Draw Near to God

It really does seem to be a common misconception. Many think that they need to improve themselves before they can turn to God. That before they can become Christians, they need to overcome bad habits, addictions, emotional problems, etc.

It's actually the other way around. Of course God teaches us to repent from sins, but this isn't something you do to be saved. It's something you do after you are saved. Turn to God and receive forgiveness through Christ, just as you are. With all your drug addictions, with your porn habits, with your anger issues, with your mental conditions, with your slothful indifference, with regrets about the past, with any other burdens you bear... and then you can worry about repentance later on.

If you see a Christian who knows a lot about Scripture, who is at a high rank in their church, who overcame a burden that you are facing....... it's because they got there over a long period of time. They didn't clean themselves up, and then turn to God. It's because God helped them where they already were. You don't need to spend years studying theology to know God. You don't need to be a pastor/priest/reverend to belong to a church. You don't need to overcome obstacles before reaching out to God.

Reach out to God, as you are. Pray, with all the burdens you carry on your back. Seek forgiveness, in the midst of all the sins and regrets you carry. God has high expectations from us, but that doesn't mean he's a hoity-toity dictator perfectionist. He doesn't want to just sit back and watch as we try to reach those heights. He wants to help us get there. He wants to carry us when we can't climb anymore. He wants to give us rest when we're exhausted. He wants to take burdens off of our backs so the climb is easier to do.

So wherever you are right now. Whether you're a one-percenter living in the lap of luxury. Whether you're a corrupt lawmaker collecting paychecks at the expense of the general public. Whether you're living a fairly normal life, and just have no idea what to do when it comes to Christianity. Whether you're a drug addict. Whether you're planning a school shooting. Whether you just got home from burying your next victim. God obviously doesn't condone murder or greed, but that doesn't mean you're doomed because you're caught in this place in life. Turn to God where you are, right now, and He will be with you. He will not turn you away. He will help you out of this place.

May God bless you all and guide you according to His perfect will! In Jesus' name. Amen.

Will Animals Be in Heaven?

The Bible does not say either way. There is no verse that specifically says, "Animals will / will not go to Heaven."

HOWEVER, WE CAN DEDUCE AN ANSWER FROM SCRIPTURE.

In Genesis 2:7, it says:
then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.

The expression used here is וַיִּפַּ֥ח בְּאַפָּ֖יו נִשְׁמַ֣ת חַיִּ֑ים -- and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
The word נִשְׁמַ֣ת or nishmat, is used to mean "breath" or "spirit". So we know that mankind has life.

In Genesis 7:15, it says:
They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life.

The expression used here is שְׁנַ֤יִם שְׁנַ֙יִם֙ מִכָּל־הַבָּשָׂ֔ר אֲשֶׁר־בֹּ֖ו ר֥וּחַ חַיִּֽים -- two [by] two of all flesh in which [is] the breath of life.
The word ר֥וּחַ or ruach, is used to mean "spirit", "breath", "wind", and "... of mind", but most commonly "spirit" or "wind". Hence, animals are described as having the same life that mankind has been given.


If the redeemed souls of mankind can live in Heaven through God's spiritual means, the implication then is that animals, who did not fall from grace through sin, will receive the same thing. Hence, animals will be in Heaven.

Now like I said at the beginning, there is no verse that 100% clearly states animals go to Heaven. But if we take a serious Biblical approach to this topic, the only logical conclusion is that they do. There are some who teach that animals don't go to Heaven, and this is utter heresy. There is nothing in the Bible even IMPLYING that animals don't go to Heaven. On the contrary, the implication is that they do. Thus, according to scripture itself, is either animals do, or we are uncertain if they do. Either "yes", or "I don't know", leaning heavily toward "yes".

May God bless you all and guide you according to His perfect will! In Jesus' name. Amen.









By the way, I know there are many who doubt the account of Noah. While the infallibility of Scripture is important, it's irrelevant to this topic. What matters here isn't whether the flood happened. What matters is that the animals are described as having the breath of life. Even if we entertain the notion that the flood didn't happen, that doesn't negate the fact that those who wrote down the account did so under the teaching that animals had the "breath of life".

Our Rock

I wrote this on Blackest Light a year or so ago. I found it again the other day and thought it was worth sharing here:

I don't think people really grasp what it means when we call Christ our "rock" or a "cornerstone"; if the Holy Trinity is not the cornerstone of our focus, there is no foundation for anything. It's all rendered subjective and unstable (bringing to mind that illustration of building a house on sand). A chaotic reality imperfectly perceived SOLELY by a clouded mind and a deluded spirit. Yet there are those who think that filtering things through God's word will limit our understanding. Quite the opposite - it's like sifting through sand while looking for gold; you lose the sand, but you weren't looking for sand, you were looking for gold. Likewise God removes the false from our perception.

"Autumn" Lyrics I Wrote Yesterday on a Walk

Step into the autumn air
Blowing breezes through your hair
The clouds and sun
Will have their run
But there's a King beyond your stare

In the shade beneath the trees
Critters down below run free
The leaves doth fall
Now hear the call
Of He who lives beyond all these

Open your spirit to Him
The birds, the crickets, all sing their hymn
The physical world cannot contain all
So feel in your heart His call through the fall
Open your spirit to Him
The birds, the crickets, all sing their hymn
The physical world cannot contain all
So feel in your heart His call through the fall

Green and yellow
Orange and brown
Red and gold all
O'er the ground
The mighty work
Of my great Lord
Sowing order
Among discord

The mountains rise
Beyond the trees
I see the leaves
In chilling breeze
The mighty work
Of my great Lord
Faith my shield
His word my sword

The rivers flow with fearless might
Through sunlit day and frozen night
And when wolves howl
And others cowl
He hears their voice with warm delight

The stones with moss and sky with clouds
The world that was built strong and proud
He called goodness
In righteousness
Know the purity that surrounds

Open your spirit to Him
The birds, the crickets, all sing their hymn
The physical world cannot contain all
So feel in your heart His call through the fall
Open your spirit to Him
The birds, the crickets, all sing their hymn
The physical world cannot contain all
So feel in your heart His call through the fall

Green and yellow
Orange and brown
Red and gold all
O'er the ground
The mighty work
Of my great Lord
Sowing order
Among discord

The mountains rise
Beyond the trees
I see the leaves
In chilling breeze
The mighty work
Of my great Lord
Faith my shield
His word my sword

The rising moon and falling sun
Move at command of the One
Mankind can't hope to understand
The world created by His hand!

Green and yellow
Orange and brown
Red and gold all
O'er the ground
The mighty work
Of my great Lord
Sowing order
Among discord

The mountains rise
Beyond the trees
I see the leaves
In chilling breeze
The mighty work
Of my great Lord
Faith my shield
His word my sword

End Times

Vladimir Putin has said he knows when the world will end. He goes on to describe the strictly scientific view of how the world will end - the sun becoming a red giant, etc.
This is untrue, and I was especially surprised to hear this from someone who is so adamant about the Orthodox Christian faith.

The world will end at God's command, as described in Revelation. Nobody knows when the end will come except for God Himself, but one thing is clear: the world will end before the time that science estimates. In the prophecies, there are people on the earth; there are kingdoms and societies and forms of buying and selling (including the mark of the beast). While there are many abstract things in Revelation that people debate the meanings of, there is still a very clear picture painted, that differs greatly from the view portrayed by science. There will be earthquakes and more. But it won't be the "end" that current scientific models describe.

Don't be deceived by things like this. If God decided, for some reason, not to fulfill the prophecies He gave, then sure, maybe the world would end the way that scientific models show. (Then again, maybe it wouldn't -- remember that what science says today, is not the be-all-end-all. How many centuries did it take science to decide the geocentric model was wrong, for example?) But God isn't one to leave prophecies unfulfilled.

....... And yet at the same time, I'm obligated to say: don't be deceived by these ""pastors"" who claim to know when the world will end based on the Bible, either. THOSE ""PASTORS"" DON'T KNOW EITHER. No amount of calculations, or blood moons, or anything else will give an exact answer. Nobody knows except for God Himself. Science doesn't know, and neither does any human being. Don't look for an exact date. Just take whatever time we have left -- be it minutes, or decades, or centuries -- and make sure your heart is right with God. If it's not, take the first step. You won't be perfect. None of us are. But start anyway. May God bless you all and guide you according to His perfect will! In Jesus' name. Amen.

Update 18 October, 2018 -- Corrected "heliocentric" to "geocentric", lol. Heliocentric is the model science currently accepts where, as the name "helio-" implies, planets revolve around the sun. I wrote this post kind of quickly.

Untitled

If anyone saw it, I accidentally posted a band page here, instead of Unblack Archives. For those who don't know, Unblack Archives is a site where (along with two assistants!) I document information on the Christian black metal scene.

Both this, and UA, are hosted on Blogspot.

I've deleted the post on here now. If you happen to be interested in raw grindcore, etc, you can now view the band's page, on the proper site, [here].

If you're not interested, you can just ignore this, I guess. Hopefully I'll have more to write here soon.

"That Shouldn't Be"

We often say that things just "shouldn't" exist. There are two reasons why we say this:

1) It's morally objectionable.

2) It's unpleasant to us, somehow, even if there's no inherent moral qualm with it.

The first one makes sense, and is part of the discernment we should have. A murderer shouldn't be murdering people, for example. Sin "shouldn't" be part of the world, and we should do our best to stop it, because the words "should" and "shouldn't", in this case, carry moral implications.

The second one gets a bit more complicated, though. In looking at some insects and plants a couple months ago, I found myself thinking that some of them were "gross" or "creepy" and thinking "why does something like that even exist? Something that creepy just shouldn't even be." But then I began to think... what makes me think that? What makes other people think that? Isn't God omnipotent? It's a subtle and seemingly harmless thought that there's an "error" in God's creation, but it can really warp our perception of the world. Every "gross" insect such as the crane fly; all of those strange-looking deep sea creatures such as the viperfish; every skunk that emits that infamous spray; every prickly plant; all of this was conceived by God. Crafted under His watchful eye, by the work of His hands. A lot of this is unpleasant to us for a number of reasons. Some are unpleasant because of irrational phobias, like insects. Some are unpleasant because they can pose a physical threat to us, like plants with thorns. But what we need to remember is, our perception does not equal an objective reality. There aren't any inherent mistakes in the world God created. Before sin entered the world, God declared creation "good", as mentioned several times in Genesis. We need to keep in mind that all of this was created with the fingerprint of God on it. It really, truly helps to look at freakish things like the viperfish and realize that the hand of God crafted it; that all of this has been created under the eyes of a watchful and wise God. And although I used the example of nature, since that's what got me thinking about this, it can apply to anything conceivably unpleasant to the senses.

Remember that "unpleasant" doesn't equal "wrong". The word wrong can only refer to information, and to morality.

If something "unpleasant" isn't "immoral" (ie murder) or "incorrect" (ie 2+2=5) then that unpleasant thing isn't "wrong", either.

May God bless and guide you all according to His perfect will! In Jesus' name. Amen.

Untitled

This is the 2nd verse of Verdelger's "The Shimmering of the Last Days":

I remember 19 years ago
Jesus came to planet earth
He took His children
And we are left behind

The song is about the last days. When the world is ending, and there's so much misery and pain under the rule of evil. Now, I can't pretend for a second to understand the "pre-tribulation rapture" vs "post-tribulation" debates (and so on) and I'm not going to get into that. I just want to make a general point. Their demo that featured this song was released in 2002.

As I write this, 2002 was 16 years ago. Somebody who was born in 2002 will be old enough to drive this year. Keeping in mind, 2002 is the year after 9/11 happened.

And yet, from 2002, it would take another three years to reach 19 years. So picture whatever was happening in your life in 2002, and then picture everything that's happened until right now.

Now picture anything good that happened during that time, being gone, and having to live it all over again.

And then picture an additional three years added on.

19 years is a long time. How much longer will eternity be?

"Smarter" Than God

How do people think they can "judge" God? I'm not asking "why do they think they have the right". Rather, I'm asking "why do they think they have the ability". God is omnipotent and omniscient. All are created by God. The implication is that humans are then, naturally, less powerful and less intelligent than God.

In what scenario would human beings rise above the moral code of God, that we could say to Him, "HEY YOU! WHAT YOU'RE DOING ISN'T RIGHT! THIS WAY IS BETTER"? The only way we could do that is if God permitted it. (There are debates about whether God actively upholds every event in the universe or if He simply allows them to happen, but that's not relevant here. The point is, God has the power to control what happens. Sometimes things aren't always what we think they should be, and we don't always know what He is planning, but omnipotence remains constant.) God's moral code has no flaws, but even if we entertain the idea. If God's moral code has flaws, why would He ever allow us to know abut them? Why would He allow ordinary people to just realize one day that He was wrong all along? Wouldn't He, instead, keep us all in the dark (INCLUDING NON-CHRISTIANS, BECAUSE AGAIN, GOD IS OMNIPOTENT) and not allow any of us to ever know about those flaws? It doesn't make sense for "an omnipotent yet somehow flawed God" to coexist with "less powerful and less intelligent beings waking up one day and realizing that their moral codes are better than God's". So then, it doesn't make sense to claim one's moral codes is better than God's. And yet many people do just that, yelling at God for being "wrong" about so many things.

So where does all this come from, then? It seems to be caused by one of two things:

1) Misconceptions. Somebody doesn't fully understand God's intentions, or reads some faulty interpretation of a verse, etc, and thus gets an incomplete picture of God's morality. This seems to happen most often with people who rush to conclusions and make assumptions, but can absolutely just be a sincere misunderstanding.

2) Pride. We all disagree with things God does. There is no Christian in history who has watched a loved one die a slow, painful death from disease or injury; no Christian who has heard of an injustice being done to vulnerable people like children or the elderly; no Christian who has lived through or learned about some natural disaster like a tornado, hurricane, earthquake etc; ............. and felt no compassion about it. No Christian who simply thought to themselves, "Eh, God's smarter than I am, so I'll just go about my day." We all disagree with decisions that God makes from time to time. Babies don't know not to play with sharp objects. Babies don't know not to shove crayons up their noses. Babies cry a lot when their parents make them stop doing things like that. In a similar way, God does things we don't understand. The difference is, when the initial anger/confusion subsides, those who know God, or wish to know God, seek to learn from the experience, and use it to grow. Meanwhile the prideful just throw their hands in the air and go "NO!!! YOU'RE WRONG!!! BECAUSE YOU DISAGREE WITH ME!!! AND I'M RIGHT!!! IF MY OPINIONS WERE WRONG, THEN WHY DO I THINK THEM???"

We need to try harder to remove these things from our lives. They're based on falsehoods and logical fallacies.

May God bless and guide you all according to His perfect will! In Jesus' name. Amen.

More Lyrics

Ideas I've had sitting around, but haven't used yet. They're not listed in any particular order -- just the order I happened to find them as I was making this post. All songs are untitled.

I

The world looks without
Look within
Until the center point
Then continue further
Thus leading back out

You think these are negative values since you went beyond zero,
When in reality, you went from the negatives into the positives

With new perspective
Reborn
Washed
Cleansed
Carry these new values out
Evangelism

II

God is the only one who can process infinity

For one like me, there aren't enough galaxies in the universe to contain this: a longing for infinity

Expansion means nothing
Finite is finite
Matter will end
The universe has an edge
Beyond that is only the beginning
Only the beginning

And think, how much more is God capable of creating?

How many "creations" with entirely different building blocks are in the infinite arsenal of God?

The multiverse? Conceivable, but illogical -- fantastical and self-contradictory. (For example, a universe where the inhabitants find a way to access and destroy the entire multiverse, cannot coexist with a universe where the inhabitants find a way to make the multiverse last forever.) Yet even then, God is still capable of creating things even greater than the heights of our imaginations...

Infinity.

III

Dark storms, cold blasts, and cloudy nights
Creaking trees reaching the sky
Faint dimness on a fullmoon night

All are a gift of God

Snow-covered mountains and howling wolves
Frozen lakes reflecting stars that shine in the cold
The fields wrapped in snow, and the trees, icicles,

All are a gift of God

We do not fear, its Creator is with us
So rest with us here in the moonlight so bright
Overcomers, in armor of the Spirit,
By the grace of the Lord, we shine in, we are...
We shine in, we are, THE BLACKEST LIGHT!

IV

The search for physical gratification is in vain

It is always fleeting
And has no meaning

You will always end up wanting more and your flesh will never be fulfilled -- the very world which promotes these lusts will be unable to meet your demands
Other people will be unable to meet your demands
You will be unable to meet your demands

Therefore it is better to seek real purification through Christ

The search for the Lord will not end with vanity, for truth does not run empty; truth can always be found; truth will not leave you, only for you to crave it again later.

Physical desire is fleeting, and the devil will always manipulate your thoughts to make you want it even more.

"It is healthy biology."

It is sin. Kill it in your heart.

V

Through subjectivity yield objectivity
Subjectivity ∴ Objectivity
Speak to me through this aesthetic essence
Crumble the immaterial darkness through omnipotence

Transgression becomes so through divine will
And through divine will transgression to kill

Cutting 5/7 of the points of the heptagram
To bring forth a 7 away from the damned

777
1 ∵ 3 ∵ 1

When an end is a beginning
If the wish is that none go to Hell,
Then don't let me fuel its flames.

Losing to the world is winning
Speak to me in the toll of a bell,
Through subjectivity yield objective ways.

Modern ""Philosophy"".......................

""Philosophy"" nowadays is nonsense. There is no deep thought in it now. It's as simple as that. All you have to do is add a twist to some popular thought or phrase, add a few words like "beautiful" or "wonderful" to make it sound nice, and boom! Philosophy!!!

Below are a few examples I crapped out off the top of my head this morning. Obviously I don't actually think these things, they're just demonstrations.

What if material things are nirvana? What if this ultimate state of knowledge and bliss was right here in front of us the whole time, in the beautiful things in our everyday lives? 

People always talk about learning from Buddha... but what if Buddha actually wanted to learn from you all along? How wonderful is it to think that such a wise teacher as Buddha actually based his whole spirituality and philosophy on learning from the common people around him?

People talk about spirits. Some people say human beings have spirits. Some people say animals have spirits. Some people say that even inanimate objects like the dirt beneath your feet have spirits. But what if the true "spirit" in this world comes from the "spirit" behind our actions? The "spirit" of looking forward and pushing through our boundaries? The "spirit" of motivation to always have an open mind? What if these things are what "spirit" is all about?

Do these sound like meaningless ad-libs to you? Do they still sound nonsensical if I tell you I didn't actually invent these quotes, but took them from famous author Deepak Chopra? ......... Do they still sound nonsensical if I tell you Deepak Chopra didn't actually write any of these, and I just said that right now to trick you, and I actually did just crap them out today?

Yes, every quote above is something I made up...... NOT because I actually think them, QUITE the opposite, but rather by following the same formula all of these crappy ""deep"" quotes follow. They have no meaning. They have no substance. They're just nicely-worded things, with an unexpected "twist" to make it sound like a lot of deep thought went into them, and because they're so simplistic in nature, they can appeal to the absolute lowest-common-denominator. Anybody who wants to look smart, but doesn't want to actually take the time to think about the world around them, can just take these thought-free LIES and apply them to their lives. And frankly I'm sick of seeing them!

And I'm sick of seeing people take this stuff seriously!

Stop letting nonsense like this get into your life and dumb you down all the time! It's not "philosophy"! Stop pretending that it is!

May the TRUE AND LIVING God bless and guide you all, according to His perfect will! In Jesus' name. Amen.

"Gentlemen, Speak Up!"

Hey, so for those who don't know, I have a blog called Unblack Archives. It's meant to catalog/archive unblack metal bands that don't meet more popular metal sites' criteria.

Anyway, I was doing research and found an old -core EP that I wanted to document, but doesn't fit on my other blog, so I just decided to document it here instead.

[Here's the page where I got the info]

"Gentlemen, Speak Up! - Running From Their Lives EP"
Released as a free digital download from Erlösung Distribution (aka "Erlosung Distribution")
Somewhere around the year 2011?

"Finally!  Our new e.p. 'Running From Our Lives' is finished and now available to download for free! It's been a long road, and sadly it's coming to an end.  After this month, we will no longer be together as a band." -Luke, Guitarist of Gentelmen Speak Up

The tracklist, in the correct order, is:
1 Take It... Or Don't
2 Second Star to the Left
3 Don't Leave Your Bags Unattended
4 Moss Always Grows There
5 Adjust Question


Unfortunately, it seems the download link didn't make its way onto archive.org? So I don't have audio yet.

"The Spider"

The following was not written by me, but taken from [thedefeatofsatan.blogspot.com]. I just wanted to share it here. [Most of the text below was translated in Google Translate.] The original Portuguese version, "A aranha", can be viewed [here].

Once a man was being pursued by several evildoers who wanted to kill him.
The man, running, turned on a shortcut that led off the road and entered through the bush, and in despair raised a prayer to God in the following manner: "Almighty God, make two angels come from the sky and block the entrance of the track so the bad guys don't kill me!!!"

At that moment he heard the men approaching the trail where he was hiding and saw that, at the entrance to the trail, a tiny spider appeared.

Then the spider began to weave a web at the entrance to the trail.
The man began to make another prayer more and more distressed: "Lord, I asked you for angels, not a spider. Lord, please, with Your powerful hand put a strong wall at the entrance of this path, so that the men cannot come in and kill me..."

Then he opened his eyes, expecting to see a wall covering the entrance, and saw only the spider weaving the web. The evildoers were entering the path where he was, and he was waiting only for death.
As they passed the trail, the man heard, "Come on, let's get on this trail."
"No, don't you see it has cobwebs? Nothing came in here. Let's continue searching for the next tracks."

Faith is to believe in what you do not see, to persevere in the face of the impossible. Sometimes we ask for walls to be safe, but God asks us to have confidence in Him to let His glory manifest and to do something like a web, which gives us the same protection as a wall.

Never get discouraged in the midst of the struggles; move on, for God said, "Tell the weak that I am strong."

It is in the most difficult moments that we find in God our strength.

Astral Projection

I've mentioned this on this blog before, but seriously, DON'T astrally project.

There is no wisdom to glean from it. Everything you experience is entirely subjective and open to interpretation. Any beings you meet that claim to have explanations are unreliable.

It seems way too common for people to think of spirituality as this mostly harmless thing that's just fun to dabble in. That's not how it works. There are not only benevolent beings beyond the physical plane. There are also innumerable demonic forces that are far too happy to lead you by the hand into complete lies and confusion. And no, it's not a matter of "how" you project, or "where" you project "to". It's all the same. The so-called "higher" and "lower" planes are the same thing, dressed up differently. There is Heaven, there is Hell, and there is the physical universe. Everything "in between" is merely part of the exact same spiritual battleground we live in here in the physical plane. You can't "project" to a "plane" where evil forces cannot exist. The alleged "benevolent beings" you encounter in these places are almost definitely the same demons you would encounter in a so-called "lower plane" -- again, just with different appearances.

"Satan disguises himself as an angel of light."

Also, let's be clear about something - the places you project to are also, almost certainly, not real. There are those who claim to project into their own houses, and can look at their own bodies while they project. Make no mistake, you shouldn't try to do this, either, but we'll get to that. The point right now is that you are leaving yourself open to any information at all. Information that could be spoon-fed to you by a demon, just as easily as it could be seen by your eye, or felt by your skin. The spirit is not limited to the five senses as the physical body is, but allowing the spirit to wander outside of the physical body is dangerous, because your knowledge is limited by what you've experienced. There is no way any person on Earth has enough knowledge about the spiritual to wander through it responsibly. With the physical, you have, not absolute certainty by any means, but a reasonable amount of certainty that what you see is what's there. The spiritual does not work this way. You are being led blindly through a place you don't know. You're entirely at the mercy of whatever spiritual force first happens to reach you. And do you think they wouldn't possibly use that ignorance to put illusions in front of you? Do you think they don't have the ability to do that? If you can hear a song in the physical, and be moved to a certain emotion; if you can see an optical illusion where a still image appears to be moving; do you really think the same thing can't be done in the spiritual? Although not limited to the five senses, you can still just as easily be deceived by another spirit that is wiser than you. If a song can evoke an emotion or atmosphere, how much more can the same illusion be created by a spirit that has abilities beyond those of the human body? The places you see; the planes you visit; all of these things are, more likely than not, more illusions created by deceitful forces looking to take advantage of your lack of knowledge.

Going back to the "projecting into your own room" thing, this is still something you shouldn't practice. Even if you aren't leaving earth, you're still leaving your body. You're leaving it open to supernatural influence - the same supernatural influence that you would experience in the so-called "astral", just without a spirit to help struggle against it. It's nothing more than a danger to your body.

Make no mistake, the body is not perfect, and on a personal note, I can absolutely, 100% understand one's desire to leave it. Life would be so much better if we didn't have to deal with hunger or thirst, or carnal desires like lust and gluttony. These are abhorrent, unnecessary, do not yield any wisdom, and are impure. But leaving the body is not the way to go about avoiding these things. The way is simple: Jesus Christ. Because through Jesus, we have the strength of the Creator behind us, working alongside us. And just as you return to your body after projecting, and have to deal again with these carnal things, so does the Christian life also still involve struggling against sin. But Jesus presents a safe way to struggle against these base things, to go beyond basic survival and psychological reward systems. God, triune and holy, guides us so long as we seek Him, and helps us to improve over time. And it's true that God has appealed to reward systems at times; this, however, is simply to convey a complicated message to us in a manner that's easier to understand. It's not to say at all that God is limited to reward systems as our minds are. Quite the contrary, in fact. And of course, for many, the desire to "escape" will still be there. I didn't project in the past just because I wanted wisdom - I did it because I hated living on earth, and wanted to escape to somewhere else. I still often want to escape to somewhere else. But there are ways to go about this without putting your body, mind, and spirit at risk. Escape into a book; escape into art; escape into writing; heck, escape into a TV show, if you can find one that isn't mentally poisonous to you; etc.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; all those who practice it have a good understanding. His praise endures forever. Wisdom cannot be reliably gleaned from astral projection, as all so-called "wisdom" is hopelessly intertwined with lies and deceptions that can't possibly be picked apart by oneself. And even then, astral projection still presents other kinds of dangers that should be avoided anyway.

May God bless you all and guide you according to His perfect will! In Jesus' name. Amen.

"Hated Because of Me" - Matthew 10:22

In Matthew 10:22, Jesus says the following:"and you will be hated by all for my name’s sake. But the one who endures to the end will be saved."
This verse is a message both of warning and comfort for Christians. Warning us that we will face persecution and hostility in our lives. Not all Christians will be martyred like most of the disciples were, but we will, inevitably, face persecution. However, it seems people sometimes stretch the meaning of this verse. We need to remember, and emphasize, "for my name's sake". 

I once saw a clip of a few KKK people at a meeting, reading the above verse from a Bible. One of the guys says, "Sounds like Jesus is talking about us!" The problem there is, the beliefs of the KKK do not line up with the beliefs taught by Jesus. Jesus taught a parable where someone, from a country the Israelites didn't like, was portrayed as the "good guy", while two Israelites were portrayed as the "bad guys". Again, to understand the full meaning of the "Parable of the Good Samaritan", we need to remember that the Israelites viewed the Samaritans in a terrible light, much like how modern groups like the KKK view those of African or Mexican descent. 

This creates a problem. On one hand, it's true that the KKK are hated, almost universally. But see, that does not mean they're living the calling Christ calls us, and them, to live. Quite the opposite. And it's not just them, either. There are a lot of people living lives that run contrary to God's commands. And I don't mean everyday sinners, either -- I mean people who aren't even trying. They would simply rather live their own lives, according to their own views, than learn from God. But these same people will attempt to justify themselves with Matthew 10:22, saying that because they face persecution, they're living good lives. 

Everybody faces "persecution" to some degree in life. Everybody has to deal with hostility, with disagreements, with people who just lack civility. That's the consequence of living in a world with so many different viewpoints. Just because one experiences that persecution, doesn't mean they're saints. And "enduring to the end", sticking with one's beliefs until they die, doesn't mean one is a saint, either. Those who are persecuted "FOR MY [Jesus'] NAME'S SAKE" and endure to the end, will be saved. 

In short, the verse should not be read to mean, "being hated by people means you will be saved". Rather, it should be read as, "believers will be saved, but will have to deal with persecution in the world first."

Take some time and think about this.

May God bless you all and guide you according to His perfect will! In Jesus' name. Amen.

Just Venting

Can someone please just tell me what I'm supposed to DO in this absolutely nonsensical, childish, thoughtless world?? The secular world DOES NOT think about these subjects. Ask ANY of them and all you'll get is regurgitated garbage that they CANNOT BACK UP WITH FACTS OR LOGIC. ALL they have is the same things, over and over, that they hear on Reddit or their favorite astronomer's Twitter account, or whatever, and take to heart, without critically thinking about or weighing against reality.

I've been seriously studying, thinking, reflecting my ENTIRE LIFE. I'm not being facetious or exaggerating when I say that EVERY SINGLE TIME I have a discussion or argument with somebody who is against Christianity, every word they say/write makes me feel like I'm arguing with a toddler. It is SO EASY to disprove, negate every single argument they present.......... but HOW am I supposed to deal with that? There's nowhere for my thoughts to go - they go in one ear and out the other because I'm not arguing on the same toddler-like "HURR HURR BETTUR NOT SAY A KURSE WURD KUZ DA CHRISTCHIN LL HEAR IT N GET MAD LAWLZIES" mentality that it seems the rest of society has. Who reads my thoughts and considers them? Where are seeds planted as a result of anything I say?

I consider lust in the sense of how it affects one's ability to do more productive things; the value of "acting on lust" compared/contrasted with the value of doing something else in the same time frame; how lust is normalized through people's actions and how that affects my immediate surroundings. The world I fight against considers lust in the sense of "HURR KRISTCHINS DONT LIKE ME TOUCHIN BOOBIEZ BUT IM DOIN IT ANYWYA LOLZIEZZZZZZZZZZZ!!!!!!! IM SO REBELLIUS IM SO EDGY LOL" or something like, "AS LONG AS IT MAKES PEOPLE FEEL HAPPY THEN IT CAN'T BE WRONG!"

By the way, can people just [redacted] with that insane "if it makes people happy" [redacted] nonsense? I don't know what world these people have been living in, but in the world I live in, it is, indeed, possible to be happy while not actually living in happy circumstances. Deceit; chemical imbalances; living in denial; being unaware of danger; all of these things and more can lead to people being "happy" while not actually being happy/healthy/ what have you.

Anyway.

Oh, and ""sin"" isn't a go-to word for "consensual sex". Keep in mind that "sin" is a broad subject, so every time you advocate for "sin", you are also advocating for theft, murder (WITHOUT a good reason like self-defense), rape, and so on.

I consider evangelism in terms of others' well-being. It is a responsibility of mine to share the message of the gospel because it will lead others away from Hell, and lead to a(n ACTUAL) healthy relationship with God. The world views evangelism as "HEY! YOU HAVE TO THINK THE SAME WAY AS ME! I DON'T LIKE OTHER OPINIONS BECAUSE I'M A BOSSY POO POO FACE!!!"

It's not that I don't ""like other opinions"". Though if you want me to dislike other opinions, whining to me like this is certainly a good way to get me to feel that way anyway! :) :) :) I don't care what other people's "opinions" are. If you don't like harsh noise, I don't care. If you don't like goth culture, I don't care. If you'd rather watch sports on TV than study ancient cultures, I DON'T CARE. If somebody warns you you're about to fall off a cliff, is that person being "opinionated"? No, and so it is with evangelism as well.

BUT YOU'D NEVER GET THIS FROM THE "WORLD".

I don't get it.



And yes, I DO KNOW it sounds extremely pretentious to be talking like this. I don't need it brought to my attention, I already know how self-absorbed, egotistical, etc it sounds. And I would agree..... IF it weren't REPEATEDLY proven true, MY ENTIRE LIFE. Every single year of my life has proven to me over, and over, and over, and over again how much more I know about these subjects than the people who spit on me over them. Their ignorance is made plain as day, and STILL they cling to their logical fallacies, and stereotypes, and flat-out LIES, thereby proving themselves to be guilty of the exact same things of which they accuse Christians.

This bothers me so often. What am I supposed to do?? Nowhere are these words taken seriously. No amount of research yields anything that people take to heart. No amount of evidence. No amount of flat-out PROOF. Because people just take their opinions and fallacies over actual truth.

Where do I belong in any of this??

I'm just venting.
Consider this a prayer, too.

(SorrowStorm) Commentary on the "Satanic Statements"

The following was not written by me. It's adapted from unblack metal band SorrowStorm's old website (with the grammar slightly amended). It seems Philip/Felipe never got around to finishing the page before the project split up, but I wanted to share with everybody what's on the page, because it's important. The first paragraph tackles the atheistic ""satanism"", while the second paragraph seems to tackle more theistic satanism:

Statement 1-- Satan represents indulgence, instead of abstinence!

Sorrowstorm: Too vague. This does not tell me anything because it is so ambiguous. Let's see what Mr. Dictionary has to say. The word INDULGENCE means: "To yield to the desires and whims of, especially to an excessive degree." All excesses are bad. Any idiot knows this. Water is great, yet if you drink 5 gallons of it in one minute, you will die. This statement mostly applies to things which are considered sins in the Christian faith. Apparently, these people are irked with the church because it "does not let them" indulge in sodomy, for example. Hence, they are felt pressured to abstain from such practices. Their mindset is, "I want to be free and sin all I want to, and not have to be tied down to the Christian religion." Tsk Tsk Tsk, how revolutionary. There is a big mistake with this; indulgence is not only harmful and irresponsible, it's plain irrational. Sodomy, lust, greed, and hatred will not satisfy a person or do any good to anyone; they just crave these things because they are trying to fill themselves with worldly desires and not God. Sure, we as humans do make mistakes and often go to excesses, but to base a religion on such stupidity? The reason I called such a statement vague is because indulgence, when meaning "yielding to the desires of," can be a good thing. You yield to the desires of God and indulge in his presence; yet Satan has the audacity to place such a statement in the minds of humans to create Satanism!?? And abstinence; we all know what this is... and sometimes we hate it. The reality is, the laws of God were established to protect us, and not to burden us. It is a greater burden to suffer from disobeying God than to suffer because of obedience to God. LaVey, however, did not understand this. He simply decided to rebel against God, waste his life dwelling in evil ideologies, and ABSTAINED from pursuing truth. The ambiguity in this is shocking!

Statement 2-- Satan represents vital existence, instead of spiritual pipedreams!

Sorrowstorm: Let me tell you how ridiculous and childish this sounds. I cannot believe that a human being could actually believe and follow this. It is horribly written, too vague, and is completely unworthy of my review. However, for the purpose of deciphering this nonsense, I will say this: How do you get vital life from satan? How do you possibly get vital life from a CREATED being? How can satan fill you and save you? He Cannot. Satan is a perverter and imitator of God's creation. He has tried to pervert and imitate everything, even to the point of giving an EMPOWERING feeling to people who follow his ways. Does satan love you? No. The reason he gives you certain feelings and rewards is to take you away from God. He does a good job of this. The problem is..... Satan demands a VERY big payment... your soul. Not only does he want your soul... he wants to screw up your life in the end (I can attest to this! -NI), and this is why many people do not follow satanism for an extremely long time... because it is a lie, a farce, and a cheat. True vital existence and not just fleeting feelings come from the Creator. OH, and I almost forgot..... "spiritual pipedreams" means absolutely nothing to anyone, just to those who hate God without knowing who he is.