Faith Hijackers (Poem)

Listen to Siri audio version here

Oh for faith that’s connected to God’s integrity,

Rather than to our life’s tests, trials and iniquity.

~~~

Many boast of America as a godly nation,

And one that was built based on immigration.

Now it seems both points are an aberration,

With so many gods, and immigrant discrimination.

America, cultural melting-pot, so we’ve heard.

Within each culture, is its god unique,

As God of The Bible takes a back seat.

And by many, His book, The Bible, is not preferred.

Yet He calls His Son’s followers, ‘Light of the world’,

To brighten folk’s paths from deception-to-Truth.

But among us, this point seems hard to dispute:

Much of our light dimmed or went out as darkness surged.

Now darkness, both within and without, shrouds our land,

While we refuse or are unable our lights to shine.

Thus, many on-looking cultures our faith malign,

When to them, the results of our ‘Truth-faith’ seem …bland.

As about this conundrum I prayed, ‘How can we bounce back?,

The Lord whispered this clear message in my ear, spiritual,

‘By seven things contrary to My Word, but anecdotal,

The faith of many of My followers has been hijacked.’ ¹

As I share the list within me He sequenced,

Please ponder, then survey your own life, and then decide,

Whether to you any of these have ever applied,

And as a result, if your faith was then quenched.

Culture

Worldly culture contrasts with Heaven’s culture, undoubtedly.

It pulls us into conformity with shifting, downward trends,

Against all that our loving Father God for us intends.

Like strong magnets, its pull on us is strong, exceptionally!

Politicians

Politics acts like a 'floating column' of culture.

All politicians float and shift across issues of the day.

Putting faith and trust in them causes faith in God to fray.

They hijack minds and parties on their shifting altars. ²

Crises/Disasters

Now happening across the world’s disasters landscapes:

In crises, folks tend to become very spiritual,

If they have a seed or root within. How incredible.

But that’s not the time to develop faith to escape!

Sicknesses/Illnesses

Even for us in whom Godly faith may be strong,

Significant health issues might challenge our faith,

If/when it fails, we will have bitten devils’ bait,

Then be tempted to let our faithlessness prolong.

Financial Lack

‘Money makes the world go round’, so the adage goes.

When it stops coming ‘round, Godly faith might stop with it,

That is if, to this god you pay homage, bit-by-bit.

The spirit of money knows the souls …it controls!  

Other’s Untoward Words/Actions

When faith in God is linked to what people do and say,

Rather than having faith in Him, you have cursed yourself. ³

Love and serve people, but faith-wise, keep them on the shelf,

And forgive them when their sins impact your righteous way.

Delayed Answers to Prayers

What an oxymoron since God promises prayer answers!

Rather, this may evidence lack of faith-to-receive,

Or perhaps lack of knowledge and patience-to-perceive,

Answers through His Word, or sent via His saints or angels. ⁴

~0~

Faith hijackers! We encounter them on life’s proving ground.

Best we be forewarned and forearmed for the fight!

Such things arrive to test our Godly faith’s might.

Either you’ll bind them, or by them you’ll be helplessly bound. 

‘I have faith, so I am ok’, many people may think,

Thinking faith’s a monolith, one weapon for all fights in view.

If that’s true, The Bible would be thin, and God’s promises few!

Rather, like pay-per-view, God requires ‘faith-per-Truth’, in sync. ⁵

It is Father’s design that His Light within us,

Shines the  brightest  in life’s darkest circumstances.

That’s when He shows on-lookers the consequences,

And as they peer, in us, they may perceive Jesus.

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¹ Anecdotal: not necessarily true or reliable, but based on personal accounts rather than on facts or research.

In the greatest test of Peter’s faith, Jesus prayed that his faith would not fail, e.g., be hijacked by opposing spiritual forces that would prompt him to focus on his circumstances rather than on what Jesus had said. (Luke 22:32)

² In architecture, usually columns rest on the foundation to transfer to the foundation loads from slabs and beams. But floating columns rest on a beam. They are vertical members that rest on a beam, thus they do not transfer loads directly to the foundation. Rather, they act as point loads on a beam which, in turn, transfers the load to the columns below it. See: Floating Column in Buildings

My point: Politicians are not necessarily grounded or founded in existential reality, but in the shifting desires of their political base, and in the vicissitudes of political fights.

³ Thus says the Lord: ‘Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from The Lord.’ (Jeremiah 17:5)

⁴ Study and meditate on this: So Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Have faith in God [have the God-kind of faith, applying it like He does]. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them (i.e., things conforming to God’s will for us). (Mark 11:22-24) By faith, we are to receive, when we pray, not believe we receive when we see the physical results of our prayers.

My tip: Practicing this, perfects God's faith within us....

Synopsis: God, through Jesus, created the Earth realm by and through faith, to work based on Godly faith. All things created BY God’s faith, are designed to RESPOND ...to Godly faith. Imagine that. Better yet, meditate on that!!!

⁵ See: Beliefs Oxymoronic (Poem) and also Hacked, Hijacked or Hack-Proofed? (Poem). A major reason The Bible is such a thick book (comprising 66 sub-books) is The Lord's obvious intentions:

(a) to give us, His righteous elect, a broad set of specific, faith-building and assuring promises covering every aspect of human life, and 

(b) to back-up each promise with a series of clear, relevant, good and bad examples keyed to these promises. Since faith is not a monolith, we need to be intentional to develop faith for each promise that is relevant to our lives. 

Ever considered that?? That is very likely why He allows a wide diversity of tests and trials to buffet us. The object lesson is for us to search for, then develop, and apply faith in His relevant promises, specific to that test and/or trial. Got it??

How Much Pride is Ok? (Poem)

See the Faith and Pride series here

Culture says it’s ok, even good to be proud,

To a degree, that is, beyond which, it is quite destructive.

So in our walk with The Lord, how much is allowed?

On this, to what extent is The Bible clear and instructive?

First…

Let’s ponder how the words, pride and proud, are closely connected.

Pride is a noun and a verb, while proud is an adjective.

Adjectives modify nouns, so with pride, proud is …‘infected’.

This infers that, with proud, we should be very attentive. ¹

There are indeed degrees of proud and pride,

Like relatives in a family that’s distant, yet ‘close’.

But with spiritual eyes opened wide,

Like kissing cousins is what I perceive Scriptures disclose.

Across The Bible, these two words are mostly used to signify,

Sinful wickedness against The Lord and all things righteous.

Only in a few verses is positivity typified.

To me, this suggests with them we should be very cautious.

The word, proud, is first mentioned in Job’s book, the first one written. 

It’s last mentioned in 1 Peter, a warning and remedy.

In Leviticus and 1 John, pride is first and last mentioned,

Speaking of the pride of power, and of a life that’s worldly. ²

Between the first and last of these noted mentions,

Lies a wealth of warnings, with both good and bad examples,

That ebb and flow over many generations,

A sandwich of sort, served to us, The Lord’s ‘now’ disciples.

By the spirit of pride, Lucifer became proud,

To the point of moving to dethrone The Lord,

Thus, as the first sin ever, pride is thus avowed,

And by Heaven, all ‘proudful-ness’ is abhorred. ³

Devils are highly deceptive, and we’re highly gullible.

With pride as their mother force, all their temptations to sin,

Must originate from this force, nodal and ‘root-a-mental’. 

Because we’re so gullible, their deceptive cloaks are thin.

‘A little leaven leavens the whole lump/loaf’, Paul twice exclaimed,

A vivid example of damage a bit of sin can do.

When put in the caldron of life, and devils turn up the flame,

A little pride and ‘proudful-ness’ e-x-p-a-n-d, and become a stew. ⁴

‘It’s ok to be proud of who you are’, some are taught.

The Bible flips this picture and central figure.

It says, ‘Don’t think of ourselves more highly than we ought.’

So then, of ourselves, how ‘highly’ ought we to think? ⁵

Jesus (pre-incarnate) clearly answers this question,

In His discourse with the weeping prophet, Jeremiah:

Ponder, then ask yourself if you embrace this doctrine,

From Him to Whom pride and the proud are …an anathema. 

“Let not the wise glory in his wisdom,

Let not the mighty glory in his might,

Nor let the rich glory in his riches;

But let him who glories, glory in this,

That he understands and knows Me,

That I am The Lord, exercising lovingkindness/grace

judgment, and righteousness in the Earth.

For in these I delight,” says The Lord.

(Jeremiah 9:23-24)

Apart from this rather narrow kind of proudful pride,

’God resists the proud, but to the humble, He gives Grace.’ ⁶

Though by the world this may generally be denied,

Please, not by us; nevertheless this review …just in case…

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¹ Pride is the quality or state of being proud. Proud ranges from having proper self-respect-to-having or displaying excessive self-esteem. (Merriam-Webster)

Pride refers to the satisfaction an individual gains from something. Proud, on the other hand, refers to the feeling of pride. See: Difference Between Pride and Proud

² See: Job 9:13, Habakkuk 2:4, 1 Peter 5:5, Leviticus 26:19 and 1 John 2:16

³ See: Mother of All Sins See also Bishop Johnson’s impressive credentials.
⁴ Paul’s references to leaven in Galatians 5:9 and 1 Corinthians 5:2 represent legalism and the sin of pride. See: What does it mean that a little leaven leavens the whole lump?

⁵ In context of Christ-followers renewing our minds to conform to The Mind of Christ, Paus wrote, ‘For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he oughtto think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith’ (Romans 12:3), i.e., faith to believe what He says in His Word, The Bible.

⁶ See: 1 Peter 5:5

10th Anniversary!

Dear Readers,

Hallelujah! September 2021 marks the 10^th anniversary of Life in the Key of ‘J!’. 

This blog is the result of 2 years (starting in 2009) of patient promptings by The Lord, in the face of my doubts, resistance and even fears, to share the results of what He had inspired me to do, namely to apply my professional skills as an international development strategic planner to re-reading and studying His Word, The Bible. Praise Him for His patient, persistent pursuit and unique acts of confirmation that gradually caused these dark clouds to dissipate. The results, which He alone foresaw, include incredible spurts in my spiritual growth in Him as I obeyed; sharper study and meditation skills; and a tested commitment to share freely what He poured into and through my spirit and soul. They also include increasing numbers of readers from across the world, possibly including YoU! Google reports well over 45,000 page views from curious and seeking readers. Encouraging comments and feedback received from you are always a special, much appreciated blessing, not only for me, but I believe for other readers as well. Keep ‘em coming~ ;o)

My prayer remains that The Holy Trinity be glorified, and you be richly blessed and encouraged to dig deeper into the unlimited riches of The Holy Bible. I have come to embrace it as The Lord’s ‘multi-millennial, strategic plan for humanity’, complete with every aspect of any significant strategic plan. As such, and based on my 4+ decades of working with international development strategic plans, it is increasingly clear that the world is transiting the final stage of His plan. All creation seems to testify to this point.

In light of that, and if you agree, let’s be reminded of this: it’s not how we start and endure or may stumble in a race, but how we finish it that really counts! Let’s continue to run the race before us as mature and maturing Christ-followers, so we will finish well (Hebrews 12:1-2), and thus ensure our designated/delegated role(s) in The Lord’s pending Millennial Reign – a persistent topic across the now nearly 700 posts in Life in the key of ‘J!’.

Rich continued blessings,

J!