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Following in the footsteps of the Acts of the
Apostles, written by St. Luke, Shepherd's Cross Christian Helps Ministry
exists by the grace of God to further the first century Apostolic tradition
serving in the Great Commission. |
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Part Two John Lennon Imagining Imagine If You Can
Imagine by John Lennon Imagine there's no heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people Living for today... Imagine there's no countries It isn't hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion too Imagine all the people Living life in peace... You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people Sharing all the world... You may say I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will live as one Imagine there's no Heaven It's easy if you try It may have been easy for Lennon to have once imagined there is no heaven however … even the demons believe in God —and shudder. (James 2:19) It was from heaven the Lucifer, aka Satan, the Devil and one third of the hosts of heaven were cast out. (Isaiah 14:12-15; Revelation 12:7-9 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing. In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:3-4) According to Lennon “It is easy if you try.” “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.” (Romans 1:18-20) What are they without excuse of? The Apostle, St. Paul, answers this as he continues to write; “For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened.” (Romans 1:21) Who are they whose hearts were darkened? It is those who did not honor God as God or give thanks to him. It was this action that resulted upon those that refused why their thinking became dark and within their hearts to become darkened. Continuing; “Although they claimed to be wise they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.” (Romans 1:23) This is what they did. This is what they chose. They knew and then did not honor nor were thankful. What happened then according to the Apostle, St. Paul, “Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”(Romans 1:24-25) Their thinking and hearts were first darkened then they were given over to the very lusts that were then found in their darkened hearts. Simply speaking it was because they chose to reject God. “For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.” (Romans 1:26-27) Homosexuality came into existence the first time as a result of exchanging the truth about God for a lie. Members of mankind “worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.” Homosexuality (i.e. the homosexual lifestyle experience) has never been addressed nor identified, according to Holy Writ, as having originated from an innate instinct within the creation of the human species. Holy Scripture states …“For their women exchanged the natural sexual relations for unnatural ones, and likewise the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed in their passions for one another. Men committed shameless acts with men and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.” (Romans 1:26b-27) Homosexuality is not an ethnic minority according to the Bible. It is simply the result of devolution from the state mankind first found itself in after the fall of Adam and Eve. It was simply the result of a spiraling downwards that hit bottom. Once there, the darkened thinking processes and heart of mankind exploded with what is best summarized in the following: “And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what should not be done. They are filled with every kind of unrighteousness, wickedness, covetousness, malice. They are rife with envy, murder, strife, deceit, and hostility. They are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, and insolent, arrogant, boastful, contrivers of all sorts of evil, disobedient to parents, senseless, covenant-breakers, heartless, ruthless.” (Romans 1:28-31) As Christian denominations continue to (1) accept members within their congregation who are exchanging the natural relations for those that are contrary to nature, and (2) develop and perform a sanctified religious ceremony to bring together same-sex partners who are consumed with passion for one another, these denominations will find themselves along with Romans 1:32: “…Though they know God's decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.” For John Lennon, he too practiced adultery with Yoko Ono while married to Cynthia Powell Lennon. Later during a separation with Ono, his wife Ono, chose for him a temporary lover, May Fung Yee Pang. No hell below us Above us only sky When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.' "Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?' Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (Matthew 25:31-46) Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire. (Revelation 20: 11-15) Imagine all the people Living for today Jesus’s teaching is as follows “Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life? And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not be anxious, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. "Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” The proper order however is not living for one it is living surrendered to God and not for oneself. The Apostle Paul’s appeal is by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:1-2) Adam walked and communed with his Creator, God. The goodness of God was pleasurable and tasteful to Adam’s spiritual palate. This was in Adam’s ante-fallen state. Adam took and he did eat … “when the woman saw that the tree produced fruit that was good for food, was attractive to the eye, and was desirable for making one wise, she took some of its fruit and ate it. She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it.” (Genesis 3:6) Adam did hide from God … “Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God moving about in the orchard at the breezy time of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the orchard.” (Genesis 3:8) God came looking for Adam … “But the Lord God called to the man and said to him, “Where are you?” The man replied, “I heard you moving about in the orchard, and I was afraid because I was naked, so I hid.” (Genesis 3:9) Adam, in his fallen state, abandoned the taste for God. He hid from his maker. Likewise, Lennon through Adam’s action, have inherited a palate that resists the taste for the goodness of God. In order for us to recover from this fallen state, God the Holy Spirit has to create within our human spirit a new palate that may be able to absorb the vitamins and minerals of God’s grace along with the desire for the flavor and aroma of the Divine. In order to do this we must accept a Divine blood transfusion via of the cross of the Son of David, King Messiah, the Lord Jesus – the Holy One of Israel. Imagine there's no countries Then Cain went away from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden (Genesis 4:16) It isn't hard to do Ah, the human willful practice exercising the ability to deny God, as supreme source of Life and purpose, in exchange, placing oneself as supreme pontiff of one’s own destiny. Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the LORD and against his Anointed, saying, "Let us burst their bonds apart and cast away their cords from us." (Psalm 2:1-3) Nothing to kill or die for Remember just as with the zeitgeist of hippies and the Summer of Love where as 100,000 people converged on the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood of San Francisco, in 1967, these same times produced a Charlie Manson and those that would follow him to death row, and a serial killer naming himself the Zodiac in San Francisco, among many other haters of life liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Recall the words of Edmund Burke PC (12 January 1729 – 9 July 1797), an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist, and philosopher “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.” And no religion too According to the Song God written by Lennon, God is a concept, By which we can measure, Our pain, I'll say it again, God is a concept, By which we can measure, Our pain, I don't believe in magic, I don't believe in I-ching, I don't believe in bible, I don't believe in tarot, I don't believe in Hitler, I don't believe in Jesus, I don't believe in Kennedy, I don't believe in Buddha, I don't believe in mantra, I don't believe in Gita, I don't believe in yoga, I don't believe in kings, I don't believe in Elvis, I don't believe in Zimmerman, I don't believe in Beatles, I just believe in me, Yoko and me, And that's reality. The dream is over, What can I say? The dream is over, Yesterday, I was dreamweaver, But now I'm reborn, I was the walrus, But now I'm John, And so dear friends, You just have to carry on, The dream is over. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to visit orphans and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained from the world. (James 1:26) The eminence to this passage found within the New Testament in the Epistle of James, is not the good works to visit orphans and widows in affliction, the emphasis is to keep oneself unstained from the world. Everything that makes up John Lennon is from God. Not the concept, the Eternal Being, the, I AM, Jesus Christ, God, the Word. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:1-5; Philippians 2:5-11; Hebrews 1:10) It was through the Word, God created all things. God is not like a a professional skilled fine carpenter or wood worker, who forms from matter already in existence for that would make Him a craftsman and not the creator. In Latin, Creatio ex materia (creation out of some pre-existent, eternal matter), rather, by faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible. (Hebrews 11:3) Creatio ex nihilo ("creation out of nothing"), Ex nihilo nihil fit, which means ("Out of nothing comes nothing") and creatio ex deo (creation out of the being of God) and not creatio ex materia (creation out of some pre-existent, eternal matter) from my Bible college days. Lennon’s being is from God. His subsistence, composition, personality traits and character, all that is put together to be Lennon, John Lennon, instigates from God being first cause and now he wishes to imagine God to be nothing more than a concept, an idea, a notion. O my! Imagine all the people Living life in peace "There is no peace," says the LORD, "for the wicked." (Isaiah 48:22) But the wicked are like the tossing sea; for it cannot be quiet, and its waters toss up mire and dirt. (Isaiah 57:20) The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it? (Jeremiah 17:9) But understand this that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men. (2Timothy 3:1-9) You may say that I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will be as one There is coming a serious point in time within the history of the human race whereas a great apostasy will first come and then the man of lawlessness will be revealed known also as the son of destruction. He is a real person not a political system and he will both oppose and exalt himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.(2 Thessalonians 2:3-4) This man’s arrival within history is the in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, and with all the deception of wickedness. (2 Thessalonians 2:8-10) Now concerning the times and the seasons, brothers, you have no need to have anything written to you. For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, "There is peace and security," then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.(1 Thessalonians 5:1-3) Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people Sharing all the world It forever baffles me that the rich endeavors to state comments as this one by Lennon, “imagine no possessions “… while billions discern it daily. Words, words, words, John, had you just followed, the Lord Jesus, the apostles, St Francis of Assisi rather than follow the rich young ruler. (Luke 18:18-27) Imagine this, “Lennon wrote this on a brown Steinway upright piano. In 2000, George Michael paid over $2 million for the piano that Lennon wrote this on, and then returned it to the Beatles museum in Liverpool” http://www.songfacts.com/detail.php?id=1094. A picture of the piano is located at the following webpage… http://www.songfacts.com/songimage.php?id=1094 You may say that I'm a dreamer But I'm not the only one I hope someday you'll join us And the world will live as one No, John, I just see you as a lost soul. For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. So it is no surprise if his servants, also, disguise themselves as servants of righteousness. Their end will correspond to their deeds.(2 Corinthians 11:13-15) What Lennon is asking is a bias request. In another song, cited earlier within this text, Lennon wrote at the end of the song the lyrics, after listing a litany of historical religious leaders of many faiths and traditions which included the Lord Jesus the Messiah and the Holy Bible … “I just believe in me, Yoko and me, And that's reality. The dream is over, What can I say? The dream is over, Yesterday, I was dreamweaver”… Lennon now knows the truth, the truth about heaven the truth about hell, the truth about living for oneself in the moment and the truth about the source of peace, real peace that now he will never experience for all eternity. For him it is too late to repent and experience a saving faith. And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. (Hebrews 9:27- 28) For you the reader, consider … For He says: “In an acceptable time I have heard you, And in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. (Isaiah 49:8; 2 Corinthians 6:2-5) Repent and believe on the Lord Jesus the Messiah / the Christ … And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."(Acts of the Apostles 4:12; Acts 10:43; Luke 24:47; John 20:31) What man is he that lives, and shall not see death? Shall he deliver his soul from the hand of the grave? Selah. (Psalms 89:48) Repent and Believe … Please contact us for Christian prayer and ministerial counseling … city_of_david_outreach@yahoo.com |
Shepherd's Cross Christian Helps Ministry