Psychology, Astrology, and the Science of Almost

Spiritual growth is self mastery. I am responsible for working out my own self /salvation. The Bible trumps the DSM-V and the Zodiac. By my best ability to explain I believe Jesus would be assaulted with the following labels: self-absorbed, arrogant, holier-than-thou, depressed, anxious, isolating, paranoid, angry, narcissistic, codependent, complex ptsd, cluster B bi-polar, manic-depressive, Scorpio, Cancer, Aries, Pisces, Gemini, etc..

My point? Those are the ties that bind us to a false self. The Bible conversely defines us as children of the Most High God. For starters. It seems to me that if I make something with my own two hands I ought to have the property rights for declaring what IT is. No? So when Abraham asked God, "who shall I tell them sent me?" God responded, "tell them I AM sent you." And Abraham walking walked with his I AM presence. I am who I AM says I am. Sam.

You know there will be onslaught when we stand for anything-- right? In fact, the effort to keep us quiet has been pretty effective thus far. "Don't get crazy. Hypocrite." Meanwhile a divine tip off identifying a warm frog bath came through. Am I the only one? Pssh. Nope. I'm just identifying some of the tactics I've witnessed in my own life to keep me paralyzed from bringing any attention to myself...let alone the gospel. Because I know I don't measure up to what I believe. Loud and Crystal. But I also know Grace paid the difference I owed.

Know thyself by knowing Him. Labels be damned.

Galatians?

Galatians 3King James Version (KJV)

3 O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you?

² This only would I learn of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
³ Are ye so foolish? having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?
⁴ Have ye suffered so many things in vain? if it be yet in vain.
⁵ He therefore that ministereth to you the Spirit, and worketh miracles among you, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the hearing of faith?
⁶ Even as Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
⁷ Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.
⁸ And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.
⁹ So then they which be of faith are blessed with faithful Abraham.
¹⁰ For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.
¹¹ But that no man is justified by the law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live by faith.
¹² And the law is not of faith: but, The man that doeth them shall live in them.
¹³ Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:
¹⁴ That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.
¹⁵ Brethren, I speak after the manner of men; Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be confirmed, no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto.
¹⁶ Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.
¹⁷ And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect.
¹⁸ For if the inheritance be of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.
¹⁹ Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; and it was ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.
²⁰ Now a mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one.
²¹ Is the law then against the promises of God? God forbid: for if there had been a law given which could have given life, verily righteousness should have been by the law.
²² But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.
²³ But before faith came, we were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.
²⁴ Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.
²⁵ But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.
²⁶ For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.
²⁷ For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
²⁹ And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Reminders

 

 

To the Church in Laodicea

¹⁴ “To the angel of the church in Laodicea write:

These are the words of the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the ruler of God’s creation. ¹⁵ I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! ¹⁶ So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. ¹⁷ You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. ¹⁸ I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.

¹⁹ Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. ²⁰ Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.
²¹ To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. ²² Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

13 Now there were some present at that time who told Jesus about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mixed with their sacrifices. ² Jesus answered, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered this way? ³ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish. ⁴ Or those eighteen who died when the tower in Siloam fell on them—do you think they were more guilty than all the others living in Jerusalem? ⁵ I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.”

⁶ Then he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree growing in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it but did not find any. ⁷ So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, ‘For three years now I’ve been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven’t found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?’
⁸ “‘Sir,’ the man replied, ‘leave it alone for one more year, and I’ll dig around it and fertilize it. ⁹ If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.’”

Un-Self-Reliant

When I saw what must come before the promise I ran back and threw myself into Egypt. Home of the slave and land of the comfortable coward. I stopped observing the world beyond my control.  Detachment is self-preserving.

And now I am feeling led to further detach from this world-- spiritually. As He said: Come out from among them. Take off the grave clothes of silence speaking "not good enough." Stand up and Be Still. It is with humility that I am bold. "Do it afraid" speaks the still small voice I know.

Fear. The opposite of God which is Love. I am advised to fear not, because of God's love. So the only thing to fear is My Father's Wrath; which is eternal. Not a state. Not a man. Not a anything. The promise He made to me when I first received Him has never failed. How do I doubt now? Because the noise is louder and the darkness roars? No. "Vengeance is Mine," saith the Lord, "I will repay." My Dad said that. My enemy should believe Him. Come what may...you reprobrate ... The Testimony of Jesus Christ and Him crucified will prevail to the glory of God the Father and throughout the earth every knee shall bow and every tongue confess Christ as Lord of All Creation. Not about me. And although weapons be formed to silence this truth...they will never prosper. Weeping. The cup of our all our sufferings... lasts for a night...but Joy cometh forever-after.

Lord help the encouragers of the this dark world encourage once more. Help the teachers teach, the prophets preach, and the anointed say so. Everything that has breath...belongs to Christ. We ought to praise him now.

Mumford and Sons-Awake My Soul-Lyrics

Works in progress

You down with OPP? You can't know me. Understand the calling. It does not placate to your better pride filled sense of self. Other peoples opinions, dear fellow warrior...cannot matter. Your itsy bitsy people pleasing ego dies now. It's not about you. How many times has the enemy told you that!!.lol. He was right. Now look up.

Shields

The Word. Labels in and of themselves hold no power. It is only when we ingest the poison. When our sensitivity is struck and resonates with the vibration of a word. It sticks. And we let it define us forever because we felt something. We felt shame. We felt guilt. We were. We are. He paid. The enemy knows.

Now buck up buttercup. You silly, yada, yada. Arrows with your name. Christ owns the Word. There is a shield against the assault. Faith. Sounds fluffy. It's undercover...soft but strong. Operations don't typically announce themselves in advance. The shield of faith says this: you are not your mistakes, you are not your weaknesses..it was a trap.. I saw em do it...  I got this. See you soon. Love God.

I don't know...there's a peak into my paradigm. I'm going with Sense 8. Narcissistic in it's belief that something greater exists and we might be a part of it after all...

The Hermit

An alleged ode to leaving facebook.
I would like to semi declare my latest nonbinding resolution to turn off and tune out. Remember when we wrote letters? Remember telephones? Remember receiving mail with actual photos of one another? I personally lost this skill set a long time ago. Lazy. Selfish. Check. We will never get our humanity back unless we seek to relate on purpose and stop hiding our cracks behind pixels. Otherwise, what's the point of being human?

Mea Culpa. There was an initial thrill to facebook. Then a fix. Then a habit. Then a substitute. Scanning memories resurrected everywhere. Good, taken too far, becomes bad. We sampled the Vaderade, clicked on Like incessantly, and tada! We are the Autobots! Isolated and virtually unsocial in a nonstop socially driven virtual world. Do we even know each other? Really? Not so much....I would argue, not at all. And the greater sadness still...do we want too? Let's face it. Real people are much messier and high maintenance than memes. Anyone else taste the death in the recipe? Hold that thought--I have a text. (insert image here: pile of burning iphones )

Are we impressed with our own 666 virtual friends never spoken too, much less relating. I'd be wise to maintain one friendship with God and then maybe we'll see about two. How much time have I personally wasted? No idea. Days too many. How many more will I waste in 2016?

I'm going to take a long walk in the woods. I'm only miles away. Perhaps we penetrate the virtual forest between us. Time and desire will tell. It would be good to discern who is in our life, who is hovering, and who is long gone. Unplug in 2016? "This is a test. This is only a test. In the event of a real exchange... you might want to know your family." The irony within the "age of information" is the exponential amount of stupidity produced. Wisdom calls from the woods. I'm going to search and sort my own opinion about a few things before I continue to spout off from the trenches of luxury problems

L.W. out.

this is my blog

Chaos

Personally I had to check out of the media hole and quit watching the yarn fray on TYFP (take your f*in pick) news. Americas nerves have been on a def con five call to arms emergency alert for 14 years with a ptsd inducing red,white,and blue fluorescent rat maze tv screen hypnotizing us with a message of war simultaneously desensitizing our ability to pay attention and give a drone. Poppies Dorothy...

So the drum beats louder. Dmb fans know the chorus... "Open up your head"...mmm, nevermind.

Tried to take a break from the news all together and catch some of the latest cultural buzz...lemme try a little show called Homeland. Whiskey! Tango! Foxtrot?! As if I weren't jacked up enough now I clearly see you are too!! It appears we're all in the same episode.

My sword is my mind. It isn't very much but I'm gonna hope for the best. So what the hell do I know? I know waaaay back in September I was all ratcheted up in my political and spiritual senses. See previous issues. Literally. In October we seemed to be given a chance to breath as though Paris were in the air; albeit with upcoming mass murder and a global climate enslavement tax summit. Nothing here to see, hear, taste, smell, or think amateur. You don't have to be a CIA agent or a theologian to know that Americas politics and religion better get lined up. Are we people of the Book? Probably should check?

Which brings up a few questions. I like black and white thinking. Whatever psycho-science says otherwise, sometimes you gotta cut to the chase. We need black and white thinking. Right and wrong. We have to give definition to the contrast that is at the heart of absolute truth. Life or Death. It's not a color.

Apathy

The immortality of the soul is a matter which is of so great consequence to us and which touches us so profoundly that we must have lost all feeling to be indifferent about it.
~ Blaise Pascal

It is since Christians have largely ceased to think of the other world that they have become so ineffective in this.
~ C.S. Lewis

Dear Jesus,

Why bother? Aren't we to the point where people are going to think and believe whatever they want about you and believers can stop trying to convince anyone otherwise? How about re-branding the message: "To each his own and a ticket to hell if that is your bent!?"  or perhaps: "Truth? What is it good for, who needs it, and who cares!" Better yet: "Pass the pipe, the porn, and the parachute: How to get your drink on and dance with devils. Whatever..."

The alarms have blared for so long, how could we not be indifferent? Yada, yada, Jesus. Yada, yada, end of the world. Yada, yada, new world order. Yada, yada, don't do this. Yada, yada sinner repent.

Quite frankly, I've lost interest in sharing the gospel at large.  I hate the obvious rejection of Christ by the enlightened ignorant and I feel my own indifference rising toward the determined lost. They already know their fate and they don't give a fig so why should I? Oh well Lord. We tried.
Tried to tell them in your Word. Sent your messengers to warn of the chip they'll be receiving in exchange for eternal life. They really don't care Lord. You warned of false prophets acting like sheep in wolves clothing along with world leaders whose ultimate plan is to enslave and control the sleepy masses. Baaaahhh. Shut up they cry. We're trying to enjoy ourselves here!

And then I remember....I am one of them. And you did not, have not, and will not give up on me. Ever. Despite every indication given implying that I am indifferent to your love and you should just give up on me....you insist on loving me anyway.  I've given you no reason to love me and yet it appears you're undaunted by my apathy. How can this be? Are you sure my behavior has absolutely nothing to do with who you are? Are you saying the love you offer trumps even my indifference? 

Why don't you just let go of the ones who don't want to be loved? I would. I have. I do. Thank you for not putting me in charge. My love would have grown cold and atrophied centuries ago. Maybe I'll stop judging them with my eyes and start seeing them with your broken heart.

Oh God! Wait! I don't want to see! Don't let us perish in ignorance! Break the pride of our self sufficiency! May we quickly recognize our desperate need for Christ and His Love! Yes! With urgency! We must continue to tell, warn, plead, and make the case! It is true! "Silence in the face of evil is itself evil! God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act." (Dietrich Bonhoeffer, circa 1939)

 Help me to love others more than my weary indifference I pray. In Jesus name. Amen.