An Open Letter to the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church

Dear Sir:

I've asked believers in Yeshua (Jesus) the Messiah to ask all the believers that they know to pray for me as I send this letter to you. I'm trusting in God to eventually help this letter find its way to you.

I ask you to please consider what I say to you and prayerfully respond from your heart?

I am not going to appeal to you on what the Bible says because I know you believe the Bible and also extra-"cathedra" revelations as well. Sir, I am going to appeal to you only on what I believe is the Heart of Yeshua, the Only True God who left Heaven and lived in the flesh for a few (33 or so) years on this earth and came to show us "the Father" (i.e., what God really was like) and who died for the sins of all humans of all time on a cruel Roman Cross and was buried and rose from the dead, having promised his Spirit to all believers once He returned (ascended) back to Heaven.

The Heart of Yeshua is God. God's Heart and God's Kingdom is NOT of this World. He left all disciples with but one new commandment: To love as He loved and then the world would really know we are all Disciples of Yeshua.

The Church you head as Pope is not Yeshua's "called out ones". There is no earthly "man-made" or "woman-made" Church that Yeshua knows anything about. His Heart says you may call me "Lord, Lord and do many religious acts and on that Day I will say I never knew you."

There are so many good people who believe in you, sir and who look to you for guidance as do the followers of other religious leaders of all other human made "Churches" or organizations.

Yeshua lived on this earth as a Jew and died as He said He would and that after He "was lifted up" all humans would be drawn to Him.

No human organization can save anyone. No human act of kindness can save anyone. We all are sinners (law-breakers) and deserve death. Only by Yeshua's grace can we be saved by faith in Yeshua who died for us to show us what love is really like. It's about dying to self and crawling up on the Cross of the Messiah and giving our all to Him.

So, I'm asking you to die. I'm asking you to die to what you must know in your heart is a human organization which you head as the Pope of the Roman Catholic Church. And I ask this not only of you, but also all men or women who are the religious leaders of their Churches--be the protestant, catholic or Jew, Muslim, or any other human organization that exists in this world today. I ask you to indicate this by signing this letter.

The religious leaders of Yeshua's day put Him to death because He basically asked them to do the same thing I'm asking you to do. And it is not only I but all the believers in the One True God: Yeshua. They have signed their names below and on January 1, 2011 the very last person who signs this is going to send this document on to you. God will make this happen. In the Name of Yeshua the Messiah I believe this with my heart.

These are the names of women, men, girls and boys who only trust in Jesus/Yeshua. And we confess that we are willing to die for Him just as He died for us. This is the Body of Christ today and if you want to kill us like your religious counter parts did the Body of Yeshua in the first century, then go ahead. We willingly die for Yeshua as He did for us. If this is the only way the Body of Christ can be united then may it be so.

In the Name that is above every name; the Only Name by which one can be saved: Yeshua: God's Salvation. Son of Mary, Son of God: Yeshua is Lord.

Yeshua's Shalom,

1. Donald Curtis McPherson, (July 19, 2010) [Would you Sign and date and send on?]
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An Open Letter to my friends Ray and Kayla

The following responses were to "friends" on Facebook. Both are really my friends: Ray from a long time ago and Kayla a new teen-age friend. Here is Ray's question: So Don, I'm only asking because I don't know. Not trying to argue or be difficult. So many have abused our Lord's name in so many ways. Is YESHUA Greek or Hebrew & where has the name been? Thanks Don

And my response:

It is the Hebrew name given to our Lord by his Parents, Mary and Joseph as instucted by the angel Gabriel. It's been there from the eigth day when he was circumciszed and pronounced: Yeshua, son of Abraham, Son of God. Most messianic Jews call Jesus "Yeshua". Check out Utube under "Yeshua". There are ome great videos and testimonies, etc. Also, there seems to be a false sect out there which calls our Lord "Jeshua" with a "J" which I believe may be Gnostic. I could be wrong.

In the Movie "the Passion of the Christ" which has English subtitles, the Aramaic language is used which is the common Hebrew. Listen as the Messiah is called Yeshua.

It's interesting that a group of believers who professes to be like the original new testament church, was and is so angolizied (including myself) that we have been westernized so much and have turned the followers of the Way into a religious organization who don't know or use the original name of our Savior--which is exactly what Yeshua (which means, God's Savior) said "You call me Lord Lord...and I will say I don't know you". Who are you people, your rules are more important than relationships. And not using his Hebrew name is only one example of the "human rules" that have legalized the Spirit of Yeshua.

I appreciate your interest in this Ray. I have been researching this for some time and have only resently become more vocal in my daily life.

It's like I am unable to keep silent about it. Probably get me kicked out of the Church of Christ, except--oh yeah, I already was.

There are so many believers and God fearers out there who are amazed when I just start talking about Yeshua and not all the religious crap of "organized Christianity" that has so turned them off. The common people "sinners and Republicans"--:) (that's a joke Ray) are as fascinated with Yeshua as they were when he walked on this earth 2100+ years ago.

I belive that Yeshua was there in the beginning with God and Was God and He was as of yet not manifested in the flesh so technically there wasn't the "Father/Son relationship. I think "trinity theology" can sometimes be confusling to us mere mortal, except to Texicans :). God had not "become flesh" ... See Morenor dewelt with us as a human. I believe God is One. Yeshua came to show us what God "looks like" if you will-- in every possible way.

Ray, have you ever read the Shack? Great book, great story and mind expanding, at least it was for me. God's "earth" name, the name the angel told Mary to name her child, his Jewish name was and is Yeshua.

At least I've never heard ignorant people take the name of Yeshua and turn it into a curse word. Probably some have and do, and most "Christians" don't even know it's the original name of the Savior. Like the Church it has been angolosized and westernized and denominasized until it is nothing like the Master "called us out" to be which is simply disciples and followers of the Way/Truth/Life: Yeshua.

May you have Yeshua's Shalom.

And this was Kayla's question: Why don't Jewish people believe Yeshua is the Messiah? :C You'd think they would, seeing as he was Jewish, right? I don't get it. :C

My response: Great question? Many Jewish people do believe in Yeshua. Sometimes these people are known as Messianic Jews. When they proclaim their faith they are often kicked out of their families which is exactly what Yeshua said would happen: " Father against son, mother against daughter..." Check out UTUBE under the name "Yeshua" there are a lot of beutiful songs and videos and also testimonies of Jews who have given their lives to Yeshua. All the original disciples and Paul were Jews and they were greatly persecuted for their faith as our many Jews today.

In closing this blog I'd like to share a few thoughts. I was once a pharisee of pharisees. So I know there is a danger here.

So, why make such a big deal out the name of Jesus? For one it is the only name under heaven by which one can be saved. It is the name we are to confess before others that we believe he is the one who lived and died for us and rose on the third day. I mean it's just a name...

Hardly. It is THE NAME. Maybe we can at least pronounce it correctly, don't you think?

Yeshua saves, I understand that and no we are not saved by his name. Him.

Well we could call God "GAD", it's only a name, right? You decide.

How important is your name to you? It's a new perspective if nothing else.

It is at the name of Yeshua that every knee will one day bow. Heaven declared it, let's use it, after all it is the Name of Names, the Name above every name.

Yeshua's Shalom.

The Name of Names

What is the Proper Name of the Most High?
The "so called unspoken name of God--YHVH" I believe was spoken by Yeshua and he taught his disciples the name which is in reality his name since he and the Father are one. Here's an interesting article.

Did Yeshua (Jesus) teach his disciples how to pronounce the Great Name (YHVH)?
Saturday, 19 April 2008 17:19
"The [Seleucid] Greeks decreed that the name of God may not be spoken aloud; but when the Hasmoneans grew in strength and defeated them they decreed that the name of God be used even in contracts... when the Rabbis heard about this they said, 'Tomorrow this person will pay his debt and the contract will be thrown on a garbage heap' so they forbade its use in contracts." (Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashannah 18b)

Shortly before the initial Jewish Maccabaen revolt (nearly two centuries before Yeshua's life), Antiochus IV Epiphanes made several intensely provoactive anti-Torah decrees, including the ban of all forms of use of the Great Name יהוה (YHVH). Apparently, the rabbis thought it a good idea to continue the ban of Antiochus with their own spin:

"It is forbidden to read the glorious and terrible name as it is written, as the sages said "He that pronounces the name as it is written has no portion in the world to come". Therefore it must be read as if it were written Adonai." (Mishnah Berurah 5:2)

Why did Yeshua have to reveal the Great Name?

Some teachers claim Yeshua (Jesus) never broke the rabbinic ban on pronouncing the Great Name... thus we should follow his example and keep with Jewish Oral tradition NOT to speak the so-called "Ineffable" (unspeakable) Name. But is that really the case? Did he not say the Name? Did he not reveal the Name to his disciples?

John 17:6 “I have revealed [manifested] Your Name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world. They were Yours, and You gave them to Me, and they have guarded Your Word."

John 17:26 “And I have made Your Name known to them, and shall make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me might be in them, and I in them.”

Hebrews 2:12 ...saying, “I shall announce Your Name to My brothers, in the midst of the congregation I shall sing praise to You.” See: Psalms 22:22 and 45:17

Jeremiah 44:26 indicates the Name was removed from Judah's lips... so maybe they (the Jews) did not know how to pronounce It by the time Yeshua arrived... for they were still traditionally prohibited to do so. We can assume they knew the Torah and were familiar with the discourse between Moshe (Moses) and יהוה regarding what His Name was and what It meant in Exodus 3:13-15. So they didn't need him to reveal how it was spelled or its meaning, but the pronunciation had been prohibited for many generations. Traditionally, It is believed that only the High Priest would say the Name ten times on Yom Kippur and the Name would be heard all the way to Jericho (Yoma 39a-b).

Translation Controversy: "Revealed" or "Manifested"?

John 17:6 uses the Greek word "phaneroō"where you see "revealed" or "manifested" in English. Strong's #: G5319 description is below:

φανερόω
phaneroō
fan-er-o'-o
From G5318; to render apparent (literally or figuratively): - appear, manifestly declare, (make) manifest (forth), shew (self).

In modern English usage, the nuances of "revealed" and "manifested" are different, but a single Greek word is used. Every English speaker will generally prefer one word over another depending on their already strongly held view regarding what Yeshua did. Did he reveal the Name in power AND pronunciation or did he just manifest it in some figurative and yet powerful way without ever saying the Great Name out loud? Why would the Anointed of the Most High submit to the rulings of a pagan Greek king or his Jewish collaborators?

If you read Psalms 22 and 45 (passages Yeshua was apparently quoting), you see how frequent King David used the Great Name in writing, but did he actually say It out loud? My question is, why wouldn't he have said the Great Name out loud if he was speaking It respectively and with good purpose as instructed by the Torah? We have no reason to believe that Jews would not have said the Name until we come to the time of the Babylonian Captivity where Jeremiah (as already shown above) indicates the Name would be removed from the mouths of the men of Judah. If the Jews weren't saying It, why would יהוה prophesy though Jeremiah that It would be removed?

More significant evidence

The following are a few places Yeshua "likely" said the Great Name out loud. We cannot know for sure since He did not speak in Greek to the common people in Judah and Samaria, yet the Greek is exclusively what we have as the underlying known manuscript. We do know that the LXX (the Greek translation of the Tanakh/Old Testament) frequently translates "YHVH Elohim" as "Kurios Theos", which is almost always shown to us in English translation as "the LORD thy God".

Matthew 4:7 Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord [Kurios] thy God [Theos]. (Quoting Deut.6:16)

Luke 4:8 And Jesus answered and said unto him, Get thee behind me, Satan: for it is written, Thou shalt worship the Lord [Kurios] thy God [Theos], and him only shalt thou serve. (Quoting from the Shema: Deut. 6:13)
What about the Apostle Paul?

Romans 14:11 For it is written, As I live, saith the Lord [Kurios], every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God [Theos]. (Quoting Isaiah 45:23)
Of course, we can believe that when Paul spoke to a live audience, he inserted "Ha-Shem" when he quoted Tanak passages which included the Name, but that may never be known for sure... and is conjecture no matter one's point of view. To really prove the argument in regards to Paul, we need to have a live recording, but of course we don't. We only have the assumption that Paul began obeying the Written Torah above rabbinic bans or he didn't.

Until some time in the future, we may not have the silver bullet of proof that Paul or Yeshua spoke the Great Name out loud. People can of course claim that we have no proof that anyone spoke the Great Name in antiquity (minus the High Priest), but my question then is this: Why would the Seleucid Greeks demand the Great Name not to be spoken if it was already not spoken?

In the Shema passage of Deuteronomy 6, all of the Assembly of Israel is commanded to listen and then do the commands of the Torah. If they didn't all have individual Torah scrolls of their own to read, then they must have heard the Torah read to them out loud (we know this was the case), thus someone must have been speaking the Torah and thus the Great Name (which is found nearly 7,000 times) must have been said and heard in their ears. We see NO WRITTEN passage in the Torah demanding that the Name NOT be spoken until much later when Greeks and Jeiwish rabbis ban It.

Basically, it comes down to this: Who, which Master, are we going to listen to? Are we going to listen to the traditions and innovations of men (Matthew 15:9; Isaiah 29:13) or are we going to listen to the Eternal All Existing One, the Great One of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? It is our choice. Choose this day who you will serve! (Joshua 24:15)

So,what are your thoughts on this?

Side note: Do you know what your name means?

Yeshua is Peace

An open letter to my Wiccan friend:


Like I said religion is man-made. Most if not all religions make rules in the of their god. Yeshua is spirit and any war which is fought in the name of Yeshua is a spiritual one. Yeshua is no about flesh and blood or a man centered book. His kingdom is not of this world. This world killed the prophets and the son and kills the followers of Light & The Way. God has no name because s/he/it is spirit.

I do believe what I call the god took on the form of a human for about 40 years and showed those who want to see the essence of what god really is. This being is who I call Yeshua whose name means Ya (god) is salvation. No physical war was ever fought in the name of Yeshua. He/She/It is Peace and Mercy and Grace.

Yeshua is Shalom!

His Peace be with you.

Yeshua is the Way--an epistle to my cousin Ted

I'll answer your question if you answer mine:

Can u perceive all things?

I do not believe in any religion or system of beliefs. Be it Muslim, Judism or Christianity.

I believe a Jewish carpenter was and is Messiah--was killed for my sins and rose from the grave three days later. His name is Yeshua. I believe in one God who is my Life.

I do not believe in any system of religion--religion did not die on that cross for you or me--Jesus did. Ted, all the rest is either human led or Spirit led. The Way is all those who truly believe in the Life and He/she/It is the Truth.

I am a follower of the Way.

Christinity is no where in the Bible.

If you knew the scriptures you would know Who Jesus really is becuz cuz from Genius to Malichi they speak of Him.

God help us to follow The Light of Life and be connected only to Yeshua.

Pray for me as I do you, would you please?

The Word for the Day

FORGIVEN.

The Passing of the Stones Will Be Well Remembered (And I'm not talking about Mick & Keith)

Sunday week ago I had a familiar pain in my back that had "kidney stone" written all over it. I thought it passed. Then Wednesday morning on the way to work I went to the "walk in" after dropping off the mail. The doc said he had had 14 such passings which made this fourth stone of mine seem rather insignificant and small. I got drugs and a Cat-scan and got scheduled to have them--yes two, one on each side--removed on Monday. Thus began the weekend from Hell.

On Saturday pain on a scale of 10 hit again and I started drinking water like crazy and got out my "stash" of oxicondone that I keep for just such emergencies. The pain increased and so I asked Carolyn to take me to the ER. They gave me the really good stuff, morphine and Aretha and I were singing “R E S P E C T” in the car going home-after a stop over in Appleton for even more pain killers at the all night pharmacy.

My songs turned to a dirge by Sunday night because my whole system, front and back, was blocked. Seems narcotics have an interesting side effect which is in the very, very small print of the information which pharmacists give us with the meds. They "may" produce the worse case of constipation ever felt or endured by humankind. So another request to my lovely wife to take me back to the ER. (These people now know us by first names.) My insides were screaming as loudly as the little baby who was hurting as much, if not more, than I.

So they decided which blockage to attack first. A foley catheter was inserted by a male nurse who told me male nurses still make up only about ten percent of the nursing profession. In the past these tubes were inserted while I was knocked out and for a very good reason. This relieved the first blockage quickly. The next jam up was penetrated by another tube which carried suppository. This was a female nurse who had to first ask me for the "umpteenth" time what allergies and medical conditions I have. I said, "Hypertension, kidney stones and endometriosis". She quickly said I doubt if you had that. No, I said, that was Carolyn who was rolling on the ER floor. (I had meant to say diverticulotis--hey I was hurting and for all I cared they could remove whatever was left of my man-hood. Well, even after knowing what its like to be in prison, this took much longer to pass. I had even passed a particle of stone that did not hurt as much as sending three days worth of hard stool through my hemorrhoids. And finally relief. (There's a rumor that it took three aids to remove the pot from the room--well that's the only part of this story which isn't true.)

After Monday finally arrived, my lovely and very tired wife drove me to St. E’s Hospital in Appleton because our insurance only covers the Neenah hospital if it's an "emergency". Finally after five days the time had come for the removal of the stones which would soon be snagged out of my urethra with a little help of the urologist named Fisher...no lie. He scooped, lazared and netted them puppies or guppies. I awoke in recovery were my mouth felt like wool. Later they gave me toast with peanut butter which was drier than the Sierra. I awoke stone less but not stint-less, and still retaining the mother of all these little ones that still lives in my left kidney. Can't wait till that mother passes. Soon my wife, daughter and best friend arrived to watch me gag on the toast and tell me how good I looked and ask me how I felt...feeling lighter and Carolyn took me and my foley home. Services for the stones will be held Sunday as they rest in pieces.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of ups and downs emotionally, physically and "comod-ically". I was suppose to wait till Thursday but Wednesday night the foley had to go so I deflated the balloon and pulled and am finally free. Whoever said freedom doesn't come without pain was right. For now. Seven more days and the stints come out. I can wait.

So, why remember all this? Partly for me but hopefully some of this may help my friends and neighbors who endure similar adventures on their journey. And mainly because when the Rolling Stones are no more making their music (some believe Mick will never die) they will be long and well remembered for what they left behind. And like all hurts and loses, their story needs to be told and retold. To some they were a joke and from them they 'can't get no satisfaction'; to others they were 'mother's little helpers' and to me they will always be the essence of 'you can't always get what you want'.

More important is your life journey--remembered, retold, relived with all its joys, warts, stones and all. ‘Cause baby 'you can always get what you need' if you seek it. Keep on asking and searching. Just keep knock, knock, knocking; it may be right under the next stone.***

http://www.lifeconnectionsinc.com


***May I suggest the "rolled away" one?

"I Like Women"

What is amazing to me that it has taken me 63 years to figure out that I really like women. I was taught to lust at, leer at, jeer at, sneer at, joke at and completely objectify girls and women. In my patriarchal up-bringing women were to be ruled, used and abused. Except for mom and sisters, who of course are in some strange mystical way not really viewed as women.

Some call it a love-hate relationship most men have toward women. Here's what Sam Keen wrote decades ago:
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MAN’S UNCONSCIOUS BONDAGE TO WOMAN

Cliché and common wisdom tell us that “it’s a man’s world.” In the accepted mythology of our time, men are independent and women dependent; men dominate and women yield; men make history and women provide emotional support. Folklore, lately expanded into a cottage industry of books about the uncommitted male, has it that men are phobic about intimacy, are tongue tied about emotions, and generally keep an antiseptic distance between themselves and females of their species. At best, or so the complaint goes, we end up committing ourselves because we want a secure sexual connection. Otherwise we follow George Washington’s advice and avoid entangling alliances. Real men don’t depend on women. We stand tall and alone. In locker rooms all across America, boys who are just beginning to sprout pubic hair learn the ancient adolescent litany of the five F’s that prescribes the proper relationship with women: Find ‘em, fool ‘em, feel ‘em, f... ‘em and forget ‘em. The average man spends a lifetime denying, defending against, trying to control, and reacting to the power of WOMAN. We have invested so much of our identity, committed so much of our energy, and squandered so much of our power trying to control, avoid, conquer, or demean women because we are so vulnerable to their mysterious power over us.

Adapted from Keen, S. Fire in the belly: On being a man. New York, Bantam Books.
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So what's this all about--really? And despite some of Sam Keen's interesting insights, I really don't think we need to blame "women's mysterious power over us". It really seems to me to be more about us not being afraid to be men or for us as men not being afraid of women being women. And being honest about what's really going on (even if we don't know). It's not really rocket science my fellow male friends. My guess is that women have known it for years, maybe from the very beginning. Us men just are not all that complicated. And we really need to listen, really listen to what women have been trying to tell us for years. For one thing: grow up!

Men come into the world like all children do, with an X and a Y sex chromosome and are socialized to think with the organ between our legs-- which has veto power over the organ between our ears--our brains. Females come into the world with 2 X sex-chromosomes and have been socialized to think with the organ behind their breasts (their hearts)--which has veto power over the organ between their ears. Certainly this is a super over simplified analogy--because remember, being a man, I'm not all that complicated. And men we aren't stupid. Unaware certainly, but not stupid.

And please guys, I'm really trying my best not to "MAN-BASH". (I don't believe in bashing men, women, children or Republicans :). It's ironic that the male sex chromosomes determine the gender of the beautiful being brought into the world known as "child". Also as ironic, is that population speaking, men are the minority. And if this really was a democratic republic--where majority rules--it could be us men who were oppressed, ignored, dominated, controlled and "put in their place" by women. Imagine that John Lennon, "Imagine" that.

I say "could be", yet I would hope that no one would be oppressed because of their gender, orientation, age, belief, race, religion, income or political affiliation.

So, all that was said as an introduction to why "I Like Women" and here are some of the reasons why:

I LIKE WOMEN BECAUSE---

1. Women are people.

2. Women are intelligent people.

3. Women are intelligent, beautiful people who are amazingly complex.

4 Women are intelligent, beautiful people who are amazingly complex and know how to have fun.

5. Women are intelligent, beautiful people who are amazingly complex and know how to have fun without hurting...

6. Women are intelligent, beautiful people wha are amazingly complex and know how to have fun without hurting; and women are made in the very image of GOD as are men.

7. Women are intelligent, beautiful people who are amazingly complex and know how to have fun without hurting; and women are made in the very image of God as are men and we both can become ONE with GOD's Heart and ours.

" To be continued" (My plan is to take these and expand on each one.)

Top Ten Things the Easter Bunny Doesn't Like

What a great time of year. New life, new flowers, warm sunshine, and the Easter Bunny. One of Carolyn's day-care children's favorite friend is a stuffed bunny she calls "HOP HOP". Today she declared that Hop Hop does not like chipmunks. It just got me thinking, which is usually
a good thing: what else might Hop Hop or the Easter Bunny not like? Well here's my--

Top Ten Things the Easter Bunny Doesn't Like

# 10. Elmer Fudd
# 9. Moth Balls
# 8. Dogs
# 7. Fake or plastic eggs
# 6. Rabbit Stew
# 5. Falling down deep holes--
# 4. Alice falling down deep holes on top of it.
# 3. Hiding all those eggs.
# 2. Getting popped on the head.

And the number one thing that Hop Hop or the Easter Bunny doesn't like.

# 1. Getting more attention than Jesus on Easter Sunday.

Have a great NEW LIFE. It's what Resurrection Sunday is all about.

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HURTS THAT HURT OUR HEARTS

We were talking in our "searchers group" last night about what the Bible may mean when it talks about "hardening of the heart". Pharaoh of Moses' day seemed to have that condition. Even "the twelve disciples" of Jesus had it. I don't know for sure what all that it may mean. I can speak to when my heart is hard. It's like an emotional or psychological blockage. And either somethings not getting through or not getting out of my "heart" (mind) or possibly both. It's blocked, stuck, "un-soft"-- if there is such a word. If not, I just invented it.

My father-in-law had easily over 25 angioplasty procedures done during his life. Here's a discription of what happens during one of these procedures:

Blocked coronary arteries, which supply the heart muscle with nutrients and oxygen, can be repaired with bypass surgery or a balloon procedure called angioplasty. A thin flexible catheter with a balloon at the tip is threaded through an artery (usually in the groin) to the heart and clogged artery. The balloon is then inflated to open up the artery. A thin wire mesh stent is often used to help keep it open, even after the balloon is deflated. Some stents contain drugs to help keep the artery open.

What could be causing the blockage to your heart and causing it to be hard?

I cannot do much better than an 1850 sermon that addresses this "spiritual issue"

HARDENING THE HEART

A Sermon

DELIVERED ON SUNDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 1, 1850,

BY THE REV. C. G. FINNEY

(OF OBERLIN COLLEGE, UNITED STATES.)

AT THE TABERNACLE, MOORFIELDS, LONDON.



"Again, he limiteth a certain day, saying in David, To-day, after so long a time; as it is said, To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." --Heb. iv. 7.


This reference to David relates to the ninety-fifth Psalm, from which these words were quoted. The apostle was addressing the Israelites, and, in this connexion, was speaking to them of the manner in which their forefathers tempted God in the wilderness, the result of which was that they were not suffered to enter into the promised land. In warning the Israelites against unbelief, he says to them, "To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts."

I. I SHALL INQUIRE INTO THE MEANING OF THE WORD "HEART," AS HERE USED.

This term, like many others in the Bible, and in common language, is employed in a variety of senses. Here, however, it manifestly means the "will." To harden the heart, in the sense in which the phrase is here understood, is doubtless to gather up the energies of the will, and to resist, to become stubborn, and obstinate. When the Bible commands or exhorts people not to harden their hearts, it is equivalent to saying, "Do not resist and strengthen yourselves against the voice of God. Do not become stubborn and rebellious, and set yourselves against the voice of mercy; but to-day, after so long a time, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." That is, if you are inclined to listen to what he says, you are not to harden your hearts and become stubborn.

Parents sometimes have the mortification of seeing their own children become stubborn against parental authority, and of seeing their requirements resisted, and their counsels set at nought. Parents often see children, when they undertake to press them to do anything, instead of obeying, wax stubborn and rebellious. They stand and resist, and manifest a cool determination to persevere in their disobedience; to persist in resisting the claims of their parents; and, so far as the philosophy of the act is concerned, resistance to God is just the same. The mental process is precisely similar. The mind resisting truth "is hardening the heart," in the sense of the text. I shall next inquire--

II. HOW IS IT THAT SINNERS DO HARDEN THEIR HEARTS?

How do they do this? And here let me say, that when individuals resist the truth--when they resist its authority when it is presented to them--they have to make some apology for their conduct. The natural tendency of the truth, when it is presented to the mind, is to convince it--to beget a choice--to lead the individual to yield himself up to its influence. The mind and truth sustain such relations to each other, that the former is naturally and necessarily influenced by the latter; and, unless the individual resist the truth, its natural tendency is, as I have said, to lead the will into a state of obedience to it.

When persons harden their hearts, there must be some reason for their doing so. Take the case of the Jews,--the apostle called on them not to harden their hearts. He knew they were in danger in doing so. He knew their prejudices of education, their Jewish notions, and peculiar views of things. He knew the course they had taken with Christ previous to his crucifixion, and now he had been crucified, had risen from the dead, and was proclaimed to the world as a risen Saviour--he was writing this epistle to the Jews, and therefore reverts to a passage of their former national history. He calls their particular attention to it; and, when he had strongly fixed their minds upon the course their fathers pursued, and its results--knowing well to whom he was addressing himself, being well versed, as I have said, in the prejudices against Christ--knowing their self-righteous spirit, and that they were prepared to resist Christ--knowing all these things, he warns them solemnly not to harden their hearts. It is easy to see that they could assign themselves multitudes of reasons for resistance. He knew that they were in error--and in great error--on the subject of religion, and therefore he called on them not to harden themselves--not to betake themselves to their prejudices--not to fly to their Jewish errors and peculiar notions, and to strengthen themselves in opposition to the truth.

This leads me to say that persons are very much in danger of hardening themselves, by holding fast to some erroneous opinion or improper practice to which they are committed. All their prejudices are in favour of it, and they are very jealous lest anything should disturb it. They hold on to some particular error, and whenever they are pressed to yield to the claims of God, unless it is done in a peculiar way, so as to be consistent with their prejudices, they are apt to rise up and strengthen themselves against it. What danger such persons are in of assigning to themselves, as a reason for resisting the truth, that it clashes with some of their favorite notions! When they see its practical results contradict some pet theory of theirs, they will strengthen themselves against it.

I recollect an instance of this kind. One evening, in the city of New York, I found among the inquirers a very anxious lady, who was exceedingly convicted of her sins, and pressed her strongly to submit to God. "Ah," she said, "if I were sure I am in the right church, I would." "The right church!" said I, "I care not what church you are in, if you will only submit yourself to Christ." "But," she replied, "I am not in the Catholic Church, I am not in the right church; if I were, I would yield." So that her anxiety about the "right church" prevented her yielding at all, and she continued to harden her heart against Christ. This is often the case whether persons are Catholics, or whatever they are; when pressed strongly to submit, they flee to some prejudice, and immediately hide themselves behind it; and although they cannot deny the truth of what they resist, still there is some error or prejudice to which they betake themselves by way of present resistance to the truth that is pressing their consciences.

Others harden themselves by indulging in a spirit of procrastination. "I will follow thee," is their language, "but not now." They say, "I intend to be religious," but when God presses them to yield, they are not quite ready. They say, "This is not exactly the time," assigning to themselves some reason for present delay in order to harden themselves. They have something, perhaps, in hand, which must be attended to first. Do let me ask you, now, how many times some of you, when thus pressed to yield at once to Christ, have urged some such reason as this for your delay?

Why are you not Christians? Is it because your attention has never been called to the subject? Is it because you never intend to be Christians? No! Well, what is the matter with you? How is it that you have always succeeded in assigning to yourself a reason for a present delay? One time, you have one reason, at another, another; and you have, in fact, as many reasons as occasions, and they come up whenever you have been pressed immediately to surrender your heart to God. Now, I ask you if this is not true? I ask you if you do not know that it is true, as well as you know that you exist?

I remark again, that many persons strengthen themselves and harden their hearts by refusing, wherever they can refuse, to be convicted of their sins. They have a multitude of ways of avoiding the point, and force away the truth, and hardening themselves against it. Take care, for instance, of the practice of excusing sin. The veriest sinner in the world will make some excuse for what he is doing; and at least it suffices to satisfy himself. It is exceedingly difficult to convince a man against his will; it is remarkable to see how a man will evade conviction. Go to the slaveholder, for instance, and how many excuses he will make! How many things he will conjure up! Sometimes he will even flee to the Bible to defend himself; at other times, he will excuse himself by saying that he knows not what to do with his slaves--that the laws of his State forbid him to emancipate them. You may press him on every point--you may reason with him again and again, but all to no purpose. Men often excuse and defend their sins in this way; and sometimes they actually deny that they are sins at all, when they come to be pressed to give them up; but the apologies they make are such as God will never receive, although they suffice, at present, to delude themselves.

But again: Another way in which men harden themselves is, that they are unwilling to come and do what is implied in becoming Christians. They reason thus within themselves:--"I must give up such and such things, if I become a Christian I must do thus and thus." They consider that they must make a profession of religion, and that, therefore, the eyes of the world will be thenceforth upon them; they see that they must consequently be careful how they conduct themselves. They cannot go to such and such places of amusement; they must discontinue such and such things they have been in the habit of doing, and which are now so dear to them. This is how they reason; they begin to count the cost. But a short time since, I was pressing an individual to yield up certain forms of sin of which I knew him to be guilty. "Ah," said he, "if I begin to yield this and that, where will it all end? I must be consistent," said he, "and where shall I stop?" Where should he "stop?" It was clear that the cost was too great, and that he was therefore disposed to harden himself and resist God's claims, because he considered God required too much. If he were going to become a Christian, he knew that, to do his duty, he must give up sin as sin, and that it would cost him the sacrifice of his many idols. This is a very common practice. If you ask persons, in a general way, they are willing to be Christians; but "what will be expected of them?" Ah! that is quite a different thing! If you tell them what it really is to be a Christian, that is quite another thing. Now you have set them to count the cost, and they find it will involve too great a sacrifice. They are wholly unwilling to renounce themselves and their idols; and accordingly they betake themselves to hardening their hearts, and strengthening themselves in unbelief.

I will cite the case just referred to for a moment. The conversation respected, at that time, a particular form of sin. Now, why did he not yield at once? Why did he not instantly say, "I will give it up. I know it is wrong and inconsistent with love to God, and I will therefore renounce it." But instead of this, he saw that the principle on which he yielded this point would compel him to give up others; and, therefore, he said, "if I begin this, where shall I stop?" He gathered up all the reasons he could, and strengthened himself in his position. Thus he was hardening his heart; this was just what the Jews did when Christ preached.

Thus it is men perceive that it will call upon them to humble themselves before God, and make restitution where they have been fraudulent in their dealings; they see that to become Christians, implies that they undo, as far as it lies in their power, the wrong they may have committed, and become honest men. They see that multitudes of things are implied in listening to the voice of God, and becoming followers of Jesus Christ, and this causes them to surround themselves with considerations to sustain them in their unbelief and resistance to the authority of God. I might mention a great many other particulars under this head; I shall not, however, at present, do so, but in a few words show,

III. WHY MEN SHOULD NOT HARDEN THEIR HEARTS IN THIS WAY.

Perhaps the first thing that I shall notice will startle some of you. It is this; you should not harden your hearts, "because, if you do not do so, you will be converted."

I have already said, that truth is so related to the mind, and the mind to truth, that when the mind perceives truth, with its practical bearing, this relation acts as a powerful impulse to the mind, tending strongly to induce it to yield and conform; it is a natural stimulus to the mind, prompting it to act in a given direction. To be sure, it can be resisted; and it is this resistance that God exhorts you to avoid you are to let the truth take effect.

You recollect, perhaps, some of you, that the apostle says--I believe it is in the Epistle to the Romans--however, in the particular passage to which I was going to refer, God denounces those who restrain the truth, and go on in unrighteousness; that is, those who hold it back, and prevent it from influencing their mind. This is the way the heart is hardened, by refusing to yield to the truth, withholding the mind from going out in obedience to it.

Now observe, beloved, that if the truth is but yielded to, this is conversion itself. Conversion is the act of the mind in turning from error, selfishness, and sin, and yielding to the claims, and obeying the commands of the Almighty. This is conversion.

Now, as I said, the natural tendency of the truth is to stimulate the mind to embrace and obey it. God has so constituted the mind, that, as everybody knows, truth is a most powerful stimulant, which invites and draws the mind in a given direction. Truth induces it to act in conformity with its dictates. Now, to do this, to obey the truth, that is conversion. If you do not obey it, it is because you harden yourself against it, and resist its influences; for it is an utter impossibility to be indifferent to the presentation of truth, and especially is it utterly impossible to maintain a blank indifference to the presentation of the great practical truths of Christianity. They are not mere abstractions, in which the mind sees no practical bearing, but they are realities of such a nature that the mind must either resist them or suffer them to guide it.

The apostle knew that if they did not harden themselves, they must surely be converted.

Another reason why you should not harden your hearts, is, that you will not be converted if you do. In other words, if you resist the Spirit, God never forces you against your will. If he cannot persuade you to embrace the truth, he cannot save you by a physical act of omnipotence, as, for instance, he could create a world. You are a free moral agent, and he can save you only in his own way. In other words, if he cannot gain your own consent to be saved in his own way, he cannot possibly save you at all. If you wish him to save you by moving your will, as I would move this lamp--[Mr. Finney here moved the branch of one of the pulpit lamps to and fro]--I say, if he is to save you as I move this lamp, he will not do it. It is not a physical operation that can make you willing; that is not the way in which the will is controlled. He must have your consent; and when he sends his ministers to reason with you,--when his Spirit strives with you,--he strives to gain your free consent; hence he says, "To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." If conversion were a mere act of the physical omnipotence of God, he would not exhort you not to harden your hearts; for how could you harden your hearts against, and resist a physical almightiness?

Men who have this conception scoff at the idea of the sinner's hardening himself against God. Persons who talk thus, of course, assume, that conversion does consist in an act of omnipotence; they seem unable to comprehend that conversion consists in God's securing your own consent, and that is all. Did you ever consider this, dying sinner? Did you ever reflect on the fact, that all that is necessary, is, to give your consent to be saved? You fancy you are willing; but the fact is, that your obstinacy is the only real difficulty to be overcome--to get you to yield yourself up to God's claims. It is easy for you to see, that if you harden your heart, and surround yourself with prejudices, gather all your energies up to resist,--if you do this, it is easy for you to see that you can only expect to remain unconverted--to live, and die, and perish in your sins! While you harden yourself, it is impossible that you should be converted, for conversion is the very opposite of this resistance--it is the yielding yourself up: [to] the claims of God.

Another reason why you should not harden your hearts, is, that you may be given up! God may give you up to the hardness of your hearts. The Bible shows that this is not uncommon. Whole generations of the Jews were thus given up. You may be, and there is considerable danger; the same God of mercy that now governs the world gave up whole generations in that comparatively dark generation; and if so, what reason have we to suppose that he will not do so with you? God, under the Gospel, is not more merciful than he was under the law--he is the same God. Some think there is not so much danger of this now; but the fact is, there is more, because there is more light. He gives them up because they resist the light of the truth with regard to his claims. I beg of you to consider this.

IV. WE SHALL INQUIRE, WHOSE "VOICE" IS HERE REFERRED TO?

Is it the voice of a tyrant, who comes out with his omnipotent arm to crush you? "If you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts." Whose voice is it? In the first place, it is the voice of God; but, more than this, it is the voice of your Father! But is it the voice of your Father, with the rod of correction pursuing you, to subdue you by force? Oh, no! it is the voice of his mercy--of his deepest compassion. Hear what he says: "Ephraim, my dear son; Ephraim, my pleasant child;" for although he spake against him, yet did he "earnestly remember him still." Like a father who has almost made up his mind to abandon a disobedient and cruel child, whose misconduct he could not endure, and whom he found it impossible to reform. All the father works up in him at the remembrance of that child; the parental heart yearned over him. "I have spoken against him, yet do I earnestly remember him still."

Just so God addresses you. He "earnestly remembers" you. He offers to forgive you. He says, "after so long a time." How long a time? How old are you? How many long years has God waited for you? Just number them up--some of you, perhaps, eighteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty. How many years have you refused to hear the voice of your Father, your Saviour; the voice of mercy, the voice of invitation, the voice of promise, the voice of expostulation, and even of entreaty? By his providence, the work of the Spirit, the words of the inspired volume, the ministrations of his servants--in how many ways has this voice reached you? And now he says, "after so long a time!"

A few further remarks must close what I have to say; and the first remark is this: persons often mistake the true nature of hardness of heart. Supposing it to be involuntary, they lament it as a misfortune, rather than regret it as a crime. They suppose that the state of apathy which results from the resistance of their will, is hardness of heart. It is true that the mind apologises to itself for resistance to the claims of God, and, as a natural consequence, there is very little feeling in the mind, because it is under the necessity of making such a use of its powers as to cause great destitution of feeling. This is hardening the heart--that act of the mind in resisting the claims of God. For persons to excuse themselves by complaining that their hearts are hard, is only to add insult to injury. They resist God's claims, and then complain of the hardness this resistance induces; they harden themselves in the ways we have stated, rendering themselves obstinate against God, and then they complain of the results of their own actions. Now, is this the way?

I remark, once more, it is worthy of notice that the claims, commands, promises, and invitations of God are all in the present tense. Turn to the Bible, and from end to end you will find it is, "To-day" if ye will hear his voice. "Now" is the accepted time. God says nothing of to-morrow; he does not even guarantee that we shall live till then. It is "to-day," after so long a time, harden not your hearts."

Again: The plea of inability is one of the most paltry, abusive, and blasphemous of all. What! Are men not able to refrain from hardening themselves? I have already said, and you all know, that it is the nature of truth to influence the mind when it receives it; and when the Spirit does convert a man, it is by so presenting the truth as to gain his consent. Now, if there was not something in the truth itself adapted to influence the mind, he might continue to present the truth for ever, without your ever being converted. It is because there is an adaptedness in truth--something in the very nature of it, which tends to influence the mind of man. Now, when persons complain of their inability to embrace the truth, what an infinite mistake! God approaches with offers of mercy, and with the cup of salvation in his hand, saying, "Sinner! I am coming! Beware not to harden yourself. Do not cavil. Do not hide behind professors of religion. Do not procrastinate! for I am coming to win you."

Now, what does the sinner do? Why, he falls to hardening his heart, procrastinating, making all manner of excuses, and pleading his inability. Inability! What! Is not a man able to refrain from surrounding himself with considerations which make him stubborn? Is he not able to come from this soul-destroying business of hardening himself? Oh! sinner, you are able; that is not the difficulty.

Once more: I said this is a most abusive way of treating God. Why, just think. Here is God endeavouring to gain the sinner's consent--to what? Not be sent to hell. Oh, no! he is not trying to persuade you so to harden yourself as to consent to lie down in everlasting sorrow. Oh, no! he is not trying to persuade you to do anything, or to consent to anything, that will injure you. Oh, no! he is not trying to persuade you to give up anything that is really good--the relinquishment of which will make you wretched or unhappy--to give up all joy, and everything that is pleasant--to give up things that tend to peace--he is not endeavouring to persuade you to do any such thing as this. With regard to all such things, he is not only willing that you should have them, but would bring you into a state in which you could really enjoy them. He cries out, "Sinner! do thyself no harm!" He is trying to prevent you from injuring yourself, and not endeavouring to play off any game upon you which will interfere with your well-being or happiness; he is trying to prevent your ruining yourselves, and trying to consent to be blessed. Will it hurt you to give up your sins? God sent Christ to turn you away from those courses which, by a natural law, must prove your ruin. What is it, then, that God wishes you to do?

What is that sweet voice which falls so sweetly from heaven? it should melt all stubbornness down. It is the voice of his infinite compassion and love. Oh, sinner, destroy not thine own soul! Flee not from the Saviour who has come to save you! Harden not yourself against the offered mercy; and, now that the cross of salvation is passed around from lip to lip, do not push it away! What are you doing? Is God come to injure you? If he had come in wrath, he would not care whether you hardened your heart or not. O sinner! if you place him in such a relation that his infinite heart is obliged to make the sacrifice, when he enters into judgment, he will not tell you not to harden yourself. Then you may harden yourself if you can. He says, "Can thy heart be strong in the day that I shall deal with thee?" Oh, no! But now it is different. Now he comes and sweetly tries to win you--he comes as a friend, as a father, as a Saviour! spreading out his broad arms of love to embosom you every one, drawing you so near to his great, gushing heart as to thrill its tides of eternal love through all your being. Oh! will you resist? What! "after so long a time!" Oh! sinner, is it not infinitely inexcusable? Shall he fail to get your consent? Then, when you sit before him in solemn judgment, and the universe shall all be gathered together, he will publish the fact of how, after he tried to spread out his broad, beneficent arms of love over you--how, after he tried to gather you under the wings of his protection--but ye would not! He could not gain your consent! What! shall it be told of any of you in the solemn judgment that God could not possibly gain your consent to the only terms on which he could possibly save you? Ah! when he shakes his skirts, as it were, and exclaims, "I am clear of thy blood!" what will you say?

Again, he will have the eternal consolation of knowing that he has taken all the pains to get you to consent that he wisely could take. You will be obliged to say, "The fault was my own, and I have been an infinite fool! I have resisted the claims of Christ, hardened myself against his dying love, and cast away my soul!" Sinners! how many times have you been invited? Can you remember? How many times have you seen the Lord's Table spread? Are you prepared to partake of the elements now about to be spread--the solemn avowal of your attachment to Christ? How many times, I ask again, have you been invited? Have you not had enough of sin? How much more do you want? Let me ask you another question--how much longer would you like to live in your sins? How many years have you already devoted to them? Do you think God ought to allow you to enjoy a little more sin? Suppose he, personally, put the questions, "Do you think I ought to allow you to live any longer in your sins? Do you think I ought to let you live to remain in rebellion any longer!" Suppose he should say, "Unless I fan your heaving lungs in sleep to-night you will be lost. Unless I keep you, you will lie down in hell before the morning. Now, do you think I ought to keep you alive to sin against me another day? Do you think that when you lie down in your sins, I ought to watch over you, and see that you do not die; and that Satan does not steal away your soul, and drag you down to the depths of hell?" Dare you look the Eternal in the face and say, "Yes, Lord." Dare you say, "I think I ought to be indulged a little longer, and not be hurried in this way?" No, indeed! You know you are without excuse. You could only say that you are "infinitely to blame," and you are in infinite danger if you do not to-night cease to sin, and yield yourself up.

[Mr. Finney, after a short prayer, dismissed the congregation, while the church remained to celebrate the Lord's Supper; however, seeing that between three and four hundred persons kept their seats, as "spectators," in the spacious galleries, Mr. Finney, after the administration of the ordinance by the pastor (the Rev. Dr. Campbell), again addressed the assembly.]

Christ has invited you to "do this in remembrance" of him. Whose business is this? Is it your only, or mine only; or is it equally incumbent on both? Did Christ die for you, and not for me? or for me, and not for you? or did he give himself up for us all? Surely it is the duty of all to "do this" for whom Christ died. Did he tell you to "do this," and you have really never done it? How is this? I want to know why you have never done it? Is it because you are not a Christian? Why are you not? When Dr. Campbell (the pastor of the church) announced that the communicants would seat themselves below, while the spectators would retire to the gallery--Spectators! non-communicants!" said I to myself; "who are these non-communicants? Are there, then, those of Adam's race for whom Christ has not died? Are there those who will thus openly acknowledge that they have "[']no part or lot in the matter?'" Suppose, now, that Christ actually had died only for a part of mankind, and you knew that it had no more reference to you non-communicants in the gallery than to the fallen angels! If you knew this, why, of course, I should expect to see you non-communicants; for why should you celebrate his death if his blood was not shed for you? You might then absent yourselves with some reason.

But, if this were the case, how could you sit round that gallery and look on? Now, do take this view of the matter, and consider it for a moment.

But Christ says, "Ho every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters of life--come, buy wine and milk without money and without price,"--"Come unto me and be ye saved all ye ends of the earth." Suppose, then, that the cup were handed round to you--would you say, "Oh! I am not prepared; I am not a Christian?" Why are you not? You shut yourself out by your own consent.

"Not prepared!" You are neglecting Christ, and hardening your hearts against him--that is the reason you are "not prepared."

"Not prepared!" Just think of it! Who is it that requests you to "do this?" It is a friend--a dying friend--a friend dying in your stead. What does he say? He says, "I am just going to offer up my life for you: break this bread, pour out this wine, and partake of them in remembrance of me--partake ye all of it, and when you do so, remember my struggle, my groans, my agony, and death." Will you obey this dying injunction? Why, then, do you thus turn your backs upon it?

Suppose that a mortal should do you a similar favour? Suppose a fellow-creature should bleed and die in your stead, and in the agony of death should take a ring from his finger, and say--"Here, dear friend, take this, wear it, look at it, and as often as you do so, remember me!" How would you regard this love-token presented in the hour of nature's final struggle? Would you throw the ring lightly away? Suppose any one should say--"Give me that ring;" or, "How much will you take for it?" How much would you take for it? why you would sooner part with your heart's blood than lose it; and if they inquired why you so prized it, you would tell them your simple story, and assure them that nothing could induce you to part with it.

Now, think of this! Yet when Christ made an effort to save you from endless death, by suffering himself, how indifferent you are! Was it a mere ring? No! He took bread and brake it, saying, "This is my body which was broken for you;" he took wine and poured out, saying, "This is my blood which was shed for you, do this in remembrance of me." Who is to "do this?" Why, all of you; seeing that for all of you his blood was shed.

But practically you say, "I will not do this," and turn your back on the ordinance. What must angels think, when they see a number of persons for whom Christ died, and to whom he said, "Do this in remembrance of me," but who will not do it? If there can be amazement in heaven, surely this would cause it.

Now, will you ever neglect it again? I recollect an instance of an individual present at a season like this, when the question came up about his long neglect, when he was so impressed by the consideration of the sin and danger of his position, that he resolved on the spot, that he would never voluntarily neglect it again. At the next communion he was there, and could rejoice in the resolution he had taken, to drawn near that great heart of love. After that he was always one of the first at the table.

What do you say to-night? Now think of this when you lay your head on your pillow to night. Can you say, "Lord, this night have I rejected thee publicly before the whole congregation." Try to go to sleep, but say first, "Lord, do not let me die to-night, I have just come away from thy table and refused to acknowledge thee, and do not let me go to hell to-night."

Would you not blush to talk thus? would you not rather say, "O my God! I have to-night rejected Jesus, and how dare I sleep in my sins? This night, Lord, I in my heart give thee a solemn pledge, that, by thy grace, I will never turn my back on that ordinance again. It shall never be said of me (by thy grace), that I am not prepared. I will remember thee; and in the presence of heaven and earth, I will manifest my gratitude to thee from this time." Oh! let it be written in heaven!


Yep, 1850 was a long time ago and preachers sure did preach a long time in those days.

I personally believe one thing that can help "un-harden" our hearts is to look at the pain instead of ignoring it. What's hurting your heart? What's keeping it hard? What makes you and I so stubborn and "hardhearted"? What can we do to soften our hearts?




What makes our hearts hard? What blocks our heart? And if possible, how can we unblock it?


Is it fear? Is it pain? Is it hurt? What if owning the hurts would help soften our hearts?

What hurts? The hurts we've done and the one's which have been done to us.

I believe that HURTS THAT HURT OUR HEARTS COULD HELP US IF WE'D ACKNOWLEDGE THEM.

What do you think?

Remember: As we think in our hearts so are we.

Pro Choice vs Pro Life

When I was very very young back in my fetus days I was thinking about how safe and secure I was. I had everything I needed and wanted--food, shelter, warm water bed, and that soothing "thump thump, thump thump..."

If it was up to me I guess I could have stayed there forever. But then after about nine months this bright light drew me toward it and out I popped and something wacked me on the butt until I cried. Mom said I looked black and she didn't want to touch me. (Wow! Physical, racial and psychological abuse in the first five seconds of life.)

Sixty-two years later as I sit here writing this blog I hear this "thump thump, thump thump..." and I'm looking for some light. I feel very uncomfortable and know what I write is going to offend somebody so I think I'll offend everybody--those both to "right" and "left" of me.

Why is it that the democrats and republican can't seem to agree on anything? Is it because they start with different assumptions? I know this is really tremendously over simplifing the matter but one believes "government is "for" the people" and the other believes that government is "of" the people". And what seems to get lost in the mix of all this is "the people".

Could that also be what get's in the way of "pro-lifers" and "pro-choicers"? Some how what gets lost in the mix is "the baby". My guess is if I told some of you what I personally believe about this "issue" you would be very up-set with me. In fact I think both sides of this "issue" would be up-set with me. And some could be even thinking: "Don, you are either for life or your not" or "You are either for choice or your not". You can't be for both. You can't have it both ways. And you know, you're right, I can't. So what can I do?

If I'm for choice a person chooses what she wants. If I'm for life she is forced to choose what I want, that is what someone else wants, not what she wants. Either way something dies--a baby or her right to choose.

What are we to do? No "win win", only lose win or win lose or lose lose." I control your choice and you lose it. Or I you win, then your choice and the baby's lose. Or you lose you freedom and the baby loses hers/his life.

We could pretend that a fetus isn't a living thing and then all three lose: choice, life and truth.

So what are we to do? What are you to do? Make a decision. Make a choice. Take a life or save a life. And then you live with that choice. And I will die for your right to do either.

Ok, now who else do I want to "provoke"? Well, I'll tell you right now I will also die for your right to be what you really think you are: be it gay or strait or both. Just like I will die for your right to be "republican" or "democrat" or neither.

"The Bible Yes--Jesus No"

What if we didn't have the "New Testament" scriptures? What if we didn't have Acts thru Revelation? What if we only had the Hebrew Scriptures (Genesis thru Malachi)?

What if we could think outside the box and ask questions like: Who decided these "New Testament" Scriptures were inspired to begin with? Weren't they just a bunch of religionist who called themselves everything from "Holy Father" to "Reverend" to "Arch Bishops" to "Cardinals" to "Clergy" and who lorded themselves all over men which was exactly what Jesus told his disciples not to do?

Didn't Jesus say things like "call no man father on the earth" and don't be like those who rule over men, the one who will be the greatest among you will be the least...serve from a position of humility, sell all that you have, my kingdom is not of this world, the kingdom of God is within, not by force, when you are weak you will be strong and on and on and on?

So how did it come about that we "blindly follow blind guides" who decided to put the letters of Paul and Peter and James and John and Jude on the same level as Moses and the prophets and Solomon and like I said religion is man-made. Most if not all religions make rules in the of their god. Yeshua is spirit and any war which is fought is a spiritual one. Not about flesh and blood or a man centered book. His kingdom is not of this world. This world killed the prophets and the son and kills the followers of Light & The Way. God has no name because s/he/it is spirit. I do believe what I call the god took on the form of a human for about 40 years and showed those who want to see the essence of god. This being is who I call Yeshua whose name means Ya (god) is salvation. No physical war was ever fought in the name of Yeshua. He/She/It is Peace and Mercy and Grace. Yeshua is Shalom! d all those writers of those really ancient scriptures which Jesus quoted?

Who decided the "Canonicity" of what we call the "New Testament? Weren't they just humans just like you and me? Aren't they the same men who built a "Catholic" Church based on an authoritative political hierarchy modeled after the Roman Empire? Who says we need to be thankful for these first century letters?

Isn't most if not all of the division among believers in Jesus today based on the "interpretations" of these "Church Letters" and traditions of men? If I were satan wouldn't I want people to believe a book was "inspired of God" so men and women would believe more in the B.I.B.L.E. than in the Word become Flesh?

So what would happen if we didn't depend on "the Bible" for our salvation? What would happen if we only depended on Jesus' life, death, burial and resurrection for our salvation? What if we only depended on the One who died for us for our salvation? Did the "Bible" die for anyone or was it the Word which became flesh and lived for awhile among us that died for you and me?

Well isn't the New Testament how we come to believe in Jesus? Would we know of Jesus if it wasn't for the New Testament? How? Didn't the first believers depend on the oral teaching passed on from one believer to another as confirmed in what we call the Old Testament? Did believers for years, even centuries not even have the Book we call the New Testament? How were they saved if they could not read?

What would happen if all we had was the story of Jesus: Hear the Word of God from the One God who became flesh and died on a Roman Cross: I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, and no one comes to the (Heavenly) Father but by Me." "I and the Father are ONE?"

Who were these first "eye witnesses" of the life, death and resurrection of Jesus?
Didn't Jesus once pray that we all be one, just as His Father and He are one? Didn't Jesus say "blessed are those who believe even though they haven't seen and yet trust the telling the good news of His story as told by those eyewitnesses?

If we only had the "changed lives of those first eyewitnesses testimony" passed on to those who believed their message" what would the followers of Jesus look like today?

Would the Kingdom of God look and act more like Jesus than the Christian Religion of today with over 500 different denominations? What if all believers served each other and treated each other the way Jesus said so the world would believe because we would be known by our love one for another?

What if the Way of Jesus was based not on a book of rules or principles but on the Life of the one who gave up Himself for us?

What if we really put our faith in Jesus instead of in the Bible? Wouldn't less people be saying "the Bible YES" and "Jesus NO"? What if...What if...What if...

And even if the New Testament is the inspired word of God, which I personally believe it is, what would it be like if we really believed more in the One who inspired it than in it? What would it be like if we really worshiped the God of the Bible instead of worshiping the Bible? What if the Bible was given by God for people and people were more important than Bible? What if Jesus was more important than the Bible?

Jesus is Lord. Jesus is the Savior. Jesus bled and died for you and me. Not the Bible. Not a book. No, not even an inspired one. Only the Word Who became Flesh saves us.

The Bible, NO.

Jesus, YES.

JESUS.

"OLD"

You've heard it said that you're only as old as you think. Well what if you don't think you know what "old" is? That wise guy Solomon said "As you think in your heart, so are you."

That Solomon might have thought it was cool to have a bazillion wives, etc. But that sure got him in trouble. I get in trouble with having one wife and Carolyn is wonderful and has put up with me for going on 39 years. Wow. Old...that's old.

In 1971, when we got married on Carolyn's Dad’s birthday, I really don't think I had a clue as to what real love was. I was pretty sure what "lust" was and "friendship" was and "selfishness" was. But love, not a clue did I have. (Now I'm sounding like Yoda.) Marrying Carolyn was very close to the wisest thing I've ever done in my life, second only to committing my life to Jesus.

Old. It may seem like we're old, yet only to those who are the age we were when we got married. Remember us "baby-boomers" didn't trust anyone over thirty. Yet to people in their 70's, 80's and 90's I'm sure we seem very young.

Old is a word. A label. It means nothing unless we give it meaning. Like commitment and love and forgiveness. Just words. Put them in a context and they can mean everything: OLD. God is Old. God is love. God is forgiveness.

Old cheese; old wine; oldie moldy; old fart--what my daughter Sara lovingly calls me, partly because her mother hates that "f" word.

Well, I feel old and I'm grateful to feel old. And I think in my heart that I want to grow older with that beautiful person who committed her heart to me on November 5, 1971. Old. Old. Old. Would you commit your heart to be OLD with me?

Happy Valentine's Day from this OLD F..T.

Does God Trust in YOU? Or "How Do You and I Define Love?"

So what is this thing we call trust? In most if not all relationships it is the foundation. If there isn't trust it is really hard to move on. We might like someone or even "love" someone, yet if there is not trust, what do you do?

The one definition of trust which I like best was written by a mentor and friend of mine, Darald Hanusa:

"Trust is the feeling of comfort that comes from knowing that another person will look out for our best interest, no matter what."

It may be interesting to know that Dr. Hanusa is a cognitive, behavioral psychologist and that part of his life work has been working with men whose pattern of life has been abusive and controlling (selfish) behaviors and facilitating their change to men whose behaviors are assertive and caring (empathic).

How do you or I learn to "trust" someone who has been hurtful and harmful? How do you or I get a feeling of comfort from a person who has in the past hurt me or has not "looked out for my best interest"?

The short but not easy answer is learning to trust again because that person has changed their behaviors from demanding and forcing to behaviors of asking and allowing me to be me, no matter what--even if I say NO.

Trust is a primary feeling of knowing in my heart that you no longer want to hurt me to get your way. Not an easy task. How does one gain your trust or if lost, how do you get it back?

"Thoughts of your mind have made you what you are, and thoughts of your mind will make you what you become from this day forward." (Catherine Ponder)

"As we think in our hearts, so are we." (King Solomon)***

Let me illustrate with this story.

When I was a little boy I slept on the bottom bunk and my brother was on top. My big brother, who I literally looked up to use to tell me: "Donny, at night there are alligators under the bed and if you get out of bed they will get you and eat you." I believed my brother. I trusted him. And I cried because I had to go pea. I wet my bed. And my big brother would call me a baby for wetting myself. I eventually would get up and go pea in the toilet and I wouldn't get eaten--not by alligators anyway.

I learned not to believe or trust my big brother. For most of my childhood I did not trust my big brother. Now I trust my big brother with my life. I learned to feel trust in the feeling of knowing he would look out for me, no matter what.

Once when we were kids and swimming in some lake in Texas I was going down for "the third time" and brother Bill held me up till the lifeguard got to me. Once I shot him in the mouth with a BB-gun and he pulled the BB out of his mouth and laughed. Once when I was in Viet Nam and my best friend Earl died Bill wrote me and said I would always have a place to stay with him when I got back to the "World". Once I did stay with him and his wife for several months, several transmissions and several .... well I won’t say of what. Through it all, my big brother Bill acted in such a way that I no longer feared him, I trusted in my heart that he was looking out for my best interest.

Who do you trust? (Wasn't that an old TV show?)

Who do you trust--really?

Do you "trust in God" or "trust your spouse" or "trust your boss" or "trust your children" or do you even "trust yourself"? It's on our Money: "In God we Trust". I wonder on God's money does it read "Trust in People"?

Trust is a "two way street" and it takes both "knowing that another is and will look out for our best interest, no matter what".

Whether you are the "truster" or the "trustee" it is a feeling of comfort that comes from knowing, really knowing that the best interest of the other is the goal. The goal is not what I want or even what the other wants; it's what is best for the other-- --NO MATTER WHAT.

For this reason God so "had the best interest" of the world in mind that He gave his one and Only Son to die so that WHOSOEVER TRUSTS IN HIM may not perish, but have everlasting Life.

Do you trust that? Do you trust that God was willing to die for you? God trusts that you will.

*** Note: "As thou thinketh in thy heart so are ye" by Dr. Harold Sala
“For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.” Proverbs 23:7, NKJV
Some 3000 years ago the wise man—perhaps Solomon himself—said it so well: “For as he thinks in his heart, so is he.”Simply put, you become what you think—negatively or positively. Your thinking shapes your attitude, and your attitude is like the wood carver’s tool that molds you into the image you become.
A 27-year-long medical study documented what the writer of Proverbs observed a long time ago. Dr. John Barefoot of the Duke University Medical Center and author of the study says that people who are depressed, lack motivation, and generally feel hopeless, have far greater health problems than those who are positive and upbeat.

Furthermore, he says that individuals who think negatively of themselves and others have a 70 percent higher risk of heart attack and a 60 percent greater chance of premature death than those who are generally positive. (“Mood Affects Your Health” Family Circle, November 1996, p. 58).
He would agree with the words of Proverbs 23:7 in the Bible that says “as you think in your heart, so are you.” OK, what’s new? Solomon knew that 3,000 years ago, but now we’ve documented it. Dr. John Barefoot believes that you just can’t afford to worry, and if you find yourself feeling “blue” for more than a couple of weeks, you need professional help.

The study also revealed something important, something that the thousands of letters which have come to me over the years bear out. When you have a relationship with God—“religious involvement” is what the study called it—you have a more positive mental attitude, and your attitude determines your altitude: whether you get above your problems or sink lower and lower.
The study shows that when people live with “bad feelings” their negative attitude tends to lead to excessive smoking, drinking, food binges, and dangerous activities which only feed the downward spiral.
What does a God-connection have to do with your attitude? Plenty.

Doobee or Not Doobee: That is THE Question--or is it?

Ok, here it is as promised. I said whatever I wrote was going to offend some people even though I promise you it is not my intention.

Whatever you thought I was going to write about tells you more about yourself than it does me.  Just like what you get from reading the Bible lets you know a whole lot more about where you are coming from than what really might have been the intension of the original writers.

What ever you may have thought about what I meant by "Doobee", I promise you I was not advocating doing something illegal, even if you think it's a stupid law.

In my younger days I had the opportunity to be influenced by THC on more than one occasion. It's pretty amazing to see "flares" floating down over Hill 360, which rose above the DaNang airport, when under the influence of a mind altering chemical.

Viet Nam claimed the blood of hundreds of thousands of young men and women including my best friend, Earl Carl Edwin Tidwell, Jr.  Earl's name is now on "the Wall" in Washington D.C. with all those other names.  What do they mean, really?

They mean what ever you want them to mean. As Catherine Ponder wrote:  "Thoughts of your mind have made you what you are and thoughts of your mind will make you whatever you become from this day forward."

Something is only an issue if you decide to make it one.  What's your most important issue?  Really.

Are you sad?  Are you afraid?  Are you full of guilt or shame? You want to be happy?


"Happiness and Joy are states of the mind in the heart of our soul.
Decide to be happy especially at the times you don't feel like it. Try not to blame your behaviors or your feelings on others, they belong to you and you alone. 
And last but not least: Joy spelled backwards is yoJ."

I just wrote the above quote on my facebook page tonight. :)

So, what does "Doobee" mean to you?

Whatever you need it to mean. That really is THE question.

Isn't it?

(Unless you're color blind and you're unable to see the THE.)

Doobee doobee do...  
 http://www.lifeconnectionsinc.com/what-the-heck-is--counseling--anyway-.html

So, What the Heck is "Counseling" Anyway?

I was talking to our amazing minister, Gary Cleveland, the other day and we were talking about our respective "callings": his to preaching and mine to counseling. Some people come to our "Barn Church" and sometimes they may be a little taken back because it doesn't meet their pre-conceived perceptions about "Church".  We are a bit "relaxed" at the Oakhaven Church in Oshkosh to say the least.  I believe we are still reverent and all those "religious sounding words" and stuff.  Yet we are fairly informal and laid back at times--ok, all the time.  Yet when we sing together as a church I think the angels listen in.  

I don't know if you have ever heard congregational, accapella singing before, and if not, it's hard to beat when all four part harmonies are kickin' in.  And then a bunch of guys--definitely "non-clergy" types get up serve communion and share their gifts of teaching, praying and inspiring.  And even once in awhile a woman will get up and lead the prayer or read the Bible or do the "announcements" (I wish they also helped in serving communion and blessing us with sermons--but that's just me, and the Lord's still working on some of our old patriarchal ways at the Barn. To me the neatest part of our "assembly time" together is when each and anyone--male, female, child, and visitor--take part in our family prayer time.  Then our Minister, Gary, gets up and sits down--he sits on an old stool and shares from his heart what he and the Lord have been preparing all week for us to hear.  Gary's "sermons" are real, down-home (sometimes way down home, "Alabama homespun").  Even though he's been up here in Wisconsin since 1976 every once in awhile that good ole boy drawl will come out with a "Goddah" or other "Bama-postulants" or "pontificates".  

So what the heck does all this have to do with counseling, anyway?  Well, just as people sometimes have pre-conceived perceptions of "Church" and "Worship" we also do the same with "Counseling".  All kinds of different visions or phobias of  "laying on a couch" or having to share "how do you really FEEL about that" or being psychoanalyzed or taking weird tests and on and on and on.  So what is counseling about--really?

Well, personally I don't even like the word "counseling" or to be called a counselor.  I use to do a lot of that stuff  I wrote about in paragraphs above just like I use to do a lot of "weird stuff" when I was a preacher boy years ago. Oh yeah I'm guilty of it all: death bed invitations, fire and brimstone scare the hell out of folks and syllogisms--silly gezims.  Yeah I was trained to use guilt and shame and fear to get people all worked up to "come forward" at the end of the sermon.  "Would  you all please stand together as we sing "I Will Not Be Moved" or "Why the Heck Not Tonight" (that's when we 'had to go' to night church on Sundays).  Lot's of things I once thought or believed as "gospel" had nothing to do with Jesus and a lot to do with religion.

So really, what happens in a counseling session? Well, it's a little like the old joke "How many counselors does it take to change a light-bulb?" Just one, but the light-bulb has to REALLY WANT to change!"  I now do what I do a lot differently than I was taught in college just like when I "preach" once in awhile (and they don't let me often--probably a good thing). Just like I REALLY DO try now NOT to use a bunch of "religious" words when I speak--I also try to avoid as much as possible using "counseling" words.  Maybe it because for the last 10 years I've been doing mostly group work with a bunch of men who really don't want to be in a room with a bunch of other men who really don't want to be there. I facilitate domestic violence groups which last 44 weeks. The process is taking "abusive, demanding, controlling" men, to "assertive, asking gentle-men". Well, some of them change anyway--like the old joke--those who really want to change.

Instead of thinking of myself as a counselor or a therapist, I'd prefer to think about myself as an advocate  And I don't have "clients" or "patients" or "crazies"; I prefer to think of them as "life-connecting-partners". We're all on a journey together, helping each other find our way.  That word "advocate" is a really interesting word.  In the Bible it is often used of the work of the Holy Spirit. (Jesus said: "But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and remind you of all that I have told you." When He the "advocate" comes, He will guide you into all truth..." And the apostle John even used the word in in 1 John referring to Jesus: "My little children, I'm writing these things to you so that you might not sin. Yet if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father-Jesus Christ, the one who is righteous."  

What the word advocate literally means is: "one who walks along side of you" and that is how I view the facilitating I do.  I walk along the side of my "fellow travelers" on “The Road Less Traveled". I'd prefer to think of myself as one who reminds us of "stuff we really already know" and I facilitate the process of remembering and reminding and asking.

Sometimes we need to remember some of the hurts that have happened to us or which we have done ourselves. Then it's a matter of talking about them--thinking about them--and deciding how me really want to feel and act in a way that is benifincial to ourselves and to others. That's what I see as being my goal--walking along side of you as you figure out what you need to do to take care of yourself without hurting anyone, including yourself.

And I believe it's ok to have fun on this journey.   Oh sure sometimes it may get a bit "heavy" and that's why there is someone there to help carry the load--and I'm not talking just about me--that other Advocate who really knows what He's doing is there traveling with us.  And neither you nor I could do the work we need to do if God isn't present.

So, I hope this helps a bit when you think about counseling.  It really is about making the right connections in this life and I believe also in the next life as well. Jesus said:

Mat 11:28  "Come to me, all of you who are weary and loaded down with burdens, and I will give you rest.

Mat 11:29  Place my yoke on you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.

Mat 11:30  For my yoke is pleasant, and my burden is light."

It's scary sometimes because of the way we think about it.  If we can learn to "think about it differently" it will become less scary and more restful.

Check out the Website: http://www.lifeconnectionsinc.com and see and hear the new stuff I've added.  This website, like our lives, is a continual work in process--one step at a time.

"Shalom"