In reality, in several sentences. Back to blogging. A reaction to the second Covid booster sidelined me for several days. NO MORE BOOSTER shots!
First, a reason exists why all Christians remain a work in progress. Jesus will be satisfied with us only when he’s as INCARNATE in our earthly temples as God in the Holy of Holies. Would any of us boast that it’s true now? Second, sin as prevailingly pollutes life as spotted knapweed the Montana plains. Sin poses two fearsome problems: one, like knapweed, it spreads in secret, underground; two, like knapweed, it ruins the soil for future growth. Kuralt’s America, p. 210 Third, thank God, his Grace can “make the foulest clean” AND create from the old soil fertile spiritual life in which the Holy Spirit can plant and mature his fruit. Third, and a warning to America, since God ordered destroyed so completely the Temple he had originally built so carefully, Lamentations 2:8-9, why would we consider his judgment on a secularized, materialistic, godless America an impossibility?
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In 1832 South Carolina threatened to secede from the Union over the Tariff. Passing the Force Bill in 1833 cooled their militance and led to compromise. The Compromise of 1850, surfaced by the annexation of Texas following the Mexican War, again prevented disunion over slavery. Popular Sovereignty, A.K.A. Kansas/Nebraska Act, the brainless child of Stephen Douglas in 1854, re-ignited discontent smoldering in the body politic since not long after Washington's Inauguration.
Slavery, the one issue of contention between North and South that defied compromise, finally led to armed conflict in 1861. Abraham Lincoln judged correctly in 1858-1860. The BEST time to LIMIT—understand that word—the spread of slavery had arrived. Stopping the spread would lead to slavery's eventual extinction. The South wouldn't tolerate limiting it—and made war. The North couldn't tolerate its spread—and accepted war—as Lincoln so eloquently stated in his Second Inaugural Address. But enough of history. Consider the spiritual lesson involved for Christians. While we excel at keeping today for ourselves and casually offering God tomorrow, God gives us only TODAY to serve him, with no promises for life tomorrow. Scripture sees TODAY as the BEST time to accept God's offer of forgiveness through Christ Hebrews 4:6-7. As Jesus limited discipleship to a single 24 hour period Luke 9:23. So TODAY, Christians, is the BEST time for us to resist to the point of conquering temptation Galatians 5:16-21. TODAY is the BEST time to plant the seeds of Holy Spirit fruit in our lives Galatians 5:22-26. What is in our lives that, if eliminated NOW, would make our strength against temptation obstinate? Or, NOT in our lives that, incorporating it, would make our witness for Christ invincible? Abraham Lincoln read the draft of a speech to a dozen chosen Republicans as he prepared to run as their candidate for Senator from Illinois in 1858. Every listener opposed it as "too radical" and "ahead of its time." Much as President Reagan's counselors urged him not to include, "Mr. Gorbachev, Tear down this Wall" in his Berlin speech, June 12, 1987.
Nevertheless, at the State Convention in Springfield, June 16, 1858, Lincoln read from a manuscript his "House Divided" speech. It offered an unmistakable call for a permanent solution to the country increasingly divided over slavery. That speech, and his later Cooper Union speech, made him President in a crisis as dangerous to the nation as the American Revolution had been to the Colonies. Never has the speech been more relevant to America than now. For in our crazed pursuit of diversity, hastened by a nation of Biblically-illiterate citizens, Jesus Christ is simply too dangerous, too exclusive, too intolerant and too offensive for the diversity national leadership now mistakenly demands. Point of fact. Jesus had no tolerance for spiritual neutrality when he confronted and bludgeoned Satan to a pulp in the Wilderness temptations Matthew 4:1-11. The apostles had no tolerance for spiritual neutrality when they preached Jesus as the Only Name/Person in all history by which "we must be saved" Acts 4:12. And on and on in every page of the New Testament. Abraham Lincoln afterwards said: if he had his choice of but one speech to bequeath to history, he would choose "House Divided", unedited, unabridged, unerased! Reader's Digest Biography, 185-187. Christians, THINK:
When Jesus said he was God's Son, and the only way humans can ever enter heaven, John 14:1-14, what is there about it we wish he HADN'T SAID? NOTHING! Just because America has more people than ever who don't want to hear it, we refuse to substitute Islam, Moses or Buddha for the great I AM! We now need Christians in the workplace:
Without knowing its provenance, a Texas art collector paid $35 for a marble bust in a Goodwill Store. To be shocked when discovering that her bargain dated from 1st century B.C. – 1st century A.D. and believed to depict a son of Pompey the Great.
It had last been seen in the private collection of King Ludwig I of Bavaria. An American soldier likely stole and brought it back with him after WWII. The art collector has made an agreement with Bavarian authorities to return the treasure in exchange for a confidential settlement. San Diego U/T, 5/15/22 We can learn an essential Biblical truth from the story: by right of creation in HIS image; by right of redemption in HIS SON's sacrifice; by right of re-creation in the HOLY SPIRIT's work of conversion, God owns all human beings. Satan naturally lies, using Darwin's horrendously false view that lower life forms merged into higher life forms. And spiritually-blind scientists continue his fallacy that we rose from LOWER forms of life, not fell from GOD's, the Highest Possible LIFE SOURCE. While there's nothing in creatures that makes us think we belong to their lower life form, everything about us shouts our nexus with GOD. True, rather than admit we belong UPWARD, and, therefore, have a responsibility to God, benighted scientists glory in our downward origin, therefore, congratulating us for bettering ourselves by ourselves. Though all created beings, according to God's will, continue to re-produce after their own KIND. Upward, in God's presence through Christ, we improve, mature, increase in God's Image. In no other direction do we get closer to our origin or destiny. With this caveat, only returning to God as our origin and destiny will slow, then stop, our decline into deeper depravity so evident everywhere in America. Should we continue in our present state long enough, God will one day have enough, and JUDGMENT will fall. Whether revival, or Christ's Return, happens then, God alone will determine. May is the awareness month for:
Just wondering...with all those disease in just one month, why do we need eleven more? . . . . . . . IPOD...the ultra-innovative device that thrilled communication two decades ago, has been discontinued in the iPod Touch, its last version. U-T, 5/11/22 Just wondering...with the IPOD being only the last in a long line of NOW abandoned inventions, creations, national companies and "must-have" devices: finished, closed, removed and otherwise superannuated, why do humans continue to satisfy the human soul—shared as the principle of life with all creatures—while ignoring the human spirit, the image of God in humans that distances them in an unbridgeable gulf from all else in creation? . . . . . . In Jeremiah 40:4, the Babylonian commander of armed forces told the prophet: "Look, the whole country lies before you; go wherever you please." To Abram, after the patriarch gave nephew Lot his choice of geography, God said, "Lift up your eyes...north and south, east and west. All the land that you see I will give...." Genesis 13:14-17. The difference in the two scriptures: to Abram God gave an empty land filled with promise; to Jeremiah Nebuzardan could offer only a land empty of everything promising. Just wondering. Why would humanity ceaselessly seek our destiny in what's vanishing when it's continuing only in eternity: God's Presence, God's Kingdom, God's Eternal City? Using I John 2:15-17 as our model, we can see how Eve established the world's response, and how Jesus re-established God's response to temptation. First, in a state of innocence, potentially-perfect Eve SAW in the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil:
SEEING what she considered possibilities, into sin she plunged by eating its fruit. Second, experiencing 40 days and nights of fasting that reduced his physical body-mass to dangerous levels, Jesus SAW:
And answered Satan's temptation with God's Word every time. He SAW, but without:
Two models on how to respond to temptation exist, then:
The apostolic model followed Christ's:
Summary: Christians can either rise to God's expectation or fall to our soul's desires. Which will we choose? Which will we have as our goal every time tempted? Fini The search for wisdom in knowledge continues to disembowel the positive influence of education today, beginning with Post-War America. The liberalism of the 1950's and 1960's systematically removed God from education. A removal that became the violently anti-God attacks in each decade since.
Now, in 2022, believers cannot mention God in the classroom while unbelievers have the freedom to denounce God as a myth, the Bible as fiction and Jesus Christ as the creation of disciples who dreamed a conquering Christ from a failed Jesus. Nevertheless...let Christians shoulder a major share of the blame by:
The charge offends godly people who led in the development of those schools. The decision, however, had the unintended consequence of encouraging secularization of culture. Consider briefly four ways this writer has developed more fully in his study Factors That Have Secularized American Society. First, it removed the Pro-God, Pro-Biblical societal atmosphere that demanded inclusion in education. Second, it deprived public school faculties of Christian influence. Third, it deprived the public education system of Christian teachers, school boards, writers, curriculum and superintendents. Fourth, private schools brought a mere familiarity with Christian teaching that testing in public schools would have developed as confident faith and enduring discipleship. End Part II, with one to follow. Consider Mother Eve. Following James 1:14-15, she sinned mentally, spiritually and emotionally before the inevitable physical act of eating the fruit. For a simple reason:
KNOWING God's VOICE, she also knew:
The very difference:
Nevertheless, by desiring what God forbade:
Which, however loud:
She allowed a creature, not the Creator, to be her instructor, honoring his imitation over God's ORIGINAL voice. No wonder she could be deceived into thinking knowledge equaled` wisdom. She desired, not the Truth of God, but what the arch-criminal promised through his corrupt oily mouthpiece. End Part I John 21 came to mind while writing an entirely different idea early morning a few days ago. Particularly Simon Peter's response when Jesus probed the depth of his love. After all, before leaving for Gethsemane, Simon had pledged, "Even if all fall away on account of you, I never will.... Even if I have to die with you, I will never disown you" Matthew 26:33, 35.
Now...on his third appearance to the seven disciples after his resurrection, Jesus interrogated that boast. Did Simon "truly love" Jesus more than the other ten, that is, with Agape love—the love of will, not emotion? In reply Simon admitted to having –friendship love for Jesus—of the emotion, not agape. This happened twice more, with the same interrogation—"love me agape", answered by, "love you as a friend". Then, the third time, Jesus asked, "Simon, are you sure you have friendship love for me"? At this point, Simon Peter found the humility that made him worthy of being an apostle. For he claimed only friendship love for Jesus. Gone the boasting of his "eternal loyalty to death" that characterized his earlier self. Now he claimed only that he loved Jesus as a learning disciple. Important point...we can claim MORE now than Simon claimed THEN only if we have experienced life-changing challenges to our Faith in Christ that proved we have deeper than friendship faith and love for Jesus. We may freely criticize Simon for previously boasting of love he thought he had, but didn't. We appreciate his honesty in claiming only the friendship love his denial of Jesus proved he had. Do we ever find ourselves thinking we love Jesus more only to discover that our response to problems, challenges, doubts and temptation prove we really love him less? I understand Simon from sometimes humiliating personal failures. These truths for sure come from this account. One, Simon Peter would never again boast except, with the apostle Paul, in the cross of Christ Galatians 6:14. Two, God will never condemn us for admitting, and asking forgiveness, for being sinful, failing him, falling miserably short of even our intentions, let alone of Christ's perfection. Three, God will never exonerate us if we claim a loyalty, commitment and perseverance to Christ's righteousness that we have no fixed intention of proving; and, if we have the intent, find our humanity overtaking even our best intentions. |
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