Sacred secrets

I believe with all my heart, as may you, that we can know God personally and hear his guiding Spirit and receive revelation and wisdom that can only come from the Creator. In my Bible study recently, however, I have been reminded that God still remains an unsearchable mystery! I find this rather exciting. Here are a few examples of holy mysteries:
Daniel 12:4 But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end.
Hebrews 11:32 And what more shall I say? I do not have time to tell about Gideon, Sampson, Jephthah, Samuel and the prophets, who through faith conquered kingdoms, administered justice, and gained what was promised; who shut the mouths of lions, quenched the fury of the flames, and escaped the edge of the sword; whose weakness was turned to strength;  and who became powerful in battle and routed foreign armies.
2 Corinthians 12:1 I must go on boasting. Although there is nothing to be gained, I will go on to visions and revelations from the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven. Whether it was in the body or out of the body I do not know—God And I know that this man—whether in the body or apart from the body I do not know, but God knows—was caught up to paradise. He heard inexpressible things, things that man is not permitted to tell.
Revelation 10:4 And when the seven thunders spoke, I was about to write; but I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Seal up what the seven thunders have said and do not write it down.”
This reminds me of  Isaiah 55:6-11. Study that mystery! Better yet, go to a Bible website like biblegateway or youversion and go on your own mystery tour of the Word of God.
Remember the greatest mystery of all-Jesus will come again!

Why am I writing this blog?

I dearly love the United States of America.  She is in grave trouble ; you know this. I believe the Lord has the best view of her problems and her future, so it's best to seek his answer.  In my Bible study, I came across the Lord's answer to Daniel's prayer when he knew that Israel's time was almost up. DA9:22-23"Daniel, I have now come to give you insight and understanding. As soon as you began to pray an answer was given, which I have come to tell you, for you are highly esteemed. Therefore, consider the message and understand the vision : ..."  I will not be innocent of men's blood if I do not share what God puts on my heart. Please keep reading.

Is anyone willing to pray like this?

Daniel chapter 9 In the first year of Darius son of Xerxes (a Mede by descent), who was made ruler over the Babylonian kingdom— ² in the first year of his reign, I, Daniel, understood from the Scriptures, according to the word of the Lord given to Jeremiah the prophet, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last seventy years. ³ So I turned to the Lord God and pleaded with him in prayer and petition, in fasting, and in sackcloth and ashes.

⁴ I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed:

“O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps his covenant of love with all who love him and obey his commands, ⁵ we have sinned and done wrong. We have been wicked and have rebelled; we have turned away from your commands and laws. ⁶ We have not listened to your servants the prophets, who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes and our fathers, and to all the people of the land.
⁷ “Lord, you are righteous, but this day we are covered with shame —the men of Judah and people of Jerusalem and all Israel, both near and far, in all the countries where you have scattered us because of our unfaithfulness to you. ⁸ O Lord, we and our kings, our princes and our fathers are covered with shame because we have sinned against you. ⁹ The Lord our God is merciful and forgiving, even though we have rebelled against him; ¹⁰ we have not obeyed the Lord our God or kept the laws he gave us through his servants the prophets. ¹¹ All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.
“Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you. ¹² You have fulfilled the words spoken against us and against our rulers by bringing upon us great disaster. Under the whole heaven nothing has ever been done like what has been done to Jerusalem. ¹³ Just as it is written in the Law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us, yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our sins and giving attention to your truth. ¹⁴ The Lord did not hesitate to bring the disaster upon us, for the Lord our God is righteous in everything he does; yet we have not obeyed him.
¹⁵ “Now, O Lord our God, who brought your people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and who made for yourself a name that endures to this day, we have sinned, we have done wrong. ¹⁶ O Lord, in keeping with all your righteous acts, turn away your anger and your wrath from Jerusalem, your city, your holy hill. Our sins and the iniquities of our fathers have made Jerusalem and your people an object of scorn to all those around us.
¹⁷ “Now, our God, hear the prayers and petitions of your servant. For your sake, O Lord, look with favor on your desolate sanctuary. ¹⁸ Give ear, O God, and hear; open your eyes and see the desolation of the city that bears your Name. We do not make requests of you because we are righteous, but because of your great mercy. ¹⁹ O Lord, listen! O Lord, forgive! O Lord, hear and act! For your sake, O my God, do not delay, because your city and your people bear your Name.” Verses from NIV84


This was the prophet Daniel's prayer of repentance for his nation, knowing that the time of judgment had neared its end. I pray that we hear his words and realize that God STILL has a wrath to turn away [v.16] and our nation is toying with that wrath.

Thank you

I must pause for a moment to give thanks. I have made many attempts in the past to begin sharing my thoughts with the world, and this latest effort is the most promising yet. I am humbled by the opportunity to

The voice of God returns

In my previous post, "Last Words," I talked of the last words of the Old Testament. They were quite telling, and followed by four centuries of silence from God. Who breaks the silence? Some wild-eyed man yelling, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near!" Many believed his message and were baptized, but it doesn't appear that he was kind. At one point he cried, "You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee the coming wrath?"

Many would say that he was a harsh old-style prophet and doesn't represent the new message of grace. However, he says of Jesus,

"His winnowing fork is in his hand,
and he will clear his threshing floor,
gathering his wheat into the barn
and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire. "

Jesus never disagreed with him.

Consider this -harvest of souls includes bringing in the wheat AND burning up the chaff. With unquenchable fire. Forever. We must produce fruit in keeping with repentance. I'm telling you that there will be a day when we have to answer to God. So will our nation. I, for one, am grateful that his amazing grace saves sinners like me.

Last words

Malachi 4:5-6 "See, I will send you the prophet Elijah before that Great and dreadful day of the Lord comes. He with turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers; unless I should come and strike the land with a curse."

These are the famous last words of the Old Testament. I won't make too much of it as a prophetic statement to our nation, but we have few greater problems than fathers abandoning their responsibilities to their wives and children and as a consequence children having no natural affection for family. The burden this places on mothers is unexcusable, but mothers aren't always innocent of pushing them away.
Let's face it, God is not obliged to bless the United States while we don't even bless our own flesh and blood.

My next blog, "The Voice of God Returns," will continue the story.

Vote!

I won’t bother you with the old cliches-you’ve heard them all. I want to submit a simple idea to you that may help you with your thoughts about voting in the upcoming election, should you choose to participate.

That idea is, simply, this: YOU are the hiring manager for the most powerful government in world history.
 Long ago, people just like you decided to hire people just like your neighbors to be their employees, to operate the government on a daily basis so they could continue their lives in peace-to farm, invent, teach, preach, build, work, open businesses, raise families. They had God-given rights life, liberty, property, and the pursuit of happiness, and they wanted a small, concisely defined government that would protect the rights of all without taking the rights of any. Government was to serve the people, and those working in it were to be their employees.

Many people work long and hard and spend great deals of money to seek your approval of their application for government service positions. You have the liberty to choose whomever you want for office, but you have some important factors to consider. While these people will be your employees, they will be set loose to run the government for an extended period of time with little control from you. You, in my opinion, want to know that they will show up and do their job. You want them to be honest and follow the rules. You want them to work for you.

It is understood that it is not easy to replace them, but then you wanted to be able to make your choice and then generally leave them alone for a couple of years-you have more important things to do. That makes the "application process" even more important than that for a regular job. If you hire a traditional employee, you can train them for the skills they need, replace them if they don’t work out, promote them if they serve you well, and generally have some time to see if they will work out. If they steal from you or cuss out a customer you can fire them immediately. Remember that you are hiring people and you know that there are honest, hardworking people out there who can be trusted when nobody is looking. As sure as you put up with one bad apple, others will think they can get the job too. You have to watch for the bad apples. Most importantly, you want employees who know their place. They must follow the rules; you don’t give them keys to the safe or the store or allow them to make your own management decisions unless you delegate those powers to them. You have to make sure that the rules are in control and not the employees. That is why those people long ago set up a republic and not a democracy-they wanted a government that the people didn’t have to operate day by grueling day, but one with a written rulebook that kept everything in check.

Please take a moment to read through the first two paragraphs of the Declaration of Independence [below] and see the beauty of what was created there. Then check those applications carefully and vote for only the best on Election Day!

James England



When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

How do we fight unjust government?

^{Acts 4:29} Now, Lord, consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness. ³⁰ Stretch out your hand to heal and perform miraculous signs and wonders through the name of your holy servant Jesus.”
³¹ After they prayed, the place where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly.

We didn't get the rest of the story...

From Luke chapter 4: ¹⁴ Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. ¹⁵ He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him.

¹⁶ He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. ¹⁷ The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
    to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
    and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
¹⁹     to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”^[e]

...the rest of the story...

Perhaps you recognize the phrase, trademark of American radio legend Paul Harvey. I may borrow it for a theme of some of my posts in the future. Have you ever noticed that there is "more to the story" when it comes to popular Bible verses? Some of our favorites are not even complete thoughts and it is worthwhile looking around for, well, the rest
of the story! We could learn a great deal from doing this. Here's my first example, from Revelation 3:

¹⁹ Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest, and repent.

 ²⁰ 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 him, and he with me.

²¹ To him who overcomes, I will give the right to sit with me on my throne, just as I overcame and sat down with my Father on his throne. ²² He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

We hear v.20 all the time, but v.19 reminds us that Jesus isn't all sunshine and lollipops, gently knocking on the doors to our hearts. He often has to straighten us out [read about lukewarm followers before that verse]. He continues afterward with a promise to those who overcome-and by implication, something NOT promised to those who do not overcome.  May you hear what the Spirit says-to you!