Brad 2014

 

 Today marks the third anniversary of my son Bradley's death. I awoke this morning at 4:30 with these words in my heart:

Sometimes my heart feels like a wet rag being twisted and wrung out with the pain of him not being here; With the longing for him to come and fill up that gigantic vacuum he left in my soul—in our souls.

The only thing I can do to ease the pain, bring some light into the darkness, unclinch my heart, is to go into the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of Christ Himself, and His great Love, the same Love that was and  still is in Bradley; the Love from which all the various loves come. Then I hear His voice reminding me about the “many rooms” and comforting me with “fear not, don’t be troubled”* and I begin to know again, in an ever deepening way, about that Light that is the Light of man, the Core and center of the universe from which all has come, to which all will return, in which all currently resides; the God Who is Love, Who made Brad’s and everyone’s particular, unique personality possible; the One Who brought forth all that is and holds it together, on this side and the other side of death.

I have to and I want to let my heart be filled up and filled up and filled up to overflowing with that Love from which came forth Bradley’s laughter, compassion, humor, loyalty, and all the particular instruments in the orchestra of his personality that played such a beautiful series of compositions for us for a time on this earth. And I want to remember too that not all the songs were happy ones for him or for us in this world; that he had his share of that tribulation that Jesus said we would all have; like the tribulation of losing someone you love.  But how amazing, how amazing, how over-the-top amazing that He said, speaking with the voice of eternal Truth that transcends all truth, “nevertheless, be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”  There, you see, right there, is when I hear Brad laughing! And when I see him, like I did in the dream that God gave me, I see him winking at me, with Jesus standing behind him, a hand on his shoulder, smiling, and behind them the Light of God, the conscious Core and Fabric of this universe, shining brighter than the sun, enveloping me and all of us in Eternity and in Love.

*From John 14.

The Gift

There is something in me that is perpetually frustrated and disappointed by our failure to live the Christian faith---by my own failures to do so, and by our nation's and the world's failures to do so.  I think this is the frustration that was and is the fire in the belly of all the prophets through the ages. As a culture moves farther and farther from living the realities of the Faith, it deteriorates. Anyone who loves people and sees this deterioration is frustrated and seeks to do something about it. We are created in the image of God. We see plainly that humans are above all creatures on this earth in this regard; and we have responsibility that corresponds to our creative abilities and powers.  This responsibility involves sincere attention to life---what works and does not work for the human family--in other words, we are responsible to be sincere truth seekers.  In this light, it is fair to say that anyone who has not at least read the New Testament is a fool. I say this with no malice. One who ignores the words of the One Who said "I am the way, truth and life" can not claim to be an honest truth seeker. And if we do not seek, we will not find. And if we do not discover the Way of true life, we become a problem to the human family rather than a solution to the problems of humanity.  And we do not even realize that we are a problem---that we are bringing more suffering into life than healing and light.  Our lives become distracted by things that do not benefit the human family.  Our selfishness and self-centeredness, traits that we are all born with, will always win the day. 
Anyone who reads the New Testament, especially the teachings and life of Christ, in sincere openness to Truth, and is not inwardly transformed in a very positive way is spiritually blind. I don't know what hope there is for that person, and I pray God's mercy upon them. (Those who fall in this category may hear that statement as arrogant or condescending, though, God knows, there is no arrogance in it.) The wise of all ages have seen the solution to the human problems in Christ's teachings. To look elsewhere is futile unless and until it leads to the Truth of Christ. Christ is the center of the universe, as he is the center of human history---a fact that secularists, operating in spiritual blindness, have sought to obfuscate, an example of which is the changing of A.D. [Anno Domini,  in the year of our Lord] to C.E. [in the "Common Era"].  Anything that takes a culture away from the realities of the Christian Faith takes it farther into darkness. Anyone who suppresses the Christian Faith makes democracy a less tenable form of government, because spiritually immature people cannot govern themselves, no matter how intelligent they are.  Education does not substitute for spiritual maturity, and it takes a radical intervening Force, combined with sincere earnest seeking, to evoke spiritual maturity, which does not happen naturally or passively. Jesus said, "Unless one be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God."  and the Kingdom of God is the only solution to earth's human problems. Why is it so difficult for us to see that all our human efforts, uninspired by the Holy Spirit of our Creator, are futile? Has not history born this out ad nauseum? Why is it so difficult to realize that Jesus has solved the human problem in a single statement: "You are to love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use and persecute you if you desire to be the children of your Father in heaven"?  Those who see this as Utopian and unattainable, and write it off, and turn toward political and military solutions, simply prolong the human misery.  How long have we utilized those modalities fruitlessly? The difficulties of this teaching, and the fact that so few seem to be willing to practice it, combined with the ongoing hostilities and vanity in the human family, do more to validate than to diminish its veracity. What if we really practiced it as an ongoing conscious endeavor? No matter how far short we fall, any movement in that direction would certainly move us in the right direction. Instead of ignoring Christ and His teachings, and blandly or viciously suppressing Christianity, what if we elevated it to the forefront of human attention?  Instead of exclusively pointing out the hypocrisy in it [a perennial temptation in any endeavor] why not focus on the unquestionable good that has been evoked by it, realizing that hypocrisy is an aspect of the very evil it exposes and overcomes? As someone has said, [paraphrasing]"It's not that Christianity has been tried and found wanting, it's that it has been found to be hard, and not tried."
My hope is that our frustrations about the problems in this world will lead us ultimately toward the only true Solution, and into the endeavor of furthering His Kingdom, which will be the greatest gift we can give to those we love, and perhaps the only thing that will give us satisfaction at the end of our lives.




Response from James Willis:

Dec 29 at 9:44 PM

I realize your question is rhetorical, part lament and call to action, but I am prompted to respond to your question in part, below:

'Why is it so difficult to realize that Jesus has solved the human problem in a single statement: "You are to love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use and persecute you if you desire to be the children of your Father in heaven"?'

Sin, and resulting blindness. Generally speaking only people with a real problem look for a real answer.
God calls sinners to salvation through His Son in Grace, which brings repentance, salvation and sanctification, and restoration of fellowship with God.

 

Consider those whose ears are dull, eyes that have closed, with no understanding in their hearts:

Mat_13:15  For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Act_28:27  For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

It's so important, it's in both Matthew and Acts.

 The verse above from Matthew follows the parable of the sower, and Jesus goes on to explain the role of the individual decision and of evil interfering with the hearing:

Mat 13:19  When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

This describes a process of struggle for the birth of awareness of truth. At any point in time it appears there are those that are dull of hearing, with eyes and hearts closed, and are unafraid. I'm very familiar with this condition in my own life experiences. Even so, there are voices calling in the wilderness to bring the truth by the Holy Spirit.

Some are unafraid of sin, unafraid of death, unafraid of God and His awesome power to spin the planets and know the hairs on our head. Perhaps in throwing out the superstition of the middle ages, and substituting science, materialism and consumerism we have thrown out the baby with the bath water, washing fear down the drain, substituting apathy for fear.

Of course fear can be an oppression, and it can be a terrible companion but when I climbed mountains fear was my friend and I would listen often times objectively. If I was having an off day climbing that bit of overhanging ice was maybe not a smart idea, better to eat first or maybe just go home and I've done both, and lived.

Today, fear is the enemy and is hunted down with empowerment strategies, personal talismans and idols, with secular poetry, with caffeine, alcohol and other drugs like money, even with Nike logos like "Just Do It". Perhaps fear is the wrong enemy. ["Twas Grace that taught my heart to fear, and Grace my fears relieved." John Newton, Amazing Grace] added by MFG.

Last week I offered some encouragement to a young man recently married whose father in law passed away unexpectedly. In support of his wife, I explained that during a crisis, the loss of a dear loved one, sometimes the past is temporarily jettisoned from our memory, and hope for the future is temporarily nonexistent, and we are simply left in an apparently eternal now-ness where we come face to face with uncertainty and doubt, prior to grief. In time through grief we have our dear memories restored to us, and they become an even more precious part of who we are, and hope for the future becomes an active part of our life and we grow beyond the chrysalis of the butterfly, but there are those moments of metamorphosis and apparent stasis when nothing seems to be moving or changing but where the real progress is made.

Those moments of now-ness I think are opportunities to meet God through His Grace. After all, He is eternally now, "I Am", so perhaps we can meet Him at those times without all the normal trappings of life. But it's the repentance, and the Grace that invites us that gives us the opportunity to step out in faith, and what is faith without a little fear and doubt to give us an easy out, a quick alternative, the very canvas of our weakness in the flesh that gives contrast to the bold strokes of faith. It's how we decide in those moments of invitation, those moments of encounter that determines our fellowship with God, indeed our salvation.

I heard yesterday on KLove that a Chihuahua was found in a house destroyed by fire, he was shrouded in house insulation and standing in a puddle of water protected from the heat. A man of science would say there's a logical explanation to this, that the human DNA double helix is a matter of evolution only and that the parting of the Red Sea and the fall of the walls of Jericho are not miracles but due to natural phenomena only. Putting aside the fact for believers that God is entirely 'natural', of course they can't explain away the exquisite timing of these events which gives us pause to reflect on the majesty of God's creation. Unless of course you are given to self actualization, can overcome all fear triggers real or imagined, and are literally hell bent to quiet that still, small voice of God calling unto God within us to be gathered unto Himself for His purpose. But even if one's eyes and ears are closed, there will be a time for reconsideration because of God's Mercy.

Your question of "Why is it so difficult..." though, hinges on the fact that the logic or mathematics of God's mercy makes little sense in the flesh. Love your enemies? "Hey, What about me??" Do Good to those that hate you? "Not on my watch, I've got my defenses up!" Pray for those who spitefully use and persecute you?? "Clearly you have a bad translation in hand..." Consider the logic of "be angry, but do not sin". It's perfect. For example, if a forest fire simply refused to spread from one blade of grass to the next blade of grass, or from one tree to the next tree, poof! there'd be no forest fire. The analogy breaks down because forest fires are sometimes natural processes and required, but if anger did not spread via sin what an improvement that would be.

This logic doesn't work because it requires faith in practice and we want to dig in and do things ourselves. Waiting on God is so passive, after all, when we can just dig in with our own tools and talents which may work with small problems but rarely with the problems that matter.

My hope is that your ministry will continue to move others through the work of the Holy Spirit for His purpose, and that it will be disruptive to Satan's plans for our destruction. The book "23 Minutes in Hell" tells the story of a man who says he went to hell, where he was in a dark cell carved in the side of a seemingly endless pit kept company by a demon with pure malevolence, who wanted only his eternal suffering. Do we believe science which maintains these images and experiences are the result of neurons firing and memories changing, or do we allow for the idea that we may not know what we don't know and would do well to have some appreciation or even healthy fear of our imperfect knowledge and turn to Christ our Savior and His Gospel. After all, it's not a weakness to be a lamb in need of a Shepherd, if in fact you are a lamb in need of a Shepherd.

In Christ,

Jim

Thanks Jim

What Ferguson Exposed

Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of antichrist, of which you heard that it was coming, and now it is in the world already. 1John 4:1-3


Mockers inflame a city, but the wise turn away anger. Prov. 29:8

In the aftermath of the Ferguson, MO riots, there have been many voices crying out to be heard. Some of them have been civil and level-headed; others fueled by fiery hatred. Some have been subtle and smooth, but dead wrong in their focus, and destructive of purpose. It's alarming how bereft of common sense many of these loud voices have been—how militantly blind to the facts and how quick to covertly or overtly justify lawlessness. Vicious statements like “Burn this b___ down!” [Michael Brown's step-father], and “We'll tear this g-- d--- country down!” [Farrakhan] are coming from a place in the soul that is contrary to all that is good in humanity.

We can see that there are many spirits that have been loosed in the world that are contrary to the peace-engendering love and wisdom of Jesus Christ. Many blanch at the mention of His name. An atheist group has posted billboards with a picture of a young girl writing a letter, obviously to Santa: “Dear Santa, All I want for Christmas is not to have to go to church.” An atheist spokesman for the group says the purpose was to help atheists or unbelievers to not “feel alienated”. The message sounds less like an encouragement to unbelievers than a slap in the face of the church---the church whose pope is currently in Turkey trying to garner support from the Muslim community in the work of condemning the Islamic State atrocities. The church that has spawned organizations like Samaritan's Purse, Voice of the Martyrs, the Baptist Disaster Relief, and thousands of other ministries to the sick, needy and poor. Perhaps these atheists could better serve humanity by organizing such ministries rather than attacking the church.

It has never been clearer to me that the Christian Faith---Christ Himself---is the answer to the problems of the world. And it is alarming to see how many loud voices there are in our country that are pulling society in the opposite direction of His Truth. It seems incredibly foolish—suicidal---to try to tear down this country or the Faith that has clearly been its foundation. It is an act of spiritual blindness and pure selfishness to release oneself into lawless behavior, rationalized by the false perception that the judicial system has failed. It seems evident that the energy of this anarchy was already smoldering underground, awaiting a trigger [and it was a hairline trigger] to be released. Militant blindness—the refusal to see the truth—is the essence of evil. Jesus said “I am the Truth...” Without the discernment of the Holy Spirit one cannot see the truth. Children who've not been given access to the Bible become fallow ground in which any wayward seed of deception may take root. Like zombies going after noise, spiritually blind people will follow any loud voice speaking with enough passion, no matter how far from the truth it may lead them. This is true because the human soul was created with the need for a purpose beyond itself. And if Christ does not fulfill that soul with His Love, Satan will fill it with hatred and misguided deception. Communism, Nazism, and radical Islam are all stark examples of what can grow in the fallow ground of unbelief in Christ as the Messiah. An honest objective study of what has grown in the fertile ground of the Christian Faith reveals immense good for the human family, including safety for and ministries to those who do not believe. [As long as that unbelief is not aggressively destructive of the Christian Faith, as in the case of the Crusades. Christianity has the right to protect itself from violent eradication.] If it were possible for the spiritually blind to see, they would realize that the Christian Faith is the only truly safe sanctuary for the human soul and spirit. All else becomes a struggle for power and control---something Christ possessed, but laid aside, becoming a servant of humanity and an example for His followers.

Spiritual blindness destroys all that is good in a society. There are no levels of education, political correctness, or military power that can compensate for spiritual blindness or prevent it from eroding a nation. It is suicidal to work against faith in Christ.

Delusion of Division

There is no "us" and "them".  There is only us.




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Resting in Christ

Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am meek and lowly of heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden is light.                                      Jesus, Matthew 11:28-30
So then there remains a sabbath rest for the people of God.     Hebrews 4:9


Jesus promises us rest for our souls.  This promise is not intended only for the rest that comes after we pass from this earth; it is for our earthly life. The writer of Hebrews warns us that we can miss this rest through "the same sort of disobedience" that caused the Israelites to fall short of the Promised Land, which was their lack of faith [Heb. 4:1,11 ].
What does this rest mean? How is it attained?
Soul rest is deeper and more restorative than body rest. One can get rest for his body and still be weary of soul. Some people have deep roots of anxiety that penetrate into the unconscious and emerge, for example, as disquieting dreams that keep them from resting properly. Jesus' Love and Truth penetrate into that depth with healing and rest. The labor and heavy laden-ness that Jesus spoke of refer to striving in the flesh for rewards that never come, or else they briefly appear, and evaporate, leaving us hungry or empty. God compares this type of work to trying to hold or gather water in a "broken cistern". [Jer.2:13 ] I read somewhere that one could spend his whole life strenuously climbing a ladder, only to discover that it is leaning against the wrong wall. Not all mans' efforts are worthy and productive in the final analysis. This should give us pause. And while we are pausing, we should consider Christ's words: "I will give you rest."
This rest is not rest from responsibility. Jesus was and is responsible; and so should we be.  It is rest from the dreariness and dread of responsibility--into the joy of responsibility. In Christ we desire to do good in the world, as He did infinite good for the human family. We realize there is no better way to live than to be doing the good works for which we were created. [Eph.2:10]. 
This rest is not freedom from tribulations; Jesus told us we would have them as long as we live on this earth. It is rest from worrying about tribulations, fearing them, or wasting energy trying to avoid them or get to the imaginary place where they do not exist. It is the freedom that comes in knowing none of our tribulations will destroy us--that Christ will sustain us through all of them, and that all of them are being allowed by the God who loves us more than we love our children--the God who created us with this love for our children.
This rest is a by-product of a growing faith in God that penetrates ever more deeply into the core of our psyche. In that core, because of the Fall, we have been infiltrated with worry, anxiety, doubt and fear; misguided striving for fulfillment that can only be obtained though faith. Because we have suffered hurts and losses, we are braced up against possible future re-occurrences of hurt and loss. In our spiritual blindness we fail to realize that being braced up against them does not prevent them from happening; it only drains us of precious life-energy uselessly, and prevents us from being at peace in the present moments of our life.  Jesus delivers us from this wasteful expenditure of life-energy, and frees us to rest in every moment. His Spirit penetrates our soul, cleansing us from the delusions that resulted from the Fall, cleansing and healing and liberating those enslaved parts of our personality, bringing Light into the darkness that we did not even know was within us. He awakens us from our zombie-like existence into "abundant life", "peace" and "joy"--all according to His spoken promises. For most of us, these are merely words or concepts. Jesus means for them to be inner, felt experiences.  And this gets to the warning in Hebrews Ch. 4--How can we fail to attain this rest?
By stopping short of the Promised Land.  By failing to have the Faith that penetrates deeply into the core of the soul.  By half-believing, or sort of believing, but not pushing deeply into the possibility that Jesus really did arise from the grave!  That we really are here because of  Love that transcends all human love--the Love that created and infuses all human love!  That we really are in the hands of a loving Creator Who is not holding anything against us except what we deny.  That flowers, birds, butterflies, sunrises and sunsets, manhood and womanhood, all beauty, the fact that we can recognize truth and deception, good and evil, the night sky, the feelings that we have for our children, the fact that we have feelings at all, the magnificent nurturing earth--that all these and so much more are not lying to us!
You can get lost in this world! All of us are, and have been to some degree. And to whatever degree we are lost in the world, we are blind to the Truth that sets us free from the murky, enslaving, parasitical, deceptive, mind-numbing manifestations of evil that cause us to fall in the desert, before reaching the Promised Rest for our Souls. Our only hope is Jesus! He is our Guide and Friend. He loves all of us, and He has overcome the world, as He stated. If we do not keep our eyes on Him and our heart open to Him, we can drift in a thousand deadly directions. We don't have a compass, and we will not even know that we are drifting and lost.  In Him we are delivered from every aspect of evil--all of it!  And the fear of it! In Him is only love for God and love for man [Mt. 22:37-40. This is the "yoke" He spoke of.]. In Him is eternal peace. In Him is the deepest and securest foundation of confidence that we have found the True Way of Life. In Him we become safe for ourselves, safe for others, and safe from the world. [But those in the world who fear the Truth see us as a threat. They are offended by us, as they were by Him, though neither He nor we have any desire to be offensive or threatening.] We are not deterred by the difficulties of life nor the opinions of man. They change nothing about us or what Christ is shaping us to be. We are free. We rest in His eternal, overcoming Love.

Thoughts on Freedom

THOUGHTS ABOUT FREEDOM

We cannot set people free. They can only set themselves free – one individual at a time. We can make space in a political system for freedom to grow, in the same way that we can clear land and plant a seed; but we cannot make it grow. Freedom – the spirit of freedom – can be caught, recognized, celebrated, discovered, protected, cultivated, offered; and it can be ignored, thrown away, lost, feared, hated, envied, and oppressed.

Democracy only works in a spiritually mature population. If government is “by” the people, then the people have to be mature enough to work for the common good rather than selfishly accumulate power and wealth. Education is not enough to insure the survival of a democracy; spiritual maturity is an absolute necessity. Sociopaths can be very intelligent and have many degrees. [But perhaps even sociopaths can be converted!]

In America we have a great opportunity to grow beyond the never-ending desire for more, bigger and better “stuff”. We have a great opportunity to overcome our addictions to pleasure, entertainment, “rights” and comfort. We will enjoy our “stuff” and our pleasures so much more if we are not addicted to them – if we are sharing ourselves compassionately with others in the human family [which Martin Luther King, Jr. called, the “beloved community”]. We have perhaps the greatest opportunity in history to rise above our lower selves, embrace our “shadow” without being determined by it, confess our sins and receive forgiveness, be empowered by the Holy Spirit, follow in the Way of Christ, receive the best gifts from all religions, traditions and denominations. We have the great opportunity to become very sincere in our efforts to move beyond preoccupation with the material world, while working peacefully and thankfully to make it better for the next generation and for ourselves. In short, we now have the great opportunity to move into the next level of inner freedom, understanding and compassion. The Truth that we need is all around us, but if we do not stop, be still, listen, pray, meditate, seek; we will miss it. We will miss the Main Thing. Jesus said it this way: “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all the other things will be added to you.” [Mt.6:33]

Why I Am A Christian

I watched a PBS special on the Navy Seals. I was deeply inspired by the level of determination in men who want to be part of a team that is considered the very best of the best; and execute their gifts in the arena of warfare--real bullets and real bombs. Inspirational also is the depth of "brotherhood" that is forged in the crucible of lethal combat and dangerous missions. The fact that men and women voluntarily give their lives for certain principles and ways of life should give us serious pause. Like Private Ryan, we should ask ourselves, "Am I a good person?"  Am I worthy of what has been sacrificed for my freedom and prosperity?  Am I contributing in some way to what has been bequeathed to me in the bloody fields of battle? Or am I simply a user, feeling entitled to what I have and deprived because I don't have more?...complaining that the government isn't doing more for me.
At the spiritual level [and I doubt there is, in the final analysis, any other level] Christ's life poses the same questions to us.  What are we doing with the freedom He has purchased for us? I fear that our cultural decline, secular drifting, and spiritual torpor are answering the question progressively in the negative. I fear that we may decline to the point at which spiritually awakened men will not be willing to give their lives for the way that we are spending the freedom they would die for. If America ceases to be a good nation, how can we expect good men to die for it? How can we expect parents to send their sons and daughters into battles being fought so that Americans can continue to be fat, selfish, mean, lazy and greedy? When soldiers come home from war, bearing the memories of good, brave, disciplined brothers who've died beside them on the battlefield, what will they discover in this nation that was worthy of that brother's death? We who have not stood in the field of battle must fight the spiritual battles within ourselves and in our culture to insure that those who put their lives on the line can be convinced that they are fighting for a worthy cause.
One of the SEALs stated, "When I'm out there, in it [firefight], I'm not doing it for God and country. I'm doing it for the man on my right and left. I'm doing it so they can come home alive."
As worthy a cause as that seems to be, I don't think it can sustain soldiers for the long haul. I think they are going to need something beyond their brothers-in-battle to fight and die for. Otherwise, sooner or later, it begins to settle in that what their brother died for was not worthy of his death.
We must ask ourselves repeatedly, collectively and individually, "What is it that makes America worth dying for?"  Is it simply freedom?  Freedom to do what?  Whatever we feel like doing, and in any way that we feel like doing it? What are the standards and principles by which that freedom must be structured in order to move ahead into what humans really need? Our Founding Fathers seemed to believe that religion would provide that structure and guidance. Can we trust that, without that guidance, our feelings and having the broadest possible spectrum of choices will lead us toward true prosperity? Can we trust that we will be able to make and enforce enough laws to constrain the baser drives of the human heart? Do we trust humans [based on what we see every day in our world, including grave mistakes being made by good men] unfettered by sincere religious constraints, to lead us toward a better existence? One thing we know for sure: our Founding Fathers did not.


I am so thankful for the Christian Faith. To me it seems to be the right medicine for the ails of humanity. The teachings of Christ are the purest form of Truth available on this planet, a fact that is clear to anyone who seriously contemplates them. If we ignore these teachings and His Spirit, we are left floundering in whatever is blowing around in the vast darkness of the human heart--whoever yells the loudest or attains the most power. And if His teachings are true, we will have hell to pay for it--the kind of hell we have seen repeatedly in the atheistic and misguided currents of human history.