You Don’t Need to Know Their Name

Mark 5:6-14

6But when he saw Jesus afar off, he ran and worshipped him, 7And cried with a loud voice, and said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of the most high God? I adjure thee by God, that thou torment me not. 8For he said unto him, Come out of the man, thou unclean spirit. 9And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many. 10And he besought him much that he would not send them away out of the country. 11Now there was there nigh unto the mountains a great herd of swine feeding. 12And all the devils besought him, saying, Send us into the swine, that we may enter into them. 13And forthwith Jesus gave them leave. And the unclean spirits went out, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the sea, (they were about two thousand;) and were choked in the sea. 14And they that fed the swine fled, and told it in the city, and in the country.

God’s ERS

9But the Egyptians pursued after them, all the horses and chariots of Pharaoh, and his horsemen, and his army, and overtook them encamping by the sea, beside Pihahiroth, before Baalzephon. 10And when Pharaoh drew nigh, the children of Israel lifted up their eyes, and, behold, the Egyptians marched after them; and they were sore afraid: and the children of Israel cried out unto the LORD. 11And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? 12Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness. 13And Moses said unto the people, Fear ye not, stand still, and see the salvation of the LORD, which he will shew to you to day: for the Egyptians whom ye have seen to day, ye shall see them again no more for ever.

God asks, What Do you See? And I said, I See Dead Men Walking

Jeremiah 1:8-14 KJV

8Be not afraid of their faces: for I am with thee to deliver thee, saith the LORD. 9Then the LORD put forth his hand, and touched my mouth. And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have put my words in thy mouth. 10See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant. 11Moreover the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Jeremiah, what seest thou? And I said, I see a rod of an almond tree. 12Then said the LORD unto me, Thou hast well seen: for I will hasten my word to perform it. 13And the word of the LORD came unto me the second time, saying, What seest thou? And I said, I see a seething pot; and the face thereof is toward the north. 14Then the LORD said unto me, Out of the north an evil shall break forth upon all the inhabitants of the land.

“You're Beginning to Look A Lot Like Jesus”

17Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18But 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, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

You remember that song, “It’s beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas,” by Bing Crosby. While this song was reportedly released a few times by various artists, first recorded and released by Perry Como and The Fontane Sisters with Mitchell Ayres & His Orchestra in September 1951 and there was also a version released by Michael Buble’ in 2011, however, the version I heard was the version performed by Bing Crosby.

As the title hints, “It’s beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas,” is a song that romanticizes the pagan holiday known as Christmas and the signs you’ll see that indicates that time of the year is near. Some of the signs outlined in the lyrics are is the carol that you’ll sing, the toys in every store and the prettiest sight to see, is the holly that will be on your own front door.

Very evocative and festive song that really puts you in the mood for egg nog and Christmas cookies, but when I heard it in my spirit was right after I asked the Lord this one question, what is with all the spiritual warfare I am encountering? This is when I heard you’re beginning to look a lot like Jesus and the way I heard it reminded me of the song, “It’s beginning to Look a Lot like Christmas.” I was like huh?

Oh, The Horror – War of the Worlds

6And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time. 7For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. 8And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: 9Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, 10And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. 11And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: 12That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

Ah yes, the one that took deception to a whole new level. While technically the one I am speaking of, directed by Orson Welles was a radio broadcast adaptation of H.G. Wells’ novel and not a film, I just had to add it for this Oh, The Horror message because of the wisdom, my heavenly Father recently spoke to me concerning this.

The War of the Worlds, directed and narrated by Orson Welles in 1938 was presented as a series of mock news bulletins that caused pandemonium because listeners mistook this fake news about a Martian invasion as the real thing, sound familiar. I could drop the mic right there, but there is so much more to this message than that.

Oh, The Horror – The Stuff

17He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. 18And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the LORD will not hear you in that day. 19Nevertheless the people refused to obey the voice of Samuel; and they said, Nay; but we will have a king over us; 20That we also may be like all the nations; and that our king may judge us, and go out before us, and fight our battles. 21And Samuel heard all the words of the people, and he rehearsed them in the ears of the LORD. 22And the LORD said to Samuel, Hearken unto their voice, and make them a king.

One of the reasons I included this movie as a part of this seasons, Oh The Horror, is because it’s not just a horror film, but it speaks to the power of advertising and consumerism, a metaphorical representation, if you will, of the dangers of blindly following trends and consuming products without question. The deeper meaning here is that we so want to fit in, be like everyone else to the point where we don’t care if the thing we’re consuming, using, following, is harmful to us, whether psychologically, emotionally, physically or spiritually, we just don’t want to be seen as different. Some such recent examples would be our obsession with cellphones, the COVID vaccines and now yes, AI.

Oh, The Horror – Weapons

1 Peter 5:8 KJV

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:

Seeking whom he may devour, catch that. This means that the one seeking, the devil, our adversary, seeks to devour. However, the word tells us that it is a hunt and he can’t devour everyone. This is why he goes around seeking, looking, searching, testing, trying.

Is it you? Is it them? Is it me…

This sounds like the disciples when Jesus tells them, during the Passover meal, one of you will betray me. It is at that time, they all begin to inquire of Jesus, ‘Is it I?’

Oh, The Horror – Let the Right One In

7For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist. 8Look to yourselves, that we lose not those things which we have wrought, but that we receive a full reward. 9Whosoever transgresseth, and abideth not in the doctrine of Christ, hath not God. He that abideth in the doctrine of Christ, he hath both the Father and the Son. 10If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: 11For he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds.

Having seen both versions of the film, I must say the original was the winner in this battle. Touted as a chilling story of prepubescent love between a boy and a vampire, we will examine how this movie is a cautionary tale of what happens when we aren’t sensitive to the warnings concerning who we choose to love and those that we allow into our lives. We must also understand that there are those that you should let in, The Right Ones and if there are the Right Ones, there are certainly, The Wrong Ones. We have a choice here, a decision to make, a one or the other, so to speak, there is no middle ground.