Any Christian who has read their Bible and knows the signs of the end times knows that it is getting closer and closer to the Lords return and to the coming judgement. Wars and rumors of wars, fires, Israel surrounded by enemies, the list goes on and on, and that means now is the time for men and women of God to pick up there Bibles, fall to their knees and begin to act like never before. While right now darkness abounds we can live up to our true calling and be the light in the darkness, God has given us a spirit that likes of which cannot be compared. We do not have a spirit of fear, but of fearlessness in the face of our enemy, but we must unite under a single banner, and follow that banner to war against spiritual and moral darkness, we must act and save those we love. Christian men and women it is time to take back not only our nation, but this world and to stave off the darkness awhile longer and save as many as can be saved. As long as we continue to burn God will hold back His judgement and we can save the lost, let us not give up on our fellow man yet but show them love and kindness, and fight with all we have.

Amen.

We are to follow the LORD our God, and to give him reverence, our love and our respect. As we live our lives we should be giving honor and glory to God in heaven, and He should be the one we seek when our lives are doing good, as well as in our times of need. God is always God, in good times and when our lives seem to be in utter turmoil it is imperative that we still worship and honor God, seeking Him and trusting in Him. Not relying on familiars or spirits, nor those who practice magic, soothe sayers, mediums and the like, for they are not of God, and seek not to do Him honor. Many people, especially when faced with tragedy seek some form of spiritual answers, though not always in God, but rather sometimes chasing after perverse systems and ideologies that vaunt themselves against God. Many people think that there is nothing wrong with magic or mysticism and that spirituality is in no wise opposed to God, but the truth is very little of what is out there in the world of mysticism or spirituality will lead you to God, only Christian spirituality will bring you there, and this will not be found consorting with demons and other spirits, or those who seek to speak with familiars. Instead when we have questions, or when we need help we should remember to come to God with a humble and contrite spirit that he may be glorified, and we can receive not only proper direction, but be blessed for relying on the one true God and the only God. We also must not rely on our own strength or wisdom, worshipping ourselves and thinking ourselves to be more than what we are. Many who oppose God in our modern times worship themselves, not pagan deities nor spirits, however we are not Gods, we are not descended of stars, we are formed from dust, and our bodies will return to dust but our spirits are eternal. “Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? or shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? as if the rod should shake itself against them that lift it up, or as if the staff should lift up itself, as if it were no wood. Isaiah‬ ‭10:15‬ ‭KJV‬‬. We are created by God, we are not gods, and we must remember our proper place in relation to God. We have been raised to a higher position thanks to Jesus Christ, but we are still created of God, and must not boast of ourselves, but focus on God and His place in our lives.

One of the most talked about aspects of Christianity is to love your neighbor as yourself, this was a command that came from Jesus to those who would follow him. When asked who is our neighbor he told them of the good samaritan who helped take care of the man who was attacked by thieves. Paying for him to be cared for and provided for, Jesus then iterates his point that the Samaritan showed mercy to the man, and that this is the example to follow. The idea is to be compassionate, and many people nowadays would say that to show mercy or have compassion means sacrificing of yourself to give to others. I prefer to think of having mercy in a different way, I do not view mercy as meaning that I have to cause myself distress or make my life harder to help others, but that instead I put myself in positions to help others. That instead of lifting up those who are less fortunate I would have to take away from myself and others, but rahter that we have the chance to give to those less fortunate. To give from our abundance willingly, and not to make it to where we are just as unfortunate as others. To be like Peter who when entering the temple told the beggar “Money and gold have I none, but that which I have I give freely, in the name of Jesus Christ get up and walk.” I think of helping others to mean to follow the old proverb “give a man a fish you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish you feed him for the rest of his life.” People right now want to take wealth from the working middle class and offer it to those who cannot or do not work, and say that because we do not want these taxes we lack compassion, but this is not the case. Instead of offering free money, offer a solution that enables the middle class to not be forced to pay and therefore lack money themselves but instead let them help of their abundance willingly, and help those who cannot find work to find ways to provide for themselves. Even Paul would not eat for free, but insured some form of service was rendered by him and his companions, this is true mercy, to help those who are unable to provide for themselves to find a way, like the man at the temple who needed to be healed, or the man from the proverb who needed to be taught how to fish. Mercy is helping by your own willingness and your abundance to lift up those who need it, not to provide for those who cannot simply becuase they refuse to, and certainly not by taking away from those who have some, but not much. As a conservative who opposses programs such as forced healthcare to pay for those who cannot afford it, and other programs it is not a lack of compassion that deters me from these programs, but rather it is becuase of my compassion I oppose them. Too many people out there have the capacity to work, but becuase these programs enable them to not work they refuse to, causing individuals who do work to receive less of their own money, which prevents them from being able to help their nieghbors who may need it, in favor of those who simply refuse to work. I have seen this first hand on many occassions, and it is crippling the American economy, and taking away all wealth from the so called middle class.

The Bible is filled with passeages detailing angels and the wonderous works they wrought. They are powerful messengers of God, who are to protect the Holy and elect of God, and without a doubt they deserve to be respected, their presence inspires awe and overwhelms when they are seen with our eyes, for they are far greater and more glorious than man, but this does not mean they should be worshipped or prayed too. Manasseh king of Judah and son of Hezekiah did the exact opposite of his father, he rebuilt the groves and made alters for Baal, and in second kings 21: 3 it says he “and worshipped all the host of heaven, and served them.” The only beings mentioned as heavenly host throughout the scriptures would be the angels, as all the false gods are claimed to be either false gods or idols, not heavenly beings. Worshipping heavens angels is in the same category as worshipping false gods because we are worshipping something other than God himself. While angels are very powerful and are messengers of God they are not God, and should not be worshipped, to worshio them is to commit idolatry and give God’s glory unto another. There is nothing wrong with having respect for God’s angels and if you receive angelic visitation (something rare in the times since Jesus since now we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us) it is ok to be awestruck by them, but to worship them and make idols of them asking them to bestow this or that upon you is to commit a sin. Many groups try even today to communicate and worship angels, thinking more of these powerful spiritual beings which are still a creation, than they do of the one who created them. If angels, who are but messengers of the king, are so powerful that one can lay waste to armies on Earth, how much more powerful and how much more worthy of praise and worship is the one who created and commands the host of heaven, trust then not in the creations, but in the one who has created all things, and Him only should we praise.

I was recently rewatching a football movie from the late 90’s starring Al pacino, and he gives a speech about football as a game of inches, and I thought to myselfy man if only life was a simple game of inches. And while dwelling on this I had an epiphany, maybe it is, maybe life is simply a matter of inches, you are either inching forward and getting better and improving, or you you are inching backwards and if you start to inch backwards maybe you need to reevaluate your life and find a way to turn it around. Often times we want some drastic change, some great miraculous rags to riches story about one aspect of our lives or another and we think that if one major event can take place our whole life will improve overnight. The reality is that life rarely allows from some overnight transformation from mediocrity to greatness, but rather it is gradual steps, like Eddison we must realize that failing is only a means to achieving the results we desire. The Bible talks to us plenty about a journey, or how God may show us a glimpse of what we are to achieve such as Joseph, only to then go through a path that seems so naturally opposed to what we were shown only to arrive where we are supposed to be, fully equipeed and with our experiences behind us to guide and direct our paths. In life if we want to truly make a difference, or even to find happiness we have to stop expecting things to come from an external source, we have to stop expecting everything to happen overnight, and we must be willing to press on through all trials and tribulations that we might come to face. If we do not like where our lives are heading than the only person who has the responsibility to change that is ourselves, it is about putting on your war paint and fighting for what we want, you want money and to be successful then fight for it, nobody is going to hand you anything, and it is not their responsibility to, you have to want it, and fight for it put in the work and the hours and make it important enough to you. You want to be an example, then show how you are an example, you want to be a true Christian and for people to see Christ through you, then fight for that, and it will not be easy, God knows it is not easy to do something great, but fight, for every inch you can get, until you finally find what it is you are looking for and you are able to hold it in your hands.

We live in interesting times, scary times, times in which churches are being torn down all around the world, America is censoring more and more online content, bibles are being banned in the United States and evil seems to be growing ever more present. It is a dark thing happening in America right now, our freedoms seem to be slipping further and further away from us as these corrupt politicians convince more and more of the younger generation to continue to sign away our God given rights, rights that helped America become the nation it is today. Gun rights are being stripped away left and right, and now with online censorship becoming an even more common place occurance, one might wonder what our future holds. In the coming years America will no longer be the nation of freedom it once was, and as the government continues to peel back our rights they will only be emboldened to take more until we are no longer a place of individual freedoms but another failed state of corrupt elitist rulers. From the banning of the Bible in California and its new law forcing even the churches to promote transgenderism, to the gun grabbing socialist left to the forced vaccinations of all citizens regardless of medical or religious exemptions it is all to set a precedent that our lives belong to the state, and not ourselves. America is on a slippery slope to communist slavery, a slope that can still be stopped but only if the American people will educate themselves and open their eyes to what is happening around them and in their nation.

The spirit is a word or term often used for so many different things about people, often becuase it is such an abstract concept, but also becuase it can mean so many different things. Spirit can refer to somebody’s morale or willingness to accomplish a task, but the spirit of a person is also something more than this, the spirit is who we truly are, it is more than our memories, our ideas and our beliefs. The spirit is the true self, the part of who we are that will live forever, and it is something that like our bodies or our minds needs to be nurtured, cared for, fed and needs to be used in order to grow. We care for our spirit by doing spiritual things, connecting to spiritual things, praying and meditating in order to allow the spirit it’s time to grow. A weak spirit can be easily influenced, it can be altered and seduced into darkness. When our spirit is weak, we begin to lose ourselves, many people in our world struggle with wondering who they are, what they want, or what can make them happy, they struggle with identity and with finding happiness and purpose, this is the result of a malnourished spirit, which can leave us feeling empty or that we have a hole to be filled. The spirit, the trueself, if weak or seemingly lost then we find ourselves falling further and further into a life of darkness, this darkness is what the enemy wants, it is why it is so important for christians to minister to others, and to use our time in prayer and reading the scriptures, becuase we must use our light to bring light to the world. Even Christians who read and pray can feel this emoty and sad feeling, this is from no longer fulfilling the purpose, which can only be fulfilled by seeking God and following His commandments. Strengthen the spirit, and let your light so shine before men that you may glorify God in heaven.

 

Amen.

I recently watched Miracles, a disney film covering the 1980 winter olympics men’s hockey team for USA, it was a inspirational and moving film about a young group of college boys from all over the America who did not really know each other, trained together for only seven months, and then beat the best team in the world and went on to win the gold medal for hockey. There was something about this movie that helped me remember what it is about America that I love so much, why it is the greatest nation on Earth, and while many seek to destroy it form within and without, America must be saved. America is the only nation in which someone can rise from obscurity to greatness, America offers the right to all people to pursue life, liberty and happiness. America is not perfect, but then again nowhere really is, except for heaven, but that is not here on Earth, America is a place in which you have the power and the right to take ahold of and shape your own future, it is not about your circumstances of birth, but what you choose to do and become with your life that will determine what you accomplish with it. The only person to blame for your circumstances is yourself, which is hard, and reaching greatness in America is not guaranteed, but it is out there for anyone, if they have the courage to reach for it, but it is a fight, it is a struggle, and it takes more hard work and preserverence than many are willing to muster, but success or failure is only up to the individual, and there are starting to be many who do not desire to obtain greatness, but would rather have mediocrity handed to them, and this is causing America’s decline, we are faced with a single choice now as a nation: we must as a people, as individuals and a collective strive for greatness, the concept of American exceptionalism must retake hold in our hearts, we must take responsibility for our own choices and find the strength and courage to overcome them and retake our place as the truly greatest nation on Earth; or we can continue to blame others for our choices and expect an easy hand out and we shall fall into obscurity and be forgotten.

Distractions are everywhere nowadays, everywhere you turn there is something to keep you from using your God given talents to help your neighbors, so many of us often are so concerned about the latest trend, the latest video, the latest gossip, the latest technology or innovation, so distracted by our entertainment we forget to look elsewhere, we forget that we are about of a bigger purpose, that there is more to life than simply being entertained and doing things that are fun, turn away from the petty distractions, put the phones down and read your Bible, pray and have conversation with God, talk to your neighbors and enjoy their company, go out and get involved in your community and make an impact, be different, be true and be righteous through your faith in Christ. God calls us to more than entertainment, entertainment is not a bad thing, but it can keep us from seeking something better.

Amen.

Joab calls on David to finish the work that he had started in capturing the enemy territory, he does so in order that the glory might rest upon the king, and not in himself. This is how we as Christians ought to be in service to God, we need God to finish the work through us, that He May receive the glory, our job as servants of God are to honor and glorify Him. Just as Jesus is the author and the FINISHER of our faith, so to did joab seek David to finish the work of taking the cities of the ammonites. When we do things for God we do so not for ourselves or our own glory, but that all honor and glory point back to him, we are to advance the kingdom of God here on earth, and in order to do so we must focus on Him and glorifying His name, seek to be a humble servant showing love to your neighbors and glorify God in all you do.

Amen