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I was reading about and comparing the New Jerusalem with the Millennium Jerusalem when something quite startling occurred to me. There is a distinction and very definite distinction between the Wife of Jehovah and the Wife of the Lamb.

It goes back to Israel committing adultery with other gods. This broke the marriage contract Israel had with God which is found in Deuteronomy. This adultery which broke the covenant wasn't just a one time, fling... It was a constant thing. It was extremely degrading and embarrassing to the One True God, because it declared to the surrounding…  ( Click for more )

After God has dusted and cleaned up the earth and the heavens so that life can continue upon the face of the earth, those who made it through the final 45 days of clean-up are the Believers who made it through the Great Tribulation, both Gentiles and Jews. Joel 3:1-3 tells us “For behold in those days…” “before the coming of the great and awesome day of Jehovah” (Joel 2:31). Jesus speaks of it in Matthew 25:31-33, with the judge being the Messiah. These saints are the ones who will inhabit and procreate and fill the earth.

Those who are…  ( Click for more )

In Isaiah 65 we see a most beautiful picture of how God sees the perfect earth that still has humans in it. It will be that way, one day, but not until Jesus comes again and the Day of Wrath happens.

Isaiah 65:20 There shall not still be an infant of days, or an old man that has not filled his days. For the youth shall die the son of a hundred years, but the sinner the son of a hundred years shall be accursed. 21And they shall build houses and live in them; and they shall plant vineyards and eat their fruit. 22They shall not build, and another live in them; they shall not…  ( Click for more )

Who would have thought something so mundane could cause so much pain… something which helps put great food on our tables, with a man’s hate would kill so many? Terrorists have this thing about utilizing the mundane to inflict immense pain. Our wars today have gone far beyond what our fore fathers had to fight.

For the record, I remember years ago reports coming out of Iraq and out of Washington talking about nuclear grade uranium being found in Iraq. I also remember reports of chemicals being found. In 2004 the U.S. military removed two tons of uranium from Iraq…  ( Click for more )

I do lament today's throw-away society. So often we acquire a “pretty” and then something happens to mar the pretty and we throw it away. My dad never threw anything away. His shop out back was filled to the brim and the overflow surrounded it like undulating waves hitting the sides of a swimming pool. My dad, could fix just about anything which is why he kept everything.

He saw potential everywhere he looked. A roll of wire could tie down, hang up or hold together anything. Coca Cola was good for drinking on a hot day and cleaning battery tops. Nails that held boards…  ( Click for more )

I have often thought about, and discussed, Hebrews 6 with many others of my Christian siblings. But, I'll skip over Hebrews 6 for the moment and share with you my thoughts on James 5:19-20. It is more of getting to the point by going through the back door. You know… back door friendship with the Scriptures, so to speak. I have understood James to be talking about the physical life here on earth. Here's why: Straying from the truth means exactly that... to wander away from it and to a greater degree, to sin. To bring a brother back to the truth is to save his breath…  ( Click for more )

I stand amazed at how flighty humans have proven to be. We can't seem to keep on the right track no matter how gloriously God makes Himself available. He provided America for those who desired to worship Him freely. It was not for those to worship any demon or idol, but for Christians. All one has to do is read historical speeches of our founding fathers or historical documents, or even read the inscriptions on the buildings in our capital. Everything points to the one true King of the universe. How sad it has taken less than 250 years for our ardor to go sour. Barna Group asked…  ( Click for more )

The man gave the bolt a final twist and stepped back from under the hood of the car. He wiped his grimy hands on a rag and then stuffed it in his back pocket. He gave a satisfied sigh as he headed to the office and the coffee pot. The coffee was strong and fresh, just like he liked it. Tossing a grin to Gertrude, his part time office help, he said, “Gertie, call Kent Boudreaux and let him know his car is ready and he can pick it up any time today.”

With only a little regret, he set his cup down and headed to back the car from the bay and bring in another to work…  ( Click for more )

Ask any champion weightlifter if he or she would like to carry that extra three hundred to four hundred pounds around with them on a daily, 24/7 basis. Of course, the answer would be an emphatic “NO!”. It is fine and dandy to lift three hundred pounds over the head, hold for ten seconds (or more) and then let drop with a bang and clank of the weights rattling together. But does anyone want to strap that extra poundage on their back and carry it around? Bathe with it? Sleep with it? Play with it? How ridiculous! But we Christians do it all the time.

Oh, it isn’t…  ( Click for more )

Or Blameless vs Guiltless Or Age of Accountability

There are so many women out there (almost 50 million of them) who are agonizing about the fate of their aborted babies. There are also many parents agonizing over where their little darling who died went—Heaven or Hell? There are many verses in the Bible which give us comfort concerning where these children now reside, and where future children will go who die untimely deaths. Babies and young children go to heaven if they die because God has chosen to have mercy upon them.

Paul tells us positively that All have…  ( Click for more )

Several years ago, okay it more than a decade ago, I had just separated from my wicked husband. I used part of my retirement money to get a new car so I'd have reliable transportation for my job selling cemetery property. Late one night, coming home from work I bounced over a pot hole and the A/C went out. One minute blowing cold air, the next warm and humid, summer night air came pouring through the vents. I prayed about it. I hadn't sold anything for several weeks and I just didn't have the money for a new A/C. (Turned out the pot hole had nothing to do with the A/C.) One…  ( Click for more )

After I thought I'd healed properly, I adjusted to life without. Without what, you wonder. That is precisely my point. I had gotten so used to living without hope and without a husband and without a really good job with benefits that I had adjusted to hopeless living all the while putting on the “Joy Face” at church and with friends. Oh, you know precisely which face I’m referring to. Joy Face is a mask of great deception to one’s self and loved ones. Often the person wearing the mask has no clue that it is, in fact, a mask. This mask has the ability…  ( Click for more )

Burl Cain, warden for Angola Prison in Louisiana, once said that no earthly thing can change a man, only Jesus can. He became warden over a prison that was once called the bloodiest place on earth. Back in the fifties and sixties, no one came out of there alive, and no one served their full term. This gutsy man proved that only Jesus can change a man by bringing Jesus and Biblical principles into Angola. I learned that the hard way.

Here’s what I have learned in the past 50 years:

Foremost lesson is what I learned from the study of Nehemiah: Bring everything to God…  ( Click for more )

Probably one of the hardest things to do is to forgive yourself. Someone once pointed out to me that it was not a Biblical principle. I hunted and searched for hours trying to find something in the Bible about forgiving oneself. The closest I came was David’s Psalm 51 when he asked God to create in him a clean heart and to renew a right spirit within him. When you compare his Psalm 32 in verse 3 When I kept silence, then my bones became old, through my howling all day. We see the consequences of unconfessed sin. But that is different from forgiving one’s self…  ( Click for more )

The Queen of Sheba traveled about 2,000 miles to listen to the wisdom of Solomon. Gideon put out fleece to listen to God’s will. Abraham listened and his son Isaac was born, and his servant listened to God and brought Rebecca to Isaac for his bride. The people told Joshua they would listen to God’s voice, and they did all the while Joshua was their judge. God told Samuel to listen to the people and anoint Saul. The king listened to Nehemiah and the walls of Jerusalem were built in 52 days. King Ahasuerus listened to Esther and the Jews in Babylon were saved. Lemuel listened…  ( Click for more )

My eyes leaked tears of great sadness. The darkness overcame the glorious light. For hours the darkness shadowed the world and I could not see, nor no one could see. It was as if I were blind once again, but this time the whole of the world was blind with me. But, my tears are not because of lost sight, nor because of stumbling and tripping. The tears that flooded my face and the front of my shirt are because a most beloved face is even now twisted with agony and suffering.

Why Adonai? Why give me my sight only to see this horror? I know Who it is that is groaning in great…  ( Click for more )

My daughter has one of those GPS thingys… Global Positioning Systems… that tells you how to get from point A to point B. Sometimes it doesn’t take the usual route that I’ve gone for the past several years from point A to point B, and that has given me a fresh look at where I live. I never knew you could drive down Palestine Road and get to Jackson Landing with no traffic. Or take Highway 11 instead of the Interstate and shave off 15 minutes. Fascinating that it will tell you the quickest route or shortest route, all you have to do is plug it in and then type…  ( Click for more )

I have been thinking about this for quite some time. Someone in my Sunday School class said she didn't think that God really cared about the mundane in our lives. After all, why would He care what dress we wore or if our shoes were comfortable? He has so many more important things on His mind. Like what He has in mind for the Bride of Christ, World events, things like that. Which is an excellent overview of the kinds of Wills of God. His perfect will, His absolute will, His divine will, His personal will for each of His children.

There is a personal will because, by golly, He…  ( Click for more )

Someone once said that God doesn't share His glory. I immediately thought of Moses asking God to show him His glory and God put him in the cleft of a rock and allowed him to see His backside. That is both terrifying and a little bit funny to me. Terrifying that Moses, chosen by God, who spoke with God mouth to mouth, could not see God's full glory. And funny because God showed him His backside as He walked away. It just strikes me as amusing. Okay... so, I have a weird sense of humor.

On to counting the ways to glorify God… According to Scripture... Romans 4:20…  ( Click for more )

Sun beating down, heat rising up, sweat rolling down and still the man chipped away at the tall stone in front of him. With each pounding of the hammer, more stone pebbles spattered down the stone face adding to the already deep pile of sand and chips. Sand had gathered in the tiny wrinkles of his skin, and his sweat only partially washed the bits of grit away. For hours and hours, perhaps for days he worked on each stone. Words formed as the grit fell away.

יהוה קרא משׁה...

... YWHW called unto Moses

Can…  ( Click for more )

…is that they don’t do anything with God’s rebuke. Matthew 23 wasn’t the first time they didn’t pay attention to God’s rebuke. If it wasn’t their making motions of worship while having greed and murder in their heart it was the painful distress of oppression they brought down on widows and orphans. Isaiah told them. Jeremiah told them. Habakkuk told them. Micah told them. But, Malachi, oh Malachi said it with the sting of a red zinger.

Malachi 2:1 And now, O priests, this command is to you. 2If you will not hear, and if you will…  ( Click for more )

Mike Synder has an excellent post at The Master's Artists which was something that made me ponder for a while, in fact almost all day. So we're all on the same page, I quote Mike: Steve and his cronies traded blood, sweat, and elbows with murderers and rapists and thieves. That was their job. And they were good at it, winning more than they lost. The point was not to make friends or to play nice. They played to win first and make friends later. They took no crap and made no apologies. It was serious business with eternal implications. These guys demanded respect, annihilated barriers,…  ( Click for more )

Third grade taught us that one times one is one. One times anything is one, except when God gets into the mix. God times one is God.

I have so often thought it would be nice to have someone to share things with when God then reminds me that I do that with my Mom. Then I wonder if I am to live out the rest of my life alone as Paul did. And God reminds me that His grace is sufficient for me. And when I get too big for my britches and say, "Look at what I did, God. How great was that? What's that worth?" He shows me a quarter on the ground and I get the message that…  ( Click for more )

The unsatisfied soul is a train wreck waiting to happen… it is the broken tracks that derail an otherwise pretty good life, or so the world may think. Add fear to dissatisfaction and we have a sure fire derailment with a huge casualty list. It creates a life that is completely useless to God, for one who is not satisfied cannot satisfy.

But, let’s look at the real culprit of this deal. Can we actually blame Satan for this? The world? After all reading Exodus, Numbers and Deuteronomy you come to realize that Egypt is the land of slavery… addictions……  ( Click for more )