Author: eejoseph

Faking it

eejoseph

“Those who hate the Lord would pretend obedience to Him, And their time of punishment would be forever.

Psalms 81:15 (NASB)

Sometimes we add words to the primary report or saying hoping to bring out important aspects of meaning.  This verse illustrates the unnecessary addition of “obedience”.  Since God cannot be deceived  faking it with

God’s enemies are all over the world, including ancient Israel.  Ignorance about what Yahweh had done was not a Gentile thing.  Apparently,  noble people can snap in a trice, making up their own version of the facts.  Sarah, mother of the Hebrew people did it and some prophets were known  to manipulate the truth.

You did.  I did not.  Dos too.

Sarah denied it however, saying, “I did not laugh”; for she was afraid. And He said, “No, but you did laugh.”

Genesis 18:15

Also it will come about in that day that the prophets will each be ashamed of his vision when he prophesies, and they will not put on a hairy robe in order to deceive;

Zechariah 13:4

I do not mind saying that the King James translation is off target.  It addresses neither the Hebrew kachash nor the Septuagint’s pseudomai.  Both mean to misrepresent.  Misrepresentation can be carefully crafted narratives or calculated to mislead.  There is the widespread fact that people in New Testament times were in the grip of stories that had circulated from antiquity.  See what Peter and Paul say about this.

For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty.

2 Peter 1:16


7. But have nothing to do with worldly fables fit only for old women. On the other hand, discipline yourself for the purpose of godliness; 8. for bodily discipline is only of little profit, but godliness is profitable for all things, since it holds promise for the present life and also for the life to come.

1 Timothy 4:7-8

There is also faking it by planning the answer to an embarrassing question. When the people in charge of the temple in Jerusalem decided to challenge Yeshua’s authority he asked him about John the Baptist’s authority. They, realizing that he had them between a rock and a hard place, plotted what they we going to say.  See the “faking it” play out in Matthew 21:23ff

I lie contrary to one or several divine commands, but lying to God never gets off the ground.   Two weighty matters emerge from this saying in Psalm 81.  None of them appears to be lying, even though the people as a whole have falsified their experience with Yahweh.  They are slow to admit that they had consistently rejected what Yahweh had to say.  There was no truth between Yahweh and his people.  Eternal punishment is not for merely telling lies but for being duplicitous in attitude, word, and deed. Being a friend of God calls for brutal authenticity which has no faking in it.

Just saying no is not against the vaccine

eejoseph

“No” no longer means “no” as long as a whataboutism is available. It is eyeopening that actively protesting mandatory procedures just became popular when our morality has revolved for centuries around an activity-free agenda.

Is that like a Black  motorist answering the question when pulled over by a cop?

The cop will either “serve” – (say this first) or oppress you. You won’t need to say the second. Things will unfold as programmed.

Where were these concerned citizens when our leaders over the last century were destroying young lives with copycat financial and drug polices. Since when did Caribbean thought leaders support human rights. I guess they can’t shake copying the use of a popular soundbyte, “projecting the rights of victims and oppressors”. What other mandated life-saving or lifestyle processes are they going to protest?

Island covid-19 spike

eejoseph

It is ominous development when an island state reports a peaking number of virus cases at this stage of the pandemic. Some regions of the world will suffer worse than Italy and the Brazil, not because of anti-vax sentiment and activism. Many more thousands are being sentenced by business-friendly politicians to death. They have been in a hurry to be “open for business” from the time the first measures against the virus were taken.

Hawaii has just reported upwards of 500 new cases, a record for the island state. If an isolated island can experience such a downturn where do crowded and connected jurisdictions like Los Angeles or Montreal stand?

Woe to those who think opening up for business with mere lipservice regard for virus control statistics is a humane policy.

Kid no mo’

eejoseph

Genocide is assumed to be the most heinous crime. I have always thought that Britain and Spain have to pay for the tribes they have made disappear. Some islands in the Caribbean have no First Nations left and those powers think they can just apologize and life goes on merrily. Kid us no more. The continuing disappearance of Canada’s First Nations women and children will not be adequately addressed if the Vatican apologizes to the First Nations of Canada and faces no day in court. Please, kid us no more!

The kidding about western or eastern goodness must end

Pol Pot, the PRC, a host of ancient empires, and all those kingdoms who have made large groups disappear without having to answer to the human collective have no lucky stars to thank. The modern homicidal ventures only get more press and no one but the utterly corrupt will find reasons to make genocide palatable. A day of reckoning is dawning. The sea is revealing its homicide secrets as predicted.

Our morality had better be consistent with the supreme powers of the justice of the cross. We had better work hard on this opportunity to love mercy, execute justice, and walk humbly. Governments will never be bastions of grace, mercy, and justice, but people who are can influence government to recognize that people – all people deserve a lot more dignity. What is going to happen in the Roman Catholic Church as a response to its involvement in genocidal activities is a matter for a more profound reflection on what it means to be servants of Light, champions of education and conscientious citizens contributing to solving social issues. Let’s pray and work for a brighter day. Kid us no more!

Is champion hero Simone Biles being extorted?

eejoseph

We may find out that our Olympian warrior and artist is a victim of greed and jealousy. I have little means to investigate cyber assaults and extortion, but I can pray.

Let us pray that Miss Biles continues to a glorious end of her sporting career and loses none of her humanity. Let us dare to dream that she recaptures anything lost in her highly focused development as a world class gymnast.

Lodging in a desert

eejoseph

God’s servants often need a place of solace and rest. Rest for the eyes from viewing the desolation and corruption of the sacred treasures and rest for the mind from the anxieties of ordinary life was going to inevitably be a . Examples of this appear in the life of Yeshua with his need for undistracted prayer time, but it is Yohan the Baptist who seems, more than any, to have chosen to live in a desert, and it was not in pursuit of the nomad heritage in Israelite culture. David’s longings in one of his maskils – Psalm 55 – seems to have found a place in New Testament times with the Baptist’s flight from society.

(6) I said, “Oh, that I had wings like a dove! I would fly away and be at rest. (7) “Behold, I would wander far away, I would lodge (Hebrew lun) in the wilderness. (8) “I would hasten to my place of refuge from the stormy wind and tempest.”

Psalms 55:6-8

If one is tempted to think that Yohan had a sheltered life in Elizabeth and Zechariah’s home then the facts about Aaronic families should help. There is no question that Zechariah was vigorously training his son to become a priest. It is what they do. At some point Yohan had to say “Enough of this priesthood prep!” He fled not only his parents’ home, he put distance betwen himself and society. There was no chance of him becoming a priest.

Yeshua and the desert

Although LUN (לון) is used for overnight stays God’s messenger made the desert his home.

The holy city was not in Yohan’s days a place of refuge for God’s servants and certainly not for Messiah’s messenger. Let’s make sure we know our desert place and its potential to provide for rest and refuge apart from family and culture.

Mammon’s mediocre madness

eejoseph

We know that many public figures are clanging cymbals and noisy drums, but that reality had not seized us until modern politics began to do what ancient religions have done with no redemption in sight then or now. Mediocrity is the fool’s gold.

It does not have to be written anywhere. The facts about our evaluation of success still revolve around Mammon and are out in the open. Academic degrees (especially the ones that omit biblical literacy), business acumen, and alliances with failed states, and real estate are the evidence that mediocrity is the pearl of great price for many of our leaders.

Does a man serving the God and Father of Yeshua the Messiah evaluate a modern nation or its beneficiaries by consumer affairs? There would seem to be no line between God and Mammon.

Junk is a flag flying high in the night

eejoseph

There is little doubt that cliches appealing to our lowest desires fill the sky where we should see the unique message of “Sins Forgiven”.   When Peter said in Acts 2:38, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit” he was shaping the gospel shout out.  We do well to stay close to this man’s example.  One does have to imagine a very different world if this verse had to be interpreted in ways that set the kingdom challenge as low as it could be: shining the spotlight on food and drink and temporary things. 

Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the healing  of your diseases, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the filling  of your wallet, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the correction  of your diet, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the enhancement  of your marriage, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Junk’s smoking gun

The burdens of conforming in order to follow ought to disappear if people have been thinking that they respond – He is always speaking – to God ‘s offer to change their status in the world. There is no precedent for the merchandizing pattern thart modern Christians have overlayed Just suppose Peter meant to say…

Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the cessation of personal sin, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The conmen in the back alleys of church life will continue to flash their Moses dealership card and engage in gluing Christ to dealing with sin, but the Saviour only pardons sins. He uses neither sin detectors nor vaccinations against sin. Why would God bother to pardon any sin at all if His Main Messenger is going to keep using the tools of what is obviously a sin ministry?

When blood loses its efficacy

but if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.

1 John 1:7

It is not just misguided responders like the prosperity preachers, the possibility thinkers, the “word of faith” crew, who are contributing to our junky skies. You just try finding a church with a humble student of the word of God as its pastor. You just try finding a pastor who does not think his nation is a copy of Israel or Judah. Just try finding a faith community (denomination) that does not put its own literature up on the mantle with the writings of the Mosaic tradition and the writings of the eyewitnesses of Messiah and their immediate disciples. Those writings cannot be trusted; not as long as we have access to the unique and exclusive documents of our Messianic heritage. The difference betwen junk and treasure cannot be clearer.