How can a Christian support Trump?

 How can a Christian support Trump?

I’ve heard the question asked many times since 2015 and even asked it myself in the beginning. I understand the question now more than ever.

Aren’t we really asking: How long will Christians choose to do the devil’s work?

There are small choices and there are big, very consequential choices. Electing our public servants is one of the most consequential choices we can make. 

When we make choices we should always be striving to choose good over evil. Certainly as Christians we try to do that on every single choice. Lately I’ve been trying to pray, at least a short prayer in my head, before every single choice. 

The judgment we use in making our choices is also a judgment on us. These days, all over the world, evil choices are being made and the temptation to choose evil is greater than ever. We need to guard our hearts and be clear headed using sound judgment in making our choices. We should use Godly principles to guide us, not anger, hate, fear nor vengeance. 

“Refrain from anger, and forsake wrath! Fret not yourself; it tends only to evil.” --Psalm 37:8

“Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness.” --1 John 2:9

“...For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.” --1 John 14:8

“Do not seek revenge or bear a grudge against anyone among your people, but love your neighbor as yourself. I am the LORD.” --Leviticus 19:18

How could Christians elect Trump? 

To see the answer you may have to remove the plank from your eye.

Trump was a response to the state of the political scene at the time. If your elected servants were in power leading up to 2016 then you are the reason Trump was elected. 

Since George H. W. Bush the republicans were becoming more elitist and less responsive to the people. The “Contract with America” gave back a sense of control but 9-11 and the Patriot Act reversed that trend and gave more control to the government. With Obama, that power was turned on the people. Obama’s disdain for the “tea baggers” was evident in word and deed as the full power of the bureaucracy was turned on his “enemies.” Republicans proved to be worthless in keeping promises or standing up for the people leading even Christians to conclude: There are no good people in politics.

In 2015, Trump won the Republican primary as an anti-establishment assault on the feckless republicans in power. In 2016 Trump was elected out of a righteous indignation at government overreach, failed border policy, federal funding of Planned Parenthood, and more injustice perpetrated by the Obama administration, the Democrat led Congress, and the bureaucracy. Now can anyone know how much of the anger was righteous? No. But it was not based on hate, racism nor evil intent as all of the media will tell us. 

How can a Christian support Trump still?

Next consider removing the lumber yard from your eye.

If you have been letting the media and big tech lie to you all this time, even as it gets so ridiculous that satire becomes impossible, you may not realize all the evil that your public servants are doing. I could not even recount all of the proven atrocities of this administration without filling a book or two let alone those connected to Obama, but I don’t have to. There are plenty of books already out there. I can give you a clue to start you on your own discovery if you cared. Every “crime” Trump is accused of is cover for a much bigger crime Biden, other democrats, and even some republicans are guilty of. An obvious one is election tampering: Democrats are doing everything they can and more to control who Republicans are allowed to vote for. So is the support for Trump still righteous indignation? Yes, unfortunately though it may now include some inevitable vengeance too.

Today we see the results of Democrat policies domestically as crime and violence is highest in Democrat run cities and children are groomed from a young age to mutilate themselves and hate our country, arresting Christians for protesting Planned Parenthood and murdering a January 6 protestor and jailing hundreds of political enemies some for years without trial. We see the results of Democrat foreign policies funding terrorists through Iran and struggling to support Israel or protect our citizens, humiliating us and costing lives in Afghanistan, weakening the U.S. dollar, destroying our energy sector, depleting oil reserves, depleting our weapons cache, emboldening Russia to invade Ukraine, selling out to China and bringing us closer to world war III than ever before in history.

Why do I say I understand the first question now more than ever? Maybe because I had moved on to the second question a long time ago, however I did not come to it asking: How can a Christian support Trump? I have long been asking: How can a Christian support the Democrat Party?

How do we come together as Christians and as children of God? We must all answer the second question for ourselves. Christian or not, it’s time we each choose not to do the work of the devil, not to do evil, not to support evil, not to re-elect those that do evil in our name. 

“Today I am giving you a choice between good and evil, between life and death…  between God's blessing and God's curse, and I call heaven and earth to witness the choice you make. Choose life.” --Deuteronomy 30:15-19 GNT

How can we even know good from evil in today’s evil society? We should watch for what God is doing in the world. In the days of the Kings (1 & 2 Kings) they were warned to tear down the high places where false idols were worshiped. In these days it seems all the “high places,” where people place too much faith, are being torn down or humiliated. 

• Information: The media and even Google and Facebook hide the truth and outright lie to promote an agenda.

• Police:  You are told that your police are racist but you shouldn’t protect yourself.

• Money:  Inflation is getting higher and higher and the government keeps spending.

• Banking System:  The Fed won’t be audited while banks share your information with the feds.

• World Health Organization:  Can you have faith in the world's medical system after COVID? 

• Health & Human Services:  The head of the Dept. of Health has gender dysphoria and promotes transgendering children. 

• Schools sexualize children, encourage fantasies & gender dysphoria while usurping parental rights. 

• Academia churns out perpetual adolescence indoctrinated in intersectional victim ideology and obsessed with the fantasy that they can define their own pronouns.

• The political parties ignore the will of the people and use division and strife to create power for the elite.

• The Dept. of Justice calls Christians and parents terrorists and can’t chase down known terrorists crossing our border. 

Place all of your faith in God and God alone especially as the arbiter of truth and good from evil.

Ignore any voices telling you to hate or be violent. Ignore the accusers, demonizers, and race baiters. Anyone telling you they know the intentions of someone else is lying. Once you identify the liars, turn them off and leave them in your dust. 

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.” --Ephesians 6:12

Evil on the Rise

With so much evil in the world, how can we see God's hand turning it to good for those who love Him?

 

The Bible shows us that people make the same mistakes over and over. So look around and watch how Exodus plays out before your eyes. Pharaoh's heart is hardened and plague after plague come to mock the false gods. No need to pray for your enemy's destruction. Pharaoh will send his whole army into the sea. Only pray you are with God's people as He separates us from our pursuers. 

 

So if it is not perfectly clear who are the Pharaohs, and who are God's people then may I suggest you soften your heart before it is too late. 

 

To get more in depth into the analogy, there are more roles that people today are acting out. I see many people unaware of their own civic responsibilities and influence as Pharaoh of present day government. Many are content to follow direction from those they see as the authorities (see 'false gods'.) I see these people in the role of Pharaoh's army, just following orders even hating whomever they are told to hate. The fate of Pharaoh's army is worse than even the pharaoh. Remember, they are completely destroyed. These are the people that need our prayers the most. 

 

Unfortunately I do not really see much of Moses. I've not seen many shepherds leading God's people out of their captivity. So many of God's children are captured by the spirit of the age and so many evil ideologies. This is the kind of message I would expect to hear from the pulpit. 

Note I have not named names nor parties but if it's not clear to you than count yourself among Pharaoh's army.

Get out and VOTE but check your HATE at the door

How do we vote responsibly and be clear headed at the polls despite the hysterical political environment we find ourselves in?

1. Get INFORMED: Know what your politicians stand for and what actions do they plan to take. Also know the history of your politician and what they have been doing. This is said so much that some take it for granted but in today's divided world of news, you can't say you know a politician until you've understood what his opposition thinks of him/her. So go out of your way to get the other viewpoint. Neither CNN nor Fox News will tell you the whole story. 
2. Use REASON over EMOTION: It is understandable to be passionate about a cause or issue but today's media has become frenzied with click-bait and outrage. The heightened emotion can cloud the judgement. Labels as extreme as racist and rapist are thrown around without any substantiation. News shows are telling lies and half truths and putting words in peoples mouths on a regular basis. If you think the person you are voting against is a monster, chances are you have been lied to and worse, you are willing to believe the lies rather than rid your heart of the hate.
3. You get the government you DESERVE: Know what you want and be responsible for the consequences. The fact is, this is still a government of the people, so if the government is tyrannical, you and I are tyrants. If the government is oppressive, you and I are oppressors. If you vote for a liar, and the other liar wins, can you really complain about the lying?  Bottom line is that if you are a victim of voting age, you have yourself at least partially to blame.
4. RIGHTS over INTERESTS: Even though you are expected to vote your interests, you should never overstep your authority and trample someone's civil rights. Best example of this is, you may want to get the government involved in health care and may like Planned Parenthood and the things it does. However do you have the right to force every Catholic and Christian to participate in abortion by paying for it with tax dollars? Your interests, no matter how noble, do not overrule the 1st amendment protected civil right of freedom of conscience of those that believe in the right to life.

The Devil Petitions God for Claim on America

Let us suspend all disbelief for a moment and consider:  What if the devil wanted to send around a petition for all Americans to sign making a declaration choosing one of two sides, either the devil's or God's.  The devil's intent is to shove the petition in God's face showing, by overwhelming majority, that the American people are on the side of the devil.  Now sure, over enough time, haven't we all given in to the dark side and made some declaration choosing evil over good.  So the devil did not want to save up these signatures over a long time and wait for each of us to slip up.  No, he had a plan.  He would challenge each and every one of us to choose to publicly support evil or stand up for what is right and good and he do it all in the coarse of one year, an election year.

Now almost half of the way through the year the devil's plan has gone gangbusters.  Sure some of the usual suspects were in the bag early calling for violence against police, violence in the streets, and wishing death on their enemies.  And many of us started making perhaps less public but still consequential choices to try to rescue God's people in the middle East or to support those trying to kill them.

And then there has been the more devilish deceptions of getting so many people to accept and propagate lies like "hands up don't shoot" in order to promote a benefit to a select collective or "get what is long overdue."  This one sucked a lot of well meaning people by conflating vengeance with justice, confusing equal stuff with equality and insisting the ends will justify the means.

Even though this plan is being carried out in recent months, it is obvious that preparations have been going on for a long time. How long did it take our people to unlearn what the founders found self evident?  The concept of a right of conscience is so foreign to us now that out all the government employees in all 50 states only one lone clerk in one lone county in Kentucky even had an inkling that it went against her conscience to allow her name to be used to license what her faith held to be wrong.  Never mind every member of Kentucky and many other states that didn't even have a chance to loose their right of conscience to the tyranny of a majority vote but had it removed by a handful of judges.

I'm sure the devil could easily make the case that if you actively promote the killing of babies before they are born you are already in his camp.  But being the devil, he was not satisfied with any claim of ambiguity so now those in his camp agree to force every tax payer be party to abortion, regardless of faith or conscience, by insisting on government financing of Planned Parenthood.

With the party primaries the devil really stepped things up into high gear by working to remove any ambiguous choices as the race progressed until we were left with only a choice between a constitutional conservative and all forms of evil.  And now that the door seems closed on Ted Cruz the only choice to stand on the side of good is a young pro-life Libertarian by the name of Austin Peterson who understands the right of conscience and is challenging the pro-choice old guard of his party.

Oh, did I skim over the other choices in these primaries as "all forms of evil?"  Well please allow me to expound without naming names while we examine the declarations some have made.

• Vengeance:  "He'll stick it to them." "Time to get them back."
• Destruction:  "The party(s) needs to be destroyed."
• Anger:  "They deserve what's coming to them."
• Greed:  (Seeking spoils) "What's in it for me?" "Whoever promises me the most." 
• Tyranny:  "If they don't like it, tough." "We'll just make them."
• Envy:  "How much money do they need?"  When you spread your wealth it's charity, when you spread someone else's it's theft.
• Lover of Lies:  "They all lie, what's the difference?" "Okay it's not true but..." "What difference, at this point, does it make?" "He has to tell them what they want to hear"
• Deception:  Unfounded accusations such as "Lying Ted" Most deception is based in projection so deceivers reveal themselves to anyone that doesn't want to be lied to, (see Lovers of Lies.)
• Indifference:  "There is nothing I can do," "I won't play their game," or "My vote doesn't matter." The opposite of love is not hate but indifference. Do you care enough about your fellow man to take a stand?  
• Hate & Intolerance:  "I blame those people." This one is hard to explain because intolerant people don't know they are intolerant.  If we don't blame ourself 1st and foremost, chances are we have hate & intolerance issues.
• Fear:  "I have to vote against _______ or else ..." "They just want to force us to..." Most common today is the fear of religious people or fear of religion. Also the fear of descent which leads to the suppression of voices and opinion.
• Enslavement:  "We have to vote with the party or we will loose ________" This is also what socialism does. It places all of the freedom and choices in the government's hands and thous enslaves and historically kills thousands of millions of people.
• Entitlement:  "We should get free college." "Who is going to pay off my loans?" "It's time to get ours."

Come November we will have one last chance to choose sides.  We can use all the tactics, strategies, compromises, predictions, bargaining, deal making, and game playing devised by man or we can choose to do what is right and leave it in the hands of God.

Theory of Everything, subtitle: Scientists don't believe in Atheists.

Science and God are not in opposition.  In fact, if anyone dismisses the existence of God than that person is surly no scientist. A scientist would consider God to at least be an unproven theory.

To dismiss the existence of God one must first define God. Once you have defined God, if done so in a way that you are able to dismiss God as untrue, you can then dismiss only that definition of God. That says nothing for any other definition of God.

If you want to state that God of the Bible does not exist you must first become an expert on the Bible and be able to fully understand and explain every principle and resolve every conflict you find therein. A feat I am am sure none have fully accomplished and few have even claimed.

No, if you believe that God does not exist, then it is just that, a belief.  It is your faith, a foolhardy one, but a faith none the less. So as someone with such a baseless faith, how hypocritical of you to judge other people of faith.

Let's say you don't know if God exists but insist that no one else can know whether or not God exists. To put it another way; you believe that all religion is man-made hoax or a convenient crutch.  Here again it is a belief of yours about the beliefs of others and rather hubris of you to think you can know the mind of another.

So if you think about it, we all have beliefs, but you can also consider them personal scientific theories that we are engaged in proving or disproving to ourselves.  Put these beliefs or theories all together and they make up our own theory of everything.  Whether conscientiously or not, we are all have a theory of everything that we are continuously fine tuning.

Considering this in public discourse, as scientists, we would be wise to tolerate and listen to all theories if only for the benefit of gathering more information.

Find Hope

Hope is not found in looking away.  The urge is to ignore the current atrocities, like genocide of possibly millions of Christians and others by ISIS leaving an equal amount of refugees in their wake and our own government forcing each of us to be party to the kill & dismemberment of unborn babies and sale of the body parts.  Likewise there is no hope in distracting ourselves with frivolous issues to be outraged about.  

CeciltheLion
Hope is neither found in empty rhetoric or the pointing of blame or even in righteous indignation and public outrage. Hope is never found in hate.

Very little hope is found in saying over and over that something must be done even when finding a few people who agree.

However, HOPE IS NOT LOST!

Hope is found by taking action and doing so out of love. Working toward a solution will set our eyes on that hope. Don't let anyone, including yourself, tell you; "there is nothing I can do." The thing about the far reaching problems facing us today is that the solution too will have to be all encompassing. Far from meaning there is nothing for you and I to do, this means there is much for us to do. This may seem overwhelming but the only thing any of us has to worry about is doing our own part.

Live the hope. There is always something you can do. What action to take is as unique as the individual who takes it. The action itself can start small but it must continue so it can build upon itself.

• The place to start for all of us is inside ourselves. Know yourself & your place in the universe. Is that too much to ask? If you think so, consider that you may already have this down if you are strong in your faith. Even still everyone could use some shoring up in this area. This is where you would find your meaning of life or at least a working theory. Take the time to know how you derive your definition of right and wrong
• Improve yourself. We must become the person we are meant to be. This is a place to start but it is also a place to never leave. Who among us can say that they could not be better than they are right now? Get all the bad things out of your life. Challenge yourself to take 30 days to rid yourself of one bad habit or to add one good one. Then when you are done do it again.
• Next build or rebuild the relationships with your family and friends. (Real ones first, then the ones online.) Forgive past transgressions and ask for nothing in return.
• Then work on your community. Find ways to get involved. Do something to make the community better for everyone even if it's picking up trash or cutting a neighbor’s lawn.
• Reach out to and do something charitable for someone or some group completely outside of your community or normal circle. If you have enemies, they are the ones I am talking about.  If you don't, try asking someone you know who they think would be your enemy ;)
• Meanwhile if you have resources, apply them in ways you know can help. http://mercuryone.org is a good place to go but if you know of another then go there or Google it. Do your own research but do it.

When to start? The best time to take action is right now.

Love like God

In God's perfect love He created each of us to fulfill a specific place in His universe. He only asks of us to fill the role we were created for, to be the friend of God in our own unique way. Others will love God in their own way.
So what are we to do if a friend or loved one does not love us in the way we need?
Love the friends you have, but do what God does, make new friends.

Humility & Confidence

Love with humility, knowing no one is lesser than yourself. Act with confidence, knowing The Creator of the universe created YOU lesser than no one.

Forgiveness

Forgiveness is difficult for many but I never really thought that I ever had much of a problem with it.  Could I be wrong?

I've always considered myself very tolerant of others shortcomings knowing I had plenty myself.  Even if someone did me wrong in some way, I am rarely angry and fairly quick to forgive. I guess I do not take things personally and that is why you have to be a very close friend to ever have a chance to get me angry.

Resentment blame and bitterness are quiet smaller friends of anger. When the anger is gone, or even if you never let it in, anger will leave his little friends behind. They will sit quietly in a corner and you'll hardly know they are there. But they are there.

I've been praying to find forgiveness in someone else's heart.  But I heard a sermon from Pastor John Pollock of Freedom Life Church that made me realize I may be praying for the wrong thing.

Pastor John was speaking about John 8 when they brought in a woman caught in adultery. "... But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger." As the woman likely stood with her had held down in shame facing the ground, Pastor John conjectured what Jesus may have written. He may have written her name. He may have written "I Am Jehovah."  The conversation in the sand continued in my mind; "I am your creator and I made you beautiful. I made you to be more than this."

If you think about what it was like for that woman to not just stand before her whole community but to literally stand before her maker.  Well that's what I was thinking about and how tremendous is His grace to say to her "Then neither do I condemn you."
For Him, the offense was personal and she deserved her fate yet He held her blameless as He does me. I could relate to that woman as one who is in awe at the forgiving grace of God.

Then Pastor John said something that shook me like I was woken from a dream.  He asked if I could relate to Jesus!  If we could all follow the calling to be more like Jesus.  To forgive when it's the most personal.  To hold blameless those to whom blame is due.

That is when I caught a glimpse of what I have allowed to live quietly in the dark corners of my own life.  I cannot do anything more than ask forgiveness from others.  Once asked I needn't even be concerned.  But of those whom I would ask accountability I shall instead offer forgiveness and hold blameless.

God never stops talking.

I have often felt frustrated & said to myself "why has God stopped talking to me?" When I finally get around to being honest with myself I think back on when I last thought I may have heard from God. Usually it was a conversation something like this:

me: "God what do you want me to do with my life?
God: "Love Me & allow Me to love you."
me: "I know, but specifically? Do what?"
God: "Okay, do this one thing..."
me: "right, okay but then what?"
God: "then these two things..."
me: "okay, but where will that take me?
God: "Where I want you to be" 
me: "for what?"
God: "for Me to tell you what is next."
me: "What will I do after that? I mean what's this leading to? This doesn't make sense. Is this really God?"
God: Sigh
After long pause,
me: "God tell me what to do."
God: "Do these three things..."

So it usually goes & even on the occasion that I am able to remember I had such a conversation, I'm usually less clear on the things that I was supposed to do or even how many things it was.

If you too ever get to a place where you don't hear God speaking to you and you can't even remember the last conversation you had with God, do what I do:  Go all the way back to the one where God said; "Do these ten things..." and then, actually do them.

I have no horse.

Many Christians can point to the salvation moment, that single point in time when they were reborn in the spirit, their own Damascus road experience.  I've told the simple version of the story before. Mine was not a single moment but a long process in which I stubbornly held onto the reins against loved ones and circumstances as they repeatedly swung at me like branches and pushed and scrapped at me like a thick forest brush.  I clung steadfastly to my high horse insisting I was too smart for religion.  Then like slowly waking from a dream that seem so very real I began to realize that there was no horse beneath me.  I was just in the thick brush clinging to nothing but my own pride.

I never have expounded on that description, perhaps because no audience has asked me to, or more likely, that I nor any audience cared for the sharing of uncomfortable details.  Since all the specific incidents are really far too numerous due to my painfully slow learning curve, I will continue to spare us both of much of it.  Those who love me can share story after story to attest to my stubbornness.  I was always the cynic and looked for the rational explanation dismissing everything as coincidence.

From a young age I was curious about the meaning of life and why we are all here.  I felt that I could really only trust myself and my own reasoning. I thought I could find the answers to life's questions if they could be found.  I had been jaded by all the contradictions and hypocrisy of religious organizations. All the church had proven to me is that they could not possibly hold the answers.  I considered all philosophies though finding at least some truth in most of them, but none held the whole truth.  None held an explanation of everything that could stand up to reason, (my reason.)  I had pretty  much resigned myself to the idea that there was no answer, that we as humans, could not possibly ever know the meaning of life.

So you see then the picture of me, like Saul, on my high horse striking down the Christians in my life, trampling over anything or anyone who could not stand up to my reasoning.  Then see me knocked from my horse, albeit much much more slowly, and even mercifully stricken blind for a while so that I would not immediately see that path that I had wrought. Now you may see me as if I am still riding high but I can assure you that if it appears so, it is because His grace has lifted me just out of reach of the daemons of regret that would devour me as I look back at all the hurt I have caused my loved ones and worse, the deeply trodden path I've made that cause others to fall into the same footsteps.

As for as picturing me like Paul, you may, in that once I released my reliance on my own reasoning, I now have a much greater understanding of the meaning of life than I even thought was possible.  And like with Paul, God uses every single situation in my life to continue to grow that understanding and knowledge of Him, albeit much much more slowly.

Dimensions of God’s Love

What is love?  We each have experienced at least some kind of love in our lives, be it love between a man and a woman or such partners, love between a parent and child, the love between friends or love of family.  We are all capable of many types of love and may have many loved ones in our life.  If we were to lose a loved one or even if we are just missing one of these many types of love in our own lives, there is emptiness that is felt.  It’s like a hole in your heart, a void that longs to be filled. You feel it no matter how you want to avoid it or try to fill the void with other things.  There is still the longing.  We may have a little love in our lives or even a lot of love and yet there is still a longing.  It’s like there is at least one hole yet to fill.

Now consider the image of God in which you were made.  If we as men and women are capable of love for many, how much more is The Creator of the universe capable of?  So if we expand what we know of love to infinity, we begin to imagine God’s Love!  If you cannot quite imagine this sort of infinite love think of it this way:  You probably know what it feels like to have that one void in your heart.  Then surely I say before there was you, God felt the same desire to love you.

Are you a fan of 'happily ever after"?

Are you a fan of those stories or movies in which the ending is so far over the top better than could ever happen in real life?  You know like the love story in which the lovers are up against impossible odds, and it seems like there is no way that they could end up together but the one character seems to move heaven and earth and sacrifices all in order to make it happen.  Or there's the kind of story where the little known underdog of a person turns out to have unique undiscovered purpose that he/she is destine for, or they are the sole heir of great riches and/or a kingdom.

What if I told you there was one story that was better than any you had ever heard and that it had all of these elements and more?  It is an epic tale of love that overcomes the most impossible odds that in the end not only are they united but one finds out that they are heir to the greatest kingdom ever.  As amazing as that sounds there is more.  It is not a tale but a true story began in ancient times and is culminating in the present day.

And yet, I have not told you the most amazing part of it.  YOU are the co-star of the story.  Yes, you!  You are the love interest for which all of heaven and earth is moved.  You are the one that will come into a great inheritance. You are the unique individual for whom God has a plan and purpose that you are destine to fulfill.

Are you ready to read the love letters that have been written for you by the Prince of Peace?  They begin "In the beginning..." and have been waiting for you almost as long.  Pick up The Bible and lets get to that happily ever after!

BLAME, what is it good for?

More than money, it can be said about blame that it is the root of all evil.  Blame is a shortcut to satisfy a psychological need to solve problems in our life.  When we perceive the solution to be out of our reach or just too difficult to think about, we are tempted to use blame as a sort of self deception so we can say to ourselves that we have done all we can and the rest is "their" fault.  Blame is often confused with, or disguised as, finding the cause of something.  The difference is that a cause will accompany a proposal of a solution or step toward a solution while blame is stated as the excuse not to find a solution or worse in order to imply a final solution to rid ourselves of the scapegoat.  It is so easy to place blame on a faceless group that it almost feels good to do it.

When blame is used in our personal lives it can lead to a life of inaction and feeling helpless in the face of all the things we blame for or own condition.  As children we are taught that we are not in control of certain things in our life. As adults many of us hang on to blame as a mechanism to avoid taking full responsibility for ourselves. Finding a way to forgive can help overcome the habit of using blame of people from our past.

Blame placed on collective groups of people has been proven through history to lead to death and destruction.  Germany blamed the Jews for much of their troubles before WWII.  In fact Jews are maybe history's most popular scapegoat and still used today.  But communist China today encourages it's people to blame Japan for their woes and Europe has been throwing blame around between countries forever.  Closer to home here in the US, the political zeitgeist is to blame the Republicans, Democrats, the Tea Party or just all of congress or the government in general.

To use a popular current example where blame is thrown around so much that no solution is in sight: In the US government partial shutdown congress is one big target but the blame does not stop with congress. Ted Cruz for example campaigned and was elected for the explicit purpose of doing everything he can to stop obamacare. His constituents (employers) sent him to Washington to stop what they consider an outright wrong and immoral law.  Congress is constitutional responsible for the budget because it is closest to the people.  So you can't blame Ted Cruz for not funding obamacare without blaming each and every one of his constituents.  Obama is constitutionally responsible for executing the laws and thus, in the absence of a specific budget, is responsible for what parts of the government are shut down.  But just like Ted Cruz, Obama was reelected after his signature trans-formative law was passed, so I'm sure he believes it to be a moral imperative that it be funded.  Also like Ted Cruz you cannot blame Obama without passing that blame directly to each and every voter that voted for him or did not exercise their right to vote.  It is obvious that no solution is found no matter where we place the blame.

Unified Theory of Everything, Chapter 0

Before the Beginning

I am

Everyone starts at the beginning, but the beginning is pretty spectacular and even more so considering what preceded it. What I present here is a theory or hypothesis, not provable directly but testable by applying it as a filter in discerning truth in day to day life.  Please consider this rationally. “Place reason firmly in her seat...” if you will.  I’m going to ask you to use both reason and your imagination in equal measure.

Consider pre-existence.  It’s really only a concept that cannot be defined nor described but here we go… before everything there is nothing and no one, no matter, no energy, no light, no sound, no words, no thought.  It is complete and utter darkness and silence.

Now, for the sake of understanding, put yourself there.  I know it’s a contradiction (at least,) but let us suspend the physics of it and there you are, no where, and unaware.  Remember, this is before time and existence. In the midst of this vast emptiness there is you.  But you don’t know it at first. You haven’t had a thought yet. Then at some point you think about it or perhaps it’s not at any particular point but you find yourself thinking and before you know it your thought exists and you realize this thought is yours and therefore, you exist. Every new thought is added to you and your existence. Thought is added to thought and more thought is added to that. With each new thought more thought is provoked with more than a few ways of thinking about each. With every new way of thinking a new dimension is created and the more you think the more there is and the more there is the more to think of.  Who knows the bounds of such existence where the very thought of it expands it so, and even time itself is but one of these thoughts.

Now stepping out of character for a moment, you may be asking "is this the universe?" I did say we are talking about before the beginning and therefore before the universe.  Do not be alarmed, I have not jumped ahead, for as much as may be filling your head we are still only in one single mind, the only one for the moment.  At this point, the one that is the sum of all existence has not ventured beyond creating more than thought but from thought comes ideas and ideas tend to take on their own existence.  Okay now I may be getting ahead of myself.

Understanding Love and Desire

Know that all understanding is available through The Holy Spirit. When it is Love you seek to understand, know this also: While it can be understood, Love is the very heart of God, and as with God, you can always grow in understanding. The many facets of God’s Love are reflected in the Love that is part of our design. Of those facets, desire seems to be most enigmatic at least to me.

Desire is like a veracious flame. So perhaps I can use an analogy of a flame lighting an oil lamp. The nature of desire is to consume its obsession. If the wick is too frayed or separated, the flame is spread out and weakened and cannot be maintained. If the wick is not exposed it will never be reached by the fire. If it is too exposed the flame will grow out of control and if it is dry the flame will burn quickly and then go out. Now here is where I have to bend the analogy a bit to fit reality. The oil that feeds the flame of desire is itself desire but mixed with admiration, trust, compassion, and all the other aspects of Love. If that oil is not in each person and complete in its formula, the flame of desire will go out.

The good news is that it is possible to light the lamp again but it is not done by continuing to throw matches at the lamp. It’s done by replenishing the missing elements in the oil. Realize though, that this is easier said than done. One of those ingredients you’ll find is long-suffering. The full recipe of that oil can be found by going to its source, God, through The Word and The Holy Spirit. His is the perfect Love that is never weak, never too overpowering, and is everlasting. Love in its perfect form replenishes as it burns and His Love burns as bright as we can handle. As much as you know God, get to know Him more. As much as you know of Love, grow in knowledge, practice, and understanding.

Rejoice even in heartache, fore if nothing else you are feeling, only in a small way, what God has felt multiplied by every soul from the beginning to the end of time.

What possesses you?

Working subtitle:

Warning, Daemonic Possession is Very Real; a rational argument.

It is said that we are what we eat. The truth of this statement becomes undeniable if stated as: we are greatly influenced by what we consume. Whether it is consumed through formal education or through entertainment or culture, it all adds up to affect our decisions, choices, actions, our self. 

Without getting in the whole nature vs. nurture, we can settle on the fact that, at least to some degree, what we take in becomes a driving even controlling force in the make up of our self.  So if what we take in can control us, should we not choose to take in that which is good over that which is evil?  Fore if we take in evil than we allow ourselves to be possessed by evil, even if only in degrees.

I Confess...

I have been dismissive of others objections to my speech and my opinions. I have little considered this offense against others, perhaps in weight against my other much more grievous sins listed here.

I have left too many things undone. I have neglected responsibilities and allowed myself to be distracted from important things and remained ignorant of injustice and suffering of others.

I've let myself be used and lied to and I taught lies to school children in every county I've lived in since I've been an adult.  Because of sloth did not educate myself to the truth nor take control of those under my employ in local governments.

I steal from the poor with monetary policy, printing money for banks and devaluing every dollar in the working man's paycheck and savings account. I create a separation of classes with progressively prohibitive tax measures, bureaucracies and fees to keep the poor from succeeding and securing power and wealth of an elite few.

I help to arm criminals in this country and around the world.

I help to disarm victims leaving them defenseless against criminals and tyrants only for the sake of comfort, to make people feel good and to give others a sense of accomplishment.

I persecute churches and people of faith, demanding they cede questions of conscience to the state and force them to participate in that which they hold most vile.

I hire people to murder, by the hundreds of thousands a year, babies before they are born.  I wish I could say it was totally at random but the truth is that it has been focused on minorities and the poor.

I have taken the freedom to govern myself, a gift from God and one that has been fought and died for by generations before me, and I've squandered it allowing myself and others to slip into serfdom and even slavery.

If you notice that several of these are in the present tense. This is because I continue to commit them.  I don't know if they can be stopped.  I do vow that from this day forward I will do what I can and say what I must until all of these sins are stopped and amends are made or until the day that I die.  When I die and I meet my maker at least I will no longer have to say that I did nothing.

Judas Lives

It seems we are seeing Judas everywhere these days.  He's is spotted more then Elvis.  We are easily able to see him in priests who are caught molesting children and in TV evangelist caught in a scandal. Judas, in the dictionary, is one who betrays another under the guise of friendship.  It is so commonplace that it no longer applies only to Jesus being betrayed, but to anyone or any group being betrayed by an identification of friendship. We've been trained in our culture to spot Judas and point him out. It's often used as a political ploy "Look at what he's done.  He's one of them!"

As bad as the omnipresence of Judas is in our culture, his presence in our church is so much worse.  This is were Judas does the most damage.  Remember Judas' betrayal was not just with a kiss. It first involved the establishment of another authority in Judas' life. It was not anything unusual in his day or ours for someone to be beholden to money or to the current power structure. It is only due to the contradiction in allegiance that the kiss becomes a betrayal. In Jesus' day only one of the 12 had this problem.  Unfortunately this sort of divided allegiance or double mindedness is common in today's church. Despite our ability to spot him everywhere, Judas goes mostly unnoticed among our congregations.

All too often, Judas is there when Jesus has started a ministry in the life of a lost soul and with some small hypocrisy Judas betrays the whole body of Christ in that person's mind. The outspoken Christian who is dishonest in business dealings is Judas to all he has cheated. The co-worker who is known to say "Praise Jesus" for every blessing but who is also known for not pulling his weight or shirking his duties betrays Jesus.  The less then faithful spouse who rationalizes what is "realistic" gives in to the worldly authority over God's. The citizen who votes to have the government do wrong in expectation of a payout or benefit takes his thirty pieces of silver.  The church leader who chooses peace over justice or who enjoys freedom for his church and supports, either actively or by silent consent, the subjugation of another is playing the role of Judas.

A friend once told me, nobody wants all doom and gloom.  So I must point out the uplifting joy in this situation:

Judas is in Heaven!

Judas was an apostle of Christ. Sure he is only remembered for his betrayal but he is saved never the less.  You ask how I know this? I must confess that I am Judas.  I have been Judas more than once and to more than a few people.  I have tainted and destroyed my witness in the eyes of others and Jesus' ministry has suffered because of it.

I do not know what I will be remembered for and yet, despite all of my sins, I do know that I am seen righteous in the eyes of God through the blood of the only worthy sacrifice, Jesus Christ! 

What if Hate were the Mark of the Beast?

We've all heard of the end times prophecy of people taking the mark of the beast to pledge allegiance to the anti-Christ. There are many good studies on this topic and this is not one of them.  I only am asking to consider the question, what if taking the mark was as simple as allowing yourself to hate someone or some group of people. What if being rallied by the popular hate of the day is all it takes to put you under the spell and control of the Devil? If hate is the mark, have you taken it?  Have you put it at the center of your head? Have you marked your hand with it?

It seems to me that, while the Holy Spirit is on the move in this world, so is Hate.  It has become so popular today to hate.  Hate the Christians. Hate the atheists. Hate the press. Hate talk radio.  Hate the Republicans. Hate the Democrats.  Hate the rich.  They have to pay! 

Take the last one for example. Why would so many insist on raising taxes on "the rich?"  Everyone who examines the issue knows it will not solve anything.  It will not increase revenue to the government. Even if it would defy all previous proofs in history and bring in money to the government, it would at best cover expenses of our government for only 8 days and will surely cost jobs with small business.  So why the insistence on getting everyone in Washington to join in with this destructive path?

Hate may not be the mark of the beast but it is most certainly a very powerful tool for manipulation and maybe it's only the first little hook or rallying flag for the armies of people who WILL take the mark when the time comes.