From: REXLEX@linac.fnal.gov
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: ECSTACY followup
Date: 20 Nov 92 05:41:38 GMT
Organization: FNAL

In article <Nov.18.04.15.14.1992.2290@athos.rutgers.edu>
twiggs_te@alice.lrc.edu writes:
>Subject: ECSTACY followup
>Message-ID: <1992Nov17.130442.481@lrc.edu>
>Date: 17 Nov 92 13:04:41 EST

>	I need to make a few things known at this point.  My name is Todd
>Twiggs, . . . people on the net know me as D.J. X, because I'm a rave
> DJ and station manager of the campus radio station.
>	The reason I took the approach that I did was to gain completely
>unbiased views from all of the people in soc.religion.christian.  The fact
>is, some of you might call me a *druggie*.  I'm the kind of person that
>most of you wouldn't talk to on a daily basis.  I don't mean that I'm
>anti-religion, I just mean most people consider my personality and views as
>*different*.
>	I started smoking pot in 8th grade, but didn't do it regularly until
>my junior year of high school.  By 'regularly' I mean more than twice each
>month.  The summer after my freshman year of college, I tried LSD.  I had a 
>blast on it, and did it a lot after that (about 75 times to this date).
>However, I've grown tired of it,. . . 
>	Now.....if you'll notice, I don't like the drugs that people do simply
>to get messed up.  THAT's the difference between something like cocaine and
>LSD.  LSD is a perception-enhancing drug.  One of my good friends - a devout
>Christian - goes up to the mountains alone all the time on LSD to be with God
>and nature. He's got one of the more solid faiths on this campus.  You see, 
>there are SO MANY misconceptions about drugs. . . 
>	I'm not advocating the use of drugs, and I certainly agree that they
>induce unreal feelings.  What I'm saying is that in some cases, these false
>feelings can be utilized in a very good way. . . 

steal'n away,
the moments that make a dull day,
you friter and waste the hours in an ordinary way.
diging around in your home town,
waiting for someone or something to show you the way,
tired of fly'n in the sunshine
stay'n home to watch the rain.
you are young and life is long,
there is time to kill today.
then one day you find
ten years have gone behind you!
no one told you when to run
-you've missed the starting gun.

well you run & run to catch up with the sun,
-but its sinking,
racing around, it'll come up behind you again.
the sun is the same in a relative way
-but your older, shorter of breath, and one day closer to death.
every year is getting shorter
never seem to find the time.
plans that either come to naught
(_ _ _ ?)
Hangin on in quiet desperation is the English way.
Time has come, the song is over for lack of something more to say.

Do you recognize it DJ?  It's Pink Floyd.  They have some very interesting
observations on life, not the least of which was their '79 rock opera, THE
WALL.  In that, because of an experience at a concert in Canada, they make the
comment that people violate other people and themselves people in many ways.  I
really feel most who have followed Floyd and have seen THE WALL, walk away
without getting any closer to what they are trying to say.  Maybe in another
post, at an other time....

Anyway, driv'n home last night, I thought over what you had said.  I *oida*
(know) your arguementation -personally.  I've lived that "dream."   "If I want
you, all I have to do is dream, dream, dream, dream." (Everly Brothers)  But
don't you know, that even using the excuse that it brings you closer to Him in
fellowship is a cop out?  Don't you really feel the conviction down in your
soul?  Well, maybe He hasn't brought you to the point where you will be made to
listen, or, there's always the possibility that that area has now been caloused
over.  

Boy, you bring back memories.  I suppose if I wanted, I could, like Paul, list
my "dru accomplishments" right up next to yours.  Boasting in the flesh, then I
much more than you.  After all, I went through THE '60 & '70's.  I say
Hendrick's 8 times!  I use to smoke a bag a day.  You can count your acid
trips! But you know Todd, when I finally got around to looking at my Savior on
the cross, not having had the cup taken from Him, seeing that He refused the
offered drugs to reduce His perception of pain, I came to the realization, that
I too, had to refuse them for the same reasons.  

Do you want a real high?  Its not as easy as pop'n a pill, but it lasts much
longer and gives much more satisfaction, gair-ron-teed. How long does it last? 
Well lets say that your rewards will be waiting for you in heaven.  How much
satisfaction?  Satisfaction that rests your soul.  You see, I encapsolate drugs
with the "signs and wonders" thing.  The problem with signs & wonders is that,
and please take time to chew on this, they are *self* edifing.  See, that's the
lie of drugs.  They are self edifing.  Christian service, real Christian life,
is lived to serve others.  "Think of others as more important than yourself" as
Paul would say.  When I communned with God on drugs, it was just another trip. 
Man, you're trip'n on God.  Once you step back from it, you'll see that trip'n
is self-centered and always leaves you thirsty for more, just like the woman at
the well.  But... just like the woman at the well, Christ offers the "water of
life."  It is the real "thirst quencher."  But experiencing the Xian life as
exampled by Paul, that produces a much more sufficient sense of well being and
closeness to God.  Though I "felt" close to God through drugs, I always knew in
the back of my mind that they were another eclipse. Though a shadowy one, one
never-the-less.  Service takes away all eclipses.  As the song states, "There
is joy in serving Jesus."  It's not a joy of the flesh, its not something that
can be explained to a non-believer.  It's something that a believer has to
experience himself in order to comprehend the fulness of it.  Let's just say,
that's when I feel most complete and have my greatest sensation of peace.  Is
is as easy.  No, there's no use in hood winking you.  You pay a high cost for
it.  But as the old quote goes, "Hope is built on things eternal."

I don't know if I can say anything to you that will make you "turn around" in
your thinking, well to put it correctly, to stop the hypocracy.  The word
speaks of the Greek theatre where they had masks on sticks, and would switch
the masks as quickly as they went from one character to another.  This is
exactly what we have done when you and I have communioned on drugs.  We've
merely put on another face, just like those who have gone out on Saturday nite
and got drunk, or beat there wives (mentally as well as physically), watched
XXX movies or a host of other things, before going to Church on Sunday morning.
 Its no different.  It's all bagage that will be burnt off by the eyes of
Christ when we stand before Him.  "Every__mouth__will__be__stopped."

So don't let 10 years go behind you, and don't say that no one told you when to
run, for the starting gun is now.  Also, you don't need to run & run to catch
up with the Son.  He patiently waits for us.  There is no longer time to kill,
rather, we must work while it is day, for the night time comes when no man
shall work!

Trip'n is hanging on in quiet desperation.  Man, get into the Word, and you'll
thirst no more.  There are no flames of hell for you, rather, you must look
deep into the eyes of Christ and see if they burn all that bagage away!

love one another, even as I have loved you.
Rex

"You're taking me to the promised land!"
"What are friends for?"
(Bones & Kirk, ST3)