God had made it known to Moses that He was ready to kill the people Moses was to lead and start a new nation with Moses because of how the people were so quick to turn back and forget the Lord after all they saw the Lord do for them. (Exodus 33)

When Moses was on top the mountain receiving God’s law for God’s people to live by; the people incited Aaron (Moses’ assistant and brother) to take all their gold, melt it down, and form a gold image (calf) out of it for them to worship and prosper by. The people wanted their ‘man-made’ god to replace the God of all Creation. What blindness! But this is how the devil works to deceive people throughout time, with lies and deception.

You and I can think, how ridiculous for them to believe that something we make with our hands and that has no life in it – can do us any good. And it can’t. Yet, we have done the same thing when we look at our wealth and abilities as our strength and confidence: a false expectation. We do the same, when we look to a man with false expectations, like the Israelites looked to Moses. God chose a committed man to lead them, and not a man for them to worship.

We see where that got them. They ran wild with their own thoughts and fleshly desires. They indulged themselves – giving themselves over to every lust of the flesh. They defiled the land where they did all this, and GOD WAS VERY ANGRY! If Moses had not reminded God of His covenant with faithful Abraham, Isaac and Jacob – God would have done exactly what He threatened to do. God honored His servant Moses by continuing to show grace and mercy to His people. Moses did not start out a holy man, as he walked in the will of God, he grew in faith, hope and love. Moses started out with very little understanding of how great God is. As he followed the will of the Lord for God’s people – Moses learned, as the people also learned, how great the love and power of God is for His people. We can expect (a true expectation) the same now with the man God chose for the nation of America. What God starts, God finishes.

Moses was afraid to go any further with a people that God called “stiff-necked.” Moses feared God, and unless the Lord went with him – Moses wasn’t going. Moses understood that God’s presence = God’s goodness.

It was the Lord who called him to this assignment in the first place; against Moses’ own will – God chose him. When God chooses someone for His good purpose it doesn’t matter what the man has done or said. It doesn’t matter what the man thinks of himself either. God will have mercy on whom He will have mercy and God will have compassion on whom He will have compassion. God can easily change the course of the heart/will or the course of a nation, one way or another. It doesn’t matter what ‘we’ see or know; it’s all about what God sees and knows. Jonah (in the Bible) was a very good example of this. Living in the dark stinking belly of a great whale isn’t very comfortable or promising, but it happened to Jonah to change his heart/will so that Jonah would do what God called him to do.

God put the fears of Moses to rest: “My Presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.” “I will cause all My goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim My Name, the LORD, in your presence.” (Exodus 33)

What actually did Moses see? I believe it was the back of Jesus Christ that Moses saw from the cleft of the rock; for God tells us in the book of Hebrews that His Son is the true radiance and exact representation of God. In sending us Jesus, it was our Father showing us His goodness: His mercy and grace, His compassion for us in doing for us what we can NOT do for ourselves; specifically: save ourselves and bless ourselves.

“Therefore, fix your thoughts on Jesus. He was faithful to the One who appointed Him, just a Moses was faithful in all God’s house. But Jesus has been found worthy of greater honor than Moses, just as the builder of a house has greater honor than the house itself. Christ is faithful as the Son over God’s house.”

God is giving America a time to repent, turn from our wicked ways, and to prosper so we can prepare for what is inevitably coming against His people with more and more intensity. Like the Israelites who didn’t grasp what God was doing for them and for their future descendants, we also can miss God’s purpose, getting caught up in the flesh (feelings and emotions), having our eyes on the world.

We can look at our new president, God’s choice, and not see what God sees in why He chose the man. That’s fine, but it’s rebellious for us to ‘judge’ God by standing against the man He chose. The Israelites did this with Moses and God was ready to kill them all. We can criticize, protest, cry, lash out and keep living in foolish rebellion, or we can go to the Lord for His wisdom and instructions and get walking with the Lord in such a time as this. For the last 8 years God’s people were under God’s judgment; for God put Obama in office for this. God’s painful discipline in the lives of His people is to work to produce a harvest of righteousness with us – so that He can use us for His goodwill.

We better wise up and see this time of God’s goodness to His people, and listen to HIS VOICE only. What our new president said in his inaugural speech gave us a reason to be hopeful about our nation. But we better be in the Bible every day to hear ‘God’s truth’ about the days ahead and how to prepare in the way He shows us. The power of God’s holy people is in God answering the faithful prayers inspired by God’s Spirit.

There’s lots of talk about people being afraid. Be afraid, but NOT afraid of God’s choice of Donald Trump; rather, be afraid of missing God’s grace and goodness that could’ve been yours in such a time as this.

Feelings and emotions are a bottomless pit. Truth is a rock-solid foundation.

What we have been seeing in America is the moving away from truth by the lifting up of “feelings and emotions” over the truth. Truth comes from God and leads the way to the life that is truly LIFE.

Feelings and emotions have been working HARD to dictate the way of life for Americans in a ‘new’ America. Old America was founded on the solid foundation of God’s truth, way and life.

What we see happening in America over these last 8 years is truth being overtaken by the “feelings and emotions” of the loud and proud who have NO solid foundation for their “feelings and emotions” to REST ON, and is why we see man on his own creating more and more laws to deal with all the undisciplined “feelings and emotions” running fast and furious into destruction.

America was founded on “the truth” in faithful men, not on the “feelings and emotions” of unfaithful men. Truth in all areas of our lives will give our feelings and emotions the right way to think and behave; without it all you have is disorder, turmoil and destruction.

All man-made religions spur on man’s “feelings and emotions.” Religion feeds man’s feelings and emotions, and not his spirit. The spirit feeds on the truth of God. Truth works to control our feelings and emotions. Feelings and emotions become right when rooted in the truth and love of God. When rooted in the lies of Satan, our feelings and emotions work against our personal good and the common good.

People do good deeds because of how it makes ‘them’ feel about themselves. People do good deeds for other people because of where it will get them or what it will give them. People do good deeds afraid that if they don’t – then they will be put out of something: their family, their circles of friends, their careers, their churches, etc.

Good deeds is the fruit of religion; but godliness is the fruit of the Kingdom of God. There is a difference between “good works” which are seen by men, and “godliness” which is known by God.

Religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, Catholicism, Mormonism, Humanism, even modern-day Christianity are all peaceful religions; meaning that if you leave them alone and don’t try to change their ways (of thinking about God) or their life (style of worship) – they will leave you alone. If you come into their home or country to change their way and life – you will be treated as their enemy. If you come into their home or country to simply enjoy their “good” way of life – you will be treated as friend.

Communism, Islamism, and other ‘hostile’ armies rooted in a false-belief of God have only purpose, and that to ‘force’ the whole world to surrender by controlling people’s “feelings and emotions” with physical threat and fear. By controlling “feelings” (thoughts/attitudes/desires/lusts/appetites/cravings) and “emotions” (reactions)” Satan gets his anti-Christ system throughout the world. If you’re keeping up with world events – you’ll see how the devil has accomplished this with all the nations, and although God has given America a president who will hold to our Constitution and Judeo beliefs, America will fall under the god of this world like all the nations of the world.

The more you see “feelings and emotions” running wild in all directions, is when Satan has accomplished to rule the world through his chosen vessels, and ultimately the one human vessel God Himself has prepared for the devil to embody and have his day in the sun as the one the world worships and obeys, but for a very short term of office. God cuts it short for the sake of His elect.

This is why the devil left his first estate as God’s number one angel in command, and took 1/3 of the angels with him; he wasn’t ‘satisfied’ with God’s will for him. Lucifer envied the favor and position of God’s Son, and feverishly went after it. The Bible gives a little clue that in the beginning (Genesis 1) there was war in the heavenlies because of Lucifer’s “feelings and emotions” taking over the rock solid unchanging truth of God. (The clue is not obvious, it takes the revelation of the Holy Spirit to show us what the Word of God does not specifically say.)

And so we see how he goes about tempting and intimidating people to control their feelings and emotions against the truth as well; the truth about God and His will for mankind, and His supreme sacrificial love for people that we can learn in the Word of God.

“Therefore, make every effort to present yourself approved to God, an unashamed workman who accurately handles the word of truth. Avoid mocking and worldly chatter, which will only lead to more ungodliness. Such talk by people who have moved away from the truth will spread fast like gangrene.

“Nevertheless, God’s firm foundation stands, bearing this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are His,’ and, ‘Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord must turn away from evil.’

“If anyone cleanses himself of what is unfit in God’s kingdom, he will be a vessel for honor: sanctified, useful to the Master, and prepared for every good work of His.

“Flee from youthful passions (led by your feelings and emotions) and pursue the truth which produces righteousness, faith, love, and peace, and unite with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

“Reject foolish and ignorant speculation, for it only breeds quarreling, and a servant of the Lord must not be quarrelsome, but instead be kind and forbearing, and teach the truth of God and His kingdom. Gently admonish, even scold at times, those who oppose the truth of the Lord, in the hope that God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of His truth. Then they will come to their senses and escape the snare of the lies of the devil, who has taken them captive to his will.”   2 Timothy 16:15-26

We went to see the movie Hidden Figures and what an excellent movie it was.

In the movie we saw how ‘prejudice’ stands in the way of people with brilliant minds doing great things for the common good. Clearly God has given each baby in the womb the potential of genius and excellence.

One thing that stood out to me in the movie was what they used to call people with ‘brilliant minds’ who could mentally calculate numbers and formulas; they called them “computers.” These were the brilliant minds that could figure out how to put a man up in space ‘safely’ so that he returned the way he left. These brilliant minds figured out how to build machines that do what our minds can do, but faster. Today’s brilliant minds are taking “technology” further and further.

Note: In the movie we get to see when the first computer was built and used in the space program. They called this new computer system “the beast.” The Bible talks about “the beast that is given words to say and power over people.” Ask yourself if your internet phone/pad tells you anything you want to know; shows you anything you want to see; puts you in contact with anyone you want to talk to. Ask yourself if you could live without it now after depending on it so much.

I believe that prejudice comes out of under-developed minds. When the mind isn’t allowed to mature the way God designed it to mature, it becomes resentful towards those they believe have held them down, and eventually they will lash out in one way or another. Suicide is one way. Killing and physical abuse is another. Drug and alcohol addiction are ways of showing what a person truly thinks of himself. When government tries to control what people think, say and do – what is the result? The “result” is what we have been increasingly seeing in America, especially over these last 8 years. Government is designed by God to hold people down from their good purpose in life. Government is supposed to protect us from those who want to overtake us and make us their servants. Government is to protect us from those who want to take from us what we have earned to have for our families to enjoy life with. Government is supposed to protect our God-given rights. Do you know what your God-given rights are? Most people don’t because God’s Word has been outlawed in schools and public places, or our Bibles set on a shelf at home to collect dust.

Prejudice of all forms works to block human development for God’s goodwill on earth. Prejudice, a.k.a. deep resentment and hatred towards others different from yourself, has destructive power: shortens and prevents life, stunts growth for mental brilliance and excellence in life, causes shame and fear, and ultimately causes “the abomination that brings desolation on the earth.” Satan resents God’s chosen people. He fuels prejudice and hatred in people. He is fully entertained by all our acts of violence.

There are many forms of prejudice: hatred of those God favors and blesses, hatred of hardworking rich successful people, hatred for those in authority upholding law and order, resenting someone for what they have that you don’t, detesting anyone that stands in the way of you taking what you want from someone else, resenting your brother or sister because of the favor they get that you don’t get, despising those who try to warn you about the path you are blindly going that will destroy you.

You can be sure that those who scream and cry the loudest about the prejudice of ‘other’ people or people’s groups – are IN FACT the very ones themselves who are prejudice. They never accomplish anything good for themselves or for the society they live in because their minds think this way – all the time. Their prejudice hinders their mental brilliance, and eagerness to do hard work that would prosper them and help others.

“God is MIGHTY, but despises no one; God is FIRM in His purpose….but if people are bound in chains and cords of affliction He tells them what they have done…He makes them listen to correction and commands them to repent of their evil. If they obey and serve His good will, they will spend the rest of their days in prosperity and their years in contentment. God is not partial or prejudice. BUT if they do not listen, they will suffer the consequence and die without the knowledge they refused.”

“The godless in heart harbor resentment (prejudice).” Even when God handcuffs the godless, they do not repent and cry out to God for His help. Therefore God denies them His light; His Brilliant and Excellent Kingdom of the Son He loves. They will stand before God their Maker one day, and give their puny excuses in thinking they can defend themselves. But there is only ONE TRUE DEFENDER we want on that Day: The Son of God.

Prejudice warps and handicaps the mind; which in turn works only evil on the earth. Prejudice is one of the devil’s most successful schemes of the devil. Jesus came down to earth not only to forgive us but to show us the right way to think about ourselves and each other, and how to live with each other and work together with all our ‘good’ differences. But it will take the second coming of Jesus Christ to earth for all nations to surrender and live for the good of all mankind; which they will or else eternally suffer God’s verdict.

The potential for brilliance and excellence is within ALL of us because God originally made mankind in His own image. We simply need to acknowledge God in all our thoughts and ways. Because of the briliiant mind God gave man – man got arrogant and rebellious towards God, so God had to scatter and separate them by language, skin and boundaries. (Tower of Babel in King Nimrod’s day.) Each developed their own culture of law and lifestyle.

If everyone were to look the same, think the same, act the same and have the same things – where could prejudice thrive? But that’s not how it’s supposed to be with all the ‘good’ differences in God’s created things. It’s only as we humble ourselves before God our Creator, and commit ourselves to His Son’s love and unity that we understand how all people with all their ‘good’ differences – can work so well together for the common good; which brings our Father God the honor and glory He deserves to receive from mankind.

Prejudice: that which prevents you from reaching your good purpose in life, both for the one who is trying to hold someone down or others down for whatever prejudice they have, and for the one being held down by someone’s prejudice towards them.

In the movie Hidden Figures this comes out so clearly – as the brilliant minds of the black women were held back by the prejudice of the white people in the space program, and the space program was held down from its goal because the brilliant minds of these black women, one in particular, was not allowed to work her brilliance where most needed. But at the end of the movie it all changed.

Go see it!

The mind that God gave us is a powerful thing; it can work for us or against us.

Watching the series ALONE I saw one contestant who let his mind work against him, instead of for him. He was quick to think the worse about his situation each day, and quick to become angry when something happened that hurt him; quick to curse with his words. How we feed and nourish our mind determines how we deal with loneliness, adversity and loss. It makes all the difference.

This contestant learned how negative he was by all the problems he made for himself by thinking so negatively. All his ‘cursing’ over the situations he was in worked against him. For example: a mouse followed him around chewing his gear so that he decided to change locations, but the mouse followed him wherever he went. He began to realize that it was ‘him’ who needed to change, not his location, and not expecting nature to change. Nature does what nature was created to do.

Why does God tell us (in His Word) to think on the things are worthy, good and lovely; those things that nourish and increase the mind’s true purpose from God? Why does God tell us NOT to think on the things that are not true, and that starve and weaken our mind? What power does our mind really have that we are responsible for? How we think is how we act.

God created us. Our mind works right when it’s fed right. When it’s fed right – we do right. When we do right – God blesses it. When God blesses it – great things happen all around us. It rubs off on others.

God’s Word (the truth) is what we need to feed our mind with. This man suffered so much because his mind was weak and incapable of seeing the value around him with nature. His mind was unable to see how to use things around him that nature provides us. He was not prepared at all. Therefore, nature worked against him and not for him. Therefore, this man became his own worst enemy.

People get depressed and have mental breakdowns because of how they think; how they have been raised to think. People commit suicide because of how they think. People hurt people because of how they think.

God is good and God is love; therefore, everything in nature works together because God made it to naturally do so; everything except the ‘natural’ man that is when his thoughts are evil rejecting God and God’s Word.

God set man apart from all other created things; giving him the right to rule and care for His creation. But when man does not “think” right – man works against creation instead of along with it. When man does not “think” right – man works against himself: inhumanities (cruelty, viciousness, mercilessness, atrocities, sadisms).

When we are out of touch with God – our life is so much harder than it needs to be and should be. God intended our life to be fruitful and joyful. God has given us His precious Word to bring us to think right about ‘all’ things pertaining to life, both now and later after death.

God has given us His Son in physical human form to show us the way to the “abundant life;” to free us from our fears and from the condemnation of our sinful nature.

God will bless us with the gift of His ‘indwelling’ Holy Spirit when we trust in His Son in order to bring us out of mental darkness – to open our vision to reality and raise us to our full potential of all things good and eternal.

When you know all this, and not just “know” it but have tested it to be absolutely true in your life, what is there in your mind or in life that works against you anymore? What can happen that you and the LORD can’t overcome, improve and fully enjoy? God’s Word says:

“These light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all; so we fix our eyes on what is unseen and not on what is seen; for that which is seen is temporal but that which is unseen is eternal.”

When we don’t feed our mind ‘the truth’ about this life that we’re born to live – we remain mere infants always falling down and hurting ourselves, getting angry and throwing tantrums, expecting others to support and comfort us, never coming to the maturity of truth and confidence, strength and perseverance, helpful and joyful.

This sad and pitiful man on ALONE (Season 2) eventually ‘broke’ after mentally suffering almost two months in the wilderness. He fell to his knees and cried to God in total desperation (lonely and hungry), and I tend to believe it was the first time he ever completely humbled himself before God.

He was the second from the last man (who won), but he went home with a brand new outlook on his life. He didn’t win the $500K, but he gained so much more in those two months in the wilderness. You really come to the truth about your beliefs, your life and who you are – in a lonely wilderness place. It’s my personal belief that everyone who comes to live the “abundant life in Christ” – has spent some time in the wilderness.

The true wilderness is a “state of mind.” It is all in how you choose to think.

When everything seems against you – God is still for you. He’s waiting for you to realize that. He waits for you to fully believe that HE IS who He says He is; that “He exists and rewards those who eagerly seek Him.”

Moses and the Israelites were being chased by Pharaoh and his army with the intent of bringing them back to Egypt so that the Israelites would be forced to keep serving them. After all the plagues that ruined their land, killed all their livestock and every first born son – Pharaoh’s heart remained stubborn towards God’s will.

Most people would’ve surrendered to the will of God after the first or last plague, but the Scriptures say that it was God that hardened the heart of Pharaoh so that the wonders and favor of God would be experienced by His own people who had not SEEN God’s faithfulness to His promise in their lifetime.

God does not ‘force’ Himself on people; He ‘offers’ Himself. Evil people force themselves on people because they have nothing good in themselves of offer anyone. God offers Himself to people because God is full of love for people and is able to fulfill His promises of goodness to anyone who will believe He exists and rewards those who earnestly seek Him.

The Egyptians used and mistreated God’s people, so God used and mistreated the Egyptians. God gets even, but He tells US not to seek revenge on those who personally hurt and mistreat us. Why is that? “REVENGE is MINE,” says the Lord. Why is God’s revenge right and ours wrong? I tend to believe that when we turn over what has been done to us to our Father God – He is FREE to work HIS WONDERS before our eyes. How else can we stand in AWE of Him and commit ourselves fully to the God who loves us with an everlasting love?

We ‘naturally’ want to defend the weak and helpless because we are made in God’s image, and this is right to do according to God. This is why God set the man over his family and the government over a nation. What an evil thing it is when a father is the bully or abuser of his family, or a president/king uses his power and position to force people to serve him as slaves.

There is a difference between “personal revenge” and “justice.” God will justly deal with those who purposely hurt and use us ‘against our will.’ We are wise to wait for that, just like Joseph did, and David did. They waited and saw the Lord’s good purpose in letting them suffer for a time. Suffering produces the good purposes of God, if we will entrust ourselves to our heavenly Father; a harvest of righteousness will come forth by those who have seen their suffering as character building instead of physical punishment.

God expects us to come to the defense of others, but when you seek to take revenge on someone who has hurt you personally, or used you against your will – God tells us to forgive them and wait on God to deal with them and free you HIS WAY and in HIS TIME. We can see how this worked for Jacob’s 11^th son Joseph, who remained faithful to God all those years of suffering. At just the right time Joseph was in position to help his father Jacob and the family have food during a great famine. We can see how suffering for a time worked for David, later replacing King Saul of Israel who had disobeyed God.

God told Moses to go in His Name and with all of God’s power to rescue the Israelites from their captors.

God had absolutely NO mercy or compassion on the Egyptians who had enslaved and oppressed His people all those years. (From the day Jacob and his whole family entered Egypt it was 430 years later when they received their freedom by the MIGHTY HAND of GOD.) God hardened Pharaoh’s heart after each plague (judgment) so that God’s own people would come to know how powerful and faithful His love is for them. He would teach them to trust and obey Him by all that He did to the Egyptians and that He did NOT let happen to them at the same time; revealing to them that God controls everything in nature (His created things) and can use any of it any way He chooses.

When Moses and the Israelites were camped at the Red Sea and with the Egyptians on their tails to take them back, the people and Moses cried out to God in fear. But the Lord said to Moses (not the Israelites), “WHY ARE YOU CRYING OUT TO ME? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.” And so they did. And we know what happened to their enemies. God drowned them all except a few who lived to tell about it.

When you are suffering for whatever reason – do you cry about it? As one of God’s leaders of His people – do you cry to God about what is happening to them; waiting for HIM to do something about it? God has given us His Word and His Name, the Spirit’s power and authority over the enemy, and He expects us to USE IT ALL with confidence expecting God to do what He says that only He can do for us, as we come to that place and time. We can do more than we think we can do, but there are things that only God can do that God wants us to experience and worship Him for.

God’s anointing on anyone He calls to His purpose – is that HE WILL DO what He has said He will do which is impossible for man to do, as we faithfully go forward obeying His instructions all along the way – to the end.

“As Moses obeyed the LORD…..all that night THE LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind that kept the land dry beneath their feet as they walked through.” Exodus 14:21

Is God the same God as He was then? If we will trust and obey His Word – God will make a way where there seems to be no way.

“Your path led us through deep waters; even though your footsteps were not seen. You led us on a path we did not know; a path we did not see.” Psalms 77:19