Tag: The Beast

Self-Serving-Joy-Faker

December 9, 2015

Never-you-mind what I said the other day;

While I do this, you-all look the other way!

Better yet, you-all close your eyes to pray,

As I watch seeking an opportunity to prey,

On the little guy; all know I’m here to stay!

On this you can depend, I’ll not walk away!

Political games are what I just love to play!

You need ME to keep our enemies at bay!

Don’t you listen to what truth-sayers say!

Naiveté isn’t relevant to the world today;

Crafty gray lies; this is the diplomatic way,

To achieve peace, keeps all poverty away!

No right or wrong, black or white, all gray,

Depends on political winds blowing today!

So, never-mind what I said the other day,

Remember you need ME, I’m here to stay!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Joy Waits on God

November 19, 2015

I am war-weary, in need of a furlough, and awaiting an honorable discharge. I am battle-hardened but this war is long; it has been raging for centuries, filling the earth with blood. My enemy is a deceptive predator who sometimes, weakens me by sneaking into my thoughts. You see, I once fought on his side, he thought he owned me. I was his tool, a common weapon that he had no regard for, and he thought to destroy me just for the twisted joy of practicing destruction. Please understand, my enemy, who was once my master can only, destroy. He has no power to build and he is enraged because the purpose that drives him has only one end, his own destruction. He targets me with his vengeance because I am the tool he prized for dishonor that was rescued by the One Who limits his power; by giving him over to his own desire. Though I once belonged to the enemy and was set to suffer his fate, my Savior rescued me, cleaned me up, repaired me, and gave me a new purpose. I no longer serve the purpose of destruction. I now, serve a new Master, my Friend, Who is the author of eternal life. By His Mercy, I live to serve God and surrender all that I am for His honor and glory.

The war I endure as hardship is the war with sin within. Those old thoughts and desires that the enemy knows so well and does all he can do to re-ignite, in hopes of weakening me and bringing me down. He oppresses me by the sin that flourishes without, in hopes of making my new purpose ineffective. He attacks and wounds my flesh, he threatens my existence. He taunts me, deceives me, and sets traps to make me fall. He accuses me of the evil he wishes me to commit. He castes his shame on me, hoping to weigh me down with undo guilt. He mocks me as he also, mocks my God, my Savior. He surrounds me with clouds of confusion like poison gas. He’s desperate because he knows he’s fighting a war he can’t win and that desperation has driven him mad. His fury is unleashing now to destroy everything and everyone in his limited power to destroy. He seeks to destroy me and those others like me who belong to Jesus. He can drain our blood and break our bodies but our souls belong to Jesus, the One Whose body was broken, blood drained out, but rose to live again.

Though all who believe in Jesus, in whom the Holy Spirit dwells, be wiped from the earth, they will remain safe in Jesus, awaiting His return. Then the enemy of man, God, and life will have his full season; a short time to visibly reign as god and bring woe to those who remain on the earth. Then Jesus and His called out company will return and cut that awful season short; because God is merciful and does not rejoice in the death of the wicked. Then my enemy will do hard time, awaiting Judgment, an eternal sentence in the prison of the torture he invented and visited on God’s children; suffering the eternal torment that belongs to the enemy of God. Then I will receive my furlough, it will last 1,000 years, in a world very different from the world I live in now. Joy won’t have to hide. Joy won’t be frustrated. Joy will over-flow and rejoice in the rapture of ultimate liberty!

My honorable discharge will come on the day I set foot in the new heaven and new earth, after one final battle with Satan; but it will be short. By then, all will know Satan for the loser he is, and sin will no longer sting and infect God’s children with death. Until then, I wait for my Jesus to return, strengthened by the joy I have in Him; protected in battle, my wounds tended, and relying on God for final victory. When overwhelmed by the specter of the enemy’s destructive force, I look up. Jesus is coming soon and I walk by faith, not by sight.

Maintain Joy in a Troubled World: Resist the Beast!

July 16, 2015

Nebuchadnezzar, the man who ruled the ancient world descended into madness when he turned his back on God and denied the true authority over Him. The beast he became, as a result of his prideful choice, is the prototypical warning of the potential future of all human governments that turn their back on God and seek His power as their own. His life is history but it is also, prophecy because the prophesying of human behavior requires only that one know history of how people behave and cast it into the future. People, like all living creatures, are predisposed to certain behavior and they repeat it over and over again. Though thousands of years have passed, rulers are still subject to pride and imaging themselves to be gods.

In the modern world, monarchies are a thing of the past and government now, functions by the efforts of many people. The original thought was to delegate authority through those elected to represent the people and thereby, prevent the corruption of rulers by giving them too much power. The intent was noble and the idea good but people being made both good and evil soon corrupted the system by ceasing to acknowledge that such an idea was founded in the Christian faith. (The ideal of freedom in Western Civilization can’t exist apart from the Bible.)The Beast that rules the world now, is a multi-headed beast with global power that is descending into madness as it attempts to usurp the authority of God. All the world is following this Beast because they are afraid and don’t know how to resist it; and out of fear, they surrender their personal liberties. As each individual surrenders the rights imputed to them, by God, from birth, the Beast gains more power. This greater power feeds the insanity that drives it as the Beast drags the world after him into destruction. All who place their hope in human government have no hope and those who follow him will be like him and share his destiny. Hope lies in resisting the Beast and refusing fear by maintaining the joy found by faith in Jesus.

Resist the Beast and don’t become like him. Acknowledge God as the true authority. Jesus is the King who reigns in lives of believers through conscience and never denies His Father as the ruler of all. Don’t think like the beast and pride-fully, imagine His works as your own. Pride is delusional thinking that leads to greater madness. People, like those in government, are incomplete apart from God and without the imparting of His divine nature; none of us are anything more than another kind of beast. Do not become like the Beast in your thinking and don’t use your hands to serve him. No matter how great the madness of the world, as violence and destruction fills it, remember God’s authority isn’t threatened. He holds it all in His hands and He is working all these things to the good of those who are His in Christ Jesus and who serve His purpose. The Beast must have its day but this day will pass and when it passes, the long-promised Kingdom of Heaven will come. Christ’s righteous rule will put to rest the beastly rule of man-over-man. Those who are Christ’s may enjoy that peace today, as subjects of that Kingdom, while the world rages in fear and hopeless resentment toward the Beast.

Nebuchadnezzar returned to his right-mind when in humility He acknowledged God’s power over him. He experienced complete restoration as the result of his faith. The world that is now firmly in the grip of the multi-headed Beast of today, will also, be restored when Jesus is recognized as the Savior of individual believers and the world. When Jesus returns as the Lion of Judah, the world will be filled with cries of resounding joy!

Daniel: 1-4