Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)
@#$%
@#$%
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."
@#$%
I lie.
My wife does not
lie. She is the most honest person that I've ever met; which is why some
people like me are afraid to talk to her about themselves/myself. While
they're/I'm addicted to lying because it makes them/me feel better about,
uh, lying, she knows only truth liberates in a Biblical kinda way. Of
course, some people like me prefer to remain sick. Truly.
Be that as she is, I lie.
Someone says my
last sermon sucked; and I say, "Thank you for sharing that."
People ask how
I'm doing; and I say, "Fine." How can I admit how I'm really
doing when most of my days are dominated by "ministering" to
people who are busy licking their wounds or doing their worst to inflict wounds
on others?
I say
I prefer a lean pony and don't really like fairings for missionary
journeys; but I'm only rationalizing the lack of Ks to...
I pretend,
"She/he meant well." But, deep down, having discerned demonic oppressions/possessions,
I know I'm just pacifying the fantasies and postponing the inevitabilities
about...
Spending so much
time on the lusts of others, I lie about my own; though I know OC's counsel is
right: "Yield for one second to anything in the nature of lust...'I must
have it at once'...and you are a bondslave to that thing. There is no
release in human power...Yielding to Jesus will break every form of slavery in
any human life."
I know that.
But, like Paul
(see Romans 7:7ff.), I know Stanley is right: "We fluctuate between two
mind-sets - that of the Spirit leading toward God and that of the flesh leading
away from Him."
Atwood was right:
"No matter how good we become, we're never good enough not to need Jesus
to save us from our lusts tearing us away from Him."
I lie.
I don't want to
lie; but I do because it makes me feel sooooooo
much better than...
Psst.
This is about the true
origin/nature of schism.
@#$%
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.
@#$%
A friend wrote to
me about a church that is fighting with its higher judicatory to leave its
denomination for another denomination.
I wrote,
"This is why those who need Jesus outside of His Church laugh at
the church and are repulsed from Jesus by those who claim to be so close
to Him."
It reminded me of
a friend who has been abandoned by a friend because he wouldn't join
him to leave one stinking denomination for another stinking denomination.
I empathized.
Then I prayed and
prayed and prayed and found no comfort or consolation or any of OC's strong
calm sanity for him or me until I was led to Proverbs 18:1.
I read it in
Hebrew; taking a long time because my Hebrew sucks as much as some of my
sermons.
I read it in over
a dozen different translations/paraphrases.
A conclusion was
reached.
It's time to stop
talking about schism.
It's time to
start talking about lies.
Fathers.
Sin.
@#$%
Blessings and Love!
6 comments:
I assume OC means Oswald Chambers, which more people need to know because he is an ultimately sane Christian. I would be interested in finding some clarity about our present compelling schism as a lie. I see it more as a failure of faithfulness and a failure of humility and mercy.
Very brief summary of the KD: Falsehoods cause fractures!
Pastor Dennis,
Very well said as well as identified, brother!
psalmfox,
Amen, amen, amen!
Amen!!! God loves the Truth the best! He IS the Truth!
It/He sets us free! Freeeeeeedom!!!
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