Proverbs 4:19 The way of the wicked is like darkness; They do not know what makes them stumble.

The way of the wicked prevails in every human being upon birth. We as humans have a subjective way, a natural sinful way of knowing what it is truly “good” which encompasses the internal compass between right and wrong. So what we see as “right” is good, and those doing “right” things are good.

This ideology works for humans in a cultural sense, but not when the comparison goes to an Almighty Holy God, then no one is truly good. We all fail in that comparison, and thus would be deemed “wicked” according to His law and His standard.

Being born with this dark nature, our ways are of the wicked. And I believe one only truly understands this if and when God gives a rebirth to actually see that you are actually following the way of the wicked all along. You didn’t understand what made you stumble, you most likely blamed in on yourself or if a narcissist you blamed others for your wicked ways. I know in my case, I did both, blamed myself and others all the time, never because I was fallen in nature.

In today’s society, those who have eyes to see can see how very wicked and evil society is becoming. Where we have a sect of the population so wicked, they want the ability to groom young children in a perverse manner in their schools. Those who have a brain and can distinguish a man from a woman are shunned and cancelled by wicked loud voiced activists.

As the verse says “they do not know what makes them stumble” into their ways of evil and wickedness. They really don’t care either I should add. And in the end the eternal fires of hell await them, and only at that time they’ll realize the error of their way when the darkness is literal agony and darkness which will never cease.

Thus it is highly imperative to share the Gospel, to share Biblical truth to the godless, to the wicked, and make no apology. The temporary enjoyment of sin and wickedness is no match for eternal darkness and agony which awaits. Do not look the other way as they stream toward the cliff of the lake of fire. If it means you are cancelled by them or persecuted, so be it. You loved them enough to tell them the truth!

I chose the song below, Monday Monday by the Mamas and the Papas to remember my Leo today, based on the lyrics in this song. He sadly died at the age of 7 on the Monday morning of March 30, 2020. “Monday morning couldn’t guarantee that Monday evening you still would be here with me”, “Monday morning you gave me no warning of what was to be, oh Monday Monday why did you leave and not take me”. In the past, the writers of this song said, “it has no meaning, just a lyrical song which sounded good to us”, however, because of that sad Monday morning it now encompasses a meaning for me.

It was a sunny morning and calm outside as we awoke (just as it is today in 2022). Leo had not been feeling well over the weekend, and I tried to ignore what was the inevitable, but God chose that we part ways on that Monday morning. The pandemic was in full steam at this point, and so many unknowns. But my focus was on Leo, having cared for him each day through his cancer, I wanted to comfort him and make sure his last days were happy ones, and especially the last moments of his life.

The world was in a literal lockdown, and now Leo was leaving me. I closed my eyes and kept saying a prayer “I trust in you God”, which didn’t prevent my tears from flowing as Leo laid beside me. As Leo passed, he looked at me one last time, and then a gaze out the window as I would like to believe as God was calling him home. He would have no more pain, no more suffering, and I let go.

I write much about Leo, because it was God who blessed me with him, a TRUE and UNDENIABLE blessing! He came along upon my rebirth and served truly as that bridge I needed to leave my former life of wicked living once and for good. He replaced all the human garbage in my life in an instant. If I could sum up our short 7 plus years together, I would say it felt like 10 lifetimes! We experienced many highs and many lows together, and the blessing of beautiful Leo will never be forgotten.

With this blessing of Leo, I met many people I would have never met. I would have probably never known some of the gracious and beautiful hearts if not for God sending Leo my way and by what we went through at the end.

“It is not those who were with you at the beginning of a crisis,  it are those who endured to the end with you“

Lastly, this is a special note is to his supporters through his lymphoma. I wrote this before but it is NOT those who are there for you in the beginning of the crisis that you will remember, but those who God placed in your life will be with you all the way to the end. In our case, we were blessed with many of whom I never expected to care. The notes, the encouragement, the support, the prayers, the well wishes, the check ins on Leo were something also I didn’t expect, but God sent these gracious people.

It didn’t matter who they were, or what they believed, God sent them to us in our time of crisis. And I will never forget them! If you are one these people reading this, I send you another THANK YOU! May God bless you abundantly for what you did, and I ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, the Lord and Savior.

That sad Monday came and Leo went, while God sustained me as He does and will everyone who turns to Him in faith. God gives and He takes away all to His plan, to His glory, and to His purpose, I thank Him alone for Leo. Blessed be the Almighty God!

Romans 1:26 For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. ²⁷ Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.

Be not deceived, God’s natural order is being violently attacked!

If you aren’t noticing the ongoing demonic attack on the family unit, you are committing something called intellectual dishonesty. Yesterday in a Supreme Court Nominee hearing, the candidate said she couldn’t define “what a woman was”. Her puzzling dishonest response was “I am not a biologist”.

She responded this way as to demonstrate a satanic known going on in modern society, where God given biological traits are no longer used, but rather a disordered passion where the sinner gets to pick their gender. What she was really trying to say that no longer one could define what a woman is, based on blurred lines by society. Yes, the troubling part is this candidate will sit on the highest court of the land with a lifetime tenure, shows us we truly ARE living in a Romans 1 world.

The emasculation of the male race has also become highly noticeable in this satanic attack. Where women and emasculated males are training men on what it means to be a male and how to behave as a male, it is the ingredient in the recipe for disaster for the family. The weakness, the fragility of this beta male phenomenon will further destroy the traditional family unit, cause birthrates to greatly decrease, and give us a society where no longer one can feel safe.

Look no further than the skyrocketing suicide rates among young males. The emasculation of them leads to confusion, to depression, to vile and evil behaviors. Their God given traits are screaming out, while their emasculation is suppressing them leading to suicide in my opinion. They are forced to feel guilty by a godless society just for being a male and possessing the desires and nature of a male.

It has been well reported that for a variety of reasons, younger people are no longer desiring marriage or families. Excuses range from high college tuitions to the economy. But that innate desire in my view is being suppressed on blurring the lines of what maleness is and what femininity is. Paul writes “For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman”.

What are the natural biblical uses Paul is speaking of? The main one being marriage between men and women, children, and the traditional family unit. Paul prophesied “they left the natural use”. And again, you would need to be purposely blind to this ongoing fact in society. If there is no “natural use” of the other gender, the family unit and natural order is completely destroyed. Which gives rise to much evil, more evil than the world has ever witnessed! There will be no more common decency or morality to count on.

If there was EVER a time where Biblical values are being ignored, attacked, suppressed, look no further than this time! So it is VERY important to the church to boldly stand in the gap between right and wrong, and speak the Gospel without apology! The further the family unit disseminates and disintegrate, the more evil will be shown. Make no mistake, this is and always was God’s judgment, He left them to their vile passions.

Psalm 51:1 Have mercy upon me, O God,
According to Your lovingkindness;
According to the multitude of Your tender mercies,
Blot out my transgressions.
² Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity,
And cleanse me from my sin.

Two years ago today, my dog Leo had one week to live. Dying of lymphoma, God granted him a remission from the cancer. I rejoiced in this, while not knowing he only had a week left on this earth, and I often pondered if Leo knew, because I believe he did. He was his normal self, knowing the end was near, and didn’t panic, didn’t bawl up in the fetal position in sadness. He was going to live each day and resting in peace as he always did.

The question is are you doing the same? While you may not have a deadly disease, you are not promised a week to live let alone another day. The fact is, if you are not resting the peace of Jesus Christ at this very moment, you won’t be after death. Rather, for example if you were given the inform. “you have one week to live”, you would most likely panic, freak out, your mind would be going in a million directions, and there would be a solemn sadness.

So it isn’t some silly cliché when one tells you to place your faith in Jesus Christ, or “the time is near”. Putting off the inevitable is risking your entire eternal future. You won’t be caring about your 401K, your vacation plans, your possessions, when they pour 6 feet of dirt over your corpse while your soul awaits in sheer agony the time of Judgment. At that time I surmise the agony will be as the parable of rich man and Lazarus goes, the fleeting notion that your loved ones cannot be warned by you so they don’t join you in this dark miserable place.

So instead of putting off the inevitable, why not today place your faith alone in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Because if you do, you are promised an eternal happiness with Him. You will live your last week on this earth without a regret and in peace as you always have.

Sadly many have went to their grave scoffing at my notion. Believing they could out live God’s time clock, and then discovering how stupid and wrong that was. And knowing all they accomplished on earth meant really NOTHING because they were not with Jesus. The Oscar Awards, Heisman trophies, Superbowl rings, career advancements, large families and homes and properties, etc. all amounted to ZILCH.

1 John 3:4 Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.

To the discerning eye, modern society has accelerated into and increasingly become a godless state. And with this godlessness, all sorts of lawlessness is legitimized. Objective truths are now being ignored for godless subjectiveness under the banner of “love”.

A classic example and probably when I personally witnessed this vast acceleration into lawlessness was when the U.S. declared that same-sex marriage would be legal. I remember the posts by some who probably also called themselves “Christians” disgustingly and horrifically saying “Love Wins!” and screamed out by a godless society. It wasn’t love that won, it was LUST and SIN which did, the same LUST and SIN which won in 1973 which declared that murder of an unborn child was also legal.

What used to be immoral now is looked at as moral. During the horrific time of WWII whereby millions of Jews were murdered by an evil regime, common morals said that a man and woman could not even share the same room if unmarried. Up until the 1980s, divorce was greatly frowned upon, today it is like going to grocery store. But post-modernism put away with all decency and morality and now everything is subjective to a lawless society.

As long as the local government says it is “legal”, society says “fine”. But is this what God says? Many are going to be greatly surprised on Judgment Day when they discover God had laws which superseded any subjective man invented law.

To be sure you are always on the right track and not on the godless path, always put Scripture as your ultimate authority! Society, social media, and godless sentiment may say one thing, Scripture will always have the final word. Don’t join in and dismantle love for lust!

1 John 4:8 He who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

In our increasingly sinful culture and society, there also is an increase in the abuse and misuse of God and His love as a means to justify and rationalize sinful behaviors. Allie Beth Stuckey (The Blaze) struck me with a very poignant statement by saying “people, especially in the church believe their love trumps God’s love”. I have been saying this ever since God added me to His church.

The point Allie makes is that while for example God says marriage is to be only between a man and a woman, that this isn’t “loving enough” for some in the church, so they look the other way and rationalize the sin of same-sex marriage. Or “let’s not speak about abortion” and take a stand, because that somehow isn’t “love”.

You see God is love, but some think they out-love God? Because what He obviously prescribed came out of something called perfect love, it would be impossible to love more than God. But that doesn’t prevent some from thinking they somehow can accomplish this.

Allie is correct! We see the abuse and misuse of God’s love by the unbelieving world, but also in the church. I have said that “loving your neighbor” is not giving them cool water on their way to an eternal hot hell. Which some either knowingly and unknowingly are doing in the church or just maybe they were deceived as a Christian and are in that line to hell.

God’s love needs no embellishments or additions or more importantly DELETIONS. If you diminish or degrade His perfect holiness in any way? You are not preaching God’s love. If you diminish or degrade God’s perfect justice when it comes to sin? You are not preaching God’s love!

There is a simple distinguishable line that be drawn between God’s love and self centeredness, and that is lust. Lust is not love. And I am not just speaking to sexual desires but also for self-seeking self desires such as trying to make yourself feel good by rationalizing a sin on the behalf of a sinner or a group of sinners. That is lust, not love! Any desire outside of God’s love is indeed lust. So when one seeks to adjust or compromise God’s love, they are using LUST to do so, a sin.

The Almighty God has spoken, we do not need to question His motive or His intent, because He is love! Pure love! If you do question His motive, His intent, His will, or His purpose, sorry but while you claim to know God and love Him, you neither know or love Him!

“The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” (James 5:16b)

We read on social media, we see it on TV from various news anchors and celebrities and sports figures, “we send our thoughts and prayers”. On the surface this looks all fine and dandy, a virtue we can applaud. However there is a lesson with God with prayer.

James said “the prayer of a righteous man avails much”. So if we use logic here, he isn’t saying that the unrighteous prayers are not being heard by God, they just don’t avail much. And the term James is using here “righteous man” is indicative of a saved sinner, placed in Jesus Christ’s righteousness, the only way that man could be righteous.

I know before my salvation came, before I was born-again, I prayed and some of those prayers were answered, many were not, they didn’t avail much. So it doesn’t mean prayers cannot be answered by God if one is not saved, what does mean though they are most likely put in the back of the line so to speak. And I do believe that those who have been elected by God are being drawn by God to a rebirth all of their life, so those prayers are answered accordingly as well.

After my rebirth, I was blessed to have prayed for many people. Now placed in Christ’s righteousness, those prayers are now availing much. And I find it highly enlightening that some who have come to me know of my salvation, and have asked me personally to pray for them some of whom I know were not believers, but somehow God placed it in their heart to reach out to me.
1 Kings 13:6 Then the king responded to the man of God, “Intercede with the LORD your God and pray that my hand may be restored.” So the man of God interceded with the LORD, and the king’s hand was restored to him as it was before.

How does God answer prayers? It is always according to His will and purpose, never to our will. We can pray to “win the lottery” for example, and for decades never win the lottery because that is NOT God’s plan and purpose or maybe it is, and He’ll answer that according to His timing which is part of His purpose. We can pray to Him to heal someone of a disease, and if that person sadly perished, it isn’t as if God ignored the prayer, it was because it wasn’t His will.

The reason why a saved “righteous” sinner’s prayers avail to much, is because they are in tune with God’s will and are resting in His will. So the prayers are said accordingly. They are not praying for example so that one sins and gets away with it, or praying for sinful desires, because at the very least we know God has no part with sin. So they won’t be praying for example that because you cheated on your wife, you should bestowed His good graces. They’ll be praying that God opens your eyes and that He grants you repentance from that sin.

In your walk with Jesus, He is teaching many lessons in prayer! Listen to Him! If honest, we are all weak in our prayer life. Some days we give it our all, some days not so much. So a lesson I personally learned, is for the help in growing in my prayer life and listening to the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

An awesome lesson in prayer is reading the Psalms!! Read them, study them, notice the focus and what is being prayed and this will definitely help you in your prayer life.

Lastly, the simple prayer ALL should be praying constantly is “THANK YOU LORD!”. When you see His sovereign merciful hand, you have no choice but to praying that prayer!

2 Chronicles 30:20 So the LORD heard Hezekiah and healed the people

Genesis 22:14, “And Abraham called the name of the place, The-Lord-Will-Provide; as it is said to this day, “In the Mount of the Lord it shall be provided.”

Two years ago, the world woke up to a lock down. The uncertainty with an unleashed virus sent many nations into panic, upheaval, and a new found insecurity. I would venture to guess that 99.9 percent of the social media posts and news reports were of dire nature and hardly if anyone of these would say they turned to God.

It was quite interesting if we look back on some similar events. After 9-11, people went to their churches to pray. When Apollo 13 happened, the world turned to God in prayer. During WWII, Vietnam, the Korean Wars, those events also led people into their churches and to prayer. But when this pandemic ensued, the opposite was the result. People weren’t turning to God, but instead running in a delusional mass of insanity to hoard paper towels and toilet paper.

Personally, I was going through a different struggle at that time. My dog Leo was in the last of his battle with cancer and having gone through MANY battles with him, I knew the Lord was providing. So when the pandemic occurred, it was merely a blip on my radar. I knew as many Christians knew at the time, that whatever the case might be, that the Lord will provide.

Now two years later, many survived the deadly virus, but how many will do as Abraham did and name their place “The Lord Will Provide”? I venture to guess 99 percent won’t. Because unless you believe there is a living functional and working God, you will never attribute anything to His provisions.

And make no mistake, the Lord provides every single day. There are countless visible and invisible enemies He protects and provides safety from. The fact that IF you are still alive and reading this blog post means that He is protecting you at this very moment.

Scripture teaches us “the fear of God is the beginning of all wisdom”. A healthy dependence on God provides this healthy fear of Him in the sense that we rely solely on His provision of protection and safety and that He alone gets the glory. Imagine if He were to remove it? Where would you be.

If you haven’t done so, take a minute to THANK HIM for seeing you through this deadly circumstance! Without Him, where would you be? And if you understand this, you like Abraham will understand what “The-LORD-Will-Provide” truly means.

Job 12:7 But now ask the beasts, and they will teach you;
And the birds of the air, and they will tell you;
⁸ Or speak to the earth, and it will teach you;
And the fish of the sea will explain to you.
⁹ Who among all these does not know
That the hand of the Lord has done this,
¹⁰ In whose hand is the life of every living thing,
And the breath of all mankind?
¹¹ Does not the ear test words
And the mouth taste its food?
¹² Wisdom is with aged men,
And with length of days, understanding.

I have been asked often by one grieving their loss, “will I see my beloved dog again some day”? And my response is, the Bible doesn’t explicitly tell us that we will and there is a reason for this, but I do believe if saved, you will. The Bible does give some clues on this, so let me explain.

Firstly, God promised to “wipe away all tears”, which I would believe would mean that our hope to see our loved one again would encompass that “wiping away”. I don’t believe God would want His children disappointed for an eternity or dwelling on this.

Secondly, if we read and study the Biblical account, we often miss God’s provision for animals. In Matt 10:29 for example, Jesus said that God cares about the mere sparrow’s last breath on earth. In Genesis 6, God instructs Adam to round up “2 of each kind” of animal and bird and place them on the ark. The significance of this is often overlooked. It is not as if God could not have just reproduced and created animals and birds after the Flood. So we know, that God placed a special importance on the animal kingdom, as just 8 humans were spared in comparison. If we read the passage above on Job 12, God tells Job to “ask the beasts” as in saying that they know of God’s hand and who had given them life.

But I do believe there is a reason why God is silent on any explicit text telling us we will see our animals again in heaven. And that reason is our fallen nature. He knows that animals possess a kind of perfect love for their masters and by this we love them back. The silence is so God would not be in competition for your focus and worship. And this would go for Biblical figures in the Bible as Mary as well, we don’t read of her death and burial place because of the shrines, mission trips, which would ensue for her as we see with Roman Catholics. Our fallen nature has a zeal for such idolatry, so God eliminates it or as He promised “leads us not into temptation”.

Lastly, these pets are true blessings from God! And I don’t believe they are just passing invalidated blessings, but a one sent to us to teach us many things. If you desire to see your beloved pet again, first things first. You must be saved by Jesus Christ. As I also do not believe your pet would join you in eternal hell, all apart of that grieving and torment. If you learned anything from your pet, you should realize that life is brief! Their life is much more brief. So do as they do, don’t take today for granted. Then place your faith alone in Jesus, and rest in His peace and rest! Repent of your sins. And then realize the closest thing you will ever see to God’s perfect unconditional unwavering love was in the life of your pet.

For those who are unbelievers and question their eternal future and are unsure where to begin, I will attempt to give you some tips on where to start. Many of you might have been intimidated by a worldly church or some who have claimed to be Christians but live a life of hypocrisy, which might have confused and frustrated you.

Let’s put that ALL in the past and start today! I will give some suggestions below of which worked in my personal witness and testimony which might help you.

1. If you struggle to believe in God and His existence, a simple humble prayer you can say is what the man in Mark 9:24 prayed, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!” God knows you do not believe, He knows everything, even your thoughts before you even contemplate them. Now this prayer must be said in faith, open your heart. If need be, repeat it until you do believe God is listening.

2. If you have a Bible or would like to do this online such as Biblegateway.com or other Bible sources, I suggest start by reading a Gospel account in the New Testament. If you are a beginner to this, pick either Mark or John.

3. Next, before you start reading, turn off the radio or TV, make sure you are able to focus. Remove all your thoughts from the day, anxieties, pressures, relationships, etc. Close your eyes and take some deep breaths to clear your mind.

4. With your mind now clear, you must now also remove from your mind any religion you may have been taught in the past, ALL of it! Also any political or ideology you might have about God, MUST be removed. Go into this as IF you never heard of God before. If you do not do this? You will become frustrated and will learn nothing, it will be a waste of time and energy. You need to now OPEN your mind. Holding onto those past thoughts will CLOSE your mind off. This step I would say IS THE MOST IMPORTANT!

5. Now when you have done the previous steps in earnest, you are ready! Start with the first chapter of the Gospel. I love to give this as the motivated task. Picture yourself as the VERY FIRST Bible reader on the planet. The Gospel of Mark or John was just completed and YOU were the first to read it. Now it is your job to read and study it as to teach others what it means. God has tasked YOU to be His teacher to reach others, so take your time and really take this serious.

6. Now that you accepted step 5 above, start your study. Read every verse as if God is speaking directly to you. Don’t read it as a novel, but as an instruction book. Each verse will be an instruction tied to the next. So slow and steady is how you should be doing this. If something is hard to understand, stop, and ask God “what is this?” and read and study it again.

7. Now that you have started, take notes on every verse or passage. Write down your thoughts. And don’t worry if you are wrong, just trust in God, and that He will provide you understanding and guidance. It is ok to write “this doesn’t make sense”. And then go back to that note later when it does make sense.

8. Because it is simple but serious, there is no time table. Don’t think you need to complete a chapter in an hour or even a day. Just remain disciplined however and do this every day, even if it is just a couple of verses. My personal way of doing this initially was a chapter a day, but your pace may be slower or faster depending on God and His working with you.

One other thing that might help in this as it helped me was to have someone read out loud the verse to you as you read along. Or you just say the words out loud will help. Study each word and don’t overlook common sense and logic as you do this. I guarantee you that if you read some of the Bible in the past, and now this way, you will discover MANY things you took for granted and just flat out missed.

I guarantee you that IF you follow these steps, you will see things you have not seen before! If not, it isn’t because I am wrong, it is because you failed in one those steps most likely closing your mind or going into it with a negative attitude. God will stop His teaching as soon as that is detected, and never think you can outwit Him.

I do pray and hope in the name of Jesus this helps those who want to believe but for some reason you were either intimidated or frustrated in the past. May God open your eyes to His truth!!