Here Is Wisdom

"And He was also saying to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it turns out. And when you see a south wind blowing, you say, ‘It will be a hot day,’ and it turns out that way. You hypocrites! You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present time? And why do you not even on your own initiative judge what is right?" (Luke 12:54-57)

Here is wisdom: Jesus says to "analyze this present time" by "what is right."

Jesus tells His followers to "analyze" the times Spiritually.

Here's scripture's analysis of the spirit of "the last days:"

"But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these." (II Timothy 3:1-5)

It's a detailed description of "this present time."

It's a detailed description of the man Americans have chosen as their ruler in "this present time."

The man himself doesn't really matter: it's not at all about him (though he would violently disagree). Politicians themselves are transient players. The soon-to-be-ruler's real importance is that he so completely embodies the spirit of this time.

And his ultimate importance, that Christians choose to be led by that spirit.

Vox "Evangelical" Populi

I've talked a great deal lately about this scripture: that's because it's been on my heart daily. When God does that, it's usually because He wants me to pay particular attention to the passage, and deeply meditate on it. And when I do so, He shows me more of His wisdom in it.

"And He was also saying to the crowds, “When you see a cloud rising in the west, immediately you say, ‘A shower is coming,’ and so it turns out. And when you see a south wind blowing, you say, ‘It will be a hot day,’ and it turns out that way. You hypocrites! You know how to analyze the appearance of the earth and the sky, but why do you not analyze this present time? And why do you not even on your own initiative judge what is right?" (Luke 12:54-7)

He clearly tells "the crowds" to not "analyze this present time" by appearances, but by "what is right." He's even more explicit in John 7:24: "Do not judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous judgment.”

Jesus also says this is God's command: "My teaching is not Mine, but His who sent Me" (John 7:16).

God commands that we judge the same way He Himself judges. And He judges men the same way He judges the times.

Choosing a ruler for His people, God instructed Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him;...for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (I Samuel 16:7).

Our time, America 2016, is another example of "the people" willfully choosing unrighteousness. My earlier post "Vox Populi" gives a starter-list of Biblical instances.

That "the world" chooses unrighteousness is a given. But what does it say that 80% of "evangelicals" choose unrighteousness because they can't recognize it when they see it, and can't hear Jesus' command to judge by "what is right" ?

Could it mean that the majority of American "evangelicals" are blind and deaf to God's word ?

God is faithful: He promises to forgive all who will repent; and He heals the blind and the deaf who will ask Him.

Praise His mercy !!

Praying for America

My prayer-group recently prayed for the next president's transition-team, that they would choose people for their administration-in-waiting who will make wise decisions for America.

I've also prayed for the person Americans have chosen as president. That is what scripture says we should do (and that scripture was written during the reign of evil Nero). Indeed, there's no person who doesn't need prayers for wisdom, and repentance.

What Christians emphatically CANNOT pray, if the president-elect institutes the unrighteous policies he said he would, is that his policies and methods will "make America great again."

We cannot pray that doing bad things have good results . . . contrary God's inviolable law.

It didn't work in the Garden of Eden. We can't pray it will work today.

God Personally guarantees it will not.

The Spirit of the Time

"But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; Avoid such men as these." (II Timothy 3:1-5)

This seems to me a detailed description of the spirit of this exact time.

If I'm hearing the Spirit accurately, this scripture confirms that we are living in "the last days."

If I'm hearing the Spirit accurately, this is also a detailed description of the spirit by which America has chosen to be ruled.

Interestingly, one sister said in prayer-group a couple weeks ago that God was bringing this passage of scripture to her mind.

Interesting, because she seems to be a hardcore "Christian conservative," and probably a Trump-partisan.

I'm hopeful God gave her that scripture in fulfillment of His promise that He will be setting many Christians free in the coming days.

Praise Him !

Vox Populi Vox Dei Non Est

"Now when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people assembled about Aaron and said to him, 'Come, make us a god who will go before us...'...The Lord said to Moses, 'I have seen this people, and behold, they are an obstinate people. Now then let Me alone, that My anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them...'" (Exodus 32)


"So when the people gathered together, Pilate said to them, 'Whom do you want me to release for you? Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?'...And they said, 'Barabbas.' Pilate said to them, 'Then what shall I do with Jesus who is called Christ?' They all said, 'Crucify Him!' And he said, 'Why, what evil has He done?' But they kept shouting all the more, saying, 'Crucify Him!'..." (Matthew 27)


"democracy (n.)...from Greek...demos..."the people"...+ kratos "rule, strength..."

The Kingdom of God, in contrast, is God's rule.


"Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah; and they said to him, '...appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.' ...And Samuel prayed to the Lord. The Lord said to Samuel, 'Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them.'..." (I Samuel 8)

O.K., I Get It Now

Our beloved brother Tim in Australia does a blog, "Onesimus Files" (https://onesimusfiles.wordpress.com/). His is the only blog I read almost-daily. In the comments there of Tim and others, I frequently hear something God's saying.

But it sometimes takes me a while to get what God's saying. I tend to expect that truth is complex, and I over-think things.

When God is saying something simple, I often miss it. And truth is usually simple.

That was the case with a simple comment Tim made recently, in a discussion of America's current politics: "It's not really about politics."

It took a while for that simple truth to sink in, and open to my understanding.

I finally get it. Nothing that human beings do is really only about what humans do. Humans are spiritual beings, and the things we do are . . . not "ultimately," at the end: but FIRST and ALWAYS . . . spiritual acts.

That seems to me what Jesus is saying in Luke 12:54-6, when He tells us to "analyze" appearances. "This present time" cannot be understood by those who only look at appearances.

We have a wide choice of "commentators"...political and religious...eager to explain to us what's "really" going on. We constantly hear them analyze every event in terms of all the demographic "appearances" they (and we) believe determine people's political thoughts and actions: age, sex, race, political orientation and religion (often the same thing), by region, by educational and income levels, sexual orientation, occupation.

What Jesus is saying in this time . . . has always been saying . . . is that politics is not really about politics. Politics must be, and can ONLY be, understood in spiritual terms.

President-Elect in the Garden of Eden

At the start of the Civil War, Georgia politician Howell Cobb said that only two things stood in the way of peace between the North and South: "...the landing of the Pilgrims, and Original Sin."

Those same factors will determine America's fate today. Especially the latter.

God set Adam and Eve to live in the reality He'd created. God ruled reality by one simple Law: obey God, and He will bless you; disobey Him, and you will die.

Original Sin came by human beings accepting satan's "alternative theory" of the law. Not only will you NOT die when you break the law, "the father of lies" assured Eve: breaking the law is actually the way to seize blessing for yourself...and then you'll be like God. (Genesis 3)

This is an interesting time for we who believe God's law still rules reality: who believe that doing evil can NEVER bring good results.

An interesting time for God's people, because the leader Americans have chosen for themselves promises that his harsh, arrogant, and violent ways will have good results, and "make America great again." An interesting time, in which Americans have chosen to follow the leader in testing God's law.

If America's defiance of God's law fails disastrously and quickly, it will be because God chooses to show us undeserved mercy. The sooner we learn the consequences of rebelling against the King's authority and rule, the more hearts will repent, and turn back from rebellion.

But God rules as well over time. He may choose to let our chosen leader's evil schemes succeed in "making America great again"...for a time.

The hearts of the rebellious who helped bring that leader to power...including many "Christians"... are already vested in his success. If God lets his unrighteous rule temporarily "succeed," the hearts of the rebellious will be devoted to him even more than they were in electing him: and even more blind to God's impending judgement on America.

If letting evil rule seem to "succeed" is God's choice for America, we should expect His delayed judgement will be especially harsh. God is no respecter of persons. And we know how harsh His judgement was on those whose rebel hearts were devoted to the evil rule of the leader who promised that his evil ways would "make Germany great again."

A Question for Honest Mormons

LDS President Gordon B. Hinckley made an official speech in Europe in 1998, reported in "LDS Church News." That publication bills itself as "An official publication of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." This quote of President Hinckley's words is taken from that publication:

"In bearing testimony of Jesus Christ, President Hinckley spoke of those outside the Church who say Latter-day Saints 'do not believe in the traditional Christ. No, I don't. The traditional Christ of whom they speak is not the Christ of whom I speak. For the Christ of whom I speak has been revealed in this the Dispensation of the Fulness of Times. He, together with His Father, appeared to the boy Joseph Smith in the year 1820, and when Joseph left the grove that day, he knew more of the nature of God than all the learned ministers of the gospel of the ages.'..."

http://www.ldschurchnews.com/articles/31188/Crown-of-gospel-is-upon-our-heads.html

Christians celebrate the two great events of Christ's life: His birth, at Christmas; and His resurrection at Easter.

Mormons also celebrate Christ's birth and ressurrection. "The Book of Mormon" refers to those events, though neither event occurs in "The Book of Mormon," in its American setting.

Both those events occurred in the Middle East, in the life of the "traditional" Christ. "The Book of Mormon" does not claim otherwise.

So why do Mormons celebrate events in the life of the Christ President Hinckley taught is not Mormons' "Christ" ?

Isn't that deceitful, to themselves and to others ?

Self-Delusion

We listened for eight years to people screaming that Obama was subverting democracy, ruling by personal fiat, trampling on our constitutional "rights," etc., etc.

Most of the screamers are now red-hot Trump partisans.

Reminds me of a joke I heard as a kid.

"The snake I saw hiding in the grass turned out to be a stick. But the stick I grabbed to kill it with, turned out to be a snake."

Moral Blindness

In interviews before the election, we heard people say, over and over, that they would vote for Trump because he would bring change.

Their thinking was "true," as far as it goes: which means it's not quite Truth. Truth embodies moral wisdom.

Those who voted for Trump because he would change America illustrate that lack of moral wisdom. People whose thoughts and operative beliefs (in the Bible's terminology, "hearts") are guided by basic honesty, and Godly commonsense, know that change is not a "good" in itself. "Change"...like all creation...is subject to the moral law God has set in place: change can be for the better...or for the worse.

There's a similar, but profoundly deeper, moral blindness among American Christians now that the election is over. Christians rejoicing in Trump's victory, as well as those horrified by it, comfort themselves in the "patriotic" faith that "God is watching over America."

That's a false faith, and morally blind, when its underlying assumption is that God watches over America, always and only, for blessing. Unfortunately, such usually is that faith's underlying assumption.

God says otherwise.

“…Behold, I am watching over them for harm and not for good…” (Jeremiah 44:27)

“…I have watched over them to pluck up, to break down, to overthrow, to destroy and to bring disaster…” (Jeremiah 31:28)

“…I will command the sword that it slay them, And I will set My eyes against them for evil and not for good.” (Amos 9:4)


God promises blessing to those who love and obey Him. We know God's word is true. He promises He will destroy all rebels and evil-doers. We know God's word is true.

It's true, as far as it goes, that God is watching over America. But Truth is that He will decide to what end. We His people know that God's decision will be just, and absolutely righteous. Those who are His people, above all others, should also know that God will not bless evil deeds and unrepentant hearts.

In the meantime, God still holds out His promise of forgiveness and blessing, to all who will "turn from their wicked ways" (II Chronicles 7:14), and heed His moral wisdom.

We His people can therefore praise His mercy !! And we should therefore trust only in Him Who IS our Hope !!