Convinced only, not converted

Tuesday is dead - If you grew up in the sixties, seventies and even eighties, you'll remember the name, Cat Stevens. An English folk rocker whose work was immensely popular on all sides of the Atlantic, Stevens had a string of hits, toured the world and became filthy rich. He had the Rolls Royce and the trophy girlfriend and the best drugs the money could buy.

One day, at the height of his career, Stevens simply disappeared. He just stopped making records and disappeared from view for about twenty years. There were rumors that he was dead or fallen with some horrible and debilitating disease. The truth is that in those years when he was producing his successes and earning millions, he was quietly and sporadically going through a spiritual crisis. He began to ask the big questions: why am I here? Is there a God? Where am I going to spend eternity?

Stevens was born into a Christian family. Then, when his unwanted search for truth began, he naturally turned first to Christianity for answers. And here the story goes terribly wrong: no one took him seriously. His parents were absent churchgoers: they had nothing for him. They thought their famous son was suffering from a bit of post-teen angst. His relatives, many of whom were also nominally Christian, had no answers. The local Anglican community had no answers. Even Stevens's local pastor had nothing significant to offer. Wherever he turned, all he had was some variation on- "" Well, you know, we all worry about these things from time to time. Just be quiet and know that God loves you. Imagine: here is this young man - there is a window of opportunity in his life - who wants to have a serious talk about God and eternity. He is genuinely distressed; He is wounded in spirit and his Church gives him clichés. He needed the Gospel; he gets "I'm ok, you're ok".

His music reflected a yearning and a search for piety. Author of one of the most beautiful hymns ever written, Morning Has Broken and other songs like The Peace train, and oh, The Wind ...

I listen the wind, in the wind of my soul
Where I’ll end up, well, I think only God really knows
I sat upon the setting sun
But never, never, never, never
I never wanted water once
Never never never
I listen my words, but they fall far below
I let my music take me where my heart wants to go
I swam upon the devil's lake.
But never, never, never, never
I'll never make the same mistake
Never never never

And then someone gave Stevens a copy of the Qur'an. And he read and was instantly filled with questions. Being a resourceful young man, he got on a plane, flew to Jerusalem, went to a mosque and asked for help. He was well received and treated with kindness. The Imams helped him. They had answers. And just as on a Monday morning he was convinced, on the afternoon of his Tuesday, his faith was already dead. Tuesday is Dead 

By our lights in the gospel, these answers were and remain lies and heresies - that is what Islam is: a defective and corrupt creed of a false and perverse prophet. But to the mind of a vulnerable young man, the answers seemed to make sense. He wanted to know how to live in this sometimes terrible and confusing world - they told him. Later he said, "I was shown how to live." He was convinced, and not converted.

Feel so different - On the outskirts of Philadelphia, a younger version of me was delighted with such a beautiful voice. A face that brought feelings and tears from the toughest bullies in school. At Esther's sweet sixteen party, I remember dancing with... (well, never mind). But the music ... The voice ... The story of Sinead O'Connor sung in Nothing Compares 2 U. Irish singer and activist converted to Islam. The 51-year-old artist responsible for hits Nothing Compares to You and The Emperor's New Clothes announced her embrace of the Muslim faith in her social media channels, as well as changing her name to Shuhaida. A video of her saying that the Shahabad - the Islamic faith statement - was also posted on twitter by Irish imam Ir Umar al-Qadri.

Her new name, Shuhaida, derives from the Arabic word of the Qur'an "Shahid", which in false sacred scripture is used generically to mean "witness" and in certain passages to describe a "martyr".

As for her conversion to Islam, O'Connor - who was politely ordained a priest in the late 1990s by the Catholic and Orthodox Church of Ireland (an independent Catholic group that is not in communion with the Vatican) - said that this marked a " natural conclusion of the journey of any intelligent theologian. "

Sadaqat "Shuhada" @ MagdaDavitt77

This is to announce that I am proud to have become a Muslim. This is the natural conclusion of any intelligent theologian's journey. Every study of the scriptures leads to Islam. Which makes all other scriptures redundant. I will be given (another) new name. It will be Shuhada

14.3K2h42 - 20th October 2018

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Songs of Faith - Faith and spirituality abounded in O'Connor's three-decade work, with the singer drawing on various spiritual texts, including the Bible. I was so impressed when my brother showed me her new stuff.

Her lyrics were often written from a seeker's point of view, either out of love, salvation, and acceptance.

O'Connor was more direct on her 2007 acoustic album Theology, a collection of songs inspired by the Old Testament Psalms. If You Had a Vineyard is based on passages from Isaiah and Jeremiah, while Whomsoever Dwells contains the letters of her then favorite, Psalm 91.

She said in an interview with Cross Rhythms.

“Whatever I say about religion I really love religion, "" I'm very inspired by love in different religions and so if I criticize it, it's not to the point of not liking it - you know what I mean? But I think sometimes the nature of God's character can be portrayed inaccurately in a way that can be difficult for many people.”

O'Connor's quest for inner peace, which she spoke about in her work and escaped most of her troubled life, began to bear fruit on her latest album, I'm Not Bossy.

Another embrace and abandonment of the love of God. Sinead was convinced but not converted. Her pseudo liberation was not the conviction of sin and justice and judgment, but a form of material and psychological atonement for the many atrocities and abuses that took place against her. She felt different only, but not succumbing to the true repentance of sin, she was not converted to the kingdom of the son of God's love. Feel so Different 

This is a sad tale. For Stevens, a Christian community failed when a young man came in search of truth. So did O'Connor. Really?

First Peter tells us, "Be ever ready to give an answer to every man who asks a reason for the hope that is in you." That did not happen in those cases. There was a failure at the neighborhood and family level in that Christian community, forty years ago in East London, when a young man came in search of salvation. There was a flaw in the worldwide Christian community that paid no attention to the depressed singer's cry and begging for help between various attempts against her own life. Well, they'll just snap out of it! We can argue. And there is the fact that no one seems to be able to articulate the truth to them. That would be bad enough in itself - losing some souls to Islam is a terrible thing - but we have to wonder what the domino effect of this failure is.

How many young men and women of that generation followed Stevens and O'connor in the darkness of Islam? How many followed in later years? It would be surprising if the answer were "none". Stevens is called Yusuf Islam these days. He is the most famous convert of Islam. He is the poster boy for Islam as a religion of peace. No IEDs, no AK-47s, just an acoustic guitar and peace and love. He is tremendously popular and influential in the Muslim community and beyond, particularly in Britain, but also across Europe. The FBI puts you on an air exclusion list. I suppose it is not without reason. Shuhaida is still reclusive and unavailable, so it does not make that much difference.

But Islam is not the only lie people will believe. It is a much more subtle and profound resentment toward God called sin. Who says, "I know him," but does not do what he says is a liar, and the truth is not in that person. (1 John 2.4) One can be persuaded of anything he hears, but if he does not convert, confess, and repent, the truth is not in that person. I am convinced, however, that the methodology of confronting sin and loving people is the conversion necessary for each to exercise and medicate oneself.

If we are not ready to answer for our faith, we fail not only to the questioner (that is, the unbeliever who might have believed) but also, potentially, fail to all whose life is subsequently touched by them. The consequences of this are incalculable; many variables, lots of math.

Only God knows the whole story of who our friends will become. There could be students sitting in today's classes that people will one day follow. Strange things happened. The answers we give to friends - or not - here in our time together will become a small part of some future reality. And remember, some of us who actively preach the gospel of Christ - the answers we give believers in our care may be the ones that make them survive. We should always be here praying and leaning intensely on the Holy Spirit, experience and personal witness for when these Great Questions come our way.

The Kite Runner - The # 1 New York Times best-selling novel debut that introduced Khaled Hosseini to millions of readers worldwide.

The unforgettable and painful story of the unlikely friendship between a rich boy and his father's servant son, trapped in the tragedy of history, The Kite Runner transports readers to Afghanistan at a tense and crucial time of change and destruction. A powerful story of friendship is also about the power of reading, the price of betrayal and the possibility of redemption; and an exploration of the power of parents over their children-their love, their sacrifices, their lies.

Spoiler alert! - There is a part in the story, in which the servant's son is raped by a bunch of older city bullies. And the master's son, the narrator, is cowardly convinced that he could not have done anything about it. He pretends not to know. And internally, he begins to develop a bitter resentment toward his best friend. Resentment turned to hatred, and he lied to the boy, accusing him of stealing his father's watch, being dismissed by the alleged robbery of his son. The story goes on to show the effects of a childhood, a childish attitude of resentment and questioning, a sinful act and its consequences for life, to the end, when the main character decides to correct the mistakes again by trying to heroically endorse and neutralize his sin.

Since its publication in 2003, Kite Runner has become a beloved and unique classic of contemporary literature, touching millions of readers and launching the career of one of America's most valuable writers.

That's the way things are. People can be convinced of something. And though they are convinced and not yet converted, they will make promises, and in search of peace of mind, freedom, or atonement, they may face their sinful nature and truly surrender to the grace and love of God, or they will go from branch to branch , ideas for ideals, friends for friends. They will embrace friends and ideas and as easily as they were convinced, if there is no conversion, they will turn their backs on friends and church and faithfulness to God. In the end, broken promises and a consolation bravado of "But I still have not found what I'm looking for ..." ( another song that shook my world). He goes on to say evil things and make up lies about those who have helped him most. People who, for the love of God were blessings to those who abandoned him today. Sad for who it is, Terrible for those who go! The end; spiritual death.

In Proverbs 26 we find it disgusting and disconcerting to read verse 11 when it says, "When a dog returns to its vomit, fools repeat their folly"

What abomination is sin, and how it is sometimes odious to make it appear, even to the sinner himself. When his conscience is convinced, or he feels good about his sin, he is tired of it and vomits; he seems then to dislike it and to be willing to discard it. It is in itself, and in the first or last place, it will be to the sinner, more disgusting than the vomit of a dog. Sl 36.2.

How ready sinners are in a relapse. Like the dog, after it has gained relief by vomiting what has burdened its stomach, it still licks again, so the sinners, who were convinced only and not converted, return to sin again, forgetting how sick it has made them. The apostle (2 Pet 2:22) applies this proverb to those who have known the way of righteousness, but have turned away from it; but God shall drive them out of his mouth, Revelation 3:16.

So a fool goes back to his madness. Although he knows that this is madness and ruin for him: but vice has become second nature, and he cannot escape it even if he wants to. This is especially true for those who gave way to drunkenness or the impurity of life. The fool never frees himself from the bonds of his foolishness; his deeds and words always carry the same character to the end. The same truth holds true for the sinner, especially the drunkard and the sensualist. But still true for those who give themselves to idolatry for hours in falsehood of legalistic prayers, and pretense of much love and relationships based on themselves. If they feel temporary remorse and reject their sin by partial repentance, they are not totally shaken; it has become second nature, and they soon return to it.

If you can overcome the intolerance of "people nowadays" to which we are all prone, this new generation has some real possibilities. They seem totally determined to keep things positive. Good for them. They are not traumatized by change - they actually like it. They are not afraid of technology. They are materialists, but no more than we are, and their materialism tends to center mainly around the acquisition of new technologies. There are, of course, dangers in technology - it can be a little fascinating and some of its doors lead to obscure places, but let's be honest, those doors have always been there; they just needed more effort to open in the past.

These children do not like confrontation. They avoid it - sometimes even when it is inevitable in good conscience for a young man or woman of faith. They may be a little too open to commit. We have to help them with this. We have to teach them; you cannot make deals with the Scriptures. You cannot give prerogatives to God - they are not ours to give. And in the end, they will do to you, as Peter did with Jesus.

These people are also a bit narcissistic. They like to take pictures of themselves shopping and eating sandwiches. Such eccentricities aside, we can reasonably have high hopes for them. We have to fear for them too. They lack wisdom, especially the younger ones. They need guidance. We should provide this when and where we can. We should look for opportunities to guide them. We should make opportunities to guide them. But the maximum that anyone on earth can do is convince ... Face it ... Maintain relationships - "in the real" ... However, only the holy spirit will convert the hearts of the lost.

They live in a world that is more wicked in several orders of magnitude than what we knew as young people - and it will get worse before it gets better. The least we could do is be ready to answer their questions about how we got here and where we're going. These big perennial questions: Why am I here? Is there a God? Where am I going to spend eternity?

Stevens and O'Connor were already convinced of something. Like them, many people who came and went out of my life were convinced and convincing. I had such close friends and they were not faithful. I'm looking for the friends I left. The years have passed, and when we will finally leave our defenses, we will be friends in Christ again.

The Truth about Supermen and Super Christians

If Superman and Mighty Mouse got into a fight, who would win? The boys asked this in the hit movie Stand By Me, by Rob Reiner, 1986, but there was no conclusive answer. Searching the Internet, I found some interesting answers.

A fan of superheroes said: "Mighty and Super are synonymous, so if you have (Super) (Man) and (Mighty) (Mouse) you can cancel the" super "and powerful, which leaves you with Man and Mouse. Of course the man usually wins, but the mouse can win 2/10 times. "

Yet another reader posted, "Let's just say that, by the argument, Mighty Mouse's power level was on the same level as Superman's. All Superman would have to do was keep the fight long enough for Mighty Mouse to burn his electric pill. So the MM is just an ordinary mouse. "

"The Mighty Mouse is so superior, he has its own song. Then he would beat Superman enough to make him to say “Uncle!”." Said another...

Some other fans commented, "I do not think Mighty Mouse can move on its own."

Corey Feldman, in portraying Teddy in the film, said: "Superman is a real guy. Mighty Mouse is a cartoon. No way a cartoon could hit a real guy. Stupid question Vern. "(I always stay on Teddy's side.) Superman! I love the fact that Teddy said he's real. He's real! (Oh, Boy!)

Even the wisest of the boys on those train tracks could not get it right! Their arguments were all flawed. They thought Superman was real, so it was not even a cartoon.

Lately, I have seen many of these kinds of comparisons and faulty questions about Christianity. Many today, are fighting over who is a better Super-Christian or a Super–Pastor. They debate over the “who is who” title in the evangelical arena and the one which, can get more likes in the extra-biblical gospel doctrines. There seems to be a continuing competition to see who is right. In the end, the question we ask is who will win in a fight, and the wisest answers we can give is an argument against the reality or authenticity of many godly men and women who live, learn, and teach about Jesus as the true head of God’s church.

A member of my church recently posted a picture showing a bunch of different superheroes from different universes sitting with an image of Jesus and the phrase "That's how I saved the world..." written under it, as if Jesus were speaking with his superhero friends.

Another popular post I saw on Facebook was a video of many superheroes bowing and showing their respect for the cross. I have a problem with that. It is not just the breaking of the second commandment, but it is the fact that we are comparing Jesus to fairy tales or comic book heroes.

Although these childlike comparisons seem to be popular today, we can see in church history that they have always been present in our midst.

AN OLDER SUPERHERO
The Church loved the radical Super-disciplines of Simeon. They admired his austere lifestyle. He was canonized as a saint in the Coptic Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic Churches. Cities fought for his body so that sacred relics could be parceled out from his remains. Shrines were built around his last pillar, which ruins’ remain to this day not far from the modern city of Aleppo.

Some years after the beginning of the 5th century AD, a 13-year-old Turkish shepherd developed a zeal for Christianity while reading the Beatitudes. About a year later, he entered a monastery and began practicing these extreme forms of self-deprecation that he was asked to leave. For a year and a half, he locked himself in a small hut from which rumors spread that he had spent a whole Lenten season without eating or drinking. As the fame of their superpowers spread, crowds began to visit this renowned Holy Superman (as Robyn would say) to seek his prayers and advice.

But many people stopped their contemplations. Then Simeon decided to climb up on a tower among the ruins of an ancient city, where he could escape even more from worldliness and temptation. There he lived - five feet off the ground for many years until he began to build higher towers. He spent his final years in a 20-foot tall tower in his constant desire to prove his devotion to God through his punitive lifestyle to his own body. Reverence for Simeon grew. He inspired many imitators committed to seeking holiness and purifying their worldly temptations.

I'm talking about Simeon Styllite; who is just another example of our human tendency to turn Paul's admonitions into the small church in Colossae completely upside down. Simeon and all who followed him were great examples of believers who had only "a partially learned Christ." They understood something of Jesus Christ, but they failed to see the full truth about him and the obvious implications of trusting in Christ. This is the main theme of Paul in almost all his letters; those whom he writes have to be a little savior. In the same way, many of us too are often making Christ, something smaller than he really is.

In our day and age, all you need to do to see this problem is to search the religious sites and gospel pages to be impressed by the ingenuity of the people who send money to support the modern Phrygian gurus, promising health and wealth and blessings of life in exchange for financial sacrifices. They are teaching a half-hearted Christ, leaving their followers open to all sorts of religious teachings that "sound" right while they are anti-Biblical and deeply sinister.

Paul's concern with the small congregation at Colossae was that they knew Christ only partially. Then he writes to draw them back to the fullness of their union with Christ. He writes in Colossians 2: 9-10, "For in Christ all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form, and in Christ you have been brought to fullness. He is the head over every power and authority. " You need no teaching that insists on adding other things to your faith to get any personal feeling of "fullness". But the Colossian gurus offered what appeared to be simple solutions to such felt needs.

LIVING A SUPER-BELIEVING LIFE (Colossians 2.16-19)
There seemed to be only certain things necessary to gain fullness-certain simple and capable disciplines that needed to be exercised. And we are all very naive. Evangelical Christians always seem to be looking for a quick and easy way to experience greater spiritual wholeness. "Fullness" was one of the keywords of propaganda for first-century gurus, just as "higher life" or "true spirituality" or "holiness" or "winning walk" became modern keywords of the evangelical market of our days. Here in this text, we have an idea of the kind of super spiritual discipline that can be sold in the Lich Valley in Paul's day.

BEVERAGES, JUICES, DIETS AND DAYS (Colossians 2.16-17)
The first higher life program on the menu involved keeping diets restrictive and celebrating certain days. Dietary restrictions and observance of the days of fasting and feasting ruled the lives of the Jews. The Mosaic Law contained no drink restrictions (other than a prohibition against drunkenness), suggesting that this was not an entirely Jewish set of sacred rules. However, it seems that the gurus were teaching restrictions on kosher foods and Jewish feasts and fasting days as a means of improving one's Christian experience. Remember that just a few centuries before the time Paul wrote, Jews were willing to die instead of eating an impure diet or skipping a feast or a day of fasting.

The social pressure of these passionate diet and day advocates would have been enormous. "Besides, what harm could it do? Maybe this will improve my religious experience. " We may think in our day about social pressures in militant evangelicalism to maintain a certain set of political beliefs, or to educate their children in a certain way, or to use only the "best" Bible translation (whatever it is in your church circle). Weather or not someone can clap their hands or use humor for the Biblical exposition.

The checklists for more complete Christian experiences are endless today. Some advocate "biblical diets" and natural healing remedies as part of the improved spiritual experience. The damage is not in things or in the programs themselves. If you like essential oils and the Daniel Diet, it's good for you! The evil lies in accepting the subtle idea that anything or any program can bring you a fuller spiritual life than you already have in your union with Christ.

The diets and days of the Old Testament were shadows cast in time by the body (substance) of the Lord Jesus Christ. "You do not need to look into the shadow," says Paul, "because Christ has come in all its fullness!" Paul sums up his commandment not to be judged by such things, "These are a shadow of things to come, to Christ ". It echoes the description of the author of the ceremonial law as a shadow of the heavenly realities (Hebrews 8.5).

I heard from Albert Mohler an illustration for this subject: "Many of you have already been away from the family. Maybe you took a picture of your family with you, and every now and then you would look at that photo. But when you came home, you could hug your wife and your children. Why do you want to hug and kiss the picture? "The types and shadows thrown back by Christ are just figures; you have the real substance of Christ.

LOOKING FOR ANGEL’S FEATHERS (Colossians 2.18-19)
"Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. They have lost connection with the head, from which the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow... "  Then the program of the Phrygia super spiritual disciplines was a strict self-denial, perhaps in the order of Simeon Styllite. This kind of bodily torture probably made the sufferer worthy to enter the kingdom of angels and learn the deeper truths of the spirits who were there. Only the truly "self-righteous" practitioner was apt to receive the deeper truth of angelic beings, so said these false teachers.

In later centuries, the churches in this region persisted in the worship of the angels. The Synod of Laodicea in 363 AD condemned the practice. But in the ninth century, it was again considered pious to worship the angels; It was invented a tradition that the Archangel Michael had diverted a torrent and caused other natural disasters of the region. It makes you want to hit your head and ask, "How stupid can these people be?" The answer is the same as Teddy's: This is a stupid question, Vern ... "- As stupid as you and I when we put ANYTHING above the fullness of our union with Christ! 

All these forms of strict super-disciplines only gave the appearance of humility. Paul literally says that these gurus are "lacking in humble spirit and godliness" and are "being conceited by the mind of the flesh" (v. 18). Our sinful nature, our flesh, our old Adam is desperately drawn to keep all kinds of man-made rules that make us feel better about ourselves and offer us a super-sized spirituality.

Compare the gurus of "the most complete knowledge" with Paul, who was caught up in heaven where he heard things that one can not speak - obtaining the highest, fullest, and most profound knowledge (2Corinthians 12. 3-4). Then he writes, "And that I might not be exalted for the excellence of the revelations, a thorn was given to me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to slay me, that I might not be exalted." (2Corinthians 12.7)

The flesh, the old Adam, loves to steal the glory of the work that Christ does in us. Imagine how much more do the false teachers, without Christ, loving the self-glory and worship of their followers seeking a fuller life through deeper knowledge.

That is why so many pilgrims of the fifth century traveled to seek Simeon Styllite; they thought he had the deepest and most complete truths. Why? Because he was an excellent self-sufferer, he certainly ought to have been more worthy of receiving great messages from God. But the doctrine of the fullness of Christ utterly obliterates the desire of the ancient Adam for spiritual glory. The fullness of Christ utterly obliterates the secret wisdom of supposed holy and insane men. If you are trusting in Christ, Paul says, "Let no one decide for you... "Because you are already filled with Christ. Thus, the whole Church grows with a growth that comes from God, not from human regulations and programs.

Paul wants you to know every time you listen to a teacher speak, there are three questions to ask yourself. First, ask yourself who is being exalted in the message? Does it draw you to the speaker, or does it draw you to focus on yourself, or force your heart's ears and eyes to Christ? Who is great, gracious and glorious in the message of this master? Second, what is the teacher NOT saying? Is there anything missing in the message? In Phrygia, what was absent from the message was the focus on the fullness and glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Finally, what is the effect of teacher education? The effect in Phrygia was that the gurus were full, but the body of Christ was not built to grow with the growth of God. Some, without any preparation, repeat teachings as parrots, causing a temporary impact that generates scourges and pains for many years to come. When a person calls himself a teacher, he has a source of dubious and often deceitful knowledge, and must be examined in the light of Scripture.

HUMAN OBVIOUS REGULATION (Colossians 2.20-23)
In the last three verses, Paul sums up the teachings of those gurus. First, it reminds us that these self-focused checklists are part of the elementary principles of the world. They are part of the satanic philosophy that something unlike God is necessary for the fullness of humanity - like that beautiful fruit hanging from the tree of judgment in Eden. The apostle describes the programs of the false teachers in a series of three negative rules.

Since you died with Christ to the elemental spiritual forces of this world, why, as though you still belonged to the world, do you submit to its rules: “Do not handle! Do not taste! Do not touch!” These rules, which have to do with things that are all destined to perish with use, are based on merely human commands and teachings.; Colossians 2: 20-22

Man, not by God, makes these rules because they focus their attention on the earth and not on the one who has risen, and ascended into heaven, being fully glorified, our Lord Jesus Christ. Paul gives us some significant marks of the false teachings in verse 23.

First, Paul says that false teaching "will indeed have a resemblance of wisdom..." False teaching will provide a way to keep your life seemingly solved. It will offer a way to organize the old Adam, the flesh, so that sin becomes less visible and outward. It can offer freedom against debilitating depression or freedom from an addiction. It can offer a new purpose for your disorganized life. You can promise feelings of peace in a world of chaos. You can make yourself into a Super Believer. It can make you grow. But remember: He must increase and I must decrease. (John 3.30) But false teachings will not have the glorious focus on the fullness of the Lord Jesus Christ. 

It will be a religion made by yourself and for yourself. It will be a religion invented around you and about for you. This is not simply the religious culture of the world of the first century or of the world of the twenty-first century. This is the dominant religion of all mankind from the moment Adam chose self-realization above the fullness of God. Self-taught religion is the elemental principle born in the Garden of Eden and, in the category of fall, programmed into the DNA of all mankind.

The function of all your self-made religions is to help people manage themselves to make progress in life. It's about self-discipline, self-education, self-improvement, and self-success. But Jesus commands us to come and die for the ego and live for his honor and glory.

I still mostly think of Heaven as the place where all my problems will disappear and where in fact, I will finally glorify God perfectly for all eternity. Heaven is still the place of personal improvement rather than the place to fully experience the reason for my creation - to glorify God and to enjoy it forever.

I recently saw a video announcing a church and it’s Bible institute, and the catch phrase was: "Because the most important thing for the Christian is to gain knowledge!" (Oh Boy!) That's a blatant lie! The flesh does not need self-improvement; the flesh must die. The most important thing for the Christian is to glorify God and to enjoy it forever! It's the first question in the catechisms! Even Corisco, my late parrot, knew that! (Seriously, I taught the Catechism to him)

Note that false teaching not only seems wise and is done by itself but also has a focus on the body in the form of asceticism and severity for the body. It is the religion of "do not do this and do not do that". Asceticism is a philosophical doctrine that defends the abstention of physical and psychological pleasures, believing to be the way to achieve perfection and moral and spiritual balance. The gurus and their followers thought they were offering God a voluntary addition to their basic requirements-a super-disciplined devotion through which they hoped to gain superior deity, approval, and rewards with a higher lifestyle. But Paul warns that no matter how "evangelical" or "Jesus' language" a false teacher sprinkled in false teaching, it will never be of any value in stopping the condescension of the flesh and sensuality.

How did God restrain Paul's desire for the glory of the flesh after Paul heard the deeper divine revelation? He gave Paul a constant affliction by which the grace of God was sufficient by itself. In other words, God chose the way Paul would suffer. Paul was not famished. Paul did not lock himself up in a cell so small that it only fit him, as Styllite did. Paul did not sit on top of a 10-meter tower for the rest of his life.

It was not some self-imposed method; no method of suffering that made Paul seem humble in the face of all the secret revelation he received. No program that Paul could have done for himself would have humiliated him. God poured out situations completely beyond his control, so that he would be in constant dependence on the fullness of Christ for the glory of Christ alone. Believers have no reason to be arrogant. But if you're arrogant, it's because you have not suffered enough yet in situations totally beyond your control.

Paul urges us to question whether the teachings we receive increase the burden of death in my life, or serve merely to disguise my sins? Do these teachings build or destroy fellowship of the church? Do these teachings enslave me to the teacher, pastor, coach, or guru? Do you focus on man-made regulations or the glory and honor of the Lord Jesus Christ? Is it in the Bible or is it in the throats of someone who knows how to speak well?

The great tragedy of many of our lives is that we seek ANYTHING apart from Christ - any means other than His fullness and our union with Him - to administer our self-constructed religion. But Paul commands us to fix our gaze only on Christ, because all we need is in Christ and everything is ours through our union with Him.

Our old Adam loves lists of things to do to administer the flesh, for such lists have the appearance of wisdom. But the list of Paul (of Christ) is small: fix your heart and your mind in Christ. The apostle will continue to show us through commandments far beyond our ability to follow that the only way to make real progress is "Step number one: it's all about Jesus."

All the fullness you need is found in the Lord Jesus Christ. True pleasure cannot be found in the self; the "I" is desperate to turn everything around him into a mere appendix or reign of his own controlling ego. True pleasure can only be found outside of you and in Christ alone.

The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven. So he became as much superior to the angels as the name he has inherited is superior to theirs.  
(Hebrews 1.3,4)

It can be a wonderful thing to have role models and mentors to help guide us as we navigate the twists and turns of life. God created us for relationships - with Him and with others - and we can learn a lot from those around us. It may also be worth cultivating our creative skills and inventing characters and figures so that we can tell the story of the redemption of evil and wrong. Lewis and Tolkien were very accurate when they added characters like Lucy and Frodo Baggins to our cognitive archives. We must keep in mind, however, that our models are also human. We must be aware that the superheroes of fiction are as finite as their authors. And that before inventing the comic book characters, false teachers and teachers like Nietzsche already permeated thought and brought a strange struggle to the Christian wrestling mat. If we place our complete faith in someone here on earth, or in the pages and pixels of different universes, it is almost a guarantee that we will be disappointed in one way or another.

We need to be aware and make sure that no one else is controlling us with the teachings of this world. Looking at someone who is truly committed to following Jesus and the Word of God is a good place to start, but no human being is completely exempt from falling into temptation or from being stuck with the things of this world.

So, is there anyone we can look at with full faith? Yes! We can look to Jesus for strength, wisdom and guidance in all things. We can read the teachings of God and compare what the world wants us to believe against what the Bible says. Jesus wants us to be anchored in the truth and He will help us get there if we seek Him. We can certainly learn from those around us and our relationship with others can bring many blessings. But let us not forget that the image of God in Christ is holy and incomparable to any other creature. Real or fictitious.

A TRUE TALE ABOUT SHAME

Last semester, in one of the classrooms of a most prestigious preparatory academy, sat a young man from Brazil. His name was, well, let's call him Johnny. The teacher, D. Assálva prepared an activity to raise awareness about the importance of building a career. The first question of the research was what each of the pupils wanted to be when they grew up. Little Donald said he'd like to be president. Megan said she would become a princess someday. Firefighters, physicians, dentists and veterinarians were the most popular choices. Some people chose florists and even the preacher's son, Danny, who wanted to be like his father and grandfather before him. However, to the surprise and wonder of D. Assálva, Johnny said he would like to be a sports referee. When she inquired about what caused such a strange calling to a little twelve year old boy, he quickly replied, "My mother cut my hair and I am very angry with her!"

Ignore the bad behavior and it will go away... And so, the old teacher continued her survey asking the following questions: what is your parents’ profession? Where did they study? How long have they worked in such a service? The answers flowed just like the first question. Florists, dentists, doctors and veterinarians; When Johnny 's turn came, he proudly got up and said, "My father is a go-go boy, for those who do not know what that is," he explained in a well-rehearsed tone - "he's a stripper; he takes off his clothes for mon ... ", interrupted by D. Assalva, she scolded him for the funny business and told him to stay after class.

Worried, the teacher investigated where such negativity and rudeness came from. She said, " Johnny, I'm worried about you! -- Why would you say he was that awful thing? -- How can you be so angry with your parents?"

"Actually," he said, "I'm angry at my mother for the haircut she gave me, but with my father, I am just ashamed to admit that he's a Supreme Court justice!"

"When the wicked rules, the people moan." Proverbs 29: 2

We do not have to go very far to find historical accounts where corruption has overthrown a nation. Shortly before the fall of Rome, there was so much corruption that few even bothered to hide it. They made jokes about it. I would never do that! (Oh boy!). Do we have any doubt that political, governmental and corporate corruption is on the rise like never before? We include the truck drivers' strikes and roadblocks, robberies, robberies, sexual harassment and misconduct, and ponzy schemes, and then, our Federal Supreme Court judges in their do’s and undo’s of their decisions, the sort of person who plays and toils the morals of our nation. Fixing on our backs such decisions that free the crook and thieves. They traffic and they sign their sentences for money. We, the people end up either saying a blind “amen” to this, or we act like the hyena, (we eat dung and laugh…) we do all that, when we get confused and intertwined with the FIFA’s World Cup in Russia, and the repercussions of our fans, who show the same respect for Russian girls as the girls at the Brazilian street- funk dancing parties in the morros and favelas in the suburbs of Rio and São Paulo.

Friends, if any of you feel offended by my story of shame, as I re-wrote Johnny's joke, I'm really sorry. But for malfeasance, if ever seen worse than now, there is little anyone can do but laugh and really cry. Congress has shown contempt for public confidence. The bulk of the Senate's body makes most of us sick. Has our nation come to the point of no return? Is the economy really just a "house of cards" waiting to fall?

Be not conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing ye may discern what is the will of God, what is good, acceptable, and perfect. Romans 12.12

It's not just the politician’s fault. Two sides are required to pay a bribe or receive a tip. The Bible is clear about how Christians should react to such things when exposed to them (at work, in particular, anywhere). 

"Do not partake of the fruitless works of darkness; instead, expose them. " Ephesians 5.11

We should not have "no part" or not participate, which does not mean a bit. To have "no part" means to avoid the "works of darkness," and that means avoiding those who do. In fact, we are instructed to expose them, for whoever breaks the laws of man also breaks the laws of God (Romans 13. 1-5), and if you break the laws of God over time, they will break him (and me). Even though keeping the law doesn’t save you (Ephesians 2. 8-9), even if we tried, we couldn’t do it without the works of Christa alone. A spirit of obedience and gratitude to God should replace Johnny’s shame. Our shame and the (morbid) sense of humor should be replaced by a fidelity caused by God's faithfulness. In Paul's words as he wrote for the church in Rome, "What if some were unfaithful? Does their faithlessness nullify the faithfulness of God? By no means! Let God be true though every one were a liar, as it is written, “That you may be justified in your words, and prevail when you are judged.” But if our unrighteousness serves to show the righteousness of God, what shall we say? That God is unrighteous to inflict wrath on us? (I speak in a human way.) By no means! For then how could God judge the world?? (Romans 3.3-6) After identifying and verifying who we are in the presence of God, we can understand that "being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus" (Romans 3.24)

The great news is that he is merciful to his elect. I conclude here with the words spoken in Psalm 103.3-13:

Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit, who crowns you with steadfast love and mercy, who satisfies you with good so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. The Lord works righteousness and justice for all who are oppressed. He made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. He will not always chide, nor will he keep his anger forever. He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him; as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us. As a father shows compassion to his children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear him.