Posted in earthquake, nevada

Magnitude 5.1 quake at Nevada (Updated)

Posted on by elizabethprata

A fairly large quake for Nevada occurred, with some aftershocks. I am updating this with adding more quakes at the same spot since last night. It seems that the swarm began at around 7p, EST. I’ve added the new quakes to the list below. The list goes from most recent at the top, to earliest one at the bottom.

2.5 NEVADA
4.0 NEVADA
3.6 NEVADA
2.6 NEVADA
3.2 NEVADA
3.5 NEVADA
3.7 NEVADA
2.6 NEVADA
2.5 NEVADA
3.7 NEVADA
3.3 NEVADA
3.1 NEVADA
5.1 NEVADA

10-degree map showing recent earthquakes

Sierra Wave reports,
“A 5.2 earthquake centered 44 miles west of Tonopah, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, was felt throughout the Eastern Sierra at ten minutes after 4pm Tuesday. Bishop residents who contacted USGS said they were told the quake was centered 69 miles northwest of Bishop. At the Sierra Wave studios the quake seemed long and rolling. Nothing fell off the shelves. We talked to the Mammoth Police Department and others in Mammoth and Bishop. Everyone felt the quake but, again, no damage of any kind reported. We also talked to someone at the Station Casino in Tonopah. She said the staff there felt nothing. At Northern Inyo Hospital in Bishop, where 200, 50-foot long foundation pylons brace the new hospital, they did not feel the earthquake at all. USGS reported several after shocks of lesser magnitude.”

Posted in grace, pope, rcc, works religion

Why works-based faiths like the Catholic religion will not save you

Posted on by elizabethprata

My posts on the resignation of the Pope and the resulting discussion that the Roman Catholic Church is a false church has received more views than any post I’ve ever done, by at least double. Not only is it huge news that the Pope resigned, but it is news to many when someone declares flatly that the RCC is a false church and it promotes doctrines of demons.

(Left, Pope Pius IX, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal infallibility. He also defined the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, meaning that Mary was conceived without original sin. Previously, those doctrines were not an official part of Catholic dogma.)

Here are the three posts I’ve written about the RCC Pope, and the Prophecy of the Popes:

1. December 2011, Pope Benedict’s health failing, St. Malachy’s prophecy comes up again
2. February 2013, Pope Benedict resigned- will the next pope validate Malachy’s prophecy?
3. February 2013, Catholicism is not a Christian religion

The comments have been respectful for the most part. I have only had to delete a few out of hand for profanity or for not adding anything to the discussion (i.e. ‘You’re all nuts!” kinds of comments get deleted. At least tell us WHY you think we’re nuts…lol). Thank you all for reading and commenting.

In the comment section yesterday, someone had asked about how to witness to Catholics. It was a good question, and I responded. I thought I’d make my response be a post by itself. This is that post.

Any religion besides Christianity, which is to say, every other religion, promotes some form of works toward a person’s salvation. I say again, all other religions in some form or fashion are a works-based religion. How do I know this? Because there is grace, and works. Christianity is a grace based religion. Salvation comes because of the grace bestowed on penitents who believe in the atoning sacrifice of Jesus and His resurrection. He is the only God who can and who does bestow grace, absolve sins, and resurrect the dead. No other religious figure can do that because no other figure has risen from the dead. Therefore in the false religions, lacking the one thing that can actually save a person, the proponents of these false religions add works to their schema to cover the deficit.

In attempting to attain heaven by his own efforts, man forgets how holy God is and how lowly and polluted with sin we are. Attempting offer works to Jesus as an entry validation is like offering Jesus a filthy rag as your best effort. Isaiah 64:6a says-

We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment.

Not to get too graphic, but the word for polluted garment is actually Hebrew for used menstrual rag. Believing we can get to heaven on our own works means when you stand before Holy God, and we all will, you will in effect hold out a used and crusty Tampax, and say “Here is a gift for you, Jesus, these are my works. Now I can go into heaven, right?”

Unappealing, right? God hates sin and cannot even look at sin or the sinner. He is angry over sin. He is personally angry with you by name, over your sin. (Exodus 4:14; 15:7; Leviticus 26:27-33; Numbers 11:1; 12:9; 22:22; 25:3; Deuteronomy 3:17; 29:24-29; Joshua 7:1; Judges 2:14; 2 Samuel 24:1; 1 Kings 14:15; 15:30; 16:2; 25:53; 2 Kings 13:3; 17:11; 23:19; 1 Chronicles 13:10; 2 Chronicles 28:25; Psalm 7:11; 11:4-7; Hebrews 10:27). (Right, Monstrance, a vessel used to show the consecrated Eucharistic host; Utrecht Museum, by Johan)

Get the idea? There is only His grace, and our works. His grace is pure and holy, and our works are a used tampon.

Buddhism, though seemingly altruistic in their promotion of good deeds toward others, is really at root a works based religion because one must work on one’s self before one can attain a state of nirvana. A Buddhist must work on their attitude toward worldly attachments, and once releasing all attachment to any self-desires, can then turn around and help others. Buddhism is an inward works based religion. I know I’m generalizing here, but you get the idea in broad strokes. A Buddhist must work on himself before attaining happiness and being able to help others.

Islam is the same but different. Allah’s grace descends upon the believer but the person must perform good works toward others. The entry into paradise for the Muslim is dependent upon a combination of grace and works. If the Muslim has performed more good works than bad, he’s in. However, the believer never quite knows where he stands…so the tension inside their heart is very heavy. To make matters worse, the Koran states that both good and evil come from Allah, and he is capricious. When you get to Allah’s Paradise gate good deeds may indeed outweigh the bad, but Allah may say “begone with you” anyway. The only sure way to please Allah for sure and make it into an Islamic paradise is to be a suicide martyr. And now you know why they line up for the job…

In Catholicism, works also figures in. God’s grace is upon the believer, but that grace is only an enabling function. It enables one to do good works and it is that which they will be judged as worthy or not for heaven.

In Christianity, we receive a free gift when God says, ‘you believe on the Son, therefore I declare you innocent of your sins, justified in My eyes.” (Titus 3:7). In the RCC, justification is denied.

  • If any one saith, that by faith alone the impious is justified; in such wise as to mean, that nothing else is required to co-operate in order to the obtaining the grace of Justification, and that it is not in any way necessary, that he be prepared and disposed by the movement of his own will; let him be anathema” (Council of Trent, Canons on Justification, Canon 9)
  • “If any one saith, that man is truly absolved from his sins and justified, because he assuredly believed himself absolved and justified; or, that no one is truly justified but he who believes himself justified; and that, by this faith alone, absolution and justification are effected; let him be anathema.” (Canon 14).

Anathema means excommunicated from the body of believers or it means cursed, usually both. The RCC does not come right out and say ‘you must work for salvation’ but that is what they teach. You can read here an essay outlining the key differences between Catholic and Christian doctrines.

One of the biggest burdens in all works-related salvation schemes, Catholicism included, is a secret, nagging fear and burden in the person that they may not be ‘doing enough.’ Mormons are particularly burdened with these secret thoughts, which they rarely verbalize, but are there. Catholics have these interior fears as well, because they are taught that they must maintain their salvation. As any sinner knows, even those who are thoroughly saved and rest on Jesus’s grace alone, we stagger with our conscience in knowing how desperately wicked we are. So any person depending on works in any way for their salvation will always fear they are missing the mark. Catholics are always worried. They have to be, they have no assurance of their salvation!

“If you could lose your salvation, you would.”
As John MacArthur replied once when asked about salvation, “if you could lose your salvation, you would.” That simple truth cuts right to the heart of works-based religions. Imagine the fear and burden of a Catholic wondering if they have recovered from their last sin enough. If they said enough hail Marys. If they will go to purgatory or heaven…

In witnessing to a Catholic, I think that focusing on the simplicity and perfection of grace alone will go a long way toward penetrating a Catholic’s mind and heart, because that is where the anxiety is, in my opinion. Humans simply do not have the perseverance to live a sinless life. Humans are not capable of accumulating enough resources to reach heaven. Only Jesus did that. People in works-based religions are always wondering, “Have I done enough?”

photo credit: John Steven Fernandez via photopin cc

In the faith that Jesus delivered to the saints once for all, HE is the one who did enough! We can have assurance of the perfection and completion of His work because God accepted Jesus as the sacrifice, raising Him from the dead. His grace is sufficient for all believers, no more works are needed, because as Jesus said,

“It is finished.”

John 19:30 records the last words of Jesus in His earthly ministry. It is finished means “As if he had said: “I have executed the great designs of the Almighty – I have satisfied the demands of his justice – I have accomplished all that was written in the prophets, and suffered the utmost malice of my enemies; and now the way to the holy of holies is made manifest through my blood.” An awful, yet a glorious finish. Through this tragical death God is reconciled to man, and the kingdom of heaven opened to every believing soul.” (Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible)

It is awful, as Clarke said, but it is simple. We only need to believe on the work of Jesus through the cross to be saved. It sounds so uncomplicated, doesn’t it? It is. The layers of works and tradition that the RCC has overlaid on this simple and awful-beautiful truth is the monstrous thing. Laying our works on His work is grotesque. Believe on the Son and be saved, beloved. How can one be saved? I will say again, using the words of the Holy Spirit,

“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved” (Acts 16:31).

cross photo credit: Christopher JL via photopin cc
rosary photo credit: Lawrence OP via photopin cc

Posted in catholicism, catholics, false religion, pope resigns, rcc

Catholicism is not a Christian religion

Posted on by elizabethprata

I can say with a fair amount of certainty that all popes that have ever pontificated are in hell now.

I do not say this with any sense of glee or happiness. The real fact of hell and people there who had the chance to accept Jesus, but didn’t, and are now in eternal torment, saddens me to the point of tears.

But I said what I said bluntly because I want to cut through the “political correctness” to penetrate the mind of those who give sway to any kind of notion that Catholicism is a true faith. It is not.

I can say without fear and with absolute certainty that Roman Catholic Church is a false religion. Why is it false, I was asked. Here are just a few examples:

  • Catholics worship Mary as a Queen of Heaven. They believe she intercedes for us in heaven. She does not. Jesus Christ is our intercessor. (Romans 8:34)
  • Rosary, a meaningless repetition of prayers which are worthless to God. (Matthew 6:7).
  • Selling forgiveness for money (indulgences)
  • Additions to and subtractions from the bible
  • Purgatory, a completely made-up notion. in accordance with Catholic teaching is a place or condition of temporal punishment for those who, departing this life in God’s grace, are, not entirely free from venial faults, or have not fully paid the satisfaction due to their transgressions.
  • Pope’s “infallibility”, earthly substitution for Jesus (‘vicar’ of Christ)
  • Priests forgiving men of sins. Shortly before His ascension, Jesus said to his apostles: “whose soever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whose soever sins ye retain, they are retained” (John 20:23). The Roman Catholic Church teaches that Christ was actually granting to the apostles the authority to forgive sins, and that the apostles passed on to their successors (supposedly the Roman priesthood) the same license to pardon sin. This position is false.
  • Different classification of sins (mortal, venial). FMI on the falsity of mortal and venial sins, read here
  • Deletion of second commandment. It says “You shall not make for yourself a graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I The Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love Me and keep My Commandments.” (Exodus 20:4-6 RSV)’ Obviously this presents a problem for the RCC, which indeed makes graven images and bows down to them. So they deleted that commandment.
  • Transubstantiation, the is the doctrine that, in the Eucharist, the substance of the bread and the wine used in the sacrament is changed into the substance of the Body and the Blood of Jesus. Not true.
  • Works & tradition related salvation, not faith alone

The Pope is the one who is in charge of protecting and promoting all these false doctrines. When Pope John Paul II died, John MacArthur said, “And the question came up, is the Pope in heaven? And you hear all these people say, “Yes, yes, yes.” People have asked me, “Is the Pope in heaven?” And my answer is, “Is the Pope Catholic?” Isn’t that the answer? I think he is, I think the Pope is Catholic. Does he believe Catholic theology? Yes. He is the guardian of Catholic theology. Do you get to heaven by works, by Mary, by Penance, by Baptism, by confession, by Rosary? No. This is another gospel. This is not the true gospel.”

You can read a more thorough explanation of The Pope and the Papacy and why these are false.

More here about the Catholic religion here at Christian Apologetics and Research Ministry

GotQuestions also has more about the Catholic religion

More here on why a Christian should not partner in ecumenical fashion with the RCC

When the new pope is installed in a few weeks, think on this. It is a comment from John MacArthur at the last pope’s coronation:

“At the consecration of Roman Catholic bishops there is an oath of allegiance to the Pope. Whenever a bishop is consecrated, an allegiance oath is given. Here’s what it says, “With all my power I will persecute and make war on all heretics, schismatics and those who rebel against our Lord the Pope, and all his successors, so help me, God, and these holy gospels of God.” So you swear to make war on anybody who rebels against the Pope. Where is humility in this? Romanism is a gigantic system of Church worship, sacrament worship, Mary worship, saint worship, image worship, relic worship, priest worship and Pope worship. J.C. Ryle was right when he said, “It’s a huge organized idolatry. A man wearing a gold crown, triple decked with jewels worth millions? A cardinal’s garb that costs tens of thousands of dollars?” Peter said, “Silver and gold have I not.” Paul said, “I coveted no man’s gold, no man’s silver, no man’s clothing.” The Pope is surrounded by a dazzling display of arrogant over-indulgence, it is theater, it is nothing more than theater to give the illusion of God, the illusion of transcendence, the illusion of spirituality. It is a pompous display of wealth. It is a lavish indulgence in ridiculous buildings, ridiculous robes, crowns, thrones to cover and mask a sinful system like the whitewashed tombs that Jesus referred to. There was never such a thing as a papal coronation before the tenth century. And now the world has gone berserk over this as it if was true religion.”

I entreat you, please read more to learn why the simple Gospel is the truth. God said, “You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it, that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you.” (Deuteronomy 4:2). He repeated the warning in Revelation 22:18-19.

Jesus came to seek and save sinners. A a sinner is someone who sins, which means everyone on earth who was ever born is a sinner (Romans 3:23)- EXCEPT Jesus, who is God. Jesus lived a sinless life (Hebrews 4:15) in obedience to His Father, who is God, and died as a sacrifice to atone for the world’s sin. (Romans 3:25). He shed His blood and took upon His person the wrath of God for sins, which was poured out upon Him on the cross. When the wrath was poured out, Jesus died, saying, “It is finished.” (John 19:30). He was buried, and three days later, by the power of God, He resurrected (1 Corinthians 15:4) and walked on the earth for 40 days, teaching and preaching to His believers. (1 Cor 15:6). On the 40th day He ascended to heaven on a cloud, and this same Jesus will return in like matter (Acts 1:10-11) at the end of time to judge the living and the dead. (1 Peter 4:5).

The time we live in now is called the Age of Grace, when all one must to to be saved is be born again- repent of your sins, believe on the Son. He is not only your Savior but your Lord, Lord of all the earth and heaven. He is coming soon, but this second time to deal with sin and bring wrath then justice upon sinners. If you die before you repent and believe on the Son, you will go to a place that is separate from God and is a place of eternal torment.

Belief in Jesus is ALL that one needs to be saved. He paid the entire price, He did the work, He is in control. Man has no part to play in our own salvation. You can’t work at it like the RCC says, you can’t pay for forgiveness through indulgences, you can’t pray your way into it, you can’t appeal to Mary. It is a simple Gospel: Jesus oriented and pure. Please, if you are reading this, heed the words:

“Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life, but whoever rejects the Son will not see life, for God’s wrath remains on him.” (John 3:36)

Posted in malachy, pope benedict resigns, prophecy of the popes

UPDATED–Pope Benedict resigned- will the next pope validate Malachy’s prophecy?

Posted on by elizabethprata

Here is an update:

The news broke early this morning EST, and I wrote this entry initially a mere few minutes before I had to leave for work. In the essay I wrote century instead of millennium. I apologize for using the wrong word. I have since fixed the mistake.

There is a bit more news now about the reactions of the Bishops when Pope Benedict tendered his resignation. I find their reactions very interesting. This really is big news. The Guardian reporter wrote:

Pope Benedict XVI resigns owing to age and declining health
Pope Benedict XVI stunned the world and left the Catholic church reeling when he said on Monday that he would resign – the first pope to do so since the middle ages. The move, announced without warning, will take place on 28 February and leave the papacy vacant until a successor is chosen. A Vatican spokesman said the pontiff’s aides were “incredulous” when he told them he would step down because he was too weak to fulfil his duties. The pope summoned a meeting of cardinals to tell them of “a decision of great importance for the life of the church”. One of those called to hear the announcement, the Mexican prelate Monsignor Dr Oscar Sánchez, said none of the cardinals had expected it. “The pope took a sheet of paper and read from it. He just said that he was resigning and that he would be finishing on February 28,” he said. “The cardinals were just looking at one another. Then the pope got to his feet, gave his benediction and left. It was so simple; the simplest thing imaginable. Extraordinary. Nobody expected it. Then we all left in silence. There was absolute silence … and sadness.”

Photo: AFP Agence France-Presse Lightning strikes St Peter’s dome at Vatican on day the Pope announced resignation, by Filippo Monteforte

Thirdly, I was asked in the comment stream why I believe the Roman Catholic Church (RCC) is a false church. With the unbelievable amount of hits on this essay and the intensity with which the world is now looking at and discussing the RCC, I will be happy to answer. It is a good chance to witness for the true faith of Jesus. I answered in a separate essay shortly and here is the link.

——————end updates—————–

Pope Benedict to resign at the end of February
“Pope Benedict XVI will resign at the end of February, the Vatican Press Office tells Fox News.

A spokesman for the Vatican did not have any more information, and the announcement was just made to the Catholic church. A pope has not resigned for 600 years.”

Now, THAT is historic, something happening that hasn’t happened for over half a millennium.

No doubt, the ‘Prophecy of the Popes’ will come up in your mind at this historic moment in time. I say, ‘Watch, test all things, dispense with the false and hold fast to the good.’

With high levels of skepticism and even with one eye shut, holding our nose, I refer to the “The Prophecy of the Popes” by Malachy. This ‘extra-biblical’ prophecy according to a Wikipedia definition “is a list of 112 short phrases in Latin. They purport to describe each of the Roman Catholic popes (along with a few anti-popes), beginning with Pope Celestine II (elected in 1143) and concluding with the successor of current pope Benedict XVI, a pope described in the prophecy as “Peter the Roman”, whose pontificate will end in the destruction of the city of Rome.”

In effect, this extra-biblical prophecy says that the next pope will be called Petrus Romanus and will be the last pope presiding over the papacy during a time of terrible global tribulation.

The longest and final motto of Malachy’s prophecy reads in the original Latin:
“In eſecutione extrema S.R.E. ſedebit. Petrus Romanus, qui paſcet oues in multis tribulationibus: quibus tranſactis ciuitas ſepticollis diruetur, & Iudex tremẽdus iudicabit populum ſuum. Finis.”

This is usually translated into English as:
“In the extreme persecution of the Holy Roman Church, there will sit [i.e., as bishop]. Peter the Roman, who will pasture his sheep in many tribulations: and when these things are finished, the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the terrible judge will judge his people. The End.”

I am no fan of extra-biblical revelation. However, it IS pretty interesting that a guy in some tiny Irish town a thousand years ago made a list of popes that ends at exactly a time when true believers see the biblical prophecies already coming together. Malachy could have listed 100 popes, or 150 popes, but he didn’t. The list ends…at this point in time just as Christians are seeing the tribulation events appearing on the horizon. That merits a ‘hmmmm’ from me.

Compelling, but don’t build a doctrine out of it. The currently reported weakness of the Pope and the prospect of installing another one is always interesting because by far the Roman Catholic Church is one of the largest false religions in the world, with roots that can be directly traced back to the first false religion, Babylon. For that reason alone, the new Pope is worth watching, because it is highly likely the Catholic religion will have some role to play when true believers are raptured away. As head of that religion, the Pope will need to send assurances to the billion Catholics left behind. The Pope, whoever he will be, will be prominent in the news and on the world stage. There are approximately 1.1 billion Catholics, and 1.5 billion Muslims so the number of false religion adherents left behind will undoubtedly embody and perpetuate the Lie. (2 Thess 2:11).

If the next pope is Peter the Roman, we tend to will believe the prophecy of Malachy. If he is not Peter the Roman, then we know according to the standard for prophetic validation set out in Deut. 18:21-22 the prophecy was false. Because with all things, the bible is the only standard of truth.

Posted in hell, tornado, transparent dress

Designer creates dress that turns clear when wearer gets excited

Posted on by elizabethprata

Essential reading: Tim Challies on hell

“The Bible warns us that those who do not accept the gospel of Jesus Christ “will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his might” (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9).”

Read more at his blog. It is an excellent presentation of this essential doctrine.

I’m so sad at reading of the huge tornado at Hattiesburg MS, but thankfully so far no deaths are reported. The youtube video uploaded immediately after the storms rolled through were jaw dropping. Weather Channel producer Shawn Reynolds tweeted, “Within 48 hrs, I’ve produced separate shows on historic blizzards & tornadoes. If I ever get bored with my job, shoot me.”

And let’s not forget another 6.0-plus quake at Santa Cruz Islands. (M6.3). The big quakes there never stopped. It has been a busy day and it is not over yet. Weather is getting c.r.a.z.y!

As we edge ever closer to the singularity…”A Netherlands-based fashion designer has created a high-tech dress line that turns clear when you get excited. How’s that for being transparent on a date? Called Intimacy — from designer Daan Roosegaarde, founder of Studio Roosegaarde — the project aims to explore the relationship between technology and the body’s interactions.”

A transparent dress? Hm. I guess he never read the end of Forever Amber.

Posted in satan

Compare the first words of Satan and the first words of Jesus

Posted on by elizabethprata

Just for follow up on my previous post about the Law of First Mention, look at this:

Our adversary’s first words in the bible are:

“Yea, hath God indeed said?” (Genesis 3:1)

Satan followed up his penchant for doubting by saying to Jesus, “and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down,” (Matthew 4:6a). Notice the “IF”. Satan makes you doubt what you know by incessantly questioning the Word. False teachers under the influence of satan deny God and will teach you in satan’s subtle way.

Contrast that with the first recorded words of Jesus!

“And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father’s business?” (Luke 2:49 KJV).

Nothing was recorded of what Jesus said as a child for the first 12 years of his life. But when He is first recorded, it is to show His intent to be doing God’s work! Magnificent!

The last recorded words of Jesus are “It is finished.” (John 19:30) Leonard Ravenhill said those were “the greatest words ever uttered, by the greatest Man who ever lived. In these three words I see the consummation of all the Old Testament truth and the germination of all New Testament truth.”

The entire life of Jesus was devoted to doing God’s work. Oh by the way, the first words He uttered upon entering His ministry was “It is written”. (Matthew 4:4). The work Jesus submitted to was according to the Word of God.

We can be about our father’s business, according to the will and the word of God, or we can incessantly question what God hath said. There is no in-between!

Posted in interpretation, law of first mention, satan

Little foxes eventually grow up

Posted on by elizabethprata

Genesis 3 is where we first meet satan–

“Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

Other translations for the word crafty are, cunning, shrewd, cunning.

The first mention in the bible of a doctrine is very important. This is actually an interpretive doctrine called The Law of First Mention. The Law of First Mention is defined as

“the principle that requires one to go to that portion of the Scriptures where a doctrine is mentioned for the first time and to study the first occurrence of the same in order to get the fundamental inherent meaning of that doctrine. When we thus see the first appearance, which is usually in the simplest form, we can then examine the doctrine in other portions of the Word that were given later. We shall see that the fundamental concept in the first occurrence remains dominant as a rule, and colors all later additions to that doctrine. In view of this fact, it becomes imperative that we understand the law of first mention.” (source)

The first time we are introduced to satan, the very first thing we’re told is that he is crafty. The verse doesn’t say, “Watch out for him, he is evil!” The verse does not say, “He will destroy all that is good!” No. The verse says first that he is cunning.

Our lesson is that we must watch for the cunning wiles of smooth flatterers who slyly come in among us secretly bringing destructive heresies (2 Peter 2:1). Yet they are tolerated. It is erroneously thought that as long as they are small sins, little errors, or tiny doctrinal mistakes, they are manageable.

Yet the Song of Solomon says

“Take us the foxes, the little foxes, which destroy the vines: for our vines have small grapes.” The Geneva bible explains the verse well. “Suppress the heretics while they are young, that is, when they begin to show their malice and destroy the vine of the Lord.”

photo credit: Matt Tillett via photopin cc

Little foxes grow up.

Source Wikipedia

Satan is subtle. Don’t dabble in errors. If you know a book, or a teaching, or a teacher is false, stay away! Don’t engage. Even putting a toe in gives satan a hold to exploit you. He will make you doubt what you know. Just ask Eve (Genesis 3). Seek the truth in the word and be diligent about not exposing yourself to little foxes. Because little foxes are hungry want is prey … and they grow up.

Posted in ecclesiastes, love

Eternity set in our hearts

Posted on by elizabethprata

Ecclesiastes 3:11 says

“He has made everything beautiful in its time. Also, he has put eternity into man’s heart, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end.”

Barnes Notes eloquently explains the verse: “God has placed in the inborn constitution of man the capability of conceiving of eternity, the struggle to apprehend the everlasting, the longing after an eternal life.”

If you notice in verse 11 two important things: we endlessly search for eternity, and the search for it outside of God will be futile.

I usually write about facts rather than emotions, and I write less about myself, but in this case I’d like to illustrate the Ecclesiastes verse by sharing something from my life. It is a true praise to the ministry of the Holy Spirit and how He draws men to God. (John 6:44). Even though I am ten years post-salvation, I am still acutely aware of how I felt prior to the grace of Jesus descending on me. I remember distinctly how it felt to be searching, ever searching. I even chronicled the search.

I live for information. That is my unique quirk. I love it. I absorb it, connect it, sift it, and apply it. And as for making attempts to understand my own place in the world and my purpose, I chronicled everything I ever did. I obsessively chronicled. I jotted down notes in a calendar that had large squares. I kept scrapbooks with ticket stubs and restaurant napkins. I wrote down where I went and what I did.

Before I was saved, I thought, somehow, that if I chronicled enough information, that a pattern would emerge. I hoped that some previously undiscovered piece of information would drop into place and suddenly I’d understand the mystery, that the puzzle would be complete. What the ‘mystery’ was, I didn’t know. I was looking for understanding of a larger context, not knowledge for its own sake, but searching for the missing piece that would help me make sense of the world. Because the world most assuredly did not make sense.

I would actively think on these things, engage in meta-cognition as to why I was endlessly searching for information, knowledge, and purpose, and chronicle and make little books.

Look what I wrote in one of my little books in 2003 as I neared the moment of repentance at the cross. Mind you, I grew up outside of church and had zero church experience. My father is an atheist and my mother a bitter lapsed Catholic. They hate God. I was raised without any religious instruction and absent any Godly beauty at all. I was clueless as to the Christian terms like salvation and kingdom.

“The world is awesome in its complexity and contains all the customary codes of conduct, a myriad of occupations and vocations, behavioral nuances of every description, emotional obligations, and ethical standards. The world also contains a secret kingdom. It dwells within the common world, but is invisible to nearly all. Only some comprehend this kingdom.”

Now you tell me that He doesn’t set eternity in our hearts. My soul was longing for His kingdom and I knew it was there. I knew it. But where was it?

I had written that quote in a little booklet I’d made. The booklet was a parable of a girl’s journey toward the secret kingdom, which was a journey toward the cross, but I did not know that at the time. I pictured the journey in written form of a girl looking for something. I had written,

“So one day she gathered her belongings and put them into a handkerchief and swung it over her shoulder and went slowly toward the kingdom.”
photo credit: Lens linker via photopin cc

I was right to picture the world as a desert. Absent Jesus, the thirst will never be slaked. I had written,

“She flew and flew. She saw the world. She did not know it, but she was looking for something. With all that flying, though, she was always thirsty. She drank a lot of juice. Sometimes she thought it was strange that as much as she drank she was already thirsty again. The juice was just not satisfying.”

On and on the insatiable need for knowledge went, the endless journeying. I wrote:

“Sometimes the girl would tremble in bewilderment. Everything was so complicated! Why was she always thirsty?… She studied all the maps on how to get into the kingdom. She thought about it very hard. Her thoughts taxed her little girl brain. She knew this was necessary. No matter what, she belonged in the kingdom.”

There was only one problem.

After a journey of twenty-four months and forty-two years and three days, she came near to the kingdom. She could feel it, she was almost there! She crossed the river and flew over the hedge…and hit her head! She fell down. She peeked at the hedge again and saw a huge pane of glass. She looked all the way up to the sky and the moon and the glass went all the way up, too.

This is all still me, intuitively seeking God. The Holy Spirit had drawn me sooo close. In retrospect, the clarity with which I see the Gospel laid out in what I thought was an afternoon’s art project to lass the time is stunning. All the while I had been attempting to get into the kingdom of my own efforts. I “studied maps.” But man-made philosophy won’t tell the seeker how to get on the narrow way. I flew and flew, traveling the world. All that did was alert me to the fact that there is a God, but brought me no closer to my own repentance. The “freedom” I thought I’d had was simply my own sins piling up, trapping me like a fly in a jar. I simply could not get there on my own efforts. This was where I ended the story:

She flew round and round and soon realized that though the while time she thought she was free, she was trapped in a jar. She looked up and there was no top on the jar, but it was a long way up. She tried three times, but she could not get out. She didn’t know what to do. So she curled up on the bottom of the jar and cried.

In the little booklet I’d made, though I ended the written part of the story with being trapped in a glass jar with no lid on it, I left a good many blank pages after that last scene. I knew there was more to come. The story would continue. I refused to believe that my story ended in despair, and make no mistake, I was in total despair.

But God wasn’t done with me. He brought me to the end of myself before I could realize that He and only He could save me from this terrible despair. In the jar, there was only me and despair. I had to face it. The despair was caused by my sin. Only at the end of myself would He give me entry into the Kingdom.

Getting back to Ecclesiastes.

“I perceived that whatever God does endures forever; nothing can be added to it, nor anything taken from it. God has done it, so that people fear before him.” (Ecc 3:14).

GOD HAS DONE IT. All the information in the world would not save me. GOD HAS DONE IT so I cannot boast. He lifted me from my sins and set me into eternity, my heart finally matching with the secret reality I knew was there but could not get to on my own. Only IN eternity can I discover what God has designed: redemption glory through the Son Jesus.

I called out to Him and I was saved. And you know what? I stopped chronicling. God has done it! All the chronicles of everything from the beginning to the end is already in the finest chronicle of all: the Bible.

Salvation did come, thanks to His grace, not my works nor my efforts. His grace lifted me from the bondage of the glass jar, lifted me right out of my sins and I knew, KNEW, that nothing I could have ever done would have lifted me. As a matter of fact, the harder I tried, the lower I went. Only despair awaits even the most earnest and diligent seeker, until repentance comes. He did it.

You see, though we seek eternity, too many people want it on their own terms. Or in their own time. Or in their own way. That was me. Everything I did was futile until I understood what the Kingdom stood for: a righteousness that reflects the glory of the Son.

The Son is love, and love lifted me.

Posted in blizzard, creation, God, nemo, snow

Nemo, the Blizzard of 2013, found New England

Posted on by elizabethprata

The weather’s “historic” records have been tumbling quite quickly these days. It isn’t even months between catastrophic events any more, but weeks. Superstorm Sandy became the largest hurricane on record as it devastated New Jersey and New York in October 2012. In November 2012, a dangerous nor’easter hit NY and New England. Christmas Day 2012 will not be forgotten by those in the Midwest. That storm will go down as producing the most tornadoes ever recorded on Christmas Day in the United States since record keeping began, writes the meteorologists at EarthSky. In January 2013, the South received a rare and historic tornado outbreak. Now the blizzard of February 2013 for New England.

Nemo: mammoth blizzard turns fatal
“The Boston Fire Department says an 11-year-old boy has died of carbon monoxide poisoning after being overcome as he sat in a running car to keep warm while his father was shovelling snow. This is the third reported death related to the record-breaking blizzard named Nemo striking the US northeast in which 700,000 homes and businesses have lost power. Boston Fire Department spokesman Steve MacDonald said the boy was helping his father shovel the snow Saturday, but got cold, so his father started the car and the boy got inside. MacDonald said the car exhaust was covered by a snow bank, causing the fumes to collect inside the vehicle. When the boy was overcome by the fumes, the father went into respiratory arrest, and emergency workers took both to a hospital. The boy was pronounced dead there. No names were released. The mammoth storm that stretched from the Great Lakes to the Atlantic coast dumped more than 90cm (35.4in) of snow across the Northeast, the National Weather Service said. Blizzard and flood warnings were in effect for the coast.”

“In Stratford, Connecticut, Mayor John Harkins said he had never seen such a heavy snowfall, with rates of 12.5cm an hour at times overnight, he told local WTNH television. “Even the plows are getting stuck,” Harkins said. The storm concentrated its fury on Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts, with the top snowfall 95cm in Milford, Connecticut. Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee banned all travel on roads in order to aid snow plow crews. He told CNN that National Guard troops were rescuing stranded motorists, especially at uncleared on-ramps. The mammoth storm dumped 73.2cm (28in) of snow on Portland, Maine, breaking a 1979 record, and the weather service said there is more on the way.”

What of weather and the bible? On Blogos, I read about weather and how it is a living metaphor for how damaging our sin is. “All creation groans… When Adam and Eve ate that fruit and got kicked out of paradise, God cursed the Earth (Genesis 3:17). When the people grew so wicked that God had to wipe them out with a flood, He cursed it again. (How? One moment it was a planet where people didn’t eat meat and lived to over 900 years, and the next it was this place.)”

Further, “In much the same way that God allows evil people to commit evil acts, God allows the earth to reflect the consequences sin has had on creation. Romans 8:19-21 tells us, “The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.” The fall of humanity into sin had effects on everything, including the world we inhabit. Everything in creation is subject to “frustration” and “decay.” Sin is the ultimate cause of natural disasters just as it is the cause of death, disease, and suffering.” (source)

MSNBC reported a couple of months ago, after Superstorm Sandy, “The January-to-November period in the United States this year was the warmest first 11 months of any year on record for the contiguous states. And 2012 will likely surpass 1998 as the warmest year on record for the nation, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration….” But in seeking a reason as to why these storms are appearing so frequently and intensely, they also reported “nearly two-thirds (65 percent) of white evangelical Protestants say they think the storms are evidence of the “end times” as predicted by the Bible” which I am sure drove them crazy.

The earth is decaying under the weight of creation’s sin. Romans 8:21 says “that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.” Since the Fall, the earth and its people have been on a downward trajectory of decay.

As anyone who plays Jenga knows, there is a tipping point and then suddenly the whole things comes crashing down. The crash-down is not chaos, because God is in control. At His designated moment, He will call His Bride home, recall His Spirit from His retraining ministry, and let it all go to the full measure of sin and His full cup of wrath. (Daniel 9:24, Genesis 15:16, Romans 2:5-8).

Right now we are living in a home of unrighteousness. Jesus in us is perfectly righteous, and that is why we are not of this world. This place is of unrighteous and of the darkness, while God has made us righteous by installing His Spirit in His children. However, 2 Peter 3:13 reminds us of His promise, “But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.”

Meanwhile, I hope that the shaking of the world by our Creator God reminds the lost to repent and the saved to revere His power. (Haggai 2:6; Hebrews 12:26)

“Have you entered the storehouses of the snow, or have you seen the storehouses of the hail,” (Job 38:22)

“He caused the east wind to blow in the heavens, and by his power he led out the south wind;” (Psalm 78:26)

“I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest.” (Psalm 55:8)

“The wind blows to the south and goes around to the north; around and around goes the wind, and on its circuits the wind returns.” (Ecclesiastes 1:6)

Now, for some fun. As the blizzard progressed, the obligatory snow-door shots appeared on Twitter. I noticed a trend.

@AbbyDiaz1 @JimCantore Little boy, big snow drift at our door
@4castrnh: @JimCantore, I think this is a more iconic image 4 #nemo!

South Portland, with Wgme Portland, Lori Gray-Chase and Monica Custeau

Maggie Koerth-Baker ‏@maggiekb1 This photo is older than #Nemo,
but think of it as a fun DIY project for those of you snowed in.

Posted in death, ecclesiastes, grief

A lamentation

Posted on by elizabethprata

Death came suddenly to our circle today. A woman is a widow, a son is fatherless, a daughter is brokenhearted. Grief descends and lays a heaviness on our hearts. Never more clearly are we reminded of the words of the bible,

“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.” (James 4:14)

“You have made my days a mere handbreadth; the span of my years is as nothing before you. Each man’s life is but a breath. Selah” (Psalm 39:5)

Barnes Notes says, “For what is your life? – All your plans must depend of course on the continuance of your life; but what a frail and uncertain thing is that! How transitory and evanescent as a basis on which to build any plans for the future! Who can calculate on the permanence of a vapor? Who can build any solid hopes on a mist?”

And so now we clamor of Christ, our solid hope! We are entreating for Him to listen to our pleas as we lift up the grieving ones. Lord, wipe their tears. Lord, heal their heart. Lord, show them grace and comfort.

“For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:” (Ecclesiastes 3:1).

Every matter under heaven. It is time for others to rejoice, to dance, to speak. It is our turn to grieve.