The Inheritance

 "But God, He has made me a Father to Pharaoh, and Lord of all his house, and ruler over this land". Genesis 45:8.

Have you noticed how the powers that be are always in a rush, and are expecting us to rush along with them?

There's this agenda, and then there's this - oh, and this... so many things to be done! (Isaiah 57:21, Proverbs 4:16-18).

And then, there's the Patriarch (child) of the Lord, blessed by God with dreams of how the very sun and moon bow down before Him (Genesis 37:9), and, in actuality, adorn the radiance of this eternally beloved company (Revelation 12:1).

Notice the principal difference.

One company spend all their days rushing around seeking to own what's not theirs, and the other simply rest in the promises of the One who is above all, that these things are theirs - they have been given such wealth, and much more, by their Father's eternal good pleasure.

Egypt survived a time of great trouble purely because God bestowed favour upon His beloved amongst them - they all richly benefitted from this, but things are somewhat different now. Now "Egypt's" schemes are akin to those of a ruler who 'forgot Joseph' - and that means very turbulent times are evidenced.

When the church becomes irrelevant to those who think they know better, or when religious authorities seek to divert from God's eternal riches towards 'social imperatives' that must , apparently, occupy great swathes of our time, then you can be certain that days of plague and trouble will remain.

This war is in full swing, but God's ways will win out, even when those who love Him are 'troubled' by those who beat and seek to enslave them into all manner of tyranny.

There's a wonderful opening quote (placed in the character of Ian Fleming) at the beginning of the recent film, Operation Mincemeat.

Fleming states:

"In any story, if it's a good story, there is that which is seen, and that which is hidden. This is especially true in stories of war. There is the war we all see - a contest of bombs, and bullets, of courage, sacrifice and force. But alongside this war, there is another conflict that is being waged. A battleground amidst shades of grey, where the participants are strange. They are seldom what they seem, and fiction and reality blur. This war is a wilderness of mirrors in which the truth is protected by a bodyguard of false trails. This is the real war".

History reveals to us just how palpably true that is.

The Cross is our victory because it is the threshold to a stripping of every principality and power that seeks to elevate itself above the most high. As the veil was rent and heaven and earth shook, sun, moon and stars forever returned back to the children God had bestowed them to as an everlasting inheritance, and because of the blood which was shed on that day, nothing can ever sever us from the love that deems such things to be.

The future is set, and a redeemed creation is the frontispiece of that majesty!

Sola Deo Gloria!

Religion?

Simply brilliant - enjoy!

The Gaze

 "This used to be a hell of a town".  Lou Slade. Earthquake (1974).

"They desired a better homeland, so God has prepared for them a city". Hebrews 11:16.

Ever wonder where all of this is heading?

Often it's easy to get out of bed and look around and reflect on just how bad things have become. Like George Kennedy's character in the movie, Earthquake, there are days when it appears that everything has been shifted out of place or entirely fallen over, and we find ourselves feeling so helpless before such monumental troubles.

Recently, I found myself wondering if I was doing anything worthwhile with my life - everything can appear so mundane and small in the shadow of so much corruption and wickedness - not only in the world, but still within myself - how do we overcome that manner of anxiety and dismay?

What marked out the men of faith sighted in Hebrews 11 is that they were anchored by the fact that they knew something far better and far more permanent was ahead, and that is where they set their gaze -

"Abraham looked for the coming city that has foundations, whose builder is God" (Hebrews 11:10).

Faith isn't about seeking for something etherial and abstract. It understands that the consequence of these current struggles and troubles is a society far more permanent and enduring that is eternally fixed and established by the undertaking of the most high - that is why it is confident.

The revelation of scripture is that the Lord who fashioned and furnished creation to be very good has also been working on what comes in the hour of the 'glorification' (maturing) of that initial work on the day of the resurrection.

When we look at the Garden that was in Eden at the commencement of God's domain, we see, as with the tabernacle and the temple, a foreshadowing of what is to come - a realm where heaven and earth marry in a radiance and culture that will forever glorify and magnify the nature of the Godhead.

Faith, then, opens the window to the most substantial reality that is being made complete in all of eternity, so let's learn from those who gazed up into this splendour - let's keep our eyes fixed there, and then the day to day will truly be do-able.

Beguiled

 "But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be lead astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ (by someone preaching another Jesus)" 2 Corinthians 11:3.

Some months ago, I made reference to David Wood's superb analysis of the Original Series Star Trek episode, Bread and Circuses (Christianity in the 23rd century), and how he unpacked the relevance of Christian truth, even in science fiction.

I want to begin to today with reference to another Original Series episode, which seeks to answer the question what happens when magic seeks to wipe out reason.

Made especially for a halloween airing, the episode Catspaw finds Captain Kirk, Mr Spock and crew facing a world inhabited by a warlock and his familiar who pull out all the stops in respect to using charms and spells to subjugate their captors to their will. The problem that these aspiring tyrants have is no matter how much control they take, they face continual resistance, and their lust for power makes them vulnerable to their own arrogance. Eventually, Captain Kirk exploits a window of opportunity because of just such a mistake, and ends the interference of these strange and very alien creatures, allowing him and his crew to return to normal.

This manner of conflict is what we see being played out amongst us in our days.

The reasons are very clear (The book of Revelation unmasks so much of the conflict behind our history), but what the church must understand is that we are in this very same manner of struggle.

When George Soros writes that there is an alchemy at work at present in the new ordering of our society, he understands that this is a very real distinctive from the reason employed in science - but in no manner less effective. This is why H G Wells spoke in 1928 of the open conspiracy that had commenced which would slowly become as evident as Socialism but far more pervasive as it became formed as a new religion.

This is indeed the conflict of this time - when an "image" (how apt in the day of Social Media) becomes worshipped by the many, replacing the genuine and true.

The present moment has locked society into a path where certain aspects of common life are deemed imperative:

Global 'mind' (common consciousness and frames of reference).

Global identity (national identity is evil).

Reduction of valued employment (when outside of virtual connectivity).

Importance of the elite class (in respect to 'saving' what is deemed of value).

Reduction of tactile common relation to law and order (replaced by continual surveillance).

Changes to global dietary consumption (prescribed replacements).

Diminishing of Private Ownership of goods (virtual existence is key).

Centralised control of movement, identity and wealth.

Transhumanism via virtual imperatives.

This is already translating directly into Christian theology.

In a week where the national talk has been all about two changes in Anglican practice (relating to sexuality and gender), a third proposal is that human bodies be botanically dissolved rather than buried, replacing the significance of burying someone in the hopes of resurrection.

This is the mindset that is evident everywhere in our 'new' culture, and Christians must take heed and resist the march to lead humanity directly to lives defined by a hollowing-out of all that is meant to be valued and honoured.

It's time to break the charms of satan, and call on God for Christ to be made all in all.

From the Inside Out

 "Look, the gates of hell are falling - crumbling from the inside out, he's bursting through the walls with laughter, listen to the angels shout:

It is finished, He has done it, Jesus Christ, has won it".

From The Victor (The musical, the Witness by Jim and Carol Owens).

"He will bruise His heel, and He will will crush his head".

Genesis 3:15.

Prejudice often stems from bad theology.

When Saul held the coats of the venomous crowd about to stone Stephen, he did so because his beliefs told him that his behaviour was righteous, and yet, even as he listened to the words of a martyr speaking the truth, a struggle awakened within him that would conclude with his becoming a faithful advocate of the very thing he had hated in that stoning in Jerusalem.

My prayer today, as so much of the church acts like a blinded Samson, prostituted to the whims of a program that is murdering this present age, is that we may see that manner of burning trouble amplified in the souls of millions as they register what is taking place in this day.

We are overseen by a murderous cabal of dead elites who long to conform all to a terrible, faceless age, but they are blinded to what is actually coming.

Like the revellers in Poe's Red Mask, they do not see that their fall is almost upon them, and their undoing will be the stuff of a great rejoicing, for it heralds the final hurrah of fiends and the impending arrival of eternal truth.

Millions have become victimised and ended by their villainy, and so many now remain chained by their lies, but the breaking will come, and the faithful to truth need to be ready to stand at that hour and bring these bewildered and lost into the warmth and goodness of God's unceasing grace as the final days of harvest descend before the redemption of all things.

The night is indeed ending and the day is almost here - so be ready, clothed in the radiance of the unmerited righteousness of Jesus.

May the Lord keep us and equip us for what is coming.

The Ages Speak

 Michael Behe, John Lennox and Stephen Meyer tell it like it really is in this superb interview.