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THE DESTRUCTION OF CHRISTENDOM
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, September 12, 2021 – The controlled demolition of formerly Christian Western nations, or what used to be called Christendom, is now going full steam ahead under the guise of a globalized pandemic. The uprooting and dismantling of the workforce, the economy, our history and our culture (including and especially our belief system, which is based on the Ten Commandments) is eerily similar to what took place in Germany, Russia and China just before their 20th century revolutions. The medical has become the political, with slogans like “for the greater good” and “we’re all in this together” lifted directly from the Propaganda 101 handbook. Those who don’t agree with the new normal order are being identified, tagged, and marked for elimination, just like in Germany, Russia and China. It’s only a matter of time before doors get kicked in at 3 a.m. and “dissidents” are hauled off to quarantine facilities that bear a striking resemblance to concentration camps.
Being followers of Jesus, we’re supernaturally outcasts and dissidents, not just to the new normal order, but to the world in general. Living opposed to the realm of Satan is the heart and soul of being a Christian. Our outsider’s perspective gives us a heads-up of sorts for what’s coming. Because come it will. There’s no avoiding what is about to be unleashed.
Every day we see the walls closing in further on those who will not comply. Mandates that just a few months ago were ridiculed as conspiracy theories are now being imposed by the very same people who labeled them as such. We are surrounded by deceivers who have no shame in being caught in their lies and about-faces. Like their father Satan, they speak lies as their mother tongue, while Truth is a foreign language they have no desire to learn.
Unfortunately, the only rallying cry that has emerged so far to combat the West’s destruction has been to urge people to “wake up”. But waking up won’t stop anything; it will just make people more aware that the destruction is happening.
Scripture teaches us that when a nation is in danger of destruction, it’s not because of evil from without but evil from within. The people of the nation strayed so far from God’s Commandments that they devolved into a society where evil and depravity were normalized. Their destruction was the natural outcome of their devolution. Those doing the destruction were, in fact, doing God’s judgement.
I don’t blame the forces (human and otherwise) that are behind the dismantling of Christendom. We deserve every bit of the evil that’s coming our way, seeing how far we’ve fallen spiritually. This would not be happening to us if we hadn’t earned it. In other words, this is God’s judgement on Christendom, just as the flood was God’s judgement, and the destruction of Sodom was God’s judgement, and the 10 plagues of Egypt were God’s judgement, and the obliteration of the heathen nations by the children of Israel was God’s judgement. The controlled demolition of formerly Christian nations is God’s judgement on those nations and will proceed just as assuredly as every other instance of God’s judgement. As Christians, our job isn’t to wake people up to the coming destruction or even to try to stop it, but to get out of the way while God takes care of business.
When God told Abraham about his plans to destroy Sodom, Abraham tried to strike a deal with him. He asked God if he would cancel his plans if there were at least 10 righteous souls in the city. God agreed to do so, if there were 10 righteous souls. As we know, the destruction proceeded as planned. That meant there weren’t even 10 righteous souls in a regional area of hundreds of thousands. How many righteous souls do you suppose are in formerly Christian nations today? Remember that only two souls (Joshua and Caleb) out of more than a million were considered worthy to cross over the River Jordan to the Promised Land.
I’m not sure if there’s any point in praying for Christendom. Most of the people in it would rather curse God than humble themselves before him. I think we’re at the stage where God has simply given people over to their depravity and let them go. This is not a situation like Jonah and Nineveh, where all the Ninevites repented in sackcloth and ashes and God cancelled his plans to destroy their city. No, this is definitely more like the flood or like Sodom, where God warned his own people to prepare accordingly or suffer the same fate as the condemned.
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Our shelter from the coming storm needs to be like Noah’s – we need to go into the ark of God and shut the doors and windows tight. But unlike Noah’s, our ark is spiritual, not physical. Our salvation is spiritual, not physical, just as our wars are spiritual, not physical. This is not the time for slacking off or wandering off from the path. This is not the time for weakness. Our temptations and tests will only get harder because the stakes are getting higher and higher. We need to be ready for them by preparing now.
And how do we prepare? By staying as close as we can to God, doing everything he advises, and following as closely as we can behind Jesus. And what does that translate to in action? Read your Bible every day, keep the Commandments, treat others as you want to be treated, and love your enemies. And if you haven’t yet started to teach and preach the Word, start today. When God, at the Judgement, asks you what you did with the talent he gave you, you do not want to be the one who says you were afraid and so hid it away. God enables your talent, through his Spirit, so let him speak and work through you. Remember that Jesus was ready to start his ministry before he realized he was ready. His mother had to push him.
Consider this your push.
Make God and his Kingdom all your focus and all your labour, as a follower of Jesus, and no matter what the world throws at you in the coming months, you’ll survive in the only way that matters – spiritually.
THE TIME FOR BEING A SEAT-WARMER IS OVER: THE CALL TO MINISTRY
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, September 11, 2021 – I AM WRITING THIS BLOG ENTRY IN UPPER-CASE LETTERS SO THAT YOU’LL KNOW HOW IMPORTANT THE MESSAGE IS.
I AM SHOUTING AT YOU SO THAT YOU CAN’T CLAIM YOU DIDN’T HEAR ME.
HERE’S THE MESSAGE:
IF YOU’RE NOT ACTIVELY MINISTERING OR PREPARING TO MINISTER GOD’S WORD, YOU’RE NOT FOLLOWING THE EXAMPLE SET BY JESUS. YOU’RE NOT DOING GOD’S WILL. YOU’LL BEAR NO FRUIT. AND IF YOU BEAR NO FRUIT, YOU’LL BE TORN FROM THE VINE AND BURNED, AS SCRIPTURE WARNS.
REMEMBER THAT JESUS TELLS US THAT THE WORD IS A SEED THAT NEEDS TO BE SOWN. FRUIT CANNOT BE GROWN WHERE NO SEED IS SOWN. YOU NEED TO SOW THE SEED AND THEN WATER AND TEND THE PLANTS THAT GROW. THAT IS THE WORK OF MINISTRY. YOUR JOB, AS WAS JESUS’ JOB DURING HIS TIME ON EARTH, IS TO SOW THE WORD AND TO WATER AND TEND THE PLANTS UNTIL THEY GROW ENOUGH TO BE ABLE THEMSELVES TO SOW THE WORD.
YOU DON’T NECESSARILY HAVE TO TEND THE PLANTS THAT HAVE GROWN FROM THE SEEDS YOU’VE SOWN. YOU TEND WHATEVER PLANTS ARE AT HAND. IF THE PLANTS AROUND YOU NEED WATERING, WATER THEM. IF THEY NEED PRUNING, PRUNE THEM. IF THEY NEED TO BE REMOVED FROM THE OTHER PLANTS BECAUSE THEY ARE DISEASED OR UNPRODUCTIVE, REMOVE THEM. GOD WILL DEAL WITH THEM FROM THAT POINT ONWARD.
MOST ORGANIZATIONS THAT CALL THEMSELVES CHURCHES DO NOT SOW SEEDS. THEY HALF-HEARTEDLY DROP A STUNTED SEED HERE AND THERE, BUT THE SEED IS STERILE. IT PRODUCES NOTHING. IT WAS NEVER MEANT TO PRODUCE ANYTHING, AS THE AIM OF THESE ORGANIZATIONS IS TO KEEP YOU COMING BACK TO THEM, NOT TO PREPARE YOU TO LEAVE THEM. THEY WANT YOU TO BE DEPENDENT ON THEM FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE. THEY NEVER WANT YOU TO GO FORTH AND PLANT SEEDS YOURSELF.
WHEN JESUS APPOINTED THE 12 AS HIS DISCIPLES, THEY BEGAN THEIR APPRENTICESHIP. THE PURPOSE OF THE APPRENTICESHIP WAS TO PREPARE THEM TO TAKE JESUS’ PLACE. THEY WERE LEARNING HOW TO BE LIKE JESUS. WE ARE, ALL OF US, THE FRUIT OF THE LABOURS OF JESUS AND HIS FIRST DISCIPLES, AND WE ARE, ALL OF US, LEARNING TO BE LIKE JESUS SO THAT WE CAN TEACH OTHERS TO BE LIKE JESUS.
BUT NOTE THAT THE 12 STARTED THEIR MINISTRY WORK ALREADY DURING THEIR APPRENTICESHIP. UNDER JESUS’ WATCHFUL EYE, THEY WERE SENT OUT WITH INSTRUCTIONS ON WHERE TO GO, HOW TO GET THERE, AND WHAT TO DO WHEN THEY ARRIVED. THEY DIDN’T WAIT UNTIL JESUS LEFT THEM TO START THEIR MINISTRY WORK. THEY STARTED ALREADY WHEN THEY WERE STILL LEARNING HOW TO BE LIKE JESUS. AFTER JESUS WENT HOME, THEY CONTINUED THE SAME WORK THEY WERE DOING BEFORE, BUT WITH GREATER POWER.
ALL OF YOU READING THIS SHOULD EITHER BE ACTIVELY MINISTERING GOD’S WORD OR PREPARING TO DO SO. IF YOU ARE GENUINELY BORN-AGAIN, YOU ARE IN GOD’S CHURCH, NOT IN THE WORLDLY CHURCH. THE WORLDLY CHURCH WANTS YOU TO BE A PERPETUAL SEAT-WARMER SO THAT YOU NEVER LEAVE, SO THAT YOU KEEP SHOWING UP TO GIVE IT MONEY. THE WORLDLY CHURCH EQUATES SOWING MONEY WITH SOWING GOD’S WORD. THIS IS A LIE. JESUS SAYS WE CANNOT SERVE GOD AND MAMMON. A CHURCH THAT EXPECTS YOU TO GIVE IT MONEY IS NOT SERVING GOD.
GOD’S CHURCH WANTS YOU ACTIVELY MINISTERING GOD’S WORD. THERE ARE NO SEAT-WARMERS IN GOD’S CHURCH, AND NO MONEY IS REQUIRED TO BE IN IT.
IF YOU HAVEN’T YET STARTED TO MINISTER GOD’S WORD, CONSIDER THIS A NOT-SO-GENTLE REMINDER AS WELL AS A WARNING. THERE ARE NO SEAT-WARMERS IN GOD’S CHURCH. IF NOTHING ELSE, START A BLOG. IF NOTHING ELSE, START A BIBLE CLASS. JUST DO SOMETHING. THE MINUTE YOU STEP OUT TO MINISTER, GOD AND JESUS WILL GUIDE YOU. GOD SAYS THAT HE WILL NEVER LEAVE US OR FORSAKE US, AND JESUS TELLS US HE WILL BE WITH US UNTIL THE END OF TIME. IF YOU ARE BORN-AGAIN, GOD AND JESUS ARE WITH YOU AND THEY WANT TO HELP YOU SOW THE WORD.
BUT YOU NEED TO TAKE THE FIRST STEP.
IF YOU HAVEN’T YET TAKEN IT, TAKE IT NOW.
THE TIME FOR BEING A SEAT-WARMER IS OVER.
THE HITCHHIKER
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, September 8, 2021 – God can use anyone to get his message across. Anyone can be made a vessel of his Spirit. As born-again believers we know that, because most of us came to God from a place of profound sin. Even so, God healed us and made us one of his. If he can use us, he can use anyone.
Years ago, when I was a teenager, I used to hitchhike to get around. Every summer, I would hitchhike out to Vancouver from Halifax. Sometimes I’d hitchhike back to Halifax, and sometimes I’d fly.
On one of the years that I decided to hitchhike back, I got stuck at an all-night truck stop somewhere in rural New Brunswick when the trucker who’d picked me up at the Quebec border said he needed to catch a few hours’ sleep before continuing on. It was around 3 in the morning. He told me I could either lay down in the extra bunk, or he’d give me money to go into the restaurant and get something to eat to pass the time. I didn’t think it was a good idea to bunk down in the truck, however innocent the offer might have been, so I went into the restaurant instead. I was there for about a half-hour before I decided to keep hitchhiking.
It was around 3:30 a.m. and nearly pitch black when I made my way back to the highway. The minute I stepped onto the pavement and realized how dark it was, I thought this isn’t very smart and maybe I should go back to the restaurant. But just as I turned to go back, I saw headlights approaching, and almost as a reflex, I stuck out my thumb. Before I knew it, a vehicle had pulled up beside me, the passenger door opened, and a male voice called out “Hop in”.
So I hopped in.
The driver was a young man, around 30 (though he seemed old to me at the time). He was friendly, funny and talkative, and we chit-chatted for a couple of hours as we bounced along in his old pick-up truck. I don’t remember what we talked about, though it was probably my hitchhiking adventures and the places I’d been. We didn’t exchange names or ages, we just chatted, which was pretty much par for the course. My job, as the hitchhiker, was to help the driver stay alert and pass the time pleasantly, while the driver’s job was to get me from point A to point B.
Just after sunrise, as the sky was starting to get light, the guy said he needed to pick up some wood at a woodlot, and would I mind if we made a short detour. I told him no, that was fine, I didn’t have to be anywhere at any given time, so he could pick up the wood, if that’s what he needed to do.
We pulled off the highway and onto a dirt road and drove for about five minutes. There was nothing around us but deep woods, and the road got rougher and ruttier until we could barely roll. That’s when he braked, turned off the engine, turned to me, and said something that I won’t repeat here, but I think you know what it was.
I had been hitchhiking at that point for about three years. I’d never had any problems and always got where I wanted to go, safe and sound. But this time was different. I knew from the look in the guy’s eyes and the tone in his voice and from the impossibly remote setting that I’d permitted myself to be driven into that this was not going to end well for me. I was more terrified than I’d ever been in my life. I was so terrified, I couldn’t move. I was frozen stiff.
He had unzipped his pants and started pawing me, trying to take my clothes off, when suddenly my mouth opened and words came out. I can’t describe it any other way than my mouth opened and words came out. They weren’t my words and I wasn’t saying them, but they were coming out of my mouth.
Here are the words: “Would Jesus want you to do this? What would Jesus say if he saw you doing this? Would Jesus want you to be doing this? What would Jesus say?”
The words kept repeating over and over, over and over, over and over, while I sat stiff as a corpse. After about a minute the guy’s grip on me weakened, and he slumped back in the driver’s seat and started to cry. Then he leaned onto the steering wheel and heaved and sobbed in a way I’d never seen anyone cry before, let alone a man.
Meanwhile, the words had stopped coming out of my mouth, but I was still frozen stiff. As his sobs quieted and he wiped his face, he started telling me that he’d picked up a hitchhiker the day before who’d said that she needed money to get the ferry from St. John to Nova Scotia, and that she’d do anything if he’d give her the money. He said he thought I was like her, and that’s why he’d done what he’d done to me.
Then he turned the engine on, and backed out of the rutty dirt road and onto the highway. We drove for a few minutes in silence. I hadn’t said another word after the Jesus words. We pulled up to a gas station and he said to me: “There’s a restaurant in there. You can get some breakfast.” And he gave me $5 (which was like $20 in those days). I opened the truck door to get out, and just before I closed it behind me, he said: “Be careful who you get in with.” And then he drove off.
It was July 1st (a holiday in Canada), and there were a lot of cars on the road, even early in the morning. I had no trouble getting rides for the rest of the trip back to Halifax. I got there early in the afternoon, unannounced, and went straight to bed. I was still living with my parents at the time. My mother was surprised to see me, as usually I was away for the summer, but she left me in peace when she saw how tired I was and how I didn’t seem to want to talk.
I never told anyone about this experience until I was in my 40s. I knew if I said anything to anyone at the time, they would have just blamed me for hitchhiking, and they would have been right. But I also didn’t say anything because I had no idea what had happened. I had no idea why those words came out of my mouth and why they made the guy stop trying to rape me and start crying. I had no idea what had happened to me, so I kept it to myself for a long time. The first person I told was an old boyfriend, when I was in my mid-40s.
You’re now the second person I’ve told.
When I was born-again, God took me on a tour of my life and showed me times when he had directly intervened to save me. This attempted rape was one of those times. As a born-again believer, I now understand what happened that day in the pick-up truck in the back logging road, with the guy who’d changed from a would-be rapist into a blubbering heap in a matter of seconds. I now understand that the words that came out of my mouth that day were not my words, they were God’s, and that God spoke through me, even me, an atheist who didn’t believe he existed. God knew that those words were the only things that could stop the guy, and so the name of his son Jesus was spoken over and over until the demons that drove him to drive me into the back woods were driven out of him and back to whatever hellhole they came from.
I have no idea what happened to the guy after he dropped me off at the gas station and drove away. I didn’t think about him again for years, until after I was reborn. I hope that his contrition turned into repentance and that his life was changed for the better. I think it was. Like I said, I’d never seen anyone cry like that before. He sobbed like someone who hadn’t cried for a long time, if ever. A lot came out of him that day.
God can use anyone to get his message across, even a vain, foolish, teen-age hitchhiker who doesn’t believe he exists.
HOW COMMITTED ARE YOU?
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, September 7, 2021 – At some point, you have to decide whether you want to walk with Jesus or walk with the world. Jesus walked nearly everywhere he went during his ministry years, and nearly every step he took, he was followed by his disciples and other assorted hangers-on. Crowds pressed in on him from every side wherever he preached, but few people actually made the commitment to walk with him day in and day out. Some walked with him for a little while and then fell away. Some walked with him for a little longer before falling away. Very, very few made it all the way to his resurrection and beyond.
Following Jesus is not a part-time leisure activity. It’s a full-time commitment. When I called the 40-day Bible read-through back in July, a lot of people told me they intended to do it, but I’m not sure how many actually did. It only involved an hour or two a day for less than six weeks, and even that was too much for some.
As paradoxical as it sounds, most Christians haven’t made the commitment yet to follow Jesus. They’ve made a conditional commitment (IF I have time, IF I’m not too busy, IF I can find someone to look after the kids, etc.), but they haven’t made the kind of full-time, unconditional, no-holds-barred, life-long commitment that’s required if you’re going to make it all the way to the end.
You won’t win a marathon race if your only training is running for the bus. Yet most Christians think they’ve got a guaranteed ticket to Heaven just for showing up at church. They think that’s the extent of what it means to be a Christian, because that’s what they see other Christians do. They follow the worldly herd instead of following Jesus.
We know, from Jesus, that the Sabbath is made for man, not man for the Sabbath. You don’t follow Jesus because it’s a law or you feel obligated to; you follow Jesus because you need to, just like you take a day of rest because you need one. Being a Christian isn’t an obligation; it’s a need, because it’s the only way you’re going to get home. Jesus says that no-one comes to the Father except through him.
The world is the realm of tests and temptations. When you spend all of your time and energy catering to worldly obligations and chasing worldly temptations, you show where your heart is. We’re expected to keep earning our daily bread even as we do ministry work, but our priority should always be the Kingdom. If earning our daily bread interferes with our work for the Kingdom, we need to find another way to make money. Jesus completely gave up his carpentry business and his disciples also quit their jobs, but Paul made tents so that he wouldn’t be dependent on hand-outs. He quit his day job, but he kept doing manual labour so as not to be a burden to anyone. Even so, his tent-making never interfered with his ministry work.
God doesn’t command you to make a commitment to him or to Jesus. These are free-will choices that you make of your own volition. But once you make the commitment, you need to clear out of your life everything that may interfere with it, and that includes relationships. The more you give to God and Jesus, the more you get in return. The less you give, the less you get.
This is very much an “I set before you life and death; choose life” scenario. If you’re born-again, following Jesus is not something you do on the side: It’s your life. Anything that interferes with that has to go.
One of the reasons why Jesus started his ministry work with a 40-day fast in the wilderness was to get rid of all the worldly obligations and habits he’d accumulated. He did a total life reset. He went into the desert Jesus of Nazareth, son of Mary and Joseph, and came out of the desert Jesus the Christ, son of God.
As Paul says, we only have one life, one shot at getting it right, and then comes the judgement. If you think you need to do a reset to become who you need to be to follow Jesus, then now’s the time. You might not get time later if the thief comes already tonight.
Even if you’ve made the commitment to follow Jesus, it’s still a good idea to take stock of how things are going in your life, to see whether you’re still putting God first in everything or if something (or someone) else is taking his place. It’s good to take stock every now and then. It’s like spiritual house-cleaning or a mini-reset. Jesus did little mini-resets during his ministry years, going off by himself to the mountain to pray. If even Jesus needed to step back from the world occasionally to refocus and renew his commitment, how much more we need to do those things.
I hope you take some time today to either make a commitment to follow Jesus or to renew your commitment. God will help you with that, and bless your efforts.
ARE YOU WORTHY OF BEING A CHRISTIAN?
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, September 6, 2021 – Some verses in scripture tend to jump out at you more than others. For me, one of those verses is that you’re not worthy of following Jesus unless you hate your closest family members and friends. What on earth is that supposed to mean? Doesn’t it fly in the face of honoring our parents and loving our neighbours and enemies?
On the surface, yes, the messages seem to contradict, but let’s dig a little deeper, since this is important. I don’t think any of us want to be considered unworthy to be Christians, any more than we want to hate people just because they don’t believe in God.
In Deuteronomy 13:6-11, Moses warns us that if a close family member or friend tries to privately lure us away from serving God, we need to publicly out them and then stone them to death. In Matthew 10:34-37, Mark 10:29, Luke 12:52-53, Luke 14:26-27, and Luke 18:29-30, Jesus gives us a similar warning, but stops short of telling us to kill the offenders. What’s implied is that we should leave these people in our rear-view mirror and not look back.
It’s not advisable to live or hang out with unbelievers. To do so means that you love them more than you love God. This makes you unworthy to be a follower of Jesus, since loving and serving God should be your one and only priority, and habitually spending time with an unbeliever negates that. Just as you can’t serve God and mammon, you can’t value God while at the same time valuing those who hate him or don’t even believe he exists.
If you say, “Well, I can love and serve God and still hang out with unbelievers”, you’re fooling yourself and/or are a hypocrite. Hanging out with unbelievers is a form of spiritual adultery. Jesus ate and drank with sinners, yes, but he didn’t live with them or habitually hang out with them. After he started his ministry work, he didn’t even spend time with his family. Did he still love them? Of course he did, but they didn’t believe he was the Messiah, so spiritually they were his enemies. He would have had to compromise who he was in order to be around them, and he chose not to do that.
He CHOSE not to do that.
It’s a choice we need to make, to put our love for God ahead of every other love, including love for our children. These are tests. Most people fail monumentally, which is why Jesus and Paul say it’s better not to marry and have a family. Our worst enemies truly are those who are under our own roof and/or are closest to us in blood, even if to all the world they seem like nice people.
I’m not advocating stoning your mother to death for trying to get you to be “less religious”. Stoning is Old Testament; we don’t do that anymore. But we still need to be aware that we can’t be around unbelievers on a regular basis, if at all. If you’re saying “But.. but… but…”, maybe you aren’t worthy to be a follower of Jesus. This is a hard teaching, but it is what it is. Jesus can’t be any clearer, and I’m just telling you what he’s saying. It’s a teaching that’s very easy to skip over if you don’t agree with it, but it cuts to the core of who we are as believers.
It OT times, legalism meant rigorously abiding by laws and statutes. These weren’t a choice; they had to be abided by. If you broke the laws or statutes, you were severely punished. This is how people were kept in line.
For NT born-again believers, it’s all about free-will choice. No-one is stoning you to death for committing adultery, but boy oh boy, will you suffer for it anyway. In some cases, you’ll wish you were dead, the punishment can be so debilitating.
So if you, as a believer, choose to put an unbeliever ahead of God in your life, you won’t be attacked by a mob and stoned to death, but you might lose your job or your home or your health, and if you still don’t take the hint, you might even lose eternity in Paradise. The punishments are just as severe for NT believers who sin as they were for OT believers who sinned; the only difference is how the punishment is delivered.
These are sobering verses. We can skip over them and pretend they don’t apply to us, or we can take a good hard look at our relationships to see if they’re making us unworthy of being a follower of Jesus. This may involve breaking lifelong ties with people, but the alternative is losing your place in Paradise.
You can still love someone and pray for them without having to spend time with them. Jesus says to love and pray for and bless our enemies, and unbelievers are our enemies. That’s just what they are. And as our enemies, we can pray for them, we can bless them, we can still love them, but at a distance.
Our love for God and our service to him should be all-encompassing, should leave room for no-one else in our life. Jesus lived among his disciples, but he didn’t give himself to them the way he gave himself to God; he wasn’t anywhere near as close to them as he was to God. And these were his hand-picked, God-approved followers.
In the end, it’s better to live alone than to live with those who’ll take your attention away from God. If you’re living or hanging out with unbelievers, you’re at risk of losing your salvation.
Ultimately, you need to choose: God, or the world; believing and abiding by scripture, or skipping past the verses that you don’t agree with.
You can’t choose both God and the world and still be worthy of Jesus. You’re only worthy if you choose God and God only.
That’s what God’s Word says.
What do YOU say?
THE CHRISTIAN PREPPER’S LIST
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, September 5, 2021 – Bible prophecy-related predictions have exploded over the past year. Christians are panicking, believing we’ve entered the age of the mark of the beast. They point to places in the world where people are being prevented from participating in society – that is, from buying, selling, working, traveling, etc. – unless they consent to taking certain injections and showing proof they’ve taken them. Surely this indicates that the mark has arrived?
Whether the mark of the beast is here or not shouldn’t matter to us, because it doesn’t change our relationship with God and it doesn’t change how we follow Jesus. I know it’s fashionable to live in a constant state of panic these days if you’re a Christian, but when Jesus says always to be prepared, nowhere in that directive does he say to panic. Being prepared prevents us from panicking because, well, we’re prepared. We don’t have to worry. We’re ready for whatever the world throws at us because we’ve prepped in the only way that Christians should be prepping.
Here’s our preps list:
- Get as close as you can get to God.
- Get as close as you can get to Jesus.
- Stay immersed in God’s Word. Open your Bible EVERY DAY and read it.
- Keep the Commandments.
- Do God’s will.
- Treat others as you want to be treated.
- Love your enemies.
Note that it only involves “seeking… first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness”, because scripture tells us that if we put God first, everything else will be added to us. That means God will provide everything we need (food, water, shelter, transport, protection, good health, etc.).
So whether you’re on the run as an outlaw (as Jesus warned we’d be) or still living where you’ve been for the past while, your preps list doesn’t change. You get close and stay close to God and Jesus, you read your Bible every day, you keep the Commandments and do God’s will, you treat others well, and you love and pray for your enemies. None of that changes, whether you’re in the bosom of society or cast out of it.
Jesus says we should always be ready to leave at a moment’s notice. He means ready to leave wherever we’re living, but he also means ready to leave this Earth by dying. Even so, whether we’re leaving town or leaving our body, the preps list doesn’t change. We’ll always be ready to leave at a moment’s notice if we’re close to God and Jesus, reading the Bible every day, keeping the Commandments, doing God’s will, and being kind to people (including and especially the ones who aren’t kind to us). If we do all those things, we’ll be equally well-prepared to leave town or to leave this plane of existence. No panicking required.
So the next time someone tries to get you riled up about the end times or to sell you more guns and toilet paper, tell them you’re fine. You’re ready for whatever the world might throw at you, because you’re prepping the way Jesus says to prep, and that’s all you need.
THE POURING OUT OF GOD’S SPIRIT
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, September 5, 2021 – Thousands of years ago, God promised his people that he would one day pour out his Spirit over them. He has since kept his promise. God has been with his people through his Spirit ever since the time of Jesus.
Jesus is with us, too – both God and Jesus are with us, through God’s Spirit.
That is the meaning of “God with us” – not that God took on human form and walked among us, but that he is with us through his Spirit.
Along with the pouring out of God’s Holy Spirit, however, we’re also now dealing with a lot of other things being dumped on us. Those things are not from God, are not his Spirit, and are not holy. They go by the name of false prophecy.
Scripture says that where evil abounds, grace that much more abounds. By God’s Spirit, we can overcome evil that comes to us in the form of false prophecy, but only if we recognize it as such.
There is a big push in many Christian communities to “prepare”. Unfortunately, what’s being pushed as preps isn’t spiritual oil in your spiritual lamp, but food, ammo, and guns. At the same time, we’re constantly being bombarded with spiritual fear porn about the end of days, the tribulation, the rapture, and the mark of the beast.
I would be the last person on Earth to claim that we’re living in “normal” times. We’re clearly not. But even if the beast, the dragon, the false prophet and Satan all stood in front of us waving their pitch forks, our response to them should not change. Regardless of the age we’re in, as followers of Jesus and recipients of God’s promise to his people, our response to the world should not change. We are still required to keep the Commandments, still required to treat others as we want to be treated, and still required to love our enemies.
When Jesus told us to watch, he didn’t mean that we should only be watching for signs of evil. That is a position of fear, and Jesus did not teach us to live in fear. He meant that we should watch in order to be aware of what’s going on around us, to know the signs of the times, and always to be ready to leave – that is, to flee or to die – at a moment’s notice.
We are spiritual outlaws from the world. The Spirit that is in us is not the spirit that is in the world. This makes us enemies of the world. We live among enemies. The prepping we need to do, as Christians, is not material prepping – it’s spiritual prepping. If you’re being advised by a Christian to prep materially, you’re dealing with a false prophet. Jesus never prepped materially or told his followers to prep materially, beyond telling them to get a weapon as a deterrent,
How do you prep spiritually so that there’s enough oil in your lamp when you need it?
Read God’s Word every day. Read it and reread it until God’s Word becomes your words.
Choose to forgive. When you have the option to hold a grudge or let it go, let it go. Always choose to forgive.
Remember that Jesus and God are with you, through God’s Spirit, so spend time with them. Talk to them. Listen to them. Let them guide you in everything you do.
Practice what you preach. Jesus says that those who hear the Word of God and then do it are like people who build their house on a rock, while those who hear the Word of God and don’t do it are like people who build their house on quicksand. The metaphor is clear enough. Make sure you not only hear, but do. The doing is more important than the hearing.
God’s Spirit has been poured over you, if you’re genuinely born-again. The measure you receive is up to God, but he bases the measurement on how much you can handle. Show him you can handle as much as he’s willing to give you, and then go for double that. The more you get, the more will expected of you, but the more you get, the more joy you’ll have, and the closer you’ll get to home.
FOCUS ON GOD
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, September 5, 2021 – The book of Job tells the story of a man who had it all, lost it all, and then got it back in spades.
The thing about Job is that he didn’t lose everything through any fault of his own. He lost it because God made a bet with Satan.
Now, I would not be one to bet against God expecting to win. No-one beats God. Not at anything. You would think Satan would have known that, but maybe when he lost his holiness and free will, he also lost the capacity to know you can’t beat God. Or maybe he just wanted to see Job suffer. In any case, Satan was permitted by God first to take away Job’s wealth and kill most of his family, and then to take away Job’s health. Poor Job was left penniless, childless, and sitting in a pile of ashes scraping pus and scabs off his sores with a piece of broken pottery. And God permitted this to happen.
When God allows evil to attack us, it’s not always because we’ve had it coming. Most of the time, yes, we have it coming, but sometimes it’s more like Job. Certainly Jesus never earned any evil attacks, and yet he had plenty of them when he was in his earthly body. God permitted these attacks as a way ultimately to bring Jesus up higher.
God is always in control. If he permits evil to come into your life, it’s either a punishment or it’s a test that, if you pass, will bring you up higher in the Kingdom. Sometimes God permits Satan to bet against you because God’s going to use the situation to your benefit.
So the point of the book of Job isn’t why God permits evil, but why our focus isn’t more on God. When Job finally acknowledges God’s vast superiority in every regard – that is, when Job humbles himself before God – he not only gets back everything he’d lost, but God adds to it. Job comes up higher.
Our time here on Earth is a series of tests. It can also be a time of punishment, if we have it coming. But regardless of whether we’re dealing with tests or punishment, our focus shouldn’t be on Satan or on praying away the evil. Our focus should always be on God, knowing he and he alone is in control.
No matter the situation, whether good or evil, your focus should be on God. No-one but God can get you through whatever it is you’re facing. When evil attacks you, don’t focus on the evil; focus on God. When Stephen was confronted by the enraged mob just before he was stoned to death, he looked past them and saw God and Jesus. He focused on God and so was able to die with blessings rather than curses on his lips. He didn’t focus on the evil that was surrounding him, he focused on God.
If you spend all your energy trying to pray the evil away, you won’t make it. It’s way stronger than you. You need to focus on God. Even if all you see around you is evil a mile deep, focus on God. That’s how you’ll get through what’s coming.
CHRISTIANS OF CONVENIENCE: THE RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION TRAP
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, September 5, 2021 – There’s a horrifying new trend developing, where people pretend to be Christians in order to claim a religious exemption from getting the shot.
When I say “horrifying”, I mean for the people doing it. Pretending to be followers of Jesus and making a mockery of God and his Messiah will not end well for them. Sitting in a pew for a wedding or a funeral is one thing; pretending you’re a believer (false swearing) and signing a contract to that effect is quite another.
In fact, it’s a temptation from the devil. It has the fingerprints of Satan all over it. In other words, it’s a spiritual trap. The religious exemption option is being offered to ensnare people, not to help them. And many are falling for it, thinking it’s a way out of their predicament.
When you fall for a temptation, you ultimately suffer. There may be a time initially when you think you’ve gotten away with something, but that ends soon enough. And if you haven’t acknowledged the error of your ways before it does end, the fall-out and punishment will be severe.
Remember the parable about the person who was at the wedding feast without the proper clothing? Remember what happened to that person?
I am not at all a fan of coerced injections, but there are other ways around a mandate besides cheapening Jesus’ sacrifice and God’s great gift of grace. It’s a form of spiritual fraud, to claim to believe in order to gain from it.
Even worse, there are now pastors selling (by ‘donation’) religious exemption letters online, no questions asked.
Christians of convenience are not entirely a new trend. For hundreds of years, when Christianity was the mainstream belief system, many people pretended to be Christians in order to gain from it politically or socially. This kind of fraud is particularly rife today within the refugee community, with people pretending to be Christians and claiming they’re in danger of persecution if they return to their home country. Christian organizations in the receiving countries (including the US and Canada) are vouching for these faux-Christians, justifying their lie by calling it a humanitarian gesture. The churches are also, of course, making money from the practice, which I suspect is their main motivation for doing it in the first place.
Having the option to claim a religious exemption for a mandatory shot is a God-send to those who are genuine believers, but a satanic trap to those who aren’t. God permits his own people to bend the truth occasionally (think of how David pretended to be insane so that his enemies wouldn’t see him as a threat), but unbelievers pretending to be believers do not fall into that category.
My prayer is that those who want to avoid getting the injection find another way around it than to pretend to follow Jesus. But if they do choose that path, I pray that the course of their lives leads them to repentance and conversion, and that they actually do end up becoming Christians.
OF GOD’S SEAL AND THE MARK OF THE BEAST
GREENVILLE STATION, Nova Scotia, September 5, 2021 – There are two kinds of marks mentioned in the Bible – one is a mark designating God’s ownership and protection, and the other is a mark designating Satan’s.
A mark is a tattoo. Scripture says that God forbids his people from getting them, in the same way he forbids his people from worshiping demons. The only one who should be worshiped by God’s people is God, just as the only mark on God’s people should be God’s.
You don’t schedule an appointment to get God’s mark. God gives it to you at a time of his choosing. The books of Genesis, Ezekiel and Revelation are clear about that. God’s mark is invisible in the earthly realm, but highly visible in the spiritual one.
You’re not born with a spiritual mark. You’re born with spiritual chains. You are born into satanic slavery but reborn into godly freedom, courtesy of God’s grace.
The so-called mark of the beast has been getting a lot of press lately, even with unbelievers. Lots of chatter over whether or not the shots or the passports are in actuality the mark of the beast, or at least its precursor. I’m not a fan of either the shots or the passports, but I don’t see them as the mark of the beast. We know from scripture that those who get that mark lose their shot at Heaven. There is no more hope for them. So when that mark is taken, the age of Mercy has to have ended.
I don’t believe we’re there yet. I believe we’re still in the age of Mercy. I believe there is still time for a few last stragglers to turn back to God and to receive the mark of his seal. There’s not much time, but there’s some. We know from scripture that the age of Judgement begins with world-wide cataclysms. These (thank God) have not yet begun. When they do, we’ll know that God’s Judgement has started.
At that point, anyone who has not be sealed by God and received his mark will belong to Satan. There is no way out of it. So the mark of the beast will just be a formalization of what already, at that time, will have been established. It will be an outward sign of a spiritual reality. Those who take the mark in order to buy and sell will take it as a matter of course, as something that self-evidently needs to be done. They will not have to be coerced or mandated to do it. The only ones who will refuse to take it will be God’s people.
Remember that during the time of the beast system, all religion will be outlawed except for Satan worship. It won’t be called Satan worship (any more than the beast system will be called the beast system), but that’s what it will be. There will also be a world government that is not just operating behind the scenes, like the current deep state. It will openly be a world government. Neither of these things have come to fruition yet, so the shots and passports currently being mandated cannot be the mark of the beast. They may be a dry run and a softening up for that time, but the lack of world-wide cataclysms, global government and global Satan worship indicates they are not the prophesied mark.
The mark of God and the mark of Satan will definitively and for all time separate humanity into two distinct groups. The larger one by far will have Satan’s mark. In fact, most souls will have Satan’s mark. Very few will have God’s mark, and even of those few, some will lose it during the tribulation.
Jesus tells us to pray not to come to the time of universal testing, to be taken home before it starts. He doesn’t say to pray to stop it, but to pray not to have to go through it. If you haven’t yet added that petition to your daily prayers, it might be a good idea to do so. In fact, it might be a good idea to begin and end your daily prayers with it.
At the same time, pray to be found worthy to receive God’s mark, and pray to remain worthy to your dying breath. Because without God’s seal of approval, you’re not going home.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 