Apocalypse Wrong: “Same as it Ever Was, Same as it Ever Was”

Whoops! Wrong Again!

Now that we’ve survived the great apocalyptic event of 2012, I guess we can continue with life as usual: slave away at work to be apart of the machinery of this “great” nation, place our family and ourselves before everyone else, including God, wait for the government to, once again, be ineffective and go over the “fiscal cliff,” hold to our patriotism without ever once considering the pain, sorrow and agony we perpetrate on most of the rest of the world, and last but not least, go to our particular BRAND of Christianity (church) on Sunday, or at the least at Christmas and Easter, while still being completely ignorant of what we, in reality, believe about God, Jesus, the bible, why we are here and what comes after this life, if anything. Yes, now that the Mayan calendar has been set aside, as I’m sure it will be, we can get back to the American status-quo and live our self-involved lives until we die. Sounds like a plan, an old and tired plan.

On the subject of the Mayan calendar, for almost two years we heard that the world would end on December 21, 2012. And then, about three or four months ago, when the prognosticators of this myth had started to get nervous, we started hearing that the whole doomsday scenario was wrong and what would happen on the twenty first of December, instead, would be a “new era of mankind.” And now folks are buying into this scenario. Could it be that life has become so difficult, tedious and treacherous that most of humanity is seeking and hoping for an end to the earth as it is today, or a new era of man to begin so life isn’t so unbearable?

{On a side note, I find it more than amazing, and amusing, that the atheist left will fall for any ancient myth as long as it has nothing to do with the God of all things. For years now, I have heard atheist after atheist proclaim, “Apocalyptic predictions have been a part of every culture since man evolved from the chimpanzee,” in refuting the Christians’ claim of the end of this current world sometime in the near future. And yet, I have heard many of these same atheists, over the last couple of years, talking about the Mayan calendar, and its supposed predictions, as though it all could be taken to the bank. It seems more than odd to me how these atheists can be so inconsistent on what they spew out of their mouths as “reason.”}

As for me, I find that I no longer fit in this country or world: 1) I have no patriotism left in me and do not trust this government to do the right thing ever, I dislike capitalism as much as communism, 2) my family is dead and gone, 3) I am disabled and on a fixed income: I am a card-carrying (social security) member of the 47% of shiftless and irresponsible people in this country, 4) I have left Christianity and all it holds to, beyond, of course, God the Father and Creator.

1) As anyone should be able to discern, if they have read any of my posts on American politics and government, I am not a patriot, nor do I hold to the patriotic propaganda that most functionally-illiterate and devoid of curiosity and discernment Americans buy into lock, stock and barrel. Over the past sixty three years of life, I have been misled and lied to by this government many, many times (to numerous to count), so I no longer trust this government to do anything good or decent. Enough said.

2) I have no family left, so I no longer have to worry about them living in this country and world at this evil time in history. They are blessed to be gone. In particular, I am so thankful that my mother died when she did (2000), because she would have been constantly in fear all of the time, if she had been alive now. Everything, over the past decade-plus, has taken a nosedive in this country and the world, and I thank Father that she did not have to suffer through this time.

3) I am disabled. I am on social security disability, which I worked for and paid into for years. I am also, at the moment, on medicaid and food stamps. I am seeking to make enough money (no success yet) at home to be able to get rid of the food stamps. I hate taking food stamps, but $700.00 a month doesn’t go far, when you have rent, utilities, an old car, car insurance and gas, so food stamps have been necessary. Therefore, I make no apologies to Mitt Romney, or the corrupt rich bitches in congress who look down their elite and greed-driven noses at people like me. To be honest and exact, Mitt Romney and the republicans can go straight to hell: if only there were such a place for vermin like them! I am proud to be considered, by these low lifes, as part of the 47%! The 47% are my people, even if I don’t always agree with them.

4) Lastly, I have come to discern that Christianity, like all of man’s religions, including atheism, is nothing more than a contrived phantom, which was created some eighteen hundred years ago to meet the needs and desires of the wealthy and powerful few; the wealthy and powerful few who have always controlled and operated this world.

The love and life of God, which Jesus had exhibited in Jerusalem, would, over the next two to three centuries, be manipulatively fabricated into a false set of political/ideological rules and regulations to control all who were not, nor would ever be, in power: the treacherous and manipulative men who had accomplished this evil task named the rule book, “the word of god,” and the rules, “doctrines.” These men also set up a clergy/laity system that resembled most other pagan religions of that time: priests, bishops, cardinals and popes. The main tenets of this contrived institution (Christendom/Catholicism) were “sin,” “eternal punishment,” and the return of Jesus, sometime in the distant future, to set up a worldly kingdom that would rule the entire earth; and, of course, these religious and political men would be the chosen rulers over all of lesser mankind (the common believer, pagans and atheists).

Man-in-power has always desired to rule over his common brothers and sisters, whom he has always seen as being less than himself, depending, of course, on their race, language, culture and beliefs about life. In order to accomplish this, man-in-power had to create, first and foremost, distinctions between himself and the rest of humanity: differences of races, in skin color, customs and language gave man the tools to carry out his Godless endeavor.

From the beginning of humanity, whenever and however God brought us into existence (I am still not convinced by Genesis or evolutionists), man-in-power devised governments, politics and religion in order to control others, and man-in-power did this primarily by keeping the biggest portion of the rest of humanity in the dark: ignorance and superstition were key to the success of man-in-power ruling over “lesser” human beings.

The keepers of the “deeper mysteries,” the hierophants (the priests, bishops, cardinals, pastors, reverends and popes of today), were the human factor in his religious institutions, while kings, queens, emperors and presidents were the human factor in his government/politics.

I once desperately held dearly to all the religious tenets of Christendom, and, in particular, I sought to be sin free and to more clearly discern the “end time” prophecies of the old and new testament. For almost a decade I dedicated myself to the study of the bible and a multitude of Christian books (commentaries) on the subject of the end times. Every text I read, however, had a totally different interpretation of the books of Daniel and Revelation. And, in the end, all I had gained, for all of the years of faithful and ardent study of eschatology, was a sense of utter hopelessness, confusion and fear: fear that I wouldn’t be perfect enough to be “raptured” when the Christ returned to set up a Talmudic kingdom on earth; not a Christ-like kingdom but a Pharisaic one, as I would come to understand.

After all of this religious self-debasing behavior and blinded seeking, I had started, as I had many years prior (when I was very young and ignorant), to once again lose faith in God. But, as opposed to that experience of many years ago, this time I decided to keep seeking after the truth of my Maker. And my Father was faithful to keep leading me towards it, as He still is. The Father, over the past five years, has begun to open my eyes to His truth. And the truth He has brought me to thus far is this: God the Father created everything that is, and He made the flora, fauna and human beings out of that creation (the universe and beyond). He made all of us to be chosen of Him, every single human being, not just one race/creed of humanity.

Father has shown me that my nature will always be imperfect to Him in this form, and yet He accepts and loves me as I am, as He does every other human being. Thus my Father has set me free from the legalistic despotism of Christianity (which was founded on the Pharisaic traditions and the “Talmud” they invented and perpetrated on others): don’t do this and that, do this and that, which is, as it turns out, nothing but a manipulated and mindless pursuit of nothing! My Father’s directions to me are simple: TRUST HIM, LIVE MY LIFE, AND LOVE. This is the example of Jesus, whether he was the Son of God or just the son of man. He trusted his Father for everything, lived his life as the Father had set in place and loved everyone he came into contact with; even those he blasted for their hypocrisy and treachery (the pharisees, scribes and sadducee).

At this moment, and this is difficult to write, I am uncertain as to whom Jesus truly was. I believe he was of my Father, and that he was sent by my Father in order to release the Hebrews from the despotic religion their corrupt leaders had concocted about Him. But as far as anything beyond this, I am trusting my Father to reveal to me, if He wills, what the truth is about Jesus. I want to know my Father’s truth about Jesus, and everything else, not what some man-contrived religion indoctrinated me with for almost a quarter century.

Yes, when we trust mortal, fallible man, whether “man of god,” scientist or politician, to tell us about life, who we are, how we got here, why we are here, what we are to do while we are here, and what will happen after we depart this life, then we set ourselves up to be used as political, religious pawns in a game of life the wealthy and powerful few created and play for their own selfish gain, amusement and pleasure. Yes, as the old song goes, “It is the same as it ever was…,” on the face of this earth, so when are we going to awaken from our religious/superstitious induced stupor and start seeking the truth of God about everything on our own?

You want the hard truth? If so, check out this link:

http://www.sweetliberty.org/perspective/jewishpersecution1.htm

Conservative, Political-Religiosity: Bringing Shame on Our Lord!

First Posting: 10/2009

{Note: What I’m attempting to communicate in the following post is not a condemnation of everyone who goes to “church” and/or holds to conservative “values”: I’m not condemning anyone. The people I refer to as conservative religionists are those who, according with my experience, love this country/government, democracy and capitalism more than their Creator. And yet they preach the commandments of God, without Spiritual knowledge or discernment, while, at the same time, breaking those same commandments, especially when it comes to idolatrous behavior, and an unloving spirit. These conservative religionists are either completely Lacking in Spiritual discernment of the Lord’s truth or “religious” charlatans and hypocrites!}

As I’ve stated before, I have nothing invested in this world-system any longer, including this government and its politics. I am not a liberal or conservative, nor am I a democrat or republican: it would have made little difference to me if McCain had won the presidency, since both he and Obama are, in my estimation, part of the problem with this world, not the solution. The Lord, when He comes again, in power and glory, is the only solution to the overwhelming issues that face all of us, and, thus, because of our unbelief and apostasy, these issues will never be resolved in this age.

I am always amazed at the blinded persistence of American liberals and conservatives, when it comes to fighting for their political/”religious” ideologies: they are relentless rebels (without a clue) who chase after a “dream” (an American, manipulative pipe dream) that doesn’t exist. It seems that the nature of the unregenerate and conservative religionists, alike, is to keep pursuing the same old, man-made solutions (political activism, attending “church”, “playing the game”) to man’s immense problems, over and over again, and without ever discerning that the problems they face cannot be solved by man. Thus, these unregenerate and conservative religionists are, when it comes to their political/’religious” ideologies and dogmas, suffering from a type of insanity (according to Einstein).

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God ANY LONGER, God gave them over to A DEPRAVED MIND, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. (Romans 1: 28-32)

I am a stranger and exile here, and I’m longing for a country of my own, a heavenly one. However, after hearing all the hatred expressed by the “Christian” right, over the past eight months, and after receiving hate-filled email, like the one below, I sense I must write what lies so heavy on my heart and mind. I must speak out against the conservative religionists’ hypocrisy, idolatry, and hatred of others, which is based primarily on skin color / first, last and middle names / and political ideology: all of which make a mockery of the Lord, His Truth, and His Love:

For in the case of those who have once been enlightened (true enlightenment) and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit, and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the age to come, and then have fallen away, it is impossible to renew them again to repentance, SINCE THEY CRUCIFY TO THEMSELVES THE SON OF GOD AND PUT HIM TO OPEN SHAME. For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and brings forth vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God; but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, AND IT ENDS UP BEING BURNED. (Hebrews 6: 4-9)

This is why I sense I must speak out, because these apostate and hypocritical conservative religionists are “crucifying to themselves the Son of God and putting Him to open shame.” If these people were unregenerate atheists and agnostics, then I wouldn’t be paying any attention to this issue at all, since the unregenerate make no claims of belief in God, and are, therefore, Spiritually blind and dead: but at least they’re honest, for the most part, about what they believe to be true.

The following quote, in my estimation, sums up the unbalanced, patriotic (idol worship) nature and state of the “Christian” right.

“I hate Obama more and more every day. Everything that comes out of his filthy Commie mouth makes me want to scream.”

The "Christian" Right!

The evidence of this type of ungodly nature and condition can be observed almost every night on the evening news (liberal and conservative), as these conservative religionists go about breaking every commandment of God: the very same commandments they attempt to enforce on the unregenerate; which is, of course, the very definition of hypocrisy.

But when the Pharisees heard that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, they gathered themselves together. One of them, a lawyer, asked Him a question, testing Him, “Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?” And He said to him, “ ‘YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND.’ “This is the great and foremost commandment. “The second is like it, ‘YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.’ “On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.” (Matthew 22: 34-40)

Love your God, first and foremost, and love your neighbor as you do yourself. These are the commandments the “Christian” right preaches to others, but seem incapable of keeping themselves.

“MAXIMIZE LIBERTY, MINIMIZE GOVERNMENT”

The “Christian” right claims to want less government and more Liberty, and yet, over the last eight years, they never seemed to be all that concerned with the despotic intrusion on their civil liberties brought about by the (“homeland security”) policies of the Bush (Cheney) administration: increased security and scrutiny of American passengers at airports, wire-tapping Americans without a court order, internet invasions of privacy = “The Patriot Act”. Where was the “Christian” rights’ outrage for all of this “maximized”, intrusive (fascist) government, as Bush played the “Big Brother”? Perhaps conservative religionists like the name Bush (or Cheney) better than Obama, or just maybe they like the color of Bush’s skin better?

Could it also be that conservative religionists have simply been brainwashed (over the years), educationally, in the workplace, and by the republican party (owned, “lock, stock and barrel”, by the filthy-rich 1%), just as the Godless, for the most part, left has been brainwashed by the democrats (the same filthy-rich 1%)? Could it possibly be that the filthy-rich 1%, on both sides, are playing the working middle-class liberals & conservatives against each other: the greed-driven powerful ends playing (manipulating, politically) the powerless middle (working class) against itself, and for the sole purpose of achieving complete control?

Conservative religionists claim they want less of the very government they so idolize and worship, and yet, when it comes to certain political issues, they, hypocritically, do a complete about-face. For instance, when it comes to educating their little patriots, conservative religionists seem to have no problem with a “maximized” government (“socialism”): a government which is constantly “minimizing” their “liberties”, when it comes to the education of their children. Conservative religionists rail against any evidence of “maximized” government, until, that is, it comes down to dealing with something they can’t handle, emotionally or intellectually, and then “maximized” government seems to be no problem at all for them.

"No Child Left" Out of the Pit!

Every step the government (federal and state) has taken, over the last century-plus, has been to reduce, or even relinquish, parental control over their children’s education and “values”, and, thus, further the cause of postmodern/Darwinian/atheism (the illegitimate child of deism and “the enlightenment”: removing the Lord from our schools and society (Madelyn Murray O’Hare: “Be gone prayer!”), “valuing diversity” (cultural/moral relativism: “Tommy Has Two Daddies” “There is no good or bad anything!” etc), creating little cogs (the “no-kid-left-behind”, indoctrinated “workers-of-the-future”) for the machinery of the “state”, and the filthy-rich 1% (the “new capitalists”: anti free-enterprise) who own and operate it. Sounds a little like 1917 Russia to me! Only, in this case, the hard-core “Christian” right (the “commie” haters) are supporting the Bolshevik’s (“new capitalists”) takeover, and without any comprehension whatsoever.

The “Christian” right cries, “No socialism,” and yet most of these conservative religionists seem to have no problem whatsoever with CORPORATE SOCIALISM: massive tax breaks for the corporations (the 1%), which amounts, in most cases, to paying no taxes at all; massive financial “bail-outs” of Chrysler and General Motors (not to mention the major banks and AIG), and with middle-class tax dollars that will never be recovered by the middle-class tax payer.

The conservative religionists claim to hate socialized (government controlled) health-care, but they don’t mind government controlled, and republican backed, flood insurance. The insurance industry is paid one billion dollars a year, by the government, to write flood insurance policies. These policies are not guaranteed by the insurance companies that were paid to write them, but, instead, are guaranteed by middle-class tax dollars! After costs are subtracted, these filthy-rich insurance companies get to divide up hundreds of millions of dollars, and with no liability or risk whatsoever. The risk and liability for national flood insurance is placed on the common tax payer! And most of the people covered with flood insurance are wealthy: and these wealthy individuals will, after a devastating and costly flood, continue to rebuild in the same flood zones. And why wouldn’t they, since their socialized flood-insurance will take care of all their needs, and at the expense of the middle-class conservative religionists who blindly support and worship the very (socialistic/capitalistic) system these wealthy individuals own and operate.

The money for this government-operated flood insurance, as with the corporate “bail-out” money, is taken from the working class individual to serve the state, and the wealthy and powerful individuals (1%) who control it. Wake up, conservative religionists, this is simply covert SOCIALISM (for the rich only) under the guise of free enterprise! But evidently insurance companies, houses and property of the wealthy few, as well as failing and corrupted corporations and banks, are more valuable to the republican party, the government, and conservative religionists, than the common tax-payer’s (working class) health and life.

Having written all of this “chasing after the wind”, I am not suggesting, by any stretch of the imagination, any kind of action against this corrupted and evil system, since the ruler of this age oversees it.

{The word of God prophesies of this kind of greed and power, this evil world system. So to suggest taking action against it would be, in reality, to fall into the same political pit as the blinded, apostate religionists!}

The filthy-rich 1%, being blinded by the god of this age, are merely the manipulated pawns (devout followers) of the enemy of God:

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. For OUR STRUGGLE IS NOT AGAINST FLESH AND BLOOD, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6: 10-12)

As I said at the beginning of this post, I sense that I must speak out against the apostate religionists who worship this hypocritical political system and its lies, but solely for the purpose of changing the mindset and heart, if the Lord wills, of those believers who are truly seeking the Lord. My desire is for the Lord, through His Spirit, to lead them away from this system of the world and back to His way, Truth, and Life in (Spiritual) abundance:

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me. (John 14: 6)

So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. “All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I CAME THAT THEY MAY HAVE LIFE, AND HAVE IT ABUNDANTLY. (John 10: 7-11)

Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. THE WORLD IS PASSING AWAY, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever. (1 John 2: 15-17)

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. “But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, and where thieves do not break in or steal; for WHERE YOUR TREASURE IS, THERE YOUR HEART WILL BE ALSO. (Matthew 6: 19-21)

I pray for my hate filled friend, and those entrapped like him, that he would come out from the midst of this ungodly, worldly corruption and into the Light and Truth of our Lord. I pray that all who read this would sense the need to turn from this deadness and seek first the Lord’s righteousness and Kingdom:

“For this reason I say to you, do not be worried about your life, as to what you will eat or what you will drink; nor for your body, as to what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 26 “Look at the birds of the air, that they do not sow, nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not worth much more than they? 27 “And who of you by being worried can add a single hour to his life? 28 “And why are you worried about clothing? Observe how the lilies of the field grow; they do not toil nor do they spin, 29 yet I say to you that not even Solomon in all his glory clothed himself like one of these. 30 “But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is alive today and tomorrow is thrown into the furnace, WILL HE NOT MUCH MORE CLOTHE YOU? YOU OF LITTLE FAITH! “DO NOT WORRY THEN, saying, ‘WHAT WILL WE EAT?’ or ‘WHAT WILL WE DRINK?’ or ‘WHAT WILL WE WEAR FOR CLOTHING?’ “For the Gentiles eagerly seek all these things; for your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. “But SEEK FIRST HIS KINGDOM and HIS RIGHTEOUSNESS, AND ALL THESE THINGS WILL BE ADDED TO YOU.

“So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. (Matthew 6: 25-34)

Listen and believe the word of our Lord and Savior, through the power and discernment of His Spirit in you. Seek the Lord with all of your mind, heart and soul! Turn from the lies of this decaying world, and its leader, and live in the Light and Life of our Lord! Come out from them, and be cleansed and set free!

The Christian Religion’s “Bad Fruit” (# 2)

The Lord stated:

15“Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16“You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17“So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18“A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19“Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20“So then, you will know them by their fruits. (Matthew 7)

The following article is yet another example of the “bad fruit” of Christianity:

Late one night in early May 2011, a preacher named Jerry DeWitt was lying in bed in DeRidder, La., when his phone rang. He picked it up and heard an anguished, familiar voice. It was Natosha Davis, a friend and parishioner in a church where DeWitt had preached for more than five years. Her brother had been in a bad motorcycle accident, she said, and he might not survive. DeWitt knew what she wanted: for him to pray for her brother. It was the kind of call he had taken many times during his 25 years in the ministry. But now he found that the words would not come. He comforted her as best he could, but he couldn’t bring himself to invoke God’s help. Sensing her disappointment, he put the phone down and found himself sobbing.

He was 41 and had spent almost his entire life in or near DeRidder, a small town in the heart of the Bible Belt. All he had ever wanted was to be a comfort and a support to the people he grew up with, but now a divide stood between him and them. He could no longer hide his disbelief. He walked into the bathroom and stared at himself in the mirror. “I remember thinking, Who on this planet has any idea what I’m going through?” DeWitt told me.

As his wife slept, he fumbled through the darkness for his laptop. After a few quick searches with the terms “pastor” and “atheist,” he discovered that a cottage industry of atheist outreach groups had grown up in the past few years. Within days, he joined an online network called the Clergy Project, created for clerics who no longer believe in God and want to communicate anonymously through a secure Web site…

…The godless are now younger and more diverse than in the past, with blacks and Hispanics — once vanishingly rare — starting to appear in the ranks of national groups like the United Coalition of Reason and the Secular Student Alliance.

The movement has also begun cultivating a new breed of guru in men like DeWitt and Nate Phelps, the son of Fred Phelps, the leader of Westboro Baptist Church, which pickets military funerals and gay-pride events with signs declaring “God Hates Fags.” Nate Phelps, a big, barrel-chested man who delivers fierce rebuttals of his father’s theology and narrates the agonies of his fundamentalist upbringing, has become a star speaker at atheist rallies and gay-pride events around the country. At the Reason Rally, crowds cheered as he declared that the Sept. 11 attacks played a critical role in blasting away his lingering belief in any sort of deity. – NYTimes.com.

“The movement has also begun cultivating a new breed of guru..” The “movement” has begun a new breed of atheist clergy to lead the atheist laity in the atheist religion, is more like it. I applaud Nate Phelps for escaping the pagan and Godless sect of the Christian religion his father dictates over, and blasting his father for being such a self-righteous, hate-filled hypocrite. But, as I said in the The Christian Religion’s “Bad Fruit” (#1), what good is it to leave a false religion about the Lord, and then immediately turn and join another that denies Him? This is tantamount to jumping out of a frying pan and landing in the fire! This angry and confused man, like the woman in my first post, simply never knew the Lord, and now he is blaming his Maker for a religion the Lord never endorsed.

“Come to Me…”

The next question will be, of course, “If the Lord didn’t endorse Christianity, then why hasn’t He done anything to stop it?” The free will of man, I believe, is the answer. The Lord didn’t make man to become a robot He could control. The Lord wanted a family that would come, of their own will, to love and have relationship with Him. The first folks the Lord made had this close relationship with Him, but they chose to desert Him and follow after a lie, just as this man is doing now. From that time until now, man has had to, when sensing the call, come to the Lord of his own volition, otherwise man would have been nothing more than a robot, a trained rat, who would only come to the Lord because he had been coerced and/or manipulated. This is not the kind of relationship our Lord and Savior desires with us, and thus He will never force anyone to come and love Him.

The problem with both of the people in these two posts (this man and the woman in #1), as I see it, is this: they had followed after man’s religious doctrines about the Lord instead of seeking and following after the Lord Himself; so they might, then, have come to know and love Him in a personal way. Now, both of these disheartened and disillusioned people are simply seeking after another religion of man (atheism), and they are approaching this new religion in much the same way they had approached the old one: they have become preachers of the absurdly-false atheist religion, just as they had been preachers of the false religion about the Lord (Christianity). In reality, these two people have yet to change the religious problem plaguing them: they are, it would seem, and without discernment, doing the same religious thing over and over again and expecting a different religious result. This religious process these two people seem to be trapped in is, according to Einstein, the very definition of insanity. Instead of having rushed off into the exact religious opposite of Christianity (atheism), why didn’t they first seek out the Lord on their own to see if He truly exists?

Yes, young people, more and more, are walking away from the major religions of this world, in particular, the Christian religion. But, by rejecting the Creator of all things also, they are simply, and without awareness/understanding, practicing another form of religiosity: a total denial of God, or atheism, which is also based on faith, since no one has yet to empirically prove God doesn’t exist.

In conclusion, if we choose to deny our Creator and Lord, during our lifetime, then we will simply have chosen the Lord’s enemy (Satan) instead: all of us will ultimately have to make a choice for or against the Lord, even if we have claimed to be neutral, since neutrality will be considered the same as choosing against the Lord. This decision isn’t like dealing with man’s corrupt and hypocritical political and judicial processes, where a person can abstain from voting for or against something, or enter a plea of “no contest” in a court of law. There is no neutrality possible, when it comes to a decision for or against the Lord.

Make a choice. Don’t make a choice. Either way, when it comes to the Creator and Lord of everything, a person, no matter how hard and long he or she protests, will have made a choice, one way or the other, in the end. In other words, when it comes to us making this eternal decision, abstaining will not be recognized as a legitimate excuse before the Lord!

In my opinion, the folks in these articles are the proof of the bad fruit of Christianity. Christ is the way, truth and life, not religious denominations and non-denominations!

Twelve Years, and Counting, on the “Narrow Path”

The Lord Jesus stated:

13“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14“For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. (Matthew 7)

As I’ve stated before, I believe I was chosen, twenty-six years ago, to follow the Lord. But it has only been in the last twelve years that I have truly begun to know my Lord and Savior. Thus, it has been twelve years since I “entered through the narrow gate” and began this long (narrow) journey.

The previous fourteen years had consisted primarily of learning about the Lord (eating from “the tree of knowledge of good and evil”), with the aid of the bible, reading “Christian authors” and sitting through endless, meaningless biblical “teachings.” These first fourteen years had been, for all intents and purposes, a Spiritual waste of time, since all I had really gained was a particular brand of religious-indoctrination in the “Christian church:” every one of the three-thousand-plus-factions of Christianity (denominations/non-denominations) have their own brand of false doctrine about the Lord and His life He came to give us. As opposed to discerning how to be led by the Spirit of God, which the Lord had sent to guide me, I had simply learned how to be more religious. Thus, I was almost completely ignorant of the Lord’s way, truth and life, since I was filled with nothing but Christian-doctrinal confusion and ungodly arrogance: like every other Christian, I believed I had the real and only truth about the Lord, and everyone else, who claimed something different from my beliefs, was either spiritually ignorant or an apostate in my mind and heart.

My companions (beyond the Spirit of God), on this twelve year journey, have been my closest friend and brother in Christ, a man I’ve known since 1974, and his family, and one other brother who is, even as I write, suffering, greatly. In fact, these brothers and sisters are the only family I have left on this earth, beyond, of course, the few others, throughout this world, who have also entered through the Lord’s narrow gate; whoever they may be.

The truth of our lord, in the scripture above, that “few will find the narrow path” resonates more in my heart and mind, now, than ever before, since we have found few others to walk this path with. The Lord’s narrow gate and path is no cakewalk, believe me, and thus probably the reason we are quite often alone.

During the past twelve years, the Lord’s path, at times, has narrowed so tightly that we felt we almost couldn’t move on, while at other times, it has opened up so broadly that we thought we were almost certain of where the Lord was ultimately taking us. This narrow path has been filled, over the last five years, in particular, with much darkness and foreboding, but there have also been times of great peace and rest in Him. There have been deep valleys of Spiritual uncertainty, as well as mountain peaks, where we felt so close to the Lord that we thought we could almost reach out and touch Him.

On this narrow path, there have been long and short sojourns with many unexpected ups and downs, twist and turns, Spiritually, as well as difficult, personal and family issues, which all really tested our endurance. We have experienced horrible doubt and great faith, immense sorrow and overwhelming joy, illness and health, times of plenty and doing without. There has been almost everything, beyond imprisonment and death, a human being could experience on this path.

We have struggled greatly on this narrow path, at many points, since we are mere human beings, and, like all mere human beings, we desire to know what is expected of us: we have desired to know exactly what the Lord’s purpose is for our lives, so we could, then, set about accomplishing it; which, of course, is nothing but religious folly, since only the Lord can accomplish His will through us. We have desired to plan ahead for the future: for ourselves, our families and those we love and care about, as though we were ever completely in charge of our provision. Like most other human beings, we have wanted to measure our successes and failures: we have sought, because of our past religious indoctrination (religious bondage), to measure our Spiritual gains and losses, in a worldly, temporal way, so we could, then, pat ourselves on our Spiritual backs and go about our daily lives fairly unencumbered.

Over the years, we have pursued all of this religious-like “chasing after the wind,” this attempting to compartmentalize the Lord, so we might, in some way, tie our temporal and eternal purpose up in a tidy, little package; just as we would attempt to do with any other secular area of our lives. But, at every turn, the Lord has allowed for Spiritual and worldly roadblocks, which frustrated and confused us. I now believe that the Lord has allowed for these roadblocks to occur, in order to stop us from treating Him like we treat all other daily aspects of our lives, like He’s just something else we need to get done in a day. Over these twelve years, the Lord has made it very clear that He will not be tied up in our neat, little packages, since, I believe, now, this would have only served to satisfy our fleshly, worldly desires and thus driven us off the narrow path and away from our purpose in Him.

The narrow path, as opposed to Christian religiosity, wasn’t designed by the Lord to make us “prayer warriors,” or good citizens of this country/world, or religious saviors of the human race and all of creation. Oh no, in our experience, the Lord’s narrow path has been designed to completely crush and bring us low, in order to bring to light, even in our seeking Him, how corrupt, selfish and unloving we truly have been and still are. This path brings those who are chosen to take it to the point where they must examine just how flawed and ungodly their fleshly-selves truly are:

16“You did not choose Me but I CHOSE YOU, and appointed you that you would go and bear fruit, and that your fruit would remain, so that whatever you ask of the Father in My name He may give to you. 17“This I command you, that you love one another. (Matthew 15)

14“For many are called, but few are chosen.”

This is “The Narrow Path!”

This path is not for the faint of heart, asleep in the pew “church-goer:” it is not for the religious practitioner of Christendom, who is only seeking to be held in esteem by those around him, and who believes, in great error, that the Lord is but a magic genie who automatically gives him what he wants, when he wants it; as long, of course, as he attends “church,” at least two times a year, and tithes ten percent of his income. No, this is a path that produces just the opposite effect on those chosen by the Lord: if one, at the beginning of his journey on this path, has come to believe, during his years of attending “church,” that he has found the absolute truth of God in the bible, and thus begins to bask in his own religious glory, then he will soon find he knows less about the Lord than when he first entered through the narrow gate.

One will never become religious or self-actualized on this path, believe me. In fact, he will become less religious and, like Paul, come to have no confidence in his own flesh: his own mind and heart. He will come to discern (if his journey has been anything like ours) that almost everything he believed and worshiped in the Christian religion will be negated, destroyed: his held-to religious beliefs, based on Christianity’s false doctrines, will be turned upside down and backwards by the Lord. My brother refers to this hard process of the Lord as, “Unlearning:” we have had to unlearn every Christian doctrine we had been in indoctrinated with, in order to begin to learn the real truth of our Lord. And this real truth, I believe, can only be found on the Lord’s narrow path.

Our journey on this path was, and still is (the Lord’s process continues on), as if everything we had ever believed about the Lord, according to our religious training, had to be turned upside and backwards by the Lord. We felt, and still feel, quite often, like we can make very few claims of having any of the Lord’s knowledge and wisdom. At points, it has been (and is) as if the Lord is keeping His truth from us, and yet when we need His truth, His Spirit brings it to mind through scripture and our personal experiences with Him.

Like everything else with the Lord, His path is the exact opposite of the paths taken by people caught up in this evil world system, whether atheist or religious: the Lord’s way, truth and life will always be diametrically opposed to the evil ways of this decaying world. Thus, it should be no surprise to us, or anyone else, that quite often we struggle on this path. After all, we are surrounded in this world by the complete opposite of our Lord’s truth and life, and the exact opposite entity of our Lord, His fallen, celestial opponent (Satan), definitely wants us to be confused and doubting.

{As I write this, the Lord continues to open my eyes a little more to His truth!}

We are beginning to discern (if we are truly discerning properly?) that the Spiritual gains on this path will come only with the death of our self-life, which, of course, is totally contrary to the self-this-and-that ways of this world and the Christian religion. And, because of this death to self, we will have need of a true, as opposed to religious, relationship with our Lord. And this true relationship will only be accomplished through the Lord’s will and indwelling Spirit. There is great freedom in dying to one’s self life! As I said above, the Lord’s way, His path, is completely opposite of the world’s, where freedom means doing as one pleases without any regard whatsoever for the damage and pain it causes to others around him or himself!

What did the Lord truly mean in the following scripture?

24Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. 25“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. 26“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? 27“For the Son of Man is going to come in the glory of His Father with His angels, and WILL THEN REPAY EVERY MAN ACCORDING TO HIS DEEDS. (Matthew 16)

I have shared this with you, because we are looking for others to share this narrow path with. I am not teaching in this post, since I am merely a failing, at points, student of my Lord, Who is the real Teacher. If this post registers with anyone out there, then I hope they will let me know by commenting. I do not make money off of this blog, any advertizing is done by WordPress, so I am not trying to get comments for financial purposes!

Is the Bible (“The Word of God”) the Logos, or is Christ the Logos?

Is this mass-produced book the Christ?

{Note: I will keep comments on, but those who leave remarks filled with religious hatred for anyone who disagrees with their “doctrinal beliefs” will not be completely read, nor published. So don’t waste your time! On the other hand, anyone wishing to leave comments that will bring Spiritual clarity, whether I agree or not, will be published. Also, I may or may not respond to a published comment, whether I be in agreement with it or not.}

My closest brother in the Lord and I have struggled, for many years now, with the notion, or, perhaps, spiritual sense, that we could not fully trust what the Christian religion had rammed down our throats as the absolute truth of God. And what Christianity had used, for the most part, to ram its religious doctrines down our throats (indoctrination) was the book referred to as “the inspired word of God:” the bible. Both of us, as it would turn out, had many questions about the bible that we could never get legitimate answers to, since to question the bible, in the so-called “church,” was to be a heretic or “returnee to Egypt;” a “dog who has returned to eat his own vomit,” if you will. And, of course, with this kind of “righteous,” religious backlash coming at a person, over and over again, he or she will eventually be forced to cease from asking these kinds of questions or leave those behind who won’t, or can’t, give an answer.

In other words, practitioners of a particular brand of the Christian religion (denominations/non-denominations), who dare to ask difficult questions about the bible, are either harshly rebuked and/or completely silenced. If, however, they continue on in their particular sect of Christianity, and still have difficult questions about the bible, then they will most likely, at some point, be asked to leave or, in some cases, be physically tossed out of the buildings called “churches.” I know a brother in Christ who, after years of being an active member, had been physically tossed-out of his “church,” and simply because he had questioned the particular brand of religious doctrine practiced by his “church.”

And to have this excommunication happen to you, this turning away from you, is, in reality, to be tossed out alone in a world that hates you for even believing in God and His Son. You find yourself, all of a sudden, isolated, and for no other reason than you had hard questions about the book the “devoutly” religious cling to as being God. To these religious zealots, the book isn’t even Christ, the Logos, it’s the Word of God. When they “preach,” they almost always speak of God, as in Elohim (the creator), as opposed to the Lord Jehovah, the Lord of the covenant made with all of mankind. In other words, they worship what they can’t comprehend (discern), since they have been blinded by man’s religion about God and His Son.

“THOSE TRYING TO DECEIVE YOU”

{Just to clarify, I still believe there is much truth to be found in the bible, especially in the gospels, where we hear what the Lord, in human form, actually had to say and teach. And I continue to trust, and pray, at this moment, that the gospels haven’t been tainted by man also!

But I also believe there is much of man’s falsehood in the bible, since imperfect and corrupted man interprets and produces this book. At the least, the book has been manipulatively distorted so badly that the Lord’s truth is difficult, or almost impossible, to find at points.

I am not rejecting the Lord, or His truth. I am rejecting man’s misconceptions about the Lord, His Father and Truth, which are based, primarily, on the bible, as opposed to having a personal relationship with his Maker. I am questioning if believers can completely trust everything in the bible, when, first and foremost, it came out of a pagan religion (Roman Catholicism), and it has been translated and re-translated into hundreds of versions that openly contradict each other, doctrinally. If this book is truly the inspired word of God, then why is there so much division, between believers, caused by it? If this book is so reliable, Spiritually, why, then, are there over three-thousand competing factions of Christianity that all believe something different about the Lord, His Father, why we are here and what will happen next? Beyond Christ the Savior, there is nothing but division between the denominations and non-denominations of Christendom, when referencing the bible; the same bible that states this:

1Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3being diligent to preserve THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT in the bond of peace. 4There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; 5one Lord, one faith, one baptism, 6one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4)

Thus the reason, I believe, a person seeking the Lord has to be led by the Spirit of God, the Helper, in order to be able to discern between the truth of Christ and the religious fabrications and outright lies the bible seems to contain. But the clergy of Christendom “preach” against this idea of being led by the Spirit, in a singular sense (one on one with the Lord), since they claim that listening to their “teachings” is, in fact, being led by the Spirit. But which spirit are they referring to, the Lord’s, or fallen man’s (Satan’s)? As long as one continues in the Christian religion, and relies on another religiously-oriented and trained (indoctrinated) man or woman (the clergy) to lead them, then I believe they will never come to the way, truth and life of our Lord and Savior.

26These things I have written to you concerning THOSE WHO ARE TRYING TO DECEIVE YOU. 27As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, AND YOU HAVE NO NEED FOR ANYONE TO TEACH YOU; but as His anointing teaches you about all things, and is true and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you abide in Him. (1 John 2)

I am not saying that we should throw the bible away. I am saying that man should stop worshiping it as God, and that he should stop using it as a manipulative tool for getting what he wants, politically and economically. And also that man should recognize that it’s not blasphemy to question a book, no matter how holy it is claimed to be, that was inspired, interpreted, and compiled by fallible men; in particular, men who began a pagan religion with its use!}

The practitioners of the religious system we left behind still claim to worship the Lord Jesus, but is it truly the Christ they are worshiping, or are they, instead, worshiping just another religious organization and its book of rules (the bible)? I will quote from the book these religious practitioners so adore and worship:

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. 4In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. 5The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it…

9There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man. 10He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. 12But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, 13who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

14And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.(John 1)

He is the Logos, the Word, the Christ!

According to this scripture, which I recognize, through the Spirit, as being the truth, Jesus the Christ was, and is, the the Word of God (Logos): the Word of God Who created everything, the Word of God Who came to enlighten (save) every man, the Word of God Who was rejected and murdered by those He had come to save. Jesus the Christ is the Logos, the Word of God, not the book about Him. The scripture above (nor any other in the new testament gospels and epistles) never mentions the Dead Sea scrolls, or tablets, or a mass-produced, man-made book that would bring people to the Truth of Christ. Instead, this scripture states that the Word of God, the Logos, is the Christ, and through a personal relationship with Him (“being led by the Spirit”) we would come to His way, truth and life.

Of course, the religious would claim that the bible came from the “church” of Christ and thus is the Christ, the Logos, in book form. But where does it ever say in the scriptures, they so worship, that we should expect to have a book to replace the Logos on earth? It doesn’t, it is nowhere to be found. The bible is simply a man-made and inspired book, it is merely a means for man to turn the Lord, and His teachings, into another form of religion man can control and take advantage of.

Here is what the Lord said to His disciples about remembrance of Him and what He had taught them:

23Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him. 24“He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine, but the Father’s who sent Me.

25“These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. 26“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. 27“Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. (John 14)

26“When the Helper comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, that is the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, He will testify about Me, 27and you will testify also, because you have been with Me from the beginning. (John 15)

Again, the religious will claim that the Helper, the Spirit of God, wrote the bible, but that is not what this scripture states! The Apostle Paul states,

For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God. (Romans 8:14)

Where is the mention, by the Lord or Paul, of a book that would come to represent the Lord, the Logos? One can easily, and manipulatively, read into these scriptures, by adding to them (which, by the way, is warned against in this book), and claim the bible is the product of the Spirit of God. And thus, if one is being led by the bible, then he or she is being led by the Spirit. But where is the ABSOLUTE TRUTH (proof) of this in the scriptures the Christians claim to be “the inspired Word of God?”

Can a book compiled, translated and mass-produced by man, which is so open to misinterpretation, truly be the Word of God, the Logos? Is the Lord so weak and inept that His children should be at odds with each other over what they believe about Him, when all they believe about Him is based solely on a book written by mere men like themselves??

One will also never find in the bible the proof that organized Christianity is the Body and Church of Christ! Jesus never mentioned, not one time, that His Church would be a man-made organization, or building, where believers would come, once or twice a week, to worship, especially a religious organization, or building, that, in reality, simply resembles the old testament temple and worship practices of the dead Hebrew religion. Scripture makes very clear on this issue that the Body, the Church of Christ would be made up of those who seek first the Kingdom of God and His way, truth and life, and that this Kingdom would indwell each person who would love and desire Him first and foremost. Christ made clear to the leaders of Israel that the Kingdom of God indwells those who love Him more than they love themselves, this world, their country, their religion, their career, or even their own immediate family.

Is this the Kingdom of God we see in those who practice the Christian religion, those who worship and are led by the college-educated clergy who read from a book as though it is God? Rather than worshiping and being led by the Spirit sent by the Lord, these practitioners of religion worship at the alter of what man desires from God, here and now, and with little consideration for what the ages ahead will bring:

13Then the Lord said,
“…this people draw near with their words
And honor Me with their lip service,
But they remove their hearts far from Me,
And their reverence for Me consists of TRADITION LEARNED BY ROTE, (Isaiah 29)

This is an old testament scripture, but I believe it applies to the practitioners of Christianity, today, as well: they go to church on Sunday and “praise God,” then they go about their lives the rest of the week as though the Lord doesn’t exist. After “Sunday morning services,” they go about their lives as they see fit, and with little or no regard for what the Lord would have them believe or do. This is the portrait of man’s religion I see, in all of its hypocritical glory: “Do as I say and not as I do!”

In conclusion, I believe that it is not the Word of God, the Logos, the Christ, that is flawed, since Christ is perfect. It is man’s illegitimate and manipulative-divisive interpretation of the Lord’s way, truth and life, found in his faulty-at-best, bible-based doctrines, that is flawed. So those of us who do truly love the Lord enough to seek Him out on our own, everyday, must rely on His Spirit to guide us to what is true or false in the book man has claimed to be His inspired word.

If this is an ungodly position, then I guess I must remain ungodly until the Lord shows me something different and sets me straight.

American Political Honesty & Integrity?

I am a firm believer in the truth that the Lord created man in His Own Image, and that man, sometime in the past, fell from the grace of his Creator. So I am more than aware that mankind (including myself) has, since that fall, had a multitude of issues contrary to the nature of his Creator, one issue being man’s lack of honesty and integrity.

Honesty: “The quality or condition of being honest; integrity.”

Integrity: “Steadfast adherence to a strict moral or ethical code.”

This lacking in honesty and integrity, it would seem, has continually been on the increase during the days I have lived on this planet. In particular, it seems that honesty, over the last two or three decades, has been replaced with mealy-mouth double talk, in the form of “tolerance” and “political-correctness.” It seems to me that being a person of integrity, being an honest and forthright individual, has become something almost evil in the minds of most postmodern-atheists; who, by the way, seem to have almost total control in this world today. We live in a time when to speak one’s mind, unless it goes along with the far-left philosophy, is verboten. The non-conformists of the ’60s have turned into the despots of conformity in the twenty-first century. The speech and thought gestapo are always looking for those who refuse to conform to their low and mediocre, ungodly standards. To disagree with a pregnant woman’s right to murder (abortion), or sodomite marriage, is to bring the flower-power, pot-smoking gestapo down on you and family; just ask the president of Chick Fil A, if you don’t believe me.

Thus, American politicians, whether they be of the right, middle or left (with few exceptions: Ron Paul, for instance), have lost the ability to be honest and forthright, or so it would seem. In this day and age, the political end truly does seem to justify the means, no matter how destructive, corrupt, dishonest (lacking in integrity) and perverse the means may be.

Although there are a multitude of examples of dishonesty and lacking of integrity in this country, the lack of honesty and integrity in American politics today, in particular, is at an all time low.

{I am not saying that a lack of honesty/integrity has not always been at the heart of American politics, it most certainly has been, at least since I’ve been old enough to discern it. What I’m referring to, here, is the exponential increase of dishonesty and lack of integrity in American politics today.}

The American political system has become so corrupted that its participants no longer even try to hide their blatant dishonesty, their lack of integrity. These particular men and women (boys and girls is more apropos), the putrid products of my lost generation, I’m ashamed to admit, have not the least concern for the fact that they continually “flip-flop” on their political and social beliefs, which they claim so fervently to “stand for.” And when confronted with their political and social hypocrisy and outright lies, they can produce nothing other than idiot-speak/double-talk. Never is heard, from these power and greed mongers, “I am struggling with this issue, because it is difficult, and thus I seem, at points, to be contradicting myself.” or “I have changed my mind on this issue, and, whether it costs me the election or not, I must stand on what I believe to be true now!” Like everything else in this ungodly country, winning is everything: lies, hypocrisy, cheating and stealing are all fair game in America today, because all that matters is winning (“defeating the opponent”); the end always justifies the means in the good old US of A. I know this is most likely true in other countries also, but I live here.

For all of you middle-class working-folks who still worship at the alter of democracy and capitalism, here are some questions for you: How can you believe anything Romney/Ryan or Obama/Biden state, when you cannot verify, for yourselves, whether they are being honest with you? How can you trust any of these men, when you have no real way of knowing what is actually going on in the government and economic system you so love and support?

{Most of us have been led to believe, through the testimony of government and economic system “experts,” that it is an imperative, in a “democratic republic,” to have an educated and informed electorate. How can this country, then, truly be a “democratic republic,” when every year our public education system becomes increasingly more and more ineffective, to the point that many college grads can’t find their own state on a map, and the economic and political information we need to be a truly “informed electorate” is withheld from us by the powers that be? The powers that be, you see, don’t want us common folk to be too educated, and they certainly don’t want us to be informed of what they are doing, politically and economically, in their Park Avenue board rooms and secret societies. Darwin and multiculturalism is what they want us focused on, so we don’t become suspicious and, as a whole, start demanding answers to hard questions.}

We can all go on the internet and read, or listen to the government and economically controlled press, whether on radio, television, or in print, and take in what they are telling us, but how can we truly find out if we’re being given the true facts or just what their wealthy and powerful bosses want us to hear and know? Am I the only one who can see that there is no way to know what is truly happening in this political and economic system, because the truth is hidden from us, it has been buried so we can’t ever find it. And why is this? Well, I believe it’s because the truth, if known by us, would ultimately mean an end to this current government and economic system. If we, including me, really knew the truth, I believe we would turn our collective backs on the lie and seek another form of government and economic system to replace it. The only problem with that outcome would be this, and history is my witness: what we would replace this system with would merely be as bad, or even worse, as the current system that rapes and pillages us and our families every day.

We are stuck, and the power brokers in this country, and the rest of the world, know it. We have no choice but to grin and bear it. And don’t feed me the patriotic crap about a free republic of the people, by the people, blah, blah, blah, since, if that had ever been true, I would not be sitting at this computer writing this!

When I summon up enough intestinal fortitude to be capable of listening to the news channels, or read reports on line, I hear the current presidential candidates, Mitt Romney, in particular, dodging the pertinent questions being asked of them. Instead of ever stating, with any substantive evidence, what their plan is for overcoming the social and economic disasters awaiting ninety-five to ninety-nine percent of us working-class Americans, and the rest of the world, these career politicians simply come back with a simplistic overview of their “plans,” which is just enough to satisfy the less-than-brilliant folks who follow and adore them. And then, immediately afterwards, they proceed to quickly change the subject by spewing out of their mouths inordinate amounts of political rhetoric and personal attacks on their opponent. And the mindless and blind crowds cheer and wave their little flags, etc…

For instance, I have yet to hear Romney back up his claim, several months back, that he is a business man and thus superior to Obama. And when asked about his business “escapades” at Bain Capital, he simply states that this topic is out of bounds. If Romney is the successful business man he claims to be, then why wouldn’t he want to be questioned about his association with Bain Capital? Romney has been successful at making money, which, these days, doesn’t necessarily make a person qualified for a janitor position, not alone the presidency. Many folks in this country make a great deal of money, but they couldn’t lead a man dying of thirst to drink a tall glass of ice-water. Romney isn’t a JOB CREATOR, he’s a MONEY MAKER, and this country desperately needs a JOB CREATOR, not a MONEY MAKER. I have yet to hear Romney, in any depth, put forth a substantive plan that would even begin to start to fix the economic woes confronting the common working or poor person in this country. I do hear Romney, however, blatantly refusing to divulge the rest of his COMPLETE income tax returns for the last seven years: the two returns he has issued have been incomplete, which most folks on the right either don’t care about or are ignorant of.

I was always taught, and still hold to, if a politician refuses to be transparent about his or her past, in any way, then he or she is most likely hiding something that is not good, such is the case, I believe, with Mitt Romney. Romney finally admitted the other day, and evidently by accident, that he has never paid less than 13% in income taxes. 13%? When I was working, I made around forty-thousand dollars a year, and the local, state and federal governments took, on the average, about 33% of my salary every year. 33%! I don’t know about anyone else, but, to me, an income tax rate of 13% is the same as paying no income tax for a person who makes twenty-two million dollars in one year.

{On the lame argument, put forth by the republicans and far right conservatives, that there is a “class-war” in this country, and rich people are hated because they are rich, I say it’s nothing but a political dodge, it is pure and simple B.S.! I am not against people becoming wealthy, even to the point of insanity, which, by the way, is the case with many rich people in this country. What I am against, as are most working middle-class people, is the rich not paying their fair share in taxes. Those who benefit most from this capitalistic system should pay the most in taxes, and those who benefit the least should pay the least in taxes. We have a “regressive tax system,” where the top earners pay far less in taxes than do the lower middle-class working people. We should have a “progressive tax system” in this country, where the wealthy pay the most! We have a deficit problem because the rich are cheating, “legally,” on their taxes (loopholes, off shore accounts, Swiss bank accounts, etc); they are using the tax system to rip off the people of this country. And this is what Romney (as well as most of the folks in congress) is getting away with. This is why, I believe, Romney will not release more than two years of his tax returns. Romney doesn’t want the electorate to know he kept his money, over the last four years, while most of the rest of us lost ours. And it was folks like Romney that caused the financial meltdown, four years ago, to begin with!}

On the other hand, we have Obama, a person who goes to church on Sunday and yet believes in a woman’s right to murder her unborn baby and that two sodomites should be able to marry and adopt children. Of course, Bill Clinton also went to church, as did Nixon, Bush and Cheney, and we all know about their “moral fiber.” But at least I know what I have with Obama.

Obama inherited eight years of unbridled spending on wars, and a recession/depression that was caused by this unbridled spending, as well as the lack of regulatory control on the greed mongering banks and Wall St. And who was responsible for this mess? Not Obama, but the Bush/Cheney administration. Obama’s bail-out of the auto industry did work. Detroit has recovered and paid back what the American people, not the government, had loaned them. And the auto industry means jobs for working class people. Obama did do away with Bin Laden, the mastermind and financier of 9/11, whereas George W chased after Saddam Hussein, which cost this country trillions of dollars and the loss of thousands of lives: US and innocent Iraqi lives. “Obamacare,” as the right so disdainfully puts it, is at least an attempt by the Obama administration to look after the disenfranchised in this country, whose numbers increase daily.

It seems odd to me that the bible-thumping right would be so against the taking care of the poor, when this is an imperative of Christ and the writers of the epistles. And yet the atheistic-Darwinian left seems to be more compassionate? Go figure!

All four of these men (Bush/Cheney/Obama and Romney) have been blatantly dishonest in their dealings with the American people, Obama being the least of the four, in my opinion. Republican congressmen have openly admitted, for the last four years, that their ONLY goal was to make Obama a “one term” president. Now that it’s an election year, the republicans have snapped back into winning mode and are promoting themselves as the saviors of the middle-class, which is nothing more than a bald-faced lie. If they were the saviors of the middle class, they would have been working with Obama, over the past four years, to solve the economic problems the middle class has been facing, as opposed to playing dirty politics in order to get the black man out of the oval office.

American political honesty and integrity has become nothing more than a pipe dream: it has become “marsh gas,” “things that goes bump in the night.” The decline of the American empire is upon us, and all those of us can do, who have been lied to and cheated, in reality, is sit, watch and wait to see how it will come to its inevitable end; since we the people, when it comes to having a say, have been taken out of the political equation.

As with other fallen empires throughout time, history will no doubt come to the conclusion that the lack of honesty and integrity in America’s leadership and people was an important factor in its demise.

Keeping Our Sanity in this Difficult World

I didn’t quote the entire poem below, since the conclusion comes from a humanist’s perspective. But, whether Kipling was aware or not, there is wisdom from the Lord in the first two stanzas of his poem.

If

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;…

(Rudyard Kipling: “If”)

From Death to Life – W.E. Smith « Livingwalk – W.E. Smith

What follows is the expression of the Life in Abundance that the Father offers all of fallen mankind through His Son, our Lord, Savior and Brother! What follows has nothing whatsoever to do with man’s religion, it is so far above that sad joke that man’s religion ceases to exist in its presence!

If you want the Lord, then this is what it will take: die! die! die to self and this world, and only the Lord Himself can help you do this!

I would like to begin in with his word from Martin Luther -

“Human reason is easily offended by the vile shapes of the cross. It judges insane those who want to comfort, help, and care for others, or who boast about their great riches, righteousness, fortitude, victory over sin, death, and every evil, and about their joy, salvation, and eternal life, all while these same people are needy, weak, troubled, and despised, and are mistreated and killed as the most noxious enemies of the state and of religion, not by the rabble but by people of quality in both the political and the ecclesiastical realms. They consider themselves to have done God the greatest service when they have done this. And so when they promise eternal blessings to others while they themselves are perishing so miserably in the sight of the world, they are ridiculed and forced to hear: ‘Physician, heal yourself’ Lk 4:23! This is the source of the complaints throughout the Psalms: ‘I am a worm and not a man, scorned by mankind and despised by the people’ Ps 22:6. ‘Be not far from me, for trouble is near, and there is none to help’ Ps 22:11.

“Therefore it is really a magnificent commendation of and praise for the Galatians that they were not offended by Paul’s weakness and trial but received him as an angel of God, indeed as Christ Jesus. It is a great and outstanding virtue to listen to an apostle. But it is a greater and truly Christian virtue to listen to one who was as miserable, weak, and contemptible as Paul here admits that he was among the Galatians, and to receive such a one as an angel from heaven and to hold him in such honor as though he were Christ Jesus, without being offended by his many and great weaknesses. In these words, therefore, he greatly praises the virtue of the Galatians, saying that it will be with him forever and is so gratifying to him that he wants everyone to know about it.”…

and then a few passages from the Word –

“But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body. So then, death is at work in us, but life is at work in you. 2 Cor. 4:7-12

You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus. Gal. 4:13-14

But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. 2 Cor. 12:9

You can find the entire article here:

href=’http://livingwalk.wordpress.com/?p=3870&preview=true’>From Death to Life – W.E. Smith « Livingwalk – W.E. Smith.

“My Interest in This World has been Crucified:” T. Austin Sparks

The following is an email (and my response) I received from a brother in Christ, a fellow sojourner, just recently. For those of us who know we have fully given our lives and self over to the Lord and have died on the cross (perhaps, the few chosen out of the many called?), or are in the process of dying to self and this world, the following should sound familiar. For those who are content practicing a religion about God and His Son (the many called), the following will probably not register that much or even at all!

Good Morning Mark – I am not sure if this helps, but it did for me. I heard Lance Lambert say in a message the other day, that when the Lord went up on the piece of wood, on that Tree of Death, we either went up with Him, or we chose to stay on the ground thanking and praising Him, trying to explain it all, to appropriate it all (essentially what most of what modern Christian faith represents), but never really committing to hang there ourselves. Yet Paul said he had been crucified there with Christ. Have we? All things in the New Creation rise up out of the rotting ground and decay of the old – it is newness of life, as life out of death, much like a forest bed and all of the abundant, verdant, ever-increasing life there because if it.

It is not so much about the world’s things, but about whether they have been “made safe” or not. Paul teaches us that in one sense things don’t matter (don’t touch this or don’t touch that), but what matters is whether we have died to those things, to all the world’s things, even good and normal things, and that they have died to us. It may be easy relatively to “give up” things that hurt us, but what about things that in themselves are good or very normal, but in an uncrucified believer are dangerous? This is different for each of us, depending on how much the cross has taken from the old man in us. I like the translation Sparks uses – “my interest in this world has been crucified”. In one sense, it is all under water, part of the old creation, all that which is being replaced.

The Lord himself could travel everywhere in this world, and touch many things (He came eating and drinking; even called by some a winebibber), because it had not no spiritual power over Him. He could touch money, any amount of it, or power or pleasure, because He was totally abandoned to the Father’s will and plans. He knew what it represented, the powers in the air behind it all, and that it was all going to be replaced. He was free! And the cross had done that!

As for me, may I never boast about anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Because of that cross, my interest in this world has been crucified, and the world’s interest in me has also died. (Galatians 6:14 NLT)

A truly crucified people are never in danger of the world. It is only when the Cross has not done its work that the world has a place. The world has no place with a crucified man or woman, or a crucified company of believers. The Cross is a great defensive against the world. If you want to keep the world out, put the Cross in its place. If the Cross is truly in its place in fullness, then everything else will come into order. The Cross is the great defensive against the world. The Cross is the great defensive against evil powers. The Cross makes everything safe; it makes everything safe for the Lord.

You see, the Lord wants to commit Himself. He wants to trust Himself to His people, but if the Cross is not there at work, the Lord cannot trust Himself to them. The Lord says, “It is not safe for Me to give Myself there, or I should be involved in their un-crucified condition.” The Cross makes everything safe for the Lord, and the Cross makes everything safe for the Church. If the Cross is really at work in all of us, we can trust one another. It is quite safe to trust yourself to a crucified man or woman.

By T. Austin-Sparks from: The Altar (The Cross) Governs Everything

My response:

All of this describes, in so many ways, why I feel so isolated on this planet, and I would venture a guess that this is true with all of you also. Sparks says put the cross in front of the world, but, in my experience, it was the Lord, once I had initially delivered myself to Him as much as I could, Who placed the cross in front of me. It was the Lord Who ruined me for this country and world. He didn’t ruin the world, since it was already ruined, He ruined me to the world. It seems to me we need to ask the Lord, as with everything else, “Please, Father, put the cross in front of the world for me, for I have no [earthly] power to open my eyes to Your truth about this world.”

I find it very hard to exist in this world, since, evidently, the blinders I once had on have been permanently removed by my Lord and Savior. And now I begin to see as He sees, to sense as He senses, to hear, smell, feel and taste as He does; and these new-to-me heavenly-senses are not always easy to process, to deal with! I am always amazed, and confounded, when I hear the Christian religionist, pagan, or atheist, profess a belief that “THINGS ARE ONLY GOING TO GET BETTER,” when all I can see around me is destruction and death coming.

Yes, “my interest in this world has been crucified,” my interest in this world is broken and dead, or being broken and dying, since this is a life-long process. And yet I know I have pockets of resistance in me. I don’t know what most of them are, but I know they are there, because I am still struggling, Spiritually, still being broken and slain by the will and purpose of my Lord and Father, as will be the case, I believe, until the last day I suck wind;-) on this planet!

Could it be, then, that if we sense we’re failing in all Spiritual things, we sense no purpose or good, in ourselves, for our Lord and others, and we’re even flat (we seem to be unconcerned about our state) that this is exactly where the Lord wants us? Maybe He wants us so broken, so malleable, that we can’t even sense any eternal worth in ourselves? Are we, like Christ, to be poured out as a drink offering on that cross, so that we have no control, no immense awareness of the Lord in us, the hope of glory, the Lord in us the Father sees when He looks at us? Could it be that what we’re struggling with, now, is the residue of man’s religious traditions (that make void the word of God), which we were indoctrinated in and which told us we must do this and/or that, that we must be this and/or that, or we’re nothing to the Lord? Paul said, not looking back, I press on…, could it be that not looking back means not even looking back (or even forward, Spiritually, as it applies to our perception of our Spiritual growth) a second ago?

As with all of you, I have given myself as fully as I can to the Lord, and now He is going to have to take me the rest of the way! I can’t get there! I can’t even get through an hour without feeling ungodly! So, Mark, maybe your flatness or unconcern is not flatness or unconcern at all, but the contentment Paul spoke of, a contentment that I find hard to get to also? Could it be that if the Lord now lives in us that we can trust Him, no matter how much we see the fallen nature that remains in our flesh, to take us the rest of the way?

Mark, you quoted Philippians 1: 6 yesterday: For I am confident of this very thing, that He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus. So, according to Paul, it is the Lord Who will perfect the good work in us, not ourselves! So, if I’m sensing this scripture rightly, then it is the Lord’s responsibility to complete me (us), and not mine (ours)!

Help us, Father (help me) Father, to come to a place of rest in wherever and whatever state, Spiritually, physically, mentally or emotionally, or financially, you have us in, knowing that we belong to You and that we cannot thwart Your will and Purpose for our lives, the very Will and Purpose we desire more than life itself! Amen!

Let us pray for each other, because we all know things are not going to get better or easier!

I shared this for one reason, and one reason only, so that those of you out there, like us, might know that you are not alone on this planet, and that your isolation and pain is for a purpose, an eternal one! We all struggle, at points, with the Life the Lord has given us: a part-temporal and part-eternal life, depending on where our walk is in Him, that is nothing in comparison to the full and perfected Life we will have when this temporary arrangement is over! Let us all hold to this hope, this truth!

“…And You Have No Need For Anyone To Teach You…” (1 John 2: 27)

Is this Guy the Spirit of God? Then why be led by him?

Many true seekers of the Lord and His life, those few chosen out of the many called, are, unfortunately, still sitting quietly by on Sunday mornings while listening to a man or woman (minister, priest, reverend, pastor, etc.) tell them about a religious version, a (non) denominational doctrine, about the Lord. And, in many cases, this religious version is a misleading or even completely false picture of our Lord, His sacrifice, and the life He came to give us:

7So Jesus said to them again, “Truly, truly, I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. 8“All who came before Me are thieves and robbers, but the sheep did not hear them. 9“I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. 10“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I CAME THAT THEY MAY HAVE LIFE, AND HAVE IT ABUNDANTLY. (John 10)

These chosen-out-of-the-many people evidently have not, as of yet, experienced the Spirit saying to them, “Come out from among them. Come out from the deadness of religion and into the life and purpose you have been called to. There is no need, nor has there been, for almost two-thousand years now, for a mere man or woman to teach any other mere man or woman about the Father, Son and Me:”

“As many as are led by the Spirit, these are the sons of God.” (Romans 8:14)

It is the Spirit that will lead us, not a mere man or woman with a degree in knowing about God (theology) or “religious studies”!

But if these folks are the chosen, then they will, sooner or later, follow the leading of the Spirit in them and come out from the deadness of the religion referred to as Christianity. They will come out and be led and taught by the Spirit, since, as Jeremiah and 1 John point out, there is no need for true seekers (the chosen) of the Lord and His life to be led and taught by a mere man or woman:

31“Behold, days are coming,” declares the LORD, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the LORD. 33“But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the LORD, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34“They will NOT TEACH AGAIN, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ FOR THEY WILL ALL KNOW ME, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” DECLARES THE LORD, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.” (Jeremiah 31)

This is an old testament prophecy. The following is from the Apostle John in the new testament:

15Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. 17The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever.

18Children, it is the last hour; and just as you heard that antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have appeared; from this we know that it is the last hour. 19They went out from us, but they were not really of us; for if they had been of us, they would have remained with us; but they went out, so that it would be shown that they all are not of us. 20But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you all know. 21I have not written to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it, and because no lie is of the truth. 22Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son. 23Whoever denies the Son does not have the Father; the one who confesses the Son has the Father also. 24As for you, let that abide in you which you heard from the beginning. If what you heard from the beginning abides in you, you also will abide in the Son and in the Father.

25This is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life.

26These things I have written to you concerning those who are trying to deceive you. 27As for you, the anointing which you received from Him abides in you, AND YOU HAVE NO NEED FOR ANYONE TO TEACH YOU; but as HIS ANOINTING TEACHES YOU ABOUT ALL THINGS, and is true and is not a lie, AND JUST AS IT HAS TAUGHT YOU, you abide in Him.

28Now, little children, abide in Him, so that when He appears, we may have confidence and not shrink away from Him in shame at His coming. 29If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is born of Him. (1 John 2)

Jesus Himself foretold of this truth:

25“These things I have spoken to you while abiding with you. 26“But the Helper, THE HOLY SPIRIT, whom the Father will send in My name, HE WILL TEACH YOU ALL THINGS, and bring to your remembrance all that I said to you. (John 14)

So why do we, if we believe the scriptures to be the inspired Word of God, go to “church” every Sunday morning and listen to the priests, popes, ministers, pastors, reverends, etc? And, based on the Word of God, why would we even take part in these denominations and non-denominations that spawn these contrary-to-the-Word-of-God religious careers? If we thump the bible, then why can’t we read it, believe it, and then act on what it is telling us to do, through the Spirit that indwells us; that is, if we have the Spirit of our Lord?

Christianity is a religion that is divided into over 3000 FACTIONS, which are all at odds with each other. How does this divided religion of man resemble in any way the Body, the Church, the Bride, of Christ described in scripture?

16But I say, walk [BE LED] by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. 17For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the Law. 19Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, FACTIONS, 21envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5)

Factions: 1) A group of persons forming a cohesive, usually contentious minority within a larger group

Does this definition of factions, in any way, shape or form, portray the unity of the Spirit spoken of in other scriptures?

1Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called, 2with all humility and gentleness, with patience, showing tolerance for one another in love, 3BEING DILIGENT TO PRESERVE THE UNITY OF THE SPIRIT IN THE BOND OF PEACE. 4There is ONE BODY and ONE SPIRIT, just as also you were called in ONE HOPE of your calling; 5ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISM, 6ONE GOD AND FATHER OF ALL who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4)

The Word of God states there is ONE SPIRIT, ONE LORD, ONE GOD AND FATHER OF ALL, not 3000 + factions that, over the past 6 or 700 years, have been at odds with each other over man-made and manipulated theology and doctrines. Christianity is a man-made, inspired and manipulated religious farce that smacks our Lord and Savior in the face every day of the week! Where is the unity of the Spirit, the ONENESS IN CHRIST, in the 3000 + denominations and non-denominations that make up the Christian religion. The Christian religion is just like every other religion invented by man: it is for man and his desires, his need for control and power and nothing more.

So why be led by any human being who serves this Godless, dead religious system? When the Word of God tells us there is no longer any need for a man to teach another man about the Lord, why do most of us still refuse to listen and thus continue to be misled Spiritually every Sunday morning and the rest of the week?

10Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be NO DIVISIONS AMONG YOU (FACTIONS), but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment. 11For I have been informed concerning you, my brethren, by Chloe’s people, that there are quarrels among you. 12Now I mean this, that each one of you is saying, “I am of Paul,” and “I of Apollos,” and “I of Cephas,” and “I of Christ.” 13HAS CHRIST BEEN DIVIDED? (1 Corinthians)

The practice of religion is not a Spirit led life in Christ! We must make the decision on whom we will listen to, follow and serve, either man or the Lord. It is our responsibility!

P.S.

Satan will use scripture in order to confuse the chosen, just like he attempted to do with Jesus in the desert. “Do not forsake the gathering together” has nothing at all to do with what most of you call “church.” The gathering, the ecclesia, can be two or more coming together to live the life the Lord came and died to give them. The gathering has nothing at all to do with religion, it has to do with the abundant life that we have been offered, here and now!

19“Again I say to you, that if two of you agree on earth about anything that they may ask, it shall be done for them by My Father who is in heaven. 20“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” (Matthew 18: 19-20)