You may recognize the title from a song by a great Canadian songwriter, Neil Young. It is a feeling or wish I want to extend to those of you who read or follow my blog. I do this because I realize that even in the assigned places Biblical truth can be a game that some people like to play. I write to separate the glitter from the gold. As long as that remains my goal, let me thank you for making use of my work here.
What Debate?
The idea that evangelicals are going to have a debate over the vile behavior of the White House and the GOP is laughable. We know them for two things; reciting the soundbytes of their ancestors without thinking, and for proclaiming things they want without evidence people.
Little dt 45 is a congenital liar who makes the case daily that he is the bottom of the barrel.
The days when public officials, including prime ministers and presidents can simply make a public announcement to change the world, name or rename things are long gone. There is no king for 4 years.
And she wrote in the letters, saying, Proclaim (קרא qara) a fast, and set Naboth on high among the people:
1 Kings 21:9
And it came to pass at noon, that Elijah mocked them, and said, Cry (קרא qara) aloud: for he is a god; either he is talking, or he is pursuing, or he is in a journey, or peradventure he sleepeth, and must be awaked. And they cried (קרא qara) aloud, and cut themselves after their manner with knives and lancets, till the blood gushed out upon them. And it came to pass, when midday was past, and they prophesied until the time of the offering of the evening sacrifice, that there was neither voice, nor any to answer, nor any that regarded.
1 Kings 18:27-29
You have certainly seen people saying repeatedly “In Jesus’s name ” to change a situation and have noted that saying those words does not make what they are saying sound doctrine nor brings about the change they predict or expect.
No debate, just violence
If you are holding your breath waiting for evangelical Christians to debate the facts about American public life you have a death wish. They have not settled the facts about necromancy, witchcraft, the law of Moses, Messianic priority and the gene of racial discrimination and the oppression of poor people in the DNA of modern homo sapiens.
Highlights from a 24-day Reading of Luke – day 7
From chapters 19, 20, and 21
The royal ride into Zion
Luke 19:30-31
Saying, Go ye into the village over against you; in the which at your entering ye shall find a colt tied, whereon yet never man sat: loose him, and bring him hither. And if any man ask you, Why do ye loose him? thus shall ye say unto him, Because the Lord hath need of him.
This event – the royal ride into his city – was the subject of an ancient prophecy.
Zechariah 9:9
Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass.
Glory to the king
Luke 19:37-38
And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen; Saying, Blessed be the King that cometh in the name of the Lord: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.
Zeal for the temple
Luke 19:45-46
And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold therein, and them that bought; Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer: but ye have made it a den of thieves.
The murder plot
And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him, And could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him.
Luke 19:47-48
The Authority of Christ Questioned
And it came to pass, that on one of those days, as he taught the people in the temple, and preached the gospel, the chief priests and the scribes came upon him with the elders, And spake unto him, saying, Tell us, by what authority doest thou these things? or who is he that gave thee this authority? And he answered and said unto them, I will also ask you one thing; and answer me: The baptism of John, was it from heaven, or of men?
Luke 20:1-4
The deceitful reply of the gatekeepers
And they discussed it with one another, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say, ‘Why did you not believe him?’ Luke. 20:5 But if we say, ‘From man,’ all the people will stone us to death, for they are convinced that John was a prophet.” Luke. 20:6 So they answered that they did not know where it came from. Luke. 20:7 And Jesus said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.” Luke. 20:8
Luke 20:5-8
The significance of John’s Unquestionable Authority is deadly
So they cast him out of the vineyard, and killed him. What therefore shall the lord of the vineyard do unto them? He shall come and destroy these husbandmen, and shall give the vineyard to others. And when they heard it, they said, God forbid. And he beheld them, and said, What is this then that is written, The stone which the builders rejected, the same is become the head of the corner? Whosoever shall fall upon that stone shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.
Luke 20:15-18
He was talking against the leaders
And the chief priests and the scribes the same hour sought to lay hands on him; and they feared the people: for they perceived that he had spoken this parable against them. And they watched him, and sent forth spies, which should feign themselves just men, that they might take hold of his words, that so they might deliver him unto the power and authority of the governor.
Luke 20:19-20
What do the end of days look like?
The road to the end of days has intersections with (Luke 21:8-26)
- Deception
- Turmoil
- International conflicts
- Inter-jurisdictional conflicts
- Terrestrial upheavals
- Famines
- Pestilences
- Awe-inspiring sings in space
- Persecution of the faithful
- Opportunities to wtiness
- Wisdom and power to explain
- Assassinations of the faithful
- Betrayal by one’s family members
- Military assult on Jerusalem
- Great distress and extreme assaults on Jewish people
- Jerusalem trampled by the Gentiles
- Signs in the sun, moon and stars
- People weakened by fear
This detailed road to the end of days comes with one viral warning. “Watch and be awake because the day comes like a trap”. No-one knows, or will know, the day or the hour.
Justice Perverted
Highlights from a 24-day Reading of Luke – day 6
From chapters 16, 17, and 18
Not a probability, an impossibility
Serving two masters is not a thing that anyone does. A person is either lost or saved, a child of God or mere human.
No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.
Luke 16:13-14
The self-righteous
And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.
Luke 16:15
The means of justifying oneself is out in the open. The options are binary. Yeshua’s contemporaries were either following Moses, with John the Baptist showing the straight path to the Anointed.
There are no people going to heaven or hell, and most certainly Yeshua is the only person to have come from glory and goes to glory from humiliation. This is not a teaching about communication with the dead or the devices of the dead.
The certainty of offences
Luke 17:1
Then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come!
Ready to forgive
Luke 17:3-4
Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him. And if he trespass against thee seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to thee, saying, I repent; thou shalt forgive him.
Not a lot of faith
And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.
NO SOUL JUSTIFIED BY DUTY = NOBODY SAVED BY WORKS
But which of you, having a servant plowing or feeding cattle, will say unto him by and by, when he is come from the field, Go and sit down to meat? And will not rather say unto him, Make ready wherewith I may sup, and gird thyself, and serve me, till I have eaten and drunken; and afterward thou shalt eat and drink? Doth he thank that servant because he did the things that were commanded him? I trow not. So likewise ye, when ye shall have done all those things which are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that which was our duty to do.
Luke 17:6-10
This practical obedience understood. Doing what is expected, keeping covenant, performing acts of loyalty and observing seasons does not get God’s smile of approval. Duty is not faith. Faith is the work of believing in the Son of God. Getting to that point is God’s gift: repentance to the elect (those that are ready to switch from the temporary to the permanent, from old to new).
How to get life
A Jew should not be asking this question. His right standing was never a matter of a single duty, but rather a host of duties.
Luke 18:18
And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
In simple terms, this list of FIVE commands is not the gospel.
Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honour thy father and thy mother. Luke 18:20
Grace to be me
You should figure out who you are and what you need, and then don’t apologize for it.
-Jeaniene Frost
The finest of friends might say…
I don’t want to discuss the figuring, or the needs, and if you apologize, I will forgive you, until I see that you do not have any figuring in process.
-DrJ
Which issues of CT did that bigot really read?
Christianity Today calls for the removal the 45th president by election or removal for crimes and he responds that he will read the magazine no more. This is what raises the question.
He who believes that the menace in the White House actually reads a Christian magazine also believes that a total shut down of immigration from Islamic states is neighbourly and constitutional. Evangelicals and Christians of any stripe must hold their nose and fake a smile when they talk about the greatness of an America that is so mangled one can understand how a great wonder of the global arena can end up hated and trashed.
Republicans who read a magazine, like Christianity Today, devoted to truth and understanding cannot be anything but the oil-soaked birds of America’s moral majority oil spill.
Potus45 does not read his briefing notes. He spends his time watching a crude entertainment network, plotting perfect phonecalls, writing love letters to maniacal despots, and covering up his crimes.
One or none
An Honest Appraisal of Facts
If the voice you hear and seem unable to avoid is on a channel you cannot change I am sorry for you. Changing the channel is a poor option when every other channel turned out to he a clone of the one to which you are tuned.
I have tried to stay abreast of political developments for good reason. Doing so has a cost. One has to listen to what amounts to the deafening drone of the thieving and perjured scribes and Pharisees along with the voices of conscientious compatriots or colleagues. Poor Israel at Sinai! They tuned out Yahweh and got Moses with same song. Blessed us in the 21st century! We tune out every stakeholder and preserve our sanity.
The cost of tuning out
I kid you not. The message that little dt (of Mar a Lago) did nothing wrong comes with a stifling bad smell, a temptation to turn all of those voices off, and the suggestion to paint every messenger with the same colours. Tuning out the clanging cymbals of political combat for a while is unlikely to affect the flow of life as occurs when one tunes out the voice of Yeshua, even for a minute, so we can cling to older unreliable voices.
One can be hypnotized by the drone
Only time will tell if the elected representatives in the GOP are actually more than tinmen. It is devastating to think that anyone with a spiritual or moral spine (all elected officers are expected to) will chant the false narratives that are the main feature of Republican rallies. If one’s fame comes from making a lot of noise (like Collins, Jordan, Gaetz, and Gohmert), and not from being sighted and thoughtful workers of the facts it will not be long before there arises a new definition of honest.
Life is Fun, But Not a Joke 