As one familiar with the unvarnished and aware of the tarnished I urge you to test every spirit (that means every entity).
Trust but verify
Author: eejoseph
The Great Love
By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.” Jn 13:35
Some say that this identification is not enough. I suppose that in their book “love is NOT the greatest thing”.
Isn’t that like dumping the cross?
Doesnt that leave one wounded and bleeding, heading upcreek without a paddle?
Since “The whole of man is fearing God and doing what we are told” (Ecc. 12:13) the example that of doing God’s will that permeates the spiritual world is the Word of God becoming human so he could give his life as a ransom. One act of love by God illustrates his expectation and execution.
We who tell people to be obedient to the law or God or parents do we have a record of compliance? Isn’t there a whole lot of blasphemy, childish folly, and idolatry in our history? Isn’t there enough evidence to plug our trashy megaphones?
Nay-sayers and evildoers
Romans 2:21-23
21. you, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that one shall not steal, do you steal? 22. You who say that one should not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? 23. You who boast in the Law, through your breaking the Law, do you dishonor God?
When God’s love touches us on the inside we love people without distinction.
You, Canadian Taliban, do not allow a woman!
I have never believed that women are somehow inferior or inadequate (lacking the capacity) to lead. My God, you Euro-American Taliban, I have a mother who knew sonething about Bible power. She could read it. She understood it. She taught me to read it. I have not gotten past “If any person (tis, τις) desires the office of bishop…” being treated as “if one of the boys wants to be a bishop…”, or how mothers can excel at home in nurturing and training both boys and girls to follow the Saviour. Paul’s message to Timothy about the quest for bishop’s office is a great eyeopener but it takes a less than thoughtful apostle or prophet to put up road blocks to the usefulness of women in church.
Focus on the function of the word
The Bible was not written for men. Forget that junk. Its message for the human race in every era never settles for the theory that males are the only heroes of faith. Take another look, please. Dare we say that God wants to equip only men (males) for every good work? Who does God want to to teach, reprove, correct and train in righteousness? Who does he want to be adequate (artios, άρτιος, fit for the time)? Males? Not a chance, Taliban.
People are people to God
Anthropology eludes the elitists in religious circles. They believe, without evidence, that the ancient world had two kinds of people: the elect and the disrespected. They do not care about people, all people. People who are themselves shorthanded and nearsighted will want to find someone to help show their elite standing by way of contrast. Leaving women out of anything has never been successful. Ask Moses and the scribes and Pharisees of New Testament times. It has to be that people who think Paul was following Christ by putting restrirtions on women are less than human. The man of God (the anthropos, ανθρωπος) can be any gender.
2 Timothy 3:16-17, anthropos is “person”
Paul to Timothy 2:3:16-17
16) All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; 17) so that the man (ανθρωπος) of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.
A HISTORIC TEAM FOR A HISTORIC OPPORTUNITY
Eyes are on the White House again with respect percolating for the institution! An election to compare with the upcoming contest is hard to find and the Democratic ticket is a far cry from the frenemic duo of the last 3 years. Former Vice-president Joe Biden and Senator Kamala Harris are individuals shaped by the common struggles and by their distinct embrace of public service.
The wild fantasy of a land free of the influence of non-Caucasian peoples just took a hit as the man who witnessed firsthand the evil heart of the Republican Party and the poverty of the newly invented Christian alliance as they insulted and opposed potus44 Barrack Obama for eight years.
The first woman of colour and the first person of South Asian descent to be on a presidential ticket gives a boost to the pride of people who have always looked to the United States. The American dream was part of my cosmos for a very brief period but I have so many strings attached to family and friends that my interest in America’s progress never falters. As a Canadian I can only watch with glee as the very fine racists and crooked businessmen hear their wakeup call.
The chances of another adulterous adventure with a half-dead businessman or some other unlikely hero stands at zero.
Thunder Throne Tricked out Like a Bordello
When we confront people with what the Lord Yeshua taught they run for cover behind the prophets, sometimes even a contemporary phony one, and even a New Testament writer who is a known contortionist. When people are exposed for having a kindergarten prayer life they say God speaks to them audibly saying things that can’t be checked. Prayer, as taught and modeled by God’s Son, is a rare communication phenomenon, because the throne room thinder has been hijacked and turned into a merchandising enterprise resembling bordello exercises.
When a prayer, offered on behalf of a congretation, gets answered we can rest assured that God does not exclude the congregation when he answers.
Typically we do not pray to get announcements. We pray for answers to the situations beyond our control. We pray, just for the record, even when we know that the answer is in the works. If the prayer – the exchange of thoughts- is like a department store transaction no believer should get excited about someone asked to pray decreeing the things he requested.
Prayers are not applications for permission to decree. Practically though, does anyone ask permission to love one’s neigjbour? Who asks for permission to heal the sick, raise the dead, or cleanse lepers? Does a chiid of God need permission to announce what God’s answers to prayer are without evidence of the answers?
There is one instance where the thunderous utterance from the throne is secret, private for the one hearing it (Rev. 10:4). If prayer is not being abused the voice of God puts the solutions we seek into motion, or shows the solutions in progress as is the case for the utterances from God’s throne. Shall we say that things sought in prayer in Christ’s are due for a factual yea and amen? Where God has not spoken we tend to prostitute the prayer and everything else.
Spiritual Being Spin
You are dust. Man enjoys being as long as his dust endures. There is nothing that people do or plan on doing when the dust fails. The devil has cleverly planted alternate truth alongside the lifesaving message. If humans are spiritual beings they do not show it and most people do not know
1 Corinthians 15:49
Just as we have borne the image of the earthy, we will also bear the image of the heavenly.
Even in the bosom of the Christ – gospel received and Holy Spirit given – believers do not carry the image (likeness) to the heavenly progenitor. This saying distinguishes Adam from the heavenly Father and so does the essential hope of resurrection and kingdom inheritance.
Deeper into the comparison of man born Adam and man born of God we find that humans have no access to God’s kingdom in their original state. God shut Adam off from of his home where he might have launched the unthinkable; an immortal being disfigured by lies (Gen. 3:1-6, 22-24).
1 Corinthians 15:50
Now I say this, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable.
Humanity’s natural condition and nature needs a makeover.
Paul to the Corinthian church 1:15:51
Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,
Some things a spiritual bring could never be
Spiritual humans are born twice. Without the birth from above we face a very different reality from being like God in essence and character. The product description defies the notion that we are spiritual beings or spirit beings.
- Sold under sin
- Born into failure
- Shaped for hostility to God
- Carnal and imprisoned by law and sin
- Flesh and blood
- Mortal
Back to dust
Psalm 90:3
You turn man back into dust And say, “Return, O children of men.”
We get a sense of how deeply deception has set in as an entire generation trashes what David and Solomon (!) has to say about death. The standing up of the early lie – you shall not certainly not die – with the theory that the dead are active illustrates Satanic strategies as strong and bold as ever.
Ecclesiastes 9:10
Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with all your might; for there is no activity or planning or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol where you are going.
Psalms 88:10-12
10) Will You perform wonders for the dead? Will the departed spirits rise and praise You? Selah. 11.)Will Your lovingkindness be declared in the grave, Your faithfulness in Abaddon? 12) Will Your wonders be made known in the darkness? And Your righteousness in the land of forgetfulness?
The grave, from which the saved and lost will come (John 5:28-29) is silent and still.
Psalms 115:17
The dead do not praise the Lord, Nor do any who go down into silence;
His love aids his anger
The times of adversity have a date with relief as surely as day follows night. We are often most uncomfortable when the times are actually changing. We need to up our game on the basis of the daily dawn transition and the assurance that chastening has a ringside seat in the arena where anger and love merge.
Psalms 94:12-13
12. Blessed is the man whom You chasten, O Lord, And whom You teach out of Your law; 13. That You may grant him relief from the days of adversity, Until a pit is dug for the wicked.
We cannot say we do not relish the fate of the wicked
Surprising Allegations
For the choir director, a maskil of the sons of Korah, Psalm 44 is a surprising song. It opens as though it is a historical summary, but gives an overview of early events with a healthy personal testimony and a few surprising allegations.
O God, we have heard with our ears, Our fathers have told us The work that You did in their days, In the days of old. Psalms 44:1
Possession of Canaan – the planting
Psalms 44:2
You with Your own hand drove out the nations; Then You planted them; You afflicted the peoples, Then You spread them abroad.
The divine content Psalms 44:3
Testimony
For by their own sword they did not possess the land, And their own arm did not save them, But Your right hand and Your arm and the light of Your presence, For You favored them.
Psalm 44:3
Confessing God as king is extremely multifaceted. The king in Israel is a storm waiting to happen. The road to having a king is adorned with upheavals affecting the promises, redirecting the priesthood, and putting Yahweh on the side. The road with kings is a major embarrassment. The kings showed themselves incapable of bringing the nation to fulfillment. A host of prophets and wise persons were equally unsuccessful.
You are my King, O God; Command victories for Jacob.
Psalms 44:4
God is also reported to have stopped going out with Israel’s armies, so verse 5 is another example of fact seeping through to draw attention to God’s perseverance in spite of determined resistance.
Throughout You we will push back our adversaries; Through Your name we will trample down those who rise up against us.
The two sides of the fortune coin
Psalms 44:9
Yet You have rejected us and brought us to dishonor, And do not go out with our armies.
Psalms 44:13
You make us a reproach to our neighbors, A scoffing and a derision to those around us.
A prayerful approach is always helpful
Psalms 44:4 asks for help; victories are scarce.
You are my King, O God; Command victories for Jacob.
Allegations unbecoming
Far be it from me to argue with the record. Synchronizing life with the law and covenants has never gotten a passing grade. No fable can change the facts. Yahweh never sleeps, he does not reject a people he foreknew, and he knows how many times the people have forgotten him and when the covenant became a casualty of a resistant mindset.
Psalms 44:23
Arouse Yourself, why do You sleep, O Lord? Awake, do not reject us forever.
Psalms 44:12
You sell Your people cheaply, And have not profited by their sale.
Psalms 44:17
All this has come upon us, but we have not forgotten You, And we have not dealt falsely with Your covenant.
Obviously false claims can enter the songbook and we do not know how many people actually bought into these unfounded allegations. Let’s not join the crowd, singing songs just because they exist.
Life is Fun, But Not a Joke 