makarios

Setting goals for this new year, or not...

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Sat, 01 Jan 2022 01:28:00 +0000

January 11, 2020 (December 31, 2021)

I found this post that never got published, so here it is.

I read a book once, it was called 'the dark night of the soul' or something like that; it was written by an old monk hundreds of years ago, I think his name was St. John of the Cross. In this book he described the process that his soul went through to get to what he called 'union with divine love'. It was mainly a poem, written in stanzas, it was very cool.

I was thinking about that today, how God allows certain things and events to happen with the sole purpose of purifying my faith; I guess that is what I was tripping about in the last post, was it yesterday? Maybe not. Very similar to what this old saint says in his book.

As you can see I'm still thinking about it, mostly because I feel sick today. You must get the impression that I complain a lot, but I really don't, I just like to talk about misery in general, just to make you realize how blessed you are if you are healthy, enjoy it while you can.

Life is very strange sometimes, isn't it? I say this as a Christian man who believes that God is in control of all things (here he goes again with the sovereignty of God), and of course He is in control of all things in my life. God can do whatever He pleases, that is a fact, the bible says so, in those words; He can do whatever He wants with me, He doesn't need my opinion, nor does He need to ask if I'm OK with it. He just does what He does and there is nothing anyone on this earth can do to prevent Him from doing it.

Then the inevitable comes. Just like king David, I start looking at those who could care less about God, He is not in their thoughts at all, they really don't care if He is real or not, they sin with impunity, or at least it looks that way; then there are others who know who He is, and even know what the bible says about their sin, but they still continue to sin the same way they have always sinned, and they don't care; what makes it worse in my mind is that they appear to have all the success of this world and everything goes their way, the only time they think about God is when something bad happens.

That is what I mean when I say this life is very strange, I bet you see it the same way. Reality says otherwise, at least my reality does, and if the bible is true, then your reality is the same as mine, and your reality says otherwise too.

The Christian life is not strange at all, it is the real reality; it is salvation, regeneration, sanctification, glorification; life eternal in the presence of God the Almighty, a life without end in eternal bliss and union with God; that is the real reality for those who love God and have been called according to His purpose, which He will accomplish without our help.

Now imagine living a life where you deceive yourself without knowing that you are deceiving yourself; that sounds really strange, but that is the life of a person who has no idea who God really is; some people live this kind of life and they call themselves Christians; churches are filled with this kind of people on any given Sunday, they are everywhere, even if they do not go to church.

The self deceived are those who think that because they said a prayer they now have a ticket to paradise, or as they say in christianeese, fire insurance; they were led to believe that God wants them to be successful in this world and they are convinced that God is going to make them rich, or help them to accomplish all their goals; they think that they need to go to church because that appeases God and it is a brownie point for them, but they really don't go to church that often. They usually have a list of things they should do to get God on their side so they can keep on climbing the ladder of their dreams.

Some of them even get involved in different ministries because they feel it is their duty to help out, it makes them feel better about themselves after they sin during the week, some of them have the Muslim mentality (the religious mentality I should say): your good deeds must be more in number than your bad deeds; they've got to make sure the balance is always tipped toward the good deeds side, it is the only way to prevent hell from happening to them, basically life is always about themselves and about what everyone else thinks about them.

There is more though, and I mean more deceived people. The cause of their deception is the deceitfulness of sin itself, even more than their own flesh; these are the ones that are in even more danger (as if that is a possibility, which is not), they are the ones that can justify their sin at any cost; you probably know some of them, they even go to the same church you go to but sitting on the pews they look like they are at home.

These are the ones who read the bible and know what it says but they continue to live the same way they have always lived; in the surface it looks like they are godly, they keep the appearances very well but in the inside they are filled with judgment towards others, their behavior is always excusable on the basis of what others do, they're always irritated by other people's behavior but they are worse than the the people who irritate them in the first place.

I wrote a post about them in the past, about 7 or 8 years ago, they are the most sickening of all the self deceived; their excuse is always that they have been saved by grace so it really doesn't matter if they make any effort to change the things they know need changing; they think they "love" Jesus but they have no idea what loving Jesus really means, and if you tell them or mention obedience to the Lord, they tell you that you are very legalistic, impatient and judgmental. You probably know exactly what I'm talking about; some pastors fall in this category, as weird as that sounds, and it makes me wonder how they became pastors to begin with.

Going back to the dark night of the soul, I think I'm going through the soul night of the dark, dislexically speaking; just as that sentence doesn't make any sense, my life seems to not make any sense right now; it is almost like I am suspended in time, watching the days go by, totally disconnected from reality; which makes me think about my own situation. Do I love God?

Is that a question that goes through your mind sometimes? Probably not. But I do ask myself precisely that sporadically; do I really love God? What does it mean to love God? The answer is simple, from the lips of Jesus Himself: if you love me, you will keep my commandments.

Or to put it in question form, also from Jesus: why do you call me Lord and do not do what I tell you to do?

Is that simple really, if I love God, I will do what He says to do. Of course this means to obey, which is really impossible without His help in the first place; no one can love God perfectly in this world, no man can obey God perfectly in this body made of decaying flesh; but the key to this puzzle is that it is not a puzzle, I shouldn't be puzzled that I'm puzzled, because it is the work of God in me that makes me love God.

Those that love God and are called according to His purpose, love God because they are called according to His purpose, so all things work together for good for them, even their disobedience. That is a very good thing.

Of course, there are people who do not believe that God has anything to do with your obedience, they think that it is you who must obey without His help, it must come from your heart and your mind, very much like a good Arminian, or should I say 'a good Pelagian'? Are there any good Pelagians?

You probably also know the type, these are the ones who come to the Bible with a set of 'teachings' and pre-conceived ideas, very much just like the Pharisees; they know what the Bible says and it says what they think it says, even if you show them the original meaning of the words in context of what those words say in context of what the book says, and so forth and so on. Frustrating.

It's frustrating because they really don't want to reason with you, they have been taught how to "interpret" the Bible and you cannot be right in what you see, even if what you see falls into the same category of their reasoning. Am I making any sense? Probably not.

What I am saying is that the Bible clearly teaches that you and I are dead in trespasses and sins, that our minds are totally opposed to God's law and anything He says or wants; the book also says that we have been saved by grace through faith and that it is not of ourselves or anything we do or have done, our salvation is the gift of God so no one can boast about it. This grace by which we have been saved includes the faith that is used as a tool that allows to see the beauty of Jesus' work, the "it is not of yourselves" refers to the grace and to the faith, it cannot be interpreted any other way, you check it out:

Eph 2:8-10
(8) For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
(9) Not of works, lest any man should boast.
(10) For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Here some will argue that faith is a natural thing with man since we all believe in all kinds of things, like having faith that a chair will sustain our bodies when we sit on it, or believing that there will be light after we flip the switch on the wall; but the faith that Paul is talking about here is the same faith that he says is the gift of God in those verses above.

So since I never finished this post back in the beginning of the year 2020, I am purposefully finishing it today, the last day of the year 2021, and at the same time I ask you this question: do you love God? Or better yet, do you think you love God? Of course if you are a Christian, you will say that yes, you do love God; but before you do say it, think about where this love comes from if you have it. According to Romans 8, your natural (carnal) mind cannot be subject to God's law (His word) so you cannot love Him with your natural mind, or in your natural state, do you see it?

Rom 8:7-8 Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

So if you cannot please God in your natural state, you cannot love Him, and according to Jesus the only thing that is required of me is to love God with all my soul, my mind, and my strength and to love my neighbor as myself, this is the greatest commandment you can keep and by keeping it you keep all the others. Try that in the state you were before God gave you a new birth, and see if you can even think about it.

So, another so just for redundancy, whatever makes us think we can set any goals for the new year? How about setting just one goal for this year, ok let's make it easier, just two goals for this year, love God with all you heart, mind and strength and to love your neighbor as yourself. Shall be easy, right?

Have a nice new year brothers and sisters, we are all closer to being with Jesus than ever before.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Trump's last speech...

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Tue, 02 Feb 2021 21:42:00 +0000

Just in case you missed it and since you can't find it at the White House website anymore:

The White House

THE PRESIDENT: My fellow Americans: Four years ago, we launched a great national effort to rebuild our country, to renew its spirit, and to restore the allegiance of this government to its citizens. In short, we embarked on a mission to make America great again — for all Americans.

As I conclude my term as the 45th President of the United States, I stand before you truly proud of what we have achieved together. We did what we came here to do — and so much more.

This week, we inaugurate a new administration and pray for its success in keeping America safe and prosperous. We extend our best wishes, and we also want them to have luck — a very important word.

I’d like to begin by thanking just a few of the amazing people who made our remarkable journey possible.

First, let me express my overwhelming gratitude for the love and support of our spectacular First Lady, Melania. Let me also share my deepest appreciation to my daughter Ivanka, my son-in-law Jared, and to Barron, Don, Eric, Tiffany, and Lara. You fill my world with light and with joy.

I also want to thank Vice President Mike Pence, his wonderful wife Karen, and the entire Pence family.

Thank you as well to my Chief of Staff, Mark Meadows; the dedicated members of the White House Staff and the Cabinet; and all the incredible people across our administration who poured out their heart and soul to fight for America.

I also want to take a moment to thank a truly exceptional group of people: the United States Secret Service. My family and I will forever be in your debt. My profound gratitude as well to everyone in the White House Military Office, the teams of Marine One and Air Force One, every member of the Armed Forces, and state and local law enforcement all across our country.

Most of all, I want to thank the American people. To serve as your President has been an honor beyond description. Thank you for this extraordinary privilege. And that’s what it is — a great privilege and a great honor.

We must never forget that while Americans will always have our disagreements, we are a nation of incredible, decent, faithful, and peace-loving citizens who all want our country to thrive and flourish and be very, very successful and good. We are a truly magnificent nation.

All Americans were horrified by the assault on our Capitol. Political violence is an attack on everything we cherish as Americans. It can never be tolerated.

Now more than ever, we must unify around our shared values and rise above the partisan rancor, and forge our common destiny.

Four years ago, I came to Washington as the only true outsider ever to win the presidency. I had not spent my career as a politician, but as a builder looking at open skylines and imagining infinite possibilities. I ran for President because I knew there were towering new summits for America just waiting to be scaled. I knew the potential for our nation was boundless as long as we put America first.

So I left behind my former life and stepped into a very difficult arena, but an arena nevertheless, with all sorts of potential if properly done. America had given me so much, and I wanted to give something back.

Together with millions of hardworking patriots across this land, we built the greatest political movement in the history of our country. We also built the greatest economy in the history of the world. It was about “America First” because we all wanted to make America great again. We restored the principle that a nation exists to serve its citizens. Our agenda was not about right or left, it wasn’t about Republican or Democrat, but about the good of a nation, and that means the whole nation.

With the support and prayers of the American people, we achieved more than anyone thought possible. Nobody thought we could even come close.

We passed the largest package of tax cuts and reforms in American history. We slashed more job-killing regulations than any administration had ever done before. We fixed our broken trade deals, withdrew from the horrible Trans-Pacific Partnership and the impossible Paris Climate Accord, renegotiated the one-sided South Korea deal, and we replaced NAFTA with the groundbreaking USMCA — that’s Mexico and Canada — a deal that’s worked out very, very well.

Also, and very importantly, we imposed historic and monumental tariffs on China; made a great new deal with China. But before the ink was even dry, we and the whole world got hit with the China virus. Our trade relationship was rapidly changing, billions and billions of dollars were pouring into the U.S., but the virus forced us to go in a different direction.

The whole world suffered, but America outperformed other countries economically because of our incredible economy and the economy that we built. Without the foundations and footings, it wouldn’t have worked out this way. We wouldn’t have some of the best numbers we’ve ever had.

We also unlocked our energy resources and became the world’s number-one producer of oil and natural gas by far. Powered by these policies, we built the greatest economy in the history of the world. We reignited America’s job creation and achieved record-low unemployment for African Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans, women — almost everyone.

Incomes soared, wages boomed, the American Dream was restored, and millions were lifted from poverty in just a few short years. It was a miracle. The stock market set one record after another, with 148 stock market highs during this short period of time, and boosted the retirements and pensions of hardworking citizens all across our nation. 401(k)s are at a level they’ve never been at before. We’ve never seen numbers like we’ve seen, and that’s before the pandemic and after the pandemic.

We rebuilt the American manufacturing base, opened up thousands of new factories, and brought back the beautiful phrase: “Made in the USA.”

To make life better for working families, we doubled the child tax credit and signed the largest-ever expansion of funding for childcare and development. We joined with the private sector to secure commitments to train more than 16 million American workers for the jobs of tomorrow.

When our nation was hit with the terrible pandemic, we produced not one, but two vaccines with record-breaking speed, and more will quickly follow. They said it couldn’t be done but we did it. They call it a “medical miracle,” and that’s what they’re calling it right now: a “medical miracle.”

Another administration would have taken 3, 4, 5, maybe even up to 10 years to develop a vaccine. We did in nine months.

We grieve for every life lost, and we pledge in their memory to wipe out this horrible pandemic once and for all.

When the virus took its brutal toll on the world’s economy, we launched the fastest economic recovery our country has ever seen. We passed nearly $4 trillion in economic relief, saved or supported over 50 million jobs, and slashed the unemployment rate in half. These are numbers that our country has never seen before.

We created choice and transparency in healthcare, stood up to big pharma in so many ways, but especially in our effort to get favored-nations clauses added, which will give us the lowest prescription drug prices anywhere in the world.

We passed VA Choice, VA Accountability, Right to Try, and landmark criminal justice reform.

We confirmed three new justices of the United States Supreme Court. We appointed nearly 300 federal judges to interpret our Constitution as written.

For years, the American people pleaded with Washington to finally secure the nation’s borders. I am pleased to say we answered that plea and achieved the most secure border in U.S. history. We have given our brave border agents and heroic ICE officers the tools they need to do their jobs better than they have ever done before, and to enforce our laws and keep America safe.

We proudly leave the next administration with the strongest and most robust border security measures ever put into place. This includes historic agreements with Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, along with more than 450 miles of powerful new wall.

We restored American strength at home and American leadership abroad. The world respects us again. Please don’t lose that respect.

We reclaimed our sovereignty by standing up for America at the United Nations and withdrawing from the one-sided global deals that never served our interests. And NATO countries are now paying hundreds of billions of dollars more than when I arrived just a few years ago. It was very unfair. We were paying the cost for the world. Now the world is helping us.

And perhaps most importantly of all, with nearly $3 trillion, we fully rebuilt the American military — all made in the USA. We launched the first new branch of the United States Armed Forces in 75 years: the Space Force. And last spring, I stood at Kennedy Space Center in Florida and watched as American astronauts returned to space on American rockets for the first time in many, many years.

We revitalized our alliances and rallied the nations of the world to stand up to China like never before.

We obliterated the ISIS caliphate and ended the wretched life of its founder and leader, al Baghdadi. We stood up to the oppressive Iranian regime and killed the world’s top terrorist, Iranian butcher Qasem Soleimani.

We recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights.

As a result of our bold diplomacy and principled realism, we achieved a series of historic peace deals in the Middle East. Nobody believed it could happen. The Abraham Accords opened the doors to a future of peace and harmony, not violence and bloodshed. It is the dawn of a new Middle East, and we are bringing our soldiers home.

I am especially proud to be the first President in decades who has started no new wars.

Above all, we have reasserted the sacred idea that, in America, the government answers to the people. Our guiding light, our North Star, our unwavering conviction has been that we are here to serve the noble everyday citizens of America. Our allegiance is not to the special interests, corporations, or global entities; it’s to our children, our citizens, and to our nation itself.

As President, my top priority, my constant concern, has always been the best interests of American workers and American families. I did not seek the easiest course; by far, it was actually the most difficult. I did not seek the path that would get the least criticism. I took on the tough battles, the hardest fights, the most difficult choices because that’s what you elected me to do. Your needs were my first and last unyielding focus.

This, I hope, will be our greatest legacy: Together, we put the American people back in charge of our country. We restored self-government. We restored the idea that in America no one is forgotten, because everyone matters and everyone has a voice. We fought for the principle that every citizen is entitled to equal dignity, equal treatment, and equal rights because we are all made equal by God. Everyone is entitled to be treated with respect, to have their voice heard, and to have their government listen. You are loyal to your country, and my administration was always loyal to you.

We worked to build a country in which every citizen could find a great job and support their wonderful families. We fought for the communities where every American could be safe and schools where every child could learn. We promoted a culture where our laws would be upheld, our heroes honored, our history preserved, and law-abiding citizens are never taken for granted. Americans should take tremendous satisfaction in all that we have achieved together. It’s incredible.

Now, as I leave the White House, I have been reflecting on the dangers that threaten the priceless inheritance we all share. As the world’s most powerful nation, America faces constant threats and challenges from abroad. But the greatest danger we face is a loss of confidence in ourselves, a loss of confidence in our national greatness. A nation is only as strong as its spirit. We are only as dynamic as our pride. We are only as vibrant as the faith that beats in the hearts of our people.

No nation can long thrive that loses faith in its own values, history, and heroes, for these are the very sources of our unity and our vitality.

What has always allowed America to prevail and triumph over the great challenges of the past has been an unyielding and unashamed conviction in the nobility of our country and its unique purpose in history. We must never lose this conviction. We must never forsake our belief in America.

The key to national greatness lies in sustaining and instilling our shared national identity. That means focusing on what we have in common: the heritage that we all share.

At the center of this heritage is also a robust belief in free expression, free speech, and open debate. Only if we forget who we are, and how we got here, could we ever allow political censorship and blacklisting to take place in America. It’s not even thinkable. Shutting down free and open debate violates our core values and most enduring traditions.
In America, we don’t insist on absolute conformity or enforce rigid orthodoxies and punitive speech codes. We just don’t do that. America is not a timid nation of tame souls who need to be sheltered and protected from those with whom we disagree. That’s not who we are. It will never be who we are.

For nearly 250 years, in the face of every challenge, Americans have always summoned our unmatched courage, confidence, and fierce independence. These are the miraculous traits that once led millions of everyday citizens to set out across a wild continent and carve out a new life in the great West. It was the same profound love of our God-given freedom that willed our soldiers into battle and our astronauts into space.

As I think back on the past four years, one image rises in my mind above all others. Whenever I traveled all along the motorcade route, there were thousands and thousands of people. They came out with their families so that they could stand as we passed, and proudly wave our great American flag. It never failed to deeply move me. I knew that they did not just come out to show their support of me; they came out to show me their support and love for our country.

This is a republic of proud citizens who are united by our common conviction that America is the greatest nation in all of history. We are, and must always be, a land of hope, of light, and of glory to all the world. This is the precious inheritance that we must safeguard at every single turn.

For the past four years, I have worked to do just that. From a great hall of Muslim leaders in Riyadh to a great square of Polish people in Warsaw; from the floor of the Korean Assembly to the podium at the United Nations General Assembly; and from the Forbidden City in Beijing to the shadow of Mount Rushmore, I fought for you, I fought for your family, I fought for our country. Above all, I fought for America and all it stands for — and that is safe, strong, proud, and free.

Now, as I prepare to hand power over to a new administration at noon on Wednesday, I want you to know that the movement we started is only just beginning. There’s never been anything like it. The belief that a nation must serve its citizens will not dwindle but instead only grow stronger by the day.

As long as the American people hold in their hearts deep and devoted love of country, then there is nothing that this nation cannot achieve. Our communities will flourish. Our people will be prosperous. Our traditions will be cherished. Our faith will be strong. And our future will be brighter than ever before.

I go from this majestic place with a loyal and joyful heart, an optimistic spirit, and a supreme confidence that for our country and for our children, the best is yet to come.

Thank you, and farewell. God bless you. God bless the United States of America.

END

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

No fear...

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Thu, 07 Nov 2019 18:53:00 +0000

Yesterday was my brother Leo's birthday, he would have turned 62 years old; which made me realize that I am getting old, again. Time waits for no one, they say, and I think it is true; time keeps moving on like a raging river coming down from the mountains, my whole existence is nothing but a spec of dust caught in its current. That is how I feel sometimes, very insignificant.

I miss my brothers, specially the ones who are gone; I wish I could see them and talk to them. Leonardo always made me laugh, Carlos always made me feel loved; I got blessed with an awesome family, and I am very grateful for that. God is very good to me.

Of course I have no idea why I am writing this, it is always the same thing when I write, I just feel the urge to do it and I have no idea what I am going to say, at the end it usually works out; I hope that it blesses you when you read it.

Last night I opened my bible to the book of psalms, psalm 103 to be precise, and I got blessed to read it again, it is a beautiful psalm, one of my favorite chapters of scripture for sure. I have memorized almost half of it, it is worth the effort, and it is a real blessing to be able to meditate upon it. What David says in it is just amazing, here it is so you can see:

Psa 103
(1) A Psalm of David. Bless the LORD, O my soul, And all that is within me, bless His holy name.
(2) Bless the LORD, O my soul, And forget none of His benefits;
(3) Who pardons all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases;
(4) Who redeems your life from the pit, Who crowns you with lovingkindness and compassion;
(5) Who satisfies your years with good things, So that your youth is renewed like the eagle.
(6) The LORD performs righteous deeds And judgments for all who are oppressed.
(7) He made known His ways to Moses, His acts to the sons of Israel.
(8) The LORD is compassionate and gracious, Slow to anger and abounding in lovingkindness.
(9) He will not always strive with us, Nor will He keep His anger forever.
(10) He has not dealt with us according to our sins, Nor rewarded us according to our iniquities.
(11) For as high as the heavens are above the earth, So great is His lovingkindness toward those who fear Him.
(12) As far as the east is from the west, So far has He removed our transgressions from us.
(13) Just as a father has compassion on his children, So the LORD has compassion on those who fear Him.
(14) For He Himself knows our frame; He is mindful that we are but dust.
(15) As for man, his days are like grass; As a flower of the field, so he flourishes.
(16) When the wind has passed over it, it is no more, And its place acknowledges it no longer.
(17) But the lovingkindness of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting on those who fear Him, And His righteousness to children's children,
(18) To those who keep His covenant And remember His precepts to do them.
(19) The LORD has established His throne in the heavens, And His sovereignty rules over all.
(20) Bless the LORD, you His angels, Mighty in strength, who perform His word, Obeying the voice of His word!
(21) Bless the LORD, all you His hosts, You who serve Him, doing His will.
(22) Bless the LORD, all you works of His, In all places of His dominion; Bless the LORD, O my soul!

It sounds like David is reminding his soul of what it has apparently forgotten; but it can never really forget it since his experience has been one of amazing grace and mercy, very similar to yours and mine but maybe ours in a lesser degree since we have never been kings or queens...

Indeed, God forgives all my iniquities and heals all my diseases (eventually I will feel no pain and experience no sorrow, eventually I will cry no more), He has redeemed my life from the pit of destruction and has crowned me with lovingkindness and compassion, He has removed my transgressions from me as far as the east is from the west for He knows I fear Him; He knows my frame and remembers that I am dust. His sovereignty reigns over all, even over those who hate Him.

As for me, my days are like grass, as a flower I flourished and the wind is passing over me, soon I will be no more and my place will acknowledge me no longer; but what will never change is the lovingkindness of my God, it will be from everlasting to everlasting, His righteousness even to my children's children. That alone is enough reason to praise Him. Is it not?

What do you think about ! when you think about death? Is it the passage from one life to another? Is it waking up from a dream, or a nightmare? Is there any fear that you missed something? Do you have any regrets? I think about all those questions and always come to the same conclusion, I don't really care much, I just want to experience real holiness, real bliss. I will, someday.

Death was conquered by Jesus, the bible says; oh death where is your sting? Paul asked. It has no dominion over me; that is great news! There is no fear in love, and I fear not because He loved me first.

I will go on trying to rejoice, and reading what David says about my God, you should try it too.

Have a nice day.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

I remember...

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Tue, 15 Oct 2019 22:15:00 +0000

I just went went for a walk to this place where I used to play when I was a kid; it is just an awesome place, it is right across the street from my mom's house, in Mexico City of course.

While I was walking I put on my iTunes and started playing an old Margaret Becker album from 1992, it is called Steps of Faith; have you ever heard it before? If you have not, I recommend you go and buy it, download it, rip it, whatever; if you don't, you will be a loser, ok maybe not.

There is a song in this album that makes me weep every time I hear it; that is no exaggeration, it really makes me cry. It reminds me of a season in my life in which I was waking up to know God in Jesus, my faith was being tried like a steel sword to the fire; it was all dark, and smoky, and burning.

That whole season of my life was a trying time, the first half of the 1990's were hard for me and my whole family. My dad passed away, and then six months later my oldest brother Carlos passed away too; I barely had any money and I had to borrow from my employer so I could buy a plane ticket to attend my dad's funeral.

Just a few months earlier I had come to Mexico City to visit my dad in the hospital, I don't remember the exact dates of all this, but I was in the hospital along with my brothers and neighbors and my dad's brothers, and my cousins and friends, it was a big crowd; then I suddenly started to talk to my little brother about Jesus, I didn't care who heard me. He gave his life to the Lord right there in the hospital.

The following day, as we were getting ready to have dinner, I started talking to Matilde about Jesus (she was the house maid, she was with my mom for about 45 years); she told me she had already been reading the bible but she couldn't understand it; I explained that up to that point she had been reading someone else's mail. She became a Christian right there in mom's kitchen.

That night during the 'merienda' time (merienda is a light snack that people eat in Mexico at night, usually around 9 PM); as my other 3 brothers and my mom were seating at the table, I started to talk about Jesus to my brother Carlos, he was 4 years older than me, never married, traveled the world, etc. He was a free spirited kind of guy; he became a Christian right at the table that night. We all held hands while he prayed with me. It was beautiful.

God saved three of my family members in 2 days, just like that. That night my brother told me he had AIDS, I broke down like a little boy; I couldn't believe my dear Carlos was going to die soon. Back then there was no knowledge on how to treat HIV; there was no way to even extend your life if you had AIDS, at least not in Mexico. Treatment was available if you were rich, my brother was not, and neither were we. I love my brothers, dead or alive.

Later on when I got home, I went to see Margaret Becker at the San Diego Symphony Hall, her music really lifted me up, the way she wrote those songs was very special to me, almost everything she put out touched my heart in some way, so I listened to her music a lot. I wonder where she is now, if she has not gone to heaven she is probably old, and I bet she is still walking with God, I have no doubt about it.

How often will my kids and grand kids remember me? I often ask this question, not because I want them to remember me (I do), but because I wonder if I have led a life that is worth mentioning in a conversation. I guess it really doesn't matter, what matters is if I remember God, I know He thinks about me and His thoughts towards me are more than can be counted. Here are the lyrics to the song:

Who Am I?

Who am I Jesus that you call me by name?

I am counting stars on your blackened sky,
You call them all by name, You know them all by sight;
In the sea of light, I sense your majesty,
and I break at the thought
that One so great could care for me.

Who am I Jesus, that you call me by name?
What could I ever do to be loved this way?
Who am I Jesus?
In your eyes, tell me who am I.

I am counting the mountains
That I laid at your feet,
and I'm reduced to tears when I think of how
you've moved them for me

In the storm of life
You've been my safe retreat,
through the wind and the fire
You've always were there to carry me..

Who am I Jesus that you call me by name?
What could I ever do to be loved this way?
Who am I Jesus?
In Your eyes, tell me who am I.

No greater honor could I ever find
than the privilege to love you for the rest of my life....
Who am I Jesus,that you call me by name?
What could I ever do to be loved this way?

Who am I Jesus?
Who am I Jesus?
In your eyes, tell me, who am I?

Have a nice day.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Psalm 39...

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 06:27:00 +0000

From the archives, 5 years ago:

Psa 39:1 For the choir director, for Jeduthun. A Psalm of David. I said, "I will guard my ways That I may not sin with my tongue; I will guard my mouth as with a muzzle While the wicked are in my presence."
2 I was mute and silent, I refrained even from good, And my sorrow grew worse.
3 My heart was hot within me, While I was musing the fire burned; Then I spoke with my tongue:
4 "LORD, make me to know my end And what is the extent of my days; Let me know how transient I am.
5 "Behold, You have made my days as handbreadths, And my lifetime as nothing in Your sight; Surely every man at his best is a mere breath. Selah.
6 "Surely every man walks about as a phantom; Surely they make an uproar for nothing; He amasses riches and does not know who will gather them.
7 "And now, Lord, for what do I wait? My hope is in You.
8 "Deliver me from all my transgressions; Make me not the reproach of the foolish.
9 "I have become mute, I do not open my mouth, Because it is You who have done it.
10 "Remove Your plague from me; Because of the opposition of Your hand I am perishing.
11 "With reproofs You chasten a man for iniquity; You consume as a moth what is precious to him; Surely every man is a mere breath. Selah.
12 "Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; Do not be silent at my tears; For I am a stranger with You, A sojourner like all my fathers.
13 "Turn Your gaze away from me, that I may smile again Before I depart and am no more."

It is easier to sin with my tongue than with any other part of my being; the words roll off my tongue with impunity sometimes. Sins of the tongue I shall call them, the sins of the mouth, the sounds that are uttered in a moment of frustration, or in an instant of anger, these are the sounds that make these words that contain iniquity. They all come from the source of all that is vile in a man, or a woman, they come straight from the heart.

The sins of the tongue are the worst enemies of the righteous, and they are even more wicked when they are pronounced in the presence of those who are in darkness, so David says, I will guard my ways. I wonder if I can say that: I will watch these words and put a muzzle around my mouth; I will tie my tongue down, I will chain it to a tree, just like a dog; and let the rain fall upon it, I will let it cook in the mid-day sun and let it parch, and have the dew fall upon it, I will let it frost over night, until it is brought into subjection. If David did it I can also do it, whether I want to or not is a matter of really wanting to do it.

The mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart, and so if every other word I speak is a curse word, that is an indication that my heart is abundantly filled with iniquities; evil thoughts come into the physical world through the sounds we make with our mouths, we call those 'words'; and even if they don't go beyond the f word, they are detestable to the Lord; they have to be since they are impure and unholy, and don't edify the one who listens to them, they also tear down the barrier of our vows; they are the most destructive sounds a mouth can utter.

The tongue is an unruly evil, James calls it; a man who has no control over his mouth is like a ship without a rudder; or as Proverbs says, he who has no self control is like a city without walls. We all know how important it is to exercise self control in all things, and we know this because the bible is clear about it, have I not read it? Is it not clear? That is of course a rhetorical question; or maybe is not. What if you have not read it? Well, someone has told you already that you should watch over the words that you speak, maybe your father and mother did, or a teacher at school, or your gramma or your granpa; we make the choice to speak evil words, and if you say that it is not true, that we don't choose to speak them, then you are in pretty bad shape because you don't even know yourself.

The problem is the thoughts that we think; all issues pertaining to holy living hinge upon this one thing, the life of our minds. The heart is so deceitful that it even tells you that you are cool when you curse, yeah I know I should say 'we', but you get the point; for some reason (the deceitfulness of sin) our hearts tell us that we are cool when we behave just like every one else, when we speak like the heathen, but nothing could be farther from the truth, we are not cool, and it doesn't sound good either.

Men will be judged by every word they speak; oh but that is for the wicked only, we live under grace remember? Yeah, I do remember, but the reality of our duty is still there that we shall rule over sin, and over our tongues. May sin abound so that grace abounds more? God forbid. Is this control to be exercised even to the point of muteness? Refrain from speaking what is good? That is not what David is saying, his sorrow increased when he kept silent.

Musing about the wicked and how they prosper in their ways will cause your heart to burn hot within you, doesn't it? Do you ever wonder why you live in this state? A state of apparent lack? Or maybe a state of apparent poverty? I do, I wonder many times at God's design, it appears to be upside down, the wicked prosper and the righteous dies, and no one takes it to heart; but my bible says, it is because the righteous has been spared from evil; from the evil that is about to fall upon the face of this earth, and the evil of being in this fallen world.

Oh God, help me to know my end and what is the extent of my days, let me know how transient I am; after the burning in the heart comes out the prayer for help, I am just like that, I complain, I keep silent, I see my sin, I see my state, my wretched state, and then I pray for help, to know how transient I am; help me God to know the number of my days, and I see they are short, by design they are maybe 25,550. I don't have a guarantee for tomorrow, I can die today or tonight, in my sleep; or a rock might fall from heaven and crush me; or stumble on my way to the garage in the morning and break my neck.

Surely my days are like hand breaths and my life is nothing before God, yes, every man at its best is but a vapor that ascends from the earth and disappears into nothingness, every man is altogether vanity; all my days are as grass; our lives are almost like an illusion; it seems like yesterday when I was holding both my girls in my arms, at the same time, now I can barely get out of bed. Every man is a phantom he says, they make an uproar for nothing, amassing riches not knowing who will get them after they die; but my hope is in You, my God, you are my hope and my salvation, you are my rock of deliverance, my strong tower, my ever present help in time of need; all treasures are in You alone.

My hope is in You oh God, I wait patiently for your deliverance; deliver me oh King, deliver me from my transgressions, you know them all; every single one in every single day of my life, they are ever present before me, they have gone up to the top of my head, I'm sinking in the mire, deliver me so I will not be a reproach with the foolish, and the wicked; so that You will be praised, so that your glory and justice and grace may be proclaimed among the nations and exalted among the congregation of your saints. My hope is in You because there is no one else who can deliver me, and because you are mighty to save.

I can't speak anymore, I cannot utter any words anymore because You have done it; Your hand has placed me here in this place, you reign oh God, who can counsel you, or ask You 'what are you doing'? How can the thing molded reply against the potter, 'why are You making me thus'? With reproofs you chasten a man for his iniquity, and make what is dear to him disappear, his beauty is consumed as a moth consumes a leaf, surely we are as nothing before you, we are even less than vapor, just a mist that dissipates in front of our eyes. I am perishing because your hand of correction is on me, take this plague from me, and save me.

I'm a stranger in this world, just like those before me, we are just passing by on our way home; just like my predecessors, so give ears to my words and my prayer, listen to the sound of my tears falling in your bottle; they are tears of remembrance, tears of repentance; the fruit of your gift; I feel like a stranger with You, you seem so far, and my sin seems so unreal; have mercy upon me. Don't look upon my breaking your law and going against your will, restore me so that I can smile again with the sense of being yours forever; restore unto me the joy of Your salvation before I die and cease to be in this world.

This is the prayer of a man after God's own heart, David the king, the chosen of the Lord; I often make his songs my prayers, and my meditation, God has burned them on my heart; when I pray David's words I pray God's own word, and I understand that He understands how I feel; every moment of every day God looks upon me, God thinks about me but not without reason.

The only reason why God has any condescension towards me is because He sees me in Christ, I have been united to Christ with that mystical union that cannot be broken, not even for a moment; my position is one of blessedness. "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in Love, having predestinated us unto adoption of children by Jesus Christ to Himself.." And on and on Paul goes in his letter to the Ephesians. In the not distant past I could recite the whole section from verse 3 to 14, Ephesians 1:3-14 became my favorite passage of the bible since the first time I have ever read it, and over the years God has expounded it to my understanding with great benefit, and with great strengthening to my soul.

From my perspective everything looks bleak sometimes, and then I remember that today might be my last day upon this earth. Did you see the lunar eclipse last night? April 14, 2014. Yeap, the moon turned into blood, just like the bible talks about, I didn't see the whole thing but I saw the pictures this morning, the moon was red indeed; I painted it a few years ago and have it hanging on the wall of my garage: "The sun shall turn into darkness and the moon into blood before the great and terrible day of the Lord shall come" Joel 2:31. The sun is shining this morning so I know today is not that day, but it is coming for sure.

Have a beautiful day.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

12 years ago before there was a blog...

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Fri, 14 Jun 2019 05:49:00 +0000

This is another draft I found in my control panel. It dates back to 2007, right around where I was working hard at learning Greek, so you will see all those Greek words. Some of it I have mentioned in other posts, but being redundant has never bothered me a bit. You will also notice that back then I was already a Calvinist and I didn't know it.

I apologize for the long post but it really is a bunch of posts compiled together in a single file, this was before I ever started writing the blog on Blogger.com; the reason I am posting this is because these were what I called back then "thoughts of the blessed' and there are some very cool thoughts in here, if I may say so. Of course you don't have to read but I appreciate it if you do, I am also doing it for the sake of preserving them for the future, I hope you get something cool out of this mess:

I am not a theologian or a teacher, just a thinker. Not everything I think is true or false, it just is, some thoughts of mine are based on truth, some are based on fiction, some are full of light and some are just dark and whoever reads can agree or disagree at any time. If you don't like what you read here, it's ok, you don't have to like it, if you don't agree, it's ok too, you don't have to agree, but know this: absolute truth can only be found in God. Apart from God there is only relative truth, darkness and confusion.

1. I have always found thinking to be an almost spiritual activity; it was not until I read the Bible ( or the Book, the message, the word of God, the sword of the spirit, etc) through phos, light, that I discovered that for me, a human, thinking is a privilege; and thinking the right way is a duty of the highest order.

So I was thinking, when I was six, and pondered why is my head located between my shoulders and at the very top of my body. Location, location. It is clear to me now.

I don't think that animals think, I think only humans think, animals and man are thought to possess that which is basic to the animal kingdom: psuche, soul, but humans are the only ones that possess pneuma, spirit; to really be able to think in the thinking sense I need pneuma since without it I cannot comprehend my own thoughts, I have no reasoning power without pneuma; some animals show signs of having the ability to reason since they can learn certain things, but is only a sign, that is why I cannot have a conversation with a dog, I can teach a dog to sit on demand through rewards, but it will not reason "oh I see, if I sit down I will get a cookie, but what if I'm not hungry? can I save the cookie for later?". Pneuma without phos is always in the dark, the result of the interaction of divine phos and pneuma has resulted ,in my case, in pisteou: faith, mental persuasion, the abundant life.

For a long time I was part of the new age way of thinking; specifically metaphysics.

In metaphysics the universe is thought of as an effect of thought; according to the dictionary, back in the 4th century BC, Aristotle wrote a treatise of the theological doctrine of causation (which I haven't read) showing by his actions that the school of thought of cause and effect was already in existence.

In contrast, Saul of Tarsus was a great expositor of divine logic, as in the concept that the wisdom of men is foolishness with God, and that not many wise, mighty and noble men are called, but the foolish and weak things of the world, the kosmos, have been chosen to confound the wise and mighty.

I consider that faith operates through thought, there is faith and then there is faith, the evidence of things not seen. Thoughts that I dwell upon always cause some kind of feeling, proving that the thought was the cause or the cause was the thought and the effect was the feeling or the feeling was the effect. Is syntaxis important? Should I say syntax? Yes, maybe.

Science as a method, cannot realize how thought operates, science only knows that information is transmitted via chemicals and electrical signals in the physical reality, in the gray matter, the rest is a faith issue. Enter quantum physics and it's theories. It is easier to believe in quantum physics because there is no accountability to the atom on my part.

But in a sense is true, my thoughts, the ones that I dwell upon, which are always pictures, will manifest themselves in the physical reality through feelings and actions. I can make myself laugh or cry just by thinking; these thoughts cause feelings, and these feelings cause my actions, eventually.

Saint Paul commanded to place my thinking life where Christ is, to think of whatever is pure, lovely and praise worthy, to be transformed by the renewing of my mind, to bring into captivity every thought into the obedience of Christ, notice it says the obedience of Christ, not of Jesus (of course Jesus is the Christ, but my point is how Paul was directed to write "the obedience of Christ", I think is because Jesus Christ is the only person who has actually been obedient one hundred percent; I might argue with myself that Jesus was all powerful and therefore he could be totally obedient, but I can defeat my own argument by thinking also that Jesus was completely human, so I have no excuse when I disobey in thinking what is wrong, am I the only one thinking about this?). David said "bless the Lord oh my soul (nephesh, psuche) and all that is within me (what is within me?), bless his holy name", you can probably do an hour bible study just on that statement. Read it for yourself, is all there.

Well, I'm only thinking, not trying to mislead anybody, neither trying to be understood, and in all this thinking vanity is found.

2. A great amount of my time is used thinking, as if I had nothing better to do. Indeed all issues of life stream out of the heart, where thinking takes place. The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it? See the book of Jeremiah for the answer to that question.

So if I'm to trust in YHWH with all of my heart and lean not on my own understanding, I have to do it without thinking, that's when problems start, when I start thinking. The heart is deceitful and I'm supposed to apply all of it when trusting, therefore the heart has to be forced to be impartial, but the heart cannot be impartial without thinking, so I find that is impossible to stop thinking and so the heart must be submitted through thinking. I don't know what I'm thinking, it is all crap.

Even when I am sleeping there is some kind of cerebral activity taking place, of course this is according to science, which in a sense doesn't mean there is thinking taking place when I'm sleeping, but dreaming instead. A mystery. There is the capability of dreaming when I'm sleeping, and thinking when I'm waking, can I think when I dream or have a dream about me thinking?

This is the constant battle between the spirit and the flesh. A matter of choice, as in not making a choice is choosing. I need wisdom to make the choice, the knowledge of how to regulate my relationship to YHWH, we all lack wisdom at one point in time, thinking usually derails my good intentions unless is regulated by wisdom.

Thinking is everything in my world because my world is perceived through my thinking, I want to think like YHWH thinks and submit the heart to him alone, I need to know who he is, his character, his way of doing things. I think I know, but the more I know, the more I know that I don't know. Who can know the magnitude (maybe not the correct word) of his holiness and the majesty of his love? I think I know, but I can only imagine because my brain is too small.

There is only one person who knows everything, because he is everything there is to know; his thoughts are pure and his thoughts towards me are more than can be numbered. He is the only person I know that can think about everybody at the same time and still keep focus, He doesn't get distracted or let his thoughts run wild, He doesn't drive himself crazy thinking about the past or what the future holds because He lives outside of time, or about what am I going to think of him; His heart is not deceitful, there is nothing wicked in him, in Him there is no darkness at all, He is light and love, his name is Jesus.

3. The mind will not stop, thoughts will not stop being created, images will constantly flow through the gauze of my mind; like a silent black and white movie that has no beginning and no end. Even when I practiced meditation in my tree hugging days, I could never put my mind in a blank; there was always something there being projected on the screen.

I don't remember what was before I was born, it's all dark. From the moment of my creation until I was about 3 years old, everything is dark; I start to remember from that age on because the world had been pounded into me by my mom and dad and brothers, their touch and their words, and the sounds of the world around me; by the transmission of the kosmos through my senses, by the cry of pigs being slaughtered and chirping chicken laying eggs.

There are pictures in my mind from that era, dimly floating through my memory; changing my little brother's diaper, being stung by a bee, riding my tricycle, stealing the hen's baby, hearing my grandpa's voice: "don't cry son", I don't remember why was I crying, but I couldn't stop, I could also hear myself crying, I stopped when I heard his voice, mainly because I got scared; he had a very deep voice, I thought it was God speaking.

I remember I met Jesus when I was about six; he loved me then as much as he does now, as much as he will ever do, the only physical image I had of him was Padre Solis, an old Salesian priest in my school, I could feel God in this old man, even though I was only a little boy; he gave me a pocket version of the Gospel of John, and I carried it in my backpack and I would read it. I believed everything John said, Jesus was more real then than now, I had faith that was not tainted by guile or deceit. And then I was in darkness until I was thirty years old. Yes, twenty four years of darkness seem like a bad dream, I don't remember many of those years, for some reason the files are corrupted and are not coming up to RAM.

One day I woke up, my eyes finally opened all the way and I beheld his glory, reflected by the sun, it was better than life, is not about me anymore, I thirst for the light of righteousness, I hunger for the emancipation of this flesh and mind into his complete holiness and freedom. Is coming. Someday it will appear, just like the sun rising in the morning, as sure as that.

It is a burden to take the world out of me, but the burden is light, not heavy that is; the yoke is easy. I have been given everything that pertains to life and godliness, all the phos I need is already there, inside of me, all I need to do is get out of the way, transform my heart by the renewing of my mind. Transform my paradigm, shift it by taking all that I am and surrender to the only reality that requires faith to be real, surrendered, taken to freedom through thinking and by grace through faith.

So here I am thinking again, there is no end to it, at least not in sight or in thought.

My affections are divided, I long to be free and at the same time I desire to see my girls and grand children grow up to be what YHWH designed them to be; it's a battle. It's also 3 in the morning, I need to stop thinking.

4. Words spoken without thinking are dangerous, thoughts that are left to run wild are dangerous. If I am to exercise self control, it has to start by controlling the thoughts in my mind; that is true alchemy, that indeed is being transformed by the renewing of my mind.

True self-control is found in the correct control of the thinking life, Jesus said that is not what defiles a man what goes into a man, but what comes out of the man; because what comes out of a man proceeds from the heart, which is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

It is not I who says good things, it is not me who thinks right and pure thoughts, or at least is not my heart, it has to be that part of me that has been created in the image of him who fills all in all, because is in him that I live and move and have my being. So the truth makes one free.

I watched rocky balboa today, in one scene rocky said to his son: "is not about how hard you can hit but about how hard you get hit and keep on going", I thought that was pretty good, that is what faith is all about, isn't it? He finally let out the things in the basement during the last round of his life. I was surprised to not hear a cuz word in this movie, and to not see an x rated scene or an allusion to sexuality. Very commendable in that respect, because it was nice to keep my mind clean, but I was disappointed to hear the prophet Jeremiah being misquoted, which defeated the purpose of the probable lofty intentions of sly the man. If that makes any sense at all.

How grateful am I for freedom of speech, and freedom of thought. I make judgments with my heart, the part that is deceitful, and one more day has passed away, maybe this was the last round of my life, I don't think that I fought today as if it was the last round of my life, if there is another round, I will confirm it tomorrow when I wake up, if I wake up.

5. UFOs unexplained, a paradox. When I lived in Guadalajara, Mexico, I saw this big blue ball of light flying through the sky at night, right after that, I saw an airplane flying in the same path, it was a lot smaller and it's lights blinked, this blue light was not an airplane, and no, I wasn't high on anything; my ex-wife didn't believe me, my oldest daughter believed me because she was about two years old.

Many other times I saw lights in the sky that moved in sharp angles, they looked like stars but brighter and were fast. The light would move two inches from my perspective, yeah relativity indeed, and then changed direction upward and then to the right and so forth, until it took off at an incredible speed, just like a shooting star. In fact I just had a dream in which I saw these fast moving lights again, what does it mean, if it means anything at all? Why am I seeing these lights in the sky in my dream?

I never really told this to anyone, except, later on, to a few people. I was scared, the unknown is always kind of freaky, mainly when it is dark sided. It turned out that one of my friends saw these lights also. I am not afraid anymore, I became a Christian and I never saw these lights anymore (except in my dream). The knowledge of the truth set me free.

When I was a practicing meta-physician I used to see a beam of light shooting from the top of people's heads, it was weird, sometimes the walls looked like they were pulsating, kind of vibrating, I was drawn toward the supernatural since I was a child, I didn't have normal thoughts, at least not for a child. But again, I used to hug trees when I ate peyote.

Today, I don't have normal thoughts, I am constantly struggling to make them my slaves and conform them to my will, the problem is that sometimes, most of the time I should say, my will is twisted, the heart is deceitful above all things indeed; right out of area 51.

6. DO I know YHWH? I think I do. Part of my knowing is actually based on experience, which is subjective, and part of it is based on what he has chosen to reveal to me, which is also part of my experience but requires faith up to a certain point, I say this because after faith becomes real, then YHWH starts revealing himself in doing things that he will not do without me praying for them.

I have read the book many times, and when I say book it means the bible, which means book, and every time I do I find something new. Only the bible is living and powerful and sharper than a two-edged sword, it indeed pierces down into the division of soul and spirit and of marrow and bone, deep, way deep; and it is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart.

When I put my thoughts right next to it, it just shows me that His thoughts are not my thoughts; I have to make his thoughts my thoughts, how can I live any other way? How can I know YHWH any other way?

I read there that he will never leave me nor forsake me, and then my experience has confirmed that. I read that he loves me with an everlasting love, my beating heart confirms that; I read that he is perfect in every way, my constant falling confirms it. I read that he is faithful and just to forgive me of all my sins and cleanse me from all unrighteousness, my confession settles that. He is more than good.

The thought of lighting up a candle and then putting it in a secret place is ludicrous, is so ridiculous is funny. Why would anybody light up a candle and then hide it? The idea, besides being stupid, is also dangerous, and it doesn't make any sense at all. The smart and common sense thing to do is to put it on a candle stick, that is an original idea to illustrate how my life should be, only Jesus could think of something like that, very clever.

The same as being given a thousand bucks and then bury them in the ground, these kind of ideas are so out of reality that they force me to know how YHWH thinks, and what he wants because Jesus is the express image of his glory, basically the logos.

I think I know YHWH, but only two of my neurons know him, the rest are constantly rebelling, at least the ones that are left, not very many. The rest of my cells are dying in ignorance, I need to be born again.

7. How many times must I be born? Be born twice, die once. That is what the bible says about me, is not like that for everyone of course. What does it really mean? To be born. Jesus said that a seed must die to live, that I cannot understand the things of the kingdom of the spirit unless I am born once more, born of the spirit.

I am a dying seed, the seed of Adam, the seed of Abe; my grandmother was Jewish, she was born is Costa Rica, her dad and mom were German, but she was Jewish. Clara was her name, she married Amado, my grandpa.

He was a trippy guy, a studied guy. He studied astronomy, he studied homeopathy, he studied Latin, and he studied the book, the Reina-Valera version. I found his book in the book shelf, I was probably 4 or 5 and I used to read everything that had letters, the pages were full of notes he made on the margins. He had beautiful writing, it was more penmanship than writing, it was captivating.

That is the reason I was drawn to the bible, his notes. I used to wonder why he wrote all those notes on the margins, and little arrows pointing to certain verses and words, references to other verses, some were underlined with a red pencil. I would guess that he didn't have a concordance so he was working on his own, at one point he was a Rosicrucian or should I say rosacruzian? He was into all that in his searching, I know he was searching, and I am sure he found what he was searching for before he died.

My grandma was very quiet, I wish I had the vision to have spent more time with her, the same applies to my father, to my brothers, to my grandchildren, to my daughters.

I have to be born everyday, everyday I feel like I am being born, like I am giving birth to myself every morning, is a painful reality this world; this dying seed has to be sown into the ground one day, then I will be really awake.

What about you? Yeah, you, the one reading this, do you think you made it this far by coincidence? I don't think so. I said it before, you are here by design, just like me. If you are reading this, it only means one thing to me: your search is over, YHWH is all you and I need.

Some people, millions of them, will never read these words. Some people don't need to read these words because they already know.

I got born the second time by what I thought was choice, actually it was my only choice since nothing else was working on my alcoholism and drug addiction, it was a good thing I believed in reincarnation, it saved me from killing myself, I didn't want to come back to do it all over again after I blew my brains out; that is what I believed: I was stuck in this reincarnation wheel, the only way to get out of it was by being perfect most of the time, so that I would attain a higher level the next time I was born, basically, more good karma than bad karma. My book says that it is appointed for man once to die and then the judgment.

8. Citizenship is a privilege. I became a US citizen in the year two thousand, I sworn an oath with my hand on my chest, looking at the US flag and with the constitution in my other hand, along with fifteen hundred other people. I was born into this country then, I became another number in the system. I became a different kind of citizen back in 1989, I was born into a country with no borders, no democracy and no darkness. I was chosen before the big bang, in a singularity of thought, no one can take that away, I cannot renounce it, I'm stuck with it forever.there is no certificate to prove it but there is a seal inside of me, like a candle that has been lit and that never burns off and can never be snuffed out.

9. NASA is planning on planting a base on the moon; plans are already being executed to start the mission, first there is a satellite, the L-Cross satellite, that is supposed to plot a map of the moon's surface so they can decide which is the ideal place for the lunar base. Of course they are also looking into finding oxygen, not only because is necessary for breathing but because oxygen is also rocket fuel.

Then there is the water issue, since there are no rivers on the moon, the only possible source of water is ice, they think that ice might be found in the moon's south pole, inside a crater that has never seen the light of the sun. Since they cannot get into the crater, they plan to launch a school bus-sized ram into the crater via a rocket, and thus create an immense cloud of dust so that the satellite can scan the dust for oxygen bearing minerals. They have the technology of being able to analyze the soil's components by analyzing the light they reflect. Amazing.

In order to do excavations on the moon, specifically on ice, they are designing a drill bit that can drill at -320F, so they designed a drill bit and went to the arctic to test it. They spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on this, part of that money was mine, I pay taxes.

Another issue is bringing robots to the moon, to do the work. NASA has the robonaut, a cool looking robot with four legs that has this super-intelligent brain and that is supposed to work along the astronauts, maybe even give them a massage when needed. Lockheed Martin is spear heading the project of the robotic helpers.

All this is just the beginning, the satellite will be in orbit, lunar orbit by next year, 2008; in the meantime, and since I'm thinking about satellites, politicians in Mexico are already using a subcutaneous implant, basically a micro chip, so they can be tracked if they are kidnapped. Back in 1989 I listened to a tape by some dude back in New Zealand that was talking about these implants, they basically are designed to fit inside a hypodermic needle, and are self-powered. Motorola was already launching, back then, thirty or more low-orbiting satellites to "improve cellular communications", and they were planning to use these satellites to track the micro-chips, the original plans were to use them on animals, in fact you can now chip your dog so you can find it if he runs away with the tramp, or with the lady, it all depends on your dog's sexual inclination, but they extended the experimentation to humans, and finally, and according to the news (I actually read this on the newspaper a few years back), a whole family, I think their last name was Simpson, yeah, it was the Simpsons, volunteered to have the chips implanted and they, the micro-chips, are finally expanding throughout the world.

You can have one if you have the money to pay for it, since they are reserved for the privileged few, very soon they are going to be free, since you will not be able to buy or sell anything without it, you will not be able to leave home without it, just like American Express. In fact, ours is becoming a cashless society, everything is transmitted via electronics or magnetic strips, I don't even carry cash anymore, my ATM card is so worn out that it has cracked in the middle, having a micro-chip implanted would be so convenient, I wouldn't have to worry about carrying a wallet with an ID and a credit card, just swipe my hand through the scanner and there it is, "welcome to the moon Mr P". Imagination is the mother of invention, read Revelation 13 for that matter, revelation, that is. I run the risk of being misinterpreted here, and that is OK since my opinion is always subject to interpretation, of course Revelation 13 is not my opinion, I hope it happens soon, and I'm thinking selfishly because of my belief.

10. We all have ears inside. YHWH has given me many gifts, one of them is to know certain things just by looking into the eyes of people, specially those whom I love. To all internal ears have been given, we all hear his calling at one point or another, we know we are being wooed, like a lover. God in his infinite love calls us out of the darkness, but we refuse to hear because we are in love with the world. He will eventually stop calling, according to his love and justice.

I can see that my mind is fragmented, but I have to use it to come to unity. This comedian I saw on TV said that he heard an ad about a bladder control awareness program, and observed that if you have a bladder control problem you are probably aware of it already; I laughed because that's the way we are, we know we have a problem and know what the thing to do is, but still seek the counsel of this world. We deceive ourselves and think is condensation.

Blessed is the man that walks not according to the counsel of the ungodly. Who is godly? They all like sheep have gone astray, there is not one good, no, not one. Jesus is godly, he asked the pharisees "who of you can convict me of sin?", that's pretty wild. If I asked the same question it would be in vain.

11. The thoughts of the blessed are not always blessed. So it happens that in this world I have been promised to have tribulation, but I am supposed to be of good cheer, be of good cheer and have good thoughts, have faith in what has been promised because Joshua is the same yesterday, today and forever.

I look back at the past and find many instances where YHWH had me covered in his grace and mercy, it is because of his great mercy that I am not consumed. Everyday I betray myself through my actions, I deny my state in the way that I think, whatever a man sows that shall he also reap, said Paul the Saint of Tarsus, cause and effect. It is therefore, crucially important that I sow what is right, what is pure and noble, praise-worthy, of good report and lovely.

Listening to Phil Keaggy makes me think of immortality, Cinemascapes is the album, he deserves to be promoted here, just because his guitar playing is jazzy and godly. I'm never going to die, I'm going to live forever, and I can only imagine what is going to be like in the other side.

The physical reality and the spiritual reality are only separated by the thin veil of my faith, Jesus said he is the door, there is no other access except through him. Those who know him take action and accomplish great things, like raising children or just being a good father or a good husband, or just being a good worker, or just being forgiven.

I only have one friend that is completely reliable, trustworthy, pure in his thoughts, his name is YHWH, his name is I am who exists, his is the name that is above all names, he loves me no matter what I do, no matter how many times I betray him.

12. Paul was right when he said that the things I want to do I don't do and the things I don't want to do those I do, what a drag. That is just the way it is while I'm in this prison of the flesh; so he said that those who are His, those who belong to Christ, have crucified the flesh with its lusts and desires.

Crucifixion of the flesh, death by torture to the flesh, not an easy thing to do because the heart is part of it. They discovered, or at least they think, ('they' are the modern scientists); that there is this part of the brain called the amigdala that senses when something is changing in the body or in my world, and is in charge of resisting change by sending these electrochemical signals to the neurons, so when all the neurons sense there is imminent change my whole being resists it. Makes sense. That is why it takes 21 days to create a habit. That is why we don't come to God in the first place, because we think that he is going to spoil our fun.

Alpha: The first letter of the alphabet, that is where we get our "a" letter, Jesus is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end, in Him is the beginning and the end of everything. The Gospel of John describes Him as the Logos, the intelligent expression of God, YHWH taking the form of a man and expressing himself in the person of Jesus everything was created through him, by him and for him.
Evolution is a theory that has not been proven; for me, it takes more faith to believe that humans evolved than to believe that humans were created, but that is just my dogma, if you want to see it like that.

Samson was the strongest man that has ever existed, physically, he probably had the weakest mind, we are all the same, strong and weak at the same time, there is only one source of strength, true strength, the strength to stand firm under trial, the power of the living spirit of YHWH.

Deception leads to darkness,
weakness into pride,
the philistines are coming,
conquering this man.

The light has turned to shadows,
his eyes have been plucked out,
a broken heart has hurt him,
there are no tears to cry.

The grudge he holds within him,
has caused him to be blind,
the bulk of unforgiveness
tripped him in the dark.

Two pillars hold him down:
his arrogance and pride,
there is no one else to turn to,
no one hears him cry.

And then he cries for mercy,
his heart has come apart,
he knows that God can hear him,
and give him a new start.

The King now hears from heaven,
he hears this lonely man,
and sends his word to heal him,
no one can understand.

God's grace has come upon him,
the spirit filled his heart,
the shackles have been broken,
his face now bears a smile.

Sometimes I feel just like Samson, the appeal of this world is strong and sometimes I get conquered by myself, the wicked side of it, at the end of the day is always the grace of YHWH that makes me smile. So I wrote that little poem one day as it flowed through my brain.

Thinking indeed is a privilege, a misused one.

Beta: Time is a physical property of the universe, nothings works without time. Time is one of those things that require faith to believe but I often take for granted; I have, unconsciously, tried to ignore time because in my mind it is a long line that ends somewhere in the future, sometime, or somewhere on that line there is a point with a number attached to it, my constant moving present will end at that point in time, a time already appointed by YHWH; I contemplate the essence of this life in a constant moving present moment, this very moment becomes the past in the next one, which is the future, it is a thin line between past and future, the present is a very thin line, a moment thick.

The present is all that is really real, but so fleeting, the rest of the time is either in the past or in the future, my existence keeps on moving in this sliding ruler. Solomon was right, all is vanity, what really matters, and the bottom line is to fear YHWH and keep his word, without that, everything is vain.

There is a lot involved in this, the fear here is not only the fear of stepping outside of obedience but fear of being separated from God, it is good to know that there is nothing that can separate me from the love of God which is in Christ.

YHWH moved in the spirit of men to inspire them to write what he thinks, my pastor was just talking about this on Sunday, and so there would be no space in the earth to contain all the books about the words of Joshua while he was here, that is what the book of John says. For some reason I like the sound of Joshua better than the sound of Jesus, even though they mean the same thing: YHWH is salvation, and YHWH is I am who exists, so YHWH and Joshua are the same person, salvation exists, always, forever.

I have friends that I have called several times and I haven't received a call back yet, I'm not thinking this because my friend is not a good friend but because we all think about our priorities, the world that we have created by our decisions attacks us and we loose perspective of what matters most, which in all cases is relationships, I know I will get a call back because I do exactly the same, a friend calls and I get too busy to call back.

I have called on YHWH and he has responded within half an hour, actually his reply is always immediate but it took half of an hour in my time, in my reality, to see his answer. He is such a good friend, he is the best friend that I have, he loves me no matter what, I don't think that I am such a good friend to him though, sometimes I completely and irreverently ignore him, just like my friends do, not intentionally, we just get too busy in our own little worlds, we think the universe revolves around us, ha, not really, but yes really. Of course he cannot be treated like he was some kind of celestial dude friend of mine, he is awesome in power and holy beyond understanding, majestic in love and just as a righteous judge.

My present rapidly dissipates into the future, with no possible control, so it seems. Going back to cause and effect, it is by my thoughts that I can somehow define the future moment, it is just a chain of events that are based on the previous events, those events are based on previous thoughts, is just like doing maintenance on a car, you change the oil, give it a tune up, etc, doing so causes the the machine to last longer, it will eventually require the replacement of parts, and then eventually, will cease to function all together. You got to gas it to keep it running.

Ignoring the maintenance requirements will always cause the machine to deteriorate faster. Life in this cosmos is always subjected to the laws of nature, entropy is always in operation, just like gravity and time, the system is like a great clock winding down, everything goes from order to disorder unless some input is given to it, just like the car, all up to a point. The apparent mystery is when things happen that I could not have determined by my actions or my thoughts, then I often reason that they are part of the plan to bring forth my righteousness as the noon day, if I could only see that more often.

In the real reality, the spiritual reality, is the other way around, I'm going from disorder into order, the work of YHWH it is. Such is the life of the blessed. Chaos into order, darkness into light, ignorance and foolishness into knowledge and wisdom, defeat into victory, turmoil into peace, denial into acceptance, death unto life.

Science has calculated that the earth is about 4.5 billion years old, that is like driving from NY to San Fransisco and every millimeter between them is equivalent to one year in a time line. That is a lot of time.

In the 1700's, James Usher determined that the earth and time began about 4000 BC, he did this by calculating how long the time genealogies in the bible lasted. There was a good reason why he went to the bible to find out, it was the best historical document and the best source of information. Just like Cristobal Colon commonly known as Christopher Columbus knew the earth was round, because it says so in Isaiah 40. Check it out.

Scientists have discovered that time can be slowed down or sped up, for example they came up with this device that flashes a series of numbers at a certain speed, and then attached it to the wrist of a volunteer that was allowed to free fall from a height of 12 stories, during the fall the guy was supposed to look at the screen of this machine and see if he could read the numbers, normally he couldn't read them because they were flashing on the screen so fast that he could only see a solid blur of light; and so it happened that after the fall, he landed on his back on a net, he said he could read the numbers when he was falling.

This all relates to the fact that when people are in danger, everything slows way down, almost like slow motion, in the book of Joshua, chapter 10, Joshua, Moses' successor, is called to help the men of Gibeon since the Amorites where going to attack them, so Joshua travels all night to get there and then fights the Amorites all day, it was a hard thing because he knew he had the victory and that no Amorite would survive but he was running out of time, Joshua needed more time to win so he asks YHWH to hold the sun and the moon in their places, and so it happened that the sun did not move for a whole day. It says there that a day like that had never happened and will not happen again. That day Joshua's present was extended, the earth stopped turning for one day, time stopped running.

There is a guy in the UK, his name is Clyde, that does not remember anything after a few seconds, so every time his daughter enters the room he acts like it is the first time he sees her after years, if she asks him a question, he answers but in the process he forgets what the question was. The little dog I take care of, Rosco, acts the same way, I can leave the room and come back in a few seconds and he will say hi to me again. Of course I wasn't trying to compare Clyde to Rosco, even though I just did.

An experiment performed by some time-studying scientists, showed how time perception is altered by the use of drugs. They had 3 rats that were trained to push a lever exactly after 12 seconds of being placed in a cage, after pressing the lever they would get rewarded by getting a tasty rat treat. If the rats would press the lever too late or too soon they wouldn't get a rat treat, it had to be at exactly 12 seconds or nothing would come out.

So they got two of the rats loaded, one with marijuana and the other with cocaine, the third rat was clean and sober, so they placed the rats in their cages and the rat that was clean and sober got her treat after exactly 12 seconds, the one on pot did not get a treat because she took too long to press the lever, the one on coke pressed the lever too soon.

There is this fish, called grunion that comes to Newport beach every year at the same time, I guess they come to the California coast for that matter, they get there within a window of 2 hours, hundreds of thousands of grunions mate on the beach in 2 hours every year at the same time, they are never late, they don't use a map, a "gee pee s" or anything to know where they should go.

Back in the 70's a french man called LeCief, lived in a cave for 2 months with no watch or any references to time, he measured all his activities and called people on the outside when he ate, slept or went to the bathroom. Even without a time measuring device or reference, his body knew exactly when to rest and do what he needed to do, he had an internal clock, just like everything else in the universe.

After all this years they have discovered (or so they think, -they being the scientists that are studying this subject) that in the middle of our brains we have about twenty thousand cells that form what appears to be the internal human clock, it regulates the time for us; but time is a lot more than a perception; it has been proven that time can be slowed down or sped up. Time's speed is apparently linked to the speed of light, which is three hundred thousand kilometers per second, or one hundred and eighty six thousand three hundred miles per second, is fast, like a moment of time in my world.

Gamma: Phos means light. While I was in the shower I was just thinking of a place without time, there is no night there, since there are no days there is no night, kind of like in Alaska where sometimes the sun does not go down behind the earth, I should say that sometimes the earth spins with the arctic circle facing the sun, the place I was thinking about is a place with no darkness, no shadows, there is no sun, only the Son lighting everything up with his phos, the creator of light is the light of everything, nothing is hidden to him even now. His name is I am who exists, YHWH is salvation, the phos of the world, the creator of the universe, the one that said 'let there be a big bang' and there was a big bang.

Phos is a peculiar form of energy in this physical world, studies have demonstrated that light can behave as a particle and as a wave, a particle, a photon, can bounce off the wall, actually photons bounce off everything I see, what my eyes can see is the different colors of the spectrum of light. I'm not going to think and talk about the eye and the optic nerve, and the way it interacts with the brain, is just amazing, no amount of evolution could have created something like the eye, but light can also behave like a wave, a different vibration in the wave of light gives me infra red, gamma radiation, x-rays, etc.

Gamma rays are basically created from the interaction of high energy photons and is considered to be an electro-magnetic form of radiation, or light emissions, waves of a specific frequency produced from sub-atomic particle interaction. The trip about this is that gamma rays penetrate flesh very easily, they say that gamma rays possess tissue penetrating properties, therefore they are used in medicine to do CT scans, this works by injecting a gamma-emitting radio-isotope like technetium-99 into the body and then take a picture of the light that is being emitted by the technetium-99.

I witnessed this procedure being performed in my own body so I know this is true, I saw the pictures, very trick. Gamma radiation is also used to sterilize foods like meat, and to kill bacteria in medical equipment, I know because I used to work in the biotechnology field and they used gamma-radiated bags to fill different compounds. Gamma rays can even cause cancer when DNA is affected by them.

Jesus said I am the light of the world, you can draw your own analogies here, or wait until I'm done thinking, next is salt.

But first, this piece of news: Friday the twenty second day of the month of June of the year of our Lord two thousand and seven, UK. Aurigny Airlines captain Ray Bowyer, 50, say he spotted a mile long UFO while flying over the channel islands in England, 2 of his passengers confirmed the report, later another object was seen by the same people while the plane approached Guernsay, they affirmed the object was a smaller object than the one they saw before, but it could have been the same one just farther. Another pilot with the Blue Islands airline, has confirmed the report as well as a pilot flying close to Alderney also saw the cigar shaped object in the sky.

I would like to know what are these lights they saw flying, in Christian circles it is said that this is demonic activity, like I said before, I have also seen this kind of lights in the sky over Guadalajara, Mexico, and they will certainly freaked me out when I saw it, is one of those things that I will never forget. I would like to ask the pilot what kind of weed was he smoking before he saw the lights, but he probably would say he didn't smoke anything, and even swear that he was sober, which makes me wonder.

Scientists have calculated a decrease in the speed of light over the past few decades, it just makes sense, everything is slowing down, just like the big spring of time loosing tension.

Delta: Sodium chloride, vulgo salt, is a peculiar substance, sodium chloride is so abundant in the earth that is used for all kinds of things. There are seventy eight million metric tons of salt in every cubic kilometer of sea water. The chemical formula is NaCl, which is made of Natrium and Chlororum, Sodium and Chlorine. The real trip about salt is that is made of two substances with very different characteristics than salt itself.

Sodium by itself is a poison, it is also explosive when exposed to water; chlorine is by itself corrosive. Sodium chloride has a neutral PH and its structure is crystalline when viewed under a microscope, actually a sodium chloride crystal is a perfect cube and is completely clear, make sure you make yourself a mental picture of this.

It is very interesting to me that Jesus chose the term 'salt of the earth' to describe us....
The implications are surprising, did I mention salt is formed of perfect cubic crystals? What about the idea that this perfect cubic crystal refracts light into the many frequencies of the spectrum, an awesome array of beauty and power. If I am the light of the world, as Joshua said, and the salt of the earth, also, as he said; can I reflect the beauty of the light of YHWH through the perfect cubic crystals of the salt of my existence? I think is possible, is not only possible but designed that way. No reflection will occur if the salt has lost its flavor, the loss of flavor turns into corrosiveness and turbidity and then the salt becomes only good but to step on it. No flavor no reflection.

How long does it take for the salt to loose its flavor? I don't think time itself will cause the salt to loose its flavor, I think it is more the interaction of the salt with other things, but I could be wrong. There are only two things the salt will turn into when decomposed: bitterness and corrosiveness, I don't like either one of them and I don't think that anybody likes them either, or neither, whatever. The fact is that salt can reflect light because is a cubic crystal in structure, just like the new Jerusalem. Am I the only one thinking about this? Provocative it is, more in the sense of causing awe, that Jesus chose the most powerful and common elements of the earth to describe me, he thinks I'm special, so special that he died in my place; no amount of gratitude will ever be enough to compensate for that. I want to shine.

Epsilon:

Breath on me, restore my soul

make me live, make me whole

touch my heart, renew my mind

hold my hand and lift me up.

Fill my life, speak your words

hold me tight and heal my bones.

Take me where your presence is

give me faith so you'd be pleased.

Rain on me, your awesome grace

free me Lord and brake these chains.

The God-man spat on the ground, mixing heaven and earth, anointing the eyes of the blind breaking his religion, and causing him to see. The works of God displayed on man that day, the power of that moment is evident today.

You came down from heaven

and split time in two

men have seen your glory

and filled their minds with you.

You came down from heaven

and took my sin upon you

we now seek your glory

and turn our hearts to you.

You reached down from heaven,

and gave me all of you

I have felt your mercy

I now live for you.

Now we feel your presence

and fill our hearts with praise

we now seek your holiness

make us more like you.

In the practice of the instructions given, power is found to overcome; in the retraction of the thoughts and the intents of the heart the freedom of the will is found.

August has always been the hottest month in southern California, at least for me; is hot, sticky, miserable weather for this body of mine, but I am grateful for it.....and September is coming, so more thanks are to be given for the lack of AC.

Gratitude is the only way by which I can draw near to God, and so I am grateful, very very grateful.

This morning, while I was looking at a hummingbird, I felt the presence of God in me and beside me, it was so intense that I broke down weeping in thanksgiving. How can I give thanks for what I don't have? For loosing everything? It's a purifying experience, and so freeing. It draws me close to him.

Zeta: Greek letters do not have the same order as my alphabet. Greek is a fascinating language, one word can express so much, Greek words usually have deep meanings, significance not seen in our language, biblical Greek just makes it so out of reality but more real than regular Greek. I know I'm not making any sense but I know what I mean.

I have this hunger for knowledge that is almost physical, knowledge puffs up though, so I have to be careful not to become arrogant and prideful, even then my knowledge is so limited. I want knowledge of the holy, knowledge of the supernatural, and I find myself tied down to the physical reality and to the pain of my existence, and there is joy in it.

I don't want time to run, and it keeps on running, and the number of my days keeps on getting bigger, or smaller, depending on what perspective I'm using. If I have 70 years to live, that is 25,550 days, and so if I am 48 years old, I have only 8,030 days left or about 268 months or about 1,147 weeks, I am sure I'm not living for the weekend so I have to make these eight thousand days something worth living for.

192,720 hours left to breath, if I take a breath every 2 seconds then I can only breath about five million seven hundred and eighty one thousand six hundred breaths, it sounds like a lot of air going in and out of my body, how much air is contained in a single breath? I can probably calculate it but I'm getting overwhelmed thinking about it.

Another way to look at it is to calculate how many times will my heart beat in the next 22 years, so if my heart beats a at rate of 90 beats per minute, that is 90 times 1,440 minutes in a day equals 129,600 beats per day, multiplied by 8,030 days equals about 1.04 billion beats per 22 years, that is a lot of beating of my heart, of which I have no control over, it can stop in the next sixty seconds for all I know.

Mind boggling thoughts these are. I'm tired but grateful that I have a beating heart, no heart-no thoughts, no thoughts-no faith, a real tragedy to not have a beating heart.

Eta: Time is so fleeting, here I am after 3 months of being away, it seems that it was yesterday when I last visited with my thoughts. I haven't stopped thinking though, I saw one of those moving stars yesterday. I wonder what those are.

So think yourself into existence, and in all your thinking seek the knowledge of the Holy; we are made in His image but not all people believe it. Have you ever wondered why is it that some people believe and others don't?

If Christianity is a myth, a story someone made up, if Jesus is not real, if God doesn't exist; then we are, of all people, the most miserable and we will be disappointed when we die. But if it is all real, and there is a heaven and a hell, and eternal life, and eternal death; then we are fortunate, no, blessed, in reality fortune doesn't exist, I should say we are blessed for believing this stuff.

How can you live your life without acknowledging that God is real? Have you ever thought about why we write the date the way we do? Jesus Christ is the reason we are aware of what day is today; all the world acknowledges Him when they write the date on a piece of paper, or a check or a letter. All the news agencies do the same.

Like I said in my little poem above, Jesus split time in two; and He has chosen some to be in the kingdom, that is what the bible says; Jesus said He is the only way to heaven, either He was a liar, or crazy, or He is right; I think He is right.

Have a nice day.

God is at work in me to will and to perform....(Is He?)

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Thu, 06 Jun 2019 05:21:00 +0000

Jeremiah 23:29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

Unpublished from last year:

My life is probably at the 80% limit right now, I will be 60 years old next month, my grand daughter will be 15 at the end of January, and my dog is probably around 12 years old if you're interested; I am of course.

Soon, and I expect it to be soon if God wills, I will be 80 years old and I hope I will have great grand children by then, I can't wait for that time. Then I can go home and see my King.

What I am not looking forward at all is saying goodbye to my mom, I spent most of the last year with her (she nursed me back to life) and even though she's still healthy in many ways, I know she will one day depart from this world. When my dad passed away I was devastated, I cannot imagine what I am to go through when she goes to see Jesus; a lot of people are going to be sad that day.

That is my only comfort, that she will see Jesus face to face; I don't know anyone, and I mean anyone, not even pastors, who is more Christian than my mom. She loves Jesus, and she thinks and behaves like it. I love watching her lack of guile.

Do you ever think about these things? Death, and dying? I do, mostly since I was born again, literally, during the 2017 Christmas season; I was actually dead and God brought me back. I never experienced pain so intense before, the screws in my left leg and the titanium plate in my neck are nothing in comparison to what I felt. I thank God for morphine, and opiates; and I thank Him also for the pain. How would I know what true relief is if I never experienced any pain or the need for relief? It is impossible to know joy without suffering.

This last year, I barely read my bible, I feel like I didn't need to (but I do); the bible was rolling in my brain constantly, I just checked and I still have Psalm 1 and Psalm 23 in my memory, a lot of proverbs and many many verses, I can almost quote the first 14 verses of Ephesians 1 word for word; the word is written in the tablet of my heart, just like it says in Proverbs. That is what 30 years of reading at least once per day does to the brain. I guess I took a break from church and bible, but one thing is for sure, and it is also very strange, I did not stop believing, I still think and behave accordingly, most of the time.

I am kidding.

No I am not kidding, it is true; I haven't been at church for at least 2 years, maybe more; people turned me off, people who say they are Christians turned me off. I didn't want to, but it happened, I guess I got tired of the motions, and the games, and the clicks, and the human heart's deceitfulness, I am not surprised since I have the exact same tendencies. One day soon I will go back to church, somewhere where the brethren are, and the sisters. I miss the fellowship of the saints.

All that said, I am a sinner saved by grace and I am very grateful that Christ did what I could never do by myself; I am grateful for all the people He has put in my life, for my family and my friends, I am grateful for forgiveness, for grace, and mercy, for divine and brotherly love.

I don't have a guarantee that I will wake up tomorrow morning, so I have to say and ask this: if I have ever offended you in any way, or disappointed you, or irritated you, or bothered you with my thoughtless, inconsiderate and selfish words and actions, please forgive me. I really mean it, I am sorry.

That is the problem with us humans, even when we call ourselves Christians, we will always disappoint one another at any given time, this also proves what the bible says about the human condition, that we are fallen, and imperfect, and egotistical. I thank God for grace, it is an amazing thing.

I spent Christmas with my brother and my mom in Kansas City, it was a great time but I really missed my kids and grand kids, I felt divided, it is hard to explain; still I don't regret it, I had a lot of fun and enjoyed my mom's cooking again.

One day my nephew and his wife came to visit and as usual we started talking about God, the conversation soon turned into a doctrine discussion. I raised the point that, as the bible declares, the only reason we can even please God is because He gives us the grace to do what is pleasing to Him; I used is this as the starting point:

Philippians 2:12-13 Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. (13) For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure.

I really hope you see what I see, which is what I hope it really says, Paul is saying that we should work out our salvation because God is working in us to do it. Basically it is describing the work of grace in our lives, we have an obligation to work out our salvation, meaning that we are to make an effort to apply whatever is good and noble and of good report, etc; and that we bear fruit in our lives because it is the work of God to begin with. God is the One who began the work and He will complete it.

In other words, the fact that we ever do anything that is pleasing to God after we are saved is because God is working in us to will and to perform what is pleasing to Him; indeed, the fact that we even want to walk with Jesus is because, according to these verses, God is working in us to have that desire to walk with Jesus, and not only to desire to walk with Him but to actually walk with Him.

God works in you, both to will and to do of His good pleasure, and what is His good pleasure? That you do His will, and what is His will for you? Your sanctification. To me the bible is clear about that, for example:

1Th 4:3-5 For this is the will of God, even your sanctification, that ye should abstain from fornication: (4) That every one of you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and honour

It is also the will of God that you would be thankful in all things:

1Th_5:18 In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

I am sure there are more verses that talk about the will of God, but I digress, God is at work in me to have the will to do His will, and the fact that I actually do it is because He caused me to do it (Greek Energeo,worked effectually), otherwise I would never do it because my nature is a human nature which is opposed to God, and it can never be subject to the law of God, indeed it can't, see Romans 7 and 8.

I was then told that I am wrong and that God has nothing to do with me doing what pleases Him, that it is I who does it and that the will is mine not God's. I was shocked.

I tried to reason with them, I pulled the bible out of my phone and showed them the scripture, still I was told that what I am reading is not what the bible says and that, by the way, there is only one will of God and that it is that I am saved and that's it. They didn't want to reason with me about grace, it is I who does it, not God.

Do you see what kind of turn off this is? No willingness to look in the book and divide the words and extract the real meaning, in fact the reverse was true according to them, she (my nephew's wife) actually made the verse say that it is my will and not God's that is in play here.

It is my will willing, but I am willing because God is at work in me giving me the inclination to will and to perform of His good pleasure, but she would have none of it. I had to stop the conversation since I was starting to get frustrated and I really love these kids, I didn't want to lose my patience.

Now, forget about everything I have said to this point and look at those verses in Philippians 2, and tell me, what does it say? And what gives God more glory? That He is at work in me to will and to perform of His good pleasure, or that I am the one who is willing to perform of His good pleasure without His help, which is in fact impossible? The answer is obvious, is it not?

The real issue here is not that they are wrong, or right, the issue is that what they are saying is what they have been taught in their church and they would not even reason and look at the scriptures with me, their minds were made up to be right no matter what.

Am I wrong? Is what I see in these verses the wrong idea? Is what I think the bible says not really what it says? If I am wrong and I have the wrong doctrine, then I want to know the truth, I want to know what those verses really mean, I honestly want to know. Please tell me.

And while you are at it, pondering, please tell me what this means:

Proverbs 21:1 The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will.

Have a beautiful day.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Time moves like lava...

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Thu, 21 Jun 2018 06:11:00 +0000

Have you seen world reality lately? There is a coronal hole in the sun right now, and spot number 2715 is in progress, expect more earthquakes for sure. Also, there are at least 40 volcanoes that have erupted or have spewed ash and gasses this month, you can find the list here: https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/erupting_volcanoes.html

Do you believe the list? What is it that you believe is true? Did you see the news about the Japan volcano and earthquake? As far as I know, there are 2 erupting volcanoes that I have seen, Kilawea and Fuego, I have also seen the smoke coming out of the Popocatepetl in Mexico City, so for sure I have seen 3 with my own eyes In any case, all that ash and gas will take a long time to dissipate, the earth will cool down instead of heating up, as the global warming cult says. Maybe it doesn't matter and I don't have to prepare for what is coming. I'm just saying.

Did you know that there is a volcano that erupted in the Galapagos Islands? From TeleSur: "Lava flows and a gas column spanning about two to three kilometers high have been a feature of the eruption. Reports are that a flow has already reached the sea. No humans living there but 'there are some species (of animals, obviously) that could be affected, however, being a flow (of lava) that is in only one direction, on only one side of the island, the possible impacts that there would be would not have a significant impact on biodiversity,” director of the Galapagos National Park (PNG), Jorge Carrion, assured.

I came back from Mexico about 3 weeks ago, and 3 weeks seem to me like a very short period of time that has passed away very fast; 3 weeks have been like a blinking of an eye. I think about the passing of time often , is not that I want to think about it, it is just that I realize often that time passes away very quickly and very slowly at the same time. Time it's one of the paradoxes of my life, I perceive time almost as an elastic substance that permeates everything I see in my world. Sometimes it is thick and slow, sometimes it is thin and fast. Very much like the lava river coming out of fissure 8 in Kilawea. Very strange. Am I time sick?

Anyway, volcanic eruptions will surely increase, I believe, due to the sun going into one of its down cycles, i.e. 'solar minimum', there have been many mini 'ice ages' caused by solar minimums in the past, so we are entering into one of those, and it is going to be a bad one for all I can see,

This, the current solar minimum, is one of those events that will affect my kids and grand kids for a long time, so I think I have to tell them about it often and keep it in the front of their thoughts so they can prepare; the real issues are going to be the problems related to the food chain supply, in some places it is going to be a nightmare; children and the elderly will be the ones who are at the most risk, as always. There are numerous reports of hail storms that are causing havoc in Europe and Canada, as well as the northern part of the country, Australia and New Zealand are experiencing one of the coldest periods in a long time, it is still snowing, in June. Just google it and you will see; some places report tennis-ball sized hail rocks, like this ones that damaged 250 Lexus cars in Colorado: LINK.

Here is another story: Tennis ball sized hail.

Anyway, enough of that. I am very grateful to God for the beautiful location I live in, we had some sunshine this morning and then it got cloudy all afternoon; the temperature is very close to perfect: 64 Degrees Fahrenheit, or 18 Celsius. I could not ask for anything better than that, really. I wonder how long it will stay like this.

Enjoy it while you can, and have a great day.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

This is a test

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Tue, 19 Jun 2018 22:24:00 +0000

I am testing the blog's settings because I did not get an email the last time I published a post. If you get this just delete it. I hope it works.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

The fan....

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Sun, 17 Jun 2018 00:40:00 +0000

I never published this one, so here it is: (as a side note, I just remembered that when I went to the ER on December 25th last year, I saw the same cop in there, no kidding, Rex was in the ER, he didn't see me though, I called his name but he didn't hear me, I told my mom about it, she is my witness; she eventually took care of me and nursed me back to life)

August 15, 2017

I just heard the lady across the street yelling very loud, I looked out the garage door window and saw her standing outside her home screaming, so I opened the door and came out.

She was yelling obscenities at some guy who had just broken into her home. Are you ok? I asked; she told me she found a guy laying down on her couch, "what the f... are you doing in here?" she had yelled to the guy, so he got up and ran out the front door, but not before she had beaten the guy with her oscillating pedestal fan. When I got to her she was standing on the front of the house holding the window screen in her hands, and was still yelling "you mother f'ing piece of s..t!!".

"I cut my hand", she said, I grabbed the flashlight attached to my keys and looked (it was 10:30 at night), she had a small cut in the web of her right hand. I asked he if she had called the cops, and she said no, so I said 'we better call the police'; "oh no, I don't want to put up with that right now"; I called anyway. I went to my garage and got a band aid and some alcohol pads to patch her up.

I could tell she had been drinking, she smelled like alcohol, as I was talking to the police dispatcher she went inside to change from her pajamas to her day clothes.

Her name is Donnita. 'Donnita, let me see that screen', the screen frame was bent, and the screen itself had been pulled out of the retaining groove on the frame; as I was trying to unbend the frame the first cruiser showed up, then another one pulled up behind it. A few moments later, an SUV pulled over across the street, moments later, an unmarked car with two cops showed up as well.

Soon I was surrounded by 5 police officers, still holding the screen in my hands. The thought crossed my mind "let go of that dude", but I didn't. The questioning began.

Donnita described the scene inside her house, then Rex (the young cop taking notes) said to another cop "she's tough", she had just related how she grabbed the pedestal fan and beat the crap out of the guy, it turns out that the guy was a young man, who appeared to be drunk, and whose name was Nicholas.

I guess the dude had broken into the house and was so drunk he had to lay down on the couch. The cop asked Donnita if she had a gun, he said " you could have killed him", she replied, "oh no, not with the fan", to what he replied "no, I mean, you could have killed him", implying she could have shot the guy and she would be in the clear. We have the right to shoot an intruder on sight, it appears.

After they verified that I was not the intruder, the cops left after 15 minutes, only Rex was left behind to take notes. He actually helped me put the screen back into the rails on the window. "So you live around here?" 'Yeah, I live right across the street, where the garage open is', I said while I pointed with my finger across the street.

"Is that a bike in there?", Yeah it is. "what kind is it?" Oh, that's a Honda 919, you wanna check it out? "Sure". So we walked across the street to my house. He inspected my motorcycle: "So you have an HK?" (Heckler and Koch firearms) Oh no, I used to have one, I don't anymore. "You on the NRA?" Yes I am. "Are you some kind of ex military" Not really, I'm just a gun enthusiast, I have a hand gun in my bedroom, and a rifle in the garage (which is half true, I have 2 rifles in the garage, loaded). "Ok, cool", he said. It is obvious I like guns, I have an H&K sticker on the tail of my bike, and an NRA sticker on the front.

We talked some more, he asked a lot of questions, and he listened intently to my answers, I asked him what his name is, "I'm Rex", I was glad he was there actually. I also asked him a lot of questions, I ended liking the guy a lot.

We have very nice police officers where I live, this is the second time they have been in my street in the last two weeks; last week I called them because a group of Mexican kids had been throwing rocks at my garage door, I didn't catch them but I called the police, and they came to my house. At this point my neighbors must think that I am some kind of police informer, they have been at my house 3 times in the last year, so be it.

Anyway, when Rex was asking Donnita what had happened when we were at her house, I saw the pedestal fan with blood all over it, she had cut her hand with it as she beat the guy down. Good thing she has a fan.

Nothing happens by coincidence in this world, that has been my belief since I was a young boy. What is God showing me in all this? I have no idea. Maybe He is trying to tell me to clean my guns and make sure they work.

On the other side, I realize that my lady neighbor has no one to protect her, I mean physically; no one comes to visit her that I have seen, I don't know much about her but she actually hugged me, "you are my hero" she said while squeezing my rib cage, she was so grateful I was there to help her. She made me think about my mom.

I'm going to Mexico City soon, my mom is selling a parcel of land in the state of Guanajuato; she is planning to sell her house as well, and eventually move to Kansas where my brother is. The plan is that I will be going there too. I think we are going to end up in Missouri, the houses there are a fraction of the cost of houses here; while I was there two months ago, we saw houses that were valued at around 180,000 dollars and are mansions; 4 or 5 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and 2 acres of land. It is really a no brainer.

The only problem is that my grand kids are here, but there is no one else that can take care of my mom, and to tell you the truth, I don't see us placing her in a home by herself. She is already by herself in Mexico City, and that place is turning into a nightmare quick. There is a cartel war going on right now, I read the news and it scares me, there are gun battles in the city very often, lots of corpses.

I am going anyway, I have to help my mother. Someday I will be the one in need of someone to care for me I guess, I really hope I don't have to go through that; but if I do, I really hope I have a fan...and a gun.

Have a nice one.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Thank God for the Remission of Sins and Peace of Conscience

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Sun, 17 Jun 2018 00:22:00 +0000

Thank God for the Remission of Sins and Peace of Conscience:

I bless You for the redemption I have through Christ’s blood, the forgiveness of my trespasses, according to the riches of Your grace, which You have lavished on me. Ephesians 1:7-8(NASB)
That You have pardoned all my iniquities and healed all my diseases; Psalm 103:3(NASB) and it is You who have kept my soul from the pit of nothingness, for You have cast all my sins behind Your back. Isaiah 38:17(NASB)
When You brought me into the wilderness, there You spoke kindly to me, and gave me my vineyard from there, and the valley of Achor as a door of hope. Hosea 2:14-15(NASB)

The word of God is just beautiful, loaded with peace for our troubled souls, just like streams of water in the desert; what can be as refreshing as knowing all my iniquities have been forgiven and all my diseases healed? Nothing equates to that peace of conscience, not even chocolate ice cream.

Have a peaceful day.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Pray for the Grace Needed to Die Well

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Thu, 14 Jun 2018 07:10:00 +0000

Pray for the Grace Needed to Die Well

4.9

I must pray for grace to deliver me from death* and to carry me well through my dying moments.

Lord, make me to know my end and what is the extent of my days; let me know and consider how transient I am, that my days are as handbreadths and every man at his best is a mere breath. Psalm 39:4-5(NASB) My days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no hope. 1 Chronicles 29:15(NASB)
Lord, so teach me to number my days, that I may present to You a heart of wisdom, Psalm 90:12(NASB) and make me to discern my future. Deuteronomy 32:29(NASB)
Lord, make me always ready, dressed in readiness with my lamp lit, Luke 12:35(NASB) because the Son of man is coming at an hour that I do not expect. Luke 12:40(NASB)
Keep me all the days of my struggle, waiting until my change comes; and then You will call, and I will answer. Job 14:14-15(NASB)
Bring me to my grave like the stacking of grain in its season; Job 5:26(NASB) satisfy me with life, whether it be long or short, and let me see Your salvation. Psalm 91:16(NASB)
And when I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, be with me, that I may fear no evil; let Your rod and Your staff comfort me. Psalm 23:4(NASB)
Let goodness and lovingkindness follow me all the days of my life, and let me dwell in the house of the LORD forever; Psalm 23:6(NASB) mercy and truth be with me. 2 Samuel 15:20(NASB)
Redeem my soul from the power of Sheol, and receive me; Psalm 49:15(NASB) guide me with Your counsel, and afterward receive me into glory. Psalm 73:24(NASB)

That came from Matthew Henry and his Method of Prayer, if you like it you can get it for free, just look it up.

"Let me know and consider how transient I am"; that sums it all up, we are transient and very small, and God has our lives in the palm of His hand. I like that, God reigns, it is my glory, knowing that He reigns; it brings me peace and joy. There is no more fear of death, and the absence of fear brings peace.

This last December I almost died, I actually think I died but I'm not sure; they couldn't wake me up and I wasn't there to be awakened, it was very strange; then the pain got to be so insane that I started doubting there is a God who cares. Yeah, there is that kind of pain, and it makes one doubt the existence of God; eventually the pain subsided. After 10 days, I had lost 36 pounds, I was so weak I couldn't walk; my flesh clung from my bones. I was so skinny that I could not sit straight without feeling my spine rub against the chair, it was not fun at all.

I am grateful for my family and my friends, seeing their faces brought me great relief during that time. I thought about dying a lot after I woke up, one night I watched my heart fibrillate on the monitor for a long time, the nurse didn't know what to do, everyone was (or is it 'were'?) running around like chickens, while I lay there, unable to speak with a tube in my throat. I thought about dying again but it didn't happen; I am grateful for that.

It has been a long time since I wrote anything, things appear to change very fast and they take a long time to change at the same time; I am in a very privileged position, it is almost as if God has pressed the pause button in my movie, and I am observing how blessed I am. I am a blessed man for real.

I'll be coming back little by little, it is nice to be back; soon it will be nice to be home forever, after I have been given the grace to die well.

Have a nice day.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

It's Over....

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 09:40:00 +0000

For all those who missed the show; I am leaving a link to Bill Still's excellent youtube channel and video about the session of the Congress-Senate of the USA to certify the Electoral Vote Tally and choose the next president of this great nation. I hope that makes sense, if it doesn't, blame it on the Russian hackers, or Vladimir Putin, or even Bush.

It is very interesting to watch how, even to the last minute and in full exercise of our US Constitutional rights, people tried, and tried, and tried to put a stop to Donald J. Trump becoming the next president; all failed miserably. Amazing.

What is more amazing, at least to me, is that so many people think we live in a democracy, we don't, we live in a constitutional republic, very wisely founded by, not immigrants as everyone says, but by settlers. Maybe it is time for the schools to start teaching American History, the real one, once again.

God is still in control of all things, He reigns supreme over the universe.

The EU laws, according to Google, say that You must accceeeepppt my blog's cookies! Meeeerry Christmas!

Be blessed.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

More Veritas...III

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 07:44:00 +0000

Part 3, just in case the first one didn't go through:

https://youtu.be/EEQvsK5w-jY

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Project Veritas video....

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Tue, 25 Oct 2016 05:20:00 +0000

According to Blogger this is my first post for 2016, that is weird. I hope it's not the last one.

I have rarely written anything related to politics here; I hate politics in general, but in this case I think you guys need to see this and spread it to as many people as you can.

I had a conversation with my niece over the phone last night; she was in Mexico City at my mom's house when I called; and she asked me if I was going to vote for Trump even after all "the negative things he said about women"; I said yes I am, the only choice I have is to vote for him.

She continued to tell me how bad his image is in Mexico, everybody hates him because "Trump hates Mexicans"; so I asked her to tell me the source of her information, she said "the main stream media"; of course, even in Mexico the main stream media is in the pockets of the global enterprise system, for example the Mexican National Carlos Slim, a regular donor for the Clintons, is the majority share holder for the New York Times, he also owns Telmex (Telefonos de Mexico), Grupo Mazeca ( or "Gruma", the monopoly who owns all the corn products in Mexico and a great part of the US market, based in Texas, if you buy tortillas at the supermarket they are probably made by Gruma, the next time you make yourself some tacos check the label on the tortillas bag, if it says Gruma, that is one of his products), and countless other business, he has his hands in almost every comerce field and is one of the richest people in the world, without a doubt he is richer than Trump.

Then I asked her to tell me exactly what Trump has said that indicates he hates Mexicans, and she couldn't do it; she just repeated what everyone hears in the news or Facebook, or Tweeter, etc.

I also said what she already knows, every man talks about women at one point or another in a dimeaning way, the worst thing is that women do it too, and I suspect even worse than men in general; but that is what the human heart is, deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?

No wonder Trump gets such a bad press even in Mexico; but my point is that the world hates Trump for a reason: he is not a politician, and he loves the USA; if you have no idea what he is planning to do when he becomes president (if the elction is not stolen from him), just watch his last speech at Gettysburg.

Anyway, I just watched a new video in YouTube, just to pile it on top of the recent Wikileaks dump, the link is below if you are interested, and I hope you are.

Truth is a powerful force, and it always sets us free:

Here is the link just in case you want to copy and paste it in an email:

https://youtu.be/5IuJGHuIkzY

Read your bible and walk with Jesus, He will never disappoint you.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Trials ensure my perseverance....

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Wed, 03 Feb 2016 01:12:00 +0000

Time is passing by so quickly that sometimes I think I am dreaming; the last time I posted anything was in October last year, that is about 4 months ago. It's amazing how fast our lives pass away, one day at a time.

Sometimes I think that I'm not going to make it to the end of the line, my faith wavers when I look at my circumstances; sometimes even to the extreme of thinking that I might as well go back to my old life. It seems that I was better off living in darkness since I never had so many troubles; my life certainly seemed easier then than now; but of course, that is a lie.

Then on the other side I realize that no matter how hard life seems to be right now, it cannot be compared to that of the wretch I was before; what I mean is that my life, in this very moment, is so much better than before, that it is like comparing blazing light with total darkness. I know what total darkness looks like, I have experienced it, a darkness so dark that I could not even see my fingers in front of my eyes; and I know what blazing light is, just a glance at the sun at noon gives you an idea of what I'm thinking.

Last year my ex wife tried to kill herself by taking a bunch of pills, she did this while she was staying at my daughter's home; so she ended up in a psychiatric hospital, obviously they loaded her with a bunch of drugs and released her three days later, that is when she called me crying on the phone saying that my daughters didn't want her to come back to their place. My oldest daughter was very upset with her, it was a real dramatic experience for the kids, and for her too, this is the second time my daughter has to deal with this kind of thing.

My mom had been staying with me for about three months, but she had just left to go back to Mexico City; so when my ex called me, I thought "I can't let her be in the street", she really didn't have a place to go, so I said, "don't worry, you will not end up in the street, you can stay here for a few days while you find a place to stay"; that was four months ago.

At that moment it seemed like the right thing to do, I know it was the right thing to do; Jesus' words ran through my mind, 'I was hungry and you did not feed me, I was thirsty and you did not give me anything to drink, I was homeless and you did not take me in, I was naked and you did not clothed me, in prison and you did not come to visit me....'; that is all I could think about in that moment.

The weirdest thing is that she did not ask me to come and stay here, I actually volunteered the help. Five years ago that would have been out of the question, but this time it seemed like it was the most normal thing to do, and I did it.

Two months later, my oldest daughter asked if she could move in with me, she was not making the rent, even with my other daughter helping; they were both struggling; so I said yes you can move in with me. They all moved in with me; my two daughters, and my grand kids. I bought a fold-able bed in Amazon, and they moved in on December the first.

Right before Christmas, my oldest daughter got laid off from work, and right after Christmas my youngest daughter had another surgery to remove another cyst from the only ovary she has left; she recovered from that and three days later she got strep-throat, she almost died from it; and she didn't work for about three weeks in total which made a mess of her finances. We have been barely making it, but we have made it so far, by God's grace.

Two days ago, my niece called me saying she was coming to visit, she did; her mom came with her too; it is a good thing that she could stay in a hotel, but I had to feed them yesterday just out of my hospitality instincts, and I was hungry too so what the heck, we all ate and had leftovers, I killed them today for lunch, the leftovers, that is.

The guy who does my yard work did not show up last week, and I thought it was weird, but he did come today; as soon as I heard the truck pull in to my house I started writing him a check for 25 bucks, which is how much he charges every time he comes to do the yard; as a side note, I had to stop doing the yard myself because it was causing me a lot of pain in my back, and I couldn't do it anymore, so I hired this guy, his name is Faustino Aquino, he is from Michoacan in Mexico.

Anyway, I went outside to give him the check because he had not started the work yet, and I needed to eat lunch and lay down because I couldn't sleep last night; and so I asked him if he was okay because he didn't show up last week, he said he had a heart attack last week, and he was hurting, I told him he shouldn't be working but he said he needed the money, it broke my heart; he seemed confused.

So I said, "hey my yard looks pretty good, don't do it this week, you need to rest", and I gave him the check anyway; after we talked for a while, he left and I went back to my lunch of leftovers, and my most needed nap; then as I laid down, I started thinking that I had just wasted a perfect opportunity to share the gospel with the guy; I have a tendency to rail myself about things like that; you know what I mean?

This tape runs in my brain (I say tape, but I should say 'an MP3' or something like that instead, just to keep up with technology and be cool) that goes something like this: 'what were you thinking? God sends you people so you can tell them the gospel and you waste the perfect opportunity to share His word with them; you're so self centered, only thinking about yourself and your lunch and your nap, when the guy could die tomorrow, and what if he does die? You will feel like crap for not sharing the good news man, what is wrong with you? Well, at least you gave him some money for nothing, you're a bad steward of God's money, gee, not only did you fail to evangelize him, you wasted God's resources also". I know the tape, or mp3, did not come from God, that's for sure.

Now, let's talk about getting constantly side-tracked; it is the story of my brain for the last few years, add the short term memory loss to that, and I got a sure recipe for "failing to do God's will" all the time. Do you see what kind of nightmare I have to deal with on a daily basis?

The main point, and the purpose of saying all of the above, is that God reigns over all things, and over the thoughts and the intents of the hearts of all men and women in this world; that is the conclusion at which I arrive every night, just right before I lay down to listen to John Gerstner teach on the Westminster Confession of Faith, and after I have read Calvin's Institutes. My days end up that way, every day, every night; and they all begin with pain just to remind me that I am still alive and that God is not done with me yet.

Tomorrow is my grand daughter's birthday, she is turning 12 years old; it seems like it was a few months ago when she was holding my leg in the back yard, saying: 'grampa don't go'...after smashing a few ants with a rock. She is officially a teenager now, and she is a beautiful girl for sure. I wrote her a note last night and put it in an envelope with a couple 20 dollar bills for her birthday, I had to explain that I usually forget to get birthday cards so an early note was due.

Tonight she was concentrated in making a bunch of cupcakes to bring to school for her friends, I guess she has planned a party for herself, I don't know. This girl is so smart it amazes me; she does math like a genius, she actually says she loves math, go figure, she didn't get that love from me I am sure.

That is what precipitated me to write tonight, thinking how fast time goes by, and how slowly I am dying. In all this, I worry, as I worry almost every day, about how am I going to make it when I am old and decrepit, unable to walk without assistance; so God's Holy Spirit reminds me that He will never leave me nor forsake me.

To prove that He, God, is attentive to all of my prayers, as I am writing this in my garage, I see something move in the corner of my left eye, I slowly turn my head to see a tiny sparrow, jumping and walking inside the garage, and I say out loud "where are you going little guy?" He didn't hear me, he just kept on jumping all the way to where the motorcycle sits, he turned around and he took off flying into the outside sky.

I don't think that is a coincidence at all, I have walked with Jesus long enough to know when it is that He is showing me something through His providence, it makes me want to cry for gratefulness; and He so reminds me of His own words:

Mat 6:26-34 Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? (27) And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? (28) And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, (29) yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. (30) But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? (31) Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' (32) For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. (33) But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. (34) "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.

God will take care of you, He will take care of me, and He will take care of all those you pray for; God is not in need of me, or in need period, He is the Self Sufficient One, and He delights in using us just because we are in Christ, all for His sake, and nothing more; and we will make it to the very end, to the praise of the glory of His grace. Praise His Holy Name.

Have a nice day.

They, whom God has accepted in His Beloved, effectually called, and sanctified
by His Spirit, can neither totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but shall certainly persevere therein to the end, and be eternally saved.
The Westminster Confession of Faith, Chapter 17, Section 1. Written in 1646.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

The joy of mortifying...

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Thu, 22 Oct 2015 08:36:00 +0000

I'm still thinking about joy. For a long time I always confused joy in the Lord with some kind of happiness that I could never put my finger on; like some feeling inside of me; but joy is more than a feeling of being happy; it is more like being satisfied, totally satisfied in God. Jesus says in John 15:11 These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

What things is He referring to? The things He just said starting in verse 1, that He is the true vine and we are His branches; that the Father is the husbandman who is pruning the branches to bear more fruit, that we are clean by the words He has spoken, and that we will bear fruit; John 15:5-11 I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. (6) If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned. (7) If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you. (8) Herein is my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit; so shall ye be my disciples. (9) As the Father hath loved me, so have I loved you: continue ye in my love. (10) If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love. (11) These things have I spoken unto you, that my joy might remain in you, and that your joy might be full.

This is Christ's joy, that He abides in the Father's love and kept His commandments in order that we can abide in Him and bear fruit, and that the Father is glorified in this fruit producing process; that is what I see right there in those verses. When I think about these branches in the vine, they are just there, connected to the vine, producing, bearing fruit; and they are bearing fruit, much fruit, because they are under the care of the Husbandman who prunes them and keeps them producing fruit, the ones without fruit are cut off and thrown into the fire. The Father is in total control of the production, as is the Holy Spirit: Gal 5:22-26 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, (23) Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law. (24) And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. (25) If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. (26) Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

So in a sense I see this beautiful picture of the trinity involved in the process; Christ is the vine, we are the branches, the Father is the gardener, the Holy Spirit is the life flowing through the vine producing the fruit, like the sap of the vine. The only thing external to us is the fruit itself in this sense, it is what can be seen of this life that is flowing through the branches; the branches remain attached to the vine because they are producing fruit and they are being pruned.

Joy is part of the fruit of the Spirit, and it is intimately related to the rest of itself, in this case to love, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and self control; that is why Jesus says 'if you abide in my me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you will and it shall be done unto you', because abiding in Him is abiding in His words, which will always produce love, joy, peace, etc. It is the natural progression of a vine that is being taken care of, and it is always the result of genuine salvation by grace through faith.

So this joy is always the result of being saved and understanding what that means; this is what really satisfies the soul in all its desires; anything that is not from this fruit of the Spirit is obviously from the flesh, as Paul says in Galatians, the works of the flesh: Gal 5:19-21 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, (20) Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, (21) Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.

Do you see the clear distinction? The works of the flesh are in direct opposition to the fruit of the Spirit, it is obvious right? There is no joy in any of those works, there can never be because Joy is of divine origin, and works are of human origin, and anything that is of human origin is totally opposed to what is divine, or of God, and it can never be in subjection to God, it is an impossibility according to Paul in Romans 8. But "you", Paul says, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit is in you.

Rom 8:9-14 But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. (10) And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness. (11) But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you. (12) Therefore, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live after the flesh. (13) For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live. (14) For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.

As you can see, and as I can see, it all depends on the fact that the Spirit dwells in us; and we can know this by the very testimony that is being borne in us who believe; our spirits and The Spirit bear witness inside of us that we are children of God, and you will be able to see this in a palpable way by the fruit that you are bearing and that, in fact, everyone can see. Are you displaying the fruit of the Spirit in your life? Are you patient, and loving, and meek, and do you have faith, and gentleness and goodness, and are you exercising self control? Then you you should also have joy because of this, right?

I'm not talking about perfection, but if you really look at your life and you see these qualities in it, even if you are not displaying them all at the same time all the time, they are proof that you are a real believer, that you are a real branch, and that these things that you can see being produced in you are the fruit that did not come from you but from God Himself working in you through His Spirit. This is reason for great joy in your life. This is the joy Jesus is talking about; the joy of God doing what only He can do.

That is why I consider that it is useless to exert myself to do anything for God based on my own thinking; it is a completely futile activity to be engaged in, because apart from Him I can do nothing. I cannot have self control apart from God producing it in me; I cannot be loving apart from God loving through me, I cannot be patient and meek apart from God working that in me, I cannot be joyful apart from God abiding in me; and still Paul says: If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. Let us not be desirous of vain glory, provoking one another, envying one another.

This is the ever present side of human responsibility, even in the face of God's sovereignty. God is working all the time, but we must also apply ourselves to the effort He is providing; in other words, the devil will not flee from me if I don't resist him; if I want to be patient, I must exercise self control; in order to advance in holiness and righteousness I must fight sin and reject it, and withstand temptation, all by the grace that God provides, but I must still do it. Paul puts it like this: 1Cor.15:10 But by the grace of God I am what I am: and his grace which was bestowed upon me was not in vain; but I laboured more abundantly than they all: yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me.

Do you see it? He labored, or worked, more abundantly than they all, yet not he but the grace that was with him; that is what I was saying, this is the human effort always present in this sanctification process. This is why he says what I already quoted above, I'll quote it again: For if ye live after the flesh, ye shall die: but if ye through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live.

You see, I have to mortify the deeds of the body, and to mortify means to kill the deeds of the body, or as he says somewhere else, the works of the flesh; adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like. And 'such like' means any other sin, period.

It is very simple, if I'm getting drunk and living in adultery or fornication, I'm disobeying what God has told me to do, which is to abstain from sexual immorality and to not get drunk; If I am not exercising self control in the areas that God has already pointed out in my life in which I should be exercising self control, obviously this is something that requires more attention and effort on my part, even though God has already given me victory over some things, I still must fight for controlling other behaviours or ways of thinking that I know are in the way of true fellowship with God, it is obvious that when I'm angry or resentful I cannot have fellowship with God; He still loves me, He remains the same, always loving, and gracious, and merciful, but the wrath of man doesn't produce the righteousness of God, said James; it is clear why I cannot have fellowship with God that way, and there can be no joy in that.

John 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

If I'm not killing the deeds of the body, I don't care how much I say, or think, I love Jesus, I really don't, which makes me not only an idolater but also a liar and a hypocrite; and the same applies to the rest of the list. I'm not the one making this up, this is what the bible clearly says; and if I live my life this way, I cannot see the kingdom of God, it is impossible, because flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. Jesus said, John 12:25 He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal. It takes that we hate this life to have eternal life; that is what loving God is, because He is the only one who can satisfy the longing of the heart for freedom in true holiness.

Killing the desires of the flesh and of the mind is the work that I must do; the Lord grants His grace so that I can do it; He has also provided me with everything that I need to do it: 2Pe 1:3-4 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: (4) Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

The Lord has given me, by divine power, everything I need to live in a godly way, to the best of my ability, which accords with the grace of God that is always present to assist me; and this is possible through the knowledge of God who has called me to glory and virtue; it is through this knowledge and the promises it contains, by which we partake of His divine nature, which can never fail to achieve what God wants; this is the reason we can escape the corruption of this world, and of this flesh that is always lusting for something else other than God.

To me the clear path to kill the desires of the flesh and of the mind, is by operating in the knowledge of God's word; the more I read and think about what God desires in me, the more I want it; the knowledge of God always brings with it the knowledge of myself; the more I see how holy God really is, the more I see how depraved is my fleshly mind, which makes me run faster towards the cross of Jesus to find refuge from my own shame. The better knowledge of Jesus the better knowledge of who I really am and how much I need Him; without Him I can do nothing. There is nothing more pernicious and nocive than the self exaltation to which I am so prone to fall in; if I didn't know myself the way I do, I would naturally think I'm the greatest thing since sliced bread; it is even funny to think that we can be cool in our own brains when in reality we are nothing but worms, at least I am.

Anyway, I kind of lost track of where I was going, and it doesn't surprise me.....Joy..that's what I was talking about. This is what joy is, satisfaction in God for my existence, regardless of the circumstances that are present in my life, the belief that God created me for His glory, and even though I was born into sin and I still do battle with it, God rescued me from the darkness because He had so determined before the foundation of the world, to make me holy and blameless in His Son who died for my sins and who purchased me with His blood, and that nothing can separate me from His love; forever; this is exceeding joy, that Jesus will present me faultless before God, and that I will enjoy God forever in perfect union with Him and His people. Imagine that, bliss eternal, in the presence of God; doesn't it fill your heart with joy to think of this as true for you? It does mine, and I can't wait.

Everybody is going through something at one point or another, I'm talking about true believers, we are all dealing with various diseases or trying experiences; for some of us some of those things are pretty hard, for some of us what others are going through is always worse than what we are experiencing; but one thing that we can all experience is the joy of knowing God and knowing where we came from and where we are going; and knowing we have the greatest treasure in the universe, God Himself.

Have a nice one....

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Rejoice in the Lord...

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Mon, 19 Oct 2015 06:27:00 +0000

I read a book called "the dark night of the soul" a long time ago, I think it was written by an old monk in the 14 or 1500's; it was about this man's journey, or quest, for total union with what he called 'divine love', the love of God. Back then I remember thinking how I have always read about people who had this amazing fellowship with God, I still think about it and I want it.

I think and I dream of not having this flesh and this mind, or better said, I yearn to have total freedom from the desires of the heart and the thoughts of the mind that are opposed to what God desires. There is in me a deep desire to please God and to obey Him and do what His word says; this is deep inside my heart, deep where I cannot see, in the spirit, there is something like a fountain that wants to burst out, just like Jesus said in John. I truly want to be holy, and righteous, and want to walk in humility with God, to do justice and have mercy.

Does this sound strange to you? It does to me, because I know that is something that I didn't want before when I was in the darkness; this desire has been there for a long time, since I became a believer in Christ. The thing about it is that it has been growing for years, the more time goes by, the more I want it; and I know that it will be fulfilled one day, as Jesus promised.

The bible says this is what happens to a man when God gives him life. This desire for holiness and righteousness can only come to anyone by the Spirit of God, it is a divine work, just like regeneration; we all know what it is called, it is called sanctification; this is what the Holy Spirit does in the life of all believers, and this is a fact, not only does the bible affirm this but experience confirms it. This is a very easy way to find out if you are a real believer; that is what First John is telling me. Anything good in us can only come from God Himself since there is nothing in us that desires to please God, we don't really want what God wants by nature, but God changes that sooner or later and I am glad He does.

The reasons I am saying all this is because if you are a real believer, you will find yourself desiring the same thing I desire, which is total freedom from the flesh and the mind in order to fellowship with God in His terms. This is what glorifying God is all about. While you do whatever you do, whether eating or drinking, or anything else that we do, we glorify God because of this new nature that He has given us by His Spirit. And also I'm saying this because this is a very real reason to rejoice in this world, and I want you to rejoice if you want the same thing, because it points to Christ, it is His gift to us. Delight yourself in the Lord, says David, (or rejoice in Him) and He will give you the desires of your heart; which I have always interpreted this way; His desires become yours.

I think we can find a lot of joy, what Peter calls joy inexpressible, thinking about this alone. For me joy has always been related to what I am thinking about, it has always been like that and it will always be like that; no wonder the bible, and therefore God, constantly say to watch you heart and to control your thinking, in the words of Paul, I must put my mind above, where Christ is. I think it is awesome that God gave us instructions in how to think, I have never read any other book like the word of God, it is pure truth. It is awesome to me.

I am writing to encourage you; God says our labor is not in vain and one day we will reap if we don't lose heart; He calls it a labor of love; this is our labor of love, our life and our giving ourselves to others; that is what it's all about, really; Jesus is clear about this. What else can picking up a cross to follow Him be but a labor of love? Think about it and you will agree with me, I think.

Our lives are about dying to ourselves, according to Him, that is what the cross is for, about dying to this world and following Him; so everytime you go to work, you are dying to yourself, every time you love someone unlovable you die to yourself, every time you consider others better than yourself you die to yourself, every time you present yourself as a living sacrifice you die some more, every time you renew your mind with His word, every time you pray, every time you want to have fellowship with His people, every time you miss that fellowship, every time God comes into your thinking during the day, and so on and so forth, you are really dying to yourself; all these things are completely opposed to what the natural mind and heart desire, obviously all these are the work of God in you to will and to perform of His good pleasure, which has to be more of Him and less of you; this is what sanctification is; you shall be filled, and comforted, and satisfied, and you shall see God at the end.

All the heroes of the faith mentioned in Hebrews 11 believed that what God promised He would fulfill, that is what made them heroes, they lived their lives by their faith in God; and the most beautiful thing about that is not only that you also believe, just like them, but that this faith belongs to Jesus in the first place; He is the one giving it to us and keeping us through it.

This kabod, this doxa that I mentioned before in another post, this glory, is feeling the weight and thinking about the splendor of the King, clothed in majesty, as the song says; it transcends all senses, it goes beyond mere thoughts and imagination, it springs up from the Spirit and reaches to the very heart of God in us; the first question and answer in the Westminster catechism brings it all down to earth: Q. What is the chief end of man? A. The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever.

This is the main purpose of our lives, to glorify God, there is no other reason I can see for our existence. It is even the purpose for all trials and difficulties, it is the purpose for which we breathe and our hearts keep on pumping all that blood through our veins, it is the purpose for our ability to think and reason; how can we miss it or deny that it is true? And if it is true, how can we so easily forget it or ignore it? May it never be so for you and I.

So here we are, with this desire for fellowship with our Creator, with this desire for holiness, with this thirst and hunger for righteousness, and in my case, I miss it by complaining about my circumstances, by placing my eyes on things that do not satisfy me, many times unwillingly, many times on purpose or just by plain laziness, I admit it; but I can still rejoice that I am not left to my own devices or the imaginations of my heart, and I can surely enjoy fellowship with my God if I seek Him with all of my heart, because it is in the seeking Him that the joy of fellowship is often found, and He promised that I will find Him; I know this because it is when I dive deep in the pool of His word that I feel the most satisfied. Perhaps it is a different matter for you, but I doubt it because we are all the same, we are all walking the same path, and we all have the same flesh to deal with.

It is obvious to me that when Paul says 'rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say rejoice'; it is a command to rejoice in God, it is plain and simple, so it is up to me to rejoice in the Lord; this is a matter of choice for me, why else would he say that? Why would David say to delight yourself in the Lord and He would give us the desires of our hearts? For me this is the way to satisfaction of the soul, and it starts with my thinking, it always does, and it always will start there.

Rejoice my child, and my brother and my sister, for you are destined for glory, you cannot fail to get there because God is the one in control of that process, He began the good work and He will be faithful to complete it; no matter how many times you think you are defeated by the world and your flesh, and the devil, you cannot fail to achieve your glorious destiny for Christ' sake; we are the bride of Christ and He will surely have a marriage supper one day, do you see what God is doing and has done? Think about it, and think about it some more, it glorifies God because you trust Him and believe that He will fulfill what He has promised to do.

Psa 37:1-11 A Psalm of David. Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against the workers of iniquity. (2) For they shall soon be cut down like the grass, and wither as the green herb. (3) Trust in the LORD, and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed. (4) Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart. (5) Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in him; and he shall bring it to pass. (6) And he shall bring forth thy righteousness as the light, and thy judgment as the noonday. (7) Rest in the LORD, and wait patiently for him: fret not thyself because of him who prospereth in his way, because of the man who bringeth wicked devices to pass. (8) Cease from anger, and forsake wrath: fret not thyself in any wise to do evil. (9) For evildoers shall be cut off: but those that wait upon the LORD, they shall inherit the earth. (10) For yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be: yea, thou shalt diligently consider his place, and it shall not be. (11) But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.

Have a nice day.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Of faith and glory....

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Fri, 16 Oct 2015 08:36:00 +0000

It is 80 degrees here right now, 98% humidity, it is 12:34 am and I can't sleep, my neck hurts, my back hurts, my legs are numb, and to finish it off, I have 75 dollars left to survive until the end of the month; that is the way the story goes, day after day, night after night. I pray to God for patience, I read my bible for comfort, I read books to learn, I study to understand, I meditate on the words I read so I can write them on my heart, it's all Greek to me, but I remember what Jesus said: John 16:33 I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world."

Paul says in Romans that we are more than conquerors, more than overcomers: Rom 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? (36) As it is written, "For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered." (37) No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. (38) For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, (39) nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And John says: 1Jn 5:1-5 Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God, and everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him. (2) By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and obey his commandments. (3) For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. (4) For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world--our faith. (5) Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?

According to what I just quoted above, I have overcome the world through faith, this is my victory, God's victory; even though sufferings are present every day of my life, none of them, not a single trial, or anything else for that matter, can ever separate me from the love of God in Jesus; and this is the very reason I love those who have been born from God, because we all have overcome the world through this faith; the faith that God gave us to believe that it is a reality that even though we suffer in this world, the world has nothing in us. I find this very comforting, and at the same time fascinating. I understand it, but I don't, if that makes any sense.

For the last 25 years I have only had a few periods of rest from trials and tribulation; some of those times of trouble have been extremely hard to bear; many times I have felt like Job in many ways, probably not in the same degree of suffering since I haven't lost my children yet, but God has placed me deep in the furnace of affliction and turned up the heat; many times I have been at the brink of going back to the world and just give free reign to my flesh when I see the futility of my life, but I can't do it, there is nothing in me that wants or desires that to happen, so I remember that God is keeping me through this faith He gave me, I know there in nothing better than walking with Christ.

It is very clear to me what is happening: 1Peter 1:3-9 Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, (4) to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, (5) who by God's power are being guarded through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (6) In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, (7) so that the tested genuineness of your faith--more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. (8) Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, (9) obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

The bible is replete with similar statements, for example James says the same thing in the first chapter of his letter; and I think hard about it, very often, this faith must be tested, or better yet purified like gold, being much more valuable than gold, which means that in this world there is nothing of more value than my faith in God because it will be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. That is an awe inspiring thought.

The result of the trials is always a deeper desire for obedience, righteousness and holiness, and a very deep gratitude for what God has done for me; it is almost every day that I thank Him for sustaining me the way He does, I don't deserve this kind of treatment, I don't deserve this grace and mercy, this incomprehensible love, I don't get it, all I can do is thank God for it and adore Him with all of my being.

For me, all the reading, and the studying, and meditating; all the doctrine and the knowledge, and everything else that I have learned boils down to a simple fact, God loves me for His glory. Everything He gives me and what He does not give me, all the trials, and all the pain, all the sleepless nights, all the pain, all the discomfort, all the mental anguish that I can't change sometimes, all my worries, my plans and dreams, my failures as a man, all my character defects, and even all the sin that so easily besets me at times, it is all for His glory and nothing else.

There is nothing else that matters but the glory of God, that is what the bible constantly affirms, so much so that Paul reduces it to the most simple and necessary acts in life, eating and drinking: 1Cor. 10:31 So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.

Have you ever consider what that means? I have, and it boggles my mind. I think I get it, and I don't get it, like so many other things in the bible. How do you eat or drink, or whatever you do for the glory of God? What does it mean to give God glory? What is glory?

According to the dictionary glory is: very great praise, honor, or distinction bestowed by common consent; renown. In the old testament there are various words that are used for glory, but the main one is H3519 (the numbers are the Strong's concordance numbers) which is Kabod, כּבד כּבוד, kâbôd kâbôd, kaw-bode', From H3513; properly weight; but only figuratively in a good sense, splendor or copiousness: - glorious (-ly), glory, honour (-able).
What is H3513? כּבד כּבד, kâbad kâbêd, kaw-bad, kaw-bade'
A primitive root; to be heavy, that is, in a bad sense (burdensome, severe, dull) or in a good sense (numerous, rich, honorable); causatively to make weighty (in the same two senses): - abounding with, more grievously afflict, boast, be chargeable, X be dim, glorify, be (make) glorious (things), glory, (very) great, be grievous, harden, be (make) heavy, be heavier, lay heavily, (bring to, come to, do, get, be had in) honour (self), (be) honourable (man), lade, X more be laid, make self many, nobles, prevail, promote (to honour), be rich, be (go) sore, stop.

In the Greek it is : G1391 δόξα, doxa, dox'-ah, From the base of G1380; glory (as very apparent), in a wide application (literally or figuratively, objectively or subjectively): - dignity, glory (-ious), honour, praise, worship.

What is the base G1380? It is: δοκέω, dokeō, dok-eh'-o
A prolonged form of a primary verb δόκω dokō (used only as an alternate in certain tenses; compare the base of G1166); of the same meaning; to think; by implication to seem (truthfully or uncertainly): - be accounted, (of own) please (-ure), be of reputation, seem (good), suppose, think, trow.

Of course, all the possible meanings of the words in the original languages are determined by the context in which the word is being used, but you already knew that. Is all this necessary to understand the meaning of glory? Do you have to know Greek and Hebrew to get what it means? Not really, just let the teachers worry about those things man, why do you have to make everything so complicated? Good grief.

I don't have to know Greek or Hebrew to understand my bible, that's for sure, but how do you really know what it means to give God glory when you eat and drink, or whatever you do? What is your first thought? To make God look good? To praise Him and honor Him? Yeah, that would be my first thought; but as you can clearly see, the meaning is a lot deeper than that, don't you agree?

In other words, when I don't get what really means to give God glory when I eat, then I have to know what glory is, or what it is to give glory to God in the first place, if I don't know that, then the phrase, or the command in this case, just sounds pretty and spiritual but I end up having no idea how to do it; it just ends up in a nice cliche that I can blurt out at church and impress people because I memorized 1 Corinthians 10:31, or 13, or whatever the number is, and at the end I remain in my ignorance and the imaginations of my heart, so when I sit down to eat I have no idea how to give glory to God in my eating because I have no idea what it really means to do it; and the worse thing about it is that God is not really glorified, or is He?

But what do I know? I was just trying to give glory to God for my afflictions in the first place, and here I am getting into a dissertation about what the Greek and Hebrew words mean. I can't help it dude. Maybe in God's wisdom and providence He deemed it necessary for me to get into all this because I have to make you trip out about my musings, and perhaps irritate you in the process, which is an evil thing to do, but only He knows how to bring good out of evil.

I am sure that if you carefully consider those definitions above, you will clearly see that to give glory to God means much more than what we might initially think; I will leave it up to you to come to your own conclusions; as for me, I am in pain and I'm going to bed soon, even if I can't sleep, maybe a cold shower will help freeze my brain and my thoughts. The day has ended, and I have the victory through this faith God gave me, that glorifies God, that is the bottom line.

Have a nice day.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Providence 4....

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Thu, 15 Oct 2015 21:12:00 +0000

I am here quoting Calvin again for your reading pleasure and for God's glory. I told you I would do it and I am doing it, and I am doing it because I think that this will be useful to you in your struggles through this life. It is somewhat surprising that after all these years and all these trials I still tend to freak out when some new difficulty appears in front of me, and I have to be constantly reminded that God reigns over all things, people and events. The doctrine of divine providence, or that God reigns absolute in this universe, is a most useful doctrine, at least to me it is. It is like a mighty rock that I can plant my feet on and trust that it will never give up, break, or dissolve, it might appear to shake sometimes, but it is mostly my legs that are shaking not the rock itself.

Like I said before, I think Calvin was brilliant, and he is for sure a gift from God to me, in the same way as many other godly men who have left their writings behind for us to be fed with; we are standing on the shoulders of giants of the faith, many of whom have even bled and died defending the truth; I see the day coming when we will be faced with the choice to either deny our faith in Christ or die by the sword, I think about this and makes me anxious for my children, but that is because I constantly step off the rock..

While not everybody agrees with Calvin, and sometimes I find myself in that group, his counsel is sound; it takes reading what he says with an open mind and with humility since we are naturally inclined to argue and to hold to our preconceived notions regarding what we believe is truth; we often deny that we can be so blind, arrogant and ignorant to accept what does not line up with our depravity. But as you will see, his reasoning prowess leaves no room for arguments.

Here is Book 1, Chapter 17, sections 1 and 2; I will continue posting the following sections until I'm done with this chapter and then I will post chapter 18 and stop there; so expect at least three or four, or maybe more posts with this kind of content; my recommendation to you, that is if you like what you read, is that you spend the 15 or so dollars and get the book for yourself, or download it from the net. If you have ESword, which is free, the book is available for free in the resources section of the website. I wish all my friends would have this valuable book and read it, but I know we are plagued with lack of motivation sometimes, we rather pay for and watch tv and then complain that we don't have money or the time to read, but we can justify anything that our flesh feels it needs, whatever, I'm not trying to rail anyone, I'm just saying...I have more problems than anyone I know.

Chapter 17. Use to be made of the doctrine of providence.
This chapter may be conveniently divided into two parts:
I. A general explanation is given of the doctrine of Divine Providence, in so far as conducive to the solid instruction and consolation of the godly, sect. 1, and specially sect. 2-12. First, however, those are refuted who deny that the world is governed by the secret and incomprehensible counsel of God; those also who throw the blame of all wickedness upon God, and absurdly pretend that exercises of piety are useless, sect. 2-5. Thereafter is added a holy meditation on Divine Providence, which, in the case of prosperity, is painted to the life, sect. 6-11.
II. A solution of two objections from passages of Scripture, which attribute repentance to God, and speak of something like an abrogation of his decrees.

Sections
1. Summary of the doctrine of Divine Providence. 1. It embraces the future and the past. 2. It works by means, without means, and against means. 3. Mankind, and particularly the Church, the object of special care. 4. The mode of administration usually secret, but always just. This last point more fully considered.
2. The profane denial that the world is governed by the secret counsel of God, refuted by passages of Scripture. Salutary counsel.
3. This doctrine, as to the secret counsel of God in the government of the world, gives no countenance either to the impiety of those who throw the blame of their wickedness upon God, the petulance of those who reject means, or the error of those who neglect the duties of religion.
4. As regards future events, the doctrine of Divine Providence not inconsistent with deliberation on the part of man.
5. In regard to past events, it is absurd to argue that crimes ought not to be punished, because they are in accordance with the divine decrees. 1. The wicked resist the declared will of God. 2. They are condemned by conscience. 3. The essence and guilt of the crime is in themselves, though God uses them as instruments.
6. A holy meditation on Divine Providence. 1. All events happen by the ordination of God. 2. All things contribute to the advantage of the godly. 3. The hearts of men and all their endeavours are in the hand of God. 4. Providence watches for the safety of the righteous. 5. God has a special care of his elect.
7. Meditation on Providence continued. 6. God in various ways curbs and defeats the enemies of the Church. 7. He overrules all creatures, even Satan himself, for the good of his people.
8. Meditation on Providence continued. 8. He trains the godly to patience and moderation. Examples. Joseph, Job, and David. 9. He shakes off their lethargy, and urges them to repentance.
9. Meditation continued. 10. The right use of inferior causes explained. 11. When the godly become negligent or imprudent in the discharge of duty, Providence reminds them of their fault. 12. It condemns the iniquities of the wicked. 13. It produces a right consideration of the future, rendering the servants of God prudent, diligent, and active. 14. It causes them to resign themselves to the wisdom and omnipotence of God, and, at the same time, makes them diligent in their calling.
10. Meditation continued. 15. Though human life is beset with innumerable evils, the righteous, trusting to Divine Providence, feel perfectly secure.
11. The use of the foregoing meditation.
12. The second part of the chapter, disposing of two objections. 1. That Scripture represents God as changing his purpose, or repenting, and that, therefore, his Providence is not fixed. Answer to this first objection. Proof from Scripture that God cannot repent.
13. Why repentance attributed to God.
14. Second objection, that Scripture speaks of an annulment of the divine decrees. Objection answered. Answer confirmed by an example.

1. Moreover, such is the proneness of the human mind to indulge in vain subtleties, that it becomes almost impossible for those who do not see the sound and proper use of this doctrine, to avoid entangling themselves in perplexing difficulties. It will, therefore, be proper here to advert to the end which Scripture has in view in teaching that all things are divinely ordained. And it is to be observed, first, that the Providence of God is to be considered with reference both to the past and the future; and, secondly, that in overruling all things, it works at one time with means, at another without means, and at another against means.

Lastly, the design of God is to show that He takes care of the whole human race, but is especially vigilant in governing the Church, which he favours with a closer inspection. Moreover, we must add, that although the paternal favour and beneficence, as well as the judicial severity of God, is often conspicuous in the whole course of his Providence, yet occasionally as the causes of events are concealed, the thought is apt to rise, that human affairs are whirled about by the blind impulse of Fortune, or our carnal nature inclines us to speak as if God were amusing himself by tossing men up and down like balls.

It is true, indeed, that if with sedate and quiet minds we were disposed to learn, the issue would at length make it manifest, that the counsel of God was in accordance with the highest reason, that his purpose was either to train his people to patience, correct their depraved affections, tame their wantonness, inure them to self-denial, and arouse them from torpor; or, on the other hand, to cast down the proud, defeat the craftiness of the ungodly, and frustrate all their schemes.

How much soever causes may escape our notice, we must feel assured that they are deposited with him, and accordingly exclaim with David, “Many, O Lord my God, are thy wonderful works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which are to us-ward: if I would declare and speak of them, they are more than can be numbered” (Psa. 40:5). For while our adversities ought always to remind us of our sins, that the punishment may incline us to repentance, we see, moreover, how Christ declares there is something more in the secret counsel of his Father than to chastise every one as he deserves.

For he says of the man who was born blind, “Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him” (John 9:3). Here, where calamity takes precedence even of birth, our carnal sense murmurs as if God were unmerciful in thus afflicting those who have not offended. But Christ declares that, provided we had eyes clear enough, we should perceive that in this spectacle the glory of his Father is brightly displayed.

We must use modesty, not as it were compelling God to render an account, but so revering his hidden judgements as to account his will the best of all reasons. When the sky is overcast with dense clouds, and a violent tempest arises, the darkness which is presented to our eye, and the thunder which strikes our ears, and stupefies all our senses with terror, make us imagine that every thing is thrown into confusion, though in the firmament itself all continues quiet and serene.

In the same way, when the tumultuous aspect of human affairs unfits us for judging, we should still hold, that God, in the pure light of his justice and wisdom, keeps all these commotions in due subordination, and conducts them to their proper end. And certainly in this matter many display monstrous infatuation, presuming to subject the works of God to their calculation, and discuss his secret counsels, as well as to pass a precipitate judgement on things unknown, and that with greater license than on the doings of mortal men.

What can be more preposterous than to show modesty toward our equals, and choose rather to suspend our judgement than incur the blame of rashness, while we petulantly insult the hidden judgements of God, judgements which it becomes us to look up to and revere.

2. No man, therefore, will duly and usefully ponder on the providence of God save he who recollects that he has to do with his own Maker, and the Maker of the world, and in the exercise of the humility which becomes him, manifests both fear and reverence. Hence it is, that in the present day so many dogs tear this doctrine with envenomed teeth, or, at least, assail it with their bark, refusing to give more license to God than their own reason dictates to themselves.

With what petulance, too, are we assailed for not being contented with the precepts of the Law, in which the will of God is comprehended, and for maintaining that the world is governed by his secret counsels? As if our doctrine were the figment of our own brain, and were not distinctly declared by the Spirit, and repeated in innumerable forms of expression!

Since some feeling of shame restrains them from daring to belch forth their blasphemies against heaven, that they may give the freer vent to their rage, they pretend to pick a quarrel with us. But if they refuse to admit that every event which happens in the world is governed by the incomprehensible counsel of God, let them explain to what effect Scripture declares, that “his judgements are a great deep” (Psa. 36:6). For when Moses exclaims that the will of God “is not in heaven that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us? Neither is it beyond the sea that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea and bring it unto us?” (Deu. 30:12-13), because it was familiarly expounded in the law, it follows that there must be another hidden will which is compared to “a great deep.”

It is of this will Paul exclaims, “O! the depths of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgements, and his ways past finding out! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who has been his counsellor?” (Rom. 11:33-34). It is true, indeed, that in the law and the gospel are comprehended mysteries which far transcend the measure of our sense; but since God, to enable his people to understand those mysteries which he has deigned to reveal in his word, enlightens their minds with a spirit of understanding, they are now no longer a deep, but a path in which they can walk safely - a lamp to guide their feet - a light of life - a school of clear and certain truth.

But the admirable method of governing the world is justly called a deep, because, while it lies hid from us, it is to be reverently adored. Both views Moses has beautifully expressed in a few words. “Secret things,” saith he, “belong unto the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever” (Deu. 29:29). We see how he enjoins us not only studiously to meditate on the law, but to look up with reverence to the secret Providence of God.

The Book of Job also, in order to keep our minds humble, contains a description of this lofty theme. The author of the Book, after taking an ample survey of the universe, and discoursing magnificently on the works of God, at length adds, “Lo, these are parts of his ways: but how little a portion is heard of him?” (Job. 26:14). For which reason he, in another passage, distinguishes between the wisdom which dwells in God, and the measure of wisdom which he has assigned to man (Job. 28:21, 28).

After discoursing of the secrets of nature, he says that wisdom “is hid from the eyes of all living;” that “God understandeth the way thereof.” Shortly after he adds, that it has been divulged that it might be investigated; for “unto man he said, Behold the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.” To this the words of Augustine refer, “As we do not know all the things which God does respecting us in the best order, we ought, with good intention, to act according to the Law, and in some things be acted upon according to the Law, his Providence being a Law immutable” (August. Quest. lib. 83 c. 27).

Therefore, since God claims to himself the right of governing the world, a right unknown to us, let it be our law of modesty and soberness to acquiesce in his supreme authority regarding his will as our only rule of justice, and the most perfect cause of all things - not that absolute will, indeed, of which sophists prate, when by a profane and impious divorce, they separate his justice from his power, but that universal overruling Providence from which nothing flows that is not right, though the reasons thereof may be concealed.

Have a nice day.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Disobedience is idolatry...

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 01:33:00 +0000

This is another long post with my ramblings, I warn you before you start reading because it could be worse...I think I wrote it months ago but I never clicked the 'publish' button for some reason, I think I thought it was not right to say these things, but now I know there is never a right way to say something unless it comes from God's word. Good thing there is an icon that looks like a garbage can, and a key that says 'delete':

idolatry
/aɪˈdɒlətrɪ/
noun
1.
the worship of idols
2.
great devotion or reverence
Derived Forms
idolater, noun
idolatress, noun:feminine
idolatrous, adjective
idolatrously, adverb
idolatrousness, noun

Synonyms
2. obsession, madness, mania.

Based on that definition, I don't think that I know one single person who does not suffer from some form of idolatry, and that is including myself, mostly because most people I know, which are not many, suffer from great devotion and reverence to the only one true God, if I ever could call that suffering. The idolatrousness of idolatry is that it is so deceitfully idolatrous that we have a tendency to idolatrously justify it (I had to use all those forms of the word, you know me, always thinking about how weird English is), at least I do, some times even try to trace it back to the will of God; anything can become an idol for me and make me an idolater, for some people is money, for others is the desire of it; for some is a sport or certain activity exterior to the person, for others is the internal feeling of an emotion.

For other people pleasure is an idol. For some others is even another human being, or more than one, and for certain others the very striving to be better can become an idol. I'm just saying. Now, do you agree with the synonyms above? They are directly from dictionary.com.

So to start with, is great devotion, or reverence, idolatry? Is idolatry madness? Mania? Perhaps they are correct, but we are all obsessed with something, and when I say obsessed, which might not be the right word, I mean doing something constantly, or thinking about something constantly; some of these could be even the desire to not be alone with your thoughts.

For some people, being alone is insufferable, some people can't stand it when they are alone with their thoughts, their own mind drives them crazy; for some others who have no choice but to be alone with their thoughts it might not be a bad thing at all. It works in other ways too, you can be dedicated to something that you don't have to do but you do it because it makes you feel good about yourself, the very feeling good can be the idol; could the pursuit of happiness be considered idolatry? Think about it.

How to define what an idol is in this modern age in which we no longer have carved images to bow down before them? Or maybe we do. Now we have i-devices, new cars, bigger houses, and a lot of made in China stuff. Maybe the carved images have been images in the mind, and we bow down to them by giving obeisance to them by constantly speaking about them, we all think we don't have any, at least I don't think I have any, not that I can remember (yeah, right), but God knows all things, and He knows if I do have them or not; and no, I will not list mine; or maybe I will. Am I wasting your time?

Do you remember that passage in Ezekiel where God shows him the temple and asks him to dig in the wall, and he finds a door, and when he opens it, he sees the abominations they were doing in the temple? It starts in chapter 8, when Ezekiel is snatched up by his hair between heaven and earth and he sees a vision, God takes him from the outside of the city and little by little shows him all the idols they had, and it gets worse as he is placed closer and closer to the temple, at each step God tells him, 'you shall see even worse', and then he sees all the way into the temple, he sees all kinds of creeping things engraved inside the walls; later God says this: Eze 8:12 Then said he unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen what the ancients of the house of Israel do in the dark, every man in the chambers of his imagery? for they say, The LORD seeth us not; the LORD hath forsaken the earth.

Every time I have read that book, I see the same thing; these people had their idols engraved in the inside of their minds; then judgement comes. God says: Eze 11:5 And the Spirit of the LORD fell upon me, and said unto me, Speak; Thus saith the LORD; "Thus have ye said, O house of Israel: for I know the things that come into your mind, every one of them". It is obvious to me that, as all secrets sins, idolatry starts in the mind, and that is where it lives.

I'm talking about believers though, for an unbeliever everything in his life is idolatrous, on the top of the list is himself and his or her ego, so let's not go there, but we believers think that we are not idolatrous; that is what one would suppose to be true. Imagine the level of proficiency needed in managing your thoughts to live a life that has no idols of any form, it is possible in a glorified state, but in this body and in this fallen world even in the thought life, the bible or the knowledge of it- I should say- can become an idol, I think; but for those who are indwelt with the Spirit it cannot be that way, on the contrary, the word of God is the seed that will necessarily reproduce after itself by the workings of the Spirit. Still, it is true that for some people academic knowledge is an idol; some people have the right doctrine but it is only head knowledge, right? Amazingly enough, believers, and I mean the real ones, are empowered by grace to defeat any idol, and to conquer any sin; that is what sanctification is all about.

Now, could it be manic idolatry? For example, listening to Made of Tears by Joe Satriani in an obsessive way, like playing it every time there is a chance to play it, yeah I do that, lately it has been 'Always with me, always with you', I just can't get enough of that melody; but I'm not surprised because I get like that all the time; if I'm going to ride my motorcycle the first thing I crank up in the iPod is Neon Knights, and now that I think about it, it is every single time I get on the bike; to me that is obsessive, is it idolatrous? Maybe. I need a few minutes to find a way to justify it, maybe I should be in the Harley ministry but I don't ride a Harley so I'm disqualified for that idol, I mean, that ministry.

What about reading Calvin's Institutes every night? Or the bible three times a day? Is that obsessive and idolatrous? You tell me, I just dig it. What happens is that in all the examples mentioned above, every single one makes me feel good, in fact when I listen to music I even experience some kind of elation when I listen very carefully and I visualize what the artist is doing with his fingers on the guitar, playing all of those sweet notes; Vivaldi's the Four Seasons is another obsessive one of mine, as it is Keith Jarret's 'The Koln Concert', but of course if you don't play guitar or music I don't think you will understand what I'm talking about, Vival-who? I experience the same feeling when I read the Institutes, it has insights that open up my understanding of the nature of my walk with God, and knowing those things makes me feel very good, so I obsess about it. Is that a form of idolatry?

The same thing happens when I write some times, not always, but some times; why is that? I can find several reasons, but not all of them might be legitimately justified reasons; maybe it is just spiritual pride that is hidden in some dark recess of my heart, it is so dark in there that I cannot even see it myself. Now in all honesty, I don't think there is a single real believer that wants to be idolatrous, the more when you understand the nature of idolatry and how offensive it is to God.

The definition that really blew my mind when I heard it was from John Piper, he was quoting someone else but I don't remember who; he said idolatry is also believing something about God that is not true and acting as if it was true, trip out on that. Like thinking that God loves everybody in the same way; or that He will save everybody at the end, the list can get pretty big in that respect.

There is this verse in which Samuel talks to Saul about disobeying the the word of God, check it: 1Samuel 15:23 For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath also rejected thee from being king. What is Samuel saying? You remember the context? God sent Saul to slay the Amalekites, because of what they did to the children of Israel in the wilderness as they passed by on their way from Egypt: Deut. 25:17-19 Remember what Amalek did unto thee by the way, when ye were come forth out of Egypt; (18) How he met thee by the way, and smote the hindmost of thee, even all that were feeble behind thee, when thou wast faint and weary; and he feared not God. (19) Therefore it shall be, when the LORD thy God hath given thee rest from all thine enemies round about, in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance to possess it, that thou shalt blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven; thou shalt not forget it.

That was the battle when Moses would lift his arms, he was holding his staff, and the Israelites would prevail over the Amalekites, but if he lowered his arms they started loosing the battle, so Aaron sat him on a rock and he and Hur lifted Moses arms until Joshua could finish the job, remember that? Exodus 17:8-16?

That section in Deuteronomy quoted above is right after God has told the Israelite people to keep just weights and measures, and God says: Deut. 25:16 For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the LORD thy God. And then verse 17 starts "remember what Amalek did to you". If you read the whole chapter, this section about the Amalekites seems to be out of place, but God is giving it as an example of what He has just said, and at the same time lets them know that He has not forgotten the Amalekites and the promise He made about them, to wipe them off from the face of the earth because they attacked His children. Woe unto them that attack God's kids.

Later on in 1 Samuel, God had ordered Saul, through Samuel, that he should go and kill every living thing in Amalek's cities, 1Sam 15:3 Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass. They were supposed to kill every one, even women, babies (yes, you have read that correctly, even children including babies, I thought God loved every body the same... I'm just saying) and all the animals, but Saul spared the king and the best of the sheep and the cattle, supposedly to sacrifice them in Gilgal to the Lord, when the Lord wanted them sacrificed in the Amalekites camp.

Think about it, what is wrong with this picture? The first thing is Saul's flat out disobedience, then the rebellion of his heart to admit his guilt, then the pointing of the finger to the people, shifting the blame to them, and then creating his own worship in his own way, all of that combined God calls it disobedience and rebellion, and equates both to witchcraft and idolatry; what was Saul thinking? 'God will be pleased'? Or maybe, 'I'm looking pretty good right now, I got the king and the best of the spoil, that's a good offering', I don't know, but the fact is that he didn't do as he was told by God. He thought he did it, but he didn't.

I really don't think (and that is just me, maybe I should read some commentaries and find out what really happened, maybe you can do that for me:)) that Saul thought that he was disobeying God, in fact he sounds like he really believes that he did the right thing and that he obeyed the command he was given, and it is evident because that is the first thing he says when he meets Samuel, maybe he was even boasting about it. Samuel tells him he has rejected God and rebelled from following Him, so Samuel shows Saul how to obey God's word, and he chops king Agag with the sword in the presence of all the people.

Remember the guy who would come out to vacuum the carpet at church when every one was trying to have fellowship after the service? I don't know why he popped into my brain right now, but it was as if he wanted everyone to know he was vacuuming, but it was pretty annoying, that drove me crazy, what was that cat's name? I don't remember, okay, sorry, I'm getting side-tracked, is that bad? I have problems.

My point in all of the above is that for God, rebellion and stubbornness are put at the same level with witchcraft, iniquity and idolatry. Can we carry that forward to the church and apply the same principle? I think we can, and not only do I think we can, I think we should; because God still sees rebellion, disobedience and stubbornness as witchcraft, iniquity and idolatry. What is the rebellion to? God and His word. That is what Saul disobeyed, in fact Samuel tells him that he rejected the word of God. If I give him the benefit of the doubt and think that he did obey but partially, plus he had good intentions in disobeying, I mean he was doing it to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal, he still fails the test, right?

So how do you bring this forward and apply it to us today? I think like this, God says something in His word and we are supposed to obey it, not get hung up on trips about works, but simply do what the bible says to do in any situation; that is not being legalistic or works oriented, that is just being obedient to God and His word, which should be the maximum rule of life for a believer anyway. Was Saul acting as if God was different and would settle for partial obedience? Do I think that semi-obeying God is acceptable to Him? Of course not, but do I really obey what God says to do? Do I love Him with all my heart, soul, mind and strength? I think I do. Do I rejoice always? No I don't think I do. Do I ever worry? Yes I do. Do I love my enemies? Maybe sometimes. Do I turn the other cheek? Sometimes. Do I love my neighbour as myself? I usually don't, and saying 'not as much as I should' doesn't cut it. Do I keep His commandments? Do I put my mind above where Christ is? Do I curse and jest, and speak foolishly? Do I complain? You see where I'm going?

Our obedience to God is always an imperfect obedience, that is the very reason why Jesus came to die for us, because we cannot obey God perfectly as He did. If you expect me to be perfectly obedient to God's word after being born from above and having been adopted into the family of God, then you are telling me that Jesus' life of perfect obedience was not enough to be freely imputed unto me, but that I now must provide what His obedience lacks, which is blasphemous. If I can do it, why do I need Christ? Why is justification by faith alone and by grace alone in Christ alone not enough anymore? Am I going to the extreme? I don't think so.

The fact is that we either obey or not, there is no middle ground, at least Jesus does not like lukewarmness, He says, I wish you would either be hot or cold in your devotion but because you are neither hot nor cold, but lukewarm, I am about to vomit you out of my mouth, and He is saying this to the church and therefore to individuals, every one of us who believe the gospel. Am I misapplicating, or as they say, misapplying, those verses of scripture? You tell me. The fact is that the bible is full of warnings, and exhortations, and appearingly impossible conditional statements; and they are there for our instruction, and as Calvin says, to cause us to shake off the vice of unbelief, and the sloth in our efforts to progress in holiness.

The bottom line is that God has started a good work in me and He will be faithful to complete it, He promised, and He always keeps His promises, always. Am I to just hang out and wait for Him to finish the job, or am I supposed to be helping Him as if He was too weak to do what He promised? Don't tell me the bible teaches both, it doesn't. The word of God is very clear, and Jesus Himself is very clear, 'if you love me', He said, 'you shall keep my commandments'; is that a conditional statement or a statement of fact? I think it is a statement of fact; you shall keep His commandments if you love Him, which if you are really born again, you do, and therefore you will.

Of course you cannot simply sit there as if you were helpless in regards to effecting a change in what you know needs to be changed; what I'm saying is that we have responsibilities before God in particular and before men in general; if you were a thief, then you are supposed to stop stealing; if you were a drunk, then you are supposed to stop drinking, and so forth and so on; that is what I mean. But the peculiar thing is that after conversion, you really want to stop doing those things anyway, because you have been given a new heart that loves God now, and your heart of stone has been circumcised from you and turned into a heart of flesh. As God promises later on in Ezekiel:

Eze 36:25-28 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. (26) A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. (27) And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgements, and do them. (28) And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.

We are supposed to put on the new man, as Paul says, and put our minds on things above where Christ is; we are supposed to walk in the Spirit and not fulfil the desires of the flesh; and my point a few paragraphs ago was that you cannot do it unless God works in you to do it. Yes, your sanctification is the work of the Spirit, but He works in you to will and to perform of His good pleasure.

Why does God accept our deficient obedience? Is it your motives? Does it depend on you? Is it because you try real hard? Because you go to church? Because you do good works? I don't think so, I think He does accept our imperfections because He sees us in Christ; our Mediator is the only reason why we are accepted in the beloved as Paul says, even if it sounds redundant. There is absolutely nothing in us that would lead God to be propitious to us; that is why Jesus' perfect obedience has been imputed unto us, without Him we can do nothing.

Obviously, there is a scriptural warrant to support the fight against idolatry, or else John would have not said 'little children, keep yourselves from idols'; so I am writing all these words to remind me of the reality of my life; I was lost in darkness, and now I have been translated into the kingdom of His dear Son; God is for me no matter how bad I blow it, because I will always come back to Him, or I should say, He will always bring me back. I have a real Father who loves me, and He will use the belt when necessary to correct me; and then, just as a good Father does, He will take me in His arms and comfort me with His mercy and assurance, and nothing will ever be able to separate me from His love, which is in Christ Jesus; one day I will see Him face to face; so shall I strive to keep myself from idols, as I know you also will.

Have a nice day, idolater...

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Providence 3...

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Thu, 08 Oct 2015 06:52:00 +0000

You don't have to read this, "that is what the delete button is for" I heard someone say one day. I get it, this blog is too long, but I like long posts, mostly when the words do not belong to me in the fist place. It is always the words that matter; the words are the reason people reject the truth, it is offensive; do you remember the words of Jesus? After He said those words 'many of his disciples walked with Him no more': John 6:61-69 But Jesus, conscious that His disciples grumbled at this, said to them, "Does this cause you to stumble? (62) "What then if you see the Son of Man ascending to where He was before? (63) "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life. (64) "But there are some of you who do not believe." For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were who did not believe, and who it was that would betray Him. (65) And He was saying, "For this reason I have said to you, that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted him from the Father." (66) As a result of this many of His disciples withdrew and were not walking with Him anymore. (67) So Jesus said to the twelve, "You do not want to go away also, do you?" (68) Simon Peter answered Him, "Lord, to whom shall we go? You have words of eternal life. (69) "We have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God."

I don't think Calvin was inspired and spoke the words of God, but I believe that God made this man to bless me 500 years later, and so far I have not found anyone yet with the ability to reason as this man reasoned, and I like that a lot. I have always believed in God's total control of the universe, even in my new-age distant past, so what I hear Calvin say just reinforces it, which means that I agree with him in this, even with his old English and the apparent misspelling of some words.

If what the bible says about God's sovereignty is true, and I believe it is, and if what Calvin says about what the bible says about God's sovereignty is true, and I believe it is; then it is also true that you are reading this by His eternal decree since there are no coincidences, so here is the next section for your enlightenment, which, by the way, is the last section in Book 1, chapter 16 (the next posts will be about chapter 17, I am sure you are going to like them, if you don't, just use the delete button). I should remind you that if you read this via email you will see a different format, hopefully you can read this in the blog (link below at the end) so you can put your cursor above the bible references and it shall pop a window up with the content of such verse, since I know you don't have time to open your bible and read it, I'm just saying,:

7. "Nay, I affirm in general, that particular events are evidences of the special providence of God. In the wilderness God caused a south wind to blow, and brought the people a plentiful supply of birds (Num. 11:31). When he desired that Jonah should be thrown into the sea, he sent forth a whirlwind.

Those who deny that God holds the reins of government will say that this was contrary to ordinary practice, whereas I infer from it that no wind ever rises or rages without his special command. In no way could it be true that “he maketh the winds his messengers, and the flames of fire his ministers;” that “he maketh the clouds his chariot, and walketh upon the wings of the wind” (Psa. 104:3-4), did he not at pleasure drive the clouds and winds and therein manifest the special presence of his power.

In like manner, we are elsewhere taught, that whenever the sea is raised into a storm, its billows attest the special presence of God. “He commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves.” “He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still” (Psa. 107:25, Psa. 107:29 ) He also elsewhere declares, that he had smitten the people with blasting and mildew (Amos 4:9).

Again while man naturally possesses the power of continuing his species, God describes it as a mark of his special favour, that while some continue childless, others are blessed with offspring: for the fruit of the womb is his gift. Hence the words of Jacob to Rachel, “Am I in God’s stead, who has withheld from thee the fruit of the womb?” (Gen. 30:2). To conclude in one word. Nothing in nature is more ordinary than that we should be nourished with bread. But the Spirit declares not only that the produce of the earth is God’s special gift, but “that man does not live by bread only” (Deut. 8:3), because it is not mere fulness that nourishes him but the secret blessing of God. And hence, on the other hand, he threatens to take away “the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water” (Isa. 3:1). Indeed, there could be no serious meaning in our prayer for daily bread, if God did not with paternal hand supply us with food.

Accordingly, to convince the faithful that God, in feeding them, fulfils the office of the best of parents, the prophet reminds them that he “giveth food to all flesh” (Psa. 136:25). In fine, when we hear on the one hand, that “the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and his ears are open unto their cry,” and, on the other hand, that “the face of the Lord is against them that do evil, to cut off the remembrance of them from the earth” (Psa. 34:15-16), let us be assured that all creatures above and below are ready at his service, that he may employ them in whatever way he pleases. Hence we infer, not only that the general providence of God, continuing the order of nature, extends over the creatures, but that by his wonderful counsel they are adapted to a certain and special purpose.

8. Those who would cast obloquy on this doctrine, calumniate it as the dogma of the Stoics concerning fate. The same charge was formerly brought against Augustine (lib. ad Bonifac. II, c. 6 et alibi). We are unwilling to dispute about words; but we do not admit the term Fate, both because it is of the class which Paul teaches us to shun, as profane novelties (1Tim. 6:20), and also because it is attempted, by means of an odious term, to fix a stigma on the truth of God.

But the dogma itself is falsely and maliciously imputed to us. For we do not with the Stoics imagine a necessity consisting of a perpetual chain of causes, and a kind of involved series contained in nature, but we hold that God is the disposer and ruler of all things - that from the remotest eternity, according to his own wisdom, he decreed what he was to do, and now by his power executes what he decreed. Hence we maintain, that by his providence, not heaven and earth and inanimate creatures only, but also the counsels and wills of men are so governed as to move exactly in the course which he has destined.

What, then, you will say, does nothing happen fortuitously, nothing contingently? I answer, it was a true saying of Basil the Great, that Fortune and Chance are heathen terms; the meaning of which ought not to occupy pious minds. For if all success is blessing from God, and calamity and adversity are his curse, there is no place left in human affairs for fortune and chance.

We ought also to be moved by the words of Augustine (Retract. lib. 1 cap. 1), “In my writings against the Academics,” says he, “I regret having so often used the term Fortune; although I intended to denote by it not some goddess, but the fortuitous issue of events in external matters, whether good or evil. Hence, too, those words, Perhaps, Perchance, Fortuitously, which no religion forbids us to use, though everything must be referred to Divine Providence. Nor did I omit to observe this when I said, Although, perhaps, that which is vulgarly called Fortune, is also regulated by a hidden order, and what we call Chance is nothing else than that the reason and cause of which is secret. It is true, I so spoke, but I repent of having mentioned Fortune there as I did, when I see the very bad custom which men have of saying, not as they ought to do, ‘So God pleased,’ but, ‘So Fortune pleased.’”

In short, Augustine everywhere teaches, that if anything is left to fortune, the world moves at random. And although he elsewhere declares (Quaestionum, lib. 83.) that all things are carried on, partly by the free will of man, and partly by the Providence of God, he shortly after shows clearly enough that his meaning was, that men also are ruled by Providence, when he assumes it as a principle, that there cannot be a greater absurdity than to hold that anything is done without the ordination of God; because it would happen at random. For which reason, he also excludes the contingency which depends on human will, maintaining a little further on, in clearer terms, that no cause must be sought for but the will of God. When he uses the term permission, the meaning which he attaches to it will best appear from a single passage (De Trinity. lib. 3 cap. 4), where he proves that the will of God is the supreme and primary cause of all things, because nothing happens without his order or permission. He certainly does not figure God sitting idly in a watch-tower, when he chooses to permit anything. The will which he represents as interposing is, if I may so express it, active (actualis), and but for this could not be regarded as a cause.

9. But since our sluggish minds rest far beneath the height of Divine Providence, we must have recourse to a distinction which may assist them in rising. I say then, that though all things are ordered by the counsel and certain arrangement of God, to us, however, they are fortuitous - not because we imagine that Fortune rules the world and mankind, and turns all things upside down at random (far be such a heartless thought from every Christian breast); but as the order, method, end, and necessity of events, are, for the most part, hidden in the counsel of God, though it is certain that they are produced by the will of God, they have the appearance of being fortuitous, such being the form under which they present themselves to us, whether considered in their own nature, or estimated according to our knowledge and judgement.

Let us suppose, for example, that a merchant, after entering a forest in company with trust-worthy individuals, imprudently strays from his companions and wanders bewildered till he falls into a den of robbers and is murdered. His death was not only foreseen by the eye of God, but had been fixed by his decree. For it is said, not that he foresaw how far the life of each individual should extend, but that he determined and fixed the bounds which could not be passed (Job 14:5).

Still, in relation to our capacity of discernment, all these things appear fortuitous. How will the Christian feel? Though he will consider that every circumstance which occurred in that person’s death was indeed in its nature fortuitous, he will have no doubt that the Providence of God overruled it and guided fortune to his own end. The same thing holds in the case of future contingencies. All future events being uncertain to us, seem in suspense as if ready to take either direction.

Still, however, the impression remains seated in our hearts, that nothing will happen which the Lord has not provided. In this sense the term event is repeatedly used in Ecclesiastes, because, at the first glance, men do not penetrate to the primary cause which lies concealed. And yet, what is taught in Scripture of the secret providence of God was never so completely effaced from the human heart, as that some sparks did not always shine in the darkness.

Thus the soothsayers of the Philistine, though they waver in uncertainty, attribute the adverse event partly to God and partly to chance. If the ark, say they, “Goes up by the way of his own coast to Bethshemish, then he has done us this great evil; but if not, then we shall know that it is not his hand that smote us, it was a chance that happened to us.” (1Sam. 6:9). Foolishly, indeed, when divination fails them they flee to fortune. Still we see them constrained, so as not to venture to regard their disaster as fortuitous.

But the mode in which God, by the curb of his Providence, turns events in whatever direction he pleases, will appear from a remarkable example. At the very same moment when David was discovered in the wilderness of Maon, the Philistines make an inroad into the country, and Saul is forced to depart (1Sam. 23:26-27). If God, in order to provide for the safety of his servant, threw this obstacle in the way of Saul, we surely cannot say, that though the Philistine took up arms contrary to human expectation, they did it by chance.

What seems to us contingence, faith will recognise as the secret impulse of God. The reason is not always equally apparent, but we ought undoubtedly to hold that all the changes which take place in the world are produced by the secret agency of the hand of God. At the same time, that which God has determined, though it must come to pass, is not, however, precisely, or in its own nature, necessary.

We have a familiar example in the case of our Saviour’s bones. As he assumed a body similar to ours, no sane man will deny that his bones were capable of being broken and yet it was impossible that they should be broken (John 19:33, John 19:36). Hence, again, we see that there was good ground for the distinction which the Schoolmen made between necessity, secundum quid, and necessity absolute, also between the necessity of consequent and of consequence. God made the bones of his Son frangible, though he exempted them from actual fracture; and thus, in reference to the necessity of his counsel, made that impossible which might have naturally taken place".

Did you get all that? Have a nice day.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Providence 2...

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Wed, 30 Sep 2015 06:53:00 +0000

This is the continuation of my last post, which in turn is the next sections (3 through 6) of Calvin's Institutes, book 1, chapter 16, entitled "The world, created by God, still cherished and protected by Him. Each and all of its parts governed by His providence".

As you already know I am very grateful that God made John Calvin and caused him to write his greatest work, The Institutes of the Christian Religion; if you have read his biography, you know he wrote it as a text book to be used in the University of Geneva, which he founded, to train the future generations of pastors and teachers, and missionaries. He finished the first edition in 1536 in Latin and the fifth and last in 1559. Calvin was born in France in 1509 and died in 1564, he published the first edition at the age of 27.

Most of Calvin's life and accomplishments have already been documented by many people in the past; if you are interested, you can find a lot of free information about him in the internet, and in the many books that have been written about him and about his doctrine and teachings; the only reason I am posting this is because it has been extremely helpful to me and I want to share it with you. Calvin's mind has deeply impacted my own thinking, and it has validated some things that I already believed from studying on my own; Book 1, Chapter 16 is one of my favorite sections in this book, so I have read it many times. I really hope you have the time to read and think about what he is saying. Enjoy.

Here it is:
3. "And truly God claims omnipotence to himself, and would have us to acknowledge it - not the vain, indolent, slumbering omnipotence which sophists feign, but vigilant, efficacious, energetic, and ever active - not an omnipotence which may only act as a general principle of confused motion, as in ordering a stream to keep within the channel once prescribed to it, but one which is intent on individual and special movements.

God is deemed omnipotent, not because he can act though he may cease or be idle, or because by a general instinct he continues the order of nature previously appointed; but because, governing heaven and earth by his providence, he so overrules all things that nothing happens without his counsel. For when it is said in the Psalms, “He has done whatsoever he has pleased” (Psa. 115:3), the thing meant is his sure and deliberate purpose. It were insipid to interpret the Psalmist’s words in philosophic fashion, to mean that God is the primary agent, because the beginning and cause of all motion.

This rather is the solace of the faithful, in their adversity, that every thing which they endure is by the ordination and command of God, that they are under his hand. But if the government of God thus extends to all his works, it is a childish cavil to confine it to natural influx.

Those moreover who confine the providence of God within narrow limits, as if he allowed all things to be borne along freely according to a perpetual law of nature, do not more defraud God of his glory than themselves of a most useful doctrine; for nothing were more wretched than man if he were exposed to all possible movements of the sky, the air, the earth, and the water. We may add, that by this view the singular goodness of God towards each individual is unbecomingly impaired. David exclaims (Psa. 8:2), that infants hanging at their mothers breasts are eloquent enough to celebrate the glory of God, because, from the very moment of their births they find an aliment prepared for them by heavenly care. Indeed, if we do not shut our eyes and senses to the fact, we must see that some mothers have full provision for their infants, and others almost none, according as it is the pleasure of God to nourish one child more liberally, and another more sparingly.

Those who attribute due praise to the omnipotence of God thereby derive a double benefit. He to whom heaven and earth belong, and whose nod all creatures must obey, is fully able to reward the homage which they pay to him, and they can rest secure in the protection of Him to whose control everything that could do them harm is subject, by whose authority, Satan, with all his furies and engines, is curbed as with a bridle, and on whose will everything adverse to our safety depends.

In this way, and in no other, can the immoderate and superstitious fears, excited by the dangers to which we are exposed, be calmed or subdued. I say superstitious fears; for such they are, as often as the dangers threatened by any created objects inspire us with such terror, that we tremble as if they had in themselves a power to hurt us, or could hurt at random or by chance; or as if we had not in God a sufficient protection against them.

For example, Jeremiah forbids the children of God “ to be dismayed at the signs of heaven, as the heathen are dismayed at them” (Jer. 10:2). He does not, indeed, condemn every kind of fear. But as unbelievers transfer the government of the world from God to the stars, imagining that happiness or misery depends on their decrees or presages, and not on the Divine will, the consequence is, that their fear, which ought to have reference to him only, is diverted to stars and comets.

Let him, therefore, who would beware of such unbelief, always bear in mind, that there is no random power, or agency, or motion in the creatures, who are so governed by the secret counsel of God, that nothing happens but what he has knowingly and willingly decreed.

4. First, then, let the reader remember that the providence we mean is not one by which the Deity, sitting idly in heaven, looks on at what is taking place in the world, but one by which he, as it were, holds the helms and overrules all events. Hence his providence extends not less to the hand than to the eye. When Abraham said to his son, God will provide (Gen. 22:8), he meant not merely to assert that the future event was foreknown to God but to resign the management of an unknown business to the will of Him whose province it is to bring perplexed and dubious matters to a happy result.

Hence it appears that providence consists in action. What many talk of bare prescience is the merest trifling. Those do not err quite so grossly who attribute government to God, but still, as I have observed, a confused and promiscuous government which consists in giving an impulse and general movement to the machine of the globe and each of its parts, but does not specially direct the action of every creature. It is impossible, however, to tolerate this error. For, according to its abettors, there is nothing in this providence, which they call universal, to prevent all the creatures from being moved contingently, or to prevent man from turning himself in this direction or in that, according to the mere freedom of his own will.

In this way they make man a partner with God - God, by his energy, impressing man with the movement by which he can act, agreeably to the nature conferred upon him while man voluntarily regulates his own actions. In short, their doctrine is, that the world, the affairs of men, and men themselves, are governed by the power, but not by the decree of God. I say nothing of the Epicureans (a pest with which the world has always been plagued), who dream of an inert and idle God, and others, not a whit sounder, who of old feigned that God rules the upper regions of the air, but leaves the inferior to Fortune. Against such evident madness even dumb creatures lift their voice.

My intention now is, to refute an opinion which has very generally obtained - an opinion which, while it concedes to God some blind and equivocal movement, withholds what is of principal moment, viz., the disposing and directing of every thing to its proper end by incomprehensible wisdom. By withholding government, it makes God the ruler of the world in name only, not in reality. For what, I ask, is meant by government, if it be not to preside so as to regulate the destiny of that over which you preside? I do not, however, totally repudiate what is said of an universal providence, provided, on the other hand, it is conceded to me that the world is governed by God, not only because he maintains the order of nature appointed by him, but because he takes a special charge of every one of his works.

It is true, indeed, that each species of created objects is moved by a secret instinct of nature, as if they obeyed the eternal command of God, and spontaneously followed the course which God at first appointed. And to this we may refer our Saviour’s words, that he and his Father have always been at work from the beginning (John 5:17); also the words of Paul, that “in him we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28); also the words of the author of the Epistle to the Hebrews, who, when wishing to prove the divinity of Christ, says, that he upholdeth “all things by the word of his power” (Heb. 1:3).

But some, under pretext of the general, hide and obscure the special providence, which is so surely and clearly taught in Scripture, that it is strange how any one can bring himself to doubt of it. And, indeed, those who interpose that disguise are themselves forced to modify their doctrine, by adding that many things are done by the special care of God. This, however, they erroneously confine to particular acts. The thing to be proved, therefore, is, that single events are so regulated by God, and all events so proceed from his determinate counsel, that nothing happens fortuitously.

5. Assuming that the beginning of motion belongs to God, but that all things move spontaneously or casually, according to the impulse which nature gives, the vicissitudes of day and nights summer and winter, will be the work of God; inasmuch as He, in assigning the office of each, appointed a certain law, namely, that they should always with uniform tenor observe the same course, day succeeding night, month succeeding month, and year succeeding year.

But, as at one time, excessive heat, combined with drought, burns up the fields; at another time excessive rains rot the crops, while sudden devastation is produced by tempests and storms of hail, these will not be the works of God, unless in so far as rainy or fair weather, heat or cold, are produced by the concourse of the stars, and other natural causes. According to this view, there is no place left either for the paternal favour, or the judgements of God.

If it is said that God fully manifests his beneficence to the human race, by furnishing heaven and earth with the ordinary power of producing food, the explanation is meagre and heathenish: as if the fertility of one year were not a special blessing, the penury and dearth of another a special punishment and curse from God. But as it would occupy too much time to enumerate all the arguments, let the authority of God himself suffice.

In the Law and the Prophets He repeatedly declares, that as often as He waters the earth with dew and rain, He manifests his favour, that by His command the heaven becomes hard as iron, the crops are destroyed by mildew and other evils, that storms and hail, in devastating the fields, are signs of sure and special vengeance. This being admitted, it is certain that not a drop of rain falls without the express command of God. David, indeed (Psa. 146:9), extols the general providence of God in supplying food to the young ravens that cry to him but when God himself threatens living creatures with famine, does He not plainly declare that they are all nourished by Him, at one time with scanty, at another with more ample measure?

It is childish, as I have already said, to confine this to particular acts, when Christ says, without reservation, that not a sparrow falls to the ground without the will of his Father (Mat. 10:29). Surely, if the flight of birds is regulated by the counsel of God, we must acknowledge with the prophet, that while he “dwelleth on high,” he “humbleth himself to behold the things that are in heaven and in the earth” (Psa. 113:5-6).

6. But as we know that it was chiefly for the sake of mankind that the world was made, we must look to this as the end which God has in view in the government of it.

The prophet Jeremiah exclaims, “O Lord, I know that the way of man is not in himself: it is not in man that walketh to direct his steps” (Jer. 10:23). Solomon again says, “Man’s goings are of the Lord: how can a man then understand his own way?” (Proverbs 20:24). Will it now be said that man is moved by God according to the bent of his nature, but that man himself gives the movement any direction he pleases? Were it truly so, man would have the full disposal of his own ways. To this it will perhaps be answered, that man can do nothing without the power of God. But the answer will not avail, since both Jeremiah and Solomon attribute to God not power only, but also election and decree. And Solomon, in another place, elegantly rebukes the rashness of men in fixing their plans without reference to God, as if they were not led by his hand. “The preparations of the heart in man, and the answer of the tongue, is from the Lord” (Proverbs 16:1).

It is a strange infatuation, surely for miserable men, who cannot even give utterance except in so far as God pleases, to begin to act without him! Scriptures moreover, the better to show that every thing done in the world is according to his decree, declares that the things which seem most fortuitous are subject to him. For what seems more attributable to chance than the branch which falls from a tree, and kills the passing traveller? But the Lord sees very differently, and declares that He delivered him into the hand of the slayer (Exo. 21:13).

In like manners who does not attribute the lot to the blindness of Fortune? Not so the Lord, who claims the decision for himself (Pro. 16:33). He says not, that by his power the lot is thrown into the lap, and taken out, but declares that the only thing which could be attributed to chance is from him. To the same effect are the words of Solomon, “The poor and the deceitful man meet together; the Lord lighteneth both their eyes” (Proverbs 29:13). For although rich and poor are mingled together in the world, in saying that the condition of each is divinely appointed, he reminds us that God, Who enlightens all, has his own eye always open, and thus exhorts the poor to patient endurance, seeing that those who are discontented with their lot endeavour to shake off a burden which God has imposed upon them.

Thus, too, another prophet upbraids the profane, who ascribe it to human industry, or to fortune, that some grovel in the mire while others rise to honour. “Promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down ones and setteth up another” (Psa. 75:6-7). Because God cannot divest himself of the office of judge, he infers that to his secret counsel it is owing that some are elevated, while others remain without honour."

Soli Deo Gloria, and have a nice day...

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Providence...1

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Thu, 24 Sep 2015 07:42:00 +0000

Last night I read Calvin's Institutes, as usual, and even though I have read it in the past, it made a huge impression in my mind; and as I usually do, I closed the book, turned the light off and started praying. I do this every single night. I pray first to thank God for my life, my salvation, my family, my friends, my brothers and sisters; I pray earnestly for my grand kids, just like I have with my daughters, I have prayed for them even before they were born.

What was so clear in my mind last night, and still is, is how God has the absolute control of everything; I have always believed this, even before I became a Christian, but last night was almost like a new revelation. God is so amazing to me, He is bewildering to say the least.

So I thought "I got to put this in the blog to share it with those whom I love"; so the fact that you are reading this proves at least two things, one: that I love you, and two: God is using Calvin to disclose His awesomeness to you, which of course proves the fact that He controls everything in your life, no matter how dark it may seem right now. You might feel oppressed right now, or depressed, or happy and full of joy (I doubt that, one day I will tell you why), or maybe you have begun to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Whatever your situation might be, God knows what you are going through because He is the One who engineered your circumstances in the first place.

David said it in the best way I have ever read it: Psa. 32:6-11 Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found; Surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him. (7) You are my hiding place; You preserve me from trouble; You surround me with songs of deliverance. Selah. (8) I will instruct you and teach you in the way which you should go; I will counsel you with My eye upon you. (9) Do not be as the horse or as the mule which have no understanding, Whose trappings include bit and bridle to hold them in check, Otherwise they will not come near to you. (10) Many are the sorrows of the wicked, But he who trusts in the LORD, lovingkindness shall surround him. (11) Be glad in the LORD and rejoice, you righteous ones; And shout for joy, all you who are upright in heart.

This is Book 2 chapter 16, Section 1 and 2 of the Institutes of the Christian Religion, by John Calvin, I will post more another day:

"1. It were cold and lifeless to represent God as a momentary Creator, who completed his work once for all, and then left it. Here, especially, we must dissent from the profane, and maintain that the presence of the divine power is conspicuous, not less in the perpetual condition of the world than in its first creation. For, although even wicked men are forced, by the mere view of the earth and sky, to rise to the Creator, yet faith has a method of its own in assigning the whole praise of creation to God. To this effect is the passage of the Apostle already quoted that by faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the Word of God (Heb. 11:3); because, without proceeding to his Providence, we cannot understand the full force of what is meant by God being the Creator, how much soever we may seem to comprehend it with our mind, and confess it with our tongue.

The carnal mind, when once it has perceived the power of God in the creation, stops there, and, at the farthest, thinks and ponders on nothing else than the wisdom, power, and goodness displayed by the Author of such a work (matters which rise spontaneously, and force themselves on the notice even of the unwilling), or on some general agency on which the power of motion depends, exercised in preserving and governing it. In short, it imagines that all things are sufficiently sustained by the energy divinely infused into them at first.

But faith must penetrate deeper. After learning that there is a Creator, it must forthwith infer that he is also a Governor and Preserver, and that, not by producing a kind of general motion in the machine of the globe as well as in each of its parts, but by a special providence sustaining, cherishing, superintending, all the things which he has made, to the very minutest, even to a sparrow.

Thus David, after briefly premising that the world was created by God, immediately descends to the continual course of Providence, “By the word of the Lord were the heavens framed, and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth;” immediately adding, “The Lord looketh from heaven, he beholdeth the children of men” (Psalm 33:6, Psalm 33:13, &c). He subjoins other things to the same effect. For although all do not reason so accurately, yet because it would not be credible that human affairs were superintended by God, unless he were the maker of the world, and no one could seriously believe that he is its Creator without feeling convinced that he takes care of his works; David with good reason, and in admirable order, leads us from the one to the other.

In general, indeed, philosophers teach, and the human mind conceives, that all the parts of the world are invigorated by the secret inspiration of God. They do not, however reach the height to which David rises taking all the pious along with him, when he says, “These wait all upon thee, that thou mayest give them their meat in due season. That thou givest them they gather: thou openest thine hand, they are filled with good. Thou hidest thy face, they are troubled: thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust. Thou sendest forth thy Spirit, they are created, and thou renewest the face of the earth” (Psalm 104:27-30).

Nay, though they subscribe to the sentiment of Paul, that in God “we live, and move, and have our being” (Acts 17:28), yet they are far from having a serious apprehension of the grace which he commends, because they have not the least relish for that special care in which alone the paternal favour of God is discerned.

2. That this distinction may be the more manifest, we must consider that the Providence of God, as taught in Scripture, is opposed to fortune and fortuitous causes. By an erroneous opinion prevailing in all ages, an opinion almost universally prevailing in our own day, viz., that all things happen fortuitously, the true doctrine of Providence has not only been obscured, but almost buried.

If one falls among robbers, or ravenous beasts; if a sudden gust of wind at sea causes shipwreck; if one is struck down by the fall of a house or a tree; if another, when wandering through desert paths, meets with deliverance; or, after being tossed by the waves, arrives in port, and makes some wondrous hair-breadth escape from death - all these occurrences, prosperous as well as adverse, carnal sense will attribute to fortune. But whose has learned from the mouth of Christ that all the hairs of his head are numbered (Matthew 10:30), will look farther for the cause, and hold that all events whatsoever are governed by the secret counsel of God.

With regard to inanimate objects again we must hold that though each is possessed of its peculiar properties, yet all of them exert their force only in so far as directed by the immediate hand of God. Hence they are merely instruments, into which God constantly infuses what energy he sees meet, and turns and converts to any purpose at his pleasure.

No created object makes a more wonderful or glorious display than the sun. For, besides illuminating the whole world with its brightness, how admirably does it foster and invigorate all animals by its heat, and fertilise the earth by its rays, warming the seeds of grain in its lap, and thereby calling forth the verdant blade! This it supports, increases, and strengthens with additional nurture, till it rises into the stalk; and still feeds it with perpetual moisture, till it comes into flower; and from flower to fruit, which it continues to ripen till it attains maturity.

In like manner, by its warmth trees and vines bud, and put forth first their leaves, then their blossom, then their fruit. And the Lord, that he might claim the entire glory of these things as his own, was pleased that light should exist, and that the earth should be replenished with all kinds of herbs and fruits before he made the sun.

No pious man, therefore, will make the sun either the necessary or principal cause of those things which existed before the creation of the sun, but only the instrument which God employs, because he so pleases; though he can lay it aside, and act equally well by himself: Again, when we read, that at the prayer of Joshua the sun was stayed in its course (Joshua 10:13); that as a favour to Hezekiah, its shadow receded ten degrees (2Kings 20:11); by these miracles God declared that the sun does not daily rise and set by a blind instinct of nature, but is governed by Him in its course, that he may renew the remembrance of his paternal favour toward us. Nothing is more natural than for spring, in its turns to succeed winter, summer spring, and autumn summer; but in this series the variations are so great and so unequal as to make it very apparent that every single year, month, and day, is regulated by a new and special providence of God."

Have a nice, new, and providentially regulated day.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Be on the alert...

noreply@blogger.com (makarios) — Tue, 15 Sep 2015 04:51:00 +0000

The "migrant crisis" in Europe is nothing but an invasion of the continent by you know who. I have always been opposed to conspiracy theories that sound so far fetched that they make my head spin when I really think about them, but when I see the evidence it is really hard to deny that what is really happening in Europe will soon come to pass here also, oh, hold on, it already happened in what we saw happen at the Mexican border at the beginning of the year (was it this year?), and it will continue to happen; remember the seemingly "unstoppable" flow of illegals (oh I'm sorry, they are not "illegal immigrants" they are just "undocumented migrants") into the US?

According to the media outlets, they were thousands of children asking for refuge; but it was far from that, some of the pictures I saw looked like mostly teenagers, some in their early twenties; and some of them tattooed from the chest up. What happened to all those people? Who knows. They are probably roaming the streets of Chicago, New Jersey, Texas, California, etc, etc. But don't worry, they are not rapists, robbers, nor criminals of any kind, they are just a bunch of really nice people who have come here to do the work that we the US citizens refuse to do, like mow the lawn, pick strawberries, build the new World Trade Center, etc.

In California it is getting out of hand; did you read the news about the city of, (was it Sacramento? I can't find it) making two illegal immigrants members of the city council? I'm not kidding, yes it is true, really. The article quoted someone in the state government saying that it was part of our integration of diversity; you gotta be kidding me. Now, did you know that any illegal immigrant can obtain a driver's license in this state? And therefore the ability to vote. No, I'm not kidding you, all they need is a letter from a utility company saying they have an address in California; do you know how easy it is to get one of those? Just go to the SDGE website and ask for one, all you got to do is add your name to the bill by phone or on the site. Free of cost.

You must be thinking, wow, makarios never writes about this kind of stuff, what's going on? He must be going through a mid-life crisis; and guess what, I am. The crisis is that my grand daughter is meanly treated at school by all the mexican kids that go there because she doesn't speak Spanish; yes you heard that right, or read that right I should say. I cannot imagine what my blonde grandson goes through; the whole thing is pathetic, and I am tired of it; I can't freaking stand it; I'm looking for work in another state already, I'm serious, Utah is looking really good right now, there I can probably have two wives too...

The whole thing is disgusting. Who is giving the orders to open the borders to all those people? Check this before they remove it from the tube, and it is a fact they will remove it:

http://www.infowars.com/muslim-refugees-chant-allahu-akbar-fk-you-attack-citizens-throw-feces/

And this: http://www.infowars.com/migrant-crisis-the-footage-the-media-refuses-to-broadcast/

September 11 has gone by already, again, and every year I go through the same thing, 14 times already, I think hard about it, and my disdain for muslim extremists, vulgo terrorists, grows and grows. What's wrong with me? I am a Christian, I'm supposed to love all people, and pray for my enemies, and I don't. What we are witnessing all over the world is the consequence of what happened on September 11 2001. Have you checked the alternative media lately? Or are you glued to your TV watching CNN and Fox News? Nevermind.

Then I am brought back to reality: Psa 115:3 But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases. I am nothing but a worm, squirming in this mud of the ground I live in, who am I to question what He does? Is there any use in complaining? Or even objecting? No, David said it well: Do not fret, it only causes harm.

One thing is for sure, the stage is being set for what is an inevitable event, Jesus Christ will come back just as He said He would; but the world has to be in the right shape for that to happen; He said it would be just like in the days of Noah, and Paul said, when they say 'peace and safety' then sudden destruction will come upon them just as labor upon a pregnant woman: 1Th 5:2-9 For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. (3) While they are saying, "Peace and safety!" then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. (4) But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; (5) for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; (6) so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be alert and sober. (7) For those who sleep do their sleeping at night, and those who get drunk get drunk at night. (8) But since we are of the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation. (9) For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ...

Remember Jesus' words, Mat 24:6-10 "You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. (7) "For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. (8) "But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. (9) "Then they will deliver you to tribulation, and will kill you, and you will be hated by all nations because of My name. (10) "At that time many will fall away and will betray one another and hate one another.

Mat 24:21-22 "For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. (22) "Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.

Mat 24:35-42 "Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will not pass away. (36) "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father alone. (37) "For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like the days of Noah. (38) "For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, (39) and they did not understand until the flood came and took them all away; so will the coming of the Son of Man be. (40) "Then there will be two men in the field; one will be taken and one will be left. (41) "Two women will be grinding at the mill; one will be taken and one will be left. (42) "Therefore be on the alert, for you do not know which day your Lord is coming.

Have a nice day.

http://makariotes.blogspot.com