The End of the World?

February 1, 2012

Neosho, MO

The Glory Road Blog,

A Kingdom Highway

Given For The Saints of the World, Feb. 5, 2012.

“Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear” (Isa. 59:1).

My thanks to Elwin Roach for his enlightening article called “When Prophecies Fail” (See Link at End), and to our friend Joanne Anstine, for calling my attention to it.  He writes, “many believe that the catalyst for an imminent, worldwide meltdown has to do with the Mayan calendar that ends on this year’s winter solstice, December 21, 2012. There have been an unprecedented amount of prophecies, fearful predictions, and speculations concerning this upcoming date.”

The Mayan prophecy that the world will end on Dec. 21, 2012, has been put forth regularly for a long time now, and as Elwin notes, the voices are getting louder the closer we get to the date.  The History Channel regularly runs programs on how this doomsday event may occur, beginning with the volcano in Yellowstone going off (last time over 600,000 years ago, and due again soon, they say).  It would kill hundreds of thousands in the short term, and more millions in the long term because it would block sunlight world wide, much like what happened when the Chicxulub asteroid, landed in the waters off the Yucatan peninsula, some 65,000,000 years ago.  This catastrophic event is believed to have killed off the dinosaurs and allowed the mammals to get a foothold.

I sometimes watch these doomsday scenarios, and marvel at how addicted to fear people are. The History Channel always has a scientist follow up each radical theory to say how unlikely the event really is. However, most of the time is devoted to showing what natural disaster may take us out, once and for all ending life as we know it.

As Lenny put it the other day, the more we learn about how the earth was made, and view the exploration of the universe via NASA’s space craft which sends images back to earth,  the more we see God’s hand.  Lenny said, “I see God’s handiwork and cry, glory, glory, glory.” God thought of everything we would need before He put man on this planet.  The dinosaurs gave us oil; the carboniferous period gave us coal and diamonds; the atmosphere protects us from the sun’s harmful ultra violet rays, and on the list goes even though the History Channel gurus do not see it.  In Genesis, it’s very simply put.  God spoke the world and all that is on it and in it into existence. He said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. Many Christians are dedicated to literal and linear interpretations, which is their right.  I am not.  However God did it is fine with me, but I’m adamant that He did do it.

In Hebrews 1:2, we learn that Christ is heir of all things and through Him, the world was created. The writer informs us that  “By faith we understand that the world was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was made out of things which do not appear” (Heb. 11:3).  The question I have for those who appear to be “true believers” in the Mayan prophecy and the 12/21/2012 date, is “Why would God reveal the date of the end of the world to godless Mayans, who offered  human sacrifices to their pagan gods, and not tell His Son?” About the day that most people fear, Jesus said, “No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father” (Mk. 13:32). People apparently love to be scared, which no doubt explains the fascination with horror movies and other fear inspiring tales.

I’ve written about the end of the world and many others have as well, but we won’t change anyone’s mind who is convinced that Doomsday is an indisputable fact.  Secular folks believe science shows it is inevitable and religious folks quote Revelation, or their interpretation of it.   Fear is  the human condition, the reason the prophets, the priests and even the Law, for that matter, failed. It is why Jesus had to come in the flesh to SHOW us the Father because until we meet Him, we’ve only heard about God by the hearing of the ear, as Job put it:  “Word of you had come to my ears, but now my eye has seen you.  For this cause I give witness that what I said is false, and in sorrow I take my seat in the dust” (Job 42:5-6, BBE).  When God invades our space and floods our soul with the Light of His glory, we take our place with Job “in the dust” of our own misconceptions. We stop looking “out there” for proof of what is going to happen next, and begin to look within for His guidance and assurance and most of all, His unconditional love which holds us fast in the Everlasting arms.

In the First Century, the world SAW and FELT the POWER of almighty God as He confirmed the word in signs and wonders. Since signs and wonders have been in rather short supply since then,  most of the world only knows ABOUT God.  It takes an up close and extremely personal encounter with Christ by the Spirit, for us to KNOW Him on the cellular level.  All this is God’s problem, of course, and He who knows the end from the beginning has it all in hand.

Lenny and I had our personal Armageddon in 1997.  God sent it and He led us through it. We learned that wherever our Father is, that’s home for us. From our experience, we gained trust in God’s ability to keep us safe and secure. Throughout The Glory Road ministry, He has ALWAYS provided for our needs, so that we have learned how to live by HIS faith, rather than our sight.

The National Geographic Channel is advertising a new reality series called “Doomsday Preppers,” about folks who believe the world is coming to an end.  They are learning to live off the land, to hunt their own food, build their own shelters, and live without the aid of technology, so that when it happens, they will survive.  No doubt, it keeps them “off the street and out of bars,” but they would be ahead to listen to Isaiah and Jesus Himself, who said to the disciples before He left them,  “I am with you always, to the close of the age” (Matt. 28:20).

The end of the age Jesus spoke about happened in A.D. 70, when Titus destroyed Jerusalem and as a consequence, brought the Jewish sacrifices and priesthood to an end.  Jesus had told the disciples what to do when they saw the signs of the end of the age happening, and they heeded Him.  Josephus reported that no Christians were killed during the carnage of that time, because they had all fled as He warned them to do.  Titus no doubt thought he was going to rid the world of those pesky Jews and their offshoot sect (or, so he thought), Christians.

What He did, in fact, was to spread the Gospel through out the civilized world.  The New Testament was written in Greek, which was spoken throughout the Roman Empire, and the name of Christ was glorified wherever the fleeing Christians went.  God uses everything:  the good, the bad, and the horrific to accomplish His purpose, for as Isaiah said,  “So will my word be which goes out of my mouth: it will not come back to me with nothing done, but it will give effect to my purpose, and do that for which I have sent it” (Isa. 55:11, BBE).

Those who are hoarding food and arming themselves against the coming Armageddon would do well to put their faith in Isaiah’s comforting assurances:  “Terror will be far removed; it will not come near you.  If anyone does attack you, it will not be my doing;  whoever attacks you will surrender to you…no weapon forged against you will prevail, and you will refute every tongue that accuses you.  This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and this is their vindication from me” declares the Lord” (Isa. 54:14b-15, 17).  Glory!

For those who still fret about impending doom, the Spirit reminded me last night that God’s promise to Noah still stands:  “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.  And NEVER AGAIN will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.  As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease” (Gen. 8:21b-22).  That’s a definitive rebuttal to the doomsday prophets.  Case closed!

Father, we thank You that Your perfect love casts out our fear and sets our feet on Mount Zion.  You are our resting place, our shield and buckler, our redeemer from all things that would harm us.  Make us Light bearers and cheer bringers to a sad and terrified world who are waiting to see You so they can be like You.  They and we will praise Your name forever.  In Christ, we ask it, amen.  Jan Antonsson

Lenny and Jan Antonsson

17178 Highway 59, Neosho, MO 64850  (Snail Mail)

Here’s the link to Elwin Roach’s excellent article,

When Prophecies Fail

All our writings from 1997-2010 are on

The Glory Road

Our writings from 2010 to the present are on

The Glory Road Blog

We always enjoy hearing from you!

Jantonsson@aol.com

Looking For A City

Jan Antonsson

The Glory Road Blog,

A Kingdom Highway

Given for the Saints of the World, December 11, 2011.

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they loved not their lives unto the death” (Rev. 12:11).

The other day,  I commented to Lenny, “THIS is what IT is.” When he asked me what I meant, I explained to him, as if he hasn’t figured it out after 30 years of marriage, that I am a “task oriented” type of person.  If there’s a job, get out of my way and let me do it, for there is no rest for me until I complete it. That worked well for us in Real Estate, because we worked on commission, meaning that if an escrow did not close, we had no money.  God honored my personality quirks until it was time to show me Who was in control.  That began in 1996, and ended in 1998, when God called us from our home in California to a “far country,” (Neosho, MO).  Since that is documented in Faxes From The Fiery Furnace, I won’t repeat it here.  Suffice it to say that my orientation always was to get “this” done, whatever it was, so I could take a deep breath and rest.  Sound good?  Maybe, but the trouble is that there is always another “this” waiting in the pipeline.

The Lord reminded me that Abraham also was looking for something which he did not have:  “By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, even though he did not know where he was going. By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.  For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God” (Heb. 11:8-10).

When Stephen was speaking before the Sanhedrin, he stated, “God sent him (Abraham) to this land where you are now living. He gave him no inheritance here, not even a foot of ground. But God promised him that he and his descendants after him would possess the land, even though at that time Abraham had no child” (Acts 7:4-5).   In other words, God blessed Abraham with the fruits of the promised land, making him extremely wealthy, without giving him the deed to it. He got the title to his inheritance after he left this life!

Perhaps this is where the idea held by most Christians came from, i.e., that all the goodies God has for us are reserved for us in heaven and we cannot partake of them until we get there, or until Christ comes again, whichever comes first.  In one sense, it is, of course true, especially concerning the welfare of our physical bodies, but in a spiritual sense, it is absolutely NOT true.  I often quote Eph. 1:11 about God “working all things after the counsel of His own will” (RSV), but the King James Version is also powerful:  “In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will.” Notice the present perfect tense of the verb, “have obtained.” It refers to something already done which we may enjoy now, not after we get to heaven, and more than that, something that is continually, progressively, on-goingly being done.  What a glorious thought!

In Col. 1:12, Paul affirmed that we are  “giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified us to share in the inheritance of the saints in light.” The verb “has qualified” is also in the present perfect tense, another indication of something which is already accomplished by God in our lives.  We are even now, the “saints in light.” John asserted, “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanseth us from all sin” (I John 1:7).  Jesus not only is IN the light, He IS the light, and “in him,” Paul wrote, “we live and move, and have our being” (Acts. 17:28).  It always thrills me that the Apostle was not talking to believers here, but to pagan men who were so confused about the divine presence that they had erected a statue dedicated “to an unknown god.” The New Testament bears witness to the importance and benefits of being “in Christ” some 69 times, making a definite point that LIGHT is where we live, right now!

We hear from many people who because of adverse circumstances they face daily, do not feel like they live in the light.  Rather, it appears to them that they are stumbling around in darkness and confusion.  No matter what it looks like or feels like to our physical sense, with our spiritual eyes, we look beyond the world, the flesh, and the devil to behold Him who Is Light, and when God opens our eyes to see it, we realize that we are the recipients of the promise Isaiah made so long ago: “The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light; they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined” (Isa. 9:2).  We are those people, those saints who dwell in light, and in fact, we are the inheritance of God Himself (Eph. 1:18).  That is a powerful statement which the Spirit must gently ease us into lest we think we’ve lost our minds.

Isaiah wrote passionately about the day when the glory of the Lord would come upon His people:  “My Spirit who is on you, and my words that I have put in your mouth will not depart from your mouth, or from the mouths or your children, or from the mouths of their descendants from this time on and forever,” says the Lord” (Isa. 59:21).  Looking forward to the day when the “Way,” the “Truth,” and the “Light” would leave the portals of glory and walk the earth in human flesh, Isaiah transports us with him to the very Throne of God, as he soars into the heavenly places with these glorious words:  “Arise shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. See darkness covers the earth and thick darkness is over the peoples but the Lord rises upon you and his glory appears over you. Nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn” (Isa. 60:1-3).

The city Abraham was looking for is the Kingdom of God, which is here today.  It’s one of those blessed truths which Christians often project out into the future, but the kingdom (the city set on a hill) is here now!   Once when Jesus drove out a demon, with the result that the man who had been mute could speak, the Jews accused him of driving out demons by Beelzebub, the prince of demons.  He said to them, “But if I drive out demons by the finger of God, then the kingdom of God has come to you” (Luke 11:20).  Back when I was speaking at Medicalodge, I would tell the old dears that the evidence of the kingdom is the rule of God, and then I would ask, “Is there any place where God does not rule?” Some shook their heads “No,” but one woman held up her hand and said,  “hell.” That’s not true either, for the Psalmist  declared “If I ascend up into heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in hell, behold, Thou art there” (Ps. 139.8).  In other words, there is no place in the Universe where God isn’t, and if He is everywhere, then He reigns everywhere; He is sovereign over every person and every place, whether they know it or not.  That is the glory of the kingdom come to earth.

The Apostle John saw the city Abraham sought descending from heaven:   “And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of Heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (Rev. 21:2).  Abraham, the father of our faith has led us to the city whose builder and maker is God.

Father we worship You for the glorious gift You have given us:  Yourself. We thank You for continuously giving us victory over the darkness in our minds, for soothing our weary souls, and healing our infirm bodies. You have done this  by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of our testimony, which is:  Our God Reigns! Pour out Your Love, Mercy and Kindness IN us and THROUGH us to all who may still be walking in darkness.  At this time of year, when our days grow darker and shorter, may Your Great Light shine brighter and more glorious than ever.  In Christ we ask it, Amen. Jan Antonsson

Lenny and Jan Antonsson

17178 Highway 59, Neosho, MO 64850 (Snail Mail)

All our writings from 1997-2010 are on

The Glory Road

Scroll down to read the more recent writings which are on this blog.

We always enjoy hearing from you!

Jantonsson@aol.com

I Wonder If There Will Be Enough?

Jan Antonsson

The Glory Road Blog,

A Kingdom Highway

Given for the Saints of the world on November 20, 2011.

“I have been young, and now am old; yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken or his children begging bread” (Ps. 37:25).

“Enough of what?” the reader may wonder.  Actually, in today’s world of financial chaos from Wall Street to Main Street, it could be just about anything, from medical help to housing, employment,  food and clothing, or college tuition.  On the spiritual side of the ledger, it could be patience, tolerance, unconditional love, courage and of course, faith to deal with all of the above.  I couldn’t get to sleep one night recently, and felt led to get up and read the end of Genesis and the account of the Exodus.  As always, reading the glory of God visited on His children brought me to more trust in His perfect will and awesome power. This writing came as I was praying and meditating on the financial needs shared by a young friend of ours.  Here’s what I wrote to her:

I’m very concerned about your financial situation.  You are backed into a corner seemingly.  My experience is that God is out to reveal Himself to us and to do so, He may put us up against the Red Sea with the Egyptians hot on our heels.

I was led to reread the story of how God brought the children of Israel to Egypt, in order to deliver them from a famine which threatened them in Canaan. That miracle of provision, of course, led them eventually to being enslaved by Pharaoh, where they needed deliverance yet again.  I reread the Exodus from Egypt, accomplished by God’s mighty hand.  It never ceases to thrill me.

In order to show His power and reveal His glory, the Lord gave His children over to the taskmasters of Egypt; the human suffering was horrendous. This is a key issue with many today.  Why does God let people suffer so much before He steps in?  What does suffering have to do with anything?

To accomplish His purpose, God called Moses, who was minding his own business at the time, tending sheep on the back side of the desert.   A reluctant hero certainly, and not feeling adequate to the task in spite of the miracles God used to convince him, Moses incurred God’s wrath in the process, but he finally capitulated and went back to Egypt, using Aaron as a crutch.  You know the story about the ten plagues and God hardening Pharaoh’s heart so that he would not let the Israelites go until God had sent the angel of death over the land, killing the first born in every household which did not have blood over the door.

This final plague broke Pharaoh’s will and he commanded Moses to get out!  God had told Moses to instruct the people to borrow gold, silver and clothing from their Egyptian neighbors, which they did.  Having eaten the Passover as the death angel flew over Egypt, they were warned to eat this feast of unleavened bread, “with your cloak tucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand.  Eat it in haste; it is the Lord’s Passover” (Ex. 12:11).  God’s mandate about this feast was “Celebrate the Feast of Unleavened Bread, because it was on this very day that I brought your divisions out of Egypt.  Celebrate this day as a lasting ordinance for the generations to come” (Ex. 12:17-18).  The newly freed slaves gathered in their tribal units and under Moses’ leadership, went out of Egypt with their flocks and herds, and all their possessions. Leaving the place of bondage, suffering, lack and fear, 600,000 men plus women and children, followed Moses to the Promised Land, full of hope and joy in their freedom.

Their joy was short lived, however, when they realized that Pharaoh’s army was hot on their heels; they howled in fear, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die?  What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?    Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians?  It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!’” (Ex. 14:10-12). This is a perfect snapshot of the human condition.  When pressed by danger or extreme duress, we often collapse in a heap and give ourselves up for lost, crying “Woe is me, Woe is me.”

Moses’ words to them at this critical moment have always moved me deep in my Spirit as I have experienced some of this glory myself on a lesser scale.  He said,  “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today, you will never see again. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still” (Vs. 13-14).

God had prepared them for the moment of His glory and He asked Moses,

“Why are you crying out to me? Tell the Israelites to move on. Raise your staff and stretch out your hand over the sea to divide the water so that the Israelites can go through the sea on dry ground.  I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians so that they will go in after them.  And I will gain glory through Pharaoh and all his army through his chariots and his horsemen. The Egyptians will know that I am the Lord when I gain glory through Pharaoh, his chariots and his horsemen” (Vs. 15-18).  I would paraphrase this as “Quit your whining.  I’m in charge here and I  have it handled.” Been there, heard that.

Like Israel, I have often noticed that it is not until I’m desperately afraid of what will happen that God delivers me, but only after I’ve given up my struggle to save myself.  Uncomfortable as it is at the time we’re going through it, the purpose of suffering is usually to convince us to surrender our will to God’s.

When He cut off our income in California, causing us to lose our credit, our business and our house, I knew by the Spirit that He wasn’t out to kill us but to show His glory in our lives.  He had sufficiently shown me that He was in charge so that I never panicked during the long ordeal.  I didn’t like it, but I knew who sent the situation which made all the difference.

When God brought us here in 1998, for Lenny to be a light and a witness to that group of men in the Baptist Sunday School class,  we had no idea He would keep us here.  Lenny’s assignment is “on hold” right now, but the Lord had another reason for bringing us here. He loves my mother very much and He knew she would need us even if she didn’t think she needed anyone.  The “Sword of the Spirit” always cuts two ways,  and though we struggled financially, God always provided for us, mainly with love offerings from readers.

One time, for instance, we needed to get Lenny to the Kaiser Permanente doctor in Kansas City, but the old Lincoln’s transmission went out and we had no way to get there.  He took the car to the transmission shop to have it repaired.  The mechanic was in the men’s Sunday School class and he gave us a huge break by only charging us $600. That was a lot of money to us, but we had a credit card and put the charge on that, something we were loathe to do.

Lenny got a ride over to pick up the car when it was finished.  He had to take it for inspection in order to get the tags renewed and they found a problem in the exhaust system.   That cost an additional $100 to repair.

Even as I wondered how we would EVER get it paid off, I went to the mail box and there was a check from a Glory Road reader for $700, the total amount of our debt! No one but the Lord knew of our predicament.   Once more, the Holy One of Israel proved He is still taking care of the “sons of Levi.”

This was just one of the many things God did to show us that truly, we need only “Stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today.”

God is our ever present source of everything.  I don’t know how, but I do know in my Spirit that what seems insurmountable to you and to me right now, will be overcome as our Abba steps in to show us His glory and His unconditional love. His purpose in our lives is being revealed and all we need do is ask Him to open our eyes to see it.

God is our protecter and our provider as well.  One of the names for God is El Shaddai, meaning “the many breasted one.” When we are beset by trouble, we take courage from the golden promises of scripture, like this one: “I sought the LORD, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears” (Ps. 34:4).  Isaiah gives us God’s golden promise to Israel, which we are spiritually:  “But now thus says the LORD, he who created you, O Jacob, he who formed you, O Israel: “Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name, you are mine.  When you pass through the waters I will be with you; and through the rivers, they shall not overwhelm you; when you walk through fire you shall not be burned, and the flame shall not consume you” (Isa. 43:1-2).  How glorious is that?

The answer to the question posed by this essay, “I wonder if there will be enough?” is YES! God keeps His promises.  “For all the promises of God in Him are “yea”; and in Him “amen” unto the glory of God by us” (II Cor. 1:20, KJV).  I was compelled to get out of bed about midnight recently and look up the scripture in which God said to Abram “Do not be afraid, Abram.  I am your shield, your very GREAT REWARD” (Gen. 15:1).  That God called Himself a “great reward” has always struck me as awesome since by that time, “Abram had become very wealthy in livestock and in silver and gold” (Gen. 13:2).  We may look at our pantry, our bank account, our vehicle, our wardrobe, or our living quarters, and think “It’s not enough,” but when HE opens our eyes to see that we have the Living God, the Most High as our shield and buckler, our provider, the lover of our soul, we can relax knowing that somehow, someway, probably when we least expect it, He will come through for us and we will see that the ordeal was for our good and His glory.

Father, we fall on our faces before you in worship as we contemplate the blessings of provision and freedom from the slavery that fear binds upon us.  We know that You depend not upon us, but upon the strength of Your own right arm to accomplish Your perfect will, and You cannot fail. You cover our fears with Your unconditional love and reveal Your glory in us and through us.  May your Light shine through us to dispel the darkness in us and through us to those we meet. Amen.  Jan Antonsson

Lenny and Jan Antonsson

17178 Highway 59, Neosho, MO 64850 (Snail Mail)

Our writings from 1997-2010 are on

The Glory Road

Our writings from January, 2011 until now are on this blog.  Scroll down to read them.

We always enjoy hearing from you:

Jantonsson@aol.com

The Gospel Distilled From A Cat?

Jan Antonsson

The Glory Road Blog,

A Kingdom Highway

Given for the Saints of the World on 11/6/11

“He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:5).

For those of you who think no good thing can come from a cat, think again.  God spoke to Balaam through his ass, and He “spoke” to me through a cat.    We live in a 5th wheel on the family farm, next to the barn.  My mother is in the farm house now, with my sister as her care giver, and Lenny and I are about 300 ft. West of them.  There must be a sign out there on Highway 59, in front of the house, which reads, “Suckers live here,” because people dump their unwanted cats for us to find and deal with.  We now have 4, count them, FOUR kitties who have come to be part of our family.  The last addition, several years ago was a beautiful male cat, to whom we gave the not so original name of Tom.

Tom was a lean, mean, fighting machine who drove off other feral males trying to get at our females.  Unlike most feral males, he was very relational, very easy going with us and he fit in quite well.  We had him neutered and that stopped his roaming, if not all of his amorous thoughts.  He has watched over and protected our females like the mini “lion king” which he aspires to be.

Last week, I heard Baby, our oldest female, screaming outside and ran out to see Tom and a giant yellow male cat nose to nose, growling and hissing at each other.  I got Baby out of the line of fire, and went back to see what I could do to run the yellow cat off.  He wouldn’t budge. The yowling and howling amazed me  because cats have the most incredible vocalizations I’ve ever heard.  Since he wasn’t going to leave without encouragement, I got the spare cane Lenny keeps outside and whacked him a good one over the head.  He didn’t respond in any way, but Tom saw his opportunity and leaped on the yellow cat.  They fought and screamed, yowling, hissing, howling, and rolling, end over end, down the little hill into the weeds below.  There they sat, noses about 6” apart, continuing to growl and make horrible threatening noises.

I finally went back inside, though I checked in on the fight scene several more times.  At last, the yellow intruder decided this was a bad deal and slunk off to find some Tylenol for his head ache.

Tom was moving mighty slow and walked like I do when I get up with my back in spasm.  Time moved on, and this week, Lenny saw a cat outside two days ago, but couldn’t tell what color it was because it was dark and his vision is so poor.  When we got Tom in for the night, we realized that he was really hurt, crying in pain. We determined to bring him to the vet the next day, which we did.

He had an abscess on his neck which the vet cleaned and drained.  She gave him an antibiotic shot and some pain meds and Lenny and I brought him home and put him gently on a pad so he could rest.  As I write this, he is sleeping on Lenny’s lap, who himself is sleeping in his Lazy-Boy recliner.

What has this to do with the gospel?  Simply this.  Tom is a male cat, and neutered or not, he has been preprogrammed by genetics and God’s providence to defend his territory and his females to insure that the species may continue. He can’t help what he does because he does what he was created to do.

As I was pondering that, it flashed through my spirit that this is what Paul meant in Romans 11:32 (finally we get to the gospel), when he wrote: “For God consigned (penned up) ALL men to disobedience that He may have mercy upon ALL” I have quoted this verse nine million, five thousand, three hundred and seventy-two times, but it never ceases to thrill and move me.

What Paul is saying there is that we have been genetically preprogrammed to sin, to fail.  Yes, Adam and Eve started it by disobeying God and eating the fruit of the forbidden tree, the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but WHO put the tree there in the first place?  WHO put the serpent there to point out its alleged virtues to them?  WHO caused them to sin?  It was the ONE who “knows the End from the Beginning,” the one who said “There is no god besides me. I put to death and I bring to life, I have wounded and I will heal, and no one can deliver out of my hand” (Deut. 32:39).  Isaiah said of Him:  “I am the Lord, and there is no other.  I form the light and create darkness. I bring prosperity and create disaster, I, the Lord, do all these things” (Isa. 45:6-7).

And the prophet Amos declared, “When a trumpet sounds in a city, do not the people tremble?  When disaster comes to a city has not the Lord caused it?” (Amos 3:6).   This, of course, flies in the face of religion’s decrees that everything is man’s fault and if he repents and seeks God, then and only then can He do right and be assured of salvation.  The Law of Moses set forth the most beautiful set of rules ever written for living a successful, peaceful, righteous life.  However, since no one but Jesus could keep them, it didn’t bring the desired result mankind has longed for and continuously failed to achieve.

One more thought about our predisposition to fail and that is that if God had not intended to save everyone, then He would be the monster apparently Calvin thought He is, because according to the Calvin’s theology, a part of mankind is predestined to be saved and another part predestined to go to hell, no matter what they do or don’t do. Paul plainly said that God consigned ALL to disobedience so that He may have MERCY upon ALL!

The definition of insanity is to continue to do over and over again, what has failed in the past expecting a different result.  There can be no different result from what God has ordained.  Are we robots?  Do we have any say in the matter?  “No” to the first question, because what glory would our Father get from robotic obedience?  And “No” to the second question as well, because what glory would our Father get if we could save ourselves by choosing good over evil, righteous living over sin?  No worries there, because after some 1,500 years of trying and failing to live by the Law of Moses, and after another 2,000 years of trying and failing to live up to religion’s decrees, surely we get it that we just can’t do it.

This is not a downer, a bad news sort of thing, nor am I condoning sin and excusing evil.  Where did evil come from?  God created all things, and that this includes evil is an inescapable conclusion. Paul wrote, “for in him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or authorities, all things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together” (Col. 1:16-17).  If we look at evil as an end in itself, that’s a rough pill to swallow, but if we look at evil as merely one more tool God has to bring us to Himself, then the brilliance of His eternal plan of salvation begins to unfold for us.  He created everything that was created and He uses EVERYTHING to reveal His power and might and majesty TO us and IN us and THROUGH us and FROM us.

There is NOTHING more glorious than “the GOSPEL, which is the POWER of God for salvation to every one who has faith, to the Jew (believer) first and also to the Greek (unbeliever)” (Rom. 1:16).

We were destined to fail and fall short of the glory of God from the moment Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, but that is NOT the horrible news it may seem.  Finding, as we have by millenniums of trial and error, that our efforts were doomed from the getgo, at last, we turn to the only solace there is in the Universe, God Himself.  Christ left the portals of glory to come here and be birthed in blood and human suffering.  Paul said of Him, “who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even death on a cross” (Phil. 2:6).  We, who would be followers of Christ, children of God, continually find ourselves on the cross of our own ambitions, our failures, and our inability to ever get it right.

When we see His eternal plan unfolding in our lives, giving us the eternal victory in our Lord Jesus Christ, we fall on our faces in worship, and cry with all creation,  “Worthy art thou, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for thou didst create all things, and by thy will they existed and were created” (Rev. 4:11).

No longer counted as miserable creatures, preprogrammed for failure, we are reckoned righteous in CHRIST by God (Rom. 4:3),  “seated in heavenly places” with Christ Jesus our Lord, to whom God has given “the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus EVERY knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and EVERY tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Col. 1:9-11). Our “consignment” to disobedience was temporal, but our predestination as righteous sons of God is eternal: “He destined us in love to be his sons through Jesus Christ, according to the purpose of his will, to the praise of his glorious grace which he freely bestowed on us in the Beloved” (Eph. 1:5-6).  Because Christ came to live within us, He has given us the victory which overcomes the world.  Father, we give You praise and honor and glory and thanksgiving, now and forever.  And say we all,   Amen.   Jan Antonsson

Lenny and Jan Antonsson

17178 Highway 59, Neosho, MO 64850 (Snail Mail)

All our writings from 1997-2010 are on

The Glory Road

Our writings from Jan. 2011 are here.  Scroll Down.

We always enjoy hearing from you!

Jantonsson@aol.com

Your Warfare Is Ended!

Jan Antonsson

The Glory Road Blog, A Kingdom Highway

Given for the Saints of the world, on October 9, 2011.

“Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and cry to her that her warfare is ended, that her iniquity is pardoned, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins” (Isa. 40:1-2).

Isaiah is my favorite Old Testament Prophet because he never left God’s people in panic mode or fear that God had deserted them.  He railed against their sins, their lack of trust in God, and their faithlessness, but over against that, he comforted Israel by assuring them that He who knows the end from the beginning has it all under control; He knows what He is doing, and His word WILL be fulfilled:  “So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it” (Isa. 55:11).

Isaiah is still speaking that word to us today, when God opens our ears to hear it and our eyes to see it.  I had said to a friend recently that I’m exhausted; I’ve “shot my wad.” When she asked what that means, I told her it refers, I think, to the wadding which was placed into either cannons or old fashioned firearms.  Or maybe it refers to the cannon balls themselves.  Either way, when you’ve shot your last wad, you’re out of ammo and might as well fly the white flag because you’re done!  This morning, we were listening to the beautiful aria from Handel’s “Messiah”: “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people.” When I heard, “Speak ye comfortably to Jerusalem, and cry unto her, that her warfare is accomplished,” I knew by the Spirit that God was speaking to me personally. He was telling me to lay down my arms and rest in Him.

I had been feeling for some time that death is stalking the farm.  My beloved mother is old and full of days.  She has exhausted herself in “fighting the good fight,” until her mind and body can barely continue on.  I am not ready for her to cross Jordan, and because of my particular (or peculiar) personality, I want to take up the sword and fight “the last enemy,” telling it “Begone!  You shall not have her.  She rests under the protection of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

There is a time to fight, of course, else Paul would not have advised us to put on the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation and the sword of the spirit (Eph.  6:16-17).  When my daddy lay dying in the hospital decades ago, we took turns sitting up with him.  I well remember the same dynamic as I sat on the edge of his hospital bed, reading aloud the glorious scriptures of the faith, the promises of Victory in Jesus, the healing power of the Spirit, that by His stripes we would be healed. I was much younger then and pursued my agenda with more zeal than knowledge.  With age comes wisdom and trust in God’s sovereignty.

Our dear friends John and Jan Gavazzoni passed through Joplin, MO, on their way back to California and we had lunch with them last week.  It is always wonderful to fellowship with those who share our vision and with whom we’ve walked a long way together.

Sunday morning, when I realized God was telling me my warfare is ended, I thought about one of John’s most quotable quotes:  “Thinking it his finest hour, the devil crucified the Son of Glory, and in so doing, he brought salvation to the whole world.” Paul calls death, “the last enemy,” and yet, though we want to fight and scream and drag our loved one away from the thief who robs us of their company, we realize at last, that to be away from the body is to be at home with the Lord, and when it is our time to take that step, it really is more glorious than sad.  This is especially true when the friend is suffering physical agonies which  medical science cannot reverse, and God has said, “Enough, faithful Saint.  Come unto me all ye who are weary and heavy laden, for I will give you rest.”

I have been talking to two men via e-mail who think God hates them and they are bound for hell.  My relentless push has been for them to lay down their own self efforts, their struggles, and give up counting on their own works to save them.  God’s works were finished from the foundation of the world.  The gospel of Christ is the shining result of His efforts. It IS the power of salvation both for the Jew (the believer) and the Greek (the unbeliever).  Man has been trying to imitate God’s works from the beginning, starting with Eve and Adam who discounted His word wherein they were protected, and had all needs met.  Instead, they opted to follow a mirage:  the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

That tree, when you stop and think of it, is symbolic of all religious practices.  It offers the tantalizing fruit called the KNOWLEDGE of good and evil.  The myth is that once you know good from evil, the difference between right and wrong, you can please God.  That worked not at all for Adam and Eve, who brought death into the world for themselves and for all of us as well.  It is only by the Tree of Life, Christ Himself, that we live.  “For as by a man came death, by a man has come also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive” (I Cor. 15:21-22).  Adam chose to live by religion, i.e., knowing good from evil and trying to do what’s right, while avoiding what’s wrong.  That choice plunged us all into sin and death.

We’re older and wiser now, having watched our Father at work throughout our lives and throughout history as well.  Being the Master of our fate and the Captain of our soul was a myth when Adam practiced it and it is still the height of delusion.

Paul wrote at length in Romans, chapter seven, about the folly of depending upon ourselves to do what is right, moaning, “when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand” (Vs. 21).  He refers to his internal struggle as WARFARE: “but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?” (Vs. 23-24).  We remember that after sinking into the pit of despair brought on by self-effort, Paul bursts forth gloriously in chapter eight: “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom. 8:1-2).

Paul wrote,  “The last enemy to be destroyed is death” (I Cor. 15:26).  Jesus has already conquered spiritual death.  He raided the charnel house of Sheol after His death on the cross and preached the gospel to the disobedient souls of Noah’s day. Peter begins that glorious thought by saying  “For Christ also died for sins once for ALL, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit” (I Pet. 3:18). Paul affirmed that “The death he died he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives he lives to God” (Rom. 6:10).

Physical death still stakes a claim on our bodies, but the time is coming when that shall cease, a time when Christ will have defeated every enemy. “Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death….When all things are subjected to him, then the Son himself will also be subjected to him (God) who put all things under him, that God may be everything to every one” (I Cor. 15:24-26,28).  What a time of rejoicing that will be when God is EVERYTHING to EVERY ONE!

Father, as we struggle through the valleys, pursued by the shadow of death, we will fear no evil, not even death, for Your rod and Your staff protect and comfort us.  You make us to lie down in green pastures beside the still waters.  You anoint our heads with oil.  Surely goodness and mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives and we shall dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  Amen and amen.  Jan Antonsson

Lenny and Jan Antonsson

17178 Highway 59, Neosho, MO 64850  (Snail Mail)

Our writings from 1997-2010 are on

The Glory Road

Our writings from 2011 are on this blog.  Scroll down to read them.

We always enjoy hearing from you.

Jantonsson@aol.com

Power in His Rest

Jan Austin Antonsson

The Glory Road Blog, A Kingdom Highway

Given for the Saints of the World on 9/25/11

“My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest” (Ex. 33:14).

About last week’s writing,  “The Lord’s Gold,” a friend commented, “it reminds me of His nature in us (the Gold) and His full redemption of us (the Silver).  It’s all of Him and belongs to Him; may our rising and shining reflect only His beautiful silver and gold.  To God be the glory!” Her thoughts prompted me to reply, “He gets all the glory because He has all the responsibility for everything and I am so relieved to know that, thinking all those years that somehow it was up to me.   Power in His rest is a grand way to live.” She wrote back that the phrase “power in His rest” sounded like a title.  And so it does.

God has many ways to help us enter His rest, which isn’t easy to do.  There’s an enlightening comment in Hebrews where the writer declares that “those who formerly had the gospel preached to them did not go in because of their disobedience” (Heb. 4:7).  Speaking of those who disobeyed under the Law, the writer says they had the gospel preached to them.  That reminds us of Paul’s assertion:  “The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, and announced the gospel in advance to Abraham.” What was that gospel?  That all nations would be blessed in Abraham’s seed (Gal. 3:8).

We all know that the gospel came through Christ, rather than by the Law: “For if Joshua had given them rest, God would not have spoken later about another day.  There remains, then a Sabbath rest for the people of God, for anyone who enters God’s rest also rests from his own work, just as God did from his. Let us, therefore make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one will fall by following their example of disobedience” (Heb. 4: 8-10).  The King James Version renders the thought, “Let us labor therefore, to enter into that rest.” That really almost seems like an “oxymoron,” a contradiction, doesn’t it?

I bear witness to the difficulty of entering into rest, and in fact, usually don’t get there until I have struggled to the end of my strength, collapsing at the feet of the Lord in defeat. He has His inexorable means of bringing us to the end of ourselves so that there is nothing left but His will, His might, His power and His grace and unconditional love to see us through.  Like Zerubbabel, we may have to exhaust ourselves in self effort before hearing the blessed words, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts” (Zech. 4:6).

Whatever our situation, or our particular personality “quirks,” we can rest in the knowledge that “the word of God is living and active.  Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. NOTHING in all creation is hidden from God’s sight. EVERYTHING is uncovered and laid bare before the eyes of him to whom we must give account” (Heb. 4:12-13).  To those living under Law, in the time of Moses or in many churches today, those words are terrifying, because many have been convinced that how God sees them depends entirely upon them, their works, their thoughts, their prayers, their Bible study, their avoidance of sin.

I was brought up that way, laboring under the misinformation that everything depended upon me. We had a young, zealous minister who warned us young people that God would not tolerate evil thoughts, smoking, drinking, dancing, cheating, lying, sex before marriage, “mixed bathing” and many more things.  I was too afraid of God to do any of those things, except swimming,  but still there was fear, because what if I slipped up and sinned in spite of my best efforts?  There was a greased chute leading to hell and I knew it was a quick trip down there.  When you always wonder if your ticket to the hot place has been punched already, there’s no way you can rest.  You have to keep working, praying and worrying.

We have been dialoguing with a young man who feared hell so much that he became convinced there was no hope for him.  His depression blanketed him like a shroud so that he couldn’t even hold a job.  Someone shared with him the revelation that many of us have been blessed with that God will eventually save everyone.  He relaxed for a while, but something triggered his fear again and he went down for the count harder than before, because now, he figured he would burn in a hotter flame for the dangerous thoughts that he had entertained, ideas which went against all he had learned in church.  Our young friend plunged down the chute into the bowels of hell on earth and suffered agonies beyond description.

This dialogue has been going on for several months,  and after sharing the gospel of God’s unconditional love with him to the best of my poor ability, and having no positive result, other than his desire to hear from Jesus Himself, I told him that I would agree with him in prayer that Jesus would call him personally in a way that he could no longer deny.  That is God’s job, not ours.  We can testify about how Christ enriches our life, but it truly is up to HIM to make it real, bring it home for the person searching.  Again, the Hebrew writer promised that God is a “rewarder of those who seek Him” (Heb. 11:6). What Lenny and I have come to is that we can trust in His ability to accomplish His own will.  He is “not willing that any should perish but that all should reach repentance” (II Pet. 3:9).  Since He “works all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph. 1:11), we can rest because unlike us, He cannot fail!

Our young friend’s dilemma is NOT a moral failure, nor a lack of faith. In fact, it may be a chemical imbalance of the brain.  Whatever it is, the only one who can fix it and soothe his soul already engulfed in the flames of hell, is the Lord Himself.  The “hell” Jesus warned about was Gehenna, a physical location on this earth, not an eternal one. Likewise, people are in the hellish fires of fear and doubt on earth NOW, awaiting the deliverer.  Our friend and many, many others, needs the faith of Christ, not my faith or Lenny’s or anyone’s.  Only God can impart Himself into this young man so that he sees it and tastes it and feels it.  He has not entered into rest because of unbelief, but I have come to see that this is God’s problem, not his.

“For GOD consigned (penned up) all men to disobedience that He may have mercy upon all” (Rom. 11:32).  To me, that is my ticket into heaven (spirit) wherein I may rest, not upon my works, but upon Gods, which the Hebrew writer assures us were  “finished from the foundation of the world” (Heb. 4:3).

We recently “met” online a precious woman from Switzerland, a delightful treasure who exudes love and joy in the Lord in spite of great physical problems in her life.    Her conclusion after reading articles on our website was,   “LET GOD HAVE HIS WAY.” He knows what He does.  Since I learned that God created the bad side as well as the good one in humans, and that He will save everyone, I’m liberated. The devil is on a dog’s leash in God’s hand. He can do nothing without God’s approval. And we have to go through suffering. How else would we appreciate the freedom from suffering. And how else can God change us from the inside. He works in us when we suffer.  It is better when we let Him do what He wants.” End Quote.

She said to me “God walks in your shoes.” That blessed me so much, that I am led to say to you, dear readers, “and God walks in your shoes as well.” This woman has been led by the Spirit to enter into rest, having found that by leaving it all to God, His power comes through.  Where is the power?  As He said to Moses, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” It is only in His presence that we can rest. And by the way, entering into rest does not mean we sit back and do nothing.  It means that He empowers us to do His will.

Father, help us to enter into Your rest wherein we receive power to overcome all things. In that blessed place, we celebrate Your love, Your grace, Your deliverance, and the ability to share You with everyone we meet. You are the beginning and the end, the be all and end all of all things and all peoples.  We worship and praise You, now and forever.  Amen.  Jan Antonsson

Lenny and Jan Antonsson

17178 Highway 59, Neosho, MO 64850 (Snail Mail)

All our writings from 1997-2010 are on

The Glory Road

Our writings for 2011 are on this blog (scroll down to see them).

We always enjoy hearing from you.

Jantonsson@aol.com

The Lord’s Gold

Jan Austin Antonsson

The Glory Road Blog, A Kingdom Highway

Given for the Saints of the world, 9/18/11.

“The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts” (Hag. 2:8).

As the economy has bumped and groaned along, now falling, now rising a bit only to fall further, like a lot of you, I have noticed that the price of Gold has steadily risen.  There’s a Jewelry store up near where we grocery shop which keeps a running daily total of the price of “spot gold,” and when I saw the price go above $1,500 a few months ago, I was intrigued because a cousin had sold some gold jewelry for a LOT more than she paid for it.  Another friend has invested in gold coins and he referred me to a website where I could check out for myself what’s going on.

No, this is not a treatise on the gold standard or any other economic condition, because I’m not interested and not qualified to speak about that, but when I watched a little video on the website (kitco.com) showing how they melt down the rocks to extract the gold, and once it is as pure as they can get it, they pour it up into gold ingots, I knew a writing was coming.  The heat must be fantastic to produce such a result.  The men who check the furnaces and pour up the gold have to wear full body suits with face masks and heavy gloves to prevent death or injury.

That, of course, reminded me of Mal. 3, where the last prophet to speak in the Old Testament wrote, “Behold, I send my messenger to prepare the way before me, and the Lord whom you seek will suddenly come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant in whom you delight, behold, he is coming, says the LORD of hosts.” About this messenger, he warns, “But who can endure the day of his coming, and who can stand when he appears? “For he is like a refiner’s fire and like fullers’ soap; he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi and refine them like gold and silver, till they present right offerings to the LORD” (Mal. 3:1-3). This metaphor of God being a refiner’s fire has always struck me forcefully, especially in light of the Hebrew writer’s assertion that “our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29).

There are many references to the fire and heat of God in our lives, which prompted the title of the book I wrote, “Faxes From the Fiery Furnace.” I’ve been through so many rounds in the furnace, or blasts from the Holy Spirit’s “blow torch,” name your metaphor, that I have said, “Parts of me are pure gold.” I am reminded of that when stressors come, as they inevitably do to us or to people we love.  The Lord made me smile when He replied to my recent whining (some call it prayer), by observing, “A lot more of you is pure gold now.” He knew that would jerk me out of my self pity or whatever it was at work.

I know that He certainly did NOT mean that He’ll keep on with the cleansing fire until my flesh is pure.  There wouldn’t be much left of me if that were His meaning.  What it is, I believe, is that the fire allows us to see the pure gold in ourselves and each other, and realize who we are in Him and who He is in us. He is the gold in each of us, and we are God’s gold.  And, we ARE the “sons of Levi,” who will be refined.  It’s as simple as that.

The History Channel did a piece recently in which they postulated that gold, which is an element, was part of the cosmic dust which came together to form this earth.  When the tectonic plates shifted in North America (the Pacific Plate is plunging beneath the North American Plate), causing earth quakes and  volcanic eruptions, the gold was carried closer to the surface.  Gold veins run North to South along this plate line, and they can determine this because of advanced methods of using satellite technology to “see” the gold trapped in the rock. This treasure isn’t in chunks or nuggets for which the miners used to pan the streams around Sutter’s mill, but rather is in microscopic specks captured within the rocks.

Along this plate line, which can be seen from space, there’s a huge gold mining outfit somewhere along the fault line,  where they have excavated millions of tons of earth.  They dig it up, truck it to the furnaces and melt the rocks down, extracting the gold.  As you might imagine, it is a vast and unbelievably expensive operation because of the amount of rock which has to be processed, transported to the smelter, and melted down, but it is worth it because as the paper money used in the world loses its value from inflation or other financial malady, the value of gold has sky rocketed this year alone.

As I write this, “spot gold” (the value of gold as it comes out of the ground, before it is molded into bars or coins) is $1,813 an ounce!  It is projected to get to over $2,000 by the end of the year. Whether it does or not is not the point of this essay.  When God put the elements into the earth as part of His creative process, He knew that the yellow metal would be sought after and even worshipped by various cultures.  He says it all belongs to Him.  Like everything else, man’s ideas about what is his and what is God’s are delusional.  But I assure you that God loves and desires us more than anyone ever loved and desired gold.

The prophet Haggai put his comments about the Lord’s ownership of gold and silver in this context:   “Once again, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land;  and I will shake all nations, so that the treasures of all nations shall come in, and I will fill this house with splendor, says the LORD of hosts. The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, says the LORD of hosts” (Ha. 2:6-8).  Clearly, the Lord is shaking the whole world.

Why? To refine the Lord’s gold, which we are, “sons of Levi” all. Referencing Haggai, the Hebrew writer concludes: “His voice then shook the earth; but now he has promised, “Yet once more I will shake not only the earth but also the heaven.” This phrase, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of what is shaken, as of what has been made, in order that what cannot be shaken may remain. Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:26-29).

The kingdom of God is the only thing which cannot be shaken, and God is manifesting this kingdom today, here on earth. Jesus said that the kingdom is among us or in us, depending on the translation.  He is building it from “living stones” Peter wrote, which we are: “and like living stones be yourselves built into a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For it stands in scripture: “Behold, I am laying in Zion a stone, a cornerstone chosen and precious, and he who believes in him will not be put to shame” (I Pet. 2:5-6).  Those are glorious words my friends.  We ARE the living stones, God’s gold and silver, in whom He is preparing an edifice which reflects His glory.

How that will manifest or when, is above my pay grade to know, but we remember that Paul said we are “predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren. And those whom he predestined he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified” (Rom. 8:29-30).  Molten gold is poured into molds to form ingots, and we are poured into the mold which is Christ Himself!  In case we miss the glorious truth that it is God who called, justified and glorified us, not our works, but God alone, Paul ends with this oh so comforting thought: “What then shall we say to this? If God is for us, who is against us?” (Vs. 31).

Father we fall on our faces in worship before Your Throne.  You alone have brought us into relationship with You and You alone will keep us from falling, and present us spotless “before the presence of Your glory with rejoicing, to the only God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and for ever” (Jude 24-25).  And we all say, Amen and amen.  Jan Antonsson

Lenny and Jan Antonsson

17178 Highway 59, Neosho, MO 64850 (Snail Mail)

All our writings from 1997-2010 are on The Glory Road

Writings from 2011 onward on on this blog. We enjoy hearing from you.  Write to us at

JAntonsson@aol.com

Death Defeated!

Jan Antonsson

The Glory Road Blog,

A Kingdom Highway

Given for the Saints of the world on 6/12/11.

“So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day” (II Cor. 4:16).

Last week, the Blog title was “Life” and today, it is “Death Defeated.” Aren’t they the same thing?  In the spiritual sense, they are the same.  We have life because Jesus overcame death and imparted Eternal Life to us.  On the other hand, though He may heal us of our diseases, death still haunts us.  You remember that King Hezekiah was given a death sentence by the prophet Isaiah who told him to “Set your house in order; for you shall die, you shall not recover” (II Kings 20:1).   It wasn’t the good news he was seeking.  He turned his face to the wall and begged God in tears to spare his life.

Isaiah was still in the court yard of the palace when the word of the Lord came to him, reversing his previous prophecy:   “Turn back, and say to Hezekiah the prince of my people, Thus says the LORD, the God of David your father: I have heard your prayer, I have seen your tears; behold, I will heal you; on the third day you shall go up to the house of the LORD.  And I will add fifteen years to your life. I will deliver you and this city out of the hand of the king of Assyria, and I will defend this city for my own sake and for my servant David’s sake” (Vs. 5-6).

It is interesting to me that Hezekiah believed Isaiah when he gave him bad news in the beginning, but when the prophet came back and said God had granted him 15 more years, the King wanted a sign.  Sigh.  That’s part of the human condition, I suppose, always thinking the worst thing that can happen will happen and doubting God’s ability to perform His word.  The sign was that the sun dial would be turned back ten degrees. Isaiah prayed and God made it happen.  Only then did Hezekiah believe.

The point here is that the King got a miracle of healing, like so many others in the Old and New Testaments, but when his fifteen years were up, he died and was buried with his fathers (Vs. 21).  His son Manasseh, who reigned in his stead, was perhaps the most wicked king to rule over Judah, and that’s saying a lot!

We’ve all marveled at the awesome healings done by Jesus, and longed to see that healing power unleashed in the world today, and yet people who have been healed, still sicken and die, just as Lazarus eventually died together with the lame man healed by the Pool of Bethesda, and the son of the widow in Nain.  For as glorious as these healings were, the recipients thereof all died.  Jesus promised, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (John 5:25).

He told the woman at Jacob’s well:  “Every one who drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:13-14).  Many of you have been through close calls with the grim reaper, and have lived to tell the tale rejoicing.  Many others are “circling the drain” health wise, which sometimes describes my darling Lenny, and yet the life of Christ within is what keeps him and others going.  God has granted him the faith to believe what we both heard, “Change is coming.” I hope that means healing because it would seem difficult to spread the gospel of God’s power to deliver us when the body is compromised.  That, of course, is Jan’s take on it, respectfully said, knowing that God works “all things after the counsel of His own will” (Eph. 1:11). And also, I believe Paul’s testimony that God’s grace is sufficient; “for my strength is made perfect in weakness” (II Cor. 12:9).

The Corinthians had lots of problems, both spiritual and physical.  To them, Paul wrote one of my favorite passages,  “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer nature is wasting away, our inner nature is being renewed every day. For this slight momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, because we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen; for the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (II Cor. 4:16-18).  Many of our afflictions feel more than slight, but Paul’s answer of looking to the Spirit (unseen) rather than to the flesh for aid and succor still stands the test of viability today.

Jesus was also strength made perfect in weakness:  “For he was crucified in weakness, but lives by the power of God. For we are weak in him, but in dealing with you we shall live with him by the power of God” (II Cor. 13:4).

The reason death is on my mind today is a gruesome find we made in the barn this week.  The source of the smell of decay which was getting stronger by the hour was a stray cat which had gone into the barn to die.  We found its mortality being eaten by maggots.  Sorry to leave you with that ghastly image, which I can scarcely get out of my mind, but it struck me as the fuel and power of our fear of death. God continues to deliver me from my ancestral fear of death by showing me that His love covers me, this side or the other side of Jordan.

The poor cat’s earthly remains (the seen) reminded me of all the Hollywood scary movies designed to scare the life out of the viewer with gross evidence of death and dying.  Perhaps the fear of death, like fear of the dark and fear of snakes, has grasped the human psyche down through the centuries as our ancestors struggled to stay alive.  They faced far more difficult living conditions than most of us have to deal with today, our men and women in combat situations being the obvious exception.  My whole family is snake phobic, for instance, because the adults were scared by their parents, who scared their children, and on and on it goes.  A little fear is perhaps wisdom, as in, “I’m afraid to walk across the highway when La-Z Boy workers are changing shifts.” But carried to its inevitable extreme by the carnal mind, fear can strangle the very life, the joy, and the faith out of a person who hasn’t learned to turn his or her fears over to God.

God did not create us to walk in fear, to cower in apprehension over every situation.  Sadly, many Christians I know are more fearful then people in the world.  In my family, the fear of death was inexorably tied to the fear of hell fire after we die.  If you don’t KNOW that heaven is your home, you fear the worst.  Well meaning parents and Sunday School teachers have driven that fear home in impressionable young minds, hoping to scare sin out of the child. More often than not it does not work.  I have one friend who said, “Fine, if I’m bound for hell anyway, why bother to go to church?” Other people, including some who have written to us recently, were so traumatized by the fear of hell that they actually considered suicide to escape the pain of their tortured imaginations.

To me, fear is the only stronghold left for the devil to play in.  John wrote of his encounter with Jesus, “When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. But he laid his right hand upon me, saying, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the living one; I died, and behold I am alive for evermore, and I have the keys of Death and Hades (the grave)” (Rev. 1:17-18).

When Jesus said that the hour is coming “when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (John 5:25), He was not just speaking about people in a physical grave. I bear testimony to you that it was hearing His voice that took away my fear of death and raised me up to sit in heavenly places as a child of God.  My prayer for us all, especially those who call Christ Lord, is that we hear the voice of God saying, “Come, my beloved.  Walk with me; talk with me; live in me and I will wipe away your tears and make your fears as though they never were.  I died for you, and now, I live in you forever.”

Human beings can sometimes heal our bodies with medicine or surgery, but only the power of almighty God, the same Spirit which raised Christ from the dead, can truly quicken our bodies, our souls, our minds and our hearts.  We lose ourselves in Thee, O Lord, for Thou alone are worthy of glory and honor and power and worship.  Amen.   Jan Antonsson

Lenny and Jan Antonsson

17178 Highway 59, Neosho, MO 64850 (Snail Mail)

All our writings from 1997-2010 are on

The Glory Road

Writings from then until now are on this blog.  Scroll down to read them.

We always enjoy hearing from you

Jantonsson@aol.com

LIFE!

Jan Antonsson

The Glory Road Blog,

A Kingdom Highway

Given for the Saints of the world, June 5, 2011.

“Truly, truly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (John 5:25).

When disaster strikes, as it did in Joplin, MO, on May 22, it makes us want to grasp at life all the more vigorously.  Listening to the accounts of survivors, one might conclude that mere chance made the difference between life and death. The randomness of the death and destruction wreaked by the tornado reminds me of Jesus’ warning to His disciples:  “Then two men will be in the field; one is taken and one is left. Two women will be grinding at the mill; one is taken and one is left” (Matt. 24:40-41).  In this case, being “left behind” was a good thing, unlike the books and movies by the same name.  Though it doesn’t feel like it to the families left behind, those who went on to be with the Lord are in a far, far better place than they have ever been before.  If they could come back and tell their loved ones how glorious is their heavenly home (spiritual abode), it would somewhat ease the sting and grief of their loss this side of the veil.  We, who hope in Christ to be reunited with our loved ones in glory, are certainly more blessed than those who do not know Him, which is yet another reason to preach the gospel to every creature.

In Jesus’ day, the Pharisees were the “power brokers” of the Jewish tradition which He came to shake to its very foundations.  He denounced their religious efforts done to be seen of men:  “You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that in them you possess eternal life.  These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to COME to me to have LIFE” (John 5:39-40).  There is no life anywhere else.

Jesus smacked the Pharisees’ attempts to control Him with their criticism:  “I do not accept praise from men, but I know you.  I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts” (Vs. 42).   When times are tough; when disaster strikes, it is the love of God in people’s hearts which leads them to pitch in and help in the form of money, work, and emotional support.  The generous outpouring of assistance to the survivors of the Joplin tornado has touched our hearts and been such a source of comfort and aid to those who lost everything in five seconds flat.

When Jesus met the Samaritan woman at Jacob’s well, He shocked her by asking for a drink. You know the story, so we’ll fast forward to my point.  He told her, “whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst; the water that I shall give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life” (John 4:14).  He is the source of all Life on this side of Jordan as well as the other.  Sometimes, we make the mistake of trying to parcel Him into little bits.  Here some forgiveness, there some patience, over there, self control.  He is NOT a convenience store stocked with goodies we’d like to have.  Until we get the big picture, however, we often try to talk Him out of some particular trait we find ourselves lacking in.  He IS LIFE; and He lives it IN us and THROUGH us, every DAY, every SEASON, every WHERE and every WHEN.

Resurrection Life flows from the Throne of God into Christ in fulness.  He has the Spirit without measure.  The New Testament bears witness that we are IN Christ, some 69 times. What does that mean exactly?  To me, it means we need not live like paupers, doing without, when everything God has for us is IN Christ and we are IN Him. All of God’s promises are “Yes and amen in Christ” (II Cor. 1:20), and all the Christ like attributes which we aspire to have, but fall so woe-fully short of, are found IN Christ, where we live and move and have our being.

We can pray no better prayer than Paul’s found in Ephesians one, where he asks that “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you (us) the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you (us) may know Him better.” When God answers that prayer, we will taste the “riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.  That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms…” (Eph. 1:17-20).

When God opens our eyes to see what it means to be seated with Christ in heavenly places, we begin to experience the promise Paul mentioned several times:  “Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior.  But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you HOLY in his sight, without blemish and FREE from accusation.” Paul follows this declaration with an interesting observation:  “This is the gospel that you heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant” (Col. 1:21-22; 23).  The verb (has been proclaimed) in verse 23 is present perfect tense, denoting an action which was begun in the past, and continues to happen up to the present. For Paul to make a statement like that indicates to me that God has had a personal hand in spreading the Gospel.

John makes a similar statement:  “Then I saw another angel flying in mid heaven, with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and tongue and people” (Rev. 14:6).  Whether you believe the angel was a heavenly being or a human messenger (perhaps flying in a helicopter), it’s thrilling news that God’s eternal gospel does not depend on us alone to get it proclaimed.

Christ’s Life brings forth life; it continuously swallows up death; it fuels all the works which we are led to do.  Naysayers cannot stop it; doubters cannot dilute it, and the gates of hell shall never prevail against it.  Life begets life.  Instead of worrying about what we must do for Christ, let us focus instead on what Christ has done for us, is doing for us, and will continuously do for us!

Christ Himself did not take credit for His works, so why should we?  He said,  “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of his own accord, but only what he sees the Father doing; for whatever he does, that the Son does likewise” (John 5:19).  Wouldn’t it really be easier to operate that way than the way we often do, trying to figure out good works to get ahead in the Kingdom?

Paul asserted about Christ, “The death he died, he died to sin, once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God” (Rom. 6:10).  And since He conquered death for all men, He brought all of us through resurrection into Life along with Him.  This is why we are seated in heavenly places with Him who sits on the right hand of the Father (Eph. 1:20; 2:6).  On the occasion of Lazarus’ death, He said to Martha,  “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.  Do you believe this?” (John 11:25-26). May God grant us faith to believe this!

The survivors of the Joplin tornado say with Paul, “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed; always carrying in the body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be manifested in our bodies” (II Cor. 4:8-10).  They are well aware that it was not their will, nor their faith, nor their confessions which brought them through the storm still alive.  It was the same Spirit which raised Christ from the dead which quickened their mortal bodies.  Some heard the last trumpet sound and were called home. The rest of us have been changed.  Our eyes are open to see that “In his hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind” (Job 12:10).  God is the Father of all men, Jew and Greek and all who seek Him will learn by the Spirit that “‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your poets have said, ‘For we are indeed his offspring’” (Acts 10:28).

To God be the glory, now and forever.  Amen.  Jan Antonsson

Lenny and Jan Antonsson

17178 Highway 59, Neosho, MO 64850

All our writings from 1997-2010 are on

The Glory Road

All our writings since are on this blog.

We always enjoy hearing from you!

Jantonsson@aol.com

More on bin Laden’s Whereabouts

The Glory Road Blog,

A Kingdom Highway

Neosho, MO

Given for the Saints of the World on May 15, 2011

“There will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (Lk. 15:7).

I had not planned another writing on this topic, but a reader sent some comments that sparked me.  Lord willing, we’ll go a little deeper into the unconditional, limitless love and grace of God as seen in the face of Jesus Christ.  Now, to our friend’s observations:  “I have one question, and that relates to Gal 6:7: “God is not mocked, whatsoever a man sows that shall he reap…” For God is just, merciful, love and full of grace, but the Rich Man in paradise, purgatory, hell, or where ever, found he was reaping that which he had sown.  I have said that the Rich Man was the first evangelist to be saved in hell. There has to be a transformation by the power of Christ, and the transformation is the result of fires, or you might say, God’s healing or purifying hand. To give the impression that there is no reaping for the sins sown, might be “mocking God.” And like you, I also don’t know where Osama bin Laden is, because of the great gulf that is between us and those who have gone on.  Lastly, to be instantly changed into wholeness sounds good, but sounds like the Rapture.  Where did I go wrong?   I honestly enjoyed your message.   Keep up the excellent work.  Prayers and love to you lovely Saints!” End Quote.

No one appointed me Pope, Pastor, or Priest, and since I’m a woman, that’s not likely to happen in most churches anyway, but in spite of those odds, the Lord has called me to speak the Good News of the Kingdom which is here now, and to write of His matchless love which goes upon the mountain dark and brings every lost sheep back home.  This was a favorite theme of Jesus, which He preached with unapologetic fervor to the masses, to the poor, to the publicans and sinners as well as to the priests, scribes and Pharisees.  He used metaphors and symbols often to make His meaning clear to His listeners.  As a reminder, a metaphor is a figure of speech in which a word or phrase is applied to an object or action to which it is not literally applicable. For instance, “I’m not a happy camper,” means there is a “burr under my saddle, a bee in my bonnet,” or a “cramp in my style” causing me to be as“mad as an old wet hen.” We all know these expressions, but we’re not as familiar with metaphors used in the Bible because of time and distance both geographically and culturally speaking.

Older Christians cling to the King James Version of the Bible, without realizing that it was written in 1611, at the order of King James, thus the name. The British Monarch ordered the translators to be as accurate as possible without “rocking the boat.” That’s another metaphor we use today, but the punishment for doing so hardly “holds a candle,” still another metaphor, to the punishment meted out in King Jimmy’s day.  They cheerfully burned heretics at the stake then, and methinks that couldn’t have been far from the translators minds as they slaved over the task they had been commissioned to do.  Scholarship has shown they made many mistakes which have led many to false conclusions.

Seeking the lost was often the point of Jesus’ many parables, including the parable of “the lost sheep” (Lk. 15:1-7), “the lost coin” (Lk. 15:8-10), and the “prodigal” son (Lk. 15:11-31).  Interestingly, we Christians view bin Laden as a “lost sheep,” but his followers think of him as a prophet and spiritual leader.  He was reared in a Muslim family, and somewhere along the way, he became attracted to the fanatic fringe of Islam.  He passionately believed he was doing the will of Allah, and concluded that he was experiencing hardships and character assassinations because of his devotion to the cause.  In that respect, he is a bit like Saul of Tarsus, who pursued Christians and killed or jailed them until Jesus knocked him off his horse, blinding him with the “Light.”

Bin Laden was “knocked off his horse” by the Navy Seals. I imagine that when he passed into the Light, he heard a similar message as Paul did: “Osama, why are you kicking against the pricks?  Why do you persecute me?  I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting” (See Acts 9:4-6).  Only a personal visitation like this would reach him and death is no barrier to God’s love. Remember Peter’s account of Christ preaching to those who had died in the flood? Christ was “put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built” (I Pet. 3:18-20).

Here, Christ preached to sinners who had been dead for centuries, imprisoned until the day when He would overcome death.  “For Christ died for sins once for ALL, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God” (I Pet. 3:18).  Jesus didn’t come to save the righteous, but to save the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” He raised up Paul to take the same message to the Gentiles.  God loves sinners, “For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through Him” (John 3:17).  Mostly, our Father has used men and women to bring the Good News, but here and there, various sources have reported that Muslims have had a personal visitation from Christ on “this side of Jordan” (another metaphor), and as a result, have been changed in an instant from Christian haters to Christ followers.  Hallelujah!

Our friend mentioned reaping and sowing found in Gal. 6:7.  I believe the passage is speaking of reaping and sowing in this life, not our eternal destination. Thus, if you are saved, filled with the Spirit, and trying to live a good life, but in a moment of madness, you leap off the balcony of a high rise apartment, you will certainly “crash and burn” when you hit the pavement below (or even the flower bed, for that matter).  There is no contradiction here; the reaping and sowing has to be for this life, because Paul declared that “God consigned ALL men to disobedience, that He may have mercy upon ALL.” That verse tells me that God bears ultimate responsibility for all men’s actions in this life, good and bad. He gets all the glory because He takes all the blame, ultimately.  Paul spoke plainly about this glorious truth: “as in Adam ALL died, so in Christ shall ALL be made alive” (I Cor. 15:22).  The person who leaps off the balcony will die, reaping what he sowed in this life; in eternity, he will reap what God sowed in Christ!

Regarding the instant change, Paul was not talking about rapture, but about the same principal John wrote about:  “When we see Him as He is, we shall be like Him.” Looking at what Paul wrote in I Thess. 4:17, I can see how the carnal mind came up with the rapture theory.  But Paul wasn’t talking about that in I Cor. 15:51, when he wrote, “We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet.” On earth, in time, change may take a long time, but in eternity, it happens in a flash.

John expressed it this way:   “Dear friends, now that we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known.  But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is. Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure” (I John 3:2-3).

So far as the rich man and Lazarus are concerned, that was a parable of Jesus in which He was lambasting the Jewish priesthood, who lived extravagantly, hypocritically, and cared nothing for the poor. Think about it.  The only “sin” the rich man committed was being rich, and the only virtue the beggar had was being desperately poor.  Surely, that is not God’s standard of morality which sends us to heaven or hell. For more about this, read J. Preston Eby’s excellent article entitled, “Abraham’s Bosom”  (Link at end).

Jesus spoke to people living BEFORE the cross.  Lazarus being comforted by Abraham identifies the time frame in the story, as before the cross. Today, we don’t long to be comforted by Abraham, but rather, by God Himself. It is not Abraham who will wipe away all tears, but God, our Father (Rev. 21:4).

One last thought about bin Laden’s whereabouts.  Many would only be satisfied only if they could see him writhing in the flames.  Methinks they are about a quart low on compassion and self realization of how close they are to the flames, IF our behavior is what gets us to glory. The Psalmist wrote  “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there” (Ps. 138:8).  Wherever he is, GOD is there with him, and that should comfort all of us, no matter how righteous or sinful we imagine we are.

Father, our lives are hidden in You and we rest in Your perfect love, compassion and mercy.  We are so thankful that your mercy triumphs over justice and your love is the most powerful force in the Universe.  “The redeemed of the Lord shall return and come singing unto Zion; and everlasting joy shall be upon their head; they shall obtain gladness and joy; and sorrow and mourning shall flee away” (Isa. 51:11).  And all the lost sheep say, “Amen!” Jan Antonsson

Lenny and Jan Antonsson

17178 Highway 59, Neosho, MO 64850  (Snail Mail)

To read J Preston’s writing about Lazarus and the Rich man, click on the link below:

Abraham’s Bosom

All our writings from 1997-2010 are still on

The Glory Road

Current writings are on this blog.  Scroll down to read them.

We always enjoy hearing from you!

Jantonsson@aol.com