Tuesday
Obama: Yet Another Creep!
At first I felt a little bad about the line in my "Farewell Mr. President" song to Bush, after Obama got elected, that says, "So, come on get down off your thrown, make room for yet another creep," thinking it was perhaps a little exaggerated ad out of place.
After all, there seemed to be genuine signals that Obama was bringing about positive changes indeed, like the executive order to close down Guantanamo.
Well, after having just watched only the first half of "The Obama Deception," I humbly admit that my wife had a better sense of discernment than I did, and that "creep" seems to have been, rather, a compliment.
I never would have thought it possible that she was right when she said, "But what if he's worse than Bush?" - Impossible, I thought.
Well, that's whatcha get for thinkin'...
Woe is us.
Wednesday
121 Den of Thieves
Someone called me up some time ago and said, "You're the only dude on the Internet who's giving his music away for free."
Well, maybe so. But I've got it from Someone Who I consider a greater and more reliable authority on happiness than those John Denver referred to as "them money-hungry fools."
You never read about Jesus charging an entrance fee for His sermon on the mount, nor did He charge for a single one of His fish sandwiches (although I'm sure He could have raked in a fortune). It just wasn't in Him.
His credo was, "Freely ye have received, freely give," and in my opinion one of the greatest disgraces about Christendom is the machine of commerce that it has been for more than 16 centuries, with no improvement in sight anywhere (at least not voluntarily).
Thank God the Antichrist is going to appear some time to put an end to all of that with his "mark of the Beast," which will divide the wheat from the chaff, anyway.
Jesus made it pretty plain what he thought of that commercialized hybrid of religion or spirituality when He chased the vendors out of the temple. Imagine Him coming to the Vatican or your average drive-in church nowadays, or the mega-temples of the star evangelists. He probably knows why he chose to appear 2000 years before things would get really sick.
Of course, nobody ever believes all that stuff He had to say about not being able to serve God and Mammon (the god of riches), and about the birds in the air and the lilies of the field, and that the heavenly father would supply all our needs, just as He does theirs, if we would only seek first His Kingdom.
"Seeking first" the Kingdom would mean that that's what you'd invest the majority of your time and efforts in, instead of raking in all the cash you can.
If you dedicate your time to serving Him and making sure that folks get His message (without having to pay a fortune for it), then, He says, He will also take care of your needs.
If you preach the Gospel and spread the Good News, then He'll make sure that you can also live off the Gospel. Of course, if you only preach to those who've heard the Gospel a thousand times or more, and they're willing to pay a fortune for your sedating sermons that will assure them they'll escape the wrath of God for our collective selfishness and greed, then you'll have good cards as far as the god of this world is concerned, and the game that he's playing, but God may think differently about that kingdom you have built for yourself.
It's called "modesty," a trait long forgotten and forlorn, and it has an even more recent hero than Jesus and His early followers, namely the Italian monk St. Francis, who bucked the tide of the religious supermarket of his day and decide to be content with little for a change.
He saw a lot of misery, but I also believe that he knew more true happiness than most other folks in his day.
One of the secrets of life is the art of not falling for every single temptation the Devil offers us along the way; it's the art of saying "No, thank you!" every once in a while, "I already have enough."
I guess some people are starting to reap the first repercussion of the "never enough" attitude that has been prevailing in our modern, enlightened Western society for the past decades. But will we really have learned the lesson when and IF the economy recovers?
Tuesday
Book Review: "The Dawkins Delusion?" by Alister McGrath
Apart from the fact that 10.-€ for a booklet of 78 pages seems a bit overprized, this flaw might have been overlooked if the content of those pages would at least have made up by quality what lacks in quantity. Alas, it is not so. The very thing McGrath holds against Dawkins, namely that by lack of information, his bias and repetition of dogma, Dawkins is doing the science community a disservice, McGrath becomes guilty of himself, in that he reflects rather negatively on the Christian community.If this is all that Christianity has to answer to folks like Dawkins, then woe is us, and no wonder people are being annoyed by our faith. Such lukewarm religion has never done anyone any service.
McGrath seems to have absolutely no clue about what "Intelligent Design" actually represents, but in a totally ignorant and uniformed manner repeats the same mantra about ID that is coming from the atheist camp. Only one hour of his doubtlessly precious time, devoted to watching the documentary "Unlocking the Mystery of Life" would have saved him from probably perpetual embarrassment.
If you're looking for a book that will strengthen your faith in God, or would arm you with solid arguments to counter Dawkins' disciples all around us, don't buy this book. It would have been bad enough and perhaps tolerable as a blog or free e-book, but is frankly, not worth the paper it's printed on.
Wednesday
120 The Heavens Declare
One drift that is currently or since a few years going around on the web is the notion that since there are so many similarities between ancient deities and religions and the story of Jesus, Christianity and its whole story must be a fabrication, and some go as far to claim that religion altogether seems to be a plot cooked up by the Illuminati to enslave mankind.Certainly these people must be doing the Illuminati or whatever forces intend to enslave mankind a great favor by spreading their erroneous idea.
While it may be reasonable to conclude that similarities, such as the resemblance between the Babylonian "son of god" Tammuz and Jesus must be more than a coincidence, just as much as it was reasonable for Darwin to conclude from his observation of finches on Galapagos that changes are happening within creatures that help them to adapt to their environment, when that same train of thought and "reason" is spun further to an extreme, total nonsense comes out of it.
You've got to know when to tell your own mind to "stop! Thus far and no further!"
What the great conspiracy theory heroes like the producer of the movie "Zeitgeist," and other similar Youtube productions, or Reptilians-Specialist David Icke fail to see is the very legitimate reason for the similarities between the Gospel story and the tales of previous religions of
The secret is that God had written the Gospel story in the stars, way before we ever saw it unfold, exactly like it is said in the Psalms:
"The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament showeth His handiwork.
Day unto day uttereth speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge.
There is no speech nor language, where their voice is not heard.
Their line is gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them hath He set a tabernacle for the sun." (Psalm 19:1-4)
We all know that passage and love it because it sounds so mystically poetic, but few people really know what it means. Thankfully, some people do, and have overcome their fears of what fellow Christians might think of them if they would write a book about naughty, naughty astrology, and if enough people cared about the truth, we could all relax in the knowledge that it was God, not the Devil, who created not only the stars "for signs and for seasons" (Genesis 1:14), but also the zodiac.
According to William D. Banks and his book "The Heavens Declare," the origins of the zodiac dates back to Enoch (yes, the guy who walked with God, and "wasn't found," and from whom we've got the word "inch," coincidentally). The word zodiac having its true origins in Hebrew ("the path" - coincidentally the name Early Christians gave their new faith among believers), and prophetically telling the story of Jesus, the "Lamb slain from the foundation of the world" (Rev.13:8), - depicted in the star sign Aries, the ram, or lamb - beginning with the virgin Mary (Virgo), telling about the price He would pay (Libra) to free us from the grip of the Enemy (Scorpio) by pointing the arrow of His truth at his heart (Sagittarius), being the Scapegoat for our sins (Capricorn), pouring forth the waters of His Word (Aquarius), gathering His church [called-out ones] (Pisces) to be a Coming Ruler (Taurus), representing both God and man, King and servant, Savior and sufferer in one (Gemini), to gather His flock into His fold (Cancer) upon His Return as the rightful Heir, King and Ruler over all (Leo), to give the gist of the story in a nutshell.
The names of the stars in these signs have in all "speeches and languages," as Psalm 19 says, told the Story of "the One that was to come" for millennia before His actual birth, and since the stars were a major source of information to the scholars and wise men of the ancient empires, it's no wonder that their religion sounded so similar to what Christianity would become.
To conclude that the similarities between them are a result of man concocting His own idea of God is comparable to Darwin's conclusion that creation "concocted" itself - the only tolerable explanation for those who refuse to make room for God in their lives, regardless of the fact that life could never have created itself without information or intelligence, which always - undeniably and without exceptions - has an Author.
Conspiracy authors and filmmakers are thus unwittingly contributing to the cause of the very forces they try to expose, by tossing the only solution and hope of freedom for mankind into the same pot, confining humanity to the mental prison of an existence for no particular reason or purpose which already has created more misery than any other dogma in the past century.
The only hope they offer is that one day mankind will become enlightened enough to save itself from its own stupor, which generally is the same basis of all false religions and philosophies from Cain to Marx, based on the self-righteous assumption that one kind of people - for whatever reason - is better than the other, and thus deserves the position of power and authority over them. If that doesn't sound like NWO-Philosophy, what else does?
The dilemma with the world is that nobody ever realizes that the attitude that they know better than God is precisely the predicament that has landed them in the mess they're in.
Saturday
119 God Vs. B3
When it all comes down to it, the problem with the world is largely its indifference and its blatant lack of interest in its Creator.
Guess I had it already basically pinned down when I wrote that song, "Indifference."
The problem is that everybody thinks that they are so much more interesting than God, and whatever they've got to say is so much more important.
Back in the 60s and 70s people were still willing to listen to what songwriters like Bob Dylan, James Taylor or Donovan had to say.
Today's generation is more interested in boobs wiggling to the monotonous stomp-beat of the umpteenth re-make of some song of the 80s that most teens haven't heard yet, and in putting their own voices to the karaoke soundtrack of that re-make, and wiggle their own butts & boobs (henceforth referred to as "B&Bs"), the way they've learned it from Britney & co.
It's not that I'm opposed to B&Bs. But I am opposed to stupidity, (not referring to stupidity as lack of knowledge, but rather the tendency to continue to make the wrong choices, due to setting false priorities) which is probably our 2nd biggest Enemy, right after our indifference. Or maybe it's our stupidity that causes us to be so indifferent...
Okay, so, our job as Christians or believers in God is to arouse people's interest in Him and make them reconsider, “What on earth makes you so sure that you're that much more interesting than the Creator of the Universe?”
Our job is to remind the creation that it's not No.1, after all.
As I say, it was easier to use music back in the days when folks would listen to the lyrics, and the lyrics actually meant something.
Back then, it was even possible to win a few souls by wiggling B&Bs to the tune of a Gospel song. Nowadays you'd just get lost in a sea of'em...
It's hard to keep the vision of the Great Commission the Lord has given us to spread His Good News everywhere and preach the Gospel to every creature when every creature seems to be too infatuated with themselves to give the Good News of Creator's love the time of day.
Certainly writing just another despairing blog isn't going to do the trick... But it usually helps me to think & crystallize my thoughts, & perhaps come up with a good idea. I think God needs that. He needs a few more people with good ideas, but who are willing to use those good ideas to win souls, and not just make a big buck.
Not that I'm opposed to big bucks, either. But I am opposed to greed.
It's probably our 3rd biggest enemy, right after our stupidity and indifference...
And let's face it, folks: one reason why a substantial amount of people is becoming sicker of "Christianity" by the hour is because of its promoters' passion for shuffling dough and building big fancy buildings while 10.000 people are starving every day, and that number is bound to increase this year, due to the things our greed has done to this planet and our global agriculture.
Maybe what's going to get people interested in God (- and I'm not talking about the kind of "interest" where God & Jesus are hip because over half of the population goes to one of the churches on every block -) is going to be the consequences of where our lack of interest in Him is going to lead us.
Maybe what it's going to take is a crisis. Maybe trouble is actually good for us, and is going to do more for our souls' welfare than all the wiggling and shaking of B&B's in the world put together...
And maybe our job is just to be there when the time arrives, to remind people that there is a God and He loves them, even if they wouldn't have given a hoot about Him before the trouble came...
If that's the case, let it be, and "bring on the night," if that's what it takes to wake us up.
Some of us seem to be awake, but paralyzed at the same time, unable to do anything to wake up anyone else.
Maybe that's going to change soon. As soon as the repercussions of the current crisis will have hit the more sheltered regions of the world, and those parts of town where business still goes on as usual.
"Business as usual" doesn't seem to be good for our relationship with our Creator. "Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God." "Business as usual" creates indifference, stupidity and greed, because who was ever satisfied with what they have in the business of raking in ever more?
If that's the case, let's have some change, and not just wait for it to happen. Changing the world - if anybody's still interested in that endeavor - starts with us, and it behooves us to change and adapt our attitudes, methods and whatever it takes to remind ourselves and others that there is yet something or Someone more important than the 3 Bs (boobs, butts & bucks).
Let's see if we can't convince a substantial amount of folks that God is actually capable of topping those. (After all, He's the Inventor of at least the first 2 Bs, and maybe there's more where that came from...)
Remember that 80s movie with George Burns, "Oh God, II" in which God recruits a little girl to start an advertisement campaign for Him? We need something like that... A slogan like "Think God!" or "God first" or ... "God beats boobs, butts & bucks"...
C'mon, help me out here!
Of course, it's natural that people want admiration, attention and recognition, and I'm not advocating depriving anybody of that. Long live the marvels of God's creation! But all I'm saying is, first thing's still first, and we ought to give credit where it's due, & not exclude the Creator from His creation, as they have pretty much done over here in Europe for the past 150 years, and proud of it and celebrating the event, as if the ascent of homo sapiens was something we could pat ourselves on the back for.
What it all boils down to is that love (being God) beats sex, the Creator is actually more worthy of our attention and worship than His creation, and yes, there is even something more marvelous and magnificent to adore than our wee little selves, and that's the One Who made us & loves us even more than we could ever love ourselves (and that in spite of all He knows about us.)
Thursday
118 The Best Employer
According to this Daily Telegraph article, Christians in Britain (as I'm sure elsewhere around the globe) are finding it harder to keep their jobs and positions in society. Maybe they're beginning to get a little taste of what true believers have had to endure since the onset of Christendom, before their martyrs moved from the arenas into the grandstands in the 4th century.During the first 3 centuries of Christianity's existence, believers had very similar problems: each trade within the Roman empire had their own guild, and without being a member of such, one could not practice the trade. One membership requirement was the annual offering up of incense to a Pagan deity, and if a Christian refused to offer incense, he would be expelled from the guild and thus find himself unable to practice his craft.
Perhaps one reason why God sometimes allows such difficulties to arise is for His children to put their trust in Him, instead of the System, and if we truly consider ourselves Christians, perhaps to consider doing the job that Christ gave each of His followers to do: "Go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature" (Mark 16:15).
I know, that sounds outrageously fanatical. "You mean, we're all supposed to become missionaries, huh!"
Well, I didn't say that. All I know is what Jesus said: "Ye cannot serve God and Mammon," (Matth.6:24), one of my favorites among my list of Bible Verses Most Christians Choose to Ignore.
In the minds of present day Christians, God seems to be capable of everything but taking care of them.
We profess the Gospel of "Professionalism" as if it were the professions and jobs that are eternal, and not God's Word, and as if there never was any such thing as an economic crisis.
Well, let's talk again in a year from now.
Eventually, folks, it's going to come to that: you're just going to have to trust the Lord!
Mammon is a pretty fickle god, in whom I wouldn't put my trust any further than I can toss my Toyota. - Excuse me, my wife's Toyota.
It doesn't really matter what you do, as long as you don't put your trust in Mammon or money, but "in the living God Who giveth us richly all things to enjoy" (1Tim.6:17).
And if it really becomes difficult or impossible for you to do your job in whatever profession you've learned, perhaps you should consider doing the job God gave each of us to do, and do whatever you can to prove that you seek first the Kingdom of God by taking care of His flock, especially the lost sheep out there, who are not yet in the fold.
There are so many ways to do that nowadays. Most of all by becoming living samples of a living faith in a living God, Who is not unable to care for us, even if we'll never get another job in this life!
Take it from someone who hasn't had another employer for 29 years. God is the best!
Wednesday
117 Hour of Temptation
A friend of mine lent me the book "The Shadows of Power" by James Perloff (the same guy who wrote "Tornado in a Junkyard"), and it put a few more pieces of the puzzle of the Endtime scenario together in my head, giving me a slightly clearer vision of how everything fits together.
For one thing, I had always been wondering how come the Whore in Revelation (which I believe symbolizes America as the ultimate embodiment of the stray Church) is riding on the back of a beast that seems to resemble every world empire.
But when one reads how the plans for the New World Order, the final and 7th world empire (from a biblical point of view) that is to rule the world before Christ's return were basically all made in New York (namely at the Council on Foreign Relations), and usually turned into profit for those same bankers who brought the CFR into being in the first place (including the virtual creation of Communism in Russia, China and Cuba, plus just about every single war in the 20th century), then it becomes obvious how the Whore would emerge fat and rich from the exploits of the NWO Beast she is riding so pompously on.
Perloff's Book was written in 1988, only shortly before the collapse of the Sowjet Union, and thus, the foothold of Communism in Europe, consequently leading to China becoming more open for "the wine of her fornication" and the "delicacies" of capitalism as well, and one almost wonders if there's a connection between the fact that too many people were being made aware of what the CFR were up to (like the John Birch Society, or Gary Allen, who had written "None Dare Call It Conspiracy" over a decade earlier), and perhaps caused them to change plans and create a new "Enemy" to replace Communism.
It becomes obvious through the book that "the Establishment" (as Perloff politely refers to the CFR) used the threat of Communism and their supposed efforts to "stop" it (while in reality furthering it wherever they could) in order to pull wool over the public's eyes, enabling them to wage "police actions" in Korea, later Vietnam, etc., the same way the new culprit has enabled the Bush administration to unleash their unholy "War on Terror," terror basically standing for "Islam."
Apparently unable to stop Christianity from flourishing, or perhaps even having fostered the growth of the wrong kind of Christianity (the kind that interprets "Love your enemies" as "put them out of their misery"), creating a new, turban-wearing and carpet-knives swinging "Enemy" that looked even more dangerous than the reds, was a welcome change in the scenario that made exposers of the NWO/CFR clique look as if they'd been barking up the wrong tree:
"You see? You told everyone that we were going to use Communism to rule the world, and now it's dead, nyananya..."
Another thing I gleaned from reading this book, even though there wasn't anything obvious written in it to indicate that, was that the architects of the NWO aren't in any kind of a hurry, and if they have to change plans, they'll change'em.
Fundamental Christians often seem to see the final signs of the End, and the Coming of Christ being fulfilled in front of their eyes and unfolding in the News they're currently watching on TV: "Oh yeah, Bush must be the Antichrist!" Or, "No, it must be Obama!"
As much as I wish for all this madness to come to an end as swiftly as anyone would, I'm coming to the conclusion that it's probably still going to take a little while before we'll see those final events unfold: a final New World Order established by 10 "kings" of both totalitarian and democratic territories (see Daniel 2:41), which will ultimately be spearheaded by one last, final and ultimate world dictator.
The stage isn't quite ready for that yet.
Which doesn't mean, though, that there isn't plenty of trouble brewing. The economy is going down, and will continue to go down, all in order to bring the rulers of the darkness of this world closer to their goal: a merging of currencies, eventually to be abolished and replaced by the Mark of the Beast.
Food prices are not only going to soar, but explode, and whatever price it will cost the nations of this world in order to save their skin, they will pay it, even if it's their "sovereignty" or other freedoms. If you've been in the habit of "laboring for the meat which perisheth," as Jesus warned us all not to do, then you're also going to find out why He warned us not to do so. He knew what dangerous position this was eventually going to bring mankind into: "the hour of temptation which shall come upon all the world, to try them that dwell upon the earth" (Rev.3:10).
Want to know which country the U.S. will crush next, in order to "gently usher them into the New World Order"?
Visit CFR.org today!
Sunday
116 The Last Heroes?
On our way to our gig last night we were listening to some of Don McLean's old stuff, which I had recently dug out, and I was touched by the beauty of his art of expression, and most particularly in his anti-war songs like "The Grave," or "Everybody Loves Me, Baby" etc.
It made me realize how drastically things have changed since the early 70s. People just don't write lyrics like that anymore. The vast majority have come to accept war as a commodity of life to preserve the Western status quo, or the American Way of life, or whatever.
Instead of rebelling against their governments' falling into nations that they have no business dropping bombs on, they accept the media hogwash and propaganda of "the enemy" and give their silent consent to the daily mass murder that's happening on behalf of their tax money.
And that in spite of the lesson we ought to have learned from fairly recent history of what guilt people can collectively heap upon themselves by silently consenting to the evils committed by their governments.
How many church visits will it take to clear a conscience of that burden, that's mostly not even recognized? How many donations or tithes will it take to buy forgiveness for the silent tolerance of the slaughter perpetrated in the name of us, "the people?"
The closest thing in recent times that I heard to some of the anti-war protest songs from a time when at least a substantial amount of the world population honestly admitted that war was evil and that the U.S. had no business wreaking havoc in Vietnam are songs like Pink's "Dear Mr.President," (although the song does not mention anything about American foreign policies, but only deals with domestic issues) and, of course, we've got Pearl Jam's rendition of Dylan's "Masters of War." - Oh, and perhaps some of the Dixie Chicks' Anti-Bush rantings, for which they'll always have my respect. Oh, and of course, good ol' Neil Young's "Impeach the President," bless his soul!
Pretty much everyone else that I know of dances to the modern drums of war, or rather, to the tune of "let's ignore what our country is doing in other countries," unless another bunch of flag-wrapped coffins arrive at home, that is.
The trademark of the 21st century, thus far: the (cultural) voices of truth have become (nearly) silent. The nations cower in fear of their leaders and follow them like sheep to the slaughter of the innocents.
The problem with that is the universal law of cause and effect as laid down by many spiritual teachers, including Jesus' follower St. Paul, when he said, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." There's a cold wind blowin', and we're beginning to see the first fruits of our "harvest" in a crumbling economy and a crisis which now has officially exceeded the rank of severity of that of the Great Depression, (along with forecasts of food shortages coming upon us as early as this year, which many of us may find themselves unable to deal with).
Even the young staff of the joint we played in last night acknowledged in a conversation I overheard while packing up our gear, that we're still going to chew on the repercussions of the current crisis for the next 5, 10 or 15 years, and that even though Europe hasn't seen the worst of it.
Unfortunately, it will probably take more than a financial crisis for people to wake up and tell their government, "Mr. Obama, don't follow in the footsteps of your predecessor, and please, stop killing people in Pakistan or Afghanistan." Or to their most strongly supported ally, Israel, for that matter, "Please stop killing innocent Palestinian children!"
Even more unfortunately, if history continues repeating itself (- and that in such a drastic manner that some people have started to doubt whether history is really real -), then this current crisis, like the one in the 30s, will only lead to more and greater war, greater need for some "culprit" to blame and make pay for the domestic dilemma, greater cries and thirst for blood, and who will be the next people that will answer with a shattering unanimous, roaring "YES!" to the question, "Do you want total war?"
Younger people nowadays speak critically of the hippie movement. But you've got to give the hippies credit for having had the guts to stand up for their love for peace, for being willing to acknowledge (unlike many supposed "Christians") the Biblical reality that war is evil, and for being willing to oppose their authorities for their stance against war.
They may be looked upon with ridicule by today's silent consenters and smug cogs in the machine that have learned to shut up and do as they're told, but maybe a wiser future generation will look back at those rebels of the 60s and early 70s as the true heroes of the 20th century, and perhaps even as the last of their kind in history as we know it altogether.
In my experiences with abundant acquaintances I've come to realize the fact that some people simply refuse to acknowledge the existence and reality of their mistakes, thus depriving themselves of the possibility to ever learn from them, but thus to remain "willingly ignorant," as the Bible puts it, which Kent Hovind appropriately translated into modern English as "dumb on purpose."
What if an entire nation or generation chooses to be willingly ignorant, or "dumb on purpose?"
It reminds me of one of those relics from the 60s which may have even sounded a little naive back then, but in the face of the reality of the past 4 decades, acquires a bitter by-taste: "When will they ever learn? - -
When will they ever learn?"
If "there is no peace, saith my God, for the wicked," then I dare to re-define "the wicked" as "those who want no peace."
Some of my favorite Anti-War Songs from the 60s and early 70s:
Buffy Sainte Marie - Universal Soldier
Pete Seeger - Where Have All the Flowers Gone
Don McLean - The Grave, Everybody Loves Me
Buffalo Springfield - For What It's Worth
The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again
Barry BcGuire - Eve of Destruction
John Lennon - Give Peace a Chance
Rolling Stones - Gimme Shelter
More recent anti-war songs:
Some of my own:
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