Snapshots and Synapses

I love the Christmas season! Sure, people are rightly critical of the commercialization of Christmas, but if our goal in the season is to give, even extravagant giving, how does that reflect the love of God?  When we give of our time, our talents and our resources to others, that is the very embodiment of love. And when we look more toward giving than allowing ourselves to dwell upon what we want, how much more do our hearts change? What would our world look like if we maintained an attitude of Thanksgiving, grateful for what we have rather than counting the things we are missing, giving to others out of love throughout the year, mindful of the One who by His example showed us that love is sacrifice? It looks a little bit like heaven, doesn’t it? And when love overflows from our families to our friends and our communities, it transforms the world around us.  This romantic view of the Christmas season is not a foolish fancy. While some might paint the Christmas spir...

The Darkness threatens to enter my home  And proclaim the great things that man has done These hands of men and their great rebellion That have finally removed the need for God Imagine there’s no future  Beyond the hardness of man’s heart The rich and haughty, smart and mighty Declare that they have won And it appears that they are right For no man can overcome their stronghold “Join us!” they say, “We are strong, and we are one!” No giant ever seemed so large  Or logic seemed so sound However I know of One more mighty His great strength beyond compare His knowledge of this moment  Preceded both limb and hair He laughs at the rebellious  As they scheme toward a defeat So easily avoided Had they simply given heed  To words from the beginning  His declaration of peace For anyone so humble  To acknowledge their own need Now we wait His grand return Though the world around us laughs And pray...

We shouldn’t steer away from difficult conversations or controversy, and it’s important to understand opposing views if we are to influence the world around us with the truth of Scripture. This is a hard topic, and I ask that you don’t assume where I’m going with this subject. So here it goes… What’s wrong with this scenario: in a public forum, a prominent minister was asked how he would respond to a certain woman’s name. (https://youtu.be/NeNKHqpBcgc) His response was direct and cutting: “Go Home!” From the response of the crowd, he obviously knew his audience. They laughed and applauded his response, creating a reason for a post-Christian culture to become outraged. In this case, the woman is wildly popular as a Christian teacher, the head a ministry that has inspired countless people.  Let’s suppose for a moment that he had every reason to criticize her teachings as unbiblical. Was his response appropriate? Did he respond in a firm, clear and loving fashion to another ...

The Book of Revelation talks about two scrolls. One is sealed and no one is initially found worthy to open it until finally Jesus is deemed worthy to open this important document. It is closed by seven seals, and as each seal is opened the long-foretold events of prophecy will be realized in our world. The first four seals are often referred to as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, which I understand as: the peaceful victory of the Antichrist in establishing a global government, followed by war, famine and death. The fifth seal is a global massacre of the saints that continues “just a little while longer” until the remainder are martyred, followed quickly by the earthquake I believe will occur in the middle of the seven year tribulation period that marks the Rapture, the end of man’s rebellion and the beginning of God’s wrath upon the rebellious. The seventh seal is then broken as the Lamb has now reclaimed the earth for God and His people, and there is a great and solemn moment in...

One of my mentors in the workplace used to open certain meetings with the phrase: “Everyone has an agenda. Let’s not have any hidden agendas here.” He would then find out what people were hoping to get out an initiative, why they were participating in the meeting, and how we could possibly all work together toward a common end. I believe this is a great way to get people working together, and while I imitate my former mentor in helping others to collaborate, this is not the way we should love others. Our love should reflect God’s love and be without selfish agenda. Now it’s true that everyone has an agenda, and it’s good to strive toward worthy goals, but when it comes to loving others our agenda is simply to love.  But what is love? In English, we only have one word for love. We use it to describe how we feel about our spouse, parents, children, pets, toys, food, activities, etc. In many cases, we use the word love to describe what we lust after. Lust is the desire to get so...

When I went to college, I had never heard the term “frenemy”, but it definitely described people in a group I joined as a Freshman. It wasn’t exactly a fraternity, but it was a co-ed club where first year members went through a hazing period. After the first year, I had no desire to treat others the way I had been treated, and not having close ties to my acquaintances in that group, I found other interests and mostly kept a distance during my second and third year. A young man joined the group my second year (we’ll call him “Guy”), and I would often hear about his flaws whenever I attended the club events. From what little I knew about him, the criticism seemed legitimate, and so I mentally grouped him with the everyone else, keeping a healthy distance and judgmental attitude. As I entered my senior year, the leadership over that group asked for my help. The hazing had become abusive, with several of my Freshmen peers being the greatest perpetrators. The abuse had become so severe, t...

I have written about the Kingdom of Heaven in a previous blog . It is God’s rule in our lives and by extension through us it moves into the world around us. His love changes us (2 Corinthians 3:18 and other verses ). Our response to His love is to love in return, loving others as we have now learned what love is (1 John 4:19). Love is the prevailing characteristic of Heaven. In contrast to the Kingdom of Heaven, C.S. Lewis wrote the Screwtape Letters as a description of hell, where a major demon coaches a minor demon. I read where Lewis said that this book was the easiest for him to write, and yet it was the one he enjoyed writing the least. He modeled the culture of hell after corporate America, and as someone who has worked with many global enterprises, I understand why. In most corporate cultures, people are encouraged to be “nice” without being kind. They are driven by their personal agenda over the needs of others, often succeeding without thought to what is right. I believe...

This is something you need to understand: You are the reason why the time of Christ’s return is near. That’s right: you. Assuming of course that you are the Remnant, the Confessing Church, the Bride of Christ. It is His love for you, for me and for all the hidden, universal church that will bring an end to this Age, a conclusion to the rebellion that began with the Serpent, Eve and Adam. Now let me explain how you play such a critical role as this age comes to a close and Yahweh’s judgement draws near. First, let me be clear that I’m not declaring a day nor an hour of His imminent return. Scripture tells us that only the Father knows that. But look at the signs and just as the weather can be predicted (somewhat unreliably) by certain indicators, we can look at the prophecies in Scripture and recognize that everything is lined up. I won’t go into all the details, but Israel became a nation again and the generation that saw that pivotal event is in their latter years. The temple pr...

I came across this prayer by Nehemiah in the context of praying for America . It was a departure from my planned reading of Scripture, which has me re-exploring the book of Luke in the New Testament. Instead, the Lord directed me to this Old Testament passage: The Present 32 And now, our God, you are the great, mighty, and awe-inspiring God.     You faithfully keep your promises. Do not consider all the hardships     that we have been going through as unimportant.         The hardships have come to our kings, leaders, priests, prophets,             ancestors, and all your people                 from the time of the kings of Assyria until now. 33 But you were fair about everything that has happened to us.     You have been faithful, but we have been wicked. 34 Our kings, leaders, priests, and ancestors didn’t obey your teachings.     They didn...

My top five is really YOUR top five; they are the most read posts on this blog. It’s made me wonder what makes them the most read posts? So I decided to post one of my shortest blogs (this) and list the Top 5 to see if it changes how they rank. If any of these links resonates with you, please send the link to a friend or two who you think might be interested. So without further commentary, the top 5 most read posts listed in order are: 1.        How to Fight - Oct 15, 2018 2.        End of Age Handbook - Nov 27, 2017 3.        Two Sides of the Coin - May 30, 2012 4.        Man Up, Boys! - Aug 11, 2013 5.        What Is Your Value-Add? - Jul 28, 2013 copyright ©2019 Mitchell Malloy http://mitchellmalloyblogspot.com/

Ok, let’s be honest, who has ever heard a clear definition of a soul. It’s a mystical, ethereal thing that is somehow the same as and yet different from our spirit (Hebrews 4:12). I’ve heard it described as the mind, will and emotion, which is both true and says absolutely nothing. The best definition I’ve heard is that it’s our habit of thinking, those thoughts we think without realizing that we are thinking, and that concept finally opened doors for me to understand how the soul is indeed the mind, will and emotion all tied up together in a way that describes the essence of who we are.  And that understanding opened many more doors to see how this battleground of the soul is where Satan operates. If he can get us to think wrongly without even realizing our self-sabotage, then the battle is almost won (by him… bad for us!). He can neutralize our efforts by the self-sabotage of our habits of thought. He can create discouraging feelings when God’s Word tells us to be bold and ...

“ Who is Jesus? ” That was the question I asked on Good Friday 30 years ago. I had come to doubt all that I had learned growing up in a Christian church. My first degree was in Philosophy, and my definition of a Philosopher was the same as Gandhi’s definition of Hindu: a seeker of Truth. I was a young naval officer who had just come off a miserable 6 week mini-deployment and in preparation for the six-month deployment brought along only “positive” things. I only brought music that I believed would be positive, and I only brought books that would be positive. I read several Hindu books in my search for truth, and I brought a Gideon’s Bible that had collected dust since being handed to me 4 years earlier. I had been praying that if God was real, for Him to reveal Himself to me. I was ready to throw away the concept of God or change it to whatever I discovered. After reading from the Hindu books, I reluctantly picked up the Gideon’s Bible. It only had the Proverbs, Psalms and New Test...

As I write this, I would really like to go to bed, but the Lord told me to get up and type this prayer and then to schedule it to be published on April 19th, 2019. This date has a special meaning to me: it is the 30 anniversary of when I asked Jesus to be Lord of my life. But it has special meaning to believers as Good Friday, the day that we remember Jesus’ death on the cross when He assumed all punishment for our sins, our many, various and repeated sins.  And yet the Church today is sick, giving little thought as to how far we are from Christ and His ways. We need to repent. And so I offer this prayer: Lord, let there be a revival in America and a renewal in Your Church throughout the world. We have let You and the world down. We have not lived as we should. We have sought to entertain ourselves rather than to find joy in Your Presence. We have sought our own comforts over the needs of our brothers. We have acted spiteful toward others instead of loving our enemies. We h...

I have a direct message for the Church but need to remind you of a few things first:  The fickle hearts of God’s people - with palm branches they praised the arrival of Jesus to Jerusalem and days later they were crying: “Crucify Him!” Jesus knew His mission. He came to seek and save the lost, in particular the lost sheep of Israel. He came to extend the Father’s offer of peace and goodwill to men. He was the Messiah, the prophesied Savior and Branch of Jesse. But people prefer darkness to light and choose to do what is right in their own eyes. They preferred a righteousness of self, choosing what is right as if they were God Himself, the Author of all creation, the Authority  of all that is right and wrong.  So the Jewish people welcomed the person they believed to be the Messiah, the Chosen One of God, and days later repeated the words of Satan spoken through the religious leaders of their day. “Crucify Him!” “He saved others, let Him save Himself!”  ...

Mankind is so foolish. We seem to think that evil presents itself as a horrible, ugly, repulsive thing that we would run away from. I wish that were the case. I wish I was repulsed by evil. But if I’m honest there is something attractive about some things that I know are wrong. The promise of pleasure or luxury or security lures many people astray. We are all flawed with the desire to feed all our wants. It is the nature of our flesh. When we give into our base nature, we feed the flesh. But the paradox of man is that we can rise up above our selfish wants and sacrifice ourselves for something greater. We can show such nobility and hope in the darkest times. Our base nature is like that of beasts but we reflect the divine nature of God as His image bearers when we rise above our flesh. We are conflicted, vacillating between good and evil, spirit and flesh, godly desire and carnal desire.  The Beast feeds the fleshly desires. The beast is what we all need to rise above. It...