How Jesus Rescued Bob Haines

6/4/08 Updated 6/7/08

"Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little."

Luke 7:47

I was raised in a lower middle class family that made no pretense or profession of religion of any sort. But by no means do I intend to imply that any of what follows was their fault. My mother waited tables and my dad had various jobs, usually in mills.

I do remember sleeping out in the back yard when I was a young boy, and being overwhelmed by the immensity of the stars in the summer sky. At this point, no one would have had to convince me that there was a God, since I had the inherent knowledge in my heart. Even though my parents, my older brothers and sisters, and just about all of my aunts and uncles were constantly asking this Deity to damn this, that or whatever.

I was not an upright, honest or a stable child. I had many problems in school and at a young age they sent me to a psychiatrist. Even at that tender age I could ascertain that it was nothing but silliness, even though I have no doubt that the man was sincere and did want to help me. By the time I was 13 I had defiled myself with sex, and began to steal wine with my friends from supermarkets. Being drunk, foulmouthed and rowdy came very naturally to me as I can see now, looking back.

Various run- ins with the law and obvious problems with rebellion and authority plagued my soul as I finally dropped out of high school and through much finagling, was able to enter the United States Navy on a special waiver. Surprisingly, while most of the other recruits seemed to hate the discipline, the order, and the structure of Boot Camp, I reveled in it for some strange reason: maybe finding a sense of purpose or direction that I had never had in my life. I enjoyed it immensely, excelling in the activities and the scholastic side of it. Yet when I went to my first duty station in Phoenix, Arizona, now being free from all the restraint of my family, school and the like, I ran to sin as a hungry hog does to the trough.

Truly, at this time in my life I became a son of Belial; a rowdy drunk, a thief and a whoremonger. Two circumstances that could have very easily ended in my death made not the slightest impression on my wayward soul. Because some of my friends were getting married, I thought that this would also be a good idea, as I convinced a young woman from that city that she should be my wife. This situation proved to be nothing but foolishness and disaster, and did not last for very long at all.

After many run-ins with the law, and almost being drummed out of the service, I was transferred to San Diego. Right across the border was Mexico, with pharmacies that required no prescriptions, just dinero. When I found amphetamines, with the incredible energy and euphoria, I thought I had literally found the reason that I was created. Little did I know this was a pathway down to the darkest and freakiest destination I could imagine. Adding fuel to the fire was marijuana, alcohol and all the other usable suspects in this kind of a lifestyle.

Days before I was discharged, and hopelessly drunk on ripple wine, I sideswiped a vehicle with a woman and her daughter in it, and at the time had no idea I had even hit anyone. It wasn't until the police found me with two blown tires, stranded on a divider in the highway, that that day's folly came to an end. As soon as I was released from the Navy, I fled the state. But being a civilian did not alleviate in any way my mental, spiritual and moral decline.

At this time rock and roll became my god, unabashedly, and as my first marriage dissolved I became more and more of a loner and by the devil's providence came into contact with Carlos Castaneda's series of books about an Indian sorcerer from Mexico. This was through Rolling Stone Magazine, of all things. It will suffice to say that I was a willing and eager participant in opening myself up to demonic influence and control. This took on a marked reality in my dream life. I will only say this; that what the demonic forces can show a human soul with the intention of deceiving and killing it, are truly beyond the powers of description. I had experiences that were contrived and orchestrated by evil spirits that were as seductive, and as thrilling as anything you could imagine. When the Scripture declares that Satan himself appears as an angel of light, it is not Jewish hyperbole.

I married again in the '70's yet all this while my mental state and my spiritual condition continued to deteriorate significantly. This union was also dissolved, and at that time I began to drink excessively and had been addicted to prescription pain killers for some time. I was heavily demonized and I recall once being in an apartment in Centralia, and literally not being able to get out of bed to do anything but go to the bathroom for three days. There was no physical sickness, only demonic oppression. At this time I also tried to take my life, but was obviously and graciously spared by the
Most High.

Then began a frantic 5 year manic phase in my life when I thought I was going to be a great inventor and a multimillionaire or billionaire. The number of pills I would take a day continued to climb, and I had to search out more and more doctors to write prescriptions for me. By this time, even though I tried to convince myself that somehow I was going to be 'successful' I knew that I had dug for myself a tremendous hole and I was terrified to think about going without these pills for even a day. Many
spooky things occurred in these years, and my grasp on reality was really not a grasp at all. If I would have been examined by 'professionals' I surely would have been locked away.

Living from hand to mouth, with debts piling up, and confusion reigning in the heart and soul, I stumbled into the '80's. By this time I became a binge drinker, spending three, four days in absolute oblivion, all the while with the headphones on blaring the music that had become a god to me. The hangovers can not be described. The hopelessness, the shame, the dark
depression, no words could reveal it.

In these later years God in His infinite love and mercy began to shine shafts of light into my darkness. Where I had gone to college just long enough to become a necessary atheist, I now had no doubt again as when a boy, that God was real, I just did not know who He was. As I began to drink more and more, and just work from hand to mouth, my emotional state was not good at all. I had been kicked out of a couple of different apartments, and finally ended up living across the hall from a woman and
her son. She began to approach me about Jesus, and told me how God had 'saved her'.

I remember one night being drunk out of my mind and banging around when she came at about 2 am and knocked on my door. I said some rude and sarcastic things that I would not want to repeat. For some reason, although most of those nights were completely blacked out for me, I remembered this the next day and went over and asked her forgiveness. She invited me to go to church with her and told me some things about the Lord that I don't remember now. I said I would go, probably out of guilt, and about three
weeks later I finally did. I have no idea what was said or what I felt. She began to tell me more about her life and what the Lord had done for her, and it was truly a miraculous story.

I went back a week or two later and someone asked if anyone wanted to give their life to the Lord. For whatever reason, I went up and I said yes. And someone prayed for me, and again, I remember nothing. But the next few weeks, God became real to me in a way only someone who has been born from above can understand. My sin became personal. There was no abstract about it. The Holy Spirit lovingly showed me, one by one, things in my life that were sin against God, and He asked me in a gentle and loving
manner what I was going to do about each one. That is a literal truth.

Somehow, in ways I can't even comprehend, my life began to change. My addictions, my bondage to tobacco, pills, alcohol, pornography I wish I could say melted like the spring snow, but I have to confess that I fought many battles in those days, not always successfully.

Yet God was good to give someone, who had squandered well over 30 years of his life, had no marketable skills and no ability to make a living, a profitable small business as I began to grow up in Him and to get out from under a crushing load of debt that I had created for myself.

As I began to study the Scripture and look around at what was going on in the denomination I was in, I realized that I had to, for conscience sake, flee from it and endeavor to live a simple life before God, knowing very well that I would be judged for the light that I possessed. For many years there was very little fellowship in my life. In 1995, God through His providential hand, led me into the company of some precious believers, where that fellowship became a real and a living situation. In 2003,
God in His infinite mercy allowed me to actually and categorically experience real love, as I met and married my present wife, who without a doubt is the greatest gift that I have been given on this earth.

For whatever reason, I have been blessed with many escapes from death, and I exhort anyone reading this who has not experienced the new birth and had his sins washed by the only One who can wash them, Christ Jesus, not to turn a deaf ear the next time he hears the call of God in his life. I am a living testimony that God is desirous that none should perish. It is indeed a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. It is life, peace and joy to walk with and obey Him on this earth and forever in eternity. All Glory to His name!

Please consider more of Brother Bob Haines' writings here.

Missionary Steve Phillips writes, as part of his dedications in one of his books, "MY ESTEEMED BROTHER BOB HAINES Who has passed through Dark Waters; My fellow partaker in the Tribulation, Kingdom and Perseverance in Jesus"

Please consider Brother Steve's book, Out of the Depths: The Mystery of Suffering

Favoritism for the Rich Man?

"My brethren, do not hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of glory, with partiality. For if there should come into your assembly a man with gold rings, in fine apparel, and there should also come in a poor man in filthy clothes, and you pay attention to the one wearing the fine clothes and say to him, "You sit here in a good place," and say to the poor man, "You stand there," or, "Sit here at my footstool," have you not shown partiality among yourselves, and become judges with evil thoughts?"

James 2:1-4

Chuck Hazen's Testimony

Brother Hazen lives on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State, USA

Posted 5/24/08

In 1959, the year I left our Spokane home for college, my parents along with my brother and sister, moved from Spokane to Lahore, West Pakistan. My father was a civil engineer and quite provincial but the various lures of this expatriate assignment induced him to make the huge geographic and cultural leap to become chief planning engineer, responsible for the entire Indus River Basin, on a consulting basis for the Government of Pakistan. He loved both his work and life there, and my mother did even more. Unlike my father she had dreamed since childhood of life in the “exotic East” and read everything available on the subject, so when Dad got his chance she was ecstatic and lived the Asia life to the fullest 1959-72 when they retired to Bellevue. In 1966 they moved to Bangkok, Thailand where they enjoyed life and work even more than in Pakistan, and through their letters infected me with the “SE Asia expatriate bug”. So after college (BA, Econ), Army (two years, draftee), graduate school (MBA) and marriage to my precious Judy (at that time widowed, Christian husband, Army helicopter pilot killed in Vietnam) and her two children who I formally adopted as my own, in 1969 I took a job with Chase Manhattan Bank of New York not because I particularly desired to become a banker but solely because they promised to assign me/us to Bangkok where my parents were.

After three marvelous years there we moved to Seattle which I considered “home” and where my folks planned to retire. There I joined Seattle-First National Bank’s international department and traveled SE Asia doing international banking business for them. In 1975 they moved us to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to live and from where I was to continue my work for the bank from a more “on site” location. 1975-77 we thoroughly enjoyed life and work in KL and throughout SE Asia. Meantime our third child had been born in Bangkok and our fourth between Bangkok and KL assignments while in Seattle. In 1977 we returned from KL to Seattle for what I planned would be two years at head office after which we’d return to expatriate life in SE Asia for the rest of our career and lives. The Lord had other plans.

We were church goers but I was dead in trespasses and sins. In about 1982 I met a missionary headed from Seattle to China, the Holy Spirit gave him discernment of my spiritual condition, he preached to me the Gospel, I believed in the Lord Jesus Christ as God gave me life from the dead, seated me in the heavenly places with Christ Jesus, placed me in Christ and He in me, opened my being to know God and Jesus Christ whom He has sent, chose me, adopted me, as the result of Christ having bought me with His blood, all by the grace of God, His doing, none of mine, all while I was yet a sinner. Amazing grace.

Since then it pleased God for us to not return to our beloved SE Asian lands and their wonderful and varied peoples. Our connection with those precious folks for thirty years had been through missionaries only. Last summer’s chance to return, paid for by our son, was a gift from the Lord our enjoyment of which is impossible to overstate. There is so much more I could say, and I never tire of telling the tales, but hopefully, and only if you truly desire it, we could continue whenever we get the chance to meet. Meantime I’d be glad to field questions.

Chuck Hazen's Photos

The Good News

A Silverlight Presentation

Is this Emergent Church - Contemplative Spirituality?

This is Rosicrucian!

Are the similarities just superficial?

Outcasts & Rejects
from Churchianity

Are you one?

Three types of experiences:

• No opportunity to minister in your church
• Your church has coercive, oppressive leaders
• Your church is going down apostate paths

What a blessing when one is a part of an assembly of believers who love one another and are devoted to the Lord Jesus and His word; and there is freedom to participate; and the elders lead by example from among their brethren.

In some churches things are set in concrete as far as the programs and the rituals and the systems, so that individuals feel there is no place for them to minister or to serve or to teach the Bible in the way they are called of God. There is an elitist attitude among the leaders that only the anointed are allowed to participate and those not in the in-crowd feel shut out. I receive email from brothers from time to time who have this experience and a desire to participate and serve and teach.

I recommend persevering in love with your assembly, by the grace of God. Trust the Lord for opportunities to speak to the elders. Seek to set an example for others.

And while you are persevering in love with your fellowship, perhaps there are other opportunities for you to minister! Consider meeting with friends in homes and read and discuss the Bible together and pray together and sing songs to the Lord together. Visit a rest home and see if you might be an encouragement to elderly people. Maybe there would be an opportunity at the rest home for you to teach the Bible. Visit someone in the county jail. Find a missionary who is truly devoted to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and to making disciples and pursue ways to help and support that missionary.

But, most importantly, you and I need to devote ourselves to Jesus and being His disciple and learning of Him and learning Genesis to Revelation. We can trust Jesus that as we devote ourselves to preparation, He will use us in His timing… in spite of anything or anyone else.

More to come...

5/13/08 updated 5/26/08

Pantheon

5/4/08 updated 5/14/08

The lineup of gods a group of people worship.

Also, a temple in Rome devoted to all the gods.

See the Answers.com article: Pantheon - scroll down and note the photos

"Other gods" - 1 Kings 9:6-9

gods of the land - household gods - demons
luck - fate - karma - sorcery - priests - clergy - ritual - mystical techniques

Worshipping created things rather than the Creator (see Romans 1:25}

Why should we know something about these things? Because God's people are still being drawn away from Jesus by these very things in various disguises!

Greek Pantheon

Apollo · Artemis · Athena · Ares · Aphrodite · Demeter · Dionysus · Hera · Hestia · Hermes · Hephaestus · Poseidon · Zeus

Roman Pantheon

Jupiter · Mars · Quirinus · Saturn · Venus · Janus · Vesta · Lares · Pales · Ceres · Pomona · Consus

Norse Pantheon

Óðinn · Baldr · Vör · Bragi · Dagr · Freyja · Hel · Jörð · Njörðr · Rynkar · Skuld · Thor · Urd · Váli

Roman Catholic Pantheon

Saints: Mary · Francis · Christopher · Stanislaw · Elmos · Theresa · Thomas Aquinas · Many Many Others

The people are taught to show devotion to these entities and to pray to them and to believe they will receive blessing and miracles from them.

American Pantheon

Founding Fathers: Washington · Jefferson · Franklin · Hancock · Revere · Adams · Henry · Paine · other Canonized: Lincoln

Consider the monuments, temples really, built to some of these men. Consider the styles of these structures and compare them to the monuments to the above pantheons.

New Discussion Board

When Churchianity Takes Over

Should it not grieve us when sincere fellowship among the brethren is co-opted, taken over, usurped by churchianity?

Is it not reasonable for us to be concerned when the flesh rules in the assembly instead of the Spirit of God? When the personality of men dominate instead of letting Jesus have preeminence?

Yes, we should overlook personal offenses and not insist on our own way.

But the beauty and fulfillment of sincere fellowship causes us to hope for something better when churchianity creeps into the assembly.

News from

Temitope Peters Adewole

in Nigeria

Community Bible Fellowship

Our assembly for which we are grateful.

Pastor/Teacher?

"For the most part I believe that most Calvary Chapel clergymen preach the real Jesus and the true Gospel, for which I rejoice. But their leadership structure with a one-man "Pastor/Teacher" who exerts a Moses-like authoritarian control over each congregation is not a Biblical, healthy example to set for the rest of the Body of Christ. I have personally heard Dave Hunt advocate the leadership of an assembly by multiple elders. Calvary Chapels do not have true elders. They are ruled by one man who has an advisory board who are called, "elders". Part of the reason that Evangelicalism is so deceived is BECAUSE of people who follow their leaders as gurus because their leaders are allowed to have unbiblical authority over their brethren!"

Pray for the Berean Call

Who Should Lead in the Body of Christ? - Commentary

Questions About Churchianity vs. The Church

Counterfeit Christs: Is your pastor a one-man show?

Four Ways Christians Are Deceived

Beloved sister-in-the-Lord, Ellen Craswell, was taken home by her Lord April 5th, 2008.

Our Sister, Phoebe

"I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea: That ye receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer [helper] of many, and of myself also."

Romans 16:1-2

Corrupt "Pastors Conference"

From Lighthouse Trails 3/31/08

"The Transforming Center is advertising this year's pastors retreat as is Zondervan Publishing which hosts both the retreat and the annual National Pastor's Convention. This year's retreat is titled Strengthening the Soul of Your Leadership Retreat, and the featured speaker is Ruth Haley Barton, co-founder and president of the Transforming Center. The retreat will take place in early April at a retreat center in Pennsylvania. There will be a second retreat later in the fall."

Read the rest of the article

Update from Sierra Leone

"Dear Brethren,          

"Suffering afflicts the soul of every mortal man here below. What we providentially may be spared outwardly will nevertheless need to be endured inwardly. Sorrow’s draught must trickle into all trembling lips without exception, Christ Jesus included.

"That startling passage, Hebrews 5:8, confirms this: “Although He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.” Jesus! Tempted in all ways, yet without sin. Son of God! Ever doing what delighted His Father on high.

"Yet He learned obedience; not due to fault in order to correct, not as enlightening a dull perception, but to taste sustaining support while sufferings threatened their cascading billows. "

See the rest of the update from Steve Phillips:

West African Mission Update - March 2008

Jesus' Resurrection or Easter?

March 2008 updated 5/14/08

To promote worldly holidays as if they were Biblical is as much a corruption as saying that Christians should celebrate the feasts of the Old Testament.

"Holiday" means Holy Day. The New Testament does not command the observation of any Holy Day.

Yes, there are legalistic types who attack religious holidays in a non-edifying way. But, there are also liberal-leaning demagogues people who try to get political mileage out of attacking anyone with convictions. These people are under pressure to appear liberal and magnanimous and end up acting in a demagogic way.

It is one thing to have the freedom to take part in the cultural aspects of their society's holidays. It is another thing to imply it is required to take part in the world's religious holidays to be a Christian. Now, that is legalism!

Some believers might want to make the most of any cultural season to point people to Jesus' death and resurrection.

But living Jesus' resurrected life EACH day has nothing to do with anyone's opinion about the world's once a year Holy Days.

TBC Today

March 18, 2008  Posted on this site 3/19/08

Today's Update:

"Showtime for the Sheep? Again, and Again, and Again..."

"When the Lord put it upon my heart to write a book about my concerns regarding Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ, little did I know I would face a new kind of opposition. I was compelled to address the subject because of my background as a devout Roman Catholic, a former Hollywood screenwriter, and my experience in Christian apologetics. The "passionate" reaction I received was very different from other controversial issues I had written about in nearly three decades of ministry; in this case some who were very much opposed to the book were those whom I greatly respect.

"To a man, their response to my long list of substantial criticisms (multiple distortions of and additions to Scripture, the use of the film medium to manipulate emotions, the false Catholic gospel of physical sufferings to expiate sins, story content taken from a mystical nun, Gibson's goal of reproducing the Stations of the Cross ritual and exalting Mary, etc., etc.) was: "Yes, but God can still use this."

"At the time it was seen by many evangelicals as an exciting opportunity to witness worldwide to those unbelievers whose curiosity the popular movie piqued. Although predictions abounded that the film would bring about great revival, no such thing -- even on a local scale -- materialized.

"I was told by sincere friends that the value of a book explaining the problems with The Passion of the Christ would very likely be short-lived because movies come and go and are soon forgotten. Generally speaking, yes; but not in this case. The evangelical church, credited for making The Passion an overwhelming box-office success, has lionized this movie. Churches not only purchased tickets for their congregations -- they bought The Passion DVDs for their libraries, Sunday schools, adult and young-adult groups, Bible studies, outreach programs, and so forth.

"Four years since the release of the film, its showing has become an annual Easter event for thousands of evangelical churches. This week Hank Hanegraaff's Bible Answer Man program is having actor and conservative Catholic James Caviezel discuss his experience of playing Christ in "the making of the epic film." Moody Bible Church has encouraged its congregation to register for Saturday's free showing of "this powerful depiction of the last days of Jesus' life on earth." Other examples abound.

"The most grievous aspect of all this is that this very Catholic production (Gibson calls it his "very Marian movie"), with all of its anti-biblical characteristics (see Showtime for the Sheep?), has become a permanent teaching tool within evangelical churches. This is certainly a major addition to the rapidly developing apostasy.

"T.A. McMahon

"P.S.- Let me know what The Passion of the Christ events are taking place in your area. "

http://www.thebereancall.org/

One of the most disappointing things about being a part of a church that is more institutional than New Testament, is realizing that you're not dealing with friends, but a bureaucracy.

Coercive Clergyman

Political Clergyman

Biblical Elder

Like a Pack of Dogs

Church leadership is often like a pack of dogs. There's an alpha dog who has to demonstrate his dominance from time to time by biting the necks of the other dogs.

Earthquake Relief in Morocco

http://www.friendsoftherif.org/

Friends of the Rif

Michael White's forum on Dispensationalism, Pre-Millenialism, & Pre-Trib Rapture

On the procinwarn.com discussion board

Discuss with this brother issues relating to these topics - Agree or Disagree... in love!

See the summary below of many of the points Michael has made so far.