Deceiving the Elect

Whew. This is a tough one. Truth be told, I have been wrestling with this post for a LONG time! I think I'm about ready, so I'm going to get started. I am praying for people (you) to be at peace and open to hearing something that may rattle your cage at first. Without Holy Spirit's presence in our hearts, there are things that can easily send us off the rails. To be clear- that is not my desire. Rather I am hoping for God's truth (all truth is God's truth) to win out and open eyes.

In Matthew chapter 24, Jesus talks about the end times. I think it's a familiar passage where he tells of what the end days will look like. Roughly in the middle of his talk, he says something to the effect ". . . to deceive even the elect, if that were possible." This can be taken specifically in reference to false Christs and prophets, of which he is talking about in that sentence, but I believe it also refers to the whole passage in general. In other words, in the end times, there will be things happening which will deceive some Christians; those who follow the way of Love/Jesus.

Frankly, that possibility has long terrified me! How can a Christian be deceived when he has Holy Spirit within? I DO NOT want that to be me! Therefore, I have prayed fervently over the years to clearly see the truth and not be deceived. Truth has been my focus, my banner. Because of that focus, and without going into a long explanation, I believe truth has almost become a spiritual gift of mine- an extension of my gift of apostle. And I do not take this lightly! I cannot stress this enough.

A lot of crazy things will happen before and during the "end of days." I'm certain no one's going to argue with me on that. And apparently one of those crazy things is that some Christians will be deceived. I have long wondered how that could happen. Yet recently I have seen a situation play out in America which has shown me HOW this can happen, does happen and will happen. Here's where I don't want to lose some of you, so please bear with me. Just hear me out.

Trump Derangement Syndrome. There. I said it. Still with me? If that statement alone sent you away, it is likely you have it. Let me delve into it all (and my point remains the same- still focusing on deceiving the elect). Hear me out.

When asking some good Christian friends about the recent election and who they were voting for, some said: "Kamala." I asked why. Their vehement response: "Because I would NEVER vote for Trump!" So their vote was not determined by who they were going to vote for, rather who they would NOT vote for. "ANYONE BUT Trump. Policy doesn't matter. Facts don't matter. History does not matter. The only thing that matters is I will not vote for Trump."

If I could possibly continue my questioning, they became extremely agitated and angry. If I pushed them, they were likely to say "I hate Trump!"

Whoa. Hold your horses. You're a Christian. Hatred is NOT on our list of feelings. We don't hate anyone. We LOVE everyone. Sinners, murders, criminals, drunkards, addicts, whatever- it does not matter. We love everyone. Why? Because Jesus loves everyone. EVERYONE. And everyone has the option to be redeemed by Jesus blood. Which is why we love- in hopes of one day getting them to see his love for them (in us), repent and get saved. We cannot hate anyone into the Kingdom. Jesus said it was our LOVE that would show them who we are- CHRISTians (Christ followers). We are marked by our love. Hatred is the mark of The Evil One.

So how do we reconcile a Christian who has Holy Spirit within, yet hates? Paul says that is not possible. The two cannot coexist in the same person. If you have Holy Spirit within, you love. Therefore, the opposite is true- if you have The Enemy within, you hate. One pushes the other out. So there is no such thing as a Christian who hates. Get it?

Therefore, these Christians who hate, have likely lost their Christianity. They have been blinded by hatred (from the Evil One) and that hatred has pushed Holy Spirit out of their lives. They are no longer Christians (Christ followers).

And there it is. In this instance, I have seen how it is possible for a Christian to be deceived into losing their faith in Christ. Whether it happened slowly or all at once, they have allowed The Enemy to deceive them and come into their lives and take control.

I suppose there will be other such instances in which this happens as well. Whatever the situations, I can see it and understand how it can happen to the elect. In the end there will be many ex-Christians who do not realize they have lost their faith in Christ. They will continue to go to church, act like good people, yet harbor hatred or some other similar thing in their hearts which will disqualify them from being a Christian. [Shudder]

I may be able to see it, but I don't have to like it. My sincere prayer for you is that you will see the lies of The Enemy coming at you from a long ways off so you will be able to avoid the hit on your life and avoid it.

May you seek Truth and The Truth with a determination that will save your soul in the end. Don't let it happen to you.

(PS: Possible future post- at what point on this road do we lose our Christianity?)

The Enemy of My Enemy is My Friend

"Witches cast mass spell against Trump," the article is titled. As a Christian, I have been the subject of witches' spells over the years. Even as I prayed for them, they have come against me. In one of my appointments, a local coven regularly came to my corps at 3 AM (witching hour) to lay hands on our building and "pray" against us. I once found physical spell evidence around that building. You see, witches are not the friends of Christians. They pretty much stand for everything opposite of what a Christian believes.

Now also, as a Christian, I know that such things (curses) cannot stand against us, God's people, because, well, God is God (Isaiah 54:17)! What he blesses, no one can curse! There's a certain passage in the OT (Balak's story in Numbers 22) that shows this playing out with the Israelites. Look it up. It's a good one!

In most cases, witches are against anything of Yahweh or Jesus.

Back to the article (there are actually many articles out there) about the witches cursing Trump. Frankly, if Trump were against God, then the witches would not be cursing him. Make sense?

Do you see any witches cursing Biden or Harris? Do the same search for them and you will find they SUPPORT them. That in itself should tell you something. Not everything, but SOMEthing you should be seriously thinking about.

So back to my title: as the saying goes, "the enemy of my enemy is my friend." Makes sense. Therefore those who are against Trump are with the witches. They are "friends," as it were.

You see, you cannot say you are for God and then support the opposite. It doesn't work. You end up holding hands with His enemies.

I think that bullet's near miss in Pennsylvania was God telling us something. I don't believe you can overlook God's hand in that as a miracle. God isn't finished with Trump yet. I for one, want to be around to see what God's planning for him!

Now you might be thinking: "there are some pretty bad people who support Trump!" Agreed. We could say that about both sides (which is true of SO many comments about either side!). Let's leave that for a future post.

This is not the only reason to support Trump in this election. I just hope there are some who will use this realization to see through the confusion of the enemy.

Evangelical Leaders Cave on Social Issues: Megan Basham Interview - The Becket Cook Show Ep. 169

I got this youtube link today from a good friend. It's well worth the listen- a little short of an hour, but powerful! It will open your eyes and surprise you in many ways.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TakuA7vOjpA

Megan Basham has written a new book called "Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda." It is probably a must-read for all my regular readers.

https://www.amazon.com/Shepherds-Sale-Evangelical-Leaders-Leftist/dp/0063413442

 

Universalism

I here present some of my own thoughts on Universalism, which I have worked on over the last few years. I'd like to know your thoughts on my thoughts . . .

Mainline Christian thinking holds that Universalism results in a critically flawed moral framework and an inherently weakened mission. Without accountability, why bother how we behave? Without the consequences, why care about the eternal well-being of others?

Mainline Christian thinking- from the beginning, there have been 3 different views of mankind’s eternity. Eternal punishment has become the bully pulpit of the mob mentality. Who would say they believe different if they treat you like Rob Bell when you speak of another view? Truth is not determined by the majority. There have always been 3 views that have stood side by side from the beginning of the church. Each have their basis in scripture. Early church fathers held differing views. Noted Christian scholars to this day hold differing views.

Critically flawed moral framework/why bother how we behave?- Andre Crouch said it best, 

“If heaven never was promised to me, neither a land where we could live eternally, it’s been worth having the lord in my life- living in a world of darkness, he came along and brought me the light.” 

We behave right simply because it is right. Moral living is an end in itself. Although living the way God wants us to, is not bad either.

Inherently weakened mission/why care about the eternal well-being of others?- We care because it is right to care; because we love God and therefore love those he loves. Both of the other views still include hell; both views believe it is used as a temporary place of suffering. One view believes it is designed to bring about repentance and, finally, acknowledging Jesus is Lord of all. If others will spend even a moment in hell, we should deeply desire to keep them from it. Five minutes or an eternity in hell- both should produce the same reaction from a Christian.

Serve God for fear of hell or because you love him?
I can honestly say I was saved because I was afraid to go to hell. It had nothing to do with my loving Jesus or his love for me. It was fear. Plain and simple fear. As I walked in faith, I learned more of His love for me and experienced it first hand. I came to know the God of Love for myself. But up until recent years, I stayed “good” because I was afraid I’d slip up and get thrown into hell for all eternity.

Yet there has always been a feeling of disappointment in myself because it is fear that keeps me in line and not love. I am not faithful to my wife because I fear her response if she found out I was not. I am faithful to her because I love her above all other women. How much more should I love the God who loves me unconditionally; who sought me out because he desired I be reconciled with him; who saved me from the sin that kept me from his presence?

The evidence
The Biblical or historical evidence does not point to any of the 3 views strongly enough to honestly make a final decision. Scholars who are much more learned than I say this very thing. Many well known authors and scholars of this day have chosen their own position- many differing with the “mainline Christian thinking.” Francis Chan essentially says we should believe in eternal hell “just in case” that is the truth. Sounds like he is kept in line by fear as well.

Which view is correct?
I certainly don’t know. But what I do know is the God of love that I serve would not assign people to hell for eternal punishment, thereby never resolving the issue of sin. He would eternally be heart-broken at losing them and justice would never be brought to a conclusion. Besides, is eternal punishment justified for temporal sin?

Annihilation seems to deal with the justice issue, but never really resolves every knee bowing and Jesus reconciling all things to himself. Sounds like reconciling some things? Perhaps most things?

I have come to lean toward a temporary hell, which would bring the lost to a realization of their great error while on earth and eventually, repentance. Scripture tells us “every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,” and he will finally “reconcile all things to himself.”

It seems to me that an eternal hell has a weak argument behind it. If we say “well, God is God. Who are we to argue with what he has decided?” Then that argument can also be applied to a universalistic view as well. As the scripture passage said very clearly, “If the master decides to pay all his workers the same wages, who are we to argue?” And shouldn’t the faithful son be glad that the prodigal was finally brought back home?

Confession

I believe confession is important (just to be clear, we are to confess to God and each other, not necessarily a priest or pastor). I also believe in holiness- which, to me, means we can live without sinning. This entails having such a close relationship with Jesus, Holy Spirit stops us before we do anything he would not like. Therefore, if we are living in holiness, there is no need to confess when we aren't sinning. Unfortunately, I don't always live up to that possibility. Case in point:

It has occurred to me that I have been rather judgemental in my thoughts of others recently (I actually believe Jesus is the one who has brought me to this realization). This is so recent, I am just now working through what this means for me. However, I do know it starts with confession. Let's see where this goes.

I have been having trouble sleeping lately. It's the kind where your mind just will not shut down and continually thinks. What I have mostly been thinking about is the awful state of the world and the terrible people who have brought us to this incredible place (fear has risen from that and I will likely delve into that here at a later point). I guess I have thought of this as a righteous anger, so it has been overlooked in my attempts to put into words all these thoughts and hopefully help others to see the truth.

But being a Christian is not about going to church or following a set of rules or doing the right thing. It's all about living in a relationship with Jesus. And let me set the record straight, if I need to- Jesus is love. He did not come into the world to condemn it or to judge humankind. He came to love us into a relationship with himself and his father. And we Christians have not been doing a very good job at living like that relationship is what it's all about. Being right seems to be of utmost importance to us (and judging those who are wrong). Or at least what we think is right. Unfortunately, what we think is right and what actually is right are often two very different things. 

Since a little bit before retiring, I started realizing how very important love is in a Christian's life. If we are not loving, we are not following Jesus. If we are not loving, we are not living in that relationship with Jesus. Well frankly, if we are not loving, we are not Christians (Christian meaning "Christ-follower").

 I must confess my desire to bring others to the truth has not been coming from love. Rather it has been coming from my being "right" and them being wrong. How can they not see the truth? I want them to think right like I do.

How haughty of me. How non-Christian. Ouch.

To you, my readers, I confess and apologize. I ask forgiveness.

Where do I go from here? I'm not sure, but I will be listening to what Jesus has to say to me about this. I'll let you know how it goes.

How to Make Sense of What's Going on in the World Today

Maybe my longest title ever- ha!

Do you, like me, wonder how on earth we got to where we are in the world today? I mean usually you can follow something from one point to the next until you have the destination. But nothing seems to explain how we got where we are. There is no logic or sense in our situation.

Well, if you really want to know what's going on, I suggest you buy and read "The Return of the Gods," by Jonathan Cahn. He actually explains it all extremely well!

How I would love to delve into his book right here and tell you some of it, but there is just too much there for me to even try. So what I'm going to do is write out the back cover to whet your appetite:

Is it possible that behind what is happening to America and the world lies a mystery hidden in the ancient inscriptions of the Middle East?

Is it possible that the ancient mysterious beings know as the "gods" have returned to our world?

What are the mysterious beings known as the Shedim? What is the house of spirits? And what does it all have to do with your life?

In The Return of the Gods, Jonathan Cahn takes you on a journey from ancient Sumer, Assyria, and Babylonia to find the puzzle pieces that explain what is now taking place before our eyes.

What are the gods? And what exactly are they? And could they be the hidden agents transforming modern culture and even your life?

Is it possible that in the mythologies of the ancient gods are the clues that reveal what is actually happening at the present hour?

Could the mystery of the gods have determined the exact days on which some of the most critical Supreme Court decisions have been handed down?

Who are The Possessor, The Enchantress, The Destroyer, and The Transformer?

Has one of the ancient gods actually manifested in New York City and ancient mythology played out on its streets in real time?

Where is it all heading? What does the future hold? And what do you need to know in light of it?

Prepare to embark on a fascinating, unforgettable, and mind-blowing journey where fact is stranger than fiction and where you will see the world as you never have before . . .

I've listened to this book and am now reading it carefully- with highlighter in hand. It's an urgent read for these days.

 

Have Mercy!

For my time with God every day, I read through "30 Days with Wesley: A Prayer Book." It has become one of my staples, with a morning and evening section for each day. Thirty days is enough to keep it from seeming like I'm repeating all the time. It's not my only book or method I use, but it is an important one which I enjoy.

In one of the readings, I came across this prayer: 

     O Father, have mercy on all humanity.
     Draw all people to Your Truth.

I felt it so important and applicable for the days we live in, I have decided to use it each morning and evening before I pray The Lord's Prayer (as a part of the Wesley book).

These days all humanity needs God's mercy! 

These days all people need God's Truth!

Won't you pray this with me each day? If you are willing, drop me a note in the comments section.

And God Made Them Male and Female

Did my title make you cringe? I can hardly believe I am diving into this here, but truth IS my purpose . . .

I was scrolling through some posts on Facebook the other day and found one from a friend with a similar title. I read it with trepidation, but pretty much agreed with the gist. Then I read a couple of responses (again from friends) and was chagrined at the logic- or lack thereof. And yet, one of them said something I had been wrestling with for years- just never had the courage to spout it off in public. And that's usually my thing- I work through something before I put it out there (it's too bad so many people post things online without thinking).

But that got me thinking even more. This is now where I stand on the subject:

God made humankind in his image. Male and female, which I think is interesting, because both are present in God's being. As it is with most of us- we have aspects of masculinity and femininity blended together to make a unique being- like no one else. Yet we are born with one set of organs or the other. These define us from the moment of conception- way before we are born.

Obviously (well, not so obvious to so many these days), truth is involved and all truth is God's truth, wherever it is found. And I'm talking about absolute truth, not subjective truth. No matter what we WANT to believe, truth is absolute. We cannot change it to fit our wants. Something is either true or it is false. It's truth or a lie. You cannot have one truth while I have another. That is a lie. Oh, and who is the father of lies? Hmmm, he had a little something to do with all this, methinks!

I've heard that "God don't make no junk" and I believe it. He has a design and purpose for each of us.

Here's where some get tripped up. They think because there are those who are born with both organs, that somehow sets a rule for everyone. The problem is, we can't base truth on the sin that has corrupted just about everything around us (I'm not saying that person has sinned or they are evil).

You see, humankind fell and brought sin into the world (apparently sin existed before it came to this world, because there are heavenly beings who also fell before we did). That sin, brought with it a corruption that messed with all of God's perfect creation. Think of it- there were no weeds before sin's corruption! But now those weeds spread like crazy to the point where we hardly know what it could be like without that corruption. Corruption is "normal" to us! It's all we know. Ouch!

That corruption has brought weeds, cancer, and a whole lot of other problems into the world. I can't even begin to make a list here. And because of the corruption, we cannot make rules based on the fallen world around us. We need to look to God's Word for the only perfect foundation for human faith and practice.

And truth.

Back to how God made us- one or the other. 

I gotta tell you that the Enemy does everything he can to get us to believe we are anything and everything BUT what God designed us to be. The LAST thing he wants is for us to fulfill God's purpose for our lives! If we even listen for a moment to his lies, we begin to travel down a road that leads far away from God and what he intended for us. Allow me to illustrate with a (condensed) personal story:

I really disliked school as a kid. There are a lot of reasons for that, but in the end, I was convinced that school was not for me and I wanted nothing to do with it. Then I learned that one of my spiritual gifts was teaching. NO WAY! I said. Because to be a teacher, you have to be a student first. And I was NOT that. O please God- ANYTHING but that! When I let my guard down and actually listened to God, I found there was a whole lot about learning and teaching that I liked and enjoyed. I finally agreed with what God made me to be and all of a sudden, learning and teaching exploded for me. There's been no looking back since. I love it!

BUT, for years the Enemy tried desperately to convince me that I was NOT a student/teacher. It's sad to see how long I was deceived by his lies in my own life.

Today we see a LOT of people struggling with who they are; what they are. I have absolutely no problem telling you that struggle is from the father of lies. If you listen to him, your confusion will only get worse. You will never "discover" who you are. You will never find truth. The truth is "who God made you to be" and once discovering that (and his love) you will be set up to accomplish his purpose for your life. And the Enemy will have a lot less hold on your life.

As for those born with multiple sets of organs, I suggest we take each case individually. Do I have an answer for that situation? No. Sin has confused everything beyond what we can sort out on our own. Yet I believe God has a purpose for that person's life. They will struggle. Don't we all struggle with something? God will redeem their situation to his glory- if we let him. God does have their answer. We will find it nowhere else.

Pruning

This picture is from our front yard in Myrtle Beach. It is a Crepe Myrtle. At the moment, it looks wonderful. That is, compared to what it looked like just 2 months ago!

When we retired into our home, this tree had been growing in our front yard for 10 years. In that time, apparently no one knew what to do with a Myrtle Tree. Therefore, it was covered in some kind of tree rot, did not look good at all and appeared to be dying. 

So we did some reading and called a local guy to come out and murder our tree. Yes, you read that right- it's called Crepe Murder!

I figured he would clean the junk off the bark and cut it back a bit. After a minute of bark cleaning, he started his chain saw and cut it down to almost nothing! I was horrified! Imagine this image with no leaves at all- just 3 sticks about 4 feet high and you've got the picture. We had 3 sticks in our front yard as our central tree! Aauugghh!

After a winter of "stick in our yard," all of a sudden it started to grow branches. I'm told this is normal for such a tree. Every few years we will do the same thing and it will grow again into a much larger, healthier tree.

Pruning. It's a common gardening practice. However, it's not so common in The Salvation Army. I think it should be.

We are currently in a tough place. COVID and (frankly) dealing poorly with our officers has left us in a state much like my old tree. Rotting and appearing to be near death in some places. We are stretching ourselves way too thin with way too few resources. Some of our locations are dead already and leadership refuses to see it.

I'm not going to go into a lot of explanation here, because I think you are smart enough to figure it out. We should get about pruning those dead locations and put the resources into ones that are still living and have actual potential for growth.

Yes, it would look bad for a time, but when the "Spring" comes, all of a sudden we would begin to see new growth that is much healthier. And that growth will supersede what we have now. But I don't think it's going to happen if we continue on our present course.

Corps Murder. There- I said it.

Elohim, Our Authority and Nephilim

I may be jumping into this subject mid-stream. I have learned a lot since I regularly blogged, so there are quite a few things I may have to explain from the middle. Hopefully I won't confuse you!

There may be a past blog where I talked about Psalm 8, in which the word Elohim is used. I used to reference this verse as evidence of our being placed above the angels, in God's creation/authority order. I have since learned I was a bit off. Not in our authority, but where we actually sit in the creation/authority order. I won't rehash my old thoughts here unless I need to reference them to explain something.

In Hebrew, the word "Elohim" can be singular or plural. In it's singular form, it refers to Yahweh/God- the One and Only; there is none like him. In it's plural form, it refers to the "gods" (beings) that Yahweh created. As far as I can tell at the moment, all heavenly beings God created are Elohim (plural). In other words, there are no "beings" that are angels. 

In Psalm 8, we have BOTH the singular Elohim and the plural form of the word.

The word "angel" means "messenger." An "angel" is not a being, as such, it is a "job description." So any Elohim given a specific task is considered an angel. I guess when they complete that task and go back to "normal operation," they are no longer considered an angel (sorry for all the quotes!).

Moving on to the creation order, we have God, gods, human-kind, then Nephilim. So we are below the gods, but above the Nephilim. Yes, there are gods who have fallen and they may have done so while they were angels (are you following?), but my point is that I no longer believe demons are fallen angels, rather fallen Elohim/gods. The more I think about this, the more it makes absolute sense to me regarding our authority to cast out demons.

I used to say we were created ABOVE the angels, so when they fell, we naturally still had authority over them; to cast them out. But that thought process fell apart when I realized we were BELOW the gods/angels.

I now believe demons are the disembodied spirits of Nephilim, whom God did not create, so they have nowhere to go, after they die. They go around looking for another physical body to inhabit, so they can do something/anything in the physical realm (remember Jesus and the herd of pigs?). This understanding is nothing new, as it has been around for a long time. Why do we often lose the understanding of things we used to know?

Nephilim came about by Elohim's (the gods) physical union with human women- they were god/human hybrids. Like Hercules, as it were. See where a lot of mythology has come from? I find it fascinating that so much mythology has its basis in reality. Hmmm, I wonder if there actually WAS a Nephilim named Hercules . . . mind blown!

Well if I haven't confused you by now, I'll finish with my purpose of this post- we do have authority to cast out demons. No surprise, since many of us have seen/done this over the years (and Jesus told us to do so), but for me this explanation is the reason we can do it.

 

Our Retirement Home Blessing

This is our retirement home. Nestled at the edge of Forestbrook Reserve in Myrtle Beach, you will find our "forever home." Being a Salvation Army officer's kid, that says a lot, because I lived in 9 different houses before I graduated college (we actually lived in two houses while I was in college). Since then, you can add another 19 until we finally landed here! We don't plan on moving ever again! By the way- I have the address list of very house I ever lived in.

Here is the story of our retirement home blessing:

Three years before retirement (2020), our plan was to come to Myrtle Beach and find a good realtor (and we found one of the BEST!). We wanted him to show us some houses and we would fill him in on what we liked and what we didn't like about those houses. Then in 2021, we would come back and get serious about buying a home. During that year, I would learn everything I needed to know about buying a house, because, well, I had never done that. We always lived in Salvation Army provided "quarters" (homes).

Our realtor gave us access to his web site where we found about 4-5 houses we liked. The day before he was to show us around these houses, we drove around ourselves to see them from the outside.

The first was already SOLD, so that was crossed off the list. The second was in a neighborhood we didn't particularly like (and it was hard to get to), so that one was crossed off the list. The next one just didn't look as good in person as it did online, so off the list. The last two were fine and since we didn't have any others we liked, we would go with the realtor to see them the next day.

Very quickly that day, we realized the first house looked great on the outside, but was going to take more renovation than we wanted. Almost a bit sadly, we went to our final house. I mean, we had "struck out" so far, what was going to happen with our last one?

In case you haven't guessed already, we walked into the house shown above. Within 5 minutes of looking Debbie and I both KNEW this was THE house! Good news, bad news- we loved the house, but I knew nothing about the house buying process and wasn't even sure we could make an appropriate down payment. I went into deep thinking mode to figure out if we could do it.

Our realtor said if we liked it, we should make an offer right away, because he was certain it would not stay on the market much longer. To make a long story short, we made an offer and went back and forth a couple of times until it was all settled. Then a date was set for the closing. We went home back North to figure out the process and work through all the paperwork we needed to do.

About a month later, we came back to close and "lived" in our home for 5 days before we returned to work and decided to rent the place until we needed it. That proved to be a God-thing as well, because that extra money helped a LOT in paying for the mortgage and having some money to do the minor renovations we wanted- like painting, carpets, etc.

A year passed. You might remember the housing market went CRAZY in 2021! If we had waited until we had planned on buying a house, we never could have afforded our house or anything like it. The price had gone way above our limit. God had a plan all along. I am glad we chose to listen to His plan and not mine!

God says "My ways are not your ways." Good thing!

God is so good to us. We see our retirement home as a direct blessing from God. And the first of our many blessings he poured down on us as we headed into retirement.

Trust in Yahweh with your whole heart and don't depend on your own knowledge and understanding. If you do this, He will make your path an easy one (my paraphrase). 

- - - - - 

Postscript: In the process of buying our house, I learned a LOT about the process of buying a house. If anyone reading this is interested, I can provide a simple two sheet list of steps.

God Bless America?

There is little doubt about it- America has a lot in common with Israel when it comes to God's blessing. Both nations began with a complete focus on God and God's hand was on them both as long as they continued to follow His ways. 

The other day in my devotional reading, I came across this quote: 

"[Jeremiah's] society suffered from pervasive moral and spiritual decay. The nation of Judah had turned so far from God that it was soon to face His fierce judgement." 

And that got me thinking . . . thoughts that I have wrestled with many times before. 

The scriptures paint a vivid picture of what happened to Israel/Judah when the people strayed from God. God removed his hand of protection and they were (more than once) subjected to God's judgement. 

In the United States, we sing the song: "God Bless America." And for many years, God HAS blessed us. But as I think about this song today, I cannot sing it without conviction that God is no longer blessing us. Can we still ask Him to bless us when we have strayed so far from his ways? When we are doing so many things directly against His will for us? I think not. We have lost our way and I believe it is time for His judgement. Perhaps it would be more appropriate to sing "God BlessED America."

That said, the scriptures also paint as vivid a picture of what happened when God's people repented and returned to Him and again followed His ways. They were restored and God began protecting and blessing once again. This isn't rocket science!

We are never too far away from God that we cannot repent and return. He promises to listen and restore when our hearts seek him and we change our ways.

I'm not trying to be prophetic, but I believe we are in for some serious judgement. We can turn this around, but it's going to take a LOT of prayer, repentance, and turning back; turning away from the things we have put in God's place. Christians won't be exempt- Jeremiah was a righteous man, but he suffered right along with the rest of his nation.

What will it take for America to realize we need to get to a place of repentance and turn our direction around? Will we see the coming judgement as God trying to get our attention? Or will we act as if it was God who turned from us first?

Here's what I pray at least twice every day:

"O Father, have mercy on all humanity. Draw all people to Your Truth."

Pray with me for revival with deep repentance and a return to God.

Bass Trombone

About 3 years ago, I started noticing some amazing blessings God was sending our way- as we prepared for retirement. I could give you a long list of incredible things (and I likely will talk about many of them here in days to come), but want to focus on just one here:

In college, I majored in Performance on Bass Trombone. My intent was to play in an orchestra or pit band somewhere and my efforts went in that direction. That is until God told me he wanted me to be an officer in The Salvation Army. 

That "call" came along about 2 1/2 years into my studies. Once I agreed with his plan (and honestly that took awhile), Bass Trombone began moving down my list of priorities for things like public speaking and Bible classes. Before I entered The Army's school for officer training, I sadly sold my "baby" (a Holton TR180 with custom modified inline Thayer valves) and bought a small tenor trombone (Bach 16M), because that would be more practical (however it is the same horn Bill Watrous plays!). I still use that tenor today at my corps. I did keep my custom Bass Trombone mouthpiece (a modified Bach 1 1/4 G), however- just in case!

Over the years I have had many opportunities to play Bass Trombone in different Army bands, but always had to use the horn provided. Some were okay, others- not so much! But deep down, I truly missed playing "for real."

Don't get me wrong- I have loved my career as a Salvation Army officer with amazing appointments, people and going everywhere God has led us. I know his way was best and I was blessed to serve as he wanted. I wouldn't change a thing.

Then we retired in December. I happened to find a local community band that needed a Bass Trombone, so I went. And quickly discovered I needed my own Bass Trombone again! So I started looking. Now, mind you, the cost of a decent horn these days is seriously prohibitive. But to make a long story shorter, I found (ahem- God found FOR me) a brand new (only played once) Wessex inline double trigger for an awesome price! I drove 3 hours to my Mom's home town (Columbia, SC) try it out and instantly loved it. You can see it above!

Back in Myrtle Beach, the community band also has a Jazz Band (Jazz is in my blood!) AND Brass Choir (larger brass quintet, which I loved in college). I now play Bass Trombone in 3 different groups (and tenor and sometimes euphonium at the corps)! Retirement is like Frosted Flakes- it's G-R-E-A-T!

SOooo, the other day it dawned on me that God worked all this out to "give my Bass Trombone back again!" I did what he wanted for 42 1/2 years; now he is letting me do what I originally wanted to do for whatever years I have left. God is just SO cool! And I still get to work with the young adults at the corps too (my ministry)!

My Dad used to say "God loves everyone, but he loves ME the best!" 

I know what he meant.