Why China Won't Say, "Uncle"

This is a recent quoted article from the news online addition of "Slate".

China Won't Be Pressured To Reform Currency

The 47-nation nuclear summit taking place in Washington, D.C., provided President Obama with an opportunity to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao for the first time since "Sino-U.S. tensions over the yuan threatened to escalate into a serious trade dispute," Reuters reported. They didn't talk much about China's currency: Obama was focused on the subject of nuclear weapons and winning China's support for tougher sanctions against Iran. But Hu made it clear that "China would not be pushed by external pressure and would instead base any decision on the yuan on its own economic needs," Reuters reported. "But he also made clear that Beijing was committed to change." Obama wants China to "move toward a more market-oriented exchange rate," declaring it necessary for sustained global recovery; the yuan's exchange rate against the dollar has been frozen for nearly two years. "China will firmly stick to a path of reforming the yuan's exchange rate formation mechanism," Hu told Obama. "In making reforms, we will give careful consideration to global economic developments and changes, as well as to China's economic condition."

Now my commentary....


Apparently, the President never read "Unlimited Warfare" which I wrote about previously on this Blog. See my blog article entitled, "The Chinese Philosophy of Warfare" dated Friday, July 6, 2007.

Americans, were suckered right into being powered over by China.
First, the Chinese understood greed and materialism. Communism is based on greed and materialism for the elite, and poverty for those who are subjected to it.
Since clear back in the Nixon era we called them the "Most Favored Trade Nation". Why because they were more than glad to ship us their goods produced by an enslaved labor force. When individuals are paid 25 cents an hour, this makes for very great profit for a manufacturer of goods that Americans want.
Then along came the new Walmart who proved if you buy the goods, you could market and sell their goods with a 200% mark up, and make lots of money, and still provide cheap to Americans. They could buy the goods for less than an American manufacturer, could provide them to Walmart for. for they had to pay higher wages or at least wages that were far more than the TWENTY FIVE CENT AN HOUR SLAVE LABOR in China . So, America got what it wanted - "cheap", but in their greed to buy more, and pay less, they never thought for one minute they were buying into a plan that would absolutely destroy the economy of this nation. This would produce the greatest mass move of American manufacturers out of here to foreign countries especially to China, and why wouldn't they do just that?
The American businessman lost their sense of goodness and loyalty, to the bigger profit line over those devoted daily to work for them, a long time ago.
Most American companies like "one well known one, I once worked for", even refer to their employees, as "Capital Assets".
"Capital Assets", can diminish in worth over the years, and thus they depreciate like all capital and in most cases are unappreciated, until they can be replaced with a new capital asset.
Capital assets is something you use to obtain even greater profits.
They are nothing but mere chattel. This is what the American worker became and is today, only good enough for awhile until they can replace you with something new, after awhile it becomes a turnstile of old capital asset out the door, for new captial assets in the door, back to the same cycle of events time after time.

It's the inherited nature of man to seek more power when they have power over others. The Bible calls it the "Sin Nature". The Lust of the Eye, The Lust of the Flesh and the PRIDE OF LIFE!
The love of the WORLD!

American businessman sacrificed all the care of people and their own country to gain more monetary wealth for themselves, no more than anyone else has done in history whenever the opportunity presented itself.
There are a few, and very few businessman, who stayed the course of people over their own personal comfort, and are suffering for it. They are being forced into becoming part of the game, by those holding the power over them, they too were suckered into loose credit, never thinking that things may never stay the same, they spent like wildfire, when they should have been saving. Profitibility can be effected in a large downturn of the economy. This is largely caused by poor government rules and regulations. All that loose credit, resulted in big spending. The one day everyone woke up and it was time to pay the piper his due, now, not while you had money, no why you are broke, they want it back now!
Why, because without it, the whole thing falls apart. The banks fail, the country goes down the tubes. So since we can't collect it, perhaps we turn to government solutions which caused the whole problem in the first place. Perhaps the very one's that were responsible for not putting the right measures out there in the first place, called curtailing credit and making sure credit was extended only in a sensible manner rather than to just anyone at anytime, regardless of their ability to pay it back. This is why I don't believe in credit. It is like declaring yourself God, that you know what tommorrow holds. Jesus stated it very clearly and the Bible tells us, we don't know when we shall die. Now we call on the government who is there supposedly to limit man's sin nature somewhat, we say to them - now fix it. What people don't understand, the government doesn't have any money of their own, that has worth, you do! Government can print money, but only the market determines it's worth. Globalism destroyed the American dollar!
So, taxes are the solution after the big give aways, and now we all face the burden, American business and American worker. Whoops somebody messed up somewhere, could it be that men did, we did just, of course, that's the case.
We Americans did, though it was a great thing for awhile, we could buy all the toys and gadgets made for much less, and even more. We loved cheap, so much, because it gave us more money, to buy more junk!
We became a nation who fell in love with the idea of personal ownership of anything at whatever cost, to family, friends, even our children. Even today, the kids have cell phones, ipods, and DSi's and X boxes, Play stations, and none of these items are really cheap but it has become cheaper for us to placate our children with things than our personal time and love. We excuse ourselves, saying but it cost more to live these days. True in some sense, but not really, I have watched others, spend on themselves, for new cars, new play toys for them, and think this is life, so they offer their children the same thing. They work twice as hard, stealing twice as much time from their children and family to replace it all with useless things, that will soon turn to rust and dust and be forgotten, but the hurt of those children, there pain of not knowing a parents love, will never be forgotten and most of all good values have been replaced with very poor one's - things are more important than people! I have seen people spend 500 to 600 dollars a month just to buy themselves a new vehicle, the latest, the coolest, and yet complain they can't buy their children, health insurance. I can assure you they could have for a lot less. I still drive my 1996 Dodge Truck, that I paid cash for. I don't want to feel the credit crunch. I made the mistake buying a motorcycle on the credit give away, and I regret it to this day, it has been an albatross on me, in more than one way.

I couldnt have my own phone in the house when I was growing up, and we could barely afford to have one as a family.
I had a family and we did family things together, my dad, didnt give us much in the way of things, but he taught me about love and family and God though and even today that is more important to me, than the things of this earth!

These items seemed cheap for Americans who expend all their energy to work and work more for less, to buy more and more junk, neither they need or the kids need.

The Chinese Communist were industrious, smarter than us, and they played the game of war, where war is always won- at the money table.
Wars are neither financed or paid for by patriotism or blood, they are financed and paid for by money. This then results in the blood shed of the children of the poor, while the rich enjoy watching their accomplished victories from afar with their own children safely tucked away in their golden post beds, while the poor American is deceived to think the sacrifice of his own child saved his freedom. Money affords the rich their freedom, what you have, I guarantee you paid for it, if not with the death of your own children in the riches useless wars, you pay for in taxes, and fees, constantly. There isn't much of anything free. Like my Dad always said, be careful of free, you will pay for it some how in the long run. Well we are, have and will continue to do so. Only Christ offers true freedom and its spiritual, nonetheless, freedom use to be much wider known in this country. A thing of the past.

Money drives every form of government, no matter how evil or good you may consider any particular form of government. The poor pay, which keeps them poor, and the rich spend, which keeps them rich.
Now, the game is almost over, The Chinese win - we lose!
Why? I will tell you why, because we failed to understand our enemy while they never failed in understanding us.
The only way that America can ever recover what it has lost, is to farm, manufacture and produce it's own goods again, and cut off all the junk we buy from China.
Why won't it happen? Simply, because we bought their deception and now even our own government has been decieved along with the people of this country. Thus we are now moving toward total Socialist goals in this country. All I can say, is you better buy a Rickshaw now, learn Chinese, and get used to it. Your freedoms are a thing of the past as well.
Everything they intended to do, they have done.
I think, I must quote something I remember Kruschev, the Premier of Russia said, when I was a very young child, I remember it then, because, I understood and was taught the difference between a free market and a government controlled one.
It was a school course, called Americanism versus Communism.
Now, back to what I wanted to say that I recall Kruschev saying. He said in a speech, that they the Communist would never defeat us from without, but they would win the cold war, because they would defeat us from within.
Guess what? Old Kruschev may have been a Communist, but in Biblical terms He was a true prophet, Why? He said it, and it is coming to pass. Here's a Kudo to a communist. He knew what he was talking about, which is much more than I can say for the politicians we have running this country today! They don't even know the difference between a super power and a non super power, that it's not a shame to be called one, when you are trying to protect your nations security.
I think it was Castro that turned that term into a curse word or something to be ashamed of. I'm not, afraid to be called a Super Power, it's what has kept me safe from other nations who wanted to power over us for the 57 years I have lived here now.
Shame on Washington, Shame on America! We lost touch with the simple understanding of who man is, what his problem is, and what the problem is with Big Government.
Our forefathers understood it, but to say that these days in what we have become, puts you somehow on a watch list as a threat. A threat to what? To Whom?
A threat to those who would desire nothing more than to control every aspect of our lives, even our health. Even if you aren't a violent person, to not think like the Socialist /Communist is a threat, thus Stalin and Russia sent many a "free thinker" to the Gulag or Siberia, where free thinkers disappeared to never be heard from again. This is how power stays in power, to shut off free thinking, even if no evil intentions are there. Even if you are a non-resistance person like me. They can't afford to have people who march to the sound of a different drummer. It's always been that way, Jesus turned the Pharisee's live's upside down, they couldnt afford to have the people follow him, less they lose their power, as they said, and everyone follow after Him.

Well, all I can say, is that is a shame that our own leaders have forgot who we are, what we are, and how we ever became a nation in the first place. Shame on all of us! We have forgotten what Communism is. We lose, they win.....and I hate to say it but I told you so.
I find it hard to believe that so many Americans have fallen under the deception that government can do better than the individual at fixing problems.
One nation under God, means when we find ourselves individually, giving God the glory he deserves and the attention that is rightfully His in our lives over all the money, and junk we have filled our lives up with, we might survive.
I just don't see it happening, when I stand back and look at our love for money, and all those who never realize or understand that it is the love of money, that is the root of ALL EVIL! God help us, but I believe that these old eyes are seeing the last vestiges of what once was the greatest Super Power in the world, both financially and in terms of protecting it's interest, all it's interest. That may sound selfish, and in terms of the religious liberal mind, probably so, but it is reality.

One must be strong to remain strong, this works in our spiritual lives as well. The day, you gave up reading your Bibles, for everything else in your life, the day you gave up family mealtime together, and the day you traded your life to be lived for money and things instead of your Creator, the love of others, including your own family, you lost the greatest Super Power there ever was for mankind, it is called Spiritual Power, and history has proven time after time, a spiritually weakened nation may enjoy the pleasures of sin for awhile but soon or later it catches up with them, and it all comes falling down. Look at Rome or any nation in history, American is nothing special, we too are a fallen and failing nation, and like all great empires we too will disappear as such into the annuls of history, and what tales will our great great grand children tell then while they are sitting at the feet of their Emperorer?

With love for the country I grew up in. Not perfect nor God's chosen nation, but nonetheless, it was far more perfect than the communist nations I knew about. While the children ate porridge, I had eggs and bacon. Now our children are eating worse than porridge, they are eating and being taught that Communism is good,materialism is good and everyone should have equality in having it, and the lie is told that Socialism insures that and America of the past is very very bad.
They too will pay, believe me in the greatest tax bondage to ever hit a nation in history before it finally falls under whatever God forbid rule they shall find themselves in the very near future. Hopefully, my days will have ended, and I am quite sure with the coming plans to control our outcomes in life, the new powers will see to it, that my days are few. They will control my choice of healthcare, job, education, finances, everything about my life, and as the old saying goes, whatever is of least benefit to the overall good of all, should be extinguished. Thus all of us up and coming old generation will not have our choice to live long, and enjoy our great grandchildren and their children, because someone higher up will make the decision for us, and say - "useless, let em die".
It will save the community of others a lot of money and trouble, why bother with them, send them to the Euthenasia clinic....and let us begone of them..
Holland can do it, we will too. God help us all, the road is spiraling evermore downward, and it is our sin, that has brought it upon us. We are so enthralled with ourselves, we have lost ourselves. America remains as was in some hearts in this country, and we desire nothing more than to see it return to the once great nation it was to live in. I just don't see an answer, just like Israel of old, when you get so far gone, it's gone, it sometimes takes captivity to make a person realize how precious freedom is. We are just beginning to start to think about it, but a little too late. The enemy is broken down the gates and the city is over run!
China will never say, "Uncle" and now you understand why. They win- we lose.

With sincere love in Christ who cares about spiritual freedom most of all,

Dr. J.

The Power of God - Why We Often Don't Know It

This past week has been a horrendous time for my family. Even though the family that experienced the tragic lost of their son is not directly related to me only to my wife from her previous marriage, it has affected me deeply along with them.
This is a family that I have come to know and to love. They are my wife's ex-husband's family. They have remained close to her regardless of the sin's of her first husband. I have grown to know them, all of them. They were there for me, when I needed to go home and see my father when he had a heart attack, they purchased me a plane ticket to do so. I love them not because they did these things for me, but because the love of God compels me to love them. I knew their son, Justin, as well and I loved him. A young handsome man, who carried a struggle with sin in his life, the one sin that all were aware of was a continuing temptation to using drugs. He never found the power to overcome it on a "day to day" basis. He knew God's power, He knew that it depended on Him, at least that is what it seemed to all. At least for a time, he experienced some kind of victory over it.
He loved the Lord, as for awhile there he was learning of the Lord. He had been rescued from jail twice only to be sent to a Drug Rehabilitation Center where at least the Bible was being taught.
I remember when Justin returned this last time, he had a smile on his face and a joy in his heart, that seemed real. He had tasted of the things to come in Christ.
At least that is what I believed and thought. Satan didn't allow him for long to keep it. In a short time, Satan once again enticing the flesh led young Justin down a road that spirals toward death and destruction. He is no longer here with us, his mother and father, his brother Aaron, his aunts, uncles, cousins, grandmother, and friends and other family will never experience his laughter or his love again. Justin according to law enforcement reports, shot and killed himself while trying to evade arrest, he stole a Sheriffs car and killed himself with their shotgun.
I believe the reason Justin died was because, he had not been told the whole truth of God's power to keep him from sin on a "daily" basis, he was shown the way of men instead or led to believe he could do it himself. I believe once he believed this, the spiral of sin came back and he grew despondent with his consciousness of sin in his life, which led even more to abusing drugs and alcohol to numb the mind of the pain he felt. He wanted and desired so much to please his parents, but found he couldn't, it destroyed him, because as we all do, the harder we try to be pleasing to God, or the law, or the traditions of men or parents, the less we become pleasing.
The letter of the law kills but the Spirit gives life. It was truly the letter of the law that killed Justin, he wanted to keep it, he wanted to live it, as we all do, but there is no power within us to do so. We have no hope except in Christ.
Oh! there were the 12 step programs, the memorize scripture programs, there was the church building and services he attended at times and the many people around him who could have given him hope in Christ. Instead we offered him religious steps to take, things he had to do, to be accepted and successful. He couldn't do it, and he felt deep inside a condemnation for not being able to do so, So much he could only make the voice of his conscious be quiet when he was high on drugs or alcohol. He had not discovered Paul's dilemma and it's solution because the voices around him told him, he had to do it and for him to be ashamed when he couldn't.
I know that Justin in his heart desired to know the liberty there is in Jesus Christ, just as we all do, daily. There is a liberty in Jesus Christ, and Paul talks about this extensively in Galatians and Romans. A liberty that proclaims we are no longer servants to sin, but servants to righteousness in God our Father.
This does not mean we will never sin again, or that we will walk in perfection, or without some habits that we must seek the Lord in everyday to give us His sustaining power to overcome. It is to easy to be fooled, to think, that attending Church service and other religious activities are the answer for our lack of power over sin to overcome. There are thousands dying in the churches of America today.

I am a subscriber to a Christian retreat magazine, that I sometimes read, from a couple in Georgia, who have a ministry for people to come and be freed from the power of sin, to rediscover their faith in God. Here they are offering hope to others and from testimonies printed in their magazine, they have helped hundreds of people, by reintroducing them to the Word of God, and allowing them to confess whatever sins they have been overcome by to them without fear of retribution or condemnation. Yet, last year, their very own son, committed suicide.

What does that say for wood, hay and stubble and gold refined by fire. Unless we minister out of a relationship with Christ, led by the Holy Spirit, our ministry is in vain. Do I know this personally, yes I do, for years ago I ministered to a young man, a friend of mine, who had an alcohol addiction, who also ended his life in suicide. I had failed him, because I ministered out of a sense of duty, rather than being led by Christ and empowered by Christ to minister to him. I failed, I learned, that unless God specifically leads, don't go there. God has someone for everyone who is hurting and crying out for help, but it is God who will choose whom, when and where.

There is a season for ministry, and a leading that must come from the Holy Spirit and not who we think we are or what we think we know.
Knowledge puffs up, but love builds.
There is a time for us to be quiet and time for us to speak when moved by the Holy Spirit to do so. We may think often we have been called to minister to someone because of position, or title, or compulsion. God loves a cheerful giver, how can we give to others if it is not God who provides that cheer, that hope, that love. Though all of us are called to the ministry of reconciliation, we must wait on the Lord for the timing and the place, to offer what He may give, not what we want to give. I cannot even through all this writing and all my rants and raves, and judgements, and even my opinion give what God can give to others when He so chooses through whomever he so chooses to use. We are on our own, until that time, and if we don't already have a foundation in Christ, we too will fail. We are but clay vessels being molded by the hand of God ourselves, we have no special powers but the Power of God, to ever reach out to anyone. All my biblical training, all my preaching, all my teaching, all my wisdom, all my titles, all my schooling, all my successes are meaningless without God's power to break the bonds of sin for myself and for others.
Prayer is what we need more of, a continuing sense of God in our lives, a continuing conscious time in effort and by our will to stay in communion with Him. Jesus went to the mountain every evening alone to maintain that time in "his closet in secret", though I believe He was in constant communication with the Father throughout the day, where we and our busy schedules are not, and we are much too busy chasing after that which the pagans do, what shall we eat, what shall we wear, we miss that for which we have been brought into the Kingdom of God for, that is to trust Him, and live for Him first and foremost.
Money is a powerful god of this world. It rips apart family after family. It tears down the best of us, because of our love for it. Jesus made it very clear, we cannot love money and God. How right He is!
Jesus still took the time away from the crowds and the disciples to go to the mountain and pray. This is where I am today, home, in my thoughts of my Father, His ways, His love and His forgiveness.
I know our Father forgives us for our failure to show Justin a better way, my heart is broken for the loss his family knows, and my loss.
I am broken, for I look at myself in a mirror, and say God, I failed you again. Perhaps, I was not the light, that I could have been when Justin came around to visit my step daughter and son-in-law, perhaps, he couldn't see Jesus in me. Perhaps, if I would have been abiding in you, Justin would have seen you in me, and I would have been there.
I don't know, but I do know one thing - I want to abide daily, so I can know the power of God unto salvation.
Let us all, remember that, when we get so wrapped up in our own lives, and forget God, we forget the Justin's of this world, the Joe's of this world, the you's of this world and thus the Power of God is not what we know in our lives.
God forgive us our failure to abide in you so that we may walk even as Jesus walked.

Justin, I love you, man, my heart is broken in your loss, for it is my loss as well, to have you, a brother in Christ at my side so we could encourage one another, and lift each other up in prayer daily to sustain the temptations of this life and to continue as overcomers.
Fear not, for I have overcome the world, Jesus said. He has made a promise to us, a promise that says we too can overcome, but not in our own power.
We can only overcome by His.
Today, will we?
Will we continue in that presence of Christ or will go on with our lives, forgetting the lesson that Justin's life and death taught us, that without the Power of God, we too may turn to things that do not satisfy and and in the end choose death over life.

If what we offer others, is nothing else but our wisdom versus the Wisdom of God which is the power unto salvation, we minister in vain.
Unless we know that power of God in our lives to overcome this world, we don't know the resurrection power of Christ. For Jesus gives life, and life more abundantly. This does not mean he gives us things, or success, or power or anything of the false doctrines of today spewed from the mouths of lying men. No, what he gives us his Himself!
The problem is we simplfy the Gospel to a point of idolatry, we make it weak with the adding of the law. We tell a man when he is free, that he must once again go into bondage, to religion, to go to church, read your Bible, say your prayers and all will be well. It isn't.
Justin knew these things and even practiced them for awhile. He knew that Christ died on the cross for him, he knew he was forgiven, but often as all of us do, He didn't realize the power of His resurrection, His life within us, His power to sustain us minute by minute, when we keep our minds on heavenly things versus earthly things.
Justin was distracted but for a moment with this world, which we all are in danger of.
It easy for me and as well as you, to succumb to the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life. It is easy to succumb to religion thinking we can live the Christian life in our own power. If there is one thing I know it is I CANNOT.
The problem with twelve step programs, is that they offer the idea of a god, or something outside of yourself, but then it all comes down to it is all about you doing it. It is a program that will keep you always in bondage to repeating to yourself, I am an addict, I am a drunk, I am anything but a new creation in Christ.
It never brings them to Christ, to know the Power of God, to overcome.
I don't talk from a perspective of one, that has not had these things of the world, overcome me. I do not talk from the perspective as if I have never been dragged into the sins of this world. I talk from experience, an experience with the real world of drug and alcohol abuse. I was a young man once myself, and I grew up in the sixties, I knew the experience of getting high, I knew the experience of using drugs and alcohol, to deaden the pain of your consciousness. To forget, but for awhile, and only become sober with the problem now complicated a hundred fold.

I found freedom, how? In Christ and him alone. You ask, have I ever faltered?
The answer is yes, to some things and no to others. I know the power of sin, but I also know the power of God to overcome. When I have failed, it is only because I tried, just as the twelve step programs teach to do it on my own. You cannot, do it, you cannot live the Christian life, you cannot avoid sin, you cannot keep from sinning. YOU CANNOT! But the living Lord Jesus Christ can. It is not by might, not by power, but by MY SPIRIT saith the Lord.
We minimize the power of God, when we add to the Gospel another self help program, another religious step you must take. We minimize the Power of God, that to change you must attend the building (the church) where the lie is told that it's God's house. We are God's house, and without that knowledge that we are His temple, it is easier to destroy it.
We are told to get all involved in religious activities, that hold no power at all. For they are carnal, they come from the works of men and his flesh. It removes the power of God, for by the works of the flesh, and the law, no man will be made right with God. No man can experience God as long as he, himself stands in the way of the work of the Holy Spirit.
I don't blame Justin, I blame myself and others who let Justin down, we didn't take the time, to share with him the real truth of God's power.
Though I did try, I did make an effort by reaching out and calling him once, offering to be a go alongside as a mentor or someone he could come to when faced with the struggle that would not preach to him, but pray with him for God's power to say no to this sin of the flesh- drug addiction. There truly is no addictions, there is only sin. It entices us whatever way we turn in this world. It knocks at the door of our hearts, every moment everyday. It may not be drugs, it may be greed, power, money, lust for women or men, abuse, anger, hatred, unforgiveness, anxiety, depression, at every turn there are the concerns of this world that will draw us away from His power and attract us to the power of (Satan, the world and the flesh).
Anything that turns us from dependence on Him, to dependence on our self, is sin.
For whatever is not of faith -in Him- is sin.
Thus all the rehabs in the world, all the jails in the world, all the poverty in the world, all the riches in this world, and all the knowledge in the world, all the religion in the world, all the tithing, religious works, will not save us from ourselves, the devil and this world!
We can only fall on our knees before a Holy God, and cry out, be merciful to me a sinner. That mercy of God is not just found in forgiveness but in His power that He gives to overcome. It is beyond ourselves to save ourselves in anything in this life or the life to come. We cannot bring God down to us, through sacrifice, we cannot bring God down to us by going through some religious activity or habit.
God has come down to us in Christ and all the promises are YEA in Him and in Him alone.

If we are minister to others, it has to be through the power of the Holy Spirit, not our title, our organizations, our self help programs, our religious activities but by the same love God showed us, that He - Jesus died for us while we were yet sinners. That same love and compassion can only be present by God's power within not our power.

I had just such a person, a pastor who took his pastoring seriously, to come alongside and be a very good friend first, then to help me by helping me mature to the fullness of knowing Christ. He answered many of my questions in the Word, by genuinely showing me the love of God above all things. His name was Olin Boles. He pastored a small church in Dickinson, Texas. He was a man who I believe ministered not out of compulsion but gave with a cheerful heart because he had the heart of God within him, and he knew how to depend on Him, for everything he said and did.
He never condemned, he never preached, he never taunted me with laws and rules, and things I had to do. He offered me only Jesus, by the life he lived, and the time he took to be my friend, and not my pastor. He gave me what I needed, so when I came back into the real world, at least I knew, where my power was to come from, not within myself, not within a continued calling of him on the telephone or dependence on him, but from the Power of the indwelling Holy Spirit.
I was able to finally tell my friends "no" to drugs and alcohol, I have learned that on one condition, as long as I was abiding in Christ, and not religion.
I was able to say no, by the resurrected power of the Lord Jesus Christ.
You see, Olin Boles, had one thing going for Him, he didn't minister to me, out of his credentials his title, or his own performance.
He was a man of prayer, and he didn't minister to me at all, it was Jesus within Him that did. It was the Power of God, it wasn't some religious thing he was expected to do, it wasn't even, something he thought of as his way to get into the Kingdom of God, he had the Kingdom of God within him.
That Kingdom showed forth in the compassion of Christ within him.
No pride, no arrogance, no sense of self worth, no sense of his title but a true sense to the function of the work of the Holy Spirit in his life.
I will never forget his love above all things. Here I was, 17 years old, strung out, using almost every drug known to mankind, and yet, he loved me and trusted God so much, that he trusted me to date his daughter though all of this had gone on in my life. He didn't see me or allow me to see myself, as a drug addict but as a new creation in Christ. He reminded me constantly of the Word of God in Romans 8:1 -

"There is therefore no condemnation for those who are IN Christ Jesus, for the law of the Spirit of LIFE in CHRIST JESUS, as set you free from the law of sin and of death."

He ministered love and reconciliation, never condemnation, and I for many years felt I owed Him for helping save my life from the bondage of drugs. He would come see me while I was in the hospital, he would shoot pool with me, discuss whatever I wanted to talk about, he would listen to music with me, he never once opened his mouth about God until I was ready to do so.
He then, would sit patiently with me at my side telling me of God's power through scripture. A power that didn't come from religious effort and activity, it was a power that comes from God.
Oh! he could have spent much better his time, in preparation for his next sermon or teaching. He didn't, he took time from his title to be a living function of the Power of Christ within to a deeply troubled 17 year old boy.

You know, since I was 17 years old, I have lived and had to learn that same truth over and over again. I have had to turn to the resurrected life of Christ within to overcome. Many times, I did not, many times I failed, but then Christ speaking through Brother Boles, would speak those words to me along with another favorite passage of mine, I John 1:8,9 and 10.
The one part of that passage that not many religious people offer is missed.He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins AND TO CLEANSE FROM ALL UNRIGHTEOUSNESS! The church much often like the Catholic church, likes to keep Christ on a cross, yes, offering forgiveness of sin, but rarely offering the power over sin.
I believe the strongest reason there is for less power in Christians lives, is if you are in the ministry especially, you have a deep desire to be needed by others, and it fulfills some sinful desire to be looked up to, to be placed on a podium, so that all may see and hear you.
I don't want anyone to hear me, I desire above all things for others to hear Christ and of His power. I have nothing to offer. I have no wisdom, no power to help you overcome your sins, no power to give you, no power to bless you, no power to give you life, I have none of these things, I can only share with you "the testimony of Jesus Christ- this is the spirit of prophecy".
I can only encourage you and tell you my experience with His power, it is real, it is the power of the resurrection. I can also tell you I know the sting of death it is sin, and I know it's power, but I know that when I see Him, I turn to Him, first instead of my self, my understandings, my ideals, my philosophy, then sin cannot win!
I have discovered to pray in all situations if you want life in Him, I have also discovered that the flesh is weak but the spirit is willing. I can't answer why, we sometimes fail to turn to him first, but that it is much easier to turn to the traditions of men, because it is there, we can have pride, a sense of our own power out of our sinful selves. Sin does have a pleasure for the moment, but it always results in death.
What are these traditions of men? They are nothing more than our determination to cross God out of the equation of life, and to make ourselves god. As if any of us, can overcome sin in our own power, but we like to believe we can, we like to feel that we can, we like to tell other men that we can, and we like to judge other men because they have not. It is easy to clean up the outside of the cup, to polish it with religious position, or our own sense of title and power. It is easy for us to go about and look down our noses at those that fail, to bring wrath on them or hatred or judgement. We don't offer compassion, we don't offer love, we don't offer God's love and acceptance, we offer our judgement, our own sense of goodness, which God makes very clear, is "as filthy rags" before him.

Wood, hay and stubble, all burns to the ground when God puts his fire to it. We will have many firey trials in this life, they are for us to learn to not to build upon anything but upon the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. When we continue to suffer in some area of our life, it becomes time to ask God for His answers and not turn to our own. It is time, we learn from our suffering, not that it will ever end anytime soon, until Jesus comes, but we can find the Kingdom of God within, by finding His peace, His righteousness, His joy in the Holy Spirit.
I have no judgement for Justin and what happened, I judge no man by the flesh anymore, only God knows the heart and that man himself, for but for the grace of God, goes I. I will not say who ascends and who descends, for only Christ holds that for himself and His judgement. I was not called to be another man's judge as to what was in his heart, only God will know.
I can judge based on my experience, that Justin missed the point as we all do often, that the power to overcome comes not from within our own weak initiatives and willing it so, it can only come from the grace of God, as we fall on our knees before him, and seek him to be that which He is, our righteousness and our life.
May we all remember, that we too can miss the Power of God in our lives, whenever we think we can. We can't but Jesus can.

Dr. J.