Archive for February 2014
King Edward the Confessor
“During the month of January, 1066, the holy King of England St. Edward the Confessor was confined to his bed by his last illness in his royal Westminster Palace. St. Ælred, Abbott of Rievaulx, in Yorkshire, relates that a short time before his happy death, this holy king was wrapt in ecstasy, when two pious Benedictine monks of Normandy, whom he had known in his youth, during his exile in that country, appeared to him, and revealed to him what was to happen to England in future centuries, and the cause of the terrible punishment. They said: ‘The extreme corruption and wickedness of the English nation has provoked the just anger of God. When malice shall have reached the fullness of its measure, God will, in His wrath, send to the English people wicked spirits, who will punish and afflict them with great severity, by separating the green tree from its parent stem the length of three furlongs. But at last this same tree, through the compassionate mercy of God, and without any national (governmental) assistance, shall return to its original root, reflourish and bear abundant fruit.’ After having heard these prophetic words, the saintly King Edward opened his eyes, returned to his senses, and the vision vanished. He immediately related all he had seen and heard to his virgin spouse, Edgitha, to Stigand, Archbishop of Canterbury, and to Harold, his successor to the throne, who were in his chamber praying around his bed.”
Here is the prophecy in verse:
“The green tree which springs from the trunk
When thence it shall be severed
And removed to a distance of three acres
By no engine or hand of man
Shall return to its original trunk
And shall join itself to its root
Whence first it had origin
The head shall receive again its verdure
It shall bear fruit after its flower
Then shall you be able for certainty
To hope for amendment.”
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From what I can see in this prophecy/vision by King Edward, the Norman Invasion of 1066 was God’s wrath on the wickedness of the English people because the Christian church had become so corrupt. After being chastened by the Lord for three hundred years (“And removed to a distance of three acres”), the Lord would bring England back to its Christian foundations. In 1382, John Wycliffe completed his translation of the English Bible from the Latin Vulgate. Now the English people could begin to read the Scriptures for themselves. 1382 is a little more than three hundred years removed from 1066.
So why did I discover the prophecy of King Edward today? It is a mirror of what is happening to the United States in 2014 (and probably for the past forty years) because there is so much sin (like abortion, homosexuality and earth worship) in this country.
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King Charles III
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1066: The Year of the Conquest by David Howarth, page 47:
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“In the first days of the New Year, the King’s coma or sleep was interrupted by periods of delirium, and on 4 January he was distressingly restless, though still unconscious. They tried to rouse him from his uneasy sleep, and succeeded. When he awoke, he asked them to assemble his household and a few more people came into the room: we are not told who they were. Then he began to speak in a strong voice. But instead of telling them what they needed to know, he gave them a long account of a dream. He had met two monks he had known in Normandy, who were long since dead. They had told him that for wickedness of the earls and churchmen of England God had cursed the country: a year and a day after his death, devils would come through the land with fire and sword and war. God would only cease to punish England when a green tree, felled half-way up its trunk and the part cut off taken three furlongs away, should join itself together again by its own efforts, without the aid of man, and break into leaf and fruit again.”
A scene from the Bayeux Tapestry
“O you lambs of the green pasture! you sheep of my Father’s fold! you who by the word of life are made acquainted with the power of regeneration, and are born into the nature of the Lamb’s innocence; and are grown up in the virtue of sincerity. Oh! how glorious is your appearance? My eye beholds, and my heart is ravished; my soul shall praise the God of my life forever and ever on your behalf. From the hill have I viewed you, and from the high tower of my refuge have I looked on you; my eye is opened, and I see you the flock of undefiled lambs in whom my God is glorified. Oh! feed you, and be you nourished; for your pastures are enlarged. and your Shepherd’s care is over you; his arm is able to defend you from every beast of the field. By day will he feed you in his pleasant pastures, and by night will he fold you in a fold of rest. Oh! my beloved Friends, this is the day of which we have spoken, and in which not only the words, but the nature must be manifested. You who bear the Lamb’s image, and grow in his nature, first being proved, shall be preserved and delivered, and in the day of trial feel the word of patience; for that stays the thoughts, and keeps satisfied in the present state. Here is the glory of the saints, who only of all the children of men, can glory in tribulation, and can grow then in patience. Now the glory of Zion’s daughters appears to be within them, and their strength is a continual spring, whereby her sons are armed with power, to tread down change and alterations, and dwell in the dominion over trouble. Glory, glory to the God of our strength, who keeps us, who guards Israel, who arms his chosen ones, and leads them to the battle, and keeps our head covered therein, that the enemy cannot wound it.
“Here, my dearly beloved brethren and sisters, in the generation of our endless posterity, is my unity with you preserved, though by locks and bars I be separated outwardly from you, yet by the invisible flowings of life, do I reach you, and am felt by you, in that eternal Spirit which quickens and gives life to every member of the church of Christ. This present separation, is for trial of our faith, love and patience, that through exercise they may be perfected, and we all may learn the heavenly and internal knowledge, sense and feeling one of another, by sinking into, and waiting in the spirit of the Father, by which the whole body is knit and united together; and who knows us not in this, is not truly of us; for as we have said, declarations and prophecies must cease, but the word which begets and gives life, abides forever, and is the daily bread, which is set before the mercy seat, in the house of our God, of which none may eat, but those who are sanctified, washed and clean, according to the law, and are witnesses of the offering, that makes atonement; and these may now feed together, being nourished, and grow strong, as well as ever; because the enemy cannot rob you of your food, and your water. Therefore eat, O Friends, and drink abundantly of the new wine, well refined; let your hearts be glad, and let your souls rejoice in the promise, for this is the day of the Lamb’s battle, and the day of his victory is near at hand, wherein the carcasses must be buried out of sight, and all dead worship without life put under, and the living worship of the living God, be exalted more and more. Therefore rejoice you, and I say again, rejoice. Let your hearts be strong, O my beloved Friends, and comfort you yourselves therein, and one another, and love one another. Let the spirit of love abound in you, one towards another, in how much you see the enemy seeks to discomfort you. Mark the weak among you in true love and compassion; beware of the wiles of those who are crafty, who seek to lead from the simplicity of the gospel. Keep your testimony alive in all things, wherein you are required by the Lord, and be not terrified at all that is, or may come to pass. The God of peace and power, of eternal love and truth, preserve you all faithful to the end, to the everlasting consolation of your souls, and glory of his great name; for the sake whereof he has saved us, and delivered us, and will yet deliver us; to whom be everlasting praises, and holy thanksgiving forever and ever. Amen.”
–Stephen Crisp
Stephen Crisp Letters
Zion
From Beyond Tolerable Recovery
By Ed M. Smith
Family Care Publishing
Campbellsville, Kentucky
Matthew 6: 12: “Forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”
Matthew 6: 14-15: “For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.”
Quotations are from Matthew 18: 21-30:
Principle One: Forgiveness is not a means of changing another but rather is the avenue of release for the one holding the debt. “Lord, how many times shall I forgive my brother when he sins against me? Up to seven times?”
Principle Two: Forgiveness requires that we take a full account of the debt. “…a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him…”
Principle Three: The debtor does not have the means to repay the debt. “Since he was not able to pay…”
Principle Four: Anger is a normal reaction to injustice, but it must be released before freedom will come. “Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.”
Principle Five: The integrity and sincerity of the indebted offender is not critical for true forgiveness to be administered. “The servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’”
Principle Six: Genuine forgiveness requires we find compassion. “The servant’s master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go…”
Principle Seven: Forgiveness benefits the forgiver more than the forgiven. The king “canceled the debt and let him go. But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded.”
Principle Eight: Forgiveness should not be confused with reconciliation.
RESENTMENT IS LIKE TAKING POISON AND THEN WAITING FOR THE OTHER PERSON TO DIE. HANGING ON TO RESENTMENT IS LETTING SOMEONE YOU DESPISE LIVE RENT FREE IN YOUR HEAD.
The Jerry Shey Family
Letter from Iran
A Conversation with a Vietnam Veteran
The Old Cross and the New
“The new cross does not slay the sinner, it redirects him. It gears him into a cleaner and jollier way of living and saves his self-respect. To the self-assertive it says, ‘Come and assert yourself for Christ.’ To the egotist it says, ‘Come and do your boasting in the Lord.’ To the thrill seeker it says, ‘Come and enjoy the thrill of Christian fellowship.’ The Christian message is slanted in the direction of the current vogue in order to make it acceptable to the public.”
“The old cross is a symbol of death. It stands for the abrupt, violent end of a human being. The man in Roman times who took up his cross and started down the road had already said good-by to his friends. He was not coming back. He was going out to have it ended. The cross made no compromise, modified nothing, spared nothing; it slew all of the man, completely and for good. It did not try to keep on good terms with its victim. It struck cruel and hard, and when it had finished its work, the man was no more.”
–A.W. Tozer
taste, and actually see
Religious Boredom
Dreams from the LORD 2011-2014
17 February 2014
Last night I had a dream where I was living in this house with three other people: two women and one man. The man was Wayne Teasdale. Wayne started to act very strange; he began walking around the house with a handgun. I believe I heard a gunshot and one of the women walked into the room where I was at and she had a bullet wound in her left shoulder. Then I saw Wayne again walking around the house with his handgun.
I then walked to his bedroom and saw Wayne kneeling on the floor with his gun pressed against his chin—it looked like he was going to commit suicide. I walked away and out of the house. I walked to this library where these children were playing; it looked like the library was closed. I then walked around the neighborhood and back to the library. The library was now open, so I went inside.
The last scene of the dream: I was in the library and the lady that had been shot by Wayne was crying; I noticed that she no longer had the bullet wound in her shoulder. She told me that Wayne had shot himself.
My interpretation of the dream:
I knew a guy named Wayne Teasdale back in 1983-84; we both lived in this community near New Boston, New Hampshire. It was a so-called Christian community run by an ex-Cistercian monk, Fr. Paul Fitzgerald. It was called Hundred Acres Monastery; I thought it was kind of a zoo. Wayne and his uncle, John Cosgrove, had lived there for a few years before I moved in. While I was there, I worked for The Horse and Bird Press of Los Angeles. I ended up living at Hundred Acres for around ten months.
Wayne was working on his doctoral dissertation in theology from Fordham University while I was living at Hundred Acres. I would describe Wayne as someone who had deep emotional scars from childhood (I believe he spent some time in foster homes); he compensated for these scars by getting multiple college degrees to strengthen his self-esteem. Wayne was definitely a theological aesthete. I had read someplace that Wayne passed away several years ago.
In the dream, the main event was when Wayne started acting strange and then killed himself. If someone asked me if Wayne was a Christian, I would probably say no. He had lots of head knowledge—but head knowledge without Christ will kill you spiritually. Talking with him usually was not edifying. I believe his uncle John may have been a Christian. Basically, Wayne killed his spiritual life because he studied too much theology and rejected Christ. He also tried to kill the woman in the dream with his dead theology, but she survived.
I was reading this National Geographic article on Russia years ago and the writer was talking about Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Leo Tolstoy. The writer described Dostoyevsky and Tolstoy as the last two great prophets of a dying Russian Empire. The writer quoted Tolstoy as saying that theology is the Satanism of religion. Satan has lots of head knowledge about the Bible and the Gospel, but he has absolutely no relationship with our heavenly Father whatsoever (reminds me of certain “Christians” that I have met over the years).
So this dream is definitely a warning against theological aesthetes, but I am a bit curious as to why I had the dream now.
A side note: Wayne Teasdale was related to the poet Sara Teasdale.
Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky
An Open Letter to John MacArthur from A.W. Tozer
The Death of Voltaire
The Idolatry of Intelligence – Leonard Ravenhill
A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century
By Barbara W. Tuchman
Copyright 1978. Chapter 5.
Page 103: “To the people at large there could be but one explanation—the wrath of God. Planets might satisfy the learned doctors, but God was closer to the average man. A scourge so sweeping and unsparing without any visible cause could only be seen as Divine punishment upon mankind for its sins. It might even be God’s terminal disappointment in his creature. Matteo Villani compared the plague to the Flood in ultimate purpose and believed he was recording ‘the extermination of mankind.’”
Page 104: “Beyond demons and superstition the final hand was God’s. The Pope acknowledged it in a Bull of September 1348, speaking of the ‘pestilence with which God is afflicting the Christian people.’ To the Emperor John Cantacuzene it was manifest that a malady of such horrors, stenches, and agonies, and especially one bringing the dismal despair that settled upon its victims before they died, was not a plague ‘natural’ to mankind but ‘a chastisement from Heaven.’ To Piers Plowman ‘these pestilences were for pure sin.’”
More on the Black Death
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The reason there are so many storms, drought (especially in California), tornadoes and other natural disasters in the United States is because there is so much sin in this country. Because people like Barack Obama aggressively promote the sin of homosexuality, abortion, and other sins, the Lord is destroying different parts of the United States. The Lord always has the final word on everything.
Psalm 37: 12-17:
“The wicked plotteth against the just, and gnasheth upon him with his teeth.
The Lord shall laugh at him: for he seeth that his day is coming.
The wicked have drawn out the sword, and have bent their bow, to cast down the poor and needy, and to slay such as be of upright conversation.
Their sword shall enter into their own heart, and their bows shall be broken.
A little that a righteous man hath is better than the riches of many wicked.
For the arms of the wicked shall be broken: but the LORD upholdeth the righteous.”
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This is from the blog Daily Meditation:
Psalm 16:1: Preserve me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
Instead of being afraid, why not take refuge in God?
David wrote: he who dwells in the secret place of the most high abides under the shadow of the almighty (Psalm 91). To be under his shadow means he takes responsibility for your safety. It is what can harm him that can harm us. In an absolute sense, you can do nothing to keep yourself safe. The bible says that except the Lord keeps the city, the watchman watches in vain (Psalm 127). Our hope the bible says should be in God (Psalm 33:22).
When Jesus and the disciples were navigating the Sea of Galilee, He was fast asleep while a big wind rose the sea threatening to end their lives (Mark 4:35-41). Bedlam was let loose, as the disciples were panic-stricken. They felt naked, hopeless, exposed to the powerful storm on the sea, with nowhere and no one to turn to for help. Or so they thought. They thought the end has come. They imagined that they will never see their loved ones again…
They woke Jesus up, complaining: “do you not care whether we perish? How can you be sleeping when our world has come to an end? Are you not human? Don’t you have feeling?”
Rather than join them to raise further alarm, when Jesus woke from sleep, he simply rebuked the wind and the storm and there was calm. He also rebuked the disciples for lack of faith. They did not realise that with Jesus they were safe, and no harm could come to them. There is nothing that to be afraid of when you are with Jesus. How can God be at risk? What a preposterous thought.
Jesus said that people should come to him, those who are stressed out with life, and they will find rest. They will contact him and he would change them from stressful to restful (Matthew 11:28-30).
Another time, Jesus told them to beware of the leaven of the Pharisee. They thought he was rebuking them for not bringing having any bread with them (Matthew 16:5-12). They thought that he was worried about physical substance. Jesus accused them of being hard-hearted and lack of faith. He reminded them of the two occasions of multiplication of bread and the baskets of leftover, showing them that with him, they ought to have understood that there will be no shortage of bread. Physical sustenance was not an issue when it comes to him.
Preservation is expressed in provision and protection. Taking refuge in God is both about enjoying his resources (provision) and being kept from hurt (protection). The psalmist says that God is my refuge and strength, a very present help in times of need (Psalm 46). Strength talks about what you are able to do, the kind of influence you are able to wield because of your association with God. David said that God strengthens his hands so that a bow of steel is broken by him (Psalm 18). The ability of God is expressed through us as we move with his presence all over the world.
God rebukes our enemies for our sake, saying: touch not my anointed, do my prophet no harm (1Chronicles 16:19-22). Jacob, after twenty year of serving the Laban his uncle, ran away with his family, but his uncle pursued him. Along the way, God came to the Laban in a dream; stopping him from doing him any harm (Genesis 31:29).
In defence of Abraham, God told a pagan king in a dream not to touch his wife, saying: he is a prophet. God took ownership of Abraham, and he experienced God as his refuge (Genesis 20:1-8).
There is no refuge in any other place except in God. God has power and glory. David said that he’ll rather be in the presence of God to see his power and glory (Psalm 63:1-2). Power is needed when there is opposition (protection); glory is manifested as the splendour of divinity in and of itself (provision). We experience God in these two ways, when we have him as refuge.
In God, we have utmost security. He is described as the rock. The rock has the quality of stability, consistency, and impregnability. It confers protection. When you take refuge in God, you experience uncommon protection.
Three children of Israel experienced protection in Babylon. They were threatened with being burnt alive if they did not bow to a graven image (Daniel 3). That was supposed to scare them into submission. They were meant to be afraid and panic, and seek to save their life, by yielding to the demand of the pagan king.
But they understood that God is their refuge. They proclaimed that their God is able to deliver them from the hand of king Nebuchadnezzar. They were so sure. They thought that God was more real than the fire prepared to roast them alive, than the threat of the king. They knew that their God is big enough and real enough a refuge to deliver them fully. That was what happened, and in spectacular fashion too.
The Lord as refuge is our cover from the ‘scorching sun.’ The children of Israel experienced the Lord as their refuge in the wilderness. The condition there was unforgivably harsh. But the pillar of fire by night and the pillar of cloud by day made them secure. They were preserved physically; they had their physical needs provided for in the manna that fell daily from heaven and the water that flows from the rock that followed them, which was Christ (1Corinthians 10:4).
Christ is our ultimate refuge, believing in him saves us from experiencing the wrath of God in eternal damnation, which is the ultimate harm that can come to any man. He is our shelter from the storm. Believing in him makes us saved from eternal damnation. There is no need for any other refuge other than Him (He is the glory [Hebrews 3:1, 2Corinthians 4:6] and power of God [1Corinthians 1:24]). Jesus said that he who does not believe in him has passed from death to life while those who do not believe in him have the wrath of God abides on them (John 3:36).
With the Lord as our refuge, the bible says that no evil shall befall us nor will any evil come near our dwelling place. He would give his angels charge concerning us, so that we would not dash our feet against a stone. Daniel was thrown into the den of lions but he escaped unhurt because angelic ministry was available for him (Daniel 6).
Inward Peace
By Thomas Ellwood
My Peace I give unto you. John 14:27
Who can conceive, much less express,
The inward peace which they possess,
Who, by the indwelling of the light,
Have put satanic powers to flight;
In whom, renewed and born again,
The Lord of life does live and reign:
Renewed, restored, purged, purified,
And natural rovings laid aside;
Cleansed by the blood, kept by the grace,
That sin in them scarce finds a place;
The temple swept, prepared, then blessed
With presence of an heavenly guest,
A guest, not for a night or twain,
But one that always will remain;
Yes, such a guest as does impart,
That joy which overcomes the heart,
A joy so great, no tongue of man,
Express the fullness of it can;
And this unutterable bliss,
Flows from the love of God to His.
O! love immense, and without bound,
To all that in the Truth are found,
words are too short to set it forth
In its extent, and real worth.
The wife, that in the bosom lies,
Is precious in the husband’s eyes;
The sucking babe is very near,
The only Son, exceeding dear;
Tender the apple of the eye,
Friends and relations very nigh;
But yet this love does far transcend
That to wife, child, eye, parent, friend.
These metaphors are all too low,
The nature of this love to show;
No tongue is able to declare,
How dear to God His children are;
Only the sense of it is felt,
Which breaks the heart and makes it melt.
The Poetry of Thomas Ellwood
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15 February 2014
Yesterday I was reading The Great Fire of London in that Apocalyptic Year, 1666 by Neil Hanson. I think it may have been in the second chapter, but it said that Thomas Ellwood prophesied or had dreams or visions in 1662 that showed him that London would suffer a plague and a fire in the near future. The plague hit London in 1665 and the Great Fire hit London in 1666.
The Great Fire of London
Dreams from the LORD 2011-2014
8 February 2014
Last night I had a dream where I was at a relative’s place. I talked with my cousin and I told him that I had to take a bus to Denver.
I took a bus to Denver and I had a large stack of manuscripts with me—it looked like there were 20 or 30 manuscripts. I got off the bus and walked to this photocopy store and sold my manuscripts for a lot of money. The guy at the cash register paid me in cash and I put the money in a small backpack.
As I attempted to walk out of the store, these two guys bumped into me and walked quickly outside. I knew something was wrong: they wanted to steal my money.
So I walked back to the cash register and asked if I could phone a taxi. I didn’t want to walk back to the bus station with all of this money. The two guys walked back into the store and crawled up to my backpack (it was sitting on the floor next to my feet): they were staring at the backpack.
Then I noticed someone I used to work with years ago at Pike Construction in Ames, Iowa. He was leaving the store. I asked him if I could get a ride. He said it wasn’t company policy for him to give someone a ride in the truck (he was driving a dump truck). So I asked him if I could ride in the back of the truck. He said that that would be all right. So as the truck pulled away from the store, I climbed in the back of the truck and escaped a possible robbery.
My interpretation of the dream:
In the dream, I noticed that I didn’t hitchhike to Denver—I took a bus. Maybe my hitchhiking days are coming to an end.
The photocopy store represents a publishing company. The stack of manuscripts being sold for a lot of money means that my books will sell a lot of copies (or one of my books will sell well).
The photocopy store was in Denver, Colorado. Maybe this means my books will sell well in the Rocky Mountain states or in the western United States. I have done most of my hitchhiking west of the Missouri River.
The two guys who try to rob me is the devil. The devil is always trying to steal, kill and destroy the works of God. The Lord told me to write my two books (High Plains Drifter and The First Time I Rode a Freight Train). My two books are a God-work: it was not my will to write those books.
A former co-worker from Pike Construction helps me escape a possible robbery. I think this is very interesting, because the last time I worked at Pike Construction was in February of 2001. I have not kept in contact with anyone from Pike Construction since I left. Out of the blue, someone from my past helps me evade an ambush from the devil.
Interesting little detail: the dump truck that I escaped in looked like the dump truck I used to drive for Pike Construction.
The Road 