I’m asked more often lately about what will happen to our pets when we’re raptured. Some ask about the animals we keep, being a farm community. My county abounds with cows, bulls, buffalo, mules, goats, chickens, sheep, pigs and more. I find the question fascinating, and also encouraging. I’m personally invested in the question, too, being an inside cat owner.
The book of Genesis tells us that we are unique in God’s creation, being made in His image and likeness. Also, though we and the animals have the breath of life in us, we were made to have dominion over the animals. Jesus died on the cross for salvation of his people, not animals, who as far as I know do not have a soul, at least, not an eternal soul. It is reasonable to assume that our futures will be different, being of different flesh and having had different roles on earth.
I often refer to the Book of Titus when discussing what behavioral standards the Lord has in mind for us ladies. Titus has some go-to verses. Who was this man? Paul’s letter to Titus is a great book of the Bible, but Titus is mentioned many times elsewhere, too. Let’s look at who Titus was.
There are 12 mentions of him in the New Testament; 8 of those are in 2 Corinthians. There are 2 mentions in Galatians, 1 in Second Timothy, he is mentioned by name in Titus 1:4 and of course the entire book of Titus is a letter to this valued companion of Paul.
Paul calls Titus earnest, a fellow worker, his partner, a comfort, a brother. The name Titus means honorable, which Titus seemed to have lived up to. Titus accompanied Paul on his mission trips, and Titus was who Paul sought when Paul was released from prison. Titus was a Gentile (Galatians 2:3) likely having been converted by Paul when Paul was on his first missionary trip. In AD 63, Paul wrote the letter to Titus from Nicopolis, after Paul was released from his first Roman imprisonment. That is the Book of Titus we know today.
Do you ever get distracted when you pray? I do. I pray out loud to help me stay on course, but even then… lol. We are weak people. The spirit is willing but the flesh is so weak (Matthew 26:41).
On the next day, as they were on their way and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. But he became hungry and was desiring to eat; but while they were making preparations, he fell into a trance; (Acts 10:9-10).
The sixth hour is noon. The word hungry here in the Greek is “very hungry”. Perhaps Peter had been busy all day preaching and teaching, and hadn’t eaten, and suddenly realized his hunger during the quiet moment of prayer. He was desiring to eat. Maybe Peter had requested someone make him a lunch, or he heard the hosts were preparing it below in the house because it’s a normal time to eat. In any case, Peter was praying but he was also distracted by thinking about food.
Despondency: aka dejection, extreme discouragement. That was me in February.
The last four years have been interesting watching the liberal faction of the population in the United States respond to President Donald Trump. In God’s will and timing, the Lord appointed Trump to be elected and perhaps be used as a magnet to draw to the visible surface all the hatred and corruption in many hearts and in many organizations, especially the media.
The riots last summer, the actions of the leaders who called sin purity and purity sin, all who had claimed what was bitter was sweet and what was sweet was actually bitter, it made my head spin. Riots, destruction, lawlessness. A so-called pandemic and lockdowns. Lonely deaths, tragic separations. It just went on and on.
But that was life in this ole world, to be expected, so my head dealt with it.
Then came November 2020 and the Presidential election. I was pandemic-weary by then and wanted to see some change. Yet the opposite happened, I was truly shocked to see such election corruption and dirty tricks played out before my eyes. With sin, you know that it exists but you never know how deep it goes. This time the Lord was showing us it went deep. It went wide.
I’m always amazed by Jesus’ infinite love, its length and width and height and depth Ephesians 3:18 (FOUR dimensions!), but I’m equally flabbergasted by my inability to comprehend the length and width and height and depth of sin. When I see it crashing through to new lows I’m surprised – but I should not be.
I was born into a political family, where my father actively supported local and state candidates. I remember playing in echo-y grange halls with red-white-and blue bunting decorations and voter cards and people coming and going. My father ran for office several times, winning a few of those races. I loved the orderly process of elections and transitions and was deeply proud of America from having seen how our system works from the inside at an early age.
Then January 2021 came and the transition from one president to another was less than orderly. Shocking again to see what had played out in the capitol that Inauguration day. Vitriolic hatred oozed onto social media and many conservatives and Christians were canceled, banned, or slandered. The hatred against brethren and other like-minded individuals was an eye-opener. Were the bystanders to Jesus shocked to see the hatred by the Pharisees leveled against Him? Their dark hearts and sly words coming from those whom the people had thought were righteous?
(I’m NOT comparing Trump to Jesus, I’m comparing the hatred in people’s hearts unleashed to emerge to the surface like hidden rats on a ship running to the surface when the ship begins to sink.)
I hold freedom of speech dear. I ran a newspaper founded on the notion that people in the civic arena deserve to be able to speak their minds and that an exchange of ideas is important for a democracy to thrive. I was even appointed by the Senate of Maine to serve on a legislative committee to review the free speech standards for the state. It was a high moment in my life.
February was a nadir. It felt to me that the process from November to January 22 and the tamping down of free speech was in fact a long slow, painful death of a nation. Whether America is dying or not remains to be seen, but that was how I felt during the first of 2021. I was shocked and dismayed, and despondent for a while.
It’s one thing to read in the Bible the collapse of Israel and the Jewish captives carried off, and then to see a similar thing happen in real life, to my own country. In Hosea 5:1 we read of a judgment coming because of their apostasy, and it begins with calling to the priests and to Israel and the court of the kings.
Hear this, you priests! Pay attention, house of Israel! Listen, you of the house of the king! For the judgment applies to you
Further along in Hosea, the verse from Hosea 5:11-12 has always resonated with me,
Ephraim is oppressed, broken by judgment, Because he was determined to follow man’s command. Therefore I am like a moth to Ephraim, And like rottenness to the house of Judah.
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary explains Hosea 5:8-15: “The destruction of impenitent sinners is not mere talk, to frighten them, it is a sentence which will not be recalled. And it is a mercy that we have timely warning given us, that we may flee from the wrath to come. Compliance with the commandments of men, who thwart the commandments of God, ripens a people for ruin.”
The Soviet Union disintegrated over the course of 4 years but much of that was largely invisible- similar to moths chewing away in the darkness of the closet. Internal governmental and Parliamentarian conflicts, dissatisfactions within the union of Soviet states, and an ineffective leadership, combined in a critical mass to startle the world when one day the President of the Union (Mikhail Gorbachev) resigned, declared his office extinct, and handed over power to Russian president Boris Yeltsin (including the nuclear codes). What had seemed a strong and everlasting union of states, mighty in their boasting and prowess, disintegrated into dust before our eyes.
The Lord had been a moth to that situation, silently chewing away their garments, a worm to invisibly destabilize them, and one day the Soviet Union collapsed. Was this happening to the US? It could be. We certainly deserve it. Hosea again.
But knowing that we deserve no less than many other apostate nations, we being rebels to Him and His word, a church whose light had been hidden under a bushel basket of stage lights and fog machines, whose Gospel had been polluted and made into man’s image, was of no comfort during February when it took my heart time to catch up with my head.
I am not doubting God’s goodness in any way, in fact, I trust His judgment and find comfort in His wrath and completely understand that He will judge rightly. But seeing the dismantling of the foundations of our nation: civil discourse, freedom of speech, orderly elections, and proper transitions, was hard to take. I got despondent.
And I didn’t read the word regularly. Then I stopped reading it altogether, for two whole weeks.
Then the Spirit in His goodness brought to mind verses like Deuteronomy 32:35 “Their foot shall slide in due time” and 1 Corinthians 10:12, “Therefore let the one who thinks he stands watch out that he does not fall” and 2 Peter 3:17, “You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unscrupulous people and lose your own firm commitment,” and especially Hebrews 2:1, “For this reason we must pay much closer attention to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away from it.“
Oh no! All those warnings apply to me. I am no better and no different than anyone else. I must get back. All it took is to open the Bible laying on my table, a daily rebuke during the weeks I gave it short shrift, but a pool of balm and comfort once opened. But that act of opening it is a monumental climb up to the summit of Everest, isn’t it? A battle, as real as any on D-Day or Waterloo. Once I dropped the habit, even for such a short time, it was daily becoming harder to reach for the Book and make it mine again. It is amazing how fast that happens. I resumed my Bible Reading Plan in James and the wisdom described in the first three chapters was so soothing. Why do I ever leave the Bible to wring my hands and mourn? Why am I foolish? Why do I starve myself?
Don’t drop it, ladies. In the daily grind of children and diapers and husbands and work and in-laws and everything else, don’t drop the word of God. I’m writing this because mainly I exhort and encourage. But I don’t want anyone to think I have it all together. My exhortations are always aimed at myself, first. I am a woman stumbling on my way to glory, sometimes walking, and some few times, soaring, only to fall back to stumbling at times.
And look, in His providence, when I resumed my Reading Plan, this verse was ‘coincidentally’ in the first batch:
“For we all stumble in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says, he is a perfect man, able to rein in the whole body as well.” (James 3:2).
I’m grateful to have a Body of believers around me to stir me to Godly affections, serve as an example, buoy me when I’m down. And when it’s my turn to be up I hope I do the same for others. I need you, I need Jesus, I need His word. In His grace my heart has now caught up with my head-knowledge. I mourn for he lost more than ever, for their ends will be dire and eternal. But I glory in Jesus who died and rose again to take upon Himself the wrath due me. I’m over my funk.
Let the word of Christ richly dwell within you, with all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with thankfulness in your hearts to God. (Colossians 3:16)
A few days ago, I’d posted an essay discussing the issue of women who claim to hear direct personalized revelations from God and what a danger that is. The essay was called “Satan whispers, women start a movement.”
For example, stay at home mom Jennie Allen founded the IF:Gathering movement because in her words, “A voice from the sky” told her directly “to gather an equip this generation.” She was assured by a friend that if the voice was from God He would definitely give her all that she needs to accomplish it. Satan can do that, too, a notion that apparently had not occurred to them.
I’d also mentioned Joanna Gaines as negative examples of career-ambitious women who claim to hear from God. Joanna Gaines is not a Christian Bible teacher as the other women I’d mentioned, but she has started a movement (“Magnolia”) which serves to show women that they, too, can have ambitions of celebrity and public platforms outside the Christian home, especially when God directly assures her so.
The Joanna Gaines issue is especially aggrieving to me because she trades on motherhood to grab celebrity and fame. As a self-professed Christian, Gaines insists her priority is motherhood first. In 2016, I wrote several essays about this couple, since they seemed to be climbing to heights of popularity. My essay “The Hypocrisy of Chip and Joanna Gaines of Fixer Upper” garnered 131,000 views. I received a lot of push back on the essay, even though I showed from the Bible, used primary documents, and their own words what hypocrites they were, saying one thing and living another, all under the name of Jesus. I’d warned and warned about them.
That essay was followed by a close look at Joanna’s testimony, which was making the rounds and published from Joanna’s Alma Mater, Baylor. In it, Joanna claimed direct revelation.
Mrs Gaines used the video to speak not of sin, grace, redemption, and Jesus, though she mentioned Him once at the end. But instead the video is a testimonial to Mrs Gaines’ ambitions, Mrs Gaines’ dreams, Mrs Gaines’ plans, and how God was going to fulfill them by giving her what she wants- which wasn’t to be a stay-at-home mom. She mentions 4 times in the 4 minute video that God spoke to her. When her two children were young God called to her and said she had to close her store which had been open for two years. In order to salve her disappointment at having her dreams of running a business shattered just so she could perform her biblical function as a mother, God comforted her thus-
“I heard Him specifically say, ‘Joanna, I have a calling for you. You’re going to have a platform one day.'”
I remember hearing God say, ‘Joanna, there’s going to come a time when I’m going to say for you to go, and I’m going to need for you to step out and go.'”
I heard God say very clearly, ‘If you trust me with your dreams, I’m going to take Magnolia further than you even dreamed. Just trust me.’ And I remember hearing that and feeling completely peaceful about it, and I walked away.”
I find it curious that God told her to stay home with her first two babies when they were young but that it was OK to become a business woman a few years later while the second two were young.
Now the TV personality Oprah Winfrey has interviewed Joanna Gaines and her husband about their upcoming tv channel, Magnolia Network. In the interview Joanna related all the times that God has spoken to her. Not only does the supreme Deity give her personalized business direction, individual timing of her business propositions, but directs her on who to marry.
“This is when I heard God’s voice more than ever,” Joanna says. “I heard him say, ‘This is the man you’re going to marry,’ and I’m arguing with God. I said, ‘No it’s not.'”
Apparently Joanna only likes what God has to say when it matches up with her business dreams.
Here are my points:
Point #1 – Claiming direct revelation is exceedingly dangerous. Jeremiah 23:16 says, This is what the LORD of armies says: “Do not listen to the words of the prophets who are prophesying to you. They are leading you into futility; They tell a vision of their own imagination, Not from the mouth of the LORD. Joanna Gaines’ revelations are abhorrent to God. She is putting words into His mouth He did not say. He hates that.
And you notice that her communication with him is all one-way. God tells Joanna about Joanna and Joanna’s dreams and Joanna’s ambitions and Joanna’s husband. In all her interviews where she stated the communications she’s supposedly received from God, Joanna has not expressed interest in hearing what God has to say about himself.
Point #2 – The couple had previously claimed a form of Jesus-Christianity and said they attended Antioch Community Church. Church going people who follow Jesus. But then they drifted away from that, with husband Chip saying he never was that interested in the Bible. Chip Gaines said,
“I’m not a theologian. I don’t understand. We both grew up in pretty conservative Christian families, and we were brought up in Church in the very traditional sense. But I didn’t love to open the Bible and read the Bible for hours a day,” he admitted.
Now Joanna says that religion isn’t for her. She drifted away from church, from the Bible, and now the religion itself. She said that her unique and beautiful relationship with God is outside the bounds of any religion and His connection with people is so relational, she just stays away from religion altogether. (Source).
She seeks experience that confirms her ambitions, not the Deity who should be worshiped.
HERE IS THE DANGER of relying on personalized revelations. In a few years, church is abandoned and the Bible is abandoned, religion is abandoned, and all she seeks now is that voice. Because, if you hear a disembodied voice specifically and clearly telling you what you want to hear, why ruin it with Bible verses that convict your soul of its sin?
Point #3 – Joanna’s style of religion foments a yearning in women that they should not try to fulfill. Joanna’s experiential style of closeness with God is a false road. The Bible is the standard, we should seek His word. It is not boring as was intimated in the interview. The Holy Spirit’s ministry is to point to Jesus, convict hearts through the written word, and encourage us when we need it. Joanna’s brand of personalized audible voice religion denies the Spirit’s work and ministry of His own inspired scriptures!
The “God told me” religion is dangerous in the extreme- especially to women. The Gaines’ will discover this on the last day unless the Spirit intervenes and points them to the God who actually exists and not the one in their vain imaginations. If you want to hear God’s voice, read the Bible out loud.
Further Reading
Below are some resources addressing the closed canon and personal revelations etc.
Josh Buice on the G3 Ministry Network covers the issue of personal revelation on his podcast-
The latest in a series of year-long and increasingly bizarre threats from health officials in the city of Los Angeles to Grace Community Church (GCC) where John MacArthur preaches, was brought to light this week. The church shut down temporarily when the flu-like disease named COVID-19 emerged in March 2020. GCC re-opened a few weeks later, to the chastisement of health officials, who have never stopped hounding the church, in MacArthur’s words. The church is fined weekly, visited often by officials, and taken to court. (The case is making its way through the courts now).
The officials are also making all kinds of other threats, which MacArthur outlines in this short clip below. He was guest preaching at an unnamed church, noting that he has preached steadily and continuously at GCC for a year, but that this was the first time he’d left GCC in all that time.
He said that the city of LA had threatened to gather homeless people from everywhere and make a homeless encampment in their parking lot. The City of Los Angeles has been notoriously opposed to Grace Community Church’s decision to re-gather amid the so-called pandemic.
John MacArthur replied to the City’s threat to flood their parking lot with homeless people in an encampment, “Perfect! We will send our seminary students to evangelize them all day long.” MacArthur said he did not hear from them after that.
The idea that the City OFFICIALS would use helpless humanity as pawns in their evil game is grotesque. Rounding up homeless people for the purpose of closing a church helps no one and is certainly not ethical. It was not stated that this proposed ’round up’ was part of a larger plan of the City to help homeless people. It’s clear that the official(s) who cooked up this craven scheme not only don’t care for the Lord Jesus, but care not even a bit for their fellow man.
As we go further and further into apostasy and increasing hatred of Christians, statements like this will become ever more frequent. Christ-haters will ever more outlandishly cook up plots to try and thwart Christians. (Matthew 22:15). Ladies, the world hates us believers. Prepare yourself by staying in the Word, help your husband if you’re married, and nurture your children in the admonition of the Lord. Strength in HIM is our only defense.
Isaiah 26:4– Trust in the Lord forever, For in God the Lord, we have an everlasting Rock
The other day I wrote an essay about the naming process in the Bible. I find it interesting that God re-named Abram into Abraham, and Simon into Peter. Nebuchadnezzar re-named Daniel and his three friends to retrain their personal identity into being Babylonian and away from being Hebrew. And we all receive from Jesus a new name written on a white stone at the end of the age.
I think it’s intuitively understood that the one who names another is the one who has authority over the other. I said as much in the previous essay. This explanation from the Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary says more:
“The biblical concept of naming was rooted in the ancient world’s understanding that a name expressed essence. To know the name of a person was to know that person’s total character and nature. Revealing character and destiny, personal names might express hopes for the child’s future. Changing of name could occur at divine or human initiative, revealing a transformation in character or destiny (Genesis 17:5, 15; 32:28; Matthew 16:17–18).” Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (pp. 1173–1174).
“The act of naming implied the power of the namer over the named, evidenced in the naming of the animals in Genesis 2:19–20 or Pharaoh’s renaming Joseph (Genesis 41:45; cp. Daniel. 1:6–7; 2 Kings 24:17).” End Holman Illustrated Bible Dictionary (pp. 1173–1174).
Now, there is another naming convention I’d like to look at.
Have you noticed how many false movements and cults were started by women? And these women started them because they claim a voice told them to? A lot. It’s a pattern.
In the 1830s, Ellen G. White received visions that she claimed were from God and soon were accepted as such. She founded the Seventh-Day Adventist movement that has 18 million adherents today.
In 1901 Agnes Ozman was attending at Charles Fox Parham’s Bethel Bible School in Topeka, Kansas. Parham was teaching that students should seek the gift of tongues so that if they were to become a missionary, they could jump right in to the field knowing the language. One day, Ozman spontaneously began speaking in a tongue that Parham insisted was Chinese. Though language experts examined the writing (her ‘tongue utterances’ had been transcribed and then published in a newspaper) the experts claimed it bore no resemblance to Chinese. Nevertheless, more and more students at Parham’s School claimed tongues, and by 1909 the Los Angeles Charismatic revival led by former student of Parham’s, William Seymour, saw over 50,000 claiming the gift of tongues. Ozman is credited with sparking the modern Pentecostal-Holiness movement.
the-end-time.org 