Thank God we have a willing Enemy

For those of us who enjoy blaming most of our bad behavior on eternal forces, it is so good and convenient we have the Devil to play the role for our purposes. Really, this guy comes in handy whenever we wish to point to vast folly in human events.

Nowhere do we ever see Jesus do this.  No, not at all. Jesus points to doubt and fear and lack of faith and the desires of our heart.  That is what he indicates as the reference point of sin.

The label of Satan might be bad, but the causes of this evil is a result of man and man’s evil ways.

The nature of man is evil, period.  We can blame Satan all we want, but it comes down to us.  If you think about it:  the one who is to surrender and to yield is us, not Satan.

The wonderful part is that salivation is also for us. The perfection is designed for us as a victory sign and grace is the cause provided by Jesus who died on a cross.

So then, the focus should be on man.  The focus should be to concentrate on changing man as it is man who fell from grace at the Garden of Eden and has the need for a savior.

The accuser is always around and just as Adam and Eve attempted to blame the accuser and each other, the judgment fell on all of them the same.

Our task then is to quit blaming, quit accusing and to affirm the righteousness of our Lord, Jesus the Christ.  And as willing and available as Satan may be to stand in as the Bad Guy, we must reckon only the sin within ourselves and to each other in the formation of Christ’s Church.  The blame game is not part of salvation, only the proclamation and edict of faith to the Son of God. And within Christ who suffered innocently, there was never no such thing as blame.

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Give me 3 minutes a Day & I’ll make you into a Soft boiled Egg

If you were to believe all the Self-Help books available today, you’ll believe you are either too fat, too tall, too short, too dark, too light, too dumb, too out of shape, wrong hair color, wrong eye color, or any other shortcoming one can come up with.

The part that really gets me about this is that Americans really buy into this nonsense.  I mean, by the vast tally of climbing book sales, it’s obvious they believe them. (Even Christians have their books for self-improvement)

What is going on where we’ve been reduced to the point where we have a need to come across as perfect?

Certainly, just as I have, we’ve seen celebrities in photos without makeup.  In many cases, we are unable to even identify them—that’s how different they are without their makeup.

My greatest concern is on the images we project that have nothing to do with physical attributes, but with our character.

Society is so shallow most politicians have people assigned to them in Public Relations and Communication.  Anyone knows these people are highly skilled in nothing more than double-talk.  Their sole job is to protect their client by NOT speaking the truth unless it is favorable toward their client.

This should not be a characteristic of a Christian.  A Christian’s word should be suffice unto itself without some politically-correct double-speak.  Unlike the world, we should project and speak the truth.

Any short-comings we have should be presented to our Lord and aside from that, we should celebrate for who we are as God made us all. There is no real need for a do-it-yourself kit to make us any better.  There is no need. Our great creator who designed us knew what He was doing and why we were put together the way that we were.  Any rebuilding or repair needs to be performed by Him and Him alone.  Thus, any seven minutes a day should be given to God daily & forever to rebuilt our common good as Children of God

Easter: The Story Behind “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power” — Retrospective Lily

Hi, friends. Here is the final installment of the “Story Behind” series this Easter. The theme was blood, and so far we examined “Power in the Blood” and “Nothing But the Blood,” two older hymns. This song is more recent. [The featured images in this series followed Jesus’ last moves. The first one depicted the […]

via Easter: The Story Behind “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power” — Retrospective Lily

Easter: The Story Behind “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power” — Retrospective

Hi, friends. Here is the final installment of the “Story Behind” series this Easter. The theme was blood, and so far we examined “Power in the Blood” and “Nothing But the Blood,” two older hymns. This song is more recent. [The featured images in this series followed Jesus’ last moves. The first one depicted the […]

via Easter: The Story Behind “The Blood Will Never Lose Its Power” — Retrospective Lily

Which way the Wind Blows with Agent X

(Side note: I know it is sexist to call the forecaster the weatherman. But in this case it really is the man I hear repeatedly alerting us.) Good Friday Morning, this Good Friday. As is common, the forecast for Easter Sunday calls for a dip in temperatures, and the weatherman on the local channel keeps […]

via Easter Sunday and the Weatherman — Fat Beggars School of Prophets

What Would it Be Like for You to be around You?

Imagine if you would, what it would be like for you to hang out with yourself as another person?  Actually, I think this would be much rougher than most would think.

Too, what if in the aftermath, you realized that you couldn’t live with yourself?  What if you discovered you were in fact, a conceded jerk?  What if you had horrible manners, were rude, cruel and mean?

Not to make this all negative, but what if you discovered the meekness in yourself?  What if there were actually a sensitive area about you that you were afraid of, or other areas in which you excelled?

Would it be a threat to you since your other self knew ALL of your weaknesses?

In the end, would you be a decent person to be around, or would it really be one miserable experience?

In all of this we can also relate then, how the Holy Spirit must feel for He is with us constantly and dwells within us.

And no, it doesn’t take much of an imagination to know how miserable we must be in God’s company.  We might even discover upon a more complete inventory of our self that the Holy Spirit left us long ago.

You Aren’t Who You Are Anymore

If you don’t think that statement is true then I dare you to pull out a photo of you when you were a small child.  Compare that to today.

You can do the same for an entire range of ages and you’ll discover the obvious: you change over and over again.

And while this is true with our body, the same can be said about our mind and emotions and hopefully, spirit:  the spirit should evolve for the better if we mature gracefully.

The takeaway here is that we are not who we are.  At least we aren’t any one person for long and we change.  And as much as we say people never change:  we do.

You have observed this when seeing people once again after a few years.  You observe their physical changes as well as emotional and cognitive factors.  Yep, they change sure enough only that person himself many not realize it.

And that is because we carry our brain and our body with us and don’t realize the increments, but yes.  Change we do.

For those progressing with the renewing and transforming of their minds, this is all good for indeed, we should be changing and adapting and possessing improved characteristics of personality and spirit.

As much as some of us lament our body changes as we age, we should praise God for the totality of changes as it is for our own good. This feeling should gravitate over the aspect that our old self is here no more.  Thank God for the change. Thank God we are no longer who we are.

Jesus was the Lowest of the Lows

Isn’t that terrible?  Jesus was the lowest of the lows and He wants you to be low too.  In this way, Christians should be really a nobody.  We’re to give up fame or fortune and in order to be GREAT, we are to be the least.

Imagine, a lowly man, the Son of the Living God crucified as a common criminal on a cross that was to be used many times for other criminals.  Jesus was so insignificant the Romans really didn’t want to bother to kill him, that’s how little they really saw him as.

In still another way: the least of these….Jesus was a living example of the least of them and thus, was the GREATEST man ever on earth!

So here we are not talking about fame or fortune.  Jesus is NOT telling you how to be successful.  He is NOT explaining how to win friends and influence people.  He is teaching you how to die.

And he is saying that by dying we are to live.  He explains that by giving up our life we will gain it forever.

We are to give up all, follow HIM and be reduced as he was to a new low.  We are to be servant to all and to be low.  Now then, how many of today’s preachers really teach this?  This is not exactly the type of come-on that new coverts would really want to join up on.  And who would blame them?  Who really wants to be a dweeb…a useless twerp…one that is the lowest of the lows?

It’s All Relative (No, it’s NOT !)

To hear some people speak today there is no such thing as right or wrong.  We should all be free to say or do what we desire, some people argue.

Morals are ALL relative, some say.  And as Christians, we should be saying, that it’s not.

Alice Cooper, A professed Christian recently said, many fail to understand how one might be a Rock Star and still be a Christian.  Actually, he never explains HOW, but yes, I do wonder.

His more advanced gig is with a reprise of Jesus Christ Superstar

And when it comes to murder and abortion and divorce and sexuality and hate and envy and unforgiveness and others, no, it is certainly NOT all relative.

If someone drunk runs over your son or daughter is that RELATIVE?  Are you willing to say that it doesn’t matter for it is all GOOD in the end?

Of course, NOT.

It is not relative and yes, it does matter and it certainly matters to GOD and it matters to GOD not for Him, but for our own good.

Some push the envelope further saying it matters not who is elected president or any other government position or that war or disease or hunger or pestilence is someone else’s problem whereas too, the poor will always be there.

And just because it is there do not mean it is good.  Cancer will always be here too, but I don’t wish that on anyone and no, it is not relative.  It is specific and more specific if it applies to YOU.

So then, when it comes to Jesus to His Father, God Almighty the angels the heavens and you and me: we ALL matter and it is not relative when we suffer and agonize over things which others believe are not important. Most important, if they are holding all the cards and looking down at us when we are in pain—No no and hell no, it is not relative.  It is true, it is important, germane and specific.

REVELATION KNOWLEDGE: Speeches & Sermons

For this post I’m not talking about burning bush revelations, but those who claim inside information on the big guy. I mean those preachers who assert that Jesus comes down to earth and sits down with them during breakfast and has a cup of coffee with them.  They refer to this as revelation knowledge.

There are several problems with this:  First, if you speak against it, they love to quote the Old Testament curse where God promises to zap you for attacking or hating on them.

Second: For them, even though this is a regular event, they don’t bother to record it or anything or have witnesses, so there is absolutely no way you can either affirm or deny their stated experience.

We know, for example, that with Moses, many witnesses abounded:  God was so loud in one instance, they begged Moses to go on the other side of the mountain as His voice was so loud and ‘terrible.’

Never mind the fact these god ‘wizards’ never come up with the rabbit in the hat, or thrown-down-rod-to-a-snake trick or any other mechanism to convince us of their, authority, They’ll blabber out their message nonetheless.

In the midst of this, they’ll hammer away insisting their ‘sermon’ is divine and that they are ‘anointed’ during the entire process.  They’ll never, ever admit that all they are really doing is perhaps providing a passionate speech and not a sermon at all.

We look to Jesus as an example of this mode of operandi but, alas, we can find none. Jesus never blurts out that he just had a conference call with God Almighty and He just had to tell someone.  The closest we come to that in the scriptures is with the transfiguration, but lo, we have witnesses to verify it.

Finally, the biggest problem with all of this is that we see no miracles that accompany their stated phenomena.  The Sayers end up being the Head Honchos and no one is to challenge their authority. The focus is on THEM and on their words and their authority.

For Christians our focus is on God through His son, Jesus.  All authority is placed on Him and through ALL members of His church.  The only revelation knowledge I can see worthwhile is how we might create more members and serve His kingdom better by obeying His commandments.

In reality no real revelation is even needed.  All we have to do is obey the word of God and Serve HIM with all our hearts.  In that manner, no other person becomes the AUTHORITY over us for we should be following each other as the body of Christians and no one else.