Paul's Passing Thoughts

As established in the prior sessions, it is obvious that present-day Christians could have no clue how to live biblically because the church hijacked Christianity in the 4th century and eliminated sanctification altogether. But I do think, if nothing else due to the law written on the heart of every person created by God as discussed in a prior session, that we know some basics that we can build on.

I want to start with under-law thinking. Under-law thinking is the waters we swim in; the “we” is the unregenerate, the religious, and the truly saved. It is a state of being that cannot be overcome except for the new birth. However, even those who now understand justification by new birth will have a long and hard journey climbing out of those waters and learning how to breath on dry land.

Simply stated, under law thinking seeks happiness through not breaking rules/laws, and depends on others not to break rules and laws. Rather than to make the focus on accomplishing love as a way to displace hate, the focus is the negative focus of not hating, and defining the not doing of something as an accomplishment. Hence, the recipe for becoming a good person is to stop doing things that break some rule or standard. Accomplishment is defined as something you don’t do.

This is why people rarely remember what you do right; the focus is what you didn’t do, that is, you didn’t succeed in not breaking a law. Relationally, if you love someone, it means you don’t break their laws. “If you love me, keep my commandments” now refers to everyone in your life, especially your spouse. Most, if not all, marriage counseling is based on the successful law-keeping based on each spouse’s jurisprudence. This is why marriage counseling is almost always an abject failure. The book of James states that people quarrel because of the desires that war within them. What are those desires? The desire that others obey your laws.

Furthermore, this under-law thinking is in-league with sin’s use of the law to control others through condemnation. This reality is seen clearly in nursing facilities among the aides. The aides presently residing at any given facility want the halls to run according to the way they roll. Trust me, when a new aide comes in, they can’t do anything right no matter how good they are. Why? The ruling aides want to control the new aides through condemnation and bring them into subjection in regard to how they run the halls. At home, the punishment for a husband breaking the wife’s laws is nagging, right? This under-law thinking also includes the death penalty in many cases; ie., the silent treatment. You don’t exist. I cut you out of my life, that’s why I don’t hear you talking right now. Of course, husbands also have their own punishments for breaking their personal laws. Drinking, the condoning of adultery, and various and other sentencing at their own private court hearings.

Moreover, in all cases, thanks to church, when the inevitable battles take place when everyone’s laws have been broken, the long drawn out drama of “reconciliation” must take place. Yes indeed, instead of moving on with a focus on love, the criminal offense must be revisited in some reconciliation ritual adding to the condemnation and actually thereby empowering sin. “You will never change.” Well, certainly not, every time said law has been broken and the sin has been committed, a remembrance must take place to deepen the condemnation which empowers the same sin. When you have a pet peeve (law) that your spouse continually violates, cancel the law and give the spouse permission to do it with vengeance and watch the offence go away. When you consider the dynamics of all of this, it is no wonder that reality is divisions upon division and divisions within division. Love seeks to unify, love seeks oneness,

Nothing throws gasoline on the fire of hate like the church’s promotion of a “lifestyle of repentance.” This is a focus on sin for purposes of elevating the act of Christ to end sin. This is an unmitigated metaphysical disaster. According to church orthodoxy, the propensity of man is to think of himself more highly than he ought, and this must be resisted by “owning your own sin” etc. Nothing is further from the truth. Man’s propensity is to condemn self and others. Suicide, in most cases, is the ultimate self-condemnation. People constantly struggle to raise their own self-esteem by condemning others and watch the news to compare themselves with the dregs of society which makes them look better to themselves. And, in their endeavor to control others, they will condemn with what they are guilty of because it is a readily available sin catalogue. If someone falsely accuses you of something, more than likely, they got the idea from what they do in their own life.

What’s the biblical way? Individually, we accomplish and evaluate ourselves according to a truthful assessment. High self-esteem is earned. But, remember, the world at large is out to keep your self-esteem low. Remember, sin seeks to control others through condemnation. Relationally, in regard to other people, we focus on what they bring to the table. A truthful evaluation of a person, hopefully, devalues their faults, that is, faults that are legitimate faults that break legitimate laws or laws that are self-evident to humanity. Your personal preferences are not legitimate laws. As Peter stated, patience is an act of love that covers a multitude of sins, and according to Paul, patience is empowered by focusing on what the person brings to the table, not their faults and especially faults judged faults by bogus laws.

This is a good sanctification principle: associate and fellowship with people endeavoring to build a self-esteem based on truth. Fellowship with those who seek to accomplish things. Associate with people who build.
The Problem with Life

Growing up, nothing intrigued me more than WWII movies. Here these people were, in the middle of fighting for the very survival of humanity, and in the process, were swinging to the music of the big bands, romancing, and dressing up in style, seemingly oblivious that the world was on the precipice of doom, and it was. But those WWII movies reflect reality: life is war. A war for your freedom and happiness is ongoing on the outside, and a war is ongoing inside mentally and physiologically. War defines the present reality. Sanctification is war. Life is war. In regard to some of us, our lives are good and we are thankful. But that will not last if we aren’t on a war footing. Something is always out to destroy us on many different fronts. If you consider the least common denominator, it is death and life. Even if your life is presently good, this does not mean death has declared a ceasefire. This reality transcends all of life from private personal thoughts to statecraft on a worldwide level and everything in-between.

These thoughts occurred to me while studying physiology for school. Good health requires the body to have a good internal balance. This is called “homeostasis.” But often unknown to us, this homeostasis boils down to one thing and one thing only: the war within that is constantly raging is being won by the good guys. And the good guys are not very virtuous looking; they are merciless creatures who take no prisoners.

Homeostasis is the work of the central nervous system and the endocrine system working together. One is electricity and the other is chemicals. The liaison between the two is the hypothalamus, but this article is about the immune system that is part of the endocrine system army. Let me introduce the subjects that are involved in this vicious war.

Specific immunity is the body’s reaction to a certain threat [known threats].
Non-specific immunity is the body’s reaction to anything it does not recognize as a normal body substance [shoot first and ask questions later].

Antibodies are normal body substances that recognize abnormal or unwanted substances. They attack and destroy such substances [search and destroy].
Antigens are abnormal or unwanted substances. An antigen causes the body to produce antibodies. The antibodies attack and destroy the antigens.

Phagocytes are white blood cells that digest and destroy microorganisms and other unwanted substances [they eat the enemy. It is unclear as to whether or not they are nourished by eating the organism ].

Lymphocytes are white blood cells that produce antibodies. Lymphocyte production increases as the body responds to an infection.
B lymphocytes (B cells) cause the production of antibodies that circulate in the plasma. The antibodies react to specific antigens.

T lymphocytes (T cells) destroy invading cells. Known as “killer T cells,” they produce poisons near the invading cells [chemical warfare]. They also call on other cells to then do mopping up operations [probably via cannibalism].

Every day that we feel great is due to the good guys winning the violent war within that involves innumerable troops. The death toll in one person, and in one day, far surpasses the casualties of all wars together in human history. When discussing cells, we are not talking about small numbers. A single person has about 100 trillion cells, and about ten times more of micro-organisms.

However, though this war is automatically fought by intelligent cells apart from our knowledge altogether, we can aid the internal army by making good choices. These choices that properly equip our army involves the following: knowing what brings life and death, and knowing that the rules cannot be changed. These choices range from what we eat and drink, to what we think which leads to what we believe. For example, if we believe the wrong things, especially things that can cause fear, the central nervous system starts partaking in a fools errand and wasting other resources.

Stubborn people don’t know who or what their friends and enemies are, they are unwise in regard to what brings life and death, and they don’t understand how the world works; they think they can change the rules. Where would we begin to cite examples from the big picture of statecraft politics to the homeless drug addict?

Much could be discussed here, but the Bible states that internal misguided desires compel people to choose death instead of life while thinking they can change the rules of how the world works. Or, sadly, the misguided desire has gained so much power in their lives that they are willing to choose death to have said desire for one more moment. That’s a bad idea.

And for the rest of us, we fall into the ignorant idea that happiness means that death has agreed to a ceasefire.

So, why this life? Because Christ came to put an end to this war we call life, and we are His compatriots in that endeavor. Christ has also come to make all of the division one. Who we are and how we live points to the day when our brother and king will bring war to an end. Future hope is why we can be happy in the midst of this war.

Whether having a successful marriage, or raising children successfully, it would seem to help to know why we do such things. The marriage question brings an easier answer than the children question. We get married for companionship and standing together in doing life. But tradition aside, few people really know why they have children, and when they do know, the reasoning is disastrous. For example, if you are having children to “complete your marriage,” your marriage is already doomed. The little completers eventually grow up and move out and will probably only call when they need something.
We have children to build families which are critical to doing life. Families are people within a group that work together to maneuver through life. People within a family contribute to that cause and also contribute in some way to humanity overall. The focus of raising a child is to prepare them to be all they can be; to prepare them to be the best them. In order to do this, they must be taught what the world is and how it works. They must be taught what the purpose of life is and what will give them wellbeing.

We can discuss some very basic things here. First, they must be taught that they were created to be free and the world is out to steal their freedom. Secondly, they must be taught that they were created to produce, and personal wellbeing is found in personal accomplishment. God has created many things in the world to enjoy, but the core fundamental is personal accomplishment. That is the tree, everything else is the branches.

Listen, please don’t have children and raise them to think other people’s thoughts, and don’t trust others to raise them. Know this, the state has a vested interest in keeping your child thoughtless and dumb because people without knowledge are easy to control. A cursory observation of public schools reveals their agenda to keep your child dumb. In regard to my and Susan’s situation with our grandson, you may notice my aggressiveness in trying to get projects wrapped up. Why? Because if he ends up staying with us long-term, his education is going to have to be supplemented if he grows up to be anything.

And, beware of low expectations for your children. I know that pressuring your children to excel gets a bad rap, but I would rethink that if I were you. And another thing; feed your children good food. Remember the adage, “You are what you eat”? That is so true. Nutrition is vital. Later in life, I have taken some very wicked falls and gotten up wondering how I didn’t break a bone or worse. Well, when I was a child, I loved milk and drank a ton of it. I attribute it to that. But overall, mental health and everything, nutrition is vital.

Good practical living and commonsense is next to godliness. Rather than what the world does, which includes religion, and is at enmity with God, bring the material reality as close as you can to spiritual reality. And with caution, I must remind you that children as well as adults are promised a blessed life for living wisely; ” For, ‘Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech.'”

This begs the question: is this a promise that living a wise life will prevent bad things from happening in our lives? Not necessarily, although I think that’s true to a great extent, but this is something that I have seen over and over again in my own life and the life of others; even when something bad does happen, God always brings something good out of it. We seem to see this in the garden as God’s MO. Adam and Eve were created beings, but after they were deceived, God’s way of redemption makes mankind His very family and His literal offspring.

Now a word on sanctification and the elderly. People are created to have purpose and to accomplish things. That doesn’t end till the day we die. As a nurse aide, I can’t tell you how many times I have seen it: the difference between the elderly that remain productive as much as they can, and those who are coasting in neutral. Add to that family involvement. My attitude towards the elderly, especially in a facility, is something is better than nothing. I really don’t enjoy taking care of catatonic residents. I see those who partake in meanness as a cut above because at least they are doing something. I also struggle with seeing residents who try to do too much as a problem. Yes, they may fall and injure themselves, but nothing really does more damage overall than inactivity.

Meet Anne, not her real name. She came to my hall in a state of severe depression. Anne was in her 90s, perhaps she still is as I have not worked in that facility for some time. She would not get out of bed, or eat, or talk. Anne was taken from her homestead and put into the facility after she took a bad fall. Anne was put under hospice care and the family pretty much expected her to die in the near future. The aides did everything they could to get whatever nourishment into her they could. That usually meant a bowl of pudding or Jell-O by her bed so whenever an aide was in the room for something, they would attempt to get her to take a bit. Then, with much coaxing, a particular nurse got her into her recliner wheelchair. Every day, they parked her at the nurse station. This interaction resulted in Anne coming back alive. Every day, for as long as I worked there, Anne was there at the nurse station being Anne. What we learned about her follows: she lived an extradentary life. She was also far beyond what we would refer to as a “colorful personality.” Indeed, she became a legend within that healthcare network and certainly the life of Hall 300. Anne found her new purpose, and a new happiness. One day, she was visited by family members who come to the facility to inquire as to why she was still alive. When they saw her in her wheelchair at the nurse station telling jokes to the staff who were buckled over with laughter, the looks on their faces were priceless. Another thing that was priceless was the look on the visiting physician’s faces when they found out she was still under hospice care. They would first go to her room and not find her there resulting in the assumption that she had already passed, then they would find out it was her at the nurse station which usually resulted in something like this being said to the charge nurse: “You are kidding, right?”

We are made to produce, we are made to accomplish, we are made to build things, we are made to create things, we are made to contribute to the lives of others, we are made to be free, and we are made to be happy. This is what it means to be created in the image of God. And we are also made to wage war and make peace whenever we can.

But indeed, reality for us is a WWII movie. Hope enables us to live life to the fullest in the midst of the war. And besides, unlike WWII the outcome of our war is certain. Life as we know it will have the happy ending preordained by God, though the battles in-between depend on us.