Wildflowers and Grasses
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Four Ways to Exercise True Christianity – Matthew 5:39-42
Jesus in His Sermon on the Mount gives us four ways to exercise His true teachings by dying to self. In D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones’ fine exposition of Matthew 5:39-42, he emphasizes that before we make any effort to follow Jesus’ teachings it is important to have an attitude and a mind that is prepared by the Spirit.
1. Instead of resisting an evil person that slaps us on the cheek, we should turn the other cheek also (v. 39). As a Christian we are not to be concerned with our own personal injuries or comfort. We are to be indifferent to self, believing that God will care for us. However, if we believe that the man who struck us is out of control and has a problem with anger, or a drug problem, or any other thing, it may be good to show him his problem and try to restrain…
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When Am I Most Believable?
If you’re like me, you hate it when people don’t believe what you say. There is no worse feeling than when you share an important bit of information with a friend, and he or she immediately turns to someone else to get a different opinion—to check the validity of your statement.
I hate that. Why don’t people just believe me? But then I ask, what makes me unbelievable? Maybe it’s the way I look. Do I look like a dork? A crazy person? An imbecile? Uneducated? Not confident in myself? What is it?
Or maybe it’s more than just the way I look. Maybe it’s the way I come across. The way I act. Maybe I don’t come across to people with confidence. Or maybe they just don’t know me well enough.
Maybe the question I should be asking is, when am I most believable? That’s easy. I am most believable at my job. I’m a house painter; have been for 30 years. Most of the people that call me for work are repeat customers. They know me and know that I do a good job for them. I love it most when they give me a key to get in if they are not going to be home. I love that because that tells me that they trust me.
You know that I’m a blogger; but I’m also a self-published author. It’s important for me to know, or at least to believe, that people believe me, to believe what I say in writing. But it has been especially hurtful when someone I regard as a friend has had no interest in reading one of my books. I don’t mind if they judge me after they have read some of it; but to judge me before they read one word of it is especially hurtful. It is almost like telling me that I have no business writing a book on anything, because I’m just not of that caliber; that I should prove myself first; that I should make a name for myself before I put a book out.
I think it’s most important for people to believe in an authority figure like the President or the governor or a policeman. These days people are really distrusting the police—that’s so sad. But it’s even more devastating to know that they mistrust our President. Many love the President; but sadly, far too many despise him—thanks to the media who constantly spew lies about him.
I think everyone has watched the TV show Bonanza. Out of all the characters in that show, who is the most believable? Well, it has to be Benjamin the father. He is the oldest and has proven to be the wisest. Adam, the oldest son, I think is also quite believable. He just has that look of maturity about him. But little joe and Haus, not so much.
Back to Presidents. Which President do you think has been the most believable—trustable. George Washington is a good choice. But FDR I think is a better choice. He took us through over 3 terms—12 ½ years. Everybody loved him and trusted him (Democrats and Republicans), even though we knew he was less than perfect.
You know, now that I have had a chance to think about it for a while, is it most important that people believe you, believe me? After all, most haven’t and don’t believe in Jesus as they should. I think our greatest effort should be to convince people to believe in Him. But can I convince them if they don’t first believe in me when I try to tell them about Him?
I don’t know. All I can do is try to make myself believable and present the gospel as well as I can—and let the Holy Spirit do the rest. That’s a good thought. I think the Holy Spirit will help to convince a person to believe where I can’t. He will do the work in a person regardless of my inadequacy, my clumsiness, my lack of wisdom and maturity. Thank God that we have such a helper available to us. With His help I indeed am most believable.
Ten Foot Tall Flower
I saw this huge flower from a distance. There were none others like it around. I walked over to it and it was at least four feet taller than me. I’ve never seen anything like it. I know sunflowers are tall, but their middle is big, to hold all the seeds, This one is not..
It is about as tall as Goliath. He was 9 foot 9 inches tall.
It’s stem is a good inch in diameter. And its branches are over a quarter inch in diameter.
What a flower. What a monster of a flower. I counted about 30 flowers growing off of this one stem. Anybody know what it is?
The Marriage of The Lamb, Part 1 and 2
The Father has paid the price for His Son’s bride with His Son’s own blood.
In the Marriage of the Lamb you may be thinking particularly of the consummation of the marriage between Christ (the Lamb) and the church, which takes place in heaven after the bema seat of Christ. However, a larger view of the marriage begins at Christ’s first coming and ends at the creation of the New Heaven and New Earth. This is the view we will present here, which, as we will see, is patterned after a typical Jewish wedding. We will present it in seven parts; first describing to you the Jewish practice, followed by how the churches marriage with Christ corresponds to that practice. The wedding begins with the betrothal.
1 The Betrothal Period
The betrothal period for a Jewish marriage is the period between the time of the arrangement of the marriage…
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Yellow and Purple Flowers
Why So Much Rioting?
We saw the riots start just a few days after George Floyd was killed by Derek Chauvin, a bad cop in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It began by protest marches, protesting abusive policeman against black people. Almost immediately Black Lives Matter got involved and then also members of Antifa arrived from many locations and paid by rich people like George Soros and others. But BLM and Antifa are not the only groups involved. There are many others.
Where did these radical groups get their start? What is their belief system, and what motivates them? I suppose many are motivated by money, a lot of it. They work as professionals. And I suppose they are trained and educated too, but I don’t know where. I do know that they (the main trailblazers) have been around for a long time, as long as Communism has been around. They have had a plan for Russia, Cuba, China, North Korea, Vietnam, and the latest is Venezuela. And they also have a plan for the United States. And now it is happening. All the riots you see is part of it. It’s the tear down part. They plan to tear down everything: property, businesses, our system of law, our government, our families, everything. And they plan to replace it with socialism, or Communism.
And what do they say is their belief system? Well, they say it is righteousness and justice for all. But you need to know that it is not true justice. They call it social justice. It sounds good, but it’s not. It is far different than true justice. True justice is a justice for each individual, measured by God’s righteous standard, according to His righteous law. But social justice is measured according to the ideas of socialism. It is a system that distributes all wealth and property evenly to all people no matter how hard they work for it. And that redistribution is done by force; all people will be forced to conform to societies demands. There is no individualism. All are the same. And there is no family as we know it, and no personal God. All is done for the state and for the good of all. I suppose in some way it may sound good, at least unifying; but as we know from how it is in Communist countries, it just doesn’t work and is very depressive—without freedom or individualism.
But what about those who demonstrate, who do it because they truly do care about black lives and about building a less abusive police department and a safer neighborhood? Well, I think there are many in that group, but unfortunately, most of them are being deceived and used and overrun by the radicals in BLM and Antifa and other groups who are rioting only for the cause of Marxism. And they are using African Americans to do their dirty work. And sadly, all rioters in the end will find themselves enslaved to the devil and guilty.
I want to urge anyone reading this to just stop rioting and submit yourself to God and to His holy word. Let the past go. Learn to forgive and move on. Believe that the system (our constitution) we have is good and was established by God and good men and women who believed God. And if one of your people is killed, pray for that family and for the one who killed him, and then commit it to God and to our system of law. Never take revenge into your own hands. God said, “vengeance is mine.” In the end all who are guilty will be punished.
My thoughts on Covid -19
I just finished my last posting on My Life Story entitled Retirement: Last Things. If you have been following along, I’ve been basically telling my story, as much as I remember of it. If you look at my categories, I have 62 total posts with ten different subcategories. Now I plan on making it into a book; that was my plan all along. So, next I will go through it and edit it, then write a short intro, and then I will go through the process, with Lulu, of making it into a book.
So, anyway, since I needed to write on something else, I thought I would let you know what I am thinking about Covid-19, and also the riots. I’ll take one at a time. Today it’s Covid-19.
Where Did It Start?
We know it started in China, probably in one of their labs. But the big question most of us are asking is, was it accidental or intentional? I have no idea, but I know that the devil will take anything, whether accidental or intentional, and turn it into something very evil.
We know that as soon as the Chinese authorities were aware that the virus had gotten loose, they put a ban on all travel in China; but they did not put a ban on their jets going out to other countries. What does that that tell you? That tells me that they were not only thinking of themselves for good, but that they were planning evil on others. Yes, they were intentionally wanting to see all the world, except themselves, be infected by the virus. Why? I can think of two reasons: 1) To give them superior power in the world. They mistakenly may have thought that they would be okay and all others would be infected. 2) To reduce the world’s population. They no doubt are connected to new age thinking: that the world needs to substantially be less populated.
How to Deal with It
Now, regardless of how we think Covid-19 started, we should deal with it as responsibly as we can. Here are six points of discussion:
1. What about this malaria drug I’ve heard so much about, hydroxychloroquine? I have heard some very positive things about it, mostly from conservatives. I’ve heard that some countries in Africa are taking it and that’s why their death rates are so low. And I’ve heard that some very qualified doctors are saying that if you take it early enough it really helps. So why is it rejected in the U. S., especially by the media? I have two ideas: 1) The drug is too cheap. Drug companies will not make enough money on it. 2) The new age elites know that if it is widely used, not enough people will die, and that will blow their entire depopulation plan right out the window. They can’t have that! So, they have to shut it down.
2. Social distancing and masks. I don’t think anything we do will totally eliminate an airborne virus. But I am in favor of doing all we can to reduce it. So, that’s why I really try to remember to wear the mask and keep my 6-foot distance from people. I think the discipline of doing it is good for us. What can it hurt to wear a mask? As long as we wash it out regularly.
3. School. I think it’s ridiculous that children are not returning to school. They are not getting the virus and they need to get back to school! Those who are keeping kids back may be a part of the evil new age conspiracy, or they are taken in by the fear of others—which is of the devil.
4. Vaccines. Most people are all for a vaccine. But I have heard some very scary stuff. I have heard that it is now possible to manipulate one’s DNA through vaccinations—and that is something that the coming Antichrist may try to do. But as a Christian, we need not worry about that. I think all fear of those things are of the devil. I continue to have hope and to look for His coming.
5. I am appalled by what Governor Cuomo did, moved Covid patients into nursing homes. What was he thinking? I keep wondering if he did it intentionally—to kill more people. But whatever the reason, maybe just stupidity, he ought to resign or be fired over it. He is not qualified to be governor.
6. Economic loss. Overall, there has been such a lack of wisdom and bad decision making as a response to Covid. But we are only human. Our experts did their best to judge what to do. I constantly pray for them and for our President. However, I tend to think that some of the responses are intentionally negative in an effort to try to suck more and more money out of our treasury. I’m thinking of Pelosi and Schumer with their 3 trillion-dollar bill. It is totally irresponsible. They are just using Covid to grab more money in order to invest in their new age ideas—the green new deal and marijuana, etc. Good grief, at least half of what is in the bill is not Covid related or in any way will help our economy or our people.
President Trump and his staff need to be tough and fight against all the evil efforts to destroy this country of ours. Let us pray for them that they would be wise. And let us pray for all people and especially for fellow Christians that we will keep praying and trusting in God through it all. Let joy rule in your heart!
Retirement: Last Things
I think it’s always wise to plan the end of one’s life—to make the best of it. I’m almost 70, so I figure that I may have close to 20 years left, or at least 10. Of course, the Lord may return before then, so I’m all in favor of that. My doctor just told me that I was doing well, except that my cholesterol is high and she wants me to take something for it. I tried to talk her out of it, to just eat better, but she wouldn’t budge. She really recommended it. Since I talked to her this morning, I talked to a friend who is my age; and he has been taking cholesterol medication, and seems convinced that it’s doing him good. Well, I’m glad I talked to him, because now I feel better about going ahead and taking the medicine—I’m not sure what the name of it is; I’ll see.
I also think that I should keep eating healthy foods and exercise regularly—going for walks mostly. I am convinced that we should be good stewards of our bodies right to the end. And I think the last days of life are when it’s most necessary to eat good and exercise. Yes, I will run the whole race right to the end without stopping.
But to keep up the physical body is just one part of it. I strive to excel in all areas, especially in those areas of ministry, where I am making an influence on others. I think my greatest influence is through my writing. So, I will keep it up. And when the time comes to completely stop my painting, I plan on increasing my writing time. That is my plan anyway.
Of course, there is always the ministry of day to day contact with others, day to day communication. That is something I think we tend to forget about or underestimate. It is hard to know what influence just a few kind words may have on someone. So, I plan on keeping good communication going for as long as I live—no complaining about anything, but always doing good for others and thanking and praising God for all things.
Down by the River
Stephen Nielsen 