Snapshots and Synapses

Why should anyone go to church? Isn't it enough to love God and love others? And aren’t so many churches filled with hypocrites and money-grabbers? I get more from reading my Bible than hearing someone speak a dumbed down or hyped up sermon spattered with a few Bible verses, so why should I waste my time in a church service? Besides, I have been hurt and betrayed by church people. Why subject myself to further pain? Around this time of year over 20 years ago I was given a series of visions that showed how many people would leave church. That doesn’t seem so strange now, but even when I wrote why  I don’t want to go to church , it was a new phenomenon. Re-reading my post, it rings more true today. I can give you the bottom line:  We go to church because God says we need it.  My walk with Him is stronger today because I listened, albeit reluctantly, and I understand the purpose of church as a result. There are pastors who can’t make that claim. I know that for a fact becaus...

Since the Garden of Eden, there has always been evil in this world, and yet at one point the wickedness of men had become so great that the Bible tells us God regretted making mankind, deciding to flood the Earth and start over with Noah and his family. Some people say that wickedness has always existed and today is no different from years past, but I disagree. I have seen in my lifetime the growth of wickedness as described in the Bible as an increase in lawlessness or rebellion. Yes, evil has always existed, but it was not socially celebrated as it is today. What occurred in shadows is celebrated publicly, and the sophistry of today’s social norms would have quickly been silenced in a younger world.  I’ve been accused more than once of focusing so much on what I am against people sometimes wonder what I’m for, and I have to admit it’s often easier for me to see what’s wrong when I look at our world today. It saddens me, and I wonder if that’s how Jeremiah felt as he looked upon t...

My Life / My Will If I were an atheist, reality would be centered around me. I would judge things as good if they were in my best interest, and I would judge things as bad if they were not to my advantage. If I were an atheist, all relationships would exist for my pleasure and for the pursuit of my best interest. I would be at the center of the universe, and all others with circle around me. It would therefore be important that people agree with me in all things. Depending upon my level of sophistication, I would get people to agree with me without even realizing how I was manipulating them. In fact, I would take great joy in converting people to my way of thinking, and if I changed my thinking in any way, then I would want others to join me in this new enlightenment. If I were an atheist, I would want people to think of me as somehow “good“, so I would probably have some story to tell people about my “goodness”. It could be around my generosity, which would be just enough to have peop...

The Lord has risen indeed, hallelujah!  Easter and Christmas are my favorite holidays, and I wrote a short story available on Kindle for both Christmas and Easter. It is called  The Shepherd's Letter  and is available for free download from Saturday, April 3, 2021, 12:00 AM PDT to Monday, April 5, 2021, 11:59 PM PDT.  Or select from below if you want to read some of my previous posts for Easter:  Who Is This Person, Jesus? Easter Presents Easter: An Absurd Celebration Why Easter?

Continued from America in the End Times  - Part 1 . This is not a political post, so bear with me for a paragraph or two.  A new administration has taken office and globalists have assumed executive power and essentially taken the House as well as the tie-breaking vote in the Senate. There is too much happening to describe it all, but the globalists are securing their power base in America… or so they think. I write this not as a reactionary far-right extremist but as a law-abiding citizen, naval veteran, and Bible-believing Christian. The media and far-left would paint me as the former, and some have even accused me being a Trump-lover.  The truth is that I didn’t vote Trump into office, and I often cringed at some of his behavior. Yet the way mainstream media twisted his words and attacked him actually led me to look at his words and actions more closely to discover that his policies reflected my desire as a Christian. That didn’t make him a perfect president or a perfe...

“When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.” ( https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript )  The brave men who signed our Declaration of Independence quoted above were not quick to defy the rule of King George, and if you read through the entirety of that famous document you’ll see the reasons behind their decision. They signed that declaration knowing that it fully committed them to the cause of freedom, defying a supremely powerful military empire and entrusting their future to “the protection of divine Providence”. There was no turning back from their cause, and they understood that everything was on th...

I believe the Holy Spirit is alive and well that we still see all the gifts of the Spirit working through God’s people. There are Bible believing Christians who think otherwise, and I don’t doubt they are my brothers and sisters in Christ. Some would say that there are ordinary gifts that exist today, but that extraordinary gifts that were only meant for a certain period in history as the Church was forming. A lot of their belief comes from a verse in Revelation warning against adding anything to that book and a sincere desire to obey God’s word. They base their understanding on Revelation 22:18 to not add anything to the book. However, the Greek word used describes a book of Scripture  and not the entirety of Scripture as used in 2 Timothy 3:16.  So, yes, I believe the gift of prophecy didn’t die with the last of Jesus’ twelve disciples, and I believe that God still speaks to people who humble themselves in prayer and obedience, seeking to hear from Him. He has revealed thing...

On October 25, 2020, Archbishop Vigano sent a public letter to President Trump, warning of a “great reset” across the world and a move toward global tyranny. He is not wrong. He stands as a watchman upon a watchtower as described by the 33rd chapter of Ezekiel. There will certainly be a global reset that establishes a new world order, and this time in history seems to be a turning point. Yes, this seems to be the turning point as prophesied in Scripture , but humbly we must admit that no one knows the day nor the hour. All we know for sure is that the Day is approaching. How should we respond to this knowledge? It seems that the schemes of the wicked are reaching fruition, but do not despair! This is not a time for fear; neither should we become preoccupied with the success of their plans. ( Ps 37:7 ) Rather, we need to need to submit ourselves to God with renewed fervor and wait patiently for Him being more intentional in our interactions with other believers, spurring each other on ...

“This is a little unusual.” “I know, but she always liked to feel special, and she has always felt uncertain and scared about this moment, knowing it would come.” “No one is going to shout ‘Surprise!’, are they? God, I hope not!”  “No. No, not this time.” He said, smiling broadly with a twinkle in the eye. “They all know how she feels. But this is going be fun! I’ve been looking forward to this so much!” The young woman was cautiously walking toward them from the darkness, toward all of them, looking both concerned and confused, definitely nervous. She was beautiful! Dark hair, dark eyes, looking to be in her late twenties or possibly thirty. Like many others before her, she was confused and relieved to no longer feel the stiffness, the aches, the constant pain throughout her body. It both added to the confusion, yet encouraged her with each step. Not many people had this large of a reception, so many that knew her and were waiting for her.  The first one she recognized, the o...

I've procrastinated writing this blog. It's uncomfortable for me to look at myself honestly, write about it and then publish it for the whole world to see. I'd rather portray some nice image of myself, a picture of who I want to be, someone who always gets it right. Historically, we put on our Sunday best image at church, playing the part of the perfect family for a couple hours each week, rather than being honest about our imperfections. And that's what we do on social media, right? So you may be thinking: “Then why do it, Mitch? What’s the purpose? What’s the benefit and the cost?” Yes, my thoughts exactly. Why not portray an image of my best self? It only shows part of the truth. God wants each of us to be authentic and has prompted me to do this… insistently… for several months… with ever-increasing intensity. Yet just as Jonah took a ship in the opposite direction, I’ve set this topic aside repeatedly. Consistently Inconsistent I wrote before that the one...

Thinking about a 2020 Vision for myself, I started first with the hub of the wheel, because everything else is meaningless without Spiritual Health. My immediate thought was: “I want to be godly man.” Admittedly this is a pretty broad and lofty goal, and I thought: “Wouldn’t everyone want to be godly?” This idea was quickly followed by: “No, but then not everyone stops to think about their Spiritual Health.”  But as I contemplated about it further, I realized my desire to be a godly man reflected a lifetime of wrong thinking. It revealed vanity, a focus on self and self-righteousness. Now, I can look at another person and say: “He/She is a godly person!” and there is no vanity or wrongful in the statement, but how can I look at myself for godliness? The very act is both vain and self-righteous, an indication of spiritual pride. No, seeking to be a godly person is the wrong goal and is not a vision for Spiritual Health. My 2020 Vision for Spiritual Health needed to chan...

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...

“ 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...