True Faith

The Roman Catholic Church, the largest religion on earth that lays claim to Jesus the Christ, also lays claim to being the final authority in theological matters within the faith. They do not pretend that the Bible is their ultimate authority. In the hierarchal form of their church government the Pope is the head of the church and he speaks for Christ.

There have been great abuses in that form of church government historically. If the Pope makes a declaration on a theological matter, there is no higher authority to which to appeal because he speaks for God. Because of the abuses of that form of church government Martin Luther, and others in the Protestant reformation, appealed to the authority of the scriptures. The Catholic Church had gotten so far off that track that it needed a major shake up. The ultimate authority in theological matters for Protestants became the scriptures.

There are many Protestants today that will tell you that what they believe comes from the Bible. Many will, in fact, insist on it. It is true enough that the Protestant Reformation began with the motto: “Sola Scriptura”. But the fact is, a great deal of what most Christians believe is not found anywhere in the Bible.

What actually happens is that some person or group interprets what the Bible says and ‘that’ is what is then taught as being ‘only the Bible’. One group will assert that a particular teaching is correct and point to the scriptures to justify their view and another will point to the scriptures to prove just the opposite.

There are a lot of misconceptions about the ‘faith once delivered’ among Christians. The truth is, traditions from non-Christian sources have been grafted into the faith for centuries. The result is a religion that is far different in some of its principles and practices from the one that Jesus the Christ taught. The Protestant churches today have gotten so far off track that they now need a major shake up.

Some Christian sects have pointed to such things as Christmas and Easter as having pagan origins and no relationship to the teachings in the scriptures. These are some of the more obvious extra-biblical traditions that have been grafted into Christianity. But there are even more subtle teachings than those that permeate modern Christianity.

Teachings rooted in non-biblical traditions have been handed down for so long that they are most often not even questioned. They serve to cloud the true nature of the God revealed in Holy Scripture. Some teachings even contradict the principles revealed to us so completely that they would be recognized as anti-Christian to the first century church.

It’s difficult to examine the foundations of ones beliefs, especially when we grow up assuming them to be true so completely. It is in our nature to only see, that which supports what we already believe, and to not-see what is contrary to what we believe. For the sake of intellectual and spiritual honesty, however, I believe every aspect of our faith bears close scrutiny, especially our preconceived ideas.

Some will argue, quite correctly, that the Holy Spirit leads us to the truth. Without the Holy Spirit we can’t understand the true depth of the scriptures. It’s also true that there are other spirits that will readily lead us away from the truth. We are told to try the spirits to see if they speak the truth. The only test we have is to use the scriptures as our foundation. The true Holy Spirit would never lead us in a way contrary to the scriptures. God has given us both to guide us.

If something is found to be contradictory to the scriptures it should be discarded…no matter how engrained it has become. The motto of every honest Christian should be “Sola Scriptura”. The Bible should be the “sole basis of authority”. Tradition that does not find its roots in the history or principles of scripture should not be considered a part of the faith. Any ecumenical creeds should also be judged in that light. The Bible continually warns of false teachings finding their way into the Body of Christ. The only true authority of the church arises out of the principles and practices found in the scriptures. Anyone who teaches otherwise should be considered suspect. Anyone who teaches something contrary to the principles in the scriptures should be considered a false teacher…no matter how sincere.

One of the biggest misconceptions in modern Christianity is that God and Satan are somehow equal. Nothing could be further from the truth. Satan, is a created being that rebelled against God. He is completely under Gods authority. There is no equality between good and evil. God allows Satan and evil to exist as they suit His purposes.

Stemming from that misconception is the notion that God is somehow in competition for the souls of man. Many believe God is desperately trying to save as many people as possible, and anyone who doesn’t accept Christ as their savior is hopelessly lost. If that were the case God would be losing miserably because the vast majority of mankind has not accepted Christ. People that believe this misconception unwittingly elevate Satan in status. The God of the Bible is absolutely supreme in power and authority. God opens the hearts and minds of man in degrees. He is working with all human beings and calls them in His time.

Some people will tell you that even infants who die without knowing Christ are doomed to an eternity in hell-fire. They take one or two scriptures out of context to come to such misunderstandings. The god that that view describes is not the God revealed in the Bible. The God of the Bible is revealed to us as a just, merciful and loving  Father in many, many scriptures. No fair minded judge on earth would condemn an infant in such a way, and there is no way the God revealed in the scriptures would.

Every teaching asserted by a church should be true to the principles laid down in scriptures. In other words, it should fit into the Big Picture harmoniously. The principles of eternal love, mercy, justice and humility should guide our understanding of all scripture.

Another guiding principle is 'obedience to God'. What God does not want is to create another Satan, another spirit being that rebels against Him. So, if it comes down to a choice between obeying God…or rationalizing why we don’t have to…go with obedience. Christ obeyed His Father unto death... If you love Him you’ll keep His commandments. Love is not what you feel…it’s what you do. And when it comes to someone else’s obedience to God, let them work that out with Him. You do what you understand. God didn’t create us, or call us, to sit in judgment on whether someone else receives the gift of eternal life. He'll do that himself.

Always keep in mind, the Bible is not a book of theory or philosophy. It is not a book to simply be read and walked away from...or studied, for the sake of studying. The Bible is a users manual. When you read it, and come to understand something, you need to put those things to practice in your life.

Ultimately the Bible was written to each of us personally. We should take what God reveals to us from it and work to improve our own lives. If every Christian would do that, the example it would set for non-believers would draw them to the church in droves. God called us to walk humbly with Him and to work out our own salvation in fear and trembling, not to take it for granted. When one is focused on the beam in ones own eye…one has very little time to find the motes in others.

Where others are concerned…be ready to always to give an answer for what you believe. Love them like you love yourself. Forgive them when they wrong you. Feed them if they’re hungry. Clothe them if they’re cold. Visit them if they’re lonely. And be there when they need a hand. Treat them they way you would like to be treated. Always remember that love isn’t just what you feel…it’s what you do. You can’t go wrong with those principles. Live those and you’ll get it…

Uri Hofi

Today I met a Master Blacksmith. Some say Uri Hofi is to blacksmithing what a modern Beethoven would be to music. Hofi was trained in blacksmithing by Grand-Master Alfred Habermann but he added his own contribution to the art and asked why things were done the way they were. Why hold the hammer that way? Why stand at the anvil that way? Hofi has refined the art in many of his own ways.

I must add here that he is not a man without some controversy. Some claim that Hofi is a simply product of the marketing of Tom Clark, the late founder of the Ozark school of blacksmithing in the US. Many say that Hofi takes credit for things he had nothing to do with..like the 'so-called' Hofi hammer. To be sure there are other masters of the craft that are just as good, and some better than Hofi. We have many here in the US that are masters in every sense of the word. These controversies don't take away from the fact that Hofi has helped spread the art of blacksmithing to a new generation. For that alone he deserves some credit.

Hofi is a seventy year old, Israeli citizen, who calls himself a Hippie. He uses the term to mean that he is in touch with life. He loves flirting with the ladies! He says he doesn’t pay any attention to time and he doesn’t waste any energy on anger. He says to waste time on such things is just stupid. He teaches his students to draw on their own experiences, all of them, to express their creativity in iron. I didn’t quite know what to expect from this old gentleman. What I learned was was a unique perspective on smithing and on life.

Hofi's focus in blacksmithing is on the simple, the basic. He has elevated basic skills to perfection the way only a master can. He studied the Discipline of his art before he struck off on his own tangent. That’s something too many people who call themselves ‘artists’ haven’t done these days. He says without mastering the basic skills you can’t bring the images in your mind into existence in iron.

The real artist creates a love for the art in his students by sharing his own passion. This, Hofi has done. I am fortunate to study with one of Hofi’s students…William Bastas. William is an instructor at Austin Community College in Austin, Texas. It's one of two schools in the US where blacksmithing is taught for college credit. William has studied under several masters of the craft. He is a believer in the stream of consciousness approach…he follows his thoughts wherever they take him. That's allowed him to come into contact with his own creativity. William has turned his life into a journey of understanding and creating. He freely, and happily, shares everything he finds to ignite the passion for his art in others. After meeting men and women like Hofi I can see where William gets his passion. He, too, is on the path to mastery. He may not have Hofi’s years or his ability to make things look so simple but he is well on his way. One day he will. I told Hofi that William was carrying on in his spirit. His reply was that William 'is' his spirit... I can't imagine a nicer complement from a teacher to his student.

The Talmud says: “Find thyself a teacher.” Hofi found Habermann; William found Hofi and I found William. Such men and women are an inspiration. People like these are true teachers. People like these draw you to them. They draw you into their passion and it becomes contagious. I’ve been fortunate in my life to know a few teachers like them.

Smiting the black metal dates back to Tubal Cain in the Bible. It's written he forged all kinds of tools out of bronze and iron. Without blacksmithing there would be no modern world. It was instrumental in building civilization. Blacksmithing almost died out after World War II. Modern welding and machining has replaced the need for most of it. The world could have lost an art almost as old as humanity.

Metal artists like Habermann, Hofi and the several masters of the craft we have in the US have revived the art and it has found new disciples like William Bastas to preserve it and pass it on. The circle of life becomes complete by passing on one’s passion to the next generation. Alfred Habermann did that. Hofi is doing it. William is too. Hofi travels the world to spread the Habermann school of blacksmithing. William does it from the halls of a community college.

Today I had a good day. Today I heard echoes of Alfred Habermann. Today I met a Master Blacksmith.

The Path to Mastery

The concept of mastery of a skill has been poorly understood and poorly defined in the West. In the East however it is an essential part of many cultures. Like many Westerners I was exposed to the concept through martial arts. The beauty of it however is that it can be applied to almost anything. It is one more piece of the puzzle of what it means to be human.

In the beginning of learning any skill there is the introductory phase. One is exposed to ideas and movements that are unfamiliar. I have come to call this the Unconscious-Unskilled phase. You have no idea what you are doing and no clue how to do it!

As you become aware of what is expected or desired you begin to get an idea of what you hope to achieve but still lack the specific skills to get there. This I call the Conscious-Unskilled phase. Now you know that you don’t have a clue!

The third phase comes from practice of newly acquired skills. This I have come to call the Conscious-Skilled phase. You know what to do now but you still have to think about how to do it.

The forth and final stage of growth is the Mastery stage. You know your skill so well that you no longer have to think about it…it has become programmed in you. This is the Unconscious-Skilled phase. At this point you simply do what is needed without much, if any, thought.

To master an art you must first master the discipline of that art. This is very poorly understood in the West. It takes work…the kind that too many modern Westerners aren’t willing to exert these days. In Japan if you worked for say, a textile mill, you would be expected to learn the history of where the fibers come from and how they were originally dyed so you would understand how the modern processes developed. You would be expected to have an understanding of the big picture of your craft.

In the US…if someone merely claims to be a painter, they can just throw paint at a canvas (some have!) and call themselves an artist! A whole culture has developed here in the ‘art world’ wherein people with NO talent praise and admire the work of other people with NO talent in a kind of unspoken conspiracy that the rest of us are expected to fall for! (They all see the Emperors new clothes too!) A REAL artist would master his or her discipline before developing their own style. Pablo Picasso could match any of the great old masters doing landscapes or portraits but he went on to develop his own concept of abstraction. You can love his work or hate it…but it was the product of mastery!

There is a story told in Zen Buddhist circles of a rich art patron in ancient China who wanted a painting of a cat. He was willing to pay very well…but he wanted the best his money could buy. He sought out the best known artist of his day and told him what he wanted. He even paid a large advance. The artist told him to come back in a month. The patron returned in a month only to be told it would be another month. He returned time after time for months before he finally became angry and demanded that he get his painting for which he had already paid handsomely. The artist put a piece of paper down in front of his patron and in two minutes painted the most perfect cat the patron had ever seen! The man was stunned… Why, he asked, did you keep me waiting for months if you could do such remarkable work in minutes? Without a word the artist opened a cupboard door nearby and hundreds of paintings of cats fell out... He understood mastery.

Freedom of Speech

Freedom of speech is one of the pillars of the American way. It’s a fundamental freedom that is so important it is listed with freedom of religion in the First Amendment to the constitution.

The right to freedom of speech has been limited by the courts in some ways. You can’t yell “Fire” in the middle of a crowded theater when there is no fire. You can’t stand in front of a Synagogue on the Sabbath and preach racial hatred for Jews. Those things are not about expressing alternate social or political views. They’re about creating havoc and stirring up hatred. They lead directly to harming other people.

The Supreme Court of the land, in an action many claim is unconstitutional, has extended the principle of freedom of speech to include the ‘freedom of expression’. (The constitutionality issue is one that claims the high court oversteps its powers when it, in affect, creates new rights by such rulings.) One can burn the flag of the United States and it is protected as freedom of expression. A prostitute can be arrested for trading sex for money…but put a camera on that same transaction and it becomes ‘freedom of expression’. If an ordinary citizen were to follow a celebrity (or anyone else) everywhere they went it would be considered stalking. Let that same bottom feeder do it with a camera and it becomes freedom of expression again.

Those in the media itself argue that the public has ‘the right to know’…another ‘right’ not mentioned in the Constitution. It doesn’t take a close examination of their motives to see that their only motive is to sell their product…newspapers or airtime. Witness the farce that the O.J. Simpson trail became. That was all in the name of the publics ‘right to know’. The same philosophy has made names like Joey Buttafuco, Amy Fisher, Jessica Hahn and Tanya Harding a part of our culture…instead of the embarrassment that they should be.

What fundamental right is being denied the public by not hearing every little detail of some sorted and twisted tale? Doesn’t it actually harm ones ability to get a fair trial when such cases are tried in the media?

Just watch and see what the Michael Jackson case turns into. This guy is an absolute freak created by the media. They say he’s a black man…but I’ve seen no evidence for either assertion. Any man in his forties that likes to sleep with children completely unrelated to him has some serious issues. Now, he may or may not actually be a pederast. I don’t know. I know he has the right to a fair trial and, in court at least, is innocent until proven guilty. He may not be someone I’d want to have over for dinner but he deserves his day in court. Unlike the sound bites the media feeds the public to sell their wares, the jury will hear all the facts of the case. I’d like to say we can count on them to deliver a fair verdict but based on Jackson’s fans that automatically declare him innocent, the race card that will no doubt be played, and the leaks that the media has unabashedly published (in the name of freedom of speech/the press) I have my doubts.

It seems that the camera has become so much a part of our culture, thanks to Hollywood, that bad behavior in front of it is excused in the name of ‘freedom of expression’. While Hollywood and the media put up the pretense that they are protecting our freedoms and wrap themselves in the flag, they’re spitting on the true spirit of the Constitution in the name of profit.

Freedoms aren’t free. Ours have cost the blood of many good men and women over the two centuries America has been a nation. Indeed, without freedom of speech a free society would be impossible. My question is: Have we gone too far with it? Has it become a license for irresponsible behavior? Freedoms demand responsibility if they are to survive and responsibility is something that’s in short supply these days. When we sell ours for a profit…what does that make us? The freedoms the media has turned into a 'license to profit' have only hurt the cause of justice. Call me old-fashioned but I think when justice suffers…we all do. I know the founding fathers didn’t intend that…

The most Helpless among us...

OUTRAGE! That's a word that doesn’t begin to describe what I feel about adults abusing and neglecting children…especially when parents abuse their own children. It is the ultimate betrayal!

Children look to their parents for everything. It is the DUTY of every parent to feed, clothe, shelter, teach, love, nurture and protect their children. Even most animals know that! If you are not prepared to do those things then DON’T raise children! Give the ones you have to someone who will do those things!

I have to insert here that I don’t believe abortion is an acceptable, or moral, way to rid oneself of the responsibility of raising children. The Supreme Court, in over stepping its constitutional authority, created the ‘right’ of a woman to choose to kill her unborn children if they are ‘inconvenient’ when she allows herself to become pregnant. (God forbid that there be consequences to ones actions!)

The Declaration of Independence, one of the founding documents of our way of life, says that “…all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness,,,”
Yes, the Holy Writ of the United States of America declares that there is a God and the very first right He endows every human being with is Life. Now, I’m no lawyer but it seems to me that the legal argument is very simple here…If the Constitution gave every person the right to take a 1000 mile journey and someone prevented another from taking the first step of that journey they would be violating the civil rights of the latter. Abortion prevents a living being from exercising their God-given right. There…that leaves the Bible out of the matter for those who can’t stand to even think about what their Creator intended.

Getting back to my point. Children are not here for us to use for our own gratification. They are a gift from God. They are His opinion that life should go on. They embody the hopes and the dreams of our race for the future. To abuse them is tantamount to taking a baby bird out of its nest and breaking its wings. It will never learn to fly right afterwards. It will carry those scars for all its life…

In the news recently there was a couple that adopted their children, took them into their home and then beat them with hammers, pulled out their fingernails with pliers, locked them in closets and starved them among other things. They CHOSE to take on parenthood. Their betrayal is even more heinous than that of parents who give birth to their own biological children… Even animals raise their offspring with more compassion than these two evil human beings.

The news is full of such stories. We hear them, along with what’s going on in the Middle East and who won the latest sporting event and we go on about our daily business.

What happens to the least of us reflects who and what we really are. What happens to the least of us affects us all. You want your own children to live in a better world? Then you’d better care about how your neighbor is raising theirs… How we raise our children today is what the world will be like tomorrow.

A Mother's love...

I recently saw an episode of 48 hours on CBS. It covered the Islamic terrorist takeover of that elementary school in Beslan Russia Sept.1-3, 2004. The final figures are 1200 plus people in the school were taken hostage by 32 terrorists, 330 of them were murdered…176 of them children. After the first day of the takeover the children and adults were not allowed to eat, drink or go to the bathroom for the next two days while they were held hostage. When the situation erupted bombs killed many of them, many more were shot in the backs as they tried to escape. Over 500 people were injured all told. 24 children were orphaned. Of the 32 terrorists at least ten of them were Arabs from the Middle East.

Any civilized person on earth would call this an act of pure evil. All of it was done in the name of the ‘religion of peace’ by Chechen rebels.

The story of one mother stood out to me in the midst of it. The terrorists allowed the infants and very young children to leave with some of their mothers before the end. Those mothers that also had older children in the school were given the choice to leave with their youngest children or stay with their older ones. All the mothers except one left with their infants. That one mother gave her infant to the Mayor of the town who was attempting to negotiate with the butchers who did this and she decided to stay with her older child. Some of the older children watched, horrified, as their mothers left the building with their younger siblings. The Mayor of Beslan left with the infant.

Now I don’t mean to put down any of the mothers in this. They were all faced with a choice that no parent should ever have to make. They were all dehydrated, hungry, sleep deprived… and horrified. I pray for God to bless each of them in their recovery. But this one mother…she stayed with her older child to suffer whatever the consequences the children would face. This woman looked into the face of pure evil and she was still guided by her love and her courage.

In that one mother, in that one act…I saw hope for all humanity. I never heard her name. I’ll never meet her. But I salute the courage and the love that flows in her veins. She embodied what is best in humanity in that act. I am humbled to be a member of the same race as she. One of Gods' jewels...