The World, The Flesh, and the Devil

 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. (Eph. 6:12)

     

We put so much emphasis on the physical realm we can see, feel and touch. But the real battle is that which is taking place and affecting this world in the spiritual realm....which affects the actions of those in the physical realm. For the whole world lies under the sway (control, power) of the evil one. (1 John 5:19) The wicked one is he who prowls around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. He is not humanities friend. And it doesn't take that much to influence the actions of fallen mankind to commit vile, heinous acts and to rationalize and pontificate such acts are for a better good.

    He does this by having blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel that displays the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Cor. 4:4) Fallen human kind are not sinners because we sin; we sin because we are sinners. We are born that way. Born to commit sin from the moment we come into this world. It is in our nature. David in Psalm 51 proclaims "Surely I was sinful at birth,  sinful from the time my mother conceived me."

      Christ Jesus came to remove that veil of spiritual blindness by grace through faith and in  His mercy and not by any good works so called. It is by faith in the Messiah Jesus that we come from the darkness of this present evil age into His marvelous light. His way, His truth, His life.  And rest in the finished work of Jesus the Messiah. Who came to save His people from their sins. 

"So I tell you this, and insist on it in the Lord, that you must no longer live as the Gentiles do, in the futility of their thinking.  They are darkened in their understanding and separated from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them due to the hardening of their hearts.  Having lost all sensitivity, they have given themselves over to sensuality so as to indulge in every kind of impurity, with a continual lust for more." (eph 4:17-19)

The more we get the more we want. The more we want the more we get. It is a vain endless endeavor. An addiction of stuff and arrogant, unholy pleasures that consume the most discerning of their civility and humanity. It becomes the reason for their living and the worth of which they want the world to perceive them.        

"Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?  You lust and do not have. You murder and covet and cannot obtain. You fight and war." The Apostle James was writing these words to believers,  so you can see where we as a race of created sin prone beings, serious rescue is required to deliver us from this Body of sin. 

Then James adds "God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble.   Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom.  Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.(James 4: 6-10)

The preacher in the Old testament book of Ecclesiastes proclaims:

Better to go to the house of mourning Than to go to the house of feasting,

For that is the end of all men; and the living will take it to heart.

Sorrow is better than laughter, For by a sad countenance the heart is made better.

The heart of the wise is in the house of mourning, But the heart of fools is in the house of mirth. Ecc. 7:2-4)

Called probably the most cynical and pessimistic books of the bible. But in reality actually the most realistic of books on our experiences in this short and for many meaningless paths of the existence called life.  Ecclesiastes explores the nitty gritty  truth of what life is when not clouded by the trite,  whimsical and unrealistic view our modern technologically addicted  society lusts after. Veil the truth. Bury the obvious. They distance themselves from the reality it will all have an end. Youth, looks, fame, fortune, notoriety, adulation will all vanish in a moment in time when death comes to claim.

When times are good, be happy; but when times are bad, consider this: God has made the one as well as the other.Therefore, no one can discover anything about their future.—Ecclesiastes 7:14

The message of Ecclesiastes is that the course of life to be pursued is a God-centered life. The pleasures of life are not intrinsically fulfilling and cannot offer lasting satisfaction, but they can be enjoyed as gifts from God. Life offers good times and bad and follows no pattern such as that proposed by the retribution principle. But all comes from the hand of God: (Zondervan academic ZA Blog)

The Apostle Peter adds "the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?  Now “If the righteous one is scarcely saved, Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?”(1 Peter 4:17-18)

JUDGEMENT...OUCH. Not a popular noun today. We have no judgement zones galore (fitness centers come to mine). People who don't even believe in the God of Scripture love to say Jesus said don't judge. What he was actually saying, You judge someone, and  you do the same things they do, being critical and condemning of them, you condemn yourself. You become your own convicting judge, so to speak. So think about what you say before you speak or you could just be condemning yourself to judgement.  

Finally, the apostle who came radically into God's salvation and service proclaimed in Romans 10:9 "If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved."  (Romans 10:9) Every single human being needs salvation through the way, the truth and the Life. For their is no other name under heaven by which anyone can be saved. Saved from what you may ask ?  

Saved from the wrath of God and an eternity absent from God and the glory of His power. Saved from the fiery indignation of the only True, Holy and Righteous creator of all things in heaven and on earth. To life eternal to glorify God and enjoy Him forever.  

Seem an impossible task? To live a life acceptable to God that he might accept you into His Kingdom. It is. That is why Jesus the Christ, the very Son of God,  the Word who was in the beginning with God and was God, took on the task of becoming a flesh and blood and bones man, lived a perfectly sinless life, (2 Cor 5:21; Heb. 4:15)  suffered a horribly violent and painful  death on that rugged, worn, wooden cross, and rose again the 3rd day according to the Scripture.  For God loves the world and wishes that none should perish. But all should come to repentence. Confess...Trust....and Obey. There's no other way to be happy in Jesus. Than to trust and obey. (John 14:21) 

And for all you who claim Jesus Christ as your Savior, remember He is also your Lord. Scripture says you are either a slave to sin or a slave of God. In fact, Jesus the Christ said that. I suggest as did Paul to the Corinthian believers, "Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?—unless indeed you fail the test."  (2 Cor.13:5)

And know this: eternity awaits us all. For the unregenerate it is a weeping and gnashing of teeth, and absence from the presence of God and the glory of His power.  For all those who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but born again of God,  by grace through faith and believing on His name, you have a citizenship in heaven, enjoying God forever. 

But until that moment arrives, know this.  God's people are not alone. As Jesus said to His disciples, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.  And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—  the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him; but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you. (John 14:15-17)

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. (John 14:26)

God's people are sojouners and pilgrims, in a vile, corrupt, and fallen world of mankind. But dear believer know this....we do not battle the world, the flesh and the devil without God helping us along this earthly path.  

"For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.  The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.  We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ." (2 Cor 10:3-5)

 Softly and tenderly Jesus is calling....

Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.  Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matt. 11:28-30)

Major Mistakes Made. The Price We Pay

                                      "Biden's Top Ten Blunders" By Newt Gingrich - 
                                                                         

1.The first major mistake Mr. Biden made was immediately failing to live up to the pledges he made in his inaugural address. In his inaugural address, Mr. Biden said: “Today, on this January day, my whole soul is in this: Bringing America together. Uniting our people. And uniting our nation.” On day one in office, Mr. Biden signed 17 executive orders, most highly partisan, with nine being direct reversals of popular, effective policies set by the previous administration. Mr. Biden’s day-one action message to a deeply divided America was that talk of bipartisanship was pure baloney. (or as juggling Joe would say "malarkey."
 

2. Destroying Our Energy Independence: Mr. Biden’s second big mistake was his aggressive effort to cripple America’s energy independence. He canceled the Keystone XL Pipeline, which cost Americans roughly 30,000 jobs and contributed to rising oil and gas prices. He also canceled oil and gas exploration in the arctic. Because of these destructive actions, Mr. Biden later had to crawl back to OPEC nations and grovel to increase production to lower prices.(And may I add in case you didn't hear, John  Kerry opened his mouth with  “I hope diplomacy will win … but equally importantly, (what??)  you’re going to lose people’s focus, (well duh, when the bombs are falling on your head and cities are being decimated)  Mr. Kerry said. “I think hopefully, President Putin would realize that in the northern part of his country, they used to live on 66% of … frozen land. Now it’s thawing and his infrastructure is at risk, and the people of Russia are at risk.”( Yea, sure, the climate changes natually and has been for thousands of years. Before auto's, trucks, factories etc. So, does he think Putin is concerned about  climate change so called. Ha , Ha, Ha. If Atom Busters are thrown into the occasion, and everyone starts launching Nukes at each other, then John Kerry , you'll see REAL CLIMATE CHANGE! caused by mankind) But yes,  with Biden the Green New Deal is in full swing.
 

3. Giving in to Iran: Desperate to salvage one of his former boss’s few achievements, Mr. Biden immediately sought to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal, which will not stop Iran from eventually developing nuclear weapons. It also freed up billions of dollars which Iran can now use in its continued effort to fund terrorism around the globe. This sent a clear message of weakness to our allies in the Middle East and will only benefit Iran – the world’s premier funder of terrorism.
 

4. Kowtowing to China: Mr. Biden has consistently failed to stand up to China, our single biggest competitor. We know that the Chinese Communist Party intentionally withheld information about the spread of the COVID-19 virus as early as December of 2019. And are watching andf waiting in the wings, watching what is happening in Ukraine. And you better believe they are salivating over the prospect of invading the island of Taiwan.
 

5. Mr. Biden is responsible for leading a completely confused vaccine messaging campaign at the federal level, and further polarizing the country over vaccines by consistently demonizing Republican governors who didn’t toe federal lines – even when Republican states were experiencing fewer COVID-19 deaths than states with Democratic governors with extreme restrictions and higher infection rates.
 

6. Surrender at the Southern Border: Mr. Biden has overseen the most porous, permissive, and lawless U.S.-Mexico border in generations. In July, illegal crossings at the southern border hit a 21-year high. This is remarkable, as border crossings typically drop off in the summer because the desert heat becomes dangerous. At the same time, deportations of illegal immigrants are at a record low. Mr. Biden has essentially surrendered the southern border to whoever wants to come in – including drug dealers, human traffickers, potential terrorists, and other violent criminals. The U.S. Border Patrol is deeply demoralized, and Americans are less safe. Thankfully, the U.S. Supreme Court is beginning to roll back some of Mr. Biden’s disastrous decisions and forcing it to re-implement measures that work – such as President Trump’s remain in Mexico policy.
 

7.Betrayal at the Border: I mention this as a separate failure because it is so dramatic and dismissive of Americans’ safety. Mr. Biden has allowed record numbers of people to illegally cross the border and stay in America during a global pandemic without any requirement that they are tested for COVID-19 or quarantined before going wherever they want. President Biden and Democrats impose strong restrictions on Americans in the name of defeating the virus, but they impose nothing on the people who are illegally entering the country. This is one of the clearest examples of the contempt this administration and national Democrats have for the American people. It is a complete betrayal.
 

8. Bankrupting America: Just when American jobs were beginning to be revived following the global pandemic, Mr. Biden has reinstituted regulations that make it harder to hire people and suggested an $8 trillion spending plan – including $1 trillion in non-infrastructure infrastructure projects and another $3.5 trillion in liberal pipedreams. It is as if he is intentionally reliving the disastrous Jimmy Carter presidency. Mr. Biden’s rabid spending will not create jobs. It will continue to hike inflation, weaken the U.S. dollar, weaken Americans’ retirement accounts, and lead the Democrats to instinctively try to raise taxes. He is doing everything he possibly can to hamstring the economy and keep us in the pandemic depression.  

9. Surrendering in Afghanistan: Of course, the most recent and glaring example of Mr. Biden’s failure is his disastrous surrender and withdrawal from Afghanistan. His decision to pull all our military forces out and surrender our most effective evacuation facility (Bagram Airfield) before safely evacuating American civilians and civil servants is a quintessential example of how and why he is incapable of leading America. It forced Biden to then recommit twice as many American soldiers to the evacuation effort as were there before we left (and created a much more dangerous environment). On Thursday, we learned that suicide bombers killed more than 60 people, including 13 U.S. service members, and injured many more at the airport in Kabul. These are the first American service members to be killed by enemies in Afghanistan in the last 18 months. Mr. Biden’s failure in Afghanistan is now unfortunately deeply real to at least 13 more American families. He should be ashamed of himself.
 

10. Failing to Surrender his Ego: The last and greatest of Mr. Biden’s failures is his inability to acknowledge his own incompetence. Throughout this process, I have been unable to find a single positive thing Mr. Biden has done for Americans. He continues to implement and impose his failures on our nation. It costs Americans their jobs, their peace of mind, and now their lives. Again, I wonder: How much more of this can we take?
 

To conclude, may I myself add, let's not forget rapid inflation. That affects us all. The price of everything keeps  going up, up and away like a Fifth Dimension song...but not in a beautiful balloon. But in a deflated, rapid, nose dive crash, in the ugly devaluing of the American currency. And with the current War (and that is what it is, a WAR!) in the Ukraine, cutting off the 10 percent use of Russian oil in the US has caused ever rising gas prices (which had been rising before the Russian War with Ukraine) and are rising even more day by day. And who knows where that will end. (buying petroleum from Venezuel or even Iran??!! WHAT!)  When we have plenty ready and waiting in our own country? Now that's a definition of that democrat, socialist, marxist, insane mind set. Oh by the way, some predicting 10 dollars a gallon. OUCH! (already saw 7.59 in Ca) 
 

But here's some good news. The over all job market showed  a shockingly big rise of 467,000  in January U.S. nonfarm payrolls. (so they say?) Just one problem. With the rising price of gasoline people aren't or won't be  able to afford to commute to their jobs....or anywhere else for that matter to buy anything....they may not be able to afford it anyway.... for it's costing farmers more to grow their crops and feed their cattle...and more to get the farmers goods to us,  as Truck Drivers are paying 600 or 700 dollars to fill their tanks...And that means prices rising day by day for all those groceries and other various items that we have become accustomed to. And where it stops nobody knows.  So as Samuel L. Jackson, in Steven Spielberg's 1993 science fiction adventure film “Jurassic Park,”  said, "Hold on to your butts." 

And finally We showed  the world we were not willing to be a leader when we pulled out of Afganistan the way Biden did it. Leaving over 85 billion dollars of American weapons and vehicles and leaving behind Afgans who were loyal to us (showing the world America can not be trusted as an ally) and even  leaving  some  Americans behind  (some of whom  have since been rescued by non-military sources)  in a hasty retreat. (it's not that we pulled out but how it was accomplished)
 

This showed  nations like Russia and China that now is their time to rise up and take, by force if necessary, that is take over being the world's leader with communism as its doctrinal persuasion. That dour, repressive totalitartian system (Gee the squad will love this!) in  control of and determining everyones life for them. Freedom be damned. The middle class be damned. Democracy be damned. And in Putin's eyes especially the Republic of these United States of America be damned.  Hammer and sickle time in the land of the free and home of the brave. Submit or die.
 

And to think Biden accomplished this  in only a year! Three more to go. Heck, better brush up on your language skills in Russian and Chinese. You may need them. For it appears the world and America will never be the same again.