Category: Personal Insights

The Idolatry of Life Itself

Image result for egyptian god

Superbowl 51 recently opened with a lengthy roll-out by former President George HW Bush and his wife, Barbara Bush.  I read tales of how many people found it touching and emotional.  I found it emotional too, but in an embarrassing and shameful way, and I wondered for a while if I were not watching an SNL spoof, that is just how ridiculous it appeared to me.

It is not that I do not have respect for America or our former presidents.  I am a patriot.  And I am not an ageist, I do have respect for old folks, and all that ails them with the natural aging process.  I take the Bible verse seriously that we should rise and give respect in the presence of the grey-headed and elderly (Leviticus 19:32).

But what greeted our collective eyes on Superbowl Sunday just seemed wrong to me and got my dander up.  Why do all our old people have to be so weak and rely on gadgets to get them around, to feed them, and to keep them alive?  How did old people live in the olden days?  And were they always so weak?

I believe I feel righteous indignation viewing this sort of scene because it illustrates how much we idolize life itself and keep people alive way beyond God’s will for them to be alive.  I already posted here that God’s way is not to use physicians.  Indeed, this elderly Bush couple were recently hospitalized for pneumonia.  How many other hospitalizations and surgeries have they had to ‘improve’ their quality of life and keep them alive?  And the inevitable question begs to be asked, “When would God have naturally taken their life?”

George H. W. Bush, the oldest living president, was in the hospital a week ago in Houston. But he recovered from pneumonia and gave us the rare memorable Super Bowl coin toss.

Bush was rolled out by a military member in a wheelchair while wife Barbara took a golf cart to center field. (http://ftw.usatoday.com/2017/02/george-bush-super-bowl-51-coin-toss-barbara-bush-hw)

Chelsea Clinton’s Emotional Experience

Old people in general seem to have more gadgets to keep them alive and mobile than a Millennial living on a trust fund has trendy devices.  It is expected in our consciousness now that most white males (and females) over the age of 60 will receive heart surgery and a joint replacement before their tenure in this world is through.  And we hail this as wonderful and normal!  Christians praise God for doctors.  Deacons and pastors leading church prayers implore the congregation to pray for physicians and their patients, a profession not anointed in the Bible, while the biblical command to call the church elders to pray over and anoint the infirm is completely ignored!

Calling 911 is considered a right in our society, and resuscitation of life the default.  Indeed if one does not want to be brought back to life, one must file a legal Do Not Resuscitate notice in their personal paperwork.  It used to be that being brought back to life was a miracle performed by Jesus Christ Himself and those holiest prophets anointed by God.  Now even EMTs can bring people back from the dead.

Have we stopped to consider God’s will in this matter?

Doctors in America have driven this idolatrous cow with the ever available bait of money.  The prolongation of human life appeals to us because of our innate fear of death, and those who do not have the promise of eternal life are the most fervent adherents of it. The medical establishment over the last 150 years or more has been creeping in and insidiously taking over, like a cancer.  Now we are at Stage 4 where it has become part of every fiber of our beings.  It has become so commonplace to live as long as possible that nearly all of us take it for granted, and think those who do not believe life should exist at all costs, and exist as physically perfect, are crazy.

President George HW Bush’s son, George W Bush, like most Americans is eager to undergo the high priest’s scalpel.  In this article it is suggested he had prophylactic heart surgery just to prevent a problem, and this type of preventative surgery is not supported in physicians’ own medical literature!  He did it because he had the money (or insurance), and he found a willing doctor, just like when Angelina Jolie shocked the world with her preventative mastectomy.

Regarding prolongation of life, much money is spent on trying to keep people alive beyond the age of 65, mainly through hospitalization.

And studies show that we spend the most amount of money trying to keep dying people alive in their last year of life, and that is increasing rapidly as the years tick by.  The numbers show we are collectively afraid of death.

Life is the idol.  Doctors are its high priests.  Hospitals are the temple.  And body parts are the sacrifice.  Blood is let freely and voluntarily to appease the gods of fake life.

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Life itself is being idolized.  Humans are placing the value of their lives over everything, over God and definitely over His will.  Some would argue that God uses physicians to keep people alive, and He might in some cases.  But overall that argument is as baseless as saying God uses sin as a teacher.  God allows us to have free will.  If we choose to try and live forever, He will allow it in His way.  That does not mean He supports it or that it is right.  We cannot understand God’s ways as humans.  We must look to the Bible for knowledge of His will, and we must abide in Christ to keep His will.  Both are necessary for living in His will for us.

…And dying in His will for us.

If You Are Not With Me, You Are Against Me

“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.”  ~Luke 11:23 

There is a seeming contradiction in the Book of Luke which has bothered me for some time.  I finally researched the verses in the Greek and got to the bottom of the problem, which can simply be attributed to a fallacious translation, as unfortunately happens in the extensive text of the Christian Bible.

In Chapter 9 Jesus states, “If they are not against us, they are for us.”  But then in Chapter 11 follows up with, “If you are not for us, you are against us.”

It cannot be both ways.  Those statements are mutually exclusive.  If one exists, the other cannot exist.  They both cannot be true.

The mystery lies in one simple but profound word translated as ‘for’ in the latter part of verse 49 of Chapter 9, usually translated as:  “Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is for us.” However that word in the Greek means much more than ‘for’, it is the word ‘huper’ which means ‘over’ or ‘superior to’.  But what can Jesus mean by that?  If we substitute in that meaning we get:  “Do not forbid him, for he who is not against us is over us?”

Yet let us back up and look at the context in which Jesus is speaking to His disciples in Chapter 9.  John had told Jesus they saw (the Greek word for ‘to see’ here also means ‘to know’) someone casting out demons in Jesus’ name, and they prevented him because he was not someone they knew.  Jesus countered John by answering that if someone is casting out demons in His name, and he is not against Jesus (an antichrist spirit or agent), he must be doing this deed by a superior authority, and is actually over His disciples.

Wow.  That suggests that other entities were at work whom the disciples did not know.  This word ‘huper’ is also used in Romans Chapter 13 when it states all men are subject to the highest authority superior to all; and that rulers, while over men, are also under this highest authority, which is superior to them.  In all translations ‘huper’ is simply translated as ‘for’ or ‘over’, without its divine meaning carried forth.

 

So for practical purposes, if man is lackadaisical and lives in a way that is not against Jesus Christ, but is merely apathetic or agnostic, if you will, it does not mean that he is FOR Jesus.  The context of this statement is when good works are done by those professing Jesus’ name but whom we may not know or recognize as brethren.  Jesus tells us to allow this to happen, because if miracles are worked in His name, and they are not worked by those against Him by false prophets or an the antichrist (i.e. by magic or subterfuge as with the Egyptian magicians), they are being done by a Higher Authority, someone infused with the Holy Spirit, or an angel.

Jesus goes on to state very clearly later in Luke’s gospel that,

“He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.”  ~Luke 11:23 

This is what we need to remember:  To be lukewarm about Jesus means to be against Him and to prohibit God’s Kingdom.  Doing nothing to promote the name of Jesus by those who know His name, means to be against Jesus.

We need to be proactively FOR Jesus Christ.  Anything less than this means we are against Him, and therefore God Almighty.

When the World Hates You

My ex-colleague who is an eastern pagan idol worshiper stole my washer and dryer today with her family members.  She literally came into my large domicile and unhooked them and took them.  She did not need them and I had laid claim to them because I did need them.  My other colleague, a lukewarm Christian, watched her do it, and also told her I had thought about keeping the refrigerator because I thought I might need that too (when I move out of here).  So the pagan worshiper left a nasty note on the refrigerator saying that it was mandated that it stay in this building, because she said so.  She really had no more right to those items than I had, and I actually could make a legal claim for them, but I will not, because Jesus says if someone takes your cloak, give them your tunic also.

I am a poor single mother, and she and all her family came in and literally took my washer and dryer.  She put it ‘in storage’ (per my other colleague’s report).  But she likely gave it to her children to have.  Now I have no way to wash clothes and will have to go to a laundromat to wash my and my sons’ clothes.  She has taken other things from me as well, and she is escalating in her boldness in doing so.  She really does not want me to have anything, while she and my other colleague get whatever they want (they have been carting out a lot of furniture for themselves).

I console myself and rejoice because I am constantly having to deal with this behavior from my wicked ex-colleagues and I pray that I continue to be humble in my behavior back toward them.  I want my actions to be like Jesus’ actions would be.  I talk to God and I talk myself through the hard times.  And I rejoice because I know if she hates me that much for no apparent reason, it means that the devil in her smells the righteousness in me.

For this is the message that you heard from the beginning, that we should love one another,  not as Cain who was of the wicked one and murdered his brother. And why did he murder him? Because his works were evil and his brother’s righteous.

 Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you.  We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death.  ~1 John 3:11-14

In these types of stressful situations with my wicked colleague, I also think a lot of this verse because she acts hatefully toward me as often as she can:

If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you. If they kept My word, they will keep yours also. But all these things they will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know Him who sent Me.  ~John 15:18-21

There are a LOT of haters in the world.  There are more people who hate than who love, so being the victim of true hateful actions is a common happenstance for most of us.  It is difficult to constantly be on the side of being the hated, but it is still better than being on the side of the hateful.

Thank You for this good word, God.  I love You.  I know you see my anguish and persecution.  I consider suffering in the name of Jesus a blessing.

The World Wide Web

Virtual reality is a 3D Simulated World created through technology that makes it feel real.  The three dimensions usually referred to are length, width, and depth.  But we don’t even need the third dimension, depth, for us to get swept away in a fake world, which is swirling all around us, overtaking us, and 99% of people don’t even notice it.

My sister had her birthday yesterday, and though I don’t believe in celebrating birthdays for numerous reasons (see post), I sent her a text telling her ‘Happy Birthday’ and a warm greeting.  We are close so I expected to hear back from her when she got off work, if not sooner.  At bedtime I still had not received a response text from her (and I never did receive one), which I thought odd, but when I checked into Facebook, which I rather loathe, I saw she had posted a lot of stuff, and even posted a gratuitous ‘Thank You’ to all her online friends calling them out for wishing her a Happy Birthday, and various other sentiments.

My sister rarely if ever sees those people.  I rarely see her, but I did make a point to visit her last year in Texas and I stayed with her for a week.  I find it hurtful and strange that she has created this virtual reality for herself whereby she practically lives inside Facebook.  And I know she is not alone.  I know it is a problem for women, and even some men.  Instead of spending her time connecting with me, her sister who actually sends her gifts and travels to see her, she prefers to spend her time interacting superficially with internet personas, people from her past whom she will likely never see again.

I have a problem with that, and it’s called Righteous Indignation.

God does not want us to interact inside the internet.  The devil is the prince of the air and he is doing a great job of lulling the masses to sleep within it.  Like the amortentia love potion from the wizarding world, it intoxicates its victim with whatever his greatest desire is:  friendship, camaraderie, perfection, sex, and even love.  But not real friendship, camaraderie, perfection, sex, or love, fake versions of these.  Just enough reality so you think it is real, but not enough reality to be real.  Not to mix up movie metaphors too much, but it’s like a hologram on Star Trek.  In our ingenious minds which God has given us, we have created an infinite number of intertwining Towers of Babel that extend unto the heavens and beyond in an effort to make a name for ourselves and be known.

The internet is just an elaborate evil hologram of the Tower of Babel we live inside, created by our human minds, aided and abetted by the devil.  God came and demolished the real Tower of Babel before the people could finish it.  He did this by striking the people with different languages so they could not communicate with one another, and scattering them upon the face of the earth.  But man has now, led by the devil, found a way to create his Tower of Babel, and extend it not just up, but out and around and inside everyone’s life, connecting nearly every single being alive.  We have programs to translate any language into our own language so that we can continue to communicate with lands and peoples we never would have in real life.  One program is literally called Babelfish!  We call this progress.  We call this good.  But in light of the story of the Tower of Babel, we see that in God’s eyes it really is not good, but evil.

And God is allowing it to happen.  That is another sign that we have lost His loving protection as His people.

Jesus said not to build our house on sand, lest it crumble when the rains come and the winds blow.  But our internet isn’t even built on sand.  It’s built on air.  It’s built on nothing.  The devil is the most cunning entity alive.  Part fallen angel, part serpent, he is privy to men’s desires and the greatest darkness, and he combines the two together mercilessly.  In his hands, this is a dangerous weapon which he uses effectively against man.  He hypnotizes the masses by getting them addicted to the internet and gains control over them.  The world wide web is just that:  a worldly interconnected web for a creepy crawly demon to lurk in the middle of.  Like a spider, he senses minute changes when prey moves in his web and he strikes, paralyzing his victims until they die.

The internet can be a tool for real good.  It can be helpful.  But only to the degree it brings people together in the real world!  The internet ceases to be for good when you spend more time on it than off it, when you spend more time interacting with people whom you will never see than people God sends you in your every day life.  When you get your gratification through someone clicking that they liked your post more than seeking out someone to like, you have to ask yourself if you are not caught in his web.  Do not believe the lie that makes you think you are alive and fulfilled on the internet. The true reality is that you are avoiding life and have fallen asleep:

For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy manner eats and drinks judgment to himself, not discerning the Lord’s body.  For this reason many are weak and sick among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged.  ~1 Corinthians 11:29-31

 

 

Co-dependence

I finally understand what Co-dependence is.

I understand because I have been living it.  But I did not know that was what it was, because, like many other people, co-dependence has been more common for me in my primary childhood relationships than healthy relating was.  This means that my barometer for ‘normal’ was miscalibrated from my beginning to the point that co-dependence feels more normal for me than healthy relating.  My triggers were set too high for unhealthy relationships and the way they manifest.

Co-depedence is…

Living contrary to what is healthy interdependence because you do not believe deep down that you can live without ‘it’ whatever ‘it’ is.  It might be a person, an idea, a thing, a feeling, an action.  A person can therefore be dependent upon many different entities in this life.  These entities become an idol when they are allowed so much power over us that without them, we feel we cannot exist, when we become dependent upon them.

So co-dependence in its essence is idolatry.  Because we should only be dependent upon God.

Now there are some things we depend upon which represent normal dependence.  Like the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we need to sustain us, and the love we receive from our neighbor and kin.  God provides us all with all these things, sometimes directly from Him and sometimes from Him through others, and He gives them equally to those who believe in Him and those who do not.

But co-dependence occurs when healthy dependence becomes defiled.  Usually this happens during our tenure as children because we have learned in a dysfunctional family that we cannot depend on the normal things of life listed above.  Perhaps our parents loved us with a conditional love, whereby we only felt loved if we did a certain act, or lived a certain way.  We unconsciously learned that we could not depend on our needs always being met, and we learned that if our needs were not met, we would suffer somehow.  The suffering of childhood is more devastating because children are innocent, and because we did not have the capacity to understand why we were suffering.  If we go hungry as adults, it is generally a good thing unless it becomes chronic because God calls us to fast occasionally, and our bodies are not growing anymore, but merely needing enough sustenance to maintain us.  But children that go hungry are going to quickly become malnourished because they are growing.  If we go without love as adults, it forces us to turn to God for support and love, whereas children that have no love fail to thrive, and develop lifelong wounds and unhealthy coping mechanisms.

Childhood is a place and time when we need plenty to grow into healthy adults.  Getting a spare amount of something healthy, too much of something unhealthy-or even none-is going to have a deleterious effect upon a young human being.  As adults we can live without things more easily.  We can fast and we can go without as much as we want to or feel led to and that helps us to cling to God, our heavenly Father, and it keeps us from becoming greedy.  But children have different needs than adults.  Most of us as parents understand this.

Sometimes people become parents without the proper knowledge or intuition to understand what a child needs to be healthy, and they cannot overcome their own lack to provide these things.  Their children then go without what they need and maybe have too much of what they do not need.  Their children therefore can become co-dependent upon wrong things and behaviors because they have never known what it feels like to be in a healthy family long enough for it to become a habit of knowing that their proper needs will be met.  Indeed, they will likely not even know what proper needs are.

It isn’t just alcoholism that produces co-dependence but that is usually what we think of in today’s society because Alcoholics Anonymous has identified certain unhealthy adjunct behaviors in those family members of alcoholics and they have drawn attention to it.  But co-dependence can exist in any person(s) who have known chronic amounts of lack in childhood, whether that lack comes from addicted parents, selfish parents, evil parents, pedophilic parents, satanic parents, stingy parents, neglectful parents, or sick parents.  Co-dependence is a disease  that stems from lack.

When we lack something vital as children, we cling to what we can to survive.  Starving children dig up and eat roots (and dirt along with it) when they are starving.  They might eat other people’s leftovers (that are rotten or infested with bacteria or viruses).  Going hungry drives them to eat whatever they can find even if it is sub-optimal, because something is usually better than nothing.  This defiles them.  The same example goes for love.  If a child lacks unconditional love in childhood, the child will seek love out in any form, or accept it in any form, because love is necessary for growth, and well-known animal studies have proven this.  Studies have also shown that being abused is favored by children over being neglected because having something is usually optimal to having nothing.

Unconditional love is necessary for the healthy development of children.  Unconditional love means that a parent loves their child over time independent of their actions or behaviors.  It means that if a child acts out or does something the parents deem wrong, the child will still have its needs of food, clothing, shelter, safety, and love met.  And this occurs over time.  Sometimes a parent will punish a child and the child may go without dinner as a punishment and that will not result in co-dependence.  It must be chronic lack which happens often enough for the child to develop a belief that if they do not adhere to some condition or state of being, they will go without their fundamental needs being met.  This is an unconscious process.  And this is the root of co-dependence.

Co-dependence means we settle for living on the wrong track because we either do not know that a right track exists, or because we get get drawn over onto the wrong track, repetitively.  Something or someone on the wrong track magnetizes us and keeps us there.  In our deep-seated belief system that was laid down mostly in childhood we really believe that without that thing on the wrong track, we will suffer.  And maybe we believe deep down we will even die.  We believe this because as children without our needs being met we likely could have died, and to a child’s undeveloped brain, suffering equates to feelings of death.  Our primitive emotions which are the essence of our feelings, do not understand the difference.  Therefore we function on automatic pilot, letting our false beliefs dictate lifelong practices and actions that might very well be unhealthy.

Co-dependence is very hard to break out of.  This is the reason battered women continue to return to their abusive mate.  This is the reason dysfunctional families cling to each other regardless of how much they hurt each other.  This is probably the reason why children who have been abused continue to abuse as adults.  It is a never-ending loop of dysfunction that blinds you from seeing any other way of existing.  And you unconsciously believe the lie that without this thing, you will suffer and maybe even die.

~~~

Of course there is a cure.  And that cure is to become born again in Jesus Christ.  When we are born again we become like a baby and are given a new life, created fresh by God in His image and replacing our unhealthy human family with God and His family.  Our barometer for healthy relationships becomes perfectly recalibrated in Him.

The indwelling of Jesus Christ is the cure-all for any ailment.  The only requirement is to give ourselves fully over to Him.  Halfway will not do it.  Praying once a week will not do it.  It requires willful intentional submission to Him and only Him in our lives.  Deep-seated false or even evil beliefs are very hard to get rid of, but it is possible with God.  God is a jealous God and allows no room for idols between us and Him, because He knows how much as humans we can fall victim to idols.  And this is the very place satan prefers to hide out in our lives and try to rule over us.

We can be truly blind to co-dependence and its rule over us, but God makes those scales fall away from our eyes and we can see anew.  We can see truth.  We want to not only get on the right track, but He helps us to find our way, and to stay on the right track.  Even if it goes against those scared childhood feelings that drive us in a certain habitual and dysfunctional direction, seeking that eternal unconditional love we never knew.  The irony is that we will never find the right track if we follow our self or our own messed up barometer.

We will only find that missing unconditional love in Him~

The LORD hath appeared of old unto me, saying, Yea, I have loved thee with an everlasting love: therefore with lovingkindness have I drawn thee.  ~ Jeremiah 31:3

May this train run on God’s tracks forevermore.

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The Antichrist and Its Ruler, the Beast

“Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.” ~1 John 2:18

God related to me that the ‘beast’, the ruler of antichrist would be born in 2035.  I suspect, but am not sure, he will be a rich Arab prince.  By then one world religion and one world currency should be well established, as one world government is already established.  All that needs to happen is for its ruler to take his figurative throne.

The symbol of Islam is the crescent moon and star.  Image result for symbol of islamIsaiah 14:12 states

 “How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!

Shahram Hadian says that the translation of the bolded verse equates to ‘moon and star’, therefore I believe (as do many) that antichrist is an ideology that turns many away from the truth of Jesus Christ.  That ideology is Islam and Muslim leaders, because it is against Christ, because it derives from Ishmael, the rejected son of Abraham, as it is prophesied in Isaiah (the ‘fifth gospel), and is corroborated in the Book of Revelation (see below):

Fall of the King of Babylon

3 It shall come to pass in the day the Lord gives you rest from your sorrow, and from your fear and the hard bondage in which you were made to serve, 4 that you will take up this proverb against the king of Babylon, and say:

“How the oppressor has ceased,
The golden[a] city ceased!
5 The Lord has broken the staff of the wicked,
The scepter of the rulers;
6 He who struck the people in wrath with a continual stroke,
He who ruled the nations in anger,
Is persecuted and no one hinders.
7 The whole earth is at rest and quiet;
They break forth into singing.
8 Indeed the cypress trees rejoice over you,
And the cedars of Lebanon,
Saying, ‘Since you were cut down,
No woodsman has come up against us.’

9 “Hell from beneath is excited about you,
To meet you at your coming;
It stirs up the dead for you,
All the chief ones of the earth;
It has raised up from their thrones
All the kings of the nations.
10 They all shall speak and say to you:
‘Have you also become as weak as we?
Have you become like us?
11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol,
And the sound of your stringed instruments;
The maggot is spread under you,
And worms cover you.’

The Fall of Lucifer

12 “How you are fallen from heaven,
O Lucifer,[b] son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations!
13 For you have said in your heart:
‘I will ascend into heaven,
I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
I will also sit on the mount of the congregation
On the farthest sides of the north;
14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds,
I will be like the Most High.’
15 Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol,
To the lowest depths of the Pit.

16 “Those who see you will gaze at you,
And consider you, saying:
‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble,
Who shook kingdoms,
17 Who made the world as a wilderness
And destroyed its cities,
Who did not open the house of his prisoners?’

18 “All the kings of the nations,
All of them, sleep in glory,
Everyone in his own house;
19 But you are cast out of your grave
Like an abominable branch,
Like the garment of those who are slain,
Thrust through with a sword,
Who go down to the stones of the pit,
Like a corpse trodden underfoot.
20 You will not be joined with them in burial,
Because you have destroyed your land
And slain your people.
The brood of evildoers shall never be named.
21 Prepare slaughter for his children
Because of the iniquity of their fathers,
Lest they rise up and possess the land,
And fill the face of the world with cities.”

Babylon Destroyed

22 “For I will rise up against them,” says the Lord of hosts,
“And cut off from Babylon the name and remnant,
And offspring and posterity,” says the Lord.
23 “I will also make it a possession for the porcupine,
And marshes of muddy water;
I will sweep it with the broom of destruction,” says the Lord of hosts

~~~

Revelation 13 New King James Version

The Beast from the Sea

13 Then I stood on the sand of the sea. And I saw a beast rising up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his horns ten crowns, and on his heads a blasphemous name. 2 Now the beast which I saw was like a leopard, his feet were like the feet of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion.Image result for rich arab princes

The dragon gave him his power, his throne, and great authority. 3 And I saw one of his heads as if it had been mortally wounded, and his deadly wound was healed. And all the world marveled and followed the beast. 4 So they worshiped the dragon who gave authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?”

But the BEAST will come up from the sea and will rule, and this is the Ruler of the One World Order, who has on his head 10 crowns and a blasphemous name.  All the world marveled and followed the beast Image result for pope with arab princes

and worshiped the beast and said, “Who is like him?  Who is able to make war with him?”

Image result for isis map

5 And he was given a mouth speaking great things and blasphemies, and he was given authority to continue for forty-two months. 6 Then he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His name, His tabernacle, and those who dwell in heaven.

7 It was granted to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them. And authority was given him over every tribe, tongue, and nation. 8 All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.

9 If anyone has an ear, let him hear. 10 He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.

The Beast from the Earth

11 Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth, and he had two horns like a lambImage result for abramovic and spoke like a dragon.Image result for spirit cooking 12 And he exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence, and causes the earth and those who dwell in it to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed. 13 He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men. 14 And he deceives those who dwell on the earth by those signs which he was granted to do in the sight of the beast, telling those who dwell on the earth to make an image to the beast who was wounded by the sword and lived.

15 He was granted power to give breath to the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak and cause as many as would not worship the image of the beast to be killed. 16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads, 17 and that no one may buy or sell except one who has the mark or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.Image result for spirit cooking

18 Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man: His number is 666.Image result for pentagram on abdomen abramovic

Podesta-esque: Art & Life (& Death)

Art informs us of the stuff in men’s hearts:

Pedophilia and child trafficking are becoming more well known due to Pizza Gate and other media blitzkrieg. It’s disgusting what men will do, but we must remember what is behind it all: A demonic force ruled by Satan.

Image result for arch of hysteria

HYOWM AYWB~The Day of Job

As feelings of desolation, gloom, and hopelessness pervade my being I am reminded by the Helping Spirit that Job suffered just like me.  No other account in the Bible relates the human condition of losing everything when it seemingly makes no sense like the Book of Job.  Hence there I find my only solace.

I can completely relate to his story and I am so thankful it is in the Bible, and that I am acquainted with it.  As I lift my head above the churning waves of despair, I get a glimpse of the hope that is my God looking down upon me with affection and love, eager to assuage my pain.

I believe God is using me as He did Job:  to be an example of righteousness to the devil.

It’s not that I am perfect.  I have struggled with difficult things.  Since becoming a Christian I have sinned less and less, but pulling out of a sinful way of thinking has been a long process of two steps forward, one step back.  I have especially fought a battle with sexual immorality.  It isn’t that I am that bad by worldly standards, but that it has taken me longer to perfect the side of myself that seeks romance and relationship.  I think this is typical of most women.

Yet I do get better as time goes by, praise God.  And I believe He has chosen to make an example of me despite these fall backs.

I first lost my marriage when my husband left me.  I then began losing my family as I had known it; my kids gravitated to their father’s house and he remarried, giving them a new family.  I have grieved the loss of their presence as a mother would grieve a literal death of her child.  I fought in utter desperation to try to keep them close to me, all to no avail.  As time went by my hope for having another committed relationship slowly eroded away until I have all but given up on hoping for one anymore, and this is after much effort was exerted on my part to meet someone who completed me.  My business then failed into which I had invested my time, money, heart, and future.  As I go forth trying to carve out a career niche that suits me, I meet mostly dead ends.  I have interviewed for jobs to only be turned down, even when I seemed to be the best candidate or even overly qualified.  God gives me work, but it does not utilize all my talents leaving me feeling like my potential is untapped, and leaving me always unfulfilled.  My financial situation is rather dour and I am in debt.  I have noticed of late that I am having chest pain after moderate aerobic exercise which I never had before.  My friends are left baffled by my circumstances, but instead of understanding this as a Job moment and giving me good counsel, they begin launching into a litany of advice and vain words which only increases my frustration and pain.

I have lost my marriage, my family, my career has stagnated, and now I am losing my health.

Through it all, I have tried to do what modern Christian pastors, counselors, and friends tell you to do:  I have shared my plight with my Christian friends.  The problem is that my failures make no rational sense when you try to explain them, which they inevitably try to do.  My husband did not have to get a new wife two weeks after he left me; my children should not have gravitated to him because I was a doting stay-at-home-homeschooling mom; my business was a shining example of perfection in this region of the United States as I am a highly qualified practitioner with a good reputation in my community; and I have always had exemplary health, am relatively athletic, have low blood pressure, and low cholesterol!  Yet all but one of my few Christian friends have difficulty validating me and my experiences at the least, and at the worst, cause trauma to me with their words which sound harsh to my wounded and sensitive ears.

Like Job’s friends, my primary Christian female friend implies that either I am somehow not being thankful enough for what I have (I am very thankful and thank God without ceasing); that I am focusing too much on the negative side of things because the reality really is not that bad–that I just am going through a hard time and having trouble seeing objectively; that it is not time yet for God to bless me because I am somehow not ready or matured in my faith enough to warrant that yet; or that His purpose is being fulfilled through me in all these failures but I just cannot see it–as if others go through this all the time (and I know they do not).  These false ideas come at me as I try to do as I am told and seek comfort among my Christian sisters.  However, just like Job’s brethren, my sisters do me more harm than good.

The fact is that our Christian culture has adopted an understanding of God’s will as something like this:  If you are obedient, you will be blessed and those blessings will look like success in our world.  Christian fruit has been taken to mean having plenty, being successful in business, and having a close relationship with your children.  You may suffer a little while, but not too long….unless you are being disobedient.  There is no room for extended catastrophic events or Job-like moments in our modern understanding of the Lord.  I would guess this is because we don’t have much cultural memory as Americans of times being very hard, and our understanding of God has been molded along with the advancing affluence of our country.

But sometimes God still makes examples of people like He did Job, and I am here to testify of that.  It is the only explanation that makes rational sense for the things I have endured and continue to endure.  God still wants to show the devil that some put Him first.  Even a new Christian who has only known Him 4 years!

I am tested often but I am not usually consciously aware it is a test at the time, but sometimes I become aware of it during the test or just afterward.  I do not usually try to answer in a way to merely please God, though that would be okay, I believe, but I answer in what I know or feel to be right in the situation.  I know many Christian sisters who would pass these tests too, and I have to ask, as Job did, “Why me, LORD?”  Maybe more of us have Job moments than we can know.  But what I do know, is that I am blessed to be debased in the world.  The lower I become in the world, the higher I become unto God.

I hope I am pleasing God as much as Job did.  Thankfully I can see where Job made his mistake doubting God, and hopefully with Jesus’ strength, I can keep my faith as I keep my love for Him and my neighbor.  I pray the devil can see that there really are some Christians who fear God and shun evil faithfully through pain, loss, and as all worldly blessings fall away.  Thank God for the Bible.  I can find validation and solace here I can literally find no where else:

Oh that my grief were fully weighed, and my calamity laid with it in the balances!  For then it would be heavier than the sand of the sea–

What strength do I have, that I should hope?  And what is my end, that I should prolong my life?  Is my help not within me?  And is success driven from me?

To him who is afflicted, kindness should be shown by his friend, even though he forsakes the fear of the Almighty.  My brothers have dealt deceitfully like a brook, like the streams of the brooks that pass away, which are dark because of the ice, and into which the snow vanishes.  When it is warm, they cease to flow; when it is hot, they vanish from their place.  The paths of their way turn aside, they go nowhere and perish.  The caravans of Tema look, the travelers of Sheba hope for them.  They are disappointed because they were confident; they come there and are confused.  

But what does your arguing prove?  Do you intend to reprove my words, and the speeches of a desperate one, which are as wind?  Yes, you overwhelm the fatherless, and you undermine your friend.  Now therefore, be pleased to look at me; for I would never lie to your face.  Turn now, let there be no injustice; yes, turn again, my righteousness still stands.

So I have been allotted months of futility, and wearisome nights have been appointed to me.  When I lie down, I say, ‘When shall I arise, and the night be ended?’  For I have had my fill of tossing till dawn.  My days are swifter than a weaver’s shuttle, and are spent without hope.  Oh, remember that my life is a breath!  My eye will never again see good.  The eye of him who sees me will see me no more; while your eyes are upon me, I shall no longer be.  As the cloud disappears and vanishes away, so he who goes down to the grave does not come up.  He shall never return to his house, nor shall his place know him anymore.

What is man, that You should magnify him, that You should set Your heart on him, that You should attend to him every morning, and test him every moment?  How long?  Will You not look away from me, and let me alone till I swallow my saliva?  Why have You set me as Your target, so that I am a burden to myself?  Why then do You not pardon my transgression, and take away my iniquity?  For now I will lie down in the dust, and You will seek me diligently, but I will no longer be.

Behold, my eye has seen all this, my ear has heard and understood it.  What you know, I also know; I am not inferior to you.  You are all worthless physicians.  Oh, that you would be silent, and it would be your wisdom!  Your platitudes are proverbs of ashes….

Be silent with me, and let me speak, then let come on me what may!  Why do I take my flesh in my teeth, and put my life in my hands?  Though He slay me, yet will I trust Him.  

Biblical History Repeating Itself

Relentless Judgment on Israel~ Hosea Chapter 13

When Ephraim spoke, trembling,
He exalted himself in Israel;
But when he offended through Baal worship, he died.
2 Now they sin more and more,
And have made for themselves molded images,
Idols of their silver, according to their skill;
All of it is the work of craftsmen.
They say of them,
“Let the men who sacrifice[a] kiss the calves!”
3 Therefore they shall be like the morning cloud
And like the early dew that passes away,
Like chaff blown off from a threshing floor
And like smoke from a chimney.

4 “Yet I am the Lord your God
Ever since the land of Egypt,
And you shall know no God but Me;
For there is no savior besides Me.
5 I knew you in the wilderness,
In the land of great drought.
6 When they had pasture, they were filled;
They were filled and their heart was exalted;
Therefore they forgot Me.

7 “So I will be to them like a lion;
Like a leopard by the road I will lurk;
8 I will meet them like a bear deprived of her cubs;
I will tear open their rib cage,
And there I will devour them like a lion.
The wild beast shall tear them.

9 “O Israel, you are destroyed,[b]
But your help[c] is from Me.
10 I will be your King;[d]
Where is any other,
That he may save you in all your cities?
And your judges to whom you said,
‘Give me a king and princes’?
11 I gave you a king in My anger,
And took him away in My wrath.

12 “The iniquity of Ephraim is bound up;
His sin is stored up.
13 The sorrows of a woman in childbirth shall come upon him.
He is an unwise son,
For he should not stay long where children are born.

14 “I will ransom them from the power of the grave;[e]
I will redeem them from death.
O Death, I will be your plagues![f]
O Grave,[g] I will be your destruction![h]
Pity is hidden from My eyes.”

15 Though he is fruitful among his brethren,
An east wind shall come;
The wind of the Lord shall come up from the wilderness.
Then his spring shall become dry,
And his fountain shall be dried up.
He shall plunder the treasury of every desirable prize.
16 Samaria is held guilty,[i]
For she has rebelled against her God.
They shall fall by the sword,
Their infants shall be dashed in pieces,
And their women with child ripped open.

Footnotes:

  1. Hosea 13:2Or those who offer human sacrifice
  2. Hosea 13:9Literally it or he destroyed you
  3. Hosea 13:9Literally in your help
  4. Hosea 13:10Septuagint, Syriac, Targum, and Vulgate read Where is your king?
  5. Hosea 13:14Or Sheol
  6. Hosea 13:14Septuagint reads where is your punishment?
  7. Hosea 13:14Or Sheol
  8. Hosea 13:14Septuagint reads where is your sting?
  9. Hosea 13:16Septuagint reads shall be disfigured

 

In the belief that the following passage is true and that there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9), I give you Hosea 13 from God as a backdrop for events that will soon unfold in America; IF we do not turn from our persistent idolatry of sex, money, and willful ignorance and cling to the Lord with all of our heart, soul, and might.

All Scripture is God-breathed [given by divine inspiration] and is profitable for instruction, for conviction [of sin], for correction [of error and restoration to obedience], for training in righteousness [learning to live in conformity to God’s will, both publicly and privately—behaving honorably with personal integrity and moral courage]; 17 so that the man of God may be complete and proficient, outfitted and thoroughly equipped for every good work.  ~2 Timothy 3:16-17

Ephraim was the largest tribe in the northern part of the kingdom of Israel.  After King Solomon died, the kingdom of God-the 12 tribes of Israel-became divided into a northern and southern kingdom:  Ephraim, the largest, (usually called Israel) and Judah, respectively.  The people of God made idols out of silver (and gold) and the finest craftsmen sculpted these objects.  They began worshiping their idols and abandoning the one true God.

One cannot but help notice the uncanny similarity with ancient objects crafted skillfully by hand out of silver and our modern-day electronics, all of which contain silver.  Our first electronics contained gold, lead, and platinum, sometimes in high quantities, so much so that harvesting these precious metals from salvaged appliances is a booming business, especially in third-world countries.  See this post on how idolatry is clutched by nearly everyone in America today in the form of personal devices.  Idolatry is not a practice that got left in antiquity when we stopped making animal figurines.  It very much continues on an even more pervasive scale today.

Even though God is not readily visible (we have to seek Him out), nor easily proved (His existence requires faith, not facts) does not mean that He is not real.  Furthermore, His word stands true forever, so what is written in the historical record of the Bible was true, is true, and will be true in the future.  Self-identified church-attending Christians are in denial about how much they practice idolatry.  Not only that, but as Americans fall further and further away from belief in God, our citizens are bold about denying the existence of God at all.

God tolerates this behavior and practice no more today than He did when the Jewish nation was expunged from the Holy Land, several times over.  He clearly states in the scriptures that if we forsake Him, He will not only forsake us, but He will allow the ‘wild beast to tear them [us], [we] he will know pain like a woman in labor, [we] he will lose his children, [our] his spring will dry up, [we] they shall fall by the sword, [our] their infants shall be dashed in pieces, and pregnant women will be ripped open’.

This sounds like Islamic practice.  And it is happening very, very close to us!  It is happening to Jews, and our Christian brethren in all parts of the world, and has even happened here, on American soil.

Islam has declared war on us, whom they call ‘infidels’.  But instead of fighting their war their way, we must cling to God because God promises us in His covenant with us that if we love Him with our heart, soul, and might; and love our neighbors as ourselves above all else, “Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall chase ten thousand, and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.  ~Leviticus 26:8”

We cannot fight a war on our own and win.  We have exalted ourselves because our lives became easy as Americans, and we neglected and forgot about God; as the Jews before us also had done and were punished.  Only with God we will stand strong and be invincible.

~selah

 

Christian Charity and Immigration

I have been unusually silent on the subject of immigration, and specifically the issue of aiding refugees who, finding themselves in a desperate situation, want to suddenly emigrate from their native lands by the hundreds of thousands.  In our current events, this means Syrian refugees.  But I also want to address long-standing immigration from our border country of Mexico and other Latin American neighbors.

God has finally given me an understanding of some of the Truth in this matter, in general, and an understanding of how to reconcile living a Christian life while still having safe boundaries, and borders.  I am not a political expert but I don’t believe I need to be.  I am an expert on living with God daily, discerning the truth of His word, and living it out in my life.

In the Great Commission, Christ calls us to go forth and make disciples of all the nations.  Jesus sent His disciples out two by two to preach the gospel taught to them by Him.  He reminds us to love God and love our neighbor.  He illustrates that our neighbor may be an enemy, but if we come upon him and he is in danger, to take care of him like our own family member (the Good Samaritan story).  In the Book of Luke, Jesus also reminds you to love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you; and if someone strikes you, to allow him to strike you again, and to give to everyone who asks of you.

In all of these examples, we go forth.  Poor people or the oppressed don’t usually have occasion or means to travel very far.  The Israelites took 40 years to enter the Promised Land which was adjacent to Egypt, where they had been enslaved.  No one went and got them and carted them into the Promised Land.  They were led there by God, on their own, and defeated their enemies because of God’s favor.  In the Book of Luke reference, if we are individually approached to help another human being, we are commanded to do so, but as an individual, not as a government.  If we choose to travel to another land, then we should be ready to help the people we commune with and among, which is what a missionary does, or a humanitarian relief worker.

When in Acts chapter 3 Peter and John came into the presence of the lame man outside the synagogue in Jerusalem, he asked for alms, and he looked to them to be handed alms, but because they did not have silver or gold, they gave him the blessing of the Spirit of Jesus, and lifted him up for he could then walk.  They could not give him what they did not have, but a blessing in Jesus’ name was better than monetary gifts of any kind!

When other cultures are in trouble and look to us for help, we cannot give them what we do not have (monetary resources), but we can always bless them with the knowledge of Jesus Christ.  If we choose to go to their land, we are commanded to live among them and make believers of them.  We are not commanded to steal gold (make money we do not have) so that we can go after them to bring them to our country, or pay millions of dollars to ‘save’ them!

Furthermore, when peoples have diametrically opposed beliefs to our chosen way of life, which is overall, ‘One Nation Under God,’ we have a responsibility to move away, to keep ourselves far from a false matter, and to avoid them, all of which are biblical commands.  Saint Paul states in Romans Chapter 16:

Romans 16:17-20New King James Version (NKJV)

Avoid Divisive Persons

17 Now I urge you, brethren, note those who cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which you learned, and avoid them.18 For those who are such do not serve our Lord Jesus[a] Christ, but their own belly, and by smooth words and flattering speech deceive the hearts of the simple. 19 For your obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil. 20 And the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet shortly.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. Amen.

The special interests that influence our government to act contrary to not only Americans’ best interests, but also biblical theology, are surely serving the world and not God, because if anyone is a friend of the world, he is an enemy of God:

You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.  ~James 4:4

The Farm in Tennessee was a commune that got started in the hippie era of the 70’s.  In the 80’s, many poor people migrated to The Farm for various reasons no doubt in part because they heard no one was turned away.  As part of the Farm’s doctrine in that day, families on the Farm opened their homes and larders to all these strangers who poured in.  Soon all the longstanding Farm families began to starve and the children went without shoes in the Winter.  Many did not work or worked at jobs with no monetary pay, and could not buy necessary resources.  Finally, when the leader was out of town, the rest of the group led a coup to overthrow him!  It seems on the surface that he was leading them to  do God’s will by sharing all they had, and to open up completely to them, but how can it be God’s will that all should starve because of lack?  Instead, the poor need to stay where they are and make the best of their situation where they are, or rely on an individual to help them, or go forth in faith relying only on God, not others, to save them.

When the poor and oppressed descend in droves upon a group of people who are not very stable themselves, financial decline and poverty will ensue.  This also happened in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, when the poor of New Orleans emigrated to cities in Texas.  While Texans and other states’ citizens opened their towns to receive them, they might not have known that crime rates would dramatically rise and the way of life they had previously enjoyed would decline, but that is exactly what has happened in those places.

It is not our duty in any way as a nation to provide for refugees in other countries, to bring them to our country, or to pay for their life once here.  At the same time, our country was given to us by God and is founded on His principles.  We should not exclude brethren who desperately want to come here and be a part of our way of life, in every way.  It is not that we earned our land, but that He blessed us with it, and will do so only as long as we live according to His will and word.  Brethren should not come here to live as liabilities, but as assets, contributing at least as much as they take, if not more.

Reasonable measures should be taken to protect what God has blessed us with, and to be good stewards of it.  Not everyone can, nor should, live here.  God provides even the swallows with a nest, and how much more will He provide a man a home, if that man follows Him and listens to His word.

The cold reality that many soft-hearted Americans and Westerners do not want to face is that most people will choose to not follow God and in so doing will choose the path of destruction.  We can not let our eye pity these people to pervert justice, but press on sharing the gospel with those who DO want to hear it.  We have to stand for something, lest we fall for anything, and our republic already chose to stand ‘under God‘.

Amen.