Two States

Two States

12/31/18

The complexity of some issues about life can seem overwhelming at times, confusing to our hearts, and other times horrifying.  But what we forget is that there is always a beginning point to these issues and it is our responsibility to know what the origins of these lines are and what they mean when it is our time to approach them.  There is a defining line that God’s Word tells us about and it has been overlooked by many for it was not then the issue of life and where we stand on its terms would totally be different.  We need to come to grips with the truth concerning this line and what it means when we come into contact with those who have differing opinions concerning life.  God is in the business of granting life and it is not His desire to have any of His Creations lose their life and it is time that we understand that there is a solid line of belief and it means everything to which side of that line is demonstrated.

What options are conceded when a final decision is made to change a life or another person’s world?  How does this election come to the line where the laws that govern them suddenly are enhanced, confounded, disappear, or are changed in an irrevocable manner?  Over the span of our lives, we have crossed many barriers that have had profound effects over the course of our journey only being able to reflect on how our lives used to be before such differences and changes occurred.  One of the more defined manners of this type of change is in the aspect of sex and when a person loses their virginity.  For when this occurs no one can return or step back in time and restore what has been taken, no matter in which manner it was given away.  Dear Lord, how can I compare something as specific as losing one’s virginity to a couple of Scripture verses, you ask?  Well, look at this topic and subject as you may, add whatever other permanent examples you wish as long as you keep the eternal status intact that God has shown us in the verses that we are going to be using here. 

Over the course of my lifetime, I have heard numerous sermons and teachings on the conditions in the Garden of Eden before Genesis 3:6 and after Genesis 3:6, but I have not heard exactly to what extent this boundary serves and what it means in our lives when it comes to how we view situations.  Most of us know that before Genesis 3:7 rolls around, all is well within the state of the Garden even though the humans’ minds had already been compromised with the temptation and inclusion of “wants” in their hearts, the line had not been breached yet.  This condition and standard of living changes in verse 7 when the woman takes the fruit and eats it and then turns and gives the fruit to Adam and he does the same.  From this point onward the lives of humans and all of life itself changes and a previously unknown condition called death enters into our existence.

What we tend to forget is that once Adam and the woman decided to reach over the line of disobedience and cross the divide and the act committed, there was no turning back and no way possible to return to the previous standard of living on our own.  But it was the elected choice of Adam and the woman that brought all of this mess that we live in today into our presence with no way to escape the consequences once they were encountered.  However, what we fail to recognize and accept as an alternative is that we still have the ability to process our free will and to choose which path we decide to take when we encounter life as we know it.  Most understand that we cannot take back what has been dealt to us but we do not have to accept its results for God has provided a way out of this mess if we only follow His Ways and keep His Word in our hearts.

From Genesis 1:1 through Genesis 3:6 gives us a picture of eternal and pure life that God created for us to live and thrive within, it was His house that was built and given to mankind to maintain after the gift was given.  This perfect existence was the standard that He wanted us to exist in and to experience at all times.  It is this condition and holy Created status that represents God and the only thing He can produce, life and perfect conditions.  It is the condition that we all desire for it is all we know yet we come up with pretty bizarre ways of trying to extend or to live life all of which fail when it is led by our own justifications instead of simply maintaining what has been given us as instructed.  It is of a noble cause to try and fix things on our own, but when we look at human history all we see is failure after failure from the simplest items to the grandest stages of human presence.  As we look at these settings, we see that there is one common thread to all of them, humans seek human advice first and leave God out of the equation which can only produce one result, and for some reason, we continue to follow this disastrous position and whine when others point fingers.  It is the verse of Genesis 3:6 that gives us the boundary line of what was crossed and no longer obtainable as we know it.

This brings us to the state of Genesis 3:7 and the condition that most of us are directly and daily familiar with for this flawed standard slaps us in the face each time we cannot sleep correctly, fall and break a bone, go to work and find out we have no job anymore, be involved in a wreck, lose a loved one to death, or any other item the world can think of at that moment.  So, with all of this disappointment looming and lurking around it is normal for us to seek out help in order to find solutions to these disgusting conditions but as it was stated in the previous paragraph, Genesis 3:6 and before conditions cannot be reached through human hands for as we see in this verse Adam and Eve tried to cover themselves with fig leaves -which are very irritable on the skin by the way- and could not adequately fix what actually had occurred in their lives; in fact, they could not even fix a small portion of what had occurred and when they tried messed it up tremendously due to a hasty and scattered attempt.  It is obvious that their “wants” had overridden their needs and they had chosen to do things according to the created things instead of the Creator and low and behold trouble showed up.  So, if this enormous change occurs and it is easily read and simply written enough for a child to understand why is it so difficult for us to comply with the rest of the story and find out just how easy and freeing it is to live by the Ways of God thus returning us to Genesis 3:6 and before?

It is this line between Genesis 3:6 and Genesis 3:7 that defines life and death to the human existence and even though that boundary cannot be changed it still serves as the defining point of how we live our lives.  If we wish to view our existence in terms of life, peace, and purity we shall do our best to live according to the world that God Created for us in Genesis 2 and will not approach Genesis 3:6 at all costs.  If we choose to elect Genesis 3:7 for our lives and live according to its standards then we must understand that there can be no way possible for any type of true and inner peace, true life, and holiness no matter how we try to achieve such status.  We have talked about how the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of Satan cannot mix in any way and it is this passage of Scripture that reinforces the Truth about this statement.  God represents life eternal and Satan represents death eternal and there is no mixing of the two kingdom stances.  As the old adage goes, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure this out so why do we struggle with this truth so much?  Before Genesis 3:7 came into play, there was no pain, sickness, or death present in our lives for the house that God provided had been secured by the Holy Creator up until that point, but the choice of disobedience programmed our existence with a death ploy that came strictly from our enemy’s lie that we fell for.  To be honest, most of us have heard the phrase “new world order” well, in this case a new world order was established in our lives and it has not varied from that point onward, a true barrier or boundary that separates two states.

The question is now raised about which state does your heart attend?  Does it bear the truth within the guidelines of Genesis 1:1-3:6 or does it follow the world of Genesis 3:7 and onward?  The simple question that all boils down to is this: do you follow the Ways of God or do you follow the ways of mankind, thus proclaiming where your heart lies and who it beats for.  Brilliantly stated and probably with this setting of Adam and Eve in mind, Jesus states in Matthew 6:24 that no man (person) can serve two masters and while many of us have read or heard this New Testament passage mentioned we probably have never placed it into this context before but if Jesus referred to it hundreds of years after the fact it means that the boundary of Genesis 3:6 / Genesis 3:7 was in place during His time on earth and is still in place today.

This boundary is one of belief and lifestyle and it defines exactly where our spiritual hearts are located.  For anyone who says that any type of voluntary murder is adequate and a satisfactory practice cannot be living under the boundary of Genesis 1:1 – 3:6, it is impossible for there was no death present on ANY level during this time of our existence.  This goes for if that person elects to admit to such abortive procedures on ANY level of life produces a house that is not on proper foundations and shall be solely subject to the storms that the new world order supplies and there is no greater pain of having your own definition and identity stolen or taken from your Creative passion, or in other words death.  Sadly, many shall represent this heart condition by defending such liabilities with a continual motion of acceptance and gloating over such indemnities.  Unwittingly, our beliefs and selfish actions procure our enemy’s justice for your life and thus project judgment of the crossing over the boundary of Genesis 3:6/3:7 without provocation.

Abortion will not be just the sole fighting point that those who have crossed the Genesis 3:7 boundary will defend.  Any worldly topic that points to and then defends separation from God and His Ways depicts such a breach and crossing.  I would love to suggest that a person who is looking for true answers could walk into any church building and receive sound and godly advice concerning these matters, but I cannot for the Church has fallen into the lie of the worldly 3:7 boundary and now threatens to completely sever the ties of the Genesis 3:6 side of the boundary.  We no longer teach or even offer a separation lifestyle from the world, but promote an acceptance lifestyle with the world for popularity’s sake but adversely church attendance is declining at a rapid pace even with so much turmoil gathering each day.  Are we too far blind not to see what is transpiring in front of us?  I mean, with all of the supposed technological conveniences around us and all of the comfort measures in place, it would seem like no one would have any reason to kill themselves in such lost conditions.  Yet, the death rate in almost every societal level measured by any cause is at its highest in humanity’s presence.  This means that something is very, very wrong and it needs to be stopped and fixed.

No longer does the Church sing and rejoice over the words of Psalms 30:3-5 where God has delivered us from our enemies and has set our feet on solid foundations through His victorious ways through healing and even from the grave.  It is this passage of Scripture that reminds us of the boundary that is present in our lives today and how it is our elective choices to live under either of the two states.  We cannot stand next to the border and when things become difficult to jump back across to safety, the border does not work in this manner for once you cross that boundary then the ballgame changes and one has to make another choice to stay over the line or to live under God’s Ways again.  God provided a single way for Adman and Eve to be covered by His Covenant even though they still were tossed from the Garden of Eden, it was God’s Way alone.  Even though they had crossed that 3:7 line god was still willing to provide them a way to be covered in His eyes but by the violence of the shed blood.

This is the fight, Church.  Not to see how many people we can attract through worldly ways then teach them the Ways of God that is a camouflaged Church and a direct lie to you and to the ones who you are trying to win for God.  We have fallen for the enticement of the Genesis 3:7 lifestyle and it has cost us dearly and it is time we once again turn back to God and to His Ways and live under the Covenant of Genesis 1:1-3:6 again, but we have to have a changed heart in order to do this for if we do not nothing shall ever change and we shall not only see this nation and the world crumble but our establishment and truth as the Church go under the water as well.  God is calling us to come back over into familiar ground that we were established from and to once again teach the true and eternal gospel of His Son and the blood that He shed for us to have the capability to be bridged under that blood into the eternal and glorious boundary of Genesis 1:1-3:6 state of living.

DLB

Gravity

Gravity

12/29/18

If certain physical laws were not in permanent place the life we know would be totally opposite and would be considerably shorter and more troublesome at the same time.  God has established the perfect state of living when it comes to such laws but He did not stop at just the physicality of our lives He established the same laws for our eternal life as well.  Through this completeness on both sides of our existence, God has given us a full spectrum of confidence that He shall never leave us no matter if things look the bleakest.  God’s desire is for us to not only live in these laws that He created for us but to understand them and know why He gave them to us in the first place.  Currently, we are ignoring such gravitational pulls from God’s spiritual connection a grave error on our parts for it is this spiritual law’s existence that we only know and if we continue to ignore God then our decline is inevitable with holy devastation to follow.

Most of us who walk this earth’s floor do not even think about what keeps us from taking a step and immediately flying up in the air never to return to the floor again.  While it would be fun to have weightlessness and to bounce around off the ground for a while, it would soon become cumbersome enough that our frustrations would override our enthusiasm for such an event.  But as you and I walk about this earth, ride in buses or cars, and even get into an airplane and travel to another part of the country or even continent we witness a physical law that if not in place would present such a floating and frustrating condition.  Gravity is a presence that we cannot feel, we cannot see or even hear but it is one that serves as a constant measure that keeps our feet on the ground and our planet from spinning off in the universe uncontrollably.  The law of gravity is only one of the specific laws that are in place that keeps you and me alive and in working order, a wonderful concept and truth that we take advantage of each day as we wake up and one that we should thank God for just as often that we did not have our roofs come crashing down on us as we sleep.

What many people, including myself, do not understand is that if this single law of gravity is not exact and precise as it is then everything that we know as life would be thrown into chaotic destruction that would tear our existence apart piece by piece.  Now, I am no physics expert but it is easy to come to the conclusion that if such a miscalculation or variable would occur at any point in time, past or present would have cataclysmic consequences, yet we have not witnessed any complete gravitational pulls in such a manner, a testament to the constant, continual, and complete existence of a physical state.  This is just a single piece of evidence that mankind has to identify with God for He alone lives and breathes in the exact same condition.  When I took Physics in high school, my teacher taught us that this physical force is not active in just one direction but it fights variable activities around it in order to keep it steady and constant and up until then (now as well) no opposing force has defeated it for superiority.  It is this concept and truth, even though our eyes do not see its content that rules our lives and shall never cease to produce a constant living environment.  The way that I adapt and think about this invisible force comes from the fact that I was adopted as a baby and even though I never met my biological family until I was in my 40s, some of the traits that I displayed growing up now have answers to them even though I could not see them physically manifest from my other siblings; invisible and not aware of hem but they were still there a condition that many of us will someday understand about God and everything He has in place to keep us in His fold.

We have a connection here between the physical law of gravity and the law of spiritual gravity that God keeps intact every day.  Through this spiritual law, God gives complete connection to His beloved Creations an eternal direction that only He can provide.  It is a law that is constant, pure, and holy the exact condition that our origins demanded when He formed us from the ground.  This law is not a new one nor is it created and established on some opportune day or even at a whim, it has been in place ever since we existed and it shall continue until God changes our eternal lives at some point in our future.  We have a wonderful view of this law and just how specific it is to our individual existence in the Book of James and it is James 4:7-8 that will serve as the passage for this article.  This passage is another commonly thought about and used in sermons and teachings but I cannot think of anyone using it as a spiritual gravitational connection between God and mankind before, there may have been but I cannot think of any right now.

James 4:7-8 states as follows: “Submit yourselves therefore to God.  Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.  Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you.  Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye doubleminded.”  Now, where in the world would we find the law of spiritual gravity in this passage?  It is a logical question that some might ask, but the answer is clearly stated here and is given as the avenue between God and mankind.  The first portion of verse 7 states that we are to submit ourselves to God which takes a process and a method in order to complete.  Some type of spiritual attraction needs to be in place so that our separated spirits can connect with God.  Why would we feel the need to do such activity and by what avenue would we be able to accomplish such a feat?  There can be no doubt that God is perfect and holy in every way known to mankind and more that we cannot fathom so there must be some type of connection that is present in order for this connection to occur and work for the good of our existence.  Every parent’s nightmare is to know that their child is missing or in some physical danger that could lead to their death.  When this situation occurs the parents throw caution to the wind and open every means possible in order to find their child before the unthinkable happens, it is this type of gravitational pull that God already has in place with His children that gives us this eternal connection and the means by which to submit to God, resist the devil, to draw nigh to God and to receive the connection God has for us.

This connection is already in place, and God has placed this gift within each one of our hearts for if God was not our Creator then how could He or why would He draw nigh to us, especially since we have wronged Him for all our existence?  It is this constant pull and tugs from God that lies in place in our hearts that serves as the factor that is comparable to our physical law of gravity.  God does not waver in His call towards the human heart and He shall never back down until our hearts answer this pull.  God’s pull is a constant and steady invisible force that does not slow or fade but remains true at all times.  If we did not have a physical law to compare this spiritual law of God’s it would be a tad more difficult for us to grasp the Truth about God and His love for us.  The key to this connection is our participation first, not God’s.  God already has things in place and in order, it is us who chose to lose this automatic connection long ago and it goes by law that we need to make the first step (election) in order for us to receive such gift again.  That is why these two verses generate the truth and eternal connections when we do things that are required first.  In each step that these two verses give, the human must take action first then the result shall follow.  If we draw nigh to God He shall do the same, if we resist the devil he has to flee from us, we must clean our hands and purify our hearts, all of these are human actions.

This spiritual law of eternal gravity not only keeps us in contact with God through His holy presence it also gives proof that God Himself is alive and will never disappear or waiver in His Ways.  As mentioned above, if the physical law of gravity would waiver in any way our lives would totally be out of luck because life as we know it would be over.  If God had the same type of wavering detail concerning this spiritual law He would not be the all-knowing and everlasting Creator that supplies all needs to life itself.  God would be nothing more than a god like other idols that mankind build in order to fulfill their selfish goals of purpose.  The last portion of this passage gives reference to who actually lives by the status of the double mind and double standard and this reference comes from a single word “ye”.  This portion clearly states that it is the human who waivers in their status and belief and that it is our responsibility to correct the situation by taking steps towards God.  It is through this statement that deems God as the resource for stability and complete connection through His holy and un-adjustable gravitational pull of our hearts.

Church, as leaders to the world and the only witnesses that God has to those who are lost, the question that remains is that of are we doing what Jesus commanded us to do by teaching the correct way and belief concerning this eternal truth about God and His gravitational pull?  Recently, one of the more popular Christian music artists was asked if homosexuality was a sin and the person answered that she did not know if it was or not.  This person was born and raised in church and even as an adult does not know whether or not homosexuality is a sin or not?  God’s Word does not waiver on this issue either and is stated precisely how God views this choice of humans.  I could list several other issues that have recently popped up within the church community that vary from what the Word of God teaches, so again, God asks us this question: are we teaching the truth about the eternal and spiritual gravitational pull that He has for our lives?  Sadly and honestly, I must proclaim that we are not providing the truth about such eternal gifts that God has put into place, on both planes one that we believe and then the other that we proclaim to others. 

2 Timothy 2:13 tells us that even though we might not believe in God, He still believes in us and that He is still present and intact.  Are we following the truth behind Psalms 73:28 and acknowledging that it is a good thing to draw nigh to God through the constant spiritual force of God’s gravity towards us?  And are we approaching God with a pure and true heart acknowledging that we are complete sinners and that we need His constant pull in our lives so that we may understand our need for this pull in our hearts?  There is so much more to God than just a few simple articles of information.  It is not fair for us to turn our hearts away from Him and His Ways to try and blend Him with the world for it only hurts us in the end.  So why are we doing our best to teach this death portrayal to the world?  Why are we not teaching them what the Word of God says and how to approach God?  We need to stop and re-evaluate our beliefs and repent for what we have done and what we have not done and until we do this necessary deed, we shall miss out on the secure gravitational law that we need in our lives to ensure our eternal placement.  It begins with us and it ends with us and we do not need to go down with our enemy because of any selfish hindrance that harbors within us.  God is perfect and provides a perfect covering for our eternal life, and it is this truth admittance that retrieves God’s eternal gravity law and places it into the path of the hearts who accept its presence.

DLB

The 610 Loop

The 610 Loop

12/22/18

Some people may think by continually avoiding the innermost sanctions of our hearts that many pains and difficulties can be avoided, and while this may be a partially correct statement one can never say for sure that avoidance is always the correct path to take.  An examination of the heart on a routine occasion is of great importance for even though the outside shell may look fine, the underlying time bomb may be reaching close to zero.  It is this concept of searching our spiritual hearts that God wants access to, Jesus stands at the door of the heart and knocks, not standing outside on the sidewalk waiting for us to notice Him standing there.  While our downtown access routes may not be popular to take, they must be accessed in order to continue knowing what is going on within our function zone and the only one that can give us a true and faithful assessment of our inner area is God.  It is time we allow and to take joy in the truth that God wants to drive downtown and to check out the buildings as it were, for why wouldn’t He, He was the one that created it in the first place and this author or designer (God) loves to look at His masterpieces in action.

Some of the inventions that mankind come up with make us scratch our heads and wonder why, while other ingenuities seem like the most brilliant idea that has been displayed since sliced bread.  One of the more dynamic purposes of democracy is finding out new ways to make everyone’s lives easier and to publicly display these comfort measures in such a way that all citizens have access to such giving.  When I was a young boy I really had no concept of what it meant to live in a big city, for I did not travel outside my little neighborhood that much and at other times the places that my parents pastured were in small towns so the big city life was not a worry.  But things changed when I moved to Cleveland, Texas in 1980 and even though it was a small community Houston was just thirty miles down the road and an entire other world existed.  Houston was my first mega-city to be a part of and a city that still captivates my mind every time I see it or hear it in the news for it brings back so many memories that I had during those four years of my young life.

Most of the time when we ventured into Houston we had other destinations that did not involve the 601 loop which was the so-called savior of the city because it was designed to keep many from entering and crossing downtown an understandable goal for the population of Houston was estimated of a growth of about 1,000 families per week for a period of time.  This is an insane amount of people being introduced into the city and surrounding areas, and to be honest, Houston has really never recovered from this boom way back from this time and are still in the process of catching itself up.  The 610 loop was built for this reason in mind and for the most part while Houston was still not the enormous conglomeration that it is today, the loop was perfectly suited for what it was designed to accommodate.  However, it was not long until it became a nightmare to drive because so many people were trying to avoid the downtown area that the traffic and congestion were phenomenal.  But not in the manner one would think, for even though there were times of strict congestion and slowing of traffic the majority of the time this piece of roadwork was a racetrack.  The 610 loop soon became a common trek and one that people used because it was faster in many ways to use to get into the downtown area instead of following the direct roads to the city center.  I know that seems like an unusual thing to say but it is one that is the truth and should be noted as such.  The 601 loop was just that an entire loop around the old outskirts of Houston and when the final bridge was completed over the Houston Ship Channel in the 1970s the loop was complete and full service was available to anyone who needed it.

A short while ago I scrolled through one of our newer road atlas journals, I found that almost every major city within the United States has at least one loop around its city centers to keep the flow of traffic and congestion away and out of the downtown area.  I cannot say that every loop present around every city has a majority of the services needed for human survival but I do know that when one drives the 610 racetrack and survives it, each exit has almost every convenience store grocery store or gas station available to the people arriving.  Virtually no need to venture into the downtown area is warranted and thus provides the assurance that the majority of the city population stays out of the heart of the city.  The theory of this evacuation plan is one that presents as a masterstroke but does it really help the cause of a city or does it hinder the population from understanding the ins and outs of what occurs and why things occur that come from this heart?  At first glance it would seem like a great benefit to not be forced to cross boundaries unless need be, but how can we understand what is truly going on in our city if we do not visit the heart of that city on a regular basis or even address its existence.

Diverting around a control center of a city does have consequences for when one does operate in such a way it continually starves the people who participate in such activities and eventually they shall lose all contact and authority over their own city centers, thus rendering themselves as robots to a system that needs to be nurtured.  When one does not visit the heart of anything for quite some time they automatically give up any authority it has over its function and thus functionally cannot manufacture any adequate response to a life decision.  The loops serve as a racetrack around the heart so that one does not have to witness or to deal with the innermost sanctions of what gives us the ability to drive around the city in the first place. 

The loops around our personal hearts serve as the exact same thing they keep us from examining and using what our heart has to offer.  We reference our heart on occasion and use its place setting as a contender for our emotions and desires but really do not take it into consideration when it comes time to make important elections in our lives.  We use the fast-paced and popular loops in order to arrive at everything we believe we want in life and do not consult the one entity that we need in order to survive.  As we drive around and around our eyes cannot help but notice the skyline of our heart’s downtown but quickly have to turn away for if we take our lives off of the fast-paced road our lives will take a horrific turn where no one will benefit.  The question can be raised about how many things we miss and the value of those things to our lives when we do not consult our hearts.  We readily forget that this speedy lifestyle running around yet not coming into contact with our hearts is the exact type of lifestyle our enemy wants from our lives, for when we do not have any contact with the control center of our lives then whoever comes into contact with that control center has the opportunity to direct what flows from that center into the loops, frontage roads, exits, and other major city arteries that lead into the city.

Many people have read the passage that God wants us to restudy today, and that passage is a single verse in that of Revelation 3:20 where it says that God stands at the door of our heart and knocks and whoever answers that knock God will come in and dwell within and eat with them.  What a wonderful gift it is to know that God and His Son want to join your heart and to supply you with all the necessary food that one needs to survive and to have eternal life.  But if we are busy running around not paying attention to what the condition of ours is or not even paying attention to our hearts period, it will be impossible for us to answer or to even hear the knocking on our heart’s door.  I can guarantee you that our enemy who we have allowed into our hearts knows who knocks on our door, but he shall never answer it and he will only cause the speed of that loop to increase and the noise surrounding you to become louder.  When one tries to keep pace with their surroundings and the things that occupy their minds they cannot help but ignore what the heart is saying to them.  This is proven in the physical by the occurrence of so many coronaries that this society produces each year, I can attest to such an event.  It is vital that we pay attention and to attend to our hearts on a regular basis and this attentiveness applies to our spiritual hearts as well.

One cannot deny that our churches have filled their walls with worldly standards in the name of God and have basically shut out the Divine Truth of what God and Jesus defined our lives and mission to be.  The schedules of the Church have been overrun with the world and the true intention of the Church is now being ignored.  See the Church was set up and put into motion by Jesus so that one can be separate from the hectic schedules that the world demands, there is no rest in the world for it is in constant chaos and with this state as its foundation, it cannot even properly know what peace and rest are.  The world represents the loops around city centers and as the city grows it is forced to build more loops just as Houston has done.  Now, there are at least two other “loops” around the circumference of Houston each one being developed further out in distance from the city center with all of the supposed conveniences around so one does not have to go further into the city.  Beltway 8 is the name of the next loop that was in development and now completed in Houston, which is further out and with this beltway, there is no need for everyone having to crowd up the 610 Loop any longer.  A layered effect is now in place which increases the distance from the heart of the city, rendering the heart as a directive of necessity but not required for any type of communication or maintenance, the perfect target for any enemy whether it be on the physical or spiritual level.

The Church has incorporated this type of transit system from our pulpits in order to attract crowds and to initiate and develop a kind of status within their communities.  The majority of the messages of today are based around a feel-good setting and one of unconditional acceptance and tolerance of the world instead of unconditional surrender of our hearts to God because of the recognition of sin that dwells within our hearts.  We are so far out from our hearts we no longer can hear Jesus standing at the door of our hearts knocking on it trying His best to give us the needed help we so desperately are driving around searching for.  Our minds have been so filled with worldly gasps that when we feel the gentle knocking of Jesus we instinctively push on the gas pedal and speed up our pace in order to find an answer by ourselves.  When Lutheran pastors offer to take young girls’ purity rings from them and melt them down into a vagina statue, Catholic priests who stand up for abortion on demand and without apology, and many other examples of worldly acceptance plans into the walls of the Church heart it cannot be surprising that things are not in good standing with God yet in perfect harmony with the world.

It is clear that the Church has followed the exact same pattern that countless individuals and many cities across this nation have done in building layer after layer of loops around the heart in order to disengage with what gives us life in the first place.  And in taking such action have nullified any chances of us hearing what God has to say about our lives and thus proving to ourselves that we do not need God and that everything is fine and dandy.  How can we have any chance of eternal survival if we have officially closed off the access roads to our hearts?  How can we really obtain the life-giving knowledge and wisdom to fight off our enemy especially when we cannot even see that he is controlling what our heart puts out?  Allowing God to stand at the door of your heart and in turn not allowing Him any access into your heart yet believing that you have a relationship with Him as He stands and waits, is a lie to your own existence and purpose and it is no wonder we have so many people ending their lives on a regular basis, for they hear the truth right outside their heart but cannot reach it because of the circular distance that they inhabit.

Our lives have been rutted in the speed lanes of the 610 loops in our lives so long that we cannot even take the exits that we need to fill up our bodies’ tanks with gas any longer.  And while our fuel tanks continue to bleed dry, we search and search for an answer while continuing to drive along this glitzy and glamorous way all the while missing out from what is the most important detail of a city, the heart of that city.  There is a reason why the downtown area is referred to as the center for it is where that city began and where all the veins and arteries that supply the city originate so it makes the perfect analogy of this passage for it is not the loops and beltways that Jesus is interested in, it is the heart in which His Father gave us and created in our innermost portions, our center of life and function.  The world will do its best to persuade you to leave the city center alone and allow it to decay and become obsolete, but in truth, the center is just that the center of everything.

How are we doing on this issue Church?  What is our drive time into our hearts or can we even determine such a frame?  When one takes a closer look at what makes our lives tick, it will become easy to figure out who lives within your heart and which kingdom one serves.  Revelation 3:20 gives us a picture of Jesus standing at the door of our hearts gently knocking and patiently waiting for a response.  He is not depicted as one with a clenched fist banging on the door in such a manner that would portray a demanding figure forcing someone else to open the door; however, the world would portray this type of action for it is the only way of grabbing one’s attention it knows, so goes the manner of this verse.  So, God asks us again, how are we doing on this topic and verse and where are our motives when witnessing to others?  Do we yell and protest those against us and scream and cry when they do not change their hearts?  Or are our examples to the world just another worldly gathering for worldly presentations and regulations?  How many demonstrations have you witnessed that are extremely calm and timid?

It is time that we end our circular loop fund and begin to take the trip to the center of our hearts again.  This is where the most damage the world and our enemy can do and if we do not take care of it properly it shall become blackened and the dark of night even though our outer surroundings look pristine and as long as we continue to live out in the loop areas we cannot hear Jesus knocking at our heart’s door.  What kind of witness does this make us and how does this type of worldly and speedy-like lifestyle seem attractive to those who are desperately looking to leave the loop?  Church, we have missed this truth about this verse and how important it is that we are home when Jesus knocks on the door of our heart, for if we the Church are not listening properly or even home, then there is no way possible that we can witness to those who do not know God, which in reality means we are a part of this crowd.  Let’s repent now Church while we still have an opportunity to turn this nation around and complete the work that Jesus wants us to do.  The world shall never construct its system that ultimately leads to the heart of your life it can only feed you in circles or in ways that will lead you further away from your heart, so why are we participating in such manner?

DLB

Revival Warning

Revival Warning

12/13/18

All of us wish and want revival to come to not only our churches and nation but on an individual level as well.  Do we really understand the concepts of revival and how, when, and where it comes into our lives, and what action it plays or do we just wish to see the glory of the results and hope that it lasts for more than a short period of time?  There is nothing wrong with wanting revival in our lives for the entire concept of reviving something means that something has come back to life and has the ability to show off the difference that a revived entity has.  It is this truth about revivals that we do not know about for the process of returning something so destructed or left for dead does not correspond with what the ruler of the world wants, so the fight is on and we need to know what to expect in order for a true revival to occur.  It is God’s ultimate desire to give us a revival but it is just as a high priority of our enemy to limit or to keep revival from being introduced, established than lived within our hearts.  We want a revival and we need one but in order for us to obtain its full content, we must know how to accept it and then defend it or it will be gone and our lives in further corruptive states than ever.

I have heard for most of my life of revivals that have broken out in certain denominations and while this news is fantastic to hear about my disappointment also is just as high as when the news arrives that the revival settings have gone and have dried up, with the churches returned to their original state of worship and services.  Please do not get me wrong or misunderstand at all about this revival status for God wants to give us revival and a renewed sense of purpose and drive to win the world for Christ.  True revival should not be present at a certain level at one moment and then begin a decline at another moment.  A revival is just that it revives something back into a previous condition of life or strength for if it does not continue its momentum on a steady pace afterward it is not a true revival, for it will need to be recharged for some unknown reason.  It seems ominous to suggest that a revival should have any type of warning along with it, for any reason and it is easy to claim that what is about to be stated is false and not true.  However, this Word from God comes at a time where many people have claimed that revivals are here and yet not much has been said about such spiritual events which makes one wonder exactly what is really going on.

A true revival should not have to repeat itself but only add to another portion of our lives that is in need of restoration.  A revival should act as a compliment to what God has already done in our lives previously and not lead one into another direction.  If a revival does not catch hold then it is not God’s fault for He has delivered His message to His people in the manner to which they needed to prepare their hearts for change and restoration.  When God gives life it is our choice to either nurture it or to allow it to wither away and not take into consideration of what it means to have such an entity, the same is correct when it comes to revival for if revival does not instill life and renewal within our lives then it has become our choice not to secure its meaning in our hearts thus allowing its lessons not to be learned and then discarded over time.  What occurs during this period of time that we do not heed what revival is meant for us to understand?  Everything that God speaks deals with life and how we can have it abundantly according to His Word and Ways.  If we fail to understand what God is saying to us then we will automatically not be able to receive its meaning and further decay of our hearts will continue.  This time period will vary of course, but does it really matter how long this piece of our history is missed, for the origin of God’s message is missed and it is that point of reference that is the vital issue, not just the amount of processional time.  It is this action of God is the reason that revival services are exciting and refreshing when people show up before service begins and spends time in the altars seeking God and to hear His word to their hearts.  It is why the praise and worship portions of the services are dynamic and electrical in nature for it is this time that God is about to give direction to His people of how to defend themselves against attacks and to proclaim the Word of God to those who are lost at the same time.  This is the reason God brings revivals to His people and it is the reason why our hearts should be attentive 100% so that we may understand what He wishes for us to hear.

To pose a question concerning revivals is a problematic issue, but one that needs to be asked and thought about for it tells us if we really understood the revival’s message and which part of our lives it was supposed to be attached to.  As stated above, a revival is such that it restores our lives back to life which means that some area of our hearts has been weakened enough to grab the attention of God.  So, in response, He brings to the hearts of those listening to Him a message that should make others’ hearts uncomfortable enough that they either change their ways of totally give up on the cause that God is showing them.  If God has placed us in revival and has delivered a specific item of revival into the hearts of the people, God should not have to repeat that message again because we should have the willingness to personally allow God to examine our own hearts so that His revival words can be installed and then instilled within our lives.  God does not wish to have any “do-over” because that type of establishment goes contrary to His Kingdom agenda and pattern.  So, what is the reason for revivals if they do not last and are not fully received by God’s people?  Exactly, and it is this point that God wants us to understand about revivals and the reason why the title of this article is in such a way stated.

As you can tell this message is directed solely at the Church and one that she needs to take heed to before things become ugly and we have no idea of why things turned downward so drastically.  This is a serious topic with an eternal position for many of those who call themselves Christians but are not walking under the Covenant of Jesus for the events that are on our horizon have been ordained by God and shall occur.  ALL entities and organizations within this nation shall be affected with no one left out of the issues that will result.  This episode in our national history can be avoided but from the directive that God has given to many others and confirmed in my heart it does not look like any averting shall be noticed, this supernatural event will be physical but from God and God alone.  How can it be missed, as in the origins of such a catastrophe?  How can we stand here and ask such a question when we have not pieced together the revival settings that occurred in this land?  How can we be prepared for such a display from God if we do not understand or refuse to understand the peaceful and glorious words He gives through revivals?  God brings to us Ezekiel 37:1-10 and this passage represents a well-known passage but one that needs to be put into our hearts again for it is a telling prophecy and condition of not only the world but of the Church as well. 

I posed this question about why revivals do not repeat topics and her explanation was brilliant in that it placed all of the blame on things not changing and remaining changed on our lives and how we accept and then learn from the revival message that God has for His people.  While it is awesome that people show up early to pray and seek God while a revival is ongoing, that process must be continued not only at the alters inside the church building but inside the alters of our hearts as well.  If this eagerness and yearning do not reside within our hearts the purpose and meaning of the revival are lost or never took hold in the first place.  One cannot get more desolate than a valley of dry bones for if we ever encounter such a sight our minds would be blown for we would have no idea of how the visualized area came to be.  However, it should not come as a surprise to us because we have been taught that when God is not the center of our lives that this dried up dead condition will soon follow.  We may not directly understand why those bones are lying on scorched earth but evidently, the people to whom they belonged did not follow God in the manner in which He showed them.  When revivals come it is our responsibility to ensure that everyone who attends the meetings understands what God is saying to us, and most importantly it is our greater responsibility to tell others who do not know God what the message of the revival is about.

In verse 3 of this passage, God asks Ezekiel a question concerning the bones that were all around him, in that if these bones could live again after their present condition in death.  Ezekiel did not hesitate at all in his answer and stated that of course they could live again coming from the Lord God nothing is impossible.  In order for these bones to live again a supernatural Word would have to be given to them so they could live again, this means that a word of revival through prophecy would be the way that God would proceed with this restoration process.  The bones would come alive in the manner to which God was in control of through His Words and guidance alone and if the bones did not fully understand what God told them to do then their life would once again be snuffed out as they were when Ezekiel saw them.  Prophecies tell of us the condition of our bones as it was for if the bone is dead then there is no life within the heart and God uses revivals in order to tell us of our condition and at the same time prepares us to fight efficiently for the upcoming battles with the knowledge of how to complete the battle with authority.  But if we do not grasp the truth about the revival message, then we shall soon find ourselves lying back down on the valley floor.

This passage gives us one of the more perfect examples of how our lives change if we listen, follow, and obey God’s Word in our lives.  God cannot give any information to us that will not represent life, for He is Life itself and can do nothing but authorize life.  A revival is just that principle alone, the fight for life and the tool for us to have when the battle for life.  Remember it was the action that God told the prophet to do in order for the bones to come back to life, this means that it as the Word of God that gave the authority for the bones to live again; in other words, if we fully soak in the Word of God in our lives we cannot help but exercise life to the dying or dead portions of the world.  However, the only way that we can do what God and Jesus have given us and commanded us to do is if we fulfill the revival words that both have given to our hearts.  Again, while revivals are exciting times and they give us an energetic boost, it is our responsibility to continue the digging in the Word of God for continued words of wisdom so that we fully understand what He wants us to know and for us to know how to defend for the upcoming battle.  If anyone believes that after a revival has been started that our enemy will not begin his attacks against us, your heart is a dry bone.

This passage also serves as a great example of what occurs in our lives when revival messages are not received when they are given.  For when God gives us a message or topic in a revival sermon and we do not heed to it and learn as from it as we should then, and as God’s Word is always and forever alive it means that its content can and will be used against us by our enemy for our destruction.  Life builds upon itself and grows according to how we cultivate it, the same goes for the Word of God and if it is not sown properly it means that the reaping shall also not be proper which entails death right around the corner.  In this day and age we cannot afford to proclaim entities that serve the world for they cannot represent anything but destruction and death and if the Church does not have an alternative Truth against this death march then it is evident that we have missed the prophetic and revival messages that God has spoken to us in the recent and distant past.  Not all shall see this valley of dry bones for they have shielded their eyes with the world and its lust of death, but as the prophet Ezekiel witnessed some do see the terrible condition of our spiritual lives and wish to speak life unto these bones through the revival messages that God has for our restoration.

A bone that has dried up and died is no longer worthy of life for it has been displaced from its body for some reason.  If that bone that has the ability within itself to regenerate its living processes does, in fact, be allowed to live again there can only be one source of this restoration and that is from the Creator of that specific bone.  Our Creator and origin do not reside within the human body but from our eternal Father who began our lives so long ago, and it is through His Word alone that has the authority to give us the power of life once again.  It is the job of our enemy to mask this potential and the revival message that God is saying to us today.  Satan has done a fairly decent job in covering the bases of the Truth in order to furnish us with a deceitful lie in that anything that God has to say or offer does not apply to us and is of a non-concern for our future.  We have forgotten that every word from God is directed at our existence and for our survival both physically and spiritually

Sadly, many within the church body have fallen for this charade and have given into the lie that peace between God and the world is a valiant cause.  Through this belief in this lie along with an established amount of time we have laid down and allowed Satan to dismantle our lives to dry up for his cause and it is time we once again figure out that our bones are dry and lying individually on the floor and performing absolutely nothing to what they were created to do.  It is time we change this setting and allow God’s Word to sweep over our bones and allow our hearts to once again beat in order that our bones will function again.  God calls us to revival and when this time comes – which is now – we need to take copious notes with our heart and study the words that God has for us for if we do not then we fall subject to Matthew 12:43-45 once again.  What a beautiful opportunity we now have to understand the method that God uses to initiate and then grow through revival within our lives.

DLB

Home Place

Home Place

12/11/18

Have you ever thought that your heart is the representative of your home place?  How do we view our heart, do we even recognize its condition and functional status?  The heart is the center of our existence and is the one system that dictates our spiritual lives and communication with God.  For many of us, we may know about a physical home place that we remember but do not recognize the inner one that drives our lives to return to in order to satisfy our innermost desires and longings.  It is this desire that God placed within our lives so that we never have the ability to stop seeking out the truth about our connectivity with our Creator.  However, the world has distorted this inner truth so much and due to the lack of understanding of the function of such heart functions, we have allowed this destructive process to continue for such a long time.  God still calls us through this connection and wants us to connect with Him again and if we do return to His Word and His Ways we shall see a tremendous turnaround in our inner lives but if we elect not to choose God and stay with the world our hearts shall continue its slide and will not stop until it hits the pit of devastation.

With my family being in the ministry, it is difficult for me to say that I really have a place that I can call home or a place where I spent most of my younger years.  So, up until this day I have a place in my heart for the state of Texas and for what it is worth I still call that state my home.  I have mentioned this process before and have mentioned that my heart has turned toward Colorado since I have lived here for the longest period of time in my life.  This is a true statement and I love Colorado very much but it is the reference point of having a home place that I could mention if the subject was ever brought up.  I know that all of us take pride in the fact that we have a home place that we can think about and then talk about even though most of us who have lived in one place for an extended period of time believe we need to vacate that town for various reasons.  But we need to understand that where our home place is it is that place where our heart comes from and where our home is.  “Home is where the heart is” is a famous saying that many of us have used in our lives or have heard it in some setting.  Your home place is exactly where your heart is and that is the message that God wants us to know today because if we do not know where our heart is located then how can we effectively live a complete and whole life?

It is evident that God cares about where you set up residence on the physical aspect of your life but He is most concerned with where your heart is located and what condition it is in.  As we read in the Scriptures, the entire Bible is filled with people moving around and sometimes taking trips for years at a time in order for their hearts to become settled strong enough.  God understands that the heart that He has given you beats to a specific rhythm and one that has a required number of beats and then it is time to end the condition or find some other method of support, the same goes for your spiritual heart as well for it is the organ that is in contact with God and is in need of its Creator as its source.  While many of the verses and passages that the Bible refers to the heart may be presented on the physical aspect, the entire concept of such presentations should be indicative of what the inner heart reflects, for it is the inner heart that relates to the outside world.  It is this aspect of humans that many people do not recognize is represented and more importantly if this specific portion is not understood by the masses then it is easy to accept the fact that we do not know exactly what is going on around our lives and thus limit us to the superficial layers of our lives instead of the spiritual.  We can allow the physicians to use their knowledge and skills to heal or to fix our physical heart ailments but if we do not allow the eternal Physician heal our inner spiritual hearts our entire life and our existence will never be fulfilled and in turn be in vain.

The two passages that God has given us for this article and both have basically shown us the same types of condition the heart and how it has transformed into the sinful and separated entity from God.  Both passages also serve as examples of how we forget to examine our hearts on a continual basis and the importance of doing such a practice, for if we did and then allowed God to take away what He deems is ugliness maybe we would not have to witness and experience these situations then suffer such results that could have a significant consequence in our lives.  Once we have exampled this detail about our hearts it shows our enemy that we have ignorantly become a volatile host and will accept any type of variation since we do not recognize what truth is and is not.  When we allow God to infiltrate our hearts in the way that only He can, He promises us freedom like we have never known before, but when not allowed the only thing He can do is sit and watch His beloved creations suffer at the hands of sin.

Genesis 2 & 3 provide us with the first of the two passages that God wants to show us and once again we will look at how God created our hearts in one manner but because of the issues of the world that we allow into our lives our focus changes.  One of the things that we cannot deny is the attitude on how Adam looked at Eve in chapter 2 of this book for verse 23 states in partial: “And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh:  ”There can be no misunderstanding about how Adam felt about his new woman, for he recognized her as his flesh and bone and no one can get any closer than that to another person.  But some things change and we see this in Genesis 3:12 states in partial as follows: “And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me”  It is this statement by Adam that concludes that there was a huge shift in how he looked and viewed the woman which can only be recognized as one that was not on the same level as Genesis 2:23.  So, what occurred here and why all of a sudden did Adam’s perception and belief in his bride change?  Worldly attitudes and attitudes can only be the answer for God shall never establish something and then its status change for the lesser occur it is not in His power or authority to create such a thing.

The establishment of a worldly pattern is such a fact, a pattern and can only become an issue if allowed to fester within our lives for an extended period of time.  The next passage that God shows us is in Ecclesiastes 2:1-6 and if you wish one can include the entire chapter here because it deals with the vanity that the heart harbors and just how much this vanity will consume if allowed to stay.  I would urge you to study this entire chapter and spend enough time in its content in order to grasp the magnitude that it is describing.  The first three verses of this chapter deal strictly with personal vanities and then tie them in with verses 4-6 which deal with “great” works that humanity and the world deem as important and together will receive the best honors that any civilization can produce and then hand out.  But when you look at these six verses one cannot help but recognize that every single descriptive word here describes nothing but self-gratification and glory, God is not mentioned in any portion of these six verses and if you study the remaining verses of this chapter no real mention of God living within the hearts of those described can be found.  And at the end of this very heart-wrenching chapter, in the last verse, it gives us exactly what God hands down to His children who desire to have Him in their hearts and not the world.

These two passages beg us to ask ourselves exactly what are we harboring within our home place.  Your heart is the most important feature your existence can produce it is the centerpiece of your house and the most desired portion of your life by two eternal entities.  If the house is weak one Ruler shall do everything He can in order for you to understand how to make it strong and prosperous the correct way, the other ruler shall tempt you in buying up useless real estate around you with the promise of vanity purchases that at first are given easily but eventually become weights of burdens that hang around your neck like a yoke, but you look glitzy.  This type of glamour looking heart may look tough on the outside but with all of the “shields” around the surface nothing can get inside where the actual beating and function occurs which can lead to only one thing a blackened and decaying heart that will eventually rot its way outward and end up stopping all life that you need for existence.  This is the prime example of a weak or compromised heart for it does not know what is good for its rhythm and what is bad and can only produce one outcome, death.  This is a wretched old home place that the world will lie and say to you that all looks good, but inside you are a time bomb waiting to explode and your life being over both physically and eternally.

A few years back I watched a documentary series on the dust bowl that plagued our land for a long period.  The call to move westward as one of great magnitude and took guts for people to move across the country without modern day advances in moving and travel.  As the soil began to revolt against its own positions on the ground and fly in the winds, it was said that this wind and systems would carry dirt from Colorado and land in other states such as Kansas or Oklahoma, or in other originating directions as well.  But from whatever direction the dirt would blow it would always come through the window seals of the houses or from the cracks in the floors or even from under the door.  However the dirt came inside it was the fact that it came inside even though the defenses were up and in place, it found its way in and then started building up not only on the inside of the physical house but also invaded the inside of the humans’ bodies.  It was what was building up inside the humans that became dangerous to life for the lungs and heart need clean blood pumping in order to effectively and efficiently complete their job and if these standards are weakened in any way we all know that no matter how strong we may believe we are our body’s shall give way to the mess and cease to operate in a normal pattern.  It was this reason that so many people did not make it out alive when the dust bowl storms finally subsided and we can see quite a parallel to the spiritual aspect of things as well for if we try and place our own defenses up against the dust bowl winds of our enemy alone it will only be a matter of time before the junk that he spreads will infiltrate our spiritual hearts enough to render us lower than God’s established standards.

We have been blessed with a wonderful house that has a great foundation that was truly fashioned in good taste and building and while there are a few areas that one can feel the outside air coming in those areas are few and far between and are not considered to be hazardous by any means.  A few years ago, we found out that we had a mouse in the house and the only way we figured this out is that one night as we were watching a program on TV, both my wife and I saw it quickly scamper from one side of the room to the door that led to the crawl space, which was only about two feet or so.  We paused the movie and began searching for this little rodent and it seemed like the thing just disappeared, but we found a tiny hole of where the old cable TV used to run in and could only imagine that it was at this place that the mouse gained access.  I stood there for a second or two in amazement trying to grasp exactly what that mouse had to do with its body in order to go back and forth through this tiny opening then my wife hit me and told me to stop standing there and to find the thing as soon as possible.  We traced the mouse’s trail and found where it had entered, placed poison in its wake and within a few hours we never saw the mouse again nor have we witnessed one again unto this day; hopefully, it shall remain as such.

How many petty things do we get caught up in that draws our attention and focus from God and His Ways?  Pettiness only grows and goes in one direction if it is allowed to live within our lives, just ask the Early Church members; you can read about them in the epistles of the New Testament.  Through this pettiness growth period, we find that the hold that is present from the world has taken roots within our heart and really has no intention of giving up its ground that has legal rights over.  One of the best biblical scenarios we have that provide us with how this fight occurs is when Jesus goes into the Temple and overturns the moneychanger tables and demands from the priests why they have allowed this action to take hold in His Father’s house.  The moneychangers had permission to be there from those who controlled the Temple so they had legal rights to be there, it is the same Kingdom principle when we allow the world access to our heart because we voluntarily give the world and its ruler access and the legality to be there.

It is a guarantee that the moneychangers inside the Temple had no clue that it was a grave error for them to be in there, but the priests did yet they allowed the process to occur and then become a welcoming custom.  The Temple is God’s home place just as our hearts are His home place as well and if we allow and then continue to support the presence of the world in our hearts He shall not fight for His return until we ask Him back into our lives and then look out, the tables will be overturned again and the Temple cleansed according to His Ways and not the ways of the defeated.  It is easy for us to become caught up with the glitzy sides of the world and to be convinced that there is nothing wrong with their presence in our lives, but what we do not realize is that if we allow the world and its products into our lives then it is the spiritual access that we give it that will grow roots and begin to influence our lives in the opposite direction of God.

If our attention is distracted enough it is even easier for the world to take a hold in our hearts, for when our eyes and hearts are focused on other things around us there is no way possible that we can demonstrate God’s Word to its fullest which is the key ingredient for us to begin our downfall.  Look at all of the spaces that we face every day and how many choices we have in front of us that can influence our inner and spiritual elections.  Church, the question now turns toward you and this question needs to be asked concerning how many distractions we have allowed to turn our heads and heats from the eternal truth of the Word of God.  We are in the same position of being fooled as anyone else that takes a breath, but we have a true defensive mechanism that is at our disposal yet it seems like our authority that the Bible says we have is shrinking on a constant basis yet increasing according to the standards of the world.  This is the clue that we are not seeing and it is the very clue that God has been doing His best in trying to grab our attention with, for it is the single clue that says we are not right with Him and we need to change our heart direction before it is too late and God has to once again walk into our Temple and clean house.  As of now we still have this opportunity to allow God to clean up our home place before He must do it on His own terms, which onion do you wish to be, the slice or the peeled?

DLB

Falling Into Place

Falling Into Place

12/9/18

As we rise each day we learn that another piece of the supernatural puzzle has fallen into place and another step towards the full answer is realized.  With all of the troubles and tensions mounting it seems impossible to have a normal and relaxed society again especially when every avenue taken seems to reach an inevitable dead end.  Human opinion after secular opinion floods our eyes and ears with views that seem will work but when implemented fall and crumble within minutes of such presentation.  How blind we have become to our own shortcomings that as each one is thrown into the mix they fall onto their personal sword proving ineffective to our needs once again.  Our heads pin round and round trying to find the true answer ignoring the reality that as long as we continue to provide such futile and humanistic answers the pieces of our destruction will continue to fall into their place.  The only answer we need is God and we will immediately see such answer’s effectiveness if we just turn our hearts back to Him and live under His protection again.

It does not matter what the event may be, this world will do its best to spin its cycle enough so that some type of turmoil is visibly recognized by the public and takes away from the tried accomplishments of said events.  It should readily concern us that so many people have differing opinions enough and are passionate about them that they routinely cause havoc in violently protesting those who do not agree with their position.  Many of these types of protests and protestors have no motivation in demonstrating peacefully or even having constructed dialog with those who see differently, in their minds those days are over and the only way to see things get done or at least noticed is to cause some type of disturbance.  That all may be well and good for those that agree with this policy but they should also recognize that violence breeds violence and this breeding policy does not stop with just one side of an issue many sides and opinions will weigh in as well thus creating a fight that could rally ugliness from other countries if left to fester long enough.

Why has it become so important that “my opinion is correct and your differing opinion is wrong which means that you need to be silenced”?  It is evident that through this type of mentality we are purposefully placing ourselves in danger from within our own borders both personal and national and as long as we continue to do so the world that we have desperately wanted to become like is closing in around us in order to take a piece of the pie when we fall to our knees.  See, other nations understand that if we fall the entire world shall reap the consequences of this event so in order to minimize the massive losses they are turning to our land as necessity items for their own survival.  This is the perfect example of what occurs when a society implodes and looters rise to the occasion and present themselves as soon as the shaking stops.  This type of scenario is our own fault and we have decided to sit back and give these people a chance to “express” themselves all over our own personal property.  What type of heart condition are we really in, people?  How bad has our lives become that we would rather see our own personal property destroyed so that we can collect our insurance policies and walk away richer than before?  What we do not understand or refuse to understand is that through these actions of ours we are proving the Bible correct and in this article God wants us to know just how our actions are placing the pieces of the end times together and that everything is falling into place as we sit and watch our world fall apart.

Incredibly enough, the individual rhetoric along with the business and political rhetoric systems are proving to be entities that no one can escape and if you do not fall into line with these entities then you are sought after and hunted until your tongue is silenced or you change your tone and begin to freely converse with these organizations and beliefs.  Every piece of industrial might and every nation and region are being slowly yet methodically drawn into this unstable yet popular state of condition and unless something finds a way to halt this pattern building our world will be unrecognizable within a few decades barring any disastrous procedures occurring before the time period has been completed.  The Church has fallen right into step with such entities and has gladly reversed her course of existence through such collaborations with the world, if you would have asked me twenty odd years ago if the Church would ever become politically correct I would have said no, but as of today I realize that assumption of mine was just like that, an assumption that has been proven wrong.  However, I also have studied the Word of God more during that period of time and I have also learned that all of these events in this paragraph actually prove the Bible correct and has to be done in order for everything to work as God has authorized so long ago.

Our passage of reference today is John 16:33 and it states as follows: “These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace.  In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.”  When God conquers anything it means that it has been defeated and everything that whatever He has conquered is defeated as well and this IS good news.  When God moves He does so in a unique manner and if we are not careful we speed up or infer such destruction faster than what would normally be; in other words, God has to conquer something that has reached a point where His attention is needed.  Humans have always believed that what they choose to do can override or is better than what God can do, provide or has said to do, we see this type of belief today and it has been there ever since the Book of Genesis. 

While some people might take this verse as a condescending verse and one that shows the power of God hanging over humans since they mess things up so frequently, it is not a verse as such but one that reassures us that God is in control of things even when we try and correct our mistakes on our own.  We fell from our perfect places a long time ago and until we meet God face to face again in His Glory, we will never have that opportunity again to live in such peace and tranquility that is why the title of this article is significant because when we fall we have the choice to allow God to brings us back up to His standards by accepting His Standards in our lives again or we have the opportunity to continually be kicked by our enemy while we are on the ground.  The verb to fall is very specific and it is an action verb in which someone or something is falling from a position into another position.  It is common knowledge that whatever falls does not do so upward that it is always down and usually hurts when the endpoint is reached.  John 16:33 says that Christ has conquered this fall and that we can be picked up and restored through Him so that our lives can continue according to how God intended for them to be.  But what we are really witnessing is that we are ignoring this truth about God and His Son and going along on our fallen positions and trying our best to react as one usually does when one has fallen, be angry.  Many public speakers, a good portion of entertainers, some ministers and countless general civilian participants are adding their opinions to this fray concerning the world stage and further dividing the societies which deepen the instability of these societies as well.

It is becoming increasingly common to hear someone stating an opinion that strikes a volatile chord to someone else and even when apologizing for their sense of duty and respect is not adhered to and their actions are criticized and remembered for a very long time; to only a certain group of people I might add, others get away with such atrocities and are actually praised for such actions.  It is easy to have the belief that Rome is burning down and panic fills the street but what is the leadership of this nation, on all sides, doing and how are they responding to the situation?  Sadly, while historians bicker about whether or not Nero actually played his harp while Rome burned I can guarantee you that action is exactly how we are combating our situations today.  This action or ours or lack of action I should say provides us with the perfect example of how the world is falling into its place, Jesus said many times during His ministry that this state of affairs would occur in our lives.  If one adds in all of the protests, resistance movements, demonstrations for all causes and other violent presentations, they cannot help but notice this escalation of tensions and building instability, the world that they have chosen has run its dead-end course and many now realize they have nowhere else to run resulting in heightened excitable turmoil that now spills out into the street.

John tells us that even though every day the world becomes crazier by the hour and further turmoil arises, Jesus still provides us with the answers to calm our storms and cease the existence of such degrading living conditions.  It is amazing to me that people do not see this truth and run to Christ willingly and as fast as they can but even with the truth in front of us we ignore it and toss Christ and God out of our lives like spring cleaning.  The attitude of the Church has been outrageous over the past centuries and how the leaders of the Church have reacted towards the people is appalling, no wonder so many want nothing to do with church or anything that she stands for or against.  But with those who still want the world to understand Christ and know that God loves them and wants to protect them, it is our responsibility to turn hearts around and allow Christ to show them the truth about why things occur and why the world is in constant chaos.

There is a small caveat that needs to be shared with here and it has to deal with the condition of the world.  The logical question that comes to mind concerning this verse is why does Christ find it necessary to declare that He overcame the world?  We must never forget that God cannot change in any way and through this portion of His definition it is His duty to do His best to correct what can be changed for His Kingdom.  So, if God has to overcome something it means that the condition of whatever He overcame (conquered) was not going to change so He had to win what was in His Way to advance His Kingdom.  If we read history, we shall find that chaos has always dominated the lives of humanity, it does not matter which era of history one wishes to explore chaos and devastation ruled and it continues to rule today which is exactly the reason why Christ made this statement because through this victory He has given us the authority to do the exact same thing.  What does this bit of information do to your heart?  Does it do nothing and keep your beat steady and unchanged or does it stir within you a desire to tell someone that things are coming to a peak whether we know it or not?

As I have watched the events of this world unfold and as we watch things come to pass in our screens, I have told many people that our actions are actually proving the Bible correct.  I receive many different looks from those around me when I say those words but they are of value and absolute truth.  John 16:33 says to us that the world is in complete chaos on good days and that we should expect nothing less from such a devastating condition but more importantly, this verse also tells us that Christ has conquered the world which places things into a different perspective if we follow Him instead of the world.  Christ is the overcomer and the salvation of our lives and if we only accept this Truth within our lives our entire existence would change and we too can walk around as conquerors and not depressed and defeated lost just as many others are.  The world is doing exactly what it can do, fall into place because of the nature that it exists through its ruler.  Sadly, the Church that Christ began when He gave us the command to go into all the world has fallen down and has proven to wise eyes and hearts that she is part of what is falling into place as well.  With this added confusion to the entity that was created to show the dark world the light, it would be easy to come to the conclusion that the world is really and truly falling apart, but it Truth it is only falling into place.

DLB

Nothing Moves Without God Knowing

Nothing Moves Without God Knowing

12/5/18

One of the most baffling experiences we can imagine is when we accomplish a feat and believe that what has been done is of a good result only to find out later that through the victory the leadership or one of the team members has done something incorrectly and the result ends up costing the participants a great deal.  Many times we play this type of compromising game with God, when God says for us to complete something we do it but not at the pace and the thoroughness that God expects or with the pure heart that He expects.  God is always going to accomplish all of His activities in a holy and complete manner, that is His definition and He cannot waver from such tone; however, He expects the same effort from us and at the end of the day it is our responsibility to have led our lives in such a manner that God is fulfilled in all aspects of our movements and motions for if we have not then God has every authority to take away the existence as He has given in order to ensure His Ways are finished in by His Word.  Our record in such completion has not been very well liked by God but loved by the world, this should tell us something about the authority we have and how we use it and who we use it for as well, a position that we are currently not in good standing with God.

Most of you know that I am a huge soccer fan and I harbor so much love for the game that I call it my heart sport.  I have followed this beautiful game for most of my life and enjoy every local, national, and international match, rivalry and tournament, but during the time that the soccer season is in full swing American football is ongoing as well and this sport is another beloved matchmaking game that I follow regularly also but in this instance I stop at the college level.  My old high school football team was not very good and really did not change its style of play until after I left the area.  The competitiveness between the schools is unprecedented and in my opinion, should be experienced by every American in this country, it demonstrates a young heart doing its best to compete against fellow hearts that want to defend and make new a record that shall stand for quite some time.  However, when rules are broken no matter how slight or great they may be, the issues need to be set straight and corrected so that all wrongs are back in order.

As this high school football season peaked and now comes rapidly to a close a story broke concerning my old high schools rival that if true could have a severe impact on the league standings.  The result had nothing to do with my old school but it involved our rival and another school.  It was alleged that one of the press box coaches from our rival school had used a PDA device while the game was in progress.  It may not seem too much of an issue but if any exterior help of communication from others to this device was used, it could be deemed as information helping one side and not the other, or in layman’s terms, it would be considered cheating.  The coaches of the accused school admitted to the fact that a PDA or similar device was present in front of one of the coaches in the press box but was not turned on at the time the game was being played.  Nevertheless, that through this admission it was deemed as a rules violation and the remaining coaches voted on the issue and the game had to be forfeited by our rival school for such a violation.  Now, it would not have been so bad if our rival school had lost the game but the boys had won the game and had no clue about what had transpired in the press box, no one is even for sure who reported the incident and how the information was leaked in the first place.  No matter what, the result was final and the stats in the standings were changed and the game results turned around.  This goes to show that it does not matter if one side of the issue performs flawlessly and the other does not, the entire program becomes entangled when any part does not fulfill the required goals set by the convening authority.

What looked like a hard fought win turned out to be a total disaster from the top echelon down because someone did not obey the rules, a rule that had been in place for years and should have been known by all staff, without question.  It does not matter on which level one operates, the rules of the processions must be followed and maintained at all times in order for the result to be completed fully.  If a rule is violated it must be called out and dealt with appropriately, which brings us to the passage and topic at hand for this article for when God directs an order He expects that spoken order to be fulfilled in full and in the time that He gives for its completion.  We have just learned about the battle that Saul completed in the previous article and how it was a tremendous victory for the nation of Israel, but we also learned that Saul did not complete the victory as God had directed him.  So now we come to the part where God must address the disobedient portion of the victory and deal with the heart of Saul at the same time for the commitment of Saul’s heart was not on the same expectation level as God’s heart and that caused a huge problem.  The passage that we will use is 1 Samuel 15:10-11 and it contains a vital piece of information about the consistency of God and how He views us according to our ways of living by obedience or disobedience according to the commands He gives us, we also have an interesting comparison to this event as well which should have served as a direct remembrance for Saul.

One of the questions some people may have about this topic, passage, and events is why does God still have a say in what Israel does since they elected a physical king instead of keeping in line with God being the ultimate ruler over them?  When God establishes anything He cannot change the order by which He creates it, He must follow the same pattern of Creation as He did when the subject was created and in this case it is Israel.  Up until 1 Samuel 8, Israel had no physical king to say what, when, how, and where people lived for the placed their entire existence in the hands of their Creator but after this chapter, they became as other nations.  However, according to the Creative status of Israel God was still in charge of whom they chose to become king, this process would eventually become an aristocratic process but for now continued to be under the supervision of God for even though God may have been rejected by the people He did not leave them because of their elections.  Saul was the first king of Israel and was a popular chap because of his physical qualities but it was his heart and commitment to God that deemed his future as king and presence of Israel. 

As we saw in Genesis when mankind is allowed to just overtake all possessions of life disaster can only follow hence the single reason why God had to call upon Noah to save his family and the creatures from being totally wiped off the face of the earth.  So, this brings us to the events that occurred in 1 Samuel 15:1-9 where Saul did what God told him to do on the battlefield but did not do when it came time to finish the job where the enemy’s life and existence were at hand.  God had already determined the heart of Saul by the time this passage of verses 10-11 had occurred and thus conveyed His disappointment and relegation of Saul’s kingship.  When God spoke to Samuel and told him how He had lost all confidence in Saul’s ability to lead according to His anointing, Samuel understood what it meant for the people of Israel and what they were about to encounter.  Not only did we see Saul disobey the command of God but he allowed the people to override the authority that had been divinely given to him as well.  It did not and does not matter if one decides to listen to the people or to our friends if we already have higher orders from God concerning anything about our lives.

When verse 11 opens, it begins with God stating that He repented of having anointed and allowed Saul to be king because he had turned his back on God and His commands.  This is a choice matter and one that Saul should have understood completely without complications because this portion of the verse makes a huge statement that Saul also should have remembered how God does not like disobedience.  God uses the word “repentance” in the opening phrase of this verse and it is the exact word God uses to describe His heart and beliefs about the entire world right before He gave Noah the command to build the ark.  Genesis 6:6 says that God’s heartfelt pain and was totally hurt that He had made man to walk the earth and came to the conclusion that He had no choice but to establish His Covenant with a new generation.  God did the exact same thing here in this passage or was about to complete it after the formalities had been completed on the human level.  The king of Israel had formally been deposed from the highest authority possible and the anointing and protection that God had placed over Saul were now taken away.

Many countries around the world have a procedure that legislative portions of said government take in order to either secure or decline the position of the leader of the overall government.  This process has occurred many times over the past in the British Commonwealth nations along with a good portion of the countries scattered throughout Europe.  Of course, the results vary, present a tense and terse time period with unsecured confidence being thrown in and out of the voting circles.  While there have been plenty of leaders who have survived such voting procedures there has been a good number who have fallen so far out of favor that has not survived these procedures and thus threw their entire political party into chaos.  The resulting defeating vote leads to a new person elected to be the leader of the majority party and sometimes requiring an additional special election that involves a greater range of people included.  While this type of activity cannot be accurately and adequately compared to what God has said here it does provide us with a glimpse of what has transpired in God’s mind and heart concerning Saul and his actions.  It is bad enough to fall out of favor within your group of friends, but to be out of favor with the eternal Almighty God, there is no comparison to this placement.

God had every amount of holy authority to detail to Samuel His actions of disappointment in Saul, for God saw what was inside of Saul’s heart and found that he had no inkling of repentance at all and that he approved and allowed the actions of his people to disobey God’s command.  When such an attitude exists within a person’s heart they cannot honestly and confidently say that it was a genuine mistake, it was a direct violation of such command and thus placing it as a dereliction of duty automatically incorporating the disobedience of rebellion.  All positive and admiration from God towards Saul is stopped and God gives instructions to Samuel to tell Saul about God’s decision and what the results and consequences of his alliances and actions have done.  As stated above, this message from God to Samuel grieved him dearly so much that he was up all night pleading with God to change His mind or at least hand down a reprieve concerning Saul and the kingship.  This should not come as any surprise with what Samuel asked, but it also should not come as any surprise how God responded either.  It is never a good idea to test God on just how far our deliberate disobedience of His Ways takes us.  It is this action of Saul that places him into the dire category of being chased by God and no longer in favor with Him.

Again, we see that the condition of the heart comes into play when it comes to making choices (elections) for God or against God.  We also see that one cannot play the fence with God and that our hearts are either for Him or they are against Him.  Samuel could not help but grieve for Saul and for the people of Israel through all of their actions, and since it had not been too far back that they chose to have a worldly king instead of God Samuel understood just how far all of them had fallen even in a short amount of time.  Recently, I saw an article in one of the popular magazines that showed two pastors holding hands along with others, holding a sign that said “Pro-Faith Pro-Family Pro-Choice” and vowed to say continual prayers for Planned Parenthood and their quest for completion of their daily actions.  According to most people who do not attend church or know God this belief is okay but interestingly enough the number of people who consider themselves Christians are adopting this belief as a truth instead of a death sentence.  It is this fall that gives us another example of how hearts can become if they are allowed to be fooled by Satan.

A point of order here to make is as follows: back in 1 Samuel 8, we saw where the people solemnly swore their allegiance to the world to be as other nations, rejecting God and everything that had occurred in their lives before.  Here we have the tables turned where in this passage we see that God has turned His back on the leader that the people had chosen a while back, which brings up a few details about God’s presence that we will deal with at another time, but the important issue we must know here is that when we reach a point in our lives where we believe we no longer need God to be a part of our existence we are automatically giving Him the authority to put the kybosh on any issue of our lives afterward.  Today, it has become an issue about who can say what and how in order to be popular or correct and circular culture demands that these words that are spoken comply with the current trends of the “moral” majority.  It will always be difficult for the human mind and heart to predict what will occur when we go against God’s Ways and commands, but this example should give us a pretty good reason to stop and think about why God says for us to do things, sometimes even unpopular things.

The Church has fallen into this deadly game of taunting God with accepting the world and its standards within her doctrines.  It can no longer be ignored that the Church institutionalized this type of idolatry graciously without any hesitation at hand.  We are ignoring the question that God has given us to examine throughout His Word about disobedience and how much is tolerable before He must do something drastic to grab our attention.  The question still remains today about how much more are we going to push God in our idiotic and selfish worldly beliefs that lie within our hearts and serve as our master?  Have we thumbed our noses at His blessings long enough that He now must begin the removal of such blessings He gave us so that we could counter the world’s message to all corners of the globe?  How long can we believe that our actions and the blackened condition of our hearts are missed by God, or that He passes on them because of the status we hold within His eyes?  God removed Saul from his kingship due to the gross disobedience that had infiltrated his heart and just as the title of this article states, nothing gets passed God and at some point if we do not stop our sinful behavior and change our hearts He will have no choice than to begin to peel away each layer of our lives that surround our decaying hearts.

DLB