Corruption - not being able to ask the right questions

God's enemies seldom attack Gods people directly. Instead of a frontal attack, the strategy to attack God's people is through deception for the purpose of corruption. What is corruption? Here is a definition:

cor·rup·tion

kəˈrəpSH(ə)n/

noun

1. 1.

   dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery.

   "the journalist who wants to expose corruption in high places"

   synonyms:

   dishonesty, unscrupulousness, double-dealing, fraud, fraudulence, misconduct, crime,criminality, wrongdoing; More
2. 2.

   the process by which something, typically a word or expression, is changed from its original use or meaning to one that is regarded as erroneous or debased.

   synonyms:

   alteration, bastardization, debasement, adulteration "these figures have been subject to corruption"

The second definition is what concerns ideas, principles, etc. Corruption is simply a change from original meaning into a new meaning. This is accomplished mainly through deception, careful minor deception or twisting of things. Nothing obvious, but rather subtle, and usually for a good cause.  Yes, a good cause, some noble goal that Gods people can get behind and push for, not even realizing they are actually fighting against God himself in doing so. 

You see, the principle here is that in matters of righteousness, its not the end that matters, but the means to that end. Principles concern themselves primarily with the means. Not winning or loosing, but rather how the game is played.  How things are done.  Corruption says "accomplish this good deed, whatever means are necessary", but principles says "the principles of how things are done are supreme, and are the goal, not the good deed".  In fact, the best deed we can do, is to do things right by principle. 

So corruption comes in the form of deception to accomplish a good end by ever so slightly compromised principles. 

and then, slowly, the good deed at the end is accepted, the compromise along the path to that end are forgotten and accepted, and evil has a foothold. As time goes by and this process is repeated again and again, the compromises made to accomplish good things build up until the end goal of corruption is accomplished. among all the good deeds is a unnoticed reality that, Gods people can no longer ask the right questions! They have been so deceived along the path to perceived goodness that they do not even have a true foundation any longer. Principle, is lost. The original concepts of good and evil right and wrong, are so corrupted , changed, that good decisions are no longer possible. Decisions are no longer based on the consistent truth of Gods laws, but rather the interpretations of men.

That is corruption through deception, and the church in america is swimming, even drowning in it today. 

What is necessary to correct this corruption is a clear understanding of basic principles. This is difficult, becasue to get there, many related "accepted truths" must be evaluated and often abandoned. ITs like layers of an onion, each revelation of a  new corruption reveals more layers of corruption. Fingers of deception spider out from any issue into related issues, corrupting the whole of Gods truth. 

IT is when you realize that the question being asked is so far off base that it can not be answered by basic laws of God, that we must realize we are so horribly corrupted in our understanding that we must start over. How do we know if we are asking the wrong questions? easy... are we asking hte same questions of those who provided the fundamental truth? If the questions we ask are of a different character and nature than the recorded questions of hte original concepts, then we have drifted from the truth so far that we cant see the central principles anymore.  Principles, truths, do not change. Our questions, should not change.

I plan on a few blog posts to demonstrate where this is the case across a variety of issues. In all cases, the asnwer, the remedy is simple... return the the core principles regardless of how that process exposes doubt in our own pet beliefs. 

 

The day i left woodsboro

I remember it well. Bitter sweet to depths unfathomable.

I had accepted a job in California. It was the only way forward. The economy had changed so the the business model dad had created was outdated and failing. There was no way to support everyone on the income anymore. Mom's insurance money was being drained to support the business and I could not let that happen. So I loaded up my young family, and left town to seek a new beginning.

The business dad had built was dismantled and sold of for parts. The building rented. The memories lingering in the old storage building out back.

The house across the street, the lemon as we called it, was loaded into a 28 for U-Haul. Everything I owned inside. The house dad and I had spent hours rebuilding every night until he got sick. The house with so many memories, my first. 

We said goodbyes, drive slowly off. I was in the truck, alone. Seeing the buildings, people, businesses one last time as a member of that community for over 30 years... Took its toll. About 2 miles out of town it hit me.. driving towards beeville in that old U-Haul.

Tears. Bitter crying of a soul that wanted to stay, and wanted to leave. It was all I knew..  that little community. It was life. In front was a great unknown. The big city. Technology. Income, a chance to be independent again. But behind was everything... Everything.

Good had closed all doors, forcing us to move. It was painful, a sorry of death inside. Yet it was the best thing God could do for us. It forced me to begin to truly truly on him. To see his hand at work in my life. I was no longer Herbert's boy.. in fact, I was no one. Zero. No one knew me, no one respected me where I was going. It was truly a new beginning, my beginning.

The hand of God was all over those days.. how things just fell into place one after another.  Yet... It hurt.

Following God is not all fun and games. It's work. It's giving up ourselves and becoming Him. It's painful but peaceful. For miles that day the tears flowed. Breathing was a chore. Driving... I don't know how that happened. I was broken beyond repair, devastated... But determined. God drove me forward out of my comfort zone into a new world he had for me.

There are many lessons here...  Perhaps the main lesson is... To follow the lessons. Sometimes it hurts, sometimes it's scary. Sometimes you think you can't, but with God you can. He didn't remove the hurry, at least not in my case... But he gives the strength to move forward and the peace inside to know it's right.

Peace is the ultimate.... Piece inside the storm. Pain comes and goes... Peace is constant.

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The coffee house

Back in the 1970s, dad started what was called a"coffee house". It was a popular movement across the nation in the 70s to provide a way for young people to escape a bad life... Mostly teen-ager s addicted to drugs. 

It was an interesting building. Built into an old grocery store across the street from our family business. The outside was non descript. Couldn't even tell it was something.. except for the big plate glass windows painted on the inside.

Inside was quite a site. Filled with half a dozen"tables"for sitting. These were the big spools from wire of the electric company. Spools maybe 8 feet in diameter. Either painted or covered with cloth. The ceiling was parachutes hung.. to deaden the sounds. The appeared like big fluffy clouds above. The walls were painted with Patel background and glow in the dark paints depicting scriptures, storyboards, etc. Black light were hung all around so that at night the place was dimly lit and the walls glowed with bright colors of scriptures and scenes. Even the baseboard was nothing but individual blades of grass painted all the way around the room in glow in the dark green paint.

There were essentially 2 big open rooms connected, and on the right in sorry of a strip mall config was the church room. It was respectfully calm in appearance with an organ, lots of folding chairs, nothing of the atmosphere next door.

In the back was the prayer room. This is where the real battles took place. Prayers, interventions, counseling, one on one sharing... The depth of the battle.

The coffee house was open most nights, kids would congregate there and hang out, play music, talk, pray, read. The church met weekly next door. For a few years, this was dad's life. He spent more time there than at home.

I remember stories that arose from the nights at the coffee house, although at my age I want invited to partake in the events there, only church and daytime visits. As I recall things I will post here

This was a significant party of dads life. It was modeled after David Wilkerson's work in new York that had swept the nation. It was also the beginnings of dads traveling ministry. The success at the coffee house was what people wanted to duplicate. They were hungry for god to move in their town.

Fascinating days indeed...

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