Old Age & How It Brings Blessings!

Old Age and Blessings                                                 Kelly Durant    2-23-25

Lev 19:32

32 Thou shalt rise up before the hoary head, and honor the face of the old man, and fear thy God: I am the LORD.

 

2.There is a quote in English that says: No wise man ever wished to be any younger! There are a lot of benefits to growing old, but I am referring to growing mature in the Lord! But like they say, wrinkles should be on the face, not on the heart!

Let’s look up Titus 2:2-4

2 That the aged men be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in charity, in patience.

3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behavior as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;

4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

 

That scripture tells the elderly to be serious, temperate, strong in faith, love and patience. The youth can learn a lot from the more mature.

What is old really? Consider in different countries people die at different ages.

 

3. It is the job of the young to learn from the aged and experienced and the older ones should be teachers! That is if they are close to the Lord! You lived all those years and all you know can benefit many people, so all the elder here need to consider they have a job in our Corps, they should be mentors to the younger. 

 

That is what the Word commands us to do and we need to retain the old mentality of respect for our elders! It is Biblical.

 

Today we have a generation of kids that disrespect the elderly and their parents, and according to the 10 commandments to honor your father and your mother, if a child insulted his parents breaking this commandment, he was to be stoned to death! God is serious about us respecting those that are older, especially parents!

Deuteronomy 21: 18 “If a man has a stubborn and rebellious son who will not obey the voice of his father or the voice of his mother, and who, when they have chastened him, will not heed them, 19 then his father and his mother shall take hold of him and bring him out to the elders of his city, to the gate of his city. 20 And they shall say to the elders of his city, ‘This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious; he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton and a drunkard.’ 21 Then all the men of his city shall stone him to death with stones; so you shall put away the evil from among you, and all Israel shall hear and fear.

 

4. There are many articles about how we age and most of them state how people often get more mellow, more friendly, happier, and even more productive. KFC was started by after Col. Sanders retired from the military. Many people of 55 plus years go on to accomplish great things in business, in writing, in service to the community. Old age is a blessing! 

 

And let’s look at the way God has acted throughout the Bible history. He called Abraham and Sarah when they were old to raise their anointed son. He called Moses when he was 40 but he was still too young and impulsive. Then God didn’t call him again until he had watched sheep for another 40 years, and he went to free the children of Israel at age 80! 

 

Many of God’s prophets were not used by God until they had become aged men. I think some people at age 40 are still not yet mature. It is not the age of the body that matters as much as the age of the spirit and how much you have learned. 

 

5. It is God’s plan that we grow more mature in Him. There are some people that get older and still make the same mistakes over and over though, and that is because they are not seeking God every day. Some people just get older but not wiser.  Let’s look up…Proverbs 16:31

31 The hoary or gray head is a crown of glory, if it be found in the way of righteousness.

 

In other words, if you are old with gray hair, and you are close to the Lord, living in righteousness, you are wearing a crown of glory! But the older ones must live in the path of righteousness, and that is a purity that comes after years of practicing righteousness and holiness. 

 

Here, and in other cultures, gray haired people are usually taken to be wise, but wisdom does not always come with gray hair. So why is it that some people hide their age? My mother wore a wig that was the color of her hair when she was 40, so even though when she was 80, she appeared to be about 65. That is what she chose, but natural is fine too. It is the heart that is what matters!

 

6. Sometimes, some people may equate old with slow and useless. In my time here with the Salvation Army I have met many older and retired Officers and what I have seen is amazing. They are a sharp productive group of people! I have seen some retire at 65 and keep working in some form for another 20 years! And like some of you here, your memory of Bible stories and of life experiences is lucid. 

 

I’d say the average life span of a U.S. Officer right now must be at least between 85-90. Even though we live a busy stressful life for the Lord, it is as though the Lord blesses us with length of days for serving Him. Look up

Psalms 92:13‑15

13 Those that be planted in the house of the LORD shall flourish in the courts of our God.

14 They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing.

15 To shew that the LORD is upright: he is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in him.

 

I want to tell you; in my 54 years of ministry, I have gotten to know thousands of people. There are elder ones I know right now that have looked for the Lord most all of their days, come to church or spread the gospel somehow, and lived holy lives and they have prospered in usefulness. On the other hand, some people I have known that have been slow to get close to the Lord, I have seen them over time be the same but even worse in condition than what they use to be! Age will regenerate you and you will feel young when you live for the Lord, or age will kill you, when you are not on the right path spiritually!

 

7. The U.S. is made up of people of all races that are getting older! It is our job to bring them into fellowship and love! Many of them have solitary lives and they pray every day to keep their health so they can get around to walk to buy food. And we always need to thank our church drivers who pick up these weaker ones here who do not drive due to their age or heath. 

 

We need to thank those who visit the elder in the Community Care ministries too. Remember, the people out in the world, those that have not known righteousness and our loving, life filling renovating Christian way of life, are not anywhere near as happy as we are in this Christian life in the fellowship of our brothers and sisters. We can see the effects of time on earth without God in the rude and dull people that are in the retirement centers, who often are not so old, yet they are characters that challenge your patience. 

 

One time when Regina was in a hospital, there was an elderly lady beside her that had had an operation to cut out a cancer, but it was too advanced, and she was going to die within a few weeks. Despite that she cussed like a sailor and had no reverence to God; she was old but not pure or righteous in any form or fashion. It was not pretty with her family nearby. Sad, right? Righteousness in old age is everything according to scripture! Righteousness is within the same as category as holiness, which we always proclaim and preach, and it induces respect.

 

8. Will you be energetic, in love with the Lord, and with life, and blessed because you planted in His house and won souls to Jesus? I have met many older people in my time and isn’t it true that we see amazing things happen in the Salvation Army? 

 

Most teachings of service, generosity, and encouragement, all come from the older faithful ones! My question to you who are younger is, how is it going to be for you when you are older with gray hair?

 

Will you be old and bitter about how you don’t have what you wanted out of life? Will you complain how others treated you unfairly, how you should have been richer, or blame how your family held you back!? Age & time is a collection of what was lived day to day and only you answer to God for all things! Daily living in God’s word and in His praises will always be renovating your Spirit even though the outward body is wasting away.  But we as humans with our mistakes and sins and with our own carnal minds, tend to degenerate and discourage, so counter it and live in God’s word and strength from day to day! 

 

9. Here is some reality news…each of you (and me) are dying! So, if we are dying no matter what we do, and some of us will pass on to glory before others do, why not live out our glory in Jesus Christ? Paul said he died daily, and that implied that he, and we must kill the bad in ourselves that is preventing us from being holy and right with God. 

 

2 Corinthians 4:16 Therefore, we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. Our internal spirit can be renovated! Each one of us is responsible for the effect of what we are feeding our minds and spirits. 

 

With age we get better or bitter. Like wine that gets more fine, or like vinegar that gets more tart!  Let’s respect and pray for those that are elderly here today and let us make plans to grow old gracefully, full of His grace, and His love, and His righteousness, and His wisdom, and His patience, and His faithfulness! Pray for those you know who are elderly…today!

What Love Is...And What It Is Not

What Love Is, And What It Is Not                               Kelly Durant   2-11-18 RE 2-16-25

 

Matthew 22: 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’

 

2. When my daughter Renee was little, we would play a little game of words. She started this when she was about 3 years old. I would say to her, “I love you!” And then she would reply, “I love you more!” Then I would say, “No, I love you more!” To the which she would reply, “No, I love you more!”  And we would say this back and forth for 5 minutes!

 

Who wants to be loved? Have you ever thought about it, God gave us the natural hunger to want to be loved, right? When someone loves you, you feel in the clouds, you feel life has a purpose and you only want goodness and love for everyone else! Jesus gave us love as no other and we must explore the depth of this great love. God is love! (See 1 Jn. 4) Specifically, God Yahweh, Jesus’ Father, the great “I am”, is the creator of all things lovely and beautiful.

 

But love exists in many different manifestations. How many of you studied this in school? What is the love for a friend or the church brethren in Greek? Philia. What is the crazy love for your soul mate? Eros. What is the love for God and everyone, the giving love?  Agape. There are others, but the idea is we must learn to distinguish between what love is and what it is not. Some people might say they love ice cream, but we understand that is just an expression of what you crave, but real love is something to value, and we must understand it, and share it.

 

3. What concerns me about today’s culture is that we have lost the original meaning(s) of what love is. Some love ballads in the past decades seemed to have an ability to inspire a love for a man or woman, and that love is powerful, we all want that heart need satisfied as it brings joy. Everyone I know wants someone to love and someone to love them back to make them happy. And a puppy dog or pet is often the only source of love for many lonely souls! What is wrong with people today, losing their love for others? We have moved away from Biblical truths!

 

But in this most recent decade love has been redefined into something foreign, and grotesque and we must return to the roots of what love actually is according to the Word of God. Love is all inclusive, but love does not include loving those who destroy and harm. Stop and pray for common sense! Nature and God’s creation reveals natural love.

 

There has been a concerted effort in the past decade(s) to destroy love, to destroy people who love, to stop playing the music of love, and mock those who do acts of kindness!  Christians, in a majority are real lovers of the hurting, doing acts of love.  Jesus said in the ‘end-times’ “the love of many would turn cold”. This persecution against loving people comes from Satan himself who hates love. Satan and his demons, in positions of power and influence, hate our Jehovah God of love, and most of all he and his roaming demons hate Jesus because Jesus is the very most powerful Loving One! He is the embodiment of absolute sacrifice and love for all humanity! Jesus’ love fills your spirit with happiness it saves your soul for eternity, and for Satan that means you are one that got away. You escaped his deceptions, so you are escaping his enslavement, bitterness, and hell and he hates you for it! You escape by God’s love, He first loved you, but then you must love Him back!

 

4. God wants us to love our enemies. Why? Because haters want to convert you into being a hater as well! Satan’s unhappy condemned followers want to infect you with their unloving disease of hate, but be wise to their game, don’t fall into their trap. Reflect on it, it is not easy at all to keep on loving when you are suffering the damages of hate. But we can only win by love!

 

Because Jesus commanded it, we will obey it! Matthew 5:43-47

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. ...The idea is to do your part and try to convert these haters over to your side, to the side of love!

 

Having love, and forgiving others, does not mean you allow any person to continue to enslave, torture, and destroy you! As Christians we must be wise. To forgive evil and then think we need to let it keep happening is insanity; love means you expose evil so that the shame and punishment takes it far away from you. Love is not illogically loving those who are unrepentant and perverted wanting to keep you as their victim! These abusers want to equate lust as love and convert you into being a child of hell as they are! Many Hollow-wood people seem to adapt the same liberal politics as their abusers, which is insanity, you would think they would consider them repugnant and be the opposite! What is love? It is healing, the opposite of pain, shame, and justifiable punishment! 

 

5. Matthew 22: 37 Jesus said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Here is a curious detail.

 

You are to love your neighbor as you love yourself. What does it mean to love yourself? Do you love yourself? But when does loving yourself go too far? How many of you love to indulge in pleasures? A movie or a concert may not be so bad, unless the message is perverse. Many people spend most all of the money they make from week to week on their selves, right? Maintaining and loving the body God gave you is important, but it must be kept in a balance, not being excessive in consumption. Love is not mutilating yourself with dozens of surgeries, abusing your body, for an elusive beauty!

 

If you love another as yourself then you will feed them, do nice things for them, and even do things for those unfortunate one, peoples you may not even like. Parents love their children. A parent’s love will even give up new clothes for their own selves in order to buy new clothes for their kids. Love is manifested in being kind to yourself and others, being altruistic, sacrificial, giving, and affectionate. Let’s review what the Bible says about love; many of you know these things, but are they practiced authentically? Do you love God? Then practice these things:

 

1 Corinthians 13: 4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; 5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; 6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; 7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 (a) Love never fails.

 

6. God is love, meaning caring, saving, merciful and protective. But take note how love, as defined by the world, has gotten off track in today’s culture. Remember that our current culture is one in which “good is bad and bad is good”. Satan’s design, through social engineers and demonic influences work through political leaders, through putrid swamp governments, through perverse entertainment, and through commercial music to subvert what love was intended to be. Love today, for many people just implies lust, the embracement of awkward sins, and the catering to perverse appetites.

 

Real love includes you and me loving sinners (we all are saved and redeemed sinners), but as Christians we must hate sin, why? Because it destroys and God’s Word commands it.  You cannot love Satan and his children and God and his children at the same time! Psalm 15:4 In whose (ours) eyes a vile person is despised, But he honors those who fear the Lord. Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way, and the perverse mouth I hate. (There are certainly millions of perverse mouths on the news channels and the internet!) People today talk all about what they hate, but when do they proclaim love?

 

Do not let Satan trick you into thinking you are a hypocrite if you do not “love” his shameful sins and his repugnant, evil, destructive people! Never let anyone shame you into thinking you should love and accept horrible people who manipulate with intimidation, lies, deceptions, perversions, and abuses. Satanism is sadly increasing. Much evidence proves human sacrifice is still taking place as it did in the days of the O.T. as it was with the Satanic idol of Moloch. We are on the side of those who denounce and abhor the works of evil, the practices of evil dignitaries who murder, oppress, and exploit. Do not, never let the world tell you who to hate as many mindless uniformed people go with the flow of hating Christians and good people. ‘For wide is the gate to destruction’, and how we see the flow of the masses degrading down to the gates of hell! Listen to me, and to the people of God telling you to love all people and pray for everyone near you! Jesus is the winner and He is God’s love for all who receive Him!

 

7. As a general rule what the world loves and says is “good” is actually “bad” and even Christians choose the wrong side many times because, they are not close to God! Hosea 4:6

My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.  God warns us all not to “love the world” nor be ignorant.

 

There is a severe judgment coming for those who “love” and prefer the evil trends of the world over God’s love. 2 Kings 17:17 “And they caused their sons and daughters to pass through the fire, practiced witchcraft and soothsaying, and sold themselves to do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger.” Loving what’s in the world, such as idolizing politicians, musicians, actors, or any person, implies that you may be aligning yourself with people who are outright Satanic worshippers! Some Christians are so deceived they think they will go to heaven while they never proclaim a “love” for God, telling others of Jesus, or doing anything to prove they are different from anyone else in the world. Love is verb; what action do you do to prove you love as God commanded?

 

The perversion of love today is nothing new. The people of God, the Israelites several thousands of years ago, having a God of purity to guide and provide, degraded their selves to worship Satan’s idols, even giving their own infant children to be burned up horrifically in a huge bronze idol, the idol of Moloch. Imagine being so dead to love you kill your own?! The opposite of love will lead to a degradation into horrific evil! Evil must be conquered by practicing a supernatural love from Jesus that fights for the innocent, the abused, the enslaved, the broken, the hurting, the impoverished, and the corrupted soul!  

 

8. So how will you be able to give and receive real love in our degraded, perverted, abusive world of today? Only by being led by God’s Holy Spirit! It means you must love God above all things and get on your knees and beg Him to give you a loving heart for everyone, everyday! 

 

I have to do it, God has to refill me daily with love and His Divine Word to keep on going despite how much evil there is. The temptation to hate and to stop trying to love is great, but only by love is how we can win and conquer the world for God! Pray for God to send loving people as friends in your lives! God’s love is still out there and it is powerful, but you must search for it. 

 

And loving everyone includes, in particular, those in your own house, those in your family, those in your church Corps, and those in this community. I know you keep yourself alive and cared for so, “Love your neighbor as yourself!” Love everyone, even your enemies. Love is laying down your life for the brothers and sisters!

 

9. Have you heard the quote, ‘It’s not enough to love the flowers, you must also hate the weeds?’ This is how love works, it nourishes the lovely, it loves and is loved back, but love also protects the lovely and weak from the aggressive evil that comes in to destroy. God is love, but He also protects His own children and He is also a burning fire which purifies and burns away evil that gets close to His presence destroying those who would destroy. 

 

So, for all aspects of life, ask God for wisdom on who to love and who to resist! Young people be careful not to fall in love with just anyone, as love is blind, and you may be investing heavily in someone who will never change to be loving as you are as a Christian. In the end, a one-way street love will dry your spirit and make you disillusioned, cold, and void of love for God and others unless you repent and heal and start over. Ask God to bring people who are true and loving in your life, otherwise you are a victim to random unloving people.

 

Without love? What a tragedy that so many people start off life loving everyone (but loving the wrong kind as well, loving what the world tells you to love) and end up getting severely burned and made bitter to the point they become haters and join the ‘hater groups’ to just spout hate, hate, and more hate daily over any little thing. What a sad, trapped, condemned life Satan offers when you leave God’s loving side. We all must repent and learn to love what God loves, and that includes every person! It’s clearly in His Word, do you read it? Will you hate evil and defend the things of God instead of the things of the world? 

 

Chose today, will you stand with God’s faithful lovers, the proclaimers and obeyers of Jesus’ love, message, and salvation? Or will you slide all the way down by hate and bitterness to the level of the degradation of the Satanic hater abusers? The world glorifies hate and perverseness as love, but we denounce it as deception and evil. Daily we see in the news the unloving Satanic ones of the world are falling quickly into their deserved condemnation, shame, and ugliness (and jail). The final judgment will condemn them to an eternal hell! You and I must love as many as we can out of their hell while they still have life, but they must choose love, as God taught us, to be restored. This is our mission, to love! Jesus loves you and I do too!

 

 

How to Show Love! Can you perceive it?

How to Show Love! Can you perceive it?            Kelly Durant   2-12-23

 

 

1 John 3:16

16 Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

 

2. We will talk about love today! I actually could talk about love all year long! I was about 13 when the Beatles sang “Love, Love, Love”, and at that time that message was speaking to everyone, “All you need is love! It’s true, but what we need is God’s love, and the love of each other, or we will shrivel up and die!

 

In I John 3:16 (a supplement to John 3:16) it begins with; ‘Hereby, perceive we the love of God’. The first key word is…perceive! Love is not love until you give it away. Love is a manifestation of an action which is from some feeling, or emotion, or passion: an action! Love is hard to describe but to give an illustration it is like the wind that we can see by what its affecting, but we cannot see the wind itself. We often try to write about love, millions have, but it’s complicated!

 

Today some people want to degrade love into having a meaning only in s-x, in something only carnal when love is Spiritual. That is a very huge misconception promoted by deceivers twisting perception. In perspective: God is love! 

 

3. Love is the opposite of selfishness, instead of the person making him or herself the owner and center of everything; it is a position that gives up all status and possessions to share with another. Look at the way Jesus showed love! He gave up His life! He even died in a horrible way because it was God’s plan for Him to be our atonement for sin. His love was healing, redeeming, forgiving, and beyond!

 

In the verse we perceive what is implied by knowing all of what Jesus did for us, he died on the cross and gave us the forgiveness of sins and the gift of resurrection for eternal life. 

‘Hereby perceive we the love of God, because he laid down his life for us: and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren’. He set the example of how far love should go! Do you perceive that!?

 

4. Jesus chose to give up all of what He could offer us, and this included His time, talent, and treasure. He gave up all, all the time while He was alive and then He gave up all in his death. Laying down his life was something that was a proof, and manifestation of love all while here on earth. Laying down His life for us implied that this was for all people of all nations and tribes, in the past, present, and future!

 

We know how Jesus gave up all to show us love, so now let’s meditate on how to get others to perceive His love and our love inspired by Him. Before applying this to the work of God, let’s apply it to the normal universal human relationships which God created as an example for us to learn from.

 

5. The effects of love we can understand, or perceive, in the manifestation of the 3 T’s; time , talent, or treasure. I recall as early as age 14 when one had feelings of love for another girl (or guy for the women) the expected was that you show off your talent. You had to reveal your love! I have written several dozens of poems in my life while in school and I am sure most of you have too. And around this time of year Valentine’s Day cards and poems are sent and mailed and delivered, not to mention chocolate and flowers, so love has become a multimillion-dollar industry!  

 

Just to erase any doubts the most beautiful and intense songs I have written have been for my wife Regina! One Chorus of a song states this:

“And every day you choose to stay, shows how love wins anyway!

Hey, I know love is for eternity, Hey, You know it is what made us to be!”

 

Common poems were like this: Roses are red, violets are blue

Sugar is sweet my love, but not as sweet as you! 

(But being commercialized, few respond to these kinds of words anymore, ha!)

To prove love’s intensity, or passion, you must apply your own personal unique creative inspired talent to make a difference!

 

6. Another proof of love is in treasure, or the sacrificial part; how much are you willing to spend or give up? If she knows you have a lot of money and you buy one rose only, instead of a dozen you may be in trouble for being looked at as cheap! When there is love, the other person expects to be treated with more class than the ordinary. Love must have evidence of being over the top!

 

To prove seriousness, or dedication in love, you must apply your personal money, material goods or treasures. In life, whether it is for your mate, children, parents, or a friend, when you show you are willing to sacrifice in way that it counts, costs, or is a sacrifice, then you make an impression. 

 

Until you or I sacrifice something in a big way, we won’t be proving we have much love. The cost of love is that it does have to come with a sacrifice!

 

7. Another imperative factor for love is time. You cannot say to your boyfriend (or girlfriend) I love you, but I don’t have time to talk to you because ‘I am too busy’!? For important people, the ones we love, our bosses, or our friends, we all have a tendency to make time to communicate! If you are not sharing all the details of your life, your dreams, your pains, your desires with the one you claim to love, then how could that one believe that there is love present?

 

To prove credibility, or confidence in love, you must take time to share your innermost secrets, fears, desires, and dreams.

Taking these examples on the manifestations of love, we can apply them as a thermometer to determine the hot or cold temperature we have in our love for God.

Let’s review this one more time with loving God and others in mind…

 

8. Talent: Do you share your talent with God and others? Some of you do it well and Regina and I, and everyone here, and in particular God, sees every little thing done with your talents. You show your love by: cooking, painting, teaching, singing, cleaning, leading meetings, and disciplining. God knows the names of the faithful and so do we.

 

Treasure: Any program, any building, any operation requires money and thank God we are able to keep on going due to your tithe and offering support, the support of the outside donations, and by the major gifts donated by those who have it and are generous with it! I know many of you give the maximum of what you can, and God knows, and he blesses the cheerful giver. I have seen others give their time since they did not have any money or goods and that is valid as well and I am amazed at how God keeps providing for the church and for each of you!

 

Time: I have given out books to lots of folks as a tool to help each person spend more time with God. We must be doing more prayer, and more prayer in cell groups too.  Everyone must spend quality time with God, we all must study His word and consume it as our daily bread, so we learn what it is He desires from us. Imagine if you have a friend but you never want to spend time with them or learn about their wishes or needs? It takes time to love!

 

9. We pray and talk to Jesus as our best friend, so He knows we are honoring Him and His Father, and our time spent with Him is proof of our connection to Him through mental and verbal communication. 

 

And finally, finishing the verse it states: ‘and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren’. The point is, Jesus proved His love, He laid down His life: now all of us are forever challenged to prove our love by showing the same level of sacrifice! Thank God very few of us will have to die on a cross like Jesus did but we must be as sacrificial as He was. Proof requires manifestation in time, talent, and treasure all given to God’s work, and to another, a brother or sister!

 

With these perceptions out on the table it is time to evaluate how good a lover you are. Do you spend quality talent, treasure, and time with the one you claim to love? Or with your friends? What about your enemies, Jesus even states for us to love our enemies!

 

And with God? If God were to measure your love for Him, what do you do to show your love for Him and to show your love for your neighbor as yourself? Mark 12:30-31

30 And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this is the first commandment.

31 And the second is like, namely this, Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself. There is none other commandment greater than these.

 

10. We have the standard of Jesus laying down His life and this was the maximum love ever expressed by God and by His Son on earth! Doesn’t this type of supernatural, unexplainable, amazing, intense, merciful love provoke a response?! How much will you love back then?

 

There is a limit and a balance to loving others, however. Matt 7:6

6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

 

You and I both have had bad experiences with other human beings with whom we have given a lot of love to; we have given our passion, our dedication, and our confidence only to be betrayed because they were too selfish and arrogant to understand what love is and be reciprocating and thankful. Measure if others are thankful or ungrateful, giving something or nothing in return. Returning indifference for your passion, and indifference for your love is hurtful and sad.

 

Are you a person full of love yet? If you are then let’s see and perceive you serving God, loving Him and others, being on fire, speaking up, and giving of yourself! 

Love everyone today! Love God and Jesus back with a passion! Love your brother and give your life for him or her as the scripture spoke!

Human Trafficking: It’s Worse Than What You Have Ever Known!

Human Trafficking: It’s Worse Than What You Have Ever Known!  

 Re 1-26-25                                                                by Kelly Durant

 

2 Peter 2:2-4  And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

3 And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingers not, and their damnation slumbers not.

 

2. How many of you of think we are in better times, that in general slavery has been abolished? No longer are people wearing chains plowing in farm fields but is the era of slavery really over? This is Human Trafficking Awareness Month, and we must all be instrumental in helping to rescue and heal those caught up in it. How sickening and sad to know many children are used and abused and many corrupt officials and media outlets are getting paid off to let it keep happening!

 

I did a google search and this is what came up concerning slavery today…. ‘Estimates of the number of slaves today range up to 50 million, depending on the method used to form the estimate and the definition of slavery being used. Slavery in the 21st century  https://www.walkfree.org/global-slavery-index/#:~:text=An%20estimated%2050%20million%20people,modern%20slavery%20for%20160%20countries

 

Is that not shocking? That is like the entire population of Colombia, or Spain! And honestly, I think those numbers are low! Many of the persons trafficked are prostitutes, even child prostitues! About 2-3 million are in the United States and many of them are minorities.

 

3. How does God feel about people owning other people as their slaves to be abused, adulterated, and extortioned? He detests it and excludes these kinds of people from heaven! 1 Corinthians 6:8-10 King James Version (KJV) 8 Nay, ye do wrong, and defraud, and that your brethren. 9 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.

 

But as you all well know, we live in a fallen world, taken over by Satan’s authorities which control religious, governmental, and entertainment organizations, and since we are in the end times, we can only expect more of these above named evil activities to increase. Also, much of it is coming to light!

 

It sad because so many young people, especially those of minorities groups or with single parents, fall into the trap of evil seducers who promise them big money and hob knobbing with influential people in exchange for committing crimes against God and humanity. After 5 or so years of abuse, they are often then thrown away to the street like a sick ugly dog, or murdered since they have no papers. These human extortioners, which range from street low-lifes to billionaires control their naïve victims usually by getting them addicted to drugs, by enticing them with wealth and fame, by exercising over them extreme fear and intimidation, and by disorientation moving them to another city or country, or island. As in the case of Epstein, many employ mind control tactics. They evade the law usually because the victims are afraid for their lives, for the lives of their families, and consequently they suffer in silence never seeking help.

 

4. Okay, now that I have shared the shocking information about how massive this abominable soul condemning abuse is, we must now ask ourselves, how can we be a part of the solution to help save the suffering? To begin with, you and I can pray God will use you and me one day to see an injustice and then act to do something about it. If only one person in every hundred people aggressively tried to help a victim out, we could rid ourselves of this plague in a few years. We might need to quadruple our jail space size though!

 

Here is a major problem I see; Christians and most large churches are afraid to tackle this issue but they should actually be the first ones to respond! It is a moral and physical injustice! And sadly, for some huge churches worldwide, sexual exploitation is ignored, covered up, and under Satan’s control, and it keeps on proliferating. Sexual sins in many ways are dividing and destroying the churches everywhere!

 

Millions of people commit the sin of omission for not denouncing this and doing something when they learn of someone being abused or falling into the hands of evil abusive people. I am very thankful that our church, The Salvation Army has safe houses for the victims in almost every State in the U.S., and we also have them in around the world where victims can get rehab, learn a skill, live in a new city, and start a new life. 

 

5. What is sad is that the world promotes sexual exploitation sins (porn, prostitution, etc.) as if they are normal, legal, and acceptable. A friend of ours who ran to be Mayor of a (certain) City told us that the first ones to come offer him money (in case he were the victor) were the owners of the strip clubs! Evil exploiters always work in the dark from behind the scenes, it is Satan’s secretive way.

 

The mafias in New York and L.A. don’t even need to pay off officials anymore to sneak in illegal drugs and people, all they have to do is find some rebellious teenager online that wants to run away from home! They get enticed by people they have never met and then after meeting up with them are trapped and enslaved just like in the movie 2017 ‘Trafficked’.  

 

These evil gangs can put her or him in a hotel room and make more than $1,000 per night, so one youth over time can make someone a million dollars before they are abandoned or killed! This is like having a chain on someone who is forced to labor. It is a hell with no freedom, no education, and no normal life like others. 

 

6. Have you ever wondered, what happens to all the missing children year after year? In the U.S. alone 800,000 go missing per year! That is almost 1 in every 100! Apart from exploitation many children are captured for Satanic ritual abuse (SRA)! The practice of abusing children and then killing them has been Satan’s game from the beginning of time! People who play with Satan’s crowd are commanded to perform acts that will guarantee them hell as a punishment for abominable works.

 

 The children of Israel were forbidden to offer their children to the false pagan (Satanic) gods who always wanted human sacrifice. Leviticus 18:21

And thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God: I am the Lord.

 

This is why Satanic groups in society are nothing to play with nor respect! Due to their secret evil practices by blackmail and coercion, Christians must demand they never be allowed in our community schools, libraries, or clubs and organizations. Their statues in public must come down! They are parasite vermin destroying communities from within by their immorality, corruption, murders and extortions.

 

7. Those of us who love God are often naïve to all the evil around us, while the people of the world think violence, disappearances, and exploitations are just the normal ways of the world. Those living a lie hold the truth as the enemy! Vs 2 And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.

 

The pattern we observe is that people who are evil, violent, vile and abusive, with secret sins having a double life, are the ones who are most outspoken against the people of God because we speak the truth, and the truth exposes their evil and lies! Christians usually are the only ones who expose their deeds as evil so we are hated the most, maligned and under attack, either to be sabotaged in our fellowships internally by Judases, shamed by the media, or shut down by new illogical, illegal, non-freedom-of-speech laws targeting us. 

 

After all the agendas are in place already, there is a now a new push to normalize pedophilia. Marriage, or casual you know what, between an 8 year old and a 50 year old should be legal and normal, according to many people who support certain political and religious views!? So, if the murder of a newborn is fine, then why not any s_x as one pleases? We are as in the days of violent Sodom and Gomorrah.

 

8. So we are on God’s side and what is He going to do about it? Vs 3. And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

 

God is going to judge, condemn, and lock into hell the demons and the dead souls who have practiced these abominable acts! The practice of demons is to own their host, to have them as their property or merchandise so they do extreme lude and offensive acts. They get them to recruit and entice others into a sinful lifestyle as well which will bring upon their souls and bodies horrible consequences and judgement. Beware that certain political parties, certain religions, and certain companies want to own you and me. They will punish you or kill you if you do not think, act, speak, and support all the soul damaging agendas they dictate to you. 

 

Satan hates God’s beautiful creation of humankind and he wants all ages and races of people to be rapidly killed by extreme exploitation! What a crime and an outrage that people would destroy their own, even those from their own families and neighbors by trying to own another’s soul, mind, and activity in order to make money from them, or get them to do evil. 

 

9. So, we need to warn everyone, even the children, and we need to do awareness campaigns to expose that this type of evil is an abomination to God and a crime against humanity. Human trafficking may include exploiting others for the drug trade, sexual abuse, and unpaid labor and an infinite amount of secretive sinful activities.

 

Take note that this abuse happens on a scale of entire nations! In (fill in the blank) if you do not like their government and policies, and if you do not conform to their abuse of you as a slave to their leaders to labor in a factory, you will end up in a slave prison camp. There your kidneys, or any body part, will be harvested at any moment they please so the state can then make a huge financial profit off of you! Atheistic political parties, or false Satanic domineering cult-like religions (those opposing the glorifying of Jesus), are murderous and abusive and never fulfil their promises to you for peace, equality, justice, and a god-like status. 

 

Watch and pray and be very cautious with certain organizations, gangs, mafias, and even your neighbor down the street, as Satan is always on the prowl, like a roaring lion seeking who he can devour. Pray that you and I can protect our own from being owned by another person who will make merchandise of them. Save your own, and save a stranger when possible! Jesus will guide you, be courageous! Let’s expose human trafficking so these monsters cannot operate in our neighborhoods! 

      

 

You know you can expose suspicious activities when you see them, here is a website for that https://www.dhs.gov/blue-campaign/identify-victim?utm_source=google.com&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=rg.search-fy20.broad-allcit&utm_content=human&utm_term=human%20trafficking%20statistics

Broken-ness: It’s Inevitable But It Brings Us Closer to God

Broken-ness: It’s Inevitable But It Brings Us Closer to God  Kelly Durant 1-19-25

Psalm 119: 66 Teach me good judgment and knowledge: for I have believed thy commandments. 67 Before I was afflicted I went astray: but now have I kept thy word. Matthew 5: 4 Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted.

2. One thing that has always bothered me about life was since I was a kid I noticed that when something breaks, it becomes worthless and trash, and that special thing is lost, if not able to be repaired, and it is gone from your hands into oblivion! When I was about 6, I recall I got an electric train for Christmas, and I was so excited. I watched it go in circles for hours, but that only lasted for one day! The instructions were to unplug the transformer when not in use and we forgot to do that, so it burnt up! The smell of the burnt wires, and the dead, once alive train, was gone. I was devastated!

All things break overtime, right? It is nice when you get a new toy, tool, some new shoes, but despite how much you like your new acquisition, it is bound and condemned to get old, wear out, and become trash, and be gone forever except for existing in your memory.

Because broken-ness and losses of all kinds hurts, few of us want to dwell on this subject. It really hurts when we lose a friend who dies. Notice that our own God created our psyche to be to designed to make us forget our pain and bad moments over time. Our losses and humiliations of never having something forever gets buried deep inside; but those memories are there, like a scar that few ever get to see. 

3. There are many ways we as ordinary people respond to our pain. Often a loss, a breaking event, or a trauma totally reshapes our being and causes us to become someone very different from whom we once were.  We meet and observe all different kinds of people every day, all choosing to live in reaction to their past experiences of both good and bad.

When a person is overly aggressive, overly shy, or extreme in some way, we often conclude they are that way because something happened to them to make them become that way. Some people have gotten so broken in life that they just give up, they no longer care how they look, no longer dream to accomplish something inspiring, and it is as if they have died and are still walking around like a confused zombie. How sad, right?

But broken hearts, dulled brains, and sad indifferent cold personalities, mad at the world, are not in God’s plan for humanity! The plan to see us broken, suffering in pain, sick, and confused is what Satan wants for us! This is why Satan hates Jesus so much, because Jesus brings healing, restoration, and a new life out of the brokenness. He takes us like a dried-up dead looking seed, not good for anything, and waters with His wonderful Words of life and makes us spring back into life to produce good fruit! 

4. What we must learn through our brokenness, like it or not, is humility. People that have had losses, or been broken, intimidated, abused, and deeply hurt can respond in 2 ways, either they forgive, and God heals them, or they decide they want to be the abuser, not the abused, so that they have the dominion but then they repeat the painful sins done on them! 

What a sick evil abuse it is when a person who knows personally about a deep pain, that instead of wanting that for no one ever, they, in response, repeat the evil that they experienced on another. That is Satan’s demons getting passed from one victim to another! 

Just living life’s breaking realities will push you and me towards God for comfort, or these pains will leave us permanently wounded in a world where no love or sympathy is our daily bread, and prideful selfishness takes over.  Over time you and I either start getting more full of Jesus, or more full of ourselves, and people full of themselves, prideful like Satan is, are very destructive dangerous personalities! Their boastful stories are boring, and they do not see how others see them as they are blind to their sin, shamefulness, and pitifulness.

5. Here are some verses that spoke to me when I was lost in the world, surrounded by other lost souls. When I read Scripture, it spoke to me…It penetrated deep!

James 1: 7 Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded. 9 Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. 10 Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up.

Like personalities in the movies, and by what I observed in people around me, I thought I needed to display myself with a tough façade, I needed to show myself to the world as strong, in need of no one, and arrogant so no one messes with me. But these verses convicted me to change! I was broken inside already, like most everyone when young, but to read I needed to be broken even more, that I should weep and be humble, well, I concluded the sooner I do this the better it will be for me!  I did shed tears when I prayed and sought God! True repentance is emotional, when God touches you!

6. Think of this, God’s heart is very broken over all the horrific sins in this world, and over our lack of love for Him, our creator, and the lack of love for each other. He needs us to be remade in His image, humble as Jesus taught us, desperate to share His salvation to this dying world that Satan is manipulating. Getting to know God’s heart will break yours!

There is a huge difference between humbling yourself, in giving your brokenness to God, and in getting humbled, intimidated, or broken by another. We must choose to let go of the past, to let the Lord do a new thing in our lives. God is in the business of taking broken lives and giving them a rebirth, but we must choose to escape the ways of the world and reset.

Jesus said we must deny ourselves, in other words leave behind all the pain, brokenness and baggage of who you think you are, and to take up the cross and follow Him. 

Luke 9 23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me. 24 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall save it. 25 For what is a man advantaged, if he gain the whole world, and lose himself, or be cast away? 26 For whosoever shall be ashamed of me and of my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed, when he shall come in his own glory, and in his Father's, and of the holy angels.

7. The way of Satan’s world is totally opposite of Jesus way! Broken people without Jesus usually seek positions of power; power is an obsession as it brings them pride and the feeling that they are in control despite their weakness. But it is for nothing! Once their sins are exposed, no one respects them anymore, they become hated and despised! Like Satan, they want adoration and worship, but they are not worthy of it lacking holiness and love! 

Satan knows how to break and hurt a person beyond repair. Jesus can heal but the fight to convert over to God’s side is real as demons do not leave quietly! In the secret societies they perform humiliation rituals on their unsuspecting initiates. The elites and ‘principalities’ of this world cruelly manipulate, by Satan’s design, their recruits by abusive power plays. Broken people become vulnerable for demons to take over.

It has been exposed of late that all high-level politicians, actors, musicians, entrepreneurs, and Satanic cult members get a humiliation ritual done to them. Their handlers make them participate in shameful acts such as making porn, consuming drugs, performing blood rituals, and worse! This creates a trauma from which it is very difficult to recover from! People become mentally insane puppets in their hands. Imagine the stupidity of agreeing to sell your soul to the devil for fame and fortune! How tragic! It leads to severe trauma, demon possession and those who want to escape it either go crazy or die (killed) young!

8. In conclusion, each one of us may have a good reason to justifiably be angry over being broken, over being abused, over being disillusioned of what one expected in life, but it did not happen. I have discovered in my years that almost every family is divided, almost every person hides their pain, and most every person will confess they feel lonely, rejected, and unloved! There are always hidden chapters no one wants anyone to know about!

Jesus came to love and heal us, He understands us as He Himself was broken! Isaiah 53:3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.

If we have lost possessions, or family, been rejected and are full of pain and sorrow, those things are just temporary anyway, so we must learn to give them up for The Lord. Doing God’s work is what brings togetherness and undoes brokenness. Matthew 19:29 And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life.

9. By age 20 I saw through the world, how Satan has all the people here crazy insane over not being loved, over being rejected and broken. Most people have no one to turn to when they have an accident, surgery, or suffer a loss, like the loss of a loved one. That’s why as Christians we must be different from the people programed by the lies of the non-loving values of this world.

John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another. In the end, He is the Potter, and we are the clay!

Are you broken? Do you need healing? Most of us are wounded healers by God’s grace! Do your family and friends let you down? Gain a new family in Christ by being a brother or sister to the hurting! Jesus was broken, everyone is, so let His love fill all the holes on your life!

The Difference between “A” and “The” changed my Life! A personal testimony, Kelly Durant

The Difference between “A” and “The” changed my Life!   

 

   Back in 1975, I was thoroughly steeped in the belief that every faith of the world is equal and all take you to God. I was young and misinformed, however, I wanted to find the truth so I began a very intensive search for it as if nothing else mattered. The world view that I held, sadly enough, still heavily influences a majority of young and old in our society. I have since that time questioned myself to determine what influences had affected me to the point to cause me to take that position. At that time when a Christian would express their faith to me, I would be offended if they were so affirming in stating that their “way” was the only one. What caused me to adopt this worldview?        

  

  In the University of Oklahoma in 1975, the main obsession I had was to connect with God. Most all of my daily conversations with friends were about Him. I ate brown rice most of the time (to purify my body), meditated Hindu style an hour daily, and read dozens upon dozens of books about the world’s religion. My obsession was driven in part by my love for music and in being a part of the trend in those days, (the Beatles and others were on the same search), my lack of inner peace, and my fascination with other cultures and what motivated their bazar displays of faith. I considered myself one of the most open minded individuals around but I soon met a dilemma.

 

   One day a Christian “witnessed” to me about their conversion. I respected his convictions but he insisted that Jesus was the only way to heaven despite my lack of agreeing with him on that. He said that Jesus was “the” way, “the” truth’ and “the “life” and that no man could go to God except by Him. I had grown to look upon Jesus as “a” way, “a” truth, and “a” life and as one of the great teachers. Sparks of short circuits went off in my head for weeks. Finally, however, after prayer and research, I decided to shift my paradigm, to accept Jesus as unique, as “the” only Son of God. I gave Him first place, made Him my sole focus, and I have never been sorry since! I later became better informed of all the cruelty, repression, war, and abuse prevalent throughout most all other world religions. Without a doubt I did choose “the” right Person and way to serve!

 

   The influences that clouded my mind the most to be so called “open minded” and accept every belief as equal, were the pop musicians, the news media, college professors, library books, and friends influenced by the same. Basically, it is the entire culture here that draws you away with that self righteous “I-am-more-enlightened-than-you-because-I-am-open-minded” attitude. Today I am a vocal enemy against anti-Christian propaganda (which is subtly being placed more and more in all means of communications) because of how it negatively influenced my life and caused me to reject “the” truth in Jesus for a time who is “the” only one who has the keys to eternal life. I believe any Christian with any love and conviction for their faith at all will not only share their faith in love to others, but will also expose the suffering provoked by this post modernistic pantheistic worldview.

 

 

Kelly Durant