The Digital Disciple & Humility!

As you have read in prior blog postings, my topics very based upon what is going through my mind at the time. Sometimes it is based on the latest scripture passage I have been studying, and other times, I use input from my readers. And of course, once in a while I may wax a bit more political than is really necessary, but what comes out onto these pages is NOT totally controlled by me. It's like a dam breaking each time. It starts with a leak, then a trickle and then a full on rush of thoughts and ideas that can't wait to see the light of day.


Some have scoffed at this, wanting to know what my "angle" is in doing these posts. Some have interpreted my enthusiasm as being egotistical and outrageous. Still others believe that I need to "walk the walk," before writing these posts. My friends, if I waited until I was qualified to communicate, it would never happen. I am unequivocally under-qualified to do this job. I turned my back on God exactly 40 years ago. I was 22, when I began a career that would eventually make a high school geek, President of some amazing businesses. I worked like a fiend, crushing good people as I ascended the ladder of worldly success. I married a wonderful women, fathered great kids, and vacationed in the finest villas around the world. I gambled in Vegas and Macao, played golf at private clubs in France, China, Taiwan, and Japan.  I had dinner at the number one restaurant in the world, Gaddi's, at the Peninsula Hotel in Hong Kong. 


Despite the fact that there are 16 "I's" in the above paragraphs, this blog is not about me. My role in all sincerity is to be the scribe, not an actual prophet or disciple. You can read the words, embrace some or none of what is written. The choice is yours based on the content provided. "Megabytes from God" was never meant to be clever, it was meant provide clarity for those of us seeking the truth in our daily lives and here is how it works:

1. Over the last several years, I have been moving spiritually from a very dark place where my "soul" was covered by a layer of clouds that could have blotted out the sun itself, sort of a spiritual eclipse. 
2. Slowly and inconsistently I began to replace spiritual blindness with blurred vision. For weeks I took one step forward and then two steps backward, but finally I began to get spiritual clarity.
3. My wife and my best high school friend by the Grace of God, somehow pushed the right buttons in my brain to turn on the headlights of my soul for the first time in 40 years.
4. It was an awakening or quickening of sorts that started with baby steps that included letters to my wife, my children and my friend Alan. 
5. From there my daughter Jessie and I decided to write a blog. You see she is a gifted writer with enormous creative talent, just like my son. He does not write words, just beautiful music. When he plays or sings, it stirs my soul every time. God is working on both of them to use their talent for good in this world and the next.
6. My wife, Susan has been the cement that keeps my family solid. Most days she does not get enough credit from any of us, because we take her for granted. This year will be our 34th Anniversary, so I like to refer to her as, "St. Susan the Patient," for putting up with me all these years.
7. With the advent of digital tablets my desire to read and do research grew geometrically, making reading the Bible come alive. You can now go up, down and sideways in an instant, look up tough words or phrases, etc., but most importantly you can view original text to learn the intended meaning of everything you read.                                                
   
   Last night I was feeling pretty low. I was feeling sorry for myself, because some folks had accused me of saying some things that are not true. You see, in the past I used to grind up people and walk all over them...Sometimes with ones in my own family. I was your basic selfish jerk. For the better part of the last 10 years, I have been trying to shed that stigma concerning my temperament, but sometimes it just slips out in the heat of battle. My point is here that what was being said was false, but the way I handled it was worse. My old "rage" came flying out to defend my honor, but I should have just kept my mouth zipped. I believe this is what Christ meant when he said, "turn the other cheek." 

My tablet, my dog and I always go to bed first. My long haired chihuahua, Mancho Man is my best friend. He listens attentively and never criticizes me. Anyway we cuddle up, and this is how it usually goes:

1. I ask God for forgiveness. This is like blanket insurance coverage, so I get everything taken care of, in order to clear my mind and proceed.
2. I open up II Chronicles, where I am now, and begin reading with no need for page turning or scrolling. I read the 1611 version of the KJV in large type, in a color that is easy to read.
3. Usually I read 3-5 chapters each night, unless I can't sleep, then I can knock off 20 chapters with each one marked up in color with side notations, without ever sharpening a pencil.

In the middle of my despair last night in II Chronicles 15, verse 7, God says, "be ye strong therefore, and let not your hands be weak: for your work will be rewarded." It's amazing how faith, however shaky at the time, is always rewarded.

Please forgive me if my writing comes off arrogant or brash in anyway. I wasted spiritual time over the last 40 years. The Israelites had to wander for 40 years, until God let them back in his good graces. Maybe the same happened to me.

The Digital Disciple

Mosaic Law from God Himself

The system of laws, as we know it today, has its roots approximately 5,000 years ago in what is commonly referred to as "Mosaic Law." The law(s) of Moses begin with the most well-known, but least understood, "Ten Commandments." Rather than giving you the condensed, homogenized version found in most writings, I choose to give you the genuine article, so that you can see what God really had to say and maybe, just maybe, learn why...

First, did you know that the Commandments from God had to be written by our Lord twice? The first set of tables, cut from stone by Moses, were written by God's hand. From beginning to completion this project took Moses 40 days and 40 nights. You see a lot happened on Mt. Sinai, most of which we know from the book of Exodus, but also we get little tidbits from other authors throughout the Bible. Moses did not eat or drink for the entire time he was up on Mt. Sinai. The Bible clearly states, "he did not eat, nor drink anything for 40 days and 40 nights." Is it possible for someone to stay on a mountain top for 5 weeks without any nourishment or water to drink? The fact that he, as one of us, survived during this time, is miraculous all by itself. He may not have starved to death, but he certainly would have perished without water. 

Next, God himself descended in the same, "cloudy pillar," as he often did previously and many times subsequently. If He would have taken off the shroud around him, anyone, including Moses would have perished immediately. Now here is where it gets really interesting...Moses has the "chutzpah" to ask God to let him see Him without the "cloudy pillar." I guess God had just helped him escape the clutches of the Egyptian army, so maybe he thought he deserved a peak behind the curtain...What does God do? He picks Moses up and puts him on top of a rock, in a crevice to keep him safe from harm while God walks by him. God even covers him in that crevice with His Hand until, His Face and all His Glory passed by." Then He removed His hand, and let Moses see the back parts of his God, because no mortal can view God's brilliance from the front and survive.

Imagine meeting our Lord on a mountain top and being able to communicate with him, just like we communicate with each other. Direct, one on one conversation with the Almighty. No booming voice, no thunder or lightning, and no earthquake to make Moses afraid or uncomfortable in any way. My personal take on this is quite simple. Here to for, God revealed himself in dreams to Moses. Moses obeyed not out of fear, but out of loyalty and faith in the one true "Yahweh." He had seen the miracles in Egypt, he participated in the parting of the Red Sea, but now he got a glimpse! God let him see as much as Moses was physically, emotionally and spiritually capable of at that time. Did he see an outline of God, a body of sorts, or just a piece of His shadow, like the dark side of the moon? One day I plan to ask him...

So what did they do up their for 40 days? Aside from the above, Moses had to make tablets of stone, so that God could inscribe the inimitable and famous Ten (10) Commandments. Moses had to cut these  tablets out of solid rock. It certainly would take me 5 weeks or more to carve them out, but only with the help and instructions given to me by God. Remember, Moses did not stop to eat or drink to get this project finished. I figure that if he didn't stop for refreshment, then he probably did not sleep either. Another amazing miracle happened, and we have not even gotten to the commandments.

Is it me or is there something very special about the number 40? Moses was on Mt.Sinai for 40 days and forty nights, Noah was on the Ark for 40 days and 40 nights, and finally the Hebrew nation after leaving Egypt, wandered for 40 years. Some coincidence at the very least, but I think there is something here that I will research at a later date.

After the 40 days and nights conversing with God, cutting out the tablets and watching the finger of God burn each letter, of each word, in each commandment into the tablets, Moses prepares to go down the mountain and back to his people. God already knows that Aaron, Moses's brother, was coerced into making a "golden calf" to replace worshipping the Lord. The people grew impatient and unruly, so Aaron leads them to break the 1st Commandment, before they even saw them for the first time. Moses begs the Lord not to exterminate them all and hurries down the mountain to see for himself. Sickened by what he saw, he smashed the tablets into pieces out of anger and disgust. The Bible says that Moses ground up the calf of gold and made everyone eat some of it to never forget their irreverent behavior and sin. He then had 3,000 people killed, and performed special sacrifices to God on the alter in the Ark of the Covenant. Then God commuted the sentence of death to all, in favor of his faithful servant, Moses.

When Moses comes down the second time with 2 new Tablets and some new instructions, the people got to view the Commandments for the first time. Then begins the next leg of their journey to Canaan. Here are the Ten Commandments, each in a color for clarity, as set forth in the Book of Exodus from the 1611 KJV:

¹ And God spake all these words, saying,

² 

³ Thou shalt have no other gods before me.

⁴ Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness [of any thing] that [is] in heaven above, or that [is] in the earth beneath, or that [is] in the water under the earth:

⁵ Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God [am] a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth [generation] of them that hate me;

⁶ And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments.

⁷ Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain; for the LORD will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain.

⁸ Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy.

⁹ Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work:

¹⁰ But the seventh day [is] the sabbath of the LORD thy God: [in it] thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that [is] within thy gates:

¹¹ For [in] six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them [is], and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the sabbath day, and hallowed it.

¹² Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee.

¹³ Thou shalt not kill.

¹⁴ Thou shalt not commit adultery.

¹⁵ Thou shalt not steal.

¹⁶ Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.

¹⁷ Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's house, thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his ass, nor any thing that [is] thy neighbour's.

  God spoke these words with thunder and lightening to the people of Israel, while they cowered in fear. Mosaic law has been written down for all to follow. These are what I prefer to call primary laws for all of us to read, understand and obey in our daily lives. God provided additional laws for daily life amongst his people that apply directly that their time and place, but these 10 Commandments transcend all time and are applicable to every one of us created in His image, including you, as you read this. It would be nice if these tablets were like a menu in a restaurant, so that you could pick and choose the ones you like and dislike. The immutable fact is that with God it's all of them or none of them. Take a close look at what God said, and how he was quoted by Moses. Some are terse short sentences that leave nothing to chance and some, like number two and four span multiple verses. My assumption is that God "spake" these commandment in a particular order with the first one being of supreme importance, especially since the Israelites, just like you and me, tend to stray quickly and easily with the slightest of temptation. We tend to worship what we can see, feel or touch, so with a push in any direction from the evil one, we are off to the races, leaving our Lord in the proverbial dust. Fortunately when we turn and run from our Lord, he is patient and faithful to those who believe. Just like Moses interceded for his people to stave off extermination atop Mt.Sinai, Jesus interceded for all mankind no matter where or when you were born. Worshiping other "gods" even though it is the first commandment is a forgivable sin, like any other sin. My friend, no matter where you are, what you are, what you currently believe or sin you have committed, there is only one true God with the divine ability make your soul white again. He goes by many names, but my favorites are Jehovah, Yahweh, and El Shaddai. These powerful names each describe the almighty in ways that simple English cannot demonstrate. 

 His Law and the Ten Commandments were not put in place to corral mankind and make our collective lives miserable, but to provide us through each millennium with a divine foundation of  simple rules. Taking Him at his word and following these rules is the secret to long life, health and happiness. Listen to your Creator by studying all of His laws after you internalize the top ten! In these resides the formula for wisdom beyond our comprehension and a key to spiritual fulfillment.


Thanks for reading once again...


The Digital Disciple

Shell Games, Part 2

Last December I promised in Blog #5 to come back and finish my thoughts concerning shell games. Please re-read that one, so that you can be prepared to follow the next shell game, the United States Government. No matter your personal political stance, the changes in the last two decades in Federal, State, and Local governments have been unprecedented in the 237 year history of our republic. It gives me no great pleasure to write this blog, but here are the facts without the fiction.

1. Government at all levels has become so corrupt that our nation is on the brink of fiscal insolvency. To the average person or small business this means bankruptcy, however to our governments it means print more money to support not only the governmental process, but also to "protect" our way of life by insulating those lending institutions, brokerage houses, insurance companies, automobile companies and anyone else deemed "to big to fail,"from financial distress. 
2. We used to discuss government debt and the uses of our taxpayer funds in the millions and occasionally billions. Now all we hear are multiple billion dollar expenditures. As of this writing we just crossed over 15 trillion dollars in debt.
3. We still spend a billion dollars a month on war, and now we have lost more soldiers in the middle east than people lost in the bombing of the twin towers. 
4. We fund almost every nation on earth, maybe with the exception of China, Taiwan and Switzerland. We fund any "cause" globally and domestically piling on debt that gets sold to our "friends," the Chinese.
5. The International Monetary Fund is propping up most of Europe and South America to the tune of additional billions, and who backs the IMF? The USA, who used to be the "Gold Standard" when it came to fiscal responsibility and personal freedom. Greece needed 45 billion twice in 6 months last year to stay afloat, because they were deemed to big and important to fail. In the last 5 years we bailed out Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina. All remain unstable despite the restructuring of their debt, including outright forgiveness of debt in some cases.
6. Domestically we have bubbles bursting like champagne. The technology bubble killed of trillions in wealth, the banking bubble killed off trillions in wealth, the insurance bubble killed off billions in wealth, and finally the real estate bubble dealt the  average citizen another horrendous blow to their collective pocket books, and made banks afraid to lend.

Money grows on trees for everyone, except the ones that really need it, the people. We, you and me, are paying for everything listed above. The trillions taken in income tax pales in comparison to the trillions taken by the sum total of other taxes we pay every day without even recognizing it. By the time you get done with all the government taxes on payroll, then you have to add these 56 other taxes that no one talks much about:

Interesting List of Taxes that exist today TAXES: Accounts Receivable Tax Building Permit Tax Capital Gains Tax CDL license Tax Cigarette Tax Corporate Income Tax Court Fines (indirect taxes) Dog License Tax Federal Income Tax Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA) Fishing License Tax Food License Tax Fuel permit tax Gasoline Tax (42 cents per gallon) Hunting License Tax Inheritance Tax Interest expense (tax on the money) Inventory tax IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax) IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax) Liquor Tax Local Income Tax Luxury Taxes Marriage License Tax Medicare Tax Property Tax Real Estate Tax Septic Permit Tax Service Charge Taxes Social Security Tax Road Usage Taxes (Truckers) Sales Taxes Recreational Vehicle Tax Road Toll Booth Taxes School Tax State Income Tax State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) Telephone federal excise tax Telephone federal universal service fee tax Telephone federal, state and local surcharge taxes Telephone minimum usage surcharge tax Telephone recurring and non-recurring charges tax Telephone state and local tax Telephone usage charge tax Toll Bridge Taxes Toll Tunnel Taxes Traffic Fines (indirect taxation) Trailer Registration Tax Utility Taxes Vehicle License Registration Tax Vehicle Sales Tax Watercraft Registration Tax Well Permit Tax Workers Compensation Tax  Yes, I cut and pasted these. You have to see them to believe them. By the time you get done with all the taxes, 70% of what you earn goes to pay some type of tax! All of these funds are collected by either federal, state or local taxing authorities. Then to take it the final step, only 52% of us pay all these taxes while the other 48% figures out a way avoid or skip out on the Uncle Sam. So how does this relate to a SHELL GAME? While this high stakes monopoly game is going on in the US of A and additional countries around the globe, you are distracted and scared to death by the media and the politicians globally that control the game. We are led to believe these days that we still have a democracy, but voting control was taken out of our hands decades ago and replaced by an "electoral college" that equitably selects the President every 4 years despite the last several where Presidents actually lost the popular vote. Congressman get elected and believe they are entitled to a life-long career. Interesting that they call it the popular vote and note the people's vote. That would be rubbing our collective noses in it. We still believe that we have political parties with real differences on how our country should be run...Hogwash, the pundits do nothing but shadow box, never really expecting anything to change, because those in office on all sides of the aisle, all want the same things: Power to control not only our nation, but the power to impose our will on others whether they want it or not. Wealth is strip mined daily out of our economy to line the pockets of politicians at every level. Government lives by the sweat of our brow and more is never enough. Eliminate God from our lives completely under the guise of accommodating the beliefs of others. The erosion has led to our bending to the smallest voice, because we are told that we are racist, ethnically challenged, religious zealots, or worse, because we force out belief system on aliens.  Political correctness has taken the place of hard decisions long overdue such as our borders, our wars, our taxation, our congress, our judicial system and so on... Now that God is on the way out, it's now time to toss our founding principles. It makes sense that these are next because they were based on the laws God set forth in the Bible. We can't pray in school anymore, but 8 million Muslims in Detroit can publicly and privately pray to Allah 3 times each day.  With the systematic extermination of God from of our lives, our value system continues to decay. We are dying a horrible death from inside. Family is old fashioned. Life is about schedules, morning, noon and night. Kids have little to no parental guidance or discipline at home or in our schools from elementary schools through college.  Godlessness is a cancer that has already metastasized into every part of our human existence. It has many different names, but the worship of anything, "in the heavens above or on this earth," except El Shaddai, the creator of all life is not only misguided, it is sin at its core. The Old Testament called evil Baal, Baalim, Lucifer, Satan, Beast, Devil, Beelzebub, ad nauseum. This fallen angel has been working through the ages to win the hearts and minds of as many souls as possible. The execution of his subtle plan lead people astray every day. He knows exactly how to make you change your value system passed down to you by getting you to rationalize and accept his evil in small, bite sized and swallowable doses. After all, the serpent said to Eve, "God didn't really mean what he said. He surely meant for you have the fruit of this tree also. Either that or He does not want you to really be like him." Twisted rationalization in small, seemingly innocuous amounts  soon becomes acceptable, so that we can be perceived as  progressive, and enlightened. God forbid we should have standards or laws that can't be compromised by failed jurisprudence.   God asked King Solomon what he wished from El Shaddai on the day he was anointed King of Israel and Judah. Solomon asked for wisdom to be able to discern the difference between good and evil...May God grant this incredible gift to all of us who believe, so that we don't get caught in the endless snares of the evil one, himself. For those of you who do not yet believe, I pray that your eyes will be opened to His truth, and that your heart and soul be cleansed by the one true God. Please ask Him, because He promises to make you pure again through the blood of His son, Jesus. God bless, now and forever... The Digital Disciple

What about Rage?

Over the weekend I was reading in the book of II Kings, and I came across the word "rage." Having read the KJV version of the Bible many times in my youth, I would have bet that word would not have been found anywhere in scripture, because I thought that the word rage was a relatively recent phenomenon, driven by enormous stress, manic exuberance, chronic depression, and, oh yes, the media.

The truth is that Rage has been around for centuries. Its roots are found in the Latin verb "Rabio," which meant "I am mad." Now I'm not talking about being mad about the outcome of a game of baseball, I mean "mad" as in having gone mad or crazy.The best example of this is when a pet gets bitten by a "rabid" animal and develops "rabies." A once harmless, lovable member of your family goes berserk, foaming at the mouth, biting and scratching anyone who gets in its way. This transition happens like the flip of a switch. One minute you are the happy, astute Dr. Jekyll and the next your are the dark, evil twin, Dr. Hyde, a ruthless, bloodthirsty killer.

Rage is an almost instantaneous shift from control to chaos in your mind that quickly smothers normal sensibility with an extreme rush of adrenaline and oxygen into the bloodstream. Suddenly you are quite literally transformed into mindlessness, as you are blinded from rationality. You become extremely agitated, shaking in many cases, as the adrenal glands pump you full of their intoxicating elixir. Usually you start screaming or worse, inflicting a verbal or physical assault on someone who does not realize that he now has Dr. Hyde right in front of him.

In II Kings 5 you can read about Naaman the Captain of the Syrian Army in approximately 700 BC. He lived in Damascus and reported to the King of Syria. In one of the wars with the Israelites, the Syrians took Hebrew prisoners, usually to do menial work during their captivity. The Bible calls my person of interest, "a little maid." She took care of Naaman's wife all day, every day. This little maid had not only a heart of gold, but was fearless with her trust in God. When she realized that Naaman was stricken with leprosy, she told Naaman's wife, "would to God, that my lord (Naaman) were with the prophet (Elisha) that is in Samaria! For he would recover him of his leprosy."

Now that might not sound like much to the average reader, but I am here to tell you that she had some kind of courage to speak up as a servant to the number two man in all of Syria at the time. It is impossible to know if the "maid" was treated well, or if she was just one of many tending to her duties. Either way this young lady put herself out there for God, probably risking life and limb, if what she said was proven false. That kind of trust in God send shivers up my spine. Her small light for God was about to change the course of an entire royal family forever...

My guess is that having leprosy in 700 BC was like having stage 4 brain cancer today. Pretty much you are handed a death sentence, so saddling up to go visit Elisha some 200 miles southeast of Damascus was not difficult considering Naaman's options. With his rank and wealth he, no doubt, tried everything possible with Syrian medical practitioners and his god, Rimmon. Just the possibility of cure provided all the incentive he needed to make the trip and to top it off, his King sent a letter to the King of Israel announcing his travel and offering to pay a huge sum for anything that could be done. 


Interesting, the King of Israel reacted with fear and paranoia, especially since the Syrians had just ransacked northern Israel killing thousands and taking many prisoners. So Israel's King viewed the letter as a ruse and the first step in justifying another conflict. Fortunately for Naaman the word of his arrival and leprosy reached the ears of a second generation prophet named Elisha. He was the son of Elijah, a very famous profit in his own lifetime who was just as close our God. Elisha sent word to the King of Israel not to worry and to send Naaman to him.


Here is where it gets really good...Elisha never went out to meet him. He sent a messenger outside his home with instructions for Naaman to wash 7 times in the river Jordan. That was it, no muss, not fuss, or at least that's what Elisha thought anyway. Naaman freaks out at these instructions because they were too simple and too easy. He thought Elisha had disrespected him. After all, Syria had its own great rivers to bathe in that were bigger and better than any river in Israel. After the supposed disrespect, he had a major adrenaline surge or in layman's terms, he blew a gasket. He proceeded to freak out completely, yelling and screaming at everyone, for several reasons:

1. He traveled 200 miles through desert for nothing, and he looked foolish.
2. Elisha showed him no respect.
3. What he was told to do was beneath his station in life, so it had to be false. 
4. There were probably a few Syrian expletives in his "rage," and then he took off for home.

Seems to me that many of us, including yours truly, have let hurt feelings, pride and apparent lack of respect put us over the edge on more than one occassion. Fortunately for Raaman, God looks on the inside to decide your fate...

Raaman had some servants that maintained a more rational approach, that he at that moment. Somehow they convinced him with some simple logic to at least try a dip in the river Jordan, and 7 times. After the 7th trip in the water, the Bible says, "his flesh came again like unto the flesh of a child, and he (Naaman) was clean." Suddenly all that rage melted, along with his hardened heart, and he became immediately grateful to "the man of God." But here is the grand crescendo that started back in Damascus with the "little maid." Naaman said and I quote, "Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth, but in Israel." What a tremendous turnaround in the heart of someone who served another god in his homeland. He went from rage to wanting to give bags of silver and gold to Elisha, which he politely refused. Naaman learned quickly that salvation cannot be bought and paid for because God has no interest in the things we value here on earth. He values the pure heart, and as you can see, He can tame a captain's rage, cure his terminal disease, and make him a believer faster than any of us could ever imagine!

Finally, Naaman originally was a worshipper of the Syrian god, Rimmon. Now that he had found the one true God, he needed one more item from his new friend, Elisha. You see Naaman already knew that he would have a problem attending the worship of Rimmon with the King of Syria right next to him, so he asked Elisha to intercede for him with his new Lord, so that God would pardon him whenever he bowed down to Rimmon. Elisha told him to go home healed and in peace.

Imagine the ride home...He had two miracles and maybe three happen to him in one day, all because of a captured Hebrew servant maid who sparked a progression of events that made a man not only physically whole again, but more importantly spiritually. Imagine coming home disease free on the outside, with a renewed heart and soul on the inside.

Many think this is just a child's story, but as usual, I differ with all of them. This powerful story that could not be more relevant to all of us in 2012. A tiny voice in a foreign land was used by our God through his servant, Elisha to make another believer against all odds. It just does not get better than that...

Thanks be to God,

                                     The Digital Disciple

God's Take on Sin...

Sin and Sinners have been the topic of discussion in most religions around the globe today. Scholars have written volumes on the subject from an academic perspective, including dividing sin up into many sub-categories so as to create a sort of big, bigger and biggest kind of progression. Regardless of your religious viewpoint sin or transgression as it is more commonly used in the Old Testament is fundamentally a breaking of God's Law as passed down from Mosaic Law in the Old Testament and the use of that Law, by Jesus, in the New Testament. Either way we are talking about Judaic Law passed down from more than 6,000 years ago.

I have spent time researching sin academically beginning back in my days at Bob Jones University, where I started out majoring in Missions. I was planning to take my new found knowledge and belief system, and share it with others, long before I really knew what going global meant. Half way through I switched to the school of education and graduated a bone fide school teacher, certified in the states of Alaska and Ohio. I chose those two states, because at the time they paid the most money anywhere in our country. Despite my change in majors, my love for missionary work, although buried for many years, remained extremely important to me. In fact, one summer between years of college, I made my first missionary trip out of the country! Basically I spent three full months in the Cayman Islands on their smallest island called Cayman Brac. I lived in a house made of products from the island, ate what the native Caymanians ate, taught Sunday School, and lived in the water. Preaching on Sunday's was the hardest duty, but I managed to share myself with others for the very first time. When I was not ministering to people or repairing houses, I learned how to fish, snorkel, paddle a canoe and life off the land. You see there were no cell phones, computers, or TV's there in 1970. I wore shorts and sandals everyday while there, because it was to hot to even where a t-shirt most of the time.

So how does the city slicker from the USA talk to folks on the island about God and sin...Well, initially it's not easy, because I was and remain one of the "biggest" sinners referred to in my first paragraph. Talking to others about sin was like the proverbial, "pot calling the kettle black," if you get my drift. The moment you get up in front of others, somehow those speaking neurons from your brain get tangled up and what comes out of your mouth is more like speaking in tongues than understandable English. No matter how much you prepare, plan and practice, in order to do it right, you must involve God for several reasons.

1. You can't be the biggest, unforgiven sinner in the bunch.
2. Sincerity comes from your soul, and if it is black, you are in trouble.
3. Trust comes from saying what you mean and meaning what you say.

After several inept teaching opportunities, while feeling quite embarrassed and incapable, a miracle happened. I got together with God, and then we got together with the people, showing me that unforgiven sin is a major roadblock with our Lord. Despite all accounts to the contrary around our globe, forgiveness rests only in God's hand, and He does not forget sin even if it has been forgiven. Sin hurts our God, and he carries with him, not only the memory of that sin, but a heart felt feeling of betrayal. In some ways His creation disappoints him and the pain felt is similar to that of a doting father for his son or daughter. 

Go back in your Bible and re-read I Kings 15. In this passage God does a lot of talking directly to the newly anointed King of Israel, Solomon. In two or three verses near the beginning God describes David, Solomon's father to him. Here is the text beginning in verse 3, so that you know I am not taking this out of context:

1. And he (Jeroboam) walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him: and his (Jeroboam's) heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as the heart of David his (Solomon's) father.
2. Nevertheless for David's sake the Lord gave him a lamp in Jerusalem, to set up his son after him, and to establish Jerusalem.
3. Because David did that which was right in the eyes of the Lord, and turned not aside from anything that he (God) commanded him all the days of his (David's) life, SAVE IN THE MATTER OF URIAH THE HITTITE.

According to God, King David lived almost a perfect life, except for one major failing. You see King David's royal balcony allowed him to see a beautiful women next door. She was married to Uriah and her name was Bathsheba. Like many men, it's hard to pass up a gander, just ask my wife; however, David was so taken with her, that he devised a way to have her for himself. You see Uriah was a commander in David's army, so he went over Uriah's head and had him sent to the front lines in the next battle. Suddenly Bathsheba was a widow, so he made her his wife. People have written about this from every point of view; however, I want to concentrate on God and His perspective concerning David's sin. Here is what I glean from this:

1. David was a great King before and after this transgression.
2. God forgave David for this sin, despite the fact that he had one of his own killed.
3. God never forgot about this sin, as evidenced above.

Lately I have had several interesting interesting responses out of the 354 unique readers  on this blog through the first three weeks. Readers have been dominantly from the US, but it appears we have developed some international flavor. We have Russia, South America, Germany and the UK reading now with Russia far outpacing the rest of the pack. Eight blogs in less than a month has stirred some interesting responses from family and friends, but those responses from people whom I will never meet, I find extraordinarily gratifying and educational. One writer asked me, "who do you think you are writing as if you are someone special." Another asked me if I thought that I was "sinless and above reproach."

Both of these responses are valid and thank you for sharing your feelings with me. While I might get carried away with my emotions in my writing, my goal is to clearly state God's word. I am not interpreting, rationalizing or anything else, but I am not perfect in my communication any more than your are. The difference is that I believe God has given me insight that here to for was never available to me, or I simply was just not paying attention. If I had to guess, it's probably me not paying attention for many years...Sound familiar? Here is what I know:

1. I am not special, and I am not anointed to be a prophet of God to my knowledge. 
2. I am a believer in God, his Holy Trinity, Angels, and Heaven.
3. I am a believer in Satan, Evil, Demons, and Hell. 

My gift and my "calling" is to let people know what God has to say in terms that anyone in the 21st century can understand. I am simple, direct and hopefully thorough in my examination of the Bible and my personal exposition of those findings. I have no axe to grind, no church to support and no religious history to uphold and/or justify. It's just me and the God who has inspired me to communicate. I take no credit, because without his guidance my thoughts would be worthless chatter in a world chuck full of useless communication. If truth be told, I should have been doing this in one format or another a long time ago in my life. I spent many years worshipping everything that this world has to offer, completely oblivious to the spiritual world around me.

So there you have it. I am ordinary in every worldly measure, and that's the pure beauty of God's grace, in that he can take an ordinary man, who admits his sin repeatedly and use him in a totally unexpected role as part of a larger plan. My role is minuscule in the grand scheme of things, but I am humbled each time the neurons in my brain fire up and motivate my hands to create this blog. I only hope that you can find something useful in what gets written...

God Bless,

The Digital Disciple

LOYALTY: The Biblical Perspective

My wife and I spent this holiday season with family and friends, beginning when my daughter Jessie arrived from Arizona on 12/21.  The last of our company left this morning, 1/1/2012...I know it's 2012, but it still looks strange as I write, in fact, I think I was just getting used to writing 2011 on everything. The older I become the faster this life seems to disappear, almost like the lifting of fog at the San Francisco airport. One minute you cannot see your hand in front of your face, and then slowly, but surely, sunshine begins to burn it off quickly and efficiently.


We had our life-long friends, the Mahoney's, at our home to usher in the new year. Jay and Donna have been our best friends for more than 30 years. That's probably older than most of you reading this post, but the time we shared, and the reason I am writing today, all relates to a request from Donna, or as we who love her call her, our Prima Donna. When the old opera houses in Europe coined the phrase, "prima donna," how could they have known that it would fit our Donna so amazingly well. But I digress...


Thirty year friendships are about as rare as thirty year marriages in the 21st century. As the years fly by, or "Tempus Fugit," for the Latin aficionado's, relationships change faster, jobs change faster, computers process faster, we travel faster, we get news faster, we eat faster, etc., all the while giving up some of the best parts of life. Everybody has figured out how to enhance productivity in all facets of life, ignoring any cost or downside associated with it. If you will, every yin has its yang!

For example, in days recently gone by the proper courtship of a young lady that you met somewhere other than in a bar or a chat room has all but evaporated like a distant wisp of a cloud, left lonely in the sky of time progression. In my youth you worked to get to hold her hand, and eventually you got rewarded with a first kiss. Today everyone is in a hurry to get to instant gratification, rather than waste time with the preliminaries. In fact, we now have sped up that process so that there is not only no need for a marriage, now there is no need even a relationship. Have you heard of "friends with fringes?"


And how about that strobe light we call news and never ending commercials beating us into submission quite literally every day? We used to have a cup of coffee and read the paper or enjoy a well written magazine or book. Within the next 5 years more than 1/2 of the newspapers out there right now will be extinct, and after that books will become museum pieces. We now assimilate far more, literally at the speed of light as we sit spellbound watching HDTV on multiple channels, simultaneously. It's now longer good enough to see and root for the home team, you now have split screens capable of letting you view 4 independent channels at the same time. Now that's productivity! You can watch the game, the stock market, the weather, and your favorite reality TV show all at once...Oh yes, and doing justice to none of them.


Believe me, I have nothing against the digital age. Without it I wouldn't be writing to you today. We don't write much anymore, at least not with pen or pencil. We text incomplete sentences mixed with numbers and letters to communicate faster and more efficiently than even the telephone. God forbid you actually have a real conversation with anyone. And yes, I have 2 desktops, a laptop, a cell phone and a tablet. Each one can be enormously useful in our daily lives as long as we do not sacrifice our humanity on the altar of speed.


As you continue to press on the accelerator in you life please fasten the seat belt that protects your ability to think rationally on your own, develop lasting relationships on your own, and keep fundamental decision making where it belongs, in your God-given conscience. You cannot predict the long term effect of this new found speed on you, or when you just might crash and burn.

In December, I focused on subject matter that was not necessarily positive or uplifting, despite a fresh, scripture based rationale that takes time, study and conversation with God. Today I want to discuss a virtue for the first time. It was requested by my friend above in this post and it is Loyalty...The grammar mavens would tell me not to capitalize the "L" in Loyalty, but I beg to differ. This Virtue called LOYALTY deserves all capital letters, because of its extreme importance to humanity at large; i.e., it is one of those precious, God-given tenants that He takes delight in for all time past, present and future. In fact this little word is one of the mightiest in the English language and should have been my first Blog, not my sixth. tks 2 u don. That there be texting speak for those living under a rock.


To understand just about anything, you need valid historical data for perspective. Loyalty comes from a French word "loyaute" from back somewhere between the 15th and 16 century. Early French like, "Old English" was a bit different, but the same pronunciation, "loiaute. Both words come from, guess what? Good old Latin! "Lex" is the Latin root for "law." In the old days this root was used to describe someone who is lawful, as apposed to an outlaw, and given to someone to designate them as having complete legal rights for fealty to a king or landowner.


Today we even have a video game that glorifies Mammon including all of his or its horrid attributes. Clearly our world believes in many arenas that it is possible to have multiple masters, leading directly to divided loyalties.

In truth there is only one example of Loyalty worth emulating, and that is God's Loyalty. His Loyalty passes all the tests with flying colors:

• Time-He has been loyal to mankind forever. We think in days, months and years. Think eons and eternity.
• Patience-He remains faithful, even when we do not.
• Grace-He remains composed even we commit the worst of sin.
• Forgiveness-He forgives genuine repentance every time and allows us the free will to sin again.
• Truth-He speaks the same truth all through time.
• Integrity-He will not defraud you, embezzle from you, lie to you or tell you half truths. He has wanted the best for you since you were born and given life.

As you can see, Loyalty by God's standard is a tall order. He wants your undivided Loyalty, as described above. Your loyalty may never be perfect in this life, but if do not polish off this virtue in your personal repertoire, you are a fool for sure.

One final word from God himself...Just after the day when Solomon became the King of Israel and Judah, God met with Solomon in a dream. God asked Solomon what he would wish for first now that he was the new King. When Solomon finally replied to God, my interpretation is that God was simply overjoyed. You see most of us would have asked for personal riches, longer life, a bigger house, a German car, or just about anything that would fall under the title of self-gratification, or Mammon, as it was called back then. But here are Solomon's own words, "give me an understanding heart to judge God's people and the ability to discern between good and evil."

Since he chose a selfless course before God, he was blessed with everything else that he did never asked for, because Solomon chose not to divide his Loyalty...

"Oh ye stiffnecked people", if this does not stir your hardened heart, check your pace maker!

The Digital Disciple