James McLaughlin

Transhumanists follow in the five thousand-year-old footsteps of Gilgamesh. They promise to overcome what they see as “the bane of mankind” through technology, but, like the ancient hero, those who trust in science to overcome death will eventually fall before “the flood-wave that cannot be breasted.” gilberthouse.substack.com/p/…

A boy was named for the day the angels came down. Genesis 5:15 gives him one line: Mahalaleel "begat Jared." But Jubilees 4:15 remembers why the name was chosen: "he called his name Jared, for in his days the angels of the Lord descended on the earth, those who are named the Watchers." In Hebrew, Jared sounds like yarad, "to go down." 1 Enoch 6:6 gives the count and the place: "two hundred; who descended in the days of Jared on the summit of Mount Hermon." A whole generation carried that night in a child's name. But why did they come down at all? Tonight at 8 PM ET, the film. #Nephilim #BookOfEnoch #BookOfJubilees

God loves a cheerful giver, NOT someone who is pressured, manipulated, or guilt-tripped into giving. Your church should never be forcing you to give, calling out specific dollar amounts, demanding that you sow a certain seed, or telling you that if you don’t give a particular amount of money, you won’t receive a blessing from God. That is not biblical giving. Giving should come from your heart, not from fear, intimidation, or manipulation. A pastor should never make you feel like you have to empty your pockets to receive God’s favor. 2 Corinthians 9:7 says, “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.” Acts 8:20 says, “Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money.” Matthew 6:24 says, “Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” 1 Timothy 6:10 says, “For the love of money is the root of all evil.” Stop allowing people to use the name of God to manipulate you financially. There is a difference between teaching biblical generosity and pressuring people to give money. Your giving should be voluntary, joyful, and led by your heart, not dictated by a preacher’s demands. God is not selling blessings, and you cannot buy your way into His favor!

When I lost my blind faith in atheism and found the Christian faith, I was puzzled and sad that the Christians had quarreled among themselves and split into so many factions with so much mutual hostility. When deciding which denomination to pursue, this question continually nagged me. On what grounds, and by what authority, did Martin Luther have the right to remove books from the Bible? Who appointed him judge that he could judge what was holy and unholy, scriptural or unscriptural, in the scripture? Why would he turn to the rabbinical canon rather than use the traditional Christian one? Even if he held that the traditional Christian canon was somehow corrupt or insufficient for the last 1500 or so years, on what basis did he hold that the Canon gathered by the Pharisees in the five centuries after Christ to be incorrupt? I questioned several of my Protestant friends on this issue, and found, to my surprise, let none of them knew any of the history of scripture. At most, one or two would repeat that St Jerome had once expressed doubts about certain of the books.

A decade ago my wife and I read the Stoics together. Epictetus. Seneca. Marcus Aurelius. Side by side, questioning each other. One word took hold of me: assent. To the Stoics, assent is the moment you judge an impression true or false before you let it move you. Every ad, every voice in your feed, every lie needs your yes to work. I practiced it for years. It kept walking me back into Scripture. Then into the early Church Fathers. Then through the doors of the oldest Church I could find. The Stoics taught me to ask what is true. The answer had a name. open.substack.com/pub/christ… Build a legacy death cannot take.

There’s a man in Genesis who never died. And the Bible gives him one sentence. Genesis 5 is the chapter most people skip. A list of names. Ages. Sons and daughters. And over and over, like a funeral bell, the same three words: “...and he died.” Adam lived 930 years, and he died. Seth, and he died. Enosh, and he died. Eight times the bell rings. And then, in the middle of the list, it doesn’t: “Enoch walked with God, and he was not, for God took him.” - Genesis 5:24 No death. No burial. No explanation. He was just... gone. The book of Hebrews confirms what it means: “By faith Enoch was taken up so that he should not see death, and he was not found, because God had taken him” (Hebrews 11:5). One man in the whole ancient world skipped the grave. Only one other in all of Scripture shares that: Elijah, carried up in the whirlwind. So what was so special about Enoch? The Bible tells us exactly one thing about his life. Twice. He walked with God. That’s it. No miracles. No kingdom. No great battles. Just a walk. And the details are surprising. It started late. Verse 22 says Enoch walked with God after he became the father of Methuselah, when he was 65. Something changed when that child was born. Whatever his life was before, it turned there. It was ordinary. He walked with God for 300 years, and the same verse says he “had other sons and daughters.” Enoch wasn’t a hermit on a mountain. He was a father. He raised kids, worked, ate, slept. He walked with God in the middle of an ordinary, busy, family life. It was constant. The Hebrew verb is a special form, hithallek, meaning to walk about, to go to and fro, a continuous, ongoing walk. It’s the same form used in Genesis 3:8 of God Himself walking in the garden in the cool of the day. Enoch got back what Adam lost: walking with God, side by side. So what does walking with God actually mean? It’s not a feeling. It’s not a single dramatic moment. It’s a direction. Every day, going the same way He’s going. The prophet Amos asks: “Do two walk together, unless they have agreed to meet?” (Amos 3:3). Walking with God means agreement. His way becomes your way. His pace becomes your pace. You stop running ahead and stop dragging behind. And Hebrews tells us what made it possible: “Before he was taken he was commended as having pleased God. And without faith it is impossible to please him” (Hebrews 11:5–6). Not perfection. Faith. Trusting the One walking beside you. There’s an old saying about this verse. Enoch and God walked together every day, and they talked, and they walked a little further each time. And one day they walked so far that God said, “Enoch, we’re closer to my house than yours. Why don’t you come home with me?” That’s the end of every true walk with God. For Enoch, it came without death. For us, Jesus has gone through death first so that it can never be the end of the road. “I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also” (John 14:3). He took Enoch. He will take you too. Just keep walking.

I saw something remarkable in the book of Joshua.Caleb is eighty-five years old. Israel has entered the Promised Land, and Joshua is dividing the inheritance among the tribes. This is the moment when many would expect an elderly man to ask for an easier portion after decades of wandering in the wilderness and years of battle. But Caleb shocks everyone. "Now therefore give me this mountain, whereof the Lord spake in that day; for thou heardest in that day how the Anakims were there, and that the cities were great and fenced: if so be the Lord will be with me, then I shall be able to drive them out, as the Lord said." Joshua 14:12 KJV Instead of choosing comfort, Caleb asked for the mountain. The very place occupied by giants was the place he wanted to possess. Why? Because forty-five years earlier, God had promised it to him, and Caleb refused to let the passing of time make him settle for less than what God had spoken. That challenges our generation. Many people stop dreaming because of age, delays, disappointment, or repeated setbacks. They assume that because it hasn't happened yet, it never will. Caleb proves otherwise. Time does not cancel God's promises. Delays do not diminish God's power. Advancing in years is not a sign that your assignment is over. As long as God gives you strength, there are still mountains to climb, territories to possess, and battles worth fighting. Never let the calendar convince you that heaven has forgotten you. If God said it, keep believing. If God promised it, keep pursuing it. May you never become comfortable while your mountain is still unconquered👌 And as we approach the end of 2026, with only 60 calendar days remaining, I want to remind you of something: DO NOT SHRINK YOUR PRAYERS BECAUSE THE YEAR IS RUNNING OUT! Do not reduce the size of your expectations because the calendar is changing. Do not become silent when there is still so much to bring before God. What makes you think it is too late for God to intervene? Who told you that the remaining days are too few for a testimony? The God who answered prayers in January is still God in November and December👌 Bring those heavy requests before Him. Pray about that family situation, that financial breakthrough, that business, that ministry assignment, that healing, that open door and that long-standing matter you have almost given up on. Remember Caleb. At eighty-five, he was still asking for mountains! Finish this year with faith, not resignation. Finish praying, not complaining. Finish believing, not surrendering to discouragement. You may be running out of days, but God is not running out of power. There is still a mountain to possess. Keep your faith alive. Keep your prayer altar burning. Keep believing!

Halloween: Where Did It All Begin? Halloween has a fascinating history stretching back more than 2,000 years. Its roots are often traced to the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, which marked the end of the harvest and the beginning of winter. Over the centuries, different traditions influenced its development, including Roman customs and the Christian observance of All Hallows’ Eve, the evening before All Saints’ Day on 1 November. Irish and Scottish immigrants later carried many of these customs to North America, where traditions such as pumpkin carving, costumes and trick-or-treating became increasingly popular. Today, Halloween reflects a mixture of ancient beliefs, Christian history, folklore and modern culture. 📜 Behind the costumes and pumpkins lies a history shaped by centuries of changing traditions. #HalloweenHistory #AllHallowsEve #AllSaintsDay #Halloween

Two hundred of them came down on Mount Hermon and swore one oath to do it together. Aramaic copies of that oath were sitting in Qumran Cave 4 with the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Ethiopian Church never dropped the book. Enoch 6 names the ringleader: Semjaza.

Yeah, my prof went over that... some manuscripts of Matthew have 'Jesus Barabbas', but many do not... If that is correct, then Pilate's offer is even more spiritually loaded as Chuck (and others) have stated. We would then have to say the choice was between Jesus, the son of the father and Jesus, the Son of God... I am ok with either.

Three crosses stood on the hill outside Jerusalem that Friday. Isaiah had written seven centuries earlier that the Servant of the LORD would be “numbered with the transgressors,” and on the night before He died, Jesus quoted that verse and said it must be fulfilled in Him. The next morning, it was. The Son of God was crucified between two criminals, one on His right and one on His left. The Gospels call these men lēstai, a word usually translated “thieves” or “robbers,” but it often meant something more violent: bandits, men who raided and killed, sometimes insurrectionists against Rome. It is the same word John uses for Barabbas, the man the crowd chose to release instead of Jesus. These were not petty pickpockets. They were men Rome considered dangerous enough to die the empire’s worst death. And at first, both of them mocked Jesus. Matthew and Mark are clear about this. The religious leaders jeered, “He saved others; he cannot save himself.” The soldiers mocked Him. And Matthew writes that the robbers who were crucified with Him reviled Him in the same way. Both of them. Hanging in agony, fighting for every breath, these two men still found the strength to join the crowd in insulting the man between them. But Luke records that something changed. Somewhere in those hours, as one criminal kept shouting, “Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!”, the other went quiet. And then he spoke up, not to Jesus, but to the man on the other cross: “Do you not fear God, since you are under the same sentence of condemnation? And we indeed justly, for we are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing wrong.” Stop and look at what this man has understood. First, he fears God. He knows he is about to stand before Him. Second, he admits his guilt without excuse: we deserve this. He does not blame Rome, his circumstances, or anyone else. Third, he declares Jesus innocent. Pilate had said it three times that day. Now a condemned criminal says it from a cross. He is the last human being to speak in Jesus’ defense before He died. Then he turns his head toward the man in the middle and says, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Every word of that sentence matters. He calls Him simply “Jesus.” In Luke’s Gospel, others called Him Master, Teacher, Son of David. This dying criminal is the only person in Luke who addresses Him by His name alone, as if speaking to someone close to him. And that name, Yeshua, means “the LORD saves.” Then he speaks of “your kingdom.” Look at what he could see. A man stripped, beaten, bleeding, a crown of thorns on His head, nailed to wood, dying slowly while crowds mocked Him. Above His head, Pilate had posted a sign as a cruel joke: “This is the King of the Jews.” Everyone on that hill read the sign as an insult. One man read it as the truth. Jesus’ own disciples had fled. Peter had denied knowing Him. And a bandit, dying on the next cross, looked at the most defeated-looking man in the world and saw a King who was about to come into His kingdom. And notice how little he asks for. The other criminal demanded rescue: get us off these crosses. This man asks for something much smaller: remember me. In the Psalms, that is how sinners pray: “Remember me, O LORD, when you show favor to your people.” It is the prayer of someone who knows he has no claim on anything, and only hopes not to be forgotten. Jesus answers him. It is one of the seven things He said from the cross, and it was not to His mother, not to His disciples, and not to His Father. It was to a criminal: “Truly, I say to you, today you will be with me in paradise.” Today. Not someday. Not after a period of proving himself. This man would die before sunset, and Jesus promised that before the day was over, he would be with Him. In John’s Gospel we learn that, because the Sabbath was coming, the soldiers broke the legs of the two criminals to make them die faster. As we saw with the crucified man’s heel bone found in Jerusalem, Rome knew exactly how to end a crucifixion. This man’s legs were broken, and he died that afternoon, just as Jesus said. Within hours, the promise came true. With me. Not just a place, but a Person. The thief asked to be remembered; Jesus promised him His company. In paradise. The word paradeisos comes from an old Persian word for a walled garden. When the Hebrew Scriptures were translated into Greek, it became the word for the garden of Eden. Humanity was driven out of paradise because of sin. Now, on a cross, beside a sinner, the second Adam was opening the way back in. The first man to walk through that door was a convicted criminal. Think about everything this man never did. He was never baptized. He never went to church. He never took communion, gave an offering, served the poor, or made amends to the people he had hurt. He had no time to change his life, and no hands free to do anything with. He brought nothing at all to Jesus except his guilt and his trust. And it was enough. Paul would later write, “By grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” The thief on the cross is that verse in human form. But notice also that there were two men. Both were guilty. Both were dying. Both were close enough to Jesus to hear Him breathe. The same Savior was the same distance from each of them. One mocked Him to the end. The other turned to Him. The cross divides humanity in the same way to this day. Being near Jesus is not the same as turning to Him. To the world, salvation must be earned. Good people go to heaven, bad people do not, and a lifetime of crime cannot be cancelled with one sentence at the end. But the first person Jesus personally promised paradise was a man whose crimes were serious enough to have him crucified, and whose only good deed was to trust Jesus in his last hours. That is not cheap. It cost Jesus His life, on the cross next to him. It is simply free. If you think you have done too much, if you think it is too late, look at the man on the right of Jesus. He had no past to stand on and no future to work with. All he had left was one request, and Jesus said yes, today. “Jesus, remember me.” He still does. Jesus is the King who opens paradise to sinners.

Do this every morning for 21 days and you will see a shift in your life Before the phone. Before the news. Before the noise. Give God the first twenty minutes of your day. Jesus did it. "And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place, and there prayed." (Mark 1:35) If the Son of God needed the morning… how much more you and I? 😪 Here is the practice: Wake up and thank Him before you ask Him for anything. "Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise." (Psalm 100:4) Be still. No requests. No rushing. Just His presence. "Be still, and know that I am God." (Psalm 46:10) Put on soft worship and sing along, even if your voice is tired. Speak to Him plainly. "My voice shalt thou hear in the morning, O LORD; in the morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will look up." (Psalm 5:3) Ask Him for direction for the day. "Cause me to hear thy lovingkindness in the morning; for in thee do I trust: cause me to know the way wherein I should walk." (Psalm 143:8) Read one passage, slowly, and listen. "He wakeneth morning by morning, he wakeneth mine ear to hear as the learned." (Isaiah 50:4) Why 21 days? Daniel set his heart before God, and Heaven answered from the first day. But the answer met resistance. "The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me one and twenty days." (Daniel 10:13) Twenty-one days of pressing. And then the breakthrough came. 👌 Some of what you are carrying will not leave in one morning. But it will not survive twenty-one mornings in His presence. Because whatever you behold, you become. "But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory." (2 Corinthians 3:18) His mercies are waiting for you at sunrise. "They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness." (Lamentations 3:23) Seek Him first, and watch everything else fall into place. "But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:33) I WILL SEEK HIM EARLY. FOR 21 MORNINGS I WILL BOW BEFORE HIM, AND MY LIFE WILL NEVER BE THE SAME AGAIN. ✒ © Tevin Macharia