Raining now, warming up some, so snow is melting, a bit.  Still grey clouds surround us and we are given to believe that we shall see more snow shortly.  Okay by me, as long as it snows heavy in the mountains.

We are told the drought in Western Oregon is abated thanks to all this moisture, but those of us on the good side of Oregon are going to have to pray for more.

Meanwhile, the cats and dogs are resting nicely – lying where they can look outside and not have to endure the cold and snow as they watch the birds and other activity outside.

Carla had to work today, bit dicey on the driveway, but shouldn’t be a problem coming home.

Micah 3:9-12 Hear this, I pray you, ye heads of the house of Jacob, and princes of the house of Israel, that abhor judgment, and pervert all equity.

¹⁰ They build up Zion with blood, and Jerusalem with iniquity.

¹¹ The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us.

¹² Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.

yet will they lean upon the Lord, and say, Is not the Lord among us? none evil can come upon us.

This morning I awakened and an incident that occurred early in my career – over 40 years ago – came to mind.  I can’t remember all of the details, however:

We received a phone call of a boy tormenting an older woman.  We arrived to find the older woman on the ground and very disoriented.  The boy had fled, but we soon located him.

He thought it was great fun, he was from a different community and was visiting someone here. 

She thought he was her son, who had died decades before, so he used it to take things from her – as I said I can’t remember all the details – and ended up making fun of her as she tried to ‘chase’ him down after he left her house calling her son’s name to come back.

A neighbor saw what was going on and went out to help the lady, the boy took off, but we were close and saw him running, I stopped him while another officer went to the victim.

The boy had jewelry and other things in his possession that belonged to the lady.

She was obviously suffering from dementia; the neighbor took her into her home until we could get a relative to come from another city.  They knew she was struggling, but had never seen her this bad.

The boy didn’t realize and didn’t care how much she was suffering and made fun of her condition as he told me what happened, among other things he laughed and said ‘she thought I was her kid, so I just took what I wanted.’

She, of course, was not aware of her condition.  She was lost but didn’t know it, to her, the reality of the moment was that was her child and he had run away from her.  She didn’t remember where she lived and was unable to relate to the facts of the day.

It is the perfect illustration of what was happening with God’s people in these verses, part of my daily reading of the Bible.

They were so out of touch with reality, they thought that God loved them so much He would never allow evil to come upon them – they were blinded and could not relate to the facts of the world around them.

And satan took advantage of this blindness to how he was leading them away from God.  They had a remembrance of God and who He is, but they were in denial as to their condition and blinded by their inability to see their fate.

The poor older lady had an excuse, the Jewish people did not.  Through the years they had deliberately chosen to follow leaders that led them into denial of God’s authority and place in their lives. 

They were enthralled by the allure of the promise of happiness given to them by satan who repudiated God’s mercy, love and power giving them lesser expectations if they listened to him – they didn’t want to obey God’s commands, so they chose to develop their own gods; gods that would serve their worldly needs, appetites and ideas.

Today, the world denies God’s authority – if they accept there even is a God. 

Satan has used science and manmade morality to change the focus from God the Creator and Commander in Chief of our lives, to whatever society wants to view as moral at any given time.

It is running rampant in our government, our schools, even our churches as the church tries to even the playing field by adopting worldly values and opinions.

EVERY one of us, man, woman and child, Christian and non-Christian are vulnerable to these new ‘standards’ if we do not read and heed God’s Word.

This time of the year people like to say that Jesus brought peace on earth – but deny His authority.  In so doing only those that accept His Word can be at peace – the world is and will always be in turmoil because of that rejection.

Mathew 10:33-35 But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

³⁴ Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.

³⁵ For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

When we accept Christ we automatically have set in motion attacks by satan through people we may have loved and respected before our redemption.

I can tell you from experience, these words are true.  It was a difficult time as I tried to deal with that reality – but finally realized that my responsibility was Christ and His Word.

We cannot expect people to lift us up and say ‘what a good guy this person is’ when we tell of Christ’s love, and path to the Father.  It strikes deep into their hearts, it stabs like a sword and most will fight back in one way or another.

They will refuse to listen, they will accuse us of hatred and false hood, they will physically attack us, they will deny that Christ has anything to do with them.

BUT, some will listen, some will feel the Holy Spirit working within them afterwards and some will accept what we have said about Him and seek to find Christ and His salvation.

Christ knew he would be rejected, He knew that when people accepted His Word, they too would be rejected – this is the price for telling un-Godly people that they must repent and accept Jesus Christ into their lives.

As Christians we are different from the world, we need to make sure we know what that difference is and not allow the world to seep into our lives.

We need to allow the Joy of our salvation and the Peace and Strength of the Holy Spirit to flow through our veins, into our heart and minds and proclaim Christ to others so they too can have the opportunity for that Joy and Peace.

The world is blinded by its own rules and has no idea of what is coming – let us make sure we are not blinded ourselves.

The world is walking in the darkness of satan’s commands – let us make sure we are always in the light of God.

John 6:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Later, Art :-)