The Secular Church

When will we finally start acting like God is real? Talking like God is real?

This may tie in with my idea of the Secular Church:

Church is beginning to be viewed in ways that it never has before (by society): as an organization which is mostly secular in both nature and function. It has just recently been given a slot in the realm of sociology, and religion is now being considered and studied by psychologists, physicians, social institutions, and even economists. The only non-parochial social sector that has always had its nose in the Church since the founding of this country and has merely continued its interest (in the interest of enlightened self-interest) is Politics. And while, in the beginning, many of our founding fathers (the early politicians) were actually practicing Christians, for perhaps VERY close to 200 years now religion has only been a tool for collecting votes.

I have coined the phrase “the secular church” because I feel that it is simply yet truthfully descriptive. I came across it one day as I was venting about the lack of zeal — or rather, blatant disregard — for holiness that is such the prevalent mindset in the Church these days, even unto pastors making provision for the fulfillment of the lust of the eye in décor, and the lust of the flesh in materialism and the desire to kill and destroy by means of PlayStation and Nintendo.

We call His Name Jesus. Why? That is not the holy, decreed, and commanded name that Mary and Joseph gave Him. (Have you ever known a Jennifer who hated being called “Jenny”? “Jesus” is derived from “Zeus”!) We do not observe Sabat, but go to church on Sunday. Why? Yahoshua plainly said that He did NOT come to abolish The Law (meaning the old Levitical Laws), but to fulfill it, to give meaning to it! We celebrate the World’s traditional “holi”days with them, as well as our own holidays in their Pagan ways (Halloween, Easter); token prayers for help are given to our poor, though we may throw money at the World’s impoverished; we have turned our backs on our children, letting them, letting them, letting them, “trusting” them, and “being there for them”, feeling clean before our God, Children’s Services Division; we grip this earthlife with a white-knuckled intensity, and feel comforted when those in the World identify and sympathize with our worldly troubles, instead of letting Yahoshua fill that role and infuse our earthlife with His Superlife.

I mean, really, what are we?

My Assignment for Acting Class: “My Personal Manifesto”

I feel that God has called me to shine the light of Truth in the parochial arena. As a step in this process, He has me going to school, working toward my bachelor’s degree in Speech Communications. He hasn’t actually revealed all of what lies ahead for me in the future, but I know that He plans to use me to speak His truths to groups of people; sometimes small groups like church boards, and sometimes larger groups like those found at conferences and rallies. I (as “We”) felt like an acting class could help me to be more confident, and to appear more smoothly “together”, and, thusly, both respectfully professional and appropriately authoritative. I feel like I need a practiced stage persona that I can rely on to adequately deliver God’s Messages when I am too tired, frustrated, depressed, or in need of sugar. Moses had Aaron to speak for him; I will have another “me.” 

I’m sure I will learn the basic techniques that I will need to employ during these times when I’m likely to deliver an incoherent and weak message in the Acting 1 (Beginning Acting) class that I am currently taking, and, so far, the process that I am using to get to the place of knowing those consists very simply of listening closely and understanding my Acting instructor, participating in the class exercises, learning what I can about acting from the assigned text book, and practicing what I already know about stage presence while I interact with my friends and family in play.

I believe that one thing that I could be working on developing in myself is the capability to be 2 or 3 different “me”’s, while still being genuinely me; I need to see what I’m like when I’m hyper, when I’m playful, when I’m dead serious, when I’m driven, when I’m angry, when I’m clever, when I’m artfully whimsical, and so on. I need to figure out how to not only step outside of my body and look at myself, but how to do it from the perspective of a different set of eyes, so that I can “take notes” objectively, and be as thorough as possible in constructing the character of “me” to play when I’m “on stage” in front of a group of pastors and deacons, so that I don’t appear to forget what to do with my hands, my tongue, and/or my brain.  

A Love Story

A Love Story:

I started listening to CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) off & on in 2000, and by the end of 2001 I had fallen head-over-heels for 6 songs in particular that I was hearing on the only Christian radio station that I knew of at the time, “K-LOVE”. The songs were:

“Joy”
“Not Ashamed”
“Beautiful Sound”
“Entertaining Angels”
“Shine”
&
“Here I Am to Worship”.

I said to myself, “I just HAVE to find out what bands do these songs; I’ll probably love all of their other songs, too! And maybe I’ll even be able to buy a couple of the tapes that these songs come from. Then I can listen to them whenever I want, over, and over, and over,…! Ahee-hee ha-ha-haaaa!!!!”

And if you’re a NB nut like me, you already know that I didn’t have to look any further than a little project called “Shine, the Hits” to find ALL of my most treasured tunes but one (the last one of the list above) — THE SAME BAND DID THEM ALL!!! I was instantly hooked!

I immediately set to work researching these guys, and I found out that not only are they good at their profession, but what they profess comes from a group of truly good hearts, as well. I’ve been following their career (including a bit of “band evolution”) ever since, as well as keeping a pen-pal correspondence with them, helping out at their Festival Con Dios’s, praying for them, supporting the causes that they support as I am able, and going to every concert that comes within a hundred miles of here. (The last one was a special treat; I actually got to thank the guys IN PERSON!!!)

The Newsboys are still, and I believe evermore shall be, some of my most favorite people on this planet!

(BTW — the last song on the list above, “Here I Am to Worship”, was done by an awesome worship-song artist named Tim Hughes.)

A Poem About Words

Words that spring like flowers from the lips

May vary in degrees of eloquence,

Floating on the mind like sailing ships;

Wind will drive, but words will steer the course of events.

How Do I Know There’s a God?

How Do I Know There’s a God?

I did not give myself my giftings;

I did not choose to give myself the ability of choice.

My parents didn’t teach me to understand what faith is;

It wasn’t by my word that I was born with voice.

Carnal creatures know carnal things,

Such as violence, and questions, and pleasures;

So my carnal self cannot itself be

Where I’ve gotten these spiritual treasures.

Giving Up Sacrifice

I’m thinking about the term “sacrifice”. I’ve read the dictionary definition before, and it simply says “to give something valuable”. I guess for us humans, being beings of limited means, that pretty nearly always means giving up some of that means, so I guess that’s where the colloquial definition came from. But when you think about it, our God is a holy God, and should be given only our best. So that makes me think of all the times I’ve put a ton of work into something, only to have that thing fail somehow. Good thing it wasn’t something that was supposed to go to God, huh? But wouldn’t He accept it, seeing as how I’d worked so hard on it, “sacrificing” so much time and effort for it?

Here in America, fast work is the best work. That’s the kind that gets you noticed by the boss, the kind he likes. But in Heaven, I get the feeling that the rules are different. See cuz God looks at the heart. God would be a tough boss to please, if He knew you weren’t 100% devoted to Him and His Business. I think a lot of what we Christians “sacrifice” may only follow the colloquial definition — “giving to the point of near or total depletion”, or “going without something you like or need to have”, and never quite touch the dictionary definition. Impossible? Have you ever worked hard on something stupid, just for fun? Or maybe worked long and hard on something whose completion becomes impossible for one reason or another, or spent a ton of money (or money you really didn’t have that you could spend) on something frivolous, or on something risky that you ended up losing that money on? Many people have written about the dangers of giving so-called “valuable” things to God — precious metals and stones, money, animals, children and other material possessions — without any actual effort involved. God doesn’t like empty gift boxes. But I think that this concept gets ignored in its inversity. And, furthermore, I think that there is more danger, especially in “mega-churches”, of the inverse being the case, what with all of their programs, events, and various departments being run by a whopping 20% of the congregation. I believe that this, to God, is like being given a gift (or a part of a gift) wrapped in a Wal*Mart bag, with the price tag still on.

True Sacrificial Giving is really more like when King Solomon lavished gifts on the Queen of Sheba, instead of when the poor widow spoken of in the gospel accounts of Mark and Luke gave her last two coins in the offering. Sometimes it hurts to give the 10% tithe that the Lord commanded of us, especially when our society, yelling and shoving, tries to intimidate us into coughing up even our lunch money. And I also believe that it’s a very commendable thing in the Kingdom of Heaven when someone is willing to completely deplete themselves for (to) the Lord. But if we want to offer a real sacrifice to our God, it has to be something that has intrinsic value on its own. And, of course, it has to be valuable enough to impress Him in order to bless Him.

So where’s a human going to get something that will impress God? Nothing on Earth would do. And certainly nothing that comes from within ourselves would work, either (sin-soaked beings that we are on our own). Scripture says that even our righteousness is just a bunch of filthy rags to God. So where do we get something that will actually bless Him? From Him, and only from Him.

The stirring we feel inside to reach for something (sadly, in many cases, anything) comes from Him. The knowledge of the direction to reach in (”faith”) comes from Him. And anything and everything of any real worth that our reaching hands might be holding out for Him to take can only come from Him. Kinda puts a new spin on offering up a “sacrifice of praise”, doesn’t it? It’s like we can be warehouses and distributors of Heavenly Goods!

Praise God!  

Pentacostals Up In Arms

How many Pentacostals does it take to change a lightbulb?

Who can tell? They’ve ALL got their hands up!

About My Blogging Name

Matthew 5:16 says “. . . let your light shine before others . . .”

I have been a Spirit-filled Christian for 20 years, and in my experience with other Spirit-filled believers, I have found a very cool phenomenon: humans act like light filters! When God shines through them, what that person does and says, as well as what their face looks like, ends up being some God, and some that person. Apparently He likes it like that; and when you think about it, why would He make all of these personalities, only to overpower and evaporate them later?

So the way I “see” it, God’s pure light comes through us in colors. It goes in white, and comes out filtered through us. And since we each have our own unique personality, it’s like we’re our own unique color. But we don’t shine that color until the Light shines through us; and then our color shines beautifully, and everyone around us sees it! I think my color is indigo. What’s your color? 

On Hebrews 11:6

“Without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.” — Hebrews 11:6

I have come to the conclusion that God has made humans tri-uned beings, like Himself. He is Father, Spirit and Son, and we are soul (mind, will and emotions), spirit, and body. I know that everyone and his dog thinks he’s pin-pointed exactly what the difference is between man and animal, but here’s my take on it: people have a soul, a spirit, and a body; animals have only a soul and a body — no spirit. (God did not breathe life into them; He made them come alive some other way.) And plants only have a body, whose turgor pressure and biochemistry responds to certain physical stimuli.

Now things without spirits can sense and recognize God (and, therefore, anti-God). It’s like their cells remember Him. But only man can actually relate and commune with Him. God is spirit, and it takes a creature that has a spirit itself for a relationship with God to be possible.

When we pray that first “God, if you’re really there…” prayer, ie. “The Sinner’s Prayer”, God gives us a gift that no animal or plant is eqipped to receive: blind belief, or “faith”. This is something — a phenomenon — that does not occur in nature. Animals pretty much just live and learn, with some of their cleverness or shrewdness being taught to them by parental example. They have no need for the concept of faith, no way to use it, and no means by which they may obtain it. Faith is completely spiritual, and therefore completely unnatural.

No wonder we struggle so hard to stay in it — it is completely opposite our flesh nature, which has always been used to doing things without God. If you think about it, when we humans (try to) function outside of Unity, we do behave rather animalistically. We tend to base our assumptions, conclusions, desires and actions on the same exact things animals do: what we see, what we hear, what we smell/taste/touch, and what we’ve experienced before.

I checked out that word “believe”, and it seems to be active in its nature. “…for anyone who comes to him must BELIEVE that He exists…” It’s something that we must actively will ourselves to do, and then do. But that shouldn’t be hard for us; after all, we have to convince ourselves to NOT be willing to believe everything — or anything — the tabloids say! :)   And I think advertising agencies have proven enough times that humans can believe anything, with the right reasoning and/or motivation applied.

So I guess all God’s really looking for is that little mustard seed of faith to begin to sprout, by reaching upward. When we reach for God, it always pleases Him!

Hello, Blogging Community!

IndigoLight516, here! (You can call me “Indie” for short.) I’m brand new to blogging; got my first taste of it on my church’s website. My pastor thinks I have a gift for words, so he sent me this link, and now it’s up to over a million other people to either agree or disagree with him!

I’m 35, although I’m often mistaken for a kid. I blame my 5-foot-ness for that. I’m a full-time college student, as well as a single mother of two kids, a teenage girl and a “tween-age” boy, so type slowly to me — my Prozac drip can only do so much.

I’m a staunch Christ-follower, but non-denominational. Music is my third devotion; my favourite band is the Newsboys, followed closely by Switchfoot and Tree63. I also like the older Jars of Clay stuff, dcTalk, Audio Adrenaline, a little Todd Agnew, Phil Joel, some Sanctus Real, FFH, Wes King, older Skillet, Nicole Nordeman, Charlie Hall, and Parachute Band, as well as some “rappers”, such as John Reuben and KJ-52. But wait, there’s more! I also write my own stuff, however I have never had any of it published.

I tend to be really creative, with some streaks of logic and insight. I’ve been journaling, writing short stories, dissertations, lyrics and poetry for about a quarter of a century now. But, like so many creative people, few of the larger projects ever get finished. (I started an autobiography 6 years ago; made it to about chapter 6.)

Well, that’s all I can think of to share. If anyone has any (nice) questions, respond to this blog and I’ll try to get back to you within the week. Until then, happy blogging!