Instr. for Revolution 4: Get Intel

If you've gathered no intel and are already “shooting” you've adapted the ludicrous Hollywood-style strategy a friend of mine likes to call the “S.A.C.” or “Scream and Charge” strategy. I have news for you, this only works if you have some idea what is waiting for you on the other side. You might think this is pretty obvious for a battle, though it is far less obvious for human relationships. In attempting to win the friendship or good will of persons who have repeatedly repulsed your advances, spoken ill of you and have no respect for you; dropping by for a random visit or a giant bear hug are probably going to be heavy handed 'weapons' for winning them over. The result may be about as pretty as charging a machinegun nest across an open field.

What do we look for against our tyrannies? Vulnerabilities. The random drop by is only going to work on a needy person, a vulnerable person, a person willing to genuinely admit “defeat” (wrongness, illegal actions or what have you.). It is no coincidence that Jesus won souls from those who were willing to admit they were “sick”, He didn't come to heal the healthy (the self-righteous, the spiritually rebellious, the spiritually “undefeated”) but rather the sick.

It is necessary therefore, to be sensitive to persons, to listen to the data, hear the recon, listen to the reports etc and appraise where your enemy stands. Remember that you do not need to annihilate an enemy to win the battle. Seeking out vulnerabilities is not to destroy and enslave your tyrant, that would again, merely be to make oneself a tyrant in his place. Seeking out vulnerabilities in personal relationships is not for the purpose of exploiting them cruelly. Listening to information and using it to pull someone out of deception and delusion is one thing, listening to information and maybe embellishing it to everybody else is another.

Similarly, utterly destroying an enemy's army by means of tactical maneuver from good intelligence is not cruel, it is simply good fighting. Even a defeated soldier can respect, in principle, the superior strategem of his enemy (should it have been the genuine cause of defeat).

Gloating likewise, is worthless. Fighting for bragging rights is the stuff of unruly schoolboys, and even invites the judgement of providence. Superior strategem does not always win over time and chance, which are far more powerful. Khan's army sank before it reached China. Napoleon and Hitler were defeated by the Russian winter. A host of historical horrors should be enough to hold the haughty in humility.

The bottom line is this: get intelligence about your enemy and take it seriously. Don't let arrogance, sentimentality, emotions or memories of the past lead you into terrible defeats. Listen to everyone, even your opponent may give away a hint about his or her weaknesses. Take counsel and advice. Listen to everybody, but do not trust everybody. And remember, you are gaining knowledge to destroy tyranny, not to take it over.

Inst. for Revolution 3: Don't be Defeated Early

You will probably succumb at first to the temptation, in your moral outrage, to use the wrong weapons for the task. It is human to become angry for combat; but combat is best waged without the heat of emotion and rather with the coolness of calculation and cunning. For interpersonal relationships, anger against tyranny all too frequently results in an unwarranted escalation of force. Using the wrong kind of force has the potential to weaken or even destroy your cause, or at least to destroy its credibility.

For example, those wishing to impose a supposed moral Sharia Law upon a people, and these same people attempting to achieve this end by suicide bombings on women and children must be treated as fundamentally deranged in their thinking.

But just as some weapons are categorically wrong for the wrong kind of battle, so also can some weapons be unproductive, inhuman(e) or cruel. Strangely enough, even some weapons of physical warfare bear this stigma, such as anti-personnel mines (landmines) or chemical, biological or nuclear weapons, suicide attacks, torture. By contrast, in relationships these categorically 'cruel' weapons are used all the time: threats, insults, lies, gossip etc. In politics; blackmail, lies, smear campaigns. In spiritual battles; lies, intimidation, threats, temptations, accusations, discouragements and so on. If you resort to these weapons, you are perpetuating the tyranny. Life is full of combat, but there are ways to fight, and there are ways not to fight. Don't let your moral outrage turn into a vicious revenge. Even if you win, you have lost.

You will probably also succumb at various points to the temptation to despair. One of the best, most common, and most rotten ways evil uses to defuse attacks against itself is simply convincing others or the attacker himself that he or she is the evil one. One of the greatest ways of achieving this is to make pretences of peacefulness and then accuse the opponent of perpetuating the conflict when he or she refuses to accept a compromise with an untenably evil state of affairs. To word this again differently, the enemy will pretend to be your friend or have your interests at stake when really they have none, and when you refuse to compromise, they will attempt to make you look like the bad guy. Terrorists (Hamas), communists (Mao) and fascists (Hitler) have been pulling this for years, being diplomatic with one handshake and firmly clasping a dagger in the other hand.

I have always loved Ezra 4 as an illustration of how evil operates. The enemy will always try to identify his evil with your cause, appearing to put you on similar ground (destroying the purity of your values and thus attempting to undermine your will to fight). If that fails, they will resort to any amount of lies, intimidation, threats and fear mongering to destroy your morale.

This is why when one enters into combat with tyranny, the firmness of one's values must be continually remembered. “It is a hard heart that kills. If your killer instincts are not good and clean, you will hesitate in the moment of truth.” as the foul mouthed Sergeant Hartman says in Full Metal Jacket. He's right. If you don't know why you're there, or your commitment is weak, you're already finished. The enemy will find its way into your mind, defuse your will to fight and you will fail.

Furthermore, if you start the fight thinking that it is merely a disagreement, and not combat, you are really in for a world of hurt (see: “The Little Black Book of Violence”). Your enemy has probably “killed” before, he's a tyrant after all. Don't lose your stomach when the fight isn't cordial or pretty anymore, when the enemy then accuses you of being the malicious monster “he always knew you were after all”. It is a scare tactic designed to throw you off your game, and you off his back. Your enemy is trying to “kill” you (control you, exploit you, enslave you, whatever the tyranny may be), don't kid yourself. Combat is not the time for hesitation. Bring out your appropriate and/or sanctioned "weapons", stand your "ground", establish your "beachhead".

Instructions for Revolution: 2. Choose Your Weapons Carefully

The sparks of revolution are predicated by moral outrage and/or despair. The unreasonableness and outright immorality of tyranny reach a fever pitch, provoking the oppressed and/or offended party to action. This is when “violence” begins.

In speaking about the kingdom of heaven and the tyranny of the Old Testament Law, Jesus said,

“...from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and violent men take it by force. For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John (Matt 11:12-13, See also Luke 16:16).” Jesus was speaking on the one hand, about the pharisees, who had been trying to force their way into the kingdom of heaven through their personal righteousness, by trying to obey the prophets and the Law. But Jesus Himself denied that it was possible to reach the kingdom of heaven with the righteousness of the pharisees. On the other hand, Jesus was speaking about the violence with which His true followers were entering the kingdom of heaven. Martin Luther, the spiritual reformer, spoke of the aggression and boldness with which the Christian was able to enter the Kingdom of God due to the death and resurrection of Christ, the violence, he might say, of entering the kindgom of God by grace through faith alone. As Ephesians 3:12 states, “we have boldness and confident access through faith in Christ.”

The lesson here in particular is the kind of violence being used. You cannot access spiritual victory over tyranny by means of physical, emotional or mental labours. Just as you cannot be reborn or have a revolution into a new system by means of a likewise tainted source, neither will corruption overcome corruption. The project of the pharisees therefore would inevitably end in failure. Using the law to combat spiritual death was a lesson in futility. It is incomparably absurd, like literally trying to destroy a tank with a team of lawyers; what we would call a categorical error. Violence must be of the right degree, as well as the right kind if it is to end tyranny.

Jesus knew the right weapon against the power of death: Himself. When accused (unjustly) of being the 'rule of demons', Jesus simply stated that if Satan was casting out his own demons, his kingdom of death would not stand (Matt12:26). With His miracles and status as the incarnate God, Jesus indicated that He Himself was not just a force against the tyranny of sin and death, but also the only 'weapon' against such forces,

"But if I cast out demons by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God has come upon you. Or how can anyone enter the strong man's home and carry off his property, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house. He who is not with Me is against Me; and he who does not gather with Me scatters (Matt 12:28-30)."

If this were anybody but God in the flesh, I guarantee you he'd be another tyrant, amongst other not so good things. It's no coincidence that then Jesus stated the consequence of forsaking the Spirit of God as sure damnation (Matt 12:31). Crudely put, if you discard your only effective weapon against a deadly threat, annihilation is only a matter of time.

My point is this, you must accurately appraise the kind of threat being posed by the tyranny you face. Is it physical, mental, emotional, spiritual? Is it other or self or both? A tyranny may in fact pose a threat to all of these, but the tyranny itself, the source of the tyranny must be identified and uprooted. Sometimes it is necessary to uproot one tyranny before dismantling another. It is quite common that before spiritual, mental or emotional liberation can occur, physical safety or health is necessary. But this is not always the case. Once you know what you are destroying, then you know what to pick up, the pen, the Bible, the rifle, or a plate of cookies.

It is my belief that spiritual tyranny is the root cause of all tyranny. This kind of tyranny cannot be directly combatted by any other means than the gospel. However, there are now other moral challenges and realities we must face in a world devastated by human moral failure and rebellion against the rulership of God. Spiritual death has afflicted every part of human existence; there is now also a moral imperative that there are mouths to feed, broken hearts to nurture, minds shattered and helpless people to protect. To ignore one is to ignore another. But that's a topic for an entirely different post.

Hoped you enjoyed this slice. More to follow.

Instructions for Revolution: Part 1

After writing a post on tyranny, I thought it would be profitable to post something about how I thus far understand, in my inexperience, how tyrannies are destroyed.

I say "destroyed" because make no mistake, in order to stop tyranny in any of its corporeal or noncorporeal (physical or nonphysical) forms you will be engaged in battle. When I say "destroyed" however, I do not necessarily mean that the entire nation or person must be erased, but that it is reduced to a state in which it can no longer exert its malevolent control over your person or persons.

History illustrates that war is not a battle unto complete annihilation of one side. As John McCain recently aptly pointed out of the current war in Afghanistan and terror in general, war is "a battle of wills". When one side has lost the will to fight, the war is over. A nation may lose the will to fight because it cannot stand casualties or seemingly unnecessary expenses (which would seem to be our current situation), or perhaps it has lost the will to fight because its general has been captured or killed in battle (This was Alexander the Great's favourite tactic), or perhaps most commonly, the nation has lost the ability to effectively put up a fight and thus surrenders to avoid disastrous damage to its homeland (Partly the issue for Imperial Japan in 1945).

The first step to destroying any system of governance (Tyrannical or not) is to destroy its values, the values held in the hearts of the people or person it governs. This holds two functions, it destroys the ability of the governance to control and manipulate by what rewards it offers for compliance. Secondly, undermining or proving false the values of a system and replacing them gains a convert or converts to the new ideology which then has:

a) The will to fight against what it now recognizes as falsehood, and;

b) The resilience to reject bribes or settlements from the tyranny.

A sure sign that you are dealing with a tyranny is that its values are not centred around the value of truth. Usually this takes the form of appealing to humanity's dark nature: self praise, material possessions, self-gratification etc. It may not be so very obvious though, and deception wouldn't be deception if it didn't try to hide itself at least a little. At the end of my last post I gave some indication of where good governance stands. I argue that humanity does have an inherently dark nature (some political systems will attempt to make you place abundant faith in man's or a single man's/party's overall goodness, like communism or fascism or totalitarianism). What are the signs of good governance?

a)Where there are signs that a person or persons is/are working against the grain of their darker moral nature(s); When the values of the government, expressed by word and deed are in line with, and reflect a primary interest in inalterable universal moral principles.

For example, liberty should have been to all people in the United States from the moment the constitution (a reflection of a nation's values) stated “All men are created equal”. But racism, like any other human crime, is a neverending battle, the Civil War was a major turning point for the United States, and the seeds of that victory gave men like Martin Luther King Jr., the liberty to further demolish ingrained racist tendencies and structures in American Society.

King was able to do what he did because of the revolution in American thinking that men like Abraham Lincoln fought for so desperately. The point stands however, that the encapsulated moral values of the US constitution have made it the bastion of liberty (all cynicism aside) that it is today. Anyone questioning that liberty, at least as it stands today, needs to have a look around the world. Of course, liberty is not something one can leave to the vagaries of human nature lest it be lost.

b) The first sign of good governance was the 'easy' part. The real test is truthfulness; the truthfulness of its ideas. Even presuming that your personal or national governance tells the truth about its intentions, and thinks that its moral stance is best, its moral stance may not reflect truthful values. I have already argued that the best governance comes from universal objective moral principles, and a large part of my reason for doing so is the fact that these kinds of principles are the least susceptible to common human weaknesses. Moral principles are not physical substances, so they rely indirectly for false or truthful fulfilment. What I mean is that the payoff from moral principles is one step removed from say the reward of millions of dollars in illicit cash. It is terribly easy to be bought off by millions of dollars in cash, while manipulating based on moral principles requires more leg work.

The safety of moral principles as a system of value is that in order to achieve effective governance they must be believed by the people or person being governed/tyrannized. Simply put, it is harder to convince someone to your ideology than it is to just pay out some kind of direct bribe (wealth, health, etc.)

The dangerous and powerful aspect of moral principles as a system of value is that if adopted over and above those baser human desires, it produces an adherent (for good or ill) which will be far more likely to remain fanatically loyal to the principle, since the moral principle goes far beyond the individual interest and stretches to the universal.

For example, fighting for “freedom” can be a great and good thing wielded by a genuine leader and can spur political, diplomatic or military action, but wielded by a deceitful or self-interested ruler 'freedom' or 'democracy' can be code words for enslavement. The Nazi's did not call themselves fascists, they were called “National Socialists”. The murderous communist regime of Russia likewise called itself the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics”. Under less extreme conditions, some socialist ideas can produce compassionate social change. Unbridled faith in a communist or National Socialist ideal; does not.

What causes then, an unbridled faith in certain principles to lead to the very disaster the creator may have intended to avoid? Friedrich Nietzsche probably wouldn't have been thrilled to learn that key parts of his philosophies had been adopted in hearty approval by Nazi Germany. The key problem is not precisely the ideal scenario philosophy, it is the factors that we decide to put faith in to make the 'ideal scenario' a reality. An edifice planned to be invulnerable cannot be built with vulnerable parts. A pure glass of water cannot be poured using contaminated water.

If we allow that human beings are fundamentally flawed creatures which tend toward evil rather than good (I leave that to your examination) then a system of governance which places excessive faith in an individual (even self), a ruler, a party or even in fact many people (Plato called democracy the worst form of government! I don't, for the record.) we are bound to end up in disaster. Additionally, we must concede that the 'ideal' scenario or utopia, can never exist. As a corollary, or side point, we must also concede that excessive faith in any factor which can be manipulated by human intervention or dependent upon human satisfaction (eg. Technology, economic prosperity, disco robots) will also fail as a means of creating utopia.

The consequence of the above paragraph is that in order for faith or trust to be well rested in an idea, the idea must rest in a true appraisal of its objects of concern. That is a general philosophical way of saying that if you want to govern human beings, you have to have a realistic or truthful notion about who human beings are, what they need, how they interact, what they are, and are not capable of and especially, how they are flawed. Thus the lament of Solomon in Ecclesiastes 5:8, “If you see oppression of the poor and denial of justice and righteousness in the province, do not be shocked at the sight, for one official watches over another official, and there are higher officials over them.”

Solomon's disparaging message about human nature is a problem which evokes spiritual despair at the spiritual condition of humanity, at the condition of self before God. But politically speaking it is not something to cause us terrible anguish. Solomon's check and balance measure is just a few lines earlier in Eccl 4:9-13, where he expresses the power and survivability of a team working together. Although “one sinner can destroy much good” as Solomon said elsewhere, Eccl 4:12 tells us that “a cord of three strands is not easily broken”.

Although one cannot make an invulnerable armour out of that which is vulnerable, something very strong can be made out of many vulnerable parts. A kevlar vest is made of synthetic fibres woven together. It may not be invulnerable, but it has the power to slow or even stop a piece of pointed lead travelling at incredible speed.

The 'excessive' faith ideologies that I have mentioned are good examples of ideologies which, regardless of their moral stance, have failed the truth test of good governance. Promises are empty if they are based on a false sense of who we are as human beings; and they may even indicate a ruler waiting to exploit his advantage to create a tyranny.

I've already yakked long enough but maybe I'm making up for a couple month's posting. There's just one more thing. You don't really have to be a philosopher to weigh out all the ideas, in fact if you get caught up with just theories, you'll be lead astray. Perhaps the best way is to follow the guidelines that Christ gave when he said, “You shall know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes, nor figs from thistles, are they?” (Matthew 7:16)

The Pharisees had all sorts of moral rules for Jews but Jesus consistently saw through their hypocrisy and saw that although they “washed the outside of the cup” they did not wash the inner. The claims for morality did not match the inward reality of love for God and neighbour. The golden rule of treating others the way you wanted to be treated was the “Law and the prophets” (7:12), not the empty commandments of legalism.

It's kind of common sense that there's something fundamentally flawed with an ideology or value system that says one thing and does another; or claims to be good but all it does is oppress. That being said, its still easier said than done to ascertain the standing of a way of thinking. Tread carefully but decisively when it comes time to consider starting a war against tyranny. You may have to adopt an entirely new sight picture before you start shooting.

My idea in this first installment has not been to lay out to you the reader all the ways in which an ideology may be true or false. That is the task of a lifetime. You probably already have a good idea where I place my abundant faith, but that isn't really the point either. The truly difficult part of revolution is ascertaining the one's own values in relation to the values of the supposed tyranny, whether that tyranny is spiritual, mental, national, familial etc.

If one is not careful in this step, the project is misguided. An untruthful value system, no matter its promises of morality, will in the degree of its delusion, so also promote destruction and of course, tyranny. Just as demons can be cast out of a person and the demon return with seven worse than the first return, as Lenin replaced the self-centred Czarist system with murderous communism, so also can we be guilty of enslaving ourselves or others to an even worse conclusion than the first. Unbridled faith in an ideal can lead to tyranny. Unbridled faith in one's own revolution can be too.

Tyranny & Delusion

Tyranny is vicious, twisted and deluded as it is deceitful. Tyranny often attempts to force adherence from its subjects by conceptually replacing the higher with the lower; but by means of using the conceptual name of the higher for the sake of the lower. In English what's meant here is that tyranny always involves a selfishness, which is the lower concept, but this is disguised with the good of the many or at worst, the spiritual, the Divine. It appears to offer what you need or want, or will create the need or want that it can fulfil (like a cult).

You will encounter various types of tyrants in life; not just political ones. We may have been or may still be tyrants ourselves. It can be ideological, relational, physical, emotional...and so on.

It is the mark of a deluded person that he or she does not see it possible or reasonable that he or she could be deluded. But what really makes tyranny, evil & delusion so maddening and darkly comical is that it always whines longest and loudest about tyranny, evil & delusion. These are the first people to complain, point the finger and loudly accuse; especially when they do it against those who are trying to solve the problem. Those who make accusations of fear mongering, control, manipulation and coercion often follow the same crude rule of "He who smelled it dealt it".

But the truly different thing about tyranny as opposed to common delusion is its aggressive nature. Tyranny happens when a person, either by self-delusion or by knowing selfishness, exploits others or even self for the sake of something falsely considered to be valuable. Tactically speaking, this plays out by misleading others into also misplacing their sense of value.

The tyrant, for example, may believe that money, power, fame, sex, family, religion, ideology or the glory of some perceived atheistic society or religious utopia are the ultimate values for which he or everyone else including him, or everyone but him for the sake of him, must buy into. So, the tyrant embarks on a process of reeducation, convincing his family, or nation, or church, or even himself that the things which his delusion values are supremely valuable and are worth giving up things that most of us would consider inalienable rights.

You might think it strange that I say that we can tyrannize ourselves, but like I said, tyranny isn't just about that Persian guy you learned about from the 300 Spartans or about even something physically present or corporeal. We can be enslaved to many things that aren't even people.

It's okay to give up your "inalienable rights". It's okay to die for something, or give up yourself for somebody else, in fact it can be downright heroic. You just have to do a little searching about what's really valuable in life. If you value the wrong things or the right things even in the wrong order, you will be exploited by someone or something. If you value nothing, you'll be impoverished (and a liar I'd say). Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

Like it or not, everyone has a master. There are good masters and bad masters. I'm hedging my bets that the best master is first the one that loves you before himself and his projects or ideas. I think that is a model for following inasmuch as it is leading. I think it is the difference between a Lord and a Tyrant.

it ain't personal, its just business

I have to respect the ability of crimelords to manage their politics, alliances and enemies and figure that there are plenty of these kinds of people who really exist. That takes guts! The guys who do well have common sense, savvy and a wealth of cleverness. You might even call them courageous, some call them heroes.

Outlaws or terrorists or gang bangers whatever you want, in my humble estimation will commonly...

1. claim they are victims.
2. demand respect and carry marks of honour.
3. take revenge when they are disrespected, dishonoured or wronged.
4. claim that their cause, actions and character are ultimately justified.

Conversely they allegedly...

1. Victimize others.
2. Plot to usurp and destroy competition, 'friend' or not.
3. Are instigators when the time is right for them.
4. Let others suffer and take falls to avoid losing power, soiling their own image, denying responsibility.

But don't listen to the second part its probably all lies, and after all, the government does it too anyway, we're all human. It's really sad actually, that these fellows have to endure the stress of a life of distrust & paranoia, violence, fear, and constant subterfuge. Go easy on the gangsters, its a hard knock life; they probably didn't even have a choice from the very beginning!

What Wolf and Lamb Have in Common

We could probably agree on the idea that Christians are supposed to be Jesus to the world. We could also probably agree that God isn't necessarily or often going to drop solutions from the sky when we ask for his provision, protection etc.

In this respect I think I could probably build a convincing case that would find plenty of Christians agreeing that we are Christ's witnesses, we are Jesus' life incarnate (in the flesh) to the world around us. I'd probably find a lot less agreement arguing that we are also Jesus' death incarnate.

CHRIST PUTTING THE FLESH TO DEATH
In the first sense of death here I mean something controversial to Benny Hinn and the prosperity gospel crowd but not to pretty much any other form of Christianity (though a problem for all of us all the time): carrying with you the dying of Jesus. Suffering. Trading your sorrows and pain for the joy of the Lord is good and not being crushed and all that; but you've also got to carry about "the dying of Jesus that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body" 2 Cor 4:10.

If you never got into the suffering of the cross, its likely that you're still contemplating Christianity at the "Can I play Daddy?" level of difficulty and never actually pressed on (the button :P). Or you've just remained at the "Don't hurt me" stage of comfortable lukewarmness. Jesus was no pansy looking for a fancy chariot or Miata to carry him into Jerusalem. (to his unjust but willful death)

OK. Lets get to the more racy bit.

CHRIST PUTTING HIS ENEMIES TO DEATH
Maybe your first thought is, yeah, in the second coming Jesus is going to judge the world and wipe out all those who refused Him and carried on in spite of His Lordship over all. Well I'd say, heck yeah; but I mean it a little differently here, and I'm going to use Psalm 18 to illustrate it. Jesus isn't just destroying his enemies in the future, he's putting them to death through you: right now.

Paul said in the letter to the Romans, that we should never take our own revenge, but to let God do it (Romans 12:19). So far as I know, David, the king of the Old Testament who put to death personally or under his rule, thousands of men, women, children and animals, (under orders from God) was never said to have taken his own revenge. He was tempted: recall the story of Abigail and Nabal. Abigail restrained David's vengeance, God ended up striking that "worthless fellow" Nabal dead.

Taking your own revenge is the attitude of the heart that says "Bring 'em on!" it is a selfishness that does not respect the Lordship of God in justice; vengeance is His.

PSALM 18 - "I AM DEATH INCARNATE"
So what was different about David?
I can't do a big analysis of the entire chapter here but it would be really beneficial. I'm going to present some interesting point-counterpoints to ponder.

a) David crys for help and God hears (v.6) : The enemies of David cry for help and are ignored (v.41)

b) David is terrified and surrounded in darkness and death (v.4-5) : God comes in darkness and terror to bring death to David's enemies (v.7-15)

c) David says he was righteous and thus God saved him and brought him out of darkness (v.20-28) : David says it was God who made him righteous (v.32)

d) David says that God delivered him from and destroyed his enemies, taking vengeance for him (17-19, 39-40, 47-48) : David says that he destroyed those who hated him (39-45)

e) David calls his enemies violent (48) : David brutally beats his enemies to death (42)

Now you can take the route of saying that these are all contradictions and walk away from Jesus real fast. Don't, they aren't, (they disappear in the unity). God hears his children, and is going to destroy and IS destroying his enemies.

True Christians pass through death and bring it to their enemies in justice; all others & fakers create it because their father the devil is a murderer and has been from the beginning. But it is this latter people, mystically speaking, that has been raised up for the sole purpose of making wood for the fire, (Psalm 92:5-7).


David was a master in the art of destroying God's enemies. He was so good at it that he was described, with his mighty men, as a mother bear robbed of her cubs; fierce. He was not allowed to build the temple because he was a 'man of blood'. His forefather Jacob ?cursed? David's tribe (Benjamin) saying "Benjamin is a ravenous wolf; in the morning he devours the prey, And in the evening he divides the spoil." (Genesis 49:27)

But here's the rub: he was "a man after God's own heart", and the greatest king Israel ever had. But he knew he was not the Supreme King of the spiritual people of Israel, he lived under the wing of Jesus Christ, wore the cloak of righteousness Jesus wore by grace through faith, and under His command and lordship David was life and death incarnate.

"...behold I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades" (Rev 1:18)

Are you a wolf in the sheep's clothing or a sheep in wolf's clothing? Both love and kill. The former is made for death, the latter for life. You cannot live by the sword; it is a weapon wielded only by right authority; but you can live under right authority and wield the sword. (Romans 12:1-6)

If you do not live under the Lamb and live by the sword; expect the sword: across your throat.

You're ministers of life, you've heard that; but I say you're also ministers of death.

Save a lamb: kill a lion.

Bob Ross and Christian Existentialism

Who didn't like relaxing to the sounds of Bob Ross' (1942-1995) soothing voice and seeing the amazing transformation of the canvas with some simple brushstrokes?

After watching some videos there's a few things I've gleaned from Bob Ross as I filter them through my own worldview.

1. We don't make mistakes, we just have happy little accidents.

Now right away I want to say, we actually DO make "mistakes", and pretty awful ones at that (Romans 6:23), but if you believe that God is ultimately in control of all history and all events (Isaiah 45:7...amongst many others) and that God has a plan for your life which cannot be thwarted and you are open to this, then Bob Ross is absolutely right. In life, as well as paintings, at a metaphysical level, or a divine level, (in God's eyes via Christ) we don't make mistakes, we just have happy little accidents. (If I might be so blasphemous)

If you make mistakes in life, or on the canvas, don't brood on whats been done. Chances are, you've already learned from it, and better still, its already time to get moving again. You might be surprised what beautiful things can come out of what look on life's canvas to be terrible errors or deviations from "the plan". All things work together for good for those that love God and are called according to His purpose. (Romans 8:28) God didn't save us so we could beat ourselves up for our lack of holiness, but so that we could share with him the joy of recreating the world in His image.

2. If it makes you happy, do it; and do your best at it, because that is how we make others happy.

Again I can take a bunch of verses out of context and preach some kind of convoluted heretical sermon leading you to moral corruption; but of course what I'm meaning is that the conscience and squawking voices from others can condition our thinking about what we ought to be doing with our lives.

I can't tell you how many times I've read examples of people who have given up everything or taken enormous risks to do what made them happy; and when they did, it made them heroes and benefactors for the rest of humanity and in some cases, great servants of God. This is just general wisdom: don't do something if it makes you miserable. It might sound stupidly simple, but I do not think it a great leap to say that a great many people are miserable in what they do but don't change their job or change their attitudes.

You can waste a lot of time being miserable doing something you hate or doubting something you love. Do what makes you happy, "Lets have a little fun." and do your best at it, and it will make others happy. Don't be ashamed of it. Bob often talked about being who you are when you paint: you have to do the same thing when you live. God made you a beautiful scene. Its your job to present it back to Him on canvas.

3. Beat the Devil out of it!

If you've ever watched Bob Ross paint you'll know that he derives great pleasure from beating the brush after cleaning it in his "odourless thinner". You have to beat the devil out of your paintbrush daily: if you start painting with old colours and the wrong mix, your painting isn't going to look right.

The paintbrush of life? It is the heart. "Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." Proverbs 4:23

Watch what colours are getting into your brush. The wrong ingredients can choke out the colours you intended.

4. Make big decisions.

It sounded funny when Ross used to say that in his happy little paintings that "we have to make some big decisions here". But this is perhaps the most interesting little effluence from Bob Ross I have ever heard.

There are of course an infinite number of things that one could paint on a canvas. That's scary enough without realizing that one's life is exactly the same conundrum. We don't want to screw it up...so we stop painting. (Or so we think). But you are painting. There's no such thing as not making a choice. You are making a choice: a choice to do something or nothing. Each of these will have consequences. (This is an idea found in existentialism more generally as well)

Make decisions. Sin bravely as Martin Luther said so many years ago. Don't let naysaying prevent you from doing the most outlandish things: so long as you are aware of the consequences, and who you'll have to answer to in the end.

Rejoice young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be pleasant during the days of young manhood. And follow the impulses of your heart and the desires of your eyes. Yet know that God will bring you to judgement for all these things... (Ecclesiastes 11:9)

While you still have life and breath "whatever your hand finds for you to do, verily do it with all your might..." Whether you like it or not, you're painting your life. You might as well be making big decisions for God rather than letting the world, flesh and devil make them for you.

Lastly: 5. Everybody needs a (happy little) friend.

Don't try to do life on your own. You don't have to have a lot of friends, you just need a few good ones. "A man of many friends comes to ruin, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother." (Proverbs 18:24)

Conclusion

Bob Ross was in the air force for many years, and you might be surprised to learn that his soothing voice, according to Ross's wikipedia article, was once used to ream out air force personnel. You can read the short bio yourself from the link. I can't tell you if Bob Ross was a committed Christian or what he viewed as his happy little accidents in life. I can tell you this much however, that Bob Ross lived for the joy of painting. What or who am I living for, and what am I doing about it?

"God bless my friend, and goodbye for now."

Overtraining

Working out is truly great for personal morale. However, I've been doing it so much so fast lately, I've gotten myself sick.

It's a little too easy in our culture to be guilted for being a little idle. Take some time to be idle. I mean pleasantly idle. It's like meditation but you don't have to do anything. Like, no TV, no games, no books, no running around, just sit, drink something you enjoy, and stare at your cat (or something else that inspires your sense of idleness).

I am not the first to expound the evils of busy-ness. That's for sure.

Taking a Chance on a Crutch

"I've read your book and you have some serious character flaws."  Perhaps you've heard this kind of thing before.

Externalization happens when somebody refuses to take words to heart. It is a defense mechanism, indicative of cowardice (perhaps resulting from wounding); a mind that cannot accept correction because it is afraid it will break. That mind has already made an idol of itself: that it cannot rely on any Other but itself. But of course, we need each other.

So when the words come that must be internalized, in advanced cases a thickened membrane has formed over the brain that bounces back the message in the form of an attack on the source, the idea and/or blame laying of the problem to anywhere but self. (N.B. :This too can work in reverse in the "I am to blame because I secretly think that I should be able to do it all" paradigm)

The inward message is also likely to cause offense, because hey, how dare you even suggest that I am wrong? I'm wise after all. I know what's really causing the problem: its you, and that other guy, my boss, my spouse, my girlfriend, my boyfriend, my church, my in laws, my family, my dog, and the bad latte I had this morning.

There are added complications of course. When we unreflectively start blaming other sources for our problems there are inevitable contradictions in our speech. In fact, it starts out as incongruities in our stories, but ends up being externally what it is internally: lying. If we lie to ourselves we will inevitably lie to others simply to avoid the conclusion that there's something wrong with us.

The incongruities I refer to are those things which we blame as the source of ills or possible ills. It is very easy to blame circumstances or states of affairs as the source of problems or failures. For example, one could say that it is harder for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle. Therefore, being rich equals trouble. This kind of thinking will lead one into trouble, because lacking riches, it could be argued sensibly, leads to stealing, marital breakup and other social vices, which also may in turn cost you your soul. In this case of course, I'm not advocating that we all become communists but I am saying that the source of the vice is not actually in the state of affairs, but in humanity itself. (Sorry communism, humanism)

The well adjusted person, perhaps the wise person we might say, is not the one who avoids every manner of circumstance that suggests trouble, but rather is well informed about what pressures situations can bring to bear upon his or her own faulty humanity. This is why proverbs can be antithetical; worldly wisdom is on a hinge, difficult situations swing upon a personality. The person who avoids every circumstance of danger (There is a lion in the street!) we would call a coward or a sluggard. The person who charges into every circumstance of danger we would call a fool. (I'm feeling like Aristotle right now)

Many will call this the virtue of the mean (or whatever those Greeks called it). But we could also call this mediocrity, and beyond that, what exactly determines when to be mean and when not to? (I like being mean. Whats wrong with that?)

Bringing around the discussion back to the unreflective person, you'll easily see now how these various do's and don'ts actually end up being a prison for many people. They not only cower in a self made cage of mediocrity, but they also make statements to different people at different times saying wildly different things. At first they are just incongruities, but if a person wisens up at all to the ludicrous swings of the self-hinge, eventually he will start lying to avoid admitting that he is the gatekeeper.

Now here's the point to really catch I think. In order to venture out into situations that endanger any normal human being in any number of ways (like motherhood, marriage, military or star trek conventions) you must have what the externalizing person does not: internal strength from reliance on an Other. The ability to venture out into danger corresponds to one's concept of personal security. For some people it is sheer delusion, "This will never happen to me" or "love conquers all" or "I have the speed and skills with nunchucks of Chuck Norris", but for everyone it comes down to what one trusts in to keep oneself safe.

There are a whole host of things that can make you feel assured of success, and just as there are many sensible things to avoid, there are many sensible things to remedy the ills. There's just one problem: sensible things aren't eternal things. They are quite literally not eternal because they are just that...sense-able.

I want to suggest, not so subtly, that you don't have to be afraid of anything or anybody if you have a personal eternal crutch. Personally, I am not ashamed to admit that I am so lame I stumble and fall like a drunken manatee when I attempt to walk on my own. I am ashamed however, when I walk out the door without the Crutch, believing I have healed myself.

It's okay though. After I clean up the blood, I remember that after I have suffered the disaster of death, I'll never be lame again.

you really must deal with the literature!

Do you ever find it funny when an author comments on another author for"not having adequately dealt" with some particular subject?

What I mean is, the writer being scrutinized sometimes has not "adequately dealt" with some subject because it was never a subject that needed or was intended to be dealt with. For example, one could commonly beg the question from Luther, whether he adequately showed what motivates a believer to live a holy life if he is covered by divine grace.

But this question is like so many others demanding 'effective treatment' of this or that; it reveals a mind captive to a smaller way of thinking- a mind that has never really engaged with the subject. And all at once, the book loses the greatest of all credits: demonstrable inward looking wisdom.

Sometimes, declaring that more explanation must be given is comical and self defeating; it is like asking a prisoner how in the world he will make a living if he loses his iron shackles.

Dealing with the literature is important; but dealing with oneself in relation to it is indispensable.

Playing God

I've realized that computer games which engross human beings most do so by creating three things:

1. Creating worlds.
2. Creating purpose.
3. Creating community.

No other media has ever been able to do this so well. With current technology it is not only possible for computer games to imitate the reality of the spatial world, but its size of our planet as well. In addition, the placement of a character within an online community makes it possible for a human being to live out a life within a character which does not, for whatever reason, exist in reality. An online community reinforces the particular purposes of the game, connects minds and grants the ability to create relationships even in the real world.

Purpose in a game can be as simple as the annihilation of all competition to diplomacy to a combination of many different goals or threads.

What world creators will never be able to do however, is copy the infinite, the eternal which is everywhere present in the universe, in each of the said three forms.

1. Spatial infinitude
2. Purpose (meaning)
3. Psycho spiritual infinitude



The universe, I think, could be easily argued to be infinite in its scope. The space of being and non-being cannot even be understood as a complete concept, wherever we go, smaller or larger, further, closer, we are infinitely confronted by the infinite. Before we saw the vast expanses of space, we already had the strange concept of infinity in mathematics. It has not left science as a strange problem. I do not think it will.

Games do something that books and movies do not: they create purposes and meaning specifically for the individual playing the game. But games created by human beings for human beings can never reach beyond the level of the human; additionally, purpose in a game is rooted in the game itself, and consequently goes no further than the game itself and the skill it requires.

Game characters will never expend the character pool of real individuals in the world, nor will character relationships be able to replicate fully the relations of those human beings who exist and interact in the real world. In other words, you are unique, and no matter how many characters are invented, they will never expend the uniqueness of human individuals as it astoundingly crops up from one generation to the next.

My point is not a denunciation of the versatility of games nor a perpetuation of their undervalued status as an absolutely unrivalled artistically holistic art form. Human beings integrate and can modify the gaming experience for their entertainment in such a radical way that it can be nearly unrecognizable from the original party which created the game. Games are extremely 'moddable' - which is what makes them powerful; but it is also what makes them dangerous. Electronic gaming is the most powerful psychotropic drug known to humankind and the greatest distraction from reality ever devised; its capacity to mimic eternity grows with each passing day.

Imitation, it has been said, is the sincerest form of flattery. Art imitates infinitude (that's what we really meant by "art imitates life"). Celebrate art. Celebrate good games like you would good film, good music, good paintings.

But imitation can not only be flattery: it can be supreme deceit. Games aren't real, but they can still take away a life; and a fulfilled eternity.

Book Burning

Don't believe people when they tell you that book burning is something only fascists do. Nonsense! Communists do it too. "Tolerance" would have us outlawing "hate" speech before it hits the press (it's shameful that the Bible, Talmud or Koran make such nasty value statements). Religious doubters, believers and deniers alike have been enjoying a good word burn for years.

Books make excellent kindling after all. They are dry (hopefully) and are made of delightfully flammable materials. Torn pages from even a single book can help light a fire daily for a whole week or more!

I think you'll agree, some books are worth more burning on a fire than they are remaining in print, (age, size, illustrations can all be quite irrelevant). Instead of turning away someone cold saying "be warmed" why not heat up his limbs to the glow of a few worthless books?

Now many, perhaps the vast majority of books currently in print (there are a lot of Harlequin novels, trust me) are useless worthless trash, much like large chunks of the film industry.

OK so lets get to the real point, when is it okay to light up?
Book burning must be voluntary, it must be from one's own collection.

Now of course, certain materials, such as child pornography, nuclear weapons schematics, etc. are outlawed by government (an outside hand restricting your collection) for the protection of the public - that is the business of the government right? We might argue for more outlawed books; like 'hate' literature or ALL pornography. Yes that would probably be beneficial for society in many ways.

Is this a double standard? Government dipping into somebody's collection while I insist that we should only be allowed to burn our own books? I think the fact that God is true though every man be made a liar has something to do with it. But generally speaking (civil liberties-wise), the things that are outlawed are so because they are considered grievously close to or already violating the safety of society.

Inherent is this idea: ideas, images are not imminently dangerous until they are acted upon (acted in a holistic sense). It is generally accepted that the plans, materials and methods used to build bombs are considered so risky to life that they should not be freely disseminated. Why? Because of the minds that will make them a reality.

But you should now be touting a proud pair of dilemmas (and this is really what I wanted to talk about); First, child porn and nukes are not the only media damaging humanity, why not outlaw more? Second, who gets to decide what's right and wrong and who gets to have power with what information?

The world is a mess and the Devil would sure like to clean it up for you. Remain where you are, don't get concerned and whatever you do, don't act on any dangerous ideas; or, heaven forbid, become a fascist and start burning books.