Burdens

When Jesus said, "For my yoke is easy and my burden is light" He was not speaking to us on the nature of Christian labor. Jesus was making a promise to us of deliverance.

It is not God who burdens us with the weights of life; it is the world and the master of its hierarchy, the Adversary, that layer upon us unceasing demands for labor, blood and treasure.

In this world all must be bought with a price calculated to be just beyond the boundaries of your ability.

Every man, whether in the lowliest station or at the heights of power, is left wanting, just short of satisfaction. The poor man is beset by a dearth of means and presented the promise of an apparent escape, if only he will give a little more, do a small thing, give up something dear. The man of power is led along the trail of accomplishment with the seeds of pride and the bread of position.

At the end, all proclaim with Solomon "...vanity of vanities, all is vanity."

Jesus promises us nothing here for the world to admire.

There are no men of renown who belong to God - no titans of industry, no giants of the intellect, no paragons of virtue - those all belong to the world and they already have their reward.

God requires simplicity and He returns understanding. God requires trust and He provides sufficiency. God requires weakness and He infuses strength. God requires obedience and He is faith. God requires surrender and He gives us liberty.

If you are tired, broken, lonely, burdened by the world, the escape is Jesus. Give Him everything and He will give you more.

Another Government Post

Tracking the events of the health-care summit yesterday brought many thoughts to my mind, but most of all I wondered just how anyone who watched or listened could ever believe that those dilectical schemers had any intention of reforming anything.

Universal health care is a fantasy; universal health care regulated, managed or provided by a government is a stop-action nightmare.

Insurance is immoral. Expecting someone else to subsidize your insurance is to actively participate in theft.

Please, please, please, please understand this, if nothing else, none of the existing propositions, on either side, will enhance the quality of medical care in this country and, in fact, will decrease the availabilty, quality and affordability. If passed, a black market will develop which will widen the gap between the haves and have-nots.

In order to understand why this legislation is so important to the powers in DC, you must first understand who they work for - and I don't mean the CFR, the Illuminati, Committee of 300, or any other suspect organization - I mean the power which sits above even them and controls them and to whom they pledge fealty.

Yes, you guessed it: Satan and his co-conspirators.

Just in case I am not being clear, the US federal government is not a godly goverment..nor should they be expected to be.

This government, all governments in this present age, are not part of the Kingdom of Heaven.

So let's all get busy and change it, right!

Change it to what, may I ask?

In order to change the system, you must join the system, and to join the system you must pay the price. Can you afford that price?

On top of the cost, if you are truly one of the elect, they will take your payment and then destroy you anyway.

What those of us who desire to be in the Kingdom of Heaven have to realize that we cannot participate in the kingdom of hell and succeed. Why would you want to? The world system is nothing but an illusion. Success inside the system is a deception.

But there is a deeper issue, far deeper.

Who you look to for your provision is your god. If the state provides you medical care, i.e., is perceived to preserve life, then it is your god.

We are not to look to anyone but God for life.

It is a time for choice.

Government

When I began to write this essay I had an idea in mind to survey the scripture for guidance on the construction of a God-approved earthly political system.

Personally, I have made a long and fitful journey from mainstream political programming to this point where my political philosophy lies somewhere on one side or the other of the blurry line between radical libertarianism and anarchy.

I confess, I hoped my exploration would lend support to my aversion to any kind of non-voluntary organization.

It is often said that government is, at best, a necessary evil. It seems to me, however, that the amount of government (evil) considered necessary, and the extent of the power it should be granted to enforce its policies depends on the perception of personal gain to be had from supporting the state.

In my mind, the insinuation of evil into any people, regardless of intentions or purposes, will still produce evil.

I still wish to explore what the Bible has to say about governmental structure, but I feel it necessary to expand the question to include how the individual believer is supposed to interact, or not interact, with the world outside the Church.

When I was much younger I was completely co-opted into operating within the system, captured by the idea that I could conform and work from inside and still retain my spiritual standing.

I don't believe that anymore.

In fact, I do not believe that there is any political system which meets God's standards - except the one He has already implemented in the heavenly realms - just as there no scripturally acceptable economic theory for the national government.

So I admit to coming to this examination with preconceptions - I will try not to allow these predispisitions and opinions to color my analysis of what I discover and will try to adapt to what is learned instead.

So here we go, beginning at the beginning and following the trails as they develop.

Hope I can stick with it...and I hope there will be some input from outside to instigate and question.

2010

There is little doubt that 2009 was a year filled with dreadful events - but so was 2008 and 2007 and 2001 and 1941 and well, you get the point. Death, mendacity and tyranny were the modus operandi of everyone from the politicians to the corporations to the religious establishment. What was most shocking this year to me was how naked and open evil has become; there was no attempt by the enemy to disguise his intents or for his henchmen to finesse their plots through to fruition. Evil was bold and unfettered as if it expected no opposition of any consequence.

As the secular calendar turns the page to a new year, it seems as if there may be some who are persuaded that there is reason to believe that the road to serfdom we are marching down can be blocked and that we can be returned back to the rightful path.

I wish I could agree.

Frankly, I don't see the efforts of the so-called patriot movement and the mainstream political opposition have accomplished any more than providing a false sense of empowerment to the people involved. They are doing the same things they have been doing since I came out of the TV stupor and began to understand where the real battle was and to recognize the false paradigms imposed on the world. The alarms are sounded, everyone scurries around, guns are sold, food is hoarded, gold and silver become scarce commodities, fear gives way to panic and then...nothing happens and it starts all over again the next week.

So, what is going to happen during the next 12 months?

The Health-care usurpation is still on track. Carbon regulation is about to take place by fiat rather than legislation. The state will soon actually, legally, take control over life and death and place it in the hands of bureaucrats whose only interest is to maintain their job, not solve problems.

Will the democrats be run out of office and replaced with republicans? Will the President declare martial law? Are we all getting bar codes?

Frankly, I don't see much changing.

Health-care will more than likely become law - and it will be a disaster. Yet I see the democrats retaining power because the real effects won't be felt until well after the election.

Don't be surprised if there are several million newly registered voters to make certain that happens as, by law or fiat, many currently illegal migrants are made citizens.

Journalism will still suck, but some of those who believed in the hope and change are becoming disillusioned and there will be some prominent defections this year.

Global warming and/or climate change will fall from favor and carbon taxes will start to take a back seat to other issues: inflation, fuel shortages, more terror (by someone) short credit, higher unemployment, a second wave of real estate failures, regional strife and the political battles moving to the local level and not in a peaceful way.

There's no better time for the believer to disengage from the system as much as possible.

What do you see for the coming months?

Sorting It Out

I come from a long line of ordinary people - common folk - from among those who conform to the world because that is what you do. You conform and hope that with some sweat and toil, with yes sir and yes ma'am, giving it all up, that everything will work out. The American dream can be had if you only do it right.

There was just one small issue: I couldn't do it. I really tried! Really I did! But there was nothing in the world, at least the ordinary world, that attracted me.

Don't take that the wrong way. I'm not saying I wasn't attracted to worldly things...pretty women, exotic ideas, mind-alteration - big things, weird things.

All I knew then was that I couldn't do what I saw everybody else doing, the way they did it, for the reasons they had.

And most of my life I have paid for it.

For years and years I was convinced that my problem was that I was lazy, or rebellious, or, sometimes, stupid. I'm still not sure that there isn't some truth there. But I find that when I start to work on something that is interesting or that I enjoy or important to me, I can work hard and long and well.

Rarely, however, do I find that what I want to do coincide with what I know the world deems to be important.

I am very dysfunctional in the ordinary world.

So the question before me is one of sorting out priorities - separating responsibilities from conformities, desires ffrom needs, right from wrong.

I am not even sure how to go about that, well, perhaps I really know, but I am finding distractions to keep me from the really hard work - the work of turning away from the world and turning to God.

The full truth is that I am sitting on the proverbial fence...and I despise myself for doing that.

What I really need to do is throw everything at the feet of Jesus and wait for Him to tell me what to pick up and work on.

Can I do that?

I don't know, but I think it is a matter of life or death.

History Lesson

When Amenhotep II returned from his triumphant suppression of a Syrio-Palestinian uprising (at least he claimed a victory), he did not return to a land euphoric with his display of Egyptian power - instead, he found his father, Thutmose III, dead, his older brother, Thutmose IV dead, his oldest son dead, and the nation in mourning at the mass death which had just occurred, a devastated economy, and a major portion of the national workforce gone.

What should have been a ticker-tape parade through downtown Luxor turned into a rampage through Egypt that would have made Sherman' s march through the South seem compassionate.

A crazed general and his battle-fatigued troops found that all that they had fought to defend and uphold with blood and treasure had completely disappeared while they were out of town and they reacted with madness and violence. Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of innocents died, cities were razed, a trail of smoke and rubble marked Amenhotep trek home.

Do we really know why Amenhotep attacked his own land? Not really. But can we imagine that in his search for answers and reasons, finding only platitudes and non-answers, that he struck out blindly at those he deemed responsible and the quest rolled over targets and blameless alike; can we not envision the psychic shock he and the army must have experienced?

We do know that Egypt never truly recovered and the civilization began an unchecked decline.

For over eight years in Afghanistan, and six years in Iraq, our soldiers and our Generals have waged war in an asymmetrical environment, against an uncertain enemy, to achieve polemical and contradictory goals.

When our exhausted fighters return home, they do not find themselves heralded as conquering heroes, or defenders of freedom, or even recognized publicly as the special and courageous people they are, but are avoided and labelled as threats to domestic tranquility, denied the most basic of care and restoration...thrown away to die from the poisons they were administered and the psychological trauma they experienced.

At home they find their families poorer, their neighbors spys, the freedoms they believed they were defending diminished, and their prospects limited.

Some even suggest they find more comfort on the battlefield than in the home.

Our putative leaders need a history lesson - from Egypt.

Is there an Amenhotep in the American army? If there is, the regime needs to be aware (as if they were not already) the threat is not against the American people.

Take No Thought for the Morrow...a Question on the Parameters of Faith

Okay, I am venturing out into new and unexplored territory...for me.

Some are probably already here, by choice or by circumstances, patiently waiting for me to arrive. Well, here I am.

The subject is health insurance. Paying for healthcare is the uppermost topic of conversation all over the nation and has been for the past few months. If you are reading this, it is likely you are familiar with all sides of that debate, and just as likely you are tired of the fight and worried about the outcome.

And that leads to the issue I wish to consider in this article: Is it appropriate for a believer and follower of The Way to purchase health insurance in any form?

Up until a few days ago, there was no doubt in my mind that it was irresponsible and imprudent not to carry health insurance if at all possible financially - especially if I had others to provide for (spouse, children)who depended on my provision and care. Frankly, I don't believe I would have given a suggestion to the contrary a moment's consideration.

Yet, here I am, seriously questioning it.

What happened?

For a number of years I have been researching what is generally called alternative medicine - primarily herbalism and traditional medicine but also including modern concepts which are outside of the mainstream of medical practice yet relatively recent and similarly presented (vitamin therapy, chelation, sound therapy, and the like). An inevitable corrollary of this research is uncovering a great deal of information about the process and problems of contemporary allopathic medicine.

Most insurance will not cover herbal, traditional or any other natural or alternate approach to health and healing. Likewise, most mainstream physicians are ignorant about traditional or alternative therapies - a large percentage reject them outright and it is not uncommon for one to reject or terminate a relationship with a patient who chooses alternative medicine as a supplement to or instead of generally accepted practices.

The same goes for insurance. Patients who refuse to adhere to allopathic methodology can find themselves cancelled, and, in effect, blackballed, uninsurable for choices ranging from refusing vaccines to forgoing chemotherapy.

Insurers dictate to patients which courses of treatment are acceptable and covered by the policy. Deviation from the approved parameters are refused payment.

Fear of accumulating large medical debt forces patients to conform to the system and take what is offered - even if they don't believe in the effectiveness of the treatment.

My questions are derived from this understanding of how the system works:

1. We are told that we are not to be conformed to the world, but to Yashua. If we have health insurance which prevents us from using treatments we think are more effective or requires us to accept measures we know are ineffective or even harmful, aren't we conforming to the world?

2. Believers are not supposed to be in debt because the debtor becomes the slave of the lender. Isn't health insurance in a very practical sense the creation of debt - both because we commit to the payment of the costs of the coverage (premiums and deductibles, copays, fees) and because we are pre-paying for a surety against future debt. Are we then slaves to the insurer and, possibly, the employer?

3. Then there is Revelation 9:21 which warns us of the evil of "pharmakea" - drugs - termed in some translations as "sorceries". Modern medicine is very much a practice of sorcery using chemical compounds as magic potions. If you have health insurance, this is the predominant treatment option you will have.

4. The issue of faith. Do you trust Yahweh or will you make your own provision? The letter to Laodicea is very much about this. They had such great substance that they thought they had no need to depend on Yahweh for provision. They became spiritually poor as they ceased to act in faith. If we carry health insurance is that an act of self-reliance and placing our faith in ourselves and other men?

Yashua says we have not because we ask not.

The Scripture says by His stripes we are healed.

Insurance companies are deeply rooted in the world system of materialism and financial manipulation. Insurance is a core business of the worldwide financial order that demands conformity or else be excluded.

If we are to be in the world but not of it, is health insurance one of those deceptions formed by the adversary for the purpose of directing us away from God and strip us of faith and power?

I can't say for certain my family and I have decided in fact to go without insurance and rely totally on Yahweh for health and provision, but we are leaning that way.

Any ideas?