My prophesied trip to Israel

No, I won't be missing a few weeks of church.

Please welcome the Abounding more and More tag; thanks to my mom for the idea. She didn't directly say it, but she said something that made me think of it. It's for, obviously, me abounding more and more in judgment and knowledge and stuff.




My dad went to jail for being on the run from probation for 10 years in late November 2006. He turned himself in, the judge went soft on him...she regrets it to this day; she sentenced one man to death since then to try to regain her reputation: he was testifying positively for a man who shoplifted a camcorder. Somehow, just for testifying, he was put to death. I don't even think we have the death penalty in Arizona. Even then...doesn't that require a jury?...
Anyhoo, my dad got out late March 2007 (he was in jail roughly 5 months). During that time, he got a taste of the local "prison" ministry. It was actually a jail ministry, but prison sounds better. OK, jail ministry it is, spoilsport.

One of the leaders of this jail ministry (about 20 guys) was named Mike. See a part of history of this here: Updated Posts: How I almost fell for Charismania. My dad says that he was just like Benny Hinn and his crowd; hearing something from God, then saying it. For instructional purposes, he says "What, God? Right, Father." He can't just say it, he has to make it clear- in a false-sounding way- that he's hearing it. He liked Benny Hinn, as a matter of fact. Mike, that is, not my dad. It was a strange time for us.

We had only been watching Les Feldick...or, rather, he was the only one we learned anything from. To this day, I hold a grudge against almost every single television or radio Christian program there is (OK, all of them; I know it isn't good to hold grudges, but let me rephrase: they failed me, and most likely, will continue to fail me.) because they failed to get me Grace. They can say the word "Grace"- and many of them did- but THEY HAVE TO EXPLAIN IT. Very, very, very, very simple. The edification- for me, at least- in merely understanding Grace is unparalleled by any other doctrine I have ever, ever come in contact with. Period. Ever.

I feel that the most important thing anyone can preach is Grace. That was the point that my relationship with God changed. It was finally something I could understand, something I knew- it was right there, on the table. No strings attached, simply because he loved me.

You see, I am the kind of person who responds very enthusiastically to being liked first. As I John 4:19 puts it, "We love him, because he first loved us." I can deal with humans fairly easily who don't put forth the liking of me first (it's almost a non-issue, I tend to like humans), but it's very important for any animal who wants to be liked by me to like me first, thus why me and goats don't get along (they are, for the most part, incapable of "like.")

And God sent his son to die for me. Talk about "liking me first!" It was then that I realized that God had done that, and the ball was now in my court. He would accept me; I didn't have to do any crazed rituals, I simply had to believe. It wasn't up to him- it was, but he already made up his mind for his part, he already would accept me; it was now up to me to choose to accept him. I didn't have to wonder "Wow, I hope that prayer for forgiveness was proper." I knew that he would accept me, his blood would cleanse me, and I'd be forgiven once for all. No more worrying over whether or not this or that; I was free. As Kile II put it, "You don't have to spend 40 minutes sanctifying yourself in the morning; you're set, and ready to go." It is an offer that is always on the table, and I simply had to accept it. I forget what day it was, but it was a grand day, I must say.

I somehow instinctively knew that if he had done that, I owed him something. It was now about what I could do in return. If I was under Grace, then he had done his part, and it was up to me to do my part out of the only motivation I could have- thankfulness. I'll be writing a post about it in...probably a few months, here, once I get to Romans 12. I think that's the chapter that first mentions service, at least. I'll probably write several on it, and go on to an in-depth study on it.


One thing that I find extremely interesting is the individuality of people; I could ask Mark Nickosian at church about a verse, and ask the Hitman about the same verse, and they probably each have certain "heart issues" they'll bring into it (i.e., things they think about in the back of their head that they desperately want me to know). If I ever get to their level of learnedness, hopefully my "heart issue" will remain Grace. They're the right- and left-hand men of Pastor Justice, by the way. They're either bishops or deacons; I don't know which. They're very good dishopons, though. That is, "Dishup-uns." Bishop+Deacon. See, that's what happens when I don't know things.


Anyway...back on topic, shall we? My dad also fancied watching Hal Lindsey, Jack Van Impe, Perry Stone, Zola Levitt, and John Hagee. I could barely stand them. Their lack of teaching is their major problem. My dad is just now beginning to realize/accept that their programs are more or less useless. I'm grateful; I really don't like them very much. Soon, he'll start realizing that watching Benny Hinn to see just how wrong he is is also wrong. Give him vegetating time, he's a man.

He's also realizing that Fox News/CNN/MSNBC are more or less useless, so he's at the point that I am as concerning television; it's worthless mind clutter, for real. I don't know of another medium that can bombard you with as much fluff as television can...you sit through 15 minutes of commercials to watch 5 minutes of worthwhile news and 40 minutes worth of useless news ("Let's go see the new snowfall in New York.") Oh, man, I am feeling cynical today. Can you tell? I can tell. I think I just coughed up some blood, so yeah, that's one of my first physical signs of my being especially cynical.


Read this post- "GO"- before reading this section. It will explain a lot. So, Mike claimed to be able to heal people. He would go on and on about how he did this and did that, yet he didn't know much of the Bible. We printed out and sent him the text of 12 of Les Feldick's sermons, and he was learning stuff he never knew from them. Forgive my insulin resistance (that's a joke from 'insolence,' people- laugh!), but shouldn't someone who is constantly talked to by God know something about the scriptures? Shouldn't they say, "No, God told me that verse meant this."? Shouldn't it all be revealed to them? If not, why should they get revelations about physical things, but not about Scriptural things? You see, Les Feldick established us enough to resist Mike's doctrine, and I must say I am very grateful to him for that.

Brrrrr. Anyway, let me wrap this up quickly, before I vomit up blood and stomach acid and, in turn, develop an ulcer. I also feel bloated, and weighed down with scowling grief and hatred. So, Mike told me that my supposed "vision"- note that I was half asleep at the point I had the vision- meant that I was supposed to travel to Israel.

I asked him, "When?" and he said, "I don't know, sometime around next year." "Like, February or March 2008?" "Yep. There, you'll meet someone who will teach you." "Teach me what?" I asked. I forgot what he answered. I think he said "You know, mentor you."


As you may know, humble fool, the Bible conference is in February-March 2008.


I could go, "OH MY GOSH, HE GOT THE RANDOM TIME CORRECT, HE MUST BE TEH PROFIT!", but I am not the kind to fail to recognize that he said it'd be Israel (and not just "Israel," but NEW JERUSALEM), not California, and I kind of already have a local congregation full of local yokels (but I still love them) to mentor me. So, the only reason I'd have for thinking he is correct is that he got one thing right, the time frame. Still, I am grateful to even him; now I know to be a bit more cautious about religious people, and I also know what it's like to have someone tell me something supposedly from God that I do not agree with. I also got a lesson in being led by emotions; whooey.

I suppose that's about it; I'm not worrying that he was correct, because he was really wrong, and just got lucky on the time. So then, how could he be correct on the time, but get the location doubly wrong? Wouldn't it of been just as easy to make the link of "golden" to the "Golden State of California," instead of the golden New Jerusalem? Yes.


My, my, what a nice post. Next, let us burn the bridges of glory; or, upturn the dirt of the field, that we might find treasures and abundance, to the end that we will prosper without measure.