An interesting conversation with a 92-year-old lady yesterday in a bookstore. Surprised me when she volunteered that she was 92. I think she had just come from the hairdresser or an expensive clothier. Maybe both. She was looking for a non-fiction or political book to stimulate her thinking.

“Things don’t look good for our country,” she said. So, we talked politics. One of her friends saw her and invited her to lunch. She postponed lunch so she could finish her conversation with me. Nice!

She kept referring to “Grandpa.” I assumed she was using a nick name for her husband, or some influencer I should know. No. She was quoting and talking about her grandfather. Do some math. What calendar years would her Grandpa have been talking about when he sowed wisdom and information into this lady? Do you suppose he ever said, “When I was your age…”? “Grandpa” could have referenced his life in the late 1800s. What could he have told her that still stands up in April 2022?

The lady told me one of her questions is whether she should have paid for her grandson’s college years. “No common sense”—among other things. Given what I perceived as a hunger for knowledge and what other people are thinking and writing, it is interesting to me that she quoted her Grandpa and not her father or grandson.

Grandfathering and Grandmothering has changed.

I wonder if that lady decided her postponed lunch date was the wisest choice. I know our chat set me on a search for those things I learned from my grandparents—or someone’s grandparents—and the things to which I wish we all would have paid more attention.

My entire life, at least from my earliest recollection, I have heard the biblical prophecies of a cashless society and the one-world government: the motivation for and the bad outcome. I heard stories of the Great Depression. I wish grandparents would have been clearer about the causes that would make sense in the 1920s and the 2020s. More certainly, to what our culture should be paying closer attention.

Two of my non-fiction ebooks have been published in the past six weeks. (Seizin the Season and “Mining for Reality & Truth).  A novel—The Carafe Conspiracy—is waiting for me to finish the last section. A half-dozen years ago, I heard someone say they were committed to “Walking beside” and “Pouring into.” I wondered exactly what it is that will benefit the people we walk beside. What shall we pour into them? And what is the source of those life-productive resources and relationships?

This is where I am so far. Besides, “I love you,” I want my grandchildren to quote me about:

• RIGHTEOUSNESS—Personal alignment with God, Truth, Reality.
• REDEMPTION—Of all things, nations, tribes, and people lost.
• RESILIENCY—Ability to discern, bounce back and stick with it.
• RESPECT—For all life, personal property, people’s opinion & experience. Empathy. Revealed Truth and instruction.
• RESOURCEFULNESS—Aimed at preparation, solutions, strategies, critical thinking.
• RHYTHMS—Life seasons; being present to laughter, tears, celebration, silence.

The rhythm section must include March Madness, open day of baseball season, time by a body of water.

What would you add to this list?

Papa Dean

©2022 D. Dean Benton

One-hundred-fifteen years after the crew abandoned Endurance and she sank, that great ship has been discovered.  The expedition led by Sir Ernest Shackelton . Twenty months of constant life-threatening experience.

Five-thousand men applied to go on the Endurance Expedition. Each job application contained the same question: “Can you sing?” One man protested that he was not a performer to which Shackelton defined the task as joining in to sing with the rest of the crew.

During the ten months on the doomed ship, regular nights were designated as gramophone nights for listening to and singing with recorded music. When orders were sounded to abandon ship. Shackelton informed the chief musician that he had already carried his banjo off the ship. Months later, the crew was informed they would be limited to two pounds of personal articles. Shackelton said the banjo would be taken on the trek. “For we shall need it.”

One of the strangest parts of the A&E movie about the expedition was watching the crew singing after supper. Can you imagine mechanics at your car dealership or stylists at the beauty salon singing as they work on your car or style your hair? How about your family singing at the supper table? Feels odd, doesn’t it? Had there not been singing in Antarctica, life would have seeped out.

There is no way to describe the harrowing months for this crew. Shackelton joyfully proclaimed that not one person was lost. Sometimes, you just must sing or hum!

©2015 HopePushers, D. Dean Benton, (Smashwords, Spring Daisy Publications) Chapter 13

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/572059

The words from Revelation 22:1-2 have hung in my soul space for three weeks.

“Then the angel showed me a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb. ² It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life, bearing twelve crops of fruit, with a fresh crop each month. The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.”

I admit my lack of expertise in the End Times. I have avoided Revelation out of concern of misinterpreting it and misapplying it. This book in the Bible is not a collection of revelations about the unknown. It is rather The Revelation of Jesus Christ as He accompanies us through the restructuring of the world and establishing The New Earth and the New Jerusalem. For whatever value it has, the chapter heading/title is “New Jerusalem” which was inserted by a group of editors. That title tells us where and when this incident with the angel and Apostle John visioned it happening: Post-establishment of The New.

Part of our family is vacationing in Guam today. That seems extremely odd to me, though they really like the place. All I can think of is how bloody its history during WW2. In my mind that island never moved beyond the fighting and devastation. I have to keep reminding myself that our family is not in Ukraine.

I have tried to figure out Putin’s motivation, listening to lots of news and opinions. Neither have I figured out how or if Ukraine figures into biblical prophecy, although Russia seems to be connected to the Bible prophecies of Gog and Magog.

I listened to Andy Andrews’ podcast this morning with his guest Joe Savage who is the director of the largest rescue ministries in Eastern Europe. https://andyandrews.com/roads-of-hope/   100,000 orphans in Ukraine and for those who are trafficked—and that business is brisk along the borders among the refugees. Sexual and slave labor trafficking! Half of those orphaned kids will be dead before they reach twenty years old.

We watched the news during supper tonight. My lettuce did not want to be swallowed! Nor did anything. The word “corruption” defines so much of that nation. At the same time, the arts are alive with music. Loyalty, patriotism, and courage are capturing headlines and social media videos.

I have a young acquaintance whose adopted grandparents are close friends. He spent several years in a Russian orphanage. I have generally avoided the Baltic, Balkan and Slavic Nations. They seemed so far away and so very different than me. But there is that young man whose wounds have been touched by Jesus. It doesn’t seem so far away, now. Two years ago, we were on a work trip listening to Glenn Beck talking about Hunter Biden and corruption in Ukraine. The Slavic Nations became part of our personal and national conversations. CORRUPTION!

To Revelation 22:1-2:

That river fascinates me. Does it flow in a median? Is it The River of Life? The headwaters are at the Throne of God and the slain but resurrected and enthroned lamb. Will we swim in that river?

Trees on each side of the turnpike which yield a fresh crop each month. How many trees per city block or rural mile? Is there any connection with the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden? Is the eternal assignment of that tree in the garden revealed in Revelation 22? The Creator has always been into fruit and orchards. I heard recently that there are so many kinds and types of apples that if you ate a new variety each week, it would take you 20 years to get to the bottom of the peck. But it is the leaves that John the Revelator tells us about. Water, trees, leaves.

Here is the point of the revelation:

“The leaves were used for medicine to heal the nations.”

If, historically, this event happens in the latter stages of The End Times or in The New Times, what are the nations? Which nations? In the Reign and Rule of God’s Kingdom, are we to understand there are still nations? Nation states? Sheep nations and goat nations? If this is “historically” after the Rapture of the Ekklesia and the Revelation of Christ, why would those nations need to be healed?

What kind of trees are they? What is the substance in the leaves that heals nations?

Back to World, 2022.

I think each nation has powerful exceptionalism and treasures—natural and human. Yet those treasures are damaged and destroyed by what God calls sin. Every nation needs the healing Apostle John describes.

I’ve been wondering if God wants to turn on the spigot, plant trees and harvest leaves. The news people keep telling us there are nations that need to be healed.

Please, Father. Heal our nation. And Russia. China. Ukraine. Portugal. Ethiopia. All of the nations. And those who hurt and cry.

©2022 D. Dean Benton

Dean’s ebooks: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/889323

My book, Mining for Reality & Truth, goes to the formatters this weekend to prepare it for digital publication.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Chapter One                Your View of Your Worldview

Chapter Two               Streetlights on the Highway to Truth

Chapter Three             Totalitarian Tools

Chapter Four               Christian Worldview

Chapter Five               Developing & Maintaining a Christian Worldview

Chapter Six                 Kingdom Spiritual Infrastructure

Chapter Seven             Enquiring of the Lord

Chapter Eight              Red Pills Available OTC?

Chapter Nine               Front-End Alignment

Chapter Ten                Tidying Up the Mine

Publication expected by April 1.

My other published ebooks: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/889323

Plan now to read the free sample when published. Thanks.

©D. Dean Benton

“Movement in the right direction.”

That phrase, from Pastor Bill Johnson (Bethel Church—Redding, California) grips me. Of course, the response is to ask which is the right direction.

Today is Fat Tuesday. Tomorrow is Ash Wednesday and the beginning of Lent. Movement in the right direction today is toward a place where serious food consumption takes place. That would include shrimp po boy sandwiches, red beans and rice—perhaps shrimp and andouille or Étouffée, with Mardi Gras King Cake for dessert.

According to Google—

“Mardi Gras is French for ‘Fat Tuesday’, reflecting the practice of the last night of eating rich, fatty foods before the ritual Lenten sacrifices and fasting of the Lenten season.”

It feels as if Fat Tuesday is really the last chance to stock up—gorge ourselves—to take in adequate supplies to help us make it through the next few weeks. I’m thinking the “right direction” is getting to the good food and then getting out of town before darkness falls and scrimping and sacrifice begins.

I know what Lent is about. After the past two-plus years and war fog this season, we don’t need to enter another season of darkness. We know the horrors of the Cross, but we celebrate Easter!

I propose we give up for Lent those things that blur or steal whatever moves us toward righteousness—victory for people facing war, poverty, darkness, addictions, bondage, and limitations. Remove—like a sacrifice—all things that limit our prayers, worship, and celebration of God’s presence.

Movement in the right direction—Celebration and declaration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

©2022 D. Dean Benton

A Catholic priest used the wrong word and now thousands of baptisms are considered invalid. He said, “We baptize” rather than “I baptize.” He has resigned. That threw me into semi-panic mode. How many “wrong” words have I used? Does that mean all the weddings, funerals, baptisms, counseling sessions and conversations at the coffee tables are invalid?

I follow Amber Benson on Twitter. She is professor of marketing at Southern Methodist University. She identifies as a Pentecostal. She tweets a lot and has a keen inner eye. She is a Bible student. After hearing about the above priest, she quoted Romans 8:26.

“And the Holy Spirit helps us in our weakness. For example, we don’t know what God wants us to pray for. But the Holy Spirit prays for us with groanings that cannot be expressed in words” (TLB).

It’s been a morning! I have listened to a Dr. Jordan Peterson podcast, (https://www.jordanbpeterson.com/podcast/s4e82/), Dutch Sheets (“Give Him Fifteen” on YouTube—2-16-22), and Ms. Benson. They all said that the Gospel of Jesus is more than words. Apostle Paul has some things to say about this.

In recent months my coffee drinking has not been pleasant. Nothing has tasted good or right, the way it is supposed to taste. We’ve tried different brands  and then take it to the basement pantry where it is dark and cool and out of sight. Where has the aroma gone?

I don’t need a coffee fix therefore I seldom drink convenience store or fast-food coffee. One of the reasons I drink flavored is to cover the taste of brands that disappoint me. A few days ago, I brewed a pot and Carole said it smelled like “old coffee that has been sitting in the pot.” It did. You can be critical of my preaching, singing, writing or me personally and I might agree, but to a negative remark about my coffee hurts my feelings. Got to fix it.

I decided to revert to a glass pot Mr. Coffee. Coffee maker shopping revealed a new marketing tool. Most of the coffee makers now advertise a “strong brew” button. I’m not into strong or darker tasting, as in the burned taste approach.

I need to get this right.

My idea was to brew the coffee in a new maker and then store the fresh coffee in a thermal carafe to keep the taste and aroma appealingly fresh. I carefully read the instructions. I’ve been brewing and drinking coffee since I was about ten when my mother became a café owner, but something has gone wrong.

I found that a “cup” is now five ounces rather than the six I’ve been thinking is standard. I also discovered, according to the Mr. Coffee instruction booklet, there is a difference between teaspoon and tablespoon when measuring coffee to put in the basket. I may have been using the wrong tool to measure. I’m told to use one tablespoon for each 5-oz cup. Wow! That seems like a lot! Every nerve in my body will be on militant alert. Mr. Coffee says to adjust to taste.

Our coffee drawer has more brands and flavors than Walmart. There is also vanilla extract, mint flavoring, salt, and spoons of varying sizes. There is the possibility—I’m still experimenting—I’ve been using the wrong measurements and measuring devices.

I don’t know who told that priest that getting the words exact was the most important measurement. Did the priest or his superiors ask those who were baptized? Did it take? How would they know—what criteria?

The Twelve explained to Jesus that they had watched him caste out demons. The demons left! But when they tried the demon wouldn’t leave. The chance is that the disciples asked, “What words do you use, that we don’t?”

The Kingdom doesn’t depend on us “getting the words right.” Mercifully. There is grace and Holy Spirit!

For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power (1 Corinthians 4).

With the publication of my ebooks Seizin’ the Season, Mining for Reality & Reason, and Carafe Conspiracy, I’m seeing I’ve been writing about getting the mix right and using the most beneficial and measuring tools.

©2022 D. Dean Benton

Seizin’ the Season— https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1132813

Tucked in at page 144 of All Over but the Shoutin’ is a yellowing 4X6 file card. It has been there for several years so I could find the most worrisome experience about which I have read. It is there at Rick Bragg’s history of waiting to experience the saving grace of Jesus.

     “Every Sunday, I waited. I waited for the invasion, the infusion, the joy. I waited for the Holy Ghost to sdlip inside my heart and my mind and, as He done to all those around me, lift me out of the pew and up to the altar, Saving me. I waited for it like a boy waiting on a train.

     “But while I felt wonder and maybe a little fear, I never felt what I had seen, or maybe sensed, in the others. I was not refusing Him, rebuking Him. I wanted it, I wanted the strength of it, the joy of it, but mostly, I wanted the peace of it. The preacher promised it. He promised.

     “I just sat there…as the Sundays drained away.”

(Rick Bragg, All Over but the Shoutin’ Random House, 1997) page 144

I’ve been studying and writing about needing to experience Jesus as a reality as much as we experience or experienced sin or to quote another writer, .

“What determines our state of being is not just what we think is real but even more importantly what we experience as real. So, unless the Holy Spirit does His work at the fundamental level of our experienced self-identity, in all likelihood we will remain essentially as we are.” Gregory Boyd, Seeing is Believing (Baker Books, 2005) page 68.

Is experiencing Jesus as real as stubbing your toe during the night? Is experiencing Jesus as real as the first time you got drunk? Or…, well, you make up your own.  Feelings are fine, but they are not the final factor. God’s Word is–the promises for example.

With Bragg’s desperate desire for Holy Ghost’s gifts, I suspect his soul has been saved. I keep looking for some word from Rick Bragg that he has experienced what he thought he had missed.

In my search for that testimony, I ran across Bragg talking about his latest book. Don’t miss this youTube. It is so very rich. If you are a writer, this is what a Pulitzer from Alabama writes like.  DON’T MISS THIS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygDzTZFdUdE

Publication of my book Mining for Reality & Truth—Digging Worldviews is pending.

©2022 D. Dean Benton

If you commute or travel with talk radio, you quickly discover there is a limited number of topics to talk about. Chicago schools, Covid, Pandemic, Fauci and the hellish shape of politics. The atmosphere smells like The Matrix and the visual in each direction looks like a handbasket with a destination.

If you are snowed in or isolating from any possible germ, watching TV is not much better. A computer-based notification asked me, “Are you prepared for a squall line?”

As I prayed for my people this morning, I projected onto all what I’ve been hearing. “I’m drained, nearly depleted. I’m not shut down but am definitely paused. I am disturbed.”

My daughter said, “We need to balance things out.” I suggest balancers:

      TRUTH & REALITY

If you see AOC today, tell her that having sex with her has never entered my mind. Not once! I am not frustrated because she won’t date me. That is the truth!! She and her crowd are going to have to live with their delusions. Their “truth” and “realities” have different names in my mind and soul. They are a squall line I choose not to allow to blow me off course.

Neo-Gnostics in government, politics, entertainment and education are telling us they alone know what is true and real and that we must think, say and do what they tell us. I am certainly open to new understanding, but some things are real and true and if dismissed or eradicated from our daily experience, culture and persons are left with a black ice foundation.

With the recent release of the fourth Matrix movie, the preachers and teachers I listen to are again talking about the Matrix as a descriptive concept of biblical strongholds as in 2 Corinthians 10. Wherever our life is controlled by lies and deception brought on by the “pattern of this world” a neurochip has been installed into our souls—like the splinter in the mind.

Those neurochips lie to us about our identity and the life God wants for us. Whether the source of those deceptions is from the constant assault by media or satan, we too can be in a matrix-type bondage.

Balancers–squall line defenders:

      WORSHIP

You usually (not always) know what you need to restore your soul. None of the music on our favorite Sunday churches spoke to me. I went to First Baptist—Dallas online. The choir and orchestra offered “In Christ Alone.” They sang a verse or chorus I don’t remember hearing before. The words lifted my soul and spoke to my mind. I appreciate them singing words just for me! What I needed, what I wanted, what I sought.

We listened to 3-4 preachers on the Lord’s Day to hear a message we needed. The 5^th preacher spoke of renewing our decision to walk with the Lord and to commit ourselves to trusting Him. Those two verbs—walk and trust—told me what to do while feeling drained, depleted, disturbed.

I don’t think I heard anything new, but the words refreshed and carried a message “in due season.”

     JOURNALING

Beginning at minute 27 on the following podcast, there are five reasons listed that journaling will be beneficial as you become aware of drainage. Specifics that can balance:

https://wildatheart.org/rhplay/podcast/wild-heart/world-draining

      RENEWED MIND

As result of re-reading and study of Escaping The Matrix, by Gregory Boyd, Dr. Al Larsen, (Baker Books, ©2005), I have a new appreciation for Romans 12:1-3, especially 12:2. “…renewing of the mind.” While the movies reveal how politics and the Left with its cancelations, censorship, fear and threats can hold us in bondage, the Boyd-Larsen book talks about spiritual bondage and the wellness of your soul.

“No power of hell, no scheme of man

Can ever pluck me from His hand

Till He returns or calls me home

Here in the power of Christ I’ll stand.”

        In Christ Alone– Adrienne Camp

Copyright 2022 D. Dean Benton

See Mining for Reality and Truth,  one of my new eBooks. Published soon.

“Looking a lot like Christmas is over—fa ala, la, la.”

The guest dog’s toys are put away, living room vacuumed, cookies packaged for sharing, dinner leftovers divided for later meals and trash taken out. 2021 Christmas was different.

The leaf is out of the table. Now, back to routine beckoning  and planning for the next year. Adventure, journey, challenges.

Traditionally for me, the time between Christmas and New Years Day has been used to position my files, calendars, planners for the new year. During these days, I have focused on what seemed to me that vision God has for the next months—where our energy and planning should be.

A friend said she should not have wasted her money on planners the past 2-3 years. Planners are different in purpose and content than calendars or journals.

With all that going on in my mind—at least subconscious mind—my planning has seemed to be a border-line questionable use of time. The tell-tale indicator of soul uneasiness moved me toward search for something to satisfy a hunger that I could not find, a source of a fresh thought or bright feeling that evaded me.

I found part of what I was searching for. I hadn’t listened to a message from a preacher or a conversation that ignited my thinking for too long. I tuned to a YouTube sermon from Pastor Bill Johnson:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=321T3thS38Y

He talked about disappointment. I paraphrase some of his thoughts.

1. Bitterness, regret and disappointment change the way we see ourselves and the way we approach the future.
2. Disappointment dislocates us from our purpose and future, including God’s plans for us.
3. Some hide behind disappointment when in fact we blame God for being absent, ignoring us or not being faithful to His promises.
4. Satan and his crowd focus on our disappointments to derail us.
5. We lose our capacity to dream when disappointments are ignored and not processed.

Of course, I was disappointed that the Chicago Cubs 2021 season was beyond horrendous. But that is not personal to me. It has not affected my income or anything shaping my family or life. But 2020-2021 was and is a trauma. I have to ask what has really made me mad and driven me to doubt or abandon basic assumptions. What feels like betrayal? Abandonment? Assault? Look at the 7 areas of influence: Education, religion, business, government/military, arts/entertainment, media. (Somewhere in there we should include the medical community and pharma.) Any of those arenas/institutions disappoint you? Make you angry, question? What disappointments have set you up to walk away or to settle for something less?

Maybe on the last few pages in our planners or journals we would be well-served to list those disappointments. How will we consider the big, big disappointment—the one that isn’t really true, but we wonder—God you could have done something, but you didn’t!

1. Say it out loud or write it down.
2. Talk to the Lord about it.
3. Have someone pray with you and for your healing of that specific disappointment.
4. Take communion with disappointment specifically what needs to be defanged. The symbol of Jesus’ blood to cleanse and the symbol of His body to strengthen you for 2022 and beyond.

I have focused on Psalm 37 during 2021. Only recently did I notice that the chapter is bracketed by the word “delight.”

              Psalm 37:4

Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart.

             Psalm 37:23

When Yahweh delights in how you live your life, he establishes your every step.

My response to those two statements is:

Let nothing interfere with your delight or His.

Staggering to think of The Father being delighted over us and being asked to heal the damage done by disappointments.

Happy and free New Year.

© 2021 D. Dean Benton

I will publish the eBook

Seizin’ The Season—Space for Sum & Substance

 the first week of the new year with plans to publish the companion eBook

Mining for Reality & Reason—Digging Worldviews

 a few days later.

Who started COVID-19 and who is keeping it alive as a world-changer is still being debated. The impact on economies, culture, individual liberties and society is alarming apparent.

In 2020, a huge number of the largest corporations CEOs resigned which became known as the “Great Resignation.” In three months of 2021, Eleven and half million (11.5) employees walked off, walked out, and walked away from their jobs.

Thom Rainer, former CEO of Lifeway Resources and a major Southern Baptist voice who is today the CEO of Church Answers, predicts a 20% increase in resignations of pastors in 2022. This is not just related to pastoring, but the role of leadership among all groups and gatherings.

In a two-part Andy Stanley Leadership podcast, Andy interviews Dr. Tim Elmore about the new leadership being called forth. One of the reasons for the Great Resignation is the role of authority.

https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL2ZlZWRzLmZlZWRidXJuZXIuY29tL2ZlZWRidXJuZXIvQW5keXN0YW5sZXlsZWFkZXJzaGlwUG9kY2FzdA/episode/YjIwZTYyOTQtNjQ1MS00MmMxLTk3OTctYWRjODAwZWE0NGI3?hl=en&ved=2ahUKEwiKx4bF9PD0AhWU-mEKHWEQBWQQjrkEegQIAhAI&ep=6

For a moment, take any possible role of The Far Left and an attempt to overthrow Western Culture from your mind and closely examine the place of authority. The removal of law and police might bean  indicative reaction against authority of any kind in any setting.

People of all stripes and religious opinion are saying, “We are fighting for the soul of America.” In my opinion that war was fought in the 60s & 70s and won by the dark side.

Otherwise, how can we explain sixty-plus million abortions with a willingness of the current political administration in office willing to place all assets on continuing the practice?

What else will explain the role of pornography in mainstream America? Billie Elish is the youngest recording artist to win a Grammy for best album in 2020. She was about twenty years old. Her songs are dark. In a recent interview she talked about her addiction to porn at the age of eleven which affected her view of people and affected her view of sex due to porn’s abuse and violence. She says porn wrecked her brain.

The January 2022 edition of Commentary Magazine leads with a well-studied article about “The New Misogyny” which the author and other researchers attribute to wide-spread access to pornography among the young with 8-year old’s regular access to online porn sites. https://www.commentary.org/articles/christine-rosen/the-new-misogyny/. This article is important to understand the vicious attack on the family, femininity and women.

How do we answer the question about what has happened to teens, especially girls, who are “transitioning?” The Trans Cult is discussed in this article:  https://www.commentary.org/articles/naomi-schaefer-riley/transgender-children-craze/

The mentally ill on the streets can be traced to a Left-Wing extremist who became a heroine to the extremists of the 60s-70s. She wrote books, was interviewed and spoke at rallies while leading the battle to close state-funded mental health hospitals. When those doors closed, the mentally ill moved to the streets.

The revolutionaries of the 60s insisted God be removed from our society, schools, marketplace and court houses. They insisted the Ten Commandments be hidden with seasonal ornaments in storage rooms of churches and synagogues. The reigning chaos is the result.

The First Commandment of ten is about authority as well as worship.

Honoring of father and mother—(#5) authority and respect are elementary fabric of society. Respect begins and is nurtured at home.

The smash and grab activity is covered in # 8 of 10. Nancy Pelosi can’t figure out where the crime craze could be coming from. Nancy! Nancy! Broken people do sinful, sick and illegal things.  It is not difficult to see the fallenness of humans and the predisposition to sin, No other rational “cause” is needed to hold law-breakers accountable.

1. You shall have no other Gods before me
2. You shall not make for yourselves an idol
3. You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God
4. Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy
5. Honor your father and your mother
6. You shall not murder
7. You shall not commit adultery
8. You shall not steal
9. You shall not give false testimony
10. You shall not covet

Not all of America’s Founding Fathers were Jesus Followers or Committed to Yahweh. They built America and the Constitution with God’s laws as essential infrastructure regardless of their personal religious beliefs. It is no surprise that the removal of the girders caused the structure to crumble.

Can Yahweh be kicked to the curb without His laws being weakened or also dismissed? What is going on in the world 2021 is the inevitable conclusion of the 1960’s conquest. This civilization now is lawless. Just because Progressives declare that God is gone or not important does not mean there is no spiritual void or vacancy by his absence. In my opinion, spiritual law and power currently controlling the 7-Mountains of Influence comes from Baal whose primary spirit arch angels are Jezebel and Ahab. Jezebel was the Queen of Israel, wife of King Ahab, but the Bible speaks of her as an age-less spiritual being—1 Kings 17-21 and Revelation 2:18-29.

Please note the heavy talk about Post-human and Trans-human entities in our current world. Hybrid humans–a replacement?

On December 22 the next episode of The Matrix will appear in theatres and on HBO. A question surfaced the other day:

“How can I disconnect from the Matrix? What people don’t realize is, you cannot be free from fear, hate, depression, anxiety unless you first become aware that this system is designed to keep you that way.”  Gavin Nascimento

The Matrix is a good symbol for the “world system” the Bible speaks of. Darkness, blindness and bondage. The blue pill is powerfully seductive—just let me have life as I want it. Like all things of God, the choice is ours to make. If the Bible is to be trusted, (I can’t find the snark icon.), we have evidence that nations can make the decision. Maybe, the hunger to return to “normal” is part of that decision? “Just hand me the blue pill.”

Robert Kennedy, Jr. has a new book on the shelves which is in its 7^th printing. No mainstream media outlet will take advertising for it. Other than Steve Bannon, no one is interested in interviewing Kennedy and yet the book, The Real Anthony Fauci, is outselling all the other Bestsellers. There may be a serious attempt to bury the book and protect a certain bureaucrat. The Kindle edition of Kennedy’s eBook is available at Amazon for $2.99. I have read the first few pages and am astonished, appalled and angered. Kennedy lists 70 footnotes in the Preface to undergird his contentions. I am convinced!

Psalm 37 is the biblical base for my latest two eBooks which are soon to be published. I was trying to explain to Carole, in a few words, all that Kennedy says in those first few pages. Lying on the table in front of me was a printout of Psalm 37 which my eyes fell upon during my heated comments:

“Do not fret because of those who are evil

    or be envious of those who do wrong;

 for like the grass they will soon wither    

like green plants they will soon die away.

God’s instruction is: “(You) trust in the Lord and do good” (Psalm 37:3).

I shudder when people say, “All we need is Jesus.” If they mean for everyone to get saved, that is not all we need. If the statement is shorthand for the need to acknowledge and embrace Jesus the Christ and all He demonstrated, displayed and taught, then that is, indeed, all we—the world—needs. We need Jesus and His Kingdom. “Seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness…” (Matthew 6:33).

From the song, O Holy Night “Long lay the world in sin and error pining.” The “world” and the world system is still lost and needing to receive the provided Savior.

I don’t know that evil doers are going to imminently go away. Doing good includes being aware of your spiritual and political surroundings and live out God’s Kingdom in “peace, joy and righteousness. One of my friends said to me, “It is hard being afraid all the time.” The choice and expanding skill of living in peace, joy and righteousness is challenging, but most beneficial.

All of this is of acute interest this Advent. While the world system is appealing to teenage girls to transition, we celebrate a teenage girl named Mary who is told,

“And the angel came in unto her and said, “Hail, thou that art highly favored, the Lord is with thee; blessed art thou among women” (Luke 1:28 KJV).

There were lots of reasons the World System would say to her that an abortion would solve all her problems—unmarried, father in question, poverty, a politically bad time to bring a child into the world.

I wonder and doubt that we will return to “normal.” I am, however, not without hope. I celebrate the Messiah who came to live among us. I will also celebrate the holidays. From the cradle to the cross and empty tomb, Jesus invites us to relationship with the Father.

Scattered thoughts.

“Christ in you, hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27).

Copyright 2021  D. Dean Benton