July 01, 2015
Let the Light Shine
The Supreme Court decision to
make gay marriage the law of the land has brought out all manner of flag-waver
support. Many of us are now trying to mentally formulate a response to forceful
people who are more emboldened to throw the gay lifestyle in our face. Recently
an extended family relative, who is a very liberal thinker, posted a hooray on
her Facebook and one of her former classmates wasted no time in posting a comment,
“Bye.” I wish it were that simple for people of faith. “Have nothing to do with
the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. For
it is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible, for it is light that makes everything visible. This is why it is
said: “Wake up, O sleeper, rise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you”” (Eph
5:11-14 NIV).
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3 comments:
Gail;
-----Here’s something to think about. I don’t mean you’ve got to know this. I don’t even hold it as fully vetted, consummated knowledge in my own thinking. But this is interesting.
-----”Let no one deceive you in any way; for that day will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you this? And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way.” (II Thes 2:3-7) Who is this man of lawlessness? The anti-Christ. But, “…and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come.” (I John 2:18) Many anti-Christs? the anti-Christ? Which is it? What’s going on?
-----Like Christ is righteousness and everyone who convinces neighbors to turn to Christ, and feeds and clothes widows and orphans are “Christs” to them - His body in action on Earth - the anti-Christ has been embodied on Earth since Eve bit the apple in the things God-rejecting people do. Yet, although many anti-Christ’s have gone out working against that blessed righteousness of Christ, some individual boob will be The Anti-Christ in the same physical manner Jesus was The Christ. The tangible effects of Christ and anti-Christ are done in every moment at the tips of all human fingers, and these two overall effects are then embodied and summed up in particular, living , breathing, individual human beings: Jesus, who happened to be God, and some particular yahoo, who will happen to be Satan. Both Christ and anti-Christ exist in general and in particular.
-----So consider that “he who now restrains” also exists in a generality as well as a very real particular. So the restraining is also in general and in particular. America was established in a very extraordinary way. The footprints of God are all over this country’s developmental history. And the country’s purpose was dedicated to God by George Washington and the first congress right there in the meadow in front of St. Joseph’s Church in Washington, DC. Was God surprised? No. The year after His people were horrifically expelled from Spain while C. Columbus was “discovering America” began a series of four total lunar eclipses on the Jewish holidays of Passover and Tabernacles. I’m really supposing God was marking that year as a big deal in His story.
-----Always boil the subject of your curiosity down to its basic substance. What is Christ? Love expressed. What is love? Benefit to all. What is anti-Christ? Hatred expressed. What is hatred? Detriment anything. Did you know governments can be righteous or unrighteous? “Now therefore, O kings, be wise; be warned, O rulers of the earth. Serve the LORD with fear, with trembling kiss his feet, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way; for his wrath is quickly kindled.” (Ps 2:10-12) What is a wise king? A righteous one! And what is righteousness? Seeking to benefit everything you effect, that is, uh, love, in general, a part of the Christ. Why does Christ set us free? So we can individually live a relationship with God. What is a foolish king? An unrighteous one. And what is unrighteousness? In its basic form it is no relationship with God. The kings of the anti-Christ generality are anxious to take away people’s freedoms so they can not develop relationships with God. Sound like Nazi Germany? Marxism? The governments of collectivism demand there be no God so that the government can be the all to the people. Sound like the anti-Christ? (continued…)
Love you all,
Steve Corey
-----America did not single handedly defeat the evil Axis of World War II. But it was the weight thrown into the fray breaking that camel’s back. And it rose up such strong resistance to the “people conquerors” of communist Russia, Red China, Viet-Nam, and where ever else that hideous, enslaving mentality rotted civilization that the evil had to hide itself from public view as the Iron Curtain melted, China freed its market somewhat, and communism in general cleaned up the appearance of its act. In the Twentieth Century, if America, along with Britain and Australia, had not rose from its seat and hindered the going out of hate filled, metastasizing, evil governments, the entire world would have been thrown into Nazi-like suppression of righteousness. Although it might be strained somewhat excessively to claim America is the particular embodiment of “he who now restrains”, it is quite apparent that America was a general embodiment of it. Recalling the relevance of Hitler to God’s chosen people and the relevance of freedom of worship to all God’s people, America then restraining the generalized anti-Christ from particularizing into a worldwide, totalitarian dictator was in a very real way restraining the revelation of The Anti-Christ. So, America must be removed from restraining.
-----Satan, the occupier of The Anti-Christ’s human body, is given three significant designations in God’s Holy Word: accuser, destroyer, and deceiver. These characteristics are an unholy three. They interplay like an evil formula polluting everything it effects. Are we watching America’s transforming character take shape? Have you noticed how the Americans of today’s social power are so quick to accuse the righteous? Have you noticed how much legislation of this last “President” has been forged on the anvil of deceit? Have you noticed the deceit flowing off the Supreme Court bench? Have you noticed the destruction of America’s soul and power these are working? Have you noticed what is rising in the absence of the restraint? A radical Muslim is merely a Muslim who lives the Koran unto its logical conclusions just like a disciple of Jesus lives the Word of God unto its logical conclusions. Have you noticed what Muslims are starting to do to those who do not deny Christ in acknowledging Allah? Have you read somewhere of a worldwide political religious system which beheads believers for not rejecting Christ and accepting it? That would be the Anti-Christ, into whose nature America is being quickly transformed.
-----Now, if America’s beginning was flagged by God as a noteworthy spectacle in His story by these phenomenal lunar eclipses of 1493-4, it really, really seems to me that the removal of America’s restraining effect upon the anti-Christ’s progress is just as noteworthy for the same flagging by four, phenomenal, total, lunar eclipses on Passover, Tabernacles, Passover, Tabernacles. The fourth one comes this Fall. Enjoy. Then go tell the world how absolutely short time is getting, for we are watching a restraint against worldwide, political, abject evil fall. And it seems to be relevant enough for God to flag.
Steve,
Very insightful.
Gail
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