Spiritual Soapbox

Note:Everything in this blog is completely and totally serious. I use a lot of sarcasm in the other six blogs, but I assure you sarcasm will have no place here. Please know that everything I write here is written with sincerity and humility

Shalom! Life is good. Life is very very good. When the spirit is at peace, it seems like everything else just falls into place. Everything works. That's sort of a loose interpretation of what "shalom" means. Any language using that as it's primary greeting receives my full endorsement.

Spirituality is a cornerstone of history, culture, society, and life itself. No endeavor more than spirituality has impacted mankind more. Spirituality created religion - a standardized method of enacting one's spirituality. Religion has its pros and cons, and can do a lot of good for a lot of people. But it can also harm if used as a tool of manipulation. Religion without spirituality is extremely dangerous and almost always used for harm. The pursuit of spirituality by the majority of our fair planet is what gave religion its power, and I think a lot of people are starting to discover that they want more of one and less of the other.

I am a born-again, holy spirit filled Christian. But what does that mean? Isn't that just a name for a set religion? What does "Christ" mean?

It certainly wasn't a guy's last name. Jesus was given the title Christ which comes from the Greek "Khristos" meaning "anointed". It was a title given to him in Greek chiefly by the apostle Paul long after Jesus had left this earth. Anointing in this case has a clear connection to divinity. The power and the miracles that Jesus displayed on this earth and the influence he still has today are a direct reflection of his own anointing - his divine power.

So, when I say I'm a Christian, I don't mean that I belong to a religion. When I call someone a Christian, I don't mean that they are part of a religion. When I say Christian, I'm talking about the spiritual anointing that Jesus himself had. A Christian is an individual that has regained their anointing from God.

I say regained because it has been given to everyone. It's a gift - an endowment to all mankind. But some large number of years ago, a fellow named Adam and a lady named Eve introduced sin into the world, and we've been doing it ever since. And that is how the anointing is lost. The divine power of God that we're all supposed to have is taken from us by our own sins. We have to get rid of the sin in order to get that power back.

So how do we get rid of sin? It's simple. Something has to die. In the time of Moses and Abraham and leading right up to the day of Jesus, one would pray and pass the sins to an animal. Then, the animal is destroyed and the sin right along with it.

Well, when mankind was ready, a new sacrificial lamb was sent to this earth. God himself came to earth and lived a life free of sin. During his time here, he showed us how to live and how to regain the anointing, and then he died. But it wasn't just a physical death as with the animals of the old testament. On a spiritual level, outside of the bounds of space and time, every sin that was ever committed and every sin that ever would be committed was placed on Jesus Christ and he was destroyed and was sent to Hell because one cannot enter Heaven under the weight of sin.

Now conisder that. A person says something mean, and they feel bad. A person knocks someone down and hurts them, and they feel worse. A person kills another person, and they feel terrible! Sin is a huge weight. When we sin, it takes a terrible toll on us mentally.

So imagine living a sinless life, avoiding temptation, and dealing with the struggles of the everyday world, and then after you've helped so many people in so many ways, you have to take all of their sins and the sins of their ancestors and descendents on your shoulders. It's impossible to think about - all that sin at once! Then Jesus had to go to Hell!

And that was the plan all along. Jesus was the avenue for God to enter Hell and take what Satan had stolen from Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden so long ago. 3 Earth days later (who knows what that is in Hell days), Jesus had defeated Satan, and he rose from the dead and all mankind was given the chance to regain the anointing.

I have taken Jesus up on his offer because the power of God seems an extremely useful tool to have in your arsenal.

However, I am a long way from perfect, and I have to repent regularly just the same as any other God-fearing individual. So, in what will become a regular part of this blog, I will repent publicly for everything I write during the week that offends anyone or that I deem was sinful to write. As for everything else that I do, well, that's going to stay between me and the big guy.

Periodic Penitence:

Dear heavenly father...

• Forgive me for making light of Alcoholism in the Spectating Savant on Monday. It is a problem that plagues a lot of people, and I apologize for trivializing it


• Forgive me for making Nancy Pelosi out to be a man in the Political Pariah on Tuesday. Also, forgive me for suggesting that she is unqualified for her position with little to no evidence supporting the claim.


• Forgive me for comparing playing Nintendo to having sex in Video Gaming Virtuoso on Thursday.


• Forgive me for the story I wrote on Friday in An Alliterated Blog Name. I didn't write anything explicit, but there were certainly implications of sex and violence.

That's it, I hope you liked the first week of patrickjdobson.com!

Tschüs!

"Give, and it will be given to you. A good measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over, it will be poured into your lap. For with the measure you use, it will be measured to you."(Luke 6:38)

Getting to church every Sunday is a difficult prospect; especially for a college student. The status quo is to drink to a black-out state on Saturday nights, chase members of the opposite sex, fall asleep around 4am, and get up the next day around 2 or 3pm. Thereafter, one must continue to lie in bed until the hangover has subsided enough to move again.

So waking up at 8:30am on Sundays takes a little bit of sacrifice. Not total sacrifice, mind you. I still drink regularly with my friends on Saturday night, but normally I'm in bed before 1 or 2am at the latest.

But I'm not alone in my trek to church every sabbath. 44% of Americans 18 and over go to a religious service once a week. That rate goes up over longer periods of time as (understandably) not everyone can get to church every week.

Going to church can be tough enough. But giving money to the church while you're there? As much as 10% of your income? Surely that is a sacrifice only for the truly devout!

If you think it's a bit much, you're not alone. This article outlines the tithing habits of Americans early this decade. Obviously, the economy is not in the place now that it was then, but I think the numbers still serve my point: Tithing is not the easiest faith leap to make.

It hurts me to think that so many people can go to church every week, yet so few of them pay an offering to their church. We look to the church as our source of spiritual guidance and empowerment, and we should be willing to provide that church with the means to continue empowering us.

Because tithing can be such a difficult prospect, ministers must preach on the subject to finance their ministries. Preachers have attempted a myriad of tactics to finance their ministries over the centuries. In the past, it was "Give or go to hell!" or "Pay to get your loved ones out of purgatory!". I assume a lot of preachers still use this tactic, but the prevailing wallet-opener of our day is "Give and get rich".

Judging by the rise of such ministries that preach this message like Kenneth Copeland Ministries, and Joel Olsteen Ministries, the message is effective. The reason it's so effective is because it's true!

There is scripture all over the Bible that supports it. The above "Give and it will come back to you..." and the ever popular "...A man reaps what he sows. [...] the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life" Galatians 6:7-8. These scriptures provide powerful spiritual proof that giving reaps rewards. However, I think it's a lot simpler than listening to God's command to give. Sit back and think about it for a second: God is the all-knowing, all-powerful master of the Universe. The wealth of this world is nothing to him. It is of no consequence for the Almighty to transfer a thousand dollars or a million dollars or a billion dollars from one location to another. It seems to me that a being with infinite knowledge and wisdom would be able to make lucrative investment decisions and soundly manage that wealth.

So why wouldn't you want him to trust you with that kind of money? That's really what it's all about. If you use your blessings to bless others; if you love people with your money; if you lift up others in the name of the Lord, why wouldn't you be continually blessed? If I was the one giving you the money, I'd see you as a good investment. God sees it the same way.

Building a relationship with God is all-encompassing. It's not just about a spiritual alliance or an emotional report. It's also a mental empowerment, a social tie, a creative resource, and, in this context, a financial partneship.

People hear this message and they like it. They think, "Alright! I'm going to start a financial partnership with God, and get filthy rich!" Well, there's a little more to reaping then just tithes and offerings.

While the scriptures and principles are true, one should be very careful with them when putting them into practice. While further financial blessings are a side effect of being generous, they should never be seen as more than that - a side effect.

If you start giving, you'll start getting. But once you've made that committment to give, you can't lose sight of the fact that you're giving to LOVE and NOT giving to GET. If you lose sight of that, then greed can begin to sneak in, and, although you may keep giving, the love in your generosity is gone. And when the love is stripped from spiritual acts, the power is stripped from spiritual acts.

How often do you here about it? Some billionaire will write a million dollar check to some charity, and it'll get all over the news. They'll even have celebrations! The charity will put on a concert or a parade or some such gaudy spectacle, and the climax of the show will put the billionaire up on a pedestal as he gives a relatively small portion of his fortune to the charity on a 3ft x 7ft novelty check. After publicity, tax breaks, and ego massaging, what has this individual given away? Almost nothing! The generosity in the giving is masked and anything resembling love emanating from the gift is severely compromised.

Giving in love is one of the most powerful things in which a Christian can partake. And it's not always going to church on Sunday and putting 10% into the tithe basket. Christians should finance their source of spiritual empowerment, but there are other forms of generosity too. Sometimes it's giving the rest of your hoagie to one of your roomates, or giving a friend a ride to the airport. Sure, you'd like to eat the rest of that grinder or keep playing video games rather then make the 90 minute round trip, but that is what generosity is! It's not giving a $2 million when you've got $57 billion, it's giving of your self and sacrificing part of yourself while expecting nothing in return.

That's what love is.

And love is what it's all about.

Tschüs!

Perennial Penitence

• I'm sorry for cursing so much in my rant against ESPN in my sports blog. That was not opperating in love, and I apologize.
• I'm sorry for bashing Dreamworks and Warner Bros. in my last movie blog. Just because I don't agree with their motive, doesn't mean I should bash them thusly.
• I'm sorry for all the bad things I've said about Paul Haggis and his work. He's a creative mind, and I should be nicer to him.