THE PRETENDERS

   You can have the abundance of friends and people will like you---as long as you do not tell them the truth.
   As long as you get in, fit in, act like them, walk and talk like them, you are one of them---as long as you do not tell them the truth.
   To be truthful, people do not like laws; they do not like restrictions.  They want to be left alone, to do as they please, and with no limitations.
   Above all else, people do not like God, and they want to live their lives as if God does not exist.       
   Mention God, and your abundance of friends and the people who like you will distance themselves from you.  They will look at you strangely, or they will sit and stare in stone-cold silence.  They will change the subject. 
   One place where people can hide from God is in their religion, or in their false church:  for in these places they worship a god of their own image.  And they like that.  Their god is less restrictive, they believe, and their god accepts various ways of salvation as well as helps them to prepare their own highway to heaven.  Once they leave the building, they are free to ramble because their god remains in the building until they return for another visit.  While in the building, they are among friends and the people there like one another because they dress alike, sit and stand alike, walk and talk alike, and no one speaks the truth. 
   People of religion and false churches are the same as thieves, bandits, and robbers.  They know that God exists, but, rather than facing God, they accept their system of forgery by which they can steal forgiveness of sin, steal salvation, and steal their way to heaven.  And when they leave the building they can believe that they got away with it again---just like a thief in the night!
   Hang out with the pretenders and you will become one.  You will walk like them, talk like them, and act like them.  Their ways will become your ways, their lies will become your lies, and their god will become your god.  You will be popular and they will like you.  And you will hide from God just like them.
      Know ye that the LORD he is God:  it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.  (Psalm 100: 3)
  

IN MY MOTHER'S WOMB

   Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.  Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD!  behold, I am a child.  But the LORD said unto me, Say not I am a child:  for thou shalt go to all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou shalt speak.  Be not afraid of their faces:  for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD.  (Jeremiah 1: 6-8)

   Mary and Elizabeth were cousins.  Both were pregnant---Mary with Jesus, and Elizabeth with John the Baptist.   And when Mary went to visit Elizabeth, baby John leaped in his mother's womb in the presence of the unborn Christ, the Messiah of Israel.  And it came to pass, that, when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb.  (Luke 1: 41)

   I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ:  when he is come, he will tell us all things.  Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.  The woman then left her water pot, and went her way into the city, and saith to the men, Come, see a man, which told me all things that ever I did:  is not this the Christ?  Then they went out of the city, and came unto him. (John 4: 25-30)

   Is it therefore possible that God has plans for many people while they are in their mothers wombs?  That, not only does God call people to be workers in His vineyard, performing certain tasks in certain places, but is this calling also written in their DNA while they are yet in their mothers' wombs?  That they, who do such things, do it as if it is natural for them to do because God is with them?
   For after his birth, Jeremiah became a prophet.  After his birth, John the Baptist became a preacher.  And after her birth, the woman at the well became an evangelist. 
   For a reason that you cannot explain, do you ever feel like you should be preaching?  Do you ever think that you would enjoy teaching the story of Christ to toddlers?  Do you ever think about moving to a land far away to be a missionary?  Do you ever hum and strong songs and music about the Lord with little effort?  And have you ever thought about becoming a professor at a Bible college or seminary? 
   Perhaps, then, you have been called of God.  Is this possible?
   Perhaps, too, this calling of God has been written in your DNA.  Is this possible?
   If not at least possible, what shall we say about Matthew 19: 26, where Jesus said: 
      With God all things are possible.

  

  
 

AMERICA! AMERICA!

   God has blessed the United States more than any nation in human history. 
   In turn, the United States has been a blessing to more nations than any nation in human history.
   The United States has shared the reaping of its harvest to many nations with food, money, technology, inventions, health care, and education for more than two hundred years.
   In return, the United States has received very little gratitude from nations it has helped---no, not even a "thank you" card of appreciation.
   While the United States has helped other nations to get on their feet, many of these nations have done nothing to stand on their own feet and to provide better environments for their own citizens. It is as if they continue to stand in unemployment lines, waiting for another check, or in a food line, waiting for another meal.  While those nations have received the education and the technology to reap the harvest of their own lands, and to provide for themselves, it is as if their plows have never touched the dirt. 
   Over the past two thousand years, God has blessed those nations that have received and accepted the Gospel of Jesus Christ---namely, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Australia, the United Kingdom, and Western Europe. 
   Whereas, nations that have rejected Christ have continued to live under the dome of paganism, witchcraft, voodoo, and the beating of drums to conjure evil spirits.  By rejecting Christ, they have rejected the blessings of Almighty God; and from not receiving the blessings of God, they have also rejected education, technology, inventions, health care, and financial prosperity.  Thus, for two thousand years, those nations have continued to live without proper sanitation systems, with sicknesses, starvation, diseases, shortened life expectancies, where babies do not receive daily baths, and where toddlers walk naked in villages and hamlets.
   Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance.  (Psalm 33: 12)
  Therefore, if this nation or any nation forgets that God is the LORD, we will suffer for a lack of gratitude.  If we should cease from giving God thanks and appreciation, our blessings will become a curse. 
      America! America!
         God shed his grace on thee
      And crown thy good with brotherhood
         From sea to shining sea.
                   ---America the Beautiful, by Katharine Lee Bates

IDENTITY THEFT

   Then Jesus said to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; and ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.  (John 8: 31, 32)

   Succat Patricus was a Christian, and he became a Baptist preacher as well as a Baptist missionary in Ireland, where he served the Lord from his early twenties until his death, and he lived to be approximately one hundred years of age.  His father's name was Calphurnius, a deacon in a Baptist church.
   A study of Succat Patricus' genealogy reveals that he was an Israelite of the tribe of Judah, from the lineage of Abraham, and of the royal bloodline of David, King of Israel.
   Succat Patricus had a sister, Dareca, and she married Conan Mariadoc de Bretagne, King of Dumonia, Ireland, who was also an Israelite of the tribe of Judah, from the lineage of Abraham, and of the royal bloodline of David, King of Israel.
   After the death of Succat Patricus, however, his name was changed to Saint Patrick by the Catholic Church of Rome, making it appear that Succat Patricus was a Catholic as well as a Catholic priest, which also made it appear that all of the work of Patricus was for the papacy of Rome instead of giving credit to Patricus as a Baptist!
   Patrick is not a name, but rather a title, meaning "noble and illustrious".
   Identity theft is a work of evil; its operatives are thieves and robbers, hypocrites and vipers.
   Identity theft is nothing new under the sun; for after the resurrection of Jesus Christ, people have been pretending to be Jesus for two thousand years.  And when Antichrist stands, he will take on the identity of Jesus Christ in order to deceive people to believe that he is messiah; and false prophets in false churches are preparing the way for Antichrist, just as John the Baptist prepared the way for Jesus. 
   Therefore, trust in Jesus---not in false churches with false prophets in priestly garments.

  

SHACKLED

   Wherever you find gold, you will find greed; and with greed comes envy, jealousy, anger, rage, and murder. 
   For the love of money is the root of all evil.  (I Timothy 6: 10)
   Money is the fuel that runs the world, not petroleum; and the people who control the world's pipeline of money control the world. 
   Money will expose the pride of people faster than a speeding bullet. 
      For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.  (Matthew 6: 21)
   Follow the trail of money and you will find corruption. 
   The two leading causes for divorce are attributed to sex---and money.
   The two leading financial enterprises in the world today are drugs and human trafficking.
   Human trafficking is human slavery; and in this age when politicians and presidents, kings, queens, governments and entertainers are screaming peace! peace! peace!, millions of women and children are kidnapped, drugged, shackled, and trapped in a world of darkest gloom and helplessness---while the rich and powerful turn deaf ears and blinded eyes to their cries in the night.
   Babies, too, are stolen from their cribs and sold as used cars to people who will pay any price to any thief for any baby---to have and to own---with no questions asked. 
      For the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.  (Genesis 8: 21)
   In the United States alone, we have legalized gambling, legalized drugs, and, in the coming future, it shall come to pass when we will also have:  legalized sodomy. 
   Jesus was sold for thirty pieces of silver and shackled to a cross, where he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities:  the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.  And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.  (Isaiah 53: 5, 9)
   We are living in a world that is shackled to the love of money, in a world consumed by corruption, and Jesus said, deliver us from evil.

     
  

BLINDED EYES

   False churches are the same as pagan temples, and the ministers and priests of false churches are pagan priests.
   The evidence of false churches is in plain sight, visible to the eyes---behind stained-glass windows and mixed with religious rites and rituals, burning incense and candles. 
   And the uniforms of pagan ministers and priests is part of their disguise, for they are masters of deception, doing their best to look and sound like holy men.
   Adam and Eve were deceived by their eyes in the garden of Eden, and so it is for people who enter the gates of false churches:  they are looking through blinded eyes. 
   Pagan priests are ministers of Satan, and their assignments are to convert people to Satan while appearing to be ministers of God. 
   For you see, people in false churches do not believe in Almighty God, Creator of the universe; they only believe in the god of their religion:  an abstract being who has been created in their imaginations.
   Neither do people in false churches believe in the Holy Bible because their pagan priests do not believe in the Holy Bible.  As such, people in false churches only believe as they are told to believe.
   In false churches, the people are puppets in the hands of pagan priests, just as the priests are puppets in the hands of Satan. 
  Because of the deception that reigns, the people in false churches do their best to act like Christians, just as their priests do their best to act like Christian priests.  Thus the people are trained to become professional hypocrites---without realizing or knowing they are no more than puppets on strings. 
   People in false churches cannot tell you about Almighty God, for they do not know Almighty God.  All they know is an abstract god of their imaginations. 
   Neither can people of false churches tell you about Christ because they do not know Christ.  All they know is an image, or an idol, of Christ. 
   To be honest with you, writing this story today is not easy; for I, too, was once a religious puppet, looking through blinded eyes.  But when I met Christ for the first time, when I submitted myself to Him for my salvation, I began to see with new eyes.  And for all that I have written today, I have experienced; and I do not want to experience it again!
   What, then, do these pagan priests in false churches do when their congregations leave the building?  They take off their robes, collect their paychecks, go home and watch television.

PREACHERS AND WIVES

  
   Eve was strong-willed, independent, and she liked to shop.  And on a certain day in the Garden of Eden, Eve went on a shopping spree---and Satan's store was open for business. 
   Eve quoted the word of the Lord to Satan by saying, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:  but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.  (Genesis 3: 2, 3)
   But did Eve truly believe the words she spoke?  Did she truly understand the penalty for disobedience?
   Doubtful, for she continued to shop and to gaze with her eyes.
   Satan knew that Eve was in a buying mood.  She liked what saw and she could taste the fruit of the vine with her imagination.  All Satan needed to do was sweeten the pie and make a deal. 
   Satan began by calling God a liar:  Ye shall not surely die:  for God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. (Genesis 3: 4, 5)
   Protecting Adam and Eve from evil was precisely the reason for God's one and only commandment, the first thou shalt not.  Did Eve not see what the devil was spinning? 
   Adam was there, too, yet Adam said nothing.  He watched in silence as his wife gave in to the pleasure of sin, and he also gave in because of the temptation of his own wife. 
   Sin is attractive:  deception in plain sight, wrapped in colorful paper with ribbons and bows, and delightful to the eyes.  And when we, like Adam and Eve, ignore the signs of its intention, we---like Satan---call God a liar:  at which time we will not believe that sin has a penalty clause. 
   The decision Adam and Eve made that day hurt themselves, and their decision also hurt other people.  Today, we are still suffering for their disobedience to God.  Look at the evil that is in the world today.  And children, all over the world, are suffering the penalty for the sin of their own parents.
   What we do in this world matters.  The decisions we make not only impact our individual lives, but our decisions also impact the lives of others.  And if we believe that what we do doesn't matter---as long as it doesn't hurt anybody else---is to believe a lie. 
   Without saying, Adam never became a preacher, and Eve never became a preacher's wife.
   Perhaps it is safe to say that not every woman can be a preacher's wife because many women are too much like Eve:  strong-willed, independent, and competitive with their husbands. 
   Perhaps, too, that not every man can be a preacher because many men are too much like Adam:  afraid to speak up in the time of danger, watching in silence as their families are devoured by sin.