Part 1 – Demonic

The word “demonic” describes unexplainable madness. Witness the maniacal weirdos who want to normalize adults being sexually attracted to children; or even worse, normalizing children being sexually attracted to adults. Or drug companies trying to get babies and toddlers injected with an experimental gene changing drug with known adverse affects, some of which will affect those children for the rest of their lives – that children didn’t even need in the first place too. So whose insane idea was that? 

The Old Testament answers that question for us in Psalm 106:37, “They sacrificed their sons and daughters to demons.” The insane idea of sacrificing one’s child, in mind or body, is directly attributable to demons. Because it’s what demons want. Like the young boy “possessed by a spirit” in Mark 9:17, that robbed the poor child of speech and threw him to the ground, mouth foaming, teeth gnashing, and body rigid (verse 18). A spirit did that, a demon, willingly and insanely destroying a child. 

And who on earth would want to destroy a child? It’s an unexplainable madness. It’s the kind of madness that has a lot of people scratching their heads nowadays as to how wrecking children’s lives has become so acceptable. Witness the maniacal weirdos who, with little research into the long-term impact of puberty blockers on children’s fertility and ability to have children of their own, introduce medical interventions for children wishing to gender transition anyway. In other words, throw the kids in the deep end and see what happens. And if the damage turns out to be irreversible….well, demons wouldn’t care about that, would they?  

But didn’t God have children killed too? Yes, to get the point across that there are terrible consequences on the innocent when stupid adults ignore and reject God. And what more proof of that do we need than madmen today committing their nations to war? Because who suffers most? Thousands and millions of children. 

So is there a reason we can pinpoint for such unexplainable madness? There is in Scripture: it’s because “the whole world is under the control of the evil one,” 1 John 5:19 – “the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient,” Ephesians 2:2. 

(Part 2 on Luciferian – Thursday, March 9)

The devil never gives up because of his hate for God’s children. Adam, for instance, was “the son of God,” Luke 3:38, so what was evil’s reaction to that? “A child of God, eh? We’ll see about that,” and went about getting Adam to NOT act like God’s son at all. And it worked, because how could Adam be a true son of God when he neither obeyed God or trusted him?   

Having nailed the first Adam, the devil was at it again to nail the second Adam – by trying to get Jesus not acting like God’s Son too. He tried three ridiculous, but potentially ruinous temptations, two of them prefaced with the snarky, “If you are the Son of God,” Matthew 4:3,6.

The devil’s objective was to prove Jesus wasn’t the Son of God. But why was that so important? Because, John 1:12, “to all who believed him (Jesus) and accepted him (as the Son of God), he (God) gave the right to become his children.” At stake here, therefore, was humans becoming God’s children for believing in Jesus being the Son of God.

But why would the devil not want that happening? Because, John 3:36, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life.” Belief in Jesus being the Son of God means that humans will be indestructible. So the devil has to come up with something to stop it.

But how? Well, there was one way of stopping it, because “anyone born of God does not continue to sin,” 1 John 5:18. Bingo, just get Christians sinning, then, because, 1 John 3:10, “Anyone who doesn’t do what’s right isn’t a child of God.” Couldn’t be any clearer, could it? 

So, how to get Christians sinning? There’s a clue for that too, in 1 John 3:7, when John writes, “Dear children, don’t let anyone lead you astray.” Ah, so it’s not getting Christians to commit a blatant and obvious sin, it’s getting us to wander off the path without realizing it. And the devil has all sorts of ways of making that happen, like pride, distraction, delusion, etc., so how can we paltry humans stand up against his cunning? 

Fortunately, John asks and answers that question for us in 1 John 5:5. “Who is it that overcomes the world (and the devil’s cunning use of it against us)?” Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God,” because, verse 11, “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.” And because we believe that, “This is the assurance we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us,” verse 14. 

So when the devil’s at it again with his ridiculous, but potentially ruinous temptations to lead us astray, we’ve got a Father who very much appreciates our belief in his Son, which he will prove by keeping us on track when we ask him.    

There is no evidence anywhere in the New Testament that church attendance in a church building is required for the proper worship of God. One has to wonder, then, why so much money has been spent on building churches to meet in, especially when Acts 7:48 and 17:24 both say, “the most High does not dwell in temples made with (human) hands.”

On the other hand, doesn’t Hebrews 10:25 say we should “not give up meeting together”? And how can you do that without a building, especially in the middle of winter?

But when the church began there were no official buildings for that first crop of Christians to meet in. And the Holy Spirit didn’t tell them to construct or meet in buildings either. What the Holy Spirit did inspire was the desire to meet together, but how did they do it without a building?

To begin with, in Acts 2:46, they met every day in “the temple courts,” none of which were enclosed buildings. Solomon’s Porch, their most likely place of meeting, was open to the public. So they didn’t feel the need to isolate or lock themselves away in a “consecrated” spot or building. 

So where did the idea of Christians having to meet in consecrated buildings come from? Is it a throwback to the Old Testament, perhaps? David, for instance, wanted a proper building for God to dwell in, which God sanctioned but he never required or commanded it, nor did he command any other building or temple to be built. It was also a God-given custom for the Israelites to meet on specific days at places of his choosing (Deuteronomy 12:11). But Jesus changed all that in John 4:20-24 when he told the Samaritan woman at the well that God was no longer into “holy places” anymore, because “true worshippers” would now be “worshipping the Father in Spirit and in Truth.”

Do Christians no longer need to meet together at all, then? Well, the very meaning of ekklesia, the word for “church” in the New Testament, means getting together to “reason” things out (Acts 18:4,19 and 19:8-10), involving lots of dialogue and discussion, everyone involved (Acts 15:22) – just like the good old days in Acts 2:42 when they all got together to study and discuss the apostles’ teaching.

But how much of that happens in a typical “church service” today? Is it the building, then, that’s become “the church,” or what ekklesia originally meant?  

Jesus said he’d build his church. But are institutions, buildings, doctrines, customs, rituals, disciplines and forms of worship, what define the word “church” in Scripture? 

No, 1 Corinthians 12:27. The church, quite simply, is “the body of Christ.” It is not a body of people, nor a people-created institution, or anything of our making. It is Christ’s body.

But when did Christ ever have a body? 

It’s when “The Word became flesh,” John 1:14. That’s when Christ took on a natural human body so that in that body he could redeem, heal, reconcile and transform all humanity into a new creation, a new humanity. He was the first of this new creation to exist, and now in his resurrected, ascended position beside the Father, he’s re-creating his church in the same image. 

That’s why the church is called the body of Christ. It’s of the same bodily humanity he is, restored in the image of God. Jesus was the first to accomplish this in his own human body, and now through his church he’s establishing the new humanity of the future.

The church, then, is the earthly reality of this new humanity. That’s why Jesus preached the Kingdom of God wherever he went, because the new humanity had begun, first in his own human body and then in his church body, starting with the apostles and continuing in all those the Spirit unites to Christ after that. 

The church, therefore, is the means by which the Kingdom of God, the new creation and the new humanity, are making their way into all the world, so that every human being eventually has the chance to share in it. And those who are sharing it already are the church.

The church, then, is living proof that what God sent Jesus to this Earth for is actually happening. God sent Jesus to live the new humanity. So that’s what Jesus did, and still does. He lived the new humanity in his own human body first, and now he re-lives it through the centuries in his church body. And those in whom he’s re-living it are the church, regardless of whether they attend a people-created building, or not, because the church is the body of Christ, not a human creation.

Digital ID is a worldwide electronic data management platform designed to know everything about us. It tracks our medical history, social media posts, bank accounts, credit cards, taxes, voting, shopping history, internet search history, and where we go, live, and work, etc. 

Putting aside concerns about invasion of privacy, fraud, identity theft, abuse of personal data, and governments seeking to control every move and transaction we make – and, of course, whoever administers the digital ID most likely making a right old mess of things (as usual) – I can see the need for a global “knowing” about people for security and ease of interaction. But can anyone be truly trusted with such personal information about us, and can they really know who we truly are and what makes us tick? 

I’m glad, then, that God does, because he surely knows everything there is to know about us that needs to be known, and he certainly isn’t going to abuse it. I can have absolute confidence that he will gear whatever he knows about me for my benefit. Which the writer of Psalm 139 obviously felt too, because in verse 1 he’s thrilled that God knows him. At least someone knows who he truly is and what makes him tick. And it’s not scary to him either. He knows he’s in the hands of a loving, kind and extremely wise data management platform. 

“O Lord,” he cries out, “you have searched me and you know me.” Well, at least someone has the time and ability to do that, because who else do we know who can do it? We can putter through years of marriage and friendships and know bits about each other – but a deliberate, investigative, full-blooded search to know everything? 

And who but God can know every time “I sit down and get up,” verse 2, and what I’m up to when I’m still or moving around, as well? He’s got it all tracked to the last detail. He even knows “my thoughts from afar.” No electronic ID system necessary, no data tracking mechanism, no microchip in my brain to detect what I’m thinking, no spy in the sky or hidden cameras in phone, TV or computer watching my every move, and no sound detectors in flowerpots and light fixtures to hear my every word. But God: well, he knows “all my ways,” verse 3, and even what I’m thinking before I’ve even thunked it, verse 4. 

It’s quite a system God’s got, the dream, I imagine, of any well meaning globalists seeking to protect us from harm, and help us work together more effectively. But God’s already set it up, and it’s working perfectly, so why not tap into it instead?   

In John 17:9 Jesus makes the rather startling statement, “I pray not for the world.” It seems to fly in the face of John 3:16, that “God so loved the world,” and verse 17, that “God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.”

Why, then, would Jesus not pray for the world he was sent to save?

Because – as Jesus himself explains in verse 19 – “Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light, because their deeds were evil.” Why bother praying for people who love being evil, have no interest in being saved from evil, don’t want anything to do with Jesus, whose minds are tightly shut against any glimmer of light entering in case their “evil deeds are exposed,” verse 20? It’s like talking to, or praying for, a brick wall.

But – as Jesus also explains in John 17:6 – in amongst all those brick walls the Father had selected a few people “out of the world” and “you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.” It was in the Father’s plan to have some people recognize “that everything you (Father) have given me comes from you,” so that when Jesus gave them the words the Father had given him they would accept them, verse 8, and  know “with certainty that I came from you,” and “that you sent me.” And these are the people Jesus was praying for in verse 9: “I pray for them, I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.”

This is where Jesus’ attention was concentrated; it was totally on revealing his Father and his Father’s words to those whom his Father had chosen. Jesus acknowledged that it was just to these select few that the Father had granted him the authority to “give eternal life to” (verse 2), and just in the minds of these few that the brick wall of rejecting him had been broken down, and just these few that the Father had sent him to teach. And this alone was “the work” the Father had given him to do (verse 4), to teach and pray for those the Father had given him at that time.

Jesus also acknowledged in verse 20 that his work of teaching and praying for those his Father selected would continue through the centuries, because this was the way the whole world would come to “believe that you have sent me” – not by Jesus praying for the world, but by praying for his disciples.

Part 8, King Ahaz (Part 7, Feb 17)

Back in Isaiah 7:3, God gave Isaiah specific instructions as to where he was to meet with King Ahaz: “Go out, you and your son Shear-Jashub, to meet Ahaz at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool, on the road to the Washerman’s Field.” 

Imagine being Ahaz and here comes Isaiah with his son, whose name means ‘A Remnant Will Return’ – which in itself had to be a hint, because why bring the boy along in the first place? And a lad with such a strange name too. So did God have Isaiah give this name to his son – or inspire the thought, perhaps – in preparation for this moment?  

Because names really come into this story – which seems odd, though, because Ahaz didn’t pick up on any of them. But God went ahead and had all the details recorded anyway. As a trail of clues, perhaps, for us to follow?….

If so, the second clue was the name of the location. Did Ahaz even wonder for a moment, however, why he had to meet Isaiah “at the end of the aqueduct of the Upper Pool”? The name “Upper Pool” meant “the blessing of the Most High,” so here was Ahaz standing at the end of a channel down which, in its name, God’s blessing flowed. Significant? Not to Ahaz, unfortunately. And there was more to come too. 

The channel, for instance, verse 3, was “on the road to the Washerman’s Field,” or as other translations have it, the “Fuller’s Field.” It must have been a well-known landmark, because this was where the fullers gathered with their woven woollen cloth to scour it clean from oils, dirt, and other impurities, using the agitating water from the aqueduct. They would also shrink the cloth by pounding it, and they’d bleach it too (to ‘full’ means to ‘whiten’), the end result being a thicker, tighter, smoother, stronger and more water repellent duffel coat like fabric.   

And Ahaz would have known that. Putting two and two together, then, he could have figured out why he was meeting Isaiah at this very spot. In the boy’s name was a promise that his nation would not be destroyed, and in the location a promise that God would pour out a blessing on him – like the water flowing down from the Upper Pool. And it would have the same cleansing, whitening and strengthening effect on Ahaz as the fullers were able to create in their cloth.  

Three clues, all designed to give Ahaz confidence, but also to grow him up, because a fuller’s cloth went though quite a process to turn it into functional, lasting clothing for the wearer. God was offering Ahaz the chance, therefore, to become a great king and leader of his people….(part 9, March 3) 

I imagine those who are gunning for global power, and those obsessed with sexualizing the culture, are hoping we won’t recognize what they’re up to. But anyone who’s read the Old Testament knows exactly what they’re up to. Which is probably why these power and sex mad influencers hate Christians. 

Because as Christians we believe God gave us clues in Scripture that help us recognize when things are veering off track. Like the Tower of Babel, for instance, and Sodom and Gomorrah.  

Babel represents the endless quest for world power; Sodom and Gomorrah the endless descent into sexual deviancy. In any society all through history these two things crop up as either the cause of societal problems, or the symptoms of a society collapsing. For those who think we can’t see what they’re up to, therefore, we simply reply, “It’s all happened before.” 

Babel in Genesis 11 is a classic example of it all happening before, because it starts off in verse 1 with, “the whole world had one language and a common speech.” And isn’t that the dream of some today, that there’s no such thing as sovereign nations with their own rules and culture? Much better that “we’re all one,” they say, all speaking the same language, with one central power controlling everything, like the World Health Organization dictating health measures to all nations, or the World Economic Forum dictating “planet saving” measures to all nations. 

And it has the same appeal as the Babel of old, that if people all worked together under one central global control “nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them” (verse 6). Which may be sincerely meant, but it always turns into a power grab by an elitist few, and all those sucked into their eccentric dreams always suffer. 

And seven chapters later is the other clue, two cities whose “sin was so grievous,” Genesis 18:20, that the inhabitants demanded two visitors be “brought out to us so that we can have sex with them,” Genesis 19:5. Like the dreadful sexualization of children today, so that pedophiles and other sexual deviants have a ready made crop of victims too. 

And amazingly they get away with it, ignored by politicians and mainstream media, but Christians know from Scripture what’s going on. And we’re not shy about revealing it either, because it’s not just us who know what these power and sex mad people are up to – so does God (Genesis 18:20-21).   

When Jesus told Peter and Andrew, “Come, follow me, and I will make you fishers of men” in Matthew 4:19, their reaction was immediate. “At once they left their nets and followed him,” verse 20. And the same with James and John in verses 21-22. 

It’s amazing how quickly they changed gears, from throwing their nets out to catch fish, to the idea of throwing nets out to catch people. But a new era had begun, which started with Jesus choosing disciples to follow him. And out of the five disciples whose professions we know, four of them were fishermen. Fishing was a tough job, long hours, bad weather, and many sleepless nights and meals missed. But not a bad profession for what Jesus had in mind for them, because fishing for people would be a tough job too. 

To follow Jesus meant “following in his steps,” 1 Peter 2:21, meaning “arming ourselves with his same attitude,” 1 Peter 4:1, of not living for “evil human desires, but rather for the will of God,” verse 2. So following Jesus would mean a serious switch in their attitude, lifestyle and behaviour. Because living God’s will would become the new fishing net they’d be working with.    

Peter gives an example in 1 Peter 3:1, where he addresses wives married to husbands who “do not believe the word,” to encourage the wives that their husbands can be “won over by your behaviour when they see the purity and reverence of your lives.” 

That’s the net that works; respect and goodness. That’s what made her an effective “fisher of men,” just as “gentleness and respect” are characteristic of any disciple, verse 16, so “if people speak against you they’ll be ashamed when they see what a good life you live.” Jesus has given us a powerful net. 

But like the life of a fisherman, that “good life we live” can be tough, because obeying God’s will is like heading out into choppy waters to fish. But as a fisherman that’s what you do. And it makes you tough. It also makes you good at what you do. You catch fish. 

Which is what Jesus chose us to do. He gave us a net – sticking like glue to the attitudes, lifestyle and behaviour outlined in God’s will and Jesus’ example, in the choppy waters of our culture. Because obeying God’s will is how we catch fish best.

In 1 Peter 2:9, Peter uses the term “a royal priesthood” to describe those who, in “growing up in their salvation, have tasted that the Lord is good,” verse 3. So these are people who have personally experienced Jesus growing them up, chipping away at their imperfections, so they know something wonderful is happening to them. 

And Peter tells us why it’s happening too, that like Jesus who was “chosen by God and precious to him – you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood,” verses 4-5. 

So God is building an extraordinary “house” – extraordinary because it’s being built out of “living stones,” the first and most precious of which is Jesus, “the living Stone” (verse 4). 

And what was the purpose of this house of living stones? It was to create “a holy priesthood offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God,” verse 4. We have this picture, then, of a ‘club house’ being built by God, the members of which make up his royal priesthood, all of whom have one goal and purpose, to offer “spiritual sacrifices.”

And Peter explains in verse 9 what these spiritual sacrifices are: they’re about “declaring the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light” to make us into “the people of God” belonging to him now, not to the darkness we were in before – and purely because of his “mercy,” verse 10.  

So God’s royal priesthood exists to make clear that this is God’s purpose for all human beings. He is lifting us out of floundering around in the darkness, not knowing anything about God or his mercy and love for us, to enter a whole new world where everything about him comes alive.  

But how does this new world come alive? Because it can be seen in the “spiritual sacrifices” offered by members of the royal priesthood. They are “living stones” – “living such good lives among the pagans,” verse 12, that “they may see your good deeds and glorify God.” 

Being a member of the royal priesthood, therefore, comes with the power to save others. Which is why we seek perfection in living as Jesus did, no matter how impossible it seems. Because that’s what gave him the power to save others (Hebrews 5:9).