Is Church broken? - Part 1

Before I even start, I need to set the tone for this. I love the Church. Its out of this love for the Church that I have to speak out about it.

I know what I have to say is not going to be popular on many levels.

As people, we don't like being told that we are wrong. We don't like being told that we are messed up and need correction. That's human nature.

As Christians, we especially don't like being told that we are wrong. Much of this can be justified. There is so much in the Bible that seems to be negative. At least, it can be taken this way.

Being a Christian is not unlike that episode in Star Wars where Luke has just found out that his father is Darth Vader. He asks Obi Wan why he didnt tell him and why he told him that his father was dead.

ObiWan told him that what he said about his father was true. He told him that much of what the Jedi Knights believed was true from a certain point of view.

So basically ObiWan was telling Luke that he had to choose what he wanted to believe. Same thing in the movie The Matrix. The Oracle tells Neo that he has to make up his own mind what he wants to believe.

As a Christian, you need to choose what you want to believe. You can choose to see the good and positive in the Bible, or you can choose to see bad and negative.

As a Pastor, or leader in the Church, we dont want to be told that we are wrong either. In fact, Id say that this is one of the worst and toughest to overcome.

Its as if the Church thinks its untouchable and perfect. Nothing that the Church does can possibly be wrong or need fixing? And the larger the Church, the more difficult this is.

In large Churches, the senior Pastor is just about untouchable and unapproachable.

To stand up and speak out about something that the Church is doing wrong is...paramount to sacrilege.

On a side note, I tried a few years ago to get out the idea that Churches needed evaluating, just like any other business. Someone would go into a Church and submit a report of what the Church was doing right and what it was doing wrong. The idea was not well received at all. But I digress.

There are many examples in the Bible where people spoke out when things had gone awry in the Church, or with its leaders or even kings. They were called prophets. They were less than popular.

Prophets were not really known for giving much in the way of good news.

Then there is the ultimate example that we have of correction. Jesus himself!

We love to listen to all the "cute" things that Jesus had to say. Things like Love thy neighbor, and things like that. Mainly the stuff that tickles our ears.

But Jesus had some very scathing words to say about the religious leaders of the day. In our current day vernacular; He tore them a new one.

We don't like that part much because we don't want to think that the Church, even in that day, was wrong.

Now, Im not saying that I am a prophet. So don't mishear me. If anything, Id say that I am a watchman that stands on the wall and sounds the alarm when I see trouble coming.

The problem is that the Church in our day is also broken. In fact, id go so far as to say that the Church has reverted to the same problems that it had back in Jesus day.

That's a pretty bad indictment I know. But its one that our Churches need to hear.

So just what is the problem, you might ask. Or hopefully you are asking.

Well, Church has become a place where Christians go to be entertained.

We go into a Church service, which with minor differences, is pretty much the same wherever you go. We sing a few songs. Then we listen to a sermon. Then take up an offering and go home.

Maybe there are a few announcements, maybe a time for prayer, maybe a call to go down to the alter for prayer, maybe communion is held. But that's about it.

A pretty dead service if you ask me.

• When did Church Services become so dry and boring?
• Where in the Bible do we find this formula for what a Church service should be?
• Where do we find the top down structure that our modern day Churches have?
• When did our faith die?
• When did Church become just a place of Christian entertainment?
• Why are there so many ministries out there?
• What should we be doing in Church?

I didnt want to get this too long, so I decided to continue this on Part 2

The Movie Pain and Gain - Hollywood cashing on on true story of torture

Is there ever a time when its acceptable to glorify torture and death?

And even worse, make money of it?

Hollywood sure thinks there is.

Over the weekend, I saw the show 48 hours. One of the stories was called Muscle and Mayhem.

Click here to read the 48 hours true life story.

It was a true story of 2 guys that kidnapped a man and tortured him ruthlessly and horribly for 4 months in a warehouse. The torture was very very gruesome.

They got the guy to sign over all his possessions, which included his house and millions of dollars. The muscle heads moved into the guys house, spent all his money and trashed his life.

Afterwards, they took on a new target. They found a couple worth millions and killed them both brutally. I could not believe how bad this true story was.

But then it got even worse.

I found out that Hollywood could not resist making a movie from the story.

The movie is called Pain & Gain. It has just come out recently. The movie stars Mark Wahlberg and Dwayne Johnson. The movie has received very bad reviews, which I am very glad about.

Hollywood has sunk to an all new low!

How is it that we have allowed Hollywood to sink so low as to make money off the pain, torture, and death of others?

The 1st victim of these two muscle heads survived.

We need to stop Hollywood. They are out of control and think they can do anything they want.

The only way that we are going to be able to hold Hollywood accountable for movies like this is to vote with our wallets. We have a lot of power. But we can only have this power when we unite.

If even a small portion of us band together, boycotted this movie, and the actors that played in it (Mark Wahlberg & Dwayne Johnson), Hollywood would pay attention.

If the movie lost millions of dollars in revenue, Hollywood would think twice about doing something like this again.

Hollywood should be donating the proceeds of this movie toward the surviving victim and other victims like him.

So, just how to we do this?

Dont go see this movie. Tell all your friends to not go to see this movie. Send this newsletter to all your friends. And have them send it to all their friends. Ask them to send it to all their friends.

If you want to go the extra mile, you could send petitions to the producer of the movie, the actors that were in the movie & the makers of the movie.

But the best way to get Hollywood's attention is to just not go see the movie.

To be perfect, or not, that is the question.

I run a non-profit called Needs Met. Needs Met is all about meeting the needs of people. Things like Food, clothes, household items etc.

I have talked to a lot of people and Churches about the concept for Needs Met.

What I hear all the time are things like;

"Why dont you have a more clear vision?"
"Why dont you have all the details worked out?"
"Where will you get financing from?"
"Where will you get donations?"
"Where will you get a facility?"
"What kind of criteria will you have to determine who gets served and who does not and on and on."

This really bothers me. I have perfectionist tendencies. I love it when things are all worked out. All the I's are doted and the T's crossed.

I love it when I have a solid plan. Nothing left to chance! This really appeals to my humanity.

But is this really the way that God wants us to do things?

If we look at the Bible for examples of how God worked with other people, we can find lots of them.

Lets look at Moses? When God spoke to Moses at the burning bush, he did not give Moses a well laid out plan for how to deal with Pharaoh.

God told Moses to go down to Egypt and get his people out of there. Moses tried to press God for a few details.

God gave Moses a little more, but not much. God told Moses that he would bring them to a place flowing with Milk & Honey. He also told Moses that he would stretch out his hand and strike Egypt.

What! No details God? Whats up with that?

God told Moses that if would have to speak to Pharaoh and tell him to let his people go.

Moses complained to God that he was not a good speaker. This was not a good idea!

God got angry at Moses.

Can you imagine what would have happened if Moses would have asked God for a mission statement, or a game plan of exactly how God intended to convince Pharaoh to let the Israeites go?

Not to mention to huge tasks of getting all those Israelite's (Estimates of the total # are around 3 million) through the desert with very little water and food.

Then Moses needed a plan of what to do when they got to this land flowing with Milk and Honey. They would need a government, money to buy things, building materials to build houses, food and water, etc...

It was a monumental task that God was asking Moses to do. But God was being very vague with it.

God intentionally held back from Moses. Moses just didnt need to be burdened with all the details.

I think that if Moses would have known all that he was getting himself into, he would have never agreed to it. I think he would have collapsed out of fear and doubt!

And Moses is just one of many many examples just like this.

Every single time throughout the entire Bible, when God asked someone to do something, he offered very little to nothing as to details on what the task involved.

So why is it that we think that we need to know everything down to the smallest detail in order to do anything for God?

Today, most Churches have highly structured services. Even down to the second in some cases!

Worship, especially in larger Churches, is practiced and rehearsed over and over so that there is no room for mistakes.

Anyone wanting to put together a mission, group, or organization must know all the details of how everything will work, where donations will come from, what expenses will arise, and on and on.

I believe that in striving for perfection, we have left God out.

I was in a missions organization called Youth With A Mission for several years.

We performed mime dramas all over the world. I remember on some occasions, we would do our best to practice and get our performance just as perfect as we could.

This seemed right to us. We wanted to give people the best performance that we could. We thought that if we did a really good job, that people would be stirred to come up front for prayer and some would get saved.

Then there were other times that we just could not practice. We were busy traveling and doing things and just didnt find time. We thought that those would be the performances that would not see many come up for prayer.

What we found was just the opposite of what we expected. When our performance was well rehearsed and perfect, very few came forward.

When we had little, or no time, to rehearse and our performance was bad, lots of people came and got saved. This baffled us.

You see, God is not interested in our perfection. In fact, he cant work with it at all.

When we are trying to be perfect, and have all the little details worked out, there is little to no room for God to work.

We can read about this concept in God's word.

For to be sure, he was crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God's power. Likewise, we are weak in him, yet by God's power we will live with him to serve you.
2 Corinthians 13:4

To keep me from becoming conceited because of these surpassingly great revelations, there was given me a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:7-10

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness...
Romans 8:26

That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
2 Corinthians 12:10

We are glad whenever we are weak but you are strong; and our prayer is for your perfection.
2 Corinthians 13:9

There are many more scriptures on this, but I think you get the idea here.

We are not to try to be perfect and have it all together. We are to be weak so that God can be strong and perfect.

Its in that very time when you dont have it all together that you leave room for God and he will show up.

Hypnosis - Who should control me?

I received a comment today on a posting I wrote a long time ago. The posting was on a hypnosis session that was done to me about 30 or so years ago. At the time I had the session, I was young, foolish and did not understand the implications of what I was doing.

I am not in favor on Hypnosis. I think its very dangerous and should be avoided at all costs.

I decided not to allow this comment that is in favor of Hypnosis because its in direct conflict with both logic and the Bible.

I believe that Hypnotherapy is very dangerous. I believe that no person, Christian or not, should go under this mental knife. Many years ago, this was the mainstream thought in the Christian community. Now things have changed. Many deceived Christians now say that its ok. Its not really surprising. There are a lot of things that were once forbidden in our Churches that some have now decided are fine.

One example. We even have so-called Churches now that allow gay marriage.

But just because some have changed their minds, does not make these things right.

The mind is very powerful. God spoke the world into existence with only his words. These words came from his heart and mind. In us, the mind is also the brain. The heart, mind, and soul is who we truly are. The brain controls the entire body.

To mess with these controls is very dangerous. We know very little about the brain and its abilities. To mess with something that we know very little about is just plain crazy.

It would be like me trying to perform surgery. I know computers. I know nothing about the brain or surgery. So for me to perform surgery on a brain is ludicrous. But yet, this is what we are doing when we allow someone to work on our brain.

We are giving this Hypnotherapist control over our very being.

We are allowing someone, that knows very little about how the brain really functions, to come in and make adjustments to it.

This would be like asking a customer service person to do brain surgery on you. It makes no sense at all to allow it.

This is the logical side of my argument. What about from a Biblical stance?

Well, the Bible does not specifically address Hypnotherapy, but that does not mean that its ok. Some think that just because a thing is not mentioned by name in the Bible, its ok to do.

I find this argument to be extremely silly. I hear it all the time. 'The bible does not address Gays, Homosexuals, Hypnosis, etc.. by name, so it must be ok, right?"

This is a really poor argument. Up until about 50 years ago, or so, the word Gay simply meant someone that was happy. We changed the meaning of it.

The word Homosexual was invented in the 1800's. Since these terms were not invented yet, how can we possibly expect God to have used these terms in the bible?

Hypnotherapy, at least by that name, was also unknown in Jesus day.

In order for God to say that certain things were wrong, to an audience that knew little to nothing about such sins yet, he would need to talk about them in more general terms.

Hypnosis involves the transfer of control away from ourselves to another person. Galatians 5:22-23

We are to give over the control of our mind only to God. Romans 6:12-13

Hypnotism is often promoted as a simple way of “refocusing” ourselves and finding the answer within us. As believers in Christ, our focus is to be on our Savior, not on ourselves or anything else. Hebrews 12:2, Romans 7:18, Romans 8:2

Many of the techniques used in hypnosis are shared by mystical, philosophical, and religious systems, including the occult. The “father of hypnotism,” Franz Anton Mesmer—from whose name we get the word mesmerize—was himself a practitioner of the occult. Deuteronomy 18:9-12 tells us that we can not have anything to do with the occult.

So I think the Bible is all too clear, as does logic tell us, that we should have nothing to do with Hypnosis.

Interview with God - Do you inforce your will on us?

I decided to write this in response to a Facebook debate that I got into. If you wish to see the debate, go to my Facebook page and view it.

https://www.facebook.com/phillip.dacus/posts/317715071668064?comment_id=1517145

Here is my answer in the form of a conversation with God.

-------

Me - God do you directly manipulate things like presidential elections and such down on earth so that who you your will is always done? Or do you allow men to have the free will to make their own decisions and do things how they wish done so that we make our own beds and then have to lie in them?

God – Son, why do you concern yourself with such things?

Me – Because I need to know

God - (with a chuckle)
Yes, I did design you with an inherent need to know the unknowable and to question things.

Me – So how about it? How do you work?

God – Let me ask you a question. If you knew the answer, what would you do with this knowledge?

Me – I would go back, assuming you are going to send me back. You are going to send me go back, right?
Id tell everyone back there…I told ya so!

God – And what purpose would that serve?

Me – (Shuffling my feet about and feeling rather nervous that God called me out)
Well, not sure about what purpose it would really serve, but it sure would be fun.

God – So it would be fun to you to prove others wrong?

Me – uh…. well……ya know……

God - How about it?

Me – Well, they are all morons.

God – I created all those people down there in my image.

Me – (Feeling about 2” tall realizing that I just called God a moron)

God – My son, I love you, I love them all. You are all my children. You are a father. I know your little girl very very well. She is a blessing to me.

Me – (Feeling pride that God knows my daughter)

God – How do you work in your daughter’s life?

Me – What do you mean God?

God – Do you manipulate things in your daughter’s life so that her life conforms to your will? Or do you allow her to use her free will, make her own decisions and “lie in her own bed that she created?”

Me – I do both. When she was a baby, I made all of the decisions for her. She was totally dependent on me to do it all for her. She was a baby, so she could not do anything herself.

Now that she is older, she is learning to make some of her own decisions and do some things herself. But she is not able to do it all. She needs me to protect her and keep her safe from the things that she is just too naive and inexperienced to know yet.

As she grows into an adult, she will depend on me less and less. She will learn to be independent and create her own life, hopefully using what I taught her as a guide. But I will always be there when she needs me to step in and make any decisions and do anything that she needs me to.

God – Well put my Son. Do you think I would do any less for my kids?

Me – Well, no. So are you saying that both are true? How can that be?

God – Just like you do with your daughter, I work with my children as needed. There are times when I need to do everything for you. Like when you were new in me and you were just learning to walk.

There are times when I step back and allow you to make your own mistakes. But even in these times, I am always there to pick you up when you fall or protect you when you get into trouble.

Me – How can you override our free will?

God – Lets say that you are on the 2nd story of the mall. There is railing that is there to protect anyone from falling to the floor below. Your daughter decides that she wants to climb this railing to get a better view, because she saw a really cute baby on the 1st floor. Would you allow this?

Me – Of course not. I love my daughter and would protect her even if it meant my own life.

God – So you would circumvent her free will and impose your own?

Me - If it meant protecting her from death. Yeah, you bet I would!!

God – And what about other times in her life?

Me – What do you mean?

God – Are there any other times that you would not allow her to make her own decisions?

Me – Yes.
She is not always capable of making the right decision. Like the other day when she was making brownies in her Easy Bake Oven. When they were done, she was about to stick her bare hand inside the oven to take out the hot pan. We stopped her and told her to use the tool that the manufacturer provided.

God – Why would you not allow her to put her bare hand in the oven?

Me – Because I knew that it would hurt her.

God – I see. So you can circumvent her free will when you know that it is needed to prevent her from harm.

Me – Sure, there are plenty of times like this. She is only 8 ya know.

God – Yes. I created her ya know. Are there any other times that you don’t allow her to do what she wants to do?

Me – Well, sure there are.

God – Like what?

Me –Right now, she attends public school. But there will probably come a time when we will pull her from public school and either home school her or get her into one of those public schools through the internet.

God – And why would you do that?

Me – We don’t want the public school system to ram homosexuality, and evolution down her throat. We want her to know you and learn the truth about how she should be and how to world was created. Lots of junk in public schools ya know.

God – Aren’t your interfering with her life?

Me - Well... yes. But she does not know what is best for her? She does not know what school she should attend, Or what kind of education she needs. We make these decisions for her because she does not know what is best for her and we do.

God – Do you allow her to make her own decisions as well?

Me - Sure. She makes more and more decisions on her own as she gets older. She sometimes makes her own breakfast now. The other day, she even made me nachos.

God – :) I know you love your Nachos.

Me - Sometimes we even allow her to do things that we know are not going to work out very well so that she can learn that she needs to do it differently next time.

God – It sounds like you are a pretty good parent my son.

Sometimes you make decisions that will protect your daughter.
Sometimes you direct her life in the way that you know it needs to go.
Sometimes you allow her to make her own decisions.
Sometimes you allow her to make decisions that you know are mistakes because you know that it’s the only way that she will learn from them.

But in everything, you are right there beside her to keep her from harm, even willing to give your own life for her, because you love her with all your heart.

Me – Yes, but what about us?

God - Don’t you see my son? This is exactly how I work with my kids.

How to not get anything done

It has been a little while since I have written anything. My apologies for that.

What I want to talk about today is actually something that I have had in my mind for a long time. As Christians, we have it really good. We have a big huge God that can, and does, do big huge things.

Our God is the biggest, baddest, coolest, most creative, God out there. Ok, actually he is the only God out there. But you get my point, right?

As Christians, we have access to everything that God has to offer. We should be running the best and most successful businesses. We should be the most creative people around. We should be coming up with the best ideas. The unsaved should be coming to us for wisdom and advice.

But this does not seem to be happening. In the non-Christian world, people get things done. If you have a good idea, and you are not afraid, you just get out there and do it. It takes hard work and persistence, but they stick with it, and dont give up, they get things done.

I think that we as Christians need to take a lesson from the non-Christians. They get things done. We dont. Why is this?

One of the biggest excuses I hear for this is; "Im praying about it", or "Im waiting on God". Or the double whammy, which is just combining the two. I am praying about it and waiting on God.

It reminds me of the Double Dog dare in reverse. You remember the Double Dog Dare right? Its from the movie; "The Christmas Story". The one with that great old line; "You'll shoot your eye out!

When I hear this double whammy, I can just about put money on it that they will never go anything about their idea.

I hear this all the time. Christians that have good ideas for ministries, and businesses. I ask them about their ideas and they tell me that they are waiting on God. 10 years goes by and I see that person still has not done anything. So I ask them again and again they give me the same answer. "Oh, Im still waiting on God and praying about it.

What they really mean is; "its just too hard and Im afraid to try. So Im going to sit right here on my brains and pin the excuse on God."

But why is it that we do this? Why do we use God as a crutch and excuse to fail? You remember that old saying right? You can only fail when you dont try.

Im not saying that we should not wait on God. Im not even saying that we should not pray about things. What I am saying is that we seem to not want to try. Be it because of the fear of failure, or laziness or whatever. Then when the idea that we had does not pan out because we never even bothered to try, we can use God as a Scape Goat.

Its God's fault because he never gave me the green light to create the business. Its God's fault because he never answered my prayer. I love those commercials on TV where you see a man and a woman that just met for a blind date. They both say something to the other person that is all polite. But then you see a caption balloon above their head that tells us what they really meant.

What those people really mean to say is; "God never parted the clouds, like on Monty Python, and told me in a

loud booming voice that I was to go and start that business." "I got tired of waiting. Im angry now that God never answered. So Im going to just do nothing out of spite. That will show God who is boss round here. And the best part is that I can put all the blame on him by using the excuse that Im praying about it and Waiting on God."

In my next blog entry I will cover some ideas on why we do this, why its not God, and how to fix it.

Im praying about this next blog and waiting on God !

:)

Rocking to Jesus - Are we sure that only Christians know the tune?

I am a studyer of people. Its just a hobby of mine. I like to study people's habits, their lifestyles, what makes us do the things that we do.

There is so much that you can learn about a person by what they wear, how they carry themselves, how they walk, how they talk etc..

It sort of flies in the face of that old saying that you can't judge a book by its cover.

You can even tell a lot about a person by the color of their hair. I know it sounds like stereotyping people, but there is really something to it.

Today, and for a while now, what is interesting to me is this rocking motion that I see a lot of Christians do when they are praying. People that make this rocking motion seem to be somehow caught up in Jesus. Some sort of mystical connection.

They just seem to lose themselves in the moment and rock out to Jesus. Maybe you have seen it. I see people doing this in Church sometimes. I see it elsewhere from time to time as well But mostly, its in Church.

They rock their bodies forward and then back upright. Usually they seem to do it to a tempo. Its like they are hearing a unheard beat of some sort. Usually, people that do this do it over and over and over again for a time.

There seems to be no pattern to it other than the people that I have seen do it usually do it at a pretty fast tempo.

This behavior has always fascinated me. Personally, I have never had to urge or feeling that I needed to rock. I find it odd. But I have seen so many do it that Im sure there must be a reason behind it.

And this b behavior is not just a Christian thing either. The main place I have seen this before is among Jews at the wailing wall in Israel.

You Tube Video of Jews rocking out at the wailing wall.

They make this rocking motion as they pray and read their bibles. I do not know why they do it.

What I do know is this behavior is not exclusive to Christians. Its also not exclusive to Jews. There are many religions that make this rocking motion when they are praying or in tune with God.

I think this is one of the best examples that Christians don't have exclusive rights on God. This rocking motion would seem to prove that their are way more people than we thought that are tuning in God. Perhaps they just know him by a different name?