Tag Archives: God

How To Prevail in This Time of Darkness Upon Us

The mighty power of God is now being unleashed upon the earth. It’s as though some great Spiritual dam has burst through the cosmos, and the earth is being flooded with God’s Spirit with an awesome power the world has not witnessed since the very crucifixion and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.

If you are a believer, this great phenomenon has doubtless tugged at your soul lately. Take it in – it’s for real, but I fear that only God’s chosen and elect are able to discern what’s going on. Things are happening now that will affect our future, the enemy is no doubt aware of the power that is growing against him, and he will no doubt double down on the evil he has nurtured precisely to engage with God’s elect in this great spiritual battle for the ages. Expect him to throw everything he has in his arsenal – those who have not committed their lives to Jesus Christ will be the ones destined ultimately to fall. Those who are spiritually sealed to be God’s anointed will face tribulation but will ultimately prevail and do so in the magnificent protection that only the Son of God can impart to us.

We who have practiced our faith in submission to God’s will are not yet perfect – we have made and will continue to make – mistakes up until we put on that incorruptible existence, but do not doubt that we will reach it. We must not allow those errors and/or imperfections to deprive us of our confidence. Satan will use these missteps to attempt to rob us of our motivation, our confidence. Take heart, God knows we are not yet perfect and will forgive our mistakes. Our mission is to keep our eyes on the things above.

The enemy is putting on a fearsome spectacle that is designed to strike fear into the hearts of everyone, but will only do so in the hearts of those who do not know Christ, and from the news of the day, we learn more and more of the burdens he will impose, but do not allow these threats to create anxiety in your hearts – that is his whole purpose, to create doubt, create fear, but it can only work in hearts that are not sealed into the Kingdom. For those of us who belong to Jesus Christ, our Great and Mighty Shepherd, we need not concern ourselves with the wiles of Satan, [Psalm 23:4]: “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”

Open your eyes to the marvelous works of the Lord that are happening. The great megachurches filled with those who shun the responsibilities God gave us such as helping the orphans and widows, the huge ornate buildings where wealth is encouraged and admired, the congregations we all know as bastions of hypocrisy, are becoming deserted. This is not a blow to Christianity, for those who gather in such places were never a benefit to the Christian faith nor were they a threat to Satan. Nevertheless, according to prophecy, this was destined to happen. When the “man of sin” is to be revealed, he will be exposed as all who reject the teachings of Jesus Christ, such as that the rich will have no place in God’s Kingdom. In today’s “churches”, people are constantly taught what is called the “prosperity gospel” (with a lowercase g) that when they put money into the offering, it will be returned to them and with increase, when all it effectively does is to enrich the false prophet pastors. Now the “faithful” are walking away from these ministries in droves. Hopefully some will move on to seek the true Kingdom of God.

Messages from the truly faithful pastors are becoming more poignant and powerful as we approach the end of the age. This builds courage in the true faithful of Christ, courage that can be sensed in the heart. Sermons are delivered that can intuitively be discerned by the believer to be from the Holy Spirit and the discerning hearts that hear them can see and are starting to rejoice that our Savior is near. We have a new hope growing today in our collective Spirit – a hope that unbelievers cannot fathom in this growing darkness of threats by the enemy. An inexplicable and pure hope the enemy can never dislodge, and he becomes ever more furious as his end approaches, walking about like a roaring lion, but to no avail. We shall not be encumbered with fear and dread of what our future holds because our King has promised to meet us at the end of this rutted and utterly worn-out road we call life. Such a passage was never intended to be our permanent abode, nor shall we consider it to be, nor will we long for it anymore when the time comes for it to be over.

Jesus told His followers some things so beautiful, so appealing they cannot but put our hearts to rest from any and all anxiety. [ Matthew 11:28]: “Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” and [John 14:2,3]: “ In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” Hang on for just a little while longer folks and try as you can to bring others with you.

If you have not yet come to know who Jesus Christ is, I highly recommend that you search Him out while He can still be found. The enemy has plans for some awful events for all humanity, and those who do not know Jesus have no hope at all in the upcoming tempest. We shall all suffer tribulations, but in Jesus we can know we shall endure and emerge victorious over the evil one. Get right with the Lord for the sake your eternal future. The time is short.

Meanwhile, may the blessings of the Almighty Father find and keep us until the end.

MK

Take Care of Where to Place Your Trust

There’s a lot of information available nowadays if a person wants to learn things. Our innate curiosity leads us into knowledge of events and trends about which we now have the means to explore thanks to the tech age, but we have to be careful what we buy into. You see, a lot of places and you tube channels hawk things on their titles (and/or thumbnails) that are designed to get clicks and do not contain the actual information advertised (or sought). Then there are the ones that have content that is flat out false, and I believe that is a much bigger problem because with AI technology unscrupulous entities are able to produce narratives that require careful scrutiny, otherwise some of us might actually believe them. And why not? We’re not all gifted with the necessary discernment to recognize each truth from each fiction, at least in every case, and with the improvements in conveying what is being passed for reality, that’s getting harder every day.

Having said that, it’s plain we are in constant danger of being misled, often in important ways about important subjects, it’s almost as though we have at our fingertips available narratives to support anything we want to believe. That’s where this Bible verse comes in, [ 2 Timothy 2:3,4]: “For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; 4 and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables.” So some people are looking for information they know to be suspect – or outright false – because their sources are saying what they want to hear. As responsible adults, especially as Cristians, we have to make every effort to ensure our information sources are trustworthy – even (and often especially) if they are saying things we don’t like. Are we clicking on a thumbnail because we want to see something that might support some preexisting notion we already have, or are we trying to learn something that might be useful to our Spiritual growth? Do we search the menus for things that might serve to satisfy some carnal craving, some want for gossip, or any other of myriad desires that might impede our Spiritual growth rather than enhance it? It almost requires the wisdom of Solomon to discern the intentions of whichever content we choose before we decide whether or not to watch, read, or listen to it.

There are those who simply advise folks to avoid the internet altogether, and if one doesn’t possess the Spiritual agency to recognize truth from fiction, they may be correct in that advice, but I believe it’s possible to explore the web and find genuine content (like Folkpotpourri) that offers helpful and truthful information for practicing Christians. There are many which produce helpful information for everybody and are not necessarily anti-Christian even if they do provide secular information, such as recipes and how-to hacks for do-it-yourselfers. Then there are the documentary type programs, and it’s among these that we have to be careful, because some of the creators are Satanic and can surreptitiously offer content that may seem on the Spiritual up and up, but to the discerning reader, they can be poison. The only way one may tell what they are reading or watching is toxic is by comparing what they say whenever possible, to the Bible, for it is always the Truth.

If a program, website, or video can be 100% backed up with Scripture, it will be beneficial [2 Timothy 3:16]: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness…” to read (or watch) and heed. One must also be careful to watch out for those servants of malfeasance who manipulate words of Scripture to try and make them appear to say things not intended by the author. This is probably the most irresponsible method of interpretation of the whole Bible, and some folks do it all the time – watch some of the wealthy hucksters that try to pass for ministers, and they do it almost invariably to increase their wealth.

With the advent of artificial intelligence, AI technology and computer graphic imaging (CGI), artificial content can be produced today that in almost every aspect can pass for the real thing, so now we have to be on our toes with what we believe to be true. For example in one case, I watched a video story – obviously AI generated, but nevertheless believable – about a Saudi Arabian airline pilot who was supposedly of the Islamic faith who found his airplane about to crash and kill him and his passengers, so he prayed to Jesus and his plane miraculously was saved and he got into all kinds of trouble with religious authorities when he got home – even ended up in prison. It was a story that any believing Christian would be overjoyed to hear – aside from the prison part – and I even wrote a post on it, but before publishing it I decided to research it a little more thoroughly and to be honest, I only found a couple of other You Tube videos narrating essentially the same story but the pilot had a different name, and no information whatsoever anywhere outside of You Tube. I’m not saying the story is necessarily false, there may be elements of veracity in it and of course, even if it was true the Saudi Arabian government wouldn’t publish any information on such a story, so sources would be expectedly limited, but nevertheless I decided not to publish it. Too much room for it being just a feel-good story for Christian believers but totally false, and on that likelihood, Folkpotpourri did not publish. I have some made-up stories elsewhere on my site, but hopefully they are so obviously made-up that readers know it. If anyone researches the above story and finds anything to verify it, please let me know in comments, I still have the post in draft status and it’s such a great story I’d love to find out it’s true and publish that post on it.

At the end of the day, this writer believes that AI has the potential to be tremendously useful if used for good and decent purposes, but there’s so much room for deceit and disinformation that it can, and probably will be hijacked by nefarious entities for nefarious purposes, and therefore as do all new things with potential, it will become a net misfortune for humanity, possibly even to the point of becoming a fearsome enemy of humanity. In fact, we shouldn’t trust it at all and should warn our fellow travelers not to trust it either. As of this writing, there are some giveaways that reveal most AI productions, some of the repetitious phrasing, video glitches and resolution, repeatedly stumbling over numbers in the script, and so forth, but don’t depend on those to last. AI will continue to be refined until we won’t be able to tell the difference.

I suppose if there is an upside to learning about how we can (and are being) be deceived, all this new information available by all of the various creators of differing political and/or social persuasions has the benefit of providing methodology for us as to how profoundly we have been deceived by our mainstream media over the last decades. At least those who care to know, but unfortunately such information is so unsettling to some folks’ world views, that many choose to ignore it and so will continue to be deceived. But now it’s by their own choice – reality is out there, folks just need to be curious enough to find it. And God once winked at ignorance, but no longer [Acts 17:30]: “Truly, these times of ignorance God overlooked, but now commands all men everywhere to repent…” The apostle in this case was speaking of those who followed after false gods, but the passage can be more broadly interpreted to apply to people believing in things which are not true because they are deceiving themselves intentionally. Fortunately, those who unquestioningly accept everything offered by mainstream news are a dwindling few anymore.

If it ain’t in the Bible, it’s suspect. If it can’t be backed up by Scripture, take it with a grain of salt. If it’s something that doesn’t apply to Scripture, it’s your choice, but be ever discerning.

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

MK

May Peace and Joy to the World Be Upon Us

Manger Wallpapers - Wallpaper Cave

Today is Sunday and we celebrate Christmas in a few days. That is, those of us who believe mankind has the authority to establish holidays that recognize the biggest events in what some of us believers consider to be our history. There are a lot of differing opinions about Christmas, and I completely agree that some humans have twisted the meaning of it to where it’s hardly recognizable as Jesus Christ’s birthday and has instead become another opportunity for the wealthy to exploit folks and increase their wealth. A lot of regular folks seem to have lost what should be the intent too, and get caught up in the lights and decorations, the beautifully wrapped presents, and the air of celebration itself, rather than staying focused on exactly what should be celebrated. Whether or not the date is correct is beside the point.

Many claim there’s evidence that the celebration of Christmas may have some of it’s origins in pagan festivities, and it’s true enough that elves, Santa Claus and decorated trees don’t have much to do with the events surrounding the birth of the Savior of the world, but people have become accustomed to seeing these things at this time of the year, and I really don’t believe most of us are thinking of pagan things. If believers would use this opportunity as a teaching moment – due to Christmas festivities, the subject of Jesus Christ has been broached in a very obvious way – to try and get the message of salvation out to those who do not know Jesus, it might prove to be an excellent time to witness to them. There are many believers who are dead against celebrating Christmas due to what they believe to be pagan beginnings, and I’m not arguing that they’re wrong, it’s just that in the short time we have left to help with the Lord’s harvest in which we are mandated to do, it looks like too much energy is being expended on trying to speak to people against celebrating Christmas. Especially people who aren’t well-versed in Christ’s message.

The nonbeliever doesn’t know enough about religious contention like this to understand such arguments, and even in their ignorance of the meaning they still want to enjoy Christmas festivities, so one of the best ways I know of to turn them off to the idea of serving the Lord is to condemn them for wanting to enjoy the holidays. After all, if someone knows absolutely nothing about Jesus Christ to begin with, and if believers try to start witnessing to them by claiming their participation in Christmas festivities is sinful, it would make it much harder to win them over to Christ.

There’s a good argument to be made that everyone should be apprised that there certainly are behaviors that are unacceptable to those of us who want to please the Lord, but I’m rather skeptical of the notion that recognizing a day that men have set aside to remember the birth of Jesus is necessarily one of them. That is, if we are genuinely out to please Him. We should be willing to shoulder the responsibility to our testimony and use the opportunity this holiday provides to teach folks about who Jesus is and what He means to us – and the whole world.

Image result for free pics of the manger

When Jesus came to this earth, He brought a covenant that men had a tough time learning to accept. Things changed drastically from the way they had been before He was here, and if the truth was known, men are still struggling to deal with those changes. We received authority in the very beginning to manage things on the earth. We were given stewardship, God allowed men to name animals and tame some of them. Mankind was tasked with the responsibility of managing the earth. [Genesis 1:26]:“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

A time came when God saw that men weren’t managing the earth and they kept falling short of living the way He wanted them to, so He sent them His law, through Moses, for guidelines to live lives pleasing to Him, but nobody could even comply with that law and sin continued to abound until God decided to send His Son to the world to take the sin away. At least the sins of those who believe. That’s why we celebrate Christmas; we don’t observe pagan rituals – at least those of us who strive to understand the incredible plan and what it is about. God set up a new covenant through the ministry of Jesus Christ and sent His Holy Spirit to actually dwell in the hearts of men who believed in Jesus. I choose to believe that the Holy Spirit in men of long ago gave them the heart to do many things they had not previously been able to do, such as establish their own days in which they were able to show the world in Whom they placed their trust, and I believe that Spirit also gave men the authority to do so. I also think the problems that arise between people who celebrate Christmas and those who don’t believe in it arise as a result of believing – or doubting – that men have that authority. The New Covenant (of the Holy Spirit dwelling in our hearts) that Jesus established gave us a lot of leeway as far as how we run things (such as establishing nations, governments, and holidays), but He tightened the requirements on our motives and behavior. Some of us get that concept backwards. As long as we are not submitting to pagan gods or beliefs, we are free to set up our own observances without displeasing the Lord. There’s no argument against it. [Colossians 2:16]:“So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths…”

As with every other Godly endeavor of decent men, there was an attempt, actually a largely successful one, by Satan to interfere with it, and now instead of widespread recognition of Jesus, we have a highly commercialized holiday, amenable to making wealthy men (who largely do not know Christ) richer and if there is a perversion of Christmas, that would be it in my opinion. The root of all evil, money, has corrupted the hearts of men so they try and render our holiday into just another cash cow. But we don’t have to acquiesce to sharing their greed, and we can still observe what we like to think of as Jesus’ birthday by praying, exchanging gifts (as examples of brotherly love started by the wise men), and yes, using the Christmas opportunity to witness to folks who enjoy Christmas but might not know much about what it really is.

Image result for free pics of the manger

Even if today’s Christmas celebration had its beginnings in days of some pagan rituals, I like to think faith in Jesus has won all times of observances over to Him and the pagan trappings are no longer in effect. There may be some leftover groups or tribes who still use it as a pagan holiday, but I don’t see any of them around – most of the folks I know celebrate Christmas as the day we recognize the birth of Christ and the pagan part of it is long gone. In fact, recognition and celebration of anything to do with Jesus Christ is in direct opposition to anything pagan. Jesus has been victorious over the hearts of men who have come to see Christmas as a day to celebrate Him. As far as the commercialization and Santa Claus, etc., we don’t have to get involved in all that, but I really think Christians have bigger fish to fry than spending all their time and energy fretting about people recognizing Christmas. We have more important work to do. The harvest is abundant. [Matthew 9:37,38]:“Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. As I said before, we can use Christmas as an opportunity to witness for Christ.

There are growing movements these days of organizations and groups who do not believe in Jesus, some even hate Him and His name. They try incessantly to remove Christ from our lives, there’s nothing they would like better than to see Jesus’ ministry erased from the world and by removing Christmas (properly observed as the day set aside to recognize Jesus Christ’s birth) there would be less opportunity for unbelievers to encounter His name. His name needs to be out there in the world at large as much as possible and if nothing else, Christmas helps to serve this need.

I believe the bottom line is that if you think it’s a sin to celebrate Christmas, then by all means don’t do it, but please allow those who believe they are free to recognize it as the day of Christ’s birth to do so however they see fit within moral bounds. If they are wrong but are sincerely trying to please Him, God will convict each heart.

Image result for free pics of the manger

May the blessings of the Almighty Father find and keep us in this Season of Joy.

MK

The Fiery Voice of the Mountains Calls to Us

300+ Free Volcanoes & Nature Photos - Pixabay

Folks there’s something afoot. Or if you’re willing to suffer a bad pun – underfoot. I’ve been watching some geology news sites, but you don’t have to get every expert’s opinion to get a rudimentary understanding of the incredible contortions the earth is undergoing right now. Since January there have been something like 65 volcanic eruptions from 58 different volcanoes – imagine that! Just in one year, and some of them have been extraordinarily violent. A couple of weeks ago that one in Ethiopia, Hayli Gubbi, erupted; a volcano that had been previously classified as extinct! In scientific geological classifications that means for all intents and purposes – dead. That thing cut loose with a tremendous eruption for the first time in recorded human history after sleeping some 12,000 years – totally unexpectedly.

I’ve mentioned in other posts about the super volcano Campi Flegri showing signs of stirring to life. That one is supposedly capable of serious earth-threatening eruptions and there are about three million people in and around the danger zone. That’s only the people in the immediate area of threat, but if it launches a super eruption, who knows what kind of threat it poses to all of the planet? Campi Flegri sits within a few kilometers of Mount Vesuvius, the big one that wiped out Pompeii and Herculaneum back in 79 A.D. Scientists are now speculating – with good evidence – that both Vesuvius and Campi Flegri are connected in their underground magma plumbing, and there’s evidence that Flegri and Vesuvius have erupted simultaneously in the past, and they think both share a capacious magma chamber so if either of them goes off, there might be a twofer. That would undoubtedly take out the whole area, including the approximately three million people living in and around Naples!

Volcanoes are classified according to their potential for explosive eruptions, presumably based on prior eruptive activity. The scale used is expressed in the volume of material they eject, and they use many inputs to arrive at this. It’s called the Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI)and there are charts to show just how potent their past eruptions have been. The eruption power is calculated using the presumed volume of ejecta and that comes from studying the land strata around the volcano, sometimes the material, or tephra, is even found in other countries even around the world if the eruption was powerful enough. The tuft from given volcanoes has some kind of signature elemental composition so it can be identified as to where it came from.

Volcanoes - frequency and distribution

Using the above chart, you can see that Mt. Saint Helen’s 1980 eruption was classified as a VEI 5, so even though it was colossal to see on video, it’s sort of minor compared to a super volcano like Yellowstone – or Campi Flegri. Campi Flegri is really the one that scientists are concerned about as of now due to the activity – earthquakes, steam vents, and gas content being released from the (growing) number of fumaroles indicate that an eruption may be in the offing sometime soon. The lives of potentially millions of people could be at risk if it goes off in a super eruption. There is the possibility that it might erupt in some less explosive event, say a minor eruption, or even a VEI 1 (notice on the chart VEI 1 is described as “gentle”???), but any eruption at all would threaten hundreds of thousands of people, especially if there was no “warning”.

As far as a warning goes, I can’t think of anything else the Flegrean Fields could possible do, short of announcing it’s intention over a loudspeaker of the precise moment of eruption. Everything a restless volcano can do to indicate an impending eruptive event has been done. Precursory activity including melting roads, buildings so hot they burn your hand, constant earthquake tremors cracking walls and ceilings – all have been going on for a while now. Authorities have understandably been reluctant to sound the evacuation alarm – especially when they have done so in past years when the ground uplift became extreme but nothing happened. Residents left and went to other places only to see that after a while the subsidence reversed and nothing happened. This is the danger of the “boy who cried wolf” attitude of the folks who live there and most of them are willing to gamble that it will once again be a false alarm. But what if it ain’t?

If there is a super eruption at Campi Flegri that kills hundreds of thousands of people, the history books (assuming that the cataclysm doesn’t wipe out humanity – ash clouds creating volcanic winter, etc.) will no doubt be replete with accusations that no one gave the people any warning, or that folks just didn’t understand the magnitude of the threat. Considering the status of events in and around Pozzuoli and the Bay of Naples with the extreme and rapid rate of land rise – there’s actually some areas of boiling water in the bay – and repeated earthquakes, folks, especially folks with kids, need to consider the possibility of existence in some other place. Vesuvius has already taught lessons in Pompeii and Herculaneum of what it can do, but if Flegrei bangs out a super eruption, it’s going to make Vesuvius’ 79 AD event look “gentle”.

There are other considerations regarding all of the volcanoes erupting in the world recently. Maybe the Almighty God has finally decided to deal with a human race that has completely turned away from Him. We are told in the Bible that this age of mankind will end in fire. [2Peter 3:7]:“But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and [b]perdition of ungodly men.” and again in verse 10: But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. and verse 12: looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat?

Peter obviously had been foretold of the coming end of humanity and the very world we live on for he quite plainly said that the world would end in fire. With the simultaneous eruptive activity of all the volcanoes, that might just be the plan. It’s still hard to imagine the heavens being dissolved, but he’s talking about the physical heaven, the sky, rather than the Spiritual Heaven which will never be ended.

When you get time, research the Siberian Traps, a time in geologic history during the Permian/Triassic boundary when the whole world was almost emptied of all life due to monstrous volcano activity in Siberia. The event lasted for two million years! Volcanoes can end the world in a cataclysmic holocaust, and it may just be getting started. This might indeed be the way God chooses to disrupt evil and put an end to a world which has chosen to try to exist without Him.

This old hillbilly has made his choice. [Joshua 24:15]: “And if it seems evil to you to serve the Lord, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the river, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”

No matter how ominous the threat(s) we face in this life – wars, earthquakes, floods, or even these horrible volcanoes – such dire events need be of little consequence to those of us who follow Jesus Christ, for He alone is able to preserve us. We might come to a nasty end on this side, but when we walk through that glorious door, He will be standing there smiling to welcome us to our real home, the one He prepared for us before human time began. He will tell His own [Matthew 25:34: “Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: ” And for those of us who believe, we have nothing at all to fear, He already conquered death, so even though in this upside down life we’re conditioned to believe we should fear it, it is not a threat to us.

There are a lot of terrible things happening in the world around us – the prophets told us it would be this way; Jesus and the apostles said these days would come upon us. Do not be alarmed nor afraid. When Jesus Christ has your back, you’re going to be ok, just keep the faith; spread the Word – He is coming back (I believe very soon), so be ready. Bring as many with you as will come, right now that’s our main focus: [Matthew 9:37,38]: “Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.” He’s sending us right now. We gotta be those laborers! Forget worldly pursuits and everything else – time is short! The mountains are starting to bubble up. Let’s find as many of His sheep as we can round up. Share this post anywhere you think it might do some good.

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

MK

It’s Getting Cold Out There

It’s a quiet and foggy early morning here in the Ozarks with temperatures low enough to cause what we call an ice fog. When these get heavy enough, they leave one of the most spectacularly beautiful wintry scenes you’ll ever see. The trees, mostly barren by now are left with a fluffy coat of rime along every branch and twig and somehow it looks and feels lighter and whiter than you’d expect. The scene feels accentuated by it’s utter silence – it causes one to reminisce – at least for me it does – imagining past times during which these old trees stood and watchfully grew, of winters of yesteryear posing for now as rest stops for red birds and jays during their endless frolics as their tiny wings slice through a brooding icy silence.

An ice storm from a few years ago

Today’s ice fog doesn’t seem to be a very heavy one, but the heaviness of my heart makes up for it because the folks that run this old world we live in have developed some awful problems and it doesn’t look like they’re going away. It just seems like every single day arrives with a whole new set of problems and they all just keep piling up. We’re in a big old ship that’s headed for some serious rocks, and no one seems to be steering it. It’s going to be a mighty cold wreck when we crash, and no one is trying to prevent it.

As of today, our leaders are determined to start a new war down in Venezuela. They keep spouting some nonsense about “narco-terrorists” – I mean just stop and give that some consideration, just for a second. What is a narco-terrorist? Remember Iraq? They had to come up with an evil-sounding name for that “enemy” and since the Iraq military had been destroyed but there were still many new foes but not in uniform so instead of admitting the US was slaughtering and/or torturing civilians, they started calling them enemy combatants, as if this new designation somehow made it more legal to massacre them. Made it acceptable to torture them in Abu Ghraib and Gitmo. Folks, we are living in some evil times and the spooky demons behind our government are unimaginably evil.

There will be no peace in this world until Jesus comes back or until the US and Israeli governments are totally neutralized. Personally, I like the former option – just imagine, real justice here on this earth like there has never been since mankind was put in charge. Everyone, and I mean everyone is by now trying to come to ways to cope with the things we’re facing, but hardly anyone is able to discern what is honestly happening – that Satan is in near complete control of all the world’s governments. People – human beings – are being mercilessly slaughtered right out in the open and the whole world stands by and does nothing. If you haven’t concluded yet – Jesus is our only hope!

Those leaders who have sold their souls dare not raise their voice because of their despicable moral failings have set them up for blackmail, or just as bad, they’ve sold out for wealth – wealth that will never fill the void left from their soul’s departure. People like you and me are powerless to stop the incredible evil that has permeated all of the earth. We can but protest in whatever ways the Lord provides and we must. We must speak out against what we’re seeing lest we become viewed as complicit in these great atrocities orchestrated by the demons of hell.

There was a very famous person who made her bones in the media industry who just a few days ago not only expressed support for that now infamous “double tap” strike on hapless survivors of one of the Venezuelan boats, but she said she was disappointed that they were not made to suffer enough before they died! Folks, this kind of stuff ain’t right – not at all, and if any of my readers share her sentiments, I feel sorry for your eternal future. There are so many things wrong with this situation on so many levels that we need to start praying fervently for ourselves, our families, and our nation.

The Almighty God, who created us in His image is not going to stand by a lot longer and watch this inexplicable evil – this monstrous attitude that it’s ok, even fun – to watch people suffer and die. That it’s ok if we have to support governments (including our own) who operate torture prisons and perform the most heinous, despicable, evil acts on captured and helpless individuals! People in one country actually staged protests in defense of prison operators who routinely assault prisoners by sodomizing them with brooms! These were civilian protesters who were appalled and aghast that these demons were threatened with accountability. This world is in some big trouble when God raises His hand against the servants of Satan doing things like that and I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes. I’m afraid of the wrath of God that is coming upon the whole world because of this mass stampede to rampant evil.

It’s not ok to kill men on boats just because you came up with an evil-sounding name for them. It’s the epitome of evil to say – on public airways that those guys should have been made to suffer more – that lady should be immediately castigated and disowned by all God-fearing people of this country. That’s absolutely as evil as anything the Nazis did or said, and they’re supposed to be our measuring stick for atrocious behavior. Whatever you do, don’t look past things like this – these words and actions are what are going to bring the wrath of God upon this world! And it ain’t going to be pretty!

A few years ago there was a plane shot down, if my memory isn’t failing too much, I think it was over in Afghanistan. in which a high-ranking CIA guy was killed. I got a mental image of that story in the Bible of the great battle when Michael and the angels fought against, and ultimately cast Satan out of Heaven and onto the earth. In my mind’s eye, that was what happened. A demon fell to earth. Intelligence agencies around the world are Satan’s police departments, they are merchants of falsehoods and I believe if a person goes to work for any of them, he/she has to sell their soul up front, and then they are given control – of people, of governments, of the operations of the whole world, and they have taken control to the extent that Jesus is the only One who will be able to stop them, but He will! That’s why the leaders of the world are out to get Christians, they know Jesus Christ will be their downfall, so the dragon is enraged and has set out to try to destroy the woman (the Church), but take heart, he never will do it. Hence the rage – he knows his time is short.

Indeed, take heart you who follow the Truth – the only thing the enemy can take from us is a little bit of time we might have remaining on this earth, which by now has become so disgusting to live on that they don’t even realize they would actually be doing us a favor. When they take our money or property, they are only taking something that’s temporary – it wasn’t ours in the first place and they won’t be taking it with them where they’re going for sure. That causes Satan even more consternation and rage when we are no longer afraid of him and his demons, he loses the only thing he ever had over us – fear. Jesus said not to fear them [Matthew 10:28]: “
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” and [John 16:33]: “These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”

Be of good cheer. Remember, even though things sometimes look hopeless, if it wasn’t possible to have courage, Jesus wouldn’t have advised us to do so. He didn’t – and doesn’t – waste His Words!

I’m going back outside into the cold fog to watch the bluebirds and meditate on His blessings while we still have them.

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

MK

When Evil Becomes a Way of Life

What is the enemy of mankind up to? How can he possibly benefit from exposing his malevolence to the world? It would seem that open genocide or totally obvious lying during speeches with every sentence of every breath would cause consternation in his target audiences, and at first it does, but his real goal is the devious process of normalizing the atrocious behavior we are witnessing. Horrible things like slaughter and starvation of little kids which yesterday were unimaginably evil are today not only being done out in the open for all to see, but the public is steadily becoming inured to it.

As of now, the news networks report on distractions of all sorts instead of jumping on stories of evil soldiers shooting little children, news stories of crimes and horrors which just a few years ago – maybe just a few days ago – would have burned the headlines with calls for the heads of those responsible. Now as these malevolent acts take place, we hear of poll results and prospects for some future election – we hear of some court decision or political action, and of course, the ubiquitous 3I Atlas (Comet, Meteor, UFO mother ship, etc.) but our press carefully skirts all the issues that address the real evils of the world. So what’s the plan?

By ignoring most of the vileness of certain governments and the obvious acts of terror they engage in, these monstrous acts are being allowed to fester into unthinkable malevolence served only as a news side dish if at all. The aim is to get everyone used to their dirty work, teach us to become accustomed to atrocity so the shock value is no longer present and thus isn’t a deterrent, i.e., not a newsworthy happening. People’s hearts are becoming calloused, learning to accept that which once blanched the soul.

What was not so long ago considered to be insidious, things like the most depraved of sexual immorality has become just more items on the menu of the internet, not to be considered vile and repugnant behavior to be avoided lest we offend the Creator. Consideration of the desires of the Creator no longer seem to be relevant to our life choices. This will come back to bite in the most horrific way unless we can develop the momentum to return to our Spiritual guidance.

This article is intended to speak (loudly) to all who profess to be believers in Christ – do not allow the evil of the world to become commonplace in your thoughts. Continue to regard it for the departure from decency that it is. Just because the cold-blooded murder of children has happened, and is happening, do not allow it to set some kind of twisted precedent that has somehow become “normal”, and thus no longer an indictment of those who follow such malevolent and demonic ways. Do not come to accept any facet of this behavior as normal or allowable as human behavior.

Just because sexual immorality has become a way of life in most social circles, do not think that makes it somehow acceptable in God’s eyes, because it is not, nor will it ever be! Any departure from one’s Spiritually ingrained morality, that which has been learned over the centuries from the Bible, is never to be allowed into our thoughts and behavior. If we purport to be in the service of our King, we cannot, we must not give quarter to such vileness – even if it continues for a thousand years and becomes not only tolerated but instituted as normal. It is not! Nor is it to be ignored – we must use whatever platform(s) at our disposal to ensure our fellow travelers do not become inured and tolerant of such behavior – no matter how it comes packaged.

If you’ve been watching the enemy and consider yourself onto his wiles, pay close attention to the in-your-face evil taking place – right out in the open nowadays. Such irreverence used to be kept secret, but no longer. He’s preparing the world of men to start considering this behavior to be the new normal. He’s trying to get us to the point where our whole society not only accepts his evil ways, but by seeing that there are no repercussions for the actors, some undoubtedly choose to participate in them. Don’t fall for it, no matter how “normal” it becomes! We are taught to stay on the straight path, not looking to either side. There are things going on now – and it’s going to get worse – that Christians have no part in; stay away from such depravity; never accept such as normal – they are not!

Another, less obvious trap the enemy is preparing is to capture men by creating hatred in the hearts of otherwise good people – by causing them to see and be repelled by the very behavior they detest and then allowing it to fester into hatred of those who are engaged in it. It’s okay to hate the behavior, but not the people doing it. [Revelation 2:6]: “But this you have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate”. Jesus said the deeds, not the people themselves. If we allow our hearts to be turned to hatred of others, the same enemy wins, so avoid his snares. He’s had thousands of years to design ways to steal men’s souls. The only sure-fire way to defeat his schemes is to walk in the presence of One who is able to defeat him – Jesus Christ – if you haven’t made peace with Him – our greatest Ally – I strongly advise you to learn of Him and accept His offer of protection. There is no other way to defeat this malevolent entity that is out to destroy mankind and everything we hold sacred. There’s simply no other way – don’t wait around until it’s too late.

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

MK

You Bet Thanksgiving is Important!

Image result for thanksgiving images of pilgrims and indians

Are we obliged to thank God for His Providence towards us? Well, I guess if that’s the way one chooses to frame it, then there may be more than one answer and yes or no don’t quite make muster as an acceptable answer at all. If we see giving thanks as an obligation, then we obviously miss the point.

When our Heavenly Father bestows a blessing on us, we need first of all to recognize the blessing as such. For instance, I grew up in a poor household and for much of my life I regarded our poverty as some kind of curse which obviously didn’t merit any gratitude. As I’ve come of age (and by now have become somewhat overripe), it has occurred to me that living as one of the poor of the earth was indeed a blessing of the highest order! Look at what Jesus said: [Luke 6:20]: “Then He lifted up His eyes toward His disciples, and said: “Blessed are you poor, For yours is the kingdom of God.” How can being dirt poor and having to struggle to get by possibly be a blessing? Well, to start with, we learned compassion for our fellow travelers who were needy because we have walked that walk. Our family was very close with relationships born of mutual hardships – relationships that still bind us today as we grow into the autumn years of our lives.

We learned to appreciate neighbors who were willing to lend a hand and thus became those same neighbors to others. We learned to appreciate the genuine grace of God that was ours as we watched folks who lived better financially and how in many instances their prosperity deprived them of the will, or even the ability to appreciate Him.

I remember being a little barefoot ragamuffin in the early springtime and how wonderful the new clover felt on my feet – kids with shoes didn’t experience that, so how could they develop those kinds of fond memories that I’ve carried all my life? My point is that though many – ok most – aspects of growing up poor were significant trials, after everything is said and done, God has grace me with uncountable richness, in brotherly love, in precious and much beloved memories I would never have in my heart, in appreciation for God’s abundant grace and inestimable wisdom – He knew all along what He was developing and later on He gave me the wisdom to understand how it all came together and that it was indeed a blessing – now that I’m able to look back on my youth from an aspect beyond the hard times.

So do I thank Him for the tough years we went through? Absolutely! I wouldn’t trade one of my memories of my precious family living in that old house with crumbling wallpaper, eating macaroni and home-canned tomatoes made with bone broth from cracked and broken crock plates, having to draw water from an old cistern with a rope and rusty pulley. Most poor folks back in those days kept a metal bucket on the kitchen counter with an old dipper in it. When someone was thirsty, they just picked up that dipper and dipped out a drink from the bucket and drank from it. Even people who came by from a different family. That’s just how things worked back then for poor folks. We all obviously shared the same germs, but rarely got sick (another blessing?) Those recollections are a big part of who I am and who I hope to still be when this old ticker goes still. Perfect? Not at all, but He knows my heart, and in the final judgement, that’s the most important thing.

Among the blessings we received but did not recognize as such, there are those obvious ones. We have no excuse for not being appreciative for those. Jesus encountered ten guys who had leprosy and healed all of them, but afterwards only one of them, a Samaritan no less, came back to thank Him. [Luke 17:17]: “So Jesus answered and said, “Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine? 18 Were there not any found who returned to give glory to God except this foreigner?” 19 And He said to him, “Arise, go your way. Your faith has made you well.” Even Jesus Christ Himself considers thanksgiving to be giving glory to God!

Our Lord knows all, and He obviously recognizes gratitude for His kindness and blessings. For the obvious ones in real time and for the long term ones that we don’t regard as blessings when they are happening, but come to understand later. I think those ones are the most significant to our Spiritual development and thus are the ones we should be thankful for the most.

In any case, and I’m writing this as one who sometimes forgets to acknowledge and thank Him appropriately (and in a timely manner), we need to make sure we properly thank God for His mercy and grace in our lives. We should never miss that opportunity to go back and thank Him even in those times we forgot or overlooked earlier, because of his unfathomable love for us, He will forgive our ignorance. The thing is, we have to actually appreciate Him in our hearts, because that’s the place He is interested in.

This Thanksgiving Day when we say our prayers, let’s make it a point to pray from our heart and soul, Jesus said [Matthew 5:8]: “Blessed are the pure at heart, for they shall see God” so He knows whether or not we’re being sincere or are just completing a step in the holiday checklist.

God bless all and Happy Thanksgiving!

MK

The Difference is God’s Love

Sometimes it looks as though people who do not know Jesus Christ are avoiding Him on purpose, maybe it’s because some of us who claim to be believers show such a terrible witness. The non-believer sees the high and mighty televangelists grifting the public and the pews full of hypocrites and makes a conscious decision to avoid association with them lest others think the same of them. It’s a shameful indictment of our belief system that some use it for pecuniary gain or some perceived social status as they turn up their noses to those who Jesus came to save.

We who have chosen the narrow Way are up against a lot of inherent obstacles trying to convince folks we have chosen the right path and that they should join us but having to overcome the image created by the hypocrites make it much more of an uphill climb. If non-believers were actually shown an accurate view of who Jesus was and what He taught, it would be a lot easier, but we have to battle against the false witnesses of fake Christians who distort Christianity to the extent that most non-believers don’t want anything to do with Jesus and that’s a shame. Some of them like to teach that serving Jesus is a really tough thing to do so they can feel smug about themselves as though they were doing a lot of heavy lifting, but in fact living for the Lord isn’t hard at all if you really want to do so and for the right reasons.

Jesus Christ was an extraordinary Being who came into this world on a mission that few can grasp. In His short time here in the flesh He taught humanity profound lessons, the veracity of which has endured through millennia, and these instructions are as valid today as they were in His time. They shall endure forever, for His Word is timeless. [Matthew 24:35]: “Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.” He taught us the importance of growing out of this fleshly human condition and into the Spiritual existence, and even unbelievers are normally able to understand the existential improvement to humanity of a life spent doing good and loving others over a wasted life of greed and immorality.

Jesus’ love for human beings was nothing short of remarkable. Even as his executioners were murdering Him, His overriding concern was for their salvation as He petitioned God to forgive them because they had no idea what they were getting themselves into. [Luke 23:34]: “Then Jesus said, “Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.” And they divided His garments and cast lots. We mortals cannot possibly relate to that kind of love – they were killing Him, yet He pleaded for their forgiveness from God. We can learn to love like that, but only through the Holy Spirit.

We all have our detractors and tormentors of one kind or another but how many of us can honestly say that we have the capacity, not only to forgive them, but to actually love them from our heart? When we set out to follow Jesus, we must commit to doing our utmost to do just that, and that’s a profound commitment. It may be difficult, but it’s not impossible, because if it was impossible Jesus would never have told us to do it. [Matthew 5:43-48]:“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. …”

I guess what this post is saying is that what separates the true followers of Jesus from unbelievers and hypocrites is the capacity for loving others, just as our Lord Jesus did. When the non-believer sees us showing that kind of love to one another, they cannot but understand that we are different from what they have seen in the phony congregations of the false prophets. When we demonstrate God’s love for one another and even love for our enemies, they realize there’s more to true faith than what they have been led to believe and thus are more apt to be receptive to our Spiritual beliefs.

Keep up the good work fellow travelers, and if you are reading this post and have not come yet to Jesus, by all means look into learning about Him. This world’s condition should be revealing to you by now that human beings do not have the answers. We’re sinking in this world of increasing evil and there’ll never be any going back, not even to the way our world was last year; last month; even yesterday. He’s the only answer – don’t wait until it’s too late to learn that. Everyone will learn it one way or another. Get on the right side of things today. We’ll all land safely on the other side in His keep. Count on it.

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

Reject the Drive-Thru Life of the Rich

When we look at the condition of the world today and how everyone – especially the rich everyones – are behaving themselves, all of them trying so desperately to get a leg up on everyone else, we get some notion of what it must be like for a bunch of scroungy vultures gathered around the skeleton of some rotting carcass with a precious few scraps of hard-to-get-at sinew left on it.

For all of my adult life, I’ve considered the wealth and means of the country to be like a big pie with enough shares for everyone, but there are always those who believe for whatever reason that they deserve more than the next guy. They fight like cats and dogs over – not just what might rightfully be due to them – every bit of the pie they can get their greedy claws on – using whatever means at their disposal to get as much of everyone else’s as they can lay claim to. They call it Capitalism but never doubt – it’s premised on evil [1 Timothy 6:10]: “For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil, for which some have strayed from the faith in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Problem with these types is that while everyone else is out earning their pieces of the available resources, the greedy refuse to do anything to earn any of the pie, they slink into dark places and plot malicious schemes to steal whatever they can. They use their wealth to purchase lawmakers to legislate any and every piece of nefarious lawfare that can give them an advantage to get ahead. I remember when big insurance set out to make automobile liability insurance mandatory. When that garbage was going on, I remember being (uselessly) irate but found myself fighting against everyone – even friends and family – trying to get them to see what a travesty this was. Folks would argue about those poor people they heard about who got their car totaled in a crash by some (you name the minority) with no insurance. These people were the early iterations of Tea Partiers or MAGA types who were – and are – so easily propagandized, and readily jump on board any wagon which allows them an avenue to express their racism and/or stinginess.

I think it was the first time the government got away with mandating that citizens do business with private companies, and I still think it was and is wrong. See I felt, and feel, that if the state should mandate we have insurance, the state should provide it so the profits could be realized by the taxpayers and not some rich corporate political donors, but we all see what happened. By the way it’s not too late to fix that. I have three vehicles of which I can only drive one at a time, so why do I have to insure all of them? Why can’t I just get a policy on myself?

Big insurance is but one of a myriad of lobbies that purchase their own lawmakers (and thus laws), and there are some worse than insurance corporations. The one thing they all have in common is their insatiable greed for what has now become a very few remaining crumbs of the pie. They all see that there’s very little left; it’ll all be gone and there is a horrible battle shaping up for what’s left, but each of them only thinks of themselves and what they individually can get for themselves alone and to heck with everyone else, hence the vulture analogy. A big part of the problem is that each of them think this way and act as though they are unaware the others are all of the same mind as they are. They are getting set up for a frightful melee over the shrinking remnants!

What a miserable existence that must be for the greedy folks of the world! Some of them have connections to government officials like the greedy hedge fund manager who’s a buddy of Scott Bessent, the Secretary of the Treasury and found himself overinvested in Argentina’s stock market which was going under – no problem, Scott got Trump to cut a check to Argentina for around 40 billion dollars so his rich associate (and undoubtedly others of the same ilk) wouldn’t lose his shorts. American tax money (debt) going to cover private investors’ gambling debts because they have buddies in the administration! How is that legal??!! I wonder how much of that cash will end up in Scott’s account? Or Trump’s for that matter.

Us Christian folks can only watch on as these crooks dig themselves a dark tunnel into a dark place where they’ll spend their afterlife, so by no means envy them for their wealth! This stage of the journey is VERY temporary and it’ll come to a close way too soon for them. Ask Sheldon Adelson; ask Dick Cheney: for crying out loud, even the richest of the greedy, Jacob Rothschild, has come to a dark close! All for a few short years of having equally corrupt people fawning over them and their opulent lifestyles. And now for them it’s time to pay the piper. What I can’t figure out for the life of me is how on earth all of the ones that are still living can’t – or won’t – see what they are headed for. Such is the allure of Satan’s promises, but alas for them when their time in the flesh is over!

Those of us who put our trust in the Lord Jesus Christ take a completely different approach to our choices. Jesus promises us an unimaginably joyous and magnificent afterlife, if we but forego the temptations of what we might otherwise (erroneously) consider happiness here on earth. We trade any and all desire for wealth and its attendant immorality in this life for Jesus’ love and what awaits us on the other side. Speaking for myself, I’ve come to realize that comfort and wealth in this life ain’t what it’s built up to be anyways. There was an old song a long time ago, “A Satisfied Mind” that had a line about there not being one rich man in ten with a satisfied mind, and I’d wager there’s an even lower percentage than that, but everyone has their own battles, and I guess there’s a way for them to just carry on and not think about the cost, the tab they’ll someday be faced with.

Jesus said [Luke 6:24]: “But woe to you who are rich, For you have received your consolation.” Whatever wealth, pomp, fancy ballrooms, or palaces they might enjoy for this short life, they have to make the most of it, because when the fat lady sings, it’s all over. And the enemy of mankind, who gave it all to them will be cast into the same lake of fire with them – for all eternity. Don’t be fooled, that evil enemy hates us for what we have waiting versus what he has in store.

I’m reminded of the story Jesus told of the souls of the rich man and the poor beggar Lazarus in the next life. [Luke 16-31] As Jesus described the situation, the rich guy was in eternal torment and Lazarus was in glorious comfort in the bosom of Father Abraham. The rich guy was begging and pleading with Abraham to send Lazarus to him with water, even just a drop that might ease his torment. Abraham basically reminded him of their situations in life and how he had lived in luxury and Lazarus had been a beggar so they each were getting what they deserved, and besides God had so arranged a great gulf between their locations no one could cross – NO ONE, NO HELP COULD EVER COME TO HIM FOR ALL ETERNITY! The guy was begging and pleading but it was too late! Never again to see or taste even a drop of water, forever! The unfortunate fellow did not avail himself of God’s offer of salvation and rid himself of his wealth and take up the cross when there was still time – now be honest – have you?

Another thing I thought was interesting about this story was that the narrator (Jesus) never mentioned anything specific that the rich man had done to deserve eternal punishment, just that he had been rich and “fared sumptuously every day” in his former life. It almost appears that being rich itself is damnable, but then when you stop to consider all the evil things that rich people do to get rich in the first place, it’s no wonder.

If you are a believer, just hang on. We have something wonderful waiting on the other side. Jesus has personally prepared our mansions! [John 14:2,3]: “In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. What an absolutely incredible promise!

Maybe y’all have seen some of the James Webb telescope pictures of the magnificent beauty of some of the stars, nebulas, novae and galaxies, but from the miniscule amount of celestial magnificence we are able to see, if Heaven is going to be anything like this, it’s gonna be a gorgeous place indeed. But according to the apostle Paul, we haven’t seen anything close the real thing yet. [1 Corinthians 2:9]: “But as it is written: “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.” Those beautiful pictures of the universe can’t even capture it! It’s going so resplendent as to be indescribable with human words! The president can keep that pathetic ballroom.

If you haven’t put your trust in Jesus, by all means, look into what He offers – it’ll be worth your time in the end. The time is getting short. Look at the signs – devastating wars loom which threaten be more destructive than anything in history. Volcanoes which have been dormant, some considered extinct, waking up all over the world. In fact a new one, dead for ten thousand years, just erupted in Ethiopia yesterday. Campi Flegrei in Italy is awakening ominously, and it could be a world changer! So many harbingers. Lots of big churches full of hypocrites are shutting down – only a few with true followers left. We find ourselves heading down that difficult road to the narrow gate where we’ll finally get to see our Shepherd Who waits for us. Time to get right with the Lord, folks, it’s almost over down here.

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

MK

Now Gather the Dark and Gloomy Clouds of Winter

Us country folks that love the Lord have gold that wealthy men can only dream about!

Today looks to be the first actual day of fall. We’ve had temps in the 60s and 70s almost every day till now, but the high today might not get out of the thirties. Summer is definitely coming to a close, but the way our world is rapidly shaping up to come to some staggering changes that aren’t related to the changing seasons. I firmly believe this is going to be a surprising and sobering change for many of us.

I just watched a video produced by one of the alarmist commentators trying to wake people up about how far down the rabbit hole the would-be controllers of society have gone in their attempts to gain control of everything. Were I not a fervent believer in the absolute power of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, I might even be afraid. These guys have installed software that can monitor everything – they even have things that can monitor communications that are supposed to be encrypted by grabbing it before you hit the “send” button, which of course is in it’s raw and unencrypted form because it doesn’t get encrypted until it hits the ethosphere. There’s so much more.

This is all the work of Satan, the ancient enemy of God and those of us He has created in His image who follow in the steps of Jesus Christ. Satan has had thousands of years to concoct these plans, which only today are we seeing come to fruition, and to be honest, lots of Christians are being taken by surprise, but if you stop and consider the reality of what we are up against, you shouldn’t be.

I’m doing this post with the apprehension that Satan’s plan is about to be finished on this earth for better or worse. Worse, absolutely for all who are not under the protection of the mighty hand of God, even though some appear to believe that things are happening which reveal some of the enemy’s plots and that with that knowledge, humanity can somehow defeat him. This is an erroneous assumption and the apparent revelation of his presumed scheme is a big part of the deception. For instance, everyone sees Zionism seemingly coming apart, especially here in America, and therefore believe and it will be upended and when it is overthrown things can get better. If the yoke of Zionism and its attendant evils, such as genocide, such as its billionaire control of the American government will be taken away, then America will regain control of government decisions, foreign policy, banks, etc., and indeed this seems to be happening, but don’t get too excited. Satan is likely demonstrating that he is finished using the Zionists, and their part of the plot is finished, and he certainly has no qualms about throwing those guys who he brought to power under the bus in order to emphasize his deception.

There will be a new twist, as there always is, but Satan’s new approach this time will be to deceptively go after Christians. He will use this new universal repulsion of Zionism to fester into hatred of the woman referenced in Revelation, count on it. Jesus Christ is his enemy – not Buddha, not Mohammed, not the “Christian” Zionist churches – they are all right where he wants them and pose no threat to his plans. The dragon will come after the woman, which for those who don’t already know it, is Jesus’ church. [Revelation 12:13,17]: “Now when the dragon saw that he had been cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman who gave birth to the male Child.” [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.” In all of this, the Christian must be careful that the hatred for the Zionist people that Satan is fomenting doesn’t find its way into your heart – that’s also an intentional part of the plan.

I did a post a while back about what the great war of the Angels must have been like: Epic Battles for Eternity – Folk Potpourri. I tried to explain what I imagined the great and destructive conflagration might have looked like – a great and mighty war which ended in the rebalancing of all creation. The end result was that Satan was cast out of Heaven, an event which itself must have been a cosmic earthquake, and which set the course of events for the ensuing history of the earthly and the Spiritual world. These events were and are completely guided (as far as humans are concerned) by the burning hatred for all things and entities Godly by the now earthbound dragon. He obviously did not like losing his place, high up in the elite ranks of God’s paradise, and in his rage, he set about trying to destroy God’s creation, which as of the last couple of thousand years, has been under the stewardship of Jesus Christ and His followers.

Satan is indeed blinded by rage, he doesn’t possess Godly wisdom, but he isn’t without knowledge. He well understands the desires and lusts of men – the obvious chaos America is in right now as a result of men’s moral weakness, aka the Epstein saga, being front and center evidence of Satan’s machinations. He also understands men’s weakness for wealth and fame. Again – look at the political situation in the US. One thing I don’t believe most folks realize is the depth of Satan’s outright hatred of everyone – even his most loyal followers. He doesn’t mind throwing the synagogue under the bus, in fact, I believe he delights in it. He most likely sees them as getting what they deserve for claiming the title of God’s chosen – albeit falsely – and exacts a big part of his revenge on them.

If Satan is such a devious and evil entity that he has no problem turning on his loyal followers, just imagine what he would like to do to those of us who follow his most hated enemy! That would be faithful followers of Jesus Christ. Christians have been beheaded, thrown to hungry lions, burned at the stake, and I’m sure dealt similarly with in ways we don’t even know about down through the years. But he has never defeated one of them! Being expelled from this world of evil and sent to the great Paradise where the Lord reigns is not defeat by any stretch. Jesus’ true people understand this and are thusly unafraid of Satan. It is the people who Satan is NOT coming after that should be afraid, for after this brief stint of human existence, the real vengeance will occur, and it will last forever! And it will be God’s vengeance, a truly terrible and dreaded situation indeed.

We might be facing a nuclear holocaust, super volcanoes may erupt, 3I Atlas might be full of marauding aliens, who knows what kind of celebration Satan has in store for his great departure into the lake of fire? What we need to be concerned is that we won’t follow him there. The ONLY people on this earth right now who have no need to fear all of the possible upcoming catastrophes are those who love the Lord and who follow our great Shepherd, Jesus Christ, and to y’all I say Hang in There! [Matthew 10:28]; “And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.” If all you can grab is the hem of His garment, grab it – and hang on with all you’re worth, it’ll be worth it in the end.

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