As I was talking to the LORD this morning about our nation and the way it is headed under this current administration especially, this passage came to me as to worldly wisdom compared to the wisdom that comes from God, not only for eternal life, but for our earthly life too. 

When I was saved in February of 1975, I wanted to know my Savior who had saved me from going to hell. I wanted to know Him as best I could. I wanted to know what my Heavenly Father thinks of me. I wanted to know how He thinks about everything, especially since He is the Creator and will judge it (us) all. I wanted to know the future He has for me and my loved ones that I pray for. So, I started reading the Holy Bible. I was so hungry ‘to know’ that I read for hours each day until I had read through the whole Bible, Genesis to Revelation. Then I started reading it again, and again and again….studying and meditating on passages that jumped out to me as they were the indwelling Holy Spirit (who is the LORD) speaking to me from God’s LIVING Word. 

The Word of God was NOT ‘inspired’ by men, but by God's Holy Spirit. 

The Word of God is our foundation of knowledge and pure wisdom and is the basis by which I judge everything happening. Yet what is happening in our world, and especially in America these days, it is evident that people do not KNOW what they need to know. They reject what God says in His Word, and yet refer to themselves as Christians. Others have rejected God altogether and think they are the ones to rule and tell everyone how to think and live. They are blind fools according to their Creator and Savior and Judge. 

“The beginning of knowledge and wisdom – is the fear of God.” Proverbs 9:10

When I was first saved, I came to the LORD because I “feared God.” I feared God because I believed what God says in His Word about salvation in Jesus Christ His Son; that without faith in Him I was doomed and forever separated from God and the eternal life He has planned for those who love Him, and whom He loves as His eternal family. Then as I began to KNOW HIM in His Word, I fell in love with Him. 

When I listen to this current administration talk about all the things they have planned to do, and that they’ve already done to this country, this passage in God’s Word says it all:

1 Corinthians 1:18-29 “The message of the cross is foolish to those who are headed for destruction! But we who are being saved know it is the very power of God. As the Scriptures say, ‘I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and discard the intelligence of the intelligent.’

“So where does this leave the philosophers, the scholars, and the world’s brilliant debaters? God has made the wisdom of this world look foolish. Since God in his wisdom saw to it that the world would never know him through human wisdom, he has used our foolish preaching to save those who believe. It is foolish to the Jews, who ask for signs from heaven. And it is foolish to the Greeks, who seek human wisdom. So when we preach that Christ was crucified, the Jews are offended and the Gentiles say it’s all nonsense.

“But to those called by God to salvation, both Jews and Gentiles, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. This foolish plan of God is wiser than the wisest of human plans, and God’s weakness is stronger than the greatest of human strength.

“Remember, dear brothers and sisters in Christ, that few of you were wise in the world’s eyes or powerful or wealthy when God called you. Instead, God chose things the world considers foolish in order to shame those who think they are wise. And he chose things that are powerless to shame those who are powerful. God chose things despised by the world, things counted as nothing at all, and used them to bring to nothing what the world considers important. As a result, no one can ever boast in the presence of God.”

I’m praying for people to come to KNOW the LORD in truth and spirit. I’m praying for our nation to have leadership with PURE wisdom from above. I’m praying for the LORD’s church to understand their responsibility in “such a time as this.”

As I was talking to my Father God, I asked Him: “What if Jesus had given up and asked You to save him from anymore sorrow and pain as He journeyed to His ‘physical’ end, would You have Father? What a question! Right? But I know that Jesus was also a human being like us with flesh and emotions.

Had Jesus asked His Father that, it would’ve been our Savior’s feelings and flesh asking, that human part of Him. At one point we know that Jesus asked the Father, when He cried out: “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death….He fell on His face and prayed, saying, ‘O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as YOU WILL.’” (Matthew 26:38-39)

So I thought, then if I have His Spirit dwelling in me and His Word (truth and promises) locked in my mind, I also can overcome anything in life – like Jesus did. Right? Just think of what He has given us with the Word of God and His indwelling Holy Spirit. And yet, believers in Jesus Christ are overcome by our fleshly desires and the world’s threats and the devil’s lies and temptations. Why?

I’m convinced that most, if not all, of God’s people today do not utilize the Word of God and the power of God’s indwelling Holy Spirit as they could and should. I know I haven’t, and I’m constantly working on that with repentance and moving forward with a new day of all His mercies.

We are called to become more like Jesus Christ. Christ was a physical person like we are, but in Him was God’s divine nature of the Holy Spirit and unwavering faith in how His human life would end up benefitting mankind in making the way for us to come to the Father and live with Him forever.

We need to read and study the Word of God for our faith’s application and daily encouragement. Jesus Christ didn’t need to read the Word of God (Torah or Holy Bible), HE IS THE WORD OF GOD. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.….The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth….No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made Himself know.” (John 1 in part)

When I asked Jesus to forgive me of all my sins, and to come live in me (February of 1975), He did. He waits to be asked, and when asked – He moves in and goes to work in us by His Spirit and His Word. We are responsible to feed on God’s words. If you don’t have a hunger for the Word of God, to know Him, and to know what He’s done in the past and is yet to do in the future; and if you don’t have a desire to please your heavenly Father, to understand what worship truly is – then you are not a child of God.

As Jesus said to those in His day who didn’t acknowledge Him as the One they were teaching about, “You are of your father, the devil.” Jesus never spoke ‘worried’ about people’s feelings; He spoke the truth that would set people free from all that besets us in our lives so we can live the life that is truly life. He showed us how to be His humble witnesses, as He lived to glorify His Father. With all the gifts and fruit of Christ’s indwelling Holy Spirit, we can be His faithful witnesses. And, He gave His promise as to what we could expect from God for faithfulness to the end of our life on earth.

Yet, in knowing that I have all the power in me (Word and Spirit) and all God’s favor on me, I stumble and fall. I’m reminded of when our Savior was carrying His Cross to His crucifixion; the cross He bore of all of OUR sins. His human weakness stumbled and fell from the weight. So, He fully understands our human weaknesses. And is why He calls out: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Peter 1:3 “His divine power (Holy Spirit) has given us everything we need for life and godliness through the knowledge of Him (Word of God) who called us by His own glory and excellence.”Philippians 4:13 “I can do ALL things through Christ who gives me strength.”

What “thing” do you struggle with? What “burden” are you trying to carry on your own? What ‘hope’ do you have, and where does it come from? I pray it comes from faith in what GOD has said and what Christ has done for us? AMEN?

I’ve asked God why ‘animal sacrifices’ for covering man’s sin back then, and then why His ‘Son’s sacrifice.’ Why blood? How does “blood” cover sin so that the Father’s wrath on man’s sin-nature is held off? 

The other morning the thought came that it’s all about LOVE. God is love: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Then this Scripture came to mind: “No greater love than this: that a man lay his life down for another.” 

Animal sacrifices, that God required of God’s people, Israel, to temporarily cover their sin - could never ‘completely’ atone for sin permanently like Christ’s own blood sacrifice on the cross has done. They had to sacrifice on a regular basis. Christ sacrificed once and for all. Love was the difference. An animal doesn’t offer itself; it doesn’t understand this. No animal that was used to atone for sin back then, understood what was happening to it. An animal is not made in God’s image, like man is. Dogs are loyal animals and have been known to protect their master to the point of dying, but that type of ‘love’ is physical only, not spiritual for eternal life. 

We might be blessed to live to be 80 or 100 in our physical bodies, but what then? There is eternity! “God has set eternity in the heart of man” so that man (not animals) would consider ‘life after death’ according to what GOD SAYS about it, not what man has conjured up out of self-deceived ignorance and arrogant unbelief. 

The ’obedience’ of God’s people back then, and of the priest to do what was required for those animal or fowl sacrifices were simply that: out of obedient fear. When God’s priests failed to meet that requirement from God – they suffered the consequence, and so did the people they were to cover with the blood sacrifice. 

God still says to us, “If you love Me – you will obey Me.” What do I obey? I obey the will of God by loving and trusting what Jesus Christ did for me on the Cross and then living in me with His indwelling Holy Spirit of eternal life. What our Savior did with His own body, was out of PERFECT love for us; perfect because it provided life eternal. 

When someone like you or I lays our life down for another – that act does not provide eternal life; it just allows the person we died for to live a little longer on the earth. And that’s why Christ’s sacrifice was a “once and for all” sacrifice that brought our pardon from the Father’s eternal wrath on our sin-nature we are all born with. 

With Christ standing at the Father's right hand as our High Priest, we are favored by the Father because we have believed in the life and blood of His Son. But why blood? “Life is in the blood.” How long will you live without the flow of blood? The flow of blood keeps everything in our body doing what it’s supposed to do for us to keep living. God was showing us in how He created our bodies how the physical life-flow has a spiritual meaning with the eternal life-flow of Christ’s blood. Our body’s blood gives life to our physical body. Christ’s blood gives us life eternal with God (in our new imperishable body). 

Wow! What a SAVIOR!

Sometimes I'm just warn out from all the battles in this life. Both inwardly and outwardly wars are waged. My mind is drawn continually into the fray. But how many of my battles are a normal and beneficial part of the Christian life and how many are not? How many are intended by God as a means to my sanctification and how many are a distraction from it? How many are a waste of time? 

I think we can all agree, people are at the center of every battle. Whether it's politicians or the news media, previous spouses or estranged children, church leadership or fellow congregants, we can all tell stories of how we've been wronged or are being wronged. (I forgot to throw in bosses and coworkers.) It seems neverending. No one would argue that this stuff has a way of messing with our minds. It robs us of peace and joy and unsettles our lives. People get into our head and never leave.

The standard Christian response to this is to forgive the offender and trust our heavenly Father. This is a biblical solution and it is correct. But I find that past memories and hurts still remain. They don't magically go away with a wave of the Scriptures. Our minds are a storehouse. Nothing leaves. Like a hard drive, all the data that was put in stays in. So I pray, God, is there more to this? The answer is yes. 

The solution doesn't end with forgiveness. This is only the first step. What follows is also found in Scripture. Job 42:1–6 (NIV): Then Job replied to the Lord: “I know that you can do all things; no purpose of yours can be thwarted. You asked, ‘Who is this that obscures my plans without knowledge?’ Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know. “You said, ‘Listen now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you shall answer me.’ MY EARS HAD HEARD OF YOU BUT NOW MY EYES HAVE SEEN YOU. Therefore I despise myself and repent in dust and ashes.”

God never told Job why he put him through all those painful trials but we do get a glimpse into one of the results. At the end of Job's difficulties his view of God had changed. He experienced a greater revelation and understanding of the character and nature of his Lord. He knew God in a way he never did before and it forever changed him. 

John 17:3 says this: "And this is eternal life, that they KNOW YOU, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent." Every painful thing we experience in this life is meant by God to reveal himself in greater ways to our hearts. He wants us to KNOW HIM, and suffering is one of the ways this is made possible. 

As believers in Jesus Christ we have something the unbeliever doesn't, confidence that pain is never a dead end for us but a window into God himself. Suffering rewards us with the very person of Jesus Christ. And this makes it all worthwhile. So the answers to the questions I began with is that ALL our battles are meant for our sanctification and none of them is a waste of time. Only hopelessness and wishing them away is.

Legacy vs. Lunacy

Mike had a dream last night that was so uniquely interesting that I felt the need to write it out and state what came to us about it.

The start of his dream had to do with Mike being on a trip because he missed his wife. He found himself in an historic building’s elevator with a photographer there taking photos of the old building for the article of the history of it. She asked Mike for help with photography of the building, and as he was helping her, she began to ask him questions about himself, his wife who had passed, his family and so on. The photographer became so interested in Mike’s story and testimonies that she took a picture of him and wrote a publication of his life as well as the building; tying the two together.

The thought I had about such an interesting dream was how we all see things that have been done (built, made, carved, sculptured, worked for, etc.) and might never learn what the person had to go through in order to do such a great thing in life.

Then I began seeing what we are experiencing today in our country with groups of so-called “activists” tearing down statues of our founders and others that made America a nation people come to live in; they are breaking in to stores and ruining the livelihood of store-owners; they are taking over neighborhoods, forcing out families afraid to live there any longer; they are lawlessly harassing and threatening and destroying and killing – because they were never taught and raised to respect anything or anybody. They don’t care about your journey in how you came to have what you have or do what you did. They vandalize a store not knowing what it took for that store owner to have it. The journey to the criminal is not important; self-gratification is all they have to live for.

When children grow up learning to be accountable and disciplined in accomplishing something important – they naturally have respect for others; they will even want to help others reach their dream of significant value. When we learn what it took for a person to do what he/she did that had/has great worth and value, they won’t go around tearing down what others built or made.

Just to see something impressive and not understand what it took for someone to produce that thing that benefits others as well as themselves, allows someone to have no feeling of guilt in trying to tear it down, or take it from them.

Why do murderers feel no guilt? They have no understanding about that person’s personal life. The person they murder has no meaning to them. The statue they pull down has no meaning to them. The store building they vandalize and rob has no meaning to them. The laws they break have no meaning to them.

Why were they not taught and raised to have respect for people and their possessions, and for law and order, and for buildings and neighborhoods? When children learn what it took for a man/woman to do what they did – that ‘thing’ means more to them. Back in the old days, people used to sit around and share their stories around the kitchen table, the front porch, the store counters, on car trips, etc. Kids today haven’t had that benefit. Families are not close like they used to be. Some are, but most are not.

Parents who try to hide their hardships from their children (children who can understand) in reaching what is important to them are preventing their children from learning to appreciate ‘things’ that are important in our lives, or that they (the children) will one day inherit.

If children don’t learn self-discipline and respect and hard-work in getting what you want and in accomplishing the dream they could have – then they grow up otherwise, like we see today with BLM, ANTIFA, LEFT-ACTIVISM, all rampages of lawlessness and criminal minds looking for ways to take what they want from others and take out their resentments and lack of proper upbringing - on others.

And not only that, but we are living in a time with a lawless WH administration that won’t do their jobs to protect hard-working, law-abiding men and women with their families and their businesses and their possessions. Shameful! Never thought we’d be living this way in America.

Father God, "Your Kingdom come - Your will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven."

Reading Ecclesiastes chapters 3-5 this morning, what came out to me are:
“I know that everything GOD DOES will endure FOREVER; NOTHING can be added to it, and nothing taken from it. God does it so that people will fear HIM.” (3:14) Fear Him? Fear here means to revere/worship Him. Okay, then all that God has done and continues to do (that man can’t undo or pretend it does not exist) is to bring man good while he lives on earth – but only as long as man acknowledges it as the truth, and gives God first place in his heart.

To reject God and all He has done, is to bring on oneself inner unrest, physical afflictions and outer hardships, and if that was not enough – at the end of one’s life he finds far worse for himself that lasts forever: separation from God.

“Because Jesus Christ lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood. Therefore, HE IS ABLE to save COMPLETELY those who come to God through Him, because He ALWAYS lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest TRULY MEETS OUR NEED. He is holy, blameless, pure, set apart from sinners, exalted above the heavens. He sacrificed for our sins, once and FOR ALL, when He offered Himself.” Hebrews 7:24-27

Regarding the work of man’s hands under the sun, as Solomon talks about in Ecclesiates:
“All toil and all achievement spring from one person’s envy of another. Fools fold their hands (doing nothing at all) and ruin themselves. Better one handful (just enough) with tranquility than two handfuls (more than necessary out of envy and greed) with toil and chasing after the wind.” (4:4-6)

We naturally want to pass something down to our children, but are our children wise or foolish? “For whom am I toiling for, and why am I depriving myself of enjoyment?”

Wealth hoarded to the harm of its owner, or wealth lost through some misfortune (increasing taxes and regulations on businesses and families for example), so that they have nothing to leave their beloved children to inherit – this is grievous evil under the sun! Says the wisest man ever! We have an evil government that wants to TAX EVERYTHING WE DO, and have. WHAT A GRIEVOUS EVIL UNDER THE SUN!

“What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful IN ITS TIME. He has also set ETERNITY IN THE HUMAN HEART; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. I know that there is nothing better for people than to be happy and to do good while they live. That each of them may eat and drink, and find SATISFACTION in all their toil – THIS IS THE GIFT OF GOD.” (3:9-13)

As the wisest man said: “Nothing is new under sun; what has been – will be again.” It all circles around – just packaged differently. So that those words ring true: “What man has learned from history – is that he has NOT LEARNED anything from history.” And, “What is the definition of INSANITY? Doing the same thing over and over (only packaged differently by the next generation) and expecting a different result (one that you hope to be pleased with).”

I am so very joyful that this old wicked world will come to its end – with the RETURN OF JESUS CHRIST: KING of kings and LORD of lords. Just as our Creator Father has said He will. And the GOVERNMENT of the COMING new world will rest on HIS SHOULDERS! What a DAY that “thousand years” will make on our earth and in the heavens - for those who honor and obey the LORD OF ALL.

Our God is good, and all that HE has done – will ENDURE FOREVER! This is why I keep to HIS simple but narrow PATH! This is why I won’t deny my Savior and Lord Jesus Christ, nor will I doubt His Word! This is why I tell others what HE MEANS TO ME! I dream of the Day mankind lives under God’s Laws and Love – forever!

My Creator should be everything to me because He is the Creator. What am I lacking that He is not, or that He can’t do, or that He can’t grant me?

Why do I have a hard time believing that my Lord can take good care of me now and all the way to the end of my life on earth, no matter what? Why am I doubtful that He will do what I ask Him to do for my loved ones? Why should waiting on the Lord to do what I ask, longer than I want, cause me to give up believing in Him? I need to understand that His ways and thoughts are so much higher than mine (ours). His love is so long and deep and wide that I will ever be experiencing the massiveness and enormity - of His love.

Trusting the Lord is a hard thing to do, especially after you’ve been let down, or rather, you ‘feel’ that you’ve been let down after you’ve asked and asked and asked of Him. God does not respond to our feelings rooted in fear and doubt. He acts on our faith in who He is, what He says about Himself, what He says about the things of this world, our flesh, and the devil, and what He says about you and me as His children.

James 1:5-7 “Now if any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him. But he must ask in faith, without doubting, because he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That man should not expect to receive anything from the Lord.”

If I stop expecting Him to make good His Word to me, He won’t. My expectation of Him must be according to what He says in His Word to me. People end up hating God because of their own false expectations of Him; they want to believe what they want about God.

My expectation of the Lord is part of the personal relationship I have with my Savior. I’m NOT talking about making demands of a father as a spoiled child would do.  God will not spoil His children. I’m talking about anticipation/eagerness/looking forward to what my Father God says that I CAN EXPECT from Him because He loves me.  The truths in the Word of God are so important to our faith, hope and love for Him.

Psalm 91:14-16 “Because he (she) loves me,” says the Lord, “I will rescue him (her); I will protect him (her), for he (she) acknowledges my Name. He (she) will call on me, and I will answer him (her); I will be with him (her) in trouble, I will deliver him (her) and honor him (her). With long life I will satisfy him (her) and show him (her) my salvation.”

I simply need to persevere in faith, hope and love for the Lord my God, and let waiting on Him mature me in Him.  As I mature, I begin to understand that it’s not all about me and what I think is best. I begin to understand that He expects from me. He ‘requires’ me to come into His thinking and purpose in my life. He’s the Potter, I’m His clay! I need to read and meditate on His Word and live it out with the much-needed help of His indwelling Holy Spirit. What a gift the Holy Spirit is!

Micah 6:8 “He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.”

Justly? See the situation truthfully through God’s eyes, then act or speak. Mercy? Treat others with the same mercy God has treated me. Humbly? Recognizing that my God is in full control, and He will do what He deems best, since it’s His plan that rules over all of man’s plans, and even mine. Therefore, I will just trust Him with all my concerns and desires and joyfully make myself available to Him each day.

What have I to fear? Why so downtrodden? Why so worried about so many things? “My beloved, just rest and sit with Me, fellowship with Me, and walk with Me! Let Me show you how absolute I AM,” says the Lord God my Savior.  

Thank You Lord for Your presence!