tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45712434653835582142024-03-05T00:41:11.540-06:00ARMOR OF LIGHTThe night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. Romans 13:12Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07693919271728352905noreply@blogger.comBlogger8125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4571243465383558214.post-368323890381793182011-05-05T13:47:00.006-05:002011-05-07T15:46:32.846-05:00Prepare for Battle (Part 1): D-Day<div>My dear brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, in whom there is no distinction between people's, race's, classes or societies, I write to you all from the Church in St. Louis, Missouri. My prayer for the body of Christ itself has been that of protection and cleansing as of late. There is a sickness that I have sensed within the body as a whole, and sickness first comes from without, and manifests itself within. Therefore, the Lord judges from within the Church first, in order to cleanse that which is without, the world, at which the will cleansing will come at the day of judgement. And so my prayer continues the same, yet I see with spiritual eyes that the Lord is moving in a mighty way, preparing His bride for the soon return, in which we will see Him in His full glory, where no darkness can exist or breathe. The breath of glory has been breathed into our nostrils, like the first man, and we are made new. Remember, only the eye that has been made new will see the One who makes all things new. My prayer is that you be made new, and continually washed clean from the dirt of the world. </div><div><br />
</div>I have not been inspired to write for some time, as can be seen by the date of my last post, but the Lord has been revealing much lately to my spirit and I have been urged to finally post. This may be longer than even the previous posts, but by the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ it will be a timely message, which will serve to prepare and wake those who are not watching.<br />
<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">There is an incredible advantage that I have, in comparison to the apostles of long ago which they themselves did not have, which is the ability to send a letter to such a large audience of believers by way of the Internet (I refer you to my previous post on that particular subject). Therefore, with this in mind, I take into account that there may be brothers and sisters from all over the world, outside of the United States, that may be reading this message. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">But the first part of this message is directed towards the true body of Christ in the United States:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><br />
</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;">To the Church in America:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"></div></span></div><div><b><u><br />
</u></b><br />
<b><u>D-Day and H-Hour</u></b><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrYRGxDVNsQSKgkT7XDYEB00Q8FKovPbowO8XeEtZexD-_PGWYRd_P5Sc_rNtf3xoA_bH3UGZTkuOm3_jH3RfM3nDQTYNCBNq4iH1G7dTkk7SJYgxvqxvwWukS6jXRumDyIssBRgXcsKrE/s1600/d-day.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="252" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrYRGxDVNsQSKgkT7XDYEB00Q8FKovPbowO8XeEtZexD-_PGWYRd_P5Sc_rNtf3xoA_bH3UGZTkuOm3_jH3RfM3nDQTYNCBNq4iH1G7dTkk7SJYgxvqxvwWukS6jXRumDyIssBRgXcsKrE/s400/d-day.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><b><u><br />
</u></b></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">It should never leave your mind, brothers and sisters, that we, as a family, are in war together. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places, (Ephesians 6:12, KJV)</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: x-small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This war is against Satan, the prince of darkness, the ruler of the air, who seeks the doubting heart of a Christian, in order to turn him towards his own purposeful gain against the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Be wary, and be on watch against him, for he is at the door seeking to devour you the first chance he gets.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">In this war, there are fronts, just like any war. Some battlefronts are more intense and deadly than others. Take for example the shores of France on D-Day, in comparison to the shores of New Guinea during World War 2. The conditions were both brutal, but the situations themselves were different in comparison to each other. On the shores shores of Normandy, death was imminent and almost expected. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I tell you now, the United States, in the spiritual sense is Normandy, and D-Day is about to begin. The term D-day, in militaristic form can be taken to mean, </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"Day of Days". </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Another term used in the same context was H-Hour, or the "</span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hour of Hours". </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This signified the exact day and hour that the military operation was to commence. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The armed forces use code names to refer to the planning and execution of specific military operations. Operation Overlord was the codename for the Allied invasion of northwest Europe. The assault phase of Operation Overlord was known as Operation Neptune. Operation Neptune began on D-Day (June 6, 1944) and ended on 30 June 1944. By this time, the Allies had established a firm foothold in Normandy. Operation Overlord also began on D-Day, and continued until Allied forces crossed the River Seine on 19 August 1944.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">" (Wikipedia)</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 13px; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Brothers and sisters in our Lord Jesus Christ, I say to you in all sincerity, the battle is about to commence. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. (Matthew 24:36, KJV)</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> (Luke 21:36, KJV)</span></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; line-height: 22px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Take this to heart though, that the Lord Jesus himself received Revelation concerning the Day and the Hour in the Book of Revelation dictated to John the Disciple. The </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Day of Days and the Hour of Hours</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> is fast approaching. Yet! many will be found wanting, and will be caught off guard. Take these words from the Spirit of the Lord which was revealed to Paul the apostle, to you and for you, in this very hour in which we find ourselves living: </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But of the times and the seasons, brethren, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">ye have no need that I write unto you</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep sleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the night. But let us, who are of the day, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for an helmet, the hope of salvation. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ, Who died for us, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with him. Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> (1 Thessalonians 5:1-11, KJV)</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The allied forces worked together, and used code names to communicate with each other, concerning the </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">day and the hour</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> of the operation. The Holy Bible itself is code. It has a deeper, spiritual meaning to every aspect of it, but it can only be understood with spiritual eyes. The eyes of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit, who is Jesus Christ and the Father, must be put on. The only way to escape the judgment to come, and to be on the right side of the battle, is to allow the life of Christ Jesus to live through you by His Spirit. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">(Hebrews 9:24-28, KJV)</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The 28th verse of Hebrews chapter 9 is perhaps one of the most important verse concerning believers of the Lord at this last hour. Only by </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">looking and watching </span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">will that day </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">not</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> take you as a thief. The allies did not surprise each other when Operation Overlord commenced, rather it was meticulously planned and orchestrated. The Return of our Lord Jesus Christ is an operation, a battle </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">you</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> were meant to fight in, for Him and not against Him. We ourselves are ambassadors of the Lord as Paul says:</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now then we are ambassadors for Christ</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, as though God did beseech [you] by us: we pray [you] in Christ's stead, be ye </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">reconciled</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> to God. (2 Corinthians 5:20, KJV)</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Our battle is therefore not with flesh and blood, but with Fallen Angels and Demons; Devils of darkness and wicked spirits of old. </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Our message in wartime is towards the flesh and blood of the world, which is an invitation from heaven, to heaven.</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> We invite the world to surrender before it is destroyed! We offer reconciliation from God to the world, that they may be saved, for God loved the world so much He gave His own Son as a sacrifice for it. Oh the wonderful mercies of God, which we represent and pour out upon those who dwell in darkness! The battle rages, but the word from the Lord is this: The Church in America is fading from the battlefield, and is fleeing to another front!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><u><br />
</u></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><u>AWOL </u></b></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Many of the chosen soldiers of the Lord have gone AWOL, or they have been </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">"absent without leave"</span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">. The hardest place to actually be a Christian in the world today is America. The United States' society is founded and based on humanism, the belief that the end of all being is the happiness of man. This is the battlefront I have been born into. If you are reading this and are in America, this is the place where you have been chosen to fight. Why do you seek to leave the greatest battle in the Good Fight? </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There was a time and a place for missionary work, to spread the gospel all around the world. I do not lash out at the work of missionaries, but I do say this: The Lord has raised a people up, in every nation of the world today, and has planted seed everywhere there is soil. It is no longer the job of America to go to the foreign land, and spread the gospel. China, India and the like, have raised up phenomenal Christians, and their churches flourishes more than ours even in this land. </span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This is one of the main reasons we as Christians in America have wished to flee our own battlefront, because it is easier over there to live the Normal Christian life. Do not misunderstand me. I know the physical hardships that the rest of the world faces, and that is the very point, physical hardships leads to greater spiritual labor. Now remember this, that the Word of God must be looked at with </span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">spiritual eyes</span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">:</span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The LORD will not suffer the soul of the righteous to famish: but he casteth away the substance of the wicked. </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">He becometh poor that dealeth with a slack hand: but the hand of the diligent maketh rich. (Proverbs 10:3-4, KJV)</span></span></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Where there is no physical hardship, spiritual laziness and fornication creeps more easily. Once again, do not misunderstand my words, I am not saying Christians in America should seek to starve (although they should be fasting), or they should seek to be poor (although they should be willing to give everything up), what I am saying is that, spiritually, it is easier for the rest of the world to live out their faith in Christ, than it is for those in the body who are here in America. Why? The Church in America has applied the scripture in Proverbs in the fleshly sense. They work hard physically in their jobs, and therefore they become rich with material gain. But that scripture has nothing to do with physical workings and has everything to do with the spiritual workings of the Holy Spirit through you. Verse 3 is speaking of the soul, not the flesh of the righteous. Therefore, around the world there is a greater spiritual working, because of righteousness in the body of Christ. But here in America, the body is corrupted through wickedness, due to the blending of the Church and American society, which then leads to the Lord taking away His own Spirit and as James says:</span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 2px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 2px; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For as the body without the spirit is dead</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">, so faith without works is dead also. (James 2:26, KJV)</span></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The body of Christ in America is fading because of wickedness and unrighteousness. The society and culture we live in promotes and promulgates the hatred of Christ and His ways continuously. Day by day we are tossed images of pornography, violence, atheism and occultism (which all translates into the tactics of Satan) and we do not know how to deal with such attacks from the enemy. So, the Christian who dwells in the land of America seeks a way out of this disparaging culture, and the continual trend is to literally leave the land itself, and go on a "mission trip" or work in the "mission field". This is seen as the remedy to cure the sickness that is killing the body of Christ in America...to simply flee the battlefield! The Lord says this to the fleeing Church in America:</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of [them] whose heart [is] perfect toward him. Herein thou hast done foolishly: therefore from henceforth thou shalt have wars. (2 Chronicles 16:9)</span></span></span><br />
<div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You have done foolishly seeking to flee the battlefield, the place where you have been planted to fight the good fight of faith for Christ, which He Himself would have fought for you if you would have had courage enough to stay. Yet, henceforth, the Church in America is going to face the greatest persecution it has ever seen. The time is fast approaching. The Day of Days is near, and so too is the Hour of Hours. America is the like the front of Normandy on D-Day. Which side of the beach are you on? </span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The land of America is a den of iniquity, which will be recompensed for every evil deed it has committed. Keep this in your heart: the most skilled soldiers are reserved for the greatest battles. I refer you to King David's mighty men in 2 Samuel 23. They were of valor and devotion to God's King, and they set themselves apart through their gifts and talents they were given by God, to serve the King Himself in all humility and righteousness. They Loved their King, and so too must we Love our King, Jesus Christ!</span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There are many different tactics and fronts within America itself, and most of the work must be done covertly. But if a revival is to take place here, it must be a full on invasion of the Spirit of God in the land, much like on the shores of Normandy in France. Knowledge, Courage and Strength are required in order to defeat the enemy, and the Spirit of the Lord can be the one only supply you with these necessities. Yet once again, spiritual laziness and moreover, the Love of the world is found within the "Church" today in America. God needs, out of all the places in the world, mighty men to rise up in America! </span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">O mighty men of Christ in America! Do not flee to the front in which their is a lesser battle, but fight where you have been placed! *Those who died on the beaches of Normandy did not flee to a place like New Guinea, where there was no battle. No. They fought, and faced the certainty of death. The certain death we face is the cross, which itself is life eternally lived. Who is willing to go to the cross IN America? There are many Americans willing to die on the cross with Christ, but not IN the land of America; they seek a way out of the land they were born in, thus they go to the foreign land and spread the gospel there. But what about America?! Will you not live the life of Christ anywhere? Will you not seek the death of the cross in any land? Too many have fled without permission. The Church in America is AWOL. They have not been given leave from the battlefield they were assigned to fight in. The war is not over in America, it is only beginning! The mighty men of America are soon to reveal themselves for the sake of the cross! You are to flee Babylon, yes! But that is spiritually for the Christian today! The command is to flee the system of Babylon, you cannot leave world physically. You must subdue it! You must spread the gospel of the kingdom of God!</span></span></div><div style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><b><u>The Warning</u></b></span></span></div><div style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This is no joking matter, and this is not simply a word of advice, it is a warning. The invasion of the Lord is about to begin, and the rapture of the Bride of Christ is soon to occur.</span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24:25, KJV)</span></span></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">You who dwell in the land of America, I say to you: choose you this day whom you will serve. The god of the Americans, which is Self, or Jesus Christ, the Son of the Living God. There is no compromise between the two. Serve yourself or serve God. </span></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The Battle is soon to begin, which side of the flood are you on? Or more succinctly put, which side of the beach are you on? Are you invading the beaches of Normandy, or are you defending it? Take this message as a leaflet which serves as a warning before the bombs are dropped. The destruction is coming, choose the way salvation and grace, which is available to you this day, before the night closes in and the darkness eats you up. The Lord is willing, are you? </span></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Are you with Christ, or are you with Satan? Choose. </span></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">More to follow soon God willing, unless the ambassadors are called home, and the invasion begins!</span></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Blessings be unto you all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ! May the Grace of God be found within your hearts continually, and may the message speak to your spirits, and awake those who are sleeping. Amen. </span></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span> </i></span></div><div style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">*(Note: My grandfather was stationed in New Guinea, and the physical conditions were terrible during the war, and the important aspect here is that they were always in a warlike state, ready for battle at the call. But that does not overthrow the fact that a more intense battle was going on in France and Europe at the time. It simply exemplifies the notion that you must flourish where the Lord has placed you.)</span></i></span></div>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07693919271728352905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4571243465383558214.post-55492283112808293442011-01-20T14:11:00.004-06:002011-03-08T19:53:50.237-06:00Escaping the Spiders "Web"<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7-f_N8uQuUnpHTOMoYr6h3rnmK5FO6FHgCjFCnXToTMnKZBUyQ2ZG_9m-_4WqGXCf6Fz8FtvBYHbGjmcCes85vzaZzYfnR6jwITW-KEoOsNJcMfZUiZXJQ6nVsPyqfOVz9e08XuxqOQu4/s1600/opte.org.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj7-f_N8uQuUnpHTOMoYr6h3rnmK5FO6FHgCjFCnXToTMnKZBUyQ2ZG_9m-_4WqGXCf6Fz8FtvBYHbGjmcCes85vzaZzYfnR6jwITW-KEoOsNJcMfZUiZXJQ6nVsPyqfOVz9e08XuxqOQu4/s1600/opte.org.jpg" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">I pray that the Spirit of the Lord guard this post against the enemies eyes, that he may be blinded towards the light and the knowledge of the Holy One and His plan for redemption. May the Holy Spirit breathe on this, and on everyone that reads these words, and call out those who are chosen in His body, the Body of Christ. In the Holy name of Jesus I pray. Amen</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">What is the Internet? What does it do to us as human beings? Where is it taking the world?</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The World Wide "Web"</span></u></i></b></span></div></div><div class="dicTl" style="color: black; line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span id="hotword" style="color: black; line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static;"><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; cursor: default; line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<span id="hotword" style="color: black; line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static;"><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; cursor: default; line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">From the Computing</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; cursor: default; line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Dictionary:</span></span></span></span><br />
<span id="hotword" style="color: black; line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static;"><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="background-color: transparent; color: black; cursor: default; line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 23px;"><b style="line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span id="hotword" style="line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static;"><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="background-color: transparent; cursor: default; line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Internet definition networking</span></span></span></span></span></span></b></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: bold; line-height: 23px;"><b style="line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span id="hotword" style="line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static;"><span id="hotword" name="hotword" style="background-color: transparent; cursor: default; line-height: 1.25em; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; position: static;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-weight: normal; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">(Note: capital "I"). The Internet is the largest internet (with asmall "i") in the world. It is a three level hierarchy composed of backbone networks, mid-level networks, and stub networks. These include commercial (.com or .co), university (.ac or .edu) and other research networks (.org, .net) and military (.mil) networks and span many different physical networks around the world with various protocols, chiefly the Internet Protocol. Until the advent of the World-Wide Web in 1990, the Internet was almost entirely unknown outside universities and corporate research departments and was accessed mostly via command line interfaces such as telnet and FTP. Since then it has grown to become an almost-ubiquitous aspect of modern information systems, becoming highly commercial and a widely accepted medium for all sort of customer relations such as advertising, brand building, and online sales and services. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Its original spirit of cooperation and freedom have, to a great extent, survived this explosive transformation with the result that the vast majority ofinformation available on the Internet is free of charge.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> While the web (primarily in the form of HTML and HTTP) is the best known aspect of the Internet, there are many other protocols in use, supporting applications such as electronic mail, Usenet, chat, remote login, and file transfer.</span></span></span></span></span></span></b></span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Internet is simply this: knowledge. It is an entirely different world that we choose to delve into every time we turn the computer on and enter "www." into the url box. It is the World Wide Web. That implies a few different things though does it not? A spider makes a </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">web</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">, with the intent of catching its prey, which could be a fly or a small animal. A web is an offensive weapon. It is a trap. I find it interesting that Proverbs states this about a spider:</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">kings</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">' palaces. (Proverbs 30:28, KJV)</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Strangely enough, what are Christians called but </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">kings</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> and priest of the Lord?</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">And hast made us unto our God </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">kings </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. (Revelation 5:10, KJV)</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Who is this Spider and what are his intentions for weaving this web of information and knowledge? Considering the Lord said:</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">the kingdom of God is within you. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">(Luke 17:20-21, KJV)</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">We can therefore judge that Jesus was speaking of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and that is found within us. This Spider is therefore trying to weave his own web within our very souls. Why? This is his way of polluting the kingdom of God, and in a way, learn of the secrets of the kingdom. When we as Christians are not guarded with the armor of light, the protection of the Holy Spirit, this Spider through his own little hierarchical kingdom of minions, is able to slip in unawares. Remember people, we are at war with monsters (literal monsters, yes. Or maybe we can say "Spiders") and we need to know that he is trying to use us against our God, in order to gain victory over Him. This Spider, is Satan himself.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Now what is a website? It is simply apart of the web; a single strand of the entire whole. This is a website, and I am contributing to the expansion of the Internet. You yourself are getting an insight into my soul right now. Did you know that? What are words, especially written words, but the capturing of thoughts that are brought from the unseen world into tangible existence? You cannot see your thoughts, yet when you write them down, you can then see them. What an amazing thing! What a dangerous thing...I believe this is one of the ways or methods that a Christian can use to "take captive ones thoughts" as Paul states:</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">; (2 Corinthians 10:5, KJV)</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></u></i></b></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><b><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Internet and Facebook</span></span></u></i></b></div></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I just recently saw the movie, "The Social Network", and it was quite a thought-provoking movie. It causes one to contemplate what it is worth to become successful. More importantly, it made me personally question whether it is okay to use something that was founded upon sinful intentions, and sinful means. I of course am speaking of Facebook. Anyone who is reading this right now knows what Facebook is, and if you don't, than you might just live in a cave. It is a popular thing. It is a world wide network that links people together on a single interface, allowing them to showcase </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">themselves</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> to all the world. It is vanity central; it is pride boulevard; it is a gossip factory. It is the Tower of Babel. A tower made up of people's faces, coming together in one voice, and in one accord, with one purpose in mind: to meet each other. It is a cesspool of Sin, where vanity, pride, gossip, lies, gluttony, lasciviousness reign freely. But shall I stop there? No, Facebook itself is not the Tower of Babel, it is simply an entity of the tower itself, perhaps a wing, or a level. What else has literally brought all people together, connecting the world onto one grid of space, but the Internet?</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Internet is truly the Tower of Babel recreated, in a digital world. If you truly understand the nature of atoms and their relationship to matter, you will note that the physical world is nothing more than a digital image, a digital sphere in itself. There is something more real out there than we are, and it lives in a different dimension, one that we cannot see. Remember, the Internet runs over airwaves on an electric grid, and who controls the air?</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: (Ephesians 2:2, KJV)</span></span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Always remember who the </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">god</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> of this world is: Satan. Beelzebub is one of Satan's names in the Bible. It is popularly translated as "Lord of the Flies" but should be translated more literally as "Lord of things that FLY". He controls the air. Have you ever wondered who controls the Internet? Think hard on this; what did the Internet do to us as a people, as a species? It has changed the way we communicate, the way we interact, and I believe there is a demonic or satanic purpose behind it. </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><b><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Inter"net"</span></span></u></i></b></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Once again, just like the world wide "web", the Inter"net" implies that it is catching something. The purpose of a net in the scriptures is to gather fish, which represents men:</span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">nets</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> for a draught. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">net</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">. And when they had this done , they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">net</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> brake . And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came , and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink . When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying , Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished , and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken : And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships to lan</span></span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLJr3pYAxkbKCHd4C7r9UKSMrE_t0Q7s7lbjlgwvUvIprGxHMPavrcuzB_eoX8Vd2mUTz3_lk6CjKbEG2HsX_IqkOMC8DB7eecq1lgb8_y8w9A3_iSfmGybRdKin3h3Bf-nFJT6rRnBaNH/s1600/800px-Lake_Erie_Sunset_with_fish_net.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLJr3pYAxkbKCHd4C7r9UKSMrE_t0Q7s7lbjlgwvUvIprGxHMPavrcuzB_eoX8Vd2mUTz3_lk6CjKbEG2HsX_IqkOMC8DB7eecq1lgb8_y8w9A3_iSfmGybRdKin3h3Bf-nFJT6rRnBaNH/s400/800px-Lake_Erie_Sunset_with_fish_net.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">d, they forsook all, and followed him. (Luke 5:4-11, KJV)</span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large; line-height: 20px;"><br />
</span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The other day, after I watched "The Social Network", my Dad, brother and I got into a conversation concerning this very subject. We were puzzled as to what the meaning and purpose of the Internet was. A whole lot of good I believe has come out of from the Internet, for my family in particular. It has led to the discovery of SO MUCH information that we would have otherwise perhaps never come across without it. But (and that is a big BUT), it has led to a whole lot of evil in our lives as well (I will hit on this subject in particular sometime soon</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">, but I have not been led to share my testimony concerning this just yet).</span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">What is it that Jesus was saying to Peter, James and John? By forsaking all things and following Christ, they have left their nets and their ships behind. So how can they possibly catch men? It is, of course, in the spiritual sense that they will gather men into Christ. But Jesus uses these men to gather others into the kingdom of his Father. Therefore, in a spiritual way, Christ has become the true fisherman, and we have become His net. We are His tool in gathering others into His body. The net is only dropped where the fisherman wills it to be dropped. Before, the apostles were trying to fish on their own, and they were casting their nets without the guidance of the Lord. But at the word of our God, Jesus, they threw their nets on the other side, where he told them to throw it, and caught so many fish the boat and the net could even handle it. What a wonderful thing to be caught in the net of the Lord! </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Now I lead you back to the Inter"net". First of all, we know that Satan is the </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">god</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">, (little g) of this world, and the Prince of the air (Beelzebub). Thus, the one who controls the "net"is Satan. Who did you think controls it? God? Well if the Lord controls it and sanctioned pornography to be placed on the web than I think something is wrong. No, the Devil himself controls it, and there is a specific purpose behind this creation of his (and yes I know the Lord has ALL things in control, and ALL things work according to His purpose). </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">When Paul states that we need to take captive our thoughts, there was a specific purpose for that. </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Your thoughts dwell within the realm of the soul. Remember, your physical body is simply a suit, your true body is the thing inside of you; that is your true being, your soul. When you fantasize or think sinful thoughts, you are coming into contact with something most of us just simply do not understand, which is demonic spiritual forces. And I mean </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">every</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> sinful thought has demonic influence behind it. So when you speak something out of your mouth, or write something down, it is the transference of your soul into the physical realm. If you speak out sinful thoughts, your Spirit is convoluted with demonic forces. What does this have to do with Satan and the Internet? Well, if the Internet is, in a very real sense, a digital Tower of Babel, what other goal could Satan have than to capture every thought of the human race? When Paul commands followers of Christ to take captive their thoughts, Satan certainly saw those words, and seized the opportunity himself. He is taking captive the thoughts of humanity as a whole! By gathering the thoughts and knowledge of all humans, he is catching humanity in a net. But why? I believe the simple answer is this: control and espionage. I will first touch on control.</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><b><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">On Facebook</span></span></u></i></b></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The intent behind Facebook is to display your persona on the Internet for the world to see. Truly, we are displaying our souls in a digital framework, are we not? Do not forget, that every word spoken out your mouth leads to a conclusion; read the entirety of Proverbs and you will get what I am saying. Our basis of communication and expression has been morphed and manipulated by the Internet, especially by sites like MySpace and Facebook, not to mention Google (that will have to be saved for different post as well). Facebook in particular opens us up to demonic influence through the communicative evolution it has started. Because we sit at home on our computers and are able to look at people and say things to them without them seeing us physically, we feel more freedom to say things that we would never say in person. Posting "status's" of your life. What's the status? How stupid. How vain to think that people want to know something about us. How vain we are that we post pictures of ourselves and wish for people to look at us and desire to be our friends. What happened to the day when we sat down and talked with one another face to face? What ever happened to conversation? People say that it still exists, it has just been placed in a different medium, like the telephone, and now Facebook. </span></span></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><b><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></u></i></b></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><b><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The World is a Much Smaller Place</span></span></u></i></b></span></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Think what the Internet has done to us...think of what technology as a whole has done to us. Certainly it has made the world a smaller place, a less mysterious place. If I have a family member that lives half-way across the world, and I lived in the 1700's, then that would seem like a literal world away. But, in the age of Skype and Facebook, it is like they are right in the room with me. The world is truly a smaller place! More importantly though, the world is becoming one. The "Inter"net also implies interconnectedness. Think of a net once again...a net has links of strings or ropes, that are connected together and each serve an overall purpose in gathering in, or catching more fish, and holding them in. We are all becoming a part of Satan's "net", and quickly it is making us one. By becoming one net, the lord of darkness is able to control us easier. Especially when we are addicted to such technology. Have you noticed something about our culture, especially that of the America, where people are now literally addicted to their phones, computers, ipads, ipods, etc...? There is a reason for this: first of all, mind control. When you control what people are looking at, and it is filtered through a net, the Inter"net", you don't have to worry about them acting out of order. But more importantly when you have them addicted to anything, especially knowledge or "news", then he is able to enter our souls through any addiction and can implant anything he wills. But how does a Christian work through all this?</span></span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><b><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></u></i></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><b><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Finding Our Way Through the "Web"</span></u></i></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Now on the point of Satan's form of espionage against the kingdom of Heaven, we are led back to the Spider and its web trying to weave deception and lies in the souls of Christians themselves; how do we combat this? If Satan is trying gain the thoughts of all humans, he does not necessarily have to concern himself with those who are in his side already. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. This is what Satan has done with those who are born again. He is especially trying to gain the thoughts of Christians, so as to learn the secrets of the kingdom of God! That means we have a responsibility as Christians to have discernment on what, and what not to reveal on such a public device. I present to you a few Proverbs from Solomon, the last being the most important:</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise. The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth. The blessings of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow to it. It is as sport to a fool to do mischief: but a man of understanding hath wisdom. (Proverbs 10:19-23, KJV)</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter. (Proverbs 11:13, KJV)</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Most, if not all people who have experienced the Internet have been caught already, in some form or another, in the web of lies and deceit it presents. But Christians, who are born again and have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, are to have wisdom concerning these things. Therefore, we are to not reveal every thought that comes out of our mouths, or else we be seen in God's eyes as a talebearer, unworthy to be trusted with information. There are many, many people who peek into sites, and may gain wisdom from certain information that I, or fellow brothers and sisters in Christ may present, but there are also many lurkers who seek to destroy the kingdom of God. Have you ever wondered why the Lord states:</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Give not that which is holy unto dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. (Matthew 7:6, KJV)</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">A young babe in Christ the other day was experiencing such an incident where he felt that the Lord was saying to him, "do not cast pearls to swine, for you are then feeding the devil". How brilliant young Christians can be! We are certainly feeding the dogs and pigs (devils) by casting wisdom to them. By revealing to the enemy the secrets of the Lord, you are then allowing him to make his next move against the kingdom of God, and against you yourself. Think of that. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><b><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Conclusion</span></u></i></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">We as Christians must be more careful. I am as guilty as anyone when it comes to the improper use of the Internet. You are seeing a soul who has once been caught in it, and is now freed from the "net" or "web" the Spider (Satan) has weaved for me, and that is only by the Power of the Holy Spirit! Thank You Jesus! I have a Facebook account, and I have gossiped on it, to my shame. I have a Facebook account, and I have had pride and vanity in wanting people to see my page, to my shame. Shall I get rid of it? I don't know, if the Lord leads me to then yes, of course I will. Shall I never, ever get on the Internet, or ever post on this blog again? If the Lord leads me to then yes, of course I will. But, at the moment, I believe the Lord is calling for us to save those who are caught in the "net" or "web" right now. We live in this world, yet we are not of this world. I quote Andrew Murray, that brilliant Christian man:</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: iBooks_Cochin; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"When the Lord Jesus was here upon earth, what was it that distinguished His disciples from other people? <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">He took them away from their fish-nets, and from their homes, and He gathered them about Himself, and they knew Jesus."</span></span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: iBooks_Cochin; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: iBooks_Cochin; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I wish to gather people away from the net of the world, and have them gathered unto Christ Jesus himself! I wish to see them saved! This blog is perhaps my way of entering the "net" to bring many of you who are addicted or caught in it, out of it! I can only pray in the name of Jesus that His will be done, and that at least one would be saved. We can no longer feed the Spider by getting caught in it ourselves, and tossing him wisdom that he thrives off of. We must have discernment. Remember, we are kings and priests, and the spider desires to hear the secrets of the King himself!</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: iBooks_Cochin; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: iBooks_Cochin; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and as harmless as doves. (Matthew 10:16, KJV)</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: iBooks_Cochin; line-height: 19px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: iBooks_Cochin; line-height: 19px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Be Blessed in Christ Jesus!</span></b></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: iBooks_Cochin;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; line-height: 19px;"><br />
</span></span></div></div></div></div>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07693919271728352905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4571243465383558214.post-18501615820111019832011-01-10T16:35:00.014-06:002011-01-13T12:33:16.274-06:00The Dance of Moloch (Part 1): The Physically Aborted<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I will return to "The Blistered Man" series when I feel led by the Lord to post another article on it, but for now the Lord has been pressing upon me to write on this related subject.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">At the end of my last post, the Lord revealed to me what may perhaps be a common metaphor to many, but was quite uncommon to me. It is from that metaphor that I wish to base the following post(s?) off of.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">To set the entire tone of this series, I wish to include a writing that I put together about a year and a half ago. It will also be the basis of these posts.</span><br />
<div></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><b><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Dance of Moloch</span></span></u></i></b></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The law of nature is, in a rightful sense, repetition. In the spring the orchards grow from small acorns, the flowers blossom from unsuspecting seedlings into a beautiful tapestry that designs the landscape of the forests and the fields. The seasons wear on, summer and fall pass, and winter comes and transforms the scene into a world of gray, and the process is repeated with a new generation of things to come. It is rhythm. This is the nature of all things mortal: to live and to die, but also, to birth new life. In the world of the immortals death is seized from the equation. Though, the undying things follow natural tendencies as well. God himself has his own nature, of love, righteousness, and justice. He also shares the characteristics of living, and breeding new life with the mortal realm, as shown in everything that is seen in and around the world itself. The Fallen, those immortal beings who rebelled against God’s nature, have features of their own. They are living; yet they seek the opposite of God’s natural essence. As God searches out life in a dead world, they pursue and search out death, and seek to destroy new life before it takes its first gasp of earthly air. Thus, is the war of good and evil, the war between God’s nature and the nature of the Fallen.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-zRyadFHNHSbmL5hFZirjXbHsSxVE3KoZ9FFe-j-3j3enLP8CtHDJPjpd5gbuUUGIVW2HGe1H5ZyMdbPtqXwTbFOsvVlt5zYKrM5ERFXOXvEeV4KD2xGLx_uKIe1B8k-n4rrb1qK_W9wa/s1600/moloch.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-zRyadFHNHSbmL5hFZirjXbHsSxVE3KoZ9FFe-j-3j3enLP8CtHDJPjpd5gbuUUGIVW2HGe1H5ZyMdbPtqXwTbFOsvVlt5zYKrM5ERFXOXvEeV4KD2xGLx_uKIe1B8k-n4rrb1qK_W9wa/s640/moloch.jpg" width="465" /></span></span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Seeing as Adam ate the apple in the beginning and rejected the nature of God, humans had selected to follow the unnatural nature of the Fallen. From that point on, God sought to restore the balance in the world. The balance assembled on Calvary, and the symbol of the death of Sin is certainly a balanced, symmetrical one. As this balance was refurbished and cured, the Fallen, who had roamed freely on the earth before it, had fled into hiding, yet their presence had not faded.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Fallen, or the demons, had roamed liberally on the earth before the thunderclap of the nails being driven into Christ’s hands and feet was heard. They were worshipped and served by many of the ancients of the world. The most perverse and arguably evil of the ancient empires is that of Carthage.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Carthaginians worshipped a truly evil demon, one known as Moloch. The worship of that demon is the perfect showcase of his predisposition, as G.K. Chesterton puts it in the Everlasting Man,</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">“Moloch was not a myth; or at any rate his meal was not a myth. These highly civilized people really met together to invoke the blessing of heaven on their empire by throwing hundreds of their infants into a large furnace. We can only realize the combination by imagining a number of Manchester merchants with chimneypot hats and mutton-chops whiskers, going to church every Sunday at eleven o’clock to see a baby roasted alive.”</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">By his nature, Moloch, who demanded children as sacrifice, had devoured his own children of Carthage, just as the mythological god, called Saturn, devoured his.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The point is this, that Moloch’s spirit is alive in the modern world, just as he was alive in the ancient world. He is a spirit whose appetite for the blood of the youthful is never quenched. He now resembles that of a vampire, who prowls through the night, seeking to suck the blood from those who are defenseless: children. Moloch has found his new home; it is that of the United State of America. As the balance was set back in place by Christ, Moloch was forced to change his ways, even his name. Over the centuries of existence he has been called many things aside from Moloch, one could call him Lucifer, Satan, the Devil, Baal, Beelzebub, and yes, Moloch. But his new name is more frightening than all the former combined: Choice. (Note: Moloch is not Satan, he is subservient to Him, yet all demons fall under the same authority, and that is Satan himself)</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">As is the unnatural nature of the Beast to turn things holy upside down, he has convinced the foolish man and woman that the gift of free will, is also the gift of free murder, or in this case abortion, and taking that gift without consequence. But the law of nature calls for a reaction to any action. It could also be said that when a choice is made, a particular path is chosen as well. The choice to abort a child is not so much on the path to murder, as it is on the path to sacrifice. Abortion is the sacrifice of a child to the god of all things dark and terrible, Moloch, and the United States is his greatest follower of the modern world.</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The law of God, or the nature of God states, thou shall not murder, or thou shall not abort. The unnatural law of Moloch could be stated, as thou shall abort all things living. The rhythm of any nature is like a dance, and the spirit of Moloch waltz’s freely around the land of liberty, eating his children at will. America’s law legalizes that which is not legal; right’s that, which is wrong; sacrifices the living to the dead, and calls it choice. Just as Moloch was behind Carthage, he roams behind the Statue of Liberty, who has sacrificed her children to him, and he is ready to feast on her walking corpse. The modern world, especially America, tangos with the Devil and thinks the stage is on the clouds of heaven, when really they dance on the flames of hell.</span></span><br />
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<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Physical vs. Spiritual Abortion</span></u></i></b></span></div></div><div style="font-family: 'Times New Roman'; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This is an excerpt from my last post:</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0pt; margin-right: 0pt; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"Those yet to be born must be cared for in different sense in comparison to a baby who must be nurtured. A baby must literally be nurtured and raised from its birth (and that happens after baptism, or the breaking of the blister). One who has simply been convicted, but has not been baptized, is like a baby still in the womb. We must be careful to not harm that baby. These are delicate fetus's we are dealing with. Knowing that the new believers are to be born, we must be sure that we do not cause a miscarriage. Moreover, we must be sure that we do not abort any of these unborn babies, for the warning is stern for those who cause them to fall away from the Lord. He states this concerning them: </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. (Matthew 18:6, NIV)"</span></span></span><br />
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</span> </span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">We tend to focus so much on the physicality of death itself, and oftentimes we forget the spiritual implications behind the violent occurrence. An abortion is not a clean and easy process. It is a traumatic experience for the women who go through it. In most cases, the physical manifestation of something, especially that of death, is simply an after-effect of a particular cause in the spiritual realm. What I mean is simply this: that when something big happens in the physical world, than something even greater happened in the spiritual world. With that thought in mind, I direct you to this recent article:</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/01/07/national/main7222625.shtml</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The article describes the discontent of certain "spiritual leaders" in the "church", over the abortion rate in New York. There are many physical abortions going on as we speak, and I pray against them right now in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. More importantly though, there are even more "spiritual deaths" occurring as we speak. What do I mean by this? I am speaking of those who have been on the cusp of believing, and those who have believed, yet have not been baptized. What holds them back from being born into the Kingdom of Heaven? Abortions or Miscarriages. Not merely physical, but spiritual abortions that are occurring daily. 41% of all births in New York Cities births result in abortions. And what does this Archbishop, Timothy Dolan say in response to this?</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">"Dolan said the practice is unlikely to end but that it was important 'to tell people what is happening." </span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I pray for this man. I see NO faith in that statement. The practice is unlikely to end? I worship a God that makes the impossible, possible! I shoot BIG with God, and I pray that the heinous act of sacrificial offerings to the Devil will cease! And by the right hand of the Almighty God it will. Sooner than we think. Yet there is an aspect to this abortion rate that many will not see, because it is not happening in physically seen world, it is happening in dimensions that we cannot see. When things like this take place, it has a direct connection to the state of the Church. In a way, it is the revelation of what is happening in the spiritual world. </span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Physically Aborted Babies</span></u></i></b></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Many, too many, would be Christians, are being aborted while still in the womb. I speak spiritually as well as physically. Hitting first on the physical abortions in this post; I have heard it from some "denominations" that babies that are aborted go to Hell. I completely disagree with this. First off, I quote the Law, and the Lord's words to Israel concerning their children:</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Moreover, your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, and your children, which in that day had no knowledge between good and evil, they shall go in thither, and unto them will I give it, and they shall possess it. (Deuteronomy 1:39, KJV)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
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What an amazing picture of aborted babies today! We have said that these children should be a prey, have we not? Yet, what does the Lord say here? The children of Israel had no knowledge of good and evil, therefore they are not condemned under the Law. Is this not the very tree that Adam ate from? Is not the knowledge of good and evil, evil itself? Yet these children had not come to that age of accountability, which I believe is up to the discretion of the Father. Many will disagree with me on this point. But it is at this point that I stay. For what the Lord says to the older generation right after is quite revealing, in the symbolic sense:</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
But as for you, turn you, and take your journey into the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea. (Deuteronomy 1:40, KJV)</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
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We, who have tasted the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, and we who wish to become part of the Kingdom of Heaven, must first turn from sin (turn ye) and take up our cross (the journey), which will lead to the world's rejection of us (the wilderness), and finally we must be washed in the Blood of the Lamb, which is Baptism (The Red Sea) in order to enter Heaven (the Promised Land).</span><br />
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</span> </u></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Do Aborted Babies Go to Heaven?</span></u></i></b></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">There have been many books written on Heaven, but a few of them have particularly effected my family and I. </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">6 Big, Big, Big Angels</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> and </span><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Heaven is For Real</span></u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">, are two miraculously anointed books that I certainly recommend reading. In both books there is confirmation from these two young children, Victoria and Colton, who had near-death experiences and visions of Heaven, that aborted and miscarried babies go to Heaven. </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope.</span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> (Romans 15:4, KJV)</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">These scriptures were written long ago for us now. We must look at them with spiritual eyes, through the lens of the Spirit. I could present many things that perhaps show the opposite side like:</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">For I was born a sinner—yes, from the moment my mother conceived me (Psalm 51:5, NLV)</span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Christ Himself, though sanctified the womb:</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign: The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and will call him Immanuel. (Isaiah 7:14, NIV) </span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 20px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I have hope that those children who never had the chance to glorify God in Christ, are glorifying him in Heaven right now, by growing in His sight. These children had a specific purpose to fulfill in God's eternal plan. But Satan has tried to destroy that plan by ridding these children the opportunity to fulfill their purposes. Yet God turns all things around for good. Even when a child is conceived in Sin, the Lord takes that child to His eternal abode. So those who support abortion when a child is conceived in rape or out of wed-lock or infidelity, I use the example of David and Bathsheba, against that thought:</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px;"><span class="versetext" id="2sa12-21" style="display: inline; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Then his servants said to him, "What is this thing that you have done? You fasted and wept for the child while it was alive; but when the child died, you arose and ate food."</span></span></span></span><span class="versetext" id="2sa12-22" style="display: inline; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> He said, "While the child was still alive, I fasted and wept; for I said, 'Who knows whether the LORD will be gracious to me, that the child may live?' </span></span></span></span><span class="versetext" id="2sa12-23" style="display: inline; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">But now he is dead; why should I fast? </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Can I bring him back again? I shall go to him, but he will not return to me."</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> (2 Samuel 12:21-23, NKJV)</span></span></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">If we believe that King David's son went to Hell, why would David say that he himself will go to him? No! He will go to his son in Heaven! Because that is where he went, Praise God! </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">What a wonderful thing Jesus did for us, and what a wonderful thing He wished for us to become: children! Why children? First off, by saying little children, especially the unborn, go to Hell, do we not make our Lord out to be a liar? </span></span><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggh4ffCBMUivFVUZG94otIPsCWV1v6H4mtnnv6AMzgrwZsOC6rYY0JJyTzdKpmLHr3ahX-lnl2lloOUjAKnmo61MfMtrN1gOHYpVrtu7Gimk1sGbPjWMXGUDlldxJc-BhmgQcxPa4Sqetk/s1600/friendsjesus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggh4ffCBMUivFVUZG94otIPsCWV1v6H4mtnnv6AMzgrwZsOC6rYY0JJyTzdKpmLHr3ahX-lnl2lloOUjAKnmo61MfMtrN1gOHYpVrtu7Gimk1sGbPjWMXGUDlldxJc-BhmgQcxPa4Sqetk/s400/friendsjesus.jpg" width="342" /></span></a></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Jesus said, "Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these." (Matthew 19:14, NIV)</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Kingdom of Heaven is reserved for those who are "like" little children. If we are to be like little children, that is an implicatory statement which supposes that little children have something that we older folk do not have. What is that? Innocence. They are guilty in Adam, but they have not made the choice themselves to eat of the tree, for they do not yet have the knowledge to do so...yet. But Christ is clear on this:</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">And said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven. (Matthew 18:3, KJV)</span></span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Aside from many other aspects of being a child, like obedience and lack of worry, the largest point is their lack of the knowledge of Good and Evil. They have not eaten of the tree, for they have never had the opportunity to do so even. </span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">So those children sacrificed to Moloch do not face the same end as the "god" they are being sacrificed to will face. This is the physical side of abortions, which has a less gloomy outlook in comparison to those who are spiritually aborted. Even so the Dance of Moloch continues throughout the land, and the unstoppable rhythm of death keeps moving, seemingly impossible to stop.</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Never forget though, that through our Lord Jesus, all things are possible. Never forget that. </span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">More on that in the next post, God Willing!</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Blessings in Christ Jesus!</span></b></span></span><br />
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</span></span>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07693919271728352905noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4571243465383558214.post-27813257898234824452011-01-08T19:21:00.015-06:002011-01-09T12:02:41.448-06:00The Blistered Man (Part 3): The Lens of the Spirit<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">If you have not yet read part 1 or 2 of this series, I recommend checking those preceding articles before continuing on with this present post.</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">This is a Sermon that my brother and I listened to just the other day. It is by Pastor Alan Redpath, and it is titled "Chosen to be Holy". To have a greater understanding of this post, it would be necessary for you to listen to this message, as much of what is said here will be borrowed from Redpath's message, and placed into the context of the Blistered Man. I have posted the 1st part of 5 parts.</span></span><br />
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</span> </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> The Telescopic View of Christ</span></span></u></i></b><br />
<div style="text-align: left;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-style: normal; font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">**Keep in mind now, this is simply a metaphor for the journey a Christian takes towards salvation. It does not mean this is how it is for every Christian; it was not this way for me even in every aspect, but it is an illustration of the steps we take towards salvation in Jesus Christ. </span></span></span></i></b></div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">In the last post, the Lord led me to the metaphor of the magnifying glass, and its particular characteristic of concentrating light into one area, long enough for it to burn. At this point, I wish to talk about another aspect of the magnifying glass, which is the most obvious characteristic of the tool itself, which is its ability to magnify. Now, keeping the magnifying glass in mind, I want to turn your attention another tool that has a similar capability: the telescope. A telescope magnifies a large object, which is far away. To our eyes it is small, but in reality it is incredibly large. The telescope brings the object closer to us, and allows us to see it in a more detailed way. From the perspective of the world, Jesus Christ may seem far, far away, but the Holy Spirit acts as a telescope for the Church, and brings that very object, the object of our Holiness, who dwells at the right hand of the Father in Heaven, directly into our line of vision.</span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Paul prays for the church of Ephesus in the same manner, that they may receive the Spirit:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 6px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way. (Ephesians 1:17-13, NIV)</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">So this telescopic view of Jesus Christ at first, is then made more intimate when we see and recognize ourselves as being apart of His body through the lens of the Spirit. Is this not what Paul was speaking of to the Corinthians? He mysteriously states:</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #001320; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known. (1 Corinthians 13:12, KJV)</span></span></span></span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Before we are convicted by the Spirit to come unto the cross and Christ, and even for a short period of time after for many (if not most), we recognize the distance between He and us. This chasm between the Lord and His creation is caused by Sin. We are looking through the armor of darkness, the flesh, unto Christ, and without the light of the Spirit, the armor of light, we can have no knowledge of our position with Him.</span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman';"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></i></b></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Already There</span></u></span></i></b></div><div style="color: #274e13; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 21.0px; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">Now I pray the Lord allows you to recognize this and understand it with spiritual eyes. When the Lord Jesus is brought into a closer view, a revelation must occur for every believer, and that revelation is this:</span></span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">predestinate</span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">predestinate</span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified. (Romans 8:28-30, KJV)</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 21.0px; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
As the Spirit shows us Christ through the lens of the telescope, we are led to the discovery that we are apart of His body. In a literal sense, we were always there! The journey of a Christian is simply the journey back to the One who created him. Sinful nature separated us from the body, or rather, we experienced an amnesiac effect with the knowledge of being apart of the body at one time. By the death and resurrection of Christ, we are brought to the state of glorification, in His body.</span></span></span></div><div style="color: #274e13; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; line-height: 21.0px; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
To illustrate the ability for God to predestine those whom he has chosen I refer you to a few verses:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, [and] I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations. (Jeremiah 1:5, KJV)</span></span></span></div><div style="color: #274e13; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">predestinated</span></span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. (Ephesians 1:4-6, KJV)</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">We were chosen </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">in Christ, before the foundations of the world were laid</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">.</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Imagine that for just a second, and think hard on it for a long moment. So when Christ was formed in the womb, we, spiritually speaking, were formed with Him. When Christ died, His body was put to death, meaning we, who are His body, were put to death with Him. When His body was laid in the tomb, we being His body, were put into the tomb. Most importantly, when His body was raised from the grave and ascended into Heaven, we ourselves were resurrected with Him! </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">After we have a recognition of being apart of the body from afar, we are then allowed, by the Spirit of God, to examine ourselves in a more stringent, closer way. Once we know we are apart of the body, the next step is allowing the Spirit to reveal to us where we are exactly in the body. By identifying where we are in the body, we are able to understand our purpose in Christ. </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Our purpose is specific, not random. Our purpose is revealed, not left to be undefined. The Spirit is who reveals this purpose to us. Yet, the body of Christ is very large, it is not like our own bodies. It is a spiritual body, which exist simultaneously in the physical and the spiritual realm. So we, being physically small, make up only a small part of the body of Christ, spiritually. In the relation to a blister...is a blister placed onto you, or is it formed from your very body? The skin was already there to be burnt. It is the outside source, the Holy Spirit, that convicts and burns the heart, that which was already there. So we can see that when we are blistered by the Spirit, we are brought to the revelation that we were already apart of the body of Christ long ago!</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The Magnification of the Spirit</span></u></span></i></b></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">The next step in the Spirit's work is to then take the telescopic viewpoint we had of Christ, and make it a magnified viewpoint. By taking the magnifying glass, the Lord reveals to us our specific place in Him. Before we only saw Him from a distance, now we see ourselves dwelling in Him, and He in us. What a change in perspective this is! This is what the Spirit reveals to those who are truly apart of His body. When looking through the telescopic lens, you then see yourself in Christ, which in turn means the Father sees Christ in you. Thus, now instead of seeing Christ Himself from afar off, you are now recognizably apart of that very body, allowing for a closer examination and more intimacy with God. </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="color: #274e13; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment? (Job 7:18-19)</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">What is this great mystery? Certainly man is blessed amongst all created things! But it is not enough to simply look unto Christ, and see Him as being God though. The Holy Spirit, speaking through James is clear on this matter:</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="color: #274e13; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. (James 2:19, KJV)</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">What then is the remedy for this predicament mankind finds himself in? The demons see Jesus, and know His standing in the universe. We, as believers, also see this same position that Christ has taken. Where is the difference between mankind and the fallen ones (demons)? Through the crucifixion of the flesh, we are made new by the Spirit. The demons have no flesh to be crucified, they are spiritual beings in themselves, therefore, they have no opportunity to be renewed. They have made an eternal choice. We have been gifted with the choice to die with Christ, or to live with Satan. To die with Christ means to live eternally; to live with Satan means to die forever. So therefore, the demons are only allowed a viewpoint of Christ from a distance. We are afforded the blessing, through His death and resurrection, to become apart of Christ Himself! (Someday I will post on the possible origin of Demons, but that will be for another day). Once we see ourselves in Him, we will then say with Job, "What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him?" Yet, the Lord does magnify those who are found in His Son. What a humbling thought this is, to have our purpose revealed to us, not as strangers, but as intimate Sons and Daughters of the Most High God. </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">There are many implications that follow this revelation and I wish to dwell on a few of them for a moment.</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqCz0bYGNOfx1rpRJ8aYKUgxQ5vQw1PyZcgzd-qkYXpQIzmzZUmeSuLut5jlFtX0Y5lQu0qXCGIMBpkIdU7dLTB0bc5D5wFas65bkas8skty5nyZvidh2v0lHXkAwMsVT69BTgu2L1UVAG/s1600/3195846632_b0d56c1d70_o.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqCz0bYGNOfx1rpRJ8aYKUgxQ5vQw1PyZcgzd-qkYXpQIzmzZUmeSuLut5jlFtX0Y5lQu0qXCGIMBpkIdU7dLTB0bc5D5wFas65bkas8skty5nyZvidh2v0lHXkAwMsVT69BTgu2L1UVAG/s400/3195846632_b0d56c1d70_o.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span></u></span></i></b></span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Magnified to Burn</span></u></span></i></b></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">When the Lord magnifies us in His body through His spirit, we are then brought to a viewpoint which allows us to know ourselves better in Him. We see this by the Spirit, our place in the Body that is, but we are then led towards the burning aspect of the blister. When we discover our designated place on the body, the Holy Spirit than burns us with the light and life of He who saved us, Jesus Christ. This relates to the "reality of perception" and the "paradox of the light" spoken of in the previous post. One is brought to a place where they dwell completely in the light and glory of God, and we are then burnt with conviction, by the concentration of that glory through the magnification lens of the Spirit of God. In a way, we found ourselves to be "in the right place, at the right time". But that would imply that we did something on our part...this is not true. We did nothing. He did everything. It is He, by His Spirit, who reveals all, and accomplishes all. He shows us our sin; then He uncovers the mystery of our position in the body of Christ by the death, burial and resurrection of our God; and then He convicts us to be baptized in order to take our position in that very body. Only through baptism can we be functional in the body of Christ. For we are born into that body, spiritually speaking. Only through conviction can we be lead to baptism though. Again, the conviction of the Holy Spirit is what leads to the blistering of the flesh, and the blistering of the flesh is what leads to the breaking of the old skin, and the manifestation of the new skin (the spirit) on the outside, all which is accomplished through baptism. I post the entire 12th chapter of 1 Corinthians so that we can measure all this with the Word of God. </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="color: #274e13; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. Ye know that ye were Gentiles, carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. Wherefore I give you to understand, that no man speaking by the Spirit of God calleth Jesus accursed: and that no man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost. Now there are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. And there are differences of administrations, but the same Lord. And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withal. For to one is given by the Spirit the word of wisdom; to another the word of knowledge by the same Spirit; To another faith by the same Spirit; to another the gifts of healing by the same Spirit; To another the working of miracles; to another prophecy; to another discerning of spirits; to another divers kinds of tongues; to another the interpretation of tongues: But all these worketh that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to every man severally as he will. For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is Christ. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. For the body is not one member, but many. If the foot shall say, Because I am not the hand, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? And if the ear shall say, Because I am not the eye, I am not of the body; is it therefore not of the body? If the whole body were an eye, where were the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where were the smelling? But now hath God set the members every one of them in the body, as it hath pleased him. And if they were all one member, where were the body? But now are they many members, yet but one body. And the eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked. That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it. Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular. And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues. Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles?Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret? But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way. (1 Corinthians 12:1-31, KJV)</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">An Active Member</span></u></span></i></b></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Now we truly discover the truth about what a true Christian is. It is not just recognizing your position in Christ, but recognizing and becoming an </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">active member</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> of the body itself. </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="color: #274e13; font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith </span></span><b><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">only</span></span></i></b><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. (James 2:20-26, KJV)</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">What else does a blister do, but irritate, and in more ways than one, simply cause distraction and discomfort for the entire body? As Paul, by the Spirit said, one part of the body effects the entire body itself. If there is a blister on your finger, will you not use caution when using your entire hand, so as to not hurt the blister? </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px Helvetica; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgxOSSrYaRt3CVzsBb4-W8E_igAsvkpRtTScno6sE_YBYZMCL9XNk7LfF0li0cir6goVl_p2ahIyXMUL0pwiXwXeHWifKeYrmNmxiff5e6eXiVoSNdlwjJEKNdKnlyp7BKs3wwzdpH4naB/s1600/20-week-fetus.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgxOSSrYaRt3CVzsBb4-W8E_igAsvkpRtTScno6sE_YBYZMCL9XNk7LfF0li0cir6goVl_p2ahIyXMUL0pwiXwXeHWifKeYrmNmxiff5e6eXiVoSNdlwjJEKNdKnlyp7BKs3wwzdpH4naB/s400/20-week-fetus.jpg" width="400" /></a><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Let us apply this to the body of Christ on two levels. First, we must be careful not to harm new believers. Those yet to be born must be cared for in different sense in comparison to a baby who must be nurtured. A baby must literally be nurtured and raised from its birth (and that happens after baptism, or the breaking of the blister). One who has simply been convicted, but has not been baptized, is like a baby still in the womb. We must be careful to not harm that baby. These are delicate fetus's we are dealing with. Knowing that the new believers are to be born, we must be sure that we do not cause a miscarriage. Moreover, we must be sure that we do not abort any of these unborn babies, for the warning is stern for those who cause them to fall away from the Lord. He states this concerning them:</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><br />
</span> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea. (Matthew 18:6, NIV)</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Secondly, we must say this concerning those unborn babies, or those unbroken blisters: you were meant to be born; you were meant to be broken. There is no doubt that the sinful flesh is cause for irritation, which is why all those who are a burden to the body of Christ, by still dwelling in the flesh, must throw off the armor of darkness, and put on the armor of light in its stead. By staying in the womb, and not being born into the body, you will become a still-born baby, instead of a new-born baby. If you are on the cusp of being baptized, or you feel that you are being convicted to commit your life to Jesus Christ, I urge you to commit your life now, this very moment. Time is to short. The body must be ready for combat! Do not hinder the body any longer. Be born. Be saved! </span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">More to come in the next post, God willing!</span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Blessings in Christ Jesus</span></span></b></span></div><div style="font: normal normal normal 12px/normal 'Times New Roman'; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; min-height: 15px; text-align: left;"><u><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><u><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></span></span></div><div style="font: 12.0px 'Times New Roman'; margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; min-height: 15.0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"></span></div></u></i></b></span></div></div>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07693919271728352905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4571243465383558214.post-34390620704981514142011-01-04T15:10:00.010-06:002011-01-09T00:38:10.276-06:00The Blistered Man (Part 2): The Paradox of the Light<div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="Body1" style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyfAEBrEZTqEd3Es_8PQSSuziFBtFlHQuVA6L5cp2QY1SPRFwnaOhXz3_VE9vkRxobdofknDAUDpY1NCw4VA-LBrjTsr4LX-MyFngcub9K7P33RiYjt8EXl67bPVqYUA9aVdow1ICnoEDs/s1600/magnifying-glass.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="202" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyfAEBrEZTqEd3Es_8PQSSuziFBtFlHQuVA6L5cp2QY1SPRFwnaOhXz3_VE9vkRxobdofknDAUDpY1NCw4VA-LBrjTsr4LX-MyFngcub9K7P33RiYjt8EXl67bPVqYUA9aVdow1ICnoEDs/s400/magnifying-glass.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><b><i><u><br />
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</u></i></b></div><div align="center" class="Body1" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>A Mega-Shift in the Church?</u></i></b></div><div class="Body1">I woke up this morning to an article emailed to me by my Dad, which I saw last night, but did not read for some reason. This is the link to the article:</div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"> <u><a href="http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=245201"><span style="color: black;">http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=245201</span></a></u></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1">I saw the book, Mega Shift, about 3 or 4 years ago, and my Mom has actually read it. It deals with the shift the Body of Christ is experiencing this very moment. That shift being a fast and dramatic drift from modern, Mega-Church Christianity, to pure-bred, biblical, apostolic, book of Acts, Christianity. Don't see it? You believe that it is only happening in Eastern countries like China, and larger portions of Africa? If you think that, and do not believe it is also happening here in America, than you are sorely mistaken. Or perhaps you just don't know what I am talking about. Allow me to explain my families personal experience concerning this matter.</div><div align="center" class="Body1" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="Body1" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>My Dad's Words With the Spirit</u></i></b></div><div class="Body1">For a long while my family and I went to what can be considered now as being a Mega-Church. No names need to be mentioned, but we went to this building for 10 years of my life every Sunday. So when I speak of the Mega-Church mentality, I know what I am talking about, I lived in it. I was a part of it. </div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1">One Sunday, a Sunday I suppose that will live on eternally in my families eyes, my Dad received a word from the Lord. Now my Dad, that humble man, says he does not hear from the Holy Spirit much, and whether he does or not does not matter in this case, because he just happened to hear Him this day, and what he heard changed our lives forever.</div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1">As the Pastor was speaking, he started mentioning the events of his past weekend. He said that he had a wonderful time gardening with a brother in the Church, and appreciates the fellowship he had with him, more or less. At this, my Dad said to the Lord, "Lord, why don't I have a relationship with my Pastor like that?" The Holy Spirit replied to him in a small, still voice, "What do you need him for?" My Dad responded in a shocked way, "Well what do you mean Lord, he is my Pastor, Am I not supposed to have a relationship with him?" The Spirit of the Lord said, "You don't need him, you need me." My Dad was heart struck at this moment, but it was the next word from the Lord that changed our lives. The Lord simply said out of nowhere it seems, "Meet in your home." Dad then asked, "Well what do we do Lord?" In a profound way, the Lord ended his words with my Dad by saying, "Just show up...and I will show up." </div><div align="center" class="Body1" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="Body1" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>Back to the Home<o:p></o:p></u></i></b></div><div class="Body1">At this point, my family and some friends from that particular church began to gather in the home. There is something funny about the home, and I quote one of my favorite authors, G.K. Chesterton:</div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">"Of all modern notions, the worst is this: that domesticity is dull. Inside the home, they say, is dead decorum and routine; outside is adventure and variety. But the truth is that the home is the only place of liberty, the only spot on earth where a man can alter arrangements suddenly, make an experiment or indulge in a whim. The home is not the one tame place in a world of adventure; it is the one wild place in a world of rules and set tasks."</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1">Why would the Holy Spirit wish for us to go where there is no worldly rules or regulations? If there is one thing I have learned about the Lord in the past 2 years it is this: if you try to set boundaries, structures or limitations with Him (which simply means staying within your own comfort zone) He will test you to see if you are willing to go outside those boundaries for Him (which means stepping out in Faith). What I mean is that in the home, there is liberty for the Lord to move uninhibited, in comparison to the structured "sunday church" setting that will usually allow for nothing outside of the structured routine. Now don't misunderstand me, I believe the Lord has His purpose for larger churches, who am I to say He does not? I am simply saying that this is what the Lord brought our family to, and this is why I believe He brought us to that specific place. He brought us here (or there depending on where you are at in comparison to me ;) so that He could move freely. He brought us into the home so that we could know each other more intimately, instead of standing up 2 minutes before service starts and greeting your neighbor awkwardly. Most people hate that part, but I believe the Lord wants that to be the main aspect of His Church. The Lord wants awkward moments! He wants us to feel uncomfortable for His sake. Do we truly believe the apostles were comfortable in their torture? No, of course not! But they took it anyways for the sake of the Lord. In the home, you face the prospect of having to reveal <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">your true face</i>, which is a terrifying prospect indeed. For what else do we do when we wake up for "church", but put on our best faces (some in a literal sense with makeup) and say everything is okay? In the home you do not have this luxury. I have always thought it strange that humans tend to treat their family members more harshly than they treat strangers. I am extremely guilty of this. Why is that? Perhaps it is because our families know who we truly are, and we frankly do not like that. Thus, when we meet new people, it gives us the opportunity to start afresh with whatever image we wish to be seen as in the eyes of our new acquaintance. But when we return home and see our families, we are still the same people, with the same sinful nature, and the same faults that the new person simply has not seen yet. </div><div align="center" class="Body1" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="Body1" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>Our Experience in the Home<o:p></o:p></u></i></b></div><div class="Body1">When we first came into the home, the older generations who joined us immediately sought to find the strictest form of structure. Questions arose like, "Is this a Bible study?" or "Does the church know about this, and is the Pastor okay with it?" These questions were to be expected. But when people begin to say, "Be careful of doctrines of Demons," that is when you are truly tested. Yet, if the Lord tells you to do something, do you just stop doing it because people get uncomfortable? No. You press on to the goal, and you bless those who curse you, and pray for them all the more. And truly, you must do that, because the Spirit of the evil one will try to come in and bring resentment and unforgiveness at any time the opportunity presents itself. He will try to bring in that sectarian spirit which says that we are better than someone else because we do it this way, and you don't. But that is wrong. </div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1">The Lord has brought us through trials and tests in the home and we are still there. He is continually shaping us into who He wants us to be in His eternal plan, and who are we to stop Him? The home, we have seen, gives us the ability to grow in His sight together. That is because of a certain mentality though, a certain spiritual "perception" that one must have in order to grow in that type of environment spiritually. By meeting in the home, and allowing the Spirit to live and breathe in that atmosphere freely, you open yourself up to a lot of discomfort and heat. You allow your soul to be magnified and examined in the Light of Christ. I would now like to tie this into another idea that the Lord gave me a while back. </div><div align="center" class="Body1" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u><br />
</u></i></b></div><div align="center" class="Body1" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>The Reality of Perception</u></i></b></div><div class="Body1"> The Lord revealed to me the idea of the "Reality of Perception". What I mean by that is the truth that light reveals depth through perception, and darkness hides it. The darker things are, the more skewered the image is, and the brighter things are the clearer the image is. In a world of darkness and shadows, it is very possible that things are not as they always seem, due to the fact that the "reality of perception" is not always there. What happens is imagination takes over, and one begins to imagine what is in the dark, and creates images in ones mind as to what is exactly in the dark, when in "reality" nothing is even there to begin with, or if there is something, its not as big as it seems. As the light reveals the true state of the world by blotting out the darkness, the enemy loses grip on the world, because the reality of perception returns. What I mean by this is a shadow can cause a tree to look 10 times larger than what it really is, and when the light enters, it can reveal the tree in its true form. The darkness manipulates the image through the perception of the mind, and the light sets the object back to its former, real, or absolute self.</div><div align="center" class="Body1" style="text-align: center;"> </div><div align="center" class="Body1" style="text-align: center;"> <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>The Paradox of the Light</u></i></b></div><div class="Body1">The Lord revealed an interesting concept to me while I was playing with a flash light once... I find it strangely paradoxical that the further light is from something, the wider it becomes, and the dimmer that light is as well; on the other hand, the closer it is to an object the more confined it is, but it also becomes a brighter and stronger light. So even though it may be wide spread, it is weak, but when it is confined to a smaller area, it is strong. It is like the concentration of light which burns through a leaf, due to the heat of the sun, magnified through an object. It could also be said that it is the concentration of the love of God, which is magnified in the reflection of himself, through Jesus, that reveals the true light that burns through the hearts of man. I also believe that this concept can be applied to the state of the Church today; sure many may see the light, but it so wide spread in a way, that it is contradictory to the scripture that says the path is narrow. The smaller the Church is, the more powerful the Church will become; and if the Church acquires this power, which it must, then that power will widen the narrow gap of salvation, and then the Church will truly grow. What allows the light through the magnifying glass to burn the leaf, is the source of the light itself, the sun. In order to burn the seal of God onto the hearts of men, a man must first have the magnifying glass or the reflector of that light, Jesus, and must also know where that power comes from in the first place, our Father-God. It is the concentration of the light of God in one's own heart that brings the brightness needed for all the world to see. </div><div class="Body1"> </div><div class="Body1">To tie that idea in with the idea of the "reality of perception"...When the sun is at its highest point in the sky, and its strongest point of concentrated light, what happens? Shadows disappear. When it is high noon the shadow is gone. When the light of the sun is concentrated directly on top of us, and is confined to that specific path or direction, it destroys the perception of shadows. All is revealed at high noon, and the reality of perception is in full effect. All can be seen that is not hidden, yet at this point, even that which is in hiding finds it hard to escape the light, which bares upon it directly from above.</div><div class="Body1"> </div><div class="Body1">The conceptual idea of the reality of perception and the paradox of the light, in order to be a practicable, or rather a realized truth, must be deduced to the individualistic mentality. As said before, in order to have a full realization of the reality of perception, one must have an entire illumination of the object which is being viewed; this being provided by the light. The symbolization within the first chapter of Genesis concerning light in the day and and light in the darkness is dramatically pertinent to this idea:</div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth." (Genesis 1:14-17, KJV)</span></div><div class="Body1"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhov0dAjeW_Elh7E4-yjfWKJVPHLyth0CNM9BkIKIXSKfo52cMJd9clczj2KrU4vra0PyqJx2WiTkTjL5ffmkkDQcHo-NGB55g-YbujB-wS59xo2x1E-gmeBqREepmYXzbGKANSsCh3mD5X/s1600/moon_chambers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhov0dAjeW_Elh7E4-yjfWKJVPHLyth0CNM9BkIKIXSKfo52cMJd9clczj2KrU4vra0PyqJx2WiTkTjL5ffmkkDQcHo-NGB55g-YbujB-wS59xo2x1E-gmeBqREepmYXzbGKANSsCh3mD5X/s400/moon_chambers.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br />
</div><div class="Body1">The symbolization lies within verse 16:</div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night. (Genesis 1:16, KJV)</span></div><div class="Body1" style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px;"></span>The light of the sun is a greater light than that of the moon. Yet the moon receives its light from the sun. The sun is a symbol of the Son of God Himself, Jesus Christ. The moon is a symbol of the Bride of Christ, His Church. In order for the moon to shine fully, it must be in a direct position to receive complete light from the sun. In order for the Church to shine fully, it must in direct position, spiritually, to receive life, or light, from Christ through His Spirit. An ironic fact about the moon that I find incredible is that only one side shines, and the other side is eternally dark. The moon has a face, and its face is always looking towards the light, and away from darkness. That is the perfect picture of what the Bride is to do! We are always to be looking unto our source of light, Christ, and we must always turn our face from the darkness that dwells in and around us. One last note on the moon; it is above the earth, meaning it takes a higher perspective than the world does, and sees things in a different way, much like Christians take a different view on the events of the world, and the world itself, than those of the world would. Jesus comments on the state of His Bride:</div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. (John 17:14-15)</span></div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1">Now, delving further into the example of the leaf; in order for the light that is reflected from the sun to burn the leaf, it must have a longer concentration of light on the object, which in turn creates heat. The light is what causes the heat to burn the leaf, and change its chemical, and physical composition; it is turned to ash. It is, therefore, transformed.</div><div class="Body1"> </div><div class="Body1">Applying this to the individuals, whom make up the body of Christ, or the Church, is simple. The reality of perception, in order to be complete reality, must have complete light shed upon it, and no shadows can be present to manipulate the image. The light of the sun, which destroys darkness, reveals true images through the magnitude and power of its rays. The power of those rays that shoot and spew out from that large star, is what burns the leaf. If a shadow were to pass in front of the magnifying glass, while one was trying to burn the leaf, the light would lose its effect, because the intensity of that light is lessened by the shadow. The glory of God is the light which is reflected from the individual, just as it was the light which was reflected from Christ here on Earth. Christ lived in the light of the high noon sun, and the full glory of God pressed down directly upon him. He did not mince the light by living partly in the shade to find comfort from the heat on his brow, rather he lived consistently in the direct heat of His Father's glory. He looked upon the world with no shadows to manipulate his vision...he saw it in its true form.</div><div class="Body1"> </div><div class="Body1">Christ saw the separation of the realm of light and the realm of shadow. He had a full realization of the reality of perception. The light of God was directly on his heart, with no shadow to lessen its glorifying effect. The individuals who call themselves Christians are meant to take after the example of Christ, as being a reflector of God the Father's light, which is in turn life. Jesus Christ allowed himself (his soul and flesh) to be burnt in the glory of God. He himself was the blistered man for our sakes. </div><div class="Body1" style="text-align: center;"> </div><div class="Body1" style="text-align: center;"> <b><i><u>Living in the Concentrated Light of God</u></i></b></div><div class="Body1">Living a life in the concentrated glory of God has a few implications; first: concentration means, by definition, a boundary, translated therefore, into a life with boundaries. If one is to step out of the concentration of the light, one is stepping out of the power of God, and into the realm of shadows. By living a life mixed with light and shadow, one loses the full effect of the power. Remember that the concentration of light is what causes the heat, and the heat is what causes transformation. This could also be stated as, living a life with boundaries is what brings the power of God, and the power of God is what transforms the heart. But one shadow can cause the light to break and the heat to cease, and one sin can cause the power of God to lose its purpose in your life.</div><div class="Body1"> </div><div class="Body1">Secondly, the concentrated glory of God implies discomfort, and also transformability. A blacksmith needs his metal to be at a high temperature in order to mold it into the shape he imagines it is going to be. In order for the the Christian to transform, he or she needs to be directly in the light of God. The more concentrated the light is on that person, the more heat, or power that person will receive. The more heat, or power that individual has, the more malleable he or she will become. If God is the blacksmith, then He will shape us into what he wills us to be, but only if we choose to stand in the concentration of the glory, to become hot enough for us to be molded into a specific shape. This also means God holds the hammer. He tosses and turns us, slams and pounds us, molds and shapes us; the discomfort of living in the light. Yet, once the blacksmith is finished, He has a beautiful, sharp, double-edged sword, which can cut through the darkness, and reveal the true light and glory of the creator. And the Armor of Light has been molded and placed onto you to fit your exact needs. </div><div class="Body1" style="text-align: center;"> </div><div class="Body1" style="text-align: center;"><b><i><u>God's Glory in Comparison to Man's Glory</u></i></b></div><div class="Body1"> It is the reality of perception and the paradox of the light that culminates the reality of the state of the Church and the individual parts of the body of Christ. Living in the light and in the shadow ultimately means living in two different realms, and serving two different masters. If the greater light rules the day, and the lesser light rules the night, where does the false light of Satan dwell? Perhaps his light is the light we believe we created ourselves. His light is our own glory, which translates into his glory. Our glory is not God's glory. When man glorifies himself, he shines no brighter than the new moon. But when man lets the Father, through His Son Jesus Christ, by His spirit glorify him, that man shines like the Full moon. The Armor of Light will look like the sun to those who only see darkness. If the "Christian" chooses to live in both the Father's glorious light and man's false light (which is simply Satan's), then imagination distorts perception, and the truth is nothing more than a con. To live within the boundaries of the narrow light of salvation is to know the truth. Staying within the light of God or stepping out from under it into the shadow is the ultimatum the entire Church faces, and if we choose to mix shadow and light, the only reality in the end, is death. Remember, the light, which is Jesus, is a gift:</div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. (James 1:17, KJV)</span></div><div align="center" class="Body1" style="text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div align="center" class="Body1" style="text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><u>In Relation to the Blistered Man</u></i></b> </div><div class="Body1">To tie this in with the concept of the Blistered Man is quite simple. Jesus Christ allowed himself (his soul and flesh) to be burnt in the glory of God. He himself was the Blistered Man for our sakes. He dwelt within the full light, with no shadow being present, which led to an intense concentration of God's love and Spirit to be manifested within him. The paradox of the light in relation to Christ is that the light of the world was within One man, not in several. It was concentrated in a small area, His flesh, which allowed for that light to burn all the brighter. Then the light spread rapidly in small pockets from home to home, town to town, country to country. The early church lived within the full glory of God, because of Christ's gift to the world, The Helper. But what happened was the merger between the true light and the false light. Enemies got into the Church and tried to structure it, and create a hierarchical system, where man's glory reigns instead of The Father's through His Son Jesus. The light became, in a way, too wide spread, and became more feint, and less powerful. Blistered men, truly burnt by the Spirit of God, were found, yet rarely. One would have assumed that the true light of Christ disappeared altogether, yet in the homes of true believers, that flame was still burning. Does this flame still burn bright today, as it did throughout the history of the Church? I believe it does. I pray it does.</div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1">More to follow in the next post, God willing.</div><div class="Body1"><br />
</div><div class="Body1"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Blessings in Christ Jesus. </span></b><span style="color: windowtext; font-family: 'Times New Roman'; font-size: 10pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07693919271728352905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4571243465383558214.post-74826226028448925092011-01-02T22:56:00.007-06:002011-01-03T15:43:05.099-06:00The Blistered Man (Part 1)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.pvgbc.com/risco/images/stories/baptism-image-only.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="336" src="http://www.pvgbc.com/risco/images/stories/baptism-image-only.jpg" width="448" /></a></div><br />
After confirmation from a dear brother in Christ (Art, that was a major confirmation indeed, thank you my friend) that this blog is the next step in the journey the Lord has foreordained me to walk down, I feel compelled to share this spiritual knowledge that the Lord revealed to me a few months ago. I have an urgency in my spirit to write this post to all who read it right now, for the trend of the world is continuously moving towards a deeper state of darkness.<br />
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</u></i></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><u>The Modern Christian's Ignorance </u></i></b></div>I always find it to be a sadly ironic thing when I hear professed Christian's in daily life say that they "do not think Christ is going to return for another 100 years, or at least not in my lifetime". Or even worse, if the very mention of His return is brought up in conversation, most say: "Let's hope he does not" or "I hope he does not come back in my lifetime". These are statements I myself have heard, and not just a few times, but numerous times from a number of different people. And such statements are not coming from non-believers, but so called Christians! Now I can understand the fear it must strike in many hearts and minds at the very thought of His return, but then again, maybe I can't. What do people expect to happen? Truly, what utopian society do they have in mind when they reject the only source of perfection? All I see from this type of talk is ignorance; ignorance of what hope there is in Christ, and ignorance to the evil that the world truly represents. Without Jesus, there is no hope, and without His return there is neither blessing nor hope.<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">Looking</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"> for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. (Titus 2:13, KJV)</span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">The world is an evil place and we should not wish to dwell here longer than we must. We should always be looking up and not focusing on the matters of this world, i.e: political, economic, social issues. We should rather be focusing on higher things, not on lower things. How much lower can a man's mind go than looking at himself and at the world? John the Apostle is clear on this matter: </span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">Love not the world, neither the things [that are] in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. (1 John 2:15, KJV)</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;">What then shall we make of this rejection of Christ's return and the willingness to <i>stay</i> in the world, rather than let Christ <i>deliver </i>us from it? Does it not point to a love for the world? Many will say, "No, I simply wish to live my life. I want to have kids, and raise a family and enjoy life, and not have to worry about these things." To this I will let Christ himself answer: </span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. (John 12:25, NIV)</span></span></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;">Jesus Christ is the manifestation of God the Father's Love here on earth. If we love the world, then the Love of the Father (Christ) is not found within us. (Stick with me now, this is going somewhere I promise)</span></span><br />
<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><b><i><u>The Purpose of Baptism</u></i></b></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;">Baptism is much deeper than a simple symbolic act of outward devotion. The "church" has failed, in recent times, to emphasize the importance of the event itself in every believer's life. Jesus knew it to be a necessity for the salvation of the soul:</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: normal;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. (Mark 16:16, KJV)</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Baptism follows belief. One must believe on Christ and then must be baptized, in that order (a definitive argument against infantile baptism). I do not wish to argue about doctrinal matters here though, but I do however want to talk about the miraculous nature of baptism, spiritually speaking. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">First off, baptism is renewal. It is not rebirth, that would imply reincarnation. It is a brand new life gifted unto all who believe in the name of Jesus. It is a New Birth. In order to accept this new life, a man must reject the old life. This would lead us to John's point of loving not the world and the things which are in it. Guess what? You and I are in the world right now. If you are reading this, you are alive, more or less, in the physical sense, but not all are alive in the spiritual sense. That spiritual life is only acquired through belief and baptism in Christ and His name, Jesus. Only then is Christ born in you by the Spirit. This is the new life. Do you love your old life? If you do not hate your old life and the works you did during it, than you cannot be baptized. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This leads us to another thing, which is this: that all men must come to the realization through revelation by the Holy Spirit that they themselves are evil men needing to be saved. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now this post could go many different directions at this point, but I will focus it around baptism only, centered around a metaphor the Lord gave me concerning baptism. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><u>My Blister</u></i></b></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">About 6 months ago I went golfing with my brother and my cousin during the dead heat of summer. I am a <i>terrible</i> golfer, and I am not ashamed to admit it. It is a sport (or skill) that requires much patience and concentration, and moreover practice, in order to be successful. I lack all three of those things when it comes to golf. :)</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Anyways, I was working on my swing and had a golf glove on my right hand. Suffice to say, I do not have the most perfect swing in the world. An imperfect swing can be caused by a strange or imperfect hand grip on the glove (at least that was my case). To make a long story short, I got a <i>blister</i> on my right thumb.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">That blister stayed for about 3 days, and I did not want to pop it for obvious reasons, like not wanting to feel pain. It stayed, and continued to grow fuller and fuller. Then, it broke. The water that was within the blister poured out and I felt pain. A few days later though, my skin was completely healed. </span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><u><br />
</u></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><u>The Metaphor of the Blister</u></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Now how can this blister be applied spiritually to baptism? The Lord showed me this and it blew my mind. How are many blister's formed? Either through friction, irritation, or perhaps <i>fire?</i> I wish to take this from the perspective of being burnt by fire. When a blister occurs, the old, dead skin is separated from the new, living skin underneath. What is between the two forms of skin but water? The Holy Spirit is referred to as being like fire in the scriptures (i.e: the burning bush). His fire does not burn physically, but it burns spiritually (of course, there are times when it burns physically as well, but we will not get into that right now). A man, when he believes on Christ has been convicted by the Holy Spirit to believe in Him. This is like a fire singeing the skin of the body. The Spirit comes and burns the heart of a man, and it becomes blistered. The old heart is killed off, and a new heart is waiting to be brought forth. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There is a clear separation made between the old man and the new man when the Holy Spirit burns him with His fire. Thus, a man believes on Christ and the first step towards salvation is fulfilled. Now, just as with the blister, when the old skin and the new skin are separated by water, so too, is the old man and the new man separated by water. That water is the water of baptism. With a blister, the only way for the new skin to come forth is for the old skin to be broken; this allows for the water to pass out and for the new skin to be manifested for the world to see on the outside. In the same manner, the only way for the new man to be brought forth, is for the old man to be broken. The beginning of this process is baptism. Baptism is the breaking of the old man! Baptism allows the new man to be manifested on the outside for all the world to see! Before baptism you are simply a filled blister, like my right thumb, waiting to be broken and healed. But after baptism, the water passes through and you are made new.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><u>The Breaking of the Blister</u></i></b></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There have been many people who have spoken on the subject of the breaking of the old (outer/flesh) man. Watchman Nee, a Chinese Christian in the Early to Middle 20th century, described the process best, outside of the Bible (I recommend his work). So I will not dwell to long on the subject, but it must be understood that our old life cannot continue the way it has after the ceremony and act of baptism has passed. Once the blister has been broken, the skin will come forth no matter what. Most of the time this is a painful process, especially when it is broken too soon. But if the Holy Spirit is allowed to move in His own way freely, the gift of joy and perseverance will be granted to those who allow this painful process to occur unabated. The more suffering the better, for this is pure evidence that the Lord is dealing with your sinful nature. I refer to the event in the book of Daniel concerning his 3 friends. When the King commanded them to bow down and worship an Idol (a created thing, made with the hands of men), they responded to his command as follows:</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to him, “King Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"> If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to deliver us from it, and he will deliver us</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"> from Your Majesty’s hand. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">But even if he does not, we want you to know, Your Majesty, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.” (Daniel 3:16-18, NIV)</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">These men were burnt, not physically, but spiritually. For when they went into the fire they were not burnt! </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><br />
</span> </span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and his attitude toward them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times hotter than usual and commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace. So these men, wearing their robes, trousers, turbans and other clothes, were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace. The king’s command was so urgent and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">and these three men, firmly tied, fell into the blazing furnace. (Daniel 3:19-20, NIV)</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #38761d;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">They did not defend their own lives. They loved not the world, nor the things in it. Moreover, they did not fear the fire, rather they walked directly into it! It is my belief that Christians <i>must be willing to walk into the furnace, in order to pass through it. </i>When Satan believes he is destroying us with fire and tribulation, we need to understand God's hand behind those very trials; behind that very fire that we fear so much. God uses these very trials to test us and refine us! Remember, he will never leave us, nor forsake us, for he did not leave the 3 children in their test did he?</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisers, “Weren’t there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire?” They replied, “Certainly, Your Majesty.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">He said, “Look! I see four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.”</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"> (Daniel 3:24-25, NIV)</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"><br />
</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There was another man in their midst. This was the Holy Spirit guiding them and protecting them through the fire.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> The Lord is always with us! These young believers were burnt by the Lord, in order to purify them. Their hearts were blistered, and they were baptized with fire, which is the conviction of the Holy Spirit on a man's heart, leading him towards the new life found only in Jesus. </span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">More to follow in the next post, God willing…</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Blessings in Christ Jesus</span></span></span></span></div><div style="font-size: 16px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Charis SIL', charis, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
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</span></span></span></div>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07693919271728352905noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4571243465383558214.post-51157722588543214112011-01-02T02:25:00.004-06:002011-01-02T20:04:43.751-06:00Introduction: Armor of Light/Armor of Darkness<div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hello to you all!</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Most of the readers of this blog (if there will be any) will have known me already for some time, or will at least have been acquainted with me at some point in my life. Therefore, an introduction may not be particularly necessary, but in the unlikely event that some new reader would happen to stumble upon this blog, I find it important to tell a little something about myself. </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I wish to keep this short, God willing, so here it goes: First, as with every introduction, a name is necessary. My name is David Christian Schultz. I am a young man, 21 years of age to be exact, and I grew up in the Midwest (St. Louis, Missouri). I come from a larger family: 4 sisters, 1 brother (all blood) and 2 brothers-in-law. I Love my family, and I am sure many posts about them will follow in the days to come. </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><u>My Name</u></i></b></span></div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX3Jmq51jtlOG39vkj70g9WStXWnKJ1DlbP8dS3Oc90ZYrD2zVebBxp4cJR-5NznDQSUGnfVBHwKFOBj97rPB6aOpePOkg7AOiJWYiHtjjc4mbuzq7BFLN2tLCL7u-G9WGLynELxBaH-kw/s1600/IMG_1732.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjX3Jmq51jtlOG39vkj70g9WStXWnKJ1DlbP8dS3Oc90ZYrD2zVebBxp4cJR-5NznDQSUGnfVBHwKFOBj97rPB6aOpePOkg7AOiJWYiHtjjc4mbuzq7BFLN2tLCL7u-G9WGLynELxBaH-kw/s320/IMG_1732.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">My Gift From God (I am upper, center-left)</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">A name defines a man and his purpose. To know me, I pray, you simply have to understand the meaning of my name. David means "Beloved"; Christian means "Christ Follower"; Schultz has less of a definite meaning than my first and middle names', yet it still has an interesting correlation to the purpose of this blog, and moreover, my eternal purpose; it means "Sheriff" in German. Combining the 3 meanings, a statement is created: <b>Beloved Christian, Sheriff</b>. </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">With the understanding of a Sheriff's obligation in mind, I believe, the name can be understood as being a protector and enforcer of the Law. This can perhaps be seen on two different levels. First, that I myself have been given the task to protect the Gospel of Christ and His Law, or the Second, which I am more inclined to believe in, that Christ himself is seeking to protect the Gospel of His Word in and through me, and He is fulfilling and protecting the Law that is written on my heart by His Spirit.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><u><br />
</u></i></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><u>Armor of Light</u></i></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Keeping that in mind, I now refer you to the title of the blog: Armor of Light.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Taking from the deep, mysterious verse Paul wrote to the Romans: </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armor of light. (Romans 13:12, KJV)</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: cyan;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">What could this verse possibly mean? It certainly is not referring to a physical manifestation of armor placed onto the human body, for the flesh itself is corrupt and does not seek after things that are of the Spirit:</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. (Galatians 5:17, KJV)</span> </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Thus, we may conclude that this armor is spiritual. It is not of the flesh, but rather of the Spirit of God. The armor of light is the literal Holy Spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is referred to as light in many places in scripture, but one of the most prominent places is at the beginning of the Gospel of John:</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">The same was in the beginning with God. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">In him was life; and the life was the</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">light </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">of men. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">And the</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">light </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. (John 1:1-5, KJV)</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">There are many that may deny the trinity, but those with spiritual eyes can certainly see the trinitarian action at work here in the beginning of John's Gospel. The Word (Jesus) and God (The Father) are separate yet one, just as a Father and Son in a family relationship are separate yet one. The life that was found in the Word is the Holy Spirit himself. Without the Spirit, the Word has no life. Without life, the Word has no light. Only through life is one able to spread light. Light is an active product, it requires living energy to shine. Darkness is absent of light, it therefore requires no energy, which means that there is no possibility for life in this darkness. From Paul's commendation to put on the armor of light, we can thus say that Paul was urging us to put on the Holy Spirit. </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><u><br />
</u></i></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><u>Armor of Darkness</u></i></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Taking it a step further, Paul's admonishment implies a deeper meaning to the current state of man. If man must put on the armor of light (The Holy Spirit), he must be wearing a different garment, which I believe is the armor of darkness. There is only one thing opposite to light, and that is darkness. If the light is the Spirit, then what is the darkness? Paul declares that darkness is the works of the flesh. We wear that darkness. In fact, we are that darkness. <b>The flesh itself is the armor of darkness. </b>The works of the flesh are the opposite of the works of the Spirit. The Spirit of God is the life that lives through those who believe in the name of Jesus, and the light is the works that span from that very life. The life is the energy which is used to produce the light. </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><br />
</b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b>Jesus=Life/ Life=Holy Spirt/ Holy Spirit=Light/ Light</b>=<b>Good Works. </b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b></b>Oppositely, the works of darkness point to a singular source, which is a Spirit itself as well.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><u><br />
</u></i></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><i><u>What is Sin?</u></i></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">I have always had a strange understanding of Sin, perhaps because the "church" has a convoluted way of looking at Evil itself nowadays, and consequently teaches it as being something which is only an effect, not a source, of Death. But in fact, it is just the opposite; the effect of Sin is Death: </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">The sting of death [is] sin; and the strength of sin [is] the law. (1 Corinthian 12:56, KJV) </span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. (Romans 7:17, NIV)</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;">The source of Death is Sin, not the opposite way around. Sin, is a Spirit unto itself. If by putting on the armor of light, we are resultantly allowing the Holy Spirit (<i>a living being</i>) to live through us, then are we not, on the other side, letting another living being live through us by continuing in the wearing of the armor of darkness (<i>the flesh</i>), evidenced by the works of darkness? Paul continues to expound to the Romans the nature of Sin and its relation to the flesh:</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><br />
</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For what I do is not the good I want to do; no, the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it,</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;"> but it is sin living in me that does it</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;">.</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"> (Romans 18-20, KJV)</span></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;">It would perhaps shock many to discover that there is an actual, living being inside of them, carrying out the works of darkness, controlling them like a puppeteer manipulates the movements and actions of a puppet. It would also strike fear into many mens hearts to learn of this demonic force that lurks in their bodies, if they actually came to the realization, by the power of Christ, that it most certainly is present. Yet, sadly, most men will never come to know this. The only way to discover it is by the light of the Spirit. The only way to fight against it and throw it off of you is by the life of the Spirit, through Christ and the Cross. In accordance with the Law of the Spirit of Life, the same is true in the opposite sense with the Law of the Spirit of Death. </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><b>Sin=Death/ Death=Darkness/ Darkness=Works of Evil</b></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><b><br />
</b></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;">Adam, it could be said, had the choice between two sources of existence. He could choose between the tree of Life, which is Jesus, the <i>light</i> of the world, or between the Tree of knowledge of good and evil (which could be a being itself, but we will not get into that right now). It could also be said that Adam had the choice between two armors: the armor of light, which is the Holy Spirit, who is the Life of God, or he could choose the armor of darkness, which is the flesh, the Life of Sin, which is death. He chose to put on the armor of darkness, and let Sin live through him, rather than becoming one with His creator and allowing Him to be his life. Adam chose death; he chose darkness. </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><b><i><u><br />
</u></i></b></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><b><i><u>Christ's Response to Sin</u></i></b></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;">The Law itself, that eternal good, is used against man by Sin in the flesh, because of Adam's rebellious act (which we were all present for, therefore we are all just as guilty as he). So we see that by the works of the Law, we ourselves are condemned by our own actions in the flesh (reference the entire epistle to the Galatians). Thankfully, Christ put on the armor of darkness, to condemn the Sin in the flesh. </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><br />
</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh,</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 6px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 6px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"> </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">And so he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. (Romans 8:1-4, NIV)</span></span></span></span></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Jesus knew the source of Life, for he was one with it (The Holy Spirit). He was truly alive, and thus, he was truly able to strive and overcome the flesh, and destroy that evil force known as Sin, which dwells within all men, yet not in Christ. </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This is a mystery because it cannot be seen with the naked eye. Yet, Sin is real and <span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">living</span>. In fact, it lives through us and the flesh empowers Sin daily. The armor of darkness must be thrown off though, and the armor of light must be put on in its stead! But once again, one who is in darkness cannot even know that he has treasonous armor that he must take off: </span></span></span></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></span></span></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">But the way of the wicked is like deep darkness; they do not know what makes them stumble. (Proverbs 4:19, NIV)</span></span></span></span></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue;"><br />
</span></span></span></span></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">This deep darkness is the blinding effect of Sin and it leads to death. The works of darkness, which are the works of the flesh, find their life-source from Sin, which dwells underneath the armor. Christ had no Sin. He was the perfect spy. He wore the enemies clothes, their armor even! Yet he had an eternal purpose, which was to destroy the works of the Devil, and to put Sin to death. He accomplished this goal, this miraculous wonder under their very noses! Hallelujah! Jesus put on the armor of darkness to destroy it, that we may put on the armor of light ourselves. This was God's gift to the world: </span></span></span></b></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. (James 1:17, KJV)</span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;">Jesus, the light of the world, left his children a perfect gift when he ascended into heavenly glory: the Holy Spirit, who is the armor of light. </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 21px;"><b><i><u>Short Conclusion </u></i></b></span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;">In conclusion to this post (which was simply supposed to be an introduction), I leave you with these last few words. The word Sheriff implies protector, and what does armor do but protect? The Holy Spirit is the Sheriff (the protector) of the Law of Spirit, Grace and Truth. He named me from the beginning and has protected me always, and for that tears stream down my face this very moment. At the beginning, I was <b>Beloved </b>(David), and throughout my walk of life I will be a <b>Christ-Follower</b>(Christian), and I know this because in the end I will be watched over by the <b>Sheriff </b>(Schultz), the Holy Spirit. He will keep me safe and fulfill the Law of Love in my life.</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;">This blog, I pray, will be the fruit of the Spirit that dwells within me. It will confound many, and anger even more, but I pray that it is all done for the glory of God, to bring about his Will for those read it and are touched by it. If I am to wear the armor of light, I must expose the works of darkness. It must be remembered though, that</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 21px;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"> the</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: red;">light </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #274e13;">shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. (John 1:1-5, KJV) </span></span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: blue; font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;">Much of what is written on this blog will seem inconclusive, unfinished, paradoxical, or just down right nonsensical to those who do not know Christ and have His Spirit dwelling within them. My only prayer is that all those who read this blog would be touched by His Spirit nonetheless and that they would be blessed by He who Loves them unconditionally. </span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><br />
</span></div><div style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif;"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: large;">Blessings in Jesus Christ.</span></b></span></div>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07693919271728352905noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4571243465383558214.post-45392731396787629742010-12-31T20:57:00.004-06:002011-01-01T17:35:32.886-06:00This is a Test!<h2 class="postTitle" style="color: #666666; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #777777;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #ffd966; font-family: 'Times New Roman', Times, FreeSerif, serif; font-size: 13px; font-style: italic; line-height: 18px;"><h2 class="postTitle" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: small; font: normal normal bold 14px/normal 'Trebuchet MS', Trebuchet, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; position: relative;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">Beep. Beep. Beep. </span></span></h2><div class="postBody" style="font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">Just testing out the Blog to see how it looks when posted on. I am looking forward to keeping up with this blog in the coming year! </span></div><div class="postBody" style="color: #777777; font-family: 'trebuchet ms', verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: black;">Blessings in Christ</span></div></span></span></span></h2>Davidhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07693919271728352905noreply@blogger.com0