LRC, Houston - the weekends-free church in Houston, Texas

If you want to ignore the GREATEST STORY in all of history, you can: your choice.

Denial does not change reality though, so one has to come to a conclusion about the crucifixation and death of Jesus, and choose one of two options. It either marked the end or the beginning. I’ve chosen the latter and stand on I Cor. 15:15, 19 as Paul did. Believing that God raised Jesus, the Messiah, to a higher place, as Jesus the second person of the trinity, I can expect my humanity to be transformed into it’s original nature- Spirit!

All of this gets really cloudy, foggy, and even dark at sometimes. But we all have an inner and sure compass, if we’ll but follow it. We need not despair.

Unfortunately, it’s not the same simplistic world that I grew up in. I had the advantage of growing up when things were so much more simple. Things weren’t nearly as dark, confusing, and difficult. I loved my parents and I still have some residue of the pain I felt when I hurt my mother through simple disobedience. There was so much to LIKE about life. I still remember the “I LIKE IKE” buttons. Of course I lived in Kansas where Dwight D. was born (Abilene, as in Kansas).

More people obeyed because it was right than because they had to.

The last few decades have given rise to all manner of psychological principles, recommendations, and answers. But are they? The church has laid down it’s spiritual power in favor of catering to psycho-babble. The church has aided (can you say priesthood of the believer) society’s INDIVIDUALISTIC drift. We’ve moved away from COMMUNITY and spiritual corporiety so that everyone’s NEEDS can be massaged.

Gerald May said it like this, “In growing psychologically, one moves toward increasing autonomy and independence. In growing spiritually, one increasingly realizes how utterly dependent one is, on God and the grace of God that comes from other people.” I’ve said it many times. I can’t be ME without YOU. And YOU cannot be YOU without ME.

Church counseling has become a reflection of secular counseling, which goes beyond understanding and into yet another mild addiction. I’ve known people who have been counseled for the same malady for more than a decade. Listen, a thing IS what it IS. You have problem A? Here’s God’s solution to A. Be obedient to His answer and it’s over with.

There is of course a strong place and need for DELIVERANCE as well, which is QUICK!

But, since we’re marinating in this cultural Me-ism, there is an immediate attrraction to being “counseled”. It can even give the counselee a sense of POWER. I’ve been there when the Holy Spirit provided me with a solution. As the counselee saw the answer coming he-she would freak out and transfer the conversation to another subject. You could almost hear that spirit saying, “Don’t heal me, let me stay safe”.

And then if all else fails and the answer comes forth, the “victim-spirit” comes forth. Listen, anyone who plays the race card, which is the victim card, they have immediately taken the high road, and you the supposed victimizer-counselor has lost. Such a mess we’ve gotten ourselves into. Some don’t realize it. Others are enjoying it. We’re all suffering because of it.

Jesus overcame death! We’re His CHILDREN! How could we not overcome lesser things?

The real question is, do you (we) really want to?