I recently attended a meeting at a Church home in the woods of western Oregon. While we were waiting for the meeting to begin I heard rifle shots from the nearby woods. A short time later there was furious rapping at the back door. As the host went to answer the door I got my hat.

      A young boy shouted, "My Dad set our house on fire!"

      As I passed the boy I asked him which way his house was and I proceeded in the direction he pointed. Along the way I met the mother who was frantically shouting in a high pitch voice similar phrases about her husband setting their house on fire.

      It was a struggle to get this woman to focus long enough to answer simple questions like, "Do you have a hose?"

      The woman continued to pace and talk as I hosed down the flames in several windows. It was dark in the house but no flames could be seen with thick dark smoke billowing out the windows.

      The mother was clearly in what people some times refer to as a state . I heard her mention several items, including clothes, furniture and "all our things."

      Every question had to be asked several times before an adequate answer was forthcoming.

      As the day wore on I began to piece together more and more information about the events leading to the shoot-out and conflagration. The husband, who we shall call Goneus, worked at Wal-Mart. Some might think that would be enough of a reason to go mad but wait there is more. The family lived in a nice double wide, with a manicured lawn, three fairly new vehicles, in a nice wooded area of western Oregon.

      The children (9 to 15 and two 5 year old adopted twin girls) took refuge at the house of our host while the fire department and the police continued to do their thing. One of the three boys was repeating over and over to us while he sat on the couch, "He is not a part of our family any more!"

      Whoso curseth his father or his mother, his lamp shall be put out in obscure darkness. (Pr 20:20

      I was astonished. I asked him how he could just remove his Father from his place in the family. I continued to ask him about his Father. Goneus wasn't an alcoholic, just a couple of beers now and then. He didn't hit his wife or beat his children. He did some times yell at their Mom about money. He had been taking some medicine, you know, for his nerves.

Go up into Gilead, and take balm, O virgin, the daughter of Egypt: in vain shalt thou use many medicines; [for] thou shalt not be cured. (Jeremiah 46:11)

      He had come home from work and then had to take a day off. He had slept all day. He was still sleeping the next morning when his wife wanted him to watch the girls while she went to pick up two of the boys who were rafting with the youth group. Goneus wanted to know why everything fell on him. He wanted to sleep. The other boys were picked up but somewhere along the way Goneus washed down his medicine with a beer and a half.

      Fools because of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted. (Psalms 107:17)>

      There was another fight that evidently had to do with money which led to credit cards being cut up and pot shots through empty car windows, air conditioners and some of their other things. The Mother fled to the garage with her children. When the truck drove away they all came out to return to their house which was now billowing smoke.

      One of the boys related to me that even though he (Goneus, their father) had cut up their credit cards it was okay because, "We got more."

      They assured me that he (Goneus) never did anything like this before. I told them that their Father could not be removed from the family. Something had broken down in his head. His medicine combined with the beer, over work and worry had caused something to snap. Their Father needed help not desertion.

      They insisted that their Father was, "Just so selfish. He is just so selfish! All he wants to do when he comes home is sleep." He did mow the lawn and water it. And stuff like that. They were astonished when I told them that credit cards don't buy anything. It was their Father who bought everything. Their Mother didn't have a job with earned income. They all enjoyed the things of an affluent lifestyle.

      I suggested as gently as it could be said that they were the selfish ones. Who did they think bought the house, the cars, the raft trips? Where did they think that everything they had came from? I asked them what did they think made their Dad so tired when he came home from work. They stared back, puzzled. They had never asked why their father was so tired.

      I recall the first statement made by that frantic boy knocking at the door. "My Dad set our house on fire!" Our house?, the boy said, not their Fathers house.

      These boys had already turned away from their Father. They did not know who he was or what value he was in their life. He went away to work and returned. The kids went rafting with their youth group, or studied at their school or played with their things. There was always a bed, a house, food and TV.

      They were ready to discard their Father like an old pair of shoes that had ripped a seam. They saw him, they saw the evidence of his work everyday but they knew him not.

      He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. (Joh 1:10)

      Last I heard Goneus was sitting in jail, a guest of the state. The house is empty, the family has moved in with others.

      He that wasteth [his] father, [and] chaseth away [his] mother, [is] a son that causeth shame, and bringeth reproach. (Pr 19:26)

      The problems that this family is experiencing, like America and the world today, did not begin with the fire. It actually began generations before. What we saw that day was merely the evidence of a problem. Today, in America the sense of family is undermined at every turn. The lives of children, parents and grandparents are removed, divided and separate. They do not work together or share in each others trials, struggles and difficulties. We must seek our Father in Heaven.

Honour thy father and thy mother: that thy days may be long upon the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee. (Ex. 20:12)

      People, like this family do not know their Father. They have lost the true way of Christianity and have worshipped a false image of god, given to us by a self-deluded society and an apostate church. They pray to a false father who does not love them like the LORD.

      Events like those at the Embassy of Heaven Church, Waco, Ruby Ridge, etc. are not the problem but they are only the evidence of the problem. Nor is the problem limited to America for all across the world, from Tonga and Panama to Bosnia and Algiers, there is smoke beginning to billow from the shadowy pit of man's darkened hearts.

      Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; Behold, I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. (Jer 18:11)

      Have we defiled the way of the LORD by first defiling the temple of the Holy Spirit?

      And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand: Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man. (Matthew 15:10 11)

      The Lord asks us to hear and understand. Is he telling us that we can put anything in our bodies without care or thought? Our bodies are gifts of God and we should care for them with wisdom and knowledge so that they may be of good health in the service of him who made us.

      What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost [which is] in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? (1Co 6:19)

      As temples of the Holy Spirit we must first cleans the temple in mind, body and spirit.

      I see men and woman putting vile things into their bodies and falsehoods in their minds which wreaks havoc upon their flesh and minds as a result. We must seek the wisdom of the Lord in all things, not making a religion of knowledge, but not tempting God with our own foolishness and sloth and wantonness.

      Is it only bad and poisonous foods that we consume?

      Have we indulged our appetites with deceitful meats that are sweet in the mouth but sour in the belly?

      Do we lack knowledge concerning the truth about the salvation of the LORD? Have we been deceived again?

      Who have we been calling to as children of the LORD?

      Was Jesus telling the people to deny their parents? Father was an everyday title of address in reference to the Senators of Rome and the Emperor. In the Greek text of the Bible we find what is a Latin word Pater1meaning father. So we can assume that the people of the day when they heard the word pater they thought of one of several ideas. Either they were talking about their genetic father, their adopted fathers in Rome or their Father in heaven.

      We often hear people complain about "big brother" bureaucracy watching and running their lives, but their is a big brother only because we have looked to a "big daddy." People have looked to institutions of man's creation for their own welfare. Their children are educated by government, and the grand- parents are cared for by government. Health care, protection, disability insurance, monetary security, the benefit and gratuity the list is endless. The price of these protection is subjection.

      "Protection draws to it subjection; subjection protection"2

      Now with a cry of fiscal responsibility the name of the game is cuts. Our false father is arguing about money. Will the false father of civil society soon set its house on fire? What is the role of the ekklesia in the coming conflagration?

      In this ministry we will seek to help the people who love the LORD to find the narrow path. To help them become free of the tyranny of this world. That tyranny may come in many forms, fears and addictions. We must learn to live and do without the benefits of a subjecting amoral/civil/economic system. Our health, education and welfare should be left in the hands of the LORD [YHWH] God in Heaven and His institutions, the family, Christian charity and love.

      Everyone who comes will have an opportunity to speak and bear witness to the LORD in their own hearts and minds as brothers in Christ.

      We will be addressing general health practices as well as discussing the training of new people in health as one important part of the ministry.

      We will also be looking at a variety of projects that need to be addressed in order to call others to the kingdom, spread His word and feed the lovers of His ways.

      When wee seek out His sheep, we must heal them and nurture them and feed their physical, mental and spiritual needs as the body of Christ.

      If we love the LORD we will be feeding and caring for his sheep. How do we go about caring for the sheep of the LORD? Is it not the job and duty of the ekklesia Kurios to feed the sheep of the LORD physically, mentally and spiritually?

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Footnotes:

1 Return (pathr) Strong's No. 3962 pater {pat-ayr'} 1) generator or male ancestor2) metaph.2a) the originator and transmitter of anything; the authors of a family or society of persons animated by the same spirit as himself; one who has infused his own spirit into others, who actuates and governs their minds 2b) one who stands in a father's place and looks after another in a paternal way ... 3) God is called the Father. On line Bible and Concordance. Woodside Bible Fellowship.

2 Return Protectio trahit subjectionem, subjectio protectionem. Coke, Littl. 65.

3 Return Strong's No. 1228 diabolos {dee-ab'-ol-os} from 1225; adj AV - devil (35) - false accuser (2) - slanderer (1) [38] 1) prone to slander, slanderous, accusing falsely 1a) a calumniator, false accuser, slanderer, i.e. Satan the prince of the demons, the author of evil, persecuting good men, estranging mankind from God and enticing them to sin...

End of Footnotes

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