{"id":6628,"date":"2015-07-03T00:13:09","date_gmt":"2015-07-03T00:13:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6628"},"modified":"2015-07-03T00:13:09","modified_gmt":"2015-07-03T00:13:09","slug":"jugglers-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/?p=6628","title":{"rendered":"Jugglers"},"content":{"rendered":"

But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived<\/em>. 2 Timothy 3:13, NASB<\/p>\n

But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived<\/em>.\u00a02 Timothy 3:13, KJV<\/p>\n

In the King James Version of 2 Timothy 3:13, impostors are called \u201cseducers\u201d.\u00a0According to the\u00a0Encarta Dictionary<\/em>, a seducer is a persuader who\u00a0uses deception to get what he or she wants sexually. However, the same reference further reveals that the term isn\u2019t limited to sexual enticement; a seducer also\u00a0tries to\u00a0talk someone into doing other <\/em>things they wouldn\u2019t normally do by\u00a0painting\u00a0a picture of how “amazing”\u00a0or “truly noble” those things\u00a0are. Lastly, the same source states that the term \u201cseducer\u201d can be used to describe\u00a0a person\u00a0who manipulates\u00a0others\u00a0into giving them their support or agreement.<\/p>\n

The term \u201cimpostor\u201d used in the NASB indicates the false, illegitimate\u00a0character of this type of person, whereas the word \u201cseducer\u201d in the KJV further reveals the manipulative, self-serving\u00a0motivation\u00a0by which they are driven.<\/p>\n

In Greek,\u00a0\u201cimpostor\u201d is the word\u00a0go\u0113s<\/em> and indicates not only a deceiver and an impostor, but also reveals some other very interesting peculiarities (see < http:\/\/ www.blueletterbible.org\/lang\/lexicon\/lexicon.cfm?Strongs=G1114&t=KJV ><\/a>).<\/p>\n

The first definition right out of\u00a0the box for this Greek word\u00a0is “a wailer”\u00a0and “a howler”. Remember, impostors lie and manipulate, so this wailing and howling is not\u00a0the genuine cry of pain, remorse, or compassion\u2014no, the wail and howl of\u00a0the impostor is a grand charade to\u00a0further his agenda of conning and deceiving. Would you be surprised to learn that one of the strategies\u00a0which activist Saul Alinsky\u00a0included in his book,\u00a0Rules for Radicals <\/em>(\u00a9 1971), to force societal change\u00a0was to loudly,\u00a0disruptively, and continuously complain\u2014to howl and wail\u2014against the status quo? (Incidentally, Alinsky dedicated this book to \u201c\u2026the first radical known to man\u2026Lucifer\u201d.)<\/p>\n

Another definition of\u00a0go\u0113s<\/em>\u00a0is \u201cenchanter\u201d\u2014a person,\u00a0according to the source, who would utter incantations in a sort of a howl.<\/p>\n

But to me, the most intriguing definition of all is included in the second\u00a0meaning along with \u201cenchanter\u201d\u2014a \u201cjuggler\u201d.\u00a0You may wonder how this word \u201cjuggler\u201d could possibly be\u00a0related to\u00a0\u201cimpostor\u201d or \u201cseducer\u201d. Well, this is where it gets very interesting.<\/p>\n

These days, information\u2014extremely\u00a0important<\/em>\u00a0information\u2014gets thrown at\u00a0all of us\u00a0constantly. Any attempt to make sense of current events is dizzying and can make you feel as if you are watching a multi-object juggling routine in hyper-speed! You start to learn about one<\/em> thing going on and\u00a0before you know it,\u00a0a second, and then a third, and then a fourth\u2014all breaking news\u2014all “just in”\u2014slap you, one after the other, in the face. Changes and crises abound\u2014whether in health\u00a0care,\u00a0invasive privacy concerns,\u00a0military changes and new crises in the middle-east and the Ukraine,\u00a0deepening concerns about the integrity of the IRS, changes in the traditional definition of marriage and a growing antagonism toward those who hold to traditional views, chilly relations on the part of the administration with Israel, predicted decline in America’s status as\u00a0the world’s economic leader and super-power, changes in what is commonly accepted as right and wrong\u2014all these things and so much more fly at us from every direction at\u00a0the\u00a0speed of light.<\/p>\n

Most of us do not have the reading capacity of President Kennedy who was reported to read four newspapers in 15 minutes every day. And yet the daily, perpetual juggling of volumes of highly detailed information about ever-changing, significant events intensifies all the more, mocking our inability to comprehend even one piece, let alone grasp the entire scope of information.<\/p>\n

Most folks just throw their hands up in the air, let the info fall to the ground, and walk away. Who can keep up with it all?<\/p>\n

I propose that this \u201cjuggling routine\u201d takes place by design to keep men and women of good will and honest heart off-balance as they attempt to bring order to the chaos they see.<\/p>\n

However, I also believe that there is a strategy from the Throne Room of God to empower His people to deal effectively in the face of this constant juggling of toxic and disastrous events and information.<\/p>\n

Consider this: It was rumored that baseball legend Ted Williams was able to see\u2014as if frozen in space\u2014the seams on any fastball hurled his way. Could it be that God might be “magnifying your vision” with one or two of the very serious issues facing our nation? Are you passionate about any of the crises or changes gripping our culture? What angers you? What makes you uneasy? What is attempting to rob your peace? Take note. Could it be that the issues that bother you the most are the “seams on the baseball” flying at you? Could it be that the Living God has prompted your ire and is coaching and preparing you to hit that issue out of the park in consecrated, heartfelt prayer?<\/p>\n

It is my belief that God’s will in these difficult days is to send assignments to His men and women, boys and girls, “freezing in space” for each one of us the details concerning those things about which He is prompting us to pray. Look. Our God so much greater than any impostor or juggler of oppression and folly that ever existed.<\/p>\n

So when you see alarming information being juggled at warp-speed before your eyes, thank God that He has His “Ted Williams” prayer people stepping up to the plate all over the nation and around the world. They are poised, ready, waiting, bats in hand, anticipating those fastballs…and, seeing the seams, with their prayer muscles bulging, they swing with a force that could only come from Heaven and connect\u2014sending those balls way out of the park.<\/p>\n

Get ready to play ball, Ted Williams\u2014you<\/em>!<\/p>\n

Dorothy<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 2 Timothy 3:13, NASB But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.\u00a02 Timothy 3:13, KJV In the King James Version of 2 Timothy 3:13, impostors are called \u201cseducers\u201d.\u00a0According to the\u00a0Encarta Dictionary, a seducer is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[177,178,184,173,172,183],"class_list":["post-6628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-praying-for-america","tag-deceiving-and-being-deceived","tag-evil-men-and-impostors","tag-evil-men-and-seducers","tag-in-the-last-days-difficult-times-will-come","tag-praying-for-america","tag-will-proceed-from-bad-to-worse"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6628"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6650,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6628\/revisions\/6650"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.firstofallpray.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}