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Yearly Archives: 2024
DOOR WIDE SHUT
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, June 18, 2024 – When I was born again, God shut the door to evil. I didn’t have to do anything to keep the evil at bay; God did that for me as one of the signature terms of service of his grace. He continues to keep that door firmly shut even today, 25 years into my rebirth.
But I also bear some responsibility for maintaining my grace. There are a few doors that God won’t close but that he may advise me to close, as a test of sorts (and as a nod to my ongoing free will). These “test” doors, once shut, I dare not reopen. As tempting as it might be to open them just a crack to see what’s happening on the other side (or to get down on my hands and knees and peer underneath the door), I must never do those things. When God means business he means business, and when he commands us to shut the door, he means shut the door, and shut it for good.
I received such a command a few nights ago in a dream. I dreamt that I was lying on my side facing a wall, drowsing. Behind my back, evil was creeping toward me from the next room. I could see it coming through God’s eyes, but I was too tired to do anything about it. Closer and closer the evil approached the open doorway (the way my cat used to creep toward me, but only when I blinked), until suddenly God commanded me to shut the door.
I heard God loud and clear, but I was too comfortably relaxed in my warm bed to get up. I wanted to keep on drowsing and so I ignored God’s voice. That’s when he turned up the volume and changed his tone and his command became both a warning and a wake-up call:
“SHUT THE DOOR!”
This caught my attention, and in my dream, I immediately sprang out of bed and rushed to shut the door before the evil could slip through.
It’s easy to be lulled into spiritual complacency. It’s easy to ignore God’s voice when we’re side-tracked with “non-God” things. It’s easy to slide into a comfortable slumber, turning our back on possible dangers and expecting God to take care of us. What isn’t always easy is shutting the door and keeping it shut. There’ll be any number of excuses as to why the door could remain just slightly ajar or why it shouldn’t be shut at all but left wide open. Satan is very good at devising excuses and justifying exceptions to counter God’s commands, like he did in the Garden of Eden. And we’re very good at buying Satan’s lies, like Eve and Adam once did.
What about you? Are there any doors that God has commanded you to shut lately? Have you, like me in my dream, pushed God’s voice aside and left the door wide open, letting the evil draw closer and closer to you? Or did you, as soon as you heard God’s voice, immediately rush over and slam the door shut?
Evil comes in many forms. As born-again believers, we have enormous protection in our day-to-day dealings with the world and we’re also protected while we sleep, but that doesn’t mean we should expect God to do everything for us. God is not going to keep every form of evil at bay from us; some forms of evil God will even permit to approach very close to us, unless we do as he says and shut the door.
I know the form of evil that God was alluding to in my dream. I have since shut the door on it and resolved to keep it shut permanently, but I know I can’t do that without God’s help, as this particular form of evil is highly alluring to me, the way the Tree of Knowledge was alluring to Eve or the dark arts were to Solomon. Not all curiosity is healthy. I can even point to the many alleged benefits of succumbing to this particular temptation, but none of them come from God. When God says to shut, we’re to shut, not to argue or whine or attempt to strike a bargain. Nor should we roll over and keep on slumbering as if we hadn’t heard God.
What God says to shut, we’re to shut, and never open again.
WHAT HE SAID
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, June 16, 2024 – Jesus is our gold standard. During his time on Earth in a human body, Jesus had the full measure of God’s Spirit, which means that everything Jesus said was God speaking through him. Jesus wasn’t God, but God spoke directly through him by his Holy Spirit. Having the full measure of God’s Spirit gave Jesus ultimate authority in everything he taught.
If Jesus is our gold standard, then everything else must be compared to Jesus. Moreover, what Jesus said in the New Testament takes precedence over whatever was said in the Old Testament, if what Jesus said conflicts with the Old Testament. So, for instance, it’s no longer hate and kill your enemies, it’s love and bless your enemies; it’s no longer get a bill of divorce, it’s divorce leads to adultery (so don’t do it); it’s no longer shun the lepers, it’s heal the lepers; it’s no longer gather riches to yourself, it’s give all your riches away.
I mention this as a preamble to a critically important teaching that is more, in fact, a fact, which is – we are followers of Jesus, not followers of his disciples. The New Testament covenant is with Jesus, not with Peter or with Paul or with any of our other brethren mentioned in scripture. Our allegiance is to Jesus, and Jesus has the final word if something he says conflicts with something someone else says in the Bible or elsewhere. Everything Jesus said was the word of God, which is why (spoiler alert!) Jesus is called the Word.
Paul famously had a lot to say as a follower of Jesus, and some of it has been recorded in the New Testament. But not everything Paul said and wrote was from God. He wasn’t Jesus; he was Paul, and as Paul, he didn’t have the full measure of God’s Spirit like Jesus had while on Earth, which means that sometimes Paul spoke or wrote amiss, as we all do (not having the full measure of God’s Spirit). Just because what Paul said or wrote is included in the New Testament doesn’t mean it’s correct. We need to be very careful to distinguish the words of Jesus from those of others. Jesus’ words we can take the bank; the words of others we need to carefully weigh against Jesus’ words to see if they balance, to see if they fit with what Jesus taught us.
One example is the spiritual fate of the genetic children of Israel. Paul was adamant that God continued to favour his genetically “chosen people” over everyone else and that they ultimately would triumph spiritually as a people, not as individuals, whereas Jesus (and Old Testament prophets like Isaiah) made it clear that genetics had nothing to do with salvation, and that the people formerly known as chosen were no more favoured by God than anyone else and had no more guaranteed claim to Paradise than anyone else. This is a thorny issue for many believers, but it shouldn’t be. Again, Jesus has the final word here, not Paul or anyone else.
Another example is Paul’s demoting of women to secondary status to men, especially when it came to roles of leadership and teaching in the Church. Paul tried to silence women’s voices, whereas Jesus amplified them. We know that Jesus amplified them because he was constantly defending his female followers and in so doing giving them a voice and teaching us that they needed to be heard as much as his male followers. In the Kingdom, there is no distinction between male and female or Jew and non-Jew or old and young. We are all the same in God’s eyes, endowed with his same Spirit (though to different measures).
To me, it is highly telling and symbolic that God chose Mary Magdalene as the first human to see Jesus after he rose and the first one to the bear the news of his resurrection. Unfortunately, many of the male followers dismissed her claims, only later to be sharply corrected by Jesus. Worldly Christianity may have evolved over the centuries as a male-centric belief system, but Jesus didn’t plant a male-centric belief system, not according to his recorded words and actions. Again, it’s to Jesus that we need to look for guidance, not to his followers, if what his followers say conflicts with what Jesus taught us.
Jesus is our gold standard for everything in life. We look to him to inform us through his words recorded in scripture and – just as importantly – we look to him in prayer, where we meet with him one-on-one in real time, which is a privilege promised to his born-again believers. If a teaching or a position doesn’t line up with what Jesus has said or shown us, we need to reject it. God has given us a Spirit of discernment for just such a reason, but it’s up to us to use it.
By all means, read the words of Paul and of other followers of Jesus, but remember that they aren’t infallible. There is much wisdom in them, but they aren’t infallible. Use the measure of the Holy Spirit that God’s given you to discern what is true and what is not, and weigh everything – EVERYTHING – against the Word.
JEREMIAH IN CHAINS
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, June 13, 2024 – Jeremiah left Jerusalem in chains. Along with the other prisoners, Jeremiah had to walk the perp walk of shame, shackled and humiliated, while Jerusalem lay smoldering in ruins behind him.
It didn’t matter that Jeremiah had spent years begging people to turn back to God to avoid this very thing. It didn’t matter that he’d already done hard time in a slime pit and elsewhere with only a scrap of bread a day to sustain him. He had to suffer along with everyone else, sinner or not, deserved or not. It’s what he signed up for as a prophet.
And why not? Being a prophet of God is not all wine and roses. Jesus wore a crown of thorns, not roses, and was offered vinegar on the cross, not wine. He suffered what he hadn’t earned and endured cruelties for our sake as well as for his. Why should it be any different for us or for Jeremiah? Why should it have been worse for Jesus than for us?
This is a hard truth for many who allege to be followers of Jesus. They recoil at the pick-up-your-cross-daily part of the requirements, the perp-walk-of-shame part of the deal, the grinding poverty part of everyday reality that characterizes true disciples of Jesus, and so they gravitate towards the false prophets who promise them a life of prosperity and blessings. Yet all genuine prophets have had a rough go of it, including Jesus – especially Jesus – because the higher a soul strives, the more that soul will be targeted and tested.
I love God so much it hurts sometimes. But that doesn’t exempt me from being tested and tried. Being a child of God guarantees you’ll be tested and tried until you’re finally fitted for your own crown of thorns.
The roses come later, if and when you make it Home.
___________
I stayed for a few weeks in a household of a few dozen assorted humans, none of whom (other than me) claimed to be Christian. Theoretically, that should mean I was the kindest, most generous, and most patient among the residents, but the reality is far from the truth. I’m humbled by what some of them taught me from their place of unbelief. Even so, knowing I’m a Christian, a few of them watched me like a hawk, swooping in on occasion to bait me, expecting me to snap at them or let loose a tirade or (even better) launch into a sermon so they could have their “gotcha!” moment and triumphantly march me to the door. Thank God I didn’t snap, though I was tempted. Thank God that God keeps me reined in, at least in public.
__________
I wandered into a worship service last Sunday and then a few minutes later wandered back out. The music (live band with amplifiers) was ear-splitting and I had the sense that I was at a rock concert rather than a church service. I’m open to accepting that the fault was all mine for having sensitive ears and expectations that didn’t line up with reality, but is it wrong to expect people to turn off their smartphone and do without their sippy-cup of coffee for just one hour? To me, it’s not enough that they “at least made the effort” to show up on a Sunday morning, any more than it’s enough for a student to pass a course just for showing up in class. Showing up is not the required effort; doing your best at the task at hand is the required effort.
_________
We can only imagine what was going through Jeremiah’s mind as he trudged out of Jerusalem in chains, knowing he’d never return and that Jerusalem and its temple would never return, not to their former glory. Jeremiah was as near starvation as the rest of the prisoners and just as shell-shocked and traumatized by the horrors they’d witnessed, yet he would also likely have been expected to endure more stoically than the others, being a prophet of God. He would have been expected to boost the morale and have a timely, encouraging word from God for them. He would have been expected to be more than merely Jeremiah in chains.
Prophets are always expected to be more than merely human.
We, as born-again believers, bear our own chains. We bear them daily and in all circumstances and some of them are ungodly heavy and cut into us. But the chains don’t come from God, they come from the world, and we’ll bear them as long as we’re here on Earth. The world not only expects us to bear them, it demands that we bear them and that we do so publicly. They like to see us bowed down by their weight. It makes them feel justified for rejecting God.
And if you’re thinking there must be a way for you, on your own volition, to quietly slip out of your chains – remember that God permits them for your edification, and what God permits, you need to endure. God will remove your chains when it’s time. No point in trying to pray them away. The heaviest of Jeremiah’s chains were removed by an enemy of Israel (who had respect for him as a prophet of God, though Israel didn’t), and the rest of his chains Jeremiah bore until he went Home.
This is how it will be for us, because again – why should doing hard time on Earth be any easier for us than it was for Jeremiah or for Jesus?
FIVE RIGHTEOUS SOULS, AND COUNTING
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, June 9, 2024 – YouTube’s algorithm recommended a video to me a while ago featuring a YouTube prophet with a following of nearly a million. I know he had a following of nearly a million because that’s the first thing he mentioned in the recommended video. But rather than rejoicing that he was reaching so many people with (what I hope was) the Word, the YouTube prophet was instead lamenting that he “only” had nearly a million subscribers and that he was praying to get millions more.
This got me thinking about Jesus and about how many followers he had during his ministry years. We don’t know exactly how many he had (and I suspect he didn’t know, either, unless God told him), but their numbers waxed and waned according to what he was preaching. When Jesus was preaching about love and healing and being showered with blessings, the numbers were high; when he was preaching about loving your enemies and doing without, the numbers dropped off. Towards the end of Jesus’ time on Earth, the numbers dropped off especially precipitously (leveling off at nearly 0 at one point) before slowly and steadily climbing to where they are today.
But where are they today? What I mean is: how many genuine followers does Jesus have? I’m not talking self-professed followers; I mean people marked by God and filled with God’s Holy Spirit. How many of these do you reckon Jesus has today? I’d wager it’s a lot fewer than the YouTube prophet’s “nearly a million”. I doubt it even breaks 10,000. Whatever it is, it’s a number known only to God (and maybe now also to Jesus).
The exact number of Jesus’ genuine followers is important, though, because it determines how much more time we have before the Judgement. Remember how Abraham bargained with God to forestall the destruction of Sodom if a certain number of righteous people lived there? Abraham was a pretty good negotiator because he bargained God all the way down to five righteous souls. Abraham probably thought that five righteous souls would be a slam-dunk – what self-respecting metropolis couldn’t come up with at least five righteous souls? Sadly, Sodom couldn’t.
So numbers are important, just not the way the YouTube prophet views them. Also important is the degree of a soul’s righteousness. Every righteous soul has a specific degree of righteousness, depending on the measure of the Holy Spirit that God has granted that soul. Another word for degree is value, but most people don’t like the word “value” in relation to souls. They don’t like the thought that some people’s souls have a higher value than others, even though it’s true. God loves us all the same, but that doesn’t negate the fact that our souls have different spiritual values depending on the choices we make.
There’s a threshold for righteousness in a soul. When the value is below that threshold, the soul is considered unrighteous; when it’s at or above the threshold, it’s considered righteous, and the more righteous choices that soul makes, the more righteous it grows. Again, the value of the soul comes from the choices people make, not from something God has or hasn’t done. God measures and designates a soul’s value; he doesn’t impose it.
These spiritual facts are crucial for understanding the state of the world. Just like every individual soul has a spiritual value, so, too, does every family, every neighbourhood, every village and town, every city, every state and province, and every nation. When summed together, these values give the world its total spiritual value.
I don’t think it’s very high these days.
I don’t know my spiritual value. I know I’m born-again and under God’s grace, but I don’t know my spiritual value. I think I’d prefer not to know (lol), kind of like I’d rather not know my exact weight. Better to focus on doing God’s will than worrying about my measured value. I don’t think Jesus thought much about his spiritual value during his time on Earth, any more than he thought about the number of his followers. He didn’t consciously try to raise his spiritual value; he just made sure always to do “that which pleased the Father”. Based on that alone, Jesus’ spiritual value remained higher than anyone else’s before or since.
Credit scores and social credit scores are the world’s latest human valuation products. Of course, you can buy good credit or social credit scores or even cheat your way into them, the way you can game pretty much every aspect of the world (including the algorithms that designate how many followers you have on YouTube). But God you can’t cheat; your spiritual value is measured and designated by God, making it fool-proof. The only measure you should ever be concerned about is God’s valuation of you. Any other value assigned to you by the world can be falsified and is therefore untrustworthy and not worth worrying about.
The takeaway from all this is that Jesus never worried about how the world valued him; his only concern was doing God’s will. As followers of Jesus, we should also not be concerned about what the world thinks of us or the numbers it assigns to us. Yes, God will love us whether we do his will or not, but it’s critical for the future of the world (and for our own soul) that we do God’s will and continue to do it to the end, as Jesus did. Being designated righteous by God and remaining righteous under God’s grace is an enormous privilege that comes with enormous responsibility.
As the scripture about Sodom attests, we’re all that stands between the continuation of the world and its destruction. We are children of God living in God’s Kingdom, so we can’t just do what we want; we need to do what God wants, regardless of the circumstances we find ourselves in at any given time. We need to be righteous and remain righteous in God’s eyes.
The unbelieving world – even as it hates us – is depending on us.
FLYING BY THE SPLIT SEAT OF YOUR PANTS: ON TESTS AND TRIALS
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, May 20, 2024 – In the work I used to do, I would help my clients prepare for their medical board certification exam, which they took at the end of their clinical residency. These exams were exhaustive and multi-day ordeals, but the examinees had years to prepare. By the time the examinations actually took place, the examinees had done so many mock written tests, interviews, and oral exams, they could have done the board examination in their sleep and still passed it with flying colours.
How different our tests are for us, as born-again believers! We take “exams”, too, but we don’t get years to prepare, let alone have the advantage of mock tests to pore over and practice. We learn as we go and we’re tested as we go, almost always with no heads-up whatsoever that a test is incoming. Even Jesus didn’t get a heads-up. For instance, he didn’t know his ministry was starting until his mother very publicly pushed him out of the nest at the wedding at Cana, and he didn’t know his ministry was ending until Moses and Elijah touched down at the “transfiguration” to give him his final orders. The non-Jew who came to Jesus asking him to cast out a demon from her daughter was also a test, as was the woman caught in adultery who should, by law, have been stoned, as was the “trick question” of whether Jews should pay the tribute tax to Caesar. Nearly everything in Jesus’ ministry was a spur-of-the-moment, sink-or-swim, baptism-by-fire kind of a test, and it’s the same for us.
For me, the most fascinating aspects of spiritual tests are first and foremost that you don’t know you’re in one until you’re in one, and secondly that they come out of nowhere and when you least expect them, and thirdly that they also usually come at the worst possible moment. In fact, the unexpectedness and I-don’t-need-this-nowness is part of the test. It’s all well and good to test someone on something they know they’re going to be tested on, giving them the time and resources to scrub their faces and put on their Sunday best, but it’s quite another thing to spring a test out of the blue. It’s the out-of-the-blue tests where you get the real results, and it’s the real results that God wants.
So let’s say, for example, that you had “one of those days” when things weren’t going so well. You’re finally on your way home, driving along the highway just minding your own business, when suddenly someone cuts you off, nearly causing you to rear-end them. Did you: a) curse and honk your horn at their recklessness, maybe even speeding up a bit to show your anger; b) take a deep breath, let it ride, and keep on rolling; or c) say a prayer for the driver and pull back, keeping a good distance between you and him. The correct response for born-again believers is obviously “c”, but how many of you seemingly instinctively did “a” before correcting yourself and reluctantly doing “c”? Or how many of you unapologetically did “a” and stubbornly refused to change that choice, thinking it was justified? Or how many of you never made it past “b”, thinking that was sufficient?
The beauty of the tests and trials we undergo as born-again believers is that the results show our true colors. Unlike the medical examinees taking the board certification examination, who can ace their tests solely by memorizing the material and then promptly forgetting it afterwards, we have to fly by the seat of our pants, and if the seat of our pants is split and dirty and our butt is hanging out, we have no way to hide it. But this, I would argue, is good. We don’t endure our tests for bragging rights; we endure them so that we and God (and anyone else God permits to know the results) will see precisely where we stand spiritually. The test results cannot be feigned or faked: They is what they is.
Equally beautiful is that if we fail a test, God will grant us a redo while there’s still time. I’ve had quite a few redos over the years since my rebirth; I wrote about one here. The redos will also come out of the blue, but boy oh boy, you’ll know it’s a redo by the impossibility of the so-called coincidences leading up to the test. For me, because I’m such a loud-mouth know-it-all (say it ain’t so! lol), most of the redos involve being kind to someone I was previously rude to or simply biting my tongue and choosing to say nothing when what I want to say is unprintable even by New Sodom standards. In both of these scenarios, I’m also tested on whether I follow up with a prayer or continue to silently stew. God measures not only what we say and do at the time of our test, but also – and more importantly – the contents and state of our hearts and minds after the test. How many of us say: “I believe!” but then do and say things later as if we don’t believe? That’s not a trick question, and the answer is “way too many”.
We cannot avoid our tests and we cannot even prepare for them, not the way medical graduates prepare for theirs by memorization and mock tests. All we can do is listen to what Jesus is saying to us and then apply it in our everyday lives. In this way, we build our house on the firm foundation of a rock, minute by minute, hour by hour, and day by day, so that when tests come and we’re beaten and battered, our house still stands because it’s on a firm foundation. Not so if we build our house on sand, which is what happens if we hear what Jesus is saying but don’t apply it every day. In that case, when we’re beaten and battered, our house will fall (no other outcome is possible), never to rise again.
May you build your house on a rock with your every waking breath, no excuses.
Amen.
THE PARABLE OF THE PEARL OF GREAT PRICE, IN PLAIN WORDS
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, May 17, 2024 – The parable of the pearl of great price tends to be overlooked in the rush to comb through Revelation looking for parallels to what’s happening in the world today. In fact, most of the Gospel tends to be overlooked in favour of Revelation. Certainly, Revelation is important, but so is “every word that comes from the mouth of God”, as Jesus famously schooled Satan. I’m not saying you’re Satan; I’m just saying.
If we took Jesus at his word (which we should do) and spent less time on Revelation and more time on the rest of the Gospel (which we should also do), we’d realize how pivotal the parables are, in particular the parable of the pearl of great price. As a refresher, I’ve copied it below:
Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a merchant man, seeking goodly pearls: Who, when he had found one pearl of great price, went and sold all that he had, and bought it.
Scripture foretells of one to come who will “open [his] mouth in parables [and] utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world”. This “one” we now know as Jesus, our Lord and Messiah, and also our big brother and best friend. Any one of those roles sets him apart as someone we should heed when he speaks, in parables or otherwise.
But do we heed him?
The pearl parable isn’t shrouded in mystery. We know it’s talking about God’s Kingdom because it says so right from the get-go, and we know the kingdom of heaven is alikened to the pearl of great price, again because it says so. What else does the parable say? That we should sell everything we have and invest all the proceeds – not some of them, ALL of them – in the kingdom of heaven. This parable doesn’t require us to go into a private huddle with Jesus to learn what it means, like the disciples did when Jesus taught them the parable of the sower. No, the parable of the pearl of great price is as open and straightforward as it gets.
Samuel Langhorne Clemens (a.k.a. Mark Twain) allegedly said about scripture: “It ain’t the part of the Bible that I can’t understand that bother me, it’s the parts that I do understand.” Well, Sammy, most of us (if we’re honest with ourselves) are right there with you. The parts of the Bible that we do understand are the parts that God has brought to our attention and opened our hearts and minds to, which means we’re not only meant to “get” them, we’re meant to heed them.
From that perspective, let’s look again at the parable of the pearl of great price, and let’s make it personal:
Have you found the kingdom of heaven? Yes or no?
And if “yes”, have you set its value as being higher than anything else in your life? Yes or no?
And if “yes”, have you thrown caution to the wind and all your eggs into one basket and sold everything you have to “buy” the kingdom? This again requires only a simple yes or no answer. You either did or you didn’t; you either gave everything to God and Jesus, or you didn’t.
FYI – “I’m thinking about doing it” is a “no”.
FFYI – “I’m thinking really really hard about doing it and will likely probably maybe do it soon” is also a “no”.
Did you know that no “no’s” will get into Heaven? There are several parables in the Gospel about people who say “no” to God and Jesus only to find themselves shut out of Paradise forever. All their assumptions and good intentions came to nothing.
Here is my prayer for you today: If you haven’t yet said “yes” to all the above, I pray that you’ll follow through and heed the words of the pearl parable here and now. There is nothing more important or more valuable on Earth than the kingdom of heaven, and eternity is a long time to regret not having done what you knew you should have done when it was brought to your attention in plain words.
Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness,
and everything you need will be given to you.
LAMENTATIONS: WHY YOU NEED TO READ IT
CHARLO, New Brunswick, May 15, 2024 – Jeremiah’s book of Lamentations was written during the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the first temple in 586 B.C. It could just as aptly have been written for the fall of Jerusalem and destruction of the second temple in 70 A.D. or the fall of Christendom and destruction of the worldly church, which is happening now, albeit in slow motion. I assume the date that will eventually be hung on the fall of the worldly church will be the date when Vatican City is annihilated.
I will not be lamenting that annihilation, but I will also not be rejoicing. We are not to rejoice over God’s vengeance but to quietly stand back and let it happen.
If you haven’t read Lamentations for a while, I urge you to read it again. Moses in Deuteronomy 28 warned the children of Israel of the curses that will befall them if they purposely turn their back on God, and Lamentations describes the fulfillment of those curses in gory detail. (For a description of the destruction of the second temple, read Josephus.) In a nutshell – God himself fights against his own people. You do not want to be at the receiving end of God’s perfect weaponry. You do not want God as your perfect enemy. There is nothing and no-one worse than that.
But Lamentations is not all doom and gloom. Like Deuteronomy 28, there is a glimmer of hope in remembering the blessings that are poured out on the obedient and on the sincerely repentant. There is hope in repentance if the repentant humbly accept their punishment as justified and follow up their repentance with sincere and enduring obedience, but only if they don’t leave it too late. We see in the utter annihilation of the two temples that “too late” is not an empty warning but rather a promise that is delivered to the many. The vast and overwhelming majority of what were once God’s people have perished, are perishing, and will perish as eternal enemies of God. In the end, they will be no more, just as the first and second temples are no more.
Lamentations is a sobering read, as is Deuteronomy 28. I read them both frequently as reminders not to veer to the left or to the right, but to walk straight on. I do not want God as my enemy; I want to keep him as my Heavenly Father forever. The kings and princes and prophets portrayed in Lamentations thought that God would defend them against their enemies because after all they were God’s people, weren’t they, and he’d fought for them before, so why wouldn’t he do it again? In thinking this way, they added the sin of presumption to all the other sins they’d piled higher than the idols of Egypt. They thought that “once God’s people, always God’s people”, but they were wrong.
It is not “once God’s people, always God’s people”, any more than it’s “once saved, always saved”. As Paul warns us, we’re to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, not with boasting and presumption. We’re to fear the Lord, not our enemies, lest we make an enemy of the Lord, because for us born-again believers, there’s no coming back from that.
A WITCH IN THE FAMILY
CHARLO, New Brunswick, May 14, 2024 – It has come to my attention that I have a practicing witch in my family. This should be a shocking confession for a born-again believer, but there it is. No use beating around the burning bush. Jesus had Judas Iscariot; I have a witch. At least one that I know of. There are likely more. As they say about cockroaches, “never one witch”.
Jesus said that our worst enemies will be those under our own roof, and he wasn’t wrong about that. Jesus wasn’t wrong about anything, but he particularly wasn’t wrong about our worst enemies and where we’ll find them. Good attracts evil like a wool jacket attracts lint or a magnet attracts metal shavings. Evil is drawn to truth, which is why the demon-infested followed Jesus around ranting that he was the Son of God or the possessed girl trailed around behind the disciples. Those poor miserable souls couldn’t help themselves. They were like “The end is nigh!” placard wavers, only with a better script.
Attracting the demonic is a hazard of our trade as ministers of God’s Word. I guess you could even say it’s a good sign if you attract them: it means you’re a target because you present an obstacle to the devil for no other reason than that he can’t have you anymore. And not being able to have you galls him and goads him into giving it one last try, for old-time’s sake. He’s sure the devilish charm that worked before will eventually work again. You’re sure it won’t.
Having a witch in the family is apparently a thing nowadays. It’s a thing to have a family witch. It used to be a thing to have a doctor in the family or a university professor or a lawyer. Now people casually drop into their conversation that they have a witch. Even I did it, here on this blog, though for a different reason. I’m not bragging that I have a witch; I’m just saying.
I read on reddit a few days ago that covens are doing meet-and-greets in Tim Horton’s cafes. There’s nothing more quintessentially Canadian than Timmies, so I guess it was only a matter of time before the witches staked their claim to it. They already have most of the churches and second-hand bookstores and schools and libraries in Canada. Branching out to coffee shops would, I guess, be the next logical step in their takeover of our once-Christian nation. They’re not the only anti-Christ faction rushing in to fill the vacuum left by believers who’ve gone on to their eternal reward, but they’re certainly one of the more… colourful. To be honest, most of them are just play-acting at being witches, but some are real. Some are sincere. You can see it in their dead eyes.
I asked God what I should do about the witch in my family, and he said you’re already doing it. He said my Spirit is with you wherever you go, and that’s spiritual warfare enough. Nothing else is required. No garlic. No holy water. No amulets or lucky rabbit feet. No mumbled recitations. Witches are their own worst enemies, and even knowing that the spells they cast will come back on them in spades, they still do it. They still cast the spells on the unsuspecting unprotected, not seeming to realize that they, too, are the unprotected, that they, too, are vulnerable. Anyone who hasn’t thrown their lot in with God is vulnerable.
We can pray for these people if God gives us guidance to. We can pray for them but otherwise we should just let them be. I wanted to go to Tim Horton’s and sit in on their meet-and-greet, to see how silly it was, but God said to leave them alone. They’re yet another example of the blind leading the blind. You pity those people; you don’t poke sticks at them in their self-imposed prison cell. You’re kind to them, the way that Jesus was always kind to Judas Iscariot.
Maybe that they have to eat Timmies’ baked-from-frozen day-old doughnuts is punishment enough.
SHOULD WE SUBMIT TO GOVERNING AUTHORITIES?
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, May 12, 2024 – Jerusalem was a hot mess during the time of Jesus’ ministry. Under the grinding heel of the Roman occupiers, the majority of the locals had learned to adapt to their unhappy circumstances either by joining forces with the Romans, signing on with a rebel faction, or silently enduring the humiliation of paying obeisance (and taxes) to a pagan authority. Jesus chose to do none of those things but instead lived and moved as if he were neither the occupied nor the occupier.
We, as Jesus’ followers, are to do the same.
One of the most misapplied of all scriptures (and that’s saying something, given the seemingly endless parade of false prophets these days) – one of the most egregiously misapplied scriptures is the one about the need to obey governing authorities. Not only is this scripture liberally misapplied, but it’s also taken out of context, making it mean the opposite of what the authors intended.
We know that Jesus did not stay where his teachings were not welcome, and he instructed his followers to do the same. We also know that Jesus avoided places where there was a price on his head and that he submitted to the arresting authorities only when it was his time. There are only a few instances where Jesus advises us to heed governing directives, such as when he was asked to pay the customs tax, which he did by way of a miracle, or when he instructed people he’d healed to make the appropriate sacrifices stipulated by Mosaic law. As well, Jesus reminded his followers to obey the religious authorities that sit on the seat of Moses solely because they taught Mosaic law. At the same time, though, he cautioned his followers not to live as those teachers lived, as they were hypocrites.
As I mentioned at the outset, Jerusalem was a hotbed of intrigue, sedition, and rebellion during the time of Jesus’ ministry. This was nothing new, however, as it had been that way for hundreds of years already and continued to be that way right up to and beyond the destruction of the second temple. When Peter and Paul advised the faithful to submit to the governor and honor the king, they meant to steer clear of aligning themselves with any of the dozens of rebel factions operating throughout Judea at the time and whose mandate was the violent overthrow of the Roman occupiers. In cautioning believers to steer clear of aligning themselves with this or that political faction, Peter and Paul were reminding their flocks of their need to focus solely on spreading the Good News, not getting involved in political conspiracies. You can’t love your enemies and at the same time plot to kill them.
This context is conveniently overlooked by today’s religious powers-that-be, who themselves have aligned their churches with the worldly powers and so not surprisingly are misapplying and purposely misinterpreting Peter and Paul’s directives, to the benefit of their puppet masters. I’m not saying the local pastor down the street is purposely misleading church members (he or she may or may not be), I’m just saying that the heads of these church corporations work hand-in-glove with the political ptb and so are nearly always on the same page and taking their directives from whomever is directing the political ptb. This is no great mystery, as Jesus tells us outright that God has put the world under the authority of Satan, which means the worldly church is also under Satan’s authority.
Should we then submit to Satan? Of course not, but we should also not get in his way, as Satan takes his orders directly from God and can only do what he is enabled and permitted to do by God. Let Satan conduct his affairs, as enabled and permitted by God, and let us conduct our affairs in willing submission to God, as Jesus did. This is what Peter and Paul meant when they instructed us to obey the governor and honor the king. We are to live at arms-length from governing authorities, presenting no opposition to them but also not actively working with them or supporting them.
So, for instance, during the “pandemic”, I could not and would not wear a mask or be injected. For a time, I could circulate in society without these things, but when barrier after barrier to my free movement was erected via government mandates, it got to the point where I could no longer move freely and so I relocated to a rural area and let others bring whatever I needed to me, for a fee (which God provided in much the same way as he provided Jesus with the gold coin in the fish’s mouth). I didn’t actively oppose the mandates, but I also didn’t comply with them. Only when they were removed did I return to cities and towns.
We are to submit only to God, but we are also not to present, or align with, any kind of organized opposition to the powers-that-be, understanding that those powers are under the authority of Satan, who himself is under the authority and direction of God. So, if you work in active opposition to Satan (I don’t mean here turning down his temptations; I mean actively plotting against him), you’re actually working in active opposition to God, which is something you should never do as a born-again believer.
I’m quite happy to let the political realm move in whatever direction God enables and permits it to move. My job is to “watch”, that is, to be aware of what’s going on around me politically, culturally, etc., not actively engage in it. Rather, I’m to work around it all, finding workarounds, as God presents them to me.
In a nutshell: We’re to obey the local laws, customs, and directives unless they conflict with God’s, and if/when that occurs, we’re to find workarounds, and if/when those are no longer possible, we’re to leave. We’re not to protest or actively oppose the governing forces, we’re simply to leave, like Jesus did.
Until it’s our time.
A WORD ON MOTHER’S DAY
MCLEODS, New Brunswick, Mother’s Day, 2024 – Just a quick Mother’s Day reminder for those of you who have less than optimal childhood memories: The Commandment to honor your parents is non-negotiable. Even if your mother is no longer with us, you still need to be kind to her in your words and thoughts.
(Let this also be a reminder that God knows all your words and thoughts, and you’ll be judged on them.)
I am blessed to have a mother who is not only still among us but is as beautiful on the inside as she is on the outside, and oh, what a singing voice! So my memories of her, thank God, are optimal. But I’ve heard and read horrendous comments over the years by people who call themselves Christians or even born-again, denigrating their mothers as “controlling” or “abusive” or “drug addicts” or “alcoholics” or “co-dependent”, etc. While it may be true that these mothers are exactly as described, the Commandment forbids us to speak harshly of our mother.
To honor one’s mother and father means to be kind to them in person and kind in our communications about them, which is not difficult to do if we focus only on the positive: Everyone has at least one good characteristic we can admire. Now that doesn’t mean we put ourselves in a position to be abused again; it just means we choose to forgive for no other reason than that God advises us to forgive, and to honor for no other reason than God commands it.
Again, regardless of how justified you may feel in being angry or resentful toward your mother, nothing overrides God’s commandments. If God says to honor your mother, you honor your mother.
That is non-negotiable.
And for all you mothers reading this – Happy Mother’s Day to you! Though your children may not know (or may have forgotten) how much of yourself you gave to them over the years expecting nothing in return, God knows, and you will be rewarded accordingly.
Enjoy your special day!
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 