FAR TOO EASILY AMUSED
Hollywood, Best Business Practices & MacDonalds
POOR IMITATIONS
It never ceases to amaze me how very gullible and how very naive we can be in our flesh as humans. I watch in horror (shock and awe - but not the good kind of AWE ) when seeing millions of people lining up to participate in things that are: poor imitations, pale comparisons, lackluster, dull and offensively ridiculous to those who are truly paying attention, of what truly is - and constitutes - a THRILLING QUEST, JOURNEY or ADVENTURE. Instead of reading the Bible in its awesome splendor, informed by the HOLY SPIRIT Himself - where all things that have been created begin and are sustained, we as people choose to look to Hollywood “Maverick”- to “business leaders” (Peter Drucker, Bill Gates) - to “Movements” (read BOWEL) - to “SUPER Sizing” (Multiplication above Addition)...We watch as people yell, scream, and roll around on platforms, hitting cement “altars” (of their own making) with sledge hammers, while we yell, cheer and - !?!?! - sing praise music?? Seriously? It is embarrassing. It is the height of ridiculousness and absurdity!
EVEN A KID CAN SPOT A FAKE
I remember as a kid flipping through the channels on summer break and (after we got cable) would stumble upon TBN/CBN (?) in the high channels and would watch as people yelled, puce-faced, for people to be healed - often hitting them in the forehead and knocking them down…It was frightening, actually. Nothing like the GOD I knew of and read about in my Bible. Even as a kid, I knew it was absurd. Why would ANYONE send those guys money? They seemed so smarmy, so fake, so ostentatious, so prideful - SO different from JESUS in my Bible. As I skipped past these channels, I found peace believing that no one who truly knew, loved or followed my JESUS, could ever be duped by such cheap and tawdry parlor tricks. Sadly, at age 12, I had no idea how very many people watched, believed and perpetuated such nonsense and deception through their “generous support” in which they could receive a book AND a nightlight depicting an angel…
CREPT IN UNAWARES
Fast forward to finding myself first, at Saddleback Church in Orange County, CA (Seeker-friendly - “bible light” Consumer Driven Gospel, founded and perpetuated by the notion of giving the people what they want) and then, eventually, in the prayer room in Kansas City at IHOPKC (Founded on false prophecy, led by those making sport of Spiritual Abuse, Gas lighting and cloaking true NAR agenda of Manifest Sonship and Dominion - “Kingdom Now” - all while convinced that the works of people - (mostly youth) through the widely used and accepted practices of standard NGOs whereby peoples’ time is converted into dollars/hour - brought together to sit in a room (likening it to being in the spirit of the tabernacle of David) not necessarily praying, but doing homework, Facebook, shopping on Amazon, reading books and singing when the song is a “good one;” where people are made to feel special and as “forerunners in the spirit of John the Baptist - where being a “David”, an “Esther” and “Anna”, a “Moravian” is elevated to idolatrous standards and eclipse the truth of GOD making me, well, me - not Esther, or Anna, or Elijah)...Guess we all can be duped. I sure found that out the hard way. Sometimes it is easier to go along with the masses - especially when they seem to be well-educated, well-funded, well-surrounded, well-known and well-liked - than to listen to that still, small voice inside that is whispering that something is truly and profoundly wrong. And sometimes, when finding the courage to listen to - and heed - the voice inside that has grown to a roar, one must part ways with even those who were spiritual fathers for decades, when they refuse to listen and try to silence that voice when brought to their attention. I will say this to whoever needs to hear it: GOD still speaks today. He speaks through His Word and in other ways as well. It is IMPOSSIBLE to know how GOD speaks apart from marinating in HIS WORD always. Sadly, today sometimes money and power and status and personal “ministry legacy” speak louder, drowning out that still, small, voice. I know. It happened to me.
B