Is anybody there?

Introducing Nikita, another member of the Jackalope family. You would never know it, but he is the really intelligent one in the family. It has been reported that he actually scored 175 and 190 on tests for intelligence in Russia. He worked for the KGB until the split up of the Soviet Union some years ago, but then moved to the United States to secretly advise president Obama on health care and members of Acorn on how to control the real nuts in their organization. With all his genius, he had a weakness and that was acting. He privately went through surgery so that he could make his antlers removable and used his mastery of disguise to become Michael Waverly on the popular show N.C.I.S.. However, as usual he couldn't control his desire for women and tried to play footsie with a certain Israeli agent. She hit him so hard that he had to wear a truss for a month and when he recovered he ran to the northern forest of Utah to hide among the Mormons. Intrigue, Yes! Reality, No! However all this did make me think of trickery in the Bible and this passage came to mind.

2 Samuel 17:1-16 (WEB)

2 Samuel 17
1) Moreover Ahithophel said to Absalom, “Let me now choose twelve thousand men, and I will arise and pursue after David tonight.
2) I will come on him while he is weary and exhausted, and will make him afraid. All the people who are with him shall flee. I will strike the king only;
3) and I will bring back all the people to you. The man whom you seek is as if all returned. All the people shall be in peace.”
4) The saying pleased Absalom well, and all the elders of Israel.
5) Then Absalom said, “Now call Hushai the Archite also, and let us hear likewise what he says.”
6) When Hushai had come to Absalom, Absalom spoke to him, saying, “Ahithophel has spoken like this. Shall we do what he says? If not, speak up.”
7) Hushai said to Absalom, “The counsel that Ahithophel has given this time is not good.”
8) Hushai said moreover, “You know your father and his men, that they are mighty men, and they are fierce in their minds, like a bear robbed of her cubs in the field. Your father is a man of war, and will not lodge with the people.
9) Behold, he is now hidden in some pit, or in some other place. It will happen, when some of them have fallen at the first, that whoever hears it will say, ‘There is a slaughter among the people who follow Absalom!’
10) Even he who is valiant, whose heart is as the heart of a lion, will utterly melt; for all Israel knows that your father is a mighty man, and those who are with him are valiant men.
11) But I counsel that all Israel be gathered together to you, from Dan even to Beersheba, as the sand that is by the sea for multitude; and that you go to battle in your own person.
12) So shall we come on him in some place where he shall be found, and we will light on him as the dew falls on the ground; and of him and of all the men who are with him we will not leave so much as one.
13) Moreover, if he be gone into a city, then shall all Israel bring ropes to that city, and we will draw it into the river, until there isn’t one small stone found there.”
14) Absalom and all the men of Israel said, “The counsel of Hushai the Archite is better than the counsel of Ahithophel.” For Yahweh had ordained to defeat the good counsel of Ahithophel, to the intent that Yahweh might bring evil on Absalom.
15) Then Hushai said to Zadok and to Abiathar the priests, “Ahithophel counseled Absalom and the elders of Israel that way; and I have counseled this way.
16) Now therefore send quickly, and tell David, saying, ‘Don’t lodge this night at the fords of the wilderness, but by all means pass over; lest the king be swallowed up, and all the people who are with him.’”

Hushai was a spy for David and successfully countered the good advise of the famous counselor, Ahithophel. David had a very interesting life and although its too long to list here, you might want to go back a few chapters and read the whole story. Like the Jackalope Nikita, Ahithophel couldn't handle the situation, but unlike him, later he committed suicide. Just goes to show you that no matter how smart (or wise) you are, God is smarter and is worthy of both respect and fear.

God is watching

A former boss of mine, Rodger Smith, used to say: "Its really not paranoia, if they are out to get you". This picture proves that the bird has every right to be afraid. Nowhere to run (fly) and a very interested cat just an inch away. Sometimes fear is very justified as in this tale from the Hebrew Bible.

2 Kings 11:1-21 (WEB)

2 Kings 11
1) Now when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal.
2) But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were slain, even him and his nurse, and put them in the bedroom; and they hid him from Athaliah, so that he was not slain;
3) He was with her hidden in the house of Yahweh six years. Athaliah reigned over the land.
4) In the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the captains over hundreds of the Carites and of the guard, and brought them to him into the house of Yahweh; and he made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of Yahweh, and showed them the king’s son.
5) He commanded them, saying, “This is the thing that you shall do: a third part of you, who come in on the Sabbath, shall be keepers of the watch of the king’s house;
6) A third part shall be at the gate Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard. So you shall keep the watch of the house, and be a barrier.
7) The two companies of you, even all who go out on the Sabbath, shall keep the watch of the house of Yahweh around the king.
8) You shall surround the king, every man with his weapons in his hand; and he who comes within the ranks, let him be slain. Be with the king when he goes out, and when he comes in.”
9) The captains over hundreds did according to all that Jehoiada the priest commanded; and they took every man his men, those who were to come in on the Sabbath, with those who were to go out on the Sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest.
10) The priest delivered to the captains over hundreds the spears and shields that had been king David’s, which were in the house of Yahweh.
11) The guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, from the right side of the house to the left side of the house, along by the altar and the house, around the king.
12) Then he brought out the king’s son, and put the crown on him, and gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, “Long live the king!”
13) When Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the house of Yahweh:
14) and she looked, and behold, the king stood by the pillar, as the tradition was, and the captains and the trumpets by the king; and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew trumpets. Then Athaliah tore her clothes, and cried, “Treason! Treason!”
15) Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of hundreds who were set over the army, and said to them, “Bring her out between the ranks. Kill him who follows her with the sword.” For the priest said, “Don’t let her be slain in the house of Yahweh.”
16) So they made way for her; and she went by the way of the horses’ entry to the king’s house. She was slain there.
17) Jehoiada made a covenant between Yahweh and the king and the people, that they should be Yahweh’s people; between the king also and the people.
18) All the people of the land went to the house of Baal, and broke it down; his altars and his images broke they in pieces thoroughly, and killed Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. The priest appointed officers over the house of Yahweh.
19) He took the captains over hundreds, and the Carites, and the guard, and all the people of the land; and they brought down the king from the house of Yahweh, and came by the way of the gate of the guard to the king’s house. He sat on the throne of the kings.
20) So all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was quiet. Athaliah they had slain with the sword at the king’s house.
21) Jehoash was seven years old when he began to reign.

Athaliah's son was Ahaziah and he was wicked. When he died his mother took over and murdered the royal seed. She was eventually killed because God was really out to destroy all the influence of Ahab of Israel in the kingdom of Judah. Athaliah may have thought all this was treason, but in reality it was the cleansing of evil from Judah. Evil may win for a short time, but not forever, because God is watching!

Point, match, gave over!

This little picture is of an angel; or at least someones idea of an angel. I thought of angel's yesterday when I met a friend in a store with which I had had some conversations about angel's. The Bible has a great deal to say about them, far more than 20 posts could accommodate, but here is one passage that comes to mind.

Matthew 22:23-32 (WEB)
23) On that day Sadducees (those who say that there is no resurrection) came to him. They asked him,
24) saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies, having no children, his brother shall marry his wife, and raise up seed for his brother.’
25) Now there were with us seven brothers. The first married and died, and having no seed left his wife to his brother.
26) In the same way, the second also, and the third, to the seventh.
27) After them all, the woman died.
28) In the resurrection therefore, whose wife will she be of the seven? For they all had her.”
29) But Jesus answered them, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.
30) For in the resurrection they neither marry, nor are given in marriage, but are like God’s angels in heaven.
31) But concerning the resurrection of the dead, haven’t you read that which was spoken to you by God, saying,
32) ‘I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob?’ God is not the God of the dead, but of the living.”

Jesus was a problem for the religious elite; he confronted them and kept on doing so and they didn't like it one bit. So they went on the offensive and asked him a question they thought he would never be able to answer to their satisfaction. A question which, in an of itself, is ironic, because those asking did not believe in the resurrection of the dead. Basically, he told the Sadducees they knew nothing about the next life or the God whom they proported to know. At the resurrection we will be like angels and marriage won't matter and that God truly is GOD for the living. Talk about a put down!! This is all very interesting because people (especially the Saducees and Pharisees) have always argued over angels. One of the most famous arguements was over how many angels could fit on the head of a pin, so I guess this tiny little picture really is appropriate after all. One thing is very sure though, if the God you know is in fact the God of the living... then there is life after this life and we can find all about Angels later. Good lesson here: don't try to argue with someone who knows more than you do.... you just might lose. Just a few verses later in Matthew 22 we read:

Matthew 22:41-46 (WEB)
41) Now while the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them a question,
42) saying, “What do you think of the Christ? Whose son is he?” They said to him, “Of David.”
43) He said to them, “How then does David in the Spirit call him Lord, saying,
44) ‘The Lord said to my Lord, sit on my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet?’
45) “If then David calls him Lord, how is he his son?”
46) No one was able to answer him a word, neither did any man dare ask him any more questions from that day forth.

Point, match, game over!

The power of the sun (son)

This is one amazing HDR picture! Not only is the contrast great, but the prism effects at the top left and bottom right show something very important; the true strength of sunlight. As for the sun itself, well, the lines protruding from it testify to its power. If you have ever worked outside in July at noontime, you know how really overpowering the sun can be at times. This picture made me think of Paul before king Agrippa, when he made his defense.


Acts 26:1-23 (WEB)

Acts 26
1) Agrippa said to Paul, “You may speak for yourself.” Then Paul stretched out his hand, and made his defense.
2) “I think myself happy, King Agrippa, that I am to make my defense before you this day concerning all the things that I am accused by the Jews,
3) especially because you are expert in all customs and questions which are among the Jews. Therefore I beg you to hear me patiently.
4) “Indeed, all the Jews know my way of life from my youth up, which was from the beginning among my own nation and at Jerusalem;
5) having known me from the first, if they are willing to testify, that after the strictest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.
6) Now I stand here to be judged for the hope of the promise made by God to our fathers,
7) which our twelve tribes, earnestly serving night and day, hope to attain. Concerning this hope I am accused by the Jews, King Agrippa!
8) Why is it judged incredible with you, if God does raise the dead?
9) “I myself most certainly thought that I ought to do many things contrary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth.
10) This I also did in Jerusalem. I both shut up many of the saints in prisons, having received authority from the chief priests, and when they were put to death I gave my vote against them.
11) Punishing them often in all the synagogues, I tried to make them blaspheme. Being exceedingly enraged against them, I persecuted them even to foreign cities.
12) “Whereupon as I traveled to Damascus with the authority and commission from the chief priests,
13) at noon, O king, I saw on the way a light from the sky, brighter than the sun, shining around me and those who traveled with me.
14) When we had all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.’
15) “I said, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ “He said, ‘I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
16) But arise, and stand on your feet, for I have appeared to you for this purpose: to appoint you a servant and a witness both of the things which you have seen, and of the things which I will reveal to you;
17) delivering you from the people, and from the Gentiles, to whom I send you,
18) to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
19) “Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision,
20) but declared first to them of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.
21) For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple, and tried to kill me.
22) Having therefore obtained the help that is from God, I stand to this day testifying both to small and great, saying nothing but what the prophets and Moses said would happen,
23) how the Christ must suffer, and how, by the resurrection of the dead, he would be first to proclaim light both to these people and to the Gentiles.”

A light BRIGHTER than the sun? That is hard for me to imagine! Yet, it happened! Why? Because God wanted it to, that's why. Jesus intervened and changed Paul's life forever. God does things like that because HE wants to. Honestly, Paul never really impressed me; just a Pharisee doing what he thought he must. God must have thought differently, because this man was a chosen vessel to bring light to the non-Jewish peoples. The next time you go outside in the bright sunlight, think of Paul and remember. Who knows, maybe there is a mission for you to perform as well?

Just another sunrise?

One very beautiful sunrise! Its funny, but over the years I have grown to appreciate simple things like this more and more. Life is full of simple things; you go about doing those same things year after year and then something happens and suddenly you see things in a new light. So it was with Zachariah. He was a priest about to minister within the temple and suddenly an angel came to him. Because of his disbelief, he was silent, until the follow episode....

Luke 1:57-80 (ESV)
57) Now the time came for Elizabeth to give birth, and she bore a son.
58) And her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown great mercy to her, and they rejoiced with her.
59) And on the eighth day they came to circumcise the child. And they would have called him Zechariah after his father,
60) but his mother answered, “No; he shall be called John.”
61) And they said to her, “None of your relatives is called by this name.”
62) And they made signs to his father, inquiring what he wanted him to be called.
63) And he asked for a writing tablet and wrote, “His name is John.” And they all wondered.
64) And immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue loosed, and he spoke, blessing God.
65) And fear came on all their neighbors. And all these things were talked about through all the hill country of Judea,
66) and all who heard them laid them up in their hearts, saying, “What then will this child be?” For the hand of the Lord was with him.
67) And his father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied, saying,
68) ​​​​​​​​“Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people
69) ​​​​​​​​and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David,
70) ​​​​​​​​as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets from of old,
71) ​​​​​​​​that we should be saved from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us;
72) ​​​​​​​​to show the mercy promised to our fathers and to remember his holy covenant,
73) ​​​​​​​​the oath that he swore to our father Abraham, to grant us
74) ​​​​​​​​that we, being delivered from the hand of our enemies, might serve him without fear,
75) ​​​​​​​​in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.
76) ​​​​​​​​And you, child, will be called the prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,
77) ​​​​​​​​to give knowledge of salvation to his people in the forgiveness of their sins,
78) ​​​​​​​​because of the tender mercy of our God, whereby the sunrise shall visit us from on high
79) ​​​​​​​​to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.”
80) And the child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the wilderness until the day of his public appearance to Israel.

Zechariah became the father of John the Baptist, who announced the coming of the Christ. Verse 78 and 79 are interesting to me because they refer to Jesus and I have always like the concept of Jesus as a sunrise (sonrise) from on high giving light. So, how does the picture fit in all this? Well, look at the reflection in the water; doesn't it look like its forming a cross? How fitting, the Son of God giving light from a cross! Just an ordinary sunrise.... there really isn't any such thing!

War

War! Just look at that cat attack the other one! I wonder what started it? Maybe its over attention from their mother, or over some catnip, or perhaps one of them didn't like the way the other one purrred. Whatever the reason, they do look serious. Which makes me think: What causes wars in the first place?


James 4:1-10 (WEB)

James 4
1) Where do wars and fightings among you come from? Don’t they come from your pleasures that war in your members?
2) You lust, and don’t have. You kill, covet, and can’t obtain. You fight and make war. You don’t have, because you don’t ask.
3) You ask, and don’t receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it for your pleasures.
4) You adulterers and adulteresses, don’t you know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
5) Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who lives in us yearns jealously”?
6) But he gives more grace. Therefore it says, “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”
7) Be subject therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
8) Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.
9) Lament, mourn, and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to gloom.
10) Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.

Pride, power and possessions are the main reasons. The resulting hate leads to death; sometimes on a massive scale. But what about Christians; Do they "war"? If they indulge in the "main reasons", they do. James give the source... the devil and he gives the cure.... purification of the heart and humility. The result: The Lord will exalt you from the low state of sin. Don't pussy-foot around it.... just get rid of the sin (inside and out). Then you will be purrr-fect!!

Warnings

It has become fashionable to bash every aspect of Christianity and this includes The Holy Bible. Our society has become so perverted, so evil, that in a way I am not surprised at all by this sticker. Someone would have to have a very warped mind to label The Holy Bible as a work of fiction because a large part of it has already been verified by the archaeologist's spade. Its content reflects life accurately and therefore the things mentioned are horrifying. The exposure warning comes from a wicked heart that loves only self and seeks to destroy the truth of God.

2 Timothy 4:1-5 (WEB)

2 Timothy 4
1) I command you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom:
2) preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all patience and teaching.
3) For the time will come when they will not listen to the sound doctrine, but, having itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers after their own lusts;
4) and will turn away their ears from the truth, and turn aside to fables.
5) But you be sober in all things, suffer hardship, do the work of an evangelist, and fulfill your ministry.

Truth may not be pretty and obedience to it difficult, but disobedience is disastrous. The above picture is just one more indication of how bad this situation has really become. Thank God for those who still proclaim the holy words of God; we need them more than ever!! The real warning of this picture is for those of us who follow God: we need to cease being uninvolved and fight this and every other attack of Satan. As far as warnings go: Satan, your end is near!!!