A Question of Human nature

I have always thought much about people and why they do what they do. It was always hard for me to imagine how for so long that pain and suffering has existed. Receiving the question of why do people write viruses over and over, for me there is many answers, but it comes down to one. The answer is, because they can.

It is the same answer for many things. Why do people hurt one another? Why do people steal, when they do not need it? Why must the strong always oppress the weak? Why must there always be a struggle? Humans are greedy people. We want what we do not have, and, by nature, are not happy with what they have.

Greed is the root of so much that is wrong with our lives and our world. The world is a big place, but each day we try to make it a little smaller. Someone once said, in response to the question of why World Domination will never occur. The answer was, “The world is too big, and the people are too different for any one group or ideal to dominate it all.”

Many have also said you cannot change the world, but you can change yourself and help change the things you touch. Now from this point your mind could be going in many different directions, but primarily along two different paths, negative and positive. So is the reason the world becoming smaller is so someone can control it? Or as we touch so much more and so many more people, can we not more effectively change more that we touch?

But what does this have to do with viruses? How to viruses spread? Everyone knows how a cold spreads, through contact. Viruses the same way. Ideas are humanities greatest virus. They spread as one to the other. If an idea takes hold, a notion, it can spread like wildfire. We see this every day in every facet of our lives. The idea that certain clothes look cool to the idea that this diet will work for you, to the idea that this person or that person knows what they are talking about.

These ideas build our society, and society, a lot of times, define our world. We are in an information age, so now more than ever is the concept true that Ideas are some of the most powerful and dangerous things out there. We have seen this in popular culture going back for some time. Inception was not the first, and neither was the Matrix. George Orwell's 1984 showed us an idea of control.

We flash back quite a way to the ideas that changed the world. From, “Fire good!” to Jesus might know what he's talking about to, E=MC2 is a good recipe for a weapon, to if we hook computers together they are much more powerful, to hey what if I could take my phone with me. Ideas change and shape our world and our lives.

Hey if a man letting himself get struck by lightning can change the world... why can't you? I mean really think about it, Ben Franklin, indisputably one of the most revolutionary men in history really shone with the great idea of being able to harness electricity, but what did he do. “Hey guys watch this! I'm gonna tie a key to this kite to prove that electricity is real.” I mean seriously, how could ANYONE think that was a GOOD idea?

If ideas such as leaving fruit juice out too long will and drinking it will get you drunk can be accepted not only as good ideas, but major industries. Why could more fruitful ones take hold? Well they can, but the trick in this age is getting people to take on ideas that they will not make a profit and will not get them more attention. How many of you, honestly, would not jump on board with an idea that would without a doubt make you a millionaire in a year with no consequences?

How about this one, taking on the belief of an idea that would get you labeled crazy if it promised you eternal life? I bet you would for sure if you didn't get this eternal life after you died. Death is scary for most of us. Here is the problem, we want to see that there is proof of this good idea before we will take it on ourselves.

This is understandable, it is a rare kind of person that wishes to be the first to do something that could be labeled as a bad idea, but man we all want to be the first to do something that is considered a good idea. All reward with No risk. Sorry life is not so easy. Yes you can live life in such a fashion, always taking the safe road and sticking with the status quo. The Status Quo does not equal change however. If you want to change things, you really have to be willing to take that step out there and be the first.

If you want to change yourself however, this is even more difficult. You have to be willing to change how YOU do things, and do things that are against the routines that you have developed. Anyone that has been addicted to anything will tell you how hard that can be. Our bodies are influenced by our environment. Part of our environment is our history. We learn how humans have existed for as long as we have been, and we accept that is the way of things. So what if you want to believe something that is contrary to what you were taught to believe? That's hard.

Pearl Bailey had a wonderful quote, “You cannot belong to anyone, until you belong to yourself.” Now for me, what this means is you have to know who you are and be yourself before you can truly know why you believe in what you believe in. You have to develop your own idea of how the world is, and how you are. You have to walk through these fires before your faith can truly belong to you and it's not just borrowed from someone else. Only then will your walk be true.

So moving to the heart of things. What do you want our world to be like? Loving, accepting, one without war and strife? You want a world without oppression? As Michael Jackson said, “You have to start with the man in the mirror.” World change begins with you. You want others to desire to be a Christian, give them reason to with your walk. “Faith without works is meaningless.” “May they know that you are my children because they see me in you.” If you really treated others with love and you loved them as you loved yourself... most of us wouldn't call anyone anything horrible. Now if you are like me and have a bad habit of talking to yourself... well I can be less than kind to myself, but hey I still love me every chance I get.

How about we start walking with the love of God instead of trying to do his job and walking with a yard stick to see how everyone else just doesn't measure up. May God be with you in your heart and your soul. And let's keep taking that red pill and see the world for what it is, so we can begin to make it the world that Jesus would love it to be. We have to be in this world, but not of it.

Inclusive or Exclusive, the Christmas spirit

The holidays bring out a lot of things in a lot of people. For many it's a time of joy and cheer, for others that cheer has turned sour with hurt and loss. For those that are alone it can be a time of great pain. For us Christians it is supposed to be a time for us to reflect on the birth of the one that died for all of us.

During this time of reflection, it is easy to get caught up in what Christmas is NOT about. Shopping, greed, everything but the spirit of Christ. It can also make us loose sense of purpose and why God left us here and think that this is our time. No one else that does not worship this time for the same reasons as us do not deserve it. This is a big reason why there are not more of us.

This is a time for us to celebrate and truly get into the spirit of giving, it is not about consumerism and it is not of elitism. It is a time to be with family and friends, it is also a time to reach out to those that are hurting because of this time. Those people need a reason to make this time of year something worth celebrating. Times are turbulent, as they always are, we do not need more fighting, war and strife. We do not need any more lessons in greed, coveting, lust and deceit. What I call for is for each of you to reflect on one thing. Was Christ inclusive or exclusive?

Jesus was a man that none of us are capable of being, but we should not stop trying just because it's hard. It's easy to have friends that are like you, it's hard to spend time with people that you are not like. Look in the bible and reflect on the places that Jesus had dinner at more than not. He spent more time with the lawyers, tax collectors and thieves when he was living his ministry. He lived by example, he wanted all to walk with him. He lived and died so we could be with him. So why have we, as Christians, for so long shunned, killed, hurt and cast aside those that were not like us?

When I was not a Christian one of my biggest reasons for not was the crusades. We Christians went into the middle-east and slaughtered millions because they believed differently from us, to take the holy lands away from the people that had lived there for so long. We continued to oppress others that did not believe like us. The conquistadors, the people that settled right here in the US, the natives that were here had what we wanted and we took it from them. This oppression pushed me away from Christ, especially when I was told that I had no place at church when I listened to rock music, when I dressed like that, when I was not just like them.

I am a Christian and I would still wager that I am quite different than the vast majority of my brothers and sisters, but that's how I was built. God loves me for who I am, his brush painted me and that is who I am. I'm still an unfinished work, just as we all are. Lessons in the bible that really mean a lot to me are the ones that make you reflect on life and how one should live as well as the stories about how we are all his people. Jesus told the disciples to go make disciples of the world.

He also spoke to the world as the nation of Israel. Now this is an interesting thought, we are all one people under God. We are all citizens of one global country in God's eyes. Why can we not live like that? Why is it that we have to concern ourselves with what country we currently live and how it compares to others? All of them are broken because they are not all one. As long as we as a race of people fight God's plan and design we will never truly know what happiness we could have. We have the resources globally to take care of all of the people of the world, but we will not share it. We want to hold it tight and are so worried about running out.

Where is your faith? Did not your God take care of you? Did he not see you through the darkness? Did he not provide for his people in the past? Faith of a mustard seed... Until we wake up and break down these walls that we call borders and live as a whole people we will never see his plan. Here is my challenge to you, if you do not have a friend that is not a Christian, I challenge you to expand your world. If your faith is strong enough, then this is not a challenge, stand beside the sinner because we all are. Show them that Christians are not all judgmental exclusive people. Show people the Love that God has shown you. Let us begin to break down these borders and walls around us. We are a global people and our survival depends on two things, first God letting us stay here and second our ability to look beyond how we are different and see how we are alike.

Be more like Jesus, Love people, and love ALL people no matter what holiday in December they celebrate today, they could be standing with you at church if you can get past that. Remember, the healthy are not the ones that need the doctors. If you only live with the healthy and help those that are healthy, the sick will continue to die away. Two commandments is what he gave us, Love God with everything we have and Love each other as we love ourselves. I don't know about you, but I only pick on myself for so long before I get tired of it.

I love you all, and may we see a brighter future through hope. This is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, who would have gave away all those gifts on that very day if he wasn't in such a weak form. For those that are hurting, I am sorry for your loss. I cannot bring back your lost ones, but I can stand with you and be a light in the darkness. I know that I have a lot of brothers and sisters that can do the same in this Holiday season let us walk like Christ.

Standing for Beliefs

“If you do not believe in something you will fall for anything.” That quote is one that I’m sure everyone has heard more than once. It’s sound advice. We all also have heard stories of people that stood up for what they believed in no matter what the cost. Some of these stories appall us, others yet, excite us.

The moments that really take hold are the ones that inspire awe in us. These range from Rosa Parks to Ghandi to the founding fathers of this county. They also go to people that are less known such as the monks that set themselves on fire in protest, to the man in Gastonia, NC that robbed a bank for one dollar just to get medical treatment. They can be figures that will be remembered for ages to come like Jesus Christ, to the man that will be forgotten tomorrow.

As Christians we are told that by our faith we shall be known. We are told there is a way that we should act. Look through the first few books of the New Testament and we are slammed with expectations. Jesus tells us to be more like him each and every day. To do that we must go against the grain of society, culture and modern thought. To go even further, we have to go against the policies of the companies in which we work for. But to do that costs. We have to go against injustice, reach out and help people.

Paul went to jail for the rest of his life, when with a few simple words, he could have lived as a free man. Jesus went to his death with Pilot trying to get him to phrase “Truth” in an angle that lead to un-truth, when he could have so easily said something to set him free. Rosa Parks could have given that white boy her seat. What kept them from taking the easy way out? It wasn’t right, it was against their ideals. They stopped accepting, “Well that’s the way it’s always been done.”

Just because that’s the way it was done does not make it right. Today the world is in uproar. Look all over the world and there are protests and people fighting for change because things today are not right. When a man is turned away from a hospital because he does not have the money to get the surgery that he needs, that is just not right. But yet we support the systems that make this possible and accept that is the way of it.

I understand the concept of obeying the laws of the land, but do we have to accept them? What if a law goes directly against something we believe in? What if it goes against a teaching in the bible? Do we still accept it? We give unto Cesar what it Ceaser’s, but when do we do like Moses and make them let out people go? How many of you do not like what is on TV these days, but still have cable? If you do not like something, but you accept it and continue to let it come into your home… who’s at fault?

The world is not our own and our bodies are made of sin and are of this world. Newton’s laws of physics proves that change takes action and is hard. “An object at rest will remain at rest.” Even bigger than that, “An object in motion will remain in motion until it meets equal and opposite force.” So, if we are in a routine of sin, it takes at least as much effort to stop. So what does it take to turn us in the other direction? To change what we are doing instead of just stopping, well it takes more. You have to put in more effort to make a life change than the force effecting us in sin.

 That is why I believe that as Christians many of us continue accepting the way the world is. Think about how hard you would have to push back to get the entire world to change from the way it is currently going? That would be humanly impossible, alone. That is why we have another idea ingrained in our heads. We are each part of a greater whole. We cannot be as big of an impact as Jesus by ourselves, it requires all of us working together to make this change.

This change that I am talking about it not just a single change, no it is a complete change. We must stand up for our ideals, our beliefs, and more importantly for one another. “This fight is one that we cannot win alone,” said Dane Johnson. He is exactly right as well. We are fighting a world that wants us to accept the way things are. It wants us to be a cog in the machine and just live life according to the way things are planned out for us.

I mean we have our lives plotted out for us in a simple checklist:

Go to school, get good grades, graduate, go to college, get a job, get married, get a house, have a family, send them to school, make sure they continue to do the checklist, pay taxes along the way and die.

Along the way we get little add-ins that society tells us we have to do to be accepted. Dress a certain way, eat certain things, get credit cards, go in debt. I mean even as we look at the way the financial market is right now. We have to have credit to buy a house, a car or even to have certain jobs. Yet the bible tells us PLAINLY to not lend nor borrow. As we get in debt, we use it to live beyond our means, which leads us to more debt.

So are you a Christian? Do you live by these models? Why?

I am tired of hearing Christians say, “It’s the way society is, and we can’t change it.” I say that if we are going to be more like Jesus, YES we can change it. Do not accept that the world is broken and just “Paint over the wallpaper.” We are being that are told to go into the world and make disciples of the world. If the world were disciples then the world would change.

Do not accept the status quo. Do not accept that’s the way things are. Do not do it because I said so. Do it because it is what Christ asked us to do. Help your fellow man, and help see the love of God. We can change the world; we have been as a people for thousands of years. Let’s not stop today, let’s not stop now.

If you do not believe in Corprate Greed, stop Supporting It! If you don’t want crap on your TV, stop Watching It! If you are against the Debt System, stop using it! If you do not like a company, stop shopping with them. Do not accept that’s the way it is, or I have to because society tells you to. Take a step closer to Christ. If we continue to support the system that is degrading society and pulling it further and further away from what God would want, we are just as guilty when we fall into line. Make a change starting with the person you look at in the mirror each morning, then to your home, then in how you live your life.

Make changes in your life, and make a difference in the world. Opinions always welcome.

Two Men of God

There are two men, both of which were born Jewish, both of which are responsible for committing murder, both were locked in Prison for the rest of their lives; while incarcerated both wrote for God. Yet one of these men we as Christians hold up in high esteem and the other many of us think has gotten more than he deserves and still condemn him for what he has done. This story is about two individuals with similar stories that go down two different roads that lead to the same place. This story is about Saul and David Berkowitz. They are better known as Paul and Son of Sam.

Many of you know the story of Saul who spent many years seeking out and killing Christians. He was an upright Jew of that day and age that was hell bent on snuffing this thing called Christianity. While on the way to get some more of them and kill them God intervened and struck him blind. God sent him to a Christian where he saw the light and saw again. This did not stop him from being locked up and sent to Rome where he spent the rest of his days.

Many of you know the popular portion of the story of Son of Sam. He’s a serial killer, so how can I even compare him to Paul? Son of Sam, after spending 10 years in Prison for crimes that he committed and admits that he committed, God found a way into his heart. He wrestled him down and took him through the motions of his rebirth.  This is something that I have gone through first hand. It takes a lot to look at what you have done and admit it before God, to yourself and to the world.

David did this, but how can God use someone that is locked away from the world? Well he showed us this in the past, when we look at half of the New Testament, it was written by a man that was locked away in Prison serving a life sentence. The sentence he was serving however was one based on what God asked him to do outside of Prison, not for the crimes that he committed to other human beings before becoming a Christian.

David was arrested for his crimes he committed before he became a Christian, but God has shown him the mercy of forgiveness that none of us deserve. He too has written for God, his book is titled “Son of Hope” for there is hope for everyone. His road was a very ugly one dealing with issues from childhood including sezures that he described as feeling like something was coming into him. There is proof of this in the bible where Jesus came across the boy who suffered from sezures as well. Jesus asked the demons name and they said “Legion for we are many.” Jesus cast these demons into a herd of pigs.

Demonic possession can cause one to do a lot of things, I can attest to this myself.  David does not blame these demons for the whole issue, he considers it a contributing factor, but not the cause. The flesh is weak and can be tempted with many things. Son of Sam killed six people. Saul was responsible for hundreds of people losing their lives. Yet we hold up Paul, and we would not spit on the Son of Hope if he were on fire. Why is that?

God does not state that either of them are any better than the other. God states the exact opposite; he states that they are equal. Today Paul is a saint and David is another prisoner sitting in prison eating up tax payer’s money. Paul is inspiration for all of us. David is only a mass murderer. My question to each of you is this, do you forgive people that you do not know? Are you capable of forgiving Casey Anthony, Amanda Knox, Son of Sam, Charles Manson? Are you capable of forgiving Joseph Craig, your neighbor on the sex offender registry, or the boy that stole your car or just hurt your daughter?

We do not question or even hold offense to Saul because he’s Paul; we saw what God did with him. We do not yet know what God will use all of these people for. So let me ask you again, why can we forgive one or some of these and not the rest? Why can YOU forgive some, but not all? Why do we believe that God can use Saul and not the Son of Sam? Do not question who God’s servants are, only God knows our hearts.

Son of Hope's Testimony:  http://www.ariseandshine.org/Testimony-&-Translations.html

How to turn the lights on for those clinging to the Darkness

I received a letter today, it is from a friend that I help lead astray. This friend followed me through the occult life that I was living and clung to my teachings more than I’d care. He finds himself accepting a plea for 16 to 21 years for multiple bank robberies. I have been working with him to help him find faith in the God that I know and love, but now, what do you say to him?

This man is someone that trusted me and followed me into hell. His morals ripped apart, just as mine were. His life torn asunder, just like mine were. This situation broke him down and brought him a little lower into hell, and justly so. As he sits and states, “God has abandoned us all, wait what God? There is No God.” I cannot help to feel sorrow in my heart for him.

I know that he committed these crimes, and he does not deny them. What is hurting him so, is how long he will be going to a Department of Correction facility and the fact that his “partner in crime” is getting 10 years probation and he is getting 16 years in prison. So what do you say to someone whose faith has never been built, and what ground you have helped him make is torn asunder?

God is just and he knows what he is doing. One of the greatest contributors of the New Testament spent the last years of his life in Prison as well, but he had faith going in and through that. I know that there are many people that have found faith in prison and many go on to write books and lead prison ministries. So what about him now, is his path to be locked in to go down this road? Or can he overcome this lack of faith at all? How do you help someone that is in this situation?

I plan to be there for him and support him and continue to be his friend. I will continue to witness to him through my acts of faith. Life is hard enough without falling into these pitfalls. When the devil whispers in your ear to do this or that, and you listen… suffering occurs. I know this, I have lived through this. When you do not turn from Satan and pull to Christ, I understand that the suffering continues. What now? What happens when the suffering continues when you are pull to the Lord? How does faith prosper like that?

We have many lessons in the bible speaking of enduring through suffering to build stronger faith. We also have many lessons speaking of the fact that God will wrestle with you until you surrender to him. Those who do not surrender will suffer. What do you say though to the suffering man that will not surrender? How do you impact that person’s life? How can you show someone clinging to the darkness how good the light is? That is my prayer right now, how can I and everyone else show these people the light of the Lord?

May you all have Mercy, Peace and Love in Abundance.

A Letter to those in need

How do you help someone that does not want help? This is something that is weighing on my heart heavy in the dark days that we are living through. Many pains have people beat into acceptance and submission. However this does not have to be. There is power in the promise of Jesus Christ and Lord God Almighty.

This message is for those that are hurting and feel like your dreams are gone. This is something that I want each and every person that reads these words to pass to a friend that is hurting. God Loves you regardless of where you are right now. I see people going through many struggles and through strife, but God is there with you. Though we may walk away from his glory and grace, he is still there. Each of us are a prodigal son whom runs off to be in the world, but our Father is there waiting for us to turn to him.

This world is a very mean place and filled with hate. We fear daily for many things. Where is the future heading? “Where have we come from,” I say. The road is a long one and there are many twists and turns, yet there is hope.  This is not easy, but you must hear me if you want to save yourself or those that you love. You cannot trust the world to allow you to fix your problems; the world will just leave you in angst, pain and misery. There is but one road to follow to find love in your heart and a safe place to rest your head.

God gives us the promises, and he upholds them. Through all the struggles that I have been through, even when I was not following him, he still kept his promises. I have had everything that I have NEEDED, not the things that I want, but those things that I need. They have always been there. Even when I ran from him, he still kept his promise that he made to me, even when I had broken my promise to him. I am not special, I am just a man.

Jude 1:2 tells us “Mercy, Peace and Love be yours in abundance.” There is a peace in my heart now, even as I walk through the storm. The Lord has, and continues to show me his mercy and Love is something that is all around me. I try as I may to pour it out on others as it has been poured down on me. What hurts my peace and love is when I see people that are broken and bruised that have loving arms wanting to reach out and help, and they just refuse to accept the help or give people a chance to be the voice of God.

God uses everyone around you if you allow him. He uses the wicked just as much as the righteous. All you have to do is submit yourself to God and allow him to use you and use others around you to help you heal and get better. Only after you trust in the Lord Fully will he move to raise you up. It is not up to us, when we can’t fix our own mess. Honestly, none of us can really fix our mess. We have to depend on God. He is there for you, you just have to let go of your hurt and your pain for him to take it away.

We call God our Lord of Peace; he is that and so much more. We call him the great physician; let him be that for you. We call him the master of all; stop trying to take that away from him. Trust in the Lord and it will be given. He will not move as long as you resist him. He will wrestle you until you are in a position to surrender to him. Give it to him and allow yourself to still serve him in the darkness and you will be blessed by the flood.

Our lives make us feel like we just have a checklist of things that have to happen. Our priorities are not of God. Chuck Paulinuik said it in Fight Club, “We are not the clothes we wear. We are not the car we drive. We are not the contents of our wallet.” This message was not a Godly message, but used Godly words to prove the point. I am sorry, but Corporations are not the solution to our problem. A better job will not bring us closer to God. When God has another job for you, listen and he will guide you. Trust in him and he will carry through the storm. The Lord knows your heart, your fears and anxieties. The Lord knows what will make you happy, just let him GUIDE YOU TO IT!!!

Lift up his voice and sing his praises in the storm and you will see it through the end and be better off for it. God knows you better than your spouse, your mother, your father or even yourself. Let go of what is killing you and pick up the only thing that can bring you life. The word of God and take hold of his hand and allow him to lead you to peace.

Let love guide you. Do not allow yourself to be pulled or swayed by the voice of fear and doubt. These roads lead you to darkness. You are no better than the Idolaters if you allow depression take hold of you and pull you away from God. Anything that you put first will be taken to last if it leads you on to pain. God will remove everything that is preventing you from hearing his voice, so just listen.

God loves you too much to give up on you. He has too much hope for you. It does not matter if your greatest sin is thoughts that you do not follow through with, or a lie that you speak or rape and murder. God loves you and he will pull you through the darkness and into the light if only you let him. He loves everyone the same, with purity and grace. None of us are perfect and if you have committed the least of these you have committed the greatest.

When you begin to look at others to judge them, remember that. What they have done is no worse than what you have done yourself. Through the darkness we will see his face. In our darkest hour and in our darkest place, just listen and he will be there. We all have that place, that hour, that moment, or that person. The darkness will pass, and darkness cannot exist where there is light. The light will drive out the darkness if you allow it. If you hold onto your darkness it will lead you to the darkness and deeper and deeper until you find yourself in a pit of despair.

There is no hope in the darkness, which is only hope in the love of God. I cannot and will not set idly by and allow those that I love fall into or back into the pit. So I stand here now in the Full Armor of God and will stand beside you. I will not let a brother or sister fall into that pit without a fight. I give this one to Tom Petty, “You can stand me up at the gates of hell and I won’t Back Down!” I look to Joshua for guidance, a mighty warrior who stated, “As for me and my family, we stand for the lord.” So I ask you now, are you tired of hurting? Are you tired of going down the same roads with the same results? Then stand up, God is with you. Then look to another source of support. God is with you. Raise your eyes to the lord, God Loves You.

Impact, a challenge to pagans

With the Lord has done so much in my life, fulfilling prophecy that was given to me years ago. Those words that I felt at the age of 11 ring out to me today. That promise he made me, “You were here in the beginning, and you will be here in the end.”

God has always had something planned for me. It does not seem to me that it is “ordinary.” I do not claim to be extraordinary or special. I have just taken a walk that, Thankfully, not so many have taken. Those that have, unfortunately, did not find their way back out, or have not yet.

The ministry, if you will, that I feel may be in my future is not an easy one. Not that ministry is easy. Taking people with Occult backgrounds and either drawing them to Christ Jesus or helping those people heal. Ironic, bringing pagans to Christ, that was the mission so many people in the bible was tasked with.

Idolotry is something that this country, nay, this world has issues with. The worshiping the all mighty dollar and those worldly possessions, however, is not what I am talking about. No, I am talking about those that worship false gods. The worship of the Great Mother, Diana, Odin, Loki, Ares, Athena etc. is for fools. These figures are like Gods as the Angles are to The God. 1^st Corinthians 10:18-19 tells us a truth that I knew even when I was not a Christian! When I was in darkness, as now when I am in the Light of the Lord, this truth is sound. These pagan gods are only Demons and Fallen Angels in guise. Lucifer’s former heavenly host.

I will not dispute the existence of beings that prey off followers of these idols. They want you to worship them to take you away from God. Many pagans are fine with this as well. They would not be pagan if they loved God. So these angels that fell from Gods grace use this void put on a mask and draw victims into dark places. They draw them to a place where they hide themselves away from Gods light. They take you to a place where they can whisper lies to you.

Brutalness is just. Might is Right! If you do this ritual, you can be with child. If you make this oath I will reward you with Power, Love, Money, Strength and/or Courage. If you let me in, I’ll give you even more! This is a Lie! These are false promises. They MAY give it to you on short term, but the damages left behind is simply not worth it. And I am not even talking about after you die and what your soul will be forced to endure.

I know this to be true, because I walked it. There is only death from the worship of idols. Pagans do not want to hear this truth. You want to believe in the Gods and Goddesses that you chose to follow. You want to be so in the face of every Christian so that you can have justification for your opinion that Christians only want to cast you aside and shun you. You want to make Christians persecute you so you can say you are persecuted.

I challenge each and every one of you to this. Give Christians an honest chance to show you love and the love of God. Do this without being argumentative and hatemongering, and you will see what you get from them. “Hate begets hate, but Love brings forth love.” The love that the one true God has for you is pure and it is just. If you allow yourself to open up to him and allow him into your heart, then you will know what Love is.

The Power of Faith

Faith, we are told, is one of the most powerful tools that we have to combat spiritual, emotional and physical conflict or strife. We are told that if we have faith the size of a mustard seed we can move mountains. For many these statements work, they sound great and life you up. For others they just see pretty words. Faith is a powerful thing.

I believe in my Lord God, and I believe in what he can do. In dark times it is challenging to faith. Why are we suffering so? Then we look to the Book of Job and see that faith will be challenged. What Job went through, in my opinion, no man should have to go through. It was horrible and awful, but Job stood true. My focus here is not about strife that one will meet in that regard. No, here I will discuss the power of Faith when you are under direct attack.

Now to get a few things in the open: 1) I am a Christian, 2) I believe in the power of God, Jesus, the angels of heaven, 3) I know that demons and Lucifer exists in as physical of a form as angels, 4) I believe in deliverance ministry, and 5) I believe in what the bible tells us about how to deal with the darkness. The path that I have walked to return back to Christ was not a pretty one, but I learned a lot along the way that I hope to share with others to assist them in life.

The darkness is not to be dabbled with. It will grab hold of you, once you look into that darkness once it will see you forever. Even worse, everything that you promise to the darkness, it will hold you to. Once you find out how bad things are and just want to leave it alone, you can’t just stop looking at it. You opened the way and it will remain open until it is shut, and to do this requires you renouncing the paths that you walked, every promise that you made, every vow you swore to EVERY being you talked with or worked with. This is deliverance ministry in a nutshell.

For the next section I will probably get a lot of criticism from my friends at church because the passage I am about to quote is not one that is in most bibles. The Catholics have this book in their bible and I feel it is a book that anyone that is dealing with demonic warfare should read. The book of Tobit is a book of the Apocrypha, and is a story about a righteous man named Tobit. Tobit was struck blind, and he begins to pray a lamenting prayer begging for death. Well at the same time a woman names Sarah begins to pray a lamenting prayer begging for the same.

Sarah, at this time, had been married seven times, but a demon killed the husband before the marriage could be consummated. So an Angel of God comes to Tobit and allows him to see again, and promises to Sarah Tobias son of Tobit. So Tobit calls in his son and instructs him to go to Gabael to get the family money. Tobias sets off and meets a traveler to go with him to assist him on the journey. So the story goes on Tobias catches a fish and the traveler tells him to keep the gall, heart and liver for they are useful as medicine. He eventually finds his way to Sarah, they marry and the Angel reveals himself as the traveler.

He tells him to use the gall and burn it in the bed chamber and it will drive out the demon.  So the question is, will burning a gall of a fish really drive away the demon, or was it the faith of the follower that put his trust in an Angel of the Lord to drive it away? That is a question of semantics. I am no biblical scholar by any stretch so I leave that to others. However I see that in this story it illustrates things that many other books of the bible do not.

We humans have the power to fight off demons and drive them away. However, our bodies are made of sin, the substance that the demons use to fight us and enslave us. This complicates things. So when things are complicated by man, we must turn to God and his angels. Between the Holy Trinity and his Holy Host of workers, and our Faith in them, the demons can be driven away.  As you are wondering what the point is, allow me to ask you a question, a few actually.

Have you ever experienced a time when more than one person in your home had bad dreams? You ever wake feeling a weight about you? You ever see an illusion of the eye that looked like a round ball in the dark? You ever get angry for no reason and words come out of your mouth that are not your own? You ever do something that is REALLY out of character that you know would hurt someone? These are a few of the ways Demons attack us, beyond addictions, bad habits, depression and lust.

You need to know what to look for; you need to know how to keep your family safe. This is not a scare tactic. I just want you to be aware of the dangers that are out there. I know many Christians out there that do not believe in demons in the physical and real sense. I wish that were true. The demon of depression or the demon of lust; well they do exist, and have names. The angel in the book of Tobit is Raphael and the demon is Asmodeus. Asmodeus is a demon of lust and not a nice guy.

So how does the power of faith help with this? It is our strongest weapon against them. Where the flesh is too weak, the spirit must be strong. And faith is how we strengthen our spirit. It will be forged by our trials and tempered by our struggles. You don the Whole Armor of God, and you pray. You bring the light of God into your home and into your heart. Where there is light Darkness cannot exist.

Once you are prepared you call to God, to Jesus Christ and you call forth their Angels. Ask for the angels to push away the darkness, evil and the demons that are trying to hurt those you love. Go through every room of your home praying this in Christ’s Holy Name. You push the spirits out and anoint the doors and windows with oil that you have prayed over to bless with God’s love and light. Ask for the angels to keep these boundaries safe and secure. Go through every room, every door, every window. Then say one last prayer to let the Love of God shine throughout this home. Welcome to spiritual warfare 201.

Keep the faith strong in the house. Let the love of God flow through it because it is true, “Where there is light Darkness cannot exist.” Sit the candle up high for everyone to see, shine as a true example of God’s love. Know your power, the power we receive through the blood of Jesus Christ. Your faith will keep you vigil. Your love will keep you diligent. Do not fight fair, use everything that God has to offer you, because the demons do not fight fair. With God’s Love and Grace.

The Grey Door

Do you have an object, person or event that you use to get you back into focus? Do you have something that you think about to get yourself back to center and help you focus? I know a lot of people that are of my faith typically have a few things: a bible, a cross, Jesus Christ and God. For me I have a very unique item to return me to focus on the journey that I have taken. There is a single grey door that I use to help me align myself with the Lord.

What is this door? Where does it go? It’s not about where it goes or what it is for. It is a symbol of where I wrestled with the Lord until I bowed to him and accepted his grace and glory. It is a door at Durham County Jail in pod 3B. I no longer remember the cell that it belongs to by number, but it was the bottom floor and the second cell on the right side.

It was this unlikely place that I found my way back to God. I promised myself that I would not forget that door, and if they ever tear it down the jail I just might buy the thing to hang it up in a garage or something just to keep it. So why is this door so important to me? For many people they see going to jail as the end of the line. Others see it as a stop on their road along their destination called life. For others still, it’s a reunion of sorts.

I was amongst the second group. It was a stop that I was expecting to see on the roadmap of my life. So with each stop on the journey of your life you have to decide what to make of it. Jail is not the end of your life, but it certainly will make life a bit harder for you. For those of you that see Jail as a place to reunite with friends and family, well you need to really make a choice about your life. There are options, which lead me to my first point.

I know most of you that are reading this know the parable of the sower from Luke 8:5-8. The sower went out and cast his seeds; some of them fell on rocky soil others fell amongst thorns and the last feel on fertile grounds. The parable talks directly to the willingness of the heart of the person. Now we all know that these three kinds of ground can be good soil to plant in, they just need a bit of work for the seeds of God’s word to bear fruit.

A jail is a very fertile ground for sowing seeds, but the soil is cluttered with briars, rocks, weeds and many other things to choke out the seed that God would plant in their hearts. It takes a lot to keep that soil good for planting. Well that is where my own soil was cleared away allowing me to accept the seed of the spirit. I have become a very different person. I look back to those days and see who I was coming into that place and the man that I was when I walked out, there is no comparison.

The power that God has to change a person that is WILLING to change is amazing. This message is to give hope. By now everyone is probably getting used to the fact that I am here to say that no matter what you have done, there is a way out. You can say what you want about what you have done, but Christ shows us that there is hope; people can change if they want to change. Not once will you hear me say that it will be easy. Change is hard, and people in general do not like to change.

You do not have to go to jail to change. Look at one of the most influential people in the New Testament, Paul. When he became Paul, he was hunting Christians to kill them. God struck him blind along the road and changed his heart forever. He also disappeared for a few years and came back a different man. So change that drastic was not quick.

Each and every day is a struggle as we go along trying to figure out how to survive in the world today. We learn through repetition and pattern. If a plus b equals c once we expect it be that way every time. Which leads me to question, do we actually know how to think and learn for ourselves?

Well for this statement I say that we only do what we can. Why is it so hard to change? Because in life people begin to expect things from us, if we have acted a certain way most of our lives, well people expect that from us. When we do something that is different, people ask if we are OK. Maybe we are not, but is that always a bad thing? No. If we always take the same roads in life, we can miss out on so much. People are the same way. If you only talk to the same people that you have talked to all your life, you will be missing out on so much from those you are not talking to.

Change is what you make of it. If you want to be changed you can be. You have to allow yourself to change and allow yourself to submit to the will of God. He will handle a lot of the rest. Trust in him and devote time to him daily. Draw yourself close to him and he will ensure that you have what you need. Not one day has gone by since I became a Christian that I have not had what I needed. Many have gone that I did not have what I want, but that is not his promise to us. The door worked for me, but it doesn’t have to be what works for you.

This door that I am talking about was a good seven foot tall and about 32 inches wide. It had one narrow window to look through. Where it lead to? Again nowhere. It’s not about where the door leads you, it is only about what it means. It means lessons learned. It means you are dead and holds you in the birthing womb until you are ready to be born again. It means that God has you where he needs you to be to work on you. This hideous and ugly door means that you have a choice to make.

The choice is this. You can either a) keep living your life the way you have and accept the fate that will come from it, or b) make a change that will reverberate through every other change that you will make from this day to every day beyond it to live different. This is so much easier to say than to actually do. Ecclesiastes 11:8 tells us to rejoice in each day that we are given and remember the dark days for we will see many of them. These days come to temper us and strengthen us.  Ecclesiastes also tells us this in which I will leave you with: “Remove sorrow from your heart, and put away pain from your flesh…” for it is all Meaningless. Live life and enjoy it. Remember to take time out of your busy schedule to actually live life. Have fun; enjoy your partner, your family and yourself.

Pefect Love drives out Fear

After a truly rough night, as part of a rough month, I will have to apologize in advance that this message is going to be one that is going to leave a bit of a sour taste in all mouths that partake. When one contemplates, what are they asking? Quite simple one is asking how or why typically, however many times one is asking questions that cannot be answered by normal means.

There are many dark things in this world, and in this I will be looking at a couple of the darker things that exist. My first topic is doubt and my second topic of the day is a revelation to many of you about what demons truly are. This will not be for the faint of heart or those that do not wish to know anything about what hell is really like.

We human have what is called “Free Will” and I assure you that sometimes that is a very bad thing. It allows us to do whatever we want and of course face the consequences for those actions afterwards. In our society it is used as a teaching tool; a measuring stick; a point of disconcert; a point of hope and destruction. We have the “Free Will” to follow whatever religion we want or do not want, as well as many other choices in life.

This “Free Will” takes us down many roads in life; we each walk our own road. It does not matter how much it looks like someone else’s road, it is your own. As such we walk this road with comings and goings of different people and things as our roads intersect or run together for a while. What happens as we grow through experiencing life is we begin to pile up learned lessons.

We learn how people can be mean; how WE can be mean. We learn how people can be good and how we ourselves can be good. We learn what we like and what we do not. We learn from mistakes that our “Free Will” granted us to make. This is life. How different would we be if one of our earlier choices had been different? As each choice leads us to another, cascading, how different would we be?

Eventually we come to a point in our lives where many of us accept life for what it seems to be. We make the choice of “Well this is my lot in life. I know the role I must play.” You accept “Fate” as it were and start using your free will to choose what would be acceptable in the current situation. For many people this ends up being somewhat of a good thing. It keeps them safe, free from harm. However, for others, life just isn’t that simple.

What if you accept your role in life and it is not the role that “Fate” had determined for you. How many times do we hear the results of such situations? It can come from a sudden change in one’s life, to an unfaithful or abusive spouse. It can come from a plummeting stock market to a natural disaster. What if Life changes on you when things were supposed to happen just as they happened for your mother or father or grandparent? With all this uncertainty in life you can easily see how Doubt can breed.

Even without that it is easy to just ask the question, “Did I do the right thing?” With free will we also are faced with a very real problem. We have to make decisions for ourselves and if we make a decision and something bad happen as a result, our upbringing tells us we made the wrong one. So we make a choice, and we wait to see if it’s going to be good or bad. In the mean time we question, “Was that the right decision?”

Now some will say that doubt is an extension of fear. I can agree with that. We are afraid that we have made the wrong decision so we worry and dwell on it. So if doubt is a form of fear, then does not perfect faith drive out fear? So if we do have that faith, do we run the risk of not learning from our mistakes? Welcome to the realm of doubt.

Doubt is a very dangerous thing, which is why we are as prone to it as a race of people. We doubt ourselves, our fellow man, our government, our society, and even our God(s) if one were so inclined. So as we come to our next decision in life, still doubting our last one, we find this next decision harder than the last. The spiral continues, sometimes we come out okay; sometimes not. That in itself does not help with doubt.

We can always look back on our lives at the “Big” decisions that we made, most of us have some really bad choices that we have made in life. It’s easy to see that those were BAD ideas looking back. So why did we make them in the first place? Chances are that emotions were blocking out logic, but what if emotion had nothing to do with it when you made the bad choice? Well we will just chock that one up to a learning experience and move along, besides you can always blame it on an emotion.

How many of us begin such things, lying to yourself to make you feel better about your bad choice. How many unfaithful men and women blame it on the person they are supposed to be faithful to? The answer is most of them. Why do we do this? Simple to make us feel better. We do not like the idea that we did something wrong; it does not make us feel good.

Humans like to feel good, thus why sex addiction is the number one addiction in the world.  That is a big reason for drugs and alcohol addiction as well. Just look at the choices that people make in life. Why would anyone in their right mind think jumping off of a cliff with only a sheer piece of cloth and a few nylon strings could be a good idea? No, it’s a fun idea. It stimulates us, fear causes a flood to our brain that makes us feel good. So extreme sports, to sex, to drugs, to God, humans are addicted to feeling good, we want to feel good.

This desire leads us to great things as well as bad things. Love, for instance, is one of the greatest emotions that we humans were blessed with. No other thing feels quite as good as pure, deep love. Jesus brings us the message of love. There is no question why Paul compares the love of Christ and the love of God as a marital affair with humans. That type of love, love that you share with that special someone, is irreplaceable.  That is why we doubt when bad things happen in our lives.

As a Christian, it makes me doubt God. As a man, it makes me doubt my society, government and myself.  Very few people who commit suicide are quite like Hunter S. Thompson, who killed himself on what he considered to be one of the most beautiful and best days of his life. Most people do that out of doubt, or deeper Fear. They doubt or fear that people love them. They doubt they are good enough to live. Or they fear that life is just not worth living.

Now that we are in this dark place, let’s go a little further shall we? I know that many Christians see demons as manifestations of doubt, fear, anger, and lust. I know that many people believe that is all a demon is. It’s part of your psyche that has manifested itself as mental illness or depression. If that were true the world would be a much better place.

If that is your belief then please stick around for the rest of the show. I tell you here and now that demons are not just figments of your psyche. They are NOT just depression, worry and concern. No, no. These are all byproducts of their work. Hateful little buggers they are. Now, I step into a space that I am nervous to go back into. However my doubts and fears in my life are not that I will succumb to these as much as just fade to a bad memory. I walk this dark path because my “Free Will” took me straight to the fires of hell.

I walked a path that I hope none are following, but I know you are. Demons are real, spiritual manifestations of all the darkness of the world. When Lucifer rose up in heaven, took 1/3^rd of the angels with him. They fell into a dark place, void and lacking form. They still remembered how to shape the void. They made areas of darkness, cold places. They made places of sand with palaces of gold. They made many things in this place. They made demons as these fallen angels were twisted by their failure. They were twisted by their doubt. They were twisted by their anger and hatred.

They are really not so different from humans. That is the scary part. Some demons were made by the fallen angels from energy that they possess. Others, well they were human once. Their souls tormented in the pit below by these angry spirits until humanity is ripped away leaving only your vices. Not all demons want to do physical harm to you. Some just want you to exploit your vices. Some of the most dangerous demons in hell just want to draw you so deep into desires of the flesh that you forget everything else.

So your grandfather, a wicked man not knowing god, did he really go to heaven? Did he go to hell? How long until he becomes a demon if he did? That is their goal. They want you to become JUST like them. Are you beautiful and love to seduce? You pride yourself on how irresistible you are? Good, they know just the job for you. Are you an angry man, hell bent on the laws and rules? You follow them to the letter? Even the Books of Law, and are stern and unforgiving? Great… we know just where to put you.

If you didn’t catch that last one, let me spell it out for you. Those who do not know the love of God are blind to the true face of God and you are going to go straight down. Some of you are great preachers and are doing such a great service to the agents of evil. Lucifer awards you with employee of the year. Westborough Baptist, this means you. Judge not lest ye be judged comes to mind.

Demons are very dangerous things. They will try to convince you that they are good, or that they can give you what you want. They whisper in your ear when you don’t think they are. Many times that you think they are whispering, they’re not, they already planted that seed. They will trade with you, work on you and try to make a place in your soul for themselves. You let them in, guess what, they now live there and can invite whoever they want to their parties.

Helping a guy out, you offer him a room. Next thing you know, there is a crack-whore having sex on your kitchen table in front of your children. Yeah, demons are like that. Sometimes humans can be worse. Some demons actually have in their mind that they are trying to help humans. They want to free us from our bondage of slavery. Their hatred for God has twisted them to believe that God is a very hateful and vengeful being that just wants to destroy us. Really nice guys huh? Place gifts at your feet, give you everything they can to get you to see the light.

I warn you, sometimes that sexy supermodel that you see in your dreams is really a demon feeding your desires. Sometimes when you dream of that cute co-worker they are tempting you to do the wrong thing, and sometimes they are doing it to that cute co-worker as well. Sometimes however, that is just your own desires of the flesh running off with you. Take ownership of your weakness. Satan will do his job. Humans have a proven track record to do the wrong thing all on our own. Sorry, but that is the ugly truth.

You cannot hate Satan for what he is doing. You should expect it from him. He’s doing the only thing he knows how to do. What you should really focus on is yourself. What can you do? Life sucks, you have yourself and all your bad habits, PLUS you have the demons trying to give you more, and you have your own temptations. How could a human walk through life and really be happy? Now there is a million dollar question.

So where is the silver lining? Why have I spent so much time beating your psyche down? I find myself asking the same question sometimes. Does any of this have a purpose? My answer is, “I hope it does.” As for this, I want you to go away thinking about your life and how trapped you may be. I want you to think if you are really happy. If you are, I am happy for you. Life is hard enough when it’s just life. Do not walk into the darkness; there are things there that will break your mind. You cannot unsee what you see. Hell is real, demons are as well, and they will open their arms to you just as fast as God.

It is a slippery slope. One step will lead to ten. Do not open that door just to peek inside, once they see you without the mask of innocence on your face, they will come running. Even death will not bring freedom from them. The only thing that can is God. The only remedy for fear is love. You cannot scare someone into love either. The only peace that I have is with the love that I share with my wife and my Lord. Its dark right now, I know God is there, I just wish he stood but just a little closer. Until then, it is the love of my wife that keeps me going.