Trying To Find a Healthy Focus

I went on Facebook today and saw that one of my friends had a good weekend, so I checked out his page to see if I could find out more about his good weekend. I always want to hear more about good things. What I found on his page, in the “About” section that tells a little about the person, was the following:


Seeking my Joy in the Jesus of the Bible.


My purpose in life is to glorify God BY enjoying Him forever.

The entire point of the Bible is the cross. There is much misunderstanding regarding what the Gospel is. It only makes sense, however, when we know what the bad news is.

The bad news is that by nature and choice we are sinners- we aren’t good people who do bad things, we are bad people. That’s why we do bad things. (See Matthew 7 where Jesus talks about good trees bearing good fruit and bad trees bearing bad fruit.) We have committed cosmic treason against the God who is the judge of all the earth, upholding everything by the word of His power. Since we have shown our rebellion and hatred against such an awesome and just God, we rightly deserve equal punishment. That is Hell. I should be under the wrath of God right now because I’ve sinned against Him my entire life.

The Good News: YHWH God looks at us and sees us in our sin and says, “Yes, you deserve my wrath, but I’m going to choose to love you in spite of that. So I will send my son to bear the punishment that you deserve.” Because of this He can still be “just [it wouldn’t be just to let the guilty go unpunished] and the justifier of the ungodly.” Jesus takes the full wrath of all Christians past, present, & future on the cross Himself for our sake. And because He lived a perfect life only ever doing what the Father asked Him, the pain and death of the God-man, Jesus, was more than valuable enough to pay our sin-debt. It was shown that this was acceptable when He came back to life 3 days later, and now sits at the right hand of the God Father, as The Sacrificial Lamb, our advocate before Him, the Prophet, Priest, and King. We will all physically rise again from death when He returns very soon and we will either be judged by our own deeds or by His perfect life.

I am committed to [the name of his church]. My aim is to see my grandchildren hearing the word of God there and serving. They are a community that is very genuine, very messy, and very much relying on Jesus as their righteousness and hope in all things.

So, being the kind of guy I am, I looked up Matthew 7... cuz that seemed like the first place to start.  After all, there was a lot to digest, and being a sinner, I wanted to see how, by "nature and choice" I was a sinner and how, hopefully by choice, I could stop. I started with Matthew 7:17. The New International Version of the Bible has Matthew 7:17 reading, “Likewise every good tree bears good fruit, but a bad tree bears bad fruit.” English Standard Version of the Bible reads, “So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit.” International Standard Version: “In the same way, every good tree produces good fruit, but a rotten tree produces bad fruit.” King James Bible (Cambridge Ed.): “Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.” American King James Version: “Even so every good tree brings forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree brings forth evil fruit.” Darby Bible Translation: “So every good tree produces good fruits, but the worthless tree produces bad fruits.” Weymouth New Testament: “Just so every good tree produces good fruit, but a poisonous tree produces bad fruit.” Young’s Literal Translation: “so every good tree doth yield good fruits, but the bad tree doth yield evil fruits.” And, last but not least, Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary regarding Matthew 7:15-20: “Nothing so much prevents men from entering the strait gate, and becoming true followers of Christ, as the carnal, soothing, flattering doctrines of those who oppose the truth. They may be known by the drift and effects of their doctrines. Some part of their temper and conduct is contrary to the mind of Christ. Those opinions come not from God that lead to sin.”

With so many translations… how does anybody know what is “contrary to the mind of Christ”? What language did Christ speak in, anyway?!  The Language of Confusion?!  And how do you get that we’re ALL bad trees from any of that?? Looks like, if I produce good/unevil/unpoisonous/unworthless/healthy/undiseased fruit, I would be considered a good/healthy/worthwhile/unpoisonous tree. Those who produce evil fruit—incidentally, what is evil fruit? Is that a pear that keeps kicking you in the balls, even though you ask it not to? Or maybe a watermelon who keeps prank-calling your mom and telling her you’re dead? Just thoughts on the nature of Evil Fruit.  Let’s continue—those who produce evil fruit are then evil. Doesn’t say EVERYBODY produces evil fruit. Just those who do. So… maybe some people aren’t evil trees?

I have an issue with the thoughts that I was born a sinner. Okay, maybe I choose to be a sinner, I can get behind that. But being born a sinner is really hard for me, because that, then, says that there is a god who made me evil before I came out. Who the fuck does that? What kind of god makes his creations evil? That’s just dumb. Really. Dumb. But the dumbness doesn’t stop there. This god, who created me evil so that I don’t even have a choice about it, says that he loves me despite the evil that I cannot help. Of course he does! It’s his fault! He created me evil, and then for him to say, “Fuck you, I don’t give a shit about you because you’re evil,” is a real dick move. But the story gets better. This god cannot remove my evil, I guess because that’s beyond him. He can’t even say that I’m forgiven for him putting the evil in me, because that’s beyond him, too. He MUST punish me for something he did to me, otherwise he wouldn’t be “just” (WTF??!!). "I'm gonna punish you because you're exactly the way I made you, you fucker."  So the way he punishes me, is to send his son to my planet, kill his son, and then I’m fully punished for that which I had no control over and now I can go to heaven. Somebody else got spanked because I was created evil.  And that's the kind of punishment I can expect from this loving god: when I do something, he'll crucify somebody who isn't me, and it's preferable if it's his kid.  It’s like telling your kid, “I know you took the cookies, so I’m gonna kill your sister, and then you will be forgiven.” Or maybe it’s like, “I know you guys over here in Afganistan flew planes into the World Trade Center, so I’m going to declare war on Iraq, and then you’ll be forgiven!” What kind of sick, twisted story is this?? It’s stupidity rolled in a tortilla of willful ignorance, wrapped around cheesy denial and the succulent morsels of lightly seasoned inability to think beyond what you’re told. It’s the Religion Burrito and it tastes like terrorism, apocalypse and Armageddon. And it wouldn’t be so bad, if only I could just remove myself from the same place as these people. You go ahead and believe your wackiness, I’ll just go over here where your uninformed thoughts can’t hurt me or my family.  Except there is no place where my family is safe!  We're all trapped on this planet that these nutfuckers wanna see end so they can sit next to their perfect Man-God and have a giant circle-jerk and gargle his holy cum. 

And right after reading that, I read about how the Oklahoma State Representative Mark McCullough announced plans to file legislation that will allow teachers and principals certified by the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training (CLEET) to carry firearms at school and at school events. You know, to keep kids and teachers safe from the nuts carrying guns at schools and school events.  More Jesus cum gargle, but now it's in the veil of carrying guns so that we can be protected from guns.  I know when I want to avoid being bitten by a snake I carry two of them on my hips.  Sound Reasoning.  And now I've got a mouthful of Jesus Juice.  Delish and mind-numbing! 

When do I get to get off this crazy Ferris wheel? It’s all just so overwhelming sometimes. So little thought, and so much idiocy.

Gotta do what I tell my 16-year-old: focus on positives.
What’s positive? Gotta focus on the positive or get washed away with negatives.

1. I’m married to my best friend, my dream girl, my high school sweetheart, and my soul mate.

2. I have food in my belly and a roof over my head.

3. I have a working car that gets me around town nicely.

4. I have an iPod that I love carrying with me so that I can listen to my music whenever I want.

5. I have a supportive and great family.

6. I have performed in 3 shows this past weekend that were really well received.

7. I got to drink beer last night, and I didn’t wake up with any kind of hangover at all!

8. I’m about to get almost a week off from work for the Christmas holiday.

That’s pretty good. Right?
Ima focus on that.
Ima TRY to focus on that.