The Lord's been showing me children are as much sinners as adults are. We really are born with a "sin nature". Children sin at their level  - at what they know is good but refuse to do. Stealing a cookie out of the cookie jar, for example.  Lying about it. Hitting their sibling when they snatch their toy away. Snatching that toy away. Refusing to obey mommy or daddy.  Surely their sins aren't as grievous as some of the sins adults commit  - but they are sins none-the-less.  So I'm questioning the doctrine of "age of accountability", which teaches all children go to Heaven when they die (if they die before they reach the "age of accountability"), which can vary from child to child depending on their personal maturity level. In Jewish culture,  each child is initiated into adulthood  on their 13th birthday  in a ceremony called a "Bar Mitzvah", for boys and a "Bat Mitzvah" for girls. This ceremony is Biblical, but is the idea that children are not accountable for their own sins until they reach an age where they fully understand  the concept of sin and righteousness Biblical? As the Holy Spirit continues to lead me deeper and deeper- into a deeper understanding of God's Word, I must reexamine all I've been taught,  to be sure what I've been taught is of Him. Can parents cover their children in the Blood? Can they use their parental authority to cover their children's sins  - and forgive them before God? If parents are not Christian, and have no concept of the blood covering, of the "blood shed for the remission of sins", what happens to their children when they die? Surely babies are held to a different standard by the Lord! Or are they? Is there Scripture to support this? I can think of just one, but i want to see what my readers think.

 Nameless towns along the railroad 

 full of nameless souls

 Existing to me   only in my prose

  they flick past my vision           gone

 before a thought can fully form

Two birds in a field  flutter and flit

  playing a game of "tag - you're it"

Streams full of energy

 rushing to where they know they're meant to be 

Abandoned railroad ties

  their destinies never realized 

Trees stand forlornly

 hoping that "someone will notice me"

Occasionally we pass a car

  it's Sunday so traffic is sparse

Between the towns  - endless cultivation 

 greenhouses and fields full of vegetation 

And yes  - a festival being set up

  for Koreans love to gather together 

 to play and drink and sup

And another sight abounds  -

  unique Korean cemeteries where the 

  dead are buried in mounds

Every valley has a structure or a path

  Koreans love to get outdoors

to hike, picnic and plant

These words of mine 

  will never be read by anyone butvme  -

still I write them, joyfully 

 My body's entire focus  - first and foremost, is on it's next breath. Everything else is secondary.  Without that next breath, all other bodily functions and reasons for existing do not matter  - without breath, they'll cease to exist. 

The Body of Christ is exactly the same as our natural bodies. Without the constant receiving and giving of the Holy Spirit   - everything else we are called to do as a Body  - does not matter. Without Him, everything else dies. Really. Even our blood does us no good if it isn t oxygenated  - and it doesn't flow, through our heart's beating, which requires our breaths. The blood of Jesus does us no good if it is not oxygenated with the Holy Spirit  - the breath of God entering us daily, even minute by minute.  Our relationship with the Holy Spirit should become as natural to us as our every breath has become to our bodies. We simply cannot live without breathing   - air; and we simply cannot live forever without breathing the Holy Spirit.  When two or more gather together  we should be breathing the Holy Spirit all over one another, constantly.  Selah.

 I wrote the following in 2018  -

My daughter Tiffany is more righteous than i.  Her spirit is so sensitive.  She abhors violence.  She refuses to watch movies or TV shows with violence in them. This world is obsessed with violence   - the News reports on it incessantly  - they revel in it. They're entertained by it  - endless TV shows and Movies full of death, bloodshed,  violent murders, guns, knives, bombs, tortures  -  constant fighting   - it's sickening.  Here in South Korea,  over 80 % of movies shown on cable are full of death and violence.  I too, am finally getting sick of it. I think I'll follow in my daughter's footsteps. 

Yup, since I wrote that, I've given up almost completely watching movies and TV. I might watch a movie in a theater once a year, usually a Christian release. I no longer watch TV at all. I try to commune with the Lord almost exclusively. 

 125 years ago you didn't have to ask permission from Government to:

  -  Go fishing, collect rain water, use a transportation vehicle,  build a home or renovate it.

   -  You didn't have to pay tax upon tax upon tax with already taxed money.

   -  You didn't have to ask permission and pay to be married,  obtain licenses, certifications or permits to hunt, own a weapon,  become a Carpenter  or any other trade or profession.

   -  You didn't have to ask permission to protest or redress Government, or sell a product, or have your income  illegally taxed by the 16th Amendment WHICH WAS NEVER RATIFIED!

   -  You can virtually do "nothing" without being extorted by Government and obtaining their permission first.

If you still think you're "free" you're deluding yourself  - you live in an open air prison as free range humans thoroughly manipulated and controlled by the illusion of a free society, that exists only in your mind! 

No one in America actually owns their own land or homes, either. Don't pay your taxes and see how quickly the Government will take what you thought was yours.

A Bridge of Fools

 

They gladly marched to their doom.

 Never did their hearts make room

  for the God who loved them so,

instead the path to Hell they chose.

Our lives are a bridge to Heaven or Hell  -

 We live them wrong or we live them well,

 but if it's rebellion we decide to choose  -

 then our lives become a bridge of fools.....

The following was written in 2018  -

The Lord's been trying to teach me for eight months now  - He must be my priority  - His presence must be my passion  - if I can't or won't seek Him daily now  - when there's no ministry at all happening  - I won't do it later when ministry starts up again  - and that is deadly  - it is death to any ministry  - to minister without Him, without His daily presence.  We can end up seeking to minister,  with the joys and pitfalls that come along with ministry,  the highs and lows- but we don't seek Him. The Israelites followed Him in the wilderness  - they followed His presence  -  but after they got to their "promised land" it was much harder for them to follow Him. We may seek Him with all our hearts  - beseeching Him to launch us into our calling  - but when He grants us tge desire of our heart we must continue to seek  Him just as diligently. We must be the leper that returned to Him! We must seek His face in thankfulness and humility  - daily. Weekly church "services" must never become the only time we seek Him, and meet with Him  -  whether we're the ones ministering or being ministered to. We should never seek Him publicly while avoiding Him privately.  This can easily become hypocrisy.  This is the basis of religion   - a public show of faith that does not reflect an inward reality. And the more successful we become  in our public ministry  - the more tempting it is to neglect our private ministry to The Lord.  Jesus Himself, who had the most successful public ministry ever, was careful to draw aside to the mountains or wilderness to be alone to spend private time with His Father. So should we. If we become the flavor of the month  - the latest in demand minister,  who everyone wants to hear from personally  - we must guard our hearts against not only pride, but against listening to people while not also listening intently to the Holy Spirit's still, small voice within. We do not lead the Holy Spirit  - no, He leads us  - unless we're too busy ministering to follow Him.  Could you, at the height of your popularity as a minister  - take off alone to the mountains to be alone with the Lord? Could you see a crowd gather to hear you preach and minister, and walk away? Jesus did. He cared nothing for the praise and adoration of men  - His primary purpose was pleasing His Father.  So must ours be.

Amen.  Written from Cyprus 

 There is nothing good inherent in me. Nothing at all. I am not merely a "sinner" - someone who is basically good but commits sins once in awhile,  no, I am wicked and deceitful through and through.  ALL my righteousness is as filthy rags. In other words: I'm completely filthy.

The only way for there to be good in me is for me to invite Christ in - by His Holy Spirit.  Then, I must decrease so He can increase. When someone is,  quote "Born Again", they have taken the first (very important) step in their walk with God  - they've invited Him to dwell inside them  - but, they are still full of themselves.  Christ in them, the hope of glory, at that point, is like a tiny seed, not fully formed. This seed must grow.  -  it must be watered, given plenty of light  - the more of "self" that's removed, that dies, the more Christ can fill us till eventually He overflows out of us. The "old man" (who we were before we met Christ), does not die all at once, quickly. This is why Jesus chose crucifixion for the manner of His sacrificial death for us all  -  for it is a slow, agonizing, painful death  - exactly the same type of death our "self will", our "old man", the one that is wicked and deceitful, who loves to sin, goes through. In fact, Paul declared "I die daily" - so too must we experience the pain of death daily, for we never really escape it completely this side of Heaven. 

 Why can't I believe in what God can do as easily as I believe in what man can do? I take my diabetes medication every day  - twice a day -  really trusting and believing  it can keep my blood sugar level down  - I believe without even thinking about it- it's automatic  - I just accept it and trust in man's ability to heal  - but I cannot or do not believe God will heal me  - how absurd is that? Isn't God infinitely better than man? Are not His ways and His abilities,  far above man's? I should,  as an act of faith, throw away my glasses. I'm extremely near-sighted. I can see less than six inches in front of my face. If I got rid of my glasses,  i couldn't drive or work, cook, lots of other things, unless, of course, God heals me. 

So very many Christians i know  - when they get sick - their first response is: see a doctor. See a man (or woman). Trust in them for healing.  Often, God isn't even considered.  If He is, it's as an afterthought  -  an insurance policy in case the doctor can't do the job. But always  - try the doctor or the hospital, first. Flesh always turns to flesh, for wisdom, for healing,  forvall our Spirit-God can provide  - if we fully submit our flesh to Him. If our spirit ruled over our flesh and not the other way around   - we would exalt God (who is a Spirit) over our flesh. Healing is my bread! It is a partvof the Covenant God made with me! My eye sight should have been healed years ago   - if not for my supreme lack of faith. Will the Son of Man find faith in MY earth when He returns?

 People who think they're better than everyone else,

 are people who don't know themselves very well:

For the person you should try to be better than daily is yourself. 

Yes,

Only compare yourself with yourself   -

 do this and you'll do well.

Try to make your tomorrow you

 a version of you that's new and improved. 

Your value and your worth

should not be found by comparing yourself 

 with others on this earth  -

for your true value, you see,

comes only from the blood shed at Calvary.