Month: October 2023

“Series Or Parallel”

At 50 years old, my brother Charley and I went to college to study electronics, majoring in computer technology. We started from the Atom up. We learned all about positive and negative ions, voltage, amperage and resistance. How to clip a sine wave into a square wave in order to count them. A computer is a voltage counter. It counts 5 volts and 0 volts. We studied series and parallel circuits, ohm’s law. It all liked to have killed us.

In a series circuit, if you have two 12 volt batteries connected, negative to positive, the voltage would double to 24 volts and the Amperage would double also. It’s twice as strong a circuit than just having one battery and can carry a much stronger load. On the other hand if you had a parallel circuit, and you had two 12 volt batteries connected negative to negative and positive to positive, the voltage would stay the same and the amperage would stay the same. So two batteries connected in series, increases voltage and amperage. Two batteries connected in parallel, the voltage and the amperage would stay the same.

In a marriage God says, “and the two shall become as one”. He also says, when we are born again,”we become one, us in Him and Him in us”. Could we call this a series relationship? Us connected to Him and Him to us, thus increasing voltage, amperage and power. By the way, He already has the power, we are the ones that need it. A parallel relationship with God is like saying, I want to be connected to God, but I want to stay the same.

I call this, walking parallel to God, walking beside Him and not in Him. Have you heard the saying “ God is my copilot”; So, that would make who the pilot? We have been taught this all our lives, from some Churches and other people. Its called the Law. Walking beside, or parallel with God, is knowing of Him, but not knowing Him intimately. We can only know something from the inside. To really know our wives and husbands, we must be married and become one flesh. It’s the same with God. He says we must be baptized in repentance, water and the Holy Ghost. If any of these steps are left out, we don’t really know Him intimately. We are always on the outside looking in.

If you can picture two walking down a road, one on one side and the other on the opposite. One is man and the other is God. God is saying, I would love for you to come over here with me where you belong, so you can get to know me better After all, we are one. The other is thinking, but He dosen’t know all the issues, bad habits and problems that I have, that I am so ashamed of. I’ll go over when I have fixed them, then He will be pleased with me. Maybe? Maybe?

I have heard this preached from the pulpit for many years. This kind of thinking is prevalent in the Christian community. A constant thinking, I’m not good enough. Some examples of these are; if you dress, act, look, stop this, start that, God will be pleased with me and one day I might get to Heaven. This kind of teaching is lawful and legalistic and is only present when the Holy Ghost is not involved. There was a strong rebuke of the pharisees and sadducees when Jesus said to them, “ You search the whole world over to find one convert and you make him twice the son of hell you are”. Jesus’ thinking was, and is, not this prevailing teaching. He says, come up here with me, just like you are and I will clean you up and give you rest. We will be one and all your bad habits, problems and cruddy stuff that I see anyway, I will clean up, one thing at a time. It may take a long time but, we will do it together. On the cross, I took all those on me, if you remember.

Walking that parallel life, always full of guilt will wear you out. When we are reborn we are birthed into Him. We can never clean ourselves up, it’s not in the plan. It’s not our job, He’s the Doctor, we’re not. He chooses us as we are, not what we could be. That’s what love and mercy is. So we were married to Jesus once and for all. Don’t let lawful teaching pull you away from Him in your mind. We are one. We live in Him and are hid in Him. Nothing can separate us. The scripture says, “In Him we live and move and have our being” and “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. Who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit”.

PS: Jesus is like the head Doctor in a large hospital. Many people with all kinds of sickness, diseases, habits and problems come here to get well. Trying to fix ourselves only makes our habit and guilt worse and grieves us more. Quit trying and let Him fix it. Get back inside, where you belong.

David McClary

“A Call To War? Or A Way Out”

A call to war. A call is just that, it’s a call. It comes from someone. Not heeding, does not negate the call. There are many call’s in this world, some are love calls, some are greetings, some are distress, some are warnings and some are a call to war. There are many different kinds of wars, some are short term and some are long term. Some are surface wars and some are at the root cause of the war. A war is still a war either way. Some fight only the surface war, but we are all called to fight the root of it. A policeman fights the surface endlessly while the detective gets to the root of the war. He searches for evidence. We are all called to search for the evidence. There are reasons for wars. How can we fight and win a war if we don’t know the root cause of it. To arrest the user of a drug is one thing, to arrest the seller is the root. In the case of a gardener, if we don’t want weeds in the garden we kill the roots. There are hidden wars and there are visible ones. Visible wars are easily detected but hidden ones are not. All have surface results.

There are wars over land, power, control, and such. The real war is for man’s soul ( his mind, will and emotions). How a man thinks is what a man will do. In this world we see many wars. They are everywhere. It seems that the bad wars outnumber the good ones. Yes there are bad and good wars. All wars have one thing in common. They are all spiritual. The first war was launched in the garden of Eden with Adam and Eve for their soul, the way they think. Satan sowed seeds of doubt in their minds, doubting God thus separating them from God, resulting in man stumbling through life without directions. “War won”. The war was fought on the surface by words in order to win the root. The root is man’s conscience, where the awareness of God, his Father, resides. The goal of satan was to stop the consciousness of God in man. To be conscious of God is to be aware of His way, how He thinks and does things. Satan is the perfect example of a godless way, lying, cheating, hating, rebelliousness and such.

Today all wars are fought between the soul and the spirit. It’s been said by many dictators through the generations, if we can get to man’s children early enough, we can control them. The very words of satan. You might have the thought of, government run schools? Do we have any rebellious young people around, without direction, who might vote for a socialist for president? How long has the consciousness of God been erased from our schools?

So wars have been fought throughout history for the control of man. How he thinks, what he owns and to whom is his allegiance. The wars of Israel, Jews and Christians, the root, is about the goodness of God and the evil of satan. Large wars and small ones are at the root, the same. Conquer and rule with evil. There are many wars in this life, some are very bad, with evil intent. Good wars are fought against that very thing. The consciousness of God is certainly worth fighting for, for us, our children and future generations. Jesus fought the war for freedom from sin and ours is to fight the war to keep that.

In this age of mass communication we are constantly hearing, talk, talk, look, look, do this, do that, think this, think that. All are designed to change the way we see and do things. Some we embrace, some we reject, and some we just, all out war against. Some subtle and some not so subtle, a good detective can tell. A major war is the one that is said of, you don’t have to fight this one. Those are the biggest wars and the most important ones to win. Now there are wars that Jesus has and will fight and win for us and then there are those He will not. We had better know the difference. A good detective searches out which ones are which. God may tell us to build a house, but if we don’t pick up a hammer, He won’t give us instructions on how to build it. The same in war He can gather the enemy in the right place to be defeated, but if we don’t pick up a rifle and go, the war is not won and the enemy gets stronger. Does the word ISIS come to mind? We would be surprised at how many wars God has fought for us that we didn’t know about. I think His outnumbers ours. So, let’s fight the few He calls us to. If we see a war on the horizon, we had better find out if He is going to fight it or is He going to instruct us on how to fight it. We might look a little worse for wear after the war, but we win in the end. He knows the wars are good for us, good exercise. I don’t think the devil looks at it quite that way though.

There are those in leadership today in America who advocate a policy of passivity, not fighting, but talking will win in the end. We are not talking about a simple argument here. We are talking about an attack of war. spiritual or physical, Talking? How did that work out in the garden of Eden? This kind of policy leads to something similar as going into a pen with a rabid pit-bull dog. The dog will come out with every hair in place, but your clothes will be half torn off, with cuts and bruises all over. That is, if you are fortunate enough to get out of the pen alive.

A coward is one who gave in once and has lived to regret it. He is never the same again, unless he refuses to give in to the bully the next time and there will be many next times. Good soldiers know that there will always be wars and don’t go out half dressed for it. A courageous soldier waits for the word to “charge”, then he runs into the battle and does not stand down until the war is won. God wars for the soul and conscience of His people. Satan started this war, but God and the body of Christ (The Church) will win it. We are His good and well armed soldiers. He knows the future. He said while hanging on the cross,”It is finished”. That was His declaration of the war won. His desire and ours is to live in peace as in the Garden of Eden. As the old Alabama farmer would say. “You got to keep the bugs and vermin out”. If we want peace in our homes, city, state, nation and world, we have to fight the war of bad instructions, temptations, and recognize the difference between a weed and a flower, as I once told my grandson about girls.

PS: To win the war is great gain, to lose the soul is a terrible thing,” You, yes you, are a good soldier. You might get beat up once in awhile, but war is not a spectator sport, as you well know. Sergeant York, a great war hero once said, “I war to stop the killing of my friends”. We war to stop the killing, killing of the soul.

David McClary

“ I didn’t know that “

At a conference a few  years ago, we were honoring our Pastor for his many years of service. Different men stood and spoke. One man in particular stood and made this statement that really struck me, “You don’t have to know where you are going to go”.
When I was young I thought, when I grow up, I want to either be a cook or a preacher. Well I can cook eggs, grits and tomato gravy and that’s about it. As time went by I forgot about the preacher part.
It’s good to plan the basic things in life like eating right, getting a good education, learn how to swim, how to fix broken things and such. There are certain things and events we cannot plan or know until it’s time has come, if we did we would probably change them and they would never happen, extremely important things. We are told,” you have to plan your life and future”. Well, maybe a few things such as those above, education and the basic things.
As this man spoke, you know the, “You don’t have to know where you are going to go”, man. He spoke of some things in his life that he didn’t know would happen, like relating to this paster, meeting his own wife and such.
My thoughts began to look back in my own life at all the things that happened. Now I’m not talking about the bad things that happened because of my ignorance, I’m talking about the planned things that God did. I didn’t know that at age 37 that I would be born again, baptized in water and the Holy Spirit. I didn’t know that 7 years later I would meet my wife Sharon. I didn’t know that 7 months after, we would marry. I didn’t know that I would pray for the sick and lost. I didn’t know that a church would be formed around these people. I didn’t know that I would become a preacher. I didn’t know that I would become a part of the church body that was honoring this paster. I didn’t know that my wife and I would move to the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee. I didn’t know that I would be writing these notes to you. I didn’t know. I didn’t know. I didn’t know.
There are very important things in this life that we just can’t know, until we go. I love to surprise my wife and others. I love to give unique gifts and see the surprise on their faces. Don’t give me a pair of socks for my birthday, surprise me. God must really get a kick out of surprising us, because he does it enough.
Relax, stop worrying about the future. “But I’m not doing anything”. “I don’t know what to do”. “If God would only tell me”. “I feel so guilty”. “I’m stagnating and nothing is happening”. Could be we are just worrying about what’s time has not come yet. While we wait for God’s next surprise that we don’t know about yet, Go enjoy life. Go fishing. Go shopping. Play music. Go on vacation. Go to the Mountains. Go love your neighbors.
The scripture says, “My times are in your hands” and “Unless the Lord builds the city the watchman watches in vain”. The things we don’t know about are greater than what we hope for.

David McClary

“The Light of Darkness”

“The Light of Darkness”

Doesn’t it seem strange that as the earths’ shadow moves around its surface that one at a time millions of humans just lay down and sleep? In the daytime it’s bright and sunny and at shadow(night) there is the moon and a sprinkling of stars so far away that it leaves just enough light to see to get into the bed. Why is that? I could understand it if a few people lay down at the same time, but millions? Just how do you get millions of people to do anything at the same time? Could it be that darkness has light also? Now plants need sunlight to grow and humans need darkness. Go figure.
Now long before doctors and scientist were born there were cells. Humans are full of them. Science finally figured that out after hundreds of years. Well, it seems that the cells in these millions of humans need darkness to do something interesting, die and reproduce new cells. Well what do you know! And while we are working all day in the sunlight we are wearing out these cells that we didn’t know about and in darkness we are killing these worn out cells and making new ones.
So was this just an accidental thing or was it designed by a human, or something else? Oh, there were no humans on earth at that time, I forgot. And I don’t know any humans that could order millions to just lay down at the same time. So, if humans didn’t plan this, who did? Well right at this time, there are humans that want to gather all the knowledge in the world, put it in a chip and plant it in our heads and we’ll all know how this all happened. We’ll be like Gods and live forever. They call it transhumanism. Oh wait, these humans say there is no God. By the way, this sleep thing rebuilds brain cells so we get smarter and not dumber.
Doctors and scientists today have figured out that at night in the brain there are killer cells that kill the old cells and produce new ones. If new cells weren’t made we would get dumber and not smarter. Well, just maybe humans didn’t make all this happen.
I guess you are wondering where all this is going. This all laying down to sleep when the shadow hits us all at the same time is way over my head. By the way, not just any shadow, only the earths’ shadow. I can wonder forever or I can just ask God who did it. Oh I forgot, there is no God. Well let’s just humor ourselves and ask anyway. The word that God left us said, “If we would humble ourselves and pray, He would heal our land”. Just what does that mean?. Well, in southern language it means, “Come down off your high horse and just ask.” He said, “You have not because you ask not”. He’s not talking to your neighbor, He’s talking to you. In other words, the land He is talking about is you and all the cruddy things you’re doing that’s damaging you, your neighbor, your country and your world. If you are all wise, just do this for me, make me a living blade of grass. The wisdom of man is foolishness before God. He made the day and He made the darkness. The day for working and the night for recovering. He made the very ground we walk on and holds it in perfect orbit in the constellation.
The design and protocols in this earth and the heavens were ordered by God perfectly. All of the living plants and creatures live in perfect harmony together, except man. Man is the only living creature that God made that has something that all the other’s don’t have, a free-will. Oh, by the way that was the first personal right ever given to man. He has the right to believe that God made it all or not to believe that He made it all. God did not create a slave, nor did be want any. He just wanted man to freely love his Father. Does that sound familiar to you fathers? We birth children as well and they have a free will to love us or not. If they don’t, how has that worked out for them? The benefits between the two is drastically different.
I know that there is a lot about many things that every man that is born doesn’t understand. But remember earlier what Jesus said, “You have not because you ask not”. You may think, it can’t be that simple, but it is. He waits.
All our new created brain cells at night can help us live our lives, but can never figure out or understand our creator without asking with our mouths. He waits. The scripture says, “Out of the mouth the heart speaks”. He waits for our heart to speak.