Digital Cowboy

I’ve written previously about my general disdain for the hodge-podge of collected pagan traditions that make up what we call “Christmas.” I won’t go into all that again. I will remind you that I still “celebrate” Christmas because it’s important to my family and – as long as the underlying meaning is emphasized, I still find some value in it.

At the same time, I’ve become more and more cynical about the materialistic, secular version of it.

I encourage you to go read Mychal Massie’s latest column at WND. It’s not about my beliefs regarding Christmas. It’s about something equally important: setting high standards for your children and not allowing the world’s version of “Xmas” to corrupt you or your children.

Freedom is always derived from the Godly gift of it.  Everything that opposes it is, by definition, satanic.

Free will was the very first gift that God ever gave man.  Further, it’s inherent to His design of man – that was His starting point in the creation of Man.  Every time you’ve ever felt inhibited – or had pressure on you to make a choice between two extremes – it’s satanic.  ”It is the love of God that brings a man to repentance.”  God never pressures or coerces.  He simply offers a better alternative and lets you decide.  He speaks with a “still, small voice” while His enemy screams at you.  (Usually with some emotional terrorism or some physical hunger or the other.)

Satan has spent centuries – primarily through religion – trying to convince people that God is a tyrant that demands obedience.  Nothing could be further from the truth.  As is always the case, anything that demands obedience is satanic.  That’s how he operates.

“But,” you might say, “what about all that talk in the Old Testament about ‘do this or I’ll destroy you’?”

God’s will is already done.  He’s outside time.  His “will” is not like your ”will” or my “will.”

When you or I say, “Do x and I will do y” or we say, “If you don’t do x, I will do y,”  that’s very, very different from when God says similar things.  Like satan, we’re bound by time and what we mean is, “I’m going to do this in the future.”  (Time is unique to the earth.  Satan was cast down to it and we were created in it – partly to punish him.)

When God says, “I WILL…” He’s talking about something that is settled.  When He says, “If you do this, I will destroy you” it’s not a warning about what He intends to do.  It’s a warning about what He has already done.  It’s settled spiritual law.  He’s giving us a loving warning not to violate what cannot be changed.

It’s like a sign that says, “STOP! BRIDGE OUT!”  Atheists and other God-haters read that through a (satanic) distorted lens and say, “Don’t tell me what to do!  I have free will!  Fuck you!  I’ll do what I want!  And don’t ever threaten me again!”  (That’s that rebellious voice that comes only from satan.  That’s how he lives.)

God can’t revoke the free will He has given us.  It’s part of that settled will of His.  It cannot be changed, even by Him.  So, despite the protestations of ignorant religions spawned by satan attempting to blame Him for everything that goes wrong, it’s our own ignorance that causes our destruction.  The Bible says, “You can believe a lie and be damned.”

(When dealing with government that is expressed as, “Ignorance of the law is no excuse.”  Because government is evil and even the legislators that vote on millions of pages of “law” don’t know the law, you can’t possibly win there.)

The Good News – the Gospel – is that you don’t have to wonder and then wander into destruction.  The same loving God that set all of this in motion also gave us a manual.  He explained – clearly, if you care enough to study – where the walls are.

His “commandments” are not requirements.  They are recommendations made in love.

The Better News – the real Gospel – is that He’s a God of mercy and grace.  He IS love.  We’ve all violated his laws and rules.  He has already forgiven you.  He’s not a lawyer, but satan is.  God never has, never will and never would prosecute you for these violations.  Almost as good as that, if you’re willing to learn His loving Word, it’s full of promises that are just as guaranteed.  ”If you will harken to my voice and obey my commandments you will eat the good of the land.”  (That’s an amalgamation of Deuteronomy 28 and Isaiah 1 but it’s not out of context in either case.  Although, Isaiah 1 adds a condition – you must be “willing AND obedient.”  My paraphrase also drastically understates the promise in Deut 28.)

But He also cannot violate what is settled spiritual law – His Word.  He’s not trying to enforce it against you.  He’s trying to save you from your violations of it.  He’s gone to great lengths to do that.

It’s up to you.  Will you accept unconditional exoneration and seek to live a better life?  Or will you respond to this with rebellion and seek more destruction as you work even harder to slam yourself against walls that can’t be moved while giving up the blessing of obedience to a rich, loving Father that wants to spoil you?

“Choose you this day whom you will serve.  As for me and my house, we will serve YWHW.”

Of course, you can choose to reject Him and live like hell while on your way to hell.  If you do, your de facto god becomes – not you, as satanism and atheism preach – but government.  I can guarantee you that you will find mandates, force and violence there.  That’s all it is.  Run back to the top of this post and see where that comes from.

I’ve studied the Bible since I was eight years old and the main thing I’ve learned is how much more I have to learn.  (That’s exactly the state of “science” except that I’m studying Truth and they’re reluctant to admit their mistakes.) But I can tell you that I can back up – with both scripture and personal anecdotes – that everything in this post is true.

The choice is always yours.  Thank God for that.

Fuck it. It’s Christmas or something spelled that way. I fixed it. I have powers.

Damn I’m clever!

I also have a very, very pretty and very, very valuable watch. It’s a Christmas gift so I really wanna keep it private… Because I don’t do Christmas. But it’s Swiss, mechanical and solid two-tone ionic-black and stainless. (That’s just the private part.)

It’s also a chronograph with a black mother of pearl face. (Don’t tell anyone I divulged the public part.)

Besides that… Do you think that the gifts will get even MORE expensive the more offended I become and the more “Christmas” facts I drop?

I think I’m on to something.

Dude, you gotta see this watch my Mom got me! It’s a 22 jewel movement and the back is, like totally transparent so you can count, like, some of the jewels and see gears moving and stuff. It must be expensive.

And Joseph was a rich man because he was already a successful carpenter. That’s WHY he was going TO PAY TAXES. Poor people weren’t packing the hotels the night our savior was born, stupid. The town was full. No room at the inn. What’s the crowd? Poor people don’t owe taxes. (Just ask your “middle class” neighbor. He’ll say, “I didn’t owe, this year! I got a REFUND, ESSE!”)

Because the government made all the people come to town on the same night. What did they think would happen? That’s what government does – collect taxes with force and create problems doing it.

That’s the lesson of Christmas. Without government complicating things there would always be room for the least among us. Even wealthy carpenters that are foolish enough to marry a pregnant virgin and pay her way to travel with him so he could pay his taxes in the midst of his other troubles can find himself with no rooms at the Hilton.

Should a savior be born in a stable?

Here’s a better question:

Should we allow our savior or his parents to be represented as “poor?”

Clearly, none of them ever were.

I still observe Christmas out of loyalty to family. But I have a number of problems with it. I celebrate my Savior’s birth in September. That’s when he was born.

His name wasn’t, has never been and isn’t “Jesus” and he wasn’t born on December 25th. Christmas is a pagan holiday.

There weren’t three wise men at the manger. We don’t know how many there were and they certainly weren’t carrying hand-held boxes of gifts. They arrived at least a year later and brought a wagon train of gifts worth about $400 million.

Christmas is an invention of pagan religions, the Catholic church and, most recently, Coca-Cola and Macy’s. In that order.

When you begin to complain that Christmas has been commercialized, you need to understand that commerce is the only reason your understanding of it even exists. Santa Claus was invented by American marketing people to get your money.

Even before the Constitution and before the founding of this great nation, celebrating Christmas was illegal among your ancestors in this land. (Unless you’re an American Indian.) It was outlawed by Christians and for good reason. Give that some thought and some research. Then ask yourself why Christmas and Santa Claus are so important to you.

Christmas is idolatry.

If you place great value on your personal relationship with a personal savior, you should shun Christmas. I seriously doubt that he holds it against you – he’s merciful and gracious – but it’s a matter of respect. Just like knowing his name and using it properly, which is the second commandment, goddammit! Learn his name and what he was talking about.

It matters. Psalm 91 makes that clear (if you’re too lazy to find all the many reasons and the places they’re mentioned in scripture).

When I read the op-eds of all these silly religious people ranting about the “War on Christmas” I laugh. They’ve been sucked in and don’t even know it. They’re trying to take back something that never belonged to them. You can’t “put the Christ back in Christmas” because Christ has never, ever been there beyond the linguistics. It has nothing to do with “Christ” and it never did. Ever.

When atheists post signs next to nativity scenes about the “winter solstice” you “Christians” should acquiesce and apologize. So-called “Christians” stole this holiday from pagans who worship trees and nature just like they stole Easter from pagans that worship fertility gods.

There is nothing significant about December 25 except the Winter Solstice. Which, by the way, also isn’t actually December 25th.

I’m a smart guy. I’m smarter than most. Usually, I’m the smartest person in the room. It’s awkward and difficult most of the time. For the most part I’ve gotten used to it and learned to live with it.

This blog attracts people that are smarter than average. I love that. At Vox’s blog and here too, I’m not usually the smartest guy in the room. That’s what I like about this place and his. It’s a relief from the pressure I get pretty much everywhere else I go.

I’ve struggled with this – and prayed about it – for much of my life. It’s not arrogance. It’s a gift that has often seemed like a burden to me. I’ve humbly tried to get God’s help in dealing with it. I spent much of my life in a quandary trying to figure out how to manage it and just fit in.

Here’s what He’s shown me in answer to those prayers:

Wisdom is the principle thing. In all your getting, get Wisdom. Intelligence as the world measures it is only one kind and, taken alone, it’s worthless. There are different kinds of intelligence. There are people with IQs much, much lower than mine that are far more successful than I am at the moment because they have other forms of intelligence that aren’t measured by an IQ test. Many of them also have Wisdom.

I’m not going to get into all of the different kinds of intelligence here. That’s not what this is about.

When I was in High School, I made money winning bets before and after class by doing long division in my head while reading aloud from a book. Sometimes I even provided the answer before the jock betting against me had gotten it from his calculator.

I was arrogant then because I could do things like that.

What profit is that without Wisdom?

None. Wisdom is the principle thing.

I have two points here. The first is that government schooling set me up to fail by making me cocky about my gifts. They lead me to believe that I was “gifted.” (I was. I am. They corrupted it.) They led me to believe that the world was my oyster. I thought I was gonna be the next Steve Jobs. Being smarter than your “guidance counselors” is not a great way to plan a career or a life. (And if your kids are average, they’re smarter than their “guidance counselors” in the government schools, Corporate Dad. If you love them, get ‘em out.)

The second point is that Wisdom is far more important than raw intelligence. It’s a funny thing about intelligence relating to Wisdom – Intelligence often gets in the way of Wisdom. That probably explains why I was raised right – taught Wisdom – and it still took me way too long to even start pursuing Wisdom. I was too busy making money with my circus side shows, like doing long division in my head while reading aloud.

But I’m coming around and it’s working for me.

Proverbs 3:17 reads (speaking of Wisdom), “Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.”

Go read the whole chapter. I had a hard time choosing an excerpt. So here’s a couple more:

“Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour”

“She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her”

Seriously, there’s context that you need. Go read Proverbs 3.

Bottom line: I find myself now very happily and voluntarily following people that almost certainly don’t have IQs in the same category as mine. But they have Wisdom that I want.

I respect that far more than the eggheads that think college degrees make them smart.

Proverbs 3 (AMP) ends with “The wise shall inherit glory (all honor and good) but shame is the highest rank conferred on [self-confident] fools.”

I know a lot of wise people with low IQs and even more very intelligent, self-confident fools. I used to be one myself.