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Friday, August 28, 2009

Supernatural Life: Bright as Sun

Yes, John F. Kennedy did say not to ask what your country can do for you, but rather, what you can do for your country. However, when it comes to your creator, you are permitted to have a different spin on this issue--at least initially. After you are assured of what blessings Christ has given you, then you can turn your attention to what you can do for him.

So what has Jesus done for you in the last month? Has he given you life and health? If you've not been in the best of health, can you ask him for healing? Will he give you healing as you continue to look to him daily? Has he given you life? Yes, but you might not think that the quality of life you are enjoying right now is on par with the life you may have lived in the past or the life you'd like to be living today. Ask him to further you toward that goal of a higher quality life.

Keep in mind, however, that life is more than living a pleasant and stimulating life. Life is also more than always being in the pink of health. Christ can give you supernatural life and health right now that is more valuable than your every day variety. He offers you an enhanced quality of life. Even when you are in pain or when life is not as perfect as you'd like it to be, the enhanced life that he gives you makes up for that.

This can sound rather vague or intangible if you've never experienced it first hand. Let me tell you that it is worth the bother--if you can call it that. Before I try to explain how to enjoy this supernatural life and health, let me try to describe it further.

Supernatural life makes the sun shine brighter even when it is temporarily hidden by an overcast sky. An enhanced life makes a child's laughter more heart-warming than it would otherwise be perceived. The future looks brighter no matter how it may look to the person who is experiencing the same set of life experiences that you are currently experiencing. A glass of pure orange juice is more refreshing than a bottle of beer would be on a hot summer day. The gentle handshake of a friend is more reassuring and comforting than a week of one-night stands.

How do you start experiencing this higher quality of life? The one who gives you life can also give you supernatural life. Spend half an hour every morning reading from any of the four gospels. Ask Christ to help you as you read the Word of Life. Ask him to give you a supernatural desire for these mystic words of life. After your half hour with the good news found in the gospels, share your concerns and joys with Christ. Ask him for the blessings he has promised you in the chapter you just read. One of my favorite promises is found in Matthew 11. It promises you that if you come to Christ [spend time with him via his words and talk to him in prayer] he will give you rest. That's supernatural rest that's promised. Not the rest you get after a long day at work in front of your TV set. It's a rest that can't be explained until it is experienced first hand.

After you start enjoying this supernatural life that only Christ can give you, you can then address what you can do for Christ. It will be simpler to accomplish than what he has given you, but it will be well worth the blessing that you will be able to impart to others.

Friday, August 21, 2009

Noah's Interstellar Ark

Hurricanes in Florida, terrorism in New York City, earthquakes and wildfires in California, tornadoes just about everywhere, global warming, raging wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and genocide in Darfur. The harsh realities of living anywhere on planet Earth hint that there are no desirable cities or countries left to live in. Why bother moving out to somewhere else? Why not consider moving up! I mean that literally, not figuratively

Noah in the Bible was not given a ready-built mode of survival from the catastrophic flood that wiped the known-world into oblivion. He had to build the ark himself. In like manner this is what must be done by Adventist Futurists and their supporters. There is nowhere to escape in the event of a worldwide conflagration but up and out. Humanity possesses the God-given science, vision and the means to build arks in space to escape Earth's destruction by fire.

If Noah and his family had to begin again from scratch after they escaped death by water into a virtually new world, a postdiluvian one, why might not modern-day Noahs also escape into a virtual new world beyond the disaster of a worldwide Apocalypse?

Yes, Christ still returns, but not to Jerusalem on Earth, but rather, to a spiritual Jerusalem on another world or sphere. All the prophecies of the Bible may need to be cast in new settings to adjust to unforeseen glitches ushered in by the postmodern world in which we live.

We've all heard the expression of not putting all our eggs into one basket. We must not disregard the possibility that the damage or dangers that have been perpetrated on Earth by humanity, or by problems endemic to life-on-Earth, may be irreversible. There may be hope yet. We need to act in undreamed of ways. We cannot wait to see the Earth dying with no solution at hand. Planning for alternate versions of deus ex-machina may not be such a bad idea after all. How true would the saying then be that "God works in mysterious ways."

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

The Mystery of Ernie Knoll, Adventist Prophet

Due to a variety of reasons I have chosen to present the following comments about Mr. Ernie Knoll and his claim to the gift of prophecy.


Raul Batista,


I found some humor in your post [See below,] I enjoyed that. I have ran across some Batista's in life's journey, they are some good people. :)


Anyways, talking about promotion, here is some more websites I have put up. They are not "cookie cuttered" so to speak, of the original, http://www.4hispeople.freewebpages.org/ , but give me some time, I might make them as such. :)

http://www.forhispeople.freewebpages.org/


http://www.4hispeopleinfo.freewebpages.org/


http://www.ivhispeople.freewebpages.org/



http://www.misteranonymous.freewebpages.org/


You know Ernie or Becky Knoll could be checking or posting on this board. On the last email he sent out he admitted that he made up Candace due to the fact that he had read postings of negativity on a forum board and countered with "Candace".I gather he gets a lot of email though since he is using a spam block on his email. So, he might not have time to look on the boards. Apparently he is not the admin of the original website, http://www.4hispeople.com/ , since if he was, the content would have been taken down by now.


Posted by: Mister Anonymous (not verified) 11 August 2009 at 2:55


Original comment:

A modern day prophet should not attract too much attention to him/herself. Rather, (s)he should let their writings speak for themselves. Of course, self-promotion is not a bad thing at times. I think even Ellen White told a few people that she was experiencing something a little out of the ordinary.

I'm both interested and annoyed by this post and it's ongoing mystery about who or who isn't Ernie Knoll.

I, for one, refrain from directly reading the "visions" lest there be some mystic influence at work when they are read.

All the best to Ernie Knoll if he is indeed on this website regularly checking up on the comments.

I'm even thinking suddenly, that I myself might be this much talked about Ernie Knoll and don't even realize it yet.


Posted by: Raul Batista (not verified) 11 August 2009 at 2:14


For the entire post and all comments please see The Prophetic Career of Ernie Knoll

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Living Through Jesus

How wonderful these words sound if you believe in Christ Jesus. How banal or annoying they appear if Jesus Christ has no meaning for you. For some, however, the words have no meaning at all because they have never heard of Jesus Christ. Sadly, there are some who use the name "Jesus Christ" as a swear word and have no inkling as to the wonderful person whose name they are using needlessly. Some might even find the thought of living for Jesus humorous. I've met people in the past that believed that it was a waste of time pursuing a life with Jesus Christ as its center.

Thankfully, I don't believe that way. "Jesus is the joy of living. He's the king of life to me." These words from the church hymnal have been on my mind for many months. As a child I sang them often and didn't really connect with them. I sang them dutifully in church or church school, but didn't find them especially gratifying. The reality of enjoying Christ as a real person in your life is a gift from God through his Holy Spirit. It is a transcendent reality that is bequeathed to us with no apparent explanation, at times.

Four years ago, out of boredom, I started singing one particular song as I walked my dog.

"It's a wonderful, wonderful life when you're with the Lord above. It's a wonderful, wonderful life when you're saved by his love. There's a joy that you never can tell and great things from the Lord above. As I walk with the Lord in my heart there's a song. It's a wonderful, wonderful life."

Only in retrospect was I able to trace a revival in my spiritual life to the seemingly passive singing of the powerful words of this song. The message in the song actually became my conscious reality. For that miracle I am grateful to the Lord.

In addition to intoning the words of this song daily, but with little feeling to what I was singing, I started claiming the promise for the reception of the Holy Spirit found in Luke 11:13 which says, "if you then who are earthly know how to give good things to your children, how much more will your heavenly father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him." I had claimed this particular promise on and off for years, but more as a vague desire for something that I had known once. I don't think I really believed the words I was saying.

At any rate I can't say how long I claimed this promise, but when something otherworldly started happening to me, I did not automatically connect it with the promise I had routinely been claiming on my daily commute to work.

In accepting that something extraordinary was beginning to occur in my life I decided to start getting up early in the morning and spending time with the New Testament. It was only after a few months that I actually became interested in attending church. I had not attended church in over 15 years. After three and a half years of attending church I felt it was meaningful for me to seek rebatism.

Temptations of ever-increasing variety never cease to cross my path, but for reasons that baffle me, I continue to seek God morning by morning. I'm not doing anything out of the ordinary to continue having this mysterious relationship with Christ. I'm simply letting him fill me with whatever spiritual and material blessings he wishes to shower me with. Yes, of course, I continue to rise early to eat the word of life and to commune with God through prayer, but this desire does not come from me, how could it? It would be so much more pleasant to continue sleeping or to enjoy other activities instead of the bible and prayer. Nevertheless, the mystery of spirituality continues to grace my days. I am astounded and indebted to Christ Jesus for this continuing blessing.

It is my hope that if you have never given Jesus Christ the time of day that you will do so very soon.

Sunday, August 09, 2009

Future Worlds: Theoretical Adventisms

First-day Adventists believe(d) that Christ's coming was going to occur very soon. They are one of the primary groups that grew out of William Miller's preaching toward the middle of the 19th century. As their name states, they observed the first day of the week, Sunday.

Seventh-day Adventists are one of the descendants of the previous group and most distinctly worship on the seventh day of the week, Saturday. There are some other distinctions which we cannot go into detail at this time.

(Eighth-day) Adventist Futurists are a conceptual society. They believe that not only is the seventh day the day of rest, but additionally, they observe the hours after sunset on Saturday night and ending with sunrise on Sunday morning, as well. They focus on the spiritual beauty of the Sabbath and not on the strict letter-of-the-law. (This does not necessarily mean that 7th-Day Adventists do not also focus on the spiritual beauty of the Sabbath.)

(Eighth-day) Adventist Futurists have as one their primary goals to escape planet Earth's eventual human-engineered destruction by escaping to habitable worlds within this solar system and, eventually, to worlds surrounding nearby stars. Progressive (Eighth-day) Adventist Futurists go one step further and observe any 24-hour period commencing on any day of the week at sunset and concluding at sunset on the following day because this will be the norm when the weekly cycle will cease to be meaningful. The sun never sets in outer space.

Perfect Futurists are theorized as being the descendants of the (Eighth-day) Adventist Futurists when they have successfully engineered Macro Life worlds which can exist in-between worlds and are said to be the eventual and preferred living environments for space-faring humans. [Scientist Dandridge M. Cole originated the term "Macro Life" in his 1961 book The Ultimate Human Society.]*

Please see Adventism's New Horizons for more in-depth treatment of this future society.

* "Cole conceived Macrolife as a possible next step in evolution, potentially as momentous as the transition from single-celled to multicelled life. Units of Macrolife, self-contained human societies in planetoid colonies or elsewhere, would have the capacity for growth, motion, reproduction, self-repair, and response to external stimuli.[12] He developed further details in his 1961 The Ultimate Human Society and in subsequent books."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dandridge_M._Cole

Friday, August 07, 2009

Power to Create Galaxies Is at Your Disposal

Only God can create galaxies with his omniscient and omnipotent mind. He has this power within himself and it is unborrowed. However, the promise does exist that we "can do all things through him [Christ] who strengthens [us.]" Phil. 4:13 [italics mine] Notwithstanding that the actual context refers to being content with abundance or lack of it, this text is often cited as a stand alone text referring to being able to surmount obstacles and being able to live a victorious Christian life, as well.

Additionally, did Jesus not promise that "if you have faith the size of a mustard seed you can say to this mountain be lifted up and transported to the heart of the seas and it will be done." Gospel of Matthew. Some say that this mountain is symbolic of obstacles and such. Well that may be. However, nothing is impossible for God. Why could not a literal mountain be transported into the heart of the seas? Stranger things have happened in our modern world. Did not a seemingly small Enola Gay aircraft deliver an even smaller device which destroyed two major Japanese cities with tragic results? How seemingly impossible would that have appeared to people living even 100 years before such a thing occurred to say nothing of those living 1000 years ago.

Several times a day Phil. 4:13 comes to mind, but it has come to lose some of its power by frequent repetition until I focused on each word and realized the amazing significance of each word. All worlds were created by Christ's power. We are promised that that same Christ, who is very God, can empower us to do all things through his limitless power.

Is there any reason why we at some point in our future experience will be prevented by this boundless power to create galaxies of our own invention? The universe is infinite. It is suggested by some theorists that we are a part of a multiverse which is also infinite. Each child of God can theoretically be enabled to create galaxies through the creative power of God.

In this mortal life the only ability we are granted is to create these future galaxies through the power of the sanctified imagination. One curious idea has suggested itself as I started this post. What if we already have this God-given power at our disposal and don't realize it? As we peer through telescopes that our God-given intelligence has enabled us to design, might we not be creating by the power of thought the very galaxies we are seeing in ever-increasing profusion and variety? God shares everything with us: life, mind, free will. Why put limits on what he is capable of sharing with us, his children?

The flip side of this wonderful God-given ability, is unfortunately at our disposal as well: the power to uncreate and to destroy. How else to account for the disasters and gross imperfections that come into play with ever-increasing frequency? Man and his free will are presently undoing the perfection that God blessed us with in creating our perfect reality. When planes fall from the sky we need not blame this catastrophe on an almost invincible demon, or even put the blame on God himself. These disasters happen because somewhere on Earth there are individuals who will these things into existence. Humanity is its own worst enemy.

Humankind can, through the enabling power of God, also be its own best friend and an agent for good. Why stop at just good? Why not redesign what is apparently broken? Everything is possible for him who believes. Start believing and through the wondrous power of God, start creating your first galaxy today.