Paul's Passing Thoughts

Xenia, Ohio is a church community, and nothing brings out church-speak more than a benefit sale for someone in a trial on a sunny afternoon. After thinking for ourselves on these issues for the better part of ten years based on the idea that God gave us a brain for a reason; primarily to reason, and to be reasonable, we admit that we don’t have it all figured out, but have figured out that the churched are the most confused brainwashed people walking the face of the earth.

Don’t confuse that with our God-focus, church doesn’t = Christian, and families are not institutions, and love has nothing to do with authority because mandates and love are mutually exclusive.

That’s the introduction to a classic conversation I had yesterday with a Xenia church lady. If you know me very well, you know that I am a 60’s scavenger. I love the furniture of that era and the whole cultural motif. Susan and I came across a food warmer from that era in all of its avocado green splendor and decided to donate it to the sale for the reasonable price of $15.

The church lady wanted the warmer for $10, and I said “no.” It is said that “no” is the first word that we say as infants because, you know, in our total depravity it is an expression of our rebellion towards authority and the Bible says that babies “come forth from the womb speaking lies.” More than likely, it’s the first word we speak because, you know, it’s the simplest of words probably heard the most among moms and other siblings. Yet, I must admit that speaking the word makes me feel better than any other word I speak, and yesterday was no exception.

Well, the church lady informed me that she only wanted the warmer enough to pay $10 for it, then began to ask for whom the benefit is for, and the details concerning the plight. I informed her while thinking, “Oh boy, here we go.”

The grammatical religious vomit I expected poured forth almost word for word. “It’s Gawd’s will, we only have Gawd, all we can do is pray, blah, blah, blah, blah, add unlimited gagetry.

I have some patience for confused Protestants, but this lady was a fully credentialed churchian; otherwise, I would have given her a $5 credit for the warmer in exchange for her prayer, but in this case, the prayer is hardly worth $5.

You see the irony in all of this, right? It’s a benefit, so why not pay a little extra and get something you are interested in to boot? I can answer that. She asked if we are a “church,” to which I answered, “No (while once again experiencing the joy of saying the word), we are a home fellowship.” So, you see, the dichotomy comes in her rejection of our sale as a legitimate benefit because we are not a real church “under the accountability of Gawdly authority.” Hence, the condescending offer of prayer for the whole lot of us outside the gates of heavenly Jerusalem. Add gagetry.

Contrast that with a fellow presently unchurched poorer than dirt totally depraved visitor to the yard sale outside the camp. They bought a few items and gave $10 over and above, and you can bet it was $10 that these people don’t have laying around. That’s what happens when the totally depraved have more conscience than they have money.

Truly, having your conscience replaced with the traditions of men is an ugly and dreadful thing.

James explained it this way: “Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.”

In all of this, please note: what is a legitimate opportunity to give according to church because said organization is a religious authority? Organizations like Samaritan’s Purse where the director makes almost 1 million dollars a year. Go figure.

This is an opportunity to consider giving power that doesn’t pay for salaries and massive infrastructure, and is not compelled to give by some authority, and worse yet, the purchase of salvation in the name of love.

That is the cheapest love of all.

paul

Thursday, 10/5/2017:

The Kent Dohse benefit yard sale is closed today and tomorrow, but will reopen this weekend in lieu of more fantastic weather forecasted. The next two days will be invested in expanding the sale. We plan to exploit this month’s unusually clear weather for the cause.

We have raised $900 towards a $2000 dollar goal…not bad for a yard sale. It is my understanding that this (what has been raised to date) will add another two months of payments to Kent’s medication fund. That’s a bunch considering that one takes it a day at a time in such situations.

Good news: Kent’s hard work in physical therapy has yielded some positive results; his ambulation has actually improved.

Are we taking donations as far as stuff to sell? Yes, LPs, DVDs, and CDs; on everything else please call 937.478.1201 first. As you can see, every dollar adds up, so anything you can donate to Kent’s GoFundMe page will help (the link is on kentdohse.com). Please mention the yard sale so we can count it towards our goal. Many who have come to the sale don’t buy anything, but have contributed to the fund.

Also, don’t miss out on a great opportunity to volunteer and fellowship with us here at the Potter’s House. Out of Town friends of PPT can stay here at the Potter’s House free of charge.

Unfortunately, no venue feeds our propensity to be lazy thinkers more than the mental health profession. Once we concede that a person can catch a cold mentally, we can bypass the hard work of pondering by merely declaring a perpetrator “crazy.” In lesser crimes against humanity on the level of being simply annoying, a handy shortcut is the declaration that one is “stupid,” and of course, “You can’t fix stupid.” That was easy.

And, since mental health is such a complex and deep subject that must be researched by so-called experts until the second coming, we slap the “crazy” label on people while conceding that we will never know why they did what they did. “Simplistic” answers are rejected out of hand for a simple label of complexity.

In regard to why a man murdered 58 people at a music concert in Las Vegas, the big-picture answer may be a short one, but not necessarily simple. The Bible states that mankind is plagued by sin, and that sin is driven by desires. The stated paramount desire that primarily drives sin is CONTROL.

As a former pastor in the institutional church who counseled my share of married couples, a complaint often heard about one’s spouse was, “He/she is a control freak.” It never computed in my mind although I had read the words describing the concept in Scripture hundreds of times. I dismissed the complaint as run of the mill demagoguery.
Sin can produce all kinds of desires within individuals. A great deal of what people do is driven by desire. In other words, people do what they do because they often want to. People have sex with animals because they desire to do so; yet, it’s probably a bad idea and not really very normal.

Why is homosexuality and bestiality so prevalent in some cultures? It starts with a desire for sex (which in fact is a natural desire) coupled with misogyny. If women are deemed second class citizens in a culture, it stands to reason that there will be a shortage of them leading to alternative fulfillment for sexual desire. On this point, it is apt to point out another element of sin described in the Bible: it is unreasonable and illogical. In the Bible, and in contrast, righteousness is often associated with reason and sound judgement.

Let’s take rape as another example. Here, you have two working desires: a desire for sexual fulfillment and a desire to control or master someone. It’s really not all that complicated. Determining factors that lead to certain desires within certain people can be a complex study, but not the basic concept. And certainly, you may add a possible hatred for women in the mix as well (emotions leading to a desire to punish as a distorted view of justice).

When a person does what was done in Vegas, it’s a sinful brew of desires, emotions, and logic. Often, ideology is just an excuse to fulfill sinful desires. I don’t believe many ISIS members are truly committed to the ideology, I believe it is a means/excuse for fulfilling sinful desires.

We might want to add the following as well: Sinful desires seem to believe that they have a right to be fulfilled, and the denial of their fulfillment will often lead to retaliation.

Also, according to the Bible, the practice of continually fulfilling these desires leads to the intensifying of the given desire. The intensity of the desire becomes so strong that the person cannot say “no” to it under any circumstances. This is where we get “addictions” and “serial” this, that, or the other.

The Bible has something else to say about sin; somehow, it is able to use God’s law to create sinful desires within people. This is the unsaved person. This is the person “born under law” (the biblical note that Jesus was born under law refers to His humanity). When a person is saved by believing on Christ, sin can still use the law to create sinful desires, but the saved person is able to say “no” to the sin and decline for the right motive. The ability to do so is increased by the application and practice of biblical wisdom.

This is because somehow, according to the Bible, sin’s ability to enslave depends on the law’s ability to condemn. Hence, Christ died for our sins and eleminated the law’s ability to condemn which also strips sin of its ability to enslave.

In addition, the new birth (salvation) changes the person’s affections towards God’s word/truth/law/Bible. Instead of something that condemns and is dreaded, it is now seen as a wealth of wisdom for loving God and others. It enables the believer to say “no” to sinful desires and control the body. We call this, “sanctification.”

paul