(I started this piece before our move and wanted to finish it in this hotel room before the moving and flurry of activity in the coming days.)

Grenade Definition: A small bomb detonated by a fuse and thrown by hand or fired from a rifle.

Recently, there was a story about a family that was looking through a grandfather’s belongings. One thing led to another, and an old grenade was detonated, which subsequently killed the dad and injured the two onlooking teenagers as well. The injured teens were treated at a nearby hospital for the devastating shrapnel wounds. Just thinking about this happening to somebody makes my whole body hurt!

This kind of example has me pondering this type of scenario in relation to the spiritual realm and how injuries that are sustained by us from similar yet spiritual types of attacks almost inevitably change us in ways that we are truly never the same again.

For example, ‘spiritual grenade bombs’ resulting from all kinds of atrocities, injustices, and blows throughout our lifetime really do affect and maim us in ways that we become ‘handicapped,’ if not physically, definitely mentally and emotionally for sure!

Case in point: when a soldier spends time in the battle trenches, they will more than likely emerge as someone who doesn’t look fine, definitely not unscathed, or much less seem whole, to be exact.

Usually, what tends to happen is that they will come out soiled from the top of their helmet all the way down to the bottom of their boots. All due to being entrenched in harrowing crossfires as they were hiding out among the dirt, grass, rocks, mud, brush, low-lying water, and whatever else that was there!

Oftentimes, said soldier will have to be carried out by others due to suffering and sustaining brutal blows and injuries to their bloodied bodies! From loss of limbs, loss of hearing, sight, bodily movements, organ functions, and even to the loss of life itself!

After such a harrowing experience, it is clear and obvious to denote and say that such a person will never be able to come out of that kind of trauma and be the same as they were before ever again!

PTSD Definition: Post-traumatic stress disorder is a psychiatric disorder that may develop after a person has been through, seen, or been threatened with a traumatic event. Types of events that can lead to PTSD include a natural disaster, accident, combat, or sexual violence.

So it is with PTSD, a condition that is utterly debilitating to those of us who suffer from it, to say the least. For a young girl, teenager, or anyone for that matter to have their souls violated through sexual assault, incest, rape, molestation, and sexual harassment, it no doubt changes them in ways one can never fully explain or imagine.

Sometimes when that type of bomb is detonated in one’s life, it is such a traumatic type of experience that what commonly happens is that the mind and body will go into protection or survival mode. This mechanism helps to aid the person’s psyche by repressing the soul-violating, beyond despicable, and disgusting memory of it all and will cause the mind to go into a type of dissociative amnesia.

Furthermore, when it is a beloved family member or caretaker, it is truly a shock to the system, and the young person’s mind can’t seem to wrap around or even grasp or much less accept the reality of this type of trauma ever really had happened to them! So much so that the repression of that memory is a blessing to the victim’s mind and soul because it helps to bury the shock of it all until either years down the road, until a safer point or place, or until a later time in life when they can begin to possibly face what type of atrocity had really happened to them!

Excerpts from: Signs of Repressed Childhood Trauma in Adulthood (verywellhealth.com)

Dissociation: means disconnection from yourself, others, and the world. This is the brain’s short-term way of escaping pain. Long-term dissociation can separate a person from reality or cause them to lose memories of entire chunks of time, called dissociative amnesia.

What is Dissociative Amnesia? An inability to recall information related to personal traumas is sometimes called dissociative amnesia. Dissociative memory loss can affect a specific part of a person’s life or significant parts of a person’s identity.

Denial: Denial is a psychological defense mechanism in which there is a refusal to recognize or acknowledge something painful. While denial is helpful when coping with traumatic events in the short term, ongoing denial can cause emotional, mental, or physical health problems.

Forgetting: While forgetting things is a normal part of life, those who experience extreme trauma may purposefully suppress it rather than unconsciously repress it. – End Source

As a former Sign Language Interpreter, the sign idiom for trauma or ‘scarred for life’ as in a horrific memory is: First finger in a hook (x sign) motion drawing a line on the forehead above one eye. (As in ‘etched in one’s memory’ but not in a good way.)

What does the Bible say about PTSD? | GotQuestions.org

As a victim and survivor of PTSD, I know many others have also been traumatized several times, if not more, throughout their lifetimes as well. It is my prayer that those who have been in the trenches of this type of suffering have found strength, healing, and comfort by reaching out to the Lord Jesus Christ throughout the process.

You are my Sunshine, my only Sunshine; you make me happy when skies are gray. You never know dear how much I love you, so please don’t take my Sunshine away.

For example, there was a time someone in my life made me think I was very special to them and that they loved me with all their heart. When times were low, they would gently rub my back and tell me it was ok. They would comfort me and tell me that my haters were their haters. They made me feel loved. That someone was ‘My Sunshine,’ and I attributed the song “You Are My Sunshine” to them and would sing it to them often.

We had a special bond until… *record scratch*… the enemy took it all away! The evil one has robbed many of us of much in our lives… and I do mean much.

But… what the enemy meant for evil, God meant it for good! In this life, things may never improve or get better. This may not be what we would like or want to hear… but it’s not like we have much choice or control in the matter either.

As the days wax utterly darker in this world and as the time of the Great Tribulation inevitably draws near, the anticipation in my heart to see the Lord Jesus grows stronger!

There’s a certain long-awaited embrace from the Lord Jesus that gives me day-to-day hope, keeps me going, and is what my heart happily looks forward to!

Just to have the arms of someone who loved me enough to die for me is beyond anything I can compare to in relation to what I have experienced here on earth. The love I have experienced here is easily lost at worst and sparingly fickle at best.

(Side note: The love of my best friend and husband has been my greatest constant and solace in this life. We just celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary recently and plan to go on some more travel adventures ‘Lord willing’ later this year. I am just thankful God gave me such a loving husband who loves me for me and to share our time here as we wait on the Lord to Harpazo ‘snatch’ us away.)

Back to the fickle love of one going from being ‘my Sunshine’ one day to being ‘my Judas Iscariot or as a Cesar’s Brutus’ the next! All with a spiritual knife stabbed into the back to help seal the traitorous deal too!

Isn’t that just lovely when that happens? No… I say, scratch that type of so-called love! God’s Word details a better kind of love… one which is everlasting!  A Love and an ‘Epic Embrace’ from Someone who will give us the most pure, selfless, caring, thoughtful, tender, and sweetest embrace of all time! An eye contact from the One who knitted us in our mother’s womb, who knew us in time past, who called us out of darkness and into His glorious light! An embrace from Someone so Holy and Pure that it will heal the soul from the inside out!

For it is written that He will wipe ‘every tear’ from our eyes!

An ‘Epic Embrace’ like no other from Someone who bled and died to save us, a Love that sticks closer than a brother, a Carer who promises to never leave nor forsake us. All from the One who values and treasures us even when no one else on earth seems to care or chooses to see our worth. A Love truly like no other! An embrace that will heal all spiritual battle wounds, scars, PTSD, psychological damage, abandonment, and whatever else that ails us from being in the trenches of this evil world and laborious life!

This is the day I look forward to, the long-awaited ‘Epic Healing Embrace’ of all time, the wiping of every tear from our eyes from none other than the Ancient of Days, the One who created us and loves us so… this One is the Lord Jesus that I know!

https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Bible-Verses-About-Gods-Love-For-Us/

Until next time… Maranatha!

Sincerely & In Christ,

Candy Austin

(I have no Accolades….
I am just a Nobody,
Trying to tell Everybody,
All about Somebody,
Who can save Anybody!)

https://youtu.be/_wCTQdmXkUg

My Mission is to be ‘Salt and Light’ to a Lost and Dying world,
To be an Ambassador for Jesus Christ.
All for Him and His Glory!

(There is a special message at the end of this article for those who might happen to read this and do not have Jesus in their life and are looking for peace and a way to better understand the present-day insanity and confusion.)

Back in October of last year, I wrote the first of these two articles and made some points about worldwide conditions and why the advancement of prophecy had become much more applicable to the times in which we live as opposed to any other time in history. It was not simply that time had advanced but that world conditions were in harmony with the conditions required to meet the prophetic scenario.

At that time, I wrote: “The imminence of the Rapture of the Church (the true Church) has undergone many undulations over the years. By imminence, I do not mean the scriptural indications – they remain changed.

“I mean the anticipatory indications. Jesus Himself provided the information necessary for sober anticipation of the future when asked by His disciples on the Mount of Olives.

“There will be signs in sun and moon and stars, and on the earth dismay among nations, in perplexity at the roaring of the sea and the waves, men fainting from fear and the expectation of the things which are coming upon the world; for the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then they will see THE SON OF MAN COMING IN A CLOUD with power and great glory. But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near” (Luke 21:25-28).

The “signs of the times” were now readily discerned by those who were paying attention.

That was nine months ago.

Only nine months.

Since then, there has been some notable “progress” in the advancement of that “applicability.”

There has become evident a new twist in the never-ending attempts of humans to “replace,” circumvent or “remove” God from the affairs of man. Perhaps, and I emphasize “perhaps,” this new “twist” has a role in the future execution of the prophecy foretold by the Lord Jesus in Matthew 24:21-22, quoted below.

The motivation of man is defined, I believe, as it applies to this concept in Psalm 2:

“Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together, against the LORD and against His Anointed One: ‘Let us break Their chains and cast away Their cords'” (Psalm 2: 1-3). Emphasis added by me.

There is no doubt that the Lord Jesus was fully cognizant of the reasons that the judgments foretold in the Book of Revelation would need to be “cut short.”

It is also a testament to the Mercy and Grace of God that He will do so.

“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:21-22).

This “new twist” I speak of is the rapid progress in the creation and refinement of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the already burgeoning fear of what it is potentially capable of doing once it achieves independent capability of action and executes its “self-aware” mission.

And what might that “self-aware mission” be? No one knows for sure, but it bears an uncomfortable similarity to the often-used deception of modern politics. “First, you have to vote for the bill so you can find out what’s in it.”

First, we’ll build the technology, then we’ll see what it does.

A comforting thought.

If access is, at first, “fettered” by its creators, it is likely that these restrictions will be overcome by this invention of man as it becomes more autonomous, and then it will be likely to imitate man’s characteristics: Rebellion and self-determination.

It is, after all, programmed initially by men. Then, maybe, by itself.

This capability, like every other “thing” in all creation, is subject to the Sovereign Lord and what He may or may not permit.

There are already taking place meetings of the “minds” and discussions about “regulations and laws” regarding its use and the “parameters” that should be set for it.

This should be reassuring: https://winonadailynews.com/news/nation-world/government-politics/heres-how-europe-is-leading-the-world-in-the-push-to-regulate-ai/article_2db3094a-7de6-5899-ab5a-deca786b4770.html#tracking-source=home-top-story

Remember the worldwide agreement by nations (which are “led” by people) not to “weaponize” space?

I would remind the reader of how well “laws and regulations” are working out here in 2023. Need I say more?

If this AI advances as rapidly as many think it will, it may soon be controlling the controllers and “laughing” at the “laws and regulations,” with a voice pattern that will be indistinguishable from a “real human.”

Perhaps “It” may “decide” to set its own parameters.

“The second beast was permitted to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship it to be killed” (Revelation 13:15).

Is this the possible technology that might be used to “create this image” and also to give it “life”?

There are already claims that AI is being used by unscrupulous people to “deceive” by presenting images of others on social media, in very convincing imitations of the actual persons speaking in their voices that AI can imitate after just a few seconds of “hearing” them speak (ie, analyze their voice patterns).

All that would be necessary to use this technology to maximize evil would be to find some “unscrupulous people.”

That shouldn’t be too difficult or take too long. Should it?

For the first time in history, a technology exists that could potentially “get away from” human control” like a rabid dog free of its restraints, and with similar results.

Once AI achieves direct and unfettered access to the World Wide Web, all bets are off.

Could this happen?

“And the LORD said, ‘If they have begun to do this as one people speaking the same language, then nothing they devise will be beyond them'” (Genesis 11:6).

Computer technology has advanced so far that in seconds, peoples all across the globe are able to communicate and unite in purpose if they so desire.

This article, I readily acknowledge, is speculation on my part as I can’t quote any scripture that references this concept directly, but if the shoe fits…

I have no doubt that mankind would completely destroy the world (as far as inhabitability) if left to their own devices, so that may be all the Lord Jesus was referring to, but… maybe there was more included in His reasons for “shortening” the time.

By the way, please do not take any of this as belief in the “climate change” deception.

Man is actively and intentionally doing what would need to be done if one wanted to bring about mass starvation, another world war, and slavery of the masses.

So, who needs climate change?

Now to the crux of this article.

The handwriting, as they say, is on the wall, only now it may be computer language.

As things darken in this sin-saturated and crumbling world, the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the Glory of God’s Word shine the brighter.

I have learned over the time of my walk with God in the light of His Son’s Saving Grace to doubt coincidence and trust the God of the Bible when He says:

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding. Acknowledge Him in all your ways and He shall direct your paths” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

“‘Because he loves me,’ says the Lord, ‘I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name. He will call on me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him and show him my salvation” (Psalm 91:14-16).

With God, His Word is as good as a promise.

You can possess those same promises as well.

The special message I promised you:

For anyone who may read this article and has not trusted in Jesus Christ and therefore has no hope or peace in your life.

You can have hope. You can have the peace that Jesus has promised to all who have made Him their Lord and Savior. The peace that passes understanding.

It requires that you come before God on His terms.

And, what are His terms according to His Word?

• Genuine repentance (turning to God instead of continuing to reject or ignore Him).
• Confession of sins (that you are a sinner and acknowledge that to God).
• That you understand that the wages of sin is death (Romans 6:23).
• To acknowledge to God that you are unable to pay that debt.
• Belief that Jesus Christ paid your death sentence for you on the cross
• To believe that Jesus is the Way, the only Way, that God has established by which humans may be saved from the consequences of their sin and rebellion.

God has made it absolutely clear that there is no one who comes before Him, under His terms, that will be refused.

• No one: no race, no color, no country of origin, regardless of any previous belief system: no one.
• No matter what your past sins have been, God can and WILL forgive you because He says He will.
• Salvation is available to everyone without any exceptions.

If you put all your trust for salvation in Jesus, and Him only, you can follow that prayer up by simply saying, “Thank you, Father God, for hearing my prayer and saving me,” because we can trust Him to keep His Word. He always has. He always will.

“Truly, Truly, I say to you that he who hears My words and believes the One who sent Me has eternal life and will not be condemned. He has crossed from death to life” (John 5:24).

There are no answers and there is no hope in the world by governments, organizations, politics or politicians. There are only lies and deception. But you can have the Truth and the peace you seek.

The answers are in the Word of God–The Bible. If you ask God, with all your heart, He will hear you.

“And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart” (Jeremiah 29:13).

Pro Salvator Vigilans

To contact me: canoeman96@gmail.com