Take Up Your Cross

2 John 1:1-2, truth lives in us, it is eternal, a place of truth and truth itself is terrifying to those who believe they can hide from it. Here’s a realization, every choice is eternal the moment you make it and this is why regret is so powerful, because regret is the soul remembering that nothing truly disappears, but goodness is stronger than darkness, because goodness continues to exist forever, you are never living just for the present moment, you are creating something that will exist forever. Truth, it does not change with time or culture and because of that truth, we love not with a shallow emotional love that accepts everything, but with a bold, courageous love that points people to Jesus. Truth and love, inseparable, unshakeable, unstoppable, but Jesus is not promising that if you follow him, your life will be easier, he’s saying exactly the opposite. Following Jesus means the death of everything you are, denying yourself doesn’t mean making small sacrifices from time to time, it means the complete annihilation of your personal agenda, that your plans no longer matter, that your dreams are no longer a priority, that your comfort is no longer negotiable.

Walking in obedience is walking in love, it’s easy to say we love God, many people claim to love Jesus, but John tells us that love isn’t just a feeling, it’s not an idea or an emotion that fades with time, love is action, love is obedience. 2 John 1:4-6, this is love, if we say we love God, but do not obey him, we are deceiving ourselves, because love and obedience have been connected, Deuteronomy 6:5, 6:17. To love God is to obey him, but our culture has redefined love, today love means accepting everything and never challenging anyone, supporting every decision no matter how destructive, avoiding hard conversations and never offending anyone, but is that true love? Love is not passive, love doesn’t stand by and watch destruction happen, God’s love is not passive, it is a love that commands, protects and disciplines and if we truly love him, in return we won’t just feel it, we will show it through obedience.

Take up your cross, when Jesus said this, everyone knew exactly what a cross meant, it wasn’t a pretty necklace, it was an instrument of execution. Jesus is not talking about dealing with minor inconveniences, he’s talking about a lifestyle of constant death, death to your desires, to your ego, to your need for control, to your right to be comfortable. Everyone in churches sings about surrendering to Jesus, the songs are full of these dramatic declarations, but on Monday morning, those same people are fighting for their rights, defending their reputation, protecting their comfort and building their little personal empires. These people have been sold a gospel where Jesus is a heavenly personal assistant who exists to make your life easier, a gospel where God is like a cosmic Santa Claus who hands out blessings if you behave well, a gospel where faith is a tool to get what you want, instead of a call to die, to get what God wants.

Obedience is not always easy, there are times when God calls us to do things that don’t make sense, Genesis 22, obedience often requires trust, it requires surrender, it requires believing that God’s ways are higher than our ways, even when they don’t match our emotions and this is where many fall away. There are people who love the idea of Jesus, but they don’t want to obey his words, they love the idea of grace, but they don’t want to submit to his commands. So people create a version of Christianity that allows them to live however they want, thinking that as long as they love in their own way, they are following God, love is love, as long as I’m a good person, God understands. But, love apart from truth, is not real love, a love that ignores obedience is not love at all, it is rebellion wrapped in pretty words, Matthew 7:21, obedience is rarely convenient, but it is always worth it, Luke 5:4.

Obedience always leads to blessing, even when we don’t see it right away, love is not just a feeling, it is a decision, a commitment, a lifestyle and if we claim to love God, then our lives must prove it. Are you walking in obedience or are you redefining love on your own terms, walking in obedience is walking in love and those who truly love him will follow where he leads, no matter the cost. Psalm 22:1, the LORD is my shepherd, because in David’s world, shepherding was not a hallmark painting, it was a life or death responsibility, to call God a shepherd, was not to call him comforting, it was to call him commander, defender, provider, strategist and guardian. A shepherd was critical and David knew this role intimately, because he lived it, sheep do not calculate, negotiate or plan their next meal, they wake up trusting the shepherd has already prepared what they need, provision is not the sheep’s responsibility.

The shepherd’s presence is the sheep’s survival, Psalm 22:1, David is making a theological declaration, God is not distant, God is not passive, God is not waiting for you to qualify for his attention, God is actively shepherding you right now. Your job is not to convince him to care, your job is to recognize he already does, that is why David can continue with outrageous confidence, I shall not want. Most people read, I shall not want, as wishful thinking, but in Hebrew, it is not a hope, it is a verdict, it literally means, I lack nothing, not because I am strong, not because I am wise, not because life is perfect, but because of who God is. Faith is not positive thinking, faith is not emotional hype, faith is not blind optimism, faith is alignment, a declaration that my reality bows to God’s identity. Predators are real, wolves hunt, thieves lurk, lions wait in silence, a shepherd is the barrier between danger and destiny, he does not call for help, he is the help.

This is too cool.

Aunty Jane said:

@newnature That is a rather dramatic AI generated piece of graphics.....quite an exaggerated presentation as I find most AI generated things are.....so I asked AI about blood moons and found this interesting....

“Blood moons” — the reddish appearance of the Moon during a total lunar eclipse — have been happening for as long as the Earth, Moon, and Sun have existed in their current orbital relationship.

How Long Is That?

The Earth–Moon system formed about 4.5 billion years ago, shortly after the formation of the solar system. Ever since the Moon settled into a stable orbit around Earth, lunar eclipses (including blood moons) have been occurring.”

Since these eclipses have been occurring as a natural phenomenon for perhaps billions of years before human observation was possible, and are only visible from certain parts of the earth at any particular time, it stands to reason that the time when “the moon is turned to blood” will be a phenomenon that will be visible to all mankind in some way....consider too that to see the moon with clarity, it has to be nighttime and those in different hemispheres are also in different time zones. How long does one of these eclipses last?

A blood moon happens during a total lunar eclipse, when:

The Sun, Earth, and Moon line up perfectly (called syzygy).

1. The Moon passes completely into Earth’s shadow.
2. Sunlight bends through Earth’s atmosphere.
3. The atmosphere filters out blue light and scatters red/orange light onto the Moon — making it appear red.

It’s the same scattering effect that makes sunsets look red.”

A regular lunar eclipse takes about 4-6 hours, but the “deep red” phase of a blood moon, lasts only about an hour.

So, to my way of thinking, based on science and the Bible, the biblical reference to the ‘moon turning to blood’ will not be a normal eclipse, but something experienced by all mankind, no matter what part of the earth they inhabit, and it will last long enough for the whole world to experience it.

AI graphics aside, I am not sure that the book of Enoch, which is considered by most scholars to be an apocryphal and pseudepigraphic text that is falsely ascribed to Enoch, is a reliable source.
Produced probably sometime during the second and first centuries B.C.E., it is a collection of extravagant and unhistorical Jewish myths, evidently the product of exegetical elaborations on the brief Genesis reference to Enoch. This alone is sufficient for serious students of God’s Word to dismiss it.
If Jude, was quoting Enoch’s words, would he have used an unreliable apocryphal book as his source?

Since “all Scripture is inspired of God”, the fact that the book of Enoch is not considered canonical, is enough for me to dismiss it also. If the God of the Bible has the power to create the Universe, he also has the power to control what is in his word to us mere mortals on earth....don’t you think? We have to trust the word because what is apart from it is not “inspired”....though certain people want it to be because it takes them off on tangents.....confusing ones. Who wants us to be confused?

Click to expand...

They say the universe is held together by invisible forces nobody can see, touch, like gravity, dark matter, dark energy, but those ideas exist only because something far more obvious has been ignored. The Bible claims the universe does not hold together by accident, it holds together by command, creation responding to God’s voice, not metaphorically, functionally. God’s voice thunders, his word moves, his power travels, ancient scripture describes the heavens as something stretched out, hammered thin and divided and it describes light appearing before stars and it describes cords binding constellations and it describes lightning flowing from God’s throne to the ends of the earth. That language is not poetic decoration, it is technical description written long before modern physics had words for electricity, plasma or circuits.

The Bible describes a universe that functions like a vast electrical system, Genesis 1:6-7, the word firmament, it means something hammered out, beaten thin, spread like metal, it’s describing a solid conductive expanse. A capacitor, it’s an electrical component with two conductive plates separated by a dielectric and insulating material, when voltage is applied, energy is stored between the plates. The earth is the lower plate, the firmament is the upper plate and the atmosphere, that’s the dielectric separating them, God didn’t just create the heavens and the earth, he wired them. The earth has a measurable electrical field, it resonates at 7.83 hertz, a frequency called the Schumal resonance, some call it the planet’s heartbeat, a Divine circuit, vibrating at the frequency of God’s sustaining word.

Psalm 19:1, the firmament isn’t passive, it’s active, it’s transmitting, Genesis 1:3, and God said, let there be light and there was light. This happens before the sun, moon and stars are made on day four, but where did the light come from? Plasma, Plasma is the fourth state of matter, ionized gas that glows when electrical current passes through it, it’s what makes neon signs light up, it’s what fills the Aurora Borealis and it’s 99.9% of the visible universe. When God said let there be light, he didn’t flip a switch, he energized the cosmos, he sent a current through the plasma of creation and it ignited. The first light wasn’t from a star, it was from the electrical activation of space itself. The universe is filled with glowing filaments, sheets and structures, because Plasma responds to electromagnetic fields instantly, it doesn’t need millions of years to organize, it self-assembles in moments when current flows through it. The structures we see in deep space could have been shaped in days, even hours by the electrical command of God.

God didn’t create with gravity, he created with power, Job 37:2-5, why is God’s voice consistently compared to thunder? Because thunder is the sound of electrical discharge, it’s the audible signature of lightning, of raw power moving through the atmosphere. Revelation 4:5 describes the throne of God, the throne isn’t silent, it’s electrically active, it’s the source of the current that powers of things. Colossians 1:17, the word consist, to hold together, to cohere, he’s not holding the universe together with gravity, he’s holding it together with his word, his voice, his frequency and that frequency is electric. Job 38:31, the word “bands,” cords, ropes or chains, God is describing something that physically connects the stars of Orion. In the 1970’s scientists discovered Birkeland currents, massive filaments of electric current flowing through space, connecting stars, nebula and galaxies, these currents are invisible in most wavelengths, but when mapped, they form glowing threads that stretch across light years.

The cords of Orion aren’t metaphorical, they’re electrical, these currents don’t just connect stars, they power them. Stars aren’t isolated nuclear reactors, they’re nodes in a circuit, receiving energy from the galactic grid, that’s why stars can form rapidly, why they pulse and why they sometimes flare without warning. Plasma bridges and energy transfer between binary systems, a universe spanning network of filaments that looks exactly like neural pathways or electrical grids, Job wasn’t guessing, he was describing reality, the stars aren’t random, there wired. Job 26:11, what are the pillars of heaven? In an electric universe, they’re the Birkeland currents, the massive columns of plasma that structure galaxies and hold up the cosmic architecture, when God speaks, the currents respond, the pillars shake. The universe has structure, it has support beams and those beams are made of flowing electricity, not solid matter, these pillars aren’t static, these pillars are pulsing with energy, responding to the voice of their creator. Revelation 4:3, emerald green is the dominant color of the Aurora Borealis, the result of oxygen ions being excited by electrical current in the upper atmosphere, the throne of God is surrounded by a plasma discharge. John saw the electrical glory of God and described it the only way he could, as a glowing green rainbow of light.

We will see in March, trippy stuff.