truthsynthesizer's Xanga

A Matter of Life and Death

Mon, 02 Nov 2009 04:35:28 GMT

My favorite quote is "A good lover gives you more energy to love everything, that is what God does. A bad lover drains away your energy into himself, like a vampire. A good lover is like a fountain. A bad lover is like a whirlpool." This quote is a reality that runs through my head a lot. Recently I have been contemplating this reality in regards to suicide. The suicidal person not only drains away your energy but he drains away his own energy, even his life energy. The suicidal vampire turns on himself and in this last living act, he not only drains his own life energy but he even drains away the life of those that were around him. Even in his death, he is a vampire. This is also contrasted in the fountain. The fountain loves so much that he not only gives abundant life (zoe in Greek - the word Jesus uses in John 10:10) but also physical life. Cinderella not only attracts other happy people, she also attracts butterflies, birds, and deer. Fountains make children. Celibate fountains can also make children. When celibates share the abundant life with couples, it inspires there love and when a couple's love is inspired physical life is an effect. Speaking the truth makes children. A wonderful man once wrote that giving life, parenting, is the highest purpose on this earth. He was not excluding celibates, either. He, himself, was a celibate. He spoke of life inclusively. Humans can give life both in its zoe form and its physical form, just as humans can both steal life in its zoe form and in its physical form. God is the greatest picture of this reality. He does come to give life but not only life but abundant life. God not only created Abel, he also created Cain. God not only created David, he also created Saul. God creates physically and abundantly. God is a fountain. Before the 1930s, no Christian denomination supported fountain control, I mean birth control. When we speak truth, when we give love, when we admire or create beauty, we give life, both physical and abundant. When we speak lies, when we act egotistically or selfishly (the opposites of love), when we belittle or destroy beauty we take life, both physical and abundant.

Lord,
Your will is that we be little Christs, little fountains,
May your will be done.
In Jesus Name,
Amen.

James S. Sturgill

Nature and Supernature

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:50:43 GMT

I believe that the Christianity is ultimately about knowing God. The more we know God, the more we will love Him. John 17:3 is a very powerful verse in regards to this. It says, "and this is eternal life that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent." Eternal life is found in knowing God but not only knowing God but knowing Jesus whom he sent. Using this, I want to elaborate on a natural understanding of God and then the supernatural understanding of God.

If someone told me that chogo is like yotigua but better. I would not know very much chogobecause I don't know what yotigua is. This is the way we understand God, too. God tells us that he is like us but different. God tells us that he is like food but different. God tells us that he is like water but different. God tells us that he is like bread but different. If we do not have a natural understanding of us, food, water, and bread, then we can't know anything about God, either. We must have a natural understanding in order to understand the Supernatural because this is the way that he explains himself to us. (there is tons of Biblical and philosophical evidence for this if one would want I could give it) When we are taught to see things in a supernatural light as oppose to a natural light this not only disrupts our ability to see natural things but it also disrupts our ability to see supernatural things. If one confuses yotigua with chogo both yotigua and chogo are lost. When we are confused with what bread is and God compares himself to bread, both are lost. What happens in many church environments is that the churched people not only lose an understanding of the natural world but losing the natural world also makes them lose the supernatural world. The people who understand and thus enjoy natural things can also enjoy understand and enjoy supernatural things. There is another level to this, too, however.

I have attempted to give 2 levels of people: those that have a natural understanding and thus can understand the supernatural and those that don't have a natural understanding and thus cannot understand the supernatural either. There is a third group, too. This third group has the natural understanding and then the supernatural understanding but then they find that the supernatural is also paradoxical. I believe this is why John 17:3 doesn't only say, "and this is eternal life that you may know God." Many people throughout history have been natural and have a pretty good understanding of the nature of God. Aristotle, Plato, the Stoics, Plotinus, these guys made true statements about the nature of God that most Christians would be unable to understand. They knew a lot about God. They had the first part of John 17:3 down but they didn't have the second part. They knew that God is all powerful. They knew that God is all wise. They knew that God is all knowing. They knew that God couldn't have a beginning nor an end, however, they didn't understand Jesus whom he sent. These philosophers are not alone, though, the disciples didn't either.

Last week the Gospel reading in the lectionary was from Mark 10:35 - 45. This is where the disciples inquire about being high ranking leaders in the Messiah's kingdom. Jesus responds to their question with,

"You know that those who are regarded as rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. ⁴³Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴and whoever wants to be first must be slave of all. ⁴⁵For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

The disciples understood that God was all powerful, they understood that God was all wise, they understood the supernatural aspects of God found in nature but they didn't yet understand the servitude, the sacrifice of God. It is good to worship an all powerful, all knowing, ever present God but it is Christianity when we worship an all powerful, all knowing, ever present God that serves and even dies. Jesus is not contrary to reason, Jesus is beyond reason. Like the Gentiles, we usually understand power as being served and having people die for you. As Christians, we should see power as serving and dieing for other people. God is not simply a powerful God that beckons us to worship him. God is a powerful God that empowers us, that serves us, that feeds us. Aristotle missed this. Peter initially missed this. Most natural people miss this. Most unnatural church goers miss this.

This three tiered hierarchy can be applied to comfort, too. The unnatural person seeks persecution, discomfort, for the sake of their own righteousness. This is typified in the Pharisees. The natural person seeks comfort for the sake of comfort. Like the party animal. The Christian, the supernatural, seeks servitude and thus persecution for the sake of other's righteousness and the universal good. The Pharisees served others in order to feel better about themselves. The natural people served themselves to simply feel good. Jesus served others at the cost of his own comfort for the good of the entire cosmos.

Most of our ideas about heaven demonstrate our distance from Jesus. We long to be served in heaven. We long for a break. We long to sit at God's right hand like the disciples asked. We are asking for tropical weather on the North Pole when we think this way. We are escapists. This self satisfying, egotistical idea of servitude is the very opposite of Jesus and thus the very opposite of his presence in Heaven.

I can explain this three tiered approach via my own feelings. Once upon a time, I wanted to die as a martyr for my own justification and glory. I despised people that enjoyed the pleasures of the world at this point, the natural people. Now, I enjoy the pleasures of the world with them, and I am asking God for the grace to die for one person, at least, daily. I want to be a husband. I want to be a husband that is guided by the perfect bridegroom, Jesus. I want to serve and find true power, love, and knowledge in this Godlike servitude. In this desire, I have to often pray, "Lord, I believe, help my unbelief." I fight against my anti-Jesus and pro Gentile understanding of power and love every moment of every day. I want to know the natural God but not the persecuted Jesus. I want half of the equation for eternal life found in John 17:3. I don't want all of it. I must beg God to give me the grace to make me like him and to allow me to know his son whom he sent.

Lord,
Help me to be Christ-like first
Help me to seek you, first.
Thy Kingdom Come,
Thy Will be Done,
In Jesus Name,
Amen.

James S. Sturgill

Burdens Removed Means

Sat, 03 Oct 2009 14:51:23 GMT

Could you imagine being German during WW2? Could you imagine the pressure? Could you imagine how hard it would be to oppose your country? Martin Heidegger was a German philosopher that wrote about the false being that is found in the herd mentality, and he became a leader in the Nazi party. He considered it less human to be taken up into the herd and yet he was taken up into the herd of Nazi-ism.

My senior year, the senior football players went to a Baltimore Ravens game. I knew several players for Baltimore but I wasn't a fan. After walking with the waves of purple and yellow and standing in the middle of the crowd, I found myself becoming a Ravens fan. I cheered for the Ravens for several years after that, too. Even, 9 years later, I have a certain affinity toward the Ravens.

Do you remember elementary school? Do you remember how all of the students would pick on one student? I remember. I remember the dilemma in my thoughts. I remember not understanding why this certain girl had germs. I also remember when I gave in. I even remember when I was the brave one that asked her out and waited for her to say yes so I could then laugh at her and make the rest of the class laugh. This was evil and it was something I didn't really like but I gave in to the gheist, I wanted my burden to be lifted. (gheist is a German word that means spirit of the people)

With there being so much vagueness around the Evangelical understanding of 'saved,' I like to expose this vagueness by asking, 'how do you know you got 'saved?' Several times, I have had people respond, "my burden was lifted, I felt lighter." My next question is, "did your family go to that church?" Then, "was there strong connections to people who had already made that decision?" So far, every time I have asked this question, the answer has been in the affirmative. Yes, their family was at the church. Yes, there were strong connections with people that had already made that decision.

I have also talked to people that have attended churches where speaking in tongues is a normal occurrence. They acknowledge this pressure, too. There are hundreds of testimony's where people have come out of a charismatic church and they acknowledge that they were faking the speaking in tongues. The pressure from the gheist, from the crowd, from their family many times, was simply too great to resist. They removed the burden, and spoke. (in this paragraph I am not arguing against speaking in tongues, I am primarily attempting to prove how the weight of the crowd, the gheist, can make someone do something that they claim is provoked by the Holy Spirit) After they spoke in tongues they felt lighter. The family was so proud and they were relieved, they explain.

When mentally retarded people attend a service, many of them are not intellectually capable of understanding the thought behind the sermon, but as human beings they are certainly capable of 'feeling' the gheist. Many times at a church where conversions are pushed, the mentally retarded people will get 'saved' almost every Sunday. They are not so easily deceived with words, they understand gheist. Mentally retarded people understand presence better than words. Recently I have seen 3 different mentally retarded people at football games. All three really get into it. As fan,s we many times look at them like they are taking it too far, but I think this is the irony, they are simply clay in the hands of the potter: the potter gheist. We are making them this way. They cannot help it. If you were to go to a football game with a mentally retarded person and explain to them that it is just a game, I bet they would not be able to understand. The gheist speaks louder than words.

I wonder how a mentally retarded person would have acted in the presence of a Pharisee? Jesus said this of the Pharisees, "they tie up heavy loads and put them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are not willing to lift a finger to remove them." The Pharisees knew how to convict a crowd. A mentally retarded person would walk away from a Pharisee weighted. The gheist of the Pharisees differs from the gheist of a crusade type service in that one is offering a medicine. The crusade type service offers a medicine but it is the type of medicine that requires the mentally retarded to return time and time again. It is almost like the gheist is convicting us of the flu and then giving us the sugar pill to fight it. I know as a person that attended these types of meetings and churches, I went back for my medicine hundreds of times. I obeyed the gheist hundreds of times but my sickness was never cured. In many ways this is more evil than the Pharisees, the Pharisees simply but the burden on your back. These people put the burden on your back and then get you excited about a sugar pill that is supposed to remove it. When this doesn't work, they put more of a burden on your back by telling them that they didn't mean it.

What am I getting at? What is the point of this blog? My main point is this: if your explanation for 'salvation' is that a burden was lifted, this is a poor explanation. People's burdens are lifted when they get divorces, when they go to football games, when they join the Nazi party, when they make fun of a girl at school, when they falsely speak in tongues, when they quit anything hard, and when they do what the crowd wants. Many churches put lots of pressure behind their gheist. They would never say this out loud but watch the mentally retarded people in the service. If you want to see the gheist, look at the human beings in the room that understand gheist better than words or thoughts.

I love the truth that G.K. Chesterton so wonderfully mediates and I love Chesterton for being a wonderful mediator but truth is most of the time hard to live up to. Chesterton condemns what he calls, "modern skepticism." Modern skepticism, according to Chesterton, is when someone doesn't believe anything and is thus free to bash everything. I consider myself a modern skeptic football fan. I like to bash all football teams in the presence of one of their fans. Understanding that Chesterton's criticism is correct, I must now attempt to replace the false belief that I have bashed.

There are many gheists but there is only one Holy Spirit, how do we know when we are following the Holy Spirit and not a godless gheist? I don't have a litmus test for this question but perhaps I do have some clues. John 14 names the Holy Spirit, " the spirit of truth." Throughout the rest of John 14, Jesus explains how this will work. The Holy Spirit teaches us. We will know the Holy Spirit because we know Jesus. We can recognize the Holy Spirit because we can recognize Jesus. From this I see two clues suitable for this replacing. The first clue is that of a spirit that loves truth and thus also loves teaching. The second clue is that of a spirit of Christlikeness, which must be defined (this is getting long).

Two conversations quickly come to mind when I think about the first clue. I was with a pastor one time and I asked a question about the nature of God. The pastor said, "hmm, that is interesting." Then this pastor asked a man nearby, who was a member of the financial part of the church, "am I going to get more gas money from the church this year since gas prices have gone up so much." Another conversation I had with a seminarian, the seminarian got close to my face, put his finger in my face and said, "I don't care what is true!" I remember another time, I ate lunch with a pastor and I was talking and talking about the things I was learning. He would smile and say, "that is good stuff." Toward the end of the conversation, I gave him somewhat of a quiz about what I had said and he couldn't respond. He has not paid attention to almost any of the Bible and theology that I had been talking about. At this point in my life, I would have been affirming what he believed, too.

When I read sermon outlines from churches that have so little teaching in them but are loaded with convicting people to tell other people about Jesus, I see so little love for truth. I see so little love for teaching in this gheist: so little love for truth. Whenever I talk with people that attend these types of churches, they demonstrate an extreme lack of understanding. Almost everything in the conversation somehow turns to one of two things: how important it is to convert people or how bad the other faiths are. Both of these conversation topics are conversation topics you might hear in a Muslim jihadist camp or even a Nazi group meeting. Truth and thus teaching are mostly missing from these gheists.

The second clue is that of recognizing Christ. Christ came as a suffering servant. I remember going to a pastor's fellowship and the sermon being about why a pastor should drive a Lincoln. I promise, this is no lie. There were probably a hundred pastors in the service and the amens were flying. I remember Jesus telling several followers, "if you follow me, remember I have no place to lay my head." Jesus was not about money. Jesus did not come in power and might. This is why he is a stumbling block to the Jew. The Jews wanted to overthrow Obama, I mean Rome, but Jesus didn't come to destroy the physical kingdom of the Romans. Jesus died. Jesus shows love for individuals and a weariness of crowds. Many of our gheists show a weariness of individuals and a love for the crowds. The Jesus I see in the Gospels is pretty much the opposite of the Jesus I have found in the gheist of churches that I have attended or parachurch organizations that I have been a part of.

At my church we have three mentally retarded people. One is a child and two are adults. They are so calm during the service. One of them walks down the isle before the service starts, shaking hands with everyone with two hands. He takes his second hand and puts it on the top of your hand. He then bows and slowly says, "peace, peace." His face is so peaceful when he says it, too. The other mentally retarded adult sits in the back and remains quiet. If you go to him, he will quickly say, "hi, how are doing." He knows nearly everyone's name, too. As he speaks he also lowers his head. The mentally retarded child, generally puts his head on his father's chest during the service and every now and then put his head up and touches his father's face gently. I have never seen this child taken out of the service for bad behavior. I will agree that my church has not demonstrated a love for truth and thus a love for teaching as it ought, but the spirit of Jesus is certainly manifested in the mentally retarded people that attend my church. If mentally retarded people catch the gheist, and the mentally retarded people at my church are very meek, humble, and personal, then my church's gheist is Christlike. I sense very little forcefulness at my church. One of the most repugnant actions is that of forced love, rape. This repugnant action in its spiritual sense is absent from my church, praise be to God.

Lord,
Help us to recognize Your Spirit,
Help us to confuse man's gheist with Truth,
Help us to use Truth to form our gheist,
I thank you for the mentally retarded people's sense of gheist,
I thank you for the mentally retarded people that attend my church,
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy Will be done,
In Jesus Name,
Amen.

James S. Sturgill

Maturity in Hate

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 20:16:37 GMT

Kids that are abused often blame everything. They cannot differentiate between who is hurting them and who is not hurting them. They get angry at everyone. Everyone becomes the enemy. If they hate their dad, they will also hate their teacher. The more traumatic the event or events that cause their hatred, usually the more hatred that is spread. The more we mature, the greater our ability to hate what is evil and cling to what is good. Dad may have a bad will but the teacher may not, therefore hate the dad's will and not the teacher's. Dad may have a bad habit but the teacher may not, therefore hate the dad's habit not the teacher's will. The teacher may have a bad habit but the dad may not, hate the teacher's habit but don't hate the dad. The teacher may have a bad habit and the dad may also have a bad habit, in our maturity, we must hate both habits. The dad may have a bad habit, the teacher may have a deep sense of pride, and I may be greedy, in my maturity, I must hate the dad's habit, the teacher's deep sense of pride, and my own greed. When we hate what needs to be hated and don't simply hate, we can also plan how destroy the specific evils. You don't destroy a habit with one lesson and you don't destroy a bad will with simple punishment. We need to discern what evil we need to hate, hate it more, and then plan how to destroy it. If we seem to have a problem finding an evil, pride is always at work and ignorance can always have some sort of fault, too. When addressing pride and ignorance, though, it helps to get specific. One last thing that is important, one cannot hate a human person. Persons are in the image of God. The Holy Trinity is not three substances, it is not three things or three essences, the Holy Trinity is three Persons.

Lord,
Help us find evil,
Help us fight evil,
Help us not to mistake good for evil,
Thy Kingdom Come,
Thy Will be done,
In Jesus Name,
Amen.

James S. Sturgill

Sunday, September 27, 2009

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 01:44:47 GMT

"Five, six, seven, eighteen, nineteen, oneteen," my two and half year old niece hollers as she runs through the house with a stick, banging everything in her path. My dad grabs the video camera, points it at her and says, "count, Haven." She looks back at him and his camera and.....nothing. She stopped. My dad gets a little disappointed but she remains silent. My dad puts the camera away. My niece walks up the steps and again proclaims, "one, two, three, four, eighteen, nineteen, oneteen." My dad sighs.

This was a wonderfully entertaining scene at my house this afternoon, but this is not a scene specific to my house. We have all seen children do this. Many times kids will stop smiling when you bring the camera out. Have you ever felt pity for a photographer trying to make a child smile? They will be wonderfully entertaining and then once the camera is rolling, they stop. I once heard a professional photographer say that the best pictures are the ones you take when the children do not know you are taking them. Why is this? What is it about cameras that kids don't like?

The Hebrew language is a language of intuition, a language meant for the moment. It is not a language of articles and prepositions. It is very difficult to translate Hebrew because of this, too. English is drastically different from Hebrew. Hebrew requires one to know the setting and many other aspects before one can really understand what is being said and even still there are many elements that remain unknown. I think there is a clue to why children don't like cameras in the simplicity of the Hebrew language.

I have debated people online various times but I realized that there is something huge missing in an online debate. Presence, the moment, is missing in the online debate. Intuition, being, setting, and all of these other elements are missing in an online debate. We are not simply intellectual creatures, we are intellectual creatures that live in the present. We will never live in tomorrow. A debate is a correction. Both debaters are attempting to prove what is true and in an either/or debate this happens necessarily with proving the other false. Love is essential in correction and love is willing someone's good. If I am correcting you but not willing your good, you will probably be turned away. It is very hard for someone to comprehend that you are willing their good without participating in their presence, their being, the moment together.

When we use verbs to describe taking a picture, we generally use the words 'take' and 'capture.' These words are generally used with control. We take things to possess them. We capture animals from where they are and put them somewhere new. When we take a picture, are we trying to control something? When we capture a photograph are we attempting to take something from one place and put it somewhere else? Photographs are an attempt to take a moment, to capture a moment. Children live in the present a lot better than adults. They intuitively dislike the control of the moment. They intuitively want everyone else to enjoy the setting, the presence, the being, and all the other aspects of the moment, they don't want us to control it, to capture it, to possess it.

I am not saying that it is wrong to take pictures or video a child, however, I am saying that there is something beautiful in the child's dislike of them. I am saying that we could learn something from the innocence and intuition of a child. They are not yet accustomed to the fleeting moment. They want to enjoy the moment, every moment. I used to hate to sleep because of this. Part of being responsible is being able to enjoy the moment and also be able to prepare for the future. As adults we are more responsible in our taking pictures but sometimes our responsibility causes us to miss the moment. At my house we have hundreds of pictures stored away and every now and then I find time flying by as I find a stack of photographs, and each time I do this, I think, "how much time was spent on taking these photos and how much of the moment was ruined for this responsibility?"

As we must have faith like a child and shrewdness like a serpent, we must also have moment love of a child and the responsibility of an adult. As we cannot let our shrewdness fight against our faith, we also cannot let our responsibility fight against our moment love. Many times I have been called a child and many times the name-callers have been correct. I hope that my child-likeness is more in my faith than in my shrewdness and I hope my child-likeness is more in my moment love than in my responsibility.

Lord
Help make me love the moment and remains responsible,
Help me to have the faith of a child and the persuasiveness of Paul,
Thy Kingdom Come,
Thy Will be Done,
In Jesus Name,
Amen.

James S. Sturgill

Hierarchical Expectation

Fri, 25 Sep 2009 01:01:46 GMT

When I coached basketball something that I really didn't like was for my players to be so concerned with who was going to start that they never asked how to improve their game. My players would begin talking about who would start a year in advance, implying that the process of practice over the off season had little affect. I didn't like it because starting is more like the prestige, the reward, and working on your game is more like the work, the heart. They were asking about the prestige and not about how to make their game better, however, one thing they were right about, there are starters on a basketball team. I couldn't deny that. I could not start a game without starters, regardless of how bad I wanted to. Our players drove me nuts by being concerned with who was going to start but one thing at least is true, there would be starters.

I remember thinking that the disciples were so stupid because they were so worried about who was better and who would be first. You can read this in Mark 9:34, Matthew 18:1, Luke 9:46, and Luke 22:24. Jesus would usually answer their questions with something that would humble them all like, "the last shall be first" or "those with childlike faith (which is very hard)." Jesus was like a basketball coach that responded to his players questions about who was going to be a starter with, "the people love the game and thus work on it for fun, with things like running and dribbling." All the players look down at the floor in embarrassment, after a coach says that. As my coaching doesn't deny starters, Jesus' response doesn't deny hierarchy. Jesus does not say that you the disciples are stupid for believing in a hierarchy, Jesus says that the disciples have the wrong method of determining the hierarchy. Jesus' method was actually the exact opposite of theirs because they misunderstood the kingdom. Jesus was a stumbling block to the Jew (1 Cor. 1:23). In an earthly kingdom those who are served are the higher ranking but in the Lord's kingdom those who are higher ranking are the more serving. In an earthly kingdom they put the king in the back, in God's kingdom we put our king in the front. In an earthly kingdom we shield the king, in God's kingdom, the king is the shield.

As basketball players expect their to be starters, the apostles expected their to be a hierarchy. Not only is there an Apostolic succession in Acts 1 when Mattias is chosen to replace Judas' position but there is an Apostolic, hierarchical, expectation in Mark 9:34, Matthew 18:1, Luke 9:46, and Luke 22:24.

Lord,
Help us to accept Your Authority, the Authority You have left us,
Lord help this Authority to be what they are called to be: childlike in their faith and servitude in their actions,
Thy Kingdom Come, Thy Will Be Done,
In Jesus Name,
Amen.

James S. Sturgill

Mark of the Beast verses the Covenant

Sat, 19 Sep 2009 19:40:10 GMT

Most of my life, I have heard many modern interpretations of the mark of the beast. From the bar code on the things we buy to a micro chip that is going to be placed in our wrist or forehead. Today, I heard an ancient interpretation that seems much more like something from the mind of God as oppose to something from the mind of a modern techno-interpreter. Along with this interpretation of the mark of the beast came an explanation as to why the number seven is seen as a special number, too.

In the book of Genesis we have a picture of two different types of creatures, one that is controlled and one that is controlling, one that has power and one that must submit. God tells Adam to name the animals. Adam may have named the animals but this is not the main idea given within the context of the creation narrative and the Hebrew language. In the creation narrative, we see a problem/solution sequence. We see chaos controlled. We see formed stuff from unformed stuff. Adam is given as a former, a potter to the clay, of the animals. To name something is to have control over it, in the Hebrew understanding. This is why Jacob begs the angel/God for his name when he is fighting him, this is why a demon's name is sought in an exorcism, and this is also why God responds to Moses at the burning bush with a Hebrew idiom that means, "enigmatic or too deep for you to understand." To know something's name is to control it. When the Bible says that Adam named the animals it says that Adam was the orderer of the chaos, the zookeeper at the zoo. This separates Adam from the rest of creation. Adam is higher, more skilled. Adam is like God in at least the way that he creates order from chaos. Also like God, Adam is invited to rest with God on the seventh day (the end of Hebrews 3 and the beginning of Hebrews 4). This means more than simple rest though.

The word seven in Hebrew is "shevah" which is also the word for oath. If someone were to swear an oath with you, they would seven you. I seven that I will be there tomorrow. An oath to a Hebrew is different than an oath to an American though. An oath calls God as a cosigner. This was a big deal to the Hebrew. If you called God as your cosigner, you better follow through with your promise. This is also one of the Ten Commandments. You do not use the Lord God's name in vain. This is directly connected with oaths. Seven was not only a number, it was also a verb, a verb that means to swear an oath and an oath is more than a promise, an oath invokes God as your cosigner. God stands by you and says that he will back you up if you don’t do what you say. If God has to back you up, then you failed God.

God doesn't invite the animals into his seventh day rest. This is something only for the creature made in the image of God. This "sevening" also becomes the symbol of divine wisdom as oppose to earthly wisdom. Earthly wisdom is beastly, six-ly. It is about how to survive in a dog eat dog world but oath wisdom, sevened wisdom, is much more. Oath wisdom goes far beyond the survival in the dog eat dog world. We find the symbol of the wisdom of the dog eat dog world for the first time in 1 Kings 10. Solomon decides to go against the sevened wisdom given in Deuteronomy 17:14 -20 and he chooses to employ his on earthly wisdom. In his rejection of the sevened wisdom, the Bible says in 1 Kings 10:14, "the weight of the gold that Solomon received yearly was 666 talents." You see the law for a kingdom in Deuteronomy 17:14 - 20 explains, "He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold." (Deuteronomy 17:17) Solomon trusted in his beastly wisdom as opposed to his sevened wisdom and received 666 talents and one chapter later in 1 Kings 11 he died and the kingdom fell not long after. If you keep reading in 1 Kings 10 you will find many relations to the number 6. Solomon accepted the mark, the sign, of the beast. The sign of the beast is trusting in one's own dog eat dog, sixtly, understanding as oppose to the sevened, the oathed, understanding of God.

Not very long ago, I was talking to a man who was on his way to go door to door evangelizing. He was talking politics with me as he waited on his friend. In this conversation, he expressed how he is teaching his daughter to look out for herself and how he is trying to get her ahead of the rest of the kids her age because we live in a dog eat dog world and she must be stronger. When his friend arrived, they left to go share God with others. I was in awe of the irony. A man who shares beastly wisdom with his daughter, whom he no doubt cares about, is going to share something other than beastly wisdom with people he cares less for? That seems hard to believe. I know this man though, there is little doubt that his means of 'evangelizing' would have been anything less than an appeal to self preservation. Many of our 'evangelizing' tactics are dog eat dog wisdom. Oh, what irony!

This number, 666, is mentioned again in Revelations 13:18. It reads:

"This calls for wisdom. If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man's number. His number is 666."

What is this number? How evil is this number? Is this some magical spell? This number has grand effects but it is originally the number of the created order without an oath. It is the symbol of creaturely wisdom. It is the symbol of the dog eat dog world. It is the symbol of watching out for number one. It is the symbol of selfishness, animal like instinct. Was Solomon cursed because he received this number of talents or was this number of talents a sign? The number was a sign of what Solomon had chosen. Did Solomon really receive 666 talents? Yes but the number was more like a warning and confronting Solomon than a curse. Could the number six show up somewhere strange in our world, too? Sure, why not but the heart of why this is the mark/sign of the beast is because it is contrary to the covenant. It is beastly. It is not God-like. It is not selfless and obedient, it is dog eat dog.

One clarification needs to be made. Some enter into the oath, sevening, and it is bad and others enter into the oath and it is good but those that never enter into the oath are beastly. What I am trying to say is entering into the oath does not guarantee, goodness. Marriage is an oath, a sevening. Some people that enter into marriage have a wonderful marital life but others that enter into the marital covenant wish that they were single. This is true of the oath, the sevening, verses the beastliness, too. Some that enter into the oath may wish that they never did. They may wish that they had accepted the mark of the beast. The mark of the beast is bad and the unfulfilled promise of the oath is even worse but the best is to be in good standing with the oaths that we make with God.

When we read the Bible, sevens are all over the place 7 woes, 7 beatitudes, 7 seals, 7 trumpets, 7 candle-stands, 7 beasts, 7 horns, 70 times 7. These are all connected to the oath. These are all connected to God's promises to man. May we move beyond the beastliness, sixlyness, and into the oath, the sevenlyness. May we not only move beyond the beastliness, but may we also move into a right standing with the seven, with the oath.

Lord,
Help us to move beyond our wisdom,
Help us to move beyond the 666 and into the 777¹
Thy Kingdom Come,
Thy Will be Done,
In Jesus Name,
Amen.

James S. Sturgill

I am wondering if the 666 is in relation to the heart, mind, soul or the will, the intellect, and the emotions which are often referred to as the 3 aspects of the person. These three also correlate with the way, the truth, and the life. In regards to the beast, it would mean that we refer to ourselves for the way, the truth, and the life. We find our own morality, our own truth, and our own source for living. Our morality ends up being bad, our truth ends up being false, and our life ends up losing life (life here is Zoe - overflowing life not Bios - natural life - a person can have tons of bios but very little zoe -). Ultimately the man who is like the animal in his heart, mind, and soul is just as 666 like as the author of the Satanic Bible. If you are more concerned with eating, sex, and sleeping than you are concerned with good, true, and beautiful you should hope to see a sign of the beast somewhere as a corrective mark from God.

Necessary Pharisees

Thu, 17 Sep 2009 21:11:43 GMT

Necessary means that it must follow. If I find a square, it is necessary that there are four sides, it must follow that there are four sides and it is not necessary that the square be brown or green. The Pharisees in the Bible were the Jewish leaders that believed they needed to be separated from nearly everything, as even their name indicates. The Pharisees were true to the particulars of the laws of the Old Testament. They knew that they were not suppose to touch a leper and they knew that they were not to touch a hemorrhaging woman.

God chose the Jews as the missionaries to the world, His first born, but the Jews were not strong enough to be the missionaries to the world, thus there had to be rules that keep them pure until they were ready to be missionaries. Until the Jews were strong enough to be missionaries, they needed to be pure. It was necessary for the Pharisees to be pure because they had no power. Jesus comes with the power of a missionary and thus no longer needs to be pure like the Pharisees. Jesus could touch a leper because he has power. Jesus could touch a hemorrhaging woman because he has power. Jesus then passed on this power.

Like a college student that wants to teach math to high school students, he needs his education first and if he doesn't have his education, his power, he should be scared to go and teach. Like a basketball player that wants to compete against another team, he needs skills through practice first, and if he doesn't have skills, power, he should be scared to compete against another team. Like an ancient soldier who wants to defeat the enemy, he needs power through food and water and if he doesn't eat his food and drink his water, his power, he should be scared to go and attack the enemy. Jesus comes like the top graduate of his class ready to teach the high school students and the Pharisees are like freshman college students in math education scared to enter a classroom. Jesus comes like the basketball player that has practiced for years and the Pharisees are like a swim team being used as a basketball team, without skills, without power. Jesus comes like a medieval soldier after weeks of being well fed and the Pharisees are scared to death of the enemy because they are like soldier unable to hold his sword above his waste because he has no strength from lack of food and water, power.

Jesus did not only demonstrate power to us, he left a supply station. Jesus gave us a means of receiving power. Jesus brought a new covenant, a covenant of power. The Old Testament gives us 5 men with 5 covenants (Adam's, Noah's, Abraham's, Moses', David's) the last being a king. These covenants all demonstrate our weakness but Jesus comes bringing a new King and a new covenant, a King of power and a covenant of power. Now let us read how that power was passed on:

My brothers, one can confidently say to you about the patriarch David that he died and was buried, and his tomb is in our midst to this day. But since he was a prophet and knew that God had sworn an oath to him that he would set one of his descendants upon his throne, he foresaw and spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, that neither was he abandoned to the netherworld nor did his flesh see corruption. God raised this Jesus; of this we are all witnesses. Exalted at the right hand of God, he received the promise of the holy Spirit from the Father and poured it forth, as you (both) see and hear. For David did not go up into heaven, but he himself said: 'The Lord said to my Lord, "Sit at my right hand. Peter (said) to them, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the holy Spirit. For the promise is made to you and to your children and to all those far off, whomever the Lord our God will call.” He testified with many other arguments, and was exhorting them, "Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.” Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand persons were added that day. They devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers. Awe came upon everyone, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

(Acts 2:29 - 34, 38 - 43)

What does Peter say one must do that is different from the Old Testament? Does the Old Testament ever tell the Jews to repent? There are several places in the Old Testament where the Jews are called to repent (2 Chron. 32:26, 1 Kings 8:47, Job 36:10, Jeremiah 15:19, Ezekiel 14:6) thus we know that this new covenant cannot simply be about repentance. What else does Peter say? Be baptized. Then Acts continues to explain what these believers did, "they devoted themselves to the teaching of the apostles and to the communal life, to the breaking of the bread and to the prayers. Again we can ask, what in this is a part of the new covenant? Did they pray in the Old Testament? Yes. Did they have communal life in the Old Testament? Yes. Did they have leaders in the Old Testament? Yes, though not apostles and did they break bread? Yes, but that is not what breaking bread means. Breaking bread is an expression used by the early church to explain communion or what is sometimes referred to as the Lord's supper or in Greek Eucharist. So, if we subtract what was in the old covenants from what is in the new covenant, we get this: Baptism, Apostolic teaching, and the Lord's supper. Where does the power come from? Baptism, Apostolic teaching, and the Lord's supper.

The Pharisees had no power because they didn't participate in the new covenant (which was a result of true repentance – because in repentance you recognize your weakness, too). The early church has power because they participated in the new covenant. Do Pharisees still exist? Yes, just as the Pharisees didn't participate in the new covenant and thus had no power but still believed in God, so do many still not participate (the exact word used in 1 Cor. 10:16) in the new covenant and thus have no power but still believe in God. As Jesus had power, so may we have power. We do not have to run from the leper, the hemorrhaging woman, the high school students, the other team, or the medieval soldier, we can defeat them, we have power. How would Jesus’ statement in John 16:7 make any sense? Actually let’s read that:

But now I am going to the one who sent me, and not one of you asks me, 'Where are you going?' But because I told you this, grief has filled your hearts. But I tell you the truth, it is better for you that I go. For if I do not go, the Advocate will not come to you. But if I go, I will send him to you. And when he comes he will convict the world in regard to sin and righteousness and condemnation: sin, because they do not believe in me; righteousness, because I am going to the Father and you will no longer see me; condemnation, because the ruler of this world has been condemned.” I have much more to tell you, but you cannot bear it now. But when he comes, the Spirit of truth, he will guide you to all truth. He will not speak on his own, but he will speak what he hears, and will declare to you the things that are coming. (John 16:5 – 13)

Jesus left a new covenant: a covenant of power, filling stations of power for the truly repentant, those that truly acknowledge their need for power. If we do not participate in these filling stations, we are necessarily Pharisees. Pharisees don’t have power and thus should hide. If we are like the Pharisees, in that we don’t have power, we should hide, we should hide from other religions, thinking, art, movies, books, any temptation, because we will be defeated by them. I have often been condemned for touching the leper, I mean watching a pop culture movie or studying foreign religions and many times I have been angry at this Pharisaical mindset but recently I have discovered its necessity if one doesn’t have power. The problem is that salvation is not by staying pure of the world (works of the law: Ephesians 2:8 in context) but salvation is in the marital relationship with Jesus in which he disseminates the power to defeat the world.

Lord help us to recognize our hunger

Help us to run to you for help

Help us to be filled at your filling stations

Give us the power that you told us was better to have than to have you physically present with us,

Thy Kingdom Come,

Thy Will be Done,

In Jesus Name,

Amen.

James S. Sturgill

The Reign of the Cloud

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:36:14 GMT

I have recently attended football games at Chilhowie High School, the high school I attended and the football field I, sparingly, played on. This experience has been quite strange. When I was in high school, the world revolved around me. Looking back, I picture a great cloud above me. It was like the world was watching me. This cloud wanted to know how pretty my girlfriend was. This cloud wanted to know how much playing time I got. This cloud wanted to know how many girls liked me. This cloud wanted to know how funny I was. This cloud cared about whether I would go to the after football game dance or not. This cloud dictated a lot of my life, this cloud reigned as king of my life and a totalitarian king was he. As I would stand on the field watching the game, this cloud watched my every move. This cloud was powerful and this cloud was not concerned about my true state of happiness neither here nor there.

The most crazy part about this cloud is that it didn't exist. When I sit in the stands and watch a football game now, there is no weight, there is no cloud. No one watches me to see what girl I am with, how I dress, or how funny I am and actually no one did then and even if they did then they didn't think about it for longer than a minute because they were too busy thinking about their own cloud of which I was probably a part of. I lived in a matrix: a matrix of other's opinions. Not only was this idea driven by my adolescent ego-centrism but it was also driven by my local church. We were told on a normal basis that everyone was watching us. This was generally used as a method to make us act good, but for me it added to the cloud. My matrix was thick. The world revolved around me. Life was weighty. I had a lot to live up to because a lot of people were watching me. Chesterton would call the old Jamey a lunatic. He says:

The last thing that can be said of a lunatic is that his actions are causeless. If any human acts may loosely be called causeless, they are the minor acts of a healthy man; whistling as he walks; slashing the grass with a stick; kicking his heels or rubbing his hands. It is the happy man who does the useless things; the sick man is not strong enough to be idle. It is exactly such careless and causeless actions that the madman could never understand; for the madman (like the determinist) generally sees too much cause in everything. The madman would read a conspiratorial significance into those empty activities. He would think that the lopping of the grass was an attack on private property. He would think that the kicking of the heels was a signal to an accomplice. If the madman could for an instant become careless, he would become sane.

Football games remind me of my former madness, of the weight on my back, of the pressure that consumed me. I was a different person when I was alone because perhaps then the cloud was not watching and now I am the same man alone as I am in a crowd. Life is so free now. There is no cloud, unless it is the cloud of witnesses (Hebrews 12:1) and they would encourage me that there is no cloud. This cloud would not encourage ego-centrism, this cloud basks in the presence of the Agape, ego-centrism has been lost to them. The cloud imprisoned me. I could not allow the cloud to make fun of me but now not only do I not have to worry about the cloud but I now know the cloud doesn't exist. If someone thinks I am a fool, they do not think it for long, they are generally too consumed with their own cloud and if they are a person that has been freed from the cloud then they are more concerned with truth, beauty, and goodness to be concerned with my foolishness and most likely they will join me. Only after the cloud is gone can we be free to enjoy ourselves. He who loses himself to what they think finds himself in freedom and fun.

Another interesting thing about this cloud is that, for many of us, it never goes away. After we graduate, we are still concerned with the cloud. We then want our kids to impress the cloud. We are worried about what they will think about us because of our kids. We then put our kids through egotistical love because of the cloud. Our kids have to be this or that because the cloud wants them to be and we must appease the cloud. Then we move on to our grandchildren. We never break loose from the cloud. Its weight weighs on us forever and I would argue that it even weighs on us after our death. I believe part of the torment (which is the word the Bible uses in some places to describe the pain of Hell and is a word that explains the pain coming from the inside out not from the outside in) of Hell is our own created matrix. We torment ourselves with false reality. In our out of body state, we still worry about what people think about our physical appearance, we still worry about what they think about the way we dress, we still worry about what they think about everything and we aren't even there physically. You see falsity and non-reality is the method of Hell. Reality and Truth is the method of Heaven. We can experience the method of Heaven on earth. I experience the method of Heaven on earth at football games now and I reminisce about the method of Hell. I am no longer under the weight of the cloud, I am free! There is this wonderful reality about the truth, it sets you free. One way it sets you free is that it makes the cloud go away.

Lord,
Send our cloud away,
Give us the Red Pill and show us how deep the rabbit hole goes,
Wake us up from our slumber to the truth,
Make us selfless the way you, a Trinity, are selfless,
Thy Kingdom come,
Thy Will be done,
In Jesus Name,
Amen.

James S. Sturgill

(there are certainly parallels in the fight within us, between the cloud of the world and the cloud of the Spirit - the Bible uses the cloud as a symbol of the Holy Spirit in many places - perhaps we could even say "obey not the cloud of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind" and "love not the cloud of this world, neither the things of the cloud, for all that is of this cloud, the lust of the flesh [natural animal like selfishness - only the strong survive], the pride of life [ego-centrism - the world revolves around me - idolatry], are not of the cloud of the Spirit but of the cloud of this world")

The Cloud

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 14:33:55 GMT

I have recently attended football games at Chilhowie High School, the high school I attended and the football field I, sparingly, played on. This experience has been quite strange. When I was in high school, the world revolved around me. Looking back, I picture a great cloud above me. It was like the world was watching me. This cloud wanted to know how pretty my girlfriend was. This cloud wanted to know how much playing time I got. This cloud wanted to know how many girls liked me. This cloud wanted to know how funny I was. This cloud cared about whether I would go to the after football game dance or not. This cloud dictated a lot of my life. As I would stand on the field watching the game, this cloud watched my every move. This cloud was powerful.

The most crazy part about this cloud is that it didn't exist. When I sit in the stands and watch a football game now, there is no weight, there is no cloud. No one watches me to see what girl I am with, how I dress, or how funny I am and actually no one did then and even if they did then they didn't think about it for longer than a minute because they were too busy thinking about their own cloud of which I was probably a part of. I lived in a matrix: a matrix of other's opinions. Not only was this idea driven by my adolescent ego-centrism but it was also driven by my local church. We were told on a normal basis that everyone was watching us. This was generally used as a method to make us act good, but for me it added to the cloud. My matrix was thick. The world revolved around me. Life was weighty. I had a lot to live up to because a lot of people were watching me. Chesterton would call the old Jamey a lunatic. He says: