thoughts and deeds. Here is where you find freedom to choose. Here is a country where for most of its history, not throughout, but in its very founding and in great segments, God is placed foremost, and so to, believers in rolls of great leadership. In these United States of America, until the 1960’s, vast majorities believed in God. It is our general conceptual view of Him that led to the elimination of slavery. Here is where women claimed their equal rights. It has been under the influence of Christianity, sometimes at odds with old theology, that the freedom bell rings. It has been mans understanding of God that has changed, not God.
It is my understanding that God is a spirit, manifested by each one of us, by nature, that which we are caretakers of, and by the science that is indisputable. Degeneration leads to new generation, but also, creation leads to new creation and the two are mutually supporting. In a fashion that we can only speculate, God kicked it off, allowing us the controlls, but always present to influence. Wise thinkers have written about this relationship and Christians have accepted that Christ, a human, should intercede, to facilitate this relationship. The value of the spirituality of Christ cannot be overstated and His words often explain the connection we should foster with our God. However, my belief is that God live’s in me and that any intercessor is a disconnection of the involvement and participation in my day-to-day life this spirit has.
So, I place Christ in the elevated group that includes some of the previously mentioned influences, and that we can debate in the future, heaven and hell, the trinity, and we will discuss the importance of words that have been written, such as God’s physicality whether in word or structure. Since I believe that many of Christ’s words were antidotal, left to inspire the enslaved to rise up and carry that cross to the “new world”, a new people, and a new belief system that would someday regenerate His Jewish state. He is the architect, but it is God who lives in me, and Christ can only and always be, the son of a man.
Next up, THE LAW. B. C.
Monday, November 17, 2008
MY PATH HAS BEEN A CIRCLE, ALMOST
I was born to a mother and father who were new converts to what many Christian’s say is a cult. For some period of time before their introduction to the Seventh-day Adventist church, they had already begun their spiritual journey. My father had nearly lost an eight-year battle with tuberculosis (he did lose a full lung and one third of the other) and my mother who easily won her battle with the disease found her life’s calling in it. In the 30’s and 40’s you needed places like Weimar Sanitarium to win that battle and after my mother did, she left to study to become a nurse, then returned to help save my fathers life, to actually save his very spirit, and very much to fall in love with him. I kind of think the latter may have happened prior to her choosing her life’s profession, so one could consider, by giving his love to her, he also initiated the path by which his saving could be possible, and by no other way might I have been so much as a thought.
I was born to parents who where said to not have the ability to produce children. From my father’s perspective, the lack of physical performance, he couldn’t walk 100 feet without being so out of breath as to make one wonder if that were his last 100 feet. My mothers problem was not that she couldn’t out run the dog (any one who saw her at Christmas doing Ingathering duties saw that first hand), but no, it was that she could not carry a child. Towards the late fifties my father actually developed some more stamina as proven by the many times we made the trek from the parking lot at Bald Rock to the perch where you could see the valley. He would only need to stop several times which in his condition should have been a great life’s achievement. I was their first child but my mother could never prove them wrong again as she lost six others after me. Not being deterred, and feeling somewhat blessed at having me, they adopted my bother and “we lived happily ever after”.
At an early age I became aware of the distinct possibility that my father would not live another year. I loved my father more than anyone in the world but because I was much to young to carry that kind of a burden, my defense mechanism was to disallow myself to feel close or love anyone. It has been a difficult process and even today the depth of love and feeling for anyone is shallow, not superficial, just a bit less available, having been depleted so early. However, there can be no question about the level of commitment to people and things that I desire to be close to and in that area I have compensated for the lack of full-blown infatuation common with beautiful and undying love. My father made it a lot longer than he was suppose to, a testament to his will and faith, but a never ending continual experience for me that the end was just around an unseen corner.
I learned to believe in God at an early age, but it was not a complete indoctrination, and by my sixteenth year I was causing teachers and mentors trouble. It was more the concept of legalism that I perceived the message to be and I would not let it stand. I kind of thought I was cool and getting side by side with Jesus. Besides, I was a baseball player and all the neighborhood kids played little league and Friday night ball was out. I’d watch from my bedroom window at my friends playing Friday twilight pickup games before and after the season (baseball was a year around sport). I didn’t like brussel sprouts either! Then we had an after church lunch in the home of the pastor, Elder Ludwig and his family. I was also very observant or maybe I was just an obnoxious young rascal following the older sons of the preacher around. But they did approach the elder and something was agreed upon and there and then that Sabbath afternoon I discovered that, at the very least, it was ok for Seventh-Day Adventists to play catch with gloves and bats. That day at lunch I ate brussel sprouts for the first time with satisfaction because my heroes across the table were devouring them and you can ask my family, much to their chagrin, it is my favorite vegetable. Its funny how things seem to happen to me in clumps. That was also the day that my family was convinced by the good pastor to discontinue the consumption of all meat, and the connection to God was nearly severed for good.
My Christian education lasted twelve years. My eighth grade class was the last and ended a great history of excellent education at the old condemned school called West Liberty, at the corner of Block and W. Liberty, in Gridley CA. Depending how the route was set up each year, some Oroville children, myself included, would take an hour and a half bus ride to school each morning, then back home again each afternoon. I guess that is better than my grandfather saying, “Pennsylvania had lots of snow young man and we walked two miles in it every day.” Latter I found out the old drunk wasn’t even from Pennsylvania. My biological grandfather was but he died several years after my mom was born. What I also learned about the old drunk latter was that he knew almost everything about anything. In my opinion, if anybody made it through the great depression, they were lucky not to have become drunks. He became the high light of the second verse of my song called “Grandma’s Hope”. I completed my Christian education at Rio Lindo Academy, a four-year high school on the Russian River near Healdsburg CA.
Over the following ten years after high school I made God as irrelevant as possible allowing the subject to warrant merit for discussion only if it was initiated by my mother or leverage to gain the attention of a good Christian girl ready for temptation. I’m sure my denials to my mother led to hidden tears and knowledge about something you have little faith in is not a compelling strategy to win the heart of an attraction. Following my discharge from the United States Air Force I got married and started a family. I then started realizing that when one matures, even when its in your late twenties, truthfulness requires you to consider a stand on all things.
When my marriage failed only two years into it and I was left to raise my daughter, the pressure of a real life was beginning to cause my disbelief in God to further take hold and I disintegrated into the under world of our culture, all the while maintaining two jobs, finding a new life’s partner and making a fair attempt at a bonded family. Without the blessing and nurturing of a benevolent spirit, tuning of a lost soul is not possible and the absence from my leadership role in the family unit caused another failure of a family to occur. I was left without any authority to conduct myself in a supportive role my daughter needed and she was free to make decisions without guidance and the temptations of a dark world filtered into her life. I lived in a house with out structure or discipline, no place for a thirteen-year-old girl, and when I suddenly made the attempt to correct it, it ended. She was gone, I didn’t know where, and over the next three weeks I struggled on how I would get my failed life back together. It was during this time that I began to re-collect my belief system, completely in tact but in some deep far reaches of my memory. I started going back to the church of my youth and then remembered the influential nature of God and that I had never disbelieved, just that I had not believed what I had been taught. I had used Jesus as a wedge between God and myself and that one entity had nothing to do with the other. That is a foreign concept to Christians and in the next several months you will come to realize the significance of it. On a mid Sunday morning in early spring 1994 I fell on my knees for the first time, by myself, for a private conversation with who and what I had studied and formulated in my formative years to be God. It was because, for all that time, it had been juxtaposed to what I was raised with. By myself, I could finally lay myself open to who I believed God was and actually use the spirit He was so willing to make accessible to me, that which had always lived in me. Most of the time God really doesn’t mind if you challenge Him, so I did. “Find my daughter God. Bring her home to me and with your help I’ll do the rest”, I prayed. By the time the words “bring her home” were uttered, the phone began to ring. It was the first time I’d prayed in a while and I wasn’t going to let any of the filth that surrounded me to interrupt. It was going to be God that was relevant now, not they. As the answer machine kicked on and the words “leave a message” ended, I knew God had already started his work. I heard the familiar voice of my child calling out “DAD”, even stronger, “DAAAAD”! I picked up the phone, and discovered there was a very hungry young lady on the other end and “yes, I’d be right there with some food”.
I’ve failed God over the last fourteen years to often to count but we’ve been working together and the circle is almost complete. The one who would be my life’s partner, who left for several years, is now my wife. Our children continue to struggle with the pressures of life. We are raising one set of our grandchildren and we are fulfilled by Gods grace and power though stumbles occur. I have completely assumed full control of my belief system and I have arrived to the point where it is time to interact with you, to help our country get back to fulfilling its purpose at its founding and to correct many of the misconceptions about true belief in God and the superficial one Christians have allowed into their midst. I hope you will join me as I lay out what is the only way to save this country and ourselves. To do anything else would be to destroy what God has created and blessed us with. B.C.
I was born to parents who where said to not have the ability to produce children. From my father’s perspective, the lack of physical performance, he couldn’t walk 100 feet without being so out of breath as to make one wonder if that were his last 100 feet. My mothers problem was not that she couldn’t out run the dog (any one who saw her at Christmas doing Ingathering duties saw that first hand), but no, it was that she could not carry a child. Towards the late fifties my father actually developed some more stamina as proven by the many times we made the trek from the parking lot at Bald Rock to the perch where you could see the valley. He would only need to stop several times which in his condition should have been a great life’s achievement. I was their first child but my mother could never prove them wrong again as she lost six others after me. Not being deterred, and feeling somewhat blessed at having me, they adopted my bother and “we lived happily ever after”.
At an early age I became aware of the distinct possibility that my father would not live another year. I loved my father more than anyone in the world but because I was much to young to carry that kind of a burden, my defense mechanism was to disallow myself to feel close or love anyone. It has been a difficult process and even today the depth of love and feeling for anyone is shallow, not superficial, just a bit less available, having been depleted so early. However, there can be no question about the level of commitment to people and things that I desire to be close to and in that area I have compensated for the lack of full-blown infatuation common with beautiful and undying love. My father made it a lot longer than he was suppose to, a testament to his will and faith, but a never ending continual experience for me that the end was just around an unseen corner.
I learned to believe in God at an early age, but it was not a complete indoctrination, and by my sixteenth year I was causing teachers and mentors trouble. It was more the concept of legalism that I perceived the message to be and I would not let it stand. I kind of thought I was cool and getting side by side with Jesus. Besides, I was a baseball player and all the neighborhood kids played little league and Friday night ball was out. I’d watch from my bedroom window at my friends playing Friday twilight pickup games before and after the season (baseball was a year around sport). I didn’t like brussel sprouts either! Then we had an after church lunch in the home of the pastor, Elder Ludwig and his family. I was also very observant or maybe I was just an obnoxious young rascal following the older sons of the preacher around. But they did approach the elder and something was agreed upon and there and then that Sabbath afternoon I discovered that, at the very least, it was ok for Seventh-Day Adventists to play catch with gloves and bats. That day at lunch I ate brussel sprouts for the first time with satisfaction because my heroes across the table were devouring them and you can ask my family, much to their chagrin, it is my favorite vegetable. Its funny how things seem to happen to me in clumps. That was also the day that my family was convinced by the good pastor to discontinue the consumption of all meat, and the connection to God was nearly severed for good.
My Christian education lasted twelve years. My eighth grade class was the last and ended a great history of excellent education at the old condemned school called West Liberty, at the corner of Block and W. Liberty, in Gridley CA. Depending how the route was set up each year, some Oroville children, myself included, would take an hour and a half bus ride to school each morning, then back home again each afternoon. I guess that is better than my grandfather saying, “Pennsylvania had lots of snow young man and we walked two miles in it every day.” Latter I found out the old drunk wasn’t even from Pennsylvania. My biological grandfather was but he died several years after my mom was born. What I also learned about the old drunk latter was that he knew almost everything about anything. In my opinion, if anybody made it through the great depression, they were lucky not to have become drunks. He became the high light of the second verse of my song called “Grandma’s Hope”. I completed my Christian education at Rio Lindo Academy, a four-year high school on the Russian River near Healdsburg CA.
Over the following ten years after high school I made God as irrelevant as possible allowing the subject to warrant merit for discussion only if it was initiated by my mother or leverage to gain the attention of a good Christian girl ready for temptation. I’m sure my denials to my mother led to hidden tears and knowledge about something you have little faith in is not a compelling strategy to win the heart of an attraction. Following my discharge from the United States Air Force I got married and started a family. I then started realizing that when one matures, even when its in your late twenties, truthfulness requires you to consider a stand on all things.
When my marriage failed only two years into it and I was left to raise my daughter, the pressure of a real life was beginning to cause my disbelief in God to further take hold and I disintegrated into the under world of our culture, all the while maintaining two jobs, finding a new life’s partner and making a fair attempt at a bonded family. Without the blessing and nurturing of a benevolent spirit, tuning of a lost soul is not possible and the absence from my leadership role in the family unit caused another failure of a family to occur. I was left without any authority to conduct myself in a supportive role my daughter needed and she was free to make decisions without guidance and the temptations of a dark world filtered into her life. I lived in a house with out structure or discipline, no place for a thirteen-year-old girl, and when I suddenly made the attempt to correct it, it ended. She was gone, I didn’t know where, and over the next three weeks I struggled on how I would get my failed life back together. It was during this time that I began to re-collect my belief system, completely in tact but in some deep far reaches of my memory. I started going back to the church of my youth and then remembered the influential nature of God and that I had never disbelieved, just that I had not believed what I had been taught. I had used Jesus as a wedge between God and myself and that one entity had nothing to do with the other. That is a foreign concept to Christians and in the next several months you will come to realize the significance of it. On a mid Sunday morning in early spring 1994 I fell on my knees for the first time, by myself, for a private conversation with who and what I had studied and formulated in my formative years to be God. It was because, for all that time, it had been juxtaposed to what I was raised with. By myself, I could finally lay myself open to who I believed God was and actually use the spirit He was so willing to make accessible to me, that which had always lived in me. Most of the time God really doesn’t mind if you challenge Him, so I did. “Find my daughter God. Bring her home to me and with your help I’ll do the rest”, I prayed. By the time the words “bring her home” were uttered, the phone began to ring. It was the first time I’d prayed in a while and I wasn’t going to let any of the filth that surrounded me to interrupt. It was going to be God that was relevant now, not they. As the answer machine kicked on and the words “leave a message” ended, I knew God had already started his work. I heard the familiar voice of my child calling out “DAD”, even stronger, “DAAAAD”! I picked up the phone, and discovered there was a very hungry young lady on the other end and “yes, I’d be right there with some food”.
I’ve failed God over the last fourteen years to often to count but we’ve been working together and the circle is almost complete. The one who would be my life’s partner, who left for several years, is now my wife. Our children continue to struggle with the pressures of life. We are raising one set of our grandchildren and we are fulfilled by Gods grace and power though stumbles occur. I have completely assumed full control of my belief system and I have arrived to the point where it is time to interact with you, to help our country get back to fulfilling its purpose at its founding and to correct many of the misconceptions about true belief in God and the superficial one Christians have allowed into their midst. I hope you will join me as I lay out what is the only way to save this country and ourselves. To do anything else would be to destroy what God has created and blessed us with. B.C.
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