ENDINGS

 Without a doubt, this will be one of the most difficult blogs I've written.  Last Sunday morning, I hung up my spurs, laid down my pen, and closed the book. It's something I should have done before I even started our last study.  "Should have done" is something I'm trying to stop saying. Actually, those in leadership can attest to the fact that over the last six years, I'd tried at least three times to 'end' my role as teacher. Each time, I would let them talk me into staying in the teacher's seat. THIS TIME, circumstances have intervened.  

Last Sunday, I summarized my tenure as teacher with the three things I set out to do over 18 years ago.  

1. To instill a desire and hunger to study God's word.  I've never been big on doctrinal statements, mission statements, or...statements. In the entire history of mankind, never has God's word been more readily available than it is today. It rests on night tables, coffee tables, library shelves, and now it LIVES on our phones.  To not study that word with all the tools we have at our fingertips is a sin.  According to Jesus, knowing God is eternal life.  (John 17:3)  This was always my driving purpose in our Men's Bible Study Group.  

2. To have a deep and abiding relationship with Christ through the leading of Holy Spirit. As wonderful as it is to have the Word of God at our fingertips, there is nothing more satisfying than being led by God's Spirit through life. Holy Spirit, in agreement with the Word of God will take us through every moment of our lives with grace, love, tenderness, compassion, and joy.  When His Spirit is alive in us, we become His instruments of righteousness, and conduit for miracles.  I hoped to inspire a deep and abiding trust in Holy Spirit to lead us moment by moment through good times and bad times. There are no surprises in following Jesus, just days full of wonder.

3. When Pastor Goff asked me to lead our Bible Study nearly 18 years ago, I told him that the only way I would do it is if our young boys could join us.  I set the age for joining at thirteen, and as each boy in our church came of age we would joyfully welcome them into our group. When Holy Spirit dropped this idea into my heart, the purpose was the same as Paul taking Timothy under his wing.  Instead of allowing our boys to become victims of their passions, and the lure of the world, we would show them the joy of Christian fellowship, the reward of honoring their earthly fathers as commanded, and how they could create lifelong fellowship among one another as men. As with Paul, and Timothy I desired to offer our boys the opportunity to study and present lessons themselves. Some of my happiest memories are of the 'boys' teaching all of us men what they saw in the Word of God. Some of them have gone on to other places, and some have even become ministers where they went. This is what I've always wanted, while my dream was for one of them to one day take the reigns of our fellowship. Each boy that went to Nicaragua has preached to large crowds in the different churches we went to. We never went on a Missionary trip that we didn't take at least five young men with us.  Some things have to be experienced to be appreciated.

I believe the men of our fellowship accomplished all that we set out to do.  As for myself, I believe I've done all I can do, and now it is time for me to end.  There is nothing wrong with ending something when there appears to be no reason to. I'm not going to wax maudlin, or try to create tearful farewells. If someone else wants to pick up the mantle of the Men's Bible Study, they would have my blessing.  One of you has already asked if I would mind if they picked up the mantle. I would be thrilled but, I just won't be a part of it. I know that sounded harsh, but it isn't. I'm in standby mode, and have been since Glenda passed away. Nearly three years on since her death, and I still feel something (not someone) else is out there. The endings in my personal life have left me alone, without family living nearby, and without many of the people who were important to me. In October of 2021, my Mom went on to her reward, and in 2023 my Dad went to his reward. In late 2022 my Aunt Barbara passed away, and in September of 2023 my wife passed.  Throughout 2023 I lost four awesome men who I worked with, studied with, laughed, and cried with as they all went to be with Jesus. Many other things have happened to people around me, and many brothers in Christ have gone on to other fellowships. Through all of this sorrow, I know Jesus is waiting on the other side of this vale, and He will never leave me. Endings happen to all of us, and some are more difficult to face than others. 

For those of you who stood by me, encouraged me, and made our studies exciting, I thank you for every moment, and precious memory you gave me. I've been a follower of Christ since I was ten years old, and was taken to church from infancy. In the sixty plus years of being in churches all across America, I can say without reservation that this has been the best group of men I've ever known. It would take endless words to recount all that we've done and experienced together over the last 26 years that I've known you guys. In the interest of brevity, I'll say three words that I hope will bring smiles to your faces. Nicaragua, donuts, and OCC.  If you know me, you know what these are to me.  You are the BEST men, and it's been a privilege to serve you.

In a couple of weeks, I'll have Google compile all my blogs into a file, and then I'll delete my blogs. They were for your consumption, and a means for me to release what was in my heart. That will be the end of this wonderful journey for me. I don't know what God has in store for me in the future, He hasn't spoken to me except to tell me to step aside. I'll continue here at Real Ministries as long as God tells me to stay here.  What has changed is that I will be going places, visiting family, and doing things I've always dreamed of doing. In my wallet is a bucket list that is about half completed.  I'd like to do my best to finish it.  That is the one BIG thing I learned from Glenda before she died. She wanted a joy journey before she passed this vale, and she got one. She left me with her goodness, her love, and with a profound sense of joy. I still come across people who tell me how much she affected their lives. 

Lastly, for those of you who just have to understand everything, and have reasons for everything, I'll say it one more time; I am not angry, disappointed, or injured.  It is simply time to end.  I promise, it will make sense sooner than later, so please don't make my stepping down about something going bad.  I look at it as something going good.

THE

 "The," is the most use word in the English language. When we read or talk we use 'the' at least two to three times in a sentence. In the English speaking world we use "the" to specify a specific person, place, or thing. In grammatical parlance, 'the' is a considered a definitive article, and is used to identify specific nouns, of which a sentence would not be a sentence without a noun (the subject). It is a small 3 letter word assigned a huge task.  By now, if you've read this paragraph you've already noted how many times I've used the word 'the.'  In many other languages, the noun itself speaks to its specificity. This is largely due to most ancient languages being pictographic in origin. To put it in simple terms; we got tired of drawing a bird whenever we wanted to say 'bird'.  Laziness is often the main driver in the streamlining of language. I could spend hours disecting our use of double consonants, archaic placements of extra letters. It would be fun, but won't serve the purpose for which I'm writing this, but it goes to the modern use of emojis.  We all like them when we're texting or writing emails, but they would really be useless as a tool of Shakespeare even though I would not be surprised if someone tried it.

As we move on into our book, I want to clarify some quirky usages by me. As I've told you before, I was given a Hebrew and Greek Interlinear early on in my formative years. For a period of almost four years, I read scriptures with the interlinear rather than a traditional translation. When I would stumble upon phrases (why don't we spell it 'frazes'?) that obviously had far fewer words than the original, or when the original had more words than the translation, I would take a concordance and research the phrase word by word. It didn't take me long to realize that Hebrew and Greek didn't rely on the definitive article "The".  So, why is this important to you?  Because throughout our study, you're going to notice that I don't say "The Holy Spirit."  On the other hand, you will probably see me use "The Spirit."  This arises because the Greek language we've translated the New Testament from uses a 'gender' neutral word for 'spirit'. However, my problem with this translation solution is that it reduces Holy Spirit to a thing instead of a person. It assigns the third person of the Trinity to being a thing without personhood.  This is insulting, and I believe it is why so many passages relating to Holy Spirit are reduced to concepts instead of truths. How can you blaspheme a 'thing'? How can you grieve a 'thing'?  When we say 'The Holy Spirit' we talk about Him as if he were in the third person. Our conversations about Him imply that He isn't an active part of our experience, but simply a 'force' like magnetism, gravity, or inertia.  This allows Holy Spirit to be ignored, or disregarded.  Yet, when Jesus promised the indwelling of Holy Spirit, He gave Holy Spirit the job of being 'Jesus' (Him, His presence, His being) until Jesus returns.  

I could carry this exercise out to craziness in the extreme, but that would defeat my purpose. Even I found myself while writing a lesson out using 'the Holy Spirit' out of habit. I quickly backspaced and gave Holy Spirit His rightful place in the Godhead. He is not an it, He is a person, and has emotions like we do. A matter of fact, our emotional center is more in line with Holy Spirit than we even know.  Our minds have to be renewed constantly, but it is Holy Spirit who informs our minds. We are just as complex as our creator because we are created in His image. His Spirit leads and guides us into all truth, which implies a physical presence, and a hearable voice. Do I need to speak to Jesus saying that 'His sheep know His voice'?   

Now, even in the Greek, when Paul, Peter, James, and John speak about "The Spirit of God", they use the Greek 'to' which is not the same as our 'to' but it's the way it looks or something close to.  In other words they will say; The Spirit, The Spirit of Christ' or  "The Spirit of God." THE is actually "to".  Which is why you have to have infinite patience when reading in Greek.  And I don't know how to go from Greek text to English text on my word processor.  I'm sure it can be done because I see Google do it all the time when I query it for scriptures in Greek.  I'm going to have to buy me a new interlinear.  

So, I hope you'll understand if I don't get slap happy when someone makes a big issue of when 'the' is used and when it isn't. I figure the first big translation gap came from when they translated Aramaic and Hebrew to Greek. Then to add to the fun, we then move it from Greek to English. Some things I leave be, because they don't change the intent of the scripture in question, but I've grown to hate using "The Holy Spirit."  I hope you will show me grace, (In this instance I'm using the word to mean 'latitude') in how I address the personhood of Holy Spirit.  He is so much dearer to me than 'it'.  

GRACE, MERCY, AND BETRAYAL

 At this point in my life, it becomes more difficult to become interested in things going on around the world, and in our nation.  My world is distilled down to my house, my church, as well as stores, and restaurants that I frequent.  I stopped using Facebook about five years ago not long after my mother died. I've trained my news feed to give me the news sources I trust, and I have become fairly good at spotting 'click bait.'  I get thrilled when new discoveries in physics and nature are made, but it won't be long until I am going to be face to face with the creator of everything and I'll know how it all works anyway.  I really don't desire to know the latest gossip concerning musicians, actors, or other 'artist' types.  I don't care about their opinions, because in the end, they are just people like me.  

However, there are times like yesterday when I hear distressing news within the 'Christian' community from two separate men, and I sense the question of 'how does this kind of thing happen?'  I won't go into the accusation, but from what I can tell it wasn't sexual misconduct as is often the case.  Instead it was a blatant misrepresentation of a gift of the Spirit. In other words, the same thing that has happened since the Church was first born. The book of Acts, and the letters to the churches, all document how easy it is for false teachers to slip in unaware and lead people astray. THIS IS NOTHING NEW!! Like everything else in today's modern age, the little 3" x 5" hunk of metal and plastic we carry in our hands amplifies a story beyond it's depth.  In this case, an individual is accused of using people's social media posts to make it appear as if the person was using a gift of knowledge, or a gift of discernment to reveal personal things about people.  Nothing new here, it happened in the early church, and I saw it in the churches where I grew up. Its just a variation of the old carnival mentalist act.

I've seen a long line of carnival acts that were paraded through Pentecostal, and Charismatic circles during my many long years as a believer.  Mentalist acts prey upon the human tendency to reveal intimate details of our lives to, and around total strangers.  Mentalists observe things that we brush off, or ignore so that they can perform their carnival act and 'wow' you with their mind games. During my childhood I experienced my share of one eyed drivers license readers, with lovely 'assistants' now wives. I've also seen evangelists come in claiming to operate in the gift of knowledge, revealing intimate details of a congregants life.  It always resulted in 'love' offerings at the end of the service and then they'd go on to the next church. After I left home, I had the privilege to work with a wise old man of God who taught me a great deal about how to navigate the waves of fakes who preyed upon those seeking a supernatural move of God's Spirit.  His advice seems relevant in the light of what I heard happened, and the knee jerk reaction of those standing on the outside looking in.  

His rules for people coming to speak in the church were simple, and concise.  

First of all, he never met with an evangelist, nor had conversations with them before they spoke.  He'd learned long ago that hucksters depend on this to make their 'manifestations' more believable. It's easy to share the illnesses, battles, and marital struggles of a church with someone who is outside the fray. Then when the evangelists speak to those situations, everyone thinks Holy Spirit revealed it to them. I've watched my own mother fall prey to this.  We used to call it 'reading someone's mail.'  When someone comes in and that is their primary 'ministry' I immediately turn them off. It doesn't matter whether they're a man or a woman, hucksterism is hucksterism.  Like Pastor W, I refused to be the source of their 'material.'  

When an evangelist called, or sent a letter seeking an opportunity to speak, Pastor W would inform them that there would be no 'love' offering taken at the end of a service.  He would then inform them that the church had agreed that they would pay $100 dollars to speakers.  In the 1970's that was good money, but nowhere near what a love offering could bring in especially if the speaker was good at making their spiritual routine look bonafide.  You'd be surprised how many of these so called evangelists would instantly back down.

Another rule Pastor W followed was totally biblical.  He wanted letters of recommendation with the names and numbers of the pastors where the evangelist had been over the past year. Just the demand for recommendations would deter many hucksters.  

You see, we all fall prey to hucksters in every aspect of life.  When I was told about the incident yesterday, both people were upset by the reaction of other churches to the way the host church handled it. Being as I don't have social media, I don't have access to these reactions, and I really don't care. I am only responsible for my own reaction. I can't represent nor make excuses, only the pastor of the host church. That pastor is going to have to stick to his guns, or he's going to have to deal with the individual and apologize for allowing someone to hurt the body of Christ. One of the more distressing things I heard was the reaction of other denominations demanding that all Pentecostal churches, and Charismatic churches must close their doors. WHAT?  Every religion has its hucksters.  Even the First Church of the Internet has scammers that steal far more money than has ever been taken by false prophets and teachers. Wolves prey on the weak, and the old, no matter if they believe in God or not.  The fact that they can slip into a church and wreak havoc is not exclusive to Pentecostal or Charismatic churches.  Every denomination has had to deal with acts of lust, and greed. 

Personally, I refuse to dump my faith in God, or my Pentecostal beliefs simply because someone decided to run a 'mentalist' game on people who should have had spiritual discernment.  If the church caught up in the scandal refuses to deal with the issue, they deserve to be closed down. The problem is in us, the members of the church. We love to be titillated, thrilled, and experience the sensational. Too many people believe that our everyday humdrum life can be made more bearable if we can occasionally witness a supernatural act. This is true for Christians and non-Christians alike. It is part of human nature to seek miracles, or see the supernatural. From the dawn of time, we've created monsters in the dark, giants in the woods, and mysteries in the seas to thrill our need for the sensational. To prove my point, just go through the TV listings of the Discovery Channel or the History channel.  We love movies about super heroes, and we surround ourselves with video games where the hero can respawn over and over. We use ghost stories, and fairy tales to get that momentary thrill that makes our hearts beat faster. Sadly, we are setting our children up for disappointment when we don't give them the truth about the world outside of their Christian bubble. We send our boys and girls to seminaries, and Christian colleges hoping they will come out better people, but we haven't spent the time when they were 'kids' in our churches telling them the pitfalls of 'freedom.'  We don't explain how to navigate the hucksters, pedophiles, abusers, and degenerate of this age. With modern AI, who needs social media, you can just create your own lies and make them look real.  

We need to practice grace, by allowing the person caught in sin the opportunity to confess, and then offer them a road to redemption. The Apostle Paul called this 'restoring' the soul of the person.  It is an act of grace, that we rarely offer to one another, but desperately crave for ourselves when we fall into the trap of sin. The betrayal of trust is hard to forgive. Trust is the only thing we can give to another person that expresses our desire for intimacy. Usually, moral failure isn't done over a lifetime, but is usually a trap that is set for us after a trial.  Mercy, or forgiveness is the one superpower that God gave us. We can either hold onto our offense and use it to crush those who hurt us, OR we can forgive them which sets them free from God's wrath.  What we forgive, God forgives.  Once I laid hold of that truth it changed my life. It is such a powerful force Jesus used it to prevent God from destroying mankind. He had to cry out on the cross, "Father forgive them, they don't know what they are doing."  Without Christ's forgiveness the world would have ceased to be.  Through His forgiveness, we could enter into the presence of God, and be like Jesus when we too forgive. Jesus faced the ultimate betrayal, and yet opened the door of mercy to us.  

So what are we to do with this young man?  I've seen worse things done than what I heard was done by this young minister.  I believe he should confess his sin, and submit himself to the leadership for discipline willingly and of himself.  The leadership in turn should explain what they are doing to restore him, and make paths of forgiveness possible. The fellowship in question needs to be more discerning of what is said and done in front of them.  Their services may be less sensational, but, then again...they could be more spiritual.  Which do you want?