Realizations, Part 1

Introduction to Heart of the Matter Radicalized

Live from Planet Earth, this is Heart of the Matter Radicalized, and I am your host, Shawn McCraney. Join me as we embark on a journey of realizations, a journey to understand our aim more clearly and share it with the world. This is Part I of our series, and we're preparing for a significant announcement on Tuesday Night, January 6th, 2026.

In preparation for this, Delaney has worked overtime to create or maybe “recreate” our new app. It is awesome!! I mean super easy to use and laid out so well. Give it a look. We want to make the app known to you starting tonight because it will give anyone interested the tools to navigate our content, keep updated on our newest offerings, and provide the resources to test anything and everything we deem important. So, go to the Google or Apple play stores and get our free app in preparation for the most radical announcement we will be bringing forth Tuesday, January 6th, 2026, 8pm LIVE and right here on Heart of the Matter.

Insights and Artistic Expressions

Well, this should give you some insight into the way my brain works. We started the year intending to offer you five highlighted recommendations to help curate a new culture real Christians can rally behind. A culture not based on on-the-nose artistic representations but rather artful expressions of creativity in the human realm. Standard fare for me is every time I make a plan to proceed into something, that subject opens up to me in ways that radically make themselves apparent.

What do I mean? After over six decades of watching movies of every kind imaginable, I watched two on the same day (I take Saturdays off) that are the best Christian films in existence – for different reasons – and I suggest that everyone rush to sit down and take them in.

The two movies are 1, a movie on Netflix right now called, Steve. I am not going to say anything more except THIS is the kind of filmmaking in terms of subject matter, approach to the subject matter, the artistry, the craft and the meaningfulness of a subject are expertly presented and portrayed. Steve – with Cillian Murphy and Tracy Ullman. NOW. And share it with others because our world needs more art like this to better reflect humanity and our ills as a people. Absolutely stunning presentation and one of the best films out there today.

The second movie was Wildcat – Ethan Hawke and his actor daughter Maya along with Laura Linney addressing the life, heart and ways of Flannery O’Connor and her short stories. Wildcat, like Steve, is simply sublime – but it takes the medium of cinematic storytelling to an exquisite level of beauty in literally every area of the craft including writing, cinematography, acting, directing, content, and overall subject-matter and purpose.

“Steve” on Netflix and Wildcat on The Criterion Channel show me that in this world there are souls – writers, filmmakers, people – who understand real compassion, humanity, and God from the heart and without over religious inclinations; that souls like Flannery O’Connor are modern heroes and men like Cillian Murphy are making the world a better place when they have the chance. Isn’t it time that we start supporting these artistic expressions as a people that love God rather than other less encouraging expressions found in organized religion? We think so.

Heart of the Matter Radicalized Topics

This year, Heart of the Matter has been called “Radicalized” because we have shared insights (possible realizations) about things relative to Christ and the faith. The first quarter our shows were Culture in Jan, Sex in Feb, Weed in March. Then in the second quarter we did Three Big Bangs, The Afterlife, and New Divide Order. Then in the last quarter we did The Ontology of God, The Ontology of Christ, and The Ontology of the Holy Spirit.

Realizations and Models for Living

Now in this last quarter, we are going to discuss new Realizations we have had over the years and tonight I am going to cover a number of them. Let’s start small as the first thing I realized was a summary for living in the faith and the best model I can offer is summarized by this:

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From the heart, FAITH, From the will, AGAPE, And from the Mind and Emotions in Life, Reason.

(OR)

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TO GOD, faith from the Heart, To God and Man, love from the Will. In this life, Reason from the Mind and Emotions.

Faith and Religion

Religion may promote these but what they really promote is faith in the religion love as instructed and teleological ethics in your reason and emotions. I don’t follow.

The second realization worth our time is a general overview on how people use the Bible in their lives as believers. It might look something like this:

GRAPHIC (Work through)

Critique of Current Apologetics

A Third Realization that leads to a more radicalized faith might include creating a new apologetic to replace the former foolishness that makes up apologetics today. What is the problem with the current apologetic – it flatly ignores so many things that cannot really be debated – like matters of faith. How do we debate matters of faith? It's like saying that my belief in Santa is more powerful than your belief in the Easter Bunny. That needs to go – no more my Dad can beat up your Dad stuff. No more, this is how I argue for our God lets see how you argue for yours but instead why not make any and all debates allow for belief systems to exist whatever they may be and to present papers exclusively on why our approach makes the most sense relative to sin, justice, faith, God, humanity, and this world as well as stances for why it makes most sense for the world to come. Who cares what people choose to believe – it's all about faith – let's hear justifications for accepting one way over another based on reason, logic and merit and this includes everything from evidentiary proofs, outcomes, soteriologies and all the rest. Just a thought. But interfaith and interdenominational swordfights over whose prejudices and preferences are best are a waste of time and exist in human pride.

Community Service and Faith

The third realization I had came to me when I visited my oldest daughter's twelve step program in Huntington Beach last week. The program is run by a wonderful pastor named Gregory and it serves the community with some real hands-on stuff about surrender and glory to God in pursuit of a life of sobriety. I’ve mentioned it before – really good. So I sat there taking in the ten-year celebration and the thought occurred to me – what if churches all over the world became community service centers, social service centers where people – in the name and cause of Christ – gathered and freely were educated in more than just sobriety? What if they offered free classes and ongoing courses on investments and money management, cooking and nutrition, mental health care and psychological services, language writing speaking, preventative health-care, auto-mechanics, home improvement, how to study, learn, teach and simply make all the references to God as self-evident with courses available to help people learn to study and mature in the faith.

What made me think this was after the groups did their program for the audience, the senior pastor got up and unfortunately did his gig too – and while it really sounded biblical and in many ways was, it was also short-sighted, focused on non-contextual findings that pushed an inferior agenda on all of those within earshot which, in my estimation, had the capacity to encourage substance abuse in some people rather than help alleviate it in them. Just imagine the scene – there is a room filled with people who have coping skill deficits and turn to substances to get them through which becomes a life-destroying addiction and the message that they are getting, including good insights on their addictions and how to manage them, is that God is judging their every move, that He is coming back soon to end the world and people need to get themselves ready. Let me tell you, after listening to the subtext message of everything I was jonesing for the rock or bottle.

Imagine a world where all Christ-based religion grew up, put to death false tradition, and instead of telling their congregates that is not only false it's against the finished work that God has done in the world! Imagine that every group to gather was reminded of the great and awesome finished work Christ has done on their behalf, how sin and death have been overcome once and for all, and now – now folks with addictions, money problems, marriage problems and all the other issues that come with human life – you are free to focus and worry about living better lives through Christ than worrying about earning His love or qualifying for being saved. The time is coming when the best Christian organizations on earth are going to make this move and once they do the world, and its inhabitants are

Navigating Life as a Believer

A fourth realization that has unfolded beautifully and apparently for us has been the ability to better understand how to navigate life as a believer – something that is really hard for most believers, especially the young. It comes down to realizing four simple truths. In this world we live by The Spirit of Man. The Spirit of Man operates on what will produce the best outcome for the most people (known as teleological ethics). Because of the Victory of Christ over all things the Spirit of Christ is also present within every human being from birth. The Spirit of Christ operates on what is right, not on what works best, known as deontological ethics with what is right being what is truly agape love.

When people (especially believers) realize that we are all operating under the influence or in rebellion to these two spirits, life as a believer becomes much, much easier. Let me give you some examples what this looks like. The Spirit of Man, which is of this world and this earth, and operates on what will be the best outcome from the decisions made and actions taken, might decide to take a trip to a foreign country to do service there. But they learn that anyone with a criminal record in the group will endanger the safety of the whole group, and so the pastor decides to tell Bill and Frank that they cannot go because they will harm the group through their presence. This is an administrative decision in this world for the operations of this world and even though it seems uncaring or cold to Bill and Frank (especially since it came from the Pastor) it is how the Spirit of Man works.

The Spirit of Christ

The Spirit of Christ, however, would lead all the members of the group to reach out to Bill and Frank and offer up heart-felt condolences, make calls and send postcards to Bill and Frank in their absence. Get it? From this we can see how the Spirit of Man operates in full color on this earth, in its groups and organizations, will always look out for the larger group or the institution it represents and this is why God never has elected a group, gathering or church to represent Him – they merely represent themselves in the here and now. But one on one – operating by the Spirit of Christ in each of us, He reigns and loves unconditionally and without any care for the teleological ethic this worlds vast institutional groups demand. Our duty as believers is to Christ the King and to follow His demands alone and no matter what the cost. The Spirit of Man’s allegiance is to the benefit of the earthly institution and its purposes OVER the individual needs. Get it?

Individual vs. Group Needs

So it’s really easy to know how to function and act in this world. For the world and its institutions its all spirit of Man and the well being of the whole. But for the individual it is other people, and their individual needs irrespective of the what is best for all mentality. If we teach this and operate by it, we would be in a much better position to know how to be and feel and react when situations between the individual and the group pop up and confront our hearts.

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Speaking of the Spirit of Man – I supposed this is a good time to comment on THC and its effects on us in this world – our fifth Realization. And when I say THC, it is a symbol for any and all material substances a person may use on earth as a substance to enter into a new realm or feeling or thought – whether it be a mild substance like a snack we eat or alcohol, nicotine, THC or heavier drugs. After a year plus of navigating and experimenting with THC use and comparing it with my understanding of the Scripture and the faith I have come to believe the following about all substances that have any kind of impact on our body’s and souls. They are all of the Spirit of Man, operate and exist in this world on a material basis, meaning on our material make-ups and that while they can create powerful and even imposing thoughts and ideas when ingested into our material persons- they are all from and part of the Spirit of Man. I say this because like anything – anything- that materially affects us – insulin, THC, alcohol,

Influence of Substances on Spirituality

Music, lights, rhythm, sound, vibrations, psilocybin, meth, heroin, sex, religion – whatever – it is all . . . From and of the Spirit of Man, correlates to this material world and has impact and influence on us in the here and now. I say this, yes, because it is pretty obvious to me and here is why? Before I ever started using THC edibles on weekends, I spent forty years learning seeking and testing things especially in the scripture – so I prepared my mind and renewed it by and through the Spirit of Christ in me. Then armed and equipped with this information I then, at around 62, started to use THC on weekends. And I took notes on all the thoughts and findings the substance produced in me. Of course, when you are high, you think and believe you are receiving inspiration and insights from another realm – some even say, from God. When I am not on the substance, I go back and test the ideas and so-called inspirations and can readily distinguish between those that are from the flesh and those what are from God (if there are any).

Testing Spiritual Insights

Bottom-line? THC and all other substances play to the Spirit of Man – they are founded in the mechanics of our biology and flesh and while they may seem to bring out things from God they are typically just from this realm and world and the spirit of Man in it. Let me make this even more emphatic – when we use a substance and think its God talking – test it – all of it, by your understanding of God. Even if your understanding is limited or even non-existent, there is a rule of thumb by which to test your insights – Do they honor Him and His will and rule of agape love? “are they selfless, sacrificial and do they lead to insufferable patience and kindness for and toward others? Do they in anyway led to selfishness, self-indulgence or self-entitlement? Do they lead to selfless service or selfish indulgences?

Spirit of Man vs. Spirit of Christ

By vetting our “so-called” experiences with substances according to these biblically based metrics, I can almost guarantee you that it won’t take long to realize where most substance use leads and why they are all from the Spirit of Man and not from the Spirit of God. And this is what makes them seducing – like any pleasure we have on earth – they speak to and comfort our flesh, our will, our dreams and our wants – where the Spirit of Christ is plain in its effects – very plain.

The final reason I share this with you is to help people disabuse themselves of the lie that God is speaking to them through substances. This is not to say you cannot have realizations as a man or woman in and through the substances taken, any more or less than you can have realizations about God through a piece of music, but the fact of the matter is, our material persons operate under the Spirit of Man, relate to such and actually survive in this world through the same. But the Spirit of Christ is NOT of this world, is not the same as the Spirit of this World, and will not lead and guide us in the same way.

For these reasons I readily side with the Christian idea that substances are from another realm or source, they introduce to the users insights that are outside the insights we normally have, but this does not ever make them from God. Make no mistake on this. Can God use the insights we get from the Spirit of Man influences – I’m sure God can use anything to our benefit. But this does not mean that such things are replacements or endorsements from Him – anymore than a drunk driving accident where someone is killed is from Him – but He can certainly use it.

The take away on THC and other substances? They operate on the mind, will and emotions of Man in this realm and this world and have the capacity to overtake the heart for God if we are not careful. But every jet having the capacity to crash and every piece of steak that bears the ability to choke us to death does NOT equate to our being so afraid we live by abstinence – just through more wisdom, just with eyes focused on Him, and with hearts full of reasonable practices that put to death religious prohibitions.

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A sixth realization, suitable to this day and age and realizing that God

Creating a New Body of Saints

Through Christ finished everything for us nearly two thousand years ago, is that is we pull away, naturally, from making saints of people based on so-called Spiritual contributions to the world through their ascetic or holy living and that we create a new body of Saints. For instance, as a Yeshuan, I suggest a body of 16 Philosophical Saints that ought to be read and considered for their thoughts and views rather than their lives lived, and that we elect Psychological Saints to consider, Feminest Saints, Business Saints, Finanacial Saints, and others.

In this age of Fulfillment, with Christ having had the victory over all things that doomed us to an eternity separate from God, He is our spiritual Saint, He is our Prophet, our Apostle, our Teacher, our King and God but in this realm we are free to look at the insights of others who have lent their personal observations and instincts to making a better world in which to live.

The Seventh Realization

Finally, our seventh Realization, cultivated over the past 40 years of studying and teaching the scripture, in context and according to the through line of all that it represents, I suggest the following: That every one of us are creating for ourselves the world in which we choose to live. Certainly, there are major issues all around us with social situations, personal injustices, addictions, struggles and sadness but I tend to agree with Paul who wrote in Titus 1:15: Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. What this seems to suggest is we are the judge and jury of what we allow and do in our lives – no one and nothing else unless we break the laws of the land in which we live.

That – and this is important – but that as disciples and followers of Christ, who cleansed us of all sin and by faith are deemed pure, “all things are pure.” How could this be? Because through Him, the resurrected Christ, the sin and the sin nature of humanity is removed and those who look to Him in faith are in fact, pure. To the pure, Paul says, all things are pure. And this seems to suggest that we are personally the judge and jury of everything and if we find something impure, as a follower of Christ who has made us pure, we are still choosing to assess it through limited human means.

Walking in the Spirit of the Risen Christ

In other words, when and if a believer truly walks in the Spirit of Christ in this life they are liberated from the impurities of it all around them just as the risen Christ was when He rose from the grave. What could tempt the risen Lord? Not His flesh. It was put to death for us. And certainly not His mind, will or emotions – they were new, raised from the dead and truly alive.

Friends, religion keeps us in the state of “pure and impure” living – it tells us what is evil and what is good. But walking in the Spirit of the Resurrected Christ gives all people the living, inward ability to see all things, all people, all events as pure, and to therefore love them despite the things that hold them captive and bound. I maintain that we hear the scripture when it says Romans 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. Romans 6:9 Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. Romans 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God. Romans 8:11 But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.

I commend you all to the Spirit of the Risen Christ. I encourage you to let go of all religious affiliation, get bold and walk.

The Throne Room of God

Straight into the throne room of God, seeking light, learning of Him, loving as He commanded and walking in the total liberty of being a child of the living God.

Seeking Light and Learning of Him

See you in November!