To all the bond-servants of the Lord.

The war has begun. Remember, The Lord (Lord of lords, King of kings, the One True God) is All Powerful, Most powerful. There is no one more powerful than He. Persist to the end, "Keep The Faith". How appropriate; the name of this blog given to me by The Lord. Everything about this blog is of The Lord's. This will be difficult but He will give us strength.

6/30/2016 - I wanted to make something clear here. God will accomplish His work.
Our part of this fight is not by the use of weapons. Jesus himself rebuked Peter for drawing and using his sword on the night that He was betrayed. The use of force is not what Jesus teaches. There is no need of weapons when God is on our side. Our fight is to keep believing in the One True God and in the One He sent, the Lord Jesus Christ. Our fight too is speaking out boldly when we see something that goes against God's truths (His real truths) and as a voice for the weak.It is also doing good works showing others the power of the Lord and how much He cares for all people.
7/1/2016 - I'm not sure but I think Satan may have changed his tactics with me. Our part in all of this is Faith and Obedience. The Lord will take care of the rest. Jesus said that we shouldn't even worry before hand what we will say when we are taken before rulers, He will give us the words at that time. If our faith can grow, then the Lord can do anything for us, deliver us from fiery furnaces or from the mouths of lions. Each thing that He does will grow our faith even more.

Revelation 18Common English Bible (CEB)

Babylon’s fall

18 After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was filled with light because of his glory.2 He called out with a loud voice, saying, “Fallen, fallen is Babylon the great! She has become a home for demons and a lair for every unclean spirit. She is a lair for every unclean bird, and a lair for every unclean and disgusting beast 3 because all the nations have fallen[a] due to the wine of her lustful passion. The kings of the earth committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth became rich from the power of her loose and extravagant ways.”

4 Then I heard another voice from heaven say, “Come out of her, my people, so that you don’t take part in her sins and don’t receive any of her plagues. 5 Her sins have piled up as high as heaven, and God remembered her unjust acts. 6 Give her what she has given to others. Give her back twice as much for what she has done. In the cup that she has poured, pour her twice as much. 7 To the extent that she glorified herself and indulged her loose and extravagant ways, give her pain and grief. In her heart she says, ‘I sit like a queen! I’m not a widow. I’ll never see grief.’ 8 This is why her plagues will come in a single day—deadly disease, grief, and hunger. She will be consumed by fire because the Lord God who judges her is powerful.

9 “The kings of the earth, who committed sexual immorality with her and shared her loose and extravagant ways, will weep and mourn over her when they see the smoke from her burning. 10 They will stand a long way off because they are afraid of the pain she suffers, and they will say, ‘Oh, the horror! Babylon, you great city, you powerful city! In a single hour your judgment has come.’

11 “The merchants of the earth will weep and mourn over her, for no one buys their cargoes anymore— 12 cargoes of gold, silver, jewels, and pearls; fine linen, purple, silk, and scarlet; all those things made of scented wood, ivory, fine wood, bronze, iron, and marble; 13 cinnamon, incense, fragrant ointment, and frankincense; wine, oil, fine flour, and wheat; cattle, sheep, horses, and carriages; and slaves, even human lives. 14 ‘The fruit your whole being craved has gone from you. All your glitter and glamour are lost to you, never ever to be found again.’

15 “The merchants who sold these things, and got so rich by her, will stand a long way off because they fear the pain she suffers. They will weep and mourn, and say, 16 ‘Oh, the horror! The great city that wore fine linen, purple, and scarlet, who glittered with gold, jewels, and pearls— 17 in just one hour such great wealth was destroyed.’

“Every sea captain, every seafarer, sailors, and all who make their living on the sea stood a long way off. 18 They cried out as they saw the smoke from her burning and said, ‘What city was ever like the great city?’19 They threw dust on their heads, and they cried out, weeping and mourning. They said, ‘Oh, the horror! The great city, where all who have ships at sea became so rich by her prosperity—in just one hour she was destroyed. 20 Rejoice over her, heaven—you saints, apostles, and prophets—because God has condemned her as she condemned you.’”

21 Then a powerful angel picked up a stone that was like a huge millstone and threw it into the sea, saying, “With such violent force the great city of Babylon will be thrown down, and it won’t be found anymore. 22 The sound of harpists and musicians, of pipers and trumpeters, will never be heard among you again. No craftsman of any kind will ever be found among you again. The sound of the hand mill will never be heard among you again. 23 The light of a lamp will never shine among you again. The sound of a bridegroom and bride will never be heard among you again because your merchants ran the world, because all the nations were deceived by the spell you cast, and because 24 the blood of prophets, of saints, and of all who have been slaughtered on the earth was found among you.”[b]

Nuclear war

I've been trying to figure something out. It appears to me that Satan is taking a big interest in our elections here in the United States. On Facebook, I see a lot of effort to get us to only see how the Democrats are taking away our money and our guns. This certainly is taking our minds off of nuclear war. Would Satan want us to go into a nuclear war and if so what would he have to gain by it?

Maybe this is his last ditch effort to keep us from believing in the One True God. Think about it. If it does happen, won't we think that there can't be a god because he didn't prevent it from happening?

I don't know if Satan has thought this through though, if this indeed is what his plans are. If the world were to go into an all out nuclear war, I doubt there will be anything left.

A scripture verse came to mind that I've often wondered what it could mean. Maybe it has something to do with this. Let me see if I can find it.

It is in Revelation chapter 3

Revelation 3:17-22 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

17 Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, 18 I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see.19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent. 20 Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. 21 He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. 22 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

Reluctant

I have been extremely reluctant saying what I am about to say for fear of jinxing it, as the saying goes (comes from my weak faith). I recently shared with my Facebook friends the demonic activity I experienced back in 1999. I also posted about it (“Questions”) here on the blog . At that time in 1999, I said, “I plan to be a thorn in Satan's side.” It was out of the blue that I said it, out over the Internet for all to see. I feel confident today that they were not my words, they were the Lord's. This blog is not really my own, it too is the Lords.

This is why I've been fearful. At that time I said those words, Satan responded back with “now feel my pain.”(6/30/16 - his complete message to me was "so you think you will be a thorn in my side, now feel my pain".). Who has ever gotten a personal message from him?

Pain comes in different formats. There is pain we feel from some sort of disease we are suffering, like the pain I have from the problems with my back (still no surgery on my back and it has not been debilitating). The other pain is what so many people are going through today, loss of a loved one by uncontrollable circumstances.

I pray always for the safety of my family, especially for our daughter who keeps going out into the world by herself. God has been faithful honoring those prayers. When I post to this blog, Satan has always done something to try and keep me from doing so. There are too many things he has done to say right now but the times that have freighted me the most are when we have lost contact with our daughter who was out somewhere by herself. For me, it was clearly Satan's work and was when I was about to post something to this blog, something that seemed significant at the time. You can only imagine the thoughts that were running through my head.

The Lord's loving-kindness to me and my family has been bountiful. He has protected us through the various hurricanes that have come in along the Gulf coast (we live in Houston Texas). He has protected us through all the recent floods. His protection through all this has even been on property. He has given us just the right amount of rain this year for our fruit trees and garden. So many blessings from the Lord and it's not that I feel that I deserve any of it. God is just that kind and loving to us.

The eyes of our minds

I woke up early again this morning thinking about something. I was thinking about how we think, how we rationalize things. That process is kind of like our brain having eyes. A thought has direction just like what we see has direction. The direction is always from outside to inside. I was thinking what would my mind see if I could put a mirror up in that process?

Isn't the day we call Judgment Day like that? God puts a mirror up in our thought processes. The eyes of our minds are now seeing inside, from God's perspective.

Faith - Believing

I've been thinking about faith lately. I call myself Christian. I believe in Father God; the creator of all things, all powerful, all knowing, everywhere present, the God of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and I believe in Jesus, our Messiah; the One who makes it possible for me to believe in Father God at all. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life, no one comes to the Father but through me.”(John 14:6)

I say I believe but do I really believe? There is so much evil happening in the world today that I can say for a fact it is testing my faith. When I think about it though, if all this stuff that is going on was not happening, would I even think about God? I'm not so sure. I don't believe that God causes all this evil. I think this is the work of the Devil. However, who gets blamed for not preventing the evil? God does.

If we can't believe in an all powerful God how is He to help? There is a scripture verse somewhere that says something like, “You don't have because you don't ask.” Again, if you don't believe, Who will you ask? The closest scriptures to what I thought I remembered is found in James chapter 4 which I think is appropriate to what I am saying.

James 4:1-10 Common English Bible (CEB)

Conflict with people and God

4 What is the source of conflict among you? What is the source of your disputes? Don’t they come from your cravings that are at war in your own lives? 2 You long for something you don’t have, so you commit murder. You are jealous for something you can’t get, so you struggle and fight. You don’t have because you don’t ask. 3 You ask and don’t have because you ask with evil intentions, to waste it on your own cravings.

4 You unfaithful people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? So whoever wants to be the world's friend becomes God's enemy. 5 Or do you suppose that scripture is meaningless? Doesn’t God long for our faithfulness in[a] the life he has given to us?[b] 6 But he gives us more grace. This is why it says, God stands against the proud, but favors the humble.[c] 7 Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil, and he will run away from you. 8 Come near to God, and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners. Purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Cry out in sorrow, mourn, and weep! Let your laughter become mourning and your joy become sadness.10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

John 14:13-15 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

13 Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it.

15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.

I think that whenever we read the words “in My name” it's another way of saying “believing in me”. Jesus' disciples even struggled with faith, believing the One who was right there with them.

John 14:8-12 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

8 Philip *said to Him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”9 Jesus *said to him, “Have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father; how can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in Me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on My own initiative, but the Father abiding in Me does His works. 11 Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father is in Me; otherwise believe because of the works themselves. 12 Truly, truly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also; and greater works than these he will do; because I go to the Father.

Matthew 7:7-11 Common English Bible (CEB)

Asking, seeking, knocking

7 “Ask, and you will receive. Search, and you will find. Knock, and the door will be opened to you. 8 For everyone who asks, receives. Whoever seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door is opened. 9 Who among you will give your children a stone when they ask for bread? 10 Or give them a snake when they ask for fish? 11 If you who are evil know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to those who ask him.

Matthew 6:24-34 Common English Bible (CEB)

24 No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be loyal to the one and have contempt for the other. You cannot serve God and wealth.

Worry about necessities

25 “Therefore, I say to you, don’t worry about your life, what you’ll eat or what you’ll drink, or about your body, what you’ll wear. Isn’t life more than food and the body more than clothes? 26 Look at the birds in the sky. They don’t sow seed or harvest grain or gather crops into barns. Yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Aren’t you worth much more than they are? 27 Who among you by worrying can add a single moment to your life? 28 And why do you worry about clothes? Notice how the lilies in the field grow. They don’t wear themselves out with work, and they don’t spin cloth. 29 But I say to you that even Solomon in all of his splendor wasn’t dressed like one of these. 30 If God dresses grass in the field so beautifully, even though it’s alive today and tomorrow it’s thrown into the furnace, won’t God do much more for you, you people of weak faith? 31 Therefore, don’t worry and say, ‘What are we going to eat?’ or ‘What are we going to drink?’ or ‘What are we going to wear?’ 32 Gentiles long for all these things. Your heavenly Father knows that you need them. 33 Instead, desire first and foremost God’s kingdom and God’s righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.34 Therefore, stop worrying about tomorrow, because tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

Fear and Unbelief

We hear a lot about Isis in the news today. I always hear President Obama calling them by another name, Isil. I wasn't sure about the name the president used so I just looked it up and found out that the radical group is known by many names; Isis, Isil, IS, Daesh.

What I want to talk about is what this radical group is doing as it relates to God; the true God. They say that they have the true god on their side and they are going to be successful in defeating the United States, Britain, Australia, and probably others. Have you thought about what they are trying to do? They are trying to make us afraid. Do you think the One True God would use scare tactics to get us to believe in Him? What does fear do in us? It keeps us from believing and instead we think there is no hope. Who do you think would want to keep us in a hopeless state? It's Satan.

I want to use a story in the Old Testament, very familiar to a lot of people. The Israelites were living in Egypt for about 400 years under great duress from the Egyptians. This was around 1550 – 1500 BCE. They had no hope but to be slaves to the Egyptians. God decided to bring them out of that bondage. He performed a number of miraculous things in the form of plagues on the Egyptians through His spokes person, Moses. In all these plagues the Israelites were not harmed, only the Egyptians. Egypt had many gods but they found that the God of these Hebrew people was more powerful than theirs. This story has great meaning to the Hebrews.

There is great meaning for all of us in this story. We are all born with a nature to sin. Just like those Israelites were slaves to the Egyptians, we are slaves to sin. The good news to give us hope is that God, through His son Jesus has delivered us out of that bondage. One of the words given to or referring to Jesus is redeemer.

redeem

 (rəˈdiːm) verb

1. to buy back (something that has been pawned). I'm going to redeem my gold watch.desempeñar, rescatar

2. to set (a person) free by paying a ransom; (of Jesus Christ) to free (a person) from sin. rescatar; redimir

3. to compensate for or cancel out the faults of. His willingness to work redeemed him in her eyes.redimir, expiar

There are a great many evil things going on in the world today. I hate listening to the news. Most everything is bad news. It is draining my soul. I have found myself at times asking myself, is there really a god? Fear and unbelief are said to be sins. I am a Christian. Jesus has broken my bondage to sin. Why do I keep getting drawn back into my old sin nature? It is because of Satan's work to try and instill fear. That is the best way he has found to keep us from believing.

Going back to this radical group Isis. I believe that their god is Satan. The true God is all powerful. Satan can not defeat God so why should I fear? This next part you may think kind of crazy but if you can catch my rationel you may see this too. Say God is on Isis' side. Can you fight God and expect to win? God will do what He wants to do no matter which side He is on. For some this may seem a form of hoplessness but it should make you see that you and I are at the mercy of God and rest in that decision. The Bible teaches that God's lovingkindness never fails. What does this say about THE TRUE GOD?

Psalm 86:15 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

15 But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious,
Slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.

Psalm 89:1 Common English Bible (CEB)

A maskil of Ethan the Ezrahite.

89 I will sing of the Lord’s loyal love forever.
I will proclaim your faithfulness
with my own mouth
from one generation to the next.

Proverbs 16:6 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

6 By lovingkindness and truth iniquity is atoned for,
And by the [a]fear of the Lord one keeps away from evil.

Isaiah 54:8 New American Standard Bible (NASB)

8 “In an outburst of anger
I hid My face from you for a moment,
But with everlasting lovingkindness I will have compassion on you,”
Says the Lord your Redeemer.