Its the end of the World as we know it?

 I am writing this blog, with the intent to discuss a topic that I have been following for a long time, something odd that you may have seen on social media called Qanon.  I do not posses all of the answers but something of late has cause my spiritual ears to prick up and that is a new term that people are talking more about, something called "Nesara/Gesara".  It does have end time things connected to it, and it does have if things are to be believed, have end-time connections. 

I want to tell the story of how I came over Qanon, this might be a little haphazard.  To understand I suppose how I started to take note of Qanon, something that for many people has been a whacky subject and something many have dismissed, however for me it is something I spent countless hours reading about and listening to YouTube videos about.  So to explain why I spent time on it, let me share the kind of person that I am and the things that I also have spent time researching.  It started about 1994/95 for me, I saw the Oliver Stone moved JFK, now I don't necessarily endorse the movie or present it as the truth surrounding JFK assassination, I mention to say that as a young teenager it got me interested in what I suppose we can say is the non-mainstream opinion on events. I have had an open mind to many conspiracy theories, I can probably articulate what I believe and why on most events such as 9/11, the Moon Landings, Global Warming, Sandy Hook, Global Economics, Jackyl Island and the Federal Reserve,  Boston Marathon, Oklahoma City bombing, Waco, Ruby Ridge, Las Vegas shootings, Flat Earth - I have spent time looking at these topics and though I do no always take the "conspiracy theorist" view, I have dabbled enough to make what I believe to be truth. The thinking for me has gone like this , If I convinced through whistleblowers, evidence (irrefutable and circumstantial) that masses are lied to on "This" , what else are we lied to about. Let me stress again, I don't always take what you consider the "conspiracy" route but it is my natural inclination to atleast look at an alternative position, is it not true to say that if you believe in one non-mainstream narrative that you believe in them all.  I think it has recently been the case that some events are caused, others are allowed to happen and others are used to further a cause to enhance someones "power" or "control" or monetary gain. If something terrible has happened, there are people who use those moments. 

So what about Qanon?  Well, the first thing that caught my attention was a date, I was reading an article on Breitbart on the small hours of 1st January 2018 and in the comments someone mentioned something called QAnon, Roseanne Barr and following a white rabbit - I thought this was a weird phrase so I googled it and was led to someones blog talking  about something which happen on what happened to be my wife's birthday in 2017. The gist of things went like this - Donald Trump was approached by some military folks and asked to "save the country" from what we call the deep state/Cabal and there are hundreds of thousands of sealed indictments rounding up the worlds corrupt elite for crimes which include deplorable things as child sex trafficking and places like Guantanamo Bay is being readied for military tribunals.  Things began with a trip to Saudi Arabia and some of the wealthy peoples who had a control over among other countries, but in particular the US media groups.  At this point, it all sounded excellent, we should all be unified in the protection of Children - this was one I was emotionally invested in, please be true.  It is true to say that as you research a plethora of subjects you will be presented with a crushing conclusion - Why does it seem like there is one law for the rich and wealthy and another one for the common folks, why cant justice be equal.  As a born again Christian, I do know that Justice belongs to the Lord, nothing escapes His gaze and the wages of sin is death - this is infinitely more severe than anything justice fellow man can dish out.  I was following this stuff, watching videos, having hopes something big was coming, conversing with others who thought the same way.  Donald Trump was busting record amounts of sex criminals - it all seemed like this was legit despite accusations of Q being a larp - I was convinced there was and IS a military backing to all of this - if this was all it was, it would be fantastic but then we started hearing about a global financial reset talking about a gold based currency for the US - again this was "fantastic", even though I don't personally care for Donald Trump it was seemingly that freed of the financial controls of past Presidents he was doing some "big stuff that would make US even better".  Combined that with the arrest of Epstein - hey Q told about that island and some sick stuff that went on - things were looking good and far more than I was thinking would actually come to light.  

Now 2020 happens, and a new Corona Virus which then got a name Covid-19 and it seemed like someone had released a bio-weapon that seemed like it was done to combat Trump's best weapon - a thriving economy to stop the dismantling of a power cabal.  It seemed there really was a war going on to control the power structures of the world.  I read that Trump through some emergency powers act then had authority over the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve was being weakened to do the bidding of "the good guys", then there was Trillions in the Cares act given but with more honorable intentions that the Bank Bailouts from circa 2009.  This was all going along with a new gold backed US currency, I had read of Gold deposits being acquired from sources such as the Vatican, and tons of Catholic Priests had been arrested because of child abuses and it was all good news as far as I was concerned.  The fact that if Trump truly had so much financial power, didn't sit well, but I was thinking if its for a short time and no harm is done, lets have this thing play out and then distribute power once again.  

Then over the summer there was some new elements being brought into the mix - some rightful heir to the Throne in Buckingham Palace, a guy who is in New Zealand and something called Nesara/Gesara.  Lets deal with the "King John" thing, I looked into the lineage and it seemed like there was something to this, and people were saying this was all part of "The great awakening" but there was a spiritual element that came along with this message, he was talking about how there was certain supernatural things that had happened over his life and fulfilled prophecies that proved he was.....what he was calling, someone who had the title of Christ - OK stop right there.  This was not something I was down with at all.  Jesus, is seated at His Fathers right hand, I was thinking that this John fella sounded like AN- Anti Christ.  The other thing that I first was encountering probably over the last two months was this strange term called Nesara/Gesara - I shall summarize this, but I am going to link to an article that has me pretty stunned today, and frankly the catalyst for writing this blog.  

N/G(Im getting lazy in my writing now) essentially is, not only is Trump moving the US to a gold backed financial system, but there are vast vaults of gold stored that means that pretty much its like every US Citizen is going to have their debt wiped out, back dated financial reimbursement, amazing technology that has been suppressed that will move the world into an amazing and prosperous future.  I was reading some theories that this gold had came from The Vatican, the wealthy families of those we might call the bloodlines of the illuminati, or it was Solomon's gold that was being held in Thailand that was so vast in value it would pay off all our debts including national debt, I even heard others call this the Biblical Millenium.  This was when I was thinking some of this doesn't match how I interpreted the end times this was people going too far.  As I started learning more, I started to get more alarmed, what I was reading was what I would call " A new world order", I started to be a bit concerned, I was asking myself have I interpreted parts of the Bible wrong - entirely possible, I knew of no Millenium without a physical return of Jesus - this stuff wasn't jiving with the Bible.  I have heard but wanted more details, of people's mortgages, student debt being erased without much to back this up, my mind was seeking more info.  I had commented to friends and people online, this N/G stuff was essential a new world order and if it was, it had me concerned but I wasn't sure why.  I had read a few and I stress I few saying the same, I would ask questions and people just told me "Do your own research", it seemed like the love of money was and is, was clouding peoples judgement.  

However, all of this changed today.......someone graciously sent me a link.  I will post it below, I will say it challenges how I have concluded the end times to be, and I am being honest I am not sure how I feel about this, it talks about a False Prophet AGE and a False Beast AGE, however when you read about N/G and us needing to take an oath to receive the financial benefit is what I feared.  I had a conversation with my father in law this morning, that if someone wants to give me money I am fine with us, but if I have to take a mark that is something I will not be doing.

So here are two things for you, first this article which I am just reading was published in March

https://jasperandsardine.wordpress.com/2020/03/27/the-mark-of-the-beast-qanon-trump-st-germaine-covid-19/

And secondly, you need to know Jesus as your Savior, He died for you, paid the penalty of your lying, stealing and adulterous thoughts, by facing His Fathers Judgement on the cross, if this N/G is total bunk then this is the greatest truth you need to know - you shall face God in Judgement and you can be forgiven before it is too late.

https://www.livingwaters.com/are-you-a-good-person/?

 

Church Life - A retrospective of 9 years living in the USA

Thank-you for taking the time to read my blog, the concept of this series has been bandied about in my mind for years.  I've toyed with writing a book, or doing a YouTube series n this topic, but I think ultimately if for no-one else but my family, I wish to get this down into some digestible format.

 My family and I moved to Texas in March of 2011, time has flown so fast and I am very grateful for this country to allow me to live here and call it home.  So much as has changed in 9 years, the MCU was just getting into its flow and Man Utd where still contending for titles.

So what do I intend this series to be about, well the Church, the visible and invisible, the good and the bad, my thoughts, conversations, burdens for it and a great deal of other stuff.  I don't know how much I intend to write, but I want to make a few things clear.  This is going to be about WHAT I write, now about HOW I write it - in other words I am not a good writer and I know it. I write like I think, and I think I speak better than I write.  I have learned and unlearned a great deal over 9 years, and I have no reason to believe that what I believe in 2020 is what I will exit the decade thinking.  I also don't consider myself an expert or anything close, I just have a few things to say in the hopes to make us all think and seek God on these matters.  I also need to stress a few things, I may say things that are heavy, offensive or appear unkind, as I touch on the topics that are in my outline, I shall be doing my best to seek the truth on these topics, it is not intend to cause hurt but to build up and that may mean bringing words of rebuke. 

Faithful are the wounds of a friend; but the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.Proverbs 27:6

In my line of work I have heard this sentiment often, "Find out what the leaders are doing, and copy them", you see we emulate that which we admire. If your starting a new search engine, then your likely on the right track to want to study the business pattern and lessons of Yahoo and Google.

 My first challenge to us all, if we say we want to emulate our Lord Jesus Christ, then why do we look so much like the world?

30 years different

Greetings fellow made of the earth but do not belong to this earth-lings?  Tonight is the day before the 30th anniversary of the event which claimed my Father's life.  Such an event gets one thinking, I was walking the dog and doing some more thinking, reflecting on whom I am to my children, to my wife, to my Savior? I was watching a Netflix comedy special last week, and the guy made a joke about everyone having one thing in common...............and that is they wish to start again.......... (much laughter).  Is that the truth? What about everyone #LivingTheDream? I am reminded of a friend of my dad's who I have been told, after the loss of his friend he decided to make a dramatic life adjustment, sell up house and home and go to Bible college to become a Pastor.  I like that, I like that story allot I have a few other stories of the events of July 6th 1988 changes many lives for the better.

We often take long pauses of reflection when life's big moments happen, We have such dreams of this or that, I am a dreamer, oh let me tell you about the the things I have wanted to do, the many blue prints of aspirations that never became more than that.   

The book of James has this to say

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit”—14 yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. 15 Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” 
     
As I tucked my kids in tonight, I am reminded of when I was a little boy but 8 years old , waking and walking into the kitchen and then family life was never the same again. I am the same person but I am 30 years different.  Love your brother, love your enemy, love a stranger, love an addict, love your mother, love your boss, Open your heart to love someone new today, open your heart to the one who whilst you were still an enemy...He gave his Son to die for you. 

Romans 5:6-8: For while we were still weak, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly.  For one will scarcely die for a righteous person—though perhaps for a good person one would dare even to die— but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.

Its been too long

I should write another blog.....................but not yet.

What's that in your hand?

A friend once asked me "How can you share the gospel with one question?"  I stood there thinking I would get this, Do you think your a good person? ...No he replied because there is more dialogue needed after that.  I was over thinking this, the answer was really far more simple.

I was born in 1979 and am part of the generation which saw the explosion of the internet at just the right time, paper material seemed mess attractive as we favored graphics and video and slick presentation.  Even in our churches; multimedia became the norm, no more acetates.....look that word up if you don't know it, Powerpoint 97 was here and boy did we love the slide transitions.  Then things became even more sophisticated, we want motion graphics and flat screens and catchy titles - OnFire, Fire Starters, Redemption conference, on Fire RE:deemed, we liked that word "fire" it conveyed passion and busyness and activity and contagion, anything the world could do we can do it as well and want it in 1080P HD 100Mhz. All of this neat stuff and who to view it?  Well the choir of course.

It sounds like I'm dogging these things, the point I am trying to make is all of this effort yet where are the lost?   Right where they have always been...outside.

It can be a daunting prospect to share the gospel, Have you had a chance to think of the answer to my question yet? 

Did you get one of these?  A gospel tract.

I can count on one hand the occasions that I've been handed one, yet what a under utilized tool.  A non threatening means of sharing the gospel in text or even as an ice breaker to share the news of the cross personally.  I've seen many well put together tracts  and some not so well.  A few pointers on how to evaluate a good tract.

1. Does it contain the gospel in language that can be understood or does it use Church words like repentance, sin and righteousness?  Though true, a tract must communicate the gospel message clearly without an interpreter. 
2. Does it carefully explain what sin, repentance and faith are?
3. Is it clear that the Jesus we are talking about is? 
4. Does it convey the truth that though Jesus' sacrifice is efficient for all, a response is required.  We dont want to convey a false assurance of Salvation.
5. Is too wordy or not wordy enough - This comes down to personal preference, tracts which hope that you are going to hit a website to get the message of the gospel are not in my arsenal.  Though I would not say they are not without merit and could be used it is a risk.
6. Are they age appropriate or subject appropriate?  We don't hand out tracts which talk about lust to under 16's.
7. Is the grace of God communicated and the substitution payment of Christ communicated?  The literature is handed out with the intent to introduce Christ so let's make it clear.  Its not about ours or your Church its an introduction to the one who died for their spiritual freedom.

Who knows where gospel tracts end up, they have access to homes and people as the Lord allows.
Tracts are a great thing to get in the habit of carrying and giving out and restaurants, parks,  parties, work, on vacation, on a plane, or a train or an automobile or ..or...or...or

For some great tracts check www.tractplanet.com or   http://store.livingwaters.com/index.php?option=com_virtuemart&page=shop.browse&category_id=8&Itemid=369&lang=en

Thanks for reading, Matthew

Tricky Treat

Halloween has passed for another year, and it always a time of debate, division and others just having fun.  A few years ago after hearing a sermon called Hells Best kept secret, I was challenged to see everything as an opportunity that can be turned to the gospel, so for the past 3 years Beth and I, at least for me changed my perspective on Halloween that rather that keeping the door closed and turning up the volume we decided to open the door, hand out candy greet people with a smile and a compliment and hand them a gospel tract.  We have often had people come to our house just to get one of the novelty gospel tracts.

This year, after seeing the numbers last year of at least 200 children, not including adults Beth had an idea to show 'Whats your greatest Fear' on our projector screen, we then heard Alan at Church talking about Trunk or Treat encouraging us to put games on in our garden to draw more people to us.  This was a great idea, we signed up for it and shared the opportunity with our Connect group and we were off.  Our group is excellent by the way, they are a real blessing to meet with each week.  

What is your greatest Fear is an evangelism documentary produced by my brother in law Nathan a dear brother Noah and a few other friends.  I decided to edit its running time of 40 minutes down to 15, to create more chance of someone sticking it out the whole way through hearing the gospel.  You know the gospel right?  That which the Bible calls the Power of God unto Salvation.  

Our group showed up, we had fishing games and rubber ducks in a paddle pool for a treasure hunt, stinky sock toss - we decided not to use my socks, as we actually wanted people to come :)  As the evening went by it was really interesting to see the age groups progressing from the toddlers through to teenagers as the evening went on. One of the amazing things was our cul-de-sac had just been re covered and the audio of the video carried CLEARLY up most of the street, as kids were running here and there grabbing what must be their annual supply of candy, adults were hearing the gospel. 

We had a few hundred people frequent our front lawn over a few hours and then the numbers dwindled and then there were none.  The ripples of the Lords work from something easily put together that night will go further than we are aware of.  Gospel tracts will find their way into broken homes with no daddies, poor homes, lonely people and people who are affluent, people who think they have it all together, people who don't think they are in need of a Savior, for those who will reap the harvest down the line, we rejoice together.

Romans 10:14-15
But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? ¹⁵ And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!”

May the Lamb of God receive the reward of his suffering.

Explore God

I can't believe its been seven months since I last wrote my blog and I am sorry for the missed opportunity.  

I wrote a few weeks ago that I was going to write a blog on 'Explore God'.  If you live in Austin Texas you have no doubt seen the billboards and countless signs on churches and yards advertising 'Explore God' here, I wonder why they didn't call it Explore Christianity but that's a separate discussion.

The format of the evening was two video segments sandwiches by informal discussion on either side, the first video is people on the street being asked a question 'Why does God allow suffering' for example and the attendees answer that same question, followed by another video of 'experts' presenting their answer to the question.  I think the format does a great job of opening up a topic for discussion but could do with a third video - that being some key bible verse and in the absence of that I would advise the host shares them to avoid it becoming an interesting discussion of opinion.

One huge positive about the acceptance to do the Explore God is it shows people in our town do want to reach the lost and do something positive.  The video idea is a good one, because it takes allot of pressure off of people to put themselves out there to have allot of material prepared before hand to share competently.  In that same thought, could you imagine the response to these same people if an Evangelist built them up in the ministry?  If we read Ephesians 4 in context it tells us the gifts are for the benefit of the church so that we can ALL BE THE DOERS.  

He who descended is the very one who ascended higher than all the heavens, in order to fill the whole universe.) So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers,  to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up  until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

Video based home groups are quite common in the UK with varying durations, I think they are a great tool and allow those who are hospitable to open up their home, serve a meal and discuss the meaty things of life, some curse material's are better than others, I have often toyed with the idea of making a one episode video which is only the gospel.  I only see them as training wheels like a gospel tract may be a good ice breaker and seeing the response to Explore God I may revisit this idea once again.  A ten week course is a big commitment to ask of someone, in the examples of Explore God, Christianity Explored God, Alpha course, Emmaus or the Y course - if someone misses or leaves the week the gospel is presented isn't that the purpose of these tools?

Presenting the gospel is the joy of the Church, compulsory for all believer's and for all ages.