GOD'S TWIST ON ORGANIC FOODS...

Solon Community Rec Center is where I spend a lot of time these days, because just like turning my back on God for 40 years, I did something similar to my family, my mind and my body. After replacing my family with global travel and the creation of wealth, my mind and body were not far behind. The priority in my mind became making money for my company and for me. I was all about growth, margin and profitability. I talked about organic growth (natural), but yearned for geometric growth more times everyday than I ever thought or communicated with my wife and children.

Organic growth is like organic food. It is certainly better for you, but generally it's one-half the size of its anti-biotic filled, steroid induced and pesticide laced cousin that was produced where only size, color and taste matter. Results became the order for every day, while careful nurturing and nature were replaced by combines, cherry pickers and drugs. Oh yes, and all of this we call, new and improved. In the business world this is called geometric growth, defined as taking the solid base of a company that has worked well for years, and injecting it with iron clad management, a plan to make more or do more with less with tons of insecticidal funds that guarantee you will be the first, the biggest and the best. The process sucks up all your time, all your energy and left without change, eventually your desire to live. You can take a $100 million dollar company to over $600m in 8 years and reap all the rewards. You are deemed a SUCCESS professionally. You beat nurture and nature six fold, and all you had to do was give up your family, your friends and of course, your heart...You see along the way you took one inoculation too many and your heart couldn't take the hype anymore, so it just turned to stone. Finally you attained financial nirvana. Finally you were the perfect size, the perfect color, the perfect texture, and the perfect taste. Only thing to do now was to create more perfection. God help all of the Christian businessman that get on the treadmill of greed and perfection, while pushing up the numbers for what started out honest and honorable. After many years these traits can easily become a distant memory from another lifetime, or so it seems.

The facade created by mega-hormonal growth (geometric) looks, smells and tastes like the real thing...The drive to be the best of class, best of breed or best of anything in of itself seems seems innocuous enough at first blush, but it is generally followed by accelerating beyond the "red line." If you think about it for a minute you will see that this mentality has taken over our American culture from its honorable, hard-working, caring society of yesteryear to a pack of wild animals all vying for the Alpha position. Modeling, makeup and beauty in a bottle have taken over the female mind in our society, from reading Cosmo to purchasing the lastest "snake oil" from Relvon to Elizabeth Arden. Professional women of all sorts and housewives all believe that to be the best, you must be a waif in a business suit, designer jeans or an apron. Push in this direction hard enough and long enough by society in general and specifically the media, the once organic female beauty gets transformed into media designed pawn of the parasitic world of information overload.

Men have been at this longer than women. For many centuries women stayed out of the fray, so that they could invest their time and enery into a family. Personally I believe this is the highest calling for a women, but today I am very much in the minority. Men were raised to be determined breadwinners from an early age. Competition among men has soared over the years, but whether you are a farmer in the mid-west or a wall street broker, your success is measured in dollars and cents. Do more to make more, and if you can't make enough, have your wife get a job. Men are pushed and pulled by the same media giants. For years men got by with a little after shave and some deodorant, but now most of us go through a similar ritual with colognes, hair gels, hair sprays, and talcum powder to go along with our coiffed hair, shiny nails and pedicures. Go down this road long enough and you soon forget your responsibility to family and friends.

But Jimbo (nickname from my dad), do you have a point here somewhere? Oh yes, and here it is my friend...Once you have been modernized and homogenized, you have made it in this world, because you fight the good fight every hour of every day to make your dream come true. You are convinced that it is all about you, and then slowly but surely, your perspective on this life begins to change from selfless to selfish, from contentment to resentment, from beauty to the beast, and finally from God to Mammon. Here is what God has to say about this change in his own people:

Isaiah 5:18-24

Ah, you who drag iniquity along with cords of falsehood, who drag sin along as with cart ropes, who say, “Let him make haste, let him speed his work that we may see it; let the plan of the Holy One of Israel hasten to fulfillment, that we may know it!” Ah, you who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter! Ah, you who are wise in your own eyes, and shrewd in your own sight! Ah, you who are heroes in drinking wine and valiant at mixing drink, who acquit the guilty for a bribe, and deprive the innocent of their rights! Therefore, as the tongue of fire devours the stubble, and as dry grass sinks down in the flame, so their root will become rotten, and their blossom go up like dust; for they have rejected the instruction of the Lord of hosts, and have despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

Friends, I bring this to your attention, because Almighty God was not just talking to Jerusalem and Judah before Christ, but because He was talking to you and me, right here, right now! After living these verses personally for many years, and recognizing that many in our despicable digital world are also doing the same thing, I knew that God wanted me to write about it. When will you stop dragging your sinful baggage with you? Give that burden to your Heavenly Father, so that you can be a vessel He can use for humanity. We live in a world that now calls what historically has been evil, good! Think of what's happened to our criminal justice system. Not only do we have victimless crimes, but we also have crimes where the victim has NO rights. Light is being traded for darkness every day. Just look around you! Public schools have gone spiritually dark, which means our children now spend more time in the dark than the light. Godlessness has cast a thick cloud over the minds of young and old alike. It has also engulfed not only the sinners, but also the saints who have been misled by electronic and digital media. Or worse, they have been led astray by a charlatan who's only goal is to push himself up in the religious world of television's wealth creation.

Innocent people are being crushed by the weight of this evil godlessness. We think we are so smart and so shrewd, because we are under the misguided impression that if we trade in truth and righteousness, yeah, even our own souls, for 100 years of being at the top of your game, physically, mentally and financially, that happiness and contentment will have to catch up at some point. Satan got me to believe that lie. I almost traded in my birthright for power, money and all that comes with it. 

My goal here is today is to get you to think! Satan is selling geometric, unnatural growth worldwide. We all believe that more is better, and that more than your neighbor is best. To anyone in this world, we look younger, smell better, eat better, drink better and live better than ever before. We have "viagrasized" our minds to the point of not knowing the difference between good and evil, right and wrong, and true and false. 

Ever notice how fast weeks and months fly by these days? We are already in the last half of 2012, and yet I still write 2011 on documents and checks. Good thing we have erasers...Life used to be a walk-a-thon. Now it is a marathon that has most of the world lining up to race through their life. Time to stop and evaluate your priorities in this life, making certain that they are harmony with the next. Stop running and start living with fearless honor and love the God in your heart. The sands of mortality will run dry soon enough. There is no reason to rush this life, as long as you let our merciful and gracious God guide you, so that He can lift the clouds of ungodliness, uncertainly and fear. You will get immediate clarity and a sharpened focus that only He can provide, called wisdom.

God bless,

The Digital Disciple (TDD)

SIN AND SACRIFICE...REPEATEDLY

                                                      SECOND MOST QUOTED MAN IN SCRIPTURE
Most books of the Bible start out slowly...The true message or messages do not reveal themselves until later in each book. Born approximately 750 years before Christ, Isaiah's visions and prophetic communication lasted 64 years. If you add 20 years for his youth, you can estimate that he lived just over 80 years, dying in about 670 BC. This time frame is important so that we can approximate who his contemporaries were at the time. He had two sons, neither of which followed in his footsteps.

Most scholars believe that Isaiah did not write all 66 chapters of his book. Comparing the writing styles uncovers three distinct different methods, which ostensibly account for the opinions. I have read it several times recently, and frankly, it never crossed my mind that he did not write the whole thing. Whether or not there is some truth to the changes in writing style, the book has some amazing passages that we will be looking at for application in the 21st century. And Isaiah starts right out of the box in Chapter I...

Keep in mind that we are talking about Hebrew scripture written about 2800 years ago or the span of some fifty (50) lifetimes. When I contemplate lifetimes, I get a whole different sense of how long we are talking about. Today we think about the moment. We don't want to miss the Olympic games...We want to know the winner down to one thousandth (1/1000) of a second. We are clock watchers with second hands, so that we can see the seconds, minutes and hours tick off, all the time knowing that the sands of our personal time shrink every hour.

God thinks in lifetimes. If you talk about a generation of people, you are getting warm. You see, God's existence does not revolve around our sun or our moon. Our calendar by which we organize ourselves, ad nauseum, does not apply to our Creator. Generational thinking is not a usable format for us, any more than counting seconds and minutes is to Him. For example, we marvel at the fact that we turn away from Him for hours, days, weeks or months at a time, and yet, he is always there when we return. You may choose to ignore Him, but you can never be "away" from His presence. 

                                                                               ISAIAH THE MAN
Chapter 1:1 begins with a vision from God to Isaiah that spans four (4) generations, including the lifetimes of these kings, Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah. So this vision is not about last night, last week or last year. It's about 4 lifespans. God says that he nourished and brought up the Hebrew nation as "children." Despite that effort they continued to rebel against our Lord. This is a glance at the Hebrew people back then:

1. Not only was God a part of their history and heritage, but He was a household name that was used daily.
2. God speaks directly to them through Isaiah, and they know that what he says is true and righteous.
3. God nourishes both kingdoms (Judah & Jerusalem).
4. God protects both kingdoms from the non-Jewish kingdoms surrounding them.
5. With all of the above, "Israel doth not know, my people do not consider."

Despite God's judgement of the people for their endless iniquity, He steps back to lament the situation, because "their whole head is sick, and whole heart faint." They go through the religious motions by SINNING AND SACRIFICING, to assuage their own conscience, and the wrath of the Almighty. Isaiah says it best when he compares these Jews to Sodom & Gomorrah...Repeated sinfulness under God's protective cover is a dangerous place to live. That's what they were doing, and that's what most of us do as well. Think about your personal sin, and how you have gotten comfortable with it over time, because Christ has redeemed your soul. Initially, you were repentant and full of remorse, as you admitted to your Heavenly Father your transgression. 

                                                                  JESUS READING FROM ISAIAH

The Hebrew nation did the same thing...The more they sinned,  the more they sacrificed according to the Law of Moses. The bigger the sin, the bigger the offering. Initially, the Law worked in their hearts and minds, but eventually, like life in the 21st century, it got old and boring. If you committed adultery again and again, why not just keep killing all of the young bullocks to keep God happy? You get what you want, and God gets what he wants! Such a deal!! I like to call it The New Covenant method of sin and sacrificing or SAS. I admit to three (3) SAS's in my life. They are tough, they are ingrained, and what's worst of all, they are no longer painful. When you can sin and feel no pain, you are Stage #3 of spiritual ill, and the only effective remedy is to stand firm and cut it out of your soul and mind. If you do nothing the infection will spread, shutting down your access and relationship to God.

Only by slaying the SAS's in your life, will you live long and prosper with your Lord & Saviour.

The Digital Disciple

                                                             PENNING HIS GREAT BOOK FOR GOD