If anyone might have noticed, I haven’t posted anything for the last couple of weeks. There are a few reasons for this, the first is that Marie and I have been very busy getting our chickens settled outside and our garden set up. Since both of these are being done from scratch there has been a ton of work to do. We had to build the framework for our raised garden 10’ x 12’, till the ground, (had to buy a tiller) get 5 tons of decent dirt delivered and then carted over, one wheel barrel at a time, then layer and till the soil. We set up a small greenhouse and put up 3 small enclosures for herbs and such. Then we had to put up barriers against the rabbits and dear that would love to munch on our veggies. We had to buy and build a chicken coup for our 4 girls, (who we named, Scrambled, Poached, Fried and Omelet,) who we were finally glad to be able to move out of our dining room, outside, (the mess they left behind took a day to clean up!) Plus, the weather here in North Carolina has not been our friend. After going through all the drought years in California, the constant rain storms are starting to get on our nerves, we are so ready for spring and maybe just a couple of weeks of dry weather. So, all of that has been our primary focus, we both feel it is essential to be able to provide as much food for ourselves, by ourselves, as possible considering the state our country is currently in. That state is the other reason I haven’t felt like writing lately. It’s getting harder and harder to find some good news, find something that can give us hope that the course this world is careening down can be changed. The one thing, maybe the only thing that we can cling to is our faith in God. As I’m writing this on Easter Sunday, I’ve been praying for our country, for the world’s leaders, for the faithful that God will have mercy on us. It seems like the world has been teetering on the edge of an abyss for years now and that something apocalyptic is looming around the corner. My wife and I have been praying for God to keep our minds and hearts focused on the good things, the things God has blessed us with, our house, our health, our salvation, being able to have a garden and chickens, and even though I’ve been complaining about the weather, thanking God for bringing us to Carolina. The one thing we have to constantly remind ourselves of, is that this world is not our home, our final home will be in heaven, where the problems of the temporal world will no longer matter.
Still, until that happens, we have to live in this world. Daily it becomes more and more of a challenge. My last few essays have been about being able to co-exist with people who might not share my morality or political views. That despite that, we need to come together to fight the evil that is trying to enslave humanity. I pray that is still possible, but when I see how much hatred there is out there for people of faith, especially Christians, I have grave doubts. I realize that the stories that make it to the media are going to be one-sided, actual real news of important issues is a thing of the past. Every story is spin of one nature or another, but there is no denying that the ungodly are on the offensive.
I listened to Jason Whitlock on Tucker Carlson the other day. They were talking about the Trump indictment, Whitlock said the whole thing brought him to the Bible, specifically 2nd Corinthians 6:14-16 where the Apostle Paul says “Do not be bound together with unbelievers.” Whitlock’s saying that it’s gotten to the point where the attacks on Christian morality, the utter depravity and lawlessness of our elite ruling class, the godless nature of the woke culture have pushed him to a place where he just cannot associate with them on any level anymore. As always when someone references a passage of scripture, I read the entire chapter, to give it as much context as possible. In the Chapter Paul says as believers, we will face persecution and hardships, but that our righteousness and our actions, our love of God and God’s precepts will sperate us from the ungodly. Therefore, there is no reason is there to be “bound together” with them. So, what does this say? Should we turn our backs on our unbelieving friends, neighbors and families? It made me think of Dilbert comic strip writer Scott Adams, who said that after seeing a poll that purported that 53% of blacks don’t think it’s ok to be white, wanted to entirely separate himself from blacks. Adam’s was rightly chastised for this, his cartoon dropped from major publications. Yet we see a lot of our universities doing basically the same thing, with separate dorms and graduation ceremonies, with teaching CRT and demonizing people strictly because of the color of their skin. This division is the work of Satan. It’s not reality. Here in Tarboro over half the population is black, and guess what, for the most part, with very few exceptions we all live together perfectly fine. I believe that it’s because we’re in the Bible belt and if you think I’m conservative you should hear some of the black preachers around here, in other words we are bound together because of our faith. Carlson theorizes that the reason the extreme left, the whole trans community and the race baiters that spew hatred are so angry and becoming increasingly violent is that they believe they are gods, capable of transforming themselves into whatever version of themselves they feel like, so the idea of specifically, the Christian concept of an all powerful God, is something that they cannot let stand, because it obliterates their paradigm. So, it goes back to my question. Do we abandon our lost friends, neighbors and families? I have to agree with Whitlock, we should not associate with them, but we should pray for them, absolutely, remembering that at one time we were as lost in our sin nature as they are now, but if we interact with them, then we are in danger of succumbing to the evil they are enmeshed in. Even though it may seem like these individuals are irredeemably lost, that doesn’t mean that we should abandon them, we should not associate ourselves with them, but we should fervently pray for their salvation. So where does this leave the concept of working together with people of all beliefs to defeat the progressive-globalist monsters trying to enslave humanity, the “depopulationists” who are okay with killing off billions of people? I don’t have a simple answer to that. What I do know is that throughout history, humanity has been able to somehow come together to defeat evil. WWII is a prime example. I believe that in creating humanity God instilled in our DNA the basic morality of good vs evil. I believe that even though a person may not have the same spiritual beliefs as me, that concept is engrained in them. It’s the people that don’t believe in a higher power that are inherently evil, think of the mass atrocities of Stalin and Mao, how Hitler persecuted Jews and Christians, murdering millions. Now, I know that people will come back with, “what about all the wars fought over religion?” A valid argument, to which I counter, that it’s the difference between religion and spirituality. Organized religion throughout history has been fraught with the desire for power over its practitioners and adversaries. Spirituality is an individuals attempt to connect with God. Christ railed against the Pharisees and Sadducees of the Jewish hierarchy, preaching for each person individually to come to the Lord, he is our personal Savior, our spiritual Savior. With that being said, I believe our battle is with the godless, those are the people who by abandoning God have bound themselves knowingly or unknowingly to Satan, those are the people we should shun and not associate ourselves with, pray for them because as the Bible says, with God all things are possible, but as it stands until they repent, until they accept that they are not god, they are the enemy.
Every Easter I’m reminded of a mental image I formed of Jesus on the cross taking in all of the sins of the world, past present and to come. The sheer magnitude of that is incomprehensible, it’s the reason why he said “My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?” Still despite the enormity of his task, he submitted to the will of the Father. The sacrifice of Christ was not just for the Godly, it was for the ungodly as well, so that in the fulness of time, all may be redeemed. I’m not a preacher or a pastor or anything close to that, I’m a sinner who prays for forgiveness every day. What we need to keep in mind, that despite all the trials, and bad news, that we live in bizzarro-world, is that in the end God wins, that this earthly home is just temporary and our real home is in heaven. God bless you all.
And of course, ROCK ON MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS – HAPPY EASTER!