Welcome! Cool your heels here for a few minutes. Thanks for visiting.
The Word for today
“Acquitting the guilty and condemning the innocent—both are detestable to the LORD” (Proverbs 17:15 NLT).
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Another school massacre…Where was God?
Through a fountain of tears that question surfaced immediately after the Uvalde school shooting, just as it has after every other human-perpetrated catastrophe in the last one hundred years. Why? Where is God when such awful things are transpiring amid His creation?
Doubtless that question was asked when babies and small children died under the hand of Pharaoh (Exodus 1) and when Herod had 
all babies under two years old slain in the time of Jesus’ birth (Matthew 2). Where was He when the Romans sacked Jerusalem and leveled the Temple? Or when the Christians were being persecuted and slaughtered during the first three centuries of this era?
Where was He when children were being sacrificed on Aztec and Mayan temple altars? Was He on vacation during WWI when 20 million perished in that conflagration? Where was He when six million Jews died horrendous deaths at the hands of the Nazis during WWII? What about Vietnam and 911? Columbine? Sandy Hook? And now Uvalde?
Doesn’t a good, kind and loving God exist to prevent such unconscionable events from occurring?
No.
God is allowing all to see what an unconverted mind/heart* can conceive and do without the benefit of spiritual transformation (Colossians 1:21). The darker the expression of human depravity, the sharper the contrast between the unconverted mind and one transformed by the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 4:22-24). God does not exist to merely prevent human tragedy. “God created man upright but he hath sought out many inventions” (Ecclesiastes 7:29). All the responsibility is our own. Man’s mind, through Satan’s influence, has led him astray. God offers us “a new and living way” (Hebrews 10:20), but most ignore the invitation to that path (Matthew 7:13). 
God will not erase the line between good and evil. We must recognize the evil in ourselves and repent.
Barbarism will increase until Jesus, the Prince of Peace, returns to establish a government devoid of Satan and the iniquity that we see so prevalent in our world today. It will not be run by cognitively deficient men or the politically corrupt. He Himself will rule with a rod of iron (Revelation 2:21; 12:5; 19:15). Peace will prevail for 1000 years (Revelation 20:2-4), ending with the release of Satan to again tempt and corrupt the minds of men. Mankind will once more challenge God’s authority only to be completely and finally defeated (Revelation 20:7-10).
We can then relax without one worry about war, violence, or school shootings. “Even so, come, Lord Jesus” (Revelation 22:20).
* The human heart is simply an organ that circulates blood to the rest of the body. It is the mind, seated in the brain, where emotions and desires are formed and expressed, and where decisions are made, and movements are directed. It is the mind that is converted by faith and obedience (Romans 12:2; John 3:5; Acts 2:38).
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Jonathan Edwards’ awakening sermon
The famous sermon by Jonathan Edwards that stoked the fires of America’s First Great Awakening has long been a topic of conversation. He titled it Sinners In the Hands Of An Angry God and preached it in the little square, two-story Second Meeting House in Enfield, CT in 1741. Perhaps many younger men have never read the sermon that helped change the course of Christianity in America and reversed the liberal leanings of the major universities of the time. The church is no longer there, but an engraved stone marks the place where the church once stood.
If you would like to read the complete word-for-word message that Edwards preached that day, you click on this link: https://www.advanceministries.org/articles/articlepages/sinners.htm
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In the shade of the oak of Shechem
This story from the pages of the Bible (Genesis 35:1-5) holds a number of powerful lessons for believers today. The setting is a large household, an extended family that is facing trouble, explained in the previous chapter. It is the family of the last Hebrews patriarch. Jacob and his sons find themselves in a situation that doesn’t look good for their future.
When challenging circumstances come along, what God prescribed for them is still good advice for us today: “Remember Bethel…Go back to the place where your walk with God commenced and what you did there to please God, do it again.”
Bethel was years ago, and lots of water had passed under the bridge, but the freshness that moment—when all was given to God and personal commitment was deepest and 
most sincere and a life-changing experience occurred—can be revived and recovered. Renewal is never really out of reach.
What happened at Bethel?
The 77-year old Jacob was on a 500-mile journey to find a wife in Mesopotamia. He did not want to marry a Canaanite woman, but one from among his mother’s people. Having nothing with him but his staff*, he came to a place to spend the night, choosing a rock for a pillow.
In the night, he dreamed of a ladder or a stairway that reached up to heaven, on which angels ascended and descended. At the top of it stood the Lord who informed him about his future, and about the land of Israel, and how he would be kept, giving him some astounding promises about his descendants and how they would bless all families of the earth.
When he awoke, he knew he had been visited by God—“Surely God is in this place!” There he made his promises and deep commitments to the Lord.
Back to the present
All of that was years ago now and here he was with his family, his servants, his flocks and all who accompanied him. And he and his household are in trouble with the rulers and people of this area. But there was also trouble among themselves. Since Bethel, heathen practices and the trappings—heathen inspired accoutrements—of the culture around them had attached themselves to Jacob and his family. To be ready to face the pressing problems of the immediate future, he needed to return to his roots, to godliness, to his 
first love. There must be a reckoning, a confession, and a burial
Genesis 35:1-4 contains the instructions from God to Jacob. Go back at the place where we first came into direct contact. There was a reckoning that was ahead for this crowd, all of Jacob’s family, servants, and hangers-on. They must recognize and confess the failures that invited the present crisis. The heathen practices and influences they had adopted had to be confronted and put away. All of those under the banner of Jacob’s colors had been affected by his lack of spiritual diligence.
Back to Bethel
So before he went back to Bethel, the place of his first love experiences, he needed to recognize his mistakes and compromises. He needed to confess that he had done wrong, that he had not made good on the long term promises he made at that rocky altar called Bethel. A burial of the accoutrements that do not belong to children of God. They must rid themselves of the little gods that could be carried in their hands, worn on their ears, or carried in their pockets.
He called his group together and said, “Get rid of your jewelry, dig out those little images that you have copped from the heathens of the land.” There in the shade of the oak of Shechem, they buried those things that identified them with the people who didn’t know God. Jacob knew he had to face the future with confidence, assurance, and peace of mind. What he did in the shade of that old oak tree made that a possibility.
When trouble troubles us, perhaps a reckoning with some attachments that may have come along since our conversion long ago would be in order. It might be that a confession 
and a burial of some things in our lives could also produce that same confidence, assurance and peace of mind. Give it a try. Go back to Bethel, to the place where you first found God to be real in your life. Renew your spiritual life.
Go there in your meditation, in your prayer, and in personal commitment. Go with a promise to live a little closer than you have been living.
What about your personal eternity? If Jesus tarries, ahead for each of us is the reality of tough circumstances and, eventually, the end of life. Before that time, let’s make another trip back to Bethel to renew our commitments made in that precious moment when we were first bathed in God’s holy presence.
This call will be neglected by the weak, the unsure will choose an alternative, the fearful will draw back, and the unprepared will simply give up. Don’t let that be you. (Revelation 2:5)
Only the wise will do the right thing. Be among them!
* An interesting sidelight: Most travelers and shepherds had a staff of substantial length. Tradition lists the length of Jacob’s staff at 7 feet long when it was first made. He still had it when he died, speaking his final words while leaning on it (Genesis 49).
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From runways to church aisles
Pastors dislike having to deal with fashion. They would rather just leave it up to fathers to guide the choices of styles displayed by the family. However, not every home has a father, and even if one is there he is often over-bothered by making such judgments. He may be bent toward letting mom decide such matters or is willing to say, “Oh, whatever….” So pastors have to be involved to some extent when styles cross a line. To gently guide parishioners, particularly youth, to the path of modesty is a never-ending struggle. A close reading of the epistle of Paul and Peter reveals that modesty involves more 
than having everything covered.
Now, with all the gender garbage that is coming down the pike, unisex and gender-neutral styles are the rage. Christian leaders have to stay informed or they will find youth and millennials following Calvin Klein rather than the apostle Paul. Whether we like it or not, we have deal with it. Shepherding is is not always a pristine occupation. Apostolic Christian godliness will never go out of style in God’s household.
Author Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell, writing in The Atlantic, notes that gender-neutral clothing is back in style, but the craze in many ways has mirrored broader social changes throughout the 20th century. You can read her informative article (not an endorsement of her position, just passing info) called A Brief History of Unisex Fashion here: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/04/when-unisex-was-the-new-black/390168/
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Strange, indeed
- Overnight the imbeciles who could not identify a woman without a biology degree became quite knowledgeable about the topic. One leak from the Supreme Court chamber turned the tide. From not knowing how to identify a woman, the leftist women gathered at statehouses across the country to denounce legislators who might remove their “right” to kill the baby in their wombs. Evidently each of them knew they were woman enough to conceive and bear children. One marvels at the ebb and flow of scientific knowledge.
- Saying that laws against abortion “force women to give birth” is like saying laws against murdering your five-year old force you to be a parent. (A.D. Marr) But, according to current knowledge in DC, on any given day no one there is aware exactly what makes babies. I guess there aren’t many biologists in the Capital. If they would quit doing whatever-it-is that makes babies out of wedlock, they wouldn’t have to worry about so many unwanted pregnancies.
- Almost as strange as the “what is a woman” puzzle among government hacks is the pressure to spend billions of dollars trying to figure out what these UFOs are. Give my
12-year old great grandson the money and he could probably tell you right away without a drawn out investigation. Choose one: Scam. Distraction. Money hole. Con artist’s dream. Conspiracy theorist’s addiction. Take your pick. Mine is all-of-the-above, particularly distraction. These grainy “photos” they show can probably be reproduced by a boy scout with a Kodak Brownie and a video camera from a Post Toasties box. That may be an overstatement but not much. They must have bought the cameras from a guy on Times Square with several of them in his inside coat pocket. Ridiculous visual “evidence” of this genre would never win a case in court. The one Fox News keeps showing has a background right out of Loony Tunes. Now they are going to spend $$$$$ to send pixilated drawings of men and women into space to try to attract aliens from other solar systems. Hey, if they are advanced enough to send space ships to earth, fly them in our atmosphere at unbelievable speeds without burning up, and then disappear suddenly, they are way beyond the pixilating stage of technology. They will equate all earthlings with Neanderthals and probably move on to scout for a more advanced civilization in the Orion constellation. In other words, it is a distraction from what is really going on. Watch my hand. - However, at this point, if I get abducted by aliens, it’s no longer an abduction; it’s a rescue mission!
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Here comes the monkeypox
This new virus was evidently prepared for when Covid-19 wore itself out. Bill Gates was on it back in 2017. Two vaccines were then made. Wuhan lab made a PCR test that will enable large numbers of false positives to again cause panic and vaccine mandates. Belgium has already ordered a mandatory monkeypox quarantine. You can make up your own mind about what this might mean to American life in general and churches in particular.
Here are four pieces of information you might find helpful.
https://rumble.com/v1643wt–may-25-2022-the-new-world-order-prepares-their-final-attack.html
Shock! Wuhan Lab Experimented on Monkeypox Just Before Outbreak (thenewamerican.com)
Wuhan lab published monkeypox PCR test info, February 2022, on Science Direct with PDF:
Belgium become firstcountry to introducecompulsory monkeypox quarantine
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WHO wants to control America
There is an egregious attempt to usurp American sovereignty by a crooked globalist entity—the WHO—which is essentially the UN. Biden intends to bind the USA to this unconstitutional agreement. There is a petition against it below for those interested.
The WHO director, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is a globalist and socialist malefactor. We cannot allow this to happen. If Biden unilaterally signs it, let’s pray that Congress will refuse to recognize it.
PETITION: Stop Tedros’ WHO Pandemic Treaty:
https://lifepetitions.com/petition/stop-tedros-who-pandemic-treaty?utm_source=lp_email
194 member states representing 99% of the world’s population are expected to sign pandemic treaties with the WHO that would allow Dr. Tedros, or any future Director General, to dictate exactly how your nation would respond to a new disease outbreak which they consider a pandemic.
This attack on national sovereignty will come as no surprise to those who for years have listened to elites like Klaus Schwab and Bill Gates discussing their vision for the centralization of power into globalist organizations like the World Economic Forum (WEF), the WHO and the rest of the United Nations.
This brand of globalism is merely a forerunner to the one-world system that will be installed by the Antichrist.
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Everyone knew it was a lie
Even the baristas at Starbucks. The guy changing my oil. My barber. Even the woman with a kid on her hip wading the shallows of the Rio Grande. Here’s the story:
Those who lie must remember that they must tell other false tales to prop up the first one. The string of lies regarding Trump and Russia may have cost Trump the close election in 2020. Now the truth surfaces and the Clintons and their team were the real pushers of the big lie. In a world of propaganda, the truth is always a conspiracy.
When will they finally be able to put Hillary Clinton behind bars? They should pay with jail time and huge fines. Those at the top tiers of power need to pay when they break the law just as those at the lowest level of criminal activity. If they do lock her up, those who turn the key might suffer the same fate as those who tossed the three Hebrew men in the king’s fiery furnace. Her enemies have a way of passing on early.
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Books
Faith In The Furnace (eBook)
by J. R. Ensey
When pain racks the body, or 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.
AM Price $6.95
The Best of E. L. Holley (eBook)
Compiled by J. R. Ensey
E. L. Holley was a man of unique abilities. An astute observer of human nature, he could communicate truth in an inimitable style that you could never forget. His ministry touched the lives of thousands of people over the years. Here are dozens of some of the best articles he left with us.
AM Price $9.95
Adorning the Doctrine (Only 21 copies left)
by J. R. Ensey
This book’s four sections deals with doctrine and spirituality, doctrine and the Book of Acts, doctrine and “three mentions,” and curbing the influx of false doctrine. For truth seekers only.
AM Price $4.95
ORDER books at advanceministries.org/store or call 936-537-0250. Click on book title to go directly to that book.
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MEMES say it so well
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Distilled wisdom
• Sin will take you farther than you wanted to go, keep you longer than you wanted to stay, and cost you more than you wanted to pay.
• As individual fingers can be easily broken, together we make a mighty fist.
• Liberal logic: A single cell organism on Mars would be life, but a human baby in a woman’s body isn’t.
• Gun control is like trying to reduce drunk driving by making it harder for sober people to own cars.
• Satan is a liar, and it is amazng what some people will listen to and how a situation can get so twisted.
• The difference in liberals and conservatives: Liberals see everyone equal at the finish line; conservative see everyone equal at the starting line.
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Last Words
“As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words but to live by them,” said the late President John F. Kennedy.
The late Ron Oliver commented on Kennedy’s statement: “He had a pretty good ghost writer. Seems to me James said something along the same lines.”
Have a safe and blessed June!
JREnsey
JREnsey Blog 
Thank you for your continuing insights.