Radical shift change in chain of command

The outrageous, ridiculous lie is that aligning yourself with fallen angels and Satan, doing his bidding, translates into power, now and in the future.

Paul writes in I Corinthians 6, [2] Do ye not know that the saints shall judge the world? and if the world shall be judged by you, are ye unworthy to judge the smallest matters?
[3] Know ye not that we shall judge angels? how much more things that pertain to this life?'

"Oops, you know what Jesus Christ did?" says my pastor, Alex Kurz. "There has been a radical shift change in the chain of command. Paul is talking about the Body of Christ.

"You understand we were the lowly of the low. I mean, real low, dead in trespasses and sins. Jesus willingly identified with our urgent predicament. He became the lowly of the low and, by virtue of the Cross, He not only earns and wins our redemption, He earns the title right now to put all of those angels under subjection.

"Ephesians 2 says, [6] And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus:
[7] That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.

"This body, this new man, guess who's going to exercise authority over the angels? You see how it's flipped now? We're seated with Him in heavenly places. That helps me understand why Paul uses the present tense. He doesn't say we WILL be seated. We're the covering authority of angels. Let that sink in for a second.

"When you read about angels in the Bible, they are supernatural beings not to be messed with. Do you understand what it means now for these angels, who used to be better and more excellent in authority . . . guess what? Through Jesus Christ they're subject to the authority of the Body of Christ!

"We're going to judge just like Jesus telling His 12 disciples, 'You're going to sit on 12 thrones.' Jesus Christ, during His earthly ministry, is already establishing a chain of command on earth. Twelve thrones judging the 12 tribes, who will be judging the nations. He's already establishing His official form of government.

*****

"When Satan told Eve, 'Ye shall be as gods,' do you know what the temptation was? He's saying to her, 'Why would you want to be third status when you could be second status?!'

"When Paul says a woman should be under the covering authority of male leadership within the context of the local assembly because of the angels, the angels--the bad guys especially--know all about rebelling against authority.

"Daniel 10. Michael is called the chief prince. Doesn't that not imply there are some other supernatural entities, supernatural beings, supernatural agents called angels. By the way, you've got angels, seraphim, cherubim, watchers, beasts, living creatures, morning stars, spirits. There are different types and categories of agents out there and yet all these different classes, they have order, structure. They're organized with a chain of command.

"Jude 6 says, [6] And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

"They defected. An estate is a domain, or it could be a dominion. The idea is they didn't keep it; they defected and rebelled against God's chain of command. They adopted the thinking and the policy of the devil here: 'I'm not content being over here; we're going to lead the estate.'

"This, by the way, demonstrates free will. They're not content occupying and dwelling in that realm of authority they had. They didn't want it; they coveted it not.

"Jude goes on, [7] Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
[8] Likewise also these filthy dreamers defile the flesh, despise dominion, and speak evil of dignities.

"There's that spirit of rebellion manifested and you have people despising dominion and speaking evil of dignitaries.

"There's more going on than merely the sons of god in Genesis 6 deciding to intermarry with the daughters of men. They are violating the chain of command.

"Verse 9: [9] Yet Michael the archangel, when contending with the devil he disputed about the body of Moses, durst not bring against him a railing accusation, but said, The Lord rebuke thee.

" 'Arch' is the idea of being the greatest, the principal. Michael's the top dog, the ranking authority in the realm of the angels.

"Then you notice there's the prince of Persia and the prince of Grecia. There are some lower level princes; Michael is the chief.

*****

"Michael's the good guy, the loyal guy. He's doing exactly what Psalm 103 describes: [20] Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word.
[21] Bless ye the LORD, all ye his hosts; ye ministers of his, that do his pleasure.
[22] Bless the LORD, all his works in all places of his dominion: bless the LORD, O my soul.

"II Peter 2:4 says, [4] For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

"II Peter 2:9-12: [9] The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:
[10] But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.
[11] Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.
[12] But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

"Angels have a legitimate right to exercise governing authority and yet, whoa, they do not bring railing accusation 'against them before the Lord.'

"This is fascinating. Paul writes in I Corinthians 11:10, [10] For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head because of the angels.

"If we begin to adopt the same philosophy, the same way of thinking where we're actually following a playbook written by the Adversary himself, we're playing into the very hands of rank rebellion which results in confusion, disorder. And by bucking authority, you're playing into this rebellion that's taken place already.

"Interestingly, when Paul refers to women, he actually warns against playing, or falling into the hands of Satan's policy of evil. So I take the angels to be the bad guys and Paul's saying, 'Listen, the angels know something about rebellion.'

"Can you imagine the spiritual wickedness when they see the Body of Christ in absolute disarray, practicing the very rebellion that they're responsible for? In their minds they are succeeding if their policy of rebellion can infect and influence the Body of Christ. You see how they're seeking to gain ground in and through the people of Almighty God?"

To everything turn--turn INTO, not BACK

In a list of "9 Things Remarkably Successful People NEVER Do," posted to Inc. Magazine's internet site, No. 1 is, "They never let the past dictate their future."

"We all have limitations, we all have challenges, we all make mistakes," reads the entry. "The key is to not be constrained by those things but to learn from them.

Easier said than done? It all depends on your perspective.

"Take mistakes: When something goes wrong, turn it into an opportunity to learn something you didn't know--especially about yourself. (And when something goes wrong for someone else, turn it into an opportunity to be gracious and forgiving.)

"Where you've been, what you've done--everything in the past is just training. Remarkably successful people believe their past should inform them but should never define them."

*****

Most commentaries on the story of Lot and his wife, who looked back and turned to a pillar of salt, would have us believe God is simply teaching morality/discipline lessons, ignoring the account's tremendous prophecy.

For just one example, “Christian living” author Jen Wilkin, who actually admits in her internet article, “I am Lot’s wife,” writes, “As much as we long to move forward in grace, we find our past still pulls at us."

“But it’s not enough to recognize and regret our sin,” she continues. “To leave it behind, we must learn to hate it. And this is where I begin to think about Lot’s wife.

"You remember her—raised a family in a city known for its sexual depravity, had to be physically dragged out of her hometown to avoid its imminent destruction, checked her rearview mirror, and, presto-change-o, turned into your favorite popcorn flavoring. Pretty high up there on the ‘Weird Stories of the Bible’ list.”

*****

“Lot was the opposite of Daniel," explains my pastor, Richard Jordan. "When the king’s meat was set before Daniel, Daniel reasoned, ‘I think I’ll have what God would have for me and not what the king has.’

"Lot was a guy who had absolutely no interest in doing anything but pleasing himself, and so he leaves town without a testimony, dragging his wife and two girls with him.

“Of course, he lost his wife when she turned around to look back and was turned to a pillar of salt. But even after that, Lot wound up living in a cave with his two daughters, and if you know the sad end of that story in Genesis 19, his daughters got him drunk and committed incest with him in order to have children.

“The two kids born of those girls by their daddy in that incestuous relationship.. . wonder where they learned to live in incest with their daddy? They didn’t learn that sitting at the feet of Abraham. They learned that in Sodom.

“They learned that because of the influence of the compromises of their dad, resulting in a pitiful flop of a life, and those two kids who were born of them--go back and check Genesis 19-- plagued God’s people all through the Old Testament. The works of the flesh always do that.

“Lot was vexed, troubled, haunted by the lifestyle that was in Sodom and Gomorrah, but he was a righteous man and because of that God delivered him and he’s a picture of people.

"God cries out to His people in Revelation 18, he cries to Babylon, ‘Come out of her! Come out!’ and God is doing that with Israel. He’s gathering His ‘believing remnant’ out in the Tribulation even in their failure.

*****

“Luke 17 will show you why Peter would have picked up on Lot. Verses 26-32 report, [26] And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
[27] They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
[28] Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded;
[29] But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all.
[30] Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.
[31] In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back.
[32] Remember Lot's wife.

“Lot’s wife is an example of somebody who’s going out but does what? Turns back. Do you remember Hebrews 6 and it says, ‘Here you are, you’ve tasted of the good Word of God and the powers of the world to come, and you’ve been enlightened and so forth. It’s impossible to renew someone in that condition again to repentance if they go back.’

“That’s a verse they use to make you think you might lose your salvation. Hebrews 10:26-27 is another one:  [26] For if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,
[27] But a certain fearful looking for of judgment and fiery indignation, which shall devour the adversaries.

“These verses in Hebrews match what’s going on in Luke 17. They are ‘Tribulation truth.’ I’m tempted to believe that in the Tribulation period somebody’s going to be going around preaching the eternal security passages in Paul’s epistles--such as Romans 5, 8 and Ephesians 1--making it truth for them. That would be sort of the way things would work, you know.

*****

“Most heresy in the church the Body of Christ today that is Bible heresy, it’s scriptural but not dispensational. Most of it is Tribulation truth. It’s scriptural and will be right and true in the Tribulation, it just isn’t true today. It isn’t what God’s doing today. People who quote these verses take them out of where they fit.

“Well, this passage here is talking about some people who get out and stay out and go, but then there’s some people who turn back and they are those Hebrews 10 talks about. They’re the ones that I John 2 talks about and the ones we’re going to read about later on in II Peter 2.

“These are people who have escaped the corruptions of the world and yet have gone back into it. I John says, [19] They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

“If God’s going to take a literal, physical, visible, earthly nation into a kingdom, He’s not going to take a mixed multitude into that kingdom. And the purpose of the Tribulation period is for the nation Israel—Isaiah 10 says He’s going to take His rod and make them pass under it and it’s only the Believers . . .

“There’s a lot of professers and would-bes that come in, but it’s only the Believer who’s going to get on to the other end, because they that endure to the end shall be saved. The ones who turn back are the ones who don’t ever get the salvation, because you don’t get it until you get into the kingdom. It’s only the ones who are in the kingdom that gain this salvation program, so he says, ‘Don’t be like Lot’s wife.’

*****

“The temptation for these people is going to be to turn back. They’re going to have Judaism restored. They’re going to have the Old Testament sacrificial system, the law and the prophets—they’re going to have it ALL restored for them back in Jerusalem.

“Two hundred and twenty days after the Antichrist signs a covenant with the nation Israel and rescues them from utter destruction, he comes in as their Messiah and their Redeemer.

"Two hundred and twenty days after they make that peace covenant with him--planet wide on CNN and on FOX News--they’re going to inaugurate again the daily sacrifices right there in Jerusalem, in their own temple. The temple will be rebuilt and they’ll be back at it. And then there will be a call that goes out and across the world for the Jews to come back.

“You see the movie Schindler’s List and it says there were less than 2,000 Jews left in Poland at the end of WWII. That’s sort of weeding them down to pretty near nothing. If there’s only 2,000 animals left of a certain species, you call that an endangered species and you’ve got the whole planet going out and trying to save it.

“Well, all those people are going to go back in droves and be set up back over there, and then there will be some little street preacher who stands out on the corner and says, ‘No, no, no, no, no, this is not the real nation! The real Messiah has already come 2,000 years ago. This one who just delivered you, who’s bringing us economic prosperity and peace and giving us our religion and our identity and our homeland back, he’s a phony!’

“Now, what kind of reception do you think that preacher’s going to get?! These people are going to be tempted, pressed, troubled into turning back and the whole issue in the Hebrews epistle is to motivate them not to turn back.

*****

"The message is, ‘Remember the provision God has made for you in the propitiatory sacrifice of Jesus Christ and see the finished work and what God has done so you don’t need Judaism anymore. You don’t need the Mosaic Law; He’s put away the old covenant and given you the new covenant!’

“Hebrews never says, ‘Here, look, we’re the members of the Body of Christ.’ It says, ‘Here, Israel, look what God’s done for you in YOUR program through the Cross!’ The Book of James challenges them about the issue of their justification, meaning they needed to go and hold out and do the works that were ‘meet for repentance.’

“I Peter talks to them about that ‘lively hope’ they have. II Peter talks to them about the challenges they’ll have in suffering through these things. I, II and III John talk about the test they’ll use to identify the true believer from the false believer in those days.

“You better not take all those tests for yourself today; they won’t work! That’s why people wind up thinking they can earn their salvation and lose their salvation, or that they’ve got to do something to prove it’s really there’s.

"Because you’re over there in those books trying to make out like something is true of you when it isn’t. There’s something involved here that’s far more serious that just worrying about your money; we’re talking about your soul and your security and it living in you.”

*****

II Peter 2:9 says, [9] The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

“The three illustrations given in the chapter of those God has reserved to judgment are the angels (verse 4), the old world (verse 5) and Sodom & Gomorrah (verse 6). As Peter says in verse 3 about the false prophets and teachers, their damnation is sure and it’s not going to slumber; it’s not going to linger forever and God will pour out His judgment on them.

“II Peter also uses illustrations with Noah and Lot about God delivering the godly from/out of the trouble. It’s interesting that he uses these two men. Noah and Lot are the real ‘latter-day saints,’ not the Mormons. They are illustrations, types and pictures of two classes of people who are going to need to be delivered out of the time of Jacob’s trouble.

“Of course, before God poured judgment out on the world with the Flood, He had Noah, the preacher of righteousness, go and build the Ark. Genesis 7 says Noah and his family were righteous before the Lord and perfect in their generations. That is, they had not had their line contaminated by ‘the sons of god.’ They hadn’t entered into that angelic intermingling, but were people who walked before the Lord by faith in the things of God.

“Now, Lot, on the other hand, was a different kind of a Believer. You notice in II Peter 2:7, it says, [7] And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:

“That word ‘just’ there doesn’t mean ONLY Lot; it means ‘justified’ Lot. You know that in verse 8: [8] (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)

“Lot chose to live in Sodom. He could have avoided the influence of Sodom, but he pitched his tents toward Sodom. Lot is the picture of a compromiser. Lot is a picture of a man with no separation in his life and testimony.

“When Lot was delivered out of Sodom, he convinced his two unmarried daughters to go with him, but with his other daughters and their husbands, they wouldn’t go. Lot had no testimony of any value to anybody.

“When Lot tried to share God’s Word with them and tell them about the coming judgment, they laughed up their sleeve at him. He had all kind of influence in the social, economic, cultural and political societies of Sodom, but Lot had no spiritual influence because of him being a compromiser."

(new article tomorrow) 

Restart with 144,000

Revelation 12:1-2, reads, [1] And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars:
[2] And she being with child cried, travailing in birth, and pained to be delivered.

“The standard teaching on that passage is that the woman is Mary and the child being born is Jesus--that’s the Roman Catholic heresy anyway," explains my pastor, Richard Jordan. “You see pictures all through history of Mary with the sun and the moon under her feet, and the stars, and she’s got the child at her feet. That’s the classic picture of the Madonna, or whatever they want to call it. It’s all mythology and it comes out of Revelation 12.

“The woman in the passage is Israel. Just the mention of the ‘twelve stars’ tells you that. The symbolism is Revelation is stuff anybody who knows their Old Testament would understand. Just remember, John’s book is written to Jewish Believers. They knew what stars represented in the Bible.

“Reading Revelation 12, anybody who knows anything about revival would immediately go back in their mind to Genesis 37 and the story about Joseph and his difficulties with the brethren.

“Genesis 37: 8-9 says, [8] And his brethren said to him, Shalt thou indeed reign over us? or shalt thou indeed have dominion over us? And they hated him yet the more for his dreams, and for his words.
[9] And he dreamed yet another dream, and told it his brethren, and said, Behold, I have dreamed a dream more; and, behold, the sun and the moon and the eleven stars made obeisance to me.

“If you’ve got 11 brothers and one more brother, you’ve got 12. So you’ve got Joseph, his mother and the 12 tribes. Verse 10 says, [10] And he told it to his father, and to his brethren: and his father rebuked him, and said unto him, What is this dream that thou hast dreamed? Shall I and thy mother and thy brethren indeed come to bow down ourselves to thee to the earth?

*****

The Bible says the Believing Remnant that goes into the kingdom will be “BORN at once” out of a time of tremendous suffering that is like a woman “travailing in birth.”

Isaiah 66: 7-8 is a famous passage often misinterpreted: 7] Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child.
[8] Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children.

*****

“Over and over and over again, the nation Israel is described as a woman in the Bible because the nation Israel is the carrier of ‘the seed of the woman’ from Genesis 3:15 (‘And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.’); she is the bearer of the seed line," explains Jordan.

“So when they see this woman in Revelation 12, the saints would know that’s Israel, and they would know it’s Israel in connection with her reigning in the kingdom and their obtaining of the inheritance.

“Revelation 12:3-4 is about Satan: [3] And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and behold a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads.
[4] And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born.

“Now, that didn’t take place at the birth of Christ! That’s something in the future, to take place in the tribulation. Verse 5: [5] And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.

“John tells you in Revelation 4 that what he’s writing about are ‘things which must be hereafter,’ and what you read in the book is future from where John wrote, which was sometime before 70 A.D. You know when you get to chapter 12 you’re not talking about Jesus being born. You’re talking about Israel giving birth to a man child.

“The man child is then caught up to God and raptured out. Verse 13 says, [13] And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman which brought forth the man child.

“You’re in the second half of the 70^th week here. The next verse says, [14] And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.’

“That’s the last three and a half years of the tribulation. The rest of the chapter reads, [15] And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.
[16] And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth.
[17] And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

******

“In a lot of ways that’s a strange passage. First there’s going to be this man child, and those who are going to rule all nations turn out to be the 144,000.

“The reason people say verse 5 is Christ is because Revelation 19 says He’s going to come with a rod of iron and rule all nations, but He doesn’t do that by Himself. He has a group of people associated with Him--the little flock—who reign with Him.

“All of the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 have a group of people associated with them who are called ‘overcomers.’ This is a crowd that comes out of the tribulation into the kingdom and is given a special status of ministering in that millennial temple. They literally dwell there in that temple with the Savior.

“When Christ talks about the 'many mansions,' He’s talking about these temple servants in that millennial temple--the ‘overcomers’; that little flock He’s talking to, and especially its leaders.

*****

“If you go back to Revelation 12:5, you see this group of people has something strange happen to them. It says ‘her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne.’ This man child is taken off the earth into the throne of God into the third heaven. You say, ‘Well, what in the world is that all about?!’ Well, it’s a fascinating thing.

“As the Book of Revelation begins in 1:1, [1] The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John.

“You go through Revelation and you’ll discover time and again it is written to His servants, and there’s a special group of people identified with that moniker.

“Just look at John’s vision in Revelation 7:
 [1] And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, nor on the sea, nor on any tree.
[2] And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea,
[3] Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
[4] And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

*****

“So the 144,000 are identified as the servants. Have you ever wondered about how, after the ‘dispensation of grace’ is over with and the Body of Christ is caught up into the third heaven, the kingdom program can be started again?

“How did God start the ‘dispensation of grace’? There’s no members of the Body of Christ on Planet Earth and God wants to start the dispensation of grace.

“What did He have to do? He had to intervene personally in a cataclysmic way. Paul says ‘He apprehended me.’ That’s a term we use for cops who stop and arrest you. He literally stopped Paul’s wild career, apprehended him, and made him the first guy to kick-start a new program.

“Well, there will be the same kind of apprehension program to start the prophetic program back up. There will be no choice. He’ll have to intervene once again, and the people He intervenes with to re-start that program is this 144,000.

“They will compare, if you go back and study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and early Acts—you’ll find the 12 apostles will compare with the 144,000 and the little flock will compare to that remnant that comes out of the ministry of the 144,000.

“In the middle of the week, look at where this 144,000, who are on the earth in Revelation 7, turn up in Revelation 14:
[1] And I looked, and, lo, a Lamb stood on the mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty and four thousand, having his Father's name written in their foreheads.
[2] And I heard a voice from heaven, as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of a great thunder: and I heard the voice of harpers harping with their harps:
[3] And they sung as it were a new song before the throne, and before the four beasts, and the elders: and no man could learn that song but the hundred and forty and four thousand, which were redeemed from the earth.
[4] These are they which were not defiled with women; for they are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

What a revolting development this is?

I've already had a Christmas I won't forget. I broke down in the dark Saturday night on Interstate 65, going 70 m.p.h. on a very busy stretch, after hearing a loud knock and rumble under the hood and then, to add insult to injury, a big pop from my rear tire! No, I hadn't hit anything!

Fortunately, I was able to rent a room at the Fairfield Inn in Lafayette, IN. My brother and mother drove almost three hours the next morning from Dayton, OH to come get me.

Got a call yesterday from the garage my car was towed to and just the Honda-certified parts alone to fix snapped idle pulley and other resulting problems is $650. This figure doesn't include ruined tire and tow fee. As a result, I've decided to give up on my 2003 Civic hatchback with 177,000 miles.

The hardest pill to swallow is I noticed a new noise my car was making when I was in the city on Thursday visiting a friend with multiple myeloma cancer for Christmas. I took it to a garage near my house early Friday morning and, even though they said they were going to put it up shortly (even telling me I could wait in the waiting room but it would be at least a half hour), hadn't touched it when I called the next morning. I had told them when I dropped it off that I was hoping to leave town in the morning.

"Oh, it's being brought in right now; we'll call you shortly," I was told when I phoned promptly at their 8 a.m. opening Saturday. I called again at noon and it still hadn't been touched! When they put me through to a mechanic upon calling me back an hour later, he told me they thought maybe it could be the idle pulley going bad or it could be the water pump.

Another hour went by and they told me my car was ready. They didn't work on it! They simply charged me for my oil change, telling me they didn't hear the noise I was describing and that the car seemed fine to them. I started out my journey hearing the noise but thinking it must not be anything important.

Checking in to the hotel at 8 p.m., I was lifted by a quote hand-written in chalk on a tabletop slate board at the front desk: "When something goes wrong, look for what went right."

*****

Paul writes in II Corinthians 1, [3] Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;
[4] Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
[5] For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.
[6] And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.
[7] And our hope of you is stedfast, knowing, that as ye are partakers of the sufferings, so shall ye be also of the consolation.

“The word ‘comfort’ is an interesting word," explains my pastor, Richard Jordan. "We usually think about comfort like patting somebody on the back, making them feel better. But the word 'comfort' in the Bible really means to fortify somebody in their inner man. ‘Fort’ is for fortitude. The prefix ‘com’ is ‘to bring it into your life’ with fortitude. ‘To be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.’

"That’s what comfort is and that’s what sound doctrine does in your inner man. The more doctrine--the more explanation, the more details you have--the more comfort there is.

“I’m often struck by I Thessalonians 4:18: ‘Wherefore comfort one another with these words.’ This is what Paul writes after describing the details of the Rapture.

"I’ve thought and thought about that passage in the context of I Corinthians 15:52: ‘In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.’

“It takes longer to read that than it takes for that to happen! Your resurrection is going to take place at the speed of light.

“That moment there . . . the Greek word translated ‘moment’ is our word ‘atom.’ When that word ‘atom’ got into the English language, it meant ‘the smallest part of something.’ Now, we now know you can split the atom and find some smaller things, but the reason they use that word in English is because that was the smallest thing anybody knew about. In order to define that, Paul goes on to call it ‘in the twinkling of an eye.’ The reflection of light off of your eye.

“Well, how fast does light travel? 186,000 miles per second, rounded off. That’s kind of fast, give or take a few miles. That’s pretty quick. It’s only 24,000 miles around the earth. That means every 100,000 miles you go better than four times around the earth and for 186,000, you’d go about 7-8 times around the earth a second. Whoa, you talk about BUSY, man!

*****

Peace in trouble, you learn at higher and higher levels, comes from standing and resting in the truth of God’s Word, says Jordan. "More and more, putting to the death the 'old man' and the habits of the flesh is part of those rivers of living water that are torrents in the inner being flooding out everything that is not God.

“There’s never any growth without pressure or obstacles. Agape love is a mental-attitude love. By knowing ‘tribulation worketh,’ we learn how much God loves us; how highly He values and esteems us. We’re told ‘the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.’

“That ‘shed abroad’ is like a great river coursing and flowing over our soul. It just comes and courses in and flows in over us and refreshes us. It’s like the old Nestea Plunge commercial. This sweaty, hot guy falls off into that pool and you just almost want to go ‘Ahhh’ yourself when you see him go under.

"It’s the Holy Spirit that takes all of these things as they happen to us; it’s the Holy Spirit that takes the Word of God and builds up in our soul strength. We’re strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man.

“People, it’s the Word of God that energizes us. God’s Spirit works through His Word and He takes what we know about these things and energizes us.

"As David writes in Psalm 36, 'How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
[8] They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
[9] For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.'

*****

"The Psalms are packed full of the pure and honest heart cries of people who found themselves in all sorts of circumstances. I love the honesty with which they felt free to approach God," writes a blogger with the site "A Love Worth Living For." "The vast majority of Psalms came pouring out of a heart wrought with pain and turmoil. Most of them are laments. They are the songs of the people of God crying out to Him in the midst of loss, persecutions, obstacles, trials, and heartaches. The Psalms are a beautiful haven when life is tough because they remind us of the power found in praise and worship regardless of our distresses. They point us to the comfort found in His presence, even in the midst of pain, when we remember how wonderfully faithful and kind He is."

*****

“I remember I used to read Psalm 88 years ago and think, ‘Man, there’s not a ray of sunshine in that psalm!’" says Jordan. "Somebody has said that there’s ‘no ray of light or word of comfort’ in this whole psalm. That’s true except for verse 1: ‘O LORD God of my salvation.’

“The only hope in that psalm is the first phrase. The rest of it is just a plaintive cry of the Believing Remnant in Israel as they are consumed by the despair and the persecution of that time of Jacob’s trouble, and you see that deep longing that takes hold of the Little Flock’s heart as they look to the Lord for deliverance.

"Psalm 89 is the deliverance. It’s sort of the capstone of the description of the deliverance and the avenging and the release of Israel from all the persecution into this great light—this sunshine of the sure mercies of David. Coming as it does after Psalm 88, it would certainly be a great balm.

"Isaiah, when he talks about John the Baptist, he says, ‘Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God. Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem,’ this is the kind of stuff that will comfort them. Just like the words about God’s grace and the provision you have in Christ comforts you, these things are what give hope and comfort, strength and support for the nation Israel."

*****

A Maschil is a psalm designed for the edification, the education, the understanding to be enlightened. It’s an instructive psalm. These titles, when it says a Maschil, there other kinds of psalms, and what those titles do is they tell you what the intent of the psalm is.

Psalm 89 says it’s a "Maschil of Ethan the Ezrahite." "In I Kings 4 and I Chronicles 25 you find Ethan," explains Jordan. "He was the wisest of Solomon’s counselors. God had told Solomon (I Kings 11) that because of his idolatry, the kingdom was going to be taken away from his sons and wasn’t going to continue in his family, and Ethan would have known about that.

“That’s why we’re going to read about the failure of the son of David to accomplish, and so Ethan writes this in the light, obviously, of knowing God was going to take the kingdom line lineage of Solomon away from his sons. But God wasn’t going to take the covenant away from David because there was going to be another son of David to accomplish what God promised.

“Psalm 89 says, 'I will sing of the mercies of the LORD for ever: with my mouth will I make known thy faithfulness to all generations.
[2] For I have said, Mercy shall be built up for ever: thy faithfulness shalt thou establish in the very heavens.
[3] I have made a covenant with my chosen, I have sworn unto David my servant,
[4] Thy seed will I establish for ever, and build up thy throne to all generations. Selah.’

“In either verse two or three, Ethan quits talking and now God’s talking. And it’s really going to be God, through Ethan, talking for the rest of the chapter.

“Now, that term ‘Selah’ in prophecy . . .  I know what they say in the devotional commentaries, that that’s a rest note in music, and that’s true, and that you are supposed to stop and contemplate that and think about what he just wrote.

“But, you know, you’re supposed to meditate on all the words. When you see that word Selah in your Bible, especially in the psalms, that term does two things. No. 1, it tells you the context is the Second Advent. Two, you want to stop and think about this passage in light of the Second Coming.

“So it’s a little flag, a reminder, a thing to point out to you the context doctrinally is going to be the Second Advent. And if you want to see where you can know that for sure it’s Habakkuk 3.”

(new article tomorrow--promise)

Guess whose NYC pad on 66th floor?

(Editor's Note: I've got a new Bible study to post tomorrow.)

The other week I posted a blog entry about how God made creation as a tent to dwell in, quoting my pastor as explaining, "He literally created a universe where He could demonstrate and express His life . . . You know what it is when you get home. First thing I do is take my shoes off. You settle down and feel at home; it's your dwelling."

Okay, so guess whose longtime primary abode is being described here by the Guardian newspaper:

"Sitting above the white marbled fireplace is Apollo, Zeus's son, and one of the most powerful of the gods - being led in his Chariot by Aurora, the Greek goddess of the dawn, suggesting (T----) sees himself in the mold of Apollo, Zeus's son, and one of the most powerful of the gods.

"A bronze statue of Eros and Psyche - one of the best love stories in classical mythology - towers over the picture of his father (on the living room coffee table). The story - one of the best known from Ovid - was later used as an allegory by classical and Christian writers for the fall of the soul.

" . . . (Masonic-style pillars) and Louis XIV furniture dominate throughout.  Louis XIV led the absolute monarchy during France's classical age, ruling from 1643 until 1715, and was known for his aggressive foreign policy. His political principles were not quite in line with democracy, as he ruled with complete control over the country and was known as The Sun King. The monarch was also known for his over-the-top decor."

*****

"So who is Apollo?" writes a blogger, a big fan of the deity, on the site Patheos. "He’s a god to whom “know thyself" has been attributed to him at Delphi, where the biggest and most renown oracle of the ancient world was dedicated to him and done in honor of him.

"He’s associated with sunlight and truth, and yet has strong chthonic (concerning, belonging to, or inhabiting the underworld.) and underworld associations when you start digging into his more oracular aspects. . . Apollo’s entire biography screams 'I’m complicated' and 'I can do pretty much everything and am associated with so much that even modern day writers such as Rick Riordan make jokes about it.'

"He has enough crossovers with Dionysos that some traditions–mainly modern and how far back some of these ideas go can be in debate–believe each god is two sides of the same coin. There is definitely an interesting undercurrent to be found with his aspects of shining, light-bringer, and light-bearing.

"The Romans referred to him as Luciferos and his twin Diana as Lucifera. And as a god who was so widely known, popular, and beloved it made total sense for Christianity to demonize him all the way quite literally and associate him with Lucifer aka 'Satan'.

"I’ve stated in the past that Dionysos is a witches’ god, but so is Apollo–they just have different things emphasized in their cults and have differing sorts of roles in their respective priesthoods. To dismiss Apollo as 'anemic', 'left-brained', or 'rational' utterly ignores all of the numerous aspects and attributes he has had for centuries in regards to both mystical and esoteric pursuits, especially those involving oracles, divination, and anything in the realm of the seer. Both he and Dionysos have their roots and rites in trance possession and worship, the differences between them still remain but the overlaps are undeniable."

*****

What Bible-believers understand like no one else is that the political structure of our country and this world is controlled by "the prince of this world," i.e. Satan.

“We live in a culture that’s running headlong into greater and greater evil, debauchery, violence and corruption, polluted by modern barbarians,” says my pastor, Richard Jordan.

“When the Apostle Paul talks about being a good citizen living in a society, he was in a culture that was every bit as pagan and as corrupt as ours is.

*****

“You shouldn’t think that our world is the only one that ever had abortions. When Jesus Christ was born, there was a wicked tyrant who ruled that land and sent out word, not to kill unborn babies, but to kill every child under two years old that happened to be born a male.

“People talk about the political and economic oppression of the government, but when the Lord Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem, His mom and dad had gone there because there was a decree from the government of His day that there would be a tax.

“I mean, where could there ever been a more unjust government and taxing system than what they were under? But they didn’t say, ‘We’re not going to go.’

*****

“They lived in a day when slavery was institutionalized. Racial bigotry is an odious, nasty, ugly thing. But you read through your Bible and you don’t find people decrying the Roman government; bemoaning the evil economic system or even the injustices.

“You’re not going to get rid of those things, folks, by fighting the system. The way you have an impact on the nation is you go out and understand people need to be transformed internally (through salvation). They need to have a change inside of them.

“That’s why in Philippians 2:14, Paul says, ‘Do all things without murmurings and disputings: That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world.’

“That’s how you do it and you see from the passage they lived ‘in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation.’ But Paul’s not telling them to go out and fight that by political means. He’s talking about fighting it by holding up some light that gives life. And that light, which is life, transforms the rest.

*****

“By the way, you don’t transform a culture by quoting II Chronicles 7:14: ‘If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.’

“You know what the problem with that is? Go back and read the context, and the context is when He says, ‘If my people,’ the two verses before tell you it’s the people of Israel!

*****

“Paul says in Titus 3, ‘Put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, to speak evil of no man, to be no brawlers, but gentle, shewing all meekness unto all men.’

“The message is, ‘Go out and be good citizens in the world; go out and live in the culture as pagan, and wicked, and evil as it is, but go out there and live in it as a Believer.’ ”

*****

Here's a post from several years ago:

In Acts 19, Luke writes about the Jews and Greeks living in Ephesus who, when they heard the gospel through Paul’s evangelism there, became Believers and immediately collected up all their pagan literature and burned it for everyone to see.

Verses 19-20 report, “Many of them also which used curious arts brought their books together, and burned them before all men: and they counted the price of them, and found it fifty thousand pieces of silver. [20] So mightily grew the word of God and prevailed.”

Jordan explains, “Here are people in what we would call the occult, in spiritism, paganism. And they go bring their sacred books, their bibles if you will, and their instruction books and burn them. They don’t need them anymore. Paul said, ‘All these people heard the gospel and got saved.’ They never heard of Christ before!

“The gospel will do its job if you preach it and it has free course. You never have to fear truth and error sitting at the same table. If truth gets an opportunity to speak, it will take care of itself. What happens in the world out there is they muzzle the truth.

“The Adversary tries to confound people with the truth so they don’t preach the truth. The first policy of the Adversary against the church is to get you to compromise the truth, change the message. He attacks the message. If you don’t change the message, he’ll attack the messenger. Those are the two tactics.

*****

“When Paul wrote to Timothy at Ephesus, there was a church of a dead goddess named Diana. In Paul’s day, there were seven wonders of the ancient world and one of those wonders, over a period of 3-400 years, was the Temple of Diana at Ephesus.

“The Temple of Diana had big pillars, fashioned like the stuff in Daniel 3 that Nebuchadnezzar set up. That temple had the entire city cowed. She was called ‘the queen of heaven’ just like Israel, in Jeremiah 34, is said to be worshipping; the Baal worship. It was said that the image of Diana fell down from Jupiter. And that dead god, the one people prayed to and got nothing . . .

“Paul is at Ephesus for a long period of time. He sets up a teaching, preaching, evangelistic center in Ephesus and the Word of God goes out, not just around Ephesus, but all of that whole territory.

“In the Bible, the title the ‘living God’ is used seven times by Paul, more than by any other writer in the Bible. He wants you to be sure you understand that God is alive and personally, actively involved in the local church in the lives of Believers; He’s just not doing it the way He did it with Israel in the physical, external intervention program.

“He writes in I Timothy 4:10, ‘For therefore we both labour and suffer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.’

“The primary vehicle, the hub, the center ground around which what God is doing today in the dispensation of grace focuses around the work the Body of Christ does through the work of the ministry. That’s why the local assembly is so important. That’s why it gets attacked in such vicious ways by the Adversary. That’s why some people can’t stand to be in it and be involved in it.

“The local church is designed to be not the reflection of the culture around it, but the reflection of the work of the Body of Christ IN that culture.

*****

“One of the great mistakes Western missionaries made in the last three centuries was to think that if they brought people to salvation, it meant that those people needed to be inculcated with Western culture in their clothing, mannerisms and so forth.

“Sometimes people needed to have their culture elevated out of barbarianism, but it doesn’t necessarily mean they had to be Westernized. What the gospel is to do is go into whatever the culture is and purify it, and bring out of that culture how Christ would live in THAT culture. That’s a high calling and a high-thinking process, but that’s what Paul’s talking about in I Timothy 3.

*****

“In our day, management techniques and skills have invaded the ministry, and if you go back into the ‘90s, there was this great push that said you couldn’t have an organization unless you had a delineated purpose statement, mission statement and vision statement. But the purpose statement that God gives is, ‘God, our Savior, who would have all men to be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.’

“When Paul says we’re the ‘pillar and ground of the truth,’ that’s the relationship between the church and the truth that we’re designed to proclaim. A pillar holds things up and makes it visible, supports it. The ground, that’s the foundation upon which that pillar resides.

“You don’t have to come here to go to heaven; that’s not the purpose of the local church. We keep a testimony in a community like this alive, not so you can come here to go to church, but so that you can know that the truth is still available and we can hold up a flag and say, ‘The truth is available if you’re interested. Here’s how to find it.’

*****

“The household of God is not a building; it’s a family. It’s the Body of Christ manifested in this location at Ephesus; in our case, in this location in Chicagoland.

“The Hebrew term for the ‘house of God’ is Bethel. Paul’s literally using Jewish terminology here. God resided in the nation Israel to make Israel the people He chose them to be, but now in the Body of Christ, people who were barred from being a part of the house of God are now made participants in the house of God.

“Paul never calls the church a business. People say you need to have business principles in your ministry. He never calls it a business but he calls it a body. He calls it a building. He calls it a house and a household. We don’t operate on the rudiments of the world that businesses operate on.

“Ephesians 3:14-15 says, ‘For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
[15] Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named.’

“What people who aren’t dispensationalists do with that verse is they say there’s the family who’ve died and gone on to heaven, the ‘Church Triumphant,’ and then there’s the ‘Church Militant,’ or Believers who are still down here.

“But if you studied the Book of Ephesians instead of theology books, you’d never have come up with that idea. Because, starting in Ephesians 1, he’s talking about the government God established in the heavens and the government God established in the earth, and the fact that He has an agency to reclaim that government in the earth, the nation Israel, and now He’s forming the Body of Christ as the agency to reclaim that government in the heavens.

“Now, you and I are made fellow citizens with the saints and we’re in the household of God, which is heaven and earth. He’s the Father of that whole household, the whole family, and He’s the one who’s the head of it.

“Paul explains in Ephesians 2, ‘[19] Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
[20] And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
[21] In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
[22] In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

“The temple’s not made of hands (‘God doesn’t dwell in temples made with men’s hands’); it’s a temple made out of people.

“When God gave Moses the pattern for the tabernacle, it was a tent that God was going to dwell in, but it was made out of skin. Amos 9 calls it the ‘tabernacle of David’ and that’s that little Believing Remnant in Israel where God’s going to live in the flesh-and-blood lives of some Israelis.

“This temple that God is building, putting people together in as a habitation--God’s the builder, He’s the architect, He lives there, He provides for it; it’s where He’s honored and it’s where the family is.

*****

“That expression, the church of the living God (I Timothy 3), that’s a fun expression.

“II Corinthians 6:16, ‘And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.’

“You see, we’re the dwelling place of the LIVING God. That term has a very special emphasis to it. He’s not a dead god; not an inactive god who’s a phony but the real thing.

“I Thessalonians 1:9 says, ‘For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God.’

“The living God is in contrast with the dead gods of the idols and that’s the way it is all through the Bible.

“The Apostle Paul before he got saved was a rabbinical scholar and when he uses terms like that that come out of his thinking process, you can go back in the Old Testament and find the meanings to these terms.

“The first time that description occurs in the Bible is in Deuteronomy 5:26. 4:16. They know about idols. They saw them in Egypt. They’re aware of all that and Moses says to them, ‘Where is there any nation out there with all their gods that’s like us who’ve been in touch with the real thing; the living God?’

“Joshua picks up on this when they go in to cross the Jordan River to go in to take the Promised Land. God gathers them all together, He puts the ark out front and the priests and they’re going to walk in—go across Jordan.

“Joshua 3: 9-10 says, [9] And Joshua said unto the children of Israel, Come hither, and hear the words of the LORD your God.
[10] And Joshua said, Hereby ye shall know that the living God is among you, and that he will without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Hivites, and the Perizzites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Jebusites.

“There’s the ark of the living God—watch what He does. Every time you see that term occur through here, what He’s saying is, ‘Watch the living God go to work!’ He’s a God who does things and takes action.

“Look at Joshua 2. You remember Rahab. Some spies come in and she says something to the spies she’s going to hide that’s quite interesting. Joshua 2:9-10:  ‘And she said unto the men, I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.
[10] For we have heard how the LORD dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed..

“Notice that’s past tense. You know what she’s saying to those spies: ‘You know, forty years ago we heard what God did when He brought you out of Egypt and we’ve been sitting over here trembling in our boots waiting for you to come take us out too. We know God has already given you this land. What you been waiting on?!’

“Of course, it was Israel’s unbelief that caused them to wait that 38 years. The Gentile knows it. You know, what they heard about the living God. That’s what Moses said: ‘Who’s ever heard about the living God like us?’

“When the Gentiles up there in Jericho heard about it, they said, ‘Whoa, they got the living God on their side and our hearts melted knowing we were dead meat!’

“I Samuel 17:26 says, ‘And David spake to the men that stood by him, saying, What shall be done to the man that killeth this Philistine, and taketh away the reproach from Israel? for who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?’

“David said, ‘All I need right here is what I’ve got in my hand. My sling.’ He goes out and gets him five smooth stones because Goliath’s got four brothers, and he says, ‘The living God will take care of us,’ and he was befuddled that Israel wasn’t believing that.

“Daniel’s in the lion’s den in Daniel 6:26. You know who Daniel’s God is? He went over there and gave Leo lockjaw and God delivered him; He’s the living God. Darius knew all his gods were dead gods."

God finally finishes the sentence in Acts 9

Proverbs 11:14 says, [14] Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counsellers there is safety.

"That's a principle for how God set up creation to work," explains Jordan. "Proverbs 15:22 says, [22] Without counsel purposes are disappointed: but in the multitude of counsellers they are established.

"Take the case of Adam. God creates man, puts him in the Garden, gives him a wife and says, 'You've got two jobs. One, tend to the garden and two, you go out there and subdue the earth.' So Adam has his mandate. He knows what the will of God for his life is.

"In Genesis 3:5, Satan talks to Eve, telling her, [5] For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

"Those gods out there in the earth, they know about Adam and Eve. They see these creatures and they know they're different from them. God said, 'Go win this thing back from those dudes, Adam,' because they're the ones actively out there managing things and yet they're in rebellion against what God's doing.

"Adam gets up in the morning and says, 'What's on the agenda for today? Well, I've got to tend to the garden and go out and subdue the world. That's the will of God.'

"What's God's will for today? 'That all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth.' That's how you get up and answer, 'What would God have me do today?' You say, 'But what about my 401k?' That doesn't come into it.

*****

"Think about the the first task God ever gave Adam. Look at Genesis 2:19: [19] And out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof.

"In chapter two, you're getting a flashback to the sixth day and what He does there. Adam is created on the sixth day and God created the animals before that. When Adam shows up the animals are already there. He didn't know how long they'd been there. He didn't know where they came from.

"So what God does is He shows Adam where they came from. He says, 'Adam, you see that tiger? Let me show you where that came from.'  Whoosh, God made it and then backed up and watched Adam.

"Remember, Adam was supposed to keep the garden and subdue it. Adam's responsible for that thing. God doesn't tell Adam what to do; He just watches him to see if he's figured out what he's to do. He watched him to see what he would call the animal.

"In the Bible, when you name something you're describing its purpose. Names have meanings. They show identity. The first specific job He gave Adam is He's looking to see if Adam's caught on to what he's supposed to be doing.

"God knew Adam had intellectual capacity; he wasn't a caveman. He had language skills, perception skills. He's teaching Adam to use them to fulfill his mandate. God gives Adam the responsibility and privilege of applying His will.

"He gave Adam the ability to look into creation and pull out of it the wisdom God had put there. Whatever name Adam gave the animals that was their name. He didn't say, 'Adam, I made a lamb. Call him a lamb now.'

"That participatory management system, using His intelligent creatures to be His agents to manage His creation--that's the relationship God wanted to have with man. There's that participation where God lets Adam get the job done.

*****

"In Genesis 11, God turns over the gentile nations to the gods of this world because they don't want Him.

"God warns Israel in Deuteronomy 4:19: [19] And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the LORD thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven. [20] But the LORD hath taken you, and brought you forth out of the iron furnace, even out of Egypt, to be unto him a people of inheritance, as ye are this day.

"God takes Israel, makes them His, and leaves all the other nations in the earth--He divided to those nations all the fallen gods up here. Fallen humanity doesn't want the God of gods; it wants the fallen gods, so He literally turns the nations over to these gods. Each nation has a god; it's just a fallen god.

"Deuteronomy 29: [24] Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?
[25] Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:
[26] For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them:
[27] And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book:
[28] And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.

"God created the nation Israel and said, 'I'm your God and you're my people. These other nations belong to these gods and these gods belong to them but, Israel, you're my portion. You belong to me and I belong to you. Don't go and mess with those dudes. You're separate.'

"So what did Israel do? They saw the gentiles and said, 'We want to be like them,' and so they go and worship the gods of the gentiles and the satanic policy of evil comes in to control Israel by them worshipping gods that God never gave them!

*****

"Now, this rulership thing, when Paul talks about these things, you've got to remember who Paul was; a rabbinical scholar trained at the feet of Gamaliel. Paul's worldview came out of his understanding of the Old Testament Scripture. He understood Jehovah was the God of gods.

"When he was on the road to Damascus and said, 'Who art thou, Lord?' in my soul I think about what would be going through my mind then?!

"Here's a guy defending God's honor against these upstarts and then Jehovah speaks to him. Paul knows who's talking to him when he asks 'Who art thou?' Don't you know in the back of his mind it's, 'Please don't say Jesus!'

"When he says, 'I am Jesus whom thou persecutest' . . . If you go back to the beginning in early Genesis, Jacob's wrestling with the angel of the Lord and says, 'Tell me your name,' but God won't do it. Moses said, 'Who am I supposed to tell them sent me?' and God said, 'Tell them I am.' Moses thinks, 'I am what? I am who?'

"God Himself never finished that sentence until Acts 9. In Proverbs 30, it says, [4] Who hath ascended up into heaven, or descended? who hath gathered the wind in his fists? who hath bound the waters in a garment? who hath established all the ends of the earth? what is his name, and what is his son's name, if thou canst tell?

"He said, 'What's His name?' but God doesn't tell. He never finished that sentence until 'I am Jesus.' There's a completion of revelation of who God is that comes in with Paul."

Editor's note:

Last Saturday morning I awoke to see my mom had left a voicemail and text that my 55-year-old brother-in-law was in intensive care after collapsing at work with a cerebral hemmorhage. I hadn't looked at my phone Friday so I was quite shocked to see her messages.

I immediately called and she picked up, telling me Jesse was already gone even though they were temporarily keeping him on life support as an organ donor. Huge shock to the system for me.

His obituary can be found by typing in Jesse Lee Carsey, Jr. to Snyderfuneralhomes.com. He's in Mansfield, Ohio. There is a snapshot gallery video at the top and if you're curious, you can see a picture of me in my 20s as my sister's maid of honor. No, I did not catch the bouquet even though my sister aimed for me as she threw it behind her back. I did catch the bouquet at my childhood best friend's wedding some 15 years later!

Interestingly, if you type his name into Google with the word "obit," my sister's obituary is directly underneath Jesse's. They are reunited now in heaven. Rita was 48 years old when she died suddenly of a stomach infection she didn't even know she had. Jesse died just as suddenly. No warning at all and gone just like that.

These two were both born with mental impairments (and Jesse had very poor vision until a surgery 15 years ago and was a terrible stutterer his whole life) and were what today's educators would call "special needs" children. They have one daughter, my 23-year-old niece Christine, who graduated summa cum laude from the Ohio State University and is a very special, mature Christian woman in love with her boyfriend Jake. Thank God for that!