Bumps in the road.

by Rev. Doc

I wrote a close friend today that the pain he endures, that seems so overwhelming now, will likely later be recalled as a relative bump in the road along his greater life path.

It made me think about how often I am asked what our church is about and I talk about how some people just don't feel a good fit with the orthodoxy, dogma and ritual of organized religion but they still seek spiritual development and a sense of community of like-mindedness, and that is where they find their attraction to our ministry.

It seems that most often it is people who have a bumpy path in life who are attracted to our services and seek to form social and spiritual bonds with us.

The vast majority of people, of course - are more comfortable in the mutual dead ends they have accepted as their waiting for death existences.

To us they are huddled masses of fear clogging the darkest corners of life.

Unfortunately, these are our public majority and bureaucracy - an overwhelming avalanche of ignorance, fear and greed.

To them, we are wild and out of control - not doing what has always been done - not lining up and bending neatly over.

But there are some few who have eyes to see and ears to hear and a care to face reality.

Maybe that's you. Maybe you notice that you just are not a square peg and never will be without sacrificing all the parts of your character that make you a unique creation of God.

Religions generally seek to define, improve and pass judgment on God's creation - YOU!

I recall some little phrase from a child, "God made me - and God don't make crap".

The bumps in life.

That is where interesting things happen; where all the lessons are learned.

Our societies are populated by sheep who hide from truth while craving (even false) order and shiny things - dominated by vultures and snakes who consider feeding off the flock their special privilege.

It is part of our spiritual development - if we are inclined to have any - to have the teeth of the entire dead end culture snapping at our rears once we dare hop out of the pile and start to be the people we were created to be instead of the brain dead robot zombie slaves our um...."elites" of society demand.

If you are going to open your eyes; you have to expect a little grit now and then.

Thus I suppose comes the phrase, "Grin and bear it."

Only you can be true to yourself. What is the alternative?

Doc

PS - From Tyranny - Expect Corruption. It trickles down.

(reposted from www.docloco.com)

The Golden Rule - The World's Religion

Painting: The Golden Rule by Norman Rockwell

The Golden Rule is a Universal Foundational Belief expressed in nearly all religions.

Christianity

So whatever you wish that others would do to you, do also to them, for this is the Law and the Prophets. Matthew 7:12


Confucianism

Do not do to others what you would not like yourself. Then there will be no resentment against you, either in the family or in the state. Analects 15:23


Buddhism

Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful. Udana-Varga 5:18


Hinduism

This is the sum of duty; do not do to others what you would not have them do unto you. Mahabharata 5:1517


Islam

No one of you is a believer until he desires for his brother that which he desires for himself. Sunnah


Judaism

What is hateful to you, do not do to your fellowman. This is the entire Law; all the rest is commentary. Talmud, Shabbat 31a

Malachi 3:3 Outside of the Box

A while back I received this in an email:

Malachi 3:3 says:
"He will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver."

This verse puzzled some women in a Bible study and they wondered what this statement meant about the character and nature of God.
One of the women offered to find out the process of refining silver and get back to the group at their next Bible Study.

That week, the woman called a silversmith and made an appointment to watch him at work. She didn't mention anything about the reason for her interest beyond her curiosity about the process of refining silver.

As she watched the silversmith, he held a piece of silver over the fire and let it heat up. He explained that in refining silver, one needed to hold the silver in the middle of the fire where the flames were hottest as to burn away all the impurities.

The woman thought about God holding us in such a hot spot; then she thought again about the verse that says: "He sits as a refiner and purifier of silver." She asked the silversmith if it was true that he had to sit there in front of the fire the whole time the silver was being refined.

The man answered that yes, he not only had to sit there holding the silver, but he had to keep his eyes on the silver the entire time it was in the fire. If the silver was left a moment too long in the flames, it would be destroyed.

The woman was silent for a moment. Then she asked the silversmith, "How do you know when the silver is fully refined?" He smiled at her and answered, "Oh, that's easy -- when I see my image in it"

If today you are feeling the heat of the fire, remember that God has his eye on you and will keep watching you until He sees His image in you.

Pass this on right now. This very moment, someone needs to know that God is watching over them and, whatever they're going through, they'll be a better person in the end.

Lets think outside of the box about this -

It has been my experience that every personally pleasurable (good) thing that happens has a personally displeasing aspect (bad) and every bad experience has a good part too. There isn't one without the other. Pleasure and displeasure go hand in hand. This is a two edged sword.

Both the "good" and "bad" teach me how to be a better human being.

We humans are so silly. 

Why do we have to imagine that God is sitting around personally fiddling with our lives? Or that he even has angels and people to do it for him? IMHO - That's a very small minded trifling kind of God.

Does being so important to God as to have to be "tested" really quiet the fear of not really knowing what comes after this life or does it make us feel better loved and safer than our neighbors? It doesn't for me and judging by how insecure most people who say they believe in this kind of God act, it doesn't really cut it for them either.

Why can't we just accept life as an imperfect state and see that we have the opportunity to make what we will out of it?

Why can't we be kind and unobtrusive to our fellow humans just because that's the right thing to do? Why can't we love and forgive other's in their humanity because we are human too?

I feel that is Christ's message. He stated we are all sons of God... It rains on the just and the unjust... Love those who hate you... Forgive... Tolerate...

Live while you are alive instead of counting your mansions in heaven!

It is when we allow fear and hatred to rule our minds and hearts we suffer. And how is that a trial from God? It is your personal hang-up, not anything more.

For me, blaming an outside force is a waste of time.

There's only one way to find peace and security in this life and that is to live in a positive, grateful and understanding state of mind.

You will always be just as happy as you make-up your mind to be.

Love to all,
Believe Jesus
Rev. Kita Kazoo

Change in Utah Church Leadership May 1st, 2010

The independent Utah branch of UBU Ministries had a change in CEO May 1st, 2010 as Rev. Gregory Lowrey resigned his board membership.

The position of Pastor for Utah and CEO of UBU Ministries - Utah has been filled by Rev. Steven Bosh who has served as Associate Pastor since August 2009.

Several additional board positions have been re-posted.

Welcome Rev. Steve and Rev. Jeri Bosh as members of the board.
We have great confidence in your dedication to the principles of integrity and purpose that we are founded on.

Congratulations also to UBU - Utah on being voted #1 by Utah County in the People's Choice Awards for both tattooing and piercing.

Our ongoing cases of infringement of our 1st Amendment Rights by various departments of Utah State, County and Municipal Government continues.

We won all the (frivolous) criminal cases with relative ease - excepting debilitating stress, near financial ruin and months lost and other damage to our mission here.

We are still working on ongoing 1st Amendment violations against UBU by various departments of government.

Much of the current concern tedious and equally frivolous and absurd interpretations of tax and regulation laws.

I keep wondering since their attempts to disrupt and regulate the exercise of our religious expression are not to ensure compliance with any actual law and run counter to both the US and State Constitutions, then what is the possible motivation but a personal one?

In every case I find support for my initial conviction that this is a case of govt. agents using their civil powers to deny or at least interfere with the legal practice of religion and to give their religious perspective the force and (pretended) cover of law. (religion on religion discrimination)

These cases are so involved and time consuming that we have formed a UBU Ministries Office of Legal Affairs and Government Liaison.

Rev. Doc Lowrey has accepted a request to fill this office while he and Rev. Kita are developing an independent branch of UBU Ministries in Ferndale, Michigan where he is Pastor and CEO.

Ten Ways Christians Tend to Fail at Being Christian

 by John Shore
(reposted to UBU by Rev. Kita)

(John is not a UBU Member, but we like the general thrust of his article presented here.  UBU holds different teachings regarding the nature of God and Jesus and our relationships to them.  We personally consider ourselves disciples of Jesus and are not "Christian" in the commonly understood sense of the term.  Rev. Doc)

1) Too much money. "Wealthy Christian" should be an oxymoron. In Luke 12:33, Jesus says, "Sell your possessions and give to the poor." In Matthew 19:21, he says, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor." In Matthew 6:24, he says, "You cannot serve God and Money." Christians are generally pretty huge on cleaving to the word of God. I just don't see how those particular words could be clearer. (For more on this, see my post "Christians: No Fair Heeding Paul on Gays But Not Jesus on Wealth.")

2) Too confident God thinks we're all that and a leather-bound gift Bible. I'd like to humbly suggest that we spend a little more time wondering how we displease God and a little less time being confident that we do. (See my post "Certainty in Christ: A Blessing and a Curse.")

3) Too quick to believe that we know what God really means by what he says in the Bible. The Bible is an extremely complex, multi-leveled work. We're sometimes too quick to assume that we grasp its every meaning. Take this passage, for instance, from Luke 8: 9-10: "His disciples asked him [Jesus] what this parable [of the sower] meant. He said, 'The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you, but to others I speak in parables, so that, "though seeing, they may not see; though hearing, they may not understand."'" Huh? And that's Jesus "explaining" what is generally regarded as one of his most readily understood parables! Are we really all that confident that we always know exactly what Jesus meant by everything he said? Wouldn't we do well to sometimes admit that the words attributed to God manifested on earth are just a tad, well, Greek to us? (See my post "The Bible's Two Big Problems.")

4) Too action-oriented. We Christians could stand to spend less time acting in the name of God, and more time reflecting on the (ever subtle) majesty of God. We need more passivity, and less activity. More meditation, less machination. More reflection, less correction. More contemplation, less administration. More prayers, less airs. More mysticism, less ... um ... cretinism. (See my post "Doing Christianity vs. Being Christian.")

5) Too invasive of others generally. It is my personal, humble opinion that anyone seeking to mix church and state has failed to understand the nature and role of either. Being founded upon the principle that all men are created equal and deserving of equal protection under the law is what makes the American system of democracy such a gift to mankind. Attempting to mix the inherently exclusionary imperatives of a particular religion into the resolutely inclusive system of the American constitutional form of government is to work against everything that America stands for. Religion is a personal, subjective affair for the individual; politics and public policy is an impersonal, objective affair for everyone. (See my post "Does the Holy Spirit Vote Republican?")

6) Too invasive of others personally. We Christians are too often too eager to get up into the faces of others about their personal religious beliefs. If you believe in the reality of hell, then wanting to save non-Christians from going there is a worthy sentiment, of course. But the bottom line is it's absolutely impossible to talk someone who isn't a Christian into becoming one; in fact, more than anything else it's likely to push the non-Christian further from God. I believe we Christians would do very well indeed to spend our time "just" living as Christians, and let God worry about the non-Christians. (See my post "What Non-Christians Want Christians to Hear.")

7) Too quick to abandon logic. When talking to others about our faith, we Christians too often resort to a language and line of reasoning that leaves good ol' fashion logic sitting on the ground behind us, waving a sad good-bye. "It's true because the Bible says it's true" is, for instance, an assertion that can't help but leave the non-Christian unimpressed, since it's so manifestly illogical. "It's true because the Bible says it's true" is no more proof of truth than is, "Apples are the best of the fruits, because I think that's true." Christians need to more readily admit that the religious experience -- no matter how riveting and real it is to the person experiencing it -- remains a subjective phenomenon, and talk about it that way. (See my "Let's Be Real: No One 'Walks' and 'Talks' with Jesus.")

8) Too fixated on homosexuality. Can we Christians stop already with the gay and lesbian fixation? I know many of us understand our stance on the matter to be unassailably Biblical. I know a great many of us are deeply concerned about the "homosexual agenda." I know. We all know. Maybe Christians could just give that issue a rest for a while. It's not like gay and lesbian people are going anywhere. They'll all be there when we get back. Maybe -- for just a week, a day, a month -- we could concern ourselves with something else, and let them be. (See my post "Christians: When It Comes to Homosexuality, Man Up.")

9) Too insular. When I became a Christian, one of the things that most amazed me about Christians is the degree to which they tend to hang out only with other Christians. We should stop doing that. How are we supposed to share Christ's love with non-Christians (which we're forever saying we want to do) when we barely know any non-Christians? Time to widen that social base, I say. (Plus, Christian or not, we still want to throw good, fun parties, don't we? Well, let's face it: The heathen class has all the good music. We might as well invite a few of them to our next party. Maybe they'll bring their CD's!) (See my post, "My Answer to Christians Denouncing R. Crumb's "Genesis Illustrated.")

10) Too uneducated about Christianity. Generally speaking (which of course is the most offensive way to speak about any group of people), Christians tend to embarrass themselves by knowing so little about either the Bible or the history of Christianity. Believing that the Bible is the word of God, for instance, is one thing; knowing nothing about the long process by which men decided which texts would and wouldn't make it into the Bible is another. It's not that all Christians should be full-on theologians or historians. But if you're a Christian who doesn't know the Great Schism from The Great Santini, or the Diet of Worms from ... well, the diet of worms, then you've got some homework to do.

Read the original here - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-shore/10-ways-christians-tend-t_b_562583.html?ref=fb&src=sp