More “Oil in My Lamp” rejected verses

Give me reasons for your doctrine
Keep on thinking
Give me reasons for your doctrine, I pray
Give me reasons for your doctrine
Keep on thinking
Keep on thinking to the break of day

sing hosana…

Give me thoughts in the shower
Keep on posting
Give me thoughts in the shower, I pray
Give me thoughts in the shower
Keep on posting
Keep on posting to the end of days

(over to you)

Rejected verses for “Oil in My Lamp”

Give me memes in my feed,
Let me ROFL,
Give me memes in my feed, I pray!
Give me memes in my feed,
Let me ROFL,
Let me ROFL
Till the break of day.

Sing Hosanna, etc.

Give me gumption for my unction,
Let me function,
Give me gumption for my unction, I pray!
Give me gumption for my unction,
Let me function,
Let me function
Till the break of day.

Sing Hosanna, etc.

(this one for the students doing last-minute revision)

Give me milk in my coffee,
Let me focus,
Give me milk in my coffee, I pray!
Give me milk in my coffee,
Let me focus,
Let me focus
Till the break of day.

Sing Hosanna, etc.

Let’s see what you’ve got…

Is it the field or the farmer that is responsible for removing thistles and rocks so the crops can grow?

As a child, I’d hear teachers talking about the parable of the sower. They’d get to the bit about the thorns and weeds choking the plants, and the rocky soil killing the plants. The implication always seemed to be, “try not to be a weed-covered stony field”. But is it the job of the field to remove these things or the farmer?

Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

Perhaps it is not that we are not allowed near God because we are bad, but more that God’s luminous existence is simply too much for us in our current state. In which case, God did not send Jesus because He demands punishment for our crimes, but rather that He wanted to hang out with His kids without disintegrating us.

Follow me for more heretical shower thoughts.

Does the alt-right hate the light?

I have some fresh heresy for you. It will probably upset Tommy Robinson, so you know it is going to be good.

We will start with a well-known passage:

Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God.

John 3:19-21, Bible, NET

I’m going to ignore the bit where it links up with a passage about how you must be saved and look at the surface truth. Specifically, Strong says of the word translated as “light” here that it “is used to denote truth and its knowledge, together with the spiritual purity congruous with it”.

Thank you for bearing with me in the setup. Now we can read this as “everyone who does evil deeds hates the light of truth”. Does that remind you of anyone or any group of anyone in the current culture and political climate?

For me, this describes the pathological way some folks cling to destructive and disproven things, such as those in the Flat Earth movement, the AntiVaxxers, the alt-right, those who insist wokism is what is wrong with the country, and those who teach empathy is evil. Don’t even get me started on how some seem to think that Trump is akin to the second coming, with all the evidence to the contrary. The weird, obsessive belief that Antifa is a terrorist organisation rather than a movement against fascism is another one that flees from the light of truth.

So here’s my heresy for today. Those groups that hide from the light of truth prefer darkness (to be hidden) because their deeds are (or contribute overall to) evil. (No duh!). Therefore, the deeds of the (mostly) far right cannot be deeds that have “been done in God”.

Not that most people who’d be willing to read a blog called Heresy is Brill should need to be told that.

To sum up, we should shine the light of truth in all directions to repel the schemes of those who love to remain hidden in darkness.

In times when Christians call for war, being a peacemaker can seem like heresy.

For eight days in Lent (6 March 1522), beginning on Invocavit Sunday, 9 March, Luther preached eight sermons, which became known as the “Invocavit Sermons”. In these sermons, he hammered home the primacy of core Christian values such as love, patience, charity, and freedom, and reminded the citizens to trust God’s word rather than violence to bring about necessary change.

Wikipedia, Martin Luther,, Return to Wittenberg and Peasants’ War: 1522–1525 (Edited to add date)

Chjose your own heresy: Empathy – the eighth deadly sin?

As you may recall, the eight classic sins are: pride, greed, wrath, envy, lust, gluttony, sloth, and empathy.

I don’t remember that last one. Maybe I wasn’t paying attention that day.

According to author Joe Rigney, empathy is a sin and a counterfeit version of compassion. I’m not linking to the book because why should I? That’s an odd line to take, yet it allows Joe and others like him to say that verses like “Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep.” (Romans 12:15) is not a direction towards being empathic.

If you want to justify your behaviours that Jesus and the rest of the Bible characters would probably have a problem with, I guess you could choose this heresy. I can’t recommend it, but who am I?