Snapshots and Synapses

It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, but the glory of kings is to search out a matter. Proverbs 25:2 Introduction I have long been fascinated with the life of Daniel and the mysteries in his prophetic book. Daniel and his friends grew up in the ruling class. They likely heard about a religious fanatic who was despised by many of the nobles because he kept predicting the inevitable judgement of God. We know that fanatic as the prophet Jeremiah. I can imagine the parents of Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah as devout followers of Yahweh and can picture conversations they may have had about the controversial messages of Jeremiah. We know that Jeremiah was ultimately was proven to be God’s man, but at the time, his behavior was strange even for a prophet, and his message was disturbing. God’s judgement came in the middle of Jeremiah’s prophetic ministry as the Babylonian exile began. Daniel and his friends were contemporaries of not just Jeremiah, but possibly had childhood int...

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?

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 Good Friday:  Prayer for Revival on Good Friday Contextual Friday Good Friday 2020

Holy Week precedes Easter, but it’s up to us to make it a holy week. But what is “holiness”? It’s simply setting something apart for God. For example, the Sabbath is holy, dedicated and set apart for God’s purposes. Holy Days are likewise set apart for God. And then there’s Easter, which is set apart from all other days of the year to recall Jesus’ triumph over the grave. Next Sunday, we will celebrate Easter and proclaim that He has risen, a demonstration of His power over sin and death! Yet Holy Week is just another week if we fail to make it holy! Sure, it still shows up on the liturgical calendar and churches will do some special things. Easter eggs will be hidden and found; families will get together to feast in celebration! The week starts with Palm Sunday, remembered by some as the day of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem. Some evangelical pastors will use Palm Sunday as a last chance reminder for people to invite others to next week’s Sunday service. After all, it’s one of ...

Who is called by His Name? Christians receive their name from Christ and we are anointed with His Name. Y’srael (Israel) was the name God gave to Jacob and it has been the name of God’s people since before Jesus’ birth. Yahweh gave Jacob (meaning “deceiver”) a new name that means “struggles with Yahweh”, and that is the story of God’s people ever since. Like Israel, we struggle with our own rebellion against God and His ways. We struggle against our SELF as we learn to love, learning that love is a decision to give rather than lust which vainly seeks to feed the SELF. Yet how many of our prayers reflect our lust rather than our love? Our typical prayer is for SELF: deliverance from our circumstances, provision, protection. Yes, we should always turn to God as our Provider and Protector, yet we often we look to other constructs like employers or governments as our provider or protector in place of God. When we put our faith in these things, it is idolatry. Perhaps they aren’t made of wo...

This is a vision for America’s future and not a lingering tour on its past, expanding upon America in the End Times  - Part 1 and America in the End Times  - Part 2 .    In the 19th century, a phrase was used to describe a vision United States had to encompass the North American continent, extending from the Atlantic to the Pacific oceans. The people saw it so clearly, believed it so vividly, that it became a reality. The phrase was “Manifest Destiny”.  Writing this, I realize that some people could be offended. The title alone may offend Americans in Canada or Mexico, and I don’t mean U.S. citizens residing in Canada or Mexico. I was reminded years ago by a Canadian friend that people in both those countries are also American and that the U.S. still claim the title “American” as a holdout to the days of Manifest Destiny.  Other readers may be offended by the way the U.S. claimed the North American continent for its own without respect to the indigenous pe...

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...