"I was a tender of sycamore figs."

- Amos 7:14

        I recently came across this part of Amos' ministry, when he was asked by the authorities to stop telling so much of the truth about things. It certainly resonated with me. Amos is simply saying "I'm no one special. I just do my simple job.

        "But I will still tell the truth about things."

         Why do I do all of this, when it will only lead to marginalization, ostracism, alienation? There is no question that most people—and I really don't know how many people that is, but it seems like most—look upon the premise of this web endeavor as odd, frivolous, ill-informed, perhaps even criminal or demonic.

        I could easily spout some piously grandiose screed about how into God I am and how monumentally noble I think all that is. I confess the reason I do this is more selfish than that. At the risk of being a bit more transparent than I should be, here's why I do all of this:

        One, I just plain want to interact with people who can actually share what they know about the dynamics of how God's economy works. This includes the brutal reality of what the Roman Catholic Church is about, how the World System operates, who the sworn operatives of that System are, and the breadth of the exploitation they use to draw people from Christ. "Have nothing to do with the works of darkness," Paul writes in Ephesians, "but rather expose them."

        I just merely want to talk with others about that.

        And I want to do that for a second reason:

        I want to engage people who know Christ. I don't have the gall to say I know how they know Him, but my spirit would tell that they do. It is also sure that I want to walk with those who walk with Him wherever they are on the path, even if that's way back at the trailhead.

        Indeed knowing Christ is what makes it so one can truly know about the World. I desire discourse with people who know Him, not some straw-man Jesus they wear on their sleeve. I want to talk with them, think with them, feel with them, laugh with them, use my gift to edify them, and let them use theirs to edify me. Is this a selfish objective?

        I don't know, but it is precisely what the Acts 2 church is supposed to be, and the only place where World inhabitants may actually find Him and turn to the Kingdom.

        To get to this point in which both of these items are happening in profoundly vibrant assembly—that is my vision. I'd like to think that I have this vision from what I read in Scripture, so I believe it is God's vision for us as well. Is it brash to be so presumptuous?

       I don't care. Again, if I'm right, then no one can do a thing against the power of God—it is not of me at all, it's just Him to begin with. If I'm wrong, then I'm toast anyway—I have absolutely nothing to lose. For without Him, it's all scattered dust.

        So yeah, at this point I'm going to continue with the granted assumption that all of this is initiated by God. With that in mind, then, here is my heart. Simply put:

         My heart does break, every day, every time I sense in whatever way that is, that someone, somewhere, is consumed by the horror of their folly. I too was once bathing in that sewage. I so want to shout from the rooftops what that is, clearly describe it and label it, and then show another who Christ is. So often that means holding up the World Christ so many worship, and contrast that one with the Real One.

        How is it that I know the Real One—isn't that a bit arrogant? That's addressed elsewhere in this site. I will iterate that I can at least show people the things I do know for sure about Him. Jesus is good with that. And I'm good with them showing me the real things about Him too.

        I'm really not good with people who claim to know Him and smugly slough off those things that are really about Him. I get downright angry when those people are high-level minister/religion/churchianity people. I get deeply hurt when I look at all the people who follow those high-level people to places that can't be good.

        The issue then is the fact that a lot of people are out there persuading a lot of other people to believe on their Jesuses, and they end up saying things like, "Sure I'd like God, but really, where is He? Let's be real..."

        My honest response is, "I'd like to know where He is too."

        The world is filled with books, websites, churches, meetings, programs, vast religious movements, boffo new technologically advanced contemporarily meaningful panoramas of fun religious things—none of which can love. Jesus asked His own to be His flesh and bones for others, and when people assume W-4 liabilities, form 501c3 corporations, and rationalize out of their rear ends the value of those things, they get fully Catholicized and can't do squat to authentically share His love.

        A dead giveaway about the extent of this condition comes from this declaration, something I hear over and over again: "Ooo, there's that really bad thing government does! How do we go about changing it so that bad thing becomes good?"

        The answer is you don't. If you rail against it you're just as much a part of it no matter what fancy outfit you put on it. If you don't like it, then the answer is simple.

        Get out of it.

        Let it be. Leave it alone. Leave the Catholic church to sodomize itself, it is what it does. Leave the federal government to pummel itself, it is what it does. Leave the banks to tightly twist the screws of its slaves and keep them destitute, it is what they do.

        This doesn't mean shut off your minds, ignore what they do. It does mean looking at what they actually do with care and thoughtfulness, and not dismissing something you see simply because some World Operative convinced you that it can't be. They too are out there saying "This here is folly." As I think about how I want to shout to others about Him, I know that my voice can be easily drowned by the millions of World voices. This is why I'm fine with the times I must silently ask God to enlist me where He wants.    

        This is not resignation, as if I'm okay with bad things—as if, should a community become genuinely ungrafted, it'll all be so barren and hopeless and scary and oh well.

        No, I do all of this because I like good things.

        I admit, I'm selfish. I want good things. It is just that I want truthfully good things, and all the good things God wants us to have are so thoroughly messed up. Of course that is because of our sin, but we stay in all the bad things when we plug into the World. What is so silly is that so many think He doesn't know that! He already had the good stuff down millennia ago—there it is, right there in Genesis chapters one and two! He's just spending the rest of the Bible to explain what He did to get all that good stuff back for us.

        The key is that He still won't throw pearls before swine.

        I know that every single Christian who's ever read the Bible or heard some sermon knows this. What just hurts me is that they all still take their pearls to have them autographed by the World Operatives, and I do this site just to say as plainly and as boldly as I can,

        Don't do that.

        The people in the World—they do break my heart. Every day. Sure many will say, "Oh get over it" or "Don't let it get to you." Well, I'm just me. That's just who I am. I don't really expect you to "get over it" if you see a loved one murdered before your eyes. I just feel it too when I see a Jesuit move someone to murder using the Society's designs.

        But I'm still okay. That heart of mine, God mends it, every day. There is no question that Christ's joy in the depths of my heart, His presence in my soul—that is what sustains me through it all.

        And God's call to tell the truth about things is still there.

        It is my very purpose.

       There is no denying, I am selfish. I am. I do say "I want" a lot here. I do selfishly want to see people overjoyed to leave their folly and see Christ. That is very selfish indeed.

        I just think Jesus is in His followers, however they came out of their World. How I long to talk with them.

***

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What this is all about

A blog post about my ministry, with remarks about ministers enslaved to the World

Why Jesus?

This page was originally posted by David Beck at yourownjesus.net on November 17, 2007