IDLENESS

   Many years ago, I was in a store in the early morning hour, just before daylight, when the manager of the store arrived to begin her day as well as to relieve the night worker.  She asked him why the groceries were not put on the shelves, as he should have done, and he said he had been too busy.  Then she checked the register tape to look at the night's sales and the truth was revealed.  She said to the employee,
      "Wow! If the devil has a workshop, you must have a factory!"

   One of the most dangerous times for people is when we enter the idleness zone, which is the boredom room of our minds:  when there is nothing important to think about and nothing important to do.  When this happens, we can be sure that the devil, that ol' serpent, will come along and whisper something to think about, something to do, and something to excite the senses:

      "It looks like all of your friends are out having fun tonight and here you are, alone in your room and bored to death.  That's not fair, is it?"

   Some people make  things happen while some people wait  for things to happen.  Those that wait for things to happen are followers--- they follow others as they also become copycats of others in trying to be like them, to be cool, or to be part of the group thing. 

  Followers do not think for themselves, do not make their own decisions, for they lack the initiative to make things happen.  So they buy clothes that fit the uniform of the day, go where others go, and do as others do. 
  When people become followers, they lose themselves  because they have surrendered their own identity for the identity of others.  In so doing, they think as others think, dress as others dress, and walk and talk as others walk and talk as the ways of others become their ways, thereby producing a false self-image of  themselves out of their own imaginations.  Instead of being the person God wants them to be, they engraft the personalities of others into themselves as they strive to live a life that is not normal for them.  They have deceived themselves with their own imaginations, out of which they deceive others with a fake identity.

  When alone, moreover, they become helpless; for they have never learned to stand alone since they have always relied on others to lead them along their path of life; and now, when alone and with nothing important to think about and with nothing important to do, they become bored, and, with boredom, comes idleness.
   Idle minds produce idle hands, and idle hands, mixed with imagination, produce works of evil instead of works of good---all for the sake of another thrill to escape the boredom zone.  But when tomorrow comes, however, they must do it again, and again, and again, as they are lost in a perpetual world of repetition.
   If you are in that time of idleness today, please remember:  your friends are just using you for their own benefit; and when they are finished, they will throw you off the bus and leave you on the side of the road while they travel on down that long and lonesome highway that leads to Nowhere Land.
   Give Christ  a chance!---"And I will restore the years that the locust hath eaten..."  (Joel 2: 25)
   "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and you shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty."  (2nd Corinthians 6: 17-18)

GOD'S AMAZING GRACE

   Did you know the song, Dixie, was written by a former slave prior to the Civil War?  Yet this song has been sung and played on musical instruments for over 150 years and is still popular today.
   Did you also know the song, Amazing Grace, was written by a former slave trader?
   John Newton wrote and published Amazing Grace in 1779 and it has been sung and played on musical instruments, over the past 238 years, by more people in more places than any song in human history.  This fact alone is truly amazing!

     "For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:  it is the gift of God:  not of works, lest any man should boast."  (Ephesians 2: 8-9)

   Grace through faith is the gift of God.  Grace, therefore, is a present from God, gift wrapped, and on the table.  To receive His grace, however, we must accept the gift, open the present, and experience the saving grace of Christ our Lord.

     "But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord."  (Genesis 6: 8)

   Prior to the Great Flood, Noah was building the ark for 120 years; and for 120 years he told people that God would destroy the earth by water.  They never believed Noah, and they never accepted God's gift of grace. But because of one man's faith in God, the human race was spared, and we are the evidence of God's grace today.  Yet today we are faced with the same choice that those people rejected before the flood.

    "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."  (Romans 6: 23)

   As slaves to sin, we are earning wages; or, we are collecting debt:  a debt that must be paid by ourselves, or paid by someone else.  In other words, we must be redeemed if we do not have the means to pay our debt.  Or, we must die for our sin, or someone else must die for us in our place.
   This is when Christ came to earth and became the Redeemer:  to die in our place for our sin.
   Christ is the grace of God, the gift of God and given to us for our sin debt.  We can accept this gift and be saved, or can we reject it and pay the sin debt in eternal darkness.
   This blog post today is my feeble attempt to share God's amazing grace and I will tell you that I am inadequate.  But let me tell you what I believe:  when Christ reveals Himself to people, then and only then will they understand God's amazing grace as well as God's amazing love.
      "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all.  Amen."                         (2nd Corinthians 13: 14)
     

                                                                      

FANNY CROSBY

  Fanny Crosby was born in 1820 and died in 1915
at the age of 94.

  She played four musical instruments.
   In her lifetime, moreover, she wrote more than 8,000 hymns, many of which have been some of the most popular songs in Christian churches during the past one hundred years and even today.
   But did you know that Fanny Crosby was blind?
   So let me introduce to you a song by Fanny Crosby, I Shall Know Him, and performed by the Sunday Drive.

IN SEARCH OF GOD

   If people will trust in God and study the Bible, they will receive the greatest education that is available in the world today; for in so doing they will be learning from the knowledge of God, and there is no greater knowledge than the knowledge of God.

   "The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done:  and there is no new thing under the sun."  (Ecclesiastes 1: 9)

   Therefore, since the knowledge of men reveals no new thing under the sun, the knowledge of God will always be greater because God's knowledge is never ending.
   While men are sending satellites throughout the universe in search of life, God is searching the earth for people who will believe in Him.

      "For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him."  (2nd Chronicles 16: 9)

   Still, men continue in their trivial pursuits throughout the stars of the heavens, while men of the earth also make foolish claims:
   Pope Francis said he would be willing to baptize aliens if they came to the Vatican; asking, "who are we to close the doors anyone---even Martians."  (Independent, May 13, 2014)
   What?
   Do men not know that aliens is just another word for demons, and demons are angels that fell to earth with Lucifer's rebellion in heaven?
   For God said to Lucifer,
      "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou was created, till iniquity was found in thee.  Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou has corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness:  I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.  I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all them that behold thee."  (Ezekiel 28: 15, 17, 18)

   Still, "he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth" (Isaiah 40: 22) searches for people on the earth to believe in Him, while saying,

      "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take my yoke upon you and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart:  and ye shall find rest unto your souls.  For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."  (Matthew 11: 28-30)

UNDER THE EARTH

   "I am the LORD thy God.  Thou shalt have no other gods before me.  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth."  (Exodus 20: 2, 4; underline mine)

   Note that this verse says "in the water"  "under the earth".

  "That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."   (Philippians 2: 10; underline mine)

   "And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the earth, was able to open the book, neither look thereon."  (Revelation 5: 3; underline mind)

   Since Exodus 20: 4 tells us that there is "water under the earth", then let us look at the flood of Noah:

      "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened."  (Genesis 7: 11)

FROM THE INSTITUTE OF CREATION RESEARCH:
    "Genesis 7:11 fountains of the great deep. The physical cause of the Flood is clearly identified as the eruption of the waters in the “great deep” and the opening of the floodgates of heaven. These are quite sufficient in themselves to cause and explain all the phenomena of the Flood. The antediluvian hydrologic cycle was apparently controlled by a system of subterranean pressurized reservoirs and conduits, but these fountains were all cleaved open in one day, releasing tremendous quantities of water and magma to the earth’s surface and dust and gas into the atmosphere. The resulting combination of atmospheric turbulence and dust nuclei of condensation was probably the immediate cause of the precipitation of the vapor canopy. The cataclysmic restoration of the primeval deep that resulted left the antediluvian world completely devastated and inundated."

   Why do people say heaven is "up" and hell is "down"?
   Is it plausible to believe that we, while standing on earth, are standing on top of hell, which is located below the surface of the earth, which is "under the earth"?
   Jesus said,
      "For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth."  (Matthew 12: 40)
   The Greek word for "heart" is Kardia, which means "the inner part of the earth, the grave" or, the grave of the dead.
   In the 16th chapter of Luke's Gospel, Jesus tells us the story of a certain rich man who died, and then:
      "in hell he lifted up his eyes, being in torments".
   People will have their natural senses in hell:  seeing, tasting, talking, hearing, smelling, thirst, and memories---in a place of darkness.
   The rich man said, "send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this place."
   Then he added:  "send him to my father's house:  for I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment."
   Now that we know that hell is located in the heart of the earth, and that we are standing above it as we stand on the face of the earth, we cannot change the position of hell, but we can change the direction our souls will go after death if we will trust in Christ to save us:
      "That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."  (Romans 10: 10-11)
   

THIS POOR MAN CRIED

   Twice this year I have been hospitalized, and, in both occurrences, my life was at the edge of death and in the hands of doctors and nurses.
   But my life---as it is now and has always been---is in the hands of God.
      "This poor man cried, and the LORD heard him, and saved him out of all his troubles."  (Psalm 34: 6)
   And I said, Lord, hear my prayer:  if this is my time to go, I am ready to go; but if not, then let me live to continue the work that You have given me to do.
      "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."
   And when the morning came, the Lord enabled me to arise from my hospital beds and go home.
   From both of these experiences, the Lord taught me two lessons.  He gave me a greater understanding of life as He also gave me a greater understanding of time; for life and time are all we have in this world in which we are born, and both are blessings from God; from which He gave me two stories:  WHEN I WAS YOUNG and followed by IN HIS TIME.
   When I was young, I never had the time to do that which I wanted to do because I had to work like everybody has to work.
      "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it unto the day of Jesus Christ:"  (Philippians 1: 6)
   Now that I am retired, the Lord has blessed me with the abundance of time and freedom; therefore, I am free to read, free to research, free to study, free to pray, and free to write about Him, which I have wanted to do in my heart for more than thirty years.  When I was young, however, that was not my time.
     "To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven:  a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which was planted."  (Ecclesiastes 3: 1-2)
   To me, the Lord has given time as well as a desire to plant:  while believing by faith that He will add the increase, or "pluck up that which was planted".
   So then, what time is it?
   It's God's time!
      "Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepeth, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.  See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil."  (Ephesians 5: 14-16)

   In His Majesty's service, to the King of kings and Lord of lords.
     

INTERNATIONAL HYPOCRISY

   If human trafficking of women, boys, and girls for sex, drugs, pornography, and prostitution does not bother the hearts of people, I am persuaded to believe that nothing else will.

      "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord."  (Romans 6: 23)

     "Righteousness exalteth a nation:  but sin is a reproach to any people."  (Proverbs 14: 38)

   Lord, help us to remember the wages of sin.

   Help us to remember the sin to any people.

   Help us to remember the times when we turn our faces against the suffering of people in exchange for earthly pleasures and the trivial pursuit of entertainment addictions.

   The United States should be ashamed for leading the world in the production and distribution of pornography.

   The United States has also provided a safe haven for human and drug traffickers to operate beneath the dome of corruption in high places, all for the sake of filthy lucre.

    How, then, can the United States be a nation of righteousness when our nation's sins lie at the door of heaven?
    Perhaps our own nation should be charged with:  International Hypocrisy.
    While our nation is running all over the world and telling other nations how their nations should be run, we can't clean up our own house!
    While we are giving billions of dollars in foreign aid, we can't get gangsters off the streets!
    We can't close the pipeline of international corruption! 
     It is as if the United States is the epicenter of filthy lucre, from New York to California!
     When women and boys and girls are caught up in this international ring of crime, they will never have another good day.  They will never have a day off.  They will never have another square meal, or a day of rest.  They will never have medication for pain, nor enter a hospital for injuries.  Most will be dead before their 25th birthday.  Some will become victims as human sacrifices on altars of Satan in underground dark places.  They are slaves imprisoned in a global cartel that produces billions of dollars, and marked with GPS microchips making escape from their masters impossible.
    Yet, we are proud to be Americans, aren't we?  Proud of our nation, proud of our heritage, and proud of a selfie generation that says, "Look at me!  I am the face in the mirror!."
    Is the United States guilty of international hypocrisy?
    Are we, the people, guilty of the same face in the mirror?
    Lord, help us to remember the wages of sin.
    Help us to remember the sin to any people.
    Lord, hear our prayer:

                              Our Father which art in heaven,
                              Hallowed by thy name.
                              Thy kingdom come. 
                              Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.
                              Give us this day our daily bread.
                              And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
                              And lead us not into temptation,
                              but deliver us from evil:
                              For thine is the kingdom,
                              and the power, and the glory, for ever.  Amen.
                                                              (Matthew 6: 9-12)