How I Maintain Spiritual Vitality In Blah Times

2nd Corinthians 10:5-6, "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled."

I believe this is largely because of the lack of Holy Spirit power in today's churches. I attended Campus Church at Pensacola Christian College for the summer of 2021, but it was as dead, dry and shallow as can be. Their pastors cannot even get repentance right, teaching that if your behavior doesn't change you never got saved. I confronted Pastor Jeff Redlin about it, but he defended their error. They officially teach: "Repentance is a change of mind which results in a change of behavior." Of course, that is not the true Biblical Greek meaning of simply "a change of mind." Men love to embellish God's simple plan of salvation, corrupting God's grace, requiring MORE than God does to get to Heaven.

“We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little; many services but few conversions; much machinery but few results.” —Pastor R. A. Torrey (1856-1928)

Pastor Jack Hyles' used to preach like Billy Sunday, and it was exciting. Today's pastors aren't preachers anymore. They woefully lack love for everyone. When I attended Campus Church, Pastor Redlin ignored me for 10 days, after someone slandered me and showed him my ministry websites. In his blind arrogance and pride, he wrongly accused me of finding "weaknesses" in preachers on my ministry. In reality, I am faithfully contending for the faith once delivered unto the saints (Jude 1:3). 

I am honorably rebuking the corrupt Bob Jones University crowd for preaching Calvinism, Lordship Salvation, misunderstood repentance and promoting Satan's corruptible seed (i.e., the modern perverse Bible revisions). But Jeff Redlin and PCC are in bed spiritually fornicating with BJU, participating in intercollegiate sports, hiring each others graduates, sending students to each other. PCC and BJU are sinfully joined at the hip, and PCC is being corrupted. But they say I'm the bad guy for preaching THE TRUTH!

I've attended several churches around Pensacola and am so disgusted. They either use the Devil's corrupt Bibles, lean toward Calvinism, sing 7/11 songs (7 words repeated 11 times), teach that people were saved by works in the Old Testament, or are just a bunch of old people ready to die off (no church outreach, no bus ministry, no youth program, no soulwinning). It is depressing.

In my humble opinion, it is the same as why most people are fat and unhealthy. We have allowed the greedy food companies to hijack the food industry. Processed foods make people fat! Processed sugar in nearly everything we eat is toxic to good health. Eating God's foods is the path to steady good health.

Likewise, we've allowed greedy TV preachers and apostate commercialized evangelicalism (i.e., Dave Ramsey, Ken Ham, Franklin Graham, Josh McDowell, Ray Comfort, John MacArthur, Kirk Cameron, Pat Robertson, Contemporary Christian Music, internet religious programs for churches, et cetera) to hijack the churches. Churchgoers today are sick from eating garbage their incompetent leaders found on the internet.

I listen to lots of preaching at home, which I just cannot find in churches anymore. I know a lot of people hate Pastor Steven Anderson, but I love the guy's preaching, which has helped me keep excited about the things of God. If we listen to boring, dry, dead pastors like Jeff Redlin, then that is what thousands of PCC graduates will emulate. Only preachers can preproduce preachers, which Dr. Jack Hyles taught me at Hyles-Anderson College (1985-1993).

In contrast, we have a bunch of Yuppie type shallow pastors today, who are cowards, afraid to pound the pulpit and preach against sin, preach the truth boldly without apology, offend people, contend for the faith and expose error. The love of money constrains them to stay quiet, which is why Jesus warned that no man can serve God and money (Luke 16:13). Jeff Redlin gets paid a 6-digit salary at PCC, which he doesn't deserve. In contrast to Pastor Redlin, who goes along with cults like BJU, doctrinal error and refuses to preach against false teachers, I am getting the job done that he refuses to do. The most important job is the one that doesn't get done! No one likes being rejected, ostracized and hated, but it goes with the territory for Bible preachers! Our very Lord and Savior was crucified for preaching THE TRUTH!

Bob Jones University has gone so corrupt, that they now have crossdressing fashion shows. You couldn't make this stuff up! Dr. Steve Pettit (president of BJU since 2014) is an unsaved, ungodly fool, a hardcore Calvinist, and PCC has nothing to say against them! But PCC hobnobs with the BJU camp. It is sickening!!! But they condemn me for preaching against that ungodly filth!

So to keep my sanity in this looney world today, I run to the Bible like a starving man each day. I learned that from Pastor Jack Hyles and he was right. Nothing can replace time spent in the Word of God. It's also important to take care of one's physical health. If we are eating junk, we will feel awful. We need to get out into nature more, walking with God, bike riding, walking and clearing our mind. I went walking along Pensacola Beach yesterday in 66 degree weather, but it was very nice in the sun. I am fasting yesterday and today, to lose some weight. I ate 15 bean soup for breakfast. I had 1/2 cup of oatmeal for breakfast yesterday. Like everybody else, I tend to gain weight over time, become depressed, and even become bitter toward life's hardships I've suffered alone the way (many because of horrible Christians or fake Christians).

But I always catch myself before I let it go too far. 2nd Corinthians 10:5-6, "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled." If I start gaining weight, I get tough on myself and stop eating processed food. I ate a handful of sunflower seeds, macadamia seeds and walnuts this morning. I drank a cup of water with one Tablespoon of Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar with the Mother (that gooey healthy stuff in the bottom of the jar - shake it first). Then I ate bean soup I made. Beans are a super food for losing weight! Beans are high in both protein and fiber, which are necessary for good health.

One cannot just focus on spiritual vitality while ignoring our physical health. We've got too many 400 pounds pastors today! It is shameful!!! a 5' 7" man (which is my height) should weigh at the very most (if he is big-boned) 168 pounds...

Ideal weight & height chart for men

Height	Small Frame	Medium Frame	Large Frame
5' 2"	128-134	131-141	138-150
5' 3"	130-136	133-143	140-153
5'' 4"	132-138	135-145	142-156
5' 5"	134-140	137-148	144-160
5' 6"	136-142	139-151	146-164
5' 7"	138-145	142-154	149-168
5' 8"	140-148	145-157	152-172
5' 9"	142-151	148-160	155-176
5' 10"	144-154	151-163	158-180
5' 11"	146-157	154-166	161-184
6' 0"	149-160	157-170	164-188
6' 1"	152-164	160-174	168-192
6' 2"	155-168	164-178	172-197
6' 3"	158-172	167-182	176-202
6' 4"	162-176	171-187	181-207

Ideal weight & height chart for women

Height	Small Frame	Medium Frame	Large Frame
4' 10"	102-111	109-121	118-131
4' 11"	103-113	111-123	120-134
5' 0"	104-115	113-126	122-137
5' 1"	106-118	115-129	125-140
5' 2"	108-121	118-132	128-143
5' 3"	111-124	121-135	131-147
5' 4"	114-127	124-138	134-151
5' 5"	117-130	127-141	137-155
5' 6"	120-133	130-144	140-159
5' 7"	123-136	133-147	143-163
5' 8"	126-139	136-150	146-167
5' 9"	129-142	139-153	149-170
5' 10"	132-145	142-156	152-173
5' 11"	135-148	145-159	155-176
6' 0"	138-151	148-162	158-179

It is difficult to separate the spiritual aspect of one's life from the emotions and body. I have met Christians crippled in a wheelchair. Although they displayed admirable faith and inner joy in the Lord, they also all suffered from depression being crippled. Pastor Charles Spurgeon's wife was crippled for over 20 years. Spurgeon was often depressed and took trips to Switzerland to clear his mind. Yet, Spurgeon said that Jesus was infinitely BETTER than Switzerland:

Pastor Charles H. Spurgeon on Why Jesus is Better than Switzerland, its Alps and Chocolate.

“If any of you can save up money to go to Switzerland, you will never regret it, and it need not be expensive to you. If you do not find your head grow on both sides, and have to put your hands up, and say, `I feel as if my brains are straining with their growth,’ I do not think you have many brains to spare.

As I have stood in the midst of those mountains and valleys, I have wished I could carry you all there. I cannot reproduce to you the thoughts that then passed through my mind; I cannot describe the storms we saw below us when we were on the top of the hill; I cannot tell you about the locusts that came in clouds, and devoured everything before them; time would utterly fail me to speak of all the wonders of God which we saw in nature and in providence.

One more remark, and I have done. If you cannot travel, remember that our Lord Jesus Christ is more glorious than all else that you could ever see. Get a view of Christ, and you have seen more than mountains, and cascades, and valleys, and seas can ever show you. Thunders may bring their sublimest uproar, and lightnings their awful glory; earth may give its beauty, and stars their brightness; but all these put together can never rival Him.” ~Pastor Charles H. Spurgeon

That truth is taught to us in Hebrews 12:2, “Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.” What a precious and helpful passage of Scripture! The Bible says when we feel down, just REMEMBER what our dear Savior suffered while on earth, lest we become wearied and faint (quit). Pastors are quitting everywhere today, because they aren't LOOKING TO JESUS, they are looking to finances, people and problems. Being a pastor is not easy in the United States, because Americans are so spoiled and trained by the ungodly media to slander everyone and everything. But equally so, today's pastors are disgraceful, loving the praise of men more than the praise of God (John 12:43-43).

The average pastor only stays at a church for about 5 years and then moves on!!! There are churches all across America that have spiritually died, losing most of their members, barely keeping their doors open because of a sinful scandal in the church (e.g., theft, homosexuality, adultery, pedophilia, rape, voyeurism, money scandals, bullying, controlling money-oriented businessmen, meddling high-society type women, et cetera). Faith is at an all-time low in America today! Sadly, confidence in organized religion is now at an all-time low in America!!! From all that I have seen, especially from the pathetic indifferent Pensacola Christian College (PCC) and the Satanic corrupt Bob Jones University crowd (whose institutions influence tens of thousands of churches). I don't blame people for avoided these sick type of apostate places and cults today!!! The base of America's society is rotten to the core morally, taking the churches down with it!!!

I am not topside all the time. Being down and feeling blah is a necessary part of life. No one can live up on the mountaintop all the time. So on days when I am feeling down and blah, I first counsel myself that this is good and normal, a natural part of life. I know that weeping endureth for the night, the Bible says, but joy cometh in the morning. Psalms 30:5, “For his anger endureth but a moment; in his favour is life: weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning.” It is never pleasant or fun fasting from food, and I don't particularly enjoy it, but I have peace and comfort in fasting, knowing that when I am done it will greatly benefit my overall physical health and emotional state of mind, which helps me spiritually. 

So to stay positive I try to eat well, go walking, spend time in nature. I actually do something that many Christians might not agree with, I listen to secular music. If the music inspires me, then I listen to it. I don't listen to music with sinful lyrics. But I enjoy hearing The Beach Boys sometimes, 1970's music that I grew up with, or other cheerful music that makes me feel happy. It gives me some balance in my life. I'd go nuts if I listened to religious music all the time. And quite frankly, the professed Christians whom I have met who are enamored with religious music were real jerks! I don't want that much religion.

In case you don't know, being right with God spiritually and being religious are two VERY different things! Nobody is more religious than Roman Catholics and yet they are all going to Hell because they are trusting in the Seven Sacraments of the Catholic Church to save them. Some of the most ungodly and worst Christians go to church faithfully, and are blind to their own wretched spiritual condition. Jeff Redlin comes to mind, who was arrogant and a total jerk when I attended Campus Church for the summer of 2021. All I wanted was to be his friend, but my ministry made us enemies, by his own choice. He took the liberty to criticize my 20 years of ministry work, but had not one good thing to say about it. That is a fool. In fact, Jeff Redlin is the corruption in Campus Church, not me! I am simply a truth-teller.

There are days when I feel blah, and I avoid social media for a few days. I need that break! Dr. Hyles wisely taught me that doing the same thing over and over causes depression. But if you do a variety of things over and over, like Dr. Hyles traveling around the country to preach, is exhilarating. So when I feel blah I head for the beach, which I don't do very often. If I lived in Knoxville, Tennessee, I'd head for the Appalachia Mountains. Wherever you live, find the unique places to go. If I lived in El Paso, Texas, I'd head for Big Ben National Park. I miss the island of Guam and may go back in time. I miss the island culture. I am good at playing the ukulele and Hawaiian steel guitar. So I feel at home on an island. If I could afford Hawaii, I'd live in Oahu. But just a studio apartment costs $1,800 per month. One day at a time. Lord willing, maybe someday when I turn 62 I'll qualify for a cheaper housing in Hawaii. But if not, I have asked the Lord during the Millennium to let me live in Oahu.

No matter where you live, you always gain something and you always lose something. Unfortunately, moving is expensive, which hinders me from traveling as I would like to. I wish I could travel the world. That is another request I have made to the Lord in eternity. So I always have something to look forward to!!! Remember, the past is gone, a cashed check. And the future is uncharted waters, a promissory note. All we have today is cash to spend, making real-time decisions moment by moment. I was watching a digital clock I found on Google the other day, and as I saw each second passing, I was humbled to realize that with each passing second, my life is dwindling down to the end someday.

I often listen to Pastor Jack Hyles preach. He often talks about the day that he will someday die, and it is a strange feeling for me to hear him talking about his death (at some unknown time), while I am listening to him decades later after he has gone on to Heaven. And I am reminded that my time will also come eventually, and then people will think of me in past tense also. Everything in this world is temporary. So these thoughts help comfort and encourage me day by day. I try to live each day by taking a step back so I can see the Big Picture. So oftentimes we are easily caught up in the moment, and fail to see things from an eternal perspective. So by maintaining an eternal perspective, constantly realizing that this life is so short, it helps me to have faith in God.

But as I mentioned earlier, we need blah blah days. An artist cannot paint a picture without starting with a blank canvas. You cannot swim upstream until you've first been downstream. You cannot climb to the mountaintop until you've been down in the valley. And so we need down days, depressing times and sorrow in our life. If you will accept this truth, it will change your whole attitude toward suffering and blah days. I admit that there have been painful times in my life, when the depression lasted for years, and I was suffering so horribly, but staying busy working on my ministry kept me going. Every believer should have some form of ministry. That is why we all need to be involved in a Bible-believing local church. There are no perfect churches. I have not found even one 100% doctrinal sound church in Pensacola. Not one! But they still are a church and do some good for the Lord.

Having said all that, there are just going to be times in life when you are feeling down, and there's nothing you can do about it. Sometimes we may not feel good physically. I have suffered with horrible constant chronic neck pain since 2004, which feels like a horrible toothache. Since I have moved from Guam to Florida, the only doctor I could find has reduced my pain medication to half (40 mg Oxycontin instead of 80 mg a day). It is not enough and I am hurting. For that reason alone I am considering moving back to Guam. I don't sleep well at night, due to my burning neck pain. So there are days when I just need to chill and stay away from the internet. If I didn't do that and just walk away sometimes, I would quit completely.

Since everybody is different, and our life's circumstances are all different, no one has a right to judge another hurting person, or compare someone's else's daily struggles with ours. We are all uniquely different, created in God's image. No one knows YOUR pain! So we all have to find what works best for US. What helps me may not help you, or may even bother you, and vise versa. I learned a very long time again that my ministry is my ministry, and my personal life is my personal life. I try to keep the two separate, although they do sometimes overlap. The Bible says: “For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard” (Acts 4:20).

I am not into video games. I played them often as a teenager and with my kids when they were younger, but as an adult I probably play online arcade games for 2 or 3 hours  year at most. But I think it is perfectly fine for a grown man to play video games, if that helps him wind down and pass the time when feeling blah. I had a 50 year old neighbour on Guam who liked video games. I'd hear him playing James Bond 007. I recognized the music from years ago when I played those games. For me, I enjoy a good science-fiction movie. I love horror and sci-fi. That is what I like. So to each his own. Some sanctimonious Christian would probably tell you to pray, read your Bible and go to church to get over feeling blah. Unfortunately life isn't that simple.

When I am feeling blah, I find something that cheers me up, and use that as a tool. Sometimes I feel like everything is going to be okay, but on other days for no apparent reason I feel like everything is hopeless. As humans we are creatures of emotion. At Wednesday night Bible study this week, at the Baptist church that I attend down the street, during testimony time an elderly man wept as he talked about how he thanks God each morning for another day. The pastor lets people be people, knowing that we are all different. I generally just stay quiet and say nothing, because that is who I am.

And to be quite honest, I sometimes stay home from church because I feel that I need to, because of my chronic neck pain, for my own well-being. Getting too close to a group of people can cause more conflicts, especially if you aren't feeling well bodily. It all depends on the group. At the particular church I am now attending, I only go about 30-50% of the time, because the church is not a soulwinning church. I visit Campus Church at Pensacola Christian College (PCC) once in a while, just to see old friends I made while there. In my humble opinion PCC is not a soulwinning institution either. I also sometimes attend a different church, alternating between the three places. I won't allow anyone to pressure me to attend church. People don't see my neck pain and so they don't care.

Going to church makes you religious, it doesn't make you right with God or spiritual. But don't misunderstand me, I absolutely believe that church is essential in our Christians lives. We need to associate and be in fellowship with other believers. But sometimes tall fences make better neighbours! In any relationship it is wise to always maintain some healthy level of distance, even in a marriage. It is normal and healthy to spend quality time apart from each other. It all depends on the couple and how they interact with each other. My parents lived in separate apartments in the home they owned, which is how they stayed married for 36 years.

I've shared a lot of ideas with you, about things that I do to boost myself when I get down. I always try to have something to look forward to in my life. It could be spending time with family, going out to eat, or whatever works for you. Praying is essential of course, but that is not enough. Happiness comes from what “happens” to us. I am not happy most of the time, because of the uncontrollable hardships, painful losses, depression, rejection by professed Christians, physical suffering and adverse circumstances of my life. But I always have peace and joy in my soul, knowing that my name is written in Heaven (Luke 10:20).

Dr. Hyles used to wisely teach us never to pursue happiness; but rather, to fulfill our God given duty, and then happiness would find us here and there along life's way. I have lived long enough to know that Dr. Hyles was right. So I stay busy laboring on my website ministry. I pray, abide in the Scripture, listen to preaching and do my best with God's help to obey His commandments (Ecclesiastes 12:13). But I fail often, as did the Apostle Paul (Romans 7:14-25). Thank God that as believers we fall IN GRACE (Romans 5:20), and never FROM GRACE (Galatians 5:4).

“Our strength doesn't lie in ourselves; it lies in our redeemer. If my strength is in God, he will give me all power. If my strength is in myself, I will be constantly tumbling, constantly falling down.” —Pastor Dwight L. Moody (1837-1899)