Death is not the end.
Death is transformation.
Transformation into new life!
New life in Heaven.
And Life Everlasting!
Photo Credit: findshepherd.com
Sunday, 4 April 2021
Saturday, 3 April 2021
A Muscleman with a Heart.
Life on Earth
Is stained with tears.
We live alone with
All our fears.
We pray to God.
We help our friends.
It seems that sorrow
Never ends.
But love rekindles
All our hopes.
Love resurrects
Our buried soul.
When we are blessed
Our eyes to see
A man whose heart
Gives love to Thee.
We long to share
A life apart.
A muscleman with a heart!
Photo Credit: Roy Morris.
Friday, 2 April 2021
Tears.
Tear flow
When we see Jesus crucified.
We know
Jesus was the Light of the World.
But the people
Preferred darkness to light.
They mocked
And crucified Our Lord.
And so
Our tears flow.
Photo Credit: imagekind
Thursday, 1 April 2021
Temptation 1.
Devil-worshippers are in the business of temptation.
Devil worshippers in rock music tempted the Baby-Boomers to take drugs and practise yoga - for which we are condemned.
They tempted Generation X to judge and condemn the Hippies for taking drugs and loose morals.
They tempted the Religious Right to judge and damn the Hippies and the political left for involvement with Satanism in rock music.
They tempted Ronald Reagan to use judgement and demonization as weapons against the political left, and to rely on Satanism and violence in Generation X to win.
They tempted the political right to use judgement and damnation against the political left.
They tempted Rupert Murdoch to use his media empire as a propaganda machine.
And they tempted the older generation to feel morally superior and practise hypocrisy.
But the Hippies were betrayed by their rock stars.
Generation X were misled by rock stars and politicians.
The Religious Right were led astray by their leaders.
Ronald Reagan and Rupert Murdoch were corrupted by power.
The political right was led astray by Ronald Reagan.
And the older generation were opportunistic and hypocritical.
In the end no one is guilty.
Even the devil-worshippers themselves were reacting to a false image of God.
God condemns no one.
He reveals the truth.
And He forgives.
Wednesday, 31 March 2021
Raw Power.
Satanists in rock music, entertainment, and sports function through the acquisition and application of raw power.
And as such they are attracted to the astrological sign of Scorpio and the planet Pluto.
These aspects can be found in their horoscopes.
But because these are hidden things this may not be immediately apparent.
They accumulate anything which gives them power including black magic and making pacts with the devil.
Many follow the teachings of Aleister Crowley who was a Satanist and black magician at the turn of the 20th Century.
They manipulate images; use subliminal suggestion, and unconscious control methods.
Anything backwards or upside-down is Satanic.
But no matter how deceptive or powerful they may be God is more powerful and truthful than them.
God has ways of acting that are greater than anything raw power can do.
But make no mistake God does not destroy evil people.
He seeks to redeem them and reconcile them.
Why?
Because deliberate evil like this is based on a false premise:
The idea that God is a harsh judge and punisher of men and women, especially in relation to sex which is one of their main concerns.
So they have rejected a false image of God and have been led astray by lies and deceptions.
God seeks to redeem them and reconcile them to His Divine Love.
So we should not oppose evildoers but pray for them as Jesus taught.
God will answer.
Monday, 29 March 2021
Palm Sunday.
I must admit I am ambivalent about Palm Sunday.
There is lots of hosannaring and declaring of Jesus as King.
But many of the crowd and even the disciples were expecting a political and military king in the style of David who would then liberate them from the Roman occupation.
This may explain why many of them turned against him by Friday after Jesus had ignored the Romans and attacked the Jewish religious leaders.
But why did Jesus go to Jerusalem?
Jerusalem was the center of Jewish religious faith.
It was here that the shepherds of Israel had their Temple.
I believe that Jesus' attitude to the shepherds was a reflection of the Prophets.
"The shepherds also have no understanding; they have all turned to their own way, to their own gain." Isaiah 56:11 (NRSV)
"Ah, you shepherds of Israel who have been feeding yourselves! Should not the shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, you clothe yourselves with the wool, you slaughter the fatlings; but you do not feed the sheep. You have not strengthened the weak, you have not healed the sick, you have not bound up the injured, you have not brought back the strayed, you have not sought the lost, but with force and harshness you have ruled them." Ezekiel 34:2-4 (NRSV)
This explains Jesus' criticism of the Pharisees and his status as a spiritual leader not a temporal one.
It also explains Jesus' mysterious injunction to Peter: "'Feed my sheep.'" John 21:17 (NRSV)
So I am ambivalent about Palm Sunday.
I am unsure whether to be jubilant or sad.
[Scripture quotations (marked NRSV) are taken from the New Revised Standard Version Bible, copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., and are used by permission. All rights reserved.}
Sunday, 28 March 2021
It Is Written.
We think that because something is written in the Bible it must be true.
But the evidence of modern scholarship would suggest that this is not the case.
Words have been put into the mouth of Jesus and even into the mouth of God.
The Gospel of John contains long passages attributed to Jesus which do not appear in the other Gospels.
This has led scholars to assert that the Gospel of John is not historical but developed theology about Jesus.
The short aphoristic sayings and parables in the Synoptic Gospels are much more in keeping with the oral tradition of teachers at the time.
But the habit of Old Testament writers of putting their messages into the mouth of God is much more problematical.
Violent, judgemental, and legalistic passages in the Old Testament are unlikely to be literally the words of God.
Ancient authors could only write according to the understanding and worldview that existed at the time.
This is where tradition breaks down.
These primitive attitudes to God have been passed down from generation to generation.
But humankind's image of God evolves as the Bible progresses.
There are passages which contradict earlier passages in the text.
The God of Jesus bears little resemblance to the harsh God of the Old Testament.
So now, 2000 years later, humanity is ready for a new image of God.
A God who is transcendent.
Beyond our human expectations of punishment and judgement.
A God who is wholly good.
The God whom Jesus of Nazareth knew.
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