Paul's Passing Thoughts

Today’s live discussion about this article @ 4:30 7-11-21 Live Link: https://boxcast.tv/channel/cmw1hcabgtwjnvn9eblc

A major theme in the Bible is unity. The Bible teaches us to be one and to be at peace with our enemies as much as it depends on us. As literal children of God, the Bible teaches us that God’s family is one body in Christ. We strive for unity by learning more and more about who we are in Christ together. Hence, the focus must be to discover our “one mind in Christ” and its objective truth.

With that said, we are “ambassadors” while we are here representing God’s kingdom. It’s not us against them. Moreover, OUR KINGDOM IS NOT YET OF THIS WORLD. No, no, no no, we are not here to “conquer the world for Christ.” One of the primary reasons church is a hot mess is its kingdom theology. It’s a disaster, and creates a morass of disunity within and outside of the church. Our kingdom is totally future, and NO, God’s kingdom authority is not here “spiritually” and being applied “through the church.” Look, why are church missions overseas such a hot mess like everything else in the church? Because foreign governments understand the church’s kingdom theology and see it as a conquering invader. Because…it is.

This is why church is NOT the ekklesia. Church is an institution by its very definition; ekklesia is a literal family. The church’s kingdom theology necessarily demands an authoritative political infrastructure. Hence, church is just another entity that contributes to world disunity. It’s just another authoritative institution vying for power.

Now we come to what has prompted me to finally write this post. For some time, I have observed an overt disrespect and disdain that churchgoers have for their biological families. Ironically, this perspective comes from born again believers who have left the church and seek to worship God with their whole lives and really look to their individual understanding of the Bible alone for life wisdom. This is an interesting position to be in because in the eyes of unbelievers as well, you are yet a Christian though you no longer do church, and not exactly at the top of their Christmas card list.

More irony follows. Church orthodoxy teaches that ALL people are “sinners,” so according to church orthodoxy, churchgoers are not better than unbelievers, but yet, there is only one thing worse than an unbeliever, a professing Christian that has disavowed church. Indeed, this is, apparently, a whole different level of sinism wherein all bets are off; you are fair game for all forms of disdain. Furthermore, those who are included in having a right to disdain you are those who are unfaithful to regular church attendance, but are formal members. It’s little wonder the home fellowship justification by new birth movement is off to a slow start. Here is another thought: church members, though they claim to be yokefellows with lowly sinners, can not avoid an inner belief that they are at least smarter than unbelievers for being church members. And if you are a really, really humble churchgoer that believes in “sovereign grace,” you merely believe God chose you over someone else, which is ok, because God didn’t choose you over someone else for any merit that you have. Right.

The subsequent folly of church evangelism is something I have discussed prior in other posts. In no case whatsoever in any church canned gospel presentation, is it revealed that the recipient’s response to the Gospel is wholly dependent on what God has already decided. It’s the “sovereign grace” gospel, but obviously, presenting the whole truth of this “good news” would elicit some interesting responses from any thinking person. If you are in business management, try that one out at your next meeting: you will agree with me if God opens up your understanding. Yes indeed, that will win them over. At any rate, the point here follows: the church’s “good news” is not full disclosure and therefore disingenuous to begin with on many other levels in addition to allowing recipients to believe that salvation will make them a better person. That’s not church orthodoxy. I could go on and on about this, but an additional point well worth the time is Susan Dohse’s presentation on sanctification at the 2012 TANC conference (https://youtu.be/B-jYAvrxkV0).

What have I seen over the years in regard to how churchgoers treat their own biological family members? Just put it this way: most unbelievers would be aghast. And what the unchurched family reprobates have done for them, viz, paid for their college educations or whatever, need not be considered because after all, “it’s the Lord who really did that for me through them and the Lord uses all kinds of people to bring about His will.”

Be sure of this: church is a license to do or think anything you want to. In addition, its orthodoxy fosters a narcissistic worldview cloaked in altruism. It contributes to a world that is hellbent on being the antithesis of God’s heart, which necessarily includes disunity wherever possible.

When your whole life is worship, your life is a nonstop gospel presentation. When people ask you about the hope in your life that they see, merely share your worldview that strives to love, and not a focus on avoiding the consequences of law-breaking due to total depravity. I have mentioned previously about the evangelical return to something they are very proud of: “confessionalism.” What’s that? Well, it’s this idea that we don’t confess anything with our actions, but rather, we merely verbally confess the truth about how bad humanity sucks. To actually attempt to live the gospel, is an attempt to…wait for it…”be the gospel.” And, “the gospel isn’t you, It’s Jesus.” We constantly hear this type of verbiage from church leaders nonstop.

The result? A life that enables you to waller in the world’s hate and still make it into heaven via church membership. A hate that even dismisses the value placed on biological families by the unregenerate. It is also an indifference to unity in every venue of life.

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Few in our day, particularly church-goers, care about gospel truth. Bottom line: the vast majority of professing Christians seek a good ending of their lives through church membership. I have seen many things on social media this week that remind me of that. In addition, I am reminded that church-goers are the most illogical people walking the earth. The Bible predicts wholesale apostasy in the end times, yet, church-goers accept the premise that anointed teachers of God are everywhere to be found, particular through numerous conferences featuring 70+ speakers each. The list of celebrity pastors is innumerable, and the airwaves are supposedly saturated with mighty men and women of God bellowing out gospel truth 24/7. On this one point alone, we know that professing church-goers could give a rat’s behind about anything the Bible states. What matters is what spiritual authorities say. And by the way, they are authorities because they say they are authorities. Jesus was NEVER present at ANY church council to appoint any man as an authority or to state any apostolic succession.

So, how is this so deeply imbedded in the psyche of church-goers? Because church was created in the midst of a church state and for the express purpose of a church state. Church itself was a distortion of Christ’s ekklesia in an attempt to replace the longstanding pagan state. Hence, when the church succeeded in replacing the Roman pagan state with itself, its orthodoxy became law. Furthermore, all governments were based on collectivism, or, the total depravity of mankind who needed to be compelled to do good by government authority. Church did not get its primary orthodoxy from the Bible, but rather Platonist collectivism that was the driving force behind statecraft for centuries.

Among many other footprints of this I stumbled across this week, Dinesh D’Souza and his daughter decried a statement by the president of the SBC that the church’s goal is not to “save America.” They also discussed other anti-American sentiment expressed by the church. Their confusion stems from a fundamental misunderstanding regarding what church is really about. Some churches remain confused because of Americanism, but still function according to the collectivist ideology that drives church in general. However, more and more churches are becoming overtly Marxist, which is the like collectivism that church was founded on.

Hence, the church gospel must deny any notion that people are recreated by God through the new birth, which makes them His literal offspring, and they most certainly do. The church gospel MUST stay true to collectivist principles, and it does. Therefore, of course we are “all sinners saved by grace” and of course we have “no righteousness of our own.” The church gospel must fit the narrative that all people are totally depraved and must be compelled to do good by an authority, and it does.

The church’s false gospel, like any other false gospel, creates bad behavior resulting in people grasping for alternatives. The most annoying one is the Christian Messiah movement. It’s the same under-law still under condemnation false gospel, only clothed with Jewish idioms and traditions. A video I saw on social media espousing the teachings of “Yeshua,” was calling for a commitment to “40 days of holiness” in which participants “fight sin” in unique ways for a 40 day period. This is not unlike the Reformed “lifestyle of repentance.” As in all under-law still under condemnation with sin only being covered through church ritual and not ended, the focus is sin, sin, and more sin. So-called “Christians” are yet indebted to sin, not love. The so-called teacher in the video says that real Christians “fight sin.” So, per the usual with all under-law church gospels, the focus is fulfilling the law by not sinning rather than fulfilling the law with a focus on love. The apostle Paul made it clear what we are to focus on: whatever is honorable, good, and lovely, not sin, nor does love keep a record of sin.

And of course, social media is littered with petty theological debates about predestination and other topics argued and debated by people who don’t even know what the true gospel is.

But, the one that struck me the most was an article about doubt using the testimonials of seven church icons. The article was titled “Seven Prominent Christian Thinkers Who Wrestled With Doubt” and posted in Relevant online magazine. I only wish to use one example from the article that is the most striking. Charles Spurgeon, the “Prince of preachers,” used the testimony of Protestantism’s founding father to make a point about his own doubt: “The strong are not always vigorous, the wise not always ready, the brave not always courageous, and the joyous not always happy … The life of Luther might suffice to give a thousand instances, and he was by no means of the weaker sort … His very deathbed was not free from tempests, and he sobbed himself into his last sleep like a great wearied child.” This also echoes the series my wife did on the Puritans who were oftentimes in terror on their deathbeds.

Again, few Christians are the least bit troubled with how these testimonies contradict the plain sense of Scripture. Why? Because an individual interpretation of Scripture with the reason God has given us is clearly not the authority, but instead, those who have installed themselves as authorities over God’s truth and salvation.

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By Paul Dohse, STNA/MA-C

Medication Aides are coming to Ohio, and though most nurses disdain the program, there is no stopping it now, especially in assisted living facilities. Unfortunately, an Ohio MA-C (Medication Aide-Certified), is often confused with a certification of completion (they do not receive certification) in developmental disability group homes. That certification entails about 16 hours of in-class training and no clinicals. Neither does it require a state test.

The MA-C certification is through the Ohio Board of Nursing. It is a nursing certification. It qualifies an individual to administer medications in long term care including skilled nursing facilities, with some restrictions. However, regarding skilled nursing and nursing homes, the MA-C must also have an STNA (State Tested Nurse Aide) certification through the Ohio Department of Health. Resident Assistants (RA) must have at least one-year full time experience in the last 5 years in assisted living facilities in order to qualify for certification.

Medication Aides have changed the face of healthcare in many states for a long time: Ohio is very late to the party, in part, because Ohio has stringent healthcare regulations that surpass the majority of states.

But the slow, uphill rollout of MA-C in Ohio has other causes. In Ohio, nurses have a strange dysfunctional relationship with passing medications. The task is a merciless tyrant that excels in the tyranny of the urgent, yet nurses object to being saved from the unhealthy co-dependent relationship. I have devoted the rest of my life to serving nurses, at least until I become one, and my experience as a MA-C, especially in assisted living, has shown me the amazing potential of MA-Cs to enable nurses to deliver higher quality care and to do more of what they have been trained to do. On one point alone, nurses having more time to interact with concerned families can serve to elevate the census of that facility expeditiously.

Look, I hesitate to share this because nurses are my heroes, and as an STNA, I have worked with very few bad ones, but it is clear that medication passes are a nurse’s worst enemy whether they admit it or not. I have watched it for years, but the past year has been the most interesting. Why? Because as an STNA with a MA-C certification, I have watched nurses struggle with med passes, and in the beginning, suggested that I could help, which resulted in being attacked and demeaned for the suggestion. It was never any skin off my back, I enjoy being an aide, so I quietly and joyfully cleaned up the pitchers of water off the floor dropped in their panic, said nothing when they poured water into a medicine cup, didn’t pass judgment when too much of the plastic spoon was in the resident’s mouth, and offered to do their treatment orders when their eMAR was all red. As an older, male STNA, I always enjoyed overhearing nurses talk about their bad relationships with boyfriends; it always made me think of their med passes as well.

Do I think med passes are the number one cause of the rampant pressure ulcer epidemic in long term care facilities? Yes. Clearly, med passes rob time from attention to wound treatments and making sure aides do what they need to do to prevent them. Nurses who do too much are also directly related to the nurse aide shortage. Having little time to involve aides in the care of residents diminishes the value of being an aide in the minds of the aides. When aides refer to themselves as “certified butt-wipers,” you can be sure that severe staff shortages are coming.

I have been an aide for a long time in the heaviest of skilled nursing facilities. How many times has a nurse wanted to do a report with me while saying things like, “These are my diabetics, and these are the people who need to get their trays first, and I need vitals on these people by this time,” ect., ect? Once, one time, and frankly, I wondered what the hell was going on. Aide work is the hardest work out there. If you want to erase participants, detract from its value while making your own job harder. Yeah, do that, brilliant.

With all this said, and Ohio facilities finally seeing the light after the necessary amount of suffering, the first MA-Cs are burdened with a huge responsibility. All eyes are on us. As far as I can tell, and after asking people who are in a position to know, there are probably less than 20 experienced MA-Cs in Ohio. The future of the program and its benefits will be judged by our performance. We have two jobs: to be the best MA-Cs we can be, and to convince the sceptics because we believe the program will result in higher quality healthcare.

However, a much larger consideration looms. Medication errors kill more people annually than traffic accidents. And like traffic accidents, it only takes a moment of non-focus or distraction to change someone’s life forever or end it. As medication aides, we live by the “Six Rights,” the right resident, the right drug, the right dose, the right route, the right time, and the right documentation. And we are not passing over the counter drugs, we are administering very powerful medications. Last week, I found myself passing meds on a unit that I was much less familiar with than the unit I am usually assigned to. Not being totally familiar with the residents on that unit, I applied the two-check system for identifying the right resident. The residents were not in their rooms, so I focused on the full names for one check. I was unaware that two residents on that unit have the same last name. My inquiry revealed different first names, which also revealed the fact that I was standing before a resident with the wrong cup of meds. I returned to the med cart stunned. It took me about 15 minutes to collect myself.

This brings me to a suggestion that is a carryover from a creed I always practiced as an STNA: ALWAYS take the resident’s concerns seriously…always. I delight in a resident who is on top of the medications prescribed to them. If you have a healthy fear for what we do, you will welcome this seventh check. In fact, I insist that there are really seven checks with the seventh one being, “ALWAYS listen to the resident.” You can call it “Paul’s seven rights” and that will suit me just fine. Again, if you have the healthy fear, you will be humble enough to listen. Besides, according to my firsthand knowledge, listening to residents has prevented drug errors.

Though MA-Cs are not nurses, they are an extension of the nurse aide calling to aide nurses. Nevertheless, it must be pointed out that Ohio STNAs are not fully used to benefit nurses to begin with. Be sure of this: the nurse aide identity crisis in Ohio has led to severe shortages of both. Lack of value regarding aides, and burnout regarding nurses. MA-Cs are an important hinge that will swing both ways and cure both shortages. Healthcare facilities are beginning to figure that out.

The first qualification of a MA-C is a healthy fear of our task at hand. Secondly, education, but the first qualification will determine how much we excel in the application of what we learn.

A healthy fear and enough humbleness to listen are our greatest assets.