"Where the Battle Rages'

"So, the law is paralysed, and justice does not proceed, for the wicked have surrounded the righteous, and thereby justice has become perverted".

Habakuk 4:1. 

"Now Deborah, a Prophetess, the wife of Lappidoth, was judging Israel at that time. She used to sit under the palm of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in the hill country of Ephraim, and the people of Israel came up to her for judgement".

Judges 4:4-5.

Chad Bird notes some telling things about this moment (in Judges) in the history of God's people.

Deborah (Hebrew - d'torah - "Bee") provides a sweet honey to the land amidst crisis, not only by her 'judgements', but in the fact that these stem from a conviction, a courage and a deep wisdom, that was sorely needed. Like others given the title (Miriam - Exodus 15:20, Anna - Luke 2:36 amongst them), the people came to understand that they should listen to her in respect to 'mishaps' - words that were weighty when it came to the evaluation and direction from heaven in respect to their situation. It was such great conviction and strength which motivated her to rouse the wavering Barak to war, and would in turn cause the people to then strike hard against the enemy of God's work and witness.

Defining herself as a 'mother' of the nation in respect to her engaging in the battle, she shows us a clear picture of what character is required in the face of what often appears to be overwhelming adversity.

Notice what the passage also tells us of where her role was carried out.

Deborah dwelt (and held a seat of judgement) in the heights of the land (Ramah), close to the house of God (Bethel), in a region of abundant fruitfulness (Ephraim), and clearly, expressed a nature aflame for truth (which probably partially explains the name given in relation to her husband). Her name also has a connotation of a prime or even queen Bee - a figure that others will follow.

All of this was clearly needed. The oppression of Ehud on the people through his military leader, Sisera, was extreme - some 900 chariots (Judges 4:3) being employed to underline the degree of tyranny that was implemented due to the people's wickedness.

Evil, the scriptures inform us, brings this manner of cruel folly. The Israelites thought that freedom entailed allowing the corruption of pagan culture into their everyday existence, but the Lord allows the consequences of such accommodation to become evident so they will cry for genuine freedom from this misery.

The Lord instructs Deborah to call a particular man - Barak - to lead some 10,000 men to take up arms against the oppressor in the sure understanding that the Lord will use this instrument to bring down the enemy. Barak, answering her call, is clearly far more uncertain about this project, but agrees to do as he asks if she will accompany him on this mission.

The assembling of this force soon draws the attention of Sisera, and the chariots start to roll out to quell such insurrection. The Canaanites, no doubt, thought that they were more than ready to deal with Barak, but Deborah knew otherwise, and it wasn't long before the battle overwhelmed Ehud's forces, the supposed 'power' of the day being put to the sword (4:16). Sisera flees into what he believes to be a refuge - only to face a sudden, violent demise (4:22). The rout of this elite, this totality, was absolute.

We can glean a three-fold victory in this event.

Deborah understood what was actually going on around her in the land, and, equally vital, heard the Lord's voice on these troubles.

Seeing well in such times is the essential first step we must take if we are to know genuine health in our life and deeds when such trials come upon us.

Secondly, she was a person of such genuine, living faith, that she was able to properly evaluate what was taking place and to thereby determine what was good and evil in such circumstances. Such judgement always begins amongst God's company - truth brings with it the imperative of making such essential distinctions.

Finally, recognising the times, and certain in the convictions supplied by both faith and wisdom, Deborah acted in bringing together the resources to over-turn the tyranny of the moment, and because she properly understood the day and the assets made available, the victory was certain.

See, judge, act is the manner that the faithful should live.

If you are someone who is now looking around you and wants to know how to proceed from here, follow this example -

Know the times and the Lord who is far above all principalities and powers.

Discern what is taking place well.

Inform your actions and responses on these key things.

The night is here, but the daybreak is fast approaching, so gear up, people, and get into the fight, because we being called to a sure and certain perfection of all things!

Surviving the World Engine

 

"The whole world lies in the influence of the evil one".

1 John 5:19.

"According to these readings, there won't be an us".

Man of Steel.

Superman has often, at least in previous times, been depicted as a "Christ-like" figure - a "redeemer" who grows to become aware of his role. This, of course, becomes essential because there is an enemy who is seeking to destroy the very goodness of life.

The method employed by the foul General Zod in the movie Man of Steel is particularly menacing. A machine which will re-form the very elemental nature of the world is dispatched so the environment necessary for us to 'live and move and have our being' is to be eviscerated and replaced with a realm entirely poisonous to humanity, eliminating the entire race in the process.

Ours is a time enraptured by the "drama" of environmentalism (even if our proposed 'solutions' are woefully misguided), but the 'terra-forming' that should actually be causing us to call out for help is the re-shaping that is occurring in our very hearts and minds.

Douglas Wilson was one of several American pastors who noted this past week how there is a deep moment of severance coming amongst Christian evangelicals in the US, and this is because there now exists a fundamental split on the nature of the faith, especially in respect to how we 'live-in' the Gospel. This rift, however, is just one expression of a very deep trouble at the very heart of our present culture.

As examined in my prior entry here, we are living in a moment when what is stated as "expedient" is, when unpacked, very, very far from it. When examined beyond the bounds of immediate political expediency and social contrariness, it is tellingly obvious that a vast swathe of the people are being held sway by the bonds of a will that is causing a great ill.

The intent by now should be obvious. When political leaders begin to admit openly that the intent is to create a two-tier society (as was the case in New Zealand this week), where the 'underclass' (non-jabbed people) are stripped of every single social right and freedom purely because a 'policy' determines them to be unworthy of a valid status, then the evil behind the current agenda has fully revealed itself. The scenes in numerous cities across the world (often missing or deemed 'violent' on MSM) of hundreds of thousands standing firm in protest, the massive walk-out from employees in America by police officers, nurses, firemen and other emergency staff who are being told that the must be jabbed or loose their jobs, the furious outcry this week in the state of Victoria by some MP's against the attempts being made there to introduce exclusive control powers to one man - all of this and more tells us that the line has truly been crossed and that freedom, as understood in our lives and societies for generations, is under very serious threat. Yet the church, in general, sits silent or encourages what amounts to full compliance.

The 'world engine' has truly been employed - the toxicity of the day is abundantly evident in a manner consistent with the form of 'controversy' the Lord had with Israel in Hosea's day (Hosea 4). The 'bonds' are broken, and the bodies are piling. The land is in a state of violent turmoil, and yet, the 'ease' of negligence abounds, in spite, it seems, of whatever tragedy erupts.

No one, says the Prophet, is heard to contend, because the 'priests' have stumbled into night and, most dreadful of all, such a silence destroys because what is tellingly absent is a lack of true knowledge - consciously rejected - by these 'ministers'.

The consequence is a termination of service - not in the 'practical' sense (the Lord tells us these destroyers will only grow in number), but in regard to their standing before God.

Feeding upon the ignorance and negligence, such will be intoxicated (blinded) - in effect addressing a dumb idol, being advised by an 'oracle' which merely confirms the folly and leaves them perpetuating the vanity of illicit affinity with the goals and aspirations of those who pollute the land with their 'wisdom'.

Such stubbornness bars God from truly feeding them, bringing to bear the malignancy of the evil one - that people believe such a status is deemed to be 'good'.

When we talk to non-christians about any point which impinges upon a matter that clearly infers there is a Creator - a Lord who is most certainly 'there' - the reaction is often one of firm rejection. They have become comfortable with the prison cell which informs them there's nothing beyond their own frame of reference; that's an appalling place. We can then only work and pray that God will indeed "irritate" them to a point of true agitation - where the 'hounds of heaven' are in full and relentless pursuit.

It is this manner of "ease" which has bewitched and pacified much of the faith. To seek to address the folly of the times now is to certainly risk ostracism a plenty, from the majority of church-goers, who oppose any open examination and rejection of the miserable errors of the day.

Evil is most pernicious when it leaves the church infected by just such paralysis, not seeking remedy for this violence.

When we fail to the ravenous and deceptive nature of the enemy, we readily fall prey to 'devices' which lead to the appalling kind of compromise so often raised in scripture.

Make no mistake - this house of violent comfort is just such a moment. 

When a national newspaper (the Times) publishes a piece calling for the suppression of official data because it is showing that significantly far more jabbed people are suffering with consequences from the virus than the un-jabbed, you know something is seriously amiss. This has been the case ever since the original Pfizer FDA report on the testing of the experimental substance showed over 40% more people who were injected were seriously ill than those who were not given the material.

This is why sober and honest discussion of the actual data cannot be discussed on places like You Tube by Christians.

The 'fix' is clearly in, and it is time we sobered up from this malady and began to speak the truth in love.

In search of the obvious

 "Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life". 1 Corinthians 6:3.

It's always refreshing when you come across something that makes a series of observations which "click", purely because it resounds with common sense.

Matthew Crawford's current 'Unheard' piece on health and the cost of currently being defined as "healthy" provided just such a moment.

Beginning with the absurdity of making his daughter don a mask to run around an open field for soccer practice, he notes how seeking to do the 'genuinely rational thing' can often currently entail breaking the rules, and that this usually comes at the cost of being deemed anti-social (perhaps even threatening). This brings to the fore the thorny issue that, in most of these miss-matched circumstances, there is no figure or body you can reasonably appeal to in order to make your reasoned case - there's just 'the ruling' and those complying with it (woe betide you if things 'develop' to the point that "persons" do arrive to enforce this).

So, the choices are that you conform, or you do not participate - those are the only actual options, and given this is so, the majority choose to "do" what's been set, however ridiculous the action may be (if sober reasoning was to be employed).

Some eighteen months plus into all of this, it's now clear that another problem has often become endemic - the "requirements" are so widespread, so commonplace, they have simply become habitual. Once again, compliance is therefore assumed.

This is where things become... interesting.

There may, by now, be very clear arguments to press that some or all of the actions imposed are actually without merit - that they are being implemented as a result of "advice" from Government 'nudge' think-tanks (which have been employed in this crisis all along), so what is being undertaken is to foster a particular, "disturbed" response from the general population in order to 'encourage' a very directed reaction to the trouble. Social restrictions and medical requirements become eagerly embraced and questioning of such is vehemently discouraged as outrageous.

Fear becomes the "vaccine"  which counters individual concern. Humiliation commonly trumps those who attempt to cross the 'normative' forms of the moment - and it equally levels all those who conform to the imposition of control.

The impoverishing of us all is clear. What was defined as essential for impacting upon the crisis now pervades a manner of oversight, a 'definition' of what should determine our inter-actions as humans that derives from a philosophy which defines such eccentricities as perfectly acceptable (imposing whatever authorities deem it 'reasonable' for us to do).

The "administrative state", empowered directly by national leadership, "gersumps" constitutions, state or county legislators, and human rights."Laws" are, in effect, imposed without the normal procedures to form, amend and frame them. It is a supplanting of the power structure that has shaped the modern world since its first introduction under the Saxon Kings.

Now, 'expert' cells of technocrats provide key data directly to exclusive leaders so action is immediate and undisturbed by notions like democracy. Only when the deed is already complete are 'lesser' bodies informed, and then only partially.

The notion behind this is not derived from a policy to merely provide necessary medical treatment - it is intent on a journey to transform society via means far too impatient to conform to necessary convention. Therein lies the difference between power and and authority.

In the modern 'Psych supermarket', the 'impulse' buys are the ones continually placed at our eye level. Easily run-trough the social 'check-out', we are expected to make the dash for such "goodies". The UK Government has a working group (in residence since 2009) to ensure we do just that, and this is echoed in bodies including the UN, the EU and the W H O. It is estimated that some 400 such bodies of this nature are now employed by Governments and influential corporations (social media) across the world.

The consequences, notes Crawford in his piece, are evident - outlandish "medical" necessities become the moral norm.

When such methods become tied to a particular political will, then what was once deemed as imperative in a free society - the rights of the individual - become archaic, or, perhaps, anarchistic. Most certainly, they are deemed an 'impediment' to the new (unrestrained) "progress".

"Liberation" becomes 'true' only if it conformed to such means and ends - the old can be neglected, indeed dismissed, because what has been 'bestowed' is defined as so much better - it will always do you good, so must always be employed, without questions.

When first referring to the 'small' trouble of the virus early in 2020, the 'leader' of the country quickly spoke of how we would be seen as 'supermen' before it - donning a swift solution so we could move along with 'weightier' concerns. The garb of our day is branded with the manner of 'visor' outlined above - a mirage of external industry devoid of any real care or cure for our abyss-like troubles which clearly cries out our need for a far better remedy.

The superficial surrounds us.

Now, by deliberate policy, such 'guides' or impedes all instruments of power.

The 'den of vipers' must be undone.

The 'curating' of information must end.

Our questions, our quest, our union to what is imperative, must be full and true.

This alone is the vitality that sustains genuine public health.

This is the nature of truth, which makes us profoundly free.

 

Condemned

 "Now Jericho was shut tight, within and without, so none could go in or out, because the people of Israel had come".  Joshua 6:1.

They were still a common sight in London in the days of my childhood - bomb damaged areas from the war, where remnants of prior homes had stood, now merely unsafe remains, barred with corrugated fences in the hopes of keeping inquisitive youngsters from venturing into such places. They were never successful, and many a time I joined my cousins and sister in playing in such places, to return home with skinned knees or bruised arms.

Condemned places.

Jericho would certainly have appeared to be a strange realm to be given such a tag. Wealthy, prosperous - a major city in the land with what must have seemed a golden future, but all that changed when a particular "blight" became evident. After what was, perhaps, years of rumours, the Jordan had suddenly dried and that strange people marked by the presence of "El Elyon" arrived. No doubt these city folk had already heard of their coming up from Egypt, of how even the cruel brigands of the desert, the Amalakites, had failed to overcome them. Now, they were at their very gates, and there was no way to prevent what was about to occur.

Rahab willingly fully embraced them, and thereby became enveloped in their story, but the certain victory ahead would be marred by the manner in which the very 'meme' of Jericho would break-in, remain and infect the Israelites, spelling out the inner canker that would impede them continually in the ages ahead.

We recall, no doubt, the strange manner in which the Lord of Hosts instructed Joshua to engage in conflict with the place - no material siege towers or battering rams, as God's warriors, no doubt, cleared the 'rulers in high places' holding sway over this Canaanite stronghold, until, the moment of triumph closed, and the mighty noise broke the final barrier of the supposedly unreachable walls, and the entire city was bare before their advance.

The Lord's command was clear - devastate the abominable place and take nothing as personal spoil (Joshua 6:18). The contamination could not be allowed to continue. Sadly, Achan didn't heed the instruction and did the opposite, leading directly to a humiliating, dreadful defeat before the city of Ai (Joshua 7). This transgression had to be exposed and rectified before any further work could proceed - only after the evil was exposed and what was defiled expunged could the people move forward and truly claim their inheritance.

There are always going to be insurmountable "issues" when we seek to accommodate things that are compromised.

Jericho's foundations were said to rest on the murdered children of its first king - one child killed before birth, the other shortly after - certainly a tradition which fitted with the "worship" practices of the region. The Lord is clear that a culture established upon such henious "norms" must not be granted refuge under heaven - their evil was worthy of only becoming ash. Achan's attempt to compromise with such things by seeking to keep their gods (idols) safe speaks volumes about how we so readily can attempt to seek a middle ground between being in the 'camp' of God's children whilst still seeking to accommodate what we deem 'wise' or acceptable from other dangerous sources.

Imagine what would have happened if Jericho's "ways and means' had gained full sway over the house of Israel. Actually, we don't have to - just read through the book of Judges and the history of the Kings to see just how often this manner of concession took hold of God's people and how ruinous the consequences were, finally concluding in the tragedy of exile from the land God gave them.

The church today is meant to be the place where God's "Ark" (presence) resides, but have we given way in this same fashion to the allure and ease that the 'wisdom' of the age places before us?

We would like to evade such a problem - surely, churches are not capable of committing such an obvious collaboration with wickedness! The Epistles of the New Testament clearly show us otherwise, and when we read the admonishments of Jesus to various churches in the book of Revelation, we should clearly become aware of just how easy it is for us to fall exactly into this kind of erroneous behaviour. That is why we need to be concerned about just how close we become to the mindset of the present powers and the policies they impose upon us, especially when this leads to a prevention of faith in practice.

 

Stupidity

The telling folly of the day. 

The Policy

 "Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away, for truth has stumbled in the public square, and uprightness cannot enter".

Isaiah 59:14.

I had a most peculiar encounter yesterday. After receiving an automated call informing me that a delivery would be arriving up to three hours late, the delivery driver rang me and the following conversation ensued...

"Are you one of our regular customers?"

"Yes".

"How narrow are the roads near to you?"

"well, perhaps a tad narrow in a few places".

"I'm on your estate... so I'll use the trolley. Please keep an eye out for me".

Well, I kept an eye out, and as the driver delivered my goods, he explained that he'd been involved in 'an accident' early in the week in a narrow roadway, so 'the policy' was now to not drive along "unknown" roads... in case of 'narrow regions'.

I wondered if this was 'policy' for the business he worked for, or merely something he'd decided upon himself due to his experience. Either way, it spoke a great deal to me in respect to our present circumstances.

MP David Davies made an impassioned statement this week about the necessity for the very civil liberties once more being threatened with cessation in the months ahead, but much more than this, he exposed the Government's bare faced hypocrisy concerning vaccine passports, comparing this week's Tory conference (where none were required as large numbers socialised for hours) to a visit to a leisure venue (where they are, or shortly will be), noting that this entire approach has nothing to do with public safety, and everything to do with coercion (by the way, the original link for this statement was pulled by You Tube shortly after it went live, so hopefully the link I have here will still be operating!).

"Policy", as the first report into the official UK response to the crisis this week shows, was a woefully lack-lustre and misguided thing in every respect, bar one - the vaccination program. This has been pursued and pushed with a resolve and industry that matches the tracing program of South Korea last February - the continuing roll-out now pervades almost every age-group in the population, and will almost certainly, as is now on the agenda states-side, finally include infants.

Any criticism of this, especially when it seeks to query the materials employed, is deemed conspiratorial in the most deplorable of forms (social media now actively culling it almost entirely), and this leaves Christians with a serious problem.

The Prophet Isaiah speaks of the evacuation of truth from the public forum and that this leads to a time devoid of righteousness. The very next verse tells us that the consequences of such a lack is that we become 'prey', and also those who will know God's displeasure.

Why, then, do so many believers follow a line concerning these 'vaccines' that view it entirely viable to use them on the basis of what is deemed "remote material co-operation" (in this case, a cell-line derived, but not actual material that was taken from an aborted child)?

The argument appears to be that because of this 'distance', there is, in essence, no actual evil directly involved in respect to the vaccine's recipient, but as others have already noted the reason that this is possible at all is because our society condones such murder continually and, in reality, this manner of immoral use is perpetual, so is there, in truth, any "remoteness" whatsoever?

Church authorities and the like may like to play such games, saying those of us who say this approach (deliberate murder of the unborn is evil, and so is the use of their remains - period) is wrong are, in their opinion, suffering from nothing more than a miss-placed conscience, but this is, in the light of scripture, an evil which merely compounds the vile sin of the original death.

Sin isn't something that just ends in the moment in occurs. The continual damage it brings about destroys us (James 1:15), especially as the prophet shows in respect to the dismantling of truth and the dissolution of what is truly upright.

The church is principally sided with the policy that there is a single solution to this present trouble - a single experimental material which is clearly doing a great deal of harm amongst a significant proportion of those who receive it, and a clear strain of ongoing contamination amongst an even larger number of those who continue to receive a third or even fourth dose. In the meantime, stringent Government policies are refusing to see the value that has come about either through the building of natural immunity in the population, or the effectiveness of other workable treatments against the virus. This has left the majority of the church crippled and paying homage to a policy that is clearly dangerous and derived from evil. This cannot be good.

It is my hope that as this tragedy continues, more Christians will awaken to the awful poverty of this and repent for the wickedness brought upon us by such a policy.

May I come in?

 "Beware that there is not found among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit - a person who when he hears the words of the sworn covenant, assures himself that he will be safe, even though he walks in stubbornness of heart". Deuteronomy 29:19.

This morning I watched a well-known Christian reporter in Australia speaking to a packed out venue of hundreds about the present crisis and how we can so easily be motivated into all manner of behaviour because of the over-arching narrative of fear. He sought to encourage them to what he saw as a better way - of seeking to continue to be there for each other, and to hold fast to what is good.

Tuning-in to a local church broadcast following this, there were prayers once again that the program to defeat the virus with the current process of jabs would continue and grow to ensure our safety - presumably because not only mainstream clinicians but the Government(s) (globally) are advocating this as the only approach to take to end the crisis...

...but this comes in a week when one of the world's most prestigious medical journals (The Lancet) has published comprehensive data to show a continual and worrying decline in the efficacy (effectiveness) in the MRNA materials in use amongst almost all age groups after only a very short period (several months), and that this period appears to be reducing. Added to this, these materials do not prevent those receiving them from being contagious with the disease or, in some cases, from becoming ill and dying with the virus, even in those regions where the latest 'booster' version have been administered.

Clearly, then, if we are seeking a clear success in implementing this program to bring about the 'zero covid' result spoken about in the early part of the year, we are very, very far from that, and yet, authorities still seek to act in respect to policy in ways which they have deemed necessary to support this solution, whilst casting what can only be deemed as a damning narrative against any possible alternatives.

This is the state of play as hundreds of thousands of workers who have sought to give a great deal throughout the crisis to this point are now being deemed no longer employable purely because they personally will not allow themselves to be jabbed, and those very policies will now exclude them from service.

This is now deemed permissible as larger sections of society are allowed to employ discriminatory requirements against those who, for various ethical, social or medical reasons, seek to continue to live within the choices a free society should provide, in spite of the malice and harm now being metered to them.

Yet the church prays on for the success of these means.

"La'anah" is a Hebrew word for a plant which produces an intensely bitter oil. In the New Testament, the Greek equivalent is used by John to speak of the devastating impact of a 'star' on earth in the last days - wormwood (Revelation 8:11), which poisons the very waters with its toxic bitterness. It's also the term used in passages like the one above, which warn us of how men will turn away from the covenant of God to their own devisings in respect to safety and confidence, believing they can achieve something above and beyond what is provided in God alone.

Since March 2020, the majority of the Christian church has conformed itself to a process of 'progress' devised by men and corporations which, at the very least, have agendas other than benevolence when it comes to their motivational imperatives - and that's putting it mildly! This has lead us into a course of action which is clearly ongoing and continual, and whilst we may have enjoyed a short spell of reprieve for a few months, it has already become clear that this is expected to end shortly for another lengthy period to come - not, it should be noted, to merely deal with an expected growth in viral cases, but, even more likely, because of seasonal flu and the influx of demands at hospitals in respect to this.

What is occurring, in other words, is the policies that have been employed to deal with a pandemic will now be rolled out and implemented in relation to illnesses we have, until recently, taken to be part of the common nature of life. This will most certainly mean a curtailing of 'normal' activity for all in the times to come.

The church must decide if such perpetual restriction is not only acceptable but moral and reasonable in respects to a Christian world-view, and if it is not, what must be done to counter this growing narrative of fear in our society.

We cannot allow the bitter-ing nature of this evil to take root and grow amongst us.