Author: Rev. Charles Pugh

My life experience (particularly in the past 32 months, since 04-16-07) should be enough to help anyone at least question The SYSTEM.  What am I talking about?  I’ve addressed it in many articles on this Website.  Is there a system we can look to and possibly even trust?  Many are recognizing the problems in the government; can we trust those politicians who are putting us all into such massive, shackling debt that it will cripple us for years to come?  Maybe we should look to the educational system?  Then again, there are all of those failures in the standards of learning and testing, along with all of the increasing violence and even shootings in our schools.  Perhaps we can trust the medical system?  The health care debate is certainly bringing out many issues and problems there.  I know… the answer must be to trust the religious system!  Yet, there are obvious problems there too and this is the very thing that creates resentment and even wars and turns many from GOD.  As noted in my recent “Radical CHRISTianity” Blog, many burnt by the religious system turn to radical secularism or a more violent religion, such as radical Islam.  Surely we can claim our human rights and trust the legal and Justice System of this great United States or perhaps even that global body at the United Nations!?  Yet, my forced and unjust experiences (even again this past Monday) illustrate many serious problems in the legal system.  Are you trusting The SYSTEM?  If so, which aspect and why?

Likely, you have been burnt or turned off by something that did not work as it was supposed to work.  Maybe it was with some organization or possibly your own place of employment? Perhaps you have even been turned off or mistreated in some church?  Maybe you have been pressured and disappointed by family members?  Regardless of what your experience has been, you can identify with problems in The SYSTEM.  The SYSTEM is that mass of Beliefs, Opinions, Actions and Thoughts where we live (or ride in, if you catch the acronym ;-)).  It is the collective interaction and atmosphere around you.  You might even think about it in relation to the potential record breaking winter weather system that is currently bearing down on the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and East Coast regions.  Note how the meteorological particulars even come together to make this storm system.

We live in fascinating days today!  The technology that allows for instant communication all over the world, along with the collection and accessibility to past experiences and knowledge, helps create and leads to a more unified, overall SYSTEM.  Ideas battle to dominate the collective thinking and fortify the BOAT.  If the mass of people build this system using a VIRTUAL world (as I last wrote) and are not anchored from the dangerous floating ideas and winds of change, the whole system is destined to CRASH!  Why is it that there are so many problems today and daily examples of human initiated or directed tragedy?

We are leaving GOD out of His CREATION.  We seek the impossible task of explaining everything from merely a Natural perspective.  That cannot be done!  Man does have the CREATOR’S Mandate to have dominion over the earth (c.f. Genesis 1:26ff), but not the right to leave GOD out of everything or isolate Him to a small area of life (like a Sunday morning church service).  Problems come when we leave GOD—The CREATOR out of our dominion or system.  The result of this is that all—even the religious systems—then change the glory of this incorruptible CREATOR into something far beneath what it actually is.  Consider the GOD-Inspired words of Romans 1:22-23:

“Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man–and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.”

Friend, if you want GOD’S best for you and all those around you, then you’d better learn to not trust The SYSTEM, but trust GOD—The CREATOR and His Inspired Word!  If not, then you and all who choose this foolish alternative will experience tragic results (see Romans 1:24ff)!

Events over the past few days lead me to discuss a very important subject in this article.  No doubt, most of you are familiar with the concept of a holograph or even the holodeck on the Star Trek shows.  These programs portray a virtual world that appears just as true as the real world.  Likely, you have seen some 3-D movie, such as the recent edition movie release of “A Christmas Carol” or possibly you have even been to an I-MAX theatre.  These theatres make you feel as though you are a part of the show.  Most of us are at least familiar with or even regularly experience stereo sound and even the effects of a surround sound stereo system.  Virginia Tech does cutting-edge research in an area they call The CAVE, where images and sounds are projected to simulate something like the Star Trek holodeck.  With all of the games, audio and video images around us, we each are increasingly involved in what are called virtual experiences.  The sensory perception of a simulated atmosphere mimics what a real atmosphere might be like.  Why I am writing about this today?  There is a real world and there are many virtual worlds.  I wonder, dear reader, if perhaps you could be falling victim to a VIRTUAL Reality?

I have often written about the important difference between reality and imagination.  There is so much information available today and so much technology, that it is far easier for any of us to get caught up in a virtual world.  In fact, these virtual worlds and our own imaginations will tend to desensitize us to readily spotting a counterfeit.  A recent incident with fake money where I currently work illustrates how it is so often easy for someone to pass off a clear counterfeit as the real thing.  In fact, you can even do this personally with others around you.  Acting is so common and seen as so important today that many are finding it easier to pretend to be something that they are not.  Do you find yourself doing this?  Are you leading a double life or pretending to be one way before some and a different way before others, and even different when you are alone?  It seems that this is almost a requirement today for those who would be politicians.  I think the average person today is really more interested in what is real.  Though increasing technology keeps people interested in the latest things, the tendency is for one to grow bored with the virtual and long for what is real.

Friend, there is a reality that many today are not understanding as they could.  There is the physical world and there is the spiritual world.  One is just as real as the other, though one most often goes unseen by our perceptions.  The spiritual world is connected to the physical world and those paying attention can learn to see many of the interactions.  Spiritual truth is no different from physical truth in principle, but is different in its realization.  A day is coming, when what has been hidden will come into full view.  Will you be ready for that day?  The Bible tells you how to be ready and explains much more about this real spiritual world.  It also warns us that there is a spiritual deception at work too, and tells us how to spot it and not be deceived by it.

Don’t be deluded (review my 05-22-09 Blog:  “DELUSION”)!  You can be certain of your faith as much as you can about anything else in this world.  Faith need not and should not exclude reason.  Investigate for yourself.  You have little excuse for ignorance in this day and age of information.  Be sure that you are not being deceived or even deceiving yourself.  It is easy to live in a false or VIRTUAL Reality.  This will not help you when all things are made known and come to light.  Are you ready?

I suspect that many of you have rarely, if ever, heard of a perspective quite like what this article will discuss.  If so, I wouldn’t need to be talking about it today.  😉  Following up on my last article—“Doubting Darwin”—I wish to pursue this idea of doubting a bit further.  Have you ever personally noticed that you often second guess yourself or some action or position you have taken?  That is not always a bad thing.  In fact, what I’m writing about here runs opposite from the typical psychological approach that drives most people’s thinking and behavior.  Does this at least mentally challenge you to read further?  When you think about it, SELF DOUBT is actually a great gift from GOD!

I am NOT writing this in support of doubting GOD; that was Darwin’s problem.  I am writing this today in support of doubting SELF.  If we are honest with ourselves, we have to admit that we are NOT GOD!  We don’t know everything, see everything, have all power or have the ability to be in all places at all times.  This very fact makes it impossible to disprove GOD.  We can doubt that there is a GOD that loves us and cares for His Creation, yet what good does that even serve us personally, much less how we interact with others?  If GOD is not Good and JESUS was not who He claimed to be, then you may as well give up on anything meaningful in your life!  You have to start your thinking somewhere.  Given what we can see and the scientific facts we can know, it takes much less faith to believe in an Eternal Personal GOD than to believe in eternal impersonal matter.

Please do not make the common mistake of transferring your personal doubts to your belief about GOD.  We all, even scientists in various disciplines, live much of life by faith.  Because not all is sight, we will have doubts and sometimes even second guess what we have come to think.  Let this be a friend to you as a gift from GOD and not a defeating thought that would paralyze you from proper action or push you into an ill-advised attitude of pride.  There is so much we need to learn, and learn to think about further than we so often do.  What we really need is to learn to think GOD’s thoughts after Him.  We can do this particularly from what we know is His Revelation—the Bible.

The very center verse in the Bible (Psalm 118:8) tells us that it is “better to trust in the LORD, than to put [our] confidence in man.”  That includes confidence in our self.  We dare not reach a point where we think we have all the answers.  We need to be teachable people, especially if we hope to learn and grow.  We need to be willing to constantly learn and improve who we are.  If we quickly make judgments about people and things, then we likely will find that time proves many of our judgments wrong.  I made the mistake at the beginning of my personal tragedy of thinking that more people understood this Truth and believed as I believe, especially those who claimed to believe it.  Time and further personal tragedy has proven otherwise.

Self doubt will keep you from making many mistakes, though if not tempered by Truth, it will push you to agnosticism or apathy.  It may even push you to the foolish place of atheism.  This is a dangerous place to be if you then fall into the trap of exalting your own position and end up acting out in some way, regardless of how you may try to justify it philosophically or religiously.  Seung-Hui Cho was there philosophically and so was Nadal Malik Hasan, with his additional religious justification.

Friend, be thankful for the gift of Self-Doubt!  Do not think that the problem is merely you needing to work on your Self-esteem—that is a lie and will hurt you and others around you!  You must accept yourself as having value as GOD has made you—in His Image, and learn to live as your CREATOR intends in this fallen and imperfect world.  That is proper confidence—in HIM!

Yesterday was a very important day in the minds of many around the world.  I heard of celebrations of it on the radio and saw examples of celebrations on television.  Thousands of people in academic circles around the world, including scientists and leaders at Virginia Tech promoted this special day.  What was this day?  Why did it garner the attention of so many worldwide?  November 24, 1859 (150 years ago) was when…

Charles Robert Darwin published his seminal work:  “The Origin of Species” (the original full title being, “On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favored Races in the Struggle for Life”).  Darwin was clearly, as demonstrated through his own testimony and writings, Prejudiced.  In today’s world, you would legitimately then be able to call him Racist and Sexist.  Darwin was embittered by the struggles in his life and doubted the goodness of GOD.  Though many of his followers today are professing atheists, Darwin was not.  In his book he even refers to Creation as “the works of God” and calls Him the Creator some seven times.  Darwin simply doubted GOD’s direct involvement in His Creation and he imagined a way to try to explain it all naturally.  The academic elite around the world do the same today, though many take their doubt even further than Darwin did.

You can learn more about Darwin from a number of sources.  He lost his mother at age 8.  He was schooled in the academia of his day, even apart from much direction from his father.  His own loss of his beloved oldest daughter, Annie (when she was only 10) pushed him further into doubting the goodness of God.  Another daughter had died just a few weeks after birth and his youngest son died just a year before he published his most highly esteemed work.  Though Darwin originally set out to study theology and even become a country minister, he gradually forsook his faith until he doubted himself into an imaginary world.  Many highly intelligent people are doing the same thing today (particularly deferring the question to “other worlds”) and convincing millions of less educated people that they must accept their “enlightened” position.

Fast forward from November of 1859 through November of 2009 and take a look at the fruit of Darwin’s doubtful theory.  It was used by Hitler to justify his madness and the extermination and attempted manipulation of human life.  It is used today to justify the destruction of human life even before that life has the chance to survive outside of the womb, or the test tube as science has it.  Evolutionary thinking leads a person to turn inward and trust their own self, which in turn leads them to act outward, often in crimes and even tragedies like the VT Massacre on 04-16-07.  Evolution deifies impersonal matter, thus taking away the most important and healthy fear that we all need (see my #1 Lesson To Learn).  You may wish to review similar thoughts in many of my other blogs, such as the 02-19-09 “Chimp off the old block?” article, my 06-29-08 blog, “HIGHER Education” or even my 06-17-08 blog, “Intelligence and Ignorance.”  Just think about all of where Darwin’s doubt has brought us and how it even limits our progress!

What fascinates me further, yet deeply troubles me today, is to see how so many religious leaders are buying into Darwin’s imaginary theory and even regularly encouraging people to doubt!  The Roman Catholic Church is known for publicly encouraging this and I have personally talked with many religious leaders who buy into this same ridiculous thinking.  The Bible does not encourage us to doubt; it commands us to have faith in GOD and tells us much more about Him.  Yes, we all live by faith in so many ways, yet our faith need not be an unreasonable faith.

Doubting is unreasonable and if you go with Darwin’s doubting, you will eventually be sorry!

Being PARALYZED is a terrible thing.  I have several friends who have lost limbs or are living with the limitations of paralyzation.  Likely, you know someone who is restricted this way.  Interestingly, GOD often is better able to spiritually use people who are physically paralyzed.  Consider how HE has used people such as Joni Eareckson Tada, who is a quadriplegic after a diving accident over 40 years ago and depends upon daily help from others, yet is being used of GOD in a global outreach to the disability community and many others.  Each of us lives with our own set of challenges and we often fail to even thank GOD for basic things, such as the use of the various parts of our physical body!  This Thanksgiving Holiday time of year (often neglected in our day, or diminished to a half-hearted time with some family or friends, called: “Turkey Day”) is a great time to specially reflect on all we should be thankful for—EVERY DAY that we live (see my “Think To Thank” poem tabbed above).  So far as being limited by PARALYZATION, I wish to take that thought and apply it to the non-physical.  It is s SERIOUS PROBLEM in our society and the reason why my own personal tragedy has continued.  The question for you, dear reader, is: “How might you be PARALYZED”?!?

Consider the paralysis that often happens in the wake of some tragedy.  An unexpected event occurs and typically leaves the “victim” in a state of shock.  That is the natural first response.  The sad fact is that others who are aware, yet not directly impacted by the tragedy, often do not step up to help those who have been hurt, or are very slow to do so.  There are many examples of this that you may have even seen, such as people who just walk by someone clearly hurt or just continue to shop or do their own thing when someone’s very life is in peril.  That reveals a deeper problem in the human heart and even in the accepted thinking.  My personal state of tragedy, which followed the Virginia Tech Tragedy, happened to me because I was NOT PARALYZED in any way—physically, emotionally, or especially spiritually, when so many around me were.  In fact, GOD even took away the physical limitations I had struggled with for around three years.  To many around me, it appeared that my mood and even actions were inappropriate or even that I suffered from some manic episode or mental illness.  This was because I was doing all that I could to help people in the aftermath of that horrible tragedy.  I was locked up, labeled psychotic, forced on medication and isolated from family and friends.  Tragically, my personal tragedy has continued for nearly 31 months now, despite thousands aware of my situation and even my repeated appeals for help in various ways.  In fact, my reasonable actions and the overreactions of others (even as reflected in legislation, such as Virginia’s HB559) led to two additional involuntary commitments for me.  I have been learning A LOT!  J

Friend, I do not know exactly where you may be in your life today, yet I challenge you to consider whether you might even be suffering from some emotional or even worse, some spiritual PARALYSIS.  This need not be the case and I can help you if you will hear me and learn from my experience with tragedy.  The fact is, that I am not emotionally defeated (not because I have the help and support from many others), but because I am leaning on the very ONE who CREATED me and ALL.  JESUS CHRIST allowed HIMSELF to be nailed to a cross because HE was the ONLY ONE who could bring healing to HIS CREATION and to you personally.  This man is the ONLY ONE to have ever defeated the power of death!  HE will help you if you let HIM, no matter who else will.

You can learn more by seeing how GOD has sustained me, even as I have reflected on what I am learning through the many articles on this Website.  You can Look to Jesus, Learn from Jesus and Lean on Jesus, just as HE invited in Matthew 11:28-30.  That was a message that I preached to only one other lady (and other workers listening in) on 04-29-07, when I was locked up in the most intensive treatment unit of the Roanoke Rehabilitation Center.  I’ll send you the scanned copy if you desire (just contact me through the contact tab).

May the LORD help you with any physical, emotional, or spiritual challenge and may you NOT BE PARALYZED!!!