Paul and Silas went to jail. The charge? They hindered the monetary gain of men who exploited a soothsaying woman. Soothsaying? Yes, a person supposed to be inspired who foretells the future, but actually casts spells. This one had a spirit, and Paul cast it out. She had followed Paul and Silas proclaiming, “These men are slaves of the Most High God, and they are proclaiming to you a way of salvation.” The Story comes from Acts chapter 16. So, Paul and Silas were seized and dragged before Magistrates, charged with violating customs and proclaiming unlawful practices. “But the whole charge was pure hypocrisy; for as these men would have let the missionaries preach what religion they pleased if they had not dried up the source of their gains, so they conceal the real cause of their rage under color of a zeal for religion, and law, and good order.”…
Tag: <span>deceit</span>
I have good news and bad–First the bad. Angrily driven, my hatred propels me to unprecedented heights of mischief and pain-inflicting. Then, righting my wounded soul by raucous revenge, I hurt that which has so damaged my cause. My deeds are done. My world of entitlement returns for my enjoying. Who cares if my methods were not exactly legal? “The end justifies the means;” because power has been regained. Yes, power. To manipulate, to steal, to wield the axe of “freedom at everyone else’s expense.” Question? When the rambunctious radical gets what he or she so desires, what now drives him? When revenge finds its sweet release, do revengers turn into happy caring individuals again? I think not. Their ugly self-validated, psychologically justified souls, have spilled over for all to see. These have played the “hate card,” the same card that we all could play, but have dared not, as…
Love endures long and is patient and kind; love never is envious nor boils over with jealousy, is not boastful or vainglorious, does not display itself haughtily. It is not conceited (arrogant and inflated with pride); it is not rude (unmannerly), does not act unbecomingly. does not insist on its own rights or its own way, for it is not self-seeking; it is not touchy or fretful or resentful; it takes no account of the evil done to it, [it pays no attention to a suffered wrong]. It does not rejoice at injustice and unrighteousness, but rejoices when right and truth prevail. Love bears up under anything and everything that comes, is ever ready to believe the best of every person, its hopes are fadeless under all circumstances, and it endures everything [without weakening]. Love never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]. 1 Corinthians…
Before the great Civil War of America, slavery debates fomented and raged — In Virginia, debated, in Massachusetts, debated, in D.C. debated, in Louisiana, debated. In Santo Domingo, insurrection, in South Carolina trouble, in Virginia revolt. Publications, gag-orders, rationalizations, justifications, fear and greed topped the editorial pages. Seems to me that slavery, once adopted, created it’s own world and that, it’s own challenges, and that, it’s own addiction, and that, it’s needed detox, but that, it’s own frustration for any desiring rehabilitation. Though deliberated, opinions expressed, arguments made, the end of slavery required a war, of flesh and blood. Peaceable settlement ran faster than could be caught, positive advances were met with equalizing drag-backs, negative de-advance required a hero’s laid down life to reverse. Progress impossible, agitation grew like a festering boil, which finally erupted. We had a combat between good and evil, right and wrong, truth and lie, Satan…
“Superstition always breeds such sorrows, when men make themselves religious duties which God never made them, and then come short in the performance of them” Richard Baxter This excerpt from Baxter’s “The cure of Melancholy and Overmuch Sorrow, by Faith,” is based on 2 Corinthians 2:7. “…lest perhaps such a one should be swallowed up by overmuch sorrow?” The author goes on to say, “Many souls are assaulted by the erroneous, and told they are in a wrong way; and they must take up some error as a necessary truth, and so are cast into perplexing difficulties, and perhaps repent of the truth which they before owned.” What’s the problem? Why do we backtrack so easily? — Deeper than we might think. It’s an over-safeguarded soul, a provision for the flesh; just in case God’s ways and means don’t come through in the pinch. It’s hanging on to the railings…