CHRISTIANS ARE GOD'S PRINCES AND PRINCESSES

A quote from a sermon I heard five and a half years ago: “You are not a big nothing!”

Has anyone ever told you you were unimportant or worthless?  How did it impact you? 

When my dad and I were looking through photo albums when I was about seven I found this photo of myself from somewhere around the early spring of 1980, so I could not have been more than four or five months old.  My dad was holding me, and his expression said it all, “She’s got me wrapped tightly around her tiny little finger.”  In the moment that photo was taken my dad felt this sense of wonderment, thinking of what I would become, or maybe what I was thinking.

By the time I reached my teen years I began to feel less like a someone and more like a nothing.  This feeling of inadequacy took me down dark paths and in to darker places.  That was until someone told me I was actually important, I questioned their sanity, but then they explained that Jesus died for me.  I still questioned their sanity, and believed that, well, I was not close to anyone worth loving that much. 

When my earthly dad says something’s really good he says, “it’s 400%,”, and now that Jesus has entered the equation I now know and am navigating what it means to be soon royalty.  I never took much stock in stories of princesses when I was a girl, but now as an amateur history buff, I am excited about getting my robe and crown, but I know I must walk the servant’s walk, and wear the servant’s garb for right now.  Don’t you want that?

Gillie

 

AH: The only quibble I would have with this excellent post is that Christians are already royalty. We became this when we were saved and will fully assume it when Jesus returns. Where the servant part comes in is that, when we are saved, we are so grateful that we are now back in God's favour as one of His princes or princesses that we gladly take on the simultanious role of service.

To obtain what Gillie and I have, see the Book of Acts, chapter 2, verse 38.

WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS, GOD LOVES YOU

                           Part 1 Does Jesus Care?

Oh yes He cares, 

I know He Cares, 

His heart is touched by my grief. 

When the days are weary, 

The long nights dreary, 

I know my Jesus cares.  

Seventh Day Adventist Hymnal Page 181

I was 6-years-old on a January morning in 1986 when a tragedy happened.  I was attending a school for blind people, and they had us young children go to the TV room to view the launch of The Challenger Space Shuttle.  Those of us who could see first saw the ship climb in to orbit, but seconds later the screen filled with orange.  I was confused, having only been in 1st grade at the time, and not sure what to say at the time, and wondering why no one would answer our questions.  The staff simply told us not to talk about it, that it would upset us, and that that would make us look bad if sighted people came by.  

As my mom drove me back this morning from my home in a small town I recall talking to her about it, and asking her how she would have told me what happened.  She explained that knowing I was only 6 at the time would have told me there was an accident, and that if I wanted to speak of it, to come to her and she’d short it out in terms that a 1st grader would get.

 What Does This Have To Do With Jesus?

Jesus showed kindness and compassion to even the worst of sinners.  What this story also illustrates is that it takes less energy to care than not to care.

A couple of years later, after a tough 3rd grade year I felt beaten down, which is a horrible place to be at 8-years-old, I began 4th grade with low expectations.  

The teacher I had that year, Mrs. White, was truly Christ-like in the fact that rather than discouraging our creativity she encouraged it.  One day I was having difficulty reading and she asked while I became more and more frustrated “What’s the matter?”  

I responded with, “I’ll never get this, I’m just stupid!”  

In what was an awesome move by a one of a kind teacher, she told me, “Your not stupid, your trying.  Your good at so many things, sports, singing, just keep trying.” 

Mrs. White illustrated just what a few words of encouragement can do in a child’s life.  

My mom was teaching 5th grade around the fall of 1980 when a Laotian boy joined her class.  He was one of many Southeast Asian refugees that came to our shores in the era.  She told me he must have been terrified, not knowing the language, and being in a new place.  I told her that I hoped she was his Mrs.  White, or someone’s Mrs. White. 

Gillie 

DOLLAR, RUBLES, YUAN & GOLD

The following was submitted by An Acres of Diamonds Man. It explains how things are changing in the world market place. Change is upon us a Nation, and as a people.

May, 2022            Suffering from U.S. and EU sanctions, Russia made a surprise move—its central bank fixed the price of 5,000 rubles to a gram of gold. Few Western investors or executives noticed.            Then, Russia sprang its trap. Its finance ministry announced that it would require payment for oil, natural gas and other of its significant exports in rubles.            By tying the ruble to gold, Russia pushes to make its currency independent of comparisons to the U.S. dollar. Requiring countries to buy its desired major exports with the ruble is an attempt to create an alternative global financial path and also to increase the amount of gold it holds.            “It’s sending [other countries] a signal that it’s time to start destroying western monopoly and the financial strength of the dollar.” Russia isn’t alone in its desire. “China has been explicit” in its desire to displace the dollar and make the yuan more central.            China is taking preliminary measures to defend their state-owned assets against financial sanctions similar to those the U.S. launched against Russia. Regulators from China’s central bank met with domestic and foreign banks to discuss protecting its overseas against possible U.S.-led sanctions, which could be triggered if China were to exert military force against Taiwan, a vulnerable island that China considers its territory.            Get ready for a new round of attempts by Russia and China to displace the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency—the trusted default for financial transactions everywhere.            The desire to supplant the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency is not new. “Historically the European Union wanted to do this,” said Christopher Mitchell, assistant professor of politics and international relations at Mt. Holyoke College. “I think there’s a global sense that the euro isn’t ready for that role until the EU supports it with a fiscal and political union. As long as they have these existential questions even as Europeans want to make a bid for it, there are too many questions about the EU and the Eurozone.”            Today, virtually all international transactions occur in U.S. dollars – everything from agriculture and ammunition to credit cards and oil barrels. This gives the United States some unique advantages: its national debt is denominated in its own currency and it’s generally cheaper to borrow in greenbacks than in rubles or yuan. If the dollar lost its special status as the “world’s reserve currency,” the price of its imports would rise and the price of its exports would fall.            And Americans would be forced to export in order to earn foreign currencies to pay its national debt, which has already topped $30 trillion.            “The stronger a nation’s currency, the cheaper imports are going to be from other countries,” Giacomo Santangelo, a senior lecturer of economics at Fordham University said. “Their currency goes  further in the world market.” Companies and individuals see their purchasing power go further. The country can also borrow at lower interest rates, which is critical for the U.S. given its penchant for national debt financing.            Neither Russia nor China, nor even the EU, is yet in a position to displace the supremacy of the dollar. Still, a series of unfortunate events could quickly dethrone king dollar. “The dominant role of a global currency is on a tipping point model,” say Mitchell, who points to a time when the British pound served in the role until the 1950s, when the country was perceived as “too weak to support a dominant currency.” The British pound never recovered its global role.            There wouldn’t be a slow transition, more an “accumulation of dissatisfactions with the current order that don’t manifest in change until they suddenly do,” Mitchell said. “Certainly, China and Russia and some other countries would love to displace the dollar’s central role. That was one of the big dangers of the U.S. engaging in central bank sanctions [on Russia]. There are little pushes toward actors becoming less comfortable with the central role of the dollar.”   From the Scriptures for America Dragon Slayer newsletter, 2022, Volume 6.

MEDIA-RELATED STUFF

News Nation has hired former CNN host Chris Cuomo to do a prime time show. News Nation, if you no longer want to exist, just give your license back to the FCC.

Samantha Bee's show has been cancelled. Surprising how anyone thought something like "Full Frontal" would work on a channel whose most popular programming thitherto had been Andy Griffith reruns.

Glad Paul Martin is back doing commentaries on 95.5 Belleville. I remember his commentary/Reaction/It's Appauling feature on that station the better part of thirty years ago.

Kudos to George Knapp who, a couple weeks ago on "Coast to Coast", played Tom Waites as bumper music. You literally never hear Tom Waites on commercial radio. 

PSALM 27

Psalm 27

I was originally going to write this post as a harangue against the church for how cowardly much of it was during the recent response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but, reading through it just now, I see that, rather than a prayer of instructional confirmation about why Christians shouldn't fear, though there are some verses of that type contained herein, it is largely a prayer, that at least for those who came after the psalmist, is a prayer for courage in the future as opposed to in the present. 

This is a good psalm to pray in whole or in part when we see what is going on in the news or when we personally encounter or think of situations in which we wouldn't know what to do. I mean, if a friend or relative is going through something and you start worrying about what it would be like if that happened to you, you might want to pray all or part of this psalm. If the devil is tormenting you with thoughts of worry, including if you have anxiety disorder and he is bringing up horrible scenarios before you, pray psalm 27 or commit it to memory and ask God to supernaturally quicken it to your mind for when those situations of worry come up. 

One thing is for sure: more times will come, globally and otherwise, when the church as a whole will need to do a lot better job than it has been.

Lord, may we never forget about Psalm 27. In Jesus name, amen. 

PSALM 146

Psalm 146

Today, people, especially the citizens of my noncountry of Canada, worship the government over, and as if government is, God. This psalm warns us not to do this. Son of man in verse 3 means mankind, not Jesus, whom the phrase "Son of Man" describes elsewhere in the Bible.

Politicians are just mortal men and women like you and me.

God created everything and lives forever. This makes Him the only one in which humanity can truly put their hope.

Manmade government is horribly corrupt. The innocent get locked up for huge amounts of time and the scum of the earth walk free, in certain cases, deliberately. Programs to feed the hungry and help the poor in other ways often result in more of the money allocated for the program going to its administration and only a small amount gets turned into something that can fill a hungry stomach. 

Governments act like their healthcare systems are the greatest thing since the sliced bread that too little of is feeding the poor, but these healthcare systems become problem-plagued morasses and, often, no real healing takes place. Governments act like they'll solve all the people's problems, but often the people who can barely afford it end up paying more in taxes and owing their taxes in addition to whatever expenses and debts they already needed to pay. Manmade governments don't often reward godly righteousness as Romans 13 1-7 says they are to do, but they punish the righteous and reward evildoers, such as by approving same sex marriage and other so-called LGBT rights.

The Lord is the one who truly looks out for the imigrant and the refugee, being high above and able to overcome any problems foreigners might have with the system. Governments offer help to children without parents and benefits to those whose husbands have died, but this provision is often inadequate, and these governments are not providing anything God didn't create anyway. The world of the wicked will be turned upside down someday very soon.

The worldly, wicked system will be replaced by God's kingdom on Earth, which will last forever and ever, never to be usurped, overthrown or voted out of office.

 

HOW JESUS HELPS US WHEN WE FEEL ALIENATED

Everyone, believer or unbeliever, needs to follow the advice given in this video. If you are a Christian and you feel alienated, know that you have a relationship with the omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent ruler of the universe, and that it is a total love relationship. If you are an unbeliever, start talking to God and enter into this aforementioned parental, sibling, royal, spiritual betrothal with the one who created you by doing what the Bible says to do in Acts 2 38.

HOW JESUS GIVES US A SENSE OF SIGNIFICANCE

What this video says is true, but this man's words are only ultimately beneficial if you are a Christian. If you don't believe in God and you feel insignificant, then know God wants to use you to help in His plan to bring the people of the world back into relationship with Him. Turn to Jesus by doing what the Bible says in Acts 2 38 and start living a life that will include a better purpose than you ever thought possible.

ANNE WITH AN E IS A HISTORICALLY INACCURATE PIECE OF LEFT-WING PROPAGANDA

When making a historical drama, TV directors have one job, try to be accurate.  Sometimes it’s hit, others it’s miss.  Sometimes when it’s miss minor inaccuracies can be let go of, but other times, well, train wrecks were never fun to watch.

On the surface it’s a retelling of the timeless classic Anne Of Green Gables, but let’s take the surgeon’s blade to it, and cut through the superficial stuff.  

The basic plot is a young orphan is sent mistakenly to live on Green Gables Farm.  Now for historical context many orphans were “fostered” in that era, but often were treated more like servants. 

Last night on a TV station I found an episode where it featured the term “feminism.” That term did not exist until Betty Friedan wrote “The Feminine Mystique” in 1962.  It would be more likely the term suffragette would be used.

When one thinks “Spin The Bottle” most people think of the middle of the 20th century.  Anne With An E gets this a few decades too early.  When I think “Spin The Bottle”  I honestly think kids who grew up in and around the time period my mom was in her early teens, so late fifties early sixties. 

Why Did I Watch This?

Two reasons, 1 boredom, because who really wants to hear about the pandemic? 2 Curiosity, as someone whose kind of a history buff, I wanted to see it for myself.

Gillie

THE FOUR TRINITIES

There are four trinities in this world in our time that are the trinities of God, life, man, and evil. The evil that is the lie about our truth is being removed from being the wedge that has been trying to separate us from the wisdom of God's wisdom, knowledge and love that we receive through Jesus Christ by redemption through Him that delivers His Spirit of the renewed vision of truth.

The time that is quickly approaching, chapter 6 of book 66 in the Bible. God bless you, do not be afraid. Amen.

Doug                                     

FULLY VAXED, FULLY MASKED AND FULLY DECEIVED

    When Jesus is your vaccination masks are no longer needed. There are a lot of unexplainable events going on in the world these days. The only thing we can know is truth is that God is in charge and only by faith in His Word can we be saved and learn not to fear. 

Doug

THE APOCALYPSE OF THE NEW BEGINNING

If you try to leave God out of the equation of what is your life then you'll only go in circles that lead back to what you were deceived into denying. The masquerade party is coming to an end. Every type of evil will be exposed and the corrupting of the minds of the young and innocent into believing that they can be something that they are not is the sin that God hates the most. Support this lie and you will surely die with it.

Doug 

THE MEANING OF LIFE IS TO PLEASE GOD

Rejecting God is the same as rejecting your own purpose for life in this darkening world and how God wants to save you from it. The Sodom and Gomorrah ways are being dictated by the self-loathing Jezebel way that wants to darken your path that leads to the light that Satan hates.

God's new beginning: the redemption of man's kinds and the truth of our purpose in this life on Earth, a life that leads to our eternal existence that is dictated through our life choices made.

Only in choosing to live as Jesus does can you receive the blessing of His Father's promise.

We, God's people of His promise are gathering on His rock of salvation and are being armed with the power of His blessings of victory over sins, the rising up of the truth in God's Word and the beginning of mass deaths in Satan's world.

When the deceived are gone they will soon be forgotten.

I don't walk in this world, I just exist in it. The way I have learned to walk is in the truth of the creation of God's purpose, a path that leads to God's Creation yet to be. 

It is so amazing how God has been working in the world. The Father God, His Son Jesus and the Holy Ghost are working together in their own ways to spread salvation over the earth of God's creation, creating once again a cleansing of God's work into the meaning of our purpose and the life yet to be. Ephesians 1 17 

The bricks and the mortar that are building your Heaven on Earth are the truth and Your Word that so many still don't see. There are so many that see the lies of this world but do not see what they are as they do not know where to look for Your truth.

All of us our sinners living in a fallen world, following the lies and deceptions into the blinding darkness of Satan's domain. The parasite of this evil has been boring itself into our souls for more than way too long because God is patient and loves us.

God's wrath is upon this world and nothing can stop what is about to happen as the nonbearing fruit trees are being chopped down and burned till only the trees bearing God's fruit will remain standing and bear the fruit of what is yet to be.

Doug

THE GIFT THAT FEELS LIKE A CURSE AT TIMES

We know following Jesus is a gift that sometimes can feel like a curse, the life of walking the path that divides right from wrong, seeking to learn the difference between courage and fear, knowing that you are right but can not explain why, seeing the wisdom and gaining faith in this gift/curse way to live; a journey through this life seeking the blessings over the curse.

Doug 

DERANGED INIQUITISTS

Please God forgive us as we live out our lives in this world of sin led by the deranged iniquitists that thirst for our souls, the darkness of this place that has blind man so he only sees what it wants him to see. We begin to want what we now see as the pride, greed and lust continue to blind us as the god of this world has done before i.e. the time of Noah and Sodom and Gomorah. 

God's army is strong and growing on His earth by the blessing of His vision of truth in Jesus Christ. 

We need to turn away from all darkness and turn to God's light so that we can begin to see where we are.

Come to Jesus just as you are and His Father's light can lead your way to building your defense and the courage that becomes His sword and shield that brings understanding and purpose and an overwhelming need to travel this path that leads to God's chosen who follow Christ in Christ's way which is the meaning of the water of God's blood and the obedience of truth. Acts 5 32..

This water of the blood is the water that washes your bodyk, spirit and soul, preparing it for redemption of sin, forgiveness of sin and the shield and sword of His truth and Word.

Jesus is the light of the power 

And wisdom over all creatures great and small.

God already knows our sins

And how far we did fall,

So get on your knees

Start praying to Jesus

And ask  the Lord to hear your call.

And ask to become born again as God's child in truth. John 3 3 This is the eternal way in God's kingdom in Heaven and on Earth. The epistle of 1 John explains this as well as the true meaning of following God through His only begotten son that brings the death of mankind to sin.

 Pray in Jesus name that the presence of the Holy Spirit will be with you, in you and work through you to bring you to be a beacon of His truth.

Doug

SPARK MICROSYSTEMS TEAMS WITH UWB ALLIANCE TO TEST UWB COEXISTENCE

Phase one of the multi-step project includes testing in an environment utilizing multiple UWB frequency bands

Montreal, Canada | SPARK Microsystems, a Canadian fabless semiconductor company specializing in next-generation ultra-wideband (UWB), and UWB Alliance, an international non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion and growth of the UWB industry, have initiated a joint effort to test the coexistence and aggregation capabilities of UWB technology in environments where other UWB or other wireless protocols and radio devices are in use. This first phase includes testing the interoperability and compatibility of a pair of UWB technologies operating in a single environment simultaneously with UWB transceivers from SPARK Microsystems and other industry players.

“Generating empirical data through scientific testing is critical for understanding how UWB devices can coexist with other devices,” said Benjamin Rolfe, CTO, UWB Alliance. “The testing we are doing with SPARK Microsystems will enable the industry to progress forward on collaborative coexistence strategies that optimize spectrum sharing while minimizing interference. It will also provide standards-making bodies with factual documentation to aid in amending or modifying spectrum rules, allowing more UWB-enabled solutions to come to market.”

Preliminary results of phase one with multiple UWB devices indicate generally good coexistence performance, with the tested devices showing no measurable performance impact from other interfering UWB devices. Testing of multiple devices in aggregation was also conducted. Phase two will expand the coexistence testing to include UWB with U-NII devices in 6 GHz (802.11ax). The full results will become available shortly after the conclusion of the testing.

“SPARK Microsystems and UWB Alliance together recognize the importance of coexistence with other wireless devices for widespread market adoption of UWB technology across various markets such as consumer, healthcare, connected cars, smart home and smart factory,” said Frederic Nabki, Co-Founder and CTO, SPARK Microsystems. “We anticipate the results of the testing will educate and inform cross-industry stakeholders on how UWB uses the spectrum in aggregation while coexisting with other radio devices.”

About SPARK Microsystems

SPARK Microsystems is a fabless semiconductor company that is leading the way towards ultra-low power wireless communications for consumer and IoT-connected devices. With its patented technologies, SPARK Microsystems is bringing to market a high-performance wireless transceiver that allows for orders of magnitude improved power consumption, latency and more accurate ranging and positioning, while providing higher data rates than competing technologies. ​For more information, please visit www.sparkmicro.com.

About UWB Alliance

UWB Alliance is an international non-profit organization headquartered in Washington D.C. dedicated to the promotion and growth of the ultrawideband (UWB) industry. The UWB Alliance promotes large-scale deployments of UWB technology by fostering the advancement of the regulatory environment for UWB technologies, providing a center of excellence for UWB education and coexistence, and promoting industry cooperation in the development of specifications and standards for interoperability. For more information regarding the UWB Alliance, visit uwballiance.org.

MEDIA-RELATED STUFF

Rogers has apologized for the outage Friday. Next, among other things, they need to apologize for 680 News not being live overnight and for the Jays radio comentators not actually being in the stadium during away games.

Sorry to hear about the death of Patrick Watson. I remember his voice from the heritage minutes. I also used to watch his CITY-TV show "Titans" and I loved his autobiography, "This Hour Has Seven Decades."

Also sad to hear about the death of former TV Ontario host and producer Mike McManus. Didn't know he was a Catholic priest. I sure hope he had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

So CBC is going to start a 24-7 streaming news channel. Why didn't they just revamp CBCNN for a younger audience and stream that?

Connie Willis had a couple good shows on "Coast to Coast" this weekend.

Happy hundredth anniversary WHAM Rochester.

Watched both Global and CITY-TV's supper hour newscasts from Friday and actually found interesting, informative stuff in both of them. 

DECADES AFTER IT WAS DESTROYED BY THE KHMER ROUGE, WOMAN RECEIVES REPLICA OF JESUS PICTURE

This is a quote from a good friend of mine: “socialism is always good until you can’t practice your religion; its all fun and games until a bomb hits your home.”

I had not given capitalism or socialism much thought.  We were never educated on the subject in school, I guess fear of revolution or something. 

What do the Bolsheviks, Nazis, and Khmer Rouge have in common? If you had to think on it, you are not alone, the education system doesn’t talk much about this.  If you said they all perpetrated genocides in the 20th century, you are right.  If you are wondering why I’m bringing this up, well, this will make you reconsider socialism in a big way.

For this post I am using the Khmer term for grandmother out of respect.  I was over at my friend’s house on a day in a time of the year that hadn’t decided to be winter or spring.  My friend and I were just talking about things I had learned about in Bible study.  My friend’s grandmother spoke up when I talked about Christ returning.  She told me to come with her the minute I mentioned that even in a place such as Canada Bibles would be outlawed.  

She took me to her room and started pulling out these beautiful dresses. They were in pastel purple, blue, peach, and green.  She even produced a small faded photograph of herself when she was maybe twenty, and she was beautiful.  I noticed flaps in these dresses that weren’t the typical slits, in fact they opened to reveal yellowed papers.  When I asked her what they were she told me they were Scriptures, her normally jovial tone was replaced with heartbreak.  

She went on to tell me that her family had had a good life, wealthy with lots of servants, but that in 1975 everything changed.  She explained to me that she had the servants sew her favorite Scriptures in her favorite dresses so she could “keep Jesus.”  

She also told me through her grandson’s translation that she had had this picture of Jesus holding the world in His hands, but the Khmer Rouge came storming in to their home, and made her watch as they cut the picture to small pieces.

I excused myself, and went to the washroom.  I didn’t want to let Yea see me cry, but soon the hot angry tears flowed like a raging river.  Fifteen years on since she told me those stories I still feel something I can’t quite put my finger on.        

My friend is a very talented artist, and one day in April he phoned me up to tell me of something he was working on.  It was the picture his grandmother was robbed of in 1975.  I was really excited, and recently he presented her with this re-creation.

Gillie e

 

DR. TIM JENNINGS-HEALING THE MIND: THE SEVEN MYTHS OF FORGIVENESS

The following is a response to this video.

 Myth 2: I agree with Dr. Jennings' main point from a human relations standpoint and of course from the standpoint of God's dealings with man. Romans 5 8 is as true as it ever was.

However, I strongly disagree to the point of considering Jennings heretical regarding what he says about Christ paying our debt. Christ did go to the cross to pay man's debt to God. We owed a debt we could not pay; He paid a debt He did not owe.

"Did Christ die to get God to forgive us..."

First of all, Christ is God. You Seventh-day Adventists have a history of being confused about this.

It isn't a matter of someone forgiving you a debt but still demanding you pay, or a matter of another person paying the debt you owe to your debtor. Rather, the One you owe the impossible debt to forgave it by paying it Himself: by sending Himself to Earth in the form of the Son, the second person of the Trinity, to pay the penalty for our sins and thereby forgive them, being both merciful and just in accordance with His character.

Also, a lot of the stuff Jennings says in here is rich considering he's a Seventh-day Adventist and thus believes in the investigative judgment. Ellen G. White apparently didn't realize the phrase "it is finished" spoken by our Lord on the cross means "it is finished."

Myth 3: Yes, God's forgiveness was always present, even in the Garden of Eden. As many Christians recognize, God's slaughtering of the deer to make clothes for Adam and Eve was a picture of what Christ would do on the cross. All the animal sacrifices for the next four thousand years were a picture, a shadow, of what Jesus would do at Calvary. The believers of Old Testament times were saved because they looked forward in time to the cross.            

Christ's death on the cross signified God's forgiveness that went back to Eden. If I owed the Canada Revenue Agency an impossible amount of money and Prime Minister Trudeau came to my door informing me he'd paid my tax bill out of his trust fund, I'd want a piece of paper signifying this fact. That way, during times I wondered if the government was going to demand the money from me after all, or times when I thought Trudeau's appearance might have been a dilusion or something, I would have the official piece of paper with the Prime Minister's seal confirming what had taken place. Christ's death on the cross is the seal of God having both forgiven and paid off our debt Himself.

Christ has forgiven humanity but most of humanity doesn't want His forgiveness. They don't want to be His friend.

When a Christian says Christ has forgiven me or they've been pardoned, it is their recognition, in a reconciled state, that God in the person of Jesus did this for them.

By the way, Jeffrey Dommer became a Cristian before he died.

Myth 4: Again, this is a case where both things are true. God does apply Jesus' record to us in the sense that God sees Christ in us, our willing spirit man, instead of our weak flesh man. Christ in us is God's vision, as it were, of what we will be in eternal perfection. Yet, God also recognizes that, as fallen human beings, we still have the aforementioned fleshly nature to deal with. Flowing out of our faith in what Christ did for us on the cross, God manifests good works in us, growing us toward that perfection, into the likeness of His Son that He sees in us.

Myth 5: How can a 49 year old have been married for 38 years?

Myth 6: God doesn't forget our sins because this would mean He wasn't omniscient. What God does is not bring them to mind. The blood of Christ is applied to our records in that they are covered and payed for by Christ's blood.

Christ is our advocate. When Satan accuses the brethren of their sins, God looks at the record books and says that it's dealt with by the blood of the Son. Our sins are blotted out in that they are not accounted to us because of Jesus.

When we get to Heaven, we will have a perfect understanding that, though the sins we committed in this life are a historical fact, we are not at all on the hook for them.

Dr. Jennings speaks here and in a previous session about Hell. He, as an SDA, does not believe in an eternal burning Hell. He thinks the existence of such a place conflicts with God's loving nature, that its unloving to scare people with the consequence of Hell if they don't come to Christ.

However, Hell is perfectly loving. The Lord did everything He could to save man and that gift of salvation is available to every person alive now and whoever lived. If, as I said earlier, a person doesn't want this salvation, doesn't want to be God's friend, then the loving, just thing to do is to put them in the place prepared for the devil and his angels. Satan and his demons don't have repentance available to them; the unbelievers have repentance available to them but they refuse to take advantage of it.

Hell is eternal because God's standard is perfection. If we won't take Christ's complete perfection upon us, we deserve to be punished for all eternity.

Jennings says in this previous session that death is God letting go. Death is not, in fact, God letting go because if this were the case, everyone who died without knowing the Lord would fly apart at an atomic level the moment they died. Rather, death is relational separation from God. When Adam and Eve ate the fruit, they no longer had the relationship with God they once did. The Bible says that if we go down to Hell, God is the                        re, so eternal Hell actually is, in its main component, eternal relational separation from God.    

THE NATURE OF GOD ... AND OTHER THINGS

This post is a response to a comment from a comment thread I follow on another blog. As what I wished to respond to in her comment didn't have anything to do with the topic of that particular blog, I have decided to respond to it here.

    "If you're a Christian and you're blathering about God, personal relationships with God, and blaspheming about (redacted) being a "sin" (yes even if you're redacted) do the world a favor, and SHUT THE FUCK UP! First of all, you don't know God. You do NOT have a personal relationship with god. You do not UNDERSTAND God. The fact that God created man in his image is so poorly misunderstood so let me remind you ignorant bastards of some facts.

God is unknowable, unfathomable, and ineffable to the puny human mind. Your brains are literally not equipped to be able to HANDLE witnessing God for more than a few precious moments. You aren't walking with God everywhere you go. God is already everywhere. God doesn't give a fuck if you masturbate, and in fact is okay with you masturbating unless you're hurting yourself, or someone else. Idolatry? Fucking really? You're concerned with Idolatry in the 21st Century? Get a fucking grip! God occupies space across the cosmos. Across all of time, and space, and many different dimensions. They're way too busy being fucking everything to give the faintest of fucks if you are, or are not (redacted.) Sin is harmful, and this is not. Stop proselytizing, and preaching about the whims or wants of a God so supreme that it is INSULTING to them to suggest that they care if you jerk yourself off. It's far more offensive to murder, or rape, or torture than it is to masturbate, or abort a fetus that isn't even self aware. Stop being so pathetic." 

    First of all, you are mistaken about the nature of God. While He (not "they" as if being the woke God) is infinite, God is in fact knowable to man and perfectly capable of having a personal relationship with mankind. In fact, that is why humans were created in the first place: to be with God in a voluntary, worshipful, personal, intimate relationship.

Second, because of this, God does care about everything we do, although not in the legalistic way many Christians would have you believe.

Third, idolatry is a very real thing, even in the twenty-first century. People around the world still worship idols of wood and stone, and many other people make idols out of things that were not expressly created as idols the way the wooden and stone articles were. Examples of the latter include celebrities, alcohol, drugs, the topic of the blog I originally copied the above comment from, and even things like family and relationships with others depending on how someone views them.

To return to my first point, this infinite, omnipresent, yet relational and knowable God provided a means of restoring the relationship humanity was originally meant to have with Him by, 2000 years ago, sending Himself down to Earth in the form of the Son and second person of the trinity, Jesus Christ, to provide a means of reconciliation for us once and for all by shedding His blood for our sins. I would urge you and anyone else reading this to take advantage of that forgiveness and reconciliation provided. To find out how to specifically do this, see the Book of Acts in the Bible, chapter 2, verse 38.

THEY REPENTED NOT

The Book of Revelation repeatedly tells us how the wicked people of the world who are experiencing the tribulation period won't repent of their sins when that time comes. It also contains many warnings for us who are reading that book of prophecy before the tribulation to repent of our sins.

Most people aren't going to repent of their abortions, their homosexuality, their drug use, their general hate on for their fellow man, etc. 

Really, it's all so simple: don't be one of them. Turn to Christ while you can. Acts 2 38 Now is the day of your salvation. 2 Corinthians 6 2

HAGGAI

Chapter 1

A process took place here.

First, the returned exiles encountered obstacles to rebuilding God's temple.

Second, they looked around at the seen obstacles instead of looking with faith at the as yet unseen temple the Lord promised would be rebuilt.

Third, having convinced themselves by looking only at the current circumstances that it was hopeless to try to rebuild the temple, the Jews decided their time would be better spent on doing what they wanted to do for themselves.

Fourth, God had what the people put their hand to for themselves not produce any successful results.

Fifth, the Jews wondered why they weren't seeing the results they wanted.

Sixth, God sent Haggai with a message telling them why.

Chapter 2

v1-9: Of course, God was telling everybody something they needed to keep in mind.

While the temple that was being rebuilt by the returned remnant wouldn't aesthetically be anything like as glorious as Solomon's temple, this was not what was important. The crux of the thing was that the Lord was with the people in their rebuilding of the temple.

The promise He made to their forefathers was still in effect for those who were faithful to His covenant and that meant the Jews could be confident in what they were doing.

God refers to Himself both in verses 5 and 6 as the Lord of hosts, meaning the commander of the Heavenly army. The Lord of hosts is going to come back to Earth one day, shaking up the nations that have forsaken Him and have harmed their fellow humans God the Creator made. This will be fulfilled when Christ returns to Earth.

However, verse 7 speaks of Christ's first coming as well, when He came as the desire of all nations, the promised Messiah, the Saviour who was long hoped for.

God has the right to rule this planet because all its wealth, currently possessed by the wicked nations that will soon be shaken is actually His since He created it all.

Here in the temple which those who'd returned from Babylon were rebuilding, God Himself in the form of the Son Jesus Christ would enter, bringing His glory and message of peace.

v10-19: The priests needed to be reminded, and to remind the people, of their responsibility to live righteously. Just because the Lord was with them in rebuilding the temple did not guarantee the returned exiles could do whatever they wanted and continue to have God on their side.

v20-23: Zerubbabel needed to know that the nations that were currently threatening Judah and trying to hamper the rebuilding of the temple would shortly come to no good end and that the governor's seal of approval, as it were, would one day be on the completed construction project.

EVEN A CHILD KNOWS WHAT A WOMAN IS

What a woman is is not complicated for a child to understand. If you ask them, their answer to this question of the century is that their natural mother who conceived, birthed and suckled them into life is a woman.

Is the empowerment of women really an empowerment?

Women were not meant to rise up above men; women were meant to rise up with them.

The abominations of the invention of man's kinds fake woman and the damage done to many of man's kinds and the abomination of same sex attraction and the transgender lie corrupts the spirit, rots the body and causes the soul to die.

Doug

WHEN LEAD TURNS TO GOLD

When lead becomes gold it will still be a burden to carry but will be easy to carry if it's not more than your right hand can handle, meaning it's not more than you're meant to have.

It's like when sin is lost to faith, it does not become easier  but does become a life worth living in this world of evil. We are protected by God's forgiveness, wisdom, grace, and love.

Faith is an awakening of the soul within you. The soul is a component of the trinity of life at conception is the awareness of good and bad, light and dark, love and hate, fear and courage.

Doug

DECEIVED DIRECTION

The eco system created by God in this world to sustain us and the tech system invented by man in this world to control us can not and will not work together. They are like Jesus and Satan, they are like light and dark, they are life and death.

Doug 

A THIRD GOD ALMIGHTY PRAYER, CONTINUE TO FREE ME FROM MY CHAINS

God Almighty,

Here my prayer

About how my chains are heavy

From Satan's lair.

I've broken free from some

But not from all

Through the power of Jesus

When You heard my call.

God Almighty,

It's only you I seek

From the darkness of the valleys

To the light of your mountain's peak.

God Almighty,

Here my prayer,

Bring me to a freedom in this world

Of the desperate in despair.

What you've done in my life

Is my testimony to share.

In Jesus name, amen.

Doug 

MS. GILLIE WISHES HER PARENTS A HAPPY ANNIVERSARY

If you were to take a survey of 100 married couples, wait ten years, and retake the survey you would find maybe half still together. 

On this date in 1969 a pretty young school teacher Lorna Denyse Hewgill, and a Jack of all trades Douglass Harvey Ardiel stood before a crowd of family and friends at the Presbyterian church in the town they had both grown up in.  They repeated those most sacred of words, and 53 years and two daughters, myself and my sister later they are definitely an exception to today’s rule of marry, argue, separate, and divorce.

                           What’s Their Secret?

Remember how I told you about my town just seeming to hold on to traditional family values?  It also helps that my grandparents on both sides set standards of communication and fidelity.

Gillie 

THE CURE FOR ATHEISM

Have you ever seen something so wonderous as a waterfall or leaves changing when summer turns to autumn?  It’s very beautiful, and so unique you might just take a picture.

I do a lot of putting Canada down, but the one thing it does right is its national and provincial park services.  I have been to some of the provincial parks.  

One was in that transitional time between summer and autumn, and seeing those leaves go from green to vibrant reds, oranges, and golds had me curious about God.  The waterways we traveled were serene and quiet.  

The other time fell in that period between spring and summer when everything was blooming and colorful. 

How can a person say there isn’t a God when there’s all of that to gaze upon?

Gillie