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I have been thinking a lot about this whole perversion thing. All you have to do is mention the word and it conjures images of sexual immorality or staunch fundamentalist preachers screeching from the pulpit.  Men requiring absolute adherence to the laws they most often have set, or women (or men) on the corner ready to sell themselves to the highest bidder.

Nothing is said about what perversion really is or what purpose it serves.  At its root, perversion serves to hide the truth. Without the truth you would have nothing to pervert, nothing to twist around and nothing to attack. You don’t pervert a lie, you can spread it or add to it or embellish it. In the end you will only be painting a false image of a person, business, circumstance etc.

The funny thing about it is most people see it and have no idea they are looking at it, or if they do know there is no sense of injustice, no cause for alarm. Oh sure we hear about some very inappropriate sexual relationship between two people and we are up in arms. We are ready to hang the offender or offenders from the nearest tree.

But, we watch the news knowing that what we hear is tainted by emotion and agenda. (I’m talking to you CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, NPR) You KNOW that what they are saying is only a portion of the truth, the portion that serves them and makes them look superior to their rivals. This is perversion! You are numb to it, you sleep while your guests snoop through the underwear drawer of you mind! You have willingly given up your right to see and understand the world around you.

Now for a more personal view of this, let’s look at perversion as it relates to your purpose. In the not too distant past, I distinctly heard Holy Spirit say “Max, You need to cut a spirit of perversion off of you and your family”.  I was almost offended, but I did not understand what was being as offered.  I certainly did not understand the path that it would take me on. Since the beginning of this path I have come across several people who really needed to hear what I have learned along the way.

Let’s go where no one wants to go. The dark hidden areas tucked nicely inside yourself. You know the ones, the issues that you struggle with, sometimes over and over again.  Those little areas that you don’t like talking about, they bring you shame and separate you from the relationships you not only need you deserve.

Here is a poplar one for me since I tend to revisit it the most frequently. “What I have to say is not valuable enough to say” or “What if what I have to say is wrong”. Perversion! These thoughts do nothing but hide the truth from myself.  Now where this whole thing really gets exciting is not in the identifying the perversion. It’s the truth that was being perverted! What was once hidden from you by a lie has now been revealed!

Example; “what I have to say is not valuable enough to say” The lie is that my words and thoughts and thus myself has no value. If it’s a lie then the reciprocal must be the truth. “What I have to say is most valuable, and is capable of bringing blessing on those that hear and receive it”. Let’s take this a step further and really get down to genesis of this truth. “I Max Hecker was born to speak truth and life into those around me, I am destined for it and it is in direct conflict with my purpose to keep myself from acting on it”.

I was reminded of another fantastic example by a very dear friend of mine. When the news that my son Ever was a mere 9 months away (ok it’s 10 months I know.) I was immediately gripped with fear about my ability to be a father. Was I ready for it? Could I handle the pressure and commitment?  This was a life, a whole new set of emotion and purpose. BIG stuff, and I was terrified I’m talking lay awake at night trying desperately to peak a few decades down the road for some assurance of success kind of scared.

I know these are normal fears, had by normal people. They are a perversion of the truth. The difference between a good parent and one hanging on by a thread is defeating this perversion of the truth.  The truth is, “ I was born to be a fantastic dad”.

Look the point I’m trying to make here is simple, I was just a little long winded in how I went about it. You can look at your weaknesses and let them get to you. You can go and get all depressed about it, let it overwhelm you and you will eventually amount to a whole big pile of nothing.

Or, you can see past what your emotion is trying to tell you and rejoice at your weakness! They are lies covering the truth, and now you know better. I want you to look at yourself and say weakness (you be more specific here), You are a lie, and you have perverted my purpose! And now that I know you’re there and know what you’re trying to do, you no longer have any ability to hide my birthright from me! You can no longer prevent me from achieving greatness and I will be who I was purposed to be from the beginning of creation!

Feel better?

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This is not something you will see on this website very often, if in fact ever again. These are a few quotes from a man we have all heard about. He has changed the world in more than just a few ways, and after reading a few of these I feel it fits directly in with the vision a direction of this website.

Regards,

Kill the Static.

• “Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more violent. It takes a touch of genius — and a lot of courage — to move in the opposite direction.”
• “I want to know God’s thoughts; the rest are details.”
• “Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one.”
• “A person starts to live when he can live outside himself.”
• “Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds.”
• “Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen.”
• “The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education.”
• “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”
• “The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there’s no risk of accident for someone who’s dead.”
• “Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can be counted counts.” (Sign hanging in Einstein’s office at Princeton)

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“How did I get myself here? Sure, I was a little pretentious but a dream is a dream. It’s not like I chose to dream it, I didn’t ask for the tunic. I need to get out of this mess, out of this hole and back to my dad”. These must have been the thoughts running through Joseph’s mind sitting out in the middle of nowhere, looking up from some dirty hole in the ground and wondering just exactly what his brothers plans were for him. It’s easy to read this story and not really understand why Joseph’s brother were so mad at him. He had a few dreams that placed him in a position of authority over his brothers and eventually his whole family. That wasn’t the whole story, there was more to it than a few restless nights for his brothers. It was the tunic, the infamous “coat of many colors”, as a child I sat through many Sunday school lessons intending to use this story to show how Yahweh can use the worst situations to bring blessing. The story is good for that, what I have never heard anyone teach is why things went so bad, so quickly.

It was the tunic that sparked this fire, and it didn’t have anything to do with the colors. When Joseph told his dreams to his brothers it says “and they hated him even more”. Not a tunic of many colors but a tunic of many pieces. These extra pieces were long sleeves, the word that was translated into colors really meant “stretched out or wide” and implied a long and sleeved tunic. This wasn’t the kind of thing you could exactly do a lot of work in, It would get in the way. What the tunic really said to them was “I am my father’s favorite and he intends for me to be in charge” They saw this and knew it instantly, anger and jealously were the order of the day from that point on. These men probably had children as old as Joseph, who was he to rule over them? Yet there he was, literally wearing their fathers approval and authority. He put on that tunic and took on the burden of running the family and threw down the burden of physical labor.

A lot can be learning about what was going on in the various stories written in the bible simply by understand the importance and value of clothing during those times. Most people only had one set of clothes at the time unless they were wealthy or at least well-to-do, and shoes were a luxury. So important were certain items of clothing that they were one of the few items you were actually allowed to save from a burning house on the sabbath. The cloak for example could be given as a pledge for a loan but had to be given back before nightfall because it may be the only thing the person had to keep them warm while they sleep, it could then be taken back the next day. The Jewish courts at the time could award nearly all a persons possessions as a settlement, but never the cloak. Understanding these and other things about what was going on culturally can give tremendous insight to what they were writing about.

Another good example, and one used many times over in the scriptures is in tearing clothes to represent remorse, grief or anger. Job after hearing that all his children and possessions had been taken from him, he “arose, tore his robe and shaved his head”. The robes he was wearing was all he had left, he up to that point had been a wealthy man. His clothes would have been the nicest you could get, they would have been made of the finest material, rich in color and like Joseph’s tunic it would have been long made from large amounts of the best cloth. This would have been the Armani suit of the time. Knowing that he had nothing left to his name, he could have taken even just his outer robe and sold it and probably eaten quite well for more than just a few days. Yet he still tore it in his grief, imagine suddenly having nothing left to your name only moments ago being a wealthy man. All you have is what you were wearing and the cash in your wallet. In that wallet is several thousand dollars, you could go get a cheap hotel some food and probably be “OK” long enough to at least find some  sort of employment to survive on. On hearing the news of collapse of you empire, in a blind rage you take your wallet out and throw it into a river never to find it again. You would have ruined any chance of comfort while trying to get back on your feet.

There are so many things going on “behind the scenes” in what we read in the bible and honestly as it relates to a written word, there is just no good way to gain a complete understanding of what the person was trying to communicate. You don’t know the tone of his voice, if he was rolling his eyes or the level of importance that the author was putting on the topic he was writing about. There is no body language or facial expressions and punctuation can only translate so much emotion to the reader. But with at least a rudimentary understanding of the day to day activities in the lives of the people, you can read and even understand the subtle points of what is being represented by the words in front of you. The simplest of phrases can take on a deep and valuable meaning, it can change the entire direction of what we always thought was true.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Along for the ride
• Letting Go and Holding On
• The Law is Boots, The Spirit is Flip Flops
• Almost killed by static
• You Pervert!!

Bookmark It