Half-Baked

There is a term that speaks to plans and ideas that lack any forethought. That are bereft of even a scintilla of common sense. It’s called “half-baked” plans or ideas. This term once caused people to feel they have missed the mark and would lead them back to the drawing board. Today it has become commonplace.

Half-baked plans lack any studied forethought. Those who are tethered to reality see these plans as impractical or fundamentally flawed. Unlikely to succeed. Can lead to failure or even death. The plan or idea may have a basic outline or goal but it ignores all logical steps or resources to properly execute it. Too often it relies on wishful thinking rather than on grounded facts. It often comes from the soulish realm. Plans built on one’s own thinking or emotions or willful ways which do not allow the Holy Spirit to guide. In fact, He is often purposefully excluded.

I am speaking directly to those who seek to lead in our government and our church. They consistently reject Godly wisdom and speak deceptive statements that combine partial or made-up facts with omitted context or falsehoods that seek to mislead the listener. They use the veneer of factual accuracy to sell a deceptive narrative. This is not just President Trump, but all who seek to gain power, wealth, and prestige from half-baked ideas and outright lies.

Hosea 7:8 says, “Ephraim has mixed himself among the peoples; Ephraim is a cake unturned.” This was a cake burnt at the bottom and raw at the top. A nation that was inconsistent, full of compromise and spiritually stagnant. They served gods of their own making. This was what we see in the church in Laodicea. Neither hot nor cold. They are wretched, miserable, poor and blind. And right now, the Lord is standing at the door and is knocking. He is not being heard. No different than the warnings in Hosea. We see a god being worshipped that has no resemblance to our Lord. We have combined practices of the world with the Word. We have turned a blind eye to injustice. We allow the self-aggrandizing of one in Trump who seeks wealth and power and stand idly by while injustice and cruelty rule the day. We have allowed worship of the Lord to be intermingled with worship of people in power. This half-baked thinking leads to separation from Him and death.

We have somehow allowed half-baked ideas that promote the exclusion of our neighbor because they do not have the same ethnicity or skin color as one who is Caucasian. We have allowed timid and lukewarm responses to thievery and self-enrichment and even to the actual murders of those who stand and exercise their First Amendment right to protest. We watch as a war in Iran is waged without direction and as inept excuses are given as to why this folly has so adversely affected our economy.  We have watched as the combining of ungodly thoughts and actions become part of the daily fabric of a government gone amok. And we watch as so many in the church allow this to happen as they have become basically mute. We will all stand before Him and answer for where we stand.

Hosea paints a scary picture for those who continue to follow a path that is half-baked. Their rulers will fall. Their pride will cause them to not notice their decay, both in the natural and spiritual. Their self-deception will be their downfall. Like today, prophets warn of coming destruction but they look to other voices that speak to their lustful appetite. We must take a stand against this unrighteousness. We must realize that if we are truly in Him and seeking Him that we have the mind of Christ. And if that is so then we cannot follow half-baked plans or ideas. That which is contrary to His ways. That which has no part in Him.

We must truly cast down every argument and high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. We really must look to punish all disobedience to Him. And we must start with ourselves. (2 Corinthians 10) We must stand in all things. Blessings.

Idols

Psalm 115:4-8 says, “Their idols are silver and gold, The work of men’s hands. They have mouths, but they do not speak; Eyes they have, but they do not see; They have ears, but they do not hear; Noses they have, but they do not smell; They have hands, but they do not handle; Feet they have, but they do not walk; Nor do they mutter through their throat; Those who make them are like them; So is everyone who trusts in them.”

Throughout the presidencies of Donald Trump, he has lusted after images of his own likeness. No different from Stalin, Saddam Hussein, or Mao. No different than Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel. Making an image of oneself and hoping people will bow to it. To worship it. As if that alone would cause one to respect you. The more people see your image and feel the need to worship it by any means, the greater your power. With Trump, it is about power and the grift. Making money from anything you can sell that bears your name. Sadly, there were people that were on hand to see the unveiling of a gold statue of Trump at his Doral golf club in Miami. Evangelical Pastor Mark Burns led a dedication ceremony for it. It seems that this pastor used bible white out on the passages in Daniel where Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego chose being thrown into a raging fire than to bow to an idol. Some people say this isn’t to that degree, but it is. Trump looks to be worshipped. He’ll even sign your bible…for a price.

The prophet Habakkuk asks what profit does one obtain from this idol worship seeing it’s a molded image, a teacher of lies. There is no breath in it. As the Apostle Paul warns, flee from idolatry. Do not entertain even a thought that it’s not harmful. Yet so many today just shrug and foolishly believe there is no harm in this. Every idol made by man will be no different than Dagon in 1 Samuel 5, the god of the Philistines that fell before the presence of the Lord and lost its hands and head. An image conjured by man and made with hands that look to another god. And if we worship images made by corruptible man, know that God will give you over to the debased mind you appear to possess.

Charles Spurgeon wrote that the flesh sets up its altars wherever it can find them. He asked “Why are we so bewitched with vanities? We pity the poor heathen who adore a god of stone, and yet worship a god of gold. Where is the vast superiority between a god of flesh and one of stone? The principle, the sin, the folly is the same in either case, only that in ours the crime is more aggravated because we have more light, and sin in the face of it. The heathen bows to a false deity, but the true God he has never known; we commit two evils, inasmuch as we forsake the living God and turn into idols. May the Lord purge us from this grievous iniquity.”

We must take a stand for righteousness. Cast off and reject all that is being presented to us on a daily basis that is so obvious in its anti-christ spirit. Seeking to separate us from His presence. Yet many evangelical ministers and prophets still maintain the lie that Trump is sent by God and is God’s man. Reject this lie. As I’ve stated before, you do not want to be embracing anything from this diabolical man when God speaks His judgement. While it is yet today, separate yourself from this idol worship. If you’ve supported his self-serving sin, repent. Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them. As stated in 1 John 5:21, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols.” Stand. Blessings.