a better hope

You could say a lot of things about fear. Fear is a great motivator. (Used by the devil, of course.) Fear in the biblical sense means respect or honor. What do I fear the most? Losing my job? Being in an accident? Getting sick and dying? Something cataclysmic happening in the world? I think it has more to do with who I have around me. Losing people. Things like that. Only God knows what I truly fear. I really don't know until I get there.  Then there is fear in the biblical sense, as in the fear of the Lord. Only God knows what I honor above Him. I don't want to be like Eli who honored his sons above God. Even when he was rebuked for it, he didn't repent. I don't want anything to get between me and God because that's the one relationship I cannot lose. I would be as lost as a goose in a snowstorm if that happened.  There is no need to fear. The Bible oft repeats the phrase "fear not." Some say it is repeated 365 times. All I know is I've heard God spea...

I'm just going to put this here and not say a whole lot. Maybe it's for me; maybe it's for someone else. Maybe it's not for anyone! Maybe it's for someone someday. I have no idea. I just liked it. Too often we measure ourselves with other Christians. I constantly fall short when I do that, much less when I measure myself against an apostle or Jesus Christ Himself. This is just a reminder God is a God Who loves individuals. He wants a personal relationship and walk with each of us. I don't define my religion as a set of rules but, rather, as a relationship. You may do things differently. Just a reminder God will meet you where you are. Amen?  Thank you for reading. And God bless. My Tumblr .  And my other blog, None Dare Call It Treason.

This is quite a lot to unpack. In case you have a hard time reading it, here's what it says:  "Norah Vincent, the author of Self Made Man, has died by assisted suicide.  Norah was a radical feminist who believed men lived on easy mode, and  tried to prove it by disguising herself as a man for two years.  Instead, what she found out is men actually have it harder, and wrote a book about her experience,  In fact the experience was so bad she had to stop at 18 months because  she was starting to hate women, due to how bad all of them treated her  when they believed she was a man, and was left with psychological scars  that accompanied her all of her life." ( The link is actually here .)  I don't doubt she was treated poorly as a man. I have no doubt how she was treated contributed to her decision to end her life at 53. But, that's not why she ended her life. Read about her life and you'll see she wasn't happy no matter what and that she tried to...

This is an interesting read . You can also listen to it. For those aspiring to be pastors, this may be helpful. I've heard many pastors say God will stop them in their progress or turn them around at some point and redirect them in a way that is bewildering. Maybe this explains why. This doesn't particularly speak to me, but it may be helpful for someone seeking a ministry. I don't feel God has called me to be a pastor and I think a lot of those preaching aren't called by God. They may be called my men (or their mama), but not of God. How can I tell? One can tell. I've been in a lot of churches. Some men (women are not called to preach) have a calling on their lives, and it is obvious. God gives them a charisma for the work because it is hard work. God will draw people to them. When God calls a man to preach, the people will be fed with knowledge and understanding.  One thing God has reinforced with me is toward the end of the article where it says to be faithful in...

Everyone knows the story of the prodigal son. It's one of the best and oft-quoted passages from the Bible (Luke 15). I know. I get it. I am the prodigal son. I left God and returned to His loving arms. But, what I want to talk about is the prodigal son's brother. You see, I am him too.  What theologians will tell you is the two sons are indicative of the Gentiles (the prodigal son) and the Jews (the eldest son). The prodigal son screwed up, repented, and came home to his father (Heavenly Father). The eldest son did what he was told but was full of sin on the inside. He was obedient on the outside, but his heart never changed. He has a legalistic and petty response to seeing his father embrace his repentant brother.  The picture of the eldest son tells me something about myself. At certain points in my life I did everything I was told to do and lived an upright life. But, I was secretly sinful because my heart was hard. I wondered why others got to do things I couldn't and I...

Going to church means different things to different people. Nothing wrong with that. I always felt going to church was a sort of sacred thing. I went to a lot of them over the years and then stopped because I had some rather upsetting things happen in my life which affected my faith. I was a young man. That sort of thing wouldn't happen today. I think of Job and how even his wife, who was surely the closest person to him, left him in his hour of need and told him to curse God and die. What did Job do? Here was a man smitten of God. No doubt about it. God slayed him. Job defended God to his wife and rebuked her attitude. Job was slayed by God and Job defended God. Why? Because he feared Him? Perhaps. I think Job knew God like few men do. Job definitely loved God. But he also understood God could give and take away in equal measure.  Job's friends came to "comfort" him but, instead, sat in silence with him for a while and then started tearing him apart. They didn't ...

I copied and pasted this into blogger and the photos didn't come through. Leave a comment with your email address and I can send you the pdf or just search for it. This is an interesting read for those who are trying to understand the two competing bloodlines Jesus talked about (wheat and the tares).  The Nephilim: Satan’s Seed from Creation to the Great Tribulation Transjordan and Golan as Their Habitation ©2016 Susan Lynn Schmidt M.B.S. M.A. The idea of aliens, giants and mysterious monolithic structures has become popularized. The purpose of this paper is to examine the Biblical text tracing the seed of Satan, namely the Nephilim, and Rephaim. These are possibly the basis of the Greek Gigantomachy, which was condemned by the Risen Christ as Satan’s Throne, both genetically and spiritually. Two ancient sites, the Pergamon Altar in Berlin, as well as Rujum el-Hiri in the Golan Heights in Israel, will be included to demonstrate the possibility that these “fallen ones”...