11:59

Yesterday I read False Christ Coming: Does Anybody Care?: What New Age Leaders Really Have in Store for America, the Church, and the World by Warren B Smith. It was eye-opening and frightening. While I already know the long term agenda of the new age movement, I didn’t realize how deep and wide it has gone while we were busy doing other things. Those who would bring about complete slavery to a new world order in the name of peace are literally close to full implementation of the Grand Plan for humanity. 

Here’s a clue: It has nothing to do with God’s plan. 

I can’t claim to be shocked but I can say I’m feeling enormous frustration today. I’ve always understood that being one of God’s Remnant meant being an outcast not a star - separated. I’ve always excepted that when you grow in the spirit and come to realize more truth, the fewer, not more, people there will be to talk to. To step out, to give your life to Christ, generally always means finding yourself at odds with the world view. 

...because... there are more who don’t get it and don’t want to get it, than who do. If that isn’t frightening enough let’s say it another way. Those who do understand are so outnumbered majority rule has the upper hand, determines the definitions, the interpretations, and dominates the narrative. That’s the disheartening part.

Pardon me while I pause to wipe the cold sweat from my brow.

In False Christ Coming - Does Anybody Care? Smith’s frustration shows up and I understand that so well. I’ve been warning about the clever ‘good’ masks that evil wears for quite some time. I know that I am mostly talking to myself here though. I’ve referred to it as being not unlike screaming in a vacuum. 

Smith holds nothing back. He names names and calls out the false doctrine and outlines with quotes what the real plan for humanity is. Having been immersed in the toxic new age Course on Miracles in his young adult years, Smith knows what the real face of evil looks and sounds like behind the mask. There is no better witness than one who has lived it. 

The question is, who cares? Who is willing to read the book and see for his/herself? Who cares that a world wide movement to reorder human life as we know it is already in place, is fully organized and named and it’s not a conspiracy theory?  That big names and big money are fully behind it? That the modern church is adapting as quickly as it can to the concept of the “New Church” - which has nothing to do with Christ?

Perhaps you are counting on being Raptured out and so you don’t need to know these things. Tell me again who are the foolish virgins? Those who were not prepared when the Bridegroom came at midnight? 

Might want to look at the clock.

For Him,

Meema

(Matthew 24:3-5) And as he sat on the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what [shall be] the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?  (4) And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man lead you astray.  (5) For many shall come in my name, saying, I am the Christ; and shall lead many astray.  

Speaking of Coincidence

I’ve said numerous times that I pay attention to coincidence because I’ve been around long enough to recognize that as one way God speaks to me.  

Several years ago I read a comment in a Christian forum asking if anyone had read a book titled God Calling. I’d never heard of it so I looked it up. Amazing Amazon! I took advantage of the Look Inside feature and picked a page. The book is a devotional written by two sisters in the 1930s. The premise is that these women ‘channeled’ God who told them what to write. I’m not going to waste time here doing a review. 

The one page I read was more than enough to see that it throbbed with New Age. I took it on myself to post a comment in the forum suggesting that discernment might be in order to determine whether to read and trust the book as genuinely coming from God. It was telling for me that there was little agreement with my assessment/warning. It breaks my heart to know how sheeplike Christians are.

Fast forward to recently. 

It came to my attention that another book, Jesus Calling, a million copy seller, has flooded the Christian book marketplace. Originally the author claimed that the book was inspired by God Calling. But when the alarm was sounded by numerous New Age watchmen, like Warren Smith, the publisher removed references to God Calling in the reprints. Confronted with the duplicity, the publisher’s publicist made lame excuses and the book remains a best seller. Again...it breaks my heart that discernment is all but gone and God’s people languish for the lack of it.

This world is smothered in soft lies, those good sounding ideas and uplifting emotion driven words that appeal to our human passion. But did you know that passion is the least reliable way to assess information? We love to feel passion, it stirs us and arouses us, calls us to action and leads us to mountain top experiences. But passion cannot be sustained. Once the adrenaline subsides, if there is no substance, what we thought was real, turns out to be only the sticky residue of an impassioned moment. 

New Age theology/ideology is full of soft lies that appeal to our passionate humanity. It rouses our innate desire to redefine ourselves as something else, better, wiser, more in tune, mystical, charismatic, fine-tuned, all senses engaged and fully functioning. 

One problem. 

New Age and all its incarnations, while offering amazing new vision, often employing words that ring of Christianity, leave out the most important part - the Real Jesus. New Age always puts the focus on the individual improvement of mind/body and when that tactic doesn’t work, New Age tries something a bit more diabolical. It pretends to put God and/or Jesus in the center even as it diverts gently, ever so subtly, to the bottomless tar pit waiting underneath. 

Sheer hard knock experience has taught me that my life is not my own. I’m just a vessel. I don’t always do the exact right thing, I am human after all, but for the most part I am on auto-pilot so that Christ has the wheel. Ever open to the still small voice. Ever willing to pay attention to the small dots that can be connected to reveal a truth. Truth is what really matters, after all. Truth is not just real it is consistent and dependable. It has longevity, it’s timeless and foundational. I’d rather know a tough truth than be blindsided by a soft lie any day.

Dabbling in New Age, enjoying the passion while claiming to be impervious to the snares is a dangerous game. How about this for a hard truth - there comes a time when those who refuse to see will be blinded lest they see. It’s happened before. 

Just sayin’...

For Him,

Meema

If you would like more information - 

http://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/blog/?p=18518

(John 12:36) While ye have the light, believe on the light, that ye may become sons of light. These things spake Jesus, and he departed and hid himself from them.  (12:37) But though he had done so many signs before them, yet they believed not on him:  (12:38) that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? And to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?      (12:39) For this cause they could not believe, for that Isaiah said again,  (12:40) He hath blinded their eyes, and he hardened their heart; Lest they should see with their eyes, and perceive with their heart, And should turn, And I should heal them. 

The New Mindfulness–Old As Dirt

In spite of our many similarities, we are all indeed different. I am constantly reminded (and marvel) that God speaks to us in the way we each can hear. I have to admit the way God gets through to me has changed as I have matured in spirit over the years. My hard knock experiences (born from my mistakes) and exposure to the wiles of satan and his ever morphing techniques for using ‘good’ words and concepts, even Scripture, trying to prevent the still small voice from reaching me, have armed me with a large measure of heightened discernment.  

This often gets me in trouble. Being able to quickly recognize the snares does not mean my warnings are then readily received. This is where I find being mature in spirit often isolates me even further from ordinary life. 

That said, speaking only from personal experience, this is a classic example of how God orchestrates ‘coincidences’ for me and then says ‘pay attention’. 

Years ago my husband and I traveled to Destin to visit our daughter and her family but we stopped in Tallahassee to visit with my brother and his wife. The plan was to go to church with them the next morning and be on our way to Destin. At the time my brother’s church had just begun the Forty Days of the Purpose Driven Life series. I had heard of it but knew nothing about it thus I  could listen to the sermon without prejudice or cynicism. 

When we arrived in Destin later that day, my daughter related her pastor’s sermon. Apparently her church was involved in the program as well. What stood out for me and rang a warning bell was one particular part my daughter repeated, that she thought was so poignant, which was a ‘personal’ story the pastor told. Turned out that it was the exact same story my brother’s pastor had used, only with the names changed. Personal? Really? My first thought–we are being played. This is a script. This has been fed to be told verbatim in hundreds of churches across the US with no room for the Holy Spirit at all. How diabolical!

Red Flag!

So, what are the odds that I could be exposed to this tiny crack of truth revealed in one day from exposure to two sermons–considering I don’t go to church generally speaking? 

Curious when I returned home, I dug a little into Rick Warren and his Purpose Driven Life, came to my conclusions, and then I waited. The truth is out there and has been for some time for those with ears to hear and eyes to recognize the differences between true Christianity and humanism. But just because it was clear for me then didn’t mean I thought I could tell it. I did, however, warn my daughter to keep her ears and eyes open and she paid attention from then on to the siren call of the Formula Driven Life. 

Can we just say time heals all wounds, proves all things, and wounds all heels? 

Recently, while making my bed I was praying about a certain pressing problem, okay I was pleading actually. In the span of about two seconds an amazing thing happened. My spirit heard, ‘Do you trust Me?’ and I instantly replied, ‘Yes!’  I stopped and thought, ‘Wow, what just happened?” And then I resumed making my bed. Two seconds in God’s time, in His circumstances and place, can be more powerful than centuries of human time and ‘perfectly’ devised conditions.

For me, and again, this is just the way it works for me, my body, or brain for that matter, doesn’t have to be tuned in, just my spirit. God doesn’t require me to follow a routine or a method, a formula or a pattern. He moves mysteriously and wonderfully, sometimes what seems to be randomly, and it has next to nothing to do with my flesh which is the least important part of my being and one day will perish into dust anyway.

I offer this to consider that while we are all indeed different and finding the way God speaks to us individually determines how we work out our sanctification or growth in Christ, nevertheless the snares are out there and, from what I’ve seen, they usually call out to the MIND/BODY experience because it appeals ever so genuine to SELF. What is always unseen is the gentle call to fix ourselves by doing the ‘right’ thing, finding the right way so that we can be our own god, our own healer. Gosh. Doesn’t that sound great?

As far as I can tell this is not only not new it is as old as satan whispering to Eve, “You will not surely die.”

For Him,

Meema

Marcia Montenegro 

Should you practice Mindfulness?

If you are a Christian, the basis, rationale, and goal of mindfulness is in complete conflict with a Christian worldview and with the reality presented by God in his word. Mindfulness has nothing in common with biblical meditation, which is thoughtful contemplation of God's word. 

Biblical meditation and prayer are not matters of trying to go beyond thought, either to achieve a mystical oneness with God, or to "hear" from God. Nothing like this is taught anywhere in the Bible. Prayer in the Bible is always presented as verbal praise, petition, confession, and expression of gratitude to God. 

Furthermore, the concept of needing detachment goes against biblical teaching that we should remember what God has done, and vividly keep before us Christ's atonement on the cross and his bodily resurrection. There are many desires that are good, and desire to know God more deeply through prayer, Bible study, and worship nourishes believers in Christ. There is no need to fear attachment or good desires.

Mindfulness and the practice of Christianity do not mesh and cannot co-exist.

If you are not a Christian, consider whether or not you wish to attach yourself to a teaching of non-attachment that stems from teachings that reject God, the concept of self, and the concept of an individual mind, while exalting a belief that the ultimate state is one of extinction from all desire, in which you essentially do not exist.

Excerpted from Should you practice Mindfulness?

What We Don't Know

If you have never served on a jury you probably did not know that many things–truths that could be factored into the collective decision of twelve strangers–is, more often than not, prohibited from being told to said jury. In other words, actual facts can be withheld so that the twelve strangers must reach a verdict based only on limited truths, and semi-complete information that is missing large chunks of real usable details.

Years ago I was a juror in a civil case. The plaintiff was suing an individual’s insurance company for damages and lost income due to a fender bender. The plaintiff’s case was based on photos of the accident, a video report by a chiropractor who claimed the plaintiff had back injuries, a witness who claimed the plaintiff had indeed missed some work and a few heavily redacted 1040s. 

The plaintiff was self-employed as a massage therapist. Being self-employed myself at the time I was familiar with the inherent opportunity of someone who sets his/her own schedule so this bit of evidence was not enough to persuade me that the plaintiff was missing work because of pain. But I just didn’t know either way.

Based on what we were given, we, the jury, were sent into a room to deliberate. It was late in the day so we talked a bit and then were ordered to return the next morning to finish. 

The next day we tossed things out among ourselves. We studied the photo and most of us concluded the damage seemed pretty lame to be claiming major personal injury but who among us was qualified to determine such a thing? The chiropractor seemed a bit smarmy but there was nothing to counter his statement–he was the ‘expert” witness. I put in my two cents, which was only opinion, not fact, regarding the witness testimony about self employment. 

In the end we found for the defendant who was represented by the insurance company’s attorney. But it wasn’t the body of evidence alone that we were provided on which we determined our verdict. 

The morning we returned to the courthouse one juror said he had something to share that he had witnessed in the parking lot coming in that morning. He said we would all have to agree it was okay for him to tell us. We agreed. He said, as he was parking, he saw the plaintiff pulling in driving a brand new $90,000 car. Now the plaintiff had painted a picture that he was on his last leg financially and that he could not work because of his injuries. 

With the fresh information we looked once again at the evidence with a keener perspective and came to our conclusion. In fact, based on the process of law, this juror’s eye witness encounter should not have been allowed to influence us. That it made a huge difference in the pertinent knowledge base was irrelevant in the confines of the law but a truth that did matter to us, the jury.

About a year later, I was entering a building on my way to an appointment when a nice man opened the door for me. We recognized each other immediately. He was the attorney for the defendant. In the few moments that we had to talk we hashed the case over and he revealed that the plaintiff had a jaded past of causing small accidents then suing the insurance companies which usually settled to avoid the cost of litigation. But finally, having done this once too often, the insurance company said no more! However, this very real history of the plaintiff’s previous cases was not allowed to be entered into the trial. 

The argument is that regardless how many times he might have lied, this time it might be the truth and the decision must be based only on the evidence presented by both parties. Thus the defendant’s attorney was more or less limited to challenging only the evidence that could be seen.

In our brief encounter there wasn’t time to go into all the details so I didn’t mention the juror’s observation in the courthouse parking lot. It was moot anyway. Clearly justice had found its voice that time. This is not always the way jury trials end though. 

Telling this story is a round about way to make the point–for the lack of verity, we are often undermined by falsehood. What is actual is very often just beneath the surface. If we take everything at face value we risk not finding out what is genuinely true about anything. How then can we know when we are being manipulated or on a collision course before we find out it’s too late to hit reverse? 

There’s not much we can do about the protocols of the justice system but there are many areas of our lives where we can choose to be more discerning–or not, in the news we ingest, the leaders we trust to tell us the truth, both secular and religious, the books we read and the icons we give our allegiance and respect to, the ‘polls’ and statistics we never question.

They say the devil is in the details. The nature of the devil is to confuse/blind you so that you are veered away from the truth itself and so I say the devil hides the details so you cannot know what is true and what is false. 

This seems to be the common theme in this reprobated age. I have often referred to this as The Matrix where what is true rarely matters anymore–only illusion and what we think we see. The tip of the iceberg, so to speak, is all we care to know.

Here’s the catch–what you don’t know, can’t or refuse to see, might ultimately be the very thing that sinks you. 

For Him,

Meema

Just because something isn't a lie does not mean that it isn't deceptive. A liar knows that he is a liar, but one who speaks mere portions of truth in order to deceive is a craftsman of destruction. ~ Criss Jami

Joy

Happiness and/or joy is human emotion that is not simply or easily defined, sort of like art and love - it is what you think it is. Much the same as the Greeks who had three different words to describe love, I think of ‘happy’ as something that can happen in different ways, for multiple and often contradictory reasons. 

For example, I can be deliriously happy that a chill rainy Saturday has forced me to hunker down with a good book or I can be distraught and frustrated that a cold rain has interfered with an outdoor plan. Thus being happy is subjective and dependent entirely on where my head is. 

But I perceive joy as something that comes to me from outside of me. A miracle I cannot create on my own. I had a moment recently that exemplifies this. 

Not going into unnecessary detail, I am currently in the middle of a great striving against evil right now. Every single day brings new challenge. In this moment of trial and testing, I can experience, on any given day, a huge range of emotion–from cold angst to peace. While this might sound like bi-polar disorder, actually it’s just me allowing my childish human weaknesses to be at odds with my spiritual maturity. All it takes is one bad report or email or yet another set back to send me into the old ‘what if God’s plan isn’t what I am praying for?’ mode. 

I was in the grips of one of these cold sweat moments recently when the most amazing thing happened. Joy. It came out of no where, lasted long enough to calm me and restore my emotional equilibrium and reset my focus. If I could describe it based on a physical sensation I’d say it was like a warm blanket being wrapped around my shivering body. My thoughts changed instantly from ‘what if’ to ‘it doesn’t matter because...He is with me’. 

Not because I deserve it, but because He chooses to be with me. He chooses. I can absolutely count on that no matter what else happens. But this is not the same as simply capitulating or resigning myself to God’s will (that might not be my will). Gratitude bubbled up out of nowhere. Suddenly I was counting all my blessings, the big ones and the minuscule, and thanking Him. I couldn’t stop smiling. If I had been in a public place I’m sure I’d have been looked at with narrow-eyed suspicion - what is that old fool smiling at?

Is this where spiritual maturity kicks in and prevails? Experience and lessons learned bearing fruit? I have been in strife and tribulation many times before and He was with me then so why would I not trust that He is with me now? Or was it something else? Did He have mercy on me and touch me with an extra measure of Grace? The kind that reorders the brain to think in terms of blessings instead of troubles? 

Why would He do that? 

What if the whole exercise was God desiring to be happy? What? This made me consider that perhaps making God happy is way more important than me being happy.

Which begs the question, what makes God happy? 

So while I have no way to explain the unfathomable depth of all that, just realizing it gives me a joy that definitely surpasses all understanding. For me, the take away is: joy is one of those experiences that we can’t find but rather it finds us, even in the middle of the storm, not because we have control but because He does. 

It’s another kind of blessing. Possibly the best. 

For Him,

Meema

And Deliver Us From Evil

I would rather post something light and encouraging to kick off 2016 but given the alarming rise in apostate religion, made virulent and so easily accessed by the World Wide Web, I believe a serious note is in order and the time has finally come that I should share this. For those with eyes to see and ears to hear. 

On New Years Day 2009, I quit working for a web-based “Bible-based ministry'. The day of my resignation did not come suddenly but was actually two plus years in the making. 

In 1999, I dived in to help what seemed to me to be a man who was all that he claimed to be, humble, simple, truth-seeking. Then, over time and by the fifth year of my involvement, cracks began to form in his teachings. Contradictions, reversals, and unbiblical interpretations emerged to reveal that the ‘anointed one’ was really just a very human control freak with his own personal weaknesses and strongholds. 

What appeared in the beginning as fresh revelation became nothing more than cleverly crafted un-doctrine that sounded good but in practice was nothing more than legalism redefined–rules and laws for striving to perfection, devised and prescribed by one imperfect, flawed person who knew how to employ ‘signs,  wonders, dreams and visions’ as mysterious, revelatory ‘secret other knowledge’ that is so attractive to so many nowadays. Unfortunately it is a subtle snare that promises great supernatural empowerment to followers even as it gently enslaves them to the persuasive power and mindset of the leader.

The undeniable tell is the fine-tuned skill that enables him to turn scripture and natural spiritualism into a weapon of psychological control with perfectly executed sincerity, self-denial and servility. 

What amazes me, in the clarity of hindsight, is that I stayed so long after I could see something was definitely wrong. I can make excuses all day, I can claim I had formed friendships that I hated to upset or abandon. I can whine that I was brain-washed or rationalize that I needed the experience to make me a strong voice of opposition in the aftermath, to be able to sound the alarm when necessary.

While some of that might be true in part, I think it mostly came down to me being just too invested to let go. Even though it was a volunteer position, it was like a real job and I had put so much into it I hated to just give it up and walk away and admit I was a fool or that I had been so wrong. So, my feet dragging was likely just a human ego thing. That I eventually was able to break the ties that bound me can only be attributed to God’s intervention. For that I am truly grateful because I know some continue to stay for nothing more than fear to leave. 

Fortunately, I was too naive to be subject to the fear thus I was never a full-fledged devotee. Perhaps because I lived in a different state and was not a part of the day to day operation, although I knew many of the inner workings that could be described as dirty secrets that all such organizations hide (think $$$) but my function was more mechanical than ministerial. 

There was one individual close to the cult-leader (and that is what he was and still is) who later came out who eventually contacted me and told me how shocked he was to discover that I had been such an integral part of the ministry because the leader never mentioned me as anyone other than “the lady who prints my books”. 

That he kept my existence minimized did not shock me. I knew he did not like that I often challenged him with questions, especially toward the end. Crazy me, I didn’t know that you can’t do that to a cult leader who requires unwavering devotion to his words and deeds. It’s easy to conclude he only kept me on board because I was useful to him in spite of being a thorn in his side. Turned out, according to him, I had a “Jezebel Spirit” that made me so contrary.

But again, hindsight is so 20/20. You see the big picture much more clearly when all the unrecognized or denied pieces are revealed and fitted together. 

Sadly there are still many who are being drawn into this man’s religious delusion  (and it is his delusion because he truly believes what he teaches) even as others have escaped. Which begs the question, why do some see and others do not? Is there a personality type that is attracted to fear-based religion? Can it be said there are those who desire to be controlled? And can this not also be said of the polar opposite kind of ‘just do what feels good’ religion that attracts even more devoted followers, that there is some fundamental weak spot in human makeup that makes us vulnerable so we can easily be drawn in to that which seems so right to us? 

When I left I expected to be vilified in his website, as he had done to so many others (how is that Christ-like?) because he does not take kindly to people opposing him and/or leaving his lair (a classic cult descriptor). But for some reason, likely God’s intervention again, he chose not to, I have often wondered if he had of called me names and posted our private emails would that have opened some eyes to see this man for what he really is? A charlatan, a tyrant who demands undivided loyalty, respect and fear of him who adroitly uses Scripture like a whip to keep his herd in line–who some have actually come to believe is an equal to Jesus as he ever so humbly accepts the honor because, as he claims, God has already told him he was but he still needs the prayers of the brethren so he can fully rise to the position. 

That’s not even a hidden snare. 

The point of sharing this is to warn that there are all kinds of tricksters in the great wide world. Some are quite secular and operate successfully in all manner of positions of authority especially politics, but way too many hide under the sheep wool of religion and righteous sounding religious vernacular and behind the mask of false humility.

A good rule of thumb is: if it sounds good, it might be good but watch what it does first before you dive in, believe, follow, support or be involved with. Satan is prowling in overdrive now and he has all manner of ways to pull you away from the Truth and thus render you spiritually disabled. If one way is too obvious, he will try it another way. Never doubt that Satan can use signs and wonders too.

Going the extra mile to be discerning, to pay attention to even the smallest red flags, to measure the questionable things before dismissing them, might save some time, trouble and unnecessary grief, not to mention your life savings. For all its negatives the Web is an easy way to do a small amount of research. All one has to do is type in a name. 

As is true of all who find they are trapped in a cult, waking up and admitting you’ve been had is the first step to escaping. But fear of leaving is a sure sign you surely need to escape. 

Which means the most difficult extraction from any cult, especially apostate religion, is of those who have been duped but then, even when the truth is clear, consciously continue to choose to trust and fear the wrong one anyway. 

One can’t help but wonder why.

For Him,

Meema

LInks

20 Warning Signs

Free pdf download - Signs and Wonders and Snares–Oh My! Finding the Road Back Home from Christian Mysticism