Ignorant is not an insult, it is a warning from someone who sees that there are major holes in your information. Ignorance implies necessarily that you are unaware of that which you are ignorant of. Rather than blustering that you put effort into collecting knowledge, you could try expanding your hunting grounds.
 

heh, good one.

the assumption that my knowledge gathering is limited in scope is unfounded and seems to confirm your anti-Christian bias.

my worldview is Christian, but my sources of information are far more diverse than you seem to want to believe.
 

I don't have an anti-Christian bias. I just want Christians to be Christian.

Look, I had not read your blog at all until just now. I am sorry to be giving you a hard time when you are already having a hard time with a lot of other stuff.

I smoked for 12 years, trying to quit off and on by sheer force, the way you are now. The secret is not to quit, which is a affirmation of the power of addiction, but rather to step away and want to live, and take each clean breath as an active desire to breathe and live. It goes along with rebirth. I quit overnight, without any withdrawal or regret, when that realization hit me. I don't know if I've captured what I mean here, but I hope so. Like with so many things, sheer effort is only a poor substitution for actual change.
 

If it is a yinzer, they don't say "You are ignorant".

It is said "Yinz is ignernt!"

That is the only way that it means rude and inconsiderate, when it is said like that.
 

N.H.,

You are absolutely right about the yinzer usage, but I wasn't sure how to spell it. And you KNOW how I am about spelling. Thanks for the help.

Jeanne,

I appreciate your consideration regarding my struggles. However, I can't hide behind them as an excuse for being an ass. I just decided to stop caring so much what other people think. It didn't help me gain the love of parents or sister or ex-wives, so fuck it.

The addiction thing is also a symptom of a deeper root issue. So, yeah. Life sucks. A lot. But that doesn't change my responsibility before God one bit.

Personally, I'd prefer to be getting high, smoking cigarettes, having risky sex and basically setting a high speed course to an early grave. The only reason I don't is because I fear God's wrath.

There's a piece missing in here somewhere where I can actually embrace living joyfully and thankfully without being in denial about the truth concerning people and the pervasive evil in this world.

So what I've got is pretty much a lack of patience for stupidity and pretty pictures and a 'just do it' mentality.

You're right on about effort, though. Change doesn't come through trying. Not in the least.
 

Oh, I forgot one thing.

You say that you want Christians to be Christian.

How exactly do you set up that standard, seeing as you reject Scripture as an authoritative source of insight into the person, mission and legacy of Jesus.
 

You know, that's a pretty bad reason. You spend all your energy going away from things, instead of going towards something. You might want to concentrate more on God's love, and less on "his" anger.
 

I don't see it so much as a bad reason as I do living in the truth. God wants me to live one way. I don't particularly want to, because I enjoy these other things.

Making the choice to do what I'd rather not is just as much a realization of God's love as sitting cross-legged around the campfire singing Kum-by-yah (sp?).

Because God's love is a holy love, I have to accept by faith what my mind refuses to handle at the moment. God's love is demonstrated just as much in visiting the consequences of my choices on me as it is in delivering me from the ultimate penalty for my sin.

Remembering God's mercy to me helps me choose to deny my desires when I know them to be in conflict with His wishes.

Besides, if a certain course of action is an objective good, what difference does it make why you are choosing it.

Just my opinion, but it seems like yet another way to try and 'earn' something, by having the 'right' reasons for doing good.

It's just like the arguments you posit for why Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, or the US military liberated the concentration camps in Nazi Germany.

Try as we might, we are all motivated by self-interest. All the time. Acknowledging that and recognizing the depth of it is the first step towards real freedom.

This is a fundamental reason why you and I disagree on most everything, in my opinion. I have come to grips with my own depravity, and my utter inability to change to be a 'better' person, in and of myself.

I can't say for certain, but you appear to cling to a notion of your own inherent, superior morality, born not of a crushing encounter with the Living God, but sustained by a faith in your education, experience (perception) and conscience.
 

I think no smoking or drinking has made you irritable
 

jeanne & drake -
I don't know either of you, and just stumbled across your blog, drake (hitting "next blog") - but the banter between you 2 has been most interesting to read.
And, shadeofdeath, you cracked me up!
 

You really haven't listened very well to anything I've said (and now I am referring to earlier discussions). I don't claim credit for any of the changes that have occurred in me. I said I find it impossible, having been touched by what I have been touched by, to differentiate between my own "desire" for good and whatever it is that moves me. Good must be, and become, and is compelling on its own. Do you think Jesus was bullshitting when he said we were to become like him? Or do you think he was just following rules himself?
 

Shade,

It's weed, not drinking. But you are totally right. I AM cranky.

Jeanne,

I've listened and heard everything you've said. I might not understand everything correctly, but such is the nature of human communication.

What I hear you saying is:

1. You believe in a God, not necessarily the God of the Bible, having rejected it as an authoritative source.

2. You've EXPERIENCED this God in ways that you cannot describe or relate to me in any way that connects with my experience of God through salvation in Christ, and teaching of the Holy Spirit through reading the Scripture, conviction of my utter shittiness as a human being, fellowship (read connection) with others who have been similarly confronted with Jesus, and answered prayer.

3. Lacking a credible confession of Christian faith and affirmation of basic biblical principles in your writings here and on N.H.'s blog, I am forced to conclude that, at best you are deceived and missing out on what God has for you, or at worst your soul remains in jeopardy from being unregenerate.

Statements such as, "I said I find it impossible, having been touched by what I have been touched by, to differentiate between my own "desire" for good and whatever it is that moves me. Good must be, and become, and is compelling on its own." are completely out of keeping with a universally-accepted view of life in the Body of Christ (i.e. - the true, invisible Church). No believer would ever have the arrogance to believe that their "desire for good" is anything but corrupted, except where it is brought into subjection to the Word of God.

btw, Jesus never said that we were to become like Him. He said we were to follow Him. He DID say, "Be perfect as God is perfect."

Several apostles wrote about becoming like Christ. Emphasis on 'becoming'. The process never ends this side of death. You have to keep coming back, over and over, to the source of healing, forgiveness and strength. Because we NEVER get it right. We only, by His grace and enabling, get better as we move through life.

Another reason your 'witness' rings false to me is that you come across as having 'arrived' at the fullness of wisdom, needing nothing more than what is going on with you internally. There is no sense of humility in your snide remarks regarding things I take on faith, no feeling of your own utter worthlessness in comparison to Our Risen Lord, who suffered immensely and unjustly so that you might not have to go to Hell.

Jeez, you've never even affirmed the Resurrection, which is our only hope to avoid eternal judgement. You talk about love while ignoring the heart of the matter, which is that Jesus came and voluntarily took God's wrath for our sin on the Cross.

You once made the flippant remark that people die horrible deaths every day, as if what Jesus went through was no different.

How wrong you are, and this is how I know that you don't really get it. Jesus suffered more than the physical pain of the beating, the scourging, and the Crucifixion -- as if that wasn't bad enough. Jesus suffered enormously emotionally, spiritually, existentially. We can never know the torment of what He went through, because we have never been what He was and is. Perfect. Sinless. Holy. Pure.

And here's the big point to get. He was ONE with the God of the Universe, in a mystery that we know, but can never seem to adequately explain.

The Bible teaches that the person of the Son, one of 3 persons comprising the one God of the Universe, spoke this world into existence. Jesus is the physical incarnation of the creative force of this universe. The FULLNESS of God exists in this one human being, born of a virgin.

Jesus came to this earth to deal with the problem of pervasive sin and evil in humanity, not because it was a neat object lesson, but because it was the only way to bring us to a place where God could accept us.

When Jesus hung on the Cross, He accumulated the sins of the world into His pure, untainted soul (that could be unsound theology, but it is a picture consistent with what comes next). The Father, that person embodying the full glory, holiness and power of God, turned away from His Son. It is inconceivable to imagine how that must have felt.

I mean, my father died spurning all my attempts at reconciliation and desire for his love and affirmation -- but he was a bitter prick, and I'm no angel. As bad as that hurt, I can't even begin to conceive of what Jesus went through, having known a pure oneness in the Godhead throughout all of eternity and not having done anything worthy of the Father's rejection.

So when you talk about how a loving God would never condemn anyone to Hell, your concept of love falls so short of the mark.

And when you treat Jesus like He was simply a great teacher, humanitarian and example, you miss the real point of His mission.

Finally, when you have the arrogance to believe that you're tapped into the Truth without acknowledging all of these things, you deny the necessity of His sacrifice on your behalf.

It goes back to the Word. The Bible teaches us that we MUST study it in order to TRULY know God and His purposes in our lives.

"For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. Nothing in all creation is hidden from God's sight. Everything is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account." Hebrews 4:12,13