Judgement and 9/11

Hmm A lot of questions... Having questions can be a wonderful thing if it causes the person with the question to search for the real answer. I have noticed a lot of people in this day we are presently living in that pose questions however, with no intent or perhaps even any desire to find the answer. It's a strange ill affected day we live in when posing questions serves to insulate us from the answer.

I'm not Radio Shack who's slogan used to be "You have questions. We have answers..." But I do have a small measure of "technical" expertise from years of experience mostly learned the hard way and by sheer unmerited favor. Unmerited favor? Yes, I totally blew any chances at any formal "higher" education during my days of drug use, "free loving" and outright rebellion.

I wasn't rebelling for the sake of a cause. I was merely using the "cause" for an excuse to express my own rebellion and the rebellion of the spirit* influencing me at the time. We would do well in the day we are living in to pay attention to that statement and consider what is actually motivating us in all we do.

Of course I didn't know that then because rebellion comes with it's own blindness. It's a package deal. The real problem I found out the hard way was that rebellion is a spirit thus having spiritual influence and able to spread that influence from person to person, social group to social group, even nation to nation. I was "led" into drugs (and a lot of other things) by others but it was the rebellion in me that embraced them (and those things) as a "good" thing. Rebellion attracts rebellion. Just like those that want to know the truth are drawn to each other.

That being said, I will try my best to express answers to some questions particularly regarding 9-11 and the "God's 'Judgement' of America." To understand that we need to know some things first:

The Almighty God vs other "gods"
(Beware the blame game...)

The Almighty God (Yahweh to the Hebrews) created the universe, created man with the intent of expressing His love - as a companion. He has been involved with man throughout the total history of mankind. Even though man fell from his relationship with God, He intervenes in the affairs of mankind and each of us constantly. Unfortunately because of man's blindness and rebellion, we are not able to clearly see that intervention. With God are also an enumerable number of spiritual beings that He created to serve Him. He is without a doubt the most powerful being in the universe.

Throughout most of man's history there have always been many "gods" besides The Almighty God. Most of them figments of imagination sometimes represented by carved images. None of them have any power at all.

Satan was once a prince in the Kingdom of God. He fell under his own delusions and attempted to overthrow The Almighty God. His deception and rebellion was so thorough and powerful that he managed to convince 1/3 of the ministering spirits in Heaven to rebel against God. He lost his position in Heaven and together with those spirits that followed him in his rebellion against God, were cast down to the earth. Contrary to common misconceptions and representations of him, he does not have horns (and angels do not have wings). The scripture says he comes to deceive, presenting himself and an "angel of light." Now take notice that he is also called "the god of this world, the father of all lies, the evil one."
*He and his spirits are spirits of deception and rebellion and they affect mankind to even further evil and rebellion against God.

Judgement:

"Judgement" is not just a club slamming into someone's head (or a nation's head). It is, first and foremost, "the revealing of the truth" as only God can see it. It is actually going on long before we ever "see" it come to pass.

All of the human race is already under the "Judgement of God." That didn't happen last week, last month, last year or even a few centuries ago. It happened early on in the beginnings of the human race when the earliest man made a pretty bad choice that was contrary to God's command. The results of that choice carries on endlessly down through time and all the generations of man. We are born under the judgement of God. We all have the ability to do good and to do evil. Apart from God, none of us has the ability to fully restrain the evil in us. God was only looking after man's best interests when He told man not to ingest the fruit of knowing both good and evil. He didn't say, "If you eat of this I will -kill- you." He said, "if you eat of this the result will be death and separation from Him."

We are all born of and into sin. And we all add to that condition of mankind by the actions we take in our lives. We all "pass on" the results of those actions to future generations. It's a little bit like an expanding nuclear chain reaction that only stops only when it has run it's course. Man was never created to be separated from God or to die. We are all born separated from God and from the moment of our 1st breath, we are heading towards our death. God doesn't have to "do anything" at all for that "judgement" to be accomplished. This condition of man was not a choice on God's part but a choice (and our own subsequent personal choices) on man's part.

Mercy

God loves His creation and man. He very often intervenes in the affairs of man and nations restraining that (evil) which would happen without His intervention. If God were to remove His mercy and restraint of evil influences from the earth, we would find out in short order just how "good" we are NOT...

God's greatest act of mercy and unearned favor was to allow His only begotten Son Jesus to be crucified as a substitution for the sin and evil of mankind. That door of mercy is open to "whoever shall come let them come." When our eyes are opened to the truth that our hopeless (and horrible) end in eternal death is the result of our sin (and the sins of all mankind) and we come to God for mercy in the name of Jesus, "God is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse us of all sin." We are yanked out of the cycle of sin and death that is terminal in humanity and given a new life, we are made into a new person. An eternal person.

So what about 9/11 and "The Judgement of God on America"?

Long before the twin World Trade Center towers came down on 9/11/2001, they were considered an impressive world renowned symbol of the financial power of the USA in the world. God allows things on earth some times to reflect what He is saying. Man chose to admire those twin towers as representative of financial power. God says doing so made them an idol and financial power is and always has been to God a false god. (Mammon) Of all the false "gods" that have been on the earth, Mammon has been worshiped in essence by more nations and people than any other "god." To some degree or another, we have all served that false "god" at some time in our lives. Jesus said something of note about Mammon, "You cannot serve God and Mammon. You cannot serve two masters. You will either love the one and hate the other or... (visa versa)" That is true of us as individuals and that is true of nations.

Those twin towers were a symbol of something that is anything but admirable to God. I would go so far as to say they were a very dishonorable thing. A symbol of evil. There is a scripture that says, "That which is highly esteemed in the sight of man is an abomination to God."

The Glory Of Forgiveness

The Theft

Back in late 2002 to early 2003, I had bought a severely fire damaged house from a guy. It was a wreck and I got it for next to nothing but it needed a ton of work done on it. I worked on it for several years but the first year I spent gutting out what was left of the interior and rebuilding and adding on to it. I use to leave my tools there locked in the house because it was a hassle picking them up every day. I only lived a mile away.

One morning I got there and there was a broken basement window and, upon entering, I found a whole bunch of my power tools missing. On top of that I found that my digital camera I had put in the desk I kept there was missing as well. I was devastated. Some of you know that helpless, frustrated feeling you get when you've been the victim of a robbery.

I called the police and they sent out an investigator who did the usual taking of fingerprints, etc but he said the guy was good at it cause it was all carefully wiped clean. While he was doing his thing, I went outside and I found a muddy shoe/boot print on a piece of construction paper on the ground and I took it in cause it wasn't mine. The inspector said that was not a common type of shoe but was a rather expensive certain brand of hiking boot. He took photos of it and told me that it was unlikely they would find out who did it.

After he left I got an attitude in me like, "I'm gonna save this boot print and I am going to catch this guy!" I was angry and frustrated. So, I kept that boot print with me all the time thinking I am going to nail this guy when I find the boot that fits this print. It was over a thousand dollars of tools, the camera, not to mention I had to replace the window that was broken. I couldn't afford that. It took over 3 months to replace those tools. My neighbor did tell me later that he saw a guy walking down the street with a cardboard box that I was missing and that he was struggling to carry it. Nothing ever really came of it but I kept that boot print with me just in case.

The Mercy of God

Late one day towards evening after working on the house all day I was driving home and was stopped at a stop sign when the Holy Spirit spoke into my heart to go to Taco Bell. Well I was tired and I really didn't WANT to go to Taco Bell. I just wanted to go home and relax. Well some of you know how that goes. I really couldn't leave that stop sign until I somewhat grudgingly said "yes." It was only a few blocks out of my way. No big deal right? As I arrived there and was walking to the entrance, He spoke again to me clear as a bell, "Buy two meals." Well, by then I was a little more cooperative so I went in and did just that.

So I sat down at a table wondering about all this and started to eat my meal. There was a young guy sitting across the aisle and down the way a bit and somehow we ended up in a conversation. That was awkward at a distance so I invited him over to my table to continue the conversation (which quickly and effortlessly turned to being about Jesus). I could tell he was hungry so I told him God had nudged me to buy two meals so it was pretty obvious it was for him.

There is something about receiving the mercy of God that if we "don't forget what manner of man we were," we end up carrying the mercy of God for others in us. He had a pretty good christian background but he confessed that he was struggling with falling back into a drug addiction. We had a great time talking and their was such a bond forming there. God's love poured out among us is an incredible thing. It never ceases to amaze me.

The Thief

After a while I noticed that we had been there for over an hour so I told him, "Wow, we should go outside to make room for other customers." When we got outside, we were standing there talking and I told him how my house had gotten ripped of a bunch of tools. While telling him that, the Lord spoke to me to give him $20.00 so I pulled out a twenty and told him what came to my mind. After having such wonderful fellowship and seeing him perk up and be encouraged so much, I was surprised that he suddenly looked so very sad and uncomfortable. He was practically stuttering saying, "I-I-I can't take that money". At that point he looked like he was going to burst into tears. Then, out of nervousness I guess he lifted up his leg to scratch his shin with his boot facing me and there was that boot print I'd saved all those weeks right there on the bottom of his boot.

He was so devastated. That's what drug addiction can do to you. You end up doing things you wouldn't even imagine doing normally. And he was so sorry and I could see that sorrow went deep inside him. And then an amazing thing happened inside me. I knew that God had help me find "that thief" but now I also knew that "thief" was my struggling brother in the Lord. I reached out and squeezed his shoulder and put that 20.00 bill in his pocket, gave him a big comforting hug. "I love you brother..."

I walked away from that meeting with a million dollars worth of God's love coursing through my veins and he walked away knowing that God knows all he was going through and was really there not condemning him but walking with him... I used to tell other brothers in the Lord about that story for quite a long time after that and the biggest smile would come to my heart as I would tell them,

"That is the best thousand bucks I have ever spent!"

God's Glory Revealed In His Forgiveness

See Jesus spent a whole lot more than that to purchase the forgiveness of God in our lives. He shed his own blood and died for us so we could be reconciled to God.

"I came not to condemn the world but to save it."
"All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God."
"While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."
"Christ died for ALL sin, for ALL men, for ALL time."

Is there any part of "ALL" that we don't understand???

Are you SURE?????

They Lived In Tents

There has been something rumbling around in me for a while now and I can't seem to put my finger on it. I don't know why yet so I just keep giving it up to God and waiting on Him to show me what it is.

As I was contemplating this rumbling inside me this morning in between chats with two Ugandan brothers (who have lived there all their lives) that I know, I found myself thinking about a time in our lives back in Hawaii about 25 years ago.

Under circumstances that were not entirely under our control, we ended up buying (on payments) an acre of light forested land and living in a tent - a very large military tent. Before that I had heard about an older widow from one of the christian gatherings whose house in town was falling apart so badly that it was deemed by the county to be unsafe and they informed her that it needed to be torn down. She was very poor and couldn't afford to do that. I felt led to help her and I carefully dismantled the house. It was very dangerous work.

Almost all of the material from the house was useless but I did manage to glean from it enough to build a floor for that 16 x 32 foot tent to sit on and later, an out building later that we called the "sitting room" where we would gather. The other 1/2 of it we called the "bath house"... Later we had a "temporary" power hookup installed when I started to build the first "module" of a "permanent" house (kitchen/dining) on the property. We had been stripped down to nothing before all this and slowly things were looking up for us.

I'm not going to lie to you and tell you it was an easy life but we were alive and together. I guess you could say we were "poor"... If I left it at that, I'd have to say you were right but there was also something wonderful about that year in the tent. No, actually I'd have to say, awesome because it was an "Our God is an Awesome God and He reigns from Heaven above" kind of time. We had almost no distractions that the world normally puts on us. Recreation was singing sometimes spontaneous praise and worship songs. Late night foraging in the scriptures. The presence of the Lord would descend in our midst quite often. and sometimes visitors would get unusually touched by God.

I met an older brother in the Lord who visited us back then  and years later I was telling some brothers that this 14 bedroom house we lived in once, was the most amazing house we ever lived in. He interrupted me and said, "No it wasn't. That tent was the most amazing house you have ever lived in." I asked why and he said, "Because of the anointing that rested on the property..." (we went out back of the property to pray one day and neither of us was exactly sure where we really were in spirit during that prayer time.) If I had stated that we were "poor" at that time, I'm sure he would have argued vehemently against that as well. And I would have to agree with him on that.

Just as an example, one day some cars pulled up front of the property and out piled about 10 or so "Jehovah's Witnesses" with their bibles and all. I found myself walking quickly up our long driveway to meet them just a little ways into the driveway. One of them said, "We are Jehovah's Witnesses." and out of my mouth came the words, in no small measure of authority, "I... am one of Jehovah's Witnesses"... As soon as that came out of my mouth the Spirit of God descended upon us all and I began to tell them the testimony of how I had been drowning in a car, started to experience my own judgement (revealing of the truth) before God (whom I didn't even believe in at the time) and then by the power of God when I should have died was translated right out of the car I was trapped in.

Then I told them how a year after that accident, not knowing how one could ever survive the judgement of God, Jesus manifested Himself in Spirit when I was out in a garden and how His presence filled that garden and how overwhelmingly beautiful that was. I told them about how He spoke to me while I was standing there in awe and adoration and said, "Come into my Kingdom." and how the back injury I had suffered with for a year since that accident was instantly healed. When I said that the Spirit of God descended on us all even more so. So much so that one of the ladies whom I could discern wasn't as tied in with that group spoke up and prophesied in agreement with that testimony. One thing I might mention is that the walls that normally would accompany that kind of a "meeting" were melted away for those ten minutes or so by the presence of the Spirit of God.

There were many other times that year that the Presence of God would manifest during times of worship, prayer and bible study.

There is something about us as human beings in that in this life we crave stability and longevity. And having been around for 61 years, I can totally understand that need. In a sense, during that time in the tent, we had a measure of stability. Something to hang onto. Things were starting to look up for us. I got more work and at one point was wondering if I could get better prices on lumber if I could arrange container shipments on my own. I arranged a two week trip to Portland, Oregon to check out direct lumber prices there. To my surprise all of my business appointments were done by the end of the first week so I found myself one day walking around in some fresh fallen snow and then I suddenly realized something. I looked up at the Father and said, "You want us to move here don't you!?"

Now I've got to tell you that up until that moment, you would have had to use a five foot long steel crowbar to pry me away from the islands for any length of time much less to move to the mainland USA. But all those reservations melted off of me at that moment. When I returned to Hawaii and our tent, I told my wife about what had come to my mind and we were in agreement. Long story short but the Lord graciously confirmed all that in short order after that and provided for the tickets for us to go there. Every detail just seemed to fall in place.

Finally, the day was coming for us to leave.We took down the tent, folded it up and sold it and the dismantled floor to another family who needed it and off it went in their truck. It was that simple. Just took it down, folded it up and off it went. Just like that... No muss, no fuss, our "house" was off to it's new purpose. The purpose for the tent in our lives was over and we watched it moved on... And, we moved on as well to follow the Lord in an entirely different direction and location. Just like that! (Can you hear my finger snapping?)

Now if we had built a house and had to move it to it's new location and purpose, that might have been an entirely different story. The truth be known, we very likely would not have responded to God in His direction had that been the case. We would have been too attached to the stability and looking forward to longevity in that place.

Now I'm obviously not advocating anyone live in a tent but I wanted to establish that I have had a certain level of experience living in a tent.

There is aspect to "living in a tent" that needs to be applied to how "christians" relate to "church." It applies individually and it applies organizationally.


I do have to express one thing at this juncture:

That those that follow Jesus the Messiah as a whole would be much better at responding to God's directions and moving with Him if we were to, in the organizational sense and our still imperfect perceptions of the Truth, consider "living in tents" in the Spirit. Instead, there is the constant building of what inevitably becomes permanent organizational monuments to something God may have in fact done or partially revealed years before but has subsequently moved further on in His plan for our perfection.

It is a sad testimony to the world and to angels that we are not able to fully follow Jesus as He leads us onward towards the promised land simply because we have been tricked into thinking we have already arrived. In the process, we have left a seemingly endless string of walled cities all claiming to be "the promised land."

Definition of Marriage

The Definition of Marriage

The PERMANENT God-ordained merging of the lives of a man and woman together, when consummating a sexual act that is, in it's essence, capable of reproducing another human being between them. In many (but not all) present day cultures usually preceded by a religious and/or legal ceremony.

A reality that precedes all religious and governmental influences

A deep rooted concept that has existed for thousands of years and in thousands of cultures and people groups. Even the most "primitive" ones. It is ingrained and built into the very fabric of humanity. All of the 7 billion people alive today on the earth have resulted from either the practice of marriage or the abuse of it's concepts. There are absolutely no exceptions to that fact. An incredible cloud of witnesses.

An Unchangeable Responsibility...

The same principles that govern the concept of "Marriage" (as defined above) also govern the universe, it's function and it's creation. If we could grasp that reality we would be able to see it's simplicity, beauty and importance in the scheme of things in ways we could never imagine. And we would never, ever try to redefine it as something contrary to the universe itself. (Much less the creator of it all) 

I guess what I need to say here considering the current confusion being passed for wisdom in some countries is that "marriage" in it's ESSENCE, in it's FOUNDATIONS for 1000's of years has ONE consistent factor embedded in it's foundation. That factor is NEVER going to change. That factor (already stated in the "definition" above) has not been embedded or created by societal norms or political law or religious tradition. It isn't a matter of anybody's "opinion". It just IS. 

Can society make water dry? Can government legislate the direction that the earth turns? Can religion, no matter how true change the orbit around the sun or remove the stars from the sky? 

There is a lot of emotional debate about "same gender" marriages lately:
 
If physical marriage as defined above were totally eliminated the human race would cease to exist in a short order. If same gender relationships were totally eliminated, the human race would continue without a single blip in its continuity. No society, government, religion can change that. Nor can someone make the two equal. They are diametrically opposed. 

EQUAL?
 

The TRUTH vs Opinion

Saw the below sentence written on someone's facebook page:

"He leads me beside still water which is not contaminated with opinions."

That kind of caught my eye  so I was thinking about this and the expression came to me to explain why opinions can be contaminating.

"Opinions by their very nature are an admission of the inadequacy of the level of Truth in the statement."

The world we live in is FULL of conflicting opinions because we are not searching for the Truth. We don't really want to know the Truth because then we would have to give up our opinions.

Is it possible to state an absolute truth? Sure it is and we do it all the time. If I see an apple tree (especially one that is presently bearing fruit) I can say with all certainty that is an apple tree. That is the truth. It is NOT my opinion. There is no need for an opinion because the truth is self-evident.

Here's a couple TRUTHS...

Eternity: No matter how far back in time we were to go or how far into the future we would travel we would never reach the "beginning" or the "end"...

Infinity: If we were to be able to travel to the very ends of the universe there would be something after that. If we were to travel to the ends of that, there would be even more after that endlessly.

Our temporal finite minds cannot even begin to comprehend those things yet we insist upon trying to instruct with our "opinions", a Being who fully comprehends the depth of those things. A Being who not only understands the Truth. He IS the Truth...

Jesus said something very provocative to the Jewish religious leaders of his day.

"Before Abraham was, I AM."

Now before we go offering any more opinions perhaps we all ought to chew on that for a while.

The Greatest Works

"God chose the weak things of this earth to confound the wise"

It is absolutely true that the greatest works of God that manifested on earth were precipitated by someone hearing the voice of God an obeying Him, more often than not in the most simple, seemingly insignificant act of faith that opened the floodgates of Heaven to pour out God's Spirit on man.

It's not the great buildings and organizations, well choreographed "services", the best worship bands, worldly marketing techniques or even great speakers, that bring down the power of God. The power of God that reaches out to and ministers to people, that changes the outcome of the lives of people and nations.

It's the simple acts of faith in response to God's speaking into someone's heart that further the Kingdom of God. And the beauty of that is it leaves the door open for any believer in even the most simplest or weakest circumstance to be used by God.

None Would Even Exist

Sitting on the deck last night with my 12-year-old grandson in one of those precious moments in life. He thinks differently than most kids his age and sometimes comes up with the most incredible perceptions. Sometimes I think people don't really appreciate the fact that he's becoming a pretty amazing "young man" or the rare giftings that he has. Well, we are talking and somehow the conversation turns to God and in one of the rare moments in my life I find myself telling him a story I have managed to tell only a few people in my entire lifetime:

When I was a young man (23?) God saved me from drowning when my car went into a ditch, flipped upside down and sank with me in it. The car was wedged between the 2 sides of the ditch and I couldn't get out.

So I'm telling him this story and he's asking questions like he does so I tell him that when I started to pass out I suddenly knew "I was going to die" and as I started to "go," for the first time in my life I began to be aware of God (really aware) and His presence. Everything I'd ever done, every thought and every motivation, as revealed by God began to be played out. And the horror of it was that I was found guilty before God. (Who I was convinced up until then didn't even exist.) It was utterly terrifying.

Then suddenly, there was this rush of indescribable power as I was "pulled" out of that car. Pulled through a space no bigger than my arm. I had a new breath of air in my lungs and I was alive and outside of the car as I burst through the surface of the water.

My two friends who were with me, who got out before the car sank, were a ways off sitting on a rock with their backs to the car. I had been down there too long.

So my grandson says to me, "So God saved you from death." and I answered him, "yep!" So then he said, realizing that I have 5 kids and 4 grandkids, him being one of them,

"Wow! If God hadn't saved you from death, then none of us would even exist!"

The thought rather startled me so all I could say was, "yep." Then we both sat there on the deck for a while soaking in that thought.

I honestly had never thought about that...

The Mercy and Foreknowledge of God.