beyond politics

2012-02-01T15:42:00.002-05:00

“… they are forgiven. “

It is said that children test the boundaries set for them by parents, teachers and elders, and that when parents fail to establish and enforce boundaries children crave them; they want to know when they do wrong. And they also want to and need to know when they do the right thing. I identify with this. I grew up in a home where the boundaries were nebulous and what boundaries there were I easily circumvented when I entered into my teens. I got in a LOT of trouble.

This has had an effect on my life since I was born again in 1976. When I belonged to a church which honored prophetic gifts and prophets from 1988 onward more several prophets spoke the word and the heart of the Lord to me. I cannot remember one word which did not encourage me to a greater or lesser extent. Often I would ask God to give me a word to tell me what I was doing wrong! I wanted correction, I wanted boundaries. Even in this past week I thought to go to a pastor prophet I have known to ask for a word from the Lord: a word that would “really tell me like it is”, that would correct me or even rebuke me, even harshly.

Two days ago I was praying and thinking when the Lord spoke to me in the still small voice. I don’t share this lightly because it is not something that some people believe can happen today. But Jesus is not impotent today. He can still speak. The question is: “Will we believe He can speak to us and will we listen for His voice?”

What God said was this: “You have brought your sins before me, they are forgiven.” I doubt I will soon if ever forget hearing those words! To me their meaning is at once concise and comprehensive. It acknowledged my being a sinner, thus rebuking me albeit ever so gently. At the same time it gave me great courage and joy. I saw that God my Father truly sees only the blood of His Son covering all my sins. It is almost that after believing the Gospel of Christ God ignores the sins I have done and will yet do! I don’t want any to think that I take this as an excuse for sinning even one more time! It is not; there is never an excuse for sin.

Today I called that pastor prophet and shared this testimony with him. As we talked I was able also to see that when a believer sins after his/her salvation, that and every sin carries a new weight of shame previously unknown. For now he/she/I understand what sin is (evil), who it offends (God), and what (my/your) sin required (the bloody death of the Son of God!)! It is understandable that we might desperately want God to rebuke us and correct us severely. And I’m not so sure that He won’t do that in some cases. He did “upbraid” the disciples for “their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they believed not them which had seen him after he was risen.” Mark 16:14 But God is LOVE!

He truly showed me that LOVE in those few words: “You have brought your sins before me, they are forgiven.” I know my own heart as you know yours, yet we can’t know each other’s. We don’t need to. The shame of my sin is enough to humble me, as your sins are enough to humble you. That God forgives such an evil man as me is truly beyond my human comprehension. But by the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, by His filling up of my understanding I am able to agree and receive the gift of Christ’s sacrifice and righteousness in exchange for ALL my shameful sins!

It is 35 years since I was born again FROM ABOVE. Many days in that time were lost to sinning. I have had two extended periods of backsliding, and many years of confused faith and living. But God IS FAITHFUL! He that began a good work in me is bringing it to completion! One scripture which seemed so foreign to me in 1976 is absolutely true of me today: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new (2 Corinthians 5:17). ! An another I learned somewhat later is burning its way (in a good way!) into my soul: “For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day” (2 Timothy 1:12). !

Hallelu Yah! Thank You Jesus. To God be the glory, great things and with me seemingly impossible things He has done.

2012-01-19T13:22:00.002-05:00

The Relatable Insanities of Abortion and Illegal Immigration

Again and again I am reminded and unable to forget or ignore the insanity and inanity of the current thinking of many Americans on illegal aliens and immigration and abortion: “the strange practice”. This sounds like condemnation, but it is not, for I too suffer from unclean and stupid thinking, even if God has delivered me from much of it. It may sound like judgment, and this it is. We all make judgments every day. They may be wise or foolish. Jesus did say: “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” John 7:24 The thinking I am writing about is that American sovereignty must exclude foreign workers, especially illegal aliens from doing American jobs on American soil. It might be a reasonable legal view for illegal immigrants, but let’s ask some reasonable questions:

Why do aliens come in to the US illegally?

The answer is first and foremost that they come for work and for the U.S. dollar. Secondly they come in for criminal activity (and the U.S. dollar). Thirdly they come as enemies of the U.S. to overthrow the U.S. government(s). Let’s not be overly concerned with the second and third answers here, though they too are very important problems to solve.

Why aren’t American workers doing the work illegals come for?

Illegals have worked for very low wages in industries accustomed to very low profit margins. Illegals routinely worked harvesting crops for wages below the minimum wage, wages Americans would and could not legally accept in jobs Americans supposedly did not want to perform. I’m not sure how long the farmers of the south, and south west have been employing alien workers. My memory of controversy goes back to the sixties to the grape and lettuce crops in California and Caesar Chavez. (Chavez worked for the Community Service Organization, a Latino civil rights group from 1952 until 1962.

The idea that Americans were unwilling to do this hard work picking crops may have been the result of the below minimum wages offered to attract illegals. Regardless, illegals have been picking our crops for a long time. But for several decades illegals have been taking jobs in other industries, most typically food service and restaurant work, and landscaping and gardening. But why are more and more jobs in the USA held by illegals? Where are we? Where are the Americans? Where did we all go? While the economy has lost several million jobs since 2008 and some illegals have gone home having lost theirs, there are still 12 million or more illegals in the U.S. Why is there still so much room in the job market for illegals?

There are so many factors that a book would be necessary to expose the matter fully. But I think of several factors as very relevant to this dilemma.

Capitalism and capitalists, in specific American capitalists have become more devoted to profits than to the nation. Because of this illegals at low wages are in demand over Americans. Additionally illegals coming from poverty prove to be eager and productive workers, while Americans have succumbed to their sense of “entitlement” to high wages, union and government benefits, and legal resources. The federal government exacerbates the matter by placing regulations on businesses raising their costs. Business owners not finding illegals to work for them will and do move their business to other nations. Finally illegals are starting and running their own businesses and likely avoiding payroll income and social security taxes.

American patriots are conflicted, confused and/or ignorant if they condemn illegals as wholly responsible as lawbreakers and even as economic enemies. How can our farms and businesses run smoothly and profitably with American workers while “made in America” policies and practices encourage the hiring of illegals or foreigners?

But one more time I ask, “Why do aliens come in to the US illegally? Why aren’t American workers doing the work illegals come for? Where are we? Where are the Americans? Where did we all go? Why is there still so much room in the job market for illegals?”

These questions have one more answer. It is the most telling answer, in my opinion. Where are they (we)? Shockingly twenty five percent, one of four of American workers have died every year for 35 years. These have not been ill, and have not retired. They have died? What was their cause of death? It was and continues to be abortion. Leaving aside the moral objections so many have against abortion, we need to understand the economic consequences of abortion. Abortion is a “strange practice.”

The closest Bible reference I have found to modern abortion is found in Jeremiah:
“[… thus saith the LORD] And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.” (Jeremiah 32:35)

This describes the sacrifice of children by their parents to the heathen god Molech. In Jeremiah’s time the children of Israel and the children of Judah had gone so far astray that they were making these sacrifices. Note the Lord says of this: “…I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination…” I think this shows just how alien, how strange the practice of child sacrifice is to God. Are today’s abortions child sacrifices to Molech or to any god? We know that children already born and living are still sacrificed in very dark corners of the world. But Abortion, is it a sacrifice? It is certain that the aborted child is unwanted. Why? Because something else is preferred. And what is that? What is preferred is relief from the responsibilities and the labors of raising the child conceived. In effect we worship our own selves. We give the child to whom? To God by the act of murdering him/her in the womb. But is it a sacrifice we are giving to God? No, although the child IS received by God.

“When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.”
(Psalm 27:10) Amen

By preferring our money, and our leisure time to the needs of the baby in the womb we are elevating ourselves to be as Gods by taking the life, the LIFE of the baby to be.

By abortion, by the practice our labor pool, the number of available U.S. citizens for hire is reduced every year by 25%. Our tax base and tax revenues are cut by 25%. It could be that one of every four American jobs is held by an illegal alien, a legal foreign worker or has been given to a foreigner in another nation. The consequences of abortion simply reduce American prosperity.

A related matter is the prevalence of foreign goods in the American market place. These products are not the result of American labor. Their sale in the U.S. generates no wages, and no tax revenues on wages. We often hear the very reasonable advice: “Buy American.” But to “Buy American,” we must have American made goods to buy. Sadly 25% of future American craftsmen, manufacturers, business owners and job creators are eliminated every year as unwanted aborted babies.

Abortion became legal in 1973. That year more than 700,000 “conceptions were terminated,” a polite way of saying that babies or persons were murdered in the wombs of their mothers. In 1991 those 700,000+ aborted persons would have had the been born and lived turned 18 years of age. In 1974 more than 1,000,000 babies/persons were aborted (That number has been typical in almost every year since. As I recall, one year nearly 1,500,000 abortions were done). Eighteen years after 1974 those 1,000,000+ persons would also have turned 18 years of age. Today in 2011 babies/persons aborted in the year 1993, had they been born would be 18 years old.

At eighteen most people look for work, enter the military or enter trade schools colleges or universities. From 1973 to 1993 approximately 20,000,000 babies/persons were aborted. Is it a coincidence that there are (some estimate) 20,000,000 or more illegal aliens in the United States of American today? Note that every one of those 20,000,000 aborted would be 18 years old by January 1st, 2012. All of them would be eligible to vote in the 2012 election.

What has possessed us to be so blind to the economic consequences of this practice called abortion or termination of pregnancy?

I must add this to the list of consequences. Though liberal doctors and their powerful medical establishment deny it, and the liberal press/media will not report it, the risk of breast cancer in women is higher in women having abortions. It is higher by 33-100% in women having one abortion and higher than that in those having more than one aborton. Why? When a woman becomes pregnant estrogen begins to build up in her breasts. It is the body’s necessary way of preparing to deliver milk to the newborn. When the baby is aborted, the estrogen remains in the breast without being used and released in breast feeding. This trapped estrogen simply causes breast cancer in many women. If you want information on this Google search ABC Link, Abortion Breast Cancer, or Joel Brind, Ph.D.

Illegals here are frequently Hispanics and Roman Catholics; they do not have many abortions. They value children. In their culture they have not yet drunk the pro-choice Kool-Aid. I pray they never will. But it seems to me, and seems very clear that illegal aliens are a consequence of U.S. federal law and domestic policy gone astray and amuck in the worst way with abortion topping the list. Men are not only endowed by their creator with inalienable rights, they are endowed with creative ability. How sad that in ignorance of and rebellion against God, rights (powers) and ability produce oppression, and destruction resulting in debt, default and eventually poverty and death.

Illegals often pay no taxes by receiving under the table cash wages, or through their own businesses. Illegals send U.S. dollars out of the country to their families. Illegals receive government services, from medical health benefits to education courtesy of a government which has lost 25% (over a million every year) of its taxpayers. Illegals require state and federal law enforcement agencies to guard borders, arrest, care for and return illegals to their homelands. There are bureaucracies overseeing these. Illegals drain tax revenues by committing crimes here. We have many illegals imprisoned, also a cost to our taxpayers.

Notwithstanding this: God loves illegal aliens wherever they are found. Jesus was sent to whosoever will. Jesus has saved many already and desires many more be saved. He has saved many who have had abortions, approved abortion, and even some who have facilitated and performed abortions. He has also saved many who have gone bankrupt, who have lost their jobs, which have been corrupt in business, government and law enforcement. He and desires all not saved repent and receive His priceless gift of eternal life. In this time marked out (however inaccurately) for the celebration of Jesus’ birth (a real event), we need to remember and memorialize that Jesus was born so that he could die and take away the sins of the world, that world of bankrupt, jobless, corrupt, illegal men and women near and far (to you and me) living here on earth. Here Christmas and all “holidays” have the possibility of being HOLYdays, as does every day of the calendar.

Illegal immigrants are people. Their existence in America is a symptomatic condition resulting from other issues, some of which I believe I have touched on in this letter. It seems unlikely I will forget these troubles in the very near future, excepting when Jesus comes back to us. But with my will and heart, both which are weaker than any lamb, I set my self to forgiving the troublers in this earth which so surely belongs to the Lord Jesus our Messiah and Savior. God save such, for I was one such as they are.

Thanks and praise to God, our Father, Savior, Lord, brother, and Guide! He is Almighty forever and ever, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Baruch HaShem Yeshua, Baruch HaShem Adonai !!!

His and yours, Dave Severy ~ Govans, Md.

2012-01-10T16:46:00.002-05:00

“…occupy till I come.”

The song below has caused quite a stir. It’s a movement song. You can find an article on it here: http://hotair.com/greenroom/archives/2012/01/03/va-school-board-defends-8-year-olds-singing-occupy-lyrics/

And another here:
http://www.onenewsnow.com/Education/Default.aspx?id=1511456

It is a song about covetousness. I’m sure it isn’t intended to be that by whoever wrote/inspired it. But that is what it is about. In the comments page from the second link above one man commented: “This is definitely a Christian song, an update of Matthew 19:24.” Here is my response, but first here are the words to the song named Part of the 99.

Part of the 99

Some people have it all
But they still don’t think they have enough
They want more money
A faster ride
They’re not content
Never satisfied
Yes—they’re the 1 percent

I used to be one of the 1 percent
I worked all the time
Never saw my family
Couldn’t make life rhyme
Then the bubble burst
It really, really hurt
I lost my money
Lost my pride
Lost my home
Now I’m part of the 99

Some people have it all
But they still don’t think they have enough
They want more money
A faster ride
They’re not content
Never satisfied
Yes—they’re the 1 percent

I used to be sad, now I’m satisfied
’Cause I really have enough
Though I lost my yacht and plane
Didn’t need that extra stuff
Could have been much worse
You don’t need to be first
’Cause I’ve got my friends
Here by my side
Don’t need it all
I’m so happy to be part of the 99

Notice the last line: "I’m so happy to be part of the 99.” If you are happy with being one of the 99, why is there an Occupy Wall Street protest at all? If someone on Wall Street has stolen from you they should repay you all they took and perhaps a fine too. But those who have occupied Wall Street and all the other streets: Were they really one percenters? Has Wall Street stolen from them? Frankly I have my doubts. I think many are just poor and poorly educated young people led about by people with hidden agendas. They are “movement” dupes being led by “movement” makers. And Jesus loves them, He will forgive them their sins, and save them if they are lost. But we must be the preachers willing to be sent of God to them. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=rom%2010:13-17&version=KJV

Many social movements on the left, and undoubtedly some on the right, today lack an understanding of the God of the Bible. One person thinks the song is a Christian song and an update of Matthew 19:24. He should read the whole story from Matthew 19 verse 12 to verse 28. He would see that what he might call the redistribution of wealth took place after the the nobleman returned and received the report from those servants to whom he had given the talents.

Of those who have occupied Wall Street which servant are you? One who invested your talent (or pound) as did the first two servants did? Has your talent brought you a ten fold or a five fold return like theirs did? Or did you bury your talent like the third servant did. Or perhaps you invested your money with the bank (see verse 23). The nobleman says plainly this is an option!

The redistribution of wealth here flowed from the one who buried his talent to those who used their talents successfully and gained wealth! This is the exact opposite of the communist/socialist concept of re-distributing the wealth. In God’s Kingdom the rich do get richer, although not always in this life. But the person who is cowardly, who runs away from the presence of God cannot prosper. He or she will never learn from God what prosperity is, how to gain it and how to keep it.

We really need to read our Bibles prayerfully for with out God's help and answers we will learn nothing aright. Without God one will have to make up some fantasy about what they read for the truth has not freed them from the deception of the great deceiver satan.

If you really think that someone owes you something, take them to law, to court. If you are just angry because someone has more than you do, go get your own. If you really want to be like Jesus, give everything you have for the benefit of sinners. Jesus did that. Or do as many Christians who are rich, poor and in between do: give charitably as little or much as you will.

The deceived cannot know the truth because they ARE DECEIVED.

The deceived DO NOT KNOW they are deceived, why? - because they ARE deceived.

Are you deceived? Experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you.

John 8:32-36
The Message (MSG)
If the Son Sets You Free
31-32 Then Jesus turned to the Jews who had claimed to believe in him. "If you stick with this, living out what I tell you, you are my disciples for sure. Then you will experience for yourselves the truth, and the truth will free you."
33 Surprised, they said, "But we're descendants of Abraham. We've never been slaves to anyone. How can you say, 'The truth will free you'?"
34-37 Jesus said, "I tell you most solemnly that anyone who chooses a life of sin is trapped in a dead-end life and is, in fact, a slave. A slave is a transient, who can't come and go at will. The Son, though, has an established position, the run of the house. So if the Son sets you free, you are free through and through. I know you are Abraham's descendants. But I also know that you are trying to kill me because my message hasn't yet penetrated your thick skulls. I'm talking about things I have seen while keeping company with the Father…

A Strange New Years Letter

2012-01-06T13:04:00.006-05:00

Govans (Baltimore), Md.
Friday ~ January 6, 2011

Dear friends, neighbors and Dear enemies, Dear christian,

Shalom! 2011 has gone. As one wag put it: "Good! I just couldn't do 2011 anymore." The following letter was originally a Christmas/Holiday greeting from me to you. So now it is a late New Years letter. You can skip the next paragraph if you wish. Jump six paragraphs to get to the heart of the letter; the subject is illegal aliens and the "STRANGE PRACICE."

I write to you this strange (Thanksgiving and Christmas,New Years, holiday, or seasonal) greeting from my temporary shelter in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States of America. Christmas especially is a memorial, a reminder (should we need one) of the birth of the Savior of all who will trust in Him and His Father, and a reminder that He not only died for us, He was born for us, Emmanuel. To many this is not strange. What is strange about Christmas?

I heard it said recently that we don’t have a whole heart until it is broken. And this must be true! If we are well, if we are entirely satisfied with ourselves, we must be deceived. Why? Because we are dying. Our lives are vapors, passing away after a short 30, 60 or 100 years. Our bodily demise is always a moment away.

Our hearts are physically broken. The life they pump through our veins is unsustainable because in the realest and truest sense our hearts are broken. If we think otherwise we are truly deluded. Only when we see our hearts are broken, when we discover that they are broken far beyond our ability to repair them, will we then in their brokenness and in our honest integrity be able to receive from God in Christ the remedy which makes them whole.

It seems incongruous, but in our bodies which are perishing, God has caused our souls, our persons, our essence to be whole before Him, and to be alive by His mercy and grace forever.

This truth, which comes as a gift from Jesus who is the TRUTH, this is something worth our humble thanksgiving and worship all day every day. Amen?

I also heard someone pray, “Jesus, break my heart with the things that break Your Heart.” That is a difficult prayer to pray. I think the only thing that breaks Jesus’ Heart is sin. There is a ton of that going around. But this is a prayer which will cause to be conformed into His image. God gives grace to those who are grieved as He is. Ezekiel Chapter 9 is a remarkable testimony to that fact. I hope the rest of this strange letter upholds humble the need to be troubled by sin, by that which grieves God.

Again and again I am reminded and unable to forget or ignore the insanity and inanity of the current thinking of many Americans on illegal aliens and immigration and “the strange practice” (I will identify the strange practice later). This sounds like condemnation, but it is not, for I too suffer from unclean and stupid thinking, even if God has delivered me from much of it. It may sound like judgment, and this it is. We all make judgments every day. They may be wise or foolish. Jesus did say: “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” John 7:24 The thinking I am writing about is that American sovereignty must exclude foreign workers, especially illegal aliens from doing American jobs on American soil. It might be a reasonable legal view for illegal immigrants, but let’s ask some reasonable questions:

Why do aliens come in to the US illegally?

The answer is first and foremost that they come for work and for the U.S. dollar. Secondly they come in for criminal activity (and the U.S. dollar). Thirdly they come as enemies of the U.S. to overthrow the U.S. government(s). Let’s not be overly concerned with the second and third answers here, though they too are very important problems to solve.

Why aren’t American workers doing the work illegals come for?

Illegals have worked for very low wages in industries accustomed to very low profit margins. Illegals routinely worked harvesting crops for wages below the minimum wage, wages Americans would and could not legally accept in jobs Americans supposedly did not want to perform. I’m not sure how long the farmers of the south, and south west have been employing alien workers. My memory of controversy goes back to the sixties to the grape and lettuce crops in California and Caesar Chavez. (Chavez worked for the Community Service Organization, a Latino civil rights group from 1952 until 1962.

The idea that Americans were unwilling to do this hard work picking crops may have been the result of the below minimum wages offered to attract illegals. Regardless, illegals have been picking our crops for a long time. But for several decades illegals have been taking jobs in other industries, most typically food service and restaurant work, and landscaping and gardening. But why are more and more jobs in the USA held by illegals? Where are we? Where are the Americans? Where did we all go? While the economy has lost several million jobs since 2008 and some illegals have gone home having lost theirs, there are still 12 million or more illegals in the U.S. Why is there still so much room in the job market for illegals?

There are so many factors that a book would be necessary to expose the matter fully. But I think of several factors as very relevant to this dilemma.

Capitalism and capitalists, in specific American capitalists have become more devoted to profits than to the nation. Because of this illegals at low wages are in demand over Americans. Additionally illegals coming from poverty prove to be eager and productive workers, while Americans have succumbed to their sense of “entitlement” to high wages, union and government benefits, and legal resources. The federal government exacerbates the matter by placing regulations on businesses raising their costs. Business owners not finding illegals to work for them will and do move their business to other nations. Finally illegals are starting and running their own businesses and likely avoiding payroll income and social security taxes.

American patriots are conflicted, confused and/or ignorant if they condemn illegals as wholly responsible as lawbreakers and even as economic enemies. How can our farms and businesses run smoothly and profitably with American workers while “made in America” policies and practices encourage the hiring of illegals or foreigners?

But one more time I ask, “Why do aliens come in to the US illegally? Why aren’t American workers doing the work illegals come for? Where are we? Where are the Americans? Where did we all go? Why is there still so much room in the job market for illegals?”

These questions have one more answer. It is the most telling answer, in my opinion. Where are they (we)? Shockingly twenty five percent, one of four of American workers have died every year for 35 years. These have not been ill, and have not retired. They have died? What was their cause of death? It was and continues to be abortion. Leaving aside the moral objections so many have against abortion, we need to understand the economic consequences of abortion. Abortion “is the practice.”

The closest Bible reference I have found to modern abortion is found in Jeremiah:
“[… thus saith the LORD] And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.” (Jeremiah 32:35)

This describes the sacrifice of children by their parents to the heathen god Molech. In Jeremiah’s time the children of Israel and the children of Judah had gone so far astray that they were making these sacrifices. Note the Lord says of this: “…I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination…” I think this shows just how alien, how strange the practice of child sacrifice is to God. Are today’s abortions child sacrifices to Molech or to any god? We know that children already born and living are still sacrificed in very dark corners of the world. But Abortion, is it a sacrifice? It is certain that the aborted child is unwanted. Why? Because something else is preferred. And what is that? What is preferred is relief from the responsibilities and the labors of raising the child conceived. In effect we worship our own selves. We give the child to whom? To God by the act of murdering him/her in the womb. But is it a sacrifice we are giving to God? No, although the child IS received by God.

“When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.”
(Psalm 27:10) Amen

By preferring our money, and our leisure time to the needs of the baby in the womb we are elevating ourselves to be as Gods by taking the life, the LIFE of the baby to be.

By abortion, by the practice our labor pool, the number of available U.S. citizens for hire is reduced every year by 25%. Our tax base and tax revenues are cut by 25%. It could be that one of every four American jobs is held by an illegal alien, a legal foreign worker or has been given to a foreigner in another nation. The consequences of abortion simply reduce American prosperity.

A related matter is the prevalence of foreign goods in the American market place. These products are not the result of American labor. Their sale in the U.S. generates no wages, and no tax revenues on wages. We often hear the very reasonable advice: “Buy American.” But to “Buy American,” we must have American made goods to buy. Sadly 25% of future American craftsmen, manufacturers, business owners and job creators are eliminated every year as unwanted aborted babies.

Abortion became legal in 1973. That year more than 700,000 “conceptions were terminated,” a polite way of saying that babies or persons were murdered in the wombs of their mothers. In 1991 those 700,000+ aborted persons would have had the been born and lived turned 18 years of age. In 1974 more than 1,000,000 babies/persons were aborted (That number has been typical in almost every year since. As I recall, one year nearly 1,500,000 abortions were done). Eighteen years after 1974 those 1,000,000+ persons would also have turned 18 years of age. Today in 2011 babies/persons aborted in the year 1993, had they been born would be 18 years old.

At eighteen most people look for work, enter the military or enter trade schools colleges or universities. From 1973 to 1993 approximately 20,000,000 babies/persons were aborted. Is it a coincidence that there are (some estimate) 20,000,000 or more illegal aliens in the United States of American today? Note that every one of those 20,000,000 aborted would be 18 years old by January 1st, 2012. All of them would be eligible to vote in the 2012 election.

What has possessed us to be so blind to the economic consequences of this practice called abortion or termination of pregnancy?

I must add this to the list of consequences. Though liberal doctors and their powerful medical establishment deny it, and the liberal press/media will not report it, the risk of breast cancer in women is higher in women having abortions. It is higher by 33-100% in women having one abortion and higher than that in those having more than one aborton. Why? When a woman becomes pregnant estrogen begins to build up in her breasts. It is the body’s necessary way of preparing to deliver milk to the newborn. When the baby is aborted, the estrogen remains in the breast without being used and released in breast feeding. This trapped estrogen simply causes breast cancer in many women. If you want information on this Google search ABC Link, Abortion Breast Cancer, or Joel Brind, Ph.D.

Illegals here are frequently Hispanics and Roman Catholics; they do not have many abortions. They value children. In their culture they have not yet drunk the pro-choice Kool-Aid. I pray they never will. But it seems to me, and seems very clear that illegal aliens are a consequence of U.S. federal law and domestic policy gone astray and amuck in the worst way with abortion topping the list. Men are not only endowed by their creator with inalienable rights, they are endowed with creative ability. How sad that in ignorance of and rebellion against God, rights (powers) and ability produce oppression, and destruction resulting in debt, default and eventually poverty and death.

Illegals often pay no taxes by receiving under the table cash wages, or through their own businesses. Illegals send U.S. dollars out of the country to their families. Illegals receive government services, from medical health benefits to education courtesy of a government which has lost 25% (over a million every year) of its taxpayers. Illegals require state and federal law enforcement agencies to guard borders, arrest, care for and return illegals to their homelands. There are bureaucracies overseeing these. Illegals drain tax revenues by committing crimes here. We have many illegals imprisoned, also a cost to our taxpayers.

Notwithstanding this: God loves illegal aliens wherever they are found. Jesus was sent to whosoever will. Jesus has saved many already and desires many more be saved. He has saved many who have had abortions, approved abortion, and even some who have facilitated and performed abortions. He has also saved many who have gone bankrupt, who have lost their jobs, which have been corrupt in business, government and law enforcement. He and desires all not saved repent and receive His priceless gift of eternal life. In this time marked out (however inaccurately) for the celebration of Jesus’ birth (a real event), we need to remember and memorialize that Jesus was born so that he could die and take away the sins of the world, that world of bankrupt, jobless, corrupt, illegal men and women near and far (to you and me) living here on earth. Here Christmas and all “holidays” have the possibility of being HOLYdays, as does every day of the calendar.

Illegal immigrants are people. Their existence in America is a symptomatic condition resulting from other issues, some of which I believe I have touched on in this letter. It seems unlikely I will forget these troubles in the very near future, excepting when Jesus comes back to us. But with my will and heart, both which are weaker than any lamb, I set my self to forgiving the troublers in this earth which so surely belongs to the Lord Jesus our Messiah and Savior. God save such, for I was one such as they are.

Thanks and praise to God, our Father, Savior, Lord, brother, and Guide! He is Almighty forever and ever, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Baruch HaShem Yeshua, Baruch HaShem Adonai !!!

His and yours, Dave Severy ~ Govans, Md.

At WAR

2011-12-01T19:02:00.000-05:00

At WAR

If I don’t get it out, I lose it, so here goes:

2Co 10:3-6 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (4) (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;) (5) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; (6) And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

Too often I wake up and go into the day without remembering I'm at WAR! America has had few wars on her soil. But the church has been at war in the earth for a long long time.

In the past week I have had at least two very strange dreams, perhaps more that I don't remember. I don’t know what they meant specifically, but this morning I was reminded that what our Pastor preached on this last Sunday is true: we are at war. I am at war. As a believer in the Messiah I have an enemy, an adversary, satan. satan, or ha satan in Hebrew means literally "the adversary." I'm persuaded as many believe that satan attacks us through our minds. We are instructed and urged by Paul to be transformed by renewing our minds. We are to no longer be conformed to the world, the world which satan rules, that world of men, women and fallen angels who follow satan in his disobedience to God. Obedience to God challenges us to stop and avoid (at all costs) obeying the adversary satan. It is more motivating to obey God if we see the two clear choices: God or the satan. Our own righteousness is not an option, for it is satan's delight to see us in our filthy rags.

Zecariah 3:3 Now Joshua was clothed with filthy garments, and stood before the angel.

Isa 64:6 But we are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away.

We, if we are taken away, are taken by disobedience into iniquity and into conformity to the world, doing the will of satan!

Eph 2:2-3 Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: (3) Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Eph 5:6-8 Let no man deceive you with vain words: for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience. (7) Be not ye therefore partakers with them. (8) For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light:

Col 3:5-10 Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: (6) For which things' sake the wrath of God cometh on the children of disobedience: (7) In the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. (8) But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication out of your mouth. (9) Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; (10) And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:

Disobedience to God ultimately is unbelief, unfaithfulness and a lack of trust. It is for those things that men are condemned to hell. They may express this in any and all manner of sins, from gossip to fornication, but if they would believe the Gospel they would be forgiven all. When we believe the Gospel, sin begins to be displaced by true righteousness. Obedience to satan is displaced by obedience to the will, of God, to His Word and His Way: to Jesus. By the guidance of the Holy Spirit of God we are “sanctified” set apart for His service. If we are not changing, that is repenting, and allowing Him to guide, teach and instruct us (instruct: to construct us within) we need to reevaluate our faith.

2Co 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

It is a serious matter to be a believer, to be saved, to be born again.

If you are like me, you sometimes have strange and evil thoughts in your mind. Until we believed They can be troubling if we don’t understand that satan is still trying to influence us and draw us back into the sin nature. We don’t want to be taken again!

Rom 8:5-8 For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. (6) For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. (7) Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. (8) So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

And God has not left us undefended or ill equipped. We are in the Messiah. We have the Holy Spirit dwelling in us, no matter how broken our jar of clay. Nonetheless we are at war with satan. satan desires and works to make the believer ineffective in the will and service of God. Is this to steal us away from God? There is great debate over this. But the misunderstanding is not over satan’s power, or the consequence of disobedience and sin. The question is this: “Am I born again in Christ? If I am, if you are, who has the power to take you away from God?

Consider these words of Paul and of the Master:

Philppians 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

John 10:27-30 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: (28) And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. (29) My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. (30) I and my Father are one.

Consider the Jews response to Jesus:

John 10:31 Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him.

When you think of Christ, when you read the bible, when you see your brother or sister in the church do you want to stone them? Or do you want to love and serve them? How about your neighbor? How about God? How about your (human) enemies? We are called to the Lord to learn and to do the will of God. I think we might say that to do His will is to DO His love. To love God with all we have, our love neighbor as ourselves and our enemies with compassion and grace.

Are unkind or cruel thoughts forming in your mind, thoughts which wish others (even God) harm? These are stones you may or may not pick up to throw at neighbors, at enemies, or even at God.

If you are entertaining sinful thoughts continually, it is time to examine yourself to see if you are in the Messiah. But remember that we are at war. satan who once held us captive was informing our minds, structuring them to think evil and cruel thoughts and selfish thoughts. Selfish thoughts produce indifference to God and all others. They are as dangerous as evil and cruel thoughts. If we believe satan will be seeking to influence us, to keep us where he had us. If he can gain access to our minds to fill and consume us with His anti-Christ, anti-Christian and anti-human thinking he will succeed in his goal. What is the goal of satan? To make the believer and the church ineffective in doing the will of God. Why does satan want accomplish this? Because satan no more men or women to be saved. satan hates men and wants to torture them for all eternity.

2Co 10:3-6 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (4) (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;) (5) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; (6) And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

What do we do as warriors in God’s army? We pull down strong holds, we cast down imaginations ad high things which exalt themselves against the knowledge of God, and we take every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. David Stern has translated this verse in his Complete Jewish Bible as follows:

2Co 10:3-6 For although we do live in the world, we do not wage war in a worldly way; (4) because the weapons we use to wage war are not worldly. On the contrary, they have God's power for demolishing strongholds. We demolish arguments (5) and every arrogance that raises itself up against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey the Messiah. (6) And when you have become completely obedient, then we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience.

2Co 10:3 The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. 4 The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. 5 We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. 6 Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.

1. Strongholds strongholds that entire massively corrupt culture

2. Imaginations arguments warped philosophies

3. high thing arrogance barriers

4. thought thought loose thought and emotion and impulse

The “Torah observant” Jew who knows the Law and teachings of the Books of Moses should know what sin is even if he follows the legalistic word of the Pharisees. Paul (Saul) knew and was zealous for the Jews religion.

Act 26:5 They have known me for a long time; and if they are willing, they can testify that I have followed the strictest party in our religion — that is, I have lived as a Parush (a Pharisee).

The Pharisees seems to have come to terms with God’s prohibition of pagan idolatry. Their errors were self-righteousness and legalistic additions to the observance of Mosaic Law. But as Paul shows in his letters he knew what sin was and was not according to the Gospel. Sin is the character of satan as well as the deeds he does and inspires men to do. satan arrogantly argues against God with warped philosophies erecting barriers to Godly thinking if we listen to satan’s thoughts without discernment he will establish strongholds of warped loose thinking, emotion, and impulsiveness. All this is present in satan’s world, and it is this that entirely corrupts the world’s culture. It is a pervasive evil rooted in pride and selfishness which saturates every unbelieving person. It is the darkness from which every believer is delivered and from which every believer must separate him/herself.

If we do not we will be found in one or more of the “errors” listed in the churches of Asia Minor by Jesus in Revelation 2 and 3.

have lost the love you had at first.
hold the doctrine of Balaam
hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitanes
continue to tolerate that woman Jezebel
works are incomplete, imperfect in the sight of my God.
are neither cold nor hot:
are lukewarm
are saying, “I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;”
are not aware of being wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

These “errors” are sins. They result from an incomplete imperfect faith and obedience to the gospel. If we know what is sin we must not do it. If we have stopped sinning, what are we doing? It will be God’s will in God’s righteousness. If we are imperfect we will suffer:

1. Strongholds strongholds that entire massively corrupt culture

2. Imaginations arguments warped philosophies

3. high thing arrogance barriers

4. thought thought loose thought and emotion and impulse

These things are like viruses that infest computers. They cause the system to function badly or to crash. We will have troubles, we will sin, we will not enjoy peace, the fruit of the Spirit will be thwarted, the Spirit will be quenched, we will grieve God and be bed stewards of the gift of His grace if we do not pull down, cast down, and take captive all that which satan throws at and into our minds. Jesus says: “it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” To enter God’s Kingdom and follow Jesus is not easy. It is not effortless. To get in and to stay in means to go to war. A soldier obeys his superiors at all times. A warrior does so energetically, eagerly, and zealously because is devoted to his/her leaders and their cause. The Christian is a soldier and/or warrior for God the Father, Son and Spirit and for the cause of Salvation. “For we cannot act against the truth, only for it.” 2Co 13:8

So am I warring against the adversary? Or am I wandering aimlessly in the sight of God? We have a great measure of “peace” in our nation, the United States. We have enormous prosperity in the church. We are not often harassed for believing. We are often mocked for believing Jesus. Why? Why is Christ held in derision by many Americans?

Act 19:13-16 Some Jewish men started going around trying to force out evil spirits by using the name of the Lord Jesus. They said to the spirits, "Come out in the name of that same Jesus that Paul preaches about!" (14) Seven sons of a Jewish high priest named Sceva were doing this, (15) when an evil spirit said to them, "I know Jesus! And I have heard about Paul. But who are you?" (16) Then the man with the evil spirit jumped on them and beat them up. They ran out of the house, naked and bruised.

My fear is that many in the church do not yet know Jesus very well. If they did they would not do the things they do. They especially would not say they are Christian and act in his name while in ignorance of Him. We must know Jesus the Person of God, the Son of His Father God. We must know the Person of the Father, and the Person of the Holy Spirit. We are persons and we are made in the image and likeness of God. Satan stripped the likeness of God from all mankind in the Garden of Eden. Jesus was born into this world on earth in the flesh a fully human person in the exact likeness of His Father. Jesus came to save us, to redeem us and to RESTORE us into the likeness of God. While we will never be God, we will be like Him in every way!

1Jn 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

Usually this verse is seen to be a reality coming to pass when we enter heaven. But can’t we see Jesus today? Yes we can. He is the same yesterday, TODAY, and forever. His character and the truth of His words in the Gospels are unchanging. If we study His words, we will begin to hear him with our spiritual ear and see Him with the eye of our heart. Blessed are they who are believing Him though not having seen Him with their eyes when He was with the disciples, crucified and risen. Blessed how? Blessed to know Him, to know His divine Person, His character, His Heart.

If we know Him, if we see Jesus, we will be like Him, even TODAY!

Ro 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. (5) For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: (6) Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin.

1Jn 2:5-6 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. (6) He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked. 1Jn 2:5-6 But whoso keepeth his word, in him verily is the love of God perfected: hereby know we that we are in him. (6) He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.

Paul wrote: “When the Messiah was executed on the stake (cross) as a criminal, I was too; so that my proud ego no longer lives. But the Messiah lives in me, and the life I now live in my body I live by the same trusting faithfulness that the Son of God had, who loved me and gave himself up for me.” Gal 2:20

And it is in union with him that you have been made full — he is the head of every rule and authority. Also it was in union with him that you were circumcised with a circumcision not done by human hands, but accomplished by stripping away the old nature's control over the body. In this circumcision done by the Messiah, you were buried along with him by being immersed; and in union with him, you were also raised up along with him by God's faithfulness that worked when he raised Yeshua from the dead. Col 2:10-12

And: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” KJV “Therefore if any person is [ingrafted] in Christ (the Messiah) he is a new creation (a new creature altogether); the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away. Behold, the fresh and new has come!” AMPLIFIED

Note “old things are passed, the old [previous moral and spiritual condition] has passed away.”

Though we have not died bodily, something has died. It is our flesh that has died. What is our “flesh?” The New Testament Greek word is “sarx.” Here is the definition from Strong’s Greek Dictionary:

G4561 σάρξ sarx sarx

Probably from the base of G4563; flesh (as stripped of the skin), that is, (strictly) the meat of an animal (as food), or (by extension) the body (as opposed to the soul (or spirit), or as the symbol of what is external, or as the means of kindred, or (by implication) human nature (with its frailties (physically or morally) and passions), or (specifically) a human being (as such): - carnal (-ly, + -ly minded), flesh ([-ly]).

This is what dies when we are born again. The very thing which separates us from God, the nature that Adam received by sinning, in a very real sense the old man, the flesh which cannot live before God, the dead body (the sarx) - it is this very thing that passes away, that dies, and we are born again anew from above and now live in Christ who lives by the power of an endless life!.

We are : “Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.” Col 2:12

“Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” Rom 6:4

This death, burial and resurrection in Christ must come through our trusting God and His giving of life to us.

Eph 2:4-10 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, (5) Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, by (grace ye are saved;) (6) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: (7) That in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. (8) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: (9) Not of works, lest any man should boast. (10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Unless our flesh passes away, all that we do and all that we are in in vain, is frustrated. Unless the old man dies, the new cannot be born from above. But if the old man dies, our souls live! And we will by patient well doing reap the harvest God has ordained for us.

Galatians 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Joh 12:24-25 Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. (25) He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.

If we do not die can we live? Can we live in God?

Galatians 2:21a I do not frustrate the grace of God…

1.Romans 8:13

For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

2.Colossians 3:5

Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth;

2 Corinthians 6

1 We then, as workers together with him, beseech you also that ye receive not the grace of God in vain.

2 For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.

Strange Christmas Greetings 2011

2011-11-29T15:05:00.001-05:00

Tuesday, November 29, 2011
~ STRANGE Christmas Greetings 2011 ~

~ STRANGE Christmas Greetings 2011 ~

Are YOU asleep in the culture of death?

Govans (Baltimore), Md.
Monday November 28th, 2011

Dear friends, neighbors and Dear enemies, Dear christian,

Shalom! Thanksgiving has come and as a day it has gone in 2011. Christmas is very near. I write to you this strange (Thanksgiving and Christmas, holiday, or seasonal) greeting from my temporary shelter in Baltimore, Maryland in the United States of America. Christmas especially is a memorial, a reminder (should we need one) of the birth of the Savior of all who will trust in Him and His Father, and a reminder that He not only died for us, He was born for us, Emmanuel. To many this is not strange. What is strange about Christmas?

I heard it said recently that we don’t have a whole heart until it is broken. And this must be true! If we are well, if we are entirely satisfied with ourselves, we must be deceived. Why? Because we are dying. Our lives are vapors, passing away after a short 30, 60 or 100 years. Our bodily demise is always a moment away.

Our hearts are physically broken. The life they pump through our veins is unsustainable because in the realest and truest sense our hearts are broken. If we think otherwise we are truly deluded. Only when we see our hearts are broken, when we discover that they are broken far beyond our ability to repair them, will we then in their brokenness and in our honest integrity be able to receive from God in Christ the remedy which makes them whole.

It seems incongruous, but in our bodies which are perishing, God has caused our souls, our persons, our essence to be whole before Him, and to be alive by His mercy and grace forever.

This truth, which comes as a gift from Jesus who is the TRUTH, this is something worth our humble thanksgiving and worship all day every day. Amen?

I also heard someone pray, “Jesus, break my heart with the things that break Your Heart.” That is a difficult prayer to pray. I think the only thing that breaks Jesus’ Heart is sin. There is a ton of that going around. But this is a prayer which will cause to be conformed into His image. God gives grace to those who are grieved as He is. Ezekiel Chapter 9 is a remarkable testimony to that fact. I hope the rest of this strange letter upholds humble the need to be troubled by sin, by that which grieves God.

Again and again I am reminded and unable to forget or ignore the insanity and inanity of the current thinking of many Americans on illegal aliens and immigration and “the practice” (I will identify the strange practice later). This sounds like condemnation, but it is not, for I too suffer from unclean and stupid thinking, even if God has delivered me from much of it. It may sound like judgment, and this it is. We all make judgments every day. They may be wise or foolish. Jesus did say: “Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.” John 7:24 The thinking I am writing about is that American sovereignty must exclude foreign workers, especially illegal aliens from doing American jobs on American soil. It might be a reasonable legal view for illegal immigrants, but let’s ask some reasonable questions:

Why do aliens come in to the US illegally?

The answer is first and foremost that they come for work and for the U.S. dollar. Secondly they come in for criminal activity (and the U.S. dollar). Thirdly they come as enemies of the U.S. to overthrow the U.S. government(s). Let’s not be overly concerned with the second and third answers here, though they too are very important problems to solve.

Why aren’t American workers doing the work illegals come for?

Illegals have worked for very low wages in industries accustomed to very low profit margins. Illegals routinely worked harvesting crops for wages below the minimum wage, wages Americans would and could not legally accept in jobs Americans supposedly did not want to perform. I’m not sure how long the farmers of the south, and south west have been employing alien workers. My memory of controversy goes back to the sixties to the grape and lettuce crops in California and Caesar Chavez. (Chavez worked for the Community Service Organization, a Latino civil rights group from 1952 until 1962.

The idea that Americans were unwilling to do this hard work picking crops may have been the result of the below minimum wages offered to attract illegals. Regardless, illegals have been picking our crops for a long time. But for several decades illegals have been taking jobs in other industries, most typically food service and restaurant work, and landscaping and gardening. But why are more and more jobs in the USA held by illegals? Where are we? Where are the Americans? Where did we all go? While the economy has lost several million jobs since 2008 and some illegals have gone home having lost theirs, there are still 12 million or more illegals in the U.S. Why is there still so much room in the job market for illegals?

There are so many factors that a book would be necessary to expose the matter fully. But I think of several factors as very relevant to this dilemma.

Capitalism and capitalists, in specific American capitalists have become more devoted to profits than to the nation. Because of this illegals at low wages are in demand over Americans. Additionally illegals coming from poverty prove to be eager and productive workers, while Americans have succumbed to their sense of “entitlement” to high wages, union and government benefits, and legal resources. The federal government exacerbates the matter by placing regulations on businesses raising their costs. Business owners not finding illegals to work for them will and do move their business to other nations. Finally illegals are starting and running their own businesses and likely avoiding payroll income and social security taxes.

American patriots are conflicted, confused and/or ignorant if they condemn illegals as wholly responsible as lawbreakers and even as economic enemies. How can our farms and businesses run smoothly and profitably with American workers while “made in America” policies and practices encourage the hiring of illegals or foreigners?

But one more time I ask, “Why do aliens come in to the US illegally? Why aren’t American workers doing the work illegals come for? Where are we? Where are the Americans? Where did we all go? Why is there still so much room in the job market for illegals?”

These questions have one more answer. It is the most telling answer, in my opinion. Where are they (we)? Shockingly twenty five percent, one of four of American workers have died every year for 35 years. These have not been ill, and have not retired. They have died? What was their cause of death? It was and continues to be abortion. Leaving aside the moral objections so many have against abortion, we need to understand the economic consequences of abortion. Abortion “is the practice.”

The closest Bible reference I have found to modern abortion is found in Jeremiah:
“[… thus saith the LORD] And they built the high places of Baal, which are in the valley of the son of Hinnom, to cause their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire unto Molech; which I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination, to cause Judah to sin.” (Jeremiah 32:35)

This describes the sacrifice of children by their parents to the heathen god Molech. In Jeremiah’s time the children of Israel and the children of Judah had gone so far astray that they were making these sacrifices. Note the Lord says of this: “…I commanded them not, neither came it into my mind, that they should do this abomination…” I think this shows just how alien, how strange the practice of child sacrifice is to God. Are today’s abortions child sacrifices to Molech or to any god? We know that children already born and living are still sacrificed in very dark corners of the world. But Abortion, is it a sacrifice? It is certain that the aborted child is unwanted. Why? Because something else is preferred. And what is that? What is preferred is relief from the responsibilities and the labors of raising the child conceived. In effect we worship our own selves. We give the child to whom? To God by the act of murdering him/her in the womb. But is it a sacrifice we are giving to God? No, although the child IS received by God.

“When my father and my mother forsake me, then the LORD will take me up.”
(Psalm 27:10) Amen

By preferring our money, and our leisure time to the needs of the baby in the womb we are elevating ourselves to be as Gods by taking the life, the LIFE of the baby to be.

By abortion, by the practice our labor pool, the number of available U.S. citizens for hire is reduced every year by 25%. Our tax base and tax revenues are cut by 25%. It could be that one of every four American jobs is held by an illegal alien, a legal foreign worker or has been given to a foreigner in another nation. The consequences of abortion simply reduce American prosperity.

A related matter is the prevalence of foreign goods in the American market place. These products are not the result of American labor. Their sale in the U.S. generates no wages, and no tax revenues on wages. We often hear the very reasonable advice: “Buy American.” But to “Buy American,” we must have American made goods to buy. Sadly 25% of future American craftsmen, manufacturers, business owners and job creators are eliminated every year as unwanted aborted babies.

Abortion became legal in 1973. That year more than 700,000 “conceptions were terminated,” a polite way of saying that babies or persons were murdered in the wombs of their mothers. In 1991 those 700,000+ aborted persons would have had the been born and lived turned 18 years of age. In 1974 more than 1,000,000 babies/persons were aborted (That number has been typical in almost every year since. As I recall, one year nearly 1,500,000 abortions were done). Eighteen years after 1974 those 1,000,000+ persons would also have turned 18 years of age. Today in 2011 babies/persons aborted in the year 1993, had they been born would be 18 years old.

At eighteen most people look for work, enter the military or enter trade schools colleges or universities. From 1973 to 1993 approximately 20,000,000 babies/persons were aborted. Is it a coincidence that there are (some estimate) 20,000,000 or more illegal aliens in the United States of American today? Note that every one of those 20,000,000 aborted would be 18 years old by January 1st, 2012. All of them would be eligible to vote in the 2012 election.

What has possessed us to be so blind to the economic consequences of this practice called abortion or termination of pregnancy?

I must add this to the list of consequences. Though liberal doctors and their powerful medical establishment deny it, and the liberal press/media will not report it, the risk of breast cancer in women is higher in women having abortions. It is higher by 33-100% in women having one abortion and higher than that in those having more than one aborton. Why? When a woman becomes pregnant estrogen begins to build up in her breasts. It is the body’s necessary way of preparing to deliver milk to the newborn. When the baby is aborted, the estrogen remains in the breast without being used and released in breast feeding. This trapped estrogen simply causes breast cancer in many women. If you want information on this Google search ABC Link, Abortion Breast Cancer, or Joel Brind, Ph.D.

Illegals here are frequently Hispanics and Roman Catholics; they do not have many abortions. They value children. In their culture they have not yet drunk the pro-choice Kool-Aid. I pray they never will. But it seems to me, and seems very clear that illegal aliens are a consequence of U.S. federal law and domestic policy gone astray and amuck in the worst way with abortion topping the list. Men are not only endowed by their creator with inalienable rights, they are endowed with creative ability. How sad that in ignorance of and rebellion against God, rights (powers) and ability produce oppression, and destruction resulting in debt, default and eventually poverty and death.

Illegals often pay no taxes by receiving under the table cash wages, or through their own businesses. Illegals send U.S. dollars out of the country to their families. Illegals receive government services, from medical health benefits to education courtesy of a government which has lost 25% (over a million every year) of its taxpayers. Illegals require state and federal law enforcement agencies to guard borders, arrest, care for and return illegals to their homelands. There are bureaucracies overseeing these. Illegals drain tax revenues by committing crimes here. We have many illegals imprisoned, also a cost to our taxpayers.

Notwithstanding this: God loves illegal aliens wherever they are found. Jesus was sent to whosoever will. Jesus has saved many already and desires many more be saved. He has saved many who have had abortions, approved abortion, and even some who have facilitated and performed abortions. He has also saved many who have gone bankrupt, who have lost their jobs, which have been corrupt in business, government and law enforcement. He and desires all not saved repent and receive His priceless gift of eternal life. In this time marked out (however inaccurately) for the celebration of Jesus’ birth (a real event), we need to remember and memorialize that Jesus was born so that he could die and take away the sins of the world, that world of bankrupt, jobless, corrupt, illegal men and women near and far (to you and me) living here on earth. Here Christmas and all “holidays” have the possibility of being HOLYdays, as does every day of the calendar.

Illegal immigrants are people. Their existence in America is a symptomatic condition resulting from other issues, some of which I believe I have touched on in this letter. It seems unlikely I will forget these troubles in the very near future, excepting when Jesus comes back to us. But with my will and heart, both which are weaker than any lamb, I set my self to forgiving the troublers in this earth which so surely belongs to the Lord Jesus our Messiah and Savior. God save such, for I was one such as they are.

Thanks and praise to God, our Father, Savior, Lord, brother, and Guide! He is Almighty forever and ever, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Baruch HaShem Yeshua, Baruch HaShem Adonai !!!

His and yours, Dave Severy ~ Govans, Md.

2011-10-20T18:32:00.001-04:00

Jesus as a political/economic role model.
10/20/2011

I wrote this in response to Herman Cain having called Jesus the perfect conservative.

Jesus turned the world upside down and it hasn't stopped trembling yet. Until Jesus, the Jews were the vectors of God's law and morals to the world. Now we have Jesus elegantly quoted at great length in the New Testament Scriptures where He brings perfection to the law and morals of Moses. When Christians live out what the Bible calls “the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus” they do influence the world for good. They are salt (preservative) and the light for all who will be salted and enlightened. Their work is that of their Savior Jesus “to preach the gospel to the poor; to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised.” Christians have a “vocation” which seeks the true welfare of others, spiritually especially and materially where possible. Conversely, the world's other religious and irreligious peoples and groups will influence others as they wish, generally for their own self promotion benefit. For this reason it IS often controversial to bring the Christian faith directly to the political debate. It tends to make a mess.

Political debate is the promotion of self interest by compromise. Christian faith is the worship and love of God and the love neighbor. Self promotion and self interest is to take a back seat to the needs of others. We are to live sacrificially. I personally believe that any governmental system would work if people were willing to consider other and their needs before their own. Jesus came from heaven and is King of His universe, we ought to see it and learn to live according to His commandments. They are not grievous commandments at all. They in fact exclude all that causes grief, including the self absorbed greedy pretensions often called “capitalism.” Capitalism, or the market place, requires law and morals to contain and control those self interested persons who would steal from and defraud any to line their own pockets. It is in my opinion wrong to think that Jesus favors those who compete brutally in the capitalist market place to those who compete brutally in the socialist halls of government.

While Jesus may not expect an egalitarian result in this world today, I believe strongly that equity of care for all men, women and children, or the attempt to have equity is a large part of the gospel He gives us. It is said that if men would simply stop fighting the wars being fought, those who would do good could feed the entire world and have plenty to spare. Those who war in the streets, the government house or the boardroom in such a way which prevents and/or encumbers doing good to all men are not hearing the message of love God give in His Son Jesus. Ultimately the Kingdom will come and many will be so very sorry they had not listened to Jesus.

And he [Jesus] said unto them, Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Luke 12:15

2011-10-20T13:20:00.001-04:00

“What is a Christian Zionist?”

................... by David Severy Oct. 2011

First a Christian Zionist is one who has received and trusted Jesus Christ as the Son of God, as their Savior and as their Lord. Their Bible includes the “New Testament” as well as the “Old Testament.”

“So are Christian Zionists different than ‘regular’ Christians? If they are, why are they different? What does the ‘Zionist’ part mean? What is Zion?”

Zion is defined by Strong’s Bible dictionary as:

1) the hill on which the higher and more ancient part of Jerusalem was built

1a) the southwestern most and highest of the hills on which the city was built

2) often used of the entire city of Jerusalem

3) since Jerusalem because the temple stood there, was called the dwelling place of God

Jerusalem is the capitol city of modern Israel and declared by Israel to be her eternal capitol. It was first called Jebus (Ha Jebusi), and was a city of the Jebusites in Canaan. David son of Jesse took the castle at Zion around three thousand years ago. As you can see, the city of Zion and Zionism are not new to history. Zion has been said to be a name for the Old Testament church, that is the assembly of God’s faithful before the Common Era (C.E.). Zionism has its roots in God’s history in the books of the Old and New Testaments. But isn’t Zionism a Jewish term, something pertaining only to Judaism? After all, isn’t the word Zion a Jewish word transliterated into English? True enough but wait! There is more!

The Christian Church worldwide (Christendom) is predominantly made up of gentiles (gentiles are all the non-Jewish people of the world). But the church was not always so. Jesus Himself is Jewish, and born of Mary a Jewess who was then betrothed to Joseph also a Jew, both from the house of David (Israel’s 2nd King who captured the castle at Zion), David being from the tribe of Judah, Judah being the son of Jacob named Israel. Jacob is the son of Isaac, and Isaac the son of Abraham.

When Jesus called the twelve disciples He called twelve Jewish men. We have them named in the King James Bible as Simon, (whom he also named Peter,) and Andrew his brother, James and John, Philip and Bartholomew, Matthew and Thomas, James the son of Alphaeus, and Simon called Zelotes, and Judas the brother of James, and Judas Iscariot (which also was the traitor). These are names transliterated into English in 1611 C.E. Their Hebrew names (Hebrew is the language of Israel) are rendered by David Stern in the Complete Jewish New Testament as Shim`on, whom he named Kefa; Andrew, his brother; Ya`akov; Yochanan; Philip; Bar-Talmai; Mattityahu; T'oma; Ya`akov Ben-Halfai; Shim`on, the one called the Zealot; Y'hudah Ben-Ya`akov; and Y'hudah from K'riot (which also was the traitor). In fact Jesus Hebrew name is Y’shua (or Yeshua), Mary his mother is called Miryam, and Joseph is Yosef. The city of Jerusalem is called Yerushalayim and Zion is Tziyon. (Don’t bother spell checking here!)

The Bible is a thoroughly Jewish book! Moses who led the Children of Israel through the desert? Of the tribe of Levi the son of Jacob called Israel. Joshua is of the tribe of Ephraim, Ephraim a son of Joseph the son of Jacob called Israel. Aren’t there any gentiles in the Old Testament? Yes there are, and many more of them than of Israel. But the Old Testament, which the Jewish people call the Tanakh, is written by Jews and written first for Jews, but is now given by God equally to all gentiles who trust Yeshua (Jesus) as their Savior and Lord! The story now begins to get very interesting, and in the minds of some it is quite controversial! Why, you ask? Because the New Testament is a thoroughly Jewish book too!

An important feature of a Christian Zionist is that he or she recognizes that God began (again) with Abraham to reveal Himself to the whole world. What God began to reveal by covenant with Abraham brought us through to Jesus, a son of Abraham by human lineage and the Son of God by a divine miracle! The story of “the Jews” from Abraham to Jesus and beyond is one of how God through history has revealed Himself, His will, His way and His word to whosoever now will have ears to hear and eyes to see. It is a sad fact that gentiles beginning around the second century began to treasure less and less the grace God had given to the ancestors of their Savior and Lord, their Anointed One. Jesus is that Anointed One. Jesus is that Christ. Yeshua is that Messiah. And all three of the previous sentences declare the same exact truth!

Remember, Jesus is born of Mary a virgin Jewess by the Holy Spirit! Jesus 12 disciples are all Jews! While Jesus interacted with gentiles, and famously with the Samaritan woman at the well, Jesus (Yeshua!) said to another gentile woman: “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” Matthew 15:24 The apostle Paul, known to his Jewish brethren as Sha’ul, recognized that the Gospel was sent by Father God and Jesus to the Jew first, and then to the gentile. In Romans 1 verse 16 it is very clear when Paul (Sha’ul) writes:

“For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek (gentile).” Romans 1:16 King James Version.

“For I am not ashamed of the Good News, since it is God's powerful means of bringing salvation to everyone who keeps on trusting, to the Jew especially, but equally to the Gentile.” Romans 1:16 Complete Jewish New Testament

There is not time to recount the history of the church from the times of the book of Acts until now. But it can be said with no doubt that the church of the God we worship and love comes directly out of the church at Pentecost circa 34 C.E., and that church was entirely Jewish. The first gentiles to be divinely received into the church were received into a community composed entirely of Jews! Yeshua (Jesus) Himself said to the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well:

Yeshua said, "Lady, believe me, the time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Yerushalayim. You people don't know what you are worshipping; we worship what we do know, because salvation comes from the Jews. But the time is coming — indeed, it's here now — when the true worshippers will worship the Father spiritually and truly, for these are the kind of people the Father wants worshipping him." John 4:21-23 Complete Jewish New Testament

This is further confirmed to us gentiles as Paul (Sha’ul) writes this to the gentiles in Rome warning them against pride: "But now I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I lay great stress on my ministry and magnify my office, In the hope of making my fellow Jews jealous [in order to stir them up to imitate, copy, and appropriate], and thus managing to save some of them. For if their rejection and exclusion from the benefits of salvation were [overruled] for the reconciliation of a world to God, what will their acceptance and admission mean? [It will be nothing short of] life from the dead! Now if the first handful of dough offered as the firstfruits [Abraham and the patriarchs] is consecrated (holy), so is the whole mass [the nation of Israel]; and if the root [Abraham] is consecrated (holy), so are the branches. [Num. 15:19-21.] But if some of the branches were broken off, while you, a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among them to share the richness [of the root and sap] of the olive tree, do not boast over the branches and pride yourself at their expense. If you do boast and feel superior, remember it is not you that support the root, but the root [that supports] you. You will say then, Branches were broken (pruned) off so that I might be grafted in! That is true. But they were broken (pruned) off because of their unbelief (their lack of real faith), and you are established through faith [because you do believe]. So do not become proud and conceited, but rather stand in awe and be reverently afraid. For if God did not spare the natural branches [because of unbelief], neither will He spare you [if you are guilty of the same offense]. Then note and appreciate the gracious kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's gracious kindness to you--provided you continue in His grace and abide in His kindness; otherwise you too will be cut off (pruned away)." (Rom 11:13-22)

God found a man Noah whose generations were righteous and showed him grace by which Noah and his family repopulated the world which was destroyed. God found and chose Abram (Avram) the great great great great grandson of Heber (‘Ever) whom He would rename (Avraham) to leave his home in Ur and go out not knowing where God would send him. God sent him to Canaan and made Abram/Abraham a promise strengthened many times, even made to Abraham’s grandson Jacob (Ya’akov). The promise was that the land of Canaan was given to Abraham and his seed forever.

“Wait a minute! Aren’t you coming near to worshipping these Jews, these sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Aren’t you saying they are more important, better, holier than the gentile Christian?”

No, I am not. God so loved the world that He sent Jesus for whosoever would believe, that they should not perish, but live forever.

For God has shut up all mankind together in disobedience, in order that he might show mercy to all. O the depth of the riches and the wisdom and knowledge of God! How inscrutable are his judgments! How unsearchable are his ways! Romans 11:32-33 Complete Jewish New Testament

What does become evident is that God has had a mysterious plan for mankind which exploded in the world with the first coming of Yeshua (Jesus). Since that time we have not only a Saviour and Lord, but also a Guide and Teacher the Holy Spirit who continues to reveal God and His plan, and also instruct our faith in Jesus! For those who receive Jesus as Lord, should His preferred means of bringing salvation to them be objectionable? I think not! The drowning man saved can hardly complain for the piece of wood not having been a rope. Men who are often under-educated Biblically, not fully sanctified or both need to humble themselves and pray, turn from their wicked ways and seek His face. This will heal their land, and they will find themselves healed as well, for more than even the soil they are God’s focus. It will be a blessing to all who seek the truth to find it, and to find what the truth means and reveals to them about their land in their day. God’s vision is perfect; it is we who need to be healed.

God’s plan has not ever been to abandon the Jewish people to hell. Some may end in hell, but God is not willing that any perish but that all come to repentance and salvation. God is not willing that any gentile perish either. He sent Jesus to care for our souls. What did Jesus do for the gentiles? He brought us in to the light and Kingdom of His Son, into the community of the saints gone before us all, the saved of the times before Christ Jesus first came to earth. Jew and gentile had every reason to thrive together in their now mutual Messiah, yet in the 2nd century something happened: anti-Jewish anti-messiahs grew prominent in the church. I think it surely has been true that few have found the narrow way and straight gate. How odd that God’s love is so misunderstood, is found by so many as something to avoid, and by so many who call themselves Christian. We who have found salvation in the grace of God’s Jewish Messiah must preach and teach those who will be His disciples. We are called to a love far different and far greater than human love. This love of God (God is love and love is of God) does not sin!

Love is patient and kind, not jealous, not boastful, not proud, rude or selfish, not easily angered, and it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not gloat over other people's sins but takes its delight in the truth. (1Corinthians 13:4-6)

Therefore, remember that at one time you were Gentiles (heathens) in the flesh, called Uncircumcision by those who called themselves Circumcision, [itself a mere mark] in the flesh made by human hands. [Remember] that you were at that time separated (living apart) from Christ [excluded from all part in Him], utterly estranged and outlawed from the rights of Israel as a nation, and strangers with no share in the sacred compacts of the [Messianic] promise [with no knowledge of or right in God's agreements, His covenants]. And you had no hope (no promise); you were in the world without God. But now in Christ Jesus, you who once were [so] far away, through (by, in) the blood of Christ have been brought near. For He is [Himself] our peace (our bond of unity and harmony). He has made us both [Jew and Gentile] one [body], and has broken down (destroyed, abolished) the hostile dividing wall between us, By abolishing in His [own crucified] flesh the enmity [caused by] the Law with its decrees and ordinances [which He annulled]; that He from the two might create in Himself one new man [one new quality of humanity out of the two], so making peace. And [He designed] to reconcile to God both [Jew and Gentile, united] in a single body by means of His cross, thereby killing the mutual enmity and bringing the feud to an end. And He came and preached the glad tidings of peace to you who were afar off and [peace] to those who were near. [Isa. 57:19.] For it is through Him that we both [whether far off or near] now have an introduction (access) by one [Holy] Spirit to the Father [so that we are able to approach Him]. Therefore you are no longer outsiders (exiles, migrants, and aliens, excluded from the rights of citizens), but you now share citizenship with the saints (God's own people, consecrated and set apart for Himself); and you belong to God's [own] household. You are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus Himself the chief Cornerstone. In Him the whole structure is joined (bound, welded) together harmoniously, and it continues to rise (grow, increase) into a holy temple in the Lord [a sanctuary dedicated, consecrated, and sacred to the presence of the Lord]. In Him [and in fellowship with one another] you yourselves also are being built up [into this structure] with the rest, to form a fixed abode (dwelling place) of God in (by, through) the Spirit. (Eph 2:11-22) (Amplified Bible)

Can Christians love as God loves? If they can, if they do how can they not love the Jews? How can they not be grateful to Yeshua the Jewish Messiah for the gift of everlasting life? How can they not want for Jewish people, the ancestors of the priests, prophets and shepherds of Yahweh to know their own Savior Jesus?

I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eye salve, that thou mayest see. As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches. (Revelation 3:18-22)

As it is written, Behold I am laying in Zion a Stone that will make men stumble, a Rock that will make them fall; but he who believes in Him [who adheres to, trusts in, and relies on Him] shall not be put to shame nor be disappointed in his expectations. [Isa. 28:16.] (Romans 9:33)

The stone is Jesus the Messiah (the Christ, the Anointed Savior) of Jews and gentiles who trust Him, has been laid in Zion. He is made by God the head (stone) of the corner. As Paul wrote: “let each one be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Yeshua the Messiah.” 1Corinthians 3:10, 11 With these things in view, how can a Christian not be a Zionist? If we will not love whom God calls His beloved, we will be either indifferent to them or hate them. Today some churches who call themselves Christian are actively supportive of the Palestinian cause calling the divine return of the Jewish people to their land Israel an occupation. Churches have stripped their financial portfolios of investments which benefit Israel. They are active in political efforts to have Israel make more concessions of land to the Palestinians. They are deceived by revisionist historians who author lies of Israel’s history since 1948. They think the Islamic religion to be one of peace, and only “hijacked” by radicals. What is far more accurate is that they are ignorant of the history of Israel, and of Abraham, and the Holy Bible. So ignorant that they have become the prey of deceivers and do not know it to be so. May God reveal all His truth to them.

Remarkably there are also some Jews who are "drinking the Kool-aid" by supporting those who want to give up "land for peace." May God grant them revelation.

As a gentile believer in Jesus, His Father and His Holy Spirit I know I am called to be like Him. It is challenging to pick up my cross daily and follow Jesus knowing that I could be crucified on it on any day! That must be so; why else would Jesus have me (us) to carry one? But I know my bodily death will not bring condemnation and hell, but instead for my faith I will be received into God’s heavenly Kingdom and live with Him forever! Therefore, since God is for me who can be against me? I have no more fear of death, and no more fear of any man. There is no reason to hate any man, although there is good reason to hate all sin. The question with regard to the Jews and to Zion is: “Why are they so hated?” And the answer for that unreasonable hatred is found in the pages of the Holy Bible, Old and New “Testaments.” Have you read and discovered the purposes of God in the Bible, why He chose Abraham, why He gave the land of Canaan to him and to his seed forever? Do you know why Zion is important not just in the past but in the present and future? You can know these things, things so important that the whole world trembles over the controversy of Zion, of Israel and of God’s chosen people, the descendants of Isaac!

Why abortion caused illegal aliens and recession.

2010-10-10T15:24:00.004-04:00

Why abortion caused illegal aliens and recession.

Abortion is the most heinous crime, number one in my point of view. First let me lay out some facts:

Every year we abort 22% of our naturally conceived fetuses ( http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html#2). They would each become a part of our nation for better or worse as do the other 75%. But 18 years after they are aborted someone else must be found to fill the gap we make by aborting them. In 1991 had they lived, (18 years after Roe vs. Wade was decided) all the aborted fetuses of 1973 would have turned 18 years old. In 1992, 1993 and each successive year until 2010 another years "crop" of aborted individuals would have turned 18. Their absence is profound. Between 1973 and 1991 25,000,000 babies were aborted (http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/journals/4000608.pdfsee page 4). All would be between 18 and 37 years old today. So we effectively have made room for the 20 million illegals that do the work they would have done.

Additionally we must see that the economic activity that occurs in raising each child from infancy to adulthood (18) is forfeited to those illegals that fill the jobs related to their expenses. Add in the money sent out of the country by illegals. Also add in whatever number of the aborted who would have become engineers or scientists or doctors. America continues to slip in the number of necessary professionals it produces and we look to other nations to supply them.

The loss to our nation due to abortion is enormous. In fact we are now producing on average less than 2 children per married couple. This means we are not growing in population but shrinking. Both the illegal Hispanics and the legal Muslim communities are increasing in population. If the rates hold steady the nation will change dramatically in the next 50 years. That might be ok, but it might not be ok.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-3X5hIFXYU http://www.census.gov/population/www/pop-profile/natproj.html

We also must consider the question of how our children view their elders when they understand that their own lives were a choice rather than a highly prized right and privilege. This leads to questions about the stability of our national psychology and morality. The estimate is that half of all pregnancies are "unintended." Here we enter into the arena of judgment, and I will share why abortion is the worst crime an individual can commit and the worst a society can sanction.

Humanity is not one step better than gutter rats if it chooses to behave like them. Rats are about one thing survival. Humans have the capacity to live above the lifestyle of the rat, far above it. And by our intellect we do live above it. But when we use our intellect to live only for our selfish pleasures we become nothing more than calculating perverse clever rats. I believe in the Lord Jesus the Messiah of Israel and all who believe Him. But I will give at least some kudos to any form of religious belief, societal form or political entity that values the child. It is still said in some quarters "the children are our future." They are certainly a part of our future unless we deny them their own.

So we should not fool ourselves about abortion. It is in most cases, easily over 90% of all cases, the elimination of an "unintended" UNWANTED child. It is NOT done for the health of the mother, nor to save her life. It is done because the parents have chosen not to take responsibility for the consequence of their sexual act. Bottom line people want to go on living without the “burden” of another mouth to feed, another mind to educate, and another child’s soul to love.

What passes as an act to improve the life of the parents ultimately has torn down the quality of life of the society in which they live. It is a sad state of affairs. When will we wake up? When will we embrace the results of our sexual acts, even the adulterous and promiscuous acts? Those results are souls just like we are. By aborting them we inhabit the most perverse gutters, dirtier than the worst slum rat ever inhabited.

The baby aborted goes straight to the arms of Jesus while we roll in the filth of our sexual misbehavior and the blood of 50 million abortions. Can the curse we bring on our nation be understood now? Twenty million illegals, 9% unemployment, economic recession, jobs sent overseas, war, drug abuse everywhere, pornography everywhere, no moral consensus, no political consensus… what will it take to wake us?

My answer is prayer and the preaching of the Gospel of God in Christ who loves us enough still to tell us the truth, and in fact to be the Truth we need. It is time for those in the pulpits to lead their preachers and teachers into the streets. It is time for the gospel to become the No. 1 message of the pro-life movement. Only the gospel can empower any man or woman to succeed, for success cannot be found apart from the Living God of the living, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

I need to add this: It is because the contents of the womb are entirely human from conception to birth that abortion is so evil and wrong. We are valuable in God's sight beyond our understanding. He sent His ONLY Son to be a fetus and baby and child just like each of us were. We may call abortion a choice, and it is a choice. It is a choice to MURDER a human being, a PERSON. It is INFANTACIDE and it is A HOLOCAUST. Fifty million babies have been aborted. Fewer that one million and ten thousand Americans have been killed in ALL the wars this nation ever fought!

.................................................. 50 periods (50,000,000 babies)
. 1 period (1,000 000 battle deaths)

Must I?

2010-05-27T20:15:00.002-04:00

Must I Speak in Tongues…
… too be saved and go to God’s heaven forever and ever?
… too be born again?

This rambling writing stems from a gospel(?) tract that insists those who do not speak in tongues are not saved.

Acts 2:2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.

I recently read a tract in which the author says most clearly this: every one must speak in tongues in order to be born again. I make the following note:

The phrase “born again” is used three times in the Bible, THREE. It is not found at all in the book of Acts where the record of Holy Ghost and tongues of fire at Pentecost is found. The word salvation is found FORTY FIVE times in FORTY THREE verses in the New Testament. The word saved is found FIFTY SEVEN times in the New Testament. The word save is found ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY TWO times in ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTEEN verses in the New Testament.

I do not mean to diminish the meaning of the words “born again.” Jesus said them to Nicodemus, and Peter wrote them to the dispersed church. Yet the doctrine of being saved, of salvation which Jesus wrought on the cross and which God gives to men and women, that salvation is certainly magnified. How then can we be saved? How then can we be born again?

After the Holy Ghost fell, after the 120 spoke in tongues, after Peter preached that very notable 1st message of the church age, the people responded:

Act 2:37 KJV Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?

To this Peter replied: “Wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence. It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”

I sincerely hope you have read your Bible well enough to know this is NOT what Peter said to this large gathering of persons. He DID say this:

Act 2:38-40 KJV (38) Then Peter said unto them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. (39) For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.” (40) And with many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, “Save yourselves from this untoward generation.”

Note: He did not say you will speak in tongues. He did say you will receive the gift of the Holy Ghost. What is THE gift of the Holy Ghost? I think it may be more than one thing. It may be the Holy Ghost Himself, It may be Power, and it may be salvation. Tongues is another class of gift. Are there not more than a few gifts in that class the Holy Ghost gives? Yes there are, and two significant lists of them are found in 1 Corinthians 12 and Romans 12. So why did Peter not say “one of the gifts of the Holy Ghost?” I submit two possibilities:

1. Peter referred to the same power that Jesus promised the apostles in Acts 1:8
2. He referred to the salvation of their souls which the Holy Ghost brought to the 120 on Pentecost.

But it is likely Peter spoke of the gospel truth. By their baptism in Jesus name their sins were remitted, forgiven by the Blood of Jesus. That saved them. They believed in the name of Jesus Christ and were baptized. They received the gift of eternal life.

Consider:

Mark 16:15-18 KJVR And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. (16) He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned. (17) And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; (18) They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

Jesus did say new tongues would follow them that believed. That is (1) sign. But He also said other signs would also follow them: (2) They shall take up serpents; and if (3) they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; (4) they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

1 Corinthians 12:30 Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?

It is pretty well accepted that not every one heals by the power of God, and it is pretty well accepted that not all interpret the unknown prophetic tongues. How can we categorically insist with mind bending rigidity that all the saved speak in tongues and if not, they are not saved?

I believe with all my heart that God is very precise. What He does He does with Holy and perfect purpose and will. Revelation 4:11. But He seems not to give any one man, or any one part of the church at any time the total insight into His Holy Doings.

A very wonderful Bible teacher named Bob has noted the following about baptism and tongues. In the book of Acts some were baptized before they received tongues. The apostles were, and they also received power over demons before they received tongues. Others, as in the house of Cornelius, received tongues and the Holy Spirit as Peter preached the gospel and were afterward baptized in water. Other disciples spoke in tongues after they were baptized in water (see Acts 19: 1 onward). In Acts Ch. 8:14-17 Samarians received the word of God and were baptized in the Holy Spirit but we don’t know if they spoke in tongues or were baptized in water! Later in the same chapter, Philip baptized in water the Ethiopian eunuch by he went away rejoicing but we are never told that the eunuch spoke in tongues. There is a popular case made for saying that everyone who is baptized in the Holy Spirit will speak in tongues. But is it an air tight case? In my humble(?) opinion, not at all.

This same Bible teacher makes this excellent point. If God did things the same way every time we would become insufferable know it alls. There is a lot of that going around in the church because we make sure to do it the same every Sunday. And all while God continues to do things in mysterious ways: differently. I will admit that on occasion, less now than in days past, I am offended in Him. We simply are sometimes offended by God who does the unexpected, or does the usual in an unexpected way.

When I began to follow Jesus in 1976 I received half of the revelation that Peter received: that Jesus was the Son of God. I could not at that time have told you what Messiah (Christ) meant. I was not raised in the church. I had read the Bible exactly (to my recollection) twice in my twenty seven years. In neither case had I understood what I read. But in 1976 in addition to my many other sins, I became a thief, I was stealing from my employer. My mother had taught me one thing well, stealing is wrong and honesty is the best policy. Suddenly one day at work it hit me and I knew I was hell bound. That was what moved me to seek out the one man I knew who told me who Jesus was. Several years before He told me I needed Jesus. Wise fool that I was I asked him who Jesus was, was He Presbyterian, Baptist, Lutheran, Catholic or what? He looked me dead in the eye and said, “Dave, Jesus is the King of Israel.”

When I received the “half” revelation I was immediately anointed in oil by a church elder. The next day I was asked if I received Jesus as Lord and Savior. I said yes. The Savior part I understood from need as I knew I was hellbound. Jesus as the Lord part was not clear then as now. I was quickly given a Bible to read. Now the thing that makes me think that I was saved at that point was this: I wanted to obey God. In fact I think I was looking from a very early age for some one whom I could really trust enough to obey. (It is an understatement to say that most people in my life had failed to communicate anything trust worthy. That is in part due to trauma received by my parents volatile verbal fights and my dad’s general railings and cruel and undeserved deprecations toward me.) In 1976 I wanted to obey God. The first time I read : “Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?” I got my shoulder length hippie hair cut the next day.

I soon inquired about baptism and was water baptized, though not for almost 60 days. That day, before I was baptized in water in the Names of God, I was led in a sort of baptismal pledge. I answered half a dozen questions and I remain to this day struck by the fact that I comprehended them and answered them satisfactorily!

After the water, I had read enough Bible to know something about the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. I asked for that too! An elder and some brothers laid hands on me and prayed. When they ended the prayer, the elder (T.) began to speak. Immediately one of the brothers (R.) said “wait, be quiet.” And the most amazing thing happened which brings tears to my eyes as I write. I could see a line, a horizontal line moving inside my body. When I first saw it it was just near my waist. It was as if my body was a somewhat transparent vessel. Below the line it was a pale blue like water. Above the line there was only my normal body. The Holy Spirit was filling me up, not immersing me! I asked for baptism but it was as if God said “No. I’m going to do this a little differently with Dave.” That line rose until it passed my eyes and I saw it no more. Then I think the brother (R.) noted that something had been completed. Elder (T.) then asked “Are you still thirsty?” A voice not my own spoke affirmatively: “Still Thirsty!” And I was still thirsty. I was a complete baby in Christ. I was no educated seminarian who knew the Bible, not even a good church man like my friend B. who got save in his thirties knowing many scriptures by heart. I was 27, had been a tobacco, drug using, alcoholic, pervert, pornography using fornicator for in some cases 17 years! I honestly believe I was oppressed by the spirit of depression since I was 5 years old!

I needed expert help. Would you have been the expert to help me? To pray for me, to fast for me, to minister to me the power of God? One error of my walk with Jesus was not understanding that everything begins, continues and ends with God. That is to say man in and of himself has no authoritative answer. Man may mean well and do very well, but God alone is good. I spent many years looking to man for help which God alone could give, and did not tune my ears to the Spirit who was wooing me to a full surrender and abandonment of my own ways and man’s ways. I surrendered to the doctrines of man many times and was disappointed when I failed to prosper.

But it was and is God who is the expert I needed then and need and have now. And I believe God did the same thing, yet He saved me a little differently because He wanted to do it different. My life has not been “A, B, C and poof : speak in tongues, wham: saved.” But it is important to say it right here: Jesus bloody death and powerful resurrection and His own righteousness are the grace God gave me when I put my very desperate trust in Him. That is how I got saved. He saved me. I just believed He did, and believed that HE DID what He did for me when He did it FOR ME!

I did not immediately speak in tongues. But God sometimes spoke through me. Not many times. Were they words of wisdom, of knowledge or prophecy? I didn’t even know, but I sensed very strongly that it was always not my thought I was speaking. And no one objected or noted anything about this at all. This took place in 1976, 77 in a very young and immature “charismatic” congregation, and I was the youngest and most immature or so I thought.

A few days later I asked the same elder (T.) to pray for me that I be able to speak in tongues. I was surprised when he almost angrily suggested I pray for brother C. I must have caught him at a bad moment. So I went off and sat to pray for brother C. All I could pray and all I even knew how to pray was “Lord, bless Brother C.” God saved the most uninformed and ignorant person, me. I had not yet even learned how to pray. Which reminds me…

With all my heart I believe tongues are a gift very useful to the babes in the Messiah, the untaught and untrained.

Psalm 8:2 Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast Thou ordained strength because of Thine enemies, that Thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.

1Co 14:4 He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church.

I believe the teaching and instruction which the Jews had received in the Ten Commandments and the 613 rules are taught today by the Holy Spirit, and that tongues can be an essential part of that process. I think we would be astounded to know what answered prayers the Holy Spirit prayed through our own voices. I think it must be the “effect” of tongues to guide us onward to the holiness and perfection God commands. It may be the very most essential thing in this regard for some, even many, for sanctification. It may have brought much of this writing forth. Many God saves need to be edified in ways the church cannot even fathom let alone accomplish. But the rigidity and pride about preferred methods combined with the wildness of some tongue talkers may keep timid souls from the gift.

I pray if this writing is rigid or proud or wild that it never reach another soul, in Jesus Name, Amen.

Around 1987, 11 years later, I was a backslider. I had been a backslider for nearly 6 years. I was much the same as before, but not drinking every day, and very rarely doing drugs. I think what happened that winter may have been the answer to the prayers of some dear friends. I was going to bed late one night, and my windows were completely blacked out so I could sleep to noon, my job required this. I turned out the lights and got into bed. The very dark room became darker. It was a spiritual darkness. And the thought came, and I said loudly: “Don’t I have a mustard seed (of faith)? I HAVE a mustard seed!” I turned over and was sound asleep in what seemed 10 seconds.

I awoke the next morning but quite differently than ever before or since. It happened this way. I was instantly awake and completely alert. In the next instant by the power of God I leaped straight up off the bed about three feet and cried out joyfully: “Abba!”
My head touched what I believe to be God, His Spirit, His Presence or His heavenly place. It touched something visible, something akin perhaps to the brightness of Jesus garments on the Mount of Transfiguration. And I fell straight back to the bed.
I believe the Father responded to my declaration of faith only hours earlier. Within a few months I was seeking out a church.

But before that something else remarkable happened. I decided very spontaneously one morning to receive the gift of tongues. Something in me had not been satisfied about tongues. There was no one to pray for me in that moment of spontaneity, so I knelt down at my bedside, folder my hands on the bed, and said aloud: “Lord, I’m not going to speak another word in English!” I then opened my mouth and began to say the word “Lord” again! The L and about ½ of the O came out and I cut it off. I realized I was headed toward English. I then laughed and began to speak in tongues fluidly, and have spoken in tongues many times since. (Later on I read a wonderful book on tongues by Charles and Francis Hunter.)

Now I do not recommend anyone imitate the “method” by which I came to speak in tongues. It seems a bit messy, especially when one thinks of 6 years of backsliding.

1 Corinthians 2:16 For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

Paul wrote “we” have the mind of Christ.” He did not write: “I” “have the mind of Christ.” That is unthinkable. We all know some of Christ’s mind if we know Him. To know all the thoughts of Christ would make us His equal and that none of us can know. I think it would destroy us, we would drop dead from the glory of it, a glory we likely never ever can or will contain. Paul by the Spirit of God wrote many true things he learned from Christ. But he also at one point wrote:

1 Corinthians 7:40b … according to my judgment––and I think I also have the Spirit of God.

And:

1 Corinthians 3:5 Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God,

Acts 1:4-8 NKJV ~ 4 And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, "which," He said, "you have heard from Me; 5 "for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." 6 Therefore, when they had come together, they asked Him, saying, "Lord, will You at this time restore the kingdom to Israel?" 7 And He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or seasons which the Father has put in His own authority. 8 "But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth."

Notice that Jesus said the Holy Ghost would come upon them and that they would receive power. That power expressed itself in tongues, but what kind of tongues were they?

Acts 2:1-12 NKJV 1 When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. 2 And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat upon each of them. 4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. 5 And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under heaven. 6 And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language. 7 Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying to one another, "Look, are not all these who speak Galileans? 8 "And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we were born? 9 "Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 "Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene, visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, 11 "Cretans and Arabs––we hear them speaking in our own tongues the wonderful works of God." 12 So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another, "Whatever could this mean?"

The tongues they spoke with were tongues meant for an audience of foreigners. These foreign tongued persons heard there own languages. Whether any of the 120 understood what they were saying is not the point in my humble(?) opinion. These were (also?) PROPHETIC tongues. And there is every indication that they were entirely human tongues as opposed to angelic tongues AND they were understood by many of the unsaved men and women present. Now can we say all this with absolute certainty? No, we, or at least I, cannot, and I thank God I cannot, for it allows God to be God of the entire Day of Pentecost and every day since!

I do not subcribe to the view that it is necessary to speak in tongues at all in order that God save a man or woman. Notwithstanding, I do speak in tongues, but have not spoken prophetic tongues (yet?). Consider:

1 Corinthians 12:4-9 NKJV ~ 4 There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. 5 There are differences of ministries, but the same Lord. 6 And there are diversities of activities, but it is the same God who works all in all. 7 But the manifestation of the Spirit is given to each one for the profit of all: 8 for to one is given the word of wisdom through the Spirit, to another the word of knowledge through the same Spirit, 9 to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healings by the same Spirit, 10 to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another discerning of spirits, to another different kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. 11 But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.

“...But one and the same Spirit works all these things, distributing to each one individually as He wills.”

Here, “He” is the Holy Spirit. He divides and distributes the gifts severally as He will. Some say this means we each get at least one gift, and I agree with that. We all get POWER. See Acts 1:8 again. Some say we ALL get more than one gift, and I’m inclined to disagree with that but think most do get more than one. And some say we all get tongues. I don’t believe that. Why? Because then the liberty of God to not give tongues to a person is taken away from Him. Could God give power of the Holy Ghost to a man or woman by making them a healer, or a prophet, or a discerner of spirits without also having him/her speak in tongues. I think so. Why could He not? WHY WOULD He not?

I think it is dangerous to teach that all must speak in tongues to be saved. That seems to me to take salvation out of the hands and away from the Lord and Spirit of Holiness and put it into the hands of only those who believe that view. I am I not saved because YOU say so? O that all would better and more often hear God’s voice. Any time we teach we need to be very wise and very innocent. Any time God teaches He IS ENTIRELY wise and innocent.

Now you who require tongues for salvation are probably Arminian in your theology. I am not a Calvinist, but I do believe that God knows the end from the beginning. He knows me at all times. He planned me in eternity past when He planned all things. He knows His sheep and they know Him. When we think salvation to be faith plus something we are correct, it is faith plus grace. Others say it is faith plus repentance. I agree repentance is essential too. In fact I am coming to the place where I see salvation is by grace through faith… and then it is plus a very great number of things as the scripture says “all things are yours.” That is a statement of my faith, and I don’t require you to bow down to me for believing it. Wouldn’t save ya!

Consider this quote:

“Calvinism emphasized divine sovereignty and free grace; Arminianism emphasized human responsibility. The one restricts the saving grace to the elect; the other extends it to all men on the condition of faith. Both are right in what they assert; both are wrong in what they deny. If one important truth is pressed to the exclusion of another truth of equal importance, it becomes an error, and loses its hold upon the conscience. The Bible gives us a theology which is more human than Calvinism and more divine that Arminianism, and more Christian than either of them.” Phillip Schaff

The point in citing this quote is this: If speak in tongues, is it by God’s sovereignty or of my human will that I do so?

I think anyone who desires the gift of tongues ought to pray and even tarry for it. But I do not think we ought to require others to speak in tongues. If God requires it that would be one thing, but He has not spoken to me that He requires everyone to speak in tongues to qualify for salvation. Consider:

Colossians 1:12-14 NKJV giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. 13 He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, 14 in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins.

“…who has qualified us”.

The KJV translates “made us meet”. If there were ever a place to add “only those who speak in tongues by the Holy Ghost are qualified to be saved” this is it. Why? Because some make tongues a qualifier for salvation. It is difficult to determine a matter by silence, by what is left unsaid, but to me this silence seems very powerful. How powerful? It is powerful to say we are made meet, we are qualified because of Him in whom we have redemption through His Blood, (which powerfully guarantees) the forgiveness of (our many) sins, as “He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love.”

Now Jesus is the divine Son of God, and the Holy Ghost is the divine Spirit of God, the Father is just plain our DIVINE and AWESOME GOD if you ask me. (I can’t get too theological, my seminary training did not provide for that.) So we cannot separate the Holy Spirit from our salvation. It may be that no one may need to refuse speaking in tongues by the same (and only) Holy Spirit in their journey to heaven. But the question is not this, the question is can I get to heaven if I don’t now or ever speak in tongues by the same Holy Spirit.

I believe with all my heart, and I do speak in tongues, that if you never speak in tongues you can get to heaven, and many who can even stand to read this far will likely get to heaven, for your interest in these things and the scriptures of God must be great.

Remember Jesus promised the disciples the visitation of the Holy Ghost not many days hence and He promised them power. That is all He said. I cannot put the requirement of tongues on any man. If God requires it, so be it. Yet I don’t think God will rule people out of His Kingdom for not speaking in tongues. He will rule them out for unbelief in Jesus.

Is this not so: That if we will trust Jesus we will have Him, and if we have Him we will have His Father? Isn’t that how the “good thief” got saved?

Luke 23:40-43 NKJV ~ 40 But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, "Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? 41 "And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong." 42 Then he said to Jesus, "Lord, remember me when You come into Your kingdom." 43 And Jesus said to him, "Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise."

God excludes men from salvation for unbelief. In my humble(?) opinion unbelief in Jesus and God today is to resist the Holy Spirit. If a man never comes to faith in God and the Messiah, he leaves this earth committing the sin of resisting the Holy Spirit all his life! Is this not blasphemy of the Holy Spirit? This is another idea I don’t require any to believe, but I will say it makes sense to me from what I have learned. I leave it as a question, even in my own heart and mind.

I simply believe that we separate ourselves from each other and sometimes from God’s whole favor when we preach the word with a private interpretation. Do I think differently than others about the Bible and what the Holy Spirit teaches? Yes. But I trust Him to teach me daily and bring my life to the fruition He has planned. I have found by decades long and painful examination of the doctrines of men that the Holy Spirit is 100% reliable, and MEN ARE NOT. Not even those who are sent by God. Otherwise a “Pope” could be infallible. But Jesus said of the Holy Ghost:

John 16:13-15 NKJV ~ 13 However, when He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; for He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come.14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of what is Mine and declare it to you.15 All things that the Father has are Mine. Therefore I said that He will take of Mine and declare it to you.

And:

John 14:26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.

And:

John 15:26-27 But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me: (27) And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from the beginning.

If men would seek Jesus, and read His words, they should come to see that God rules from above. It is the grace of God by which all men breathe.

Act 17:26-28 KJVR And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; (27) That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: (28) For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

Can tongues actually become a work? In a way I think they can. When ever man puts up a barrier, or a requirement to salvation, a test that must be passed or a law that must be obeyed, has He not taken salvation out of the hands of the God who gives grace and put it into the hands of someone paying a wage and someone working for a wage? Wages are paid to those who work for them. Yet one work we CAN do which pleases God: believe the One whom the Father sent to us: His Son Jesus.

John 6:26-29 KJV Jesus answered them and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Ye seek me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves, and were filled. (27) Labor not for the meat which perisheth, but for that meat which endureth unto everlasting life, which the Son of man shall give unto you: for him hath God the Father sealed. (28) Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? (29) Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

I almost want to paraphrase verse 29 as this: “Jesus answered and said unto them, ‘This is how to work in a way God approves, give all the energy of your faith in God to the One He has sent.’” Jesus could have added “I Am he.” In fact he does in John 6:35, and powerfully in Ch. 8:58, and in numerous other places in John’s gospel (* see a partial list at the end below).

This amazing passage in an amazing chapter shows what Jesus and Father and Holy Spirit desire of men regarding work. And He calls it the work of God as they have called it. Jesus desires they “believe on him whom he hath sent.” That is, believe Jesus! The question may then be asked, “Where did I get my faith from?” And I seems quite so that faith is a gift as well, we receive it from God, and from the hearing of His word. Romans 12:3; Romans 10:17. Yet faith is a gift which works? It works by opening the door to God’s grace which opens the door of Salvation. Salvation is the beginning of God’s grace, of His giving good things from above. Ephesians 2:8, 9. It seems clear that some whom God would give faith to refuse it. That is sad.

I think it may well be that one must be born again to be able to receive the Holy Spirit’s power and then speak in tongues if God so deems necessary.

Now Jesus goes on in this Chapter 6 of John’s gospel to say to them IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE many things of which they said: “Therefore many of His disciples, when they heard this, said, "This is a hard saying; who can understand it?” (verse 60). He goes further on and says “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.” (verse 63). Jesus did not speak to them in tongues. He spoke to them words they could understand in their OWN LANGUAGE yet the words He spoke: many did not, could not or would not understand them. They were spiritual words. “The words that I speak to you are SPIRIT…” He spoke them, and in my humble(?) opinion men and women can and do speak spiritual words amongst those who understand that human language, the Tower of Babel notwithstanding! Otherwise what does this scripture mean? Who will listen to a sermon of non-Spiritual words?

1 Peter 4:11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion forever and ever. Amen.

And herein lies the rub, for sin not only caused the languages to be confused at that Tower, but it previously alienated us from God, and from each other, even from our own selves! My favorite bumper sticker for several years says this: “Don’t believe everything you think.” Not everything… that I think… agrees with God, I do not have the mind of Christ in every single thought I think. The challenge, and it is a JOYOUS challenge, is to perfect my thinking in, by and through the Spirit of God and then send that perfection into my heart and out to the church and the world through my soul and strength. Until heaven this must operate:

2 Corinthians 10:2-6 But I beseech you, that I may not be bold when I am present with that confidence, wherewith I think to be bold against some, which think of us as if we walked according to the flesh. (3) For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (4) (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;) (5) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; (6) And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

I failed almost every moral, ethical, social, and legal test God and man gave me! I was driven to desperation and to a Government (USA/MD) disability before I began to VIGOROUSLY believe God, the Bible and specifically the Holy Spirit to teach me to know Him, and Jesus, and Father. Then I began to understand some of what the Bible teaches about Jesus, God and mankind. I must say this almost by admission: I became desperate enough to seek and receive tongues before I got desperate enough to become study diligently. That I got tongues helped edified me to begin to believe and study VIGOROUSLY.

Tongues are a wonderful gift and greatly enhance both private prayer and public prophecy. If you declare that the Holy Spirit no longer gives gifts you ARE mistaken. The gifts are real. But they do not seem to find much opportunity where faith is absent and the Holy Spirit is lied about.

Tongues really do edify, build us and encourage the speaker of them in private prayer. When they are interpreted in congregations they edify the whole assembly. I believe they have lasting effects as they are private prayers that God answers and are praises which He inhabits. Interperted prophetically in the congregations they can give God’s Light to many at once. They are more than functional, they are uplifting and refreshing. I believe they are life saving, and have been many times. Undoubtedly the Holy Spirit has saved people from death by their own or others prayers in tongues.

I advocate tongues. But more importantly Paul and the Holy Spirit advocated for speaking in tongues.

If there were a cautionary note it is this: Many saved Christians (my humble[?] opinion) do not speak in tongues. They have believed God and the Bible, and they have believed on the Name of Jesus. They might one day speak in tongues, but they are alienated by the pedantic pressure of some churches and preachers who require tongues as THE imprimatur (sign) and often THE ONLY imprimatur (sign) of salvation in Jesus the Messiah, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Jesus’ own people, The Jews, looked for a sign. As a Christian I am a little wary of Christians who seek a signs.

1 Corinthians 14:22 NKJV Therefore tongues are for a sign, not to those who believe but to unbelievers…

Well THAT is clear, and it is helpful, for the question arises: Why are so many believers looking for the sign of tongues from other believers? The sign of tongues is for unbelievers! Why are YOU looking for it, if you are? We can be fruit inspectors and heresy hunters, but we better be right about those we judge, for we will be judged by the same measure! If we want a sign which will get attention we might ought to tarry for the gift of miracles which Holy Spirit gives much more freely today in Africa. The blind see, the deaf hear, and the dead are often raised back to life today in Africa. Perhaps we altogether too satisfied with tongues? And too satisfied with the attention we accord each other regarding personally taught and denominationally received doctrines. We ought to accord so much more the Holy Spirit than man’s words. Let me say I do not give God all the attention He deserves. I must remember the Word: Redeem the time. Too much time slips away in my idleness and foolishness.

Matthew 7:1-2 NKJV ~ 1 “Judge not, that you be not judged. 2 For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you.”

John 7:24 NKJV ~ "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment."

Matthew 12:38 Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered, saying, "Teacher, we want to see a sign from You." 39 But He answered and said to them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40 "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. 41 "The men of Nineveh will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah; and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.

If you need a sign to verify any ones salvation how secure can you be in your own? Do you awake each day and speak in tongues just to make sure you are saved? That is a bit blunt, but really… ?

2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?

If Jesus Christ is in you, you are in the faith. That faith, (Romans 12:3: Hebrews 11:6) is certainly what saves you… but by the grace of God.

Ephesians 2:8-10 NKJV ~ 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.

We are his workmanship.

My fear is that there are many walking the earth today believing because THEY laid hands of John Doe last night he will go to hell if he dies today, WHY? …because John did not gurgle some thing they didn’t understand. That might be true, but my friend I don’t believe it would be because John didn’t “receive.” It may be that the one laying on hands did not or was unable to preach the message that would have awakened the conscience of John Doe!

1 Corinthians 14:23-25 If therefore the whole church be come together into one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in those that are unlearned, or unbelievers, will they not say that ye are mad? (24) But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: (25) And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.

Lets see how this reads in a very late English version, The Message.

1 Corinthians 14:23-25 from THE MESSAGE ~ 23 If you come together as a congregation and some unbelieving outsiders walk in on you as you’re all praying in tongues, unintelligible to each other and to them, won’t they assume you’ve taken leave of your senses and get out of there as fast as they can? 24 But if some unbelieving outsiders walk in on a service where people are speaking out God’s truth, the plain words will bring them up against the truth 25 and probe their hearts. Before you know it, they’re going to be on their faces before God, recognizing that God is among you.

I am so afraid that it is TRUE that those who teach tongues necessary for salvation have it backwards! It must be we should to tarry more and fast and pray that we become prophets and interpreters. Didn’t Paul say:

1 Corinthians 14:1-5 KJVR Follow after charity, and desire spiritual gifts, but rather that ye may prophesy. (2) For he that speaketh in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries. (3) But he that prophesieth speaketh unto men to edification, and exhortation, and comfort. (4) He that speaketh in an unknown tongue edifieth himself; but he that prophesieth edifieth the church. (5) I would that ye all spake with tongues, but rather that ye prophesied: for greater is he that prophesieth than he that speaketh, with tongues, except he interpret, that the church may receive edifying.

What John Doe heard this:

“Jesus saved sinners of whom I may be the greatest that ever lived. He saved me and He can save you. I want to tell you that His death covered your sins and He will forgive and forget all those sins because of the payment He made by taking your death sentence on the cross. There the ransom for you who were hijacked by satan and the sin of Adam, and learned how to sin on your own steam, there on the cross Jesus who never sinned was “made sin for you.” He is asking you to believe that you can give him all your sins all your life and He will give you all His righteousness today, every day and forever. He is asking you to trust Him, Jesus. Countless millions of people have believed in Jesus both before and after He went to the cross. Will you believe Him now and trust God His Father to pour out from heaven every blessing, every good thing you will ever need and countless blessings you have not known that you do need? He wants to give everlasting life to you and will: if you trust Jesus when you ask God through Him that He forgive you and bless you with all you need to get to His heaven forever and forevermore.”

Job 8:7 Though thy beginning was small, yet thy latter end should greatly increase.

That verse has been my testimony. I want to say shame on you who BEGIN with “Verily, Verily, I say unto thee, you must be speak in tongues.”

Blunt, I know.

Zechariah 4:6 So he answered and said to me: "This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel: ‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ Says the LORD of hosts.

Zechariah 4:10 For who has despised the day of small things? For these seven rejoice to see the plumb line in the hand of Zerubbabel. They are the eyes of the LORD, Which scan to and fro throughout the whole earth."

Elijah heard the sound of the abundance of rain. Seven times he sent his servant to look, and on the seventh time what did he see? Rain? No. A thunderhead? No. He saw a cloud the size of a man’s hand. “So he [Elijah] said [to the servant], "Go up, say to Ahab, ‘Prepare your chariot, and go down before the rain stops you.’" See 1 Kings 18:41-45.

He didn’t need more than that small cloud to see abundant rain. God doesn’t need to see more than the faintest mist is a man’s or woman’s eyes to see the torrent of tears of genuine repentance that will not change because of the fire of saving faith in their heart.

1 Chronicles 16:9a,b NKJV ~ “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to show Himself strong on behalf of those whose heart is loyal to Him.”

That small beginning of faith and repentance are the substance of saving grace through that faith. The quickest way to quench the Spirit which gives it is to tell the man or woman now you must do more, as in “you must now or eventually speak in tongues or we can’t ever believe you’re saved.” But this is what people tell new believers. There are unsaved never gonna be saved people who see this done and laugh at the church because of it (and other things). I can imagine that there are “preachers” even some posing as pastors and evangelists in pulpits who are twice dead wolves or even secretly satan worshippers and push this doctrine along. Why? Because they understand law and the works of law, and grace which is a free gift (and cannot worked for it cannot be earned) they understand these things better than their congregations. Some keep their people under doctrines of Mary, some under the doctrine of cessation, some under the doctrine of tithes and offerings, some under the doctrine of fashionable clothes, some under the doctrine of prosperity... and some under the false taught absolute necessity of speaking in tongues. By what ever means one uses to control his/her club members it does not go over well with Jesus. If we make it an unbendable law that only the tongue speakers can be saved and are persuasive, we will end with a club of tongue speakers. What more that club may become I do not know. My opinion. True? Too severe?

I’m not concerned with what you think of me. I stand with Paul. Or do I seek to please men?

Galatians 1:8-12 NKJV ~ 8 But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. 9 As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed. 10 For do I now persuade men, or God? Or do I seek to please men? For if I still pleased men, I would not be a bondservant of Christ. 11 But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man. 12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.

Who hath bewitched YOU who require speaking of the Spirit, or is it the speaking of the man, in unknown tongues? When we put up OUR OWN requirements for salvation, what can gentle Jesus, and gentle Holy Ghost do?

Micah 6:8 He hath showed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?

Luk 7:31-35 NKJV ~ 31 And the Lord said, "To what then shall I liken the men of this generation, and what are they like? 32 "They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling to one another, saying: ‘We played the flute for you, And you did not dance; We mourned to you, And you did not weep.’ 33 "For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, ‘He has a demon.’ 34 "The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ 35 "But wisdom is justified by all her children."

1 Corinthians 4:6 NKJV ~ Now these things, brethren, I have figuratively transferred to myself and Apollos for your sakes, that you may learn in us not to think beyond what is written, that none of you may be puffed up on behalf of one against the other.

Have you (have I) gone beyond what is written?

Having touched on Apollos by name, note that he is mentioned numerous times in the New Testament, described well in Acts Ch.18, but we simply do not know if he ever spoke in tongues. Word for word the chapter says: “…when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly.” I am sure that some people think that means they laid hands on Him and He received the Holy Spirit and tongues. But we simply do not know anything about this, nor do we know if Aquilla and Priscilla ever spoke in tongues. We know what God has preserved in the Bible for us to know.

Could it be that there are more important things to know about these men and this woman, and about other Biblical figures, about you, or about me, than whether or not any of us speak in tongues? Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Judah, Moses, Joshua, the Judges, Samuel, Job, David, the Bible’s Prophets: did all or any of them speak in tongues? I can’t answer, can you? But it will be for me the shock of a lifetime if any of them are not in heaven.

I don’t want to minimize the awesome Holy Spirit or the validity of tongues for this day. If I were able to lay hands on people and the Holy Spirit would then baptize them with tongues of fire I would do it. I pray now: Lord, Let it come to pass. In Jesus Name and faith of God I pray. Amen. Yet today in my city and nation we need five words from God in English. We need prophets, and wherever they are from we need to hear and honor them.

1 Corinthians 14: 24 But if all prophesy, and there come in one that believeth not, or one unlearned, he is convinced of all, he is judged of all: 25 And thus are the secrets of his heart made manifest; and so falling down on his face he will worship God, and report that God is in you of a truth.

Nonetheless, we wouldn’t be harmed by some tongue speaking.

Salvation may be said to be the most important “Doctrine” of God, of Jesus and of the Bible to mankind, to me and to YOU. In the teaching of salvation do we not encounter every other doctrine of God? You may also say that teaching who Jesus is and what He did is the most important Doctrine. His English name “Jesus” is “Salvation” for His Hebrew name Yeshua means salvation. The Hebrew word in Isaiah 12:2, the word salvation in both usages, is “yeshû‛âh”, as it is in not a few other verses.

Isaiah 12:2 NKJV “Behold, God is my salvation, I will trust and not be afraid; ‘For YAH, the LORD, is my strength and song; He also has become my salvation.’”

“yeshû‛âh”

John 1:12 NKJV But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

He gave this right to them, it was His will. It does not say He will ONLY give them that right after they speak in tongues. The right He gives them is the authority to become children of God. In the King James it says “He gave them the power to become the children of God.” But this is not “tongues power.” New Testament Greek it is the exousia right not the dunamis power of Acts 1:8. I find this very interesting and which I knew if there is more to know about exousia rights. Nonetheless the authority to become God’s children is given to them on the simple condition that they believe on His Name, that they have faith in His Name, that they trust His Name. And for belief, faith and trust there is but one New Testament Greek root word: pistis.

So if you meet someone who believes in the Name of Jesus, somewhat as the good thief may have, consider that he or she actually does have by that gift of faith in Jesus Name the very real authority to become a child of God!

1 John 2:23b …he who acknowledges the Son has the Father also.

If you think them unfortunate to have never spoken in tongues think about this next verse, and be VIGOROUS to look at it in the context of the Chapter.

1 Corinthians 12:23 And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty.

Now back to the cautionary note:

Saved Christians who have not or not yet received the Holy Spirit according to your (or my) expectations are also alienated by the wildness of some worship services which seem to them more like circuses or insane asylums than service to Jehovah (No, I’m not with the Jehovah’s Witness Watchtower Society). Let me cite an example that troubled me greatly.

I was at a meeting one evening with a Spirit filled congregation. I was having great struggles in my personal life and was not receiving the ministry (my fault, not theirs). So reluctantly I slipped out side and was alone with the Lord. Perhaps 15 minutes passed and I went back in. The meeting had become what Paul might call indecent and out of order. But what really got me was what I saw in the middle of the aisle to the altar. A man I knew personally, a man in his forties, this man was lying stretched out over top of a young girl of perhaps 10-14 years of age. They were face to face and bosom to bosom. He was speaking loudly in tongues. She was crying, beside herself, in anguish and undoubtedly completely misunderstanding even the well intended goal of this man. She was trying to escape. He was not letting her up. Now there are several things that might offend any one of us. One was that he was a he and she was a she. Another is that he in was middle aged while she was likely in middle school. Third of course is the position they were in. Fourth, he was not letting her up, he was controlling her. And there was a fifth complicating factor, he is Caucasian and she is African American. That problem amongst people who look different still exists today and this happened almost 15 years ago. And lastly, I am almost sure they had never even met before. He was a recognized evangelist in a prominent Christian association but did not live in the town we were in that evening.

This man really wanted her to speak in tongues. I am almost sure she did not. I went back out side. Later I went back into the meeting to find the man who drove me to the meeting. He was the one who had lain atop this girl! That’s right. I knew this man a bit more than many there that evening. I remember asking why, and remember him saying he was trying to get her baptized in the Holy Spirit. Translation : “to speak in tongues so you are sure to go to heaven?” I truly think she was not baptized in the Holy Spirit that night and I do wish I had seen it all for that reason alone. Even if she were baptized in the Holy Ghost and spoke in tongues, which I doubt because of her resistance to the whole circumstance, I would never recommend this method as one to be repeated. Likely this story will get out now and someone will say “oh, those Holy Rollers are nasty too.” This man wasn’t being nasty, but he was taking a “liberty” in the Lord (if it was in the Lord) which I think was just foolish.

Friends, we need a whole lot less trying in some places and a whole lot more believing, and on more than just receiving tongues. In my humble opinion, when we are trying we may well be experimenting, and that may well be striving. I’m not altogether against trial and error, but God is against error and doesn’t like to be tried, except in some instances He has invited us to test him.

Can it be that some justify and measure their ministry by how many they cause to speak in tongues? Isn’t it God, God the Holy Ghost who ministers, who gives the gift of tongues? Again I want to lay on hands and see the gifts imparted from the Holy Ghost in me, and not tongues only but so that God get the glory and others get the gift. Perhaps we think Peter and Paul did this every Sunday morning, Sunday evening and Wednesday evening. I don’t think it was so. Can we give God back His Sovereignty please? I say this to the frozen chosen as well as to the holy rollers. And I say it to myself via Galatians 5:24.

Moses struck the rock twice and was excluded from Canaan for disobeying God’s spoken command. The children of Israel were disobedient to God’s spoken and written commands over and over again before Joshua led them into Canaan. But Moses will surely be saved as will Joshua and many of those disobedient children.

But where does it say I would be in violation of any Old or New Testament command if I never spoke in tongues? To kill another person with malice aforethought is what we call 1st degree murder. It is never right to commit 1st degree murder. Never. Yet even murderers are forgiven their sins and go to heaven.

There is one logical position which devolves out of this question. If it is true that never ever speaking in tongues means I have never ever been born again, and that if I do speak in tongues I have been born again, then this conclusion seems to flow through: To never speak in tongues is to commit an unforgivable sin. All my other sins can be forgiven by Jesus cross. If not speaking in tongues bars me from heaven it must be an unforgivable sin.

Are YOU who teach that not speaking in tongues means one is not born again: are you really sure that you want to maintain that teaching? It is not a doctrine that can be proved by Scripture. However strong a case as there is for it, there is an equally strong teaching against it. Leave aside cessationist teaching, it is not right either.

In my very humblest opinion we are saved by faith in Jesus the Messiah, who out of His endless mercy and grace, powerfully exchanged His righteousness for our many sins. We must believe Him to receive this, for He is what He does: Jesus IS Salvation. If we receive Him we receive His Name: “Yeshua” “Salvation” we will be saved will keep on living by the same faith which granted us the grace of our Salvation and granted many other good and grace filled things as well. We will become children OF God. Some will say this is not an opinion but a fact. I agree with them.

The gift of the Holy Ghost (Acts 1:8: in my opinion it is POWER) and the gifts flowing from the gisf of the POWER of the Holy Ghost do not come by working. (Even tarrying can become a work.) They come as all good and perfect gifts from Father above, as gifts which we receive in accordance with the measure of faith we are given and our exercise of that faith. God coerces no one, but to be sure He is pleased well by those who diligently seek Him.

Hebrews 11:6 KJV But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Hebrews 11:6 THE MESSAGE It’s impossible to please God apart from faith. And why? Because anyone who wants to approach God must believe both that he exists and that he cares enough to respond to those who seek him.

The word “seek” or phrase “diligently seek” is the Greek word ekzēteō and means to search out, that is, (figuratively) investigate, crave, demand, (by Hebraism) worship: - en- (re-) quire, seek after (carefully, diligently).

Romans 12:3 NKJV For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.

People think having been saved that their life will be effortless; that we just have faith and go to heaven one day. Now it is true if they are a child of the Living God they will “go to heaven, for there is no other place for them to go.” The teacher, Bob who I heard say this points up well that heaven is the secured destiny for all the Father gives to Jesus. See John 6:37 to 40. Yet we have (1) adversary satan, (2) the world which lures us toward to sin and then applauds when they join them in sinning, and (3) an unsaved nature which says to God: “I don’t want to do what You say is right, even though I know it is right.” These are the things which cannot keep us from salvation, but can wreak havoc as we try to live well according to God’s ways in this earth.

John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.

This remind us of :

Joh 6:28-29 Then said they unto him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God? Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent.

God remove our sins imputes (grants) Jesus own righteousness. We are justified.

Rom 5:8-10 KJVR But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (9) Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. (10) For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.

Jesus LIVES!!! The Holy Spirit LIVES! And they really live in the souls of all those the Father gives to Jesus. What I learned is this: that the real and passionate desire of God is that as a man or woman enters the Way, the straight gate, the door of the sheep: Jesus, they then walk with Him toward the Father, to discover themselves sons and daughters of the Father. They walk toward intimacy with He who is our true Father, our Abba, our only source of life. God Is love! Jesus saves us and walks with us on the narrow road to the Father. And Jesus teaches us to stand abiding in His word, abiding in Him, the Vine. There we dwell with Jesus as fruit. Some as the apostles were branches. The Father who trims and prunes the branches is the gardener. He owns the whole garden. He will harvest our souls unto His world without end by the Power of that world without end.

John 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.

Have faith but know that to receive more and much of the reward of knowing Him intimately you will need to diligently seek, search out, investigate, crave, demand, and (by Hebraism) worship: - enquire, require, seek after Him carefully, and diligently.

Doing this diligence I began to see that God and Jesus keep all their promises. And their Truth does set me free from sin, from the condemnation, the wages and the accusation of sin. I truly have the GIFT of God given TO ME, fellowship with God in everlasting life. Both the craven fear of God who seemed unknowable, and my reluctance to exert myself for this God who scared me, these fears fell off me like a brick from a scaffold. It was the hearing the word of God which brought faith to me and faith kept bringing me back to the hearing and the investigative study of the word of God.

Hebrews 11:6 KJV But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.

Therefore, it IS possible to please God with faith and to be rewarded for the diligent investigative study of God the Word, and the word of God the Bible.

2 Timothy 2:15 Study to show thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Therefore if I have any shame in my soul it must mean I am not working in the God approved way. I am disfunctioning. Is it sin? Likely yes. Faith, diligent zealous living faith will bring me to God who will lighten my darkness… even if it means I am totally wrong about what I write about tongues here! Pride will keep me trusting myself, humility will bring me repentance where it is needed.

This measure of faith is also spoken of in the other (lesser known) list of the gifts of the Holy Ghost in Romans Ch. 12, the whole chapter following:

Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. 3 For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith. 4 For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, 5 so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. 6 Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them: if prophecy, let us prophesy in proportion to our faith; 7 or ministry, let us use it in our ministering; he who teaches, in teaching; 8 he who exhorts, in exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness. 9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil. Cling to what is good. 10 Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; 11 not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord; 12 rejoicing in hope, patient in tribulation, continuing steadfastly in prayer; 13 distributing to the needs of the saints, given to hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep. 16 Be of the same mind toward one another. Do not set your mind on high things, but associate with the humble. Do not be wise in your own opinion. 17 Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. 18 If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men. 19 Beloved, do not avenge yourselves, but rather give place to wrath; for it is written, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the Lord. 20 Therefore "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; If he is thirsty, give him a drink; For in so doing you will heap coals of fire on his head." 21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

It is a way of life described in verses 4 to 21, it is the way of Jesus who is Life.

Notice that the gifts also include what some call “service” gifts as opposed to the “power” and “word” gifts listed in 1 Corinthians 12. I think there are obvious distinctions in each gift, but I think they are all POWER gifts in both chapters, that is it take the power (and the presence) of the Holy Spirit in, or at the least on the person giving his or her gift. The question becomes who gives them. God the Holy Ghost does, and it must be true that Father and Son approve what He does. Nowhere in the Bible does it ever say those who do not speak in tongues are not saved, or that those who never do speak in tongues are damned. Do I, do YOU does any want to instruct Him as to these rules for salvation? God does the GIVING. We do the receiving, if we do it. Having said that, tongues are a gift very valuable to the believer; they edify our very lives in these bodies, these clay pots.

1 Corinthians 12:4a He who speaks in a tongue edifies himself…

So back to my friend’s method of baptizing the young girl: God works in mysterious ways, yet I think this is not a case of God working. I think it is a case of a man who does speak in tongues thinking he could lie atop a person, as Elijah lay atop a dead boy, and God would cause them to speak in tongues. The boy was dead. And he was brought back to life. The girl was not even dead. At her age it is doubtful she had reached the age of accountability! I wonder how she thinks and feels about things and persons today? She would be about 25 to 30 years old now. I think God will be very kind and gentle with her after what she endured “in the name of” God, the Holy Spirit and in the name of tongues. Perhaps somewhere it has happened just so. Perhaps not. Perhaps some readers are not offended by this. Whatever offense I took I forgive. But can we see how some (even many?) things done under the color of God’s name do not always achieve the purpose of God? I think there must be many men and women who do not speak in tongues because of four reasons.

1. They have been repelled by the foolishness of those who do.
2. They have been told by others that no one can speak in tongues by the Holy Spirit today, or worse that those who do are inspired by satan.
3. They have not been invited to a congregation which allows for the gift to be expressed at the altar of ministry,
4. they have never been taught that tongues are from God, for today, are edifying and are the real prayers of the Holy Spirit flowing through their own voice boxes.

God loves you too much to deny you to heaven for not speaking in tongues for any of these reasons, again this: my humble(?) opinion. But He will deny those without faith, those who do not trust Him.

So while I am 100% in agreement with what God and the Bible say about tongues, I am not in agreement with those who say it is the only proof of salvation. Nor do I agree at all with those who say the gifts of the Holy Spirit do not operate in earth today. The Holy Spirit is simply in my humble(?) opinion very reluctant to do the mighty works with His gifts where there is great unbelief. But He has not changed; He is still generous beyond our fathoming it. I have certainly found the times when my faith was at a low ebb, at it has been very low at times, that the Holy Spirit seems far away. At those times I speak in tongues much less. I wish I spoke in tongues much more. But yet as Paul I pray that I could “speak just five words,” in English to edify English speaking Christians.

1 Corinthians 14:19-21 NKJV ~ 19 yet in the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding, that I may teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue. 20 Brethren, do not be children in understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be mature. 21 In the law it is written: "With men of other tongues and other lips I will speak to this people; And yet, for all that, they will not hear Me," says the Lord.

For all the speaking in tongues we may or may not do, some will just never hear the Lord and be saved.

Ephesians 2:8-9 and Romans 10:17. Look these up and see if it is speaking in tongues which saved you or can save anyone.

And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved. Matthew 10:22

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

* I AM
• Jesus is the I Am of Exodus Ch. 3. !
• John 4:26 KJV Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he. See also in the gospel of John alone:
• John 5:43; 6:35; 7:29; 8:12; 8:18; 8:23; 8:28; 8:58; 9:5; 10:7; 10:10; 10:11; 10:36; 11:25; 12:46; 13:13, John 13:19; 14:6; 14:11; 15:1; 17:16; 18:5&6

John 13:19 I find this verse wonderful. Jesus HIMSELF prophecies to them so they may know He is I AM.

return and I will heal you

2009-10-21T12:15:00.001-04:00

The only christian position that really means anything - IMHO- is that of the new creature, the born again from above, saved position. For two thousand years the Holy Spirit and the Bible have made this invitation abundantly clear where ever they have found hearts and mouths to preach it. There also is ever the need to declare the eternal peril of refusing the invitation.

My concern is that we forget that God and Yeshua's doctrine are absolute, joyfully absolute and strong in that absolutenes; it is part of the beauty of their holiness. As sinners morphing into holy people we discover that He is always right, inspite of our inablitiy to understand or explain every facet of that 100% morally flawless right Being. In a world gone mad it is perilous to dialogue from any other position than that of joyful, full, mature, saved strength in the Messiah, sin notwithstanding but being instead forgiven.

I am wary of two things: 1) the view that Messiah is so intellectual as to need a seminary education to understand and explain Him, and 2) that He is too foolish to be considered as relevant. Nor does He reside somewhere in the middle ground of things. Higher criticism and lukewarmness be damned... and atheism too. Can we say "omnipresence?"

1 Cor. 4:20 For the kingdom of God is not in word, but in power.

I long for those to again heal the sick and lame, give sight to the blind, and feed thousands from a few morsels. Then those whose christian positions need such careful considerations will melt before Him who dwells in the hearts of His own. Therefore we ought pray that He send laborers, i.e. workers... that is miracle workers, healers, prophets etc. into the fields for they are white for a harvest. The problem is that we rather talk than seek the Holy Ghost in power. I am as guilty as any I chide of that.

A Messainic Jewish friend of mine says it this way: "Christ died to save sinners." perhaps it is better "Christ died and saved sinners theyby." It is the platform I run on. Death ought to unsettle any man. Where it does not salvation from it is senseless. Truly we are extending an invitation, but where there is no fear of missing the gig the invite is just a mild puff.

I don't want people to love me, I want them to trust in Messiah, then they will love me too, and die in the learning of agape.

One of the Messianic apostle Paul's great attributes was that he wasn't worried about starting a riot. I think today from heaven he is worried that we are not starting them.

It would be "interesting" to listen to a crowd shout Allah Akbar for two or three hours in Times Square, or on the Mall in D.C.
Couches are for pyshotherapy...

May God loose HIS lions...

2008-11-05T17:24:00.010-05:00

Petition for the Nullification of Roe vs. Wade
By Executive Order of President George W. Bush

Whereas and because the United States Supreme Court did violate it's Constitutional ordination and mandate in it's 1973 decision Roe vs. Wade, by making new law, and thereby usurping Congress of it's Constitutionally ordained and mandated responsibility to make any and all new federal laws and also to amend any existing federal law when necessary,

And whereas and because in the same decision, Roe vs. Wade in 1973, the same United States Supreme Court unlawfully and summarily nullified the laws governing the practice of abortion and requirements of those laws in each and all the fifty of the United States of America,

We the undersigned call upon you, President George W. Bush, to by Executive Order nullify Roe vs. Wade and all decisions upholding the intent, effect or letter of that decision.

Further, we call upon you to as President declare that all willful human acts of the abortion of human unborn children being also the willful termination of human pregnancies be from the day this Executive Order forward subject again in each of the fifty states to the laws of those fifty states which did govern the practice of abortion in those states prior to the date of the decision of the US Supreme Court Roe vs. Wade, that date being January 22, 1973 AD.

Name ________________________________________Date________________

print name___________________________________________________

Address __________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

Name_______________________________________Date_____________

print name_________________________________________________

Address______________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

Name_________________________________________Date___________

print name__________________________________________________

Address______________________________________________________

_________________________________________________________

Send to:

Pres. George W. Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave. N. W.
Washington D. C. 20500

This petition copyright© 2008 by D. Severy for the sole purpose described within it. It may be reproduced and distributed in print or electronically only in its unaltered entirety, without edit, including this copyright notice, and solely for the purpose of gaining the signatures of those in agreement with its stated goal.

2008-10-29T20:10:00.003-04:00

A House Divided Against Itself Cannot Stand
Abortion divides us against each other and against the unborn.

I am a one issue guy. To me the American people have lost their bearings, and are unable to chart a course on either the right or the left. Thirty five years of so called legal abortion have confused and corrupted our minds and hearts. This confusion and corruption is a good part of the reason we are sliding into domestic and international chaos. For the sake of God and the babies I will vote for McCain. Do we think we can just do as we please and not have consequences?

Over this 35 year period we lost our God given common sense, and the milk of human kindness has fled in the face of evil. Our major media are in the hands of the Godless liberal elites. Newspapers, magazines and television spew twisted information, lies and half truths which have surpassed Nazi German propaganda ten times in their sophistication.

The same is our public and some private schools, elementary, secondary and universities. They have fed us Darwin until we have believed that Granddad was an ape. We have dumbed down as a nation, so much that if you are under 50 there is a good chance you don't have the intellectual skills to understand most of what you read. I find the most glaring grammatical errors in major newspapers; professional journalism suffers the dumb-down too.

Adding to the mix up we have the entertainment industry. Homer Simpson, The Family Guy and Two and One Half Men have become role models for us, not for our children but for us. We look like just like them as we mindlessly tailgate at the stadium and swill beer in the stands. We have pornography which is simply the glorification of whores and sex for money. God help the man or woman who sets an example to youth of this. The desire and demand for pornography has pushed the motion picture industry to emulate pornography as much as allowed.

Drugs… why do they continue to influence us so much? I think because we are seeking escape from the reality that we are failing more and more to live as we should. So instead of moral living in the face of present evils, we take refuge in drugs and alcohol. We are cowards. Yet…

Once every four years we go to the polls to vote for what has risen to the top of the boiling pot of our electoral processes. Occasionally a candidate proves to be better than the dross which is found in every place, and every party. This year John McCain is better than dross Barak Obama. A vote for Obama is a vote to continue the unethical, immoral and illegal practice of annihilating our own posterity. That is abortion - I save you from looking up those big words.

A vote for McCain is an opportunity for McCain and McCain supporters to repudiate Roe vs. Wade just as Norma McCorvey has. Norma was the pregnant woman recruited by pro-choice lobby to sue for safe and legal abortions in 1973. Since that time she has become pro life and is now a born again Christian. That is just about what it takes to go pro life, for those who are not Christians will eventually find themselves hating Jesus enough to crucify Him again were it possible. The hatred, greed and malice which allows for a nation to destroy its own children will eventually destroy it also. A house divided against itself cannot stand, and abortion divides us against each other and against the unborn.
© 2008 David Severy

Beyond the Economy

2008-10-02T13:31:00.006-04:00

The following 10 year old visions forsee economic disaster ahead. I have believed for some time that the USA, a former pillar of the nations, has lost her vision. She is blinded by greed and gropes about in the fog of war, not war against terrorism, but the war against the unborn child.

VISION - ECONOMY on LIFE SUPPORT
- by Bryan H. (Nov 3, 1997)

I wanted to write and share a vision I had several years ago...

The Lord showed me a body laying on a bed in a hospital setting. The patient was named The Economy. His chart was at the foot of his bed and the lines on the graphs seemed to be marked by sharp up and down turns.

He was breathing "falsely". He was surrounded by many specialists who were doing many things to keep him alive. He was totally onartificial life support. Just then, the Chief Physician came in,looked at the patient, and declared, "This patient is dead. Let thatwhich is dead die." With his own finger, he threw the switch to cutoff the life support.

The Economy heaved, gasped, and died horribly.

End.

I believe that we are headed for a global meltdown of the world economy. This will bring chaos and ruin but will strip people of their false god of money and many souls will be brought to Christ.

If we are walking in obedience to the Lord, we have nothing to fear. Ask the Lord for wisdom to get your economic house in order. Seek first the kingdom of God, And his righteousness, and all these things (materials needs) will be added unto you.
[ ~ http://www.sheeptrax.com/ ]

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VISION:- Two BLACK MONDAYS
- by Harold E. (1997).

"...In my last article I mentioned a vision of the Stock Market's 'Big Board' having serious upcoming problems. I saw the Stock Market soar and then crash. After the crash, many big business corporations and private parties bought up stocks because of the low cost to buy in. Then I saw the market begin to climb again in a short period of time. Then it crashed again bringing tremendous loss, ruin, and devastation to all who bought in the first time. This is what I have labeled "Two Black Mondays." The time period between the Two Black Mondays was very close together. I could not tell exactly how close. It could be a couple of days to a couple of months. There are some tell-tale signs indicating the season and the setting. *I saw the season to be when 'the leaves fall to the ground' then the first crash would occur.* I also saw the Yen and Mark fall dramatically just before this sudden and inexplicable crash. Like Joseph in Genesis, I believe America will have fat years of financial blessing. I also believe there are coming lean years of financial difficulty for America. I do not believe God is showing this so people can beat the game financially. I rather believe He is saying keep your eyes on
eternal things. Store up treasures in Heaven."

~The Trumpeter Journal, mid-1997.
Harold Eatmon Ministries, Int'l
PO Box 48402
Minneapolis, MN 55448, USA.

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2008-10-02T11:36:00.028-04:00

Knowing God or No-ing God

Knowing God is a popular title, just search books at Amazon.com and see! God is like a man or woman, to know him/her I must meet them and then spend time with them. But can I know God? Why would I want to know God? There is a benefit in knowing other people. Is there a benefit in knowing God? But perhaps you don’t yet know that God is. Millions of persons alive do not even know that God is. That is certainly the first barrier between man and God. How do I know there is a God, that is know that He exists? I know my neighbors exist; I have seen them in the flesh. I know the President of the United States exists; I have seen him on TV. I know you exist even though I have never met you or seen you. Why? Why because you are reading this. But I don’t know your name, your face, your voice, or anything about you except that you can read (English). God is like us. He is there, and not many people know Him. How many people know you or me? But He is also very different from us. He knows every person dead and alive, and every person not yet alive. How many people do you or I know?

Many people are in denial of God, this in spite of the evidence of His existence. To say “there is no God” is not even a logical statement. What other thing is there none of? We need to understand the meaning of the word “no” before we can say “what” “is not”. “No” itself means denial. It implies that the subject it describes is absent, as is: "There is no money in my bank account." The human mind is a remarkable thing. Every day it deals with abstract ideas, things themselves which consist of complex electro-chemical impulses coursing through its bio-physical “grey matter”. The human mind is; the human brain is. Though you have never seen your own you have both. I know this is (true). Why? Because I know you are, and that you are reading the ideas that I am writing at this moment, though for you these are ideas that I have written at a former moment. I write like this not to dazzle you, but to begin to describe how much complexity is inherent in what seems so simple and ordinary.

Now a question I enjoy asking is this: “Can you name one thing that never has existed?”

Those who say there is no God surely mean that He has never existed. Take a moment and think, what other thing is there that has never existed? All the things that are do exist. Those things which do not exist are what? They are not. Many are the things which are. But few indeed are the things which are not! Have you though of one yet? If you have it may be the next big thing invented, it may earn you your first million! But it must first graduate from being an electro-chemical impulse to an invention which exists. Thoughts are real but they are only thoughts. Here are some URL references from the dictionary to look over:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/not
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/not
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/not .

We fail many times to think things through enough, both in our own minds and as a village, and a village ought to think things through. Today’s world is evidence that the village has not often succeeded in thinking things through.

The Apostle Paul wrote that "all God's promises are yes and amen. Sin will not be there. I think the word no was invented when Satan sinned. With all my mind, heart and soul I believe that in the coming age of God's eternal Kingdom there will be no more need to say no to anything. The first recorded use of the words no and not are in Genesis 2:5 where vegetation and man himself are noted as not yet being (created). The first record of God using the word not is:

Genesis 2:15 And the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and guard and keep it. 16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; 17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and blessing and calamity you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die.

Here God is advising that when what He can not approve is done, the doer heads toward death, and death is a state of notness. He almost might have said: "in the day you do eat you will not live."

By now you understand that I am a believer in God, and you may have surmised that I am a believer in whom we English speakers call our God and Father of Jesus the Nazarene, the King of the Jews, the Christ, the Savior (of all those who believe).

Please consider this often quoted passage from the Gospel of John.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. John 1:1-3

“The beginning” refers to the beginning of the creation of “all things”. Things God did not make have no beginning.

Certain “ideas” are common to all men. One is the “idea” of beginning. “Things” really get a bit strange here. Can you say Twilight Zone? It is better than that, but it stretches the uninitiated mind. I claim no expertise, only that I have thought things through to exactly “where they are” in my mind (even if they seem to wander a good bit). So: Certain “ideas” are common to all men. One is the “idea” of beginning. If you know someone who has no idea about the beginning of a thing, he/she is probably about two years old and only yet unable to speak of it to you. The problem of a beginning is that because it is, we thing of what happened before it began, and wonder when it will end. And these ideas are universal to mankind, though it is true that most people are much more occupied with now than with then or with when.

In a newer translation of John 1, the New International Reader's Version we read: “In the beginning, the Word was already there. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.”

Man is now wrapped up between the beginning of things and their end. This is certainly true of mans (his/her) own life, and it began at their conception, continued at their birth and will end at their death. We know that now in 2008 AD (CE) there was a time, that is things existed, or things were, before we were born. There is an unverified claim that in the Dominican Republic there is a woman who is 128 years old. If she is the oldest person alive today, no one alive today was alive in 1879. We have all had beginnings. We will all have ends. It is the before and the after that start the trouble. For this, questions invariably arise which lead back into eternity and forward into… eternity. Today the question of “origins” is still a very hot debate between those who believe God made everything and those who believe in no God at all. If there is no God at all, there is nothing made. If nothing has been made then there seems to me to be no beginning, just a change in the form of things which have always existed in other forms. Those who think all things come into existence by “random” chance, or by “accident” and yet still seek answers to the question of origin(s) show just how deeply imprinted we are with the “idea” that the universe has a grand beginning, a big bang. Why? To get to this answer we must tackle the idea of design, and the question: “Did God design all things?” Here again we will encounter the amazing ability of many to deny things which are just as they are and have them to be NOT as they are.

The question of origin(s) is in the end a debate about the existence of Divine Personality and Intelligence and Design- or… not. It seems to me to be clearly one or the other. If God is the source and author of all design it makes perfect sense that man made in His image. All things are “ideas” that God brought into being. Making man in His image, God created man with intelligent ability, able to have ideas similar to His own, and able to make “things” today which were not yesterday. There is a big difference between God’s ability and mans. This difference is a stumbling block to many men. For in denying God man “enjoys” a quantum leap promotion to master of his own world and fate (as much as any man can be able). Man is quite self deceived to believe he can make use of every divinely given attribute of intelligence to design the order of “his world” as he sees fit. Yet relying on the ability to intelligently design his world, man now denies the Source of all intelligence; the universe which he studies by design and for the design inherent in it- this he denies has been designed. H calls design an accident. He relies on the accident of design to learn what is true of things and ignores the mind which published the universe as easily as man publishes the daily newspaper.

Good science from its beginnings has always led man to understand more of the design of things. At the same time it has revealed an infinite complexity which I believe will never be mastered by man. If it were, man would be as powerful as God, which is to say he would be God. Many men have wanted to be that powerful, and the havoc and mayhem they have caused is a good reason for God to keep a great deal of His ability in perpetual mystery.

The real problem men have is this: if men are persuaded that God exists, particularly if the God of the Christian Bible, then they will have to bow to His desires of and for them. Men have histories of pursuing their desires, acting as individuals unbound by God, as unconcerned with God’s authority as they are with the well being of their neighbors. The result? - sin, crime, and war. If those who believe in no God, and in creation by “random chance” or “accident”, were able to achieve the peace which they profess to pursue, then they might be believed. God on the other hand has communicated a unified complete and sufficient message which informs man of His existence, His character, His motives, His History His Son Jesus, and His future. God’s message also informs us of our beginning, our corruption and fall, our history and our destiny. This message is persuasive, yet few find the way to its virtue and promise. Why? We men are very corrupt, and very narrow minded, much more concerned with blood sugar that blood atonement.

I wanted this to be a very persuasive article. And I thought I could write it so sweetly that everyone reading it might be persuaded. But as sweet as God is, so also is He righteous. His virtue is flawless. He cannot look on sin with approval of any kind. He has endured the evil doings of men for six millennia and there is an end not to His patience but to his suffering. When He is done suffering, and when He has finished the remaining purposes of His will, I think His patience with be vestigial. If you are reading this as a God denier or a God hater, or a willful and habitual criminal, PLEASE spend some time pursuing truth. Be relentless until all your intellect and ability is satisfied concerning the claims of Jesus and the Bible. If they are false, there are no losers and no winners, all die the death. If they are true and accurate, those God accepts as His own gain everything; the loss of those He denies is inestimable. Who are they that God will deny except those who deny Him?

© 2008 David Severy

HJHJHJJHHJHHJHJHJHJJHHJHHJHJ

Matthew 3:1 In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, 2 And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Matthew 4:12 Now when Jesus had heard that John was cast into prison, he departed into Galilee; 13 And leaving Nazareth, he came and dwelt in Capernaum, which is upon the sea coast, in the borders of Zabulon and Nephthalim: 14 That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet, saying, 15 The land of Zabulon, and the land of Nephthalim, by the way of the sea, beyond Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles; 16 The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. 17 From that time Jesus began to preach, and to say, Repent: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Matthew 5
1 And seeing the multitudes, he went up into a mountain: and when he was set, his disciples came unto him:

2 And he opened his mouth, and taught them, saying,

3 Blessed are the poor in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

6 Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.

7 Blessed are the merciful: for they shall obtain mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.

10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake.

12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

14 Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.

15 Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

17 Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.

18 For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.

19 Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

20 For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.

2 Corinthians 5:14-21 For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again. Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation; To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God. For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

Matthew 7:21-23 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

John 3
1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:

2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.

3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?

5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.

8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?

10 Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?

11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness.

12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things?

13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:

15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.

16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

19 And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

20 For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

21 But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

22 After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judaea; and there he tarried with them, and baptized.

2008-10-01T14:31:00.002-04:00

Truth and Consequences

Can someone tell me why abortion has left the public square? To be sure there are those who seek to reverse Roe vs. Wade, but not the Republican or the Democrat parties. They best we get is a well written pro-life statement in the Republican Party Platform. It is a statement that will remain in obscurity because Republicans will not risk losing pro-choice votes by drawing attention to it. Everyone must run to the center, and to Republicans the topic has become third rail. You may have your private views, but you can’t speak of the matter without extreme deference to the so called "rights" of pro-choicers.

We are fast approaching the infamous distinction of having aborted 50 million lives. Call them fetuses, babies, unborn, pre-born, infants—it hardly matters; what cannot be disputed is that around half of those aborted, all since 1990, would now be 18 or more years old, English speaking U.S. citizens. Many would be employed in jobs "foreigners" now hold. Some would be in college. Some would be in the military and others in Green Peace, some Democrats, others Republicans. In short, they would be just like the rest of us, but for the fact of their termination, their abortion. Had they lived, the economy would be better off for the costs of raising them, costs which would have meant economic growth here, not the economic drain to other nations. They would now be competing in the market place just like we are, spending and investing their wages and salaries just like we do, and millions (billions?) more dollars, would not have been sent to illegal immigrants families outside our borders.

Many blow off my "theory" as ridiculous. But I ask you: Do you know someone who has aborted their child? I do. I would have both a niece or a nephew and my own son or daughter today, both around 35 years of age, had my sibling and I not have chosen abortions in the 1970's. Roe vs. Wade has made room for nearly 50 million immigrants to the USA, "replacements". Do we wonder why they come? We need them; we need them to do the jobs “Americans” are unwilling to do. One of those Jobs is parenting, and sure enough the illegal immigrants are becoming parents of US Citizens!!! By the tens of thousands a year!!! I fear that many Americans today have all the competency of Homer Simpson, while those who are pleased to profit from abortions have all the competency of Adolph Hitler.

There is a bumper sticker which sums up a growing attitude toward children: “I’m spending my children’s inheritance.”

It is not reasonable to think that this gross offence against natures God can be accepted much longer without dire natural consequences. They include the economic consequences and moral consequences.

I have recently heard a viewpoint advanced by Christians that the faithful need only preach the gospel; they need not “fight” against abortion, or homosexuality. I understand this view and can support it to some extent. However we must include in the exposition of the gospel the truth that God (still) hates sin, is angry with those who knowingly sin against Him, and will ultimately condemn the unrepentant unbelieving sinner. The “coarsening of society” which many decry today is not the result of abortion alone. It is the cumulative effect and result of unchecked sin of all kinds.

Abortion followed on the heels of several coarsening influences. In 1954 pornography roared out from under its rock and within years the Supreme Court rule in her favor. In 1966 drugs, notably LSD and marijuana followed the same rout, and were met with similar complacence and decriminalization. So in 1973 with abortion. Illegal abortions had long been available to wealthy, connected people. But in 1973 it became available legally and profitably for “doctors” willing to do harm under the color of Supreme Court decisions.

Following abortion we have more “brave” souls encouraged to promote their immorality.
The homosexual community for one has promoted the acceptance of the queer lifestyle and “gay” marriage. We also seem to have an epidemic of greed which has broken out like cancer in the financial and real estate markets. If men will not stand against abortion, they will not stand against much of anything. If they will not stand against abortion and all these evils they will fall to their consequences. The consequences of sin are many; moral and economic collapse is among them, as are disease and poverty.

Foreclosure and bankruptcy are caused by some violation of God’s law. Your foreclosure may not be the direct result of your sin, but two things are sure. Firstly, many made mistakes (errors, sins) which caused the current financial crisis. Please consider again the economic consequences of 50,000,000 US citizen consumers lost in the abortion holocaust. Secondly, you are a sinner too, and have almost certainly caused some evil consequence, small or large, to befall another. God alone has never sinned, and His gospel is that for that and many other wonderful truths, His Son Jesus is able to save the sinner from sins eternal consequences. Jesus is neither a Republican nor a Democrat, He is not even democratic! He is a Monarch. Heaven is a Kingdom, governed by a King. It is not a democracy which is governed by men, or a Republic which is governed by the representatives of men. Jesus and Heaven are far and away beyond politics if you ask me, and that is where I want to be.

© 2008 David Severy

2008-10-01T09:39:00.010-04:00

INTRODUCTION

Why “beyond politics”? I became a “conservative” after being born again. I had become a “liberal” in my teens, being swept away in the powerful liberal tides of the sixties. At twenty seven I encountered Yeshua (Hebrew for Jesus) and over the next 20 years was swept away by the powerful “conservative” tides of the Eighties. I will be ever grateful that Yeshua does not allow His own dear children to be swept away by anything less than the ecstasy of His own Truth.

Sometimes the humble thing to do is to shout at the top of your lungs that the sky is falling. “The sky is falling” is another way of stating the obvious: death is waiting for you and for me.

I’m not trying to be clever anymore. I admit I am a very dull blade… and a very prolific sinner. Try as I might, flaws of character run altogether more deeply in my heart than I desire, and often it seems more deeply than I realize. I recently became aware of how deeply my affections and lusts have become attached to a certain vain activity. It is said that the unexamined life is not worth living. True?... Regardless the examined life always leads to discovery of the scandals of ones own soul.

The fact of death, the universal fact of death must lead one to questions that are uncomfortable. “What is the meaning of life?” – one of my favorites. a question which is always asked in one of two forms: “Why?” or… “Why me?” If you ask “Why me?” are you not bound for a universe the center of which is [your]self? Answers to this question are sought for the satisfying of ones stomach. But if you ask: “Why?” chances are you may find answers which satisfy your spirit. Ask “Why?” yet realize that only the truth will answer this question satisfactorily.

There are three responses to this question. One is to ignore the question because the possible answers are troublesome to the soul. Consider this exchange between God and man:

John 18:33 So Pilate entered his headquarters again and called Jesus and said to him, "Are you the King of the Jews?" 34 Jesus answered, "Do you say this of your own accord, or did others say it to you about me?" 35 Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests have delivered you over to me. What have you done?" 36 Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world." 37 Then Pilate said to him, "So you are a king?" Jesus answered, "You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world— to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice." 38 Pilate said to him, "What is truth?"

To ask as Pilate asks: "What is truth?" does just what Pilate did, it ends the discussion. This question is no question at all, it is a statement which says: "I have found no truth, and those who speak of truth are deluded in thinking there is such a thing." I hear a very bitter edge in Pilate's voice as he asks it.

Another response is to let others answer it for you without an ounce of sincere investigation of your own. Today’s Rabbinic Judaist (traditionalists), Islamists, other religionists of every imaginable stripe, and secularists, all ought to be examined closely by the ones they seek to proselytize and disciple. Jesus examined those religionists of His day, and did so on behalf of all who would believe Him.

John 5:30 "I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. 31 If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not deemed true. 32 There is another who bears witness about me, and I know that the testimony that he bears about me is true. 33 You sent to John, and he has borne witness to the truth. 34 Not that the testimony that I receive is from man, but I say these things so that you may be saved. 35 He was a burning and shining lamp, and you were willing to rejoice for a while in his light. 36 But the testimony that I have is greater than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to accomplish, the very works that I am doing, bear witness about me that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself borne witness about me. His voice you have never heard, his form you have never seen, 38 and you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe the one whom he has sent. 39 You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. 41 I do not receive glory from people. 42 But I know that you do not have the love of God within you. 43 I have come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive me. If another comes in his own name, you will receive him. 44 How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? 45 Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. 46 For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. 47 But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?"

The third response is to continue to ask, to seek and to knock, until you find answers that satisfy your appetite for truth. Francis Schaeffer wrote about True truth. Perhaps there has never been a day since Satan sinned when someone has not asked: "What is truth?" When one really knows what truth is, he/she has a great advantage in knowing what is true and what is not. Sadly millions know no difference between truth and lies.

I wish I could say that every morning I wake up rejoicing. I am glad to say that (at age 59) I do not awake to the craven fears that once tormented me. I wish I could boast about the depth of my faith, and back it up as the Apostle Paul does with boastings of sufferings for Messiah’s sake. I am glad that I have suffered such, albeit a very little suffering compared to Paul’s. Gladder am I that God has granted me answers to some of my many questions. I have found that He always has answers, and they are true answers, and even if they are not immediately given, or immediately satisfying, these truths eventually do come and satisfy as they build up the strength of my spirit and soul. Enough about me…

I rejoice that many others have also asked “Why?” and that God has answered them. “Why?” is the question of a child, a trusting child.

Mark 10:13 And they were bringing children to him that he might touch them, and the disciples rebuked them. 14 But when Jesus saw it, he was indignant and said to them, "Let the children come to me; do not hinder them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God. 15 Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it." 16 And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them.