No, my blog hasn’t been hacked. This is really me posting, and I would like to stop being a jerk now.
I would like to stop being so opinionated, so convinced of my own rightness, so judgmental and condescending and achingly starved for affirmation that I will stop letting it all boil out of me like pungent acid onto everyone I encounter.
I know deep down that it’s going to cost me the luxury of making snide comments at others’ expense which strike me as funny … and correcting and belittling them … and getting the credit for some things I might have actually done right.
And the whole thought of it just gives me the willies and sends an icy sharp pang of panic down my spine.
Because I have tried before and failed.
The truth is, what I’m wanting to give up is exactly who I am. And that is never something that should be considered or done lightly.
I want to be Someone else, but since I can’t be, I want to be open to Him through His Spirit. I want to be like Him. I want to give Him full use of not only hands and feet but heart and head and mouth.
That is not who I am, and it frightens me all the way to the center of my empty pointless self to admit it.
I want so much to be able to do it myself, and I can’t because I’m empty. It isn’t within me. I need help.
Because I am too often blind and deaf to the things He shows and says to me, I need your help.
I need you to tell me when I am still being a jerk.
I need you let me know when I am not funny but judgmental and unloving and selfish and cruel.
I mean it. Even if I melt in a puddle. I need to know.
Because I can’t trust me anymore.
I am a jerk.
And I don’t want to be a jerk anymore.
Blog In My Own Eye 
Your not a jerk…your a BIG jerk! What would the blog world do if you weren’t such a jerk? It wouldn’t be the same. Don’t stop. Please. Be who you are. Don’t care about what other people think. (Sarcasim…of course). :
Keith, I don’t know that you are a “jerk” , you should know better than anyone whether you are a “jerk”, so I have to take your word for it. Considering you have “jerk-itis” I have the perfect cure, or better the ” guide book” has the cure. ” love thy neighbor as thyself”
If that one doesn’t work consider this- “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”
If you try these remedies, I would bet you will be cured of your “jerk-itis” . 🙂
Keith,
God said in Galatians 2:20 ” I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me. Let the father, the son and the holy spirit dwell in you and make use of the sword of the Spirit be ready for the spiritual warfare abd imitate the faith of those who lived the word of God 100% 2 Tes. 2:6-8; 2 Cor. 13:5) so that way you can say as the apostle Paul in 2 Tim. 4:7-8 ” I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Finally, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but also to all who have loved His appearing.
1 Corinthians 2:15-16 ” But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16 For “who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?”[a] But we have the mind of Christ “.
Sacra Scriptura sui ipsius interpres ” Scripture is its own best interprer ”
sincerely,
guestfortruth.
All I can say is amen. 🙂
Keith, you say “the holy ghost” lives within you as a guide, and a Christian should be known by the spirit within them. Are you saying the spirit that indwells Keith is a “jerk” 🙂
No, brother, but He can be quenched (1 Thessalonians 5:19).
Colossians 3:15-17
“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.”
Keith,
I want to share this video abouth the things that are happening in the Charismatic movement written by an exmember of that movement called the Kundalini Warning by Andrew Strom. the video is available in youtube in 3 videos http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eBpw2oQrvMM
keith,
Have you see the video about the kundalini warning? Do you think that is the influence of the Holy Spirit?
I don’t know what’s going on in these videos. I’m not sure what you think this has to do with my post, brother, but I wasn’t referring to physical “jerking” but of being a jerk in relationships with others.
What is going on in these videos is not a new thing, I have watched the very same actions when I was a kid in north central Arkansas when people claimed they recieved the holy ghost from a holiness preacher slapping them on the head, didn’t believe it then, nor now.I wasn’t the only kid standing around watching the spectical. but they had this wheelchair bound guitarest that really was good.
keith,
What has been going in the charismatic movement some of their congregations has been invaded with some eastern mysticism practice borrow it from the Hinduns like kundiliny, part of that agenda has to see with the New Age Movement that Claim One Religion for the world a mix of all faiths all that start in Rome after the second Vatican Council, That is the beggining of the moderns catholics ! The father of that movement is Pierre Teilhard de Chardin you can learn about his theories in this Video that influence is in all society http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPeyhmYvJhc
and there has been an Liberal agenda infiltrated on the Christian Universities of the whole world.
I like your goal.
Keith,
You must see this video. It’s about the Eastern Hinduism It’s is called the Gods of the New Age- Mind control cults the Easterns gurus are using evangeistic techiques since 1960 according to this documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtKac11eKGo&feature=related.
here are testimony of people that went to india and lived those experiences.
Still don’t have a clue what this has to do with this — or possibly any — post of mine, Guestfortruth.
Keith,
Did you see the videos? Dave Houn has been involved in exposing those false manifestation of the Holy Spirit , most of those situation has to seem with new age movement. Have you read the book of called A Gathered People by Hicks, Melton, and Valentine. They use a lot of theological jargon that come from catholicism and terms as experience. Did you know that in the United Nations there is Religious office of unity in diversity directed by Lellan steward http://udcworld.org/ who makes possible the visit of the Dalaila lama in 1980 visiting USA. What do you think about that? Has something to see with the New Age Movement? Did you see the videos?
Well … thanks for pointing out these videos to me. No, I haven’t watched them. I don’t really have an interest in them. I don’t see how they could lead someone to Christ, or closer to Christ, so they’re not a high priority with me.
And you’ve completely ignored my question about their relevance to this or any post of mine, Guestfortruth.
Brother,
We need to be aware about the influence of those mystical movements that comes from Philosophies and mysterious cults. As Theosophy etc. God wants us to be Sober minded about this things going on and learn how to deal with those mental controls cults. In 1 Peter 5:8 “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” The only way to be sober is according to God’s word is “ For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. 8 But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. 9 For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, “spiritually speaking ( 1 Thes 5:7-9). Keith, I love you in the Lord and I don’t want you to be deceive by yourself. The word of the Lord said in 2 Corinthians 13:5-6 “Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified. 6 But I trust that you will know that we are not disqualified.” This advice comes a man inspired by God called Paul not just for me but also for every Christian that are making an effort to keep the faith given to the saints Judes 3. In Phil. 1:27 God said “Only let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel,” God wants the true Christians be grounded in the rock the head that is Christ. Colossians 1:23 said “ if indeed you continue in the faith, grounded and steadfast, and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which was preached to every creature under heaven, of which I, Paul, became a minister.” This is what the apostle Paul said to you and to me and all Christian on this earth, if we don’t hear their advice we will be end as those that depart from the truth that makes them free Jn. 8:32 and God is our counselor through the message of the Spirit the Lord knows all what is going on in his (Body) church of Christ and all the World, 1 Tim. 1:19 says “having faith and a good conscience, which some having rejected, concerning the faith have suffered shipwreck,” As a said in my previous post Colossians 3:15-17
“And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful. 16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. 17 And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him.” Sorry if I share this videos about the New Age Movement but, is something real going on in American churches today. Those videos show how the Vatican is accepting all world religion as the body of Christ and also Billy Graham and prob. Some of the evangelical groups. And about the video of the Charismatic Movement being invaded by Mystic ecstasies experiencing things that they believe is the Holy Spirit, but is not, as experiences in the ACU campus last year. Our emotions is not the Holy Spirit. There is an biblical explanation about quenching the Holy Spirit. Do you see the Gospel Broadcasting Network? http://www.gbntv.org they have a section about Q&A. They have a good and healthy program and can answer question about the Holy Spirit.
“Sacra Scriptura sui ipsius interpres”
The Bible interpred the bible.
sincerely in Christ,
Guestforthruth.
I hope I haven’t left an impression that I have questions about the Holy Spirit that scripture is insufficient to answer.
Or that in any sense I see my primary mission as policing those who profess to believe, even if they profess error. If that mission is revealed by scripture as having greater priority than seeking and saving the lost, I haven’t encountered it.
I count the likelihood of being able to talk someone out of believing something he has read into scripture to be exceedingly small, and I’m reassigning my priorities to spend less time at it. I think I’ve squandered enough that way.
9 Then the LORD said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?”
He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?” Genesis 4:9
1 Timothy 4:16
16 Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you.
Acts 20:30-32
30 Also from among yourselves men will rise up, speaking perverse things, to draw away the disciples after themselves. 31 Therefore watch, and remember that for three years I did not cease to warn everyone night and day with tears.
32 “So now, brethren, I commend you to God and to the word of His grace, which is able to build you up and give you an inheritance among all those who are sanctified.
13 Therefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ; 14 as obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance; 15 but as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 because it is written, “Be holy, for I am holy.”
17 And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your stay here in fear; 18 knowing that you were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, 19 but with the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot. 20 He indeed was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for you 21 who through Him believe in God, who raised Him from the dead and gave Him glory, so that your faith and hope are in God.
22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, 23 having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever, 24 because
“ All flesh is as grass, And all the glory of man[f] as the flower of the grass. The grass withers,
And its flower falls away, 25 But the word of the LORD endures forever.”[g] Now this is the word which by the gospel was preached to you.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi
I found your blog post when googling for “I want to stop being an opinionated jerk”. Too often on facebook I post stuff that provokes reactions, and I’m coming across as opinionated and not showing the sort of grace that jesus did. I also know that i can’t change in of my own power, and it will be a work of the Holy Spirit to change me, with my cooperation.
it is hard to express views when some readers come to it not believing in absolute truth, the existence of God, or taht the bible has any authority to speak. how to say what i think, or whether the world needs to know my views. It’s a hard call. whether we are sowing seeds that might get people thinking, or just cementing in their minds that christians are closed minded bigots with no credbility.
The solution I’m leaning towards is that I need to work on becoming more like Jesus, and to spend less time trying to sound impressive or dropping in links that get people riled up.
Glad to know I’m not the only guy out there trying to be less of a jerk online.