Way of Cain keeps broadenng

(sorry for delay--new article tomorrow for certain)

From a BBC News article about the Baphomet statue erected by the Satanic Temple in Oklahoma City's Capitol Building:

"On the front of the statue, above the inverted pentagram, will be one of the Satanic Temple's seven fundamental tenets: 'The spirit of compassion, wisdom, and justice should always prevail over the written or spoken word.'

"The back of the stone slab will display a passage from Lord Byron's dramatic work from 1821, 'Cain,' that reads: 'Then who was the Demon? He who would not let ye live, or he who would have made ye live forever, in the joy and power of knowledge?' "

*****

On the CIA’s website--yes, the Central Intelligence Agency of America!--you can read a PDF of the whole book by Fritz Springmeier on the "13 Bloodlines of Cain the Illuminati Serpent Seed."

There’s a very interesting expression in Jude 11: [11] Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

Jude is a book written for the last days and when you get over into that tribulation period right before the Second Coming of Christ, they’re still talking about Cain. Cain sets a way, a path in Genesis and it’s the way of man’s rebellion against God to do it himself, his way. 

*****

Matthew 23: [33] Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?

[34] Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
[35] That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.

Talking to the Pharisees, Christ says, "You guys slew all that righteous blood; your part of a group of people who have shed all that righteous blood beginning with Abel--Cain was the first in the line."

There's something that began with Cain that goes all the way through the Bible; the way of Cain. First, it was the way of a man; a system of religion.

Jesus, talking about that way, said, [13] Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat.'

This way of Cain had become very broad; lot of people walking on it now, says Richard Jordan. Opened that path out. You ever go trace a trail through the woods? One guy, two guys walk it and it's just a narrow path, but then you get 10-15 walking side by side and the whole thing is stomped through! 

By the time you get to Jude, it's BROAD, Jesus said. You know what's happened? Paul says, "Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers." They've been working! They've been spreading this way and it's become the way of all flesh. That religious fervor of Cain's doesn't end until the Antichrist religion.

Luke 11: [49] Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:

[50] That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
[51] From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.

Notice that Christ traces the blood to this generation; to this offspring, this spiritual lineage that reaches all the way back to the slaying of Abel and all the way over to the last days.

A parallel passage to Luke 11:49-51 is Luke 23:34-35: [34] Then said Jesus, Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do. And they parted his raiment, and cast lots. [35] And the people stood beholding. And the rulers also with them derided him, saying, He saved others; let him save himself, if he be Christ, the chosen of God. 

Who does Luke 11:49 say Jesus Christ is? The wisdom of God. You see how one passage says one thing and the other passage says something else, but they're both talking about the same person? In your Bible, the wisdom of God is personified in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Jesus Christ says Abel was a prophet. That's fascinating--the stuff going on in Genesis 4, it wasn't just two brothers fighting. There's a religious system conflict going on back there; a spiritual battle.

CIA behind 'riots'

We had major storms roll through last night that took out trees and power and, for us, loss of TV and internet. Thankfully, we're back up and running as of this evening and so I will have new article tomorrow. In meantime, here's a shocker of a "reveal" as to the enemy within. There are dozens of articles about this, and I am sharing the one from the London Daily Mail:

A damning classified document has been uncovered that reveals how the CIA plans out and set off riots to destabilize governments.

In a 92-page 'playbook' written in 1983, officials mapped out how they would pay criminals and other 'agitators' to ramp up anger among ethnic minorities and students with the goal of having them riot in the streets.

This declassified document was recently brought to light on social media, amid claims that protesters in Los Angeles were being paid thousands of dollars to riot against the Trump Administration.

Several people on X have posted images of Craigslist ads promising to pay between $6,500 and $12,500 for 'tough bada--es' to enter the city during the protests. 

The CIA guide entitled 'Psychological Operations' served as a manual for starting antigovernment movements in other countries, although conspiracy theorists have claimed that those tactics are being used against the White House as well.

However, no evidence has been revealed that directly connects CIA operatives with triggering violence during protests here in the US. 

Originally, the CIA used this strategy of teaching guerrilla fighters how to influence people's minds to take down the Nicaraguan government, which the US viewed as a communist ally of the Soviet Union and Cuba.

The document specifically detailed how the agency would hire criminals and train professional protesters in order to make mass riots look like spontaneous uprisings against an allegedly unpopular government. 

The CIA document, declassified in 2023, explained how agents would take control and organize mass gatherings and steer them towards violence against governments believed to be acting against the interests of the US intelligence community.

'The control of mass meetings in support of guerrilla warfare is carried out internally through a covert commando element, bodyguards, messengers, shock troops (incident initiators), poster carriers (also used to give signals), and slogan shouters, all under the control of the external commando element,' CIA officials wrote.

Intelligence officials broke down this plot into several steps, starting with a 'front organization.'

Guerrillas infiltrate groups like labor unions or student organizations, secretly controlling them to push anti-government ideas.

Next, guerrillas used 'armed propaganda,' acting friendly, helping communities, and showing that their weapons protect the people, not control them, in order to gain their trust.

Slogans and speeches would then provide simple, emotional sayings to excite crowds and focus their anger on the government.

The manual then suggested using small groups of trained agitators to stir up crowds at protests, making it look like a big, spontaneous movement. This could also involve paying criminals to march along with normal protesters.

These instigators would provoke violence and create 'martyrs' in the crowd to turn people against the government the CIA was hoping to bring down.

Trump's appeal comes from Peale!

Putting together stuff in my head for another installment of my "testimony" that I will post tomorrow. In the meantime:

I remember once near the beginning of my years in New York I sought out an authentic Norwegian restaurant in Manhattan (my father was 100 percent Norwegian; his parents came over from Bergen area) and when I walked out of it after dining there by myself, not far from it (possibly even next door or across the street, as I remember) I was shocked to find I was outside the Marble Collegiate Church made famous by Norman Vincent Peale, who, and this was the real shocker for me, has a life-sized statue of himself, in preacher-mode, right off of the sidewalk on Fifth Avenue!!

When I was in high school, living in the Sunday morning TV realm of Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral out of Garden Grove, Calif., (especially when my dad decided to my delight some Sundays at the last minute that we would not be attending the main service at our First Baptist church in downtown Loudonville, OH) I was totally aware of Norman Vincent Peale.

Peale was Schuller's mentor who appeared on his nationally televised Hour of Power service. Peale had best-selling books on how to be a happier, fully confident, always upbeat--and above all, "successful"--Christian.

Think about this. Trump was following his parents in going to Marble Collegiate when he was young. That's where HIS father made him go and he LOVED it--worshipped it, in fact. There are quotes from him saying that no one wanted Peale's sermon to end on those Sunday mornings he was in attendance.

I never remember being told by anyone as a kid that Peale was a phony preacher. He was admired and respected--just like a kind of Dale Carnegie, really!

I can now see the great marketing job with Peale, a 33rd Degree Scottish Rite Freemason!!! This is where Trump got his skills to be such a master trickster. It's been engrained in his psyche starting with his childhood preacher!

From the website Esoteric Freemasons: "The 33rd degree Mason Ritual has its origins in 18th century France, when members of the Masonic Lodge developed rituals as a way to bring new members into their ranks. These rituals were used to symbolize various concepts, such as brotherhood, justice, and morality. Over time, more elaborate rituals were developed and eventually the Scottish Rite emerged as an independent organization with its own set of rituals.

"The 33rd degree Mason Ritual consists of four parts: initiation, instruction, instruction in symbolism, and passing through the degrees. During initiation, new members are instructed in the principles and values of Freemasonry. They are then instructed in symbolism such as handshakes and symbols that represent various concepts. Therefore, they pass through each degree until they reach the 33rd degree."

*****

Here's an excerpt from an online article posted by Politico magazine in 2016, entitled "How Norman Vincent Peale Taught Donald Trump to Worship Himself":

Is this guy for real? Or more to the point, could anyone really possess that much self-confidence? There has been no shortage of explanations—a huge inferiority complex, infantile narcissism, delusional thinking—for Trump’s undying self-assurance. But as I discovered when writing a book about Donald, his father, and his grandfather, if you want to understand what goes on underneath the blond comb-over, you’d do well to look back to two crucial events in the early 1950s.

Event No. 1 occurred in October 1952, when a book appeared called The Power Of Positive Thinking. Written by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and translated into 15 languages, it remained on the New York Times best-seller list for 186 weeks and sold 5 million copies. Donald was only 6 years old at the time and didn’t read the book until much later, but it quickly became important in the large Queens household in which he grew up, and it would play a critical role in his future. His parents, Fred and Mary, felt an immediate affinity for Peale’s teachings. On Sundays, they drove into Manhattan to worship at Marble Collegiate Church, where Peale was the head pastor. Donald and both his sisters were married there, and funeral services for both Fred and Mary took place in the main sanctuary.

“I still remember [Peale’s] sermons,” Trump told the Iowa Family Leadership Summit in July. “You could listen to him all day long. And when you left the church, you were disappointed it was over. He was the greatest guy.” A month later, in the same news conference at which Trump tossed out Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, he again referred to Peale as his pastor and said he was “one of the greatest speakers” he’d ever seen.

Known as “God’s salesman,” Peale merged worldliness and godliness to produce an easy-to-follow theology that preached self-confidence as a life philosophy. Critics called him a con man, described his church as a cult, and said his simple-minded approach shut off genuine thinking or insight. But Peale’s outlook, promoted through his radio shows, newspaper columns and articles, and through Guideposts, his monthly digest of inspirational messages, fit perfectly into the Trump family culture of never hesitating to bend the rules, doing whatever it took to win, and never, ever giving up.

“Believe in yourself!” Peale’s book begins. “Have faith in your abilities!” He then outlines 10 rules to overcome “inadequacy attitudes” and “build up confidence in your powers.” Rule one: “formulate and staple indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding,” “hold this picture tenaciously,” and always refer to it “no matter how badly things seem to be going at the moment.”

Subsequent rules tell the reader to avoid “fear thoughts,” “never think of yourself as failing,” summon up a positive thought whenever “a negative thought concerning your personal powers comes to mind,” “depreciate every so-called obstacle,” and “make a true estimate of your own ability, then raise it 10 per cent.”

Peale’s philosophy fell on willing and eager ears in the Trump family. Long before this self-esteem guru codified his canon, Donald’s grandfather Friedrich used Peale-like confidence and tenacity to make the first Trump fortune during the Klondike gold rush. A few decades later, Donald’s father, Fred, deployed proto-Peale thinking to become a multimillionaire real estate developer in Brooklyn and Queens. And Donald Trump himself has cited Peale’s advice many times in his own career.

Reliving my past

Well, here’s a first crack at my "testimony" as a Believer and I just hope it's not boring--I feel it will get easier and smoother as I go on:

Starting in high school, I learned I had a knack for journalism. As part of our journalism class, some of us took a field trip to compete in an annual event at Kent State University (Kent, OH). Students from around northern Ohio watched a reenactment of the Kent State Shootings from May, 4 1970 and then wrote up our news story on a really tight deadline.

This was before computers, so it was all by hand and I remember doing lots of erasing and scratching out, feeling major pressure. Unbelievably, I won THIRD place out of all the participants, so many of them that we filled a large lecture hall!

Even with this HUGE honor, though, my heart was fully set on becoming an actress. My absolute dream was that I would go to New York City and perform in Broadway shows. I was voted president of the drama club at Loudonville High and had parts in almost all the plays we produced my junior and senior year.

Probably the biggest thing my fellow club members would recall about me is that I worshipped Doris Day and would carry cut-out photos of her from magazines with me (usually in my back pocket) whenever we had play practice. For those who don’t know, Doris was an Ohioan (born Doris Mary Ann von Kappelhoff in Cincinnati) and even portrayed a woman from Upper Sandusky, Ohio in her hit romance comedy ("Touch of Mink") she did with Cary Grant.

Everything seemed to be going my way my senior year. I was voted vice president of my class, I won a scholarship from the Rotary Club and was named Buckeye Girls’ State representative from Loudonville.  With embarrassment, I even accepted the award of Class Clown (for the girls) from my senior class.

At the end of my senior year I was actually named a finalist for Ohio in the Miss United States Teenager contest and competed in a pageant in Columbus.

From that weekend in a dorm with the other contestants, I stood out as a real ham. In fact, and this was later terribly dismaying news for my grandmother who attended the pageant along with my mother, I popped the zipper on my gown by showing off my Julie Andrews impression backstage just before the evening event. They actually had to use duct tape (which wasn’t easy to find) to make my dress presentable for my appearance on stage.

I was a huge fan of the musical “Sound of Music” and knew all the show tunes by heart, including “Climb E’vry Mountain,” in which I would belt out the deep booming voice of the Mother Abbess.

*****

For college, I chose to go to Ohio University as a theatre major. Their performing arts program had an excellent reputation and Paul Newman was touted as the school's most famous student.

Just as a quick aside, Newman (from Shaker Heights, OH) and his wife, Joanne Woodward, were regular visitors to Loudonville, staying in an old mansion near downtown that we were told was part of the Civil War’s Underground Railroad. Newman liked to race cars at tracks nearby.

Within a month of starting my freshman year I was disillusioned. My high school guidance counselor, who actually sidelined as a preacher, somehow failed to tell me that OU was among the top three party schools for the whole country, rated as such in an annual ranking by National Lampoon Magazine!

The lesser problems I encountered included official warnings about obtaining “crabs” by using the female freshman dorm’s communal bathrooms. Unbelievably, in fact, I came back to campus from going home for Thanksgiving to learn that the police had cordoned off our bathroom because a student had given birth in it (all by herself, from what I understood!).

Every Friday and Saturday night the dorm floor I was on would practically empty out due to girls attending drinking parties, etc.

I had one friend (and she’s the only friend I remember having at OU) only a few rooms away from mine and we would spend those quiet weekend evenings in her dorm room, whining and consoling each other about how clueless we were to pick OU and that it wasn’t anything like we thought it would be (even though it was just as beautiful as the brochures portrayed). Worst of all, we felt pressure knowing we would need to transfer to new schools as soon as that quarter ended.

To be continued . . .

Shorewood's legacy

I realize I quite possibly never would have been introduced to my church if it wasn’t for a story I did in 1991, working as a feature writer for the Naperville Sun newspaper.

My article was about a Naperville man who started an inner-city youth group inside Precious Blood Catholic Church on Congress Parkway right off the Eisenhower in what was, at the time, a slum-like and crime-ridden neighborhood on the near-West Side of Chicago.

The purpose of his club was to provide young boys and girls (ages 8-12) after-school sports activities where they would be safe, learning Christian values from volunteers who would act as mentors.

While I was not in any way interested in initiating anyone into Catholicism, especially myself, I saw his project as a way for me to become involved in a ministry and, through the Naperville man’s encouragement, I volunteered to be a board member of this brand-new endeavor.

The whole experience was pretty short-lived, but I do remember putting together a one-time newsletter I named “The Mustard Seed.”

My funniest memory is when I got Naperville’s Mayor George Pradel, a long-time beloved police officer I had become friends with, to play Santa Claus at the church for an evening Christmas party I helped put on for the kids. Pradel was actually visibly uncomfortable walking down the dark sidewalk with me in his Santa outfit as young men hanging out on the street made intimidating comments directed at the two of us.

Anyway, one of the board members who lived near the Italian restaurant strip on Taylor Street invited me to a block party. I didn’t know a soul at the party besides him, so he introduced me to his brother who, in turn, introduced me to his good friend, Daniel, who immediately proceeded to ask me a bunch of questions.

When Daniel learned I was a Bible-believing Christian, he said, and it’s the one thing about our meeting each other that Saturday afternoon that's stuck in my brain all these years, “I’ve got just the church for you.”

The next week he had me pick him up in my car outside his apartment on the North Side and directed me to the very edge of Chicago, near Harlem and Foster, for a Wednesday night study at Shorewood Bible Church.

*****

Here's an old piece I put together about the church:

Shorewood Bible Church spent 22 years on the western edge of Chicago before moving to Rolling Meadows and very few of its active members today go back to when the church was called North Shore and located on Sheridan Road in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago.

“Some of us don’t have what we call 'institutional memory' as much as others of us do, but what I want you to appreciate is the fact Shorewood has a history, a legacy and a heritage," says Richard Jordan.

The assembly was founded in year 1900 and the minutes book from that year reveal the first regular services were held the first Sunday in 1900 in a vacant store on Evanston Avenue. The church building was erected in 1906. The service of dedications of the North Shore Congregational church building was March 31-April 21, 1907.

“Here’s a program from a Sunday School children’s day on June 11, 1911,” says Jordan. “That’s old stuff folks. They paid 95,000 for the corner and the old stone building they put on it that’s still there.”

In April of 1900 North Shore called a pastor, James Stewart Anslie from Fort Wayne. They had their first organizational meeting on May 6 of 1900 with 86 members. By the end of 1902, they had grown to a congregation of about 400 people. They first erected the side building and then the auditorium.

By 1910 they had the building completely paid for. “Here’s a list of the pastors and it’s fascinating there would be a book like this. We don’t do this kind of stuff very well anymore. They’ve got all the members, people added and how they came, profession of faith, people who were dismissed, the ones who died. All hand-done, beautiful handwriting.”

In the list of pastors was Stewart, then Paul Riley Allen in 1923. J.C. O’Hair was installed Sept. 1, 1923 and remained the pastor until his death in January of 1958. After him was C. R. Stam (1958-60), Kennedy Sloane (1960-63), Clarence Kramer (1964-71),  Ernest Green (1972-79) and Jordan since then.

“O’Hair and I are the only two who’ve pastored over three decades in the assembly,” says Jordan. “It was under O’Hair’s ministry that they built . . .  in fact, there’s a note here about the doing of that, but in October of 1923 the Sunday school was discarded and that’s when they moved out of the congregational denomination. In July 1924, O’Hair started radio broadcasting on WDBY (We Delight in Bothering You). The call letters were changed to WPCC (We Preach Christ Crucified) in Dec. 1, 1925.

“If you know something about the history of the grace movement, you know something about who Charles Baker was, he’s with the Lord now, but Mr. Baker came to work with Mr. O’Hair. He was a  graduate from Dallas Seminary and Mr. O’Hair hired him to build a radio transmitter that was in the bell tower on corner of Wilson and Sheridan. This was a major North Shore intersection at the time. There were tens of thousands of people who would go by the church, and if you go down there today there’s still the sign on top of the old bell tower, ‘Christ Died for Our Sins.’

Life Magazine in the ’50s took a picture off of the Wilson El station in Uptown looking toward the Lake and there’s that sign. That was a gospel witness to tens of thousands of people every day. But they started with the radio ministry and Mr. O’Hair wrote over 200 books and booklets. There was a saying back then, ‘Don’t make J.C. O’Hair mad at you; he’ll write a book about you.’ ”

*****

Here’s a good trivia question: Who was born only four years before General Douglas MacArthur in their same hometown of Little Rock, Ark.? The answer is J. C. O’Hair, born Dec. 31, 1876.

O’Hair, a one-time accountant, was in his late 20s when he became the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico! After returning to the U.S. he made a name for himself in the construction and lumber business and married a woman from Kansas named Ethel and had six kids together. In 1917 he entered into full-time evangelism and went around the country preaching and teaching. On Sept. 1, 1923 he was installed as a pastor of North Shore Church.

Save for my church . . .

The problem in my life is I don’t trust myself because I feel I am sinning too much and I really am. The only way for me to be free of it all is to not focus on what a sinner I am, but to focus on the very end of my life, which I feel I’m at for many, many reasons.

I honestly wonder if I’m not in the last year of my life! Fortunately, this gives me the opportunity to FINALLY, FINALLY be truly myself and not worry whoever I care about is going to reject me. I let all the cares of life dissipate significantly; thoroughly hopefully.

I’m someone who historically has taken care over the least little thing that happens bad in my life. Not anymore. The times don’t warrant that. It's the end game, as I have thought of so many times in the last year. I even put as a poster for me in my bedroom over a year ago now: "911. Get On The Boat."

This is a reference to my favorite movie of all, "African Queen," starring Katharine Hepburn and Humphrey Bogart. I don't care anymore, is the point. I have nothing to lose, as I have no one in my life that I feel I need to stay on for, save for my soon-to-be (as in June 19) 88-year-old mother who I live with and take care of. That's it, save for my church in Chicago which has been my absolute lifeline above EVERYTHING else since almost when I first found it in 1992.

I know I would be dead 100 times over if not for my church, Shorewood Bible Church.

Just so you know I'm serious I'll finally tell you the truth about me, something I have definitely shared in the past on this blog but have actually hoped readers forgot, but has been a real sticking point in all of my life:

I had an abortion due to an affair with a married man (2002) and I actually attempted suicide in 2008. I have also had a long-term problem with alcohol, one that I still deal with but am finally coming to the end of, thankfully.

*****

In the 4^th Century in what is now Turkey, a man named Phocas lived in a little town called Sinope. There were walls around the city gate and he owned a little house with a garden just outside the gate.

Phocas tended the garden and made his living selling its fruits. At that time period, the government sat at the gates and controlled the entrances and exits to the cities. If you were a merchant you had to pay a tariff to go into the city and sell your wares.

So Phocas sat outside the gate, and as people were going in and out of the city, they passed right by his house. He would greet them and offer to let them come and sit in the cool of his garden and enjoy a rest. He had fruit and drink refreshments and was known for his hospitality to strangers.

Phocas used the opportunity to speak to them about his faith and he became known as ‘The Christian at the Gate.’ He did this until he was an old man and was widely respected and jeered alike.

One day things changed. Diocletian, the Roman emperor, instituted a purging of Christians from the empire and declared that all Christians were to be killed. He sent a band of Roman soldiers to Sinope with secret orders to capture and publicly execute Phocas.

When the band of soldiers came, riding across into the city, they arrived at the gate weary and tired and Phocas was there to greet them. Not knowing who they were or what they were sent to do, Phocas treated them as long lost friends, bringing them into his garden and offering them refreshments.

Because they were strangers in town, Phocas offered them lodging and put them up for the night inside his home. During the evening meal, as they all were talking, he asked, “What is your business here?” to which the soldiers responded, “Our business is really a secret but we can trust you seeing as you’re a man of honor and hospitality.”

The soldiers then revealed, “We’ve been sent by the emperor to search out a dangerous person. His name is Phocas. And he’s a follower of that dangerous Jesus that the Christians are all talking about.  He’s a danger to the empire and he must be executed. If you know him, could you please help us find him?”

Phocas immediately answered, “I do know him very well. And he’s very near. In the morning I’ll help you with your business.”

The men went to bed as Phocas contemplated what he should do. He could escape; he had 10-12 hours to get away before they awoke and could be 20-30 miles away and out of danger. But if he did, these Roman soldiers, sent on orders of the emperor, would return with their mission unfulfilled and likely lose their lives for not executing their task.

Phocas was in a quandary, and the way the story's been passed down, it only took him a few minutes to decide what he was to do. He took a shovel, went out to his garden and began to dig. All night he dug.

The next morning he had a grave built and was standing in it, leaning on his shovel, when the captain of the guard came seeking him and asked, “What’s going on?” Phocas then told him who he was.

The men were astonished. They were reluctant to execute him but Phocas wouldn’t have it. He said, “If you let me live, the chances are great that you won’t live. I have no bitterness against you. My heart is filled with the hope of heaven.”

Eventually the soldiers executed him, assured by Phocas’ declaration of, “I’m not mad; I’m not bitter. This is the way life is. If you’re a follower of Jesus Christ, this is what you do. My Savior didn’t flee from Gethsemane; He didn’t flee from the Cross and I won’t flee from bearing this.”

The soldiers buried him in his grave and put a monument on top of it and the story of Phocas the Gardener was passed down for 10 centuries. The monument stood until the 15^th century when the Ottomans overthrew the Byzantine Empire in 1543 and destroyed the monument.

For almost a thousand years the monument stood as a testament to the man whose body was in the grave but whose soul was with his Savior.

The moral is the hope of heaven removes fear. It makes life REAL life and we today can dare to live a little more like Phocas and a little less like the way we’re prone to.

 

Just that much He's my Father too!

Paul, a prisoner again, only this time in Rome, is singing, as it were, “[4] Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.

He’s singing in Philippians 4: [20] Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

I love that Amen. Captain Picard would say, “Make it so.” That’s exactly what that word means. “Make it so”; let that be what’s real and what’s true in life. That’s the keynote; the consuming thought of this whole book is God’s glory, explains Richard Jordan.

That supreme satisfaction that Paul found that’s available for you and me in the Lord Jesus Christ. The complete total treasure that He is.

That’s why the Book of Philippians, while most teachers say it’s really hard to outline . . . Philippians doesn’t outline like Romans or Corinthians or Ephesians or Galatians. Every book in Paul’s epistles up to this point has an easy outline.

All you have to do is read them 8-10 times and you can see the thought flow, the breaks of thought, and it’s real easy to spot. You come to Philippians and it’s just one rambling kind of a thing, and the reason for that isn’t that it doesn’t have an outline to it; it’s because it’s just one big point.

That’s that complete supreme satisfaction that your heart can have and should have in the Lord Jesus Christ. That’s why Christ is the whole issue in Philippians.

When we started the book, we started with the verse, [21] For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.

Christ is our life. In Philippians 2 he says, [5] Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

He’s our thinking process. How I’m to live is to be His life. How I’m to think is to be His thinking. His renewing my mind.

Paul says in chapter 3, [10] That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

He’s the goal. He’s the thing that my life is focused on. He’s what consumes my life. As I’m pressing toward THAT mark.

You come to chapter 4 so he can say, “Not only is He my mind, not only is He my goal, but I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me. He’s my strength.”

Everything in Philippians points to Him; everything in it is designed to demonstrate the treasure that you find when you find Him and life being lived in such a way to demonstrate to others that in my thinking, in my choosing, in my living, the mind of Christ, the life of Christ, the working of Christ, the strength of Christ--that’s more valuable, more to be treasured than anything else.

So, Paul says in Philippians 4: [20] Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

God, He’s able. He’s the most powerful one. The kids were singing the other night in the Christmas program the little song, “El Shaddai, el Shaddai
El-elyon na Adonai
Age to age You're still the same
By the power of the name
El Shaddai, el Shaddai
Erkamka na Adonai
I will praise and lift You high
El Shaddai”

I asked them, “Do you know those are Hebrew names for God?”

We sing that song, “He is Lord! He is Lord!
He is risen from the dead and He is Lord!
Ev'ry knee shall bow, ev'ry tongue confess
that Jesus Christ is Lord.”

You learn about that in Philippians 2: [10] That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;
[11] And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

He doesn’t just say “unto God the one who’s able.” He says, “And our Father.” You know, just because somebody is able to do something doesn’t mean they always have the disposition to do it. They’re not always disposed to do it for you. They’re not always willing to. But, you know, that’s where a father comes in.

Ephesians 1: [3] Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ:

Notice again how he says it in Philippians 4: “Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”

You see, He’s my Father too! As much as He’s the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ—just that much He’s my Father too! Now how is it possible that that would happen?

You see that in how Paul ends the book, where he says: [21] Salute every saint in Christ Jesus. The brethren which are with me greet you.

[22] All the saints salute you, chiefly they that are of Caesar's household.
[23] The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen.

Not simply alive, but with all bodily functions MOVING

God’s Word is an objective standard that allows you to know and to test the inner ideas and thoughts you have with something like a measuring stick.

It's given to be that objective standard, and when you deal with God’s Word IN God’s Word, the written Word of God, you’re really dealing with God Himself, explains Richard Jordan.

The only contact you have with Jesus Christ, or the Creator of heaven and earth, outside of the Word of God, is on an inner, subjective level and it always has to be gauged by the objective Word of God.

Now, you want to have that inner subjective contact. That’s fellowship. You want to have in your experience that contact with God, but it comes . . .

Here’s God the “transcendent holy other,” as the theologians call Him, and here you are a little peon down here. Now you’re no longer a peon; you’re a saint of the Most High God and you’ve been put in CONNECTION with Him.

The thing that bridges those two things is God’s Word; it’s the only thing that can bridge it. It’s your faith in the Word of God that brings out of the realm of theory and idea and the nebula and brings into concrete reality in your experience the life of God.

That’s why Jesus said in John 6:63: [63] It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Paul says in I Thessalonians 2: [13] For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

Now, Hebrews 4:12-13 is a fantastic passage about the power of the Word of God and about what God’s Word is designed to do; God’s design for His Word to be a tangible point of contact between man and God.

It demonstrates that the Word of God has within itself the attributes of God Himself, and the reason it has those attributes is because it’s the Word of God Himself.

[12] For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
[13] Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do.

Notice it says the “word OF God.” The word that belongs to God; the word that comes from God. This is God’s Word. Anything that comes from God or has to do with the person of God is a part of His very being; His Godness, His attributes.

God’s Word is designed to work in your inner man, making a distinction between the soul and the spirit. Only God’s Word can make that distinction and it’s designed to produce things inside of you.

That’s an interesting concept about the Word of God being “quick.” To do something without delay or hesitation and accomplish something--that’s a characteristic of being alive. Life has to do with all of your bodily functions MOVING. Life has to do with movement and the word “quick” in the passage is the word for “alive.”

II Timothy 4:1: [1] I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom;

The verse says Jesus comes to “judge the quick and the dead,” so you can see the contrast with being dead. But there’s a connotation to the word “quick” that is something beyond just really being alive, because you can be alive and be a slow mover.

Have you ever noticed that? People say, “Boy if you move any slower it’ll be next week before you get there!” There are people who shuffle along but they’re not getting anywhere fast.

The connotation in the passage is that the Word of God is not simply alive, but the Word of God has the ability—it’s stressing the INSTANCY; the SPEED of the Word’s ability to work and that’s an important concept about understanding God’s Word.

It doesn’t take forever for God’s Word to change your life. What takes time is before the change, getting the leverage on yourself to make a change.

That is, conviction that brings you to the place—"godly sorrow,” as Paul calls it—where you make the choice to change and after you’ve made the choice to change, then there’s the putting off the old and putting on the new. There’s the discipline of being renewed in your mind day by day.

II Corinthians 4:16: [16] For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

There’s a discipline of growing and maturing, but the change between those two things takes place in a moment of CHOICE and God’s Word, when it’s relied upon, will produce the results it says it will—it won’t take forever. If it’s taking forever, the problem isn’t the Word of God.

God’s Word is alive, but it’s not just alive and, “Well, we'll get there one day.” God’s Word can produce the results IMMEDIATELY in your life. It’s something that can get things done quick—all you have to do is believe it and then it WORKS in your life. It will accomplish what it says the instant you trust it.

And it’s powerful. Now the word “powerful” there is the idea of energy. It’s energetic. In fact, the word translated “power” there is the word that we get our word “energy” from. The idea of being active and it’s powerful. It’s got the ability to get the job done; do the lifting that’s necessary to get things accomplished.

The bridge is in the hyphen: God-man

Here's an outtake I came across on YouTube this evening that I thought was really concise:

In theology it’s called the “submission among the godhead”; it’s submission of equals. It’s saying, “I have every right to be equal with this person and have my say, but I will willingly choose to submit myself.”

In John 10:30 Jesus Christ says, “I and the Father are one.” But in John 14:28, He says, “The Father’s greater than I.”

Now, how do you explain that? How can He say, “I and the Father are one,” and then say, “The Father’s greater than I”? The explanation is in the hyphen. He’s the God-man, says Richard Jordan.

He’s not talking out of His head. He’s not saying, “At one time I’m that over there and another time I’m this over here,” because He’s one person with both natures.

I can’t explain that to you; I can just tell you that it’s so. It’s a wonderful thing about Him. He’s God. He manifests Himself that He is God.

When He was on the earth, He goes over to a guy and his friends bring him and want him to be healed. He says, “That’s no big deal; the real big deal is to say, ‘They sins are forgiven.’ ” Now that’s a REAL deal.

He says, “So that you can know that I have the authority to forgive sins, I’ll say to this guy, ‘Rise up and walk,’ " and they all said He blasphemed because only God can forgive sin and He did.

He did what only God can do. Why? Because He’s God. He said to His disciples, “These people here in the grave--I’m going to raise them up.” Only God can do that.

He said, “When I raise them up, I’m going to judge them.” Judgement’s given to God. He makes it very clear that He’s God. Paul makes it clear. Romans 9:5 Paul says, “He’s God blessed forever.”

Romans 9:5: [5] Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

Titus 2:13: [13] Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.

In Hebrews 1:8 God the Father looks at Him and says, “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.”

God the Father thinks He’s God. Jesus Christ thought He was God. The Apostle Paul thinks He’s God. I think He’s God from the testimony of the Word of God.

He could never be anybody other than who He is. You can’t quit being who you are. But He’s also the man, and His humanity was real.

Paul says in II Timothy 2:5: [5] For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

He can take God by the hand because He’s God, and He can take man by the hand because He’s man, and be the go-between. And without Him you don’t have a Savior. He’s your Kinsman Redeemer. He’s kin to you and He’s kin to God, because He is God and He is Man and He can be the bridge between the two.

That’s why Paul would say in Romans 11: [15] For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?

Because He is God who died for your sins. There’s that passage in Isaiah:

[28] Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the LORD, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding.

In John 4, Jesus goes down by that well in Samaria because He was weary. Now how do you explain, “He’s never weary,” but He’s weary? The explanation is that hyphen; that connection where He becomes the God-man.

Tales of the cities

"Babylon, historically a powerful empire, is prophesied to be rebuilt and emerge as a global superpower, providing the Antichrist with his base of operations. This revitalization could potentially be happening right before our eyes," reported an article posted last month on a Christian news website.

"As global events unfold, it seems that ancient Babylon’s resurgence is not only possible but imminent. Iraq’s ongoing construction of a massive port infrastructure of the Al-Faw Port may be one of the clearest signs of this prophetic fulfillment.

"Once the Al-Faw Port is completed, the port will provide Iraq with a strategic advantage in global shipping, offering an alternative route to the Suez Canal . . . Iraq’s ambitious $17 billion development plan includes the creation of vast new shipping terminals, industrial facilities and a transformative railway system. These projects aim to position Iraq at the heart of the world’s logistics, placing it not just as a regional player, but as a global power broker."

*****

When Satan developed his plan of rebellion, He then went and merchandised that among the other angels. It was the selling of his plan and the promise of riches and positions of honor and crowns associated with it.

In the earth, the city of Tyre was a main vehicle through which he spread worldwide the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life.

Isaiah 23: [1] The burden of Tyre. Howl, ye ships of Tarshish; for it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in: from the land of Chittim it is revealed to them.
[2] Be still, ye inhabitants of the isle; thou whom the merchants of Zidon, that pass over the sea, have replenished.

They’re this seafaring people who carry merchandise around the world and they’re making people rich because of it, explains Richard Jordan.

[3] And by great waters the seed of Sihor, the harvest of the river, is her revenue; and she is a mart of nations. There’s the first Wal-Mart.

The destruction of Tyre and Zidon is going to bring sadness and gloom to EVERYWHERE that they’ve been. Their supply chain has been cut off. Their ability to sell their wares and to import things.

Verse 7: [7] Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days? her own feet shall carry her afar off to sojourn.

It’s a city that brought joy to the whole world and they had a great ancient history of doing so.

This crowning city. It’s not a crown OF a city; it’s a crowning, an adverb. This is a city that crowns other people, distributes wealth.

Tyre was the place that went around and spread the wealth, spread honor, so when it goes away it destroys the economy of the world.

Verse 9: [9] The LORD of hosts hath purposed it, to stain the pride of all glory, and to bring into contempt all the honourable of the earth.

God said Tyre is going to be destroyed. Why would He do that?

Ezekiel 26: [1] And it came to pass in the eleventh year, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
[2] Son of man, because that Tyrus hath said against Jerusalem, Aha, she is broken that was the gates of the people: she is turned unto me: I shall be replenished, now she is laid waste:

When Tyre heard about Nebuchadnezzar coming in and laying Jerusalem captive, they said, “Aha, look at what He did to them! Now we’re going to prosper!”

[3] Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Tyrus, and will cause many nations to come up against thee, as the sea causeth his waves to come up.
[4] And they shall destroy the walls of Tyrus, and break down her towers: I will also scrape her dust from her, and make her like the top of a rock.
[5] It shall be a place for the spreading of nets in the midst of the sea: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD: and it shall become a spoil to the nations.

In fact, if you go to verse 12: [12] And they shall make a spoil of thy riches, and make a prey of thy merchandise: and they shall break down thy walls, and destroy thy pleasant houses: and they shall lay thy stones and thy timber and thy dust in the midst of the water.

I mean, they’re just going to destroy this place right down to a nub.

Verse 13: [13] And I will cause the noise of thy songs to cease; and the sound of thy harps shall be no more heard.

They’ve got riches, merchandise, commerce, protected cities, luxurious homes, entertainment, songs, harps, the music and instruments. They’ve got a luxurious culture and God says, “I’m going to destroy it.”

Verse 14: [14] And I will make thee like the top of a rock: thou shalt be a place to spread nets upon; thou shalt be built no more: for I the LORD have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
[15] Thus saith the Lord GOD to Tyrus; Shall not the isles shake at the sound of thy fall, when the wounded cry, when the slaughter is made in the midst of thee?

You’re going to be a bare piece of rock. I’m going to sink you and people are going to fish on top of you.

Why is God against Tyre? What did they do? They spoke against Jerusalem: “Aha, she’s broken down.”

There’s a covenant God made with Israel: “Them that bless thee I’ll bless and them that curse thee, I’ll curse.” The reciprocity of the Abrahamic Covenant is any nation that curses Israel God’s going to curse.

In Isaiah 13-23 you’ll find every nation in there He curses because of the Abraham Covenant.

In Isaiah, when it talks about the ancient culture, Ezekiel calls it the “ancient hatred.” They have this ancient jealousy of the Abrahamic Covenant and God punishes them for that.

*****

In the coming tribulation period, when the Antichrist deceives the whole world into believing he’s God and Jesus Christ is the devil, the rebuilt city of Babylon (inside present-day Iraq) will once again be a mighty world power, i.e., a great commercial, political, banking and religious center in the world.

Satan, as the Assyrian Antichrist, will make Babylon the capital of his kingdom just as God chooses for Himself Jerusalem, meaning the whole of the “end-times” skirmish for Planet Earth will revolve around these two cities!

*****

The land of the ancient city of Babylon is site of the modern city of Hilla, Iraq, which is 40-50 miles south of Baghdad and on the Euphrates River. Its name was changed back around the 10^th century.

The reality is there is both a “mystery Babylon” and a literal city of Babylon in the Bible. References to the literal city can be found, in part, in Revelation 14:8, Revelation 16:19 and Revelation 18.

In Isaiah 47:5, Babylon is called “the lady of kingdoms,” and she’s the mother of harlots who goes out and prostitutes all of the cities of the earth. But that doesn’t eliminate the literal Babylon, which will actually be the headquarters for mystery Babylon, the religious system, in the “last days.”

While theologians continue to refer to Rome and/or the European Common Market as playing into “last days” prophecy, the ten nations through whom the Antichrist gains his ascendancy are in Palestine. They’re in the Mediterranean, Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Persia, and that part of the world, not in Europe. There are no Europeans at all!

These so-called prophecy scholars get the idea Babylon will never be rebuilt from Isaiah 1:-9, which reads, “And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.”

But as we know from history, ancient Babylon wasn’t destroyed suddenly, it just sort of wasted away and fell into oblivion and disrepair.

The Bible says in three different places (Jeremiah 49:18 and Jeremiah 50:40 are the other two verses) that when God overthrows Babylon, it will be like when He overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah. Obviously this predicted overthrow hasn’t yet been fulfilled.

The final overthrow of Babylon is repeatedly synchronized in prophetic Scripture with the restoration of the nation Israel by God into her kingdom.

In Jeremiah 50, for example, the description of Babylon’s future destruction is connected with the fact God’s going to bring Jerusalem back and establish it as His city. As God destroys Babylon, He Himself comes to reside in Jerusalem.

*****

To know just what kind of dominant world power Babylon will become, many insights can be found in Revelation 18. Verse 3 says, “The merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies.” Verse 9 says the kings of the earth have “lived deliciously with her.”

“And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more,” reads the chapter starting in verse 11. “The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,

“And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.

“And the fruits that thy soul lusted after are departed from thee, and all things which were dainty and goodly are departed from thee, and thou shalt find them no more at all.

“The merchants of these things, which were made rich by her, shall stand afar off for the fear of her torment, weeping and wailing,

“And saying, Alas, alas, that great city, that was clothed in fine linen, and purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold, and precious stones, and pearls!

“For in one hour so great riches is come to nought. And every shipmaster, and all the company in ships, and sailors, and as many as trade by sea, stood afar off,

“And cried when they saw the smoke of her burning, saying, What city is like unto this great city!

“And they cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and wailing, saying, Alas, alas, that great city, wherein were made rich all that had ships in the sea by reason of her costliness! for in one hour is she made desolate.”

Obviously, Babylon’s going to have concourse with the kings of the world and be a mega-political power and commercial center that pumps wealth into the earth.

As Jordan summarizes, “The first worldwide apostasy (Gen.10) started from there, and the last one centers up there. You name it, they got it. They’ve got everything from gold to the souls of men.”

******

In 2006, the front page of the New York Times carried a story about rebuilding modern-day Babylon to rival its former power and splendor.

“One day millions of people will visit Babylon,” assured Donny George, head of Iraq’s board of antiquities, in the Times story. “I’m just not sure anybody knows when.”

An official with the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, which was said to be currently “pumping millions of dollars into protecting and restoring Babylon,” predicted in the article that “cultural tourism could become Iraq’s second biggest industry, after oil.”

*****

As the Times informed, both United Nations officials and Iraqi leaders were “working assiduously to restore Babylon, home of the Seven Wonders of the World, and turn it into a cultural center and possibly even an Iraqi theme park.”

“Factories are churning, Iraqi security forces are patrolling and the streets pulsate with life—children bounding to school, crowds wading into markets, taxis gliding by,” reported the Times. “Emad lafta al-Bayati, Hilla’s mayor, has big plans for Babylon. ‘I want restaurants, gift shops, long parking lots,’ he said. God willing, he added, maybe even a Holiday Inn.”

*****

Jordan says preachers and others will look at Paul’s warnings about the “last days” and say the events we’re seeing in the Middle East today represent “shadows” of end-times prophetic events.

“The little caveat preachers like to use is, ‘Well, maybe it’s a shadow,’ and maybe it is—I don’t know,’ ” says Jordan. “I do know that Jerusalem has to be in the land of Palestine before the Antichrist can ‘rescue’ them. I know they have to have a temple in order for it to be destroyed, so that isn’t there yet. That still has to be rebuilt.”

*****

Specifically, Paul warns in II Tim. 2: 3-9 “that in the last days perilous times shall come.

[2] For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
[3] Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good,
[4] Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
[5] Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
[6] For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts,
[7] Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.
[8] Now as Jannes and Jambres withstood Moses, so do these also resist the truth: men of corrupt minds, reprobate concerning the faith.
[9] But they shall proceed no further: for their folly shall be manifest unto all men, as theirs also was.”

Jordan says of this passage, “Notice there’s not a thing in that list that couldn’t fit today. You say, ‘Does that means it’s the last days?’ Yep, sure does. You look down through that list and there are general moral and spiritual conditions of declension that are true in any age.

“You know why it is that way? These are general trends, because at any time the Lord could come and take away the Body of Christ. It’s a mystery age and the conclusion of it is a mystery too.

“So when you look around and think, ‘Boy, things are so bad the Lord’s just gotta come,’ that’s what you’re supposed to think! You’re not supposed to look around and say, ‘Man, things are so good, the Lord could leave us here for another 5,000 years anyway!’ You’re supposed to be conscious of the imminence of His coming at any moment.”

Spiritual battlegrounds

Here’s more on the “Christian Workout” from yesterday's post:

You’re free from the power of the flesh as well as the past of the flesh. Someone will say, “What about these flashbacks that come into my mind about the past?”

If the flashbacks come and they do, your old flesh takes advantage of you. The Adversary takes advantage of you. When the flashback comes right now, don’t be problem-centered. Don’t be flashback-centered, says Richard Jordan.

Use that flashback as the motivation, as the impetus to turn toward the Word of God and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the new life you have in Him, and remember who He’s made you and remember that nothing in your past can touch who you are now in Him.

Just draw the line and say, “This is who I am and the past is under the blood,” and when it comes up in your mind, instead of sitting there thinking about it, say, “Wait a minute, that’s the past. That’s not who I am now. That’s over. That’s the old me. That’s the ‘Adam me.’ Here’s the new me in Christ.”

Instead of focusing on the problem and letting the problem embed itself and get another grip on you, say, “It’s under the blood. The Lord Jesus Christ dealt with my past at Calvary.”

Trying to heal the hurts of the past, you’re just fighting a futile battle because you can’t heal things that God says you’re to reckon as dead. They’re not meant to be healed; they’re meant to be reckoned to be dead.

You see why I say, “Don’t focus on problems”? Focusing on the problems is completely counteractive to who you are in Christ, and it immobilizes who you are in Christ.

Another way to focus on the problems is by playing the victim. Tail-bearing, blaming the past, playing the victim, saying, “It’s really not my fault,” and blaming someone else. You try to wash away responsibility and push the guilt on someone else.

As soon as you quit fleeing personal responsibility for what you think and what you do and what you say and how you interact--that’s called “real guilt,” by the way.

Someone has offended me, done me wrong, hurt me--shame on them. My responsibility is, “How did I react to it?” And that’s what we don’t like, because 99.9 percent of the time we react how? In our flesh. And now we have failures to account for in ourselves.

Now, if you’re a victim today, and you don’t have the Cross to go to, I don’t know what to tell you to do. Because there’s no real means for you to put it in the past and get it over with and settle the issue and come away whole.

What playing the victim does is it diverts you away from the problem and the life that’s yours in Christ Jesus. You need to be rooted in gratitude to God for His unspeakable gift that He’s given you in His Son. You need to “stand fast in the liberty where Christ has set you free.”

You need to do as Paul says in Colossians 3: [1] If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God.
[2] Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.
[3] For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.

You don’t need to be living in the gall of victimhood, where you’re trying to push the responsibility for failure on others. That just immobilizes you from dealing with it.

Real guilt means I can look at it and say, “I made the mistake. I was wrong in the way I thought, the way I reacted, what I said, what I did. No matter what they did, I’m responsible for me and I will be responsible for me and realize, ‘This is what Jesus Christ went to Calvary to die for and He paid the debt for it and He’s given me life to be different in these circumstances,’ and I’ll respond to these things the way He’s equipped me to respond.”

When I tell you not to focus on your problems I’m trying to tell you that you’re equipped in Christ Jesus to handle every problem you have already simply by who He’s made you in Him.

We have this sneaky little deceitful nature—we call it the flesh—that doesn’t want to be left out! And it’s so easy to slide back and focus on our problems. And I know sometimes those problems are bigger than what the day seems to be. I think about the verse:

II Corinthians 4:16: [16] For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day.

You experience that and you say, “Woe is me, I’m undone; I’m coming apart!” If you focus on that, you’re going to say, “Whew, woe IS me.” But if you relax and say, “Like I didn’t expect stuff to happen . . . ”

Dr. Henry Grooby used to call this verse “the soft pillow of the Bible.” Romans 8:28: [28] And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.

There’s the way to think about the present sufferings. They’re the perfect place for you to draw nearer to the Lord and to come to know Him more deeply and more intimately and to love Him more fully than you ever could without the challenges.

Rather than changing other people and circumstances, to focus our attention on our relationship with the Lord, and to look to having His Word working in our inner man and giving us the spiritual strength and the stamina, and to identify our failures for what they are . . .

All of a sudden, the details of our life, the problems of life, are really spiritual battlegrounds; they’re challenges to your faith. Are you going to focus on the problems or are you going to believe what God says about who He’s made you in Christ?

Are you going to focus on your resources to handle them or are you going to go find out what God says His resources are and rest in them? They’re opportunities for Christ to be formed in you; to be centered in Him and occupied with Him.

All of a sudden you appreciate when Paul says in Romans 5: [3] And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience.

Or in II Corinthians 4: [17] For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory;

You know what a worker is? That’s somebody producing something. The problems don’t do that.