Agenda: 'Let's get rid of God in every aspect of life'

I saw this quote from 86-year-old Jane Goodall and thought, “Whew, inquiring minds who don’t really want to know a single thing.”

Goodall testified in a Washington Post interview, “I was totally curious as a child. I once took worms to bed, wondering how they walked without legs. I watched intently as they moved about. Chimpanzees are very curious too. If they come across a hole in a tree, they want to know what’s inside. Curiosity is supposed to be a measure of intelligence, but it’s difficult to say. Intelligence is the way you express curiosity and the lengths you’ll go to satisfy it. We’re always coming up with new questions. Science thinks it’s got the answer to the appearance of the universe with the big bang, but that leads me to ask, ‘What came before the big bang?’ I still have a lot of questions. What will happen to me as I get older? What will happen to me when I die? That’s my biggest curiosity and has been for a long time. But you can’t find an answer. It’s unknowable.”

Unsaved people love to claim curiosity as their own. Some will say of fundamentalist Christians that we have no real curiosity; we just take God at His Word and don’t "explore" whether He’s really right or not.

A favorite Robert Browning quote, for example, is, “Where the apple reddens never pry -- lest we lose our Edens, Eve and I.”

*****

“There’s a current that runs through the world system that manifests itself in expressing the philosophy of the world," says Jordan. "The channel through which the world works and is developed is the lie program that says, ‘Get rid of God!’

“The culture in ‘this present evil world’ is one in which the world wants to replace God’s truth with vain imaginations--the empty, rational reasoning of man’s attempt to make himself control things and come up with his own vain ideas; his own ideas about how everything ought to work and what the purpose and meaning of life is.

“Satan’s directing and promoting the philosophy, the course of this world so he can eliminate the Creator. How he exerts his influence and his rulership; he’s the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience. He has access, as it were, to their will. He works in their inner man.

“They have no Savior. They have no Holy Spirit within them. They have no light and truth within them. So he has free access to work.

“Listen, the genius of unsaved people is satanically inspired. He’s the creature that works, and he uses that to captivate them; to eliminate any ability on their part to see any glory in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.

“If you wonder why the world we live in is falling apart, the answer’s right here. II Corinthians 4:3: ‘But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost.’ If people don’t get saved, it’s because they’re blind, and when it comes to the gospel, they don’t get it.

*****

“When it says he’s ‘the god of this world,’ he’s behind the ideologies, the opinions, the hopes, the aims, the goals, the viewpoints that are expressed in the world. He’s the one they worship.

“You see the world DOES worship a god; they just don’t worship the Creator God and the one that they’re following is 'the god of this world.' That’s what he wanted to be--'like the most high God.' That was Satan's goal and ambition.

“Paul writes, ‘In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.’

“You see, his tactic is to BLIND people; to hide the truth. In darkness things are hid. When things are in darkness you don’t SEE them and that’s why Satan is the ‘power of darkness,’ where the light isn’t there.

“That’s why in Ephesians 4 he talks about ‘through the blindness and darkness of their heart.’ He wants to keep people from seeing anything glorious in the gospel. You remember what Paul said in I Corinthians 1: 18? ‘For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.’

*****

“You go out and tell the world that a dead Jew hanging on a Cross is God saving them, you know what the world thinks: ‘Cuckoo, cuckoo, cuckoo.’ Why do they think that? Because the god of this world hath blinded their minds.

“Colossians 2:8 says, ‘Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.’

“Think of Sophia, a lover of wisdom, i.e., human viewpoint: ‘I think I know how to do it. I can figure it out on my own, thank you. I don’t need God.’ So let’s get rid of God in every way possible. Let’s don’t talk about Him. Let’s get Him out and forget about it.

“If it’s religion, philosophy, tradition--anything to keep you from focusing on what God is doing in the Lord Jesus Christ.

“Paul says in Galatians 6:14, ‘But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.’

“But you see, to glory in the Cross, you have to NOT glory in anything you do. You can’t glory in ME—my ideas, 'do it my way.'

"Satan blinds lost people, but he also uses their own sinfulness to do it. That’s where the flesh comes in. You see how he says, ‘the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.’

“They’re blinded by Satan but they’re also blinded by their own sin. Disobedience is a willful, deliberate refusal to comply with the demands of authority. The whole tactic is to hide and do away with the truth."

Love is, it's where it's at

From yesterday's post: Another takeaway I remember from Indian philosopher Krishnamurti's 1973 book, The Awakening of Intelligence, had to do with the indulgence of humans in the act and game of comparison and in competitive thinking. It's just not an intelligent way of going about life, he says in many different ways and throughout his book. 

*****

“There are three kinds of people in the world," writes C.S. Lewis. “The first class is of those who live simply for their own sake and pleasure, regarding Man and Nature as so much raw material to be cut up into whatever shape may serve them.

“In the second class are those who acknowledge some other claim upon them—the will of God, the categorical imperative, or the good of society—and honestly try to pursue their own interests no further than this claim will allow. They try to surrender to the higher claim as much as it demands, like men paying a tax, but hope, like other taxpayers, that what is left over will be enough for them to live on. Their life is divided, like a soldier’s or a schoolboy’s life, into time ‘on parade’ and ‘off parade,’ ‘in school’ and ‘out of school.’

“But the third class is of those who can say like St Paul that for them ‘to live is Christ.’ These people have got rid of the tiresome business of adjusting the rival claims of Self and God by the simple expedient of rejecting the claims of Self altogether. The old egoistic will has been turned round, reconditioned, and made into a new thing. The will of Christ no longer limits theirs; it is theirs. All their time, in belonging to Him, belongs also to them, for they are His.

“And because there are three classes, any merely twofold division of the world into good and bad is disastrous. It overlooks the fact that the members of the second class (to which most of us belong) are always and necessarily unhappy. The tax which moral conscience levies on our desires does not, in fact, leave us enough to live on. As long as we are in this class we must either feel guilt because we have not paid the tax or penury because we have.

"The Christian doctrine that there is no ‘salvation’ by works done to the moral law is a fact of daily experience. Back or on we must go. But there is no going on simply by our own efforts. If the new Self, the new Will, does not come at His own good pleasure to be born in us, we cannot produce Him synthetically.

“The price of Christ is something, in a way, much easier than moral effort—it is to want Him. It is true that the wanting itself would be beyond our power but for one fact. The world is so built that, to help us desert our own satisfactions, they desert us. War and trouble and finally old age take from us, one by one, all those things that the natural Self hoped for at its setting out. Begging is our only wisdom, and want in the end makes it easier for us to be beggars. Even on those terms the Mercy will receive us.”

*****

“Romans 12 is Paul’s gathering together of the issue of, ‘Here’s the description of what the impact of God’s grace is designed to look like in the lives of Believers,’ and if you wanted to have a profile of what it is that the ministry of grace is seeking to produce in the lives of people . . . not just in doctrinal statements but what is it supposed to look like, it’s in Romans 12," explains Jordan.

“Romans 12:12 (‘Rejoicing in hope; patient in tribulation; continuing instant in prayer’) is really, in a lot of ways, one of those encapsulized statements, right in the middle of a passage, that sort of gathers together a description of the Christian life.

“The details of your service for Christ don’t really begin until you come to Chapter 12. It’s the idea of, ‘Okay, let’s get busy being who we are in the details of life.’

“Verse 12 is in the context of how we relate to other Believers. Verse 9 says, ‘Let love be without dissimulation. Abhor that which is evil; cleave to that which is good.’ In other words, the focus in our relationship with others is going to be on love. Let love be the real thing. Don’t ‘diss’ somebody when it comes to love. Be genuine.

*****

“I John 4 is very clear: ‘If God so loved us we ought to love one another.’ Your love for others HAS to be based upon an understanding of God’s love for you. The reason the world can never love their fellow man . . . you see the world thinks if they can get rid of the differences between people you can get rid of conflicts. Consequently, you have an egalitarian society where everything’s equal. We call it ‘multi-culturalism’ and all that kind of stuff.

“The only way you get rid of conflict is to get rid of sin. The only way you deal with the sin issue is the Cross. The world thinks the Cross is foolishness, so they reject the only answer that’s really there.

“That’s why I’ve said to you for years that you can’t abandon the world that you live in. If you want to have some impact and influence in the culture you live in, go out and preach the gospel, the truth of God’s grace, get them saved and then they’ll know and understand how to love people. Otherwise they never will.

“Abhorring evil and cleaving to that which is good is essential to love. Love doesn’t mean you just think everybody and everything’s the same. Love takes divine viewpoint and says, ‘This is good and that’s evil.’ God told Israel, ‘Woe to them that call good evil and evil good.’

“You come to verse 12 and you’ve got this dominant theme now in love just kind of echoing in your mind when you get there. That’s why it’s essential, by the way, that you go back to verse 2 and ‘be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind.’

“Verse 12, under that banner of love, Paul says, ‘Rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing instant in prayer.’ So while I’m serving my brother and brethren, while I’m not being slothful in business, my attitude in it is I’m going to be rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation and I’m going to be instant in prayer.

“I’m going to be continually, constantly in prayer, all for the sake of loving others, loving our enemies as we ought. This is how Christ is designed to become visible and more real, and frankly more convincing to those who are about us. His life becomes a tangible reality.

*****

“II Corinthians talks about that living epistle. The epistle of Christ written in your heart and that life of Christ living out through you.

“You see, grace isn’t just a theology, and what he’s saying here is, ‘This is the way you think through . . . that renewed mind thinks through how to deal with the issues of life.’

“Romans 5 says, ‘And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience;
[4] And patience, experience; and experience, hope:
[5] And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.’

“Our joy, hope, patience--they’re not found in freedom from trouble; they’re found in the midst of the difficulties.

“Tribulation works patience. So the tribulation has done its work. It’s taught you that there’s no other place to go but the truth of God’s Word. Patience is something that sustains you; keeps you there.

“Paul doesn’t just tolerate tribulation; he says, 'God, take this tribulation and make it serve you.' First, you’re rejoicing in hope. It’s important to understand what the hope is. The verse is telling you your hope is based in hope. Hope is the rock in which joy is rooted. It’s the soil out of which the rejoicing comes. The ground of our hope and the goal of our hope are all in Christ.”

(new article tomorrow)

Because the Cross has us covered

Cleaning out my family home's basement after my dad died, I came across an untouched paperback that had been given him after we moved to Loudonville, Ohio, by a colleague, Dr. Abraham Kuttothara, who was a surgeon from the Malabar coast of India. As a little note to my dad inside the cover, he wrote in pen something like, "I know you believe in your faith but I recommend you take a look at this."

The 1973 book was called The Awakening of Intelligence, by Jiddu Krishnamurti, considered the greatest Indian "guru" philosopher of all time by his adherents. I kept the book and eventually did read it. He is very cunning and crafty in how he steals from God's Word and twists it without acknowledgment, then puts a New Age spin on it.

One of the grace-applicable takeaways, though, was the concept of  "no justification, no condemnation." That means, in part, "I don't get puffed up. I don't dwell on shame and guilt. I forget about the past and move forward, using my mistakes to teach me. I don't beat myself up or try to rationalize with, 'Because of this I did that, and if this or that hadn't happened, I wouldn't have acted the way I did.' "

*****

In church last Sunday, Jordan told us "the future we have in Christ is really affected by right now so now should be affected by the future. What you do now is going to impact your position in 'the ages to come,' so what you want your position to be there ought to be the way you think about life and service now.

"The Christian life, in a lot of ways, is like chasing around a dead chicken. Here's a dead chicken but it's still running. Now, why is it running? Have you ever noticed what live chickens do? They scratch around in the yard, pecking all the time. They stir up 'stuff' and I'm being polite when I say that. You've seen the bumper sticker, 'Stuff Happens.' That's what they're stirring up most of the time.
The dead chicken stirs stuff up, too, but he's dead.

"The comparison I'm making is in the life of a Christian. The average Christian life is just running around chasing dead chickens. When you got saved, it's that song we just sang: 'Calvary covers it all.' Your guilt, your despair. All the stuff; the Cross covers it. It doesn't just forgive it; it completely changes who you are. You aren't a chicken anymore, scratching around out in the yard."

Here's a related post from 2016:

The classic account in Luke 18 tells about “a woman in the city, which was a sinner,” who “when she knew that Jesus sat at meat in the Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment,
[38] And stood at his feet behind him weeping, and began to wash his feet with tears, and did wipe them with the hairs of her head, and kissed his feet, and anointed them with the ointment.”

Luke reports, “Now when the Pharisee which had bidden him saw it, he spake within himself, saying, This man, if he were a prophet, would have known who and what manner of woman this is that toucheth him: for she is a sinner.”

In a study posted online to Helpersofyourjoy.com, California preacher John Verstegen explains,
“Look at Jesus Christ’s statement in Luke 18: [47] Wherefore I say unto thee, Her sins, which are many, are forgiven; for she loved much: but to whom little is forgiven, the same loveth little.
[48] And he said unto her, Thy sins are forgiven.

“You see the principle there? Salvation by grace doesn’t come along and say that, ‘Well, your sins aren’t that bad.’ It says, ‘Her sins they are many, but the reason it made such a difference in her life is she was willing to get beyond her fear of coming into the Pharisees where there was sure to be condemnation; coming into the house of the Pharisees where they probably all talked about her.’

“It’s because there was a person there who had the answer for her sins, that were many indeed, and when she sensed and knew and recognized who He was, an overwhelming appreciation of gratitude (love) is what she experienced.

*****

“What’s the result of ‘to whom much is forgiven’? A greater appreciation. A love that can only be experienced by an appreciation of the depth of the need, the extent of the forgiveness, the value of the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.

"What I’m saying is one of the most essential aspects of a relationship of grace is an acknowledgement and an awareness of how much we need it!

“If we’re like the Pharisee, and we don’t think we have that many sins, well, we really won’t appreciate the grace of God that much because we think our need’s not as great as the woman of the city.

“But if we realize, ‘I may not be the ‘woman in the city’; I’m the man of the town,’ and it’s interesting how we always pick on the woman but, boy, we forgot the man. ‘My needs are just like this woman now, and it took the same blood of Christ to pay for my sins; the same grace of God to save me from a just condemnation that I deserve.’

“I’ve got a question for you. If you’ve trusted the Lord Jesus Christ for your Savior, how forgiven are you? Don’t answer yet because we could all say, ‘All of it, totally.’ Christ’s saying in that verse that the way you and I can appreciate how forgiven we are is a response of LOVE on our part because He loved us first. Isn’t that fascinating?

“Romans 5:1 says, ‘Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.’

“One of the immediate things that happens as a result of having all our sins forgiven is PEACE with the God of heaven and earth. That’s what’s in this relationship. The experience of the justice of God, rather than condemning us in our sins like the Pharisees condemned this woman, being FOR us forever, just like Christ was for that woman.

“The next verse says, [2] By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

“What does the word ACCESS mean? When you think of a computer or a cell phone, you’ve got to have a security code, or access. Access allows you to get in and keeps others out.

*****

“Think of the difference between that and in the Old Testament. Did the nation of Israel have access to God? They did but it was very limited. They had to go through the priest. The priest had access but it also was very limited. The priest could go into the very presence of Almighty God once a year and do everything JUST right.

“Remember Nadab and Abihu when they offered that strange incense fire? Boom, the fire burned them up right there and God said, ‘Hey, I told you whoever comes into my presence, I will demonstrate that I am holy.’ What could they say? ‘Yeah, you did tell us that. We’ll get it right next time.’

“Think about that. You and I have complete, total access INTO the grace wherein we stand. We have open-door access into the grace of Almighty God. Not only that, see how it says that in Ephesians 2:18: ‘For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.’

“The fellowship that were in is that fellowship that exists among the godhead. The access we have is into that relationship! That verse says the triune God is involved in that access given to us freely by the blood of Christ.

“Not only that, but look at chapter 3:12 and look at the nature of this TYPE of access. It says, ‘In whom we have boldness and access with confidence by the faith of him.’

“The priest could get access into the very presence of Almighty God in the ‘holiest of holies,’ but he could only do that once a year, and I’m telling you there was probably a little fear and trepidation in that man’s heart.

“You understand that twice a day every day that high priest literally came within inches of losing his life? He would go into the holy place and make sure the shewbread was fine, the altar of incense was fine, the candle stick was lit, and then get out of there because what was right on the other side of that veil? The glory of Almighty God. That guy came within inches of his life twice a day.

“Paul says we can have access with CONFIDENCE by the faith of Him. Who is our confidence in? Oh, not self. All this talk about how you need to have more self-confidence kind of thing; how you need to build up your self-esteem.

“It’s no wonder people have such difficulty with self-esteem because they find they keep doing what? Failing.

“Don’t have self-based esteem; have Calvary-based esteem. Don’t have self-confidence; have confidence that comes from the Word of God working in us because it cannot change; it’s perfect, God cannot lie. So it’s scriptural-based confidence.

“Not only do we have confidence, but look at Ephesians 1:6: ‘To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.’

“Everyone wants to be part of some thing or some one. People will compromise their integrity to BELONG to a group. People will compromise their morals to be in the ‘in’ crowd. Why do we do stuff like that? Because we think there is more value in the acceptance of the group we want to belong to compared to the value we hold in our character for our morals.

“As soon as we do something that violates the standards of the group, guess what? You’re out of there. Listen, God said He MADE us accepted in the beloved. Who’s the beloved? That’s the Lord Jesus Christ.

“I’ve got a question for you. If you’ve trusted Christ for your Savior, how accepted are you? You’re as accepted as the Lord Jesus Christ is. Isn’t that amazing? Just think about that for a moment. God MADE you accepted according to the same standard.

“Why is that good news? Guess what, all you can do is just realize, ‘Whew, wow, I can just rest and appreciate what’s there; who He is.’ You are loved eternally with the same love that exists among the godhead. There is no other kind of love He’s offering.

“It’s no wonder therefore then that the Apostle Paul can make a statement like this in Colossians 2:9-10: 9] For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
[10] And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:

“This is why I get so upset when I see people attacking that verse, saying you’re complete in Christ theoretically, potentially.

“They absolutely undermine and destroy the very nature of the grace relationship God has placed us in. The only kind of grace relationship God has to place anyone in is the relationship that exists within the godhead.

“He doesn’t say, ‘We’re going to have this fellowship over here and you’re just going to be a second-class citizen. You’re still pretty good, but you’re over there.’

“This is not Tony Robbins and ‘fake-it-’til-you-make-it’ kind of stuff. When that verse in I Thessalonians says ‘Rejoice evermore,’ you say, ‘Well, let’s see. I’ve been forgiven of all my sins, I have peace with God, I’ve been accepted in the beloved, I have access, I’ve been blessed, I am complete, I’m sealed—I might just have reason to rejoice evermore!’

“That’s Paul’s point. That’s what it looks like. The natural byproduct of a trust that this relationship really is what it is, is it will impact the inner man and manifest itself in the outer man, hence whatever comes, we can just say, ‘Lord, for your grace and the blood of Christ.’ ”

(new article tomorrow)

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I just realized the DNC logo is a Baphomet icon on its side! The RNC logo was created last fall and has a CROWN (as in Corona) behind the elephant! We are being mocked.

Today's Google home page "cartoon" has a series of drawings honoring Alexandre Dumas, the writer of The Count of Monte Cristo.

I don't ever remember reading this book in school, but according to a quote on Wikipedia, "The Count of Monte Cristo has become a fixture of Western civilization's literature, as inescapable and immediately identifiable as Mickey Mouse, Noah's flood, and the story of Little Red Riding Hood.”

This story involves the Knights Templar, Jesuits, Jacobian Frankists, etc., etc. They are the ones "running the show" today. The Jesuits' motto is "Divide and conquer," exactly what Washington D.C. (which is run by Jesuits) plays to the hilt. One website says, "The Latin phrase “Divide et impera” is as old as politics and war. The divide your enemy so you can reign approach is attributed to Julius Cesar — he successfully applied it to conquer Gaul twenty-two centuries ago (no typo)."

According to a Christian website, "The first Jesuits were crypto‑Jews. Ignatius Loyola himself was a crypto‑Jew of the Occult Cabala. A crypto‑Jew is a Jew who converts to another religion and outwardly embraces the new religion, while secretly maintaining Jewish practices. As John Torell explains: 'In 1491 San Ignacio de Loyola was born in the Basque province of Guipuzcoa, Spain. His parents were Marranos and at the time of his birth the family was very wealthy.  As a young man he became a member of the Jewish Illuminati order in Spain.  As a cover for his crypto Jewish activities, he became very active as a Roman Catholic. On May 20, 1521 Ignatius (as he was now called) was wounded in a battle, and became a semi‑cripple. Unable to succeed in the military and political arena, he started a quest for holiness and eventually ended up in Paris where he studied for the priesthood. In 1539 he had moved to Rome where he founded the “JESUIT ORDER,” which was to become the most vile, bloody and persecuting order in the Roman Catholic Church. ' " 

*****

Look at this article from The New Republic: “Flouting nepotism laws, Donald Trump is making his son-in-law special adviser to the president. This title merely formalizes the well-documented power that Kushner has in Trump’s inner circle. Aside from the massive conflicts of interest that a Kushner appointment poses, there’s also the question of how he’ll respond to being one of the most powerful men in Washington.

"A well-timed profile in New York magazine has a telling anecdote about Kushner courtesy of Peter Kaplan, the late fabled editor of the New York Observer, which Kushner now owns: ‘Kaplan told friends that Kushner’s favorite book was The Count of Monte Cristo, the story of a wronged man who escapes prison, becomes rich, and uses his wealth to stealthily visit vengeance upon his unsuspecting enemies.’

“Like Edmond Dantès, the hero of The Count of Monte Cristo, Kushner suffered what he sees as a terrible wrong. In 2005, Kushner’s father Charles was convicted of tax evasion, illegal campaign spending, and witness tampering. The prosecuting attorney was Chris Christie. Many of the humiliations Christie suffered as an ally of Trump, notably being pushed off the transition team, have reportedly come from the fact that Jared Kushner nurses an undying hatred of the man who jailed his father.

“If you have ever angered Kushner in any way, you should be scared. Very scared.”

*****

Investments website: "Kushner Companies purchased 666 Fifth Avenue in midtown Manhattan in early 2007 for a record-breaking price of $1.8 billion. It was supposed to be a center of their real estate portfolio. Instead, the Kushners have struggled to cover their debt on the troubled building since shortly after its purchase on the eve of the financial crisis. As Jared Kushner’s father-in-law, Donald J. Trump, was running for President, the Kushners were pitching Qatari investors to help bail out the building. And just weeks after his father Charles reportedly failed to reach a deal with Qatar’s minister of finance, Jared Kushner, in his capacity as a senior adviser to President Trump, reportedly played a central role in supporting a blockade of Qatar by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Kushner never disclosed his meeting with Saudi Arabia and the UAE on the blockade to Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at the time. Later, a financial company tied to Qatar brokered an especially valuable deal to rescue the Kushner Companies’ property at 666 Fifth Avenue.”

*****

Psalm 10, a whole psalm dedicated to the Antichrist, says, [7] His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.

[8] He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.

[9] He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.

[10] He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.

Verse 2 says, "The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined."

“Dozens of times through the minor prophets the text will refer to the poor, but it’s not talking about some folks on Lower Wacker living in a cardboard box," explains Jordan. "It's a specific reference to a specific group of people at a specific time.

“Jesus said, ‘The poor you have with you always.’ Well, that’s a truism in the sense it’s the common lot of mankind, but these poor result from the persecution in the time of Jacob’s trouble. If you don’t take ‘the mark of the beast’ what happens to you? You can’t buy, you can’t sell. You can’t own property; you can’t divest yourself of property.

“The kings are literally going to take the wealth from the people in the nations they control and make them poor. They’re going to use Israel and the Gentiles in those nations and suck the wealth out through corrupt money, corrupt government, corrupt policies. The Wicked’s going to oppress the poor; going to persecute the Believing Remnant and let them be taken in the devices they have imagined.

“Now, Psalm 10:3 explains why the Antichrist’s called the ‘foolish shepherd’: [3] For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.

“It’s the greed that’s driving him; the will to be rich. If you go to Ezekiel 28, you’ll see that when Satan starts out, that prince of Tyre and king of Tyre is the man of sin and the son of perdition, and the whole object there is to get rich."

(new article tomorrow)

They've taken over

Living in Manhattan (1999-2007), I resided only a few blocks west of the Scientology “embassy” on 48^th Street. Going about life I’d often pass cult members standing out on the sidewalk, smoking cigarettes. They always dressed in dark navy slacks--or skirts if the women chose-- and white cotton dress shirts.

I remember one Saturday night I found myself in step right behind two Scientologists making their way down Eighth Avenue through thick pedestrian traffic. I could see they were repeatedly snickering among themselves and the journalist in me thought, “Listen for what they’re saying.” I couldn’t make out much of it, but the general gist was something like, “Yeah, people just aren’t open to our ‘higher truth.’ They’re blinded, only interested in basic survival.”

This is exactly what New Agers in general believe: “We’re enlightened; you’re not. You’re in bondage to a lower plane of existence, mentally enslaved by whatever religion and/or philosophy you were raised in as children. You haven’t developed your sensitivity and spiritual acuity to move beyond the superficial.”

*****

Probably the top calling-card Bible phrase of the New Age Movement is, “The kingdom of God is within you,” adapted from Luke 17:21. Of course, it is taken completely out of context with no biblical literacy in its application.

As Bible teacher Keith Blades writes in an article on his website www.enjoythebible.org,  “You could probably get rich if you were given a dime for every time someone brings up (Luke 17:21) in connection with questioning whether the ‘kingdom of God/kingdom of heaven’ spoken about in God’s program with Israel is really the literal and physical establishment of God’s kingdom on this earth.

“And for those who do not merely question this, but are determined to deny the literal, physical reality and nature of that kingdom in favor of a spiritual ‘in-the-heart’ type reigning of God, these verses are a stronghold. Since the Lord says that ‘the kingdom of God is within you,’ then the argument is that it cannot be a literal, physical, external kingdom, but only a spiritual one in men’s hearts.”

The reality is there are dozens upon dozens of passages in the Bible making explicit reference to the literal, physical nature of God’s kingdom on earth. In this particular verse from Luke, Jesus Christ is addressing the unbelieving Pharisees who were enemies of God. They had refused to look at the evidence surrounding them for three-plus years that demonstrated the climactic stage of Israel’s program had arrived—exactly as foretold by the Old Testament prophets.

*****

A kingdom verse you likely won’t hear a New Ager quote is Matt. 13:19: “When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.”

Blades explains, “All the proofs for the reality of the coming of ‘the kingdom of God,’ (if the Pharisees of Luke 17 had honestly sought any proofs), were in their own hearts. They had been placed there over the course of the previous three-plus years by the effectual working of both ‘the gospel of the kingdom’ and the signs of it.

“That therefore is the place where they needed to be looking to see the reality of the kingdom being ‘at hand.’ They needed to honestly deal with what had been placed in their hearts by ‘the gospel of the kingdom’ and its signs. Hence, the Lord said to them, ‘for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.’ ”

*****

Scientologists say reality is relative. Of course, this type of hokum plays big to those who are frightened by the world and its instability and yet don’t want the security God offers through belief in His Son. Instead, they like the notion that they are God. That way they don’t have to be accountable to anyone and are free to do whatever they deem right. There’s nothing new at all to this delusional doctrine of Satan’s.

As Gail Riplinger writes in her 1993 book New Age Bible Versions, “Eve became the first ‘moralist,’ as she chose to decide what is good and what is evil. Rebels, like Eve and Lucifer seek ‘the good’. . .God spoke these words (‘Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes.’ Deut. 12:8) because the heathen perennially chose their mores over the laws of God.

“ ‘Taoists maintain morals are relative.’ The Hindu Bhagavad Gita ‘teaches the supremacy of freedom over morality.’ Its dialogue between Arjuna and Krishna concludes: ‘There can be no absolute moral values because all things are changing, evolving. A particular moral value represents only a particular perspective offered by a particular time at a particular level of evolution.’

“From the bushmen to the bookmen like Boehm, Blake, Nietzsche, Heidigger and Sartre, man rejects the mandates of God for a man-made morality. A confederacy of educators, carrying Einstein’s ‘Theory of Relativity’ banner, have captured today’s students. In a national religious survey, half of the college students polled affirmed that: ‘Truth is basically relative; what is right and true for you might not be right and true for me.’ ”

*****

Out of people’s deep-seated loneliness and misery—heightened by their separation from God as non-believers—they try to escape from themselves through knowledge, through different forms of belief and through identification with a “special” group. This explains the appeal of cults like the Church of Scientology.

Riplinger writes, “The carnal spirit of Gnosticism, that is, the desire for hidden knowledge others do not have, is prevalent in the New Age and the church. New Agers try to get a word from ‘God’ through some ‘hidden’ wisdom from ‘far off’ gurus living ‘beyond the sea’. Christians search for the ‘hidden’ meaning of a word in Greek lexicons from ‘far off’ Egyptian manuscripts from ‘beyond the sea’.”

In another passage, she notes, “New Ager Vera Alder say of the ‘New’ world religion: ‘It is likely that a new kind of religion will develop in which man will discover and work out his own sermons for himself’. . .Seth, an entity now being channeled in New Age circles echoes: ‘There is no authority superior to the guidance of a person’s inner self.’

“This wizard ‘peeps’ as cultists and textual scholars ‘mutter’ the same monotonous declamation. Hare Krishna devotees listen to see if a Bible version has a ‘ring of truth.’ Hort (the Bible revisionist behind the corrupt modern versions) used his ‘instinctive’ powers to determine if a verse had a ‘ring of genuineness.’

“J.B. Phillips touts the reader of his forward to the NASB Interlinear Greek-English New Testament to ‘try to make his own translation,’ looking for The Ring of Truth (the title of his autobiography). Westcott (the other Bible revisionist from the late 1800s) recommends using your ‘intuitive powers’ as a sounding board. . .

“Westcott thinks Plato has a clear source of ‘truth,’ which for us is ‘blurred and dim.’ He writes that this ‘truth’ stems from Plato’s, ‘. . . communion with a divine and super-sensuous world. . . [with] those beings who occupy a middle place between God and man. . . [A]ll fellowship which exists between heaven and earth is realized through this intermediate order. . . These spirits are many and manifold’. . .

“One of Plato’s most well-known philosophies is his concept of ‘the Idea’ wherein the outside form of things merely veils ‘the idea,’ which alone is real. Westcott expresses this Eastern and Gnostic world view saying, ‘There is. . . a serious danger in the prevailing spirit of realism which leads us to dwell on the outside form, the dress of things, to the neglect of ‘ideas’ which are half-veiled. . . Eternal life is. . .the potential fulfillment of the ‘idea’ of humanity.’

“The TV mini-series The Power of Myth ‘programmed’ potential New Agers with Plato’s concept of ‘the idea’. Joseph Campbell, its author, also wrote Hero with a Thousand Faces. Both try to popularize Westcott’s Platonic idea that, as Westcott says, God appears, ‘not in one form, but in many.’ [Buddha, Krishna, Mary]

“If you missed the mini-series reruns, your college psychology class will present the same concept under the guise of Carl Jung’s ‘archetypes’ welling up from the ‘universal unconsciousness’. ”

Attitude, spirit, outlook of eternal mindset

For eons Christians have had this quote from Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. leveled at them as a criticism: "Some people are so heavenly minded that they are no earthly good."

The Bible's message, though, is that living life on earth--in all its details--with eternity in mind, is not a means of escaping reality. Rather, it's living smartly with an elevated understanding of what's already true about us.

As Preacher Richard Jordan said in his Sunday sermon, "Salvation for you and me is more than just dying and going to heaven. Our hope is more than just yearning and waiting for that. Our ultimate joy is not simply escaping the problems of this world.

"Sometime we think, 'Oh, if I could just get out of this trouble.' The church the Body of Christ has been equipped--in fact, it's been CREATED specifically FOR the capacity to endure through the difficulties.

"Paul says in Romans 8:18, [18] For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.

"Our hope really is the world's redemption along with ours. Our hope is that while we're here on earth, there are things we can do to REDEEM the time and bring people into the hope that we have. The glory that will be revealed in us gives us the capacity to function NOW in a way that's effective.

"Paul writes in Romans 8:14-15: [14] For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.
[15] For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

"The spirit of bondage comes from the law; it comes from relying upon your resources to produce something that God accepts. That never works and it always keeps you afraid because you have that consciousness that you don't measure up. That isn't how God deals with us.

"That Spirit of adoption is God the Holy Spirit. You've received right now the Spirit that's going to resurrect you out there in the future. Adoption is to be placed in the position of an adult in God's family. I right now have the Holy Spirit who's going to produce that.

"That word 'Abba' is an Aramaic word kind of like saying 'Papa.' It's like looking at your dad and being able to say, 'Papa, I trust you.' The only other person in the Bible who ever said that is in Mark 14. It's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's in the garden of Gethsemane facing Calvary.

"He falls on the ground and prays, 'Abba, Father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt.' When He does that He says, 'Abba, Father. I trust you above all other. I know you have my interest only on your heart.'

"You and I have that ability because we know the security of our future to trust Him now as though we were already there. Romans 8:16-17: [16] The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:
[17] And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

"To be an 'heir' is an inheritance. You have an inheritance out there in the future. 'Heirs of God.' That's who gives you the inheritance. You're an heir of the Creator of all things. A JOINT-heir with the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the extent of your inheritance.

"Now, notice the suffering and the glory in verse 18. There's a correlation between what we go through now and the glory. When you put in your mind the things that are coming, it gives you the capacity to look at what's happening now and say, 'Hey, that's what's future and that's what's lasting.' It gives you the capacity to be sustained. It gives you patience not to be thrown off and just to keep at it.

"Hebrews 12:2 is the classic illustration of Romans 8. The verse says, [2] Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

"Notice, for the joy that was set before Him He endured the Cross and said, 'It's no big deal.' It was a big deal when He was going through it. But He said, 'When you compare it with that glory, that joy, with what's going to be accomplished, it's no big deal.' The Lord Jesus Christ kept in His mind a realm of understanding about what was being accomplished at the Cross; what God was going to do through the Crosswork.

"When you and I keep that same viewpoint in our own thinking, it gives us the capacity to be sustained; the capacity to put on RIGHT NOW . . . when he says 'put on the helmet of salvation,' right now we're to think and view ourselves in light of what God's going to do with us in the ages to come.

"We're not just going to say, 'Well, out yonder when I get there . . .' We're going to put it on right now and it's going to produce in us a thinking process.

"Ephesians 1 says, [15] Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints,
[16] Cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers;
[17] That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him:
[18] The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
[19] And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to usward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power.

"Notice He's the Father of glory. We're talking about the glorification of the Lord Jesus Christ. God the Father has a plan; He calls it glory. To exalt His Son. He explains what the plan is in the rest of this chapter. We're a part of it.

Paul writes of 'the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him.' He wants you to KNOW something. When you know it, chapter 3, Paul prays that it then would empower you. It can't empower you until you KNOW it, because it's the WORD that you know and becomes the energizing force when you believe it.

"What he's talking about in the verse is there's an attitude; a spirit. There's an outlook that you get when you have the wisdom that comes from the revelation of God's Word.

"When you get an understanding of God's Word, 'the eyes of your understanding being enlightened', it gives you a spirit; an attitude, a confidence, a good hope. That hope, the 'helmet of salvation,' that's the issue. And that is what we're to live in right now.

*****

"In I Corinthians, Paul is writing to the most carnal, fleshy, worldly-minded, completely self-oriented church. They evidently wrote Paul a series of questions and he's answering them. Before he does that, though, he spends six chapters rebuking them. You can divide I Corinthians into two sections. Chapters 7-16 is his reply.

"I Corinthians 6: [1] Dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust, and not before the saints? It's as if you see somebody do something and you say, 'How dare you?!' In other words, Paul's saying, 'This makes no sense considering who you are!'

"What's happening is two guys are in a fight and they can't come to an agreement, so one of them sues the other; goes to the law to settle the argument.

"Here's why they shouldn't do that: [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?
[4] If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church.
[5] I speak to your shame. Is it so, that there is not a wise man among you? no, not one that shall be able to judge between his brethren?

"You get the idea. He's saying, 'Your destiny is to judge and rule and reign in the heavens over the angelic creation. If there's where you're headed and that's what God's going to use you for in the ages to come for eternity, don't you have sense enough to handle this little fight you got going on now?!'

"In other words, 'If you're equipped out here with this future it ought to affect the way you operate and think right now.' Just keep reading: [6] But brother goeth to law with brother, and that before the unbelievers.
[7] Now therefore there is utterly a fault among you, because ye go to law one with another. Why do ye not rather take wrong? why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?
[8] Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren.
[9] Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
[10] Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
[11] And such were some of you: but ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God.

"He's saying, 'You think lost people can answer things?! What?! Don't you realize who you are?!' Paul doesn't let them off. He doesn't excuse them. He says, 'This is a shameful thing among you because of the way you think.'

" 'Why do you not rather take wrong?' Uh-oh. What kind of an attitude would that be? Would it be called grace? Would it be called, '[5] Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:'

"Or is it, 'Well, I'm not going to let them do that! You know what they did to me?! They're wrong, I'm right!'

"Paul says, 'Wait a minute, what'd grace teach you? Why do ye not rather suffer yourselves to be defrauded?' In other words, you ever heard the adage, 'There's his side, her side and then the truth'? That's always the way it is. Paul says, 'You're going to go out there and try and let unsaved people solve these things when God's given you the wisdom in His Word to do it yourself.'

"That's the context in which he says verse 9. Most of the time we pull verse 9 out without the context. Here's the doctrine: Lost people aren't going to be out there in that kingdom, you are! Be not deceived.

"In verse 11, he's saying to think about all those things in verse 9 and 10. Those are lost people. Paul says, 'You used to be lost.'

"You've heard me say over and over, don't get mad at lost people for acting like lost people. That's what lost people do. That's who they are. And if anybody understands that, it ought to be you because you used to be one of them! But you aren't anymore. Here's who you are now.

"You're washed. Revelation 1 says we're washed in His blood. We're cleansed from the defilement and the dirt. You're sanctified. That means you've been set apart. You're justified in the name of the Lord Jesus. You've had a complete, radical change in your identity; in who you are. Not what you do but who you are, because who you are is where what you do comes from.

"Philippians 1:9: [9] And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;

"Notice he's praying for their love, but that kind of love is not spelled l-u-v; it's not a warm, wonderful feeling for everybody. It's not an emotional, circumstantial-based love because it's going to increase in knowledge.

"This is a thinking, knowledge-based love. The idea of loving something is valuing and esteeming it. Paul says, 'I'm praying that your ability to value and esteem a thing would grow in knowledge and in judgment.' Judgment there is the idea of discernment.

"Verse 10: [10] That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ. You remember that passage in Hebrews 5 where he says, [14] But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.

"Verse 10 is saying, 'That you may always choose the thing that's of greatest value in life.' I can do this or that as far as God's concerned, but they're not all the thing of greater value. Can I do it? Yes, but is it the thing that has the best long-term interest for myself and others? What's the long-term benefit, the benefit in 'the ages to come,' as opposed to just me right now having my way and then getting a 'blank' out there.

"I need to have the capacity to look at life, look at my choices and discern the thing that's of greater value; approve things that are excellent. 'Here's something that's good, but here's something that's better. Here's something that's the best.'

"Why would you want to be doing that? 'That ye may be sincere and without offense.' You see, what you do now impacts what happens to you out yonder. He says, 'I want you to value and esteem what's going to happen to you out in the future enough that it controls and guides your thinking about what you're doing now.'

"There's that verse in I Corinthians 10: [31] Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God. Sometime the glory of God comes out yonder because of what you did now and you have to keep that in mind. Making decisions right now in light of who you are in Christ bears on what happens to you in the inheritance and the reward of the inheritance in the ages to come."

Hope as defined by God

When darkness veils his lovely face
I rest on His unchanging grace
In every high and stormy gale
My anchor holds within the veil

His oath, his covenant, his blood
Supports me in the 'whelming flood
When all around my soul gives way
He then is all my hope and stay

On Christ the solid rock I stand
All other ground is sinking sand
All other ground is sinking sand

Edward Mote (1797-1874), author of the great old hymn, My hope is built on nothing less, "falls into the rare category of hymn writers who grew up without religious training and whose parents were pub owners," writes Dr. C. Michael Hawn, professor of sacred music at Perkins School of Theology.

"He was apprenticed at a young age by his parents to be a cabinetmaker, but found faith when he heard the preaching of John Hyatt at the Tottenham Court Road Chapel in London at age 15.

“Living in Southwark near London, he established a successful cabinet-making enterprise and became a Baptist minister in 1852, at 55 years of age. He ministered for 21 years at Strict Baptist Church in Horsham, Sussex.

“Singing hymns was of great interest to him. The master cabinetmaker became a prolific hymn writer, composing more than 100 hymns. He published his hymns with selections by others in 1836 in Hymns of Praise, A New Selection of Gospel Hymns. Hymnologists note that this is the first time the now common term ‘gospel hymn’ appears.”

Speaking on the origins of My Hope is Built on Nothing Less, which is the legendary hymn The Solid Rock, Mote once relayed to London’s The Gospel Magazine: “One morning it came into my mind as I went to labour, to write an hymn on the ‘Gracious Experience of a Christian.’ As I went up to Holborn I had the chorus, On Christ the solid Rock I stand, All other ground is sinking sand. In the day I had four verses complete, and wrote them off . . . by the fireside I composed the last two verses.”

Baptist hymnologist William Reynolds summarizes the rest of the story: “The next Sunday Mote visited the home of some fellow church members where the wife was very ill. The husband informed Mote that it was their custom on the Lord’s Day to sing a hymn, read the Bible, and pray together. Mote produced the new hymn from his pocket, and they sang The Solid Rock together for the first time.”

*****

In a Sunday morning sermon last month, Preacher Richard Jordan explained, “When you talk about hope, you're not talking about, 'I just wish it would happen.' Most of the time, we're like, 'Boy, I hope I get this. I wish I could get that.' We're not sure, maybe it will and maybe it won't, but we hope it will turn out the good way that we want.

“In the Bible, hope is a confident expectation of a sure thing. One of the metaphors that God uses to describe it in Hebrew 6 is an anchor: [17] Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed it by an oath:
[18] That by two immutable things, in which it was impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us:
[19] Which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast, and which entereth into that within the veil;

“God had made a promise to Israel. He secured the promise by, 'I gave you my word and I gave you an oath. Two immutable things.' What does an anchor do? It sets you stedfast. It sets you unmovable. It gives you an absolute, unmovable confidence of a sure thing and when you have an anchor to the soul . . .

“Most of you won't recall Brother Bill Cash, who was our song leader years ago, but he was a Navy man who served in World War II. He loved to sing that song, My Anchor Holds. He would tell stories about being on a ship in the ocean and they would lay out the anchor.

“Bill said they’d get in a storm and the ship was tossed and they’d come into port wanting the ship to be stable. What the anchor does is it digs in and now you've got a solid foundation. Nothing's going to move you away.

“Hope, in the Scripture, is not something that may be or may not, it's an absolute sure thing and it's designed to give stability to your inner man.

“Romans 8:18 says, [18] For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. [19] For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.

“There's that future. That's Phase 3. You see that expression 'the earnest expectation'? That's what hope is!

"Verse 20: [20] For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. What hope? Verse 21: [21] Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God.

“The creation itself is waiting for the earnest expectation, to be delivered into this hope of the manifestation of the sons of God--of God's original purpose and plan being manifest.

“In the battle of the Christian life, the thing that's designed to keep your head in the game and your thinking properly focused, is that hope. Understand, it's not the hope of getting saved. It's not Phase 1. It's not the hope of living day by day. It's Phase 3.”

Here are the lyrics to My Anchor Holds, written in 1902 by William C. Martin:
Though the angry surges roll

1. On my tempest-driven soul,
   I am peaceful, for I know,
   Wildly though the winds may blow,
   I’ve an anchor safe and sure,
   That can evermore endure.
   • Refrain:
     And it holds, my anchor holds:
     Blow your wildest, then, O gale,
     On my bark so small and frail;
     By His grace I shall not fail,
     For my anchor holds, my anchor holds.
2. Mighty tides about me sweep,
   Perils lurk within the deep,
   Angry clouds o’ershade the sky,
   And the tempest rises high;
   Still I stand the tempest’s shock,
   For my anchor grips the rock.
3. I can feel the anchor fast
   As I meet each sudden blast,
   And the cable, though unseen,
   Bears the heavy strain between;
   Through the storm I safely ride,
   Till the turning of the tide.
4. Troubles almost ’whelm the soul;
   Griefs like billows o’er me roll;
   Tempters seek to lure astray;
   Storms obscure the light of day:
   But in Christ I can be bold,
   I’ve an anchor that shall hold.