Christmas: A time to reflect on the EFFECT Jesus made

Christmas: A time to reflect on the effect Jesus made       Kelly Durant

 

John 3:16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. 17 For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. 1 John 3:16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

 

2. How many of you have seen a movie, “Back to the Future”? It was about a young man that went back into time and then goes back into the future, and he saw how it would be if something were changed. 

 

There is one part where something didn’t happen the way it was suppose to in the past, and if Marty McFly, the main character, didn’t get things the way they were supposed to happen while in the past, and in this case it was the getting together of his parents, then the world was going to become a different, horrible, hell of a place. 

 

This scenario caused me, and should provoke us all, to reflect and ask ourselves this question, what would the world be like today if it had not been for the birth of the Son of God on Christmas over 2,000 years ago? God made hundreds of things come together for Jesus birth at the right place and time.

 

3. Imagine a world with people who are living as Jesus commanded, as salt and light, who are following Jesus’ love and salvation, how would that world be? We could have the ‘kingdom of God’ on earth! Now, imagine a world without the leadership of God’s righteous people, without God’s people doing good, without missionaries bringing a better standard to the pagan idol worshippers, without the message of eternal life and the forgiveness for sins through Christ. This world would be a worse hell than what it already is! 

 

Without Jesus the world would be a thousand times more full of evil, with more human sacrifices than our current infanticide ones; we would be overcome by violence and war as before the flood ‘as in the days of Noah’. There would gross darkness on the people, being devoid, evil, and ignorant. Starvation and misery would prevail more than what it does today. When the European missionaries went out to reach the world with Jesus travelling by ships, establishing colonies worldwide, it is recorded in the history books that they brought prosperity and peace in many places. 

 

Even in the 1700 and 1800s there was still cannibalism on many islands and places, along with idolatry, human sacrifice, and the slave trades. Where the people had never heard the gospel of Jesus, they lived in constant war with their neighbors. It has been the Christians who helped the world progress out of the dark ages and the ones who founded most all of the prestigious colleges of high learning world-wide. It was the Christians who developed the world scientifically, through Galileo, Pascal, and others. It was the Christians who fought to free those enslaved. The world cannot deny that Jesus’ gospel has brought more peace and development wherever it has been practiced. The problem is it must be practiced to work!

 

4. Jesus was the best gift this world has ever received from God! But let’s look at what attributes were necessary in order for there to be the desired effect by God. First, there had to be a willingness to give on His part. God loved the world and gave us Jesus and He too gave of his own self. He renounced heaven, a place of pure perfection and love and peace in order to come here on earth to give Himself to live a life in frail human flesh. He knew His life was going to end torturous but victorious being a sacrifice on the cross, dying in a horrible manner to redeem whosoever would receive Him! Realize this, Jesus’ resurrection means that He can give anyone anywhere the gift of eternal life if you and I, or anyone, chooses to belong to Him! There is no gift that could be better, ever!

 

The first thing that Christmas should do is convict us to give, to give our lives in obedience to Jesus! He gave the example, he was born in a humble little manger, and came not to be rich and spoiled, nor powerful as the kings of earth are, but he came to serve and to give his life for the souls of us all! 

 

There are many people though that live by the contrary. They believe that Christmas is a time to receive and to get, not to give, forgetting the whole picture of Jesus’ life. We must give to be blessed!

 

5. I recall that as a child I got picky and demanding about what I wanted my mother to give me for Christmas and that was being spoiled and wrong, but it happens often with all kids and adults. Since I had no father in the home, my mother always tried to make it up by giving me many toys. 

 

The toys were fun but only for a few days before the reality of life would return. All that I had received did not bring me a lasting happiness, only a temporary one. It was later in my life that I learned the joy of giving after I dedicated my life to the Lord Jesus Christ. 

 

If you want a lasting happiness…then give! It is more blessed to give than to receive! One more time, Jesus said, it is more blessed to give than to receive! We need to teach ourselves and our children to give to others, so we don’t just think about their selves at Christmas time. 

 

6. Give your life in service to God, give your time, your money, your will, everything; and if you do, then you will be following the words and example of Jesus correctly and you will be celebrating what Christmas should really be all about! 

 

The problem is that many people get so materialistic and worried about gifts and the Christmas party and the food that they forget who the party is for and how He wants those at His party to be behaving. Imagine that, Jesus is being left out of His own party in many homes!

 

Another attribute is that we must announce the coming of Jesus, ahead of time. That is what the tradition of the ‘Advent’ is for. John the Baptist’s mother, Elizabeth, recognized Jesus before He was born. The message prepared was that Jesus would bring us peace, hope, and salvation and for all the world. What did God have all the angels announce to the humble poor shepherds when Jesus was born? They all declared, “Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth and good will to men (all humanity)”. If God’s angels praised Him, how much more we must praise Him and give glory to Him!

 

God showed His love and favor to all of us in all the world for all people and for all time. He gave us a new hope, a new life, a life of peace, an internal peace that gives us strength.  He gave us good will, and God gave His example of healing goodness. Without Jesus we would not have learned how real goodness, righteousness, and love was to be practiced! We would also no know that we could have eternal life in heaven either. 

 

7. The effect or reaction God wants by Jesus coming is that we honor Him as the angels did, knowing that the way we honor him is by sharing the story of His life obeying His words sharing salvation! We must give our lives as Jesus gave His. 1 John 3:16 By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren. This verse is a follow up to John 3:16 which should be the effect Jesus has on us. How has Jesus affected you? Has His effect on you made you do something to make the world a better place? Have you shared His gift of salvation and love?

 

History proves that we as humans usually behave as brute beasts, full of jealousy for power, full of hate, adulteries, selfishness, and even murders, but when we pause to remember the birth of Jesus at Christmas, we are giving ourselves and everyone in the world a chance to see hope and love: that there is an example of a pure life much better than what we ourselves could ever be. We accept Jesus at Christmas and accept that we must change our lives in order to be like Him! Those that have done this, those that have allowed Jesus to take effect in their heart, mind, and soul, they are the world changers! 

 

Jesus caused prostitutes, drunken partiers, greedy tax collectors, and religious hypocrites to repent and live a holy life! What a powerful effect! For over 2,000 years now His story from start to finish combined with His God-breathed Words of teachings have changed millions of lives for the better! The effect is peace with God and freedom from the desire to sin! I know about this because I am one of those whose life turned around completely! What an effect Jesus made on me to leave behind sex, drugs, rock ‘n roll, and new age religions! 

 

Please share Jesus, in your giving and receiving, share His story, and share your story of the effect Jesus has made on your life this Christmas!

Thanksgiving Days & The Sacrifice of Praise: It's God’s Idea!

Thanksgiving Days & The Sacrifice of Praise: God’s Idea  

By Kelly Durant  11-23-14 Re 11-20-22

 

Ps 107:22

22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.

Ps 50:14   

14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:

Jonah 2:9

9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.

 

2. It’s our Thanksgiving Day Sunday! It is obvious from the verses of today that giving thanks to God by sacrificing was God’s idea a few thousand years ago, long before the forming of this country! The verses of Psalm and Jonah today are around 3,000 years old, so we conclude that God wants His people to take special days of sacrificing reverencing Him doing it together with others.

 

Do you know how the U.S. Thanksgiving Day began? It began with a group of Christian Immigrants, immigrants just like you and me! Plymouth, Mass. 402 years ago was inhabited by Native Indians, and then one day a ship of Englishmen landed to set up a colony. This happened in 1620 as they were escaping religious persecution in Europe. Under the tyranny of King Henry VIII just a few decades earlier and even afterwards an estimated 70,000 lost their heads for not submitting to the abusive dominating monarchy that imposed their church hierarchy system on them. Are you thankful you have not lost your head due to an abusive authority? In history and even today millions have lost their heads, or lives, over religious and governmental persecution!

 

The problem is these desperate immigrants arrived too late in the year to have a harvest of food that would keep them alive throughout the cold winter. But thank God the Natives, or Indians, had compassion on them and gave them food in a special fall festival. One of the most common foods then was turkey, along with corn, and other vegetables, it was fall harvest festival. Historically, most cultures celebrate the beginning of spring, and this coincides with Easter and Passover; and to celebrate in the fall as well as did the Jews celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles and the Torah, while Christians have come to celebrate Thanksgiving Day. 

 

Thus, the tradition of eating turkey! Many more of those immigrants would have died if they had not been helped! Half the colony later did die of hunger anyway! It was Sqanto, a native slave of the English who taught them how to raise corn and fish eel. He sacrificed his time and food to help these immigrants who were ignorant of living from nature since they came from large European cities. God bless the natives!

 

3. But many people have immigrated to many different lands throughout history so what makes this thanksgiving festival so special? 

These Christian immigrants took the time to rejoice, and have a party and celebrate, and praise the Lord and thank Him for freedom, life, and new friends, that’s what is special! It is a sacrifice to create a big celebration, many of you here sacrificed to make our lunch special, and sacrificing your self is what pleases the LORD! Psalm 54:6 I will freely sacrifice to You; I will praise Your name, O Lord, for it is good.

 

Before it was common that the government authorities, and all the townspeople, would get together to celebrate expressing their faith and thanks to God in the public square. Never succumb to secularists that in this country that insist you must keep your faith private and secret! To the contrary, celebrate as is traditional, show God your thankfulness and be public about it anywhere, and everywhere! Be generous and share with others! How ironic that in this country today some people even get arrested for sharing food publicly with the needy! Christians traditionally have fed the needy in shelters and on the streets and we should not allow lawmakers make our traditions un-compassionately illegal.

 

Over 200 years ago congress recognized the importance of the Thanksgiving Day observance, and President George Washington issued a national Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789. He wrote, "Now therefore I do recommend and assign Thursday the 26th day of November next to be devoted by the People of these States to the service of that great and glorious Being, who is the beneficent Author of all the good that was, that is, or that will be—That we may then all unite in rendering unto him our sincere and humble thanks—for his kind care and protection of the People of this Country”...

He understood the basics of being Christian and he recognized the need to set aside a day to show God that we as Americans are thankful for this land under God!

 

Ps 107:22 And let them sacrifice the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and declare his works with rejoicing.

 

4. Thanksgiving Day in reality is all about thanking God for maintaining your life and for sharing with others your thankfulness! (repeat)

 

In the verses of today we observe that David and Jonah, and we know well that all men of God, have always made a special event out of praising God for victories, protection, and supply! The problem in the world today is there is not much of an ‘attitude of gratitude’ anymore! For the past few decades unthankful Godless people have been rudely drowning out the thankful polite people! There are many sins in this nation and many people in the media are like rotten apples that incite bitterness over the past, and they promote hate between races, and insult the goodness of God’s people. But on the first Thanksgiving Day the natives and the Pilgrims were both good people being good to each other! 

 

In our community you would assume people would come to worship and thank God for their blessings but instead often they offer only negative comments (the opposite of praise) about personal frustrations or unhappy situations, and this makes God very sad and angry! God allowed a whole generation of Jews who escaped Egypt with Moses to die in the desert because they were unthankful to Him! 1 Corinthians 10:10 Neither murmur ye, as some of them also murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. 

 

Thankful people are happy people who recognize God as their provider, and they are blessed by God, and they make others feel good nearby them! Unthankful people disturb the peace and bring others down and they are on the path to their own destruction!

 

5. Just think, this country now has 63 million Hispanics, and about 40 million have arrived within the past 30 years. I personally have a hard time understanding why most all of them are not going to the church of their choice giving thanks to God?! I think I read about 15% do start going to a church of some kind but that is too few! In their countries about 80% go to church! You and I need to awaken more thankfulness in these new immigrants! We already have too many arrogant, Godless, unthankful people in all sectors of society! Let’s encourage new ones to thank God! 

 

Most immigrants, like the first European ones, recognize that they are strangers in a strange land, and they could literally die if they were not having God on their side providing, protecting, and guiding! I know when I moved around in South America I literally cried out to God every time to provide and protect my family because arriving somewhere not knowing how the system functions, not having friends, not speaking the language, and arriving with almost no resources is a situation that will make one desperate and thankful for every place to stay and every plate of food!

 

You who are here today to thank God are special to God!  I am thankful to God for you, and always we must be thankful for our Christian brothers and sisters, because you are the special ones of God! Being here to thank God today is comparable to being with the one leper that was healed that came back to give thanks. Ten were healed but only one returned and expressed thanks! Eternally we praise God and Jesus in recognition of thanks. Sadly, in infamy, there are the unthankful nine others. Never be one of them!

 

6. In order to show you are thankful, you must sacrifice something for God’s work from time to time. You must make a commitment and then keep it.

If you are thankful in life in general, you are always praising and happy, you are willing to do anything, and willing to give up anything to show God your love and appreciation, and thankfulness to Him!   As David the Psalmist words it, Ps 50:14

14 Offer unto God thanksgiving; and pay thy vows unto the most High:

 

We should all be dedicated to God’s work and to God’s people to have a proof of our thankfulness! Some people serve in shelters, and some give food to their hurting neighbors during these holidays, but really you can show thanks anytime!

Serve others with a need! Invite them to eat and tell them about your love for Jesus!

 

It is the tradition of many countries, even here, that when someone has been nice to you and done something special, you invite them to eat with you. Everyone likes to eat, right? What a great way to get to know someone and learn to love and like them!

 

7. Jesus commanded his disciples to travel and basically immigrate or integrate as they preached. No one can understand the full extent of being thankful for a bed and food unless they have had to be at the mercy of others for it! I have been in this situation many dozens of times in my life! Matt 10:9 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.  In other words, bless those that bless you!

 

Back to our U.S. lesson in history, imagine these defenseless Pilgrims in a new land with no homes except the ones they could build before winter, and no with no food stored for the winter either! Just think if right now I were to tell you, you are condemned to die in two months! In two months, your life will be over, you will die a slow death of starvation!

But then if suddenly there appeared a group of strange people of another race unexpectedly putting food on your table, just think how happy you would be! The reality is some of them survived in that Plymouth colony throughout the winter yet quite a few of them did die!

 

We praise and thank God this time of year (but we should every day!) and celebrations are good for all of us! And let’s also recall we must thank the native people for supporting the immigrants because your great-great grandparents were able to arrive here and work and have a life! All of us should thank all immigrants here including Latinos, Blacks, Irish, and Asians all of which helped build America’s major cities, railroads, and farmlands. The ones before us suffered painfully through extreme hard work and hard times, and their great grandparents suffered as well! People use to die at age 40 something, remember?  We have a super nation full of prosperity with wealthy cities, superhighways and mega factories all due to the labor of the many races that make up the population of The United States! 

 

8. Thankfulness to God involves being thankful to those different from you, by accepting and loving them, and respecting them. God’s glory invokes praise for His creation of the entire diverse human race, and the maximum thankfulness we can show Him is to love Him and love one another as Jesus commanded!

 

Because the lives of those few hundred immigrants that were saved almost 400 years ago, we now have a great nation today with many millions of immigrants who are Christian! This is still the most generous nation on earth because many thankful people still have faith in God and want to give back to their communities.

 

Did you know Jesus said He would celebrate a meal with us sort of like Thanksgiving? Let’s look up, Rev 3:20-21

 20'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.

Even Jesus offers to eat, fellowship, and celebrate with us! But the food Jesus is offering is not physical food, it is spiritual which is more important! 

 

It is sad to see people with hungry bodies, but we must also see that many people are dying of starvation spiritually! Many of your friends and family are weak and dying inside due to not understanding the roots of why we give thanks to God! Tell them the story of Jesus and take opportunity to emphasize the story of the Pilgrims. It is your and my job to tell everyone about God’s food, this bread of life, that He offers so ‘whosoever will’ can live forever! It is our job as Christians to teach others to always be thankful to God for even a cup of water! We must be a light to others in this work of feeding the sick and the suffering! Physical food is just a temporary aspect of life but spiritual feeding is what will keep us motivated to be alive!

 

Now, let us conclude that as we are thankful today, that we will recognize that it is by God and Jesus, and the Holy Spirit through which comes our Salvation. Any of us can die at any moment so being alive today let us, as in the book of Jonah, do our part to be fair with God and honor Him for his goodness and be sacrificial; Jonah2:9 But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the LORD.

 

Ask yourself right now, have I shown thankfulness and sacrifice to God lately as I really should by being loving and doing something kind for someone else in need as happened on the first Thanksgiving Day?

Why I Hate Evil…And You Should too!

Why I Hate Evil…And You Should too!          Kelly Durant.  Re: 10-30-22

 

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. 1 Thessalonians 5:22 Abstain from every form of evil. 3 John 1:11 Beloved, do not imitate what is evil, but what is good. He who does good is of God, but he who does evil has not seen God.

 

2. How many of you have watched ‘youtube’ videos of someone getting beat up or being run over by a car and no one stops to help them? It makes you feel sick to see the evil and the indifference of the people, doesn’t it? How disturbing to know we live in a world where few have a heart for those suffering! Satanic indifference and hate produce the same effect, a lack of love for another that could save a life or a soul! It’s a direct disobedience to loving our good God and loving our neighbor as ourselves! Unloving sick people fail to realize that that victim could be them one day!

 

I know my wife and daughter, myself, and anyone with a conscience at all has felt sick to see a video of a person being cruel to an animal or to another human being. And do you recall only a few years ago there were horrific videos of people being beheaded, burned alive, and executed? The murder of Christians continues in dozens of countries and how disturbing very few speak up against this! 

 

These things make you feel sick enough to vomit, and make you feel angry at the wicked people who murder, torture, and destroy God’s innocent people. And have you seen pictures of destroyed cities where evil people have waged war? Think of Africa, Syria, Iraq, or of dozens of cities which have recently been demolished by invaders, making millions of families homeless to move with nothing in their hands. Imagine being sent out in a desert with nothing at all!

 

3. Jesus came to teach all of humankind to love one another, but what do people who do not know Him, or do not accept Him, do? They hate, kill and rob! They hate anyone different from their sinful self selves over differences of ever-changing politics, religious convictions, or certain lifestyle choices. Hate is like an infectious disease and people without the cure, which is Jesus and living in obedience to God’s word, are condemned to carry out evil on those they dislike. This evil in the hearts and minds of the devoid, seriously damages others by their evil words and acts. Their evil also destroys their own soul as stated in Romans 6:23 ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’.  

 

‘Hate’ today is a hot topic! Usually, you see people holding signs saying ‘Stop the Hate’ while they are the ones red faced ranting and raving, accusing, and defaming, even bearing false witness over how things are not how they want them to be. The question is, Is there any system anywhere in the world that is flaw free and making everyone perfectly happy?’ The answer is, no! People who want to do evil are never happy with God’s people battling against them!

 

The answer to broken systems has always been to change the system, but problems will always continue as the new system brings within itself a whole new set of problems. Venezuela and dozens of countries prove that in the name of fairness and equality and helping the poor much damage can and will happen, so everyone must wise up and be extremely careful as to what changes are being demanded. The righteous must not back down nor cave to the relentless attacks of the erroneous ones who demand change excluding God, love, and freedom to worship Jesus. Evil people always seek power by all means possible!

 

4. David was ‘a man after God’s own heart’, so let’s see what he has to say about evil and ‘hate’. Hate is a passionate rejection (which usually involves inciting anger), an abhorrence, to loathe, and to despise.  

Psalm 5:5 The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You (God) hate all workers of iniquity. (God hates evil and those who practice it)

Psalm 11:5 The Lord tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence His soul hates. (God hates those who bring on violence) 

Psalm 21:8 Your hand will find all Your enemies; Your right hand will find those who hate You. (God knows who are the ones who hate Him)

 Psalm 34:21 Evil shall slay the wicked, And those who hate the righteous shall be condemned. (God will allow evil people to be defeated and God is on the side of the persecuted to defend the righteous, which are the true Christians)

 

We can conclude from hundreds of verses in the Bible that…Psalm 7:11 ‘God is a just judge, And God is angry with the wicked every day’! God’s purpose for all of us is to live as in ‘The Kingdom of God’ blessed, happy, healthy, and with peace loving Him and one another as we obey Jesus commands. But rebellious God hating people are not having any of that in their life as they want to raise hell, sew dissention, and divide and conquer hating (while accusing others of hate) those who defend God’s statutes, Jesus, and love. We fight to stop hate & the devil!

 

There are people so perverted with evil, including many world leaders from de-generate family blood lines, that they will never submit to loving God and his humble servants. If one would, it would come only by a miracle from Jesus! Submission to Jesus is opposite to the oppressive pyramid paradigms they rule by. Satan controls this world by evil, and Jesus came to destroy his cruel kingdoms! 

 

5. Listen to their words, evil people will overtly or covertly declare that they ‘hate’ God, and they insult Him by denying that He exists or by breaking every law in His book; the law to love your neighbor above all! These extreme ignorant ones claim the Bible is a lie and contains worthless fables. How ignorant is this claim as any historian knows much of the Bible’s record of past cities and tribes are provably real. The Bible is the most important book in the world exposing evil!

 

Most haters as well reveal that they hate Jesus and His people, the Christians. But as a mirror God reflects back to people what they send up to Him. 

Psalm 18:26 With the pure thou wilt shew thyself pure; and with the froward (defiant and aggressive) thou wilt shew thyself froward.

 

All people will reap what they sew; if one sews love, one reaps love. The same, if one sews hate, then hate you reap but much more than what you expected. Hosea 8:7 ‘For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind’. It is gross ignorance to believe one can mock God’s laws or people and not suffer the consequences! In the end, God’s laws are universal and it is common sense to respect others and God so as not to invite anger and wrath on yourself!

 

6. So as Christians how are we to respond to this evil generation of ‘haters’? Proverbs 22:3 A prudent man foresees the evil, and hides himself: but the simple pass on, and are punished. There are times to battle and times to evade.

 

In general, we must avoid getting involved with troublemakers who have offensive mouths, who spew hate and promote violence. To join them in their ‘group think’ is to make one’s self an instrument of them and a fool. You cannot fight them on their level as they entice you to do. Proverbs 26:4 Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. Don’t participate in evil in the cultures!

 

The Holy Spirit must give you and me wisdom and we must not get involved with people who shout out slogans that most usually are misleading with ulterior objectives. Proverbs 14:15 ‘The simple believeth every word: but the prudent man looks well to his going.’ Never be ignorant and conform to evil abusers.

 

7. As Christians, as lovers of God and of others, even being lovers of our enemies, we must learn tactics to control our anger, or we will insult back and sin in the same manner these haters do. Jesus always pulled the rug out from under evil hypocrites with questions and tactics that exposed their schemes.

One acceptable way of diffusing attacks is with diversion. Proverbs 26:5 ‘Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.’ You cannot have a serious conversation with an evil aggressive person who is attacking you so you must deflect away their words and vile mouth.

 

Here is an example of how to skew an attack. You might get mocked in a group (or by text) with a slogan, ‘I bet you drink the kool-aid of Fox News! Look everybody, a racist conservative religious freak!” These commonly repeated phrases imply that you will die from the poison that comes from hearing differing opinions from theirs, those whom they identify as on the wrong side. And to counter, on the defensive if you say, “You are wrong, you just can’t handle the truth!”, only brings on more mockery, cursing, vulgarity, and insults by these evil people.

 

In some cases you can divert like this,”Well, medieval kings made their selves strong by consuming small amounts of poison”. (Within yourself you know this is off subject, but it is replying folly for folly; it is just playing with their silly accusation of poison to unsettle them). So, do you see how preparation is needed to not fall into the argument trap of the haters who already have pre-schemed dialogues? They really will not listen, I know, I have tried, better is to spend your time with ‘sheep’ who want God’s word than with these rebellious evil goats.

 

8. Matthew 5:9 Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God. 10 Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 11 Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. 12 Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.

 

We cannot avoid getting attacked for our beliefs, faith, and Biblical worldview in this life! So, if you stand for Jesus, you might as well do it with boldness and let you light shine and remain strong through the attacks, deceptions, lies, humiliations, and hate coming from the evil people of perverse opposition. Do good always to prove you are a child of a good God! Abstain from evil! Onward Christian Soldiers! May your Cry of Battle make hell’s doors tremble! 

 

Proverbs 24:16 For a just man falls seven times, and rises up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief. We will be free from reaping the consequences of evil by remaining faithful to our Lord and Savior, but we have to keep getting up back into the battle. 

 

9. Evil comes in many forms, by words and by deeds, and the counter is by the same, by words (God’s Word!) and by good deeds done for others in need. What is curious is even evil people will often leave you alone when you help and serve others. To fight evil we must do good in place of it! And pray God protects as well! 

 

For example, the Salvation Army in several countries have the circumstance of working in neighborhoods that are full of crime and gangs and it is dangerous work. But I know of several cases (Brazil, Jamaica, & U.S.) of how even the violent gangs do not bother us because they know that if they were to attack us who are doing good and helping others that it would bring on the ire and anger of the neighborhood people to the point they would turn them all in to the authorities. 

 

James 2:19 Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. Never lose sight as to who is going to win this battle against evil doers and haters, against those with terrible pride and arrogance: it is Jesus and His conquering army! And who is in that army? You and me, His soldiers who are already doing battle for Him saving as many souls as we can! A soft answer turns away wrath and the wisdom in of the Psalms and Proverbs guides us concerning evil and hate. Study to make yourself strong in God’s word and put yourself in the front lines so Jesus will use you to do good! Fear God and labor to save souls with Jesus and by this you will be countering the world’s evil, hate, pride, arrogance, perverse voices, corruption, violence, murder, and absence of love in our communities! God hates evil and we do too! 

Culture Shifts Worldwide: It’s a War of Good vs. Evil!

Culture Shifts: It’s a War of Good vs. Evil                   By Kelly Durant 1-17-16. Re 10-23-22

I Corinthians 1:22 For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.

2. Did you know Cultural Days are celebrated by the Salvation Army in the Southern Territory? October, being Hispanic Heritage Month (Or International Month), implies that here in Harlingen, we, with culturally diverse with people, must celebrate! We are atypical! The typical with most churches is they are predominately 90% white, black, Latino, or something else! In churches, across the nation, Sunday often is the most segregated day of the week! But we understand that people want to meet with those with whom they feel comfortable.  It is natural for birds of a feather to flock together, but a wealth of knowledge can be gained from mixing with those different from you and even better is living years immersed in another culture.  I feel privileged by God to have gained 14 years of wealth in South America from 5 different countries that are not so similar in culture, music, food, or political pasts. 

Cultural events are an opportunity to get to know people from other experiences in life other than your own. I grew up in your typical mid-west American setting where 90% were white and I only met a foreigner, a Chilean, for the first time when my best friend had an exchange student live in his house.  Many youths today go to schools surrounded by hundreds of others who are or different races and from other countries. However, different can either be accepted and embraced or protested and mocked! 

Have you ever noticed how jokes about another culture shape how many people may view that other culture? When I was young people use to tell Pollock jokes; How many Pollocks do you need to change a lightbulb?  Five, 1 to hold the bulb and 4 to spin the ladder! The impression I had a long time ago I recall was that they must be pretty dumb, but I have read articles on the intelligence of different nations, and they actually rate quite high in intelligence. Read about their fight for solidarity from communism! One deduction I make concerning these jokes is that those of a competing culture concocted these jokes to counter the influence of them and to diminish their importance as immigrants. Never let others diminish you, for God you are loved!

3. Today I want you to think about how you see other cultures, how others see your culture, and then determine what you think God’s view is concerning your culture. How is your culture influencing you for good or for bad? Culture is invading churches! Are you aware of the strengths and weaknesses and the historical influences overtly or subliminally influencing and control your attitudes, decisions, and habits? How Biblical is your culture? To be counterculture is often a positive, have you ever thought of that one?

Today we are extrapolating the implications of the cultural influences using the example of what Paul said from his time: “For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom; 23 but we preach Christ crucified, to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness”,

Basically, the bad attitudes from Paul’s time stubbornly remain today! Paul criticized his own race in 1 Corinthians 1. Paul really rips his own people in the book of Romans too! Today the people of the humanist secular type mentality, who are resistant to the things of the Spirit of God and the miraculous, think of themselves as the only voices that matter being the so called educated, logical, and scientific professionals. The basic same arrogant postures as the educated Jews who wanted a sign to believe in Jesus. Today we may compare this mentality to those who are liberals, communist, and even more disgustingly to half of all Americans who are perverse, cold-hearted, and evil (often college educated)! There have been, and there will always be people who are full of themselves, doubtful, unbelieving, unspiritual, and unwilling to accept that more realities exist in the world than what their limited experiences offer them as a reference. In other words, these closed-minded types of folks who think they are smarter than those who believe in God are your and my enemies because they mock and persecute. They are very divisive and ignorant, “making themselves wise they become fools” as described in Corinthians, Proverbs, and throughout all the Holy Scripture.  Faith in any culture, however, doesn’t need to be backed up by a sign, a professional, or any certain race or culture!

4. The Jews, and all cultures around Jesus in his time, were given many miraculous signs of healings, demon liberations, and even the one of the raising of the dead (Lazarus). But the sign that Jesus came out of the grave is the one that is most important to proclaim to all! If a person will not accept this amazing feat by the Son of God, then they by their unbelief cannot be saved into eternity. If you doubt that Jesus holds the keys to life hereafter, then God honors your choice; the hereafter and resurrection will simply not be there for you after you die! You chose, but..Romans 10:9 “that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation”.

Anyone from any culture must become as a child to believe. It is God’s test. It was God’s test for the Jews, Greeks, Romans, and still is for all cultures.  Faith is not seeing to believe, faith is believing and then you will see, or I should say you will have no more doubts of the unexplainable of God because God will reveal Himself in small but noticeable ways to you through the Holy Spirit. This is my experience and that of a few billion believers worldwide.

5. It is carnal and prideful to want a sign from God, but many people want one. I even asked God for a sign to know if I should serve Him or not (but I did already believe) and soon afterwards I dreamed a few very vivid dreams confirming God was perusing me and that I needed to escape with my life away from the selfish, drug infused, self-absorbed culture in my day. This is one reason, along with being convicted by the Word of God, that I chose to serve Him as a young man at age 21. So, God will even show you or me signs, either through miraculous signs or through the witness of people with whom He makes us cross paths with. The gospel of Jesus is preached everywhere, and multitudes of people everywhere get a chance to hear, believe, and follow, or to reject and mock. But you and I must be a messenger of God’s love! Acts 2:17 ‘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, Your young men shall see visions, Your old men shall dream dreams. 

What is my culture? It is unadulterated Christianity! But growing up American for me in the 1960s meant I had been exposed to a country in turmoil that had a problem respecting minorities. It taught me that the youth should protest against corrupt systems when it creates wars only for certain politicians to get rich. It meant that I knew I was privileged as a middle-class person to be able to work and be a little wealthier than most of the majority poor in other nations.  It also meant that I was exposed to powerful loud music, psychedelic drugs, the supernatural beliefs of the Irish, Native Americans, and of Indian Hinduism. I also knew people who read Ouija boards and followed the Satanic Bible! Good and evil is in abundance in this American culture! I don’t know about you but right now I hate seeing evil growing like weeds overtaking the beauty of the good fruit that could exist in this so-called developed society. We are in a cultural war of good versus evil and we must fight and defend what is Biblical, righteous, and pure or we are failing God and allowing corruption and hell to take over!

I do thank God for the good within this technologically advanced culture.  The predominating American culture of the 1960s meant that people in society were very Biblically literate and God-fearing and many were honest, hard-working, loving and Christian.  Communities were safer, people gave their word and trust was given, few divorces existed, and no one locked the doors to their houses or cars. I miss those days! Christians have failed to fight evil!

6. Cultures shift. The U.S is not what it was 50 years ago. Also, no longer is Cuba the richest happiest island of the Caribbean either. Stale despotic politics leading to poverty and hunger has killed the joy of these formerly highly educated and culturally wealthy people. Extreme corruption is affecting almost every nation today! Google it, you find that India, Mexico, Russia, all Muslim countries, and now even the U.S. is seen as one of the worst in corruption! 85% of Americans agree that the current corruption is at its worst and is out of hand!  (by Steve Forbes, a well-respected news outlet) https://www.facebook.com/SteveForbesCEO/photos/a.433882903357704.102553.372261619519833/982226698523319/?type=3&theater   

What happened to the Greeks, mentioned in verse 22? They dominated the world for a time, they brought in enough peacetime that the old men had enough leisure time talk all day and philosophize and write down interesting things such as what we read from Homer, Plato, Socrates, and the rest. They might have been a great culture before, but they degenerated. They became so proud they could not listen to anyone else’s wisdom, so they became fools.

Think about what we know now, of all the Greek mythological stories of gods with winged shoes, and others with lightning bolts, and yet they considered that wisdom.  Some of their philosophical deductions and mathematics are quite amazing when you consider the framework of the culture in which they lived. In their society you thanked God you were not born a slave, nor born as a woman! You would think they would have embraced the account of Jesus crucified and then resurrected (which is less far-fetched than their stories) but no, they were too proud of being who they were, and their culture of stubbornness made them become an old bunch of bankrupted degenerated fools who rejected God’s truth and they have not even recovered even until this day! What a humiliation despite trying to be right with God through their own form of Christian Greek Orthodoxy. Things just always had to be their way. 

7. So if cultures rise and develop, and then degenerate and fall, what are we to conclude looking at history? In the past 2,000 years the nations that have been the most Christian have prevailed! Did God allow the U.S. to defeat the empires of Japan and Germany? I think so, but only because people were repentant and praying desperately for the mega murderous Satanic evils to be defeated! In the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s, the U.S. had a more Godly culture and young people dedicated their time to the churches. Today young people arriving from Cuba, Mexico, or even those born in the U.S.A. do not give time to the church because that culture is lost. Goodness and Godliness in cultures must be maintained and fought for or evil men take over like we see today! The evil kings of Judah cost all the people in the Hebrew nations to lose their freedom and they became slaves many times over. Christian leadership is absolutely essential for the light to overpower the darkness and we must shine the light of truth on hypocrites!

When it comes to culture, we must always evaluate what is good and what is evil. Here is the problem today, we have people calling the good evil and the evil good. 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!” Woe means that God will punish and judge this!

You can see the Hebrews did a cultural shift back in Isaiah’s’ time and what happened? Their idolatries, pride, and sins overtook them to the point that God allowed them to become overtaken, humiliated, and made slaves to other pagan nations. This is the cycle of the rise and fall of nations that is all based around culture, whether the culture is worshipping, honoring, and obeying God persistently or not. Don’t blame God for the fall of this nation one day if you don’t fight for Godly values in this community. Jesus saves but He told us to “go” and preach the gospel!

8. All cultures offer good and evil so how can you discern what is what if you grow up in just one and do not have anything to compare it with? The less there is of God the more the ignorance. Can you see the point of why everyone needs to mix with other cultures to discover how others do things? It is really frustrating to see certain closed cultures lose out by always relying on their own ways and people while living in another country, trying to live as they did back home in the new land instead of trying new ways appreciating a new culture.

Christians have their own culture as well, depending on the denomination. People who attend a church usually have a community experience of worship, Bible study, camps, meals, and fun with people which they normally would never mix with. Rich and poor, white, black, and brown often mix together and everyone enjoys one another because we are all of the same blood, the blood of Jesus. Only Jesus can unite cultures, and the church is the last resort for racial healing! Jesus brought us the culture of ‘the kingdom of God’ which is one of love and it must preside over all! Col. 2:6 As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, 7 rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith, as you have been taught, abounding in it with thanksgiving. 8 Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ.

But be careful with the Christian culture you associate with! Some churches are stuck on philosophies, or politics, or on ancient irrelative traditions, or on doctrines proven to be erroneous, and on their own self-righteous stubbornness thinking that only they are the chosen ones going to heaven! Sadly, many so called Christian churches are essentially useless to Jesus’ cause and mission of loving people into God’s kingdom because they have accommodated the modern day cultural shifts degenerating God’s mission. Cultures are always remaking their selves and you must ask the question, how are we as a collective group changing and shifting? Where will it lead to, and is God in it? Again, do you really see your nation and culture as God sees it? 

9. The Salvation Army has its own culture as well, but it has adapted to the cultures of 130 countries! What is the main theme of our culture? It is holiness, service, compassion, and love! Serving others in the name of Jesus! For me, no matter how long a Captain or Major has been commissioned, if there is not a spirit of holiness, service, compassion, and love in them then they have sadly shifted away from the original culture of being what a true Salvationist is! May God help you and me to never shift away from this legacy because it is what the true kingdom of God is made of: It is in doing as Jesus did! And we always say, “Do something!”

Diverse music, marching bands, camps, clubs, shelters, rehab centers, all of these things make up our culture and you can be proud of it for enduring 157 years. Past great great-grandfathers at a great sacrifice built these operations and today people called by God maintain them all in action all with the motive to win souls to Jesus. You as Soldiers are the front lines keeping our Corps in order, inspiring, and alive with programs, mission, and effectiveness.

So, no matter your race or culture, Jew or Greek, Cuban, Mexican, Colombian, or North- American, you can have the culture of Jesus in your life superseding the surrounding culture you live in now or the one of your past upbringings. Don’t seek signs or worldly wisdom from the so-called halls of higher learning of any culture; Accept the good and eschew the evil of all cultures being aware of what is what in each of them. The reward for you will be: “Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God” in you! Jesus, and the entire Bible defines the culture you and I must follow…let’s pray.

HEAVEN! I Can’t Wait To Be There! I know what it is like!

HEAVEN!  I Can’t Wait To Be There!                              By Kelly Durant 8-9-15 Re 10-16-22

Revelation 21:4 And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.

 

2. How many of you have ever had a dream about heaven? Have you been flying like an angel? You are not alone! Thousands upon thousands of books and testimonies exist of people who have dreamed about heaven! And there are those who temporarily died, and come back to life, and witnessed heaven! Well, frighteningly, some others have reported they witnessed hell!

Heaven is what we all look forward to, and because Jesus spoke about it, it gives us hope of a much better existence than the one we have to endure at this present time!

 

The Old Testament was not very clear about what the spirit world held for us in the future, or how heaven would be. But here it’s made clear by Jesus, John 14:2 “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you”. I’ve always thought, why do I need a mansion on earth? I prefer the one in heaven! What gain is there to invest so much in this decaying material world and then one day you will leave it all behind? You and I are just pilgrims just passing through this temporary place. Wise people invest in heaven!

 

1 Corinthians 2:9 But as it is written, “Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.”  In other words, some of the people that have had a little glimpse of heaven in a dream or vision, have really not seen anything yet! It is going to be even better than all our dreams combined!

 

3. Why am I bringing up the subject of heaven? Because everyone wants to know about it! I have never met anyone yet who does not like to talk about heaven! (Well, some atheists deny heaven’s existence even though they accept science’s rendition of a multidimensional universe and how sad for them as they are missing out!) Try to bring up the subject of hell and see if people like to talk about it! It’s not very popular as some people know it is a real place for the wicked and they are afraid to seek God to know if they are one of them! 

 

Everyone wants to go to heaven; do you not agree? But if they would go there or not, that’s between Jesus and them, their faith, and what they are doing with their life. We can have a role in offering salvation and heaven to them, by offering them Jesus’ saving love, but each person decides for their self. We all need to be reminded of heaven as often as possible, so we live happier in the present because it is our hope and future reality! It is where our Christian loved ones are! What is the heaven of your dreams? How do you want heaven to be anyway? 

 

The verse of today describes something beautiful… “And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.” This is one of my favorite verses in the Bible! I can’t wait, can you? That’s the way the world should be! Free from pain and suffering!

Imagine a perfect world where all creatures live in harmony and love and live in happiness forever! Imagine getting a new resurrected heavenly body that never will hurt, get sick, or die. And all the suffering we see today will all stop! Rev 7:16 “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst any more; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat.”  This is the way I want the world to be, the heaven I want to live in! Imagine, nothing hurts or bothers you, natural AC and there is only the love, beauty, and the light of God’s presence! Now that is a utopian paradise!

 

4. Another favorite verse of mine is in Isaiah 65:25 “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock: and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, saith the Lord”.  I thank God for the book of Revelation as it describes heaven in a way that most of us as clueless thinkers have never thought of. It is described it as a physical place with beautiful elements which we value here on earth.  

 

Heaven will exist in a time and space continuum but in Revelation 10:6b it states, ”That there should be time no longer.” We interpret that to mean measuring time would be meaningless as all things are maintained in an eternal state in a heavenly dimension, we are not familiar with yet. Scientific string theory says 11 dimensions exist, maybe there are 12, who knows but let’s explore the number 12 in heaven.  Rev 21:19-20 And the foundations of the wall of the city were garnished with all manner of precious stones. The first foundation was jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, a chalcedony; the fourth, an emerald; 20 The fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolyte; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, a topaz; the tenth, a chrysoprasus; the eleventh, a jacinth; the twelfth, an amethyst.

 

I wanted to start a rock collection of all 12 of these stones but I soon realized that it is not in my budget!  One time I wanted to calculate how far man could get if all nations gathered up all the precious stones on earth to build a wall such as this one described in Revelation which is 1,500 miles long, or 6,000 miles in it’s total length & it has a width (?), and the height is 216 feet high! I am sure that on earth we cannot even construct 10 feet of it given earth’s limited resources! And don’t forget the streets of gold! These are hard elements that air, water, and sandstorms cannot erode (but in heaven there are no more sandstorms, ha!)

 

5. Heaven is the eternal City of God that we all are anxiously looking forward to get to! Hebrews 11:16 “But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.” Man starts out in a garden then ends up in a City. I really do not fully understand why God needs heaven to have streets of gold and with precious stone walls, but what it appears like is heaven will be electrified! Energy will radiate and vibrate throughout the whole structure. Why is this a legitimate assumption?

 

Revelation 11:19 And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail. Lightning is electric and all the other shakings provoked by it!

Everything has a purpose, and apart from heaven being eternal in its physical composition, it will contain elements of what we are familiar with here along with things we are to learn about. I have had dreams of being in heaven and what I recall is less about the beautiful surrealistic surrounding nature, and more about the indescribably feeling of peace and joy. John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

 

6. God is omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, and He can transcend the laws of physics which he established, and with Him the eternal can be maintained over any material. I know that God has precision and reason behind His architectural design in that unknown world. Only Christians are blessed with the Word of God revealing to them the beauty of heaven. Other religion’s versions pale comparatively, and their renditions of heaven often are disappointingly false concoctions of carnal man’s desires of pride!

 

Recall how the High Priests in the Old Testament had 12 precious gems on their breastplates representing the 12 tribes of Israel. God esteems us, his people, to be compared to these beautiful colorful, light emitting stones. Quartz and similar stones capture sound and radio waves, and the mysteries of God are still not yet understood by our tiny 3 pounds of grey brain matter! 

 

In our resurrected bodies we will still perceive light as we do now and all of the colors will be for our enjoyment! The most important thing is that in heaven we will be in God’s house, a house that He is the architect of. And if Jesus is there, I want to be near Him! And you?

 

7.  Just by being in the presence of God we will have eternal light, life, and indescribable joy! The Biblical definition of hell is an eternal existence separated from the presence of God in a burning darkness! God owns all the beauty of all things created and he created and administrates the unique ‘tree of life’ that will sustain all who are allowed to partake of it forever. Why would anyone want to mess up their chance for this? 

 

John gave us the Revelation of heaven because God wanted him to see it and to write down how amazing it is! Rev. 22:1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. So to answer the question of many of you, yes, you will we get to eat in heaven! Fruit, in particular! And it will be there just for the taking and not cost you a whole dollar for one!

 

Heaven is where your memory of this past hellish earth will be over-written with new beautiful experiences, and you will be surround by a new group of pure loving people who are authentically holy and loving being angels many who are transformed former humans. Many of the people there you will know and recognize. Matthew 8:11 And I say unto you, that many shall come from the east and west, and shall sit down with Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, in the kingdom of heaven. How wonderful is that! I want to talk to them! 

 

8. Heaven will be all of what we could never afford here on earth, and there we will not have to make payments on it either! Jesus paid a high price to pay for it for us in order for us to enjoy it forever! John 10:28 And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. Few people have grasped how valuable this is!

 

Let’s obey God and Jesus in everything, in every way, loving, serving, trusting, and worshipping! Reread Revelation 21 and 22 and be heavenly in your thoughts, dreams, and behavior! If you are not practicing heavenly manners in the present, don’t think that God will assume you will be any better and change in the future. Revelation 22:11 He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still.

 

How can you and I be heavenly minded and be holy as God is? Phil 4:8 Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

 

So, keep dreaming of heaven, and the things of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory and grace! Remember, Heaven, is the place of our destiny. It is important to dream about, envision it, and look forward to as it will be our future home where God will wipe away all our tears! And remember these words I love from this old gospel song that says:

When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be!

When we all see Jesus, We’ll sing and shout the victory!