Tag Archives: Christianity

How To Become Victorious Over A Wretched World

Image result for free pics of mumbai slums

I watched another one of those videos on You Tube that showed what life is like for those folks in places like Mumbai and Dhaka – and so many others – and it’s really gut wrenching for me. I don’t watch them to gloat – not by a long shot. I’m fascinated and horrified to see things like the mountain of trash 70 – meters high outside the confines of Delhi. The toxic and polluted waterways in the areas of the slums of Lagos and in the Philippines are a sad sight to see. Some of the documentary visited cities in the US where the homeless people try to survive in tents or just out on the sidewalks, but the tent cities of Los Angeles are luxury condos compared to some of the morbid slums of giant cities in Asia and Africa. There are literally hundreds of millions of souls on this planet scrapping for everything they can get/use to survive. Some of the video shots showed people in more than one of the places where the garbage trucks bring the city trash just waiting for the truck to dump so they could be the first in line to start rummaging through the garbage for recyclables – and food scraps – anything!

The air in Lahore, Pakistan is so polluted the narrator said just breathing the air there for one day is equivalent to their lungs as smoking 50 cigarettes. There’s a lot worse things than nicotine in that smog too. As the video shots run in the documentary, I find myself praying for those poor folks, people who will never in their whole lives get a breath of clean air or feel the joy of hearing wild birdsong out in a secluded forest. Folks who don’t even have clean water to drink or to cook with, much less able to stop by one of the cold Ozark springs for a draught of pure water. No, every moment of their lives is consumed in a never-ending struggle to just survive another day, surrounded at all times by sweat-soaked fellow travelers who are fighting the same hunger.

Here in America, we can’t imagine what it’s like to be in constant competition with other people for a claim to a plastic bottle, a used one, not one filled with clean water but simply an item having some pittance of value anyway. There are places in those packed slums where a single toilet is shared by dozens – in some cases hundreds – of people. In some of the slums in Africa and the Philippines where people exist on floating villages or stilt hovels, folks just relieve themselves in the water that surrounds them. There’s no other place to throw the trash either, so it goes into the waterways too. If they are to get a bath, they must use the same water. This is the case in India where the Ganges River is the predominant water source. They inter their dead in the same water they bathe in.

I don’t know of any answer to this dilemma. Over population is the root cause, but what can they do? Reproduction is indelibly etched into the genetic code of humans as with other life forms, so on it goes. There is an ultimate answer for the unfortunate poor of the world however, and it is to get to know Jesus Christ, but alas, there are too few people interested in working to harvest these manifold cities. But with such tools as we can get our hands on, those of us who wish to help in the harvest must do what we can. These people need to know there is a better place awaiting beyond their noisome and overcrowded existences. That would have to go a long way towards giving meaning to their struggle. Working toward the promises of Jesus, His Kingdom, His gift of eternal life to those who simply believe in Him – would be for them, as it is for all of us, a hope for something infinitely better, but in their case maybe more urgently and desperately needed, and in this hope they can live and mature with the steadfast promise of Jesus.

According to scientists, people of the earth are able to discern around 93 billion light years of our observable universe. One light year is an unfathomable distance. Even one light minute is unimaginable. We don’t have a clue how many universes there may be either, or if Heaven is even part of – or completely something different from what we are able to see, so at any rate God has a lot of room for his servants – there’s plenty of room in the Heavenly Kingdom for each and every one of the people of the earth. It won’t be crowded – we’ll each have our own majestic mansion there, prepared by none other than Jesus Christ Himself. There’ll be plenty of fresh, pure, clean water flowing through the new paradise – the River of Life. We’ll have wonderful fruit from the Tree of Life which produces different fruit every month. Being in His blessed presence is going to occupy our whole existence there, and being in His presence and the beloved presence of the Lamb is going to be an absolutely unimaginably joyous experience and we will be able to enjoy it forever! The way the apostle put it: [1 Corinthians 2:9]: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” That’s a promise from our Savior and He will keep it, but we must believe in Him and be faithful to Him, and love Him.

When our belief in Jesus grows into actual expectation, our hope becomes manifest in our hearts and all of a sudden, we come to understand why the effort is worth our time and energy. Peter mentioned in one of his epistles about the morning star rising in our hearts and I’m convinced that’s what happens when we get to that blessed revelation – our faith grows into knowledge; believing becomes knowing! [2 Peter 1:19]: “And so we have the prophetic word confirmed, which you do well to heed as a light that shines in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts…”

If this post makes it into your hands, take heart, there’s a better life beyond this one. Although this site doesn’t get a huge volume of traffic, folkpotpourri nevertheless has readers in several of the countries mentioned in this post, so please share this with someone – maybe it can get to some of those folks I’ve been talking about who so desperately need hope for a better existence. If you follow folkpotpourri, you already know this site isn’t monetized so I’m not after clicks nor for any selfish reason – when I ask you to share this, it’s because I sincerely want to use this website to help people to learn about Jesus. And I’d like for my readers to experience the spiritual lift we get from knowing we are serving Him by helping others get to Him. Our true reward will be when He says: “Well done, my good and faithful servant” – the very definition of success in victory over this life!

When we get to the end of our journey here, there awaits a door we must enter. Every human being goes through that door, but only the called, chosen, and faithful will be greeted by the Savior and invited into His blessed Kingdom where we shall live forever! In that moment we will understand that what we always thought was life here wasn’t really life at all – we’ll begin a new life, the real life at last, with no worry, no pain, no sadness – only perfect peace and above all, love – and it will be a love we can feel, I believe kind of physically, like stepping into a great tidal wave of love and joy to forever be immersed in, except it will be spiritual and much more predominant in our new life than we could ever imagine. God is love, and we’ll finally realize how profound that Love is!

Even though we don’t have any way of knowing how deep God’s love is, we should nevertheless pray for Him to show us how to love – our neighbors, but mostly Him. We should set our hearts to love, even our enemies, and I believe the harder we try to love others – and God – we can begin to understand deeper things about the Lord and His ways. Of course, this also requires spending time in the Bible, so if you don’t have one, there are Christian ministries in every country, contact one, the Bibles are usually free. If you can’t get your hands on a Bible, leave your contact information in the comments and this site will do whatever I can to help you get one even if I have to send one myself.

Live in the assurance of His promises and never doubt for an instant that He will keep them for Heaven and earth will pass away but His Words will stand forever. Today is the time to pass His gospel on to others – time is growing short and the harvest is ripe – jump in!

May the blessings of the Almighty Father find and keep us.

MK

A Dark Chasm Lies Between Intelligence and Wisdom

Doubtless by now everyone paying attention has gotten wind of the ai controversy swirling around the world like rancid dishwater being sucked down into the drain. Intelligence, or the concept thereof, is quite possibly the greatest pitfall resulting from human pride – Satan has first-hand awareness of its potency – and is wielded by those in his service who would use it to sever any relationship we might try to build with God. Artificial intelligence is no more than a cumulative statement of humanity – that we have become sufficiently knowledgeable to deal with issues here in our corner of the universe, and therefore no longer need such rudimentary beliefs as religion which some of us of lesser smarts hold sacred. It’s a concept that has been tried in various iterations since time immemorial, but with this ai, human mastery seems to be culminating into fruition. Indeed, for many superficial pursuits and human endeavors, such technical prowess as smarts can be valuable, but when we allow ourselves to buy in to the belief that we no longer need a Spiritual foundation upon which to build and continue with our fundamental endeavors at human evolution, we set ourselves up for the most dismal of failures. Especially when we decide to turn over our decisions to man-made devices like computers. Tellingly, and as designed, this artificial construct that everyone so admires places absolutely no value on those traits which characterize us as human beings, such as loyalty, consideration of others’ well-being, and above all, love – both the love of our neighbors, and the love we hold for our blessed Creator. In its callous disregard for the value of human love, it (its creators) places itself in direct opposition to the greatest commandments, to love God and one another, thus is undeniably at odds with Christian beliefs.

Since undermining Christianity is the ultimate goal of Satan in our world, don’t be surprised when they develop some new iteration of artificial intelligence that suddenly claims to promote a belief system that is somehow congruous with “religion”. This will be a move that’s tantamount to declaring itself to be God. It will be contrived to attempt to pry away Christians from their true beliefs and climb aboard the ai bandwagon, attempting to remove any doubt that a prospective believer might hold that ai might just be something that followers of Jesus Christ should avoid. It’s coming. It will undoubtedly offer the same nature of deception that the false doctrines of today’s evangelical churches and the same appeal. This artificial intelligence is simply the latest weapon Satan has revealed from his endless arsenal. The dragon followed the woman and declared war on her and her offspring. [Revelation 12:17]: “And the dragon was enraged with the woman, and he went to make war with the rest of her offspring, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.”

Everyone admires smart people, those guys who are able to resolve complex problems. Whatever goals we have before us as the social animals we are, from which we are sometimes prevented from achieving due to issues on which only the brightest among us can be depended to resolve. That’s not a bad thing in itself – God blessed some more than others with smarts. There are very few, however who can be actually regarded as wise people. It’s mostly because the truly wise among us are loathe to get caught up in publicity. The great asset they possess, the one human attribute Satan hates in people – is God-given wisdom, for true wisdom leads us to God, but human intelligence does not. Intelligent people typically like to show off and make a big thing out of their gift, but the truly wise man only speaks when asked, and ever tries to stay away from the spotlight.

There are societies in the world in which wisdom is, or has been heretofore, sought, and sages in those groups, tribes, clans, or whatever, were highly respected. The Chinese elders and Tibetan lamas come to mind as well as the American Indian tribal elders – there are others – and input from these guys is – or was – regarded as of great value to their whole societies. It seems that due to the cultivation of intelligence, especially technical expertise, the wise man is less considered as a source for answers nowadays. That’s a real shame, because among many other pitfalls, ignoring wisdom causes us to saw off the limbs we are perched on. In light of the fact that the world has more pressing problems today than it ever has, the wisdom of humanity garnered from the ages is more important to us now than it ever has been.

One misconception however, of people concerning those who might be wise, is their age. Indeed, there are many elderly persons who have garnered wisdom through their years, but these are the ones who walked through life with their eyes open, learning as they trudged down those muddy, one-way roads (and back) on which we all occasionally find ourselves. There are many more who plowed through this life’s morass without gleaning much wisdom, mostly because they chose to trust in available intelligence as they traveled rather than hard-earned lessons they should have learned. In that sense, age isn’t the only consideration for wisdom, so don’t assume their years mean they know something helpful.

Because of the proclivity of those of “intelligence” to seek publicity, it only stands to reason that what is called artificial intelligence, the cumulative effort of lots of smart people, needs to be in the greatest of social spotlights. This is in order to continue a mass exodus from wisdom of the ages and into the nethersphere of “intelligence” – especially of sources not human. It’s not a hard sell, either. There is a surplus of hopelessly ignorant people out there who would much rather have someone, or something do their thinking for them. That’s one reason “developed” nations have been opting to allow “think tanks” to opine on critical issues rather than having elected “leaders” calling the shots. That’s also why the pews of megachurches are teeming with misguided souls – they allow false pastors to tell them what to think. Of course, voters (who have long abandoned any attempt at reason to decide for whom they should vote for their betterment), don’t mind being told for whom they need to cast their ballots. It saves wear and tear on what precious few brain cells they still use.

If I could have a guess where to look for leaders who might possess some degree of wisdom with which to lead the nation, the first place I’d look in this country is among the self-disenfranchised electorate. People who don’t vote. That’s where the folks are who have long-ago learned of the deception and utter hopelessness of being forced to choose between two cardboard cutouts presented to the proles (by the same entities) as viable choices to run things. There’s wisdom in that view of what passes for elections in many nations today.

Another word of caution for the believer – there has been a big stir lately about how the Chinese have undermined the western tech moguls by introducing this Deep Seek version of ai. This is another deception, for it presents the unassuming person with the notion that this version is good because it is in opposition to the wealthy tech barons and prevents them from being able to capitalize on it. How could it possibly be wrong if it goes against the rich? That’s exactly what we’re supposed to think, don’t buy into this nonsense. Satan might control rich people, but such is his proclivity for deception and treachery, he will turn on them in an instant if it might mean capturing the loyalty of his enemies -Christians – this ai in any iteration is something to avoid.

The book of Proverbs in the Bible has many gems of wisdom and descriptions of how the wise man thinks. Of course, the greatest abandonment of wisdom of all humanity has been our headlong rush to discard our God and His Word, so it follows that few people alive have even read the wisdom of King Solomon, even though when he was alive, people came from far and near to hear his sagacious proclamations. If the reader happens to be among those who have abandoned the wisdom in the Bible, maybe he needs to reconsider.

You can trust the very real wisdom of God, or you can trust in human made artificial intelligence. The two are definitely at odds, but I know which one will emerge the Winner. Jesus Christ invites us all to join Him for His victory celebration, which the Bible calls the marriage supper – think about it. [Revelation 19:9] “…‘Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb!…”

There’s only one Way to get your invitation: [John 14:6]: “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

When faced with having to make the choice of following after worldly intelligence or Godly wisdom, make the wise choice. Folkpotpourri might not be the most viewed website on the net, but it does not, nor will it ever under the present ownership, use ai to write a post. Christians should beware of this “helpful” technology.

May the blessings of God the Father find and keep us.

Image result for free pics of the cross

MK