Which Is More Offensive To You?

God, and the world that is under the dominion of Satan, are enemies. They are enemies because every one of us are born cursed with sin. This makes every one of us from the womb dead men walking, because the wage of sin is death.

The world, and the destructive energy it wields with abandon, is an offense to the senses. 

• It contains rampant, repetitive images of debauchery broadcast in high definition and pumps it straight into the collective head of the world in a steadily increasing cycle. The more foul the imagery, the more dull the world's remaining senses become, the more foul the imagery required to titillate... ad infinitum. 
• It pumps our children with pride, and the notion that they need neither fear nor respect anything. The more of the world they receive, the farther from the values of God and their purpose for being given life they go.
• It casually substitutes the truth for a fraudulent opinion at will. Those who consume the fraud wholesale can no longer tell the difference, and then no longer care.

" 'They all fool and defraud each other; no one tells the truth. With practiced tongues they tell lies; they wear themselves out with all their sinning. They pile lie upon lie and utterly refuse to acknowledge me,' says the LORD." -Jeremiah 9:5-6

The Gospel is an offense to the world, and those who follow Jesus will be despised by the world for belonging to God. The Lord Jesus said it Himself.

"If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you." John 15:18-19

So tell a person who claims to be a Christian and loves Jesus, or claims not to know Him, that the Bible says they are wrong, and one of two things will happen; one, as it turns out, much more often than the other. 

• They will be convicted, and receive the grace of God to repent, the grace of God to ask for and receive forgiveness, the grace of God to read the Bible, obey what is written, and be transformed into a creature that seeks to please God and give glory to Him. 
• They will respond with all the firepower their pride can muster, revile you, declare you a hate-monger against the sin they have accepted and are committed to, and if it exposes them enough, drive them to persecute the speaker of the truth.

Why do I say the latter will be more common than the former? I didn't, actually.

"For many are called, but few are chosen." Matthew 22:14

"You can enter God's Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose that way. But the gateway to life is very narrow and the road is difficult, and only a few ever find it." Matthew 7:13-14 

If few are chosen, and few ever find the narrow, difficult road to life, then obeying the mandate of Christ and spreading the offensive truth will garner the prideful response far more than the convicted response.

The truth is, more people will choose their pride over obedience to God, death over Life. What is more, they will be in numbers so vast as to be no comparison. One needs but to read those two verses to know that the Son of God not only knew this, but told His followers as much. Wide roads are for rush hour traffic. Narrow roads are for occasional use.

The majority of those charged with the responsibility of offending the world with the Gospel in order to save it have opted not to do so, and not only for the reasons listed above, but because there is no money in offending the people you are talking to. The churchianity institution most pastors, ministers, bishops, prophets, etc., are part of is in the business of making money. To make that money, the people they are fleecing must be three things:

• Ignorant of the Word. If they don't know the truth, they can't call the charlatan. The knowledge of how to worship God, how to love and obey God, and thereby receive everlasting life, as Jesus *is* life, is also lost. They are pumped with euphoria-inducing doctrine; they are not challenged, or told they have to change. They are not told to repent of their sin, but that they are accepted just as they are.
• Distracted. They are pumped full of false doctrine that satisfies the flesh rather than makes it uncomfortable. The truth is left out, which would liberate them and bring peace to their souls, to get them to keep writing checks. The truth of the Gospel, and its offensive message that forces people to yield themselves up and be transformed, is substituted with Self Empowerment techniques; messages that have you seek your dreams, be rich, to be proud of who you are and what you do. 
• Entertained. The God-less rituals, the antics... all to make the ignorant, distracted individual feel like they are getting their money's worth, as they would for anything they sat down and paid for elsewhere. That the Body of Christ is to gather together, discuss the Word of God, and be accountable to one another, strengthening each other, taking part in the healing when sin is confessed, is not even recalled by the vast majority of those who attend church today. 

It is because these voices; those that are in the business of false prophecy and idolatry, are the loudest, the most well-known, the most prominently broadcast to the masses, that the offensive message of the Gospel is squelched. The truth spreads nonetheless, but hearts are hardened against the polished snake oil sellers thrust in their faces on television, their shameful, borderline-laughable downfalls, the surprise and shock of which gets increasingly dull, all over the news.

It seems that the intelligent choice would be to take offense to that which placates our sensibilities on this earth while simultaneously brings eternal death, rather than to that which offends our worldly sensibilities and brings eternal Life. 

It seems so to me, but I am in the minority.

Which is more offensive to you? 

Christianity's True Form

I must preface this with a lesson on how God, when we permit ourselves through obedience to be guided by Him, brings us to closer understanding of Who the Father is.

I was going to write this last night. I had sent my daughters to bed and had put my son to sleep for the night, and as happens more times than not these days, I fell asleep beside him. When I awoke, it was nearly 2:30AM. I went downstairs and spoke with my wife of 11 years about what was on my heart to say, and in my explanation of it I was unable to fight back tears as I spoke.

I will get to that in a moment.

Anyway, after collecting myself and telling my wife that I would be unsurprised if she considered me at least mildly insane by this point (to which I am grateful to say she did not,) our son woke up, and she went up to him. I then sat down to write.

Each time I began to think of a title, or begin a sentence, there was an unmistakable feeling in my spirit. Each time, it was wrong. Each entry was too laced with *me*. *My* opinion.

Although reduced only to a shadow of its former "glory," the remnant of my pride that rises to fight the will of God warred against this. I did *not* wake up at the butt crack of night to get all of this off of my chest only to sit and do nothing. I sought to remove whatever resisted inside, and prayed that I be absent; that only the Lord's spirit dwelling in me speak. The feeling was no longer present, but neither was the urge to push beyond it and do what *I* wanted in spite of it.

Moments later, a buddy of mine I used to game it up with named Ash logged into chat and asked me why I was up. I told the truth... and I ended up witnessing for almost 2 hours to someone who has been completely disillusioned, by fabricated church doctrine which had *nothing* to do with the Christ or the salvation from sin His death and resurrection allows us to receive. As a result, any and all *mentioning* of Jesus or Christianity would be met with vitriolic response... at concussive force... but not this time. I prayed for the Lord to empty me of myself and fill me with His spirit, so I would not be in the way... and I had managed to talk Ash into actually considering reading the Bible's account of Jesus' life in the gospel of Luke, and at *least* make a choice to accept or reject the message of the Good News based on *actual data* rather than perverted doctrine. 

This in and of itself was nothing short of the Lord using me as I got myself and all my foolishness about what *I* want out of the way. I recognized it was an opportunity that the Lord had placed in front of me to witness. It is not about what I want; it is about fulfilling the Master's directive when the opportunity presents itself. 

So at 4:30AM, I sat at my desk, staring down the barrel of having to wake the girls up in two hours for school, and having accomplished nothing of what was so heavy on my chest. I felt disappointment at being thwarted, but saw from all this practice that it was *my* will being thwarted, which doesn't matter... so I laid down and prayed that I was at no point in the way, and that the things I said pleased the Lord, and fell asleep wondering why I could not manage to write anything.

I then dreamed of my children.

I dreamed of my children and that those who were responsible for their keeping had simply lost them; had nothing to show for it when I came to collect them. 

In the dream I was bound by my obedience to the Lord, which includes the, in this case, very inconvenient commandment not to kill. I did not, therefore, do what the dude I deny every day, Steven Fortt, would do without thinking. I did not fall upon them in unending rage and end all of their lives as payment for their slack-jawed, open mouthed shrugs of indifference... when I repeated the question three times and got the same shrug all three times in perverse unison... without my nature, I faced the thought of my daughters and son gone with no explanation, no nothing.

I was bound by my choice to be obedient, and therefore did not obey the trigger to take my vengeance and kill. As my flesh can not handle that on its own, I was therefore shattered and broken into more fragments than I thought were possible. I fell to the ground in a tight-fisted ball of shockingly intense pain that radiated from my chest outward, my heart unmade at the release. Defenseless, naked of all my pride and the illusory facades it tries to provide in moments of extremis, I remembered each of my children's beautiful faces and waited to die. I awoke from sleep afterward and did not remember the dream until I was making breakfast, whereupon I bowed my head and nearly cried as I am now as I type this. 

Only it was not merely from the remembered agony of the dream. This time it was because I understood now why I could not write last night, and heard Him say in my spirit, "Now you are equipped."

Glory to God.

May the Lord empty me of myself and all my opinions, that only the unclouded truth may be seen. Amen.

A child of God by the name of Lavoria Armstead sings a song on her album "Truth and Spirit" called "Tell It," a song I was introduced to by my elder brother, Cyril Jermin. The lyrics are these:

"Tell it like Christ said it.

You don't want to lead His children astray.

We need His truth, with the understanding.

Put man's doctrine away.

Man's doctrine has never saved a soul.

It only makes the heart cold.

You're being warned to tell it like He said it.

Only His truth can make us whole.

We are living in a time of itching ears

where the Word of God is not told.

Preachers preach what they want to preach,

not caring about lost souls.

How can you say you love Him,

when you don't want to teach, heed, or obey?

You're being warned to tell it like He said it.

Only His truth can make us whole.

There's a famine coming in the land.

It's not for food, but the Word of God.

So they're starving for the True Bread,

and thirsting for His righteousness.

How can you say you love Him,

when you don't want to teach, heed, or obey?

You've been warned to tell it like He said it.

Only His truth can make us whole."

That which this country, the United States of America, knows as Christianity, is being subverted by the ruler of this world, the Father of Lies, Satan, he who once was Lucifer, son of the morning.

The subversion began at the moment of his greatest defeat; his failure, after coming at the Son of God again, and again, to alter His obedience to the Father, and prevent the New Covenant from happening. When Jesus lived His life on earth perfect, and laid down that perfect life to be beaten, spit upon, abused, tortured and finally crushed in sacrifice for my sin and your sin, the broken conduit Satan had successfully brokered when Adam sinned was suddenly and permanently reestablished. Mankind had but to choose to deny themselves and  follow Jesus faithfully. They had but to be in every way obedient to His teaching. They had but to choose to accept the grace from God to yield up themselves and all their corruption, in complete humility, as living sacrifices to Him. They had but to choose that *their* way, and what *they* wanted, would always take second place to what the Most High God wills, and they would receive the everlasting life which Satan and those who rebelled with him would be denied in consequence.

Satan's argument has ever been that we don't have the stomach for it. "But stretch out your hand and strike everything he has, and he will surely curse you to your face," he had the unmitigated gall to tell God himself in Job 1:11. When he is then proven wrong by Job's humility and faithfulness in the face of his devastating losses, Satan's corrupted wisdom and pride permitted him to do nothing accept come at God again in Job 2:5 with "But stretch out your hand and strike his flesh and bones, and he will surely curse you to your face."...

He will not stop. He will not relent. He will fix the odds in his favor and bring as many men and women into everlasting fire with him as he can trick, fool, cajole, and outright drag into it with him.

We are at war.

The Word of God defines Satan's three weapons he uses to accomplish this. They are what genetically engineered biological weapons want to be someday when they graduate, and are custom designed for each weakness which Adam's sin cursed all of his descendants with. These weapons are ready to become active in each and every one of us;

"For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world." 1 John 2:16. The King James version breaks them down more concisely;

1. The lust of the flesh.
2. The lust of the eyes.
3. The pride of life.

These are from this world, the Bible says. It also clearly identifies the ruler of this world as Satan. These are the same three and the *only* three weapons Satan has used against mankind to turn them to sin. Over the eons he has made countless strains of them, but each strain contains one of those same three potent weapons.

These are the three weapons that make walking corpses out of men.

"You can't win, child.

We've all tried to.

You've been lied to.

It's already inside you.

Either you run, right now,

Or you'd best get ready to die..." Gnarls Barkley - Run Away 

"As it is written: 'There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands, no one who seeks God. All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.' 'Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit. The poison of vipers is on their lips.' 'Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.' 'Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.' 'There is no fear of God before their eyes.' Romans 3:10-18

Just one of those weapons is enough to leave a person in a state of separation from God, because lust and pride, as it says in 1 John 2, are of this world and therefore unholy, unclean and unrighteous. God's Spirit does not abide with those things. "For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth." Romans 1:18. 

In the face of this fact, we are yet called to be holy; "As obedient children, do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance, but like the Holy One who called you, be holy yourselves also in all your behavior." 1 Peter 1:14-15.

How are we to get from our miserable, unholy condition to being holy in all our behavior? By worshiping God as the Bible directs us, accepting the trade YHWH made on our own behalf, when he offered the perfect life of His only Son in exchange for the crushing damnation of our sin. "Therefore I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living and holy sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service of worship. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:1-2

What does it take to allow ourselves to be transformed by the renewing of our minds? 

1. Read the Word of God; "Be diligent to present yourself to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, accurately handling the word of truth." 2 Timothy 2:15.
2. and obey it. "And He was saying to them all, "If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it." Luke 9:23-24

This is Christianity's True Form. These are the facts, right there in the Word of God, on what it takes to be free from the iron chains of sin and live a holy life free from it.

And this is not what is being taught in churches in these United States by and large.

What is preached from the pulpits that do not adhere to the facts listed above, and they are in the majority, are subversions wrought by Satan. He leaves his trademark on all that he touches so that it is unmistakable. His 3 strains of death are made more virulent when combined with the Word of God, when taken out of context and abused to form a powerful compounded lie, in which the trademark of Satan is hidden amidst the exultations of those who have no knowledge of God. They are then spoon-fed that compounded lie directly from the pulpit, feel the euphoric side effect of the biological weapon within it, and fail to notice that they are walking corpses.

The responsibility for this lies on the wolves in pastor's clothing who lead the children of God astray, presenting by their example a subverted Christianity, which no one wants anything to do with, to the globe. It lies also on the ignorant sheep mixed among the majority of goats, who do not obey what the Word of God says, because THEY DO NOT READ IT AS THEY ARE COMMANDED TO DO.

My anger at seeing this so prevalent in the world is not the spirit under which the Lord would permit me to write this. 

I was to experience first, in as real a way as I could without being destroyed by it, the agonizing sorrow the Father endures at seeing His children lost, and the stewards He placed over them having no explanation as if they were not in any way accountable, too blinded by their own indifference.

 It is an experience that details why, when His judgment finally comes, there will be no mercy, no quarter, only death for those arrayed like so much cannon fodder against the coming of the Lord. 

Many of those very people will be those who thought they were doing what they were *supposed* to be doing, and did nothing to verify it, or tried in disobedience to hide the thing which they considered too valuable to yield to the Lord.

Even without all the giant-elephant-in-the-room facts revealed as of this writing regarding him and those who accuse him, this self proclaimed Bishop Eddie Long, and too many prominent preachers than I will count right now, has blasphemed against the Word of God, and by his actions alone more closely resembles Satan than the God he claims to serve. Every soul who clings to *him* and makes an idol of *him* will share in his fate.

The man stood with his arms bare before the altar of God, displaying his massive physique (Lust of the Flesh, copyright circa Dawn of Time, Lucifer Son of the Morning Industries. All Rights Reserved) jumping up and down as he advanced his lie, by saying the accusations were in some way representative of spiritual warfare and that *he* can not be touched (Pride of Life, copyright circa Dawn of Time, Lucifer Son of the Morning Industries. All Rights Reserved)...

Eddie Long's pride is so monstrous, his followers so blinded by faith in *him*, that he and those chained to him can not see how they are now together living what the Word of God details as the fate of all who not only harbor their sin, but are defiant about it.

"For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator - who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them." Romans 1:21-32

So much for Bishop Long, his "Longfellows"...and anyone who labors under the illusion that the homosexual lifestyle is "all good with God". It's not. We can all choose, as many "churches" do, to ignore what the Word of God says about it, slap whatever excuses which appease our flesh regarding it, and try to enter through the narrow Door and be saved in spite of it. When the attempt utterly fails, one has only themselves to blame, as God's law is unchanging and is the way it is despite how one personally thinks things ought to be... 


One can only blame themselves once the Way is shut, when the Door is closed and they are forever left in the outer darkness, for having the stones to think they could enter the Kingdom of God anyway despite being in complete violation of the explicit conditions to do so set by God Himself.


"Someone asked him, "Lord, are only a few people going to be saved?" He said to them, "Make every effort to enter through the narrow door, because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to. Once the owner of the house gets up and closes the door, you will stand outside knocking and pleading, 'Sir, open the door for us.' But he will answer, 'I do not know you or where you come from.' Then you will say, 'We ate and drank with you, and you taught in our streets.' But he will reply, 'I do not know you or where you come from. Away from me, all you evildoers!' There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but you yourselves thrown out." Luke 13:23-28


"Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor the drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God." 1 Corinthians 6:10

Read the Bible, and obey what is written.

It gets no clearer than that. If we have those sins harbored in our chests, our DNA, or wherever the world claims those behaviors live, seek God's mercy and permit the blood of Jesus to deliver you, if obeying God and avoiding His judgment means anything to you at all. WE CAN NOT BE SAVED "JUST THE WAY WE ARE". IF WE COULD, THE CREATOR OF THE HEAVENS AND THE EARTH AND ALL THAT DWELL THEREIN WOULD NOT HAVE HAD TO SEND HIS ONLY SON TO BE BRUTALLY MURDERED AND LITERALLY CRUSHED BENEATH THE WEIGHT OF ALL OF OUR SIN. No greater act of love could ever be conceived, than for the Father to deliver His Son, whom He loves so much as to make our love for our own children seem fraudulent, to serve as the connection back to Him, by the that Son's very flesh and blood. 


Refusal... to ignore a portion of God's Word because it *inconveniences* us, or the pain of obedience is deemed too painful to face... and then try to pass yourself off as *good enough anyhow,* NOT ONLY is a clear message to God that *you* think you know better than *He* does, it spits in the face of the UNSPEAKABLE GIFT He gave us, and will earn a place in burning oblivion. Forever.


I have been warned to tell it like He said it. Now *you* have been warned to read the Bible, and obey what is written. *Your best* at the expense of God's Best will leave you stuck to pay the bill for the wages of sin. 

Why is this not being taught in church? How is it that Satan's effort to subvert Christianity has progressed so far and wide? Why are God's children being led astray by pastors who won't heed, teach, or obey? 


Why do places such as the gargantuan monstrosity of a mega-church run by Joel Osteen teach the exact opposite of "Let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me" to over 43,000 people every week, with his heretical message of "Your Best Life Now" that fills the coffers of Lakewood to overflowing and captivates tens of thousands enough to BUY TICKETS to receive that euphoric side effect?

Because numbers are the standard that churches use to determine success, not the souls they save and then teach to become disciples of Jesus. Those who serve as shepherds, then, for all the crowds, fail to notice the wolves, and the roaring lion which they serve, mingled in among the sheep. I witnessed this fact first hand as a teenager. The quest for greater success measured in this manner took the sum total of all my hopes and dreams and destroyed them in its onrushing tide, ripping me mercilessly from those I loved and would be forever separated from in ways that nothing on this earth could ever repair. I endured that only to see those very numbers turn on themselves and self destruct right in front of me; wolves and goats disguised as sheep, scattering what actual sheep remained to them. Idolaters of their own pride and all that goes with it. 


Numbers. 


If church flocks actually are permitted to grow into disciples, trained up to go out into the world, as Jesus mandated, they can't just chew their cud and be dependent upon the institution's poisoned food. They can't be there to fill the coffers and be entertained by the euphoric side-effects of the rituals designed to keep them in their stalls, thereby growing too fat to leave them... too weak to resist when they are led to the slaughterhouse. So many churches as a result will not confront their flock - they *can not* do so for the parasitic relationship to continue. They use lures like the one that says "Don't feel badly for your sin... you do not need to repent, because God loves us *just the way we are*..." This satisfies the flesh which Jesus told us we must *deny* if we are going to follow the Shepherd to salvation. So this is bought by those who would rather have their itching ears, their flesh, made to feel good, than read the Bible and obey what is written... because if they did they'd see right off the bat *that* garbage is not in there and go someplace where the Word of God is preached, knowing what the Word of God *IS* by firsthand knowledge, with no artificial flavors, colors, or toxins with Lucifer Industries trademarks hidden on them.


Yet others go a bit further and read, but do not believe what they read as God's Word, and choose to line-item-veto the parts which their flesh violently reject. They then opt to receive the lie instead, just as Paul said. Now they "feel good" too, and because they don't read and obey, they remain dead men walking. 

Read the Bible and obey what is written. What you allow someone else to spoon-feed to you, rather than verify on your own and show yourself prepared by what is written and letting it live in your heart, will separate you from God forever.

Read the Word of God the way you nourish your body, and obey what is written - *especially* when it goes against what *you* think is an essential part of you, because *that* is the unrecognized and therefore untreated cancer that will snuff you out like a candle. Study the life of the Savior you claim to follow each time you say "I am a Christian." Accept everything He said about how we are to live. You do *not* know how it should be. Your method, the best *you* can do, will get you nowhere but killed. Jesus in fact confirmed that in John 14:6; "Jesus said to them, "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Believe it and for the sake of your own hide, do it, and let the Lord transform and deliver you.

The Father grieves for all of His lost children. He wants them all found, as desperately as we would our *own* children found if they turned up missing. He wants us to be restored to Him even more than I would want my daughters and son restored to me. 


And I would want that to happen more than I would want to keep breathing in and out.


See how much we are loved? 


Don't let *you* deny your own salvation. Deny yourself. Take up your cross. And follow Him.

Amen.

Destroy Your Pride

Your Pride is your enemy.

Your Pride is what cancer wants to be when it grows up.

When we even *think* we detect signs of cancer in our bodies, we go into a panic. We go to our physicians and permit them to do all manner of things to our bodies in a seek and destroy mission to strip it from us. We will even ingest poisons and toxins which ravage our bodies, with agonizing repetitiveness, for the mere hope of removing it successfully.

Why won't we make war like this upon our pride, which is as thorough a bringer of Death as all the forms of cancer known to man?

Because pride has had the benefit of good public relations for literally thousands of years, and has by that facade had the luxury of delivering defiant death to souls with the efficiency of the most silent of assassins.

Aristotle, for example, said of it, "Pride, then, seems to be a sort of crown of the virtues; for it makes them greater, and it is not found without them." The philosophy he championed declares that one in fact needs pride just to live. They say it is the pillar that supports one's mind. They say that one can not rely on their own ability to make rational judgment without it.

To espouse this (and every major civilization from the time of the Greek Empire to now has this at its foundation) effectively separates God from His creation by telling them that it must depend upon and therefore provide ample sustenance to its pride, and so does not require God to sustain it; it is its own life source. It says that without pride you can neither trust your own judgment nor your ability to possess any other virtue... or even survive.

It says, in a nutshell, that pride is our *needed* friend, and without it we will die.

A blatant substitute for God, wrapped in the bait of Self Empowerment and Self Entitlement, barbed with the hook of being left to pay for the wages of sin. A deception worthy of the Father of Lies.

We who would follow Jesus must be aware of the existence of that most powerful of inner parasites, that deadly cancer, pride, in our lives.

• Pride will make us depend upon our own cleverness rather than on YHWH who made every living thing.
• Pride will not permit us to see the truth of our sin through the gauze it spreads over the eyes of its infected host. 
• Pride cuts off the flow of Living Water, and will not permit a man to accept the hard truth about himself, nor confess his wrongdoing, nor seek the grace and mercy of God for deliverance from it. 
• Pride's only purpose is in blinding the host it feeds upon long enough to bear them both to eternal death.To succeed in that effort, the parasite must avoid at all costs allowing the host it feeds upon to recognize it as an Enemy, and thereby do what is necessary to be in right relationship with YHWH, allowing the Living Water to eradicate all traces of it from the body. Pride will make a man stand in the face of the onrushing tide of judgment and let it destroy him and everyone who clings to him.

No one exemplifies the total acceptance of worship of pride as Satan. This embracing of pride as a god will end in everlasting fire for him; all that power, complete commitment to his course, all his corrupted wisdom, is bent upon succeeding where he knows he is doomed to fail, and the truth in no way alters his course... and he was Lucifer, the mightiest angel ever made.

How metastasized must mankind's pride have become to go on deceiving itself and refusing to fear God and give glory to Him? A sound question, especially considering how dimetrically opposed to that philosophy, upon which the system of things is built, the Word of God is regarding pride. The warnings against it are stark.

Do not take my word for it. Here are but a fraction of what God's Word says, with all the subtlety of a brick to the face, of this thing Aristotle called a virtue necessary to live;

• "Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall." Proverbs 16:18
• "When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with humility comes wisdom." Proverbs 11:2
• " 'The terror you inspire and the pride of your heart have deceived you, you who live in the clefts of the rocks, who occupy the heights of the hill. Though you build your nest as high as the eagle's, from there I will bring you down," declares the LORD.' " Jeremiah 49:16
• "We have heard of Moab's pride--her overweening pride and conceit, her pride and her insolence--but her boasts are empty." Isaiah 16:6.
• " I will break down your stubborn pride and make the sky above you like iron and the ground beneath you like bronze." Leviticus 26:19
• "This is what the LORD says: 'In the same way I will ruin the pride of Judah and the great pride of Jerusalem." Jeremiah 13:9
• "The LORD Almighty planned it, to bring low the pride of all glory and to humble all who are renowned on the earth." Isaiah 23:9
• "On that day you will not be put to shame for all the wrongs you have done to me, because I will remove from this city those who rejoice in their pride. Never again will you be haughty on my holy hill." Zephaniah 3:11
• "For God does speak--now one way, now another--though man may not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men as they slumber in their beds, he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, to turn man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride," Job 33: 14-17.

Where in the Word does it suggest that pride is anything other than a thing we are to a) be completely free of if we want to live, and b)a thing to be replaced by humility?


We must not allow the parasite of pride to attach itself to the host of our soul and take it inexorably down the wide, well trodden path. We must allow the Lord to set us free to take the narrow, seldom trodden path. 


We must, or we will die.


Give your pride to God and allow Him to remove that barbed hook from your mouth, and free you from it forever. It is an ongoing process that takes getting daily nourishment from God's Word, obeying what is written within it, and humbling yourself to accept the truth of Jesus and His unspeakable gift of ransoming us by paying the wage of *our* sin. Deny yourself and all that goes with that denial, including your very pride, take up your cross, and follow Him.


Amen

Keep Watch

"Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8


We must not find ourselves so confident, in what small victories we have experienced through God's mercy and grace, to think that we can relax even one whit. 


Ever. 


We must have the power to both tell ourselves "no" by first being honest with what the Word of God says we are not to do and die to ourselves as Jesus said. We must then recognize with that same honesty and humility the triggers that preclude the seduction into that behavior - that appeal to our impulses - and make the decision to flee from them.


In fact, when we have successfully done this, we must then watch for them to come again, in ways we never experienced, as Satan will neither relent nor yield. He did not even leave our Lord alone after the 40 days of temptation in the wilderness, as the Word says Satan only left him for a season. 


If he only left the Son of God alone for a season, *we* will receive no rest, and should expect none. 


We must look for the things which we, in the midst of our pride, desire above all semblance of self-control, to come at us in a way we can neither expect nor anticipate. We must search ourselves, this temple we have allowed through obedience to be swept clean by the grace of God to allow His Spirit to inhabit us; search it for evidence of a new way into our lives which we did not anticipate when we faced the invader before. 


It will find a way to approach us and appear innocent. It can be clothed in what we consider harmless, friendly, benign...  It will say, "In this form, I can't hurt you." We may even recognize what is behind the disguise, and in the midst of the pride which we must utterly destroy, think that we have what it takes to tolerate or include some portion of it in our lives, for *our* comfort, because it can be taken with moderation... or whatever excuse we have the power to create when we want something we have been forced to deny in our decision to follow Jesus.


If we allow Satan to nuzzle up to us, and lay a warm, soothing hold of us with what *we* want in spite of what the Word of God says about fleeing from sin (1 Corinthians 6:18) and being vigilant, we can not look to God for protection when we are seized by the teeth hidden within those jaws and allow our lives and those about us to be be ravaged and torn. We will have at that point disobeyed, and there are consequences for that that are lasting... if we are fortunate, they will merely alter the shape of our lives forever as surely as a limb torn from our bodies from a Lion will.


We must be awake and vigilant, and must never remove any portion of the armor of God. There is no time to relax, because we are, as my brother Cyril put it recently, "in a war unto the death, which means something has to die. And *we* think it is the enemy, but *Jesus* said it's us."

Do Not Be Afraid

"I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him." Luke 12:4-5  


Here it is, then. The Hard Truth, at last. The call to do what is necessary to be transformed, equip every piece of the the armor of YHWH, and use it for the purpose for which it was made: to love, trust, and obey the One who forged it *first*, and then use it to give ourselves to the fight for the souls of men and women, showing them what is the only way to escape judgment and death, and receive mercy and life.

"Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Matthew 10:34 The Master saw that there would be contention with anyone that chooses to embrace the world rather than God, no matter who they think they are or what title they apply to themselves; that the conflict would even be within one's own family. The poison of non-Biblical teaching has steadily seeped into the church like a potent disease, and it can be seen how the disease will ultimately overcome the host, as all diseases with the power to kill run their course when left untreated. We are then discouraged, when people are lead to the cure from eternal death, and they refuse to receive it, because to receive it will force them to be changed, and change begets pain, and we will go to any length, enter any deception, to avoid pain and suffering. I feel that same urge in my own marrow.


I see, now. THIS is why the Lord admonishes us over and over throughout the gospels to keep watch, stay alert, be ready... why Paul went on to say the same thing and added that we are to take courage, or (quit ourselves like men). We are to be sentinels of light within a world of darkness that will hate us for the truth we embrace. We are to watch the movements of the enemy and report *accurately* of them no matter who they are, and most importantly, show those who are caught in the "trappings of religion" the truth by the way we live and teach, and let them *see* the Christ living in us, and by that grace receive the gift of repentance and salvation.


This telling of the truth, unafraid, to the established power base of religion at the time, was the catalyst that wrought Jesus' death, and can just as easily bring about our own. At the very least, it will expose us to persecution. Presenting the truth, when acceptance of it ends the gravy train for people who preen their pride in disobedience of the Lord rather than cast it down in *submission* to the Lord, will mean stirring up what lives within people who do not own the peace of God in their hearts, who do not hold the Lord to be Master of themselves... it will stir up those whom the Lord Himself gave over to the corruption within their own minds, because they did not acknowledge the Lord or submit to Him.


HERE, at last, is "take up your cross". I see it as clearly as my own reflection.


My heart is in my throat. 


Yet will I take courage, trust in the Lord, and quit myself like men. This is our purpose for breathing, and all other priorities, even those which would wound me forever me were I to lose them, like my wife and children, are second to this. Tears blind my eyes at the thought even as I write this. But the truth is, when I am stripped of everything, as was Job, I came into this world naked, and naked I will leave it. It is the Lord that gives, and it is the Lord that takes away what is given. Every breath I would be forced to take without them would be wracked with what passes through me at this moment multiplied 100 fold, yet to shrink from it to save them would be sin. Blessed be the name of the Lord. 


"Anyone who loves his father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; anyone who loves his son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me" Matthew 10:37


This verse convicts me. My human flesh, this husband and father of 3, weeps for myself at the thought of having to choose between the frail, at times faithless, yet relative safety of those whom I love, and all that which may happen from service to God, just as I weep whenever I read Job, or learn of suffering like that which he endured. At the door of such suffering, having not been forced to enter and with knees that quake at the thought amidst blinding tears, I will trust God anyway. I will pray that such a cup passes from me, yet I would have God's will over my own, even if it means I must be shattered and broken. He is the Potter, and I am but a broken vessel. I will take whatever sustenance the Lord sees fit to give me, because without Him I am nothing anyhow.


Some corner of my brain has rationalized this in the midst of my abject fear, in that the marks of time which will ultimately be written on my headstone are in truth less than the amount of time it takes to feel a breath of wind pass across my face; to be faithless to the purpose that supplies life and eternity makes even that fleeting existence UTTERLY POINTLESS AND WITHOUT ANY WORTH. We are to watch for the coming of the Lord, for either in judgment, or in mercy, we *will* meet Him.


God bless and strengthen you, Cyril, Elder Brother, servant of God, for stepping forward into the breach, acquitting yourself like men, and showing me, your younger brother, to trust the Lord, place my foundation upon the truth of the Word, and stand at your shoulder. May the strength and comfort of the Holy Spirit, the Intercessor, be upon you and I and all that stand in obedience of the truth in the face of worldly consequence.


So be it.