What made John unique among the apostles is that Jesus caught him rather early in his life, probably just a teenager. There was a very strong personal bond between as they were first cousins, and Jesus acted as if John were His best human friend. Thus, Jesus' teaching of the ancient Hebraic way versus the Talmudic Judaism of that day really struck John powerfully. He ended up being the most Hebraic of the Twelve.

He wrote this letter around AD 85 from Ephesus. By that time, the city had become the western capital of Christian religion. John had stayed in Judea as long as he could in order to keep his promise to take care of Jesus' mother. Eventually he had to leave the area. Jerusalem had been destroyed by the Roman army in AD 73 and a great many Christians in Jerusalem ended up in or near Ephesus.

Unlike Greek correspondence, John launches immediately into a prophetic warning: John had been with Jesus during His ministry, saw and heard everything firsthand. Thus, it was easy for him to teach what he experienced personally. He freely shared the whole message, not keeping anything secret, so that his audience could be touched by the Lord and commune in the Holy Spirit. The message itself drew the people, and they became part of John's treasure on this earth. He was rich!

Being the western capital of Christian religion, Ephesus was also the home of some major heresies. Most of them shared a basic major flaw in denying that Jesus was the Son of God. By this time the Gnostic heresy of legalistic Platonic Dualism was well established. They insisted the Jesus was a man who worked with the Holy Spirit, but the later left Him before the Cross. And it was all based on speculation and reason, whereas John's message was direct from Jesus Himself.

God does not divide Himself between competing philosophical assumptions. He has only one message, and it is His Son. If anyone keeps walking in the flesh, then they know nothing of Jesus. It has always been God's requirement that people repent and condemn their fleshly lusts. The fleshly nature must be bound and forced to serve the spirit. God is all about holiness in this world and in Eternity. Anyone who taught that God didn't care about what your flesh did was a liar. Those who would become part of His family must join Jesus on the Cross. But how sweet was the fellowship of those who did this!

Thus, you must confess that your flesh is wicked and sinful and then seek to lock it down by the power of Christ's Spirit. Our Lord is faithful in forgiving our sins. His power is sufficient to cleanse us so that we can walk in purity in this life.

Early in the week my brother-in-law (David Davis) went to the ER. He was very ill with pneumonia. While there, he suffered a heart-attack. In the midst of testing, they discovered he had had a serious heart-attack a year ago. They can't do anything more than cursory testing because his body is struggling too hard. He is now also suffering emphysema (COPD). So, right now his heart is working about 5% while his body is fighting the infections. If they can't get it under control, there's too great a likelihood he will have more heart-attacks until he's dead. If he lasts long enough, I plan to go see him Saturday. He's about 72 years old, been a smoker his whole adult life. I performed the wedding between him and my sister some years ago.

We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

I thought I had posted here about the kidney stone I got a few years ago but I can't find the thread. It was pretty bad, and it looks like I have another one, though this time around it's merely uncomfortable. I am at the ER now to get checked just in case. I'll respond here when I know more details.

Peter wanted his readers to keep their minds in subjection to the Spirit. We inform the brain of divine revelation so it will know how to respond, equipped to cooperate with the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Teaching was aimed at locking down the boundaries for the fleshly nature. One of the tricks of these Gnostic heretics was to reason that Christ was not coming back. Has anything changed since Creation? Yes, it has.

Peter recites the Creation story, and it should be obvious he is dictating this letter in Hebrew to someone translating it into Greek, because the wording is sometimes clumsy. He says the Gnostics know they are lying about the return of Christ. Genesis portrays how dry land appeared below the watery canopy of the sky and rose up out of the sea of waters to drain off. So, it wasn't very hard for God to then destroy the world with all that same water that was held back by His hand. After the Flood, He changed the physical structure of the world so that water would not be used again that way.

We no longer have that exceedingly wet situation from before the Flood. Now, the Lord has promised that the next destruction will come by fire instead of water and it won't be just the earth. That will be the Day of Judgment. Peter reminds them of one more hole in the Gnostic argument: God is not under the time-space constraints because He lives in Eternity. His attention decides whether the passage of time is for Him slow or fast. The false image of God being slow misses the whole point. Noah's prophetic warning of a flood coming took 120 years while he built the Ark. Was that too long? God was being patient, giving the rest of humanity a full chance to repent and gave Noah time to finish that massive boat.

Don't misread verse 9 like the Calvinists and Arminians do. It's Hebrew thoughts in Greek words: God is not eager to destroy anyone, but He has warned that the time for such a burdensome task does eventually come. And when that day comes, it will not seem to make sense to anyone but Him. There will be nothing about the situation to warn anyone. However, no one will miss it. The noise will be horrific when the physical universe passes away. More to the point, every human deed will be exposed for all to see.

Let's be clear: One does not take a vacation from holiness. Stay on top of your Kingdom mission. Peter repeats the image of how the universe will be destroyed. God will remove His restraining hand and the molecular bonds of all the particles in the universe will dissolve so that all the stored energy will be released at once. You cannot imagine the fiery storm!

There will be a new heavens and earth that we also cannot imagine, but one without mortality and the damage done by the rebellions of creatures God made. Our duty now is to make ready for that day. Realize that God's patience about judging your suffering and sorrow is good for you, too. You have more time to discover ways you could serve Christ better. This is the same kind of thing that shows up in Paul's letters; he and Peter were on the same team. Because Paul was fluent in Greek, his writings are a lot more challenging to read.

And, quite naturally, the Gnostic heretics have twisted his letters, same as they do all the rest of the Scriptures. Yes, Peter says that Paul's letters were Scripture. By this time Paul had already been executed and Peter was next. The Apostles recognized Scripture when they saw it. And Peter asked his readers to invest the time and effort to lock in a clear doctrine of Christ so they could stand against the lies of the Gnostic heretics.

The only real "gnosis" was in Christ and His teaching.

Somewhere around 1996 or 97, I had my #3 tooth removed.  My #2 and #4 were crowned and a bridge built between them.  It remained a permanent fixture in my mouth until Sunday night.  (Top right back teeth)  The top right wisdom tooth is #1 but most of us no longer have that one.

This past Sunday night, I had just finished my supper, and had sat down in my recliner when all of a sudden, something was in my mouth that had been in my jaw.  That bridge had fallen completely out.  I had mentioned that the #2 tooth had a cavity and that the crown and bridge would have to be removed during Sunday's Skype meet.  Well, guess my body thought it would skip that part.  So there I was with my bridge in my hand, wondering why I wasn't in any pain.  (And, I must admit I was upset)  I called and left a message at my dentist's office.  They made me an appointment for Tuesday.

Fast forward to yesterday.  I got a call from an oral surgeon my dentist had referred me to on Tuesday asking if I would like to come in instead of the appointment I was going to have in two weeks.  I went at noon and the news was not good.

Background:  For the last 20 years or so, I have had osteoporosis (when the cells that remove bone (osteoclasts) work faster than the ones that replace that with new bone (osteoblasts) and you start to have hole-y bones).  During those years, I have been receiving IV infusions of a drug called Reclast.  It comes with a risk of patients developing osteonecrosis of the jaw (jaw bone death).  Although I do not have that YET, one thing that can induce it, IF you are a recipient of osteoporosis drugs (such as Reclast), is to have a tooth extraction.

Because extracting a tooth leaves a gaping hole in the bone, you would want that to heal quickly and not get infected and so on.  Unfortunately, because I just had an infusion in July and my old bone hasn't been being removed much, it may not heal fast enough and worse case scenario, my upper jaw bone could get infected or die.  This sounds bad and it could be.

Yesterday, the oral surgeon discussed all this with me.  He said he would like to refer me to a endodontist who may save my #4 through another outrageously too long of a procedure to describe and to get his opinion on #2.  #2 DOES have a deep cavity and may not be salvageable so may still need to be extracted.  He gave me the impression he was thinking that he really wasn't wanting to deal with the risks.  He is a good guy, and I can understand considering the gravity of my situation.  IF #2 needs pulling, he will be the one to do it.

I asked him about implanting something in the hole and he mentioned PRF (Platelet-Rich Fibrins).  My blood is placed into a centrifuge and spun to extract a gel-like substance that would go into the socket where it will form a clot.  The gel will contain those parts of my blood that would speed up the healing process and recovery.  Sometimes they add leukocytes (L-PRF) to include infection fighters to the mix.

I know this sounds like a bad Grade B movie, but, well.....

And once again, probably TMI, but I had to get this off my chest.

Pray for me, ok?

We are participating in our weekly prayer time at 5pm EST. Check out the prayer request forum for some prayer topics, but feel free to lift up your own.

You may also fast. There's no obligation or guidelines to how you should do it, or if you should do it at all. Just fast as the Lord leads and speaks to your convictions.

Just a short thought item...

Humans desire stability and peace by instinct. However, I reiterate the teaching that humans cannot grasp the nature of the peace they desire nor the path for it without the Holy Spirit. Humans on their own can neither recognize nor resist the lies of the Devil regarding that instinct for peace. Thus, the only question for us is how well they go about conducting the inevitable conflicts.

In that vein, I note that I often bounce things off Brandon Smith of Alt-Market fame. He has a great analysis, but his commitments are predictably worldly. For once, he posted something with which I totally agree, simply because he doesn't try to offer a solution, only explains the problem: The “Monkey Wrench” Sabotage of America Begs for an Authoritarian Response.

He warns that our society and government are unable to think smartly about the efforts of the Progressives to derail Trump's agenda. If there is any effective response at all from the administration, it will be harsh and destructive. This is exactly what I am expecting.

We discussed on the Skype call today and my comments were muddled. I need to correct what I said.

I referenced an article on Unz Review by Ron Unz himself that summarizes his survey of the scholarship on the question. To distill it down: The Jews who remained in Palestine were forcibly converted to Islam during that religion's era of conquest in that part of the world. Today's Palestinians are them, more or less. Meanwhile, the huge Jewish merchant population in the Mediterranean and Europe were most likely Phoenician and Carthaginian converts to Judaism. Later, many of them married southern European women who converted. The evidence Unz offers includes how modern Jews have a Phoenician business behavior and modern Judaism seems to exhibit religious ideas from known Phoenician religion. They came to dominate Jewish society at large worldwide.

I note something he does not mention: The ancient Phoenician language is nearly identical to Hebrew, as was their alphabet.

My hosting plan was upgraded automatically earlier last week, mostly because of the number of files I host. I am fine with this, since it's implicit with the upgrade that we'll enjoy increased bandwidth (to put it simply) to handle more visitors. Not that we need to handle more visitors, but there should be a general performance increase across the board when serving up pages. I doubt we'd be able to notice since slow-loading pages can be rare here, but maybe we will.