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SUPERNATURAL SURVEILLANCE
DARTMOUTH, Nova Scotia, June 9, 2021 – Guess what?
God is watching you.
All the time.
He sees everything you do, and I mean everything.
Not only that, but he’s also listening to everything you say, and he’s reading your every thought.
Most Christians don’t know this. They think that God can only see them when they go into a church building or when they pray. They are unaware that God knows every intimate detail about them, that this knowledge is current in real time, and that God’s constant surveillance will continue for the rest of their days on Earth.
If you love God and follow Jesus, God’s constant surveillance is a comfort to you. Knowing that God sees and knows everything about you keeps you in line. Like a mother watching over her child, God watching over us is a safety feature of being human. I frankly wouldn’t have it any other way.
I think if more believers understood that God was watching them all the time, their behavior would radically change. If their mindset were “God can see me, God can hear me, God knows my thoughts”, they would adjust what they do, say, and think. Since we’re made in God’s image, our first impulse (our default) is to do good. We were made to do good. The only thing getting in our way of perpetually doing good is our free will and the temptations it opens us to. Being conscious of God’s constant presence is an excellent way to overcome those temptations.
As you read these words, God is reading them with you. He sees you reading them and knows your mindset. He even knows your state of health to the tiniest detail. There is nothing about you – down to the sub-molecular level – that God doesn’t know. You cannot in any way fool God.
You can, however, fool the devils. They are also watching you, though their vision of you is not as clear as God’s. They can see you and hear you, but they cannot read your thoughts. They can speak into your thoughts if you’re not born-again, but they cannot hear your thoughts. Being born-again provides you protection from “demon voices” through the protective power of God’s Holy Spirit that forms a spiritual firewall around you.
Because the devils don’t actually know your thoughts, you can fool them with your spoken and written words as well as with your actions. God is the only one who has access to your thoughts, so he knows what your real intentions are. But not the devils. You can fool them. Jesus says to be as wise as serpents. Just as the demonic serpents fool mankind, you can and must also fool them. They don’t need to know your thoughts and your plans. Only God needs to know those.
In teaching about the Kingdom, Jesus gave very few of his inner thoughts away to his disciples. Scripture says he did this because he knew what was in their hearts (that is, their thoughts) and also because they could not at the time bear it (that is, understand it or handle the knowledge wisely). Jesus knew the thoughts of others because God told him. God tells us the thoughts of others, too, when we need to know. That is one aspect of private revelation.
If we were more aware of God’s presence in our lives, our choices would likely be godlier. Similarly, if we were more aware of the presence of demonic spirits in our lives, our choices would also likewise be godlier. Having an awareness of constantly being under supernatural surveillance fundamentally changes how we act, speak, and think. Far from being an intrusion, constant surveillance by spiritual forces acts as a safety barrier around our free will. It keeps us from doing, saying, and thinking things that would literally come back to haunt us.
Knowing that God is the only one who can know our unexpressed thoughts is a comfort as well. Our mind is our ultimate safe-space; the world can know everything else about us in relatively intimate detail, even down to our DNA, but it cannot know our thoughts unless we choose to reveal them. Like Jesus, we should hide our thoughts on certain topics and reveal only what God advises. Keeping things just between us and God is another reason why Jesus taught us to pray in our “closets”, not publicly. By spiritual decree, the only one allowed to hear our prayers when we’re in our prayer closet is God, so make sure you take full advantage of that decree.
WHO IS YOUR MOTHER?
DARTMOUTH, Nova Scotia, June 6, 2021 – As was prophesied by Simeon, Jesus caused his mother a lot of heartache.
Jesus didn’t do this on purpose; it was a side-effect of choosing to do his Father’s will rather than the world’s.
We need to be like Jesus in everything we do.
After setting her son on the path to ministry work, Mary got caught up in her motherly instincts and tried to protect Jesus from his enemies (like Peter later did and was called “Satan” for his efforts). This put Mary in direct opposition to Jesus until his resurrection, at which time she turned and became his follower.
In fact, when Jesus asked “Who is my mother? Who are my brethren?… Those who do the will of my Father in Heaven are my brother, sister and mother”, it was in direct reference to Mary and his siblings. He didn’t say this to hurt his family but to show the primacy of the spiritual bond shared by those who do God’s will. Our spiritual brethren are closer to us in kinship than our blood relatives. That’s why ALL (not some, ALL) of the disciples left their blood families, including spouses and children, when they started to follow Jesus. The focus on the blood-relative family that dominates the worldly church is anti-Christ.
Again, we are to follow Jesus in everything we do. We are not to follow the world, even if it calls itself Christian.
It is highly likely that those of you who are genuinely born-again have no born-again blood relatives, or at least none who are still on Earth. Being born-again is a lonely state (or better said, being born-again is an alone state). It puts you in conflict not only with your blood relatives, but also with the world in general. Paul told us to get along as much as possible with everyone, and Jesus said to make friends of the children of mammon so we have a fall-back if we fail, and we’d be wise to follow their advice. But our closest friends cannot be people of the world. That includes members of our family, if they’re not born again.
In any case, if we’re genuine followers of Jesus, people of the world won’t want to be around us. They’ll find any excuse not to be around us. We make their skin crawl, even if we don’t mention God or Jesus. Don’t take it personally (never be offended); it’s a spiritual aversion, not a personal one. Only when they’re on a mission from the devil (and I’m not jesting here) will people of the world seek out our company. Welcome them with the same courtesy and kindness you would anyone else, but be careful not to fall into their trap. If you give into them, you will suffer for it, but so will they for leading you astray.
When Jesus was in his house in Capernaum, Mary came looking for him not to help with his ministry, but to take him home to Nazareth (you know, the place that ran him out of town and tried to kill him). She thought he’d lost his mind in claiming to be the Messiah, and didn’t want him to be arrested. She well knew the penalty for falsely claiming to be the Messiah was death, particularly since the religious powers-that-be at the time were closely aligned with the Roman occupiers and didn’t want to lose their comfortable status quo, even for the genuine King of the Jews.
Mary knew Jesus was special among humans, but she likely considered him to be another prophet, rather than “that Prophet” (as Moses called the Messiah). We shouldn’t fault Mary for this. In most (not all, most) mothers, the instinct to protect their children from harm overrides any other allegiance. Mary was trying to protect Jesus when she came to get him in Capernaum.
We are also guilty, to some extent, of wanting to override God’s Commandments and Jesus’ teachings when it comes to our own loved ones. We don’t want to hurt them. We want to protect them. We tend to see the short-term benefits rather than the long-term ones, the worldly consequences rather than the heavenly ones.
But being a follower of Jesus means that we likely have to turn our backs on our blood relatives, even to the point of not attending our own father’s funeral if it conflicts with God’s will. This is a hard pill for many people to swallow. Worldly Christians will outright refuse, and even born-agains will hesitate and mull it over and maybe ask God if there’s a way around it, a way to compromise that keeps their blood relatives and other loved ones from being hurt. Most times there isn’t: there is only God’s Way or the world’s way.
The parable of the wedding guests is a prime example of people who chose what appears to be good (the world’s way) over what is actually good (God’s Way). The invitees had any number of excuses why they could not attend the feast, all of which in the eyes of the world (and in the eyes of most Christians today) would have been reasonable, such as being on a honeymoon or recently having purchased land or other possessions that needed looking after. How can you argue with the reasonableness of those excuses? And yet Jesus did just that, showing how these people were condemned in God’s eyes for choosing what had value in the world rather than what had value in the Kingdom.
We need always to choose what has value in God’s eyes, even and especially when it conflicts with the world and our loved ones. Jesus didn’t cave to his mother’s pleas to go home to Nazareth; in fact, he dismissed them as inconsequential, just as the invited wedding guests should have dismissed their new wife as inconsequential or their new land as inconsequential, just as Matthew actually did dismiss his tax collector job as inconsequential and Peter his family and fishing business as inconsequential.
All that should matter to us, as born-again believers, is doing God’s will, not the world’s will, and not our family’s will. Yes, you may cause your family some measure of heartache, but the alternative is your eternal damnation. When it comes down to choosing between what pleases God and what pleases your family, always choose to please God, like Jesus did.
Be like Jesus in everything you do.
WHAT DOES YOUR PLACE IN HEAVEN LOOK LIKE?
DARTMOUTH, Nova Scotia, June 6, 2021 – My house in Heaven sits on hundreds of thousands of acres. Yes, that’s right – hundreds of thousands (it’s not a typo). We all get lots of space in Heaven, if that’s what we want.
It’s a small house (a cottage, really), just big enough for my furry little loved ones and I to eat and sleep and hang out, but with enough room for friends to visit, too. And you always get visitors in Heaven. Friends drop by every day, including (on occasion) The Big Guy and His Side-Kick.
I mean God and Jesus (lol).
They have a special room that’s just for them.
Inside the house are all my funny little keepsakes that I’ve loved and cherished over my lifetime. Most of them are no longer on Earth, or if they are, they’re no longer in my possession, but I remember them fondly and I used to mourn them. But now I know that all those things I lost or sold or broke or left behind are in Heaven waiting for me. All of them, and just as I remembered them. This makes me happy, thinking about that. I no longer mourn them, and it’s also easier to let other things go, knowing I’ll have them again someday, and that I’ll always have them from that point onward.
There are no good-byes in Heaven, and no breaking or losing anything. Everything is perfected and remains so for eternity.
Outside on my hundreds of thousands of acres are all the animals I’ve loved and wept over and eaten during my lifetime on Earth. They all get to spend their forever doing whatever makes them happy, and they all get along. No growling in Heaven. The ones I’ve eaten don’t know I’ve eaten them, and neither do I. They only remember the happy times they had on Earth, just like I only remember the happy times. No unhappy memories get into Heaven.
On my hundreds of thousands of acres are also some animals I’ve never actually seen during my time on Earth because they went extinct before I was born. And there are other animals I’ve never even heard of because they don’t exist in the fossil record. Lots of happy surprises in Heaven, for those who want them.
My land in Heaven is made up of all my favourite places and scenery on Earth, along with all my favorite flowers and trees and other plants. My favorite insects are waiting there for me, too. All of my favorite creatures are waiting for me.
Jesus says to store up your treasures in Heaven, and that’s what I’m doing. Storing up happy memories and beautiful scenes. My little slice of Heaven includes parts of the Grand Canyon, the Rockies and the Alps, a bit of the prairies, some forests and ocean cliffs, a stretch of rocky shore, and some coves and beaches. There are even a few islands dotting a handful of lakes. It’s all there waiting for me, all my beloved animals and plants and natural scenery, all in their own places but forming a seamless expanse as far as the eye can see.
In case you’re wondering, yes, I have neighbours in Heaven. We keep a neighbourly distance from each other. Travel options in Heaven are different than on Earth, so vast spaces can be crossed in an instant.
I’m telling you all this because there are so many lies being told on Earth about Heaven and what it looks like. It’s the devil’s job to downplay the wonders of Paradise (don’t get on his case about that; as I said, it’s his job), so we need to go to God directly and ask him ourselves.
Have you asked God yet what your place in Heaven looks like? Have you asked him to show you what’s waiting for you if you make it all the way home? If you haven’t asked God yet, you need to do it. God wants to show you. He’s waiting for you to ask him to show you, so ask him.
That’s how I know about my hundreds of thousands of acres. I asked God, and he showed me, and every day he shows me a little bit more. He’s not going to show me everything (that would ruin the surprise!), but just enough to boost my spirits and remind me what all the trials and tribulations on Earth are for, just enough to remind me what I’m fighting for.
People forget that; they forget that Heaven is the reward we’re striving for. We’re not fighting the good fight just for the sake of fighting; we’re fighting the good fight so we can go home again. I say “again”, because we were all created in Heaven. Our souls were formed in Heaven and we were reborn in the heavenly realms. Our yearning and love for God is in part a yearning and love for Home.
I hope you ask God today to show you what’s stored up in Heaven waiting for you. God wants to show you. He gets really excited when you ask him (the way people on Earth get excited when they’re planning a big surprise for someone they love), so go ahead – ask him. What you see will amaze you and give you the boost you need to keep going. Ask him every day, if you want. God is more than happy to show you. He loves you and he’s storing up everything on Earth that you love, just for you. It’s all waiting for you, if and when you make it Home.
MAKING GOOD USE OF THE WORLD’S BOUNTY
DARTMOUTH, Nova Scotia, June 5, 2021 – God made the world for us.
More specifically, he made it for us to use as a resource.
He didn’t make it for us to exploit, but he also didn’t make it for us to turn into a nature museum or an object of worship.
He made the world for us to use, and he put the world and all its creatures under our stewardship.
He wants us to use the world and its resources wisely.
He doesn’t want us to harm and exploit the world, but he also doesn’t want us to worship it and prevent other people from using it.
I have a big problem with those who exploit nature, but I have just as big a problem with those who worship it and turn land that otherwise would be viable for housing and farming into protected parks.
As Christians, we need to use God’s earthly resources wisely. We should never exploit nature for money or power, but we should also not try to prevent other people from using natural resources to their benefit.
There are more than enough resources for everyone on this planet. The problem is that some people exploit those resources, while others try to prevent the resources from being used. Both approaches are wrong.
God wants us to use the world. He made it for us to use. This includes the resource of human societies. Some Christians are fanatical about rejecting the world, meaning the elements that are manmade, but God also inspired some of those elements to serve as our resources. Like nature, human society is our resource and, like nature, it should be used wisely. But it should be used.
Think of how Jesus lived and moved through the world during his ministry years. He rented rooms and houses, chartered boats, taught at local synagogues, and even preached in the temple in Jerusalem on occasion. He rejected the sin of the world, but he didn’t reject the world’s resources, whether natural or manmade. He knew God had put them there for his use, just as surely as God put the gold coin in the fish’s mouth for him to pay the custom tax.
We are to be in the world, but not of the world. Being in the world means using its resources for our purposes. God wants us to use them and is very generous in providing for us. We do God a great disservice when we, in rejecting the ways of the world, also reject the resources of the world that God has put there for us. We throw out the baby with the bathwater. We shouldn’t do that.
God is beyond generous, even to those who hate him. Don’t reject the gifts he wants to give you through the natural and manmade resources of the world. This includes the gift of meat. Did you know that all the animals you eat have a place Heaven? Don’t feel bad or guilty about eating them. God put certain animals on Earth solely for that purpose. Just do what you can to make sure that they have a good life here (that’s what good stewardship is about) before it’s time for them to go home. To the best of your ability and knowledge, only support farmers who treat their livestock humanely.
Since Adam’s fall, the world has become a breeding ground for sin and is heading for sure destruction. But the world is also a near limitless bounty for those who do God’s will. Jesus showed us how to use the world’s resources, both natural and manmade. He ate well by accepting dinner invitations from the rich, he lived well by letting his female followers minister to his needs, and he dressed well by accepting gifts from his supporters. He didn’t solicit these gifts; he graciously accepted them and made use of them. These are all resources that God put in Jesus’ path to help him in his ministry work.
God knows what we need, and he’s more than willing to provide, as long as we do our part. So do your part in the Kingdom (don’t be spiritually or physically lazy!) and graciously accept God’s gifts that he so wants to give you. Use all of the resources God has put on Earth for your benefit, whether natural or manmade, because anything that benefits you as a born-again believer ultimately benefits God’s Kingdom.
JUST A REMINDER: JESUS HEALS
DARTMOUTH, Nova Scotia, June 4, 2021 – I have stepped back from advising people what to do in certain matters that shall remain nameless here (lest the blog be banned), but other Christians have been quite vocal and even bullying.
I don’t agree with their pushing their point of view on others in this matter.
For Christians, some decisions MUST be made under the advisement of God, not of people, not even of so-called spiritual leaders, and certainly not under the advisement of worldly so-called experts.
Jesus was a healer. Healing was the focus of his ministry work, whether physical healing or spiritual healing. Usually when the spiritual healing was accomplished, the physical healing happened at the same time.
That’s not to say that all physical ills and chronic conditions are a manifestation of sin on a soul, but most are. That being said, I don’t believe in applying factory-made chemicals to heal an illness. I do believe in applying pain relief, though, for some circumstances, knowing that the pain relief is a temporary fix, not a healing. But true healing comes from getting to the root of the problem and dealing with that, not with merely treating symptoms, whether current or anticipated.
There is no instance in scripture where Jesus applied healing to someone who wasn’t sick. He just didn’t do it. Jesus healed only those who presented as sick and were in need of healing, and he trained his disciples to do the same. He never performed preventative healing.
These are my thoughts on the topic that shall remain nameless here. We are to follow Jesus in everything we do. If Jesus didn’t do something that we’re being goaded into doing, then we shouldn’t do it, either.
Again, these are just my thoughts on the matter. In all instances involving life-changing decisions with far-reaching consequences that affect both your life in the world and your life in the Kingdom, you need to take it up with God. But keep in mind that Jesus is your example, if you’re a born-again believer. And Jesus was a healer.
He still is.
PUT DOWN THE PROTEST SIGN AND FOLLOW JESUS!
DARTMOUTH, Nova Scotia, May 30, 2021 – As born-again believers, we are to follow Jesus in everything we do.
This is non-negotiable.
It also means we don’t fight against worldly authorities. Paul says that these authorities are ordained by God, so if we fight against them, we are ultimately fighting against God.
That is not a wise thing to do, especially as born-again believers.
Jesus never fought against worldly authorities. His conflicts were only and exclusively with those who claimed to know God and to be doing God’s will, but were falsely representing both God and his will. These were the religious authorities of the time and also occasionally his own followers. Most of the former rejected his corrections and plotted to kill him, while most of the latter accepted his instruction and learned from it.
Clearly, we are to accept Jesus’ corrective instruction and learn from it.
I mention this issue because many Christian organizations today are taking up worldly arms to fight worldly authorities. If nothing else, this shows them to be the worldly organizations that they are, more concerned with their perceived rights in the world than in their responsibilities to God’s Kingdom. Protests are not gospel teaching and should never be part of a born-again believer’s life. Neither should we sign petitions or in any way try to interfere with the administration of worldly justice. Let the world be. Jesus did. He said that his kingdom is not of this world, and his sole focus and concern was his kingdom.
We are to be in the world, not of the world.
However, if God sends the hungry to you and tells you to feed them, feed them.
If God sends the naked to you and tells you to clothe them, clothe them.
If God sends the homeless to you and tells you to house them, house them.
If God sends the sick to you and tells you to heal them, heal them.
But don’t go looking for people to feed and clothe and house and heal. That is not your job. Deal with the needs of the kingdom, providing help only to those God specifically puts in your path and asks you to help. He won’t bless your shoot-wide, one-size-fits-all “charitable” efforts.
One of the worst features of worldly Christianity is do-gooders forcing their help on people who don’t want their help, including spiritual help. More damage has been done to the gospel message by Christian do-gooders than by the whole host of Hell’s demons combined. Worldly Christians truly are their own worst enemies.
They’re also ours.
Even so, if a worldly authority commands you to do something against the gospel teachings, you don’t have to comply. But you also shouldn’t organize a protest or splash your grievance across social media with a gofundme page. You just don’t comply. You find a work-around. Your non-compliance should be a secret between you and God, not a grandstanding position between you and the world.
God will always find a way out for you. Exemptions will be made. A door may close, but a window will open.
What the devil intends for your harm, God will turn around for your benefit, if you go to God for justice, not to the world.
When the decree went out from Herod to kill all children aged 2 and under in Bethlehem and surrounding regions, God had Joseph take Mary and Jesus and flee to Egypt.
God will always find a way out for you.
When Jesus was under threat of death in certain areas where he was preaching, God had him move to other areas where he could safely continue his ministry work.
God will always find a way out for you.
When the early church was under severe persecution, God had his believers flee to safe havens or go underground.
God will always find a way out for you.
But don’t protest. Don’t sign petitions. Don’t march in the streets. Don’t go onto social media to air your grievance. And don’t hire a lawyer. Take whatever is oppressing you to God, and GOD WILL FIND A WAY OUT FOR YOU.
It’s his promise to his people, and especially to his born-again children.
Let the world be, and follow Jesus in everything you do.
FINDING YOUR SPIRITUAL BALLS
DARTMOUTH, Nova Scotia, May 28, 2021 – Volcanoes don’t start out as mountains. They begin as holes punched through the earth’s surface by steam and lava rising from deep within. Over time, the space around the hole grows higher and higher until a majestic mountain forms, like Mount Sinai.
Volcanoes are built by this process. It’s how they exist.
I mention this because volcanoes and humans have more in common than you may think. Like volcanoes, we’re built emotionally to let off steam, boil over, and occasionally erupt. Even born-again followers of Jesus have this inbuilt nature, with Jesus himself demonstrating it on occasion. Sometimes he steamed, sometimes he boiled over, and sometimes he ferociously erupted.
He expects us to do the same.
The traditional notion of “being Christian”, however, does not condone intense emotional displays. We’re taught to take it all with a smile, turn the other cheek, never get offended, and love our enemies. All of this can and should be done by the power of God’s Holy Spirit and needs to be our everyday playbook, almost without exception. But every now and then even God’s Spirit reaches his limit, and a simmering boil turns into a full-blown holy rage.
These blow-outs are not failures on our part. On the contrary, they’re what build, strengthen, and define us as Christians. God’s righteous anger forms the backbone of the Old Testament, and Jesus himself famously demonstrated righteous anger when he overturned the money-changers’ tables and whipped the offenders out of the temple. That spectacular emotional eruption still rumbles through the ages.
Humans have been made to let off steam and sometimes rise to a boil. As born-again Christians, we can call on God’s guidance to show us the appropriate level of response at any given time. But every once in a while the whole process gets thrown overboard, and before we know it, we’re in the midst of a major and unstoppable eruption.
God tells me he calls this “finding your spiritual balls”.
I’m thinking that most of you reading this know what I’m talking about. It’s like you’ve jumped onto train going full speed down the track, with no brakes in sight. Something takes over you, and you let ‘er rip.
It’s a wonder to behold!
I don’t believe you can be truly Christian until you’ve found your spiritual balls. The more “meek and mild” you are in dealing with the world and its atrocities, the more you need to occasionally erupt in a spectacular display. God didn’t make his children to be bent over in submission. He made us to stand tall. In fact, one of the first directives God gave me the day I was born-again was to stand up and look up.
I’ve been standing up and looking up ever since.
When we find our spiritual balls – that is, when we let God work through us in righteous anger – we become a formidable spiritual force of nature. Like a grizzly bear rearing up on its hind legs and roaring a warning to its adversary, we are our enemies’ worst nightmare. Volcanic eruptions are meant to invoke fear so that anyone in the area will flee; emotional eruptions by the power of God’s Holy Spirit are meant to invoke holy fear and bring spiritual correction.
Like Jesus, we need to allow God to work through us in righteous anger. It’s part of what it means to be Christian. In so doing, we become participants in God’s corrective justice, partnering with God through his Holy Spirit to bring restoration and healing.
We also get the chance to find our spiritual balls.
And when you’ve found them, you’d better hang onto them, because you’re going to need them for what’s coming.
Oh, that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence,
As when the melting fire burneth, the fire causeth the waters to boil, to make thy name known to thine adversaries, that the nations may tremble at thy presence!
Isaiah 64:1-2
WHAT IS THE PATIENCE OF THE SAINTS, AND DO YOU HAVE IT?
DARTMOUTH, Nova Scotia, May 12, 2021 – Most of us remember, as children, being told to be patient. That was the signal that we had to reign in our excitement and “settle down”. We had to sit still and wait, and then wait some more. We had to put our excitement on hold.
Told this enough times, we came to see patience as something that got between us and what we wanted. We started to see patience as our enemy. We didn’t want to be patient; we wanted what we wanted, and we wanted it right now.
Fast forward to today, to our born-again adult selves. Yet again we are being told to be patient, but this time by scripture. As followers of Jesus, we are to be patient in suffering and to have the patience of the saints, because in our patience (we’re told) we possess our souls.
Patience is the unsexy eldest daughter of the virtue family. She’s the plain one who sits in the corner by herself at parties, hair tied back, no make-up, and no skin showing below the chin. Patience is not the one you automatically gravitate toward. She’s easy to overlook and in fact prefers it that way. She just sits there quietly and waits.
When Jesus first appeared on the scene 2000 years ago, he was likewise unassuming. Instead of a wealthy charismatic military leader of noble birth, Jesus was a humble and (mostly) quietly-spoken carpenter, the son of a carpenter. In fact, he was so unlike what people expected the Messiah to be that nearly everyone rejected him for that very reason. But Jesus, as we now know, was very much the Messiah and had the power, under his unassuming exterior, to change all things for all time.
Patience is similarly underestimated.
There’s a part of us (our inner five-year-old) that squirms when we’re told to have patience, even when it’s God and Jesus telling us. But what exactly do they mean when they talk about patience? Is it the same dreaded patience our parents told us to have when we were children, or do God and Jesus mean something else?
I believe the patience spoken about in scripture is something quite different. Yes, it does include the element of waiting, but more importantly it signifies our unwavering and unconditional commitment to God. The patience that God and Jesus want us to practice as their saints is this: standing firm in God’s Commandments as a follower of Jesus, and refusing to budge, no matter what.
If we practice this kind of patience, we will endure to the end, and Jesus said we need to endure to the end to be saved. We’re not saved just by being born-again; we’re saved by being born-again AND enduring to the end. But we’re not going to be able to endure unless we practice the patience of the saints by refusing to compromise our loyalty to God. If we practice this kind of patience, we’ll keep our soul.
So Patience, far from being the wallflower of the party, is actually the guest of honor. Patience is the one holding it all together, even if her understated appearance and murky reputation are misleading. Jesus was the same during his time on Earth – understated and misinterpreted, but still the very Lion of the tribe of Judah and God’s one and only Messiah.
My grandmother used to say: “Appearances are deceiving”. The patience we need to practice as born-again believers is not the same patience we hated as children. If we are to be saved, we must stand firm and we must stand strong, knowing that Jesus is standing with us.
And we must never exchange our souls for anything.
That, my friends, is the patience of the saints.
Do you have it?
THE SCAM OF FAUX PERSECUTION
DARTMOUTH, Nova Scotia, May 10, 2021 – Another day in Lockdownland (formerly known as Canada), and yet another slew of pastors arrested for defying attendance restrictions at their churches.
Note that these pastors aren’t being arrested for preaching the Word. If they were being arrested for preaching the Word, I’d be supporting them. But they’re allowed to preach the Word. No-one’s stopping them. Christianity is not outlawed in Canada. The Bible isn’t banned.
No, these pastors are being arrested for the very unsexy and worldly crime of violating attendance restrictions. There is absolutely no persecution involved whatsoever. They’re being arrested as anyone else would be arrested for doing the same thing at any other kind of building within the restriction zone.
There is no persecution involved. Zero persecution. If a daycare were to open under the same attendance restrictions and the daycare workers arrested, could they claim persecution? Of course not. And neither should any of these arrested pastors.
Frankly, these guys (and they’re all guys, from what I’ve seen) are just being drama queens. They’re not fighting for freedom of assembly or freedom of religion, and they’re not achieving anything other than this: bringing donations to their organizations.
Scratch an arrested pastor and I guarantee you’ll find, just under the surface, a fund soliciting donations.
Faux persecution is big bucks these days. It’s bringing lots of money into the coffers of the affected churches.
I’m past disgusted with this and all the gullible so-called Christians who are supporting it.
This is not about freedom of religion. This is not about persecution. It’s about purposely and flagrantly violating an attendance restriction that everyone in the community has to abide by and could be worked around if the pastors were operating in good faith.
But clearly they’re not.
Jesus NEVER did what these pastors are doing. When Jesus was threatened with arrest for preaching the Word (that is, when he was actually being persecuted), he went somewhere else. He also advised his followers to go somewhere else, if the Word was not welcome. There is nothing in the gospel showing followers of Jesus defying worldly powers and allowing themselves to be arrested for violating a restriction that has nothing to do with preaching the Word.
Christians are supposed to follow Jesus in everything they do. He never protested and he never purposely opposed worldly powers. The pastors getting themselves arrested are not following Jesus and are leading their flocks astray. They’re also sowing enmity between Christians and the greater community, as the greater community sees the violation of restrictions as endangering their health and safety. This is not something Jesus did or would condone. This is anti-Christ behavior.
The pastors need to stop their shenanigans and get back to the job of following Jesus and preaching the Word, in whatever way they can, working either within or around the restrictions (not opposing them). And every penny that they’ve collected during their faux persecution campaigns they need to return with an apology.
I am past disgusted with the worldly church. There is precious little of Jesus in anything they do. They are giving God and Jesus a bad name, and in the process paving the way for real persecution of real Christians in the near future.
These are the modern-day Scribes and Pharisees and Sadducees.
These are the modern-day Judases.
Their organizations are rotten to the core.
If you’re attending one of these worldly churches, get out while you still can. There is nothing to be gained and everything to be lost by staying in them.
“Come out of her, my people!”
LET THEM GO
DARTMOUTH, Nova Scotia, May 7, 2021 – When I was an atheist, I had occasion to be at a location in Toronto that was the site of constant protests. It was an alleyway sandwiched between two rows of low buildings. On the day that I attended the location for a certain medical procedure, I was confronted by a Christian minister while trying to push past chanting protesters to get to a back gate.
“You’ll burn in Hell!” was how the minister greeted me as he blocked my path and waved a pamphlet in my face. I responded with words that I won’t print here; his reply to my curses was to curse back at me and lunge closer. “THERE’S NO HOPE FOR YOU IF YOU GO THROUGH THAT GATE!” he roared. I got a good look at his face while he was shouting at me. It was red with fury, but his eyes were dead cold. This to me at the time was the face of Christianity.
Ten years later I was born-again. The Jesus I came to know as a born-again believer was nothing like the minister who screamed and lunged at me in the back alley. I vowed never to be like that hate-filled man in my dealings with unbelievers.
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Scripture is clear that most people are on the broad path and very, very few are on the narrow one. Scripture is also clear that people are on the broad path because they want to be. No-one forced them onto it. They are there because they want to be. I was an atheist because I wanted to be. The last thing I wanted as an atheist was to be a Christian.
Another way to look at it is that even knowing about the narrow path, most people don’t want to be on it. It is their free will choice to be on the broad path. God permits them their choice because he respects their right to choose. He doesn’t agree with their choice, but he respects their right to choose.
We need to do the same.
Jesus didn’t bang his head against the wall of unbelief.
He didn’t preach to unbelievers.
He didn’t scream and lunge at unbelievers, even those he thought might be condemned.
He let them go, just as he let those who no longer wanted to follow him go.
Even knowing years in advance that Judas Iscariot would betray him, Jesus didn’t try to talk him out of it. He was kind to Judas and treated him no differently than the other disciples. Even knowing that Judas had chosen against him, Jesus let him go.
We need to follow Jesus in everything we do, including letting those who want nothing to do with Jesus go. Just let them go. The same for people who once said they believed but have fallen away. Just let them go. The falling away was foretold in scripture, as was Judas’s betrayal, and Jesus says scripture cannot be undone.
We born-agains need to turn our attention instead to our own people, to born-agains who love God and follow Jesus. Time is short: We need to strengthen and encourage each other and let the rest go. Jesus said he didn’t come into the world to save the world but to minister to those who are his in the world. Most people in the world want nothing to do with Jesus; most of the people are of their own free will on the broad path, so let them go. Most Christians want nothing to do with God’s Commandments, so let them go, too. They are no longer our responsibility. They have made their choice. Respect their right to choose (like God does) and let them go.
But we are still to treat others as we want to be treated, whether they are believers or not. This command does not change.
So be kind to unbelievers and those who have fallen away. The time they have now is the best they will ever have. There is no promise of Paradise for them when they die. Be kind to them, knowing what awaits them. They are beyond your prayers, but you can still be kind to them.
“Love your enemies” is not just a catchy campaign slogan for God’s Kingdom.
It’s a Commandment.
A BORN-AGAIN BELIEVER 