What's Your Job Description?

Do you often wonder what your role is in life? In the Church? In a given occupation, there's usually a job description that goes with it. That description may require an individual to have several differing skills that all mesh into one job description. One example is housewife. Some have said that housewives must be an experienced babysitter, educator, counselor, psychologist, nurse, chef, interior designer, gardener, house cleaner, among many other roles. All of these roles fall under the same job description. Most jobs have multiple roles that must be mastered, or at least be proficient in, in order to be successful.

Every once in a while, it's good to review what God's job description is for each of us individually. I Cor. 12 discusses how each of us have various talents, gifts, works and ministries, and yet they all should seamlessly fit together within Christ's body. Sometimes several roles are similar. There are certain roles that all members of the Church have. There are certain skills that ministers, laymembers, or evangelists should have.

However, God loves a diversity of personalities, talents and viewpoints. My job description as a laymember may be much different than another laymember just as one minister may serve a different role in the Church than another minister. A minister's job description is obviously different than a laymember's. One minister may be better at humor and counseling while another may be better at researching history and reading Greek. I happen to be good at logic and computers while someone else may have skills in teaching and music.

The overriding point here is that God has called us for a purpose and He will use and develop the talents that each of us have in the way He needs. Growing up, I noticed that I was fascinated by many topics and have tried to gain understanding and skill in most of these areas. But lately, I notice that only specific talents and abilities are being used in my life. In fact, areas that I have never developed or thought were weaknesses are growing and are being used more and more.

That's not to say that the various talents we have that don't seem to match the "king and priest" job description must be tossed out. For example, I can't possibly see how my love of origami, volleyball and sketch art would fit. But neither could I have seen that my grandfather giving me logic word puzzles when I was 8 would develop my mind to become a computer programmer. Another example is that our love of games and sports teach us how to enjoy fellowship. Music and art teach us order, proportion, style and beauty. Telling stories may make us better speakers. These are in addition to Bible study, prayer, meditation and fasting, which add knowledge, sound mindedness and righteous judgment, among many other things, to our character.

Take stock of the various talents and responsibilities that you have. Then notice what skills you have been developing lately. Note where you've been asked to serve in Church or at work. Check to see if there are any patterns between all these. Read the scriptures to see how your roles coincide with roles in the Bible. God spends a lot of space defining the roles of deacons and elders, of servants (employees) and masters (bosses), of husbands, wives and children, along with the kings, priests, Levites and whole nations. Note the character and qualities of a Christian that Christ describes on the Sermon on the Mount. These are roles and characteristics that God wants us to develop on our job description!

It reminds me of a story that C.S. Lewis wrote in his book Mere Christianity. This isn't a direct quote, but basically states that when we surrender our lives to God, we can use the analogy of fixing up a house. We may be a quaint home that needs some paint, a little foundation work and some sanding here and there. Then all the sudden, God comes in with a sledge hammer and begins knocking down walls. HE wants to build a mansion or add a wing, whereas we were content with what we were. The question remains, are we allowing God to transform us so we can one day match His job description for us?

I believe it is important to know what our job description is because it directs our energy in the right direction. I've sat in a few year-end reviews where my boss told me I had many things to work on, that I wasn't living up to the full job description. Once they were right there in front of me, I could work on them. It became clear what I was supposed to be doing and I became more valuable to my boss and my company as a result.

It is important to note what our job description doesn't include. That's not to say that we don't go out and try to be a profitable servant by doing something benefitial for our boss. But we certainly don't attempt to do our bosses job. That mindset will lead us to criticize our boss and it will set him on edge. And we'll have spent more time thinking about how he should be doing his job (or how we could be doing it) rather than doing our own. II Thes. 3:11 warns against being a busybody which contributes to neglecting work. This doesn't only have to include our workplace, but can include Church and family as well. Rather, do what your job description says to and you will find more peace in your life (v12). V13 states, finally, that we should not be weary in doing well, in hard work. For that is our calling. We should be profitable servants in what we are given to do (Matt. 25).

Finally, it must be understood that as we grow older, wiser and more experienced that our roles in our job description will change. Some will be ordained deacons and ministers. Some will retire. Some will make more money to financially help out the Work and fellow brethren. Others will have more time to pray for the brethren, or prepare food and visit those in need. God may give us the gift of a wife or husband or child. He may take one away from us. As I heard in a post-Feast sermon this last year, God isn't promoting or demoting us, He's simply giving us a different role in the Body of Christ. We are still important and necessary as long as we stay faithful to Him.

All in all, our life's job description is very important in maintaining a right direction, using our energy wisely and preparing us for our future job in God's Kingdom. What we do today has every bit of importance for how we turn out tomorrow. Though our job descriptions may be different, all of us in God's Church have the same objective for our work. Completing the parable of the profitable servant, Matthew 25:34 states that Christ will welcome those who completed His job, "Come, blessed of My Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world."

This Little Piggy Cleaned the Orchard

Pigs doing their jobs... Amazing. "The little guys moved through like a pack of Hoover vacuums." They were eating rotting apples in order to rid an orchard of a worm and its larvae that, in past years, have been treated by a pesticide. That pesticide is dangerous to the food supply and ground water, so they're phasing it out. In order to find a replacement, one apple-grower has been trying out various animals to rid his orchard of fallen, larvae-filled apples. Apparently, this "innovative" farmer says his grandfather used pigs way back when... "I think if my granddad was alive today and he saw how excited I am about doing this and this information that we're gaining on this," said Koan, "he would just look at me and say, 'Man, you're stupid. You didn't know that?'"

Pass the pork chops, please!

Pics

Well, we went to the Joplin family social and costume dance a couple of weekends ago. Here are some pictures I snagged of some real characters there:




Whoever this guy is, don't let him near your Doritos.

Don't we all want to do this to the ref some games??

"Ah do declare, whatevah will Ah do with mah hair?" (as maniacal Daddy looks on at his creation...)

Follow-Up to Am I Addicted?

Apparently, the drug companies only showed some of the results of their drug tests on anti-depressants, so a group of researchers, using the Freedom of Information act on the FDA, got all the data on 5 or 6 of the most-used pills. The results are in... Apparently, in the double-blind tests, where even the doctor didn't know who was getting the real drug or the placebo, both worked almost equally well. Only in super severe cases did the anti-depressant really make more of a major difference than the placebo. The researchers concluded that since a sugar pill can make you slightly happier, too, then the patient can likely be treated without drugs at all!

Some people may be shocked by this (looking at the comments after the article), but I'm not. As I discussed in my previous post, Am I Addicted to Happiness?, dealing with difficult times or drastic changes in our lives need to be faced head-on. We do get down from time to time and need a pick-me-up, which requires action when we notice we are feeling this way. However, the kind of pick-me-up we choose is extremely important. If we choose something temporary and empty, like alcohol, drugs, partying, sex, TV, video games (until 5am), we aren't really going to get over it. As Mr. Burson once said in a sermon, depression (not just sadness, but emptiness and a loss of purpose, drive and energy) is a lack of God in our lives that has been filled instead with complete selfishness.

I found a fairly useful article on MSNBC that has some techniques that I've used when feeling out of it, and some have been preached in church: here (please excuse the cussing in the title). It discusses changing how we think: "We are not disturbed by the events, but by the views we take of them." If there is anything good, pure, etc., think on these things! I've said it before, but if you're in a trial and recognize it, you can always thank God for the trial and figure out what you can be learning from it rather than getting upset or down by it.

Other techniques mentioned in the article are:

• Be curious
• Think fast
• Give thanks
• Change your tape (don't replay the same negative thoughts over and over again)
• Analyze your thoughts, are they logical?
• Don't dwell
• Act happy
• Speak up
• Talk to strangers
• Do a good thing (serve others)
• Shift your social network (perhaps your current friends are keeping you down)
• Work it, baby! (Exercise)
• Breathe deeply
• Enjoy the outdoors
• Eat healthy fats
• Drink water

The fruits of the Spirit that are joy, peace, goodness and love require work on our part. They require fellowship and actively monitoring what enters our minds and exits our lips. They require healthy bodies, healthy emotions and a healthy spiritual connection with God. Prayer, Bible study, fasting (especially when depressed) and meditation bolster these simple techniques even more. Knowing that you are doing what's good and right will help us sleep at night... And they'll help keep you fulfilled.

The Personality of Our Creator

On a camping trip a couple of years ago, Mr. Smith stated that by looking around at nature around us, we can get a glimpse of the kind of Creator God is. "The heavens God's glory do declare...", et al. That is, we can see His personality, His likes, His preferences, what He considers pure and good and clean all around us. So I was thinking it would be cool to come up with a list of adjectives or short phrases that describe the creation, and in short, describe our great God.

Diverse, balanced, pure, simple, yet complex. Orderly. Humongous, miniscule, everything in between. Significant. Detailed. Beautiful. Artistic, creative, ingenious, amazing. Intuitive. Peaceful, tender, tranquil, subtle, comforting, uplifting. Bright, colorful, shining. Powerful, strong, luminescent. Awesome, unexpected, imaginative. Reproducing, plentiful, bountiful, generous. Humorous, hilarious, precious, delightful. Genuine. Layered, in-depth. Musical, harmonious, poetic. Cyclical, timely. Flowing. Sensible. Repairable, healable. Instinctual, law-abiding, structured. Loving, caring, familial. Good. Perfect.

Feel free to throw in some more...

Attention All Single (And Married) Men!

Click here to find out what really makes women happy... :-D

Am I Addicted to Happiness?

In today's society where people pop a pill for just about anything, depression and anxiety medications have been huge sellers for the pharmaceutical companies. Society has taken sorrow and grief and re-labeled them as a clinical illness that must be treated. The official book for diagnosing mental disorders, the DSM-IV, has these symptoms for depression: for two weeks or more you feel sad or empty, you display insomnia or sleep too much, you have difficulty concentrating and eating, you are generally lethargic and don't feel like doing anything.

I don't know about you, but I've had friends and relatives die, I've been broken up with, I've had best friends move away, I've had lots of stress at work, and so on. These are normal issues that normal people have had for thousands of years, and yet psychologists and society seem to push people to get over it quickly. It may take years to grieve a lost parent or child, and yet there is a sense of making people feel like they're stuck in the past for doing so. "Move on, marry again, get back to normal!"

In fact, there are some who claim that if you're not constantly in the pursuit of happiness, there's something wrong with you! Self-help books and motivational speakers were all the rage not too long ago. "Be happy! Go fulfill your dreams! You can be a star! You can have what YOU want now!" Self-confidence, self-help, self-taught, Do-It-Yourself. Turn that frown upside-down, it's time for personal achievement and fun!

Because most people in developed nations have few real life-threatening worries (i.e. food and water shortages, homelessness, joblessness, poverty) and yet have much free time and enough money and resources, they feel that the pursuit of happiness is the most important thing to accomplish in life. Although some go overboard trying to find the next high with drugs, alcohol, loose sex and debauchery of all kinds, the pursuit of worldly happiness doesn't stop with reckless behavior. It can be seen in very normal material activities, from buying things to having constant communication with friends and family to feeling accepted amongst peers. We all want to get bigger and better homes, cars, electronics, clothes, etc. We want instant communication or we constantly travel near and far so we can always be around friends and family. We try to blend in, yet stand out with our clothes and actions. Doing these things helps us feel more secure and happy temporarily, but they rarely fill the insatiable appetite for wanting more after the high of doing so has worn off. "I left my friends and I'm depressed, so I'll just travel to see them again next month. Why don't I call them now?" "This car is good, but I want a nicer one."

Don't get me wrong, there is nothing bad about enjoying the blessings we've been given. However, it is the expectation of "needing" to have these things that is the problem. Humans continue to feed their various addictions, even if they seem perfectly normal to the rest of society. And yet, like most addictions, they are unhealthy and damaging. People expect to be happy and want to be constantly entertained. Something must be wrong if not. What's wrong is that their quest for happiness masks a giant hole in their innermost being, and nothing physical can fill that hole.

In society's constant pursuit for happiness, it is depressing that the way most are living today is a way of complete covetousness. There exists a fine line between the principles of Ecclesiastes 9:7-9, where one enjoys and is content with the fruits of their labor and God's blessings, and an attitude of selfishness and covetousness. I always believed covetousness centered around directly wanting what someone else had. However, it really centers around pleasing the self with anything the self desires. It is raw carnality. As rich as America is, its citizens have all this time to desire all these wonderful goods and services we have available. So many people get anxious or depressed when they can't have what they want. Some work very hard to overcome their shortcomings in order to get more for themselves. Others might pop a pill, have another drink, or vent to friends in order to let off steam when we can't have what we want.

Let me tie this back in with the first paragraph or two about sadness... So many today are in such a pursuit of happiness that they do everything in their power to kick guilt, sorrow, meekness, humility and grief to the curb. I always got confused when Christ or Paul or others tell us to be sad and to humble ourselves. Yet I was taught by this world to try and be happy! In the Beatitudes, God states that only the lowly and meek in heart and spirit would enter His Kingdom. But why does God want us to feel bad some of the time and not good all the time? Won't His Kingdom be filled with joy?

The answer to the last question is, of course, yes. But we endure and grow through difficult times in order to build character. As it turns out, sadness, shame and pain are powerful tools. Humility is too, as most of you know. When friends and family have passed away, I am that much more aware of what is truly important because I have lost something that is incredibly important. When I've had friends move away or been broken up with, I am that much more reflective of what that person meant to me. When I sinned against someone and lost a friend, I see where my way gained nothing. I've gained valuable perspective going through these trials.

Instead of trying to cover up the pain (and rather than wallowing in self-pity, on the other extreme), we can learn valuable lessons about just what kind of person we really are. We can take time to see whether our choices and decisions have led us up to this current state of grief and difficulty, then steer our future actions in a better direction. When we lose someone we love, do we now take the time to recognize who is important among the living and show them so? I remember going to a funeral where the individual died suddenly, and everyone there was inconsolable. However, I've also been to a funeral where everyone spent much quality time with the individual in her last few months, and her radiance left us all smiling even after she was gone. We made time for one another and it showed!

God tells us there will be trials. Pain exists because it is friction against God's perfect way. Therefore, if you feel pain, you should examine if it is something you -or others, or this world's sinful ways - have caused. Then you can take steps to making sure you eradicate those tendencies in your own life. One thing that can make any trial easier is to look for the lessons to be learned by it. There is always something.

It is similar to physical pain. I freak out when I'm hurting and don't know its source. "Is it appendicitis? Do I have cancer? Do I have an alien about to pop out of my belly?!?" And yet with mental, emotional and spiritual pain, rather than find all the sources, we further damage and harden our minds against growth by ignoring the cause.

Christ said to count it all joy when various trials fall on us. God is showing that He cares for us because of the valuable lessons and growth we are being led to. He said that we should take punishment patiently, even when we don't deserve it. I remember the story about how the apostles all rejoiced after being beaten for Christ's sake in Acts 5:41. They were able to determine that they were acting in accordance with God's will for them and saw that their punishment furthered the Work of God! In this case, they had a clear conscience.

And that's what grief and sorrow can teach us if we heed the lesson. There will always be pain in Satan's sinful world. But there is pain caused that we are responsible for by our own sins, and there is pain that stems from the sins of all others on this planet. Both reverberate off of everything in their path slowly destroying this physical world. However, we can learn and grow from both. Seeing our own faults should make us feel shame and godly guilt, then lead us to repentance and good works. The grief and pain that the sins of this world inflicts upon us and others should help us to fervently pray for God to clean up this mess by sending His Son quickly to this world.

Ignoring and masking pain, guilt, sorrow and shame in favor of our own pleasure and happiness only makes it all worse. Heeding it will begin healing it. As Luke 6:21-23 states: "Blessed are the poor, for yours is the kingdom of God. Blessed are you who hunger now, for you shall be filled. Blessed are you who weep now, for you shall laugh. Blessed are you when men shall hate you, and when they shall cut you off, and when they shall reproach you and shall cast out your name as evil, for the sake of the Son of Man. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy. For behold, for great is your reward in Heaven."

Randomocity

Hey everyone! Today I figured I would give you an Alex Trebek-like potpourri of stuff floating around my mind. Don't be scared... It's perfectly harmless.

• Parenthood is wonderful. If you're thinking about having kids and are worried about having to give up so much of your own time in order to do so, well... That's the whole point! When I stopped and thought about what I did with my free time, I realized i didn't do much with it. Rather, spending my time raising and teaching a child who mirrored my personality and every move would be a far better way to spend my time. If you're looking to improve yourself, look no further.
• There were some lay-offs last week at my company. As I watched some of my good friends get affected by these events, I realized how much each of us individually would be affected by the awful events that could easily take place any year now. It won't just happen to the world, or just to our country, it'll happen to us personally! How will I handle that??
• With this bank in France losing just over $7.1 billion because of one company-employed trader worming his way around their 5-layered security measures, what does that do for people's trust in the banking system worldwide? First it was here in America with our loose lending practices. Now banks are losing and writing off billions left and right! They're freely accepting money from Asian and Arab governments to stay afloat! Our markets and economies are all based on faith. While it used to be "In God we trust", our economy and materialistic way of life have replaced that trust. Americans used to assume on faith that neither will ever be taken away. Quoting R.E.M., it will be interesting to see if people begin losing their religion...
• Speaking of the economy, at some point, you just have to let the various markets adjust. Sure, I'd love to see my house double in value every 2-10 years. But that's not sustainable. When no one can afford a home and people have to take out ridiculous loans in order to get one, it's time for something to change. And yet, here we are throwing more borrowed money at the over-inflated economy with this stimulus plan. If the government would only allow the capitalist motto of "supply and demand" carry forth even a little bit, it might right itself and spare us from swift correction (read: depression). However, with our lack of patience and "the government can fix it right now" mentality, we may not get the luxury of an economic soft landing.
• Young people are the future of the Church. We really should continue in the example that our elders have set for us and serve as an example to the younger kids. Unlike every generation's desire to "do one better" than previous generations, we can heed Biblical instruction to lean on our elders' understanding and wisdom as we are slowly allowed to serve more. We have lots of energy and zeal, so let's blend it with our elder's experience in order to produce great things! So don't be afraid to throw out ideas, discuss them with more experienced people and then follow through by organizing events, socials, etc. Let's own our ideas and ACT!

Do any of you have any random thoughts floating around in your head? I'd like to hear some...

Similarities

Lately, I've been reading through the major and minor prophets. The first couple of times I read them, I thought they were pretty repetitive. God would instruct one of His prophets to tell His people their sins against Him. God gave Israel and Judah chance after chance to stop and turn back to Him. He warned them to stop creating and worshiping idols, quit the sexual immorality, partying, drinking, visiting fortune tellers, and cease the false prophesying. He threatened them with sieges and captivity time after time. Sometimes the prophets were heeded, sometimes they were thrown into the stocks or prison and sometimes they were flat out killed. This goes on and on for both Israel and Judah until each is destroyed and carried away.

In today's day and age, I listen to people discuss their beliefs as to why the Worldwide Church of God broke apart. As I've noted before, there were abuses of power, wicked men who forced their way into power, and all sorts of atrocities going on in Pasadena as well as around the world in the various church areas. Mr. Armstrong began this Church with a great deal of faith, but as the Work grew, and subsequently, the Church itself, teaching and administrating such a large group of people became extremely difficult. Yes, there were many faithful brethren. There were thousands that had attended for 10, 20, 30, 40+ years and were continuing to grow spiritually. They embodied the kind of character that Mr. Armstrong was instructed to teach and encourage in God's Church. But there was also a growing spirit of complacency as the Church grew. Many didn't live as we were called to do. They were baptized, but no real repentance seemed to take place over the long haul. Many continued to smoke, drink, party, beat their spouses, hold grudges and commit adultery and fornication. Among a growing majority, there was little repenting and acting on the message that was being preached week in and week out. For some, prayer was only fervent in times of desperation while Bible study was only done when new and interesting topics were introduced. Fasting happened once a year on Atonement. At one point late in his ministry, Mr. Armstrong had doubts that more than 10% of God's Church "got" was God was trying to accomplish through them!

Are the two subjects of ancient Israel's fall and Worldwide's collapse all that different? In both cases, here were God's people, as a whole, called for a holy purpose and not living up to that purpose over the long haul. God wanted Israel to be an example to the nations around of the kind of prosperity, peace and joy that could be had while living God's way. Similarly, we in God's Church were called to also be an example, infused with the Holy Spirit to guide us even more than Israel. We were to preach the entire Truth to as many people of the world that we could. However, just as God would also destroy Israel for their breaking of His covenant as an example to the nations around, I believe the same happened to Worldwide for our disregard of His new covenant with the Church.

It's important here to look a little deeper as to why both groups failed. Many people have come to understand that God broke apart His Church because of our transgressions. However, the actions taken by many of the groups that split off from Worldwide seem to show that there is a blurring of the lines between God's role and man's role in the whole ordeal. I have heard many say that Mr. Tkach and others weaseled their way into the top human roles of the Church by fooling Mr. Armstrong. As a result, many new churches were created with governments consisting of democracies, oligarchies and outright anarchies in order to prevent these types of events from occurring again. It's almost as if they're insinuating that these men somehow sneaked under God's nose, too!

Remember, this is still GOD'S Church! Jesus Christ is the active head! As we see from Scripture, no man assumes power in this world without God's say so. Even if men do sneak into leadership positions, God knows those men's thoughts way before their actions are played out and He has full power to allow or disallow those coups of power to occur. He also has the power to kick that man out of office. He has the power to put the right people in office should that man go astray. His timing may be different than ours, but His will is always done!

Just like ancient Israel, both the leadership and the people played their roles in separating from God. The kings and ministers should have set the right example for the whole assembly to follow God. Some did, some didn't. Likewise, every man and woman had their part to play in staying faithful regardless of what the kings or ministers decreed. This is why God commanded families to pass down the stories of the first Passover and other miracles to demonstrate God's awesome power and to build trust and faith in the Eternal. Even when Elijah felt all alone, there were still 7,000 who hadn't bowed a knee to Ba'al. Both Israel and the Church received many extra blessings and promises when they obeyed. But to those who are given much, much is expected. The Church, instead of prospering, was coming apart at the seams due to sin, corruption and complacency, like the nation of Israel, and God had to show both who was in charge!

Reading through the prophets' tales in the Bible, I try to imagine how they felt about the whole situation. Here they were, being obedient and righteous while their whole world was falling apart around them. They all prayed fervently for God to relent from His furious anger. Daniel, in chapter 9, is extremely heartfelt towards his beloved nation decades after they were in captivity. Yet even then, most of the prophets suffered right along with the people. They went through the sieges. They starved alongside everyone. They were taken captive or left in the desolate landscape that Jerusalem became after the Chaldeans scorched it to the ground. Through all of it, although exhausted and extremely unpopular, the prophets remained close to God and did as He instructed them to do, no matter how difficult. Meanwhile, evil kings, priests, prophets and the 70 elders all led the nation to their doom while the people themselves were unfaithful and sinful. No matter the warning, none were heeded.

And yet after all the failures of the nation, God did relent and restored a small remnant of His people to the Promised Land. He reinstalled the exact same Levitical priesthood and allowed a governor to rule Jerusalem again when they returned from captivity. Ezra 6:18-20 states that the priests were set in their sections and the Levites in theirs. But what's important to note is verse 20: "For the priests and Levites were purified together, all of them purified." In order to serve in this great capacity, God had to purify the new leaders, just as He did when Israel first came into the Holy Land. The people had sinned and sinned and sinned and never repented until God finally overthrew them! Then they had time to think about what they did and turn back to God. Finally, God installed His government the way it should have been to begin with.

The reason for the fall of Judah and Israel wasn't the system of government. It was the fact that the people defiled themselves! The leaders defiled themselves! They weren't pure. The PEOPLE stopped keeping their end of the covenant. And while this seems obvious on the surface, so many churches today haven't learned that God's system of government has not failed! God's Work has not changed! He has simply done what He said He would do if they weren't bearing fruit. For Israel, Ezekiel 15 says that those branches not bearing fruit would be thrown in the fire. For the Church, John 15:6 has the same warning. God never says the Church or its purpose would be cast in the fire!

Just like the prophets in ancient times, we have been specially chosen to do a job that was given to us by God the Father, Himself! It's the most important job in the world, especially at these dangerous end-times. Let's not allow feelings of betrayal destroy our sense of direction and our VISION. This job will be difficult and will contain extreme challenges as we draw closer to the great tribulation. It will require real faith in God that He is still and always in charge, and that He will see His purpose through to the end.

The prophets were called to be a witness to and against Israel and Judah. God saw these special men through their difficult jobs. Similarly, God will see us through while we proclaim His gospel of the Kingdom as a witness in all nations, and then the end shall come!

Lessons From a Vision

I was reading through Ezekiel the last few days, and when I got to chapter 8, my Nelson's NKJV Study Bible had an interesting commentary on what God was showing Ezekiel. If you don't remember Ezekiel 8, the basic premise is that God took Ezekiel up in the spirit (in a vision) back to Jerusalem to show him the atrocities that were occurring in the Temple... There were idols set up in the entrance and courtyard, and after Ezekiel dug a hole in a wall, he saw images of every beast and creature imaginable carved on the wall on the other side. Inside, the 70 elders of Jerusalem, the top leaders, were offering up incense to these pagan gods. Other women, like the elders who were hiding themselves, were weeping for Tammuz, a pagan god of fertility, because they could not bear children. A far cry (bad pun intended) from Samuel's mother... And there were another 25 men with their backs turned to the Temple facing the east bowing down towards the sun!

We all understand that God is mad because here were His people breaking His first two commandments, probably along with many others, in worshipping these gods and images. What made the Study Bible commentary interesting was what these wicked people thought and why. Some of these people were worshipping outside in broad daylight. And yet, there were many terrible acts going on in private. Verse 12 states, "And He said to me, Son of man, have you seen what the elders of the house of Israel do in the dark, each man in his image room? For they are saying, God does not see us; God has forsaken the earth." In other polytheistic cultures in the Middle East at that time, gods were thought to have human-like characteristics. The Greek gods and goddesses in the old movie version of "The Odyssey" come to mind. They were so far removed from God that they thought He, YHWH, the LORD Eternal, could not peer into to closed, dark rooms to see what they were doing! They recognized God was still there, but continued on!

I drew from this commentary one of the many reasons God does not want us worshiping made-up gods and images, other than the fact that it's stupid, pointless and leads to rebelliousness: It causes us to drag God down to our human level. And it will only hurt us when we do...

God is invisible and silent to us in this age, so people who aren't close to Him through prayer and Bible study will naturally not understand His awesome power and character. But once we are called to be His special people and draw closer to Him, we must cast off what's around us and point our attention on what's above (Col. 3:2). However, if God is believed to be on our level ("What if God was one of us?" Blech!), then He can't see our every doing. He can't help, clothe, feed or house us. He can't forgive us of our sins and help us overcome. He can't overthrow Satan. He can't resurrect us into eternal life. We slowly, but totally, lose faith in Him, His power and His incredible plan for all mankind. Our weakened faith then leads us to try and go it alone with our own human reasoning.

Today, most Christian religions worship physical objects as Jesus Christ and God the Father. Santa Claus, the Easter bunny, crosses, pictures, Christmas trees, yule logs, etc. "remind" people of their god. As shown above, physical objects worshiped as God merely make the Father and Jesus Christ less god-like in our minds! They take on a more human personality; one we are comfortable with. This personality doesn't judge us, but rather accepts us as we are. This god does not get angry at us for sinning against it. We project our own weak human experiences and reasoning to some inanimate object that we bow down to and worship as our god.

It doesn't take a logic major to see that this "god" is merely our own self.

Draw Close To God

Mr. Wells gave an excellent sermon yesterday, and I figured the notes were worth typing up here for anybody to read. There's nothing new here, but these are good principles to guide us as we get closer to T-Day (Tribulation).

I Thes. 4 states that we must awake and look at our current spiritual condition. II Cor. 6:14 and II Tim. 3:1 - Don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers. Do we see the state of this world and its many problems? How does that affect us? Are we willing to flee its attitudes and its actions? This world denies God's power and instruction although they talk as though they know Him. Men continue to learn endless knowledge, but never come to an understanding of God's way. Rather, they follow a perverted form of truth -- Satan's. Regardless, we cannot leave the true knowledge that we are called to receive and live according to.

James 4 discusses how man's opinions and false knowledge cause disputes, fighting and wars. Why? Because of our selfishness, lust and covetousness! Our jealous nature causes so many problems. We want what others have! However, we don't get these desires because we don't ask God with the right attitude IF we ask at all! Self-will rules many of our lives and most do not surrender to God. God resists a proud and "I know better" attitude. However, He gives more earnestly to those who truly humble themselves and seek God. We need to fully submit to God and resist the accusational attitude of Satan.

Only God can fully judge and solve our problems, so only total faith in Him will allow us to come to a lasting solution. It is usually when we ask for God's intervention that He is more likely to intervene. We should ask believing that He already wants to help and has a solution... We are merely catching up with His plan. However, if we don't ask, we are, in essence, asking God to intervene in a way and at a time that we may not be asking for!

Recognize (v. 9) that life is not all about our rewards, pleasure or happiness. We must be willing to see the awfulness of the world and its need for God. Many times, we require trials to really be humbled when we aren't willing to humble ourselves. Deaths of friends and family, sickness, war, fear, persecution, extreme poverty and natural disasters will get our attention and make us take note of our spiritual condition for a time. But again, God would rather us humble ourselves, which will last longer.

Stop speaking evil of others and purify your mind from condemning, unclean and perverse thoughts. I Pet. 5:5 speaks in a similar manner to James. Submit to elder, wiser and more spiritual people. Solid people. Surrender your willfulness to everyone! In other words, stop talking and do more listening. Even when people aren't as old or experienced as you, at least hear them out (think of Job's story) and deeply think about what was said. Be willing to be entreated or reasoned with! He who humbles himself will eventually be exalted by God.

Col. 2:20 - How we humble ourselves must not be purposely visible just to impress others, like monks taking vows of silence and celibacy or fasting with sackcloth and ashes. We must, rather, be clothed with humility, saturated by it!

I Peter 5:6-10 - Satan is waiting to pick off the sick-minded and spiritually weak members of the flock like a lion would. Rather, cast your cares, concerns, worries, disputes and problems on God because He wants to help! But sometimes He requires us to have the willingness to ask Him or change ourselves through a humble attitude while seeking His will in the matter. We cannot just ask for something to be solved the way we want it to be. God is willing let us suffer until we get this principle, but only to perfect, establish, settle and strengthen us. Our first reaction to every problem in our life should be to bring it before Him seeking His will!

Matt. 5:3 - The beatitudes are a description of godly humility we need to overcome and grow and change. We cannot have pride or vanity. We must mourn this world's and our own sins. We should be teachable and yielding all while hungering and thirsting for God's very nature. Have mercy on others and be more than willing to forgive them. (When a decision of judgment or mercy arises, err on the side of mercy.) Seek a pure heart and cast out selfishness and evil thoughts. Make peace with others! Allow yourself to be persecuted without causing it yourself. Finally, rejoice and be glad for God's ultimate reward. It will be ours if we do all these things!

Real Maturity

Have you watched much TV lately? Ever listen to the conversations of fellow students or workmates? I really am sick and tired of immaturity displaying itself in perverted humor, over-sexualization, petty hatred and jealousy, vanity over looks and what so-and-so has that I don't, not to mention grudges that ruin people's lives in today's day and age. When have we entered "adulthood"? What is real maturity? I have noticed that even people that are 30-60 years of age still in many ways act like children if they don't get their way. I regularly read the news, or at least the media's opinion on the news, at best, and see human nature at its finest. Does wisdom really come with age? Do people really ever learn from their mistakes?

Mr. Rice's Notebook has a great discussion on emotional maturity (chapter 5). Mr. Rice was the mailroom manager at Ambassador College and gave regular Bible Studies to the students. Below is his list on several immature behaviors:

1. Being moody and depressed too much of the time.
2. Crying, pouting, losing temper and screaming over trivial matters.
3. Being late for appointments or allowing pleasures to get in the way of school assignments or other responsibilities.
4. Staying up too late at night when you should be getting your rest — then sleeping in too late for classes or work.
5. Staying in bed and calling in sick when you feel a little tired or down, rather than disciplining yourself and putting your responsibilities first.
6. Getting mad if you aren't the center of attention and the most popular person around. Or, getting irritated and insolent when you don't get your way.
7. Being demanding of other people and feeling that they should cater to your desires and
   needs first.
8. Buying on impulse — failing to consider the price, or whether you have the resources.
9. Failing to say "NO" to yourself — giving in to your desires and wants without restraint —
   disregarding the consequences.
10. Failing to reason out a situation or problem from beginning to end before making a
    decision — acting first and thinking later.
11. Being easily influenced by others, instead of using your mind and making your own decisions.
12. Daydreaming — wasting your time in a world of fantasy and make believe instead of
    thinking constructively.
13. Reacting emotionally and falling apart in an emergency. Failing to collect your wits and act
    with a clearthinking head after the initial blow has passed.
14. Finding fault with everything and everybody, instead of trying to get along with people. In
    other words, being generally negative and critical toward life.
15. Using the excuse that since you're a woman and therefore more emotional (especially at
    certain times of the month), you don't have to keep your emotions in tow.
16. Failing to take the blame or being too stubborn to admit it when you are wrong.
17. Feeling inadequate and easily discouraged — particularly when associating with peers who
    are self-assured, multitalented and successful.
18. Other general manifestations:
    a. Shyness — loner-type
    b. Fearful of taking new steps
    c. Impetuous
    d. Self-indulgent
    e. Insensitive and inconsiderate
    f. Whines, complains and cries easily
    g. Overly concerned with your health
    h. Moody, changeable, unstable
    i. Easily offended
    j. Accusing
    k. Competitive — win or else — always have to be first
    l. Argumentative and intolerant
    m. Impatient — everything must be "now" — never later
    n. Sarcastic and cynical
    o. Unable to be serious and level-headed
    p. Disorganized
    q. Unable to concentrate
    r. Irresponsible-and undependable

Do any of these apply to you? Several did to me. So what are we supposed to do about them? Well, first we must understand what emotions are. Mr. Rice states, "Emotion is the energy which makes the mind work — it supplies the energy for survival. Emotions — physical and mental feelings — are necessary for life and stimulate you to behave in a certain way. In that sense, we are all emotional people." Mr. Sena once stated in a sermon that knowledge may help us to understand a principle, advice, or even see a flaw in ourselves, but emotion is required to change it. Learning to hate sin, for example, helps us to eradicate it from our lives. Our love for God, parents and friends, on the other hand, cause us to want to do nice things for them.

The key, according to Mr. Rice, is channeling that emotional energy in the right direction. Let's say someone really ticks you off. Do the retaliatory actions course through your veins right past your brain and straight out your mouth? Or do you take the opportunity to think about whether your perfect comeback will, in fact, make the world a better place for you having said it (thanks, Marshall)? Mr. Rice covers a number of ways you can become more mature in your thinking. He states the following areas to begin with:

1. Analyze yourself
2. Grow in confidence and esteem
3. Learn to discipline yourself
4. Overcome self-consciousness
5. Overcome self-centeredness
6. Eliminate self-pity (self seems to be an issue, doesn't it?)
7. Learn to be a good loser
8. Don't be flippant and scatter-brained
9. Select a mature model to follow (he uses Proverbs 31 for women)
10. Learn to think before you verbalize your feelings (bingo for Mike)
11. Learn to be flexible (not necessarily like a gymnast)
12. Take control of your life and learn to be tolerant of others

I'm all about lists today, so here's what he states an emotionally mature individual's fruits are:

1. Composed.
2. Reserved.
3. Purposeful.
4. Has sense of values.
5. Goals defined.
6. Able to cope with crises.
7. Cultured and refined.
8. Able to control anger and settle differences.
9. Patient.
10. Determined.
11. Capable of facing unpleasantness and frustration.
12. Humble.
13. Joyful and happy.
14. Compassionate.

So there you have it. These really are keys to living life better with God-like character. Many of these characteristics are listed in Mr. Armstrong's list of 7 Keys to Success. Really, it's just letting go of the immature human-nature and taking on a godly maturity. I hope this helps, it sure has helped me.

Importance of Government - Part II

Human beings are born immediately into the one of the most, if not the most, effective form of government at birth. A father and mother bring a child into the world and immediately begin to nurture and teach a child in the way he or she should go. There's no questioning that a baby needs its parents. Without that care, an infant would surely die. As the child gets older, that toddler looks up to his parents as his natural leader. After all, they've always been there for him and they have always taken care of him. They have fed, clothed, taught, cuddled and loved their offspring and now they begin forming boundaries and rules as he needs them. That child is expected to follow the rules. Punishments or rewards are handed out as needed if those rules are broken or kept. Over time, the child begins to learn the reasons why those rules are in place and begins to think broadly about their applications in other aspects of his life.

Roles are in place even at the parental level. The father should be the leader of the family, yet taking into consideration the good of the whole family, not just his own desires. Husbands submit to various forms of leadership in their life, too, including God the Father and Jesus Christ. He should love every member of his family and gives guidance and instruction to them all while imparting a sound mind because he rules with fairness and consistency. The mother should the nurturing side of this team, submitting faithfully to her husband while loving him and building him up, yet she is able to run the family when he is away. Parents should also know their roles and be comfortable in them to provide stability for their children.

Throughout the whole process, the parents are living according to a higher purpose in their lives. They are submitting to their Father in the same way their son or daughter is submitting to them. They still require nurturing, teaching, love and correction even as adults. God created the family as a version in miniature of His government in His coming Kingdom. Good parents will accept their place as God's children and raise their children with that same understanding. If they truly love their children, parents will hand down God's instructions to their children as well as teach them God's awesome purpose for all of mankind.

Parents establish rules for their children as they grow old enough to obey. Why? One reason is for our benefit. "Don't touch the hot stove", "get to bed", "do your homework", "say thank you" are all things we have heard growing up. Parents don't want their children hurt, exhausted, stupid or inconsiderate. On top of this, boundaries make us feel safer. Dr. Fall stated in his booklet and articles on parenting that not having rules is comparable to crossing the Golden Gate bridge without barriers. It would be a lot more stressful knowing that you could easily fall several hundred feet into the bay just by a simple steering mistake! Similarly, kids that don't have rules in place and have them reinforced are far more stressed out. They have far more problems with learning, playing with others, sharing, building relationships, etc. if they didn't have proper boundaries as children. Likewise, as rules are made by parents, they aren't meant to be questioned. "You'll do it because I told you to!" If your child is headed toward the street and a car is barreling down towards him, there is no time to explain the situation to them. You will simply yell his name and hope his upbringing taught him to turn around and listen. We should learn and teach obedience first... we will gain understanding later, generally by doing an act repeatedly in obedient trust. If the child listens and stops, he will see the speeding car whiz by and will learn a valuable lesson: don't play near the street. He will continue to confirm another lesson without knowing it: listen to your parents; they know what they're talking about. As children listen more, they grow in understanding, wisdom, common sense, knowledge, respect, and many other things simply by doing what they are told! Many parents expect their children to follow them "as long as you're under MY roof!"

Similarly, God has laws and rules for us to follow. By design, He created and modeled the family after His government. Similarly, His laws and commandments are for our good, for our learning, and for our growth. Our parents are human and sometimes make mistakes, but God never does. Likewise, we become older and more independent in our thinking and actions, so once we leave our parents' "roof" we tend to look after ourselves. However, as begotten children of God, we are not full-born sons of God just yet, so we will always depend on Him in this human life. By following God's rules and laws, we learn obedience and respect. Just as He predicts in the Bible over and over again, to paraphrase, "Follow Me and you will prosper. However, if you don't, you'll be punished and will fail." As we follow God, we see blessings. This proves to us that God is a Being of His word! It builds greater faith that He can and will do all that He says He will. If we refuse to follow Him, eventually, we will suffer as a result. This reinforces the exact same principle. It makes us see just how small we are and how just and wise He is. Humility, faith, mercy, love and justice come from God.

God is a perfect parent and perfectly fair. He tells us in advance what He expects us to do and what He will do through His Bible, His prophets, apostles and His Church. His rules are perfect and are meant to be followed. This is the Law for His government! He instructs us to live His way for the same reasons our parents do: for our benefit, learning, growth and education as well as to build solid relationships and contentment. Yet He teaches us for one more major purpose that our parents can't: to be in His Kingdom!

God created His Church in order to bring these things to pass! We are His children and He treats us better than we would treat our own bodies and selves. The Bible tells us to think of God's Church as the body of Christ with the stated purpose of preparing for His Kingdom. So let's analyze what the human body does... The body is composed of many parts, each with its own purpose. However, they are all put together working as a team for the overall purpose stated above. The eye and the mind and the foot and the hand and the heart all have different purposes, but if they are all trained on the same goal, that goal can be achieved far easier than if they are all doing different things. Playing basketball, for example, would be more difficult if the heart were at a resting rate, which wouldn't supply the rest of the cells in the body with enough oxygen. If the hand were at rest, you couldn't shoot. If the foot didn't move, you couldn't get to the basket. If the eye isn't looking at the basket or the opposition, it can't tell the mind what it sees. Then the mind can't tell the foot which direction to travel or how fast the heart should be beating, or the hand to shoot!

But even if the body is working in harmony, none of this can happen if the body starves to death. So we eat and drink spiritual food for growth while we are alive. We each must individually overcome. However, because we are individually human, we do get old and die knowing that God can individually resurrect us to be in His Kingdom. However, the Church as a whole does not die, God says so! How does the human body replenish itself? By taking food, water and air, elements of the outside world, and processing them so they become part of the body! Just as each cell in the body is replenished by the body (feeding the flock), we must also be used by God to preach and baptize people from the outside world to keep the Body of Christ alive with those whom God is calling. And if a cell or part in the body dies or no longer produces fruit, the body disposes of it. Otherwise, that part can become a cancer and damage the whole body. So must the Church be replenished by new members, feed its existing ones good food, and resolve issues that arise, first and foremost by counsel and correction, and on the rare occasion by disfellowshipping a member. The body of Christ is capable of growing, healing itself and getting rid of destructive elements.

Christ's Body does as Christ Himself did when he was alive as a man. His work was to do the will of His Father, so must we. Christ built up His Church by training men and women in His way. He taught the commandments of God. He preached the gospel to those places around Him and instructed the apostles and 70 others directly to preach to the world. Those apostles appointed evangelists like Timothy, Titus and Phillip to build new up the church in various areas by preaching to the public and appointed elders and deacons in those places to keep them going. Elders administered and taught each church while deacons served the widows, orphans and elderly in each area. The same applies today. When God set up the old covenant over Israel including the priesthood and temple worship, that same priesthood and temple worship was instituted after Judah returned to Jerusalem from Babylon. Likewise, we follow the same form of government today that Jesus set up in the new covenant apostolic times.

What is our attitude towards God's government and His people? I was speaking with Mr. Millich the other day, and he said that our attitude towards government should be one that desires to follow what God commands. Had God told us to feed His sheep through anarchy, we should do so. He did not. Had God said to preach the gospel through democracy, we should do so. However, He did not. He gave us this form of government with established roles, rules and order, similar to the family structure, so our attitude should be to follow God's instruction. When men don't follow God, as stated above, they fail. In the same right, men in leadership positions that don't follow God will also fail, but they unfortunately lead lead the Church astray. Both are deceived and fall into the ditch. Just as "one man" government in Worldwide failed because of errant men, so will the democracies, anarchies and militaristic forms of government ran by errant men today will fail. Do we see the difference between errant systems and errant men? Sometimes there are both and sometimes it's only one. However, those imperfect leaders who try to lead by God's government are still down the pecking order from Jesus Christ who is the Head! It wasn't the Church that failed in the apostacies that have occurred to the Church from Paul's time to ours, it was the men that failed. God's government did not fail, it was the men who led the Church astray. But notice, God always righted His ship! How do you know? The Church is still here.

In the same way, God is in charge of His ministry and leaders. The Bible states that God appoints and overthrows kings and rulers of nations regularly. Men who place themselves over nations, God tears down. He used Pharaoh's and Nebuchadnezzar's own attitude to carry out His will. Even the apostles and prophets weren't perfect, but God used them powerfully! What makes us think that God isn't doing the same with His ministry? When a man falters, God uses that failure to teach him, us and anybody else watching that only HIS way works. God used Israel in this same way as an example when they were a success (as under Solomon) and as a witness against them (as in the captivities, see Jeremiah 22:8-9).

So we should trust God's choices for the ministry over us. God will remove men from power that totally abuse it. He will remove men from power that take it for themselves. Maybe not on our timeline, but He will. Yes, on occasion God may give us the choice to leave a corrupted or deceived group of people and try to relocate where God's people are, but only when a complete and total removal of the Truth has taken place in the current organization, not for some lesser transgression. And when locating, not choosing, God's Church, we should look towards God's government to determine where He has placed His name, both on the style of government and which individual is at the top. Did that man make himself a leader, or did God (and by extension, God's Church) choose him to be in that position? We do not choose our parents and God does not allow us to build Him an alternate church! If a parent fails us, we can't just get rid of them. When an elder or evangelist fails us, do we pray to God to help him? Do we pray that God's will be done, not our own? Do we hope that leaders will succeed or do we errantly desire that they will be rebuked by God because they trespassed against us?

How do we apply God's form of government in our own lives? We have all heard of servant leadership. A good father shepherds his family as he leads it. It is true that God places men in various roles to be in charge over aspects of His Church. However, there are times where various other roles may need to be heeded under certain circumstances. For example, I like to think of the parking attendants at some of the larger Feast sites. If a teenager has an orange vest on and a flashlight waving people to their various spots and a minister drives up to him, who has the right to decide where that minister parks? God's government gave that young man the role to organize the parking lot. It's a role he's been given. A humble, teachable minister practicing God's governmental style will heed that attendant's instructions. God even used 3 young boys to teach a king about God's power in Daniel 3. Know the roles that God has set up and obey the role and office as they apply to you. Likewise, we should seek advice from those wisest on a subject. On financial matters, a master businessman. On family matters, your parents or a successful family. On church matters, a minister.

Ephesians 4 tells us that the very purpose of God's leading roles in His Church are for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry and edifying of God's people. They have a special purpose to correct, counsel and edify us to perfection. They have been given an extra measure of Holy Spirit to do this. Do they apply everything in the Bible perfectly? No... Do we agree with God's governmental correction up to the where it begins to point out our flaws and shortcomings? Is it then too personal? Was a minister too harsh in the way they approached you? People leave the Church over this! It is vital that we think about this! Just like a good father and mother, God is looking out for all of our best interest and wants to see how we handle unjust judgment, too. There are many scriptures that discuss correction and rebuke, especially in the Proverbs... Matthew 18 doesn't just discuss correction from the ministry, but from all our brethren! Do we allow our brother or sister in Christ to righteously apply God's law to help us go on to godly perfection?

Just as we should have a loving family relationship, we need to be edifying, praying and rooting for all of God's people, including His chosen leaders, to succeed. We need to ask God to help His called-out people to teach this world His ways as a witness to them. Only God calls, but He can use our witness to aid in that calling. Is that our desire? To be fully yielded to God so He can use us any way He wants? Even Pharaoh might look back at how God used him in exhalting Israel, God's people, and be glad that he was used for such a special purpose. Let us each be glad that God has called us into His Church in order to use our talents and personalities in the way that HE chooses, for HIS purpose in HIS government! In the end, the whole world will ALL win as a result. THAT, my friends, is the importance of government.

The Truth About Truth

When I was in college, I took a few classes on philosophy and logic on top of my computer science courses. Some of these classes had very similar themes to my computing theory courses since computers themselves are basically logic boxes. But it pounded in my head more than just 1s and 0s, true and false. The neat part about philosophy is it teaches you methods of representing facts and truth. It will also show you how to unravel cleverly-worded arguments to show where they are lacking. Philosophy often times gets a bad rap because of the ideas that certain philosophers have as well as the endless arguing and debate that stems from human reasoning. But knowing how to reason and clearly present an idea or principle can really help one shine their light to the world and help out our neighbors.

If you find yourself in a discussion of a Bible topic, or any topic for that matter, just having the Truth doesn't always win people over automatically. Rather, your approach is supremely important in helping people to see things in a clearer manner. Or in some cases, it may help you see things in a clearer manner. In either case, learning certain philosophical techniques to debate will help you better see all sides to a point, or find flaws in an argument and help you to point them out. They will also help you to stay calm and collected and help you to draw the most from any discussion on most any topic.

First, let's examine some ways on how to NOT make a point, or find a weakness in a point being made. An erroneous argument is what's known as a fallacy. One kind of fallacy is called a 'red herring' argument. This occurs when someone takes the argument in a completely different direction than what you were presenting. A red herring is often done out of a misunderstanding, but it can be done purposely, too. "My opponent has shown his record on abortion through his votes in Congress." "Yes, but you voted no on my defense bill!" When discussing topics, keep in mind what point you're trying to present and make the effort to steer the conversation back to that point until it's been made if it's important enough. I use metaphors quite a bit to describe an idea in a different light sometimes and have had people begin to argue against the metaphor itself!

Scott Adams, the writer of Dilbert, said, "I’ve noticed that a lot of people, if not most, have sharp disagreements with what they hallucinate to be my opinions... Anyway, I’m trying out my new favorite response to the people who get angry over their hallucinations of my opinions: 'I agree with your analysis of your hallucination.'" This is called a 'straw man' argument. One makes up a completely different argument than what you're presenting, attributes it to you, then makes you argue that point instead. Rather than address a point directly, one instead argues a distorted view of that point. This distorted view could sound similar to the idea being made, but it is not that point. If you see this happening, take the time to fully listen to the metaphor or story or point, ask questions to fully grasp it, then address what they mean. Allow people to finish their thoughts. You won't lose a discussion just because someone keeps talking. Too many times we attack word choice rather than ideas and concepts. But I will address that point a little later.

Many times, I hear people dismiss an argument because of one's character. There's possibly some wisdom to this in the case of certain opinions, but if one who occasionally drinks too much says the sky is blue, is he wrong? This fallacy is called ad hominem. You'll hear this all the time in election years. Candidate A: "I will introduce a bill that will put more money in our schools." Candidate B: "But you dropped out of college, so that can't be true!"

Then there are appeals to popularity, the majority, authority, common practices, etc. This fallacy occurs when someone claims that because a large group of people do something, they can't be wrong. Or if a leader or trusted source says something, it must be true. While the statement or idea itself may be true, the fact that a majority or expert says it does not make it so (with the occasional exception, that is God and those who He speaks through).

Ever hear of circular arguments? Here's one: Bill: "God must exist." Jill: "How do you know?" Bill: "Because the Bible says so." Jill: "Why should I believe the Bible?" Bill: "Because the Bible was written by God." As you know, the Church tries to prove God's existence both in and out of the Bible as well as nature, much like we prove that God wrote the Bible by its fruits and the fact that prophecy is fulfilled in various ways. Again, God does exist and the Bible was written by Him, however, how you present it may very well detract someone from believing it. Satan has crafted far more cunning circular arguments to keep people distracted in this world. One of my favorites concerns baptism: I have to get rid of my sins before I can get baptized. One will never get baptized if they think this way.

Some people confuse cause and effect: A and B regularly occur together, therefore A causes B. In my last blog entry, I was attempting to show an example of this occurring, possibly. We need to look into things closer to see if something really is the cause of something else. Perhaps there's something going on behind the scenes that we're not thinking about. "People that regularly attend church are healthier." This statement does not take into account that most sick people do not attend church! God tells us over and over again to get all the facts surrounding a matter before making a decision. If we take the time to carefully consider a situation from many angles, we might begin to see cause and effect playing out completely differently than what was initially thought.

A common problem when discussing sensitive topics is the meaning of words. Take time to understand the meaning of a word someone is using. So many words in the English language have grown to have such different connotations in just a few decades time. Someone being a "gay" person in the 50s is far different than today. Describing the "Work of God" may mean slightly different things to different people. Some people may not fully understand a word's true meaning even if they've heard it thousands of times. I know many of Paul's writings use legal terminology to describe God's relationship with us. Words like 'grace', 'sanctification', 'gospel', 'justification', etc. are thrown around all the time in religious settings, but many do not know their full meanings. If you find yourself going around in circles, be sure that the terminology's definition is agreed upon, or find a better choice of word to use.

As said above, many times in a discussion one can be put on the spot with a new idea or understanding and may not have the time to carefully craft their next statement. Give people the benefit of the doubt and ask questions to help them better define their position rather than tearing down a half-constructed idea. The whole point to discussions and debate is to learn. If we are motivated to learn the full Truth, then we will allow others to teach us as much as we are willing to teach others. It helps to carefully think about an point before presenting it, but sometimes we can also help finish another's statement if they can't quite put it together themselves. We must work together to build better understanding and grow in knowledge.

Yes, there are those out there who will try to merely WIN an argument and have no desire to listen or learn. Apply Proverbs 26:4 in this case: Do not answer a fool in his folly, lest you also be like him. But if you have to apply verse 5 instead, use the tools above to dismantle the argument so you are not fooled by it.

But for those who are willing to learn, let these tools along with a humble spirit help you to weed out fallacies and diligently search for the Truth. Any arguments?

Meat Eaters Get Last Laugh

Here's something that sounds true, but you nutritionists can correct this Newsweek report if it's wrong or misleading. Apparently, it's never been proven that diets high in saturated fat and heart disease are related.

"The first scientific indictment of saturated fat came in 1953. That's the year a physiologist named Ancel Keys, Ph.D., published a highly influential paper titled "Atherosclerosis, a Problem in Newer Public Health." Keys wrote that while the total death rate in the United States was declining, the number of deaths due to heart disease was steadily climbing. And to explain why, he presented a comparison of fat intake and heart disease mortality in six countries: the United States, Canada, Australia, England, Italy, and Japan.

"The Americans ate the most fat and had the greatest number of deaths from heart disease; the Japanese ate the least fat and had the fewest deaths from heart disease. The other countries fell neatly in between. The higher the fat intake, according to national diet surveys, the higher the rate of heart disease. And vice versa. Keys called this correlation a "remarkable relationship" and began to publicly hypothesize that consumption of fat causes heart disease. This became known as the diet-heart hypothesis.

However, the results only took a sampling of the overall data:

"At the time, plenty of scientists were skeptical of Keys's assertions. One such critic was Jacob Yerushalmy, Ph.D., founder of the biostatistics graduate program at the University of California at Berkeley. In a 1957 paper, Yerushalmy pointed out that while data from the six countries Keys examined seemed to support the diet-heart hypothesis, statistics were actually available for 22 countries. And when all 22 were analyzed, the apparent link between fat consumption and heart disease disappeared. For example, the death rate from heart disease in Finland was 24 times that of Mexico, even though fat-consumption rates in the two nations were similar.

"Naturally, proponents of the diet-heart hypothesis hailed the study as proof that eating saturated fat leads to heart attacks. But the data was far from rock solid. That's because in three countries (Finland, Greece, and Yugoslavia), the correlation wasn't seen.

The differences seen might also possibly be related to other foods of those countries' diets: processed foods like enriched white flour and sugar. Here is how our body typically handles saturated fats in natural foods:

"Although more than a dozen types of saturated fat exist, humans predominantly consume three: stearic acid, palmitic acid, and lauric acid. This trio comprises almost 95 percent of the saturated fat in a hunk of prime rib, a slice of bacon, or a piece of chicken skin, and nearly 70 percent of that in butter and whole milk.

"Today, it's well established that stearic acid has no effect on cholesterol levels. In fact, stearic acid — which is found in high amounts in cocoa as well as animal fat — is converted to a monounsaturated fat called oleic acid in your liver. This is the same heart-healthy fat found in olive oil. As a result, scientists generally regard this saturated fatty acid as either benign or potentially beneficial to your health.

"Palmitic and lauric acid, however, are known to raise total cholesterol. But here's what's rarely reported: Research shows that although both of these saturated fatty acids increase LDL ("bad") cholesterol, they raise HDL ("good") cholesterol just as much, if not more. And this lowers your risk of heart disease. That's because it's commonly believed that LDL cholesterol lays down plaque on your artery walls, while HDL removes it. So increasing both actually reduces the proportion of bad cholesterol in your blood to the good kind. This may explain why numerous studies have reported that this HDL/LDL ratio is a better predictor of future heart disease than LDL alone.

More prime rib baked with butter for me, please!! It sounds like the truth is, people that eat foods high in natural saturated fats (i.e. more flavor) also tend to eat other foods that have lots of highly processed ingredients that are also yummy and delicious. Some of these processed ingredients also happen to break down into very sticky stuff that adheres to artery walls. I've read elsewhere that once these sticky substances anchor down, they act as a hook, think velcro, to gather otherwise healthy lipids in the system and build up more of a blockage. I don't know how much of that is based on solid medical fact, but in my non-trained, I-just-learned-about-healthy-eating-yesterday mindset, it makes sense.

While the ancient Israelite diets consisted mostly of grains, fish, figs, olives, veggies and the like, the Levites would probably be eating a lot more red meat than the average Israelite seeing as how that was their portion. I couldn't see God trying to purposely give His priests heart attacks because of their jobs... I'm just theorizing here, so don't rip off my head if I'm way off. :) But either way, it certainly seems to adhere to the health laws that God put out there a long time ago and Mr. Armstrong, among others, revised for our day and age... Everything in moderation, eat clean foods that can spoil before they do, and stay away from processed stuff.

Germany and Religion

Apparently, Germany is considering banning the religion of Tom Cruise, Scientology, according to several articles, one found here. They say it goes against their constitution by being a "cult" that exists only for the purpose of making money. I wonder what kind of ruling they might make for the Church of God, should we ever have a more visible presence there...

Importance of Government

A long time ago before I was baptized, a few years after Worldwide split up, I remember talking with a few friends about what the differences were between the churches and why we were separate. Two of them emphatically said, "It's all about GOVERNMENT!! It's SO important!" Back then, I had no clue why they thought so. In fact, the mere reason they had no real understanding themselves to back up their claim showed they were parroting what they heard from others, they themselves not proving it. However, since then, I've begun to understand what true government should look like and how it should operate. Perhaps they were right after all...

To this day, government remains a divisive issue. Many people watched as "one-man government" tore apart all that was built up over many decades in the Worldwide Church of God, and many promised they'd never let any man rule over them again. Many remember being completely mistreated by ministers, deacons, evangelists and so on who were many times overstepping their bounds and misusing the office God gave them. From that perspective, the decisions to play it safe with government or to just stay away from it altogether seem totally justified. Other men seemed resolved to grasp onto their power and rule even more hard-headedly... er, hard-handedly over their followers.

I was old enough when the church split up to understand some of the problems with Worldwide but I was too young to remember or ever know what we once were and how we had dove to such depths spiritually over time. Sure, I heard plenty of the horror stories about church areas, Ambassador College, Headquarters and some of the leading men in the church. I don't think anybody doubts it anymore... GOD split up His church for our many trespasses against Him in the same way He scattered Israel. These stories I heard made me sick, and yet for some reason, I wasn't completely shocked by them. After all, these leaders were human.

There were times where I didn't like the fact that some men felt the need to reiterate over and over again that they were in charge. I felt like if you were in charge, people would want to follow you. Don't get me wrong, I have no problems with people being in a leadership position... I usually get along with bosses, ministers, my own parents, older folks, etc. I was taught respect as a child.

But what irked me even more were people that started to show disrespect to the leadership. I watched as many of the church brethren I knew as they began to mock Mr. Armstrong and every other minister they could lay into. Then they started in, if they already weren't, on the President, Congressmen and other political figures. Some of my thoughts on government really got jumpstarted when I had to give an Attack speech in Spokesman's Club on how God's people are to respect, follow and obey ALL forms of leadership. I found this to be true all over the Bible. Obedience to leaders is the same as obedience to God. He places all in power and He removes them, too. Soon these brethren's opinions seemed to scream so loud that I rarely heard a single godly phrase come out of their mouths anymore. Just gossip and mudslinging... And these were the people still attending one of the branches of God's church! Yes, there are false leaders and we need to be careful, but we can't immediately assume anyone we don't agree with is one. Judge by fruits rather than by sight and opinion alone.

Now I saw why some men were having to assert their leadership; no one would follow God's true servants anymore. "I don't like him or his style, therefore he's a false minister!" People used to mock the Two Trees sermon that Mr. Armstrong reportedly gave a hundred million times near the end of his life. I wouldn't know, I was 7 when he died. The irony there was that a major point of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was it represented how fleshly carnality behaved vs. the Tree of Life being God's way. We choose one or the other. Romans 8:7, the great baptism scripture, states that the carnal mind is at war against the Holy Spirit, both trying to take over our mind. Carnality, in essence, is mankind wanting to do what's right in his own eyes (I Cor. 2-3), it's my decision, my way. God's way is choosing to follow Him and His commandments. The choice is following who we want vs. following who God has placed over the church to lead.

I found some old booklets from Dr. Hoeh, one entitled How Far Does Church Government Extend Into Your Life? In one section titled "You Must Decide Whether This is God's Church", he writes:

We must first of all come to a knowledge of where God's teaching is.
We must find those whom GOD has sent. Unless we have found those whom God has sent, how are we going to know that what is preached is true?

In today's church climate, this would seem to involve taking what we know to be the "truth" and searching for someone preaching that. However, many end up looking for someone who is fascinating to them, someone whose preaching stirs them to action, or someone who preaches and agrees with their own version of God's truth and government (Judges 18, for example). In other words, they allow themselves to be deceived by their pride or what they want to hear!

Everyone in the church learned at a different rate, meaning that all are at different places in spiritual growth. Some are new in the faith and some are more spiritually mature. How does God handle this disparity in understanding? Government! Dr. Hoeh writes more:

How, then, does God regulate those things which we must do together IN UNITY if we do not all grow spiritually at the same rate? How are we going to have unity in the Church if as individuals we cannot all understand all things alike without assistance? The answer is that we must be led, governed, ruled by the government of God -- guided by Him into truth!

...But how were they to know what was right in God's eyes? The answer is that God set rule and authority in His Church to determine the difficult matters for the people. We read of this rule and authority specifically in Acts 7:35.

Notice how the people in the Old Testament Church first regarded God's government, His rule and authority. "This Moses whom they refused, saying, Who made thee a ruler and a judge? the same did God send to be a ruler and a deliverer by the hand of
the angel which appeared to him in the bush." I want you to notice. The people did not accept God's government through Moses. They were carnal.

The degree to which individuals accept God's government is illustrative of the degree to which they are converted and changed from their natural carnal mindedness to the mind of God and the Spirit of God. When people say, "Well, I think I ought
to decide this for myself," when it is not their decision, they are merely illustrating carnal mindedness. And to be carnal minded is death. Rather than taking our version of the truth and finding a church or minister to follow, we need to use these following guidelines, supplied by Dr. Hoeh, to find GOD'S Church:

The first thing that all of us must do is to decide whether or not THIS IS GOD'S CHURCH. We must come to know where God's Church is. The Church of God has been given a commission. Jesus said He will be with us always, even to the end, or consummation, of this age. We know that the Church that God uses is one in which CHRIST IS. It is the Church which fulfills the commission of Christ, not some other mission. It preaches the Kingdom of God, not a social gospel... It is the Church which yields itself to all the Scripture. A Church which obeys God and which has Jesus Christ as its Head and living in its members.

After we have found God's Church using these principles, we submit to His authority and those He has placed in charge - no ifs, ands or buts about it. If we truly have faith, God will correct those who are walking errantly, including YOU and I!

How should God's church's government be ran? Like the US military? NO! Mr. Ray Clore gave an excellent sermon about the detriments of governmental styles such as democracies and military rule. I won't go into all of them here, but on the military side, he stated that those under such strict "do as I say NOW, Mister!" ruling will generally have little faith, little knowledge, little confidence, and they will lack the ability to make sound judgment or decisions. Why? Because someone has always told them what to do! They will be more likely do as a leader says and if/when it should fail, they will only blame the leader for their lack of success. They will not lift a finger without getting special dispensation from the minister.

God's government is a familial government. One in which, yes, there is one man in charge, but his chief concern is the well-being of the family. He cannot be challenged on his final ruling, but his final ruling will take into account everyone's thoughts, ideas, opinions and counsel. He rules first and foremost from God's Word and commandments. This leader will seek wise counsel and learn to become wiser and more knowledgeable. Sometimes, his mind will be subject to change. He will listen to his followers, like a father would his children, and go along with their ideas from time to time to empower them and help them become more independent and to build character. He is loving, caring, gentle, kind, patient, generous, faithful, peaceloving and zealous. He always does what's best for all the sheep. He does not have favorites. He sees people by their fruits, that is, their actions and deeds, and gently but firmly chastens and rebukes those who are stubborn. He judges righteously.

This style is so different than what many saw in certain times and areas in Worldwide. But it did exist. From many who were close to him, Mr. Armstrong was this way. Those who didn't know him perhaps think otherwise. Many times, this is simply a reflection of their own character they put on him. As of late, I have personally seen more and more men growing in the attitude of a loving father in our church. I have seen the bossy, rude, selfish, truly power-hungry men storm off and some are long gone, along with brethren of the same attitude. The further away one crawls from the trunk of the tree, the closer they get to the nuts. The same applies here, I believe.

Those who believe we only need to show love and encouragement obviously have brats for children. Children need boundaries, just as we brethren in the church do. Think about it... My father ordered me at an early age to say "Yes sir" and "Thank you" when I was being selfish and ungrateful. Was I respectful and thankful upon being ordered back then? No... But I became that way by doing those things. The same goes for how God's ministers set rules and guidelines and traditions in the church today. Spiritually new people hear the "do this" and "do that" and by their faith, they should do so. To not do so and question shows our carnal nature. Once we do so, we see over time why we were told to do so. If we're still confused, then do as I did as an annoying 5-year old kid: ask why! As it becomes part of our habit and nature to obey God's word through His church, we begin hearing those same commands in a different way and see deeper into the messages being given... The explanations become more plain and obvious to us. We begin to understand at God's level rather than at a carnal level. We see that by simply doing what God tells us through the Bible and his ministers, we always seem to end up better off than we were otherwise. If not, then perhaps it is time to check our attitude. Do we question decisions by our ministers? If so, what are we trying to prove to Whom??

When I was taking my philosophy class in college, I could totally see this being interpreted as brainwashing. I know better. I choose to follow God's way. He sets before us life and death. "Therefore, CHOOSE LIFE!" God commands. At any point, we can walk away. And at that point, we choose to walk down the path that leads to death. As I read from Genesis to Revelation, I always see God stating that there is no other way than His way that we can and should live. When people don't, to the degree that they know better, He punishes them. When they do, great blessings come. This applied to the priests, the prophets, the kings, the apostles, ministers, deacons and us lay people. His will is set out, it does not change. It is our job to follow it.

Anyway, I highly recommend Dr. Hoeh's booklet on government. You can find it here.

Another Chance to Rant!

Okay, here's something you may or may not care about since many of you don't own a house ("where your treasure is, there shall your heart be also"). I find it interesting just how unscrupulous some of the American banks are being right now with this whole sub-prime housing mess. Sure, it's boring finance stuff, but it has been a red flag to not only investors here, but all around the world that the American economy isn't all it's cracked up to be, in fact, it's cracking at the seams.

In an article on MSNBC today, I read that 1 in 31 homes are being foreclosed on in Ventura, CA. Even here in KC, the foreclosure rate is 1 in 234, 80% higher than a year ago. The article states that Countrywide Financial, the largest lending business in the US, wrote $3.3 billion last October in sub-prime loans. This October, that figure is down to $42 MILLION. That's only 1.27% of the previous figure...

Something right there stinks in my mind. Of course, with all of these foreclosures coming on the market so rapidly, and with that number sure to continue to rise as last year's numbers begin to take a toll, there will be a new market for Countrywide and other lenders: the refinance market. Congress is pushing hard to get lenders to work with homeowners so people don't lose their homes. The government wants lenders to offer fixed-rate mortgages to these folks. They want Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac, government ran, privately invested lenders that own more than 40% of all bank notes in the US, to buy out these loans to lower the risks for these banks in the short-term.

In other words, these same companies who just got chewed out so badly for the sub-prime mess are going to be bailed out even when, for the moment, they aren't injured badly enough to put the bigger culprits out of business. Then they want these same greedy, selfish companies to offer homeowners, who are about to lose their homes and are completely desperate, the same homeowners whose credit ratings are taking a nose dive, and offer them a chance to refinance.

I see the conversation going a little like this: "Okay, okay, so we screwed you. Sorry... Hey, I have an idea! Here's a refinance plan that won't be like the last one! It's a fixed-rate loan. You probably couldn't afford it when you were looking last time, but now that the variable interest rates are through the roof, they don't look so bad now, do they? Of course, you'll be paying a much higher fixed interest rate because we can't trust you since you couldn't pay your last mortgage."

Homeowner: "Whatever, you suckered me once, but I'm desperate, so whatever you put in front of me, I'll sign, seeing as that's what got me in this mess in the first place."

Don't get me wrong, I don't want to put all the blame on the banks. When moneychangers and dove sellers were dealing in God's house, there had to be a market for them to be there, otherwise they would have gone elsewhere after a while. Some people, for whatever reason, don't read the fine print or do basic research when they're about to spend 1/4 - 1/2 of their monthly income on something that they'll be paying on for the next 15-30 years!

But in the end, these same lenders who made these lousy deals available are now cashing in on even more money for the problems they themselves caused and are being bailed out by the government to do so when they should have gone out of business for being ran so stupidly. A. maz. ing. They will be responsible for sinking this economy even more than it already is.

When you read Micah 6:10 - 13, you see what God has coming for these types of people:

"Can I forget any longer the treasures of wickedness in the house of the wicked, and the scant measure that is accursed? Shall I acquit the man with wicked scales and with a bag of deceitful weights? Your rich men are full of violence; your inhabitants speak lies, and their tongue is deceitful in their mouth. Therefore I strike you with a grievous blow, making you desolate because of your sins."

And to the people foolish enough to take these kinds of loans:

Proverbs 22:7: "The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender."

I don't think people in debt realize just how much of a slave they could become. God will judge this nation for our selfish, get-ahead-at-all-costs lifestyles among many other things. I just think the whole thing stinks and implore those of you who don't own a home yet, but who might in the future, to greatly consider what you're getting into. Get advice, talk to many banks, get a trustworthy agent, etc., etc. etc.

Proverbs 4:5-6: "Get wisdom, get understanding; forget not; nor turn away from the words of my mouth. Do not forsake her, and she shall preserve you; love her, and she shall keep you."

No KC Weekend This Year :(

From Mr. Millich -

We will be cancelling our annual Kansas City weekend so that we can
defer to a special anniversary weekend in Charlotte, NC. Sorry for any
inconvenience this may cause. We will be planning for a social later.
Details about the Headquarters activity will be sent out from there.

Leavin' On a Jet Plane

Hey peoples!! We're taking off today for the Feast in Newport, Oregon. The journey begins by taking a 7-hour plane ride with a newborn, then driving 2-1/2 hours tomorrow with that same infant. Hopefully ears pop and naps are taken. I hope your Feasts are profitable and enjoyable!



On a semi-related note, the KC weekend will take place this year on the last weekend in December. New Years is on a Tuesday, so if you can take off Monday, it'll be a 4-day weekend. No costume dance this year, though. I'm being told by the powers that be that it'll be a formal dance (obviously suit and tie or nice dress are allowed). But if you feel like dressing up like James Bond or a prom queen, then I suppose you could call it a costume dance...