Negative Reinforcement

 

Do not withhold correction from a child, for if you beat him with a rod, he will not die.

Proverbs 23: 13 NKJV 

What have we done to ourselves?  Almost every night I see the news of crowds of young people marching in the streets and causing havoc.  Yes, in a way we have done this to ourselves.  For when I look at these entitled kids out there one thing is pretty obvious...they've never been told no.  Imagine going through your childhood where it really didn't matter if you did something wrong.  Where the worst discipline you could expect is a talk on how "we don't do those things."  Believe me, there is a reason why the author of the book of Proverbs advises parents to "not spare the rod" with their children {Proverbs 13:24}.  For once we do that, we show our children that there are no consequences for their own behavior.  The next thing you know, he's crying because something didn't go his way.  This isn't just a old testament issue, but a life experience issue.  I have a Christian friend who scoffed has scoffed at the idea of raising his children with proper discipline.  "That's for the old covenant" he'll tell me.  Then again, I've lost count of how many times he's told me of how undisciplined his kids are.  Anyone see a correlation here?  Now, I would never advocate for the physical abuse of a child.  There is absolutely no place in society for that, which is why there are strict penalties for such things.  However, I will admit that there is something to be said for the discipline of a child.  First, it lets them know that there are consequences for what they do.  Second, and this is often a hard one to swallow, it shows that you love them.  Wait, striking my child shows my love for him?  Yes!  The author of the book of Hebrews even goes so far as to say that the Lord disciplines those He loves {Hebrews 12:5-6}.  So, if God shows us His own love for us through discipline and correction, are we ourselves not able to love our own children through correction?  I'd say yes, despite the liberals out there who claim that any discipline is paramount to abuse.  

And you have forgotten the exhortation which speaks to you as sons:  "My son, do not despise the chastening of the Lord, nor be discouraged when you are rebuked by Him; for whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son who He receives."

Hebrews 12: 5 - 6 NKJV 

I recall that I was disciplined as a child, yet never abused.  I will never know what it is like to grow up without correction for my actions.  I don't need to, I see it all around me every day.  Young people who feel entitled to do whatever they feel good doing.  This is fine for them, because mom and dad never told them it wasn't.  Indeed, there are those parents out there who feel that any show of violence will somehow turn their child into a psychopath.  I get it.  While I'm not one to tell another person how to raise their children, I will point out the continued success of children being raised with firm boundaries in place.  I know that I will get some pushback, but I also know that the disciplining of our children is as vital as providing for their well being.  I wasn't one of those Christians who trembled at the thought of a God who would chasten me.  On the contrary, on those occasions which He did so only solidified in my heart the love that He had for me.  He loved me enough to show me the error of my own ways.  Why?  So that I would cease doing what He knew was bad for me.  I will be the first one to admit that God knows all too well what is best for me, even if I don't realize it myself a times.  Have there been times where I have questioned Him over His correction?  Absolutely.  However, I have never come away feeling anything less than loved by God.  This is the example the Lord sets for us to follow.  He loved us before we were born.  He loves us despite all we've done.  Finally, and this is a big one, God loves us for who we are.  Does He love us enough to show us correction?  Yes, He tells us that.  However, at the end of the day we are still His children created in our Fathers very image {Genesis 1:27}.  

~Scott~ 

The Jesus Movement

 

That if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.  For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

Romans 10: 9 - 10 NKJV 

I remember watching a movie about a high school football team in Alabama in the 1970's.  The movie centered around the racial divide and hatred which was all too present in the south as government mandated desegregation was instituted.  Up until this point, white and black students were educated separately.  As you might expect, hatred and violence ensued.  However, this particular school, Woodlawn high school, became the example of how the Lord can sew the seeds of healing.  For in the midst of all of the hatred, a young man struggles with the teams coach that he might be able to speak to the team.  His message?  The gospel of the Lord Jesus.  What follows is almost the entire team accepting Jesus as their Lord and savior.  One of the most inspirational scenes I remember is that of the coach speaking to the young evangelist and telling him that he wanted to be baptized.  Now, I was never a huge fan of the 1960's.  With the protests, the war and all of those long haired hippies walking around it was like a totally different country to me.  Recently I've began comparing the era of the 60's with what we are experiencing as a nation today.  Is it the same?  Not really.  One thing is missing, a Jesus movement.  There was a time back in the 1970's when young people across the country were abandoning the traditional churches they had grown up in for something radically different.  No longer did they desire to simply adhere to the theology of the church and "hear" about Jesus.  No, they wanted to KNOW the man Jesus.  The Jesus movement was born.  I can recall watching tv back then and seeing actors portraying the long haired hippy kids who simply wanted to know Jesus.  Here was a entire generation seeking a personal relationship with their Lord and Savior.  As far as traditional church practices go, this was pretty radical.  How could these kids, sinners all, ever even hope to be in the presence of Jesus?  As it turns out, this was the same question which I asked myself a few years ago as I struggled with the realization of Christ Jesus in me.  I wasn't a young hippy, but I wanted a relationship with Jesus.

In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins.  Beloved, if God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.

1 John 4: 10 - 11 NKJV 

I used to laugh at all of those young hippies who would go around proclaiming "Peace and love, man."  Then I began to wonder, where did they get that message?  Well, they got their message from the same place I received mine...the Lord Jesus.  I guess that I can say that it is Jesus who transcends generations that His message would be revealed to all.  Long haired cultural deviants joining congregations of Christians in proclaiming Jesus?  Don't laugh, I've seen it with my own eyes.  What Christians of today need to stop and realize is that we have perpetuated the idea that Jesus is unreachable.  Jesus is seated in heaven and we are here on earth trying to make it through life.  That is the message of the Christian church.  Well, what does that mean to someone who simply desires to know Jesus?  For one thing, it means that He cannot be found where we thought He was...in the church.  I didn't find a closer relationship with Him in the church.  Where I did discover a closer relationship with Christ is through a good friend who introduced me to the revelation he himself had discovered.  What was his revelation?  The same revelation which the apostle Paul received on the road to Damascus.  Paul was a changed man after that experience.  It is Paul who speaks to Christ Jesus in us {Galatians 2:20}.  This is where we will discover the relationship with Jesus that we desire.  It is not something which is taught in the church, but the realization given unto us by God that it is Jesus who we now live as.  We are now one with Jesus and the Father.  Sometimes I think about how radical Jesus must have seemed back in His day.  The message which He taught certainly went against the grain of the old school Jewish teachings.  However, it's the same message He relates to us today.  I might not be a hippy...but I know Jesus.

~Scott~ 

Old Friends

 

Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings.

Genesis 3: 7 NKJV 

Recently, I decided to try a challenge and give up processed sugars for at least two weeks.  I'll be doing my readings by recording my weight before and after my trial.  As I sit here on the beginning of day number one, I already have doubts as to if I will be able to make it.  I guess that's only natural when we head into something unfamiliar.  This situation is important for two reasons.  First, it is important for my overall health.  Second, it gives me the opportunity to speak to something which we all have faced from time to time.  That is, the allure of behaviors or habits which we know are wrong, yet we indulge in them anyway.  I am well aware that highly processed sugars are bad for my health, yet I return to them every now and then.  I'll admit that I have gotten better at ignoring them, but somehow they still hold a place in my life.  Why is that?  Why is it that we continue to hold onto habits we know to be destructive?  Well, as near can tell, we always seem to gravitate to what feels good for ourselves.  It's that simple.  I recall a phrase I've heard from time to time that "if it feels good...do it!"  Do you think that you would ever hear God utter those words to us?  Perhaps.  However, I'm guessing that those things which we might see as well and good for ourselves also come with a warning from the Lord.  I used to see pornography as something a man did.  God never saw it that way {Matthew 5:28, 1 Corinthians 6:18}.  I knew that pornography was wrong, but like a old friend I kept returning to it because it felt good at the time.  Sweet to the taste, yet bitter to the end.  I know that there are many more out there who, like me, desired all the things which we felt were good.  The alcoholic who is willing to do anything for one more drink.  The drug addict who thinks nothing of losing everything as long as he gets his last fix.  I can honestly say that I have never been addicted to alcohol or drugs, but I've still felt the pull of what I was addicted to at the time.  When old friends would come to visit. 

I don't need to punish people for sin.  Sin is it's own punishment, devouring you from the inside.  It's not My purpose to punish it; it's My joy to cure it.

~Wm P. Young, The Shack

A good friend once told me that Satan the accuser was sort of like the minions of animation movie fame.  Even after we have accepted and come to know Christ in our heart, the minions would continue to come around and remind us of the good times we once shared.  Do you understand that?  Even though you have Jesus in your heart, that never stops Satan from continuing to drag you back into the life you once lived.  That will never change I'm afraid.  The accuser will not stop attempting to pull you away from Christ, it's what he does.  Interestingly, could this Satan connection be the key to our continuing to engage in bad behavior?  Well, what is it that he said to Eve in the garden when she told him that God had warned against eating the forbidden fruit?  "You will surely not die" {Genesis 3:4}.  Satan even goes so far as to perpetuate the lie that if Eve were to eat of the fruit which the Lord had told her not to, that she would, "Be like God" {Genesis 3:5}.  Really?  Who wouldn't want to be like God?  So, Adam and Eve gave into the lie of Satan and took of the fruit.  However, what Eve did not realize in that moment was that she was ALREADY like God.  It was God who had breathed the breath of life into her {Genesis 2:7}.  Adam and Eve were as much a part of the Lord as they could be.  Yet, they did not realize this because all they knew was their relationship with God in the garden.  You could say that when it came to Satan's lies that they were ripe for the picking.  We can see the results of Satan's antics in the history of our own creation.  Let me tell you, he hasn't changed.  The accuser will continue to come around and remind you of the times you spent in bad behavior.  His ultimate goal is to drive a wedge between ourselves and God.  However, the truth shall set you free.  The truth that we are already one with Christ {Galatians 2:20}.  Satan cannot convince me that God has no need for me, because I realize that I live as Jesus.  As far as those times where he reminds me of my past?  Well, sometimes old friends are better forgotten.  

Thus they became conscious of the opposites through the attraction of the Tree of the knowledge of good and evil.  The good is a self which expresses God and the other-love; the evil is a self which expresses Satan and self loving love.  They became expressers of their Satan-father's self-for-self nature, Satan's seed {Genesis 3:15}.

~Norman P. Grubb, No Independent Self

~Scott~ 

Off The Wall Religion

 For what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin; He condemned sin in the flesh. 

Romans 8: 3 NKJV 

Almost every one has, at one time or another, has become familiar with the words of the rhyme Humpty Dumpty.  The egg shaped lad who, despite all of the efforts of those around him, could not seem to put him back together after he fell off that wall.  For anyone who has ever cracked a egg shell either intentionally or by accident, I'm sure that you can relate.  I found myself thinking of old Humpty this week as I considered all of the efforts which we have gone through to make ourselves more acceptable to God.  Now, we all know that God is holy {Hebrews 7:26, 1 Peter 1:16}.  Yet, one of the most confusing concepts to any Christian is...how can a holy God ever be in the presence of sin?  This question takes on a more somber meaning when we consider that one of the things that the church continually drills into our skulls is that ALL have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God {Romans 3:23}.  So, if all have sinned and carry those filthy rags, then how is it that we could ever come before our heavenly Father who cannot be in the presence of sin?  Enter the law.  For through the mosaic law, we were given guidelines to those behaviors or activities which were...bad.  The law could be seen as a series of goal posts which we could identify with.  If we kept the law, then we could most assuredly come into the presence of a holy God.  A few of these were no brainers.  Honor thy father and mother.  Do not kill.  However, over time, when we realized that as humans we could not come close to keeping the law, we added more laws.  Like Humpty Dumpty's friends, we were trying to put ourselves back together once again after falling off of that wall.  So, how did that work out?  Because it seems to me that we still struggle with that very same issue of our sin getting in the way of our getting close to God.  How can I, a sinner, ever be in the presence of a holy God?  Are we doomed to simply "get close" to God as the church tells us?  Well, if we were indeed still sinners, I would say yes.  However, Christ Jesus has provided for Gods children a path into the presence of the Lord unhindered by our sin.  For it is Jesus who put to death the sin we once carried {Romans 6:6}.  

Knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin.  For he who has died has been freed from sin.  Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.  Death no longer has dominion over Him.  For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.  Likewise you also, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Romans 6: 6 - 11 NKJV 

The apostle Paul, in his letter to the Romans, lays out what each and every believer needs to know about the truth of sin.  That is, the truth of the sin which we once were bound to.  It is Paul who tells us to reckon ourselves to be "dead indeed to sin" {Romans 6:11}.  Whatever worries which you might have had about your sins keeping you from the Lords presence, those sins have long since been forgotten through the finished work of Jesus on the cross.  For not only did Jesus become Himself become sin{2 Corinthians 5:21}, Paul also tells us that we can enjoy a life in Him.  It is through the finished work of Christ that Jesus now lives in me {Galatians 2:20}.  Could this have happened if we were still under the conviction and condemnation of our own sin?  Perhaps, but Jesus guaranteed it by putting that sin which we carried to death.  What we failed in our own efforts to fix, Christ fixed for us.  Keep in mind that a law needs to have a threat of consequences if it is to be effective.  What good is it for speeding to be against the law if there are no consequences for it?  As believers, we longer live under the law {Romans 6:14}.  What remains is the grace of Christ Jesus.  It is through Jesus that we are now free to live a life in Him.  A life free of what once convicted us.  In Christ, we have all we need. 

~Scott~ 

Being Big

 I can't really recall a time when I wasn't big.  When I wasn't overweight.  The nicknames from my childhood into adulthood also reflected that.  I was "that big kid" when I was younger, which then became "big guy."  A name which I still despise to this day.  Why?  Because it takes away from who I really am.  As I see it, my identity is not tied into my health issues.  I have a name...so refer to me as such.  I can't recall referring to people I've met by their weaknesses and not by their names.  However, I can start, watch me.  All frustration aside, I recognized some time ago, with the help of a friend, that my identity does not lie in my appearance, but in Christ Jesus who lives in me.  More on that later.  When I say that I cannot recall ever living my life as a normal sized person I mean it.  I used to think that perhaps it was something with my genes, but I eventually discounted that.  My own dad, Mark Wakefield, was a mountain of a man with a attitude and temper to match.  I can't blame him, he grew up in a house with four brothers, a sister and a father who would constantly put his kids down.  It seems that nothing was ever good enough for grandpa Wakefield.  The funny thing is, my memories of my grandparents on my dads side are somewhat positive.  I can remember my grandpa sitting with me at the kitchen table and telling me stories of the sawmill which he owned and his sons operated.  Back then, lumber was a big business in northern Minnesota.  Not as big as iron ore, but it was big.  Grandma was the typical doting wife.  Her place in the house was more of a servant than anything.  Yet, I don't recall there ever being any tension between them.  

Conditional Church

 

"All that the Father gives Me will come to Me, and the one who comes to Me I will by no means cast out."

John 6: 37 

There used to be a running joke among a few of my Christian friends of those who would stop at nothing to ensure that you were in "Gods house" on Sunday morning.  You may have run into a few like them.  The believer who asks which service you were in...because he didn't see you.  These busy bodies always amused me with their Sunday church or else attitude.  However, there were times where I'd notice that one of them came up missing on a Sunday morning as well.  Funny thing, when I would inquire where they were they would suddenly get defensive.  I guess what's good for a few isn't for everyone.  What this post is about is compulsion, and how we Christians use it to our advantage.  We can, and have, compelled others in the faith to attend churches, give tithes and to serve in the church as well.  Now, you don't need to be a bible scholar to understand that this practice of compulsion is dead wrong.  For I do not recall God compelling anyone to believe in Him.  I do not recall Jesus compelling anyone to follow Him.  The apostle Paul also warns us to never do anything under compulsion {2 Corinthians 9:7}.  Now, in context, Paul was speaking to giving, but you get the idea.  Using compulsion to coerce someone into a church service or study is far off the beaten path of Gods intentions.  There is a reason by which He created us with the freedom to make our own choices.  I do not believe that God desired robots who would blindly follow Him, but believers who would desire to know Him.  Yes, we can be one with the Father if we are forced to, but what good is that?  For once you are forced into something, you eventually began looking for a way out.  Is it any wonder why so many are leaving the mainstream churches in our country?  

"My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of My Fathers hand.  I and the Father are one." 

John 10: 29 NKJV 

I have a pretty good idea as to why there has been a exodus from our churches.  It starts with the cookie cutter theology which we have been teaching for so long.  In the eyes of the church, if we need something, we pray.  God would never deny His own children, right?  Well, the funny thing about that is that too many people get caught up on that hamster wheel of prayer and come away disappointed.  I was one of them.  Too many believers today are shunning the traditional trappings of organized church to look for something more personal.  Be it a closer relationship with Jesus or a more personal relation to another religion, people desire that personal connection.  Sadly, that personal connection is difficult to find in a large congregation.  So, what does the church do to stem the flow of people leaving the traditional church?  Well, for one they try to jazz it up with more modern music, flashy buildings and sermons aimed at the difficulties of life.  Nice try.  I have rarely seen a struggling church turn to seeking to know more about Jesus.  I have rarely seen a church that is losing members pause and say "Let's find out the truth of what Paul was saying."  What was Paul telling us?  Paul was proclaiming to us the truth of Christ Jesus.  It was Paul who speaks to the knowing of Christ in us {Galatians 2:20}.  It is Jesus who is important, not the church.  The fact is, we are the church of Christ Jesus, with Him at the head.  Then again, you don't hear that message from the pulpit too much either.

~Scott~ 

Last Hope Of The Damned

 Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us.  And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

1 John 5: 14 - 15 NKJV 

This morning I jump into the weeds once again.  Well, let's just say that I was pushed into them this time.  Pushed, although with good intentions, by a friend who chooses to remain nameless.  Yes, once again I attempt to delve into the inner workings of the mind and intentions of God.  For what began as a well intentioned conversation this week soon spiraled into that ages old question of why our loving heavenly Father would allow bad things to happen to seemingly good people.  Why would a God whose very identity is defined by love suddenly throw all of that aside and allow the suffering of His children.  Indeed, we see this every day so don't tell me that you've never entertained such thoughts.  I have.  I watched my own mother suffering in the final days of her life, all while offering up prayers for her recovery.  Well, what's interesting is that through my experience I learned a lot about the "will" of the Father.  We're told that if we ask for anything according to the Fathers will, that it is ours {1 John 5:14}.  Well, how many times have you asked, or pleaded for something which you felt was within the Fathers will but ended up being disappointed?  I get it.  What I learned from my own experience was that it wasn't about me and what I needed at all.  In fact, in retrospect I have felt embarrassed at times for being so self centered.  See, my mother was in pain and she was suffering greatly.  Yet, here I was begging and pleading with the God I know for her recovery.  I didn't want to lose her.  But what would her recovery looked like?  More pain and suffering?  Looking back, God handled this situation as lovingly as He could.  My mother is now with the Lord and she is no longer in pain.  Meanwhile, I'm left to ponder what the hell just happened.  My mother was a very good person, anyone who ever met her would agree.  So, why did such bad things happen to her?  Well, if I knew the answer to that I would bottle it and sell it for a thousand dollars a pop.  The truth is that we've all come to that crossroads where we question why it is that God does what He does.  To this I can honestly say that this one is definitely above my pay grade.  

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways," says the Lord.  "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts."

Isaiah 55: 8 - 9 NKJV 

So, what is to be our last hope and refuge?  I've been raised in a Christian belief system that promises that God indeed answers prayer.  Then, along comes a preacher to toss a wrench into all I once thought I knew about the Lord and prayer.  That is where I find myself this morning.  Why do bad things happen to good people?  Specifically, why does God seemingly answer prayers for relief from the fire disaster our area has been experiencing while allowing His children to lose their homes, livelihoods and lives?  I know plenty of people, Christian and non, who have been praying for a break in the weather for relief from the fires.  Well, this weekend the weather did change as it so often does.  Do we count this as a blessing from God or as simply the normal operations of the climate He created?  Any way you look at it, He is involved.  If I could play the devils advocate I would pose the question, what did those people who have been so affected by the fires do to piss God off?  Did they not go to church?  Was their tithe not enough?  Someone please attempt to answer that.  However, as the preacher told me, the God we follow is not one we need to barter with.  On that I agree.  We definitely don't need to bargain for our Lords favor.  However, knowing this, we also need to understand that there will be times when God does things which we might deem...un-Godlike.  The prophet Isaiah needed to be reminded of this himself {Isaiah 55:8-9}.  Yes, I do have a unique relationship with Christ {Galatians 2:20}.  Yes, I do believe that I live as Him.  But, damnit, that same question which drove me into the weeds in the first place is still out there.  Jesus, why do you save some yet allow others to suffer?  There, I said it.  This in no way means that I don't recognize Christ in me, only that He tends to sometimes do things which I cannot wrap my human understanding around.  Maybe that's just it, that we try so hard to see Jesus through our humanity.  He is not above allowing us to understand why He does what He does, if we take the time to listen.  The preacher told me that once also.  Smart man that pulpit pounder.  

~Scott~