Explain This...

My purchased copy of the 2002 CD
Given the influence the Newsboys had on my life, I purchased their newest CD when it came out in 2002.  It was their ninth studio album.

For me, it was "okay".  Shine: The Hits remained my favorite, and I never bought any more Newsboys music again.

The cover art I first saw was different from what I purchased.  I don't know why.  Both images are still available.

The girls in the picture intrigued me.  You can't see their faces, but they look like my own children from behind.  My wife thinks they do, too.  But, how is that possible?

My grandmother was more than 90 years old at the time.  I showed her the picture and asked her who they were.  She  immediately said, "Your girls."  She had no idea what a CD was.

My mother is now about that same age, and when I asked her the same question, she gave me the same answer.

Being amazed at the resemblance, I had my wife make some outfits for our daughters, and I photographed them in our home.  They would only be that age once, and I wanted to preserve evidence.  What do you think?  Pretty uncanny, isn't it?

I do not know what this means.

 

 

 

All glory to God.


UPDATE, June 3, 2023...

See this related post:  Connection?



Manifestations

As I wrote previously, I need to discuss some difficult subjects.  Please pray for discernment.  True worshipers are those who worship in Spirit and in truth.

The Darkness manifests in many ways around the world, and an apprentice of Jesus must recognize these things.  I alluded to this in Critical Thinking, but will be more direct here.

What is the obelisk in the picture, above?  Whose name is on it?

Where does it sit?  Who can see it?  Why is it always prominent in government photos and news programs?  Does it represent Washington, D.C., or does it represent something else?

How is it associated with stone-layers?  Are they an hierarchical organization?  Did the obelisk's namesake hold the highest possible rank in that organization?

Many people in Hollywood are part of what group?  Is that group related to the stone-layers?  Since when?  How are these things related to the founding documents of the USA and the various wars of the past three centuries?

Click to enlarge

How many of these groups are there?  Are some "worse" than others?  Are they connected?  How are they connected, spiritually?  Do the members at the lower levels know what goes on at higher levels?

How are members controlled?  What is blackmail?  What is a slave to sin?

Who is the "god of this world"?

How can we be set free?

 

Click to enlarge
Is debt sin?  What does sin lead to?

Were we born into this system?  Were our parents?  Our grandparents?  How long has this been going on?

How much is a human being worth?  What determines the price?  Demand?  Demand for what?  Labor?  Votes?  Equity?  Utility?  Components?

It's all about the money.  Always.


Symbolism is everywhere.  It betrays the extent of the corruption.  Open your eyes and you will see.


It's even on the money.

The landscaping of the Capitol1 is shaped like an owl.  An owl is a symbol of the Darkness.

What is a group of owls called?  Look it up.



The stone-layers have many symbols.  Twin pillars is one of them.  You can investigate for yourself what it means.

See a resemblance?  How many years did the towers stand, and how does that relate to the stone-layers?  How do their dimensions relate to the pillars of Solomon's Temple?  I discussed this more in Critical Thinking.

Can you see how this all relates to Burned Toast?







All glory to God.



---------------------------------

UPDATE, July 31, 2022...

1The word "Capitol" has Roman origins.  The on-line Merriam-Webster Dictionary describes the difference between 'Capitol' and 'capital', but it does not mention the Roman connection.  My ©1964 Webster's New World Dictionary of the American Language provides more information...

Capitol, noun  [Middle English & Old French capitolie; Latin Capitolium, temple of Jupiter in Rome, derived from caput, the head]

1.  the temple of Jupiter on the Capitoline Hill in Rome.

2.  the hill itself.

3.  the building in which the United States Congress meets, at Washington, D. C.

4.  [usually c-], the building in which a State legislature meets.

 The very next word in my ©1964 dictionary is...

Capitoline, noun  one of the seven hills on which Rome was built.  adjective  1. of this hill.  2. of the temple of Jupiter which stood there.

Are those behind the current, on-line reference trying to obfuscate the Roman connection?  Why would they do that?

 

UPDATE, August 22, 2022...

We were born into enemy territory and Satan runs the world.

And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. ..."  (Luke 10:18 ESV)

Again, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. And he said to him, “All these I will give you, if you will fall down and worship me.”  (Matthew 4:8-9 ESV)

Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them. The LORD said to Satan, “From where have you come?” Satan answered the LORD and said, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking up and down on it.”  (Job 1:6-7 ESV)

And we all belong to Satan...

“There is no one righteous, not even one; there is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God.  All have turned away, they have together become worthless; there is no one who does good, not even one.”
“Their throats are open graves; their tongues practice deceit.”
“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”
“Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
“Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and misery mark their ways, and the way of peace they do not know.”
“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
  (Romans 3:10-18 NIV)

... until we get on "the Ark."


A pillar is a phallic symbol.  It is a symbol of ownership and dominion.  Repetition is a form of emphasis; twin pillars are more than a single pillar.  The pillars of Solomon's Temple symbolized dominion; they were built by Phoneticians -- peoples of the Land who should have been destroyed.  It was a Phonetician temple.

This is why I hated the towers and asked what I did in Spirit of Elisha.


I highly, highly recommend you read Svali's confessions about her role as an Illuminati programmer.  I pointed to it in my Deprogramming post.  They are a tough read, and you will grieve as you realize it is all true, but I believe it is important to understand these things in order to make sense of what is actually going on in the world.


Like many things in the Media, Star Trek is Illuminati propaganda.  The colors of the uniforms, the structure of their organization, and many of the story lines are right out of the Illuminati playbook.  If you read Svali's story, you will understand.



UPDATE, November 17, 2022...

Freemasonry is a related secret society and many people are a part of it.  Some of my relatives were/are Freemasons.  My dad's father was one and I had some of his paraphernalia at one time.

People join Freemasonry for noble reasons, and it is much like joining a college fraternity or service organization.  There are benefits to joining, such as camaraderie, mutual business support, and status, but most people do not know the dark secrets of the organization until they have advanced enough.  By then it is too late to back out.

Freemasons tell each other their secrets are secret.  They are deceived.  God the Father knows everything.

...there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open.  (Luke 8:17 NIV)

It is all simple idolatry.  Like most things in this world, it is sin.  Sin leads to death.

Those who are a part of Freemasonry have been told they will suffer terrible loss and cruel death if they betray their Freemason brothers.  I'm sure it is very frightening, and the threats are very real.  But there is a way out....

Jesus Christ.  The real one.

If there is true repentance, there can be forgiveness.  This is good news!  Anyone who is a part of Freemasonry and wants to get out can get out, but they must leave Freemasonry behind and commit their lives to Yeshua.  That means repentance, baptism in water, and baptism in the Holy Spirit.  This is the only way to truly be set free.

If anyone finds themself caught in a situation like this, and they truly want out, I would love to talk with them.  I will not condemn.  I will pray for healing, deliverance, and salvation.  That is a promise.

...and it is not a secret.


UPDATE, January 26, 2023...

This document is worth reading.  You can get to it through AVR # 2055.


UPDATE, June 16, 2024...

From Anna Von Reitz Article #4890, International Public Notice: We've Been Swindled, June 15, 2024...

Some people are having a hard time cutting through the "nice language" of law and custom, so let's just put it bluntly and in the common vernacular: we've been swindled.

And it's not just the Americans.

More than half the world has been subjected using the same corporate government scheme, which has been brought to us by The British Pilgrim's Society, the Bar Associations, the Secret Elite Society created by Cecil Rhodes and his cohorts, and the Committee of 300 using their storefront organization, the Club of Rome.

When each one of us wakes up and realizes that something is terribly wrong, we have ALREADY been trafficked via the birth registration process. We have been conveyed from the land jurisdiction and into the international jurisdiction of the sea by legal process.

That means that we have no access to "the Law of the Land" until or unless we return to the land jurisdiction under our own power.

For Brits, it means that you don't live under a Constitutional Monarchy, but under a Territorial Military Regime calling itself a "democracy" instead.

Same thing throughout the former Commonwealth, the seventeen European countries still occupied since the Second World War, and every other country that has been overtaken by corporations "acting as" Territorial and/or Municipal Governments.
    
For Americans, it means the Constitutions are overthrown and you live in a country "occupied" by an unlawfully converted military power also calling itself a democracy.

This is how the British Schemers evaded their obligations under the Constitutions. This is how they subjected Americans to their foreign Law of the Sea. This is how they gained coercive power.

Using paper and deceit, they created British Territorial citizenship contracts and foisted them off on unsuspecting new mothers and babies in their cradles. This created millions upon millions of brand new British Territorial "Citizens" on paper, that they used and abused according to their old Colonial system under force and color of law.

These are criminal offenses rated as capital crimes under both the Geneva and Hague Conventions. They amount to political genocide on paper.

...

This is a Swindle so big that it has required extraordinary effort to track it down to the heart of the spiderweb, and not only discern the nature and mechanisms of the fraud, but the source of it.

For many years the collusion of the Territorial and Municipal Government Corporations unjustly enriched the Schemers, their Corporations and the Roman Catholic Church.

The welter of secret societies and organizations acting as boots on the ground and as storefronts for this gigantic Fraud Scheme has been a web within a web.

Let us name a few: the Freemasons, the International Jewish Congress aka Zionists, the Ashkenazi ("Nazi") Jews, the Illuminati, the Secret Elite (British), the Jesuits, the Black Nobility, the Order of the Garter, the Committee of 300 (heirs of the British East India Company), the Club of Rome (offshoot foot soldiers of the Committee of 300), the Bar Associations worldwide, the United Nations Organization, the French Foreign Legion, the Sicilian Mafia, the Japanese Yakuza, the Israeli Mossad, the Central Intelligence Agency, the endlessly misdirected Federal Bureau of Investigation (which is supposed to be domestic), the Internal Revenue Service (worldwide), the Social Security Administration, the Federal Reserve (worldwide), the Swiss Octagon Group, the World Bank, the Islamic Brotherhood, the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, the Teamsters, the Fabian Society, WIPO, and many more--- a list which includes outright terrorist organizations like Hamas and Isis.

Some of the names on this list will be unfamiliar and others will be shocking in that you never thought of them as "secret societies" -- nonetheless, on our long trip down the rabbit hole, all these organizations qualify as secret societies. All of them have secret associations and roles that have nothing to do with their public personas. And most of them are connected in one giant ball of criminal wax, created by an illegal system of interlocking trust directorates.

Interlocking trust directorates are illegal because they support monopolies and monopolistic influence.

Occasionally all these organizations fight against each other, but most of the time it is more profitable for them to act in collusion, so that's what they do. They collude against the Public Interest for Private Benefit.

The relative disruption that you are seeing in the world is because these clandestine roles and relationships have been found out and pressure is coming to bear on these organizations as they fight among themselves, looking for Fall Guys, and finding that elements of the British Plan have failed.

It will not be so easy to redefine the sleeping people of the world as Genetically Modified Organisms and "Transhumans" -- that is, as slaves of the patentholders having no rights at all, not even the right to live.

It will not be so easy to pull the insurance fraud scheme related to "Life Force Value Annuities" and the phony Pandemic and forced Immigration across our Southern Border, either.

You can read the full article here.

Click to enlarge.


Roosters

In my previous post, I said that I am going to talk about some difficult subjects.  This first one is mainly directed at men.

The Darkness has done everything it can to shame men into not being men.  This has done a lot to destroy lives, marriages and society.  It has to stop.

The Darkness has driven most people into cities, and most people are not familiar with livestock.  God designed us to live among animals, and He intends for us to learn from them.

My wife and I recently had an opportunity to experience chickens, and we were very amused.  Hearing the rooster crow at first light was fun.  It was very natural, and it prepared us for the day.

The rooster guarded his flock of five hens with jealousy.  We knew not to get too close to him because his spurs were impressive.  He frequently announced to the neighborhood that he was in charge by loudly crowing, "Cock a doodle dooooooo".  He strutted while his hens pecked at bugs and stones.  Occasionally, he joined their activity when no obvious threats were around.

The hens made their own noises and generally stuck together, although at one point a certain hen made herself scarce from the others.  Eventually, she squawked a particularly strange noise, and the rooster darted right at her and had his way with her.  She didn't seem to mind.  I guess that's where the phrase "the birds and the bees" comes from.  As a "city boy," how would I know?!

 

In our current society, the "hens" seem to run the show.  You know what I mean.  This is not what God intends.  It is not biblical.  As men, we need to be like the roosters, at least when it comes to leading society.  God made us bigger and stronger than women.  There's a reason for that.  He also made our voices deeper, so we can command respect.  He created Adam first, and put him in charge.  We need to be in charge, too.

So get out there, "roosters!"  Strut.  Crow.  Defend.  Drive the agenda.  Let the "hens" cluck among themselves while you brandish your spurs at the enemy.  This is what God expects.

No excuses.


All glory to God.

Credentials

...since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made... (Romans 1:20 NIV)

We see the Father's credentials every day.

 

"...If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly.”  Jesus answered, “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The works [miracles] I do in my Father’s name testify about me,...
...his
[opponents] picked up stones to stone him, but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” (John 10:24-25, 31-32 NIV)

The Son had credentials -- the miracles that he performed.


People have asked me, "How do you know you are right?"  They typically ask that question when I have said something that does not fit with their current understanding.  They are saying that they do not believe me.

I believe God has given me credentials, too.  Some are described publicly in this blog...

Many, many others are private, which I will not share here.  The public information should be sufficient.

You will have to decide for yourself whether or not you believe me.  If you do, you should pay attention to what I say.


Until now, I have discussed milestones and revelations in my own spiritual growth, so that others might follow and become apprentices of Jesus themselves.  I believe it is time to start addressing some difficult subjects.  Many turbulent things are happening in the world right now, and I believe God has prepared me to play a role.  I am nobody special, but please stick with me.  I believe God has some great things to show us.


All glory to God.


----------------------

UPDATE, August 20, 2022...

Jesus told his guys he chose them...

You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit—fruit that will last—and so that whatever you ask in my name the Father will give you.  (John 15:16 NIV)

He chose Peter and Andrew...

As Jesus was walking beside the Sea of Galilee, he saw two brothers, Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew. They were casting a net into the lake, for they were fishermen.  Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will send you out to fish for people.” At once they left their nets and followed him.  (Matthew 4:18-20 NIV)

He chose James and John...

Going on from there, he saw two other brothers, James son of Zebedee and his brother John. They were in a boat with their father Zebedee, preparing their nets. Jesus called them, and immediately they left the boat and their father and followed him.  (Matthew 4:21-22 NIV)

He chose Matthew...

As Jesus went on from there, he saw a man named Matthew sitting at the tax collector’s booth. “Follow me,” he told him, and Matthew got up and followed him.  (Matthew 9:9 NIV)

He chose Philip and Nathanael...

The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, “Follow me.”

Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.”

“Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?” Nathanael asked.

“Come and see,” said Philip.

When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, “Here truly is an Israelite in whom there is no deceit.”

“How do you know me?” Nathanael asked.

Jesus answered, “I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you.”

Then Nathanael declared, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the king of Israel.”

Jesus said, “You believe because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You will see greater things than that.” He then added, “Very truly I tell you, you will see ‘heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on’ the Son of Man.”
  (John 1:43-51 NIV)

He chose the twelve...

Jesus went up on a mountainside and called to him those he wanted, and they came to him. He appointed twelve that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons. These are the twelve he appointed: Simon (to whom he gave the name Peter), James son of Zebedee and his brother John (to them he gave the name Boanerges, which means “sons of thunder”), Andrew, Philip, Bartholomew, Matthew, Thomas, James son of Alphaeus, Thaddaeus, Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.  (Mark 3:13-19 NIV)

He chose the seventy-two...

After this the Lord appointed seventy-two [or seventy] others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.  (Luke 10:1-3 NIV)

He chose Saul of Tarsus...

But the Lord said to Ananias, “Go! This man is my chosen instrument to proclaim my name to the Gentiles and their kings and to the people of Israel.  I will show him how much he must suffer for my name.”  (Acts 9:15-16 NIV)

The LORD chose Moses to bring his people, the children of Israel, out of slavery in Egypt (Exodus 3:10).

The LORD chose to give the Levites authority to handle the items of the tabernacle (Numbers 1:50).

The LORD chose to give Aaron and his sons authority to serve as priests (Exodus 28:1).

The LORD chose David to be king of Israel instead of Saul (1 Samuel 16).

The LORD chose to send Elijah the Tishbite to confront Ahab, king of Israel (1 Kings 17:1; 18:1).

The LORD chose to have Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abel-meholah to be prophet in Elijah's place (1 Kings 19:16).

He chose Isaiah to proclaim His Words (Isaiah 6:8-13).

The LORD chose Jeremiah to proclaim His Words (Jeremiah 1:4-10).

The LORD chose Ezekiel to be a watchman for the house of Israel (Ezekiel 3:17).

God chose to give Daniel understanding in all visions and dreams (Daniel 1:17).

The LORD chose Hosea, the son of Beeri, to proclaim His Words (Hosea 1:1).

The LORD chose Joel, the son of Pethuel, to proclaim His Words (Joel 1:1).

The LORD chose to say words through Amos, who was among the shepherds of Tekoa, which he saw concerning Israel (Amos 1:1).

The LORD GOD chose to give Obadiah a vision of His Words (Obadiah 1).

The LORD chose to give His Words to Jonah the son of Amittai (Jonah 1:1).

The LORD chose Micah of Moresheth to proclaim His Words (Micah 1:1).

The LORD chose to give Nahum of Elkosh a vision concerning Nineveh (Nahum 1:1).

The LORD chose to let Habakkuk the prophet see an oracle (Habakkuk 1:1).

The LORD chose to give His Words to Zephaniah the son of Cushi, son of Gedaliah, son of Amariah, son of Hezekiah (Zephaniah 1:1).

The LORD chose to give His Words by the hand of Haggai the prophet to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest. (Haggai 1:1).

The LORD chose to give His Words to the prophet Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, son of Iddo (Zechariah 1:1).

The LORD chose to give His Words to Israel by Malachi (Malachi 1:1).


God the Creator can, and does, choose whoever He wants to do whatever He wants.  He is the sovereign King of the universe.


I did not choose to "believe" that beautiful spring day when I was nine (9) years old; it just happened to me.

I did not choose to experience the three tornadoes; they just happened.

I did not choose to have my Burned Toast experience; it just happened.

God chose me to experience those things.  I am very grateful, of course, but I had nothing to do with initiating any of it.  I am not boasting, just stating facts.

He chose me.

 

Please believe me and follow me.  I am following Jesus. 


UPDATE, August 23, 2022...

Added Moses.  Can't forget him!!


UPDATE, September 27, 2022...

Added the seventy-two.  They cast out demons, too.


Holiness

It should be apparent from my previous posts that I am terrified of God.  This book helped me to develop that fear.

I read it soon after publication in 2003, not long after my Burned Toast experience.  The book helped me to consolidate the understanding of sin and repentance I had learned from my Calvinist pastor.

Around that same time, I was starting to realize the Church was not what I thought it was.  I had learned about Paul's Mystery two years before, and had assumed everyone else could understand that message, too.  I was wrong.  When I tried to discuss my experiences with the pastors and leaders of my Church, they shunned me.  It became clear that they did not see what I saw.  One of the elders earnestly wanted to understand what I was saying to him, but he lovingly told me he could not.  I respected him for that.

As I mentioned in previous posts (and my "About Me" tab), I eventually came to realize the Institutional Church model is not Biblical, and as a family we stopped attending weekly gatherings.  We have been free of that bondage ever since.

The author of this book was raised in a particular denominational tradition -- Southern Baptist.  He clearly loves the Lord, and I am not his judge.  Like all of us, he is prone to seeing the world through the particular set of glasses his teachers gave him.  He has a deep desire to see revival because his family told him about numerous revivals they had experienced themselves and heard about.  The author saw those things, too, during his career.

The sad thing about the book is the author seems distressed that revival is not happening.  The third, and final, chapter talks about how God creates a "highway of holiness."  As I reread it recently, I sensed panic in his voice as he pleaded with fellow leaders to examine their lives and seek purity.  He rightly exhorted that if we are not pure in heart, we will not see God.  I shared his angst for years, until I was eventually set free.

I am thankful God took me on the path He did.  He immersed me in truth before showing me spirit.  Reading this book was part of the "truth" training.

Denominations are dangerous.  They give us blinders and prevent us from seeing the complete picture.  An enemy has done this.  I suspect the author may not realize that his baptism freed him from being a slave to sin.  He is a "baptist", so he was probably baptized in water by immersion, but I suspect he has not been baptized in the Holy Spirit.  My Calvinist pastor taught me nothing about baptism in Spirit, so I didn't realize I needed it, and I suspect the same may be true for the author of this book.  The Holy Spirit enables us to avoid sin, not just be convicted of it.  If water-baptized believers are still struggling with sin, they probably have not yet received the spiritual baptism described in Acts 2.

Finally, the really critical thing these folks are probably missing is deliverance.  These denominations do not mention that, or even seriously consider it.  I know this because I never saw it with my own eyes until Jacksonville.  Saying that, there are many people in spirit-filled denominations who lack true fear of sin and the importance of repentance.  The enemy is crafty, and the Darkness obscures the full story to keep people from truly being free and effective.  Demonic influence is far more prevalent than most people realize.

I am so blessed to understand the full picture.  Please make sure you have your complete tool bag, and then read the Holiness book.  It is very good for understanding repentance.

I pray everyone will come to a full understanding of what it means to be an apprentice of Jesus.


All glory to God.

 

------------------------

UPDATE, September 2, 2022...

Ever notice how storm clouds appear very dark on the horizon, but once they come over us they do not seem as dark?

Our eyes adjust to our surroundings.  The irises contract and dilate to allow in appropriate amounts of light so our retinas are not overwhelmed and so we can still see in darker conditions.

My family traveled to southern Kentucky to view the Great American Total Solar Eclipse on my younger daughter's 26th birthday in 2017.  A man with telescopes and cameras took an establishing photograph of the park and it included my entire family.  He did that about ten minutes before totality, when it was starting to get dark.

I know this because the guy in the blue shirt on the right came over to me and pointed to a star that had appeared as the sky had grown darker.  That is the only moment he and I ever spoke to each other during the entire day.  The timing still amazes me.  The photographer only took one picture like this.

The lighting of the photograph appears normal because the camera automatically adjusted itself to the darker conditions, just like our eyes do.  But our eyes are slower to respond than a camera and an eerie darkness had come over the land at the time of that photo.

Once again, I see this as a useful metaphor, or parable.  When we are in the light, the Darkness seems very dark, but if we are actually in the Darkness we might not even notice it is dark.

This world is full of evil, and most people do not notice it.  They are in the dark.  The only hope they have of realizing it is for them to see contrasting light.

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven. ..."  (Matthew 5:14-16 NIV)

We are to be that light.


When I worked with a team to design and build a world-scale silicone manufacturing plant, my boss described the engineering firm we had hired in a humorous way.  A big project requires a lot of brainpower, and therefore many people.  He said engineering companies are, "islands of excellence in a sea of mediocrity."  He was right.

Our people had interviewed the lead engineers at each of the engineering corporations considered for the project.  They picked the firm that had the best people and capabilities for our situation, and they wrote into the contract the individuals they wanted to be permanently assigned to the team.  Those were very talented and experienced people, but they could only do so much.  Many more people had to be hired to do all of the work once the project was going.  The additional people met certain qualifications, but they were not as sharp as the lead people.  Most were mediocre.

A similar analogy can be made about the spiritual battle we are in.  We are called to be, "islands of holiness in a sea of darkness and sin."  That holiness is the "light" Jesus was talking about, and it will appear extremely bright to those who are used to the dark.

As we shine our light, many will wince and close their eyes.  They will not understand us; they will turn away; they will reject what we say and do.  But if we maintain our light by being holy, they will eventually get used to the light and may choose to walk towards it.  That is our goal

 

To shine our light, we must be holy.  And the more of us there are, the brighter it will be.

 

UPDATE, September 5, 2022...

2017 Total Eclipse Path
While we are on the subject of total eclipses of the sun, I need to mention there will be a second total eclipse crossing America in 2024.  The first one traversed from the Pacific Northwest to the Southeast Atlantic states on August 21, 2017, and that is the one my family saw in Kentucky.


2024 Total Eclipse Path
The second one will traverse from Texas up through New England on April 8, 2024.  For me, it will be easier to get to this second one.  I should be able to see it from somewhere around Lima or Toledo, Ohio.


Together, these two eclipses will put a big ❌ over America.


Most people will not see much significance in this, but those who worship the sun, moon, and other created things will likely see it as very significant.  Those who work for the Darkness will probably see it as divine justification for their actions.  I strongly suspect the satanists and luciferians who run the world are among those who believe this.


Men and women who are aware of what is really going on in the world right now know the ancient evil currently manifesting as "Rome" intends to kill off their creditors, as they have done many times in the past.  The current target is America, and according to some, destruction is imminent.  Please read this most recent article by Anna Von Reitz for details (#3797):

http://annavonreitz.com/alrightcampers.pdf

We shall see what happens.  She has been wrong before, but her general direction has proven to be correct. 


UPDATE, September 7, 2022...

The Gematria of the two eclipse dates are...

8/21

8 + 2 + 1 = 11 

8/21/2017

8 + 2 + 1 + 2 + 1 + 7 = 21, 2 + 1 = 3

4/8

4 + 8 = 12, 1 + 2 = 3

4/8/2024

4 + 8 + 2 + 2 + 4 = 20 (nothing)

The two threes of the two eclipses together are...

3  and  3

33

There are some people who see these things as very significant and good for their causes.  From the article at the link...

Occultists the world over believe that, once a symbol is created, it acquires power of its own, and more power is generated when such symbol(s) are created without the profane [uninitiated] knowing about it.

And, the greatest power of all is created in the symbol(s) if the uninitiated NEVER discover that the symbol exists.

But the Bible says....

...Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools...  (Romans 1:22 NIV)

Some things never change.


God the Creator is the sovereign King of the universe.  The timing and location of eclipses, the gematric features in the Bible, and the Gematria we see in our daily lives are are all manifestations of the Living God.  Contrived symbols mimicking those manifestations are works of men.  The former are holy because only God can do them.  The latter are just deeds of the flesh.1


UPDATE, September 8, 2022...

In late October, 2017, someone started posting on a particular Internet bulletin board and some people thought it was just another LARP ("live action role play").  It soon became apparent, however, that the person actually had access to very interesting information.  It turned out to be a backchannel to the public communicating crucial information about a global war taking place.  The backchannel eventually proved that the President of the United States was working with them, and in a few cases the President even made some posts himself, although there was always plausible deniability.

I discovered all of this in the eleventh month (11) after it started and have been following it ever since.  I learned a lot, and some of what I learned has contributed to my understanding of things I talk about on this blog.  My Critical Thinking post describes this in more detail.

One of the things I learned is:  "Their need for symbolism will be their downfall."  That symbolism is the source of their power in their minds, as I discussed yesterday in the update, above.  That power depends upon secrecy, and the backchannel undermines that secrecy.  Psychological operations are part of military campaigns, and their goal is to demoralize and and discourage the enemy.

...there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known.  (Matthew 10:26, Luke 8:17, Luke 12:2 NIV)


1 Added this paragraph.

Larvae

I discovered a wasp nest inside the exterior wall of our house, and I wondered what to do about it.  Consulting the Internet, I learned the nest will die over the winter and I will be able to seal up the crack in the wall once they are gone.

As I read about the nest, I learned the cells of the nest contain grubs, or larvae.  These larvae eventually metamorphose into adults to continue their life cycle.

It reminded me of my years at university, when I lived in a dormitory with many other students.  We all lived in our rooms while the school fed us information.  I chuckled at the comparison.

The dormitory was very large, and it was divided into numerous "houses" of about fifty people each.  The name of my house was LaMaison de Gaite.  I shared a room with two other young men, number 557 on the fifth floor.  There were three of us crammed into a space designed for only two; we were "Baby Boomers."

At the beginning of my sophomore year, my housemates decided they did not like the name of the house, and they morphed it into LaMaison Maggots.  (I will leave it to you to figure out how they came up with that.  It was rather sophomoric.)  I did not personally come up with the larval name, but I did my part to help cement it into usage.  Many years later, my daughter knew of a guy who went to that school, and I believe he lived in the same hallway.  It was still known as the maggot house.

This experience helped me realize that school dormitories are like a wasp nest.  We live there and are fed with information, and when we have matured we fly away to work as adults.  I smiled when I realized that graduates in gowns are like pupae.  Somehow, I don't think this is a coincidence.

Many people are waking up to the fact that we all live in a very structured world that is designed to use our labor to produce wealth.  That wealth always flows upward to the few individuals who sit at the very apex of the system.  We are simply workers, and have no more value to them than insects.

I was trained to be a chemical engineer, and I eventually did my part to create and build facilities so the owners could make money.  I enjoyed it and found it rewarding, but that didn't make me any less of a "worker wasp."  As I am now retired, the fruits of my labor are owned by the corporation I worked for, which is ultimately owned and controlled by those at the apex.  Sure, I got paid, and I am currently living off of my pension, since that was the arrangement.  But, in the end, they own it all and I have nothing.  I even sold them the rights to the single patent application I was a part of.

In order to control the masses, the system must corral and control, and it must program the individual workers to maintain loyalty and suitable behaviors.  This means there must be supervisors, managers, directors, executives and other layers of hierarchy, which are so prevalent in our modern society.  These structures are everywhere, and we don't even notice them.  Like the dormitory.


In my later years as an engineer, I realized most of what I had learned at university was of no practical use.  The professors got all excited about complex equations and formulae, but those things did not help me to do my job.  I did learn about chemistry and that Bernoulli's equation was useful for properly sizing a pump, but my real learning started when I actually had to figure out if temperature of a feed stream had any effect on the performance of a particular chemical reactor.  At that point, what I really needed was someone who knew what they were doing, and who could show me what to do.  I needed a mentor.

Over the years, I found and learned from several mentors.  I also made mistakes and learned from them.  Later, when I was a "gray beard," the company I worked for started an apprenticeship program for about twenty new engineers.  I got to mentor some of them.  It worked very well, and then after two years every single one of them left the company and found better paying jobs, mostly in Texas.

My conclusion was that mentoring and apprenticeships work much better than structured schooling, if the goal is to teach and learn, but apprenticeships cannot be controlled.  They are inherently independent of large hierarchical structures, and "the bosses" don't want that.  The Head Boss can't control things that way.

Jesus came to show us how it's done, and He used apprenticeship as his model.  This allows the Holy Spirit to work with each individual and cater for their individual needs, circumstances and responsibilities.  It is why we need to be Apprentices of Jesus, and to teach others to do the same.

We are created to know God and to follow Him.  Jesus shows us the way.  We are not to be part of a hive.  We are worth far more than that.


All glory to God.

 

--------------------

UPDATE, August 14, 2022...

My high school graduating class held a reunion this past weekend.  My wife went with me last time so I was not inclined to go to the main event, but I did plan to meet them for lunch.  A number of the ladies at the restaurant encouraged me to come in the evening so I eventually decided to go.  It was all very nice and the organizers did a great job.

This morning, I have been thinking about things, ...as usual 😉 ..., and want to share some of my thoughts here.

Those who have looked into our actual history know that America has been controlled by the U.S. Military since the so-called American Civil War in the 1860's.  One of the things the military has done is establish the public school systems around the country.  The military continues to control those schools to this day, although most people do not realize it.  (See the updates to my Authority post for some detailed discussion about this.  There are also over 3700 articles about it at https://annavonreitz.com.)

One of the features of those schools is "yearbooks."  Most of the students and their parents elect to have the child's picture in the annual book, and those pictures are grouped together alphabetically by "class."  Most schools facilitate the provision and distribution of the yearbooks, and they are available for purchase by each student's family.  Most kids get them.  I remember us all getting our yearbooks each year and we had our friends write in them for posterity.  It was always a lot of fun, and I especially liked having a picture of the various "crushes" I had over the years.

(Click to enlarge)

The contents of many high school yearbooks have shown up on the Internet.  They are great resources for doing genealogy and family history.  People also bring their yearbooks to reunions and it helps people remember who was who.

This all creates relationships and bonds some people together, although many students do not get involved or keep in touch.  Based on the numbers I heard at my reunion this weekend, roughly 10% of our class showed up.  (It actually was quite close to 11%, which somehow doesn't surprise me.)

I was perusing through my copy of my graduating class yearbook this morning so I could match youthful faces with older faces and I realized yearbooks are tools of the Darkness.  They create bonds between people outside of natural families.  They are part of the programming we all received to weaken our family relationships and strengthen conformance and submission to perceived authorities.  That is what the whole public school system is about:  taking children out of their God-ordained family relationships and programming them to be part of "the machine."

I am sure my classmates would probably scoff at and reject my realizations here, but I am afraid that is what is really going on.

The system takes children from their parents at very young ages and begins programming them.  Part of that programming is to accept having their pictures taken and shared with their classmates.  I still have all of my elementary school class photos.  The early ones are a group photo with the teacher.  Later ones are individual photos grouped together along with a photo of the teacher.  We were taught to revere and respect our teachers, and to accept what they told us without question.  This continued through intermediate (middle) school and on into high school.  This ultimately created relationships with our classmates in our minds.


I have observed I really do not have anything in common with my school classmates.  The personalities of some people may revel in those relationships, but not mine.  I had two close friends during my public school days, and I had about the same number in college.  I am not really in touch with any of them now.  As I have been following Yeshua, I have left all of those relationships behind.  I am finding new brothers and sisters in Him, and that is the way it is supposed to be.


UPDATE, August 24, 2022...

Volunteer SLAVE

Soon after I left my corporate engineering job in 2001, I started volunteering my time at Midland Community Television (MCTV).  I wanted to pursue film-making and could gain practical experience by using their equipment.  The only stipulation was any content I produced had to be run on their network for a period of time.

Anybody who lived in Midland could make programs, and some people regularly produced their own shows.  Back then (2001 - 2008) the shows could only be viewed on local cable television, but today there are multiple outlets, including the Internet.  I served as crew for many people, but never produced any shows myself.  At the time, my motto was:  "Give to those who ask" (Matthew 5:42), and once people knew I was available, they did.

I had a lot of fun and encountered many people and places I would never have experienced if I had stayed in my engineering job.  I tend to be a "behind the scenes" kind of guy so I was usually a cameraman.  I also learned about lighting, color balancing, audio, audio mixing, and technical directing.  During a tennis tournament I directed part of the show, which ended up being more nerve-wracking than it was worth.  One time I got to cue Midland's mayor to start a forum in a large auditorium about a significant environmental issue.  My proudest moment came shortly after I had returned to work for my original employer.  One of my new colleagues raved about the coverage of a thrilling, out-of-town, state championship semi-final football game, and I got to tell him I had run the primary action-camera for that event.

Most of the editing for those shows was done in real time, and any post-production had to be done with a linear editor, which is basically a glorified tape recorder.  I wanted to do non-linear editing so I purchased some computer equipment and Apple's Final Cut Pro (version 4).

I produced a couple of pieces with that gear, one about fishing with my brother-in-law and the other about a mission organization that brought their helicopter to Midland (JAARS).  My kids and I got to ride in that helicopter over our town, which fulfilled a desire I never thought I would experience.  Both of those programs ran on MCTV.  I estimated I probably spent about 400 hours on the second project.  Yes, I was a newbie and was learning, but it was a lot of work.  I calculated the opportunity cost of that project versus what I could have earned as an engineer and it was quite significant.

Gentrification of Downtown Midland included a new, professional baseball stadium and a team to play there.  MCTV covered a number of the games and they liked my camerawork.  The Stadium gave us press passes and we enjoyed hospitality in the press-box before games.

The Stadium hosted a special All-Star Game and one of the local commercial television stations wanted to cover it live, but they did not have an appropriately equipped trailer.  MCTV did.  The MCTV manager negotiated with the station and let them use the trailer, provided MCTV volunteers were used as the crew for the event.  I got to run camera for a live TV production, and I got a cool hat out of the deal, too.  I was back working as an engineer at the time and when I went into the chemical plant office wearing that hat I got at least one double-take.  I guess I looked like the Media, who would not have been allowed in without an escort.

Some of those productions started to seem like work to me, and I started thinking I should be getting paid for my efforts, expertise, and time.  As I think about the whole experience, I realize "volunteers" working for "non-profit organizations" are really just employees who don't get paid properly.  They are really cheap slaves who provide their own sustenance and billeting.  They cost nothing, except for a couple slices of pizza and a plastic cup of soda.  Notice how the City of Midland gets volunteers to produce content for their government and schools channels

Jesus tells us to sell our possessions and give to the poor so we will have treasure in heaven.  Once we have emptied ourselves of everything, He wants us to follow Him and rely on the Father to provide for all of our needs.  That is what He and his disciples (apprentices) did, and that is what we are called to do. 

Click to enlarge
But the world has taken that idea and tricked people into giving their time and resources away to "the machine."  God did not provide my food and housing when I worked as a volunteer during that period.  I was living in the house I had already bought and using up the wealth I had accumulated during my prior working years.  Elijah was fed by ravens; Peter pulled a coin out of a fish's mouth for taxes; Jesus fed 5000 with five loaves of bread and two fish.  That is the kind of thing I want to experience, and if I follow Jesus I will see it.  I already have.  If I volunteer for a corporation I will just be paying my own way to serve "the machine" for no wages at all, and hardly even a "thank you."  Well, ... maybe a cool hat.

The latter is called being a SLAVE of men.


Standing Firm

(Public Domain)2

Why did the serpent approach the woman instead of the man?

The following is a fantasy of what might have been, if Adam had not sinned...

1The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

...the Lord God made a woman from the part he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.

The man took the woman by the hand and showed her around the garden.  He told her, "The Lord God commanded me, 'You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.'

"The Lord God left me to take care of the garden.  He formed all of its creatures from the ground, and he let me name each of them.  He also formed you from part of me, and I named you.  He made you for me, and I care about you.  I would not want to lose you!

"Therefore, since the Lord God commanded me not to eat from that tree, I am commanding you not to eat from it either."

She responded, "Yes, sir.  I will not eat from that tree."

...Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”

The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, 'You must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.'"

“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
 

When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she was tempted to eat it, but she did not.

She said to the serpent, "My master commanded me not to eat from that tree, and I will not disobey him.  You must speak to him about it."

The man was nearby and overheard the conversation.  He said to the serpent, "Who are you and what do you want?"  The serpent did not respond and withdrew to try again another time.

The man said to the woman, "What did that creature want?"

She said, "He told me we would not die if we eat from the tree you commanded me not to eat from."

"That creature is a liar.  Do not listen to him.  Our Master commanded us not to eat from that tree, and we are not going to eat from it."

The man took the woman by the hand and they walked in the garden, naked and unashamed.  And the Lord God was pleased.



All glory to God!

------------------
1Italics from Genesis 2-3 NIV
2Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Adam_and_Eve_in_the_Garden_of_Eden.jpg

 

UPDATE, July 28, 2022...

So, why did the serpent approach the woman instead of the man?  I think the answers are in the non-italicized text of the fantasy, which are my words.

The Genesis account says nothing about how the man told the woman what God told him.  The fantasy fills in that gap.  The man is explicit and provides leadership, and the woman responds positively to that leadership.

In the Genesis account, the woman did not respond to the serpent with the same message God gave to the man.  She added that they were not to touch the tree.  Did she touch the tree at some point because it was beautiful and the man rebuked her?  We don't know.  In the fantasy, she repeats what the man said verbatim.  Is that likely?  She got the information second hand, and anyone who has played the game of telephone knows messages become corrupted when they are passed verbally between people.

The serpent then lied to her.  In Genesis, she listened to him, believed him, and then acted on her own.  She was open to the suggestion and she disobeyed authority.  But in the fantasy, she resisted the temptation, submitted to the man's authority and deferred to him.  The man also took charge and confronted the situation.

Do we handle situations like the Genesis account, or the fantasy?  Which is better?  What should we do?

Marriage is the model God gave us to understand our relationship with Jesus.  If we understand submission in marriage we have a better chance of learning to submit to Jesus and do things His way.


UPDATE, August 2, 2022...

What happened in the Garden is still happening today.  The Darkness wants women leading because they are not designed to do it and are therefore not good at it.  It wants men to abdicate their God-ordained authority and responsibilities so evil will not be confronted and can run amok.  This strategy was effective in the beginning and is still effective today.

Fallen people are influenced to distort what is righteous until it is ridiculous, and then they are used to propagandize and program the masses.  Most women are repelled by photos like this, and they will move directly in the opposite direction, ... which is exactly what the Darkness wants.

God designed the sex act to have dominant and submissive roles.  It is beneficial.  Not only does it continue God's creation by producing offspring, it bonds the couple together:  physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually.  It reminds the participants who is in charge.3  And it is also very pleasurable.  The clitoris has no other purpose than to produce pleasure.  God is good.  Men and women aren't, ... unless and until they have been allowed to repent and experience the Kingdom.

Men must be warriors; their women must help them.  Those are dominant and submissive roles, and the Darkness is terrified of them because they are effective against it.


UPDATE, August 23, 2022...

I really, really love this photo.  "Woman" is the ultimate creation made by the LORD God (Genesis 2:22).  I love the presentation.  I love the submission.  As a man, this makes me very happy.

The model is dressed as a kajira in a camisk, as described in the John Norman Gor novels.  I am not interested in reading any of the books, and if you check out the link (Wikipedia) you will understand why.  A "Gorean subculture" exists where people order their lives based on the books.  It seems some people are looking for ways to fulfill their God-ordained gender roles despite politically-correct cultural pressures.


The mark on the model's leg is a "kef" and it seems to be associated with the word kajira, which means "slave girl" in the Gorean fantasy world.  The kef looks a lot like a "K," which is the eleventh (11) letter of the alphabet.  Where have we seen that before? 


The font on the cover of the first Gor book includes some triangular-shaped letters.  Again, that looks like symbolism to me.

As I mentioned in an update to the Manifestations post, a woman named "Svali" confessed her role in the cult she was born into.  She also discussed how that cult has infiltrated institutions so they can control the world, ... or control it for their masters.  They have infiltrated all professions and walks of life, and their members include authors and publishers.  Popular books are one of many ways they propagandize, influence, and control the masses.


Midland, Michigan is the home of The Mackinac Center for Public Policy, and a guy named Joe Overton worked there and developed the idea of the "Overton window."  The center's interest is public policy, but the concept applies to all aspects of life.

Those who want to shift the Overton window will introduce and promote radical and unthinkable ideas.  For example, bikinis and short-shorts were introduced in the late 1960's and early 1970's.  Those things were radical back then, but are common today.  The Overton window was shifted.

That is what Svali's cult and others have been doing and is what the number eleven (11) is all about.  They use the Hegelian Dialectic to create two sides and then pit them against one another.  Radical and unthinkable behaviors polarize the groups.

These evil people think this will lead to what they want:  world government where they are in charge.  They think the masses will be sickened by the chaos and will submit to anyone who seems to have a viable plan.  Create a problem and provide the solution.  That has always been their modus operandi.

So, one of the conflicts they have created is the Feminists versus the Goreans.  That's what's going on.  Don't fall for it.  Step out of the Hegelian Dialectic and defeat it.  Stay with God's model for marriage and enjoy your spouse.

 

I really do miss my wife.

The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”  (Genesis 2:18 NIV)


UPDATE, May 31, 2023...

3The following link is an explicit short story of a married, Christian couple's reconciliation and "make-up" sex acts.  Some people may find parts of it beyond their comfort zones, but overall I think it is a good example of how I believe God intends for us to build each other up and enjoy one another in our marriages.  It gets more edgy the further you read, so you can "bail out" if you begin to feel uncomfortable.  I think the entire thing is what God intends for us, and Yeshua is pleased when we cherish what His Father has given us.

I believe Yeshua really is looking forward to His wedding, and it will be infinitely beyond anything we can experience or comprehend during this age.

https://marriageheat.com/2023/05/24/submissive-unto-my-husband/


UPDATE, June 30, 2023...

If we do things God's way, we will see Him open doors (and close doors) that will ultimately bring about His purposes.  If we insist on doing things our way, we will fail.  It's as simple as that.

 

UPDATE, July 22, 2023...

Putting it another way, this is not about prohibiting women from doing anything.   It is about everyone doing their own jobs and staying in their respective lanes.

If men lead, women will not see a need to take over.  If women give men respect and encourage them to lead, they will probably do so.  And if a wife embraces her role as their husband's "shulamite," I believe she will be greatly rewarded and her man will accomplish great things.


The book of Judges is an account of bad examples, and how God triumphed anyway.  The story of Deborah is not something to emulate.  A woman was doing a job men should have been doing, but the text does not say specifically why.  In general terms, the people had stopped obeying the LORD.

After Joshua had dismissed the Israelites, they went to take possession of the land, each to their own inheritance. The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the Lord had done for Israel.

Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died at the age of a hundred and ten. 
[That's an interesting number:  110 --> 11.] And they buried him in the land of his inheritance, at Timnath Heres in the hill country of Ephraim, north of Mount Gaash.

After that whole generation had been gathered to their ancestors, another generation grew up who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. They forsook the Lord, the God of their ancestors, who had brought them out of Egypt. They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them. They aroused the Lord’s anger because they forsook him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. In his anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.

Then the Lord raised up judges
[or leaders], who saved them out of the hands of these raiders. Yet they would not listen to their judges but prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. They quickly turned from the ways of their ancestors, who had been obedient to the Lord’s commands. Whenever the Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the Lord relented because of their groaning under those who oppressed and afflicted them. But when the judge died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their ancestors, following other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil practices and stubborn ways.

Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and said, “Because this nation has violated the covenant I ordained for their ancestors and has not listened to me, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua left when he died. I will use them to test Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their ancestors did.” The Lord had allowed those nations to remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands of Joshua. 
(Judges 2:6-23 NIV)

The same will be true for us if we do not do things God's way.  There is nothing new under the sun.