THE SWORD OF OUR MOUTH
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, April 9, 2025 – Jesus never engages in hand-to-hand combat anywhere in scripture. We don’t see him pull a knife, brandish a sword, hurl stones, or even gently push anyone. Sure, he turned over a few tables in the temple to get the message across to the moneychangers (and whipped a few of them who weren’t paying close enough attention), but the only thing he really hurt was their pride. When push came to shove, it was always other people doing the pushing and shoving. It was never Jesus. He didn’t promote physical violence, and he stood by the motto that those who live by the sword, die by the sword.
Which is why his advice to his followers to arm themselves can be confusing to the casual Christian. Surely if Jesus told us to get weapons, he meant for us to use them? And surely he intended that we should defend ourselves with those weapons, or why else should we get them?
Jesus is nothing if not consistent with his message. When he said that those who live by the sword die by the sword, he wasn’t contradicting his advice for us to arm ourselves. He was explaining why and to what purpose we needed to arm ourselves: for deterrence, and only if we become outcasts from society and so have to live without the protection of law enforcement. Unarmed people are sitting ducks among the lawless, whereas people armed with even one weapon are less attractive targets (which explains why Jesus told his disciples that the one sword they had was enough). When someone openly displays a weapon, it gives the impression that he or she intends to use it. That’s the impression Jesus wants us to convey with our weapon. But at the same time, he doesn’t want us to use the weapon to physically hurt anyone.
How do we know this? Because again, Jesus was consistent with his message. He never contradicted himself. He taught us to keep the Commandments, which includes the Commandment not to kill. Any vengeance we want to exact, we’re to leave in God’s hands: “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, I will repay.”
So, we’re to get weapons for deterrence purposes if and when we’re banished from mainstream society and forced to live among the lawless, but we don’t have permission to use those weapons to hurt others. The only slaying we have God’s permission to do is with the sword of our mouth. That’s how Jesus fights his battles, and that’s how we’re to fight ours.
THE TWO STATES OF BEING
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, April 6, 2025 – We need to remember, as born-again believers, that Jesus came to set a sword between us and the world. We cannot be “yoked together” with the world because it’s not our spiritual realm: It’s Satan’s. We’re strangers here just passing through, even though our Father created Heaven and Earth and ultimately controls the world through the limitations and permissions of his justice. Being a child of God doesn’t grant us privileges in Satan’s realm. It guarantees us God’s comprehensive and powerful protection, but it doesn’t grant us any of the privileges that God allows Satan to bestow on his children. And we know who Satan’s children are: They’re everyone who isn’t born-again.
You’re either a child of God or a child of Satan: There is no third option. That’s a Truth that only born-again believers and fully committed Satanists can embrace. Most of the world will tell you they have nothing to do with either God or Satan. They say this because they’re deceived and spiritually blind. We were all like that before we were born-again, so we can empathize. I remember believing I was free of religion, not being able to see the massive chains binding me to the darkness that I saw as light. Unless we fully isolate ourselves from the world (which Jesus does not recommend we do), we interact every day with children of Satan, most of whom don’t know whose spiritual children they are. But if they’re not born-again, by default they’re Satan’s. This is a hard but necessary Truth we need not only to acknowledge but embrace.
It’s a necessary Truth because we need to be careful what we do and say around Satan’s children. We’ve all had the experience of saying something off-hand to someone who wasn’t born-again, and then later having that little tidbit come back to bite us on the butt when we least needed it. The demons are always watching and listening through Satan’s children. Unbelievers are not just the mouthpieces of demons; they’re also their eyes and ears and their hands. The demons know who we are and so are always watching and listening, baiting us and waiting for us to say an idle or thoughtless word they can then use against us. When we fall for their bait (and let’s be frank, we all have on occasion), they gleefully tuck our misstep into their back pocket as future ammo.
The world is a spiritual minefield for born-again believers. It’s a war out there, and we are the despised enemy. Never forget that. And the ones who hate us the most and want us gone the most are the ones who claim to love and serve our Father the most. Jesus’ worst enemies during his ministry years were not the heathen Romans but the temple elders, high priests, scribes, etc. – people who should have known who Jesus was and so embraced him but instead chose to “do the lusts of their Father, the devil”. Our worst enemies are likewise those who claim to be Jesus’ closest adherents, as martyrs throughout the ages have experienced up close and personal. The worst enemies of born-again believers are not Muslims or atheists – our worst enemies occupy the highest offices of the worldly church.
TL;DR: The whole world is a battlefield, and we are the target. Watch what you say around unbelievers and be careful what you do. Any and every misstep will be used against you in the spiritual realm. You are not exempt just because you’re a child of God; you’re held to a higher standard because you’re a child of God.
Knowing this, proceed carefully and accordingly.
THE ONE WHERE SHE TALKS ABOUT WOMEN IN THE CHURCH
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, April 4, 2025 – I don’t generally like women. When I say “I don’t generally like women”, I mean I don’t generally like women who are not born-again. On the other hand, I’ve yet to meet a born-again woman I didn’t like. That’s just my personal experience as a born-again woman.
I’m not sure my experience as a born-again woman can be applied to anyone except me and I caution against anyone viewing it as a general statement that reflects every born-again woman’s experience. It’s just mine, my personal experience. And whether ironic or not, my personal experience is also that I generally like men, but that could just be because men generally treat me better than women treat me. It could also be that because I’m a woman, women let their guard down around me, showing me aspects of themselves that are not pretty, whereas most men put on their best face for me simply because I’m a woman. But again, that’s just my personal experience and perception.
When it comes to women in the Church (and here I’m talking about born-again women in God’s Church, not the worldly church), there is no distinction between them and men. Paul notoriously talked about the need for women to remain silent in the church and to be subject to men in matters of authority, but these directives are not applicable to God’s Church, just to the worldly church. I would die on that hill.
In God’s Church, there are no distinctions based on race, age, sex, or any other categorical division that muddles the world. The sole criteria to be in God’s Church are genuine spiritual rebirth and right standing with God. There is also no real authority beyond Jesus and God in the Church. Jesus said to call no-one on Earth “Father”, as God is our Father, and to call no-one on Earth “Rabbi”, as he is our rabbi (teacher and master). So, Jesus and God are our sole authorities in the Church, mediated through God’s Holy Spirit, which we received at our rebirth and signifies by its abiding presence with us that we are genuinely reborn.
If God is our Father and Jesus is our teacher and master, there’s no cause for anyone else assuming any position of authority in God’s Church. Having and speaking an opinion or a revelation, as I do here on this blog? Absolutely. God expects and enables us to do that. But holding authority over other members of the Church? No. I do not believe that God wants any of us to do that, and I believe that Jesus’ teachings support my opinion. Peter’s job, as stipulated by Jesus, was to “strengthen the brethren” and to “feed” them, not hold a position of authority over them. We don’t need any authority in the Church beyond God and Jesus.
If this is the case (and I firmly believe it is), then there should be no question of women in the Church being silent or being subject to men. We are all the same in God’s eyes, all under God’s authority and taught by Jesus. If you don’t want to listen to me because you don’t agree with me or don’t believe me, that’s your prerogative and free will choice, but if you don’t want to listen to me solely because I’m a woman, that shows that you’re not genuinely born-again and so don’t belong here.
I could not care less what the world thinks of women. I only care what Jesus and God think of them, and I know both from personal experience as a born-again woman and from what Jesus showed and taught us in the gospels that God and Jesus make no distinction between women and men in the Church. Their voices are equal.
JESUS UNLEASHED
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, April 3, 2025 – Up until about a week before his resurrection, Jesus was very quiet about who he was. If he revealed his Messiahship at all, it was very hush-hush and to his disciples only, and that obliquely, never directly. If he knew he was targeted for arrest in one place, he avoided it and went to another. He kept a low profile and was always on the move, always looking over his shoulder and cautious in his words. He cautioned his disciples to keep certain things quiet. He cautioned those he healed not to tell anyone who’d healed them. He commanded the demons to shut the hell up about him. He proceeded steadily through his ministry, steadily, steadily, but at times as if walking on eggshells, not on water, and always keeping within the strict bounds dictated by God.
And then about a week before his glorification, Jesus was unleashed. It started with his triumphal entry into Jerusalem, riding a colt over an impromptu red carpet of strewn palm branches and bystanders’ garments, fit for a king. Because he was a king – JESUS IS KING! – and from that moment, he openly assumed his rightful role.
I used to get depressed about what the Catholics blandly call “Holy Week”, the days leading up to Jesus’ crucifixion. I hated thinking about what was done to Jesus, and the closer the memorial of that event drew near, the more depressed I got. And then one day God showed me another way to think about that week. He showed me not to focus on the crucifixion but on all the events leading up to the resurrection, as relayed in the gospels. From that perspective – God’s perspective – I came to see those days as the most action-packed and exhilarating of Jesus’ entire ministry.
After his triumphal entry, Jesus tore through the temple like a cleansing whirlwind, overturning the tables of the moneychangers and whipping any of them who refused to leave. He also stopped anyone from carrying vessels through the temple proper, commanding them to respect God’s temple as a house of prayer, not a place of commerce. And in that cleansed temple that he now rightfully lorded over, Jesus taught like he’d never taught before. He rebuked the hypocrites for being hypocrites. He directed to give God what is due God and to Caesar what is due Caesar. He told the temple elders and chief priests that by whose authority he did what he did was none of their business and accused them of being like greedy and murderous workers who’d been tasked by their master to maintain his property but instead had destroyed it. He set the Sadducees straight on the resurrection doctrine. He declared himself to be greater than David’s son. He declared the widow’s farthing to be of higher value than everyone else’s contributions to the treasury. And he gave his famed and detailed run-down of what to expect during Earth’s final days.
In short, Jesus owned that week in the same way he owned the temple – fully, unapologetically, and rightfully. The King had ascended his throne – the Highest Priest had entered the Holiest of Holies – and he danced like no-one was watching, like David danced when he brought the Ark of the Covenant into the City of David. And with Jesus’ every word and every movement during that most glorious of all weeks, God was not only fully onboard, he willed it, showing his signature and seal of approval by having his prophets record it in scripture long before it happened.
Jesus unleashed was God’s greatest creation. No-one before or since has come anywhere close to that breathtaking display of power and glory. Still, as Jesus’ followers, we should pray to be unleashed like Jesus was when our hour comes.
So consider this fair warning, all you hypocrites out there: Maybe not today, but one day… we’re coming for you.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 