Rockson

In Acts 17: 28 we see that God through the Apostle Paul used the entertainment industry of his day to make a spiritual point....something that generation could relate to help them more readily receive the gospel. This following came to me I believe by revelation in a similar way that is something about our present culture in which God wants to make a spiritual point....in so doing that they might more readily receive the Gospel. I'll say what it is first and then I'll share why in my opinion this can have a great impact for the Kingdom of God. It's the Christmas Carol. the story of Ebenezer Scrooge and his joyful life filled nephew who sought to bring his Uncle into a state of merriment! Now just know first of all how significant this piece of literature The Christmas Carol has being over the last 100 years. Written by Charles Dickens in the 1800's there's been over 20 movies made about the theme.....then there's highly talented professional theater productions that have been done on stage.....not to mention just type in on youtube "Scrooge Highs School plays! I dare say you can't find a city in North America that usually doesn't have a Christmas Carol production going on in every city. So ..... everybody LOVES this story! Because they DO I believe God wants to use it to make a point. I encourage you to stay with me and I think you'll find this interesting! Scrooges nephew was a type of Jesus Christ. He Scrooge's nephew came to a man who was in darkness and misery that is Scrooge and wanted to bring him in to a state of life and merriment. You recall (if you've seen a Scrooge movie) he came to his Uncle's business and announced to him in a lively spirit of joy and happiness, "MERRY Christmas UNCLE!!" Just to note in the actual text Charles Dickens wrote, he has Scrooge's nephew actually say to him, "Merry Christmas Uncle and God save you!" Interesting that all the movie producers actually left that out. And how did Scrooge answer his nephew.....I think you all know....He said to him, 'HUMBUG! HUMBUG!" He basically told him "Take Your MERRY somewhere else!" There was something though his nephew wanted him to do.....a place where he wanted him to come, AND where was that? He wanted him to come to his place for Christmas dinner where there would be LIVELY JOY, MERRIMENT, DANCING AND FUN and Jesus 2000 years before Charles Dickens ever wrote this made out a call to for all to come his LIFE banquet! In Lk 14:16 we read, But Jesus replied, “A certain man prepared a great banquet and invited many guests. 17When it was time for the banquet, he sent his servant to tell those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’18But one after another they all began to make excuses. The first one said, ‘I have bought a field, and I need to go see it. Please excuse me.’19Another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to try them out. Please excuse me.’20Still another said, ‘I have married a wife, so I cannot come.’ They like Scrooges were basically saying the same thing as he to the invitation to the LIFE party....HUMBUG....HUMBUG!!! Scrooges nephew came to him with a message of LIFE and JOY and Jesus Christ outside of the realm of fiction actually did the same with what's called the Good News Gospel The Way, The Truth and the Life. Christ was wanting and still does want to restore within the hearts of every man the true state of merriment and that is imparting Eternal Life into ones spirit to transform their life. The Apostle Peter said to Jesus that he was the one who had the words of eternal life and Jesus said, "The words I speak unto you they are spirit and life!" Jn 6:63 We're going to take you on a journey in this series ahead at looking more closely at this Christmas Carol, Scrooge, and THE HUMBUG analogy and as I've suggested it can have a big impact on saints and sinners alike and here's why......the culture has engrained within them not to want to be of a Scrooge spirit! They've heard the Christmas Carol story all of their lives and the last thing they want to be is be like him. When one understands they don't want to say HUMBUG to The Creator of all Spirits to saints and sinners alike they find awaken in them a new positive vision to say YES to God in all things. Nobody or most people don't want to be a Spiritual Scrooge! (See You Next Time)

Of course I won't be the most popular person on the board to tell you this and don't believe you will accept this but consider it at least from a different perspective but sorry I don't buy all your row out of discontent and nor should you be taken seriously. You're basically, like many do that get offended get mad at God putting him up against the wall claiming to all how you did this or you did that.....and God didn't come on through! Sorry not buying it. It's similar to a parent telling their offspring to do the dishes and they come back and they didn't do a good enough job for there's food marks still all over the plates and the kid says, " YA BUT IT WASHED THEM!" The parent will usually respond, "Yes but not good enough! Go back and do them again until you get it right!" I don't mean to offend the writer of the post but the problem with it notice what it does. It puts the blame on God that he created a system by which we can attain victory but they claim it doesn't work. IT DOES WORK however. Years ago I was where the writer of it is. I thought or CLAIMED it was doing everything right too but of course I whitewashed things that I know I truly wasn't. I went back to the drawing board and YES kept doing inventory.....and I did and still do achieve basic victory of things by his gracious power that he's always willing to release. There's only one we're to conclude is true and that is God himself. When he says, "Come unto me all you which labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you rest" then that's exactly what he means and one CAN take that to the bank! The poster probably despises me for saying these things but I'm not saying anything here that I haven't said to myself and I'm perhaps the best friend they've got in the world to tell them these things. Of course a great many people aren't willing to give up their offence. I trust and hope this poster won't be one of them.

That's not a reason that you didn't mean it! And you better not let go of even that type of mediation to serve God. Yeah I know people come around and say dumb things that serving God should be only out of a love motivation....WHO SAID THAT in the Bible? NOBODY. Paul warned his audience about the coming judgment in which God will judge the dead to the end that one better get ready and stay spiritually healthy.

Very good message! You worked hard on producing it as well plus your other two videos. You're multiple images make it interesting.

I would have said, "I don't care what she is when it comes to ethnicity. I'd just say she's a human being I'm running against who is wanting America to keep going down the wrong road!"

Well I don't know. Hard to say on just what you've put down. I will say this about not wanting to watch shows. Just tell them most of the time you're visiting tell them you don't want to experience the TV thing you're there to visit them. Doesn't mean if you're there for a weekend doesn't mean you can't allow them to watch anything at all but there's always things you can do for an hour or so....go downtown, visit a few places.....but tell them that you really would like at least some of the time to turn the silly thing off.

This is a writings about Sanctification. In order to truly have the empowerment from God to become sanctified there's some ground work that needs to be done. We're going to look at certain event taking place in the book of Joshua/Deut where ti talks about sanctification. We'll get to Joshua 3:5 in a moment but I start with chapter 1 to observe a few things. In Joshua 1 we see Moses had died and it was now the time for the new leader to take over. God we could say gives Joshua his great commission. He tells him in verse 3, every place that the soles of their feet shall tread upon has he given to them, but notice God had his part to play.....but the human element had their part to play as well. They had to tread upon the ground. God told them what that ground was all the different places in the land of Canaan in verse 4 which is very similar in a New Testament spiritual way with 1 Pt 2:4 which tells us we have been given the exceeding great and precious promises but we must by faith believe for their manifestation or for them to become fulfilled in our lives. In other words we must tread upon or receive by faith the promises of God. Sanctification is one such thing as well. Let's continue......so in Josh 1:8 we read, This book of the law shall not depart out of thy mouth; but thou shalt meditate therein day and night, that thou mayest observe to do according to all that is written therein: for then thou shalt make thy way prosperous, and then thou shalt have good success. Josh 1:8 So this book of the law, or this word of God shall be your mediation day and night or we could say continual and without failing to do so pretty much all the time. In other words as much as you possibly can other things out....my word in or we could say very good sound teaching of the word of God. Only when Joshua would do this could he expect to have the capacity to really produce God's results Now in proper context we're not saying anyone could ever keep the actual moral laws in perfection....only Christ could do that but when it came to having the courage and vision to lead the nation in what God wanted them to do it had to be the WORD of God and mediation therein is as the primary thing. There were types and shadows of New Testament redemption that as we proceed we''ll get into to up ahead, We go back to Josh 1:8 though......mediation, or thinking about the WORD, dwell upon it, mutter it DAY and NIGHT continually as one's pattern of life. We know that Psalm 1 encourages us the same thing as it ends by saying, "In his law (or in God's word) does he (the righteous man) mediate day and night and he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth his fruit in his season.....he leaf shall not wither and whatsoever he does shall prosper. Psalm 1. We go as well to Prov 4: 20 "My son, attend to my words; incline thine ear unto my sayings.21Let them not depart from thine eyes; keep them in the midst of thine heart. For they are life unto those that find them, and health to all their flesh.23Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. Prov 4:20 We interested here in the LIFE of God....the LIGHT of God, we could say the power of God, or the FIRE of God which can burn out the chaff out of our lives.....That indeed is sanctification! Should it surprise us then at the dedication and determination in which God want's us to have in regard to dwelling upon speaking forth his thoughts and mind as our absolute primary thing in life? Let's go now to Deut 6: 7-9 And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates. Deut 6:7,9 Look at the diligent we could say extreme measure in which he wanted the WORD to be a part of their lives....to the point of talking about them all the time....sitting in your house....walking by the way.....when you lie down and when you rise up....In other words ALL THE TIME. A legalistic thing meaning every second on the clock? No but I think all really know in their hearts what God is meaning. The word of God in! All foolishness out until your heart and minds are consumed with the word of God. I consider it's fine and OK to allow ourselves a little time of recreation and fun but each one reading here I'm confident KNOW what I'm meaning. Instead of giving God your time minutes a day and secular distractions three or four hours a day of entertainment....how about turning that around? Give God the MAIN bulk of time and the things of worldly pleasure the small part. So let me put it this way God in order for us to be spiritually successful in him.....we need to have what the world might call be obsessed with God's way of thinking. Obsessed is maybe not a good term....lets suggest the following, In order to be producing spiritual success and to have his truth go our heads to our hearts we need to have our thinking deeply entrenched with the word of God. Here's further thoughts. We used terms like engrained, saturated, permeated or engrossed. I like the word engrained in regard to this. Engrained is defined as that which it's way down or into the fabric of something. When the WORD of God works it's way deep into our spiritual life that is when transformation takes place The word saturated, a good term as well. Consider with a rain storm.....one may need rain but a fast quick rain usually runs off....a slow continual rain that lasts all of a day does what??....it sinks down deep into the ground! God wants his words deeply entrenched in our lives that's when it's going to make a difference and such was the meaning of Jesus words when he said in Lk 9:44 Let these words sink down into your ears ......and he that has an ear let him hear.....meaning.....any one who is willing to let my words get down down in you to change them will find my favor! And then there's the word to permeate. It's said that some food dishes are served better the next day after being made. Lasonya they say is like that. The juices sink down or the blend into the substance of the pasta creating a better taste. God is saying let my WORD sink down and permeate into your very being. Many churchman claim, "Oh yeah I do that! I go to church....I hear my Pastor preach!" OK we stop such a one a few days after the meeting on Sunday and we ask, "What did your Pastor preach about Sunday morning?" They squint with their eyes and try to think, "Ah....um.....well ler um.....A.......I don't know but I know it sure was good!" Yeah sure. They really caused that teaching to become deeply entrenched into their hearts and minds didn't they? ! It's engrained deep down within their being for sure and is going to change their lives! NOT. So really what is it we've got when we allow that to be our experience? Perhaps just a religious form? We've checked the box of church attendance and believe for sure God must be pleased. Of course we know he wouldn't be for the WORD never did take root in one's heart and we can consider it like the seed planted by the rocky soil. Hard ground and not capable of really producing anything much. We can however change that and I'm guessing that none of us have been perfect in this. Having said all this I'd like my readers to consider a different way of looking at the words of Jesus perhaps a little different now, when he said, If you remain in Me and My words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you Jn 15:7 OK we get it Jesus said for us to abide in him but then he says and my word abide in you you shall ask what you will and it shall be given you......in other words when his words are deeply entrenched with us, when they're blended into the fabric of our being.....then and only then can you ask the Father for things in prayer and have confidence God will answer! And why should that be? For the reason that God's word permeated or saturated within you the giants or problems of life shrink down where your FAITH and confidence is now in a place where it can believe God! The WORD truly becomes a reality to one's sprit and mind and is not just a theology on a page.

I don't think it helps anyone to define what it is from whatever way of thinking about it. The main thing is to be able to be able to encourage another human being and give them hope.

Oh I see. So you're talking about living a life where you never say Not my will but yours be done....so it becomes my will be done and put your stamp of approval on everything I'm doing. God becomes like a waitress at a restaurant where you say I want this and this and this and leave off that. God and Jesus never become Lord and you never consider him your King where he can give you assessments to advance his Kingdom. Ask Jonah how that all worked out when God told him to go to Nineveh and he did his own thing? Did he have calm seas and smooth sailing? Tell me what happened to him?

I'd say of course Jesus had to utilize his faith. When he was in the time of temptation the devil created circumstances to seek to have him doubt that he was the Son of God. Jesus stayed in the FAITH of who and what he was. If this wasn't FAITH what was it?

I don't think anyone can add their own pet theologies into this parable about is this just written about people who knew God beforehand or not. I think one is imposing into the text something not clearly stated. I think it just basically means if one doesn't know God, didn't beforehand or even if they did....the point is God is revealing his number 1 desire he has towards all humanity....to know they can come to God and he will receive them.

Hard to respond to your post for anything said to encourage might sound so glib. None the less there is a way and in your case it may take some time, but God can continually do moves to improve your situation. In Habakkuk 3 we see an example of one going through things where EVERYTHING was wrong and getting worse. He still locked into however this one way of thinking.....he was going to walk in joy and praise of God even though everything in his natural mind would almost not be able to accept it. He did it anyway and continued to do so.....to the positive end result that you see below. Although the fig tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in the vines; the labour of the olive shall fail, and the fields shall yield no meat; the flock shall be cut off from the fold, and there shall be no herd in the stalls:18Yet I will rejoice in the LORD, I will joy in the God of my salvation.19The LORD God is my strength, and he will make my feet like hinds' feet, and he will make me to walk upon mine high places. Habakkuk 3 17,19

Don't think I"m a dating app guy I'm happily married for over 40 years but why would one misrepresent themselves? Maybe for this reason. . They feel if they told the truth nobody would even talk to them. People are looking for someone that has something going for them.

As for me no I wouldn't give this person any more money unless I felt the Lord clearly impressed me to. This person is continually looking to you as their source and not God.

Probably so. Yeah that Trumbull county one I find quite interesting. Probably because so many police are on the 911 tape chasing the thing. But this one cop, was right under the thing.....he claimed at one point it was about 50 feet above his head.....and the skeptic science person on the video dismisses it as a planet or star.... .but one is not going to say something was 50 feet above their head if it were some star/planet. The 911 with Police on record I find most interesting. Many UFO accounts were great stories but if it's Billy Bob out in the wilderness and he sees something you like to hear of many witnesses.

Crop circles eh? Haven't heard about those recently. Seems to me those were mostly in England somewhere....always so far away that you couldn't drive up to them and see them. So what did you conclude about them? I suppose the most interesting cases I ever heard were the Phoenix Lights....the whole story was kind of interesting. Then there was this one down below in video. I liked the Trumbull account for it involved police and everyone's on record in the 911 tapes. I suspect it's a spiritual reality of something taking place with these things but don't know for sure.

I recall years ago reading after someone in the military.....he seemed in his writing to really know what was really basically going on. He said something like this..."The thing that you think you want to know may not be the thing you want to hear." I wondered about that. I wondered if what he was saying was most want to hear about beings from other planets out in space, but that really they've found it's not that at all. I suspect he was trying to say it's a spiritual dimension of things taking place and that materialists don't want to hear that.

I agree but some things need to be considered. There's nothing that can come against us that his WORD and SPIRIT won't work through us to overcome. Are we however building ourselves up strong in his word and being strong in fellowship with him from day to day? That's another question. People, Christians ARE overcome as we can see in the analogy of the building one's house on the sand or rock. It's the DOER of the word of God who stands and doesn't collapse.

No I don't mean that at all. I'm assuming the person is feeling bad and remorseful and wants to overcome whatever sin but how to deal with the condemnation and guilt people are struggling with. I'll say you're right to point that out but NO that's not what I mean.

Great account.

First you say you're a believer in Jesus. What exactly does this mean to you. It's not just being a believer in Jesus if all that means is that you believe he exists or you believe about the history of his life. New Testament believing means believing and receiving the grace of God. John 1:12 It means making Jesus the Lord of one's life and then choosing to walk in the light of God's word when it comes to how we live our lives and developing a relationship with him. Assuming you have asked Jesus to come into your life making you born again and you've made Christ your Lord with repentance (and there's things I could say about that) but assuming you are a genuine Christian is it possible to succumb to hearing voices of a devil. Yes one can become oppressed. This happened to me over 40 years ago. I didn't really understand how to walk in victory really but God taught me how . I was genuinely saved but got a crush on a Christian girl....it didn't work out....I got heart broken. I stopped praying, feeding my spirit with God's word because if you stop doing that you're not filling yourself with strength. The devil and his forces is going about seeking whom they can destroy, or oppress. So I started hearing voices just like you. This went on for periods of time but God helped me out of it but there are certain principals one has to understand. If you've become an empty vessel NOT full of the word of God Matt 12:44 and you have no manifested presence of God in your life....for you don't worship him.... REMEMBER...the Lord inhabits the presence of his people. Ps 22:3 You give God joy and he'll give you joy...his manifested presence....well what happens. You start becoming strong in the Lord and him the power of his might! Eph 6: 12 Now guess what? The devil and his forces THEY, THEY become afraid and terrified of you! Submit yourself to God resist the devil and he will flee from you! James 4:7 Still don't mean such spirits or a spirit won't try to come and tempt you. The devil and his cohorts are always looking for weak links in our chain looking for ways to gain entrance back in but we're to seek to close those doors and those are things we can do with Christ as our helper. He's the ultimate truth for you and make no mistake about it. God wants, he truly does for he loves you, he wants this to be your reality that you are and become more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus our Lord. Not even just a conqueror. But more than one. Rom 8:37 Hope this has helped.

Many become discouraged because of past mistakes, sins or failures. They just can't seem to get over things they may have done even since becoming a Christian. They wallow around in despair and remorse with the question aching in their hearts can God ever forgive them. Can everything be back the way if was between them and God? YES! God knew you wouldn't be perfect that we'd fail in future times but he left the door open to avail ourselves to that which will remedy the situation that being the precious blood of Jesus. The door open is through The PRECIOUS blood of Jesus! And they overcame him (the devil) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; Revelation 12:11 If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 “And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” (Hebrews 9:22) 1 Pt 1:19, Lev 17:11, Eph 1:7, Heb 9:14, Ex 12:13, 1 John 1:7, Heb 9:22 The Blood of Jesus has been shed to remit, cancel out our sins and will cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1 John 1:9 You take the prefix, UN off of unrighteousness and what are you left with? Righteousness or being put into the position of being just as if you'd never sinned. I lean heavily to always keep a consciousness of what the scriptures say about Jesus precious blood. Does knowing these things give us a comfort and license to go ahead and sin? After all God will forgive us and cleanse us. No we should never go along with that way of thinking but God knows you're in a trap and are desperately looking for a way out. He wants you free! He still doesn't want you languishing in despair. I'd encourage you to believe the Lord is full of compassion Ps 145:8 wanting and longing for your life to be restored. It's found through your understanding about how Jesus precious blood puts you into a position of where God can look at you as just-as-if you'd never sinned. And keep in mind this isn't something God feels he has to do or does so grudgingly BUT .... he wants to . He wants to look at you through his precious blood. God finds pleasure when you're life is helped and restored! God is LOVE.

Spiritual death means not having one's spirit in any measure in fellowship with God. If you look at the vs 4 you quoted above it states, we were dead, yes really spiritually dead but we were quickened meaning made alive. It's more accurate to say that we are. It's not talking about geography but our true genuine position in the Spirit. Seeing we are we can operate and function and bring forth our rights as Sons of God, to a great measure now in this life. Even by declaring victory over fear, and to have God's peace and to have God's love and Spirit flowing through us that's born from our position of being in Heavenly places. Agreed not from what you say in #1 but in #3. But the prodigal was still dead. He was out of fellowship with the Father. He left the place of being in LIFE or we could say he stopped abiding in Christ. Eternal Life is in Christ and it doesn't stay in us if we leave it. There can be reconciliation yes but like the Father said he is alive again. The KJV just says, "And he said also unto his disciples..." No indication there that he isn't talking about a variety of different subjects. Quite frankly I don't see you insistence as valid that the teaching in chapter 16 is somehow connected to chapter 15. Well like you said what you're saying is often never told. It's often never told for the reason people don't see the connection or the need to say that they are. So let me put this strongly. It seems you're suggesting one can be a Christian, leave abiding in Christ, live like the devil as a continual pattern and all that takes place....no rewards in the next life. Granted the Bible says some will be saved so as by fire.....or saved by the skin of their teeth as the saying goes, but that would be more of a carnal Christian like one sees in Corinthians. But for one to leave abiding and Christ and act as a apostate no I can't see salvation for them....unless they repent. Nope I still don't think you really have any grounds for marrying to two passages. When one seeks to overthink things one I believe can dream up connections with anything. In my estimation if the Prodigal son was going to be penalized it would have been VERY CLEAR in 16 he was really still talking about the Prodigal. To put it simply he would have told him where we can all see, "Yes you can come back but sorry you don't get anything"

When Jesus said he came down from ABOVE did he mean physically above our heads? I'd suggest not. For what would be truly up anyway if you get my meaning. If you're in Antarctica as compared to the Artic....then what is UP? I'd suggest it's really more this way. Jesus said above for that's the only way one could say it. Heaven is really an elevated type of existence in the nature of what it is. It probably means in a higher dimensional plain. If one thought of what the difference between a two dimensional world would be compared to a three dimensional one. Heaven is a greater reality is we could say it that way. Think of a Principal of a school saying he or she is ABOVE a teacher in authority. Such wouldn't mean to us that his office is on the second floor but the teachers room in on the first. No but saying the Principal is ABOVE the teacher really anyone can grasp it. Or we could say it this way.....the spiritual realm or the universe of it is an order of a higher type. Or we could maybe think of it this way. When God gave Adam and Eve dominion over the earth and I believe he meant the physical universe why would he create such an inferior order? Maybe that question can be answered by asking why does a parent create a sand box for their kids. To give them something akin to a kingdom that they can rule over with and have fun. Now consider....when one does pass over into the Kingdom of God what have they really done. They left the sand box and went into we can call it....THE REAL WORLD, the ABOVE world the place of the moreso reality. Yes the sandbox is a real world but you get my meaning.....It's not.

I think you're failing to appreciate one thing. Eternal Life is in Jesus and we are In Him. Jesus said IF....IF....you abide in me and my words abide in you....." Can anyone choose to walk away from him and from abiding in him? Sure they can. That's what the story of the prodigal son was all about. Lk 15 He departed and the Father said of the Son he had entered death. After he came back he said my Son which was dead is alive again...." Even walking in LIFE is by FAITH in the Son of God. Those embracing darkness that is in a committed to it way are not his children...they're dead. They can come back again like the Prodigal did but they are spiritually dead.