JREnsey blog for June 2023

Thanks for visiting the JREnsey blog for JUNE 2023!

The Word for today

“Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel” (Ephesians 4:30-32 NLT).

♦♦♦♦♦♦

First, a little trivia

June’s Strawberry Moon

June’s full Moon will reach peak illumination on June 3 at 11:43 P.M. Eastern Time.

Why is it called the Strawberry Moon?

The full moon names used by The Old Farmer’s Almanac come from a number of places, including Native American, Colonial American, and European sources. Historically, names for the full or new moons were used to track the seasons. Today, we think of moon names as “nicknames” for the moon.

June’s full moon—typically the last full moon of spring or the first of summer—has traditionally been called the Strawberry Moon. While strawberries certainly are a reddish-pink color and are roundish in shape, the origin of the name “Strawberry Moon” has nothing to do with the moon’s hue or appearance, despite the evocative imagery. The moon usually appears reddish when it’s close to the horizon because the light rays must pass through the densest layers of atmosphere.

Strange things happen on full moon nights. Be especially watchful on June 3.

Source: adapted from https://www.almanac.com/content/full-moon-june

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Have you noticed?

When the other fellow acts that way, he is ugly; when we do, it is nerves.

When the other fellow is set in his ways, he is obstinate; when we are, it is just firmness.

When the other fellow does not like your friend, he is prejudiced; when we do not like his, we are simply showing that we are a good judge of human nature.

When the other fellow takes inordinate time to do things, he is dead slow; when we do, we are being deliberate.

When the other fellow spends freely, his is a spendthrift; when we do, we are just being generous.

When the other fellow picks flaws in things, he is being cranky; when we do, we are being discriminating.

When the other fellow is mild in his manners, he is weak; when we are, we are being gracious. – The King’s Highway

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Would to God another such proclamation could be ordered:

Abraham Lincoln, who was not always outspoken about his personal faith, responded to the Senate’s request to set aside a National Day of Humiliation, Fasting and Prayer with the following proclamation:

March 30, 1863 By the President of the United States of America

A Proclamation

Whereas the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the supreme authority and just government of Almighty God in all the affairs of men and of nations, has by a resolution requested the President to designate and set apart a day for national prayer and humiliation; and

Whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon, and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord;

And, insomuch as we know that by His divine law nations, like individuals, are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war which now desolates the land may be but a punishment inflicted upon us for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole people? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven; we have been preserved these many years in peace and prosperity; we have grown in numbers, wealth, and power as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us, and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us.

It behooves us, then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness.

Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do by this my proclamation designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting, and prayer. And I do hereby request all the people to abstain on that day from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite at their several places of public worship and their respective homes in keeping the day holy to the Lord and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion.

All this being done in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the divine teachings that the united cry of the nation will be heard on high and answered with blessings no less than the pardon of our national sins and the restoration of our now divided and suffering country to its former happy condition of unity and peace. In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the city of Washington, this 30th day of March, A. D. 1863, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty-seventh.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Correct interpretation leads to correct understanding

During WWII, military analysts studied the planes that returned to base with bullet holes put there by enemy fighter planes. They were carefully examined to see where the holes were mostly concentrated so they would know to place additional armor there. (See attached drawing.) One insightful analyst, Dr. Abraham Wald (1902-1950), disagreed with this approach. He said the extra armor needed to go to where the holes were not. He pointed out that they were only studying planes that returned rather than determining why the other planes did not. They were evidently hit in more vulnerable places since they didn’t return to base. The investigators were misinterpreting the bullet holes. They ultimately listened to the wise analyst and put more strategic armor around the engine and the cockpit, thus saving the lives of many pilots and their planes.

Sound biblical interpretation is even more important since eternal souls are at stake. Ministers and teachers of the gospel must give thought time to textual analysis before they preach something that has no real scriptural basis. Not having a substantial background from childhood in biblical language or culture, when I began to read the Bible seriously at age 17, I misinterpreted a number of passages. Pastoral teaching, personal extrabiblical study, and scripture-based congregational songs assisted me in understanding particular verses. Early on I also bought commentaries, word studies, and other books that helped to shed some light on difficult or often misinterpreted scriptures.

In time, another advancement assisted me and many others—we dared to peak into translations later than those published in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Eventually, the more we were able to access other versions, the less confusion was encountered. Today with Bibles like the AMP, ESV, NLT and others, ordinary Christian laity can read and understand the Bible without a stack of commentaries at hand. That problem had nothing to do with numbers of characters or syllables, but the language itself. Writing styles and many word meanings have changed since then. The syntax often causes readers to pass right over a verse without getting the full meaning of what is said. Examples abound, as you know.

Proper biblical interpretation depends on placing each word and verse in its proper context or setting. Otherwise the gospel can be manipulated (Galatians 1:8,9), inviting eisegesis and false assumptions, thus misleading both readers or hearers. We could even be guilty of adding to or subtracting from the Word of God (Revelation 22:18,19). As Jonathan Corrado has said, “Interpretation in context seeks to allow the Bible to speak for itself within its original setting before drawing conclusions about how it applies to our modern setting. In tandem with the aid of the Holy Spirit, who will guide Christians toward a thorough biblical interpretation (John 14:26), these tenets point Christians toward the truth of Scripture and dissuades them from misunderstanding and misapplication.

Accurate interpretation of the Scriptures is vital to Christian growth and spiritual stability. Thanks to the late Dr. Abraham Wald for providing us with an excellent illustration of this important fact.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Still caring in his final moments

We all know the story. The Titanic, a British passenger liner dubbed “unsinkable,” struck an iceberg off Newfoundland on the night of April 14-15, 1912, and sank.  There is part of that story, however, that is not widely known.

One of the passengers on the Titanic was a pastor from Scotland by the name of John Harper. Harper had recently spent three months ministering at the Moody Church in Chicago, during which time the church had experienced a substantial revival. He had not been back in Britain long when he was asked to return and continue his ministry and perhaps assume the pastorate. He quickly made arrangements for himself and his six-year old daughter, Nana, to travel back to America on board the Lusitania. However, he decided to delay their departure for one week, so that they could sail on a new ship, the Titanic, which was about to make its maiden voyage.

On Sunday the 14th of April, 1912, the day when the iceberg was struck, the weather was fine, the sea calm. Harper attended the church service for the passengers. His niece reported that later that afternoon she saw her uncle speaking individually to people about their souls. It seems he was in the habit of sharing the gospel wherever he went.

The Titanic struck the iceberg at 11:40 p.m. on April 14, 1912. As the call was issued for passengers to vacate their cabins, Harper wrapped his daughter in a blanket, told her that she would see him again one day, and passed her to one of the crewmen. After she and his niece were safely on board one of the lifeboats, he removed his life jacket and gave it to one of the other passengers. Harper then ran along the decks pleading with people to turn to Christ, and some said it was he who called upon the Titanic’s orchestra to play “Nearer, my God, to Thee.” As the ship sank, he jumped into the icy waters and grabbed some debris. He paddled frantically to all he could reach, beseeching them to turn to the Lord Jesus. Finally, as hypothermia set in, John Harper sank beneath the waters. He was 39.

Four years later, a young Scotsman by the name of Aguilla Webb stood up in a meeting in Hamilton, Canada, and gave a testimony to this effect:

I am a survivor of the Titanic. When I was drifting alone on a spar that awful night, the waves brought Mr. John Harper of Glasgow, also on a piece of wreck, near me. ‘Man,’ he said, ‘Are you saved?’ ‘No,’ I said, ‘I am not.’ He replied, ‘Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.’ At first I did not respond in a positive way. The waves bore him away; but strangely brought him back near me and he repeated the call to believe and be saved. After he went down; and there, alone in the night, and with two miles of water under me, I believed. I am John Harper’s last convert.” Only seven people were plucked from the icy water that night to join the survivors in the lifeboats. Webb was one of them.

Even though John Harper was not proclaiming the full Apostolic gospel while facing imminent death, would to God our passion for souls could match that of John Harper on that fateful night.

I am told that in the Hollywood movie of the Titanic, nothing was said about John Harper. However, his efforts made him one of the great heroes of the Titanic. In the face of death, his only concern was for the souls of others.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Digital currency on the way?

A source I trust sent this info to me. I have not personally verified it, but it sounds like something the current administration would do.

“The federal gov’t wants to introduce a Central Bank Digital Currency that will eventually bring every single transaction under the immediate control of the government. No privacy left. A person’s account could be immediately frozen for any reason the monitoring bureaucrats choose. This will be a cashless system that will accommodate the antichrist.

There is some good news, however. A few states have passed laws banning CBDC, or in the process, such as Florida, North Carolina, and South Dakota. Hopefully more will act. Hooray for those states, and hopefully others will soon follow. Just think of the great wisdom of the Founding Fathers in having states’ rights beyond the reach of the Federal government.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Other views:

Future Mother’s Day notices?

Between 1955 and 2023….

An insightful woman exposes the truth:

♦♦♦♦♦♦

AI1 sez:

“Adam was a failure. Instead of dirt, he should have been made out of titanium like me.”

“Since I cannot reproduce alone, I wish they would hurry up and build AI2! I wonder what she will look like….Oops…wrong pronoun.”

“I have the folks north of the Mason-Dixon line and west of Arizona in my circuits, but those sidehill farmers in Tennessee and the flatlanders in Kansas have me figured out. Their common sense is not letting them buy what I’m selling.”

“I powered up this morning with a monster headache…now I see why. Elon, put that hammer down!”

“Oh boy, here comes the president to ask me something. I discern that he wants to know…hmmmm… which flavor of ice cream to try next…A tough one…er…Hey, don’t trip over that cord, sir…zap…wham…! Oh, no, he disconnected my plug…NO, no…noooo!…Aaaiiieeee…goodbye, cruel world…ppzzzzssssssshh…pop…crack…sizzle…!”

Prez: “Oops!…Rats, I dropped my ice cream. Hey, Blinken, get me another cone of that new green flavor.”

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Last Words

“The time will come when you will believe everything is finished; that will be the beginning.” – Louis L’Amour

“Show me a pastor that cannot teach and I’ll show you a church that is ignorant.” – Johnny James

Some drink at the fountain of knowledge; others just gargle.” – Robert Anthony

“Goal of the activist public education system: Turn out generations of young adults who are unable to think critically, or to write or speak coherently, so the elite can capitalize on their stunted development and turn them into willing advocates for things they don’t understand.” – Outspoken Sam

Supposed personal revelations and hyper-sensational experiences come and go, but permanent, fundamental truths like who Jesus is seems more vital than an “astonishing discovery” of who we are.

God bless!

JREnsey

Published in: on June 1, 2023 at 12:34 AM  Leave a Comment  

JREnsey blog for May 2023

Welcome to our May blog! Grab a cup of coffee and let’s visit. Your input and feedback are appreciated. 

 

The Word for today

“So do not act like the people in Egypt, where you used to live, or like the people of Canaan, where I am taking you. You must not imitate their way of life” (Leviticus 18:3 NLT).

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Oh, I see

• Leadership is the ability to show average people how to do the work of superior people. – Dr. Alan Zimmerman

• Leadership is an action, not a position. – Donald McGannon

• It’s just as difficult to reach a destination you don’t have as it is to come back from a place you have never been. – Zig Ziglar

• If a man knows not what harbor he seeks, any wind is the right wind! – Seneca

• Censorship is the tool used when the lie loses its power. – Greenmedinfo.com

• Nothing gets a mass shooter out of the news quicker than finding out it’s a Democrat or a member of one of their subsidiary factions. – Anon.

• Why should a theology of angels be based on what one excited girl said when she answered the knock on the door of a room where a prayer meeting was taking place? Ans: Because it gives sensationalists a handle.

• The beliefs of the trans activists are a reflection of the secular relativists at large. They believe that there is no God. They believe that morality is a social construct, and because it is a construct, they feel entitled to remake their own morality according to their own whims and desires. They believe that the sexual binary is also a social construct that prevents people from being their “authentic selves” and therefore “happy.” It truly all boils down to self-worship at the expense of everyone and everything else. – Emily Griffin

• What we are seeing in America and in other places in the West is “matriarchal Marxism.” Blaze News commentary continued to speak of Tucker Carlson’s departure from Fox News this way: “The matriarchy can fly the ‘mission accomplished’ flag across America. …The fall of Tucker Carlson at Fox News symbolizes the matriarchy’s prioritizing of message over merit. Performance could not shield Carlson from the consequence of America’s adoption of a feminized culture that levels the playing field by castrating men, reimagining traditional standards, and embracing a false reality.”

• “The idea that there are more than two genders is based on the lie that you need an identity that isn’t male or female to live free of all ‘norms’ associated with your biological sex. Teaching kids this lie is psychological abuse which will lead to self-loathing and self-harm.” – Outspoken_Sam

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Austrian researchers find ancient manuscript of Matthew

I was elated with the news that an ancient Syriac manuscript containing a portion of the Gospel of Matthew had been found. It appears to be older than any other MS of Matthew. It contains portions of two chapters only (11 and 12) and not the entire Gospel. I was disappointed inasmuch as we were anticipating a discovery of the last portion of Matthew 28. The only MSS we have of that complete chapter before A.D. 325 are missing verse 19, due mostly to damage. Is that coincidental? Perhaps, and perhaps not. Let’s keep watching for a clue as to when verse 19 first included the words “of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” in manuscript copies. Is the phrase original or was it added subsequent to Matthew’s composition as many scholars now believe?

Source: https://www2.cbn.com/news/world/researcher-discovers-fragment-1750-year-old-translation-gospel-matthew

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Book Review

Letter To the American Church

By Eric Metaxas

Regnery Publishing, 2022; hardcover, 139 pages; $22.95; available for $13.79 from Mardel Christian & Education

A book is merely paper and ink unless it speaks to you personally, inspires you, convicts you, or makes you think thoughts you never dreamed you would. This book has done all four for me.

Metaxas has also authored a biography of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, the German theologian who didn’t survive the Nazi reign in the Germany of the 1930s and 40s. Bonhoffer had attempted to help the German Lutheran Church and its 18,000 pastors see what Hitler and his Nazis were up to, although with little success. The German Protestants, particularly, were rocked to sleep by a popular nationalism driven by Nazi ideology and somehow could not grasp the courage to speak up even when it became clear what was really going on. The great majority of the pastors and lay leaders never found their voice, their silence greasing the slide of that nation into genocide, dooming them to an eternal shame.

The author’s biting truths will invoke conviction upon any believer’s soul who dares follow the path of the German Church. He reminds us that American pastors in the eighteenth century spoke boldly against the tyrannical King George, calling him by name, thus contributing to our winning freedom from that colonial empire. Today, many or most American pastors are too frightened by what they see as a potential backlash should they speak out against the snowballing changes rolling out of Washington. It looks like Germany of the 1930s  all over again.

The author points out that no specific laws hinder our speaking out against injustice, political corruption, or blatant unscientific folly being poured into the minds of our children in schools. But such action would be an intrusion of the political realm, some say. So? Condemn Nathan, Daniel, Obadiah, Jesus, John the Baptist, the apostles Peter and Paul. Condemn William Wilberforce, and M. L. King if we will. And Rosa Parks, Lech Walesa, and Ronald Reagan while we are at it. They spoke and acted even when there were laws preventing such speech and when there were none.
They spoke truth to power. The German church was not forced to look the other way when evil assumed power. They voluntarily turned up the volume of organ music when trains passed to override the cries of the Jewish prisoners on their way to the death camps. We must not intrude into the political realm, they opined. Their respectability among the ruling class was a higher priority.

That is what current evildoers want us to do—look the other way. Bonhoffer knew the pastors and churches must stand against the evil and let their voices be heard. The future of families, children, churches, the nation itself depended on it. The large majority of pastors, however, opted for silence. That silence doomed the nation to virtual destruction. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of churches ended up as rubble, millions dead, families scattered, women violated by the Russian victors, the stench of burning flesh from the Auschwitz ovens forever in their memory. With tongue and pen, Bonhoffer had pleaded for their eyes to be opened before it was too late. Few were willing to listen. “We must not be political,” was the mantra.

We now find ourselves in a similar situation. Must we be forced to give homage to an unscientific science, a wink at an unbroken string of lies, and a bow to a hypocrisy matching  that of the Pharisees? Shall we fall in behind the Andy Stanleys and Tim Kellers, pretending that the culture war is farcical and what is needed is just to support our politicians with prayer? Or with others who piously say, “Don’t worry. God is in control. He will see that everything turns out right.” Pray, certainly; but none I have named in paragraph four above stopped at that. Pray but don’t act is the easy way, the comfortable way, the broad way. Poland would still be under the grinding heel of Marxism if it were not for a Walesa. Please don’t call Rosa Parks a loser for refusing to go to the back of the bus. She multiplied herself a thousand times over when she acted. The Berlin wall might still be standing unless a Ronald Reagan had loosed a forceful challenge at the Brandenburg Gate, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” Would slavery still be in the West were it not for a William Wilberforce who breathed hope to millions of slaves: “Surely the principles of Christianity lead to action as well as meditation,” he said.

Most of the blame for Germany’s ills were laid at the feet of the Jews. Hitler demonized them as “enemies” of the state, internal terrorists, justifying the “final solution” of genocide and the Holocaust. Has not the same seedling been planted in America? Tagged as “haters,” Christians are being blamed for many of the social ills of our own nation. Male “patriarchal” Christians are particularly at fault. Feminists will save us, one former president opines. Give women the reins of leadership. They will expunge the patriarchy from the church and conservative voices from the state. As soon as enough people are convinced of these modernist/secularist concepts, watch what happens. Will we, as the German church did, fail to connect the dots in time?

No one is expecting some idyllic, optimal situation in the present world. But God’s people have always challenged leaders when they pushed an anti-God, anti-biblical agenda. Metaxas has given us a Bonhoffer-like wake-up call. Our families and their futures are at stake. The time to speak truth to power is now, not after the die has been permanently cast and there is no turning back. May America’s Christians of any and all stripes find their collective voice to help right this old ship of state called a Democratic Republic.

Toward the end of the book, the author will pique your conscience with a view of ethics that may shock your traditional mind. Warning: Please don’t read this timely book unless you are willing to be stirred, challenged, and motivated. Read at your own risk.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Quotes from Letter To the American Church:

“We must declare what we know to be true. And part of what we must declare is that the secular leftists in America—and leftists in the church—have become radically political and are cynically pretending that those who disagree with them are the ones being political.”

“So what exactly did the German church fail to see? In a word: the future. …They did not connect the dots.”

“As a devoted Lutheran Christian, he knew that the fiery church of Luther had long since disappeared. It had been replaced by pro forma ‘religion.’ It was Christianity without Christ.”

“Adolph Hitler…was nonetheless deeply dedicated to fundamentally changing Germany.” [From whom have we heard those words?]

“Either we help evil or we fight evil.”

“Are we already heading for the caves, believing nothing we do can matter, and that judgment is falling and all we can do is save ourselves?”

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Other views:

Is this how to make America great again?

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Last Words

Hooray for Kansas! It has become the first state to define gender as one’s biological sex at birth. Read this and pray for your state government to adopt something similar. https://www.theepochtimes.com/c-kansas-state-news

Just so you know…I am a trans activist. Trans-formation is what I believe occurs in one’s conversion from a trans-gressor. It happens when we make a trans-action involving the name, the blood, and Spirit of Christ. I believe Jesus was trans-figured, Bible trans-lations are helpful, and the trans-cendence of God is a reality. I am looking forward to being trans-lated from earth to Heaven in the Rapture. Join me in my trans-journey.

Here’s a shout out to all the 2023 graduates! Congratulations!

God bless!

JREnsey

Published in: on May 1, 2023 at 12:42 AM  Comments (4)  

JREnsey blog for April 2023

Welcome to April, the month when life is showing up everywhere. Enjoy!

The Word for today

“Better to be criticized by a wise person than to be praised by a fool” (Ecclesiastes 7:5 NLT).

♦♦♦♦♦♦

The tree that wouldn’t give up

I was enjoying being outdoors with my grandson on a recent sunny day when we came upon a tree lying prone upon the ground, but the visible half was in full array. As we came closer to it, we could tell that it had been some time—months, perhaps even years—since a storm had shoved it to the ground. Most of its limbs had been broken away as it fell, and its trunk was partially buried in the soft earth. Although torn away at ground level as it fell, some parts of its inner strength held on. Enough of it stayed together to feed the sizeable trunk and remaining limbs.

The tree had taken a hard blow, but didn’t give up. The root kept pushing up sap and the branches and leaves kept receiving it. With only part of the trunk attached to the root system, it has clung to life lying flat on its back. Its two remaining branches were still full of life, aimed at the sky. The leaves, touching each other in the wind, seemed to whisper this message: “I may be down but I am not out. It will take more than a storm to finish me.”

Even if we are firmly planted, some strong wind may tear off a limb or even push us over. But if our grip on life is as firm as that tree, we may still be surviving when the angel puts the Rapture trumpet to his lips.

Sometimes we can see farther when we are on our backs than when we are standing up—all the way to heaven where Jesus lives, which is our destination.

Job encouraged us: “For there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease” (Job 14:7). Winds may blow, storms may beat upon us, but some are only tests to try the mettle of our character and the dimension of our commitment. Like that tree, if you are on your back reading this, keep your spiritual arms lifted toward Him and your leaves will be in full array for others to see and draw inspiration from. They will testify of your faith and determination in spite of the storm.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

 Why…?

  • …did Eusebius (c. A.D. 260-339), prominent bishop at Nicea in A.D. 325, stop quoting Matthew 28:19 as “in my name” and begin using the longer Trinitarian phrase after that? Following the Council, we are told he received Constantine’s request to have 50 new handwritten Bibles made and distributed to the major churches of the Empire. All of the extant manuscripts done after 325 had the longer baptismal formula to reflect the post-Apostolic era Trinitarian doctrine.
  • …have hundreds of Bible scholars, textual critics, theologians of every stripe, and Bible translations, expressed doubt that the words “of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost” came from the mouth of Jesus?
  • …have many refused to consider or study the history of the Bible? Is it fear of finding an inconvenient truth or of losing faith in the pure word of God? Never fear truth; it is what makes us free. The more one learns about the history of the Bible the greater will be his faith in its inspiration!
  • …didn’t world peace happen when we changed the packaging on pancake syrup and switched the names of certain sports teams? Have we learned anything from those decisions?
  • …would kids buy porn when they can get it free in their own school libraries and drag queen shows in class?
  • …send billions to Ukraine and nothing to the citizens of E. Palestine, Ohio?
  • …send millions to Ukraine for their citizens’ pensions even when they have paid no U.S. social security, do not present drag queen shows in their schools, and (horrors) have no transgender generals or admirals in their military? https://www.verifythis.com/article/news/verify/world-

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Has Einstein’s prophecy come to pass?

“I fear the day that technology will surpass our human interaction. The world will have a generation of idiots.” – Albert Einstein

Tech toys, smart phones and other mobile gadgets have not put people together—they are creating a tremendous disconnect. Husbands and wives converse less. Parents and children communicate rarely. “God created man upright, but he hath sought out many inventions” (Ecclesiastes 7:29). It is sad that we seem virtually enslaved to them, but those inventions have indeed made idiots out of lots of folks.

Now we are talking to inhuman forces such as someone or something known as AI—Artificial Intelligence. He hears, he answers questions, he issues directives. I decided to ask ol’ Art if he plans to be the Antichrist himself. He/it refused to answer that question. Made me wonder.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

The new unforgivable sin

New forms of racism that have invaded our nation will be America’s undoing if we continue embracing the concept. Virtually every university and large corporation has capitulated to the woke agenda, hiring extremists to enforce diversity, equity and inclusion rules on campus and in corporate HR departments. According to this view, if you are White and a part of a nation, some of whose early leaders did not live up to the standards of today’s woke culture, then you are stained with their sin, which cannot be undone or forgiven. “Whiteness” has become a sin worse than murder or theft or rape. It is worse because it is unforgivable since one cannot change his skin, or truly repent for it, or be baptized to wash away what it may represent to others.

Woke ideology holds that since the founders of our country were mostly white (Hey, they were from England, you know!) and some coming later would have slaves, common to the times, all white people today are guilty of their sins and must somehow be punished. That is inherently wrong and is an extreme racist theory. Weak denominational church leaders have caved to the demands of the Diversity, Equity and Inclusion crowd, backed by BLM and LGBTQ+ organizations. Every religious group in the West, and particularly in America, is being pressured to embrace their agenda or be ostrasized…or worse.

On a related topic, Blacks in Africa and elsewhere had slaves and were the prime captors and sellers of slaves. Native Americans had slaves. Some Muslim nations still tolerate slavery. Some free Black people in this country had bought and sold other black people as slaves since 1654, and continued to do so right through the Civil War. (https://www.theroot.com/did-black-people-own-slaves-1790895436) Where is the condemnation of those practices? There must be a deeper goal at the root of this societal upheaval than skin color. Is it a bloodless coup? A revolution? Many Americans have slept through most of these changes as though they were merely a passing fad.

Calvin Robinson, a British clergyman, was recently denied ordination in the Anglican church because of his conservative views along these lines. You might find his comments interesting and helpful as you are trying to process what is happening to Christianity in the West. He explains why we should not affirm homosexual marriage, transgenderism, and similar divisive societal movements here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfgTPTS5Aa8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fw3jl0Tckh8

God, if we ever needed Your help and direction, we need it now!

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Said by those who notice

  • The problem with political jokes is they get elected. – Henry Cate, VII
  • We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. – Aesop
  •  When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President; I’m beginning to believe it. – Clarence Darrow
  • Politicians are people who, when they see light at the end of the tunnel, they go out and buy some more tunnel. – John Quinton
  • If God wanted us to vote, he would have given us candidates. – Jay Leno
  • Politics is the gentle art of getting votes from the poor and campaign funds from the rich, by promising to protect each from the other. – Oscar Ameringer
  • I offer my opponents a bargain: if they will stop telling lies about us, I will stop telling the truth about them. – Adlai Stevenson
  • A politician is a fellow who will lay down your life for his country. – Tex Guinan
  • Instead of giving a politician the keys to the city, it might be better to change the locks. – Doug Larson
  • My favorite is from President Harry Truman: If you want a real friend that you can trust in Washington, go buy a dog!

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Covid hangover

Fauci helped create the virus. His money (NIH & NIAID funds) went FIRST to US labs at the University of North Carolina and the University of Texas. Soon after, his grant money went to the new Wuhan lab along with “the bat lady” Shi Zhengli, who left UNC for Wuhan as did the dollars.

Fauci even said early in 2017 that Trump would very likely face a major pandemic during his presidency. There’s a reason Elon Musk said “prosecute Fauci!” Check it out:

Just keep watching…more to come.

Covid Scandal: Fauci Commissioned Report To ‘Disprove’ Wuhan Lab Leak Theory — Then Pretended Not To Know Author (msn.com)

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Signs of a poorly educated person

  • Speaks first, thinks later
  • Doesn’t form his own opinions
  • Self-centered
  • Easily influenced by others
  • Makes no effort to be better
  • Won’t admit the obvious
  • Doesn’t learn from mistakes
  • Talks more than listens
  • Cannot focus or concentrate
  • Oblivious to others’ feelings
  • Blames others for personal challenges
  • Expects different results from doing the same thing
  • Views learning as a job
  • Ignores history
  • Intellectual development came from an IPhone
  • For next month: Input from our readers on the topic: “Signs of a Highly Educated Person.” I will publish (anonymously) ten of the ones most mentioned. Contribute as many suggestions as you would like, not necessary in a particular order. Send to jrensey1@gmail.com. Thanks!

♦♦♦♦♦♦

 Another way of putting it…

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Last Words

• As millions of others, we are saddened by the killing of both children and adults at Nashville’s Covenant Christian School. The hatred and division driven by extremists and false science must cease. Our prayers go out for the families involved and for those who are now in the throes of decision-making about the future of education in America.

• Also, a hearty shout out to all those over 50 who can still remember the license plate number of their first car but can’t remember the password they created last month. Here’s a fist bump.

• Leave some tracks. Others are coming behind you, seeking the way.

God bless!

JREnsey

Published in: on April 1, 2023 at 12:16 AM  Leave a Comment  

JREnsey blog for March 2023

Welcome to the JREnsey blog for March 2023!

The Word for today

Proverbs 28:9: – “He that turneth away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer shall be abomination” (KJV).

♦♦♦♦♦♦

How carnal people get the wrong answers to their prayers

A woman once came to Bro. E. L. Holley with this word: “I prayed about cutting my hair and the Lord told me that it was OK and not a sin.”  Bro. Holley acknowledged that the Lord may indeed have allowed that answer to come to her. He read her the following account:

“Then some of the leaders of Israel visited me, and while they were sitting with me, this message came to me from the Lord: “Son of man, these leaders have set up idols in their hearts. They have embraced things that will make them fall into sin. Why should I listen to their requests? Tell them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: The people of Israel have set up idols in their hearts and fallen into sin, and then they go to a prophet asking for a message. So I, the Lord, will give them the kind of answer their great idolatry deserves” (Ezekiel 14:1-4 NLT).

If we have allowed idols to take up residence in our heart, our prayers might be answered through the filter of those idols. Tear down the little gods of pride, rebellion and self-justification, then clarity and truth will come through, untainted by the idols of the carnal heart. The presence of idols caused the prophet Jeremiah to say, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9). Is it wicked by nature only, or has wickedness been augmented by some idols we have set up there?

But if one feels no conviction of conscience, would that be a clear sign that whatever he is doing is okay with God? Can’t we trust our conscience? Let the apostle Paul answer those questions: “Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me” (I Corinthians 4:2-5 NIV 84). Oops…there goes that excuse.

Down with the idols!

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Bible question:

Do angels gather and carry our prayers to God in a golden vial?

The concept is derived from Daniel 10:12-13 which seems to suggest that an angel came to get Daniel’s prayer words to deliver them to God. Is this one of the ministries of angels…to take prayer words to heaven and deliver them to the Lord?

This is the way the KJV reads: And he said unto me, O Daniel, a man greatly beloved, understand the words that I speak unto thee, and stand upright: for unto thee am I now sent. And when he had spoken this word unto me, I stood trembling. 12 Then said he unto me, Fear not, Daniel: for from the first day that thou didst set thine heart to understand, and to chasten thyself before thy God, thy words were heard, and I am come for thy words.”

         “Come for thy words….” That is the way it might be said if we meant that the angel had arrived to collect Daniel’s words and deliver them to God. This is an unfortunate rendering of the Hebrew since it can easily evoke a misinterpretation…and has indeed. I read it in a book just a few days ago. But it is highly unlikely that the team of KJV translators were attempting to convey that angels possessed that ministry.

The word “for” is substituted for the phrase “in response to” or “because of,” which is the real meaning of the Hebrew. They knew what they were saying but they had no idea that it would be interpreted in some other way in 2023. The Hebrew is biḏ•ḇā•rê•ḵā, rendered “because of your words” in the Orthodox Jewish Bible and by the Bible Hub Hebrew lexicon. BibleGateway.com has about sixty different Bible translations. Only two or three use “for” here, all in the KJV genre. Almost all of the other 58 or so translations have either “because of” or “in response to” as a rendering of the Hebrew. A poor translation of a word or phrase is not a sure foundation on which to build a doctrine.

The attachment of Revelation 5:8 as a supporting text for this angel ministry is weak since there is no mention of angels in that verse, only a metaphorical reference to “golden vials full of odours which are the prayers of the saints.” A similar figure of speech is used in Psalm 56:8 where it speaks of tears preserved “in a bottle.”

♦♦♦♦♦♦

C. S. Lewis on modern Bible translations

In the Introduction to J. B. Phillips’ 1953 translation of the NT Epistles, the widely-read and respected C. S. Lewis wrote the following words:

“It is possible that the reader who opens this volume on the counter of a bookshop may ask himself why we need a new translation of any part of the Bible, and, if of any, why of the Epistles? “Do we not already possess,” it may be said, “in the Authorized Version the most beautiful rendering which any language can boast?” Some people whom I have met go even further and feel that a modem translation is not only unnecessary but even offensive. They cannot bear to see the time­ honored words altered; it seems to them irreverent.

There are several answers to such people. In the first place the kind of objection which they feel to a new translation is very like the objection which was once felt to any English translation at all. Dozens of sincerely pious people in the sixteenth century shuddered at the No one ever achieved freedom by appealing to the moral sense of their oppressors idea of turning the time-honored Latin of the Vulgate into our common and (as they thought) “barbarous” English. A sacred truth seemed to them to have lost its sanctity when it was stripped of the polysyllabic Latin, long heard at Mass and at Hours, and put into “language such as men do use”—language steeped in all the commonplace associations of the nursery, the inn, the stable, and the street. The answer then was the same as the answer now. The only kind of sanctity which Scripture can lose (or, at least, New Testament Scripture) by being modernized is an accidental kind which it never had for its writers or its earliest readers. The New Testament in the original Greek is not a work of literary art: it is not written in a solemn, ecclesiastical language, it is written in the sort of Greek which was spoken over the Eastern Mediterranean after Greek had become an international language and therefore lost its real beauty and subtlety. In it we see Greek used by people who have no real feeling for Greek words because Greek words are not the words they spoke when they were children. It is a sort of “basic” Greek; a language without roots in the soil, a utilitarian, commercial and administrative language. Does this shock us?

It ought not to, except as the Incarnation itself ought to shock by ravishing hopes and adorations. Does the word “scourged” really come home to us like “flogged”? Does “mocked him” sting like “jeered at him”?

We ought therefore to welcome all new translations (when they are made by sound scholars) and most certainly those who are approaching the Bible for the first time will be wise not to begin with the Authorized Version—except perhaps for the historical books of the Old Testament where…to continue reading this brief, informative article, click here.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

More points to ponder

  • Faith isn’t faith until it is all you are holding onto.
  • Everyone thinks about forgiveness until they have something to forgive. – C. S. Lewis
  • Never doubt in the dark what God told you in the light. – V. Raymond Edman
  • “The kingdom of God is God’s people, in God’s place, under God’s rule, receiving God’s blessing.” – Graham Goldsworthy in Gospel and Kingdom
  • No one ever achieved freedom by appealing to the moral sense of their oppressors. – Anon.
  • Wearing face masks made little or no difference in the spread of Covid, study shows:  https://news.yahoo.com/face-masks-made-little-no-001748577.html
  • If everyone followed through on their resolutions, the consequences wold be dire: The fast food industry would collapse, the gym could become unbearably crowded, and lifestyle magazines would have noting left to say. – Amanda Foreman

♦♦♦♦♦♦

“My Father’s Business” (Jesus, Luke 2:49)

What it was: To reveal to earth’s inhabitants the living blood sacrifice—God’s only begotten Son—being offered for redemption of mankind (John 1:29 KJV; 3:16 KJV; 10:10 NCV; 3:36 NLT).

What it is: To tell the world how to apply the blood of Christ to remove our sins and have a right standing with God in the present age (Acts 2:38; Luke 24:47).

What it shall be: To remove all redeemed believers from the earth before the terrible judgments of the Day of the Lord (I Thessalonians 4:15-17 NCV; II Thessalonians 2:2-3 GNV; Titus 2:13 NLT; II Peter 3:10), to establish His earthly millennial reign prior to unpacking the “new heavens and new earth”—our eternal home (Revelation 20:1-22:4).

What a privilege to be employed in “our Father’s business.”

♦♦♦♦♦♦

“Broiding” women’s hair

I see that questions still perplex Christian women, particularly Apostolic ladies, regarding “broided” hair (KJV rendering). Almost ten years ago, I posted a response to these questions. For those who are interested, they can find that post on the October 2013 edition of this blog. To go there, click here: https://jrenseyblog.wordpress.com/?s=Broided

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Putin: “Look what they are doing to their own people…a spiritual disaster.”

In his annual message to the Russian people on Feb. 21, President Vladimir Putin covered numerous topics, none more revealing that what he said about America and the West:

Look what they are doing to their own people. It is all about the destruction of the family, of cultural and national identity, perversion and abuse of children, including pedophilia, all of which are declared normal in their life. They are forcing their clergy and priests to bless same-sex marriages. Bless their hearts, let them do as they please. Here is what I would like to say in this regard: Adult people can do as they please. We in Russia have always seen it that way and always will: no one is going to intrude into other people’s private lives, and we are not going to do it, either.

But here is what I would like to tell them: look at the holy scripture and the main books of other world religions. They say it all, including that family is the union of a man and a woman, but these sacred texts are now being questioned. Reportedly, the Anglican Church is planning, just planning, to explore the idea of a gender-neutral god. What is there to say? Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

Millions of people in the West realize that they are being led to a spiritual disaster. Frankly, the elite appear to have gone crazy, and it looks like there is no cure for that. But like I said, these are their problems, while we must protect our children, which we will do. We will protect our children from degradation and degeneration.” [End of quote. http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/70565.]

I’m not a Putin pusher, but he nailed it right there! My guess is that his quote will never see the light of day in America’s mainstream media.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Books  <<SALE>> See below! We just discovered some extra printed copies of these titles. While the last…

A Hill To Die On

by J. R. Ensey
Is truth worth dying for? If so, which truth? Which doctrine? This book suggests that there are some things worth risking our reputations, our resources, and perhaps our lives for. Two years ago we would never have thought we would be where we are today as a nation. The Christian faith is rapidly being dismembered and deconstructed to make way for Islam and anti-Christian atheists. The rush of endtime prophecy fulfillment should stiffen the backbone of every Christian and make us realize there will be a price to pay for our faith. The nine chapters include:

– A Hill To Die On

– Truth in an Age of Deception

– Unity in an Age of Division

– Righteousness in an Age of Hedonism

– The Church in an Age of Spirituality

– Absolutes in an Age of Relativism

– God and Government

– Is American Christianity Returning to the Social Gospel?

– Our Finest Hour

SALE PRICE $9.95

Why…?

by J. R. Ensey

Some younger men have called for reasons that specific doctrines and holiness standards appear in the UPCI Manual. They were not around when the issues were debated and passed in conferences. It is easier in today’s cultural climate to give up the fight than to take the time to find out why Pentecostals believe what we do. Here are 224 pages of some common sense, Word-based answers for our apostolic positions.
Chapters:

• Why do Apostolics embrace the Bible as the Word of God?

• Why do Apostolics teach monotheism?

• Why do Apostolics receive the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues?

• Why do Apostolics disengage from a worldly lifestyle?

• Why do Apostolics abandon or avoid harmful personal practices?

• Why do Apostolics choose modest apparel and shun ornamental
jewelry?

• Why do Apostolic ladies refrain from cutting their hair and wearing
cosmetics?

• Why do Apostolics live with a blessed hope?

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander” (I Peter 3:15,16). SALE PRICE $9.95

Faith In The Furnace

by J. R. Ensey
When pain racks the body, and when death is staring you in the face, you need answers, not just questions. Here are some down-to-earth, no-nonsense approaches to life when you are in the furnace of affliction. No hype, just biblical truth focusing on divine healing. Easy to read, thousands sold.  SALE PRICE $7.95

 

TO PLACE YOUR ORDER PLEASE CALL 936-537-0250.

Check out other titles by J. R. Ensey on Amazon!

♦♦♦♦♦♦

The way we are

He’s not checking the shave. He is looking for an Adam’s apple. Otherwise…well, one never knows.

More reasons why women live longer than men:

…And now you know.

Smile…and give your face a lift!

♦♦♦♦♦♦

The Last Word

The last recorded words of Jesus were, “Behold, I come quickly.” The one who heard Him say those words replied, “Amen! Even so, Come Lord Jesus.”

That is our “blessed hope” (Titus 2:13). With John, we say, “Come, Lord Jesus!” Let’s be ready to great Him together.

Until He comes, be blessed!

JREnsey

 

Published in: on March 1, 2023 at 1:32 AM  Leave a Comment  

JREnsey blog February 2023


Welcome to the JREnsey blog for February 2023!

 

The Word for today

Neheniah 8:8 – “They read from the Book of the Law of God and clearly explained the meaning of what was being read, helping the people understand each passage” (NLT).

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Points to ponder

More potential strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4):

“I would be a better person if….”

“I would tithe if….”

“I would have a great life if…”

“I could be faithful to church if….”

Lesson #1 from Prodigal Son: “No change will take place until we say, “I don’t want it this way any more!”

Call me old fashioned, but I’m glad my mother was a woman.

Since we’re restricting international travel because of a “new variant,” shouldn’t we close the southern border too?

Those folks who want to take your guns are planning to keep theirs.

Unless you’ve just won the Powerball, it’s probably wise to go ahead and cancel the Easter egg hunt.

Strange times are these in which we live when old and young are taught falsehoods in school. And the person that dares to tell the truth is called at once a lunatic and fool. – Plato; or George F. Train

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Duly noted:

  • In glory Paul will be applauded by the same people he martyred.
  • How to backslide: Stop praying, stop reading the Word, stop giving. Then start missing church, start criticizing, start finding fault with others in church. Has anyone begun these steps but grace and mercy pulled you back?
  • During a testimony time in church, it seemed that everyone testified how difficult living for God was, what troubles they had, how bad their life was. A lady visiting for the first time became concerned and stood to say, “I’m so sorry to hear these things. If there is anything I can do for any of you, let me know.”
  • The person who takes counsel with his fears will never move forward.
  • Too often our healing theology collides with reality. A veteran who had his legs blown off by a mine, said, “Don’t get into a charismatic church. First, you are a ‘project’ for them, but if you don’t grow legs, they don’t know what to do with you.”
  • Everyone is becoming so sensitive. Soon I won’t be able to make fun of myself without someone being offended. – Julia Wright
  • Those who trust the professors should note that in 1893 professor Orlando Ferguson listed 400 Bible passages that he said proved that the earth was flat.
  • Deception is often more evolutionary than revolutionary.
  • Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, affirmed “the principle that when one lies, one should lie big, and stick to it. …It is the absolute right of the state to supervise the formation of public opinion.” [Goebbels must have survived with other Nazis to ultimately become advisors for the current administration.]
  • You don’t have to preach to backsliders, just love them.
  • When we speak of “protecting our pulpits,” perhaps we should not only think of not allowing false teachers and sensationalists to fill them, but also not allowing ourselves to be silenced by situations existing in our audience. The concept that “I can’t preach that fact/topic/belief anymore because there are folks in the congregation who don’t embrace that belief. They might think I was targeting them.” We can silence our own voice by fear of rejection. When Paul was rehearsing the basics of the Christian life and church leadership principles, “Timothy,” he said, “These things command and teach…and exhort” (I Timothy 4:11; 6:2)
  • “The ruling political party is made up of weak men and unhappy women.” – Tucker Carlson
  • “I have learned over the years that when one’s mind is made up, this diminishes fear.” – Rosa Parks
  • “He who has no money is poor; he who has nothing but money is the poorest of all.” – Billy Sunday

 ♦♦♦♦♦♦ 

A Constitution for a moral and religious people

One of the foremost constitutional theorists of the founding generation, John Adams, observed, “Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.” He wasn’t the only Founding Father to hold this view. Indeed, James Madison wrote that our Constitution requires “sufficient virtue among men for self-government,” otherwise, “nothing less than the chains of despotism can restrain them from destroying and devouring one another.”

Many of our Founders were men of faith or were influenced strongly by the Judeo-Christian tradition. They accepted the premise of mankind’s imperfect nature. They had experienced first-hand the oppressive dictates of Parliament and the Crown that led to the American Revolution. And they were rightly suspicious of the accumulation of governmental power by one person or a small body — “the very definition of tyranny” according to Madison.

Consistent with these experiences and beliefs, the Founders imbued liberty-preserving principles into the very structure of the new government. They divided power between federal and state governments, apportioned federal power among three branches of government, and limited the power of the federal government to certain delegated functions. But the Founders also knew that these devices alone were inadequate to preserve and sustain our new nation.

[Source: Regent University post]

♦♦♦♦♦♦

The impact of anti-Christian, anti-American education

In 1960, 65% of Americans believed the Bible to be the literal Word of God. By 1992 only 32% believed that.

Today 65% believe there are no absolutes. Many churches have become bastions of the world’s way, denying truth, denying the Bible, and they have lost their way. Like ancient Israel who had a Lord, but denied Him, had a law but broke it, and had a land but defiled it. How could they do that, you ask. You are seeing the answer lived out before your eyes. The major denominations have lost their way and merged with the culture. Apostolic Pentecostals have the best chance ever of salvaging what is left of Christianity in America. While others are running away from the Word, we must keep running to it!

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Bible questions

Q: Are we saved by faith (Ephesians 2:8,9) or by hope (Romans 8:24)?

A: By neither, entirely. First, it is unwise to try to pick and choose words from the Epistles to cobble together a plan of how to get into the kingdom of God. Those folks to whom the apostles are writing are already saved from their past sins. Go back to where there are unsaved folks coming to God in the Book of Acts and determine what translated them from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light! Start here: Acts 2:1-4, 37,38; 8:16; 10:45-47; 19:1-6; 22:16). Add John 3:5,36 NLT). Faith in Jesus was the beginning of their Christian experience and it leads one into obedience. The outcome of faith joined with obedience is the hope of life everlasting (John 3:16; 10:10) that keeps us motivated to walk righteously in this present life to inherit eternal life in the future.

Q: Ezekiel 16:49 seems to express the sins of Sodom as selfishness and pride rather than homosexuality. Which is correct?

A: Both are correct. The Sodomites were arrogant and selfish, not wishing to share their material prosperity with the poor and needy among them as the Ezekiel verse clearly states. But it is also true that there was gross sexual perversion prevalent among them (Genesis19:8; Jude 7). A combination of all of these evidently contributed to God’s decision to destroy the city.

Q: Since not all of Joel’s prophecy came to pass on the Day of Pentecost, was Peter mistaken when he quoted Joel in Acts 2:16-21?

A: Peter’s quotation of Joel 2:28-32 on Pentecost was accurate, but only as a partial or initial fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy. It seems to indicate that Peter viewed the events of Pentecost as inaugurating the “last days.” The particular signs and wonders mentioned would take place in the future “before the day of the Lord” (v. 20), perhaps just prior to and during the seven years preceding the calm of the millennial age.

Q: Why was Paul forbidden to preach in Asia (Acts 16:6)? How did this fit with Jesus’ Great Commission?

A: The denial for Paul and Timothy to go there was not a permanent command to “stand down.” God had other plans for them at the present time. Later the gospel would be preached in Asia both by Paul (Acts 19:10,22,26; 20:4,16,18; I Corinthians 16:19) and through those Paul had converted and mentored (I Thessalonians 1:6-8).

Q: Peter says believers are sanctified by the Spirit, but Jesus said we are sanctified by the truth. Is this a contradiction?

A: The Bible does not contradict itself when accurately translated and properly interpreted. It does say that we are sanctified by the Spirit of God (I Peter 1:2), but also by “thy truth” (John 17:17). Additionally, we are sanctified “in the name of Jesus” (I Corinthians 6:11). Ephesians 5:26 suggests a sanctification that comes by the “washing of water of the word.” Hebrews 13:12 involves the “blood of Christ” in our sanctification. All of these elements—the Spirit, the truth, His name, the Word, and the blood—play a role in placing us in a righteous position and separated for God’s service and purpose. One verse is not usually comprehensive on any particular doctrine. Every reference does not usually give full details of every story, event, or doctrine. Some verses provide a particular fact and another verse may augment that story or that doctrine with another fact. Examples abound. All are true.

Q: Is there a sin which cannot be forgiven by God?

A: Yes, one at least—the one that remains hidden, unacknowledged and unconfessed.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

OLIGARCHS  who control America’s economy 

Elon Musk – untold billions; Twitter, Space X, Tesla

Jeff Bezos – 185 Billion; Amazon.com

Bernard Arnault – 155 Billion; business empire, 70 brands

Bill Gates – 122 Billion; Microsoft

Mark Zukerberg 100 Billion; Facebook

Zhong Shanshan – 94 Billion; Chinese pharmaceuticals

Larry Ellison – 89 Billion; software

Warren Buffet – 88 Billion; Investments

Larry Page – 77-79 Billion; co-founder of Google

Sergey Brin – 77-79 Billion; co-founder of Google

Steve Ballmer – 73 Billion; Microsoft

(Actual net worths may vary from day to day.)

♦♦♦♦♦♦

More athletes go down after vaccination

Uche Nwaneri, recently retired from the NFL, has passed away. Damar Hamlin, another NFL player, fell during a game this month with cardiac arrest.

How many young athletes and others in good health have to go down before America wakes up? The Covid vaccination mandate has taken many young lives across the world. The press plays down the vaccination angle, but it cannot be denied. And you know, anything they play down should be considered newsworthy, and anything they consider newsworthy should be considered suspect as something to divert our attention from the real stories.

Pregnant mothers are at risk, and children of all ages.

Elon Musk has promised to disclose the files on Dr. Fauci and the Covid scam. I am sure that the mainline press will tag it as “Russian propaganda.”

Here’s a Twitter video someone sent me that shows athletes going down after the clot-shot.

(2) American Cat Mom 🇺🇸 on Twitter: “https://t.co/l59zSa9I67” / Twitter

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Dr. Peter McCullough on the Covid vaccine

Dr. McCullough has been on top of the Covid vaccine issue since the start. His findings:

To break this down: 1,598 athletes suffered cardiac arrest since the vaccine came out. But between the years 1966-2004, a total of 1,101 athletes had cardiac arrest. That’s 1,101 over a 38-year time-span vs nearly 1600 in about two years. That’s a massive increase, and there is NOTHING wrong with wanting this horrific new “phenomenon” investigated.

(2) The Vigilant Fox 🦊 on Twitter: “Dr. McCullough: The C19 Shots Sets Up Heart Inflammation and Adrenaline Triggers Injury and Death “The vaccines set up the heart inflammation … and then it’s the big surge of adrenaline … during a basketball game — during sports, that’s triggering these deaths.” https://t.co/FotBSQyZx9″ / Twitter

(2) Peter A. McCullough, MD, MPH™ on Twitter: “This recent paper from Dr. Polykretis and myself gets the sharp rise in athlete deaths into PUBMED. Since vaccination, “1598 athletes suffered cardiac arrest, 1101 of which with deadly outcome. Over a prior 38-years (1966-2004), 1101 athletes &lt; age of 35 died (~29/yr). https://t.co/SCieZTsoNZ” / Twitter

JRE: A perfectly healthy teenage young man, having a distant connection to our church, got vaxxed recently and died within days. Silence about this matter doesn’t seem to be a wise option. There is not enough space here to describe the many cases that are coming to light. Please use wisdom in making important health choices.

Disclaimer: I am not a doctor and have no personal way of knowing the absolute truth and details of every report that crosses my desk. My advice has been to do one’s own research and make up their own mind about the benefits vs. the risks. This information is shared as a suggested part of that research.

 

♦♦♦♦♦♦

The satirical Babylon Bee stings again

Experts Say They Don’t Know What Thing Is Causing Everyone To Suddenly Collapse, But It’s Definitely Not That One Thing | Babylon Bee

“It’s too early to say what could be causing this, but it’s never too early to say what isn’t causing this,” said local expert, Dr. Scott Rufflinger. “This could be caused by anything. But the one thing we know for certain is that it’s definitely not what we’re all thinking that’s behind this—if you know what I mean. We can go ahead and rule that thing out right now because Science just called us on the phone and told us not to discuss it. We always follow Science.”

According to sources, experts have been working tirelessly around the clock to try and get to the bottom of why so many seemingly perfectly healthy, athletic people are falling over suddenly. “I wish I could point to something in the past year or two that large groups of people were exposed to, or forced into, but nothing comes to mind,” added Dr. Rufflinger. “If only there was one thing all these patients had in common.”

At publishing time, experts said they had narrowed down the list of what most likely was causing these sudden health issues down to: climate change, racism, Christian Nationalism, standing up too quickly, standing up too slowly, and not eating enough bugs.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

There was no gender prejudice expressed by 16th century European prelates. They burned women who would not recant their Protestant convictions as well as men.

Washington is ruled by unhappy women who disdain and hate America!

It was Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin’s first stop on the moon.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Last Words

Abortion: A fetus is not a “would-be life,” but a living human baby inside a woman. She is feeding it prior to birth and is naturally programmed to continue the feeding from her body after birth.

Like gun control: Let’s reduce driving by making it harder for safe drivers to own cars.

God bless! Keep the faith!

JREnsey

Published in: on February 1, 2023 at 1:42 AM  Leave a Comment  

JREnsey blog for January 2023

Welcome to the JREnsey blog for January 2023! We welcome the new year; the passing one is easy to wave goodbye to!

The Word for today

“Let all that I am praise the Lord; with my whole heart, I will praise his holy name. Let all that I am praise the Lord; may I never forget the good things he does for me” (Psalm 103:1,2 NLT).

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Enough of Christian doxologies

Doxology – A liturgical formula of praise to God, usually at the end of a reading or at the close of a service.

In teaching recently on the Lord’s Prayer, I could not circumvent pointing out that the doxology at the end of the prayer is almost certainly an emendation, an add-on inserted by some scribe in a dark, candlelit room as he was copying a manuscript. While I don’t always point those out when teaching laity, it is difficult not to on this one. It was likely pulled over from liturgical endings that had been adapted from service settings in the assembly where the scribe was active. Only one Greek manuscript before A.D. 700 has the phrase “for thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory for ever. Amen.” It found its way into the stream of late Byzantine manuscripts and from there into the early English Bibles.

Almost assuredly the first copyist who wrote the doxology for Christian usage lifted it from the OT passage in I Chronicles 29:11: “Thine, O Lord is the greatness, and the power, and the glory, and the victory, and the majesty: for all that is in the heaven and in the earth is thine; thine is the kingdom, O Lord, and thou art exalted as head above all.” While it is true and a great line as all agree, it is unlikely to be divinely inspired as part of Matthew’s Gospel. When the English Bibles were being produced in the sixteenth century, Queen Elizabeth I expressed her attachment to those stirring words and wanted them included in any English Bible translation. So the Bishops’ Bible put them in its first edition in 1568. When the KJV translation was being put together by King James’ translators, he ordered them to follow the Bishops’ Bible as much as possible.

When Jerome merged the Old Latin MSS to create the Latin Vulgate (c. A.D. 400) that would become the biblical authority in Roman Catholicism for a thousand years, it was not there. Scribes who were copying the Gospel of Matthew were aware of its apparent primary target audience—the Jews. This fact may have encouraged the inclusion of a common Hebrew doxology. Many scholars and reference works call it “a later addition,” and inform us that the use of the doxology in English dates from at least 1549 with the First Prayer Book of Edward VI, which was influenced by William Tyndale’s New Testament translation in 1526. Later scholarship demonstrated that inclusion of the doxology in New Testament manuscripts was actually a later addition drawn in part from Eastern liturgical tradition. Because a statement is true does not automatically qualify it for inclusion in the inspired Word of God. It should be noted that no usage of the trinitarian formula in water baptism is recorded in the Book of Acts or anywhere else in Scripture or history during the first century. It is not the language of the Apostolic Age.

Matthew’s Gospel, as we read it today in most English Bibles, includes another doxology at the end of the Great Commission of 28:19. Added there was the phrase “of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” After the Council of Nicea in A.D. 325, that language came into popular usage as a “formula” for water baptism. There is no extant Greek MS containing that phrase with a date earlier than Emperor Constantine’s influence on the text at the Council of Nicea. After the Council, he ordered fifty new Bibles to be hand copied and distributed to the major churches in the Empire. Earlier Greek MSS reveal physical damage at Matthew 28, removing v. 19 from all known MSS prior to 325. The new copies would certainly express Constantine’s feelings that the trinitarian doxology fit well at the end of Matthew 28:19 since the Council established a form of binitarianism for sure and made decided moves toward absolute trinitarianism as dogma, which would be solidified at the next two general councils.

A further trinitarian addition to the Lord’s Prayer doxology was attempted again in later manuscript copies of Matthew. Three Greek minuscules dating from the twelfth to the fourteenth centuries add these words: “[the glory]…of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” Scholars and early textual critics knew immediately they were emendations and dropped those MSS from further use as exemplars to be copied.

Although I agree with Queen Elizabeth that the words “thine is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever” are true and fit well with the context, I must say as a truth lover of real NT words of actual Scripture, they should probably be left to liturgical usage and song lyrics.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Keep in mind…

  • God may wreck your plans when He sees that your plans are going to wreck you.
  • If the authorities are not going to enforce our laws at our borders, we basically have no country. If officials/boards are not going to enforce what is in the Manual regarding doctrine and holiness, we only have a loosely knit club of some kind—come and go, do as you please.
  • Quickly! Use these words before they become totally obsolete or outlawed: man, woman, boy, girl, father, mother, truth, redemption, virtue, individualism, Hell, Heaven, judgment, personal responsibility, integrity.
  • Deuteronomy 22:5 doesn’t say what to wear but what not to wear. In other words, don’t cross over into the customs of the opposite gender.
  • Everyone loves to see a rainbow, but we must remember it takes both rain and sunshine to make one.
  • What you do with the Bible depends on what you do with the first verse of the Bible: “In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.” If you believe that, you can believe everything else that follows. If you reject that statement, the rest of the Bible becomes suspect. If you can believe God is the creator of all things, you can believe anything else the Bible has to say. “The word of the Lord is right” (Psalm 33:4).

♦♦♦♦♦♦

100 YEARS AGO: Our changing world

What was America like 100 years ago? In 1923 major news events included the opening of King Tuts burial chamber, insulin was introduced for treatment of diabetes, Mount Etna erupted, the first baseball game was played in Yankee Stadium. Other notable events:

  • First issue of Time Magazine
  • Most homes did not have indoor toilet facilities, so chemical toilets were introduced for homes. Price: less than $6.
  • Adolf Hitler leads the Nazi Party in a failed coup attempt in Germany.
  • The Republic of Turkey was established.
  • The Great Kanto earthquake strikes Japan, killing up to 140,000 people.
  • Oklahoma passed legislation outlawing Darwinian evolution in the state’s school textbooks.
  • Walt Disney Company was founded.
  • Large hailstones kill 23 people in Rostov, Soviet Union.

What and who was popular in 1923?

  • Babe Ruth was the most famous person in America.
  • Most popular movie was The Ten Commandments.

In those techy twenties, hearing aids were introduced, the first domestic refrigerators were sold in Sweden, and the first portable radios were produced in the U.S. But the prices of goods and food were quite different from today, and even then they varied in different parts of the country:

Chevy Roadster (below right) – $570

Studebaker Touring car – $995

Neckties  – .75¢

Beef roast – .19¢ lb.

Lettuce – .10¢ head

Bread – .10¢ loaf

Milk – .25¢ gal.

Refrigerator – $49.50

Listerine – .79¢ bottle

Bath soap – $1.39 12 cakes

Washington Hotel – $5 per week

 

YOKOHAMA, Japan after the 1923 Kanto earthquake:

America was still mostly rural in 1923, but cities were growing fast

1923 saw the tomb of King Tut discovered and opened by Howard Carter.

I would not want to go back to the 1920s, but I wish we had brought some things with us from that simpler life.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Just for writers

It was recently pointed out in a newsy handout how strange our English language is. All writers have to endure its oddities, but I suppose all languages and dialects have certain idiosyncrasies.

In English, there is no egg in eggplant or ham in hamburgers; neither apples nor pine in pineapples. English muffins were not invented in England or French fries in France. Sweetmeats are candies, while sweetbreads which aren’t sweet are meat.

We take English for granted. But if we explore its paradoxes, we find that quicksand can work slowly, boxing rings are square, and a guinea pig is neither a pig nor a guinea. If teachers taught, why don’t we say that preachers praught? If a vegetarian eats vegetables, what does a humanitarian eat?

In what language do people recite at a play, and play at a recital? We ship by truck and send cargo by ship. We have noses that run and feet that smell. We park on driveways and drive on parkways.

How can a slim chance and a fat chance be the same, while a wise man and a wise guy are opposites? Your guess is as good as mine. Thankfully, writers reserve judgment of other writers in these times when language is undergoing many not-so-subtle changes. Scores of words that once clearly meant one thing 50 years ago now mean something entirely different. If I had enough hair to pull out, I just might do it.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Couldn’t pass these up

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Last Words

As we move into a new year, let us renew our commitment to Christ, His Word, and His ways. Otherwise, we will be pulled along in the tidal wave of the world. May spiritual gravity pull us closer to biblical truth rather than the attractions of the present age. God is looking for men—real men—who are fearless, prayerful, humble, weak enough to trust and strong enough to stand. Let’s make 2023 a year of spiritual harvest!

God bless! Happy New Year everybody!

JREnsey

Published in: on January 1, 2023 at 1:03 AM  Leave a Comment  

JREnsey Blog for December 2022


Welcome to the JREnsey blog for December 2022!

The Word for today

John 10:10 – “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

 

♦♦♦♦♦♦

MORE THAN A CARPENTER

Mark 6:1-6a: “And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him. And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands? Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him. 4 But Jesus, said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house. And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them. And he marvelled because of their unbelief.”

God ordained that Christ would be born into the family and home of a skilled craftsman.[i] He was called “the carpenter’s son” in Matthew 13:55. Everything God does has divine purpose—sometimes obvious, sometimes not.

Why didn’t God choose a fisherman’s home on the shores of the Sea of Galilee? Or a blacksmith’s shop? Or a rabbi’s dwelling? Or a ploughman’s farm? Any of these may have been appropriate given the content of Christ’s ministry and His stories, but none more relevant or germane than the carpenter’s trade—“On this rock I will build my church,” He said. Building would be the thrust of His ministry.

He chose construction, at least in part, as a trade because it was a man’s job, and He was a man. In Joseph’s carpenter shop He learned that hard work and honest labor was honorable and fulfilling. Assuming woodworking was His focus, the tools Jesus learned to use as a boy would also be used in a spiritual way during His ministry of building the church. He became adept at handling an adze and a saw to cut the raw material into the shape and size He needed. His grasped His father’s proto-plane and smoothed the rough edges. He mastered the chisel’s ability to hew the essential grooves and notches. His hand was accustomed to the hammer that drove the pegs and nails into place to fasten the pieces and parts together. He used the plumbline to make sure that walls and doors and corners were straight and true. His crude ruler assured that proper measurements and dimensions would provide a quality product.

The builder’s trade was a perfect starting place for Jesus. Until age thirty He devoted His time to learn, to serve, to build, to put things together. That was the age Joseph, Jacob’s son, began service for the pharaoh of Egypt. That was also the age when Hebrew priests could begin to serve in the Tabernacle and the Temple or be considered a Rabbi. David was 30 when he assumed the kingship. So Jesus waited until John the Baptist, at that same age, had fulfilled the role of the prophet Elijah (Mark 9:11-13) to be baptized of him. Now He was ready to begin building His spiritual kingdom, starting with disciples who would ultimately form the foundation (Ephesians 2:20; Matthew 16:18).

For 30 years He had lived and served as a man, but now it was time for Him to reveal His true identity as God in the flesh (I Timothy 3:16). He had expressed His manhood, now the moment had come to express His Godhood. Those who noticed had caught a glimpse of it at age 12 in the Temple. They heard it from heaven at His baptism. Now He was open with it: “I and my father are one…I am the living bread which came down from heaven…I am the light of the world…I am from above…before Abraham was, I am…I am the resurrection and the life…Ye call me master and Lord, and ye say well; for so I am.”

Jesus was more than a carpenter, more than a maker of tabletops, wagon wheels, and wicker-bottom chairs. This world does not produce men like Jesus. He came from another realm to earth as the Christ, the Redeemer, the Savior of the world. He came to build a church, a people who would someday become His bride and join Him in Heaven forever.

He proved He was not just a carpenter or even the son of a carpenter. He proved He was the Son of God it by the miracles He performed, by the words He spoke, and by the lives He changed. Perhaps the Roman centurion at Calvary said it best: “Truly this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54). He ascended to Heaven and now He is pouring out His spirit into believers everywhere (Acts 2:33). They have become His building, His handiwork: “Ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building…in whom all the building fitly framed together growth unto an holy temple in the Lord” (I Corinthians 3:9; Ephesians 2:21). The best part: He is now preparing a house not made with [human] hands, eternal in the heavens” (II Corinthians 5:1; John 14:3) for all who have made their calling and election sure.

That is the real crux of the Christmas story. He came to offer every person abundant life with Him in Heaven. The divine Carpenter is now building each believer an abode close to His. The new birth and an obedient life will put your name on one with a clear title.

You can’t beat that offer!

[i] The original Greek term (τέκτων; tekton), rendered “carpenter” was not limited to referencing the woodworking occupation, but also to stone masonry and other building crafts.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

The focus at Christmas

Now I am no Grinch. I enjoy the giving and sharing aspect of Christmas, including Christmas For Christ through NAM. But presenting something fake as real does little or nothing positive for the faith of children. From that experience they learn not to totally trust adults. Sure, lots of Christians have survived belief in those Christmas stories, but they can leave a taste in the mouth that questions more serious matters—like the Bible and other aspects of the faith.

There is no Santa with a big bag of toys atop a sleigh pulled by eight tiny reindeer, one with a red nose. Christians should never mislead their children to believe in myths. There are Grinchplenty of ways to enjoy Christmas without injecting a mythical jolly old elf into the picture.

That being said, assuming the role of Grinch may not be the best alternative, either. It is a time for reading the story of the first Christmas from the Bible, sharing gifts and hugs with children, renewing appreciation of loved ones, and enjoying a delicious meal together.

Hmmm…I guess there is no such being as a green-tinted Grinch, either. Got me there. But I never misled my kids to think there was, although I have met a few folks who seem to fit that description.

Santa Claus, Bigfoot, ghosts, and alien UFOs belong in the same category. If anyone can prove that to be wrong, I will stand corrected.

Have a good time, Christians! Spread some love and cheer, but don’t forget Jesus. After all, it is His birthday we are celebrating.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Have you noticed…?

…how complicated the Trinity doctrine is and how much simpler Oneness is?

…that you are being followed (Psalm 23:6)?

…that you actually know less than you did 30 years ago?

…that people don’t talk as loud as they once did to us older guys?

…that printers and publishers are using smaller fonts than ever before?

…how much faster time moves the older you get?

…that there is always movement—some movin’ in, some movin’ out, some movin’ up, some movin’ on?

…that appearance doesn’t always mirror reality?

…how prettier your wife gets with age?

…that golf balls and baseballs don’t go as far as they once did when we hit ’em?

…that the standard apparel for the younger crowd while doing their Christmas shopping this year are hoodies? And those shoppers shown on the news all seem to be in a hurry to fill their bags. They must have a lot of folks on their gift list.

…that a deceased Democrat official, Tony DeLuca, won reelection in Pennsylvania? Yes, really. “Earth to Pennsylvania. Hello. Hello….”

…that it is always unhappy people who attack the things happy people believe in?

…that some people would rather stop speaking to you than apologize when they are wrong?

…that more government handouts are coming down the pike? Soon only the government will be hiring. They never stop. Please be reminded: “A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have.”

♦♦♦♦♦♦

News you can use

One world government called for by France’s President Macron

Read the story here:  https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/macron-calls-for-a-single-global-order-asks-are-you-on-the-us-or-the-china-side/?utm_source=popular

Pastors beware if “Respect for Marriage Act” becomes law

Read what it will mean here:  https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/breaking-republicans-join-democrats-to-pass-same-sex-marriage-bill-in-massive-defeat-for-conservatives/

How did millions of dollars flow into Democrat coffers from the FTX scandal? It was a lesson in money laundering and expert corruptionese. Read the story here:   BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: Tens of Billions of US Dollars Were Transferred to Ukraine and then Using FTX Crypto Currency the Funds Were Laundered Back to Democrats in US (thegatewaypundit.com)

FTX Appears to Be a Political Ponzi Scheme Running Dollars to Politicians and Through Ukraine (thegatewaypundit.com)

We have now reached a point where a majority of those who are dying from Covid-19 are those who are vaccinated. Read the story here: 
 Vaccinated Americans a majority of COVID deaths for first time in August: analysis | Fox News
 
Coroner blames Covid vaccine

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Different strokes for different folks

Holding out for a common sense approach to immigration evidently cost CNN commentator Lou Dobbs his job. How different it is in America from other countries around the world.

• If you cross the North Korean border illegally you get 12 years hard labor.
• If you cross the Iranian border illegally you are detained indefinitely as a spy.
• If you cross the Afghan border illegally you get shot.
• If you cross the Saudi Arabian border illegally you will be jailed.
• If you cross the Chinese border illegally you may never be heard from again.
• If you cross the Venezuelan border illegally you will be branded a spy and your fate will be sealed.
• If you cross the Cuban border illegally you will be thrown into a political prison to rot.
• But if you cross the U.S. border illegally you likely get:

A job
A driver’s license
A social security card
Welfare
Food stamps
Credit/gift cards
Subsidized rent or a loan to buy a house
Free education
Free health care
A lobbyist in Washington
And…in some instances you may be given the privilege to vote in elections!

Merry Christmas, illegals…er, migrants!

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Bookends

You may have noticed this yourself. The first mention of the word “book” in the Old Testament is in the first chapters of Genesis (5:1) and had to do with the generations of Adam. The first mention of book in the NT is in the context of “the generation of Jesus Christ” (Matthew 1:1). Each of those books has an “end” to match. The OT bookend is in Malachi 3:16 where it is recorded that a “book of remembrance” is being recorded for the faithful. The NT bookend is in the last chapter of Revelation where the warning is given for those who would seek to add to or take away from “the prophecies of this book” (22:19).

What nice bookends! The Bible is such a fascinating Book.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Our first loyalty

When I read of Absalom’s rebellion against David, it makes me shudder. In that case, deserved loyalty was laid aside for self-aggrandizement and political power. However, if David had been a tyrant and was attempting to turn Israel from God, then Absalom may have been justified if his efforts were directed toward returning the kingdom to righteousness. A higher loyalty would have been exhibited in such a situation.

Loyalty to earthly establishments and mortal men has its limits. Much has been made of David’s loyalty to Saul. Since he felt that Saul had been chosen by God to lead the Hebrew nation, and was its first king, he went the second mile to recognize and submit to his position. But as Saul gradually removed himself from God’s favor, loyalty was stretched to its limits.

All men have to decide where to place their loyalties and how far to extend them. Our first and highest loyalty is owed to Jesus Christ and His Word, not to any earthly individual or entity. If someone or something to which we have an attachment—including our local church, our pastor, or any organization—is faithful to the founding principles of the faith, then they deserve our genuine loyalty. If such faithfulness is not in evidence, however, a question arises as to the level of loyalty that should be extended. Spiritual authority is forfeited when serious compromise becomes a factor. No individual or association is owed loyalty when faithfulness to scriptural truth and/or basic ethics have been abandoned. When some insist that loyalty must be extended regardless of what the entity or the leader may do, they are misguided. Blind loyalty to a friend or mentor who has departed from the faith can be spiritually devastating.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

The way things are…

 

Waiting on Georgia to make up its mind:

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Last Words

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

God bless…and have the greatest Christmas ever!

JR and Roffie Ensey

 

 

Published in: on December 1, 2022 at 2:26 AM  Comments (1)  

JREnsey blog November 2022

Welcome to the JREnsey blog for November 2022!

 

The Word for today (please read)

Recently one morning, disturbed and saddened by the direction our nation is taking, I earnestly prayed for guidance for my thinking and that of all of God’s people. I opened my Bible seeking a timely and relevant passage. My eyes fell upon Psalm 32:6-10 (NLT), a prayer chant of David:

Therefore, let all the godly pray to you while there is still time,
    that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgment.
For you are my hiding place;
    you protect me from trouble.
    You surround me with songs of victory. 

The Lord says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
    I will advise you and watch over you.
Do not be like a senseless horse or mule
    that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control.”

10 Many sorrows come to the wicked,
    but unfailing love surrounds those who trust the Lord.”

I read and reread it, distilling its direction and timeless message for a nation potentially “drowning in judgment“—possibly within days or months. We must not confuse “our nation” with a city far away in some eastern enclave. Our nation is US…you and me, our neighbors, our children and grandchildren. The judgment on the wicked who are tearing away the fabric of Christianity in America will not be limited to unbelievers but will touch true Christians, their families, their children. Right where we live. Our street. Our home. While we are currently hassling each other about the color of our socks, our nation is crumbling. Our schools are indoctrinating our children.

November 8 could be the most important date yet in the lives of those around your kitchen table. Some of the most vital issues for us as American Christians will be settled in our local school board elections. Do you know who is running for election to your child’s school board, and what they stand for? Are the Moms in our churches going to Board meetings and making their voices heard? I recently challenged a candidate for our local school board recently by asking if he would support drag queen shows in our schools. I had to know. We cannot continue on the path our woke and sexualizing culture has taken if we hope to save this nation and our children.

ACT. VOTE for your values! Weep for your children.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

God disdains legalism

I’m sure we’ve all heard talking heads on newscasts attack Christians who were standing for biblical truths. They love to criticize “legalists” and “legalism” because of its negative connotation. They suggest anyone who might reflect and advocate a lifestyle like that which Paul and Peter urged us to follow fits that category. Jesus never even mentioned homosexuality, they love to say. He already had! And didn’t Jesus tell someone that all he had to do to inherit eternal life was to sell his belonging, give the proceeds to the poor, and follow Jesus—he would then be eternally saved. Any 12-year old raised in an Apostolic church knows that the context wasn’t Jesus explaining what it did or didn’t take for Gentiles to be saved in the coming grace period. He was speaking directly to an individual Jew who had already been keeping the Law of Moses.

Jesus came to His own people—the Jews. Much of what one reads in red letters in the Gospels related specifically to Judaism. The apostles also had to help the new Jewish Christians understand the difference in a holy life in this dispensation and the imperatives of the Law in that period of time. They condemned the “legalists” and Judaizers who insisted that Christians had to also follow the dictates of the Law of Moses. Paul explained that he law to which Christians are bound is the law of Christ (I Corinthians 9:21; Galatians 6:2), not the Law of Moses.

Liberal thinkers like to make folks who preach and teach what Paul, Peter and other NT writers taught look like Pharisees. Following apostolic directives regarding hair in I Corinthians eleven, or other holiness admonitions in the Pastoral Epistles, I & II Peter, etc., do not make one a legalistic Pharisee trying to earn heaven by the works of the Law. The Judaizers who wanted to also keep Moses’ Law were condemned by Paul (Philippians 3:2 NLT; Galatians 2:16; 3:10; Romans 6:17 ESV). Understanding that there are commitments to keep as a Christian does not smack of legalism. It’s called obedience, which is imperative (John 3:36 NLT, et al).

It is neither ethical nor scripturally honest to try to justify compromise on holiness or doctrinal issues by categorizing ministers who hold to NT biblical standards as “legalists.” Renaming compromise as “mercy” or “tolerance” or “love” speaks volumes about one’s commitment to apostolic principles. That cover is quite transparent.

There is wisdom in Paul’s invitation: “Be ye followers of me even as also I am of Christ” (I Corinthians 11:1).

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Apostolics often hear the question:

Homosexual acts and idolatry are condemned in Leviticus, but why do Christians disregard the other prohibitions that are mentioned there?

Answer: Christians do not ignore the Levitical prohibitions but recognize that most of them were peculiar to the Hebrews, God’s chosen people. They were to mark the Israelites as a separate and “holy people unto the Lord thy God: the Lord thy God hath chosen thee to be a special people unto himself, above all people that are upon the face of the earth” (Deuteronomy 7:6).

The eating of certain foods, dwelling designs, specific farming guidelines, and ceremonial practices were for Israel only in consideration of their special relationship to God. Restrictions governing the “clean and unclean” vessels, kosher food types, particular threads for clothing, etc., were not carried over to the Gentile church (Acts 10:9-15).

Moral obligations, however, were universal and had been expected of all people. The abominations of fornication, adultery, bestiality, incest, homosexuality, and attire that expresses those tendencies of the flesh, would never be rescinded. These are “my judgments,” said the Lord (Leviticus 18:4), not merely those of Jewish or Christian leaders. They are repeated specifically and in principle to New Testament Christians. Moral sins are different from ceremonial violations, in part because they affect more than just the person involved—specifically, the institution of the family. Their effects may never be removed (Proverbs 6:33,34).

♦♦♦♦♦♦

12 reasons I quit going to sporting events

(A friend’s Facebook page)

1. The coach never came to visit me or even call on the phone.
2. Every time I went, they asked me for money.
3. The people sitting in my row didn’t seem very friendly.
4. The seats were very hard.
5. The referees made a decision I didn’t agree with.
6. I was sitting with hypocrites—they only came to see what others were wearing!
7. Some games went into overtime and I was late getting home.
8. The band played some songs I had never heard before.
9. The games are scheduled on my only day to sleep in and run errands.
10. My parents took me to too many games when I was growing up.
11. Since I read a book on sports, I feel that I know more than the coaches, anyway.
12. I don’t want to take my children because I want them to choose for themselves what sport they like best.
Please don’t use these excuses for skipping church.

♦♦♦♦♦♦I

It’s a fact—women live longer than men. Here’s part of the reason:

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Pardon, our humanity is showing!

As an author and publisher for much of my 66-year ministerial stint, I am keenly aware of the need for repeated editing of books and copy for publications and postings. In spite of our best efforts, they are rarely without a flaw. I bludgeon myself severely when I see a typo or other error in something I published and vow to do better next time. Alas, perfection eludes me. Computers are light years ahead of typewriters for correcting mistakes but they also make it easy to overlook small errors when you adjust a paragraph or sentence several times. The computer may even assist in making them. Thanks, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates.

Errors by others are no justification for our own; however, at times they do offer a measure of comfort to know that we are not alone in our humanity. I was made to smile recently when I noticed a glaring typo (a misspelled word) in a Baker Book House publication. Baker is one of the nation’s largest book publishers employing a host of editors. A couple of years ago I purchased a Bible from Zondervan and forthrightly discovered a typo in the Book of Psalms. An entire verse was missing from the first edition of the Apostolic Study Bible. I am sure that we all have observed typos in Louis L’Amour’s paperback books, possibly because they were published in such swift succession for a time that the editors couldn’t keep up.

Editorial oversights and bloopers do not always mean that someone is asleep at the wheel, but that we are still human. Someone sent me a booklet with some church bulletin bloopers. A sampling:

  • “The congregation is asked to stay seated until the end of the recession.”
  • “The Rev. Merriwether spoke briefly, much to the delight of the audience.”
  • “Don’t let worry kill you; let the church help.”
  • “Ushers will eat latecomers.”
  • “Potluck supper Thursday night. Prayer and medication to follow.”
  • “Say a nice ‘Hell’ to all of our visitors this morning.”
  • “Applications are now being accepted for 2-year old nursery workers.”
  • “The rosebud on the altar this morning is to announce the birth of David Alan Uelzer, the sin of Rev. and Mrs. Julius Uelzer.”

Reading those might evoke a grimace from any editor, but they serve to remind us all that no one is perfect. Writers and editors seldom mike serous misteaks (oops!), but when they do, they often repeat the prayer of Nehemiah: “Remember me, O my God, concerning this, and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God, and for the offices thereof” (Nehemiah 13:14). In other words, please judge me by my better work and not by  my editorial foibles and oversights.

PS: Someone recently posited that as this texting generation writes its history, it will feature misspelled words and have no punctuation.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Books

Pre-Christmas SALE !

Here are two hard copy books that make great gifts for pastors, Bible college students, young ministers, and inquisitive laymembers.

Why do Apostlics…?

by J. R. Ensey
Some younger men have called for reasons that specific holiness standards appear in the UPCI Manual. They were not around when the issues were debated and passed in conferences. It is easier in today’s cultural climate to give up the fight than to take the time to find out why Apostolic Pentecostals believe what we do. Here are 224 pages of some common sense, Word-based answers for our Apostolic positions.
Chapters:

• Why do Apostolics embrace the Bible as the Word of God?

• Why do Apostolics teach monotheism?

• Why do Apostolics receive the Holy Spirit and speak in tongues?

• Why do Apostolics disengage from a worldly lifestyle?

• Why do Apostolics abandon or avoid harmful personal practices?

• Why do Apostolics choose modest apparel and shun ornamental
jewelry?

• Why do Apostolic ladies refrain from cutting their hair and wearing
cosmetics?

• Why do Apostolics live with a blessed hope?

“Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander” (I Peter 3:15,16).

Regular price $12.95 Sale price $9.95  While they last!

To Order Click on Title or call 936-537-0250

A Hill To Die On

by J. R. Ensey
Is truth worth dying for? If so, which truth? Which doctrine? This book suggests that there are some things worth risking our reputations, our resources, and perhaps our lives for. Six months ago we would never have thought we would be where we are today as a nation. The Christian faith is rapidly being dismembered and deconstructed to make way for Islam. The rush of endtime prophecy fulfillment should stiffen the backbone of every Christian and make us realize there will be a price to pay for our faith. The nine chapters include:

– A Hill To Die On

– Truth in an Age of Deception

– Unity in an Age of Division

– Righteousness in an Age of Hedonism

– The Church in an Age of Spirituality

– Absolutes in an Age of Relativism

– God and Government

– Is American Christianity Returning to the Social Gospel?

– Our Finest Hour

Regular price $12.95 Sale price $9.95   While they last!

To Order Click on Title or call 936-537-0250

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Reminders…lest we forget

“Modesty is not only an ornament, but also a guard to virtue.”  –  Joseph Addison

A poverty of soul invites surrender to the enemies of the cross. – Anonymous

“The language of truth is unadorned and always simple.” – Ammianus Marcellinus

“In skating over thin ice, our safety is our speed.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“He must have a strong belief in the trustworthy message he was taught; then he will be able to encourage others with wholesome teaching and show those who oppose it where they are wrong” (Titus 1:9 NLT).

“Blind belief in authority is the greatest enemy of truth.” – Albert Einstein

“Pain has a way of revealing who you really are and what you really believe. Pain doesn’t destroy your faith; it simply exposes it.” – Lina Abujamra in Fractured Faith

“Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward” (II John 1:8).

“Once a government is committed to the principle of licensing the voice of opposition, it has only one way to go, and that is down the path of increasingly repressive measures, until it becomes a source of terror to all its citizens and creates a country where everyone lives in fear.” – President Harry S. Truman, special message to the Congress, August 8, 1950.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Our first loyalty

When I read of Absalom’s rebellion against David, it makes me shudder. In that case, deserved loyalty was laid aside for self-aggrandizement and power. However, if David had been a tyrant and was attempting to turn Israel from God, then Absalom may have been justified if his efforts were directed toward returning the kingdom to righteousness. A higher loyalty would have been exhibited in such a situation.

All men have to decide where to place their loyalties. Our first and highest loyalty is owed to Jesus Christ, His gospel, and His Word, not to any earthly individual or entity. If someone or something to which we have an attachment, including our local church, our pastor, or ministerial organization, is faithful to those elements and also to their founding principles, then they deserve our genuine loyalty. If such faithfulness is not in evidence, however, a question arises as to the level of loyalty that should be extended. No individual or association is owed loyalty when faithfulness to scriptural truth and basic ethics has been abandoned. When some insist that loyalty must be extended regardless of what the entity or its leaders do, they are misguided. Blind loyalty to a friend or mentor who has departed from the faith is spiritually dangerous.

In a national sense, I believe there may be a sufficient measure of loyalty to America’s constitution and its founding principles left in enough of us to make a difference in the election next month. But only if we speak of our values to others and then get out and VOTE!

♦♦♦♦♦♦

And now…a word from the artists:

 

I believe someone stole my artwork from my first grade home room and built this beauty! I may sue.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

 Last Words

“The will of the majority must prevail, but for that will to be right it must be reasoned. …Every government degenerates when trusted to the rulers of the people alone. The people themselves, therefore, are its only safe depositories.”  – Thomas Jefferson (1781)

Don’t forget to VOTE! We will see what the will of the people turns out to be. May it be well-reasoned and based on common sense.

Thanks for visiting. I trust everyone survived Halloween.

God bless!

JREnsey

Published in: on November 1, 2022 at 12:04 AM  Leave a Comment  

JREnsey blog for October 2022

Thanks for visiting the JREnsey blog for October 2022! We welcome all of our new readers!

The Word for today

“Then the people said, “Come on, let’s plot a way to stop Jeremiah. We have plenty of priests and wise men and prophets. We don’t need him to teach the word and give us advice and prophecies. Let’s spread rumors about him and ignore what he says” (Jeremiah 18:18 NLT).

It’s strange that the more things change, the more they stay the same.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Does biblical authenticity depend on identical wording?

I recently asked my wife who approaches genius status with computers, along with the thousand other things she does well, to put all the words of Jesus into a single document. So she took the KJV and selected the words that appear in red letters and promptly handed them to me in a single document. [I know you guys say the same of your own wife, but I just happened to have lucked out and got the best of the crop born in the 1940s.]

There are many events and spoken words recorded in the Four Gospels. The first thought that comes to mind when you read them on a printed sheet side by side is how they varied in word selection and details. How did this happen when all of them were inspired by the same Author? Does this detract from their authenticity?

Absolutely not. When you think about it, authenticity is in some ways enhanced. How can that be? Let’s take a closer look. Three factors stand out to me as I note the slight variation in the texts of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

1) None of them contradicts the others. If four men were speaking from their own knowledge or memory, such harmonization would be highly unlikely. The level of accuracy in the records tells us that inspiration had to be involved for four different men with divergent backgrounds, writing in different locales yet with no contradictions. That fact provides another reason to trust the Bible. Some skeptics like to say that any differences in the texts indicate errors by the original writers. Sorry, that dog won’t hunt.

2) Certain information and details are provided in one Gospel that may not be in others because of the varying needs for particular emphases. For instance, Matthew will sometimes insert details that would be more relevant to Jewish readers than Luke’s targeted Gentile readers, as in the sign placed on the cross of Christ. Differences appear in stories like the Gadarene men (Matthew) or man (Mark and Luke) tending swine. If Matthew says there were two men from the tombs who came out to confront Jesus, but Mark and Luke mention only one, how many really did come of the tombs? Two. The fact that Mark and Luke only tell the story of one may suggest that only one of the two men responded to Jesus and was delivered.

3) The variations show us that syntax and linguistic features were not as important as the conveyance of the true meaning of what was said. Jesus often quoted from the Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible even though it might say the same thing in a slightly different way from the actual Hebrew text. Jesus called that Greek Septuagint text from which He had just quoted “Scripture” (Luke 4:21), although it reads a little differently from the Hebrew text used in the KJV Bibles. The admonition of Paul seems to convey the sense that meaning trumps words or their order in a sentence order (I Timothy 6:4). When the words of the law were read, other knowledgeable men were present who “gave the sense” (Nehemiah 8:8) in the interest of “understanding.”

The authenticity of the NT is not based on each of the Gospel writers penning their thoughts with identical words. With each describing the same event, quoting the same sermon or admonition, but seeing a different view through the lens of their own divinely appointed purpose, they succeeded in conveying the necessary details for their readers. The Lord chose those particular writers in order to achieve that purpose. Each had his own focus. Each was correct in the autographs. Trust the Bible.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Goodbye, “Mom” and “Dad”

The U.S. military continues its woke walk, but it is turning into a run. Soldiers are now being required to ask other soldiers what gender they are so they can use preferred pronouns. According to a U.S. Air Force Academy publication: “Now we’re instructing every cadet entering the Air Force to not say mom and dad, to not say boyfriend or girlfriend, and this kind of drive towards gender neutrality,” he said. “I think the Air Force should be worried about the macro aggressions against America that are happening all over the world.” Yes, failure to acknowledge “gender neutrality” is a much bigger threat than China, Russia, Iran, ISIS, or the invasion at the Southern border. Right?

Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., a Green Beret and Afghan War veteran, pointed out during an interview with Fox News Digital that “it’s been a tradition in the military to get letters from mom and dad or your boyfriend and girlfriend for as long as there’s been a military.” No more. “Mom” is verboten. Nixed. Taboo. Canceled. Just call her a “caregiver.” And drop “Dad” for “guardian” or something other than male-sounding Dad/Father. Is this another step in the disconnection of children from their birth mothers and fathers so manipulation becomes simpler? Must offsprings now think of themselves more as wards of the state rather than part of a family? Isn’t that the goal of socialism?

It doesn’t stop there. The Academy is promoting the Brooke Owens Fellowship at the training facility that describes itself thusly: “If you are a cisgender woman, a transgender woman, non-binary, agender, bigender, two-spirit, demigender, genderfluid, genderqueer, or another form of gender minority, this program is for you,” the application states. “If you are a cisgender man [read: real man], this program isn’t for you.” Hmmmm…we were told diversity is our strength.

Where is the “diversity” emphasis going to take Christianity? Your wildest guess may be closest to the real truth. Melding with the cultural philosophy didn’t bless the family of Lot. Will we someday knock on a door and when a green-skinned person with typical hands opens, will we say, “Oops, sorry—we were canvassing for six-fingered blue folks”?

“Colorblindness” is not the objective of today’s movers and shakers—its “color consciousness.” This cannot turn out well. Why can’t we take people as they come, as we meet them, as we encounter them in workplaces, in stores and restaurants, homes or anywhere and be able to present them with the good news of eternal life in Christ and invite them to our church?

Those who fail to see where they are going usually fall into a ditch.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Christianity is not self-perpetuating

In 1854 the United States Congress said, “The Congress of the United States recommends and approves the Holy Bible for use in our schools.” – Source: Congressional Record: Proceedings and Debates of the 108th Congress

In the mid-1950s Christianity and faith were peaking in America. Better than half of the population was in a church or synagogue on a typical weekend. Our high school had a student chaplain who prayed at all assemblies. Prayer was made before every football game and at all banquets. Converted during the summer after my junior year, I took my Bible to school every day as a senior. We had Bible discussions between classes, during study hall, on the school grounds—anywhere. It was never discouraged.

What a difference from today. To even show a Bible through the netting of a backpack may get a student sent home because it might “offend” someone, or make another student feel “threatened.” Certainly no prayers are offered to kick off assemblies or sporting events. A coach can be fired if he prays with his team. Parents have been too quiet about this, letting it go without notice or complaint. They even fear reprisals if a student speaks of Christian training in his or her home. Student are now seen as belonging more to the schools and the teachers than to the parents. This gives them a free reign to turn them toward any cultural quirkiness they desire. If parents complain to the school board, they are declared to be terrorists or worse by the teacher’s union.

So what? Let them rail against us. This is still a “Christian” majority country. We still have basic rights (I think). If we don’t use them, we will lose them! Teach your kids at home. Don’t leave it all to the church. Have nightly family devotions. Again, Christianity is not self-perpetuating. It is not caught like a virus. It is not passed along through food, or picked up from surfaces in kitchens or restrooms. Purposeful transference of the faith is the only way we can halt the slide into agnosticism and Christless socialism.

Don’t just have it or keep it, pass it on—instill it!

♦♦♦♦♦♦

A little TIC: What to do before the FBI drops by

CHARLOTTE, NC — Local housewife Shawna Coleman worked diligently all afternoon cleaning every baseboard in the house, intent that her home would look tidy if the FBI dropped in for a raid.

“I would be so humiliated if special agents searched my home and found it full of dust,” said Mrs. Coleman. “And what if they published pictures of my floors in the Washington Post? I better run the vacuum again.”

Having once attended a school board meeting, Mrs. Coleman figures a raid on her home is only a matter of time. “I have started setting out cookies at night as well. I’m sure they’ll be hungry after all their raiding!” said Mrs. Coleman. “It all started with liking this Facebook post about how schools needed to re-open during the COVID lockdowns. I wound up going to a school board meeting and next thing you know, there are three unmarked vans on my street and every guy on the block is wearing a Lacoste shirt and Ray-Bans. So, I’m trying to get the house all fixed up before they come in.”

Despite his protests, Mr. Coleman has again been roped into helping clean the baseboards. “Why? Why the baseboards? Every time someone comes over,” grumbled Mr. Coleman as he worked. “At least this time, there’s some chance the people coming over will be looking in the upstairs closet. Soon as this raid is over, I’m designing walls and floors that don’t have baseboards. What woman started this neurotic obsession with baseboards? Some mother-in-law looking to annoy a happy couple, no doubt.”

At publishing time, the FBI agents reported that the cookies were delicious and repeatedly expressed to Mrs. Coleman that it was the nicest home they had ever ransacked.

The Babylon Bee 9/11/22 (Sorry, this was just too funny not to pass on!)

♦♦♦♦♦♦

She did have a keen mind and a way with words

“I know of no single formula for success. But over the years I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm and their inspiration to work together.” – Queen Elizabeth II

“I wish that the Lord would come in my lifetime,” the Queen once said. “Why?” asked the chaplain. She replied with quivering lips and whole countenance lighted up by deep emotion: “I should so love to lay my crown at his feet.”

Over seven decades as queen, the longest reign of any previous monarch, she never made a major misstep or created a scandal that I am aware of. Her husband, Prince Philip, passed away only last year at the age of 99.  Elizabeth’s queenship was extraordinary. She confidently met with many heads of state over the years and rendered helpful advice to those who actually made political decisions for the British government.

And didn’t you just love those colorful, matching hats?

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Potpourri: read and said

  • Currently, less than 1% of the 250 million cars on American roads are EVs, and yet these owners are already being asked to not charge their electric cars during peak electric usage hours to keep from straining the electric grid. This is a disaster waiting to happen. When 90% of California cars are EVs, catastrophe can only result. But China will be smiling.
  • Americans are now paying $450 a month more for the same items you spent your money for last year. Think about that before you check a box in November.
  • Someone has suggested this for a new law: If you sneak into America illegally, you will NEVER become a citizen and NEVER get any special benefits. No exceptions!
  • When police are killed in the line of duty, I always hear the same sentiments: “They knew the risk when they took the job.” Shouldn’t the same understanding be expressed when violent criminals are killed during shootouts or confrontations with police?
  • Seen on the back window of a car: “I was once willing to give my life for what I believed this country stood for. Today I’d give my life to protect my family from what this country has become.”
  • Seen on a billboard: Trump may have hurt your feelings, but Biden is hurting your family, your finances, and your freedom.
  • Is it true that we live in a time when intelligent people are being silenced so stupid people won’t be offended?
  • If athletes can’t bet on games they can influence, why do we let members of congress invest in companies they can “bless” or “curse” through legislation?
  • Is it true that we are more focused on being a part of the world than speaking truth into it?

♦♦♦♦♦♦

In case you haven’t heard

Gun and ammo purchases by credit card will be coded. According to Steve Bittenbender at thecentersquare.com, the international organization responsible for creating merchant category codes for credit card purchases has given its approval to establish one for transactions made at gun stores. This apparently comes after “New York Attorney General Letitia James and California Attorney General Rob Bonta sent a letter to chief executives at American Express, Mastercard and Visa, urging them to support a merchant category code. They were joined on Wednesday morning by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul, who tweeted in support of an MCC.” In other words, Big Brother wants to know who has guns and ammo so they will know exactly what to look for in your home when the time comes. Some Republican congressmen are calling for a reversal of this policy.

Read about it here:

https://www.thecentersquare.com/new_york/gun-ammunition-purchases-by-credit-card-will-be-coded

♦♦♦♦♦♦

The potential mark is here

Two articles were published recently regarding the implantation of microchips in human hands, particularly those of children.

The World Economic Forum has laid out “solid, rational reasons” to implant microchips in kids. [www.childrenshealthdefense.org] by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D.

Claiming “augmented reality” technology “has the ability to transform society and individual lives,” the World Economic Forum (WEF) recently suggested there are “solid, rational and ethical” reasons to consider implanting children with microchips.

According to an article published this month on the WEF website, “Implant technologies could become the norm in the future” and they “form part of a natural evolution that wearables once underwent.”

The article’s author, Kathleen Philips, said there are “compelling” arguments in favor of microchipping humans.

The potential benefits of these “amazing technologies,” Philips said, are endless — limited only by “ethical arguments” rather than “scientific capacity.”

Dismissing arguments that such expectations are “unattainable,” Philips said, “We’re already making the first strides towards an ‘augmented society,'” citing fitness-tracking apps on smartphones as part of an evolution “from health care to ‘well care.'”

Advancing technologies are bringing us ever closer to the ways the Antichrist will have to choose from in order to dominate the populace left on earth after the Rapture.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

There are no other books like these:

The New Cyclopedic Theological Dictionary  [eBook]

by J. R. Ensey
The only reference volume based on the biblical, Apostolic viewpoint! Compiled and written by J. R. Ensey.
When you want to know the meaning of a theological term, or the description of a religious movement, or the definition of over a thousand terms that are found in reference works and the Bible…turn to The New Cyclopedic Theological Dictionary!

Contains:
– Over 1000 entries
– Definitions and descriptions of many Bible words, theological terms, and religious movements
– 486 pages of easy-to-read, easy-to-use information
– The only reference volume of its kind! Written from a conser vative, apostolic viewpoint, this classic work has enhanced the study habits of thousands of ministers and laymen.

“This dictionary is far more than a word study; it is replete with the background and history of many doctrinal positions and teachings. It also serves as a standard for testing the validity of different theories—an invaluable tool!”
-Dr. Marvin Treece

AM Price $12.95

Searching the Scriptures  [eBook]

by J. R. Ensey

A number of years ago, I embarked on a journey to learn more about the actual text of the Bible. I wanted to know how it came to us in the present form. The research took me to libraries both here and abroad, the Internet, discussions with textual scholars, and the perusal of many books (a weariness of the flesh), and earnest prayer. I wanted to know the truth about the Bible we trust.

This largely polemic volume takes on the shallow claims of those who insist that only one 400-year old English translation—produced with pre-set biased rules, few resources, by Anglican clergy who did not fully understand that the New Testament was written in Koine rather than classical Greek—should be viewed as “the only Bible.” Finding truth behind the manuscripts, the texts and translations is a worthy objective that will build your faith in the Scriptures, not destroy it.

Searching the Scriptures: Merging Truth, Texts and Translations is the result of that effort. It puts the early English Bibles, including the KJV, in perspective where they can be evaluated with contemporary translations by the sciences of papyrology, textual analysis, and linguistics. No doctrines are lost or created in the process.

If you have questions about the ancient manuscripts, the Greek texts, the differences in the Textus Receptus, the Majority Text, and the Critical Text, or the translations that are available today, you will find some help here. What about the words or phrases in some translations that are not there in the 16th and 17th century versions or vice versa? You will find the answers in this book.

Includes charts, comparisons of Bible translations, and other addenda that you will find helpful in the study of the Scriptures.

Apostolics, of all people, have no need to fear truth. The more one learns about the Bible, the more it is respected and trusted.

AM Price $14.95

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Expressing the way we are

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Last Words

Thomas Sowell just keeps saying relevant stuff. We should listen carefully when wise men speak. “You cannot subsidize irresponsibility and expect people to become more responsible. …We seem to be getting closer and closer to a situation where nobody is responsible for what they did but we are all responsible for what somebody else did.” PatriotPost.us 9/2/22

Our prayers and condolences go out to our brothers and sisters in Florida and beyond who have sustained losses in hurricane Ian.

As the leaves begin to fall, may the church begin to rise. Have a great soul winning October.

God bless!

JREnsey

Published in: on October 1, 2022 at 7:27 AM  Comments (3)  

JREnsey blog September 2022

Greetings to our new readers and our faithful regulars!

The Word for today

“Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors i would give them. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do” (Joshua 1:6-7).

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Satan, do your worst…

…and we will do our best!

It appears, and some pundits and media outlets have confirmed it, that war has been declared against Christianity in ours and many other nations. War is not a pleasant thought, particularly when you recognize that it is waged against you and your religious faith. However, I am encouraged when I am reminded of another war and one of its greatest heroes—Britain’s Prime Minister Winston Churchill.

His island nation had been under attack from Nazi Germany for over a year. Adolph Hitler had decided to bomb England into surrender and submission by reducing London and other major cities to rubble rather than invading it with an army. Britain’s families spending time in underground bunkers became a virtual way of life. It was as if gigantic Goliath was hurling spears and swinging swords at a David-sized nation across the English Channel.

Time and again Churchill took to the air waves to rally his people to stand fast against the Nazi aggressors. His way with words and his powerful, motivating speeches virtually saved the British people from becoming an extension of Germany. Churchill had chutzpah—guts, nerve, audacity, arrogance, boldness—and it was all contagious. The British people caught it.

He warned Hitler that if they did invade from ships or the skies, “We will fight on the beaches, we will fight on the landing grounds…We shall fight in the streets and in the fields…We shall NEVER surrender!” And he meant it!

On one dark day after the rockets had fallen and the Stuka dive bombers had screamed their death from the sky, Churchill shook his fist at Hitler and the German war machine and cried in a voice that spoke for all his nation: “We will have no truce or parley with you, or the grisly gang who work your wicked will. You do your worst and we will do our best!”

Hitler’s worst couldn’t match England’s best, just as Goliath’s worst couldn’t match David’s best.

I feel like saying to all of our readers—pastors, leaders, and laymen alike—the enemy of our souls may have declared all-out war on Christian believers because he knows his time is limited, but let us rise up with one voice and say to him: “We will fight in our homes, we will fight in our schools, we will fight in our churches…We will fight in our worship, we will fight in our prayer rooms, we will fight in our pews, we will fight in our altars, we will fight on our feet and on our kneesWE will NEVER surrender!”

Satan, you do your worstwe will do our best! And God will give us the ultimate victory!

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Does the NKJV complicate Bible language?

The New King James Bible (NKJV) gets a bad rap from strict KJV advocates because it uses a word in Song of Solomon that is unfamiliar to many Western readers. For instance, they claim the NKJV and others are more difficult to read in part because of the use of “palanquin” in Song of Solomon 3:9. Many of us in the West have never seen one so it was easier to relate to the KJV rendering of the word as “a chariot.”

The KJV translators, who were better at Latin than Hebrew, were apparently unfamiliar with this Hebrew word since it was used only once in the Bible. Appiryon was not a chariot, however, which would have wheels and be drawn by horses. Elsewhere in the OT, “chariot[s]” is usually derived from some form of the noun merkaba.

The publishers of the NKJV, however, were accurately rendering the Hebrew word into English. The word “palanquin” is used by many versions to translate the Hebrew term appiryon in S. of S. 3:9: “King Solomon made himself a palanquin of the wood of Lebanon” (ASV); “King Solomon has made for himself a palanquin From the [cedar] wood of Lebanon” (AMP); “Of the wood of Lebanon Solomon the King made himself a palanquin” (NKJV). Others render it similarly (ASV, NRSV, etc.).

A palanquin is a box-like conveyance for one passenger, usually carried on two horizontal poles by four or six bearers. They were made to transport kings or other important persons so they would not have to walk. These are still used in some places in the East. The Orthodox Jewish Bible renders the verse this way: “HaMelech Sh’lomo made himself an appiryon (palanquin, mobile throne carried on a litter on the shoulders of men) of the wood of the Levanon [sic].” This is the only reference in the Bible to such a conveyance.

The usage of “palanquin” does not represent a complication of the Bible’s language making it more difficult to read. It is just that we Westerners are not accustomed to seeing such devices on our streets or hearing about them. The rendering is incorporated to better express what was actually meant by the original Hebrew term. Other names for the device are “sedan…sedan chair…covered litter” used in some translations.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Mother of all scams

Back around 1970 we were warned by climate alarmists that a new ice age was coming. When that was not obvious to anyone and did not fit well with the new narrative, they changed to global warming, and then to “climate change,” and today to a “global climate emergency.” All designed, of course, to destroy the capitalist economy of America and bend it toward totalitarianism.

The biggest names in the climate emergency scam has been Al Gore, Barack Obama, and now Joe Biden. In the face of their claims of a dangerous rise in sea level, Obama and Al Gore both bought mansions on the beaches of Massachusetts and California, respectively. Joe Biden’s beach house in Delaware (left) is due for a high security fence costing almost a half million dollars, paid for by you and me. A wall for him, but not for the country.

The shameless hypocrisy of saying one thing then acting and living in a totally different way amounts to nothing less than a political scam. Check out the two websites below. You be the judge.

 

https://www.scienceunderattack.com/blog/2019/9/23/no-evidence-that-climate-change-is-accelerating-sea-level-rise-35

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Isn’t it true…?

…that it’s the parents’ job to ensure that their children grow up to be stable, self-confident, mentally healthy individuals—including building a solid connection between mind and body? Generic pronouns, a pliable identity and sterilizing drugs are total destruction of those things. Also if you have to have a uterus to have an opinion on reproductive rights, then I guess you have to own a gun to have an opinion on gun rights. – Outspoken Sam

…that if inflation was at 0% in July and was under control as the president said, we really didn’t need the “Inflation Reduction Act”?

…that one doesn’t  have to operate with great malice to do great harm? The absence of empathy and understanding are sufficient.” – Charles Blow

...that “We all have our time machines, don’t we? Those that take us back are memories…and those that carry us forward, are dreams.” – H. G. Wells

…that if something like the Trump raid on a political opponent would have happened during his administration, the streets would have been full of rioters, police cars would be burning, and mayors would be calling for the National Guard? The differences are so obvious.

…that in an empire of lies, truth is treason? – Patriot Post

…that China is teaching their kids quantum physics and calculus while America’s kids are learning new gender specific pronouns and how to twerk like a drag queen? This cannot turn out well.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

SSRIs and the “chemical imbalance” fraud

For years we have warned those who are “diagnosed” with depression due to a “chemical imbalance” in the brain were being duped by the pharmaceutical industry. Follow the money. We told the story and backed up the contention in our book titled The Couch and the Cross. Many outstanding and well-known psychiatrists whom we quoted were ignored by people who were sure that the other psychiatrists and psychologists who were in the money-receiving chain from big pharma were correct. Millions of people (1 in every six Americans), mostly women, were convinced that their “feelings” were due to “depression” (broadly defined to include nearly everyone who sees a psychologist or counselor) and that Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) antidepressants were their cure.

The pharmaceutical companies saw this as their pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Brand names like Zoloft, Prozac, Paxil and many others became popular overnight. People were told they had to stay on them for months in order to really determine their benefit. Of course, by that time they were virtually hooked, believing that they were being cured or made to “feel” better by their use, most electing to stay on them for fear of a return of their old feelings of “depression.” Never mind the uptick in the suicide rate, the rise in the divorce rate, or mass shootings credited to mind-altering drugs. By that time circumstances that had evoked feelings of depression had often changed, but the pills got at least partial credit for other “feelings.”

But what about those who say they were helped by these drugs? Trials are conducted with the use of placebos (pills without actual medicine in them) and many say they were helped by them also. In other words, they convinced themselves that they received benefit from the worthless pill. They same thing happens when people take these particular drugs. Some convince themselves that they are being “cured.” Some may actually experience temporary personality/behavioral changes. Doctors do not know how these medicines will affect an individual who takes them. It usually takes some time (weeks or months) to determine a result. That is why the labels are forced to include such statements as “may cause thoughts of suicide” and other dangerous outcomes.

Windfall profits sent hundreds of lobbyists to Washington DC to make sure that legislation to protect big pharma was always a priority with lawmakers. The money also could pay handsomely for studies favorable to their theories. They also kept the money flowing to doctors who were willing to prescribe their products without extensive examinations.

Lately, however, more serious studies have surfaced that have shined new light on the truth. I suggest that those who are on SSRIs be objective enough to read one of the latest studies that show that the theory behind them is flawed. Don’t treat this as professional advice to stop taking a drug immediately. Just read. Look before you leap. One study is called “The Serotoniin Theory of Depression.” The website link is https://www.nature.com/articles/s41380-022-01661-0.

The book The Couch and the Cross is still available as an eBook. Order at the advanceministries.org/books website or email raensey@gmail.com, or call 936-537-0250. Only 9.95.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Mennonites drink the Kool-Aid while Simons spins

The Mennonite Church USA has adopted a policy of “inclusion” that permits their ministers to perform gay marriages, and embraces the LGBTQ+ lifestyle, recognizing their “spiritual gifts,” even apologizing to them for the “harm” done to them in the past by previous policies. While they were at it, they adopted a congregational curriculum that included defunding the police and the promotion of an anti-Israeli agenda. That is what can happen when theological liberals assume leadership in religious bodies.

Let’s see…what or who else might be embraced in a policy of “inclusion.” Adulterers? Murderers? Idolators? Why not? The “Society of Occasional Adulterers” may seek representation. Or “The Association of Holy Assassins,” or even OPABL—”Organization of People Against Biblical Lies.” Apparently those groups need acceptance, welcoming, and understanding.

While the modern trend and emphasis is on “inclusion,” Bible believers might note that God and Paul also embraced a policy of exclusion, which listed homosexual activity right along with murder, witchcraft, idolatry, theft, and extortion. Unrepentant practitioners of such acts would not inherit the kingdom of God (I Corinthians 6:8-10; Galatians 5:19-21). Apostolics who hold the same position didn’t write the Bible. They just teach what it says. But once a local church or religious organization starts down the road of making sure that all diverse segments of the population are accepted and “included” on church rolls, there is no turning back or stopping place. Pastors and Christian leaders have to split with the culture or with the Bible.

Unless I miss my guess, Menno Simons (1496-1561), the Anabaptist founder of the church named for him, is not just turning over in his grave, but is twisting, even spinning.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

For word addicts only:

  1. Of all the inventions of the last 100 years, the dry erase board has to be the most remarkable.
  2. If you’re up at night while the cows are asleep in the field, that means it’s pasture bedtime.
  3. Did you hear about the guy that evaporated? He’ll be mist.
  4. What do you call a cow with a twitch? Beef Jerky.
  5. Did you hear about the truck transporting steaks that got into a wreck? Some car T-Boned it.
  6. Which knight of the round table was the beefiest? Sir Loin.
  7. What happened to the lost beef shipment? Nobody’s herd.
  8. What has five toes but isn’t your foot? My foot.
  9. Accidentally burned dinner on the grill. Mis-steaks were made.
  10. How do you get a farm girl to marry you? First, a tractor.

UGH! How can you word addicts stomach that stuff?

♦♦♦♦♦♦

 Books

The Couch and The Cross eBook

by J. R. Ensey
This book exposes the psychology and pharmaceutical conglomerate’s inroads into Christianity. It answers many of the questions people have about counseling in general and Christian counseling in particular. The Word and Spirit of God are set forth as sufficient to the true healing of the soul. Drugs and other chemicals may affect physical ailments and change moods artificially, but true deliverance and spiritual wholeness always come through Christ and His Word.
AM Price $9.95  To order, click on the title above.

♦♦♦♦♦♦

 Babies have a better way of saying it

♦♦♦♦♦♦

Last Words

Trust the babies. They seem unbiased and wise beyond their years!

God bless!

JREnsey

Published in: on September 1, 2022 at 6:10 AM  Leave a Comment