It Always Starts With One Dominoe!

     What are we seeing today? Is is anything different from ages ago?  Or do we fight the same battles over and over again?  Just read the Epistles of Paul to the various churches he helped found and anyone with eyes can see that problems then are still  problems  today and they have existed before any of us were born.  So those of us who are "boomers" can certainly see an upward swing of increase in issues of morality even though our generation  participated in the sexual revolution and those of the "greatest generation" of whom Tom Brokaw wrote about certainly see a thousand fold increase of the things of which I write about. To them appearances were everything of importance, permissions from fathers' to date daughters was considered correct.  Timeliness in getting them home early avoided hopefully any unwanted circumstances from angry fathers!  Gossip was considered appalling and anyone who engaged in it was to be avoided!
     So now in our time in less than 20 years the pendulum is again swinging in the opposite direction.
     Morality is now on trial in this country.  The Supreme Court wisely sidestepped  the issue and more or less opened up states rights for same sex couples.  It was a tide they could not stop.  Neither can we as Christians regulate those oustide the Church and say they must do this and this. It is not our place.
     To those Christians Paul was addressing with his "corrections" concerning sexual sins it was for those who have been sanctified within the Church and "purchased with the blood of Christ's crucifixion.  It will always be about that because once a person is united in Spirit with Christ and given the Holy Spirit, it changes everything.  You are  a new creation and we must not sin any more as Christ's mercy towards the adulterous woman has shown.  I believe she was shown compassion and unbounded mercy from  her new found Lord who delivered her from death by stoning.      So we can view the events of this world Just like Paul did in his time but re-direct our efforts to those who are perishing but seeking truth.  Salvation is for all and anyone who would come to the Lord.  But, then you must change and not continue in your sins of before and that is obedience to Christ nothing more.
     18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. 19 Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; 20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.   
   Christ was wise in his admonitions to "Judge not that ye be judged."  Judgement it is said begins in the house of God because it is there where we begin to live anew and have our understandings opened up and it is not narrow minded at all.   To those who suffer, we have compassion. To those in prison, we visit, to those who are sick we pray for healing, and to those who are poor we give so that they can eat and be clothed.  Is this a bad way to live?  This is the Christianity that is not hyprocisy.   It is a sad thing when Christianity suffers for those who have wronged it.  It is a blemish on the larger Church.  
     So don't be alarmed at the domino's, they will continue to fall........................until.....

To Thirst No More:

To thirst no more; When someone has found what they have been looking for there is no longer a thirst or drive to keep on looking.  The thirst is quenched. So is the explorer driven on by the wander lust in his heart to see just what is on the next horizon. He keeps on going until he is satisfied he has seen and done it all.  

But there are those in this world who continually thirst for the truth and search it out diligently trying all testing all to find that "pearl of great price" that Jesus talked about in his parable.  Trying all and testing all  for one's lifetime can be a struggle and a burden if one does not find what he searches for.  His heart turns up empty his soul listless and his spirit unfulfilled in his lifetime. Solomon knew this. He tested everything and gave his heart to all things to see what was in them. Yet he went about unfulfilled because he missed the one thing he should have paid attention too.   His Lord. In his time he sought out many God's and erected many worship places for his wives of many countries, it was his distraction. It was his error. 

      We have many voices to listen to  in our day that speak of their kind of truth yet lead atray and are of no value.  We practice yoga meditate, seek signs thru astrology, seek mystical experiences, seek other worlds and hope for life in distant galaxcies  to one day go to and leave the daily tragedys behind us here on this broken world.  There is hunger.  For peace, for truth, for satisfaction, for safety, for future and for life.

     If you believe it there will be one in our time  who comes and promises to give all of this to us and the first one who comes will be a liar.  Do not believe the great signs an wonders he will do.  For as Isaiah prophecy's says "The vile person shall no more be called liberal, Nor the churl (fool) to be bountiful. For the vile person shall speak villany and his heart will work iniquity, to practise hypocrisy, and to utter error against the LOrd, To make empty the soul of the hungry, and he will cause the drink of the thirsty to fail."  

     In essensce he will offer nothing to satisfy. It will all fail and we will be deceived if possible.  

Then the one whose hair is as white as snow whose feet are like bronze and who speaks with a sword will devour that one who lies.  It will be the Lamb of God, slain from before the world began for us and our waywardness. Son of David, Prince of Peace, Lion of Judah, Son of Man, JESUS these are his names and the name of our salvation and the fulfilment of our peace while we are here. NO other name will do no other person will do what he has done for us............................He is LORD.

NEW

18 He chose to give us birth through the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of all he created.

      Ever hear of the saying "The apple didn't fall far from the tree."  Nothing could be farther from the truth, if you are new in the kingdom of God. I am not my father.  That is of course if you like me did not have an especially kind or loving father, take heart, because you are ingrafted in the kindom of God and made new in Christ. We as the scripture says above, we are the firstfruits of all tht he created.  We are now changed and will keep changing just like Christ wanted us too.  To have the mind of Christ is to be re-newed daily and putting off of the old thinking that we used to do.  With all of the depressions, oppressions, and emotions we can and do experience we can literally throw it all off by the Spirit and lead a totally different life than before.  Fathers should lead and love.  Those of us who did not get to experience that, take heart because, Christ wants us to take in "light" through our eyes and let the whole body be filled with that instead of darkness inherited from Fathers who were less that what they should have been.  

    It is a marvelous light in that it will not be quenched by anything of this world, it is entirely from another place and alien to this world's authority, and can be overthrown.  "Be changed by the re-newing of your mind Paul, Preached mightly."  I do daily and when I fail and see the earthy Father begin to rise in me I stop and pray to keep on the other side of it .....again and again.    

Kobyashi Maru:

                      How we face death is at least as important as how we face life."

 Bones,   "He's dead Jim!  

     

Kirk,  "Bones, What happened to Him?

   

Bones, " He didn't pass the Kobyashi Maru!  He's died without passing the test!"

    

 Kirk, " Bones, He didn't have to die this way, There was another choice, one I made years ago."

    

 Bones, "Nobody's like you, Jim, you found another way to cheat death!"

    

 Kirk, " I didn't cheat death Bones, I don't believe in a no-win scenario!"

   

  Bones, " Like hell you did, you re-programed the whole damn computer!"

     

Kirk, "No Bones, I didn't someone else re-programed me! That's how I beat the Kobyashi Maru!"

     

Bones, " Then tell me, so no one else has to go through this again!"........................

What The Devil Really Wants: To cut short...YOU

     We know there is good and evil in this world.  We see it every day play out before our eyes.  More frequently though we  see the evil in the events of the world close enough to us to sicken us daily.  So what does this mean?  And who is behind this? If you are willing to  believe it , it is spritual warfare.  If we are to believe in a God who is for us and not against us but rather against our sin nature (that which we have fallen into by that one decision made in the beginning) then we must also believe there is one who was cast out ( one whom Jesus saw fall like lightening) and fell to this earthly kingdom.  Sound like science fiction? It  Could be a great movie nowadays. Think Marvel!  CG could do great things with this story and hopefully not pervert it like the recent movie, Noah.  And what is the intent of this being but to control the very human spirits and have them be blinded not only to himself but to God.  In the struggle for good over evil we have seen the story played out and we can know the one who overcame the devil by humility and grace and the power of the cross.
     Looking back to the birth of this one we see that the promise was sought out very early even in infancy and King Herod who feared this Messiah tried to cut short his life by killing all of the male new borns.
   It is hard to fathom, but I have met the elderly who have lived their entire lives into their  eighties and know nothing of the Christian heritage nor of the salvation of a personal God who does infact care for them.  How can this be, in a country filled with Churches saturated with the Gospel?  We can be blinded, busy, uncaring or just unbelieving and miss the promise. How can we not care what our eternity holds?  Simple, we are re-directed and hoodwinked into beliving a story too fairy-tale like to be true.  We of course are too wise!
     Too modern to hold to such primitive thoughts!  Didn't Paul of Tarsus meet those on Mar Hill, Philosophers, thinkers and the wise who also knew nothing of the Christian God?  Yes and even some wanted to hear more of "this preaching" that he did.
     There is no other way to  receive this promise other than "by hearing the word" and being filled anew with the Spirit of God.  So if we are ever to believe in God, you better belive in the Devil also, because he is the one who is out to keep you from the knowledge of God and the power over sin and the Devil himself.  Keep us in the dark, or have us believe in anything but the truth.   In essence to cut off your mind and Spirit from the eternity that is the rightful inheritance for you.  He does it every day by violence, mis-direction, lies, keeping you "happy" with the kingdom of this world and it's goods, material wealth if possible.  
  Remember, he tempted Jesus on top of a great high wall and showed him all the kingdoms that could be his if only................you worship    me........................God already had the Kingdoms and everything else but you!    Can u hear the still small voice?

That Labor of Love: The Church, can you find it?

    In Peter's letters to those Christians scattered throughout the known world, he makes a plea to  them to continue in the love with each other as Christ taught them.  To the elders appointed to watch over them he warned them not to "Lord over them" as do the rulers of the Gentiles do.  This is an important point to grasp in matters of the Church and it's government.  Christ said that those who would be first had to be last and servant of all like he himself showed to all those around him.  Though Lord of all he served with a servants heart to everyone. NO EXCEPTIONS>>>>  Understand that so much damage has been done in Church communities through misunderstanding if this principle.  Yes we must recognize those who are gifted and teach and so forth, but there is a danger in ceding totality of power and a danger of idolozing leadership and those in positions of it.  Christ would have none of it.  In our weakness of human abilities we look to those who naturally lead and want to be led because it seems right but inevitably there are going to be unjust balances, accusations, and innappropriate councils, and the like.  All because we can do it wrong.  Remember what Christ said to those who wanted to be seated on his right and left side of him?  Can you drink of the cup I am about to?  In other words those who would be first, there must be a humbleness of spirit and The Lord must be behind the one who gets "raised up" in that position.  Those with grand plans and great visions, be wary of because they might just lead astray from the greater truths of the Gospel.  Those who preach must not for gain, must not for ego, must not for any reason except for the furtherance of the Gospel and it's truth to release those in a certain captivity and into Christ's freedom.
     I spent many years as in a position of servitude with a heart to give but saw many errors that "we" the "led" gave and put  into the hands of leaders an incorrect power for absolute decision making with disastrous effects on families.  It was a stone cast into a calm lake but with ripples outward going and caused much heartache and even accidents and death.  Horrendous and not needful.  It was the heart of the Sheparding movement in the late 70's and 80's and outgrowth from something good but handed to those who knew not how to wield it.  It put on hold " many "brains and logical thinking" that should not have been so!  What many were taught in the name of "submission" to authorities was taken to extreme measures in cases where it should not have been so.  These were cultic practices inserted into Christian churches and served to control issues and people where it needed not to be at all.  Yes we can read all about the out of control issues that Paul wrote to the Corinthinans about but they were real issues that needed to be dealt with quickly and correctly.  And there were those is positions hopefully of an astute mind and character to do so.Things like buying a car or what job should I get? Or who should I marry? Unless of course the girl was 17 and the guy was 80! Were at the very least not issues a Pastor or Elder should deal with.  Paul nevertheless was concerned about authority abuse and rightly so.  How many are deceived into giving away their life's worth to a phony mission call of a man?  How many serve many years faithfully with a pure heart hoping to be in a position of worth only to be bypassed?  Bypassed and forgotten? I would say many. Or like myself..cast off from those within because of suspicion that you were " in the world" too long and came back but of no worth now?  Yet for all of these things that can happen,( and we are judged by them from a human aspect,) Christ does not ever cast us off except for that one sin only that I can find which is blaspheming the Holy Sprit.  
  There is to be sure a labor of love that goes into being a "church" simply the called out ones who want to serve in a capacity that pleases Christ.  To be an effective ambassador for Christ without losing an important part of your self in the doing of it.  Where there are communities there will always be those busybodies or meddlers who want to get in and share what they think they know but instead cause undue confusion with words without wisdom.  Then there the leaders who know it all by the mere fact of their positional standing.  Peter said to test all spirits and see it they are of God!  We also must use our given wisdom to search out those who we trust and are true believers brothers and sisters alike and see if we are comfortable in doing so.  If any council raises a red flag..within, test it.  Is the council given out of love or out of fear that if you do not do what they say you will.......be in trouble?  This is key.  If in love then ok.  
   For sure being in a Christian community will test your mettle, but I think Christ wanted us to be connected in a good way to one another for our sakes because we need to be.  Finding a Church these days is not so easy, one that holds to principles of truth without weakening the Gospel and building up a people and setting them free like Christ.  I find the secular seeping into the Church in many of the faiths represented and it is sad and also a fear in many Churches in holding to past orthodoxy because many cannot commit any more and soon the numbers will dwindle along with donations (tithes) and so the Church can no longer function and it dies. 
      Christ is the cornerstone and must be to any Church that calls itself Christian and it must be alive organic and full of the Spirit of Christ and above all love must be present, forgiveness, grace and truth also must be in practice.  Each of these things will produce a healthy place of worship.  Safe...     
     

History: Repeating again, again, again, until.....God gets what he wants!

Babylon, or Iraq, Iran or Persia nations that have figured immensely in a historical sense are still with us.  We are continuing  millenniums of history right before our eyes.  What Israel fought, we fight.  What we are allied to or tied to in the nation of Israel we are destined to be in a  part of her history just like the nations afore mentioned.  We have become and 'Instrument in the hand of God.'  Though we may say we direct our own course set our own nation on a path that is democratic and a light to all the world in that our freedoms are to be envied, there is still a sickness within like most of the ancient Prophets mentioned and proclaimed against their own land and leaders of the time.  Kings that were corrupt one after another leading that nation into disaster foretold by their Prophets, and heading away from righteousness demanded by the one true God, proved to be their own downfall, smitten by nations greater than them.  Cyrus was in his time such a leader used by God to fulfill his purposes and set the then captive nation free and sent back into their land to worship their god replete with their own customs.  To in effect start all over again and follow a true path.

     We now are a nation struggling to find resolve and peace while in the daily offerings of our media are subject to a brutality of certain people beheading the innocent, people who write for living, people who give aid and comfort in a dangerous part of the world.  The leaders of Iran and Iraq never left their roots.  This ISIS that now pervades our world are another type of people altogether.  Ruthless, souless, footless mauraders driven to kill at whim for their twisted will.  What of this?  And what of the coalitons of nations we are allied with to deal with this type of threat?  One has only to read through several centuries of history and see the coalitions Kings( Israel) made with surrounding nations for their own preservation to see the outcomes.  Most of them paid tribute to foreign lands with their Gods and Paganistic ways  to remain intact. With that the ideas and Gods of that nation generally seeped into the consciousness of Israel and the people.  Evil that was rooted out in the days of Joshua and Caleb and cities that were devastated attested to the obedience of those who carried out such a plan.  It would seem to us looking in as "barbaric" relentless slaughter of innocents within a system of leadership that was reponsible for reprehensible worship of idols and child sacrifice to their multiple Gods.  So do we hold our society above others? Do we adhere partially to what righteousness is? And so suffer what may be our own future distess and disaster?  Is our alliance with Israel a good thing and can it last?  I think anytime a nation goes to the length of support for ideals that are honorable it is a good thing, but with caution because you never know what you are going to get in return with that alliance.  The flood that comes in with fighting alonside and ally  brings in unknown consequences and other enemies to us. Witness the Taliban, Al-Queada, Hamas, what was the PLO and so many others we have either fought in the open or clandestinely through covert methods.  

    We choose to support Israel because of the Judeo-Christian heritage we share. It is by far the most palatable one to accept because it has roots in a Godly morality.  A morality not contrived or made with human effort but given to a chosen people to bless the nations of the earth.  We then must hold to certain standards of morality if we are to continue.  We cannot continue a path of outright 'open morality' while this nation continues to advance immorality in ways that are evident in passed laws and acceptance of  social behaviors that have loosened those moralities like those of cities of Sodom and Gomorah.  There is no just balance in weighing types of sin for sin against one or the other. It is just sin. And will not inherit the Kingdom that God proclaimed on earth.  Any sin will be outside the walls of that kingdom.    Just like nations past we will inherit consequences of behavior.  Just like Israel  that was chosen to be a Royal Priesthood that strayed far from it's original course we can too.  I do hope though we can stem this current tide killings we have seen recently on our tv's and internet and pray we are as a nation an instrument used by God in a correct way and return to those things that will be blessed and not cursed.