“I very much like when we walk together each day, Sir.”  “What may I call you?”  “You may call me Abba”, He said, and his eyes smiled upon me with the knowledge of every fiber of my being reflected.  I followed His steps wondering which wonders He would show me today in the garden of His gifting. He taught to name things, showed me the patience of my hands as I walked the animals in and out of the garden and told me of one tree of which I must not eat or else I would die.  I loved my Father, because He loved me.  I could not imagine displeasing Him for He truly cared for me in a kind, considerate and sovereign way.

What has changed?  For you and I.  Is God different?  Are we?  Can we still imagine anything outside of our total obedience to His command?  Have we forgotten His kindness, His Sovereignty?  It is that knowledge that separates us isn’t it?  That confounded tree from which we could not abstain?  Oh, that the seeds of regret would blossom in to an ointment that would repair my innocence.  Can a man forget his sin? I pray for that wonderful day when the memory of my disobedience is cast from my mortal soul.  He may have forgotten but my miserable flesh continues to remind me of my tentative footing, upon the slippery slope upon which I remain.,

I pray for you.  That you love Him too and covet those moments spent together simply refreshing your spirit.  This Earth is hard, it too groans from the sorcery, the slavery to a master with no kindness within him.  We all wish to be set free from captivity, from the limited programming our producer gone mad.  There is no guessing how this turns out but there is suffering, difficulty, tumultuous times on the road to glory.  What then shall I remember to get me round the bend so to say?  What mantra may I repeat in my mind leading me to victory within apparent defeat?  What dream may I reside upon that will supersede all the anguish incumbent to this venue?  Why that He is my God and He loves me and someday, someday very soon, we will walk together in the cool of the day for eternity.  In Jesus’s Holy Name I pray.

Involuntarily descending

https://youtu.be/dy5xLVx2NGY

That saith of Cyrus, He is my Shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure: even saying to Jerusalem, Thou shalt be built; and to the temple, thy foundation shall be laid.  Isaiah 44:28  

Isaiah historically prophesied between 740 and 681BC.  

Ezra 1-4

Now in the first year of Cyrus King in Persia, that the word of the Lord by the mouth Jeremiah might be fulfilled, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all the kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, Thus saith Cyrus King of Persia, The Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth; and he hath charged me to build him an house at Jerusalem, which is in Judah.  Who is there among you of all his people?  his God be with him, and let him go up to Jerusalem, which is in Judah, and build the house of the Lord God of Israel, (he is the God,) which is in Jerusalem.  And whosoever remaineth in any place where he sojourneth let the the men of his place help him with silver, and with gold, and with goods, and with beasts, beside the freewill offering for the house of God that is in Jerusalem.  

* Having been in captivity for 70 years in Babylon and now Persia, beginning in 586BC  the Jews are called by prophesy to rebuild Jerusalem.  If you continue to study in depth through Daniel you will find that this is a key date in Daniel’s prediction of Christ’s triumphant arrival in Jerusalem.  Isn’t it unique of the Holy Spirit to place the rebuilding of Jerusalem physically in the Book of Ezra, before the Isaiah, where he predicts the rebuilding through Cyrus’s commission?

I don’t know God’s ways but I have learned to expect them, look for them and delight in them as His will is played out before my eyes.  I don’t do this service like some member of a cult waiting upon some human reward, having had my thinking compromised by some deceiver, mind-dissembler or some silver-tongued poet.  I am in love with an Almighty God, who is worthy of my praise, my loyalty and the gift of my life through service.  He has told all of us, all humans what is expected of us and that there will be an eventual price associated with our choice.  Yet we still quibble with the idea that He has not exacted that price to date, having fully declared that He alone will determine the date for all judgment.  Yes, there is evil in the world, heck I am proof of that with my wicked thoughts, my feeble heart and my unwillingness to love him through obedient trust.  But none of us can trifle with the fact that He told us He will correct all that has gone awry at some chosen point in our future.

As with the above prophecy it simply should shake us to our roots, leaving us in awe of His authority, majesty and grace that He considers us worthy at all to told in advance that He will save those who will cry out to Him for salvation.  I didn’t write this story, in fact when I attempt to rewrite, add, take away or deflect the script in my own direction, serving my own wicked delights or proclivities, I am instantaneously reacquainted with My Sovereign God and King.  The God of Abraham, Issac and Jacob be praised in the Mighty name of Jesus, the Messiah, the Christ, the Anointed King of Everything.

If I don’t love you and feel an urgent sense to inquire of God’s mercy on your behalf then I don’t love Him, because you were why He came.  This is not a small thing that God loves you so much He separated himself from His beloved Son and then His beloved Son voluntarily drank the world’s sin to set the condition where you might be forgiven and redeemed to God.  Don’t tell me that you aren’t moved at all when you hear that God loves you so much and desperately wants to fulfill the purpose for your creation.  I have already seen the tear in your eye when I reminded you.

Why does man so desperately run from God.  Cold, naked, hungry, tired and alone, people are simply afraid.  They already loath themselves to the point of doubtful forgiveness.  No wonder they would be afraid of standing in front of angry God’s criticism.  Yes, remember, they don’t know God so all they hear are the rebukes, put downs and recriminations of the enemy telling them that they will never amount to anything.  How then are we to tell them about God utilizing the same criticism employed by the enemy.  I am not in charge of the hearts of my Christian Brothers and Sisters but if I hear one more person tell me that they are not obligated to help a homeless person with money because that person is just going to use it for booze or drugs, I am going to pull out the two edged sword of God’s Word.  We were told to give and also told if we hold back when our neighbor asks that again we sin, so stop trying to justify your disobedient behavior.  Stop trying to be the counselor for the poor, disenfranchised or addicted and love them as Christ would have you love them.  Oh, so you say Christ would not want you to give them money because they will potentially just hurt themselves.  Well, let me put to bed.  If Christ told you that this unbelieving homeless person was going to die tonight without the gospel message if you didn’t take the opportunity you’ve been given to show him/her love, how then would your determination be transformed?

Stop justifying your behavior and obey Christ’s commands.  Stop holding up your own self-righteousness as something other than the filthy rag that it is and show God you love Him enough to do as He had directed.  If you knew that each person you meet was going to die tonight or that God was coming back tonight for His Church, you would conduct yourself differently.  That is the mentality He directed us to maintain, a sense of imminency and urgency of purpose synonymous with a belief that He might come back tonight.  You see it changes you to think that way.  It makes each bite of food a little better tasting, each handshake a little bit more important and increases the gravity of every action or inaction.  He loved them enough to die for them and that is enough reason for me, I don’t need my own justification.

Simple; God loves me and provided his own death as a sacrifice to redeem my unforgivable act of sin so that I may be in His presence where unholiness may not exist.

Complicated; God is angry at mankind and the only way to heaven is by living a life that may be qualified as “good enough” to earn my way to paradise through self-redemption.

Simple; As an adopted child of God we are now blood kin and are washed clean by the omnipotent blood of our savior given as a perfect, voluntary offering to more than cover our original, sin offense.

Complicated; My sin leaves no stain or offense upon my life and in fact the more that I practice my sin the greater reward, relief I achieve.  After all since this life is all I have I must maximize its pleasure value by achieving every act of self-actualization I may possibly complete.

Simple; There is a God who clearly built His image into creation so that it is evidenced in reviewing nature, confirmed in prayerful contemplation and reinforced through Living directive in His Holy Word given for our edification.

Complicated; Everything we see, taste, smell, hear, touch and are was brought about by happenstance when a void of nothingness suddenly created all matter and launched itself omni-directionally throughout the universe to inexplicably coagulate in an ordered fashion to form every object, life and molecule with purpose, structure and understanding.

Simple; Prideful servants rebel, forcing holy leaders to pronounce judgment upon them in banishment from the lands’ bounty, the love of comrades and the peace which arrives from being a member of the King’s Family thus removing all promised rights, authorities and inheritance.

Complicated; Unholy, prideful, self-serving characters will arrive at the pinnacle of man’s existence through treachery, debauchery, cleverness and manipulation to be rewarded with everlasting existence and holy bodies for their dedicated self-service in a needy and broken world.

It just isn’t that hard folks.  Constructive blindness, justification and denial must be employed in order to make sense of this calamity.

What could perhaps be a greater offense then messing with God’s DNA for man, animals and plants?  Are the products of such manipulation resultant abomination, unmade from perfection, mutated for the purposes of man’s own foul heart?  No wonder God reserved many of the fallen for judgment, captured in tartarus for that awesome day.  What could be of greater offense to God than our attempts to alter what he called good?  Isn’t that the enemy’s intent, even from the outset he sought to convince us that we could become more than just man, being like God, becoming gods.  Is it coincidence that most of the heretical religions or cults follow this same prideful paradigm of man becoming one with God or being god in some evolutionary transformation.  Men of renown, isn’t that what the fallen produced on earth, semi-humans with altered DNA capable of slaughtering men while corrupting the blood line of God’s human seed?

Could perhaps the mark of the beast genetically alter human DNA so that the infected humans become something other than God created them, therefore damning themselves to eventual judgment?  What is the preoccupation with evolution if not to produce an urge, a call for an enlightened jump to the next stage of humanity?  Isn’t that what the globalists, one world, humanists await a jump to a higher level of consciousness? Wouldn’t a visit by say, friendly extra-terrestrials promising to have the catalysts for said evolutionary push, be accepted as somehow a scientific answer to prayer?  What if these seemingly helpful beings were actually the fallen, masquerading as comrades in order to implant a DNA altering “mark” under the auspices of global unity and perfection they desperately crave?  What an awful and harmful deception upon which so many lives would be condemned to separation from God. You see if you aren’t protected by God you may fall pray to a deception that would fool even the most educated in our populations?

Don’t you feel it.  The worlds’ leaders herding us toward some desired end state, some Utopian outcome?  Calamity is used to indoctrinate.  Technology is used to create addiction.  Authority is used to deconstruct historical truth.  We must ask ourselves as Christians, knowing fully that satan has a plan, what shape will it take that if God did not intervene it would even collapse the elect?  Such a plan must look like the answer, such a plan must provide the glimmer of hope that will cut through worldly depression, such a plan must appear to be God’s intention or it would never achieve that success.  The enemy will falsely proclaim himself the most high God and be believed in so doing.  Doesn’t it make sense to indoctrinate our children to trans-humanism, trans-sexualism, trans-formative evolution, knowing that they will be perfectly teed up to receive the lie of enlightenment he has been promising man since the garden?

Be careful, be prayerful and be ready.  Write His Word upon your hearts and the oil of His Holy Spirit in your lamps.  Keep your eyes heavenward, let him guide your steps on that skinny path to everlasting life.  In Jesus’s name I pray.

What is the true gradient of your life surrender to God?  Certainly, we sing it on Sundays, in those moments when we feel close to him in worship, but somehow as we return to our lives in this world we take back portions reserved for our sole control.  If he commanded you to go to Ethiopia in three months to teach, preach and protect a small pocket of believers would you answer that call?  And to that end do you even have a passport to place yourself in the reservoir of believers who could respond to a call from God?

I do not know what he is going to ask of each of us, but I do know that we are each have a purpose for the kingdom.  I do not wish to be sarcastic, because I know how important and difficult this calling and the requisite response must be.  However, we cannot truly believe in God, state that we are governed by his will over our own and then go on our own merry way never expecting that our Master will give us commands.  Or worse yet, declare our “complete/utter” surrender to his will and then make our own plans for work, living, recreation and investment.  To do so is indicative of a unrefined belief or disbelief in our verdant declaration.

Belief causes willingness to respond through obedience, cognizant that obedience is the only true measure of our faith and love for God.  I have heard many pastors preach on this yet I see little reaction from the visiting body.  Why is that?  Our faith is so weak that we mis-comprehend that our lack of obedience to the pastor is symbolic of our true disobedience to Christ.  In real life, just as in the Bible, the Lord provides real world examples and characters that living out the successes and mistakes for our edification. Our unwillingness to listen, absorb, reflect and correct our obedience within our relationship to the pastor is one of those lessons sent for our clarity and understanding of how our behavior is viewed by God.

Your purpose is so important I am stopping for a moment to pray that you have clarity, understanding and surrendered-preparedness and response to His call upon your life. Especially, in reflection to our having to surrender our own dreams for this life in order to complete the work God has appointed us.  It ain’t an easy thing to give your life to Christ, but is the best thing that any of can ever do.  It ain’t simple to truly accept God’s will for our existence, surrendering our own ideas, ambitions and intentions for something greater than self-service.  Let me refine that statement from it ain’t easy to it’s humanly impossible to do without the presence and the filling of the Holy Spirit of God. We have become a new creature, transformed by a renewing of our minds.  What does that mean if not for being born again to be someone different, living by a different code of standards than our previous life.  Let me be blunt, if you accepted Christ and you stayed the same, then you ought to be concerned about your salvation.  Because when your cup is emptied and filled again with His Spirit it becomes impossible to remain where you began.  Pray, prepare and persevere being of good courage throughout God’s Path for your life.  Obedience is all God asks for, giving it is demonstrative of your love, faith and respect for Him.

Ephesians 6:18-20

Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints; And for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known the mystery of the gospel, For which I am an ambassador in bonds: that therein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.

Would my earthly Father look upon my behavior with approval?  Would my Mom have more love for me when she reviews my actions?  Will my Brothers and Sisters come to some cooperative agreement that recognizes the good I have done?  Will perhaps my wife feel closer to me when she sees my works?  Will I get promoted because my boss has seen my authentic love for the people in our office?  Are my neighbors thinking themselves lucky to have such a wonderful person living next to them?  Have I reached worldly renown, or critical acclaim having my character marketed before me so that everyone holds me in close regard?  Selah.  What do you mean, selah?  Why should I meditate upon these ideas?  And by the way isn’t meditation an Eastern or Pagan ideal?

I have failed them all.  It is entirely possible that these people look upon me with approval and good thoughts.  Have I blinded myself to the things of this world to a point where my only thoughts are of pleasing God?  I really wish people liked me, but when they don’t or require that I change my Christian behavior so that they in fact, can like me, what then have I become in order to gain that approval?  Worldly, of course.  And regarding meditation, that is something that King David preached to everyone, meditating upon the Word of God.  When was David King in Israel?  That was circa 1000 BC.  Hundreds of years before Buddhism was formed in the 6th century BC.  What, you mean meditation is a Jewish thing and therefore something consistent with my Christian faith?  Yes, but there are some inherent differences between worldly thinking/meditation and Christian meditation.  We, meaning Christians and Jews meditate upon the Word of God such that it is the thing which occupies and fills our minds.  Worldly practices requires an emptying of our minds so that they may be filled with whatever the “world” or “universe” offers.  Do you see the inherent danger with worldly thinking?

I might have the approval of everyone around me and fail God.  Though it is nice to be liked, wouldn’t the opposite of that ideal be considered success as a Christian?  I must be willing to let go of all desire to gain worldly approval in order to do the work of Christ. Concurrently, I must never go into the world, that is currently under the authority of the devil with an empty head, thinking that goodness and mercy will prevail my thoughts.  I must fill my thoughts with the power and authority of God’s Holy Word to armor myself against the deceptions of the devil, selah.  I don’t need any epiphanies that the universe would offer me because we can be assured that the prince of the power of the air rules here now, he is going to utilize those revelatory means for evil and disregard for God.  Thankfully, I do get validation from Christian Brothers and Sisters, and I cherish their approval of my behavior as a Christian Brother, but their opinions do not replace God’s commentary upon my life for that only comes from His Word and the Holy Spirit.  I also see the protective quality of constant meditation upon God’s Word for in the presence of His Word the devil must flee.

So learn to meditate upon heavenly things, letting go of the dim things in this world.  Get your approval from Almighty God, knowing confidently that you are doing those things that He has first commanded of you.  Find solace in the validation that God loves you and wants nothing more that to walk with you in the cool of the day.  Be cautious when attempting any practice that is designed to create enlightenment within worldly man, for the devil may appear as an angel of light utilizing deception to make us believe we are following the righteous path.  Be ready, meditate continually on the Word of God and let go of what the world thinks of you, for you belong to Him.

Set aside a teacher for myself, teaching what my self wishes to hear, words of mercy and grace without responsibility, accountability or truth.  Good sense carries with it the weight of understanding because it is easy identified as truth.  Lord, I know while you are working on a place for us that we are supposed to be about the business of telling truth.  Our eyes are upon You in all your Glory, we shall not be lost in the cascading darkness threatening to deceive mankind.  It is in your truth that we reside and this dwelling provides protection from the evil one and the lies he would have believed.  We cry out to You Father in gratefulness for our protection and ask that you watch over our families in this earnest and apprehensive moment in man’s future.

False teachers abound and itching ears accommodate the weakness in doctrine.  Let us not be drawn by the whiles of easy money, relationships or hypnotic dreams.  Work is good, difficult work is better and a lessen learned through trial will be one that benefits my mind, heart and body throughout this journey.  Easy has never been satisfying, though so many wish for it, they are left wanton.  Craving power because we are powerless is the natural inclination but is not the proper resolution to the incumbent problem.  Hope is our resolve.  Not hope in me or my ability to overcome but hope in a Father who has provided for all circumstances, in all things, having made the world and overcome all its difficulties.  They are my Brothers and in them I delight.  They seek to serve and glorify your name and in seeing them perform I receive a residual gift.  Hallowed be thy Glorious Name.

They have lost their way Father, and if it not be too late I plead with you to show them again the skinny path, that they might find righteousness in you.  Break their self-love at hearing their own intelligence, glorifying themselves at the sound of smooth preaching. Silence them unless it is of the prophecy of Jesus Christ for which they speak.  Peel them back from the mirror of self-activism, let them once again find joy, peace and hope in humility of service to a righteous King.  For always Lord keep our eyes upon you, so that no shiny object or even angel of light lead us away from the true Light of Your Goodness. For it is in your love we have found life everlasting.  There is no where else that we may ever go but to the foot of your throne.  Grace be you my king.  We love and adore you. In Jesus’s name I pray.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2017/10/03/storms-quakes-fires-korea-and-now-vegas-shooting-whats-next/725889001/

Let’s see , New York, D.C., New Orleans, Ferguson, Baltimore, Dallas, San Bernadino, California and the Mountain West plagued by fires, Houston, South Florida, Puerto Rico and Las Vegas.  Is there a pattern?  Are there any similarities in the locations having been unfortunately visited by inclement weather or man-made catastrophes.  Is it something greater or are our disasters coming with greater frequency and rapidity?  Is it happening globally or does our specific media focus make it appear that it is just in this country?  Does the concept of coincidence continue to apply when statistical reckoning demands otherwise?  At what moment do these occurrences rise above the level of mere chance?

If these episodes were somehow to capture the attention of a population/culture that had heretofore been unconscious to the affect of their behavior would they then have been an effective method of communication?  I ask how else is God to get man’s attention?  In this article the reverend says something about having reviewed these circumstances one must become a “bit” apocalyptic.  What does that mean?  Does that inspire people to fall pray to the fear that the world is ending?  Folks, Christ has already won this victory.  Those who will trust Him never perish and spend eternity with our living God.  He brings the city of New Jerusalem to a remade Earth so that we may live together with Him and that is only after Christ reigns here for a thousand years of peace.  Oh, you didn’t know those things, no one told you the end of the Book.  Well perhaps your bit of apocalyptic transformation may cause you to seek some answers you had been neglecting?  If I may be of any assistance please consider me at your service.

To them who have been mocking God with the following question, why does a loving God allow evil or bad things to happen to good people, I say you are about to see the Glory of Our God as He sets things straight in the universe.  If righteous judgment must be executed at some date and you were the guilty party, wouldn’t you think it loving if the judge pushed off the sentencing date as far as possible, giving you time to mount an effective defense or to live as much of this life as possible.  Would you fault God for choosing a specific date at which time He will remove all evil, if you knew that your Brother, Sister, Son and Mother needed time to change their ways?  God has the power to raise the dead, how then would He be troubled by people who have passed on through illness or otherwise?  They reside in His presence awaiting that sovereign day when all will receive the reward of their choosing, some to life with God, some to eternal separation from Him.  To them who would be frightened by a heightened sense of Apocalyptic awareness, I say the beginning of wisdom is fear of the Lord.  Fear not the coming trials for He is the one who knows you and the storm by name.  In Jesus’s Name.

Genesis 6:5

“And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”

Except for Noah and his few family members, God had decided to destroy humanity by flood.  All things considered, God still had Noah preach the Word for 120 years before that judgment was executed.  This is testimony to His patient love in waiting for each of us to make that decision to either follow Him or our own foolish pursuits.

I am not the strong silent type.  In fact, I think to feed the existence of that character in my life would be following the god of what I wish to become.  I would love to be the Clint Eastwood, John Wayne, etc.  character who lets his fists win the day, his good looks woo the women and his silence strike fear in those who wondered.  This is not the time for silence for them who serve the Kingdom of God.  This is the time to speak up for Christ, to tell people how to escape the coming judgment and befriend them in love so that they might know what to do with their fears regarding this worlds’ entropy.   In other words I ain’t good enough looking to woo the women in silence, frankly it takes begging, decisiveness or good honest character, I leave to your judgment as to which one I am promoting.

I fall short hourly.  I know that God expects me to produce through love, study and reliance upon the Holy Spirit.  Do you think he forgives me for producing through like, bone-headed understanding and reliance upon my own slim whit?  Does your intention matter?  Does it take faith to go out and try to create disciples even when you do it poorly as in my case?  Am I a failure if I learn the ontological argument for God, know his precepts and can find it in the Bible, then have such a faulty upper lip that my delivery is slurred?  I don’t have your skills, but I have a heart that won’t let me quit, because I know that he will never quit on me.  Isn’t that what it’s about?  Knowing God’s love for me overcomes my inadequacies.  What I do ain’t pretty but don’t the results rely completely upon the Holy Spirit?  I mean, I may be bow-legged, fat and slow but I still have the chance to win the race, given who’s on my side.

We don’t know what we don’t know.  But wouldn’t you say that there is enough cumulative evidence to indicate that we are rapidly approaching a face to face meeting with our creator?  Doesn’t His Word indicate the season or the environment for such a meeting?  I don’t care how dumb, lazy, stupid, funny looking or poor I may be when all that matters if I show up for those moments when my duty calls.  It doesn’t matter if all my achievements are preordained, it is still my choice to serve God that will get me up off my keester when the works needs doing.  I love the story of that little drummer boy, playing his childish heart out to a God whom he so deliberately and desperately loved.  Isn’t that what it is all about?   I don’t know what your gift is but I sure would cry big, crocodile tears to see you give it all for the account of God.  Perhaps together we will make a bigger splash and be less afraid than alone.  Won’t you join me in doing our best for Christ?  He gave it all for us, maybe we can show him how much we love him by giving some in return.