Strongman You Want? Strongman You’ll Have! (Poem)

There is an old adage that says, ‘For what you wish, be careful’.¹

Here’s a wish in our world that some day we may want to cancel.

It’s the increasing wish for right leaning, ‘strongman’ governments,

To add to the heap of others that we, for years, still lament! ²

This wish is fed by ill-perceived costs of globalization.

It is fanning the well-known flames of nationalization.

But to look only at the costs of global integration,

But no benefits, yields a one-sided examination.

Increasing national conflicts and regional migration,

Add more fuel to this growing, incredible situation.

But who’d argue that ‘right-leaning’ is both ‘strong’, and also ‘right’?

Between nationalistic and integral, which takes more might??

In sports competition, every player looks for his ‘edge’,

Even if it means reneging on whatever he pledged.

In economic competition, nations do the same,

‘Till nationalism rears its head, and changes the game.

Tariff walls, subsidies, and tricks to manipulate the field,

Designed to bring ‘economic competition dogs’ to heel.

‘Beggar thy neighbor’ economic and trading policies,

Project strongman egos...but ensure mutual paucity!

As the pendulum of global unity swings cyclically,

Here is a predicted outcome worth pondering carefully.

In the past, the dark clouds of myopic nationalism,

Have unleashed across the earth much hellish opportunism.

You see, strongman economic and trading policies,

Have clear side effects, and what I call ‘bleeding properties’.

Take a quick tour around the world, and you’ll see what this has bred.

Such strongman policies into most other sectors have bled!

Strongman tactics only work when preceded by strong delusion

That makes of sound governance a derision, and brings destruction.

Consider this: Strongman governance is rooted deeply in pride.

This spirit defiles one man, and then quickly infects nationwide.

If you’re spiritually alive, you’ll know this is not odd.

Where did I get it? It’s inferred in The Book written by God!

‘To those who have pleasure in unrighteousness, He’ll send to them,

Strong delusion to believe lies, and thereby they’ll be condemned.’ ³

Pride is the root of all evil, and goes before destruction.

It can ensure both personal and national corruption.

One day, a prideful strongman will arise to rule the whole world,

And over all nations, his deceptive flag he will unfurl.⁴

His lies will be believed then, as strongman lies are believed today.

His global government will come, but it will not be here to stay!

He’ll be annihilated by the brightness of Christ’s return! ⁵

Now my Friend, from this Truth, for our world today, what can we learn?

From this rhyme, here is a warning I hope we all will heed:

Don’t ever look to a professed strongman to meet your need.

Live by your faith! ⁶ Don’t smear fear as a salve.

If strongman you want, then strongman you’ll have!

----------

¹ Poetically paraphrased

² Can you name the countries where ‘strongman’ governments rule?
³ 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 (paraphrased)
⁴ Daniel 7:23-27, 11:21-45; Revelation 13:8

⁵ Genesis 3:15; 2 Thessalonians 2:8; Zechariah 14:12; Revelation 19:11-21

⁶ Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17, Galatians 3:11, Hebrews 10:38

Four Birthdays, or Only Three? (Poem)

God designed humans to have four birthdays,

But too many of us have only three.

For you, three or four? Take time to appraise,

So you’ll complete your ‘birthday history’. 

The first of four is your spirit’s ‘breath-day’.

God breathed ‘you’ as Dad’s sperm entered Mom’s egg.

The second is the day you celebrate;

The day to get gifts for which you don’t beg. 

The fourth is your birth into forever. 

That is the day God takes His breath away.

That leaves one too few have; many never.

 Let’s see what it is with no more delay!

That’s the day you choose your forever home,

Chance to leave the one which at birth we’re paired.

From this place you will never, ever roam.

A choice between two that God has prepared.

When into this life each of us is born,

Into satan’s kingdom we are then plunged.

But from his clutches we each can be torn, 

By Christ’s bloody death that our sins expunged.

Once in your heart your decision is sealed,

In God’s ‘Book of Life’ it is recorded.

When away from earth your life has been pealed,

By your choice, you’ll be doomed or rewarded. 

To you, ‘Happy Birthday!’ four times, not three,

If in God’s Kingdom you’ve chosen to come.

But if you’re satisfied with only three, 

Just like God, on your choice I will be ...mum.

Will We Inhabit Other Bodies? (Poem)

We’re pushing to select celestial bodies to inhabit,

Whether to mine minerals or just find a cleaner planet.

After raping the Earth, and then damaging her atmosphere,

Some wonder, ‘Will we just do the same beyond our stratosphere?!’

Science reports finding several possibly good candidates.

We’re honing technologies, and setting exploration dates.

International cooperation has greatly increased,

Compared to those early days when space rockets were first released.

All of this is being done under God’s ever watchful eye.

He alone will determine whether these plans of man ‘will fly.’ ¹

In His Book that chronicles our beginning and our ending,²

Let’s see what He says concerning all these things we’re pretending.

In His Book, it’s only Earth that serves as mankind’s center stage.

From start to finish, I see this written on page-after-page.

Yeah, there is mention of Heaven, and also of hell there, too,

But of mankind having another stage, there’s only one clue! ³

Celestial bodies were given to us for seasons and signs.⁴

No mention of them as natural resources for us to mine.

Just as o’er Earth’s natural resources much blood has been spilled,

Imagine headlines from space when, off Earth, the first man is killed!

As bloodshed increases from natural resource wars

we’ll have exported,

And celestial bodies are militarized,

not just purported, 

Pray tell, where ‘in the world’ would all of these bodies be buried??

Inter them ‘there’ or back on Earth? Who would care, or be worried?

Revelation says both the seas and hell will ‘give up their dead’,

At the end of the 6th age of history, that's what I read. 

Other than Earth, there's no mention of folk rising from elsewhere!

Of that fine point, I wonder if astronauts might be aware? 5

It's only the new, eternal Earth will we ALL inhabit:
One part a lake that's brimstone-lit; the other part GLORY-lit!

So if you think we’ll succeed in rearranging all God’s plans,

My Friend, you don’t understand the power of His Word and Hands.

We should be concerned over the extent of Earth‘s pollution.

But consider impact of The Lord’s punishment solution!

Earth will be unrecognizable when He gets through,

But then He will return and establish all things anew. 6

We should be concerned about natural resource depletion.

But consider His power and plans for resource repletion! 

Earth, recognizable, with new life and fresh purpose, supreme! 

Earth, ‘Under New Management’ by Jesus and His Saints, redeemed!

We don’t know whether He’ll allow our space forays to proceed,

Let’s just wait and see how He will respond to man’s resource greed.

For now, we know what He wrote, which we should study, not just read,

As we ponder when, from this Earth’s limits… we will ALL be freed.

----------
¹ Pun intended.
² The Bible.
³ Hell is a temporary place of torment for sinners, in their immortal spirit and soul form, pending their bodily resurrection event at the end of the 6th age of our history. They will appear before The Lord to be judged, then sentenced and cast into His brimstone-lit lake of fire, forever--as sentient, immortal beings, along with every devil, death and hell, itself. To understand where The Bible affirms hell will be, see: Hell: A Preview ((Series)

⁴ Then God said, “Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs and seasons, and for days and years; and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heavens to give light on the Earth”; and it was so. (Genesis 1:14-15) Here, ‘lights’ refers to both gaseous stars and the planets and other bodies that reflect starlight.

⁵ Revelation 20:11-15.

⁶ See: The Millennial Reign (Series).

Un-Binding the Strongman (Poem)

 Fathers, we have an unseen influence over our children,

This influence ‘works’ whether we are present with them or absent.

It is something special that to us alone God has given.

It’s His delegated authority as ‘their Helmsman Parent.’

From the time they are conceived, until the time from home they leave,

We’re assigned as their Protector, spiritually speaking.

Whether it’s to their Mom, others, or no woman we may cleave,

This responsibility is given without our seeking.

Angels and demons alike must respect OUR authority,

Even if we, ourselves, are totally ignorant of it!

Over all our children we exercise an autocracy.*

In the spiritual world, the buck stops with us. Be sure of it!

That’s why devils and demons work hard to get our attention.

They well know we are God’s assigned ‘Strongman’ in all of our ‘house’.

If they can capture our imagination and ambition,

Our authority over our children they know they can douse! 

In one of His parables, Jesus gave an insightful word:

‘One can’t enter a strongman’s house without first tying him up. 

Then the strongman’s house can be thoroughly ransacked and plundered!’**

Imagine recovering from such a horrible smashup! 

While Jesus referred to satan in the context of His words, 

The exact thing applies across our physical world today.

But let’s think how it also applies to other things we’ve heard:

‘Like father, like son’, ‘apples falling close to trees’, as we say. 

Fathers’ persistent words and actions during children’s ‘home years’, 

Give to angels and devils our ‘spiritual nod and license’,

To influence our children based on how ‘we set our own gears’. 

In our children’s lives, OUR spiritual lives will set the cadence.

Did this get your attention, as your own life is in review?!

It sure got mine, so down on my knees I went, and repented. 

I asked God for His great Grace and Mercy my life to imbue.

He said, in Christ, all my sins and shortcomings are remitted!

Now this word I share with all sons, fathers, and fathers-to-be,

For too long, by devilish tricks and traps, all of us have been bound!

Please hear my plea, and let’s open our eyes, spiritually.

WE determine whether our kids’ spirits will thrive... or be drowned.

As we embrace God’s assigned role as Strongman/Child Protector,

And daily perceive into worlds in which our kids cannot see,

He will daily grace us with the strength, insight and character,

To become ‘all the Strongman we should spiritually be’.

If you’re still Father, and your kids’ at-home years have not yet passed, 

Ask God for Grace that will inspire and instruct future outcomes.

If they are just leaving, or their at-home years have long since passed,

Ask for Mercy to enhance, retroactively, past outcomes.

Our Father assignments one day will attract great scrutiny.

At Christ’s Judgment Bar, consider carefully how might you be found,

When He says, ‘Now let’s review your Father opportunity!

‘Were you the best Strongman you could be, spiritually un-bound??’

----------

* Spiritual autocracy, that is. God installed fathers as the spiritual head and protective covering over the family, and especially over children.

** Matthew 12:29, Mark 3:27 and Luke 11:21-22, paraphrased.

Death by Freedom?

America was established based on the search for freedom by settlers who had left the Old World of Europe, ‘to escape religious or political oppression, as well as the rigid economic patterns of the Old World, which locked individuals into a particular station in life regardless of their skill or energy. Personal freedom was highly prized by these settlers…’ The concept of this search was succinctly captured in the Preamble to the Constitution, which mentions  ‘secure(ing) the blessings of liberty’. This would be achieved through ruling ‘by the people’ versus by a monarch. At the time, this was quite a revolutionary idea.*

Religious freedom was paramount in America’s establishment, namely freedom ‘of’ religion. In our short existence as a nation, this specific freedom has morphed considerably, and is now largely regarded and practiced as freedom ‘from’ religion, faith or worship. Moreover, the focus has expanded significantly beyond escaping religious, political and economic oppressions of the Old World, per se, to an unrelenting gallop to freedom from many restraints, in general.

I wonder if the founders might have ever imagined

the concept of freedom on steroids?

  

One freedom frequently mentioned in news reports is the freedom of speech, which has been broadly interpreted, and even legislated to include freedom of public expression, even expressions that exclude speech . This is evidenced in Supreme Court decisions that struck down state laws across the country, and declared flag burning was constitutionally protected ‘free speech’. According to my dictionary, the concept of public expressions is not included in the definition of speech. This interpretation has seemingly opened the door to a box of Pandoras. It has fueled and protected a wide range of public expressions that have taxed the tolerance of the majority in support of the rights and freedoms of increasing pugnacious elements of our culture.

Socio-culturally, politically, religiously and economically, America, ‘one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all’, is increasingly becoming the mirror image of the rusting, crumbling and ineffectual infrastructure across our land. Just as our politicians and governments lack the will to commit to do whatever may be necessary to address our infrastructure crisis, we, as a people, seemingly lack the will to address issues that seriously threaten our socio-cultural, political, religious and economic health. In both cases, sustainability as a functioning nation and society/culture is questionable. As a result, we may be one nation, literally, but are easily divided as the many currents of polarizations (not just political) tear at our seams. The concept of liberty/freedom is now on steroids as we seek to escape all restraints, including every law of God. Thus, we are no longer ‘under/submitted to’ Him. Justice is no longer just, but is largely perverted in favor of the wealthy, the powerful and influential.    

Culture cultivates, similar to what happens with a petri dish in a biology lab. Look around and see what we, as a people, have cultivated in our ‘national dish’. Flag burning and disrespecting the flag or national anthem (current news items of today) are not the problem. Rather, they are or should be troubling symptoms of underlying, ill-perceived problems.

A very wise man once wrote, ‘Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach (disgrace/discredit) to any people.’ (Proverbs 14:34) America needs a national consciousness of what God calls ‘sin’. I find it interesting that in its search for ‘a more perfect union’, settlers rebelled against their monarchs from across Europe, and thus, planted the spiritual seeds of rebellion in our national soil. It is even more interesting that folk want to ‘make it through the Pearly Gates’, but no one seems willing to recognize what’s on the other side of those gates, namely not just a national, but a worldwide, forever Monarch, not a perfect, plural democracy! America rebelled against a monarchy, but many Americans want to live eternally under a monarchy. Go figure~

God created mankind to enjoy His freedom that only comes within clear, prescribed constraints and limits, as do any freedoms. This is principally the freedom from the power of sin; freedom to love and serve Him for who He is; and freedom to mutually respect and serve others. Alas, the notion of a march to freedoms unlimited (i.e., freedom at any cost, or at the cost of ‘anyone but me!’) is antithetical to whom we were created to be, and what we were created to experience, both in this life and in our eternal existence to come.

For the home of the brave, and land of the free,

May you all join in and pray this prayer with me.

Pray that the freedom we all so cherish,

Will not be the means by which we’ll perish… 

----------

* See: The Basis of the American Republic. See also: God Rail-less (Series)

Jesus Needs Salvation (Poem)

See the Salvation series here

Remember, one day in history,
A crowd called for Christ to save Himself,

‘Others You saved’, they cried angrily.

‘So why not come down, and save Yourself?!’

What would you say if I said, ‘Jesus also needs salvation’?

To you, would this sound crazy, maybe even sacrilegious?

Would these words, to you, sound just like an illegal conflation.

Would you walk away; shake your head over my spuriousness?

No worry, Friend, we’ve all been so conditioned

To read God’s Word with a religious mindset.

To our interpretations, we’re imprisoned,

Missing God’s plan to paint a broader vignette.

You are correct in your understanding;

Salvation from God to us is given,

Given in the Person of Christ, our King,

Freeing us from the traps of devilish gremlins.

However, of all the Bible’s references

To God’s great salvation offerings,

Only two speak of His awesome presages

Of His own salvation outpourings.

What?! Salvation for Jesus?! Who ever heard of such?!

Yet that is what He said, not once, but twice!

Hey! Jesus saves!

If He needs to be saved, I would ask, ‘From whose clutch,

And who, pray tell, could ever pay that price??’

In His interview with the prophet, Isaiah,¹

He mentions a notion we might leave ‘on the shelf’;

One that seems like an outlandish idea:

That is, His own arm brought salvation for Himself.

When He comes to claim His royal priesthood and holy nation,²

He’ll set a 7-year timer on His proverbial clock.

It will start the gruesome winding down of this dispensation.

Then this ole world will know His wrath, and feel His ‘salvation shock!’

Indeed, His mighty arm will bring Him His own salvation,

Salvation from the kingdom of satan’s grip on God’s creation;

Salvation from those who rejected His adjuration;

Salvation that ushers in His Millennial dispensation!

The ransom of a soul is costly, a psalmist wrote in reverence,³

Not only is it costly, but oh soooo bloody, this you know.

Just as the price of our salvation was one bloody experience,

So will His be, but THIS time, it won’t be His blood that will flow!

Sinners will pay first in blood, then forever in hell,

Because they spurned Christ’s sin payment on Calvary’s hill,

For not responding as His saints ‘rang His Gospel bell’,

Jesus will get His salvation....and send them the bill!

----------

¹ Writing prophetically about the end of this current age or dispensation, Isaiah was instructed to write the following, which is elaborated in detail in The Book of Revelation, chapters 6 – 20. It is widely understood that Isaiah had visions/encounters with The Pre-incarnate Christ, as did several other Old Testament prophets.   

‘He saw that there was no man, and wondered that there was no intercessor; therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him; and His own righteousness, it sustained Him. For He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on His head; He put on the garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a cloak. According to their deeds, accordingly He will repay, fury to His adversaries, recompense to His enemies; the coastlands He will fully repay. So shall they fear The Name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun; when the enemy comes in like a flood, The Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him.’ (Isaiah 59:16-19) 
‘For the day of vengeance is in My heart, and the year of My redeemed has come. I looked, but there was no one to help, and I wondered that there was no one to uphold; therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me; and My own fury, it sustained Me. I have trodden down the peoples in My anger, made them drunk in My fury, and brought down their strength to the earth.’ (Isaiah 63:4-6)
² The Church
³ Psalm 49:8