“We do not believe any group of men adequate enough or wise enough to operate without scrutiny or without criticism. We know that the only way to avoid error is to detect it, that the only way to detect it is to be free to inquire. We know that in secrecy error undetected will flourish and subvert.” –J. Robert Oppenheimer
A Complete Description of an Alternative Chemotherapeutic Approach Which Quickly Led to 100% Cancer Freedom
Foreword by WOLF MOON
Most of the regular denizens of The Q Tree are familiar with Linda’s journey through the terrifying uncertainty of a cancer diagnosis and treatment during the last year. That story, spread out over many daily threads here on the website, is incredibly hard to stitch together, if you have not been following along.
Just a few days ago, we were blessed with amazing news. While all of us were thrilled by the good news, I had to admit that I had already forgotten very important details of the original diagnosis. Some of it may have been mixing things up with my wife’s case, or that of a friend’s wife, but still – it wasn’t a great moment in the history of my memory.
Rather than asking Linda a million questions, and surely having others do the same, I had an atypically inspired idea – why not ask Linda to re-tell the whole story as one coherent statement, and better still, tell us with her current perspective? Wonderfully, Linda agreed to do just that.
That’s all I’m saying. Here is Linda, in her own words. I have not changed a thing.
MY CANCER JOURNEY
As many of you know, I was diagnosed with breast cancer last August. Looking back, it was only by the hand of God that it was found at all. For a good part of my adult life, I’ve avoided going to doctors for anything but what I can’t find a way to treat myself. I found out a long time ago in dealing with my hypothyroidism that most doctors are not going to deviate from their strict standard of care, which means Big Pharma drugs, whether they really help or not. And I try to avoid Big Pharma drugs if at all possible.
So I wouldn’t have gone to the doctor at all except I had a pre-cancerous lesion that I wanted to get zapped. I get my health care from the VA and they actually now have a primary care clinic in Salem. They assigned me a primary care NP and gave me an appointment. She wasn’t about to just zap the lesion but also gave me a complete physical along with labs and insisted I get a mammogram.
I drug my feet for a couple of weeks, but finally made the appointment and thankfully got it done. They found a small mass in my left breast and then did a needle biopsy using ultrasound a week later. They found that I had ER+ PR+ HER2- breast cancer. ER+ and PR+ mean that my cancer has estrogen and progesterone receptors. HER2- is a less aggressive cancer than HER2+, so I caught a break there.
At that point, I started reading everything I could find on fenbendazole. I heard it mentioned here several times on the Q Tree as a cancer treatment, but didn’t know where to get it, how much to take, or what to take it with. I finally found the Fenbendazole Cancer Support Group on Facebook that gave me most of the answers that I was looking for, a protocol I could use and adjust for my own situation, and a lot of support from others fighting cancer. This is the group:
It’s a private group. But anyone who has cancer or is the care giver of someone with cancer can join. There are a lot of health care professionals in the group who are very knowledgeable. They have a suggested protocol that anyone can download and use. Most people take that protocol and adjust it for their own needs. I doubt that any 2 people in that group are using the exact same protocol. One thing to keep in mind is that the protocol doesn’t mention Ivermectin. During COVID, Facebook was closing down groups and banning people for even mentioning Ivermectin, so they didn’t include it or allow people to talk about it until about the last year when that changed. But most people in the group are taking 24 mg of Ivermectin a day as part of their protocol.
Ivermectin is super important because it actually kills cancer stem cells in addition to all the different ways it fights cancer. Chemotherapy and radiation therapy don’t kill cancer stem cells, which is one reason why cancers come out of remission.
The whole point of having a cocktail of supplements taken at different times of the day is that you need anti-cancer compounds circulating in your body 24/7. It’s really amazing to me how many foods and supplements actually have anti-cancer qualities. And that’s important because cancer has a lot of different pathways to get fuel for growth and different signalling mechanisms to spread and metastasize. Some supplements attack one or two of those pathways, but you need different ones to attack other pathways. Jane McClelland wrote a book called “How to Starve Cancer” in which she identified all the pathways cancer uses to grow and to spread and then found old drugs that could be used to block all those pathways. She cured her own cancer that way. The problem for most of us, though, is getting a doctor to prescribe all those old, out-of-patent drugs! Using supplements that do much the same thing instead of Big Pharma drugs is the answer.
When I first started, I bought most of what was on their protocol. I also tried a lot of different supplements that people suggested and found worked well for them. Many people swear by soursop tea and Esiac tea. I’m not much of a tea drinker, but I do drink soursop tea once in awhile. Another was frankincense (Boswellia). It has anti-inflammatory properties and anti-cancer properties as well. I was really excited about trying it, so I bought a couple of bottles only to find out after a week that it caused unbearable itching all over my body. Needless to say, I dropped that one! The point is to use what works best for you and also to make sure there are no interactions with any drugs you may be taking.
This is the protocol I finally settled on:
1 Hour Before Breakfast: Hi-Dose Serrapeptase – 120,000 spu
2 Hours After Dinner: D3 – 5,000 mg (I drop that to 2,000 in the summer) Magnesium – 400 mg Melatonin – 400 mg
Before Bed: Hi-Dose Serrapeptase – 120,000 spu
That probably sounds like a lot of supplements. It did to me, even though I already took a lot of vitamins and supplements. And fenbendazole, ivermectin, and supplements can be expensive to buy month after month after month. But I managed it on my social security check. A number of people in my cancer group who had undergone more traditional treatments ended up paying thousands of dollars their health insurance didn’t cover. So maybe I actually took the cheaper route.
But for someone on a really limited budget, I think they would still do really well just starting with Fenben, Ivermectin, Tudca (or milk thistle), and Serrapeptase (or pectasol). Fenben and Ivermectin are the big guns that each fight cancer in a half dozen different ways. Tudca or milk thistle is for liver support. Serrapeptase (or pectasol) is used to get the dead cancer cells out of your system so the cancer doesn’t use them as fuel.
With fenbendazole, you can’t immediately start with a high dose or you’re going to have a Herxheimer reaction – a lot of flu-like symptoms. Taking it slowly helps a lot. What was stressed in my cancer group was to work your way up to the higher doses and monitor your liver numbers as you go. I started at 222 mg for a week, then 444 mg the next week, then kept increasing at that pace until I got up to 1500. I reached 1500 mg about 2 weeks before my lumpectomy surgery. I could have gone up to the 2000, but at that point I found out that my tumor had shrunk by half so I just stayed at that dose. I knew it was working and would continue to work at that point. It’s really important to take fenben AFTER eating a meal that contains fat for absorption. Or as an alternative, you can mix the powder with a little bit of DMSO. This also helps fenben penetrate the blood brain barrier for those who have a brain cancer.
Anyone researching Fenben is going to hear about Joe Tippens. He had small cell lung cancer and used Fenben and a few other supplements in his protocol. He never took more than 222 mg 4 days a week. Unfortunately, this protocol has gone all over the internet and people think that’s all they need. They try it and find it doesn’t work for them. The problem is that 222 mg is the dose you would give a 10 pound dog, not a human. Most people are going to need 1,000-2,000 mg per day, especially if they have a late stage or aggressive cancer. Joe Tippens was on an immunotherapy trial at the same time he was taking Fenben, so that is undoubtedly why it worked for him. In my cancer group, there are many people who had stage 4 cancers who ended up cancer free on this protocol. They all took close to 2,000 mg per day of Fenben.
Protecting your liver during this protocol is really important. Fenbendazole will cause a lot of cancer cell die-off and start to stress your liver. Tudca or milk thistle will add protection. Dandelion root and burdock root also protect the liver. If you have a hormonal cancer like mine, or you have a lot of other health issues, you shouldn’t take milk thistle or dandelion root. Tudca is recommended for those in that situation. Tudca is simply a bile salt and very safe. Most people start with 500 mg twice a day. However, once I got to 750 mg of Fenben, my liver numbers started rising out of range. Raising my tudca dosage to 1,000 mg twice a day brought them back down.
My cancer group recommends you get liver labs every 2-3 months. Most doctors aren’t going to order them for you. They would probably discourage you from using fenben or ivermectin to start with. Many people don’t know that you can order your own lab tests online, print out the requisition, and then take it down to your local lab and get your blood drawn. I order my labs from Ulta Lab Tests. Their Liver Function Panel is $19.95 and can be ordered here:
You also need to take high dose serrapeptase twice a day to get the dead cells out of your system after fenben and ivermectin kills them. Otherwise, your cancer will actually “eat” those dead cells as fuel. Plus, your liver will have to work a lot harder. You need to take 120,000 spu twice a day. It must be taken at least 2 hours after eating and at least 1/2 hour before eating. I always took mine before bed and an hour before breakfast. Then 1/2 hour before breakfast and dinner I would take my tudca and a couple other supplements that need to be taken on an empty stomach. Amazon or iherb both have high dose serrapeptase. The one I use is the Drs. Best brand.
Anyone on blood thinners shouldn’t take serrapeptase, but substitute Pectasol (modified citrus pectin) instead. You need 15 grams daily for the best anti-cancer benefits. 1 scoop of powder is 5 grams. So you can take 1 scoop 3 times daily or 1.5 scoops twice daily. It’s taken the same way as serrapeptase – 2 hours after eating and at least 1/2 hour before eating.
Those 4 items – Fenben, Ivermectin, Tudca (or milk thistle), and Serrapeptase (or Pectasol) – are a great place to start and can form the basis of any protocol. You can add more supplements as you go along. But those 4 are critical.
You may be wondering about that super high dose of melatonin I take – 1,000 mg per day. Many people take 3-5 mg before bed to help with sleep. 1,000 mg sounds like it would put you in a coma all day. Actually, you don’t feel the effects at all until it gets dark and that seems to trigger the sleepiness. Melatonin is really great for cancer. It fights cancer 6 different ways, particularly at higher doses. The cancer group recommends taking 300 mg an hour before any scan that involves radiation to protect from some of the effects. If you want to learn more, “Doris Loh Talks” is a private Facebook group about the healing benefits of high dose Melatonin based on scientific research.
I buy melatonin powder because it is a lot cheaper than pills. 1/16 teaspoon is 200 mg. Amazon has tiny measuring spoons that go down to 1/64 teaspoon that are really handy. Here is where I buy melatonin:
I starred two items in my protocol – iodine and DIM – because they’re very specific to breast cancer. The two places in the body that use over 95% of the iodine the body needs are breasts and the thyroid. Iodine at 50-100 mg per day has also been shown to very effectively fight breast cancer. Like Fenben, you shouldn’t just start at 50 mg or you’ll end up with a Herxheimer reaction. I started with just 1 drop of 5% Lugols in a glass of water then added another drop each week until I reached 8. One nice effect I saw once I reached 50 mg was that I could lower my dosage of thyroid meds. 5% Lugols is really hard to find. Most places only have 2%. But I found a good supplier here:
DIM helps the body to get rid of excess estrogen. My oncologist tried really hard to get me on hormone blockers, but after researching the side effects – osteoporosis and heart issues – I said no and started taking DIM instead.
I get almost all my supplements from either iherb.com or Amazon. The only place I buy Fenben from is the Happy Healing Store:
The group sent a bunch of different samples of Fenben from different suppliers to a testing lab a couple of years ago and the only ones that tested pure fenbendazole were the Happy Healing Fenben and Merck’s Panacur-C and Safeguard. The one from Fenben Labs that you see recommended everywhere was only 5% fenben. A lot of people (including me at first) bought that brand and didn’t think fenben worked. Some guy in Lithuania owns it and the lab he supposedly uses to test his fenben is located at the same address. Buyer beware!
I’ve always bought my ivermectin from an Indian seller because it’s about half the price of the websites based here. And most of the ivermectin is made in India to start with. I bought from India Mart back during COVID. I think Kalbo mentioned them as a source. You just go on the site and post what you want and how you want to pay and vendors will contact you. There are now a lot of Indian sellers that have their own websites to sell ivermectin. The list below are from sites I’ve collected from mentions in the cancer group and from here. I haven’t used anywhere near all of them. The first 2 are the ones I’ve used most recently. You really have to check them out for yourself because some change their payment methods without notice. I prefer using Pay Pal myself. I generally buy 200 12 mg pills at a time because this protocol is long-term and I’ll definitely use them. Shipping from India is generally $30 whether you order a small or large amount.
I was on this protocol a little over 3 months before I had my surgery. I kept dragging my feet because I wanted to see how well the protocol worked. A week or two before surgery they did another ultrasound and I found that my tumor had shrunk by half. I seriously considered not doing surgery at all and just letting the protocol finish the job. But I finally decided that I just wanted to get the tumor out. A lumpectomy is nowhere near as invasive as a lot of surgeries. And they do a lymph node biopsy at the same time. They found that my sentinel node, the closest one to that breast had a micro tumor in it. So the cancer was just starting to metastasize. It could be that micro tumor was actually a lot bigger and had shrunk from the protocol.
As I mentioned last week, that surgery was over a year ago and I just had a mammogram that was completely clear of cancer. This protocol has definitely helped me get there and stay there. I’m now moving to a maintenance protocol to make sure it doesn’t come back.
I really appreciate all the prayers from the people here and people outside this site. I know that in the final analysis, God healed me. He just used the protocol and the good surgeons and nurses at the VA Hospital to do the work. God bless all of you!
Addendum: Notes by Wolf
I want to start by thanking Linda for sharing this information. As you can see, this is enough for almost anybody to get started using fenbendazole to treat cancer. Praise God! This is phenomenal information, and again, thank you to Linda for sharing it. I absolutely feel confident that I could being taking the steps needed to use fenbendazole, based on this article.
Now, a point for the chemically curious.
DIM is 3,3′-diindolylmethane, a natural product which is formed by stomach action on another compound found in cruciferous vegetables. The reaction is shown below.
DIM has proven antihormonal effects that are useful for treating breast cancer. See the following medical study.
3,3-Diindolylmethane (DIM): a nutritional intervention and its impact on breast density in healthy BRCA carriers. A prospective clinical trial
Please feel free to ask Linda any questions you might have. I will say right now that she does not have to answer any questions she would prefer not to answer. She can just say “Wolf says next question!” and that’s that! OK? Good! *WINK*
Dear Q-Tree, Something apparently came up with Bako Carl so that he wasn’t able to get his usual Sunday post up. Seeing no other subbed in posts this is basically a Sunday placeholder. Please pray for Carl as we don’t know what is keeping him from his typical uplifting post.
This is the day that the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it!
I went searching Bible Gateway for “be still and know” and found this timely inspiration!
For the director of music. Of the Sons of Korah. According to alamoth.[b] A song.
1 God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. 2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, 3 though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging.[c]
4 There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells. 5 God is within her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. 6 Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts.
7 The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
8 Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he has brought on the earth. 9 He makes wars cease to the ends of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters the spear; he burns the shields[d] with fire. 10 He says, “Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth.”
11 The Lord Almighty is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress.
Footnotes
a. Psalm 46:1 In Hebrew texts 46:1-11 is numbered 46:2-12.
Some time back I was using Flep’s Twitter page–a longtime Q-Tree author–as a jumping off point to see what he was choosing to tweet about. He used to write nearly daily posts here at the Q-Tree sharing so much info on current events & his viewpoint was quite enlightening. He stepped away from the Q-Tree to focus on election issues in the lead-up to the 2020 election & hasn’t been by here much since then, that I am aware of.
Back then I was doing a series of posts inspired by Flep’s Tweets and actually had one in development still so I am taking Cthulhu’s advice again & working up one of my draft posts to fill in again for DP while she cares for her family.Please continue to lift DP in your prayers! I will leave what was gathered for that pending post below the black divider line that is about half-way down the page just to see what, if any, of the material is not being censored & to give us a snapshot from the pre-January 6 coup era to reflect upon.
DP stopped by yesterday to share news on her family situation here:
At about 1:30 this morning, my mother went to God. As per her family tradition, she waited until she was alone to do so. Both of her parents went that way, as well as a number of other relatives.
Thank you so much to all who have been doing the dailies. I anticipate being back for the Wednesday post next week. There are so many things we are in the middle of doing.
Please, pray for my sister who is exhausted. My dad is going to be lost.
Thanks for being here for us and praying.
DePat
So let’s see what is currently happening by using a number of resources to come up with leads on current events. By the way, I’m sorry if any of this material overlaps things that have recently been shared at the Q-Tree. Doing this fill-in back-to-back post work as DP is dealing with her family situation has made me realize how much of a sacrificial effort of love DP has been putting in, to develop FOUR back-to-back currently focused posts Every Week.DP has been doing such Herculean work to the benefit of the Q-Tree for such a long time–we owe her Many Thanks!!! Please keep her & her family in your prayers…
Note, I just added DP’s comment about her mom above but am not otherwise planning to tweak this post as it’s getting too near the midnight launching hour. I finished working on today’s post in the early hours on Tuesday & noticed that some of the links in this post were already shared in yesterday’s discussion. Thanks for ALL the wonderful thoughts & links the amazing Q-Tree family brings each day to keep Wolf’s Pack so well-informed AND armed for the many battles that are ongoing. You guys Absolutely ROCK!!!
Well my initial plan to begin with Flep’s tweets is now thwarted by the fact that his twitter account is closed 🙁 I wonder if Flep left Twitter of his own volition or if he continues to be banned there, like me? Here is the most recent version of the Internet Archive where his Twit World account was still active:
Here’s a link to the pinned tweet thread from November 13, 2020 where Flep was doing a detailed analysis of the electoral fraud in Georgia related to Dominion. It’s interesting that the pinned tweet appears to have been saved through some French language version of Twitter that May have assisted Flep to dodge the censors for a while.
I hope Flep is doing OK & has found a good place to land with compatriots who are continuing to encourage him in the fight. I would Love to see him drop by the Q-Tree…
A cursory search for him via Yandex and his longer screen name of Fleporeblog did not return current material, unfortunately. Here is the most recent working link to his old blog:
OK strangely it’s possible that the powers that be were actively messing with Flep’s blog for there is this one from February 2019 that survives in the archives still:
I’m not going to keep looking to see if there are other examples of the blog being restored after disappearing. It sure looks like Flep was over the target!!!
Please forgive the way this post will appear as the links won’t be as well organized as DP does with her epic posts. My feet of clay will be clearly on display 🙂 not that they are Ever very well hidden here at the Q-Tree!
Highlights from perusing Gab.com, no particular order:
So since I’m still banned on Twitter/X I now use Gab.com for primary social media interactions. I signed out of Gab to see what shows up on their main page of interest.
found at this Gab https://gab.com/David_Citizen/posts/111168000163454667
THE DEMONIC DEMS HEADED BY SATAN AND HIS HORDES WITHIN OUR U.S. GOVERNMENT are working 24/7, attacking those that have been in the forefront in the fight to uphold TRUTH, JUSTICE and THE AMERICAN WAY, like Mike Lindell. He’s not only stood strong for President Trump he stands strong and is outspoken in his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Men and women like them are sold out in their love for America and working hard to restore it to normalcy, sanity and the acknowledgement of the Great Creator, the Lord God Almighty!
The demonic Democrat hierarchs and their followers are evil to the core, illegally using our American Legal System with 100-year-old cases that are bogus garbage to take down and destroy our U.S. Constitutional sovereign Republic that’s been enjoyed by American citizens since the proclaimed Declaration of Independence of 1776.
Lara Logan dropping one truth after another about the current state of the southern border and all of the child sex trafficking being allowed to take place under the biden administration.
https://gab.com/KRYPTORNATION/posts/111167716122679727 has a really rude meme involving aka BHO that may or may not be true…perhaps KBK would appreciate this…
The history taught schools is nonsense. It’s all about memorizing basic facts and dates. People who really study history, understand the interconnectivity between government, finance, and industry, and that’s what they don’t want people to know.
2 minute video explaining how banks own & control government using Honduras as an example, from ClassicalLearner.com
It would be great if Gab posts would embed here like Twitter currently does. Copying the Gab content here doesn’t present nearly as clean of a look, unfortunately…sigh…
Not wanting to disappoint anyone who expects “too much information” from me…let’s see what’s currently playing at Whatfinger.com 😉
Please note that some of these items Appear like broken links to me, but they are still active, so I am including the URLs in the captions where possible…I’ll try to clean this up before the final posting but bear with me if it’s a bit chaotic (I was trying to find the correct links to put in captions for things that Had been working but then disappeared)
https://comments.whatfinger.com/2023/10/03/breaking-controversial-zero-bail-policy-takes-effect-in-los-angeles-allowing-non-violent/ Whatfinger take: ALL CRIME THAT IS NOT VIOLENT NOW LEGAL IN LA: BREAKING: Controversial zero-bail policy takes effect in Los Angeles, allowing non-violent… Rob any store you want, as that is the intention of the Democrats, to destroy all business
Whatfinger take on the above link: Preparing for the Coming Storm: Fraud in the 2024 Elections The road is hard: This is our time, and our fight, and our obligation to all those who have come before us to cherish and defend the dream of liberty and justice for all – CFP
JUST IN: Video emerges of Judge in Trump Fraud case discussing his ability to OVERRULE A JURY based on his assertions and feelings about the case.. pic.twitter.com/g3RO21LXYM
If this country's going down, and if we're losing the dollar, I'm going down fighting. And I don't care if that means fighting Republicans, Democrats, the Uniparty, the leadership, the PACs, the lobbyists. I've had it. pic.twitter.com/OqaSQrsBFs
Rep. Nicole Malliotakis (R-NY) on her effort to expel Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-NY):
“It’s not just the act of pulling a fire alarm … It was during an official proceeding. That is the same thing that they have gone after those individuals who walked into the Capitol on Jan. 6th.” pic.twitter.com/tVxzFQun1L
Wow. This video from inside the courtroom speaks volumes. Watch NY AG Leticia James stare at Trump. She looks like an obsessive creep. Then watch the Judge smile for his moment in the sun. These people are deranged, Marxist tyrants. pic.twitter.com/s11O9kshEP
This video is a masterpiece and documents the people who have been complicit in crimes against humanıty.
All these journalists, scientists, and politicians belong on the defendants’ bench, because their behavior has caused harm to millions. pic.twitter.com/DIOoMLgep1
Here’s the official trailer for “Police State.” Please watch and share! Movie is in theaters Monday, October 23 and 25. Virtual premiere is Friday, October 27. All tickets only at https://t.co/L3EAH8QJTZpic.twitter.com/zjlnn07hFc
How many coincidences can there be in #plasmidgate?
Clearly that is a Ton of material to chew on going forward. Below is the historic material I was gathering when then planning to update the Flep’s Twitter Travels items…what a difference nearly three years makes!
Time Capsule Incoming!
This is the beginning of that existing draft post material:
Well this is hoping to pick up where I left off in the last Flep post here:
[VC Note 10-3-23, the above link was the original post at the old blog but this is how it is accessed now: https://www.theqtree.com/2020/11/02/fleps-twitter-travels-5/ ]
Here’s is Flep’s twitter page where you can find his twitter journeys:
https://twitter.com/Baba9773
Well Score, Flep just put up a new pinned tweet thread so we’ll start there first!
Joe Biden’s plan to BAN FRACKING is an Economic DEATH SENTENCE for Pennsylvania. A vote for Biden is a vote to Ban Fracking, Outlaw Mining, explode energy costs, and totally DESTROY Pennsylvania. Get out tomorrow and VOTE #TrumpPence2020! pic.twitter.com/niFJw558En
#NC#EarlyVoting To those of you who are peeing in pants about NC, here's the Targetsmart model. D lead in '16 at this time was 10 pts and now it's 0.9 pts. How can Trump do less well in '16 in NC? No way no how. NC will be to the right of FL by a few pts. Trump wins easily. pic.twitter.com/ce0GX9yO0r
#FL#EarlyVoting 3pm update. D lead at 112566, up, from trickling VBMs, by only 4.4k since 8am. It will end less than 120k, in the lower half of my estimate range. It is much less than where Ds need it to be to have a chance. Trump wins FL hands down, and with it presidency!! pic.twitter.com/d71z6swvCM
Biden was a pathetic laughing stock all over Washington for the horrible way he handled the H1N1 Swine Flu. Even his own Chief of Staff said he didn’t know what he was doing!
#FL EarlyVoting 1pm update. D lead at 110798, up by only 2.6k since 8am. Even at tomorrow, it will be less than 120k, in the lower half of my estimate range. D lead is much less than where Ds need it to be to have a chance. Trump wins FL hands down, and with it presidency!! pic.twitter.com/vsiLuwz1No
For 47 years, Sleepy Joe Biden betrayed Hispanic-Americans. Now he wants to close your small businesses, eliminate school choice, and attack our Hispanic Law Enforcement Heroes. I will always stand with the incredible Hispanic-American community! pic.twitter.com/4KMnlRkg7c
The straightest electoral path to 270 for Trump is the Core 3 + 1
Core 3: FL, NC, AZ +1: one of MN, WI, MI, PA
As referenced on the Rush Limbaugh show last week, we believe Trump will win the Core 3. Per our last tweet we see Trump winning PA, thus securing the Core 3 + 1.
BREAKING: DOJ is sending personnel to 44 jurisdictions in 18 states to “monitor for compliance with federal voting rights laws.” pic.twitter.com/1XlaSFV6MN
Just learned that Sleepy Joe Biden is campaigning in Pennsylvania with Lady Gaga, a proud member of “Artists Against Fracking.” This is more proof that he would ban Fracking and skyrocket your energy prices…
This story is FALSE. They did nothing wrong. But the ANTIFA Anarchists, Rioters and Looters, who have caused so much harm and destruction in Democrat run cities, are being seriously looked at! https://t.co/3pmbMllPWS
#FL#EarlyVoting update D lead now stands at 108123, up by only 13k since yesterday am. This is at the low end of my estimate of 100k-150k. Last yr, it was 96k. With extra 811k VBM requests this yr, Ds came up with just 12k extra votes. A disaster for them. Trump wins FL!! pic.twitter.com/TjTy5Gk5EV
Allegheny County councilman in Pennsylvania: 'I'm an elected official. I have had at least a dozen Democratic elected officials tell me that they are voting for Trump… but as Democratic elected officials they can't come out and say it.' https://t.co/i4AH2zqS7q
This deep dive on early voting in key battleground states validates SPR recent polling in #pa, #wi, #Fl, #NC and #AZ showing close races and strong potential for Trump victories. https://t.co/yu6Oofg5ep
Pennsylvania: Biden said that he doesn’t want Fracking. Besides, and more importantly, his handlers won’t allow Fracking. That would be the end of Pennsylvania!
Biden did a very POOR job of handling H1N1 Swine Flu, yet all he talks about is Covid, Covid, Covid, like he would actually know what he is doing. He doesn’t. Plus, he would be TERRIBLE with the Economy!
Chris Wallace of @FoxNews, by far the lowest rated of the Sunday morning news programs, can’t get over his poor debate performance, probably even worse than Sleepy Joe’s. His show is a total “hit job” on your favorite President, me!
In my opinion, these patriots did nothing wrong. Instead, the FBI & Justice should be investigating the terrorists, anarchists, and agitators of ANTIFA, who run around burning down our Democrat run cities and hurting our people! https://t.co/of6Lna3HMU
For decades, Joe Biden let other countries rip you off and cheat America blind! The only people who’ve benefited from his policies are himself & his family. He shows up every 4 years, and then goes back to D.C. and caters to his special interests. My only special interest is YOU.
Thank you to all law enforcement for your service. I know the people of Pennsylvania and our country appreciate you keeping us all safe. https://t.co/tKzsQs6KOW
Toledo and Pittsburgh endorse @realDonaldTrump , first Republican endorsements in Democratic areas since 1988 and 1972, respectively. https://t.co/y3aj7g3tUo
— Rich Baris The People's Pundit (@Peoples_Pundit) November 1, 2020
Biden will terminate school choice, eliminate charter schools, defund religious schools, ban prayer in public schools, indoctrinate your children with Anti-American lies, and force you to subsidize extreme late-term abortion. We believe that every child is a Sacred Gift from God!
#FL#EarlyVoting 6p update D lead now at 102538, only up 7.6k for the day. It doesn't include Miami-Dade or Sarasota, I think. But we're looking at 110k max, way below 299k minimum, or 650k (or even 900k) Ds needed. Trump wins FL, and by extension the nation!! pic.twitter.com/gdddlllx5J
Just delivered our family's ballots to a voting dropbox while a huge MAGA/Trump Truck parade was going on in Northern Los Angeles County. Was quite an experience! Loved it!
Joe Biden is the candidate of rioters, looters, arsonists, gun-grabbers, flag-burners, Marxists, lobbyists, and special interests. I am the candidate of farmers, factory workers, police officers, and hard-working, law-abiding patriots of every race, religion and creed! #MAGA
WISCONSIN! Vote to defend your family, your Country, and the American Way of Life. Get out and VOTE TODAY before In-Person Absentee Voting ends. Your vote will MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN! https://t.co/1ZHvrX3Hgk
This newspaper has not supported a Republican for president since 1972. But we believe President Trump, for all his faults, is the better choice this year.
When I originally became your all time favorite President, the Great State of Michigan was hemorrhaging car companies and jobs. Plants were closing and moving to Mexico, and other places. No new plants for decades. I stopped the moves, & now many plants are and have been built…
The legendary actor, 007 Sean Connery, has past on to even greener fairways. He was quite a guy, and a tough character. I was having a very hard time getting approvals for a big development in Scotland when Sean stepped in and shouted,“Let him build the damn thing”. That was….
Tell me, what Republican candidate has won Iowa and Ohio in a romp, put Florida to bed by 9PM, and lost the election?
— Rich Baris The People's Pundit (@Peoples_Pundit) November 1, 2020
#FL#EarlyVoting update 8am. Dem Lead now at 94905, down from 486k just 11 days ago, well below what they need to have hope. I think it'll end up in 100k-150k range by tomorrow. Given Ds had requested 811k more VBM ballots, Rs are in a great position to win FL. EC Landslide! pic.twitter.com/HiioMvkfvX
A vote for Biden and Harris is a vote to Ban Fracking, Ban Mining, and Completely Destroy Pennsylvania. A vote for me is a vote to remain ENERGY INDEPENDENT! Let’s WIN PENNSYLVANIA, get out and VOTE!pic.twitter.com/aR8iwO6Gvl
Joe Biden has vowed to ABOLISH American Oil and Natural Gas. Today I signed an order to strongly protect Pennsylvania's energy & fracking industry. If Biden & Harris get in, they will terminate this order and implement the Green New Deal. Get out and VOTE! https://t.co/gsFSghkmdMpic.twitter.com/VJMr2IeIgo
Joe Biden has been a disaster for African Americans and Hispanic Americans—I am fighting for citizens of every race, color and creed. We achieved record low unemployment rates. I signed landmark Criminal Justice Reform, and we will deliver School Choice! https://t.co/gsFSghkmdMpic.twitter.com/o6bZkdj4Fg
Similarly, we found Indy moves to Trump in Arizona, Pennsylvania, Florida and Ohio.
Really depends on the state. Think a lot of others too mistook a more partisan lean as an Indy swing when it was not. https://t.co/WZY8z8SNy7
— Rich Baris The People's Pundit (@Peoples_Pundit) November 1, 2020
#FL#earlyvoting 6pm update D lead is at 91065, -25k for the day. Accounting for still arriving VBMs + blue counties opening extra days for IPEV, it could go back up to 130k by ED. Even if so, Trump is all but assured to win FL. Rs will crush on ED. GO VOTE! #MAGA2020pic.twitter.com/BkWAENizCD
For the last 4 years you have seen me fight for you – and now I am relying on YOU to deliver another historic victory for our Country. A vote for me and the Republican Party is a vote for the American Dream! Get out and VOTE!#Election2020#MAGA🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/5EyXIHjfib
Thank you Pennsylvania! With your vote, we will continue to support our Military, Veterans and our Police Officers. Biden and Harris would pass legislation to slash police funding all across America. They stand with the rioters – we stand with the HEROES of Law Enforcement! #MAGApic.twitter.com/qqTZPLqzFV
It’s nice to see that at least so many of the people that Flep tweeted about still have a presence on Twitter/X & that all conservative voices there haven’t been silenced! Hope they are not actually controlled opposition meant to deceive us 🙁
I was thinking that both 9/11 and January 6 were extreme watershed moments in our nation’s history. The first was used to justify the satanically misnamed Patriot Act passing the Congress unexamined. The second was to justify the extreme weaponization of government, via the “Patriot Act” at least in part, against Patriotic Americans exercising their God-given rights. I often check copyrights on my reading material to see if they are pre-2001 or not. At this point the material saved from this original draft post represents what was being discussed after the debacle of the 2020 Presidential Election but before January 6, 2021 when some of us still had hope that Truth & Justice would prevail.
Like watching video from September 10, 2001, this saved snapshot of materials curated by Fleporeblog & captured by me in November 2020 reveals aspects of a more hopeful time; before the coup against America had been solidified and our society was fractured by so many deliberate & diabolical lies of genocidal totalitarian psychopaths. Those “good old days” are now gone forever. God grant us the ability to rightly restore the Republic so that our children AND grandchildren might know & love & live in an America that is Free & again founded on Biblical Truth & our precious Constitution. In God We Trust!
Well Dear Q-Tree family, I hope you have a blessed day. Thank you for indulging me as a substitute author while DP continues to focus on her family. God Bless You All!
Speaking of snapshots of another era, here is a link to a post I wrote just before January 6, 2021. The scriptural truth contained within remains timeless…
So I am taking Cthulhu’s advice & working up a draft post that has been pending for a while to use for one of my fill-in posts for DP while she is tending to the needs of her family in this challenging time. Please keep DP & her family in your prayers…and as Duchess reminds us daily, please pray for one another…
This post was originally begun as a reflection on our journey as my husband transitioned from purchasing, which he had done for more than 20 years, into truck driving. It was intended as a reflection on the past year but through procrastination now is from slightly more than a year & a half since jumping with both feet into that transitional time.
Note: if you don’t care to read what is a personal testimonial, please just scroll down to the next time you see the below page divider. Thanks for stopping by!
Some of you may recall that I was asking for prayer as this journey unfolded, when my husband precipitously decided to leave his long-time company, just months after getting a 25 year “award”, to go to trucking school. What was billed as typically a 6 week process in our particular case dragged on for more than 3 months in the schooling portion before the job search could officially begin. There were many ups & downs & significant frustrations as the system, including the state entities, conspired to keep my husband, & our household, in a seemingly ceaseless state of flux.
During this season of upheaval, uncertainty, & frustration there were a number of songs that really ministered to my husband & helped him hold on through all the changes. Some of these songs even ended up being part of the worship sets that Michael played as he continued to faithfully minister musically at church and have one area in his lifestyle that remained relatively unchanged. This post’s title, “Furious Love”, grew out of a reflection on some of the music that ministered to him during this very challenging time 🙂
The video below, being filmed near Michael’s birth-zone, is personally moving to him…
During transitions, upheaval, & uncertainty focusing on the Lord, His peace that passes understanding, His provision, & His comfort were keys to overcoming the obstacles…
God did provide for us in sometimes miraculous & very timely ways over the many months we were without direct income. A number of times God spontaneously moved on the hearts of people to give us money, just when we really needed it, & had mentioned it to no one but the Lord. It was scary, exciting, and even strangely serene to be in a place where God alone was the source of our supply & there was sometimes a sense of wonder and definitely a pervasive deep gratitude when He would come through Just In Time for our material needs, especially as He also continued to address those needs we both faced in emotional and spiritual arenas.
This next song has been ministering to my husband for quite a while, especially in relation to work upheavals. Years back Michael made a lateral move within his company to a different site & returned to purchasing after a few years as Shipping Manager at the company’s corporate headquarters. One motivation for this change was to get out from under the boot of a VP who was his direct boss while over shipping. For a season it was like M had been exodused out of Egypt and he really enjoyed his new boss & some of the perks of the location. Well, tragically M’s new boss had a massive heart attack at work & went home to be with his Lord. This unexpected vacancy in the company ended up being filled by the very VP M had rejoiced to previously escape from. The stress, sorrow, & intensity were overwhelming & Michael ended up playing this song on his way to work nearly daily as a way to shore himself up in the Lord.
It turns out that TobyMac, Toby McKeehan of DC Talk fame, wrote this song & filmed this video shortly before unimaginable tragedy struck in his own family. His son died unexpectedly & Toby’s music & faith was a huge part of what helped him get though that unbelievably painful season, as he shared in the clip below the music video…It is such a tremendous blessing to us all when others allow their pain & heartache to be molded in the Potter’s hands & used to minister to the needs of others–To God be The Glory!
One of Michael’s favorite songs & music videos, featuring wolves in an unflattering light
TobyMac shares about losing his son & God’s comfort
There are many uplifting and heartfelt comments at the above video, including:
1 year ago (edited)The fact that He said “God is kind” is nothing but the Holy Spirit. Human beings alone cannot do that by themselves after something like the loss of a child. Toby is a man of God, he is. And when you walk with God & you give your life to Him & things go terribly south in your life.. there’s gonna be many moments when you’re gonna be able to look at God and say, “You are still good.” God’s comfort is like no other. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lFwrsv0bdrI&lc=UgxmSUcrIWGtHeDRve94AaABAg
Details on TobyMac can also be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TobyMac
Getting back to our personal journey, Michael has mentioned a number of times how instrumental I was in helping him through some of the darkest days of his transition into trucking. He has wrestled significantly with areas of change in his life (don’t we all) & God has enabled me to really be a stabilizing influence for him, & our kids, in times of major upheaval. [At one point I was doing quite a bit of work on PTSD issues & began a blog as a repository of both the researches & the reflections–something I can return to and further develop as the seasons of life permit.] He has said that he thinks of this movie scene as a good representation of the way he sees certain of my interventions in his life…
This next song has spoken to me for many years especially in the “desert place”, the “wilderness”, & “the road marked with suffering”. The pounding of the special needs parenting situations created Many Times when the message of this music was so very relevant. Years ago our young assistant pastor & his wife were expecting their first child, who tragically died in utero just before her due date. They played this song at their daughter’s memorial service & I will always associate it with that loss laid on the Altar.
Although none of us will ever suffer to the degree that Job endured in scripture it is a beautiful thing to take the sufferings & hardships in our lives and pour them out like drink offerings to our Lord, allowing Him to transform them into beauty in His Kingdom.
This next song has been one that’s ministered to me over the years in times of heartache, stress, & loss; bringing key scriptural truth alive musically. Though perhaps a bit dated now the album from where I first heard it, Integrity Hosanna Music’s “My Refuge”, helped me through many dark days, broken engagements, & even deaths in the family. There is something so healing to the wounds of the soul in making the Choice to praise the Lord when it truly is a Sacrifice of praise. He is Always Worthy & focusing on Him in adoration during seasons of suffering can actually be a mechanism that He uses to ease our pain.
So now in hindsight, the journey to a stable trucking job was pretty interesting & challenging. In the natural world my husband worked for 3 different companies, one for days, one for weeks, & one for months, before landing his current job, which he’ll have been at for a year next month. The variety of work he encountered: fuel delivery, bottled gas delivery, & over-the-road training, plus gravel hauling exposure during an interview process for a job he didn’t accept, have served to make him especially thankful for the job where he landed. He is doing a daily route making local/regional deliveries for a large distribution center mostly associated with the heating & cooling industry.
He is often in the position of driving a B truck for A truck wages, which is an ideal scenario according to one of his truck-driving school instructors. His boss and co-workers are pleasant to work with, which hasn’t always been the case in his career trajectory. His job-related stress is Way down. Overall he is much happier at this job, is now in better shape physically, & is mostly adjusted to the Very Early weekly schedule this position requires–he wakes up at 3 am, leaves at 3:30 am, & starts his shift at 4:30 am.
He managed to pursue a number of hiking and backpacking adventures with some friends during this transitional time including 2 separate 55 mile hikes along Lake Superior’s Pictured Rocks lakeshore. We just returned home from his most recent backpacking trip last weekend! This major hike revealed to him how much better he’s doing physically since the same hike last year. He hasn’t had lingering pain nor fatigue, so even though he’s a year older it’s like his body is younger now than it’s been in years!
Pictured Rocks Lakeshore
Also I can thankfully report that just this weekend we discovered that he is apparently healed of what appeared to be a gluten allergy. I asked for help here at the Q-Tree in identifying what might have been going on with him physically after he had a sudden onset of troubling digestive symptoms following a weekend back-packing trip. Several of you suggested it could have been “Beaver Fever” or giardia, but Michael was convinced he had sudden onset gluten sensitivity. Regardless, whatever the condition was–& it caused him significant problems & missed work a number of times in the early months–it now appears to be healed or resolved. We even had an experimental pizza dinner at a favorite local restaurant to test his digestive status, without issue Finally. I am so thankful that Michael can now be liberated dietarily, though he plans to continue a number of his healthier eating habits going forward since there have been benefits to some of these changes. I cannot emphasize how much this represents a weight lifted from his shoulders! PTL…again!
Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore, Lake Superior Michigan’s Upper Peninsula
We’ve also mostly adjusted to the many family changes that occurred in this transitional time. All of our kids also faced significant changes while Michael was going through his lengthy transition. Our oldest son & daughter-in-law became parents for the first time just a few months after Michael made his huge leap. They are actually now expecting another baby in a few more months! In addition Nathaniel has joined Michael in the creation of a new band that just recently started practicing in our home. They haven’t worked together musically before so this really is a new & exciting adventure for them & the guys that are rounding out the band. I am thankful to have band practice in our home for the first time after more than 2 decades of musical endeavors on my husband’s part.
Nathaniel recorded this cover for a contest, which is when we discovered that he has such singing talent…
Another aspect of family transition involves our middle son Brandon, who had been working as a hydraulics technician at Michael’s old company & ended up leaving some months after M did. This son had gone through Fire Academy while still a full time employee & was making efforts to change his career to that of a Fire Fighter. He ended up being hired on by the City of Detroit & is now almost done w/ his 6 month EMT training phase & about to begin Fire Fighting training for the city next month. Like my husband, each time he is facing a time of transition it becomes quite overwhelming. We are available to shore him up as needed, & to give him an outlet to process some of the crazy situations he’s encountered working for & in Detroit…He is in joyful pursuit of a lifelong dream!
Seeing our special needs son Josiah marry & move-out & then return to live with us part time, at a time when we were also having a dear friend stay with us for almost half a year as he was dealing with his own life’s upheaval, was a Very Challenging addition to the ongoing chaos. Helping Josiah with his marital upheaval was a very demanding & emotionally draining strain on both Michael & I but was also used in God’s economy to model marital reconciliation strategies for our friend who was reeling from his own marital trauma. Because of Josiah’s autism this very personal journey was lived out very directly in an unmasked manner before our friend, overlapping the majority of his stay with us.
Finally our daughter & son-in-law went through the dual changes of becoming parents & moving into their own home almost simultaneously. Thankfully by the time This baby was born Michael was settled into his new job so that we had steady income & the familiarity with the new schedule & lifestyle for me to be able to help Clarissa in the birth process while Michael & her brothers helped her husband in moving their belongings from his dad’s house to their new home while C & the baby were still in the hospital. They have not done all that must be done to have their home fully functional yet, so periodically Clarissa will come by to use aspects of our kitchen in the creation of some of her culinary masterpieces.
We are blessed to have our youngest & oldest kids & their spouses & kids live in our neighborhood now. Our youngest son alternates between living with us & living a couple miles away in our city with his wife & her multi-cultural & partially disabled family. Our middle son has been stopping by regularly, especially on Sundays, to have some dedicated family time. In fact he just left our home after doing “gear day light” with my husband as they are preparing for an upcoming bow-hunting trip next weekend.
Life is good, relatively stable now, & abundant in a number of ways–Praise the Lord!
Tomorrow I’ll try a post that is more current events focused. Today I hope our Q-Tree family will be happy to bring the links & the insights in our typical treehouse fashion.
If you need leads for where to find such material, please consider checking out some of the sites WolfMoon has suggested in this post:
I enjoy perusing Whatfinger.com for links among many other sites 🙂
Thanks for stopping by. May the Lord guide, direct, protect, & bless us as we all keep fighting the good fight in our individual lives, our families, our communities, our nation, & our world! God Bless YOU!
Hi Q-Tree this is a super quick post in case Carl is unable to post his usual Sunday teaching & encouragement. Per reports on sister blogs, Sylvia’s at least, Carl is pretty sick with Covid & needs our prayers.
So no matter what is swirling around us, or within us, Jesus is Still Lord…
Here is a site that has compiled a number of Bible verses that expound on Jesus as Lord:
In the New Testament, Lord is the most frequently used title for Jesus Christ. Although we rarely use this term in our daily lives, we are all quite familiar with another word: boss. That is basically what Lord means—one possessing authority, power, and control. The Word of God describes Jesus as the head of the church, the ruler over all creation, and the Lord of lords and King of kings (Col. 1:15-18; Rev. 3:14, 17:14).
Jesus is Lord: Scripture Meaning
Following the resurrection, the term “Lord,” being applied to Jesus, became more than an indication of devotion or respect. Stating, “Jesus is Lord,” became a way of recognizing Jesus’ divine standing.
References of Jesus as Lord started with Thomas’ declaration when Jesus arrived at the apostles after His resurrection: “Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” (John 20:28). From thereafter, the message of the Apostles was that Jesus is Lord, signifying that “Jesus is God.”
Peter’s sermon on the Day of Pentecost carried that idea: “Let all Israel be assured of this: God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah” (Acts 2:36). Peter later declared this in the house of Cornelius, stating that Jesus is “Lord of all” (Acts 10:36). It is important to note that in Romans 10:9 Jesus’ lordship is connected to His resurrection: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”
The declaration “Jesus is Lord” indicates that Jesus is God. Jesus holds “all authority in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18). He is “Lord of the Sabbath” (Luke 6:5); “our only Sovereign and Lord” (Jude 1:4); and “the Lord of lords” (Revelation 17:14).
What Makes Jesus a “Lord”?
The realm of Christ’s reign covers everything that happens in heaven and on the earth. No one—not even those who deny His existence—can be free of His rule or outside His sphere of authority. Although Satan tries to convince us that liberty is found in doing what we want, true freedom is acquired only through submission to Christ’s loving lordship.
Even death cannot release anyone from the authority of God’s Son. He is Lord of both the living and the dead. All people must decide to either yield or rebel against Him, but they have the opportunity to make this choice only while they are still living. After death, they will acknowledge Christ’s lordship through accountability to Him. If we have not bowed the knee to Jesus in life, we will be forced to bend it in the judgment.
Have you submitted to Christ’s rule over your life? His authority causes anger or fear in individuals who have not yet yielded to Him, but those who have experienced His loving kindness trusted in His goodness and surrendered to His authority take comfort in knowing Him as the Lord of their lives.
These are long days of darkness & often despair, but we who know the Lord need fear no evil for the Lord is with us. He has promised never to leave nor forsake us, which is a great comfort in times of tremendous turbulence. So as we keep fighting the good fight let’s continue to look to the Lord, the author & finisher of our faith, our soon coming King!
May God Bless YOU Richly, Today and Always. In Jesus’ Love, Valerie
OK, straight up apologies, Dear Q-Treepers & Friends, for this likely stream of consciousness post very loosely inspired from our dear Daughn’s nostalgic posts. This is going to veer about in personal family history domains so is meant as a bit of a slice of Americana…
Detroit’s skyline as viewed from the Ambassador Bridge
Grandpa S. came to stay with us at some point for an extended stay while I still lived in my parents’ home. I think it was after my grandma had died but before I went away to college. Grandpa had been sick and so lived with us for a season as he regained his health & his strength. There were times he’d watch Price is Right with my brothers & I & encourage us to make guesses on the various games, which we all thoroughly enjoyed.
Grandpa was a bit of a gruff man having grown up in the Motor City & having a Northwoods lumberjack for a father. He was a self-made man of limited education, never having finished high school. An avid outdoorsman and good with his hands he knew how to work hard and he was respected and even loved by many people from practically all walks of life. He had deep practical wisdom & was even flexible in his lifestyle deciding to take up new hobbies as a widower, like candle AND candy making. He had a zest for life & perpetual twinkle in his eye!
Ty Cobb in 1913 in Detroit, the era when he let Grandpa & other kids into the ballpark by the back fence to watch the games for free!
Well one day while he was staying with us the phone rang unexpectedly. Being the oldest kid it fell to me to answer the call, as my parents weren’t home at the time. Some gravelly male voice on the other end of the phone was looking for a “Lefty” & I was concerned. The only “lefty” I could imagine would be some fictional gangster or ne’er-do-well. Anyway with tremulous voice I mentioned to Grandpa that someone was looking for “Lefty”. He snatched the phone from my hand & bellowed out in his own testosterone truncated tongue “Lefty here!” I was beyond flabbergasted, My Grandpa Was Lefty!!!
Obviously this was a pretty basic nickname for a man who was left-handed, especially growing up in an era when being left-handed was a “sinister” condition. Both he, my dad’s dad, AND my mom’s mom, were left-handed & suffered the indignities that went along with being different & the punishments typically meted out for errant usage of the “wrong” hand in those bygone days. Both of these grandparents had less than beautiful handwriting but were surely more ambidextrous than most. My youngest brother is also blessed with this left-handedness & it definitely contributed to some of his sporting successes, especially his ability to be a switch-hitter on his high-school baseball team! I think he was also more competent with both feet as a soccer player than were most teammates too.
Grandpa had been a pretty poor student during his formal education. In fact, after his death, when my parents were going through his things they discovered a lone report card saved from nearly 8 decades before. Apparently this “all S” card was the best he ever did. That was based on a grading system of U=Unsatisfactory, S=Satisfactory, & E=Excellent, I believe. Basically grandpa got the equivalent of an all-C, straight average report card & that was the treasure of the ages. How easily did the high marks of so many in our family line become blasé. We didn’t really understand what it was to suffer ridicule for poor marks, well most of us didn’t…
My dad is going over my post with me & said that on Grandpa’s report card there were 12 things to be graded on per marking. In the 1st card marking he got 4 S’s & the rest U’s. 2nd marking was 8 or 9 S’s the rest U’s. The final card marking he got all 12 S’s. My grandpa wrote on that report card “Best report card I ever had” & saved it all those years. Neither my dad nor his sister knew about that card before grandpa’s death.
Not Grandpa’s report card, but one from the era when he first attended school
Grandpa did throw things away, including stock certificates for companies that went belly up during the Depression, per my dad. He provided for his family during his lifetime & had less than $1,000 to his name when he died…& a new car that he called “my second to last car”. My brother got that late ’80’s Tempo after Grandpa’s passing.
Now according to my dad his dad had one of his grade school teachers as a regular customer at his gas station & garage in the heart of Detroit. Some three decades after she taught him she would berate him with “see I knew you’d never amount to anything” when she came to fill up or get some car service from him or his employees. Imagine being dogged like that as a self-made business man, yet Grandpa didn’t stint on the service in spite of the disrespect.
In fact dad is quite sure that Grandpa accepted Scrip during the war years, and my other grandpa, being a teacher, was paid in scrip too. It is quite likely that Grandpa S’s cruel elementary teacher paid in scrip AND much of that payment never was converted to Actual Money (I don’t know all the social reasons for that) so Grandpa took care of that teacher’s material needs even as she maligned his interpersonal & self-esteem ones. He truly was the bigger man.
Not my Grandpa’s gas station, but his brand in his era
When looking for possible images of Grandpa’s old Sunoco gas station at Junction & Toledo in Detroit I ran across this nostalgic discussion of old Detroit area gas stations.
During the Second World War, at some point rationing was on. This meant that even in the Motor City it was hard to get what one needed to maintain functional transportation for the masses. Dad said that Grandpa had an old vulcanizing machine, that could be used to patch tires, and that his dad practically single-handedly kept Detroit on wheels! If he could have brought that machine with him to Northern Michigan when he retired it should have ended up in a museum, how significant was it’s contribution to keeping Detroit moving!
1945 Ration Book from the region, this example from Illinois
Speaking of Northern Michigan let’s segue a bit. My Grandpa’s dad had grown into manhood in the Northern Michigan lumbering industry, though he himself was a mid-Michigan farm boy. He left home, possibly even before his teen years to work in lumbering. He drove the horse-drawn wagons, worked as a lumberjack, and later was some type of foreman.
The company he worked for was owned by a Mr. Lowrey and at one point Lowrey’s son made his way into the woods to get his lumbering chops with the working guys. Apparently the lumberjacks were a pretty rough group of customers & Great-Grandpa took the boss’s son under his wing, showed him the ropes, AND protected him from the brutish thugs. This was noticed by the boss so later on when operations were moved South into Detroit Great-Grandpa was invited to come along and manage the lumber yard. That’s what he did for the rest of his working life. AND that is how that side of my family came to Detroit, right about 1900!
Logging in Michigan, 1890’s, when my Great Grandpa was still working in the Northern Michigan woods
Apparently Great Grandpa S. was a pretty tough customer too. He was tall, over 6 feet, with a fairly slender build. Even so, he was incredibly strong. One time Grandpa, as a young man, or even teen, had occasion to do some work at his dad’s lumber yard. There were train cars to be loaded or unloaded of 50 pound bags of cement, I believe. Grandpa would carry a bag in each hand & fling them in a smooth motion up to stack even over his head. Dad said that his father had very strong hands & even used to play handball at the Y in Detroit. Anyway G observed GG breaking up a fight amongst some unrulies in the lumber yard. When they wouldn’t stop the fight Great Grandpa stepped in & with One Blow Each felled each man. My grandpa was in shock that his dad could or would do that, this was someone not to mess around with!
Ironically my dad & his friends also experienced Grandpa’s physical & character strength for themselves. There was a time in their teen years that dad & his buddies took out the family car joy riding, over 50 miles of driving without ever leaving the Detroit city limits. Apparently Dad didn’t think to put more gas in the car so the next day as Grandpa was headed into work at His gas station, he ran out of gas. Grandpa somehow got a hold of Dad’s buddy & lifted him one handed off the floor & stuck him to the wall. What happened to Dad during that timeframe has always been rather murkily glossed over. I know my dad inherited this skill set for I once witnessed him lift up one of my brother’s cocky little friends up off the floor & stick him to the wall, though he used 2 hands in this surprising intervention on the now more subdued teen!
So we’ve had Michigan’s North Woods in our blood for a number of generations. Now fortunately my Grandpa S. married my grandma, the daughter of a railroad engineer–both of her parents were children of immigrants from the British Isles. Grandma’s dad had a fairly cushy job that he’d worked into on the Michigan Central Railroad. One of the perks of working for the railroad was getting the family to ride the rails, for free, I believe. Grandma’s family used to regularly travel Up North and enjoy Summer vacations in Michigan’s beautiful North Country, far from their native Detroit.
Historic Arbutus Beach, on Otsego Lake, MI in the era when my grandma’s family vacationed there
Eventually Grandma’s parents settled on a small community in Gaylord and bought a Cottage, being the first such building in the newly platted resort community of Arbutus Beach, along the beautiful sandy shore of Otsego Lake. Nearly all of Grandma’s siblings and many cousins ultimately obtained cottages in that community. My grandparents married in the late 1920’s and somehow acquired one of the existing Cottages in Arbutus Beach, as its second owners. My dad & his sister, along with their mother, spent virtually Every Summer of their childhood in that Northern Michigan paradise. Surrounded by family & friends they’d leave Detroit the day after school let out & only head home the day before school started in the Fall. Grandpa would join them for both journeys, I think because there was only one car. Grandma & the kids either caught the train to/from town or perhaps bummed rides from relatives with transportation.
How my great grandparents moved their cottage to Arbutus Beach, details here: https://specialconnections.wordpress.com/2017/06/29/josiahs-story-about-the-4th-of-july/
Now that same Cottage ended up becoming my grandparents’ retirement home, somewhat unexpectedly. Up until the Race Riot era of the late ’60’s both sets of my grandparents expected to live in their Detroit homes for the remainder of their natural lives. However during that season of social upheaval block-busting real estate agents put the pressure on & ultimately both sets of grandparents winterized Summer cottages to become their then retirement homes.
The simpler times of my dad’s youth saw Otsego Lake rarely shackled, as it is now, by excessive docks or boats
The Gaylord Cottage would figure largely in my own life too. When my new husband & I decided to come to Michigan–we had met & married in Oklahoma, though I was a child of the Motor City–we ended up living temporarily in The Cottage that was now in my parents’ possession after Grandpa’s death about a half decade previously. Michael & I lived in The Cottage as newly weds AND as new parents. Our first child, Nathaniel was born while we lived in The Cottage (his height is marked on the 4 generation height-recording doorjambs between the dining & living rooms at just One Day Old!) & was gifted the nickname “The Jack-Pine Savage” because of this northern naissance. In fact I believe our son is the Only family member in 6 generations of our extended family associated with this Northern Michigan community who was born in Gaylord, though several have died there. Though our twins were born while we still lived in that community–we had bought our own house in town by that time–they were in fact born downstate because of the high-risk nature of that pregnancy & their anticipated medical needs…
If you’d like to see a Newspaper article from back when Michael & I and the Boys lived in Gaylord in the 1990’s check it out here, on pages 1, 4, & 5:
Anyway, at one point when Michael & I were moving into The Cottage we boxed up some things to make room for some of our belongings. One day we were going through some old kids books and discovered some doodlings & writings by my dad. Apparently Dad had fancied himself some type of cowboy AND given himself the moniker Wild Bill! I absolutely Loved It!!!
Whenever watching that perennial classic A Christmas Story, I can imagine my dad as a lad in the 1940’s into the ’50’s with his admiration for all things cowboy & his gun prowess. I’m pretty sure that he was Up North when practicing targeting some strategic mushrooms on top of a log. However, unlike Steve’s important Saturday reminders, he forgot to notice what was Behind his target. So successfully hitting mushrooms with his BB gun sometimes meant tagging one of his playmates inadvertently as the projectiles maintained their forward trajectory. Simpler times…
Boy with gun in the 1950’s, not my dad but similar to his era
It’s impossible to anticipate what type of gems one might unearth in an old family home! Years ago there was a major garage cleaning undertaken by 3 generations of the family. At one point an old scorched ironing board cover, complete with it’s “scorchless” packaging was unearthed. After much conversation it was returned to the archeological dig to be unearthed years, or perhaps generations from now, so the joy & consternation at our family ways can continue!
Saving that old ironing board cover reminded Dad about his mom’s dad, the railroad engineer. Apparently Great-Grandpa T. used to collect stamps. He would meticulously organize them into small piles and tie them together with small pieces of string & place them strategically in old cigar boxes. Well he kept some container labeled “String Too Short To Save” for this stamp-corralling work, apparently because that was about all such short lengths of string were good for! If you knew how much my packratedness AND that of some other family members has tormented those who are more comfortable with much less physical (& other) baggage, you would recognized that “String Too Short To Save” isn’t always a badge of honor here!
Several books had similar titles, so this metaphor goes well beyond just our family perspective & experience–yikes!
So back to Lefty AND World War II. Dad & his sister have some direct memories of the war years, though they were still Very Young when it ended. Apparently they kept a pail of pure sand in the attic in case the house were ever bombed or hit with incendiary devices. They employed blackout curtains. Grandpa was sometimes involved in some type of neighborhood patrol, well Dad says that actually the next-door neighbor Mr. Bush was the Warden, who’d knock on your door if any light showed through the blackout curtains. They sounded an air raid siren for a drill in getting into blackout conditions & the Warden would patrol the neighborhood looking for any errant lights during that drill. Ration Books were in play & plenty of food was hard to get. Street Signs were removed to prevent the enemy, should he land on our shores, from easily navigating these foreign roads. And of course rationing meant deprivations in many arenas.
One place of deprivation was in the use of gasoline. Even Grandpa, who owned his own gas station business, could not get extra gasoline. That meant that when hunting season rolled around he wouldn’t be able to head Up North to the Hunting Shack to do the traditional annual deer hunting pilgrimage, or wouldn’t he? Actually he had some cousins who were farmers and apparently the government wasn’t rationing their access to gas in Any Way. So some of these cousins arranged to leave cans of gas strategically along the side of the road, hidden in the ditch, so Grandpa could gas up sufficiently to make it to his war-time limited hunting camp!
teaser historic post card from Luzerne, MI our guys rarely see this many deer in the region nowadays
By the way, how The Shack came into the family is a bit of an interesting tale too. Grandpa, his cousin, uncle, & some friends used to hunt the state or federal lands adjacent to a farmer’s land Up North. They’d done this for some years in a remote area in Oscoda County near the Very Small Town of Luzerne. Many times these hunters had begged the farmer to sell them a small amount of land so they could put up more permanent hunting camps than their tent-based camps of yesteryear. One time they invited the farmer to join them for a meal in the large dining tent. Their camp stove gave off a spark that ignited that tent AND it completely burned before they could un-stake all the ropes & drop the canvas to the ground. The farmer decided it was no way to live so relented & sold them One Acre, which was subdivided into 2 plots & 2 hunting shacks were built there, both still standing.
The shack across the street used to have a custom-made wood burned sign (recently stolen) claiming “Piscopalian Valley”, which is what our original hunters used to call the area since the piss would go in the pail before the hunting shacks AND outhouses were put in. In fact Grandpa’s uncle Will was known as “the Mayor of Piscopalian Valley” since he would make the rounds of the many nearby hunting camps AND the “blue horse trail” camp (the blue horse trail marks an equestrian path that traverses the fingers of Michigan’s Mitten–no NOT that Mitt!–from Lake Michigan to Lake Huron and makes navigating “our” hunting zone much more interesting) & pick up all the news of the hunt & the community–what a rich history abounded there & many tales live on!
Blue Horse Trail near Luzerne passes through the family hunting grounds
Speaking of news AND WWII the way Lefty learned about the end of the war was pretty amazing. Now I don’t ever recall hearing my grandpa tell this story, but Wild Bill has good recall of it. Apparently as The War was waning Grandpa went on an extended hunting or fishing adventure in the wilds of Canada, dad said that it was a fishing trip. He was walking along a portage trail in the woods & came across a carving on a tree trunk declaring the date & time of the end of the war in Europe AND he ran across this within two hours of someone carving it, literally out in the middle of nowhere! What an amazing world!
If only that WWII was the war to end all wars & love reigned supreme
Boy were our forbears hearty & blessed people. We are blessed to carry their blood in our veins & some of their quirkiness in our behaviors & of course some of their personality & physical traits in our beings, as they continue to live on, in a manner of speaking, in & through us.
From C.S. Lewis in his Chronicles of Narnia, as recounted here: https://silo.pub/pocket-companion-to-narnia-a-guide-to-the-magical-world-of-cs-lewis.html. HONOR — To seek honor in obedience and to behave honorably may be said to be one definition of a true Narnian. In PC [Prince Caspian]15, Caspian is ashamed that he comes of such a dishonorable (Telmarine) lineage. Aslan replies, “You come of the Lord Adam and Lady Eve. And that is both honor enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar and shame enough to bow the heads and shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. Be content.”
Veteran’s Day Addendum
Honoring our warriors, especially on Veteran’s Day!
We all owe so much to the many who have made tremendous sacrifices to fight for & ensure ongoing degrees of freedom for their fellow man. The complexity of the tapestry of lives, lifestyles, & social & family dynamics can never fully be done justice. So many different ways our warriors & their families & friends have laid down their lives for the family of man. Thank you!
I come from a family without direct modern experience in military service & warfare. However I know of numerous serviceman in the extended family who answered the call. This listing is to honor their service & sacrifice & that of so many others who have stood in the gap on freedom’s and our nation’s behalf.
Orringh Stoddard, Captain Massachusetts Line, Revolutionary War
Husband Michael’s Hagerman ancestor, United Empire Loyalist
Friedrich Bluemle, Mom’s birth great grandfather, compulsory German military service before immigrating to America mid 1800’s
Michael’s relations, both sides service Civil War, fractured family & fractured nation
William E. Curren, US Army Signal Corp, late 1800’s
Clarence E. Curren, Virginia Ship Building Co., WWI Navy
Patrick L., Husband’s father’s uncle, WWII Nave Sea Bee, construction battalion
Verner R. Shoup, Hubby’s grandfather & son of CO governor Oliver H. Shoup, WWI Army
David O. M., Mom’s birth grandfather, WWI Army
Robert D. M., Mom’s birth father, WWII Marine, action in Tarawa & beyond
Avis B. B., Mom’s birth mother, WAC WWII, service in Alaska & beyond
Hugh T., Grandma’s brother-in-law, WWII Army medical doctor
Maynard K., Mom’s brother, Korea-era Naval service, injured medical discharge
Zachary S., my nephew, Marine in modern service
My ancestor Orringh Stoddard’s letter February 3, 1780 preserved in George Washington’s papers, https://www.loc.gov/resource/mgw4.064_0179_0180/
May the Lord continue to equip us all with the tools we need to keep fighting the good fight!
Vignette of my Uncle Hugh’s military service, from his obituary “Dr. Thompson was a US veteran, serving with the US Medical Corps for three and a half years. He was captain of the 32nd Field Hospital in Italy. After VE Day, he was sent to the Philippines and Japan.” He moved his wife & kids into their Northern Michigan cottage while he was overseas during WWII, being concerned for their safety had they remained in their Detroit home during his extended absence. Service & Sacrifice!
http://otsego.advantage-preservation.com/viewer/?k=hugh%20thompson&i=f&d=01011903-12312013&m=between&ord=k1&fn=herald_times_usa_michigan_gaylord_19911024_english_23&df=1&dt=10&cid=2955 has further details on Dr. Hugh Thompson’s career & photos.
OK, to be honest I had Zero plans to write this post when I woke up “today”. In fact I’d been hoping to take advantage of my solo weekend to wrap up a post or two I’ve had in draft mode for months, but it appears that they’ll have to still wait. My hunters will be home soon…
This journey started out by reading Carl’s beautiful Sunday post.
Being very moved by the teaching he shared I wanted to look up the source material by John Piper AND finally came to a page that appears to contain much, or even all, that Carl shared, here:
In the course of searching for the actual message, & not just other people’s blog posts about Piper’s teaching that was apparently given at some type of conference, a few interesting links popped up. One looked to be addressing how seemingly Piper weighed in on the 2020 election & from the couple lines of text visible at the search may have spoken against Trump. I was curious so went to read that article too.
What a surprise to discover that the article was more about promoting the vax from the pulpit rather than steering people away from Trump during the stolen election. Hmmm
OK, so this post is NOT trying to attack John Piper as a man, a Christian, nor as a theologian. I’m trying to steer clear of my own biases, which is obviously impossible. In reading the search engine thumbnail descriptions it appears that Piper is affiliated with the Baptist church, which makes my “legalism radar” perk up. I’m just being honest, I have issues with legalism that go way back & have a (possibly misplaced) perception that Baptist takes might hover in the legalism domain…so grain of salt going forward here…
Here are a couple places where I’ve addressed legalism, & the other end of the spectrum, the prosperity gospel, for context on some of my thinking in these arenas…
So, back to the issue at hand. I like to think of myself as a Truth-seeker AND a Truth-teller. So let’s see if we can unearth some Truth in the controversy before us, namely shilling for the vax from the pulpit. Whom the Son sets free is Free indeed!
Let’s look into John Knox’s Not The Bee article a bit first. Per his opening remarks he appears to be a Conservative Christian, who is perhaps comfortable with MAGA & Trump’s leadership.
“I’m not here to slander John Piper. He’s a brother-in-Christ and a man who has, by all accounts, picked up his cross daily to preach the hope of Christ and Christ crucified to a broken world.
With that being said, Piper has come to some odd conclusions in recent years, starting most notably with the idea that voting for the worldly bravado of Donald Trump was just a [sic] morally wrong as the utter institutional corruption, unfettered support of abortion, and woke totalitarianism of Joe Biden.”
Let’s dive into Piper’s perspective without immediately referring to Knox’s take & see what might jump out…
Here is his opening & yikes he’s seeming like a Pro-vaxer from the outset, not just pro-freedom (in Christ).
“My aim in this article is to encourage Christians to be vaccinated, if they can do so with a good conscience and judicious medical warrant.
The people I have especially in view are those who are not vaccinated because of fear of being out of step withpeople they respect, and in step with people they don’t admire. My message to them is simple: You are free.
So, I am not talking directly to everybody. If the shoe fits, put it on, check your conscience, consult your doctor, and go get vaccinated. If it doesn’t, go tearfully and cheerfully on your way. Tearfully, because over 4.5 million people have died from COVID-19 worldwide (including over 700,000 Americans). And cheerfully, because Christ makes it miraculously possible to love people by being “sorrowful yet always rejoicing” (2 Corinthians 6:10).”
So I’m pretty close to an anti-vaxer for numerous reasons now. It would be nearly impossible to read consistently here at The Q Tree & not be Extremely Concerned about the many & manifold dangers of the so-called Covid vaccine. Obviously Piper is coming from a very different worldview, though we Might be somewhat similar in our Christian biblical foundational viewpoints. Some of what he said above strikes me as manipulative, which is a big red flag to me!
Below is a comment written before the Plannedemic was on the scene with some vaccine concerns I expressed elsewhere, for perspective, but we’ll just stick with the Covid “vax” concerns today:
So Piper cites a number of sources that all seem to show that being unvax’d is Way more dangerous than being vax’d. Obviously here at the Q-Tree we consider material much more wider afield & also take into account the numerous reports, medical, scientific, & anecdotal that expose Much of the danger of the clot shots. It appears that Piper is unaware of this alternative & alarming material. Here’s his take, shudder:
When people respond to this increasingly clear reality by pointing to untrustworthy and disreputable government and medical leaders, I respond, “That’s a non sequitur.” The team called “vaccination” just made a first down, even if monkeys are holding the chains. For friends around the world who don’t know American football, that means a win is a win even if all the coaches and referees are incompetent.
Piper’s take on freedom is interesting & I encourage you to read it for yourself. He then lists a series of considerations to ponder as one decides for the shot or not. He doesn’t elaborate on those issues, even the implications of fetal cell lines, though he does link to a YouTube video on the topic. I have no idea if Piper is a pro-lifer or not, but at least he brings up that fetal tissue issue, though by implication doesn’t apparently consider it an impediment to Christians taking the “vax”. He appears to have made up his mind to take the shot & seems to be freeing, or even persuading, his parishioners to do the same–concerning!
Now let’s consider Knox’s other cited material that is opposed to Piper’s take before returning to Knox.
James White, the author of the above, pulls no punches & calls Piper out for his writings AND remarks on the election & the shot! Here is White pointing out what many Q-Treepers might consider to be quite obvious.
God’s ownership of our bodies implies our own stewardship thereof, which is why many of us take serious issue with experimental genetic therapies with record-breaking reports of adverse reactions, including death, with no long-term studies relating to safety (cancers, fertility), for a disease with an average mortality age above life expectancy and a mortality rate of less than 0.5%.
Further from White, bold is my take:
…there is the arrogance of the secular worldview that actually leads man to believe he is wise enough, while remaining in rebellion against his Creator, to meddle with the very essence of his being (genetics). When such arrogance is joined with a lust for power and dominion, it becomes deadly.
So the bulk of the article, comprising numerous biblical citations about freedom, is not the issue. Instead, the problem is found in the section that reads like a Pfizer promotional advertisement, and then the application portion at the end.
White’s wisdom & Piper’s naivety are on display in this next quote from White (not italicised to preserve his presentation):
“From late October of 2020, as word about the technology that is behind the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines came out, I have stated that I would consider use of these vaccine [sic] once three and five year safety studies had been completed. Prior to 2020, this would have been considered a sober, even mundane position to take. You do not do genetic manipulation at “warp speed,” especially when the threat you are seeking to counteract is one that almost always requires multiple co-morbidities and results in an age of death equal to or above life expectancy. But we do not have such data, and with how this one particular disease has been handled, we have good grounds to wonder if we will ever have geniune [sic] data in the future. The VAERS database, maintained by the CDC, has catalogued record numbers of negative results from the vaccines, so it is now regularly dismissed as “untested” (the irony is palpable) by the media. The amazing reality that we are now counting deaths with the Covid-19 as the same as deaths from Covid-19 has resulted in massively inflated numbers, numbers Dr. Piper repeats without comment, and uses in his final argumentation as well. The fact is we are playing with dangerous and unknown long-term impacts with these types of experimental1 therapies. Dr. Piper does not even acknowledge this reality.”
Here is the material for the footnote #1 above & a reference to further work by White (an 8 page pdf). This appears to be a level of truth AND integrity to be much admired & emulated, yet too rarely seen!
1 Yes, they remain experimental. The FDA approved the Pfizer jab without public comment, fundamentally altering the entire process. Video exists of Anthony Fauci in 2019 (Milken Institute found on CSPAN2) lamenting how long it would take to get these kinds of vaccines approved. Given his own role in the Wuhan lab, gain-of-function funding, etc., the reality of the situation is clear.
“Many studies are now showing efficacy rates below 50% and dropping for these vaccines. But the UK report is even more dangerous. We are now seeing that the vaccines are inhibiting the natural ability to produce antibodies against not just the well-known “spike protein,” but against the shell of the virus as well. Our bodies provide not only a much more robust immunity (as all studies are showing, and which Dr. Piper misrepresented when he said natural immunity is “as effective as vaccination immunity” when it is actually 13 to 27 times greater), but it is a much wider immunity, responding to more of the structure of the virus. This study is telling us that vaccination degrades our natural immunity, leaving us even more exposed to future infection.”
And this treat from White on Piper!
“He then provides one of the most disappointing lines in the article: “You have pondered the likelihood and unlikelihood of conspiratorial conjectures.” Without defining his meaning, or providing examples, Piper does us no favors. Is the recognition of the cooperation of Big Tech and Big Pharma with the extreme leftists in political power resulting in the transfer of literally trillions of dollars of wealth a “conspiratorial conjecture”? Are the banishments from social media of medical experts who are warning about dangers fictional? We are not told.”
Winding down toward his conclusion White displays both insight AND wisdom:
“It is undeniable that the vaccines are not a solo issue. They are coming to us after mask mandates and church closures and pastoral imprisonments and before the next onerous demands from governments drunk on the power that inevitably comes from the rise of secularism. The secular state is far worse than the ancient pagan context of Rome (which was bad enough), for by its very definition it must be ultimate in all things as there is no Creator. Why Piper does not see the role the vaccines play in the overall demands of the newly empowered totalitarianism I cannot say, but it is not the first time he has missed the role a particular element plays in the whole. Mean, arrogant tweets are, in the overall scheme of things, significantly less important than the fact that the Biden regime is intent upon forcing your children to celebrate drag queens and likewise just as intent upon taking control of every aspect of your life to force you to live in denial of the lordship of Christ. What Piper has missed, badly, is the role these vaccinations play in a much bigger, much more basic movement into a technologically based, chemically and medically controlled secular totalitarianism.”
Obviously it is easier to resonate with White, at least for me. So let’s return to Knox. Piper is presented as
“…either unable or unwilling to see past the veneer of Everything is Fine™ that’s been peddled by the leftist politicians, the woke media, the “progressive” academy, and the neo-Marxist Big Tech offices.”
Knox reminds us to consider the source AND question conclusions drawn from faulty data & assumptions:
“As a math professor once told me, even if your calculations are 100% correct, your solution will be insanely wrong if your starting premises are off!”
Honestly I did enjoy reading all three pieces. Knox was my intro to the other two & his framing & take is invaluable. Piper was who I’d been searching for in appreciation of the Wonderful Teaching Carl shared with us today (now yesterday). Piper was shallow on facts but deeper on scripture in his writing compared to what the other two shared, but both Knox & White were addressing Piper’s factual fallacies more than his biblical prowess. Because I was reading Piper’s article as more of a vax skeptic, I found some of his scriptural insights to work on me in the opposite way than where he was going in his applications. White was factual, truthful, & masterfully insightful on both human nature & the creeping totalitarianism in our societies. I resonated with his take & hope to read further of how he also might “rightly divide the Word of Truth”!
I guess I would prefer to just hear from Piper on scripture, not social issues. Because White & Knox are seemingly aligned with my worldview they are more comfortable reads to me when addressing social &/or cultural concerns. Knox is an easier, quicker read, so he’s a good place to start. White dives in deep & dispenses truth, wisdom, & integrity quite liberally. Piper would do well to stick to biblical truth & could expand his sources of information so he has a better grasp of what is Really happening in the world today.
Now let’s turn to the reason for this post’s title, since many Shepherds (pastors & other leaders) are seemingly leading their flocks of Sheep to the metaphorical, if not literal, slaughter.
I’m going to share Ezekiel 34 in a moment, but this is how thinking along those lines developed, in the comments section on this excellent post by Wolfmoon:
There are markers in the vaccine, AND they are testing (using useless PCR) for infection, AND they are taking DNA.
All bases are covered. The sheep will see the “testing for viruses” part and be satisfied. The lions will see the markers and the DNA theft and walk majestically away.
They are flailing around trying anything they can think of to trick the lions into submission.
But I am a lion, and not subject to such gaslighting trickery.11 Reply
EXACTLY! That’s what I’m thinking. The small cheese was the vaccine in as many as possible. The BIG CHEESE was “everybody gives their DNA to the globonazis just to travel”. The really big cheese behind the scenes is “now we can modify and study every single person like a lab animal”. When we talked about being “controls”, they rubbed their hands in glee. “We can use that! We can surely use that!” The trick THERE is to foil that plan – to say “No, KlauSS. No DNA for you!”
One of the things they would surely be testing for would be immune function. Shedding. OMG. There is so much modification and study of us possible.
cleverly disguised as “peace and safety” for all !
and coming soon…
marker
sounds like mark.
but we’re not quite there just yet.
the UN’s Sustainablity crap + the 2030 Agenda + the WEF + the Vatican + the Covid/Climate Change tyranny…and the global compliance to all of that…is creating Alinsky style chaos.
they will need all the chaos they can manufacture…so that…
the machiavellian psychopath man of universal “peace” can show up, and quell all the chaos…
by then, ppl of the global village will have become rendered compliant enough so as to readily take the mark which will require, not just relinquishing our privacy, but something much worse : our souls.
to worship that man of lawlessness, perversion & lies.Last edited 7 days ago by smiley29 Reply
We would be stronger if the Church leaders around the globe including Pop would stand with God’s people. They are not for a second time in history the past 80 years. They failed God and humanity and will be judged more harshly for selling out God and Christ for a lousy bag of silver.4 Reply
The whole 34th chapter of Ezekiel is profoundly applicable Right Now!
Ezekiel 34 New International Version The Lord Will Be Israel’s Shepherd 34 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel; prophesy and say to them: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Woe to you shepherds of Israel who only take care of yourselves! Should not shepherds take care of the flock? 3 You eat the curds, clothe yourselves with the wool and slaughter the choice animals, but you do not take care of the flock. 4 You have not strengthened the weak or healed the sick or bound up the injured. You have not brought back the strays or searched for the lost. You have ruled them harshly and brutally. 5 So they were scattered because there was no shepherd, and when they were scattered they became food for all the wild animals. 6 My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them.
7 “‘Therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 8 As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, because my flock lacks a shepherd and so has been plundered and has become food for all the wild animals, and because my shepherds did not search for my flock but cared for themselves rather than for my flock, 9 therefore, you shepherds, hear the word of the Lord: 10 This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them.
Let’s add the rest of Ezekiel 34 (that wasn’t included in my original comment above) for perspective:
11 “‘For this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I myself will search for my sheep and look after them. 12 As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. 13 I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries, and I will bring them into their own land. I will pasture them on the mountains of Israel, in the ravines and in all the settlements in the land. 14 I will tend them in a good pasture, and the mountain heights of Israel will be their grazing land. There they will lie down in good grazing land, and there they will feed in a rich pasture on the mountains of Israel. 15 I myself will tend my sheep and have them lie down, declares the Sovereign Lord. 16 I will search for the lost and bring back the strays. I will bind up the injured and strengthen the weak, but the sleek and the strong I will destroy. I will shepherd the flock with justice.
17 “‘As for you, my flock, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will judge between one sheep and another, and between rams and goats. 18 Is it not enough for you to feed on the good pasture? Must you also trample the rest of your pasture with your feet? Is it not enough for you to drink clear water? Must you also muddy the rest with your feet? 19 Must my flock feed on what you have trampled and drink what you have muddied with your feet?
20 “‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says to them: See, I myself will judge between the fat sheep and the lean sheep. 21 Because you shove with flank and shoulder, butting all the weak sheep with your horns until you have driven them away, 22 I will save my flock, and they will no longer be plundered. I will judge between one sheep and another. 23 I will place over them one shepherd, my servant David, and he will tend them; he will tend them and be their shepherd. 24 I the Lord will be their God, and my servant David will be prince among them. I the Lord have spoken.
25 “‘I will make a covenant of peace with them and rid the land of savage beasts so that they may live in the wilderness and sleep in the forests in safety. 26 I will make them and the places surrounding my hill a blessing.[a] I will send down showers in season; there will be showers of blessing. 27 The trees will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. 28 They will no longer be plundered by the nations, nor will wild animals devour them. They will live in safety, and no one will make them afraid. 29 I will provide for them a land renowned for its crops, and they will no longer be victims of famine in the land or bear the scorn of the nations. 30 Then they will know that I, the Lord their God, am with them and that they, the Israelites, are my people, declares the Sovereign Lord. 31 You are my sheep, the sheep of my pasture, and I am your God, declares the Sovereign Lord.’”
Footnotes
Ezekiel 34:26 Or I will cause them and the places surrounding my hill to be named in blessings (see Gen. 48:20); or I will cause them and the places surrounding my hill to be seen as blessed
VC housekeeping note, footnotes from Bible Gateway show up as numbered here though they are lettered within the biblical text, please make adjustments (a=1, etc.).
I was going to expound on that passage but I think at this point it might be best for the Word of God to speak to your own heart as He wills…
Here is an example of a church that has gone overboard in the wrong direction, way beyond Piper’s vax persuasion. They wouldn’t allow the unvax’d to enter nor apparently work there, even those with medical or religious exemptions. I really hope the majority of the remaining flock got saline instead of the real clot shot!
Closer to home there have been disturbing trends. Our old home church seemed to go pretty overboard on Covid craziness. Earlier we visited to support a family member’s music ministry. At that time masks were strictly & personally enforced by deacons or elders, significantly impeding worship AND fellowship. They had Covid stations w/ hand sanitizer & masks positioned by entrances & strategically elsewhere in the building. Thankfully, over the summer the restrictions were relaxed as in people were encouraged to wear masks rather than “required”. At our daughter’s wedding there in August only a very small minority, like 2% of attendees, were pretty consistently masking.
My parents’ very large & prosperous church went through a season of only having online services. They spent exorbitant amounts of money to install various health measures including outfitting multiple gathering rooms w/ microbe killing lights, I believe. Since they also operate a Christian School they may have been proceeding with an abundance of caution. The online services were a blessing to my parents who may continue to do church that way when health or weather issues make attendance an hour away from home much more challenging. More churches having an online presence AND broadcasting services can be one of the seeming few positive changes since Covidiocy has mesmerized global sheep & tantalized totalitarians!
My husband has been very activie in music & leadership in a local church that might best be described as “seeker-friendly” & more youth oriented. This church is part of an extended church plant ministry in Michigan & most of the leadership are on the young side too. Michael, my husband, got one of our sons involved in music ministry there & our daughter-in-law was active in the children’s ministry. M & son got quite close to a Conservative Christian church employee who grew increasingly frustrated with various “woke” aspects of leadership that he was unable to sway whatsoever, even though he was on the church board. He finally moved out of state, largely to escape what was becoming toxic church culture.
Our son chose to leave because he couldn’t stand the mask mandates that were pretty heavy-handed for many months. Our daughter-in-law lost her motivation when they shut down all of the children’s ministry areas due to Covid lies. This church has had an extensive youth & children’s ministry & much outreach to the community. What had been a welcoming atmosphere, complete w/ complementary coffee & treats, turned into a desert of fear, in so many ways. Talk about serious mixed messaging…
My husband’s experiences with music there were becoming so frustrating compared to pre-covid freedoms. Significant enforced masking. No access to normal musician hang out rooms before or between services–much interpersonal ministry had occurred spontaneously in that environment previously. No longer were refreshments provided for the worship team (nor the church at large, for that matter). In fact they often had to wait in their cars when they weren’t on stage or in the service. Michael would hit a nearby drive-through & pick up cheap breakfast food to share with his team but it wasn’t even close to the same.
I attended service there at Easter & M had to RSVP so the church would have a head count & not get overcrowded. I’m not sure if they were attempting to limit numbers due to “social distancing” or what. Our son wasn’t able to make the RSVP cut so he stayed home on Easter, again. I refused to wear a mask & nobody called me on it, which was a relief. There were Many empty chairs so our son could likely have come too but the “restrictions” made the concept of joyfully coming into the House of the Lord pretty foreign–Tragic! Compared to the previous Easter, when virtually All Michigan churches were closed, this was an “improvement”. What a very twisted way to disrupt the celebration of Jesus’ Resurrection, the very lynchpin of the Church’s existence. Surely just accidental tyranny–NOT!
Although my husband Loves being a part of that music ministry AND has developed a number of quality relationships that have extended beyond just fellowship within the church walls, he has stated on numerous occasions that if that church ramps up the Covid crap again he is going to have to leave.
Churches bowing to government lies, tyranny, AND deception is transforming the natural areas of ministry that should be unfettered and subject to the leading of the Holy Spirit, Not the permission of The State! To see a pastor, like Piper, shilling for the death shots is beyond horrifying to me. Having ubiquitous masking & promoting fears & isolation & a lack of human contact (touch, hugging, holding hands to pray, shaking hands to greet others, laying hands on others in prayer &/or fellowship, facial expressions, etc.) are all destructive of the church & in effect are putting the Light of Christ under a metaphorical bushel.
Early in the Scamdemic when our dictator in the Governor’s mansion (Gretchen Half-Whitmer, to quote Trump) banned churches from being opened, or even people leaving their own households, we had a House Church service in our home. People from Four different households attended (family & pending family) and we were technically in violation of some illegitimate “mandate”. It was joyful, liberating, moving, godly, AND surreal. I wondered if we were, as a society, on the cusp of seeing the church driven underground, like in China or ancient Rome. Honestly our home church service was more meaningful & powerful with God’s presence than Any church building service I’d experienced in Many Years (my issues, not necessarily the church’s “fault”).
If driven underground The Church, The True Bride of Christ, will survive AND thrive…& suffer significantly…
In contrast to some of the above, other family members have been blessed to discover a vibrant & growing church about an hour away that did not bow the knee at Any level to the “pandemic” paralysis. Apparently this church has been on the front lines in fighting against illegitimate powers & even has some legal eagles in the congregation that have contributed significantly to clipping the Nazgul’s wings (Gretchen Whitmer). Standing up to tyranny may be One of the key factors why this church is growing so much right now.
I went to the church’s website to see if any of their Covid “activism” featured prominently, and it did not. Here is a link to an article from earlier in the scamdemic that quotes the pastor & gives context to his decision to keep their church open against manifest pressure from the system. It’s interesting given our hindsight view on much of what was happening then.
Another distant family member, on the other side of the state, has recounted how her small community church has fared during the Covid manufactured “crisis”. Her church stayed mostly open, didn’t mask, & didn’t do social distancing. Many people got sick AND now have natural immunity. Many congregants are well-versed in alternative healing approaches to Covid & have been helping to bring healing to their community whenever the illness kicks in. I’ve shared some of her approaches here before & hope to do so more fully in another post…eventually.
Alarmingly on Detroit area TV there are a number of pastors featured prominently in Michigan propaganda pieces trying to still convince the masses of the importance of taking the clot shot. Every time I see one I think of Margaret Sanger’s desire to keep the “uppity” “undesirables” from thinking for themselves & not getting abortions. Basically the de-population agenda is still finding “spiritual shills” to sell their snake oil!
OK I went looking at Michigan.gov to see if I could find an example commercial featuring a faith leader & found this document on fetal cells & the “vax”. At the bottom are links to various faith organizations statements on the topic. I would guess the state isn’t linking to anyone who objects to the “vax” but am not taking the time to check. All of the links say Catholic or Vatican except the Charlotte Lozier Institute.
It looks like in order to view one needs to download the file. The top one tries to convince pregnant women the shot is safe. The seventh video features one of the pastors lamenting people dying alone. From the second from the bottom on page 2, link below, there is a spot on “keeping the faith”.
Just even considering this material makes me feel like I need to take a shower. This is like the PR campaign to convince people to willingly enter the Nazi cattle cars & showers, bringing about their own destruction!
Here’s an example of the kind of pastoral leadership I would much rather see!
Here’s the larger scene preceding that one:
I’ve spoken/written numerous times about movie-quoting as a language in our family, including at my inaugural Q-Tree post immediately below. Comments are closed now, but well worth reading. If someone might care to comment there is a copy of that post on my main blog, Special Connections, also below.
Oh for a protective, patriotic pastor’s heart to arise in these dark days! Here is a possibility. I haven’t watched this video in full just share it for your consideration…It’s almost 2 hours & from earlier this month. Interestingly You Tube won’t allow that video to embed…hmm…just a glitch in the matrix surely!
Here is an appropriate warning from scripture for those who presume to teach others.
James 3:1 Not many of you should become teachers, my fellow believers, because you know that we who teach will be judged more strictly
I went looking for some scriptures that might be applicable & encouraging in these dark days, here is truth!
2 Samuel 22 New International Version
David’s Song of Praise
22 David sang to the Lord the words of this song when the Lord delivered him from the hand of all his enemies and from the hand of Saul. 2 He said:
“The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; 3 my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield[a] and the horn[b] of my salvation. He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior— from violent people you save me.
4 “I called to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and have been saved from my enemies. 5 The waves of death swirled about me; the torrents of destruction overwhelmed me. 6 The cords of the grave coiled around me; the snares of death confronted me.
7 “In my distress I called to the Lord; I called out to my God. From his temple he heard my voice; my cry came to his ears. 8 The earth trembled and quaked, the foundations of the heavens[c] shook; they trembled because he was angry. 9 Smoke rose from his nostrils; consuming fire came from his mouth, burning coals blazed out of it. 10 He parted the heavens and came down; dark clouds were under his feet. 11 He mounted the cherubim and flew; he soared[d] on the wings of the wind. 12 He made darkness his canopy around him— the dark[e] rain clouds of the sky. 13 Out of the brightness of his presence bolts of lightning blazed forth. 14 The Lord thundered from heaven; the voice of the Most High resounded. 15 He shot his arrows and scattered the enemy, with great bolts of lightning he routed them. 16 The valleys of the sea were exposed and the foundations of the earth laid bare at the rebuke of the Lord, at the blast of breath from his nostrils.
17 “He reached down from on high and took hold of me; he drew me out of deep waters. 18 He rescued me from my powerful enemy, from my foes, who were too strong for me. 19 They confronted me in the day of my disaster, but the Lord was my support. 20 He brought me out into a spacious place; he rescued me because he delighted in me.
21 “The Lord has dealt with me according to my righteousness; according to the cleanness of my hands he has rewarded me. 22 For I have kept the ways of the Lord; I am not guilty of turning from my God. 23 All his laws are before me; I have not turned away from his decrees. 24 I have been blameless before him and have kept myself from sin. 25 The Lord has rewarded me according to my righteousness, according to my cleanness[f] in his sight.
26 “To the faithful you show yourself faithful, to the blameless you show yourself blameless, 27 to the pure you show yourself pure, but to the devious you show yourself shrewd. 28 You save the humble, but your eyes are on the haughty to bring them low. 29 You, Lord, are my lamp; the Lord turns my darkness into light. 30 With your help I can advance against a troop[g]; with my God I can scale a wall.
31 “As for God, his way is perfect: The Lord’s word is flawless; he shields all who take refuge in him. 32 For who is God besides the Lord? And who is the Rock except our God? 33 It is God who arms me with strength[h] and keeps my way secure. 34 He makes my feet like the feet of a deer; he causes me to stand on the heights. 35 He trains my hands for battle; my arms can bend a bow of bronze. 36 You make your saving help my shield; your help has made[i] me great. 37 You provide a broad path for my feet, so that my ankles do not give way.
38 “I pursued my enemies and crushed them; I did not turn back till they were destroyed. 39 I crushed them completely, and they could not rise; they fell beneath my feet. 40 You armed me with strength for battle; you humbled my adversaries before me. 41 You made my enemies turn their backs in flight, and I destroyed my foes. 42 They cried for help, but there was no one to save them— to the Lord, but he did not answer. 43 I beat them as fine as the dust of the earth; I pounded and trampled them like mud in the streets.
44 “You have delivered me from the attacks of the peoples; you have preserved me as the head of nations. People I did not know now serve me, 45 foreigners cower before me; as soon as they hear of me, they obey me. 46 They all lose heart; they come trembling[j] from their strongholds.
47 “The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be my God, the Rock, my Savior! 48 He is the God who avenges me, who puts the nations under me, 49 who sets me free from my enemies. You exalted me above my foes; from a violent man you rescued me. 50 Therefore I will praise you, Lord, among the nations; I will sing the praises of your name.
51 “He gives his king great victories; he shows unfailing kindness to his anointed, to David and his descendants forever.”
8 “But if I were you, I would appeal to God; I would lay my cause before him. 9 He performs wonders that cannot be fathomed, miracles that cannot be counted. 10 He provides rain for the earth; he sends water on the countryside. 11 The lowly he sets on high, and those who mourn are lifted to safety. 12 He thwarts the plans of the crafty, so that their hands achieve no success. 13 He catches the wise in their craftiness, and the schemes of the wily are swept away. 14 Darkness comes upon them in the daytime; at noon they grope as in the night. 15 He saves the needy from the sword in their mouth; he saves them from the clutches of the powerful. 16 So the poor have hope, and injustice shuts its mouth.
17 “Blessed is the one whom God corrects; so do not despise the discipline of the Almighty.[a] 18 For he wounds, but he also binds up; he injures, but his hands also heal. 19 From six calamities he will rescue you; in seven no harm will touch you. 20 In famine he will deliver you from death, and in battle from the stroke of the sword. 21 You will be protected from the lash of the tongue, and need not fear when destruction comes. 22 You will laugh at destruction and famine, and need not fear the wild animals. 23 For you will have a covenant with the stones of the field, and the wild animals will be at peace with you. 24 You will know that your tent is secure; you will take stock of your property and find nothing missing. 25 You will know that your children will be many, and your descendants like the grass of the earth. 26 You will come to the grave in full vigor, like sheaves gathered in season.
27 “We have examined this, and it is true. So hear it and apply it to yourself.”
I’m searching for scriptures based on the word “rescue” AND there are Many. Here are more that leap out to me: Psalm 18; Isaiah 35; & II Peter 2. Also the many shared below!
Psalm 35:10My whole being will exclaim, “Who is like you, Lord? You rescue the poor from those too strong for them, the poor and needy from those who rob them. ”In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Isaiah 46:4Even to your old age and gray hairs I am he, I am he who will sustain you. I have made you and I will carry you; I will sustain you and I will rescue you. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Isaiah 50:2When I came, why was there no one? When I called, why was there no one to answer? Was my arm too short to deliver you? Do I lack the strength to rescue you? By a mere rebuke I dry up the sea, I turn rivers into a desert; their fish rot for lack of water and die of thirst. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Isaiah 51:11Those the Lord has rescued will return. They will enter Zion with singing; everlasting joy will crown their heads. Gladness and joy will overtake them, and sorrow and sighing will flee away. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Jeremiah 15:20I will make you a wall to this people, a fortified wall of bronze; they will fight against you but will not overcome you, for I am with you to rescue and save you,” declares the Lord. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Ezekiel 34:10This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against the shepherds and will hold them accountable for my flock. I will remove them from tending the flock so that the shepherds can no longer feed themselves. I will rescue my flock from their mouths, and it will no longer be food for them. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Ezekiel 34:12As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Ezekiel 34:27The trees will yield their fruit and the ground will yield its crops; the people will be secure in their land. They will know that I am the Lord, when I break the bars of their yoke and rescue them from the hands of those who enslaved them. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Daniel 3:28Then Nebuchadnezzar said, “Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants! They trusted in him and defied the king’s command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Zephaniah 3:19At that time I will deal with all who oppressed you. I will rescue the lame; I will gather the exiles. I will give them praise and honor in every land where they have suffered shame. In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Acts 12:11Then Peter came to himself and said, “Now I know without a doubt that the Lord has sent his angel and rescued me from Herod’s clutches and from everything the Jewish people were hoping would happen.” In Context | Full Chapter | Other Translations
Acts 26:16-18 New International Version
16 ‘Now get up and stand on your feet. I have appeared to you to appoint you as a servant and as a witness of what you have seen and will see of me. 17 I will rescue you from your own people and from the Gentiles. Iam sending you to them 18 to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan to God, so that they may receive forgiveness of sins and a place among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’
As you can see from the numerous scriptures shared above God’s Word is full of hope for us all! Please dive in for yourself & see how God might speak directly to you in your hour of need from His Word!!!
Here is the passage I was originally searching for, Absolutely Applicable to pastors, leaders, AND to us all!
Proverbs 24:10-12 New International Version
Saying 25
10 If you falter in a time of trouble, how small is your strength! 11 Rescue those being led away to death; hold back those staggering toward slaughter. 12 If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,” does not he who weighs the heart perceive it? Does not he who guards your life know it? Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?
God grant us the wisdom, grace, AND strength to speak the truth in love AND to rescue those who are “staggering toward slaughter”.
Well God Bless you AND thank you for reading along with these thoughts today. I hope you are encouraged, inspired, AND challenged to go forth boldly proclaiming grace And truth. In Jesus Love, Valerie
VC note on use of AND throughout. This is a bit of an inside joke at The Q-Tree as Wolfmoon is fond of using the term “AND logic”, as in many times things aren’t either or but more like both AND…
PS, if this post has blessed you an earlier post reflecting on God’s intervention in our battles is below:
Plain Jane, who would come to the Q Tree and comment when she could, is now with the Great Physician. She fought cancer with unbelievable courage and didn’t flinch at trying different therapies. RIP.
Here is the brief message from IOTWreport, a site that Plain Jane held very dear. She turned me into an admirer of “Big Fur Hat” and the other denizens of that site. I thoroughly enjoyed the history of their little collective, which reminded me greatly of ours, only they pulled it off 10 years earlier, when it was much more difficult, both technologically and politically.
Big Fur Hat kept it short and sweet and to the point.
PJ, the sweetest, has passed, succumbing to cancer.
Knowing how Plain Jane adored that site, I am tickled knowing that BFH could do her no higher honor than giving Jane her own short, sweet, dignified post of au revoir.
Maybe someday I’ll search deeply to find the night (or was it early morning?) where Jane and I talked about IOTWreport and BFH. It was fun. It was a good memory. But I think I’ll save that for later, when I need it.
Instead, what I did now, was to go back and find her very first post. That was enough for now.
I knew that Jane was one of the very first posters on this site. What I did not remember was that she was one of the VERY, VERY, VERY first posters.
She commented on THE first post of the site. The very FIRST comment was by Curry Worsham, at 11:34 PM on September 18, 2018. Plain Jane commented at 1:51 AM (on the 19th), a little over 2 hours later.
Here was our conversation. Her first comment was (I calculated – the numbers are a bit offset due to site migration) the 28th comment on the blog.
Plain Jane Offline September 19, 2018 01:51
Congrats and thanks for founding this site, Wolf. While I can’t say that I understand Q, I totally enjoy reading others’ interpretation of his posts, and sometimes even try to figure them out myself.
Thank you! And really good, because I’m a great explainer of Q, but rarely on CTH – usually in personal discussions on Twitter. This way I can help people understand some of the things that maybe don’t make as much sense. And I do think a lot of fellow Treepers will be able to explain things much more fully here, and without worrying about drawing FLAK from Soros trolls, who I will boot immediately. We won’t allow any of that here.
This is not a site for basic decisions about whether or not to “stop making fun of Q-tards”. This is a site for advanced understanding of Q. Many of the people who mock Q on the Treehouse will be banned instantly.
Treehouse standards. Q is the center of focus. Very simple.
0 Reply
Plain Jane Offline Reply to wolfmoon1776 September 19, 2018 02:04
This is an excellent idea, Wolfmoon. Q people need a place to chat. I no longer do twitter or facebook, so a blog is great for me to interact on. While I like the Treehouse a lot, I find it somewhat disturbing that more people (admittedly trolls for the most part) now hit at each other over their disagreements rather than pass a comment by.
I’ve been following Q for a while now and we tune into Praying Medic regularly for his insights. I very much appreciate that you have made a space for Q followers.
BTW, WordPress has a good history for leaving politics out of it. Anthony Watts of Watts Up With That (WUWT – fighting climate change nonsense) talked some years ago of how hacks and other attacks can’t get through to a WordPress site and also how they can handle large volumes of traffic, which is why he uses them. That stuck in my mind. As far as I know, he’s never been foiled by the enemy.
Cheers to you. I have bookmarked this site and will be a regular. Now to look at and appreciate your other link…
Thank you – great post! Hope to see you here regularly! And totally agreed about WordPress security. If it worked for the climate guys and Sundance, it will work for me. I mean US!!!
Hey Wolfmoon – Just saw your contact page. Haha – Neat! I love it. Okay, any chance of an open page every week or so for open chat? Or just when nothing much else is happening? I don’t want to go off-topic on any thread already up. I sometimes just feel a need for my buddies here and to be able to talk within the realm of general topics or just say “Hi”.
You’re welcome! I tend to be cautiously speculative, which I think is a good thing for filtering truth, but allowing people to explore possibilities. As I tend to think a lot like Praying Medic, there is some chance we’ll end up sounding dittoish, but still I hope that we will overall bring something new to the table, and thus sharpen the vision of MAGA as a whole.
0 Reply
I had many wonderful conversations with PJ over the years. She was – sorry – IS – incredibly grounded. She told me about some of the volunteer work she had done – it was powerful testimony. She has the DRIVE of an activist but the COOL and CALM of a true conservative.
She will be missed in the here and now, but not in the spirit, because she is truly an inspiration, and perhaps one that I need right now.
Until I come up with my own demands, before I give one NICKEL to the party that allowed this TRAVESTY of the BIDEN INSTALLATION – this TREASONOUS betrayal of the American People on January Sixth – covered up by orchestrated violence through a CONSPIRACY between Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, radical leftists and the FBI – these demands will do.
So I just got my “The RNC Needs Your Help” email and of course told them Hell No, you didn’t help the President why should I help you and then provided them with a list of demands and grievances.
Purge your party of the RINOs. If they voted to impeach the president get rid of them. If they did not vote for Section 230 to stop the muzzling of conservative voices, get rid of them. If they did not vote for the COVID money but instead allowed Biden to use that money to bait voters in G.A. get rid of them. If they did not stand up and fight against the fraudulent election, they are useless, get rid of them. If they mealy mouthed our President and didn’t fight for his objectives, get rid of them.
More things that must be done. The evidence of voter fraud is overwhelming. Stand back up and fight against this illegitimate president and never stop. He does not deserve to be there. Put the person who does, back. Find a way. The evidence against Biden on Burisma and China bribe taking is overwhelming. Go after him any way you can and get him the hell out of office. The evidence of Russian Collusion was bogus and there’s been more than enough evidence to warrant convictions. Make it happen. The betrayals and failures of the DOJ, FBI, CIA and other departments are appalling, get it fixed. Moving forward on elections without serious reform is a non starter. Fix it in state or further talks are meaningless because elections in too many stats are currently meaningless. Allowing Big Tech and Big Media to run ramrod over your constituents is despicable. Enact your own laws in state and fight.
The calls to go after MAGA and Qanon people is pure bull, one sees the errors and wants justice and the other is a non violent community that does independent research and analysis then comes to their own conclusions. Deep State wants them removed because of the attention that is drawn onto them from these free thinkers. To think differently means you don’t know your base or complicit in its destruction. Stand up and denounce it. These movements are the cumulative results of your collective cronyism over decades of greed and graft. Fix the greed and graft and get your houses in order.
You just allowed the most tyrannical party this nation has ever known the levers of power. Levers you have already witnessed misused, whether from IRS Gate, to Iran Gate or Russia Gate or this past two election cycles and all in between. A party willing to misuse in any way it can, the constitution to achieve their one world objectives and one that is sponsored by the World Economic Forum and the CCP in order to reestablish the same kind of aristocracies we escaped from when we quit those teaming shores centuries ago. Knock it off, we’ve had our taste of freedom and we are not going back. Quit with the falling in with these useless accords that suck our wealth out of the nation and into the hands of the few under the undeserving guise of helping the many. We know how it works, we are awake. Wake up too.
This list of demands and grievances is hardly inclusive, but if you want support from the people you better start addressing all of it.
Get your houses in order, then find a way to grab the one person with enough foresight to fix this mess and drag him back to WA where he deserves to be and to get it done.
In the meantime I expect heavy donations from the RNC and individual donations from our political class to the Trump Library whenever such shall be announced.
Well said, patriot! Well said!
Please feel free to attach YOUR lists of demands, fellow patriots!
This very special DESPAIR & DISILLUSIONMENT thread
commemorates the greatest psy-op ever
attempted against Heaven’s beloved, mankind.
Here we are again
Imagine being Peter, seeing the miracles, the honor given to his teacher, the wild popularity with the people, and then, Jesus explains all of this is going to change.
31 He then began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders, the chief priests and the teachers of the law, and that he must be killed and after three days rise again. 32 He spoke plainly about this, and Peter took him aside and began to rebuke him. 33 But when Jesus turned and looked at his disciples, he rebuked Peter. “Get behind me, Satan!” he said. “You do not have in mind the concerns of God, but merely human concerns.”
Peter feels he must help his teacher out. Jesus must be tired and have made a mistake. It’s hard to imagine the intensity of the sting of that rebuke from Jesus. Peter, soon to be the rock of the church, had been the mouthpiece of satan? Ouch.
But Jesus then pivots and turns this into a teaching moment Peter would never forget.
The Way of the Cross
34 Then he called the crowd to him along with his disciples and said: “Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross and follow me.35 For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. 36 What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul?37 Or what can anyone give in exchange for their soul?38 If anyone is ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man will be ashamed of them when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels.”
And then the ministry starts to get really busy. I wonder if Peter forgot those words in the whirlwind of activity, or did he in quiet moments would revisit that stinging encounter and try to make sense of it all?
Later on, Jesus would tell the parable of the tenants.
“A man planted a vineyard. He put a wall around it, dug a pit for the winepress and built a watchtower. Then he rented the vineyard to some farmers and moved to another place.2 At harvest time he sent a servant to the tenants to collect from them some of the fruit of the vineyard.3 But they seized him, beat him and sent him away empty-handed.4 Then he sent another servant to them; they struck this man on the head and treated him shamefully.5 He sent still another, and that one they killed. He sent many others; some of them they beat, others they killed.
6 “He had one left to send, a son, whom he loved. He sent him last of all, saying, ‘They will respect my son.’ 7 “But the tenants said to one another, ‘This is the heir. Come, let’s kill him, and the inheritance will be ours.’8 So they took him and killed him, and threw him out of the vineyard.
Then, in Bethany, a woman pours a very expensive perfume on Jesus’ head, scandalizing all present, excepting Jesus. Again Jesus patiently explains what is coming.
6 “Leave her alone,” said Jesus. “Why are you bothering her? She has done a beautiful thing to me.7 The poor you will always have with you, and you can help them any time you want. But you will not always have me. 8 She did what she could. She poured perfume on my body beforehand to prepare for my burial.9 Truly I tell you, wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her.” Mark 14:6-9
This is when Judas snapped. He’d been following a madman. How could the Son of God be talking of defeat and death this way?
But Jesus did indeed suffer humiliation, torture, and death. Afterwards his closest disciples are ashamed at their lack of courage and in deep grief. His betrayer, Judas, hangs himself in despair.
The disciples of Jesus have taken a gut punch. The women following Jesus have proven to have much more courage than the men. What embarrassment! The only leadership shown was by Joseph of Arimathea, not in the inner circle at all, who boldly goes to Pilate and asks for the body of Jesus and gave some dignity to him in his death.
The disillusionment stung. The grief nearly unbearable. Such a dark fog of evil swirling around them, that they can’t even remember the promise he gave to rise on the third day.
