Getting old is a bummer!

Posted on January 5, 2025 by drgause@agause.com

From birth to death, God has orchestrated human life to progress through phases. A helpful analogy for me has been seeing the stages of life as mirroring the seasons of nature—spring, summer, fall, and winter. Spring is a season of new beginnings, and, for humans, it parallels birth, toddlers, and the teenage years. Summer is a phase of growth for young adults. Fall is the season of maturity, success, and achievement. For man, it is analogous to complete adulthood. Winter begins a time of loss. The harvest is in, plants die back, some animals hibernate, and nature rests. Nature completes its cycle and awaits spring’s arrival. However, for us, when we enter our winter season as older adults, it is the beginning of our end on earth. One’s resources begin eroding. Physical and cognitive abilities weaken. Aging can involve loss of social status, loss of self-esteem, and a sense of worth. Someone said, “Our batteries start draining dry.” Another commented, “I used to have the strength of a horse; now it is more like a little donkey.”

Benjamin Franklin asserted there are two certainties in life: you must pay taxes, and you must die. However, you do not have to pay taxes, although there are consequences. But death is inevitable for everyone. “It is appointed for men to die once” (Heb 9:27). Dying is a natural part of the process of living. Yet, embracing our winter season is often difficult. It compares to the culture shock missionaries face—feelings of disorientation experienced when we are suddenly subjected to an unfamiliar culture and way of life. Seniors will experience various degrees of shock.

For me, the transition to senior status has been nothing like I imagined. Although my postgraduate studies were in culture and how to adjust, I have confronted plenty of unexpected and challenging adjustments. One difficulty, I took my dad as my role model. I remember he cut up an oak tree, loaded the bed of his truck, and brought it to me on the same day—he was 80 years old. Seasons will always continue as long as the earth exists (Gen 8:22); however, seasonal conditions are not constant. Sometimes, winters can be frigid, or they may be mild, or rainy, or dry. My conditions differed from my Dad. COVID-19 and Covid Long completely altered the situation of my winter season.

Solomon experienced his winter season and wrote what he encountered, (Ecclesiastes 12:1-11 Mess. & [Amp]).

1-2 Honor and enjoy your Creator [before you grow old and say, “Life is not pleasant anymore.”]

Before your vision dims and the world blurs

And the winter years keep you close to the fire.

3-5 In old age, your body no longer serves you so well.

Muscles slacken, grip weakens, joints stiffen.

The shades are pulled down on the world.

You can’t come and go at will. Things grind to a halt.

The hum of the household fades away.

You are wakened now by bird-song.

Hikes to the mountains are a thing of the past.

Even a stroll down the road has its terrors.

Your hair turns apple-blossom white,

[and you drag along without energy like a dying grasshopper,

and the caperberry no longer inspires sexual desire.]

Yes, you’re well on your way to eternal rest,

While your friends make plans for your funeral.

6-7 Life, lovely while it lasts, is soon over.

Life as we know it, precious and beautiful, ends.

The body is put back in the same ground it came from.

The spirit returns to God, who first breathed it.

8 It’s all smoke, nothing but smoke.

The Quester says that everything’s smoke.

The phrase you’re as old as you feel was made up by someone in their twenties. My wife often says, “Getting old is a bummer!” After reading the conclusions of Solomon about losses related to growing old we might say the same. But scripture shows each season has its own unique beauty, including our winter. Agatha Christie wrote, “If you are still breathing, God still has a purpose for your life”. The Psalm of Moses reads: Seventy years are given to us! (90:10 NLT). That implies every day after 70 years is a gift from God. My first thought is, “Thank you for another day of life.”

Society has instilled in us boomers that we must strive to remain youthful and avoid showing any signs of aging. The cosmetic industry has created multimillion-dollar businesses based on this belief. Growing older is an honor. The glory of young men is their strength, but the splendor of old men is their gray hair (Pro 20:29). Wisdom is with the aged; and understanding in length of days (Job 12:12).

God has written aging into the codes of our bodies. Our weaknesses will increase in old age. Paul begged God to take away his weakness. God’s reply applies to our old age weaknesses, “My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness” (2 Corin 12:9 NLT). God calls us to embrace the ongoing aging process with a conviction that a far better existence is yet to come—an eternal spring (Note: Heb 11:13–16).

Sustaining Word For the Week: Read the above Ecclesiastes passage several times this week. Note every phrase and jot down how it applies to you. Think about all the older people God has used.

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I Know I Saw Something: So, What Was It?

Posted on November 4, 2024 by drgause@agause.com

In three previous SWs, I explored Satan’s ongoing preparation for his greatest deception involving UFOs and aliens. He wants to deceive God’s people, leading them astray with falsehoods and disbelief of biblical truth. We must always keep in mind that the Bible clearly teaches the only intelligent living beings the Lord created were the angels (1/3 rebelled and became Satan/demons), animals, and man. However, Satan is subtly shifting man’s cognitive processing and rearranging people’s attitudes concerning paranormal and extraterrestrial life. It appears the world relies more on science than on God’s truth or the Bible.

The definition of the term Unidentified Flying Object (UFO) has evolved away from its technical meaning into a socially altered assumption. Extraterrestrial crafts or aliens should not be the default explanation for weird stuff in the sky. To avoid this stigma associated with UFOs, the government and reliable ufologists have changed UFOs to UAPs, i.e., Unidentified Aerial Phenomena. ‘Unidentified’ in either term is simply objects, lights, or phenomena that no one can identify or explain with current scientific knowledge. I recently heard someone use an even more accurate term: Unexplained Aeriel Phenomena.

We cannot brush aside the fact that people are seeing something. So, if not UFOs, what are people observing? First, research shows that 95% of all UFO sightings have natural explanations. Multiple investigations have found no evidence UFOs are of extraterrestrial origin. Pentagon officials have admitted that many UFO sightings are of this Earth, with many being top-secret government research programs. I have personally seen three UAPs in my life. One was a ball of light in the sky. The other two were triangle-shaped crafts at separate locations and years apart. If asked what they were, I would respond, “I don’t know.”

Of the 95% that are explainable, we can list them under various categories: natural phenomenon, human technology (both American and foreign adversaries), astrological phenomenon, demonic manifestations, or hoax. Sightings that people assumed to be extraterrestrial UFOs proved to be satellites, planes, weather balloons, clouds, space junk, asteroids, government experiments with three-dimensional holographical images, drones, classified unconventional aircraft, etc. I could fill the rest of this page with sightings that people considered UFOs, but further investigation proved them not to be otherworldly.

The least understood phenomenon that people mistake as extraterrestrials is plasma. We learned in school that material is in a state of solid, liquid, and gas. Researchers believe that plasma constitutes a fourth state of matter. Scientists on the space shuttle have filmed plasma multiple times. It appears as an oval-shaped light that can change shape and grow up to a kilometer in diameter. It may hover, move slowly, or accelerate to hypersonic speeds and instantly shift trajectory 45˚, 90˚, and 180˚. Astronauts have observed plasma morphing into a cone shape, a cloud, a donut, or a kilometer-long spherical cylinder. When plasma descends into the lower atmosphere of Earth, most witnesses classify it as UFOs or UAPs.

A partially understood phenomenon reported throughout history is ball lightning associated with plasma. Ranging in size from a pea to a basketball, the glowing orbs can appear in assorted colors. Observers describe it as a levitating sphere of electricity or plasma. Dr. Travis Taylor, an Aerospace Systems Engineer, describes it as lightning in a jar. Ball-lightning is usually oval and can hang motionless or dart away at high speeds with instantaneous changes in direction. Ufologist Philip Klass has explored ball-lightning and plasma for 30 years. Of the 746 UFO sightings he examined, he concludes that most times, it displayed characteristics typical of ball-lightning/plasma—color, shape, and erratic movement.

What about those who claim abduction? A detailed examination of this subject exceeds the scope of this paper. However, an excellent summary of abduction comes from the apologist Dr. Ron Rhodes. He wrote, “that among those who claim abduction by ‘aliens,’ almost ALL of them had been participants in false religions or cults or the occult — such as spiritism or astrology or Zen Buddhism or some other false religious belief system.” Studies show occult rituals parallel people’s efforts to contact so-called aliens and abductions.

The last fact I will mention is that UFO interest has developed into a multi-billion-dollar commercial enterprise. Roswell alone capitalizes on the mystery through tourists, museums, shops, and events.

Sustaining Word for the Week: Be on constant guard; do not believe everything you hear. Weigh and examine what people tell you, lest anyone [Satan’s agents] deceive you with crafty deceit. Jesus promised If you continue in My word … you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.

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His Grandest Deception: ‘Little Green Men’

Posted on July 22, 2024 by drgause@agause.com

Satan is relentless in his intent to deceive God’s people, leading them astray with falsehoods and disbelief in truth. His cunning was evident in the Garden of Eden. His deceptions will persist until God casts him into the eternal lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet will already be, to be tormented day and night forever and ever (Rev 20:10). Jesus cautioned that in the last days, deception would escalate. This is a warning: be on constant guard, lest anyone [Satan’s agents] deceives you. For many will come in my name. . . and will deceive many (Rev 20:4, 5). There will be terrible times in the last days (2 Tim 3:1). Therefore, it is of utmost importance to be vigilant and discerning so as not to fall prey to his crafty deceit.

We are living in an age when we are facing Satan’s most elaborate fraud. Because of his vast experience, he has learned innumerable techniques regarding how to deceive humanity. He has been meticulously crafting one particular scheme for decades. Let’s review some facts we learned in the last two Sustaining Words. Satan, trying to imitate God, also uses signs to communicate his lies to deceive and lead people away from Christ. Jesus forewarned that in the last days, there would be terrifying sights and astonishing signs from heaven (Lk 21:11 HCSB). False prophets will perform signs and miracles. Impressive signs will occur, such as fire coming down from heaven to earth in front of people. Jesus said stars will fall from the sky (Matt 24:29). The word for star means a luminous light—meteorites, comets, falling space debris, etc., and think about the increased sightings people classify as UAPs or UFOs.

Gradually, man’s cognitive processing has been and is being rearranged to alter our attitudes regarding paranormal abilities and extraterrestrial life. Much of the world’s population appears to trust science more than God or the Bible. One biblical expert suggests Satan’s end-time deception is crafted for the scientific techno-minded. Christians must take the UFO phenomenon as a serious issue but not rely on non-Christians for answers. Relying on the Bible for truth is absolutely crucial. 

God said, I am the Lord, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself (Isaiah 44:24). He created living entities to dwell in His creation, and then the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts (Gen 2:1). These and other verses clearly teach that the only intelligent living beings the Lord created were the angels [of which Lucifer and a third of the angels fell becoming Satan and demons], animals, and man. Any other alleged creatures are Satan and his servants masquerading to deceive God’s people and lead them astray.

In the last SW, we learned Satan has deceived people into believing ghosts are the disembodied spirits of departed humans. Yet, to be absent from the body means we are to be present with the Lord (2 Corin 5:8 KJV). No state of existence occurs between death and being present with the Lord or tormented in Hades. Alleged beings like zombies, werewolves, telepaths, or time travelers are Satan’s agents of deception, masquerading as such beasts. The devil has used the mass media and the entertainment world to disseminate the idea that these fictional characters are real.

Since 1948, with the alleged UFO crash near Roswell, New Mexico, an increasing fascination with Unidentified Flying Objects (UFOs) has risen in popularity. The premise of UFOs has become so ingrained in pop culture that people assume any flying object they can’t identify or explain must be of extraterrestrial origin. However, research shows that about 95% of all UFO sightings have explainable causes—natural phenomena or human technology, both American and foreign adversaries. Several former Pentagon officials have indicated that many UFO sightings are top-secret military projects.

 The stigma associated with the term UFOs (Unidentified Flying Objects) has become synonymous with aliens or ‘little green men.’ Because of this, the government and serious ufologists have adopted the phrase Unidentified Aerial Phenomena or UAPs. The UFO phenomenon involving aliens is, in reality, part of Satan’s evil scheme to deceive and spiritually corrupt mankind. A former Air Force agent of Special Investigations admits to having passed fake documents to UFO researchers.

In order to avoid deception, we must ground ourselves in this Biblical truth. God said, I am the Lord, who has made all things … The heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts (Gen 2). The only intelligent living beings the Lord created were the angels (including Lucifer and the angels who followed in rebellion, becoming known as Satan and demons.) On the earth, the Lord created animals and man, completing all the hosts. No ‘little green men,’ but Satan masquerades because he knows aliens point away from God.

Sustaining Word for the Week: Don’t let anything lead you away from Biblical truth.

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The Agents of Deception

Posted on February 19, 2024 by drgause@agause.com

In a recent SW, I defined Biblical signs as divine events that display God’s glory and purpose to people. In the last article, we learned that Satan also uses signs to communicate his lies in ways to deceive and lead people away from Christ. Jesus forewarned that in the last days, there would be terrifying sights and great signs from heaven (Lk 21:11 HCSB). False prophets would perform great signs and miracles. Momentous signs would occur with fire coming down from heaven to earth in front of people. Jesus said stars would fall from the sky (Matt 24:29). The word for star means a luminous light—meteorites, comets, falling space debris, etc., and think about the increased sightings people call UAPs or UFOs.

When God created the heavens and the earth, He created living entities to dwell on the earth. On the fourth and fifth day, He created animals to inhabit the sea, the land, and the air. On the sixth day, He created humans, male and female. The Lord blessed the first couple, Adam and Eve, and instructed them, Be fruitful and multiply! At some point in eternity, God had created spiritual beings, i.e., angels. However, Lucifer, possibly an archangel, rebelled against the Lord, and a third of the angels followed him. These fallen spiritual beings became known as Satan and demons.

 Creation of both physical and spiritual elements ceased when the Lord finished His work. Afterward, He created no more living entities; Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their hosts (Gen 2:1). For everything, absolutely everything, above and below, visible and invisible, rank after rank after rank of angels—everything got started in him and finds its purpose in him (Colossians 1:16 MSG). I am the Lord, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself (Isaiah 44:24). These and other verses clearly teach that the only intelligent living beings the Lord created were the angels, animals, and man.

As humans, we live in a world of two realms—physical and spiritual, also referred to as natural and supernatural or normal and paranormal. We are aware of the physical realm because we perceive it through our five senses from birth. In contrast, one’s physical senses do not detect the spiritual world. Some today deny that paranormal beings are even real. For them, the devil is not a living being, but only a symbol of evil. Nevertheless, Biblical truth does not alter because people disbelieve. The Bible clearly teaches that a supernatural, paranormal, and spiritual realm of beings is present with us every moment. Angels are spiritual entities yet can also manifest in the natural realm. Satan and demons, the fallen angels, are spiritual entities, but restricted to the paranormal without authorization.

During the 1980s and 1990s, the entertainment world popularized the paranormal and accelerated an interest through television shows and movies. This genre includes alleged beings like zombies, werewolves, aliens, ghosts, and phenomena like telepathy and time travel. Since the only intelligent living beings, the Lord created were the angels, animals, and man, what are these? The concept of Zombies originates from Haitian voodoo priests as a scare tactic. Proto-Indo-European mythology created the premise of werewolves.

Ghosts aren’t a new concept. However, Satan has deceived people into believing they are the disembodied spirits of departed humans. Again, the world has been flooded with entertainment centered on the theme of ghosts, who are supposed to be the souls of dead humans. However, scripture asserts just as man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment (Heb 9:27). Paul adds that he is willing rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord (2 Corin 5:8 KJV). Note that there is no state of existence between death and being present with the Lord. Jesus told the story of a rich man (wicked) and a poor man (righteous) named Lazarus. Both died. The angels carried Lazarus away to paradise. The rich man died, people buried him, and he immediately found himself in hell and torment.

Paul tells us Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14 NIV), for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Cor 11:14 NET), Satan does it all the time, dressing up as a beautiful angel of light (2 Cor 11:14 MSG). And his servants (wicked people and demons) also disguise themselves (v15). So, what are these zombies, werewolves, aliens, ghosts, telepaths, or time travelers? Since God only created the angels, animals, and man, it leaves only one answer. They are either Satan or demons masquerading, disguising, and transforming into the alleged beings to deceive God’s people and lead them astray. They are Satan’s agents of deception.

Sustaining Word for the Week:

Do not be deceived (Gal 6:7). My dear friends, don’t believe everything you hear. Carefully weigh and examine what people tell you. Not everyone who talks about God comes from God (1 Jn 4:1 MSG).

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