Tag Archives: peace

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.

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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.

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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.

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

MK

A Mental Foray into a New World

There are two worlds going, and probably always have been. There’s the physical world and a lesser-known Spiritual world. When I say lesser known, I of course am referring to the spiritual world as it is hardly regarded by the unbeliever.

There’s a lot of moisture outside this October morning. It comes from the dew as we are running a rain deficit, but nevertheless it would be difficult to get a fire started out there, so there’s a blessing of sorts, although later in the day things will dry out again. The big old oak trees are standing with fading greenery, looking at each other wondering when October is actually going to get started. Even with this late summer, there’s a quiet morning chill out in the damp air, but the solitude is refreshing, invigorating. The blue jays have already started to infiltrate this part of the Ozarks as juniper berries (actually tiny cones) once more begin to ripen. My daughter’s big old sunflowers have opened kiosks around her house for goldfinches to dine for another season.

I planted cucumbers a second time in August because the first ones got some kind of blight and did not produce much. These new ones are starting to put on lots of blossoms and some baby pickles are starting to show. The physical world in which we live steadily goes forward in spite of man’s efforts to destroy it, and that is how it should be – not that last part about how we foul our nest, but that the world itself has a great propensity for adaptation and survival. Autumn is, nevertheless, starting to run overdue, and if you are a long-time reader of folkpotpourri, you’ll know autumn is my favorite season.

Skies of clearest azure wake up to late sunrises and songbirds go about their routines, some bail out to southern places, but by and large most of them begin to hang out around the overgrown weeded pastures checking for seeds and berries. This is the physical world at its finest, and I feel sorry for city folk – those stuck in great sprawling metropolises who hardly get the opportunity to realize what God’s creation is all about. That’s where the Spiritual world comes to mind.

Probably one of the things we know the least about is infinity. The human brain has a limited capacity for knowledge and understanding. If you were on the beach with a bucket in your hand you could scoop up a bucket of water, but there’s an ocean full of water still out there and your tiny bucket only has the capacity to hold that one bucketful, like your brain after it’s full of all the knowledge it can hold. But there’s so much more out there to know!

If one were to allow their mind to wander, considering the things we know, or at least think we know, about the creation in which we exist, there are supposed to be something like 90 billion light years worth of universe – physical universe – out there packed with trillions of stars. That’s just the part we can observe, who knows how much more there is? Scientists speculate that many – if not most – stars herd planetary systems that might be similar to the solar system. I wonder how many of those worlds harbor spectacular scenery, giant mountains, waterfalls, expansive forests, and such. I like to think that after our time here, we might be free to wander about, find worlds that would be weird, wild, and impressive. Something else to consider is the fact that as Spiritual beings, we most likely won’t be restricted to places with oxygen and mild temperatures, so we’d likely do just fine in places like Jupiter or Venus. What kinds of animals and birds might be lurking out there? Would the Creator allow His faithful to explore such wonders in the great by and by? Do these kinds of things exist in the Spiritual world, and if so, where are the boundaries between physical and Spiritual? Are there infinite universes where we could spend eternity in fascination of physical and/or Spiritual places and would the boundaries between them become a blur that would make it impossible to discern if they are Spiritual universes or physical? Would things like that even matter in the afterlife?

You see, the apostle Paul said [1 Corinthians 2:9]: “Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who love Him.” Now that verse opens up a whole slew of possibilities for what Heaven might be like. It says in effect that we cannot imagine what we’ll inherit in God’s Spiritual kingdom. Think about that for a minute – nothing has entered into the mind of any human being at any time that could describe the immensity, the joy of Heaven, and we have a chance to be there! If I were an unbeliever and had the option of that kind of reward in exchange for becoming a child of God, I’d take that chance. In fact, that’s exactly what I have done! But we also have the added bonus of sharing that paradise with our precious Lord Jesus who loves us infinitely. After all, you have to consider that we are all going to pass on from this world anyway, so why not?

For the here and now, my kids and I have this neck of the Ozarks – a blessing in itself to behold. We don’t have, nor do we desire a lot of money and the headaches that come with it. I do not envy folks with wealth – I’ve had the opportunity to become fairly well-off, but I walked away from it and never looked back because God gave me the good sense and the discernment to see and understand what riches do to people. They grow cold and forego any meaningful relationships with the Father or their fellow men. Typically, they and their own families and friends become mired in the lusts of the world to the extent that they could never understand the joy of watching an indigo bunting on the pasture fence on an early summer morning or catching a glimpse of turkeys marching among the chestnut oaks looking for those prized little acorns. God didn’t bless folks who put money ahead of Him (and everything else), even though what they see as their existence is not a blessing at all, but a superficial facade of a meaningful life. But most tragically for them, they have no hope for the afterlife – the present life they have is all they want and sadly, it and the memory of it is all they’ll ever have.

The Spiritual world we believers look forward to has unimaginable promise, from Jesus Christ, our beloved Savior who went through an incredibly painful, horrific and humiliating experience so we could be rid of – and forgiven for – our unwise choices back when we misbehaved so egregiously. From the way the Bible describes the events surrounding Jesus’ crucifixion I truly believe God the Father had His mighty hand on the big red button and was probably close to ending everything then and there, but only because of the love His Son had in His heart for you and me, His willingness to continue through His mighty sacrifice, God allowed the thing to proceed. Now something to consider: We are told that a day is as a thousand years with Jesus and a thousand years is as a day, so by the Heavenly calendar, it might be to God like His Son just died a few days ago and maybe He hasn’t gotten over the grief of it all yet. His anger at those who reject the wonderful offer Jesus makes by His sacrifice is likely still burning with a fire that will destroy and consume the very humans who turned Him down, instead they do evil things like even worshipping the antiChrist and accepting the mark of the beast. [Revelation 14:9-11]: “Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.  And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” His mighty hand is still on that button, folks, and when He cuts loose with His vengeance on those who: a) by sinning caused His Son to have to die on that cross, b) rejected His precious offer to be redeemed from those sins, thus making that sacrifice of no benefit to themselves. I do not want to partake in that beverage, folks!

There’s definitely another existence to be had after this one, a Spiritual Paradise to which we will ascend that will be so glorious and magnificent as to make us forget that other place where the mighty and the rich (and all those who followed after them) have ended up. There will be no hope for them anymore, so do not be counted among them. Enjoy as best you can what we have left of this world God created for us. Evil men are destroying it inexorably and rapidly for whatever wealth they can extract from it, and we won’t have it much longer, but fear not – Jesus will return and lead us into another, vastly more elaborate and precious place where He has built mansions for each of us. Do not despair nor fear the servants of Satan who are for a while in charge of things – their time is almost over. Pity them and pray for them – God can still work in their lives and some may yet come to salvation.

Meanwhile, in this world we need to make the best we can of things, pray incessantly and enjoy the fleeting time here under the gilded hickory boughs. Enjoy the blue jays. Pray for our brothers in cities who don’t have such joys. Pray for the persecuted in places like Gaza and Nigeria. Pray for our entry soon into God’s eternal Spiritual world.

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

MK

Are There Benefits to Being Turned Down?

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Rejection. Wow – what a desolate feeling! It’s probably the most damaging blow to human pride of all the many depredations we can experience. Rejection affects different people in different ways, some people deal with rejection by doubling down, working harder, and sometimes this is the correct response, others simply cannot endure it and turn to drugs or booze, and some even take the permanent way out, but most of us learn somehow to cope and thus become able to endure the damage to our psyches. It can have a marked influence on our lives though.

There are examples before us to learn how people have dealt with rejection, such as when a young Adolph Hitler was turned down by the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna. He was an aspiring young artist and had submitted some of his work for consideration, but the acceptance committee didn’t think he had what it took. Needless to say, he didn’t take it so well, but what if? What if he had been accepted – he was a pretty good artist, and who knows how good he might have turned out to be? Could you imagine walking into an art exhibit with expensive Hitlers for auction? How the history books would be different today! But he was rejected, and that very rejection could have well been the seed of all the death and destruction of WWII.

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Painting by Hitler

Consider that beautiful girl back in high school that you would have treated like a princess if only she would have responded to your advances. What a bummer to see her hooked up with some nerd from the debating team who obviously could have never given her half the affection you were prepared to lavish upon her. The fact that they eventually married and had half a dozen kids and stayed together for scores of years notwithstanding, she would have been much better off with you – right?

Rejection takes many forms and none of them are in any way desirable, at least for the time being, but sometimes if we look at things from a different viewpoint, we might see that we’re better off for the way things turned out, even if we had to spend some time buffing out the dings to our pride to get over it. Think about famous people. There’s that human envy in which we often find ourselves immersed that says we’d like to be able to sing like Elvis before adulating mobs in great auditoriums, and it does seem like it’d be quite the trip, but maybe God gave us the voice we have precisely so that we wouldn’t ever get rich or famous because He had other plans for us. Maybe the less than perfect eyesight that prevented us from becoming a fighter pilot was bestowed on us so that we’d never have to give an account of ourselves for mass-murdering innocent people during some “war”.

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When I walk out in the woods in the fall and immerse myself in the breathtaking beauty of autumn – an exercise in which I delight more than anything else – I sometimes wonder where else I might have ended up if I had been “successful” in some of my early endeavors. If I had become a famous artist, would I be somewhere I could walk in the woods and enjoy nature like I do now, or would I be ever on the run from unwanted people, ducking for cover when the mobs of newspaper reporters and paparazzi photographers found out where I was, all the more so if I was in some personal setting? I guess most of those folks who have to live like that either enjoy the attention, or at least have learned to tolerate it, but for me, I couldn’t imagine an unhappier lifestyle, never mind the wealth.

I believe that success also comes in many forms or iterations, and most of us don’t have a clue what “success” actually is. We hear the word used a lot when people discuss a person’s financial status, but we only accept it as such because that’s what we’ve been trained to think. When you get to the truth of the matter, success has to be whatever makes a person happy – be it those things which can be experienced or owned in this life, or be it the satisfaction we experience in the knowledge that we are prepared to enter into the next life fully enlightened and that the Lord will approve our conduct in this one. That satisfaction only comes as a result of determining to seek God and live according to His judgements and that of course, will entail an endless stream of “rejections” – both of us and by us.

We will be rejected by the world because our interests are different than those taught by the world – different because there is a Spirit who guides us that does not guide those who reject Jesus Christ. We are rejected by our fellow humans when we write posts they don’t want to read – too much going on for them to bother with learning about Him who created them. We are constantly rejected, as mentioned earlier by those who could inject wealth into our lives, ends up for our own good, although that’s not why they reject us. Those kinds of rejections are normally the result of financial considerations.

There was a funny song by a musician/comic named Jerry Reed about a guy who was a talent scout who rejected this aspiring musician who called himself the Tupelo Mississippi Flash (a reference to Elvis) and the musician went on to become famous and the scout got canned for rejecting him. Sometimes the person doing the rejecting might be making a mistake, but that’s beside the point. The financial consideration was the reason for the rejection, and only through hindsight he learned of his mistake. If the person who suffers whatever rejection for whatever reason were stop feeling sorry for himself long enough to apply hindsight similarly, he might understand how his rejection served to benefit him. Look at all of the folks who became famous in their pursuits living decadent and immoral lifestyles or that came to tragic endings.

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Perhaps the most well-known rejection of a human being was that of Jesus Christ. His rejection served to benefit humankind, but it must have been a desperately humiliating experience for Him. How painful it must have been to look out at the people He had been teaching, loving, and healing as they now chanted for Pilate to release Barabbas, a criminal, rather than Himself as they scorned, spat, and beat upon Him. He knew and understood that what He was doing was something that had to be done to save the world, but still the despondence must have been immense. Can you imagine how painful it would be to endure having big nails driven into your hands and feet, watching through tears and blood in His eyes as His “friends” turned away? He died an extraordinarily painful death, hanging on that big, magnificent cross – an incredible act of selflessness during which His concern was not for Himself, but for the souls of the men who were doing this to Him. As His precious life ebbed, He pleaded with God, HIs Father for forgiveness for those men. How is that for responding to rejection?

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Now I don’t know about you, my friends, but in my book, Jesus Christ has suffered enough rejection. That horrible day on the cross was enough for all eternity, and no one in their right mind should ever choose to reject Him anymore. From today until the end, however, there are people who still opt to try and live without Him, to their eternal shame and damnation. There is still time, though no one knows how much, to get things right with Jesus; do it, whatever it takes, just get on your knees and let Him know you are sorry for the life you have lived and are willing to hand Him the keys to your life. He knows where you need to go and will gladly take you there.

When and if you decide to accept His generous offer of eternal life, you can expect rejection from the world, but that’s okay – that’s Satan’s doing and it’s worth all the rejection the world can throw at you to know Jesus has your back and that you will ultimately be with Him in paradise for all of eternity. You will also be doing some rejection of your own – you can reject a world in which innocent people continue to be murdered, you can reject immoral lifestyles and those who relish hatred and malevolence. You can reject those who continue to reject our Lord Jesus – you are in no way obligated to conform to their ways. Once you make up your mind to join Christ, you become free with a freedom that the human mind can scarcely imagine!

I don’t think there are many who would argue that time is growing short for us. The world as we know it will never be the same as it was yesterday, last week, last year. This chaos is the new normal. There is still some time though. Time to give a hungry person something to eat. Time to help a child by donating to a reputable charity. Time to walk in the woods, enjoy the colors of fall, and thank Jesus for all He has done for us. If you are not already in touch with Him, I cannot stress enough how important it is for you to find Him – He’s not that far away, right at the very door of your heart. Call on Him before it is too late. No more rejection.

May the blessings of God find and keep us.

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MK

Certainty Of Death, Taxes and the Hereafter

While strolling through the late-summer countryside yesterday, as I looked over the lustrous patches of early goldenrods, several thoughts simultaneously bombarded my aging senses, not the least of which were things us folks alive regard as certainties. Some of them are indeed certainties, but many we regard as being so may not actually be. As interesting as it would be to hop a ride on that train of thought, maybe for the sake of brevity it’d be better to stay with those we know to be things that will happen. For instance, we have every reason to believe the sun will set this evening, and every other evening for that matter, and as this autumn weather coalesces around the foliage in this holler, we’re going to see some beautiful colors. As most of the readers of this site already know, autumn is an event which stirs the affinity for this aging soul’s eternal attempts to describe nature’s botanical metamorphosis with my own version of insane prose, which as you know will also be forthcoming, although I wouldn’t categorize that obsession with subjects of the degree of certainty to which this post attempts to allude.

As surely as we know the deciduous hardwoods will turn into immaculate subjects of magnificent beauty, some of us also know that an event of even more grandeur, of indescribable splendor will soon grace our senses with an experience we’ve been blessed to KNOW shall transpire. That event will be the glorious return of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We can know this will happen because He has bestowed on us the faith to believe He’s coming back. When folks decide to believe in Him, the process of growing into that very faith begins – and will until we meet Him.

Before I started this post, I prayed that our Marvelous Creator would afford me with words, with thoughts that could accomplish two purposes. The first would be to encourage the brothers and sisters who might, as a result of the horrible, depressing events happening in the world, find themselves becoming discouraged in their own faith, seeing the rampant and overt injustice being perpetrated upon innocent folks, and just generally experiencing the hopelessness with which the stranger visits our souls. To those of you who find your hopes flagging, remember what He told us about having patience. [Rev 14:12] “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.“ and [2 Thessalonians 3:5] “Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.” Patience is therefore important for believers – those who choose to keep the commandments, and as hard as it is to practice, we must remain patient, otherwise we leave open another door to the machinations of Satan.

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The second purpose of this post is to speak a truth to nonbelievers, to encourage those who do not know Christ to look into that thing which we believers KNOW to be a certainty. The thing of which I speak is the return of Jesus Christ to gather His children and to take up His sceptre, that symbol of Kingship and justice which we anxiously await. To you I say He was here in human form performing miracles unheard of, both in His day as they would also be in ours today – that history of all the things He accomplished during His appearance alone should be sufficient to pique the curiosity of the staunchest agnostic, and give people cause to look into His teachings. Another aspect of His life’s experience is His unassailable wisdom – the human race could probably continue indefinitely just by practicing the humanity, the love and generosity He taught, as opposed to continuing as we are to the cataclysmic ending we can all see coming.

We plainly see the evil that has overtaken the world – we know it’s evil because one of the few decent human traits we all possess is that conscience that allows us to differentiate between good and evil. While it’s true that we as humans are by nature far short of attributes that separate us from spiritual virtuosity, if we but open our eyes we can still understand that human evil, greed, immorality, ad infinitum, are direct causes for our impending demise. Therefore, we should, simply as a matter of the continuity of our species, be able to comprehend the source(s) of our destruction and avoid those behaviors. But it goes deeper than that – without Jesus Christ in our lives we are forever bound to repeat those accursed things. They are the essence of human behavior – behavior that identifies that which we must strive to overcome, which is impossible without His guidance.

There are things we fear will happen that may or may not come to pass, things like the nuclear holocaust most of us fear that could indeed happen if we stay on this trajectory. Just plain conventional war on the other hand, may be one of the practices we humans can’t avoid, although I hesitate to say it has to be a certainty. This site has proposed before, and I see no reason to change that belief, that Satan is at the pinnacle of his power when there is war in our world. War breeds all kinds of sinful behavior – hatred, greed, immorality, and others. We often hear justifications for war – resources, and other forms of wealth, territorial disputes, etc., but these are incorrect – these excuses are among the many lies birthed to accommodate war. Such justifications get the means and ends of war swapped. The reason for war is war. Satan doesn’t need resources – he needs people to be killing each other. When you understand that people always lie to justify throwing a war, you see what the Lord was talking about because Satan was a liar and a murderer from the beginning. Jesus had some choice words for such followers, [John 8:44] “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”

War itself may not necessarily be one of the inevitable things this post is about, although in reality because of our human fallibility, it sure seems to be. We hear the old saw about death and taxes and for all practical purposes they may be correct, but one thing is for sure – Jesus is coming back for us. He said He would.

[Revelation 14:14-16] Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. 15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16 So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.

Some of us are trying hard to stay on the leading edge of that sickle, making sure everyone knows they have an invitation to the Kingdom. To those who see themselves there, keep up the good work. To those who hear the invitation, don’t let it pass. RSVP now! Get to know Jesus, you’ll forever be glad you did.

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May God bless all.

MK

A Hopeful Climate of Peace to Come

We got some much-needed rain here in the holler yesterday and last night. Heavy storms around midnight and thunder kept going till the early morning hours. Maybe saying “much needed” is an exaggeration because we’ve actually had a nice, lush spring and summer and we’ve only been low on rain for a few weeks. This old farmhouse needs some work too, because the mud room is starting to flood when we get that kind of downpour, but our situation is not nearly as bad as some places in the world that are getting devastating floods.

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Flooding in Africa

The weather is changing everywhere, and it seems like wherever you look, someone has a perfectly reasonable explanation for it. There is undoubtedly some kind of climate change(s) going on, but whenever someone’s theory as to why it’s happening gets into politics, the theory becomes suspect – at least to me. For instance, there’s a sizeable movement that wants to declare war on fossil fuels because they see the increase in CO2 as coming from mankind burning too much of it. Then among the most ardent opposition to that turns out to be folks from the oil and coal producing entities. I’m not going to get into that fight, because I don’t know the particulars, and from so much suspect motivation for their positions, it’s hard to believe that anybody else does either.

The most compelling argument concerning fossil fuels is that they are responsible for way too much death and destruction from peoples and nations fighting over them. Most of the wars and hatred stirred up for the last several decades have been because of the wealth that stands to be obtained over the control of oil and natural gas, so when you take into account the ginormous pollution that occurs as a result of wars, then the dots could reasonably be connected from the burning of fossil fuels to the harm done to the climate.

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Is this what the Amazon will look like in a few years?

If someone from one of the excessively wise think tanks were to stand up and say, “Hey, you know what? If we shut down all the wars going on, we wouldn’t need to burn so much fuel for our tanks, jet planes, oil burning ships, and other military vehicles.” Maybe that kind of thinking could lead to, “Since we don’t need as much oil for wars, maybe humanity could stop throwing wars over oil.” Maybe then the oil used for killing each other could be reserved for agricultural equipment and nations blessed with good soil could set to trying to feed hungry people.

With those notions in mind, it might make more sense where the book of Revelation mentions as the seals are being opened where the voice in heaven says, [Revelation 6:6] And I heard a voice in the midst of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not harm the oil and the wine.” Maybe that verse is talking about crude oil, I’m not sure, and it’s hard to understand how we can harm oil; maybe sinking tankers full of it. Maybe it is warning conquering armies to try and save oil fields and wine stocks when they capture enemy possessions as they enjoy their wars. At any rate, the two items mentioned, food and oil, are among the most fought-over commodities in today’s world.

We know from the scriptures that we will endure wars right up to the end of the world, but wouldn’t it be wonderful if humanity could find it within ourselves to figure out a way to stop killing each other? Of course, we cannot, and a prescient commenter reminded me recently that it’s because we do not struggle against flesh and blood, but other entities: [Ephesians 6:12] For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

If we were left to our own devices and if our struggle for survival was left to us as a species, who knows? Maybe we could figure out a way to exist peacefully, but we are being controlled by monstrous spiritual entities who will not allow us to go in that direction. We have access to Jesus Christ, who is perfectly able to defeat them and lead us in the direction of peace, but for some reason, most folks seem to enjoy lives of sin and debauchery so much that they ignore the One Who is able to save us, both from ourselves and the demons who control some. So, as with many other human defects, we kill each other over the wealth that comes from oil as one of the many lame reasons for our wars.

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Jesus said [Matthew 5:9] “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.” I don’t know about the reader, but this old man considers being called a son of God to be the highest honor that can be bestowed on a human being, and we should strive to be regarded as such, hence this post espousing and encouraging peace. There are many organizations, people and groups who preach peace and try to make it happen. People with the opportunity to be called children of God.

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If a person is a stockholder in any of the multitude of “defense” industries and contractors who are vested in death and destruction, that person is the polar opposite of a peacemaker, and will be in no position to try and justify his financial ties to weapons of death on that Day when he has to give an account of himself before the Almighty God. [Hebrews 10:31] “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God”; and the greatest blessing that could come into that person’s life would be to understand what that fear will be like, now while he has a chance to repent and rectify his pursuits. In this day when the weapons from which you make money are being used to slaughter innocent children before your very eyes, you cannot say you didn’t know of the horrific travesty from which you were getting rich. From what we know about the justice of God, ignoring your future recompense ain’t going to make it go away.

As the sun comes out and the humidity monster begins to prowl in the Ozarks, we are reminded that August is in mid stride and the colorful, brisk world of autumn is still a few weeks out, but any time is a good time to consider where we stand with God. If a person chooses to ignore the events taking place in the world that are obvious and ominous signs of the impending end of things, then it’s all the more urgent they be stirred into seeking Jesus, the only One Who is able to bring them to victory over the evils of the times and bestow upon them an everlasting existence of unimaginable joy. For to those who are willing to believe, victory awaits, climate change or no.

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God bless all.

Mike K