Are You Guilty?
Sure we like to think of ourselves as good people. We like to think of others the same way. You go to work, make a living, take care of your responsibilities, families, you don't actively hurt anyone, never killed anyone and you're mostly nice to everyone. In reality, those comparisons we all use are wrong.
So if we can't compare ourselves by ourselves then we must use the next standard, a much higher standard: God's Law. Let's look at the 10 Commandments in Exodus 20....
- You shall have no other gods before Me.
- You shall not make for yourself any carved 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 nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
- You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
- Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your manservant, nor your maidservant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
- Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
- You shall not murder.
- You shall not commit adultery.
- You shall not steal.
- You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
- You shall not covet your neighbor’s house; you shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor’s.”
Ever committed adultery?
"You have heard that it was said, 'Do not commit adultery.' But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart." Matthew 5:27-28
Sticky huh? By God's standard, if I even look at a man lustfully I am guilty of adultery.
Ever murder someone? No? Well according to God's Law we are all guilty of murder...
"You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, 'Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.' But I say, if you are even angry with someone without just cause, you are subject to judgment! If you call someone an idiot, you are in danger of being brought before the court. And if you curse someone, you are in danger of the fires of hell." Matthew 5:22
Getting steeper!
Ever covet? Ever look at what someone else has and want it? Ever check out your neighbor's wife or husband, daughter, son and desire it? Ever see their new car or furniture and envy them? Ever want what your friends have? That's coveting and we're all guilty of it.
So going by God's standards we are guilty. We are Law breakers and the result is damnation. Break the law here and you go to jail. Break God's Law and go to hell.
"For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." James 2:10
Just breaking one of the Laws above is enough and if you're human, you've broken more than one and will continue to break the same ones if not more by the time you die. That's not including everything we've ever thought or said. We will have to answer for every single time, every single sin in word, thought and deed.
At this point you're probably thinking "God will forgive me! He's merciful!" Ever try that in court to a judge?
"I know I keep breaking the law, but you're a nice judge. You'll forgive me right?"
Society would have a judge's head on a platter if he just let people go willy nilly. Justice demands one pay for their crimes. God is a Judge, a Holy Righteous Judge and He won't or can't let anything slide. Eventually our day in Court will come and we will be held accountable.
Don't believe in hell? You believe in prison right? You believe if you break the law justice will be measured out and you could very well end up in a prison. Hell is the same way. Law breakers go to jail in this life, Law breakers go to hell in the next. Problem is we're all Law breakers.
If you break the law here you get a lawyer to help you in the court before a judge. They may not be able to get you off but they can help soften the sentence. God's court operates in a similar fashion. Who will be your lawyer? Yourself? Many judges in our courts won't allow someone to represent themselves. That's suicide. How can we do that before God?
How can anyone meet God's standards to be allowed into Heaven? Well, we can't. That was the whole purpose of the Law. To show us we can't keep the Law. We're not capable. It showed us God's high standards, standards we're not able to reach. If we can't reach them then we can't reach God or Heaven. If someone is perfect and never breaks the Law then they deserve Heaven. None of us are perfect.
Now enter Jesus...is born as a human, God in the flesh, lives a perfect sinless life because only God could, He keeps the entire Law because only God could, reaches God's standards because only God could. He's the only person to ever do that. He is then sacrificed for all people, His death, His sacrifice satisfied God's demand for justice, He made atonement for all sin. People aren't dependent on getting to heaven through their own works because their own works weren't and will never be good enough. People rest on His work, His sinless life, His righteousness. He becomes your Lawyer, so to speak, before a Holy God who is demanding justice be served. Jesus took that judgment on Himself, he paid the price for us.
Now what do we do?
Give up! Stop trying to attain your own salvation through your own works. We can't do it. It's to literally give up and fall upon Christ. That is salvation. It's recognizing you are sinful. You are a Law breaker, confessing this and giving up. There is no magic prayer. There is no magic path. There is no magic prescribed prayers or certain things you or I can do. It is truly throwing yourself on the mercy of the Judge, admitting your guilt, taking responsibility for your crimes, asking for forgiveness and depending on Christ and His finished work, His sacrifice, His payment to reconcile you to a Holy, Righteous Judge. Then turning away from sin and giving your life to God and living for Him. You won't become perfect. But you will be forgiven, you will be in the lap of mercy and grace as you grow in grace resting in the salvation obtained for you
You don't have enough money to buy your way into Heaven. You don't have enough good deeds to get you in. You don't belong to a religion that can put in her a good word for you. No one will stand with you on that day. You will face judgment by yourself and on that day there will be no defense. God doesn't accept our terms, we must accept His terms.
Don't wait until you get to court. By then it will be too late. Settle matters out of court with Him.
God Bless
Paul the Terrorist = Hope
We first get introduced to Paul in the book of Acts where Stephen is being stoned. Stephen, being the first martyr, (Acts 6:8) was executed for preaching. Paul was there encouraging and stirring up the rabid crowd as they pelted Stephen with stones. We're even told some of those stoning Stephen left their cloaks at Paul's feet while they murdered Stephen as a show of respect. Paul stood by and watched approvingly.
What we can find about Paul in his writings is interesting. He grew up in a wealthy family. He was born in Tarsus in 4 or 5 BC in the city of Cilicia. He was also a Roman citizen which was rare for Jews to have in that time and he was raised in a devout Jewish family, but was also under a hellenistic Greek influence. Paul was not only fluent in Koine Greek, (Acts 21) but also classical Greek which he could only have gotten at the university level of education.
In Paul's time there were three sects of Judaism: Pharisees, Saducees and Essenes. The Essenes were the most strict religiously of the three. They usually didn't marry. The Saducees were smaller in number, but most were rich and powerful and had a lot of political influence. They controlled most of the high offices, temple rulers and priests. Then there were the Pharisees who believed Jews had to follow the Law of Moses to the smallest detail. From the Pharisees we get the Talmud, the oral traditions. The Pharisees made sure everyone else was obeying the Law.
Paul was a Pharisee. A very prominent Pharisee. Paul's education started around 5 years old in the synagogue. In Acts 23 we find Paul left Tarsus to live in Jerusalem to attend the Hillel Rabbinical school where he learned under one of the greatest Rabbinical Scholars of all time, Rabbi Simeon ben Gamaliel. Under Gamaliel, Paul was also exposed to Greek philosophy as well as a top notch Rabbinical education. Needless to say, Paul became a great thinker, philosopher and scholar. He was a great influential Rabbi and Pharisee and it's no wonder wherever he went (even at the stoning of Stephen) he was shown such high esteem. Though Paul was young, he had accomplished so much.
Now we can understand a little better of Paul zealousness for the Law. His persecution of Christians was for the purpose of making them fall back in line to the Law of Moses. Very few early Christians were Gentiles, but Jews. Because of Stephen's execution and the heavy persecution that followed (Acts 8) many new converts were thrown into prison while the rest of the Christians were scattered throughout Judea and Samaria. Scattering them had the opposite effect Jewish leaders like Paul hoped for. Strike the Shepherd and the sheep scatter has never worked with Christians. Strike the Shepherd and the sheep increase exponentially. Wherever the Christians were scattered there they preached and conversion began to rise dramatically throughout Jewish territories. Paul made it his mission to root them out and had a lot to do with the severe persecution against Christians in Jerusalem.
Paul was encouraged by his success and campaign of persecution in Jerusalem so he decided to take his band of Christian crushers to Damascus, where many Christians had run, to seek them out and have them thrown into prison, executed and/or beaten. But while on his way to Damascus Paul had a vision of Christ, was knocked from his horse and ended up converting in the dust of that road.
After he converted and was visited by Ananias, Paul began showing up in synagogues telling anyone who would listen about his conversion. That's typical isn't it? I myself used to think Christians were nuts. They always had to tell everyone about getting "saved". Then I myself went through it and I finally understood. Such an amazing, world rocking, complete over haul change....how can you NOT tell others? It was the same with Paul too.
Paul was a famous guy. The Christians that were hearing him didn't trust him. They thought he was just claiming conversion to find out who the Christians were. The Jews thought he'd lost his mind. The Apostles in Jerusalem heard about Paul and there were many skeptics among them. First Stephen was executed under Paul then James (John's brother) was executed so you can imagine the Apostles had little trust. They kept Paul at arms length and weren't exactly warming up to him quickly. Finally, after 13 years Paul made the trek to Jerusalem where he met the other Apostles and after meeting with him they recognized God's call on him and accepted him as one of them, but even still John kept his distance a while longer.
This murdering, religious, terrorist zealot went on to be one of the most prominent men in history and wrote most of the New Testament.
"Here is a trustworthy saying that deserves full acceptance: Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners—of whom I am the worst. But for that very reason I was shown mercy so that in me, the worst of sinners, Christ Jesus might display his immense patience as an example for those who would believe in him and receive eternal life." 1 Timothy 1:15-16
When I hear of terrorists in the middle east converting and becoming missionaries, Pastors and teachers, it doesn't surprise me. I only think of Paul. There is no one beyond God's reach. All have sinned and not one of us is "good". If God can save someone like Paul then He can save anyone. The drug dealer, gang member, prostitute, murderer, thief, persecutor, terrorist...there is still hope for them.
Paul seemed to embody so many levels of society. The educated, the least (Jews in that day), the cast offs, the terrorist, the intellectual, the cynics. He was all of them and still he was changed in a matter of seconds and went on to spread Christianity to places no one could have dreamed. From this man we get most of the New Testament writings and most he did while in prison for preaching. Paul is everyone. So the next time we think this group or that group is beyond God then remember Paul of Tarsus, the worst, the chief of sinners and reach out to them. You never know what God can do.
$#*_^(*@%!!!
I'm guessing everything will be shut down tomorrow and if it's not this pigmy ain't going anywhere. By the time I got to the party store I regretted my decision to even go out. I was tired, freezing, had slipped on ice I don't know how many times and my back was hurting from being hunched over like a cave man. Well on the way back I slipped on someone's unshoveled and unsalted sidewalk, fell and for whatever reason threw my pop over my head and it landed in the snow on what's usually a lawn. That's a lawsuit people. I'm just saying. I won't make a stink this time cause it could be elderly people.
Anyway I got back up, went fishing for my pop in the snow, found it and made it home. Once I stripped off all the outer clothing I was still thinking about the fall and opened my pop. The thing exploded in my face from being shaken up. It went all over too, my face, my hair, shirt, floor, stove, refrigerator and even sprayed the cat. Every vile word in the English language popped in my head BUT I didn't say any of them. I slammed the almost empty bottle down on the counter, wiped off my face and started cleaning up the mess. What a wasted trip! Stay indoors Midwesterners! Especially if you're blonde. You could be killed
The Plowmen
"The plowmen plowed upon my back: long were the furrows they made." - Psalm 129:3
Does that sound like you and your life? As if you've been ridden over your entire life by everyone and everything and the only thing you have to show for it is long, deep furrows across your back? Ever feel like giving up? No matter what you do it doesn't ever seem to work out. It's become an exhausting battle just to live.
I know what that's like. I lived it too. You're being torn up, but to tell anyone is humiliating so you keep it in and sink more into yourself. If something good does happen you're on high alert because you know someone or something is going to come along and pull the rug out from under you.
You're not alone. You're not the only one who's been "plowed".
It's interesting that God often used references of farming to illustrate His teachings. Because most were farmers back then, He would use farming analogies because it was something the people could easily understand. In fact, He would break it down so good that eventually some leaders accused God of insulting their intelligence by speaking to them as if they were toddlers....
"Who is it He is trying to teach? To whom is He explaining His message? To children weaned from their milk, to those just taken from the breast?" Isaiah 28:24
As you can imagine that didn't go over so well with God. Compared to Him, man isn't the sharpest tools in the shed. He spoke in ways using illustrations from their everyday life. If He didn't do that how could anyone have understood Him let alone obey Him?
Now days you throw an illustration of farming at our high tech society and people will look at you like you're an idiot. Most knowledge of farming goes are far as the tomatoes people have planted in their backyard. Maybe they used a shovel to break up the little patch of ground or a tiller. Start talking about plows, furrows, soil etc., and they're lost. If they can't buy a bag of "something" to fix it at Home Depot, then forget it.
Plowing was the first step in any crop. The ground had to be broken first. Without broken ground seeds couldn't be planted. Without seed there would be no harvest. Plowing was grueling work and took a lot of time. Farmers would be in their empty fields from sun up to sun down with their oxen and plows, breaking up hard soil to aerate it, make it soft and workable, to allow water to easily sink to the roots of future crops. They'd look out over the land and see nothing but hard, dry, cracked soil almost like cement. It must of seemed endless sometimes. It must have looked hopeless. What can grow from this rock hard stuff?
Many people seem to have the plowmen constantly rolling over them. They can't get away from them.
"When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and harrowing the soil? When he has leveled the surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cummin? Does he not plant wheat in its place, barley in its plot, and spelt in its field?" Isaiah 28:24-26
Some ground needs more plowing then others. Soil is different in every location. Some is easier to break up and some is more difficult. Some soil is good and overturns easy. Some is hard and resistant and the plowman has to continue to plow until it's soft and ready for planting, but the plowing doesn't take forever. No farmer spends all season plowing his fields no matter what the condition of the soil is. Eventually, through perseverance, he gets it the way he wants it
Sometimes we need more plowing then others. Sometimes we're like the hard, cracked soil (pride, arrogance, shame, guilt, hardness of heart, selfishness) and we have to be worked, sometimes worked over several times, before we're broken down into something that can be cultivated and fruitful. It's never easy. It's always painful and sometimes devastating, but it's necessary work. Are your furrows long and deep? Do you have awful scars? Instead of asking God why you're being plowed or have been, ask what can cultivated and harvested from those long deep furrows that the plowmen made. The plowmen in your life have dug those furrows, but God allowed it because He has a harvest planned to spring from them.
For more on how God allows and uses suffering for our benefit and His plans see:
Lazarus - Suffering Doesn't Mean God Hates You
Joseph - When We Suffer "Unfairly"
If You're Not Suffering Start Worrying
Golden Rule
That doesn't say do to others AS they do to you. It doesn't say treat others how they've treated you. It literally means "treat and do for others as you want to be treated and done to you"
If you want to be treated like garbage then by all means treat others that way. If you want to be treated like you're worthless, don't matter, ignored, unimportant then do that to other people. If you want to be disrespected, with no consideration then knock yourself out on the next guy! But remember you reap what you sow. (Galatians 6:7)
If you're the kind of person who demands respect, to be treated good, fair, considerately, with gentleness, compassion, understanding, patience etc...but don't treat others that way even when it's inconvenient or hard to do it's delusional to even think you'll get any of that back from others
If we're treated bad by others are we supposed to return that treatment on them? No and that's the hard part. We're to continue to treat them as we want to be treated no matter what because it's what God demands. If we're doing it to be obedient to God...we'll still struggle at times but we'll do it. If it's just for us then that command will always be one sided and extremely selfish. We're to always do what's right by another person even when we're wronged...even when that person is wrong
Some people you'll never get through to. Some people are so wrapped up in themselves they're like excuse factories. They demand you do what's right by them but when it's time for them to act on what's right they refuse to do it unless it's easy or convenient. The minute something gets difficult they don't want to do anything and come up with a million reasons why they don't have to. In any case we are to always do what's right.
"If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even the sinful love those who love them. And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even the sinful do that. And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even the sinful lend to the sinful expecting to be repaid in full. But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked." Luke 6:32-35
All people operate on the idea "if you treat me like garbage then I have every right to do the same to you". But that's not how God operates and that's not what He demands from us. If we treat someone good only because they've been good to us how does that made one a good person? It doesn't. There's no credit to one's character in that. There's no example to others in that. There's no integrity in that
But if we are good to those who have wronged us....that speaks volumes about one's character. That just screams INTEGRITY. That is a true testament to the kind of person one really is and most importantly it's a testament to God's greatness. After all isn't that how God treats us? It's easy to take some sort of revenge on others no matter how big or small. It's easy to withhold good when it's in our power to act. It's easy to become angry and let it fester and hold grudges. How much energy does that take? None. We'll build up entire lifestyles and ways of thinking around this cause it's a "me, me, me" world. What's so difficult is showing grace, mercy and kindness when we've been wronged.
He shows mercy to the wicked. He's shows kindness, grace and patience to the wicked. If He's our example then we can't do things our own way and according to how we view things. We may not agree with someone or their lifestyle but that doesn't mean treat them like garbage. They may not like yours but you still want to be treated right as a human being. Treat them as you want to be treated. It's not easy and I struggle too but the more we grow the easier it will be and how we respond in those situations is gonna reveal (like a big flashing neon sign) just what kind of people we really are
"Anyone, then, who knows the good he ought to do and doesn't do it, sins." James 4:17
Jesus said to them, "'If you were blind, you would have no sin; but since you say, 'We see,' your sin remains.'" John 9:41
Jihadist Website Hacker Takes Down Wikileaks
http://th3j35t3r.wordpress.com/
http://twitter.com/th3j35t3r
Nice!! :D Someone give this man a medal and a stimulus package!
Fox News....
Patriotic Hactivist Took Down Wikileaks
For more info on The Jester including videos of him taking down terrorist websites...
https://www.infosecisland.com/blogview/9865-The-Jester-Hits-WikiLeaks-Site-With-XerXeS-DoS-Attack.html
1st Video Of Jester's Xerxes DOS Attack On A Terrorist Website
Xerxes DOS Attack from Infosec Island on Vimeo.
2nd Video of Jester's Xerxes DOS Attack On A Terrorist Website
Second video of XerXes DoS Attack from Infosec Island on Vimeo.
Porn...The Truth
Globally, the porn industry takes in 60 billion a year. Of that 60 billion Americans are responsible for 12 billion. That's a lot of money and considering that most people world wide watch porn on average at least once a month. In the States 20% of men admit to accessing porn at work and 13% of women admit to accessing porn at work. We need to look at porn for what it really is that's not advertised on a seedy cover or ever mentioned in any scene.
Most people think it's perfectly ok. On average those viewing porn figure it's not hurting anyone and those in the film are consenting adults so what's the big deal? When you consider those in the film themselves it takes a very dark and ugly turn.
The statistics are shocking. 98% of women in pornography were molested and raped as little girls.
Molestation is boot camp for the porn industry and prostitution.
That's severe abuse not just physically, but mentally and emotionally that was thrust on them at highly impressionable ages. While little girls were trusting and dependent, looking to those around them for love, care and protection, they were taken advantage of and used up in the worst way.
What people are watching when they secretly buy porn is women who have been severely traumatized from a very early age therefore taught and genuinely believe that the only value they have is what they can offer sexually.
Why? Because their rapist...who was most likely a close family friend, or worse, relative or father, only placed value on that little girl when she brought him sexual pleasure generally from the ages of 2 to 12 years old and it's carried into their adult life. She knows nothing else. Molestation is excruciatingly traumatizing and damaging to anyone, but when it comes from a father the trauma is even worse and the statistics for incest is on the rise.
You may think "well she looks like she's enjoying it!"
First she's being paid to look that way and 2nd that's all she knows. She's never been treated with any value, any respect, and honor, any compassion or love by those who should have given it to her. Instead they inflicted terrible abuse which has warped the emotions and mentality of the victim so severely and grotesquely they live in a fog of deep depression, anxiety, worthlessness, hopelessness, despair and constant seeking for what they never had....genuine love and approval. Porn not only provides them money to live (more often than not to support drug habits) but porn provides them the desperate opportunity to feel loved even for a few minutes by being used not just by the men in the film but everyone who watches. So they subject themselves to that treatment desperately searching for what they never got. The one thing more valuable to all human beings above all money and riches....love.
Would we pay 60 billion a year to see the physical mutilation of a child? When we watch porn we are watching the continual emotional and mental mutilation that began for these women when many weren't even out of diapers yet.
When we access porn we are essentially advocating, condoning and enjoying the perpetual abuse their abuser continues to inflict on them even years later. There's a reason why in American prisons child molesters are targeted by the rest of the prison population. Sometimes molesters are slashed across the face by inmates as a branding to other inmates of their crime so they can be easily spotted. They are the lowest of the low even among some of the worst criminals and many times have to be protected by isolation. When hardened criminals in prison have the natural instinct in them that you don't hurt a child...it shows the dark levels a child molester has sunk to.
When we then pay to watch porn at 60 billion a year thereby taking part in the continual abuse of that woman...what levels have we as a society sunk to?
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