I have never encountered a place like Keene, Texas anywhere. Good people, really nice and good people live there. But few people who grew up or lived there for any amount of time come out alive (metaphorically). To call it the Adventist Auschwitz sounds highly and offensively dramatic, but you don't know what I know about the place and if you did, you would use the same language.
Something is wrong, evil about that town. It is a haunt of demons who prowl around harassing and devouring the innocent people there.
If you live there, get out.
My family hates when I talk about Keene this way because they think I am insulting the people which is totally misunderstanding me. I want people out because I love them and think the world of them.
Yes, I know horrible stuff happens everywhere, but nothing like in Keene. Ninety-five percent of people who spend years living in Keene have a life that is hell and ruined by various evils. I lived there for twenty years and saw the outcomes--the suicides, the suicide attempts, the sexual promiscuity, the rape, the incest, the sexual abuse of minors by both family member and religious leaders and the forced abortions when the youth get pregnant, the affairs, the divorces, the satanic groups, the mental illness, the communal deception, the drug abuse, murder (even murder!), the hopelessness, the wanton life of evil cloaked under religion. Consciences are seared as a hot iron and when someone lives too long in Keene they become deaf and blind to it.
Because I was a person people, for some reason, went to with their horrors, I found out more than probably most of the pastors there. If you live there, you probably won't know how bad it is until it is too late. I heard all the stuff I just wrote BY THE VICTIMS themselves--there is nothing I have written that was second hand.
If you think people just make this stuff up, I say... okay, perhaps some of the stuff I heard was from people who just made it up... fine. But then Keene has a different problem. It is full of liars and mental derangement. It is a city of mental sickness. But then we must ask why?
You drive through Keene, or even move there, and the first few years are fine. It seems like any sweet little old-fashioned town. People are SO nice and they have great traditions, unique traditions. Yet, somehow the longer you are there, the darkness shows itself. It's weird and I can't describe it. It's as if a shadow of demonic forces begin to follow a person around. It is a vortex and the nicer you are... the more you are targeted.
Of course there are a few who live blissfully ignorant of what goes on in Keene and think it a sweet place. And if you are a retired SDA leader and can stay out of everyone else's life and live like a monk--then you will probably be fine. But just don't look under the sweet overcoat of Keene or you will see things you never wanted to see. And then you will be culpable if you don't cry out.
If you live in Keene today:
GET OUT!! Do not live in Keene and for God's sake don't let your kids grow up there. Something wicked that way comes...
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Because I Wish It.....
"Daddy, why must I come when you call?"
"Because I wish it."
Okay, before I get to the point I want to take a few meandering trails that all lead back to this, so pardon me as I come to the conclusion from several different directions.
Is Heaven What We Think It Is?
There is the general idea that heaven is an eternal place of getting to do what you want to do. Total, absolute freedom to pursue your own will.
Maybe.
But if it is total freedom then it is still not quite what we as Americans think of as total freedom.
Why Are Christians Here?
As a kid, I wondered why God didn't come right after the Cross. If, after all, it was finished, why keep us in this world of torturous sin and confusion? Why not just start the world over and bring into this new heaven and earth all those who accepted the cross without having to go through the sin? Many Protestants don't get the whole point of life after the Cross. I mean, once we're saved? If we were predestined?
In any case, God KNEW who was going to accept Him? So, then why are we here?
What if we are here on this earth to learn to love heaven? What if heaven doesn't really look that good to eyes clouded by original sin? What if heaven isn't what we think it is? And God is taking those who love Him through a process of changing us internally so that we WILL choose heaven, for those who do not love Him will surely hate heaven and find hell much more to their liking than an eternity with God.
Stages of Christian Development
First we learn to obey our parents, because they say so. We are in a sense, forced to trust them because they are bigger than us and can do what we can't do and we will die without them. This is a vital beginning point to understanding heaven.
The second stages would be that once we begin to reason, we want to know why. This is good. We demand answers that are logical to us. We begin doing certain right things that are personally sacrificial because they are logical. Then, as we mature, we do right things because they are an honorable duty and bring to us a sense of virtue by doing them.
These are good stages, but they are not complete. There is a final stage that we must come to in order to be prepared to enjoy heaven. It requires these stages as a foundation. We get a glimpse of this stage, in some instances, through marriage.
The final stage is when we trust someone so implicitly, we have walked with them and been in the foxhole of life with them, that we do not expect a logical response when asked to do something. We respond to their request with an utter sense of love. It goes beyond nobility and honor, beyond duty and a sense of virtue. We act out of total love.
That is where God is taking us in this life. That is the purpose of the Christian walk here and now-- To walk so closely with God that to obey Him is our greatest desire because our union with Him is love.
Perhaps you have discovered this with your spouse. After thirty years of marriage, your husband looks over at you and asks you to go with him on a weekend away hunting. Even though you hate hunting, and it's cold and it would be the last thing on earth you would choose, you go.
You lean over to your husband and say, "Why do you wish me to come?"
And he smiles and says, "Because I wish it."
There is nothing more that needs to be said. Your years of love have brought both of you to a place where you know your husband would never hurt you or ask you to do something you would despise. Your relationship has gone past blind obedience, or logic or honor or duty.
You know somehow your husband will keep you warm with something he has concocted in his plans. And you go, you obey his wish, just because he wishes it. For that wish is based in love for you and your answer is based in love for him.
Because I Wish It
To say that God wants us to come full circle back to a child's expectation of doing something just because daddy said so, doesn't really express what happens. While some theological discoveries just seem to recycle in our experience, it doesn't mean we go back to where we once were. Wisdom is like a theological spiral reaching up to the heavens, each time you come back to where you were before you are so much higher and can see so much more. Even the simplest of thoughts grow excitingly new and complex as we journey through the Kingdom of God.
God gave us parents to obey, that we would learn obedience to Him. It is the most simple of matters. When you are too small to reason, obedience is simply because your parent tells you to. From our young perspective, we cannot see how it is for our good, only that it is what our parents wish. It is their arbitrary choice for us to obey them. But eventually, God says that same thing to us. We obey Him simply because He wishes it.
That is what Heaven is going to be like. We will not demand answers of God. He will not give us explanations of why. He will ask the questions, like He did with Job. "Where were you when I was creating the fountains of the deep?" God expects total obedience and He expects us to come to a place where we accept what He demands without explanation. In heaven, we will just know, because we know, because we know Him. We know He is good and that is enough.
Heaven is an eternity of loving obedience to God. That is why we are here now and not in heaven. We are to be developing that loving trust. Then, and only then-- when our wills are perfectly aligned with His that His desire is our pleasure, obedience is our joy and peace--will we choose heaven.
Heaven WILL be total freedom, for our choices will be His choices. Unity with Him will be supernatural freedom.
We are learning that type of love now:
Do you wish an eternity of obedience to God? Does that idea sound marvelous in your heart?
Our hearts naturally reject this, for we thought heaven was an eternity of getting to do what we wanted, not what God wanted. Yikes. All of a sudden, just how much you love God is made clear.
Fear not, this love and trust of God will come if you continue giving your will to God now. Obey Him now and it will become habit. Then, as He floods you with grace and glory, you will suddenly, surprisingly begin obeying from trust. And then love. As you open yourself up in obedience, His love pours into you, breathing life into you, awakening that perfect love that sin marred. It is HIS power, His glory given freely to you. All you must do is make Him Lord of your life and humbly obey.
I'm not saying it's easy. Your part stings at times and even feels like an act of sheer will. But keep praying and staying close to Him and His love IN YOU will come through that journey of faith with God.
God bless you all.
"Because I wish it."
Okay, before I get to the point I want to take a few meandering trails that all lead back to this, so pardon me as I come to the conclusion from several different directions.
Is Heaven What We Think It Is?
There is the general idea that heaven is an eternal place of getting to do what you want to do. Total, absolute freedom to pursue your own will.
Maybe.
But if it is total freedom then it is still not quite what we as Americans think of as total freedom.
Why Are Christians Here?
As a kid, I wondered why God didn't come right after the Cross. If, after all, it was finished, why keep us in this world of torturous sin and confusion? Why not just start the world over and bring into this new heaven and earth all those who accepted the cross without having to go through the sin? Many Protestants don't get the whole point of life after the Cross. I mean, once we're saved? If we were predestined?
In any case, God KNEW who was going to accept Him? So, then why are we here?
What if we are here on this earth to learn to love heaven? What if heaven doesn't really look that good to eyes clouded by original sin? What if heaven isn't what we think it is? And God is taking those who love Him through a process of changing us internally so that we WILL choose heaven, for those who do not love Him will surely hate heaven and find hell much more to their liking than an eternity with God.
Stages of Christian Development
First we learn to obey our parents, because they say so. We are in a sense, forced to trust them because they are bigger than us and can do what we can't do and we will die without them. This is a vital beginning point to understanding heaven.
The second stages would be that once we begin to reason, we want to know why. This is good. We demand answers that are logical to us. We begin doing certain right things that are personally sacrificial because they are logical. Then, as we mature, we do right things because they are an honorable duty and bring to us a sense of virtue by doing them.
These are good stages, but they are not complete. There is a final stage that we must come to in order to be prepared to enjoy heaven. It requires these stages as a foundation. We get a glimpse of this stage, in some instances, through marriage.
The final stage is when we trust someone so implicitly, we have walked with them and been in the foxhole of life with them, that we do not expect a logical response when asked to do something. We respond to their request with an utter sense of love. It goes beyond nobility and honor, beyond duty and a sense of virtue. We act out of total love.
That is where God is taking us in this life. That is the purpose of the Christian walk here and now-- To walk so closely with God that to obey Him is our greatest desire because our union with Him is love.
Perhaps you have discovered this with your spouse. After thirty years of marriage, your husband looks over at you and asks you to go with him on a weekend away hunting. Even though you hate hunting, and it's cold and it would be the last thing on earth you would choose, you go.
You lean over to your husband and say, "Why do you wish me to come?"
And he smiles and says, "Because I wish it."
There is nothing more that needs to be said. Your years of love have brought both of you to a place where you know your husband would never hurt you or ask you to do something you would despise. Your relationship has gone past blind obedience, or logic or honor or duty.
You know somehow your husband will keep you warm with something he has concocted in his plans. And you go, you obey his wish, just because he wishes it. For that wish is based in love for you and your answer is based in love for him.
Because I Wish It
To say that God wants us to come full circle back to a child's expectation of doing something just because daddy said so, doesn't really express what happens. While some theological discoveries just seem to recycle in our experience, it doesn't mean we go back to where we once were. Wisdom is like a theological spiral reaching up to the heavens, each time you come back to where you were before you are so much higher and can see so much more. Even the simplest of thoughts grow excitingly new and complex as we journey through the Kingdom of God.
God gave us parents to obey, that we would learn obedience to Him. It is the most simple of matters. When you are too small to reason, obedience is simply because your parent tells you to. From our young perspective, we cannot see how it is for our good, only that it is what our parents wish. It is their arbitrary choice for us to obey them. But eventually, God says that same thing to us. We obey Him simply because He wishes it.
That is what Heaven is going to be like. We will not demand answers of God. He will not give us explanations of why. He will ask the questions, like He did with Job. "Where were you when I was creating the fountains of the deep?" God expects total obedience and He expects us to come to a place where we accept what He demands without explanation. In heaven, we will just know, because we know, because we know Him. We know He is good and that is enough.
Heaven is an eternity of loving obedience to God. That is why we are here now and not in heaven. We are to be developing that loving trust. Then, and only then-- when our wills are perfectly aligned with His that His desire is our pleasure, obedience is our joy and peace--will we choose heaven.
Heaven WILL be total freedom, for our choices will be His choices. Unity with Him will be supernatural freedom.
We are learning that type of love now:
If anyone says, "I love God," yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen. I John 4: 20
Do you wish an eternity of obedience to God? Does that idea sound marvelous in your heart?
Our hearts naturally reject this, for we thought heaven was an eternity of getting to do what we wanted, not what God wanted. Yikes. All of a sudden, just how much you love God is made clear.
Fear not, this love and trust of God will come if you continue giving your will to God now. Obey Him now and it will become habit. Then, as He floods you with grace and glory, you will suddenly, surprisingly begin obeying from trust. And then love. As you open yourself up in obedience, His love pours into you, breathing life into you, awakening that perfect love that sin marred. It is HIS power, His glory given freely to you. All you must do is make Him Lord of your life and humbly obey.
I'm not saying it's easy. Your part stings at times and even feels like an act of sheer will. But keep praying and staying close to Him and His love IN YOU will come through that journey of faith with God.
God bless you all.
Friday, September 7, 2012
Making It Easy to Leave Adventism
You know, I have been thinking.... Not that this is a new thought, but a renewed conviction.
We need to make leaving Adventism easy, in fact, wonderful--like suddenly being healed of blindness!
I have been involved with a Former Adventist ministry for years now. I don't try and get Adventists to leave, but once they have made the decision, I want them to feel surrounded with love and light. They are not alone and the pain they may feel at leaving is deeply understood by many who had been raised in the same church.
It is embarrassing leaving Adventism. You feel foolish, like you were stupid to be so throughly duped for so long. The older you are the more duped you feel and often feel betrayed by God.
Some former Adventists get into these bitter discussions and debates with Adventists and the conversation turns sour. Often former Adventists think those who cling to Adventism are in a cult and they (with the BEST of intensions) think they must blast them out with the truth. I really do understand that position. They feel like fire-fighters going into a burning building and finding people hiding under their beds. The rescue team doesn't worry about the person's feelings and protests that they think they are safe from the fire under the bed but they grab the victims and rescue them even if it is against their wills! They assume those saved will thank their rescuers when they are safely out in the light and REALIZE how life-threatening their situation was. The former SDA are being heroes... even if the Adventists don't know it...
Some look at Adventists as willing dupes, stubborn in their opposition to light and truth. They fight for Adventists with glaring, in-your-face facts, like a slap in the face when someone is drifting off at the wheel.
Okay, whatever works. I'm pragmatic and frankly as much as it hurt-- those calm, forceful, confrontative methods broke through my naiveté. Since that is not my ministry, I don't try and judge the methods of those trying to get their family and friends out.
However, Adventists also need to see outside Adventism a huge group of Christians awaiting them like the Prodigal Son. They need to know that it is SAFE leaving Adventism. When they leave they will find-not embarrassment, not condemnation, not scary boogie people of SDA prophecy--but people who truly understand and care for them. They need a celebration of their courage and obedience to God by leaving. This is a big deal and we need to be Christ to those who leave.
We formers need to make it easy for Adventists to leave. (Talking more to myself than anyone.... )
So anyone SDA reading this, glancing over their shoulders for fear of an Adventist discovering what they are looking at, perhaps it is at night, or at work where you feel safe: Don't fear. It is lovely out here. You will hear the birds sing and discover how blue the sky is. You will breathe in a freedom and peace you cannot imagine. Living in the presence of Jesus there is joy... Not that Adventism didn't bring you a closeness and happiness... but you will never know until you try it out here how GOOD God is. How life changes and surprises and deepens.
Please, formers, let us BE Christ for our Adventist family and friends, so that they will not ever have the excuse that leaving was too hard because of the humiliation they feel (rightly or wrongly) by us.
God bless.
We need to make leaving Adventism easy, in fact, wonderful--like suddenly being healed of blindness!
I have been involved with a Former Adventist ministry for years now. I don't try and get Adventists to leave, but once they have made the decision, I want them to feel surrounded with love and light. They are not alone and the pain they may feel at leaving is deeply understood by many who had been raised in the same church.
It is embarrassing leaving Adventism. You feel foolish, like you were stupid to be so throughly duped for so long. The older you are the more duped you feel and often feel betrayed by God.
Some former Adventists get into these bitter discussions and debates with Adventists and the conversation turns sour. Often former Adventists think those who cling to Adventism are in a cult and they (with the BEST of intensions) think they must blast them out with the truth. I really do understand that position. They feel like fire-fighters going into a burning building and finding people hiding under their beds. The rescue team doesn't worry about the person's feelings and protests that they think they are safe from the fire under the bed but they grab the victims and rescue them even if it is against their wills! They assume those saved will thank their rescuers when they are safely out in the light and REALIZE how life-threatening their situation was. The former SDA are being heroes... even if the Adventists don't know it...
Some look at Adventists as willing dupes, stubborn in their opposition to light and truth. They fight for Adventists with glaring, in-your-face facts, like a slap in the face when someone is drifting off at the wheel.
Okay, whatever works. I'm pragmatic and frankly as much as it hurt-- those calm, forceful, confrontative methods broke through my naiveté. Since that is not my ministry, I don't try and judge the methods of those trying to get their family and friends out.
However, Adventists also need to see outside Adventism a huge group of Christians awaiting them like the Prodigal Son. They need to know that it is SAFE leaving Adventism. When they leave they will find-not embarrassment, not condemnation, not scary boogie people of SDA prophecy--but people who truly understand and care for them. They need a celebration of their courage and obedience to God by leaving. This is a big deal and we need to be Christ to those who leave.
We formers need to make it easy for Adventists to leave. (Talking more to myself than anyone.... )
So anyone SDA reading this, glancing over their shoulders for fear of an Adventist discovering what they are looking at, perhaps it is at night, or at work where you feel safe: Don't fear. It is lovely out here. You will hear the birds sing and discover how blue the sky is. You will breathe in a freedom and peace you cannot imagine. Living in the presence of Jesus there is joy... Not that Adventism didn't bring you a closeness and happiness... but you will never know until you try it out here how GOOD God is. How life changes and surprises and deepens.
Please, formers, let us BE Christ for our Adventist family and friends, so that they will not ever have the excuse that leaving was too hard because of the humiliation they feel (rightly or wrongly) by us.
God bless.
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