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NEW!
NEW! NEW! NEW! NEW! NEW!
Doug's new
song based on this article! Lyrics by Doug Perry, Music by
John Day. If you would like to do your own interpretation, contact
us! We want this message to go out in ALL different styles - rap,
country, folk, heavy metal, whatever!
As I've been
looking intently at the state of the Church, I've grown more and more
frustrated that hardly anybody seems to be really aware of the
problems and the need for repentance. I struggle with what to make of
that. Perhaps people think the 37,000+ denominations we have now are
a good thing. Perhaps the fraud and waste and division and selfish
ambition are just part of the human condition and can't be helped
(although he says he's coming for a Bride without wrinkle or blemish
and I think those are blemishes.) Perhaps no one ever told them
how much this is hurting Jesus. I hope that this helps with that. In
fact, I hope it sears an indelible burn mark on your conscience that
makes you cry in pain every day. That's probably what it's going to
take to get this turned around.
The Romans and the
Pharisees conspired together to crucify Jesus. They didn't just
crucify him, they spit on him and beat him and whipped him until his
bones showed. And then the Lamb of God bled all the way through
Jerusalem and they nailed him to a cross naked and hung him up in
front of everyone. The Bible says he was unrecognizable as a man
– much less recognizable as Jesus. They put a sign over his
bloodied, broken, humiliated body sarcastically declaring him King of
the Jews. They fought over who would get his clothes. They stabbed
him in the side to be sure he was dead, then buried him in a cave.
We have all heard
of the pain and suffering he endured, not just physically, but the
sin that he carried must have been an unbelievable burden. The
spiritual warfare and temptation to get him to back down and call up
ten thousand angels to avenge him must have been horrific. None of us
can even imagine what he went through in those last twenty-four hours.
How could the
Pharisees and the Romans be so cruel? How could anybody inflict that
kind of blood-thirsty, heartless damage on another human being –
much less the Son of God?! What kind of monsters must they have been
to so torture and degrade a person? What kind of evil spirits must
have possessed them in that hour that they could do such a vile thing
to an innocent man?
Everything that
happens in our “natural” world has a spiritual counterpart.
The human body of Christ was raised from the dead and abides with the
Father. But I Corinthians 12:27 and Ephesians 4:12 and other places
say that the Church is the Body of Christ. Do you know what that
means? It means that WE are the spiritual Body of Christ and that's
just as real to Jesus as was his physical body. And it means that we
are meaner and more heartless and more possessed by evil than the
Romans or the Pharisees could ever be.
You see, we have
been hitting the Body of Christ with a cat-of-nine-tails daily for
about eighteen hundred years (give or take). We have been hacking and
slicing and shredding his flesh for generations. We have been
fighting over his clothes and spitting on him since the first
Christians started dying off. We have left a trail of his blood all
over the world. And not in a good way.
To slice the Body
of Christ up into 37,000+ denominations, we've basically had to run
his flesh through a food processor. We've hacked off toes and then
cloned them so we'd have a whole barn full of toes that refuse to
reconnect with the rest of his body. We've ripped and shredded his
flesh and stolen it from each other like a pack of hungry hyenas
eating a fresh kill. Because he is Christ and he is SO much better
than we could ever be, he has mostly taken it quietly like a sheep
led to the slaughter. He has resisted the constant urge to call up
10,000 angels and avenge what we've done to his body. And it's a good
thing too, because we should be FLATTENED by now for how much pain
we've caused him. We've ignored those in need and focused on our own
agendas. We've introduced malignant cancers and poisons and all kinds
of disgusting stuff into his body.
When he came in
the flesh, Jesus endured a few people beating him and a few people
spitting on him. But it was pretty much all over in 24 hours.
But in the spirit, we have been beating him mercilessly for hundreds
of years. Under our own power, there is no sign on the horizon that
the “church” system we've built is going to stop doing it either.
We refuse to
connect up to the central nervous system and get commands from the
brain. We refuse to coordinate our efforts with all the other body
parts, so the whole Body just lays there and twitches in pain. Some
parts look like they're getting somewhere, but it's more like the
illusion of rigor mortise, than actual progress. Without ALL the
pieces taking commands from the Head, we're just spinning our wheels
and he bleeds more and more every day and the people we were supposed
to reach out to are dying.
If you think that
this is just figurative and it isn't causing Jesus pain, then you
surely don't really understand the nature of his love for us and his
desire for his body to be whole. He prayed in John 17 that we would
be one body because, if not, THIS is the result. In essence, he
prayed that the cup of suffering on his physical body would be taken
away if possible AND he prayed that the cup of suffering on his
spiritual body would be taken away if possible. Neither was. He is
crying every day and has been for centuries. And the Father is fuming.
He has been
enduring daily torture of a scale none of us can imagine. We have
inflicted far more pain than the Pharisees and Romans could have ever
even imagined. The physical body has limits of what it can endure,
but Christ's spiritual body evidently has no limits on how much it
can be tortured. Worse yet, the Pharisees and Romans hated him and
didn't believe in him – but we claim to know that he is the Son
of God and say that we love him, and yet, we're the ones doing the
real damage. And we continue getting together in our little boxes
every week and singing song of praise to Jesus and taking communion
with a straight face while we're collectively desecrating and
defiling his body.
I can tell you
this, if I were the Father and I loved my only son Jesus with all
that I am, at some point I'm going to FORCE the torture of his body
to stop. If they won't start being one body, I'm going to get
their attention by whatever means necessary. If I have to, I'll send
earthquakes, tsunamis, wars, plagues, famines ... whatever. If they
keep on singing and dancing and being completely oblivious and
asleep, I'll even kill two-thirds of the planet if that's what it
takes for them to knock it off and start being one body. That's
pretty much what the book of Revelation predicts is coming – and
we deserve it.
And if I were you
I wouldn't count on a “rapture” getting you out before the
suffering starts. Since the Church was supposed to take the light to
the world and it's REALLY dark out there, I'm pretty sure that the
sad state of things is our fault. We're the ones that knew better,
we're the ones that have been butchering the body of Christ for
centuries. I don't see any reason why we should get out of the
consequences of what we've done. He's going to spank us really hard
and we have it coming. Don't think you're going to avoid suffering,
you're not.
Our only hope is
to weep and repent and mourn before the altar. We need to apologize
and mean it – and then we need to turn from our wicked ways and
get under HIS headship. No more structures and systems and traditions
of Man. If we don't start acting like One Body on our own, then the
Father is going to kill off all the body parts that won't play nice
together. Then He'll graft in bits that will appreciate it. Like
prostitutes and drug dealers and homeless and the lost and kids with
purple hair and hurting people that will defend his body to the death
and refuse to listen to anyone but HIM.
Burn it into your
brain. We ran the Body of Christ through a meat grinder. We sent
people to seminary to learn how to slice the Body of Christ up into
smaller and smaller pieces. We paid them to do it. We self-righteously
took pleasure in splitting off from other people that had the Holy
Spirit in them. We fought over his clothes. We placed a sign over his
head that proclaimed proudly to the world that THIS beaten, bloody
mess was an accurate representation of the King of the Kings. We are
thieves and liars and murders of the first order.
There's just one
simple standard. If the Holy Spirit is in me and the Holy Spirit is
in you, then we're just One Body and we're going to have to figure
out how to get along without killing each other. We've got to knock
it off before it's too late.
Please? If you
love Jesus, could you please stop torturing his body? Could you tell
him you're willing to share in his sufferings and help bear this
burden until this is over? Could you acknowledge your part in it,
however small, and stop? Could you insist on harmony from now on?
Could you ask the Father to let you feel the pain that Jesus feels?
Could you ask the Father to let you see through His eyes? I know He
wants to.
Please make it stop.
Use freely but
with link and without changes.
Doug Perry's original song lyrics
Make It Stop
Oh Daddy, make them stop. Oh Daddy, make them stop.
It hurts so bad. They're whipping and beating me.
It's got to stop. Make them stop.
They're fighting over my clothes.
My strength is all gone, my bones are out of joint.
Oh Daddy, make them stop. Oh Daddy, make them stop.
They have pierced my hands and feet.
I can count all my bones. My heart has turned to wax.
Roaring lions tear their prey.
Oh Daddy, make them stop.
Whatever it takes, make them stop.
I can endure the spitting and the mocking,
but the crown of the thorns really hurts.
They've shredded my body and little pieces lay all around.
My blood leaks on the ground.
Oh Daddy make them stop. Oh Daddy make them stop.
They're proud of what they've done, they hang a sign declaring me King,
but keep on mocking and spitting on my Body.
Whatever it takes, an earthquake, a flood,
a hurricane, a war, a plague, a complete collapse.
Whatever it takes, just Daddy, make them stop.
They think the pain I endured on the Cross was bad, but that was just
for a day.
They don't understand that my Body isn't just flesh.
They don't understand that it hurts just as bad.
And they've been beating my Body into pieces ever since.
When they slice and dice my Body it still hurts.
Oh Daddy make them stop. Oh Daddy make them stop.
Whatever it takes. Make them stop.
Please answer my prayer and let my Body be healed.
Please hear my cry. Please make the bleeding stop.
Make them One Body and make them knock it off.
Whatever it takes, make them stop.
My Body was broken for them, and it's still being broken.
Please make them stop, please make them stop.
Lyrics by Doug Perry
Music by John Day, Performed by John Day.
Oh Daddy, make them stop.
Daddy, make them stop.
It hurts so bad. They're whipping me and beating me.
They use my name in vanity.
They're fighting for my clothes.
All they want is best and most.
My strength is all gone, my bones are out of joint.
Everything I taught them and still they miss the point.
When will it all be over? Daddy, make them stop.
Oh Daddy, make them stop. Daddy, make them stop
It just goes on (and on and on).
They've pierced my hands and feet. I can count all my bones.
My heart has turned to wax, As theirs is turned to stone.
Roaring lions tear their prey. Daddy, make them stop.
Oh Daddy, make them stop. Daddy, make them stop.
Whatever it takes.
Oh Daddy, make them stop. Daddy, make them stop.
Before it's too late.
The spitting and the mocking I can endure.
But that crown of the thorns, that really hurts.
They've shredded my body and little pieces lay all around.
They've torn me apart and my blood leaks on the ground.
Oh Daddy make them stop. Oh Daddy make them stop.
They're so proud of what they've done.
They hang a sign declaring that I am their King,
But all the while they are spitting on my body and on my name.
I can't bear to watch. Daddy, make them stop.
Whatever it takes, do what you must do.
Send an earthquake, or a plague straight from you.
Send them a famine, send them a war.
Whatever it takes to have my body restored.
Fire or flood or a great hurricane, something has got to change.
Daddy, make them stop.
They think the pain that I endured on the Cross was bad,
But that was just for one day.
They don't understand that my Body is more than flesh.
And it hurts me just the same.
They've been beating my Body into pieces ever since.
When they slice and dice my Body, the pain is still intense.
When will they ever repent? Daddy, make them stop.
Oh Daddy make them stop. Daddy make them stop.
Whatever it takes.
Please answer my prayer and let my Body be healed.
Please hear my cry. The pain is so real.
Please make the bleeding stop.
Make them One Body and make them knock it off.
Daddy make them stop. Daddy make them stop.
Whatever it takes.
My Body was broken for them, it's still being broken today.
Whatever it takes, Oh Daddy.
Whatever the cost, Dear Daddy.
Whatever it takes, Oh Daddy.
Please make them stop.
This
site is meant to be just
a plain, direct reporting of how miserably, horribly, devastatingly
badly we
- the
Christians in
the West - have
mismanaged the massive gifts which God has entrusted to
us. Maybe we can change
directions if we try something different. Maybe if we started
listening to God really well and obeying radically, no matter what
the cost. Yeah, that might work.
Although
we're perfectly capable of it - we're
not trying to impress you with our fancy web design, marketing savvy
and slick Madison Avenue ad techniques. Truth is Truth.
Your heart knows the difference.
