This is the first post of Folkpotpouri.com of this, the 2026th year of our Lord. Since we all seem to be surrounded with turmoil and a generally bleak outlook left over from last year, I hope to share a generous portion of the hope with which I awakened today. This new year is the beginning of a new time, and it might just be the one we servants of Jesus have long anticipated, a year in which our hopes in the blessed promises we have been given will reveal themselves to be materializing. Indeed, there are portents of marvelous times ahead, possibly this very year, (who knows?) times that faithful servants can realize God’s grace in ways we haven’t heretofore experienced.
Pray then, for the Lord to shower His blessings upon us this year – moreso in the ominous dark days ahead than in past times wherein we found ourselves wanting, both in our servitude to Him and in withheld prosperity because of our shortcomings. Pray that He will examine our hearts and see that our faith and hopes have waxed sincere and that we might approach His throne with pure hearts – and in the obeisance required of faithful servants to participate in His Kingdom; that the abundant blessings of His majestic Providence might shower our new year like never before as the determined enemy spares no effort to force our capitulation into hopelessness.
As we step out into this new world of 2026, into the frosty, wintry day beginning this phase of our journey, let us realize that this episode is not our destiny, but is merely the next step down the pathway that leads us home. The mansion of splendor Jesus is preparing for us awaits across that river we will cross at the end of this stage, and what a Day that will be! Keep that hope in mind and at heart as you take this next step, and never forget, not even for a moment that the Lord Jesus Christ walks beside you with each and every step of the journey – after all, it is He that prepares our mansion so that wherever He is, we may be with Him there, therefore He is with us, His chosen now, in these days while we are still here.
2026 brings us yet closer to our home for which we long with heartfelt sincerity, let’s take it on with a refreshed hope, indeed, that hope which cannot be taken from us as long as we hold onto the hem of His garment. So by all means, hold onto Him and do not allow this merciless enemy to convince you to let go, not in 2026, not ever! If you do not know Jesus yet, let 2026 be the year you come to Him – He’s just outside the door after all.
May the blessings of the Almighty Father find and keep us through another – hopefully wonderful – year.
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.
It is with sincerest respect and praise that I call upon Lord on this dreary grey October morning. I do not ask nor expect Him to lift my spirit for as I gaze to the majestic golden hickory of autumn, it comes to me that the somber mood within which I am beset creates a condition for fellowship that might not otherwise be attained.
Silent raindrops strew the tiniest of dark impressions on the brown jacket I’m wearing and also mingle with my tears, surely diluting the silent rivulets on my cheeks, but not for even a moment lessening the heaviness on my soul. As I approach a copse of great oaks so bold as to remain verdant as they stood midsummer, my mind is in bleakest mourning for a soul mate, no, two soul mates I was compelled to surrender back to the Almighty three weeks ago. Much of my heart went with them, yet somewhere in the depths of this solemnity, I understand. I understood for the whole of their time with me, but as is wont for the human psyche, that understanding was kept buried, as now they lie under the rain-soaked fallow hickory sentinels interred beneath, never again to romp through the wood, now somber and silent as if to join in my melancholy.
My old faithful girl, Dusty was ever at my side for the better part of fourteen years. Her closeness was constant so that it now feels as though some great and silent emptiness tears at my mind. An October chill wraps itself around my being as I scroll through memories of her – kissing me always on the mouth. If you wanted a kiss from Dusty, you had to prepare yourself for her style. She was the closest friend – no, family member – I’ve ever had and the loss is near unbearable. When God allows us to love, when we are blessed with His love and have it in our hearts, there is a price to be paid. I find myself for almost a month now remitting that cost. I wouldn’t give up His gift of love though – she didn’t.
Chewy was Dusty’s litter mate, we picked them both when my daughter was mourning the loss of an earlier pet – her name was Mika, and she was only a young pup. Had a disease we didn’t know about until it was too late. I took my daughter to a breeder and she chose Chewy. Dusty was the last one of that litter, and I didn’t want to leave her alone, so I picked her and she turned out to be a huge blessing for me, but I got attached to her brother Chewy almost as much as her. They were together for their entire lives of close to fourteen years, almost to the minute. They were both sick and getting worse by the day and it was a call I knew I had to make – the hardest of my life.
The chilly rain continues to wend its way down the dark boughs of watchful black gum trees as a faint breeze drifts through these wooded hills of autumn as I mournfully reflect. I understand that time alone will heal my loss, but not enough time has passed for the grief to abate much, and in some morbid imagining of guilt for having them euthanized, I continue to punish myself – unfortunately it’s how I’m wired so I’ll have to keep telling myself I did the right thing, but it’s almost impossible to convince myself, such is my misery.
Sorry for the downer of this post, but maybe posting it’ll help my healing. If any of y’all have lost a beloved pet, you’ll know, at least at some level, of what I’m trying to get through. The dreary grey autumn wood reflects my state of mind perfectly, and God understands what I have to deal with, so it’s as if in this moment He has set His creation around here to accommodate my grief – maybe to grieve more deeply and get it over with.
I have to believe those pups are in the hands of Jesus now along with all the other pets I’ve lost through the years. If you’ve had this unfortunate experience, yours are there too. There’s just too much love there to be gone. The Bible doesn’t say a lot about the spirits of animals, but to have experienced how much those old pups loved me – indeed, they taught me a lot about love – I choose to believe they simply had to have spirits and are now in His spirit world.
I’ll probably just amble through the damp, silent woods this afternoon and remember the good times we had together. As the wet-weather creeks slowly fill with rain and spent leaves, at some point I’ll come back inside to a hot cup of coffee and resume enjoying the company of my other pups – two adorable gifts Dusty left me six years ago to remember her by (and I’ve also come to love them dearly). Again, I apologize if this puts you on a downer, but if this doleful eulogy touched you, I hope at least it was in a good way.
We live in a world that has evolved to consider a man’s machismo to be some kind of defining characteristic of his greatness, his ability to lead others. In some sense, I suppose if a people are in a perpetual state of conflict, it might be more desirable to have a warrior as a leader, but if a populace chooses to live in a world where peace reigns, where diplomacy counts for something, then it might be more advantageous to seek leaders who exhibit compassion – even towards adversaries. Besides, there’s nothing that says a man can’t be a warrior and still have love and compassion in his heart.
Most men in our modern societies live in a paradox in which our leaders have come to be seen as great macho he-man types like W Bush in photo ops in a flight suit on a carrier, or out clearing brush with a big stump on his shoulder that probably took several Secret Service guys to lift for the nano second it took to get a photo. Maybe they had early versions of photo edit to fake it, but in any event, W Bush was not a he-man! The paradox is that the fellows who attempt to portray such strength are typically the most feeble and weak among us, but somehow, they are able to portray bravery and/or strength to the extent that many folks actually believe this is who they are. If talking counted, both Bush and Trump would be Arnold Schwarzeneggers, but alas, talking doesn’t count and they are mere mortals. Now without getting too far into the woods, just remember guys like this and their need to appear to be bold warriors when in fact they are just average – or below average – men with image insecurity.
It is precisely a man’s inner fear of being seen as weak and/or vulnerable that inhibits any appearance of compassion from “leaders” who have an innate need to show strength. This is where most of them reveal their true weakness, for if you think about it, our Almighty God Himself isn’t above being seen as compassionate. Indeed, He allows Himself to be described as Love itself. [1 John 4:8]: “He who does not love does not know God, for Godislove.” He who does not love does not know God – what a damnable situation, yet these guys who are afraid of showing love – refrain from such guys precisely because they obviously (and erroneously) regard being compassionate as a sign of weakness.
The Lord Jesus Christ, indisputably the greatest Leader to have ever existed, spoke endlessly of love – love that is needed; no, required, of His followers. Today’s politicians meticulously avoid any mention of love – neither for God nor their fellow humans – I suppose in order to avoid being seen as weak or vulnerable. Yet the prophet Micah said [Micah 6:8]:“He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?” Mercy? Humility? Is mercy what makes the president order missiles to be fired on unidentified boats in the Caribbean? Is humility endlessly boasting of his historical greatness?
Some time ago, this same president and his spooks set up a situation in which they (and other nations/intelligence apparatuses) were able to convince a prominent general in another nation to embark on what he was convinced was to be an important peace mission and when he was travelling to pursue this, he was murdered with an American missile fired on his car. This country was not at war, nor even considering conflict (at least publicly) with that nation at the time. It was cold-blooded murder! There are many people in this country who swear by this man who does such things and still call themselves Christians. Now can you see why at the judgement Jesus will tell those “Christians” to depart from Him because He never knew them? For crying out loud they throw their undying support behind a murderer with no hint of mercy in his heart!
Love is a critical attribute for all of us who serve Christ, though many of us studiously avoid practicing it. Most don’t even want to talk about love. But when our very Creator wishes to be called loving and compassionate, how does being seen to love their fellow human beings detract from one’s purported manhood? Or maybe the dispassionate persecution and slaughter of innocent people are the new macho? In truth, this image is conceived and carried out as a tool of Satan. It is a symptom of hatred, pure and simple. How is sending a bunch of masked, armed goons out to body slam Americans (or anyone else, really) and arrest them with no due process making Donald Trump out to be some kind of valorous hero? I guess if you have enough hate in your heart it might work for you, but I personally believe God created this country for all of His people – no human being or group of human beings own it. It all belongs to God, and we are merely stewards of this part of His creation, and we desperately need to get that through our heads.
The only way anyone is going to get into heaven is for them to learn how to love – their fellow human beings, their fellow Christians, but most importantly, God. In fact, the greatest commandment Jesus gave us was [Mark 12:30]: “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment”. And in another place Jesus says [Matthew 22:37-40]:“Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.This is the first and great commandment.And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Love is indeed a powerful attribute; seek it; if you are lacking, pray for the Spirit to bless you with God’s love. That’s where love comes from. From God Who is love. [2 Thessalonians 3:5]:”Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.
Heaven is going to be a spectacular place, and no doubt enormous, but there ain’t room for anyone there with hatred in their heart. There’s a lot of things that will exclude folks from entering into the Lord’s paradise, but I’m pretty sure hatred ranks among the top, so if anyone is thinking it’s ok to hate on someone because he/she is Latino, African, or Asian, etc., even if they don’t have the proper paperwork, just remember when our ancestors showed up here. They didn’t speak the language, they didn’t have citizenship, but they made themselves at home here, didn’t they? In short, you have no agency to claim to be Christian if you believe God is going to overlook racism and hatred, even for those “illegally” here. [Malachi 3:5]:”And I will come near you for judgment; I will be a swift witness Against sorcerers, Against adulterers, Against perjurers, Against those who exploit wage earners and widows and orphans, And against those who turn away an alien— Because they do not fear Me,” Says the Lord of hosts.
Unlike hatred, love doesn’t make you old before your time. Love doesn’t interfere with your peace. Love provides fertile soil to grow lasting friendships. Love also covers a multitude of sins – nothing else in all of creation can do that.
If you harbor hate, repent of it now and learn about love – don’t wait until it’s too late – in any event, you will surely learn it. The bravest and most heroic of men are made complete when they practice love and compassion. That’s what “men of good heart” means.
May the blessings of the Almighty Father find and keep us.
Lots of things happening in this old world these days and it’s looking more and more like everything’s coming to a head and rapidly so. We’re looking at shades of evil right out in the open that could cause nightmares for the stoutest of hearts. The Lord told us we were in for some hard times but I don’t think any of us could have imagined how the hard times would manifest to be. Rather than be taken aback however, by the way things are going, Christians must step up and exhort one another, we have to show our faith and try as best we can to allow the peace of Jesus Christ to rest upon us. He mentions the patience of the saints in the context that we will see the terrible things that the servants of the enemy are doing [Revelation 13:10]: “He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of the saints.” but stay away from them.
It’s a tough row to hoe if we’re trying to endure the evil that’s upon us without the help and guidance of the Holy Spirit, in fact, it’s impossible to keep our hopes up without His help while watching the cruelty of our fellow human beings – those who’ve cast their lot with the enemy. We must take our stand against evil! We cannot allow anyone to think we’re afraid to publicly make our positions known. The extent of the power of the ruler of this world is just now being revealed and he is powerful indeed, his tentacles reach into every institution of man in this world, but it has to be so – his time is short. He is evil beyond any human imagination, and his servants are openly demonstrating the levels of inhumanity and malevolence of which they are capable. Many of us have been sheltered for a long time. We haven’t seen evil like this; at least most of the “civilized” world, but as the time of the enemy draws short, he is now demonstrating to the world just what he is capable of and it’s taking many by surprise.
As Christians, we shouldn’t be surprised. The scriptures have been screaming about these times for centuries; for millennia. We know of past times when Christians were beheaded – they still are in some places. They were fed to lions for the entertainment of the Romans in the great coliseum. The big shock for us is yet to come, but rest assured it’s coming! There will come a time in the not-too-distant future when Christians will face execution in all nations – including this one. The people who will be in charge of this country are precisely those servants of Satan who will hunt down and execute Christians – Satan’s greatest enemies on this earth.
He won’t be looking for Hindus, Krishnas, or Buddhists. The dragon has waged war on the woman (the Christian Church) for all the years since Jesus died and went to Heaven: [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.” The “rest of her offspring” would be us believers in Jesus. Note the word “enraged” – if you think for even a second he hasn’t been working on a plan for us you’ve got another think coming. His plan, as prophesied, is coming to fruition, but will assuredly come to failure of the worst kind in the end. All of his schemes will come to naught – and he knows this. That’s the main reason for the “enraged” part.
The King on the white horse with a great army will be the ruin of the enemy. We will be in that army. See, whatever the enemy does to us in this life will come undone in a big way – death will come to us but cannot keep us. The Savior has defeated death, and that is the only weapon the enemy wields. It appears to be fearsome from this side, and that is his big threat, but as Christians who must be faithful to the end, we will ultimately prevail. The faint of heart will have the toughest time dealing with this, but if we remain faithful to the end, we have a crown waiting for us. Jesus will not abandon us – He will be with us every step of the way!
There are several things at play in these last days. One of the biggest surprises, at least for me, is how even the secular world is starting to call out the evil taking place. Except for the mainstream media, it has never, and will never take a stand against the malevolence that is happening. The enemy owns them, and they won’t mention anything he forbids. MSNBC, Fox and CNN hosts and all the others will also burn in hell with their managers, producers, etc. But there are lots of folks on social media platforms who are disgusted with genocide and intentional starvation and murder of children. Several prominent voices are speaking out – Tucker Carlson, Roger Waters, Candace Owens, – there are many more, but it’s important to pay attention and note that if they are not followers of Christ, they will fall by the wayside sooner or later – though for now many of them seem like allies, most of them aren’t willing to pay any real price, especially the ultimate price, and you can mark my word, at some point it will come to that. Many prominent men talk a lot about how evil the Zionists are for what they’re doing, but when it comes to doing anything about it, even though some of them have powerful armies, they waffle, i.e., Sisi, Erdogan, Abdullah, MBS, and so many more – this is what I meant by “seem like allies” but fall away. They think they are Satan’s allies, but much to their chagrin, at the given time they will find out Satan doesn’t have allies, neither is he beholden or loyal in the least to his servants.
We have to remember who the real enemy is, as well as who his servants are. He has a hierarchy of servants, much like the organization of a military and I believe most of the regular Joes at the bottom of the food chain don’t realize what evil they are into, but at some point way up the ladder, there are a select few who know what’s really going on. These ones are too heavily invested into the scheme to ever repent – they’ve sold their souls. For instance, I have known several men who belonged to a certain secretive group and the guys I knew wouldn’t have knowingly pledged themselves to serve Satan, but somewhere way up in the organization maybe around the very top levels, those guys knew what was up. I think this is the same scheme in other organizations, probably even some churches – this would include all the ones with millionaire pastors, but maybe others as well.
In case you’ve never heard of it, Google the Bohemian Grove. Most all of American politicians and judges, society elites, and others go to those covens and offer (mock?) sacrifices to a big graven image of some kind of owl (Moloch?) by night in the light of torches. This is in-your-face Satanism and it’s not only accepted, but highly respected by our leaders! There are others, the Skull and Bones organization among whose members were both Bush presidents, John Kerry and who knows who else. Without open fealty to Satan, those guys wouldn’t have gotten far up the ladder, but Satan ensures these kinds of men get to the top. I fully believe many if not most of them are possessed by demons. Do you still wonder why the wrath of God will be upon this nation?
When it gets down and dirty, and that day is rapidly approaching, Christians will bear the brunt of Satan’s anger. We are Christ’s servants by choice and as such are in the crosshairs of the enemy. All who operate in his service will be more than willing to take action against us – the military, the police, and the secular world (which is the Satanic world). They will do whatever they are commanded to do, and those commands will come from the very top. Get ready, it’s going to be a bumpy ride, but in the end I can assure you it will have been worth every indignation, every conceivable effort, every heartfelt prayer, every drop of blood – when we see the smile on the Savior’s face and hear Him say, “Well done, my good and faithful servant!”
There are multitudes of prominent men in the highest offices of the world who will eternally rue the fact that they never heard those words. As they endure eternal torment in the fires of Hell where their legions, their commanders, also suffer, they will regret forever the acts we all witness them committing in this world today. These acts are after all, part of their repayment to Satan for their (pitifully temporary) wealth and power. Stay as separate from them as possible.
May the blessings of the Almighty Father find and keep us.
Are you sure you know how to love? Sure, we all love our families, our pets, but do we understand what it takes to love our neighbors? Total Strangers? How about understanding how to love God, an ethereal being we can’t see or touch? The Bible says we must love Him in spirit, so how do we go about that? If that was an easy question to answer, the simplicity of the answer would render it to be merely a rhetorical question. The fact is, of ourselves we don’t have a clue about loving in spirit – we must be gifted with God’s grace and filled with His Holy Spirit to even begin to understand what Spiritual love is. Then and only then can we begin to be able to do it.
Our very understanding of love has to be reconfigured if we are to honestly pursue the iteration of a love that can allow us to obey what a lot of people oversimplify as the commandment to love God. I don’t believe it is a commandment in our understanding of commandment, but in the sense of the old saying about respect being earned and not demanded. The order is to love God the Father with all of one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength. [Matthew 22:37]: “And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.“
Why, after all, – and how could we – love God only because we are commanded to do so? If we attempt to love God only because we are commanded to, kinda sounds like something Donald Trump or some other autocrat would “demand” of their proles, and of course, real love from the heart could never transpire only if we are commanded to do so. The way I see this commandment is that the Spiritual love we must have within us to show towards God is there as a result of His grace in that He, through His spirit, is willing to teach us how He wishes for us to love Him. If we determine that we want to love Him, and earnestly pray that the Spirit teaches us how to do so, then we can become able to do something that without His help we wouldn’t have a clue of how to do. In other words, the commandment to love God can only be fulfilled after we have been given the grace to do so, and although love in the commandment is seen as an action verb – and it is – it is also an end result of having received God’s grace to teach us what this love is and how to love Him. I don’t believe it is humanly possible to love God in spirit without having been taught by His Spirit what it means and how to do so.
Spiritual love cannot be taught by another human being. We can learn from others what the symptoms of love look like, such as doing favors for those we love, getting on our knees to show our subservience, being respectful, but the love itself cannot even be described, much less taught and practiced. It is an emotion of the highest order and if the heart that loves is pure with no hint of deception or flattery, it can actually be felt within the conscious soul. Even when we become able to practice this love, we can only love a tiny bit as compared to the love of God. How is it possible to fathom that the Creator of everything that exists is Himself described as love? God is love. [1 John 4:8]; “He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.” This verse brings us full circle back to the commandment – to love God. It also gives us a method of discerning whether or not we truly know God, for if we do not have love in our hearts, we cannot possibly know Him.
People who do not have love in their hearts for God, or for their fellow human beings are being duplicitous hypocrites when they try to claim they have a relationship with God. Look at the megachurches who teach support for genocide and you will see perfect examples of this hypocrisy. The world is full of “leaders” who profess to be Christians – or at least claim to be morally upright – yet they casually give orders that result in the massacre of entire populations of human beings – people they should love. Incredibly. such leaders have big followings of folks who like to think of themselves as believers, and they are fine with wars and with slaughtering innocent people. There is no way a person can be a follower of Jesus Christ and support murder of innocents, regardless of what the false prophet pastors of the megachurches say. Their day will come.
We must strive for the love, for the ability to love in Spirit as we are commanded. When we take the right path, the one Jesus taught, we will one day find that we do indeed love our Creator. We will see then what I’m trying to explain here – that being able to love in Spirit and in truth is itself a gift of the Spirit as opposed to something we just one day decide to do. It’s not something we can just do like turning on a water spigot. We must be gifted with the ability to love – with the same kind of love that God holds for us, just not as profound, but I believe the longer we live and the harder we pray for this precious gift, the more clearly we will see what it means and we will be more able to love as commanded.
I think the key to being graced with the ability to love as God wants us to is first desiring to love Him as we should, but we also must at all costs be willing to be totally honest with ourselves and with God. No one can expect to have a relationship with the Father if he is hiding something in his heart. You cannot deceive God. The scripture says: [Matther 5:8]: “Blessed are the pure in heart, For they shall see God.” You gotta be totally honest with God because He knows your heart anyway, but most importantly with yourself, because it’s possible to practice deception thoroughly enough that we can fool ourselves. When we do that, there’s no way to ever know God.
The commandment to love God can be seen as more of a result than an action. No one can love God unless they know how, and they cannot know how unless the Holy Spirit manifests in their heart what it means and how to do it. I firmly believe that once you have received this gift, you are required to, with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength to practice using it; if you allow a treasure of that magnitude – the greatest gift from God – to go to waste, if you bury that coin, you’re wasting something precious. If you love God and your fellow man with all sincerity, you’ll be following Jesus’ commandments.
This time of the year here in the Ozarks, when the wind gets out of the north, and as in most places, we instinctively hunker down for some cold weather. We see the clouds building on cold days and expect things like slick roads, frozen livestock water, and power outages, especially when the rain falls wet and freezes on things. I’ve noticed that red skies in the morning indeed means there’s a change coming in the weather. It’s odd, isn’t it, that something a truly wise man many years ago, still rings true: [Matt 16:3] ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times.
The weather is referenced in this passage, but only as an example so people might understand that we are usually unable to connect the dots from the events taking place in the world around us to the actions being taken by God in the Spirit world. Not only are we unable to see the connections, but Spiritual matters are also meticulously avoided in discussions about current affairs, possibly due to the reluctance of many of us to undertake the discomfit upon our worldly reputation for revealing ourselves as believers in Christ. That ain’t no way to be. In one place He said [Luke 9:26] Whoever is ashamed of me and my words, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels. I don’t know about anyone else, but for me, the last thing I want while standing before the throne of God is to find myself in the unfortunate happenstance that I had been ashamed of our glorious and loving savior, because He said He will be ashamed of those who were embarrassed to speak of Him in their lives. That’s going to be a sad situation to be in. Jesus went to the extreme act of giving His life at the tender age of around 33 years, just so we could be saved from this horrific world and the torment awaiting nonbelievers. We have opportunity to have eternal life with Him in His glory – how does it make sense that we would avoid talking about Him or intimating that we believed in Him? Why on earth do we refuse to give Him the Glory He deserves for that ultimate act of love, grace and kindness?
Lots of red oak waiting to be split
I’ve got a ton of firewood to split and stack, and from the weather reports, we are supposed to get some beastly winter storms this weekend. When black ice builds up on the road, it’s a lot different than just normal snow. There are places out here where the roads have slopes that are hard to move on when they are covered with it. What makes black ice a problem is that it’s so hard to see, and if you don’t know it’s there and are going too fast, by the time you realize how slick it is, you could easily be headed for the ditch – or a big old doe out there slipping and pitching trying to get traction to run. If you think about it, it’s kind of an analogy to many of our problems and pitfalls in life. How many times have you caught yourself neck-deep in mire before you even realized there was a problem? If you trace the situation back to where it started, it was invariably because of some choice(s) you made earlier, like stepping into the mud in the first place, or driving too fast and only realizing it when your car lets go of the road because you touched your brake pedal.
Life is like that, for instance if one is prone to drink too much and too often, the choice to have a beer might seem innocuous enough, and true, it would be if he were a casual drinker, but for the heavy drinker, to pop a top is invariably the beginning of another perilous experience. The person should know full well that to imbibe is for him, a no-no, and sure enough he will end up paying whatever price is to be exacted for his slip up, so he once again becomes neck-deep in a mire of his own choosing. Like finding yourself flying down an ice-covered hill with no way of even slowing down. If a crash is to ensue, well God only knows how bad it might be. There are many other examples of bad choices creating havoc in our lives, but most folks know ahead of time what misfortune might be the result of a bad choice.
Even though we have some weather coming, today it’s not so bad. It’s around 45 degrees and that bright yellow object is high in the afternoon sky, probably trying to decide whether to hammer us with a CME, or just duck behind the clouds again and let the storm do its thing this weekend. This weather is getting fickle, and I’m talking about everywhere – floods, ice storms, landslides, tornadoes, you name it. Now a sane person might begin to think that He who controls the weather might be troubled about our behavior, since we have it on good information that He indeed became angered in times past and used His supremacy over the elements to reset human behavior. There are many who believe that mankind has developed ways to interfere with natural weather patterns and are themselves causing a lot of the weather-related issues, and they might be right to an extent, but God has the final say on the matter. Maybe He is just sitting back for now and watching men get involved in things that are way over their heads and letting them (us) suffer the consequences.
All in all, I believe we are approaching the end of life as we have known it. From now on, we will increasingly find ourselves in uncharted places. God lives in the spiritual domain, but He knows where humanity is headed here in the world we occupy, but we – and I’m growing more and more convinced that scientists, medical professionals, and political leaders – don’t have a clue. Oh, except for the people in the “think tanks”, they belong to that elite group of human beings who know everything. For real, I honestly believe the “fellows” in think tanks are just men and women with connections who could never be trusted with any position where they might pose a risk to the order of things, so wealthy relatives or other associates give them a seat in a think tank to keep them away from the fire, but also to placate their desire for power so they don’t throw hissy fits. Problem is a lot of politicians who don’t know better actually listen to them and make decisions based on their recommendations. Then we get back to being neck-deep in the mire because of bad choices, ad infinitum, (i.e. Vietnam war, sanctions that invariably backfire, the incredible ignorance of sending weapons to bad guys, etc.). When you hear some politician speaking highly of some think tank or another, just be apprised that they are merely stroking the egos of some folks who didn’t have the moxie to be leaders or politicians – and are making them feel important. And like I said, fellows in think tanks always have connections that can funnel dollars or shekels in said politicians’ direction, which often weighs heavily on decisions concerning national policy, so there’s that. I did a post on think tanks here.
As we fumble and stumble around trying to get through this crazy world, there is a Way to do it right. No matter how crazy -or evil – things get, we have a Friend who is willing to help us navigate this perilous journey. He is the only Way through it, at least the only Way to a desirable outcome, and He waits for you to contact Him. Jesus Christ loves you, and that’s certainly not something you can say about very many people in this world. The enemy hates and seeks to destroy everything and everyone that God has created, and unfortunately, he has many people in his service, but Jesus Christ has and will continue to overcome all of them. The Lord also has (and gives us the resources we need to) overcome the evils of this world, if we but seek Him. Don’t wait for life’s threats like that that dark highway ice to cause you problems you can’t escape – slow down – get to know Him now. You’ll forever be glad you did. [1 Corinthians 2:9] “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”— the things God has prepared for those who love him—” “What no human mind has conceived” means we never have, so we cannot even imagine what a joyful experience that life will be. Remember such promises – He will.
May the abundant blessings of God find and keep you.
Whichever way you choose to walk through this life, know that all is binary – you are either walking with good or you have chosen to walk with evil, there is no third way. You were prewired to know right from wrong, so if it ain’t right, it’s wrong. If we seek to emerge into the next life with the highest expectations, then we must resign ourselves to lifestyles on this earth which most do not deem to be desirable – at first glance or first thought. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor…” and since we know He doesn’t just say things, every word He uttered in His short life on this earth had meanings we are able to understand, although sometime in different ways and even today we are seeing His truths being realized, we must diligently scrutinize His every word. So, if the Lord says the poor are blessed, then I need to take a bigger picture look at my childhood (I did) and find that blessing. Guess what. I found it. It’s really not that hard to figure out poor kids get shamed – even back in my day, kids are kids. So you look for things to do that might get you into trouble, but also that might get you some positive attention from the other kids. Slippery slope, indeed.
I was raised as a poor kid in the old pine thickets of East Texas as the youngest of ten kids our dad raised on the salary of a butane deliveryman. We were among the poorest in neighborhoods of poor folks, and if someone had told us back then that we were blessed, we’d at least have thought they were a bubble out of plumb – back then. Many years have passed since those days of waiting for the school bus in the frost on an old red dirt road, but having lived several lives since then, I’d have to remember those days as the most abundantly blessed of all my years and experiences. I can remember a time when the America I lived in was truly a free country. My dad told me he thought the antiChrist was communism. We said the pledge of allegiance on Monday mornings at school. When we finally got our first TV, I was eight years old and Bonanza was about the most adult of TV shows. In those days prior to “Operation Mockingbird”, we could, for the most part, believe our news people – Walter Cronkite was a folk hero. An innocent time in an innocent country. Then the same bad guys we are dealing with today killed President Kennedy. That incident lifted the lid off our pot of innocence, and it’s been downhill ever since, speeding along at a geometric rate. Little did we know back then how completely we were about to be programmed through that “hellivision”. It didn’t take long for that marvelous TV to become the greatest obstacle to our family togetherness. How can you get to know and stay in touch with each other when everyone’s mind, all their senses are out of the room? Every – single – night.
It all started innocently enough – TV commercials had little songs they called jingles – I can even remember some of the lyrics, “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should’, or “Aren’t you glad you use Dial – don’t you wish everybody did?” and countless others. These marketing techniques were just beginning to take root, and there couldn’t have been a more fertile population on which to foist a capitalist oligarchy takeover – of our nation, and then the world. The TV was in our living room, and although we were a close family in a small room, our minds, our thoughts, our entire beings were miles away from one another. Before when we had each other to talk to and to get to know and with whom we should have continued to grow closer, we, as millions of other families in America, were being torn apart and we relished it – we didn’t know what the underlying purpose of it was about, so were taken totally unaware. I wish there was some way to compare yesterday’s TV’s innocence with what passes for entertainment today in all it’s darkness.
Meanwhile, the Art of the Deal was taking root in dark halls and godless temples, casinos, government buildings the world over. Humanity was being auctioned, traded, sent to death in needless wars, all to appease a select few whom Satan had completely lured over to his side, and were willing to pool their resources to help him to destroy God’s creation and his people. Especially His people – if you are a Christian, that’s you and me. Some people have understood the potential ramifications of standing up to them but have done it anyway. Jesus Christ was the most prominent One of all. Though He stands eternally alone and above all others, there have been a few down through history who were willing to give it all for God. If you think about it, it’s part of the deal, understood over time as a follower of Christ. As we mature in the Spirit, and God knows I wish I’d started before I did, we come to understand concepts and precepts that apply to us as believers, the pre-eminent one being that when we decided to follow Jesus, we set ourselves on the journey of our intended lives so that in time we will have to make a decision as to whether we really believe with all our hearts that Jesus is exactly who He says He is and that the time will come when we will follow Him to the other side.
Deitrich Bonhoeffer is a name we should all remember as the modern-day martyr of Christ we aspire to be. He, as a protestant preacher living in NAZI Germany authored The Cost of Discipleship. It should be required reading for the believer in Jesus Christ. If you’ve not read it I’d advise you to grab a copy to read as this age winds down. Bonhoeffer was a unique man and probably the most faithful disciple you will hear of in modern times (WWII era). If the truth was known, and it will be one day, I’m afraid that a lot of my fellow Christians are going to drop out of the race just as things are becoming interesting! That’s the last course of action a Christian should even allow to pass through their thoughts. We are entering into the last days that we Christians know about, and we also know from prophecy that we’re going to go through some tough times ahead, at least for the near term. What I’m asking is this: What kind of Savoir would allow His followers to willingly go to the slaughter alone? Would He turn His back as we reached our fate? I’m here to tell you He will be there! In all His glory, in a few moments we’ll be forever His! We will not taste that death the enemy has worked so hard to get us to. That enemy is an enemy indeed – THE enemy of mankind, and we have people, our leaders, openly serving every malevolent purpose they can ignite in his service. How many humans, made in the image of God, can they kill? This purpose has become all-consuming for the servants of Satan who serve hm as world leaders.
The bad guys want Christians’ hides with which to adorn their trophy rooms. The only real enemy of Satan on this earth is the reverent Christian with a heart full of God’s love to spread around and damage his (Satan’s) reputation in front of his followers. Satan’s pride was his downfall, and pride is not a pretty defect to have to deal with, but when the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ shows you that it’s a problem for you, I can tell you from experience, you’ll know it. Lust of the flesh, Lust of the world, Pride of life. Pride and vanity bring to men insanity and bring down nations – we’ve seen it – look at Nero, Caligula, Hitler, and now Erdogan and Netanyahu – Benjamin Netanyahu, aka Benzion Mileikowsky. He’s a European of Polish descent, not even a Jew, but that’s how servants of Satan operate – deception. I personally can’t stand to hear his voice, I love him in a spiritual sense, and I have prayed for him – probably not as much as I should, but that man is doing some next-level evil over there in the Holy Land. God’s not going to deal with this man’s blasphemy for long. Netanyahu: in Hebrew it means – The Lord has given... Blasphemous names, anyone?
As you read this post, there are dark characters in secret places, dark characters that haunt places like the Bohemian Grove and the Gaudy Buildings of Westminster or Langley, VA who are plotting the course of the world they hold in their grasp (for only a little while longer). They no longer own their souls, if they ever had souls, some are demons from hell and they’re walking among us, holding joint sessions of congress for their illustrious leader, second cousin of Satan, Netanyahu himself. They control everything in the Western world and are encroaching on Asian Lands like some kind of black cloud of evil, consuming everything, destroying everything. They kill and destroy because that’s what their father the devil has them doing in his service. Do not think you are insulting any of these men by calling them Satanic, for the ones up the food chain take it as a compliment, like you’re putting in a good word for them to their boss. They know they are evil, we don’t have to point that out to them. Destroying works of man, even beneficial ones like hospitals or ancient architecture some hold sacred, it’s all on the list for destruction. I’m convinced that Revelation 18 speaks of the destruction of the US. The descriptions of decadence, wealth, and lavish lifestyles of wealthy Americans fit the description to a T. There are a couple of other places it might be, such as London, or maybe somewhere like Jerusalem, but the overall passage describes the US, and it says it will be destroyed in an hour – wonder how they could do that? The dark guys who control things are going to hand their boss over 250,000,000 million dead human beings, and that’s just in this country. Europe, Africa and Asia will have their numbers too. The vast majority of them will not have been saved, because not enough people like me are out there screaming and hollering for their attention. And not enough of our fellow travelers are listening to those of us that are hollering.
Yes, we’re rapidly approaching the precipice and there are few who will be willing to fall into it’s gaping maw, so when that time comes many will renounce their faith. Even though they’re trading away their eternity, they will pledge themselves to what’s left of their lives in his service. Many Christians will face harsh times because of this requirement to worship some insidious son of Satan while he’s having his hour of fun. To be fair, it’s going to be a tough decision for those who are unprepared for that moment. That’s a critical juncture for us, because without His companionship to give us heart, none of us would be willing to cross that bridge, but my friends, He will be right beside us. Of course He is with us all the time, but in those perilous days, I believe His presence will be so strong as to consume our fear and His love will be exhilarating relief for our troubled souls as we slog through those tribulations and once this thing is over. I’ve written this on earlier posts, but I love to imagine being before Him in His Almighty Glory and hearing Him say “Well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into My Kingdom.” The definition of success indeed!
Do not be afraid. Be of good cheer, Jesus overcame it and He’s going to make sure we have everything we need when we need it so we can overcome this mess we’re in too. Stay strong, keep the faith. We’ll be in His blessed company soon.
As I said at the beginning, we get the life we choose. If you haven’t begun to trust Him yet, you don’t have to be shy about coming to Jesus Christ for His provident blessings. He stands ready to forgive any and all sins on your record and He will love you and stand by you forever. If you’re not a believer in Jesus Christ, there are Christian ministries all over the world with whom you should get in touch. There are loving people in the Christian ministries who will take you into their lives and teach you about Jesus. You will look back at that decision with the greatest sense of relief you can imagine. You’ll be in His Kingdom!
There are evil people and demons afoot – Jesus can and will help you navigate all the way until you reach your new home – He prepared it for you Himself. The best part of it all is that we’ll all be in the blessed presence of the Father and the Lamb of God – Forever.
May the abundant blessings of God the Father find and keep us all.
The flanking maneuver is a time-tested technique on the battlefield. It has been successfully employed in many battles and if properly executed with ample surprise, is very effective in warfare. The surprise and deception of such a maneuver contributes immensely to its effectiveness. When an enemy is focused on an aspect of the battle, especially caught up in a head-on battlefront, he can be susceptible to defeat by surprise from unexpected directions and/or from undefended areas such as the flanks, or ends, of his columns. We can get so caught up in our abhorrence of in-your-face evil, we can get distracted from unexpected tactics, and our tendency to allow our anger to become hate is one that leaves us open to an insidious defeat if we aren’t careful.
The enemy has been around for a long, long time. He is wiser than us, but not wiser than our Master. Those who do not know or care to know the Creator, are destined to be a type of pawn of the enemy, even though they may consider themselves to be good, upright people. The enemy knows well that if people reject Jesus Christ that he already has a certain amount of control over them, it’s just a matter of how much of a toll he wants to exact on them in the meanwhile and creating situations that foment hatred in decent people is just one of the many ways he does battle. As far as Christians are concerned, one of our less defended areas may be our control, or lack thereof, of our anger.
For instance, we all see what’s going on in Gaza, and most of us rightfully are disgusted by the murder of innocent people. Now the kind of people who support the genocide going on over there are already in Satan’s firm control, so that’s a whole nuther issue, but this post addresses folks who are repulsed by it. The problem comes in for us when we allow ourselves to hate these people doing the murder who are so completely under the control of the enemy. That’s his plan – to use his servants to perform evil, but equally as important, to invoke hatred from onlookers, because even though we are totally against what they are doing, we fall into his trap by hating them for it. When that happens, he wins on both sides of the battle, he controls those who commit murder, and when otherwise good people see the gross injustice and unmerciful treatment and allow hatred into their hearts, he has them where he wants them as well. That’s why Jesus admonishes us to love our enemies, to prevent us from falling victim to Satan by allowing hatred into our hearts. This may well be one of the most difficult things to avoid, even for good people.
Satan has complete control of many very wealthy people here in our country, who in turn have gained control of the leadership through bribery and extortion with the riches Satan has entrusted to them. These “elite” servants of Satan are the same ones who own all of our media organizations. They also own Hollywood and have tremendous influence over the content of entertainment, thus are able to influence many who are unaware of the power that entertainment has over their world views. When people see filth and violence, they tend to believe that because so many people are entertained by such, it must be ok. Of course, the wealthy do not see themselves as such, but in the grand scheme, they are no more than simple pawns for Satan to use as he sees fit – and destroy when the time is right. Animosity towards them is growing steadily as more and more citizens come to realize the degree to which they are manipulated and propagandized. For now, suffice it to say, the wealthy elites mentioned here generally support the genocide of the Palestinians, so their influence over our politicians tends to make them support what’s going on as well.
These same wealthy people completely own all but a precious and exemplary few members of our government and its institutions, especially including the military. They decide who gets to run for president, and it’s well known by now that no one can become president of the United States without showing proper fealty to them. There are required demonstrations of obeisance for a presidential candidate in the US nowadays and we’ve seen them. The same fealty demonstrated through various other rituals, is to be expected from legislators and from the benches of this country as well.
It looks as though Satan’s plan is to allow some light to shine on these individuals so that everyone sees who’s behind the evil that is apace in our country and the world. A lot of this has been practiced behind the curtain up to now, but normal citizens, including Christians who let their guard down, are starting to see who’s behind the rampant evil. That in itself is a good thing, but the enemy intends to use that knowledge to our destruction by causing us to hate these people. His wealthy servants? Sure, they don’t give it any thought, but he’ll drop them like a hot potato when it suits his purpose even though they are smug for now in the deception of their master’s loyalty. A perfect example is the French revolution and what happened to the elites of that day. The revolution itself may have been successful, but the devil won out when Louis and Marie were executed, because that resulted from the hatred he fomented and the ensuing sinful violence it caused among the French peasantry.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that as Christians we have to be careful to stay above the fray and not allow ourselves to be sucked into the maelstrom of hatred and violence that is bound to happen as the servants of evil are revealed. When we do that, we unintentionally do the bidding of the evil one and allow him to win a carefully conceived battle he planned out long ago and is once again setting up right now. We can certainly – and have a Christian duty to – disapprove of the evil that is going on, but we have to do it without falling into the trap of allowing hatred into our hearts, because when that happens, he wins both ways. Even though I firmly believe that Heaven will be an expansive place, nevertheless, there won’t be any room for hatred there.
Hate the sin but love the sinner. Pray for them – all of them, the oppressed, but just as importantly, the oppressors. It’s hard to do, but we have to give it our best shot, and with Jesus’ help we can prevail.
May God’s blessings find and keep us all in these trying times.
Today is Saturday, August 3, in the year of our Lord 2024 and things are shaping up to get really ugly in the Middle East – likely the whole world – as I write this post. The status of the world, though shocking to many, does not come as a surprise to Christians. We’ve long read about world events that are to come upon us in our Bibles. We know about most of the things that will take place because we believe the God-given prophecies of guys like Daniel, Ezekiel, and John, and if you haven’t read up on the things that are predicted, you should so you can get ready – it’s going to be quite the ride!
When you decide to start checking into the events that are happening and are yet to happen you will undoubtedly encounter the undercurrent of it all which is the ongoing battle between the forces of good and evil – between God the Creator and His enemy Satan. There are way too many aspects of this enigmatic confrontation for any human still in the flesh to be able to comprehend. We cannot begin to enumerate nor understand all of the issues and their effects even though a lot of people, especially the charlatans that try to pass themselves off as preachers, would have you to believe they are able to. Suffice it to say there is an incomprehensible spiritual battle happening and like it or not, all of us – even those on this side of the void – are involved. We have to choose a side, and unfortunately most of humanity has already done so although many do not even realize they have. That’s where studying your Bible comes in.
Ignoring the words and the person of Jesus Christ is the same as opposing Him. Jesus Christ is the only Way we have out of this mess that the servants of evil have made of the world. There are many who claim to know how to confront Satan and his minions, but Jesus said that He is the ONLY way we can succeed, [John 14:6] “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to the Father but through me.” There are many people who try to reach God, but if we believe Jesus is truthful, we must recognize His authority as the Son of God and follow Him to get where we need to go. Once we submit our hope to Him, we begin a journey that will lead us to an unimaginably joyful and indescribable victory. It will be the ultimate victory over the evil that today plagues this world, and in the end all of those servants of evil who seem to be so invincible now will actually be the servants of Jesus’ followers. According to this doctrine, Netanyahu, Dick Cheney, Jacob Rothschild and all of the evil figures who have seemed to be so untouchable, will be bowed at the feet of those who are for now, humble and innocent travelers, those who trust Jesus to bring justice upon all who practice iniquity today, for the servants of Jesus will inherit kingship in the reign of Christ.
Imagine the shock and disappointment of those who would control the world today when they discover their whole earthly existences were no more than that of the grass of the field, and when they get to the Great Day of God’s judgement and see their master groveling before the True King. Those who wield the great swords of war, the dark and powerful weaponry that destroys nations, will be struck with fear and awe at the inimitable power of the real King when He appears in His unimaginable glory. In that moment they will realize the futility of their former allegiance to Satan, his wealth, his earthly control. If they had the mind to do so, they could look through those powerful telescopes and see great stars exploding, destroying everything in the millions of miles of space all around – that’s only a sample of the kind of power the Lord has. Their servitude to the evil one will all mean nothing, but those of us who have been faithful to our Lord Jesus will attain kingship and share His inheritance of all things.
Just in case you haven’t noticed the world powers coalescing around the middle east and the open and unabashed slaughter of all those innocent people in Palestine, the warships congregating, and all the other portents of destruction and annihilation gathering like some dark cloud, you might want to open your eyes before it’s too late. It’s going to get really ugly, but when it’s all over, those who will be left standing will be our King Jesus Christ and His followers – and ONLY them. Everything He said would happen has either already happened or is happening now – that should be all the evidence we need to understand the Truth of what He says. Get on the right side of things before it’s too late. The clouds are rapidly closing in…
