You have a depth to your character that is refreshing. I can not even get some pastors to go with me for more than one or two rounds. Yet you are willing to take my abuse and tolerate my lengthy diatribes. They don’t want to waste time on critics like me when they have bigger fish to fry, like nursing the relationships of their church members and making sure the church is giving them a place to get connected in what ever way they can. The last thing they want to do is discuss doctrinal issues, that could lead to divisions and schisms, which would not be of God, “Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh My!” Anyhow, do I really need to bother Brad Stine or Christian radio shows to sound an “alarm”? My battle is not with people like Brad Stine or the people in Christian Rock Bands. Our battle is with the spiritual forces of wickedness in high places and the strongholds of false imaginations in the souls of people and in our own souls. Our battle is not with flesh and blood, although it may appear to be, and many will be offended at things that are said. The best way to fight this battle is to stay in the word, prayer, and wait for the opportunities that God gives to speak or do stuff. Our goal should be to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. The Battle is the Lords, We just need to keep our swords sharp and endure hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ. He doesn’t really need me, but if He does use me it will be a privilege and an honor. We will have all eternity to enjoy relationships and fellowship with the redeemed of the Lord, and what a blessing that will be. So how much do I want to pursue building relationships with people in their lost and ungodly ways? I don’t know – I want to become all things to all people so that I may by some means win some, but I don’t want to compromise my walk with the Lord just to build a relationship them. How close to the water do we need to get before falling in ourselves? Jesus said to follow Him and He will make us a fisher of men. It is interesting note at this point the method of fishing that was employed by James and Peter. They fished at night mostly. Fish are attracted to light. They would position their nets and then hold out their lanterns and the fish would swim up to the light and then once all the fish were within the scope of the net, they would simply pull them up. In today’s method of fishing we use a ‘bait and hook’ approach. This tactic is also called ‘bait and switch’. The fish sees a nice juicy worm floating the water and then goes for it, only to realize that the whole thing was a set up to get him hooked on to a line and then get reeled in. This reminds me of the evangelism methods of some who use rock music or some other entertainment gimmick to bait unbelievers, and then pull a switch on them by presenting the gospel message, bait and switch. Jesus said we don’t have to do that. Just let your light shine and the fish (men/women) will come to it. Then we draw them in with nets of love. No hidden agenda’s, no gimmicks just the truth spoken with Love. I think I have far more than my 2 cents worth in, I have been running at the mouth here now for a couple of weeks, not sure if it is doing any good or not. Probably just helping to solidify in the minds of those who are reading these arguments that they realize more clearly how much they disagree. Who knows, and who cares, only God’s word is going to last forever anyhow. I do enjoy the chance however to be a critic on this issue and I do hope that I am on to something. I would hate to have spent all this time only to realize that it was all just hot air and bad breath, but that is the risk I take when opening my mouth. Our relationship with God will dictate how successful our relationships with others will be. I can not understand my wife unless I am in tune with the Lord to the point where the Holy Spirit will counsel and translate things for me during a conversation. Often there is no chance to prepare what you are going to say and how you are going to say it, sometimes conversation with wives just happen and you are left there wondering how you are going to get through it. Usually if we have been walking with the Lord and staying close to Jesus, we will come out smelling like a rose, but of course if there are issues, God will sometimes allow there to be conflicts to humble us. I have noticed one thing with relating to others, and I am by no means very good at relationships, but there is something within each person I meet like a divine sensor that can detect pride. If the pride sensor registers too high on the scale then there is a desire to correct that. This is a very strange phenomena but I think it based on the fact that neither God nor man will despise a broken spirit and a contrite heart. I have not listened to Josh McDowell in a long time, but if I could get a message to the teens of our day it would be this: Honor your father mother which is the first commandment with a promise, that it may be well with you and that you may live long upon the earth (in order to advance God’s Kingdom) Satan has been so successful in getting teens and parents to react to each other and thus tearing them from the most important influence and channel for God’s blessing in their lives. I understand what you mean by an out of body experience, even though I understand you are not meaning that in a literal sense. It is so important for us men to get counsel and wisdom and many perspectives. Especially important are insights that help us understand what we are doing and where we need to be going, with urgency. Constantly nurturing a God given vision that helps us to identify targets we need to hit before our time is up. Here’s the whole thing about church, music, preferences, and worship styles ECT. God did not intend for our church buildings to be places of ‘worship’. Our body’s are the temple of the Holy Spirit, and like Jesus told the woman at the well, worship is not about being done at this place or that place. God is a spirit and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth. Jesus said the kingdom of heaven is within you. God looks in our hearts to see if we are meditating in His truth and walking in the spirit. We have created a false understanding in our minds that worship is something we do at church. God wants His house to be a house of prayer, not a house of worship. Jesus said My father’s House shall be called a house of prayer, but you have turned into a den of thieves. We have created houses of worship using sensual forms of music and other gimmicks to attract the world and in effect have tuned God’s house into a den of thieves because we are robbing God of His rightful Glory. When we borrow the inventions of the world and offer them to God as our sacrifice to Him, how can He be pleased with that? What is up with that? Stever