Collaboration: A Unity in Spirit

Starting soon I will be trying something different with my blog.

A collaboration. A unity in Spirit.

For the first time in 15 years I will be handing over the human deep dive into some of the topics to Rebecca. She is brilliant and a writer also but sees the world through more feminine and compassionate eyes. I'm a brute that just wants to fix things, not necessarily feel them.

My goal writing my posts was always to parlay overarching principles and theology. I've known for a decade that these posts don't always address people's day to day struggles and that some have a hard time relating to what I write. People have PM me to ask for answer to their dilemmas and suffering. Sometimes I don't have that insight. I merely write to show the metanarrative and don't dive down. She said she wants to do this and I agreed it would be a good idea. I believe God is placing the last piece of the puzzle to a blog thats been incomplete for 15 years.

Thanks Rebecca.

The Universal Gift

The Universe is a Divine gift to man. It was designed for the occupation of man (anthropological and teleological arguments for God’s existence logically show this fact). The cosmic home, with all its furnishings, was presented to him. Nature, from its highest manifestations to its lowest, was to minister to his man and need. All things within the universe are valuable from greatest to least. The smallest things in nature are valuable. Who can tell the value of the tree, of the herb, of the grass of the field from the simple observation of a mere seed? Diamonds are not more valuable than these; yet they are the constant and everyday gift of God to man. The Universe or Creation at its most rudimentary and fundamental level is not caprice or chance. It is design.

The universe is increasing, literally. Every day the gift is increasing in value. It becomes more expansive. It is better known, and more thoroughly appreciated. Scientific research is given to man to see the richness of the Creator's gift. Science has shown that since its inception the universe continues to expand and grow. All the gifts of universe are productive; time unfolds their measure and allows sequence and sequential action. Time like the universe itself expands/unwinds in entropy. The things of the universe including the universe itself lends itself to deductive and inductive reasoning, thereby the universe and everything in it discloses their meaning and demonstrates its value. The fact we are able to deduce and induce in a structured manner is...structure...again a design.

The universe was created with purpose. It was not arbitrary. It was intentional and planned. There is a mind behind the creation in the Creator. One of the great objects of creation was a plan to manifest the love of God to humans, which was shortly to be brought into existence after the creation of time, space and matter (Genesis 1:1). The light, the sun, the stars, and the creation of man; all these were representative of God’s compassion towards man. These were designed, not to display not just the mastery of his handiwork but to give man a way out of his own dilemma he would fall into in short order by Genesis 3.

In His wisdom, God desired for the happiness of man a and to teach truth. God walked with man in the Garden just as he did with the Disciples. The world is a great school. It is well supplied with teachers. It will teach an attentive student lessons. All the Divine creation is instructive. It not only is alive itself, but it’s also made to sustain life. Abundant life produces fruit, and fruit has within it the very things it needs to produce more life. Seeds. God created man without means, but it was not His will to preserve him without means. God tells man where he is to find his food both physical and spiritual. 

We must use the creations God has designed for the preservation of our life. He made food for the body, His word for the soul. God has provided all things for the preservation of all life both physical and eternal. Let us learn to trust God for the necessities of life in times of adversity. In adversity faith is drawn into the circle of life also. In this way even faith gives life, eternal life. Any man who has great wisdom understands they must receive their provisions from the hand of God.

God—the Great Artist and Poet—delights in the scenes and objects of nature in which He has exercised His skill and power to create. He revealed to us His own perfect understanding and enjoyment of what he had done in creating the beauty of nature—when He had pronounced it to be very good. But the Creation was formed also with man's enjoyment in mind so that man would glorify God. Everything that is useful to man has some bright and beautiful thing connected with it because it finds its origin in God.

This prior description is now contrasted against the mind of the non-believer. The difference between the way the believer views the universe, and an atheist is profoundly juxtaposed. The atheist sees a dead pointlessness to the universe. It just happened. It had no purpose, it just occurred. An empty nihilistic view of all of reality and why we and it are here. Can the atheist see beauty and recognize it in the universe? Of course they can but they see it as an accident of fate, not an end product of love and divine mind. In the end this mindset is folly.

"In the beginning God." There have always been men who have denied the existence of God. All down through the ages their voices have been heard, and their books have been read, and their arguments have been promulgated or shoved right in our faces. Atheism is the supreme folly of which man is capable. It divests life of all spiritual enjoyment of real nobility of character and degrades almost to the level of the brute by removing or denying acknowledgement of the very One that created it. Denial is a defense mechanism, a tool used to defend one’s mind against something they don’t want to believe. Denial most often is a denial of a truth which then opens the door and allows one to believe a lie.

The atheist must be blind to all the appearances of Creation, for one sincere outlook upon them would demonstrate the mockery of his creed of godlessness. No one of any wisdom or intelligence can look at the complexity of a biological cell, periodic chart or atomic structure and not see design, intent and innate intelligence. To say otherwise is denial or self-delusion. The fool has said in his heart that there is no God.

There are many that even dare articulate this conclusion aloud, screaming it in the faces of those they wish to convert to their view. They either bludgeon them with it or silence their view completely through volume. They do this even while their inner consciousness tells them that what they are saying is so utterly devoid of truth that it is criminally absurd. As with anything that is criminal, it will eventually need to see justice and correction. It will attract the retribution of heaven either in this life or the next. 

Atheism is proven to be absurd on its face by the history of the creation of the world. It would be impossible for a narrative to be clearer or more divinely authenticated than that of the creation. The very existence of things around us is indisputable evidence of its reality. If the history of Creation be a myth, then the world and man must be myths also. But if the universe is a fact, then it follows that this ancient narrative must be true.

Resurrecting Time

I reflect a lot on time. Its passage. Its irredeemable nature. Once its gone its gone. You don't get it back. I think about pacing. Reflect on how I have so little patience because of time's irreversible character. I focus now more than ever on proper use of time.

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2: states, "For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die".

This passage reflects the inevitable cycle of life and death that applies to all people. The pace at which we live those lives is our own. How we chose to live those lives is our own. Pace is life experience over time. Rushed judgment lacks wisdom. The Bible directly warns that rushed, hasty thinking is foolish and leads to poor outcomes. Instead, scripture consistently encourages seeking wisdom through careful thought, patience, and godly counsel. Counsel literally requires a person to stop and consult with God. It requires people to think not react.

James 1:5 If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God…

The pace of life refers to the rate at which changes, events, and activities occur in a given context, whether it's an individual's life, a community, or a culture. A fast pace of life is characterized by rapid change and a high density of experiences, while a slow pace of life emphasizes quality over quantity and a more relaxed rhythm. The former just feels cluttered, intense, overbearing. The latter emanates a vibe, instead of the relentless running down of a clock. The latter also shows an embracing of ebb and flow. Time is still relevant but it is not paramount. A recognition of true life’s, ebb and flow. A heartbeat. Cadence. A breathing in and a breathing out…just as God breathed life into man. Everything created over time in a preordained divine sequence.

Wise decision-making relies on God's guidance, not haste or forcing the pace. Impatience is foolish, while patience is understanding. The Bible contrasts a "hasty spirit" with understanding. Proverbs states that being slow to anger demonstrates great understanding, while a hasty temper is linked to folly. Ecclesiastes also warns against being quick to anger. Intensity focused in a Godly manner is glory to God but forcing the pace faster distorts the scale of life. Incorrect pacing changes the quality. Foreshortening it. Truncating an otherwise ideal condition thereby tainting its quality and outcome. There is an optimal setting for all systems including the pace of our thinking. There is a direct correlation or pace to quality of life. Leave the race to the rats.

The books of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes highlight the negative outcomes of poor pacing and acting without thought, linking impulsive actions to mistakes (Proverbs 19:2), hasty words to foolishness (Ecclesiastes 5:2–3), quick temper to folly (Proverbs 14:29), and hasty work to poverty (Proverbs 21:5). In contrast to rushed thinking, biblical wisdom involves patience and thoughtful reflection. This includes being quick to hear and slow to speak and anger (James 1:19), trusting in God rather than one's own understanding (Proverbs 3:5). 

Instead of rushing or relying solely on personal understanding, the Bible encourages seeking God's guidance and waiting patiently for direction. This involves trusting in the Lord and acknowledging Him to make paths straight. Believers are also encouraged to ask God for wisdom and to pray about concerns rather than being anxious. All of which require additional time. The time a proper pace allows.

So, once you have this time allotted to you through proper management of it…what are you to do with it? Apply your mind to your time. The Bible tells us to redeem the time. What does that mean? It means to make the most of every opportunity. Opportunities are not guarantees. They are not assured in life. The very nature of opportunities is that they are transient and fleeting. They are a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something or not do something. They are gifts of grace from a timeless God giving us precise usable circumstances within time. From a biblical point of view, it means to make the most of the time you have by using it wisely and productively, especially for meaningful or eternal purposes. 

Ephesians 5:16 …making the best use of the time, because the days are evil.

Ephesians passage implies that time is a valuable asset that can be lost if not actively used well. Redeeming time involves making purposeful choices, avoiding distractions, prioritizing your divine purpose, and taking actions in a deliberate planned manner to focus on what truly matters. 

An opportunity seen to fruition is a goal completed in a deliberate planned and paced manner. Without God none of this is possible. Deliberate pacing and planning of our goals recognizes that God establishes our plans and we should rely on His wisdom, not our own. The overarching goal for Christians is a spiritual one, to "…press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus". Pressing towards something is intentionally paced effort. Anything less is misused time that can no longer be redeemed.

Slow and steady (deliberateness) wins the race.

Hebrews 12:1- “…let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us.” The imagery suggests that a faithful, persistent effort is what is needed to finish the course, not a quick start or impulsive spasmic movement.

The concept of plans themselves require time. Time had to exist for our birth and death to happen. Both of which are planned by God. There needed to be time for man to make choices. There had to be time for a Resurrection to happen too...which was God's plan to redeem man. Man requires time to chose that God's plan of Resurrection redeemed man. A slow deliberate unrolling of plan in time. Jesus and salvation foreknown before the foundations of the world slowly and consistently revealed in Scripture. God paced his very self-revelation to man so man could understand.

Memoir of a Theological Meathead: A Long Strange Trip

Some have asked me how I ended up where I'm at. How I have become such a dichotomy or as Green Day said, a walking contradiction. How I survived the insanity and stupor of my childhood and twenties. A 250lb behemoth at nearly 57 years old. Versed in the Bible to an extent I could be a pastor in a church but don't have a church. In job interviews I'm asked how a person with a theology degree ended up as a Quality Engineer/Quality Auditor. Why I've jumped between 15 employers in 38 years. You good folk are about to find out, warts and all. To all who thought they knew me then, I’m no longer that person. I’ve been washed and sanctified in the Resurrection of Christ. To those who know me now, you’ll understand what makes me so dogmatic and why I dig in and use logic and reasoning to shutdown lofty arrogant pretension from educated people. At times I'm not a pretty picture. 

If people were honest, they’d admit their lives haven’t aren't pretty either. We all have things to hide. Skeletons in our closets. I no longer do…my life is an open book for all to peer inside of. I don't care how I am perceived anymore. People that care what other people think of them is for people who are trying to impress others. Simps. Betas. The spineless that will change their theology and worldview for the shifting winds. These people should not be teaching the Bible or talking about God. They're theological liabilities.

I'll state that this isn’t going to be a self-pitying post but it will be brutally honest. It is a general observation of my life that I believe many can relate to. As I approach my 7th decade on this orb, I realize with few exceptions…nothing happened in this life the way I expected. I didn’t have a great childhood. I was pretty badly abused behind my parents back when they were both at work. Beatings, sometimes daily. Who did it wasn't important. My parents were not aware. I was in a form of Stockholm Syndrome. I said nothing and the abuse lasted 5 years until I could take no more and lashed out. In desperation I said something to someone and the nightmare ended. 

The damage it did to my head didn’t end. I learned to internalize it. When I attempted to come forward with it later in life it was trivialized or I was demeaned being told, “It couldn’t have been that bad.” Everyone else’s opinion was that my past didn’t matter, only theirs. I learned to keep to myself. I never realized this would make me a voice in the wilderness like Elijah later in life. Part of the world but not of it. A loner by choice.

I carried scars and hate with me for decades afterward. The people in my teen years seemed to intuitively know this about me and poked at me constantly. I was super sensitive and reacted poorly instead of thinking. Reacted in emotion...which is why I so thoroughly distain the woke reactives. I badly wanted to be part of a group but learned that I was better off a alone. Looking back, I realize it was kids being kids and just doing it for laughs. Had I not been through what I’d been though, I’d have probably laughed too. I was a loud mouth and still am. Then I wouldn’t back it up. Now, I most certainly will. My fiancé understands this as we are similar in  a rebellious way. She with the tattoos and Harley. Me with the gym, 250lbs of muscle and a chip still sometimes on my shoulder.

Failure to address the mistreatments in my youth came out in a desire to be the largest and strongest. It came out in a desire to destroy my destroyers. In this way I became the evil I hated. This led to a decade in my twenties of constant conflict, fighting, addiction to alcohol, addiction to substances, addiction to sex, addiction to anything that was addictive. Anything that could be done, I did to self-destructive extremes dodging death a couple of times along the way. This mindset went to other less destructive things too. I was a powerlifter, a bodybuilder, a bouncer…a force to be reckoned with. All the frustration, anger and disillusionment were well channeled for a time. 

If things were in my way I tried to walk around them and if I couldn’t I was a bulldozer. I leaned my head down into you until you relented or I got you to the ground. I wasn’t a great fighter as most will attest but I would exhaust you. I was relentless. Today they call it ground and pound. Intensity for intensity’s sake. People drifted in and out of my life. They sloughed off of me like dead skin. I just wasn’t a good person for 20 years. At best a backslidden Christian. At worst a sinner with a straight path for Hell.

This was an end in itself and I knew it so by my early 30s I turned to family and marriage and children. Having not addressed long dormant issues the marriage ended within a decade and floundered for another 4 or 5 until I gave up and left. I don’t blame her. She had given up. I left more towards the end because I realized I needed to change for my sons. I had already begun to own my own baggage and started on a path to seek out God again and rectify wrongs where I could. After 23 years as a draftsman, quality inspector and a few other vocations I settled into a career as quality manager at Mack Trucks. I lasted there 10 years and was laid off in 2009. Towards the end of my 30s and tenure at Mack Trucks, God dramatically reentered my life in supernatural ways.

In the beginning of reemergence I was challenged by a paster named Randy Johnson to read my Bible...so I did only to prove him, and the Bible wrong. Then the world stopped turning because the more I read it the more I realized, not only couldn’t I prove it wrong. The deeper I went into it, the more internally coherent it became. This was an inflection point for me mentally and spiritually. I asked myself if there really was something more to the ‘God stuff’ I had been exposed to my whole life. Turns out…there was. Volumes of things. I now have a library of thousands of books that range from the 18^th century to recent publisher’s releases. I now publish my own work like you’re reading now.

I went back to school due to encouragement from family and church and in 2013 basically graduated from what I would consider seminary. I quickly realized that few churches wanted a super-intense, ex-addict in a pulpit. No one really wanted me in their churches because I was what the theologians call a New Testament prophet. 

Please understand I didn't label myself this. Everyone around me that understood their Bible like my professors, scholars, pastors ended up telling me this. I fought this label for years because I viewed it as absurd. I believed the office of prophet died with the Apostles, John the Baptist and the Old Testament. Then I learned that’s not what they meant.

I'm a person that speaks unsavory truths to a world that doesn’t want to hear them. I do it fearlessly and don’t do it politely either. I try to have grace and love, but I quickly become indignant when immoral liars with twisted words lie to the masses and further corrupt the world. Conversely, I don’t always get it right and I am usually called on it by others. I correct myself, I learn, I move on. Most often, unfortunately, I get things correct. 

Many times, I am intolerable to be around because every single time I see injustice or God being mocked the old pieces of me come out and I am on the hunt to end it. No more Stockholm Syndrome. I am not a Christian doormat. Even my own friends have told me that when I am in a room the environment shapes around me, not me around it. It is another manifestation of the prophetic office. It has happened with ten people in Bible study and in congregations of over a thousand people. When I speak from the Bible the words take on their own life and I am exhausted at the end of the sermon. Having this responsibility is heavy. Heavier than any of the weights I've lifted.

I realized the world pays for what it values and few value the word of God. Pastoring and tending of a flock doesn’t pay. The world is cheap and Christians are some of the worst tightwads the world has produced. They speak of faith until it hits their wallets. So…I returned to Quality Engineering as it so closely resembles the Mosaic law and a desire to correct behavior to make humanity’s behavior better. I realized that the Bible and Quality are synonymous. They both seek to correct errant behaviors.

I didn’t foresee any of these things about myself. The irony being that when you say the word prophet people just assume that the prophet foretells or forespeaks the future. That was the Old Testament prophet. I don’t foretell anything. I use the wisdom of Scripture and compare it to the current culture and world (as messed up as it is) and make intuitive observations about it. Many have misconstrued some of my ability to state some things before they happen as some form of prophecy. Nonsense. Some have been caught off-guard with the accuracy of some of my statements. It is just commonsense to me. I look at Scripture, see the modern scenario and draw correlations. Not forthtelling…more like, past-telling or past-seeing. I study history and human behaviors and draw obvious conclusions. It astounds me how prone humanity is to repeat itself. As shown in the examples of Scripture, it only takes a generation for a people to forget the past. We see the same today.

In conclusion, my life has been a long and winding road. Constantly moving forward. Changing, adapting and being what I believe God wants me to be. My kids turned out okay. For this I am glad. They understand their dad now and I have tried to help them navigate and avoid pitfalls that befell me. I have raised them as men and men they’ve become. One is studying Criminal Justice. My other son is working towards a level 3 welding certification. I’m proud of the men they’ve become. Men’s men. 

I pray their lives aren’t as unpredictable and arduous as mine has been at times. Then again, the life I have lived to this point has tempered me and made me what I am. An unrelenting advocate for the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

What have I taken away from all this? Life is short and fleeting. Enjoy it. Youth is here then gone like a vesper. I've seen peak health and I've seen disease. I've seen goodness and I've seen evil. I've seen most of these within myself. I've seen people born and I've seen people die. The real question is what did you do when you were here? Did you bring good into the world? Did you get back up when you got knocked down or did life beat you?

The Grateful Dead were right, it's been a long strange trip and it’s not over yet. Not all who wander are lost.

As Robert Frost said years ag0 in 1916: 

Somewhere ages and ages hence: Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.

The Doctrine of the Void

Genesis 1:2 ~ "And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was over the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters."

In beginning, this was true of the world/cosmos of matter or the universe at-large. The earth was at the time of this verse in a state of utter desolation and dislocation. It was without order. It was absent operational instructions. It was devoid of assembly instructions. Without, absent, devoid…all negations or cancellations of things that ‘are’ now (we see echoes of today’s culture even here at the earliest moments of reality). At this point we are standing in a location of inflection. The creation can easily remain this way or effort/ energy can be applied to improve its condition towards stability and harmony. God will obviously apply this effort and continue creation but realize that this is the state of null, cancelled or voided order. At its simplest. A void of chaos.

The Universe/Creation and Earth was without its equipment and utilities so to speak. There was no human being to gaze upon its chaos. There was not a voice to break its silence. There were no animals to roam amidst its disorder. There were no trees, or flowers to relieve its barrenness. The earth was desolate. At times, it is like the inside of an ill man’s mind.

I believe the same can be said of the world of mind where there is no God. There are many minds in the universe whose intellectual, philosophical or psychological condition would be fitly described by the language of s this verse. They are desolate. They are not peopled with great thoughts. They are not animated by great and noble convictions. They are destitute of knowledge.

The intended instruction and structure of the godless mind is absent God and hisprinciples. The words " Let there be light" has not been heard within their souls (Genesis 1:3). Darkness is upon, the face of their vertigo inducing depths of soullessness. They look upon the light, the organization of the world uncomprehendingly. Not only is this true of the mind of these godless but also their souls. How many are there in the universe—in your town—whose moral condition is portrayed by the language of this verse? Absent God their soullacks architecture. God designed that it should be based on His elevated principles, animated by lofty motives, and inspired by great hopes; but instead of this it is based on a morass of formlessness.

The lack of structure breeds violence. They lash out in confusion that is frequently animated by the delusion caused by the inherent instability of their internal chaos. Their mindsshould be occupied with divine pursuits. Instead, they’re busy with the transient matters of pronouns, gender confusion, making the illegal legal, definition of words. Instead of being enraptured with visions ofeternity, they are spellbound by sin.

Yet, even in this state they are immortal as all will have a Resurrection body for salvation of judgment. Therefore, their chaos is not irretrievable just as the condition of Genesis 1:2. The chaos and confusion must not be despised. We must have sympathy for this condition because we were once in the same dizzying position. The earth was without form and void; but now it is useful and beautiful. It opens realms of knowledge to the scientific investigator. It discloses beauties that kindle the genius of the artist. It manifests a fertility most welcome to the farmer. There is beauty in the fallen and broken. How? Because God can redeem and wishes that none perish. The world was created from chaos into order for among other purposes, pulling people out of the chaos into a world of order, law and structure.

So, what was the inflection point? Where did the structure, order, intelligence and life come from? It was the gift from God. It was the result of the Spirit's hovering over the darkness and formlessness. It was God acting through the power of His word through His son (Hebrews 1:1-3).

The same can be said of the inner world of the minds of the godless. The chaos, confusion and violence of the human mind is turned into order, light, and intellectual completion, by the work of the Spirit. People can learn. Pursue information which, itself is a form of structure and order. The God given mind was made to pursue of information (specifically of God), and he has opportunity for mental reconditioning. It can heal just as the soul can. Where should that education come from? They are free gifts of God. The pathsof the human mind are under the protectionof the Spirit in a Godly man and are available to a man who seeks God.

The brooding of the Spirit over the darkest human mind, and the voice of God cuttinginto that disorienting abyss will produce light, and, ultimately, the highest forms of thought. The glory of God. Stated more simply God’s voice or His words impart life cutting through the formlessness pushing out the darkness of the void. God is not a god of disorder, but of peace. The godless mind is disordered, another symptom of the demonic. God can bring peace to even the most chaotic, troubled mind.

A man may have much knowledge and yet still be the victim of immense chaos. God not only gives light but also the environment for development and growth into a complete and orderly mental world and the same is true of the soul. The chaos of the soul of man can only be restored by the Holy Spirit. God will create light. He will restore order. He will cause the soul toshine out so that others will see it and be drawn like a moth to flame. God can turn even the chaos into order and light.

What we see exposed when we compare the thinking of the modern godless world today in relation to Genesis 1:2 is a desire by the world system to return to the chaos of the universe before God created, order, form and substance. They desire cancellation or unmaking of that which is because it undoes God’s work. Taking away the ‘good’ and ‘very good’ of Creation. They want to cancel God.

Cancellation or negation is just another manifestation of the doctrine of the Void and petty kings of chaos. Emperors that have dominion of nothing. A nihilistic existence has no purpose because that purpose or order has been stripped by removing the divine. Here we see the root laid bare of the godless and the answer to the conundrum. The godless exist but there is no import or reason in their minds for existence…they justare. Godless biological machines. That’s the lie that parallels the truth another close satanic counterfeit. Without God, they are just godless biological machines. With God they are instilled with value. God gives us our value through His unconditional love and the intrinsic worth we hold as His creations.

That is why the world so desperately wants to cancel God and Gospel from the minds of the people even though the world so desperately needs that knowledge of God. Without God there is no value instilled in them. They and their thoughts are just a result of time and circumstance and are nothing special… just existenceakin to dead men. This is not a doctrine from God. This is a twisting of the doctrines of grace. this is the doctrine of the demonic. If it was up to the godless the Bible would’ve stopped at Genesis 1:2. There would be no Bible. It would’ve been pulled back into the void. But it’s not up to them, is it? It’s up to God…and thanks to Him, there is so much more. Infinitely more.People need only follow the orderly way out using the light God shines into a dark chaotic soul.The same light he shone in the beginning. His Son.

By Demons Be Driven

Well, since many others are not saying it and most media minus a few alternative exceptions are already dumping the story from their feeds I state the following about the horrid events of the last few days. 

This is not going to sit well with people, even the more hearty of Christians. The most recent slaughter of Christian children forced my hand…again. What I say is of course going to be construed as being a hate-filled transphobic intolerant rhetoric. My words will be considered a hate-filled screed. My reaction to that is…get a spine and see reality. A majority of the world is groping for answers as if blind and the answers are as clear as the day is long. I mean the killer even made the statements that he was, "...tired of being trans" and; wished he "never brain-washed" himself.

To start, I will state that not every action construed as evil or is driven by demons. Sometimes messed up people do serious atrocious things in their own sin. To be clear though, this shooter was clear demonically driven and the evidences for that fact are manifest. A literally listed the characteristics of demons the day before the shooting in this blog post linked below. Some parallels are actually eerily accurate.

The Things All Should Know About the Demonic

The monstrous transgender killer wasn't a Trump supporter, the killer wasn't straight. Frankly, I’m still not even clear if the killer was gay. In our world of identity politics the only thing the media is actually reporting is that he was transgender which is not becoming a synonym for confused. The killer wasn't a conservative. The killer hated Trump. Let’s be honest. It hated pretty much all of us. What have we learned from the legacy media about this monster? We’ve learned more about the Progressive left and the media itself rather than the creature that did the killing. We’ve now learned that there's nothing that the left won't do to try and weaponize one of these shootings. They do wall-to-wall coverage for days and only blame it on the gun. By next week these two murdered children, a church shooting and a manifesto filled with anti-Christian hate will be pushed aside because it's not newsworthy enough. The media can't use it for their ideology. So they're just going to let it go. It will be ignored in a callous heartless manner. The way the media treats this is itself, driven by the hordes of demons. The media isn’t just the propaganda arm of the godless progressives, it is the speaker box for the demonic itself. They two are essentially synonymous.

There's a reason that in the last 10 or so years, a majority of these mass shootings have been committed by mentally ill transgender people. Their very existence goes against God. They are an affront to God and they even know this as evidenced by the incoherent murderous ramblings of this shooter. They are not the way God created man and woman. This lunatic may have been born in God’s image and may still have a vestige of that image in him but evil has so sorely twisted and warped what is left that is a contortion of its once former reality. It is God’s image run through a circus mirror and a meat grinder. It is not ironic that when this shooter drew a picture of himself in the mirror, what stared back at him was a demonic distortion.

Not only does this person’s mind and behavior go directly against God and morality it goes against science and common sense. You can't change your gender even though it was allowed and in some cases encouraged by people around the monster. The shooter literally had the hormones of two sexes running through his system. He was hormonally short circuiting I would suggest. This of course allows and opening and a gateway for nefarious third party actors to enter. This human deviation’s parents, his educators, those progressive leaders on the local and national scale and the doctors giving him drugs and the surgeries are all to blame. It is you who have blood on your hands. Your godless agenda has reaped the whirlwind. You created a demonic godless monster but do not want to take responsibility for it.

But again, I would say it all started with push away from God and faith by the radicals. That is the main reason we're seeing these mentally disturbed monsters/people go nuts. The secondary blame should be put on those that know these mutilations of people into androgynous characters of themselves through surgery, chemicals and hormones and do nothing. All talk no action, no leadership, especially no Godly leadership anyway. There are far too many weak, spineless and godless leaders in positions of power in education, companies and government.

Finally, to add insult to injury the demonic mindset in the whacked out media not only reaffirms this fact, it encourages it. After the shooting they stand in defiance of God mocking and demeaning prayer in the face of evil. Asking stupid rhetorical questions about why someone would pray. They shout, “It’s pointless and stupid because it can’t stop the bullets!” Only man through laws that illegalize the weapon/medium of destruction can this be stopped. It effect they are saying, there is no God, we are god. It is all pure hubris and spitting in the face of the Almighty. Scripture told us what happens to a people and a nation who do this. Those nations no longer technically exist. This shooting is sadly, just another sign of the times.

The Fragments of Eden

[For My Beloved Rebecca]

There has been much speculation as to the location of the Garden of Eden but most of it is in vain. It is impossible to ascertain its true site. Just as it is impossible to definitively identify the exact site of the Nativity, Golgotha or Christ’s tomb even though many will claim they have like the Catholic Church. The whole point is that these are issues of faith not geography and sight. Right within the text of Genesis we see that any vestige of Eden was probably swept away by the Noahic flood. This is of little importance though in comparison with the higher and more sincere moral truths that the garden represents. In this garden provision was made for the contentment of humanity. This is evident from the description of the garden found in Genesis’ verses. We know unequivocally the garden was beautiful. There was planted in it "every tree that is pleasant to the sight." Beautiful scenery does much to warm and comfort people. To gaze upon natures beauty people will travel to the ends of the earth. I flew across America just to see the Grand Canyon.

The garden was fruitful. "…and good for food." Even within the beauty in nature, there were also the needs and requirements of people integrated in. The material beauty by which Adam was surrounded was only the visual portion of its blessing. The garden was well watered, “and a river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted and became into four heads." The teaching of this garden is, that God intended people to enjoy a happy life. God did not design people so that they should be withdrawn or shut up in a closet, but that they should wander amid the beautiful air of nature. He did not design that people should lead a miserable and sad life, but that they should be happy. It stands to reason that some of people’s joy should be inspired by all that was beautiful and morally good. In this imagery of pre-Fall life, we have God's ideal of life, a pattern for our own. It obviously didn’t last and today is often twisted or ignored.

The garden was made with provisions for the occupation or work by people. "… the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it." Work is the law of humanity's being. Work is a divine ordination. God put Adam (then Eve) to it. Adam and Eve were the first practicers of labor after God. They was merely emulating what God did in the creation…action or effort with purpose and a goal in mind. Work or labor specifically. A person's ideal of life has nothing to do with being "independent" as it is called. We need to labor and to be efficient and often this needs to be done with others communally. There is no fierce independent American spirit. This is a myth created about the American people. Our strength isn’t in our individuality; it’s in our unity just like any other organization. There are good ideas and functional contributions from individuals, but more synergy comes from groups and cooperation as shown by the Triune Godhead.

Work is compatible with the most ideal existence. It is a promoter of dignity; a willingness to perform it, is a vestige of God’s character imprinted on our soul. People tell us that work is the result of the Fall. This is not true. Adam and Eve worked before he fell, but free from fatigue or pain. The element of pain which has been infused into work is the result of the Fall. People must work because in this endeavor a person most accurately mirrors God. A person should be prompted to it by natural instincts because they are made in God’s image. We are rewarded in our labor by successful results and the gratification of completion that toiling to towards a goal gives. We are rewarded after it by an approving conscience. Labor should be sensible and purposeful, not movement for movements sake. Work should be practical. Adam and Eve were to dress the garden. It is person’s work to develop and make God's creation as productive and beautiful as possible. God created and gave humanity dominion and power over it to shape it towards some God glorifying purpose.

Some people are prone to plans and speculation never putting thoughts into actions. Planning first is smart but it would be far better to engage in a chosen labor as soon as possible. The world needs practical workers not theorists and writers of textbooks. As the adage goes, textbook learning and the school of hard knocks are two dramatically different things. Some people would undertake great things if they would just start but instead freeze in fear of failure or waiting for the right time. Sometimes the right time is now. It is stated in 2 Timothy 1:7 ~ “…for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. ” These characteristics in 2 Timothy are given to allow us to complete our labors properly. The world is full of good people who would be great workers if they would just begin to undertake little tasks first. You usually don’t start at the top, you need to often enter at the ground floor and walk all the steps to reach the top. Climbing a mountain starts with the first step at the base.

I work a white-collar job. Although there is nothing wrong with white collar work, my preference is to often engage in physical labor. This is evidenced by a daily workout regime that includes biking for the last 50 years or lifting weights for 42 years. I feel that if you work outside, it enables you to get plenty of fresh air and ground yourself. It will make you resolute in task and healthy. It would be much better for the health of the world if less people were engaged or cloistered in offices, and more in the broad fields under sunshine. I have long joked that every child should spend a summer on the back of a hay wagon to understand what real labor is.

Pray deeply about your course in life. What your vocation should be. It is a pivotal decision that will set you on a course and will affect you the rest of your life. A man who lets God put him to his trade, is likely to be successful. While we’re talking about praying, we should also transition right to the idea that a person’s trade/work is the benediction of a person’s being. Whatever your labor is, whether it be vocational (job) or avocational (weightlifting, biking) …it is a holy sacred prayer to God in obedience to his example. Work is often hard, but work makes people fulfilled and capable. No woman who wishes to be a mother looks for a man who is lazy or a deadbeat…at least not a woman of wisdom. If labor is fulfilling, than laziness and indolence is misery and breeds apathy and boredom. As they say, “Idleness is the Devil’s playground.” Idleness is associated with sin since it allows one to engage in destructive behaviors and is seen as a lack of purpose. It is a fact that Satan approached Eve, then Adam in Eden when they were idle and were not engaged in labor.

Work occupies our time towards the right ends. It keeps us from mischief. It supplies our earthly and spiritual wants. Writ large it enriches society. Humans were created not to just do as they please in this world. God placed them under moral restrictions including work which are for their welfare. Yet God also allows the ability to set work aside. Labor in the garden transcended the Fall. It is an element of the pre-Fall condition that survived the damage caused by the Fall. Labor changed its form and effects but not necessarily its purpose. As stated earlier, the labor now induces pain and discomfort to us. Yet those effects are only temporary, and we are still rewarded for our toil. Additionally, we are not commanded to work incessantly either. We are also to rest. The Sabbath was set aside for this purpose. Jesus said, “The Sabbath was made for man, not man for the Sabbath.”

Many things were corrupted by the Fall but the glory and signature of God’s character still infuse things like labor and nature. We cannot work as perfectly as God did or even Adam did in the Garden but the fact that we are allowed to work at all to attempt to restore small pockets and pieces of the Garden (Kingdom) is a blessing of grace itself. That makes labor a gift. By working we can recapture some of the original pre-Fall creation. Your work doesn't define you...but the results of your work do. Strive to acheive a completed work and it is a reflection of God's image in you and of things past...that can be again.

Perhaps that is why when we plant our gardens or do our works, we are still rewarded with the beauty of blooms of flowers, beloved offspring, appetizing fruit or abundant life. In emulating God in labor in all of our figurative gardens, we recapture pieces of Eden. In recapturing fragments of Eden, we manifest glimpses of the Kingdom to come…here in the world now.

A Man Needs To Know His Limitations

My last few posts have been about knowing when to do something and when not to. They are addressing limitations starting to overtake me as I inch closer to my latter days. I am learning to pace or selectively address problems. More and more I have found myself detached from what is going on in the news. Its is the same old same old. Nothing is changing. The turmoil and chaos increases daily. It’s too much for one soul to digest and not be corrupted by it. Its like radiation, I regulate my exposure time as an act of survival and longevity. We are told to be in the world but not of it. I have always tried to stay engaged with recent events so that there is at least that touchstone to relate to people with. We’re all affected by it one way or another and the destructive power is now amplified by electronics everywhere.

One needs to check out intermittently or they will burn out. As my sons like to say, “I need to check myself before I wreck myself.” A human mind wasn’t meant to be engaged like this constantly. TikTok, YouTube, Snapchat, X, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, etc. The cacophony of visual and mental noise is maddening. The constant assault on the senses can morally break a mind. Moses knew this when he begged God to either lift his burden or kill him when the petulant Israelites constantly complained, and God struck them with fire.

Numbers 11:11-15 ~ Moses said to the Lord, “Why have you dealt ill with your servant? And why have I not found favor in your sight, that you lay the burden of all this people on me? Did I conceive all this people? Did I give them birth, that you should say to me, ‘Carry them in your bosom, as a nurse carries a nursing child,’ to the land that you swore to give their fathers? 13 Where am I to get meat to give to all this people? For they weep before me and say, ‘Give us meat, that we may eat.’ I am not able to carry all this people alone; the burden is too heavy for me. 15 If you will treat me like this, kill me at once, if I find favor in your sight, that I may not see my wretchedness.”

A similar scenario of Moses being overwhelmed was when he was judging the tribes of Israel day and night without reprieve.

Exodus 18:13-18The next day Moses took his seat to serve as judge for the people, and they stood around him from morning till evening. When his father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, “What is this you are doing for the people? Why do you alone sit as judge, while all these people stand around you from morning till evening?” Moses answered him, “Because the people come to me to seek God’s will. Whenever they have a dispute, it is brought to me, and I decide between the parties and inform them of God’s decrees and instructions.”Moses’ father-in-law replied, “What you are doing is not good. You and these people who come to you will only wear yourselves out. The work is too heavy for you; you cannot handle it alone.

Jethro knew that Moses was heading towards burnout or a nervous breakdown. Moses is advised to step away. Back up and let others judge. Delegate some of the work and quiet his mind. Essentially, he needed to ‘turn off’ the chatter. Only the more difficult and troublesome issues were brought to Moses. Here we see that not every battle needs to be waged by one man. In other words, everything doesn’t need to be done by you. This is an onus no man should be responsible for nor are they capable of it. It literally is the adage; you need to pick and choose your battles. A man needs to know his limitations.

As I age, like Moses did this is becoming more obvious. I don’t have the time or the energy to do everything for everybody. I need to prioritize. I need to do a mental triage and go through the process of determining the most important people or things from amongst a large number that require attention. Many come to me for help for many things. As a friend and ffamily member and as a writer and theologian, I don’t just pick the low hanging fruit or moral issues when choose a task. I attempt to tackle the more cumbersome and troubling issues and break them down into digestible portions for people. I sit and spend the time doing the thinking or work that many don’t want to do or don’t have the ability to. I only address the lesser issues when I anticipate that will fester into unwieldy monsters.

This means that at a spiritual level I need discern what can be addressed by others while I defend or address the more complex and dangerous issues facing Christians or morality in general. Some of my tasks and writing are plain and straightforward while others are backbreaking. Part of this is my role as a New Testament prophetic voice. I need to know how to elucidate modern dilemmas in Biblical language, metaphor and similes that people can understand. Its what I was made to do. To be able to do my God-given task effectively I need to know what is demonic and distraction pulling me from the most pressing problems. These are tactics often used in battle, divide and conquer and overwhelming force. Division and Mental Blitzkrieg.

The passages from Exodus and Numbers have a lot to tell us about how to handle modern multiplicity of task, overstimulation (over-stimming) and the assault on our minds.

Firstly, dealing with every single detail of a circumstance, some of which are insignificant distracts from the primary or overarching tasks that need attention. The essentials get lost in the minutia. You foolishly sacrifice energy and time sorely needed elsewhere. You lose the forest within the trees getting ensnared in the vines and tangled undergrowth.

Secondly, it underutilizes God’s other resources. Farms are not run by one farmhand. There are many hands applied when planting or harvesting a field. Not every task needs to be done by me, there are others just as capable or completing work. Besides, in the counsel of many there is wisdom. Time is valuable and is not unlimited in this life. It needs to be used judiciously.

Lastly, good leaders of men educate people to do the same work. Modern business calls it cross training. The adage of the fishermen is apropos here. Give a man a fish he eats for a day, teach a man to fish he eats for a lifetime and then can teach others the same skill. Instead of one fisherman and nine hungry men, you have ten fishermen that can feed a hundred people. A better use of time is to teach those you intend to delegate work to. In this way the burdens you carry both physical and mental become public or communal. It is easier for ten men to carry a boulder than it is for one man to strain and injure his back. By giving tasks to other people, you make them become responsible contributors. Therefore, they have ownership in successes and shared responsibilities for failure which tends to prevent blame shifting.

As for the other distractions like electronics…turn them off. Put your phone down. Put your tablet down. Shut the lids of your computers and Chrome books. Go outside. Take a walk. Ride a bike. Go out and do neighborly things like talk to your neighbor. Engage with people face to face. If you’re around too many people too often, find a reprieve or refuge. Make a place to go. For me, it’s on a mountain bike trail, in my home gym or in my study reading or writing.

You need the time to decompress. Things held under stresses, tension or under pressure eventually fail…often catastrophically. Remember, the things in your head don’t need to be that cluttered or confusing. If they are its because you are either letting too much in or someone or something has infiltrated.

Finally, a note from Paul in the New Testament showing us exactly what is at hand when the world assaults our minds which it does routinely and effectively. The strongholds mentioned are bad or demonic ideas that have infiltrated and taken up residence in our heads, hence the words arguments, pretension and thoughts. We need to allow God in to keep the overwhelming evil of the world out. All of your battles mental and physical

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 ~ For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.