193 Let It Rain! (Days of Noe)

I used to wonder about this passage in Matthew 24: "But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (Mt.24:37-39).

I used to wonder, "Why, Jesus, what's so bad about eating, drinking, marrying and giving in marriage? Why should that merit the end of the world?"

But if you take a closer look at people's eating, drinking and mating habits, you get the point.

While 40.000 starve daily in one part of the world, obesity is becoming a major disease in another.

While in one place people don't even have enough drinking water to survive, in another they drink themselves to death.

It's the imbalance, the selfishness that matters and makes it so ugly... the unwillingness of the rich to share, and their sickening, self-indulging indifference.

And then there's the mating game. A whole nuther story.

Have you ever frequented a dating site? Like - in a "civilized," Western country?

I once wrote an entry about the devaluation of human life in reference to what some nations are willing to pay for the corpse of a butcher as compared to what they're willing to eke out for the corpse of his victim...

Well, you'll see the devaluation of human life (along with the sheer absence of human intelligence) nowhere as blatantly as on a dating site.

Here they present themselves like merchandise in a supermarket, and mind you, the customers are picky. "Looking for Mr. Right" or "the perfect man" ... or woman, the "girl of my dreams, " etc.

Whereas members of less "developed" countries are a lot more modest. Perhaps one day the world will see the difference between so-called civilization and truly civilized people, among whom respect is still a given, and courtesy not a "Huh, what's that?"

Not to mention that in the entire process of feverishly trying to obtain the objects of their affection that might quench their burning needs (or lusts?), the most important Factor is - as usual - left out of the equation almost entirely: the Giver of all things in the first place.

Maybe that's why Jesus said not labour for the meat which perisheth... although everybody of course, keeps doing it, even the most devout of His followers.

Of course, it would be a sacriliege and the epitome of political incorrectness to preach anything different, for man's greatest religion and god has become the work of his own hands. After all, the work of his own hands is what will earn him those most desired shreds of paper in the universe, which Jesus said we couldn't serve, if we served God,;and those, in return, will by us foood, drrrink, and will help us to impress the other sex (either by means of taunting our apparel and plastic surgery, or our vehicles, houses and yachts). In short: materialism.

Since everything begins (evolution) and ends (lifeless corpse in coffin) with mere lifeless matter which is supposed to have brought forth itself, the space between the beginning and the end, that which we refer to as life, revolves around the same: lifeless matter. In other words, not really life at all, since the one thing that gives life, as Jesus said, is Spirit (John 6:63), coincidentally, the same stuff that God Himself is made of (John 4:24).

It's not that I don't like to eat, drink or am not totally amazed by the opposite sex. Nor do I try to pretend to come across as some sort of spiritual wonder child, since I'm subject to the same desires and needs as everybody else.

It's just that the way we go about it and still have the nerve to call "civilized," to me comes across as rather barbaric.

If that's what brought on the flood (along with many other evils that find their modern counterparts), then let it rain, Lord, let it rain!

192 Prophetic Ingredient

I'm a firm believer in the fact that God can speak through just about anything and anyone, even people who are totally oblivious to their being used as a vessel for a higher, divine purpose.

The movie "Answer Man" points out the principle of how God can use even anything but perfect people to speak to the world through them, often very much in spite of themselves, rather than because of any specially pious qualities on their part.

In my free eBook project "The Deeper Meaning of Everything" that's precisely the point I'm trying to stress: God speaks to us through everything.

In my movie blog "Talking Pictures" I try to point the lessons I glean from the movies I watch, and I also firmly believe that God has sometimes inspired songwriters - often totally unbeknownst to them - to broadcast downright prophetic messages to the world through their songs.

A few classic examples: "Let It Be" is, I believe, a prophetic song about the time of the end. "When I find myself in times of trouble..." - The Great Tribulation?

"Mother Mary" in the song, in my opinion, represents the Holy Spirit, "speaking words of wisdom." Later it says, "Whisper words of wisdom," indicating that those words won't always be spoken out loudly from pulpits with microphones, but a cloudy night is coming, through which there will still be a light shining on those who believe, culminating in the great awakening to the sound of music (the "last trump") at Jesus' Return.

I doubt that Paul McCartney was aware of any such divinely prophetic ingredient, since his ideology certainly seems to be an entirely different one.

"Bye Bye Miss American Pie" also had a greater prophetic significance than Don McLean ever realized, if you've watched the development of pop music over the past 4 decades since that song was written, and perhaps even he knows by now that "The day the music died" wasn't just the day Buddy Holly's plane crashed. I often joke that it was the day Madonna recorded that song.

Then there was the '71 album "Who's Next" by The Who, a musical milestone, with their song, "Won't Get Fooled Again," ending with the line that so perfectly describes the succession of the current administration to the previous: "Meet the new boss! - Same as the old boss!" - I've even seen people wearing t-shirts with that line on it in reference to Obama...

Maybe I’ll come up with a list of other examples of songs with a touch of the prophetic…

In the movie "Hurricane" the statement is made that people don't find the books they're looking for, but their books find them.

In my life, pretty much the same applied to every song I felt magically drawn to. Even if at the time I first heard and started liking the song the meaning of the lyrics didn't seem to bear any resemblance or parallel to what was going on in my life, later on, it did, and I realized why that song had "found me."

Maybe you're too rational, dogmatic or restrictive to consider that God could possibly work in such ways, and certainly the theory of Evolution wouldn't lead to such a seemingly bizarre conclusion that our Creator should be involved in even such small details in our lives.

Well, Jesus gave us a clue that He's more into details than many of us may think when He said that every hair on our heads was numbered, and no sparrow falls the Father doesn't keep track of.

So, next time you hear a song and you feel its tug on your heart strings, listen to what it's got to say. Chances are the Author of Life Himself has a message to you.

191 To Be Or Not to Be of This World

Being a politically correct Christian with a politically correct God and Christ these days means to refrain from separatist tirades indicating that there should be any sort of division between true believers - Christ's genuine disciples, and the rest of the world.
"The world," that mass of people Jesus told His disciples they were not a part of, if existent at all, are always the Hottentots in far-off countries who wouldn't be able to afford our bestsellers on Pop-Spirituality in the 21st century anyways.

So, let me be politically incorrect here once again and heat up the old forgotten and despised doctrine of John 15:19 and harp a little bit on that: Is there such a thing a "the world" in the sense of something we should not be part of, if we call ourselves followers of the Maker of that statement, or is it just a myth, and we're all so super goodie-good and moving toward the point of enlightenment in our evolution which will usher in universal peace without the Almighty having to resort to any of the drastic measures He announced in the portions of His Book that are carefully being avoided by popular Christian authors?

Of course, it's natural to want to erase any existing lines of division between yourself and your target audience when that audience is supposed to eke out 30 bucks for your latest compilation of divine wisdom. But are those potential readers really being helped and enlightened by the illusion that all is at peace, the Devil's on vacation and there is no actual spiritual warfare going on?

Personally, I think I'd rather watch "Matrix" one more time, for some inside scoop of what's really going on.

One of the reasons why I do believe in the existence of such a thing Jesus called "the world" (that I don't feel I belong to), is that I have found out that there is, in fact, also a distinction between lies and truth.
Now, for many folks in our success-oriented world, that distinction is nearly non-existent. They're so used to lying, they can't tell the difference anymore.
It wouldn't occur to them to call anything their political leader or anyone says on TV or anywhere, for that matter, an untruth or a lie, because it would mean that they would have to be more careful about their own truthfulness (or lack thereof), and who wants to pay that sort of a price?

So if mass murderers like Charles Manson or warmongering Nobel peace prize winning presidents (see why you can't be serious about being part of this world?) want to go on and on about how much they love Jesus, we're all cool with it, because that sort of hypocrisy is what we call "freedom" here, in the liberated West, and watch out, we're soon coming to a town near you to liberate you, too!

When Christians talk about "the world," it's usually in the context of John 3:16 to let everybody know how much God loved the world, no matter how haywire it had gone.
But we ignore the admonition of that same John a little later in the Bible for us not to love the world, nor the things in it.

That's a lot harder message to preach, brother, and if you do, just wait and see how many books you'll be selling then!


I like the way Bethany Dillon put it in one of her songs, "Aimless," (and I thoroughly hope that she still knows what she was singing about): "They've always known this wasn't home."


I've always known this wasn't home.


How about you?

190 The Race of the Mystery Riders

When Jesus made the much dreaded statement in Matthew 6 that we cannot serve God and Mammon (the god of wealth = materialism), He must have already known that while millions would someday profess to be His servants, in reality they were going to dedicate the bulk of their time in service to this competitor in the quest for man's most precious commodity: our time.

While most interpretations of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse claim that the rider on the white horse is supposed to be the Antichrist, I personally contend that the proper interpretation of this passage should ascribe the identification of the white rider to Jesus, and the other three His fiercest competitors throughout time, perhaps in some sort of a race for our souls, and when time is up (literally!), there will only be one of them left.
Who are those mystery riders? War, materialism and death, also known by other ancient names by which they were known, revered and even worshiped for millennia: Ares (the Romans called him Mars), Mammon and Hades.

Luckily, the Bible already tells us who is going to be the winner of the race, since it foretells a time in which men will beat their swords into plowshares and will learn war no more, which eliminates Ares, the god of war from the equation.
We are also told the fate of Hades, the god of death and hell in the lake of fire.

So what about Mammon, the god of wealth? In our current terms, Mammon can easily be replaced by a word for the stuff that allegedly rules the world: money.

Some think it will last forever.

The Bible tells us differently.

In fact, from what the Bible tells us, it seems that of the four riders, Mammon will be the first one to yield up the ghost.

Granted, this is just one of my own personal theories, but it's based on some serious thought:

When the Antichrist imposes his mark of the beast in the new economic order everyone from Kissinger to the Pope is expecting with excitement (as foretold in Revelation 13), it seems that will be the end of money - or at least cash - as we know it.

Perhaps one reason why the Almighty won't be so fond of that new method of trade at all will be the fact that Satan will have managed to create the perfect imitation of His own system of currencies: faith. The object of man's desire will have been placed from the visible to the invisible realm, the perfect counterfeit of God's system.
And for those who fall for it, I guess it's going to be like having made their choice for the other side.

If my assumption is correct, and it's Mammon who bites the dust first when the AC implements the mark, it might also explain one of the most mysterious passages in the Bible about the Endtime:

"For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work;
only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.
And then the lawless one (The Antichrist) will be revealed,
whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth
and destroy with the brightness of His coming."
(2Thess.2:7,8)

Some scholars interpret this passage as to be referring to the Holy Ghost as "He who now restrains...until he is taken out of the way;" that the Antichrist cannot be revealed unless the Holy Ghost be taken away.
But how are the final two witnesses in Rev.11 going to give their testimony without the Holy Ghost?
And for the benefit of all those "left behind" during the Great Tribulation (which might be more than many people think, especially in the light that the Rapture is only going to occur after it, as Jesus said), let's all pray to God that the Holy Ghost isn't going to be taken away.
But it would have to be someone or something that was around in Paul's day, which certainly applies to money...

So, here's my little theory for you on the race of the four riders of the Apolcalypse...

189 The Illusion of Change

Probably one of the greatest deceptions taking place in our times is the illusion of change, and I'm not just talking about the Obama administration, although it's definitely a perfect example of it.

In order to create the illusion of change, some actual change has to take place, but only on the surface.

And it's true, on the surface, things have changed a lot over the past 100 years: our ways of getting from point A to B, our methods of communicating, or keeping ourselves fed, clothed and entertained.

However, no substantial change has taken place in the deep motivations of mankind for our actions, no significant change of heart.

We're still ruled by the same fears and lusts as our ancestors of all times. We just think we are superior because we have changed on the surface.

You put a remote control into a man's hand instead of a plow or shovel, and he'll think he's "evolved."
- Or a machine gun instead of a sword, and he may think he's come a long way. But the end result is the same.
You put a black face on the President, and at first everyone is awed: We've certainly never seen THAT before, nor did we ever think we were going to live to see it, but when it's just the same stupid white men pressing the buttons on his remote control who controlled the last puppet, it's "Meet the new boss - same as the old boss..."


That's what stinks about organized Christianity, also increasingly referred to as "Churchianity:" It totally misses the drift of its supposed Founder. Christianity as it is has become a force for conservatism in this world, when its original Founder was and is the total and absolute opposite.
What Jesus was and is and will always represent in this world of phony changes, is total Revolution, and total break with the decaying, sinful ways and attitudes of man, which haven't changed a bit since Adam and Eve, except that they've gotten worse, similar to the condition of a carcass over time.

If He is the Life, we are the dead. If He is the Way, we've been certainly going in the opposite direction. If He's the Truth, then most of what you will hear from us, the pride and glory of civilization, is the opposite. Just turn on the TV and count the lies you will hear within 30 minutes. Providing you are still able to discern between truth and lies. You'll get the drift.

So, change has happened, alright: the lies have become more and bigger. The condition of the carcass humanity has worsened. However we're more delusional than ever in our perception of ourselves as the greatest thing to ever have happened on God's earth. Until perhaps we catch an accidental glimpse of the 40.000 people we allow to starve each and every day right in front of our noses, just to make sure there'll be enough left for us tomorrow...

So, you may buy into all the hype and rah-rah of progress, advance and the glories of mankind, I don't buy it. As Dylan once put it:

"So, sing your praise of progress
and of the doom machine
the naked truth is still taboo
whenever it can be seen."

What's worst about the illusion of change is that it makes us think we don't need any real change.
What's worst about the illusion of health is that it makes us think we don't need the Doctor.
What's worst about our oh so great perception of ourselves, is that we'll never realize just how badly we need Somebody to drag us out of our mess.

What's worst about Satan's puppets acting like all the saviors we ever needed is that we'll never realize how badly we need Jesus.

What's worst about our blindness is that we actually think we see.

Thus is the deadly venom of the illusion of change.



Saint John's visions of the coming leader of the New World Order, commonly referred to as the Antichrist (with reference to his intentions and philosophical inclinations, thus strongly leading to the conclusion that he could not be the Pope), strongly indicate that he will be the culmination of all previous world empires rolled into one, from ancient Egypt to Rome. In other words, even though he may be availing himself of every hi-tech facility thinkable in order to control, enslave and terrorize his global subjects, underneath, it's going to be the same barbaric and tyrannical spirit as always.

The only One actually ever effecting REAL change in the course of history will be Jesus.

He may have subtly done so during His first coming.

It will be significantly less subtly during the next.