Author: eejoseph

The Face of Deceit

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When a mosquito bites… When a bee stings… When a dog bites… When people lie to us…When a mutated virus is killing people…

No debate about treating injury from these neighbours

Why all the megalomania and gee whiz optics?

“We do not know what we have here” is what the scientists are saying, nevermind the frantic search for solutions. Wait until a genuine Biblical plague comes down the pike! Forget the magic and optimism. Just tell us the truth.

Humans tend to have a consistent response to mosquito bites, dog bites, lies, but covid-19 has shown us the face of deceit, from the White House, governments across the globe and delusional religious leaders. Coronavirus is going away but not like a miracle and the pandemic was not totally under control two weeks ago. Please God, help me plug my ears from hearing one more syllable from the shameless bigot king potus45.

The Bottom 10 Covid19-affected States

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Timor-Leste
Papua New Guinea
St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Sierra Leone
Caribbean Netherlands
Burundi
Anguilla
Central African Republic
British Virgin Islands
Belize

Is there a pattern in there?

Plague or Preparation for the Desolation?

I suppose that the coronavirus mutated to seek out the neighbour-killers of the planet. These nations have no global imperial design, no navy, no cutting edge technological distinction, and no nuclear weapons. If the pandemic is not a sign of the end of days human ingenuity will prevail and fearmongering is way out of line.

The plagues are not subject to cries for their cessation. I can just hear someone who has an opinion about the pandemic saying “Let us pray” then decreeing it away.

No-Cross Chaos

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The devil has succeeded in counterfeiting the seal of God, the love of God, the work, and the word of God. Every where we look we see the signs or substitute and idols. Even the cross, the means of atonement, has become a hub for twisted views and raw idolatry.

The cross of Christ is not an add-on like the clause “in Jesus’ name “. A lot of Christians are trying to receive the Bible’s riches without the cross. Nothing in the Bible smells good without the Nazarene. In our quest for personal integrity we line up things which are neither original, redemptive, nor unending.

  • Seal: the Holy Spirit or one command?
  • Assurance of salvation: obedience or Holy Spirit indwelling?
  • Love: obedience or caring for people?

Middle class, upper class ministry

Covetousness and carnal desires guide positive thinking, and none of the greater (or great) things promised by people preaching victory and abundance even come close to the gift of the Holy Spirit. By carnal desires we do not mean bodily interests but those desires that belong to the human and temporary experience. Crossless preaching is worse than looking for an accusation against Christ.

One has to violate one’s conscience to put distance between one’s beliefs and one’s practice. Whether the interest is food, drink, festivals, family or ancestral practices, chaos and emptiness follow the abandonment of Messianic atonement for sin. There is no truth that compares to “came into the world to save sinners“; not circumcision, not tireless labour, and not promises to try to be faithful. Faith establishes faithfulness, and none of the situations in which we find ourselves makes us victims. In the midst of all our chaotic situations we are assured of God’s peace and love.

The Godly Man

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Admittedly the goal of human life is an approach to realizing a likeness to God. In the Old Testament the focus seems to be on man’s compliance with divine commands (Ecc. 12:13) and covenant-keeping (Exo 19:5 and Gen 17:10). Examples of godliness have appeared that are not related to either commandments or covenant. The happiness that comes from being forgiven is a measure of godliness, just as the happiness of the peacemaker is a measure of godly status.
Commandment-keeping and covenant (such as circumcision) have not surfaced as reliable or effective means to achieve godliness, the first due to human brokenness and the latter due to its purely physical nature. A new standard must be available since the call to holiness is to be found on both Testaments especially in view of the claims of Christ to be the Way, Truth and Life and his provision of a way past the essential obstacle between man and God. With the atonement Christ proved that godliness could only be achieved through divine help. Godliness must therefore be redefined as possessing characteristics that belong to God and not merely as claiming to have responded to Him.

The Godly Individual
The term man of God is to be applied to all believers because of their adoption into God’s family. Such persons have qualities that separate them from unregenerate humans. They are first of all faithful. They are all flawed persons. They recognize that Christ as the template for human beings is in certain aspects separate from human beings. When they contemplate their path to God’s ideal they are aware of an infinite gap between Creator and creature.

How Much Like Christ?
Christ does not hold forth a family likeness other than identity since all notions of human performance can never approach Christ’s. Since compliance with covenant has changed and obedience to the Law is no longer the primary demand we turn to the two demands of the scriptures: be and do.
The call for a change of identity rests on a divine act. Unlike Israelite process of becoming God’s people through complete compliance with the law humans become godly by God’s will and graceful intervention. No-one can stand before God and claim to be His child on the basis of obedience to any set of regulations or instructions. On the contrary humans become children of God by means of faith alone.
We can never be God-from-God, saviour of the world, sinless sacrifice, and head of the church.
Do as I say and Do as I do
Since men cannot claim to have done all what has required from earliest times it is left only for us to find our likeness to God in (1) cherishing our identity as sons and (2) imitating the Son of God. Instead of an unreliazable set of commands two things bring us to genuine godliness: faith in the Son of God and loving as He loved us.

The Holy Spirit fully empowers us to do what Christ did: deeds of love, compassion, and power. Herein lies the most secure version of godliness. Performance of legal requirements is bound to be broken and incomplete at some point.
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Climb to the highest peak

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One day as his people neared the Promised Land Moses got up to a peak overlooking the land and saw the land he was barred from entering. He knew that the horrors of taking possession would end quite badly. After forty years of flirting with unbelief and rebellion the great leader had no peers beside Caleb and Joshua. The Calebs and Joshuas of 2020 will live in world after the pandemic that is both a desert and an oasis.

I appreciate company more than isolation

When covid-19’s death roll ends and the sales of political favours and medical lifesaving equipment crawls to a shuffle we will have a bright new world. Since our life now depends on keeping our distance from each other we will want to begin the new day with a regard for every person that goes beyond “Good morning” to “Can you use some company?”

Close to each other was never more precious

Moshe Did Not Say

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While his big brother was up on a smoking, convulsing mountain with the Deliverer Aaron gave in to the people’s request for a god. Moshe was not at this time known for meekness. His response to the idolatry that the future high priest took the lead for has to be a joke not mentioned. Moses did not say what he thought of how the golden calf came to be.



And Moses said unto Aaron, What did this people unto thee, that thou hast brought so great a sin upon them?

Exodus 32:21

Sometimes the thing we need most can seem like a dream, such as when the Lord reversed the fortunes of the exiled Jewish people, or when the risen Saviour appeared in a room with the ‘”marks of slaughter”. What was the chief of longsufferers to do at Thomas’ search for evidence of life from the dead?

Aaron’s fabulous fib



And I said unto them, Whosoever hath any gold, let them break it off. So they gave it me: then I cast it into the fire, and there came out this calf.

Exodus 32:24

Both Yeshua and Moses had faces that were designed to smile at good things and, you guessed it, jokes. What else could Thomas’ unbelief be to the glorified Nazarene beside a joke? If Moses did not see a joke in Aaron’s answer then he becomes a joke for not ripping into Aaron for leading the people into the cardinal sin of Jewish experience.

Fact or fiction?

I find myself smiling when I read Aaron’s report. The consequences of this episode hang around like the firmament enveloping our planet. Idolatry and going after other gods are, in the human and Jewish experience, like the night that makes daylight palpable and precious.

Moses and Aaron in Exodus 32

Just the facts please



2) And Aaron said unto them, Break off the golden earrings, which are in the ears of your wives, of your sons, and of your daughters, and bring them unto me. 3) And all the people brake off the golden earrings which were in their ears, and brought them unto Aaron. 4) And he received them at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, after he had made it a molten calf: and they said, These be thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt.

Exodus 32:2-4

Mark the beast well

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Can we have a personal response to a global crisis without considering or comparing ourselves to our neighbours? Can we see pestilences and catastrophic events without blaming God? If we did either of these we would not be the wisest people in history. We, the now generation, are so soaked in glitter that we are ready to sell it to the owners of the gold mine. Identifying the beast – the bad actor who is in responsible for global commerce, deception, and death threats – specific acts of God is a biblical exercise. Would you prefer to have a cop, a lawyer, a taxi driver, a pastor over to fix your elevator? God has marked the beast by its sheer humanity: 666 is the icon for failed and broken humanity, whcih is what the church looks like as long as it wants to be

BEASTLY FEATURES

That the church imitates the beast is evidence that personal success and influence are more important than growing in grace and loveliness. Comparing the beast’s behaviour to church interests will uncover some striking similarities that remind us of ancient Israel’s quest to be like the neighbouring nations.

  • SLANDER – Rev 13:5. And the beast was given a mouth uttering haughty and blasphemous words, and it was allowed to exercise authority for forty-two months. ESV2011
  • WAR – Rev 13:7. Also it was allowed to make war on the saints and to conquer them. And authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation, ESV2011
  • ENFORCE WORSHIP – Rev 13:12. It exercises all the authority of the first beast in its presence, and makes the earth and its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. ESV2011
  • DOES WONDERS – Rev 13:13. It performs great signs, even making fire come down from heaven to earth in front of people, ESV2011
  • CREATING UNITY AND CONTINUITY – Rev 13:14. and by the signs that it is allowed to work in the presence of the beast it deceives those who dwell on earth, telling them to make an image for the beast that was wounded by the sword and yet lived. ESV2011
  • DEATH SENTENCE TO PROTESTERS – Rev 13:15. And it was allowed to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast might even speak and might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain. ESV2011
  • MARKS EVERYONE FOR IDENTIFICATION – Rev 13:16. Also it causes all, both small and great, both rich and poor, both free and slave, to be marked on the right hand or the forehead, ESV2011

Glitter glossy gee-wiz

The human element in church, state, work, and family, remains disappointing. The best of us – humans – can be found trying to ace every test, win every race, conquer every foe, remove every obstacle from life, and declare those outcomes the proud of our integrity. Of course it never seems to dawn on these triumphant ones that the Lord has a way to enjoy (no disappointment) us enjoying life without us dragging others into the picture.

It still eludes many of us that truth is not magical answers to every problem. Our preaching lacks precision if the outcomes we seek are so-called deliverance from the common lot of humans. Whether we are a herd of complaining brats or blessed children of God seems to have nothing to do with us wanting to acquire health, home (property), and honour.

Our greatest enemy is ourselves and having Christ – his love in particular – is more than enough to affirm our victorious status. The beast will deceive us as long as we are thrilled only with miracles and signs. Truth is divine, personal, and permanent, unlike the things we seek. Death and decay are with us until the Lord appears. It is no longer amazing to me that the church is adopting all the moves and attitudes of the beast.