Digital Cowboy

I have no doubt that all three of you are real men. I also have no doubt that you’re real rednecks (I use that as a compliment.), even more so than me. You could probably out do me at many “manly” things.

I know how to build a deck, you could do it better. I’m mechanically inclined, you probably know more. I know guns and how to shoot well, you’re probably better. There’s no doubt any of the three of you could kick my ass because I’m not a fighter.

Y’all are smart and capable men. That’s why I like ya. Is it impossible for you to accept that I have a gift to ministry and have an understanding of the Bible that you don’t have and can’t get in the Methodist church? If my speculation is correct, your Daddy screwed all of you up because he didn’t know what being a man was about either. My Daddy was a good man and he didn’t until it was too late.

Let me give you some wisdom. Masculinity and Christ-likeness are synonymous. (Nate has demonstrated to me repeatedly that he doesn’t understand this. JACIII has to a lesser degree. Digger lays low most of the time so, as he pointed out, I don’t know much about him.)

You won’t learn that in the Methodist church because their theologians don’t even understand the power Jesus had on earth, how he got it or that it’s available to you and me. If you don’t understand Jesus Christ, it’s impossible for you to be like him. (For the record, I’m not asserting that I am like him. It’s what I aspire to and pursue.) He was meek, not weak. Meekness is confidence that comes from strength or power in reserve. You can continue to believe you have that with plans for mountain fortresses and concealed carry, but your faith is misplaced. There are things in this life that you cannot defend against with guns and hideouts.

The Methodist church is full of good, well-intentioned people. It’s also a religion that hasn’t had any fresh revelation in over 200 years. The book they’re teaching from is a living book, boys, and they don’t know it because that’s not taught in their seminaries. They’re too busy teaching their 200 year old doctrine, 200 year old hermeneutics and homiletics. (The latter pretty much boils down to “how to talk real pretty so people will believe what you’re saying even if you don’t.” It’s sales training.) Do you honestly believe that God has been asleep for the last 200+ years since John Wesley died? They’re like muslims with mohammed.

John Wesley was a man that got some revelation and started a “movement.” I find it fascinating that you disregard both that he wasn’t the first and even more so, that you seem to think he was the last. You use the word “movement” derisively about every revelation that’s come since and the Methodists taught you was wrong because it’s not John Wesley’s.

As I said over at JACIII’s, I sincerely apologize for being as obnoxious as I have been. I didn’t go about this right, but I get so fired up about it because I’ve been through hell and back in the last 3 years and I fight with you because I really care about you. I went into the mess I’ve been through knowing more than you do about God and the Bible (demonstrably, with your own words; that’s not arrogance) and was talking a lot like Nate four years ago. (When you say, “Come talk to me in 30 years so I can laugh at you,” it pains me almost physically, for you. You’re in the territory that Proverbs 16:18 is talking about. That attitude is exactly what allowed the mess I’m in.)

There’s an enemy out there that hates you boys. He hates your wife and kids even more. Your guns and hideouts are useless against him and the Methodist church is not gonna teach you how to fight him because they don’t know. If you really want to be a man, you’re gonna need to learn how to be the spiritual head of your household and the Methodist church isn’t going to be able to adequately teach you that. Get out now.

I’m not picking on Methodists, either. That just happens to be the dead religion in question in this discussion. Every other protestant religion is the same and I think I could prove that the catholic church is a cult. Religion is evil. It’s a satanic diversion from Truth. Every single one of these evil religions is full of good people being misguided. Find a non-denominational, independent church that believes and teaches the Bible and is open to the Holy Spirit and then get involved.

I just realized that this is a prelude to the post I’m trying to get to on the medical profession and there’s a tie in.

My Dad was raised catholic, converted to Methodist and was dead of spiritual ignorance at 37. My Dad was a great man but he wasn’t prepared when the shit hit the fan because he was never properly taught how to be a Christ-like man. He was Christ-like in all the “nice” ways but was never taught the power. He was a man’s man that knew how to shoot anything with gunpowder, ride or drive anything with wheels, protect his family, build anything. (A lot like you guys, except he was humble too. I think y’all and I could all work on that.) But when cancer was diagnosed, his faith was in the medical profession because he had not been trained properly to fight that battle spiritually. Doctors killed him with their “treatment” in spite of him being provably and miraculously healed twice (provably meaning: by doctor’s stunned admissions). They were permitted to kill him with their ignorance because, even after miraculous healing, he trusted them and hadn’t really been trained to trust God more than them. The two miraculous healings that my Dad experienced were long after my family spiritually outgrew the Methodist church, by the way. Seminary platitudes and 200 year old revelation won’t help when someone’s dying. Faith has to be trained.

I’ll get to the point now. Don’t wait until the crisis to train yourself to be a man. Your guns are useless. Your man-made hideouts aren’t capable of hiding you. (God can. Psalm 91:1) Spiritual ignorance is dangerous and sometimes deadly. Seek God yourself and get out of dead religions. Your wives and kids need you to figure it out and get on it quick, boys. I can assure you this is much more important than whiskey, guns and motorcycles. You’re not really a man until you understand how to provide a spiritual covering for your family. None of you do.

Pissed off at me? “Now jerk that pistol and go to work. Skin that smoke wagon and see what happens.” I know where my faith is. I love guns, too. But your pistol is no match for my God and my faith in Him. You couldn’t shoot me if you wanted to.

I honestly cannot understand why you would waste your time going to a Methodist church unless it’s just for fellowship. (That would be legitimate but then you could get the same thing at a gun range, hunting club, etc.) If you’ve been going for the teaching, sleep in and be rested to watch NASCAR. They’re not teaching you the power of the “Word made flesh.” If I believed what they taught me about the Bible and God, I would be one of those angry people claiming to be an atheist because I was pissed off at God.

Thank God He reveals himself when you seek Him.

You really wanna know where my “fountain of knowledge” comes from, Digger? Years of study assisted by the in-dwelling of the Holy Spirit – the teacher of all things. If your church is a typical Methodist church, it probably teaches that that is heresy. There’s more proof that you and your pastor, though well intentioned, are ignorant.

Spend some time questioning where you’ve placed your faith. It very well may save your life or your family. If it’s in a religion, the medical profession or yourself, you’re in deep trouble.

I’m well aware that I’ve not yet written my essay on the medical profession. No one has accused, but before anyone does, let me say I’m not running, evading or dodging anything. Those that “know” me (as much as one can online) surely know that’s not my style.

I haven’t posted it for two reasons. The first (and primary reason) is because life tends to invade and refuse to cooperate. The second is because it will take considerable concentration and focus for me to write it. It’s a large and complex subject.

I’ll get to it. I don’t know when.

Oh, yeah. There’s a third reason: It seems I’ve pissed in the Cheerios of Nate and his brothers one too many times and they’re keeping me pretty busy on the rare occasions I’ve had to waste some time online lately.

I’m not going to get my post on the medical profession written tonight. I’m exhausted. I’m sorry if that disappoints some of you.

I had an interesting day… in the Chinese proverb sense. God showed up on the scene about 3 times – that I noticed. (No tellin’ how many times a day He’s involved and we don’t even realize it.) I’m not bragging.

Wait. Yes, I am. I’m bragging on Him. I’m trying to ‘splain and trying to give Him praise, too.

It was a harrowing day and He directly intervened at least 3 times today, rather dramatically, to get me through and let me know He was still looking out for me. (If you say, “God, I love Him!” in reference to God does it create some sort of logic vacuum and make the world implode?)

In case you can’t tell, I’m mentally spent.

My heavenly Daddy sure does take good care of me, though. He’s all good, all the time.

I’ll try to clear up the mess I made over the medical profession tomorrow.

Well, it seems I really stirred up the stink this time. Raise your hand if I haven’t pissed you off today.

Thank you. Be patient, the sun hasn’t set yet.

I don’t have the time and focus right now to write the commentary I’ve promised on the medical profession. I hope to have time later tonight, but the more I think about it, the more it’s starting to look like a book instead of a blog post. I’ll probably have to split it into multiple posts because there are so many sub-topics that came up in the argument.

It’s going to be a trying process for me to organize my thoughts. I’m not a writer and I’ve never been trained to organize that way. And this one… this one’s huge and all over the place.

Until I get it done, let me say this: I am not and was not personally disparaging anybody on Nate’s blog or his brother’s blog. I guess I was clumsy about it but I was attacking a belief system and a man made medical system that is seriously fubar. My best friend’s wife is a teacher and I ridicule teachers and the educational system to her face. I’m not talking about her and she understands that.

I’ve said before and I’ll say again: Doctors fall in the same category as teachers and cops. The similarity is that all three professions tend to draw the wrong people. The few good ones that do pursue those careers for the right reasons are still largely ineffective because they are trying to work within a system run by the bad ones.

(I don’t include lawyers with the aforementioned occupations. There are some good lawyers too, but it’s not the same. Doctors, cops and teachers all have nobility in their pure form. But even a good lawyer is only necessary to protect you from other lawyers. If there were no lawyers we would need no lawyers. The same is not true of cops, teachers and doctors. In fact, I could probably argue that lawyers are a large part of the reason it’s so difficult for the noble minority of cops, teachers and doctors to be more effective.)

While y’all are waiting, think about why everyone got so worked up at what I was saying.

I was feeling kind of restless so I went out for a walk
I ran into a stranger and for hours we just talked.
He said, “I’ve waited for this moment all my life”
(This is it)
When I asked him to explain it he just smiled and told me, “Six, six, six.”

He said, “Things won’t get much better
“And tonight is New Age eve
“I can even change the weather
“Do things you won’t believe
“‘Cause I got signs and wonders in my bag of tricks.”

When I asked him to explain it he just smiled and told me, “Six, six, six.”

I said, “Jesus, won’t you save me from this evil man of sin
“I have read about his future. I don’t wanna go with him”
When I looked up he had gone
But he had left a note that said,
“My number is six, six, six.”

When the morning came I laughed at what I thought was just a dream
I went to call my neighbor and to tell him all I’d seen
But when I reached for my address book, I felt sick
‘Cause written ‘cross the pages every number there was SIX SIX SIX!

OK. I agree that the lyrics are a bit silly. They wrote that in like 1982. Cut ‘em some slack. For those of you that don’t know, that and the prior one I quoted are both DeGarmo & Key. This music has aged well and it’s still good – to me, anyway. It was written well, produced well and played well. But there’s something more…

DeGarmo & Key wasn’t just a Christian rock band. They were truly a ministry. When they released the album “D&K” (in 1987, I think) they included a second copy of the cassette in every package. If you bought the tape, you got two tapes. If you bought the CD, you got the CD and the tape. (For the normal price of a tape or CD.) They did it so you could give a tape away to a friend that didn’t know Christ. Every CD and tape had the full lyrics inside footnoted with the scriptures that inspired the lyrics as well as the prayer of salvation and a 24/7 toll free number that you could call for prayer. I was in line the day it was released because I was a teenage fan. As they instructed, I gave the tape to a friend and he later got saved as an indirect result. That album included a very moving song called “Teenage Suicide.” I’ll spare you quoting more lyrics but it was clear that they were doing what they did as ministry and not from some desire to be rock stars.

I saw them in concert in ’85 or ’86 and they did one of the most anointed and moving altar calls I’ve ever seen at the end of the “show.”

They were the real deal and I think their music still rocks.

(I quoted this song here because it has special and ironic meaning to me. He mentions his address book… and… well… when we saw them in concert, my friend Eric found Eddie DeGarmo’s address book that he had dropped in the parking lot near their tour bus. He picked it up and a few months later when we were bored one night, we called Dana Key’s house at about 2 in the morning from my car phone. Dana answered the phone. I’m not proud of it, but I think it’s a funny story now.)