Open- or Closed-Minded

I recently got into a facebook discussion about a politically correct subject. I was not on the politically correct side since it disagrees with the Bible.

The discussion ended after about an hour and a half, but resurfaced the next day. It occurred to me that when people tried to trip up Jesus, He would use Scripture against the arguments. So I tried it.

After only two Bible quotes, I was called closed-minded. Only two verses sent my opponent into name-calling.

I would like to point out that Adam and Eve listened to the snake with an open mind. Look where THAT got us all.

Happy Resurrection Day,

Kathi Linz

The World Has Lost Its Mind

I ran across a saying that ended like this:
Truth - the supply always exceeds the demand.

Why? Why don't people want to hear the truth anymore? An even more pressing question is - why don't the people who know the truth want to let us know what it is? What are they hiding?

What I see, and I appear to be in rare company - is that the world is lining up in exactly the way Jesus said it would be at the end of the age. What I see is that demons are wreaking havoc on whole nations and no one seems to care. Instead they are cheering on the evil people and events.

"Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter.: Isaiah 5:20.

The occult is in full swing and the leadership is pulling for transhumanism - the "improvement of humans by crossing them with machines and/or animals". 

The world has lost its collective mind. I know it will happen. God said it would. I don't have to like it and I don't think I'm supposed to like it. It's my calling to fight the world/evil tooth and nail. It's my duty to snatch every soul I can from the teeth of the Destroyer. That includes prayer and being salt and light in a dark and rotting world.

May God preserve us in this time,

Kathi

A Jealous God

Ezekiel, in chapter 8, talks about Israel's idolatry in very specific ways.

"The Spirit lifted me up between earth and heaven and in visions of God he took me to Jerusalem, to the entrance of the north gate of the inner court, where the idol that provokes to jealousy stood." v. 3

Verses 10 and 11 show the elders worshiping "crawling things and detestable animals" with incense. Verse 14 depicts women in the annual mourning for the death of Tammuz, a version of Osiris, Adonis, and Ba'al, all which came from the story of Nimrod, the founder of false religion. 

16 "He then brought me into the inner court of the house of the Lord, and there at the entrance to the temple, between the portico and the altar, were about twenty-five men. With their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east, they were bowing down to the sun in the east."

We don't ordinarily find jealousy to be a good emotion. Why should we think it is something the becomes a holy God?

What if...?

What if you lived in a beautiful house? You had come up with the plans for it yourself. You had chosen all the furnishings and decorations. The colors suited you perfectly and there was no other place in the world that you would rather live.

What if your family members came to celebrate a holiday with you and you were anticipating a superior event? Oddly enough, they bring with them an uninvited guest. Bigfoot, sasquatch, yeti. Call it what you will, it is large, hairy, and hasn't had a bath since...ever! It eats all of the food you laid out for your guests and then handles all of your precious things. Some break.

Worse yet, your relatives think it is the most interesting thing ever created and they want you to let it move into your guest bedroom!

What is your reaction? Do you passively let the creature take over your house and mess up everything you've spent so much time making perfect? Don't you wish your family had come to share time with you instead of - whatever that is?

I would be hurt, and might not invite my family back for a while, give them some time to get their priorities in order. And I would call the police or animal control to get rid of the hairy menace. 

No, it wouldn't be allowed to live in my house. I didn't invite it and I don't have to keep it.

I am not God and I can't think or feel a fraction of what He can. This is what I envisioned when I read the chapter. 

I feel bad that we are so willing to abandon the loving, the perfect, the most awesome and turn to what is dust and ashes at best, and at worst, is completely evil and deadly.

May God save us from making stupid choices as to what we put first in our lives,

Kathi

How Jesus Became a Rabbi

Jesus earned the title of Rabbi. People - even high ranking people - also called Him Master. Those titles were not used lightly. They had to be EARNED.

In Jesus' day, fathers took seriously the command to train up a child in the way he should go (Proverbs 22:6) and to talk of them constantly to your children.

Deut. 6:6 "These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. 7You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. 8"You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.…

Fathers would teach their toddlers the whole book of Deuteronomy so they could recite it by the age of five. When the sons were five years old, the child would go to the local ruler of the synagogue and recite what he had learned. If he didn't know it well and stumbled through it, the son would begin to learn his father's trade. If the boy could recite Deuteronomy clearly and accurately, he would go to the next level of schooling.

By the time the boy reached his bar mitzvah, he was expected to know the rest of the Torah, all five books of Moses. During this test, the young man did not recite the whole Torah verbatim. The teachers would question him and he would be expected to know what part of the Torah applied and be able to recite that section truly. When Jesus stayed behind in the Temple when He was twelve, He was passing His test with such a level of understanding that He amazed the Temple teachers.

If, as Jesus did, a young man passed this stringent exam, he would go on to rabbi school. This lasted until the age of thirty. During these years, the scholars would study the histories of Israel, the wisdom and poetry, the prophets, the Talmud, and the writings of well-respected teachers.

At the age of thirty, these men were sent out to officiate in the synagogues as rabbis. But there was yet one more title possible.

If a scholar was observed by his teachers and fellow students to have "schmidah" (sp?), he could become a Master Teacher. This meant he was known to have the Spirit of God on him. He would need two witnesses who attested to this and would have a ritual baptism performed by a priest.

In Jesus' case, He went down to the Jordan River at the age of thirty. The baptism was performed by John the Baptist, the son of a priest. The two witnesses were the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove and the Father's voice from heaven.

After this, Jesus was allowed to gather His own students and train them under His own authority. Even being the Word of God in the flesh, even having been the Creator of the world, even with His divinity thinly clad in flesh, Jesus still fulfilled every requirement to earn the right to teach people about God and heavenly things.

God bless us all,

Kathi Linz

My thanks to Perry Stone for sharing this information.

Argument Answer

Try this line on your favorite atheist:

"God doesn't need your permission to exist."

It's true and there's no way to refute it.

May God bless us all.

Kathi Linz

Communion and Betrothal

I stumbled upon a minister in Hawaii who is a Christian of Egyptian descent. He ties the events in the Middle East with Bible prophecy.  I find his insights to be fascinating, but this particular broadcast had something extra special.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXeA61BCikc

Pastor Farag (at 55 minutes into the video) talks about the Lord's Supper from the viewpoint of the Middle Eastern perspective. Since that IS where Jesus was from, it's a viewpoint worth exploring.

In the Middle East with the arid places it contains, if you give someone bread and water, you have saved their life. They, in return, owe you their life and express that through loyalty until death.

If we look at communion in that light, God gives us bread and wine and saves our lives. Therefore, we express our thanks by devotion to Him for the rest of our lives.

Another comparison has to do with a betrothal ceremony. The Father chooses the bride. The Bridegroom accepts the choice. A ceremony is performed during which the groom breaks bread and offers it to his intended. If the bride is willing, she accepts the bread and eats it. Then they drink from the same cup of wine - a sort of pre-wedding "I do".

The next time you take communion, consider all of the layers of meaning that are represented there. Forgiveness, remembrance, loyalty, and acceptance of the proposal.

Our next meal with Him will be in person at the wedding supper of the Lamb.

I'm excited!

May God bless us all.

Kathi Linz

Happy Feast of Trumpets

May a good year be inscribed for you in the Book of Life.

God bless us all,

Kathi Linz