Merry Christmas and website has a new home

I'll start out wishing you all a wonderful Christmas.

ESV: Luke Chapter 722. And he answered them, Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.
23. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.

ESV: John 20:29. Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

And it appears that the EFT for SW website domain transfer to it's new home was accomplished this afternoon, and thankfully I think I got everything updated and configured just in time. When I was configuring things I discovered that pictures weren't showing up and I literally spent hours last night trying to figure it out. It turns out it was a simple setting in the cpanel web admin page.

I also updated the Drupal software to the latest version (6.15) that was just released last week, and changed the color of the theme from forest green to teal. I thought the forest green was just a bit too dark. If you discover anything that doesn't look right or doesn't work, feel free to leave a comment here or send an email, or leave a comment on the website forum.

Apartment for rent?

I had my website set up to email me when there was a new comment to an article. I received an email a couple of days ago and put off looking at it until today; and when I got to my website I see it has a page for 'Apartment for rent at eft-sw.com'. Obviously that's not my website. I tried to pull up the page for my hosting provider (witnesstoday.org) and it just said 'connecting to...' but it never pulled up the page.

The last communication I had from the person that ran (or runs?) witnesstoday was back in May, he was moving the servers to a new location. I haven't heard anything that he was shutting down the service or anything, but possibly that's what happened. I also believe the Lord told me a few weeks ago to get a new hosting provider, but I haven't done that.

So the EFT for Spiritual Warfare website is currently unavailable, and I'll be finding a new host and I'll post updates here. I think I need to start tapping and praying!

Update Dec. 15, 2009

It appears that my website is back up, there was a hard drive failure after a software update, apparently. I'm still a little baffled why my site came up apartment for rent, but it's back up now. I'm still in the process of changing to a new hosting company; which I found out about on a mail list for Christians using linux. There's a good possibility the site will have a new domain -- I'll keep you posted here.

Update Dec. 19, 2009

I could start a new post, and just title it 'arggh!' because that's my mood sometimes when trying to update stuff for the website. I get one thing figured out on my local machine (like Apache and modsecurity that complained about running update.php on Drupal when I used it to update to the newest versions of various things, including Drupal itself). So it feels like two steps forward and 1 step back sometimes. The newest thing is that somehow, in getting footnotes in the right place using the footnote module, the rest of the article seems to have lost it's formatting. My blockquotes and paragraphs look like they should be there but the articles all just run together in one big block of text when I look at them. 

All of that to lead up to -- my website is going to a new hosting company but it's going to have the same domain. The site should look mostly o.k.; but there may be a few things I still need to get figured out -- like not having sentences all run together in one big block with no formatting applied. And I thought I was going to work on sending out some Christmas cards today. 

The Misunderstood God

I've been spending a good amount of time the last few months learning linux (see previous blog posts), and most recently installed Fedora 12 from the beta, and except for a few things that don't work quite right, I like it a lot. I even managed to get it installed on my old laptop that I thought was going to run Fedora 7 until it dies a natural death. In addition to that, I've been trying out different software to see what works and I'm using 'Bilbo Blogger' to write this. For the linux fans out there, apparently Bilbo is a KDE application but I'm using it on the Gnome desktop just fine so far. And in going to the link, I discover it's now called Blogilo. I'd tried it on Fedora 7 and it didn't work very well. But this is a newer version that has a much better look & feel already -- I really don't like using the blogspot editor much. Hopefully this means I'll be back to blogging more regularly. I do have at least 2 other articles I want to write and get posted soon.

I stopped by Facebook earlier today and saw info. about a page for a new book by Darin Hufford (I've blogged a couple of his articles on here before) called The Misunderstood God. I haven't read it yet, but I read a couple of reviews and wanted to link them here, and add a couple of comments.

This is one review by a former pastor, it's worth reading the whole thing. Here's one portion that matches some of what many of us, including me, were brought up to believe about God:

...A God with a hair-trigger temper; someone who may be nice, but only so that He can get what He wants; someone who craves attention for Himself, who loves to impress you with his power; someone who loves to remind people how wonderful He is; someone who is disrespectful toward His inferiors; someone who gets upset if He's not given enough attention; someone you need to walk on eggshells around; someone who always reminds you of your mistakes, and uses fear and threats to keep you in line; someone that focuses on your faults and weaknesses; someone who doesn't really care if you heart gets stepped on; someone who doesn't trust you to anything right; someone who is constantly disappointed in you; and someone who, if things get bad enough, will leave you...

When I read that part, my thought was (now that I know a little better) that sounds like a pretty good description of the devil, and not of the God I've come to know. Then on the other much shorter review, the author said just that.

Darin shows how religion has disfigured the God of the Bible, giving him a personality that has more in common with the devil, than it does the Father of all love. He holds God to his own definition of love in I Corinthians 13 to show us that he is the very definition of love itself and as we come to appreciate that, we’ll find greater grace and freedom to live in [t]his life.

Another view of God that some like to present is one who is in control of all things at all times; so if something bad happens it's because he 'allowed' it. I think that can lead one to feeling apathetic or somewhat condemned. I addressed that somewhat in my article (on my website) about whether the devil needs to get God's permission to harm a believer, as in the story of Job. While I'm not an expert (and none of us can be, I don't think?), I think that view is a bit too simplistic. And that's probably worth exploring in another article. In the meantime, I look forward to reading Darin Hufford's book, along with 2 or 3 others I have on my list to get soon.

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That's my King

I haven't blogged in a while, though I do have a couple of links to articles I'm going to share shortly. My laptop computer was acting flaky over the summer, so I decided to break down and get a new computer. I got a new desktop (AMD phenom triple-core with 2 gb of ram, it's fast!!); installed linux CentOS 5.3 as well as Fedora 11; about a month ago. I got it with no operating system installed, so that made it easier and a bit less expensive. Last weekend I spent updating the eft-sw website to the newest version of Drupal (6.14) as well as updating a few modules.

I just signed onto the International Association of Theophostic Prayer Ministry website, and they had the video below as a featured inspirational video -- I really liked it so I thought I'd share it here. More later. Enjoy!

A License to Sin · is that what the grace of God is about?

A very good message on the Free Believers Network blog, it's a bit long but very good. Here are a couple paragraphs that I particularly liked, but you may resonate with other parts of it.

For any relationship to be authentic, it must start with a forever covenant of eternal security. Unfortunately, today, most relationships don’t have this one foundational element and they are plagued with secrecy, uncertainty, and shallowness. I think that more than anything, today’s relationships are saturated with control. I have found that control is humanity's antidote to insecurity. This is where the heart of today’s Christian thinking exists.

Teachings about accountability partners, spiritual leaders, submitting to authority and church covering are widely accepted with little or no resistance. When a loving God is made to look unpredictable and not so loving, people submit to someone who they think might know better than them. They lose confidence in themselves and their ability to please an unpleaseable God, so they put themselves under the care and control of others in an effort to find security again.

It doesn’t surprise me that when the grace message is preached today, the first thing that comes to mind with the average Christian is sin. The grace message is spoken of as a “license to sin” and the mere thought of that scares people to death. It goes againstlicenseeverything they think the Christian life is about. Finding out that God loves you whether you sin or not, is a bit scary because people aren’t sure what they’ll do.

Part of giving someone freedom, is giving them their choice back. Christianity today has stripped us of our choice to sin. When we are told that sin separates us from God and we will be punished, our choice in the matter is taken away. We have an entire generation of people who quit sinning because of the outer voice of their religion rather than the inner personal voice of their heart. In other words, their quitting didn’t come from their heart; it came from their head. The grace message gives people back their right to sin, and it provides an atmosphere in which they can grow spiritually right and find truth in the center of themselves rather than in a system. A license to sin is not an encouragement to sin, but it’s the right to sin. Take away that right, and you take away relationship altogether.

"Everything is permissible for me"—but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"—but I will not be mastered by anything." --Paul--

Without a license to sin, I don’t believe people will ever know their own heart, much less the Heart of God. The problem is that in the process of molding themselves to fit religion'sknow self requirements, a person learns to deny any and all inner emotions of the heart that might cause them to sin. Things like anger, passion, lust and greed are shut down and the result is that they lose contact with self and eventually forget who they are altogether. Sadly, Christians today stand adamantly against sin, but they have no idea why. They don’t feel a thing in their hearts about sin, other than the memorized knowledge that “it’s wrong.” They believe it’s wrong, not because their heart sings that truth, but because that’s what they’ve been taught. When you shut down some aspects of the heart, you end up shutting down ALL aspects of the heart.

The EFT and SW website has a new look!

I guess it's been a while since I've posted anything here, hasn't it? Time flies when you're trying to figure out new software! During my switch from Win to Linux, and searching various message boards for answers, I discovered there is software that is also 'open source' like Linux for the purpose of website content management, called CMS. (CMS = content management software).

Since my previous web pages were mostly plain html pages, I didn't think they looked terribly professional. But I don't have the budget to pay a web-designer so I've tried to dress things up as well as I can as I learn how to do various things in html. Then when I discovered CMS, and did a little research and decided to try Drupal. I realized I should probably figure out how to use it and configure layouts and that sort of thing on my home computer before I sent it to the web hosting server. I spent 2-3 weeks just learning a bit of Mysql and installing server software and then installing and configuring Drupal.



Then when I did upload it all to the web hosting server a week ago, things didn't go quite as smoothly as I'd hoped; mostly because Drupal is written primarily to run on Linux (Apache) server software and my web hosting is using Windows server software. I couldn't get the theme and colors I wanted to show up; and my pictures weren't showing either. Thanks to information I found on the drupal forums, I think it's finally presentable -- though there are probably a few more tweaks and changes I'll make in the future.

In addition to the cleaner and more professional look and layout, it has a built-in ability to have people leave comments on articles, so I don't have to use the Google 'friend connect' gadget. One thing I didn't like about that gadget is that unlike the comments on the blog; it doesn't give me an option to have an email notice sent about new comments so I had to remember to log onto the friend connect page to see if any comments have been left and I keep forgetting to go over there. Another feature about drupal that I liked was the built-in option for people to sign in using OpenID. Yet another feature is a built-in user discussion forum, which is nice to have even if it doesn't get used by most visitors.

So please stop by and say hi, and feel free to leave a comment or suggestion over there or on here

Elijah and the Charismatics - FBN blog post

I just added some RSS blog feeds to Thunderbird, (e-mail program) so I'm reading some of the messages that came in on the feed. This one from the Free Believers Network blog touched on some of what this blog and my ministry is all about. It's a year old, but very good, by Darin Hufford. A few paragraphs are below:

Baal worship was about emotionalism.

The evidence is in the emotionalism. They are certain that God showed up because they got emotional and others did, as well. People were crying and sobbing with their hands in the air. After all, this is the normal human response to the Spirit of God. When God's Spirit begins to move, everyone in the room begins to break down and cry. I must have heard my Pastor over a thousand times speak the words, "The Spirit of God is in this room tonight - people are literally crying and sobbing." This has become a common understanding among Christians in America. When the Spirit moves, people get emotional. As a preacher, you can see the moment the Spirit enters the service because tears begin to stream down people's faces.

The irony is that I haven't found one account in all of Scripture where this was the human reaction to the presence of God. I don't recall anyone sobbing and crying the moment the Holy Spirit touched them in the New Testament, yet today we act as if the sobbing and crying is evidence of His presence. No one laughed uncontrollably either for that matter and believe it or not, in the almost 8000 year span of scripture from Adam and Eve to the Apostle Paul there wasn't one single person who "twitched" under the power of the Holy Spirit. No one was "Slain in the Spirit," no one's hands shook violently and thank God no one barked like a dog. I have come to the conclusion that modern day Charismatic emotionalism is nothing more than the resurrection of the Baal religion of the Old Testament times. I know for a fact that not every Charismatic behaves this way or believes like this. I know I don't. There are thousands of others however, who are in serious bondage to outright Baal worship and they don't even know it.

Many Christians today are caught in a ‘Prophets-of-Baal' mindset. I'm not saying that it's wrong to become emotional while in the presence of God. I am stating, however, that it's wrong to think that just because you get emotional, it is evidence of the presence of God, or that getting yourself worked up into an emotional frenzy is the same as creating an atmosphere where God will "show up." I have five children and trust me in this. When they get emotional, I CAN'T DO ANYTHING WITH THEM. In fact, that's about the only time when communication with them is impossible.

It's the straight-faced times that I long to share with them. That's exactly how your Father in heaven is with you. If you feel that God's dealings with you will always result in emotionalism you are basically missing out on an entire life with him. Unless you are suffering with chronic depression and feeling emotional ALL the time you won't have a daily walk with your Father. God cannot be conjured up. The act of trying to conjure Him up is Baal worship. New Testament Christians need to understand that He doesn't "show up" to our services. He lives inside of us always whether we feel Him or not. That's what faith is.

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such things there is no law. (Gal 5:22-23 ESV)

Switching to Linux - the saga

This is going to be a somewhat long post -- I'll keep it as brief as I can. Before I decided to switch to Linux, I decided to see if there were any books on the topic at my local library. They had 1 (one) whole book about Linux, that being the 4th edition of Learning Red Hat Enterprise Linux & Fedora, by Bill McCarty . It's 4th edition copyright was 2004; and there were 2 installation CD's enclosed. It explained some basics, which helped me decide to go ahead and make the switch. And of course, I also backed up a lot of important files to CD as well as to an external USB hard drive I got a few months ago.

I had a good idea there was probably something more recent available at a book store, so the following week I bought a Ubuntu linux book at Barnes & Noble that had an installation CD and DVD included. I tried out the live dvd, and it was slow due to having to access the DVD drive, but it came up eventually and I decided to go ahead with the install, after reading the instructions.

The Ubuntu install didn't work, when I used the text install option to see what the hang-up was, I got a message about a kernel panic. I'm not sure how a computer or a kernel can panic, and it's impossible to reason with a kernel that wants to panic; so I went online and read some things that suggested that it needed disk space for the install, it didn't know it was going to get the whole hard drive. So I spent much time defragmenting the 20 gig drive (which had 4 partitions), tried installing again, then got the same error message.

Since Ubuntu isn't the only linux distro, and since I had the RHE Linux and Fedora book with 2 disks, I decided to try to install Fedora instead. It went without a hitch. But then I discovered that I couldn't get online, since I'm using a usb - ethernet adapter for my DSL modem, and/or a Linksys cardbus (pcmcia) wireless adapter -- Fedora core didn't recognize either of them. That just wasn't going to work. Now I was ready to panic, since Win2k was no longer on my computer. I thought I'd see if I could find something newer at another book store.

I found a Fedora 7 'bible' at another store, and that installed just fine. And it did recognize my DSL modem connection, so I could get online. (While the software itself is 'free' -- these books sure aren't! Both books were about $50/each, which wasn't exactly in my budget, but it's nice to have them as reference. I'd actually recommend having at least one.)

Then I ran into the issue of getting Flashplayer installed and working, as well as getting my Linksys wireless cardbus adapter working, all of which required more research since that wasn't covered very well in the book I'd gotten. Thankfully there are a lot of good instructions online, you just have to be able to find it. For the wireless it took several attempts, trying different drivers, but eventually I got it working. Yay!

By now I found out that Fedora 7 was an 'old' version (it's only 2 years old, much newer than Windows 2000! But Fedora pushes out a new release about every 6 months, and they recently released Fedora 11.) I tried twice to install F11, using 2 different methods and it didn't work. So I had to re-install Fedora 7 twice. And F7 runs rather well on my laptop, I just thought it would be nice to use the newest version. It's also running the newest version of Firefox (3.5) just fine, too.

After relating some of the issues I had installing F11 on the Fedora Forums (here), someone agreed with me that my laptop configuration was at the lower edge of what is expected to work with F11 and then suggested I may want to look into Puppy Linux. I looked at it and since it's only about 100mb for the CD, I downloaded it, and tried it 'live' (meaning it'll boot from the CD and run in RAM, without disturbing your hard drive), which also had some issues. I discovered I could use the boot command option of 'acpi=force' to get it to boot, and it did run pretty fast. Since my 2nd (3rd?) installation of Fedora 7 used what they call a 'logical volume manager' I couldn't install Puppy on the hard drive with LVM.

I didn't really want the LVM anyway -- it's probably a good thing if you're running servers and need to add or remove drives while everything else keeps running, but for a single home computer, I didn't think it performed as well as using it without the LVM. So back to re-installing F7 yet again, with a free partition so I could install Puppy, too. I actually ended up installing a puppy derivative called 'Slaxer-Pup' because it recognized my wireless adapter, loads the drivers and everything -- which wouldn't work with Puppy 4.2.1 because the 'acpi=force' option disabled the IRQ that the wireless device uses.

One of the reasons I wanted to get Puppy Linux working was because I also have a 9 year old desktop PC that only has 64mb of RAM. I may decide to add more RAM, but if Puppy will run on it as it is, all the better! I'm not going to attempt that for at least a couple of weeks though. I suspect that if I had a newer computer, in the range of 2-5 years old, instead of a 10+ year old laptop, everything may have gone smoother. Some people install Linux and 'it just works', with a few tweaks here and there. I've certainly learned a lot, and I'm happy with my setup of a dual-boot of Fedora 7 and Puppy Linux.

One thing I noticed while visiting various websites, is that pictures and graphics seem to be sharper and crisper under Linux than they were in Windows(tm); I'm not sure why. I also noticed that some websites were un-readable, due to font issues. I did some research on that, and found some 'web core fonts' as well as some other fonts to install (in /usr/share/fonts); and during my several re-installations of F7, I always had a copy of those to put back on the system, so now everything looks good.

During the several weeks I was doing all of that, I also managed to listen to a couple of online radio programs about the new EFT 'open hand policy', and I'll do a post about that in the next few days or so.

Why I switched to Linux

I haven't posted much to the blog for the past few weeks, mainly because I've been spending a good amount of time switching the operating system of my used laptop to Linux, replacing Windows 2000. Why did I switch to linux? That's what this post will
answer.

As anyone who uses Windows(tm) and accesses the internet knows, no matter how careful you are, you really need to have a good virus scan or 2 available. I had been using Comodo and AVG scanners for at least a couple of years, both of them are free for home use. (The very first virus-scan software I used was McAfee, which ran on a floppy disk!) At the end of 2008 I was notified that Comodo was changing their software from single-purpose firewalls, virus scanners etc. to a 'suite' where all of those functions would be integrated -- and the minimum (operating) system requirement was Windows XP. My laptop has (only) 256mb of RAM, and if it would run XP it'd be very slow, so that wasn't an option. Spending several hundred dollars to buy a new laptop or desktop computer also wasn't an option. I still had the AVG scanner, but at the beginning of this year they basically went the same route, going to a 'suite' of virus and malware detection with minimum system requirements of Win XP. I did find one anti-virus software that would run in Win 2000, that being ClamAV. Since I'd heard of linux several years ago, I decided to do a bit of research and find out if that would be a viable option.

I discovered that linux has come a long way since I'd first heard about it 10-15 years ago; as far as ease of use, etc. When I heard about it back then, I'd heard it required a lot of programming to get it working, and learning programming wasn't something I wanted to do. I've been using a PC since the early 1990's, back in the DOS days, so I was comfortable with a command line, but it had been several years since I've really used one.

Also, back in the late 1980's / early 1990's or so, IBM and Microsoft had entered into a joint venture to develop a 'multi-tasking' OS -- they called it OS/2. At some point they parted ways, and IBM took over development of OS/2, when they released the version they called 'Warp' in 1994 I got it, and really liked it. It ran Windows 3.1 programs as well as DOS programs and OS/2 programs. There weren't many native OS/2 programs, but it seemed to run Win 3.1 and DOS programs better than they ran on their own. And being able to have more than 1 program running at the same time, back then, was pretty incredible for the DOS platform. It wasn't just a pretty task-switcher, it would really run a report in 1 task while you were writing a letter in the other task-window, while you were downloading your emails in yet another window; all in 8 mb of RAM, which is hard to believe today.

For various reasons, I believe mostly due to marketing agreements with Microsoft, almost no 3rd party software developers were working on or planning OS/2 software releases, and then Win95 came out, and though I thought OS/2 was a superior OS, it basically lost out to newer Microsoft developments. You can read the Wikipedia link above for more of the details. Though I tried at various times over the years to be a fan of Microsoft, I never quite succeeded. So now seemed like the right time to find a viable alternative.

In my quest for a Win2k virus scanner, I did run across a good malware detector that I used for a couple of weeks before I switched to linux -- I'd recommend it to those of you still using Windows. That is WinPatrol, it was nice to have Scotty on patrol for a brief time.

I decided to take the plunge, and part of that story will be in the next blog post.

You Have A Destiny - Article by Andrew Wommack

I really liked this article; below is a few paragraphs:

The word destiny is defined in the America Heritage Dictionary as “the inevitable or necessary fate to which a particular person is destined. A predetermined course of events.” However, I believe that definition is wrong. It implies that your destiny cannot be avoided or prevented. That is not scriptural and therefore just not true.

It’s true that your destiny is preordained, but it is not inevitable. Whenever I teach this, it always brings up questions about the sovereignty of God. There are some who teach the sovereignty of God in a way that leads one to believe everything happens for a reason and that God is behind it all.

If this is true, then you have to be prepared to blame God for every evil and bad thing that happens on the earth. That means every catastrophe, every war, every murder, every rape, or anything else you can name must be God’s will. If that were true, then God has not done a good job of running the world. I believe this teaching is the worst heresy in the body of Christ today. And it’s very destructive because it takes away the will to resist evil.

God does not force His will or His plan upon anyone. So, is He sovereign? Yes, if the correct definition for sovereign is used. Sovereign means supreme in power or rank. We all would agree with this definition, but I totally disagree with the way religion today uses “sovereign.” God does not make His will for our lives come to pass. We have to submit to God and resist the devil (James 4:7). We have responsibility.

God has a destiny for you, and He wants to reveal it. But He is not going to run you down. He is not going to steamroll you or force it upon you. That reminds me of Romans 12:1, which says you are to present yourself as a living sacrifice. A living sacrifice is a volunteer. If God were to force your destiny upon you, it wouldn’t be a sacrifice; it would be slavery.

Once you believe you have a destiny, you must be willing to sacrifice your will for His. Then, you must renew your mind to the Word of God so it can help you separate soul from Spirit, your soulish plans from God’s plans. Once that is in order, you simply do what you want to do. What a deal!

The whole article is very good, certainly worth reading.

eft-sw website not available Tuesday the 26th of May

I received a notice from my website host that they're moving the servers to another location on Tuesday May 26, just in case you tried to reach the site and stopped by here in the meantime. Projections are for it to down from approximately 6am to 6pm Eastern (U.S.) time.

Also, I'd mentioned in an earlier post that Gary Craig (who developed EFT) had changed the rules regarding the use of the EFT logo, so I put a palm branch in it's stead. It's a public domain graphic I found on a clip-art page a while back and I think it'll work unless or until I come up with an actual logo for my ministry or until I find another small graphic to add. When I designed (and re-designed) my website I set the colors so they'd be compatible with the EFT logo colors. Now that I have a different graphic, I decided to also change some of the website colors. If it's too much lavender / purple, feel free to leave a comment. I may reverse the light/ dark placement for a while. I liked the colors for spring, and then I may change them again in a few months.

If you don't see the changed colors yet (previously blue/gray and now lavender / purple-y), it's because I'm posting this before I've actually made the new page 'live', which will be later tonight or tomorrow. More later!

Hebrews Highlights: What Do You Believe? - Article - Andrew Wommack Ministries

Excellent article by Andrew Wommack.

Here are a couple paragraphs:

Yet today, the Old Covenant thinking is still prevalent in the body of Christ. Average Christians have been taught, and believe, that the sins they committed before they were born again were all forgiven the moment they were saved. But they believe the sins they commit after their salvation all have to come under the blood and be confessed, one by one.

The extreme legalist believes that if a Christian does not confess their sins they will go straight to hell. The less extreme believe that at the very least, the person will lose their fellowship with the Lord, and He will not answer their prayers. Both are wrong. If you have made Jesus your Lord, you’ve become a new creature, and sin is no longer an issue between you and God.

Hebrews 10:10 says,

“By the which will we are sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

Verse 14 goes on to say,

“For by one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified.”

I'm still working this out for myself, with His help, of course; it's a process.

Quantum Touch and channeling demons

I wanted to flag this article, regarding a family that encountered something called 'Quantum Touch'. I hadn't heard of it before reading this article, but it sounded similar to Reiki, from what little is mentioned in the article.

Apparently QT was developed by someone who listened to or studied the teachings of someone who channels a demon that calls itself Lazaris. I was introduced to some of those (Lazaris) teachings by someone in the mid 1990's; I had a couple of his cassette tapes as well as one of his books. They went into the dumpster (trash can) a few years ago, when I understood what it really was.

I also thought it might be a good place to tell my short Reiki story, particularly since there are some sites that purport to use what they call 'christian reiki'. In this, the devil uses deception in order to gain a foothold. First I'll quote a small portion from this article at the site linked above :

The spirit-world is real, but no one- not even the reikimasters have a clue- of what really is going on. ONLY Jesus Christ can help us!

... and from another comment on the page:

Many Christian websites and books make it seem very appealing and [say] that this is how Jesus healed. Your website makes perfect sense and in my heart I know that you are right, Reiki is not of God.

Around 1998 I attended a level-1 reiki 'atunement' and class in Seattle (I lived in Seattle at the time). I attended a sort of pre-atunement introduction on a Friday evening, and the next morning I had a major allergic reaction of some sort; with sneezing and runny nose, watery eyes, etc. Those symptoms were with me all day. There were 2 other women in the class in addition to myself. When it came time for the atunement, it was done separately for each person, with the other 2 people waiting in another room. During my atunement, the 'master' did whatever she does -- and then she was sort of baffled, because she said that it didn't 'take' for some reason. So she did it again, and I had the impression that it may not have taken the 2nd time either, but she said it did. I now believe the Holy Spirit was probably protecting me from my own deception.

Then, after the atunement we were shown how to use reiki on others, with each of us taking turns on the massage table, being shown where to hold our hands on another person to do the 'healing'. The whole process of doing a 'healing' takes about 45 minutes or so. Our only role in the process is to be a 'channel' of the 'healing energy' -- and I basically decided before the day was over that it would be a really boring way for me to spend my days. My thinking was that God gave me a brain for a reason, and performing reiki sessions as a career wouldn't be a good use of that. I think I tried using it on myself a couple of times and didn't get much out of it. So my reiki career was very short-lived, for which I now praise God.

If you're involved in reiki or 'quantum touch' (which appears to me to be a similar modality), please look at the reiki dangers site I linked above, which also has links to other sites on the topic.

he that doeth sin is of the devil; for the devil sinneth from the beginning. To this end was the Son of God manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil. (1Jn 3:8 ASV)

Struggling - the avenue of growth

I follow this blog on Google Reader, and really liked this message, so I thought I'd flag it here. It also reminded me that I'd heard something about the trees in the first 'Biosphere', that they didn't really develop their roots and fell over, because they didn't have any wind. Here's a quote from a climate study on that:

Wind is also necessary for creating hardy and strong trees. When it was first created, there was no wind inside of Biosphere 2. Plants grew relatively quickly, but they frequently fell over before they were of reproductive age. After some intensive observations and experimentation, it was determined that the lack of wind created trees with much softer wood than that species would normally make in the wild. They grew more quickly than they did in the wild, but they were harmed in the long run as a consequence.

So here's the blog post by the above title: Struggling - the avenue of growth

EFT Setup Phrase

I have had several people ask me about the EFT 'setup phrase' or affirmation; particularly the part about 'I deeply and completely accept myself' (or -- I would like to deeply and completely accept myself) and why do you say it three times? That is part of the basic EFT 'protocol' as it were, as developed by Gary Craig. Essentially, that part of the whole tapping sequence is to clear out any possible PR or 'psychological reversal'. PR isn't always present, but if it is it'll keep the rest of the tapping from doing any good. It's been estimated that it's only present about 30% of the time, but in some cases (like depression and cravings or addictions), it's present closer to 100% of the time. Since it doesn't take long to do the 'setup', we do it before we really know whether it's actually needed.

However, due to the questions, I decided to look in Roger Callahan's book Tapping the Healer Within , since it'd been a while since I read it, and found that he just taps the Karate Chop point 5 or 7 times IF the PR appears to be present, without any affirmation or 'reminder phrase'. I decided to try something a little different, and just say a 'setup phrase' once, rather than 3 times, (such as: Even though I have this fear, God hasn't given me a spirit of fear) while tapping the KC point -- you'd end up tapping that point or rubbing the Sore Spot, at least 5-7 times. I then move onto the rest of the tapping points with the reminder phrase. I've done that revised setup with myself and a few clients, and it's worked just fine. I have accordingly changed the tapping points I have available on my website. (see below) There was also the thought for me, that repeating the setup phrase 3 times was almost like a 'magic number', which smacks of witchcraft, which of course is in direct opposition to the topic of spiritual warfare, at least from a Christian viewpoint.

As a Christian, I have come to know I am accepted by God in Christ, so if you have a hard time with 'I accept myself' -- then by all means add it into the setup or say something like 'I know I am accepted in Christ Jesus and I can accept myself'. It's somewhat flexible. To illustrate the flexibility, here's a link (see below) to an article by someone else and how she selects setup phrases. What she uses as setup phrases, I would probably use as variations on the 'reminder phrase' while tapping the various points.

Lastly, while I'm mentioning changes, while I was reading the comments on the blog post I mentioned a couple of days ago about the online 'Summit', I discovered there was a change to the Open Hand Rights for EFT, and have accordingly removed the designation of having received the EFT-ADV certificate of completion on this blog and on my website, and have also removed the EFT Logo since it is no longer allowed to be a top of the page sort of identifier. I may add the logo somewhere else on the site as a secondary logo at some point, but for now I just have a palm branch in it's place. Since it looked silly to have the words Emotional Freedom Techniques next to the palm branch rather than next to the Logo that said EFT I removed that also. I also added a disclaimer that I'm using my version of EFT, etc. These new guidelines are apparently part of the fallout of the online 'Summit'. It's a bit annoying, but it is what it is.

20 Aug 2010 - I edited this article to remove the links to the EFT (emofree) website since it isn't up anymore. I also removed the link to the tapping points on my website since that has since moved and was a broken link, the tapping points are now an attachment to an article on the user forum of the site. In addition, I now have the EFT-ADV designation back on the blog and website as mentioned in the blog post earlier this year about Gary Craig's retirement.

Have you wondered why Gary isn’t part of The EFT® World Summit? - EFT Blog

I just read this comment by Gary Craig, about the 'world summit' and thought I'd post the link here, for those who may be interested. I'm still reading the comments, there are lots of them.

I wasn't going to sign up for the summit at all, because it originally sounded like (or I assumed?) it was going to be video presentations, and until last week I was using a dial-up internet connection. But I got a DSL connection last week and signed up for it, and it wasn't until I got onto the page the first day that I discovered it's audio, only. In addition, it's put out by the makers of the 'Try it on everything' DVD and book, and I've not seen the DVD and from what little I know of it, there's a lot of the 'law of attraction' belief, of which I have repented.

I wasn't interested in listening to all of the presenters, or even most of them for that matter; but I'll listen to a few of them and see if I can get some good pointers. But I appreciated Gary's input and figured I'd pass it on.

April 25 - update

Here's a new message from Gary Craig on the EFT World Summit topic.Just thought I'd post the link, to sort of complete the picture.

Classical Arminianism: THE CALVINIST'S APPEAL TO MYSTERY, OR ANTINOMY

Good article, thought I'd post the link:

Classical Arminianism: THE CALVINIST'S APPEAL TO MYSTERY, OR ANTINOMY

YouTube - Becoming Unshakeable In Times Of Shaking

IA message from Joseph Prince. Just over 5 minutes - good message!

Deception in the grocery aisle and inflation rates?

Have you noticed that certain items at the grocery store now come in smaller packages, but you're paying the same price? I've been noticing that for about the last year or so, and it's pretty annoying. I wondered if it was a way to get around reporting on the true cost of inflation (or Consumer Price Index, CPI; here in the U.S.). Some examples I've noticed are: a pound (16 oz) of bacon is now 3/4 of a pound (12 oz); as is a pound of spaghetti or pasta. There are some exceptions, and I didn't make a detailed list prior to writing this post, though I may in a later post. Another example is what used to be an 8oz yogurt is now 6 oz. What used to be a 6 oz can of tuna fish is now 5 oz. There may be other examples, but those have been the most noticeable to me. The can of tuna was the most recent, and it made me so mad I refused to buy any. Wondering if this was reflected in government stats on inflation (because it means that in some cases food prices have actually gone up 20-25%, ounce for ounce) I found this from the (U.S.) Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), who release the CPI data every month. Under the question of How are CPI prices collected and reviewed? it says the following:

During each call or visit, the economic assistant collects price data on a specific good or service that was precisely defined during an earlier visit. If the selected item is available, the economic assistant records its price. If the selected item is no longer available, or if there have been changes in the quality or quantity (for example, eggs sold in packages of ten when they previously were sold by the dozen) of the good or service since the last time prices were collected, the economic assistant selects a new item or records the quality change in the current item.

The recorded information is sent to the national office of BLS, where commodity specialists who have detailed knowledge about the particular goods or services priced review the data. These specialists check the data for accuracy and consistency and make any necessary corrections or adjustments, which can range from an adjustment for a change in the size or quantity of a packaged item to more complex adjustments based upon statistical analysis of the value of an item's features or quality. Thus, commodity specialists strive to prevent changes in the quality of items from affecting the CPI's measurement of price change.

Note that a change in quantity of the theoretical dozen (12) eggs down to a quantity of 10 is called a 'quality change', Or, they'll just select another item if there is a change in 'quality'. Then note the last sentence, where it says that they have specialists that strive to prevent changes in quality (not quantity) from affecting the measurement of price change. I wonder if they're related to the same geniuses that priced the derivatives for 'mortgage-backed securities' that have sent some banks into bankruptcy? Those are what I call 'weasel words'.

It may be that I'm mistaken about the wording or actual result of this, and if so I'll note it here. But to me, a 'change in quality' is when they use different ingredients, like using corn syrup instead of sugar. But as far as I know, tuna is tuna, and if the package size went from 6 oz to 5 oz, then it's a change in QUANTITY and not QUALITY. I just did a search for 'package size AND inflation' and came up with a few interesting articles: Food inflation: A truly painful downsizing as well as: Less is more: Packaging Design & Inflation, as well as: Hidden Inflation: The Sneaky Way Manufacturers Raise Prices They all have other examples of food package size changes than the ones I had noticed.

So what's the solution? In my unscientific survey, it appeared to me that I was more likely to find that imported pasta (i.e. from Italy) was still available in a 1 lb (16 oz) package, and the same with bacon from Canada. I suspect it may tie in to the whole notion of publically-traded companies having to deliver 'shareholder value' (a nice buzzword likely made up by lawyers). Or if it's practical, buy in bulk where a pound is still a pound, at least for now. I may break down and buy a can of tuna someday, but for now I just go with chicken salad, egg salad or peanut-butter for my sandwiches. Other comments or suggestions are welcome, too!

April Fool's day attack is no joke

I wanted to post a few links about a virus / worm that is apparently due to strike on April 1st. It's off-topic for this blog, but I'm posting it just in case.

I just heard about it on the blog for WOT (Web of Trust), a most excellent add-on for Firefox and IE browsers, I use the Firefox one. As a plug -- it's saved me from going to potentially dangerous sites; having ignored the warning once and regretted it later. The one I ignored was for a free html editor, but it also installed a browser toolbar without permission and generally misbehaved itself.

Here's a link for an article with info. from Free PC Security.

And another link with an article from Security Garden, Conficker Information for the Home Computer user. Be safe!

Ability to add comments now on my website

I wanted to post a message here that I've updated my website articles to include a new-ish tool from Google, called 'Friend Connect'. It's basically a way of adding social elements to one's web site. I'll also be adding a testimonials page to the site in the next few days, which is for the purpose of giving my clients / customers a spot to add their ratings and comments themselves.

I've thought it would be nice to be able to have a message forum, or to add software for comments; but it was on a very back burner. This option makes it much easier, and it won't require people to come up with yet another user name and password -- if you're like me you may have too many of those already. You'll be able to sign in using your google, openid or similar accounts to post your comments. I'm also going to allow anonymous posting, at least for now. I'll see how that goes, since I can delete or edit comments it should work o.k.

Since my website isn't a social networking site, I'm just adding the button to sign in on the home page. Comments here, or there, are welcome! The link to my EFT for SW website is over in the 'What is EFT?' info-box on the right side of this blog.

Taking Every Thought Captive

I mentioned in a previous article the TPM concept that many times, our negative emotions stem from a lie-based belief. I was re-reading the book Surprised by the Voice of God ^[i] by Jack Deere, and there's a story near the end of the book that is a perfect illustration of this principle. The chapter title is The Power of the Word and the Spirit (ch. 22)

It tells the story of a woman named Jean Raborg, who was a believer in Christ since she was 14. She was overwhelmed with all of the things she had on her plate: teaching, being a wife and mother, as well as being involved in church.

She thought about telling someone at church [because she didn't want to worry her husband who was already overworked], but a voice went off in her mind telling her that no one should ever know that she couldn't really handle things -- that she should just keep going and everything would be all right. She didn't know where this last impression came from, but she decided to obey it.(emphasis added)

More lies came from this voice later on, regarding a health issue. The diagnosis wasn't life-threatening, but she believed her doctors and/or husband were keeping the truth from her about her true condition.

The voice told Jean that she couldn't tell anyone. How could she tell John [her husband] and ruin what few months they had left together? What good would it do to talk to God about this? After all, hadn't he permitted it? Maybe this was a judgement on her because she was failing so miserably ...

Over the course of the next few months, things got worse and she ended up in a psychiatric hospital. Multiple people had prayed for her, but it didn't change things. Some people she knew asked Paul Cain to pray for her, and as he did the Lord instructed him to go to San Diego, and was told that she will be instantly healed to my glory. And I will use this testimony to the end of her life to encourage women with hope. [I know there's some more recent controversy about Mr. Cain -- but this is part of the story, so please just go with it.]

When Paul prayed for Jean, she felt as if a giant heating pad had been put over her abdomen. Then she had a sensation of hot oil being poured over her head and penetrating every fiber of her body. At the same time, she felt a cloud of oppression lift off of her. [I've likewise had a feeling of a cloud of oppression lift off me in response to prayer, once or twice.] It was as though the Lord had turned on a faucet of joy inside her. I'm healed! she exclaimed.

No, not yet, not quite yet, Paul said. When I leave here, the madness is going to try to return. God is going to put a Scripture in your heart when I walk out this door. That Scripture is going to seal your healing. When the evil voice returns to you, don't listen to it. Instead say, 'It is written,' and then quote whatever Scripture the Lord deposits in your heart when I leave.

The Scripture that came to her mind was from Isaiah 41:10.

At just that moment she felt an icy hand reach out of the darkness and grip her heart. She heard that evil voice begin to whisper, but instead of listening to it, she cried out, It is written -- Fear thou not, For I am with thee: Be not dismayed; For I am thy God; I will strengthen thee; yeah I will help thee; yeah, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness. The icy hand let go. The evil voice stopped. She quoted the Word again, and again, and again. Each time she felt the strength of God pouring into her body. ... On the third day... Jean Raborg walked out of that mental institution, never to return again.

Isn't that a wonderful ending? The ending also illustrates the idea of replacing lies with truth, in this case the Truth of God's Word. I emphasized the part that says She didn't know where the last impression came from..., because sometimes we'll have thoughts or suggestions that take us to dark places. With EFT and Scripture, we can learn to sort it out and discover that we don't have to believe or accept every thought as true. Yesterday morning I had an instance where I was thinking about something, and a familiar thought came to mind along the lines of 'But, what if ...' and right in the middle of the thought that wanted me to start worrying about whatever it was, (I honestly no longer remember what it was...) another part of my thinking realized I didn't have to go there, so I dismissed it before it even had a chance to get me on that old familiar path.

{We are} destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and {we are} taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, (2 Cor 10:5 NASB)

[i]
Deere, Jack; Surprised by the Voice of God, ©Copyright 1996 by Jack S. Deere, published by Zondervan Publishing House, Grand Rapids Mich49530, pg. 343-357.

What is 'the Bezzle' ?

I've been reading some financial blogs recently, and ran across a term I'd never heard before -- the bezzle . I read it in one article that seemed to assume the reader knew what it meant, but I didn't, so I did a search and found enough information in a couple of short articles that I understood it.

I just now got to this article through an email link, and it really explains it. It's not necessarily related to spiritual warfare, but when you're dealing with lies and deceit and the like, of course it could tie in. And since there are few things like money to get people's emotions in turmoil, I'll tie in EFT by suggesting that you keep on tapping! (And praying, of course!)

Here's the last part of the article, which sums it up -- but it's all worth reading.

The damage will stop only when one of two things happens:

1.
All of the identifiable Bezzle is flushed from the financial system OR
2.
Government comes out and makes clear that it will clamp down, enforce the law, and that the bad actors both forward and back will be prosecuted, the ill-gotten gains recovered to the extent possible, and the truth demanded from all firms going forward.

Those are the only choices folks.

Government is not responsible for the fraud, but it is responsible for turning its head and refusing to look, investigate and prosecute.

Government profited from the increased tax revenue and "fake wealth" that was "created" as a consequence of The Bezzle, and the campaign bribes, er, contributions that flowed from it.

Now government must choose - either put a stop to The Bezzle, here and now, or watch the market dismantle it piece by piece, firm by firm, and deal with the collateral damage - another 10-20 million unemployed (at minimum) and a Depression worse than the 1930s.

Also, for another good site / blog that catalogs another big problem in the financial markets -- check out the Deep Capture Blog.

Calvins Camels - article from Inplain Site

I just ran across a good article on Calvinism -- and it's rather long, so here are a few quotes from the beginning part of the article:

INTRODUCTION Having read John Calvin’s Institutes and having studied the writings of many Calvinists both ancient and contemporary, I am convinced that Calvin was guilty of straining at gnats and swallowing camels. To accept Calvinism (in any of its forms) is to deny the plain teaching of dozens of Scriptures.

The Calvinist will doubtless argue that I simply don’t understand Calvinism properly, and to this I reply that if Calvinism is that complicated it can’t be the truth.

Of course, Calvinism is not simple by any means and this is one reason why it produces an elitist mentality. To understand Calvinism one must deal with compatibalism, monergism versus synergism, electing grace vs. irresistible grace, effectual calling vs. general calling, effective atonement vs. hypothetical atonement, libertarian free will vs. the bondage of the will, objective grace and subjective grace, natural ability and moral ability, mediate vs. immediate imputation of Adam’s sin, supralapsarianism, sublapsarianism, infralapsarianism, desiderative vs. decretive will, and antecedent hypothetical will, to name a few!

The fact is that every time I have studied Calvinism I have come away convinced that it simply contradicts too many Scriptures, that it is built more upon human logic and philosophy than upon the plain teaching of God’s Word. Whatever divine election means, and it is certainly an important and oft-taught doctrine of the Word of God, it cannot mean what Calvinism concludes, because to accept that position requires one to strain at gnats and swallow camels. The gnats are Calvinist extra-scriptural arguments and reasoning and the camels are Scriptures understood plainly by their context.

Thus, according to the Calvinist, Jesus’ statement in Matt. 23:37 does not teach that God’s will was ever thwarted by man’s will but merely expresses the human side of Jesus’ compassionate nature. According to Calvin, God cannot be disappointed, because that would means He is not sovereign (according to Calvin’s own predetermined definition), but this flies in the face of the Scriptures in literally thousands of places.

EFT on blogtalk radio, Facebook and other stuff

I just signed up on Facebook about 10 days ago, and discovered there are a few EFT related groups on there that I've joined. Some of them are pretty new, it appears -- one of which is 'EFT from a Christian Perspective'. Stop by and say hi!

Also there's one for an EFT class on blogtalk radio. I haven't listened to any of the shows, and when trying to pull up the page I keep getting a 'page load error' telling me the server was reset while the page was loading. I tried again after allowing javascript from blogtalk radio (I use the Firefox browser with NoScript add-on) and got the same message, so you may have more success pulling up the page than I did. Just be warned that the shows may or may not be 'Christian-friendly'.

Lastly, while on the topic of 'social networking' sites, I'm also on Twitter with the user name of CiaW , at the moment I don't send many updates or messages there but feel free to add me or invite me to your updates if you'd like.

Update Feb. 24 -- I have also started a group on Facebook called 'EFT for Spiritual Warfare', and I'd be happy to have you join that one too, as well as the Christian Perspective group another practitioner started, if you're on Facebook.

Of salt, and leaven

Those of you who live in the U.S. know that our television broadcast signals are scheduled to be all digital in February of this year. Since I have a rabbit-ear antenna on an analog t.v., I got one of the digital converter boxes a few months ago and have enjoyed watching shows in digital format. One of the local public broadcasting stations (aka PBS) has 2 additional 'channels', one is called Create. I love watching several of the cooking shows they have on Create. (What does all of that have to do with spiritual warfare or EFT, you ask? I'm getting to that next.)

On one of those shows, I forget exactly which one, it may have been 'Baking with Julia' (Julia Child) they were talking about and demonstrating baking bread. There are several ingredients used in baking bread, and a Passover bread omits the leavening. I won't get into that discussion, but all leavening agents were supposed to be removed from the house during the Passover celebration. Jesus broke the bread and gave it to the disciples during the Passover meal before he died and told them to 'take, eat, this is my body...' Jesus was born in Bethlehem, meaning 'village of bread'.

In the discussion of bread making, it was mentioned that salt can kill the action of yeast (which is a leavening agent). That's an interesting thing to know, so I tucked it away as a mental note. I found a couple of web references for that too, as follows: Salt: Salt acts as a yeast retardant, as well as

Salt inhibits the growth of yeast. Never mix yeast into salted water. Since most tap water goes through a filtering process which utilizes salt as a refining/cleaning agent, many cooks use only distilled water for baking. However, if you are baking during the hot summer season and find your dough rising too much, the addition of a little extra salt can control that runaway yeast growth. (from here)

Then while pondering that a couple of days later, some things Jesus said sort of clicked into place. Before that, the saying "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. " (Mat 5:13 KJVA) didn't make a lot of sense to me.

But, when you combine it with other passages such as: "How is it that ye do not understand that I spake it not to you concerning bread, that ye should beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees? Then understood they how that he bade them not beware of the leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and of the Sadducees. "(Mat 16:11-12 KJVA) as well as: "In the mean time, when there were gathered together an innumerable multitude of people, insomuch that they trode one upon another, he began to say unto his disciples first of all, Beware ye of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy." (Luk 12:1 KJVA)

I had heard that being the 'salt of the earth' referred to salt being a flavor enhancer. That's all well and good, but I still didn't quite see how following Christ fit into the idea of enhancing flavor. To me, it makes more sense that we are to be 'salt' and stop or inhibit the growth of the 'leaven' (hypocrisy and lies), which very much fits into the idea of spiritual warfare.

I'd been meaning to type this up for a couple of months, but I just read a blog post that discusses a vision. The vision is about pillars in the sea, and that made me think of the sea being made of salt water, and Lot's wife turning into a pillar of salt. (Gen 19:26) I don't know if that has anything to do with the vision or not, but it gave me the nudge I needed to finally type up this blog post.

Do you think God can't use you?

I just saw this on the CBO blog (Christian Bloggers Online) and thought I'd post it here too. It helps remind us that the Bible is full of imperfect people that God used. We are saved by grace through faith -- which is a good thing because if I, or any of you had to be a model of perfection to come to Jesus, we'd still be wandering around like lost sheep. I could go on and on, but here's the other post:

The next time you feel like GOD can’t use you, just remember…

• Noah was a drunk
• Abraham was too old
• Isaac was a daydreamer
• Jacob was a liar
• Leah was ugly
• Joseph was abused
• Moses had a stuttering problem
• Gideon was afraid
• Samson had long hair and was a womanizer
• Rahab was a prostitute
• Jeremiah and Timothy were too young
• David had an affair and was a murderer
• Elijah was suicidal
• Isaiah preached naked
• Jonah ran from God
• Naomi was a widow
• Job went bankrupt
• Peter denied Christ
• The Disciples fell asleep while praying
• Martha worried about everything
• The Samaritan woman was divorced, more than once
• Zaccheus was too small
• Paul was too religious
• Timothy had an ulcer…
• AND Lazarus was dead!

Now! No more excuses! God can use you to your full potential…

Besides you aren’t the message, you are just the messenger.

And one more thing… In the Circle of God’s love, God’s waiting to use your full potential.

Your Questions, please

I am going to be doing an approximately 30 minute interview that'll be available on blogtalk radio. I can list 5 questions I would like to have the interviewer ask me -- and I'm a little stumped. It would also be nice to know if there are questions you have that I could address on my website or here on my blog that I could answer. Preferably, they'd be questions relating to EFT, Spiritual Warfare or a combination of the 2.

So I'm asking for your questions -- if you have any. Please leave them in the comments of this message in the next couple of days. Thank you!

EFT over the phone

Since I'm an EFT phone practitioner, I wanted to share 2 articles that were in a recent edition of the EFT Insights e-newsletter. Both of these articles are about people who had PTSD issues, one a Vietnam Vet and another from other traumatic events. In addition, both of these show great results from doing EFT over the phone.

Here's the first one, titled: Trauma-ptsd-dominoes.

The second one is titled: An hour and ten minutes.

About The Message Bible paraphrase

I was shopping at my local Christian Supply store a couple of weeks before Christmas, and noticed that several devotionals, calendars, etc. are quoting from The Message. When looking at Bibles for sale, I didn't see any of the NASB (which I'd purchased a few years ago at the same store), but there was a pretty large display of The Message as well as a NIV / Message combo. (There were also a good amount of KJV and NKJV translations available...)

So, while reading an article on the Berean Call web site, I ran across the following that I wanted to share. I won't be adding this paraphrase to my collection.

Response: Unfortunately, the errors in this paraphrase (it's not a translation) are numerous and serious. The Message cannot be relied upon to tell the truth and, in fact, is dangerously misleading. If Promise Keepers endorses it, that is one more mark against that organization.

Let me give you only a few examples. John 1:1 actually says, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." The Message renders it, "The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God, in readiness for God from day one." That garbling is an improvement?! It is confusing at best and misleading at worst, changing the meaning. "In the beginning was the Word" is changed to "The Word was first." First before God? And what does "in readiness for God" mean? In verse 5, "the darkness comprehended it not" is rendered, "the darkness couldn't put it out," changing the meaning entirely.

In verse 14, "full of grace" becomes "Generous inside and out," while "truth" becomes "true from start to finish." "Generous" and "grace" do not mean the same, nor does "true from start to finish" convey the rich meaning of Christ being "full of truth." In verse 29, "which taketh away the sin of the world" becomes "He forgives the sins of the world." There is a world of difference between taking away the sin of the world by paying the debt mankind owed, and forgiving sins! In John 3:5, "Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit" becomes, "unless a person submits to this original creation-- the 'wind hovering over the water' creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life," again obscuring, complicating, and changing the true meaning. In 3:17, "but that the world through him might be saved" becomes "He came to help, to put the world right again," a destructive change in the meaning.

"Saved" means to be redeemed, rescued from the judgment we deserve for our sins; whereas "to help, to put the world right again" sounds like social or political reformation. In verse 36, "the wrath of God abideth on him" becomes, "All he experiences of God is darkness, and an angry darkness at that." How can anyone experience darkness from God, when 1 John 1:5 says of God, "in him is no darkness at all"? Serious error is added to serious error!

In 1 Corinthians 1:17, "For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel" is perverted to read, "God didn't send me out to collect a following for myself but to preach the Message." It is important that Paul, a former rabbi, is a follower of Christ--The Message says "of God." The main point Paul makes is that baptism is not part of the gospel--The Message misses that completely. "Lest the cross of Christ should be made of none effect" is changed to "...lest the powerful action at the center--Christ on the Cross--be trivialized into mere words." There is a vast difference between the eternal effect of "the cross of Christ" as the Bible states it and "Christ on the Cross" as The Message puts it and Catholicism depicts it. Christ is not on the cross; the work is finished! In verse 30, "sanctification, and redemption" is changed to read "a clean slate and a fresh start"--both trivializing and misleading. In Hebrews 11:1, "the substance of things hoped for" becomes "the firm foundation under everything that makes life worth living," a totally different meaning, with hope for eternity expunged. In verse 4, regarding the lamb, which speaks of Christ, the "more excellent sacrifice" offered by Abel, the comment is interjected, "It was what he believed, not what he brought, that made the difference." On the contrary, the sacrifice he brought was important to his belief, and without the proper sacrifice there could be no forgiveness no matter what was believed.

In verse 7, "became heir of the righteousness which is by faith" is changed to "became intimate with God," again an entirely different meaning which leaves out the vital phrase "righteousness which is by faith." In verse 16, "God is not ashamed to be called their God" is twisted into "God is so proud of them." Never! Attributing the human evil of pride to God is blasphemy and leaves the dangerous impression that if God is proud then it isn't so bad for man to be proud as well.

In verse 35, "that they might obtain a better resurrection" becomes "preferring something better: resurrection." Again the meaning is changed completely. It makes it sound as though resurrection is dependent upon good works. It was not a question of whether they would be resurrected, but of the reward they would receive in the Resurrection.

These are only a few among many errors, some extremely serious. It is appalling that any mere man would change or ignore the meaning of God's Word under the vain delusion that he could improve upon what God has said and the way He has said it! It is even more appalling that a leading evangelical publisher would publish this blasphemy, Christian bookstores would sell it, and Christian leaders would praise instead of denounce this perversion!