TESTIFY
by
Dr. Gale A. Ragan-Reid
“This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind, Having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart: Who being past feeling have given themselves over unto lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness.
But ye have not so learned Christ;
If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts;
And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour: for we are members one of another. Be ye angry, and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath: Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace unto the hearers. And grieve not the holy Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice: And be ye kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.” (Ephesians 4: 17-32, King James Version [KJV]).
Greetings in the Holy Name Of Jesus Yahshuah,
My brothers and sisters, in the wake of a most momentous outcome of inquiry, we are clearly open to receive truth yet the murkiness of the abyss of doubt keeps the fog creeping in on little tiny feet, in the witness of a poet in Chicago’s Grant Park [Sandburg, C., 1916],
Fog
The fog comes
on little cat feet.
It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.”
In this poem, man obviously is trying to settle the dust and for us, here and now, in this moment in time, upon the feet of our most valued leader, for this poet also wrote a popular biography of Abraham Lincoln [owlcation.com “But why choose a cat? A cat is an independent animal, it doesn't follow rules, it slips and slides in and out of our lives as it pleases, just like fog, which knows no boundaries.. ...The reader's mind becomes filled with this dual imagery of fog and cat, fog turning into a cat, cat morphing back into the fog. By doing this, the poet is introducing the idea that the fog is alive and is an entity.”].
For we know, the rhetorical demise did not create itself in or of our president but began years before he sought office, for the perpetrators —- some wolves in sheep’s clothing that should have been outcasted a long time ago or never permitted so many to enter in our country near our White House Capitol building were camped out in a nearby town by the permission of those who now lay the dust at our president’s feet. Let us not forget, the hacking that went on via internet intrusion in banks, credit bureaus and yes, our mail server: yahoo and the like, sliding in the lives of the innocents, sliding in the White House, to no avail yet making a way in to corrupt the lives of all Americans just like snakes, but according to the witness of our poet in a haiku six lines poem, there is a cat that looks on just like the mist of thick fog, if we read into it our prayers would say the cat is there to fight the snakes that our systems of protection permitted in to slide in to topple our government and our lives lived by faith. This outlandish behavior did not begin with our most newly elected president and we know this is truth. Why did we not protect our president from such intrusions since for years we angrily talked and debated about such outlandish intrusion yet he was left wide open to still receive emails —- the forbidden emails?
Where are we now, let us testify? I recalled when the hackers went into yahoo that I refused to go into my account and I just let my emails pile up. I recalled when they hacked the banks, I oftentimes more than before checked activity, praying I would not be one of the ones that suffered the dastardly perpetuated intrusions. I recalled when they hacked the credit bureaus, I entered in protective programs with added security measures to keep hackers out.
This obviously intrusive time of the outlandish perpetrators standing against the United States of America and the citizens of the USA, only wanted to catch a big fish, not for the righteousness of Christ’s sake but to overthrow a system of faith modeled in the way of Jesus Yahshuah, in the Kingdom of God. For men of faith believed and sat as founding fathers to create a living constitutional concept under the love of a living God. Those founding fathers in the Words of our Constitution did not would not leave us in the wilderness but provided a way to escape modern day attacks. Our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus in the Words of God did not leave us abandoned in the wilderness but provided a way to escape the hate of the day, in faith. [1 Corinthians 10: 13 King James Version (KJV), “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.].
I recalled Jesus told Pilate that he could not get to him if he was in his Kingdom of Heaven because his servants would protect him. Accordingly, in John 18: 33-37, KJV, Jesus spoke to Pilate:
“Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews? Jesus answered him, Sayest thou this thing of thyself, or did others tell it thee of me? Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?
Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. Pilate therefore said unto him, Art thou a king then? Jesus answered, Thou sayest that I am a king. To this end was I born, and for this cause came I into the world, that I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice.”
Where are we with this truth, in our failed efforts to protect our own leaders on American soil, happily jumping in the opportunity to judge our own? I am sure when history writes itself, for we are not rewriting our constitution, we will find that the judgment against our own is a judgement that God hears of us. Do you think God is without voice? Do you think the citizens of America are without voice? Oh, Israel I will testify against you or is it, Oh, Philistine, I will testify against you! “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish. “ (Psalm 1: 1-6, KJV).
For as many leaders as you throw out because of the outlandish behavior that our government permitted to happen, time and time again, in modern times, those are the lost battles, of our cherished few that rise up in our leadership, who we let the outlandish perpetrators bring down yet they fought a good fight, screaming to the citizens to help. There are times when the battles belong to God; the battle is the Lord’s.
We, therefore, must let go and let God have His way in His modern day, to heal the broken-hearted. “And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God's.” (2 Chronicles 20: 15, King James Version [KJV]).
In closing, in speaking of God, feat, and dependence, the Prophet Isaiah comforted the people (41: 13, KJV, God expostulateth with people), said, “For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee.” Christ be with you. God be with you.
Amen.
