The Free Believers Network - Into the Wild

Darin and Aimee talk about how prayer is usually the first issue that new Free Believers have to deal with. Because this subject has become so formulated and impersonal, people who are seeking something personal and real usually end up staring this subject right in the face from day one. Because we have become so twisted and perverted in our thinking when it comes to prayer, we usually just leave it alone for the first year or two until we even know what to do with it. Then, slowly but surely, we begin to reclaim this beautiful form of intimacy and we redefine it completely until it bares no resemblance to what we formerly knew. 

Darin and Aimee invite Darin\'s good friend, Matt Seal to join them in a few podcasts this week. Matt and Darin have known each other since Darin Pastored in the church world. The two have remained friends for many years. The three talk about the level of honesty that each believer must force themselves to reach if they ever want to truly know God and break free from religion. We come from a religious world that has taught us to put up and shut up. There will be no freedom until someone is ready to break away form the religious pecking order that controls the individual. Nothing will change until someone has the guts to topple over the manipulative pressure of political correctness. Real revolution happens when people are no longer afraid to ask the HONEST questions.

Darin and Amy talk with a long time Free Believer friend,ShannonBrown, and the importance of living IN and embracing the moment. Our religion has encouraged us to do anything but THAT. We are either taught to live for the future (heaven) or to focus on the past. It is \"in the moment\" that we can see people\'s hearts. In the end it comes down to the fact that we live in a narcissistic society. We have all learned to think and behave selfishly. It is impossible for a narcissist to live in the moment because focusing on anything other than self is boring. One of the great things about living in the wild is that it forces people to live in the moment. It becomes a \"sink or swim\" world that produces amazing results isn the believers life. Free Believers in the wild learn very quickly that living in the moment is like fire to the cavemen. It\'s what keeps you alive. 

Darin and Robert confront Christians on every level about their tendency to over dramatize just about everything in the spiritual world. Many of us have come out of a religious world that preyed upon our emotions. We learned to pray emotionally, worship emotionally, receive answers emotionally, give emotionally, read our bibles emotionally, make decisions emotionally and do just about every other thing in life emotionally. Eventually life becomes a total drag because we’ve been taught to blow everything up into an emotional frenzy. Part of being a Free Believer is being a person who has given themselves permission to dig their feet in the sand, taste ice cream and enjoy life. Everything doesn’t have to be taken so seriously. People would do themselves a great favor if they would just relax. 

Darin and Aimee bring up a well known Christian teaching that in the last 70 years has undergone one of the most perverse and corrupted evolutionary metamorphosis our generation has ever witnessed. The “Submission to Authority” doctrine is extremely popular and well received by Pastors and leaders in the Church world today. Pentecostals have embraced it wholeheartedly and rarely a Sunday goes by without it being thunderously preached in one form or another. This is perhaps the most dangerous teachings Christianity has produced in recent years. People have abused, broken, used, manipulated, controlled and destroyed all in the name of submitting to those in authority. At some point someone HAS to stand up and call them out on this one. You’ll enjoy this open conversation and find yourself wishing you had heard this twenty years ago. Feel free to post this one on your page:-) 

Darin and Aimee discuss the Christian mindset of trying to please God. At face value, this might not seem to be all that bad and for many people it just isn\'t. Unfortunately with many more well meaning folks in the world, the idea of being pleasing to God can grow up to become an 800 lb. Gorilla that follows them around wherever they go. It can become an endless obsession that drains a persons heart of things like contentment, peace and joy. Darin describes the \"Pleasing God\" mentality in a Christians life as \"A very dangerous road.\"  Obviously there is nothing wrong with pleasing God, but when we find our inner value in our performance rather than in our position as a son or daughter of God, things become lethal. This is a topic that almost destroyed Aimee emotionally for years. She found herself going over her actions in her head. She would analyze her actions and inactions over and over and over until she thought she was going crazy. Finally Aimee came to a point where many Christians need to come. She had to \"Just Let it Go.\" 

Darin and Aimee talk about how the Christian community has decided to ban Dancing With The Stars for having Chaz Bono on as one of this seasons contestants. Darin and Aimee talk about how absurd it is that Christians are constantly drawn to causes that have nothing to do with Christianity. \"Causes\" become the knitting hobby that grandma takes up to keep busy once grandpa passes. In many ways, Christianity sits in the same rocking chair knitting away at her causes, doing whatever to pass the time because they have no real communication with the Father anymore. Most causes that Christianity takes up, really don\'t mean much. It\'s not the topic - it\'s the cause itself. This generation needs something to pass the time, something to get excited about, something to feel passionate about. Once that need is met, Christianity usually keeps to itself until another fix is needed. 

Darin and Aimee talk about a letter Darin received from an old friend he used to be very close with. The letter was written with such a heavy Christian dialect that it almost needed subtitles to go along with it. The two go on to discuss why Christian people in some parts of the world feel they have to adopt an entirely different language. Many Free Believers had to actually retrain themselves to speak normally after they left their respective church circles. The allure to speak this language seems to be different with every congregation. For some, it seems to be a competition on spirituality. For others, it\'s merely a means for survival in a system that demands perfection or else, and still there are others who do it because it\'s a way to hide away and remain alone. Whether people adopt “Christianese” for acceptance or for anonymity; it\'s still just mindless chatter.

Darin and Amy speak to a subject that plagues many Free Believing parents who are living in the wild. For some, it seems that the idea that their children NEED to be in church continues to secretly nag them like an emotional tick. They have no problem perscribing \"wild living\" for themselves but when it comes to their children, they second guess themselves. This is a great conversation that cuts straight to the heart of the matter. How much of what we have been taught is absolutly nessessary for our children? Is it really imparative that we recite all the bible stories to our kids or does life itself find ways to paralell those same stories without them having to be told over and over? In the end, is it really our job to make sure our children believe in Jesus, or is it our job to simply get out of the way and allow them to come to Him on their own?

Darin and Amy cut to the very heart of Christianity in an effort to figure out why we teach ourselves and each other that God has put us on this earth to do a job for Him. Why would we spend the greater part of our lives searching for our purpose when no one in the bible ever did that? Why do we fear the timing of our death? Why do we fear death at all? This is a hard core discussion that takes no prisoners. This generation is missing something huge in Christianity. Our lack of knowledge of the Father has caused most of the joy, contentment and peace to trickel away and now many of us are left with nothing more than a religion of fear. Living in the wild is the first step to getting back what ws stolen from us. You\'ll enjoy this talk!

If you\'ve been a Christian for at least 3 years, you\'ve probably already learned that embracing any part of your human nature is strictly forbidden. Christianity has systematically programmed it\'s participants to despise themselves and strive to become more and more spiritual. Spirituality in todays Christian world means that one must get as far away from their humanness as possible. Darin and Aimee attack this upside down mindset and show that where we have been taught people are weak; they are really strong. Where we have been taught that people are ugly; they\'re actually beautiful. It is in the vuneralbility of a human being that heaven is really found. Rather than reject and despise humanity; we should embrace it because knowing God is impossible apart from it. 

Darin and Aimee disguss the popular Christian teaching that suggests that God will favor one child over another. Without listening to themselves, Christians have been caught up in what just might be one of the most narsisstic doctrines to ever hit the pulpet. People everywhere are openly asking God to \"favor\" them in their workplace, in the parking lot of a grocery store or during a business deal. The very fact that this mindset has become acceptable in the hearts of modern day Christians is extreemly telling as to where institutionalism has brought us over the years. Speaking from a parents perspective, Darin expresses the pure selfishness of this teaching and exposes why it destroys more people then it helps. 

Darin and Robert talk about the evolution of Christianity over the years and how it has become something that bares no resemblance to what it was in Jesus\' day. One of the main selling points of Jesus in this generation is that \"If you come to Him, He will change your life.\" Though there might be some truth to this notion, it is FAR from the reality of Christianity. The idea of Jesus changing our lives is a marketing ploy that was designed to recruit people and close the deal. The long term side affects of this message is that people eventually measure their personal spiritual growth by how much their life has changed since they met Jesus. In most cases; it hasn\'t. This is a great discussion that many Christians need to have openly and honestly. 

Darin and Aimee have a great discussion about how much of our religion is built upon us being terrible sinners in need of a savior. We’re constantly reminded of this, over and over. For many people it seems that everything they have with God is contingent upon their constant recognition of their present sinful state. If any person should suggest anything to the contrary, they’re sternly put back in their place. The question isn\'t whether or not we WERE sinners whom Christ died for to restore our relationship with the Father. The question is whether or not it\'s important that we continue to remind ourselves of this, as though it still remains to be true of us today. Unfortunately, this theology causes long term damage to heart relationships. We simply cannot identify ourselves as \"sinners\" and expect anything beautiful and sincere to spring up from within us. We have been given a false identity by our religion. We\'re no longer sinners; we are sons and daughters. 

Darin and Amy Ramos talk about Darin\'s recent trip to Toronto. Darin gives an update on how everything went and what a wonderful time he had with all the people there. Amy talks about an article she read on the internet about how a team os scollars are attempting to prove that much of the Old Testament Scriptures were written after the actual events took place. In other words, they weren\'t prophecies written before hand. Darin and Amy go on to discuss what something like this might do to the average Christians faith. Many Christians today have based their entire faith on the belief that the bible is infallable. They have exchanged God for the bible and have given the bible the character attributes of God Himself. This is why so many Christians go into a panic the moment anyone attempts to prove that there might be descrepencies throughout the bible. Modern day Christians see that as an attack on their God, because \"their god\" is the bible.