When to Defy Authority: A Case Study of Daniel!

When to Defy Authority: A Case Study of Daniel!                 by Kelly Durant 7-28-24

Daniel 6:3 Now Daniel so distinguished himself among the administrators and the satraps by his exceptional qualities that the king planned to set him over the whole kingdom. 4 At this, the administrators and the satraps tried to find grounds for charges against Daniel in his conduct of government affairs, but they were unable to do so. They could find no corruption in him, because he was trustworthy and neither corrupt nor negligent. 5 Finally these men said, “We will never find any basis for charges against this man Daniel unless it has something to do with the law of his God.”6 So these administrators and satraps went as a group to the king and said: “May King Darius live forever! 7 The royal administrators, prefects, satraps, advisers and governors have all agreed that the king should issue an edict and enforce the decree that anyone who prays to any god or human being during the next thirty days, except to you, Your Majesty, shall be thrown into the lions’ den. 8 Now, Your Majesty, issue the decree and put it in writing so that it cannot be altered—in accordance with the law of the Medes and Persians, which cannot be repealed.” 9 So King Darius put the decree in writing.10 Now when Daniel learned that the decree had been published, he went home to his upstairs room where the windows opened toward Jerusalem. Three times a day he got down on his knees and prayed, giving thanks to his God, just as he had done before. 11 Then these men went as a group and found Daniel praying and asking God for help. 12 So they went to the king and spoke to him about his royal decree: “Did you not publish a decree that during the next thirty days anyone who prays to any god or human being except to you, Your Majesty, would be thrown into the lions’ den?”

2. As a child most of us learned about Daniel getting thrown in the Lion’s den and all of us were fascinated that he came out alive! It is an amazing story and a proof of God’s authority and majesty above all other authorities! Some die for the faith but then there are others being holy and outstanding that God uses to shock the world! Daniel continues to fascinate us with his prophecies!

So what lead up to Daniel’s arrest and punishment in this manner? This is what we will discover today and compare how it parallels many current world systems. In the scripture we observe that Daniel had an exceptional ability to receive messages from God, to know and understand His justice and precepts, which are eternal, and this wisdom from God, with God’s anointing, empowered him to predict the future and get it right! Something no other religious leader has ever done. Apart from Jesus Christ, Daniel is the one that has left us the most information about the future fate of the world! These predictions are truth and they continue to sober anyone who studies them! The world has witnessed already all the kingdoms come and go and we are on the final span of the mixed iron and clay!

3. It is very miraculous how he accurately predicted the rise and fall of the world kingdoms after his death! (Babylon, Medes-Persians, Greeks, Romans, and soon to come the 10 toes or final nations under the anti-christ) Later on in the book of Daniel one can discover that Daniel himself did not even understand all of the prophecies he recorded! Daniel 12:8 I heard, but I did not understand. So, I asked, “My lord, what will the outcome of all this be?”9 He replied, “Go your way, Daniel, because the words are rolled up and sealed until the time of the end. 10 Many will be purified, made spotless and refined, but the wicked will continue to be wicked. None of the wicked will understand, but those who are wise will understand.”

Jesus gives reference to the entire Book of Daniel in Matt. 24, in other words Jesus wants his followers to be well versed in his prophecies. Why? Jesus knew that through the centuries people would witness that all his prophecies would come to pass. Why do world powers or kingdoms rise and fall? It all depends on their rejection or acceptance of our God Jehovah and his Son Jesus! In the case of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar recognized the authority of Daniel’s God because after being so proud of his accomplishments he was humiliated to mental illness so that he lived naked like a wild beast for 7 years, and after this humiliation he returned to reign again. The words in Proverbs 16:18 are proven true: “Pride goes before destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall.” Apply that to yourself! (And I will to me!)

4. What was the situation of Daniel in chapter 6 (the first verses of today)? Darius the Mede who became King after conquering Belshazzar of Babylon, appointed Daniel as an administrator over a portion of his Kingdom. He was one of 120 appointed. I am sure everyone knew that it was Daniel that interpreted the writing on the wall of the prediction of the conquering of Babylon by the Medes-Persians Empire. 

Why did God allow this change of world powers? It was because of arrogance and the lack of respect to our God by the Babylonians! Observe Daniel 5: 22 “But you, Belshazzar, his son, have not humbled yourself, though you knew all this. 23 Instead, you have set yourself up against the Lord of heaven. You had the goblets from his temple brought to you, and you and your nobles, your wives and your concubines drank wine from them. You praised the gods of silver and gold, of bronze, iron, wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or understand. But you did not honor the God who holds in his hand your life and all your ways. 24 Therefore he sent the hand that wrote the inscription. 25 “This is the inscription that was written: mene, mene, tekel, parsin 26 “Here is what these words mean: Mene: God has numbered the days of your reign and brought it to an end.27 Tekel: You have been weighed on the scales and found wanting.28 Peres Your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians.”29 Then at Belshazzar’s command, Daniel was clothed in purple, a gold chain was placed around his neck, and he was proclaimed the third highest ruler in the kingdom.30 That very night Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain, 31 and Darius the Mede took over the kingdom, at the age of sixty-two.

5. What an immediate judgment! Now a new world power is in place and Daniel is respected by King Darius as a man of God, as an intelligent prophet and as one on their side. But always when an authority allows a man of God to be influential, the jealous corrupt people of Satan come out of the woodwork to persecute, attack, and destroy their reputation, influence, and seek their destruction. 

Notice even several thousand years ago that the tactics of Satan remain the same to divide and conquer. Satan is always active in the powers that be and active in the churches as well. Darius was a just king, his laws allowed for religious tolerance, and he did not have a problem with Daniel worshipping his Jehovah God, after all Daniel had a wisdom and power superior to even his own wise men!

But Satan working through evil people will always express their full epitome of murderous hatred and jealousy.  Since Satan knows he can never obtain the worship and power that God has, he does his best to destroy those who do love God and obey his statues. He tries to divert power to himself and be worshipped by imposition and applying the law is one of his favorite ways issuing death decrees on those who refuse to accept his dominance. Massive murders throughout all history have taken place by Satan’s world leaders. This includes all false religions, fascists, and communists! Over 100 million in the past 100 years!

6. When you read many books concerning power acquisition you run across a certain formula that Satan uses continuously in his divide and conquer scheming. It is the “thesis, anti-thesis, syntheses” formula. Let me give you an example from today’s lesson. The ‘thesis’ refers to the established system, let’s say the general consensus from the king is that religious tolerance is good, so as a principle and in practice it is legal and accepted.  Evil people who want dominance over the public know that they must destroy the established system in order to rebuild a new one in their own image, so they attack a noble principle which was fair and just with an ‘anti’ attack. Darius’ leaders convinced him to become religiously intolerant for the exaltation of himself!  ( Like with Esther as well!)

The goal of multitudes of evil people today is to abuse their liberty and destroy God’s people who are the ones that expose their evil abuses with truths that awaken the masses. This exposure prevents the people from being subdued under their evil practices. The goal of Satan is to use people as an instrument making them a “naysayer”. In meetings, they arise as the contradictors: the ones that always bring contention. They usually attack the established way accusing that it is not valid. The motive is to get others to accept their way as truth. And with a compromise, they get most of what in the final outcome, the synthesis. But here is a truth: a contradiction can never over-ride the truth even though it may deceive a majority of ignorant ones for a season. The truth of God always prevails!

7. In the 6^th chapter of Daniel Darius was tricked by his corrupt advisors to make a law restricting worship only to him the King. So blind pride caused Darius to change his tolerance to intolerance without analysis, so the ‘antithesis’ of the established was introduced and there were grave consequences. The ‘synthesis’ or outcome was not the expected by the schemers who sought Daniel’s death though as no one expected Daniel to survive the Lion’s den! But that miracle changed the direction of this new world kingdom and God Jehovah had influence in the kingdom!

Instead of the evil ones becoming the absolute powerful leaders that they envisioned their selves to become, they were exposed as scheming fools having no power to overcome the plans of God for the future! Remember, they got thrown into the den and they were eaten! 

And when Jesus came out of the grave, Satan thought he had defeated Him as well, but resurrection was an unexpected maneuver that changed all the laws of the universe forever! Death was conquered and Satan as well so that ‘whosoever’ (desires) can be saved if they just accept Jesus and seek to live as He lived. The lesson: God in his mercy is resolved to allow evil ones to destroy their own selves. No one can ever blame God for injustice! People reap what they sew!

8. Historian Arnold Toynbee said, “The only thing we learn from history is that we never learn from history.” This principle is a tragic truth as today we see that this nation is in crisis because the former functional and fair established system and law is being sabotaged by the ‘antithesis’ seducers. Sadly, few people are standing up to expose the corrupters with their evil hearts desirous of destruction scheming to shift absolute power into their undeserving hands. The U.S. has always had corruption but today so many leaders are so filthy it is evident that we, as a nation, are insulting God!

I will use the example of religious tolerance, which most people value; it is under very heavy fire as we speak. I had a conversation with a person whom I perceived had radical left views and he was telling me that this country has tolerated far too long all the Christian conservatives and that they need to be outlawed and imprisoned! It seems illogical that this mindset exists, that people would hate values that confirm respect and loyalty to all, but it is a sad truth: evil people hate the good and good people! Did you know that the new U.S. military manuals demonize conservative Christians, and they are to be treated as suspects or even terrorists? Why, what evidence justifies this? Do Christians in the U.S. show evidence of violence more than others?  No! The Middle Eastern religions and prayers on the bases are welcomed under the guise of ‘we are religiously tolerant’, but Christian pastors have been repeatedly shut out of doing services on many military bases! What a radical change from history! It was God that saved us in WW2! But if God is rejected, where do we stand?

When you investigate deeper you see that Christian non-profits are being denied permits and are being persecuted as well. The current tax system has far too much power (as in all nations) and they are the ones who with too little resistance continue to overtly persecute Christians and those who are not embracing their values which are diametrically opposed to God’s values as defined in the Bible. 

9. Today, respect for freedom of expression has been perverted from its original intent. The evil ones in power appear intent on drying up Christian influence by financial persecution. Christians are hated by evil people because they have clean enough hearts (exposing theirs) to perceive with wisdom the truth of their ‘modus operandi’ exposing their hypocrisy and corruption. The blind cannot lead the blind, but the seeing can!  Real Christians never accept a bribe or money to join the inner circle and keep quiet. But the law of reaping is like a rubber band, it goes only so far then it snaps so the backlash is coming. Who recalls that this nation rebelled and was born out of the concept of ‘no taxation without representation’? And how about remembering people came here to escape religious persecution!

One other thing, the anti-christ will demand that everyone worship him as god: now that is not being very religiously tolerant! Daniel 11: 36 “The king will do as he pleases. He will exalt and magnify himself above every god and will say unheard-of things against the God of gods. He will be successful until the time of wrath is completed, for what has been determined must take place. 37 He will show no regard for the gods of his ancestors or for the one desired by women, nor will he regard any god, but will exalt himself above them all. Read between the lines, we can see the nature of those who are anti-christ!

The imminent question is will you be as brave as Daniel? When word got to him that he could no longer pray to his God, but instead he by law had to pray to Darius, he intentionally left open his window for all to see that he was not going to submit to an unjust law, worshipping a man nor a false god, nor succumbing to their schemes! Their ‘anti’ tolerance was intolerable! Our first loyalty is always to God and we need to proclaim Him above all, always and forever! The Romans burned Christians alive in the arenas because they would not worship their leaders as gods as well! Caesar was god on earth and you were condemned as a law-breaker if you did not bow to him! But was that a sustainable system? No! Rome fell due to their corruption but how ironic that it became in part Christian in the last quarter of its end! It was too little too late! Almost no one today worships any Caesars, Venus, or any of their pagan gods! Satan’s cruelty fails in the face of God’s holiness, mercy, and love!

10.  Romans 14:8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. This must be our stance, our attitude, and our die is cast, we will stand up for the right! We must be imitators of Daniel and esteem God’s will above any law that contradicts God’s law. Ever since the 1960’s the laws of this land, against the will of the Christian majority, have been re-written to accommodate everything abominable, detestable, and ‘anti’ Biblical. Young people today are seriously confused because confusing contradicting laws are governing their world. Sadly they live with no past perspective of living in a safe predominately Christian society where no one locked their doors when Biblical laws reigned and 70% went to church. That was just a few decades ago! 

As Christians we live under grace and not the law, but still the Torah law does give us a guide for what kind of a healthy lifestyle God desires for us to have. God’s laws have worked very well for a few thousand years! However, today these basic functional laws which function well in any culture have been ‘anti-ed’, and no good synthesis is being produced! Laws pertaining to life, sexuality, religious freedom, protection from substance abuse, exploitations and on and on are our concern so we can protect our grandchildren and preserve society from decay. Many people today live in every way possible totally against a majority of God’s commands! They, of course, reject Jesus Christ and this is why no love is in them: they are the haters! We must always speak up against evil identifying evil as evil! 

11. So when should a person of God defy authority? Whenever it is a direct contradiction and attack on God’s commands! Remember what happened in the book of Acts when the hypocritical religious leaders were furious with God’s disciples for preaching?  5:28 “We gave you strict orders not to teach in this name,” he said. “Yet you have filled Jerusalem with your teaching and are determined to make us guilty of this man’s blood.” 29 Peter and the other apostles replied: “We must obey God rather than human beings! 

God protected Peter and the disciples, God protected Daniel and countless others throughout history who took a stance against those inspired by Satan who were seeking dominance by imposition of laws and trends contradictory to God’s truths that stand forever. Tolerance is the epitome of hypocrisy when demanded yet not given! You have God given rights, so stand firm on them and expose evil! Think about this, God never extended tolerance to idol worshipping murderers! In the Old Testament time of the law the climate was was either kill or be killed and today evil is dominating and expanding because evil doers are not getting enough resistance. Too many people are too afraid of what these abusers would do to them and what they would lose if they take a stand. But for Christians, it’s time to man up like Daniel!

Today is a good time to examine if you have any pride in your heart. Many people have lost their soul mates, or their jobs, over pride and we might even lose a nation if pride continues to provoke stark contradictions of God’s values. We live in times as in Isiah Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter. Our role is to fight for the standards of God and it is a tiring hard spiritual war! This is a warfare that includes the battling against demons in humans! So fight the good fight of faith defending it, amen? 

The Storms in Life: What Action To Take

The Storms in Life: What Action To Take         Major Kelly Durant  7-21-24 Psalms 61:8, Jeremiah 4:1, Matthew 7: 24-27

2. Earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, volcanoes, are all termed in the legal books as ‘Acts of God’. Why? Because these are powerful forces that no human being can produce, manipulate, or control! 

As humans, we are, in the end, weak tiny creatures and often all of us get reminded by massive catastrophic events how defenseless we really are! Also, we get reminded that we should build on the right foundation, that we need God!

3. Catastrophic events humble each of us. As Jesus reminded us that we are not like God, we cannot even make one of our hairs black or white. No one is a match to stop the pain of the massive catastrophes or ground shaking events that happen in our lives! 

Nature destroys at times, but how sad it is when evil human nature destroys! These are not acts of God but acts of men! These events are out of our control!

4. I was in New Orleans on 2 different reliefs. Most everyone knows that it is famous for its mix of French and African cultures with the Catholic one. These combinations are similar to Central and South America. New Orleans is known for its wild partying in the streets, creative jazz music, and distinctive Cajun culture. I experienced a variety of different accents, and spicy sea food.  It is a place where the football team has the name “Saints” and the restaurants have the name “Voodoo”!? 

It is very coincidentally disturbing that the storm, Isaac, hit New Orleans exactly 7 years to the day as Katrina. If you are superstitious or not, no matter how you look at it, God is in control, and He allows everything for a purpose. No one died this time though; thank God he protected life! This is God’s love and mercy to all! But when life fails, consider this:   Ezekiel 33:11 Say unto them, As I live, saith the Lord GOD, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O house of Israel?

5. No one should be surprised by these events since we who live on this earth know that man, and all creation, fell from perfection several millennia ago and came under a curse. Romans 8:22 For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. 

Physical storms and floods invade the lives of millions every year. This is a product of creation’s fallen nature. Devastation, even without nature’s forces, comes into our personal lives as well. Destructive events provoke great losses, and we wonder, what is God’s purpose in this? God tests our compassion, for one.

6. I, with The Salvation Army teams, fed the victims from the canteen trucks serving the suffering. The people often expressed appreciation for the food that we were providing since they had no electricity for many days. We also gave out cleaning kits and Wal-Mart gift cards.  It was amazing to find most everyone expressed gratitude, even after having lost all furniture and everything, people were still thanking God that they were going to get through it all that and they were glad just to be alive! 

7. Pain, apart from making us seek God, should bring us closer together to each other! In my experience in the past, I discovered, by hundreds of conversations that many of the people who lived in the suburbs, that were flooded were quite neighborly, looking out for each other, and the elderly. The lesson of the pain of Katrina taught the people of New Orleans to be more united.

Before, in the days of Katrina the situation was much more hostile, but the conclusion that can be deducted is that many people have learned better ways of dealing with crises; by looking out for each other, and applying prayer, positive-ness, patience, and persistence! As Christians these are the qualities we promote!

8. Now, let’s compare the hit of one of the massive storms to our personal lives. There are times that, due to the sins of others in the world, or due to our un-submitted to God nature, we suffer from bad choices. Adversity, loss, and the stripping away of all that we thought we had, may overwhelm many of us at some time or another in our life.    

The experience of people who lose everything by a disaster is not unique in many ways as it is a majority of the people who pass through some life-changing crisis sometime or another.

The storms of life are inevitable. Everyone goes through a storm of some kind. Some people lose everything by bad relationships or break-ups, or the death of a family member or a serious health problem. Other ones, like Job in the Bible, experience devastation due to invading events from the outside. Job kept his faith. Job 13:15 Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him: but I will maintain mine own ways before him.  Sadly, however, some people get bitter and blame everyone and God for their bad times. Recovery will not come with this attitude.

9. The frightening reality is that any one of us could lose our property, family, friends, and/or our health, overnight! It is in these painful times that we must exercise even more our faith to get us through. And, if we pray, and allow friends to be there for us, we will come out like pure gold refined in the fire as Job.

Some storms, or turmoil, come from the consequences of us having made bad choices. Why would anyone choose to build in flood area is always a question that reoccurs. Some people are just unwilling to give up their way of doing things to move to safety. But most of all, why would anyone choose to live without being close to Jesus, without establishing their life on the rock foundation, is the question that should disturb us.

10. Jesus points out that some are wise, and some are foolish. Matt 7:24-27   24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it.

The sand is the world and Jesus is the rock. Without faith and God’s strength, all we have collected over time, our efforts, our productions and goods, all will be washed away without supporting our lives on God’s salvation. People that lose all but have God, remain strong; those who don’t have Him usually go crazy.

11. And consider what Paul writes…

I Cor. 3:13 Every man's work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is.14 If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.15 If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.

God is the fire. Deuteronomy 4:24 For the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God. In the final presentation of our souls returning to our Creator, it will be like a person running out of house on fire. He or she will escape alive, but everything that is not of God in their life, or in your life, will vanish into smoke! But what you did for God; that you will get to keep forever!

12. Many people in life have had to start over. What you as a good Christian will not lose, if you are firm on the foundation of God, is your faith, and your place in heaven with your rewards for the works you have done on earth. 

In this country, and all around the world, most people are not right now rebuilding their houses due to a physical storm that has devastated their property but rather they are recovering from a personal loss, a heavy spiritual battle that has hit them hard. Many people do want to rebuild on Jesus, but they need help. 

We are living in hard times and those not experiencing pain must help those who are in pain. After experiencing a loss, after a deep injury, the biggest question by them is, where do I start to rebuild? We must help and guide one another. 

13. Sin, like a storm, destroys not just the one who practices it, but all the ones close by as well. Never is just one house flooded, it is entire neighborhoods! 

In society today, when you consider bankruptcy, divorce, addictions, and selfishness, it is more than one in every two homes that has suffered destruction of some kind. Devastation may have come by an act of God, or by an attack of the enemy, or it may also have been brought on by someone’s sin, even your own sin. 

It is sad reality that many of our Corps members, amongst everyone we know, we conclude that the storms in life have caused many to end up with broken dreams, broken relationships, and broken hearts, and also end up with no money as well!

The effects of sin we can compare to the destructiveness of a storm. At first it seems far away, and few believe it may cause any danger. The reality is very few people ever prepare for a storm with survival goods.  God’s Word, our faith, and His strength in us made perfect in our weakness… is our survival equipment! 

So how do we escape the pain of losing it all? Why not just give it all up all to Jesus today? The disciples gave up everything. Do a preemptive offensive.

14. Matthew 4:19-21  19 And he saith unto them, Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men. 20 And they straightway left their nets, and followed him. 

When Peter, James & John abandoned their fishing business to follow Jesus they appeared to have lost everything. It was the same as if a storm had blown their ships away. But they gave it all up for Jesus, the One who would reward them forever in heaven for following Him! And they gained the status of being one of the first of the faithful. Multi-millions of Christians have admired, studied, and respected the disciples ever since, and in heaven they have honored seats. Ask yourself, am I willing to give up my ship, my life, everything for Jesus?

15. To gain something better than what you will lose there must be a step of prevention. How do you prevent a fire from burning down a forest? You do a controlled burn, so that no dry leaves on the ground could burn hot enough or high enough to catch the limbs of the trees on fire. This is done in most national parks in the U.S. This is the lesson from the verses in I Cor.3:13.  Are you ready to do a controlled burning up of the things not of God in your life? Purge out the sin!

How do you escape a loss from a flood?  You build in an area where there is no flooding, on a higher ground with a solid rock foundation. 

16. Many people in the world, not just in New Orleans,  are in the phase of rebuilding what they have lost. In many places you see torn out carpet, cabinets, and drywall making huge piles of rubbish near the street. 

Don’t worry if people see your trash. You cannot stay alive in a house and not get sick if you do not remove the rotting wood, the slime mold, and the mud filled mattress! A pile of your trash out front is a healthy indicator that you have decided to no longer live with filth! 

Burn away the trash! Move away from the flood area! Rebuild your life on Jesus today and nothing in the future will affect you!

Let the old be burned or buried and replace it with the new. The physical things can be compared to the spiritual things in each of our own lives. Start building as of right now a strong foundation of faith in The Lord. Connect more with others of the faith, read & study the Bible more so you will know better how to save and help your own self! Soon afterwards, you will be able to help save others as well!

Christians are survivors! They have endured 2,000 years of losing it all due to persecution and torture and this continues today! If you have gone through a storm or you are going through one now, remember, where there is life there is hope.

Don’t just not do anything and lose it all when you die either! That would be a total loss! Starting today, get rid of the things and people in your life that are worthless, selfish, and self-destructive, in other words don’t tolerate “sin”. 

Do what you have to so you will never have to worry about future storms. Storms will come and go but you will be just fine, strong and prepared, because your treasure consists not in the things of earth, but in the heavenly ones. 

 

The Christian Saints of 100 Years Ago, We Need Them Again!

The Saints 100 Years Ago, We Need Them Again! Kelly Durant Re 7-14-24

1 Peter 2:5

You also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ.  John 4:35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest!  

 

 

2. You may have heard that the farmer was doing a fund raiser, and the chicken and the pig wanted to help. The chicken piped up, “We can sell a breakfast!” What a good idea all agreed. The chicken then said, “We can do ham and eggs!” There was silence. The pig said, “Well, for you that only requires one day of work, but for me it is a total sacrifice!” How much do you sacrifice for God? 

 

Some of you may have a good imagination, but I want you to try to imagine what it was like around 100 years ago when this Corps was founded. What did the first couple go through? How did they arrive? What conditions existed? What was life like then, was it hard or easy? 

 

I can tell you this, they did not arrive to a nice house and church as we did, they were sent here to open up not just a church and their own living quarters, they also needed to raise funds to create a shelter and do social work to serve suffering humanity. What an example of being dedicated to God! They needed to have a great faith and God blessed them.

 

3. Let’s explore three aspects of what was happening back then, what was happening in the world, what was happening in the Salvation Army, and what was happening to these first set of Officers in Oklahoma. In all honesty we owe them our deepest respect as they gave of themselves as a total sacrifice for God. What amazing dedication! Where are young people valiant and dedicated as they were today? Times are better but few will dedicate!

 

How hard life was back then! Most people in the United States lived on small farms, raising pigs and chickens and they had no electricity, few cars existed, and washing clothes, preparing food, and doing daily chores including transporting oneself around town by foot (or horse) and it was laborious and time consuming. Life in the 1920s was rustic almost like living as in the time of Jesus!

 

Just trying to make a living was hard back then and everyone in the family chipped in. Read history, the usual story was that the young sons started working at age 10 or 12 to help support the family. Many went off to fight in the war (WW1) at age 16 like my own uncles, and they sent home most all of their checks to their mothers so they would have enough food, wood for the fires, and clothing to survive.

 

4. The world was a horrible mess back then! Satan is always trying to destroy people with mega death in wars, disease, and starvation. He drums up hate and division, greed and a lust for power to the point leaders become obsessed with killing their foes. World War 1 had just finished in the 20s but the Corps was opened 10 years before then and there were many homeless Soldiers returning needing jobs in the cities plus a place to live.  Soup kitchens were needed to provide a bowl of soup from day to day for them, and for the widows and children.

The Spanish flu pandemic had hit and 500 million died worldwide! Mega death continued around the world as the Bolsheviks took over Russia in their 1917 Communist Revolution. Despite almost every family having lost a relative in the war, there was optimism that everyone had a chance to prosper as new machines, a new railroad system, and a faith in God offered people hope for a good future. 17 million in the U.S. alone died from being in that war which was about 1 in every 5 American people! What horrible suffering, right? What dark times and it was only about 100 years ago!

 

The good news is most everyone went to church back then and read their Bibles and prayed at home. I recall my grandmother’s thick old Bible with many notes in it. Before many public records were kept only in the family Bibles on the death, marriage, and birth pages of the first pages in the Bibles! 

 

5. The Salvation Army began in London in 1865, precisely during the time of the Civil War in the United States. It did not take long for the popularity of the street preaching to be popular, and Army marching bands prospered and expanded into many countries worldwide. In 1878 Eliza Shirley at age 17 started the first work in Philadelphia and within just a few decades the work opened up in many dozens of U.S. cities with thousands of new converts nationwide with just a few hundred Officers to start it all up. Imagine arriving from England, after over a month on a ship with nothing but a suitcase, a uniform, and faith in God!

 

One reason the Salvation Army expanded so quickly was due to the persecution in England in the 1880s as Officers became so numerous that many of the drunken sailors and jealous dead established church leaders wanted them gone. Their Biblical preaching of holiness begging the sinner to repent was too much for the sinful crowds who overindulged in the prostitution of 12-year-old girls, unrepentant thievery of all kinds, and massive drunkenness in all the pubs. It was an Acts 1:8 to an Acts 8:1 all over again!

 

The conditions of the world were very violent, abusive, and exploitive and to confront this evil The Salvation Army decried war on it all! These pioneers fought for the truth and for the salvation of souls and facing our reality, we can observe the world still remains violent, abusive, and exploitive. Each generation has its own mission to do and to fight for the healing of the suffering ones. There is always a new breed of weeds growing amongst the wheat and no person should ever delay in obeying the call of God to be preaching love, righteousness, and salvation.  John 4:35 Do you not say, ‘There are still four months and then comes the harvest’? Behold, I say to you, lift up your eyes and look at the fields, for they are already white for harvest! God wants us active for Him from harvest to harvest!

 

6. Now, put yourselves in the shoes of the arriving Officers in Oklahoma. These are people on fire for God sent to open a work with no money, no horse and buggy, no home, and no idea of what will happen. Will the people receive them, or will they run them out of town? What faith they had! What obedience and conviction they displayed!

 

Obviously, it went well for them as within a few months churches and good people supported them to open a house where they could live, conduct church services, serve soup to the public, provide a room for a men’s shelter, and even be able to resell donated items. No other churches did social work back then, and it seems they got good support as other churches got convicted that they should be doing what we were doing to feed the multitudes and help the needy as Jesus described it in Matthew 25. Obedience will bring on the blessings of God!  

 

Would you do all these ministries from your rented home? Only in America are we now so comfortable to not do them. Around the world in poor countries many Officers still work as these ones did 100 years ago. They do all ministries from their own homes, even running schools and I can testify this is what I witnessed in Jamaica, Mexico, and even in some small poor American cities here. 

 

7. We must live with the same conviction they have and as others had in the past! For evil to prosper in the world all that is needed is that good people do nothing! If we have a comfortable job, a roof over your head, maybe even a car, and food on our table every day, we must remember we are a part of the world’s top 10% of the wealthy. You and I are so blessed we must share the blessings to bless others with the good news of Jesus!

 

In Cuba the Officers ride bicycles, and in most all the world few own their own vehicles. We can observe that despite millions dying of hunger in dozens of countries, I have never seen Officers forsaken with nothing, God supplies! Psalm 37:25 I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his descendants begging bread.

 

Jesus sent the disciples out with just the shirt on their backs and God provided! Matthew 10: 7 And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. 9 Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, 10 nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food. 11 “Now whatever city or town you enter, inquire who in it is worthy, and stay there till you go out. 12 And when you go into a household, greet it. 13 If the household is worthy, let your peace come upon it. But if it is not worthy, let your peace return to you. 14 And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city, shake off the dust from your feet. 15 Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!

 

8. When my wife and I were first married 46 years ago we travelled around the south of Brazil, in Rio Grande Del Sur, as described here, with no money. I had my guitar and 20 Portuguese songs and Bible verses memorized and we sang in rest homes, jails, and orphan homes, took pictures, and then requested donations from hotels, restaurants, and banks. By a miracle, living this life of faith, God always provided enough! 

 

It was one of the most exciting times of our lives! We prayed with thousands the “sinner’s prayer” and we felt the Holy Spirit’s joy in a manner I think few ever experience! We were living in the clouds! I will compare our experience to this episode where the disciples were so happy the people thought they were drunk. Acts 2: 14 But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to them, “Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to you, and heed my words. 15 For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day (9 am). 16 But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel: 17 ‘And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy.

 

There is an unexplained euphoria that happens when you preach Jesus to strangers and Jesus comes into their lives! When a person accepts Jesus and cries out loud with tears asking God for forgiveness, there is an overwhelming happiness that soon takes over and it is the Holy Spirit’s fire! And this is our logo for salvation: Jesus’ blood, and the Holy Spirit’s fire! 

 

9. All a person needs to do is to open their mouth about Jesus and the Lord will fill it with the right words at the right time, and even in another language when necessary! It does not matter the time period, whether a person lived 2,000 years ago, 100 years ago or 100 seconds ago, the Holy Spirit is ready to do a great work through you! Are you letting God use you as He wants to? We observe today that too few put their selves at God’s service not caring about the material comforts, or not worrying about how big a sacrifice they will have to make.  

 

I am sure the first arriving Officers here in Muskogee experienced many challenges! But they must have felt the euphoria of winning souls on the street corners, and they felt the love of others as they shared with them their homes and goods and a way to start up the first Corps. Take into account they also felt the fear of the unknown, and the sadness of getting to know people who had lost loved ones in all the world’s battles and tragedies. 

 

Before it seemed that it was outside enemies that destroyed lives, but today we see an increase in dark forces inside destroying those in our community. We observe lives destroyed by debauchery, by illicit sexual activity, by the addiction of drugs and alcohol, by the poverty augmented by absent fathers, and by the cruelty of exploitations and abuse in the home.

 

10. Don’t think that just because the Salvation Army fought the good fight of faith in the past that we can ride on our past accomplishments and be comfortable now! Every generation has a new calling to obey God and every generation has new evils to battle against and the evil today of Satanic cults is on the rise! Practically no music or movie is produced anymore without the Luciferian illuminati symbols being present! Thousands give testimony that the elites are involved in Satanic rituals! And when a Satanic human sacrificing slave owning person gets exposed as being connected to all the corrupt leaders of the world, they get suicided! (as in the case of Jeffrey Epstein & others!) 

 

We should be appalled at how sin is flaunted before our innocent children’s eyes on TV, in June parades, and in public schools and libraries! How is it that anyone can google millions of pages of Satanic perverted porn while at the same time these high-tech elites censor the name of Jesus as offensive? Our rights and constitution are being replaced by technocratic supremacies who are spoiled millionaires mocking God and censoring His people!

 

Are our current youth programmed and brainwashed as the youth of Hitler were being conditioned to hate certain people and groups while praising others that only contribute to the divisiveness and hate in society?  Isaiah 5:20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!  

 

A great judgment is coming! Another cycle of evil is returning soon as history proves but this time it appears Satan is ready to take over everything for world dominion! In the end the Bible is true and all of Revelation will come to pass. For the New World Order to dominate we see the technology is already existing, many dictatorships are already in place, and all that is needed is for them to eliminate the ones who expose it and give it resistance. Jesus’ truth is the resistance! Stand with Him and you will win battles and free souls until your and my time is up! You are Jesus’ priesthood! Stand with Jesus and gain rewards in heaven for all your sacrifice and labor of building His house! See what it cost our forefathers and show yourself to God to be as dedicated as the past ones were so that you are counted with those honorable faithful few!

 

 

 

 

 

True Christianity Vs. the World’s Deceptions

True Christianity Vs. the World’s Deceptions  Kelly Durant 7-7-24

 

Colossians 2:6-8

6 As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk ye in him:

7 Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving.

8 Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

 

2. Haven’t you always wondered about cults? People who follow a leader so much so that they will die for them? A few cults emerged in the past decades and centuries, but what about the cult mentality today? Are people any different today in blindly accepting any information the world feeds them and then they are fanatical to promote it? Do we see people today following illogical, radical, and destructive ideologies? A resounding, yes! The world has gone in the way of hate with riots and burning all in their path just because they don’t get their philosophy, laws, agendas, politics or person in power! 

 

What comes to most minds when we think of unChristlike worldly deceived people (as in Col. 2:6-8) are the radical terrorists who are willing to kill their own selves so they can kill a few others as well hoping to impose their way by fear tactics! It is a clash of religion, politics, and philosophy as they classify as enemies those who disagree with them. The practice of having a radical dedication to a perverted leader or ideology, a rudiment of the world, has been around ever since the formation of empires and monarchies, such as the case of Egypt, Babylon, Rome, and the rest. Could it be people are the same today and are blindly enslaved supporting erroneous leaders and precepts presented to them by the perverse powers of this world? Sadly, yes! 

 

What causes people to become loyal to an evil power and cruel positions? To me the answer seems very obvious: any person not worshipping the true God Jehovah and His Son Jesus Christ will always have their worship directed to another, and that almost always is for a demon or a political authority! Most all governments claim to have some supreme spiritual power connected to them, so the common people get deceived easily as they have no discernment being blind to the depth of the evil they follow. Evil is always masked to the ignorant masses as a noble cause of ‘social justice’. Helping the poor, or defeating an oppressive race or power, is often the subject to entice a person to malignantly label and hate another. Next, loyalty to an evil entity ensues and destruction is carried out in word and in deeds! 

 

3. People that become radical and worship despotic leaders are often forced or bribed into it. Usually, the punishment for not hailing the current Cesar as your god is severe, such as disenfranchisement, blackballing, or even execution. Under Communist regimes, under theocracies, and under all dictatorships, which covers most all of the world throughout time, the punishment is imprisonment or death for not respecting and worshipping the governing authorities and their senseless rules. When you are converted with Jesus, you no longer desire these traditions of the world and these abusive pollical systems.

 

In Nazi German, Adolf Eichmann devised a psychological system (with electric shocks) in which people were willing to harm others if only by being pushed by voices from peers to do so. He discovered that people would over-ride their common sense, violate their own principles of morality, and do horrific damage to another human being, and all it took was an outside person egging them on. And we know what horrors the Nazis accomplished! Today we have the same type of evil climate influencing our people today and the evidence of this is seen by all the violence and hate coming out of the news outlets and rioters. Colleges no longer debate including all ideas and philosophies which should include Christianity. They vehemently discriminate against Biblical moral principles, so the result is Satan’s practices incrementally keep on dominating. We need God’s traditions, not the destructive divisive ones of man! 

 

This is the world, and the people of the world that we know will always go along with the most animalistic and carnal of human emotions which includes vices, hate, envy, violence, and pride.  So, what do we do about these influences and those affected by them? We must resist and expose evil with God’s truths, ‘Rooted and built up in him, and stablished in the faith, as ye(we) have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving’. Pray to not get your emotions played upon! Because these people have no moral or logical arguments, they use emotions!

 

4. If you are a Christian you are aware that you are in a battle (we express it as a “war cry”) to not conform to this world, but rather we are transformed by the renewing of our minds in Christ. (Romans 12:1, 2) The verses that speak the loudest about this are found in Ephesians 6: 10 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might.

11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.

12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

13 Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.

 

How is the way of the rulers of darkness of this world? The world offers us leaders participating in all kinds of perversions, liberalism, thievery, and abuse of power. The leaders of the world will do whatever it takes to keep their position and power, even killing anyone exposing their injustices and exploitations. In our country we witness this! So, our concerns are against these dark spiritual powers that rule in this world. Jesus offered us the kingdom of God as a way to free those captives with Jesus Christ!

 

And this leads me up to churches and sects that are spiritually oppressive as well, the ones that are compromised in their traditions and practices. We should be concerned to expose and resist those that are leading others to hell instead of to heaven by their practices, doctrines, and philosophies. They appear authentic but they are not!

 

5. It is sad that as much good as our Salvation Army church offers that there is always a majority group of people that will come and go and not appreciate the goodness, the holiness, and the blessings they could obtain if they would stay and learn of God’s love and then start doing their part for God and others. The deceptive notion is that one can take all you want and never ask yourself if it is moral, fair, or pleasing to God. People often manipulate sympathy and have souls unconverted.

 

Just think how many people have taken advantage of the Christian systems throughout the years, they come for material gain, which God gives to share, but then they take things and run trying to be sure they will not have to have any commitment to anything. Sadly, these types of people could have many more blessings learning God’s Word, but they miss the mark. They are deceived to believe they do not need God. 

 

Those that take ‘what they can’ attitude reminds me of Esau who sold his birthright for a bowl of stew! His father had a big blessing planned for him but before he would receive it, he despised it and offered to trade it away cheap for just a bowl of stew with his brother, Jacob. What an expose of the mentality and disloyalty of some people today as they prefer the material over the spiritual! What short sightedness, unthankfulness, and poverty! Do you see it? How people deceive their own selves? Also, self-deceived persons are easily deceived by another!

 

6. How sad it is that today in the world there are a lot of people that expect you to just do things for them, that you should just give them things, just because you are considered to be compassionate, and you owe it to them. I grew up learning that everything you get you must earn and work for. Didn’t Jesus compare serving God to working in the harvest?  (Lk 9:29) How ludicrous to think one deserves a reward or payment for nothing in return, to reap where you have not sewn.

 

What is disappointing about the vain deceit and attitudes of the world is how so many ignorant people disrespect the church and the honest Christians serving God. Imagine, being a part of one of the largest most effective charity in the U.S. and a majority of the people instead of wanting to share in the work of God are actually mocking God when they just take again and again thinking they never need to be thankful, faithful, honor God and be pure in heart to give back and help someone else. The deception to not honor God is from Satan’s vain deceit! 

 

Notice as well the contrasts between the humble and vain churches that deceive. Here people can contact the Officers/pastors to visit and talk with them when the please setting a time. But damaged by the world Christians often prefer the mega church pastors where one can hardly ever get to consult with the pastors when needed. Deceived by the world’s bad examples of the practices of Christianity these people think that if they can talk to the big shot, then they must not really be in a valid elite place. Yeah, right! Unavailable wealthy pastors with private jets and ‘feel good’ messages are the condemned hirelings Jesus warned us about! (See John 10)

  

7. The deception being taught in several churches today is philosophy, vain deceit, the traditions of men and good advice, which is not straight from the Word of God! People have become spoiled to believe their sacrifice for God is to have to show up to church on Sunday and give money. Worshipping together should be taken as a blessing but love must be practiced everyday 24/7 or our Christianity is in vain.

 

Vs 8 ‘Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ’. Apart from all things already mentioned, the traditions of men are the repetitive meaningless rituals, and this is what is killing people from worshipping God in “spirit and in truth”. Many are leaving the church, and this is why! Some indeed want His Spirit and truth and if they are not getting it…it is either the pastor, the people in the flock, or the doctrine at fault. May the Lord help you and me to be free from error, too much tradition, and modern-day practices of deceptions!

 

Christianity is a lifestyle of love, obedience, and service, not a feel-good club where one gets supported by the members no matter your sins and disobedience. So many bad examples exist that many people deduct that what Christianity is…is a self-serving entertainment club!

 

8. So for us that have studied God’s word, those of us who know better, it is on us to be the role model of what a true loving Christian is! I beg you, ask God if your faith is real? Ask yourself, am I deluded by my own ideas of what church and the practice of faith is all about? If you study God’s word you will learn the truth and not be deceived.

 

We must fight against deceptions, we should expose wrongdoing by the people of the world and by the people in the false churches. Only by doing God’s will can we provoke others see the light that we are proclaiming holiness, the opposite of them! The evil out there is real!

 

All people without God are first deceived by something or someone. It takes a miracle of God and the Holy Spirit power to wake up a person, so they see the reality of their spiritual poverty and their need for Jesus and His healing love. Pray for your friends and relatives to ‘wake up’!

(See 1 John 4, to try the spirits!)

 

9. And now for your conviction to be on guard I will leave you with a William Booth quote: "I consider that the chief dangers which confront the coming century will be .... religion without the Holy Ghost, Christianity without Christ, forgiveness without repentance, salvation without regeneration, politics without God and heaven without hell."

 

You and I, being aware of Satan’s devices, must be aggressive and defend the real faith of Jesus Christ. We are in a spiritual battle that is getting more and more intense as each year goes by. Pray to be God’s instrument! Will you save souls from the deceptions of the world? Will you expose this world’s deceptions so others can see it is either God or the Devil one is serving? Do it for Jesus and the salvation of souls, He expects it of you!