Pass238over 2021: T-Day

It’s finally here…every one’s favorite time of the year!  Like past years this year will not disappoint!  So much is being revealed this Passover season like how Christ (Messiah) did not die for us, but rather he died because of us…why do we always have to make it about us?  Trust me, He didn’t sweat drops of blood in the Garden of Gethsemane because of his love for us!  But through His obedience to the Father’s will we stand as the beneficiaries of His ultimate sacrifice.  So where does this understanding leave us today as far as our relationship with the Lord is concerned?  To get some sort of a grasp on this question I had to go back more than a biblical generation to the genesis of my own experience with the Author and Finisher of our faith. 

“He who is forgiven much loves much, but he who is forgiven little loves little.” – Jesus

In 1976, I received my first Bible, King James version, from my parents on my 12^th birthday.  After their divorce around 1977 or 78, that Bible followed me wherever I went only to gather dust on a desk or some bookshelf.  The only time I opened it in an intentional way came during the 1990s when I was traveling to Spain and reading books by Ernest Hemingway like crazy—my favorite being “The Sun Also Rises.”  The title of the book was taken from the Book of Ecclesiastes which is found in the Bible.  Along with a quote by Gertrude Stein about Hemingway and his band of lost souls being a “lost generation,” the cover page included the following passage from Ecclesiastes: 

“One generation passeth away, and another generation cometh; but the earth abideth forever…The sun also ariseth, and the sun goeth down and hasteth to the place where he arose…The wind goeth toward the south, and turneth about unto the north; it whirleth around continually, and the wind returneth again according to his circuits…all the rivers run in to the sea; yet the sea is not full; unto the place from whence the rivers come, thither they return again.” 

I can’t believe more than three years have passed since the freedom of religion coalition posted my picture with the word “WANTED” in big bold letters.  After a couple of years in their crosshairs, they handed me off to the women’s rights movement.  One would think that this group might be satisfied with the right to vote but for some reason they now demand the right to be married!  Isn’t it amazing how they ended up where they began? 

            I am woman 

            hear me roar 

            give me a ring 

            you lazy boor 

            stop thinking only of yourself 

            you lusty little elf 

            don’t you realize that 

            my stuff don’t smell 

            when I’m finished with you 

            I’ll meet you in Hell

Not one to miss out on the fun, Highway 61 and his never-ending caravan broadsided me just as I was beginning to stand.  Or was I just beginning to fall?  I really don’t know.  And as if all this hasn’t been enough, what is left of my universe has been invaded by a constellation of loons, goons, and some girl who calls herself Moon.  Who just can’t seem to free herself from the stranglehold of her obsession.  Despite this circular firing squad, I’m thankful that like the sun, wind, and rivers that my end is where I began in my chair ministering unto the Lord.

Trump Won but God Chose Biden…

When I started to read that King James Bible on a regular basis in the spring of 2001, I noticed that I had underlined one particular verse in red pencil from when I was 12 or 13 years old—that verse being 2 Chronicles 7:14 

“If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 

Twenty-five years later this verse would become prominent everywhere my walk with God took me.  It seemed like every ministry and pastor with whom I had any kind of connection was preaching this verse in some context but usually in relation to our country—even up to the 2020 election.  I was once even a participant in a prayer group dedicated to praying 2 Chronicles 7:14 for the healing of our land.  What baffled me though was it seemed like God was not answering these prayers.

Then 2020 arrived with the COVID-19 crisis at the beginning of the year.  One of my early observations was that some individuals held in high regard by their constituents, you could call them idols, were making statements that made them look like idiots.  These individuals included professional athletes, government officials, and even ministers.  On the other hand, our new heroes were grocery clerks, delivery guys, health care workers, and others who through daily contact with people serve all of us.  I even found myself saying ‘thank you’ to these people as if they were going off to war.  This was the first indication that something bigger was happening than just the COVID crisis itself. 

As 2020 progressed into full election year throttle, radical groups began taking over major cities and even burning parts of these cities to the ground.  Another manifestation of this radical behavior involved the tearing down of statues.  What began with the tearing down of statues that represented racism, slavery, and oppression surprisingly morphed into the indiscriminate tearing down of any statue.  Again, I realized something bigger is going on than just social justice warriors wielding their own brand of revenge.  At this point, I began to connect the dots.  The idols in our country were coming down whether they be living people or inanimate objects. 

The final dot appeared in October 2020 just a few weeks before the election.  Around 100,000 Christians gathered on the National Mall in Washington DC under the shadow of the Washington Monument to pray, you guessed it, 2 Chronicles 7:14.  The featured speaker was a well-known and highly regarded Messianic Jewish Rabbi whose last name indicates a direct lineage to Aaron, the brother of Moses.  Ironically, this Rabbi was ministering under the shadow of one of the most famous phallic symbols in the world, also known as an Asherah pole in the Bible—just like his forefather before him who fashioned the golden calf in the wilderness, this minister was doing something eerily similar.  One might ask how come this gathering could not have been held in some obscure wheat field in Kansas?  I believe the answer is idolatry with the most insidious form being ministers who allow themselves to become idols in the eyes of their people. 

In 2020, God started to answer 50 years of prayers related to 2 Chronicles 7:14.  I don’t think His answer looks like what most Believers were expecting.  That’s because the idolatry is so deeply ingrained in us that we can no longer recognize it for what it is—so the discomfort and even dislocation is real when the healing actually comes.  Racism is real, but so is idolatry.  Maybe addressing the latter will help resolve the former. 

Being about the Father’s Business…

When you have women standing in the pulpit of God spitting out seed it is only a matter of time before you have men who want to have babies from their own loins.  This is the work of Jezebel but, my friend, the times they are a changin…

As the spirit of Jezebel is being evicted from the souls of women, from the Jew first then from those who eat the crumbs from the children’s table, the spirit of Ahab will surely follow suit in the men.  The spirit of Jezebel comes as an angel of light giving the appearance of performing some kind of “good” for man-kind.  Ahab jumps in-line and does the bidding of Jezebel.  As Jezebel goes so goes Ahab.  The manhood of the male, or the lack thereof, is reflected in his relation to the female.  Once the woman returns to her natural feminine character then the man will return to his natural masculine character. 

After 20 years of playing bumper cars with the religious establishment, the suffragettes, and the children of Israel, the man has come around to the understanding that he is a Wanted Man with a badge.  I’m beginning to identify more and more with Samson from the Bible.  Despite his parents pleading with him to choose a woman from his own people, Samson chose the hell he would go through because of his choosing Delilah as preferable to the hell he would go through by choosing a woman from his own people.  He chose the right woman.  Where he went wrong was when he decided to please her.  This decision changed Samson from a Wanted Man into a conquered man. 

While most people, especially religious people, prefer to be moving about, marrying and giving in marriage, and seeking some kind of employment for their lives—here am I, a Wanted Man, faithfully and steadfastly sitting in my chair with the same foolish grin unmoved, unmarried, and unemployed!  Times are crazy and people are strange.  This Wanted Man is out of range.  Oh my how you have changed! 

Wanted Man (Take 1) and call me in the morning…

Wanted man in Indiana
Wanted man in Ohio
Wanted man in Texarkana
Wanted man in Mexico

Wanted man in Sacramento
Wanted man in old Cheyenne
Wherever you may look tonight
You might see this wanted man

Wanted man by Lucy Watson
Wanted man by Jeannie Brown
Wanted man by Nellie Johnson
Wanted man in this next town

I’ve had all that I wanted
of a lot of things I’ve had
And a lot more than I needed
of some things that turned out bad

Wanted man in Sacramento
Wanted man in Tennessee
Wanted man in Oklahoma
Wanted man must go down in history

Wanted man in Indiana
Wanted man in old Cheyenne
Wherever you may look tonight
You might see this wanted man

Well I went to sleep in Shreveport
Woke up in Abilene
Wondering why the hell I’m wanted
At some place halfway between

So I went onto El Paso
Stopped to get myself a map
Went the wrong way into Juarez
with Juanita on my lap

Wanted man in Indiana
Wanted man in Mexico
Wanted man in Milwaukee
Wanted man in Buffalo

Wanted man in Kansas City
Wanted man in old Cheyenne
Wanted man wherever you may look tonight
You might see this wanted man

Wanted man in Washington D.C.
Wanted man in old St. Charles
Wanted man in Tennessee
Wanted man in Jerusalem

Palm Beach Gardens
Boca Raton
Bucharest
and the list goes on and on….