2 Thessalonians 2:3 teaches: “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first…” “On May 17, 1863, Paris saw the opening of the Salon des Refusés, an exhibition of artworks that were rejected by the jury of the prestigious Paris Salon. It was the very first time the term avant garde, or avant-garde, was used in relations to the arts, and it marked the beginning of a cultural revolution. Renowned painters like Gustave Courbet, Édouard Manet and Camille Pissaro, cast aside by the critics and the public for not being conservative to their taste, organized their own shows throughout the French capital, featuring now legendary paintings. Attracting thousands of visitors, these artists announced a certain kind of rebellion that would come to influence an entire century and a half of art movements and like-minded artists, despite the ongoing ridicule they received from…
Healing at the Cross Posts
Just went to my high school class reunion, my first, ever, after many years. Talk about scary? I didn’t know any classmates and they didn’t know me. As the night went on, I started remembering a few and then many, with the help of “name tags.”I was amused at how many red-haired kids were now white as snow. Fat people were thin, and thin were fat, and non-lookers became quite nice-looking in the twilight years. You get the drift. We laughed and reminisced. On the sad side I discovered that 15 or so classmates had died, some of them were my friends of bygone days. I was moved as their names were read and a candle was lit for each.. I was then constrained to tell a large group of the survivors how that God had rescued my life several years past High School and gave me a purposeful life.…
We Must know that God keeps us — but from what? Jude 1:24 teaches “… to keep you from falling …to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy. Psalms tells us:: “The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.” “The Lord will keep you from all evil.” “he will keep your life.” “The Lord will keep your going out and your coming in from this time forth and forevermore.” Psalm 121:6-8 “Our God … holds our soul in life, and suffers not our feet to be moved.” Psalm 66:9 Jabez, called on the God of Israel, Oh that thou would bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou would keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested.” 1 Chronicles 4:1 Then…
2 Timothy 3:1 reveals dark spirit trends of this age to be guarded against: “… men will be… in love with their selves,* money-lusters braggarts,* show-offs,* hinderers of others success,* un-reconciled to parents,(and adults in general) showing zero appreciation,* diametrically opposed to-what is right, diametrically opposed to-social normality, abject unwillingness to sacrifice,* diabolic slanderers, * way out of control mentally and emotionally,* brutal in speech and action,* opposed to anything of true healing excellence,* traitors,* blatant betrayers,* 17. reckless, 18. puffed up with pride,* 19. filthy sex mongers instead of lovers of God…” (paraphrase mine) I’ve seen these in the news. Mat 24:12 And because lawlessness shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. Some current events that turn our heads: “New York City … fathers propose to eliminate school programs for gifted students out of a concern for diversity and inclusion.” (success inhibitors)? “J.B. recently revoked his long-held…
“ Here and there, in clefts and basins, and on the hillsides, grade on grade, you observe a patch of corn, a clump of olives, a single palm.” “Even in the wilderness nature is not so stern as man.” Taken from Hepworth Dixon (“The Holy Land”) Metanoea, Metanoea Metanoea! (Repent, Repent, Repent!) The kingdom of heaven is at hand! John the Baptist/Herald proclaimed in the wilderness — Repent! “Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight” Camel’s hair, and a leather girdle about his loins he wore. Locusts and wild honey was his meat. “Jerusalem, and all Judea, and all the region round about Jordan were baptized of him in Jordan, confessing their sins.” Matthew 3:5-6 Repent?— “a virtuous alteration of the mind and purpose as begets a like virtuous change in the life and practice.” Sorrow is not, as is popularly conceived, the primary notion of…
In order to know we are safe, our knowledge must be of a deeper kind: “The general word in the New Testament for knowledge is (gnosis) (knowledge stored on the left side of the brain, the perception and awareness area) To be vital, knowledge must go beyond (gnosis), and become (epignosis), which is experiential knowledge applied to the human soul — it gives a preciseness and experiential understanding of truth. The exchange is accomplished as knowledge transfers through the new heart ( in the human spirit) of a saved believer. Ezekiel 36:26 When God’s knowledge (His Word), is.transferred by the Holy Spirit to the human spirit, then it makes the written Word a Living Word — renews us continually and protects us invisibly. Let’s further describe epignosis; Epignosis enables a believer to live according to spiritual ethics. The believer has more than definitions. He has power in truth. There is purity in his thinking process,…
I have met many who have lost their appreciation for life. They’ve traded their ability to live freely, to love, and to laugh, for reactions, repressions, and denials. Some folks, hurt by love, have discarded love forever; it bears too much pain. Others, worn down by oppressive relationships, jobs or circumstances, have given themselves over to drugs, alcohol, or other means of artificial comfort. I have discovered that a person’s ability to resist stress is only temporary. Eventually that stress envelops that individual and wears him down. Now, he readily yields to those stressors because it’s human to get “stress relief” at all costs. Evil takes advantage of these “human” qualities and attempts to wear out the saints — they try to make life become “too hard — too long.” Their evil government looks for eventual capitulation –then they offer freedom and release — but the new-found freedom equals slavery.…
“…we must also accept the reality of our incompleteness.” Gerald G. May M.D. From his book “Addiction and Grace.” He starts in, “We can and should do our very best to move in that direction, (to achieve the state of perfection.) struggling with every resource we have. but…”we need to recognize that the incompleteness in us, our personal insufficiency, does not make us unacceptable in God’s eyes.” “Far from it, our incompleteness is the empty side of our longing for God and for love. It is what draws us toward love and one another.” “if we do not fill our minds with guilt and self-recriminations, we will recognize our incompleteness as a kind of spaciousness into which we can welcome the flow of grace.” “We can think of our inadequacies as terrible defects, if we want, and hate ourselves. But we can also think of them affirmatively, as doorways…
Ephesians 2:7 “so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.” Kindness? Luke 7:37-50 explains this “kindness.” “And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, when she learned that he was reclining at table in the Pharisee’s house, brought an alabaster flask of ointment and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head and kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment. Now when the Pharisee who had invited him saw this, he said to himself, “If this man were a prophet, he would have known who and what sort of woman this is who is touching him, for she is a sinner.” And Jesus answering said to him, “Simon, I have something to say to you.” And…
. ” Because you are precious in my eyes, and honored, and I love you, I give men in return for you, peoples in exchange for your life.” Isaiah 43:4 That which enables us to carry weight in this world stems from our being precious in His eyes. It speaks of extreme love, a favor surpassing that of men. Indeed, it refers to a choosing, as God did with Israel when He brought them forth from Egypt. This “preciousness” gives us weight in our words, in our countenance, in our judgments — It coincides with our being liberated from our personal bondage. Un-redeemed mankind seeks honor among its fellows, a formula which may require denigrating ‘dishonor for acceptance’ In dishonoring it’s bodies. These surrender to uncleanness, immerse themselves in heart-lust, become passionate for disgraceful dishonoring, and finally relinquish all discriminatory ability — they find their way back to “shame” as a…