Now Or Later

This blog is dedicated to Max Price, Leroy and Tommy Callison, and Maurice (plus any various crackheads and many temps from Recycled Fibers of Ohio).

Let me start with the previous mentioned parties (as you may not even remember me). Believe it or not, working with you guys left a lasting impression. (a good impression) Max, with your first day temp ticket in your briefcase and saying,"I wish I owned this place so I could drag you out in the street and beat you into a pulp and not have to fire myself!" You taught me how to work hard but work steady; to keep an eye out around me for others, which was a very fundamental lesson that somehow I escaped learning even though I grew up in the church. To 'safely' operate a tow motor in very dangerous conditions...

Leroy, you taught me a lot. Thanks for putting ends on the extension cord that I found in the trash pile. Thanks for keeping an eye on me and helping out with lots of stuff. You'd better be nice to Tommy because he's the best thing you ever produced!

Tommy, if you've not gotten out of this crazy place, or if you're actually telling the truth, and you ARE impervious to pornography, you may be the only man on the planet that is. If that is so, blessings! Stay! Tear men away from the PC mag pile unless they're looking for Bibles! Dude, you sowed into my life so much. Praise God for you. Keep looking after your family. If you haven't been walking with God, He's still there and you're not a whore (and even if you are, He loves you, too). Thanks, bro.

Maurice, MAINTAINING AND SUSTAINING WITH NO COMPLAININ'! Thanks for the line, you big whiner, and I'm far enough away from you now that you can't kick my butt. You're a really good foreman...one of the best I've ever had.

For the rest of you who have read this far, and are still reading, thank you! Allow me to explain: I worked for about a year at a paper recycling plant in Moraine, Ohio (Dayton area). So for any of you think I'm not 'go green'...phooey. It's a tough job, but somebody's got to do it. The only reason I left the job is because I was trying to stay faithful to my wife to keep a promise I made to her and to obey the Lord. God led me out of there with my stinkin' perverse mind and my $8 per hour to a company who paid better, had better benefits, better working environment, and it was good foundational training for work I would do later. I'm now making $16 per hour with the best benefits available in America. I work for a man who loves the Lord more than anything. That in itself is testimony to where God has led me. Praise His holy name!

So, back to RFO (recycled fibers of ohio)...

We recycled cardboard, and all kinds of paper. Most of it was pretty harmless (except for the dead dogs and unexplainable garbage). There was one pit in particular that tended to get a lot of people in trouble. The PC mag pit. If I remember correctly, that's 'post consumer magazines'. The pen is truly mightier than the sword, and pictures are even stronger. So, given the type of paper, this pit contained primarily old bibles that didn't make the final publishing, and hard pornography.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20 says,"This day, I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life that you and your children may live. And you may love the Lord your God, listen to His voice and hold fast to Him. For the Lord is your life, and He will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob."

Never in my life and never again have I seen such a dramatic example of blessings and curses in the same place. It was a very dark time in my life and my life was shot. I remember trying to be a good little baptist, singing praises to my God at sunrise. When the sun comes up, even over Moraine, it's beautiful. I remember singing in my tow motor "Holy, Holy, Holy". One of my problems at that time was that I was hip deep in pornography. I somehow managed to keep it hidden from my wife for about four months. That was the worst four months of my life. I finally got the guts (or she extracted it) to tell her the truth.

Let me take this moment to tell you the truth: You are naked before God. He sees everything you do, everything you think, and everything you watch, and everything you say. You will remember your life here for all of eternity, either in heaven or hell. Jesus is coming soon(He said 'soon' 2000 years ago and a day is like a thousand years and a thousand years is like a day to him). So let me say this first to me, and then to anybody who's listening...REPENT! FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD IS AT HAND! Wash your hands you sinners, and cleanse your hearts, you double minded. The judge of all the earth is standing at the door and you will have to give an account for everything you do in your life. That is the truth. Jesus Christ is Lord. He loves you, no matter how messed up you are. I'm sure you've heard the gospel a million times in America (we're just not very good at living it out). Thank you if you've read this far.

So, I made one promise to my wife that I actually kept. I told her if I kept falling into pornography I would quit my job. So I did. And God led me to much better places. I learned something there by what we produced. You take bulk paper, either in book form or magazine form, and you break it down into loose paper and feed it into a conveyor which feeds into a baler machine. So, then you ship bales of paper to the various paper mills where it is broken down to the core elements of the paper and then recycled. I wouldn't want any of you to actually see this, because it's rather disturbing, to see the precious word of God ignored and treated like trash right along side the nastiest filthiest porn that's available in the world.

God started speaking to me clearly about this time in my life. When I heard him speak, I tried to obey. He blessed me every step of the way. If you don't want to do the big study, I'll make it simple: trust and obey, for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus but to trust and obey. The whole law of God and the prophets is to love God with everything you have and to love your neighbor as yourself. Pornography, in particular, loves no one. It treats human beings (men and women) as if they were animals. Pieces of meat for sale to feed a ravenous, disgusting, pack of dogs that are never satisfied. I'll tell you one thing I learned: if you care about your livestock (I'm a farmer), put down the wolf. If you care about your family, put down the filth. If you care about your soul, and your eternal standing with God, you need to picture the end of your life as that bale of paper, because whatever you produce in life is going to be put before God for His inspection.

"Only one life, and soon it will be past. Only what you've done for the Lord will last." -Christafari

A Different Take On 'Train Up Your Child'

We were having dinner at Wendy's tonight, and I saw a horrific display of disrespecting parents. There was a boy who looked about pre-teen age with his father and grandmother. The boy looked at his dad (who had a cast on his arm) and he said," I can't stand you; why don't you just shut up!" He continued to say 'shut up' many times. My wife saw the grandmother giggling. Well, me in all my country charm, just about offered to this man: "Obviously, one of your arms is healing and your boy needs a thrashing. Do you want me to take him out back?" Apparently, it's not polite to talk about that in public, so I didn't say anything, but you all are going to hear about it now.

Proverbs 22:6 says," Train your child in the way he should go, and when he is old, he will not turn from it."

Now, I'll admit: I like to play with words. The Word of God also says that there is power in words; both for life and death. So, I like to see what life I can eke out of them.

Let's picture training your kid as being a lot like making a place for a locomotive to go. This is going to be a challenge to all the parents (in fact it's challenging me even as I write it). Let's start at zero: picture a train with absolutely no track. It's big, it's powerful and it has the potential to do great things. But it can go nowhere. If it tries to go anywhere, it'll just tear up everything around it. This is not a good thing, especially as we refer back to training children. You have to start somewhere, even if you haven't done much of anything. You may say," I don't know how to teach." I tell you, if you're able to hold down a job, make a living, etc., you could teach them something, even if it doesn't seem like much to you.

So let's go back to the train analogy. Picture a locomotive with not enough track. It's got a full head of steam, making good progress, and it's really going somewhere. Somewhere along the line, it runs out of track. This is possibly worse than having no track at all. We've all seen what happens when trains come off the track. This is a challenge, again, to all the parents: don't ever give up! Don't give up on your marriage and don't ever give up on raising your kids, either. You've started a good thing, now finish what you've started.

I've got to believe that the best way to raise kids is with vision. Picture this: you've not only got them started and kept them going, but you've given them a vision that will far outlast you. You need to understand that the family is the most important thing that you'll ever do. You could give your whole life to some company or job and they'll forget you in six months. Your family will remember you for generations. Understand that you have a position of power and influence. There is no better 'track' to follow than God's Word. It will not only help you steer your own life right, but that will lay the foundation for the future generations of your family.

How To Be Blessed In A Dark World

Deuteronomy 30:19 says,"This day I have called heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live."

Time to talk about a subject that people don't like about. Preachers, pastors, psychologists, counselors, teachers, etc. try to explain away problems or throw pills at them. Have we forgotten we are spiritual beings? Have we forgotten that this is a war? Have we forgotten that what we do matters? Yes, we have forgotten! Now let us remember!

1 Corinthians 16:22 says," If anyone does not love the Lord, a curse be on him!" That's the Apostle Paul being led by the Holy Spirit. I wanted to throw that one in there for anyone who likes to disregard the Old Testament. Curses by godly men were spoken well past Jesus' time. I understand that we can't take the Word out of context, but you can't treat it like two books--it's one book with the same message throughout. I'll sum it up: We made a big mess and God needs to get us out of it!

So now let us talk about what messes we've gotten ourselves into. One thing that we do from time to time (but some of us are really good at) is DISOBEDIENCE. Disobedience brings a curse! REBELLION, DISRESPECT FOR AUTHORITY (whom God put there), ANY FORM OF OCCULT (horoscope, witchcraft, mind-altering drugs), NEGATIVE SPEECH, MORAL SINS, SINS OF OUR ANCESTORS, LEGALISM, CARNALITY, APOSTASY, THEFT, PURGERY, ROBBING GOD (tithe), SELF-IMPOSED CURSES (cursing oneself or one's own body), CURSES SPOKEN OVER US BY SERVANTS OF SATAN, etc. These are all things we deal with that muck up our lives and steal our freedom that Christ wants to give us.

Haggai 1:5 says,"This is what the Lord Almighty says,'give careful thought to your ways. You have planted much, but have harvested little. You eat, but never have enough. You drink, but never have your fill, you put on clothes, but are not warm. You earn wages, only to put them in a purse with holes in it." If any of you think I'm preaching too hard, I'll tell you personally that my life used to be like this verse. Now that God has shown me the mess I was in and how to get out, I literally have no need. I don't want to brag, but I'm a blessed man. We've been able to do things on my meager income that people don't normally do, and it's all God's blessing. If you feel that you're putting your money into a purse with holes in it, you probably are!

My desire for the people of God is to be blessed. This can not be done accidentally. It's easy to fall into a pit or a murky quagmire, but it takes a little bit more work to get out of it. Let me just say that I highly recommend that you read Derek Prince's book "Blessing and Curses: you can choose". I'm pulling a lot of this information straight from this book and it has helped us immensely to put an end to curses and to enter the blessings of God.

One important thing that I've learned is that forceful men take hold of the Kingdom of God. If you're just content to get stomped on by the world and kicked around by Satan, then that's exactly what you're going to get. But if you, as a son or daughter of God, rise up in Christ and have the boldness to say,"I am blessed, and I want nothing less," that forcefulness will see you through. This is not for the faint of heart. There's a certain truth in the saying,"Nothing's free"; true, God's grace is free for everybody, but it cost Christ everything. His grace is free to all, but His blessings are conditional; you cannot live the way you want to and expect to be blessed. He tells us clearly in the Word what He blesses and what He doesn't. See Deuteronomy 28. The cool thing about God's Word is that if you honor it, the blessings will overtake you. On the flipside, if you rebel against it, the same thing happens with the curses. Either way, God's Word is supreme and it has the power to rule all men.

To Flee or to Fight

Ephesians 6:10-18 says,"Finally, grow powerful in union with the Lord, in union with His mighty strength! Use all the armour and weaponry that God provides, so that you will be able to stand against the deceptive tactics of the Adversary. For we are not struggling against human beings, but against the rulers, authorities, and cosmic powers governing this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realm. So take up every piece of war equipment God provides; so that when the evil day comes, you will be able to resist; and when the battle is won, you will still be standing. Therefore, stand! Have the belt of truth buckled around your waist, put on righteousness for a breastplate, and wear on your feet readiness that comes from the Good News of Shalom. Always carry the shield of trust, with which you will be able to extinguish all the flaming arrows of the Evil One. And take the helmet of deliverance; along with the sword given by the Spirit, that is, the Word of God. As you pray, at all times, with all kinds of prayers and requests, in the spirit, vigilantly and persistently for all God's people."

Clearly, if we were called by the name of Christ, we are most definitely in a war. God has equipped us to put the Enemy under our feet every day. Our pastor has been doing a series on spiritual warfare, and he brought up the question: "When can you know when to flee and when to fight?"

This brought me directly back to the story of Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. Christian and his friend, Hopeful were seemingly in a hopeless situation. Locked inside Doubting Castle, being starved and tortured by the giant named Despair (and his even more malevolent wife named Diffidence ). He remembers eventually that there is a key in his pocket...named Promise. He tries the key, and out they go! This was a lesson to him and to us that no matter how dark the situation, or how hopeless it seems, no prison can hold us when we remember the promises of God and act in faith. This is a good example of fleeing.

Now on to my favorite: the fighting!

Fast forward in the story...Christian has already made it to Paradise. An invitation is sent to his wife and sons to make the same journey. They accept and start along their own dangerous journey. Along the way, they got a guide named Mr. Great Heart. So eventually, they all came to Doubting Castle, read the warning, and considered what to do. Mr. Great Heart said,"Have I not been commanded to fight the good fight? And with whom should I fight if not the Giant Despair? So who will go with me?" Christian's sons said,"We will!" The boys brought him to the ground with slings and stones and Mr. Great Heart was the death of him. After that, they cut down Diffidence and buried them both under a heap of stones. After the giants were slain, they destroyed the castle. It took them seven days to tear it down. They saved two prisoners alive named Mr. Despondency, and Much Afraid (his daughter). These two they saved alive, but you would marvel to see how full of bones the castle was.

So, to sum this all up, You're going to have to follow whichever way the Holy Spirit is leading you to know whether to flee or to fight. Just remember that the promises of God are keys to unlock you from any form of darkness. The Sword of the Spirit (which is the Word of God) can cut through any enemy. I'm using a lot of analogy here, but I think it's pretty easy to tell if you're in a prison or not. I know I used to be in one, and God set me free. He used people like Mr. Great Heart. I also think the boys with the slings is a powerful analogy, too. Even boys that act in faith can knock over giants. But it takes a man who knows how to wield the Sword of the Spirit to kill the giant. So whether you're the one trapped, or the one that God called to set others free, the answer is always in the Word of God.

If you are called to fight on behalf of others, be extra careful if they are caught in the very thing that you have been freed from. Don't stop for a visit! Go in, help them to overcome their enemy, and get out! Just remember what Jesus said," Rejoice not that the demons submit to you, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

Magnets, Glue, and Marriage....Two!

Just to let you know, this is a Part Two to the previous blog called "Magnets, Glue, and Marriage, Too!". I felt it deserved continuation.

Matthew 19:4 says,"Haven't you read that at the beginning, the Creator made them male and female and that he said,'for this reason, a man shall leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two are to become one flesh?' Thus they are no longer two, but one. So then, no one should split apart what God has joined together."

So let's go back to our example of a magnet:

A magnet represents a married couple; designed to stick together. Suppose you and your spouse decide to go your separate ways. This creates a very fundamental problem (I've never been divorced, but I've observed plenty of divorces among my friends. These are just my thoughts. I hope they don't come across hurtful).

That magnet that has a break in it is only designed to fit perfectly with its other half. It will still stick to anything metallic; it may even stick very strongly, but that perfect fit will never be acheived while being stuck to anything else but it's original other half. When it's God that has joined you together, nobody can improve on His work. There are only varying degrees of how much you mess it up!

Just think for a moment, where would we be if Adam and Eve hadn't resolved that whole 'downfall of man' marital spat in the garden? The first recorded work of the enemy in the garden resulted in a division in the very first marriage! He's still playing that same game today, and he's upped the stakes. The divorce rate is AS high if not higher, in the church. The best way to deal with a snake who's trying to mess up your garden is to crush his head.

"Remember, I have given you authority so you can trample down snakes and scorpions, indeed, all the enemies forces; you will remain completely unharmed." -Luke 10:19

Too many people (Christians I know) think that 'if I leave him (satan) alone, he'll leave me alone!'. FALSE!!!! He's not a bee, he's a snake! By the way, when God cursed Lucifer, he said that he'd eat of the dust of the earth his whole life. WE are made of the dust! So, if you're walking in the flesh, you're giving him plenty to feed on.

Men, especially, it is your job to guard your wife. Satan knows that the woman is the weaker vessel (that's why he went for Eve first). If Adam had been acting as he should have, as her protector, there would have been no deception. He would have dealt with the snake before he had a chance to speak. We're not here to give glory to the devil, but I don't want you to be ignorant of his devices, either.

To let your marriage be fixed by God(after there's been a breakage), you have to intentionally turn away from anything that's drawing you apart from your spouse, forsaking all others. The truth is, you will be attracted to many things around you, and many things will try to draw you away. Only your willingness to be used by God, and his power to fix can ever make things the way they were meant to be.

Magnets, Glue, and Marriage too!

God works in mysterious ways! When he speaks, He can take something insignificant and speak divine wisdom even through every day,mundane things.

I work with magnets at my job to hang up blueprints etc.... I have these small disc magnets, only about an inch in diameter, and one of them broke. I learned something about round magnets then:when a round magnet that used to be one piece gets a broken spot in the middle, the same magnetic energy that used to hold the piece together now opposes each other from the center.

I pretty much always keep a bottle of gorilla glue on me , because stuff is always breaking! Elmer's school glue is ok if you want to make something glittery or do a kindergarten project, but if something is REALLY BROKEN you need something stronger. So I began to try and fix the broken magnet. I almost immediately thought of marriage when the magnet broke....

Our own marriage was broken at one point, many people thought we wouldn't make it (including ourselves at times). Some "well meaning" christians even suggested divorce or separation! They should've followed scripture: Malachi 2:16 says," I hate divorce and marital separation"(amplified ). I believe we are now living in the times that the Bible refers to when it says " the love of most will grow cold". It is very dangerous and deadly to the life of God within you to listen to any sort of worldly advice or psycho-babble (as I call some solutions for personal problems). We need to seek God's heart and God's heart is always for restoration and reconciliation. We tried just about everything out there to try to help our marriage. I was an extremely hot headed and abusive husband and we were both hard headed. I remember something being said to the effect of " til death do us part, so to get rid of me, one of us is leaving in a body bag!"

Back to the illustration of the magnet, you have one piece that is now two and it is OPPOSING ITSELF FROM ITS VERY CENTER! I heard a quote once that said,"You cannot fix a problem on the same level it was created." So obviously, we need power greater than the opposing forces and a bond stronger than they are to hold them together. Matthew 19:4 says,"Haven't you read that at the beginning the creator made them male and female, and that he said,'For this reason a man should leave his father and mother and be united to his wife and the two are to become one flesh'? Thus, they are no longer two, but one. So then, no one should split apart what God has joined together." The better thing is always that stuff wouldn't break. But we live on Planet Earth. Magnets break and so do marriages. As sure as a magnet can't fix itself, you in your own strength cannot fix your marriage if it has a fracture.

The way to fix a broken magnet that is opposing itself is a wonderful illustration of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I must say at this point, that anything short of God's Word and the power of the Holy Spirit is insufficient. The C-clamp(and my fingers) represent the work of God the Father. The Gorilla Glue represents the Holy Spirit. The water represents the blood of Christ. Gorilla Glue is water-activated and so also is the power of the Holy Spirit in your life. There is no other way to activate His power. I put the glue and the water on both pieces of the broken magnet, and began trying to clamp them. Between them opposing each other, being covered in glue, and getting stuck themselves to other metal objects, it was quite a trick to get them clamped. With some difficulty, I did manage to get them clamped. In the end, the power of the C-clamp is greater than the opposing magnetic strength. Once clamped, the glue is strong enough to keep them together even though the opposition is technically still there. The break was fixed and the magnet was restored to its normal function.

I just want to offer encouragement to anybody who feels like giving up. There's no way that I can shut up about what God has done in our life. I knew during the saving process, that He was going to use us and use our story as an example to others because a lot of people give up for a lot less than what we've been through. He(God) is a Master at restoring broken lives. No matter if its a small fault or if you're completely broken and separated, with God all things are possible. With the power of God the Father (clamping you), the power of the Holy Spirit (bonding you), and the power of Christ (activating the Holy Spirit) there is no break that he can't fix.

Purified By Fire

I have always had a big thing for music-- especially harder edge stuff, ( I have come to find out it's a strange manifestation of being a preacher's kid; it's basically sermons set to music hard enough to bash your head in!)There is a problem with this though: When I was a young man, full of anger and rebellion , this type of music was an outlet. Instead of having a healthy way to work through my feelings, I just vented it out to the music. Proverbs says that only a fool gives full vent to his anger; so in my foolishness , I opened up myself to lots of demonic activity (This is something that the Lord has led me recently to overcome. Praise God! after praying for freedom and taking authority in Christ to expel the demons, the Lord led me one night to clean out my collection of music and movies etc.) .

What was the standard? I simply let the Lord speak to me about each thing I put my hand to; if it had any sort of a negative confession or something that was unpleasing to God, I put it in a pile on the burn pit, and let it burn! A few of the things were a little hard to part with, but the more I let Him lead me I felt better for it. After a while, we had quite a blaze going! I said: Lord let is be a pleasing fragrance to you. Even a lot of my so-called Christian music was full of bad confession, and Jesus is the high priest of our confession, and so it was really dangerous to be letting this stuff into my mind and heart--it's just like eating junk food: garbage in garbage out!

I am pleased to say I've had a lot of growth since that night.

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ:

The enemy has totally influenced every segment of our society and even the church with all forms of media, leading MANY astray into darkness. Brothers and sisters! We need to ask the Lord to refine us and rid ourselves of this junk! His holiness is the standard! Anything less, if you don't burn it now, HE WILL BURN IT LATER! It's your choice. you can let him convict you now, or answer to Him for all this garbage when you stand before him in his glory and see the flames lick up everything worthless.



1 Corinthians 3:12 says, "Let each man be careful how he builds,for no one can lay another foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus the Messiah. Some will use Gold , silver and precious stone to build on this foundation; while others will use wood, grass and straw but each one's work will be shown for what it is, the day will disclose it because it will be revealed by FIRE -the fire will test the quality of each one's work. If the work someone has built on the foundation survives, he will be rewarded;if it is burned up , he will suffer the loss;he will escape with his life , but it will be like escaping through a fire.."

I got a clear vision of this scripture one day while talking to the Lord. What a waste to go through all this life , with all it's trials, only to have the very thing you lived for burned up right before your eyes in the presence of a Holy God! I know it is not wise to compare yourself to anybody else, but just thinking of quality of life here, it's either going to be treasure or trash from God's point of view. I prayed at that time that I would not be one of those escaping through the flames, but that I would have something to show from my life here on earth. This life is nothing but a vapor: Here today , gone tomorrow. Eternity is forever. I can't quite wrap my mind around what forever is, but if I'm going to remember my life here, I sure want it to be worth remembering.

Dear Lord, refine us with your fire now!, while were are in these clay tents. Help us to be malleable in your hands, to work us into something beautiful for your kingdom!