Fire On Your Head

We Aren’t “Revolutionary” if We Are Just Like The World

This is the second time I’ve posted online about my irk with Christians and “file sharing.” Last September or so the Lord really convicted me on this issue, and Biblically I could find no justification for file sharing and downloading mp3s to my hard drive, and copying CDs I didn’t buy but ‘really liked’. So I cleared my laptop clean, and took all (ALL) my burned CDs and put them on a plate and into the microwave and ruined them all, and then chucked them in the trash. It felt good to repent of an area of sin I otherwise tried to justify to myself for a long time

So I posted the question on a theological forum basically in my school’s alumni site, to the effect of “is file sharing and CD burning a sin?” Thinking I would have both sides of the issue, I found there are more Christians that are convinced there’s nothing wrong with it than I think is a good testimony for the Body of Christ. The Bible is pretty clear about stealing being sin, but yet there’s “nothing wrong with it because everyone else does it”? Does millions of wrongs make a right? So if I’m sticking my neck out to have my head chopped off by talking about this, then so be it.

A friend posted on that same thread I started that at her school they did a survey, and like 80% of her unsaved schoolmates all admitted it was wrong, but didn’t care and do it anyway. In the Church–sadly–I’ve listened to many try to pretend it is not wrong and justify it with all these weird excuses like “worship should be free” or that this is not really stealing. Well have you asked that musician whose music you’re getting for free if he has paid off all his expenses from producing that CD? Recording has costs, you know.

I have even heard, and I kid you not, that “worship leaders are just prostituting themselves anyway by charging for their music.” Not even going to touch that one!

So what is the deal? Why does the world know better than us on yet another issue? They readily admit it’s stealing, but the consequence of prosecution doesn’t phase them. In the church we play semantic games: “Steve, it’ s not stealing, it’s file sharing.” Right, that has about as much credibility as “I’m not committing adultery, I’m just having an affair.”

Ok and if it is sharing and not stealing, then let the musician or the person who produces the software be the one to share it, not someone else who took a video camera into a cinema and illegally recorded a movie and put it on the internet! Why are Christians so stingy in this area???!!!! We pray and talk about revival, but then write our newsletters on programs we stole off the internet because “they’re too expensive to buy.” I had someone here get offended at me recently for not being willing to copy a Thousand Foot Krutch CD for them. I grew up supporting these guys all I could and sometimes being one of the only dozen people in the audience when they were first starting out in the mid to late 90s. I cringe at the idea of them losing money because Christians won’t get a job or learn to be better disciplined with how they spend their money. Go pay for it! Nobody would dare walk into a supermarket, and take food without paying for it and justifying it to themselves by saying “it costs too much, and besides food should be free anyway, it’s a necessity to life.”

I’ve heard “well the whole reason I copy CDs is because they’re expensive to buy”. So are cars, but you wouldn’t steal one. Lots of things in life are expensive. I currently live in the Netherlands, believe me I know about expensive!

I know–I know I’m touching a raw nerve in probably most people (statistically speaking anyway) reading this. But seriously test out any of your “objections” you may have to me saying this before any of you write me nasty comments. As Christians, should we be blending into the world, or living above the things of this world? I will never preach at someone they are in sin if they copy things, or steal from the internet programs, music, or movies that otherwise in real life you have to pay for–but when asked, this is how I believe the Lord sees it.

Does the end always justify the means? Any musicians out there who like it when a fan comes up to you and wants you to autograph their burned copy of your CD? It’s one thing to say worship should be free, but until it is, there is no justification from taking it from them who are paying their bills just like you and I, and need that money to come in. Haha, I just remembered, that someone here in Holland wanted to copy a CD of mine, that was the latest worship CD by someone, and oddly enough it had anti-piracy software on this CD so it wouldn’t work on a CD burning program. They were mad that the CD came that way, and I thought about it–what right do we have to be mad that someone wants to make sure their stuff isn’t copied? If you are a musician out there, you have every right to spread your work however you want–but that’s the musician/software programmer/movie maker’s perogative–not the believer’s who wants to have it without paying!

In fact, I’m surprised that Christians of all people even justify this–I’ve listened to many many many arguments justifying it. I’m personally trying to live above board on the world in many capacities as best I know–I’m well aware I have plenty of more things still to perfect myself on (just in case someone felt they wanted to point out all my blind spots they can think of)—knowing that we are to be examples of righteousness to this lost and dying world, not lying down and participating in the same sins and pretending it’s ok because we feel there’ s nothing wrong with it. Imagine, being pulled over for speeding, and the officer gives you a ticket, and you try telling him “sorry officer, I don’t believe there’s anything wrong with speeding.” Good luck, you’ll still be given a ticket anyway regardless of what you feel.

Anyway, I already know what to anticipate in response to this–being told what areas of my life I’m a hypocrite in, or being reminded that probably I have something I didn’t pay for. If anyone wants to know, all the files on my music folder are from my own CDs that I bought, and took me probably a month to sit down and download all to my iTunes folder. And I don’t share them in the file sharing programs so others can have them. I don’t even know what is acceptable or appropriate to obtain through those methods so please don’t ask me what I think about this or that or what is ok or what situation you should be able to use those file sharing programs in–however, it should be obvious to believers that it is sin to just take and get anything without paying for it–just because it’s available easily doesn’t mean it’s acceptable to take it. Pornography is easily available online, that doesn’t make it right either. So please, don’t ask me particulars. Pray about it and see if God tells you stealing is still a sin to live clean of.

Again, anybody will be hard pressed to duplicate the whole file sharing mentality and use it in a store or real life situation. Walk into a computer store and just go ahead and take a computer game and leave the store. You’d never be able to just go get what you want to have like you can at the click of a mouse on your computer. Try walking into a music store, taking a CD because “you only want certain songs, not the whole CD” and leaving without paying for it. Here’s an idea—if you only want one or two songs, and not the whole CD–there’s legal programs available where you pay 80 cents to a dollar for each song you download.

If pressed for it, I will provide links detailing the legalities and statistics on this matter in Canada and the USA. I don’t know much about Europe, but just because something isn’t illegal doesn’t mean it’s moral for the believer to do it. Abortion is legal, and there is a multitude of women out there who have had one, but it doesn’t make that lawful, now does it?

It’s best I end here while people are knashing their teeth at me! Please pray about it and don’t just get angry at me if you don’t agree.

The text that this entry is based on is John 11 – the death and resurrection of Lazarus.
I decided to look at it from a different angle than I used to, and after watching the Gospel of John movie with my mom and grandmother Easter Friday, I was compelled to look at a few Scriptures to see if I felt they accurately depicted them in the movie. (Yes, this is one of those entries I wrote a while ago an has sat in my drafts folder ever since).

The style of this entry will be simplistic; I will emphasize or highlight things in key selections from the passage, since to post the whole chapter would just lengthen this unnecessarily.

So the sisters sent word to Jesus, “Lord, the one you love is sick.”
When he heard this, Jesus said, “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” (v 3-4)

Jesus is told about the sickness, and it didn’t seem to phase Him. He almost seems like He’s not interested in doing anything about it, but in fact, He reveals in His response that He is clearly aware of what is going on and what God wants to do with this situation — glorify the Son. In fact, when he heard that Lazarus was sick, he stayed where he was two more days (v.6). It almost would seem to them as though He didn’t care at all that their brother was sick, when keep in mind, this Jesus had been healing the sick, which I assume is why Lazarus’ sisters had made the Lord aware of his terminal illness.

Look what Jesus tells His disciples.
After he had said this, he went on to tell them, “Our friend Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I am going there to wake him up.” His disciples replied, “Lord, if he sleeps, he will get better.” Jesus had been speaking of his death, but his disciples thought he meant natural sleep. So then he told them plainly, “Lazarus is dead, and for your sake I am glad I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.”

I find it interesting whenever people treat signs and miracles as though needing to see them is a bad thing and that expecting them means your faith is lacking. However, Jesus said right here how good it was that this particular death occurred SO THAT it would provide an opportunity for His power to be made known and they believe. It’s not the weak who need a miracle, but I challenge you that it’s the weak who deny them. (That was a commentary, not an observation from the text.)

“Lord,” Martha said to Jesus, “if you had been here, my brother would not have died. But I know that even now God will give you whatever you ask.”(v.21-22). Was Martha upset with Jesus for not having been there? What is her approach and her tone when she expresses herself to Jesus about her brother’s death? We can’t tell from just reading the text. Does she feel Jesus let her down by not coming in time to heal him? After all, He chose to stay where He was two more days.

Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”(v23). Jesus doesn’t seem moved [in His faith] about this situation, He knows exactly what is going on. After all, a few days earlier He already said “This sickness will not end in death. No, it is for God’s glory so that God’s Son may be glorified through it.” This is a classic case of what we do with God–get upset because WE don’t have the whole picture before us as to what He’s doing. And if you’re like me–or at least honest with yourself–we have all gotten angry at God and told Him what He should or shouldn’t do in a situation when we have limited knowledge and insight as to what is really going on. Observe how Mary’s response is similar to Martha’s:

When Mary reached the place where Jesus was and saw him, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if you had been here, my brother would not have died.”(v.32) Was she just as perplexed at the Lord’s handling of the situation? Was she struggling with bitterness? Were either of them? Again, I’m just posing questions from looking at this text differently than I have in the past.

When Jesus saw her weeping, and the Jews who had come along with her also weeping, he was deeply moved in spirit and troubled. “Where have you laid him?” he asked.
“Come and see, Lord,” they replied.
Jesus wept.
Then the Jews said, “See how he loved him!” But some of them said, “Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?”

Now this is where I veer off from traditional thinking. Yes, you just read the famous “Jesus wept” verse, but the context most of us have always heard it taught in is different than the text reads– at least I think so.

That verse doesn’t depict a man of God emotionally overcome to the point of being incapacitated by His feelings, and the bystanders observing it. Oh no. Rather, let me propose to you that Jesus, filled with compassion, and knowing fully well what He was about to do, was moved at how much these people were hurt out of their misunderstanding of His ways.
He is so moved by our plights, and so intimately involved in our lives, that it grieves Him also when we are hurting. However, I don’t think it stops there. I think knowing beforehand they would be disappointed, He was still taken aback to some degree at how they perceived what His will was in this situation. He probably feels the exact same way today when He listens to godly people teach others that it’s not God’s will to heal all today like in Bible times.

How often do we hurt Jesus by our frustration with Him at how He let us down in our eyes? Verse 37 is what gives me the idea that John, the writer of this passage, is giving us a glimpse that it’s their lack of faith that’s impacting Jesus to tears when the bystanders question
“Could not he who opened the eyes of the blind man have kept this man from dying?” (v.37).

Jesus, once more deeply moved, came to the tomb. It was a cave with a stone laid across the entrance. “Take away the stone,” he said.
“But, Lord,” said Martha, the sister of the dead man, “by this time there is a bad odor, for he has been there four days.”
Then Jesus said, “Did I not tell you that if you believed, you would see the glory of God?” (v.38-40) Could it be that Jesus is reminding her in this verse, of how believing is tantamount to seeing the glory of God be because not only she needed to be reminded (as we all do), but because she didn’t believe him earlier when her brother was still alive and he told her this (v.4)?

I’m not sure how to formally conclude this entry, but these are some interesting thoughts to consider.

This is the first time something has stuck out to me in my Bible reading that I felt compelled to write about online in response to it in a while. It mirrors how I’ve been feeling in my life, and probably will disappoint many people in me. However, the title is not meant to convey what I think everyone who reads it will think.

Instead, I’d like to focus on the anointing, and doing things in ministry with or without God’s presence–because it’s very easy to do things without his presence and be content and satisfied that it was a “success”-even though the Lord might not have been with it.  I noticed something in reading Judges recently about Samson’s life. I don’t know if this contradicts what others teach or believe, but for now, it doesn’t seem to me that the anointing necessarily has a feeling to it.

When Delilah saw that he [Samson] had told her all his heart, she sent and called the lords of the Philistines, saying, “Come up again, for he has told me all his heart.” Then the lords of the Philistines came up to her and brought the money in their hands.
She made him sleep on her knees. And she called a man and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. Then she began to torment him, and his strength left him.And she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” And he awoke from his sleep and said, “I will go out as at other times and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the LORD had left him. (Judges 16:18-20)

If you are reading through the chapters in Judges on Samson’s life, it will strike you that he didn’t know the Lord had left him. I’m not going to use this text to build or dismantle when the presence of the Lord is or isn’t upon us in greater measure than normal, but I’d still like to make some points. So yes I’ll concede this is in the Old Testament and that we each have the Holy Spirit as believers. But some applications can still be drawn for practical purposes.

What is so significant about this passage? One thing at the very least: if Samson couldn’t tell it [the presence of the Lord, or 'the anointing' or whatever term you'd like] was missing, therefore he probably couldn’t tell when it was present either.

Other verses in Judges describe instances where the Spirit of the Lord came on Samson in some kind of force to get something accomplished that he couldn’t have done in his own strength, such as described in 14:6, 14:19, 15:14. Obviously we know that the power in his strength did not lie in the fact that no razor had touched his head, but in the obedience of doing what he was instructed to do by the Lord, which was to not cut his hair or shave his head, and drink no srong drink, etc…because he was consecrated to the Lord.

The reason this caught my attention, is because we all know about Samson’s lust; we all know that despite sleeping with a prostitute, and despite the multiple marriages–or marriage attempts anyway, God still used him in a mighty way. My point in drawing your attention to Judges 16 is not to say that you can keep sinning (or lying to your wife!) and still be anointed. Every time his wife asked him the secret to his strength, he lied to her and the power of God was still on him to break free from the ropes each time. This passage probably messes with popular charismatic theology. Does it bother any of you that God still used Samson in power despite his obvious sinning? I submit to you for consideration that the annointing of God is more mechanical than it is relational. Give it a thinking before rebuking me.

In fact, I didn’t even want to write some ideas on this and take the predictable route when looking at Samson’s life, so how about this: does it bother you that people can do things for the Lord, and it seems as though they still live in sin? I hope you’re not reading this to say that I’m advocating that we can live in sin and still operate in the anointing. You don’t need to live a holy life to be used by God–because you and I are expendable to the Lord’s purposes–He can, does and will work despite us–notneeds us. BUT you need to live holy to be a Christian–no ifs ands or butts about that. because He

The Lord will deal with us on that level if we think we can get away with small or large sins without fully leaving them at the cross of Jesus. But my point is this: don’t wait until you think you are perfect before finally stepping out and doing things for the Lord or you’ll never do it–we are all a work in progress, some more than others. Until the we are taken home, we are still made out of flesh. Samson was a man consumed with lust and possibly had a bad temper if you will, and still did great exploits for the Lord. I’ve heard Curry Blake say that the reason God uses us, even though some of us may be in sin, is because we are expendable, and God cares more about the people He’s ministering healing to than he does us. Paul understood this too, and feared being disqualified in the end after running the race. This also seems to contradict the whole “the Lord will sacrifice the work to save the worker” sacred cow. Jesus even dealt with this in the sermon on the mount which I will lightly touch in a moment.

Anyway, shifting gears a little bit:

I’ve noticed recently, that I’ve been coasting; that I’ve been relying on the arm of my flesh sometimes and confidence in what I know the Word says, instead of my confidence IN the Word Himself. In some ways I’ve been resting on my laurels (did I spell laurels right?) Which is a dangerous place to find oneself, and in reaction to this I’ve been spending lots of time alone in my room upstairs (which probably has made Stephen and Francine wonder what I’m up to!) just getting into the Word of God and spending time alone with Him. I have officially decided I don’t like being busy *doing* ministry at the expense of alone time with God. Anything a real minister does for the Lord flows out of intimacy with Him. I desire to have something to flow out of me from Him.

Last week I had a turn to lead the Bible study again. And I was asked to do it on a topic that is very dear to my heart and I could easliy handle it in a Bible study setting without preparing notes for it. But I wanted to spend my whole afternoon seeking God’s face and praying in tongues and just be locked in my room alone with no distraction. I didn’t want to rest on the arm of my flesh. And I honestly couldn’t sit down right away and turn on my laptop in preparation for the handout I provided. Alone time with God was more important. I had gotten too busy doing “missionary things” and making sure I had newsletter-worthy stories to write about–but my personal time alone with God had been slack for days–maybe a week. So I prioritized spending time alone with God, just reading the Bible where I’m at in my Old Testament readings. Anyone who was present at that Bible study knows a lot of the people liked it and God was totally present–but it was Him being there despite me. I got alone with him and THEN prepared for it for Him-not for the other people who would be present expecting a great teaching from me. In fact, I probably whipped together the handout and my notes in a mere 20 minutes before it was time to lead the study! But I would rather that it was that way than making my own plans for the evening, devoid of God’s will and plans and not seeking Him and seeing what He wants done, and sat around all afternoon preparing a Bible study but without intimate time with him. Anyone out there who wants to pretend preparing a Bible study is worship or devotion time–don’t kid yourself. There’s a sermon in that–how much ministry is going on in the Church that men just decided to do, and God was never asked what He thought? Anyway, moving along.

I don’t want to be like Samson, and be able to do great exploits for the Lord, when my lifestyle and heart are not right with Him.

I’m reminded of the life of Moses also, and how he split the rock open the second time and the water gushed out, but the Lord was still not pleased with him for it. It is interesting, that the Lord did NOT command Moses that second time, unlike in Exodus 17:5-6 but water still came forth from the rock. Much can be said about the authority of the believer, and the ability to misuse that authority–but the Lord swore to Moses that he would not enter the Promised Land. I know it will sound blasphemous to some, but this incident with Moses and even to some degree Samson demonstrate that the anointing, or just plain power, is more mechanical than it is relational. Moses struck the rock, and still water came out. Did God do it even though Moses was in rebellion? Or did God give Moses (a man) power and he abused it and still produced results? I know that will mess with a lot of peoples theology. Give that a thought and click on the links in this entry where I covered this a little more in depth before pulling out your heresy stones.

Like I’ve said in a past blog entry about the healing anointing–which I strongly suggest reading for further thoughts on it if you are a newer visitor to this blog–it should be noted that in Matthew 7:21-23, it is significant that these individuals that Jesus tells he didn’t know, were actually doing the miraculous deeds in His name–prophesying, casting out demons and healing the sick all in His name!–and still cast out of His presence in the end! Sobering stuff if you want to believe you can remain in your sin and operate in the anointing. You can technically–for now. But what will the Lord say to you on that day? “Well done my faithful servant” or “flee from me I don’t know you”?I’m preaching to myself, not just anyone that reads this. Let’s not be like Samson who didn’t know when the Lord left him, or Moses who wound up not even entering the promised land, or furthermore let us not be like any to whom Jesus will say “yes, you did do these things for me, but I don’t know you.”

I hope readers will give this stuff some serious thought and make necessary heart changes in your life before the Lord.

Happy 4th of July.