It Doesn't Take Long

I was not in the gym for 3 months and stopped eating healthy. Before that 3 months I had lost almost 30 pounds, which had taken about 6 months. In half the time, all of the weight found it's way back. I am right back where I started 9 months ago. I am now three day into my workout, and I am sore and uncomfortable. It is unpleasant and I don't like the way that I feel. I will continue with my workouts for several reasons.

1. I know that it is good for me. 
2. I know that eventually it will become a routine and I will no longer be uncomfortable.
3. I know that I need to be in better shape.

Whether it is building muscles or building my relationship with God, the same positive reasons to engage in building ourselves up applies. I know that it is good for me. I know that the more I watch television, go to the movies and listen to secular music the more I am subjected to immoral and negative things. If I focus on meditation, prayer, worship music and my eye is on God I will be processing only good things. If garbage in, garbage out is true so is the exact opposite.  

I may be uncomfortable doing it right now because I am unused to it. That is almost always true of anything when we first begin doing it. Once we do something for several weeks, we become accustomed to it. I need to be in the habit of making God a priority.  Christ made me a priority when He died on the cross. The least I can do is return the favor.  

Finally, I need to be in better shape spiritually. I I know that building my relationship with God is important, and I know that the more I know about him the stronger my faith will become. This world is full of evil and temptation. They never take a day off. If my faith and relationship with Christ do not grow, then eventually the calling of this world will draw me back into it. I need to make sure that I am doing things spiritually healthy on a daily basis.

So, in closing here is why we need to stay vigilant and build our relationship with God. It has actually been proven that the more positive I am, the more I will draw positive people to me. So it would reason that the more I am Christ-focused, the more I will draw Christ-focused people to me. I also need to know that there is no difference between secular time and when I am in church. I always represent Christ. My focus should always be on God no matter where I am, and my actions and words should represent that. If not, I need to get back on track before I become so spiritually out of shape that I just give up. Here is how I stay in shape:

1. Pray without ceasing. Make prayer an ongoing daily conversation with God
2. Read the word of God
3. Live your life guided by the book of James (my personal favorite); read it weekly 
4. Attend church consistently (Church is like a workout supplement)
5. Find a small group or prayer group and begin building your community of believers
6. Find a mentor that you can go to when you have doubts or questions
7. Set up accountability partners everywhere you go (work, gym, small group, church, softball, etc)
8. Always represent Christ in all that you say, think and do!

The Beast in the Back of My Head pt 2

Over the years that beast has changed. He has been in the back of my head transforming himself over the years: doing research, reading, lifting weights and running on the treadmilll. He continues to grow stronger each and every day. He gets wiser and more cunning every day. He looks for ways to creep into my life both consciously and subconsciously.

When I am asleep he will come and visit me in my dreams. I have woke up before certain that I had relapsed because of a using dream. He will bring up memories of "the good ol' days" when I hear a song, see a picture or run into someone from my runnin' and gunnin' days. That is the power he has, to remind me of all of the good times and never the bad ones.

When I am hurting and life does not go my way, the beast is whispering in my ear. When my father committed suicide, that beast was the first voice I heard. "Do a shot of dope and you will feel so much better" he purred. When I have bills that I do not know how I am going to pay, he always is quick to remind me how much I can make off of doing a burn (cooking methampetamine) "one last time."

I actually relapsed in 2000 after I bought that lie.  And that relapse is where I learned the truth about my addiction. In the several months that I had stopped using, it had grown stronger and stronger. I had never overdosed before, I had overamped a few times but never overdosed. In the next year, I overdosed three times. That beast did not pick up where I had left off, but instead had grown stronger and more insidious.

When I think of that beast, I always remember the Verbal Kint quote in the movie "Usual Suspects." He says, "The greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist." The beast has tried this one several times. "Now that you have been sober for a year, you could just have one drink" or "you don't need to go to meetings anymore" it says. "You know the steps, you don't really have to work them anymore, do you?" That beast will try any way to get into my head. "Why pray when you never get what you want?" he asks me.

The problem he runs into is that I have seen the worst he has to offer, and could not escape him on my own. I even tried everything man made to overcome him, to no avail. At best I had temporary fixes. Then I finally came upon the cure. I needed things consistently to keep that beast at bay. I needed to insure that as strong as he was getting, my recovery stayed stronger. That has been accomplished, but it is not easy. There are multiple needs that I have to fill, and will have to fulfill, for the rest of my life.

Here is the quick recipe. I need regular meetings (or small groups), I need a sponsor (or mentor), I need accountability partners in my daily life, I need to work the 12 steps (read this live life as directed to in the book of James). That is all that we truly need to do in order to keep the beast at bay. As he grows stronger daily, we too must also daily do things that promote recovery and Christ in our lives.

To do otherwise is to guarantee that beast in the back of our head will one day resurface. He WILL come back stronger then he was. Trust that. If you want a better life, then focus daily on the prize. Put Christ first in all you do and walk where the Holy Spirit leads you while fulfilling the four musts I identified. Do that and you will live a life that keeps the beast mired in the back of your mind, trying his best to come back and not in the front of it, leading your every move!

Losing Too Fast/Setting Christians Up for Failure

So I just completed my third week of Weight Watcher's for Men. I have lost 8.6 pounds in the 3 weeks that I have been following what they call the "Lifestyle Change." For those unfamiliar with Weight Watcher's, they do not suggest using it as a temporary diet, but instead as a new way of eating for life. You permanently change the way that you eat. For the unschooled let me explain how Weight Watchers works.

Weight Watcher's has a point system that you follow. You are given a set number of points to use each day that is based on your sex, age, weight and height. You are then given 49 cheat points a week for splurges. If you exercise then you are also given extra points daily for the completion of your physical activity. As you lose weight each week (if you weigh a lot over your ideal weight like I do you have a lot of points daily to begin with), you have points taken away based on how much weight you have lost.

This week, there was a warning given to me that I am losing weight too fast. It stated that losing 1-2 pounds a week is safe, but that losing more than 2 pounds a week consistently is considered to be unhealthy. I thought that was a fair warning. I need to be aware of not losing weight too fast as it may be unhealthy. I can live with that warning. Then I went to my points for the day to log in what I had eaten for breakfast and I had lost a point each day due to losing the weight that I did. So I was told that I was losing weight too fast, then the amount of food that I can intake daily was reduced???? How do you lose weight slower by eating less food?

Those sound like completely contradictory things, or what I call mutually exclusive goals. They are not congruent to accomplishing the same thing. That does not make sense to me. I have been set-up to fail. Why would you tell me that something is dangerous for me then insure that I do the exact thing that you are warning me about? As I thought on this, modern day Christianity came to mind. Some of the authors whose books I have read recently came to mind. We shall review those books by name in later blogs.

The things that are confusing are the commandments and requirements for Christians to live by that are found in the Bible. They are being subverted by people claiming to follow God. It is actually sad to see how sick some of the churches here in America have gotten. It may be that way every where, but I have only been to churches in the United States. I see the way that people take parts of the Bible and use them out of context so that it makes Christianity more user friendly, instead of taking the Bible in its entirety and following what it truly says. Following are 2 prime examples of what I mean:

1. Once Saved, Always Saved - This is repeatedly tossed around. It says that once you are saved, there is really no reason to live a sanctified life. To do so is a form of trying to earn salvation. They say that if someone subverts, than they were never truly in a relationship with God. Yet the Bible warns against this numerous times, and even says that we can fall out of relationship with God. In 2 Timothy 2:12 it states, "if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us." You have to be in a relationship with someone in order to disown them. Or how about Matthew 7:21-23 that says that there will be those who have given prophesy and who have healed and driven out demons in Christ's name. Sounds like someone who operates with God's authority. Yet Jesus states that He will tell to get away from Him. Driving out demons and healing would seem sure ways to tell if someone is in relationship with God, yet they will not be in His heavenly kingdom.

2. Grace - Next is the grace card that so many pastors and authors speak about. They mislead millions by saying that since God is a God of grace, it should reason that it is okay to sin. Often Romans 5 is used, where Paul said that if sin is abundant, then God's grace is surely big enough to cover it all. Some use that as saying we have a license to sin, a "get out of jail free" card. But if you continue to read, Romans 6:1-2 says, "What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?" 


Paul in essence says, "Do we continue to sin since grace covers sin. Ummmm, Hello! Have you not been listening to me? We have died to sin and been born again!" In John 8:11, Jesus instruction to the woman caught committing adultery was to, "go and sin no more." He did not tell her to go and try not to sin like many churches preach. He told her not to sin at all. 


Does this mean that we will never sin. No, Romans tells us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. What I am saying is that we should not get stuck in the sin cycle. I used to set aside days to sin because I knew that I would be forgiven. "I am going to get drunk tonight, I shall ask forgiveness tomorrow" or "She looks cute, let me see if I can have sex with her. If I do, I can just go to God in prayer in the morning. He expects me to sin, so it is okay." 


I wanted what was promised to me at church; I was attracted by the music, to fit in with the crowd, the promise of wealth and happiness. But did I truly want what God had to offer? I think that we often do not take advantage of the true gifts of God, because He wants to give us more than we really want. I want to believe in God, but not follow all of those rules and commandments. The real question is, why do I want to believe in God?


It is not enough to simply desire to be saved. We must also desire to be more Christ-like. If I am truly "born again" or have had a "conversion," then the Holy Spirit lives in me. Are you going to tell me that the Holy Spirit wants us to sin? Is the Holy Spirit okay with us sinning? Let me give an example:


When my son lies, do I forgive him and still love him? Of course, but do I want more for him? Do I want to be able to trust all that he says and does? Should I settle for anything less than full honesty when he grows up? Of course not, the older he gets the more he will understand the difference between right and wrong. 1 Corinthians 13:11 says, "When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me." 


As we learn what is right and wrong, we should begin to live differently. But how do matured Christians live their lives? How do we know what we should or should not do? What is the ultimate guide? I would say that our choices in life should be guided by several things:

1. Prayer is the first thing that we should use as part of our guide. 1 Thessalonians 5:13 tells us that we should, "pray without ceasing." That sounds like a vitally important thing to do.

2. Apply the Biblical principles to our lives. It will allow us to live our lives and be successful in becoming more like Christ. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 says, "All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." 

3. Obey God's commands in all that we do. The commandments are not multiple choice. This is a pass or fail test. John 14:21 says, "He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."

4. Seek Godly counsel. Use those around us as mentors and advisers. Proverbs 15:22 states, " Plans fail for lack of counsel, but with many advisers they succeed."

5. Follow the leading of God through the Holy Spirit. John 16:13,14 says, "However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come. "He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.

If we can apply these 5 steps to our lives, we will begin to make huge steps in becoming more Christ-like. Do not accept the road that is so often traveled in watered down, or what Francis Chan calls "luke warm" Christianity. We need to take the road less traveled. In Robert Frost's poem entitled, "The Road Not Taken" the last stanza tells us all that we need to know about going against the mainstream and how it will benefit us:

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Countries

This is a list of countries that have visited the Spiritual Spackle site, and I will add more as they visit. I am amazed at the different places that have visited to read about everything from the power of the Holy Spirit to Christ's Grace to Apologetics to the dangers of addiction and ways to overcome it. This site is my outreach to those who suffer from the consequences of life in this world, whether it is childhood abuse, addiction, grief and loss, anger, bad relationships, depression and other things that are thrown at us to separate us from Christ. I also look to build upon my faith and strengthen not only mine but those who read. Only the Holy Spirit will suffice in healing us and instilling life-changing hope. Everything else is only temporary!

1. Albania 
2. Algeria
3. American Samoa
4. Antigua and Barbuda
5. Argentina
6. Armenia
7. Aruba
8. Australia
9. Austria
10. Azerbaijan
11. Bahamas
12. Bahrain
13. Bangladesh
14. Barbados
15. Belgium
16. Bermuda
17. Botswana
18. Brazil
19. Bulgaria
20. Cambodia
21. Canada
22. Chile
23. China
24. Colombia
25. Congo [DRC]
26. Costa Rica
27. Cyprus
28. Czech Republic
29. Damascus
30. Denmark
31. Dominica
32. Dominican Republic
33. Ecuador
34. Egypt
35. El Salvador
36. Estonia
37. Fiji
38. Finland
39. France
40. Gabon
41. Georgia
42. Germany
43. Ghana
44. Greece
45. Guam
46. Guatemala 
47. Guyana
48. Haiti
49. Honduras
50. Hong Kong
51. Hungary
52. Iceland
53. India
54. Indonesia
55. Iran
56. Iraq
57. Ireland
58. Isle of Man
59. Israel
60. Italy
61. Jamaica
62. Japan
63. Jordan
64. Kazakhstan
65. Kenya
66. Latvia
67. Lebanon
68. Lesotho
69. Lithuania
70. Luxembourg
71. Macedonia (FYROM)
72. Malawi
73. Malaysia
74. Maldives
75. Malta
76. Mauritius
77. Mexico
78. Micronesia
79. Moldova
80. Montenegro
81. Namibia
82. Nepal
83. Netherlands
84. New Zealand
85. Nigeria
86. Norway
87. Pakistan
88. Palestine
89. Panama
90. Papua New Guinea
91. Peru
92. Philippines
93. Poland
94. Portugal
95. Puerto Rico
96. Romania
97. Russia
98. Saudi Arabia
99. Serbia
100. Seychelles
101. Singapore
102. Slovakia
103. Slovenia
104. South Africa
105. South Korea
106. Spain
107. Sri Lanka
108. Swaziland
109. Sweden
110. Switzerland
111. Taiwan
112. Tanzania
113. Thailand
114. Trinidad and Tabago
115. Tunisia
116. Turkey
117. Turks and Caicos Islands
118. Uganda
119. Ukraine
120. United Arab Emirates
121. United Kingdom
122. United States
123. Uruguay
124. Venezuela
125. Vietnam
126. Zambia
127. Zimbabwe

Setting Positive Examples for Our Kids

I do not know about most of you, but I grew up with pretty hypocritical adult role models. I was always told to do one thing and then saw that same person do the exact opposite. It did not matter whether it was my dad, my mom or my mom's dad. I never saw what I was told to do put into action. If I did, it was for small periods of time only. It was really frustrating to see that happen over and over again.

I guess that you could say that I followed the examples that were set for me. I had free will to act however I wanted to when I grew up, but my foundation was built upon sand. There was no bedrock to build my foundation upon. I did not learn how to construct a life where I achieved positive results. Although I guess I tended to be an overachiever, it was in the opposite direction. I became a great example to others.........of how not to be.

I was taught that drinking and drugs were bad, but my father was an alcoholic when I was a child (until I was in the 5th grade). I was told that if I had nothing nice to say, to say nothing. Then I would hear my mother and father yell and scream at each other all of the time. I was told not to hit others, but welted and bloodied with belts and switches and occasionally hit. Are you seeing some mixed messages here?

I went to live with an abusive grandfather in the 5th grade. I went to school and began beating other kids up, in the fifth grade. My mother had always told me not to smoke, that it was bad for you. I saw her smoking when I was in the 6th grade, and I began smoking cigarettes too. I smoked them for 26 years before I could finally quit, and I just stopped fighting when I got mad or frustrated at people 2 1/2 years ago. Hopefully you know, this is not uncommon. It is more the normal than we would like to believe.

The statistics are horrific. Children who grow up with parents engaging in domestic violence and/or drug and alcohol abuse are statistically doomed to repeat the cycle. I want us to take a look at the mixed messages that we are sending our children. There are probably many of them, and we might not even realize some of them. When I get upset, I say shoot. It could be better, it could be worse. When my son got upset this weekend, can you guess what he said. You guessed it, he threw down the bat and yelled out, "Shoot!" It made me very thankful that I don't cuss.

I try my best to never do anything that I would not want my son to do. I have found that this has gotten easier and easier since I turned my life over to Jesus. The more that I put my focus on Christ, the less likely I am to put my focus on things that I should not be doing. The more that I do the next right thing, the less I have to focus on my actions each successive time. My child is worth me making every extra effort to set a great example.

If I begin to slip into my old ways and do not keep my sights on Jesus, then my parenting will slip and my son will not learn how he should behave. I am his role model. He will grow up to be a lot like me. I should live as I want him to turn out. If I am doing something that I don't want my son to do, I should not do it. It is a really easy concept that is often hard to apply to our lives out of indifference. If I love my child/children and I am not setting them a good example, can I really say that I love them? Jesus loved us enough to die, and we should love our kids enough not to get high. Be the person you want your kid to grow up into.

If you want the cycle to change, you have to become that change yourself. I think of a Ghandi quote here, "We must become the change we want to see." We cannot parent with a do as I say, not as I do attitude and expect our children to be different from us. Over time the best way that I have found to parent is to always act like my son is on my right side and Christ is on my left. I would ask myself, "If Christ were here, would I say/do that?" and if the answer was yes, I would then ask myself, "If my son were here, would I say/do that? Would I want my son to say/do that?" If the answer to all 3 of those questions was yes, then I knew that it was okay to do.

Over time I no longer had to ask myself those questions. I knew for a fact that Christ was always by my side. There was no need to pretend anymore. Furthermore, I did not need to ask myself if my son were there would I do this because my Spirit-led morals always lead me in the right direction. In fact, when I put Christ first, I know that I am setting a great example for my son. If I follow the principals of a true Christian and put Christ first in all that I do, I will be a great father and a great husband.

Here is a video I saw that I think shows my sentiments exactly.

Holy Spirit

Today I was thinking about the Holy Spirit, which is a very regular thing for me. I have noticed the huge impact that the Holy Spirit has had in my life, and I cannot help but think on it all of the time. But today, I was thinking of how blessed we are in this day and age. When Jesus was here, He walked with the disciples. Can you believe actually getting to walk next to Jesus. I have some friends, that have visited the places that Jesus walked when the disciples were with Him, and they have always talked about how life changing that experience was.

That sounds amazing, walking beside Jesus. I would argue that we now have something even more powerful than Christ walking beside us. Something that is more life changing than walking the same paths that Christ walked, and we do not have to go anywhere to experience it. I am talking about the Holy Spirit and the amazing power that we are blessed with. It came when Christ left the Earth, and has been here ever since.

Jesus told the disciples that He had to leave so that the Holy Spirit could come.  He discusses this in John 14:16,17 – “And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be IN YOU.”

This means that the Holy Spirit does not just walk beside us in our lives as Jesus did with the disciples, but instead lives inside of us. The Holy Spirit permeates our body and will guide us in all that we do, and can give us the power to do all that God has planned for us in our lives. Would you be a better basketball player if Michael Jordan coached you or if he took over your body and played through you? The last, of course. The same is true with the Holy Spirit. Jesus walked beside and coached, the Holy Spirit lives inside of us and guides! 

Jesus speaks very highly of the Holy Spirit. In John 16:7,8 he says,  "But I tell you the truth:  It is FOR YOUR GOOD THAT I AM GOING AWAY. Unless I go away, the Comforter will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.  When he comes he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment...."

I would say absolutely no excuses can we truly make when it comes to sin for one reason. Jesus took our ability to make excuses away from us. In John 14:26 He says, “But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will TEACH YOU ALL THINGS and will REMIND YOU OF EVERYTHING THAT I HAVE SAID to you.”

We were not only taught by the words of Christ and his disciples; we also have the Holy Spirit inside of us to remind us of what is right. The Holy Spirit is like a moral compass. We will know right from wrong, and we will know our sin is sin before we do it. Christ does not give us a way out. Will we all sin? Of course we will, sadly it is in our nature. But the Holy Spirit will guide us away from doing wrong and towards doing right!

We must rely on the Holy Spirit in our lives. We must learn to listen for its whispers in all that we do. If we can begin meditating that is a great start. Take solace in silence and prayer. That way we have a much better chance of hearing how the Holy Spirit would direct our lives. The Holy Spirit actually convicts us of right and wrong. To be convicted means to have a firmly held belief or opinion. That is what the Holy Spirit provides us with. Look at how it convicted the disciples:

The disciple that claimed to love Jesus the most denied that he was his disciple when confronted 3 times in Mark 14:66-72. He loved Christ, but yet could not stand up for the person that he loved out of fear. In fact, Mark 14:50 says, “everyone deserted Him and fled.” These are the same disciples that all agreed with Peter in Mark 14:31 in saying that they would never disown or desert Jesus. This is how the disciples behaved before the Holy Spirit was here.

After Jesus left and the Holy Spirit came down to dwell inside of the disciples, look at how strong and unwavering their faith was. Eight of the disciples were executed. They were martyrs when they died, which means that they were vocal about their belief in Christ, and never backed down when questioned. The indwelling of the Holy Spirit bolstered their spiritual strength and they became steadfast in their belief.

So never forget the power of the Holy Spirit. It will lead us into victory and allow us to accomplish things both great and small. It will mold us and make us more like Jesus every day. The Holy Spirit will guide our actions so we can be God's hands and feet every day. The Holy Spirit will show us how to be salt and light to all that we come in contact with, if only we listen and follow where we are led!