No More on Schism

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

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    Lying, one of the big ten, breaks all of 'em if you know what I mean.

    Think about it.

    Anyway, my buddy Paul told a group of Cub Scouts back on 2/3/80 in Woodstown, New Jersey: "That means lying is out.  Little lies, half-truths, and pretend stories are out.  They will not make you happy, because God does not like them.  No matter how much it hurts, God likes the truth best."

    Moody to a mom who asked how to stop her children from fibbing: "Start calling them lies."

    Today not much different from yesterday, we lie about everything from why gas prices have gone up nearly 90% in the last three years to the origins/intentions of Islam to why we are sooooooo addicted to shows like Dancing with the Stars, American Idol, Breaking Bad, Sons of Anarchy, and...

    Lying always breaks trust when exposed; and lying to ourselves retards emotional, intellectual, and spiritual improvement because it insults the truly, truly, truly thrice holiness of God which cannot, uh, co-exist with lies. 

    Simply, increasing intimacy with Him produces increasing integrity in us; or as C.S. Lewis said, "Prayer doesn't change God; it changes me."

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    I lie.

    My wife does not lie.  She is the most honest person that I've ever met; which is why some people like me are afraid to talk to her about themselves/myself.  While they're/I'm addicted to lying because it makes them/me feel better about, uh, lying, she knows only truth liberates in a Biblical kinda way.  Of course, some people like me prefer to remain sick.  Truly.

    Be that as she is, I lie.

    Someone says my last sermon sucked; and I say, "Thank you for sharing that."

    People ask how I'm doing; and I say, "Fine."  How can I admit how I'm really doing when most of my days are dominated by "ministering" to people who are busy licking their wounds or doing their worst to inflict wounds on others?

    I say I prefer a lean pony and don't really like fairings for missionary journeys; but I'm only rationalizing the lack of Ks to...

    I pretend, "She/he meant well."  But, deep down, having discerned demonic oppressions/possessions, I know I'm just pacifying the fantasies and postponing the inevitabilities about...

    Spending so much time on the lusts of others, I lie about my own; though I know OC's counsel is right: "Yield for one second to anything in the nature of lust...'I must have it at once'...and you are a bondslave to that thing.  There is no release in human power...Yielding to Jesus will break every form of slavery in any human life."

    I know that.

    But, like Paul (see Romans 7:7ff.), I know Stanley is right: "We fluctuate between two mind-sets - that of the Spirit leading toward God and that of the flesh leading away from Him."

    Atwood was right: "No matter how good we become, we're never good enough not to need Jesus to save us from our lusts tearing us away from Him."

    I lie.

    I don't want to lie; but I do because it makes me feel sooooooo much better than...

    Psst.

    This is about the true origin/nature of schism.

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    I had a dream on Saturday.

    I dreamed I was charged with a horrible crime.

    Though I knew I was innocent of that particular crime, the jury said I was guilty and had to be punished.

    The judge asked if I had any last words before sentencing.

    I said, "I did not do it."

    The judge said, "I know; but you have committed many other crimes for which you were not charged or convicted.  How can I show mercy to you if you insist on your innocence?"

    Just before execution, He appeared.

    Yeah, I know this sounds scripted and hardly novel; but read on.

    While freeing me, He said, "Stop lying."

    I asked sooooooo stupidly and irreverently, "Why?"

    He said, "Liars have another father not Me."

    Then I began confessing my life's lies to Him.

    He stopped me and said, "I know; and as long as you know, we can move on."

    I'm still trying to figure out what all of that means for...

    But I have figured out lying really, really, really separates me from Him, His, and...me.

    I guess only a dream could capture/focus my attention on that.

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    A friend wrote to me about a church that is fighting with its higher judicatory to leave its denomination for another denomination.

    I wrote, "This is why those who need Jesus outside of His Church laugh at the church and are repulsed from Jesus by those who claim to be so close to Him."

    It reminded me of a friend who has been abandoned by a friend because he wouldn't join him to leave one stinking denomination for another stinking denomination.

    I empathized.

    Then I prayed and prayed and prayed and found no comfort or consolation or any of OC's strong calm sanity for him or me until I was led to Proverbs 18:1. 

    I read it in Hebrew; taking a long time because my Hebrew sucks as much as some of my sermons.

    I read it in over a dozen different translations/paraphrases.

    A conclusion was reached.

    It's time to stop talking about schism.

    It's time to start talking about lies.

    Fathers.

    Sin.

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Blessings and Love!