The US is increasingly showing herself to be a genuine Russian Republic. It is not strange that the mightiest nation could be manipulated and humiliated by an avowed adversary. As great nations go, captivity and exile are the usual measures. Let us consider that one day Judah’s kings were mere puppets for a foreign power.

King Jehoahaz

2 Chronicles 36:3-4

And the king of Egypt put him down at Jerusalem, and condemned the land in an hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. And the king of Egypt made Eliakim his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem, and turned his name to Jehoiakim. And Necho took Jehoahaz his brother, and carried him to Egypt.

Jehoiakim/Eliakim

2 Chronicles 36:6.

Against him came up Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, and bound him in fetters, to carry him to Babylon.

Jehoiachin

2 Chronicles 36:10

And when the year was expired, king Nebuchadnezzar sent, and brought him to Babylon, with the goodly vessels of the house of the Lord, and made Zedekiah his brother king over Judah and Jerusalem.

America’s Exile

Russia, the indisputable king of the North, has shown how much control it has over the US President and wide swathes of western society.

First, the US president is wholly incapable of personally taking any open action against Russia and even of naming Russian actions accurately.
Secondly, Russia engineered the 45th president’s win by manipulating public opinion and dividing the population into hostile camps that talk different languages.

If the conduct of elections is supposed to be an indication of a shining city on a hill the 2016 election is a dying ember.
Russia may yet turn out to be the fixer of America’s wound and when it does the religious will say it is God’s will.
The 45th President may have charted a path for his financial empire with the Chinese, the North Koreans, and Russia but Americans are still extremely anxious about the undocumented summits (so-called great deals), the profound resistance to core American values, and the vileness that oozes out of his heart (if that’s where his words originate).

Great puppets

There is no greater nation than the one whose sacred traditions energize spiritually responsible people everywhere. Americans are clearly In exile. Who pulls the strings? Clearly not the 45th president, clearly not that Congress that is deaf to the cries of children who attend school and do not return to their parents because of the demons of violence and ignorance that stalk America’s institutions and homes. Now that the trusted agencies that are responsible for America’s security are being held up to ridicule and distrust we wait to see who will confess that America’s exile and humiliation has indeed begun. The Russian bear has the US in its terrible jaws.

“Bear with me”, says ’45’, “while I destroy our country.

He and his evangelical handlers will never know what hit them when they have to pay the piper for confounding the domains of Caesar and Christ.

You cannot serve God and mammon (=country, any creature)

Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. John 5:45

Acquiring effective hope

Someone must be so happy there is no law that says separating parents and children without cause – seeking asylum is not a crime – is wrong. But then again if one’s God is the King of love shouldn’t one know that messing with or making orphans and widows is a major offence, as is the mistreatment of foreigners?

But then again we’re supposed to be juvenile forever – under tutors and custodians – instead of reporting to our father and rejoicing in our saviour’s love. Right?
Wrong. Why are we are still in kindergarten and calling it school?

Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God. Romans 3:19

Oh what lunacy attends our mantras and insights! We are licking our chops at the strength of sin – sin’s powerhouse- and deluding ourselves that an electric chair is the best thing since leather coats.

And the Lord God made for Adam and for his wife garments of skins and clothed them. Genesis 3:21

(Behold, I am coming like a thief! Blessed is the one who stays awake, keeping his garments on, that he may not go about naked and be seen exposed!) Revelation of John 16:15

How does a child’s subjection to God-fearing parents figure in the child’s development? Rather poorly. A child without guidance is likely to fail and when the parent’s personal goal is imposed – in vain – on a child, we do inflict life-threatening harm. Adults stuck in juvenile instruction and custodians are balloons without hot air.

To each child his way

If a child knows only the following as important what is he likely to become?

• Parents Demanding Compliance with a foreign code of behaviour
• Disciples Demanding Participation in a foreign covenant
• Secular Demands for loyalty in a common environment

Let’s not be biased about the categories into which children fall. In addition to being the poster for kingdom-bound persons, children are the complement to adults in God’s plan to avert the curse. There is also that more deadly category of commandment-keeping as the ultimate accountability. We can only imagine how deeply dangerous this foolish idea can be when a certain class enforces the ten commandments.

A daring dash to be righteous

How does one know when a child is not lying, or stealing, or committing adultery since this is all happening in the mind? Who is a mindreader?
What can one tell them about the great salvation when they have been supposedly doing all the righteous things all their young lives?
Can unsaved people keep God’s commandments? Of course not. If those who have studied and recited them for thousands of years are guilty of giving the world a slanderous image of the True God what chance has the competitively ignorant westerner of getting on the podium?

The answer to “Can unsaved people keep the commandments?” should have taken a second, and one should consider the relationship between those who lie to young people and those who make God a liar (like Satan).

A Throatful of Falsehoods

The nations of the ancient world of whom we have records devoted a great deal of energy and resources to convincing each generation that it had earned the gold medal in wisdom, conquest, and sustainable family life. WK3. We do not know the who, what, when, where, and why of every person’s journey but we are fully capable of recognizing when hope is missing, when love is not priority, and when people do not believe. We are capable of recognizing despair, fear, and death.

To say “one strike you’re out” to others and allow ourselves unlimited transgressions is the crux of the hypocrite’s greatness. The next generation of commandment-keepers will be so much more distant from the heavenly calling that they will be responsible for an unprecedented wave of vicious and shameful attacks on God’s people in the mode of Saul of Tarsus.

The deception is massive. God has undertaken to do something unprecedented for the new covenant people: write his laws in their hearts. Until he does there is no substitute, no build up to, no table preparation that is legitimate or effective.

The real voice of humanity crying for help has been put on the backburner in deference to making disciples for ourseives. Religious people have become so twisted that we can confirm now that only a few people are actually being saved.

We throw some much junk into the mix of our messaging that Christ is hardly seen any more. The content is quite literally Moses, some contemporary authority or data, and elementary topics such as food and drink, clothing, and festivals.

If we say we have not sinned,
we make him a liar, and his word
is not in us. 1 John 1:10

Oh that you would keep silent, and it would be your wisdom! Job 13:5

What comes out of a grown person’s mouth comes from his heart/thinking. There is only one more reliable measure of human thinking: behaviour.

Hateful and destructive policies speak loudly: just look at the intrigue between west and east, north and south. It is not love and hope that drives the agenda. It’s the same old kill the enemies and keep your own people under control policy.

Who should shush

Broadcast anchors, experts, and pundits seem unable to form a firm opinion. I would not mind being asked appropriately to shut it, being possessed of both skill and passion. Perhaps when we traffic only in perfection, we cannot say presently what a bigot looks like. Isaiah to Malachi and every Gentile knows it from experience. I think we can trust the host of non-Caucasian people who give up their testimony of running into bigotry at home.

When they confirm the block from which that orange plague in the White House fell we will have begin to see an unambiguous conclusion of what is bigotry.

The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks. Luke 6:45

You brood of vipers! How can you speak good, when you are evil? For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks. Matthew 12:34

Forgiveness and contrition are inevitable in any approach to wholeness, right?

The Lord is near to those that are of a broken heart; and saves the ones who are of a contrite spirit. Psalms 34:18

The italics in the King James version of this verse of Psalms 34 is a giveaway. The practice of italicising words not in the original text is quite helpful. It tells the reader what is versus what happens

“God is light” is a simple example. “Blessed is the man who does not walk” is a more complex example. Both are intended to describe conditions not events.

You can rely on what God is versus what he does. God is near vs God saves. He is always near. That is what he is. Near. We know he doesn’t always save.

At what point do people not come to God broken or tell God thanks for a sinless day? I cannot imagine.
Hypocrites still come to God whole, grasping at divinity unlawfully. Woe, not help, can be predicted for them until contrition sinks in.

I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. Luke 18:14