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HAMMER
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, March 4, 2015 – I always find it interesting and also very educational that Jesus only railed against a chosen few. He didn’t yell at the heathens for being, well, heathen; he didn’t yell at the “lost sheep” for being lost or the “sick” for being sick: he yelled at the Pharisees and the Sadducees and other legalists for being hard-headed and hard-hearted.
In Jesus’ eyes, these people should have “known better”, as my grandmother would say. They had the knowledge, but they didn’t use God’s help to translate it into wisdom.
Something was blocking them.
When Jesus burst on the scene, he seemed to have come from nowhere. Those who loved truth immediately recognized him as the Messiah and dropped everything to follow him. He drew huge crowds. He preached and healed. He was The One.
Then he came to the attention of the religious authorities. These were the wealthy Jews who held political as well as religious control over what they called the “rabble”. Initially, the Pharisees and Sadducees were curious about Jesus and wanted to meet him; then they met him and became Jesus’ worst enemies.
What did they have against Jesus?
He knew who and what they were. He could see past their religious façade and wasn’t afraid to tell them so. He didn’t respect their authority because he knew it didn’t come from God. He knew they were hypocrites and he had no qualms about calling them hypocrites to their face and to the world.
We all, as born-agains, have encountered these kinds of self-important legalists. They seem to know a lot about God, but they’re blind, to varying degrees, and the cause is always the same: Arrogance. To me, they have a curious kind of relationship with God – dutiful and ritualistic, but very arm’s length and lacking in warmth and intimacy. They remind me of the petulant older brother in the Prodigal Son parable.
Jesus railed at these hypocrites because he knew the only way he could reach them was to smash through their arrogance. They were so used to demanding and receiving “respect” that it threw them for a loop when someone refused to bow down to them. Jesus railed at them because ultimately he wanted to help them. But first he had to break them.
Some (a very few) were broken, but most persisted in their hardness. They refused to see Jesus as the Messiah because he had no formal education and came from a working-class family and a poor part of the country. His followers were likewise uneducated and from modest backgrounds. This did not fit the preconceived mold of who or how the Messiah should be. Like Satan, the legalists refused to bow down to someone so lowly.
They saw Jesus through the eyes of the world, not the eyes of God. Their arrogance blinded them and also prejudiced them against Jesus. They couldn’t get past his provincial accent and his lack of formal training. He wasn’t in their club. He wasn’t one of them. If he wasn’t one of them, how could he possibly be The One?
Legalists are good at quoting chapter and verse, but so are demons. Following Jesus means more than just memorizing scripture and spewing it on cue. Arrogance is the worst form of blindness because it renders you nearly immune to help, and we’re all here to get help. If we didn’t need help, we wouldn’t still be here.
I can’t imagine knowing God and at the same time rejecting Jesus. But Satan can imagine it, and so can the religious legalists who’ve hounded and harassed and tortured and killed true believers ever since Adam’s son Cain slew Abel. We all, as born-agains, have encountered these kinds of ice-cold believers, and they might even be the death of us, as they were with Jesus. But that doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t hit them and hit them hard with spiritual hammers, while there’s still time. It may be that one of them might yet crack.
ON SHUTTING UP IN THE CHURCH
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, March 3, 2015 – Physically, I’m a woman. I don’t think about that fact much; I just kind of take it for granted. God made me female, and that’s the way I am.
So it always surprises me when someone uses the fact that I’m a woman as grounds for telling me that I can’t do something or that I should just shut up. I’m not very good at shutting up, never have been – not as an atheist, and certainly not as a born-again follower of Jesus.
I mention this because I came across a website today that seemed to have good “God intel”. I was just about to email the site’s creator to tell him how much I enjoyed his site when God suggested I take a look at one of the blogs first. It was about “Women in the church” and how they are just to shut up. More to the point, and based on the blog-writer’s rather narrow interpretation of scripture, women shouldn’t teach, women shouldn’t preach, and women sure as heck shouldn’t hold ministerial positions of authority over men.
Needless to say, after reading that blog, I moved my half-written email to the “draft” file and had a little chat with God. I even tried the blog-writer’s advice of “shutting up” on for size, but it didn’t fit me very well. I kept thinking: Why would God give me the gift of grace if he doesn’t want me to use it? Jesus tells us that we are not to put our light under a bushel but on a candle stick, so that all will see it. He also tells us not to bury God’s gifts but to invest them so that they’ll grow. In other words, Jesus wasn’t telling me or anyone else to shut up about God but rather to do the opposite.
The Old Testament was all about genetic exclusivity. If you weren’t one of the twelve tribes of Israel, you weren’t in “the chosen” club. Certainly, you could petition to get in, but it was a lengthy and complicated procedure. Few “gentiles” bothered to do it, unless they truly felt called.
Jesus overthrew all that. Just as God promised through his Old Testament prophets, the kingdom has been taken away from “the chosen” and given to those who are considered more worthy (meaning, the followers of Jesus). Salvation is no longer based on membership in the Olde Jewish Boys’ Club but on the belief in Jesus as the Messiah and on a genuine willingness to live by faith by follow the promptings of God’s spirit. Jesus’ followers come from every nationality and culture and are of both sexes. In fact, Jesus even overrode gender by stating that his followers should strive to become spiritually like eunuchs (Matthew 19:12), who are neither male nor female, just like the angels are neither male nor female.
When God looks at me, he doesn’t see me solely as a female. He sees my will and my soul first, and my sex is secondary. What I’m saying is – my femaleness is just not an issue with him. If it’s not an issue with God, then it shouldn’t be an issue with anyone who says he’s a follower of Jesus. God made me a woman but he also made me a born-again believer, which de facto makes me a spiritual eunuch. I am a woman to those who are outside the kingdom, but to those inside the kingdom, I am simply brethren. As brethren, we all equally have the right and duty to preach the Word of God, whether our voice is high or low.
So no, I’m not going to shut up in the church or elsewhere. God doesn’t want me to, Jesus doesn’t want me to, and neither do I. If you can’t get past my sex, the problem is yours, not mine. Physically I’m a woman, but spiritually I’m genderless, just like Jesus. Maybe you should try looking at me through your spiritual eyes, not your physical ones.
I’M A SAINT
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, March 2, 2015 – If you’re genuinely born again, you’re a saint, not a sinner.
Yet how many times have you heard the phrase “We’re all sinners” in relation to Christians?
If you’ve heard it even once, that’s already one time too many.
Catholicism states that you can’t be a saint unless you’re dead and a pope decrees you’re a saint.
Then Catholics are told to pray to you and you get a day named after you and maybe even some made-in-China trinkets molded in your image.
That’s right – in total violation of what God says in the Old Testament about praying to dead people or making graven images, Catholicism orders you to do both, if you’re a ‘good Catholic’.
A sinner is someone who is unholy. Born-agains certainly have the potential to be unholy (we’ll have that potential, through our free will, until the day we die), but by definition we can’t be sinners because then God’s holy spirit wouldn’t be with us. And if God’s holy spirit isn’t with us, then we’re not, by definition, born again.
God’s holy spirit cannot be in the same place as an unholy spirit. The two are mutually exclusive. Where evil dwells, God’s spirit will not dwell. You can’t have demons and God’s spirit in you at the same time.
You cannot be holy and unholy.
So you see the difficulty with born-again Christians being told they’re sinners.
We’re born sinners, but we’re born again saints.
The next time a preacher calls you a sinner even knowing you’re a born-again Christian, tell that preacher he’s dead wrong. You’re a saint. And if the preacher or the pope has a problem with you calling yourself a saint, tell them to take it up with God.
Freedom
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, March 1, 2015 – Jesus is the greatest of all freedom fighters. He told us that knowing the truth will make us free, and so it does. God is truth, so knowing God as our Dad brings us into God’s kingdom on Earth and makes us free from the attacks of our spiritual enemies. This is the true freedom that God promised Israel through the Old Testament prophets. This is true safety and security, not the fake one promoted by the Homeland Security organizations of the world. As long as we keep wanting and choosing what God wants for us (knowing that God wants only the best), then we are secure in our safety and freedom.
But at the same time God loves and encourages free thought. In fact, he loves the notion of free thought so much that he embedded it in the concept of free will. We are free to think our way into choosing what God knows is best for us, and we are equally free to think our way into rejecting it.
We are as free to be illogical and wrong in our thought processes as we are free to be logical and correct.
Why would God do that? Why wouldn’t he just make us receptive only to correctness rather than allow us to doubt and make wrong choices based on those doubts?
God loves it when we use the gifts he’s given us, and the gifts he loves us most to use are free thought and free will. God doesn’t want automatons serving him; he doesn’t want forced obedience: he wants us to come to him because we want to come to him. He wants us to weigh the pros and cons (do a cost/benefit analysis, if you will) and then decide what we think is best. Of course, he’s always putting in his two cents’ worth; he never leaves us guessing as to which option is the right one. He wrote his laws on our hearts, and if we’re still not sure, he gave us scripture, his spirit, and Jesus.
I love Jesus! He’s such a cool guy. Nothing ever fazes him. That’s because, when he was in his Earthly body, he lived fully in God’s promise of freedom, protection and security. That doesn’t mean, however, that he automatically did God’s will in everything – no, not at all. He took advantage of his free thought and free will to try to negotiate better terms with God.
One of these famous “negotiations” played out in the Garden of Gethsemane the night before Jesus was crucified. God had earlier told Jesus what was going to happen to him, and certainly Jesus knew from scripture what was going to happen to him, but he didn’t like it. Not one bit. And why would he? He was a virile young man in the peak of health. He didn’t want to die, and certainly not the way that was laid out for him. If he had willingly embraced his humiliation and crucifixion and gone marching to his death with a smile on his face, he would have been insane, and Jesus most certainly was not insane. So, trying to wheedle maybe a few more days or weeks or even hours out of God, Jesus asks him if there’s some other way he can do what needs to be done. He asks him once, and God says “No.” He asks him again, and again God says “No.” He asks him a third time, and when God’s answer is still “No”, Jesus throws in the towel and says he’ll do it.
Does he do it with a smile on his face? Not at all. We know from scripture that he barely spoke a word from that moment onwards. With his God-given free thought, Jesus weighed the pros and cons of what was required of him to be the Messiah. He also used it to try to find some way around the worst of the requirements, but God wasn’t budging. Still, he let Jesus think it through. Still, he stood firm while Jesus tried to find a short-cut that would not involve crucifixion. When the combined witness of God, scripture and his own heart showed Jesus that the best way to do what had to be done was simply to do it, Jesus conceded. He wasn’t coerced; he wasn’t forced; he could have said “no” and gone down another path that might have ended with him marrying Mary Magdalene and bouncing 12 Junior Jesus’s on his knee, but he deduced, through logic and God’s witness, that choosing God’s way was the best way to achieve his goal of Messiahship, so he chose it. God then strengthened him, and less than 24 hours later, Jesus took his place forever at the right hand of God.
David had a similar clash of wills with God over David’s first-born with Bathsheba. Through the prophet Nathan, God informed David that the child would fall ill and die, but David reasoned that maybe God would change his mind if he fasted and prayed and mourned. So, he held vigil for seven days and nights, refusing to eat or drink or even talk to anyone. Despite David’s efforts, the child died, but instead of mourning his death, David got up, took a shower, grabbed a bite to eat, and then headed over to Bathsheba’s private suite to “comfort” her in the Biblical way. His servants are taken aback by what they saw was his odd behavior at the death of his son, but he explained that while his child was still alive, there was a chance that God would change his mind and let the child live. The child’s death signaled that God would not change his mind, so David conceded. It was as simple as that. And at David’s concession, God strengthened him, and Solomon was conceived that very night.
God not only allows us but encourages us to use our free thought and free will. He invites us to align our wills with his not by coercion but by logical choice. God wants only the best for us, but sometimes no pain means no gain. God protects us spiritually, but spiritual protection doesn’t mean that we won’t have to suffer pain while still in our Earthly bodies. We need to make up our mind to accept that now, because, as with Jesus and David, some form of pain is almost definitely going to be in the cards if we intend to “endure to the end”. Still, maybe God will give us some wiggle room; who knows? It never hurts to ask. But if you do ask, and he doesn’t budge, you can be sure that what awaits you on the other side of that temporary pain is a whole lot of gain beyond your wildest dreams.
LOVE THE SINNER
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 23, 2015 – One of the easiest ‘sin traps’ to fall into is forgetting that God loves everyone equally, no matter what they do or say.
He doesn’t love what everyone does or says, but he does love whoever is doing the doing or saying.
We need to remember this hard-core fact when we find ourselves repulsed by something someone has said or done. We need to separate the horrible thing from the person doing and saying it. We need to separate the sinner from the sin.
“Love the sinner, hate the sin.”
“Love the sinner, hate the sin.”
“Love the sinner, hate the sin.”
To do this, it helps to see the sinner as you. It helps to remember that you, at times, also say or do horrible things. It helps to remember that you hope not to be condemned even despite your screw-ups. It helps to remember that God shows mercy to you.
Knowing this, we must also acknowledge that:
- God loves the Muslim suicide bombers who blow up children.
- God loves whoever was responsible for 9-11.
- God loves the guards at the Nazi concentration camps who flicked the gas switch on.
- God loves Judas Iscariot.
This is the God we serve. Our God isn’t someone who hates those who hate him or who hates those who do horrible things. Our God is someone who loves all people equally, even those in hell and those on their way there.
Jesus told us to be perfect even as our heavenly Father is perfect.
God loves us.
All of us.
All of the time.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Years ago, when I was an atheist, I went to an abortion clinic. Because the clinic had received so many bomb threats, the front entrance was permanently barred and people had to enter through the rear gate. An armed security guard stood watch. As I went to enter, a man self-identified as a minister and separated himself from the small group of anti-abortion protestors who held permanent vigil there. He quickly moved towards me and tried to push himself between me and the gate. I pushed him back and the security guard intervened. As he was being hauled away, the minister yelled over and over again that I was a sinner and would go to hell if I had an abortion. I yelled back words that aren’t fit to print here, but you get the idea. There was no love lost on either side. What I remember most about this encounter was that it was with a minister and that his eyes were full of hate. That pretty much summed up my impression of Christians in those days.
Today, being born-again, I understand the loathing that the minister must have felt when he saw me make my way to the abortion clinic gate. I understand his hatred of what he assumed I was about to do, and I also understand how his hatred for abortion could spill over into hatred for me. I get it. It’s easy to do, hating the sinner as well as the sin. It’s a classic sin trap.
That’s why we must always be on our guard against it. Come Judgment Day, it’s probably not the big sins like theft or adultery or even abortion that will condemn us in God’s loving eyes, but the sins that slip under our radar, disguised as holy outrage.
“Love the sinner, hate the sin.”
“Love the sinner, hate the sin.”
“Love the sinner, hate the sin.”
STAND UP FOR GOD, NOT YOUR ANTHEM
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 22, 2015 – God commands us to worship no-one and nothing but him. In fact, God is such a self-professed “jealous” God, that he made this commandment to be the first and foremost of all. Jesus reiterated the commandment’s importance and fleshed it out as: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and all your soul, and all your mind, and all your strength. This leaves little room for misinterpretation, and yet every time you recite a pledge of allegiance to your country or salute your flag, you’re breaking this commandment.
When you pledge allegiance to your country, you’re worshipping your country. When you salute the 100% polyester ‘graven image’ of your flag, you’re likewise worshipping your country.
Most people don’t see it that way. They see saluting a flag or swearing an oath as a show of respect, and showing respect for your country isn’t the same as worshipping your country, is it?
Or is it?
Jesus told us not to swear any oath whatsoever, and that includes pledges of allegiance. And in God’s eyes, saluting a flag is the same as bowing down before it, which God told us not to do before anyone or anything but him.
When your country asks you to support your troops or to take up arms to kill an enemy, but God says “Thou shallt not kill” – who will you obey?
When your country demands that you treat all religions as being equal, but God says there is no God but him – who will you obey?
When your country makes it illegal for you to openly speak or write God’s truth, but Jesus says to go out into the world and preach the Good News – who will you obey?
If heaven is your goal and doing God’s will is your means to get there, then you’d better make up your mind that when it comes to choosing between God and your country, you’ll choose God.
Sadly, many countries have twisted the notions of “serving God” and “serving country” to appear to mean the same thing. That’s a slick trick of the devil. Catholicism does the same, so that in serving “the Church” and being obedient to the pope, Catholics believe they’re doing God’s will. But nothing could be further from the truth. Stripped to its core, Catholicism is demon worship, just as, stripped to its core, patriotism is demon worship.
God should always take precedence over any construct of man, whether that construct be a country or a religion. Those who purposely confuse the issue by equating God with a country or a religion will get their reward, and it won’t be the one with the cherry on top.
What does this mean, then, in everyday terms? Serve God, not your country. Your duty as a citizen is to obey the laws of the land, not to bow down before a flag-draped entity. And wherever the laws of the land conflict with God’s laws, always choose God, regardless of the consequences.
Countries that guarantee their citizens freedom of religion also guarantee their citizens the freedom from having to salute a flag or recite a pledge, if those acts conflict with their religious beliefs. This right is inherent in religious freedom and should be freely exercised. So, for instance, if you hold US or Canadian citizenship, the freedom not to salute your flag and not to pledge allegiance is your right as a citizen. In exercising this right, you ultimately show your obedience to God first and foremost. As a born-again, the only one you should ever stand up for, salute, or bow down before is God.
“PUT YOUR SWORD BACK IN ITS PLACE!”
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 21, 2015 – With the increase in killings and land-grabs by what Obama calls “violent extremists” (the newest PC term for Islamic terrorists), so-called Christian militias are forming to combat them. The aim of these militias is to protect the few ancient Christian villages remaining in Iraq and other war-torn nations, but their mandate is not from God.
Two words that don’t belong together are “Christian” and “militia”. Two words that can never go together are “Christian” and “militia”. Christians cannot fight in any militia, except one whose weapons are prayer and words.
Jesus made it very clear that those who live by the sword, die by the sword.
God made it very clear that he’s in charge of vengeance, and that we’re not to kill, not under any circumstance,
These terms are non-negotiable.
As Christians, our strategy should always be to avoid going places where we know God’s word is not welcome, and to leave our current location if we find out that God’s word is no longer welcome. This is what Jesus did, and we’re to follow his example.
If Christians in Iraq are being persecuted, they should leave – just up and leave, like Joseph and Mary and Jesus did. Leave with nothing but the clothes on their backs, if necessary. Staying and fighting is not an option. Not for Christians, anyway.
And as they leave, they should pray for those who are persecuting them and driving them from their homes.
It is not our duty, as Christians, to provide financial or spiritual support to an army that takes up weapons to kill in the name of Jesus. God doesn’t want us killing in Jesus’ name, and certainly neither does Jesus.
The people under attack in Iraq need to flee. This is a time-honored Christian strategy. Flee, and God will deal with the invaders and murderers. It’s not for Christians to deal with them in any way except prayer and words. The invaders have given them the option to flee, but instead Iraqi, and now also American and Canadian Christians have taken up arms in Iraq. This is the wrong response. They have made themselves murderers in God’s eyes. If just looking at a woman in lust makes you an adulterer, then picking up weapons with the intent to use them makes you a murderer.
Dwekh Nawsha is the name these so-called Christian militiamen have adopted for their militia. It’s an Aramaic phrase that means “self-sacrifice”.
God says: I require mercy, not sacrifice. These self-styled, self-sacrificing anti-Christ “Christian” killers strutting around Iraq with automatic weapons need to give their ego-swollen heads a shake: what they’re doing is not God’s will. It’s Satan’s will.
Someone needs to tell them the same thing that Jesus told the follower who whipped out his sword and cut off the ear of one of the soldiers taking Jesus to his crucifixion. Jesus said to this follower: Put your sword back in its place, for all those who draw the sword will die by the sword.
Those who kill are doing Satan’s will, not God’s will. No if’s, and’s, or but’s.
“Put your sword back in its place! And pray for those who are persecuting you.”
THE HOLY DOOR-STOPPER
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 16, 2015 – All of my life I’ve been a voracious reader. Before I was born again, I had a private library of about 3,000 volumes, some of which were signed first editions. I had a Bible, too, that had been given to me by a neighbor (it had been her grandparents’, but she didn’t want it), and I dutifully added God’s Word to the collection. But I never read it.
I worshiped a constantly changing stable of writers and philosophers, all of whom were either suicidal or dead (or both). Sylvia Plath, T.S. Eliot, Vladimir Nabokov, William Shakespeare, Friedrich Nietzsche, Franz Kafka, Virginia Woolf, J.D. Salinger, Margaret Laurence, Anthony Burgess, Jean Rhys – these were the sad souls I looked to for help as I groped and stumbled my way through the darkness. I faithfully memorized their words and tried to apply them to my life, but their ‘guidance’ only led me to share in their despair. I, too, became suicidal. I, too, threw myself into loveless ‘love affairs’. I, too, became booze-addicted. I, too, thought it was romantic to live outside the bounds of society’s norms. I, too, simultaneously disbelieved in and hated God, not realizing it was illogical to do so. I, too, learned to hate myself.
Most of these writers’ works were introduced to me through school assignments. Before I was even in my teens, I was force-fed what I know now is potent spiritual poison: Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar; Shakespeare’s MacBeth; Herman Hesse’s Siddhartha. I read these works because I was told to read them. It never occurred to me that I had a choice in the matter. If my teachers had said: “Here’s a bottle of poison; drink it”, I certainly wouldn’t have drunk it. But no-one ever said to me: “Here’s some spiritual poison; read it.” The essay assignments came with no warning labels or disclaimers, though they certainly should have. Spiritual poison is far deadlier than physical poison, and far easier to swallow.
Of the millions upon millions of words I had to consume as a student, I was told to read from the Bible only once. It was for a university course, and by that time I was so demon-addled, I couldn’t read the Bible even though I tried. All the words ran together. They made no sense. I gave up and relied on what I’d heard in class to answer the Bible-related exam questions.
In one of those curious episodes that only make sense in hindsight through a born-again perspective, I came to read about Jesus while searching for a book of essays on Jean Rhys. I have no idea why I decided to take books on Jesus out of the library, but I did. I read them while sitting at the kitchen table smoking and drinking. I can still see the look my boyfriend gave me when he saw the books on the table. “Jesus?” he sneered. I don’t remember what I said to him in response, but I do remember reading the books. They characterized Jesus as a rebel and a champion of the underdog, not as the son of God. They were Jesus from an historical and atheistic perspective. He came across as a pretty cool guy. I liked him.
Six months later, I was born again.
Since being born again, the only book I own is the Bible. I’m as voracious a reader as ever, but now I have no desire to read anything but the Bible (and the occasional blog or newspaper). My favorite writers are Isaiah, Jeremiah, David, John and Paul. Unlike when I was an atheist, I now understand the power of words to poison or to feed a soul. I also see writing not as a craft for impressing people, but as a means to deliver God’s truth through words, the plainer the better.
In the movie The Day After Tomorrow, some characters are holed up in the New York Public Library, burning books to keep from freezing to death. Interestingly, the only book the atheist librarian chooses not to burn is the Bible. His reasoning is that this particular Bible was the first book produced on a printing press and therefore represented a seminal moment in human achievement that should be preserved at all costs. As noble as it sounds, I’m not buying his explanation. I think that he, like me when I was an atheist, recognizes that there’s something special about the Bible, something that sets it apart from all other written works. As an unbeliever, I didn’t want to read the Bible but I still knew I had to have one in my collection. I know now that the feeling of “having to have a Bible”, for whatever reason, was God sticking his foot in the door, refusing to let me shut him out entirely.
FOR WHOM THE BELL CURVE TOLLS
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 16, 2015 – Jesus ended his ministry on Earth exactly as he started it: Alone.
When he was naked and dying in agony on the cross, no-one except him believed anymore that he was the Messiah, just like no-one, when he was growing up, believed he would become the Messiah.
If you plotted in graphical form the number of followers Jesus had during his time on Earth, a classic bell curve would emerge. From the initial 1, the numbers would swell to many, and then back down to 1 again.
Ding, dong.
Jesus himself is not responsible for the sharp rise and fall of his follower numbers. Rather, it was his followers’ lack of understanding of scripture along with their unwillingness to accept Jesus’ mandate as being spiritual not political that led to their exodus from the truth.
When Jesus burst on the scene dispensing miraculous healings like free condoms at a Pride parade, nearly everyone wanted to be part of the excitement. Jesus was youthful and vibrant and he really sounded like he knew what he was talking about. He thumbed his nose at religious authorities, besting them in every argument, and had a genuine connection with the people. He was a likeable guy doing likeable things. What’s there not to like?
It was only when Jesus started to challenge his followers’ false beliefs that his popularity began to wane. People wanted feel-good excitement and a “winning” candidate that they could get behind, but Jesus was stating very clearly that the winnings would not be in Earthly terms, and that in fact the Earthly reward for being part of the Kingdom would be persecutions and social rejection. Who in their right mind would want to sign up for that?
As follower after follower drifted away, Jesus didn’t water down his message but instead pushed the remaining followers harder and harder. He was weeding them even as he was feeding them. Those who could stomach the truth, stayed; everyone else either ran screaming or slithered off in silence.
At the cross, no followers at all remained, just a few friends and family members along with some soldiers and the usual assortment of haters. No-one believed anymore that Jesus was the prophesied saviour. Some still loved him, but they didn’t believe in him. He alone persisted to his dying breath in the sure belief that he was the Messiah.
After Jesus died, the women went to his tomb a few days later to apply the spices that were part of Jewish burial rites. Even though Jesus had told them explicitly that he would rise from the dead in three days, they still went to dress his corpse. They didn’t believe he would rise because they didn’t believe he was the Messiah. Then, when they found his tomb empty, they simply thought his body had been moved. They thought Jesus was buried, not risen, because they no longer believed he was who he’d said he was.
Self-confidence is a beautiful thing when it’s based on truth. Jesus remained firm in his belief that he was the Messiah because his interpretation of scripture was God-based, not man- or demon-based. In assuming his role as the Messiah, Jesus hadn’t set out to win a popularity contest. He didn’t measure the success of his mission by how many followers he’d accumulated but by how closely he adhered to a Godly interpretation of scripture and how closely his will was aligned to God’s. And in both of these measurements, his mission was more than accomplished.
Most if not all of today’s churches measure their success quite differently. For them, “making converts” has become some kind of a contest and the church with the most “converts” wins the prize. But to make converts to their false version of Christianity, these antichrist Christians – these wolves in sheep’s clothing we were warned about – not only water down the gospel but sweeten it with saccharine lies. I have stood in many of these churches, as have you.
I will stand in them no more, even if it means, like Jesus, I stand alone.
Even if it means, like Jesus, I die alone.
WE ARE ISRAEL
HALIFAX, Nova Scotia, February 15, 2015 – The geopolitical state of Israel is not the Holy Land.
I’ll repeat that loud and bold in case some of you missed it: THE GEOPOLITICAL STATE OF ISRAEL IS NOT THE HOLY LAND.
I mention this because, again and again, I see Christian groups pledging their support for Israel and for Jewish causes, and all I can think is: Oy vey!
Mind you, I have nothing against the state of Israel. I might even visit it some day. How, when, and with whom it chooses to wage war it its business. I buy cookies that are made in Israel and eat clementines that are grown there. I have no problems doing business with the geopolitical state of Israel.
But still, you cannot convince me that that place is the Holy Land. The “former Holy Land”, certainly, but the Holy Spirit has since left the building.
Jesus told us that his Kingdom is not of this world. If his Kingdom is not of this world, then the geopolitical state of Israel cannot be the Holy Land. No place on Earth can be the Holy Land.
Jesus also tells us that only God is good and that only God is holy, so where God’s spirit is – THAT is holy ground.
The night before he was crucified, Jesus told his disciples that he and God would come to live with them. This is the very definition of being born-again and being a follower of Jesus. You are not born-again or a follower of Jesus unless Jesus and God are living with you, through the presence of God’s Holy Spirit.
People who are not born-again do not have God’s Spirit with them. Countries, of course, cannot be born-again.
I am born-again, which means that God and Jesus are constantly with me, so where I am is holy ground. I am not holy; only God is holy, but his presence in me and all around me makes me holy ground.
All born-agains are holy ground.
In contrast, the geopolitical state of Israel is the last thing from holy ground. Just because Jesus walked there when he was in human form doesn’t make it holy. Just because God chose to reveal himself to the Jews in Old Testament times doesn’t make it holy, either.
We need to discredit the claim that a geopolitical state or a people are “holy” or somehow favored by God. No people and no country are favored by God, not even born-agains. Since the dawn of New Testament times, God has revealed himself equally to all people by writing his laws on their hearts, not on stone tablets hidden away in an ark. We are all equally able to access God’s truth if we choose to.
The Israel that was prophesied in the Old Testament is Jesus’ Kingdom that was established since Jesus walked the earth. It’s a spiritual state, not a geopolitical one. We are citizens of the spiritual state of Israel, if we’re born-again followers of Jesus. We are the true Jews, not the fake ones of the synagogue of Satan that Jesus warned us about.
We are Israel.
So if you want to pledge your support for Israel and the Jewish cause, pray for yourself and your fellow born-agains. If you want to go on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, walk over to a mirror and wave to yourself. Maybe even take a foot selfie. If you’re born again, where you are is holy ground.
The geopolitical state of Israel is just another war-mongering country steeped in blood and motivated by revenge, and there ain’t nothin’ holy about that.
Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain [Samaria], nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.
Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.
God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.
John 4:21-24
Father’s spirit is the wall of fire around
Father’s spirit is the glory that’s inside me
So where I stand is holy ground
Where I sit, holy ground
Where I lie at night, holy ground
And I claim it in the name of Jesus!
It doesn’t matter where I go
God is always with me, so
where I am now is holy ground.
Be not afraid, for I am with you.
Be not afraid, for I am with you.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 