Book notes from, "A Divine Revelation of Hell" Part 2

More excerpts from the book.

“Men will become lovers of themselves instead of God.” –p.129-130

“”Repent,” He said, “for I am a jealous God. Nothing can be placed before your worship of Me—not sons or daughters or wives or husbands.” –p.130

“They were lovers of their own flesh more than lovers of God.” –p.136

“But they would not listen to Me. They wanted the lust of the flesh more than the love of the living God. Because I am holy, you must be holy.” –p.137

“O earth, My holy people have fallen asleep to the sound of false doctrine. Awake, Awake! I tell you that all unrighteousness is sin. Cleanse yourself from all sin of the flesh and the spirit.” –p.144

“If you will return and repent and if you will honor Me with the fruit of righteousness, I will bless your homes and honor your marriage beds. If you will humble yourselves and call upon Me, I will hear you and bless you.” –p.144

“Do you think that I am blind that I cannot see and deaf that I cannot hear?” –p.145

“If you will repent and be ashamed of your sins, I will have mercy and compassion on you, and I will not remember your sins anymore. Pray that you may be an overcomer.” –p.145

“Keep the marriage bed holy.” –p.146

“I will bless My little ones, those that have kept the faith and have served Me in truth and righteousness.” –p.149

“Sanctify a fast. Call a solemn assembly. Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the lands into My house, and cry unto Me. Alas, for the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night—the day is at hand.” –p.150

“I want to be in this army, but I know I must be pure and holy as Jesus is pure and holy. By the blood Jesus shed, cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Help me to keep a repentant heart, free of all hatred and bitterness.” –p.151

“Father, I know that many of Your people are asleep. I fear You will have to break our vessels of clay and humble us if there are to be fruits of righteousness.” –p.151

Book notes from, "A Divine Revelation from Hell" Part 1

Today I share some notes from a book I read several years ago. Baxter claimed to have had a vision where she was taken to hell. She recounts her findings here. Whether the vision is true or not, I don't care. That is not the point. What I care about is how these haunting excerpts assault the human soul. The soul which is entangled in a self-made web of sinful habits. Sinful habits which we know not of, because we know not of the Lord's holiness.

Excerpts from a Divine Revelation from Hell
Mary K. Baxter

“Even though I died on a cross for you, you mocked Me and would not repent of your sins.” –p.26

“The pleasures in life were more important to you than truth.” –p.43

“You went on your own way and evil was your lord. You knew the truth, but you would not repent or true back to Me.” –p.43

“You knew the way of the cross. You knew the way of righteousness. You knew to speak the truth. But Satan filled your heart with lies, and you went into sin. You should have repented with sincerity, not halfway.” –p.43

“You gave heed to seducing spirits and enjoyed your double life. You knew the straight and narrow way.” –p.51

“You played with God, and God knows all things.” –p.52…”You cannot serve Satan and God at the same time.” –p.52

“Come out from among them, and be separate.” –p.52

“If people could only see that the lusts and desires of the world are only for a season!” –p.57

“You were not sorry, nor were you ashamed of what you were doing.” –p.60

“If you are sinning, repent or you will likewise perish.” –p.69

“There is greater punishment for those who once preached the gospel and went back into sin, or for those who would not obey the call of God for their lives.” –p.70

“There was a time when he served Me with all his heart and led many people to salvation.” –p.71

“This was so difficult for me that I was sick many times during the preparing of this record.” –p.101

“We did as we pleased.” –p.115

“”Yes said Jesus, “servants that turned back after I called them. Servants who loved the world more than Me and went back to wallowing in the mire of sin. Servants that would not stand for the truth and for holiness. It is better that one never starts than to turn back after beginning to serve Me.” –p.124

A portion from, "Soren in the Flesh"

Since I've been writing the past couple of days I'd thought I'd keep posting on the book. This is from a pivotal chapter that started to take shape several months ago.

Was my lying since the very beginning scripted? Does the author know that I’m writing all this down? Well, wouldn’t that be convenient for you to know. I will tell you this, the author is a complete moron, and pretty unobservant that he doesn’t proof read and scratch all this out. Undoubtedably, if he did ever catch wind of my witty and quite brilliant additions I would be in deep shit. Him and I don’t really get along too well, can you tell? But if this actual part is meant to be in the script I just can’t tell you. What good is deception when it ceases to give you an adequate cloak? Therefore, I can’t tell you now. That would in part defeat my purposes of deception in the first place. I’m a human, and humans sure do love deception. But then again who’s to say that what is said now is the truth and just not another mirror employed by the author. Maybe I, Soren really do want to tell you, but the author forbids it. Maybe I really do hate deception, but the author forces me to deceive because he loves deception. Maybe I’m bound and gagged, and being held hostage against my will. Damn this author, he won’t allow me the right to speak. I wish the author would quite with all this deceptive nonsense. I guess you’ll never really know what you can trust. How many authors are there? Why all these confusing voices? What does it all mean? But then again even if you knew the truth from deception would you ever get around to doing anything about it? Now, that, that, that’s the point.

A portion from "Nasty Addiction"

This entry is for the hundreds, even perhaps thousands of dedicated people who read my blog. Here is a section from my hope to be published book, "Pointed Nails." The title of the chapter is called, "Nasty Addiction." Below is a portion. Feel free to share your thoughts.

The addict craves an emotional and experiential Christianity. It is a state that only happens when you work yourself into a tizzy, get lathered up in sweat and play make believe in your mind. This Christianity only lasts for a moment. Your drop from the high is as quick as the time it took you to reach the summit of the emotional euphoria. The summit experience tumbles back to earth when the crowd leaves. The art of following Jesus escapes you, because you are hell bent on chasing after the summit emotions and not the Christ. The heart craves the drugs. You know you need a Savior, you just don’t think you need it for your drugs. The heart craves the fantastical and the emotionalism. Like a mosquito, the sick Christian is infatuated with flying into the mesmerizing flickering buzzing light. When he reaches his destination he is zapped in an instant and falls back to earth. There is no life for the sick Christian but the cycle of valley and mountain top experiences. There is no Christ, there is only counterfeits perpetuated by our churches. We have replaced Jesus following with emotional mountain climbing experiences. When the songs stop, our Christianity stops.

A prayer

Walk with us today Lord,
Walk with us because you hold mercy,
Walk with us because you have grace,
Walk with us because you are faithful.

Come after us today Lord,
Come after us despite who we are,
Come after us because of who you are,
Come after us because you are faithful while we are faithless.

Make me into your image today Lord,
Cause me to be moved,
Cause this heart of stone to be broken for the lost,
Replace my dry and uncompassionate eyes with the weeping eyes of the Holy Spirit.

Transform me today Lord,
Cause me not leave your holy presence unchanged,
Drop the scales from my selfish eyes and help me to see others as your Son saw us.

Drop the scales Lord I pray,
Drop the scales from my eyes, my heart, and my mind,
Help me today Lord to see others and not myself.

Knowledge?

When a book carries a title like, "Knowledge of the Holy," I wonder if the title is somewhat bold in what it's attempting to bite off. But no time to get into that here. All I know is that I know nothing about The Holy.

A bit from Otto. Dread becomes worship; out of a confusion of inchoate emotions and bewildered palpitations of feeling grows religion, and out of ‘shudder’ a holy awe.

“A God comprehended is no God.” –Tersteegen

Glossy Books

There has been no less than an absolute explosion of Christian books and Christian book stores over the past two decades. But I pose this question, "Is the plethora of Christian literature now saturating the American Christian Evangelical Culture a good thing?"

I propose to answer this question with a cautious leaning towards "no, it is not a good thing." The reason for this negative response is my disappointment as to the content and focus of modern day Christian literature that has big sales. Simply pick up some pop Christian book written in the past few years and pick up something written by Tozer just a few years prior. The difference is big, and it is noticeable to any eye. Besides someone like a Piper, I'm afraid the caliber of writing that is read by the masses of Christians falls off dramatically fast. The most popular writers are not exegetes or theologians, but they are rather people who smile big, know the right people, and for whatever reason have automatic name recognition and a listening audience at the drop of a pin.

I have no problem with books being written for baby Christians, that are easy from time to time on the meaty substance. My beef is simply that with a majority of the stuff on our bookstores shelves now being fluff literature, we have either intentionally or unintentionally cultivated an American Evangelical Christian culture that now has no desire or ability to digest anything of substance. This is a reason for alarm and concern. Weak minds equal weak Christians.

With that I tip my hat today to Rudolph Otto. I do not agree with everything he says, but at least he says something. He and others have been my continued inspiration for my own work, which I continue to write entitled, "Pointed Nails." Although Christians will always disagree on issues, I always give credit to those who have enough balls to write something pointed and pressing. Otto coined a special term for the holy. He called it “awful mystery”. Otto spoke of the awfulness because of the fear the holy provokes in us. The holy fills us with a kind of dread. This concept stems from Otto's work, “The Idea of the Holy.”

Our God is not a god of fluff or gloss. Our God will give your conscience nightmares if you are mature enough to stomach it. May His Holy Name be forever revered.