Month: January 2022

Posted in poetry, Uncategorized

Kay Cude poetry: Walking in the Light

Posted on by elizabethprata

Kay Cude is a Texas poet. Used with permission. Artist’s statement below. Click to enlarge.

For too many years I had little concept of what “walking in the Light of Christ” actually meant, even less what it involved! And for those countless years, even though I attended Sunday school and church, I somehow missed the “truth” about that walk! It was made real to me when I finally realized that my flesh was in control of “my” journey. “My way” had led me into years of Biblical ignorance and error and opened the door to deception. What a shock it was when I realized where I was spiritually…

We must each reach that defining point in our lives when we really desire to understand, believe and act upon these TRUTHS:

“The heart is more deceitful than all else and is desperately sick; who can understand it?” (Jeremiah 17:9)

“Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it.” (Matthew 7:13-14)

Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith; examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you– unless indeed you fail the test? (2 Corinthians 13:5)

…”If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine;” (John 8:31)

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

“THY WORD IS A LAMP UNTO MY FEET, AND A LIGHT UNTO MY PATH.” (Psalm 119:105)

CHRIST PRECEDES OUR WALK
CHRIST PRECEDES OUR WALK
Posted in theology

God’s Four Sore Judgments: #1: Sword

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Introduction
#1: Sword
#2: Plague
#3 Famine
#4: Beasts

Yesterday I introduced a series examining the LORD’S “Four Sore Judgments.” In other translations they are called the “LORD’S Four Severe Judgments.” They’re mentioned in Ezekiel 14:21. The four are Sword, Famine, Pestilence, and Beasts. In that intro I explained my reasons for why I think it’s important to examine these things, and not focus only on the ‘good’ aspects of God, like His love.

Clarke’s commentary explains, “My four sore judgments – Sword, war. Famine, occasioned by drought. Pestilence, epidemic diseases which sweep off a great part of the inhabitants of a land. The Noisome Beast, the multiplication of wild beasts in consequence of the general destruction of the inhabitants.” Wesley’s notes says, “How much more – If they could not be able to keep off one of the four, how much less would they be able to keep off all four, when I commission them all to go at once.”

It is a very dread situation when all four are unleashed.

The LORD has unleashed one at a time at frequent intervals throughout the Bible, in both the Old Testament (For example, plague in Jeremiah 21:6) and famine in the New (Acts 11:28). Infrequently, the LORD has unleashed all four at once. One example was bringing Ezekiel’s prophecy of chapter 14 to fruition in around 586BC at Jerusalem’s fall. The next time will be during the Tribulation. (Revelation 6).

The Tribulation will be a time when all four are unleashed full strength. I looked, and behold, an ashen horse; and the one who sat on it had the name Death, and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword, and famine, and plague, and by the wild animals of the earth. (Revelation 6:8).

Let’s look at the first of the four severe judgments: Sword.

Continue reading “God’s Four Sore Judgments: #1: Sword” →
Posted in theology

God’s Four Sore Judgments: Introduction

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Introduction
#1: Sword
#2: Plague
#3 Famine
#4: Beasts

I have not written much about prophecy lately and that is a subject in which I like to study. Judgment is not a popular blog topic but it’s an important one. All of unconverted humanity hangs like a spider on a thin thread over the fearsome judgment in eternity. And such were some of us, as we were once objects of God’s wrath for our sins.

Continue reading “God’s Four Sore Judgments: Introduction” →
Posted in theology

The Christian and Video Gaming

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Pong. Remember Pong? I do. According to PongGame.org, “The game was originally developed by Allan Alcorn and released in 1972 by Atari corporations. Soon, Pong became a huge success, and became the first commercially successful game…“

Wikimedia commons

As soon as Pong came out, we got it. My father always got the newest, biggest, or best thing that came out. We thought Pong was amazing and that it ushered in a new space tech era.

And it sort of did.

Next came Space Invaders. “Space Invaders (1978) is considered one of the most influential video games of all time. It helped expand the video game industry from a novelty to a global industry, and ushered in the golden age of arcade video games”, says Wikipedia. I came across it in the student lounge at college. Go Black Bears! It cost a quarter to play. I sunk quarter after quarter in, listening for the boop-boop of the marching invaders, blasting them down one at a time. It was fun for a while, then thankfully the attraction wore off. I didn’t like spending hours in the dark “Bear’s Den” sticky with beer and lost hours guilty because of no productivity. Also, the lounge was loud. Eventually I went on to other things. Like books, lol.

Continue reading “The Christian and Video Gaming” →
Posted in theology

Are you Seeking the Presence of God?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

The Christian women’s bookstore aisles or the online search result pages of women’s devotionals, books, and Bible curricula are rife with promises of feeling the presence of God. These materials entice you with its author’s descriptions of ecstasies and sensations of the actual presence of God they claim to have had.

This morning’s devotional from Frances Ridley Havergal in the book “Seasons of the Heart: A Year of Devotions from One Generation of Women to Another” rebutted that activity with a short and to-the-point essay. I’ve found none better. Here it is-

Continue reading “Are you Seeking the Presence of God?” →
Posted in theology

Are usurping authority and teaching, two different activities or are they the same?

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

A women sent in a question recently and it was a good one. I’ll share it and my answer here. She is a writer concerned that men if read her material she would be in sin. She was also uncertain if usurping authority and teaching men were the same activity or not. Finally, she had been told that no matter who her audience is, women are to teach only womanly things and not doctrine.

1. Is it OK for men to read my material?
2. Can or should women teach doctrine or should they just teach things that are in the womanly realm?
3. Are ‘usurp authority’ and ‘teaching’ two separate things or are they the same? 

Continue reading “Are usurping authority and teaching, two different activities or are they the same?” →
Posted in theology

Sin on the railroad tracks

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

I read a thread on Twitter by CBS Los Angeles photojournalist John Schreiber about the issue of package pilfering on the railroad tracks. A picture sure is worth a thousand words. Here is the thread and Schreiber’s photos first, then I’ll discuss-

Thread by John Schreiber, photojournalist for CBS Los Angeles. @johnschreiber

Keep hearing of train burglaries in LA on the scanner so went to #LincolnHeights to see it all. And… there’s looted packages as far as the eye can see. Amazon packages, @UPS,  boxes, unused Covid tests, fishing lures, epi pens. Cargo containers left busted open on trains.

Continue reading “Sin on the railroad tracks” →
Posted in creation, genesis, God, revelation, solar maximum

God the creator and God the UNcreator

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Earthquake, tornado, sinkhole, flood, tsunami, ice/snow storm…People are unsettled after a natural disaster and they go looking for answers. The views here at the blog spike after a disaster but they rise the most after an earthquake more than any other natural disaster.

Personally I think quakes unsettle people because this is the very ground we walk on that is moving, splitting, and otherwise kicking up. If solidity isn’t solid, than maybe invisible God is real…The subconscious thought or fear is likely, “If the earth isn’t solid, then what is?”

God of course.

Continue reading “God the creator and God the UNcreator” →
Posted in theology

He listened to his wife

Posted on by elizabethprata

By Elizabeth Prata

Remember video stores? Before streaming was invented you had to physically go to a video store and rent a movie, checking it out from the store. You drive home and pop it in to the video cassette recorder machine hulking on top of your console tv to view whatever movie you’d rented. Then reverse the process to return it the next day. Back in the 1990s at the video store on a busy Friday night, I was looking for a movie adapted from an Oscar Wilde play called An Ideal Husband. I couldn’t find it, so I went to the gal at the checkout so she could peek at her catalog to see if it was lent out.

I’d asked, “Do you have An Ideal Husband?”

Without missing a beat, she said, “No, but if I did I wouldn’t lend him out!”

Continue reading “He listened to his wife” →