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This very special
Shattering the Strongholds SUNDAY open thread

is VERY OPEN – a place for everybody
to post whatever they feel they would like
to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the KAG!KMAG world.

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Say what you want, comment on what other people said,
comment on people’s comments.
Keep it civil.  Treehouse rules, but expect lots of QAnon.

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See the January 1st daily thread for the rules of the road,
which are few but important.

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Remember – your greatest gift to President Trump is FIVE WORDS:
I AM PRAYING FOR YOU

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This is a Hard Saying

⁴⁷ “I tell you the truth, anyone who believes has eternal life. ⁴⁸ Yes, I am the bread of life! ⁴⁹ Your ancestors ate manna in the wilderness, but they all died. ⁵⁰ Anyone who eats the bread from heaven, however, will never die. ⁵¹ I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will live forever; and this bread, which I will offer so the world may live, is my flesh.”
⁵² Then the people began arguing with each other about what he meant. “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?” they asked.
⁵³ So Jesus said again, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you cannot have eternal life within you. ⁵⁴ But anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise that person at the last day. ⁵⁵ For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. ⁵⁶ Anyone who eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in him. ⁵⁷ I live because of the living Father who sent me; in the same way, anyone who feeds on me will live because of me. ⁵⁸ I am the true bread that came down from heaven. Anyone who eats this bread will not die as your ancestors did (even though they ate the manna) but will live forever.”
⁵⁹ He said these things while he was teaching in the synagogue in Capernaum.

John 6:47-59

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“We are human, but we don’t wage war as humans do. 
We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons, to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.
We destroy every proud obstacle that keeps people from knowing God. We capture their rebellious thoughts and teach them to obey Christ.”

From Paul’s 2nd Letter to the Corinthians, Chapter 10, verses 3 through 5

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Shattering the Strongholds Sunday

We are told in the scriptures that we are at war. And we are told that we have the use of God’s mighty weapons. Weapons that are capable of shattering strongholds of thinking that are actively preventing people from knowing God.
And yet, before we can liberate the captives, we must first free ourselves from wrong thinking. Where are we agreeing to lies? Have we entertained the whispers of the wormtongue who seductively counsels us against standing strong in faith, hope, and love?
When you read/hear about entrenched corruption are your thoughts immediately oriented to the voice of wormtongue or better influences? Are you keeping your head in the game and asking, “Where is our maximal impact going to come from?”

Please consider the following story that begins with two strong and godly women praying for their community to return to the goodness of God.
Their prayers shattered the strongholds in lives of the careless, pleasure-seeking people around them. And true heart-changing conviction was the result.
Let’s ask God to do it again!
Think *3

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Excerpt from “Revival In The Hebrides” by Duncan Campbell

Now I am sure that you will be interested to know how, in November 1949, this gracious movement began on the island of Lewis. Two old women, one of them 84 years of age and the other 82-one of them stone blind, were greatly burdened because of the appalling state of their own parish. It was true that not a single young person attended public worship. Not a single young man or young woman went to the church. They spent their day perhaps reading or walking but the church was left out of the picture. And those two women were greatly concerned and they made it a special matter of prayer.

A verse gripped them: “I will pour water on him that is thirsty and floods upon the dry ground.” They were so burdened that both of them decided to spend so much time in prayer twice a week. On Tuesday they got on their knees at 10 o’clock in the evening and remained on their knees until 3 or 4 o’clock in the morning–two old women in a very humble cottage.

One night, one of the sisters had a vision. Now remember, in revival, God works in wonderful ways. A vision came to one of them, and in the vision she saw the church of her fathers crowded with young people. Packed to the doors, and a strange minister standing in the pulpit. And she was so impressed by the vision that she sent for the parish minister. And of course he knowing the two sisters, knowing that they were two women who knew God in a wonderful way, he responded to their invitation and called at the cottage.

That morning, one of the sisters said to the minister, “You must do something about it. And I would suggest that you call your office bearers together and that you spend with us at least two nights in prayer in the week. Tuesday and Friday if you gather your elders together, you can meet in a barn-a farming community, you can meet in a barn-and as you pray there, we will pray here. Well, that was what happened, the minister called his office bearers together and seven of them met in a barn to pray on Tuesday and on Friday. And the two old women got on their knees and prayed with them.

Well that continued for some weeks–indeed, I believe almost a month and a half. Until one night; now this is what I am anxious for you to get a hold of–one night they were kneeling there in the barn, pleading this promise, “I will pour water on him that is thirsty, floods upon the dry ground” when one young man, a deacon in the church, got up and read Psalm 24.

“Who shall ascend the hill of God? Who shall stand in His holy place?  He that has clean hands and a pure heart who has not lifted up his soul unto vanity or sworn deceitfully. He shall receive the blessing (not a blessing, but the blessing) of the Lord.”

And then that young man closed his Bible. And looking down at the minister and the other office bearers, he said this-maybe crude words, but perhaps not so crude in our Gaelic language-he said, “It seems to me to be so much humbug to be praying as we are praying, to be waiting as we are waiting, if we ourselves are not rightly related to God.“ And then he lifted his two hands-and I’m telling you just as the minister told me it happened-he lifted his two hands and prayed, “God, are my hands clean? Is my heart pure?“

But he got no further. That young man fell to his knees and then fell into a trance. Now don’t ask me to explain this because I can’t. He fell into a trance and is now lying on the floor of the barn. And in the words of the minister, at that moment, he and his other office bearers were gripped by the conviction that a God-sent revival must ever be related to holiness, must ever be related to Godliness. Are my hands clean? Is my heart pure? The man that God will trust with revival-that was the conviction. … [And God did come! Otherwise nothing would have changed …]

… But oh, if something happens that demonstrates God!

And the communists will hide in shame! I remember one night I saw seven communists–up until then they will spit in your face, talk about religion being the dope of the masses. Educated men. Wouldn’t go near a church.

But dear old Peggy had a vision one night and in the vision she saw seven men from this particular community from this center of activity born again and becoming pillars of the church of her father.

She sent for me and told me that God had revealed to her that He was going to move in this particular village.

Oh, yes, there were communists there, godless men there but what was that to God when God began to work He would deal with that. So she kept on talking like that. I said, “Peggy, I have no leadings to go that village. You know that there is no church there, and the schoolmaster is one of those men who would never dream of giving me the schoolhouse for the meetings. I have no leadings to go.”

And do you know what she said to me? She said, “Mr. Campbell, if you were living as near to God as you ought to be, He would reveal His secrets to you, also.“ And I took it from the Lord. Oh, dear people, it is good to get the Word within you. It is good to see yourself as others see you. That was how I felt. I said, “Peggy, would you mind if I call for the parish minister and together we will spend the morning together with you in prayer?” “Oh, I’ll be happy too.”

So we came and we knelt with her and she began to pray and in her prayer she said this–“Lord, do You remember what you told me this morning when we had that conversation together?” Oh how near she was God! “I’m just after telling Mr. Campbell about it but he’s not prepared to take it-You give him wisdom because the man badly needs it!”

That was what she said! “The man badly needs it!” And of course she was speaking truth. Of course I needed it. I needed to be taught. But I was at the feet of a woman who knew God in an intimate way. And I was prepared to listen. So I said, “Peggy, when will I go to that village?” “Tomorrow.” “What time?” “Seven o’clock.” “Where am I to hold a meeting?” “You go to the village and leave the gathering of the people to God and He will do it.”

And I went to the village and when I arrived I found a crowd around a seven room bungalow. I found five ministers waiting for me. And the house was so crowded that we couldn’t get in-indeed, we couldn’t get near it. And I stood on a hill in front of the main door. I gave out my text: “The times of [this ignorance God winked at] but now commands men everywhere to repent and because he hath appointed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he hath ordained.”

I preached for about 10 minutes when one of the ministers came to me and said, “Mr. Campbell, you remember what you spoke about at five o’clock this morning out in a field in that wonderful meeting when you tried to help those that were seeking God?” I happened to speak from John 10:27 “My sheep hear my voice, I know them and they follow me. I give unto them eternal life and they shall never perish. Neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”

He says, “Could you not go to the end of the house there are some men there and we are afraid that they will go mental they are in such a state. Oh, they are mighty sinners and they know it-they are spoken of here as communists.” And they say that three of them were here in the United States and went back communists.

I went and I saw seven men. The seven men that Peggy saw. And they were crying to God for mercy. The seven of them were saved within a matter of days. And if you go to that parish today, you would see a church with a stone wall built around it, heated by electricity and all done by the seven men who became pillars of the church of Peggy’s father.

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This very special
Did We Stop Too Soon? SUNDAY open thread

is VERY OPEN – a place for everybody
to post whatever they feel they would like
to tell the White Hats, and the rest of the MAGA world.

---

Say what you want, comment on what other people said,
comment on people’s comments.
Keep it civil.  Treehouse rules, but expect lots of QAnon.

---

See the January 1st daily thread for the rules of the road,
which are few but important.

---

Remember – your greatest gift to President Trump is FIVE WORDS:
I AM PRAYING FOR YOU

---

Holy Trinity Sunday

For some liturgical calendars this is the Sunday
when the focus is on the Holy Trinity.

May the grace of

the Lord Jesus Christ,

and the love of God,

and the fellowship

of the Holy Spirit

be with you all.

2 Corinthians 13:14

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Did We Stop Too Soon? – A Question To Ask

When you hear someone only provide a part of the story, but without the rest of the details the entire meaning is lost? Did it bother you? This practice is rampant in our Mind Control Media (MCM) but has also entrenched itself so deeply into our culture that you might not realize how much has been undermined by it.
Everything from religion to law to government to science has been broken using this method. The horrific practice of reductionism in science particularly galls me. Nearly every paper I read in biology or medicine demonstrates that modern research is crafted to provide an intended outcome beforehand. A failure to review other possible mechanisms for a study’s results is so common, I doubt that peer reviewers or researchers even think much about it anymore.
It’s like using stick figures to illustrate a grand ballet and expecting everyone to just go along with the illusion. Most of the time the omissions slip by without much thought on our part, but a particularly glaring omission jumped out at me last week and I had to forgive the source as it was in the Liturgy of the Hours which is given to those serving in the Roman Catholic tradition to be read out loud/prayed each day throughout the year. It became part of my usual routine some years ago as I found it to be a good preparation for centering each day.
The omission in this case is the reading of only half of a sentence of scripture from the book of Acts, describing the event of Pentecost. Apparently this reading has been the tradition for some time as the teaching that accompanied it came from the 13th Century.
The picture of this event is completely changed when the entire sentence in verse 4 is given instead of stopping at the word “speak.” As you can see, verse 4 continues with “in other languages which the Holy Spirit made them able to speak.”

So, in the original text the story is about a group of local Jewish believers miraculously speaking in languages they were not familiar with and had not been taught. In the edited text (and I suppose thought of the Roman Catholic church) they were just empowered to speak. No hint of the supernatural gift described in the context given in the scriptures.

Note, that anyone raised in that tradition might not even be reading the actual text of the Bible for themselves often enough to realize that it stopped in mid-sentence. To be fair, there is actually a time when Jesus is in the synagogue reading from Isaiah and only reads half a sentence, so it’s not without precedent. However, in Jesus’ case I believe the choice was to develop a prophetic focus. The motive for excising the miraculous from the text in Acts 2 could be more to avoid an awkward conversation. In the best possible light, the omission could be attributed to the earnest desire for the faithful to speak out the Gospel, but the violence done by the reading caused me some real anger. How dare they alter the text in this way!
This made me think of another way that using “short-hand” thinking on any particular subject opens us up to making judgements without a full understanding of the situation. When our thinking about something is missing key pieces we are open to error or deception. Like a gap in one’s armor, incomplete pictures of reality expose a weakness that can and does often lead to harm. Harm to not only our community, but also to the Kingdom of God.
When we think of “THE CHURCH” we often have a picture of people around the world that look like us, believe like us, sing the same songs as us, or read scripture the same way as us. And we are the poorer for this. Perhaps that is why I bring in images and practices from various traditions for my posts. When we see beyond our own culture we become better able to see with God’s eyes the world we are really living in.
The favored institutional churches of a particular locale have been persecuting their fellow Christians for a very long time. And rare is the church that doesn’t teach “against” some other faith tradition or other. How it must hurt the Father’s heart when the members of the Bride of His Son fight among themselves over non-essentials of the faith. And a house divided is weakened and Jesus says it cannot withstand adversity.
Maybe we could spend a little time thinking about who is edited out of our picture of “THE CHURCH.”
Do you think of the Chaldean Church in Iraq, Native Americans in Alaska or Charismatic Catholics in Canada? What about small groups of believers among the tribes living in the Amazon jungles? Or secret believers that have come to faith in Jesus while surrounded by an Islamic, Buddhist or Hindu culture.

As the oracle that is known as Q likes to say, “Expand Your Thinking.”
Think *3

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