Sunday, January 5, 2025

Jesus: Bigger Than the Future


Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega (Revelation 22:13).

God tells the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10).

Daddy God is bigger than time itself.

This is beyond our conception, something that we cannot fathom or understand on our own.

AA invites adherents to "choose your own conception of God." That is a recipe for disaster!

We have to receive the truth about God as a revelation, based on God's Word. There is no scientific experiment, there is no amount of research to help us understanding these realities.

These eternal verities are too big for our limited understanding.

Resting in this broad revelation has helped me have greater peace now than ever before.

I realize now that no matter what is going on in our minds, in our hearts, faith, our spirit, sees bigger and better things.

We can understand that God is in control, based on how He has kept his promises, first giving us His Word--literally, His Son dying on the Cross for us, and from there we can trust that He is taking care of everything, even when events don't seem to be going our way.

For too long, I saw the future as bigger than God. I worried about the future, wondering if He would be on my side, taking care of me every step of the way.

I soon realized, as I meditated more on God's Word, that it made no sense to fear tomorrow. He is bigger than my tomorrows, and I can trust Him to be there for me tomorrow, because all of my sins have been paid for--past, present, future--have been paid for. I don't have to worry about God abandoning me or rejecting me if I fail.

I don't have to know what the future holds, because I know who holds the future, and He holds me!

"28And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. 29My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. 30I and my Father are one." (John 10:28-30)

Rooted and Ground


 

"That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love ..." (Ephesians 3:17)

When we believe in Jesus, we are rooted in Him, we are grounded in Him.

We don't shake or fall away when times get tough, when we sin, fall, or fail.

And yet, for years, I used to believe that God would come or go depending on how I felt.

There was no certainty in my life, especially in regards to God's eternal love and never-ending favor for me!

I cannot tell you how many times in my life I had this constant sense of anxiety and worry.

There was this constant nagging in my mind, wondering if God would be there for me or not. 

It's really stunning to what extent I was trying to control my emotions, keep my thoughts and feelings in line so that everything around me would feel stable and security.

For the last few months, I have been learning about trauma and parent-child issues. I can attest that when I was growing up, there was a great degree of instability and insecurity.

In 1995, My mother abandoned me at the Torrance airport when I was 14 years old. She had taken us away from our father the previous year, and then she cast me off when I simply told her that I was depressed. There was no excuse or justification for what she did to me.

Today, I am no longer angry or bitter about what she did. I understand how lost and misguided she was, due to all the wrong believing she had imbibed from the AA cult. Today, I can write about what happened to me.

And AA plays a big part in this vile confusion. That terrible cult tells people that we can get shut off "from the sunlight of the spirit" when we get resentful or angry. 

Of course, that's not true.

God spoke directly to Cain after he plotted, rose up, and murdered his brother Abel. Let's not forget that God spoke directly to Jonah, even questioning him whether he was justified in being angry because God showed His true spirit in being merciful and gracious to the pagans of Nineveh (Jonah 4:9). God does not disappear or go away when we get angry. He does not leave us when we sin, fall, or fail.

We are rooted and grounded in His love!

In sad and stark contrast, any kind of separation and abandonment harms children deeply. Even my father, despite his many flaws, was really upset that my mother just threw me away like that in 1995.

That is trauma, and that fear does not go away easily. It takes time to realize that painful memories from the past have no bearing on who God is in our lives today.

He is an ever-present help for us, no matter how bad things may be around us.

The mistake I constantly made, and many Christians make as we grow in grace, is that we struggle with thoughts and feelings, as if they color or define the ultimate reality in our lives. It really doesn't matter how I feel. God is real, living and moving in our lives, even if we don't understand everything happening around us.

It's amazing how much I tried to clean up and clean out how I was feeling, what I was thinking so that I could believe that all was well, that everything was under control. Today, I am not worried about the potential chaos and upsets of tomorrow.

I am rooted and grounded in His love, and nothing can uproot me.

Friday, November 29, 2024

Are You An Alcoholic? Look For These Warning Signs (From Babylon Bee)

From the Babylon Bee

Politics·Nov 28, 2024 · BabylonBee.com
Article Image

Alcoholism is a dangerous condition affecting millions across the United States each and every year, from the poorest among us to even very powerful government officials. It's important to know when you have a problem so you can seek the help you need. Here are nine signs to look for when determining if you are an alcoholic:


  1. Your sentences often don't make sense. - If you find yourself saying things like "the significance of the passage of time" or "space connects us all," you might want to seek help.

  2. You sometimes wake up in the morning to find you posted embarrassing videos on the internet. - Drunk-posting is a sign your life is out of control.

  3. You wake up from alcohol-induced blackouts with fragmented memories of having run for president. - If you're having vague flashes of Beyonce, Lizzo, and Mark Hamill all endorsing you for president and calling you "brat," you need help.

  4. You make poor decisions like picking Tim Walz as your VP. - Alcoholism can inhibit our decision-making, and this can affect our lives and careers in negative ways.

  5. You find yourself drinking during stressful times such as difficult work days, cabinet meetings, and presidential debates. - Being drunk during big career moments is a sign you are a slave to alcohol.

  6. Your head hurts a lot in the mornings, as though you just fell out of a coconut tree. - If you find yourself saying, "Doug, get the ibuprofen" every morning, take a good, long look in the mirror.

  7. You drink in unsafe situations such as while you're in control of a motor vehicle or while you're in control of an entire country. - Driving a car, or a country, under the influence is illegal and dangerous.


Have you exhibited any of these signs, or can you think of anyone who displays any of these red flags? Make sure you get your loved one help today.


Friday, November 15, 2024

God Doesn't Leave Us When We Are Hurt or Angry


 

I will rail against this most perverse aspect of Alcoholics Anonymous until the cult is dismantled for good.

The wretched "Blue Book" (because in no way is is a BIG BOOK) tells us that if we get resentful, bitter, angry, that it shuts us off from "the sunlight of the Spirit."

That is a total lie.

God is not a fiction or a creation of our minds. He is not something that we conceive of, and then hope that He will be there for us when times are tough.

For the longest time, I felt that God was thousands of miles away when I felt bad. For years, I was convinced that I had to "feel love" or "feel warmth" in order to know that God was present.

If I felt bad, felt weird, or I was not focused on Him for whatever reason, I believed that God would go away and I would have to struggle to bring Him back.

That is a total lie.

In fact, when we are hurting, when we feel sad, we sense deep hurt or rejection, we can trust and know that He is near to us!

"The LORD is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart; and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit." (Psalm 34:18)

God does not disappear or go away when you feel bad, mad, or sad.

That is a total lie. In fact, you can know that He hears you and cares for you in your most dire straits, no matter what is happening around you.

I grappled with a very painful conflict a few days ago, and I had this sense that the pain was too great to bear, and that there was no way that I could resolve this problem. I grieved from a sense of betrayal which I had suffered, and I felt that I was all alone.

"I felt ..."

And that is the operative word, and the operative problem.

It's always that we feel abandoned, or that God is far away, but our feelings, our thoughts, our sentiments on the matter have nothing to do with God's nearness in our lives.

He is CLOSE to the brokenhearted. When you feel the most abandoned, that is the point when we must know and believe (not feel) in His love for us (1 John 4:16).

When Elijah wanted to kill himself, the Lord Himself came to Him:

"5And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. 6And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baken on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again." (1 KIngs 19:5-6)

Shame on AA for teaching hurting souls this horrible lie, that God goes away when we feel bad, that He is not near, taking care of us through all things!


Wednesday, September 18, 2024

The Destructive Fraud of Automatic Writing


 

One of the most disturbing habits in AA is the act of automatic writing.

Bill W. would literally sit down at his desk, break out the pen and paper, and he would just write whatever came to his mind.

And he believed that this was a way for God to speak to him.

This is really creepy, dangerous stuff.

My mother engaged in this nonsense frequently, too.

She believed that God was "talking to her" directly, and she would order my sister and me around based on  "The Lord said ..."

When I was a kid, I had no idea how to deal with such abuse.

Now that I am an adult, now that I have heard and received the full Gospel of Grace, I know that I can reject all this madness.

"Automatic writing" is a fraud. Such a foolish practice opens people up to oppression and misdirection from the devil, one's flesh, or the world's foolish thinking.

The last thing that I want to do is trust in my own thinking, lean on my own understanding (Proverbs 3:5)

For years, I struggled with how to walk in wisdom. I tried to figure out what to do, where to go.

I never realized how simple the Gospel is, and how simple are the directions of the Holy Spirit. When we are established in His righteousness, and we receive His peace, He can work in our lives, and give us direction (Colossians 3:15).

We don't need to give into our thinking, or the foolish, demonic ramblings of cult leaders, in order to get to the truth!

Sunday, September 1, 2024

God is Not a Concept: He's a PERSON



I cannot stress this most despicable aspect of the AA cult.

Bill W. thought it was a brilliant idea to "Choose your own conception of God."

Right away, that puts the Creator of the Universe in your head. It makes you yourself God, if you really think about it.

I have written so many times, and I will stress this again: I do not want my conception of God.

I want the truth.

I want to know a real Savior, a Redeemer, a Full-On Creator and Consumate Ruler who cares for me, for us, for everything.

For God to be God, He cannot be within the realm of our understanding.

It is that basic.

God is a Person, not some figment of our imagination.

Jesus, our Savior, is the very image of the Invisible God (Colossians 1:15)

It has taken me such a long time to divorce, to separate how I feel, what I am thinking, from the true Presence of the Living God.

Yet that growing reassurance has helped me in so many ways.

I may feel bad, I may feel good, but Daddy God does not stop loving me.

Jesus does not stop being my Savior, my Healer, my Redeemer just because I feel bad.

In stark and disturbing contrast, the AA cult teaches you that God comes and goes depending on how you feel.

That is a serious problem. That is bondage of the worst kind, and we need to resist this lie with as much courage as we can.

"Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee." (Hebrews 13:5)

Saturday, July 6, 2024

Trapped in a Cult, Jesus Sets Me Free


 

It's easy for me to make fun of people are trapped in weird systems of belief, absolute corruptions of the Gospel and God's Word.

I am really stunned at Mormons, Quakers, Jehovah's Witnesses, etc. who believe all these wrong things about Christ Jesus. How can they miss the grace of God so easily?

How could they be so easily mislead? Don't they own Bibles, and haven't they bothered to read the Bible.

And then there's me.

I was in a cult, buying into the lies of AA.

Of course, I was never an alcoholic. I never drank!

It was my mother who was obsessed with AA, who had gone into AA following the recommendations of a social worker in the late 1970s.

What a terrible thing that was.

Yes, she got sober. She often shared the story that during a champagne breakfast in 1978, she was drinking an orange juice sangria, and she felt with her spirit God say: "You don't have to drink this anymore."

Yes, I do believe that God spoke to her. I do believe that His grace was working in His life, as He works in all our lives.

However, the AA cult corrupted a true understanding of who God is.

That is what I grew up with. I grew up thinking that if I take care of my part, God will take care of everything else.

The Gospel is that He is taking care of everything! He is a living Savior who is caring for us!

But, if you go with AA, you are stuck with yours, in reality Bill W.'s, conception of God, and you are stuck on a constant merry-go-round of despair and fear, wondering if you have done enough from day to day, constantly looking at yourself, taking your inventory, trying to fix yourself, when you could not get yourself out of your drinking problem to begin with!

Jesus sets us free. He is THE living Savior. He does indeed transform us, as we behold Him (2 Corinthians 3:18)

We must not allow anyone to give us another picture of God, or delude into thinking that we can come up with our own.

I was just as caught as many others are.

Why?

I was taught this way. I had the Bible in front of me, and I was told to keep trying to be a good boy, to work the program, to follow the steps, to "try harder."

Yet the Gospel is "Rest and Receive!"

Say No to the Cult, and say Yes to Christ Jesus!