Don't Let "IT", Change You

In the Catholic tradition and always displayed by either statues in their churches or by elegant drawings and depictions within their stained glass windows are what is called the "Stations Of The Cross" These rembrances are designed to cause individuals to consider the sufferings of Jesus to and through his passion on the Cross by which, and only by which, we are saved. 

The Stations Of The Cross are traditionally identified as follows:

(1) Jesus is condemned to death,

(2) he is made to bear his cross,

(3) he falls the first time,

(4) he meets his mother,

(5) Simon of Cyrene is made to bear the cross,

(6) Veronica wipes Jesus’ face,

(7) he falls the second time,

(8) the women of Jerusalem weep over Jesus,

(9) he falls the third time,

(10) he is stripped of his garments,

(11) he is nailed to the cross,

(12) he dies on the cross,

(13) he is taken down from the cross, and

(14) he is placed in the sepulchre.

As opposed to the 7 last words or sayings of Christ on the Cross, the "Stations of the Cross" point out what was done to Jesus or what he did. The 7 last words point out what Jesus said and what he willed. As recorded within scripture, the 7 last words are:

(1) Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do...

(2) To day shalt thou be with me in paradise. ...

(3) Woman, behold, thy son! ...

(4) My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? ...

(5) I thirst. ...

(6) It is finished. ...

(7) Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit

The Victory Of The Cross

Heb. 12: 2 ~ Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Col. 2:15 ~ In this way, he disarmed the spiritual rulers and authorities. He shamed them publicly by his victory over them on the cross. (NLT)

Jesus's substitutionary atonment and victory on the cross gave us victory and SAVED us from the penalty of sin which is ultimately death or separation from God. He broke chains and bondage, giving us a new path and road to walk on and live. Through and by the Cross it is HE that has gotten us the victory and not we ourselves. 

Ps. 98:1 ~ O sing unto the LORD a new song; for he hath done marvellous things: his right hand, and his holy arm, hath gotten him the victory.

The Often Overlooked Foundation Of Our Victory 

"Father forgive them, for they know not what they do"

There is an aspect of the victory on the Cross that I would like to address even but briefly. Our victory centers around the first of Christ's last words on the Cross, after the 11th station and prior to his death and reveals that in spite of all the hate Jesus received, all the accusation, misinformation, disinformation, betrayal and all the negative that was placed on HIM, HE did not change from who he was! In other words, we are saved because his attitude towards us never changed even though I believe that was really what the suffering was all about from the enemies perspective. 

Could Jesus attitude towards us have changed without him entering into sin? 

Now, that is a question that is somewhat perplexing and to some degree oximoronic. First as God Jesus could not sin. He was without sin and no guile was found in his mouth. However, could his refusal to administer the grace of forgiveness of God upon man not been a sin? We'll examine that in a radio broadcast attached to this post. 

The fact is that Jesus was loving and kind from the beginning, he was/is full of grace and truth, came to complete the mission of the Father, and did not bow to retaliate the hate and anger that he received. Jesus did not become the unforgiving evil of the environment in which he was immersed. Through EVERY temptation, test and trial, and debate, Christ remained faithful and true untainted by the world in which he lived and ultimately saved.  This is the VICTORY on the Cross that makes all the difference and displays beyond a shadow of a doubt that Jesus received and will receive all the world's honor, without ever having to bow to it, its lusts or anything therein. 

In other words, no matter what Jesus endured, 

JESUS DID NOT LET "IT" CHANGE HIM. 

It's Our Turn Now

To me, this thought was intimidating. Seemingly, over the last 5 to 10 years, as people and as a nation, we have gone through a seemingly insurmountable amount of "things" in the way of tests, trials and tribulations. Covid by itself has nearly ripped the foundations of the world and allegedly civilized society apart. The church has not ared well and in many cases have acted and responded to pressures similarly to the world. Due to this, many things and people have changed. At least so it appears...

It has been interesting to hear and see how people, some of whom who claimed the ability to be "good without God", have revealed their most evil and selfish nature. We have people that were allegedly committed to values such as humanism, freedom and liberty, now reverting to concepts such as invasion of privacy, segregation and classiscism.

In the medical profession, for example, there are people who were once allegedly committed to saving lives, who now wish evil on others because of their medical decision to not vaccinate with a vaccine that neither reduces the prevalence of the malady for which it was designed to address, nor reduces the malady's spread. Not to mention people have rightly rejected this vaccine because they were tested and developed using aborted fetal cells, which some don't care who died or were killed as long as they can live. 

Can you imagine the insensitivity of people saying "deny them treatment because they didn't vaccinate" or "they should suffer for not vaccinating"? Then what makes it worse, is that we have some so called Christians, who claim to read the bible and hold to its values who feel the same insensitive way and follow the same unenlightened and immoral path of thinking.

Think of this...

What if we only treat and heal people who agree with life decisions of some so called authority? Example, what if we refused to treat those with COPD or emphysema who had a smoking history? The Surgeon General's warning has been on cigarettes for decades. Do we deny treatment to those people who now suffer?

What if we refused to treat homosexuals who have acquired HIV and AIDS because we believe that homosexual sexual activity is the cause of such illness? After all male homosexuals die of AIDS or ARC more every year than any other demographic. What if we simply say, "don't treat them they knew the risk"?

In both those cases and more, we would be considered barbarians. We would be considered the least sophisticated and least caring people on Earth in the modern era. Modern ignormamous, hellish and immoral scumbags...However, that is exactly what IT, today's stress, has made many become.

Adversity, A Revealer Of Truth

In my opinion, adversity does something that nothing else can do. It revelas character and substance of a thing, situation and or person! Adversity also reveals relationships, allegiances and alliances, both positive and negative, which is essential when it comes to personal and even corporate growth.

In these times and during this adversity, many people have revealed exactly who they are when the right, or should I say "wrong" circumstance arises. This has been a revelation that modern man is no more sophisticated nor morally pure and centered than those whom we call the barbarians of history.

Adversity displays just how greedy a person can be when money runs out or runs thin. Adversity in your health allows some to prove how faithful, loving and kind they are when your health or personal standing diminishes. Like Job, you do not know the mind of your friends until there is adversity and winds of change.

With all of that said, the greatest victory we can experience, is the victory of not allowing our adversities, or the attitudes we face during adversity, shape and mold us into what IT wants us to be or become. 

See, it is the greatest victory for Jesus to have been beaten, accused, lied upon to his face and hung on a tree in cricifixtion, which was the ultimate public embarassment and rebuke, to still ask God to FORGIVE the very ones that had caused his pain and grief, even while they were in the very act of doing so. 

I'll be the FIRST to say, like the song, IT WASN'T (or it ain't) ME! I have no ability to do that. Only Christ could provide that victory for me and on my behlaf, because my strength, with all that I know fails in the ultimate degree and manner. To be so kind and pure to a person or a group of people who are determined to push their evil, their will, their hatred and do it with approval of their peers and all authority??? It is beyond me what the constraining factor is, BUT GOD HIMSELF!

CHANGE

But what about you? Have you allowed your pain to change you? 

Part of the societal issues we face today, stems from people, who have historically suffered pain, but have left the God that was able to heal and manage pain and by their own drifting have now seemingly opened new wounds and fresh sores causing a deep scaring effecting a new generation even if by proxy in an emotional manner. 

Just be truthful, some of those acting displaying the most violent behavior and the most dissonance, have never been under the whip. They have never been not free. We have White surbaban kids marching and violently protesting, some about issues that they know nothing of. The claim of solidarity falls by the way side because many of them displaying the most violent behavior have never been in union with those who they claim to be in solidarity with during peaceful times. In many cases it is similar to a glorified science project to see how far one can go in the name of a certain cause or perceived societal struggle. 

One thing is for sure however, all these violent and pain centered activists have been in or are in bondage in their hearts regardless of their mental prowess or physical or material ability.

Where Is Our Spiritual Foundation?

Ps. 11:3 asks, if the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? We have a generation who has left God and the church, the foundation of our place within this society and the world, and gone to men through psychology and or self help ventures and aspirations and fallen way short of healing. Further, the isolation and realization of the limitations of man have driven a fierce anger and animus that has shown up in things such as Critical Race Theory (CRT), violent protests, destruction of property, murder and killing, thefts, lawlessness and other ill temperate acts, actions and ways. Killing and murder in most major cities are at all times highs, and lawlessness, both towards individuals and citizens, are at ever increasing proportions. 

All of these things and even more personal issues such as divorce and remarriage, school and kids related issues, financial pressures, material struggles and even issues within the church, are adversities that are ripe breeding grounds for change or revealing of attitude, heart and minds and how we approach those issues, and the results of those issues make all the difference in our hearts and minds. 

Conclusion  

I therefore contend that among all the VICTORY that we gained on the cross due to Jesus sacrifice, the VICTORY of forgiveness, even in our ignorance, is the highest victory obtainable. As I see it, that forgivness is the highest declaration of God towards a wicked and evil human condition. That is the light that the dark could not, did not, and can not put out!

Ooh my God! Without that...that love and kindness...that enduring faithfulness...that ability to truely look beyond ALL of our faults and see our needs, we have NOTHING!   

You may have to read this post a couple of times to really digest what I am attempting, in my feeble and inadequate manner, to communicate to you, but at the end of the day, and no matter what you are facing, and no matter the unfeeling and unloving(ness) of the world and even those within the church towards you...DON'T let IT...don't let THEM change YOU!

If you bend your character in response to their brokenness, evil and inadequacy, they win...However, the bible declares that WE ARE MORE THAN CONQUERORS, THROUGH CHRIST THAT LOVED US! (Rom. 8:37)

DON'T LET IT, your circumstance, the false accusation, the layoff, the broken family or any disadvantage, change you!!!

Remember, you have someone praying for you and most importantly, Jesus prayed for ALL of us that our strength and faith wouldn't fail. Why should WE change our character when WE have the VICTORY?

Blessed! 

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Dr. Martin L. King Jr. Day Special

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"The Triumph Of Moral Conviction" ~ Guest Post by Stacey Rudin

While I don't know her personally, I was highly impressed by the writing of this attorney and author in a recent twitter posting. I actually gave her piece a title and asked if I could share it. Thankfully she granted me permission. I suppose I was drawn to it because I relate to this post as I have suffered great loss due to having a solid and strong moral conviction as it pertains to life, the service of God and service to mankind. I pray that you will enjoy and affirm many of these thoughts as I did.  

"The Triumph Of Moral Conviction"

By Stacey Rudin @Stacey_rudin

Reprinted by permission

"Robert Malone says in his Joe Rogan interview that the Woke Atlantic writer who smeared him was “obsessed” with the question, “what are you getting for doing this? Who is paying you?” Malone said, “I do it because it’s the right thing to do.” The writer couldn’t believe it.

This recalled to mind my first encounters with pro-lockdown liberals in early March 2020. These people—who I’d considered friends—were furious with me and very stuck on this point. “I don’t understand what you get by doing this.” They couldn’t comprehend the moral imperative.

David McCullough is $150k in the hole defending his medical license. Scott Atlas was smeared by 100 of his Stanford colleagues. Most of us taking the contrary view have had a tough ride, and we made $0. Yet people believe the mainstream. This has always amazed me.

I wrote about it here.

https://t.co/MGSlZ8cdmD

It says a lot about the mindset of people like that Atlantic writer that he can’t comprehend a selfless moral act. He can’t believe a human would do such a thing, act against his/her own interest for the sake of the greater good. His own behavior is motivated by the accrual of power in this moment. This is why he has to be part of the majority in an event like Covid. He needs to stay close to power bc that is the safest and sets him up optimally to succeed (shallowly speaking—he will be inherently miserable but will cope/ignore it).

We can see the results of a society filled with people like (pathological narcissists) this very clearly now. The geographical areas that are more power-obsessed can’t get rid of Covid. They need to virtue signal and form groups and “stay cool” because they’re empty inside

for the precise reason that they cannot stand alone, as complete individuals like @P_McCulloughMD @RobertKennedyJr @MartinKulldorff @DrJBhattacharya can do. All of their actions are focused on the short term accrual of status, so they will never realize how to fix their misery.

Deeper characters like those listed above will achieve the status of greatness over the long term, but they are not motivated by that. It is inherent to greatness not to be motivated by “being great.” The truly great risk everything for a conviction, an idea.

The triumph of the conviction creates the happiness, not the achievement of greatness. People are chasing the wrong thing when they chase status for status’ sake. It doesn’t work. It’s the doing hard very things, taking hits, enduring scorn and ridicule and staying upright.

That makes a person fulfilled. I guarantee the apparent “losers” in the Covid war are happier than the apparent “winners.” So this Atlantic writer of whom Malone speaks is hopelessly lost. He will live a shallow life chasing shiny things and be forgotten.

Malone may lose the battle, maybe even the war, but he will know at the end of the day that he did so “daring greatly.” He’s actually doing things, taking risks, throwing punches in the arena. He’s LIVING. He’s FREE. No one defines him but himself.

That’s what we all get, we anti-lockdowners. We are still free. If we lose this fight & along with it our freedom, well, at least we haven’t given it up without a fight. They can never take away our ability to look ourselves in the mirror and know that we tried.

There’s a spiritual chasm between Malone and his Atlantic detractor (I am purposefully not linking). That chasm is dictating the global Covid disaster. Until people re-examine their misplaced trust & motivations behind their own actions (status? comfort?) we remain stuck."

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Mass Formation Psychosis...Yep, WE Agree!

On a podcast with Joe Rogan, Dr Robert Malone pointed out the near mass hypnosis caused by the pandemic response, which he identified as Mass Formation Psychosis which is, in theory, a psychological mindset produced by a set of conditions by which people in panic of pending doom end up willingly sacrificing and ultimately relinquishing their freedom.

There are 4 conditions necessary to foment this condition:

1- The lack of societal bonding

2 - Viewing life as being without purpose or without ultimate meaning

3 - Free floating anxiety (worry) or depression

4 - High levels of frustration and aggression

There is no one that cannot say that all of these conditions have been touched within society over the last 2 years and especially since covid has been on the scene.

Every day we have been told over and over by news media, govermental officials and alleged public health officials of our pending doom, "unless" we adhere to their promptings which included seperation, isolation, depression (cold dark winter) with a side of being angry at those who don't accept the rhetoric. We are told our only purpose is to be a bridge for collective society and that individualism is evil, and all actions are for "the greater good".

This ripens the stage for a society that suffers from mass hypnosis triggered by promises that "one more thing" and one more relinquishment of freedom and mass conformity with the public narrative is all that is necessary to make everything right.

How many times have you heard, "if everybody would just get vaccinated, we'll all get back to normal", or "all we have to do is listen to our health professionals, and we'll be allright" or, as President Biden says, "our patience is wearing thin"?

How many times has society been told to isolate, stay away from one another, keep distant from friends and family, in fact don't even invite them to your holiday and personal settings unless they can satisfy certain criteria that is set by someone or a group of individuals you've never met but somehow who's words are exalted with a near religious zeal and fervor?

Then, even prior to and concurrent with covid, when our cities were being invaded by CHOP Zones and stores looted and riots were taking place, how often did we hear public officials and even some church leaders justify lawbreaking and civil unrest in the name of "social justice" saying that the nation and every institution in it was racist and in light of that anger and agression were justifiable responses?

Remind you that when the pandemic began, the church was told by officials exactly where it stood. The church was not considered essential or necessary. If not for the actions of the courts and reliance on Constitutionally protected rights of "free exercise", the church would not be functional today. In contrast, the root of the message of the church is intentionality and purpose. Governmental policy demanded that message would not be taught with regularity or accessibility to those who had found the message of the church essential. Therefore many were and still are without understanding of purpose and even their place within this pandemic.

This, coupled with heightened messaging of fear, anxiety and isolation, has led to economic instability, increased physical, sexual and domestic abuse among adults and children, increased suicide rates of youth between ages 10 and 24, and the highest level of societal and civil unrest in recent history.

It is a psychosis that allows people to allow leadership to advance forced medical treatments, and individuals to cheer the misfortune and even death of them that advance individualism and hold personal, medical and religious freedom in high regard.

It is a psychosis that embraces segregation and further isolation through mandates, identity and medical passes and restrictions, which disregard personal injury, and adverse effects of so called "mitigation" strategies.

In fact many of these leaders fail to tell us anything that would cause us to view the results of their efforts negatively and attempt to make us feel as if we're uninformed when we point out and make known the inadequacy and error of their methods.

In my opinion, yes, this is certainly a mass psychosis producing a cult like adherence to news and media personalities, allowing and encouraging many who have been seduced to relinquish personal freedoms and become subject to whatever instruction is next.Only now I see it for what it really is, mass hypnosis and seduction rooted in a commitment to redefine freedom and society in general.

May our eyes be opened!

Blessed!

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