Foot notes:
1. Slavery in bronze/iron age had a very different definition then African Americans in 1800’s.
2. People were made slaves by being in debt to someone and unable to pay them back. People who needed job training volunteered for slavery. Never were people kidnapped and forced into it – setting ancient Israel apart from most forms of slavery.
3. The bibles definition of slavery involved job training so the poor would not stay poor after being set free.
4. Slaves were set free every 7 years no matter what throughout all israel. Called the year of Jubilees.
5. Slavery was a means of helping the poor so they can have a stable job and take care of themselves. This is considered the best form of charity, as people don’t have to constantly rely on handouts, they can be independent.
6. Slaves were taken care of. no beatings, provided food and housing. They would otherwise live in a gutter on the streets or die in poverty.
7. People who find all this offensive often also find concepts like “work for a living” and “going to college or trade school” or “pay your own bills” offensive too in modern times. Specifically these groups include: Socialist, party school college kids, welfare recipients, hippies, freeloaders, 40 year olds living with mother, and trust fund babies. Additionally people who think they know everything and want to bash the bible.
The Christian Christmas Dilemma and my 2 cents.
As we move forward into our modern times we find ourselves struggling more and more with christmas. Our generation grew up knowing for a fact December 25 was Jesus’s birthday. Yet now we find ourselves with the dilemma that is likely not so. Santa Claus for Christians is a figure I think Christians have always wrestled with. He’s not Jesus, he’s not real, yet were supposed to lie to our kids and make a big deal about him. The fact chrisrmas is a made up tradition by man also sets an uneasy feeling in our stomachs. As the Internet enlightens us on so many lies about this particular day we find Christians everywhere scrambling on what to do about the holidays.
I have read through some of my fellow bloggers and what they have to say about christmas. Some Christians refuse to tell their kids about santa cutting him completely out of the picture only to say he’s nothing but a lie. Some Christians refuse to even decorate a tree because one verse in the bible. Many however still go along with tradition and the status quo. This division has sparked many arguments within the church and to be honest, I think it’s a far greater sin to yell at each other then it is to put up a Christmas tree.
I propose a humble solution to our troubles. One that doesn’t involve lieing or taking away the joy of the holidays, and propurts the importance of Jesus. All of these traditions have a Christian foundation, we simply need to rediscover them.
1. Change the way we look at Santa Claus, he was not a magical man from the north pole. He was a very important early church father who did a great many works in Christ’s name and died a martyr for his faith. He was a incredibly important figure head that advanced Gods kingdom during the persecuted church period of the 4th century. By giving presents to our children and each other we remember him as an example and honor his charity and contribution to the body of christ. In this light Santa is not a magical fanciful thing, instead he’s a positive role model to learn Christ’s message of doing our good works in secret and doing them freely and liberally. His story also reminds us that community is important and ways in which we can help our local community. We remeber him as he was, because he teaches us ways to walk with christ. There is a dark side however. Somehow somewhere in history saint Nicholas became the victim of satanic idolatry. Ancient parents for some reason felt the true Santa wasn’t good enough, so they made stories about raindeer and elves and now we have a satanic imposter.
This is after all how Santa made it into the Christmas tradition anyway. There’s a far more important meaning to him I think we as modern Christians should respect, frankly I’m glad he made it into our tradition. If you have 15 mins I can make it worth your while to learn something about this good man. But I think it’s no good to just give him the boot so easily from christmas- after all your kids are going to hear about “Santa Claus” anyway and it will only result in kids arguing, why not tell them the full truth about him? Even better Saint Nicholas provides the chance for us to learn about our persecuted history. The church history is one of many trials and many saints who sacrificed so much for christ. You could even turn this into a learning experience so many Christian children lack. You don’t have to be catholic to see the saints as people and historical figures played powerful role in church history.
Saint Nicholas of Myra
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saint_Nicholas
2. Jesus birthday being in the spring time and not December 25. Well so what? We remember Jesus everyday of the year, so we picked a seemingly random day to celebrate his birth and go all out with it. Is that really a bad thing? It started as a competition against the pagan sun god worship of ancient rome. They chose the 25th so the pagans would look at what Christians are doing for their holiday the winter solstice. The idea here was to get the Christian faith noticed by those who did not believe. Again, is that really a bad thing? The plan worked, we showed up those wicked pagans didn’t we. Truely the date set is proof of Jesus’s promise to give us victory over satan, why should we not celebrate that? Sure it was a bit of a political move, but it was a move that advanced Jesus into Europe as our savior and Flung Jesus into a mainstream religion. You would have to be a fool to think this was in someway evil.
3. Decorations, egg nog, presents, evil materialism, etc… Some of these little extras are traditions that came over many thousands of years- mostly just as things to keep the family together. Through out the entire bible God tells us to be merry with each other. There’s times we worry about satanic forces of darkness, and there’s times we simply rejoice in each others company. No one gets the whole family together very often, this is an invaluable reason to do so. God is not a God of being boring or a prood don’t make him into one. The bible tells us when we celebrate with each other we celebrate God. Why ruin it? Truly you side with atheists in making Christmas sterilized much more then Jesus. Don’t give up the best part there’s no need.
Yes it’s true presents are usually junk, however I myself can recall Christmas seasons past when family really needed things, as in life or death situations. Christmas was a time for them when they got taken care of by the family (myself included). So remember your own family members in need, what good is it to worry about the homeless when your tossing your own family under the bus? The bible says that makes you worse then a heathen. (1 Timothy 5:8) I can guarantee you most of the time when a family member is in need they won’t tell you. It’s better to give them a gift regardless, and better it be something well thought out. Then there’s the toys as presents to the kids. Young parents in particular don’t have much money, consider them by considering their children. I know there’s some spoiled brats out there, never mind them much, but every family has a family member that’s broke. When you give to their children it’s the greatest gift you could give to them in a way that doesn’t ‘feel’ like charity.
4. Christmas is a man made holiday it’s not in the bible. Guess what else isn’t in the bible, going to church. Some of you are going Swallow that pill hard. Church on Sundays is completely a made up, man made tradition- no where in the bible does it even mention it. Why do we go to church?
Consider Mary of Bethany, the whore who stormed into the pharisee house in a awkward scene to anoint Jesus’s feet with expensive oil. The gift was pretty inappropriate of her, and so was her manners for the host of the house. However Jesus was so happy she thought of him and put in the effort just to give a gift. Christmas and church are man made traditions, but it is a tradition we made to give to Jesus. We are all sinners just like that whore who are coming to christ to be saved by grace. We do it because we love him and he’s done so much for us. I’m certain Jesus doesn’t really care about our trees and cookies and what ever else just as much as he didn’t really care about the oil. but I know he’s glad to see the family together in the spirit of him. This is our gift to him, our expensive oil to show we keep his teachings and honor it in a long held tradition. The short story here is, not everything has to be in the bible to be of the spirit.
5. We don’t need one day of the year to celebrate jesus when there’s 365 days. That’s true and for me this entire blog is an example of that. You could think instead theres 364 days to think about Jesus and 1 BIG BLOWOUT DAY to think about Jesus.
6. Holiday cheer and goodwill to men is cheesy and a cliche not to mention stressful. Yeah well so is reality television but no one’s getting rid of that either. Let me tell you how many times I’ve waisted an hour of my life watching TV thinking the following:
So you tell me you know the script and can’t choke up holiday cheer for one day of the year, but in the same stance some how choke up love for Jesus everyday – Im curious how that’s possible. I’m not saying your lieing about love for Jesus, I’m just saying some of you have plenty of other pretty scripted things to say or do.
So this Christmas I will give to charity like I do all year. This Christmas I will remember what the church father’s did to advance Jesus’s teachings and kingdom. I will teach my children History of the church and the sacrifices made to preserve the word of god. I will decorate my house as if preparing for the arrival of a king, because Jesus did arrive and he is a king – More importantly he’s my king. (Yet he’s still coming again someday) I’ll eat and drink with my friends and family, and give my artisan gifts I give every year, and visa gift cards to family in need. Not just because gifts are tradition, but because gifts are a symbol of the royal law “love thy neighbor”, this includes the family. In fact everything I do for Christmas will be in remembrance of Jesus, because everything in it is done in remembrance to him, and his teachings. Truely only few things could or should be different- mainly just changing the way we think about it. These traditions are long lived traditions not because they were pulled out of a hat. Your job as a Christian is to simply recognize where they come from and know how to apply them.
A Tricky Choice in Christian Duty
The tale begins with my best friend since middle school (pushing 15 years). He lost everything he had with no place to go I brought him in to my house to stay for awhile. His own family basically abandoned him, they wouldnt even let him come to visit- for really no reason they were just as well if he went to the homeless shelter. Terrible people I know.
Since he had no money or anything all I asked was he cleaned the house and dont run up any bills. For 4 months the exact opposite of this deal happened. He didn’t lift a finger, trashed the house, and yeah I was fuming at the electric bill. I would hear him talk about me behind my back to my friends what a jerk I was asking him to cleanup after me. How I let the dishes pile up everywhere and spill stuff and just don’t care expecting him to do everything around here. Ok so you want to be treated like Cinderella now I can do that. As soon as I handed him a broom and a mop and forced him to clean up his mess, a week later he moved out.
Ayear past when once again he was being evicted with no where to go. This time I said “well good luck” but my husband decided he needs to move in with us… “Friends take care of each other” he said. so well I was over ruled, but this time I want a couple dollars a month to cover the extra bills he will run up, enough to just pay the difference of him being here- $200 a month. Second time he moves in he was always late on his rent, I got an electric bill for $400 in the first month, the house was a mess, and always some random people off the internet was coming in and out. One of these stole some of my video games and old electronics- whom of which my friend insisted he was innocent- but anyway. So 6 months of this (3 months back rent) I started not buying groceries and let the house get filthy with all his friends coming over. And this time I made sure each one knew it was his mess not mine so he didnt have me as an excuse for him being a slob. Embarrassment and starvation made him move out and pay the back rent.
Now a couple months after he leaves the second time he goes to jail for an old driving on suspended registration fine that he already paid, but the courts did not file his payment correctly. Someone knocks on my door saying his bail is only $300 and we would get paid back for it. Well my husband again jumped up and said “No Problem”.
He gets bailed out of jail and promises to pay it back when he can. But all summer long he posted on facebook his trip to Cedar point, his $4000 check he got from such and such, having a great time all summer long. Meanwhile he would completely ignore us for weeks only every once in awhile sending texts to my husband “I will pay you back” when my husband would ask. Every week my husband would see him doing something expensive on facebook and just get pisst, then politely ask about it.
So I got tired of the games and put him out there on facebook, sorta. I did not name any names but I told the story more or less just as I told you, on my facebook page. We already gave up on the money at this point, but him ignoring us completely about everything just made me want a response, any response would do. When he saw it he immediately unfriended me then blocked me. Well I got my response, he had no intention of paying it.
2 weeks later I get a text from his new friend saying; “Because I stole from him he doesnt have to pay back the $300. And because he offered to let me use his furnature while he stayed here I owe him 6 months back rent that he overpaid. Since most places charge extra rent for furniture included, I owed him. He will create an invoice and send it by certified mail.”
I kid you not he didnt even have the audacity to send that text himself instead some unknown person had to do it. (My house was packed full of his stuff, sitting there being stored- I assume he ment that as me using his furniture Lol)
Me and my husband went back and fourth with this new friend all night telling him everything about my friend. I told him the same story i told you and then some! I told him about all our 15 year history, how he uses people, manipulates, and lies. I asked him “I saved this guy from being homeless twice, now I stole from him? seriously?” Of course he didnt believe me but I knew my friend was sitting in the background hearing every thing I had to say. See I wasnt interested in what this person texting me thought, I want to make sure my friend in the backround listen to the texts understood perfectly clear what an asshole he was. Sure he would deny it up and down, but he knew what I was saying was true. (Yeah angel fish know how to make people feel like S@%#)
we stopped talking I told my friend dont ever come back here again, and blocked his number.
A couple days later in mid August I woke up, I didn’t dream anything, but I just woke up with a strong feeling of knowing my friend will be homeless just before thanksgiving. I told my husband about the feeling he kinda brushed it off.
That brings us to today. His friend texted me and apologized for everything he said to me in August. that they he found out everything I said was true about him. He told me he has a storage unit for his stuff but my friend is on his own. My friend on the other hand texted my husband saying how sorry he was to him and that he hasnt anyplace to go, but hes taking a train to anywhere but here… Without getting a lot of details from either my friend or his Ex boyfriend it sounds like my feeling has come true.
I didnt really want to talk to either of them, I just told them I forgave them both well before they even asked- which is true. But to my friend I told him I just dont trust him or his motives for apologizing. In his mind he seriously thought at first this was just about the $300 it wasn’t, it was about the blatant disrespect well before that, the text message about my “Invoice” of money I owed him just put the iceing on the cake. I also told him as a friend hes been an aweful one with the manipulation and backstabbing, even while I’m struggling to try to help him. I’m just done.
However I am a christian so my puzzle is this. I can see God plainly sent me a message this would come to pass. the trouble with the message it was very neutral, there was no feeling behind it. It felt just like signing a slip for a ups delivery, no anger, sorrow, happiness – nothing. The Bible tells me to feed my enemies if they ask for food and give them water if they are thirsty. It says anyone who reaches out to help them. At the same time the Bible also says he that doesnt work doesnt eat, and it says such a person as my friend should be treated as a stranger (Gentile or Tax collector, which basically means the same thing). It also says a deceitful person such as this brings about their own undoing. I’ve looked through many bible verses for guidance, for fear that my feeling now is to let him go homeless. Though I’m not angry with him, I just feel like this is something that has to happen to him. Yet with so many verses I’m a little conflicted on my christian duty here.
So I’m conflicted. Do I turn my back on him and let him go homeless this time, or do I hunt him down to save him again?
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“Rapture Ready”, Blood Moon- Lots of deception out there
Click on which one you believe to be appropriately directed:
Pre-tribulation
Something funny about this Idea is, its actually pretty new to me. When I was a kid growing up my pastors and Sunday school teachers always told us one day the whole church will be martyrs. It wasn’t until the internet did I learn Jesus will pull every one off the earth before gods wrath, AND that we will disappear leaving our cloths behind in our place… I had no idea just how prevalent this idea actually was until a few years passed. My question is, what bible are you people reading?
Where in the book does it say ANY of this? How many of you are willing to go to places like China or Syria and tell Christians this apparent aspect of non-persecution? Manly my question is Are you seriously devoted to god enough to give your own life with a belief he wont let evil people execute you?
Another common line of thinking with Pre tribers is Revelation is all of gods wrath and judgement. The truth is, Gods wrath and judgement only comes in after the 2 witnesses in the mid point- Mainly his wrath is at the very end. Most of revelation is not god, It’s the environment the wicked and unrighteous people of the earth create. This includes the seals and the 7 bowls, AND the Antichrists (beast of the Sea and Earth). What god does in the beginning is simply coax things to rush along. He wants this to run its course and fast, What he is doing with the 7 seals and bowls is kick starting certain events to get the wicked and the righteous to react.
The best seal to use as an example of all this, is the 5th seal,
“And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held: And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?- Revelation 6:9-19
Not only does this verse tell us Christians will be executed, but it also tells us Christians will be preaching through the duration of the first 4 seals. By preaching the love of god during times of War (1st & 2nd seal), Economic Calamity (3rd Seal), and great Sickness (4th Seal) Christians immediately make them selves a target. The Atheists and other false religions, Do not want to hear it at this point. They also do not want to hear God is punishing them because they turned their back on him… The very mention of it becomes so irritating to them they start getting rid of Christians. However it is more then that, The first 3 seals are clearly not from god parse’.
First Seal and Second Seal– A man going on a conquering rampage is the first seal. The second seal is seems like a reaction to the first. These 2 run together pretty closely, I shouldn’t have to explain to you that if say Russia bombed China- It’s a given China is going to bomb them back. In this case however we see the whole of the earth is first being bombed by 1 guy/country, All diplomatic relations become so intense, countries begin bombing each other in a random frenzy. As to what set of political atmosphere this diplomatic instability would have to take place, we don’t know- we have yet to ever see it, though it’s reminiscent of WW1 and WW2. With all this bombing naturally the next inevitability is Economic Calamity.
Third Seal– Economic calamity often comes from rich people being too greedy- on the 3rd seal we see an example of “The yachts are lifted but the peasants drown”. Ask yourself this, which class of people were getting onto the life boats on Titanic, and which class was gated up in the lower decks of the ship? This isn’t a new concept, we watched it happen in the recent rescission I ask you; with all the hundreds of billions of dollars given to the richest people in America, how many average Americans could have erased most of their debts completely if Obama gave them the money instead?
Fourth Seal– Sickness and poverty often go together- place in all these wars and yes we get an pandemic spreading like wildfire over a 3rd of the earth. Mostly this comes from malnutrition in impoverish conditions, but the filth of living in a war zone also enables it. Again were not seeing gods wrath yet, were seeing an inevitable result of war and poverty.
The wicked evil doers of the world do not want to hear they are doing wrong. With just these first 4 seals, we see it plainly each seal runs off the next. During this time I expect Christians shouting “We can not keep bombing each other” or “Employers must fix wages” and “We must care for the sick”. When you yourself haven’t any money or enough food for yourself it is very hard to say “I want to help the sick”. No the sick are dieing anyway, there’s no hope for them, Christians are wasting valuable resources. Were looking at a time period when the whole of the earth is on “Survivor mode”. You may even expect to see cannibalism due to desperation.
So after the fifth seal, the sixth seal tells us The sun will go dark and the moon will be blood red. What this says to me very plainly Is christians will be on this planet just before the lights go out. The whole earth will be on a blackout, though even here god does not cast his judgement- Instead he waits and lets the cards fall into place on their own.
Skip to Conclusion if Blood moon Theory does not apply to you
Blood Moon Tetrads
Then there is the issue of the Blood Moon tetrad theory. I am so amazed how Bible believing christians so easily listen to pastors John Hagee and Mark Biltz. While most of these same Christians claim to despise false prophets and charismatics, they sit there and rebuke me when I point out this is clearly false. I have actually sat down on NASA’s website Looking for the alleged tetrades this theory proposes, all the way to the 1500’s… Since this theory Claims NASA’s moon records confirm this tetrad, and since I also assume not everyone working for NASA is part of a conspiracy to cover up moon cycles in the 1500’s- The fact is these tetrads do not show up in any records at all- accept for Blitzs book. Can we say false prophet?
Six Millennium Catalog of Phases of the Moon:
http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/phase/phasecat.html
Your first clue should have been again, the first 5 seals. Non of these have come to pass yet on such a scale. “Oh but Christians are being persecuted in Syria, China, Boko Haram, XYZ”. This is nothing new, weve always been persecuted. As Christians we were persecuted by the Catholic Church simply for reading a bible… Do you honestly think this is a qualifier for the 5th seal of martyrdom? No the bible is very clear Christians all over will be executed, that includes America and Europe, just as much as the Middle East and where ever. The fact is this, were just not there yet- at best we could say were at the 3rd seal; however even the recession wasn’t quite as bad as economic calamity can get.
Next we also see the interesting aspect of so much attention to just one verse in the Bible. First of all, The moon does’nt turn red- The name “Blood” moon is an old name it also refers to the Harvest moon. Why they called it “Blood” moon has to do with pagan rituals- of which Christians are practicing/observing with this theory. Amazing this same group of Christians are usually the ones who are yelling at people about practicing Halloween and being Luke warm. Yes I’m throwing it down your throat like that, because angelfish actually looks into things- where as many of you take things at face value. The theory relies on 2 specific trains of thought defined below:
Pseudoscience: is a claim, belief or practice which is falsely presented as scientific, but does not adhere to a valid scientific method, lacks supporting scientific evidence or plausibility, cannot be reliably tested, or otherwise lacks scientific status. Pseudoscience is often characterized by the use of vague, contradictory, exaggerated or unprovable claims, an over-reliance on confirmation rather than rigorous attempts at refutation, a lack of openness to evaluation by other experts, and a general absence of systematic processes to rationally develop theories.
Pseudohistory is a pejorative term applied to a type of historical revisionism. It purports to be history, and uses ostensibly-scholarly methods and techniques (which in fact depart from standard historiographical conventions), but is inconsistent with established facts or with common sense and often involves sensational claims whose acceptance would significantly require rewriting accepted history. The term may apply to a theory or to a work or works based on that theory. Cryptohistory is a related term, sometimes applied to pseudo-historical publications based on occult notions.The pejorative nature of the term arises from the implication of ignorance, deliberate misrepresentation, carelessness, gullibility or poor scholarship on the part of the (pseudo)historian.
What these 2 definitions amount to there is a word for it; “Sensationalism”
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1.(especially in journalism) the use of exciting or shocking stories or language at the expense of accuracy, in order to provoke public interest or excitement.
Conclusion
I can see very plainly if Christians spent less time listening to pastors and more time reading their bible, they would be able to spot a lie very quickly. I also see if Christians spent less time tickling their ear and more time spreading the word of god, As God’s word is told to us, Their probably wouldn’t need to be the 7 seals in revelation. I actually suspect the earth would turn more to Christ and less to man. However as these things go, even the very elect fall prey to deception. Some of you pride yourselves in these theories- I’ve heard it said by many of “Blood Mooners” that “theres only 300 people listening to this youtube video, Narrow is the way”… No, there’s a side more then 300, that was just a crappy Youtube channel that doesn’t get any attention, there’s no truth there- the graphics are just as cheap as the one trying to “Educate” you.. Then there is the “Pre-Tribers” with “Jesus Loves me, he would never hurt me.” Yes it’s true he loves you and wouldnt hurt you, but hes not the one you have to worry about.
The fact is on Bible prophecy I am convinced were there on one bases.
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.-2 Thessalonians 2:11-12
The most common and prevailing thing we have now today Is deception. This Is the first sign of the end times- However we are no where near the rest. The reason I know were not there yet is because so many of Christians easily believe anything but the bible itself. Consider to yourself how to learn about things, in your head there is a scale, On one side this is what your being told- on the other side you dont add anything. This is called a one sided perspective. In everything you hear you must listen with a grain of salt and look into the counter argument before establishing it as fact or fiction. This is how you come to a rational argument. In this way of thinking the evidence side of the scale must be equal to the grain of salt of the what you heard side of the scale.Most things you hear are bs anyway, I don’t know why most havn’t learned this. As it is, I pray the church members find wisdom, and the ability to do this with discernment.
See Tides of Deception for more information on how your mind is being spoon feed nonsense.
See The Mark of the Best for more on the book of revelation
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Evangelist Anita Fuentes- false teacher
** Update Dec 31, 2014: there is a part 2 to this that is more current, Anita Fuentes False Watcher on the Wall**
One of the people I followed for a good year or so truely has proven herself a sensationalist. Yup Anita Fuentes. Most of her critics talk about how shes always asking for money, How she blocks people that dont agree with her on her facebook page, and general annoyances of which is somewhat understandable on her part. What I see with her is she has really shift gears the past 6 months or so. She used to have credible news articles, she used to give pretty decent sermons- lately though I’ve seen her spin the bible around to suit news articles in every possible nonsense way to get a thumbs up.
Should she be reading this I want her to know she needs to get back to what she was doing before. I realize she has her reasons for doing livestream, but with quantity of viewers she sacrifices quality of what she has to say. At the same time what she has to say is so often wayyy off the mark of the bible. The lady who once always shouted “Quoting the bible out of context” Is now very much guilty of the same thing. Many of these things I will get into at the end. in addition, no longer does she fact check her sources- now it seems she promotes any asinine thing that sounds evil but more often, its just ridiculous. Lets point to a few examples taken from her youtube:
“SHEMITAH – A Nation Under Judgment 9/25/10”
What anita fails at here is explaining to christians what the ‘Shemitah’ actually is. It has nothing to do with judgement its a year debts are erased… Instead of explaining what the biblical interpretation is, she assumes Jonathan Cahn has all the answers. Interestingly enough Jonathan Cahngoes on to twisting the bible around well out of context himself. While the theory might seem pretty credible something christians are not educated on is the ‘Scemitah’ or ‘Jubelees’- thus we found someone to hijack it into anything they want it to mean. More importantly, she endlessly promotes this elusive take on the bible instead of ever addressing the bible itself. Why not? because dear ones this is what is known as “Profiteering Propaganda”. I can make the bible say anything but If I want to profit on it, its gonna need an interesting spin. Thats what we see here.
“7 Days after Shemitah Dow Jones Drops AGAIN almost 300 POINTS! 10/2/14″
From an investor prospective, the stock market has always gone up and down- this includes the Dow Jones. What most non investors don’t know about the stock market is Usually the markets drop on Wednesdays and pick up again Fridays and Mondays… This isn’t coincidence there’s a lot of reasons for this, mostly because companies buy at the beginning and end of the week and sell somewhere in the middle. It’s such a noticeable thing to anyone who has watched the stock market long enough plan their investments in accordance with it. 300 point drop is not that uncommon, usually its pretty welcomed by investors. It means the market drops Wednesday so buy on Thursday, sell again on Monday. However, I assume she herself doesnt know this- I also assume most people dont know this because they havnt had a reason to pay attention to it. But how it is used here is to further support the Shemitah theory, as anyone can see The Dow jones keeps fluctuating like this throughout the week. The fact is you can make anything so commonplace look like anything, thats exactly what shes doing here.
“Israel wants 7 year Peace Agreement… 8/21/14″
Interesting how this sounds remarkably like “jacobs trouble” in the bible… The problem is Israel said no such thing- at the time they were in the middle of blowing up Hamas in the gaza strip. Peace talks were common though always broken by hamas- no official in israel said anything about “7 years”. Nice try Anita, an intelligent christian would probably know the significance of “7 years of peace in israel”, but its just not happening yet. As it is now, Israel and Hamas are biding their time with each other, at any moment war can break out again. Here I find myself looking in the face of reckless sensationalism. There is no concern on her part in actually explaining this alleged peace talks credibility or any concern in what Jacobs Trouble actually is. All she wants here is you to click and hear her rant.
“CONFIRMED! 9/11/14 “Undetectable Explosives”
Tell us Anita, What exploded on 9/11/14? nothing. Here what im really asking is to test Anita’s fruits. Her first clue this was sensational should have been ISIS made the threat… I realize we should take their threats somewhat seriously, but if we drop and run at every little thing they have to say were only going to spin around in circles everyday. At the same time the threat was Not “Confirmed’ Homeland security said they were worried there “Might” be an attack on 9/11. key word “Might”. What we see here is again sensationalism.
“CDC Highest Level 1 Alert Ebola Emergency / Is Ebola A Plague of 2 Witnesses ?” Aug 6, 2014
Here we see once again twisting the bible to suit news articles for sensationalist purposes. Clearly this should have been obvious to her- The 2 witnesses, first come way in the end of revelation- there’s a specific timeline she completely ignored that just obviously hasnt happened (IE jacobs trouble). Second, The 2 witnesses as the bible tells us will be well known people through out the whole world and they will be standing at the third temple. Who are these 2 witnesses Anita, where is the third temple? At best she could have simply called Ebola the 4th seal- and at least be more accurate about it, instead she choose the sensationalist approach to go above and beyond.
That being pointed out…
Now I just cherry picked a few videos on her youtube channel I could go on but I fail to see the point. Truly now every time she airs I hear it more and more with her. Shes gone off into a wild tangent discrediting the bibles prophecy in every abominable way by pulling up whatever tin foil hat wearer writes in some article somewhere. Are we living in the last days? I am convinced we are, because the very first sign is great deception- as illustrated here with Anita. She needs to get back on track concerned more for her credibility then likes, views and donations.
Speaking of Donations
Since every critic gives her headache over this, I will say to her credit I can see she at least is not running a scam ring. She actually does put up billboards, the website, sale items, and she actually does send out packages to Christians that call on her to be saved. I wouldn’t doubt she even puts her own money into her ministry. I can tell because I’ve done the math on it a few times- it all does add up shes not keeping the money for herself. However all things said above need to change if she wants another donation from me- I will not represent Bible prophecy in such a heretical manner that involves blatant lies for a youtube click.
All things else considered
When Anita first started part of the reason she was good was she had the ability to collect her thoughts before posting something. Posting on youtube once or twice a week, carefully selecting her articles there was a better delivery and more honest point of view.. When she borrowed the idea from Paul Begely to go on livestream she had no such luxury, thus sacrificing discernment and leaving her viewers with propaganda pieces. I enjoy her sermons, she is a very good minister, I would recommend she kept to that for livestream, news articles for youtube videos. Perhaps the day will come when tri-weekly news updates on bible prophecy will become necessary, but that time has not come just now- its simply too soon and simply too obvious. I am sending this post to Anita, because I want her to know she needs to come to terms with such issues. I doubt she’ll respond, shes not very good with criticism, though I’ve put my 2 cents in and hope at the least this was constructive for her.
*Update 2 hours later* well it didnt take long to get a response Anita made her point clear she read what I had to say. Purposely posting about the dow jones on her facebook page and blocking me. Seeing this was written on a wendsday.. I wasnt going to make a big deal about this at first- Now Im putting in tags and adding ‘False Teacher’ to the title, so people on google can read this. Its been a good year Anita, very entertaining, but there is one less customer over here.
I made an update to this article Click link to be re-directed
Evangelist Anita Fuentes False watcher on the wall
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What is The True Religeon
I am within the mark when i say that all the armies that ever marched, and all the navies that ever built, and all the parliaments that ever sat, and all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man upon earth as powerfully as has that one solitary life. – James c Hefley
In India there is still the practice of ‘Untouchables’- people who are left in the streets not allowed to beg or receive charity until they die. You can become one of these untouchables simply by getting fired from a job, your family will abandon you,society will say you are worthless and undeserving of another job. Gay people in India, are either executed in the public square- or they receive a mark on their head so they can not enter any town, essentially cut off from civilization and survive on their own in the jungle. Meanwhile, Hinduism insists on the Western New Age movement they are a religion of Peace, Love and Truth. For some reason these things (and many others) escape the new age crowd.
Oh but lets talk about why cannibalism is no longer prevalent in the world- Yes it was Christians Who went through out the whole world and stopped many native places from eating each other. I remember reading about the history of an island nation called Tonga. Its a very small Island chain in the south pacific. It began as natives farming humans for cannibalism. In the 1800’s missionaries went to Tonga to find the they were surrounded by Cannibals. The missionaries wrote back to the church that they were showing the people how to farm so they can stop cannibalism and needed supplies and more bibles to teach the natives how to read. Soon the missionaries stoped writing back, the church thought the cannibals ate them- indeed they did eat the missionaries. 50 years later another group of missionaries came back to the island thinking they were going to a death trap. To their surprise the natives were farming now, discussing the bible with each other, they even had a hut set up as a church on Sundays. For what ever reason the natives ate the first group, their work was not in vain- Tonga today is still a christian country thanks to them. Praise be to God!!!
As the Centuries pass, the evidence is accumulating that, measured by his effect on history, Jesus is the most influential life ever lived on this planet. – Kennith Scott Latourette
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Christian Warrior Boot Camp Series Part 3: The Gifts of the Holy Spirit
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant. (1 Corinthians 12: 1)
The reason I make this separate from Gods Tool Box, is because here we have to be careful. This is the realm where many false prophets prey on- Charismatics, Health and Wealth Gospel pastors, Faith Healers, Televangelists, Christian Mysticism, and so many deceivers within the church Love this section and so it deserves time to itself. However, it’s not all false prophets- truly the gifts of the holy spirit are everywhere- and I think the trouble most people have with seeing them is, they are not very “Flashy” (for lack of better word). Additionally, you can not buy these gifts they are given by god, and yet with some you can learn it on your own. All of these gifts require faith, and even with a small amount of faith all things are possible. Jesus tells us:
And Jesus said unto them, Because of your unbelief: for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you. (Matthew 17:20)
So without further ado lets get into it.
Spiritual Gift of Discernment
Of all the gifts of the Holy Spirit this is the most precious one. Here is the ability to hear a person, read something, watch a video, witness an action or miracle and determine whether this person is an agent for Satan or for God or if its something random and distinctly just human. The gift also includes being able to see if someone is possessed by a demon and even ‘knowing’ that demon by its name.
well ok that’s nice but why would this be the most precious it sounds boring?
Listen, you and I live in a world where the most common place thing is deception. The gift of discernment is here to curb that deception so you, and any who follow you, are not lead astray. Indeed in the end times the bible goes on and on about how deception will increase, and to get things moving along, God tells us he will take this gift away so that if possible even in the elect can be deceived. The good news about this gift it does not have to come from god parse’, you can learn it. In affect, anyone following this series a good deal of it involves learning this gift. It is in the ability god allows us to learn this gift, without him giving it. in a way is such a blessing in itself. Knowing he will not be handing it out in the end times he gives us the ability to figure out whats going on even to the very end. (Yet another testament on how transparent and benevolent our father is!!) Knowing what comes from Satan and what comes from God will play a big role in your walk with Christ.
Not sold on this gift?
Again listen, if you dont know the difference between god and satan the whole world looks grey to you. There’s no Black there’s no White- you watch a Ke$sha video and shrug your shoulders with complete indifference. We can easily point to a Secularist world view. For Adolf Hitler the view was this: “Germans are the superior race because for 900 years we have lead Europe in every field of Science, Art, Music, Culinary arts, Medicine and literature. Bringing the world into all of it’s highest achievements, It has always been a German who paved the way or made an Irreplaceable improvement to something a French or English man came up with.” Indeed he is correct you dont have to look very far to see Germans invented nearly everything. The fields of Chemistry, Physics, Biology, Natural Science, Etc. clearly all the credit of these goes to a German. the best Classical composers and Artist have always been German. Even today German Medicine is the best in the world just as much now as it was while the rest of Europe was ravaged by the Black Death. In the secular world view, anyone with eyes or half a brain can see it very plainly. Hitler had by the very definition of ‘Evolution’ Germans are indeed the superior race, and he uses a very good bases as scientific proof. Now I ask you to put yourself into 1940 Germany, as a 1940 German listening to this speech. Do you support Hitlers theory or Don’t you, and why? You don’t know about the concentration camps its a closely guarded secret. You don’t know about the propaganda ministry, all your entertainment just seems to randomly be presented to the public. You don’t even know about the eugenics program, where doctors kill disabled people by means of a innocent ‘Flu Shot’. What you do know is Hitler gave you a good job, he saved Germany from communism somehow, He made Germany a better place to live, and all he wants to do is continue with ‘His Struggle‘ to make a better world. Now tell me this how valuable was the gift of discernment to groups like 
‘Edelwiess Pirates‘ who was a youth group opposing both Fascism and Communism? These young kids lived in a world between both extremes and with unwaveringly faith in Christ they choose to not succumb to either idea or propaganda presented by either evil. Yet of 60 million Germans this was only a group of about 200 or so whom refused to sell their souls to deception. Indeed they themselves did not have all the facts, but they knew in their hearts something was wrong. Even today the Edelwiess Pirates get together now and then as 80 year old men and woman. So in summary beloved, you can see how precious this gift is.
Spiritual Gift of Wisdom
“For wisdom is a defence, and money is a defence: but the excellency of knowledge is, that wisdom giveth life to them that have it.” -Ecclesiastes 7:12
A kind of run off on Discernment is Wisdom, you might be tempted to say the 2 are fairly interchangeable. The difference is this- Where discernment lets us see whats going on, Wisdom tells us how to deal with it. Not long ago I read a couple articles from Christmas Child, I believe I could not put it into any better words myself. I refer you to these 2 links. Definition of a Fool and The Wise Man.
Most of the spiritual gift of wisdom comes a great deal from Self Control and Willingness to learn. I particularly like the song ‘The Gambler’ by Kenny Rodgers as a parable for this. “You have to know how to hold them, Know when to fold them…” In fact lets take a short break in our study and sing a song a bit.
The Above verse (Ecclesiastes 7:12) Tells us There are 2 great things in this world to have, Money and Wisdom. However, once you have Acquired Wisdom it can never be taken from you. Making wisdom of the most precious gifts. Under the Spiritual gift of Wisdom there are many sub categories including Discernment, they are as follows:
- Leadership- Knowing how to lead people. the word literally means ‘Guide’. You know they are from god by judging their fruits, a bad leader (:coughs: Obama) is often not as productive as someone like say George Washington, or John F. Kennedy. It’s easy to pin a King or President, but this is not always the people blessed with this gift. More often then not it’s someone in a smaller group like a Pastor, Student, a group of Friends, a Writer, etc…
- Teaching- Let me tell you a secret many find hard to understand. It’s one thing to know something, its another to try and teach it to others. Not everyone can do both- I remember my 6th grade algebra teacher told me once, that she didn’t understand algebra anymore then I did. She just writes down what the text book says and looks at the answer. Yup you dont have to know something to be a teacher, I suppose one can cheat- but the same is vice verse. How many times have you heard someone say “I know what I’m doing I just don’t know how to explain it”. The gifted teacher is one who can clearly demonstrate both AND reach a mass of people to convey the information, in a way they can easily understand.
The Spiritual Gift of Prophecy
Here is a tricky gift it has 2 versions. First, is telling the word of God. Second, Is to see the future.
Telling the word of god means to have the ability to receive a message from god and tell it to people. We can see this work in a lot of ways from either hearing the voice of god, or a certain sense of urgency to just ‘pour out your spirit’ about something. I say ‘pour out your spirit’ because its like an inner volcano- there’s no right way to put it. You just feel it boiling inside you and open your mouth and start going. The Apostle Paul is nd a good example of this. Here we see paul proclaiming every abomination to the Lord in the streets of Rome during his ministry. Things never mentioned in the bible so specifically as Pederisty, the Colloseum, putting orphans in the city dump, sex slavery, etc… He describes the people of Rome as “Inventing new ways of sinning”. Jeremiah was another who before he predicted what would happen to Israel would go around proclaiming that Israel has turned their back on god. We see the same with Amos, and Jonah, as well as many others. This is such a valuable aspect of Prophecy because more often then not, the future is irrelevant. As a general rule, people are much more blind to the present moment. I have already written a bit about hearing the voice of god in “Gods Toolbox” though to be honest I think i just might write a more detailed blog on it in the future.
Predicting the future is surprisingly not as hard to do as you might think. Simply put, pray for a vision and usually god is happy to send one. The key word with this is “Criteria”. In prophecy of the future every thing must match up to scripture or events to come or it did not:
A. come from God or
B. it is not the fulfillment of prophecy.
For Example a popular idea is that Obama is the Antichrist in Revelation. OK alright I’ll get a lot of headache for this, however according to revelation the criteria for “The Antichrist” is:
- He will be the worlds greatest peacemaker (Obama does not by any means fit this, though I’m sure he’d be flattered to hear it)
- He will be killed in his 4th year then resurrected by the Beast of the Earth- in someway, or at least his image presumably will be resurrected back to life, possibly Hologram or TV or a Literal Resurrection. ( Obama has not been killed and brought back to life in any kind of way)
- He will be a false prophet (So far this is about all Obama has going for him as far as bible prophecy)
It’s a short list, Indeed I did not go into a whole checklist, I think you see my point. Nope Obama is just a bad president, by biblical definition yes hes “A Antichrist” but he isn’t “The Antichrist”- as the only definition the bible gives is “Anyone who does not confess Christ is the Savior is an Anti Christ” (I John 2:22) also Jesus tells us “There have been many antichrists before him and many to come after him” (II John 1:7)
So that said Lets continue. Some have had Prophecy given to them as a flash of images and voices. Perhaps it may come as simply a whisper in the back of your head. The trick with it really is just pray to god and ask, then allow yourself to be open to whatever happens. Sometimes it will hit you as the time calls for it. The thing about this gift is you either have it or you don’t, and you can always ask for it. Make sure before announcing it try to make sure it came from God and not Satan.
The Spiritual Gift of Mercy
Here’s a nice and simple one, that should be self explanatory. The ability to be sensitive and bring comfort to someone suffering. I confess this is not me but indeed there are many out there who are very good at this gift. That person that’s easy to talk to, That person who can go to sick people and make them feel better just being there for them. Think Mother Teresa- That’s Mercy, and Truth be told I envy the person with this gift.
Speaking in Tongues
This was another one of those gifts I mentioned where we have to be careful. The reason is so much of it is Hijacked by the Charismatic Movement. It is particularly noticeable in Evangelic and Pentecostal churches they use this in the form of ‘Jibber’ and employ the spirit of Kundalini to do it. So with that said how do we know its from god and if it’s from satan?
Well it’s easy. A satanic Speaker of Tongues will have very a distinct sign- that is Twitching, almost like a seizure. Another tell tale sign is delirium, the person will not be very coherent to their surroundings. Lastly indecipherable Jibberish.
So here is how this works. Speaking in Tongues will be employed in 3 ways. First the person will speak and can speak to multiple languages simultaneously. This is written about in the book of acts when the apostles spoke to a crowed of mixed languages and all the crowd heard and understood what they were saying. Think of it a bit like Star Trek where the Universal Translator allows someone to speak Japanese, Vulcan, Klingon, Chinese, Spanish, etc… Yet seemingly they only speak English. Second, is also in a language no one in the area can understand. That is, Not that you can not translate it it’s supposed to be done in a foreign language or dead language not Jibberish. Granted, You and I are not going to walk around with google translate all the time, in which case the bible tells us to be silent and look it up later if we do not understand. However, in theory you should always be able to pin point and decipher the language the person is speaking. Remember God is always transparent with information, Satan is the only one who likes to keep secrets. The last aspect of this is understanding someone in another language- with no prior knowledge of the language before hand.
This is not a very common place gift, actually one of the rarest. Which Is why it’s worth spelling out the false prophet aspect of it with good detail.
The Spiritual Gift of Healing 
Although God does still heal today, the ability of men to produce miraculous healings belonged to the apostles of the first century church to affirm that their message was from God. Yet we find ourselves in yet another tricky area where false prophets love to prey on. For many Christians it is easier to just say “Faith Healers are all false prophets” indeed too many are. However, I don’t want our faith to have any barriers here, so I will tell of some very miraculous examples of this actually working. Once again I find myself telling you to pray to heal either yourself or someone else. A popular thing amoung Christian circles is to do Prayer Circles, Where a group get a list of prayer requests and they all pray for it. Most common of these prayer requests is always healing. Anything from paralysis to migraines, to coma. The idea of prayer circles is simple, 2 heads are better then one – get 5-100 together well it just makes sense. While i throw prayer circles out there as just an idea on how to do this I’d also like to remind you God isnt about popularity contests. It may be just as well you pray for it on your own.
I remember a story once of a kid that was riding his bike, when a semi truck lost control and turned into the sidewalk- stright into the kid. All things considered the kid wasn’t in too bad of shape except for internal bleeding. His mother came into the E.R. where the doctor told her he might not be alive tomorrow morning. The mother told the doctor “You don’t know my god”. All night she sat by his side Praying her heart out until her son woke up. The next morning, they checked out of the hospital with just a few bruises.
The point of it is this, Prayer does have enormous power. I think the Spiritual gift of Healing is where people pray for it the most, consequently its where it shines best. Be like the mother who prayed for her son, and don’t be afraid to tell the doctor piss off.
The Spiritual Gift of Miracles
Here is where we come to yet another false prophet favorite, and yet again Do not put a barrier on your faith because of it. Yes there can be miracles, Jesus tells us
“And the Lord said, If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.” (Luke 17:6)
I will tell you a true story of how my brother in law saved his kids after a serious car accident.
Erick was driving along the Bay Bridge in Maryland, bringing my nephews over to my vacation house in Delaware. Me and my sister were hanging out in Rehobath waiting for him scratching our heads thinking he’s awfully late… about 5 hours late. The phone rang it was a nurse at the hospital she told us to come in right away. We came in to hear the police tell the whole story of what happened and what he saw. A car next to Erick had slide into his car, and rammed him straight into the cement wall. The car was crushed and crumbled so much none of the doors would open. The police tried keeping erick and the kids calm until the jaws of life could come in. They tried over and over to yank the doors open but they would’nt. The Bridge was completely backed up because of the accident, there was no way the jaws of life could get there. Erick prayed for a second, grabed the door an like the incredible hulk, Pushed the door open and lifted it above his head- tossed it over the side of the bridge. He then went to the back seat and riped open that door in like manner. He grabed his 2 kids and walked away from the car (Erick would later tell us he heard a voice telling him to get far away from the car). Suddenly the car exploded. Here is the kicker to this tale, Erick broke both his legs in the car accident and his left arm, the same arm he pulled the car doors open with.
Indeed God has this ability and it seems to come at just the right moment. Now this story happened years ago when cars were still made out of tin (1980’s). If it wasn’t the police telling us we probably would not have believed him. I think the thing about Miracles is you can not just conjure it up, for Erick he said, he just knew what to do and did it, it was very autonomous.
Casting Out Demons
And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through
thy name.Luke 10:17
While traditionally this is not considered a Gift of The Holy Spirit It is a gift we as Christians by default all have. All you have to do is go up to someone and tell the demon “I cast you out in the name of Jesus” and that’s it. Jesus himself gave us authority over demons. While having little experience with this myself I’ve heard it said sometimes they can be stubborn and you have to say it over and over, Speak with great authority, and it helps if you know the demons name. I have also heard it said there were reports of UFO abductions where the people being probed Called out to Jesus to stop the experience, suddenly it was over. While I think most Christians don’t particularly ascribe to UFO’s, understanding these as demonic entities – suddenly makes a bit more sense of them in my opinion. Again It’s not traditionally a Holy Spirit Gift, I believe because it comes as default, everyone can do this. However it is none the less a powerful tool to know and keep.
Evangelism
The thing about evangelism some people are better at it then others, but the bible tells us all Christians need to evangelize. So what is Evangelism, some might ask. Simply spreading the word of god and getting souls to bring to Christ. The Bible describes evangelism as the Pulse of The Holy Spirit. Think about a heart beat it pumps like a drum each beat the Holy Spirits heart is saying Souls… Souls… Souls… The spirit need souls to pump and wants as many as it can get. You can do this a number of ways. First by your actions deeds and things you say. Oh thats stupid right? Oh honey no it isnt. People who live in filth and sin will always look up to someone that is good natured and has a happy life. By your actions the sinners of the world will judge you, eventually they say to themselves “Whats he doing that im not doing, I wish I can live like that” and so this person will learn about a christian lifestyle and convert. This is the simplest way to spread the word of god, indeed Jesus tells us this simple thing plays a big role, You are the light in the world, and much of the world is darkness. When you shine people cant help at notice.
Another way to evangelize is Ministry work, going to another country or some random nook in the world preaching the gospel. I remember reading about the history of an island nation called Tonga. Its a very small Island chain in the south pacific. It began as natives farming humans for cannibalism. In the 1800’s missionaries went to Tonga to find the they were surrounded by Cannibals. The missionaries wrote back to the church that they were showing the people how to farm so they can stop cannibalism and needed supplies and more bibles to teach the natives how to read. Soon the missionaries stoped writing back, the church thought the cannibals ate them- indeed they did eat the missionaries. 50 years later another group of missionaries came back to the island thinking they were going to a death trap. To their surprise the natives were farming now, discussing the bible with each other, they even had a hut set up as a church on sundays. For what ever reason the natives ate the first group, their work was not in vain- Tonga today is still a christian country thanks to them. Praise be to God!!! In alot of 1800 missionary work we hear tales of cannibalism in natives in virtually every corner of the world. It is because of so many missionary work then today cannibalism is very rare, AND the word of god has spread all over.
Now there is more ways of Evangelizing. The internet, TV, Telling other kids at school about Jesus, Writing books, YouTube, 
street pasturing, passing out bibles. Truly be creative anyway you can. There is a church nearby that has free breakfast every morning at 9 am- anyone can come but its a popular stop for homeless people, squatter kids, drug addicts and prostitutes. Before they feed people the pastor gives a short sermon and while people are eating, he continues his sermon. The idea with this plan is simple, bring in the cities drug addicts, and prostitutes. offer them something they want, and MAKE them hear the word of god before giving them food. I know it sounds like a christian trap when I spell it out like that- in a way yes it is. The church purposely placed its free breakfast in the ghetto so it can target these very types of sinners who need christ more then anyone. The turn out is incredible, a whore told me once she never actually heard the word of god she never really had the incentive.A time came she was so hungry she had to go to that church breakfast. Shes been going ever since and got a decent job at the bank. Praise be to God!!!
The point of evangelism is this, in some way shape or form spread the message of Christ. You can also do this by donating to a ministry who is evangelizing, sharing posts of an evangelist online, or any work that promotes another evangelist – if say you find yourself not so good at it yourself. By helping an evangelist you are doing the work of an evangelist. I say shar the heck out of every piece of christian material on Facebook and twitter- never mind if you piss some people off.
So then there is the internet, Indeed every christian blogger (Myself included) loves writing about god- all of us want the world to hear it. Every so often I look at my stats here on Angel Fish blog, and see Places like India, Kuwait, or even Pakistan. I have no idea what the person was reading, but my heart gets so filled for these people reading something about our lord and savior. It was the internet that lead me a good bit to Christ, as well as many others so yes indeed use the internet to spread the word. Litter and Splatter your blog or youtube with tags and send them all over the Google search algorithm. Share with friends on Facebook, twitter, Pintrest… Praise be to God for this unique way to receive souls!!!
And so we find ourselves at the end of this segment of Christian Warrior Boot Camp. Be advised there are many gifts of the holy spirit I simply wanted to highlight some of the more controversial ones as part of our training. For the next segment we come to Part 4 where I alk about none other then Satans Dirty bag of tricks.
Christian Warrior Boot camp Series PT: 4 Satans Tool Box
New Money
Luxury is not befitting a fool;
much less should a slave rule over princes.– Proverbs 19:10
There was a man from the ghettos of Baltimore, md. All his life he struggled to get by and all he had to show for it was a typical ghetto run down house, living on food stamps, 4 kids from 3 different woman, and every now and then he’d make side money selling pot. One day he went to the grocery store and bought a lottery ticket. He came home sat the ticket aside, and about a week later he checked up on it to find he had just won the $300 million jackpot. So what does he do after he gets the check?
‘I can travel Europe now, live in High Class. I can buy yachts to sail around the world. I can get a Big house with a bathroom big enough to play football in, and get drinking fountains that run kool aid. I can get cars I can get woman. I’ll buy just about everything and anything I feel like.’
Indeed our friend does all these things and then some. He ate at the finest restaurants, He rented a private jet plane, Took his trip to Europe at some of the most prestigious hotels. Yes its true, money doesn’t buy happiness but its a very good start.
At a hotel in Prague a business conference just let out, and some of the people attending made their way to the bar, where our friend was sitting nursing a martini. These business men were not run of the mill just any business men, They owned Hotel chains like Hilton and Marriott, Some were District Bank Executives, High profile Investors and even actors from Hollywood. Our friend found himself in a conversation with a Junior Executive Officer of Internal Affairs of the London Stock Exchange. (Well name this guy Sam).
Sam asks him, ‘Tell me how do you invest your money, what does your portfolio look like. I can see you are very successful coming to this hotel, I’ve always met only just the right people I can learn from’. Our friend; ‘I won the lottery a few months ago, I dont need to invest i’m set for life’. Sams smile drifted off his face; ‘I am very happy for your winnings but have you taken any consideration into Wealth Management or preservation. It’s easier to go bankrupt then stay wealthy.’ Our friend Laughs ‘Nah yo, I made 300 million dollars, I cant even spend all that in 3 life times even if I tried.’ Sam replied ‘I see, thats quite an earning, Id wager you could be right If I havnt seen so many companies and people before you with a lot more then just $300 million go bankrupt’. Our friend became inpatient with sam, How dare he judge him and compare him to those loosers. “What do you know, youre a slave to your boss and your suit, I’m free from all that- I don’t have to do a thing but enjoy my life doing what ever I feel like!!” Sam ‘I am terribly sorry if I offended you, I truly am, but I ask you consider what I’ve told you. I will leave you now, it was nice chatting.’
Eventually, our friend would come back to his hometown Baltimore after several months of traveling Europe. He rented the most expensive condo in Canton. He bought himself a Bugatti and a brand new Lotus. And while he had his fill of Europe he really was just glad to be in a place he could call home with all the familiar people and places. His friends were only about a mile down the road. His children were going to private schools and he was glad to see them, though he never really knew them even when he was poor. He took great pride in his things and the ability to take care of his kids and there baby mommas. He checked his bank account one day and scratched his head $104,583,284.83 was there. ‘What happened to 200 million dollars?’ he asked himself. ‘I did not think I spent that much in Europe’. In the back of his mind he thought to himself ‘I wasn’t really paying attention anyway maybe I really did spend that much, but oh well I’m settling down now it shouldn’t go down much further for a long time.’
He called his friends over to check out his house. He got all new furniture, hired an interior decorator, remolded a bit and well he missed them- so why not show all this off.
‘Oh man this place is SWEET yo, check this tv out. You push this button and the wall spins around.’ He told his friends. ‘Damnnn Brotha you makein quap like that son, is this sofa cashmere leather?’ He showed them every room, walking through all the bells and whistles. His friends never saw or knew what money could actually buy- they never even heard of a
credenza- much less one could cost $29k. The imported rare Italian red marble tiles in the kitchen, the Granite hot tub in the bedroom, The rug made from silk from wild silk worms and the petal of a flower that blooms only one night a year by moonlight…
All of these and many others certainly was very impressive. In the back of his mind he thought ‘I’m awesome arnt I, and these guys know it’
In the back of his friends minds, ‘How much is he willing to give me, I probably can “Borrow” that later, I am hanging out here all the time not my place’.
One of his friends (Jason) however had no such thought in his head ‘he is paying way too much to remodel a place he rents and does not own. This furniture is nice but there’s no intrinsic value to it, he will never get his money back at the price he paid. well maybe it doesn’t matter furniture and things you only buy once im sure eventually he’ll move or buy the place.’
A bit of time passed and our friend found himself getting phone calls all the time. ‘Can I get some money yo I need to pay this electric bill’ Or ‘I really need a car, just a crappy truck is fine’ or ‘My kid just got sent to jail man I need money for his lawyer’. Small requests for money here and there- atleast small enough compared to his bank so yeah why not give a little here and there to help. On the other phone line Jason called. ‘Thats nice your helping people, but why not get yourself a buisness, you could buy an office building and set something up with just 20 million- or hey even cheaper.’ Jason also told him ‘Check out this company on the stock exchange, they just paid off their debt and signed a deal selling their product internationally- Sounds like a rock solid investment maybe you should get in on it.’
Our friend here knew Jason was well intentioned, but honestly he didn’t feel like running a company, he didn’t understand the stock market and did not want to learn. He had plenty of money and just did not feel he could possibly want more. At the same time he felt guilty about being seen as Greedy. What he did not understand about what Jason was trying to tell him, was the same thing the guy in Prague was telling him. Jason had the feeling our friend was tossing his money away and needed some kind of asset for financial stability. Every time our friend told Jason no I dont want to do this or that -Jason would get frustrated with him, because he was always missing the point of what he was trying to get him to do.
Eventually, our friend got pretty tired of his friends coming over using his stuff and begging for money, he told them all to leave him alone except Jason. Jason was the one who did not ask for a thing for himself and obviously was a true friend. Jason, however was growing kinda annoyed trying to get him to invest or buy property so just kept his mouth shut about it. At the same time Jason was getting a little tired of this friend obsession with his stuff and didn’t want to talk to him much anymore anyway. While Jason was distancing himself from his friend, it only confirmed to him Jason was a true friend, and made it a point to keep him around. He was happy to take jason along on little trips with him, take him out to dinner, things friends do. Jason sure would go along with this and put in his half of the tab even though our friend insisted every bill was free.
One day our friend took his lotus out for a drive, He just wanted to go around the beltway and get out of the house. About 90 mph he was going when he got a text. He looked down it was one of his baby’s mommas she wanted him to pick up the kid from school because shes at work late tonight. He began typing ‘Yeah Sure’ when suddenly the car moved over into the shoulder where a guy with a broken down motorcycle was waiting for AAA to pick him up. BAAAM!! he plowed right into him. The motorcyclist would have to go to the ER, and later learn he was paralyzed from the waist down. Our friend felt horrible but feeling horrible would never give this guy his legs back. Thus began a legal battle between 2 insurance companies.
Our friends insurance only covered up to $100,000 of injury, and the motorcyclist doctor bills amounted to $40 million. The insurance lawyer advised our friend “Don’t worry, you dont have to pay out of pocket we see these cases all the time.” Our friend “What do you mean don’t worry I paralyzed a man, I can pay out of pocket I’d be glad to.” the lawyer told him “Listen, it’s like a game- Were trying to get his insurance to split the bill with your insurance, It’s not that he wont get his bill paid we just want to make sure we don’t get caught with the whole bill all by ourselves and negotiate it.” This angered our friend “How dare you play games like this with people, there’s a man hurt, I’m going down there right now with a check.” and so he did, he paid for everything and he felt better about himself for doing so. But there was a tiny tiny little problem, There was only $500k left in his bank after this check. He told Jason about it, again Jason told him cut expenses and invest in something. Our friend only heard the first part of this however.
He decided he was tired of Baltimore and wanted to live in the country. It was cheaper rent and utilities, $500k can go a long way in Tennessee. He downsized his cars and spending a bit and moved all his stuff down with him. The landlord in Baltimore was very surprised to learn her tenant had increased her resale value nearly 3000% and sold the condo immediately after he broke the lease. She wasn’t upset he just up and left in the least.
He found a nice place for only $400 a month, he did the math he could stay there without a job for 40 years. ‘I’ll probably be dead by then, no big deal’.
for the sake of speeding this story up Our friend indeed slowed way down on his spending, but it was only 2 years by the time he went from 300 million dollars to nothing at all. He found himself one day in such a precarious situation where the electric was shut off, his landlord was evicting him, and he only had enough left to get 1 uhaul truck to lug his stuff to anywhere but there. He had so much stuff, he needed 4 trucks. Needless to say he had 1 week left to figure out where to live- most of his stuff would have to be left behind, and he had 0 time to try and sell them. Frantic he called Jason asking to move in.
Jason opened up his doors, of course he could move in. Jason just bought his new house, didn’t have much furniture in it, so there was plenty of room to fit our friends stuff. There was of course the trouble of money. However, Jason realized this and made the agreement all our friend would have to do is help keep the house clean and do some light yard work in exchange for rent. Jason knew at this point his friend had plenty integrity while he had money, Perfectly honest guy then but It was easier then… Now our friend was broke, had no interest in getting a job, did not care for much else but himself. Jason knew from the start if he let our friend stay, no strings attached, he would be taken advantage of. He wanted our friend to do a little something so he would not get too comfortable.
Indeed Jason was right, our friend just laid around all day let the dishes pile up (his dishes) and expected Jason to clean it. For months people would come over to see our friend and complain how filthy the house was, Jason overheard our friend say ‘Oh it’s all Jason’s mess he refuses to clean.’ Jason’s patience ran thin and he put his foot down. He walked into our friends room, handed him a broom and told him. ‘Listen you have been living here for free and all you’ve done is triple my electric bill, mess up my house, Let my cat out and shes been missing since- I dont give a shit youre broke anymore, Keep up your end of the deal or move out tomorrow.’ Our friend realizing his place said ‘Ok, ill clean a bit but im moving anyway, this house is too small and I don’t like it anyway so.’
Indeed our friend did, he moved into a girlfriends house… whom also got tired of takeing care of him. She did not want to toss him in the street and decided to get a hold of Jason again. And for a second time Jason said, ok but this time I want some cash for rent- last time he was here he ran up my bills, all I ask is he pays enough to make up the difference. Our friend got a job at the dollar store, indeed for 8 months he held up his end and eventually moved out again on his own. After telling people again what a slob Jason was, how cruel he was that he charged him rent when he’s his best friend. Jason grew very tired of this slander, and as he was packing his stuff up jason told him; “This is the last time. I tried to help you when you were rich, im trying to help you when your poor. you come into my house insulting me, make a mess of everything, and clearly lack any respect for me. Don’t come back.”
A few years would pass when our friend would find himself at a homeless shelter. He’d cry himself to sleep every night on a cot issued to him, in a room of 45 people or so. He told his story to another homeless man one day from his own point of view. How he was a victim of the world and all that money just slipped away and it wasnt even his fault.- the Homeless man said something that our friend was finally wise enough to hear;
‘It’s hard to feel bad for an idiot, Dont tell me through all this you went bankrupt and ended up here without someone trying to help you. Dont tell me you did not have the time or money to build some kind of business or at least go to college. You tell me this story asking for a pitty party, and im a side more tempted your lieing through your teeth. Let me tell you that mans story, or this guys tale, let me tell you my own story. My guess, you’re impulsive, irresponsible, lazy and selfish thats why you’re here.’
I give you this parable because everyone says I want to be rich so I can buy this and that. Everyone says, I want to make a ton of money without having to do anything. What might be a surprise to many people- this parable is actually loosely based on a true story from an actual friend of mine who went through an 80 million dollar inheritance inside of just about 2 years. Let me guess, If you won the lottery or money like that you would never be this stupid? I know, I know the good little christian or Miss. America response “If I had that much money I would donate it all to charity”, Lets be real can we? Indeed everyone who does win the lottery says this and that, and 99.5% go broke within 5 years, for all these reasons and more. Then again I could also point to the many revolving door rap artist and celebrities in just say the past 20 years.No no no, this isnt you though… Really why not? In all this time have you even googled the term Wealth Preservation or Wealth Management?
On another thing, I think about it, I’ve heard many tell successful CEO’s alot like sam how rich they are, and selfish they dont give more to them and the ‘little people’. Everytime I heard this said to the right CEO they say “I worked hard, managed my money, set goals for myself, built my business and career starting as a paperboy. You could do the same if you put your mind to it and were willing to put forth the effort.” The thing about a lot of the worlds wealthiest people and businesses is they are not all selfish and pampas. Amazingly, a lot of them really do try to help ‘the little people’ noticably more then any in the world Americans wealthy elite. The fact is, they also try to help themselves. How good are they for hand outs if they don’t try themselves to stay wealthy? How foolish do they have to be to know hard work and dedication can go a long way verse just handing someone a $100,000? The parable is
this. Wealth Management is a boring topic. No one says ‘I want to win the lottery so I can open an IRA account, and create a balanced multi-industry portfolio with a cap return of 3.8%.’ Trust me, it takes a certain kind of dull to be that boring.
The bible tells us Luxury is not fitting for a fool- the reason is a fool has no interest in even taking the first step in learning what to do with it. The Bible also tells us Slaves have no place ruling over Princes, The reason being most people don’t know how to manage themselves and those beneath them with a certain balance to begin with. A slave can only become either a fool serving the masses with everything they ask for, only to loose everything and destroy
himself and those beneath him. Or a vicious tyrant unwilling to budge on anything but his own interest, usually ending with a peasant riot and having his head cut off. Both these outcomes come from having no concept of the responsibility he really has been given or the wisdom to deal with it. Pray my friends to be blessed with money, more importantly to be wise with what to do with it. Should you find yourself content in middle class or even poor, pray for the wisdom to maintain that life style. The truth about money is, It flows like water in a very literal but esoteric way, if you do nothing with it- it will pour out of your hand through the cracks of your fingers, while you blindfold yourself.
If for some reason the message of this tale does’nt sink in. Britney Spears has an important announcement to make I’d like to share with you.
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