MODERN AMERICAN SLAVERY

February 15, 2023 By Leave a Comment

What does all slavery, in any time of history, depend on to maintain stability between owner and slave?

Think for a moment about different examples of slavery.

What do they have in common?

– – –

+First, the master/slave relationship is not open for negotiation—at least not by the slave.

+The master can only make limited concessions, because he must maintain complete control. If he relaxes control, he will likely lose the slave—and every slave means money for the master.

+So, money is the motivation for the slave owner.

– – –

What is the motivation for the slave, if any?

– – –

+Some slaves are captured and forced into slavery—no motivation.

+Some are enticed or seduced into slavery—motivated by promises of a better life, anything but the current desperation.

+But many enter into slavery by choice—that makes motivation a mystery.

– – –

In modern America, there are two MAJOR cases of widespread slavery where money is the motivation for the slave.

Everyone is encouraged and expected to participate in insurance and retirement.

Americans sacrifice whatever it takes to pay for insurance and stash money for retirement.

This is a recent phenomenon—not universally applicable around the world and not throughout history.

– – –

The prosperity of Americans has recently fueled their perceived need to protect what they have, out of fear that they may lose it—so they pay a lot for insurance, to ‘guarantee’ they can’t lose money, even if they lose property.

The insurance industry is the modern American slave owner, with ever-increasing power and control that makes Americans slaves to insurance.

Fear—fear of loss, and fear of illness—is the motivation for people choosing to slave over insurance payments, that master their lives now.

– – –

The prosperity of Americans has also recently fueled their perceived need to save a lot of money for someday when they don’t have to work, or can’t work—so they pay a lot for retirement, and spend a lot of attention investing that money to protect it and make more money.

Providing for retirement has become such a universal expectation, that you can’t feel right if you don’t.

Fear—fear of less productive senior years, and fear of health crises—is the motivation to slave over storing money now for then, robbing time and resources to enjoy now and use to help others.

The other motivation for sacrificing to build a retirement portfolio is the lifelong goal to just take it easy and enjoy everything one day.

We are slaves to whatever becomes our all-consuming priority, especially for a lifetime.

Reflections on insurance.

Insurance may promise money to pay for loss of stuff, but it does not prevent the loss.

Insurance also promises to pay for damage or injuries from accidents or illness or safety violations, but insurance does not inherently make products safer or guarantee health.

Insurance is like the lottery (called the moron tax)—people voluntarily pay money, with the hope of getting back more than they paid. The odds of winning with insurance? If you lose big, you win big. Kinda odd.

Insurance has grown so big, so fast, that it has become all-consuming for Americans to pay for it, and for the government to regulate it, and that not very successfully.

Reflections on retirement.

How much of the world, and how much of history, has seen such a large percentage of the population saving money for retirement, as in modern America?

As long as the economy sustains stability until a person retires and spends his retirement, there is not much argument against it, but there is still a case for calling it slavery.

About half a century ago, Daddy observed that young people became more concerned about the benefits package of a job than the pay.

Both employers and employees must calculate the extra costs, and added compensation, before agreeing on a job.

The result—ever higher prices for products and services, so we all become slave partners.

Filed Under: Educational, Financial, Health, Political---Cultural, Time

“THE ONE GOD LOVES, HE . . .”

February 15, 2023 By Leave a Comment

“He whom the Lord loves, He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives.”

That is pretty tough language from the Bible, for Christians, for those the Lord especially loves and wants to strengthen and use mightily.

And, God also uses severe discipline to correct and bring back His chosen ones from sin, to a closer walk with Him.

– – –

Except for what we know about Joseph and Daniel, every person in the Bible that God used mightily (and most of God’s people outside the Bible) were seriously flawed, and their shortcomings are so open for us to see, that we could reject any of them for good reason.

But what does God do and say about His special, chosen, favorite people? Exactly what He says in the beginning of this article.

– – –

When we don’t like what we see when God deals ‘unfavorably’ with us or someone close to us, for His purpose of refining us or them through fire, we can become impatient and fail to see His long-term plan—and maybe we don’t need to see His long-term plan. (You may want to re-read that sentence again, slowly.)

I’ll reprint it here for you:

When we don’t like what we see when God deals ‘unfavorably’ with us or someone close to us, for His purpose of refining us or them through fire, we can become impatient and fail to see His long-term plan—and maybe we don’t need to see His long-term plan.

– – –

Example:

He had eight children, rich land in the river bottom, and four hundred large pecan trees that he had topworked and brought to full production with the best varieties. This enormous, five-year undertaking in the 1940’s was a monument to his judgment, with the return to be realized then and for the rest of his life and beyond.

This reward was short-lived with repeated blows that devastated him financially and psychologically—a Job experience indeed.

+When the Belton Dam and Belton Lake took our farm on the Leon River in 1950 (the year I was born), Daddy and Mama lost everything they had worked for from scratch for decades.

+The government did not pay a single dollar for the gold mine of the pecan trees. Then, adding insult to injury, they charged lease for us to use the land, after they bought it for a fraction of its value.

+The replacement farm south of Temple could not come close to providing like the place on the river, and laboring under debt for decades changed almost everything.

+Another blow came when the first wet year (1957) after the dam was built, temporarily raised the new Belton Lake high enough to flood the pecan trees, and then one by one over the next several years all the trees decayed and died—more like Job. Pecans were Daddy’s first love as a farmer and rancher ! ! !

+What about Daddy and his children? Did he lose them in one fell swoop in a tornado like Job? Daddy lost them in a different way—most reacted in four major additional devastations for Daddy.

1-Resenting Daddy for the seriously curtailed lifestyle and standard of living, doubting and disputing and blaming his decisions, for life getting harder to make ends meet.

2-Rebelling against Daddy’s authority and leadership, making things worse.

3-Rejecting Daddy’s increased seriousness in spiritual matters, in leading the large family.

4-Finding a scapegoat to vent their emotional struggles—to direct their disappointment and disapproval of Daddy.

Was God hiding?

Was God behind it all?

Was God faithful in it all?

This brings to mind one of the many quotations that Daddy repeated often:

“God’s mills grind slowly, but they grind exceeding small—while with patience He may linger, yet in justice He grinds all.”

And another, “God doesn’t settle all His accounts on Sunday.” That was from a Christian farmer, responding to an unbelieving neighbor bragging on his successful farming operation, intentionally working on Sundays.

So, how long does it take God to settle His accounts and grind out justice?

I don’t know—that is for Him to decide.

But I can read—you can read—His record in the Bible (yes, Job) and in history and in Daddy’s life.

– – –

IN THE BIBLE:

+Job went through everything but hell, at Satan’s initiative but God’s control, then God restored double what Job had before. We wonder about God’s use of time—why He took 42 laborious chapters in the Bible that I just told in one sentence.

+Israel suffered in slavery four hundred years, then God suddenly, miraculously, delivered through the Passover and the Red Sea—monumental milestones for all of Jewish history—a perpetual memorial. But why the four hundred years?

+Hebrews 11 itemizes the faith of God’s people previously going through unimaginable trouble, with supernatural deliverance. Then, “others” who were not delivered in their lifetime, went through unimaginable torture, “that they might obtain a better resurrection”—as in, ‘but God.’

+If you really want to deal head-on with the question of God’s faithfulness and justice and His timing, read all of Hebrews 11, and then the perspective for us in chapter 12. You’ll find the quote above in verse 6 of chapter 12.

+Stephen, first martyr in the Christian church, got a standing ovation from Jesus, at His throne in heaven.

+”Blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church.” Early church “turned the world upside down.”

IN HISTORY:

+Telemachus was a monk in the fourth century, who felt compelled to travel to Rome, walking. In the city he was drawn into the crowd heading to the stadium, where he was shocked to see the gladiators fighting Christians to the death. Telemachus jumped into the arena, yelling repeatedly, “In the name of Christ, forbear.” Obviously, he soon met Jesus. But the boldness of this one man of God so moved the people that they left in silence, and the emperor Honorius banned gladiator fights after that day.

+Reformation martyrs were burned at the stake. Martin Luther was spared by friends ‘kidnapping’ him.

+United States of America—worldwide missions, unselfish justice, saving freedom in WWI and WWII—in the name of Christianity, publicly depending on God (until recently).

+Today, Iran has the fastest growing number of Christians in the world.

+China is scared to death of Christianity right now.

+Today, the most dangerous place on earth for Christians is Nigeria—over four thousand killed last year for believing in Jesus. But what do they say about their suffering—they have a different perspective than we do. They pray for faithfulness to witness for Jesus, rather than deliverance. And they plead with us to pray for them, “Please don’t forget us.”

IN DADDY’S LIFE:

+God did honor Daddy, with doubled blessings? Yes, vindication that I see continuing to this day 38 years after his death.

+A preliminary note that had significance in 1956 and again in the late 60’s and early 70’s. Before the flood of 1957 there was a historic drought from 1952 to 1956. We were still leasing the land from the government, and Daddy saw a bumper crop on the pecan trees in 1956, but they needed water. The Leon River still had water, at least in places. Daddy made a major decision to purchase a significant irrigation system powered by the tractor pto, with over 2400 feet of aluminum pipe in 30′ sections, 45 with sprinklers. God confirmed that purchase decision by that one pecan crop paying half the cost of the system.

+Then, not only did the next year bring the flood that destroyed all of that very same pecan orchard, but the irrigation system sat nearly idle for a decade and a half. The new farm had no water source for the required 450 gallons/minute. There was only 34 acres of good bottom land, with Bird Creek, but it dried up quickly every summer.

+In the book, DADDY SAID, I tell the following story in detail of God giving Daddy a vision, and bringing it to glorious, miraculous reality. On the 34 acres, there was water six feet below the surface, but the water was inaccessible through the very fine soil. Daddy’s vision was that there might be gravel under the silt, when the river may have run in this horseshoe bend centuries before.

+God simply said ‘yes’ and guided Daddy through the most astounding construction and faith venture. He gave us a well, and it produced the 450 gallons/minute for continuous irrigation every summer. The 34 acres produced as much as 4000 bales of coastal bermudagrass hay in a year plus grazing for up to 200 head of cattle. I can tell the story best because I was the only one left at home with Daddy and Mama. And I spent every summer keeping this irrigation going day and night, sleeping on a trailer a mile from the house, carrying pipe to new settings every four hours while another set of sprinklers was running (4″ worth of rain on 3/4 acre at a time).

+Oh, the 34 acres did have one hundred pecan trees, that needed to be topworked also. I was blessed to help Daddy quite a bit, climbing all over the trees and following his instructions. There is one bud I placed all by myself, and it grew.

+Daddy was able to pay for all five years of my college, and then loan me $1400 for my first car. And the relationship forged between us was out of this world ! Why me, so specifically blessed of the eight? This is when you simply say, “But God . . .”

+Referring to the four numbered points above, about the others in the family:

1-God chose to wait many years for the financial turnaround, and then He totally honored Daddy’s vision and decisions in meticulous detail, with no naysayers.

2-God chose to wait many years for a time of peace, to act in showering blessings on Daddy’s farm and ranch operation.

3-Daddy had only a couple long-term best friends that were likeminded spiritually, and I took a Bible verse literally and visited them years after Daddy was gone. And I am thankful to say I am also likeminded spiritually with Daddy.

4-I was the scapegoat for the others’ emotional struggles over their disappointment and disapproval of Daddy. When I was very young, they said to me, “You’re just like Daddy,” with disdain. But Daddy said, decades later, “I’m so glad you’re telling those little lambs about Jesus.” (When I was teaching in a Christian school in South Florida.)”

+And there’s one more—severe test, plus God’s hand of blessing. In 1977 my invalid brother Norlan died and Mama had a severe stroke the same night. I came to visit, and Mama recovered enough to go home after a few weeks. She didn’t return the house of 25 years. Arrangements were made while she was in the hospital to sell the farm south of Temple and buy the farm north of Whitehall, and that is where my parents lived their remaining years, close to family. And that is where I sit, writing, today.

+One last financial note—the farm they sold brought considerably more than the much larger farm they bought, and Daddy paid all the bills for Mama’s two strokes and time in the hospital.

B U T G O D ! ! !

“Truth forever on the scaffold, Wrong forever on the throne.

Yet that scaffold sways the future, And behind the dim unknown

Standeth God within the shadow, Keeping watch above His own.”

Filed Under: Faith Based, Family, Financial, Health, Inspirational, Time

FAITHFULNESS IN AFRICA TODAY

February 15, 2023 By Leave a Comment

This will be my longest post on this site, in over a decade of writing. It is a copy of something I read this morning from a leader in the Anglican church of Africa, responding to The Church of England endorsing the blessing of gay ‘marriage.’ The title above tells you what I think—thank God for such leadership coming from Africa. All Christians do well to learn and heed the following.

Statement by Archbishop Stephen Kaziimba on Behalf of the Anglican Church of Uganda

February 10, 2023

Good morning, our Media Evangelists, and Praise God from Whom all Blessings Flow!

I have invited you here today to update you and, through you, all our Christians here in Uganda about some recent decisions the Church of England has made. I want to explain them very well to all of us and also explain the Church of Uganda’s position.

The Church of England’s Decision

The General Synod of the Church of England (their top governing body, like our Provincial Assembly) sat yesterday and passed several resolutions that are of great concern to us in Uganda. They have decided to allow clergy to preside at Blessings of Same-sex Unions and have approved supplemental prayers and liturgies for such occasions.

The Church of England is very good at making contradictory statements and expecting everyone to believe both can be true at the same time. That’s what they have done with this decision.

On the one hand, they say that the Church of England has not changed its doctrine of marriage, namely that marriage is a lifelong union between one man and one woman.

On the other hand, they are giving clergy permission to preside at services of Blessing for same-sex unions, especially for gay couples who are already considered “married” by the British government. In other words, a gay couple joined together in a civil marriage would then go to the church to receive prayers of blessing.

The only significant difference between a wedding and a service of “blessing” is the terminology used.

The Church of England insists it is not changing its doctrine of marriage. But, in practice, they are doing precisely that. You may read various articles, opinions, and commentaries on this decision that try to justify its action.

But, what I want you to know is that if it looks like a wedding, and sounds like a wedding… it IS a wedding.

The Church of Uganda’s Position

Now, I want to talk about the position of the Church of Uganda. There have been very many questions about it in light of this terrible decision of the Church of England.

1. First, from the first page of the Bible in the book of Genesis to the last page of the Bible in the book of Revelation, it is clear that God’s design for human flourishing is that we are part of a family – a family that is defined as one man and one woman united in holy matrimony for life and, God willing, a union that produces children. God’s Word has said that the only context for sexual relationships is in the context of a marriage of one man and one woman.

2. Second. Because lifelong, exclusive marriage between one man and one woman is the only context for sexual relationships, the Bible calls any other kind of sexual relationship a sin. Whether it is adultery, or fornication, or polygamy, or homosexual relationships. They are all sin and they all separate us from God.

a. That means sleeping with your girlfriend or your boyfriend before marriage is a sin.

b. That means that if you are married and have a “side dish,” that is a sin.

c. That means that if you take a second or third wife that is a sin.

d. That means if you engage in homosexual or same-sex sexual relationships, that is a sin.

Yes, God can forgive you, but it requires that you come before God, confess that you have done wrong, and make a commitment to change your way of life – in other words, to repent – and walk in God’s ways.

3. Third. When Jesus was questioned about a woman caught in adultery, he told her to “Go, and sin no more.”

There is a lot of sexual sin in Uganda. I know that, and you know that. Nevertheless, we haven’t changed our message. Our message is the message of the Bible, which is, “Go, and sin no more.”

The Church of England, on the other hand, has now departed from the Bible and their new message is the opposite message of the Bible. They are now saying, “Go, and sin some more.”

They are even offering to bless that sin.

That is wrong.

As Church of Uganda we cannot accept that. God cannot bless what He calls sin.

We all know the story of the Uganda Martyrs, how they refused to engage in homosexual sex with their leaders. They stood firm in their Christian faith and were martyred for it. We cannot betray them or our Lord Jesus Christ. We will not betray the Word of God or His ways. The Bible tells us that Jesus alone is “the way, the truth, and the life,” and that he is the same “yesterday, today, and forever.”

Jesus does not change his mind about what is sinful. Instead, Jesus gives us a way out of a bondage to sin by putting our trust and faith in him as our Saviour and Lord. That’s why it’s possible for us to “Go, and sin no more.”

Important Background

The suicidal path the Church of England has now taken began in the Anglican Communion in 2003 when The Episcopal Church in America consecrated a gay man as a Bishop. As Church of Uganda, we broke fellowship with them at that time, and we have maintained that they are the ones who have left the Anglican faith and, therefore, the Anglican Communion.

In 2008 when the Archbishop of Canterbury refused to discipline The American Episcopal Church for their action, Archbishops from Bible-believing Anglican Provinces around the world organized the first Gafcon conference to bring us together under the Lordship of Christ and the authority of the Bible. Gafcon has always said, “We are not leaving the Anglican Communion; we ARE the Anglican Communion.”

Likewise, the Global South Fellowship of Anglicans has said the same thing. “We are not leaving the Anglican Communion; we ARE the Anglican Communion.”

The Way Forward

We now want to ask the Church of England, “Do you have the integrity to step out of the Anglican Communion because you have departed from the Anglican faith?” God called you to preach a Gospel of repentance and faith. Instead, you’re like Jonah. You have disobeyed and are running in the opposite direction.

God called the church to go to Nineveh and preach repentance, but the Church of England is running to Tarshish and preaching acceptance of sin. There is no way we are walking together.

The Church of England, together with the Episcopal Church in America, the Anglican Church of Canada, the Church in Wales, the Scottish Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Anglican Church of Brazil, and others – these are the Provinces that have walked away, but we pray for them to repent.

And, if they refuse to repent, then we call on them to have the integrity to form their own Canterbury Communion because what they believe is not Anglicanism and it is not the faith once delivered to the saints.

If they want to take their whole church into the belly of a whale, they are free to do that; we are, after all, autonomous Anglican Provinces. We think it’s a bad idea, but they are free to do it.

But, they are NOT free to drag the whole Anglican Communion with them. The Anglican Communion is NOT an extension of the Church of England.

The Church of England has departed from the Anglican faith and are now false teachers. We fear Jesus’ words for them, “If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from its place.” (Rev 2.5b) It’s that serious.

The Church of Uganda has more than 200 members traveling to Kigali in April for the 4th Global Gafcon meeting. We will be there with many Bible-believing Archbishops, Bishops, and Anglicans from all over Africa and the world. These are the ones who have not bowed their knee to Baal. (1 Kings 19.18)

We shall pray, and sit together, and discern the mind of Christ for the way forward. I ask your prayers for wisdom, for, indeed, we need the wisdom of Solomon to know how to faithfully respond to the crisis at hand.

Finally, now that our children are back in school, beware of the well-funded Gay organizations that are recruiting our children into homosexuality. Not only in Kampala, but all over the country. They target our poverty and promise our youth money.

To our youth – if someone invites you to a function and offers you a big transport refund, those are probably bad people. Say “No” to it. And, if you have already been exploited or abused by such groups, please go to your Bishop for prayer, support, and guidance. You will be received with love and compassion.

To our Head Teachers – if an organization is bringing money and resources to your school, or inviting your students to a function, do your research. Make sure you know who they really are.

My fellow Ugandans – we cannot serve God and mammon. We cannot serve God and money. Do not lose your soul because you think you will gain the whole world through the money they offer you. Do not think you can take the money, but not fall into their trap. It’s a lie; you are being exploited with that money.

The Bible says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” So, just say, “No.”

I am here today to declare, “As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord!”

The House of Bishops is united on this. The Provincial Assembly is united on this – “As for me and the Church of Uganda, we will serve the Lord.”

To God be the glory!

The Most Rev. Dr. Stephen Samuel Kaziimba Mugalu

ARCHBISHOP OF CHURCH OF UGANDA.

Filed Under: Educational, Faith Based, Inspirational, Political---Cultural

A WOMAN HAS A RIGHT ! ! !

February 8, 2023 By Leave a Comment

Every woman (young or old) has every right to do with her body what she wants* and what she will be satisfied to live with for the rest of her life.

This includes the right to not be pressured by individuals or current cultural campaigns that persuade her to do something she will regret, permanently.

This includes anything that alters and/or harms her body with long-term consequences.

1—A woman (young or older) has a right to not be sexually mutilated by anyone, even with her consent—just as surely as a woman has a right to not be sexually molested (raped) by anyone, even with her consent.

How ridiculous the parallel of rape by consent—yet sexual mutilation with the new fad of transgender, is actually more permanently harmful physically that rape, and the psychological consequences later loom very great, because it is a choice a woman does not have to make.

2—A woman (young or older) has a right to not kill her baby, either by her choice or by others’ pressure.

A woman has a right to not be physically harmed by anyone with the procedure (even when termed ‘successful’), which will have lifelong negative consequences, physical and psychological.

3—A woman (young, very young, or older) has every right to not be killed by anyone, ever, at any age of her life, for any reason whatsoever.

 A woman has that right that no other woman or man has a right to take from her—by decision (‘choice’), by procedure.

This includes the right to not be murdered weeks or months after she started living, before she has the power to make the decision.

The right to life without the choice to live ?

4—A man (young, very young, or older) has every right to not be killed by anyone, ever, at any age of his life, for any reason whatsoever.

A man has that right that no other man or woman has a right to take from him—by decision (‘choice’), by procedure.

This includes the right to not be murdered weeks or months after he started living, before he has the power to make the decision.

The right to life without the choice to live ?

THE RIGHT TO LIFE WITHOUT THE CHOICE TO LIVE ! ! !

That is inhuman, evil, unholy, unGodly, unAmerican, unfeminine, unwomanly, abominable—WITH CONSEQUENCES we’ve only begun to see.

– – –

+God sees !

+Just wait !

+Just watch !

+Just do everything you can to “save those being led away to slaughter.”

*Unless the woman or the man is a Christian.  Then this applies, “Don’t you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, which is in you, which you have from God, and you are not your own?  Therefore, glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.”

Filed Under: Educational, Faith Based, Family, Health, Inspirational, Political---Cultural, Time

WEARY OF WORDS

February 8, 2023 By Leave a Comment

+trinity

+one-in-three

+three-in-one

+essence

+co-equal

+co-eternal

+Father is God

+Son is God

+Holy Spirit is God

+Father is not the Son

+Son is not the Holy Spirit

+Holy Spirit is not the Father

+consubstantial

+nature

+substance

+hypostasis

+persons

+explain trinity, lose your mind

+deny trinity, lose your soul

+’explain the trinity’—38 million attempts on the internet, and counting—try again ?

+three-sided box to explain God

+three-sided box for God

+same

+different

+tri

+unity

+1+1+1=3

+1+1+1=1

+water – ice – steam

+light – heat – radiation – one sun

+”no illustration is perfect”

+triangle

+pyramid

+length – width – height

+

enough already ?
there’s more, lots more . . .

No wonder the Muslims complain.

I am so weary of words upon words upon words to ‘explain the trinity’—dozens of terms and phrases make my brain glaze over again and again.

Why this compulsion to explain their explanations of their one mysterious, created word—instead of focusing on the actual words of the Bible about God? So many of those verses are so simple, they defy adding to them.

Consider how beautifully the passages tell us about the Father—and tell us about the Son—and tell us about the Holy Spirit—and tell us about their relationship—and tell us about their relationship with us.

The Bible simply does not emphasize anything even close to the trinity like the theologians do !—not anything even close !

A dead giveaway is how theologians focus on quotes from past theologians, revered almost above the Bible—shown in the percentage of words in any given teaching time.

Why can’t someone spend that time reading the Bible verses first, and take time just marveling and reveling in their beauty, that will bless anyone regardless of their extra-Biblical education?

– – –

If we are inundated with man’s words explaining God more that God’s Word explaining God, where does that leave us?

(From THE TRINITY—FABRICATION—WHY? July 3, 2019 – “Theological wording surrounding the word ‘trinity’ creates a parallel universe that hardly remotely resembles what is actually in the Bible.”)

Filed Under: Educational, Faith Based, Inspirational, Time

UNPRECEDENTED – – – UNPRESIDENTIAL

February 8, 2023 By Leave a Comment

Biden gave China all the intelligence they were looking for with their spy balloon.

And it wasn’t the military information they gathered that was most significant.

Our number one enemy now knows that the U S commander-in-chief will not act to protect this country.

Never before, treasonous betrayal—UNPRECEDENTED !

Never before, surrender from the White House—UNPRESIDENTIAL !

Now, absolutely RIGHT NOW, the most important question that remains for this country:

Will swift justice be served for this betrayal, for this treason?

We dare not wait for a next time ! ! !

Filed Under: Political---Cultural, Time

(UN)INTENDED CONSEQUENCES – – – (UN)INFORMED

February 8, 2023 By Leave a Comment

If we “change the truth of God into a lie,” all kinds of bad things happen.

If you recoil over that statement, consider this:

+ Sometimes we “change the truth” by choice because we don’t like it.

+ Sometimes we “change the truth” because we never heard the truth.

+ Sometimes we “change the truth” because someone lied to us—someone who didn’t know the truth.

+ Sometimes we “change the truth” because someone lied to us—someone who knew the truth and hated it.

+ Sometimes we “change the truth” because we suppress the truth built into us—we invent “my truth”  that “works for me.”

+ Sometimes we “change the truth” because we’re saturated with news media and entertainment media.

+ Sometimes we “change the truth” because judges change the rules.

+ Sometimes we “change the truth” because people want power and feed us lies to get it.

Example:

Charles Darwin invented evolution to avoid the truth of accountability to God.  If we happened by chance, we don’t have to answer to anybody in charge.  (Evolution is a man-made invention—not a scientific discovery.)

Today, students (who have now become adults) are told evolution is a fact, against the truth and against all evidence.  Evolution is non-sense and non-science.

Example:

The boatloads of nonsense now introduced in American public schools are hardly even veiled for the non-truth, for the lies, they are based on.

Tragic, criminal, disastrous ideas tell younger and younger children they should . . .

+choose their sex—change their sex

+blame someone else for everything—blame themselves for everything

+find fault with capitalism—find future with socialism

+destroy America—devote to our enemies

+criticize and cancel God and the Bible and Christianity—condone and endorse everything evil.

The Bible is true—always has been, always will be—no man can change it.

Jesus is The Truth—Jesus is The Way—Jesus is The Life (the only Truth, the only Way, the only Life).

A couple Bible verses about Jesus, the foundation rock:

“The stone which the builders rejected
Has become the chief cornerstone.
This was the Lord’s doing,
And it is marvelous in our eyes

And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder.”

I urge the reader to reject the tsunami of untruth that is inundating the world today, and fall at the feet of Jesus, broken for your sin, and receive Life and Truth from Him, and the only Way with Him now and forever.

Filed Under: Education, Faith Based, Inspirational, Political---Cultural

ANOTHER GOSPEL

February 2, 2023 By Leave a Comment

“If we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.”

The ‘prophet’ of islam, Muhammed, started the new religion based on the message from an angel that is contrary to the gospel of the Bible, the gospel of Jesus, the gospel Paul preached.

The Bible says Muhammed and the angel and the preachers of his religion—“. . . let them go to hell.”

– – –

A Bible-believing Christian must first have the truth above firmly established inside himself, herself, before developing relationships with Muslims to share the gospel of Jesus—the Truth—in the most winsome way possible.

Filed Under: Educational, Faith Based

SPIRITUAL PREREQUISITES

February 2, 2023 By Leave a Comment

Prerequisite to salvation, to heaven—a relationship with Jesus.

Prerequisite to a relationship with Jesus—forgiveness for sin.

Prerequisite to forgiveness for sin—repentance for sin.

Prerequisite to repentance for sin—regret for sin.

Prerequisite to regret for sin—conviction of sin by preaching of God’s law against sin and the consequences of sin.

– – –

And what makes all this work, step by step, in order ?

God’s love.

Filed Under: Educational, Faith Based, Inspirational, Time

WARNING—THEOLOGIANS AT WORK

February 2, 2023 By Leave a Comment

One of the greatest dangers for theologians, and their ongoing universal practices, and their followers, is this:

Theologians (who by their education believe they know more about God) make statements of doctrine in their own words.

Then these theologians must use Bible verses to back up and defend their statements.

Then other theologians who disagree with those doctrine statements must use Bible verses to refute them and defend their own opposing position.

Then all the non-theologians are confused—how can these learned men of God disagree so firmly on so many matters?

Then all the non-theologians have to pick sides, and in turn disagree with each other, and label each other, even separate from each other, and even worship separately.

This is not necessary!

What starts all this?

What keeps all this going?

Can all this be stopped?

HOW?

+What starts all this?

In all walks of life, there are those who want power to control people by any means possible.

We recognize the more obvious means of military might to control people.

We don’t as readily notice the economic means to control.

We get angry but helpless when we see orchestrated chaos causing displacement and hunger, as means to control.

We all have vulnerable spiritual needs, which are exploited repeatedly throughout history, as means to control—lots of people falling prey to educated leaders ‘speaking for God’ (in reality, ‘for god’).

+What keeps all this going?

Whenever individuals (and in turn the organizations they create) gain power to control people, innate human nature compels them to hold on to the power and control, by all means possible.

Until people rise up and face the power head-on, accepting the consequences, those at the top keep control over people for decades, or centuries, or in the case of theologians (the church) for millenia.

In one sense this defies logic, how religious power maintains control longer than even military power.

Kingdoms come and go, including dictators, while the church sets up structure that people succumb to, then voluntarily subscribe to forever.

Slaves built the pyramids (for religious reasons), poor people built cathedrals (buying indulgences for forgiveness for dead relatives), suicide bombers guarantee provision for their families (promised by their religion), and even today at the highest levels of churches, people accept and believe their eternal spiritual welfare is covered, by doing what the leaders tell them to do.

Amazingly the churches don’t all say the same thing—just follow what our church says, because our theologians have a corner on the spiritual market.

People desperately want to belong to something, and people desperately want to be told they’ll be okay after they die—so they will believe anything.

What keeps all this going—money, money, money—food, food, food—survival, at all cost, including the cost of losing freedom (freedom to think, freedom to own property, freedom to read the Bible, and in America, freedom to live out our convictions in public and in business).

So what do church leaders (theologians) do to maintain control when the prevailing beliefs in the culture turn against Christians and the Bible?

Sadly, history records religious compromise and sufficiently modified doctrine statements to prevent revolution in the church and still capitalize on universal, ongoing spiritual needs.

+Can all this be stopped?

If history is any indication, the answer is “no.”

But there are exceptions in history to the patterns of history.

+How?

Power (control) is relinquished only by force—sometimes military invasion, sometimes revolution, sometimes widespread protest, sometimes superior ideology, sometimes religious persuasion, sometimes spiritual revival—all including conviction and sacrifice.

Spiritual revolution, like other revolutions, can happen when enough people get sick and tired enough of control by a few at the top, and use any means possible to throw them out of power.  And they pay a price in the process.

Spiritual revolution, unlike other revolutions, happens when people remember that God answers prayer for change—change that moves people to get right with God instead of religiously correct with man.  And they pay a price in the process.

Man’s power, however high and mighty, however clothed in spiritual garb, is no match for the power of God changing lives.

Then people find that they don’t need the fake church leaders, more interested in perpetuating their power than promoting the real power of the Holy Spirit.

And where do people go from there?

Continued intense prayer and searching the Word of God gives comfort, courage, and direction.

Faith to face persecution, life-sustaining fellowship with a few faithful Christians, and God honors a remnant of true believers with His presence and joy in the midst of suffering and sacrifice.

“For you see your calling, brethren, that not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called.  But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty;  and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence.”

“They searched the Scriptures daily, to see if the things were true, which were taught to them.”

“My brethren, let not many of you become teachers, knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment.”

Teachers in the church? Yes, but with fear and trembling, not for power.

Filed Under: Educational, Faith Based, Political---Cultural, Time
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