Session Notes

Pure Freedom (Massive PDF locker poster download — must be seen to be believed…)

About ten years ago (& in another province) I had the opportunity to work with a convicted sex offender. He had been convicted of fondling young girls in shopping malls — a career of sexual assault that had spanned 19.5yrs. Initially, I didn’t even believe him as he claimed to have been doing so nearly daily for that entire time and had not been caught. However, over time and research, I came to realize that he was telling me the truth. It was a glimpse into the life of an incredibly sophisticated and TOTALLY unrepentant sexual predator that I value to this day.

I can clearly remember one conversation I had with him as he described how he selected his victims. He stated:

I’d walk the length of the mall a few times — maybe even eight or ten times. Just looking. It was easiest in the summer when all the girls were wearing skimpy clothing. The marks stood out like sore thumbs — they were wearing track pants and sweat shirts. (Anything to hide their bodies.)

I’d look to see which of the girls were alone. Not alone and doing something — just alone and hanging out there. The ones who are alone usually have no one to tell. I’d watch her for a long time too — to make sure she was not looking and waiting for someone…

Then I’d bump into her — not hard — just enough so she would know they were bumped. Then I’d pause and look right at her. I’d wait and see if she would apologize to me for running into her. (The easy one always blame themselves.)

If she apologized, I’d give her a big compliment and very carefully watch her eyes to see if she would look down. (If a woman thinks she’s garbage, she will never be able to maintain eye contact.) Then I’d wander off again.

I’d come back in a few minutes though — this time I’d make another comment. It would be a double entendre — something that sounded innocent but the way I’d be looking at her would remove all doubt. Something suggestive enough to see how she would react. The easy ones would just look away and turn red or stammer something.

I’d walk away again — I’d watch to see how she carried herself after that. Most of the time, she would kinda turn in on her self and slump over. She wouldn’t leave — she thought she deserved it.

That’s when I knew I had one who would never tell. Eventually, she would have to go to the bathroom or something where she was out of sight — you know the rest.

The only reason this man had been convicted was that he got cocky and didn’t wait to find out that there was indeed a friend present. It was, however, the last victim’s friend who essentially forced her into the security office where a hidden camera had caught the whole thing. She truly would have never told on her own.

As I listened to this man’s chilling boast, I suddenly realized something: His victim was the perfect Christian girl. We tell our young girls:

“Don’t wear that, it makes you look slutty.”
“Don’t you let your friends run your life — you must serve Jesus only — not friends.”
“It doesn’t matter if it was X person’s fault — you be the bigger person and apologize.”
“Good girls don’t make a fuss.”
“Don’t you be arrogant — pride is a sin you know — and God hates the proud.”
“Always think the best of people — he couldn’t possibly have meant that.”
“Turn the other cheek anyway.”
“Dressing like that will get you raped — you cause men to lust after you and it will be all your fault.”

Isn’t it nice how we paint bull’s eyes on our kids — we are teaching them to display the shame based sense of personal, gender and sexual identity that the highly sophisticated predator knows exactly how to spot.

Whatever that is, it’s not modesty…

Reality is, if that young girl had turned, glared at the man and snapped, “Hey!” at him, he would have quietly vanished knowing that this young lady would not be silent. He would have never even noticed her if she had solid friends and had been dressed in a revealing manner. If she had slapped him silly after he made that sexual comment, he would have fled into the afternoon sun. But, she was too well trained… We as a society and a church will someday answer for her sexual assault.

The above ministry is a well funded organization capable of paid Goggle ad placement running conferences and seminars all over the place. Apparently, having the misguided little old ladies of the church heap guilt and body shame on our little girls was not good enough — we need to put a marketing engine behind it and sell books while convincing young girls to judge themselves every time they open their locker door.

Perfect humility dispenses with modesty.

C.S. Lewis: The Weight of Glory (1949)

Think that’s a weird statement? Think again. Mother Teresa once stated that, “Humility is that which remains when all illusions have been stripped away.” In other words, humility is all about standing in nothing more and nothing less then the truth. By the time a woman has come to the place where she is deciding what to hide and what to reveal on a given day with respect to her body or any other part of her, she has already lost the war.

A woman who knows who she truly is in Christ will reflect the incredible beauty, the sensuality, the sexuality, the innocence, the purity, the passion, the power, the intelligence, the vision and the welcoming nurture that God created her to convey. She will do so through a stance of active and passionate engagement with and a moment by moment listening to the Living Word of God in her heart (No, not the past Words of God in Scripture) that will guide her into the fullness of who God created her to be.

You know, that’s just got to be jaw droopingly devastating and sexy in a divinely innocent way. Anything less is an insult to our Creator who made her that way — and placed her naked in the garden (sans Burqa.)

BTW: God gave women clothing later as a concession — to her…

Agape Press

Williamson says the “crazy” goings-on at the General Assembly did not end there. “Someone had made a resolution to declare suicide bombing a crime against humanity,” he notes.

“Now, you’d think that would be approved rather quickly, wouldn’t you? I mean, suicide bombing is not exactly a godly act,” the Lay Committee spokesman says. But against all expectation, he observes, the Advisory Committee on Social Witness Policy, one of the denomination’s official agencies — along with its Advocacy Committee on Racial Ethnic Concerns — lobbied against approval of the resolution.

Committee members “came in and recommended that that thing not be passed because it might offend the Muslims,” Williamson says.

At the same convention, PC(USA) commissioners voted to allow the denomination’s churches to use the phrase, “compassionate mother, beloved child, and life-giving womb” (Yes, all lower case…) instead of “Father, Son, and Holy Spirit” when referring to the Trinity (One delegate greeted this news by suggesting that, “Huey, Dewey, and Louie,” would also do…) and approved the ordination of practicing Homosexuals.

At some level, this is totally irrelevant — it’s not like your average member of Hamas really cares what the Presbyterians have to say for themselves. On the other hand, it’s a great example of what happens when a denomination looses their focus on grace (And by default on what it means to be fully human and fully alive) and instead focuses their attention upon tolerance.

Legitimate grace has its foundation in our anthropology. In other words, Grace was offered to us by God because His righteous judgment was separating us from Him. That judgment was keeping us in fear, preventing us from really living and drowning us with shame — the status quo was unacceptable to God so He took radical action so we could be free to be what we were created to be.

Tolerance isn’t concerned with anthropology — it’s obsessed with feelings. The highest good is not a full life — it’s keeping the feelings of others from being hurt (Even if they are destroying everything else about their own or other’s lives.) Tolerance is at war with the good on grounds of momentary happiness.

We were released from Judgment such that nothing we could ever do would separate us from our intimate relationship with God. But, just because we were released from judgment, the absence of judgment does not automatically assert the wisdom of a given set of behaviors. Actually, the absence of judgment throws the insanity of many behaviors into sharp contrast because it removes the reason for such — numbing the pain of rejection.

Love never judges others — but it can tell them the truth about how their choices are making them less human and more dead. Love sometimes has to tell people that God loves them regardless of anything they have ever done or failed to do — with tears running down His face as He sees them wreaking their lives and abandoning what they were created to enjoy. C.S. Lewis said it well when he commented:

Indeed, if we consider the unblushing promises of reward and the staggering nature of the rewards promised in the Gospels, it would seem that Our Lord finds our desires, not too strong, but too weak. We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea. We are far too easily pleased.

The Weight of Glory (1949)

How to Organize Your Chores – eHow.com:

“FREQUENCYCHORESDailyLoad and unload the dishwasher or wash dishes.Nuke the sponge for 30 seconds to kill germs.Wipe down and disinfect countertops and stovetop.Move newspapers and magazines to recycling area.Put toys and games away.Return clothes to closets and throw dirty clothes in the laundry baskets.Make the beds.”

Husbands and Wives: Life Insurance Mistakes (Part 2 of 2):

“I have compiled, for your life insurance reading pleasure, 10 easy-to-understand life insurance mistakes and how to avoid them. Mistake 1: Buying life insurance as an investment. Life insurance is designed to replace your income stream if you die so that your dependents will be able to maintain a normal standard of living in your absence for a reasonable period of time until they can change their lives to fit their new economic circumstances. Life insurance is not designed to fund your retirement or pay for your kids’ college educations. The single worst reason to buy life insurance is as an investment or a forced savings plan. Insurance companies have a great reputation as insurers but as investors they are anything but sterling. That means the only kind of life insurance you should consider is term. Forget about anything with whole, universal, or variable life in the title. It makes for great marketing brochures and fancy graphs but cannot measure up as a great investment when put to the test.”

Salon

Her name is Christina Silvas, a 24-year-old single mother of a 5-year-old in Rancho Cordova, Calif. And as is often the case with vessels of divine intervention, these last few days have not been easy for her. Less than a month before the end of school, Silvas was told by her pastor — Rick Cole of the Capital Christian Center — that her daughter could no longer attend the church kindergarten and that she and her daughter were no longer welcome at the Assembly of God church where they have been loyal parishioners. The problem? Silvas’ job as a dancer at Gold Club Centerfolds.

“If you choose to do the wrong thing willfully, then God’s word instructs me as to what my responsibility is,” Cole told the Sacramento Bee newspaper. “I need to be faithful to my calling.”

Stories like this make my blood boil. The heart of a man who could judge a single mother trying to pay for Christian School for her daughter, throw her out of the only place where her heart could change, offer no other solutions and then toss her little girl out of kindergarten (cutting her off from her little friends) over her mother’s violation of his code of ethics is a heart that is so far from the heart of Jesus I wonder if he ever met the Guy. It’s like throwing someone out of Chemotherapy because they speed on the way to the hospital to get their next treatment — and we don’t want our hospital to be associated with speeders.

But hey — we gotta keep up our image after all… We wouldn’t want any real sinners to mess up our velvet pews now would we? After all, don’t we wanna have our Church be holy — just like Jesus???

Matt. 11:19 “The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Behold, a gluttonous man and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.”

Think about it — under every nasty rumor lies a kernel of truth. I’m thinking there is a distinct possibility that Jesus went to a LOT of really wild parties with some pretty rough people — and fit in rather nicely. They needed love — and he went in to love them. Oh ya, and he probably tossed back a few too…

He didn’t ask whether they would be getting drunk, whether there would be peelers present, whether the town hookers would be recruiting, whether gluttony would be practiced or whether he could say a flowery prayer before dinner. He came, partied and wrapped his arms of love around them equally — no strings attached.

The religious leaders were convinced: somehow Jesus just didn’t get it. After all, we have to avoid even the appearance of evil. 2000 years later, we’re just as sure they were right as we fix Jesus’ methods and toss the sinners out of our pews. He’s pretty clear on his assessment of His methods too when he states, “Yet wisdom is vindicated by her deeds.” Translation: Entering people’s worlds and just loving them works.

And you know, Paul clearly records that people’s hearts changed. (Cor 6:11) Their hearts changed because of love — not a good stiff threat of excommunication…

Oh yes, and the Rev. Cole? I’d suggest that if he doesn’t haul his sorry excuse for a ministry down to JC’s Girls and learn how to really love the broken, then his parishioners should make sure he is run out of that church on a rail — tared and feathered.

It’s the only way they will ever get Christina (Read Jesus Himself) back into that church. (Matt. 25:35)

ManyBooks.net

But see, there is our friend of the dancing academy just entering on the arm of her devoted father. Three months have passed since we first met her. She is much changed, yet one can scarcely see in what the change consists. The face is the same, yet not the same. There is just the shadow of coarseness in it, a little less of frank innocence and true refinement, and a trace, not exactly of ill-health, but a want of freshness. This last is, however, well concealed by the use of cosmetics, and she is still a very beautiful girl, and the fond father’s heart swells with pride as he sees the handsomest and most fashionable gentlemen of the ball-room press eagerly forward to ask her hand for the different dances of the evening.

Her father remains for a few of the square dances, but soon retires, knowing that his fair daughter will not want for attention from–gentlemen whose attentions he is sure muster desirable, certainly desirable, why not? Are these admirers not rich and handsome, and do they not move in the highest society. Ah, foolish father, how little he knows of the ways of ball-room society.

But let us turn our attention again to the dancers, at two o’clock next morning. This is the favorite waltz, and the last and most furious of the night, as well as the most disgusting. Let us notice, as an example, our fair friend once more.

She is now in the vile embrace of the Apollo of the evening. Her head rests upon his shoulder, her face is upturned to his, her bare arm is almost around his neck, her partly nude swelling breast heaves tumultuously against his, face to face they whirl on, his limbs interwoven with hers, his strong right arm around her yielding form, he presses her to him until every curve in the contour of her body thrills with the amorous contact. Her eyes look into his, but she sees nothing; the soft music fills the room, but she hears it not; he bends her body to and fro, but she knows it not; his hot breath, tainted with strong drink, is on her hair and cheek, his lips almost touch her forehead, yet she does not shrink; his eyes, gleaming with a fierce, intolerable lust, gloat over her, yet she does not quail. She is filled with the rapture of sin in its intensity; her spirit is inflamed with passion and lust is gratified in thought. With a last low wail the music ceases, and the dance for the night is ended, but not the evil work of the night.

T.A. Faulkner, former owner of the Los Angeles Dancing Academy and ex-President of Dancing Masters’ Association of the Pacific Coast, in his anti-dance crusade from 1892 wrote a 40 page tract (From the Ball-Room to Hell) filled with a rather amusing and obsessive relish for describing the carnal urges that get stirred up in people when they dance. If you are a dancer, be warned: Your life is spiraling down into a twisted pit of sin and perversion.

Welcome to the heart of the legalist. It’s a heart of shame that sees it’s own human desires and despises them. It’s a heart that sees it’s needs and takes pride in suppressing them. It’s a heart that sees the joy of others, and in it’s own loveless state, seeks to crush them. It’s a heart that sees beauty and passionate romantic desire in another and longs to profane it. It’s a heart that longs for such control over another that the death of the other is better then the other’s freedom. It is a heart of death.

In 2006, many Churches have actually hosted dancing classes and dancing only remains an issue in the most aggressively fundamentalist churches — thankfully a dying breed. While this is no longer an issue, the pattern still remains — now simply focused around other areas of life such as clothing or video games. We label these areas, define the evil present within them and then vilify the participants in such as a precursor to attempting to save them from their sin…

Those who would dispute the obvious accuracy of our judgments are subjected to our withering stare and a the rather rhetorical question: “If we do everything they [the world] do, how will they ever know we are different???” Apparently the world will know we are Christians if, as the old saying goes,

“We don’t drink, smoke, dance or screw and won’t go out with girls who do…”

Somehow, we have deluded ourselves into believing that, if we avoid the issue du jour, our society will fall to their knees in repentance. Where in the world did we get the idea that telling people how we plan to put them in bondage (Much less doing it) will make them long for Jesus???

It seems to me that somewhere back in the time of the early Church, believers were known for having all of their possessions in common and displaying such an intense love for one another that thousands joined up daily.

It’s been a long time since that happened — I wonder why???

How to Make a Model Volcano and Other Fun Kids Party Special Effects:

“upting Volcano Start by lining a box lid (edges should be about 2 inches high) with foil or use a large metal pan. Fill with wet sand. Place an empty soup can in the center and press the sand around the can to form your volcano mountain. For the best effect, completely conceal the can. Spoon 1/4 cup baking soda into the can and place the box on a surface protected with a plastic tablecloth or newspapers. To erupt the volcano, pour a portion of the activation solution into the can. When this is added to the baking soda, it will make flowing ‘lava’. Let your party guests take turns adding a bit of solution to the can to cause further eruptions. Activation Solution – 1 cup water, 3/4 cup vinegar, 1/2 cup dishwashing liquid, 10 drops of red food coloring and 10 drops of yellow food coloring. Volcano Cake “

Make a Fairy Garden For Your Kids Party:

“turn a colorful plant pot on its side and submerge it halfway in the soil to serve as a proper fairy dwelling. Add dollhouse sized furniture to set in the garden, popsicle sticks to construct a fairy fence, or small flat rocks to make a wonderful stepping stone path. A small mirror symbolizing water making a faux gazing pool. The round flat glass beads used in vases make nice accent pieces too. Tiny garden accessories like terra cotta pots and shovels give your garden a ‘lived-in’ look. “

Kaboose – Fun Zone: Activities for Backyard Play Dates and Parties:

“Create a superior sandbox. Scooping sand with shovels and building sandcastles is always a fun way to spend an afternoon. Make the sandbox even more enticing by giving the kids colorful glitter dust from a craft store to mix into the sand or tiny paper umbrellas to create beach scenes (try blue glitter dust to make water!). Or buy small plastic dinosaurs and cover them with baker’s dough, shaping them into eggs, suggests Penny Warner, author of Splish Splash: Water Fun for Kids (Chicago Review Press). Then hide the dino eggs in the sandbox and have your budding archaeologists dig them up and crack them open to find the surprise inside. Get more fun sand ideas. Pitch a tent. A campout under the stars is the perfect summer night activity. Set up a tent in the backyard and create a backyard “campfire” by putting a few small chairs around a hibachi to roast hot dogs and marshmallows, suggests Warner. (Make sure kids keep a safe distance from the barbecue.) Sing campfire songs, tell spooky ghost stories and bring along flashlights so the kids can read comic books in their sleeping bags. Get more fun ideas including best camping crafts in our camping guide. Make a splash with sprinkler games. Play Snake in the Grass: lay a flat sprinkler on the lawn and have kids run in and out of the sprinkler area. “One player is in charge of turning it off and on intermittently,” says Warner.” The fun is getting wet and trying not to get wet” The kids will also have a blast playing water limbo: using a hose with a nozzle and a moderate spray, mom or dad sprays water about waist high and the kids limbo under it while trying not to get soaked.”

Medical News Today

The word soon got around of a nursing mother with a similar problem at another Victoria’s Secret store in Massachusetts.

Nursing mothers began to protest. 15 mothers breast-fed their babies outside a store in Westlake, Cleveland, Ohio. Breast-feeding in public places has been legal in Ohio since last year.

The mothers’ message is a simple one – breast-feeding is not dirty, it is not something that has to be done in a toilet.

The company said posters will be placed in all stores reminding employees of a nursing mother’s right to breast-feed her child at the store.

It is ironic that a company that promotes many of its products using posters of scantily-clad women with large breasts should squirm at the thought of the breast’s natural function – feeding a child.

I find it rather interesting how the thought process of North America is so bound up within its own Puritan roots that it is unable to see itself.

There are two protests really being waged here: (Both of these protests are founded upon idiocy — to say the least. )

The first is a protest by a group of activist mothers who demand the right to breast feed their children anywhere — in spite of the fact that there’s probably a sign at the front of that store that says the adults can’t have food or drink in that store either… (Yes Sherlock, newly fed infants do vomit…)

It is some sort of crusade for the rights of a woman, mothers and the appropriateness of breasts. The claim seems to be that a woman who is not permitted to feed her child in a particular location is being discriminated against for being a mother and a woman when it is really no different then the women herself being told to leave her soft-drink outside the store to protect the merchandise.

The second is over the exposure of breasts (Which the authors obviously regard as sexual/taboo) and a demand that a place where they are regularly, “Featured,” as sexual accept the exposure of those breasts under other, feared similar, terms if that store is to be consistent. The logic is then that we should accept one taboo behavior because we tolerate another taboo one.

Why are breasts sexual/taboo exactly? Well, we as a society decided to cover them up — though nearly all of the rest of the non-Islamo-fascist world is already topless or at least gets topless at the beach. (Many get totally naked with no real harm done to the society…) In other words, we created a sexual fetish by hiding something that isn’t sexual in the first place. It almost goes without saying that often the least sexual attention gets paid to genitalia proper anyway — and those other parts are usually freely exposed in our society anyway. Complete nudity on clothing optional beaches is usually also completely de-sexualized for all present in only a few minutes.

In reality, this entire story is about control. One side is defending what they see as their divine right to do whatever they want with their children wherever they want to do it — really it’s more about baby vomit on lingerie (though in our civil rights based fervor few will ever be capable of grasping that.) The other is trying to control the public display of those nasty breasts — those twin evil paragons of sexuality that will defile all viewers — out of their strange fetishistic North American world view that has decided which parts of the body are more sexual then others.

It would all be harmlessly stupid except that it’s this sort of insanity that is keeping people locked up in belief systems that teach them that their physical bodies and their sexualities (as well as their status as mothers) are shameful. Both sides do equal damage — ironically one side does it in the name of fixing that same damage. One side teaches women that their rights and status as women depend on where they can feed their children while the other simply teaches them that their bodies are sexual and, therefore, bad. Is this supposed to make us holy???

In some strange way, there’s something refreshing about clothing optional countries like Jamaica — at least people there can just live instead of continually struggling under the shame generated by both those who would repress as well as the misguided efforts of those who would rescue from that repression. At least there you can just forget about the whole absurd game…

Col. 2:20-23 ¶ If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why, as if you were living in the world, do you submit yourself to decrees, such as, “Do not handle, do not taste, do not touch!” (which all refer to things destined to perish with the using) — in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men? These are matters which have, to be sure, the appearance of wisdom in self-made religion and self-abasement and severe treatment of the body, but are of no value against fleshly indulgence.

“New American Standard Bible®, by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission.”