Persecution

God does not want us playing games or striving for power on earth. He does not want us playing with the oddfairies.
We are supposed to be pure vessels of his power and support each other in a closed Christian community.
This is why he says flee.

Perfection through Suffering

The Lord has a great work to be done, and He will bequeath the most in the future life to those who do the most faithful, willing service in the present life. The Lord chooses His own agents, and each day under different circumstances He gives them a trial in His plan of operation. In each true-hearted endeavor to work out His plan, He chooses His agents not because they are perfect but because, through a connection with Him, they may gain perfection.

Christ's Object Lessons, page 330, paragraph 1
Chapter Title: Talents
Ellen White

Conformity to the World

Conformity to the world and harmony with Christ cannot be maintained. Worldly maxims and worldly practices sap spirituality from heart and life. Conformity to the world means resemblance to the world in meeting the world's standard. . . . No man can serve the world and Jesus Christ at the same time. There is an irreconcilable antagonism, between Christ and the world.

The Faith I Live By, page 117, paragraph 4
Chapter Title: God's Remedy For Sin
Ellen White

The purpose of simplicity and adherence to moderation in attitudes towards others

[At the end of the Puritan age] by some means or other, first the ministers, then the Churches, got on "the down grade," and in some cases, the descent was rapid, and in all, very disastrous. In proportion as the ministers seceded from the old Puritan godliness of life, and the old Calvinistic form of doctrine, they commonly became less earnest and less simple in their preaching, more speculative and less spiritual in the matter of their discourses, and dwelt more on the moral teachings of the New Testament, than on the great central truths of revelation. Natural theology frequently took the place which the great truths of the gospel ought to have held, and the sermons became more and more Christless. Corresponding results in the character and life, first of the preachers and then of the people, were only too plainly apparent.

The Sword and the Trowel
Spurgeon

Battlefield of the Mind

[Unhealthy State of Mind]

Turn your mind away from romantic projects. You mingle with your religion a romantic, lovesick sentimentalism, which does not elevate, but only lowers. It is not yourself alone who is affected; others are injured by your example and influence. . . . Daydreaming and romantic castle building have unfitted you for usefulness. You have lived in an imaginary world; you have been an imaginary martyr and an imaginary Christian.

The Adventist Home, page 52, paragraph 4
Chapter Title: True Love or Infatuation

Light

You have to accept light, and submit your emotions and 'wants' to it.

This is a requirement of God.

Simplicity of Obediance to God

Young men and women spend years and years in acquiring an education which is but wood and stubble, to be consumed in the last great conflagration.


from Chapter Title: A Failure to Study God's Word
Counsels to Parents, Teachers, and Students, page 444, paragraph 2

by Ellen G. White

Devil Worshippers

The unseen community is the DEVIL

The physical manifestation of his will

We never worship or pray to the unseen or spiritual

WE worship God only!

Beauty = Death

We must purify darkness.

M. THeresa, Audrey Hepburn, Diana

these women spent their time with the poor.

But it is our development to straighten crooked paths, heal the sick, to strengthen.

We must find beauty in what is not beautiful and contentment in difficult situations. We should not take beauty but give beauty.

We are surrounded by very lazy people who do not want to accept and love the un-beautiful. They refuse to be moderate and they refuse to do the basic work of decency.

Skillful Design

We must also love our feet and enjoy mundane duties.

There must be a recognition that because of life's imperfections we learn to create beauty in all circumstances and situations.

It is not poverty or wealth that brings enjoyment, but the mindset. Those who are content and enjoy even the imperfect will always be full of grace.

Ugly people have other resources than their looks. Poor people as well. This life is about skillful design. We are given a variety of tools and resources and are watched to see what kind of lives we create. We must love the spirit and do our duty despite imperfections.

This is how we become like God, this is our training. Because He must as he creates maintain the wholeness and the beauty of soul. God is still perfect, this little imperfection of sin is also part of the perfection.

Those who hunger and thirst after righteousness

And the LORD said unto him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and set a mark upon the foreheads of the men that sigh and that cry for all the abominations that be done in the midst thereof.

Ezekiel 9.4

The Blood-Bought Family

How Satan gloated on the thought that he should destroy the church, and exalt his darlings to honors in the place of those who loved the Lord.


Referenced below

Daily Deliverance for the Family of God

Sometimes God has suffered the enemy to exact upon us, and the sword has been use with terrible effect. O, there have been dark and gloomy days for the chosen church of Christ! When persecution has cried, "Havoc, and let slip the dogs of war," blood has flowed like water over the land! our enemies have triumphed. the martyr was bound to the stake, or was crucified upon the tree; the pastor was cut off, and the flocks were scattered.

Cruel torture—awful suffering was endured by the saints of God. The elect cried, and said, "O Lord, how long? let it repent thee concerning thy servants." The enemy laughed, and said, "Ah, ah! so would we have it." Zion was under a cloud. Her precious saints, comparable to fine gold, were esteemed as earthen vessels, the work of the hands of the potter, and her princes were trodden down like mire in the streets.

O, my soul! how was it in that sad day, when the enemy came in upon her like a flood, and she could scarcely lift up the standard of the Lord against him?

O God, there was an hour when thou wouldst not hear the cry of thine elect! It seemed as if thine ear was deaf; the plaint of the widow was unheeded; the groans, the agonies, and the cries of martyrs were unnoticed; and thou didst still allow the enemy to vex thy children.

Persecution shook the land, and sent forth its burning lava of cruelty, devastating the fair fields of the church of God. But did the enemy prosper? Did he succeed? Did persecution destroy his church? Did the weapon formed against us prosper? No!

Each time that the church had a wave pass over her she rose out of it, and lifted her fair countenance, fair as the moon, and terrible as an army with banners. She was all the more glorious for it all. Every time her blood was shed each drop became a man, and each man thus converted stood prepared to pour out the vital current from his veins to defend the cause.

Ah! those were times when, instead of the church being diminished and brought low, God did multiply her, and persecution worked for her good instead of causing her evil.

Spurgeon's Sermons www.spurgeon.org

We cannot subject ourselves to spiritual deceptions

Do not be tricked into believing that you have a secular spiritual community

Our community is in heaven
On earth we only have a physical community, and so we must speak.
Do not listen to spiritual conversations, as this is not a Christian way.

Strict Obedience requires reliance on God ONLY

"You have discarded the old nature with its deeds and have put on the new nature." (Col 3:10 NEB)


The devil tries to suggest unholy actions

Regardless of who has joined the devil
We must stand with God

Ignore the incorrect thinking of those who surround you. They are not your source, but Christ. They are fallible beings, and unless in a relationship with God, they are not to be relied on. They do not have the strength on their own to support your STRICT OBEDIANCE to God's will.

Ignore any outward appearances -- people who are rich, attractive, well-connected are as useless as the rest. Do not be distracted by what they seem to be.


As Christians our commission is to obey our convictions as they apply to God in His holiness. At any point in which we see that we might disobey God, we must avoid wrong.

If sorcerers try to communicate with you in their language, Christians are never to respond, let alone learn the language. It will separate us from God.

Our company is Holy and eternal, there is no need to adjust to the transient mob.

Why it is important to speak and remove this interaction from a spiritual level

Usually when you push back the children of God, You push back the presence of God.

This is why it is important for the children of God to stand their ground.

Because the devil wants you out of the way.

It is a sin because in deferring SPIRITUALLY, you block the Holy spirit

And allow the unholy to enter in.

==============================================

Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)"Don't be afraid, Daniel," he said to me, "for from the first day that you purposed to understand and to humble yourself before your God, your prayers were heard. I have come because of your prayers.

Mary Pondered

We give the devil freedom

To twist our lives into
Uncertain paths

But we are ambassadors of Christ

God has allowed us to be necessary

A conduit of His will

As Jesus said, the rocks and stones will cry out
If we do not

But we will

Blessed people who God remembers

Blessed is he that blesses you, and cursed is he who curses you!


While they refuse to call a blessing upon you,
We bless you in the name of God.



Numbers 24.9, Psalm 129.8 New American Bible

God does not change

On your feet, Balak. Listen,
listen carefully son of Zippor:
God is not man, one given to lies,
and not a son of man changing his mind.
Does he speak and not do what he says?
Does he promise and not come through?
I was brought here to bless;
and now he's blessed—how can I change that?
He has no bone to pick with Jacob,
he sees nothing wrong with Israel.
God is with them,
and they're with him, shouting praises to their King.
God brought them out of Egypt,
rampaging like a wild ox.
No magic spells can bind Jacob,
no incantations can hold back Israel.
People will look at Jacob and Israel and say,
"What a great thing has God done!"
Look, a people rising to its feet, stretching like a lion,
a king-of-the-beasts, aroused,
Unsleeping, unresting until its hunt is over
and it's eaten and drunk its fill.

Numbers 23:18-20 (The Message Bible)

Inhumanity and infestations

The difference between a government and an infestation is in its ability to be fair and non-intrusive to its citizens.

Unqualified for self-exaltation

Our consciences are our warning signals.

They are based on what we have been taught as human beings, and to go against what we know is right, is to fail our purpose.

By doing what we know is wrong we create negative and unstable structures that do not accomplish but cause deterioration


This is a basic part of the human psyche and to do what you believe you shouldn't for personal gain

God says to repent. To admit wrong, and turn away from this action.
Confess and admit to those you have wronged, and cause no harm.

Basic management of variety is all that is necessary if dominance is required. Primitive macho-ness is not excellence.

Andromeda -- Gerard Manley Hopkins

Now Time’s Andromeda on this rock rude,
With not her either beauty’s equal or
Her injury’s, looks off by both horns of shore,
Her flower, her piece of being, doomed dragon’s food.
Time past she has been attempted and pursued
By many blows and banes; but now hears roar
A wilder beast from West than all were, more
Rife in her wrongs, more lawless, and more lewd.

Her Perseus linger and leave her tó her extremes?—
Pillowy air he treads a time and hangs
His thoughts on her, forsaken that she seems,
All while her patience, morselled into pangs,
Mounts; then to alight disarming, no one dreams,
With Gorgon’s gear and barebill, thongs and fangs.

D'Invilliers -- Then Wear the Gold Hat

Bring me a blank piece of paperMake it blank so I can write down all that I want about you
Bring me a black pen – no, make it blueI know that’s your favorite color too
I worry about the past like youI think about the future too.

I sat here on this chairWiggled ‘round a bitAnd sometimes stared
That’s you on the wall right therePick up jeans and braided hair

Just twist with me, just turn with meJust stroll the streets alone with meYou don’t have to burn it with a pen and paperBut if you do, be good to me

Wear the Gold Hat if that will move herIf you can bounce high, Bounce for her tooTill she cry, “Gold-Hatted lover I must have you.”

Wear the Gold Hat if that will move herIf you can bounce high, Bounce for her tooTill she cry, “Lover, Gold-Hatted High-Bouncing Lover I must have you.”

I know the truth dies with the lies that we forget
I know that these eyes look in your eyes every chance they get

This is the story of the greatest of the mornings from the summer rain
This is the story of the way that you talked, the way that she talked
And I just look at her….


Wear the Gold Hat if that will move herIf you can bounce high, Bounce for her tooTill she cry, “Gold-Hatted lover I must have you.”

Wear the Gold Hat if that will move herAnd you will bounce high for her tooTill she cry, “I must have you, I must have you, I must have you.”

Bring me a blank piece of paperBring me a penI’d like the blue one againDon’t you worry about the sentencesI can’t write them out ‘til I’m back again

Why boasteth thyself in mischief, O mighty man?

Honourable titles are but irony where the wearer is mean and cruel.

Pasted from <http://www.spurgeon.org/treasury/ps052.htm>

A true and faithful witness

Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the Lord our God. Jer 42.6



For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. 2 Chron 16.9