Month: October 2022

Why Not if There’s Safety and Security Today?

On By TimIn 2 Kings 20, JudgmentLeave a comment

Then Hezekiah said to Isaiah, “The word of the Lord that you have spoken is good.” And he said, “Why not, if there is peace and security in my days?”

2 Kings 20:19 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

This is just one verse at the end of a long narrative. The word of the Lord that Isaiah spoke to Hezekiah was the doom of certain judgment.

For your own edification read the account from the first verse. It may help to offer insight as to the importance of what is happening.

In the beginning, Hezekiah is told to get his affairs in order as his death is near. He pled with God, and God extends his life for 15 years.

It is when dignitaries arrive from Babylon that things turn a bit sour. Hezekiah shows off. He gives the emissaries a grand tour of the treasures and storehouses.

When Isaiah asks about the visitors of what they wanted and whence they came, Hezekiah says they came from Babylon and were shown everything. The prophetic word given back is that Judah would be led away captive in the future.

Hezekiah’s answer was smug and self-serving. At least as long as Hezekiah reigns, there will be peace. Hezekiah confessed his actions, yes. But he did not confess any wrongdoing by those actions. He certainly showed no concern for the welfare of his progeny, either. In so doing, he ensured their future is dark and bleak.

I cannot help but to think of the United States… No almost every nation in the world. People are more than ever willing to place heavy and demanding burdens on their progeny for a bit of safety and security today.

What I mean is most currencies are debt-based. Like Hezekiah, national leaders cede responsibility by apathy. Central banks loan nations money. You and I pay the interest on the loans by taxes.

It used to be honorable to work and save, passing inheritance to our children. Mindsets changed. People pass on debt and with it slavery. They have themselves become bondservants to debt. That’s been the same deal from the garden where the enemy used deceit to enslave.

It’s the same principle ensuring a dark and bleak future, except we clearly see the danger looming.

Hezekiah was only thinking about himself.

Hezekiah enslaved his progeny and his nation simply because he didn’t confess his wrongdoing. Our nation, nay our world, is hurtling into chaos (by demonic design,) and many live like Hezekiah thinking it’s good enough now.

The entire globe is on the precipice of the culmination of being led off into Babylonian-type captivity. I know this isn’t a rosy outlook. It’s Biblical, though. The Bible told us of these particular tribulations among many more things in advance.

So, what to do?

The first thing is to do what Hezekiah did not do. Get right with God. That’s going to mean different things to different people. But it means having nothing between you and God. If it’s sin, confess it. If it’s not believing… Believe!

Hezekiah did get right with God, but when he stumbled afterward… He failed to confess his sins to God. That’s an important thing. Hezekiah’s actions had grave consequences for others. Those consequences would remain because of his inaction on the matter.

What I do know, is there is a Remedy.

Like Hezekiah in this instance, all people have fallen short somewhere of the standards of doing right. I don’t care how short or how far away any fall is. I know the shortness cannot be made up in our own endeavors. You cannot clean yourself up enough to come to God. And you cannot fix a bright future without God.

But Jesus…

Yes, Jesus shed His own blood for that reason. Jesus covered the shortfall by giving of Himself He did that because each of us needs to be in good standing with God. That would be impossible if there is an impediment between you and God. Jesus obliterated all impediments. He opened the presence of God to any and all that would come, no matter their moral condition.

I also know the rose again. He defeated death resoundingly. And one day, there will be no death.

If you find yourself to be in the predicament of falling short and myopically thinking of numero uno… You can fix it now. It isn’t fancy preacher-type talk. It’s you alone going to God. Acknowledge Jesus is real and is Who He claimed to be. Believe He died for you and your sins, and can forgive them when confessed because He rose again. Confess this out loud to Him. Give to Him your burden of sin by confessing it to Him.

Second… Stay right with God.

My hope and prayer are that anyone reading this has talked to God in that way. For Christians, God is not some old man in the sky. He is a Heavenly Father Who wants many children. Even a child like you… No matter what it is you’ve done. Yeah, even that thing that just blasted into your mind.

God wants you as a child, no matter what it is you’ve done.

Making Faith my Own

On By TimIn 2 Peter 01, Encouragement2 Comments

Begging for a bit of indulgence to deviate slightly in order to demonstrate a life lesson.

I met a young woman named Dinah this weekend. She was with an older friend and coworker named Byron. I had the opportunity to hear both of their testimonies before they were baptized.

Dinah spoke of a sort of coming of age in her own walk with Jesus. She had grown up in a Christian home with Christian parents. She went to church. She prayed. She read her Bible. She had even been baptized before.

But when she went to college, she realized something was missing. She was not going to church. She was not with her parents. Her faith was not her own, but it was her parents. She had gone to church, prayed and was even baptized because that was what was expected of her to do.

She endeavored to make her faith her own.

As questions were posed to her, the answers seemed to be good but there was a subtle vagueness to them. She never had a testimony of responding to an invitation, nor really saying a sinner’s prayer. She did have a testimony of asking God to be real to her and work in her.

When the attention turned to her friend Byron, things become crystal clear. By looks alone, this man seemed to be old enough to be Dinah’s father. He was a coworker.

Byron, knowing Dinah was a Christian asked her to pray for him as he was going through a dramatic and emotional upheaval of his life. She said I can pray for you and sensed he need more than prayer. She told him she would pray for him but said it would be better for him to come to come sit next to her in church.

Byron soon became a Christian. He knows the day he was saved, and two months later was standing in front us ready to be baptized.

As I was listening to all of this, I could not help but to think of Peter’s second epistle. In that writing Peter speaks of distinct groups of people by seemingly similar phrases. The first group are those saved, the ones who escape the corruption of the world and partake of the divine nature. Dinah’s testimony comes in Peter’s words.

His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of Him who has called us by His own glory and excellence, by which He has given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, so that through these things you might become partakers of the divine nature and escape the corruption that is in the world through lust.

2 Peter 1:3–4 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

These are real Christians. They can be babes in the faith or seasoned saints. Nevertheless, these live as a partakers of the divine nature. The divine nature is permanent, and such speaks to the permanence of salvation as a part of the divine nature.

Look at how Peter’s further encouragement to these saints helps us to see the shining Light of Dinah’s testimony.

For this reason make every effort to add virtue to your faith; and to your virtue, knowledge; and to your knowledge, self-control; and to your self-control, patient endurance; and to your patient endurance, godliness; and to your godliness, brotherly kindness; and to your brotherly kindness, love. For if these things reside in you and abound, they ensure that you will neither be useless nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But the one who lacks these things is blind and shortsighted because he has forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.

2 Peter 1:5–9 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

Dinah did know all of the Christianeze. Yet she also knew something was missing. She also knew she had sinned and fallen short of the perfection God demands. She went to Jesus as He is the only way to escape the certainty of that corruption that comes from those defilements.

In her own youth, it seems she forgot to make her faith her own. She didn’t add virtue to her faith. She didn’t add knowledge to that virtue. There is a chain of things we must add to our faith, which brings us to godliness, brotherly kindness, and love for others.

Dinah had the protection of family and church. It was when she left she realized she missed the fellowship of the Spirit of God, though she never voiced it that way. The reality was clear.

It’s easy to relish in that when we go to church and have a Christian family. The presence of the Holy Spirit is always there. When we become separate from others who have the indwelling Spirit that comes by that faith… If we’ve not matured we sense the emptiness. Sometimes that emptiness comes from not really being a saint. I trust that isn’t the case with anyone reading this, but if it is… It’s quickly rectified by asking Jesus to save you right now. That’s the best way to start.

This neglect of our faith leads to a bit of shortsightedness. It will eventually place the memories of salvation into the far recesses of the mind, only to be forgotten.

Nevertheless, Dinah worked out her own faith. She cried out to Jesus to be real to her. Instead of being useless and unfruitful to God, she had the opportunity to ensure another man was led to Jesus. She was the willing tool God used to bring a radical change in Byron’s life.

Byron’s presence and testimony proved that Dinah was indeed saved and useful to God. She is bearing fruit in her walk with Jesus.

It was an awesome thing to see both of them baptized that morning. There is such a satisfying sweetness in the juxtaposition of a young lady leading an older man to Jesus.

There is that second group of folks Peter also describes.

Although they promise them freedom, they themselves are slaves of corruption, for by that which a man is overcome, to this he is enslaved. For if after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and they are again entangled in them and are overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then turn back from the holy commandment that was delivered to them. But it has happened to them according to the true proverb, “The dog returns to his own vomit,” and “the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mud.”

2 Peter 2:19–22 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

Here Peter is talking specifically about the false teacher. He doesn’t have kind words. What is clear from Peter’s writing is that these false teachers have some knowledge of Jesus and the way of righteousness. But they reject it. They turn their back on the Holy command, you must be born again.

These are ones that have a familiarity with the Holy Spirit because they may have grown up in a Christian home or they have even attended church for some time. They’ve read their Bible, sang worship songs and may have even been baptized. In that sense, they escape the defilements… The sins and decadence of the world for a season. They enjoy the presence of the Holy Spirit not inside of them, but around them. When they leave those environs these become entangled again in the mess they left. The end is worse for them.

It’s not that they are doomed, but much more unlikely to come to their senses and be born again.

As I am reading this portion of text this morning and thinking of yesterday, I rejoice in Dinah’s repentance. Yes, there was real evidence, not so much as on a certain day she said a certain prayer or responded to a preacher’s pleading. She reached out to God for herself by herself because she knew something was missing and He is the only remedy. He answered her!

For those of you reading this far, if you are a Christian and have neglected your faith, start feeding it. Pray to God, ask for help, and read your Bible. That’s adding virtue. Continued reading and prayer adds knowledge. These things make your faith stronger and a continued exercise of that faith muscle makes a mature believer. One unmovable in faith who truly loves and serves others.

But what if you read this and have gone to church or had Christian parents, but cannot seem to escape the siren call of the decadence of the world that entangles you?

I have one answer. Come to your senses. Stop indulging your flesh, and hang out in that community where the Holy Spirit works. Repent… That means change your mind. Acknowledge that Jesus is right. Believe He is God, that He died to atone for all sins, the sins of the whole world. And confess that aloud to Him.

You can renounce your old way of life. You can take back control of your own life. You can ask Jesus to save you. You can escape the corruption of th world and that comes by lust. But you need Jesus inside of you first. That’s the hint command, you must be born again.

If there is one thing that I am sure of, Jesus can change your life.

If you’re not sure about anything here, and need help… You can send a message via the contact section. Find a Christian friend to listen.

Note: The testimonies are accurate though the names have been changed.

Deceit and Usury

On By TimIn Genesis 031 Comment

Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What have you done?”
And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Genesis 3:13 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

That word deceived. It is the Hebrew word nasha (Strong’s H5377.) The King James Version translates that verb to beguile. Other translations of this primitive word are to impose, seduce, or lead into error.

I think the idea is clear.

Yet, there is an identical Hebrew word nasha (Strong’s H5378.) It means to exact, as in a price or to place under debt. To better understand, it is to lend on usury (charge interest.)

Another lexicon says that the idea conveyed by the word is to give false hopes.

What does that mean for a society that is based on debt instruments?

Almost all modern economies are managed by central banks and loans. Modern money policy is established by usury. Just let your mind wander with all that that entails.

As this is the first usage of nasha in the Bible, it requires attention.

Usury is enslavement.

The rich rules over the poor, and the borrower is servant to the lender.

Proverbs 22:7 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

After the law came into existence, usury was considered a sin. It was forbidden (except for a limited case.)

If you lend money to any of My people who is poor among you, do not be a creditor to him, and do not charge him interest. If you take your neighbor’s garment as a pledge, you shall return it to him before the sun goes down, for that is his only covering; it is his garment for his body. In what else will he sleep? And when he cries out to Me, I will hear, for I am gracious.

Exodus 22:25–27 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

I am convinced that usury is the root cause of all suffering on this planet. It started with that first rebellion when the Shining One enslaved Eve.

God doesn’t take kindly to this kind of debt slavery. That’s clear. From another portion of Scriptures, we see the idea in a narrative form. As Nehemiah led the rebuilding of Jerusalem after the exile, the gentry was busy enslaving their brothers.

Now there was a great outcry of the people and their wives against their fellow Jews. Some were saying, “We and our sons and our daughters are many. Therefore, let us acquire grain so that we may eat and live.”
Others were saying, “We have mortgaged our fields, vineyards, and houses so that we might acquire grain because of hunger.”
Still others were saying, “We have borrowed money for the king’s tribute against the value of our fields and vineyards. Now our flesh is the same as the flesh of our countrymen. Our children are like their children, but we are subjugating our sons and our daughters as servants. Indeed, some of our daughters are in bondage already, and we are powerless to do anything because our fields and vineyards belong to others.”
I was very angry when I heard their outcry and these words. So I contemplated about this for myself and, as a result, I rebuked the nobles and officials and said to them, “Based on the claim of each against his brother, you are exacting usury.” Then I convened a great assembly against them, and I said to them, “By whatever means we had, we purchased our Jewish countrymen who were being sold to the nations. So, will you once more sell your countrymen so that they might again be sold to us?” Then they kept silent, because they found nothing to answer. Also I said, “What you are doing is not good! Should not you walk in the fear of our God because of the reproach of the nations, our enemies? Moreover, I, my relatives, and my servants are loaning them money and grain. So, I urge you, cease from this practice of usury. Please restore to them, even this day, their fields, their vineyards, their olive groves, and their houses, along with a hundredth part of the money, the grain, the wine, and the oil that you had exacted from them.”

Nehemiah 5:1–11 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

What I find thought-provoking is the actual percentage rate given. It’s 1%. Nehemiah called that usury!

The idea of enslavement by debt instrument is also a theme alluded to by Jesus and Paul.

Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly I say to you, whoever commits sin is a slave of sin.

John 8:34 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

Do you not know that to whom you yield yourselves as slaves to obey, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?

Romans 6:16 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

The transaction from the shining one (the serpent) to Eve was a transaction of usury. He indebted her by sin, sin unto death.

What does that mean for us?

Owe no one anything, except to love one another, for he who loves another has fulfilled the law.

Romans 13:8 (MEV):

First… Don’t take loans at interest. This is crazy, even for me to think about. Yet I owe, I owe. That’s the part of being enslaved.

The second point is even harder. How many of you save and invest your money hoping to reap a return?

Well, that’s the part of being one who enslaves others. That’s hard enough to hear. But then…

He who by usury and unjust gain increases his substance will gather it for him who will pity the poor.

Proverbs 28:8 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

Clearly, a 1% return is usury and extortion (unjust gain.) And as is clearly being modeled, our modern rigged system benefits the nobles and the gentry, who will have “pity” on the poor. You won’t own anything and will like it, living on the subsidence (basic income) they offer. That’s the promise of the new world order. And it was prophesied centuries beforehand.

Righteousness by Law-keeping Does Not Compare to Righteousness Which is of God

On By In RighteousnessLeave a comment

For we are the circumcision who worship God in the Spirit, and boast in Christ Jesus, and place no trust in the flesh, though I also have confidence in the flesh.

If any other man thinks that he has reason to trust in the flesh, I have more: I was circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and a Hebrew of Hebrews; as concerning the law, a Pharisee; concerning zeal, persecuting the church; and concerning the righteousness which is in the law, blameless.

Philippians 3:3–6 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

Of course, the law doesn’t justify. Paul is making a proclamation of himself to be blameless according to the law. He is not making a proclamation of how he was saved, nor about his salvation. Salvation comes by way of faith, noting keeping the rudiments of the law.

Paul followed the law. He knew that keeping it meant a certain blamelessness that was available in its precepts. The law’s purpose serves as a schoolmaster. It teaches us of our need for a Redeemer. It points directly to Jesus Christ Himself, Who is the end of the law.

But what things were gain to me, I have counted these things to be loss for the sake of Christ. Yes, certainly, I count everything as loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have forfeited the loss of all things and count them as rubbish that I may gain Christ, and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is of God on the basis of faith, to know Him, and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if somehow I might make it to the resurrection of the dead.

Philippians 3:7–11 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

Paul even forsook the keeping of the law and the blamelessness that comes with that for what is better in Jesus in having the righteousness from God Himself. There is no better.

Humility, Unity and Confidence

On By TimIn Genesis 02, HumilityLeave a comment

The Lord God planted a garden in the east, in Eden, and there He placed the man whom He had formed. Out of the ground the Lord God made to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and good for food. The tree of life was also in the midst of the garden, along with the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

Genesis 2:8–9 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

We start at the beginning from creation forward. We read that the earth was formed, domains made, and inhabitants created to occupy those domains.

Our attention focuses on God planting a garden that included the very thing that would provide a problem. One that would introduce an enemy opposed to God.

We tend to think of time linearly because we experience it that way. An event happens then the next one and so on. Yet, we cannot go back in time or look forward in time.

That movement of time doesn’t happen with God. He doesn’t move backward or forwards in time. He doesn’t look to the future, either. He is in every single moment in every conceivable place concurrently. I know that’s a big concept to grasp. But it helps to try to apprehend that. The psalmist sings of these wonders in Psalm 139.

The existence of that one tree would lead to the downfall of God’s imagers. One that we know He had confidently purposed to rectify.

“Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth was a man attested to you by God with powerful works and wonders and signs, which God did through Him in your midst, as you yourselves know. You have taken Him, who was handed over to you by the ordained counsel and foreknowledge of God, and by lawless hands have crucified and killed Him, whom God raised up by loosening the pull of death, because it was not possible that He should be held by it.

Acts 2:22–24 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

It is in the confidence of that already conceived plan that Jesus was crucified. It was set in order long ago before time existed… God, Himself would die for sins. The apostle John drops another bombshell about the “timelessness” of this fact.

All who dwell on the earth will worship him, all whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world.

Revelation 13:8 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

It was determined that Jesus would die for sins. It was also His Blood that atoned for the sin at the foundation of the world exactly when It was needed.

Consider this: It was Jesus Himself (John 1:3) Who planted that tree. He planted the tree of life, along with the tree of knowledge. The latter is that which brought death. Jesus then died on another tree. This is where death was defeated so that humans could have restored access to the tree of life and the garden of God.

In our experience, this is the entire swath of time from creation until the New Jerusalem and beyond. For God, these things don’t happen one after another as spread across time. There is unity in that. Just as there is a unity of purpose within God Himself.

Yet in the moment of the establishment of creation up to planting the garden, the humility of Jesus is a very present reality.

Let this mind be in you all, which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped. But He emptied Himself, taking upon Himself the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.
And being found in the form of a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Therefore God highly exalted Him and gave Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Philippians 2:5–11 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

There is a lot of deep stuff to unpack there. I will leave that for another time.

There is humility built into the creation. There is also unity. One which exudes confidence. Confidence that the necessary tasks to be done would be carried out and have the desired outcome. (God is already there.)

That is part of what Paul is saying about each of us having that very mind. Humility, unity, and confidence.

If there is any encouragement in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any compassion and mercy, then fulfill my joy and be like-minded, having the same love, being in unity with one mind. Let nothing be done out of strife or conceit, but in humility let each esteem the other better than himself. Let each of you look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.

Philippians 2:1–4 — Modern English Version (Thinline Edition.; Lake Mary, FL: Passio, 2014)

Confidence that when we are called to lead, we lead. When called to teach, we teach. When called to love, we love. When called to have compassion, we are compassionate.

All of us are called to share Jesus Christ. We can be confident that we are able to do just that.