This present moment

The only thing that separates our pasts from our futures is the present. It is both the frailest and strongest of dividers. Nothing can ever go back, and though nothing can truly come forward, we have the ability to reach back and hold onto the past. It is this present, this very moment upon which everything hangs. At least this is so in the mortal world. In the eternal world there was a climax. It happened 2000 years ago.

Hope is based on the future. What we can make of it and what can happen. Faith fuels hope and can send it into a burning frenzy. Such is the burning eternal hope of the Christian faith. In this mortal world, though, hope is often elusive. Maybe it’s that we in this world we are chained to our senses, and when the fear comes we often let go of hope.

We must always remember that we serve whatever it is we fear. If we fear standing out, we serve conformity; if we fear financial situations, we serve money; if we fear how people see us, we serve vanity; if we fear loss, we serve control; if we fear rejection, we serve the rejecters; if we fear the dark, we serve the darkness; if we fear God, we serve love. What we conquer we do not fear. We may shudder in the darkness, we may cry in the lonely nights, we may scream in the frustration, but when we press forward we conquer that fear.

We are more than conquerors…if we choose to conquer this darkness in this present moment.

Bitter Bandages

God tries to take away our distractions when we lose sight if him. But He never takes away our choice.

It is the human condition to drown, the work of the Spirit to open our eyes to the water, the work if Christ to lift us out of the water, and the love of the Father that never gives up hope that we will soon reach for him.

It is also the human condition to be afraid. We fear the unknown. We fear hoping for more because the pain we live in daily is familiar. When I looked away from God, I bandaged my heart with cursing, self love, and a distrust of morals, instead of allowing him to heal my heart. He took away my pride. He took away what I could point to and say, I'm still a Christian. He removed from me everything I pursued that distracted me from him, and I cursed Him for not caring about me.

He is swift to forgive. In one breath I felt my heart healed and my spirit filled. A joy that I feared because I feared to lose it returned to me and He said He never left me and never would. Then, He gave me full confidence and joy. I was back to who I was, who I truly am.

You are Walking on a Road

You are walking on a road. Each side is so thickly lined with trees that you cannot see even a foot past. It is a dirt path, well kept, but rarely used. It is a warm day, not sweltering, but warm enough that you toy with the idea of taking off your outer layers. As you walk, you notice the way the leaves on the trees play with the sunlight. You tilt your head from side to side and weave back and forth, laughing as you see the lights dance, but you never wander so far that the light disappears from view.

As the day grows on, the sun stays in the same place, westward ahead of you. Before too long, you tire of your game with the leaves and take to walking very near one edge of trees and then very near the other. You begin to get more and more careless, spinning across the road, and even closing your eyes. The sun goes out of view every time you get near enough to touch the tree line. You don’t notice the roots of the tree in front of you sticking out of the ground. Your foot catches on it and for a soundless second you fall, grasping for anything. The trees are on the edge of a cliff and you are falling. You reach and your hand finds a single protruding root. Hanging there, terror fills your body and the world becomes sharply focused. Everything around you is covered in the shadow of the trees. Looking up, you can barely make out jewels of light through the branches.

Your grip begins to slip. You cry out for help. Looking down, all you can see is the edge of the cliff and darkness below. The root slithers out of your hand and you are falling. You scream into the trees. Then you stop. A hand has grabbed your wrist and pulls you back up, through the trees and onto the path. Your feet land on ground and you look up to see who saved you. But no one is there. Shaken, you walk back onto the path, wondering if you made it back up by yourself, or if someone, or something, saved you.

Back to the Basics

Truth:

Jesus is the way, the TRUTH, and the life.
The Holy Spirit guides us to the TRUTH.
We must speak the TRUTH, in love, and our actions will follow suit.
The TRUTH sets us free.

Love:

Yaheweh is LOVE.
We will be recognized as Christian or not by how we LOVE.
LOVE and meaning are intricately intertwined.
LOVE must be married with truth.
LOVE must be sincere; hate what is evil, cling to what is good.

Faith:

FAITH without works is dead.
When we live without FAITH we live in fear.
Our FAITH is made perfect in love.
We must step out in FAITH.
Our practices define and refine our FAITH.

Hope:

HOPE is birthed by and then fuels faith and love.
Our HOPE is in Christ.
HOPE must be based in truth.
HOPE, through love, forsakes all things of the past.
Nothing can compromise our HOPE in Christ; we cannot mess up too much.

Humility:

God will not meet with a proud heart.
Pride is as great a sin as idolatry.
In HUMILITY we find the truth of ourselves and can better realize the truth of Christ.
We are to judge only those who place themselves under our authority.

Diligence:

We are to be DILIGENT in fulfilling our responsibilities and commitments.
DILIGENCE keeps us in step with God’s will.
With DILIGENCE we till hope.

Obedience:

We are to OBEY whether or not we understand or agree.
We are to have a radical OBEDIENCE that the world will not understand.

The Voice of God

“The LORD said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.’
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave.” -1 Kings 19:11-13 (NIV)

There are so many times in a Christian’s life when they wonder about the voice of God. How are we supposed to hear it? Why, if we have the same Holy Spirit as the prophets, do we not hear the thunderous voice from the sky and clouds? Is He even there? Were they literally just hearing thunder in clouds back in the Bible and everyone was high from a lack of food? Is it a lack of faith on our parts that inhibits us from the voice of God?

“Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” –Romans 12:1-2 (NIV)

Elijah knew how to discern the presence of God. Most of us would assume that some sort of tornado, or an earthquake, or a fire would definitely be God speaking to us, but God spoke to Elijah in a gentle whisper.

“He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God;
I will be exalted among the nations,
I will be exalted in the earth.’” –Psalm 46:10 (NIV)

“Be still,” in this verse comes from the Hebrew “rapha,” which means to be weak, to let go, or to release.

Just as God will only meet with a humble heart, He will only speak to a surrendered heart. I believe this is the reason it seems so often that God tries to break us.

So what are we supposed to take from that? It seems like God wants us to be these broken, crawling things in a constant state of groveling and austerity. That would totally suck. But, thank God, that’s not at all what He’s going for. Paul understood this well and, I think, painted a very helpful picture for us.

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” -2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NIV)

It’s not that we need to be sadists. Let’s get real: God’s all about being happy. The point of all of this is that it’s not on us: it’s on Him. If we are in full surrender, then He can take full control, and then we can be fully happy.

How do I know that God is all about us being happy? Well he gave us alcohol!

“Give strong drink unto him that is ready to perish, And wine unto the bitter in soul.” –Proverbs 31:6 (AKJV)

“Let them drink and forget their poverty and remember their misery no more.” –Proverbs 31:7 (AKJV)

There are several verses throughout the Bible that talk about God wanting us to be happy, even beyond alcohol.

“He must become greater; I must become less.” –John 3:30 (NIV)

There is an idea Buddhism called Nirvana, which literally means to “turn out the light.” It revolves around a complete dissociation from “reality.” Like all Dharmic religions, Buddhism has the belief that everything on this world is merely an illusion at the true enlightenment, Nirvana in Buddhism, will allow us to join with that unity and even leave the illusion of self behind.

There is a similar idea when it comes to God, in the sense that all life, all love, and all truth comes from him.

“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” –John 1:4 (NIV)

The huge difference is that we, through our submission to God, turn the light on, not off.

We’ll hear God’s voice when we surrender completely into Him. We’ll hear it in the laughter, we’ll hear it in the quite moments, we’ll know his gentle whisper even after the winds and earthquakes and fires, and we may even hear it loud as thunder if we dare enter the cloud of his presence. For now, though, we surrender to him everything. We let go, we collapse, we fall…so much like falling in love, we fall into Him.

Sin of Omission-The Edge of Darkness

When we think about morals it is most common to think about what we should not do. Most of us think of the Ten Commandments, for example, as a list of proscriptions. However, many of the Levitical Laws are prescriptions. “Honor your father and mother” is written as a prescribed law. The command is not “do not dishonor your father and mother,” which would make it a proscribed action.

It is easy to focus on proscriptions. It takes a lot less energy to not do something than it does to do something. It is also a lot easier to point fingers at someone doing something that we don’t do. I don’t say that to attack anybody, it is just human nature to be lazy and to focus on the shortcomings of others. There is any number of prescribed actions that we ignore. In any given day there are a plethora of things that I do not do that I should, the first usually being when my alarm goes off and the last usually being when I go to bed.

It is Benjamin Franklin who is quoted as saying, “Early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy, and wise.” This is not something that comes naturally to many of us. In truth, it is my preference to go to bed early and wake up early, but I have a job that I get home from at around one-thirty AM, when I don’t need to stay late. I use these hours and the labor-focused nature of my work and the eighteen hours that I'm in class a week as excuses to say, “I need eight hours of sleep in order to function.” In all reality, a person can go thirty-two hours without sleep before they are unable to function properly, though I wouldn’t suggest driving. Also, a person only needs between two and a half hours to four hours to have a full regenerative REM cycle, though two to three cycles are optimal. The days I get three hours of sleep and get up to go to class, I am doing what I should. Days when I sleep in to “catch up on sleep,” I am really just being lazy.

Now I am not saying that we should not get the sleep suggested. I am saying, though, that we need to be doing what we can. When you have things you know you should get done during a day, and you have the opportunity, but spend that time sleeping, watching TV, or finding some other distraction, you are sinning just as much as when you do something you know you shouldn’t be.

If we take some time to look at our days, we can easily identify the areas where we are not doing what we should. Figure out what these are. Then, find a psychological tool that can help you focus on that area and ask an accountability partner to hold you to doing what you should. Most of us need to start with reading our Bibles. Find the time and do it. Don’t let yourself turn on the TV, get on the computer, make food, turn on your phone, or do any other work until you’ve done it. Use the psychological tool of location by putting yourself in an area where those things will not be a distraction.

What other sins of omission are we committing? Perhaps the greatest of all is pointed out in the common church quote that says, “It’s called the Great Commission, not the Great Omission.” We were left with one task when Christ ascended. “Make disciples of all nations.” Yet how often do we even step up to speak the Good News?

We cannot ignore the sins that we commit. Every lustful though must be checked, every dishonest and every unclean word must be checked, and every action contrary to the character of God, which above all else is love, must be checked. But, we must also check our inaction. Is it not just as great a sin to not do what you ought as to do what you ought not? Our souls can be corrupted almost more by not participating in a spirit of truth as by participating in a spirit of lies.

So we start by getting up. Wake up sleeper. Then, as we walk in the truth, Christ will shine in us. It starts with a few steps, maybe exercising or reading you Bible, and then you take more and more steps until you are on the center of the path, and not merely walking on the edge of darkness. This is my reality.

Mindset Alteration

There have been a plethora of books pertaining to the overcoming of addictions and attaining a better focus. They all have the same basic advice: recognize the addiction, admit you have the addiction, admit that your addiction hurts or could hurt others, pledge to change, and get an accountability partner(s). This is excellent advice, and has helped countless people overcome addiction. However, there has been little to no help when it comes to dealing with the addiction in the moment the temptation arises.

The problem with dealing with any addiction in the moment is that your mind is completely set on the addiction. More often than not, the theory given for this is one of self-restraint: think of the people you’re quitting the behavior for and even call your accountability partner for support and, if possible, leave the area where the temptation is. Again, this is all excellent advice, but does not help you to change your mindset.

We use mindset alteration every day. I am defining mindset alteration as changing one’s state of mind using a psychological tool. Anytime you have gotten in the car and put on your favorite music after a long day or a stressful situation, you are using the tool of music to change your sate of mind. If you go to church and they begin the service with worship music, they are using the tools of music, singing, chanting, rhythm, and dancing to change your mindset. These tools are beneficial and effective for putting our focus where it needs to be. I believe that we are commanded to fast, pray, sing, and dance because it changes our mindset. We need tools like this to refocus ourselves.

There are a near infinite amount of psychological tools, including music (use of a melodic pattern), singing (vocally projecting meaningful words in a melodic pattern), rhythm (feeling, creating, or listening to a patterned beat), chant (repeating the same words or syllables in pattern), dance (purposely moving the body in interpretive motions), position (putting your body in a certain shape, such as folding hands, standing, crossing legs, etc.), fasting (depriving your body of something it is used to, food and water being the most effective changers because of their chemical influence), ritual (performing an action that is outside of your daily routine, or as a part of your daily routine, with a certain reason or outcome in mind), consuming (ingesting a substance out of ritual or in order to change your mindset, as with communion, alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, spices, unleavened bread, etc.), location (entering a place that is associated with a certain activity, i.e. a church building or a classroom), etc.

Most of these overlap and many are used in conjunction with others. Singing, for instance, usually involves music, rhythm, and chant (unless the lyrics never repeat) and is, in the cases of worship and driving, done in a certain location. Any combination is possible and may give different results in mindset.

Using mindset alteration in the process of fighting an addiction is simple. Just as after a stressful you may use music in the car to change your state of mind from frustrated to relaxed and comfortable, you can use psychological tools in order to change your state of mind from focused on your addiction (or any distraction) to focused on what you need to/should be/can be doing instead. At church you sing a worship song to change your state of mind from that of worrying about problems at home or at work to that of focusing on God. If you struggle with getting up in the morning you may change your alarm to a song that makes you feel energized and that makes you want to do things. An alcoholic, when wanting to drink, might start dancing to get their mindset refocused on what they can do and what other things they enjoy. People who have a hard time falling asleep often find it helpful to have a routine that puts them in sleeping state of mind.

There are several ways that we already use mind alteration in our day-to-day lives. Most of us have a morning routine and have found tools that get us focused when studying or going to the gym. People have found prayers that they will recite (chant) in order to focus their mindset. Look at what you do already and see how you can mindfully use those tools more proficiently. At the same time, though, look at what psychological tools you are using that may be having an adverse affect on your mindset. Where is the music you are listening to putting your focus? These tools are useful if you are aware of them and can be equally dangerous if you are not.

Secular Spirituality

Part 1-Introducing the Concept of Reality

Secular Spirituality is rapidly gaining popularity in the United States. The popularity of this subject has to do in large part with the one of the fundamental teachings that it embraces. This is the philosophy of relative truth. It is the belief that one person’s view of reality cannot be proven to have any greater significance or bearing than any other person’s view of reality.

It focuses on the science behind the human perception of reality. In purely physical terms, what our brains interpret as “reality” is the sum of electrical impulses created by some stimulus to the brain. While we would like to believe that our brains are delivering accurate interpretations of the world around us, there is no concrete way to say, for example, that what one person sees as red is not, in fact, what someone else sees as blue.

There is nothing inaccurate about this scientific explanation of what reality is. However, there is no reason so look at that data and then suddenly say that we can never know for sure whether what we think is real is actually real. Sure, we should be aware that we may perceive things differently than others, but there is no reason to make a leap to the statement that reality in concrete form does not exist except relative to the mind perceiving it.

Anything metaphysical is considered to be non-scientific. This would include spirits, psychic energy, God, will power, karma, etc. There are Physics researchers, though, who do work on metaphysical theories. For instance, there was a group of researchers who wanted to test the theory of independence. (Statisticians base much of their work on the theory of independence, which states that one event does not affect another. For example, flipping a fair coin and getting a certain result does not affect the probability of obtaining a certain result on the next flip.) To test this theory, the researchers shot off two electrons in different directions, altered one of them mid-flight, and then observed the other. They found that, when the changed one, the other inexplicable altered as well. This falsified the theory of independence, but, due to its inexplicable nature, the findings are considered metaphysical and not directly applicable the physical world, therefore not scientific.

If you were to ask two different people, “What is love?” One could answer that love is the result of chemicals firing in ones brain resulting in a reaction that causes one person to prioritize a certain other person because the chemicals released when that person is around triggers a sensation of pleasure. Most of us, though, would say that love is a feeling, emotion, or action of good will for another person that simply cannot be explained by science, aka it’s metaphysical. Both may be true. I say all this only to enforce the idea that metaphysical theories should not be thrown out just because their physical results cannot be scientifically tested and explained, or definitively tied to them.

When considering what reality is, it is important to recognize that the metaphysical plays a significant role in our physical live. At the same time, we must keep the physical world in mind when considering metaphysical sources. Reality includes, for instance, both the creator and the creation, both the metaphysical concept and the physical realization. In any case, definite theories, if not laws, can and should be made concerning what is real.

Part 2-Secular vs. Biblical Spirituality

Secular Spirituality is something that that frustrates me more than anything else. In its essence, spirituality has come to mean the belief in a spiritual reality but without being able to say that one religion is more accurate or better than any others. A secularly "spiritual" person is one who attempts to derive spiritual truths from all religions. I don't know how one qualifies "truth" in the spiritual sense without a clear religious base (i.e. Christianity) other than to say, "It's whatever works for you." Secular Spirituality refuses to make a clear statement of belief in order to remain nonreligious. In this light, I (a follower of the Way found in the Gospel of the Judeo-Christian Bible) am adamantly religious.

Certainly truths can be found in other religions, but let me be clear as to why. Truth is that which reflects God's character or design. When God (Yahweh of the Judeo-Christian Bible) is reflected in another teaching, or when the teaching of God and His Prophets are repeated in another teaching, there is no harm in gleaning that truth in that perspective. In fact, it can be greatly beneficial to see it from a different perspective in that it may aid our understanding of the nature of that truth. However, this should only be done provided it is qualified by a Biblical premise.

The reason I am so frustrated by Secular Spirituality is that it is, quite frankly, a lukewarm, uncommitted belief system. This is many-fold more dangerous to one's spiritual life than, for example, atheism. I have long said that I would rather converse spiritual truths with an atheist than with an agnostic for the simple reason that an atheist is definitive in what they believe.

This is a Biblically supported point of view. In John's Revelation, God says that He would rather us be cold or hot, and that if we are lukewarm He will spit us out of His mouth. In other words, an uncommitted belief system is repulsive to God. Why? Because it is incredibly dangerous, and more of a lie than a straight rejection of God.

Secular Spirituality attempts to please everyone by saying, "Do what feels right for you." It's no wonder that this sort of belief system has gained the popularity it has in the United States. The one thing that most secularly "spiritual" people have in common is that they, more often than not, ascribe to an eastern belief system to some extent, usually Buddhism or, to a lesser extent, Hinduism; though, it is not uncommon to find Secular Spiritualists in the United States and throughout the Americas that ascribe to Native American belief systems or, to a lesser extent, African belief systems. Many of these belief systems are summed up in saying to live in harmony with everything. Similar to what Jesus said when He said, "The greatest law is this: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. And the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets rest on these." And when Paul said, "Whenever possible, live at peace with everyone."

Looking at the first, “greatest,” law, though, there is no room for error. The greatest, most important law is to love the Lord God (Yehovah Eloheem) with absolutely everything. This is complete commitment. The word used for strength is more accurately translated as vehemence. Jesus stated this even more clearly when He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." It's not a matter of preference, or my truth versus yours. It is about The Truth. This is my reality.

Spiritual Truth

Spirituality is something that that frustrates me more than anything else. In its essence, spirituality has come to mean the belief i n a spiritual reality but without being able to say that one religion is more accurate or better than any others. A "spiritual" person is one who attempts to derive spiritual truths from all religions. I don't know how one qualifies "truth" in the spiritual sense without a clear religious base (i.e. Christianity) other than to say "it's whatever works for you." Spirituality refuses to make a clear statement of belief in order to remain nonreligious. In this light, I am adamantly religious.

Certainly truths can be found in other religions, but let me be clear as to why. Truth is that which reflects God's character or design. When God (Yahweh of the Bible) is reflected in another teaching, or when the teaching of God and his Prophets are repeated in another teaching, there is no harm in gleaning that truth in that perspective. In fact, it can be greatly beneficial. However, this should only be done provided it is qualified by a Biblical premise.

The reason I am so frustrated by spirituality is that it is, quite frankly, a lukewarm, uncommitted belief system. This is many-fold more dangerous to one's spiritual life than, say, atheism. I have long said that I much rather converse spiritual truths with an atheist than with an agnostic, for the simple reason that an atheist is solid win what they believe.

This is a Biblically supported point of view. In John's Revelation, God says that He would rather us be cold or hot, and if we are lukewarm He will spit us out of His mouth. In other words, an uncommitted belief system is repulsive to God. Why? Because it is incredibly dangerous, and more of a lie than a straight rejection of God.

Spirituality attempts to please everyone by saying, "Do what feels right for you." It's no wonder that this sort of belief system has gained the popularity it has in the United States. The one thing that most "spiritual" people have in common is that they ascribe to an eastern belief system to some extent, usually Buddhism. I am very familiar with the story of Sadartha Ghatma and the teachings of the Dali Lama. Many of their belief systems are summed up in saying to live in harmony with everything. Similar to what Jesus said when He said, "The greatest law is this: love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. And the second is like it: love your neighbor as yourself. All the law and the prophets rest on these." And when Paul said, "Whenever possible, live at peace with everyone."

Looking at the first law, though, there is no room for error. The greatest, most important law is to love the Lord God (Yehovah Eloheem) with absolutely everything. This is complete commitment. The word used for strength is more accurately translated as vehemence. Jesus stated this even more clearly when He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." It's not a matter of preference, or my truth versus yours. It is about The Truth. This is my reality.