Perspective

This is from the blog Homeward Bound:

I realize full well you can never have enough toilet paper and burning down an entire CVS Pharmacy is justifiable as long as you can get your hands on some, but the people setting Baltimore ablaze and looting like there’s no tomorrow aren’t starving, running out of water, or fighting over the last remaining vestiges of sustenance. They are doing this to get their hands on toilet paper!

Imagine if you will, a day wherein the gears of the great machine that is commerce grind to a halt. A day wherein the trucks stop delivering their foodstuffs, the trains no longer barrel down the tracks, and the shelves in every store are bare to the bone. Imagine that, and then imagine what some people would be willing to do in order to survive.

As a society we love beating our breast and trumpeting to one and all how civilized we are. We love to look down our noses on the rest of the world and insist upon how we are human beings of the highest caliber, how we would not resort to anything as unseemly as violence if indeed we were to go hungry, but all our bloviating is proven the fallacy it is by the very real fact that people are burning down their own city, and other than the primal joy of destroying something someone else worked hard and long to build, all they’re getting out of it is toilet paper.

One of the biggest lies perpetrated upon the world of men is that for the most part and by an overwhelming majority man is generally good and noble and kind.

Without God the heart of man is a savage thing, capable of atrocity and pointless violence at the drop of a hat. Without God the heart of man does not naturally lean towards kindness but brutality, it does not naturally lean towards friendliness but aggression; it does not naturally lean towards giving but taking.

What we are seeing, and what we will continue to see on a larger and larger scale is the byproduct of the decades old war on God, and the rabid like fervor some have shown in attempting to remove very last vestige of Him from this once God centered nation.

Make no mistake. This is the reality we’ve created, and we’re just seeing the tip of the iceberg we’re about to crash into.

Godlessness begets contempt for human life. Tragically, it is not a static contempt but one that metastasizes and grows to the point that recently some a group of Oxford medical ethicists argued that newborn babies are morally irrelevant, and as such you should be able to kill them even after they are born. You think your newborn’s nose is too crooked? Just throw it out with the trash, and set about making another one. The medical ethicists are completely fine with that.

If this is progress, you can keep it. Thanks but no thanks.

Thinking ourselves wise we have become the fools that fools point to as a cautionary tale. Thinking ourselves wise we have discarded God as though He were nothing more than detritus and fashioned the world in our own image rather than His, only to discover that the world we’ve fashioned is one of savagery and slaughter, of brutality and mercilessness.

You can’t blame this on God anymore. You’ve taken your fate in your hands. You insisted, and even demanded that God remove Himself from the equation. Now all that’s left to do is to reap the whirlwind.

I don’t know, maybe preachers should start preaching on the consequence of action again, just so the drooling sheep still waiting on their mansions and private jets finally understand why the world is coming apart all around them.


With love in Christ,
Michael Boldea Jr.

GUNS UP!

A few days ago, a friend of mine gave me a book to read.  She told me that the Lord wanted me to read this book.  The title is GUNS UP! by Johnnie M. Clark.  I finished reading it yesterday; it is very good.

GUNS UP! is about an eighteen-year-old Marine (Johnnie Clark) and his experience of fighting in the jungles of Vietnam in 1968.  Johnnie Clark received the Silver Star, three Purple Hearts, the Vietnamese Cross of Gallantry with Palm, the Civil Action Combat Medal and the Marine Combat Ribbon.  Here is an excerpt from pages 245-246:

A single Phantom swept over the tree line.  At least three AKs opened up on the low-flying jet.

"How could anybody live through that?" I asked.

Another Phantom streaked across the tree line, strafing it with .20 millimeter cannons.  Then a third Phantom swept low over the trees, releasing two more napalm bombs.  The hungry flames rolled over the area, eating everything they touched.  We ducked down from the blast of the heat.  Still, it made me gasp for air.  Once the wave had passed, I peeked over our tree.  Another burning man ran from the scorching tree line.  I pulled the M60 butt to my shoulder and walked a quick stream of tracers into him.  He dropped to the ground in a smoldering heap.

The Phantoms made strafing passes all around our scattered perimeter, then disappeared high into the blue sky.  The right flank lit up with heavy small-arms fire, popping and cracking like a string of firecrackers.  Suddenly it stopped.  All was quiet now except for the crackling flames to our front.

"Choppers!  We got choppers comin' in.!  Give em' cover!" someone shouted from the center of the perimeter.

Red smoke swirled like crimson fog from the CP.  Two Huey gunships banked sharply around the perimeter.  I fired a short stream of tracers at the smoking tree line.  The Hueys circled twice, firing M60s.  A green and black CH-46 helicopter drifted down to the center of the perimeter.  A large nylon net bulging with boxes of ammo and C-rations swung heavily suspended by a long, taut cable under the double-rotored chopper.  Cracking AKs opened up from the surrounding bush.  The CH-46 hovered over the red smoke, preparing to drop the sorely needed supplies.  The chopper swung in an erratic circle.  I could see the pilot bend over and the copilot leaning over him frantically struggling to right the craft.

An enemy machine gun opened up on our right flank.  Green tracers flying high across the perimeter zeroed in on the spinning helicopter.  At the same time another volley of AK fire opened up from the left flank.

"Guns up!  Guns up!  Guns up!"  The calls came from the right flank.  I grabbed the gun.  Chan grabbed the ammo.  We jumped to our feet and darted toward the right of the perimeter.  A blooper gun opened up on the bush ahead.  It was Sam.  The entire perimeter was in the open.  I could see prone Marines spread on line firing into the bush on the flank.

"Guns up!"

We ran toward the voice.  I could see Swift Eagle, flat on his stomach, pointing at the flash of an enemy gun one hundred meters straight ahead.  The engine of the crippled chopper began palpitating.  I dove to the right of Swift Eagle; an instant later Chan belly-flopped to my right and began feeding the gun.  I opened up on the enemy gun flash.  Orange tracers glanced off a bump in the terrain.  I stood up, firing the M60 from the shoulder like a rifle.  "Get down!" someone shouted from the left.  My orange tracers spiraled in on the enemy flash.  The flash stopped as a pith helmet flew into the air, then floated to the ground like a Frisbee.  I hit the ground.  Sand and rocks kicked up around me from incoming AK fire.

A Conversation with a Vietnam Veteran
100 Decisive Battles by Paul K. Davis
Lance Corporal Chance Phelps, USMC, 1984-2004
The Art of War
Killing Bad Guys

Hitchhiking in the State of Washington

Last month I was hitchhiking east on U.S. 12 near Dayton, Washington.  This guy pulled over in his pickup and gave me a ride all the way to Kooskia, Idaho.  His name was Larry and he was a Christian.  We had very good fellowship.

We were driving close to Clarkston, Washington when he asked me if I needed anything.  I told him that I could use a new pair of pants.  So we went to this store and Larry bought me a pair of paints and some other clothes.  He then took me out to eat and drove me all the way to Kooskia (which was way out of his way).  He gave me a hundred-dollar bill and I was able to get a motel room for the next two nights.  I was very grateful.

After I stayed in Kooskia, I hitchhiked into Montana.

Here is an email from Larry that I received earlier today:

"I called Gene after I saw you.  He didn't know of anyone wanting work, but we had a nice visit.  He told me I should buy your books which I was planning on it anyway.  I've read the paper back [High Plains Drifter] and my son is reading it.  I am going to read the other one soon too.  I picked up a hitch hiker today by Umatilla and took him to Biggs near The Dalles [Oregon].  I gave him $50.00.  He was pretty teary and appreciative.  When I got saved it was a week after I turned 21.  I'm 64 now.  I use to do quite a bit of soul winning back then.  I feel like I dropped the ball today and was supposed to at least explain the plan of salvation to the hiker today.  I asked God to bring some one across his path that doesn't drop the ball.  I really think after spending time with you I have a lot more compassion and maybe I am supposed to stop and smell the coffee instead of going a hundred miles per hour with my business.  I can't put my finger on it, but I think something is up.  I hope to see you again some time. Your friend in Christ.  Larry."

Book Review:  High Plains Drifter

Dead Men's Bones

This is from the blog My Dreams and Visions:

I had a dream just before waking on the morning of 03/26/2015. In the dream I saw the inside of a church. I saw the pews and what one would normally see in a church. Then I saw that the pews were filled with skeletons. There were entire families of nothing but skeletons.  They were just standing there and did not move because they weren’t alive.

The following scriptures come to mind as I am writing this posting.

Mat 23:27-28
27 Woe to you, men learned in the scriptures and Pharisees, actors on the stage of life playing the role of that which you are not, for you are like graves whose plastered coverings have been thoroughly whitewashed, which are of such a nature that on the one hand, the outsides appear beautiful, but on the other hand, their insides are full of dead men’s bones and every uncleanness. 28 In the same manner also, as for you, you on the one hand appear to men, righteous men outwardly, but on the other hand, you are full of the acting of an actor playing the role of that which he is not, and of lawlessness.
(Wuest)

Rev 3:1 
1 And to the messenger of the assembly in Sardis write at once:These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars. I know with absolute clearness your works, that you have a reputation that you are alive. And yet you are dead.
(Wuest)

Several things come to mind here the first being that the building looks good on the outside but is nothing but death on the inside.  Secondly the churches with the reputation of being alive but in all actuality are dead. I think that the word reputation is the key word here as well as it has a lot to do with outward appearances. Churches are very concerned about their reputation and how they are perceived.  It is part of their marketing strategy.  Contrast that with what is said of Jesus.

Phi 2:5-8
The Humbled and Exalted Christ
5 Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, 6 who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, 7 but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. 8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. (NKJVS)

What does Jesus think of us should be our only concern. Let it be heaven’s opinion of us that guides our actions and not the opinions of men.

Glory and Power: Two Sides of the Presence of God

This is from the blog Daily Meditation:

Jeremiah 20:11: But the LORD is with me as a dread warrior; therefore my persecutors will stumble; they will not overcome me. They will be greatly shamed, for they will not succeed. Their eternal dishonor will never be forgotten. (ESV)

The presence of God makes all the difference. Moses told God: if your presence does not go with us, take us not from here (Exodus 33:15).

There are two sides of the presence of God: his glory and power. When David talked about encountering God in the temple, he said it is to see his glory and his power (Psalm 63:1-2). And when Jesus taught the lines of prayer, he ended by saying: thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever and ever Amen (Matthew 6:13).

Glory

When God manifested in the temple in the Old Testament, it was in his glory which make it impossible for the priest to perform their normal duty (1Kings 8:11) as the dedication of the temple built by Solomon, when it was being separated to God’s name, which is the definition of holiness.

The manifestation of the glory is based on divine initiative, so all other initiatives, including human and demonic, must move aside, bow down, and bend over. The glory changes the atmosphere.

The glory makes people fall down. Angels bear the glory of God and when Daniel saw an angel, he fell down as one dead (Daniel 10:15-17). His self-effort was paralysed. His ability to make an effort was shut down in the face of the overwhelming glory of God.

When Jesus said “I am he” when certain soldiers came to arrest him in the Garden of Gethsemane, they fell down, to show that if he does not want to be arrested he will not be arrested (John 18:6).

And the miracles are associated with the glory of God. What only God can do is a manifestation of his glory, it is what brings praise to his name. The glory of God creates changes. It changed the water into wine (John 2:1-11).

Sin is counter the glory of God, that is why when man sinned in the garden, he was stripped of the glory of God and found himself naked (Genesis 3). And the bible says: all have sinned, falling short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Therefore, glory of associated with holiness.

God asked Jacob to take his family to Bethel. Years before he had an encounter with the glory of God in that place and he named it Bethel which means the house of God, which is where his glory manifests (Genesis 35:1-7).

He slept in that place and saw heaven opened and the angels of God moving up and down a ladder that reaches from heaven to the earth (Genesis 28:10-15). All the components of the dreams smack of the glory of God.

Heaven is full of the glory, the ladder connects earth to the glory in heaven, where the glory is generated. The earth has no glory of its own to generate, as the moon does not have its light to shine forth.  The angels in that dream are conveyers of the glory. And in the real sense, Jesus is the ladder as he himself revealed to Nathanael (John 1:45-51). That means without Jesus the glory of heaven will not come fully to the earth, and full angelic presence will not be experienced.

After Jacob returned from the house of Laban and had settled down God said he should go to Bethel, but it is if, and only if, his family will rid themselves of all idols. John wrote in one of his letter that we should keep ourselves from idols (1John 5:21), which are spiritual pollutants that counteract the holiness of God.

Paul wrote about being vessels of honour which actually means vessels of his glory, that whoever purges himself from whatever makes impure will be worthy to be a vessel of honour (2Timothy 2:19-22).

When we are separated to God we are able to manifest his glory in and through our lives. On Mount Sinai when God wanted to manifest his glory visibly in the eyes of the children of Israel, he said they need to clean up (Exodus 19:9-21).

And when the glory of God manifested in the lives of a priest Zechariah and his wife Elizabeth, when they had a child in their old age, the bible recorded that they walked with God blameless (Luke 1:6). And the experience of Enoch is instructive (Genesis 5:21-24).

After walking with God for hundreds of years that bible says that he was not, he ceased to be on earth because God took him, he entered fully the glory of God by the strength of his separation to him. Those who are persecuted for the sake of Christ are said to have the spirit of glory resting on them (1Peter 4:14), because of the sacrifice they have made, they have become living sacrifice. Remember the glory is about holiness.

Power

While we can tap into the glory of God through the path of holiness, the power of God is operationalised through faith. Jesus expended energy teaching the disciples about the need for faith. When he displayed power by casting out devils in the child which some of his disciples found difficult to do, he rebuked them for their lack of faith. He told the boy’s father: everything is possible for him who believes (Mark 9:14-21).

Faith turns on the power tap, it is man’s initiative and the glory is something that God initiates. Power is something man initiatives. Jesus said we will lay hands on the sick and they shall recover (Mark 16:15-18). You needed to take the step of faith to lay that hands to see the power of God manifest in healing.

Jesus was preaching at a house in the bible says that the power of God was present to heal (Luke 5:17-26).

While on earth Jesus walked in the power of God, but the glory of God could not be established in our lives without his holiness established in us as the Holy Spirit comes into us. The glory is more subtle. The bible says God is holy and we should be holy in all manner of conversation; that is about our lifestyle, but Jesus said when we have faith in God we will say to a mountain shift and it would obey us; that is power (Mark 11:22-24).

When power was present at that house where Jesus was preaching, not everyone was able to experience it. The friends of a paralysed man who brought him there experienced the power because through faith they initiated an encounter with Jesus.

The bible says that Jesus saw their faith through their action of breaking through the roof and they experienced the power as their friends rose up and walked.

Many times Jesus will say to people your faith as made you whole. A woman pressed through the crowd to touch Jesus and the twelve years of blood issuing from her ended (Luke 8:43-48). Jesus told her that her faith made her whole.

Her life was haemorrhaging away and she took a step of faith at the risk of her own life. She was brave, the four friends of that paralysed men were brave, and their desire for change, desire to experience the power of God was greater than their fear of what people might say. Their faith overcame their fear and they experienced the power of God.

Faith is the strong desire in the direction of what God can do. It is an unshifting desire, faith is an ongoing conversation between a man and heaven that constantly takes the goods of heaven available on earth.

Conclusion

While there are many overlaps between glory and power, they are also distinct. It takes the power of God to manifests gifts, and they can even manifest without holiness, but not so the glory of God.

His has confused many people, who see the display of the supernatural in the life of those who are empty of the life of holiness. But reading the first letter of Paul to the Corinthian church, will clear things up. They lacked behind in no gift (1Corinthians 1:6-7), but fornication was rampant (1Corinthians 5:1). The miracles can blind the eyes from the need for introspection and caution and internal transformation. So we can have the power without the glory. We can also have the glory without the power; that is if we do not believe for miracles. Jesus was the personification of the glory of the glory of God, the fullness of the Godhead bodily. However, when he was in his home town he did not do many miracles because of unbelief, though he taught the people (Mark 6:1-6). We need a balance, because the kingdom of God is about his power and glory, not just power or just glory.

The Real Mount Sinai in Arabia

Charles Finney - Presence of God Convicts People of Sin while He Sits in a Train Car (55:20 - 56:25)