Still in Desperation

*A Worthy Benediction*

We are not what God created. We are robotic byproducts of all that is good and bad in this world. God is responsible for the authentic self - not the processed, manufactured, packaged humans that we have willingly become. While there is good in us as a result of what we have learned and experienced via shallow existing, the bad within our hearts and souls finds its way in the outcome. The final product. That product is called Life.


Life, a defected organism that began clean and pure - but ends in a mess because of man's inability to rebuke greed, arrogance, envy, jealousy, and ego. All biblical characteristics of God, by the way. Then we have the audacity to seek forgiveness when we freely defy the Creator's creation, Purity. Through Christian belief, we leave salvation and grace in the hands of the Lord...wanting Him to purify us. Make us anew so we can join Him.

If you agree with the above or even if you can understand my declaration, you now must admit that human development is compromised by what Christianity promises.

Ask yourself, how? Then recite your benediction:

May the Lord bless you and keep you; may He make His face to shine on you and be gracious to you; may He lift up His countenance on you and give you peace. -Numbers 6:22-27

The selfish dependency we place on God to bless, keep, be gracious, and give peace to us is remarkably astonishing – and gives indication that we are still in desperation…even after God’s word is preached by the people’s chief Byproduct Maker, the Preacher.

Written by the Preacher you will not hear during America’s most segregated hour - 11:00AM Sunday Morning.

Strength to Face the Hell we Create

If only she would have paused, reflected, went back, and did not allow fear to consume her.

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/easter-crash-trial-aimee-709883.html

Fear was the beginning of Aimee Michael’s demise. The beginning of a guilt filled conscience that will surely haunt her for the remainder of her life. Her self created torture continued with her participating in what that fear produced, The Cover Up. Finally, as if that is not enough weight for the cross she has to carry, her selfish belief that her soul would have allowed her to live with what the continuation of fear accomplished solidified her demise and instituted her hell. Hell is what we create while on earth when we are dominated by fear!

At that moment, during the hiding from the secular (police) Aimee sealed her fate. She killed herself along with five other people.

Returning to the scene immediately would have proven that fear did not win. The Return would have provided all those left living with a less challenging attempt to forgive. Aimee's departure as the flames engulfed life, removed that one element that God gives, Immediate Grace.

Fear won on that Easter Sunday. Wow! Easter Sunday! The day Christ came back, the day he returned without fear of being slaughtered again. Christ defied all Non-Believers and validated his power for Believers. With all we know about Christ, I ask when will we be as he was: Courageously Bold?

Aimee, obviously, with her fear of facing her mistake did not believe that she would have been worthy. Worthy of God's understanding. Worthy of man's strength to usher her back into God's unconditional loving fold. But, what did we expect considering man’s inability to resist the temptation to judge? What did we expect considering the absence of courage?

http://www.art-prints-on-demand.com/kunst/briton_riviere/daniel-1.jpg

Lord God...where are the Daniel's among us? He stood in that den never fearing that he would be devoured. He boldly turned his back toward the enemy as to express, 'Even with my back turned, I fear nothing. Fear will not cause me to reason with the enemy while I am temporarily in this den. I shall look to the heavens for my courage. My strength.”

Amiee Michael had her chance to Turn Around. To be as strong as Daniel. Now, she leaves freedom behind without looking back:

We have to go back. Return. Turn around. That's the only way to address the pain and horror we have injected into God's universe.

As we leave here today, remember not to kill yourself and others with fear as your weapon. Go to/turn to/return to someone you have wronged. Face what you have caused. Be faithful – as Daniel – he defeated what Aimee could not.

Amen and Amen!

Written by the Preacher you will not hear during America’s most segregated hour - 11:00AM Sunday Morning.

How God Defeats Science

Having no ability to measure God or account for His existence through reliable fact is the issue I have with the Concept of God. Not that I do not believe there is a divine force in the universe that we refer to as God - but believing in a God because our faith substantiates the belief only proves that we are putting our understanding of God in the inconsistent and elaborate imaginations of man/woman. Therefore, the faith we have in a God is a forced belief because our imaginations want and need this faith food to quell its spiritual hunger for answers. Faith will always win out with this dynamic at work while science becomes the atheistic justification for non-believers.


One critical factor we must keep in mind is that science does not need anything - an outside force - to produce or maintain validity. Science is absolute. Faith comes and goes based on where people are in their religious life - and in this process it does not gain man/woman nothing but another belief in an unstable mechanism of support that one has to blindly exercise faith without reason to make real. Such as heaven. The same process for Satan. The same process for Jesus walking on water and being born from a virgin. And, it goes on and on.

The constructors of Christianity and its most devoted promoter, the Christian minister, relish in the fact that it goes on and on. That it is a never ending speculation without a reasonable or responsible conclusion. Why?

The constant effort of trying to understand keeps the desperate and the hopeful wanting and needing answers. Leaving the soul pleading for - you guessed it - unshakable FAITH.

Unfortunately, these God-seekers spend the majority of their life either searching for answers that will never produce a scientific or quantifiable conclusion - or adhering to what does not make any sense at all. The latter, is the key to Christianity's worldwide success. The believers, with defeat, give up trying to understand with the utilization of logic and become men and women who repeat verbatim,

'I believe by faith. And by faith alone.'

When this regurgitated religious pronouncement is uttered, I become confident in my anti-religion dogma. Specifically anti with the religion named for a man whose character is not reflected in its present form, Christianity. The believer is trapped at this point in her self imposed pious tornado. In that declarative storm/test that many find themselves undergoing and enduring repeatedly in the life that their God has bestowed or should I say burdened upon the flock?

Written by the Preacher you will not hear during America’s most segregated hour - 11:00AM Sunday Morning.

When I look back over my life…

I am amazed that I am still here. I am amazed that I can say, ‘God has been so good to me.’ Saying it these days brings guilt. Saying it makes me feel so unworthy. So, for the past three years I have secretively said, ‘God has been so good to me.’ I cannot bring myself to utter that sentence of declaration with honest conviction.


The guilt stems from my memory. Memories and reminders of what I have done and said that has been so unbecoming of a human who prides himself on being a Good Man. I have easily lied, leisurely stolen, randomly cheated, recklessly fornicated, and boldly flirted with death. I have been unendingly wrong on so many occasions. My behavior has mirrored the actions of those who do not have any regard for moral decency. Now, at this point in my life I am prepared to come clean. I guess I am cleansing now as I type this confessional…without providing the details of my ‘sinful’ behavior. That I will not do!

What I will do is stop myself each and every time I slightly think about saying, ‘God has been so good to me.’ If He has been acting in my life He definitely needs to retract all the guidance and favor He has bestowed. I am not worthy. Especially when I think about all the people who have been strictly devoted to God from a Believer and including an Atheist disposition. Confusingly, I have to admit that there are countless human beings that live righteously - by God’s word and commandments – but end up enduring the most horrific lives.

And yet, while walking on a beautiful Saturday morning and enjoying my colorful mood I have the shameless audacity to think, ‘God has been so good to me.’ So selfish. So self centered. So arrogant. So conveniently forgetting of my dirty past. A past that I am partially ashamed of in numerous forms. A past that I am beginning to rectify.

Before we speak the words, ‘God has been so good to me or God has blessed me.’ I would like to challenge each of us to Look Back Over Our Lives with humility. With confession. With resolve. Lord knows I did not do this for years! Including the years I boastfully professed to be a Christian. It was not until I vehemently denounced, rejected, and exposed Christianity that I became aware of my dark shadowy past. Interesting…The cloak of Christianity insulated me. Saved me in the form of fake forgiveness. Blanketed me in the Protectionism of Hypocrisy.

We have to clean up the mess we’ve made without Christianity’s protections i.e. grace. When we do we will begin to look back without shame. Without embarrassment. Without guilt.

Written by the Preacher you will not hear during America’s most segregated hour; 11:00AM Sunday Morning.

Old vs. New

Have you ever wondered why the bible drastically changes its rhetoric beginning with the New Testament? The adaptation is significant.

The Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) is lawfully absolute. You do something and there is the consequence lurking like a snake examining its prey. Genesis, the Beginning, begins that way with the Garden of Eden story: Adam and Eve committed an act that produced dreadful ramifications.

The OT by all accounts is a complex story of what to do and what not to do. Of how people behave, and the results that come forth from the behavior i.e. God's Chosen People were banished to wander in the wilderness. Actually, the OT has been designated by some to serve as a law guide i.e. Leviticus. Consequently, with most accounts when the laws were broken there was no preventable way to avoid the wrath of God.

When the reader reaches the New Testament there appears to be this new dramatic push of grace and forgiveness. The change is recorded in the synoptic gospels.

The NT tells the story of a man who unsuccessfully convinced man to love his brother. His story - despite man’s inability to adhere - serves as an example of how we should righteously live our lives so some level bliss dominates one’s life. It basically gives us a road map to be worthy of God's love without emotionally subscribing to the religion, Christianity. Whereas, in the Old Testament this love is somewhat void, and God's contempt, jealousy, vindictiveness, and callousness reigns. The NT pages are not completely consumed with condemnation as we see and read in countless places in the Old Testament. Not until one gets to the last book, Revelation.

Why the vast difference? Why did God's so called inspired writers suddenly change their tune?

Could it be that God had nothing to do with the creation and formation of the biblical text? Could it be that the writer's of the New Testament believed the people needed an easier version to embrace? We have to admit that there is a gentler process in the NT. One can make it to God’s heaven with a law breaking record that includes murder, molestation, and torture.

With what I have shared above - which has been shared by countless men and women before and is prevalent knowledge of any trained seminarian - why do Christians and other religious people hold the bible as their safeguard? Their crutch? It is like depending on something or someone who has a shaky past. No one does that when they are removed from emotion and forced to think with logic and reason.

Perhaps, a better question is, why do those (Today’s Preacher) who claim to know biblical truth do not utter it in sermon, bible study, and/or Sunday school? It definitely would not be a membership builder…

Written by the Preacher you will not hear during America’s most segregated hour; 11:00AM Sunday Morning.

Are You Your Master?

What does it say about you if you cannot proudly give yourself credit for your accomplishments? Why do so many of us give all the praise to a God that created us to be 'abundant' in our attempts to be successful? Further, what role did YOU play in your successes? Or, was it all God? If it was just God, what are you? Who are you?

We thank God because we want Him to continue 'blessing' us. It is our selfish act to appease that in us that says that we are unworthy.

What if God told you, 'I had nothing to do with your success. It was all you. You are deservingly worthy.'

The concept of God in many ways was set-up for us to lean completely on God. This effort does not leave any room for man/woman to think of themselves as having the singular power to change their lives.

'Without God you are nothing.'

Really? Is this true?

I certainly understand why the concept is presented this way. It creates blind dependency, not spiritual independency. If man/woman does not depend on God there would not be too much reason to believe in religion's required justification to follow its traditions, practices, and commandments.

Everything we know about God is conveniently made-up. In many ways with good reason. Consequently, most human beings try to live good and righteous lives. If life does not go well we are quick to blame the Devil - and not ourselves. Leaving God, after we are literally forced to believe that the Devil has no power, as the reason for all accomplishments. There is nothing too terribly wrong with that - but it does make me wonder, who is the Master of our Fates?

If it is God, He - not YOU - is responsible for so much success and so many human train wrecks. So, again, who are you? What are you? How can you/me live another day not knowing the answer?

Written by the Preacher you will not hear during America’s most segregated hour; 11:00AM Sunday Morning.

God’s Will is Selective

So many of God’s saints emphatically claim to know God’s Will. What He expects. What he intends to do. While never understanding or frankly admitting that The Will of God is a mystery. It is unknown. None of us knows what God has in store or what He is planning to do - despite what a pastor says. That’s if you believe that this God of Man is working. Actually doing something. Doing something to prevent strife, calamities, and heartache among the masses.

What confuses me are His selections (if God is at work). Some of the best people – those vehemently devoted to God - die under horrific conditions. But, then you have the most disgusting of human representation live long, healthy, and prosperous lives.

How does one rationalize that?

I have tirelessly answered that question by referencing facts. By analyzing present and past occurrences. My humble and theological justification completely removes God from the complexity of why this or that has occurred. Yes, in order for it to make sense I am of the belief that a rational, not a religion-driven, person has to conclude that God is not picking and choosing. He is not playing chess with man’s life. He, in all due respect, to the Creator is absent; aloof.

If that last sentence is true we have to consider that we may not be under a divine guidance. We have to consider that we are not ‘covered with the blood of Jesus’. If it is not true, one has to consider that God is extremely selective. Even down to skin color and socioeconomic level.

A massive earthquake hits Haiti – and thousands die. A tsunami hits Thailand – and thousands die. And, ironically a massive earthquake hits New Zealand two weeks ago – and not one person dies. Better infrastructure?

I can recount several incidents when people of color have had to face destruction and disease as a result of a natural disaster. I can preface countless situations that negatively affected people of color just because they have less money. With this innocent assessment and fact producing revelation, I must stay with my ongoing thought process:

God appears to have it in for the darker people of the world.

One does not have to agree with me – but I challenge you to take a stroll back through human history. Note the trauma black and brown people from all corners of the world have faced and endured.

And, if God does not “have it in” for those with dark pigmentation he must not be aware that His Will is not positively affecting the darkies.

Respond to my concerns, God. I am waiting on a sign. I am waiting on your Will to prove me wrong.

Written by the Preacher you will not hear during America’s most segregated hour, 11:00AM Sunday Morning.