Unceasing Prayer

1th 5:17 Pray without ceasing.  Praying ‘without ceasing’ is  involuntary.

Eph 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;

For the heart filled with the Spirit of God…prayer is like breathing….an involuntary response.  But our traditions often mislead us about what makes up ’prayer.’  Jesus KNOWS every want of the heart…even

Joh 15:7 If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.

 before desire becomes thought…before thought becomes ‘deed’.   He hears the heart…its desire…the REAL condition at the very core…be it good or evil.   (Matt 9:4 And Jesus knowing their thoughts said, Wherefore think ye evil in your hearts?)

The Holy Spirit searches the ‘reins’ and the heart….the deep hidden places of the spirit man…and if He finds pure thoughts…He takes that request to Christ. (Romans 8:26 Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.    27 And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the Spirit, because he maketh intercession for the saints according to the will of God.)

But if the thoughts (desire) of the heart are evil…that man’s requests are not heard..  They never leave his own room.   (1 Peter 3:12 For the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open unto their prayers: but the face of the Lord is against them that do evil.)

 

Revelations: ‘High’ Tech Videos

Revelations puts Hollywood to shame with movie making !     

  ‘A picture equals a thousand words’ is perfected by Jesus in the Supernatural visions shown John on the Isle of Patmos. The Book of Revelations is the ’fulness’ of scriptures that began with Genesis.    To 

 understand the beautiful series of Master videos which is the Book of Revelations, one requires the presence of the Holy Spirit to reveal 

The harlot is man's carnal lusts of the flesh. The dragon is Satan from whose heart the lusts are derived.

 

 the beautiful mystery which is the Book of revelations.    Strands of Truth concerning good and evil begin in Genesis and travel throughout the  Bible…through the last verse in Revelations.  Its meaning cannot be understood apart from the entire Biblical text. 

For example, the lusty harlot atop the dragon represents all the lusty pleasures man enjoys. They are from the heart and mind of satan. And the vile harlot is every person who has ever or will ever sell their soul for the pleasures of sin after rejecting God. She is the ’seen’ doer of Satan’s ‘unseen’ evil thoughts.  She is the Servant of Satan.  She is every person who was ever or will ever be turned over to a ‘reprobate’ mind to live out their lives fulfilling every loathsome lust of the flesh. She is every person who serves the flesh and not the Spirit. She is the unrepentant  rapist who molest and beheads children… the flesh eater… the murderer…the talebearer… the liar…the glutton….the drunkard…the rich.   She is the person whose blog I read recently that said ‘God should burn in hell’….the person who hates God.  She is the gay men of Sodom who attempted to rape the angels sent to deliver Lot before fire and brimstone rained down. She is the hypocrite who has a form of godliness…but ‘denies the power.’  She is all persons…for all time…who are in bondage to the lusts of the flesh and who ……

Romans 1:32 Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

Re 17:3	So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Re 17:4	And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:

Re 17:5	And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

BLESSED ?

Is the American Dream a blessing from God? Many Christians live in beautiful homes filled with finery.  We shop the malls and adorn our bodies with fine clothing and jewelry. We feast on meals akin to royalty. We drive vehicles equipped like corporate jet planes. We attend churches with   

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:

 

 carpeted floors, cushioned pews of the finest woods,with musical instruments worth thousands,  with million dollar budgets…most going to church officers, buildings covering few to many acres, and, of course, steeples so tall they remind all who see ‘We are the blessed!’    Are we REALLY?   Hmmmm.  Or are we the greedy who heap to ourselves …who justify our hoarding by naming it ‘blessing?’  I perceive that we are ’seekers of pleasure’ more than seekers of the riches of God. We adorn our flesh, our environment with physical objects of the world.  But we do not adorn our spirits with the spiritual treasures of God.  We say America is a blessed nation.  But we are lusty, earthy, powerless, and worshippers of materialistic idols.  Hmmmmm.  Blessed?   

Are we the one of  Matt 13:22  whose ‘care of the world and deceitfulness of riches’ choked the Word and left us fruitless?   

Are we the rich man of Matt 19:23 who ’shall hardly enter the kingdom of heaven?’ .   

Are we the one of Luke 6:24-25  whose ‘riches’ now…are our consolation…for all eternity..who are full now…but will be empty in eternity…who laugh now…but who will mourn and weep for all eternity?   

Are we the rich man of Luke 12:16  whose ground brought forth plentifully…who decided to keep it all… built  bigger barns..so he could eat, drink and be merry….but whose soul was lost …because he DARED to trust in himself …rather than in God?    

Are we the ones Christ is instructing  in Luke 12:22-24,27-29,31… ‘  Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat; neither for the body, what ye shall put on… life is more than meat, and the body is more than raiment… Consider the ravens: for they neither sow nor reap; which neither have storehouse nor barn; and God feedeth them: how much more are ye better than the fowls? …Consider the lilies how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you, that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these… If then God so clothe the grass, which is to day in the field, and tomorrow  is cast into the oven; how much more will he clothe you, O ye of little faith? 29 And seek not ye what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink, neither be ye of doubtful mind  31 But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you?   

Are we the ones of Luke 12:32-33  whom he has asked to ‘ Sell that ye have, and give alms; provide yourselves bags which wax not old, a treasure in the heavens that faileth not, where no thief approacheth, neither moth corrupteth?   

Are we the one whose treasure is in the temporal…rather than the eternal? (34 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.)   

Are we the one who ..contrary to Luke 14:12..calls friends, brethren, kinsmen, or rich neighbors who will return the invite…to partake of our dinner?  Or are we the BLESSED  who do according to the will of Christ…and invite  those who CANNOT return the favor?  Do we share with those who have…or with those who have not? (Luke 14:12 Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee.  13 And thou shalt be blessed; for they cannot recompense thee: for thou shalt be recompensed at the resurrection of the just.   

Luke 16:19 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:   20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, 21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. 22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried; 23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. 25But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.   

God forbid that I be that rich man who cared nothing for the poverty and disease of Lazarous.   

Luke 18″8 And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?   

22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me                                                 

23And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful: for he was very rich.   

God forbid that I be a keeper of the Law….rather than  a lover of God…and a lover of my neighbor as myself. 

THE BLESSED 

Mt 5:2	And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,
Mt 5:3	Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Mt 5:4	Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.
Mt 5:5	Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.
Mt 5:6	Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
Mt 5:7	Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

 

Mt 5:8	Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.
Mt 5:9	Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.
Mt 5:10	Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Mt 5:11	Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

Wilderness

For me…wilderness is a place so dense with trees and vegetation that one can’t reach its core. .  But is that an exact description?    Nope!   Our farm wooded area (wilderness) is bordered with large dense Privet shrubs…and other sun-loving life forms which flourish

Within the wilderness....life abounds.

bountifully along its edges…forming an almost impassable.  When one pushes through the briars, brambles, and stubborn hedges surrounding the wilderness…one invariably comes to a beautiful open area where wildflowers flourish in welcome sunlight.   Such a place is the ‘wilderness’ in Biblical terms.   

God delivered the children of Israel, at the hand of Moses, from the bondage of Egypt.   Moses brought them to the ‘wilderness’ area where they would be protected and nourished by their Heavenly Father.  God’s ‘wilderness’ is a place with ‘divine’ borders.   It is and exited only by permission of the gate-keeper…God.   It IS in the world…though  ’hidden’ or ‘unseen.’  Within the ‘wilderness’ experience,  the ‘chosen’ of God, Israel,  were both fed with manna…AND  judged with fiery serpents.  As God always promised,  He puts before us both ‘blessing’ and ‘curse’….according to our desires.   God’s promises remain…today.    

Another way of describing ‘wilderness’ might be to say ‘in the world..but not of the world.’  The Body of  Christ….the real, alive, empowered Church exists within a type of ‘open place” within the  very large, dangerous, and deadly jungle of evil called the ‘world.’   We are, indeed, ’in the world but not of the world.’   Jungle behaviors such as same-sex marriage, murder, rape, lying, cheating, adultery, blasphemy, gluttony, fornication…and all other lusts so prevalent in the carnal world…are not the behaviors of those in the ‘open place’ within God’s ‘divine’ boundary.   But there are times, as He did at Eden, when God permits evil to impact those in the ‘wilderness.’  And His purposes are ALWAYS perfect!    

Revelations shares that the ‘woman fled into the wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand and two hundred and threescore days’ Rev. 12:6.   God’s children take comfort in  knowing that no matter what evil comes, we are ’safe’ in the wilderness of God.     

So many fear the coming Tribulation or time of Jacob’s Trouble promised at the ending of the age of man.  Lucifer is deceiving a very large part of those within the established church with the false doctrine of  a pre-trouble gathering of the saints out of the world.  ‘Aint’ gunna happen. Nope! ‘Aint’ gunna happen .  We ..the chosen of God, both Jew and Gentile, those of the Faith of Abraham…who ARE Abraham…will come under the terrors of  Anti-Christ…by the permission of God.   And at the same time, we will be within that ‘wilderness’ …’unseen’…or ‘divinely bordered’…’open place’ of safety…in God.  Nevermind ‘can’t buy nor sell.’  God feeds with manna.  Nevermind ‘losing ones life.’  In God, we move from death to Life. Nevermind the ‘abomination that maketh desolate.’  In God, we are ALWAYS victorious.    

We are seeing our world literally falling apart at the seams…so to speak.  Count it all ‘joy.’  Time itself has brought us to this place. If ANYONE does not understand the concept of Beginning and Ending….you ‘may not be smarter than a fifth grader.’   RELAX. ENJOY. FELLOWSHIP. WORK. PRAY. WITNESS.  ‘R E J O I C E’.    God continually ‘rules in the kingdom of men.’    

Satan, even from the pulpits of the world, speaks fear, hopelessness, and defeat.  He convinces people, because of their own unbelief, that wrong is right and right is wrong.  He changes the Word of God to make him seem victorious. He weakens Truth with lies.  He calls Jonah…coward though God used Jonah’s experience to ‘reveal’ the willing sacrificial death, burial, and resurrection of  Christ.     He accuses Sarah of unbelief though her faith allowed her to conceive well past the time of childbearing.  We accuse Jacob is treachery though God had said, ‘the elder shall serve the younger.’  We say, ‘poor Esau’ though he sold the most sacred thing given…his birthright..for a bowl of beans.  He accuses Lot of choosing Sodom because he desired its folly though God had destined Abraham for Canaan.  Worst of all…in my opinion….if that from the pulpits of America and the world…Abraham is called ‘liar’ though Sarah IS HIS SISTER (Genesis 20:12).  How pathetic that many within the established church perpetuate the doctrines of satan over the doctrines of God. SHAME ON US!!!    

Time is fast approaching the ‘wilderness’ experience for the woman(Body of Christ/Bride/Church) of Revelations 12.  After her ‘wilderness’ experience in the world during the rule and reign of Anti-Christ…she clothed with the Sun. Has the moon at her feet. And wears a crown of  stars. Wow. What a glorious picture. What a fitting outfit for the Bride of Christ…who was redeemed through giving His very soul to death.

Haitian Brother and Sisters

 We are ALL the family of man.  So very heartbreaking yesterday to see the devastation that has come to Haiti by way of the earthquake.  Wish I could go to Haiti to help lift rubble in search of victims.  But I can’t.  I can, however,  ’trust’ God to warm where there is cold, to give hope where there is fear, to protect the vulnerable from those who would prey on their time of weakness.   

May the beauty of God's creation once again be enjoyed by the people of Haiti.

 

 I think about the fearfulness of the children.   But then I think of all the Haitians under this horror….and I suspect that both old and young are equally helpless in this wide-spread destruction.  I desire supernatural strength for the rescuers…as they lift concrete to save lives.  I desire  safe landings for  the planes loaded with equipment and supplies. 

I am never so proud of America as I am in these times of destruction. We are our brothers’ keeper..  We are the hope of the hopeless.  We must share the blessings of God.  Americans will not only be judged for the wrongs we committ…but, also, for the good we fail to do.   America must offer every means at our disposal to help the people of Haiti during their time of great suffering.  And there is NO greater resource than prayer for the supernatural intervention of God to ease the suffering for these people.

Intelligent Design

God created the greater light to rule the day.

Opinions explaining origins of all things are as abundant as water droplets in a rain forest. So how do we KNOW which ‘opinion’s are correct?  Well, over the years I’ve learned there is little wisdom in the world….so for me the  ’majority’ opinion is automatically ruled out.  Opinions of the majority represent the collective ignorance of society….since I have determined wisdom resides with the minority.   And the proponents of Intelligent Design as the origin of all things…..are certainly in the minority.  So, hey, I’m with them.    Also, the majority….or I call them ‘the know it alls’…..spend much more time talking than they do listening.  Sooooo……I strongly suspect those who continually relate the scientific truths of the universe……are victims of ‘opportunity costs.’   The immense amount of time they’ve spent committing to memory all that scientific theory….has seriously deprived them of time for seeking Truth, for gaining Wisdom, and for ‘Be still and Know.’     Sooooo…..I just can’t trust the regurgitated truths of the masses.  Sorry.

But let’s say all things did evolve from a Big Bang or from a life form not visible to the naked eye….crawling forth from the sea to the land.  My question is…what held the water atoms together to form the sea?  How did the water know it needed surface tension?  What kept the water from floating away?  If it was gravity….how did  Gravity know to hold the sea together for the little critter not visible to the naked eye….who would one day live there and crawl out on the land?  Better still…. what was he before he was a critter?  Hmmmm. And something that really blows my mind is this…..that all the complex forces involved…evolved perfectly….at exactly the right time….to guide the tides…to stop the sea at the shoreline.  But next is my greatest question!  What in the heck did the critter eat? Sand? Gases? Was he a ’sniffer’ of fumes.  Oh, don’t tell me!  I know.  He went to the Seaside Sandwich Shop for one of their Sustenance Burgers.

Oh, my!   I get really confused when trying to understand how all things managed to ‘get started’ so cohesive at the    same time all things were evolving independently. Absolutely mind-boggling!  Like…how did the little critter not visible to the naked eye…know to wait for gravity, for light, for temperature, and for the Seaside Sandwich Shop with the Sustenance Burgers???    Wow!  That critter was one smart low-life.  Something

God 'appointed' the sea to go no further than the shore.

 else…why didn’t he burn his translucent little self to a crisp on the hot sand of the shore?  Man. That was one lucky little t-critter to have crawled out at EXACTLY the right time, into exactly the right environment of light and temperature, and to have crawled out so near the Seaside Sandwich Shop.  Way to go little critter!!!  We all owe our existence to your immense LUCK! 

Ya…you guessed it.  If I must believe the origin of all things came about through evolution…happenstance…and a lucky little critter…..I have no problem at all believing Intelligent Design as the origin of all things. I am too intelligent to believe the perfect forces of the universe, the perfect species of animals and plants, the perfect air we breathe, the perfect cycles of seasons, and the PERFECT species of man….are all products of some complex happenstance.  Ha! Ha! Ha!  

I birthed four babies.  I looked into their perfect faces and watch three of the four breathe the breath of life.  I watched one of the little ones leave this existence only twenty-two minutes after he was born.  As my son was struggling for breath, there were two young men in the delivery room….standing along a wall to the left of the delivery table. They both wore robes of burlap. No one saw them but me.  Their faces and countenances were as broken as my heart. They left at the moment my baby stopped breathing.  Now here’s the question.   These two young men who could manifest themselves to only one person in a room…..did they evolve from the same critter the rest of us did?  If so….why can’t I do that?  Hmmmm?

Okay.  Nuff’s enough!  Of course all things are by Intelligent Design.  Even if one could sufficiently connect physical origins to evolution…there remains no evolutionary answer for the invisible spirit of man.   The senses can be explained biologically.   But  the spirit man …or the life-force within the physical body…cannot be explained by evolution.  I am completely aware of the connection that body chemistry plays in relation to emotions.  But man is much more than emotions.  He has a free will. He makes decision.  He can decide to go against his emotions. How can we explain the force of the ’spirit’ self……the inner man?     Only one way…Intelligent Design.   And truth is….we all KNOW it.

‘Romans 1:  19-31 Because that which is known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. 20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse: 21 Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleaness through the lust of the own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.  26 For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections; for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving unto themselves that recompence of their error which is meet. 28 And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; 29 Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness, full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity, whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding, covenant breakers, without natural affections, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgement of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”

Comments from opponents of Intelligent Design will not be approved at this site.  My website intends to glorify God as the Intelligent Designer…the Creator.

When God ‘Lets’ us Hurt

 Why does God sometimes purpose and permit suffering to come to His children?   (Behold, happy is the man whom God correcteth: therefore despise not thou the chastening of the Almighty:     Job 5:17)

                                                                                                                                                         Christians know that ’all good and perfect gifts are from above (paraphrased). But is it possible that ‘bad’ things are permitted by God  to bring ‘good’ to our present and future??  “Yes…I say ‘most definitely

Never Forsaken (Fourth Man Seen Walking)

 yes…God uses ALL circumstances …both good and bad…to shape and to bring ‘healing’  to our lives! Job would answer, “I’ll trust Him….even if He kills me (paraphrased) !!!”  Remember the anguish of discipline which sometimes came forth from a loving parent who cared enough to chasten, challenge, and correct???

Walking through… what King David called ‘the valley of the shadow of death’…..present in the world…but not of the world…makes for a very dangerous and yet safe…journey.   Trials, tribulations, joy, tears, and troubles are part of man’s existence in the physical realm. And Christians rather than being exempt…are generally the targets.

Hebrews 11:35 Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:

36And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:

37They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;

God hardened Pharoah’s heart so he would REFUSE to let the children of Israel follow Moses out of Egypt.  Thus, the Israelites, along with the Egyptians, suffered many things from the hand of God.  But for what purpose?  God wanted to reveal Himself more fully to His chosen Israel. He wanted to bring them forth under ‘devine deliverance’…not under political permission.  Wow! Wow! Wow!  Beautiful and powerful are the manifold blessings of God!   Both the Israel who walked through the divinely parted sea waters as they fled Pharoah’s armies….and we who, today, are ‘of the faith of Abraham’ never cease to marvel at the mysterious ways which God performs His wonders!  (Romans 9:17)

And then there was Job.  Job…Job…Job…what a man of God!!   He trusted God even if God chose to ‘kill’ Job’s earthly body.  Job’s story is such an awesome demonstration of God’s up-close-and-personal relationship with man.   Job was a man perfect in faith.  Meaning….simply….he TRUSTED (believed) (had faith in) God. PERIOD. So when Lucifer, by permission, attended the Council Meeting of God, he vigorously challenged Job’s TRUST and FAITH. Lucifer claimed Job’s faith was such because he had no problems, heartaches, and lack.  God listened then gave Lucifer permission to do use all his destructive powers against Job and his worldly possessions…including his children and servants. But Lucifer could not take Job’s life.  God wasn’t finished with Job in the earthly realm…yet.  And, you know how it went.  Lucifer destroyed all Job’s possessions…children, servants, lands, wealth…..and lastly…Job’s health.  Job lay in a dirt grave to comfort his rotting/wormy flesh….and TRUSTED…BELIEVED…CONFESSED…what He knew to be true……that God is perfect in purpose, perfect in permission, perfect in mercy, and perfect in faithfulness to His children. 

God uses natural things to teach of spiritual things. A putrid sore must open and erupt in order for the body to rid itself of impurities on its way to wholeness.    In the temporal state, man in continually on a path of restoration and healing.  Tribulation is common to man.  But the depth, breadth, height, and length of that tribulation is managed by God.

2 Cor 4:8 We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;

9Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed;

10Always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body.

11For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh.

‘High Places’ War

My heart falls to its knees before God and begs mercy on us all. How rampant the lies of the Deceiver whose mission is to ‘accuse’ and divide the brethren….whether Republican against Democrat, protestant against Catholic, race against race, or nation against nation.  How false the Deceivers perpetuated doctrine that a political organization is responsible for abortion, homosexuality, ungodliness, and worst of all…the demise of the innocent. There is one Evil. He is Lucifer. There is one Good. He is God.  God is Faith, Peace, and LOVE. Lucifer is Fear, Warfare, and Hate. He is successfully hidden and deceiving many with his false propaganda which proposes that righteousness and unrighteousness are assigned to  particular political parties.   Righteousness is only found in the Kingdom of God with our precious Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as its Leader. Only God knows the intent of a heart. It’s His desire that we edify, serve, and love each other as we love ourselves. Discernment, wisdom, and unity come from God. Those who would accuse and divide do so out of impure motives. America, today, is much like the ‘days of Noe.’ And much like the days of Sodom and Gomorrah. Evil is rampant. Like the roving band of homosexuals who attempted to rape the two angels sent from God to deliver Lot from God’s wrath on the wicked……Lucifer, today, has his ‘roving bands’ of destroyers. They rape. They hate. They monk all that is Holy. They plot division and death. They promote fear and hate. They are wicked warriors in the spiritual warfare of all times. They know they are defeated.  But because God still ‘lets’….they continue to kill, steal, and destroy. They devour every defenseless soul in their paths. They are wolves of the evening. They are damned. They are vile. They eat flesh. They hate man who is beloved by God. And they have their mortal temples….as does God. And they are not confined to specific political parties. We …indeed…’do not war against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places’…..principalities-powers-rulers of darkness-and spiritual wickedness  much, much HIGHER than the flesh and blood men who sit in the seats of  presidents, senators, representatives, governors, and so forth.   We, as Christians, must stay focused on Truth which drives our spirit man to ‘love God with all our heart, soul, and mind. And to love our neighbor as ourself.’ We must stay focused on the crucial need to trust fully…’thy will be done.’ We must remember what God taught Nebuchadnezzar….’God rules in the kingdom of men.’ Like David before Goliath, our weapon is God. ‘The battle is the Lord’s.’ Our weapon is Love. The war was won when LOVE  took the Light of Life from the Son. The war was won as the Son screamed, ‘My God, My God. Why hast thou forsaken me?  To shrink such High warfare to mere political parties is unfair to Christ’s damnable suffering as he ‘poured out His soul to death’….and ‘made his grave with the wicked’……for all men who will accept His awesome sacrifice. Roe vs Wade became law because God ‘let.’ A deceived young woman held bondage by her flesh…out of fear..  wanted to abort  her unborn child so she would not experience the consequential guilt conncected to the child being raised beyond her control. How very sad!  Abortion in the cases of rape, incest, or the health of the mother…has been legal for a long time. But why destroy a gift of life, a child, for any reason? A Christian mother would certainly opt to give her  own life…to spare the life of her child!!!  But God’s laws and man’s law are in opposition.  There exists…in the realm of man…two kingdoms.  The Kingdom of God whose members are the sanctified believers….and those outside the Kingdom of God…the world. The purposes and appointments of God can’t be reduced to the realm of politics. It can’t be done. His plans and appointments are too HUGE to fit into any program of man.

Shush!

How pleasant the world would be if we…man… would DO rather than SAY!

I almost get to the ‘fingers in ears’ stage at hearing all the TALK, WORDS, OPINIONS, CONTRADICTIONS, ARGUMENTS, TRUTHS, UNTRUTHS, EXCUSES, ACCUSATIONS, DEBATES, and simply all the thundering NOISE created by it all????    Ouch!  My whole body is impacted by the  reverberation of all the NOISE!!  I ‘luv’ Thumper’s rule (Disney’s Bambi movie) which says, ‘If you can’t say ’sumpin’ nice… don’t say ‘nuttin’ at all.’     How awesome would it be if 

But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil. Matt 5:37

‘ NO TALKING ‘ was the rule of the times.  And the only way to communicate would be by demonstration. WOW!!  How much clearer would be the communications. How much simpler would be the discernment.   Oh, how I long for such ‘peace.’

The mouths of man run twenty-four seven. The increase in earthquakes, floods, and other natural disasters might be a result of the massive vibrations caused by the ’shriekings’ of the earth’s man population (smile-just kidding)! The  noise would have to be equal, at least, to the explosive power of a nuclear bomb, the shifting of tectonic plates, or the implosion of a dying star.   Hmmmm? You think? 

1 Thes 4:11 And that ye study to be quiet, and to do your own business, and to work with your own hands, as we commanded you;

(Eyes looking up…hands over ears) Oh, that man would just DO what his beliefs compell…AND STOP TALKING, MAKING EXCUSES, AND JUSTIFYING our ACTIONS!!!  

11 Thes 3:11 For we hear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not at all, but are busybodies.   12 Now them that are such we command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ, that with quietness they work, and eat their own bread   (in other words …SHUSH!!!).

1 peter 3:4 But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.

  I am so ‘weary’ of the, theological, scientific , and political debates.  Hey…let’s all just ‘SHUSH.’  Couldn’t hurt…you think???

Critter Food

Okay Christians….let’s share with the GRASSHOPPER!

I’ve been harvesting and preserving food for the last two months like a crazy woman…can’t bear to see God’s ‘increase’ go to waste. I enjoy the mountain tradition of canning and freezing foods for family use and to share with

PLEASE SHARE?? 'Let them praise the name of the LORD: for he commanded, and they were created.(Psalms 148:5) ( 10 Beasts, and all cattle; creeping things, and flying fowl:) (13 Let them praise the name of the LORD: for his name alone is excellent; his glory is above the earth and heaven.)

 others who don’t have the where-with-all for planting/maintaining gardens or for purchasing fruits and veggies from farmer’s markets bountiful during the growing season here in the south.  But yesterday I met a grasshopper in the pea patch that ‘put me in my place.’

I was vigorously plucking the dried pea pods we save as seed for next year’s crop.  I reached for a nice dried pod but a very independent grasshopper was perched vertically along most of the length of the pod.  I reached …and expected he would dismount. NOT ON YOUR LIFE! So I thumped the pod a little. He just repositioned a little…looked right at me with those big beady eyes…and DARED me to challenge his claim on the dried pea pod. I thought, ‘ You little twirp. You’d best just move along…off my dried pea!’  Just then, most unexpected to me, a deep wave of emotion, compassion, and guilt about the tenacious grasshopper traveled through my heart and mind. I bent down again and looked at his MEEK  but desperate hold on that pea pod. He was still looking at me.  Then I REMEMBERED. The gleanings of the fields did not belong to me. In truth..I was trying to STEAL from a GRASSHOPPER.    I bent down again, looked him in the eye, and asked the determined grasshopper to forgive me…and I’m sure he did.  I walked away from the pea patch leaving  the rest of the dried pods so God’s critters could enjoy the ‘increase’ the same as me. Later in the day, we harvested peanuts. But we gathered none of the nuts that separated from the vine’s tentacles….or fell back to the ground… as the vines with their huge bounty…. were raised out of the soil. That which fell away…God reserved for the creeping critters.

Lev 19:9 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest.

10 And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather every grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I am the LORD your God.

Lev. 23:22 And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not make clean riddance of the corners of thy field when thou reapest, neither shalt thou gather any gleaning of thy harvest: thou shalt leave them unto the poor, and to the stranger: I am the LORD your God

 

Why?

 

Why is there so much brokenness in the world when the Bible says…’Love never fails?’

Why do we so frantically possess what we deem ‘ours’ when the Bible says…’Love your neighbor as yourself?’

Why are we so surprised when personal troubles come when the Bible says, ‘When you are weak…then you are strong?’

Why are we so fearful of the darkness in the world when the Bible says, ‘Fear not, Let not your hearts be troubled?’

Why are we so faithless when the Bible says, ‘If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed..you could say to this mountain..be thou cast into the sea?’

Why is the women’s fashion industry so huge when the Bible says, “In like manner also, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety; not with broided hair, or gold, or pearls, or costly array( 1 ti 2:9) ?’

Why are we so self-righteous when the Bible says, ‘Pure and undefiled religion before God is to visit the widows and orphans in their affliction?’

Why do we continue to sink millions of dollars into beautiful church buildings when the Bible says, “What, don’t you know your body is the Temple of God?’

Why do we FEAST so socially..when the Bible says, “Then said he also to him that bade him, When thou makest a dinner or a supper, call not thy friends, nor thy brethren, neither thy kinsmen, nor thy rich neighbours; lest they also bid thee again, and a recompense be made thee (Luke 14:12) and (13) ’But when thou makest a feast, call the poor, the maimed, the lame, the blind ?’

Why are we so obese when the Bible says, “I am that bread of life (John 6:48) and ‘This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh (Gal 5:16) ?’

Why do we war against nations when the Bible says, ‘Dearly beloved, avenge not yourselves, but rather give place unto wrath: for it is written, Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord (Romans 12:19) ?’

Why do Christians allow politics to divide when the Bible says, “And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart,(Acts 2:46) and…(47)   Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved?’

Why do we mistrust and judge others when the Bible says, ‘This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you (John 15:12)  and ‘By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another (John 13:35)?’

Why does Christianity sport so many denominations when the Bible says, ‘And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd (John 10:16) ?’

Why do we have such a NEED for our deeds to be accepted and recognized by others when the Bible says, “How can ye believe, which receive honour one of another, and seek not the honour that cometh from God only (John 5:44)?’

Why can we not SEE the Holy Spirit when the Bible says. ‘The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit  (JOHN 3:8) ?’

Why do churches receive public offerings when the Bible says, “But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth:(Matt 6:3) and (4) That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly?’

Why do we facilitate and practice much public prayer when the Bible says, “But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth insecret shall reward thee openly (Matt 6:6) and (5) And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward?’

Why do we see the sins, faults, and failures of others…rather than our own…when the Bible says, ‘Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye (Matt 7:5) ?’

‘Birthin’ Babies

  ( ‘Birthin’ Babies is for spiritual meat-eaters…not babes on ‘milk’…no matter the age) 

 

Romans 8:29 For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

 

EDEN (conception)-where Life began with God; FALL OF MAN (gestation) -womb of darkness (world)  where man develops until birth; SALVATION (birth)-post birth existence of the sons of God in the Light of Life after having come forth from the womb of death (‘born again’) John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

 The whole experience of man…both his life (fellowship with Good) and his death  (fellowship with Evil at the Tree of Knowledge)  in Eden…was purposed by God.  The perfect heavenly Father purposed eternalchildren who would ….by the power of free will given them in Eden(fully knowing/understanding both good and evil)… choose  Life over Death, Good over Evil, and their God over Satan.( Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:….The event at the Tree of Knowledge fulfilled God’s plan to ‘make man in our image.’)   The WOMB…from which man comes forth…is a small teaching replica of a much larger WOMB…the Mind of God.   In both the natural womb (place where man forms physically) and the spiritual womb ( place where man forms spiritually) man takes on the image of his ancestor. He is either born out of the dark womb of fallen man and restored back to the Father of Light and Life…or he is stillborn and forever fallen… Dead.

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God John 3:3. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. John 3:7Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.2Cor 5:17.

 

Job 38:8 Or who shut up the sea with doors, when it brake forth, as if it had issued out of the womb?

39Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?

Ec 11:5 As thou knowest not what is the way of the spirit, nor how the bones do grow in the womb of her that is with child: even so thou knowest not the works of God who maketh all.

 Within the doctrines of man’s religions, lie a multitude of opinions and traditions concerning God and man. But when God (Word) became man(flesh) in the person of the Son (dwelt among us) ….He unfailingly used natural things which man COULD understand…to teach him of spiritual things which man COULD NOT understand.   As an eighteen-year-veteran teacher of severely disabled students, I say that God…..knowing man’s limitations…taught by action and demonstration (concrete method)…rather than by lecture (abstract method). One of those very ‘concrete’ lessons is seen in the physical conception,  development, and birth of man. As the natural man is conceived, formed in the womb, and born of water into the world…..likewise, the spiritual man is conceived, formed in the womb of experience in the temporal world, and then comes forth …..either Alive (born from death to LIFE) or Dead (stillborn…so to speak). (6That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.)

The first glimpse we have of the world is as a big…black…bottomless…dead span of nothingness. At this point man and all that pertains to man was no more than a thought in the explosively creative mind of God.  God answered the darkness with Light. He answered its emptiness with substance. The moving of His presence ‘upon the face of the waters’ resulted in the creation of all things pertaining to man and his world. ( Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. )  As natural conception results from the physical union of a man and a woman… all living things were conceived by the mating of Light (life) with Darkness (deadness)…and the result was LIFE out of nothingness..  Only Light produces life. Some things grow in shadows…but only things averse to light grow in darkness.

After God made all things pertaining to the world from the dark ‘deep’….after He spoke Light to dispell the deadness of the ‘deep’…..He planted a garden ‘eastward in Eden’.  In Eden there was no darkness nor death….there was only Light and Life.  Adam and Eve were aware only of Life and Good. They had full fellowship with the Spirit of God.  He was Father. They were His children. He gave them full fellowship with everything pertaining to Light and Life…withholding NOTHING from them.  Their Father had told them that ‘in the day’ they ate of the tree of Knowledge…they would experience IMMEDIATE Death (Gen 2:17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.)  Thus, the law of sin and death was pronounced upon man. Concerning that death…God didn’t say ‘IF you eat thereof”….He shared with them ‘WHEN’ the death of their spirits would occur. He said ‘in the day thou eatest thereof’.  His all-knowing mindwas continually pointing creatively forward to the day He had ‘appointed’ man once to die  (Heb 9:27And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:  28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation). 

Eden was God’s earthly dwelling place with His family, Adam and Eve, a son and a daughter….all eternally and spiritually ALIVE.   It was the place where Life sprang forth perpetually…a place of glory…beauty…perfection…HAPPINESS…and peace. There was nothing there to ‘offend.’  It was the place where the Father poured out His love,without measure, upon His children.  But they were purposed, also, to KNOW Death in order to CHOOSE Life.  God had invited the most subtle deceiver into Eden….and stationed him at the Tree of Knowledge. Adam and Eve…KNOWING only GOOD due to perfect fellowship with GOD…..was ‘appointed’ by God to KNOW Death by way of perfect fellowship with ‘darkness.’  Eve was NOT tempted.  Lust must be within a man for him to be tempted to sin (James 1:14 But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.)  Eve, KNOWING ONLY ‘GOOD’ , like a newborn baby, came against the strongest of deceivers, Lucifer, not knowing of the existence of deception, lying, vileness, lust, nor any of  the other characteristics within Lucifer’s heart of evil.  EVERYTHING in Eden was perfect. In Eve’s pure thinking…she trusted the serpent…the ’subtle deceiver’. She believed him. She was ‘beguiled’…deceived into partaking of Death. Then Adam who was NOT deceived ( 1 Ti 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression)…with much knowledge and awareness…went into Death with his bride.  The gulf of sin separated Adam from his beloved Eve.  She could not return to him …but he could go to her…so all of man could be redeemed. Adam was the concrete teaching method used to demonstrate the redemptive act of Christ on behalf of the Bride. (Romans 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.) 

Eve was the first transgressor in the realm of earthly man. Transgression is not possible where there is no law (Romans 4:15 Because the law worketh wrath: for where no law is, there is no transgression..  The first recorded law was ‘But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die (Gen 2:17).

 In the day Eve ate its fruit and came to know both Good and Evil…the transgression..though ‘appointed’ by God has as its consequence both spiritual Death and Judgement.  And the black ‘womb’ of spiritual death became reality.  Now..the only hope for man is to be ‘born’ again…back to God…as His offspring.

 1Th 5:9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,. ‘

 

Hidden Things

IN MEMORY of Jody… a young construction worker, unknown to me,  who died in Mississippi on Tuesday.    (As he lay unconscious during the last hours of his life …hidden from him was the  awareness of the depth of compassion felt for him…by strangers.) Hidden, too,  from the family of the young man is the continuing  depth of compassion felt for them…by strangers.  

Jody, thirty-two,  was working at the Naval Air Station, Meridian, Mississippi.  He finished his shift on Monday afternoon, climbed in his truck and headed home on a rain slicked highway.  A  friend/co-worker traveling just behind saw the Dodge truck hydroplane, quickly spin off the road…and land with the driver’s side smashed against a large tree. My son, also Jody’s co-worker, was the second vehicle behind.  Both drivers rushed to the crumpled truck and grievously realized the extent of the young

Carousel Pony stands at attention near the Entrance of the Meridian Naval air Station, Mississippi

 man’s injuries. The first driver used his cell phone to dial the crash victim’s sister and the sibblings spoke briefly. Rescue workers arrived and my son was in the truck with the young man…consoling, encouraging, giving hope… for part of the hour it took to free him from the wreckage.  The accident victim was transported to the nearest hospital…then med-flighted to one equipped for severe trauma patients. Surgery was done the next morning But.. Jody died from the severe injuries….a few hours later.

I didn’t know the young man.  Just after the accident…our son called and grievously shared his heart-felt emotion and compassion for what had happened barely more than an hour earlier.  And our hearts, like his, were heavy.     How did it happen that this particular young man came to be employed with the particular company….be working at the particular job site…at this particular time…at the end of his life???    How did it happen that my son was employed with the same company…at the same job site…at this particular time…and was present with this young man …so near the end of his life???   I don’t know.   But I have a  guess.  

Something much greater than coincidence guides our steps to paths of higher meaning.  I know my son. And since the young man’s family wasn’t present at the scene of the accident, my son’s sensitive and compassionate heart…stood in their place and genuinely and openly grieved with him during what was likely one of the most heartbreaking times in the young man’s life.  And the death of this special young man has been a lightning bolt of a reminder for me…that I should carefully CHOOSE each word and action used in fellowship with another human being.  My words and actions could be the last he/she experiences. He/she deserves that those words and actions be of the God-kind…merciful, kind, and filled with continuing forgiveness.

The family of the young man will likely never know the depth of compassion felt for them…by strangers.  And as the young man lay unconscious during the last hours of his life …he was not aware of the depth of compassion felt for him…by strangers.  He and his family will never know how silence overtook us when our son called to tell us the tragic outcome of Monday’s accident.   HIDDEN THINGS.  SO MANY THINGS ARE HIDDEN FROM US….BUT THEY ARE NOT HIDDEN FROM THE HEART OF GOD.

Tribulation-Second Coming-Armageddon

 ORDER OF END-TIME EVENTS! 

There are lots and lots of end-time prophecy scriptures. But my perspective comes from scriptures giving the other side of the  ‘Rapture’ story related to

And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. Matt 24:31

 the time of  Jacob’s Trouble.  Rather than God gathering His people via ‘rapture’ like a thief in the night….The TRIBULATION of the saints under Anti-Christ…or the time of Jacob’s Trouble is BEFORE the Second Coming of Christ…..which is the ‘Rapture.’  And the true Elect of God will be expecting the event (1 Thes 5:4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.  

Scripture reveals two events which must happen before Christ appears in the clouds.

1.Tribulation: Reveal and reign of Anti-Christ          Matt 24:21 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.   22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.

Matthew (24th chapter) shows the degradation of society and the removal of God’s protection over the world. The Anti-Christ is the incarnate Son of Satan. He will replicate Christ…in reverse. Christ came to give Life. The Anti-Christ comes to give DEATH.  Power is given to Anti-Christ…by God…who puts in in the hearts of those in power  (world leaders)  to submit their power and authority to incarnate Son of Satan. (Rev. 17:17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled).  The time for fulfillment of all things will have come…at this point.

TRIBULATION is nothing new to the true people of God. They can handle it. They win whether physically alive or dead since they’ve already moved from death to Life.  They are like David…they know the ‘battle is the Lord’s.’  They know as Paul said, “Romans 14:8 For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s.  

This culmination of Satan’s wrath against the people of God is physically superficial….though ‘bloody’ by man’s standards. But in reality..flesh is nothing.  The war is already won. THE FAITHFUL OF GOD are already moved from death to LIFE. Satan has NO power over us. Christians alive during the end-time destruction by Anti-Christ will be like Stephen:    Acts 7:54 When they heard these things, they were cut to the heart, and they gnashed on him with their teeth. 55 But he, being full of the Holy Ghost, looked up stedfastlyinto heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing on the right hand of God, 56 And said, Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God.  57Then they cried out withaloud voice, and stopped their ears, and ran upon him with one accord, 58 And cast him out of the city, and stoned him: and the witnesses laid down their clothes at a young man’s feet, whose name was Saul. 59 And they stoned Stephen, calling upon God, and saying, Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.  60 And he kneeleddown, and cried with a loud voice, Lord, lay not this sin to their charge. And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Remember Daniel/Lion’s Den, Hebrew Children/Fiery Furnace, Moses/Parting of the Red Sea, David/Goliath, Joshua/Jericho, Jonah/Big Fish, Noah/Ark, Abraham-Sarah/Isaac, Lot/Sodom, Joseph/Famine in Israel, and so, so, many others who TRUSTED God with their LIVES.(Hebrews 11:35 Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:)

(Rev. 6:9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:  10And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth 11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.)

 

2. Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached to ALL nations…the ‘remnant’ of Israel being the only ones who have not heard:Hearing of the Gospel by the remnant of Israel after God has opened the ‘blind’ eyes and the ‘deaf’ ears  ((Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come)  (Rev. 11:3. And I will give power unto my two witnesses,….)

‘Jacob’ is both Jew and Gentile believers (Gal 3:7 Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham)  the church, the Body of Christ, the Bride.  Satan is HATE as God is LOVE. It’s hard for the mind of man to comprehend the degree of Satan’s LUST for destruction. The end-time Tribulation will be world-wide since Abraham’s descendants are scattered all across the globe…as proved by the following: Matt 24:31 he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

People of God are being killed, today, as we speak.  And nearer the end of the age…the bloodshed will be indescribable.  Besides all the scattered children of Jacob…around the world…there remains a specific remnant in Israel whose hearts have NEVER had the opportunity to ‘hear’ the Gospel of Christ.  Isaiah 6:10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see withtheir eyes, and hear withtheirears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed. 11 Then said I, Lord, how long? And he answered, Until the cities be wasted without inhabitant, and the houses without man, and the land be utterly desolate, 12 And the LORD have removed men far away, and there be a great forsaking in the midst of the land.  13 But yet in it shall be a tenth, and it shall return, and shall be eaten: as a teil tree, and as an oak, whose substance is in them, when they cast their leaves: so the holy seed shall be the substance thereof.

The spiritually blind and deaf ‘remnant’ of Israel…remain so ‘to this day.’  They continue to be used by God to fulfill purpose and destiny of His people…Jacob. The ‘remnant’ is the heads or government of Israel.  They are the ones who look for Elias before the coming of Messiah. They are the ones who reject Christ as the Messiah because God had spiritually blinded and deafened them so they would not recognize John the Baptist as Elias and, subsequently, would not recognize Christ as Messiah. He came to die at the First Coming. He will come as King of the Jews at the Second Coming. The ‘remnant’ has NEVER ‘heard’ the Gospel of the Kingdom. They have spiritually deaf ears and CANNOT hear.  If all the preachers from all over the world descended onto Israel and preached non-stop until they were depleted of breath….these spiritually ‘blind’ and ‘deaf’ leaders of Israel could not ‘receive’ the Truth….because God has it withheld from them until a time yet future.  And HE KNOWS WHAT HE’S DOING.  HE IS PERFECT. HIS PLAN IS PERFECT. HIS PURPOSE IS PERFECT.
(Matthew 24:14 And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come)

REMEMBER ELIAS THE FORERUNNER HAS TO COME BEFORE THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST!  He comes just before the Second Coming of Christ. Elias and Moses, seemingly, are the two witnesses shown in Revelations (Rev. 11:3. And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth    4These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth   5 And if any man will hurt them, fire proceedethout of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed. 6 These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.  7 And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.  8And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.  9 And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.  10 And they that dwell upon the earth shall rejoice over them, and make merry, and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them that dwelt on the earth.  11 And after three days and an half the Spirit of life from God entered into them, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them which saw them.  12  And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up hither. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. 13 And the same hour was there a great earthquake, and the tenth part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.).

FULFILLMENT OF GOD’S COVENANT WITH THE CHOSEN ‘REMNANT is one of the most beautiful redemptive accounts in scripture.    The Gospel of the Kingdom is finally preached to them through the person of  ‘forerunner’ ELIAS.. and by faithful Moses.  During the Sermon of the Ages…the blind eyes and deaf ears of the ‘remnant’ are opened.   They ‘hear’ in their souls, for the first time, the Gospel of the Kingdom preached by Christ while on earth.  They have seen Moses and Elias resurrect from the dead and ascend back to the Father…AS THEIR FOREFATHERS WERE BLESSED WITH SEEING BOTH THE RESURRECTION AND ASCENSION OF CHRIST.   ….and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.    WOW!!  HOW BEAUTIFUL!!

 

Second Coming/’Rapture’/Bridegroom at Midnight

Matt 24:29 Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken:

30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

31And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Rev. 7:2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,

3Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads

4And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

9After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.

13 And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, What are these which are arrayed in white robes? and whence came they?

14 And I said unto him, Sir, thou knowest. And he said to me, These are they which came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lamb

Matt 25:10 And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was shut.

 

Armageddon

Rev. 16:16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

CONCERNING ARMAGEDDON….GOD HAS NEVER…AND WILL NEVER COMPETE FOR SUPREMACY. HE IS SUPREMACY!!       The Rider on the White Horse of  Revelations 19th chapter…. has been Riding since He was the ‘LAMB SLAIN BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD.’   He Rides wearing many crowns.   He has been King of Kings and Lord of Lords for infinity.   He rides wearing a vesture soaked in His own blood spilled during crucifixion. The Roman soldiers cast lots for the soaked vesture while His blood was yet dripping.  The White Horse is the power and righteousness of God which sustained and resurrected the son back to LIFE.

WE HAVE NOTHING TO FEAR FROM THE TRIBULATION TIMES NOR FROM ANTICHRIST.  (Matt 6:25 Therefore I say unto you, Take no thought for your life, what ye shall eat, or what ye shall drink; nor yet for your body, what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?  /  Matt 10:28 And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.)  Evil was defeated when both Christ’s body and soul was given to physical and spiritual DEATH. !!!   God’s son, during the three days at the ’center of the eart,’ took back all authority over death and hell. The ‘battle is the Lord’s.’  He is the eternal VICTOR over ALL things.  Lucifer was judged and condemned before he was thrown from the place of God.  

Armageddon is not a supernatural spiritual war between God’s Righteous Forces and Lucifer’s Evil Forces.  ARMAGEDDON is the place where the evil living dead who have mocked and rejected God’s purity and Grace….will begin to reap the terrors they have sewn. It is the place where the infinite DESTRUCTION…chosen by them…BEGINS.   It’s the valley where their blood will flow to the horses bridles.  It’s the place where the ‘letting’ STOPS  (2 The 2:7   For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way).  IT’S THE TIME OF ‘RIPENESS’ AND ‘REAPING’….the time for crushing the grapes of wrath in the winepress of God.

Rev. 16:16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.
REV. 14:18 And another angel came out from the altar, which had power over fire; and cried with a loud cry to him that had the sharp sickle, saying, Thrust in thy sharp sickle, and gather the clusters of the vine of the earth; for her grapes are fully ripe.19 And the angel thrust in his sickle into the earth, and gathered the vine of the earth, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath of God.   20 And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs                         

Armegeddon is not a final fierce clash between high forces of good and evil. At the end of the thousand year ‘marriage feast’ of the Bride and Bridegroom….the CHAINS (God’s power which restricts satan) are removed Rev. 20:7 And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison)  and the ole demon man charges out..followed by all his evil comrads and….instantaneously attempts to again gather God and Magog to assist him with the destruction of God’s people (Rev. 20:8 And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea).  Like mad dogs, foaming at the mouth, and bent on the kill….they encircle the camp of God .  But they don’t get off a single shot.  Fire from the cannon of God comes down and INCENTERATES the force (Rev. 20:9 And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.).  FOOLS! …once for father Satan(6); FOOLS!..once for his vile son..Anti-Christ(6). FOOLS!…and once for the equally vile Unholy Spirit (6). The trinity (666) is miry clay…. the fulness of earthy man. 

Rev. 20:10 And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

 

‘KNOWING’

Faith is a word which means…….what?????   Hmmmmmm.  For me… FAITH is equivalent to ‘KNOWING.’  One ‘proves’ the other. To have FAITH is to have KNOWING.

20For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

(Job 19:29 For I KNOW my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth:)

I have more understanding than all my teachers: for thy testimonies are my meditation.Ps 119:99

John Q. Public would say ‘faith’ means to believe in something that proves itself  neither physically nor visibly. And Christians would say basically the same thing.  Both are wrong.  Faith is ‘KNOWING.’    As in….’Adam knew Eve  his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD Gen 4:1.’   And ‘knowing’ always brings forth fruit. Scripture says FAITH has substance (mass) and evidence (proof) … (Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.Heb 11:1)  So….real Faith…is ‘KNOWING’ or confirming within ones mind the existence of the invisible before  it’s substance and evidence are  revealed.    We humans practice  KNOWING constantly.      We plant a seed knowing it will produce its own genetic code and not the code of another. We climb into a boat and leave the shore KNOWING/having FAITH in the unseen law of buoyancy.  We see a butterfly and marvel at its unseen metamorphisis. We cuddle our offspring and (KNOW) have FAITH in the unseen procreative forces.  Well…you get it.   FAITH is KNOWING and KNOWING is FAITH.  It’s only in one single area where we treat KNOWING differently…..the area of God.

FAITH always has SUBSTANCE and EVIDENCE…especially in the area of SPIRIT things.   Man KNOWS, no matter how vigorously he may deny……that GOD is REVEALED in both a substantive and evident manner.  Man KNOWS he is individually part of something WHOLE.  He KNOWS the air he breathes is part of a perfect gaseous UNIVERSE. He KNOWS his own heartbeat is part of something mechanically MIRACULOUS.. He KNOWS that, while unseen to his natural eye…. body cells, atoms, electricity, gravity, inertia, vacuum, chaos, love, hate, fear, heat, fumes, bacteria, and so forth, while unseen by him……are REAL.  And with all that KNOWING…..man’s intellect KNOWS good and evil are real unseen forces.  Though invisible…Good and Evil are fully evidenced by their fruits.   A man who denies the evidence of fruit (visible outcomes of a thing unseen) IS A FOOL!

Psalms 14:1 Psalm of David. The fool hath said in his heart, There is no God. They are corrupt, they have done abominable works, there is none that doeth good.”                                                                                                                            

FAITH is NOT the result of things UNSEEN…but is a result of things clearly SEEN.   But many don’t SEE. God calls them BLIND.  They plant unbelief and expect to reap the fruits of belief. They sew discord and expect to reap the fruits of peace. They sew evil and expect to reap the fruits of good. They sew death and expect to reap life. They are indeed…’FOOLS’ (Ps 14:1).

Romans 1:19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them.

20For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for. The evidence of things not seen.

2For by it the elders obtained a good report

3Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.

4By faith Abel offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: and by it he being dead yet speaketh.

5By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God

6But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

7By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

8By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went

9By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise:

10For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

11Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.

12Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable

13These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.

14For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country.

15And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned

16But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

17By faith Abraham, when he was tried, offered up Isaac: and he that had received the promises offered up his only begotten son.

18Of whom it was said, That in Isaac shall thy seed be called:

19Accounting that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead; from whence also he received him in a figure.

20By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.

21By faith Jacob, when he was a dying, blessed both the sons of Joseph; and worshipped, leaning upon the top of his staff

22By faith Joseph, when he died, made mention of the departing of the children of Israel; and gave commandment concerning his bones.

23By faith Moses, when he was born, was hid three months of his parents, because they saw he was a proper child; and they were not afraid of the king’s commandment

24By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter;

25Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;

26Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.

27By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible.

28Through faith he kept the passover, and the sprinkling of blood, lest he that destroyed the firstborn should touch them.

29By faith they passed through the Red sea as by dry land: which the Egyptians assaying to do were drowned.

30By faith the walls of Jericho fell down, after they were compassed about seven days.

31By faith the harlot Rahab perished not with them that believed not, when she had received the spies with peace.

32And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets:

33Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,

34Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens

35Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:

36And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:

37They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;

38Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.

39And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

40God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.  (Jew+Gentile = God’s Chosen People)

Baby Went With Angels

Today, twenty-six years ago, at 4:12 in the afternoon….my newborn son happily and peacefully left the hospital delivery room …and me…with two angels. 

                                                                                                                                                                                                   In 1983  my husband and I, both in our late thirties,  learned we were going to have another

But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven. Matt 19:14

 child.  We already had a daughter-age eleven, and a son-age ten.  Needless to say, we were much surprised….but pleased.  All went well during the pregnancy.  A nursery was put in place.  Our church gave us a beautiful gift party.  We looked forward to the new child.  But he was born with a heart defect and survived only twenty-two minutes.  As it was happening, I wasn’t sure that I would survive.  The pain and heartache associated with watching the birth and immediate death of our precious little boy…..words can’t describe! 

Even though my guardian angel and my baby’s guardian angel, both wearing sackcloth, were standing against the wall in the delivery room,  I was devastated.  As it was happening, my heart ranted and raved to God saying, “Why are you doing this? I told the doctors I wouldn’t have the amniocentesis.  I would trust God like I did with the other two. What about mother(my mom was terminally ill with 24/7 nursing care at home)?   How will she stand seeing my hurt over this child?   Why did you give him to us if you were just going to snatch him back to yourself?”  Finally, after listening to my rantings, God spoke to me in a caring, loving, calm, and compassionate tone. He simply spoke His thoughts into my mind and said, “Carolyn, you said you trust me…..do you or don’t you?”    It was really just that simple! Do I trust Him or don’t I trust Him.  I lay there for what seemed like minutes of agony.  Then I knew in my heart what was True.  Benjamin was never ours.  He was God’s.  So were our other two children….they were God’s.  With an ashamed and still hurting heart I said, “God, he is yours.  You created him…not I.  Of the three you gave me….you are only keeping one.  That’s so like  You.  Yes, God, I trust you to raise your child.”  At that moment I released little Benjamin’s soul back to God.  But in the physical realm, as I lay on that table, in that place, I felt as though a bulldozer was tracking across my body…head to toe.  It was hard to breathe. I couldn’t feel the presence of Life.  The very air in the room seem to permeate with death…desolation…hopelessness. How could I come this close to death and survive?   I watched the doctor and nurses work until my little one stopped struggling for breath. I saw his little mouth close and watched him get still.  They brought him to my side for me to see.  His little eyes were closed.  I pulled a little hand out from the blanket where they had cuddled him.  I held the little hand and said, “Bless his little heart.”  I didn’t know until the autopsy that his ‘heart’ was indeed the problem.

Fifteen years earlier, in a vision from God, he had showed me the birth and death of  this child…years before he was conceived….but I could not understand until it happened.  In the vision I saw my newborn, still wet from birth…..facing towards me.   I would see him…but he would never see me.   Because as I was seeing him for the first time…face to face…his eyes were filled with the most beautiful city. A place of pure brightness, of bright clear blue sky, of glistening structures made from natural pearl…marble…colorful stones.    It happened just as I had seen in the vision!  There, laying on the delivery table, holding the hand of my dead baby……I failed to notice that the angels had left.  Mine was gone…he wasn’t needed any more.  And Benjamin’s was gone….he had carried my little one to the beautiful place.  They went in a moment….in the twinkling of the eye.   I was left with only his little broken earthy shell.

For two weeks, I wallowed in the most devastating pain ever experienced in the life.  I had tremendous support from those very close to me ….and from those more distant.  I knew Benjamin’s soul was alive with God.  But I couldn’t understand why God had created him.  Why He had taken him out of my world.  Why God was allowing me to encounter death at such close range.  As I began to heal, I would sit beside the little grave and cry out to God, “Why did you let  him   die?”                                                    

 He was born on August fifth.   A cornfield surrounded the small rural cemetery where we had placed him.  The corn was dried and ready for gathering.  But to me…the corn was just ‘dead.’   Kneeling at the little grave, I watched trails of tiny ants march about in the warm sun…..preparing for coming winter.  I felt so hurt that they were in the world and my baby was not.   A single bird would perch on nearby headstones and sing.  Why did they get to sing here  and my baby was taken out?

God listened patiently for weeks and weeks as I poured out my grief to him. Then on a late fall day, as the sun shown brilliantly, after the surrounding cornfields were gleaned, and the mountain breezes began to cool……God spoke to me again with His kind voice of compassion.  He simply said, again speaking His thoughts into my mind, “Carolyn, I didn’t let him die.  I LET HIM LIVE!”   Oh, what joy to hear the voice of God!  The voice itself brought healing to my broken heart.  I believed Him!  I knew it was true!  God had bestowed incredible mercy on Benjamin…and on me…his mother!  God had given me understanding that THE WORLD…HERE…IS DEATH…..the death promised Eve in Eden.  God had given Benjamin the gift of life…briefly here…eternally with Him.  The experience filled my spirit man with gratifulness for the gift of Life.  It filled my being with the ‘knowing’, by experience and encounter, that we truly move  ‘from death to life.’

From that day forward, I visited the graveside to often read these words on the little granite headstone:

Mt 19:14

But Jesus said, Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me: for of such is the kingdom of heaven

Also, from that day forward, I thanked God for the song of a single bird perched on a headstone, for the trail of ants doing what they were created to do, for the life and death of seasons, and most of all…for the promise of eternal life for all who believe.                                                                                    

2sa 22:36

Thou hast also given me the shield of thy salvation: and thy gentleness hath made me great.

“Idea” of Deviance

What is the source for the ‘idea’ of  deviant sexual behaviors?   

Homosexual partnering, pornography, predatory sex, and other sexual addictions are  again,

Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.Matt 7:15 /Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:1 Peter 5:8

as it was in the days of Lot, prevalent in society.  Much discussion and debate seek to either explain it as  developmental malfunction in brain processes which control  ‘mating’ and ‘desire’  …or to explain it as the outcome of spiritual degradation. Science offers no biological evidence to explain extreme deviant and predatory type behaviors.  .  The Bible records that the problem is a ’spiritual’ one….rooted in the heart of the destroyer…Lucifer.  

Lucifer hates, deceives, and destroys out of a heart saturated with EVIL, DEATH, and DESOLATION.  AND HE IS REAL !!!!!  He hates what God loves.  He destroys what God creates. He denies what God says. He perpetuates evil replicas of ‘good’ (procreative sexual union/ base animal-like   homosexual behavior, fidelity in marriage/marriage between two adulterers, live birth/life- aborted birth, constructive(offspring) desires triggered by the naked body/destructive (rape,murder,incest,homosexual acts) triggered by pornography)….and..well, you get it.  He remains ‘hidden’ so as not to be recognized for what he is…DEATH.  His thoughts are vile.  His heart is vile. His angels are vile. He rapes children. He attempted to rape angels at Sodom.  He murders.  He steals.  He breaks the hearts of mothers who see their children lost to the lure of lust.   He lures men and women with taboo desires to believe they are ‘born’ with abnormal mating functions….and robs them of the procreative JOY of looking onto the face of their own genetic offspring.   Lucifer’s purposed result is a society of progressively deviant men (male and female) who prey on the innocent things of God, who serve self before others, who destroy rather than build….and who…if given opportunity…would attempt to rape even an angel of God.

1 Cor 6:15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid 

Homosexual practice is recorded in scripture as early as the time of Lot in Sodom.  But its practice likely has been present as early as the time of Noah and the great flood.  After the ’appointed’ death in Eden,  the lusts sparked by the naked body is first recorded in the Garden. After eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge, Adam and Eve were ashamed and covered themselves with leaves.  Later, Noah’s son, Ham, chose to have a forbidden look on the naked body of his father  ….but his two brothers chose NOT to look. (Gen.9:23).   Both examples show the presence of lust in the heart of man. Generations later,  evil was rampant….and God’s great flood destroyed all wicked men off the earth.  But new generations of spiritual degenerates have chosen the same pleasures of lusts….especially those pleasures from the lust of one man for another man…as well as the lust of one woman for another woman. 

Nowhere in scripture do we see a more vivid description of the perverseness of homosexual lust than that recorded in Genesis 19:1-26.    After the arrival of the two angels of God sent to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot invited them into his house because he feared for their safety on the streets.  True to the evil of that time, a band of homosexual men who had learned of the presence of innocence….went to Lot’s house and was attempting to break down the door in order to gang rape the angels.  But,  the empowered angels of destruction smote the men with blindness to stop the evil advance.  The men of Sodom, like homosexuals of today, all had a  first experience, which triggered the lust or desire that is part of the carnal nature of all ‘earthy’ men (male and female).   Later, again and again, choices were made…..or the choice could have been forced onto them. …to continually practice the illicit pleasures.    Scripture says, ‘ a little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump.’  Lust is progressive, dangerous, and ….deadly.  The homosexuals and  other wicked people of Sodom…. ‘perfected’ their evil….by choice…..and found eternal sanctification in their service of evil . The account in Genesis  tells  of the destruction of these homosexual men, along with those practicing all types of evil common to man. Fire and brimstone rained down from God out of Heaven.  As God foretold, not a trace of Sodom or Gomorrah has been found.   Also, Romans 1:18-32  identifies carnality…or evil thoughts…as the beginnings of  depravity.  And it  identifies the destiny of those who choose to ’burn in their lust one toward another, men with men working that which is unseemly.’  Also, in  Romans, ‘even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature.”

So, when we discuss the culture war, ideologies of right and wrong, gay vs straight….we have to go back to God’s basics…and call these immoral acts by their real name…SIN.    “Sin when its finished is death.”  Unrepentant souls choose eternal damnation and destruction in hell….separate from God and from everything  good, happy, whole, or ALIVE!   But THE THOUGHTS OF OUR BROTHERS, FATHERS, UNCLES, FRIENDS, AUNTS, SISTERS, DAUGHTERS, SONS IN ETERNAL HELL… must not be the end of the story for those of us who love our family members and friends who have given themselves to the powerfull deception of homosexuality.

As with every other sin practiced by man,  ‘God is just to forgive’ ….if we repent.  But how do we reach out the those entangled in these destructive lifestyles?   We simply ‘love our neighbor as ourselves.’   We don’t march on Washington.  We don’t picket gay rallies. We don’t speak ‘hate’ words.  We don’t ‘vote’ it away.  WE LOVE IT AWAY!  ‘LOVE NEVER FAILETH.’   But …..many will not hear and  will chose to remain in their sin. “32 Who knowing the judgement of God, that they who commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.’    

Genuine members of the  Body of Christ,  Love the gay and lesbian population …as well as all who are bound by sexual addictions…while hating the sin originated in the heart of Lucifer.  The heavenly Father desires healing of the spiritual man within.   He is the true Physician….come to restore the ’sick’ (Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, 19 .  Spiritual ‘hearing’  is a CHOICE…given to man by God in Eden.  Soon after man’s spiritual death at the Tree of Knowledge, God said, ”And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil:” (Gen. 3:22).   God gave man the powerful gift of knowing, by personal encounter,  both good and evil…..so man can clearly CHOOSE whom he will serve….God or Lucifer.   Man is without excuse before God for the choices he makes.  “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient:”

Hated Doctrine

What IS the HATED doctrine of the Nicolaitanes ????  Why does it provoke God’s ‘hate?’    ( Rev.2:6 But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes, which I also  hate. )  The doctrine of the Nicolaitanes infiltrated churches of the first century.  It continues to be accepted and practiced in many churches today.  We are in the last days and false teachings

James 1:8 A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.

and doctrines of men are everywhere..even in our own Churches.  While today it may be called ‘denominational’ doctrine and grows along side True doctrine…it remains Nicolaitan doctrine….or the doctrine of Satan. It contradicts the Word of God and convinces the body that it is truth.  Nicolaitanism is practiced under the guise of true Christianity but it allows the continuance of sin under the covering of Grace.  It is alive and well in our churches world-wide and has many followers.   It claims Christ as Savior but denies holiness and prevents the Lordship of Christ over followers. 

Rom 6:22 But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting   life.                                                                                                                                                   

Paul warned the Christians at Ephesus concerning ‘wolves’ who would enter …’dressed in sheep’s clothing’ for the purpose of destroying the sheep.  Many current contemporary so-called ‘christian’ practices closely mimic those of the Nicolaitanes and are contrary to the Word of God.  In these final days before the Second Coming of our Lord, we must be sure we are fulfilling God’s purpose within His church…or whether, like the Nicolaitanes….we are serving ourselves.  In the following scripture, God declares that if the pastors, priests, or prophets were authentic…the followers would turn from their evil ways.

22But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

Like many professing Christians today, the  Nicolaitanes were a sect of professing Christians who proclaimed they were no longer under the law…but under Grace.   The Nicolaitanes made the grace of God a cloak for ‘lasciviousness (Mk 7:22,2 Cor 12:21, Gal 5:19,Eph 4:19,1 Pet 4:3…all show the term synonymous with serving lusts of the flesh).’  They pride themselves on attaining salvation solely through faith and the gift of divine grace….while leaving off the command to bear ‘fruits’ of righteousness.       

Ph 1:11 Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God. They reject the the command of  Matthew 5:48 to “Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect”

“The existence of a sect called Nicolaitanes in the second century is attested by Iranaeus, Tertullian and Clement of Alexander,” says the Commentary for Schools, edited by C.J. Elliot, DD.  And John Wesley, too, described their practices. “They allowed the most abominable lewdness, (behaving in obscene manner) and adulteries, as well as sacrificing to idol (John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the New Testament on Revelation 2:6) .”   The Angus Bible Handbook says, “They practiced ritualism without spirituality, knowledge without practice, and justification by faith without holiness.   Jude 1:4 warns the church at Ephesus who were “turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness.”   They were willing to acknowledge Jesus as their Savior but not as their Lord and Master.

Luke 6:46 “Why call you me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?”

They rejected Christ as Head of the Body and usurped His authority over the church.  They did not deny His redemptive act but set themselves up as the spiritual authorities and influenced the masses away from Christ as the only spiritual ‘Head’ of the Body (Church).  Jeremiah had quiet a lot to say concerning false ‘heads’, teachers, and leaders within the church.  GOD SPOKE THROUGH JEREMIAH TO CHALLENGE THOSE WHO SAY THEY ARE CALLED OF GOD AND ARE NOT!~

Jer. 23:1Woe be unto the pastors that destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! saith the LORD.       

11For both prophet and priest are profane; yea, in my house have I found their wickedness, saith the LORD.

21I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran: I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.

22But if they had stood in my counsel, and had caused my people to hear my words, then they should have turned them from their evil way, and from the evil of their doings.

Centuries later even the church at Pergamos was brushing aside the significance of the Ten Commandments.  They proclaimed to be under Grace…and free from the Law. They insisted that Christ had come to desroy the Law…not to fulfill it.  The Nicolaitan practice…known as Antinomianism is hated by God. And in Rev. 2:6..God commends the true Christians of the first century for hating it too.

Old Testament history records the presence of faith even before the incarnation of Christ in the flesh.  These faithful men of God ‘believed’ God and practiced ‘obedience.’   Hebrews the eleventh chapter records the faithful obedience of Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Joshua, Daniel….and many…many others.  “These all obtained a good report through faith (Heb 11:23-29).”

Ellen G. White’s “Signs of the Times, February 25, 1897, explains that the Nicolaitanes insisted they were excluded from being ‘doers of the Words’ because of Grace.

SIN, for Christian and non-Christian alike is DEADLY business……a dangerous game with no winners.  Righteousness is required by God for the redeemed.  It is through Him and by Him and is freely given when asked for.  We are without excuse to continue in sin.  The Ten Commandments are still in effect with two more added.  The two final Love Commandments are the means through which we keep the first Ten. Only through God, by the gift of His Spirit and Love placed in our hearts…are we whole.

“If you will enter into life, keep the commandments Matthew 19:17.”

“If you love Me,keep My commandments John 14:15.”

The Way

Is being a Christian only about going to Church and following some rules? Or is Christianity

Proverbs 14:12 There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.

 about being like Christ…. about KNOWING the Love of the Father by RELATIONSHIP/FELLOWSHIP….about DOING the Love of God through service to man (especially the ones who are on the brink of destruction)…..and about living our lives as fruit-bearing branches getting sustance from the Main Vine.? 

1 Cor 13:1 Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, and have not charity, I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal   

 2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing.  

3 And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing.

Matt 22:39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 

  And I am one of many who so pitifully practice traditional christianity-churchianity …..and who minimize the neeed to ‘take up the cross’ and follow Christ.

Matt 10:38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

‘Taking up the cross’,  ‘yielding my body as the Temple of God,’ ‘loving God with all my heart..soul..and mind,’ ‘loving my neighbor as myself,’ ‘visiting the widows and orphans in their affliction,’ ‘bearing GOOD fruit,’ and ’serving tables’ ARE NOT OPTIONAL  for a genuine Christian.   They are the ‘FRUITS’ of ABIDING in the Vine.  

The harvest is ‘rotting’ in the fields….while we christians (small ‘c’/upper case is reserved for the Christ-like ones) are reading and hearing the Word…but we are  without ‘charity’ which comes ONLY from RELATIONSHIP/FELLOWSHIP/IMPOWERING  from the Vine.   We tell ourselves that the ’small’ and infrequent things I do in the name of the Father are appreciated by Him.  And they are.  But it’s not about HIM.  It’s about Man whom He loves and desparately wants to redeem.  For reasons known only to Him, He will do His work through our bodies which we yield to be His Temple. But like the members of Ephesus and others, we will be judged unrighteous if we don’t remain FAITHFUL to Christ…the First Love. Unfaithfulness to a beloved is adultery, harlotry, fornication…downright SIN. And SIN when finished is DEATH.

But what about ‘once saved always saved?’  True salvation is reality. But walking the isle of a church during what we southerners call the ‘invitation’ is the FIRST step….not the LAST.  We come before God as infants and we are supposed to grow in grace and Knowledge into transformed children of God.  As Eve was the completion of Adam, as man’s eating of the Tree of Knowledge was the completion of ‘knowing both good and evil,’ and as the Ten Commandments were the beginning of the Law and Christ was the completing of the Law……repentance is the beginning  of salvation and Holiness in Christ is the completing of Salvation. At age nine, I took that walk of repentance during Vacation Bible School… after Christ had manifested Himself to me…physically…in the form of a man.  He spoke to me from His mind…His mouth never moved…and He said, ‘Carolyn, you need Me to fight him for you.’  I look to the floor in front of me where His eyes were pointing.  He manifested Satan to me in the form of a two-inch high…bumby…naked…ugly creature of a man who was trembling and holding his forearms over his eyes in an attempt to block the ‘blinding light’ that was shining on his whole person.  At that point, I wandered why he was acting like a bright light was shining in his face.  Later, I was taught by the Word that God is Light.     At age nine…by the Grace that God, in His mercy, and through the redemptive act of Love by the person of the Son……I was forgiven the curse of sin which held me since Eden.  But my heart KNOWS I cannot continue to serve myself (mammon) within my castle and blessings while others live under bridges and are destitute.  I cannot continue to watch the harvest ‘rot’ in the field due to too few workers.  I am ’saved’ only as I yield my body as a Temple of God so He, not me, can continue His work of Grace on this earth.  The Kingdom of God is real.  And if I am only a professing ‘ christian’, I am a hindrance to that Kingdom.     Before his death, my Dad use to say, “the shallowness of teaching concerning ‘once saved always saved’ misleads many.”                              

 So many of us are very good at reading and hearing the Word….but we’re not worth a dittle at ‘DOING’ the Word.  God does not require WORKS for salvation.  But  SERVICE born out of His heart of Love whose fruit is GOOD WORKS….will be practiced by the true Christian.   When one is  truly heavenly ‘born of the spirit’ as one was earthly born of water…..he or she will be a Christian. ..transformed and renewed…..with ‘the mind of  Christ’.   Then…and only then…can we be ‘perfect as He is perfect.’    Then…and only then….can we  ’love God with all my heart, soul, and mind….and my neighbor as myself.’   Then….and only then…can we  be the ’sheep’ of His pasture.

John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.

Acts 13:47 For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.

Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith

18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

19 Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath showed it unto them

20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

God appointed for man the ‘knowing’ of Good through dwelling with Him in Eden. He ‘appointed’ for us a ‘knowing’ also of the most subtle deceiver…by way of fellowship with the deceivers world…spiritual death.   As the Good Father said afterwards, gen 3:22  ……. Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:    One cannnot bring forth until ‘conception’ happens.  ‘Knowing both Good and evil requires that BOTH be ‘conceived’ or internalized.  Our precious Father did not create a bunch of robots who cry ‘Lord, Lord. Praise you, God. Glory, glory, glory.’   He wants offspring!  Children….to whom He can give His pure Love.  Pure Love MUST be given away. Giving is its very nature.  He wants offspring who will ‘receive’ His pure Love…as it is intended…for its nature only….no strings…no tricks…nothing expected back….just the receiving and giving in this PERFECT FELLOWSHIP.   In Eden, He gave us the ‘free will’ to choose Life in Him (love,perfection,righteousness,fellowship,peace, rest,joy, grace,eternal dwelling place….or ‘whatever’ name it is called).  Or, with that same ‘free will’ we can choose Death (evil, sensual pleasures, fortune,fame,temporal goods, gluttonous pleasures,hate,murder,drugs, selfishness, greed, power, …or whatever name it is called).   But ‘CHOOSE’ we do!!  

De 13:19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

20 That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the LORD sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

Jos 24:15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.

We are in the ‘War of the Ages.’  It has raged since Eden.  And if we are not part of the Army of God….we ARE part of the army of Satan.    (Matt 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. ) 

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Romans 13:11  And that, knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed.

2 Cor 7:10 For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.

Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

Php 2:12 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling

1 Th 5:8 But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation.

9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,

Heb. 5:9 And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him

Heb. 9:28 So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

1 Peter 1:19 Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.

Rev. 21:7 He that overcometh shall inherit all things; and I will be his God, and he shall be my son.

 

 

 

 

Abuse of Grace

 

GRACE IS SERIOUS BUSINESS!!  I call myself  a Christian since I believe that Jesus Christ gave Himself for the sins of the world…including mine?   But Lucifer ‘believes’ and trembles before 

Matt 7:14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.

 God and Christ.  Yet he remains eternally damned. He is damned for blasphemy (knowing God/choosing to reject God’s sovereignty). Does believing in the existence of God cover me with Christ’s cloak of  righteousness and forever hide my continuing sinfulness from the face of God?  Or is Grace a foundation on which to set my ’lively stone’ amidst the others who make up the Temple of God…..The Body of Christ…The Church???  1 Cor 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.   I believe all scripture supports the fact that Grace does not sit alone. Also, I believe that Grace and Christ cannot be separated.  To receive the gift of Grace…one must first receive the person of Christ….in forgiveness, in fellowship, in obedience, in righteous deeds (works)……and in being transformed from death unto Life.   Grace is SERIOUS business!Churchianity is filled with countless doctrines and traditions concerning Christ’s redemptive act called ‘Grace.’  Many say Grace is a gift….a covering for the continuing carnality of the flesh. Many say  ‘we’re just human and cannot keep from sin’.  But scripture says, ” Matt 5:48  Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.    Whoa!  Kind of scary to talk about ‘perfection’ for the Christian.  After all, ‘there is none good but God.’   And we prefer that scripture over the ‘be ye therefore perfect’ one.   And we totally…totally…ignore the following scriptures:

Matt 16:27 For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works.

John 14:12 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father.

Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them

2 Ti 3:17 That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works.

Seemingly, in Christian societies of today, we have concluded….by our actions… that sin is no longer wrong, and… that the gift of Grace is a perpetual covering for man’s carnality.  But what if we are WRONG????  And I strongly believe God’s standards for ‘righteousnes’ are far above those standards that we, the Church, has set for ourselves.

Tit 2:7 In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works: in doctrine showing uncorruptness, gravity, sincerity,  8  Sound speech, that cannot be condemned; that he that is of the contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you  9Exhort servants to be obedient unto their own masters, and to please them well in all things; not answering again;  10 Not purloining, but showing all good fidelity; that they may adorn the doctrine of God our Saviour in all things. 11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,  12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world 13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ  14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

    

No Peace for Israel

 Jeremiah 30:7    Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.

Ezekiel 37:11 Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. 12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD.

Peace in the Middle East is a global focus among governments. But the divinely inspired Word of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob declares that the vigorously sought after ‘peace’ will never be achieved during the dispensation of man. I recently listened to programming of the American Center for Law and Justice…being telecast from Jerusalem.  ACLJ is doing a super job raising awareness of the plight of Israel amidst the ongoing turmoil of the entire Middle East. The problems are REAL.  The threats to Israel are real!  The complaints of the Palestinians are justified…from their personal points of view.  In the realm of man…a two-state nation seems fair.   And Christians are ‘up-in-arms’ with concern that President Obama may be leaning towards siding for ‘fairness for all’ rather than siding with Israel in their claims of sovereign ownership over the portion of land assigned to them by God.   Also, both Jew and Gentile Christians hold  sacred the portions of scripture that promises ‘blessing’ to those who side with Israel…and ‘cursing’ for those who do not.    Yip…the issue makes for quiet a dilemma.  But for all the points of the issue needing consideration….the following point is likely the most significant.  These dilemmas were foretold centuries ago by legitimate prophets of God and were ‘appointed’ by God to come to pass. In this current generation, we are seeing, for the first time, the aligning of world conditions and powers who will be the actors in the production titled “Jacob’s Trouble.”

The production manuscript, authored by God, the Bible, contains accurate and detailed information concerning events that will occur  during the end-of-days  production to be played on the world-wide stage.  Much, if not most, of the manuscript is recorded in the books of Daniel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, books of the minor prophets, Matthew 24/25, and Revelations.  We are experiencing world-shaking events happening today which were foretold centuries ago.  How exciting to be part of a time where we can know ‘what happens next’ in the tribulation series of ‘Jacob’s Trouble.’  No power will change the manuscript. No politician will change the manuscript. No law will change the manuscript. The production began centuries ago and will play to its bloody finish. It’s author, God, will then appear and take His bow before multitudes of cheering fans.

Yip….the Middle Eastern nations are preordained by God to be ‘doing’ what we now see them ‘doing.’    There are no surprises anywhere….in any of it.   The warfare will continue, escalate, experience a short time of false peace under the Man of Sin…..then the full force of the perfectly evil storm will hit the world.  And it is ALL by the knowledge, permission, and appointment of God.  Find that hard to understand?  Ya…’spect’ you do.  The production is ‘playing’…even as I write.  If you want to experience it to the utmost…check out the manuscript and learn what happens next!

Jeremiah 30:7    Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.

8 For it shall come to pass in that day, saith the LORD of hosts, that I will break his yoke from off thy neck, and will burst thy bonds, and strangers shall no more serve themselves of him:

10Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.

11 For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.

17For I will restore health unto thee, and I will heal thee of thy wounds, saith the LORD; because they called thee an Outcast, saying, This is Zion, whom no man seeketh after

19 And out of them shall proceed thanksgiving and the voice of them that make merry: and I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will also glorify them, and they shall not be small.

24 The fierce anger of the LORD shall not return, until he have done it, and until he have performed the intents of his heart: in the latter days ye shall consider it.

John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid 

Will the Real ‘Church’ Please Stand!

‘Gal 5:1 STAND fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of  bondage      

(In this post, I am attempting to contrast traditional Christian practices vs ‘fruits’ of Christianity desired by God. The statements below are spoken in the person of the generic church member and do not reflect my personal beliefs. Mine are of a more ‘gentle’ nature.)

Church member’…hey, that’s ME!  I’m a “Christian’ and church member.  But are my every day practices  an embarrassment to God?

Matthew 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: 20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: 21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

As the generic church member, is my fear larger than my faith? Is my trust in what I can ’see’ with eyes of Faith, or in what I can bring to existence by my own efforts? Many ‘traditional’ Christians fear everyday things such as sickness..not making ends meet…not having a good job,  not having health insurance…not having fashionable changes of apparel and jewelry, not having a nice home, not being recognized as ‘good’, not having our heart-felt religious  beliefs ‘heard’, not having our ’spiritual’ abilities and gifts recognized, , not having a ‘conservative’ president, not having  born-again religion taught in public schools, not having  born-again religious views serve as the basis for government,   not being Raptured,…..and most of all….we fear the ‘evil’ one.  We ‘fear’ his influence on the physical body, on the family,  on  our schools, on our churches, on the community…state… nation.   I often assess my Christianity and conclude that my church attendance, my tithes, my doctrine, my use of God-given talents/abilities, my associations, my standing in the community, my conservative vote, my protest against abortion and gay rights, and my hard work….are all fruits which testify to my true Christianity.  Yip……all these things pretty much are the sum of …the average…everyday..Christian.      Oh my…oh my…oh my…OH MY!   HOW VERY…VERY…VERY…S A D !     WHY?  Because what I have just described is like the church members at Ephesus!  The Ephesus ‘member’ was busy with the ‘work’ of the Lord….but left out a most important detail………..Christ the Head of the Body.

Rev. 2:2 I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:

3 And hast borne, and hast patience, and for my name’s sake hast laboured, and hast not fainted.

4Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love.

5 Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent

SO WHAT DOES GOD DESIRE OF ME….THE CHRISTIAN…THE CHURCH MEMBER ?   Most of all, He desires that I think, feel, act from the thoughts of His mind.  After all, He is the Head of His own body…the Body of Christ…the Temple of God… the Bride…the Church.

ALLOW THE RENEWING/TRANSFORMING OF THE MIND BY THE HOLY SPIRIT: Romans  12:2 And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.

REPENT: Matt 4:17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand

FOLLOW ME: Matt 4:19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men.

LABOUR IN THE HARVEST: Matt 9:37 Then saith he unto his disciples, The harvest truly is plenteous, but the labourers are few;   38 Pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will send forth labourers into his harvest.

 

LOVE …BLESS…DO GOOD…AND PRAY FOR THE UNGODLY:Matt 5:44 But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

45That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven: for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.

46 For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye? do not even the publicans the same?

BE PERFECT AS THE FATHER IN HEAVEN IS PERFECT: 48 Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

PROVIDE MATERIAL HELP FOR THE FATHERLESS AND WODOWS/KEEP CLEAN FROM THE DIRT OF THE WORLD: Ja 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

DON’T JUDGE OTHERS AS GOOD OR BAD: Matt 7:1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.

2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.

ONLY THOSE WHOSE SINS ARE FORGIVEN CAN REBUKE THE SINS OF OTHERS: 3And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?

4Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?

TREAT ALL OTHERS AS YOU WANT TO BE TREATED: 12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets

LOVE GOD WITH THE ENTIRE HUMAN BEING: Matt 22:37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind

38This is the first and great commandment.

LOVE ALL PEOPLE EQUALLY: 39And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.

TRUST GOD TO RULE HIS CREATION: Luke 11:2 And he said unto them, When ye pray, say, Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.

 

Heavenly Father,

 Forgive me the evil audacity of judging my own heart …or the hearts of others…unto righteous or unrighteousness.  You alone are the judge.  

 Forgive me the evil audacity of placing faith in the fruits of my own hands rather than trusting You for guidance and sustenance.  

 Forgive me for my self-righteous works which are far from those You desire from me….. pure love and service to my fellow man.

Forgive me for placing faith in the rule of man’s government above your rule in the kingdom of men….in the here and now.

Forgive me for the log in my own eye that has blinded me to the needs of others.

Forgive me for not possessing your indwelling heart of love so I might love my neighbor as myself.

Forgive me for adorning the outward man with changes of apparel, bangles, bracelets and earrings…more than I have adorned the inward spirit man…who is made to bear Your image.

Forgive me for offering on the altar to You…my church participation, tithes, and “Lord-Lord” rather than allowing your possession of… and residence in…my heart.

Forgive me for the years I have blindly practiced my own desires, pleasures, and false righteousness rather than seeking the fullness of LIFE found only in You who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Forgive me for the years lived in fear and not in TRUST found only in Your perfect LOVING presence.

Forgive me for the years I did not believe that if I draw nigh to You…you would draw nigh to me…as You promised.

Forgive me for the years I did not believe that the battle is Yours alone…the Victory is yours alone…the Glory is Yours alone.  And that…apart from You…I am powerless.

Forgive my fleshly lust for the pleasures of food which has resulted in detrimental effects on my physical body which is intended to be the Temple of God.

I ask nothing of You beyond forgiveness except…..THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN.

 

 

The Ultimate President

Matthew 22: 21…. Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar’s; and unto God the things that are God’s.  

By the divine permission of God, a powerful and dangerous spiritual force is at work today, as has always worked, and is inflicting serious wounds on  the ‘church family.’The tragedy is that many within the ‘church family’ are also actual blood ‘family’…..brothers,

For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of PeaceOf the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.(Isaiah 9:6,7)

sisters, cousins, uncles and aunts.  Political rhetoric labeled ‘conservative’ has misled a generation of church goers to equate those (among their own church membership and among their own blood families) who cast a Democrat vote…..with supporters of abortion, homosexuality, gay marriage, and anti-Christian tactics.   May God have mercy on us all!  Satan sits back and ‘hoorahs’ over the sincere deceptions of precious Christian church-goers who have bought in to the fallacy that to be Republican is to be on the side of righteousness.  That to vote Republican is to publicly cast a vote against abortion, gay rights, and against the most dreaded evil of all…..liberalism.  And of course, for many years now, the so-called ‘conservative’ political rhetoric has described liberalism to mean … ‘Democrats.’   But the truth is, according to scripture, that both the Republican and Democrat Parties are the arm of Caesar, or worldly/earthy government, and are not to be depended on to perpetuate ‘righteousness.’  The best historical evidence of the form and quality of Godly government is seen in the Old Testament.

When God was King over His people, Israel, He provided righteous leadership and judgement over them by way of Levitical Law and the prophets.  Disputes and wrongs in their midst were settled with one infallible tool….the Word of the living God.   But in the passing of time, after God through Moses had delivered them from Egypt,  Moses brought the written and divinely engraved Law down from the Father to find the children of Israel worshipping a ‘golden calf.’     The tablets of stone containing the Ten Commandments of God were proof positive than man was ‘guilty’ of sin and in need of redemption. Moses,therefore, demonstratively thrust the stone tablets onto the ground…in declaration that man is judged as law breakers by God.   Even after God had manifested Himself …so clearly…to His people,  many continued to practice and serve  the ‘death’ which began in Eden.  They continued to serve  fleshly desires and pleasures ….rather than yielding the spirit man to renewed fellowship with the Father.  After the time of Moses and Joshua, God ordained judges as the earthly Head of His government on earth. These judges were given authority to use the powerful Word of God as the Law which would constrain or restrict society from sin. Law breakers received serious punishment…generally…death.   Yet many of the judges appointed by God to constrain sin did, themselves, practice the same sin.

(JUDGES: Othneil-Jud 3.9/ Ehud-Jud 3.15/ Shamgar-Jud 3.31/ Deborah-Jud 4.5/ Gideon-6.36/ Abimelech-Jud 9.1/ Tola-Jud 10.1/ Jair-Jud 10.3/ Jephthah-Jud 11.11/ Ibzan-Jud 12.8/ Elon-Jud 12.11/ Abdon-Jud 12.13/ Samson-Jud 16.30/ Eli- 1 S 4.18)    

 The people then demanded a fleshly king to rule over them….like the kings of other nations.  God granted their wish.  The first three kings to rule over a united Israel were Saul, David, and Solomon.  Afterwards, by the appointment of God.. the people ‘called by His name’…Israel,  was divided into two kingdoms….Israel and Judah. Though some were faithful to God, most of the nineteen kings of Israel and the twenty kings of Judah seldom ‘cried unto God.’  When they did, God was faithful to respond to their ‘cries’ of repentance.   The second chapter of Daniel demonstrates, by way of the ‘Image of a Man’ dream by Nebuchadnezzar, that earthly government rule has moved from face to face fellowship with the Father in Eden….to absentee rule by men who are devoid of the companionship, fellowship, and thereby..wisdom…which comes only from God.  While earthly government remains ‘ordained’ by God, the peoples of the world have followed after carnal rule and false shepherds. They have not retained God as King and Christ as the Shepherd.  Thus the sinfulness of America’s population has brought judgment to the land….rather than deliverance.  Today, God is known only to the Body of Christ who are the ‘lively stones’ that make up the Temple of the Living God….the Church. .

During God’s ordained captivity of His people in Babylon, He manifested Himself magnificently to King Nebuchadnezzar.  He gave a ‘dream’ to the king which literally shook his world.  After none of the men of fleshly spirit could interpret the dream, Daniel was brought in. God both showed and revealed the dream to Daniel.  That dream remains one of the most relevant messages from God to all generations from the time of Nebuchadnezzar to the Second Coming of Christ.  It reveals the stature, quality, and authority of earthly governments from the time of Daniel to the end of the age.  Because of the incredible significance for our politics in today’s world, I’m going to share it in the exact words from the Book of Daniel. The dream showed the image of a man which is representative of earthly government rule from the time of Nebuchadnezzar to the Second Coming of the King of Kings.

Daniel 2:31 Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.

32This image’s head was of fine gold, his breast and his arms of silver, his belly and his thighs of brass,

33His legs of iron, his feet part of iron and part of clay

34Thou sawest till that a stone was cut out without hands, which smote the image upon his feet that were of iron and clay, and brake them to pieces

35Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth.

36This is the dream; and we will tell the interpretation thereof before the king.

37Thou, O king, art a king of kings: for the God of heaven hath given thee a kingdom, power, and strength, and glory.

38And wheresoever the children of men dwell, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the heaven hath he given into thine hand, and hath made thee ruler over them all. Thou art this head of gold.

39And after thee shall arise another kingdom inferior to thee, and another third kingdom of brass, which shall bear rule over all the earth.

40And the fourth kingdom shall be strong as iron: forasmuch as iron breaketh in pieces and subdueth all things: and as iron that breaketh all these, shall it break in pieces and bruise.

41And whereas thou sawest the feet and toes, part of potters’ clay, and part of iron, the kingdom shall be divided; but there shall be in it of the strength of the iron, forasmuch as thou sawest the iron mixed with miry clay

42And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken.

43And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay

44And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom, which shall never be destroyed: and the kingdom shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever.

 Whether one votes for Iron Caesar’s Republicans orDemocrats, he/she does not have the power or authority to ‘raise up kings’ or to bring them down. Only God has that power.  As shown by the Image of a Man in Daniel, earthly government rule is degenerative and has progressed to the ten-toe point in time.   We are very near the ‘miry clay’ era shown by the Image….rule of Antichrist and his rule of abomination. During the time ‘ they will try to mingle their seed with the seed of men.’  But the end result will be the Second Coming of Christ as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. God never changes.  ‘God rules in the kingdom of men’ is as true in America and the world over..today…as it was when He spoke it to Nebuchadnezzars centuries ago.   To look for the arm of God in a degraded and devalued ‘iron’ government of man is to reject the Word of God and to deny the promise God gave to Daniel concerning worldly government….which says, Daniel 2:45  Forasmuch as thou sawest that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands, and that it brake in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; the great God hath made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

The Ultimate President is God.  And besides Him…there is no other. 

The Politics of God

 Fathership  vs  Dictatorship            

 God made His political views known from the beginning…in Eden.  He demonstrated the desires of His heart towards Adam and Eve , and ultimately all man when, by the works of His own hands, He provided them with every physical and spiritual joy as they dwelt with Him in the perfect Father/Child fellowship in Eden…..the dwelling place of God……the Kingdom of God.   In the perfect home with their Father, Adam and Eve knew only ‘good’   (Matt 19: 17 ……there is none good but one, that is, God:).ood    He purposed for His children to be the offspring of the Holy Trinity (‘let us make man in our image’).  To bring His purpose to

Constitution, Declaration of Independence, Bill of Rights, Civil Rights, Justice, Supreme Court, Rule of Law

fulfillment, Adam and Eve would need to Love the Father as He loves them.  But how can they ‘know’ or recognize the fullness of Love when they do not ‘know’ hate?  How can they ‘know’ or recognize the fullness of Good when they do not ‘know’ the fullness of evil?  How can they ‘love’ the Father as He loves them…when they do not ‘know’ or perceive the nature of Love? So.. for their ‘knowing’ or learning of all these things,  they would be separated from Him, for a time, to encounter or to also ‘know’ evil ( Heb 9:27… it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:)  But, wait, it doesn’t end there  !!!!!  (1 Thes 5:9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ,     10  Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. )

He allowed Eve, who ‘knew’ only Good, to be approached by ‘the most subtle deceiver’ who would ’beguile’ the unsuspecting daughter of God.  Since Adam knew to ‘leave father and mother and cleave to his wife’…..he would willingly and knowingly partake of the same ’separation’ from the Father and go to the side of  ’spiritual death’ with his ‘bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh’….Eve   ( 1 Ti 2:14   And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived was in the transgression).   Now is the will of the Father fulfilled and man is become in the Father’s image concerning knowing both Good and Evil  (Gen 3:22  And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever        23Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.   24So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.)    Now man is ready to fulfill the political phase for which he was created…..by the appointment of God…that of ’tilling the soil’   (Gen 2:5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground).      Man has now fulfilled his ‘appointed’ temporary separation from God and now dwells in the ‘valley’ described by David.   Psalms 23:4 Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.                                                                                                                                   

 Man must, for a season, by way of obedience to God’s ordinances and Levitical laws, dwell with the Father at some distance…and not face to face….until such time that the veil is ‘rent’ by the redemptive act of Christ.  Then, to ‘know’ Christ is again to ‘know’ the Father by way of being ‘born’ out of the blackness of the womb of death into the glorious family of God.

(Gal 4:6..And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba,       Romans 8:15 For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father). 

Therefore, the politics of God is fully democratic.  Man is allowed by the Creator to choose whom he will serve.  Man will choose to belong to the Good (God) party or the Evil (Man) party. But he CANNOT belong to both.     Man will choose to belong to the righteous Kingdom of God …in the here and now…or he will choose to remain subjected to the kingdom of man and partake of its lusts, pride, bondage, greed, temporal wealth, rebellion, ignorance, false truths,  self-righteousness, and eternal death and destruction.    (Matt 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.     Matt 23:9  And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven.   Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ      10Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ).

God, in His infinite wisdom, gave us all the answers in the Word…..even before we had asked the questions.   As we encounter and experience the worldly government of our nation and others, remember that man is  subject to a much higher authority than that of ‘ceasar’.  The politics of God are aimed at redeeming man back to Eden and to full fellowship with the father.  The Word which became ‘flesh and dwelt among us’… addresses all the issues we encounter today…such as the Constitution, Bill of Rights, Civil Rights Act, Emancipation Proclamation, Labor Laws, Gay Rights, Woman’s Right to Choose, Civil Laws, Supreme Court, Justice, Executive/Legislative/Judicial Branches of Government, Elections, Taxation, Manifest Destiny, Soveriegnties/Ruler-ships, Terrorism, The Middle East, Arab/Israeli Conflict, Peace and Safety .   And God’s ‘politics’ can be trusted to be pure, without partiality, and trustworthy.

Corrie Ten Boom/ ‘Rapture’ Dangers

                                                                            

                                                                                                                                                                                               (A letter written by Corrie Ten Boom in 1974 warning Christians in the West to be PREPARED FOR THE COMING TRIBUALTION)

 

 ”The world is deathly ill.  It is dying.  The Great Physician has already signed the death certificate.  Yet there is still a great work for Christians to do.  They are to be streams of living water, channels of mercy to those who are still in the world.  It is possible for them to do this because they are overcomers. Christians are ambassadors for Christ.  They are representatives from Heaven to this dying world.  And because of our presence here, things will change.

My sister, Betsy, and I were in the Nazi concentration camp at Ravensbruck because we committed the crime of loving Jews.  Seven hundred of us from Holland, France, Russia, Poland and Belgium were herded into a room built for two hundred.  As far as I knew, Betsy and I were the only two representatives of Heaven in that room.

We may have been the Lord’s only representatives in that place of hatred, yet because of our presence there, things changed.  Jesus said, “In the world you shall have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”  We too, are to be overcomers – bringing the light of Jesus into a world filled with darkness and hate.

Sometimes I get frightened as I read the Bible, and as I look in this world and see all of the tribulation and persecution promised by the Bible coming true.  Now I can tell you, though, if you too are afraid, that I have just read the last pages.  I can now come to shouting “Hallelujah! Hallelujah!” for I have found where it is written that Jesus said,

 

 

 

 

 

“He that overcometh shall inherit all things: 
and I will be His God,
and he shall be My son.” This is the future and hope of this world. Not that the world will survive – but that we shall be overcomers in the midst of a dying world.Betsy and I, in the concentration camp, prayed that God would heal Betsy who was so weak and sick.
“Yes, the Lord will heal me,”, Betsy said with confidence.
She died the next day and I could not understand it. They laid her thin body on the concrete floor along with all the other corpses of the women who died that day.

It was hard for me to understand, to believe that God had a purpose for all that.  Yet because of Betsy’s death, today I am traveling all over the world telling people about Jesus.

There are some among us teaching there will be no tribulation, that the Christians will be able to escape all this. These are the false teachers that Jesus was warning us to expect in the latter days.  Most of them have little knowledge of what is already going on across the world. I have been in countries where the saints are already suffering terrible persecution.

In China, the Christians were told, “Don’t worry, before the tribulation comes you will be translated – raptured.” Then came a terrible persecution.  Millions of Christians were tortured to death. Later I heard a Bishop from China say, sadly,

Since I have already gone through prison for Jesus’ sake, and since I met the Bishop in China, now every time I read a good Bible text I think, “Hey, I can use that in the time of tribulation.”  Then I write it down and learn it by heart.

When I was in the concentration camp, a camp where only twenty percent of the women came out alive, we tried to cheer each other up by saying, “Nothing could be any worse than today.” But we would find the next day was even worse.  During this time a Bible verse that I had committed to memory gave me great hope and joy.

“If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye;
for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you;
on their part evil is spoken of,
but on your part He is glorified.”
(I Peter 3:14)

I found myself saying, “Hallelujah!
Because I am suffering, Jesus is glorified!”In America, the churches sing, “Let the congregation escape tribulation”, but in China and Africa the tribulation has already arrived. This last year alone more than two hundred thousand Christians were martyred in Africa. Now things like that never get into the newspapers because they cause bad political relations. But I know. I have been there. We need to think about that when we sit down in our nice houses with our nice clothes to eat our steak dinners. Many, many members of the Body of Christ are being tortured to death at this very moment, yet we continue right on as though we are all going to escape the tribulation.

Several years ago I was in Africa in a nation where a new government had come into power. The first night I was there some of the Christians were commanded to come to the police station to register. When they arrived they were arrested and that same night they were executed. The next day the same thing happened with other Christians. The third day it was the same. All the Christians in the district were being systematically murdered.

The fourth day  I was to speak in a little church. The people came, but they were filled with fear and tension. All during the service they were looking at each other, their eyes asking, “Will this one I am sitting beside be the next one killed? Will I be the next one?”

The room was hot and stuffy with insects that came through the screenless windows and swirled around the naked bulbs over the bare wooden benches. I told them a story out of my childhood.

“When I was a little girl, ” I said, “I went to my father and said,
“Daddy, I am afraid that I will never be strong enough to be a martyr for Jesus Christ.”
“Tell me,” said Father,
“When you take a train trip to Amsterdam,
when do I give you the money for the ticket?
Three weeks before?”

“No, Daddy, you give me the money for the ticket just before we get on the train.”

“That is right,” my father said, “and so it is with God’s strength.
Our Father in Heaven knows when you will need the strength to be a martyr for Jesus Christ.
He will supply all you need – just in time…”

My African friends were nodding and smiling.
Suddenly a spirit of joy descended upon that church and the people began singing,

” In the sweet, by and by,
we shall meet on that beautiful shore.”

Later that week, half the congregation of that church was executed.
I heard later that the other half was killed some months ago.But I must tell you something. I was so happy that the Lord used me to encourage these people, for unlike many of their leaders, I had the word of God. I had been to the Bible and discovered that Jesus said He had not only overcome the world, but to all those who remained faithful to the end, He would give a crown of life.

How can we get ready for the persecution?

First we need to feed on the Word of God, digest it, make it a part of our being. This will mean disciplined Bible study each day as we not only memorize long passages of scripture, but put the principles to work in our lives.

Next we need to develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Not just the Jesus of yesterday, the Jesus of History,
but the life-changing Jesus of today who is still alive
and sitting at the right hand of God.

We must be filled with the Holy Spirit. This is no optional command of the Bible, it is absolutely necessary. Those earthly disciples could never have stood up under the persecution of the Jews and Romans had they not waited for Pentecost. Each of us needs our own personal Pentecost, the baptism of the Holy Spirit. We will never be able to stand in the tribulation without it.

In the coming persecution we must be ready to help each other and encourage each other.
But we must not wait until the tribulation comes before starting.
The fruit of the Spirit should be the dominant force of every Christian’s life.

Many are fearful of the coming tribulation, they want to run. I, too, am a little bit afraid when I think that after all my eighty years, including the horrible Nazi concentration camp, that I might have to go through the tribulation also.
But then I read the Bible and I am glad.

When I am weak, then I shall be strong, the Bible says. Betsy and I were prisoners for the Lord, we were so weak, but we got power because the Holy Spirit was on us. That mighty inner strengthening of the Holy Spirit helped us through. No, you will not be strong in yourself when the tribulation comes. Rather, you will be strong in the power of Him who will not forsake you. For seventy-six years I have known the Lord Jesus and not once has He ever left me, or let me down.

“Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him”, (Job 13:15)

for I know that to all who overcome,
He shall give the crown of life.
Hallelujah!“- Corrie Ten Boom – 1974

 

 

“We have failed.
We should have made the people strong for persecution,
rather than telling them Jesus would come first.
Tell the people how to be strong in times of persecution,
how to stand when the tribulation comes,
– to stand and not faint.” I feel I have a divine mandate to go and tell the people of this world that it is possible to be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ. We are in training for the tribulation, but more than sixty percent of the Body of Christ across the world has already entered into the tribulation. There is no way to escape it.
We are next.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 When a train goes through a tunnel and it gets dark, you don’t throw away the ticket and jump off. You sit still and trust the engineer.
Corrie Ten Boom

Sundown

John 9:4 I must work the works of him that sent me, while it is day: the night cometh, when no man can work.

Sundown, Choctawhatchee Bay, (Walton-Oklalooosa Counties) Florida

As the sun is seen setting on Choctawhatchee Bay near Freeport, Florida, the ’sundown’ of the time of man on earth is also approaching. We humans generally assume all things continue as they always have been.  Not so.  We are one twenty-four hour period more ’spent’ than yesterday.  As the cosmos expands, scientists tell us its very expansion brings it nearer its end. As a blade of grass, we are here today and gone tomorrow.  Yesterday will never return. The things we did NOT do yesterday…are forever…opportunity lost.  The love and compassion for the weak and poor not shown today…may not have opportunity…tomorrow.   We know we have only promise of the single breath we currently breath.  But we live as though that promise is not true.  Whether or not we are aware of, or believe in,  the God appointed dispensation of man known by some as the ‘Age of Grace’……does not change the reality of its existence.   Listen to your hearts.  Listen to the rampant changes in our world.  Listen to the Truth. Listen to God from the Word.  Listen to the obvious signs of the times.  Listen for the continuing move towards the ungodly global politics which will culminate in world leaders, by the move of God on their hearts, giving their authority and power to one dominant ruler….the Son of Satan.  Expect his incarnation into the form of human flesh….as was the Son of God.   Expect the working of 666 which is the ungodly Father(6), the ungodly Son(6), and the ungodly Holy Spirit(6).  So named  666 …..’the number of a man’  because they are miry clay, earthy.  They are the fulness of carnal man and death.  Because it was on the Sixth (6) day that God fulfilled His creation and all life which dwelled on, under, and within the earth….by forming man’s physical body from mother earth.  He then breathed His Spirit of Life into him…and man became a living soul.  The Seventh Day belongs to  God, Sabbath.  Although the Sabbath was made for man……it BELONGS to God.   In the Seventh Day are found Grace, Redemption, Life, Joy, Love, Fellowship with the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, all the power, glory, victory, an eternity in the City of God…New Jerusalem.    Just as we can see the sun setting physically over Choctawhatchee Bay, we, too, can see the sun setting spiritually over the time of man.  SUNDOWN is always followed by full darkness.  And after the darkness….the DAWN!

2 Peter 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

1 Thes 5:4 But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.

5 Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness.

6Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober.

Evolution? Unh-uh!

The Blue Hole, Pine Branch, Sand Mountain, Alabama

 

Romans 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

 

 

Rachel (1925-1987)

( A Tribute to Rachel Bouldin Clifton (1925-1987), her song for Wallace/ “The Family Circle is Broken,” and her Sand Mountain home)  

                                                                                                                                                                                             Rachel Lenora Bouldin was born July 5th, 1925, to John Noble Bouldin and Vernia Monroe Bouldin in DeKalb County, Alabama.  She was the only daughter to be born after four sons.  Wallace, the youngest son, was seven.  Rachel spent her girlish days helping  “Mama” with the

Photo of Rachel was with Wallace in Italy,1944. Though he was killed, the photo survived the fatal shell which burst at his side.

household chores, going to school, going to Warren’s Graveyard Baptist Church (Nazareth) and taking water to the cotton fields where her Dad and brothers were working.   Many  evenings were spent ‘making music’ with brothers Arvel, L.B.(Pete), Chester (Check), and her nearest sibling…Wallace.  She played the guitar….the ’boys’ played the guitar, mandolin, fiddle, and banjo.  Together they made music and sang the spirited gospel and country songs of their southern heritage.   Many weekends, she and the brothers were joined by Charlie and Ira Louvin from the Big Woods in Dekalb County (Henagar). Together they sang and filled the Saturday nights with marvelous mountain music.   But in the early 1940s, mountain music was replaced by the sounds of World War 11.  All four brothers left their peaceful rural Sand Mountain for places far away.  But only three returned.  Baby brother, Wallace, at twenty-three was killed in Italy on September 27, 1944 when a shell burst at his side. He came home in a flag-draped box marked  ’do not open.’  Rachel was sixteen.  Part of the heartbreak was knowing her brother’s mangled body may not have been in the box they buried.  The explosion was so massive. “How could they know,” she said, “which parts belonged to whom.”  But they buried the remains with all  love and humility…. “knowing,” she said, “that where ever his flesh may have been sent, another family would honor him in burial with the same love and humility.   Out of her heartbreak, she wrote the following lyrics and sang them both mournfully and joyfully.

 

The Family Circle is Broken

 

  Here our family circle is broken. We’ve lost a dear brother and son.  

    I trust we’ll meet again someday, When all of life’s troubles are done.

 

They took him away to that awful war, To ‘fight for his country’ they said.

Then one day a message came, Saying my brother was ‘dead.’

 

There’ll be no more wars in Heaven. There’ll be no bombing there.

No more sleeping in foxholes, In the city God’s gone to prepare.

 

There’ll be no more shells thrown in Heaven, To burst at our loved one’s side.

No goodbyes or heartaches, No more troop trains to ride.

 

How lonely we all were that evening, How lonesome that train whistle blew,

Carrying the body of my brother, Neath the flag of the red, white, and blue.

 

But how happy we’ll all be in Heaven, When round God’s throne we shall meet.

And we’ll be shouting and singing, When our circle once more is complete.

                                                    Rachel Bouldin

 

During her teenage years she met a kind and strikingly handsome local boy named Warren Calvin Clifton.  He had Randolp County, Alabama, and Heard County, Georgia, roots.  Their marriage was like the ‘perfect storm.’  They loved and respected each other with a union of the God-kind.  Three daughters were born to them…Linda Gail, Carolyn Ann, and Katherine Sue. The daughters were not aware of the hard times during the family’s early years.  They knew only the kindness and gentle nurturing from the parents whose love was so deep…and who daily were raising them in the ‘nurture and admonition of the Lord.’  In later years, Calvin, with Rachel at his side, began what would be fifteen years of  a successful business franchise called the Royal Auto.  Though they lived mere walking distance from the business, Rachel often felt torn between her heart-felt need to be Calvin’s  ‘help-meet’ and her need to fully ‘mother.’  Due to her humility, she couldn’t see that she was indeed both the perfect wife and the perfect mother. Both husband and daughters often called her ‘blessed.’  And her musical talents which could no longer be practiced with her brothers, found a new avenue.   She, Linda, and Carolyn became the Clifton Trio. The youngest, Katherine, in the early years was much too shy to perform.  But today, ‘Cathy’ uses her beautiful anointed voice to sing often for female inmates to which she ministers.   Rachel’s talents could have taken other directions but she chose the be fully wife, fully mother, and servant of the Lord.

In her late teens, while performing on a local high school stage during a country music festival, a man seated in the front row rose….came onto the stage and approached her.  Ernest Tubb reached for her guitar while handing his to her..and said, “Let me hear what you sound like with a real guitar.”   Afterwards he said to her, “You can perform on my show anytime you chose.”  She never ‘chose’ to perform.  The days of the Bouldin Family Band being heard on Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Fort Payne, Alabama radio programs were done.

Rachel died on January 7th, 1987, after a two-year terminal illness.  Arvel, the oldest brother, had buried three brothers and now…baby sister, Rachel.   During the illness she remained at home with twenty-four hour nursing care and managed her household from a hospital bed and a reclined chair in the family room . Calvin appeared before her each morning for a much needed ‘matching tie check’ from Rachel before going to his newspaper job as Managing Editor of the Sand Mountain News (later the masthead changed to The Weekly Post) …which he began after selling the Royal Auto.  A smile and ‘no’ head shake from Rachel meant  ’no…won’t do…find another.’   After Rachel’s illness and death, her daughters and her Calvin filled their hearts with the bountiful memories of her gentleness and strength.  Calvin died instantly on July 4th, 2005, from a stroke….one day before Rachel’s July 5th birthday.   

 Linda Gail, Carolyn Ann, and Katherine Sue, along with the combined nine living grandchildren (one grandchild is deceased) and the numerous great-grandchildren visit their grave site to see the granite headstone with a large heart engraved in the middle.  Inside the heart are the words “Calvin loves Rachel.’  Engraved just below the heart is their wedding date.   Across the bottom of the headstone are the words Jesus spoke to the repentant thief on the adjoining cross, Luke 23:43  And Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, To day shalt thou be with me in paradise.

The cast off bodies of Rachel, her parents, and three brothers, including Arvel, are buried at Warren’s Graveyard……a little more than a mile from the home where they were born, lived, loved, and shared their glorious mountain music.  In Chattanooga, Tennessee, Pete’s wife , children and grandchildren visit his graveside and, I am sure, have thoughts which include his music, his mountain home, his brothers and Rachel.  And the hope of Rachel’s song for Wallace is fulfilled……The ‘family circle’ no longer is broken.

But how happy we’ll all be in Heaven, When round God’s throne we shall meet.

And we’ll be shouting and singing, When our circle once more is complete.

 

  I love you, Mother, with the Love of the Lord.

          Carolyn Ann

Finding Dominion

Romans 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.     

 Okay. What part of DOMINION don’t I understand?  God created man.  He commanded us ….’ Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth(Gen 1:28).’    Well, I can herd the cattle back into the pasture on our farm, with my little red Ford Tempo….but I’m afraid to herd them from the smaller-than-they four-wheeler.  And since learning we now have an occasional ranging black bear in our wooded area, when in the woods I make sure the four-wheeler is left in neutral and pointed towards my escape route.  Also, dogs don’t bite me anymore. But things are looking up.  I’m not afraid of people anymore .    As a female….I am genetically more passive than the aggressive male.  And as a CHRISTIAN female, I honour my husband as the Head of the family.  As a Christian, the humility which abides in my very soul, does not allow me to DOMINATE…..anything.    Then..there are all those folks around me…local…state..national, who seem to be in similar situations.    The world is made of mostly followers….rather than leaders.  So..DOMINION…as I have perceived it…does not exist. Right!  Right??

For most of my life I’ve had such a simplistic view of the intent of scripture concerning the ‘dominion’ of man over subservient creation.  But the more time I spend with my very special and merciful Savior, the more I understand the process of DOMINION.  As Christ is the fulfillment of the LAW, Christ is also the fulfillment of DOMINION e.g. …if you would be the greatest…you must be the least.  And then He led me to these following verses:

Hebrews 2:5 says, For unto the ANGELS hath he NOT put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak.

6 But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him?or the son of man, that thou visitest him?

7Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands:

8Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him.

9But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man

10For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory, to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.

It is in Christ that I live and breath and have my being.   And as Christ was raised up from the dead by the Glory of the Father, I can walk within His resurrection…newness and power.  I was dead in sin but resurrected to Life in Him. In Him..I am raised in Glory.  In Christ..I am raised in power.    IN CHRIST..I have found DOMINION.   It is He who was made a little lower than the angels to suffer a sacrificial death for all man.  It is He who is crowned with Glory and Honour. It is He whom the Father has put all things in subjection under His feet. And because He humbled Himself to bear my sins, I can forever Live and Reign with Him and have Dominion over all things.

 

Romans 8:17 And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

The Elias Factor

 

 My site name… Internet Elias is a little unusual (internetelias. wordpress.com).   But you will soon see the APPRECIATION within me for the PROPHET, his office, his high calling, and …his reverence  for the Savior.  Elias (also called

ELIAS TAKEN TO GOD AND ELISHA EMPOWERED

Elijah in the KJV)  is seen first in the Old Testament as the faithful and empowered prophet of God. At the end of his initial time on earth,  he was taken up to God in a chariot of fire with horses of fire…by way of a whirlwind.   After his fiery ascension,  he returns to earth, at the appointed time,  embodied as John the Baptist, completed his forerunner mission of making ready a people prepared for the Lord, and was beheaded…as purposed by God.  Then he is seen by Peter  with Jesus and Moses at the Mount of Transfiguration.    At the Second Coming, Elias will precede Christ  as  one of the two witnesses    (indicated in scripture as both Elias and Moses) who will preach the Gospel of the Kingdom for the last three and a half years of the Age of Grace to the covenant peoples of Israel.   (Revelations 11:3 And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, ..)

Luke 1:17And he shall go before him in the spirit and power of Elias, to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just; to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.    (this verse speaks to Elias’s office both as John the Baptist and as the Witness in Revelations 11th chapter)

Matt 11:14 And if ye will receive it, this is Elias, which was for to come.  (also referring to John the Baptist)

Matthew 11:3 For this is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee.    (referring to John the Baptist who prepared the way preaching in the wilderness then baptizing unto repentance…at the First Coming).

Matt 17:10 And his disciples asked him, saying, Why then say the scribes that Elias must first come?

Matt 17 :11 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things      (referring to Elias’s coming as one of the two witness who’s empowered prophesying will restore the remnant of the ’spiritually blind and deaf’ of Israel back to their God immediately before the Second Coming of Christ for the Church.  (Rev 11:13 And the same hour was there a great earthquake, an part of the city fell, and in the earthquake were slain of men seven thousand: and the remnant were affrighted, and gave glory to the God of heaven.)  *See Romans scriptures .. ’The Blinding of the Nation of Israel’(scroll to end of post).

12 But I say unto you, That Elias is come already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them.

13Then the disciples understood that he spake unto them of John the Baptist.

As forerunner of the incarnate Christ,  he was under divine protection by God. He lived apart from society, wore animal skins, ate berries..and continuously ANNOUNCED the soon coming King. “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.’  He was saying, “Royalty is approaching!!!  He is worthy of your honor!!!  HE IS YOUR KING!!!!  Lay palm leaves for His path.     Elias did his perfect work as John the Baptist.  He was behead.  Not to worry.  In the Kingdom of God, a LARGE beheading is a SMALL thing.    As John (Elias) was decreasing, the ministry of Jesus was increasing…….all according to the perfect plan of the Father.                          

Our current generation may be the generation to experience the awesome, rugged, faithful and empowered prophet, Elias.  I, personally, have already done so….four years ago.  I was blessed to hear, in an audible voice, in the wide-awake daytime, Elias’s crying forth,  ‘ The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. ’

Both my ears and my understanding…heard the powerful, determined, LOUD, joyous, ANNOUNCEMENT by Elias as he, for the second time, ’is making ready a people prepared for the Lord.’   But the word he spoke cannot convey what my heart heard.  My heart was allowed to ‘know’ the friendship, the brotherhood, the reverence, the purity of passion, and the unadulterated loving of the Trinity with his heart, soul, and mind.   After the encounter with Elias, I could not share it with those closest to me for a week.  It was too sacred.   Days later, for the first time in my life, I set myself apart from the routine of my life, and spent three days closed in my upstairs room. My husband ran interference for me.  He knew the depths of what I had experienced.  During the three days, as I ‘drew nigh to Him’, He ‘drew nigh to me.”   I am forever changed.  Fear is gone. Judgement is gone.  Love of the God kind works within me. I ‘KNOW’  now, like King Nebuchadnezzar, that God alone ‘rules in the kingdom of men.’  I ‘KNOW’ that every facet of the world and its peoples is under the divine control of God.  Nothing of politics, economies, wars, disasters, life, nor death happens short of the sovereign permission and rule of God.  NOTHING!                   

                                                                                                                                                                                                  Thus my passion for Elias!!!  Christ said of him, “Only the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.’

_________________________________________________________________________

The Blinding of the Nation of Israel

*Romans 11:7 What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded

8(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day

Romans 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.      (ONLY GOD KNOWS THE DAY AND THE HOUR WHEN THE FINAL GENTILE HEART REPENTS)

26And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:

Christians “Falling Away”

 

2 Thessalonians 2:3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, …………..

 Apostle Paul,  in Thessalonians,  reminds all believers concerning signs of the times

"You are the Christ." "And you are Peter. On the rock of fellowship I will build my CHURCH (paraphrased)".

associated with the Second Coming of Christ.  Confusion continues to abound, as it did among the early believers,  as to the signs that will herald the  return of Christ.   Paul explains to the Thessalonians that Christ will NOT return until  societies see men ‘falling away’  from God. The ‘falling away’ will be followed by the rule of the Antichrist……Son of Satan who will come in the flesh…as the Son of God came in the flesh.

Christians generally believe the ‘falling away’ referrs to decreasing numbers in church participation and membership.   But  the Holy Spirit through scripture reveals  that the ‘falling away’ referred to by Paul, is the same one referred to in Christ’s message to the church at Ephesus in the book of Revelations.     Rev 2:4 Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee because thou hast left thy first love.  The great ‘FALLING AWAY’  is, as with the Church at Ephesus,  the LEAVING… or never having entered into…FELLOWSHIP WITH CHRIST…..which is the very foundation of Christ’s Church.

Christ REVEALED the true identity of HIS CHURCH in the conversation with Peter when He asked the following:       

Matt 16:15  He saith unto them, But whom say ye that I am

16 And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

 17And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. 

18And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 

AND HE DID BUILD HIS CHURCH….by indwelling and empowering believers with HIS PRESENCE in the form of the Third Person of the Godhead…the HOLY COMFORTER.    The FOUNDATION of the Church is  ‘KNOWING JESUS IN PERSON, UP CLOSE, ONE-TO-ONE, REVEALED BY THE FATHER, WITH continuous CONVERSATION AND FELLOWSHIP .  God’s purposed restoration of Eden  fellowship with man through Jesus is why Jesus became angry when He entered the temple and saw Fellowship with the Living God exchanged for mere enterprise/money/temporal/worldly things.  Luke 19:45  And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought 46Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.    ‘Prayer’ means ‘talk.‘   God desires that we TALK with HIM as did Adam and Eve in Eden. HE LOVES US with a love one can’t know nor understand apart from interaction (talking) with Him.

2 Cor. 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Christ taught continuously concerning the characteristics of the CHURCH.   But most, then as now, reject the authority of FELLOWSHIP WITH GOD, THE SON, AND THE HOLY SPIRIT as being synonymous with THE CHURCH.   But Peter ‘KNEW.’ (   Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God. ).    

 Acts 7:8 Howbeit the most HIGH dwelleth not in temples made with hands; as saith the prophet

1 Cor 6:19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

1 Cor 6:16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.  17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

CHURCH, CHRISTIANS, SO-CALLED BELEIVERS……..WE  ARE  THE  ‘FALLING  AWAY’ !!!!!!!!!!!  WE    L E F T   CHRIST OUT OF HIS OWN TEMPLE…..our bodies…our ‘talking’ with Him….our allowing Him to dwell with us…our loving Him as He loves us…our worshipping(loving) Him in Spirit and Truth!  ( John 4:23  But the hour cometh, and now is,when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.    24God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

But in the place of ENJOYING THE PRESENCE OF OUR LOVING FATHER through spiritual association, we’ve made ourselves a lot of temporal buildings, put crosses on top, and called them ‘THE HOUSE OF GOD.’  I know He is merciful or He would have hit us all with lightning bolts!  Instead, he ENDURES and gives us ample space to REPENT.    REPENT, REPENT, REPENT……For the KINGDOM OF HEAVEN is at hand (within reach, there for the taking, no charge..except the Death and Resurrection of the Soul of our Loving Lord Jesus).

 

Jude 1:24 Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,25 To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and for ever. Amen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Gathering Israel Home

Matt 24;31   And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they       Rev. 7:2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,        7:3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads     7:4  And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel         7:9  After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;

I have long been interested in prophecies of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Matthew 24, Revelations, and so forth. But, concerning the dispersed of Israel…one thing stands out to me.  The house of Israel includes all men who are of the Faith of Abraham, both Jew and Gentile.

 Gal 3:7    Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham.  Through all the years and the marriages to Jews and Gentiles within the

GATHERING ISRAEL HOME

nations of their  dispersal, the number of the house of Israel is indeed as the sands of  the sea.    Then, other than the house of Jacob (Israel)..there are the Gentiles who were grafted into the Vine…..who are of the faith of Abraham…and are, therefore, Abraham (Jacob-Israel-the Chosen-Covenant People).      The physical state of Israel can not contain the ’multitude which no man can number’ …within its boundaries.  While many, many pretold endtime events will and are taking place within the pysical boundaries of the nation of Israel, much scripture pertains to the ‘gathering’ of Israel at the Second Coming of Christ. As always, true understanding of the Word comes by a divine revelation from the Holy Spirit.

How do we  know whether or not we  are physically/genetically descended from one of those thousands upon thousands upon thousands upon thousands of members of the tribes of Israel who were dispersed all across the globe?     We don’t.   But,  as  Christians of the faith of Abraham,   we  are Abraham.  WE ARE ISRAEL !   I suspect the reason the United States has remained so faithful to Israel is that a vast majority of us are directly descended…as many as the sands of the sea …from the innumerable sons of Abraham.    Because of these things, I believe the TIME OF JACOB’S TROUBLE is both within the borders of Israel and universal, encompassing all the descendants of Israel, physical and spiritual, and that many of the following scriptures are describing the gathering of God’s people to Himself into New Jerusalem, at His return, where He and the Redeemed will fellowship for eternity.

Jer 30:10 Therefore fear thou not, O my servant Jacob, saith the LORD; neither be dismayed, O Israel: for, lo, I will save thee from afar, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and shall be in rest, and be quiet, and none shall make him afraid.

Jer 30:11 For I am with thee, saith the LORD, to save thee: though I make a full end of all nations whither I have scattered thee, yet will I not make a full end of thee: but I will correct thee in measure, and will not leave thee altogether unpunished.

Jer 31:10 Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock. 

Eze 11:16 Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Although I have cast them far off among the heathen, and although I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them as a little sanctuary in the countries where they shall come.

Eze 11:17 Therefore say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will even gather you from the people, and assemble you out of the countries where ye have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.

Eze 11:19 And I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them an heart of flesh:

Eze 11:20 That they may walk in my statutes, and keep mine ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God

Eze 20:34 And I will bring you out from the people, and will gather you out of the countries wherein ye are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with a stretched out arm, and with fury poured out.

Eze 20:35 And I will bring you into the wilderness of the people, and there will I plead with you face to face

Eze 20:40 For in mine holy mountain, in the mountain of the height of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, there shall all the house of Israel, all of them in the land, serve me: there will I accept them, and there will I require your offerings, and the firstfruits of your oblations, with all your holy things

Eze 20:41 I will accept you with your sweet savour, when I bring you out from the people, and gather you out of the countries wherein ye have been scattered; and I will be sanctified in you before the heathen.

Eze 20:42 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall bring you into the land of Israel, into the country for the which I lifted up mine hand to give it to your fathers.

Eze 20:43 And there shall ye remember your ways, and all your doings, wherein ye have been defiled; and ye shall loathe yourselves in your own sight for all your evils that ye have committed

Eze 28:25 Thus saith the Lord GOD; When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom they are scattered, and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob.

Eze 28:26 And they shall dwell safely therein, and shall build houses, and plant vineyards; yea, they shall dwell with confidence, when I have executed judgments upon all those that despise them round about them; and they shall know that I am the LORD their God.

Eze 34:12 As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.

Eze 34:13 And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and in all the inhabited places of the country.

 

 Mt 24:31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.    

Rev. 6:12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;

14  And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.

15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;

 

16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb

17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

Rev. 7:1 And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.

2 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,

3 Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads

 

Gathering Israel Home

Matthew 24:31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.

Armaggedon: God’s War

Seems these days we hear a lot of mention of  Armageddon. Rev. 16:16 And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon.

KING OF KINGS

Armageddon is a term representing the final war between good and evil forces… and is mistakenly understood to be  future.   Also, Armageddon is mistakenly understood to be war between two opponents.    NOT SO!   Revelation’s Armageddon is the one-sided  onslaught  against evil as God inflicts His wrath on wicked Lucifer and his followers and casts them into eternal destruction. 

 Armageddon is, however,  fought on a personal level by each individual.  The warfare between things of the flesh and things of the spirit are waged with each individual….to the death or Life.    Gluttony (obesity) and sexual perversions are the most prevalent fruits of the lustful flesh.  Personal Armageddons are POWERFUL warfare!     Ephesions 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Isa 17:47And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands

In context of Revelations chapter 16, Armageddon is the final act of God in the destruction of evil.  It occurs under the VIALS, which are within the Seventh Trump…which is within the Seventh Seal. Seals one through six are during the dispensation of Grace with the Sixth Seal seeing the closing of the Age.  The Seventh Seal contains the beginning of God’s wrath on the wicked, those who have the mark of the beast, those who have rejected God, those whom God has turned over to reprobate minds even before the age of Grace ended.  The Seventh Seal contains the Seven Trumps. The Seventh Trumps contain the Seven Vials. Armageddon culminates with the Seventh Vial being poured out into the air and with God saying, ‘ IT IS DONE ’ !!!!                                                                                                                                 

 Armageddon is NOT a battle between the forces of God and the forces of Satan!  God fought that battle with HIS  Super Weapon, A LAMB.  Rev. 1:18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death. It was fought and won by Christ’s sacrificial death of body and soul to redeem men dwelling in SPIRITUAL DEATH …back to oneness with God and LIFE !!   BEHOLD THE WINNER …..The Lamb of God, KING OF KINGS, LORD OF LORDS.  He is seen in Revelations 19:11 as the Crowned Conqueror riding atop a white stallion. His vesture  (Matt.27:35) is dripping with His own blood, spilled at Calvary  !  It also drips with the blood of the wicked who, under wrath at Christ’s SECOND COMING, are TREAD as grapes in a wine press and whose spilled blood will  measure from the ground up to the horses’ bridles. His warfare was not and is not waged against  ’spiritual wickedness in high places’  only.  But is also waged against  fleshly followers of ‘high wickedness.’  He does not need a weapon…HE IS THE WEAPON.  HE IS THE WORD MADE FLESH which ‘dwelt among us.’ HE (the WORD/TRUTH) is the Light which proves darkness.  HE is the Righteousness which proves unrighteousness. HE is the Flaming Sword guarding the entrance of Eden.  HE is the FIRE through which all our deeds much pass without being burned up. HE is the HEAD of the Body. HE is the CAPTAIN of our salvation (Heb 2:10).  HE is the one who declared ‘IT IS FINISHED’ just before His perished soul, separated from the Father, left its broken body to resurrect three days later…to LIFE ETERNAL.   HE is the one who ascended up into the clouds until he was out of sight…and will return to the earth in ‘like manner as you have seen Him go (Matthew 24:30).’   HE is the one who, at His return, will see the wicked crying for the ‘rocks and mountains to ‘Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:  For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand (Rev.6:15,16).’  HE is the one who closed  ’the door’ against the drowning souls outside the Ark of salvation which housed righteous Noah and family..  HE is the one who ’shut the door’ against the five unwise virgins. HE is the one who, at His UNIVERSALLY VISIBLE  SECOND COMING IN CLOUDS OF GLORY will ’ send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other (Matt 24:31).

IT’S DONE!  IT IS FINISHED! All is left for man is to choose or reject ’so great a salvation.’ To reject the redemptive act of Christ is to CHOOSE self/mammon/evil/DEATH/THE EVIL MASTER-SATAN/wrath/eternal destruction with ‘wailing and gnashing of teeth.’

CHRIST THE CROWNED CONQUERER

Rev 19:11  And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war.12  His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

12 His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself.

13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.   (Matt 27:35 …… They parted my garments among them, and upon my vesture did they cast lots.  )  

14 And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean.

15 And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God.

16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

Re 1:18

I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

Angels Walk Among Us

Angels are BIG business in America and elsewhere.   There are porcelain angels, plastic angels,

IMMORTAL

brass angels, key chain angels, bookmark angels, dishes decorated with angels, notebooks with angel icons,  paper mache angels, Christmas angels, child angels, adult angels, and then there are more angels.  We mass produce these representations of heavenly beings with statures and poses reflecting gentleness, protectiveness, and subserviency.    But what are angels?  Who are angels? What do angels look like?  Would we recognize an angel at our door?  Hmmmmmm. Have you ever seen an angel????  I HAVE! TWICE!  Tell you about that a little later. We do know from scripture that angels are with God in Heaven. That they are have immortal bodies. That they willingly and lovingly participate, according to the will of God, both in the heavenly and earthly realms.  I don’t know what they look like in the spiritual realm.  But when they come to earth to minister to us..they look like we do. They take the form of man  and walk among us to fulfil directives from the Father.   

Psalms 103:20  Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.   21  Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.  Psalms 104:4 Who maketh his angels spirits; his ministers a flaming fire:

The first face to face encounter I had with what I refer to as ‘my’ angel, was in my late twenties…on a beautiful southern summer day in my vegetable garden. I was gathering vegetables, feeling the warm sun, listening to the rustling of the corn being moved by the brisk breeze..when I realized someone was watching me.  I turned and looked side to side for my children.  I thought they had apparently joined me in the garden. But they were not there.  Then my attention was drawn to my left and down the middle between two tall rows of corn. To my SURPRISE, a beautiful young man was standing there…just watching me.  He had dark hair.  His complexion was like Daniel’s when described as ‘without spot or blemish.’  He was wearing a garment similar to Joseph’s ‘coat of many colors.’   I just about fell backwards at the sight of him.  Then I stopped!  I said to myself, ‘either I am crazy and imagining this experience…OR…I’m really seeing the young man standing in the corn middle.  I REALLY SAW HIM! HE WAS REAL!  THIS WAS NOT THE FIRST TIME GOD HAD ALLOWED ME TO GLIMPLE THE SUPERNATURAL.  At age nine Christ manifested Himself to me in human form.  At the same time He manifested Satan to me in human form…about two inches tall…ugly…and trembling with fear in the presence of the Christ.  At age sixteen, I was visited by a spiritual messenger, manifested in the form of LIGHT, who spoke to me of things future.  God ALWAYS uses our experience in the NATURAL to give us understanding of the SPIRITUAL.   In the garden on that gorgeous summer day, I did not converse with the beautiful young man.  That’s not what he was there fore.  He was there only to remind me of his presence, seen or unseen.  OH WOW! I WILL NEVER FORGET HIM.  I AM SO GRATEFUL TO OUR FATHER FOR HIS PRESENCE WITH US.

I didn’t see the young angel man again until my mid thirties during the birth and death of my third child, Benjamin.  Benjamin was our ‘unplanned’ gift who was named for Jacob and Rachel’s Benjamin whom Jacob called ‘the child of my old age.’   God, knowing all things, had not purposed Benjamin to remain on earth with our family. He would immediately go back to God.  But God knew my broken heart before it happened and sent the ministering angel to me.  He was the exact same young angel man I had seen ten years earlier.  He leaned against the delivery room wall to my left along with another young man who was there for Benjamin.  I was distraught!  It took most all my energy to turn my head toward them.  Initially , I had assumed they were medical personnel until I turned and faced them.  Their eyes were fastened on me until just as I was about to meet their gazes.  Then they both looked at the floor with their countenances reflecting the same pain my heart was feeling….DEATH!  My heart cried loudly to them, ‘do something! You are the only ones who can!  They didn’t respond. They didn’t move!  They never met my glance. But their countenances spoke VOLUMES. It was decided.  BENJAMIN WOULD NOT STAY!  Then the nurse brought my little one to my side. His eyes were closed.  There was no more struggle.  Benjamin was gone…with the two beautiful young angel men.  I didn’t even see them leave.  My eyes were fixed on Benjamin’s little mouth as it stopped struggling for breath.  I hadn’t realized that when his breath left, he went with the two precious servants of God to the place of God.  I had seen a glimpse of the place about fifteen years before Benjamin was conceived. God had blessed me by allowing me to see the reality of the entire event. But I did not ‘KNOW’ what I had been allowed to see until it happened in reality.  The mortal pain I felt about my sweet little one being put ‘into the ground’ was eased with the reality that only his little shell was there.  He was gone to that beautiful place God had allowed me to glimpse years before.  God is so good.  Angels are one of the ‘connections’ promised to us.  They are ministers of God to us.  AND THEY ARE SO VERY, VERY, REAL…….AS REAL AS YOU AND I. Below are some scriptures explaining the function of angels.  But scripture contains much, much more information.  Especially, the part angels play at the Second Coming of Christ and the reaping of the earth…both the wheat and the tares.

1. We, man, are just below the angels in relation to the  hierarchy e.g. God/Son/Holy
Spirit, angels, man, then animals and the other soulless creatures.  (Ps.8:5)

2. Two angels came to Sodom to deliver Lot and his family from the destruction of fire to be rained from God (Gen. 19:1)  Only Lot knew them as angels from God.  They looked like mortal men. The homosexuals of the city whom God had turned over to reprobate minds even attempted to rape the two angels. How vile is that?

3. As Jacob traveled, he made a bed on the ground with stones for a pillow.  In a dream, he saw a ladder with its bottom touching the earth, and the top of it touching heaven. And angels were going up and down the ladder. God stood at the top of the ladder and promised Christ through the seed or linage of Jacob.  God promised Jacob an inheritance of the land where he slept, and divine protection during his travels.   Angels, therefore, are known to go back and forth between the heavenly and the earthly realms.  (Gen. 28:12)   AWESOME! AWESOME! How many times have you perceived or suspected angels were near by?  Ummhmmmmmm!

 4.An angel of God, in a dream, told Jacob it was time to leave Rachel’s father’s house and return home to his own people (Gen 12:1)   Laban chased after Jacob/wives/children/herds and goods….. after God had told him not to do so.   He caught up to Jacob and the people and caused quiet a stir.  Jacob told Laban that were it not for the known protection of God over Jacob that Laban would have taken back Leah and Rachel for whom Jacob worked fourteen years…..along with all the cattle which, by agreement, had been given to Jacob.  Laban saved face by insisting his concern was for his daughters and grandchildren..only. Mmmmmmm. 

How much clearer is our paths when we depend on God to direct them.  He SENDS angels to direct our paths.  He WANTS to help us with the things of LIFE.   Remember, ‘take no thought for tomorrow,’ and ‘consider the lilies.’   Oh, the lilies. The glorious lilies.  God values every atom within His creation!  And how much more are we than the glorious lilies?     But, hey, we have to be in a position to RECEIVE what God has to give by way of angels…..the precious servants of God and of man.    After all was settled with Laban, the next day Jacob and his tribe continued towards home.  AS JACOB WENT ON HIS WAY, HE WAS MET BY ANGELS OF GOD! JACOB RECOGNIZED THEM AS GOD’S ‘HOST’. (Gen 32:1,2)    Psalms 148:2 Praise ye him, all his angels: praise ye him, all his hosts

5.Angels were mentioned by Job to show the subservient place of man to God. He reminded that God charged angels with folly before he cast them out of heaven. Job made the point that we are mere dust…below even the angels…lest anyone entertain illusions of loftiness.  (Job 4:18)  God cast Lucifer and his followers from the place of God after they chose iniquity rather than purity, goodness, God.   Angels, according to the record of Lucifer, are beings with free wills.   After heaven’s cleansing, the remaining angels serve with pure hearts and honor for God and man.

6. Angels are mentioned by David in his awesome description of the glory of God at Sinae..‘even thousands of angels: the Lord is among them (Psalms 68:17)  These scriptures are like looking at a painting. Read the preceding ones, picture the action, the color, the glory of God dwelling in the mountain of Sinai.  It’s beautiful!  Lots of sound, color, action, celebration, and JOY!

7. Manna, called the ‘corn of heaven/angels’ food’ fell out of the clouds from the open doors of heaven to the children of Israel in the wilderness.  And they all were completely FILLED.  What a beautiful description of the heavenly food…’angels’ food’  (Psalms 78:23)  The description of ‘manna’ seems rather fragile.  But, hey, you can bet a little bit of manna goes a LONG way.  It’s the food of Heaven.  And if you don’t use it..you loose it!  You can’t store it for a rainy day.  It’s alive. It’s come from God out of heaven…to meet the needs of man….as do the angels. 

8. Angels are shown to be an instrument of God’s divine protection over the righteous on earth.  Angels are said to literally physically assist the righteous to prevent injury.(Psalms 91:11,12).

PERSONAL ANGEL PROTECTION ENCOUNTER

Let me take a break from the ‘angel’ scriptures and share a most glorious episode where angels supernaturally saved me and an elderly couple from what likely would have been a fatal automobile accident.  On a Sunday, I was racing fifteen miles to my home after church.  I was speeding on a rural highway approaching an intersection where numerous fatalities had occurred….and where there was only a caution light…no stop light.  I had the right-of-way.  But as I approached the intersection, a car driven by an elderly man (elderly women in the passenger side) slowed at the stop sign and continued into the path of my speeding car.  I had no where to go and no time to evade the car now directly in front of me.   Suddenly, I felt the car ascend, slowly, as though the whole event had been put in slow motion. I rose above the car in front of me which is now beginning to turn into the oncoming lane of the highway. I stayed above the highway until my car slowly descended back down onto the southbound lane I had initially been traveling on.  ‘Time’ had returned to normal.  I looked in my rear view mirror quickly and saw the car and the sweet little elderly couple driving northward…away from me.  We all were perfectly SAFE!    DON’T TELL ME ANGELS DON’T HAVE CHARGE OVER BELIEVERS. I ‘KNOW’ BETTER.   BEEN THERE! DONE THAT!

9. Angels twice are recorded to have ministered to Christ while He was in the body of flesh before His crucifixion.  The first time was after the forty-day period temptation in the wilderness, just after the death of John the Baptist, and at the beginning of Christ’s earthly ministry.  After the ordeal, Christ was physically spent and angels  restored him by way of their loving natures and more-than-flesh touch. (Matthew 4:11)  The second time angels ministered to the fleshly body of Christ was in the garden of  Gethsemene after hours of agonizing suffering, sweating ‘as it were drops of blood’, related tothe upcoming death of His perfect soul…separation from the Father…in our place.  

Lu 22:43

And there appeared an angel unto him from heaven, strengthening him.

Abundant LIFE

John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that

ABUNDANTLY TRANSFORMED

they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly

 

The abundant life desired for us by our heavenly Father was never intended to be dependent on material or temporal possessions.  AS many know, money does NOT buy happiness.  Lots and lots of scriptures clearly reveal that abundant ‘life’ refers to the restoration of our spiritual deadness……back to LIFE and fellowship with the Good…..as it was in Eden.  To  believe that LIFE abundant depends on temporal objects such as fame and fortune is  to be without spiritual insight as to the true things of God.  I know! I know!  We ‘luv’ our stuff! But the ’stuff’ is only wood, stubble, and hay before God.  It has no value in the Kingdom of God.

Matthew 6:19 Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal:  20 But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal:   21 For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.

Let’s look at Moses.  Now there’s a ‘humanoid’ who truly KNEW that abundance IN life …..is not the same as abundant LIFE!     As the son of Pharoah’s daughter, he had fame and fortune.  But he readily relinquished both to again be with the family of God.   Whoe!   I’ll take encounters with the living God any day over ’wood, stubble, and hay.’   

Hebrews 11:24 By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter   25Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season;  26 Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward.

Many men and women have sought… and are seeking… happiness without finding it.  Because they seek it in the wrong vault.  Money can’t give ‘peace that passes understanding’ to a heart.  Temporal things can’t give LIFE to the soul.  Fame can’t hold to its owner’s heart… a friend who will ‘never forsake you.’  Abundant life is not to be found in the physical realm.  It is ONLY to be found in the spiritual realm of our Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

James 5:1 Go to now, ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you. 2Your riches are corrupted, and your garments are motheaten. 3Your gold and silver is cankered; and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasure together for the last days.

Satan,  enemy of God, hater of our  SOUL, destroyer, liar, devourer of innocence, leviathan, serpent, and the most subtle deceiver has crept the ‘prosperity gospel’ into our churches under the guise of  ‘abundant’ life.  He’s wormed his dangerous deception, without its being recognized, into the hearts and minds of church leaders and church members.  The ‘ABUNDANCE’ spoken of in John10:10 is…the moving of our souls from spiritual death to LIFE…LIFE RESTORED…LIFE MORE THAN MEAT-MORE THAN RAIMENT…LIFE BEYOND THE ‘NARROW’ GATE…LIFE FOUND AFTER DYING TO SELF….LIFE RANSOMED BY A FRIEND-CHRIST…LIFE AS RIVERS OF WATER RATHER THAN PARCHED GROUND…LIFE THAT QUICKENS RATHER THAN PERISHES…LIFE WHICH ENDURES FOREVER.  

ABUNDANT LIFE  

John 10:10     ……..I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly                       

John 17:3  And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent

1 Peter 1:3Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, 4To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you  5Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.

2co 4:7

But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

Sabbath/Place of REST

In the religious realm, there are many customs, traditions, and practices relating to ’sabbath.’   What is ’sabbath?’   What is God’s purpose for ’sabbath?’    Are we fulfilling God’s intent for ’sabbath?’    Is  ’sabbath’ a specific day or is it a place of  relationship, fellowship, and ‘REST.’   BOTH!!!  Sabbath is first and foremost…a place of ‘rest’ in fellowship with God.  And to assure the opportunity for that kind of ‘rest’ in the work-hewn world, He ordained one day out of seven to be set aside for interaction between God and man. Within the ’sabbath’ man is be renewed, encouraged, strengthened, and to find physical…. as well as spiritual rest in God.

Scripture says ’sabbath’ is the final day of God’s creative work.  Scripture says He ordained the ’seventh’ and final day of His work as a ’sabbath’ for MAN….a day in which no man would work.  But that each man, male or female, would visit with God in ’spirit and truth.’

Has man lost the true meaning of ’sabbath’ and ’spiritual rest?”   If ’sabbath’ is lost to us, then God is lost to us.     ALL WORK AND NO ‘PRAY’ MAKES ONE HUNGRY SOUL!

Ge 2:2	And on the seventh day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seventh day from all his work which he had made.
Ge 2:3	And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it: because that in it he had rested from all his work which God created and made.

Mr 2:27

And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath:

Mt 11:28	Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Mt 11:29	Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls

Mr 2:28

Therefore the Son of man is Lord also of the sabbath.

Ex 31:13

Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.

Ex 31:16 Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.

De 5:14

But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates; that thy manservant and thy maidservant may rest as well as thou.

Heb 3:17	But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
Heb 3:18	And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
Heb 3:19	So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.

Isa 58:13

If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day; and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:

Isa 58:14

Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it.

 

Heb 4:1

Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it.

Lamps of the Virgins

 The parable of the Wise and Foolish Virgins is another clear insight as to how to attain eternal

LIGHT OF LIFE

life in God.  The five Wise were already ‘watching’  (1 Thes 5:4,4) before the cry went forth at midnight, “Behold the bridegroom cometh.”   

 They were the redeemed of the Lord.  The sinners made pure by ACCEPTING Christ’s sacrifice of body and soul…the Church…The Body of Christ…the BRIDE………the FIVE WISE VIRGINS !

Isa 1:18

Come now, and let us reason together, saith the LORD: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool.

 They were aware of the density of the Darkness of days….of  Light as protection from the Darkness.   They ‘knew’ God in Christ.   Their lamps held the Light of Life.  1 Thessalonians 5:4  “Be ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.”  And their LAMPS were full protection from the darkness of the night which surrounded them!

 

John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 

2 Sam 22:29 For thou art my lamp, O LORD: and the LORD will lighten my darkness.  

Ps 119:105  Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.

Is 62:1For Zion’s sake will I not hold my peace, and for Jerusalem’s sake I will not rest, until the righteousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the salvation thereof as a lamp that burneth.

  THE FIVE FOOLISH VIRGINS CARRIED NO OIL FOR THE LAMPS.  THEY WERE HYPOCRITES WHO DID NOT DISCERN THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES. THEY DID NOT PREPARE FOR THE DARKNESS…FOR THE MIDNIGHT HOUR…FOR THE COMING OF THE BRIDEGROOM IN THE MIDST OF EXTREME DARKNESS.                                                                                                                                                                                  

Proverbs 13:9 The light of the righteous rejoiceth: but the lamp of the wicked shall be put out

AND THE ‘DOOR’ WAS NEVER OPEN AFTER THE BRIDE WENT IN TO THE BRIDGROOM!

No soul, no soul, NO SOUL will be saved, under any circumstance after the Church (Bride) is gathered to the Bridegroom. The DOOR is SHUT and NEVER opens again. Like the DOOR of the Ark was SHUT by God and NEVER opened to the wicked again.  Like the DOOR of deliverance was SHUT when Lot and his family were delivered from Sodom. The angels didn’t make two ’snatchings.’   Lots off false doctrine is floating around on the subject.  But, remember, the DOOR never opened to the foolish virgins.  They were the ones addressed in the following scripture.

Matt 7:22Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works

23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

                                                                                                                                                                                        Matthew 5:1Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom.

2And five of them were wise, and five were foolish.    3They that were foolish took their lamps, and took no oil with them:

4But the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.  

5While the bridegroom tarried, they all slumbered and slept.    

 6And at midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet him.     

 7 Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.

8And the foolish said unto the wise, Give us of your oil; for our lamps are gone out

9But the wise answered, saying, Not so; lest there be not enough for us and you: but go ye rather to them that sell, and buy for yourselves.

10And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and they that were ready went in with

him to the marriage: and the door was shut

11 Afterward came also the other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us.

12 But he answered and said, Verily I say unto you, I know you not.

“Make Not Unto Thee Any Graven Image” (Cross?)

   

Mark 15:28 And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors   33 And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour   34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?                                                                                                                                                                                       

Rev. 1:18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

For all of our Christian lives,  the symbol of a cross has represented the crucifixion of  our Lord.  But in Exodus 20:4 we were COMMANDED…” Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:.”   But we continue to  to place huge crosses atop church steeples, to place thick brass crosses on altar communion tables, and to wear jewelry adorned with silver or gold crosses.  The tragedy of such displays is the wrong representations made by these ‘graven images.’  These ‘images’ represent the physical crucifixion only….and not the horrible, desolate, and vile spiritual death of the most innocent soul to ever exist.  His body was broken on the cross. His blood…which is the life of the body…was shed.  But the eternal SON OF GOD…which is LIFE became DEATH for our sins…then RESURRECTED back to LIFE ….once and for all time.  ‘There remains no more sacrifice’ for sin.  It is not possible to represent the spiritual death of Christ’s soul by any ’symbol.’  The ‘Lamb slain before the foundation of the world’ is about the SPIRITUAL DEATH OF THE SON OF GOD AFTER THE SINS OF MAN were IMPARTED TO THE HOLY SON OF GOD!    HE TOOK OUR SINS ONTO HIMSELF!    Man was ‘appointed once to die.’   That ‘appointment’ was kept in Eden at the Tree of Knowledge.  Spiritual death came to man…by the authority and rule of God.   But man was NOT  ‘twice’ appointed to death.  The Second Death comes to only those who reject Christ and His priceless redemptive act.  The precious Son of God gave Himself to save us from the penalty of spiritual death…damnation of the soul in hell for eternity.       He came  to us on Death Row…to be EXECUTED AND GIVE HIS SOUL TO SPIRITUAL DEATH …to REDEEM US BACK TO LIFE.   Christ literally SERVED THE SENTENCE OF DEATH…in our stead!  How can a CROSS ever represent such HORROR?  We could never, in our farthest imaginations, grasp the vileness of being totally removed from the light and presence of  almighty God.  CHRIST DID THAT FOR US!  HE SUBMITTED TO THE VILENESS OF BEING separated from the presence  of HOLINESS, from LIGHT, from LIFE, from LOVE, from PEACE, from GOD…from the FATHER.    AS  His soul experienced the desolation reserved for the wicked. ..the precious Redeemer who had not opened His mouth to resist the process of crucifixion…..now hangs ALONE, CAST OUT OF THE SIGHT OF THE FATHER.  A desolate cry now rises from deep within His soul and the words loudly scream forth….”MY GOD, MY GOD, WHY HAST THOU FORSAKEN ME?”    He GAVE His soul to SPIRITUAL DEATH….FOR US!     A cross tells only that His death and bloodshed was by crucifixion.   Only the Holy Spirit can reveal …through the Word the depth of terrors suffered by Christ before and during His ‘appointed’ spiritual Death to annul the ‘appointed’ death sentence on our souls.  Though Paul affirms that we ‘glory in the cross’….he refers to the event of the  redemptive act of Christ on behalf of mankind…..and does not intend to glorify, mystify, deify, nor make the physical form of the cross a thing of worship.  In other times and places…rather than crucifixion, it could have been beheading, electrocution, leethal injection, and so forth.    Would we carve out electric chairs, gas chambers, syringes, and so forth to represent our Lord’s Death.  Would we wear gold or silver forms of the same?  

Over time, the ‘graven’ cross has come to fully represent the totality of His REDEMPTIVE ACT.  

 Isaiah 53:4 Surely he hath born our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted  5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.  6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.  7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgement: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.  9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11 He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. 12  Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors

 THE FAITH OF CHRIST: Ps 16: 10  For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither will thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption

 

 

CHRIST’S DEATH (No Sign But That of Jonas)

 Matthew 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.    41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is  here.

Jonah was a type of Christ.  He gave himself  to save the lost souls aboard the ship.  He was ‘cast out’ from God’s sight…’FORSAKEN. ‘ For three days and nights Jonah experienced the

I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hell cried I, and thou heardest my voice

desolations resulting from the spiritual darkness of the  soul.  He trusted God to resurrect him from the ‘belly of hell.’   At the appointed time,  God restored Jonah’s soul back to spiritual LIFE!   Jonah was NOT the sacrificial Lamb of God.  But Jonah’s plight was purposed by God so it might be the ‘natural’ to reveal the ’spiritual.’  Wouldn’t I have loved to have been at Nineveh and heard Jonah preaching death and restoration to new life in God.  NINEVAH  BELIEVED!    

 We know, of course, that Jonah was not the incarnate Son of God.  But what was the message Jesus sends to us when He compares the death of Jonah and His own impending death on the cross?    Man was ‘appointed once to die.’   That ‘appointment’ was kept at Eden and revoked by the sacrificial offering of the Lamb of God.  When Christ was asked by those who doubted His deity as to what ’sign’ He would give concerning His death, he pointed to the death of the prophet Jonah in the ‘the belly of hell’ (the fish).  Jonah, while ‘cast out’ and ‘forsaken’ trusted in the mercy of God for deliverance from ‘corruption.’   While Jonah died physically, the soul is eternal and never dies.  The following scripture records the desolate crying out of his soul to God while imprisoned in death….by the will of God.

Jonah 2:1-10  Then Jonah prayed unto the LORD his God out of the fish’s belly,And said, I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the LORD, and he heard me; out of the belly of hellcried I, and thou heardest my voice.For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me.Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple.The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head.I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; the earth with her bars was about me for ever: yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption, O LORD my God When my soul fainted within me I remembered the LORD: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy.But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.And the LORD spake unto the fish, and it vomited out Jonah upon the dry land.

Just after the ‘forsaking,’ Christ begged of the Father, “Why hast thou forsaken me?Afterwards Jesus said, “It is finished.’ And gave Himself to the darkness of DEATH as he ‘yielded up the ghost.’  Some say His death was only the physically torturous death by crucifixion.  They do not agree that Christ’s soul suffered the sinner’s death…death of the soul. The Passion of Christ movie demonstrates torturous physical death of the body by the shedding of its blood.  But scriptures show a much different reality.  Please consider the following scriptures. Consider the depths of the agony He suffered in the Garden the night before His death. Consider His sweating ‘as it were drops of blood.’  Consider an agony so profound that Christ became unable to help himself.  God sent an angel to  minister to Him.  As we study the Word of God concerning the total sacrifice Jesus made in our place, we know by way of spiritual discernment, that the agony suffered before His death…..WAS NOT related to the physical death He would die.  But the beautiful Son of God agonized to a depth we can never know….because He KNEW the magnitude of the sacrifice He was about to make…..the life of His perfect and pure soul…..to SPIRITUAL DEATH.

 Is 53: 9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11 He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. 12  Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors

For generations the symbol of a cross has been widely produced and used to represent Christ’s death by crucifixion.   But in Exodus 20:4 we were COMMANDED…” Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth:.”   But we continue to place crosses atop church steeples,  on altar communion tables, and to wear jewelry adorned with silver or gold crosses.  ’  These SYMBOLIC crosses speak to the physical death of Christ. But the symbol of a cross cannot speak to the fullness of the ‘pouring out of his soul’ in our place.  It can’t reveal the horrors and desolations experienced by Christ during the DARKNESS of the death of His sacrificial soul.   Man can not fully know in mortal form, the reason for Christ’s agony beforehand in the Garden. But the precious Saviour, Redeemer, Lord, Brother, Friend, the only begotten of the Father….KNEW where He would go…what He would experience…and the depths of its DESOLATION! 

MY PRAYER OF THANKSGIVING

Father, your Holy Spirit has allowed my heart to feel a tiny portion of the suffering my precious Jesus did for me.  I know, Father, His physical body was offered up…and emptied of its blood and its soul ….a soul which became dead with iniquities not His own……after You, who cannot look upon sin, withdrew your Life presence from Him. .  But, Father, because He ‘poured’ out His soul to death to reclaim me from its power, You and He demonstrated the fullness of your LOVE for me by giving the greatest gift ever to be given, the soul of your perfect Son….for me.  Father, thank you for every stripe You and He endured.  Thank you for every watery drop of His blood which came out the pores of His mortal flesh in Gethsemane.  Thank you to the angel who ministered to Him there at His most desolate moment.   Thank you, Jesus, that you ‘gave’ your soul ..willingly…knowing the depth of spiritual darkness You would encounter….on the Father’s sacrificial altar…for me.  Father, I dwell in Nineveh. I am in the world but not ‘of” the world.   Accept the gift of my body and soul as I strive to empty them daily of self so that You may dwell within.  As I walk in mortal Nineveh, may the lost and endangered Ninevites encounter the POWER and LOVE of the risen Savior through my heart, my eyes, my hands, my feet, my mouth….and my SOUL as I relinquish them to you for your Service, Honor, and Glory…AMEN!                                                      

  

 

 

 

 

The SYMBOL of a cross reminds only HOW His body was broken for us…..but does not reveal the magnitude of His suffering …IN OUR STEAD!   Mark 15:28 And the scripture was fulfilled, which saith, And he was numbered with the transgressors   33 And when the sixth hour was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour   34 And at the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

 

Isaiah 53:4 Surely he hath born our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted  5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.  6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD hath laid on him the iniquity of us all.  7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opened not his mouth. 8 He was taken from prison and from judgement: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.  9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth. 10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand. 11 He shall see the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities. 12  Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he hath poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors

.THE FAITH OF CHRIST: Ps 16: 10  For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither will thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption

PAUL  HAD MUCH TO SAY CONCERNING THE EFFECT OF CHRIST’S DEATH ON THE CROSS AND OUR ‘GLORYING’ IN THAT EFFECT.  BUT THAT’S A POST FOR ANOTHER DAY.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roe vs Wade is Not the Point

 1 Corinthians 6:12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.                                                                                                                                                                                            

Abortion remains slap-dab atop the list of hot debates.  Pro-lifers say life begins at conception and, therefore, abortion is murder.  Prochoicers say life does NOT begin at conception and,

Psalms 127:3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.

even if it does, a woman has the right to choose what is done with her own body.  Abortion is legalized by Roe vs Wade. But is the practice of abortion justified by its  legality?         

Fornication is legal. Homosexual lifestyle is legal. Gluttony is legal.  But should these destructive behaviors be practiced? No! You see where I’m going!   We should not blame a crutch for the broken leg.  The legalization of abortion, does not justify, nor should the legalization be an excuse for…the aborting of countless babies by women who are not in crisis…but are simply ‘inconvenienced.’When addressing other vices, both sides would  likely agree that legalization of  vice or perversion does not justify, excuse, nor should the legalization be blamed for….one choosing to practice the vice simply because it is legal.   Legalization of  gambling does not justify, nor should the legalization be an excuse for…..one choosing the terrible debilitation of a gambling addiction . Legalization of  tobacco use does not justify, nor should the legalization be an excuse  for…one using the products while knowing the well-advertised risks to personal health.  Legalization of divorce does not justify, nor should the legalization be an excuse for…one choosing for himself or herself the sin, heartbreak and tragedy related to divorce.  Legalization of prescription drugs does not justify, nor should the legalization be an excuse for…persons choosing to abuse either through the use or sale of…legally prescribed drugs.     

It would be fair to say that the majority of pro-lifers are from the Christian population. As am I.  Christian pro-lifers feel strongly against abortion and are waging war with Row vs Wade and are winning few skirmishes.  But, possibly,  we’re throwing  arrows at the wrong target.  Or maybe we shouldn’t be throwing arrows at all.

1 Corinthians 6:12 All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any. 

Paul was reminding the people that practicing a behavior simply because it is legal to do so……is RIDICULOUS!  Many things are Legal.  But the legalization of the behavior does not mean the behavior is moral….or right, or beneficial.  ABORTION IS LEGAL.  Should women seek abortions?   There are reasons one might justify seeking an abortion.  One such example was on this news just this week…where an abortion was done for a nine-year-old pregnant with twins due to sexual abuse by her stepfather.  Doctors warned that the pregnancy would in all likelihood kill the child because of her body size.  Situations like this and similar situations are the foundation for Roe vs Wade. No situation, no crisis, no discussion relating to abortion is SIMPLE.  But…if we are going to place heated blame on a target….the blame should be placed squarely on the shoulders of the woman choosing abortion for reasons other than a crises situation.  Blaming Roe vs Wade is the same as blaming the crutch for a broken leg!   The crutch is there for use when needed during a crisis. If we Christians are wholeheartedly going to continue to wage war on abortion….we have to clearly identify the target.  The target is Lucifer…..making the war spiritual and not fleshly.

Ephesians 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Since the warfare is spiritual, we are helpless to wage the war to stop these senseless abortions.    Notice I didn’t say Roe vs Wade is the problem. It isn’t. Roe vs Wade is not a living force and has no power to destroy life.   Satan is the destroyer.  The problem is a woman’s choice to place more value on relationships and/or careers… than on the clearly known miracle of procreation.     Desires of the heart are clearly in the realm of the God.

Isaiah 17:47 And all this assembly shall know that the LORD saveth not with sword and spear: for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands.

Now since the ‘battle is the Lord’s’…….it’s time for we Christians to get the heck out of His way and trust Him ….at least as much as we  have trusted political parties to address abortion issues.   THE WAY TO FIGHT ABORTION IS SIMPLE.  Pray ‘thy will be done’  concerning the desires of those who choose abortion rather than adoption.   As true believers we know that whether by abortion or by natural causes…these little ones go to the place of the Father (2 Corinthians  5:8   We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord).  But if the black mark on our society called ‘abortion’ is to end….it can only be done by the power of God working in the hearts of those who choose to reject one of God’s most precious gifts….the gift of a child.