Month: July 2023

The End Times, The Church, and The Seven Mountains

The Seven Mountains is a Lance Wallnau thing. Since he brought all this up on The Lance Wallnau Show on RAV, I’ll offer some random thoughts on his commentary.

If I understood Lance correctly, he was saying the return of Christ has more to do with the Church (or the Body of Christ) than what this government or that media outlet or some technology does. Moreover he emphasized how important it is for Christians to spread out and take territory on each of these mountains. In part he issued a caveat about depending leaders in the Church or in politics to be the tip of the spear.

The example of Church leadership was one I found fascinating as I nodded my head in agreement. He spoke of pastors of small and large churches whose whole focus was on growing their church rather than preparing parishioners to spread out into the world.

Now I don’t see this in every church, in fact, one church my wife and I were involved in, “The Vineyard”, was taking steps to take more territory. The focus of this particular group was Ukraine and, more specifically Ukrainian orphans. This was nearly 20 years ago, long before Ukraine was in the daily world headlines. While I had and have some problems with their efforts, I participated and supported them. It’s not that they were “wrong” but my question was about the outreach in our own community, or the lack of thereof.

Overall, I think it would be worthwhile to study those churches that have grown rather than shrunk to see what we can learn about them. Then one can determine what efforts are worth attempting to duplicate. To me, the key to growth would logically be tied to outreach. And that brings us right back to the gist of what Lance was saying.

Much of what Wallnau was saying dovetails into some of my recent posts. Okay, so you might have to actually think about all this a bit. What have I been saying? Grow where you are planted. I guarantee you, wherever you are in life, you are on one of those seven mountains. Grow how? Grow as a Christian and grow as a professional. Better yet, grow as a Christian professional. I don’t care if you are management in a Fortune 500 company or waiting tables – you are there for a reason. What you make of it is up to you.

Where I struggle with Lance’s ideas is where he seemed to say what God does will be dependent on what the Church does. To me this suggests the Church, not God is in control – or at least we have have the wheel. There is some precedence for this line of thinking for example:

It is often stated by some scholars that if Jews had accepted Christ as their Messiah the earthly kingdom would have been established then. If this had indeed happened, then what of this current age? It seems it would be skipped. So, along with this same line of thought, could the return of Christ Jesus be tied to what the Church does? Lance seems to think so. I’m not so sure.

Lance himself quoted Jesus who stated before his return the gospel must be published to all nations. This suggests to me at least one specific criteria. Jesus also said only our Heavenly Father knows the exact day and time when he, Jesus, will return. This makes me think that God does indeed has a punch list of specific criteria and He’s keeping most of it to Himself. Who am I to argue? Should this be true then the idea of an open-ended period of time for everything that must happen to come about is unlikely. In short, I do not think God Almighty is going to wait on us to make things happen. However there is another aspect to all this that seems to support my contention that the time and date for Jesus’ return is set and thus a “done deal”. What is that?

God already has people on all seven mountains. The Church has never operated in a vacuum. Sure, there have always been certain Christians or groups that keep mostly to themselves, but most of us, wards and all, live and work in the real world. By all means, each of us should do our best to live God’s Will to the fullest but I do believe we all fulfill His purpose even when we fail. If my life is any example, I can point to it and say for certain: we can do better. I know I surely can. The good news is I am doing better, most every day. What about you?

I cannot say because I have no idea who you are or what your place is in this world. Maybe your reading this on your break before heading back to finish mopping that floor. Or maybe your preparing to enter the boardroom and take your place at the head of the table. Chances are, you are somewhere between those two extremes. None of that matters. What does matter is what you choose to do in the next minute and every next minute after. No doubt whatever you do will have some effect on the world. Don’t count yourself out by thinking that clean floor won’t make any impact. For all you know, it could create a far greater ripple than that multi-billion dollar decision of the executive that just stepped around the wet spot. We won’t know until we’ve “leveled up”.

Meanwhile, well, let me ask you… what can The Church do in today’s world? Yes, it is a loaded question. It hints that “The Church” is a unified entity that can act in concert. Putting it that way, the fallacy is glaringly easy to see. The Church is the body of Christ.

1 Corinthians 12:12 For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ.

13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all given to drink into one Spirit.

14 For the body is not one member, but many.

This last verse is the wrench in the works of the “unified entity” concept. Surely if each of us perfectly served Christ, well, that would be something, but as members, we are all flawed – each and every one of us. The good news is, God knows all this. He’s got a handle on it so we need not worry about what anyone else is doing. Each of us only needs to focus on our walk. That doesn’t mean we cannot or should not lose sight of The Church, The Body of Christ, as a whole. Scripture says a lot about edifying, building up, the body. We have each other for a reason. The danger is for us to look to one individual, other than Jesus himself, to lead. The Catholic Church has their Pope. No matter what one might think of the current Pope, I think we can all agree he is vastly different than those who preceded him. My understanding is Catholics are taught not to question the Pope. I’d have a hard time reconciling the doctrine of Pope Francis with say, Pope John Paul II. Both served in my lifetime. From my non-Catholic perspective their doctrinal views counter each other significantly. Since in Popes are never supposed to be in error, how can one reconcile the two? This difference in the Catholic Church seems to have a parallel in some of our nation’s SCOTUS decisions. The current court says previous courts had certain things all wrong. This is not the first period in history where SCOTUS has overruled previous Supreme Court rulings. So what does all this have to do with The Church and the end times?

Just this: as believers in Christ, members of the Body of Christ, The Church, we should expect to hold our brethren in Christ accountable when circumstances arise. But our primary focus should be our own walk. We need to live our lives, keep those beams out of our own eyes, rather than watching to see whom we can accuse. The adversary is the accuser. We are not.

Now maybe you are a modern day Apostle Paul, such is not for me to say. You are what you are and you belong where God has placed you. I’ve no doubt Paul never once thought his letters to the churches would one day be canonized and published for billions of believers to live by. He humbled himself to serve as best he could as a man who once persecuted the Church. Certainly he knew he was a man of great influence, how could he not? But I suspect he lived each day with a heart and mind of how he could best serve his Lord Jesus and his Heavenly Father.

If there was ever an example we could learn from, a model to follow after, this would top the list. Paul’s example was simple. Walk in love. Walk in the spirit. Put on the whole armor of God. Having done all… stand.

Review of Sound of Freedom

Unless you’ve been lost at sea or something, the movie Sound of Freedom is causing quite a stir these days. All I needed to know is the globalist shills, i.e. the mainstream media is agin it. I knew I’d have to see it sometime. So what made me shell out nearly $20, drive to the nearest town big enough to have a movie theater, and blow half a day? Well, a couple of things. (I SO want to put a “THE” in front but this article doesn’t seem to be in the title.)

Not in any order but first off, my wife told me an associate had seen the movie locally. She said it was good and worth watching. Okay, so much for that but not much. I tend to ask a couple of questions of anyone who recommends any movie to me. For instance… what other movies would you recommend? This I learned back in the good ol’ days of video stores. Too often a clerk at the store would rave about a movie. I’d rent it only to find out it sucked – big time. So… what other movies do you like? Keep naming until you hit on something I recognize. If you say “Natural Born Killers”, I’m gone. On the other hand, if you list “Shawshank Redemption”, then I’m interested. I’ll pay even more heed if you agree it should have won the Academy Award over Shindler’s List. Now don’t get me wrong, I like both movies but I thought Shawshank was more deserving. Either way, it’s not a deal killer.

Then there’s the media. Calling the movie a “Q-anon conspiracy” or the like, and “filled with Hollywood tropes” gets my attention. Again, I stand by my contention that “Q-anon” was a federally sponsored psyop so such linkage suggests someone wants to ward off the sheep herd. As for “filled with Hollywood tropes”, uh, what does that mean… exactly? For me it is an empty phrase that offers no significant information.

What really got me was Disney. You know, the mega-corporation whose main bidness is marketing to kids. Word is they had the rights to the story and sat on it. Then they sold it to Angel Studios. Huh. Now, we’ve been there before but I’ll say it again. If your branding with an eye on youngsters (not in the creepy Joe Biden way) then wouldn’t it make more sense to spend more time and effort championing kids? Instead they seem more intent on wooing the pedo crowd. I’m surprised they sold those rights instead of sitting on them forever. I see the hand of God here.

So, Sound of Freedom. In short, I went, I saw, I liked. It was not what I expected at all. The crowd watching was thin on this Thursday afternoon. Most of the audience was older. Everyone was quiet. There is a special message at the end of the movie signified by a countdown timer. It was only a couple of minutes. Bluntly put, I would have ignored it but I wanted to see the casting credits to confirm one of the actors was whom I thought played the part. (It was.) Funny thing, we all stayed. Every one of us. It was interesting. I won’t offer a spoiler here. Nor will I go into detail about the movie.

I will tell you this much, it is based on a true story. How much of this is true? Well the facts stated at the end of the movie are likely accurate and this is enough for me to ignore any literary license. Pedophiles exist. Children are taken and sold, traded, and prostituted as sex slaves. As one character put it “You can sell cocaine once. You can sell a child ten times a day, every day, for ten years.” (I’ll call this a paraphrase but I think it is reasonably true to the actual words.)

What this movie is not is – it is not a documentary. It is a story, well-told and riveting. If it were total and complete fiction, it would still be a good movie. It is not political. If you happen to belong to a political party or activist group that glorifies pedophilia then you will likely scream at me about now. Have at it. Don’t expect me to visit you in hell. (Check out Matthew 18:6)

My reasons for seeing this movie are mostly above but there is one more reason I wanted to see this in an actual movie theater instead of my usual “I’ll wait for it to come out on disk.” – I wanted to financial support this movie – to make a small but clear statement to the globalists. You can’t have our children.

Now there was a surprise, and a pleasant one at that. I’ve learned there you can see the movie, in a theater, even if you are strapped for cash. The link is below to get free tickets or if you can and so desire, buy tickets for someone else.

Sound of Freedom Tickets

If you missed the trailer…

As a nation, as a people, we should be ashamed that this sort of activity is not only going on right under our very noses but we are turning deaf ears and blinding our eyes to such atrocities. Kudos to those who have stood up to school boards and so-called “educators” coming after our children. Now we need to stand up for those children who have been forced into a world not of their choosing – who are trapped by evil adults who care only for their own perverse pleasures. God will deliver them but WE need to do our part.

Happy Independence Day 2023!

The true name of our July 4th borders on irony today. “Independence Day”, yeah, right. Our nation has become the exact opposite of independent. We are dependent on foreign oil. Our government is dependent on foreign cash to keep spending. More and more citizens are dependent on that spending to live their lives. Worse, those of us who are fiercely determined to remain independent are criticized, ostracized, and often targeted for legal and possibly lethal actions. Call me “Debbie Downer” but I’m calling it as I see it. Is it all really that bad? Well… yes. Yes it is. However down is not out. I do not believe we are done yet.

If you’ve been paying attention, you know I’ve long emphasized how our nation can be restored. Scoff if you will, but until and unless we turn to God Almighty, repent and ask for deliverance then all our hopes and dreams are likely to fade away. Can God save us? What!? Are you serious? If God cannot save us, He wouldn’t be worth worshiping now would He? Of course He can. WILL God save us? Now that is a question I cannot answer. What I can say is… salvation, at least as it pertains to our nation, is secondary. Primary is your salvation and the salvation of all of us called by God. The whole idea of sacrificing yourself to save the person next to you is somewhat silly, eternally speaking.

John 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on him should not perish, but have eternal life.

Our Lord and Savior Jesus the Messiah was already sacrificed for us. Offering Jesus innocent (sinless) blood for our sins was the whole idea.

Ephesians 5:2 and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you, and gave himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God for an odor of a sweet smell.

Hebrews 10:12 but he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God;

Jesus had his purpose, we have ours.

Romans 8:28 And we know that to them that love God all things work together for good, even to them that are called according to his purpose.

29 For whom he foreknew, he also foreordained to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren:

30 and whom he foreordained, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

We were called “to be conformed to the image of his Son”, to be a living sacrifice…

Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.

This is the essence of our duty to God. Thus, getting right with God should be first for each of us – not just once but continuously – every day. For me, this means several times a day because, well, I’m a slow learner, I suppose. I’m still a work in progress and I don’t see myself completed before Christ returns or my time on this earth expires. It’s not for lack of trying. But wait! There’s more…

While the idea is often attractive, I’m not a hermit. To that end, my actions among others also need to be in line with how God would have me act. Included in this is a duty to speak the truth when appropriate. By this I don’t mean to refrain from lying, but to speak words that exhort and comfort others, words that bless those around me, and to promote godly thoughts and ideas. Now this latter may cause shudders among some of you. We’ve all been around a “bible thumper” at one time or another. This is not at all what I mean.

Certainly there are times when it is appropriate to open up a bible and share what we know. There are also times when we need to take a stand as Christians. But there are also times when our words and actions simply demonstrate our beliefs. Here’s one example:

One day, a few years ago, I was heading to the office when I realized I needed water for my coffee machine. Our town water isn’t fit for drinking so bottled water is a must. I stopped by the store to grab some. At the checkout there was an older gentleman and his wife ahead of me with several items on the belt. As one might expect, there was only the one cashier. It was no big deal. I was the boss as well as the only worker so even if I was late, it made no difference. However the fellow ahead of me took one look and told the cashier to scan my bottle so I could be on my way. He wouldn’t accept payment and simply told me to have a blessed day. If you haven’t guessed, he made my day by that simple act. His simple kindness boldly stated his Christian walk.

Beyond these things is yet one more (at least) consideration. If you are a citizen of this United States for America, you have been blessed with one of the greatest gifts Almighty God has ever bestowed upon a nation – our Constitutional Republic. Our nation is comprised of self-governing citizens. True, a cadre of usurpers have seized power they’ve no right nor authority to claim but their hold is tenuous. Really. It is. Our founding document, our Constitution remains the law of the land and the rights enumerated within are deemed unalienable. Once we, as citizens, recognize this, we can take back what is rightfully and legally ours. It’s that simple and with God backing us up, who will stop us?

Romans 8:31 What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us?

32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not also with him freely give us all things?

Today we recognize that day in 1776 when our forefathers signed the document declaring our independence from King George and England. Our Constitution had yet to be written, much less ratified, but this day they took a huge step towards receiving this wondrous gift from God Almighty. The road ahead was to be long, hard, and bloody. I cannot say what our road ahead has in store for us. I do not believe further bloodshed is necessary but this does not mean the usurpers will give up without resistance. Nor will the road be easy but, as our forefathers did, we need to decide to move forward and claim the liberty that we and our loved ones have been granted.

God bless and Happy Independence Day!