UNTITLED
CHARLO, New Brunswick, July 30, 2023 – We have so little time, and we use what little time we do have fussin’ and fightin’, which is just what the devil wants us to do. He sets up the conflicts – the traps – and then sits back and waits for us to walk into them….
And we nearly always do.
Meanwhile, God is over there waving at us, trying to get our attention and hold it long enough for us to make some kind of a commitment to him, any kind of a commitment, and follow through.
But I gotta be honest – it’s mostly a losing battle for him. He’s left with only a remnant, though it could have been worse, I guess, if Moses hadn’t intervened, if Joshua hadn’t intervened, if Joseph hadn’t intervened, if Elijah and Samuel and David and Jeremiah – if all those righteous men all down through the ages hadn’t intervened on our behalf, culminating in Jesus.
But ever since Jesus it’s just been us, a rag-tag group of mostly unknown followers that Paul rightly described as not very impressive, not much to look at. But God got our attention. We saw him waving and waving and waving and we finally waved back, moving closer to see what all the fuss was about.
So he got our attention and now he’s holding it. We’re the followers now. We’re the interveners. We’re up there with Moses and David and all the rest. We’re part of that team. Jesus called his Cousin John “Elijah” and knew how bizarre and downright dubious that sounded to his disciples. They were expecting something different, some grand gesture or sign that would confer a holy haze around the expected anointed, but it was only Cousin John, slightly oddball Cousin John who’d lived out in the desert most of his life and had now gotten himself landed in jail for speaking his piece.
Jesus himself was decidedly underwhelming, considering what people had in mind when they thought of Moses’ prophesied “Prophet”. They’d pictured David come back to life in a body the size of Goliath’s with the wealth of Solomon and the supernatural reach of a dozen Elijahs. They’d pictured something, well, anything other than this low-keyed soft-spoken son of a carpenter from Nazareth. And yet there Jesus was, the prophesied messiah, just as there John was, the prophesied Elijah, just as here we are now, the prophesied remnant, the saints of the Kingdom of Zion.
The more times you say it, the more real it becomes. When Jesus rose from the dead and appeared in a body that was on its way to becoming glorified, the disciples could finally see that what they’d suspected was real all along. Paul says we see God through a glass darkly, but if we make it Home, we’ll see him face to face; and that we know now only in part, but if we make it Home, we’ll know in full. Yet even here now we’re given flashes of facetime with God and flashes of full knowledge of him, courtesy of his Holy Spirit. So we know what we see is real and is becoming more real by the minute.
They never accepted Jesus because they were expecting something more, something maybe like what the devil was trying to entice Jesus with when he tempted him in the wilderness. They were looking for the devil’s grandiose notion of what a messiah should look like and so completely rejected the actual flesh and blood Messiah standing in front of them. People are still rejecting and dismissing God’s handiwork as inconsequential and not the real deal. The problem isn’t that God isn’t performing miracles like he used to; the problem is that people aren’t recognizing the miracles when they see them.
I’m a miracle, for instance. Everyone born of the Spirit is a walking, talking manifestation of God intervening in time and space. That’s a miracle. If I weren’t a miracle, these words wouldn’t be coming out of my fingertips and I wouldn’t be loving my enemies and praying for those who hate me. I can guarantee you that loving my enemies is the last thing I’d be doing if God weren’t working a miracle through me. You can’t love your enemies unless God’s working through you. Humans don’t love their enemies on their own steam.
Jesus says the Kingdom is within us. People are expecting some grand revelation on the scale of Ezekiel’s vision of God’s throne, but the Kingdom is within us. It will never be set up on Earth. That’s a job for the anti-Christ, who’ll be only too happy to answer to the name of Messiah and King and even God, when his time comes. The same kind of people who rejected Jesus for being too… well… carpenterish are now rejecting the Kingdom for being too invisible. They’re waiting for something more tangible, something they can stick their fingers into and bow down to. They wouldn’t be caught dead bowing down to a carpenter.
So here’s how I see it: it’s either that John was just Jesus’ crazy cousin, Jesus was just a poor carpenter from Nazareth, and I’m just a nobody from nowhere, or it’s that John was the prophesied Elijah, Jesus is the prophesied Messiah, and I’m part of the prophesied remnant, a saint living in God’s Kingdom.
It’s all how you look at it. God wants us to look at him, to fix our gaze on him so that we can see through his eyes. The devil wants to distract us, divert us, mislead and misinform us. He wants to blind us with false expectations, like he blinded nearly all of God’s people all those years ago.
Ultimately it’s up to you where you look. You can look at God or you can look the other way.
But I recommend you look at God and hold your gaze steady there.
ARE WE PRAYING THE WRONG WAY?
CHARLO, New Brunswick, July 28, 2023 – Jesus tells us: “Ye have not because ye ask not”. It’s his polite way of saying that we’re praying for the wrong things or not praying when we should be or perhaps not even praying at all.
And yet, my oh my, how some Christians love to pray! They’re like the Pharisees standing at the front of the temple or on the street corners, making sure that everyone sees and hears their holiness. That’s not to say there’s anything wrong with prayer – it’s the most powerful force in the universe and our direct line to God and Jesus. But many Christians, for all their prayers, might just as well not be praying because they pray the wrong way.
That is to say, they’re praying for the wrong things.
For instance, instead of praying for God to give them the strength to endure whatever God permits them to endure, they pray to find a way to avoid their tests and punishments. What they’re essentially doing is praying to God to counteract his own justice.
Now, that’s a strange thing for Christians to do – to pray against God’s perfect justice! I’m not sure why people do that, other than they don’t know that they’re doing it or they see others praying that way and simply follow their lead. Certainly, like Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane, we can ask God if there’s some wriggle room in his Grand Scheme Of Things that would allow us not to suffer so much, but we also need to end our prayers with “not what I want, but what you want”, as Jesus famously did. Ultimately, we need to fully align our prayers with God’s will, so that instead of trying to avoid taking our knocks (whether as punishment or as tests), we head into battle fully armed with God’s Spirit.
And we should pray the same for others. When we pray for them to avoid their tests and punishments, we’re not helping them. These are not charitable prayers, to help people avoid what they need to go through. In fact, such prayers serve the devil’s purposes, not God’s. We need to pray that people have the strength to endure whatever God needs them to endure and to come out the other side victorious.
Every test and punishment that we overcome through patient endurance makes us spiritually stronger and better able to help ourselves and others. More importantly, everything we successfully endure brings us closer to God and Jesus and closer to Home. The only test that Jesus taught us to pray to avoid is the test of the Tribulation. This is something that we can with God’s full blessings pray to avoid.
So the next time someone asks you to pray for them, pray for what they’ve asked for, but also pray that God will give them the strength to endure whatever they have to endure and come out victorious and stronger in the end. And if you pray to God on your own behalf, pray the same thing – not to avoid the tests and punishments that are coming your way, but for the strength and grace to endure them.
This should always be our prayer – to align our will with God’s and to have his supernatural strength to “endure to the end”. If we make this our guiding prayer, I guarantee you that God will immediately answer it with a loud and resounding “DONE!”
SEEING THINGS: THE DOPPELGANGER PHENOMENON
CHARLO, New Brunswick, July 28, 2023 – We know that when we convert, we become a particular target of the devil.
He wants us back.
I’ve known this ever since I was reborn 24 years ago, but lately I’ve come to know it especially intimately.
A very strange phenomenon started occurring shortly after I was born-again. I didn’t really pay much attention to it at the time, as I thought it was just people “misremembering” or getting their dates and other facts wrong. But lately it’s been so in-my-face, I’ve had to consider where it’s coming from, and why.
Here’s the phenomenon – people swear they see me in places I haven’t been, saying and doing things I haven’t said or done. It goes something like this: I meet someone for the first time, and he (it’s almost always a “he”) tells me we’ve met before and names the place. I tell him I’ve never met him before and have never been to that place, but he insists that I must be wrong. He swears I must be wrong.
Now, having a look-alike is nothing new. Nearly everyone has at least one somewhere in the world. But the problem is that my “evil twin” is, well, evil. She does bad things and says bad things, and it gets the guys all riled up. Sometimes she’s incredibly rude, and sometimes she’s lascivious. So when I meet these guys for the first time, they’ve already informed a very strong opinion about me because they think I’m her. Their opinion depends on their interaction with my doppelganger.
For example, it led to a taxi driver becoming obsessed with me and following me around everywhere I went when I visited a city a few years ago. He would lurk outside my windows at night, leaving little clues that he’d been there. I was only able to shake him off my trail when I left town early one morning using a limo service instead of a cab (I figured he’d been monitoring the cab calls on his dispatch radio). The night before I left, he’d written my name using little pieces of wood, laid them on the ground in front of my door, and lit them on fire. I have no idea how he found me at that location. Then there was the guy who swore that I constantly swore at him one summer a few years back while we were staying at a university residence. The only problem is I had never stayed at that residence before and I was somewhere else that summer. When I met the guy for the first time last year at the residence, he flew into a rage and accused me of previously verbally abusing him. Based on this false recollection, the guy has since got me banned from all the residences at that university.
As I said, we become targets once we’re born-again. I’ve learned to take everything in stride and acknowledge that if God permits it, it’s either a punishment or a test. Whichever it is, I accept it, submit to God, and learn from it. I only mention my evil twin today because she’s made an appearance again, this time near a small town where I’ve been staying for the past few months. Her reappearance has finally put the phenomenon front and centre for me. I can’t ignore it anymore or just write it off as someone “misremembering”. I need to see it for what it is and accept that it’s part of my life now.
Another taxi driver I just met swears he talked to me last week at a nighttime event I never attended. He got very sullen when I insisted I hadn’t been anywhere near the event. I have no idea what my evil twin said to him, but he was definitely expecting something more from me than just the fare and a tip.
I talked to God about this phenomenon a few hours ago, wanting to clear everything with him before I publish it. He reminded me that Jesus was also falsely accused of things he didn’t do, and that his accusers contradicted each other with their claims. The same thing happened to Paul and other followers of Jesus, including the disciples. That part of scripture always kind of bothered me because I couldn’t tell whether the accusers were purposely lying or had simply “misremembered”.
Now I believe they were subject to the same spiritual phenomenon as all the people who swear they’ve met me before. Not being under God’s protection, they’re easy prey of the devil. What they’re seeing is not me (obviously) and not even a person: it’s a spiritual hallucination or vision. They think they’re seeing me, but it’s not me. It’s not anyone. Hallucinations and visions can seem very real to the person experiencing them and interacting with them, which is why the guys get so angry with me when I tell them I’ve never met them before. They think I’m playing them for fools.
This phenomenon occurs in every culture in the world and goes under various names like “doppelganger”, “evil twin”, “nemesis”, and “apparitions”. Unfortunately, the appearance of these visions will likely plague me, as a born-again believer, for the rest of my time on Earth. They’ll also likely get increasingly compromising: I have no idea what my evil twin will get up to next. Like I said, Jesus and others in the Bible had to deal with this same issue; it’s just part and parcel of being a child of God. Now that I know what it is, I’m aware of it and I fully trust God to protect me from it.
Again – if God permits it, he wants us to submit to it and learn to deal with it knowing that he’s always got our back.
So, if you happen to see me out and about, saying and doing things that are decidedly unchristian, it’s not me. It’s my evil twin.
Just ignore her. d:
NEFARIOUS: CHRISTIAN OR ANTI-CHRIST?
CHARLO, New Brunswick, July 27, 2023 – A trailer for the film Nefarious popped up in my YouTube feed the other day. I didn’t know anything about the movie, but the thumbnail looked interesting, so I clicked.
I’m not sure I’m glad that I did. It had the typical “horror” genre feel that feeds demons’ need to be feared. Horror films, as we well know, have been a gateway to the demonic for many a lost soul. This movie doesn’t look like it’s much different in that regard.
Jesus didn’t fear demons. He didn’t like them, but he didn’t fear them. In none of his teachings did he warn us to fear them. If you’re genuinely born-again (which you should be if you’re reading this) – if you’re genuinely born-again, you know there’s nothing to fear in the spirit realm except God, and demons are obviously not God.
So right off the bat, I’m wondering what’s “Christian” about a “horror” movie that features demonic possession? In fact, after watching the trailer and then reading several reviews and interviews about the movie, I was surprised that Nefarious is even being plugged as a Christian film. By their very premise, horror movies aren’t Christian. They’re the opposite: They make people fear what Jesus taught us we have no reason to fear. In other words, horror movies are textbook anti-Christ.
Another aspect that jumped out at me was how the movie (again, based on the trailer) was sensationalizing demonic activity. This is unfortunate because demonic activity is actually quite ubiquitous. There’s nothing sensational about it. Everyone who isn’t born-again (that is, everyone who doesn’t have God’s Holy Spirit in them) has the spirit of the world in them, which is of the demonic realm. So that’s a lot of people who have demons either infesting, oppressing, or possessing them (at last count, nearly 8 billion people) and we’re around those people all the time. Do they look like the character in the movie (or like Linda Blair’s character in The Exorcist)? No, of course not, because demonic activity is the world and the world is demonic activity. Jesus taught us that the world is under the authority of Satan, so everything that is of the world (including the movie industry) is demonic. The film sensationalizes and attempts to make us fear (and therefore give power to) something that is actually quite widespread and banal.
Jesus didn’t fear or sensationalize any of the demons he encountered; he just shut them up and cast them out. The major portion of Jesus’ healing ministry was casting out demons. He performed thousands of exorcisms during his three-year ministry. Nearly everyone he interacted with had some level of demonic activity in them or around them, including some of his followers. Again – people who are not born-again have the spirit of the world in them, and the spirit of the world is demonic. There’s no such thing as a spiritual vacuum, so everyone has either God’s Spirit or demonic spirits. You can’t have both and you can’t have neither. This is a spiritual fact of life.
Furthermore, based on the trailer, the movie appeared to want to incite the audience not only to fear the demonic but to be curious about it. This follows the trend nowadays of demons coming out of the anonymity closet, whereas for the past several decades they’ve been trying to hide behind diagnoses of mental disorders, flights of fancy, and artistic expression. For years, demons worked hard to be considered non-existent, as it gave them the opportunity to infiltrate people’s lives without those people knowing what they’d gotten themselves into. I guess it was easier for parents to claim that their child’s atrocious behavior is due to autism or ADHD rather than demons. But now the demons want everyone to know about them and be curious about them. They want to preach their “Dark Gospel”, as the movie informs us.
Not having seen Nefarious, I can’t offer a critique beyond saying that if it makes Christians fear demons or makes them curious about demons, it’s not a Christian movie. Christians are not to have anything to do with demons, other than to give them the command to leave a soul they’re tormenting. Like Jesus showed us, the only interaction we’re to have with demons is to ask their name and then to tell them to leave in Jesus’ name. No further interaction is advised. This is another major flaw in the movie, from what I saw in the trailer. I read later in some reviews that the demon is given the spotlight and holds the stage for most of the film. Contrast that with how quickly demons are dispatched in the Gospels and how little they’re permitted to say.
Considering the above, I don’t think anyone can honestly call this movie Christian.
Ultimately, I question the motivation of the people behind Nefarious. I’ve read some interviews given by the directors (Konzelman and Solomon), and not once did they mention the name of Jesus. They mention “the Lord”, but they don’t mention Jesus by name. It seems odd to me that the name of Jesus is absent from their interviews, if in fact this movie is supposed to be Christian.
Demons shouldn’t be headlining movies meant for a Christian audience. We’re to cast demons out and silence them, not give them a platform to preach their satanic agenda. Demons and demonic activities are not entertainment, not for Christians. Everything you need to know about demons you can learn from Jesus and God; anything beyond that is unholy curiosity that needs to be stopped in its tracks, as it will only lead you down a very dark path.
“Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
SNIPER PRAYER
CHARLO, New Brunswick, July 26, 2023 – For us born-again believers, prayer is second nature. Paul says to pray without ceasing, and that’s what we do.
“We pray; therefore, we are.”
But how we pray in large part affects the efficacy of our prayers. Jesus advised us to go into our closet when we want to talk to God. That could mean physically going into a small solitary space, or it could mean closeting ourselves wherever we happen to be. You don’t have to be alone to closet yourself; you just put yourself into the God-zone and away you pray!
PRO TIP: It’s best to pray silently. God hears those prayers better than spoken ones.
- We should keep in mind, too, that Jesus advised us to settle our differences before we pray. This could mean actually making peace with someone we’ve aggravated, but it more often means choosing to forgive someone. If we go before God with a grudge-hardened heart – however justified we think that grudge may be – our prayers won’t be as effective. In fact, God might choose not even to hear our prayers until we make our peace in our heart, which always involves choosing to forgive.
- It also goes without saying that if we have unrepentant sin on our soul, we should repent before going to God in prayer. An unrepentant soul is a hardened soul. Like a hard heart, a hard soul can act as a barrier between us and God. We need to keep our soul as soft and supple as our heart, which means always choosing to forgive and always being ready to repent if God indicates we need to.
When I’m in the God-zone with a softened heart and soul, my favourite prayer style is sniper prayer. I learned how to sniper pray from my grandmother. Sniper prayer is just like it sounds – the target (prayer recipient) has no idea you’re praying for them. They don’t see you, and they don’t see the prayers coming. That’s because you don’t tell them you’re praying for them; you don’t tell anyone you’re praying for them: You just do it out of nowhere and when they least expect it. Sniper prayer is most appropriate for people who hate you or hate God. They don’t want to know you’re praying for them, anyway, so it all works out.
Sniper prayer is the prayer style that Jesus recommended when he told us to go into our closets and pray secretly. Only God needs to know the content of our prayers or even that we’re praying, which is why it’s best to pray silently. If we pray aloud, in almost every case (with few exceptions) the devil will know what we’re up to, and then he’ll start trying to figure out a way to thwart us. When we pray silently and without telling anyone but God and Jesus, the devil will never know what we’re up to. Our prayers will be hidden from him. That’s how we stay one step ahead of the evil.
Sniper prayers by born-again believers (a.k.a. saints) in right standing with God are the most effective prayers in all creation. Scripture says that the holy angels take those prayers together with incense and send them directly to God’s throne. And since prayer is the most powerful force in the universe, no weapon on Earth is stronger than sniper prayer, as it’s engendered by God and powered by his Holy Spirit.
So the next time you pray, get into the God-zone, soften your heart and soul, and take silent aim….
PRAY FOR THEIR CONVERSION, NOT THEIR DEATH
CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick, July 25, 2023 – One of the more disheartening things I’ve read in a long time is an online comment by a self-identified Christian who was begging God to reinstate the death penalty for a certain crime.
God hears those prayers, but he answers them by holding them against whoever’s praying them.
God does not want us praying for the death of someone or cheering on those who are being executed. The death of those we think deserve execution is not the time to be pointing fingers and hurling insults, as was done to Jesus during his execution. God does not condone such displays of hatred, and he rewards them accordingly.
Our response to people who do things we believe are worthy of death is TO PRAY FOR THOSE PEOPLE, not ask God to kill them. As born-again believers, we haven’t received God’s Holy Spirit to pass judgement over others; we’ve received it to lead by example, in this case to lead by praying for those who do things worthy of death.
If we don’t pray for them, who will?
Praying for people who’ve committed atrocities doesn’t mean we condone what they did. When we pray for them, we acknowledge the separation between their horrible deed and their God-made immortal soul. We pray for the salvation of their soul. We pray for them to turn back to God while there’s still time. We pray for their conversion. That’s the job description of Christians.
The world may feel justified in stating “kill ‘em all and let God sort ‘em out”, but we know that every soul is precious to God (he made each one himself), so we pray for the soul even as we condemn the deed. We make a firm separation between the soul and the deed.
Making this separation is what helps us to pray for the soul. I might have trouble praying for a man who raped me, but I have no trouble at all praying for his soul lovingly made by God. If I consider the rapist not as a rapist but as someone with a God-made soul who turned from God and committed rape, I am better able to pray for that soul, as I see it fully separate from its atrocious deed. I see the soul as something precious and worth praying for.
At a state execution, it is the body that is condemned, not the soul. No authority on Earth can condemn a soul. Only God can pass judgement on a soul.
As difficult as it may be to see past a crime (particularly when committed against ourselves or our loved ones), we need to remember to separate the soul from the deed and to pray for the soul’s conversion and ultimate salvation. Some of God’s most courageous warriors are converts living on death row.
THE (NEARLY) FOOL-PROOF TEST OF A FALSE PROPHET
CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick, July 22, 2023 – I did a Bing search on “Jeremiah” yesterday, and up pops a video in my YouTube feed today about the book of Jeremiah. I’m always game to hear someone else’s take on that booming prophet, so I clicked on the thumbnail and settled back for the show.
And a show it definitely was, as in all style, little to no content.
I listened to as much of the slick presentation as I could (the wrap-around call-centre-style microphone favoured by these types always gives me a giggle), and then clicked off after a few minutes. I couldn’t take any more.
As I’ve mentioned previously, I’ve yet to see a self-promoted “prophet” on YouTube that isn’t a false prophet. While I was mulling over this latest example of a wolf in sheep’s clothing, God said to me rather matter-of-factly: “I sent him.” This blew me away for second, as I thought God meant this guy was one his prophets. And then God clarified: “I send false prophets, too. To test you.”
So there you have it. God not only sends us his prophets who speak his Word in sincerity and truth, he also sends us false prophets so we can learn to discern between the two. I guess it makes sense that God sends the false ones mixed in with the real ones, since God’s the one who decides the scope and limit of our tests and temptations as well as our punishments.
Scripture says the best test of a prophet is whether or not what the person says comes to pass. If it does come to pass, chances are good that the prophet not only was sent by God but speaks on behalf of God. If it doesn’t come to pass, well, I hope that person didn’t quit his day job (unless his day job was being a prophet).
Another nearly sure-fire way to discern false prophets is by their looks.
The guy I watched today talking about the book of Jeremiah (or at least I think he was talking about the book of Jeremiah…) was handsome, well-spoken, smooth, and slick. His physical attractiveness made me want to watch him somewhat more than I wanted to listen to what he was saying. I could imagine clicking on more of his videos with the sound turned down, just to watch him.
Attractive people are beguiling. You tend to take what they say as Gospel Truth for no other reason than that they’re enjoyable to look at and so you’re not listening critically to what they’re saying. You’re instead suspending your disbelief and admiring the shape of their nose or the sculpt of their cheekbones or the sweep of their hair. I’m only being honest here. Some false prophets that are not that good looking rely on attractive designer clothes and elaborate sets to catch and hold your attention.
There’s a reason why Jesus was not attractive or rich. God didn’t want good looks or flashy wealth getting in the way of getting his message across. In Heaven, Jesus is drop-dead gorgeous (second only to God in beauty), but during his time on Earth he was described as “not having any form or comeliness that we would desire him”. That means he was not only plain but homely. Some people have even claimed that he was deformed. I don’t know about that, but I do know he wasn’t basing the success of his ministry on his looks. People were attracted to him solely because he spoke God’s Truth and did so with the confidence and authority of sincerity.
When we’re spending time ogling false prophets for their nose or designer labels, we’re not spending time with God. We’re also more prone to accepting false or misdirecting teachings because we tend to swallow whole whatever these people spoon-feed us rather than chewing on it and spitting out the bones and gristle.
So the lesson here today is that God sends us the false prophets as well as the real ones, just like he sends us the rain and the sunshine, and he does so to make sure we’re paying attention and focusing on him. The dead giveaway of most false prophets (besides failed prophecies) is personal charisma premised on beguiling good looks. That’s not to say that physically attractive people can’t be messengers of God. I’m not saying that. David was good-looking. Esther was good-looking. The holy angels, when they appear in glory, are fantastically beautiful. But if you find yourself more drawn to a preacher’s good looks than to what he or she is saying, chances are you’re under the thrall of a false prophet. Once you realize that, you need to get out.
May all your preachers be homely but sincere (and may they not have a channel on YouTube).
THE JOY OF PERSECUTION
CHARLO, New Brunswick, July 22, 2023 – When he came out as the Messiah in his hometown synagogue, Jesus was nearly stoned to death by his fellow Nazarenes. It was only by God’s supernatural intervention that Jesus escaped unscathed.
Even so, he was cast out of his hometown from that point onward. Over the next few years, he became an outcast in several other jurisdictions as well, and in some places he became an outright outlaw. As God’s Messiah speaking God’s Word, Jesus was not welcome among most of his people, some of whom also vehemently hated him.
Jesus warned us that we would suffer the same persecution and unfounded hatred as he did if we’re authentically speaking God’s Word.
What can we take from this warning? Only what Jesus said. Christians who are not being persecuted or are not outcast and hated are not authentically speaking God’s Word and are therefore not followers of Jesus. In other words, they’re not Christians. If you count unbelievers as your friends and are close to unbelieving family members, you are not a Christian. Jesus had no friends among unbelievers and he was estranged from his family after he started his ministry. These are the facts – scriptural facts, which means they’re indisputable.
So, are you a Christian according to Jesus’ definition or a Christian according to the world’s definition? Because according to the world, a Christian is someone who is nice and quiet and tolerates, tolerates, tolerates. A doormat, essentially, a human doormat who is pliable and gullible and can be counted on to fork out for whatever charity is currently making the rounds. The world sees Christians as silly, stupid, naïve, and seriously uncool dupes who should keep their foolish beliefs to themselves but otherwise go along with whatever the world says they have to go along with. Christians are not, in the eyes of the world, strong and fearless truthtellers who will continue to be strong and fearless truthtellers no matter how much the world tries to silence them. This version of a Christian – a strong and fearless truthteller – is nearly unheard of today, even though it’s the only version that Jesus would consider worthy of him.
I hope these words have jarred you into taking a mental inventory of your friends to see if any of them are unbelievers. Be friendly with everyone – by all means, be friendly and kind – but being friendly is not the same as being friends. How can you be friends with someone who denies Jesus? You hammer a nail into Jesus’ hand when you have such a friendship. The same goes for unbelieving family members, no matter how close they may be to you in blood. Jesus said that our real family members are those who do the will of God and that if we don’t hate (that is, distance ourselves from) family members who refuse to do God’s will, we’re not worthy to be called his followers.
These are also facts, scriptural facts, and therefore indisputable.
Being a genuine follower of Jesus who speaks God’s Word fearlessly is what we should all be aiming for. You’ll know whether or not you are such a person because if you are, you’ll be banned on most social media sites, fired from your job or dropped by your clients, and shunned by your unbelieving family members and former friends. You’ll also be blacklisted in places that used to welcome you and you may even enjoy the dubious privilege of being kicked out of Christian places of worship for, well, worshiping.
If you’re an outcast and an outlaw for fearlessly speaking God’s Word – CONGRATULATIONS! There is no higher achievement in this life than to be hated by the world for being a follower of Jesus. You now stand shoulder to shoulder with Jesus in his persecution and you can expect the same and worse treatment by the world for the rest of your time on Earth.
It is a very great blessing to be persecuted solely for speaking God’s Word.
I wish this blessing on every Christian.
STAGGERING ON, WITH GOD
CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick, July 21, 2023 – Jesus had no trouble gathering followers when he first started his ministry. The same for Moses; after he’d proved himself through the many signs and wonders, all the Hebrews willingly followed him out of Egypt.
Gaining adherents is the easy part. Getting people to buy into a dream and agree to the terms of a contract is the easy part. Getting someone to say “I do” is the easy part.
The hard part is getting people to stick with their promise.
Viewed from one perspective, the Bible is essentially a series of vignettes featuring people who agree to do something and then renege on the agreement. The only ones in scripture who don’t break their promise or violate the terms of their agreement are God and Jesus. Everyone else messes up somewhere along the line, falls, and either stays down for the count or struggles to their feet and staggers on.
No prophet worth his or her salt is unaware of the odds against people sticking with the terms of their contract with God. That most people won’t “endure to the end”, as Jesus warned we need to do in order to make it Home, is a given. Moses knew already at the start of the 40 years of wandering in the desert that only a few men of fighting age would make it to the promised land. He knew it, but he kept on advocating for everyone anyway. When God gave him the opportunity to throw them all under the bus when he caught them dancing naked around the golden calf, Moses pleaded for them, even knowing his battle was a losing one, even knowing that, in the end, it would all come down to just a handful or fewer of righteous souls and that the rest would be lost.
We should be under no illusion that everyone who calls him- or herself a Christian is written in God’s Book of Life. If that were the case, there would be no need for the Judgement. But the truth is that getting into Heaven is very difficult. In fact, it’s so hard, we can’t do it with our own efforts. It’s impossible for us to do it on our own, but Jesus says that it is possible “with God”.
This is the reason why so many Hebrews didn’t make it to the promised land and why so many people won’t make it Home. Once called, Moses did nothing without first consulting with God. The same with Jesus. David was always asking if he should go to battle, and if God said yes, he’d go; if God said no, he wouldn’t. When Joshua took over from Moses, he also did nothing without first consulting with God. He didn’t draw up battle plans and then ask God to bless them; he waited for God’s instructions, including God’s go-ahead.
Being “with God” means just what Jesus said – being with God. You consult God on everything, from the second you wake up in the morning to the second you fall asleep at night. God is not only always on your mind, he’s in your mind and moving things around in there for you. And you’re letting him do it. That’s how you live “with God” and that’s how you’ll make it (if you make it) all the way Home. Being with God means to enter into a contract with God, like a marriage contract. You agree to stick with God and he agrees to stick with you.
Few will hear these words, and of those few who do hear, fewer will take them to heart. Still, as followers of Jesus, we have to make the effort to reach out to everyone who wants to be touched by God, and to keep on reaching out to them for as long as we’re here. Our job is to keep hoping for them and praying for them, even if part of us thinks they’re a lost cause. We’re not the judge. We didn’t write the Book of Life. We don’t know who’s in it because it hasn’t been opened yet and and hasn’t been read.
Moses kept fighting for every child of Israel, even after God told him most of them would go astray and would be lost. He kept fighting for all of them. Jesus sacrificed himself not for those who were worthy, but for those who might some day be worthy. He cast his net wide for the haul and then picked and chose after he’d brought the catch to shore.
It’s easy to agree with the terms of a contract while the ink is still fresh. Many will initially agree but few will follow through later. Knowing this, we still need to teach anyone and everyone who wants to learn about the Kingdom. That’s why Jesus said we’re to forgive people not seven times but seventy times seven. In other words, we’re to keep on giving people a chance. God will ultimately decide who’s worthy of Paradise and who isn’t.
Our job is to let people know they can be made worthy, with God.
BANKING ON ARMAGEDDON
CAMPBELLTON, New Brunswick, July 21, 2023 – If the comments posted under YouTube videos are anything to go by, a good many Christians these days are basing their witness on end times prophecies. They’ve blown right past preaching the Good News, loving your enemies, and keeping the Ten Commandments and fast-forwarded to pre-Armageddon, where they hope to be among the lucky few who will be raptured before things get too nasty here on Earth.
The only problem with this strategy is that it hasn’t worked out too well for all the other Christians who’ve been doing it over the past 2000 years.
I’m not going to delve into the risk-aversion, reality-avoidance, and borderline sadistic psychopathologies of those who are enraptured by the rapture. Nor am I going to point out that Jesus never recommended that we skip the preaching/loving/Commandments-keeping phases to don a “THE END IS NIGH” sandwich board and think we’ve done our job as his followers. No, far be it for me to mention those things, even in passing. What I will mention is that end times prophecies, like all predictions of future occurrences ranging from God-given all the way down to weather forecasts, rely on the source. If God is the source, well, you can take those prophecies to the bank, but every other source requires a measure or two (or more) of salt.
The Bible has amply documented the straight-from-God prophecies about Armageddon and pre-Armageddon, starting at Genesis and ending at Revelation. We honestly don’t need any more than what God has already given us. If we not only start but stay with that tried-and-trued premise, we’ll be fine. Where things start to go hinky and send people off-course is when self-styled prophets claim to have “a word from God” without anything to back up their claims except their own dubious claims.
YouTube, as I’ve written before, is rife with false prophets preaching that Jesus is coming back soon. Not only that, but they breathlessly tell us that Jesus is coming back to set up his worldly kingdom. So the same people who are certain that Jesus is coming back soon to rapture them to Heaven are just as certain that he’s coming back soon to set up his worldly kingdom. They see no contradiction between these two beliefs.
It would be funny if it weren’t so sad.
I can’t imagine that Jesus, having already endured 33 years here, culminating in an excruciating crucifixion, is going to give up his glorified body and exalted seat at the right hand of God to come back to Earth to set up a worldly kingdom, especially since he stated plainly that his Kingdom is not of this world. If Jesus’ Kingdom is not of this world (and scripture cannot be contradicted) – if Jesus’ Kingdom is not of this world, then how can he set up a kingdom in this world? Wouldn’t that be contradicting scripture?
The so-called millennial (1000-year) kingdom is God’s Kingdom on Earth. It is a spiritual Kingdom that was set up by Jesus during his time on Earth 2000 years ago. This Kingdom is not of this world and is not even on Earth. It is, however, spiritually accessible, via God’s Holy Spirit, to born-again believers who are still on Earth.
Again, the Kingdom is not on Earth but has been made spiritually accessible to us while were still here. This is the so-called millennial kingdom written about in the book of Revelation. It was also written about in Daniel, where the prophet describes a kingdom that will be set up alongside other kingdoms but will be an eternal kingdom ruled over by the “Son of man”. Isaiah also famously talked about the Kingdom (Isaiah 35:8-10), as did all the OT prophets, starting with Enoch.
As much as I’d like to base my entire witness on “Jesus is coming back soon” and hoping to get raptured the heck outta here, I’d be denying scripture if I did. Jesus told us to watch, but he didn’t say to do so while shirking our other duties as his followers. Those virgins didn’t get that oil in their lamps just by wishing it there. They were ready when the bridegroom arrived not because all they did is wait for him, but because they did the other things that enabled them to have the oil, i.e., preaching, loving, and keeping the Commandments.
Waiting is just one of the many tasks Jesus gave us; it’s not the only one. Those who base their witness on signs of the end times are like people who skip to the back of a book and only read the ending. Sure, they’ll find out how it all works out – who lives and who doesn’t – but they miss the point of how the story got there in the first place.
They miss the whole point of the story.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 