Underground Exiles

More likely than not, this post is going to get me in trouble with the elders in charge of H20, as well as an ex-girlfriend, and various other groups of people.

I was recently told that if I would just be a little more meek, my sermons would go down easier. A couple of weeks before that, I was given practically the same advice.

I was raised Southern Baptist, with this image of

“gentle Jesus, meek and mild,”

to quote the old hymn by Charles Wesley. Then I grew up and read the New Testament for myself, and it seemed like Jesus really enjoyed screwing with religious people.

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Here’s God’s providential timing for you:

Last night I posted about really needing an empowering work of grace in my life. I feel like my struggle with anger and arrogance is sin; there’s no other way to put it.

This evening when I got home from the job, I had a delivery waiting for me. Unbeknown to me, a buddy had ordered a copy of The Mortification of Sin by John Owen for me. At the moment I’m struggling, a friend that has no clue what I’m dealing with sends me a book about murdering my sin.

Then I’m trying to stay up to date on the other blogs I like by way of my feedreader, and I found this post, by Dr. John Piper.

I’m beginning to suspect that God is trying to get my attention.

I really would appreciate ya’ll praying about this, because I think it’s important.

It’s come to my attention, again, that my passion comes across as anger. I freely admit that for the majority of my life I’ve been a pretty angry guy. I’ve been described more than once as being emotionally closed off; personally, I’d disagree, not because it isn’t accurate, but because it doesn’t even scratch the surface.

There is one emotion, and just one, that I can tap at will. It’s anger. I freely confess that I’ve been an angry, angry guy for the majority of my life. It’s extraordinarily hard for me to contact any emotion other than pure, unadulterated rage. Because of this, I bleed anger, even when I’m not angry.

Five years in the US Army didn’t make any of it better, it just makes it worse. It added an arrogance to my personality that isn’t winsome or appealing at all. Now, what you get when you talk to me, despite a lot of work on my part, is angry arrogance.

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So here’s a quick comparison between Christianity and Scientology:

1. “You have heard that it was said, An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, Do not resist the one who is evil. But if anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also.” - Jesus, Matthew 5.38-39
2. “An enemy… may be injured by any means or tricked, sued or lied to or destroyed.” - L. Ron Hubbard, Penalties for Lower Conditions, HCO PL 18 Oct 67
3. “Let what you say be simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything more than this comes from evil.” - Jesus Christ, Matthew 5.37
4. “Handling truth is a touchy business … Tell an acceptable truth.” - L. Ron Hubbard, The Missing Ingredient, 13 August 1970.

Maybe it’s pointless for me to attempt a point by point comparison of the Bible with Hubbard’s blasphemous views on the subject. The shocking differences are all too obvious. It’s difficult to resist the temptation, when Scientology publications state that “you can be a Christian and a Scientologist at the same time”.

Now that I’ve gotten FeedDemon all setup and working properly, I’m subscribing to some of my favorite blogs by way of my aggregator, and at the top of the list is the Desiring God Blog, featuring Pastor John Piper.

Many of Dr. Pipers books sit dog-eared on my bookshelf, and have profoundly influenced me in the last 2 years. Discovering God’s Passion For His Glory was like stumbling on a cave full of treasures. While Dr. Piper freely admits he is not a primary teacher in the sense that Jonathan Edwards was, he has still been a powerful instrument of God’s grace to me, and for that I am so incredibly thankful.

While checking FeedDemon today, I found his newest blog post, Sometimes Only God Can Feel Hope, and wanted to recommend it to you all. Once again, Piper hits a home-run.