Gifts galore and giving gifts

eejoseph, ,

Some gifts do not deserve the name. Others mark a person in ways one cannot explain. The intrinsic value of gifts must be measured by the source and the receipt.  Only the most twisted or damaged personalities customarily reject gifts.  Today the things I call gifts are not things at all.  They are people.  All give and sputter. Supposing one gave and never stops giving, would it be time to stop living? Giving perpetually without strings is diagnostically divine.

Gift glut and glitching generosity

Your parents may have passed off the stage of life but from time to time something they passed on to you comes in handy and supremely effective.  It seems that people are needing bigger barns for all the gifts we receive; gifts from the home circle, from school, from friends, from the workplace, and from random strangers who have taken notice of us. The numerous gifts in our experience may cause us to think that generosity is mounting, that would be an illusion. Society is so fragmented and siloed that interactions that would have been the agency of generosity and love are fewer.  Genuine gift giving is rare and still needed.

The everready gift that keeps giving

In our world where buy and sell,  glorified consumerism, and law and order are quick and easy gotos, the things that are permanent and infinite get graded C, D, and F. You ask someone about the morality and they give you the Ten Commandments.  You can also discuss salvation with someone and you’d be surprised at how often people will deny that they are saved.  There are people who actually prefer living in terror of losing their way, and are convinced that they get baptized by the Holy Spirit every day, and can be born again every day.

Deniers of the truth

This is what happens when people replace the Christ of  Calvary with their own message, a time-bound doctrine, or even a divine promise. I think we can agree that the truth for Christians will always be tethered to the elevated Christ. They will never say that God has saved them. They deny the truth of their conversion,  their passing from death to life, and the receipt of the Holy Spirit as down payment of the future inheritance.  They deny Jesus the outcome of his offer. 

Belief is not works

Whether we need to be saved from our sin, or whether we need the necessary maintenance of our salvation from sin, it is the Christ who is lifted up who is the remedy. Imagine that God needs to test you after he gives you repentance, gives you faith, pardons all your sin, makes sure his child, and gives you an appointment to serve. Then imagine that God sets you adrift and requires you to finish what he started on your own. That horror house is where many Christians live. 

So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both to will and to work for His good pleasure. (Philippians 2:12-13)

My fear and my trembling is God at work!

Affirming from antiquity that God fights for his people, he saves them, he keeps them, and he brings them to fulfillment, we find.

Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain. (Psalms 127:1)

Let’s get our fasting act together

eejoseph, ,

Have you been telling yourself that you have a full slate of victories, are so soulfully graced that you have not a single request to Almighty God?  That’s not happening, right? Still, we truly find ourselves bent out of shape often enough to want to do something about it.  Fasting has become a primary rallying point for many believers, providing a fellowship opportunity, a smoother of rough spots, and a panacea for a host of human problems.

Fixing the bends

Suppose the things we needed to do were aligned with the simplest and delightful human routines like feeding ourselves and doing something for others, would we have genuine access to that fabled victorious life?  Yes, if fasting is a means of getting God’s attention.  But all the fasting to cast out demons, fasting to counteract the influence of evil, and fasting to bridge the gap between our diligence and our mediocre efforts. Fasting for spiritual revival and physical fitness are probably driving by you right now, but we must ask why we still have so many hurdles to overcome.

Upping the game of effective feeding and fasting

We fast every day quite naturally, between each meal.  If we followed the conventions and the elementary constrictions of nutrition and energy we might find ourselves doing what we do for machines.

  1. Loading up on fuel before we work
  2. Take on only the amount of  fuel we need on a daily basis
  3. Using the energy to serve others
  4. Running regular maintenance routines

We can sum up these as eat measured amounts, be active, and rest.   The only thing missing from a vibrant life with those priorities is feeding on God’s word.  If that were prioritized perhaps we would not need an emergency approach to fasting. there is less effective feeding on God’s word per believer.

Let us recognize that there is a famine for the word of God. There is increasingly less effective feeding on God’s word per believer.  How many demons have you seen expelled by fasting and prayer? How many people have been healed of cancer because of fasting in prayer? The testimonies about victories achieved, all the jobs acquired, the perplexities smoothed over by fasting and prayer are many.

If you are not feasting you are fasting

Fasting has become a fad, offering people physical and spiritual advancement and progress. The physical benefits of fasting are unmistakable, and the average person, though he fasts every single day, is not benefitted by his fasting because his feasting is dysfunctional. We have lost sight of the permanence of feeding on God’s word.

The juvenile vs the mature

If no one needs commands to eat to live why are commands (invitations?) being issued to fast to die?  Sure enough, both feeding and fasting support life, but no feeding leads to death.  Let’s recognize that fasting and feeding are natural phenomena.  Mature Christians live on a faith highway.  It is completely satisfying to God that people in the Way believe, pray and lovingly serve others.  The same highway – faith – brings solutions to problems, spreads goodness and keeps the believer safe.  It is juvenile to live under a host

You have fasted without feasting on God’s word and expect to live. By God’s word I mean the life giving example of Christ and his verbal wisdom. Surely there should be no confusion about Christ as example and instructor. So let’s approach our daily food understanding that a fast will follow, and understanding that in that fasting we need to create profound feeding opportunities.

Foreground and background things for fun

eejoseph,

List five things you do for fun.

  • I cook for my family.
  • I create eye-opening songs,
  • I read the Bible like a scientist tracking DNA for clues how lift people higher.

In the background, mentally and spiritually:

  • I keep a youthful outlook on life,
  • I keep my sanity by letting a day go by just to see what would happen, and
  • I call up my personal mantra often, “light up the world with love”  (I have several versions of my mantra, but this one is the most satisfying)

Straight path confusion  – says who?

eejoseph,

Clarity is knowing that you know and that nothing is outside of God’s goodness net. Sometimes we find an expression that evokes a sigh or a bewilderment so profound one asks “says who?”

Qur’an, Hud (11:56) إِنِّى تَوَكَّلْتُ عَلَى ٱللَّهِ رَبِّى وَرَبِّكُم ۚ مَّا مِن دَآبَّةٍ إِلَّا هُوَ ءَاخِذٌۢ بِنَاصِيَتِهَآ ۚ إِنَّ رَبِّى عَلَىٰ صِرَٰطٍۢ مُّسْتَقِيمٍۢ ٥٦I

The God of the Bible has his ways, entirely different to ours. His thoughts are not our thoughts, and yet what he shares with us is consistent with his ways and his primary thoughts towards us.   He makes paths for us to walk, and he allows us to make paths for our feet, crooked or straight. We should not however confuse unbending with constricted, straight with strait.

‘For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. (Jeremiah 29:11)

Why the Islamic deity is on a straight path is beyond me.

Indeed, I have relied upon Allāh, my Lord and your Lord. There is no creature but that He holds it by its forelock [i.e., controls it]. Indeed, my Lord is on a path [that is] straight.— Saheeh International

The straight path in both the Law and the Gospel is the path assigned  for humanity. Even when the Word of God was made flesh, he was not on the same path as those that were following him. The confusion is deafening, and that does not even address who the speaker is in that verse.

For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9)

On the roads we tread, long, short, winding, upwards or downwards God says he has us. On the mountain or in the valley, our God has us.

Here today, gone tomorrow

eejoseph,

The most beautiful things on the planet are not lasting, like a flower, and Peter the Apostle of Jesus Christ was onto this. He was not the first to have seen this surprising fact.

Here is Job saying. “Like a flower he comes forth and withers. He also flees like a shadow and does not remain. (Job 14:2)

Here’s the famous songwriter David singing it.  As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. (Psalms 103:15)

Here is the prophet Isaiah making the glory of men like a flower.  Woe to the proud crown of the drunkards of Ephraim, And to the fading flower of its glorious beauty, Which is at the head of the fertile valley Of those who are overcome with wine! (Isaiah 28:1)

Where is James, a contemporary of peter, saying the same thing. and the rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. (James 1:10)

Pretty flowers, attractive humans, amazing cities and high-priced purchases kick the bucket. So what is really important in life? God’s word, and for most spiritual seekers that means secret writings that have been treated as reliable for Millenia.

For, “All flesh is like grass, And all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, And the flower falls off, (1 Peter 1:24)

What are you going to do without God’s word.  That is like a baby surviving without mother’s milk.

Meet him now and then

eejoseph

Do you know the story of this picture below?

Everybody ought to know

How you can meet him now so you can meet him later

  • Read and Believe
  • Visit a church in your neighborhood
  • In your quiet moments CALL ON GOD FOR HELP

You can begin reading the Bible

Therefore when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. (John 19:30)

https://www.bible.com/bible/111/JHN.19.30

Random line from the Bible

eejoseph

Jeremiah 15:1

Then said the Lord unto me, Though Moses and Samuel stood before me, yet my mind could not be toward this people: cast them out of my sight, and let them go forth.

Some people think they can just spin up a prophet and all of a sudden have God’s favour.  The people of the kingdoms of Judah and Israel thought they could. The outcome is an open secret.

Others try to create the impression but they are committed to toeing the line, convince themselves that they have climbed the highest hill,  and are thriving in the lowest valley, while in fact everything about them is mediocre.  Know a guy like that? Know some folks like that?

Listen to me, then read your Bible

God impressed Jeremiah that even if the greatest prophets of Israel’s history, Moses and Samuel, were mediators on behalf of Jeremiah’s people, there would be no favour. God’s response would be, “Out of my sight; get them out of here”. I do not know that either Moses or Samuel stood before Yahweh as mediators, but I do know that twice they were “out of there”  and “out of sight”

Navigating the path of authorized crime a la Maro Lago

eejoseph,

Jan 7, 2026

If you thought you could confidently scan the news without being led down a rabbit hole I caution you to think again.  The DOJ of the United States of America is rapidly throwing off the demands of truth, impartiality and service to the people. Departments of Justice in Islamic-majority nations have been touting the effectiveness of harsh and unequal justice as the best examples of civic society.  The global   climate crisis is a near perfect parallel to the descent into undisguised bigotry, intelligence famine, and sheer roguishness.  How safe the world is when felons and indicted despots are in charge of our consumption of news has to be

Illegal criminals – the new America target

You can be sure that the goal of apprehending criminals has taken a nosedive when a band of brats are pardoned by the head of state, but you will be wringing your hands when you realize that rich criminal enterprise is now legal. Where on earth does a convicted felon buy election to the highest office and where do criminals come in legal and illegal versions.  You got it: Kristi Noem’s spacious skies.

Criminalizing the truth

The US DOJ is headed by a person who says that the department is committed to pursuing (my word) illegal criminals.  This was last heard – by me and I assume millions of news consumers – at a news conference where the department was briefing the public about the fatal shooting of a presumed unarmed motorist.  My mind tried immediately to grasp the full implication of “illegal criminals”. Of all the things that criminals could be I had to be sure.

  • Alleged
  • Accused
  • Indicted
  • Convicted
  • Pardoned
  • Exonerated

It is quite obvious that Americans believe in legal crime.  Armed and hooded bands have terrorized people for centuries.  Prospective homeowners have been denied access to homes and property by the use of secret codes, and the Supreme Court has put the president above the law with its ruling that he cannot be charged with a crime for the (presumed) exercise of official duties.  The current occupant of the executive mansion interprets that to mean “I can do whatever I want”.  The people seem to have bought the wink and nudge. They elected a convicted felon as president. Illegal criminals are, for now, (1) poor people who pay more taxes than the rich, migrant workers, (2) religious leaders who scam and steal from the public, and (3) politicians who tell the truth about the American constitution and dreams of the Founding Fathers. 

Criminal Crime fighters

We can all see that there is a legal criminal in the executive mansion, a band of legal criminals trying to keep a fatally wounded Republican Party alive with leeches, tourniquets, spells and incantations. We all can see that it is now legal for anyone to broadcast lies and hide behind the right of free speech. There are a lot of legal criminals in the world today.  Look at the friends of the current American administration and you will get the picture, in black and white, in New and Gentile, in despots and liberators, and in God and idols.  Added to the hazard of news and information consumption is the explicit muzzling of news organizations and individual agents who the public have trusted for decades.

When people have to filter what they want to say through what the government line is they are definitely applying to be legal criminals. Think before you illegally steal your right to reject MAGA, and all the religions of our brief stay on earth.