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The Widow's Sacrifice

Jan 28, 2024

I’ve always heard of the Widow’s Sacrifice as a very cut-and-dry event in the Bible. A poor woman gives her all to God, even though it is small in the world’s eyes, and Jesus notices. It’s just a couple of verses in Mark and Luke. However, as God is apt to do when one begins to truly study, the Lord opened this passage up for me in a way that I’d never really seen before. I need to document it to remember. The passage itself is reallllyyyy small.

41 And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.

42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.

43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:

44 For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

Mark 12:41-44

Background

When we come upon this scene in the Bible, Jesus is approaching his last moments of ministry with his disciples. By this point in time, what we celebrate today as Palm Sunday has already taken place. He has triumphantly ridden into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey as the people cried hosanna and laid down their coats and palm branches. He has cursed the fig tree and it has miraculously withered on the vine. He has flipped the moneychanger’s tables in the temple. The Pharisees and Sadducees are becoming increasingly agitated, and in a few short days from this very moment, they will enlist the help of Judas Iscariot, and hatch a plot to take Jesus by night, where He will begin his final journey towards the cross.

Of course, in his infinite power, Jesus is fully aware of all that is about to transpire. He is fully aware of the agony that will come. He is fully aware that some of the people who greeted him with cries of Hosanna will soon again greet him with cries of “Crucify Him!” Knowing all of this, what does Jesus decide to do? If it’d been me, I’d of probably been dipping out. That would’ve been my cue to EXIT STAGE LEFT. However, thank the good Lord, Jesus didn’t do that. Instead, we find him sitting in the temple. He’s doing something really important. So important in fact, that the Bible records the account of what is about to transpire TWICE. Once in Mark and once in Luke. So as we begin, I want you to know that Jesus was teaching and people-watching.

Ya’ll ever people watched? It’s a fairly entertaining pastime. You can go to the beach, the mall, the ball field, downtown, or any other random place where people congregate and just sit down and watch. People are interesting. I learned this fact at a very young age. When I was a boy, I’d spend my summers helping my grandparents out on the family farm in Darlington, S.C. We’d work hard in the morning. Cutting grass, dissing up the garden, picking up pecans, working on tractors, planting flowers, and practicing our tennis swings with the carpenter bees out at the barn I can’t say I was the most mechanically inclined individual when we were working on those tractors, but I coulda gone pro playing tennis with all the practice I got knocking carpenter bees out the air with a racket! However, my favorite time of day was lunch. We got out of the hot sun, got in the car, and went to a little restaurant down the road called The Mayflower, where my grandparents were regulars.

They were so regular, they had their regular table, where they’d sit facing the front door, side-by-side, and talk about everyone who came in throughout our meal. That’s the thing about being married for over 50 years. You get bored talking about each other so you switch it up. They knew everyone, and they loved to people-watch.

41 And Jesus sat over against the treasury, and beheld how the people cast money into the treasury: and many that were rich cast in much.

Mark 12:41

So, right away, we see here that Jesus is doing some people-watching. But, he wasn’t watching them like my Grandaddy and Grandma. The Bible says He beheld them. The original word that was used there means to look with fixed eyes and see with attention. In other words, Jesus was locked in. He wasn’t just casually glancing at the people walking in and out of the temple. He was looking at them with purpose and meaning. And I’m not too sure He liked what He saw. If we look a few verses above this at verses 38-40, we see Jesus speaking out against the showy, prideful, and deceitful antics of the scribes.

38 And he said unto them in his doctrine, Beware of the scribes, which love to go in long clothing, and love salutations in the marketplaces,

39 And the chief seats in the synagogues, and the uppermost rooms at feasts:

40 Which devour widows’ houses, and for a pretence make long prayers: these shall receive greater damnation.

Mark 12:38-40

They went about in their fancy robes, wishing for people to draw attention to them in public. They had no shame about foreclosing on a widow’s house or making up a fake, long, ornate prayer in God’s house. It was all a show.

And, where we pick up this morning, we see some rich people putting on a show for Jesus. Verse 41 says the rich people were casting in MUCH. See them in your mind’s eye. They’re walking up to the offering plate, jingling a big ol’ bag full of silver. A little bit of a grin. A little side-eye to see who’s noticing. I’m exaggerating this a bit because I want you to fully grasp the heart attitude here. As we’ll see here shortly, some of these people are giving God leftovers of their riches, and they’re proud of it. There wouldn’t be a juxtaposition between the widow woman and the rich men if both were honoring God on the same level. Jesus wouldn’t have made a point to point out the difference if both were giving as they should have. Clearly, the woman has something figured out that the rich man doesn’t.

But, I’m getting ahead of myself here…

Go ahead and ask yourself while we’re still here on verse 41. What are you casting into the offering plate this morning? And no, I don’t mean your tithe check. I want you to think about Jesus beholding you. He’s looking at you with a fixed gaze, and all his attention is focused on you And I want you to honestly assess what you think He sees when He looks at you. What does He see when He watches you offer of yourself? Can I tell ya’ll I got chills when I started thinking hard about this. What does my Savior see when He looks at me?

Does He see a man striving to honor Him above all else? Does He see me putting Him above my career? Does He see me putting him above my pride? Does He see me putting him above my fleshly wants and desires? Or does He just see me putting on a show?

Are you putting on a show for Jesus, giving him the extras and the leftovers of your life? Or is the sacrifice You make for Him real to you? Is the relationship with Him real to you?

The average Christian’s nonchalance towards Christ’s sacrifice amazes me sometimes. Jesus offered the ultimate sacrifice for us. He suffered a blameless, agonizing death on the cross for us, and we think we’re okay with just offering Him an hour of our time or 10% in the offering plate on Sunday morning. We’ve got it twisted ladies and gentlemen. If that’s the extent of your relationship with Christ you’re fooling yourself.

42 And there came a certain poor widow, and she threw in two mites, which make a farthing.

Mark 12:42

The first thing I want you to note is that the widow came into the temple. The Bible says “and there came a certain poor widow.” Even though she was destitute and even though she was poor, she still made a point to come to the temple to give her offering.

There are people today who are angry with God for their life circumstances.

They are angry with God because of the state of their finances.
They are angry with God because of the state of their health.
They are angry with God because of the state of their family.

They use this anger as an excuse for why they can’t offer anything to God. It’s why they don’t want to be around God’s people or in God’s house.

The Bible doesn’t say for sure. But, if we draw on the historical context of widows in this time period, we can assume with relative certainty that this widow was probably an older woman.

That old age probably was starting to affect her health, as old age often does.
The Bible says she was a widow, so we also know she’d had her share of grief and pain due to family issues resulting from the loss of her husband
The Bible says she was poor, so we do know without a doubt that she wasn’t in a good financial state. It’s hard to make a proper currency conversion over 2000 years, but scholars say two mites were anywhere between a couple of cents and a couple of dollars in today’s money. If that’s all she had, she was in trouble.

So there she is, a woman most likely in a tough situation financially, physically, and emotionally. Even after all of that, she STILL comes to the Temple to give an offering to God.

He’s beholding.

Remember how I said Jesus was beholding the people? I believe Jesus knew when that exact poor widow was walking up those steps outside, about to come in. He was watching for her, ready. He was going to behold her, just as he had the others. But His response to her, as we’ll see in a minute, would be much different than his response to the rich people.

Before we get here though, let’s stop for some real-life application. We’ve already discussed Jesus beholding us. He’s looking at us intently to see how we will serve Him with the time and opportunities He’s allotted us. He’s looking at us intently to see if our offering comes from a heart that desires the praise of Him or a heart that desires the praise of Man

Now, I want you to think about the idea of coming to the temple to offer to the Lord. I’m not just talking about the church building either. There’s another temple. Stick with me here. This is HUGE.

19 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

20 For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.

1 Corinthians 6:19-20

Have you realized YOURSELF, that you are here to worship God? That you are here to offer yourself to God. That you are here to serve and live for the Lord.

Verse 19 tells me that my body is the temple. Verse 20 tells me I’m to glorify God in my body. Put two and two together and I now know that I’m to glorify God in the temple. I’m to come to the temple to glorify God through my offering to Him.

Listen, He’s already bought me with a price in offering his only Son for me, so I have no excuse but to offer myself to him. The widow offered all she had in the temple so that God would be glorified and magnified in her. Evidently, He was glorified by this, and still is today, for here we are discussing this same event 2000 years later.

So… am I offering all that’s in me? Am I offering my heart, my mind, my attitude, and my actions to glorify God?

Let’s look at it from a different angle. You see, the widow wasn’t the only one who walked into that temple. Earlier that day, Jesus walked in too. And he’d spent the afternoon beholding people, watching them give their offerings. If Jesus walked into your temple today, and He watched you give your offerings to Him, what would He see? Would you even show up to offer anything, or would you let the cares and distractions of this world keep you away?

It’s true that people lose sight of God because of misplaced anger, tragedy, hard circumstances, and guilt.

However, the Lord knows it’s also true that folks today lose sight of God due to the pleasures of this world. We don’t have problems packing sports stadiums. We don’t have problems climbing up in deer stands. We don’t have problems wasting hours on social media, or gossip, or politics, or TV.

When you’re offering all of your time and attention to that pleasurable pastime, you’re telling God He’s not first. When you’re offering all of your time and attention to that vicious vice in your life, you’re telling God He’s not first. If He was to walk into your temple, what would He see? Would you bring an offering? If so, what kind?

What kind of offering?

43 And he called unto him his disciples, and saith unto them, Verily I say unto you, That this poor widow hath cast more in, than all they which have cast into the treasury:

44 For all they did cast in of their abundance; but she of her want did cast in all that she had, even all her living.

Mark 12:43-44

You see, there are two kinds of offerings. Offerings that are given from a place of abundance and offerings that are given from a place of want.

The rich gave from a place of abundance. They already had their share for themselves set aside. They knew regardless they were going to get what they wanted
The poor widow gave from a place of want. She was poor. She had nothing she could set aside for herself. She gave the Lord all of it.

By no means am I preaching you need to put your life’s savings in an offering plate. The Lord expects us to be wise and responsible with the blessings He gives us.

That said, God doesn’t want my leftovers. He wants my all. That’s why all is underlined in my Bible in verse 44

When it comes to offering yourself to the Lord, you need to be all in. You don’t need to be holding anything back from Him. You don’t need to be holding onto anything else.

Think about a ladder. I don’t know about you, but the higher I get up on a ladder, the tighter I want to hold on.

So… follow me here.. Self-sufficiency is like a ladder. People use it to get a leg-up on life. We’re told independent, self-sufficient people are the ones who get the most success. If my sense of self-sufficiency is the “ladder” I’ve climbed to “elevate” myself in this life, it makes sense that the higher I climb, the more I think I achieve on my own, and the more I feel I do in my own power, it’s going to be harder to let go of that self-sufficiency.

Sometimes God shakes you of that self-sufficiency. He forces you to let go of the ladder so to speak.

I vividly remember one time I let go of the ladder. Remember those carpenter bees I was talking about earlier? Well, I remember one time I was up on a ladder out at the farm, emptying a bee jar trap bolted to the underside of a roof overhang. I unscrewed the mason jar to dump all the dead bees out. Then, because I’m intelligent, I got me a stick and decided to jam it through the bottom hole of the wooden top piece that the mason jar had been screwed into… just in case any dead bees were stuck up in there.

My smart self jammed that stick right up into a wasp nest that had formed inside. They came POURING out of that thing, lookin’ for blood. It must’ve been a million of ‘em. All I saw were wings and stingers folks. I LEAPED off that ladder, swingin’, sweatin’ and swattin’ and screamin’ like a baby. I got me a running start in mid-air, just like Wile E Coyote. When I hit the ground, I took off like a bullet. Still got stung though. What’s the point Sam? It wasn’t hard to let go of that ladder when I realized I wasn’t gonna be able to fix that problem by myself. I decided real quick I wasn’t gonna be holding anything back. I was going to take a leap of faith and go from there.

Similarly, God is going to bring people to the knowledge of Him, somehow, some way, someday, every knee is going to bow. It’s better that we go all in for the Lord of our own free will now, and offer ourselves completely.

We should go ahead and make an offering like that of the widow, rather than like those of the rich people. You need to ask yourself, how can I make the Widow’s Sacrifice in my own life? For it was her, not them, who showed the greatest display of trust and faith in the temple that day.

Keep in mind, that those two mites weren’t going to fund an overseas mission trip. They weren’t going to take the youth to summer camp. They weren’t going to pay for a new church bus or fund the Fall Festival Trunk-or-Treat…. but…

Offering those two mites up was going to further force that woman to RELY ON GOD FOR HER SUSTENANCE AND SOLACE.
Offering those two mites was going to be a visible example to others of her trust that God ALONE would provide
Offering her all was going to show Jesus that she was serious about her faith in God.

So all those kids out there who say, “I’m too young to offer anything to God”, you’re lying. In John 6, a boy offers Jesus his lunch and Jesus feeds over 5000 people with it. So all those old people out there who say, “I’m too old to offer anything to God”, you’re lying. In Genesis 21, God used Sarah and Abraham in their old age to bring Isaac into the world, through which the entire nation of Israel would come to be. All those hurting people out there who say “I’m too damaged to offer anything for God”, you’re lying. In Job 13:15, Job, after having lost all his possessions, health, and family, still offers God his complete trust. All those busy people out there who say “I’m too busy to offer anything for God”, you’re lying. In Luke 10:41, Jesus tells Martha, who bustles about and runs here and there doing everything, that she would do better to offer her time and attention to Him, as her sister Mary was doing. All those poor people out there who say “I’m too poor to offer anything for God”, you’re lying. We see this widow doing it right here. All those sinners out there who say, “I’ve done too much in my past to offer anything to God”, you’re lying. In Acts 22:19, we see how the great apostle Paul, before he was saved, beat and imprisoned Christians. He held the coats for the men as they killed the first Christian martyr, Stephen. Joshua 2 shows the story of Rahab the prostitute. She changed her ways and the Lord used her in a mighty way. She was King’s David great-great-great-grandmother. She was in the lineage of Jesus!

Ain’t nobody too far for Jesus.

At that moment that day in the temple, there was no fanfare. There was no “HEY LORD LOOK AT ME”. This whole event probably only took a few seconds, and the Bible doesn’t say Jesus went up to the woman afterward to commend her. But, I can assure you when she crossed the pearly gates, some commendation took place. Some celebrations took place. Some “well done good and faithful servant” took place.

Christ’s standard of commendable offering is not our superfluity, but our deficiency—not what will never be missed, but what costs us some real sacrifice, and just in proportion to the relative amount of that sacrifice.

Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible, vol. 2 (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 122.

So, I ask us today, what costs us real sacrifice? The widow’s sacrifice was two mites. What’s yours? If you look at you’re life right now, what is God impressing upon you as your two mites? What will cost you real sacrifice? What’s that thing that would hit a little closer to home if you had to give it up? What is the thing you need to give up for him? What’s the thing that, if you gave it up, would require you to rely more on God today than you did yesterday?

There may be some here reading this who need to give up their running away from God.

You’re like Jonah. You know who God is, you’ve seen His Power in your life, and you know there’s something He’s called you to do, but you keep running.
You’re more than happy singing a few hymns, saying amen, and throwing some money in the offering plate every once in a while. But whenever you get that itch of the Holy Spirit telling you to do more, you push back.
I honestly believe we tire ourselves out MORE by running from God than we would if we just did the work He asked of us.

There may be some here today who need to give up their desire to always be right.

18 Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall.

Proverbs 16:18

10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

James 4:10

When we allow pride to fester in our lives, and when we allow it to come into our hearts, we begin believing we can call the shots.
This pride will eventually give way to arrogance. Lots of bad things happen when that transformation takes place.
- You’ll find you know more than your significant other, and you’ll begin to argue all the time.
- You’ll know more than your boss and those work relationships become strained and frayed.
- Kids think they know more than their parents and they go out and make dumb choices they’ll regret for the rest of their life.

It all comes from a desire to be right.

There may be some here today who need to give up their desire to be liked.

10 For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.

Galations 1:10

We get scared sometimes about how people will view us. It’s not necessarily a pride thing. Rather it’s more a fear of rejection. Deep down, everyone wants to be liked, and no one truly wants to feel alone.
Where we mess up is when we try to compare the companionship of God with the companionship of men. They are not equal. A relationship with the Lord is far greater than any relationship here on earth. When you sacrifice your relationship with God to be well-liked by some person here, you’ve made a mistake.
We’re hesitant to stand on certain truths because we fear blowback from people around us. Can I tell you this morning that The man, woman, or child who stands for God will never stand alone. If He stood in the fire with Shadrach, Meschach, and Abednego when they refused to bow to Nebuchadnezzar statue like everyone else, He can stand in the fire with you friend.

There may be some here today that need to give up their independence from God. If you’ve never asked Jesus into your heart, and you’ve never had that relationship, you’ve spent your life apart from Him. You say. “Sam, I didn’t ask Jesus to die for me”. Yes, and isn’t that the beauty of it?

19 We love him, because he first loved us.

1 John 4:19

Before you knew Him, He loved you. Sin separated me from God, but Jesus gave His all on the cross, taking my place and taking my sin on Himself so that I might live in paradise with Him forever.

You’re included in the us in :19. I am too. I1 John 4 truly believe that, in His omnipotent power, there was a moment when Jesus thought of me, Samuel Howell, and He said, I love him, and I’m going to die for him. When he took the sin of the world yours too. The, he took my sin. He took price has been paid. Now, you must offer yourself to Him and take a step of dependent faith in saying that “Jesus is Lord and Jesus is enough and from this day forward I’ll live my life for Him, rather than apart from Him”.

If that’s you, and you know you’ve never accepted Jesus Christ, I’d love to connect with you and go through and go with you through the Scripture. I’d love to show you what it means to be saved. Hit my socials. DM me. Email. Whatever it takes.

Have you come to the temple? When Jesus beholds you in the temple, what does He see?
Are you giving from a place of abundance (giving things you aren’t going to miss) or are you giving from a place of want (giving things that will cause you to rely on God further and further)
Can you say you surrendered fully to Christ? If not, today is the day to change that.

As we close this article, I ask you to earnestly seek the Lord. Ask him to reveal to you what sacrifice you haven’t given to Him that He wants. Find your widow’s sacrifice. Step further into your faith in God than you ever have before. Seek to become more dependent on Jesus day by day.

Don’t simply hear. Do.

This article originally appeared on Fill in the Gap.

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Broken Cisterns and Broken Gods

Jan 20, 2024

Over the last few months, a certain subject has been weighing heavily on my mind. I’m not sure if it has to do with the political season that we are entering. Or what we’re continuing to see in our culture. Or what we have seen overseas recently with Israel. But, I’m increasingly feeling UNEASY with the state of the world. We are living in increasingly volatile and interesting times. And now, more than ever is a time to cling to God’s Word.

I once heard a wise man say that if you want to read tomorrow’s news, open the Bible. So, today we’re going to be reading the news. If have a Bible handy, please turn with me to Jeremiah 2:11-32

Background

As we open this passage, we find the children of Israel living in a state of apostasy, apart from the Lord. For all extents and purposes, life is good. But they are on the cusp of tragedy. During this time, the Lord is actively speaking through his prophets, warning the Israelites of the punishment to come.

In 627 BC, Jeremiah joins Habakkuk in prophesying of the coming destruction by the Chaldeans (also known as the Babylonians).

In a few short years, in 612 BC, Assyria fell and Egypt was decimated as Babylon, under the rule of Nebuchadnezzar, became the dominant power.

The Fall of Judah is about to take place in 597 BC, where Nebuchadnezzar will conduct 4 invasions and deportations in Jerusalem (he’ll take Daniel on the 1st deportation)

Before we begin reading, I want you to go ahead and get it in your mind. We’re standing on the beach, and we see a tsunami forming in the distance, rolling towards us. We are observing a people whose world is about to flip UPSIDE DOWN.

Let’s start with Jeremiah 2:11-19

11 Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit. 12 Be astonished, O ye heavens at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate,saith the Lord. 13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters,and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water. 14 Is Israel a servant?is he a homeborn slave? why is he spoiled? 15 The young lions roared upon him,and yelled, and they made his land waste: his cities are burned without inhabitant. 16 Also the children of Noph and Tahapanes have broken the crown of thy head. 17 Hast thou not procured this unto thyself, in that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, when he led thee by the way? 18 And now what hast thou to do in the way of Egypt, to drink the waters of Sihor? or what hast thou to do in the way of Assyria, to drink the waters of the river? 19 Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee: know therefore and see that it is an evil thing and bitter, that thou hast forsaken the Lord thy God, and that my fear is not in thee,saith the Lord God of hosts.

Jeremiah 2:11-19

Off the jump, we see a couple of things to note. The Lord, through Jeremiah, is asking the Israelite people some hard and direct questions regarding their loyalty. Understand that the Lord is calling his people to task. In a way, He’s going to give the why He’s dropping the hammer before He drops the hammer.

When I was a kid, two primary sets of hands dropped the hammer on me. My mama and my daddy. (As a side note, we need to get back to whuppin’ kids today like they whupped me then!). Now, I don’t have a favorite parent, but I FOR SURE had a favorite disciplinarian. Mama. And it wasn’t because she didn’t hit as hard. In fact, SHE’S the one who broke the wooden paddle over my rear end one time. But I could deal with that. I was tough.

Dad, on the other hand (no pun intended) was the worst. He wasn’t just going to spank you. He was going to send you to your room and let you sweat. He had a good cop/bad cop routine that he played all by himself. He’d let you sweat, then, after he figured you’d got wise and stuffed your britches with extra underwear, he’d walk in, sit you down, and proceed to tell you exactly why you were about to get tore up. The suspense of the whuppin’ hurt more than the whuppin’ itself! Mama’d just get it over with. Dad wanted me to understand the WHY in clear and vivid detail.

Now, as Israel’s whuppin’ hasn’t happened quite yet, in this passage we find God, through Jeremiah, evaluating the behavior of his children. Like any good father does, he is making sure his children understand the reasoning behind the discipline to come. When I view this passage in the light of a behavioral evaluation reminds me that God does everything for a purpose. He is not random. Actions have consequences, and God would not be a just God if he allowed sinful actions and sinful attitudes to go unchecked.

As you can tell from the highlight earlier, the first verse I really want to hone in on is Jeremiah 2:13

13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters,and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

Jeremiah 2:!3

When I read this, it stuck out to me like a sore thumb. If we wanted, we could probably pull a whole sermon out right here and be done with it.

I want you to note that TWO evils take place.

The people forsake “me the fountain of living waters”
The people “hew them out cisterns, broken cisterns”

Me, the fountain of living waters

Who is the fountain of living waters? The fountain of the living waters is the LORD. For reference, you can jot down some verses to look at later here…

6 And he said unto me, It is done. I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

Revelation 21:6

14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

John 4:14

13 O Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed,and they that depart from me shall be written in the earth, because they have forsaken the Lord, the fountain of living waters.

Jeremiah 17:13

17 For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

Revelation 7:17

Revelation 21:6 speaks of the fountain of the water of life. In John 4:14 Jesus speaks of the same fountain of living waters. The Lord is called the fountain of living waters in Jeremiah 17:13 . In Revelation 7:17, The Lamb in the midst of the throne shall lead them unto living fountains of waters. The Lamb is Jesus, so this further reiterates Revelation 21:6 and John 4:14.

What’s the point Sam? The people have forsaken the Lord. They’ve turned their backs on Him. They’ve chosen instead to trust in the Assyrians and the Egyptians for protection from the Babylonians. Instead of building altars to God, they’ve chosen to build altars to Baal, Ashtaroth, Molech. They forsook the Lord.

Can I tell you we have forsaken the Lord as well? As a nation, and as a world, we’ve turned our backs on Him. We’re not trusting in Assyria and Egypt anymore, but we’ve chosen instead to trust in scientists and politicians for protection. We’ve not built altars of gold and silver and stone to Baal. We’ve chosen instead to build altars to money, abortion, power, sexual deviancy, and a myriad of other evil, wicked, God-forsaken things.

The devil has one playbook. And, for whatever the reason, each generation of humanity falls into the same traps. Satan’s got a rotation of things he wants you to trust in instead of God and God’s commands, and he runs it through and through. Think about it. We’ve just come out of the “trust the science” COVID era. Now, we are in the throes of a “trust the politician” election cycle. We’re starting to enter a new, viler phase of “trust the kids”. We’ve become so blind and perverted that parents, doctors, and teachers today kowtow and acquiesce to children who want to mutilate themselves in the name of gender conformity! All in the name of trusting and validating the child.

I’ll spoil the story for you and tell you that Israel’s trust in the Assyrians and the Egyptians didn’t stop the Babylonian invasion. Trusting in Baal, Ashtaroth, and Molech didn’t prevent the judgment of God from falling.

Much in the same way, trusting science didn’t save anyone from COVID. Trusting a politician won’t save the America of tomorrow from the America of today. A neglectful, warped adult, trusting a child to choose their gender, won’t save the child from gender dysphoria, nor the adult from the wrath of God. Trusting in things outside of God will always leave you with regrets and questions. That innate thirst that all of us possess apart from God will never be satiated.

People spend their whole lives trying to feel that completeness and fill that void. We’re all thirsty at some point, and we look for the water that will satisfy our thirst. We look at different places to place our trust. Different people look for it in different ways. They look for it in family, sex, careers, popularity, vacations, clothes, drugs, bank accounts, jewelry, alcohol, a certain car, a certain house, friends, etc. All of these things can be lumped under one category… broken cisterns.

Broken cisterns

Before we go any further, let’s make sure everyone understands what a REAL cistern is before we dive into the application for our lives today…

A cistern is a reservoir used to supplement an area’s water supply by collecting rainfall
The various storage systems in the ancient Near East depended upon the rainy season, which was October through April.
In Jerusalem, only 25 inches of rain fell in an average year.
Toward the end of summer, springs and wells were often reduced in size—or entirely dry. Cisterns and open reservoirs were then sometimes the only sources of water.

These cisterns had plaster lining on the inside that was used to hold the water in and prevent it from leaking out into the surrounding earth. When a cistern was “broken” there were cracks and holes in the lining. It couldn’t hold the water, and would eventually run dry.

Do you see what the Lord is trying to say here in Jeremiah 2:13? He’s telling the Israelites “You replaced me, the answer to your thirst, with other gods that could never quench your thirst”. You hewed out broken cisterns. He’s telling us the same thing today folks.

Listen, it took a while to put those cisterns together. To build those jokers right, you had to dig the holes, mix the plaster, coat the inside, and then wait for the rainy season to fill it.

Can I tell you there are a lot of people today going through those same steps, hewing out broken cisterns?

Maybe some of you reading this have dug holes in your past, and you’re sitting in them right now and you don’t have any idea how to get out. Maybe some of you are like me, and you don’t know when to stop digging and put down the shovel.
Can I tell you today there’s a lot of people mixing plaster? They’re setting themselves up for worldly success. They’re working hard to get all the ingredients to build that recipe for a picturesque and easy life. They’re studying for degrees, and they’re getting house mortgages, and they’re building work connections, and they’re putting their kids in travel ball. They’re working out in the gym, buying designer clothes, drinking the finest wines, and dining on the finest steaks. And they spend their days mixing all of these activities and things. And they lay it on thick.
Can I tell you there’s a lot of people coating their lives with this stuff? They coat their lives with the appearance of worldly successes.
And they’re waiting for the rain. And, often, it does rain. God rains down blessings and he rains down opportunities over the years. Matthew 5:45 tells us He rains it on both the just and the unjust.
Those people experience it. They experience the blessings and the opportunities, and they keep waiting to feel fulfilled. But the lives they’ve built are full of cracks and holes.

They retire from the careers God blessed them with and the feeling of purpose doesn’t stay anymore. They come back from the vacations and the feeling of peace doesn’t stay anymore. Parents die, kids move away and the feeling of family doesn’t stay the same. They keep wanting to feel fulfilled and they never do. It’s because they’re trying to satiate their thirst for purpose, drinking from broken cisterns.

Are you trying to sustain your life on a broken cistern? Are you pouring yourself into the things of this world? Are you pouring the blessings, talents, and opportunities God has given you into meaningless ventures? I had to ask myself as I was reading this, “am I investing in my eternity or am I investing in my “right-now”?. If you’re not living for God, then its all for naught. You’ll never achieve what your struggling to have. Only in Jesus can we find our true purpose.

A degenerate vine

20 For of old time I have broken thy yoke,and burst thy bands; and thou saidst, I will not transgress; when upon every high hill and under every green tree thou wanderest, playing the harlot. 21 Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me? 22 For though thou wash thee with nitre, and take thee much soap,yet thine iniquity is marked before me,saith the Lord God. 23 How canst thou say, I am not polluted, I have not gone after Baalim? see thy way in the valley, know what thou hast done:thou art a swift dromedary traversing her ways; 24 A wild ass used to the wilderness,that snuffeth up the wind at her pleasure; in her occasion who can turn her away? all they that seek her will not weary themselves; in her month they shall find her. 25 Withhold thy foot from being unshod, and thy throat from thirst: but thou saidst, There is no hope: no; for I have loved strangers, and after them will I go.

Jeremiah 2:20-25

Thine own wickedness shall correct thee, and thy backslidings shall reprove thee. Seems pretty straightforward doesn’t it? We forget this sometimes. People take the just consequences of their sin and call it an unjust act of God. They call him unloving and uncaring. How could he allow such and such to happen? After all, if he loves me, he should make my life lollipops and rainbows right? Right now, there are people sitting in buildings all across America (I won’t call them churches), and they’re hearing men spew that nonsense from the stage.

The key verse here is Jeremiah 2:21.

21 Yet I had planted thee a noble vine, wholly a right seed: how then art thou turned into the degenerate plant of a strange vine unto me?

Jeremiah 2:21

The Israelites were planted a noble vine. They were of the lineage of Abraham, God’s chosen man. They were given a land flowing with milk and honey. They Promised land. The Lord fought their battles on every side. He broke their yoke and bursts their bands. He brought them through captivity and genocidal slaughter at the hands of Pharaoh. They were a chosen lineage, and one day, hundreds of years from this time, God’s son Jesus would be introduced to the world through this lineage. All the variables were put in place for them to succeed and grow closer to God. Yet they turned from him. In fact, that’s what degenerate means there in Jeremiah 2:21, to turn aside and depart.

How many of you today can testify that the Lord broke your yoke in times past? How many of you has he brought through dark times? How many of you has He burst the bands of addictions from? How many of you has He brought through deaths, diseases, depressions? How many of you has He brought through bankruptcies, lost jobs, family tragedies, and housing crises? After all that, are you still serving Him with fervor? Or have you backslidden as the children of Israel did? Have you become so accustomed to the blessings that you’ve forgotten the One who BLESSED you? Have you become so accustomed to the comforts that you’ve forgotten the One who COMFORTED you?

Were you once rooted in the true vine, but have since turned aside and become a degenerate vine? Have you forsaken Him?

The original word for “hast forsaken” in Jeremiah 2:17 and Jeremiah 2:19 means to give up and abandon. This implies that the Israelites once had that communion and relationship with the Lord. Of their own volition, they gave it up. It was not taken away from them. No one can take away your relationship with the Lord, for you have to make the decision on your own to forsake Him. And you will forsake him when you no longer fear Him. The word “fear’ there in Je 2:19 means to be in awe of. Are you in awe of the Lord today? Does that awe and fear of Him inform the decisions you make in your life?

Let’s look at the question in Jeremiah 2:23. Whenever you see a question in the Bible, highlight it or note it, because 99.9% of the time, it has application for you and for me. This popped off the page for me. In other words, God is asking his children, “How can you say you’re fine? How can you say you’re still serving me? How can you say haven’t turned aside and started to follow other gods? Look at your kids. Look at your house. Look at your town. Look at your schools. Look at your churches. Look at your nation. How do you not see this? See your ways. See the destruction and the apostasy. Know what you’ve done. Know that there will be consequences.

Dromedary in Jeremiah 2:23 is another word for camel. The Bible is saying that the Israelite children were as an animal in heat. They were looking anywhere and everywhere for satisfaction. They had turned aside and were looking to be satisfied apart from God.

Almost as if they felt the uncleanness of their whoredoms, they washed. Nitre and soap are synonymous in verse 22. They’re cleaning agents. As the land of Israel descended further and further into apostasy, the cleaning rituals remained constant. The sacrifices to the Lord kept happening. All the STUFF proceeded as it always had, but the heart of the people had long been turned away from God. The iniquity in their souls could not be hidden by their outward acts of service and religious duty. 1 Sam 16:7 rings true. Man looketh on the outward appearance, but God looketh on the heart. When God looks on your heart, what does He see?

If God spoke verse 23 to America today, what would be our response? If he stood up in our churches, and our legislative halls, and our schools, and he asked us to see the depravity of our ways, would we see it? As a nation, I no longer think we would. Because we have become a blind generation.

Let’s read Jeremiah 2:26-31.

26 As the thief is ashamed when he is found, so is the house of Israel ashamed; they, their kings, their princes, and their priests, and their prophets, 27 Saying to a stock, Thou art my father; and to a stone, Thou hast brought me forth: for they have turned their back unto me, and not their face: but in the time of their trouble they will say, Arise, and save us. 28 But where are thy gods that thou hast made thee? let them arise, if they can save thee in the time of thy trouble: for according to the number of thy cities are thy gods, O Judah. 29 Wherefore will ye plead with me? ye all have transgressed against me,saith the Lord. 30 In vain have I smitten your children; they received no correction: your own sword hath devoured your prophets, like a destroying lion. 31 O generation, see ye the word of the Lord. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?

Jeremiah 2:26-31

Israel was ashamed. They had become weak in their idolatry. No one viewed them as a threat or power. No one feared the God of the Israelites, because He had become one of many that they served. To the outside world, God was no different than the stocks (trees) that the Israelites worshipped, or the stones, or the other gods. America is identical today.

Now, before we go further, there is a mode of theological thought that exists involving America and Israel. It has ties to Christian nationalism and American exceptionalism. At its core, it believes America to be the modern-day Israel, and attributes biblical prophecy to America. I want to tell you this morning that that mode of theology is false doctrine. Israel is God’s chosen people and Americans are Gentiles brought into the fold through the sacrifice of Jesus.

That said, the similarities we see in the passage to our modern-day American culture are spot on. We deserve everything we are going to get folks.

America is ashamed on the world stage. We have transvestites in the highest offices of our government. We have rioters doing smash-and-grabs in broad daylight. We’re putting illegal aliens on planes and buses and CHAUFFEURING them INTO OUR COUNTRY when we intercept them at the border. IT MAKES NO SENSE.

I work with a Chinese man. His sister is 17 years old in China. Her life revolves around school. He wouldn’t even get her Christmas presents this past year, because he didn’t want to distract her from her studies. She’s studying for exams to get into college because of how competitive it is over there. The average 17-year-old here is glued to his social media and video games, barely scraping by in school, knocking his girlfriend up, smoking weed, and dreaming of being a football player.

We’re worshipping stocks and stones too. We used to call them tree-huggers, but now we’re politically correct, so we call them climate-activists. They tell us if we don’t treat Mother Earth with respect, she’ll retaliate. They tell us that’s why we have tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and tsunamis. As if God’s creation is a god in its own right.

Jeremiah 2:30 is all too applicable in our day as well. True men of God are being pushed out by the culture. Their reputations are being martyred. Our children have been hurt the most. I saw a viral video online the other day of a rapper who goes by the stage name Lil RT. His song, entitled 60 Miles, is becoming very popular in certain circles. It’s a vulgar explicit song about degrading women for sex, killing people with glocks in front of the cops, running from the cops, and disrespecting the graves of the deceased. It’s vile, but pretty standard for rap culture. But, for the first time in the history of rap music, the “artist” of this garbage, who raps it with fervor as he’s surrounded by jewelry, women, cars, money, and guns, is Lil RT… a 9-year-old.

He’s just one of many. We could go on.

All the children that have been enticed and encouraged to undergo sex change operations.
All the young girls who’ve erroneously given themselves sexually to boys, seeking validation and love that should have been given in the home.
All of the young boys who’ve built their ideas of masculinity around athletes, movie stars, and rappers, rather than God-fearing fathers.

Our children are being smitten. Some of them are old enough to know better, but the culture we’ve created in America encourages them to steel themselves against God and rebel. America is in the EXACT position Israel was in, and we haven’t learned.

Instead of Babylon. We have Russia, and China, and North Korea.
An altar to Baal, the master god of power and control, sits in NYC. If you look back in history, you will see that bulls are tied to Baal and his cultural equivalents, like Zeus and Jupiter. A 7100 lb bronze bull, known as Charging Bull is erected in New York . It symbolizes wealth and money, (for what offers more power and control in modern-day America than the almighty dollar?)
An altar to Ashtaroth, the goddess of immoral sex and pleasure, aptly named “NOW”, sits atop a Manhattan courthouse. According to The New York Times, the statue was commissioned as part of “cultural reckoning” to better represent “21st-century social mores” in public spaces. The 8 foot tall statue, symbolizing female empowerment and independence from man, specifically in regards to abortion and sexual freedom, stands on a lotus flower pedestal. In history, we see lotus flowers are associated with Ashtaroth. Female empowerment and independence from man is associated with Ashtaroth as well.
Let’s get a bit closer to home shall we? An altar to Molech is 22 minutes from my house. It stands tall and proud at 1312 Ashley River Rd, Charleston, SC 29407. We don’t lay children on molten altars anymore to sacrifice them. We don’t burn them alive. Instead, we crush their skulls and suck them out of uteruses with tubes and scrape them out with scalpels. No one wants to talk about that part of abortion though.

Do you see?

The key verse here is Jeremiah 2:31.

31 O generation, see ye the word of the Lord. Have I been a wilderness unto Israel? a land of darkness? wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?

Jeremiah 2:31

Our generation is blind to this. Oh that God would give us all sight to the wickedness and evil! Oh that God would remind people of their need for Him! O generation, see ye the word of the Lord!

This is the crux of the message this morning. See ye the word of the Lord. The word there for see can also mean to understand, and to choose. God is telling us today, See My Word. Understand My Word. Choose My Word in your life, over your own.

There’s a lot of people in the world today who want to speak THEIR word over some situations. They want everyone to hear their opinion on the subject. Frankly, they want God to hear their opinion on the subject. They want him to take their two cents under advisement when He’s carrying out his omniscient and omnipotent plan. Opinions are like noses. Everyone has one and they all smell.

Choose to choose God’s Word over your own today. Yes, the world is wicked. As in the days of Jeremiah, so are the days of today. He preached 40 years, with little to no response from the children of Israel. He preached to a calloused people, drunk on the luxury and ease of their lives. Sometimes I feel that the God-fearing preachers today in America are modern day Jeremiahs. But, by the power of the Lord, I’m going to keep preaching the same message.

Heed the warning of the broken cistern. Don’t expect to feel filled and fulfilled apart from Jesus. You never will be.

Heed the warning of the degenerate vine. Resolve to remain rooted and fed from the True Vine, Jesus Christ. Don’t turn aside.

Heed the warning of the blind generation. SEE the Word of the Lord. Make it real in your life. Choose God. Choose his direction. Choose his plan for your life. Choose to step in faith, rather than in your own will. Choose to pray that you might understand. Choose to abide in Him, rather than broken cisterns and broken gods.

Profit in Much

Jan 6, 2024

One more rep. One more rep. This was the singular thought going through my mind as my extended arms held the barbell above my chest. It was only a 185 lbs bench press. I’d done it a couple of times already. For sure I could do it one more. Besides, I could feel my spotter’s eyes on me. “You’ve got more than that in you”, he laughs. There was no way I was going to wuss out.

Thumbs aligned. Shoulders inline. I began dropping the weight in a controlled motion towards my chest. The burn escalated. Just before the barbell touched my chest, I began my upward ascent, pushing it back towards that grimy ceiling tile above me, ready to get rid of the weight. My arms are shaking by this point. My progress slows. The barbell sits almost motionless in the air as I, red-faced and grunting, shake beneath it. My spotter comes in to assist me, but my pride just won’t have it. Before he can pull up on the weight, I lurch the last couple of inches, simultaneously pulling my arms back over my head to rack the weight on the metal hooks.

That over-exerted lurch pull causes my shoulder to explode in pain. I absorb the shock with another grunt as I spring off the benchpress bench, attempting to shake it off. It doesn’t go away. Being the absolute meathead that I am, I then switched to legs, proceeding with a different workout routine for the rest of the session. MY shoulder was DONE, and it hurt to even move my arm. But, still, no way I was going to wuss out in front of my gym buddies. On the drive home 30 minutes later, the pain became worse. As my arm stiffened, even hitting bumps in the road would send pain shooting through my shoulder. What in the world did you do Sam?

When I showered that night, I could barely get my arm above my head. As long as my left arm was stationary, the pain was bearable. Any movement inflamed it though. Did I tear my rotator cuff? Did I sprain my AC joint? I began falling down the WebMD rabbit hole as I ate my supper. Phrases like “6-month recovery”, “arm slings”, and “invasive surgery” kept popping up and I started getting more and more worried. Rather than continue to amp up my stress levels, I made up my mind to call the on-site clinic at work the next day to schedule an appointment and go to bed. I was too stubborn to take Advil, so I laid there with a throbbing shoulder, flat on my back because any other position hurt, until restless sleep finally overtook me.

I awoke the next morning to a stiff, still-hurting, left shoulder. I got ready one-armed, got my lunch and work backpack all packed, and then walked down a couple of flights of stairs to the parking lot. I dumped my bags in the back, scraped all the ice off of my car in the 30-degree weather… mostly with one arm, and finally sat myself down into the ice-cold driver seat to drive to work. Needless to say, I was ANYTHING but a happy camper by this point.

With the help of Advil, and as little movement as possible, I made it to my doctor’s appointment at 9 that morning. The good doctor explained to me I might have sprained my AC joint and that I needed to go get some X-rays done in Mt. Pleasant at my earliest convenience. After scheduling that online (then having to reschedule on the phone when that didn’t work) I secured an imaging appointment for that same day at 4:30 pm. All I had to do was leave work early and fight city traffic. I did so…earlier today. Now, I’m sitting here wishing I’d never touched that stupid barbell.

The Lord has watched out for me in a multitude of ways. The pain has abated throughout the day, so I think I will sleep better tonight. My job isn’t physically demanding, so I can still work. The clinic was on-site at work, so I didn’t have to make a trip to a public hospital. The imaging site in Mt. Pleasant was able to fit me in, even though I showed up late. Everything was covered, so not a penny came out of my pocket. I no longer think I have a “surgery-required” rotator cuff injury. Hoping it’s just a sprain that I’ll be over in a month or two. Still, why did I feel the need to take that last rep? All of this could have been avoided.

As I’ve tried to get in the habit of doing, I’m looking for what I need to learn from this. This verse keeps popping up in my head.

For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

1 Timothy 4:8

It’s almost funny now that my big goal for 2024 was to get swole (as the kids say). It’s such a trope of a New Year’s resolution, but I fell right into it. Meal-prepped my chicken breasts and sweet potatoes for the week. Loaded up on my protein supplements and workout gear. I was READY. Then I screw my shoulder up in the second workout of the year and realize that I will be taking it easy for QUITE a little while. Not exactly how I had it planned.

Depending on how those X-rays come back, I could be on light duty with this shoulder for HALF A YEAR. And I have no one to blame but myself and my pride. But, that points me to a bigger picture I want to explore here. This is a prime example of the actions and consequences of an attitude that many of us carry daily.

We bite off more than we can chew. And, almost always, we take big ol’ bites of trash and then wonder why we keep on feeling awful. What do you mean Sam? I mean we put a lot of time and effort, often more than we should, in things that don’t matter. Thus, we inadvertently harm ourselves because our focus is turned away from the things that matter more. We fill up on junk food and don’t have any time for the meat and ‘tatoes of this life.

So, I ask the question of myself and you… do you want to be profitable in all things, or profitable in little? It is not uncommon for a man to want to go out and make the world his. He wants to grow in his career. He wants to make money. He wants to have nice toys, and nice house, and a beautiful woman by his side. I think plenty of men have what I’ve come to call James Bond Syndrome. They want to be classy, masculine, desirable, and resourceful. However, we go about achieving those things by putting in more hours at the office, prowling nightclubs looking for pretty girls in slinky dresses, or spending countless hours at the gym lifting and lowering pieces of steel. If you take a step back and open your eyes to the reality of the situation, it begins to look a lot more fruitless and pointless. It’s profitable in little because, at the end of the day, you will be left with things that don’t last.

As I learned in the case of Tony, the office will keep running just fine when you’re not there one day. He was an essential part of the team until he just… wasn’t. Someone stepped right in and took his place. That shows me that all that power and money you built up at your job won’t mean a hill of beans in the grand scheme of things.

Chasing those women won’t help you either. Those women running the streets at night, looking for a man to spoil them with drinks and attention, aren’t women who want to be helpmates and mothers. Sadly, many of them won’t realize the error of their ways until the day they start seeing wisps of gray in their hair and bags under their eyes. They won’t realize it until they are no longer desirable because the physicality they built their desirableness upon has faded with age and time. And, if that physical attraction is all you looked at them for, you will realize the same, and move on to the next girl, repeating and vicious and sinful cycle.

And, as I’ve learned these last few days. Maybe I’d be better served spending more time in God’s Word than in the gym. Yes, I will heal and eventually be able to go back. I probably will go back, as exercise is important for maintaining health. But, I will not make that desire for physical appearance and physical strength a god in my life. For, as I’m experiencing at this very moment, there will come a day when my tendons and joints and bones will ache and I will not be able to lift as much as I once did. If God allows me a long life, age will eventually take its toll. And, when that day comes, will there have been profit in spending all the years working on my physique at the expense of working on my relationship with the Lord?

No. So I’m choosing today to profit in much. Put first things first fellas. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it one thousand times. God first, wife second, kids third, then everything else in the world after. And that after includes that six pack 😉.

This article originally appeared on Fill in the Gap.

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Who is Baal?

Nov 24, 2023

It’s important that we understand, as men, what we are facing in the culture and world of today. The Bible is apt and on-point when it says:

12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

Ephesians 6:12

Men, like never before, are being called to task. We are being called to stand. We are being called to defend. The time is now. The moment has come. This is real. In order to properly respond to the war that is being waged on our lives, the lives of our loved ones, and the lives of each human that draws air on this planet, we must understand those beings we war against.

Sam, you sound like a conspiracy theorist. No. This goes much deeper than some man-made conspiracy. This goes much deeper than something dreamed up in a horror movie or a thriller book. This isn’t the stuff getting talked about on CNN or Fox News. This comes from the only reliable source of information, God’s Holy Word.

The Bible doesn’t lie, and it is clear, beyond A SHADOW OF DOUBT, that the demons of our day have been allowed full reign and full control. Not demonic-type ideas or demonic-type events. I’m talking about demons. Full-fledged spirits that are every bit as real as you and me. The content we’re about to get into is backed by historical evidence and Biblical truth. There is no way to disprove it. Many have tried, for to accept it means that we are in a battle which we cannot win apart from God Himself. Read and understand.

First, we must understand how demons operate. Then, we’ll trace through history to see their operations unfold. The climatic days in which we now live allow plenty of material to discuss. Once again, this isn’t speculation or hearsay. You cannot disprove any of the following when the evidence is laid out.

There are many instances of demons interacting with man in the Bible. We see a man living among tombs, possessed by a legion of demons in Mark 5:1-20. We see a demon inhabit a child in Mark 9:14-29. We see how the demons laid with the daughters of man and created the Nephilim race in Genesis 6 To get an inner look at how demons interact with the world though, we need to look at Matthew 12:43-45.

43 When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none.

44 Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.45 Then goeth he, and taketh with himself seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter in and dwell there: and the last state of that man is worse than the first. Even so shall it be also unto this wicked generation.

Matthew 12:43-45

We see here that demons have the ability to inhibit humans the way humans inhabit houses. Demons have the ability to LITERALLY live within people, as we see in verse 44. When a spirit is gone out of a man, it wanders. It wants to inhabit man, for outside of man it can find no rest. It would seem that the only way for demon spirits to find “rest” in the time before God casts them into eternal torment is within the bodies of men. This is a scary, sobering thought.

Notice that verses 44 and 45 speak of the danger of an unoccupied house. When the blood of Jesus is not on a person, they become at risk of demon possession. When the Holy Spirit isn’t indwelling an individual, they are increasing their chances of falling prey to demon possession.

Some of you may say, Sam, I’m not saved but I don’t feel like I’m demon-possessed. Friend, cling to Jesus before it is too late. You are like a clean, empty, swept, and garnished house. You are ripe for the taking if a malignant spirit were to set its sights on you. Many have already succumbed. We see them every day. Note that I’m not explicitly talking about foaming at the mouth and speaking gibberish type of possessions. I do believe those exist, but I’m talking about the demon possession that is much more active and open in our culture.

The demon possession has encouraged American mothers to kill millions of babies. This year alone, between January and June, we murdered almost half a million. I’m talking about the demon possession that causes grown men to put dog masks on themselves to be whipped and paraded around in cages in front of children in pride parades. I’m speaking of the demonic forces that are pushing for illustrated step-by-step how-tos for sodomy and other sex acts to be kept in elementary school libraries. I’m talking about demonic activity perpetuating a level of confusion so vast that people actually just accept articles such as this and this being espoused in America’s newspapers. The kind where people just stand by as a homeless pedophile sets up a drug dispensary in front of a school.

This is pure evil on a level we’ve never seen in America before. This is the base level of moral depravity. The demons have taken hold of American society, because, beginning in the 1960s, as a nation, we removed God from the house. The Judeo-Christian values that we were founded upon have been all but dismantled. We took the prayer out of our schools and fathers out of our homes. We began allowing filth to perpetuate our media on a level unheard of. The free love movement, the rapid increase in drug usage, and the rise of radical feminism began taking root. We removed God and the American “house” became bare and empty. Just as the Bible says, the same demons that took the form of the gods of ancient civilizations hundreds and thousands of years ago have once again come. Only now, they’ve returned in a much greater show of force than history has seen before.

How are we to combat them? What must we do to stand against them? First, we must understand their MO. Someone’s modus operandi is their mode of operation. It’s how they can be identified, and, if you’ve ever watched a cop show, it’s how they eventually solve the whodunnit. Demons have MOs as well. There are tells that bring certain ones to the forefront of the discussion. The Bible names angels like Michael and Gabriel, so it only makes sense that the demons have names too. They have identifying characteristics. And no, I don’t think they make a habit of showing themselves with red skin, pointy teeth, and horns. It’s naive to think of demons as some form of cartoon character. They are powerful, evil spirits. We’re going to examine 1 spirit in particular today. This being is as real as you and me. Although we don’t know its true name, we know of its existence because of its MO. It’s been the same for thousands of years. As I said before, demons have returned to the house.

This demon, in the ancient cultures of Canaan and Phoenicia, manifested itself in a being that would come to be known as Baal. Many historians believe that Amorite settlers brought their god, Hadad, with them when they migrated to the Canaan region early in the second millennium B.C. As they settled in the land, the name Hadad was changed to Baal. Baal was the son of the El, the chief god, and Asherah, the goddess of the sea. He was the most powerful of all the gods, eclipsing the strength of his father. The Canaanites worshiped him as both the god of storms and the god of fertility.

Notice the war club in his right hand, which alluded to his power and might. The spear he held on his left. It was either a depiction of the lightning bolts he would supposedly hurl or the crops he would allow to grow. Baal was often also depicted as a bull, so we see he has a pair of horns on his helmet. The highest of Mesopotamian gods would often be depicted with a 3-tiered crown of bull horns, so scholars suggest that the singular pair of horns implies that Baal was a young bull, whereas his father, El, was identified as the original old bull.

We see that Baal stands on both the sea and the mountains, implying he is god over all. His priest stands in the background upon a horned altar. This was the demon’s first-cataloged form. It quickly moved into other cultures as well, with slight modifications, but always with the same MO, an overarching theme of dominion and mastery.

In Babylonian culture, the demon took the form of Bel-Marduk. The MO stayed the same.

Marduk was the king of the gods, just as Baal was.
His name meant “bull-calf of Utu”, for it is there that we see the young bull reference again.
His symbol was the spade. It was said that he dug rivers and canals with this farming instrument. This pointed back to him being a god of agriculture and, by extension, fertility. Without the water Marduk had provided, the Babylonians wouldn’t have been able to farm in order to live and reproduce.
His star was Jupiter.
He was tied to thunderstorms. Much of this came from the Babylonian myth of Enuma Elish, where Maruk wielded storms as weapons.

In Greek culture, the demon became known as Zeus. The MO stayed the same.

Zeus was king of the gods, just as Bel-Marduk was, just as Baal was.
Zeus eclipsed his weaker father, Cronus, just as Baal eclipsed his father El.
Zeus was a storm god and was often depicted holding a thunderbolt.
Zeus’s symbol was a bull.

In Roman Culture, the demon integrated itself as the god, Jupiter. The MO stayed the same.

Jupiter was king of the gods, just as Zeus was, just as Bel-Marduk was, just as Baal was.
Jupiter eclipsed his weaker father, Saturn. Eerily similar to how Zeus had eclipsed Cronus and Baal had eclipsed El.
Jupiter was a storm god and was often depicted holding a thunderbolt.
Jupiter received bulls as his primary sacrifice

Sam, duh all those gods sound the same. All those cultures were right around the same area and time. Alright fine, let’s go 6000 miles away and 1400 years forward in time.

In Aztec culture, I believe the demon established itself as the high god, Tlaloc. He was the lord of the rain and the thunderbolts.

Tlaloc was the god of rain, thunder, and lightning, and he was worshipped by the farmers and the people who depended on the land for their livelihood. They believed that he had the power to send rain and to protect them from drought and famine.

Codex Chimalpopoca

Notice the similar look. We have an elaborate headdress speaking of chiefdom and mastery. We have the lightning bolt spear. We have the shield that shows power and might. It’s all eerily still there.

This demon thrives on supreme mastery, power, and control. It wants to be alpha. It wants to be all-encompassing. And so it has become in America today. When we removed God from our system of government, we created a void. In the spiritual realm, voids are always temporary. As the Bible says, when spirits find the house swept and empty, they occupy it. And they’ve occupied the house of America. Don’t brush it off as nonsensical. Think critically. America was founded on Judeo-Christian values. These spirits had no place in our society largely because of the boundaries and laws our Founding Fathers put in place. For almost 200 years, flagrant sexuality wasn’t on display in our streets. The financial greed of the elite in other countries hadn’t pervaded our borders. In fact, foreign peasants would uproot their lives and the lives of their families to board a ship to America, as we were seen as the land of economic freedom and opportunity. Our children engaged in healthy recreational pastimes such as baseball and basketball. They were taught work ethic at home and in the classroom. Polygamy wasn’t present in America, meaning the nuclear family remained intact. Divorce was frowned upon. Nationalism was at an all-time high. America was perceived as a gift from God, not the work of a man’s hand.

We were not without fault, but we didn’t experience many of the cultural, socioeconomic, and physical troubles and toils that our neighboring nations did. There were no ground assaults on American soil during the World Wars. There was no Black Plague. We were a blessed nation.

As the blessings poured forth and the generations passed, the good times created weak men. These were young men and women’s who’d always known relative ease and comfort. Satan’s playbook doesn’t change. Just as he approached Adam and Eve from their lives of rest and comfort in the garden, he approached America. Alongside his legions of demons, he waited for a chink to form in the armor. He waited for resistance to develop in the culture. He waited for untempered, unchecked curiosity to prick the minds of youth in America, then Satan began a new assault with renewed vigor. Just as in the Garden of Eden, once we, at his prodding but of our own volition, broke from our covenant with God, the house was swept clean, and the demons of old returned. Only this time, it’s worse than before.

So where did the demon originally known as Baal integrate itself? I imagine it was faced with a brief dilemma. America wasn’t like the pagan nations of old where it had dominated and inhabited. We wouldn’t bow to a stone statue. We knew enough about science to understand how thunderclouds formed. How would it permeate our society? This demon wanted power and control. It wanted to rule and be seen above all else. It was the possessor. One nation under God meant one truth. If we, as a nation, looked to the one true God, then that meant we’d look to the one Truth. Many gods meant many truths. So this demon sought to create those gods in our culture once more. There’s one avenue that it could use to create the many “truths”. There was one motivator above all else that would cause people to forsake their morality and create their own version of truth. Greed. More specifically, the greed stems from a desire for power. What’s the predominant path that power often comes through? Money.

If a mother could convince herself that she would be more financially sound without that child, she’d be more likely to kill them. If a doctor could convince a person that they needed expensive gender-affirming surgery because they were born with the wrong genitals, there would be a payday. If a pharmaceutical company could convince a nation that their drugs were necessary, there would be a payday. If a government could manufacture and perpetuate a war, there would be a payday. If rioters could uphold a lie as their truth, and loot because of it, there would be a payday. If an educational system could convince its students that socialism and communism were idealistically and morally sound, there would be a payday. If a political party could convince a race of people that they were being disproportionately oppressed and targeted, there would be a payday. If a congressional body could pass another tax bill to squeeze the middle class and consolidate wealth at the top, then there would be a payday.

The list goes on and on. If all these different groups and bodies of people could convince themselves of their rightness, and reap the financial benefit personally, then they would focus on trying to convert others to embrace their truth, regardless of how twisted and perverse it was.

Remember how I said earlier that Baal was often connected to a bull? That was one of the demon’s defining characteristics. Images and statues of bronze bulls. Check out Exodus 32 for a good example. Hmmm. I wonder if we have any of those here in America today… Oh yeah. We do.

This statue is located at Bowling Green near Wall Street in Manhattan. It is known worldwide as “Charging Bull”. It’s made of bronze. It represents the financial sector of America and is widely seen as the symbol of the New York Stock Exchange.

The desire and love of money have caused most, if not all of the issues that plague our land today. It is all-encompassing and overarching. Many of the other sins that we see propagated were set in motion by certain people with the intent to make or amass wealth and power. This bull stands as a testament to that.

I don’t believe things happen by happenstance. I do believe many people walk through life blind to the reality of the spiritual war that is taking place every day. There are signs of it, and this is one. America has erected a bull just as the children of Israel did. The demon once known as Baal has come to the house of America.

This article originally appeared on Fill in the Gap.

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The Basics of Investment Portfolios

Oct 24, 2023

Investing is a great way to grow your money over time. Many people get caught up in hype trains. They want to replicate the Warren Buffet stock portfolio, get into robo-investing, or learn 4 types of portfolio management all at once. However, before you can start exploring all those cool things, it’s important to understand the basics of investment portfolios. This is where a baseline understanding of investment portfolio strategy comes in. Before we get deep into the sauce, let’s establish some key terms and what they mean…

An investment portfolio strategy is a plan for how you will invest your money. It should include your investment goals, your risk tolerance, and your time horizon.
Your investment goals are what you hope to achieve with your investments. For example, you might want to save for retirement, buy a house, or send your kids to college.
Your risk tolerance is how much risk you are comfortable taking with your investments. Some people are comfortable with a lot of risk, while others prefer to play it safe.
Your time horizon is how long you plan to invest. If you are investing for the long term, you can take on more risk. But if you are investing for the short term, you will want to be more conservative.

Once you have considered your investment goals, risk tolerance, and time horizon, you can start to build your investment portfolio. There are many different types of investments, so it’s important to choose ones that fit your needs. Let’s check out a couple of popular options.

Some common investment types include stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and ETFs.

Stocks are shares of ownership in a company.
Bonds are loans that you make to a company or government.
Mutual funds and ETFs are baskets of stocks or bonds that are managed by a professional.

What’s best to start with?

I like to put the majority of my investment money (that I budget for every week) into total market ETFs. Rather than tracking the performance of an individual company, like Microsoft or Apple, they track the total stock market. This means that they are comprised of stocks of multiple companies across different sectors, and thus represent the market as a whole. For example, one of my favorites, VTI, contains 3,839 stocks as of this time of writing!

So, when you buy 1 share of VTI, you’re effectively buying a percentage of all the companies included in that stock. Below are some of the stock’s top holdings currently:

So, for example, let’s say Google stock tanks in value on Monday, and Tesla stock soars in value. Tesla’s gains will offset Google’s losses, meaning the value of my ETF stock basically stays the same. Now, if I had just bought straight Tesla stock outright, I may have made a ton more money on my same initial investment. However, if I had bought Google outright, I would have lost a ton more. I like the Goldilocks formula. I want it to be just right. I don’t chase crazy gains and I don’t risk crazy losses. The US stock market, as a whole, has a track record of performing positively over time. If you have patience and ride out the dips, you stand to profit handsomely in the long run. Since I’m a buy-and-hold investor, I see ETFs as almost always being one of the best options.

What about mutual funds?

A lot of people get confused about the differences between mutual funds and ETFs. Mutual funds are a lot like ETFs, except people and firms actively manage them. These firms do a great amount of research to pick the best investments. They then compile these “best investments” together in a singular package, called a mutual fund. Depending on your investment strategy, mutual funds can have their own benefits, However, because they’re actively managed, they have high expense ratios. Basically, these ratios are the annual operating costs you pay for the firm to actively manage the fund. This money is used to hire and retain investment advisors, cover legal costs, office supplies, etc. Much of this is required to satisfy the requirements of the SEC. ETF expense ratios, most of the time, are lower than mutual funds because they are managed passively.

So… you pay that management fee and add it to the trading expense ratio (which is the transaction cost of buying/selling a security for the mutual fund), and you get the total management expense ratio (MER). You have to read the fund company’s prospectus to get an idea of these numbers, as different companies word the fees in different ways. Let’s say you have a MER of 3.125%. That means you lose $31.25 for every $1,000 investment. When you factor in compounding value, you quickly see how MER can cut into your profits.

The thing I find funniest about mutual funds is the fact that humans can’t predict the stock market. No matter how hard they try. The best investment manager is a day away from a total wipeout. There are simply too many factors at play for anyone to accurately predict what will perform best. In fact, studies have shown that almost 80% of active fund managers fail to beat the market with their customized portfolio picks.

That means an ETF like VOO, which seeks to mimic the performance of the S&P 500 Index passively, would have beaten out 80% of mutual fund managers in profits in 2021! Sadly, in 2021, those mutual fund shareholders paid a premium (in terms of MER) to have an actively managed fund… and they still got beat by the security that didn’t charge a big MER fee. I’m not the guy who’s gonna bet 20/80 odds that a firm can manage my money better than a passive fund. And I’m definitely not gonna pay extra for those 20/80 odds!

Diversify. Diversify. Diversify.

When you are building your investment portfolio, it’s important to diversify your investments. This means investing in a variety of different types of investments. Diversification can mean you have stocks in different sectors, like healthcare, technology, infrastructure, etc. It can also mean you have different types of investments, like real estate, crypto, stocks, and bonds. Any type of diversification will help to reduce your risk if one type of investment performs poorly. The old adage “don’t put all your eggs in one basket” rings true in regard to investing. If you are young, you can handle the risk of a uniform stock portfolio better, as you can (ideally) recoup the loss if it tanks. Still, it’s rarely wise to take this approach. Diversification is almost always the better option.

Rebalance. Rebalance. Rebalance.

It’s also important to rebalance your investment portfolio on a regular basis. Portfolio rebalancing is the practice of realigning your investments to their original target allocation or a revised one. This involves periodically buying or selling assets within your portfolio to maintain the desired balance of different asset classes, such as stocks, bonds, and cash equivalents. The primary goal is to manage risk and ensure that your portfolio remains in line with your risk tolerance and time horizon.

Also, it’s important that you capture gains through the process of rebalancing. When a particular asset class outperforms, rebalancing allows you to sell some of those assets at a profit. You can then take that profit and use it to acquire assets in a different asset class. For example, if I buy a bunch of stock in NVIDIA (NVDA), and the value skyrockets like this, then, depending on the amount I bought, it may be wise to sell some shares and take those profits to invest in some shares of a BlackRock ETF like the iShares Core S&P 500 ETF (IVV).

Taking my money out of the more volatile option, NVDA, and putting it in a safer option like IVV rebalances my account. After I make that switch, the majority of my investment account value isn’t any longer tied up in the well-being of a single tech company, meaning my financial future is safer. It’s worth noting that, these days, many experienced investment professionals include crypto, commodities, and real estate as asset classes as well. Buying into these different investment vehicles means you’re using those gains to ensure that your portfolio benefits from diversification!

Investing can be a great way to grow your money over time. But it’s important to do your research and develop a plan before you start investing. An investment portfolio strategy can help you to achieve your financial goals. Hopefully, this article has given you a baseline about the basics of investment portfolios. If you feel like it was too much info all at once, don’t worry! The best way to learn is to do. Set aside a bit of money and begin investing bit by bit. I highly recommend ETFs as a place to start, as they are generally safer and more diversified.

If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out!

This article originally appeared on Fill in the Gap.

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Background

He’s beholding.

What kind of offering?

Background

Me, the fountain of living waters

Broken cisterns

A degenerate vine

A blind generation

What’s best to start with?

What about mutual funds?

Diversify. Diversify. Diversify.

Rebalance. Rebalance. Rebalance.