Mandy's Mercurial Monologue

I didn’t mean to open a new post just now, but in exploring the new bells and whistles on blogger, I pushed a red circle and here I am. Whenever possible, I am a homebody. The Covid 19 lockdowns made it more possible for me to chose to stay home without looking weird, and it’s hard to give up. The last month has really changed my online life. It has revealed the darkness of all Salem Communications owned sites, as well as Whatfinger, Liberty Daily, Citizen Free Press and other sites I used to frequent for news from a non full-left slant. Instead they have a mostly pro-Putin / antiUkraine slant! Even Glenn Beck has gotten askew on his facts regarding Ukraine in 2014. Rather than accepting the public record of a legal quorum of the parliament impeaching Yanukovich after he abandoned his office and nation, Glenn calls the Revolution of Dignity a “coup.”  However, he’s not as bad as the others and certainly does not exhibit a heart of cruel indifference to the present situation. He see...

I  caught a glimpse of Justin Trudeau’s speech this morning with Boris Johnson. Make no mistake, they are trying to find a way to use this crisis to move the globalist agenda forward. They will help Ukraine only so far as it serves this end. They don’t want Ukraine to retain its cultural and national distinctives any more than Putin does.  They, like Putin, want one world with one identity, dictated by themselves, with no borders.  We all are caught in a war between totalitarian ideologues.   If it were not so, the west would throw off their so-called “green” agenda and start pumping more oil from their own lands. This would let our economies roar back (unthinkable to globalists) and take the wind out of Putin’s wings with no military action nor risk of nuclear retaliation. For globalists and Putinists alike, their ideology is their religion, and they will not back down even if it costs every life on earth. Last night on Euronews, they followed up a story on Putin’s ...

“Then the kingdom of heaven will be comparable to ten virgins, who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were prudent. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the prudent took oil in flasks along with their lamps. Now while the bridegroom was delaying, they all got drowsy and began to sleep. But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. The foolish said to the prudent, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ But the prudent answered, ‘No, there will not be enough for us and you too; go instead to the dealers and buy some for yourselves.’ And while they were going away to make the purchase, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding feast; and the door was shut. Later the other virgins also came, saying, ‘Lord, lord, open up for us.’ But he answered, ‘Truly I say to...

Kutia in the pan Toasting almonds Tonight is Christmas Eve in the west, but I decided I wanted to try something eastern as a dessert following the candle light service this evening. So I went through my recipes searching for kutia, a Ukrainian dish traditionally served on Christmas Eve. To my dismay I found that I didn't actually have that recipe among all that I have collected. I knew that it was made from wheatberries, dried fruits, honey and poppyseed; a mixture cooked in milk. Since I'd previously recognized its connection to another recipe, I turned to Feast From the Middle East by Faye Levy and looked up her recipe for Noah's Pudding .  She writes, "It is common in the vast region that was once the Ottoman Empire, especially in Turkey where Noah's Ark is said to have rested on Mount Ararat, near the borders of Armenia and Iran. (pg 358)" She also mentions that Bulgarians and Armenians serve it for Christmas, but then goes on to discuss h...

“But the Lord is in His holy temple. Let all the earth be silent before Him." --Habakkuk 2:20

Yes, time for another Jeremiad as I see troubles all around me. It seems the meat grinder has been kicked up another gear. A person from my former church sent an e-mail to the congregation today, addressing events from ten day ago, which have since been swept out of the news-cycle by the horrors of Hurricane Harvey. There are those who cannot allow the momentum given to them by Charlottesville to be lost. If must be redredged, reframed, set up as an icon and all must bow to their interpretation or be labeled 'heretic.' Nevermind the thousands of dead in the floodwaters to be lamented; instead let's focus on events from 150 years ago and engage in so called "racial reconciliation" by which they mean a never ending chant of mea culpa from anyone born with white skin. Christians must denounce evil, yes, but they cannot ignore multiple other evils while they focus only on those villains already, justly, pilloried by all. The exploitation of one tragedy and the h...

Today I read Numbers chapter 19 and was thoroughly puzzled by the Ordinance of the Red Heifer. I was trying to see the prefiguring of Christ in it and really couldn't make it out. Later in the evening we watched an episode of Call the Midwife in which one character quoted Julian of Norwich, "If you ask what God meant by this, He meant love." I thought about how that fit, and  while it was superficially satisfying, it wasn't quite enough answer for my mind. As I perused some of the quotes from the Revelation of Divine Love, this one seemed to be the answer I had hoped for: “...we need to fall, and we need to be aware of it; for if we did not fall, we should not know how weak and wretched we are of ourselves, nor should we know our Maker's marvelous love so fully...”  ―  Julian of Norwich ,  Revelations of Divine Love Needing this ordinance and the other rituals of purification, atonement, and redemption showed the Israelites how utterly dependent we are o...

"You adulterous people! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God." --James 4:4  I've written before about those who proclaim that there is a "prophetic voice of the world," or as another preacher said, "God's witness to us in the culture." Such people want the Church of God to be open to supporting rebellion to the Bible, making it a lesser voice than their own subjective experiences. They silence teaching on repentance and holiness and seek to get rid of anything which makes a worldly person feel uncomfortable in our midst. Open doors and hearts, yes, but when they come in, what all should find is a congregation lifting God up and faithfully speaking His truth; calling the lost to the home they need, rather than seeking to comfort men in their fallen state. " But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or outsider enters, he is c...

"...having your conduct honorable among the Gentiles, that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may, by your good works which they observe, glorify God in the day of visitation. Therefore submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord’s sake... For this is the will of God, that by doing good you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men...." -- 1 Peter 2:12-15  I walked out during the sermon today. I wasn't doing it to make a point, but the guy torpedoed what was a good sermon by choosing to pass judgement on the hearts and intentions of others.  While Peter's first letter exhorts believers to submit to governing authorities, he does not say that believers should not make use of their rights as citizens. We are not Rome, of course, and ostensibly we the people are the government of this nation; at least that is how it was until 2009. Since then it has become the government who rules and "we the people" who are subjects. T...

Those who know me or who have followed this blog over the last decade know that I was a birth doula for a while. In that capacity I've attended mothers for the births of 8 children; 3 as an apprentice doula and 5 as the primary doula. Because I have no children of my own, this is the extent of my experience with labor. I've recently been thinking about world events in terms of labor pains. Scripture also alludes to the progress of world events toward God's appointed ends in terms of labor and childbirth: After the events of this last week I feel unexpectedly traumatized. I don't use that term lightly. I read a great article "Ask a Counselor: how do we recognize and cope with trauma?"  which spoke about the way we dismiss small trauma and the effect it has on us. As I read it, I became aware of how traumatic the last year has been, and how it's still impacting me now. Today I find myself unable to get comfortable, as I was when I wrote the post No Pla...

The word of the Lord came to me a second time saying,   “What do you see?”   And I said, “I see a boiling pot, facing away from the north.” --Jeremiah 1:3 It is interesting that some of the visions seen by most of the Old Testament prophets were of very ordinary items. The impressions I've been seeing, which seem to be verified by the events around us, have also been very ordinary items of kitchenware. While I hope I am not distressing anyone by sharing these things, I feel compelled to put this out there. If it is of God, the sharing of these 'visions' will serve His purposes, give Him glory, and hopefully comfort His people. Otherwise, it's merely an expression of how a creative person of faith is reacting to these latter days and watching to see her Lord at work. The latest one came within the last 10 days. Again, I said nothing until I felt sure that I should share it. Again, it kept nagging at me. Today I can no longer keep it to myself. Like Jer...

I've recently found myself in two situations where someone was so desperate to prove their point that it didn't matter to them what they did to me so long as they won. These are part of the greater gathering darkness of our culture, the swirling Charybdis of anger which threatens to suck this nation down in its gullet. Why is it so vital to be right? Why dog-pile on someone who dares question the politically correct version of history? Why threaten to kill people who disagree with your politician of choice, or those who point out similarities in the overblown rhetoric of a current candidate and the overblown rhetoric of Adolph Hitler in his rise to power? Why chase someone down to argue with them when they've left the discussion because they have more pressing matters to deal with? Why ruin someone's dream, their business, their livelihood- why take their home and freedom just to prove your point? Why is being right so important to us that we would sacrifice one a...

About a year ago I had a 'vision' of sorts which kept nagging at me. In my mind's eye I saw a meat grinder ready to process the world. Every connection would be sundered: people, groups, nations, ideologies, even communities of faith will find themselves divided and separated and the only thing we can be sure to hold onto is our relationship with God. Since then I have seen the separation beginning and building up steam. Families breaking up, churches losing pastors and losing members and losing vision; faith leaders selling out their faith and the faithful alike for the praise of the world; both the left and right disintegrating; governments around the world turning on their citizens for  profit and power; dictators rising and wanna-be dictators vying for election; markets hanging on at the edge of destruction, then temporarily soaring thanks to government manipulations, which one day must  come to an end. Corruption, collusion, apostasy, ignorance, idolatry, hatr...

Tonight as I am listening to music I used to love, I find myself going from one time in the past to another and feeling that I can't settle anywhere. This brings to mind the last moments our cat Poe spent at home before we rushed him to the vet at the end of his life. He couldn't move his hind legs, but he willed himself from chair to chair under the kitchen table, trying to find a place of comfort. They had all been satisfying before, but now nothing worked. That's how life feels now. Something drastic has happened, a tragic change, and there is no way to get comfortable or if there is, it won't last. I feel I will be torn from it... like Poe trying to grab the final chair and hang on as I picked him up to head to the car. Now I feel sick to my stomach, not about the past so much as the present and the future. In seminary we discussed civilizations under collapse; people try to recapture previous times, idealized and romanticized versions of the past, o...

I am not thinking about the election, nor the embassy staff abandoned to their deaths on 9/11/2011, nor the fact that Mrs. Clinton may well never be held accountable by any earthy authority for what happened there. I am thinking about the correct understanding of Ezekiel 38-39 and the determination of people to equate Russia with Gog and Magog, and that it probably doesn't matter if we get it right or wrong at this point. Somewhere I read a great quote that prophecy is not about knowing the future, but about recognizing the appointed time it when it arrives. World War III seemed right around the corner in 2014, but two years have passed. Assad continues to fight against rebels while giving those of his people under siege very little to live on or hope for. Thus ISIS grows in the instability of Syria and Iraq. Now Russia has entered the fray. They cannot win on the world's stage with their continued aggression against Ukraine and their economy is sinking under the load of ...

"Take heed to yourself and to the doctrine. Continue in them, for in doing this you will save both yourself and those who hear you. "     --1 Timothy 4:16 (NKJV)   doc´trine    Pronunciation: dǒk´trĭn   n. 1. Teaching; instruction. "He taught them many things by parables, and said unto them in his doctrine, Hearken." - Mark iv. 2.  2. That which is taught; what is held, put forth as true, and supported by a teacher, a school, or a sect; a principle or position, or the body of principles, in any branch of knowledge; any tenet or dogma; a principle of faith; as, the doctrine of atoms; the doctrine of chances….. (Webster's 1913 Dictionary) We’ve all heard that old chestnut, “It doesn’t matter what you believe, as long as you believe something.” There is a loud voice in the world which says that your faith (believing something ) is more important than your religion ( what you believe) and that doctrine isn’t important. W...

Two Thoughts on Psalm 11 In the Lord I take refuge; How can you say to my soul, “Flee as a bird to your mountain; For, behold, the wicked bend the bow, They make ready their arrow upon the string To shoot in darkness at the upright in heart. If the foundations are destroyed, What can the righteous do?” The Lord is in His holy temple; the Lord’s throne is in heaven; His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men. The Lord tests the righteous and the wicked, And the one who loves violence His soul hates. Upon the wicked He will rain snares; Fire and brimstone and burning wind will be the portion of their cup. For the Lord is righteous, He loves righteousness; The upright will behold His face. (NASB) His eyes behold, His eyelids test the sons of men.   Eyelids tell us so much about what a person feels about a given situation and we tend to gauge what they will do next based on facial expression. God sees what is going on, but He doesn't react to things the way ...

I've been writing some variation of this or another at various sites on the internet all week. I need to say it here, but unless others pick it up and run with it, it's going nowhere against the hurricane of pro-Putin propaganda.     Clearly there are people with money, power and influence who are selling the opposite message. There are misinformed "conservatives" who have been fooled into believing that Russia Today is a non-biased news source and "libertarians" including Ron Paul who are eating up the Russian -state issued talking point and regurgitating them everywhere.   Nationalists did not overthrow Yanukovych. There were some nationalists in the mix; how could anyone keep them out of a popular uprising? The Maidan (pronounced My'-dahn) demonstrators and those murdered there by the Russian-backed snipers were mostly everyday citizens. They became engaged when the Yanukovych government used brutality, and later murder, against those who wer...

  I've been so consumed by the events in Ukraine for the past week that I haven't had time to blog. Far too much time and attention has gone into comment threads all over the internet and contending with people from various nations who are ignorant and apathetic.   There are some who would call themselves 'conservatives' or 'libertarians' who see Putin as the "good guy" because of his stance against homosexual and Muslim pressure groups in Russia . They also claim that he has limited abortion. I don't have information on that, but the good he may do in some areas does not constitute a pass on others. To give him a pass where he is wrong is not consistent with a conservative worldview and we must not do it lest we find ourselves promoting a villain.   These opinionated ignoramuses refuse to see that Putin is out of line for interfering with, undermining and threatening a separate and sovereign nation. They are content to see Ukrain...

While reading Jeremiah this morning I came across a familiar refrain: Jeremiah 43: 10-12 (NASB)* and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I am going to send and get Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and I am going to set his throne right over these stones that I have hidden; and he will spread his canopy over them. 11  He will also come and strike the land of Egypt ; those who are meant for death will be given over to death, and those for captivity to captivity, and those for the sword to the sword. I had read it earlier in the year, in Jeremiah 15:1-3 (NASB)* Then the Lord said to me, “Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with this people; send them away from My presence and let them go! And it shall be that when they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you are to tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord : "Those destined for death, to death; And those destined for the s...