The Good And Bad of Alcoholism And What It Might Mean When Jesus Returns

I decided to attend some Alcoholic Anonymous meetings just recently. I hadn't been to one for decades. The last time I was at one, the convener for the night asked me to give a testimony. I stood up and stated that I prayed to God at the age of sixteen asking that I would not become an alcoholic. Then I told some of stories of what had happened to me whilst drinking. Afterwards, the convener who asked me to speak said, "You are either an alcoholic or not, and once you are an alcoholic, you are one for life."

Evidently, the Alcoholic Anonymous belief system has not changed. Alcoholism is considered a disease and incurable. The only solution is not to consume alcohol in any form, least you prove beyond all doubt that alcohol controls your life for evermore.

The concept of alcohol being a disease is helpful, but at the same time it is also a complete untruth. One reason for this is immunity to disease is acquired by being inoculated with a small shot of the disease. For instance, immunity to malaria or influenza is created by receiving a small shot of malaria or influenza. Likewise, one would think that if alcoholism were a disease, a small shot of alcohol would provide the body with sufficient antibodies to prevent a person from becoming an alcoholic. Makes sense, don't you think?

However, if alcoholism is not a disease, but an addiction, then the cause of the problem has to be an issue of psychology rather than that of a physical nature. In fact, the truth is alcoholism is really a spiritual problem, as are most psychological issues, only people like to make a distinction, and in some instances use the distinction as a means of denial that a spiritual reality exists.

It is ironic that God or the Higher Power (an allusion to the Creator for those who have difficulty with the idea of the Heavenly Father) is very much a part of the Alcoholic Anonymous program and alcoholism is called a disease. When Jesus was on Earth, he equated disease with sin, when he healed people of their diseases, by saying that they were also forgiven of their sins.

What happens at Alcoholics Anonymous is beneficial, to say the least, but at the same time it is restrictive in that people who follow the program tend to bound up in fear rather than the discovering the liberty of being set free from the very thing that prevents them from discovering a richer and fuller life of self-discovery. People who are set free from alcoholism are no longer alcoholics. But Alcoholic Anonymous members are never permitted to think of themselves as being set free from alcoholism and start off every testimonal speech with "My name is ..... I am an alcoholic." And this is their confession. As many have said, "You are, what you say you are."

The other notable behavior among members of Alcoholics Anonymous is each one tends to repeat his or her story over and over again at every meeting they attend. There does not seem to be any real change in their testimony, except when they decide to embellish the facts a little and make the story more sensational as they revel in the spotlight Some call this hyperbole, others call it evangelastically-speaking, while others call it untruth.

Regardless of the negative element, on a positive note, there is a sense of reality when people share how they are struggling daily to come to grips with their alcoholism and stay sober. Like any addiction it is not easy to go cold turkey, and plenty of support is required. Alcoholics Anonymous provides this support in the many meetings that are conducted throughout the world at all times through the day.

Upon reflection, I wonder what would happen if Christians were able to mobilize themselves into having something similar to Alcoholics Anonymous, where meetings were organized for people to go and confess their sins and pray for one another, as the Bible says believers should, in the villages, towns and cities of the world throughout the day. This might be inconceivable today, but could this be what is going to happen in the thousand years that Jesus is going to reign on Earth. I wonder!!

www.tencommandmentstoday.com

The Error Of Christian Views

Among Christians, or shall we say, people who call themselves Christians, there are many different views. This is normal and to be expected. For there are many different views among Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists and any other identifiable bloc of adherents.

Now you would expect that if two people were to find the truth, that truth would be seen in the same light and both persons would have the same understanding. Ironically, the truth is that when two people discover the same truth, this does not result in the same understanding, but, instead, this often results in misunderstanding because the two individuals interpret this same truth differently. This might sound odd, only this is the truth more often than not. Instead of a truth being understood for what the truth really is, people will interpret the truth and then argue about who is right and who is wrong.

One way of avoiding arguments is to say that your truth is your truth and my truth is my truth. This way we have no need to argue over whose interpretation of the truth is right or wrong. The problem with this apparent problem-solving idea is nobody really knows what is really true. This is because you could as well be saying, "You believe whatever lies you want to believe, and I will believe whatever lies I want to believe." However, we know that no lie is the truth.

The truth about people who believe lies is whoever believes a lie is being deceived. Nobody likes to be deceived, yet this is more often the case than not. Unless a person has the truth, then that person is deceived. If we all want the truth, then we will first of all have to learn to recognize what is false and what is true. If we cannot distinguish between what is false and what is true, we definitely are deceived.

One of the things that amazes me about people is they are all too often ready to defend something that cannot be proved, and quick to reject the obvious. Rather than admit to the truth, most people are more inclined to believe a lie, and then reluctantly acknowledge the truth when it becomes evident that continuing in their personal deception is going to be detrimental to their self-interest and there is no benefit in continuing to be deluded.

When it comes to wanting to know about the truth for your reason for being here on earth, you have to be honest with yourself. To be honest with yourself means that you have to acknowledge you were born on a certain date and have only lived a certain number of years on this planet. What this means is that you cannot really prove history and your personal knowledge of life is restricted to what you have heard, seen, smelled, tasted and touched. Your experience of life is your reality.

Some might say that your reality is not just your experience of life, but what you think of that experience. Your reality becomes your thoughts and not necessarily what you experience with your senses. Since we are conscious beings who are not only capable of being aware of our surroundings but also capable of attributing meaning to our sensual experiences, our personal reality becomes wrapped up in the attitudes we form, and the interpretations of the facts that we consider.

How you can interpret the facts that you see, hear, smell, taste and touch is evidenced by whether you attribute the creation around you to a Creator or to chance. If you believe that cities, planes, cars, ships and technology and other man-made creations were not created by a creator and believe that they merely happened by chance, what can I say? If you believe that moon rotates around the Earth and the Earth revolves around the Sun and there are seasons on Earth, year after year, century after century, and thousands of millennia after thousands of millennia, just by chance, then what can I say? Maybe mathematicians are deceived when they say that odds for such things happening by chance are beyond the bounds of probability.

One thing I know is that I did not ask to be born into this world. Neither do I believe that you asked to be born into this world. Like myself, you just found yourself here. Yes, we are all born into a world that is full of suffering, injustice and subjected to death. Yet according to many people who call themselves Christians, you and I were born to be cast into everlasting punishment by the Creator of the Universe.

Now I was speaking to a Christian Pastor and I challenged this view that people were born to be cast into everlasting punishment. But he said that it was right. Well, if this is right, then God is an unjust God. But according to the Bible God is a God of justice. Now, either the Bible is wrong, or this Pastor (along with all the other people who believe this theory that people are born to be cast into hell) doesn't understand what justice means and is deceived.

Personally, I think most Christians are deceived about quite a number of things and are not really seeking to know the truth. The reason I say this is there are too many Christians arguing about what is right and wrong because they do not want to have a clear understanding of the very words they use.

According to the Merriam-Websters dictionary, "Just implies an exact following of a standard of what is right and proper." To be just means "having a basis in or conforming to fact or reason" and "acting or being in conformity with what is morally upright or good".

There is no way that a just God could create people with the intention of throwing them into everlasting punishment. It is illogical and unreasonable and does not conform with being morally upright. Yet Christians believe this deception, and many try to use it as a means of scaring people into their brand of man-made religion.

Actually, the Bible says that Hell (the place of everlasting punishment) was created for the Devil and his angels. Nowhere does the Bible say Hell was created for men or women. However, the Bible does say that people will also join the Devil and his angels in the event that they reject what God has provided for them. Now who in their right mind would reject what God the Creator has to offer them.

The question for you is to answer is: Have you found out what God has put on the table for you yet?

www.tencommandmentstoday.com

The Evil Of Religion

Religion, that is the man-made variety, is inherently evil. True religion which is the quest for the truth. Or, as according to James, the half-brother of Jesus, true religion is to "Reach out to the homeless and loveless in their plight, and guard against corruption from the godless world." (Message Bible)

Some time ago I got acquainted with a group of people who had left the Potter's House movement. These people explained to me that the reason why they left this movement. From what I was told it sounded like this religious group was was a man-made religion and not a God-inspired movement. The reason I say this is because these people told me that many people were abused by the manipulative tactics that were used to control members.

The other night I popped into a Potter's House meeting. The ""P-A-S-T-O-R"" came over and introduced himself to me. He seemed quite amiable, but there was a sense of urgency about him. Another person came into the doorway, so I let him greet the next person. This person he made quite a lot of fuss over, and seemed to make a big point about a very small issue the person was having. This gave me the impression that he was overdoing the "concerned-for-you" bit and this man titled "pastor" either lacked a sense of proportion or was disingenuously making out he cared.

The service began and two songs were sung twice. The plate was passed around, and another song was sung. The pastor gave his sermon. Then there was a prolonged call for the unrepentant, the sinners, and the back-slidden to come forth and receive what God had ordained for each person to receive that evening. Since there were only eleven other people in attendance besides the pastor and his wife, I assumed he was talking about me. And since he had this inspired word that we were all present because God had ordained us to be there, I was obviously in the right place-- only I definitely felt no need to respond to his invitation, since I already have peace with God and have the joy of salvation.

Since I was not forthcoming, so as to appear not a complete goose for making such a prolonged altar call, the pastor decided to pray for two of the young Filipinos, so they might receive the Holy Spirit. This he did by mumbo-jumboing while he laid hands on them and encouraging them to mumbo-jumbo after him, so they might then have the evidence of the Holy Spirit. He then told them to keep practising their mumbo-jumbo so they will know how to do it better, and not lose the gift he had imparted.

Afterwards they brought some biscuits and chips out for everybody to have a snack and offered a cup of tea or coffee. As it happened, the pastor and I got to talking and he asked me to describe my religious experience. I asked him which version the complete version or a shorter version. He said he would settle for the abridged version. So I gave him a snippet of the introduction to the abridged version.

Evidently, having the joy of the Lord is insufficient for salvation, according to him. Having a genuine experience of receiving salvation as I have had is invalid unless I receive in the proper way. I needed to have a ""Potter's House"" experience and do ""The Potter's House" thing.

On the basis of the conversation, it appears to me that the Potter's House movement is in need of serious overhaul in getting its theology right and learning what the truth about God is really. Just chasing people in the streets and telling them they are going to Hell, if they do not repent and be saved the Potters House way, is not salvation. In fact, Jesus warned people about going all out to make converts and making them twice as much a child of Hell as themselves.

On the noticeboard, as I walked in the door, I noticed a letter from the chief of the hierarchy explaining how complaints against Pastors have to be processed. But it is not really scriptural because it is like the peers judging peers. If pastors were true pastors they would care for their flock and not abuse them. Evidently, the problem of abuse has been an issue that warrants letters from the hierarchy. In reality, a true spiritual movement should not really have this problem. A man-made organisation obviously does.

Moreover, I am of the conviction that if someone is really living for God, then that person would be very much a representative of Jesus Christ and people would seek that person out. I am sure that if people are demonstrating the characteristics of Jesus Christ, their reputations would go before them.

As we continued talking, it became apparent to me that ""THE POTTER'S HOUSE" is a man-made religion that gives people who produce growing congregations a self-righteous sense that they are serving God by saving people as they become members of the "THE POTTTER'S HOUSE" religion.

Essentially, the movement holds to the belief that God creates human beings with the sole intent of throwing them into an everlasting fire, unless they cry out in fear and scream out, "God have mercy on me!" After you have done that, by learning how to speak mumbo jumbo, you have the evidence of the Holy Spirit.

The truth is this:

You did not ask to be born into this world, so how can God throw you into an eternal lake of fire to be tortured for ever and ever, if He is a righteous and just Creator.

Furthermore, Jesus said this: "Go and learn what this means: 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice!'"

If Jesus says that God desires mercy to be shown to him, then most of these fire-and-brimstone evangelicals who condem all men to hell-fire unless they repent of the evil of being born a wicked person, and false-baptism-in-the-Holy Spirit Pentecostals, need to be set free from their deception.

The reason why God says He requires mercy is you can judge him for causing you to be born into a sinful, wicked world. Think about it. This is why Jesus said, "Blessed are the merciful, they will receive mercy! Man-made relgion is all about sacrifice, never about loving, caring, giving, forgiving, and understanding the purpose of the Creator, so that life is worth living.

www.tencommandmentstoday.com

Don't Have A Dream, Have A Vision

Probably the most famous words to have echoed around the world are "I have a dream". These words have been heard at conferences, sales meetings, church gatherings and motivational course events throughout the world.

Many a motivator, many a self-help guru, many a preacher has yelled, screamed and broadcast as loudly as they can the need to have a dream. "You must have a dream!" Without a dream, it is said, you cannot succeed. Without a dream you have no motivation; without a dream you have no direction; without a dream you have nothing to believe in; without a dream you have no hope.

The one thing that has always struck me about Martin Luther King is he got shot. Not only did Martin Luther King get assassinated, but his dream was also assassinated with him. You see if his dream was something that was suppose to happen, it did not come about. Although people would say that with the election of Barak Obama as President, he got to see his dream.

When I was reading the Bible I came across a verse that said that your old men will dream dreams, and your young men will see visions.

When I read those words I was puzzled because a distinction was being made between dreams and visions by associating dreams with old men and visions with young men. There is a distinction between having a vision when you are awake and a dream when you are asleep. But when there is a distinction made between a person being old and a person being young and then associating dreaming with old men and having a vision with young men, there is something else to be understood.

The reason old men dream dreams is they never come to pass. And old people dream about the dreams of their youth. When they were young they had dreams. When they grow old they still have dreams, only they are now dreaming about the dreams of their youth.

Young people who have a vision are different to young people who are dreaming. First of all to have a vision you have to be awake. Secondly, a vision is something that you look towards accomplishing, whereas a dream is merely something that passes in the night. Thirdly, a vision becomes a goal, an aim to be pursued, something in which you invest your energies towards achieving.

Sportspeople do not so much dream about becoming a champion, rather they envisage themselves becoming a champion. Not all sportspeople can win their respective events in the competitions in which they compete. Individuals may outperform other individuals at various times, but sportspeople come into their own and become champions when they perform personal bests. Sportspeople become champions when they better their personal best times or their personal objectives. The more often sportspeople better their personal best efforts, the greater champion they become.

There are champions and there are champions of champions. Just because a person doesn't become a champion of champions does not detract from being a champion. There are many reasons why people can or cannot achieve what they endeavor to do. But the one reason they are able to achieve is because they are young people with a vision of success. They are young people who are able to qualify their vision as being more than a dream. They are young people who are actively pursuing what they see is a possibility for them to achieve. They are young people who can define their goals because their vision is clear.

Dreams are not as clear as visions. Dreams are vague. This is why most people do not remember the dreams they have while they sleep. This is why old people dream about the dreams of their youth. As young people they may have had a dream, only it was not a vision. The dream was not clear like a vision, it was a vague idea. Because the dream was a vague idea, the person did not know how to bring the dream out of the world of uncertainty into the realm of surety. The person did not know what was required to facilitate the dream. Whereas had the dream turned into a vision, not only would the objective been clear, but what was required to achieve the objective would have been clearly defined and able to be achieved.

Don't have a dream. Have a vision. Have a vision that is clear in your mind. Have a vision you can define and work towards with definiteness, and not be like those who wish the dream was more real. With a vision you can hope for something that you can really achieve by faith working through love.


http://www.tencommandmentstoday.com/

America Is Sliding Into A Hole

Derek Prince claims God woke him up one night and asked him to pray for America. Evidently, God told Derek that he had shown so much favor to the USA but the country, its people, have turned their back on HIM.



Prince is now dead. But he did learn some interesting lessons during his life. A Cambridge University graduate became a Christian who entered into supernatural experiences and began to learn truths about the Kingdom of God that most people are too afraid to confront. From what I heard of Prince speaking about the USA, God wanted him to become a watchman and stand in the gap for her. Unfortunately, I do not know what happened other than what he commented on.



Prince said that there were supposedly 30 million born again Christians living in the USA. However, he doubted this to be the case. Prince could not see how this could be possible. Evidently, the USA is becoming more like Sodom and Gomorrah (or, as some say, Sodomy and Gonorrhea) as each day passes. Although, AIDS and herpes simplex 2 have been said to be the modern judgments for the respective sins that people receive for such acts.



The Apostle Paul wrote:

Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever! Amen.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error. (RSV)



When people disregard God, morality slides into oblivion. Instead of having a unchanging standard of morality, relative morality begins to become the norm and situational ethics forms the criteria for making moral judgments. Effectively, this is where people begin saying, if it right for you then that is okay, as long as you do not trangress me. This where government feeds money into corporations that goes to pay executive bonuses, lurks and perks, and lurks and perks become hidden bonuses for government lobbyists. This is where the electorate elect government officials to implement law and order, but judges in the courts of law decide to overturn government policies and create their own precedents to which others may appeal, rather than have the law upheld. This is where the government can blame free enterprise for not being productive because it has been seduced into receiving tax funded payouts. This is how the homeless can live in streets and houses remain vacant.



Once there was plenty of land to claim and plenty or room for population growth in America. Now the cities reach higner and higher into the heavens. Many of the people who work in those tall buildings and live in those tall buildings appear to have become so heavenly minded that they are of no earthly good. If government really wants to interfer with the rights of people and do so justly, everybody should be made to work with their hands for two years and learn what it means to clean streets, clean walls, clean the countryside, and do some hard labor. Instead, we have people heading from classroom to classroom to lecture room and a room called an office, while others are shunted and shoved by authorities from one slum to another slum and are given nothing to do.



White collar crime is not as bad as blue collar crime which is not as bad as black coloured crime. At least this is what it appears to an outsider. The idea of justice, the idea of equality, the idea of sharing equity for a decent day's pay for a decent day's work appears to be foreign to the current culture.


Yet more and more people are heading to USA. It is the destination of the underprivileged. It is the destination of the wannabes. Only what they wannabe is not to be found in the land that is about to deeper and deeper into a black hole called debt. Not only foreign financial debt, but debt to God it cannot repay.

The true riches of life are not evaporating from those who become wise, only those who worship the god of greed, the god of immorality, the ravenous god of despair. Like the leech, this god is never satisfied, and like the leech, the god of despair just doesn't care.

http://www.tencommandmentstoday.com/

The Day Jesus Will Return

In the book of Acts, angels appeared and told the apostles that Jesus would return on a cloud in the same way they were watching him move out of hemisphere on a cloud.

It has been suggested that Jesus left earth on a spaceship. The disciples were not seeing a cloud, rather the smoke from the jet engines.

Today is a significant day in the Jewish calendar. The reason for this is every 28 years the sun rises in a direct line over the wailing wall of Jerusalem.

General news release reports:

TENS of thousands of Jewish faithful gathered before sunrise today in front of the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem to bless the sun in a prayer that is said once every 28 years.

Dressed in white prayer shawls, men and women, adults and children filled the plaza in front of the wall, Judaism's holiest site, and crowded on the rooftops around the area to catch the glimpse of the sun rising over the Holy City.

As the faithful swayed back and forth in prayer, the area filled with the din of the Birkat Hakhama prayer.

The prayer is said as the sun comes up to mark what according to Jewish tradition is the sun's return to its position at the moment that the universe was created 5769 years ago.
It returns to the spot once every 28 years.

The prayer has special significance this year because it coincides with the start of the Passover holiday, one of Judaism's most important, at sundown today.

The Wailing Wall, also called the Western Wall, sits below the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam's third-holiest place.

The next time this will occur is on Wednesday, April 8, 2037.

Jesus said "As in the days of Noah, so shall it be in the days of the Son of Man."

When Noah started building the ark, it took him 120 years to complete before the flood came.

Now here is the interesting bit.

In 1917, the Israelites were given official recognition to reinhabit Palestine once more. This was known as the Balfour Declaration. Just like in the days of Noah, if we add 120 years to the declaration of the Balfour Declaration we come up with the year 2037.

Now wouldn't it be rather humorous of God, for His Son to return on the morning when the Jewish nation is praying for the sun's return.

Jesus said that nobody knew the hour or the day of his return. But I reckon that this is a good guess.

As for not knowing the hour or the day, we are told we could know the season, so there are four seasons in the year. What would be more memorable for the Lord to return around the time of the Passover. Or as the angels said to the disciples, 4o days after Jesus resurrection, as you see him go, so you shall see him return.

There are a number of reasons why Jesus could not return just yet.

One reason is the gospel has to be preached to all the tribes of the earth.

Another reason is the man who opposes himself against every god, even the Creator, and who proclaims himself to be God has not yet appeared to sit on the seat in the Jerusalem temple.

A third reason is the temple is still the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam's third-holiest place.

But the Iraelites are still praying there. Expect changes in the next 28 years.


www.tencommandmentstoday.com

Todd Bentley and The Lakeland Revival

I came across this following article which I thought was very interesting and well worth reading.

It was found at http://www.stormharvest.com.au/

The Lakeland Outpouring and Todd Bentley
By Robert I Holmes and Brian Medway We are whole hearted supporters of revival, and certainly the renewed focus on the miracle working aspects of the gospel. We love the documented testimonies being shared by Bill Johnson and Kris Vallotton of http://www.ibethel.org/ in California. Fervour for God, and a desire to see revival are good and godly things.

A renewed interest in ministering with angels, prophetic ministry and sharing the testimony of Christ in these last days is admirable too (Revelation 19:10).So how about Todd Bentley and the Lakeland Florida phenomena? More than a dozen Christian leaders have written to us recently, asking what our take on all this was, and whether we thought this was a genuine move of God. That we cannot tell you - for neither of us has been over to it. For reasons outlined below, we have no intention of going.

What is being broadcast (also outlined in more detail below) in Lakeland leaves us rather disturbed. A close ministry associate hosted Todd Bentley in Melbourne, Australia, and can testify to the positive influence he had during events a few years ago. Indeed heaven touched earth. Another ministry associate in Nigeria testified to the genuine miracles and healings which took place there under his ministry. A friend in Carolina testified to Todd's recent honour toward older prophetic men such as Paul Cain and Bob Jones. This is all good.

By no means do we wish to encourage heresy hunting, or criticism of other sincere brethren. What do we gain by spending time and energy criticizing others? What do we gain spending time and energy publishing material denouncing others, let us seek Christ. Our reason for writing is to sound a warning, to refocus our attention on things that are true and things which really matter. The key phrase for us is that, "This is God, but it isn't all God."

The gospel we preachIt is from the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks (Matthew 12:34) and it is what is inside a man that makes him unclean (Matthew 15:11). Our letters, emails, correspondence, prayer meetings and web sites portray to the world what is inside us. Our broadcasts, messages, podcasts and videos are an expression of our hearts. So if we want to know what a person's passions are ... simply listen to them. The apostle Paul issued a stern warning to us about men or angels who preach another gospel or that demand attention (Galatians 1:7).

Though angels are part of our worship celebration, of healing the sick and even preaching the gospel we must be wary of worshipping them, honouring them overly and being puffed up with visions (Collosians 2:18).

What then is the gospel being presented through Todd's ministry and the Lakeland Revival? What are the first things being concentrated on in the preaching there?Angels are central http://www.god.tv/ Angels are the focus of this Florida outpouring (opening screen, banner).

Todd, in his May 9th, 2008 address speaks of the release of financial angels. Todd claims to be walking with the angel who accompanied William Branham. He promotes an angel named Emma, said to be associated with the prophetic movement in Kansas City. Jesus intimates that angels to have assignments, but that they are without gender (Matthew 22:30). We find Todd's miracle working and healing quite different to the word of knowledge based ministry of Branham.Third heaven focushttp://www.extremeprophetic.com/

In an interview with Bob Jones, Todd Bentley and Patricia King, Todd focused in on the idea that, "Relationship with Jesus starts in the third heaven" and that we "have experiences in the supernatural dimension, to release the glory"... (WSTK-ITV broadcast). We find it difficult to substantiate either of these statements in the gospels.Appeals for moneyhttp://www.lakelandrevival.tv/

The first thing presenting itself at both the main web sites is a request for money to keep the meetings going in the large auditorium (http://www.ignitedchurch.com/).

Evidently the finances are not sustaining the revival. For this to happen so early on seems to indicate an incorrect focus, or a reliance on human technique.Focus on anointingwww.hubpages.com/hub/Lakeland-revival (http://www.tencommandmentstoday.com)

"One of the ten anointings that was going to manifest is the fire anointing!!!" (April 27th, 2008). There's the prophetic anointing, the healing anointing, the prayer anointing, and our favourite - the anointing to cancel debt (May 9th 2008). It is once again very difficult to substantiate such anointings from the Word of God.

Transferable impartation http://www.freshfire.ca/ the oft repeated phrase is "Come and Get Some" - some what? Stroll around the web site and it's all about Todd, and all about supernatural impartation. Great, but what about Jesus Christ? How about the things He cares about - the lost, the lame, the poor, the widow and the orphan? Heavy self promotion www.charismamag.com/news

Why do we have to promote, advertise and request for a revival? When did revivalists have to call their own meetings "a healing outpouring" and "the greatest revival in history"? This trend of self promotion is disturbing. www.ustream.tv/channel/great-florida-healing-revival

The use of and promotion of violenceWhilst we recognise that at times God uses unconventional means to heal (such as spitting in the dirt) or raise the dead (like lieing on the body of a boy), the use of violence in promoting the gospel seems to go right against the heart of who Christ is. Over several meetings Todd laid out the use of violence in his ministry including kicking a lady in the face, spear tackling a man, smashing a cripples legs, and chocking a man to bring deliverance.

Questions (http://www.tencommandmentstoday.com)

1. Why are we calling this a revival? The largest churches in the UK (such as Kensington International) draw more people every week than are turning up to Lakeland. The largest church in Nigeria (Faith Temple) draws three times that number! These churches win as many people to Christ each week as are being won at Lakeland. We do not call them revival because such a term implies that communities are being affected, towns are being changed, nations are being shaken. Our team has searched earnestly for credible evaluations of how many have been saved in Lakeland, Florida. We could not find any. There are estimates of how many people show up, and how many are falling down - but not of salvations?

2. Why have all the recent "revivals" which cause tourism take place in America? Toronto, Smithton, Pensacola, Lakeland... thousands travelling to see it. In the last week of June, 2008 there was a baptism of 10,000 new converts, gathered in from hundreds of COC churches in Northern India (where it is illegal to change religion). Two weeks after that, there was the confirmation of 8,000 new converts in a Pentecostal assembly in Uganda. It is estimated that 1,000 Iraqis are being converted a week now from Islam. Why don't we fly to those places - whose statistics are far more impressive than Lakeland?(For more information on revival tourism to those places watch this space!)

3. What has our Christianity become about?The gospel of Jesus Christ is not primarily about angels, third heaven revelations, impartations and transferable blessings. Jesus did not primarily die to make us rich, or cancel debt we have accrued through the self focused spending we engage in here in the West. What happened to the simplicity of the gospel - repent, believe and be baptized?We do not think the meetings in Lakeland will do much to make churches around the world look and act more like Jesus. The need for holy love, perfect oneness, release of the saints to ministry and completion of the great commission is not enflamed by enamel teeth or even miraculous healings. These tasks will remain long after Lakeland has become a set of archives in the YouTube history.

Before you spend thousands of dollars going there, take a trip to the empty buildings at Pensacola, edifaces with a high debt and few people. Or perhaps go to Toronto and see a city that has successfully resisted God's presence in her midst these last twelve years. Never the less, when asked about people who worked miracles in the name of Jesus, but who may be off centre, or walking a different path from Himself, Christ answered, "Do not forbid him, for no one who works a miracle in my name can soon afterward speak evil of me. For He who is not against us is for us." (Mark 9:39,40 NKJV). -------taken from http://www.stormharvest.com.au

Too many Christians fail to get past first base. The book of Hebrews says that Christians are still in need of milk not solid food because they have not understood how to habitually distinguish right from wrong. The Ten Commandment Truths Exposed explains what every Christian needs to know before they can begin to enter and understand the Ministry of Melchezidek, which is essential at if we to be among those who are to be caught up to meet the Lord. (http://www.tencommandmentstoday.com)

New World Order Is On Its Way

The new world order is on its way. The G20 includes nineteen countries
Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Saudi, Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States,

The G20 also includes 23 countries represented as the European Union, that were not large enough to represent themselves:
Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden.

In total these countries represent around 80% of the world's economy and over 4 billion of the world's population. And the buzz is that the measures that have been put in place will prevent the world falling into depression and prevent such a collapse that occurred in 2008 from happening again.

A new world order has been put in place that represents 2/3 of the world's population with the belief that there will never be another economic crisis of this nature, or one that will threaten the world economy again.

You might wonder how the financial crisis occurred.

The governments are blaming the free market. Yet there is no such thing as a free market that is totally free from government intervention. Government intervention has taken place in all these economies. The governments of the world buy and sell currencies. The governments of the world interfere in the running of their own economy. The governments subsidize any industry that the politicians of the day think is important for their political position.

Now the governments are saying that the free market can no longer enjoy the excesses that capitalism has created. But governments are usually made up of politicians who see that it is advantageous to keep favor with the corporate world in the event of their sudden departure from power. What this means is that the culture that exists within the corporate world is funded by government money. This culture of feeding the mouths of the money makers before the workers exists worldwide. The uproar over AIG debacle only came about because the company blatantly paid out government money as retention bonuses to executives. The reason AIG did this so conspicuously was because the practice of using government subsidies for executives benefits is so entrenched in the corporate world, that a bail out from the US government was merely seen as a handout for executives. Do not expect the culture to change. For this to happen there would need to be a global revolution of the sort that would never happen.

If I were a skeptic, I would be uncertain the governments of the world would be able to solve the financial crisis that is going to eclipse the one that has just occurred  But I am not a skeptic. I simply do not believe that the governments of the world will ever be able to bring everlasting peace to this earth and a prosperity that bring equality and equity, so there will never be a need for another person to desire more than what he or she has.

The reason why I do not believe a one world government, or any collaboration of governments, will ever bring about a global economy that will not suffer crises is because of human nature being egocentric and the fact that history reveals that growth is limited to a growing population. When a population cannot grow, economic growth is restricted. Just have a look at how economies that have a population growth problem start to stagnate. The only way these economies can grow is through immigration.

Immigration brings its own problems such as race, religion and culture, However, the one way people of a different race and different culture can be brought together is through religion. This is evidenced by the Roman Catholic world youth day. This is also evident when Muslims from different countries and of a different color go to Mecca.

The problem with religion is Islam is opposed to every other religion and its adherents hold to a theology that sees Islam being the religion of the world, not based on personal choice but by force. Even though a new world order is on its way, not until the issue of religion is resolved will a one world government be able to be introduced or accepted by the masses.

Why An Atheist Could Not Hear The Voice Of God.

Some people do not believe you can hear the voice of God. If you do not believe that it is possible to know God, this might be understandable. If you claim you are an atheist then, you would be inclined to ridicule someone who claimed to hear the voice of God, because you would be sceptical about hearing the voice of God.

Most atheists are really skeptics. This is because they are uncertain whether God exists, not because they are sure that God exists. Even if an atheist were to hear the voice of God, it would be difficult for the atheist to recognize this as God's voice. This is why an atheist could not hear the voice of God.

When I was twelve years old, I heard the voice of God. You might think that I was gullible at the age of twelve. Well, I was a thief. I was a liar. I was many other things, as well. And I was gullible, to a certain extent. As a twelve year old, I tended to trust adults, but not so much other children or even older youth. When I heard the voice of God as a twelve year old, the circumstances were more convincing that even if it was not God who was speaking to me, what I heard could qualify as being God's voice.

Where I grew up, thieving was frowned upon and if anybody was caught stealing at school this was shameful. It was a different story when it came to stealing from shops. Shoplifting was seen as a sport in a way, but one where there was an immediate prize. I was introduced to shoplifting at the age of eight by older boys I associated with and found acceptance into their little gang through nicking stuff for everybody. They all stole, but sharing the goodies was part of the membership dues, so to speak.

One school associate of mine, who was not a member of that gang I was involved in, went shoplifting with me once. We had that much gear, we had to steal bags to put the stuff in. In fact, I had difficulty carrying the stuff home in the large leather bag I had stolen. My mother asked me where I got all the stuff from, and I said I had found it on the roadside. She told me that she would find the owner. I agreed to that thinking she would be giving me all the goodies back. Somehow they all disappeared and I never ever saw the leather bag again. And my mother wouldn't tell me what she did with all the gear.

We moved house to the other side of town and I ceased associating with that particular gang. As a consequence of this, shoplifting was not something I was doing very much. In fact, I stopped. But when I was twelve, I was with an associate who shoplifted on a regular basis. We were in the basement of a toy shop and decided to take some stuff without paying. There was only one person working in the shop, so we thought this would be easy. My associate had already taken some expensive toy and was up the stairs. There was only myself in the basement. I was about to put my hands on what I had decided would be good for me to steal when I heard a voice say, "That is against God!"

At first I thought it was my associate playing games with me. Only it did not sound like his voice, it was a deeper voice like that of an adult. I looked around the aisles and no body was in the basement. I went upstairs and there was my associate waiting for me. We walked past the shop attendant and down the street. My associate wanted to see what I took. He had an imitation pistol. I had nothing. My associate couldn't understand why I had nothing. Then I told him what happened. He thought I was hearing things and going mad. From that time on we had nothing to do with each other.

If I was an atheist I would have been uncertain if that was the voice of God. But as it was, I believed there had to be a Creator and he was God. I believed God existed. I had no real proof that God existed, I just accepted that God existed. My friend, the angel who would appear to me from time to time, did not tell God existed. If he did, I have no recall. In fact, I cannot remember whether my angel friend had ever spoken to me when I was young. I know I used to speak to him and tell him what I thought. He seemed to appear when I was feeling despondent and I would tell him my troubles.

Initially, when I heard the voice say, "That is against God", I thought it was my associate. But then when I didn't see him in the basement, I realized it wasn't him because the voice was deeper than his and an adult's voice.

You might think that this was my conscience speaking to me. Some people believe their conscience is the voice of God. There is good argument that a person's conscience is God's voice, and everybody hears the voice of God, but when they commit sin by doing something evil like stealing, lying or commit some other violation of the moral code, people harden their heart by suppressing their conscience. This is how people become atheists. When a person hardens his heart by suppressing his conscience, he becomes uncertain that God exists.

In my case, that was not my conscience speaking to me when I heard that voice because it was as if the person was standing right behind me and not something within me speaking to me. I also heard the voice with my own ears. The voice was not a product of my imagination and neither was I in a hypnotic trance or merely thinking the words. What I was thinking was whether the toy machine gun was too big to get past the shop attendant without being seen.

Ten Signs That You Are A Fundamentalist Christian

I came across ten tell tale signs a person is suspect of being a fundamentalist.

Now I call myself a Christian. The reason for this is I identify with the message of Lord God, the Father and his son, Lord Jesus Christ.
But I differ from what some say are signs of a fundamentalist.

Here are what some say are the Top Ten Signs You’re a Fundamentalist Christian and my response.

10 - You vigorously deny the existence of thousands of gods claimed by other religions, but feel outraged when someone denies the existence of yours.

Thousands of gods exist, but these are not the same as the true God in whom alone dwells immortality.

9 - You feel insulted and “dehumanized” when scientists say that people evolved from other life forms, but you have no problem with the Biblical claim that we were created from dirt.

I am not insulted by other people's ignorance. In fact, only the insecure feel insulted when people express ignorance.

8 - You laugh at polytheists, but you have no problem believing in a Triune God.

Why would I laugh at a polytheist, when I would be more inclined to want to help them from delusion. As for the triune God, the Bible says that Jesus will send the Holy Spirit from the Father. This is not the same as polytheism, because they are all of the same spirit and when people receive the Holy Spirit, surprise, surprise, they become brothers of Jesus Christ according to Hebrews 2:11.

7 - Your face turns purple when you hear of the “atrocities” attributed to Allah, but you don’t even flinch when hearing about how God/Jehovah slaughtered all the babies of Egypt in “Exodus” and ordered the elimination of entire ethnic groups in “Joshua” including women, children, and trees!

When you understand the true purpose of God and have the truth, these issues cease to be an issue, because you learn to trust in God's judgments, mainly because God has access to omniscience which is beyond the knowledge I possess as a human being.

6 - You laugh at Hindu beliefs that deify humans, and Greek claims about gods sleeping with women, but you have no problem believing that the Holy Spirit impregnated Mary, who then gave birth to a man-god who got killed, came back to life and then ascended into the sky.

Furthermore, not only did God enable a baby to be born of a virgin, science has proven that the blood of Jesus Christ could not have been human, which supports the biblical claims that it really is the eternal blood from an eternal God that still covers humans from their sins.

5 - You are willing to spend your life looking for little loopholes in the scientifically established age of Earth (few billion years), but you find nothing wrong with believing dates recorded by Bronze Age tribesmen sitting in their tents and guessing that Earth is a few generations old.

I have no need to worry about evolution because the Bible is quite clear about the seventh day of creation still being in effect (Hebrews 4:6-8) and I have entered into God's rest.

4 - You believe that the entire population of this planet with the exception of those who share your beliefs — though excluding those in all rival sects - will spend Eternity in an infinite Hell of Suffering. And yet consider your religion the most “tolerant” and “loving.”

The truth is the Bible teaches that Jesus died for all men, therefore all men have been saved, but it is also all men have sinned and need to repent of their sin in order to be saved. The eternal lake of fire or, as it is known, Hell, was created for the Devil and his Angels, not human beings. However, those who reject the truth are designated to join the fallen angels.

3 - While modern science, history, geology, biology, and physics have failed to convince you otherwise, some idiot rolling around on the floor speaking in “tongues” may be all the evidence you need to “prove” Christianity.

The Bible says that 'tongues' are a sign for unbelievers that the supernatural exists, but the truth is the Bible also states that God invites all men to come and reason with Him (Isaiah 1:18).

2 - You define 0.01% as a “high success rate” when it comes to answered prayers. You consider that to be evidence that prayer works. And you think that the remaining 99.99% FAILURE was simply the will of God.

Anything less than 100% is not good enough for me. If somebody doesn't want to talk to me, then there is not much I can do about that. But if somebody promises to answer me when I call out to him, I expect an answer, don't you.

This is the top reason you are definitely a fundamentalist Christian:

1 - You actually know a lot less than many atheists and agnostics do about the Bible, Christianity, and church history - but still call yourself a Christian.

Since I am a Christian, the first thing I learned when I became a Christian is that until I personally met Jesus Christ, the Bible never seemed to make any sense to me at all. As for history, apart from my own experience in life, what other people have claimed has happened, I can only accept at face value.

From the above I am obviously not a fundamentalist Christian. Yet, I would say that I belong to Christ and because of this I call myself a Christian.

As for what I believe to be true, there are many others who may claim to be a Christian but have different views on what being a Christian means and what might qualify a person to be a Christian. One thing I do know is that Jesus prayed that all who believed in him might be one, even those whom he did not choose to be his disciples, but believed in him according to their own word, or their own reasoning.

The real question for you is Have you really sought to know the true God?

Or have you done like one person I knew who was once an atheist but challenged God.

Have you acknowledged that there has to be a God, but challenged him by declaring yourself opposed to God's ways?

http://www.tencommandmentstoday.com/

Will A Homosexual Rule The World

The ultimate in humanism is man's worship of himself.

Self-worship might be considered vanity that culminates in self-adoration in front
of a mirror.

When human narcissism reaches its apex, instead of acknowledging the Creator, homosexuality and lesbianism become the ultimate human expression of worship.

Male narcissism is found in the gymnasiums of the world where men attempt to look
like the mythological Greek god Adonis. Athough supposedly adored by women, homosexuality among the Greeks was said to be common practice, and older men adored the muscular bodies of younger men. It is no surprise that many homosexuals admire young males in the gym. It is no surprise that many males in gyms are also homosexuals. But what might surprise you is that according to the Bible there is going to be a homosexual who will rule the world.

When you see how world events are shaping up, it makes sense that the majority of people will be inclined towards accepting a homosexual as the leader. Whether this person will be an overt homosexual is not known. Although, it would make sense that he is and the Islamic nations then band together to destroy this irreligious, anti-god, egocentric, humanist.

The global financial debacle of 2008, where financial institutions were found to be run by irresponsible, greedy gluttons, whose only sense of responsibility was to honor the fees they were paying each other. This was evident in the retention bonuses that were being paid to AIG insurance. executives who presided over a $US90 million loss. The Barak Obama Government gave the company $US165 million to help the company stay solvent. The company executives decided to use all that $US165 million to pay its executives what they called retention bonuses, even though they presided over the losses threatened to destabilize AIG's solvency. The decades leading up to the downfall of the financial banking system in 2008, were replete with executives being paid extravagantly for poor performances. Bonuses were paid to executives before companies went bankrupt. The culture permeated all the major corporations, including the financial sector.

The governments of the world, which were also largely responsible for allowing bankrupt companies to survive, have taken over many financial institutions. Never again will there be another financial crisis. But history repeats itself. The financial crash of the 1930s stunted world growth and was followed by World War 2. At least the crash of 2008, has not ushered in a World War. There are plenty of wars going on anyway in Africa, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel and smoldering in parts of Central and South America, Eastern Europe and South East Asia.

What has this to do with a homosexual ruling the world?

The globe avoids a world war, the financial system recovers and the global economy enters a new growth cycle. This time China and India and Russia become unrecognizably like first world countries. The world at large raises its standard of living and then growth suddenly stalls. The financial system has been supported by governments that have been printing money, the governments of the world have no where to go.

Homosexuals no longer need to seek special rights because they have infiltrated every part of government and laws have been changed so they can marry and have all the rights that are afforded traditional heterosexuals. But because homosexuals do not have families, they are able to spend more time pursuing their careers in governments around the world. The only bastion that they have not infiltrated is religion. A plan is hatched by a homosexual to topple the world religions by introducing a one world currency and a one world government by creating peace between the Jews and the Arabs and uniting all the religions of the world by installing a seat of government in Jerusalem.

Fearful of losing their wealth, the people of the world accept the proposal. As the Bible predicts a man who has "no desire for women" takes his seat in Jerusalem and proclaims himself to be God.

You might not think that such a thing could happen. But at the G20 meetings in London, demonstrators were carry placards that read One World, One Currency, One Government.

Wherever I look there are more amd more signs these days of people being subtly programmed to accept a one world government as the best option for humankind.

Hearing The Voice Of God

Ten years of age and I was up a tree when a voice spoke: "Go home, your parents are worried about you."

It was about 10pm and there was no body around. The tree was in situated in the grounds of an elderly residential home. There were some lights on inside the building, but none on the outside. The night sky was clear and the moon was shining. Nobody was to be seen. The air was crisp. You knew to expect a frost the next morning. People were more intent in stoking their fires or getting into bed rather than being outside. Not everybody had television then, so most people tended to go to bed early.

Two of my younger brothers had taken our two dogs for a walk during the late afternoon and somehow lost them. I was looking for the two dogs, especially the one that I considered to be my own dog. This dog I really loved. Her name was Sally. She was a fox terrier cross, but didn't have foxy coloring. Instead, she was a brown dog with gold and tan coloring that made her look quite stunning. The other dog was a handsome dog, we called Spot. He was a springer spaniel cross, with a white coat lightly speckled with black flecks, a black head with light tan markings above the eyes and around his mouth, one large round black spot on either side of his body, and the perfect spray on his tail. Spot looked more like a dog than Sally. But Sally was a smarter dog and I used to teach her tricks. She loved me, too. Never once did she bite me, even when I accidently hurt her.

When I learned the dogs were lost, even though Spot was my brother's dog, I considered them both my own. With tears in my eyes, pain in my heart, I went searching for my dogs. Over five hours had passed and I couldn't find them. I started to direct my thoughts towards God and began calling upon him to help me.

Back in those days, where I lived, schools used to get milk delivered every morning in little half-pint bottles (about 500ml); one for every child. At the front of the school, special overnight storage facilities existed for the milkman to put the crates of milk. I decided that I going to get into one of them and not go home until God brought me my dogs. Anyhow, I decided that if the milkman comes too early, God might not have enough time, so I made my up to find a tree and get a little closer to heaven.

I was up the tree for about five minutes, when I heard the voice telling me to go home, I looked down to see if anybody was around, but there was no one. There was nobody above me at the very top of the branches. And the voice was so loud, so definite, I decided that this was God who was telling me to go home.

My parents were worried about me. I told them I couldn't find Sally or Spot. I do not know whether they had contacted the police or not. I just got into my warm bed and went to sleep.

Spot turned up a couple of months later. One morning when I was about to go out the back door, there he was wagging his tail. Then a month or so later when walking with Spot looking for Sally, in the area I had searched on that long night they had gone missing, a boy challenged me about stealing his dog. But Spot was not going with him. I wasn't letting him, and Spot himself seemed like he was prepared to back me. From that time on Spot and I seemed to develop our own special relationship.

My parents and others nearly convinced me that Sally must have got run over by a car or truck or something. But I knew different, someone stole Sally, because she was so special. She was so good looking that even the handsome Spot could not share her spotlight. And I knew why people would want to steal Spot. Gee, he was a good looking dog.

In the end, I concluded that Sally must have died, because I believed that God would have brought her back home, too, just like Spot came back. I believed God cared and would answer my prayer, but somehow Sally must have been killed before I got to pray.



www.tencommandmentstoday.com

My Guardian Angel

For many people the spiritual realm is hard to accept because they have not experienced supernatural happenings.

Some people say God is a figment of a person's imagination. But then not every body is the same, some go beyond imagination and experience spiritual reality.

An acquaintance of mine had a three year old daughter who used to have a friend to whom she talked, but they never met. Their daughter was often talking to him. My friend and his wife would laugh about this imaginary friend because they had never had the same experience when they were young. If either of them had a similar experience they had forgotten about it.

When I was young, I used to have a friend who would dress similar to those river boat gamblers seen in the film "Maverick". In the 1950s, there was no television where I lived, and I was too young to go to films, so there was no one I seen that looked like that for me to imagine as my friend. But this friend of mine would appear to me from time to time. I don't recall him telling me anything, but I know I spoke to him. The last time I saw him as a child, I was twelve years old, nearly thirteen.

When I saw him last I was twenty-four. This angelic man appeared to me in my bedroom. There he was with his black hat, ribbon lace bow tie, frilled white shirt, black vest and coat, shoulder length yellow hair, yellow mustache and yellow goatee. I wasn't frightened because I instantly recognized him. But before I could say anything, he told me to go to a particular company that manufactured refrigerators and there would be a job there for me. Then he disappeared.

Sure enough, there was a job waiting for me. The manager was amazed that I knew about the job vacancy, because the employee who had left, had only handed in his notice the night before. I told him what happened. The manager did not really believe me, and gave me the impression that I knew the guy who had left, and it was he who told me about the position being vacant. Anyhow, since I was there, he employed me on the spot.

I considered that personage who appeared to me in my bedroom to be my guardian angel. He often appeared to me when I was three, four, and five years old, and then less frequently throughout the years until I was nearly thirteen.

When I think about the reason I started seeing this angelic being, it may have been due to a road accident I had at the age of three, where I was left unconscious for a number of days. Evidently, I was thought to have been dead, and would have been, had it not been for the quick thinking of a medical team who just happened to see me fall out of my parents car as they sped along the highway. A medical doctor and some nurses were in the care behind my parents and there actions were instrumental in saving my life.

When I came out of hospital I had a scar on my forehead in the shape of a cross. Call this coincidence, but it was not something that I liked. Too many people would notice the scar and point to it and make remarks about it. More often than not, I considered this embarrassing; especially when my mother would retell the story of my accident and the other woman would make a fuss of me. To hide the scar that formed a cross on my forehead, I began raising my eyebrows to form furrows and found that this resulted in less people making comments that embarrassed me.

That there is another world besides the one which we know with our natural senses, should not seem to odd for us. Our imagination permits one to exist. The difficulty is being able to enter it and enjoy its goodness. Not everyone does.

When Jesus spoke to a Jewish religious teacher by the name of Nicodemus, he berated him for claiming to be a teacher of truth when he did not know the first thing about spiritual experiences. Many people claim they understand the Bible, yet they have not had an experience with God, so they can truly be enlightened. Instead of speaking from personal experience, they are basically talking theory or about a philosophy of life that they interpret from what they have read in the Bible.

Maybe you know the types I mean. Among them are the ones who are always pointing the finger at other people, and saying how wrong and evil they are for sharing what they understand to be true. When I was young, I did not know that the Bible talks about guardian angels. But Jesus said that children have angels who look after them. On this point, because of my experience, you will get no disagreement about this from me.


www.tencommandmentstoday.com

The Truth Drug

An acquaintance of mine was experimenting with what he called the truth drug: LSD.

Initially he got a real buzz out from the fascinating mind trip he got. Then he started seeing sounds and hearing colors and the trips began getting less fascinating and more frightening, with weird faces starting to appear that were more like the grotesquely carved figures that are found on old churches.

The truth is this guy died not too long after getting heavily into drugs.

This guy began experimenting with the truth drug because he thought trying to live a life of self-discovery and putting God to the test required too much effort. A faster way would be to explore the mind with the truth drug.

One thing is for sure, now he knows what it is like to die and reject the offer of eternal life that is promised through accepting Jesus Christ.

Truth is a funny thing. There is subjective truth and objective truth. According to some, there is my truth, your truth and the real truth. My truth is subjective truth and your truth is subjective truth, so real truth must be objective truth. However,even what is termed objective truth is subject to interpretation, so what we might call objective truth may not be real truth.

You might well ask "What is truth?" According to the Bible, the Roman governor Pilate asked this very same question of Jesus. Jesus gave no answer.

When Pilate asked Jesus, "What is truth?", he was being dismissive and making a statement rather than asking a question.

Jesus had told Pilate that he had come into the world to testify to the truth, and all who were of the truth heard his voice.

Basically, Pilate was speaking as a politician. To a politician, success is about perception and not truth. To be a successful politician it is important that the people that matter have a favorable perception of you. This was the case 2,000 years ago and it is no different today. If suppressing truth helps then, so what?

Jesus came to testify to the truth.

Even though Pilate may have been dismissive of the value of truth, it was something that he knew he had to deal with. Every politician knows the value of truth, even though it might seem expedient to suppress the truth for personal gain, no one likes being lied to.

What was the truth to which Jesus testified?

On the surface, this seems a difficult question to answer, because Jesus claimed he was the truth.

If Jesus is the truth, then Jesus had to be real. He had to be eternal.

One thing, we all know is that Jesus was a historical figure who died. Josephus, the non-Christian, Jewish historian testifies to this, as do the gospels of Mark, Matthew, Luke and John. There are other biblical books that testify to eye witness accounts of Jesus existence. The physician, Luke interviewed people who had seen Jesus and recorded this in the book of Acts, as well as the gospel that bears his name. Saul, who persecuted the church, and who changed his name to Paul, claims to have seen Jesus, and was told by him to celebrate the communion. Peter wrote that he was an eye witness of Jesus. The First Epistle of John begins stating that the author and others had seen, heard and touched the eternal one, who the writer says is Jesus.

The problem for non-believers is there is no burial site for Jesus and they simply refuse to believe that because he had the power over death, his physical body was transformed into an eternal body. The difficulty with this for unbelievers is this means Jesus had to be more than just a mere human, because all humans die.


Oddly enough, many of these non-believers of Jesus death and resurrection even doubt Jesus existence. Yet they accept that the Buddha existed and lived on Earth, even though they only have religious writings to attest to this. It is easier for them to believe the teachings of the Buddha, because he was a human who died from food poisoning and was cremated.

As for Mohammed, he too was just a mere man, only not a peace-loving one like Guatama Siddhartha, the Buddha, appears to have been. There is even a burial site which is said to have his bones, to support that Mohammed actually lived. What is odd about Mohammed is he believed in the Virgin Birth of Jesus, but not in his resurrection. His followers must have dismiss this fact, otherwise they would all have to admit that Jesus was a superior individual to Mohammed.

One of the interesting biological facts about those who claim to have an intimate relationship with Jesus Christ is they are much happier people than those who don't. Maybe the truth is they have learnt how to release endorphins into their body and experience a much more blissful life as a result. Endorphins are addictive and those who smoke, gamble and have other addictions, unknowingly find pleasure as a result of endorphins being released into their brain. This is what keeps addicts addicted, and not the thing they do that ruins their life.

The truth drug that took the life of my acquaintance when he was twenty-two was only a substitute for the real thing. And you know there are no substitute for the real thing. But sometimes the real thing requires a dose of reality we do not want to admit. As someone once said, "The truth hurts."

Lying Honestly

Marcus Einfeld, the lying judge and human rights blowhard, is the perfect symbol of our time, says an Australian Columnist Andrew Bolt who gets 1 million hits to his blog.

Bill Clinton said he tried to walk the line between telling lies and telling the truth, suggesting that there is nothing wrong in this.

A judge tells lies, but says that he is an honest man and for anybody to suggest otherwise is insulting.

A president says that there is a place that exists between a lie and the truth and suggests that not telling the truth as a President is not telling an untruth, if a person walks this line.

The film "True Lies" is about a espionage cover up that is uncovered. The lies the people tell, are truly lies, that is they are lies.

But when is a lie, never a lie. Lies are truly lies; they are never the truth.

To be honest, a lie is a lie, never the truth, and the truth is the truth and never a lie.

When is the truth not the truth? The logical answer is to say when it is a lie. But the divided between being an honest person and a liar is not a matter of degrees, you either are a liar or you have never told a lie in your life. It is black or white.

There is a reason why people get confused. This is because there exists a phenonemon known as twilight.

Twilight is very deceptive. The sun is no longer shining, but twilight is nearly as good as the real thing. The twilight zone is where lies become truth and liars become honest. This is where criminals become good citizens and evil is declared to be good.

The twilight society lives of those who are honest. But if it wasn't for lying politicians, corrupt officials and judges rewarding criminals with suspended sentences, the twilight would not exist. Neither would the twilight society be able to prey on its innocent victims, those who carry the burden of corruption as they try to forge a better life for themselves, their children and their grandchildren.

To be honest, there is time to tell the truth and a time to say nothing. But when Jesus said that he was the way, the truth and the life, was he lying or telling the truth?

Rare Animal For Sale

A rare animal is for sale. Most rare animals end up in zoos. This animal is now considered extinct and has to be a must for a collector. I believe a certain museum is chaffing at the bit to get it, but the person, who now owns it, is looking to sell it for more than what the museum is prepared to offer.

Now put yourself in this person's position. You have purchased a valuable item and a museum is saying to you that you should give it to them free of charge. Well, when you have governments willing to bail out high earners and ensure that they live in comfort and expect everyone else to pay for it, this is a bit rich.

The animal in question is an Australian native cat that is considered extinct, but not only is the species considered extinct, never has one been sighted that is an albino. This animal was caught by a dog in 1882 and preserved by a taxidermist. Australian native cats were quite common back in the nineteenth century, so there would be no point in having one preserved back then. However, to catch an albino native cat on your farm at time, this is another story.

How did I get to find about this? Well, this is an amazing story in itself. Somebody broke a window and did a runner and a security guard was partly responsible for the fact that I continued talking to the very person sitting on the footpath with a laptop computer making use of a wireless facility?

The guy was on the bones of his backside literally and trying to make money on the internet. These days is easier to blog for profits. You can learn more by clicking here now.

Born To Die

Being born to die is a waste of time. There is no point in being born to die. There is no purpose in life if you are merely born to die. There is no meaning in living if you are born to die.

This fact that being born to die is futile is recognized by most people who begin to think about the meaning of their existence. The futility of being born to die is so obvious that it is surprising that more people do not make the answer to this question the first answer the seek. To know the reason for your birth, the reason for your existence, the reason for you living on Earth, should be the most important question you need to know.

I meet an eighteen year old the other day who said told me that his parents reckoned he was smarter than most people his age.

You see he was going into the Armed Forces to earn his qualifications. This way he said he would get paid to learn rather than have to pay to learn, and then either have a debt to repay and a job to find.

Part of the reason he claimed his parents said he was smarter than the rest was because he planned his activities in advance and set himself personal goals. For instance, he said he decided to do legal studies as part of his senior high school years, so he would know his rights.

I told him that was a smart move, and asked him, "Did he know what his rights were when he died."

You see this has to be an important question for somebody who was thinking about going into the army. The reason people get the benefits of a paid education is they also are putting their lives on the line and could die in battle.

The eighteen year old, whose parents said was smarter than most people had neglected to consider this.

He told me that he would be thinking about it all day. I suggested not to worry about the insurance because the Armed Forces would cover that. Rather he needed to know what his rights were before the Creator of the Heavens and Earth.

Funny how people think they are smart and yet forget to ask the most basic of questions: "What happens when I die?"


Worse still, for many people who do ask the question, is the fact that rather than seek the truth, they fall for anything that sounds plausible and suits their lifestyle.

Seriously, nobody likes being told untruths or lies. I bet you don't. Yet people will accept anything they want to believe rather than the truth, especially when the truth will hurt.

The truth is you are going to die, so what are you going to do about it?

I know what I did about it. I sought out the Creator of the Universe.

Yes, I could have got caught up in religious ideas and practices and tried to earn approval from God. But man-made religion has never really appealed to me. From an early age I judged church goers and religious people as hypocrites.


I could have gone on a good works trip to prove myself as worthy of God because I help out my fellow man. Many people do this, point the finger at the religious hypocrites and praise their own self-righteousness. One man I knew who did this, ended up being a very bitter and critical of other people because they would not repay the favors.

I could have looked for a philosophy like Buddhism or Reincarnation or Evolution to explain the significance of my life. To have a meaningful philosophy and be a moral person I would need to incorporate some concept of reincarnation. Otherwise it would be pointless in being a moral person who upholds the law and respects other people.

But I thought that his was a waste a time. Either I was going to die or there had to be a Creator who had a reason for my season on earth, or life itself was meaningless.
In which case, I would gravitate to organized crime and do what was opportunistic for my own selfish ends without regard for anyone else.

Fortunately for me, I found the Creator. You can too.