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HOW TO SURVIVE A SPIRITUALLY TOXIC ENVIRONMENT
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, July 14, 2022 – In Canada, “pride” is not a month, but a whole season (from June to September). This has been officially declared and enshrined by the Canadian government. So that means nearly everywhere you go in the few passably pleasant months in this otherwise God-forsaken (weather-wise) frozen wasteland, you’re likely to stumble across a pride parade or other pride-related activities.
The city I’m staying in now is gearing up for its pride festivities. That’s what they’re called, “festivities”. That, and “celebration”.
I asked God how he can look down on this nation-wide, summer-long free-for-all of sin and depravity and not lose it, and he told me that he doesn’t dwell on it. He sees it, but he doesn’t dwell on it. He delegates others to monitor and record everything in minute detail for his justice’s sake (no sin goes unpunished), but he himself stands back. If people choose sin, they get the rewards of sin; if sin is what they want, sin is what they’ll get. He won’t stand in their way.
Judgement Day will come soon enough.
I sometimes struggle to apply this example in my own life. It’s probably one of the most difficult things we can do as believers – to live in the world while keeping the world at arm’s distance. Jesus had the grace to look past the sins of people who were not his targeted demographic, unless they specifically came to him for help, and there can be no doubt that anyone who worships at the pride altar is not our targeted demographic. They have another father than ours, and so we should just let them be. Paul touched on this in his teaching on how God has “given them over” to their sin instead of trying to correct them. At some point, you let them go.
You just let them go.
Jesus, by the power of God’s Holy Spirit, could see into the heart of everyone he met. Yet even with that profound depth of insight, he focused his ire mainly on the religious hypocrites, not on the seemingly endless parade of sinners he came across during his travels. Still, standing back while letting sin reign seems counter-intuitive to a Christian. How can we, as believers, live in such a spiritually toxic environment?
I guess the short answer to that question is that we escape to the Kingdom. Physically, we move through the world, but our soul remains firmly in the Kingdom. The establishment of God’s Kingdom on Earth is one of the major accomplishments of Jesus, heralding his victory over sin. As born-again believers, we have full access to God’s Kingdom during our time on Earth. I find that whenever the world gets to be too much, I fully cloister myself in the Kingdom for a few minutes or hours or days or weeks, however long it takes me to regain my spiritual equilibrium. I just shut the world out entirely for as long as necessary. Jesus used to go up a mountain alone for the same purpose. There’s no way you can live in a place that’s under the authority of Satan and not need a respite from the insanity. Because that’s what the world is – demon-driven insanity overlaid with the thinnest veneer of civility.
In the end, I take comfort in knowing that while pride may last for a season, God’s Kingdom lasts forever.
Remember that.
THE LIE OF CHRISTIAN WARS
“For with the same measure that ye mete withal, it shall be measured to you again.”
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, July 14, 2022 – Jesus was a big fan of pointing out that we get back what we put out; that what goes around, comes around: that we get what we deserve. Christians, on the other hand, are not such big fans of this concept. They prefer to see their suffering as “God’s will”, God’s “mysterious” will that they somehow just have to endure and that somehow has meaning, though at the time the meaning may be beyond them. I blame their pastors, in part, for keeping them ignorant of the basic spiritual premise of what goes around, comes around. But ultimately, it’s up to each individual Christian to know what Jesus taught us. You can blame your pastor for your initial ignorance, but when your ignorance becomes an enduring state, the blame falls squarely on you.
Even as recently as a few decades ago, whole Christian nations would march off to war, seemingly oblivious to the fact that Christians don’t kill. There has never been one genuine Christian in all of history who has taken up a weapon to kill, and if that one genuine Christian did kill, the murder would have been followed in quick succession by wholehearted and sincere repentance, with the promise never to murder again. And yet, throughout the past 2000 years, nations and peoples and individuals who call themselves Christian have marched off to war, weapons in hand and willingly aiming them at whoever their commanders tell them to aim them at. For a time, the weapons are aimed at this nation, and for a time, at that nation, and for a time, at another nation with the combined support of the first and second nations, as they are now no longer enemies.
And all the so-called Christians fighting for the so-called Christian nations see no contradiction between their mass slaughter and Jesus’ teachings, between their mass slaughter and suffering the rewards of it.
It’s easier to pinpoint depravity as a reason for the decline of a civilization. But the truth is that murder at the behest of the state is probably the main reason for the precipitous overall declines of former Christian nations. Your country doesn’t magically become better because people kill others in its defense. There is no improvement whatsoever when that happens. On the contrary, death is the reward of death – those who live by the sword, die by the sword. You do not sow bad and reap good from it. If you kill or actively support killing, you get the due rewards of death.
Every pastor who has led his flock in prayer for the “success” of a nation’s troops or military mission has no right to call himself a pastor. He is instead a demon-channeler who is channeling the commands of Satan straight from the source. The world glorifies war and those who fight them because the world is under the authority of Satan, but Christians are not supposed to be under the authority of Satan; that’s why Jesus died and rose again, to show he had gained victory over the world and the world’s authority. We know from the Commandment that there is no excuse – NOT ONE – for murdering. There are zero excuses or exceptions to take one’s own or another’s life. Self-defence is not an excuse. Defence of loved ones is not an excuse. Being ordered by the state to do so is not an excuse. There are zero excuses at any time, and yet nearly the entire 2000-year history of Christianity is sodden with murder committed as alleged Christians fight for allegedly Christian nations or even, at times, against other alleged Christian nations.
Do you have any idea how much of a hoot this is for the devil, to have so many Christians so blinded and so willingly doing his bidding?
There is no excuse for any of this. Ignorance doesn’t cut it anymore. You support troops or you support killing in any way, you are not a Christian.
Based on that assessment, has there ever truly been a Christian nation?
No, of course not. There is no such thing as a Christian nation. There are countries that have more or fewer Christians living in them, but a worldly nation by definition cannot be Christian. There have never been Christian nations or Christian wars or “holy wars” – even the crusades were Satan-inspired and demon-fuelled. We have been deceived for 2000 years into thinking God looks the other way when it’s wartime, that we can kill with impunity and with his blessing.
But we were wrong.
Christians don’t kill.
No genuine follower of Jesus at any time in history has ever picked up a weapon with the intention of killing. It has never happened. Not once. People who call themselves Christian have engaged in all manner of nefarious activities, but genuine Christians have not. “By their fruits shall ye know them…. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” Jesus could not have made it any clearer than that. He could not have made it any clearer than “those who live by the sword, die by the sword”.
He could not have made it any clearer than “Thou shalt not kill.”
Whatever wars our respective nations are now involved in, you dare not support them or you are no follower of Jesus. You might be a state-sanctioned and -approved Christian, but you won’t be a Christian in God’s eyes.
The measure we mete out is the measure we get in return.
There is never a time when war or the support of war is genuinely Christian.
CHRISTIANITY FROM SCRATCH
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, July 14, 2022 – When Jesus started his ministry, he had to start from scratch. What was left of Judaism at that time was essentially a lost cause. Recall that his ministry wasn’t a call to build a whole new religion; it was a call to witness the fulfillment of prophecy. It was a call to right all that was wrong with Judaism, to put faith back on the strait and narrow, so that Jesus’ followers could proceed along the right path, not along any number of wrong ones.
Christianity today is much like Judaism was 2000 years ago. It has essentially become a lost cause. Even as people claim to believe, they unapologetically live the life of the world (getting married, having kids, having a career, making investments, owning a home, etc., etc.) and still consider themselves to be “good Christians”. Many don’t even know the Commandments, let alone follow them. Most are easily deceived by their pastors into believing lies. God lets them believe lies because that’s what they want: They’re spiritually fat and lazy; they’ve become blind and deaf and dumb, and even as they claim to love with the love of the Lord, their words ring hollow. I have seen their dead eyes up close. They don’t follow Jesus; they follow tradition, just like the adherents of Judaism 2000 years ago, when Jesus came to tell them that following tradition wasn’t enough.
They rejected him for telling them that, and then they killed him.
There are 2 billion self-professed Christians in the world today. This, despite Jesus teaching us that the Way is narrow and few are on it. You would think that if the Way were narrow and few are on it, there would be far fewer Christians than 2 billion. I mean, if you take Jesus at his word (which we should). I mean, if you believe the Gospel (which I hope you do).
I would wager that nearly all of those 2 billion self-professed Christians believe they have a guaranteed place waiting for them in Heaven, because that’s what they’ve been taught by their pastors. The children of Israel were taught the same thing and believed with the same certainty that they had a place waiting for them. But when Jesus did them the profound courtesy of letting them know they were being misled by their assumption and it would take far more than just their genetics to get them into Heaven, instead of being grateful for the correction, they argued with him. Then they killed him.
I despise what mainstream Christianity has become. It is everything that Jesus hates – presumptuous, vacuous, ritualistic, hypocritical, and tired. I’ve been spending some time in an empty chapel over the past few weeks. It’s empty not because it isn’t stuffed with all manner of dusty iconography and moldering books that lay out in tedious detail how every hour of every day needs to proceed if God is to be worshiped properly, but it’s empty of believers, except for me. I’m the only human in the chapel, no matter what time I go. I’m not complaining about being the only human there (I like the peace and quiet), I’m just pointing out how sad it is that the chapel sits empty most of the time.
Jesus warned us that this day would come, that there would be a falling away. None of this is a surprise to him: Christianity has become what Judaism had become just before it was obliterated. There is no genuine worship left in the modern incarnation of Christianity. There are hollow words mumbled by a misled and distracted people; there is manic feel-goodism propped up by empty gestures of do-goodism and a frantic clutching at signs and symbols, as if wanting to believe something badly enough could somehow overcome a stubborn refusal to repent and believe the Gospel.
That’s all Jesus asks of us, that we repent and LIVE AS IF WE BELIEVE THE GOSPEL. That’s all he’s ever asked of us.
If you believe the Gospel, you live your life as if you do. If you believe the Gospel and live your life as if you do, your life looks nothing like the lives of those who embrace the world. It looks completely different. It looks different the way that the lives of Jesus and the disciples looked completely different from the lives of the people around them.
This is a call for you to take stock of your life. God holds born-again believers to the highest of standards. There is no excuse for you to be living a life that is indistinguishable from those living the life of the world. If you genuinely believe the Gospel, your life reflects that. Your life looks like Jesus’ life or the disciples’ lives or Paul’s life. It doesn’t look like Judas Iscariot’s life or the lives of the people Jesus whipped out of the temple.
It doesn’t look like the lives of the alleged 2 billion Christians.
If you genuinely believe the Gospel, then your entire focus is either on preparing to preach and teach the Word, or actually preaching and teaching it. There is no other option.
You either believe the Gospel and your life reflects that, or you say you believe the Gospel, and your life reflects the world.
I have been born-again for 23 years, and I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of genuine born-again Christians I’ve met in all that time. Jesus had to start his ministry from scratch because Judaism was full of phonies, just like Christianity today is full of phonies. I will be cheering the ultimate demise of Christianity, just as Jesus cheered the demise of Judaism. There is no place in God’s Kingdom on Earth or in Heaven for people who say they love God and live as if they don’t.
Hypocrites are not welcome here, either.
If you’re not genuinely born-again, this blog is not for you.
WHEN TIME IS UP
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, July 14, 2022 – The angels who visited Lot in Sodom just before that city’s destruction were not on a revival tour. They weren’t preaching repentance in advance of the fire and brimstone; they weren’t warning that if the Sodomites continued their evil ways, time would be up for them soon. The angels weren’t wagging their fingers and thumping Bibles.
No.
They didn’t engage with the locals at all, other than to strike them blind when they came too close to Lot. The time for engaging was over. God let the Sodomites carry on their merry way, as they were at that point beyond repentance.
It’s worth noting that once the point beyond repentance is reached, destruction comes soon after.
Western cities are now nearly a mirror image of Sodom just before its destruction. I include mainstream Christianity in that description. God has withdrawn his preaching forces and is letting the cities wallow in their filth. Anyone still preaching in the mainstream churches is not God’s prophet. Oh, there are still preachers aplenty, puffed up with pride and adorned with rainbows, but God hasn’t sent them. There is no God in any of the churches that go by his name, any more than God was in the temple during Jesus’ ministry years or in the few decades afterwards before the temple’s (and Judaism’s) final annihilation.
Just before God delivers his judgement, he withdraws his preaching forces. Sometimes this lasts for a few days and sometimes for a few decades. Scripture talks about the half-hour of silence in Heaven. During the silence, the Word is not spoken and mercy is withdrawn. The angels talk among themselves, just as those in the Kingdom talk among themselves, but they leave off talking to outsiders. The Word doesn’t belong outside themselves anymore. This signals that the time for mercy and conversion is over.
When God called Noah to build the ark, he didn’t also tell him to warn the locals about the coming destruction. It was too late for that: Their time was up. They had made their choice, siding against God, just as Noah had already made his choice, siding with God. God didn’t have Noah rush around begging and pleading with the locals as the first raindrops fell. No. The time for begging and pleading was over. God kept Noah busy with the animals and the final details on the ark. The sinners who had chosen sin were given over to the sin they so sorely demanded.
The chaff is separated from the wheat at harvest time, and there’s nothing that any of us can do to change that.
I have long made my peace with those I know who have sided against God. I don’t preach to them; I don’t try to intervene. I just let them be and frankly avoid them. Whatever common touchstones we once had are all but gone. They have their world of sin, and I have my world of God, and I will not budge one inch to appease them.
I have cried for them, but I cry no more. If they were looking for Truth – if they were rejecting the world – then I would do everything I could to guide them towards God. But they love the world. They embrace the lies and demand more lies, safe and effective lies.
If God has given them up, then I have to, too. I let them go like so many helium balloons, buffeted and pushed along by the winds. They are no longer my concern, any more than the Sodomites were Lot’s concern or anyone outside his family was Noah’s concern.
At some point, you just let them go, like Jesus let Judas Iscariot go.
You respect their free will, and you let them go.
A SHOUT-OUT TO THE REAL CHILDREN OF ISRAEL
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, July 14, 2022 – There is a dangerous trend in mainstream Christianity that we, as born-again believers, need to beware: Equating the current nation state of Israel with the favoured Israel of Bible prophecy. Remember that God blesses those who do his will and keep his Commands, and the nation state of Israel has recently declared, by census, that it is majority (65%) atheist. Despite this unapologetic acknowledgement by Israelis themselves that most of them don’t even believe God exists, many Christians continue to see Israel as “the holy land” occupied by “God’s chosen people” who not only deserve our obeisance as “elder brothers and sisters in the faith”, but also our financial and moral support.
“Gotta get that temple built, or Jesus won’t come back!”
The truth is that the spiritual lineage of God’s chosen people flows through Jesus. That means genuine Spirit-filled followers of Jesus are the spiritual descendants of the Old Testament children of Israel. Physical genetics has nothing to do with it. You can’t get into God’s Kingdom on Earth based on your genetics; you can only get in through spiritual rebirth. When Christians by-pass scripture and uphold people of a certain genetics or belief system as being favoured by God based solely on their genetics or belief system, they crucify Jesus all over again and nullify the Gospel.
Don’t do that.
The worst offenders are, not surprisingly, the pastors in the megabucks megachurches. Gathering donations for Israel is an ongoing pet project that always keeps the money flowing, as who wouldn’t want to be part of “a work in progress” that the nation-state of Israel allegedly is? Who wouldn’t want to contribute to the mass conversion of Israelis that is allegedly supposed to occur just before Jesus allegedly comes back and sets up his 1000-year worldly kingdom, headquartered in Jerusalem?
Never mind that Jesus himself has told us he’s coming back in glory (that is, in his glorified body) for the sole purpose of gathering the last of his faithful to take them home to Heaven. Never mind that scripture says “those who pierced him” will mourn as they realize who Jesus is and that it’s too late (at that point) for them to repent just like it was too late for Judas Iscariot. Never mind that Jesus stressed how his Kingdom is not of this world and was in fact established already during his ministry years nearly 2000 years ago. Never mind scripture or the words of Jesus: the megabuck megachurch pastors have the real insider scoop. They know better even than God.
That being said, it’s also important to remember that, while there’s still time, Israelis have the same opportunity to become born-again followers of Jesus as everyone else. Whatever favouritism God showed to them as a people ended with their wholesale rejection of Jesus as the Messiah, not to mention their general across-the-board rejection of God and his Commandments. However, God’s offer is the same to them as to everyone: If they, as individuals, repent and believe the Gospel, they will be brought back into right relationship with God.
But they’d better hurry. The way things are going, God’s mercy will be coming to an end soon, and that includes for those who were once (but are no longer) “the chosen”. Once God’s mercy ends, his judgement begins, and there will be no further conversions at that time or ever again.
WOMEN IN GOD’S CHURCH
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, June 29, 2022 – When Jesus first burst on the scene, he was conciliatory towards all, healed all who came to him, and welcomed all who wanted to hear him, stressing the benefits of being his follower. But as his ministry progressed, he started to weed out those who were only there for the benefits. He began instead to stress the challenges that his followers would face on Earth, and many early followers then stopped following him. Towards the end of his ministry, Jesus became even more demanding in what he required of his followers; the result was that he alienated nearly everyone, including one of his twelve disciples. The only followers who remained with Jesus were those who genuinely wanted what he was offering.
Interestingly, it was also towards the end of his ministry that some people became Jesus’ followers for the first time, and most of these newcomers were women. Far from being deterred by Jesus’ warnings that they would live as outcasts and be persecuted, they were more than willing to suffer whatever was required for the Word.
I am a woman and this is my blog. Other than for one article published several years ago, I have steered clear of purposely adopting a “woman’s perspective” on the lived experience of being a born-again follower of Jesus, but a woman’s perspective still leaks through. It’s unavoidable because, as I mentioned, I am a woman. My relationship with God (as my Dad) and Jesus (as my Lord, Savior, Master, and big brother) is different in many respects from a man’s relationship with God and Jesus, and that’s fine. It was meant to be that way. It’s hardwired into us genetically for men and women to have different relationships with God and Jesus. That wasn’t a mistake or a fluke on God’s part: It was meant to be that way.
Even so, I think it’s important to point out that most of the followers who joined later in the ministry were women. Men were leaving, and women were joining. And women were not only joining, they were staying.
I am a woman, yet I’d be hard-pressed to call myself a feminist. Yes, I live alone. Yes, I travel alone. Yes, I earn my own living, and yes, I have my own business. I can do these things because I was raised (and still live) in a Western country, and it is now acceptable for women here to do all these things. It’s also acceptable now for women to remain unmarried and childless, without the stigma that used to be attached to unmarried childless women. In many Eastern countries, on the other hand, particularly the Middle East, I would not be able to live or travel alone, let alone earn my own living from my own business, and I would be heavily stigmatized by my unmarried and childless status.
I have had some exposure to the Eastern mindset when I was living in Toronto after my rebirth. I had a series of prospective landlords from Eastern countries who openly questioned why I wasn’t married and didn’t have children. These were not questions I’d fielded any time before in my life. The landlords did not ask in a polite way, but instead were gruff and demanding, as if speaking down to me. Initially, I would try my best to answer their questions, but eventually I decided it was none of their business, so I politely chose not to answer. Most of them then chose not to rent to me.
I mention this because while I say I’m not a feminist, I’ve been able to live my life, both prior to and since my rebirth, thanks in large part to feminist doctrine taking root and flourishing in Western society. Most of feminist doctrine I’m not a fan of, but women being able to live alone, travel alone, and earn their own keep from their own business I’m obviously on board with, as these things both define and benefit me in the world, and they support my Kingdom work. I’ve been independent all my life and I generally take it for granted that I can go here or there or wherever on a whim, because it’s my choice to do so. But after working closely with Muslim female clients, I realize how my independence is a not a “given” but rather a “taken”. So, to the feminists who fought for my right to live however I choose to live, you have my respect and gratitude.
*****
Many of the women who followed Jesus during the latter part of his ministry provided financial and logistical support. In other words, they paid for things and did the cooking, cleaning, etc. Despite their somewhat unglamorous role, the women still learned about the Kingdom from Jesus. We know this from Jesus’ interchanges with Mary and about Mary. At times, it seems that some of the male disciples were a bit resentful of Jesus’ obvious affection for Mary, which was especially clear in how he constantly defended her and took her side whenever there was a dispute involving her. Interestingly, she never started these disputes; they arose because others objected to something she was doing (e.g., sitting at Jesus’ feet learning from him rather than tending to household tasks, or applying oil to Jesus’ feet rather than selling it and giving the money to the poor). The disciples’ churlishness over Mary reminds me of my own experience with Eastern landlords in Toronto who looked down at me and then punished me by refusing to rent to me.
*****
This blog piece is not going where you might be thinking it’s going. I’m not here to bash men or certain cultural norms. I’m just pointing out that women through the ages have played a very specific (not special, specific) role in both the building and sustaining of God’s Church. Jesus went out of his way on several occasions to defend women, and there’s a reason why he did it. There’s a reason why Jesus did everything he did, considering that he only did what God guided him to do.
I believe the state of mind and soul of the women who joined in the ministry was different than that of most of the men. Recall that many of the men who joined were expecting Jesus to overthrow the occupying Roman forces in order to establish his Kingdom, so they were motivated to follow Jesus the way they’d follow a military leader. They didn’t come to him through repentance; they came to him wanting to fight for their cause. When it eventually dawned on these men that Jesus had no intention of overthrowing the Roman occupiers or of setting up an earthly kingdom, they moved on. That’s not what they’d signed up for.
On the other hand, many of the women became Jesus’ followers through repentance. They repented, God forgave them, and they found no other course than to follow and support Jesus. To them, it was self-evident that this is what they had to do with the rest of their lives, the same as it is for me. Since my rebirth 23 years ago, nothing else makes sense to me but to follow Jesus. If you come to God through repentance, your commitment to Jesus is going to be entirely different than if you come to God as a cultural norm, or as an intellectual or ideological pursuit, or as a familial obligation.
Women also bring a different set of emotional and perspective tools to the spiritual table, which God can then use to the benefit of his Kingdom. Because women are emotionally hard-wired (physiologically) and soft-wired (culturally) differently than men, they approach the Kingdom and spiritual matters somewhat differently. They are generally more intuitive and less pedantic. I believe that what Jesus was doing in defending Mary was validating her witness. Jesus was showing that women should not stay silent in the church, but instead should be taught and listened to.
It’s sad to me that 2000 years later, there are still men and women who call themselves Christian and yet who still think that women shouldn’t preach, based solely on a misinterpreted line in one of Paul’s letters. Women taking an active part in ministry work is part of the Gospel message. If you believe the Gospel, then you necessarily have to believe that Jesus wanted women to be his witnesses as much as he wanted men to be. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have first appeared to Mary after his resurrection and urged her to tell others what she had seen. And if he wanted women to be his witnesses, that necessarily means that he wanted them to preach and teach, just as his male followers and witnesses did.
*****
As I mentioned, I don’t want this piece to be a “man vs woman” tirade. I have nothing against men. In fact, I (mostly) admire them. That being said, anyone who thinks I should keep quiet in the Church can take their opinion to God, because I don’t want to hear it. Jesus, through his at the time controversial (and sadly for some still controversial) elevation of women to follower and even disciple status, clearly showed that women not only belonged in his Church, but needed to take a leading role in it, which meant taking on the job of preaching and teaching the Word. Despite the enmity of some of the male disciples, Mary continued on the path laid out for her by God and supported by Jesus.
Once born again, we’re all on that same path with the same mandate, which is to go out into all the world and preach the Good News. There isn’t one mandate for women and another for men; or one mandate for converted Jews and another for converted atheists: We all have the same mandate and directive, regardless of our sex or heritage or other background distinctions. When we become Christians through rebirth, all of those distinctions disappear, and we all have the same job description.
When you level the playing field like that, there is no more acting in a male or a female way, but in a Jesus way. By elevating and defending women during his ministry years, Jesus not only brought them into the fold, but delegated them to the position of witness, and if to position of witness, then to the role of teacher and preacher.
*****
I will never be silent in the Church, as that would be a disservice to God and Jesus and a renouncing of my rebirth status. However, while I’m still on Earth and in a woman’s body, I will relate to God and Jesus and the Gospel message from a woman’s perspective; that is unavoidable. Even so, my woman-ness should never get in the way of or in any way alter the Gospel message, any more than it should alter the mandate or job description Jesus gave to his followers.
I am a woman. This blog is written by a woman. But the Gospel message is neither male nor female. Salvation is open to all. The Great Commission was given to all. I know that when people look at me, they see a woman, but I pray that when they listen to me, they hear God.
AMPLIFYING THE STILL SMALL VOICE
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, June 29, 2022 – One of the main pleasures of being a born-again believer is talking to God every day. And I’m talking conversations, not one-way petitions that are sent off like messages in a bottle, never really expected to be received. God and I talk every day, just like Jesus talked with God every day and Adam talked with God every day before he got booted from the Garden. God and I talk. Formally, it’s known as prayer, but I just think of it as talking. Sometimes I hog the conversation and sometimes God hogs the conversation, and every now and then Jesus butts in with a comment that at times makes me laugh and at times gives me pause. I never come away from the conversations without having learned something, which means I learn something new every day, simply by talking to God.
But you have to listen to hear God. He’s not going to shout over your headphones or earbuds. He’s not going to interrupt your movie streaming. He’s not going to talk over your conversations with your friends and family. You purposely open yourself to God to hear him. You purposely seek him out, the way that Moses climbed the mountain to talk to God. You make the effort, and God rewards you with his presence.
This is his promise to his children, a promise which he delivered through Jesus and is recorded in John’s Gospel. If you’re genuinely born-again, you are a child of God. Jesus said we would have the same relationship with God that he had – that of Father and child. This was a promise Jesus made to us on behalf of God, and God always keeps his promises.
*****
Unfortunately, today’s world does all it can to drown out the still small voice. Even God’s children are being lured away to listen to anything other than God. We are tempted with music and movies, videos and podcasts, TV and radio, and a seemingly endless assortment of audio distractions that spill over into cars with automated wayfinder systems and even onto elevators with tinkling muzak, lest we mistake the elevators for the closet that Jesus said we should go into to pray.
If you live in the world (I mean, if you’re not a child of God), the soundscape is perpetual and loud, with audio distractions being delivered through speakers in every building, loudspeakers on every street, and headphones on every head. Added to that, combustion engines are everywhere. Living in the world means never finding any peace and quiet and always being surrounded by some kind of intrusive noise, including ubiquitous white noise that you only realize is there when the power goes out.
I was startled awake this morning by a piercing fire alarm. After it stopped (it was a false alarm), it occurred to me that I haven’t heard many birds outside my window this year. What I do hear is the roar of vehicles and construction machinery, and the groaning whirr of the industrial-sized HVAC system housed a few hundred feet away from my university residence.
This time last year, I was living in a house in the country. I was in a community of six or seven houses amounting to about 15 people, myself included. Between us and the next communities were woods on all sides stretching for miles. You would think, with so few people in such an isolated environment, that it would be quiet. You would think. But even with so few people living in the middle of nowhere, we sure managed to make a lot of noise.
All-terrain vehicles, as I found out last summer, are the travel mode of choice in the country. Added to that, most of the residents in the little community were related to each other and visited each other several times a day. Despite living no more than a few minutes’ walk from each other, no-one seemed to want to stroll down their driveway and up the neighbouring one or to cut across lawns. No-one seemed to own a bicycle, not even the two children living there. So dozens of times a day I was serenaded with the growl and sputter of ten lawnmowers combined into one obnoxious ATV engine roaring past my country kitchen windows.
Sometimes, my neighbours would even get into their car and drive across the street to make their visit, and this on a sunny summer day. I thought at first that they were taking their car because they were delivering something that was too big or too heavy to carry, but no. They were just taking their car because it was easier to drive 100 feet than to walk 100 feet.
I don’t drive (not even ATVs), so I wasn’t able to contribute to the cacophony, other than when my delivery guys from the city pulled up in their mini vans a few times a week. About halfway through the summer, the dad of the two kids bought a 1940s pick-up truck whose main feature was that it backfired every few seconds. He then did something to amplify the muffler. By August, I had given up my fight against the noise and just kept my windows shut most of the day.
The nights were quiet, though.
*****
The world contrives to keep us overwhelmed by so much noise, that the still small voice of God gets drowned out unless we consciously and purposely listen for it. I would be lost without talking to God every day. The Bible is a comfort, but it pales in comparison to just being with God. The irony is that, when you’re in the God bubble, you don’t hear the noise anymore. It’s still there, but distant: It gets blocked out.
When you talk to God, his voice and your voice (and occasionally Jesus’ voice) are all you really hear.
“WELL, THAT’S NOT VERY CHRISTIAN”: ON BEING YOURSELF
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, June 28, 2022 – I was born again from atheism. Because of that, I didn’t grow up “in the faith”, so I had to learn everything about Jesus and God and scripture from God’s Holy Spirit, as God intended. Strangely, that’s left me at odds with many if not most Christians, and has also left me questioning at times whether or not I should do this or that, wondering whether it’s sufficiently “Christian”.
The funny thing is that the one who gets on my case the most in pushing me to be myself is God. He hates cookie-cutter Christianity. He hates people thinking they have to dress a certain way or talk a certain way or act a certain way they’ve been told is “Christian”. He hates people smothering their personality and hiding what makes them unique in order to conform to a standard that he never set and never wanted for his children.
Jesus is an excellent example of someone who loves God and who persisted in being who he was during his ministry years, despite pushback from all sides. This is another reason why we should emulate Jesus. That doesn’t mean we should grow a beard and wear long robes and sandals just because Jesus did, but it does mean we should just be ourselves, regardless of other people’s opinions.
Case in point: I started wearing make-up when I was 13, and I still wear it, several decades later. The only time, for a time, that I stopped wearing make-up was for a while after I was reborn. I thought it wasn’t “Christian” to wear mascara and eyeliner and lipstick, because I thought I had to be “pure”. That’s fine; God let me think that for a while, but I never really felt like myself when I didn’t have my face on.
If you’re a woman who wears make-up, you know that people treat you differently when you wear make-up and when you don’t. When people respond to you more pleasantly, that makes you more pleasant in return, and I have found people to be more pleasant to me when I have a face on. That’s just my lived reality.
So I wear make-up when I go out in public. It’s part of my public presentation, and it’s who I am. I like how I look in make-up. Sometimes, if I’m in a hurry, I’ll consider skipping this step or that, but God will tell me to take the time, as it will be worth my while. Yes, God himself tells me to put on make-up and to put it on with my best effort each time.
And yet there’ll still be someone reading this who’s thinking: “Well, that’s not very Christian….”
God loves his children. He doesn’t want us to think we have to change who we are to live up to someone else’s idea of what it means to be a Christian. You’re not a Christian by the clothes you wear or the jewelry you hang off yourself. You’re not even a Christian by the words that come out of your mouth; you’re a Christian by what’s in your heart, which then, by extension, affects everything you do.
So you can be a Christian and still wear make-up. You can be a Christian and still wear nice clothes. You can be a Christian and still spend time with tax collectors and prostitutes and drunkards, not preaching to them, but showing them that they’re loved and that there’s a better Way forward than the path they’re on. You can be a Christian and still be you – in fact, God wants you to be you. He doesn’t want you to change who you are to conform to someone else’s expectations.
Yes, we always need to look to Jesus for our example of the right choices to make in life (that’s what it means to be his follower), but at the same time we need to remain loyal to ourselves. God doesn’t want me to change any part of my personality in being a follower of Jesus – I’ve always been loud and spirited and vivacious and insistent and by turns a social butterfly and a loner. I’ve always been somewhat larger than life and a non-conformist. I’ve always spoken up for what I believe in, and I’ve never been afraid to jump into whatever needs to be jumped into.
And yet, for a short time after I was reborn, I became quite restrained and low-key. I bought a “Jesus shirt” (demure loose-fitting white cotton blouse), which I wore religiously to church every day. That is to say, I would wear something else until I got to the church door, and then I would put on my Jesus shirt, the way that older Italian women put a veil over their heads when they enter a church. I thought I had to be that way and dress that way to conform to my new Christian life, seeing as how most Christians I knew at the time were restrained and low-key and wore modest, shapeless clothing.
Thank God that God sprung from that delusion! The notion that Christians have to be “meek and mild” wallflowers that all dress the same and pat each other on the hands while murmuring the same lame set phrases is propaganda from the dark side to keep us down. Yes, many Christians are meek and mild, but not because they’re Christian: they’re meek and mild because that’s their personality. I tried that on for size and it wasn’t a good fit. It didn’t work for me.
So now I’m just me. I’m just Charlotte. I’m STILL Charlotte. I’m a born-again believer first and foremost, but I’m a born-again believer with the same personality I had before I was born-again. I don’t have to change that and God doesn’t want me to change it.
My values changed at my rebirth; my personality didn’t.
So if you’re being pressured by someone to change your personality to be “more Christian”, tell them Charlotte says to kindly bugger off.
Just be you.
God himself made you that way.
THE BEST JOB YOU’LL EVER HAVE
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, June 26, 2022 – When Jesus was looking for disciples, he didn’t go to their homes or track them down at the local pub or synagogue – he went to their place of work. Why did he do that? And not only did he go to their place of work, he told the disciples point-blank to quit their jobs then and there, and follow him. He made a very public demand, which they then very publicly agreed to and therefore could not backtrack on without seriously losing face.
I think one of the reasons Jesus nabbed his disciples at their place of work was because he was acting in the role of a competing employer. Discipleship in the Kingdom is not a hobby or a leisure activity – it’s a job, and it’s a full-time one. In fact, it’s full-time with perpetual overtime and no down-time. You cannot be a disciple of Jesus and at the same time work another job, even part-time. It’s not possible. Jesus himself had to give up his carpentry work when it was time to start his ministry.
That’s not to say that you can’t do a little something to keep body and soul together, but it can’t be a job with a boss and where you have to show up at a certain time or on certain days and remain at your duties for a certain period of time. Nothing should conflict with your Kingdom duties. NOTHING. Paul, as we know, did tent-making during most of his ministry years, but he did it on the fly. His tent-making didn’t tie him to any one location or any particular time-frame, as he couldn’t have traveled if it had. And he didn’t have any boss over him other than for Jesus and God.
I think another reason why Jesus went to the disciples’ place of work was so they’d understand they were entering into a business deal in agreeing to work for and with Jesus. It was a contract they were signing off on, not just a casual arrangement that could easily be walked away from. Not only that, it was a life-time contract that had implications for all eternity. And Jesus needed to get to the disciples where they wouldn’t be influenced or overruled by their sense of duty to their families. If he’d gone to their home environment, I’m guessing their responses might have been different.
We need to pay attention to the fact that Jesus went on a hiring spree when he chose his disciples, and that he’s still on that hiring spree. It didn’t stop when he went Home to Heaven. His offer to work for the Kingdom is never for a part-time position; it’s always full-time, and he’s a jealous boss: He wants you all to himself.
Needless to say, when Jesus comes to you with the offer (if he hasn’t yet), take it. Don’t tell him you need a few days or a few weeks to think about it – take it right there and right then, even if it means you have to walk away from everything and everyone and never look back. Because first of all, no-one will ever come to you with a better offer than to work for God and Jesus in the Kingdom, and second of all, if you reject Jesus’ offer or put off making a decision about it, there won’t be another opportunity. He won’t ask you again.
And if that happens, you will lose the only thing that matters in this life and the one to come – a Forever Home for your soul.
ON ABORTION, ROE v. WADE, AND PRAYER
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, June 24, 2022 – Women who declare “my body, my choice” in support of abortion apparently fail to realize that the baby inside a mother’s womb is not the mother’s body.
The baby has a different body than the mother’s, with different DNA.
So the argument “my body, my choice” fails right from the start, as the baby and the mother have different bodies that may temporarily be conjoined but are still different and unique.
Women who want the right to kill their babies would have to say: “The body inside my body is my right to kill”, although I’m not sure which right they would draw on to make that assertion.
As born-again believers, we know that killing the unborn in what should be the safest place on Earth for a baby (the womb) is a demonically inspired act. In fact, it is of benefit to the Satanic realm (to which the demons belong) that babies be killed, as that prolongs the time of the Gentiles and forestalls the demons’ final descent into the lake of fire. It is to their benefit that babies be killed, and so they inspire these women to kill their children. The outcry against today’s Supreme Court Roe v. Wade ruling is likewise demon-inspired.
*****
When I was an atheist, I was intimately acquainted with the abortion ritual. I was also heavily demonically oppressed and occasionally possessed until my rebirth 23 years ago. In hindsight, I know what drove me to hate the unborn, though at the time my hatred was dressed up as a “woman’s right” I refused to concede.
After I was born-again, I hated abortion. However, I have never supported pro-life organizations. I agree with their focus on stopping abortions, but I don’t support how they do it. I don’t support their methods. They come across as finger-pointers and haters rather than as lovers of their enemies who bless and pray for expectant women who don’t want to mother the child in their womb. I think a lot more would be accomplished if people prayed for mothers who are considering abortions rather than attacking and vilifying them.
A woman who wants to kill her own child is a very sick woman and should be treated as such; she is also an expectant mother and should be treated as such. Most importantly, her illness is spiritual, so her treatment must also be spiritual. She needs to be prayed for, not attacked and vilified. And Jesus tells us to go into our closets to pray, not out onto the street or in front of an abortion clinic or hospital. We don’t publicly announce our prayers for expectant mothers who want to abort their children; we pray in secret for them.
Abortion may be made illegal in one area, but as long as Satan rather than God rules in the hearts of some expectant mothers, abortions will continue elsewhere. As born-again followers of Jesus, our job isn’t to condemn spiritually sick expectant mothers who want to kill the child in their womb, but to pray for these women that they come to repentance and are healed by God. This is the same prayer we pray for everyone God puts in our heart to pray for: Whether they’re expectant mothers or not, the same treatment applies.
We should also not be so naïve as to think the ruling today is a victory for “good”. Abortion is an industry, and the same forces that benefit from that industry lord over the Supreme Court. As Jesus reminded us, the world is under Satan. The chaos, destruction and hatred that is about to be unleashed in response to the Roe v. Wade ruling will cast long shadows spiritually over the world. We need to make up our mind right now that our response to the hatred will not be finger-pointing and vilifying, but praying.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 