This satire is an expression of a time oft repeated wherein I felt incredulous and scornful of the thinking of so-called “theologians.” They shape and size God, formulate the things they think He does, analyze Him, dissect Him, figure Him all out, put Him back together again according to their desires and tastes and put Him in a neat box, gift-wrapped and stamped, ready to be reproduced and mass-marketed to the ignorant masses the world over who swallow their doctrines as unsuspecting fish swallow bait, hook, line, sinker and rod.
By the way, God hates the term “theology.” How presumptuous is man that he should dare try to study God!
It is commonly believed by small and great
That God dwells in Heaven in royal estate,
That Satan in Hell lives in darkness and hate,
That this will never change.
God IS in Heaven and also in Hell,
The psalmist does declare
And with sons of God in Heaven, says Job,
Satan too is there.
God is in Hell and Satan in Heaven
The Scriptures testify
And only the sincere seeker of truth
Will faulty doctrine defy.
God in Heaven, man on Earth
And Satan in Hell is the creed,
Yet Satan walks to and fro in the earth,
And Emmanuel is “God with us” we read.
The Christian is seated in heavenly places,
The heathen dwell in Hell,
Yet both walk the earth with Satan and God
And where who is who can tell?
To know the truth is to shed the lie
And born full of lies we are;
It therefore takes a shedding of self
And to all we’ve been taught we must die.
The answer lies in the Spirit of God
Who leads us to know all things
And once we’ve discovered the answers we’ve sought,
To our souls peace and freedom He brings.
Dauphin, MB; 1978-79
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Music on The Path of Truth - Songs 1
On May 9th, 2017, while my wife Marilyn was away, the Lord gave me a new song I began to sing as I stood in our vacant, closed, echoing garage in Moon River. I felt a thrill in my soul and began with a bar or two of a pattern as in C, Em, F, and G. I searched for words. The only words coming at the time were, “I want you to know that, know that, I want you to know that….” From there I searched for more and came to, “…the greatest blessing, the greatest blessing….” From there to, “The greatest blessing is to know Him….” As days went by, I'd go on to other things but would return to search for more of the tune and words that were life and reality, not religious platitudes. I was inspired to sing from the heart and not from indoctrination or intellectual knowledge. I Want You to Know is one song I've had to search within for the tune and words. It's also the one I've most enjoyed. It's been like going deeper in mining for gold and by God's grace, striking “pay dirt.” I speak of the theme, words, tune, the level of notes and form of words more suited for my voice and range, and the pleasure I've enjoyed in the Lord. This is my most personal song. The theme certainly is the message of my heart. I came to realize this song is a Declaration of the First and Great Commandment.
There exists the notion that victory speaks only of joy, peace, love, rest in their counterfeit forms, the wishy-washy, mushy-gushy kind that has no place in reality. This song expresses the reality. There is war before victory. With war comes bloodshed, hard times, threatenings, loss and destruction, but the victory is there in real terms, earned and established by the Lord.