Open my eyes, that I may behold

Wonderful things from Your law.

Psalm 119:18

The plans of the heart belong to man,

But the answer of the tongue is from the LORD.

Proverbs 16:1

--Does that ever happen to you? It has happened to me ever since I accepted Christ. It goes like this: I know there is no way on God's green earth I want to do something being asked of me, and I have every right to decline without any incident, so I have the word "no" firmly and guilt-free in my mind and on my tongue. However, when I open my mouth to speak, I hear my voice say, "Sure, I'll do it!" and then I think, what just happened here? I was just shut down and God assured me the plans He has for me are not to harm me, but to prosper me, just as He promised in Jeremiah. As I have grown older, it happens when I am firmly set against doing something and I am very afraid I can't do it well. God assures me it isn't I who does it anyway. Now I get excited about it, as God is planning to bless me by using me - and He does all the work! It is truly joyous! Thank You Holy Spirit for praying for me as I do not know how I ought!

...now that I think of it, that is how I got into this blog thing. Stuart kept saying, "Mom, you should blog that." It was easy to ignore a "should". But then he emailed a link to the website and said to do it. Well, that was an easy "no" to return in an email...but instead I clicked on his link and found my fingers flying. What joy! hehe... And now Stuart is stuck with the burden of having to read this blog. haha! Lord, you are so funny!!! Oh, and thank you, Stuart for thinking I could do it. And for reading this thing! I haven't a clue why your brother or anyone else would ever read these ramblings!!

The LORD has made everything for its own purpose,

Even the wicked for the day of evil.

Everyone who is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD;

Assuredly, he will not be unpunished.
Proverbs 16:4-5

Second Thessalonians 2
1Now we request you, brethren, with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him,
--Paul has already addressed this!! Numerous times in the last letter and again in this one. Something must be up or else Paul would not be clarifying it over and over again.

2that you not be quickly shaken from your composure or be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.
--There is the reason! They have been shaken from attitude/action by being:

1.) disturbed by a spirit

2.) disturbed by a message

3.) disturbed by a false letter

These three lying witnesses are tools of Satan.

1.) Satan puts passions in our minds. We love to feel alive emotionally.

2.) Satan lies. He tweaks the word of God to tickle our ears with deception.

3.) Satan wants us on wrong path with others who are deceived.

These three make a for fun time that heightens all our senses, intellect and creativity. I cannot tell you how well I know this from my own life! We all have a desire to have God relate to us personally. God does this His way, and Satan counterfeits it!

1.) God renews a right spirit within us when we repent.
2.) God relates with us through His written word.

3.) God speaks to us through His written word through the Holy Spirit to keep us on the right path.

1.) Psalm 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God,
And renew a steadfast spirit within me.
(Keith Green wrote this in a song thirty years ago, and it is still sung in worship services.)

2.) Job 22:22 Please receive instruction from His mouth
And establish His words in your heart.

3.) Deuteronomy 30:14 But the word is very near you,
in your mouth and in your heart,
that you may observe it.

Deuteronomy 13:3
you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams;
for the LORD your God is testing you to find out if you love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

--Yes, we are commanded to be closed minded. That is a godly thing to do. We will be blessed in obeying His command to be closed minded. Seems so foreign to our thinking and our culture, doesn't it? SO rude. SO divisive. SO ignorant. SO prideful. Satan accuses us that being closed minded is a bad thing. Satan deceives us into thinking close mindedness is a sin, evil and unloving to others. (Remember, Satan means the accuser.) However, consider the vastness of God's glory, God's word, God's creation, God's love... It is infinite!!! We cannot even begin to put our minds around how vast it is!!! We can eat of everything of the garden except the fruit of one tree. We are to close our minds of it. What was Satan's first ploy? God lied to you. See how tasty the fruit looks! Don't even think about it Eve! Close your mind to it! Look at all the other delicious gifts! To focus on just the forbidden fruit and to ignore all that God gave, was truly close minded, no matter that Satan was telling her the opposite. Obviously, the one who rejects God has closed his mind to infinite understanding and joy! This is why most all scientific discoveries are made by those who believe in an infinite God of order, reason, power and love. The scientist who try to apply macro evolution to observation are scrambling as discoveries prove their theories wrong over and over again. The followers of the macro evolution religion are constantly having to rewrite their fantasy as new discoveries. It is bad fruit. Go observe the creation and praise the Creator!

3 Let no one in any way deceive you,
--It takes a choice and application of willpower to stand firm on the word of God.

for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first,
--What will not come? We read it first thing in the purpose of the letter, "with regard to the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him." Before we are caught up in the air with Christ, raptured, the apostasy will come. Most of those who think they are following Jesus will be deceived into following the lies of Satan. The above example I gave of being closed minded has been Satan's number one tool on the current generation. They were raised in schools without the fear of God. The educated say, "No need of God to conduct our day! We are in school to learn the things we need to know! We need to be accepted by the majority! Everyone must be on the same path for all to meet the goal happiness!" It is the path of destruction!! The result is we are living in a generation open to every scheme of the devil.
It has been overwhelming to watch the apostasy in my lifetime. My exposure started out in grade school with: Amish not allowed to return a hello. Can't eat meet on Friday. No dancing. Keep looking for the true Messiah. Look spiritual with signs. Memorize verses, but sin like crazy. Then I was exposed to more misinterpretations that lead to more destruction: Not saved unless baptized. Your not saved unless you speak in tongues. The Holy Spirit cause people to faint backwards. Repentance is as easy as ask God to save you, and you're in the family - just like asking Santa! Give money to get God. Give more money, and be blessed with money. Give money and be blessed with joy. Give money and be blessed with power, healing, signs, new revelations, etc. , just like God! Now we live in the times of apostasy where a "seeker" just has to show up, tune in, open their mind, look inside themselves and receive all these things plus the knowledge that they are god! Drug use to enhance your experience is fine. Take more drugs to ensure you never have any pain. Insulate yourself from all people who may be a pain. The churches are full of these nonbelievers who have opened their minds to the way of the world and are deceived and perishing. Jesus hung out with the major pains of society, and he lovingly brought the truth to them. That is the Jesus we are to follow. Not some psychologist's five steps to avoiding those who need to know Christ! UGH! Following Christ's example is a pain! Lord, help me lift up my cross...once I find where I left it way down the road! UGH! Forgive me Lord!

and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,
4who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship,
--In the days of Noah, everyone did what was right in their own eyes, and God took them away. If it weren't for Noah's faithfulness and God's mercy and grace, non of us would be here. Thank You Lord for your mercy and a beautiful planet! At the time of the apostasy, the world will be doing it's own thing. They will strive to get along as one in order to have peace because pain is not acceptable. Anyone causing pain must be terminated. Everyone will be allowed to have their own truth as long as their truth is not exclusive: followers of the Bible and the Koran. Fundamentalist are the enemy of peace. It will boil down to those three religions. Revelation says the man of lawlessness will start taking over the world without a sword, in the name of peace.

so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.
--TAKE NOTICE WHAT GOD IS SAYING HERE: The man of lawlessness will be ruling BEFORE Christ raptures the church! We have got to read the verses in context, People! This is written in the context of what will happen before we are gathered with Christ at the rapture. Curious of what to look for, I went to the original Greek:
temple = Naos = 1. Holy of Holies 2. any pagan shrine 3. spiritual temple of all the saints.
God =Theos= 1. God 2. god 3. the Holy Trinity. 4. the interests of God. 5. anything resembling God. 5. anyone representing God, a magistrate. Does the context lead us to believe Paul is thinking metaphorically at this point. No. So the translation looks accurate. It has a flavor of what is stated elsewhere in scriptures of the false trinity, one representing the other and setting up an image. The question I have is will this happen in the temple or in a pagan shrine? If it is in the temple, then the temple would have to be rebuilt for this event to occur. If it can be at any pagan shrine, then he could set-up in a multitude of places. The Jews in Israel claim they can build the temple in 5-8 months and they have everything ready for serving in the temple. There have been claims the ark of the covenant has been found. This five minute video is fascinating to me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nHUzTij_Twg

5Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?
--Paul is confirming that this is not additional teaching but a review of what he already taught. For review, when students have gotten off track, the teacher spells it out down to the simple essentials. That is what this chapter is. It cannot be discarded in order to hang on to the lie that the church will raptured before the man of lawlessness declares himself to be god.

6And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed.
--They knew, but I don't. Apparently, that was the part of the teaching that was clear to them. I will keep studying it, but for now, I say it is Michael, the archangel. (Not "arch angle" haha) I saw an online poll and Michael was overwhelmingly the opinion. Some say it is the Holy Spirit. With the Holy Spirit gone, then the believers would have to be gone. Since Paul plainly states that the believers are still here, it cannot be the Holy Spirit, that is certain.

7For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.
--There will come a time when God will allow all hell to break loose! Literally! That is why we are to encourage one another with words that Jesus will take us out of there before God pours out His wrath on the evildoers!

8Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming;
9that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders,
--the word "one" is not capitalized and does not refer to Jesus, but to the one whose coming to work alongside Satan with powers, signs and false wonders, part of the false trinity. That one will taken away when Jesus appears.

10and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.
--These wicked false miracles will deceive those who do not love truth.

11For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false,
12in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.
--God removed the deceiver, and sends a deluding influence. There comes a point when God decides He has called and called, but He knows they will never listen, and so they receive part of their judgment while still on the earth.

13But we should always give thanks to God for you, brethren beloved by the Lord, because God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth.
--Whoa! Change gears! This is a huge statement of faith. Thank God for believers. Believers were chosen by God. God choose us from the beginning. Amazing! God cleans up believers by Spirit, faith and truth. Lord, how awesome You are! I am forever grateful indeed! (This goes back to the discussion of yes, we have free will from our point of view. Just as an ant can crawl all over my hand any way he wants, but I am not letting go of him.)

14 It was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
--For what? We were saved to act in the Spirit with faith in the truth. Lord, open my eyes to Your spirit, increase my faith based on the truth of Your word!

15So then, brethren, stand firm and hold to the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us.
--Don't do what the latest bestseller says to do! Don't reinvent your ways. Stand firm. God accomplishes the task He gives us to do. Have you ever seen those grocery carts where the kid has a steering wheel? I see kids thinking they are the ones controlling the cart. Mom just pushes it, while they steer it. That is our perspective of God. We choose to steer accurately, and God keeps us on course! Aisle limit our movement, obstacles slow us down, but we know how to steer around those. Sometime God pushes the cart so fast we are scared. Though we take our hands off the wheel, there is no crash that God doesn't control. What love!

16Now may our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace,
17comfort and strengthen your hearts in every good work and word.
--We are loved, we are comforted that heaven awaits us, and God provides the hope by grace to make us strong of heart to do and say His work. Amen!