Just Get Up

Posted on 2023/07/02 by JimR, Chaplain

I know. I haven’t written much lately. I didn’t know life could be so busy when I retired. Being off for the summer from driving a school bus lets me sleep in a bit longer, but I still have summer school driving starting the 10th of July for a couple of weeks. I drove some middle schoolers to the aquarium Friday before last.

We’ve bought a deck kit for a 24×16 deck that I will start on tomorrow. Bills to pay for the month. I set them up all at once and date them to hit on their pay date. I don’t like the heat. Summer is finally here with 90 degree temps. I mow our church lawn and mine, so that is on for one day this week.

With all that I still find time to talk with God. He’s been quite fascinating lately. I’ve started a post on sin conciousness. But for this evening I’m just letting those of you that read my blog that I’m still here. In my studies of the First Book of Enoch I’m having a paradymn shift in my belief system. I’ve spoken with another minister in Europe that tells me that Enoch is included in the Bible they use and it holds equal reverence as the 66 books we employ in our Protestant Bible. I really believe we need to expand out thinking and weigh Biblical and Hebrew writings. Weighing Enoch against Biblical canon I find it weaves itself into the books and explains scriptures that are vague. I’ve even sat with my pastor and assistant pastor and discussed it with them as well as read and watched videos concerning Enoch’s content.

Right now at this moment God is tugging at my heart to write something. I don’t know what, but I will kind of freewheel and let His Spirit guide me.

I find most churches are a mile wide and a quarter inch deep. Most of what is preached is “feel good” messages. There is nothing in them that contains instruction into the deeper things of Christ so that we may conform to Him. Most of what I hear is telling people how to fix what’s wrong with them and to me it has become a word that focuses on what’s wrong and what needs fixing. You have a past. I have a past. It died with our conversion. I know we have to grow in Him. That’s a given. However we need to stop looking back and start looking forward to what God has planned for us. We need to be dropping our past like a hot rock while looking forward towards our goal in Him. That goal is to become a mature (perfect) spirit in Him. We speak of perfect wrongly in Christian terms. No one is perfect (mature), but we are being perfected (matured) through our growth in Him.

Matt 5:48 – Be ye therefore perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.

Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance defines it this way: 5056; complete (in various applications of labor, growth, mental and moral character, etc.); neuter (as noun, with 3588) completeness:–of full age, man, perfect.

Perfection isn’t attained all at once. It’s a process of growth. We are being told by Jesus to grow up. Falling down in our walk isn’t failure. Getting up and continuing the walk is what makes us grow. We are bound to fall down. It’s the getting up that counts.

In the process we mature in Christ. Don’t let yesterday’s failure or even today’s failure be discouraging. Just get up. That’s how you’ll grow up.

Posted in Failure Not An Option, Ponderings | Leave a comment

Taken or Left?

Posted on 2023/06/19 by JimR, Chaplain

Much is said about end times and there are many people that portend to know the Bible, yet have not completely sought the true meaning of prophesy. I used to be one of those of the camp of the “any minute” rapture of the church.

I was an angry young man when I found there to be views of end times and without going into detail I was out to prove all others wrong. I failed. The conclusion led me to change my thinking. All this rustling around telling people to get ready to disappear at any moment will only lead to dispair as God prepares to vindicate Himself in the earth while we are protected by his shadow over us.

Psalm 94:15 New English Translation – For justice will prevail, and all the morally upright will be

vindicated.

Many wring their hands in despair. However, we need not do so. We speak of the world going to hell in a handbasket, but there is no need to worry over such. I’ve always said and will continue to say that the kingdom adds and multiplies. Evil subtracts and divides. Evil devours itself. It cannot subsist in and of itself. It’s a simple principle. Stand and watch the principles of God work on the earth; we only need to praise Him for His victory for and in us. His removal of evil will leave us a revived earth upon which to live for eternity.

I Cor 10:26 – For the earth is the Lord’s, and the fulness thereof.

I cannot and will not expect to leave the earth. I expect to remain as Noah did.

Matt 24:40 – Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

As it was in the days of Noah the wicked were swept away in the flood. Only Noah and his family were left.

Posted in Ponderings | Leave a comment

Paradigm Shift

Posted on 2023/06/12 by JimR, Chaplain

I haven’t given up on writing about eschatological writings, but for now I have a more perplexing issue at hand. My studies have led me to an area of thinking I have not delved into before.

I tried to express my thoughts to my wife. However, I cannot sufficiently do so as I don’t have a handle on it as yet and that is what makes me troubled. God is very slowly opening up something to me I have yet to understand fully enough to get a full picture of it.

We go to church. We hear preaching on how we should live out lives and have altar calls where we can confess our shortcomings. My concern is there is something we should be looking into after we clean up ourselves. Still next service it’s the same thing. People end up at the altar to “clean up”. There has to be a time when we stop focusing on our past and shortcomings and look to God’s view of who He sees we are in Him.

If we can look at ourselves through His eyes we will see not a being that is dirty and short of the person we could be, but a victorious overcomer. Once and for all we no longer should be carrying in our thinking of who we were or short of. Positivity in our thinking should be our focus.

Phil 4:13 – I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

We should be searching and seeking God for direction that goes outside of ourselves. What are we to be doing? What is our calling? What is YOUR calling? Do you know? Persue God until you get an answer if you have none. If you do, what are your plans to fulfill that calling?

My studies have me perplexed in that there has to be a shift in thinking in myself. There is a key to that shift I’m searching for. I will find it. God doesn’t alway simply hand things like this to His own. It is when we find it for ourselves that the value is more precious and taken to heart in such fashion as it will never to be lost. It becomes foundational in our lives. I want that.

I’ve heard so much Word in my lifetime, yet only the last year or two has those Words become life to me in a deeper fashion. Recent studies has shown me the life after this life on earth is done. We have been here on this earth in a training session that consists of every moment of our waking hours. I heard it said many years ago that this life is “training time for reigning time”. We need to seek what our duty station will be in eternity.

Having been in the military I found boot camp was a stressful time. Drill Sergeants were there to tear down who we were or thought we were. Our character is eventually left naked with no preconcieved notions of who we thought we were. Most often we are for ourselves only. The base line I learned was we are taught to not be timid to confront our enemy, but more than that we are to drop our self-care for assimulation into a group mentality where our concern involves the possible sacrifice of ourselves for the lives of those next to us. By the end of training our lives are secondary to the ones next to us in battle. I suppose my strength lies in my ability to give myself for the life of another. Go figure. Isn’t that what Jesus did for us?

John 3:16-17 – For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

Can you imagine not being condemned? When I get close to this in meditation I am humbled more than I’d ever imagined concerning the grace of God. He saved me. He saved you. He saved all mankind. No one is lost except for those who do not acknowledge this saving grace.

John 3:18-21 – He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

It is so simple to confess we were born into sin and cannot escape its hold until we do so. All of mankind’s names are already written in the Book of Life. We just need to acknowledge this fact of the new covenant. The striking out of our name from the Book of Life comes when we reject that this is so. When we do so our name is removed and we walk under condemnation by our own thoughts and hand.

Why would anyone want to reject this gift of eternal life? Not because of fear for our own being, but from the desire to want to join the family of God because we recognize the love of God is strong and we desire to return that love to Him who has created and saved us.

Posted in Abundant life, Biblical teaching, Christian Mission, church, Ponderings | Leave a comment

Ghost Soldiers

Posted on 2023/05/22 by JimR, Chaplain

To preface this writing I relate here, I can only say if you believe what I’m about to write I will leave that to you, the reader. Some things in life are seemingly so horrific that people today will find it unbelievable.

I met this homeless man yesterday named Don. Don is a whisp of a man. There’s hardly anything to him physically. He’s old, much like myself. He is a Vietnam veteran of a dubious nature. He had come to our church through our homeless ministry. It gives some a place to go just to get out of the shelter. Still, some come for the actual church service. I take it he came just to have some place to go. Even at that I knew God brought him to us unbeknownst to him.

He had been in the service I suppose, but when I saw him he was in the back hallway where I was monitoring screens from cameras around the church campus and eyeing people coming and going. I’m on the Security Team as you may suppose. Our church was sponsoring a Food Truck Rodeo on campus that day and the parking lot was filling rapidly.

So, back to Don. He was just standing with a bit of a 1000 ft stare. If you have a military background, you know that stare. I was drawn to speak to him. We started conversing and he immediately opened up about his early life. I will be brief in his telling.

He was by his admission a former POW for almost two years. His conversation unfolded the horrific nature of his prisoner status. He said he was never a big guy. He weighed only 140 pounds when he was captured in the jungles of Vietnam. Remember that weight, because I’m going to wander a bit here as to his military duty.

He said he was a member of an elite group of soldiers call the Ghost Squad. The name comes from the

fact that they were nowhere to be found in any military documents. They operated totally apart from any military unit and it was their job to eliminate pointed targets. They had to train for this squad for two years before going into action.

One target he related to me was an enemy Colonel or General, I can’t recall at the moment. His squad knew if they assassinated him outright they would be making a myrtar of him to his people so they had to devise a way to eliminate him that would not look obvious. They tracked him and watched his movements and found his weak spots and where the best place to rid him from the fight. In order to do so they called in an air strike on a gathering of some 160 people at some event he was attending and obliterate the entire 160 people with him. It is war we’re talking here, so I’m sure they were told to do this deed by whatever means necessary. I am an U.S. Army veteran of the Vietnam Era myself. I understand this. Hopefully you never have to experience such decision making as this.

Now, back to his POW status. He was captured in the jungle and taken to a detention camp. He told me these camps are nothing like the movies. They are real and terrible. They were watched night and day and if they tried to sleep there was someone always there to wake them up and keep them awake. Sleep deprivation is not a good thing. He went on to say they were given food, but it was spiked with parasites that ravaged their intestinal system. He went on to say it was either that or starve. Not only did they load the food with parasites the Viet Cong would urinate in their food before giving it to them. The North Vietnamese were brutal. Follow the attached link for more details of their attrocities.

https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/197501/brutality-and-endurance/

Being in a church setting telling me this I felt somewhat convinced he was truthful for the most part. He went on to tell me while as a prisoner they did not pray to God. They did not pray to Satan. They prayed for Death to take them away after time had made their incarceration unbearable. He said he considered suicide several times.

Still, he managed to make it to the day of liberation. When he was released he was medically assessed and was put on medications to rid him of the parasites and to help him regain weight and strength. At the time of release he weighed 72 pounds. He said he has never recovered from it mentally or physically. Even standing before me he weighed only 85 pounds. After all these years he still has nightmares of those years and has trouble sleeping.

There are many trouble souls like him on this earth. The reason I find him credible is because I had a cousin that lived within eyesight of me back in my youth. He was a terror to me. Always picking on me. But he went to Vietnam as a draftee. When he returned he was drug addicted and suffering flashbacks. Several years after he returned I went home for a visit and I saw him. He was only a shell of a human. He was so subdued from medication. He was barely functional. So, yes I can imagine Don was telling something that had an air of truth about it. I could be proven wrong, but I’m sticking with what he told me.

I talked on with him about the fact he can recover from a degree of his suffering. It would be enough to give him hope even if I believe he can be fully recovered. A little at a time is all he can handle. Much like a starving man in a concentration camp. You don’t sit them down to a full scale meal when they come out of captivity. It could do much more harm. I also gave him my book to read. He said he wanted to talk with me some more at another time. Hopefully he will so I can build on declaring that he can have a full victory in Christ.

Posted in Abundant life, Christian Mission, Common Sense, Hope, Human Touch, Ponderings | Leave a comment

THE RETURN – through Present Truth

Posted on 2023/05/11 by JimR, Chaplain

I’m considering writing another book. It’s about a life-long journey I’ve made on a particular subject of mine that I thought I had a firm grip on. But in that firm grip I found God’s direction and urging to study caused me to relax that grip on escatalogical teaching and beliefs in my mid-twenties. It took me quite some time to understand scripture in its proper context.

I posted the following bit from a post I made on FB this morning. It will be explained further in the writing I have started. It may be a new book titled THE RETURN – through Present Truth.

JUDE 14 And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints, 15 To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.

ENOCH 6:9 The elect shall possess light, joy, and peace; and they shall inherit the earth.

MATT. 5:5 Blessed are the meek: for they shall inherit the earth.

(my words). . .God shall remove the wicked. The earth is the home of the righteous. . .

Matthew 24:40-41 (ESV) Then two men will be in the field; one will be taken and one left. Two women will be grinding oat at the mill; one will be taken and one left.

I firmly believe in the return of Jesus such as it was in His leaving, but from scripture I find a popular belief is an amazingly horrible lie. Stick with me if you want to know more.

Posted in Biblical teaching, Christian, Ponderings, Righteous alarm | Leave a comment

The Voice

Posted on 2023/05/04 by JimR, Chaplain

Those of us that are Christians know the voice of our Shepherd.

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: – John 10:27

A while back I shared how I hear God speak and had been honing that ability for years. I first heard God speak to me when I was yet a young teen. At the age of twelve, maybe thirteen, He told me I was called to ministry.

In sharing such a part of my life I got a couple of responses in the conversation that I must be schizophrenic. Of course this comes from people that don’t understand. So to them I suppose I’m in need of mental intervention.

I guess they never have considered that there are voices other than God’s that whisper such denial of this ability. I’ve admittedly heard several different voices in my lifetime, but I know God’s voice distinctly.

I have stories of the results of hearing His voice. I haven’t the time to write all of it at this moment. Several times I have seen the results of hearing His voice. I cannot deny Him.

Prayer is conversation. This is the main way to talk with God. We talk. We listen. If you say you never hear God talk, do you take time during prayer to listen?

Posted in Abundant life, Christian, Follow God, God's Calling, God's direction, God's Guidance | Leave a comment

God Loves Us

Posted on 2023/04/22 by JimR, Chaplain

Learned a long time ago that God loves us. How do I know? He laid out a plan that will make us succeed at everything we do when we follow it through our relationship with Him and listening to Him. He will never disappoint. If we miss the mark, it will be because we did not follow God’s plan for us. This is a big issue with the world that does not want to take responsibility for their choice/actions.

Everything hinges on our response to Him

Posted in Absolute(s), Biblical teaching, Christian, Common Sense, God's Calling, God's direction, God's Guidance, Ponderings | Leave a comment

Please Read Entirely

Posted on 2023/04/08 by JimR, Chaplain

I had considered sitting here writing a piece on the crucifixion. Then I decided to hold off to wait for something to say. Not sure how to put this.

Easter is an annual celebration observed throughout the Christian world. However, there are absolutely no verses in the Bible that authorize or endorse the keeping of this tradition and has absolutely nothing to do with the Resurrection /Passover of Yashua Ha Machiach.

The Bible does not mention anything about Easter eggs, Easter baskets, or Easter bunnies.

The name Easter actually comes from Ishtar / Easter who was worshiped as the moon goddess, the goddess of spring and fertility, and the Queen of Heaven. She is known by so many other names in other countries and cultures that she is often referred to as the goddess of one thousand names.

Inanna is the Sumerian name of Ishtar, and definitely the most important one. Inanna was the granddaughter of Enlil, who in turn was Anu’s son. Anu was the highest ranking Anunnaki and his name translated “Great Sky Father”. Anu was revered as ‘god of the Heavens’ and he was the central figure of mankind’s first religion. According to the Sumerian tablets, he only visited Earth twice.

The Babylonians celebrated the day of Ishtar / Easter as the return of the goddess of Spring – the re-birth or reincarnation of Nature and the goddess of Nature. Babylonian legend says that each year a huge egg would fall from heaven and would land in the area around the Euphrates River.

The Pope’s ceremonial clothes copy those worn by the ancient priests of Dagon, and not by coincidence. According to the Sumerian tablets, when the Anunnaki god Enki first arrived on Earth, he landed his space ship on water. He later emerged from water wearing his ‘scaly fish-suit’. Thousands of years later, the ceremony of the fish god was still celebrated in Akkadia, Assyria and Babylon, by the priests Dagon.

In her yearly re-birth, Ishtar would break out of this egg and if any of those celebrating this occasion happened to find her egg, Ishtar would bestow a special blessing on that person.

Other pagan rites that were connected with this celebration and which are part of our modern Easter tradition are Easter offerings to the Queen of Heaven (consisting of freshly cut flowers, hot buns decorated with crosses, and star-shaped cakes); new clothes to celebrate this festival (The pagan priests wore new clothes or robes and the Vestal Virgins wore new white dresses or robes and bonnets on their heads.); and sunrise services (to symbolically hasten the yearly arrival of Ishtar’s egg from heaven – the re-incarnation of the spring goddess).

The Satanic Ritual of Sacrificing Children

Every year, the priests of Ishtar would impregnate young virgins on an altar dedicated to herself and her husband*. The children were born on Christmas (!!!), and the next year they were sacrificed in the Easter’s Sunday at the sunrise service. The priests would take Ishtar’s eggs and dye them in the blood of the sacrificed children.

*Inanna’s husband was none other that the infamous god Moloch or Melekh, to whom children were – and still are – sacrificed in Satanic rituals. Satanism is the religious worship of the Anunnaki, and the human and animal sacrifices were/are part of the rituals.

Most people accept traditions as fact because they have been part of our culture for so long. Unfortunately, most of these traditions are dark and gory Satanic rituals.

If you have read this far. take note. I believe in the birth of the Son of God, Son of Man. I believe He ministered 3.5 years and was crucified for the reason to end yearly sacrifice as a “one time for all” sacrifice of Himself to bring about the evolution of the fulfillment of the Law into the Age of Grace. As I have grown old I’ve found there is so much more to speak about the weight of this event we have been celebrating. The old Adam having been condemned to die without hope cried out for God to fulfill His words to not come back void. This crucifixion brought about the Last Adam to culminate the OT law and usher in a new age that allowed mankind a way to bring restitution of a lost relationship. It is very important to me to understand this event. You, too, must understand eternal life is a benefit. Not an end to the evolution of who we are. We have purpose in Him and His death, burial and ressurection. It has brought us under voluntary conscription on our part to become a part of the heavenly Kingdom. We are a part of the Army of God. Our oath to Him is our confession of faith which has no end date. He gave us that privilege.

Posted in Absolute(s), Abundant life, Biblical teaching, Christian Mission, Follow God | Leave a comment

Surety of Salvation

Posted on 2023/03/25 by JimR, Chaplain

I remember many years ago as a young teen hearing God speak to me. It was about that time He started calling me to salvation. He also told me I was called to the ministry of an evangelist. I’m primarily wanting to share something on the call of salvation.

It took three years for God to get me to answer to my need for salvation. I was scared stiff of getting outside of the box I was in. I feared people. I feared what they would say or think. I feared this feeling of conviction. Conviction finally won out.

At sixteen during a week-long revival in a country Baptist church I gave in. I had about torn the rail off the back of the pew in front of me many times, but I had to let go. When I took my first step towards the front to make my confession of need by faith I only remember the first step. I must have floated the rest of the way. I don’t remember anything between the first step and then standing in front of the evangelist. I felt such a freedom wash over me. My soul was saved and my spirit was now alive. I remember it well even though I’m seventy-two now.

After the service when we got home, I remember standing in the kitchen with my mom. She was making popcorn. She turned to me and said she was proud of me. You see, she was a preacher’s kid (PK). My dad said little about it. That Sunday all of those of likewise persuasion along with me were baptized in the water at Cayton’s Landing. near home.

God had a lot of work to do on me from that night forward. I know all too well, because when I went to bed that evening I got on my knees on my pillow looking out my window at the stars. I asked God to come now, tonight even. Why? Because I said I knew the walk I was to take wasn’t easy and if He didn’t come that night I wasn’t going to make it.

Many things fell in front of me from that time forward that stalled my calling and my walk. There was a young woman, The military. After that I married a different woman and we started a life. About five years into that marriage our lives started to change. By that time we had two sons.

Then at the age of twentysix God renewed His persuasion upon my life to answer Him. Without knowing I was suffering from depression, I still heard God and starting searching for answers. I thought I knew what was complete. I knew nothing compared to now. God was merciful to me.

Finally renewing my need for God I made a fresh start and was once again baptized with the woman I was married to at the time and a symbol of oneness, I suppose. God gifted me with the baptism of the Holy Spirit with evidence of tongues. I then began an earnest endeavor to follow Him in all my ways. His refining fire was hot on me for several years. I was a hard one to deal with. I did not really break until I was fifty six.

When I hit fifty-six I broke. I lost my marriage, my church, myself. I suffered with anxiety attacks, and was diagnosed with severe depression. I won’t go into detail, suffice to say I met the woman that brought me back from the edge. Those were dark days. But God knew my heart and still loved me.

My new wife and I married a few years into our relationship, but everyone that met us during the premarriage time thought we were already married. That’s how much we loved each other and it showed. After about the third year from when we met we decided we needed to go to church. There is too much to tell here. Safe to say my wife and I got married in the first church we attended and got our lives on track. The second church my wife truly fell in love with God. Then God moved us to yet another church were we now attend.

Both of us are now ordained in our church and by the state. At this time I began to attend school again and became a certified Chaplain with a side study in suicide awareness and prevention. Then came the book that God had promised me for decades and it is now published by Trilogy Publishing.

What I really want to get into for a few words is that during these latter years I have become more keenly aware of salvation in my life. My studies have shown me that I am truly and solidly saved unto God by His grace and mercy. He has shown me things on the other side of the veil that I never knew before now. All of those of us called according to His purpose have things to do in the unseen realm and I am so thankful He has shown me that. Loss of my body will not be my death. I shall not see death. I will pass through the veil from this life to the next life eternal and not miss a step.

You don’t have to sit in wonder as to whether you’re saved or not. Pray (converse) with God and then LISTEN. He will tell you what you need to know. Don’t be discouraged if you’re not sure, because when He does speak He’s not going to condemn you, but He will tell you what you need to do to solidfy your calling and election as a surety. You will no longer doubt. Then walk in that victorious knowledge that comes with knowing and you can conquer this world now and carry that experience with you into the next life.

Posted in Christian, Ponderings | Tagged | Leave a comment

An Appointment

Posted on 2023/03/19 by JimR, Chaplain

All things aside, once you reach a certain age, and you will, you will consider where you’re going after you shed your shell. Death is not the loss of the body. It is the loss of your soul. Only acceptance of the gift God gave us will prevent that death.

I would like to say much about this, but I’m constrained for the time. I’ve been given insight to the life beyond the veil. I think we all need to seek what is going on there. The battle that we see here is waged there and this training ground here prepares us for that time to come. Prepare yourselves.

I have to speak boldly because many don’t like talking about it. He gave His Son so that you may escape that death. God is indeed a loving God. For those of you that understand, let it be known you have an appointment. You will keep it. You will not reschedule for your convenience.

Posted in Christian, Death, Follow God, God's Calling, Maturity, More of God, Ponderings | Leave a comment