Stuff I DO Believe In: FELLOWSHIP

In the journey out of the institutional church structure – and the recovery from its effects – I have discovered a few things that I’d like to run past you.

The biggest thing is the realization that my focus has always been askew. We are schooled in the art of “church” by those who have come before us. They, in turn, know what they know as a result of the study of those who came before them. So, here is my question: What if those we revere as “church fathers” were off in their theology or doctrine one half of one degree?

Squishy Little Saints

Sheep. No, lambs. That’s what we really are. Unhealthy, powerless, squishy little lambs unable or unwilling to make decisions without the Sheriff Sheep who pretends to provide a pastoral covering of spiritual authority over us.

Love With My Whole Heart?

February is usually the month that we think of decorating with hearts and sending Valentines to those we love. Have you ever said or thought, “I love you with my whole heart!”

Fat Fantasies

I’ve been on a hundred diets. They don’t work. In fact, while starting a new diet produces some dramatic weight loss in the short term, inevitably, I find the weight I had lost and then add maybe five pounds to my original weight just for good measure. That’s how you create a fat guy.

Deliverance is Messy

Deliverance creates chaos in the church. Why? In our 30 plus years of deliverance ministry we have seen pastors fear and avoid deliverance. Pastors spend much of their ministry focus and time on trying to keep the ship/church from rocking and keeping its course. Deliverance ministry is messy, not in how it is administered. If ministered correctly, prophetically, it is a simple prayer ministry that frees the individual from the strongman and his entourage. They are embedded within an individual’s thoughts and beliefs to “steal, kill, and destroy” one’s ability to experience abundant life in the Kingdom of Light.

Paradigm Vertigo

In the pursuit of upside-down thinking – standing on my head trying to focus my spiritual sight enough to actually grasp Kingdom principles – I’m experiencing a sense of vertigo. Everything I know, based upon the fifty-some-odd years of right-side up thinking, is now suspect; it’s all so temporal and worldly that the effort to seize the real deal of Kingdom thinking becomes both terribly alien and disconcerting.

Spiritual Welfare State

I was just having a chat with someone about the following verses:

We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! Anyone who lives on milk, being still an infant, is not acquainted with the teaching about righteousness. But solid food is for the mature, who by constant use have trained themselves to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary teachings about Christ and go on to maturity, not laying again the foundation of repentance from acts that lead to death, and of faith in God, instruction about baptisms, the laying on of hands, the resurrection of the dead, and eternal judgment. And God permitting, we will do so. 

Hebrews 5:11-6:3.

Tip #326: "How About Them Yankees?"

I wonder if you’ve observed the same thing as I: Christians – as a species – are really thin-skinned. Perhaps it’s because we were so victimized by darkness in our previous incarnation and the wounds have never healed; or maybe it’s just because we’re trained to be reactionaries, always obliged to “defend the faith.”

Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny and Church

I remember the day that I found out he was a figment of some adult’s warped mind. We had gone shopping in the family station wagon and the groceries were piled high in the back. When I was a kid, there was no such requirement as wearing a seat belt, so we were free to frolic around the car uninhibited. In my travels, I came upon a grocery bag bulging with candy.

My brain exploded.

Hitching Post Saints

I recently received another communiqué – among many over the years –that somebody else is setting about starting house churches. Of course there is some anger in their stuff; it’s sort of a prerequisite for Escapees, at least in the early days. The anger is directed at the institution for the disappointment, disillusionment, or downright spiritual abuse. Hopefully they will recover.