Moving again?!!??

Yes... I'm moving again. It's a pain in the neck for me too. Every time I move my old blogs to a new site I have to go through each one line by line and remove the silly errors that are created by the import program. Things like missingspacesbetweenwords.
Anyways, I've been doing a lot of work on making sure I won't have to do this again, and incorporating a lot of ideas from people like you. I can't promise there won't be any more changes. But I am putting all the blogs and all the other stuff I'm doing under one heading: Free in Babylon.
You can follow all that's going on at:
http://beingfreeinbabylon.wordpress.com/
or on twitter:
Follow @freeinbabylon

or:
Follow @beinglostinla

 If you want to find this blog you can find the next post at:
http://actionbeliefcourage.wordpress.com/2011/12/13/blame-and-judging/

It took me awhile to get all this stuff connected and working together... and I had a lot of loving people kindly "pushing" for me to do this. So please share it with someone....

Humility and God

So I have an experiment for you. Its pretty simple and it'll really help us get to the next step of this humility thing. Sort of a demonstration.

Go somewhere where there are people. Like a street bench or mall... or arrive to work early before anyone else gets there and sit by the front door. Anywhere that you could see a bunch of people walk by for an half hour or so.

And then say something positive to every single person that walks by.

Keep it about yourself. Statements like “I really like those boots.” or “I want you to know that you make me smile everyday.” or something like that. Avoid saying “You...” this or “you ...” that.

You will quickly learn several things. The first thing you will learn is that people think you are crazy. This is a sad symptom of a very serious disease common to our society.

But you will also notice that the ones that don't like your comments are generally the people who let their pride respond. Remember how I said that pride is enmity? It responds to images of itself? This is the reality.

But if you're getting the hang of these kind of self-less positive compliments, then people will start to either respond with confusion or with a similar positivity. This is because you are sidestepping their defenses an pride and actually connecting with them. You're actually teaching some people that its okay to have a connection with another human being.

No one gets treated like a human being enough nowadays

You'll also start to feel better about yourself. You might actually start having a good rest of the day because of this little exercise. Its a funny kind of thing. I know its just baby steps at this point, but that selfless serving of others is like a special medicine. What happens is that we get it confused with trying to “save” people.

In order to see what's happening here, I'm going to have to dispel another part of this “box” that keeps us slaves. It concerns how we perceive God. Generally people see God in one of two ways. Christians and most atheists or agnostics see God as a personal “being”, much like we are beings since we're made in his image, that is separate from the universe. He existed, then He made the universe, then from time to time He “intervenes” in the universe in the form of miracles.

The other view of God actually predates this view, and is the actual historical and traditional view of God for Judaism, Christianity and Islam as well as several other world religions. But it has been lost in the churchianity. This is the view that God is reality. God is the universe. Here's a couple scriptures for you:

Acts 17:28

For in Him we live and move and have our being:...

Psalms 139: 7-10

Whither shall I go from thy spirit? Or whither shall I flee from they presence?

If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold thou art there.

If I take the wings of the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea;

Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me.

There are others. The concept of the omnipresence of God supersedes the concept of the personal being apart from the universe. In fact the whole concept of “intervention” doesn't even make sense anymore. God is the universe, the reality, “is”. We exist in him.

This is important in how we view creation. God didn't create an “event” where the universe was set in motion. He keeps it being by His being.

Its also important in how we worship Him. We can choose to be a part of His process, but the process is going to go on without us. God IS the process.

Once again, this is the actual original view of God by the very people who wrote the bible. Don't take my word for it, go look it up for yourself.

Its called immanent panentheism. Which is a fancy word for saying “All is in God”.

This brings us back to our Humility experiment. Since we all exist within God, each of us equally flawed and short of God, each of us equally unique and beautiful in God, then how we treat each other is how we treat God. And if God is the great unifying force, and He is, then the nature of pride to compete and create enmity is the anti-God. We got to smash it in ourselves wherever we find it.

But there's one last step to this Humility puzzle....

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Subjective Humility

Warning: The following may cause an expansion of the mind.

I often get accused of going too deep or thinking too much. Its a problem. Its not MY problem, but its a problem. But that whole “Keep it Simple” thing is for another chapter.

I just want to take this opportunity to say that for the rest of this paper, if you are not interested in me getting un-simple... just go to the next one. This next discussion may not be for everyone. If you're following the humility thing so far just fine and are happy with it, that's fine.

OK, here goes. The concepts of truth and humility and acceptance I have already discussed can be pulled together with the concepts of subjectivity and objectivity.

Subjectivity refers to the subject and all your perspectives, experiences, feelings and desires... and pain of course.... It is contrasted with objectivity.

To understand why its important, we have to think about this thing called Qualia. This refers to the nature of a thing that has to be experienced to be understood and cannot be communicated. A simple example would be the color red, and trying to explain it to someone who had been born blind and had no “experience” of colors at all. You could say that red “looks hot” or say that 'red' is “what one sees when refractive light with a wavelength of 700nm is pointed at you” but its not quite the same thing.

So something like smelling the sea, feeling a rain storm approaching, hunger, pain, a broken heart, fear, and how we think of God are all subjective Qualia.

All spiritual experience is Qualia. They cannot be communicated in a way that is meaningful. You have to have one.

To take it further, think a little bit about what communication is. Communication is basically taking an idea or concept in your mind, and creating the same (or as close as possible) in someone else's mind. In Psychology class I was taught that this is the definition of “intelligence”. The ability to communicate.

Qualia is ineffable, which means it cannot be communicated or understood in any way other than direct experience; its intrinsic, meaning its non-relational or does not change depending on the experience's relation to other things; its private, or all interpersonal comparisons of qualia are impossible; as Clarence Irving Lewis, in his book Mind and the World Order (1929) wrote: “Qualia are directly intuited, given, and not subject to any possibility of error because they are completely subjective.”

Think about that for a minute. He is not saying that subjectivity has to be true because we experience it, what he's saying is that our minds can't tell the difference. This is the white swan thing again.

If we have only seen white swans, but then we see other birds, like say doves, that are white but also come in other colors, then there just might be the possibility of other colored swans in our mind BEFORE we see the black one. Simply based on the fact that swans are birds and doves are birds.

This is not universal, some people will have the potential for this possibility and some wont. Its the “box”. In a very weird way peoples subjectivity can create a rigid “box” or pretty much destroy another person's “box.”

This is the structure of subjectivity. Every single experience and feeling and perception and learned behavior and whatever you have ever had in your entire life, whether you remember it or not, creates a “world” that you live in. A subjective world.

The amazing part is that I can have a wonderful conversation with another human being who exists in a completely different and separate subjective world then the one I'm living in. There are enough similarities for us to communicate.

For example, if I say “the beach” to someone who has never been there, but lived on a mountain somewhere their entire life, we are not really going to be able to communicate the concept to each other completely. For me the beach is the smell of the salt and the sound of the waves and the feel of the sand and so much more. To them its a paragraph or two and maybe a picture on Wikipedia. But... it might be enough in common to communicate something....

So back in the mid 70's a couple of guys at Santa Cruz University figured out how language (communication) relates to the structure of subjective experience. They used a quote from Noam Chomsky “The map is not the territory” to explain how a “deeper” meaning to the individual speaking could be found by the person listening and developed several techniques to do just that. Basically, what you say and how you say it can reveal what you're thinking.

Now unfortunately mainstream science has worked very hard to discredit this revolutionary science. But if you look around closely you will see that this principle has been applied to many different areas in a very real way. It has infiltrated and been adopted by law enforcement, salespeople, idiots that want to pick up girls easier, and the very “scientists” that discredit the concept. In fact, the concept that subjective experience is very powerful to us humans is discredited by saying its too subjective. Huh.

If everything you know or can possibly know is a result of your subjectivity, and most of it is so unconscious that you can't even do anything about it until after the fact....

...and everyone else is operating under the same principle, the same subjectivity... then this is an excellent foundation for humility.

Its not that “I know, I've been there.” and the other person says “I've been there and I know” is the place to end up... its more like “I only know what my subjective world has in it, and everything I am tells me its true... but you are struggling in the same boat” is the place to start. We need to stop INSISTING that what we KNOW to be true is the only truth. That's the beginning of fellowship and actually finding some truth. We have to share our subjectivities.

More on this later....

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The Path of Humility

My journey to humility began simply enough. All I had to do was sit down and shut up. And listen. In Mere Christianity, CS Lewis writes “The first step for one that wishes to acquire humility is to recognize that they have pride.” Well that's true, the first step to change anything is to recognize one has it. The first two words of the whole 12 step program is “We admitted...” Its a very simple spiritual principle.

Of course, people are sometimes clueless... I know I was. I had to begin by sitting down and shutting up and listening to others. I mean really listen. Its harder to do than one might think. I know this because once I started doing it I found that EVERYBODY talks about themselves. Wow, is that what I was doing.

Its a small step... but an important one. Its kinda like looking in the mirror when you shave or put on makeup. Kinda hard to do without the mirror. And it may take weeks for some to realize that they are looking in a mirror, because its the pride that keeps us focused on ourselves, and using our own standard to measure others. So it takes a while of listening to others before we realize that we are actually looking at ourselves.

The thing about pride is that its the anti-God. There's a real easy trick to seeing if you have some. Just ask how other people's pride makes you feel. If you're like most, seeing other's pride infuriates you. That's how it works. Pride is competition. Its me me me.... so anyone else displaying their pride is going to make your pride jump up in animosity.

Pride separates.

God unites.?

Simple, huh?

That's why the “shutting up” part is important in this first step. It does not good to argue pride against pride. All it does is make the pride stronger in both of you. That's how this stuff spreads.

Go to just about any community, online or off, that argue about the bible. Does it make you feel warm and fuzzy? Is there a weight and significance of God?

Or when its over do people go to their isolation corners and lick their wounds? Alone? Even if they are surrounded by people that say, “You were right,” they still feel alone.

That's what pride does. It isolates us. Because its very nature is enmity. It exalts itself at the expense of others. And that's the real sin... the people that “win” those kind of arguments feel just as hollow.

So how does this whole concept make you feel? Seriously... Do you feel angry? Like you just want to stay away from those “idiots”? You want them to leave you alone?

Or as they are railing at you and spitting on you and trying to hurt you to get you to accept God and the bible their way and jump through their hoops and calling it God... do you want to hug them and cry with them?

In Matthew 9:36 it says that Jesus saw the multitudes and felt compassion for them. In his guts, like a punch in the solar plexus. These are the people that were going to kill him for his “heresies”. And he knew it. But it changes nothing, the compassion and tears is what it looks like when we realize that these people are hurting themselves worshipping their pride.

Eventually I found out what kind of person I really was. A piece of crud. This is also an important step in humility, but its just a step to something better. Some people do confuse this step with the destination. Its easy to get stuck here, especially if the people that are supposed to be helping you encourage it.

Nowhere in the bible does Jesus teach us to say “I am a sinner.” Its important to realize the exact nature of our coming short, but we don't live there.

This also is an important concept about Christianity that many followers of churchianity use to oppress. Its actually very effective to keep people dependent on you if you want them in your church on Sunday. Then you can give them feel good messages that get them to focus on the feeling and call it God. And if they feel down you can just tell them its their fault and they have to pray more or read the bible more or be more holy.

We are already holy. The problem is that we equate God with warm fuzzies.

This is something that we have been warned against for centuries. The weight and significance of God is not a feeling. We have to move beyond judging the effectiveness of our prayer based upon our feelings. Do you really want a God that you can't communicate with if you had a bad night's sleep?

But we measure things by the “message”, meaning if the message or sermon or whatever makes us feel good then its of God. I'm sure it is, but that's not the sum total of it. To just treat it as though that is the goal or the result we seek makes us junkies. We use God to run from pain.

The way God set things up is that the Law creates sin. He wants us to know that there is no Law that will save us, there is nothing that we can do better or less or in any greater quantity for salvation.

I like the book of Romans. If all I had was the book of Romans I could make it. The others are good too, but Paul was really talking to the Gentile church (which I am a part) for God when he wrote this one.

Romans 1:16- ...For it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that beloved...

This theme is repeated again and again. It means that God alone gives us salvation. He gave us Jesus.

The law doesn't give us salvation, following the laws do not give us salvation, following doctrines or churches or pastors or events or food drives or planting churches or nothing... God alone.

And he's already done it.

Keep reading the beginning of Romans and you get to several parts where Paul says exactly this... Down around 1:21 he starts talking about how the Law was made to have weight and significance instead of God, and it was foolish and sin. He spends the next few chapters driving the point home. The Law creates sin...

We need someone to fulfill the law for us. Someone that would do it in such a way that every single person on the planet would have the Law that gives eternal life fulfilled once and for all.

Everyone.

So... he goes on about how we are no better than they, that no one is righteous.... churchianity has been using this stuff for years to make people slaves to their doctrine with fear and guilt. Give them laws no one can keep then when they feel guilty, tell them to be churchimaniacs more, which will make it even worse as they keep trying to hold onto some standard that's impossible... this is the story of the Old testament in real life... In our churches every day.

Don't believe me. Read it yourself, investigate, be honest.

Jesus came to free us from this stuff.

So it is important to realize that we fall short, but not to stay there. Its part of the plan, why we need Jesus, but its just a way-station. Its there for us to realize that we are not better than anyone else... humility, remember?

The trick then is to come to the point where we can honestly not think of ourselves first....

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Humility and Pride

So let's get deep...

I tried to change my life for the better many times. Each time I tried to follow this program or that one. It was very difficult to just dig through the crud and simply start. This last time something different happened. God put someone in my life that had a different starting point. It was humility. This guy simply asked me to write a paper on what humility meant to me.

I must have started that paper a half a dozen times, only to crumble them up and throw them away. Finally I just decided to be completely honest about it. I wrote “I am not God....”

And that's really where it begins. Where it all went wrong.

Then another funny thing happened. I started hearing people left and right say something like “the drugs and alcohol is just a symptom” or “the sex is just a symptom” and other similar statements.

Now I'm a weird person. When I hear things like that the first thing that pops into my mind is: “Then why are we treating the symptom? What is the disease?”

So I turned my inhuman focus on the answer to that simple question. And no one could answer me. Least of all the very ones that were going around saying that it was just the symptom. So I went broader with it. I started asking people in the religious business, and teachers, and doctors, and tinkers and tailors and soldiers and spies. I researched it in books on philosophy and a dozen different religions.

And I figured out what I think the answer is. What is the disease?

Pride.

Now let's not get hung up on the word(s) here. Remember we're talking about a real concept, not defining words. We are not talking about pride as in taking pride in one's work or one's family; being proud of something that you love; or even feeling good and getting satisfaction from praise. These are good things. What I am talking about here is sometimes called “hubris”. But even that falls short of giving the whole picture. This is an immensely huge concept.

In the 12 step programs they call it the selfish, self-centered thing. It is definitely rooted in the self... self-will.

Christianity is the only religion that considers pride a sin. Sure other religions like Buddhism (which is not a real religion... no higher power) may consider it un-enlightened, or an abomination, or something like that. But in a very real way the sin of pride is woven throughout the entire concept of Christianity. From the first sin ever, when Lucifer wanted to exalt himself above God; to the first human sin, when he told Eve that if she ate of the “apple” she would know she was “as God”; the first murder, over and over.

Sin is more about doing things without God then it is doing things against God. And that's pride. Pride is all about thinking we are “God” in ways big and small.

God gets to decide how the world is. Its His world. When the world doesn't go the way we want it, the pain and suffering and depression and expectations and anger and all the stuff we go through is from holding the world to our standard, rather than the creator of the universe's standard.

See whenever we are measuring something, we need something to measure it against. Some standard. And the way the brain works, if there is no standard then we use our own. So built into our vary brains and how they work is a subtle form of pride. That's the slavery of sin.

We do it with God. We use something that is supposed to be a mere vehicle to understanding God, the bible, and very subtly begin to measure God by the standard. He is much bigger. Don't get me wrong, I completely agree that the bible is the Word of God. But that is a very different thing than saying that it is the “words” of God. Jesus is also the Word of God.

But He is so much more and bigger than the bible. To say that God can only be what is found in the bible and nothing more is to make an idol of the bible. Its pride.

The problem is that fear and insecurity creates a need to control things. Sometimes those “things” are knowledge. Its the “Are we there yet?” syndrome that kids have. Like if they don't like the answer they are going to get out of the car. So its our fear and insecurity that drives us to cling to the bible at the expense of allowing God to truly reveal himself to us.

And that has to do with acceptance. Acceptance is a subset of humility. Accepting God for who He is, on His terms, and with no limits or labels or restrictions or standards is a very complete understanding.

Let me give you an example. There's this verse that most Christian's are taught first when they give their life to Christ. It's John 3:16:

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

(I like the King James, if it was good enough for Paul its good enough for you.)

So what we have is the first step in making a slave out of Christian. You have to say the right prayer, or THINK the right thing about Jesus being the Son of God, or even announce it publicly, or something, and then: Poof! You're saved.

Look, every non-Christian in the world sees this for the nonsense it is. It's about time we Christians do too.

Do you know how many Christians I have talked to that have told me this one verse is proof that God's love is conditional? How many are tortured that God doesn't love them unless they do this or that, go to church regularly, learn all they can about the convoluted logic of doctrines or denominations? Does that really sound like someone loving you so much that they would sacrifice their Son for you?

The problem is that the people who tell you this are the ones that want something from you. If its a gift of grace from God, then its free. There is nothing need to be done to get it.

The word believe or belief does not mean the same thing now that it did even 100 yrs ago. Certainly something different than the old English that the King James was written in, and definitely something different than the Koinic Greek that it was translated from. In old English the word is Bea Loef. I don't need to translate that do I? It means “beloved”.

You are already the beloved of Christ. He died for you in a very gruesome way. You already have eternal life.

And so does every Christian, in every denomination. Yes even the Mormons and the Jehovah's Witnesses.

And so does the Muslim and the Buddhists.

And the Wiccans and the Athiests.

Everyone is already saved.

Its the sin of Pride that keeps it us vs. them. So we need to start with humility.

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Application and Understanding

Because I am often accused of rambling, that my writings appear to just go all over the place, let me summarize.

First I talked about how language is not truth. Language is metaphor. Metaphor can help us understand the truth, but the farther we go with it the farther we get from the truth. So we get the situation where people seek to understand a concept, like “love” by looking up what it means in other languages, or other dictionaries, and collect words (metaphors) to somehow justify their understanding of a concept that exists independently of our understanding of it. Can we just agree that we are talking about real-life concepts that are more important than the metaphors we use to describe them? Its kinda like treating the symptoms while the disease keeps its merry way.

Second I talked about how the only way to seek the truth of the reality is to first let go of what we think we already know about it. To simply accept reality for what it is. “Life on life's terms.” This takes a great deal of courage and humility to accomplish.

Third I talked about the Glory of God. The weight or significance of God. The importance. What I am doing here is using multiple words to describe something that is true. This is not my argument, and I chose this example to begin with for a very simple reason. Again and again when I try to discuss these concepts with other Christians from many different denominations or doctrinal positions the conversation usually ends with the comment that God is the only truth. The conversation ends, not because they “showed me” but because once they utter these words they find they have no idea how to explain this concept or what it actually means. They say things like “I understand it, but I can't explain it.”

Where does one go from there?

So when I say things like weight or significance or importance or awesome-ness of God, I'm describing something that exists with or without me. I'm trying to get you to understand what I'm talking about, not trying to define it. Let's move past the definition to the “experience”. What is is is something that encompasses all those words, and more. Here's another one: value.

The Glory or kavod of God can be described as the weight, significance, importance, awesome-ness and value of God. We feel it, but it is not a “feeling”. Its real.

In the same way, these words are really about the characteristics of the kavod of God.

So when we start talking about spiritual values, we are talking about the characteristics of the kavod of God.

As I started understanding and applying these spiritual values to my life, I learned a couple things. First I learned that it was really about the application. It was in the applying of the values that I gained a better understanding, not the other way around. This is why I say that telling a new believer to surround themselves with other believers and listen to a human authority is the wrong advice. One can only gain spiritual maturity by having maturing experiences. Its good to have a support structure of other believers, but the way it is often practiced is that the new believer is hidden, or protected from the very life that they are supposed to be applying their new spiritual life to. As I pointed out already, this is easily shown to be anti-biblical.

The second thing that I learned about applying these spiritual values to my life is that there are stages of understanding and application one goes through. This is not so strange. If we are talking about “maturity” then there is implied a “growth” or development. And growth or development always goes through stages.

The next thing I learned is that eventually one reaches a stage where no matter what the value, humility, courage, love, etc, it ultimately reaches an ultimate stage where its about God. For example, when I learned about acceptance I started with accepting that bad things happen. Then it moved through a stage where I learned to accept the good things that others did for me. After a few more stages I eventually got to a point in my understanding and application where I learned to accept God as He is. This is a very important point to get, not trying to make God fit my understanding but to accept the I AM.

And so every spiritual value reaches the point where its about God.

The value of God.

The kavod of God.

The Glory of God

There's one more thing to keep in mind before we really jump in. If you can understand and accept that it is necessary to let go of what we think we know to allow God to give us some of His truth and understanding then let me propose another “misconception” I find a lot of Christians have about the bible.

It concerns the Glory of God.

Now what I hear a lot, and see if you don't experience this too, is that whenever we tell a fellow Christian they have done something especially cool, they respond by saying “It's not me. Its for the Glory of God.”

Neat, huh?

Now what I'm about to say is not meant to take anything away from that at all. What I'm going to say is meant to make it more meaningful.

What exactly does the “Glory of God” mean?

The way its used seems to mean something like if its good then lets agree its God's fault.

This is important. In my old life if something good happened it was me, I did it. And if its something bad then its God's fault. Part of my “repentence” (which yes means to turn away or change direction, but it also means to go beyond my current mind or understanding) included changing how I looked at it. Now if something good happened, God gets the credit and if something bad happened it was my fault. I needed to do something about it.

This was very necessary in order to change or transform my life. I needed it.

But the longer I did it it became clear that that wasn't the whole story.

In hebrew the word used for glory is kavod. It means “weight or significance” or “awe inspiring”.

Nowadays people throw the word awesome around as it means “cool”. But really it is much bigger than that. Wanna understand what awe really means? Go experience, on the ground and in real life, the detonation of a cluster bomb in battle. Or a Fuel-Air Explosive device. Or a thermo-barric bomb.

You suddenly understand your own insignificance in the great scheme of things.

In the book Miracles by CSLewis he describes how awe gave rise to religion in ancient man. His descriptions and explanations of this “Numenescent Awe” is a good description of coming face to face with true spiritual power.

Its coming face to face with your own insignificance in a very real way.

There's this TV show I saw a couple times called “Ghost Hunters”. I'm not going to make any comments about it. But in this one episode there was an incident where one of the new investigators was slapped by a non-corporeal entity. The old-timers said that this happens sometimes, and you have to be prepared for it happening if you're going to be a ghost-hunter. Something seriously violates your sense of self and there is no way to fight back.

The look on this guy's face was very real. He wasn't the same for the rest of the episode. His world had been completely scrambled in a very real way.

He got a taste of his insignificance in the face of something incomprehensible and un-fightable.

There are times when the weight and significance of God is unmistakable. This is the Glory of God.

Sometimes we find it in nature. Once when I was a teen living in a very rural area, we were expecting snow, the first snow since I had moved there. But the sky's were clear. It was very windy and cold, but the skies were blue. I climbed the highest of the mountains around, and at the top was a pile of boulders, so I climbed them too. In gusting 20 knot winds. I stood there at the highest point possible, facing the wind, which also happened to be the west and the sun was starting to go down, and looked farther than I ever had before. As this ripping and tearing wind sliced through every cell of my flesh and hair, I watched as the black tendrils of clouds miles away seemed to reach out to me seemingly at the same height I was like the fingers of some massive hand stretching out to me.

Believe me, I'm not doing it justice.

I've had moments of joy like that.

Once a woman broke my heart. I was so depressed for days, and just really questioning the purpose of living. My friends tried to console me with drugs and alcohol and some of the activities we used to do, like playing cards or something. I swear after three days straight of putting plenty of chemicals in my body my depression far outweighed any high. I felt nothing but miserable. Finally I just gave up and prayed. God I need help. Real simple.

What I received, immediately, was so real, so palpable... it was like a warm blanket wrapping every inch of my being, and suddenly everything was alright. It was a very significant moment. The first time I truly experienced the power of God in a real way.

What ties these and other events together, and I'm sure if you looked you'd find some in your own life too, is the very real and palpable feeling of a presence. And to be honest, that presence is there and just as real no matter what we call it. It exists whether we call it “God” or not. It is what it is.

And that is the Glory of God.

Joy, happiness, tears, pain, sadness, fear, battle, death, destruction, music, children, romance, the simple connection we find with someone we've never met before, the simplicity of saying “me too” to someone at the lowest point of their life, sitting in silence with friends or family that is as comfortable as the womb... sex! Bathing! Sitting in the kitchen watching a cockroach, staring out the window into the rain.... Spiritual experiences can happen anywhere anytime, and they can never be explained to another person. Not in a way that does it justice, because it is so much bigger than we are... that's the nature of it... it makes us realize both our significance and our insignificance at the same time.

Its glorious.

Trusting the Truth

In our journey toward understanding I want to next move to a common barrier. I call it inculturation. This is when the various things that make up our culture are accepted as “truth” and actually become a barrier to “real” truth. This refers to things like:

Family

Schools

Legal framework and laws

Authorities and role models

Religious doctrine and denominations

and much more....

Wait a minute.... Did I say Religious doctrine and denominations are a barrier to truth? I did. This is a very difficult thing for some. Including me. I get depressed sometimes.

But I guarantee that as long as we hold on to ANY of this inculturation, we are preventing God's own truth from entering our lives. We have to let it go.

The first issue is Faith. Or trust, if you will.

Do you trust God?

Did you give your life to Him? What do you think that means?

Do you think that you now have to turn to some institutional organization to “indoctrinate” you into the TRUTH?

Do you think that you now have to constantly be on guard and manage the events in your life? The people you meet, the paths you take, the truths you learn?

Seriously? The creator of the universe that created everything there is out of absolute nothingness by speaking? He needs a committee to tell you what to believe and how to behave?

One of the problems is when we have a new believer we tell them: “Surround yourself with other believers and listen to your pastor.” This is anti-scriptural.

There's a story about an Ethiopian Eunuch in the bible. He was baptized and sent, alone to spread the word to an entire country, the same day.

He didn't receive any denominational ordination. Take a look at the Christian presence in Ethiopia today. Its in the millions, and has one of the longest and strongest presences of any African nation.

There's another story about a Samaritan woman. Again, sent same day she was “saved” to minister to an entire population. Alone.

She went to no leadership-training workshops.

Then there's this demon-possessed guy. Jesus comes along and pow! Kicks them demons out and the people that know the guy are so in awe of the transformation that the bible says they were “afraid.” He spends his life raving with multiple demons inside and that's business as usual, but now he's healed and they are afraid.

When he wants to go with Jesus he is told to stay and spread the news in his own community. I guarantee you he did not have a copy of the New Testament to preach from.

And then there's this Matthew guy. Same day Jesus calls him, sends him out to the very community that hates his guts. He was a tax collector. In the bible they repeatedly make mention of “sinners and tax collectors” so apparently the tax collector was such a jerk he needed his own category.

Jesus gives him a plan, its found in Matthew chap 10, and repeated in Luke chap 10. It involves things like “take nothing with you” and the bounty of the harvest is to be found in the harvest. This means there are no multi-million dollar training or events or infrastructure needed.

So whats going on here? Is there really a bunch of “Christian” institutions and churches out there that preach how being prideful is such a sin and yet think that God needs an interpreter?

The “Word” of God is what? The bible? Or Jesus? Both are called the “Word.” If something comes up that is in conflict or contradicts, who wins? Jesus or the bible?

It does happen.

What happens when your religion is too small for your God? Its called “putting God in a box”.

The question is: Can God be anything not found in a literal legalistic interpretation of the bible?

Can the bible itself become an idol?

There are basically two line of thought here. There's the “Catholic” way and the “Protestant” way.

In the Catholic view, the Word of God as expressed through the bible is “organic”. This is not to be confused with the “Organic Church” movement. What this means is that the Word of God grows as the times change. That a group of special people get together and decide what the Word has to say about a certain topic. Then when they announce it, that becomes a part of the Word of God. It's kinda like when an amendment to the Constitution is made.

In the other view, common to all Protestant denominations, there is a belief that the bible is it. Nothing else. If there is a question about a new topic, the scripture is searched, people pray, any little verse taken within or without context that supports what they want is found, and that becomes the Word of God. If you don't like it, you are dis-fellowshipped. Go start your own denomination.

Anything else is heresy, or a cult.

These very processes are actually described in the bible. They are not found in the descriptions of the new churches spawned by Jesus and His apostles. Both ways are described in the old Pharisaical tradition. You know, the one that branded Jesus a heretic.

And again in the Jerusalem church described in Acts. You know the ones that tried to kill Paul, the author of much of our New Testament? Also for being a heretic.

Could it be that Christianity is about “heresy” in a very real way?

“What do you call it when the assassins accuse the assassins?” (Colonel Walter Kurtz, Apocalypse Now)

Fellowship

So now we have a little problem.

The truth simply is.

Our experience can be a lie.

So what do we do in our search for truth and God?

First let me paraphrase one of my favorites, Mr. CS Lewis. This will set the foundation, and then next time we'll talk about the living Word of God.

In Mere Christianity Mr. Lewis describes the differences between the study of God (theology) and all other -ologies. If one wants to study geology, he can go out and get a rock. The rock does not flee. He can take the rock and crack it open, look at it under a microscope and record the experiences (observations).

If one wants to study biology, he can go and catch an animal. The animal may flee, but can be trapped or killed. Then the animal can be dissected and examined under a microscope and record the observations.

If one wants to study people, as in psychology or something similar, one has to find a person willing to participate. One has to ask about the experiences and trust that any of the many variances or problems that could alter the perceptions of the observation is not in the way of an accurate recording.

But to study God, God has to be in complete control. There is no microscope or telescope we can use to study God without His revealing Himself to us. In the measure He see fit, and on His timetable.

Good thing He promised us He would reveal Himself if sought.

Now I am going to maintain that one of the ways He does this is through other people. Having a true personal connection with another human being is NOT the same thing as our experiences that can lie to us. Seeing ourselves, and God, and His creations through another persons eyes, and sharing with them creates a situation that is greater than the sum of its parts.

This is called fellowship.

And God promised us that if two or more get together and He was in their midst.

A loss of fellowship is a frightening thing. I've seen it completely destroy a person's spiritual life. Someone I truly loved and cared about. More than one someone.

CS Lewis talks about when JRR Tolkein died how he lost the fellowship he had with the man. How he would never again have his insights into the nature of God.

I believe that God brings people into our lives for a reason. And that I might have lost out on something by not being open and kind to any one of the persons I bump into on the bus on a daily basis.

Like anything else, its us that limits God.

We seem to be programmed to keep trying to put Him in a box.

Truth and the Bible

What I wrote about last time regarding truth and metaphor is important, but not very practical. So here's some practicality regarding truth.

To get started we need to revist the concept from the last paper regarding the difference between experience and truth. Looking at the idea that all swans are white, until we see our first black swan, introduces the concept that truth exists independent of our experiences. The black swan always existed, our belief that all swans are white had absolutely no effect on it whatsoever.

So the first idea to consider when beginning a quest for truth is that we close ourselves to discovering truth when we think we know it already!

“To look at something as though we had never seen it before requires great courage.” (Matisse)

I plan on discussing courage in a later paper, but the concept I am describing when I speak of courage is the ability to face oneself. There are people that make actions and statements and plans and great successes that other people point to and say “That person really thinks outside of the box.”

But if you ask them, they often will say something like “what's a box? People actually think in them?”

They have already, somehow rid themselves of limits or labels that the rest of us live with. This is a complex subject regarding the nature of reality and truth. Simply, the statement “No one ever told me I couldn't do that” is a comment on both the nature of limits and labels and the nature of courage.

“You can have no greater sign of confirmed pride than when you think you are humble enough.” (Law)

That pretty much says it all, doesn't it? Even without realizing we are all guilty of this to some degree. Why learn a new way to wash dishes when the way we do it has been working for years? Why learn a better, if more difficult way to balance our checkbooks when the way we learned in school has never steered us wrong?

Its a hard fact for many to face, but just because we have not been corrected yet, does in no way indicate we are doing “it” right.

“In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.” (Hoffer)

How would we realize that swans also come in black if we did not maintain both the constant ability to recognize something new, and most importantly the fact that what we “know” may be incomplete or even (gasp!) incorrect?

So let me now turn to a quote from the bible itself....

This is what's happening: Paul is on a mission to Athens and he's a pretty smart guy. So he spends a day or so wandering the marketplace before he tries to speak to the people. He finds that there are a great deal of idols and other gods being worshipped by the people, they even have one to the Unknown God, just in case they missed anyone. So when Paul speaks he talks to them about their Unknown God and how this is the God that he's come to tell them about.

Pretty daring stuff really. If we're going to be critically honest with ourselves, we would note that although this story has gotten a great deal of traffic over the years from ministers, if anyone tried something like this on an evangelical mission they'd be excommunicated faster than you could say “Mars Hill.”

But there's another part of that story that's often overlooked.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.”

(Acts 17:28)

So Paul also read the Greeks poetry, and quotes one of them in the bible.

The bible.

The living Word of God?

The un-error-able, literal, standard that people cling to as the only truth in the universe? A quote from a greek poet?

Have you ever read any greek poetry from that period? It might be a little like a church adopting quotes from pornographic romance novels into their doctrine.

Yet there's Paul, under inspiration from the Holy Spirit, including it into our bible....

I think what this illustrates is that Paul is saying truth can be found pretty much anywhere, anytime.

Then in 1Corinthians he really spells it out:

“21Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are your's;

 22Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are your's;
 23And ye are Christ's; and Christ is God's.”

Now it seems to me that what's going on here is that Paul is saying because all things are God's, and Christ is of God, and we are of Christ, then we now have the ability, through Christ, to claim the truth wherever we may find it. All things are ours.

And really, lets take a look at the bible in it's totality. Basically we have this story, and it begins with us in paradise. From a metaphorical sense we can talk about how “paradise” represents not a real place or garden but the world as its intended to be, as God intended it to be.

Then at the end of the last book in the bible we see an image of this paradise restored. I could go on about how this often overlooked part of the bible talks about the kingdom of God being restored ON EARTH, and how that means Christianity is NOT about some reward we are looking forward to receiving after death, but about what we do NOW to fulfill God's purpose here (and now)... but that's another paper.

The point is that the bible begins with the paradise we lost, and ends with the paradise to come. To me that means that the entire story is what happens in between. Me writing this paper, and you reading it, are also parts of the story.

So how do you want your part of the story written?

Metaphor and Truth

I'm weird.

When I write I usually don't have a problem starting. I open this door inside me and the words just flow. I usually have a problem stopping. I'll be deep in the flow of words and realize I need to wrap it up or it'll just go on indefinitely.

But this time I am having a problem knowing where to start.

So I'm just going to start with a couple definitions and principles that are at the core of what is to follow. Needless to say I will likely have to repeat these things from time to time, but if you can keep these things in mind when reading the rest of the papers things will definitely make more sense. 

First of all, we have a problem with language. This problem is a very big deal. It is very pervasive, which is a word that means everywhere we look we can find a part of this problem. 

It is also subtle, which is a word that means that we have a tendency to think that the parts of this problem we do find are not that important: They slip beneath our notice. 

And its a problem on multiple levels, by which I mean that it is a problem from our most fundamental levels of life to our most advanced concepts and beliefs.

Language is a metaphor. Every word we use, every syntax or context we understand, its all a metaphor. It is not the truth. The truth is the concept we are describing with our language, the language itself is not the truth.

For example, if I say “table” or “mesa” it doesn't change what I'm talking about. It was here before I got here, and will be here after I leave. It doesn't change how it acts like a table, nor does it change the appearance of the table. If I tell you my laptop right now is sitting on a table, you will have an image or an understanding of some sort of platform holding up my laptop to the proper height and keeping it from falling, but the actual representation of the table in your mind is not going to be the same as the one in my mind or anyone else's, nor will it likely be what is actually present in reality. Reality being the table I am looking at right now under my laptop.

But it is enough for us to communicate. And that, ultimately is the purpose of language. To communicate. Whenever we try to change reality with our language its a lie. Its kinda what a lie is. Being honest includes being honest about the limitations of our language and our understanding of language.

So let's be honest. If you get a hundred Christians in a room and ask them to define what Christianity is, you will not get ONE definition. That is just a fact. You would be likely to get more like 250 definitions out of a hundred people. A hundred definitions that we apply to ourselves, a hundred different definitions we apply to others, and a miscellany of other definitions that people understand or believe in but do not subscribe to; or are in the process of refining and adopting.

The same with just about any word or concept in the world you can think of. That's just the way it is. Our definitions are close enough that we can communicate, but we have to admit that there is no one on this planet that accepts reality with the same understanding that we do.

And so what happens is that when we have deep meaningful conversations, about 50% of the conversation is semantics. Half the conversation is about us agreeing on what our words mean. Sometimes if its a “teaching” type conversation it can be more than 50%, sometimes if its a continuing conversation it can be less because we will use words that we've already agreed upon.

Having said that, I would like to point out that whether its a translation study, or a language study, or contextual reading, we still have the same problem. We are simply trading one assumption for another, but its still an assumption. This is why literal and/or legalistic interpretation of the Bible creates problems. It's like looking at the world with one eye. You can still see the shapes and colors and beauty of the world, in fact you can still see it using either eye. But without BOTH eyes there's no depth, things are only two dimensional.

What makes it more effective is to see things in three dimensions. AND to be able to conceptualize the place objects hold and their significance in a three dimensional “space” in our understanding. Its not that the two dimensional picture is wrong, its that the three dimensional picture is richer, more robust, more REAL.

And that brings us to what I think is a good place to start: Truth.

For the purpose of our discussions let me make a few points about “truth” so that we can start on the same page. I've already explained how “truth” is different from language or metaphor.

The first point I'd like to make is something that is central to understanding God. The first maxim I will present is this:

“Nothing unreal exists.”

Think about that for a minute. If something exists, its real. If something is real, then it must exist. Merely not having experienced something does not make it unreal, nor does having experienced something make it completely real. This is exemplified in Mere Christianity by CS Lewis when he talks about thinking that all swans are white, until you see a black one. Experience can lie.

Furthermore, there's this thing called perception. Perception is unconscious. “Managing perception” used to be the battle cry of a job I used to hold. It meant to act or behave in a way that pleased the client. But if we look at it critically it basically means to “lie”. If our perception of anything occurs without our conscious knowledge, then the things we perceive we don't really have the control over that we assume we do. If we did, we would be immune to illusions, or lies. So once again, experiences can lie.

So where does that leave us? If truth simply “is”, but how we experience what "is" can be untrue, how can we know what truth is?

The reason I make this point has to do with a very critical concept related to understanding “truth”. It has to do with humility and acceptance. The danger is in the importance we place on what we label truth.

The very sobering realization is that anytime we insist that something we have experienced or something that we know is true, well its the insistence that is the problem, its the importance we put on that something that is the only thing we have control over.

So I'm going to say something that will immediately be unacceptable to some: The crucifix is just a piece of wood or metal. The only importance it has is the importance we put on it. I can provide a great deal of evidence in history and etymology and theology that supports this assertion. But there are some that will immediately reject the assertion and everything else that I say because of this one assertion. No where did I say it was bad... in fact the statement I said could actually make the importance of significance of the crucifix greater. The perception just happened.

The thing about illusions or lies, and perception, is that they often rely on this difference in depth. The difference between something “two dimensional and three dimensional” in a metaphorical sense. Seeing something on a two dimensional image that appears to be three dimensional is an “optical” illusion, one that uses our perception to appear to be something that its not. Without our conscious effort to include other factors like the knowledge its on a piece of two dimensional paper, we would be fooled.

The second point I'd like to make is about contrast. Sometimes we understand truth by what contrasts with it. Now in this case I am not saying that what is contrasting with truth is untruth, because it still exists. So my use of the word “contrast” in this context should not be taken to mean an opposite member in the sense of real and unreal.

What I mean by this is that we can better understand what is by defining what it is not.

If you study and examine every Christian denominational doctrine, from Catholicism to Moony-ism, you will notice a contrast that is at the core of every system. This is the contrast between the attraction of the image of God vs. the repulsion of the definition of sin. Each helps to make the other real.

Now I thought about that sentence, I didn't just blurt it out. Each word is important. How each system defines sin is the object of the repulsion; just as what image is perceived to be “of God” is the attraction of the system.

The last point I would like to make about Truth in this first paper is the subject of context. The maxim is: “Text without context is false”; but this maxim applies to much more than merely text. It also speaks to one of the problems we have with a mutual understanding of truth.

For example: As alluded to before, experience lies and yet our understanding of truth comes directly from this experiential framework. The application of context to the situation will always increase understanding. In the example with the swans, before we experienced a black swan it was “true” that all swans were white. After experiencing a black swan we can state that our previous belief was incomplete, that time and reality was larger than our experiences had been to that date.

But if we are critically honest with ourselves we will admit that the black swan existed before we experienced it, therefore it was us that was in the wrong, that reality and therefore truth had not changed one whit.

The trick is to keep this lesson in the heart of every truth we have or will have.

The problems begin whenever we assume that any truth we hold is the absolute truth.

Introduction

This is about finding God.

Its about experiences and application. Reality.

So right off the bat, people are going to object. You know...

The crowd that thinks God can't be anything other than what you find in the bible.

The crowd that thinks God can't be anything more than what their denomination or doctrine says.

The crowd that thinks they've got it all figured out.

You know... Christians.

I'm not casting aspersions. I'm a Christian. Its just that my experience with God has lead me somewhere else. Things like humility, and truth, and an intense dislike of lying to myself and hypocrisy. I could give examples.

The truth is that I have met many Christians that are like minded. Usually they have a certain light and weight to their spirit that is undeniable, especially to non-Christians. Over and over again when we meet the connection is instant and supernatural.

Supernatural means “more-natural” by the way.

What we are seeing is that those very “crowds” I mentioned before? If we dig a little deeper we find that they are really:

The crowd that has been hurt and cling to their version of Christianity so strongly because they are terrified of more hurt.

The crowd that is being made slaves to fear and guilt by the very church system that offers the insubstantial solution.

The crowd that is being lied to, and being taught how to lie to themselves, and then being taught new deceptions to fix the previous ones.

The crowd that are having the very things they seek being used as a barrier to actually finding them.

This is really for them.

This is really for the very people that will want to burn me at the stake for trying to help them.