Beware the idolatrous WOKE Clergy Coaching Network who are NOT clothed in Christ!

 Beware the idolatrous WOKE Clergy Coaching Network who are NOT clothed in Christ!

 

'On the Lord’s Day I was in the Spirit, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet, which said: “Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea.”

I turned around to see the voice that was speaking to me. And when I turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and among the lampstands was someone like a son of man, dressed in a robe reaching down to his feet and with a golden sash around his chest. The hair on his head was white like wool, as white as snow, and his eyes were like blazing fire. His feet were like bronze glowing in a furnace, and his voice was like the sound of rushing waters. In his right hand he held seven stars, and coming out of his mouth was a sharp, double-edged sword. His face was like the sun shining in all its brilliance.

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: “Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and now look, I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades.

“Write, therefore, what you have seen, what is now and what will take place later. The mystery of the seven stars that you saw in my right hand and of the seven golden lampstands is this: The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches, and the seven lampstands are the seven churches.'

Revelation 1:10-20

https://my.bible.com/bible/111/REV.1.10-20

Woke Christianity, only stressing soft-love and works righteousness without self-control and self-discipline, is a modern heresy upon the Church, and not any better than only hard-love messages sent without any compassion or mercy and full of only condemning judgment.

Real Holiness is Wholehearted Love like Jesus who while compassionate and merciful, at the same time called sinners to repentance, he did not enable them to stay in their sin anymore than the cripple he told to stop sinning before something worse happened to him, or the woman who was caught in adultery and he saved from stoning, he told her to go no leave her life of sin (being without God in daily fellowship through the Holy Spirit).  When he preached of the Rich man in Hell, who dressed himself in fine linen purple, this was the dress of the high priest, who recently died, and who begged Father Abraham to send Lazarus back to warn against ending up in Hell, but whom the Father told him, they would not believe even if someone was sent back from the dead, and when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, the High Priests fellow brothers did not listen, instead they wanted to find a way to kill Lazarus as well as Jesus.  Jesus called his brethren White Washed tombs, and made a whip of cord and drove the animals from the temple and overturned the table of the money changers.

When we preach an all soft-love Jesus who never calls for repentance and just hangs out with sinners to eat and drink for the fun of it because he loves them so much, or a hard love Jesus who only has wrath and no mercy, we are creating an idol that is not biblical.

Jesus had Wholehearted love which balanced soft and hard love, much as a parent has do to with their child.  Jesus could have mercy and compassion, but he could also get angry and scripture says he was without sin, and yet we have the false message that getting angry in and of itself is only sinful.  Jesus was fully human without sin, and so can Christians be likewise and be fully clothed with Christ.

So I had the following discussion lately in Naznet Fellowship Group on Facebook:

When I come in here seeing messages stressing SOFT LOVE messages only, what I see in my mind's eyes are former Trevecca Alumni, who had SOFT LOVE messages on their profiles, but then they were full of LBGTQ+ flags and memes, and accepting the sin, without bringing the sinner to the awareness of repentance.

On the other hand, some people in here probably view me as Jonathan Edwards, preaching a hard love sermon about sinners in the hands of an angry God, I can tell you my sermons are not like that:

The Church, Coronavirus, Suffering - Palm Sunday 2020 https://youtu.be/24i0NPaQ6B8

'We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine '

1 Timothy 1:9-10 https://my.bible.com/bible/111/1TI.1.9-10

I believe Ray Comfort does the best job in his Street Evangelism he shares on YouTube and Facebook because Ray will walk a sinner through 3 of the 10 commandments, and getting them to accept the premise that God can judge his creation, would they be in Heaven or Hell, based upon their lack of observing the 3 of 10 commandments. He gets them to confess that they have taken God's name in vain using it as a cuss word, it gets them to admit they have told lies in their lifetime, and he gets them to admit either to fornication if they are having sex outside of marriage or to the sin of committing adultery by looking upon a member of the opposite sex with lust.

Then he asks them, based upon their lack of observance of 3 of the 10 commandments, if God has to judge them, will they be going to Heaven, or will their guilt send them to hell?

He then walks them through the atonement:

'You see, at just the right time, when we were still powerless, Christ died for the ungodly. Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good person someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. Since we have now been justified by his blood, how much more shall we be saved from God’s wrath through him! For if, while we were God’s enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life! '

Romans 5:6-10

He then asks them if they jumped from a plane before it crashed if they could save themselves and they could not, but if they had a parachute, you could trust it. He then asked them to trust that Jesus died in their place, and will they repent and be born again?

Some convert, but many say they will think about what he has said. (i.e. https://youtu.be/iBEoI2u6kII - I very much encourage anyone to subscribe to Ray Comfort's Living Waters Channel On YouTube https://www.youtube.com/@LivingWaters)

Now as much as I love Ray Comfort's street Evangelism, and I would not discourage you from it; when I took the Evangelism Class at Trevecca, we learned only 5% of people converted to Christianity being born again because they heard a street preacher as Ray Comfort, or because they went to a Church Service, Revival, or Crusade, or Christian Concert.

Statistically speaking 95% of people attending a family Bible study or small group Bible study converted to Jesus being born again.

Some of you I'm talking to can trace your Nazarene heritage back 2 to 4 generations, but I cannot. A girlfriend of mine was so worried about how she measured up having maternal and paternal Grandfathers who were Nazarene preachers, and because of how she was raised, she was a bit OCD, and I just laughed, and said, "You worry too much, my Paternal Great-Grandfather made moonshine to take care of his 13 children, and my Maternal Great-GrandFather drank until his liver burst at age 35, setting my Maternal Grandfather on a destructive path of alcoholism that nearly destroyed my Mother's life. When my Father, who died when I was only 2 weeks old, try to tell her how much he loved God, she told him she hated God because He never did anything for her, having been kicked out of her home at age 16, because she ran away from a prostitution job her Father set up for her lying and telling her it was a babysitting job, and when she came home without money, she was told they didn't take beggars in off the street. I told her, my family generations were pretty much lost and in darkness, but being born again, you learn so much grace and love, but it is wholehearted love, the proper balance of both when you are holding the Holy Spirit's hand.

So I didn't have DEEP holiness roots, I had a Mother who eventually came to faith after my Father's death and a stepfather who came to faith when I was 10 and he was 30. His conversion, full repentance, and being born again, were obvious, he was never the man he was before, and he turned from a Father I wanted to run away from, to a Father I adored and wanted to come home to.

But I had my own prodigal experience:

The life story of believing, losing faith as a Prodigal, and the peace only found returning to faith in Jesus! https://haqodeshim.blogspot.com/2022/11/the-life-story-of-believing-losing.html

And so I came from darkness to light, and when you live in the ghetto, and you are born again, your unsaved peers, hate you MORE than they did before you got saved. They love the knowledge of evil, they enjoy bullying, manipulating, and cursing at you to tear you down, a liar sees this as a game to have won when they have lied to you and deceived you and gotten you to believe their lies. They get satisfaction from it, not guilt.

All the soft-love in the world is not going to save them, and if you don't have some self-respect, they will take advantage of your soft-love to hurt you. Growing up like this, you really understand what Jesus said about not casting your pearls before swine, lest they turn and tear you to pieces, and about being gentle as a dove, and wise as a serpent.

If you really want to engage the LOST in love, you have to start with prayer, because it was surely the prayers of Saintly people in my life that protected me when I was away from God, and I had demons attacking me in my sleep trying to drag me to hell, when I strayed.

About 1/3rd of the young men I went to school with back in those days from 1977-1984, never reached the age of 30, and died lost, not knowing Jesus. Another 1/3rd of them went to jail, and spent half their lives there, and last third were split 50/50 on knowing Jesus or being lost, but staying out of the grave and out of jail.

There were times God allowed me to show kindness to my adversaries as he was breaking them, because I prayed for them, but none became Christian when I had to move away in 1984, most became Christians 20 to 30 years later, and I prayed for their salvation the whole time, but I simply sowed some of the seed, others reaped the harvest by doing more sowing and enjoying the reaping that came with.

It's very hard being a survivor in that environment because you look back and say, "God surely had mercy upon me, because I was not better than they!" Walking on the graves of men who never turned 30, who grew up in broken heathen homes, allowed me to deal with the survivor's guilt in that I decided that their lives would not be a total waste, I had to march forward and not let go of the Holy Spirit's hand, to redeem their memories, to take tragedy and have a purpose to live a Holy Life and not fail, because my life had a blessing their life never had.

Most relatives and people close to my life not saved, do not want to hear another sermon. When you are lost, you don't focus on what a Christian does right, you focus on what a Christian does wrong, so you can justify your sinful existence. In 55 years of living, I've found prayer is the only way to drive out this kind, along with fasting, and I've watched as I'm powerless to affect change in the lost relative's or person's life because they don't want to hear from me, they will not talk, they will not correspond, they want you to leave them alone.

But then months, years, or even decades later, you see them get saved, and you know it was God accomplishing in prayer, what you could not do with words or actions.

I don't want you to not be gentile as doves, but I also don't want you to forget to be wise as serpents and to not lose yourself to feelings and ignore the warnings in scripture.

I've those friends who think soft-love and ignoring scipture is going to bring the LGBTQ+ to heaven, without following Ray Comfort's Street Evangelism Model and following it up with Bible Study, so the sanctified can remain the broken soil, instead of being lost in the lust of the weeds back at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil deciding for themselves what is right and what is wrong!

It's very sad when I see even the very elect, who once lived Holy Lives, sink to become the worthless salt that has too much sand, and can only be thrown out, much like the Lukewarm in Laodecia are spewed out of God's mouth. Like God, you wished they were either hot or cold, so they could be sanctified or saved, not lost without remedy.

Then there was a reply in the Naznet Group on Facebook:

Emiko Cothran

George Walter Bratcher III

There are people who love God, who are devoted Christians. There are people who make real, painful sacrifices of themselves because they believe that God has called them to do so. People who regularly tithe 10% and spend their weekends volunteering in the soup kitchen. People who feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and invite the lost into a relationship with Christ. But they have a binder full of LGBTQ flags or whatever. Because they go to one of the mainline churches. They are serving God with their life, they are devoted to God and they love God, but they think that it's okay to be gay.

Now you may say God will send these people to hell because no matter how devoted to God they are, And no matter how much they serve him with their heart and life, they made an honest theological mistake.

But if God does send them to hell, it is not because these people rejected God but because God rejected them.

This was not only in response to what I said above, but in another replay where I said:

Rich Schmidt: Hell will not be full of people whom God rejected. Hell will be full of people who rejected God:

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed.

But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.
John 3:16‭-‬21 NIV

https://bible.com/bible/111/jhn.3.16-21.NIV
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So I return to reply to Emiko:

Last I looked Nazarenes were Wesleyans whose faith and faithfulness were measured by: Scripture, Tradition, Reason, and Experience.

This is where most Woke Christians and works righteousness Christians fail under our own heritage. My biggest criticism of Craig Keen is that he fails as a Wesleyan not living up to reason and experience, let alone scripture and tradition. And it's sad, it's not like I hated Craig, I loved Craig, but the last time I saw him was in 1994 while visiting Trevecca, and then the next time my contact was in 2008 when we became friends on Facebook. We are no longer friends on Facebook and I am blocked by him, it is his choice, but he taught me too well in Philosophy to abide by truth, and nothing less than truth.

'He said to me: “It is done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. To the thirsty I will give water without cost from the spring of the water of life. Those who are victorious will inherit all this, and I will be their God and they will be my children. But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars—they will be consigned to the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.” '

Revelation 21:6-8 https://my.bible.com/bible/111/REV.21.6-8

' “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. “Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. “I, Jesus, have sent my angel to give you this testimony for the churches. I am the Root and the Offspring of David, and the bright Morning Star.” '

Revelation 22:12-16 https://my.bible.com/bible/111/REV.22.12-16

' “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.

“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’

“For many are invited, but few are chosen.” '

Matthew 22:11-14 https://my.bible.com/bible/111/MAT.22.11-14

You can't be clothed with Christ, and sin sexually, the man without wedding clothes was NOT clothed with Christ:

'Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a person commits are outside the body, but whoever sins sexually, sins against their own body. Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your bodies.'

1 Corinthians 6:18-20 https://my.bible.com/bible/111/1CO.6.18-20

The only two options in scripture for Christians in the early Church were monogamy in marriage, or celibacy. Now the early Church did have polygamists saved after the fact, but they were not allowed positions of leadership:

'A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach; '

1 Timothy 3:2 https://my.bible.com/bible/1/1TI.3.2

'Now for the matters you wrote about: “It is good for a man not to have sexual relations with a woman.” But since sexual immorality is occurring, each man should have sexual relations with his own wife, and each woman with her own husband. The husband should fulfill his marital duty to his wife, and likewise the wife to her husband. The wife does not have authority over her own body but yields it to her husband. In the same way, the husband does not have authority over his own body but yields it to his wife. Do not deprive each other except perhaps by mutual consent and for a time, so that you may devote yourselves to prayer. Then come together again so that Satan will not tempt you because of your lack of self-control. I say this as a concession, not as a command. I wish that all of you were as I am. But each of you has your own gift from God; one has this gift, another has that.

Now to the unmarried and the widows I say: It is good for them to stay unmarried, as I do. But if they cannot control themselves, they should marry, for it is better to marry than to burn with passion.

To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband. But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife. '

1 Corinthians 7:1-11 https://my.bible.com/bible/111/1CO.7.1-7

Nowhere in Scripture in the OT or the NT do we find homosexuality compatible with Holiness, nor do we find it in Christian tradition before the 20th century, and homosexuals do not practice monogamy. Their version of monogamy is to go from partner to partner after a separation to minimize disease. There are adulterous fornicating heterosexuals who do likewise, but they are no better, their sin is just as grave and damning, because this is not Holy living.

So Craig Keen ignores scripture, and ignores Christian tradition, but he does have reason to employ, citing a theologian who said because Eunuchs could be Christians, homosexuals could be Christians too, when Eunuchs are NOT homosexuals anywhere in scripture. Then he also failed when it comes to experience, the homosexual lifestyle is not whole, is not healthy, let alone Holy:

To the consternation of "gay" activist flat-earthers and homosexual AIDS holocaust deniers everywhere, one such study, conducted by pro-"gay" researchers in Canada, was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, or IJE, in 1997.

While the medical consensus is that smoking knocks from two to 10 years off an individual's life expectancy, the IJE study found that homosexual conduct shortens the lifespan of "gays" by an astounding "8 to 20 years" – more than twice that of smoking.

SURGEON GENERAL'S WARNING: GAY SEX KILLS https://www.wnd.com/2008/04/61856/

So since the Church of the Nazarene holds Holiness as a virtue, members cannot say works righteousness trump Jesus' sacrifice and atonement to get them into Heaven, nor can you really embrace Wesleyan Faith and Theology, and then pick and choose where to adhere to it, because then you're not Wesleyan, let alone Christian, and you have become the salt that has too much sand and must be thrown out in Jesus' eyes from the Gospel, and spewed out of his mouth for being lukewarm in Revelation.

Woke Christians have the same fault as the Modern Jews who no longer believe in Hell, and believe that there are 7 different levels of Heaven, and depending upon how good you are, you will go to one of the 7 for a reward of your good works:

The problem with Jehovah's Witnesses, Muslims, Mormons, and Jews is their theology proceeds from works righteousness. If works could have saved us, then Jesus never needed to come and die, because we would have been able to keep the law of Moses and never break it.

Works can never be righteousness, but they are a sign as to how healthy the relationship with God is. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit. I Corinthians 13:4-8 https://my.bible.com/bible/111/1CO.13.4-8

Everywhere "Love" is in these verses, put your name and see how you measure up. If you bear this kind of fruit in your life, no one can say it is bad, or that your relationship with God is not real.

The danger of the above-mentioned "religions" is that works righteousness is ultimately idolatrous - you are your own god and will define what is "right" and "wrong" and you are at the Center, God is not - this was Adam and Eve's original sin - that they would be like God instead of letting God be God, since Yahweh translates "I am going to be who I am going to be"! You have to be very careful in saying we all worship the same God, for Anton Levay, who founded the Church of Satan, said Satanism is not about worshiping Satan, but rather self, and make no mistakes works righteousness is idolatrous and ultimately a worship of "self" and not Yahweh.

Excerpt from: Do We All Have The Same God? https://haqodeshim.blogspot.com/2021/01/do-we-all-have-same-god-another-note.html

Although I minored in Philosophy with the majority of my classes under Craig, he never taught Logic, he left that to Ray Dunning, and now I see why, for Craig emotions trump logic and reason, and for me, a prodigal who came from darkness to light, the reason I never trust emotions, it because Satan used the emotion of doubt in God to lead me astray, and so after going to an alter in 1983 to return to faith the Lordship of Jesus, I relied heavily upon Scripture and Wisdom and the Logic God blessed me with, to stay on the straight and narrow path, lest my emotions lead me back to the broad path of destruction.

During those prodigal years, I was tempted by homosexuality, but it was after sitting in class with 7th grade women while the teacher snuck a smoke break down in the Cafeteria 45 minutes everyday, where the young women classmates asked who was still a virgin, and proclaiming they were so glad they were not still a virgin, and then would to on to share their sex they were having with 8th grades, high schoolers, and young men 18 to 21 years of age in graphic detail. I was so sexually frustrated, I began to think sex with other men would be one way to relieve the frustration, and I would not have to worry about getting them pregnant, as one girl in my class would become in 8th grade and drop out of school to marry the 21-year-old man who got her pregnant.

Fortunately, while the temptation ran through my head as a thought in 1980 at 12 years of age, I never acted upon it physically. I'm glad I never did, because it kept me from herpes which would enter the world stage in 1981 and HIV/AIDS in 1982, not to mention destroying my life for accepting perversion instead of returning to Holy Living in 1983.
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So to bring this back to the Clergy Coaching Network who posted the following MEME:

So this is not a bad MEME in and of itself, but is it from Wholehearted Love, or Soft-Love with a Woke Agenda behind it? So I simply copy and pasted my Reply to Emiko as you have read above, and when I went back to add the context that came before, I was told the comment was deleted and removed from Clergy Coaching Network, which shows they have an idolatrous position when it comes to the LGBTQ+ and NOT wanting to call them to repentance, just love and show them acceptance.

Even Scripture says:

' Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. To the one who is victorious, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I was victorious and sat down with my Father on his throne. Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”'

 Revelation 3:19-22

https://my.bible.com/bible/111/REV.3.19-22

#growinginJesus #meekness #shepherding #calledtoHoliness

#growinginJesus #meekness #shepherding #calledtoHoliness

As you grow older, never let the Devil attack you for being an old fool, don't allow him to bring up the past, as when you pray the Lord's prayer daily, you ask for forgiveness of sins, and so the past is the past.

Moses was 80 years old when he saw the burning bush in the Desert. God's call upon his life was not when he was in position to rule Egypt as a son of the daughter of Pharaoh, or even as a citizen of Egypt with power. Moses had murdered a man and had fled into the desert at age 40, and so in a day when men's average lifespan was 25 years, by the time God sent him back to Egypt at age 80, no one was alive to remember his original crime.

Now Moses lacked confidence in his ability to speak and wondered who was he to address Pharaoh. The Devil will come against you and say, "Who are you to address the powers and authorities of the institutions, corporations, and Governments?" And IF he was just addressing "you" without the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, he would be right. However, Jesus told the disciples of his day that when they were brought before the leadership and powers of their day, to not worry about what to say, because His Holy Spirit would bring to mind what they needed to remember and say.

So be meek like Moses, but also humble enough to realize that you have nothing to say without the Holy Spirit who lives symbiotically with the believer.

The power of the Gospel is not limited to Apostles, Disciples of old, Bishops, Deacons, Clergy, etc, but what does the Apostle Peter remind us in his 1st Epistle? We are a priesthood of believers, and IF the Holy Spirit indwells you and you are born again, and you are growing on the vine, being pruned by the Holy Spirit so you produce good fruit and not sour grapes like a branch that has grown too long and has not been pruned back, then the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ is one with you in Spirit and you have nothing to fear when you know Christ is speaking through you just like he did as Yahweh through Moses to Pharaoh. And like with Pharaoh, it does not mean the powers will necessarily listen to you. Sometimes you may find a King Agrippa who comes close, or a King Abgar who converts to Christianity. But most of the time your message is for the people of God and near the Kingdom of Heaven to hear, so they may awaken and change the world.

For Jesus himself, spoke to the institutions of Jewish Authority about their corruption and where they were missing the Kingdom of Heaven, and yet at the same time opposed Zealots who would have him overthrow Rome and come and make him King by force, for Jesus knew his Kingdom here on Earth would not grow by Earthly power and force, but would grow through the meek, who would need the infilling of His Holy Spirit to do what they could not do on their own, and that is why he said in the beatitudes that the "meek" would inherit the Earth for the sake of the Kingdom as vessels through which Jesus righteousness would come to rule in the hearts of all men and women who would repent of sin and yield to Christ's rule and reign in their heart through the power of the Holy Spirit.

The descendents of Abraham who came to Egypt with Joseph and his brothers did not remember or realize the power of their Covenant with Elohim that Abraham had made, and so when famine came, they turned to Egypt to feed them and made themselves slaves and sold themselves to the Egyptians for food.

Yet when Moses led them out of Egypt and starvation and famine threatened them in the desert, did Moses listen to the community leadership to turn back to Egypt and allow the Big Progressive Nanny State Government of Pharoah to provide for all their needs? No, Moses prayed and they received Manna from Heaven and were fed, and later when the people grumbled gave them quail to eat along with the Manna.

There is a real danger when the institutional Churches are telling us to sell ourselves out to Government to do the work of God instead of calling out to God for provision and simply believing in the power of the New Covenant they have in Jesus Christ!

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Original Post migrated from Facebook from March 27, 2017

Blessed - what does it really mean? Why did Jesus say it?

 Blessed - what does it really mean? Why did Jesus say it?

Markarios is the NT Greek for blessed, the word describes the joy which has its secret within itself, that joy which is serene and untouchable, and self-contained, that joy which is completely independent of all the chances and the changes of life. The English word happiness gives its own case away.  It contains the root hap which means chance.  Human happiness is something which is dependent on the chances and changes of life, something which life may give and which life may also destroy. The Christian blessedness is completely untouchable and unassailable.  “No one,” said Jesus, “will take your joy from you” (John 16:22).  The beatitudes speak of that joy which seeks us through our pain, that joy which sorrows and loss, pain and grief, are powerless to touch, that joy which shines through tears, and which nothing in life or death can take away. (Barclay 89)

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Blessed is the man who has realized his own utter helplessness, and who put his whole trust in God.

If a man has realized his own utter helplessness, and has put his whole trust in God, there will enter into his life two things which are opposite sides of the same thing.  He will become completely detached from things, for he will know that things have not got it in them to bring happiness or security; and he will become completely attached to God, for he will know that God alone can bring him help, and hope, and strength. The man who is poor in spirit is the man who has realized that things mean nothing, and that God means everything. (Barclay 91-92)

4 Blessed are those who mourn,

for they will be comforted.

In context of the NT Greek, this best translates:

O the bliss of the man whose heart is broken for the world’s suffering and for his own sin, for out of his sorrow he will find the joy of God. (Barclay 95)

5 Blessed are the meek,

for they will inherit the earth.

Again, unpacking the etymology of these words from the NT Greek, the better translation is:

O the bliss of the man who is always angry at the right time and never angry at the wrong time, who has every instinct, and impulse, and passion under control because he himself is God-controlled, who has the humility to realize his own ignorance and his own weakness, for such a man is a king among men. (Barclay 98)

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

for they will be filled.

O the bliss of the man who longs for total righteousness as a starving man longs for food, and a man perishing of thirst longs for water, for that man will be truly satisfied (he will have plenty to chew on, and plenty to quench the thirst). (Barclay 102)

7 Blessed are the merciful,

for they will be shown mercy.

O the bliss of the man who gets right inside other people until he can see with their eyes, think with their thoughts, fresh, with their feelings, for he who does that will find others do the same for him, and will know that that is what God in Jesus Christ has done. (Barclay 105)

8 Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they will see God.

O the bliss of the man whose motives are absolutely pure, for that man will someday be able to see God. (Barclay 108)

9 Blessed are the peacemakers,

for they will be called children of God.

When Jesus is teaching people on the mountainside, in the distance they can hear on another mountain, where Zealots have their metal works, the pounding out of weapons echoing while Jesus is teaching, Zealots that 40 years after Christ’s death will challenge Rome, and bring about the destruction of Jerusalem, thus Jesus could prophesy to his own disciples that not one stone would be left upon another when it came to the temple they admired.

Against this setting what Jesus is saying is:

O the bliss of those who produce right relationships between man and man, for they are doing a Godlike work (as His children). (Barclay 110)

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me.12 Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you. – Matthew 5

Emperor  Worship – The Roman government did not begin this worship; at first, in fact, it did all it could to discourage it.  Claudius (41-54 AD), the Emperor, said that he deprecated divine honors being paid to any human being.  But as the years went on the Roman government saw in this Emperor-worship the one thing which could unify the vast Empire of Rome; here was the one centre on which they all could come together.  So, in the end, the worship of the Emperor became, not voluntary, but compulsory.  Once a year a man had to go and burn a pinch of incense to the godhead of Caesar and say, “Caesar is Lord.”  And that is precisely what the Christians refused to do.  For them Jesus Christ was the Lord, and to no man would they give that title which belonged to Christ.

The Apostle Paul  began his appeal under Claudius, but when Claudius was killed in 54 AD, Nero took his place, and had Paul beheaded.

To have to suffer persecution is, as Jesus himself said, the way to walk the same road as the prophets, and the saints, and the martyrs have walked.  To suffer for the right is to gain a share in great succession.  The man who has to suffer something for his faith can throw back his head and say,

“Brothers, we are treading where the saints have trod.”

To suffer persecution is to make things easier for those who are to follow.  Today we enjoy the blessing of liberty because men in the past were willing to buy it for us at the cost of blood, and sweat, and tears.  They made it easier for us, and by a steadfast and immovable witness for Christ we make it easier for others who are still to come.

The man who fights his battle for Christ will always make things easier for those who follow after.  For them there will be one-less struggle to be encountered on the way.

Still further, no man ever suffers persecution alone; if a man is called upon to bear material loss, the failure of friends, slander, loneliness, even the death of love, for his principles, he will not be left alone.  Christ will be nearer to him than at any other time. (Barclay 114-117)

Works Cited:

1984     HOLY BIBLE.  New International Version.  Grand Rapids:

          Zondervan Bible Publishers.

BARCLAY, WILLIAM.

 1977     THE DAILY STUDY BIBLE SERIES: THE GOSPEL OF MATTHEW

              VOLUME 1 REVISED EDITIONS.  Philadelphia: The

              Westminster Press.

Original NOTE/BLOG from 2013, along with comments can be found at: Facebook I have migrated over here to Google Blogger since Facebook has removed NOTES in a list from Profiles & who knows when they shall outright just delete them.

+++++++++++++++

Some migrated comments from FB Notes:

That the "calling down from on high" (epiclesis) is taken by us and put on stands throughout the world (where we live) so that others may see and be drawn to it. That the Church is not a building, but a people (ecclesia - the called out ones) and the gates of Hell are not supposed to prevail against it is scriptural, even if the gates be political strongholds "the called out ones" must address sooner or later.

That the NT Church faced this head-on with Paul's beheading was a reality, and the Lord's Supper implies not only the Savior's death and suffering, but our OWN share in it, for surely Paul shared all this as was his wish - to know Christ crucified, and some realities just don't change whatever age the Church is in. Sacramental, like the called down light of glory, must move beyond the building and service - this is the NT Gospel in a nutshell. For where was Christ when he came into his glory with those at his right and left? On the cross with two thieves. If you think his glory doesn't involve suffering, you missed the point of all four scriptural Gospels. (response to a conversation in a group on FB that has since been deleted)

+++++++++++++++ It was midnight, midnight at noon
Everyone talked in rhyme
Everyone saw the big clock ticking
Nobody knew, nobody knew the time

Elegant debutantes smiled
Everyone fought for dimes
Newspapers screamed for blood
It was the best of times

Every place around the world it seemed the same
Can't hear the rhythm for the drums
Everybody wants to look the other way
When something wicked this way comes

Sometimes they tie a thief to the tree
Sometimes I stare
Sometimes it's me

Everyone told the truth
All that we heard were lies
A pope claimed that he'd been wrong in the past
This was a big surprise

Everyone fell in love
A cardinal's wife was jailed
The government saved a dying planet
When popular icons failed

Every place around the world it seemed the same
Can't hear the rhythm for the drums
Everybody wants to look the other way
When something wicked this way comes

Sometimes they tie a thief to the tree
Sometimes I stare
Sometimes it's me
Sometimes I stare
Sometimes it's me

Sting - Jeremiah Blues Live

Does celebrating Christmas or Easter make you pagan?

 Does celebrating Christmas or Easter make you pagan?

Dean Haskins wrote on his page - http://www.facebook.com/deanhaskins: 

Here's an exercise in irony . . . ask most any Christian what "idolatry" means. Listen patiently. Then, point out that Christ-mass and Ishtar (Easter) are pagan to the core, and that God has shown us in His Word that He detests such things . . . then listen again--Immense Irony Warning!

Truth or Tradition - Should Christians celebrate Christmas and Easter? - http://www.passion-for-truth.com/Audio-Teachings/truth-or-tradition.htm ++++ I love Dean, I even re-post a lot of what he shares - and I honestly think he posted this to stir up thought more than to adopt it - so I had no choice but to respond:

Yes, but according to the latest data the star did stop over Bethlehem on 12/25 2BC - http://youtu.be/0MP7Kl1_Y4Q

I personally get tired of the Fundamentalists who come out EVERY YEAR with this crap. (Philippians 3:8 KJV 'Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, ' Philippians 3:8 https://my.bible.com/bible/1/PHP.3.8)

Jesus said, "23 Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks.

24 God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth.” - John 4:23-24 https://my.bible.com/bible/1/JHN.4.23-24

For 43 years of my life I have lived, and ever since I can remember Christmas was about celebrating Christ's birth, and I've heard all the other speculations about December 25th and was so glad when the Bethlehem Star project came out to show the reason Christianity had used December 25th all along - because this is when the Star was over Bethlehem. Now the Fundamentalists and skeptics can sit down and shut up, please! In truth and in Spirit I've celebrated Christ's birth every December 25th, and it has everything to do with Spirit and Truth in my heart and not some legalism from Fundamentalists who cling to legalism so they can obtain WORKS RIGHTEOUSNESS.

If WORKS RIGHTEOUSNESS could have SAVED US, then we didn't need Jesus' star announcing Messiah to appear on December 25th, 2 BC, Jesus need not come at all, he need not die on April 3, 33 AD at 3:30pm. There was the law of Moses and if WORKS RIGHTEOUSNESS could have saved us, we already had the law of the Covenant. We didn't need an end to the old Covenant and for Christ to fulfill that Covenant he made with Abraham - "There is holy and then there is Holy" - https://haqodeshim.blogspot.com/2020/11/there-is-holy-and-then-there-is-holy.html, we didn't need a new Covenant - we could have worked our own way to righteousness.

The root of Forgiveness is not something we give others, instead, it is something far more proactive. The term in the NT comes from the marketplace: to purchase, redeem an item or person and take it/them off the shelf so they can never be purchased or owned again. The best imagery would have been during colonial times when slavery was legal, and to buy a slave and take them off the market and give them their freedom, so no one could claim or own them again. When we forgive, we "release" - because if you don't forgive you get stuck in the time where you were hurt or injured, or offended. Soon 10 hours go by, and then 10 days, and then 10 weeks, and then 10 months, and soon 10 years, and if you have not released the person who offended you, sinned against you, hurt you then a young person walks up and asks what are you upset about? And all of a sudden you go back to the day you were hurt and relive it all over again, and you become a prisoner to the person who sinned against you being trapped in time.

When Fundamentalists hold on to ancient History and try to tell us that because we celebrate Christ's birth at Christmas, or his Resurrection at Easter, and use traditions redeemed long ago - released from their pagan symbolism and reality - and dig up ancient history to tell you and I that somehow, your now established traditions of honoring Christ are pagan, they become no different than the Pharisees, of whom Jesus said:

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are. ' Matthew 23:15 https://my.bible.com/bible/111/MAT.23.15

and:

'You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel. ' Matthew 23:24 https://my.bible.com/bible/111/MAT.23.24

Paul says:

'One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. ' Romans 14:5 https://my.bible.com/bible/111/ROM.14.5

So Fundamentalists, Pietists, Pentecostals, Quakers, Amish, & Mennonites - if your faith is SO WEAK that putting up a Christmas Tree and decorating it, or painting Easter Eggs will turn you into worshiping pagan gods by doing so, please for the LOVE OF GOD, do not celebrate Christmas or Easter as I do.

On the other hand, instead of being like the Pharisee who prayed:

'The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. ' Luke 18:11 https://my.bible.com/bible/111/LUK.18.11

You should be more like the Publican/Tax Collector of whom Christ Jesus said:

' “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’

“I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For all those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.” ' Luke 18:13-14 https://my.bible.com/bible/111/LUK.18.13-14

Your WORK RIGHTEOUSNESS is but filthy rags in the eyes of your God. You could live your entire life living to the letter of every law written by Moses, and Adam's sin would still be enough to damn you to Hell - you have no righteousness outside of Jesus Christ.

Works can never be righteousness, but they are a sign as to how healthy the relationship with God is. A good tree cannot bear bad fruit. I Corinthians 13:4-8 https://my.bible.com/bible/111/1CO.13.4-8 Everywhere "Love" is in these verses, put your name and see how you measure up. If you bear this kind of fruit in your life, no one can say it is bad, or that your relationship with God is not real:
'Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. ' 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 https://my.bible.com/bible/111/1CO.13.4-8
'George is patient, George is kind. George does not envy, George does not boast, George is not proud. George does not dishonor others, George is not self-seeking, George is not easily angered, George keeps no record of wrongs. George does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. George always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. George never fails. Okay, did you put your name in the verses as I have? How are you measuring up? ++++++++++++ Original NOTE/BLOG from 2011, along with comments can be found at: Facebook I have migrated over here to Google Blogger since Facebook has removed NOTES in a list from Profiles & who knows when they shall outright just delete them.

Satan seeks to instill fear, because he fears Jesus whose perfect LOVE casts out fear!

'When he arrived at the other side in the region of the Gadarenes, two demon-possessed men coming from the tombs met him. They were so violent that no one could pass that way. “What do you want with us, Son of God?” they shouted. “Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time?” '

Matthew 8:28-29
https://my.bible.com/bible/111/MAT.8.28-29

Ever since I was a child, the deceiver has tried VERY HARD to instill #Fear into my life, to cripple me, to tell me that my life is impossible, that one day it will end, and tries to tell me I am nothing and will be nothing!

But the father of lies operates just like that, he does NOT want you to know the Truth, that Satan & his demons are afraid of Jesus, and so the deceiver tries to steal from you your sense of peace! Don't let him!

'For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. '

John 3:16-21
https://my.bible.com/bible/111/JHN.3.16-21

Never give up, never surrender, this WORLD is not your home, as John the Beloved reminded us:

'Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. The world and its desires pass away, but whoever does the will of God lives forever. '

1 John 2:15-17
https://my.bible.com/bible/111/1JN.2.15-17

Never let Satan make you afraid that you are too young and insignificant if you are a child of understanding, for I was saved at age 10, nor let him discourage you as a teenager, for John the Beloved most scholars believe started following Jesus at age 11 or 12, and Jesus ministry was for 8 years, so John was only 19 or 20 when he died, and John was the ONLY disciple to not run away, for he KNEW as the Beloved disciple, that love casts out fear! Don't let Satan tell you, that you are nobody, for if God has called you, you are now born again into the House of Yahweh, you are a brother or sister to Jesus himself.

When you grow older, don't allow your age to make you afraid, because Satan knows the truth, when you leave this world, you are forever young, as no one is OLD in Heaven (https://youtu.be/N-ewaCVARtM), your OLD age is often part of your cross you were called to carry by Jesus, just as it was for Peter when he was OLD as Jesus told him, and Nero had him crucified:

'The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to indicate the kind of death by which Peter would glorify God. Then he said to him, “Follow me!” '

John 21:17-19
https://my.bible.com/bible/111/JHN.21.17-19

For just as Esther came to her royalty for just such as time as this (Esther 4:14), so you have been BORN AGAIN, #adopted into the House of Yahweh, a joint heir with Jesus, and Jesus walks and lives with you in the Holy Spirit! So FEAR NOT, He is with you to the #end of #time itself, and will never leave nor forsake you, because he loves you, and only his perfect #LOVE can cast out fear, so if you begin to fear, go to Jesus in prayer, so you can cast it out!

'Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”'

Matthew 28:19-20
https://my.bible.com/bible/111/MAT.28.19-20

The life story of believing, losing faith as a Prodigal, and the peace only found returning to faith in Jesus!

I remember being near 1.5  years old and Mom had this dark patched quilt draped over a clothesline for a play tent.  My Father had died when I was 2 weeks old.  She came from Alaska to meet the in-laws and stay for the funeral.  She would stay with my paternal Grandparents for a year, before moving away from Butler County, to a plot of land, an acre, in rural Hardin County and set a trailer on it next to neighbors who had been close friends of my Father before he came to Alaska.

So I am out in the tent, and I feel the light and a presence in the light near me.  I could not even talk yet, and yet I perceived this good spirit to be God.

A month later, my Mother would meet my future step-Father and they would marry, and I had a brother and sister by him, but he was Catholic, not the Protestant my Mother or deceased Father had been, but Mom agreed to attend Church so long as he read his Bible to his children.

At age 9, a priest who wanted my step-Father to divorce my Mother for never joining the Church, not allowing the children to take communion, and is upset she is not having more, wants Dad to divorce her.  Mom nearly died with me and my brother, demanded Dad give her my sister, even though he was afraid after nearly seeing her die with my brother, because she inherited a genetic condition that did not allow her to dilate, and so we were all born by C-section.  With me it was unknown, but she knew with my Brother, but good o'ld boy Doctors in the South would not listen to her and made her try to give birth to my brother.  She lost so much blood, at one point she was outside her body hearing the nurse tell my step-Father, "I can't get a pulse" and she had to have a complete blood transfusion and was white as a ghost in pictures from that time upon returning home.

The Doctors in Burlington, VT were not like the good old boys at Hardin Memorial Hospital in Elizabethtown and listen to Mom and directed her to stay in bed for the last 3 months before my sister was born where she was safely delivered by a scheduled C-section and not an emergency C-section as with my brother and myself..

Mom couldn't have any more children without endangering her health further and she was 24 when my sister was born, so Dad told the Catholic Priest to go to hell, and my Mother who had been raised Church of God, remembered my Father said he attended the Church of the Nazarene, and we had moved back to Butler County by 1977, just down the road from my Paternal Grandparents.

Dad was 30 and I was 10 when we were both saved in a Revival at the Church, and unlike the Catholic Church that told me if I wanted to talk to God, I had to talk to the Priest so he could talk to God, the Church of the Nazarene told me I could talk directly to God, and so I began to talk to the spirit that had been near me at 1.5, and whose presence was especially strong at Christmas and Easter, and the conversation has never ended.

I knew from that day, a month before Mom met my step-Father who the spirit of God was, before I was even old enough for my parents to sit me down as a toddler to read stories and show pictures from the Children's  Bible.

So, even as a child, I was never an atheist, because I knew who God was before my Mother even taught me.  So when the Church of the Nazarene told me I could talk to God, I began to talk to the presence of light and spirit that had been there since I was 1.5, and he began to talk back to me.  It was never in a voice, but always as telepathy, thoughts I could hear and understand in my head, as when you are thinking, but you are not talking to yourself, because there is an active thought there that is distinctly the Holy Spirit who raised Jesus from the dead, and the presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit began to reveal themselves even more throughout my lifetime, always there, never leaving me alone!

Now at 11 years old about 2 weeks later after my Baptism, I began to be bullied in school. when my parents went to school, 75% of more of homes had two parents in them, when we moved to a poor rural ghetto in 1977 where 90% of the homes were divorced single-mother homes, i was bullied to the point of suicide by age 12 and my parents were in shock not knowing how to help me since they had not experienced this in their youth going to school, where children behaved because a father was in the home to ensure discipline at home and at school. juvenile delinquency rates jumped off the charts by the 70s and 80s and beyond, and once a progressive socialist government did away with paddling in schools, in addition to running fathers out of the home, they replaced the corporal discipline with psychotropic drugs to control the behavior of teen boys for which the side effects or withdrawal symptoms were violent behavior and mass school shooting became a reality with all the mass shooters on psychotropic drugs. the liberal progressive socialists claimed paddling caused the violence, so they replaced it with psychotropic drugs under clinton, and then they brought real violence to the schools. no one in my day ever got a paddling and then went home, grabbed a gun, and came back and shot up the school.

We also had a coal company begin to mine 2 farms around our home strip mining, but using 10X the legal amount of dynamite.  One day I heard the siren going off to announce a blast and saw a brown mushroom cloud in the air and dirt & rock the size of laundry baskets fall and bury themselves in our yard missing me and my family.

Then the deceiver came and said, "What if God is just an imaginary friend? Don't listen to him." and so I began to doubt, but that very night demons attacked me in my sleep seeking to choke me.

When the demons attacked, I knew God was real   But the troubles in my life seemed unending between the bullying in school, and sexuality active women in 7th grade conducting polls on who was still a virgin, and then telling erotic tales of their sex with 8th graders, high schoolers, and men as old as 21 while the teacher left the class unattended for 45 minutes each day so she could go gossip and smoke with the cafeteria ladies.  One woman, a year later at age 13 dropped out of 8th grade in our rural Elementary School grades 1 - 8, and married the 21 year old man who made her pregnant.

Meanwhile, I was scared to death to one day come home from school to find my parents killed or my siblings too if they were home by the illegal blasting.

The the town millionaire who owned the mining companies has his brothers on the board of the bank foreclose on our home despite my parents never missing a mortgage payment.

So I hated God and blamed God for all my troubles and was so mean I could curse the wallpaper off the wall and when I began to fight back, more bullies joined in, instead of fighting them one at a time, I had to fight 4 to 6, and I can't watch MMA to this day, causes too much stress, PTSD, except in MMA you can tap out, but bullies don't let you, so I had to hurt them bad and I never lost a fight.

In the middle of all this God sends a Christian girlfriend into my life and then at 15, I am in a car wreck and I realize my heart is so FAR from God that if I died I would go to hell, and I am having visions of demons trying to carry me to a black door and I saw it again 12 years later, but on TV on Kevin Sorboes Hercules, and in the story it was the door to Hades.  I've seen things on TV and horror genre that I had only seen in visions.  When attacked I could cry out for Jesus and the Holy Spirit would rescue me in my prodigal state, but then I would be mad a God again.

Two weeks after the car wreck, I hit an altar at a youth revival at a Church, and once I gave myself back fully to Jesus, my life has had peace despite the troubles in this world.  So I'm not following a religion made by men, but a relationship with Jesus Christ and 40 years later come February 2023, when I turn 55 and made that decision at the youth revival, I have no regrets.

+++++++++

Addendum to BLOG in further response to a debate on Facebook in the group "Christians versus Atheists Debate Group:

Wolfgang Niesielski: In the story I cited I tell of seeing the black door the demons were trying to drag me to, which was the door to hell.

Before my Father died, my Mother told him after his testimony of his love for God, that she hated God, because god had done nothing for her, being an Aluttiq orphan at age 6 being placed in a Children's Home by her alcoholic Father after the children reported him to police for beating their Native Alaskan Mother.  As soon as he was out of jail, he had the children placed in an orphanage.  Then when she was 14, her alcoholic Father returned with a new alcoholic step-Mother claiming to be the Savior of the children, come to take them home.  All he really wanted to do was use his teenage sons on his fishing boat, where he worked them, but did not pay them, and what money he earned, he and their new step-Mother went out drinking and partying while the house literally had no food for the 9 children, 6 of them belonging to the alcoholic Father.

At age 16, he took Mom to a babysitting job, but here were no children.  When Mom ran away from the man who tried to rape her, she returned home, and was told by her Father they couldn't afford to feed people off the street.

So Mom stayed in Churches and worked odd jobs.  She met a young man of 23 when she was 17 from the Army, and by age 18 & 24 they were married.

My Father kept telling my mother of the premonitions of his death and where he wanted to be buried back in KY, but he thought he would die in Vietnam.

So Mom has her own premonition before he dies, and sees herself in outer darkness, but sees a door of light, the door into heaven, she cannot enter, but my Father is in there surrounded by people who love him.

Two weeks after I am born, my Father is killed by a drunk driver the same day his orders come in the mail for him to leave for Vietnam.

Mom is invited by the Chaplin who married them a year earlier to a memorial service for his company before the body leaves Alaska a the Army Chapel.

He reads and preaches from this scripture:

'I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed— in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” “Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.'

1 Corinthians 15:50-58

https://my.bible.com/bible/111/1CO.15.50-58

Mom, having seen herself in the darkness, and not able to enter the door of life, is saved at the memorial service for my Father and then accompanies the body to KY, where she will meet her in-laws for the first time, and a year later, she marries a young man returned from Vietnam who was shot 3 times.

There is definitely more to their story, the comments do not have time for, and perhaps a 2nd blog to cover.

But we all have two choices, the door to Hell or the door to Heaven.  If you have not prayed to Jesus and repented of sin (life without talking or acknowledging your Creator and Savior), then you will enter the black door, not the door of light!