Dog Christians

Post 190

The Dog Walk:
I recently used in a previous post the analogy of myself as a dog being walked by the LORD. God does not use a leash to force our compliance against our will but as a good master (shepherd in the sheep analogy), through discipline, he trains us to be obedient and listen to the leading of his voice (John 5:24, 10:3-4).
As I am prone to do, I recently found another rabbit trail in my enthusiasm of life which I excitedly began to explore, But in my recently acquired habit to frequently stop and give an ear to affirm where the LORD is, I heard his call and discovered he was not as near as I thought, and so dropped what I was doing and made a bee line back to him. I was delighted that he had paused long enough to allow me to return before continuing on his walk and there was no discipline needed. (reproof of life)
I hate to use analogy to explain my specific experience but you need the concept not the specifics and so the analogy.

So in the analogy, when does the acceptable exploration change to “backsliding” waywardness?
When is the Priest’s hair “too long”?

In the next few posts we will discover that this is personally variable yet very specific to God.
As the analogy and scriptural example indicates, this is not an arbitrary point though it can appear to be. Within all God’s allowable “variables” there are defined boundaries under the surface.
This is easily understood when we comprehend God’s point is not about the specific rule; it is all about the heart toward the God of the rule.
Or said in another way;
It’s all about the perspective.

When you take your own dog for a walk, your opinion of acceptable exploration vs. waywardness is directly proportional to your dog’s current “norm” of responsiveness.

If your dog is undisciplined, anything “off the leash” falls under waywardness; it simply has no habit of personal accountability to you. In some dogs it’s due to willfulness, in others it is just happy ignorance, and there are remedies for both.

But if your dog has learned to be instantly obedient to the sound of your voice, and if your dog has the happy history showing that it loves to be near you, that it wants to please you, then when he suddenly bolts after a rabbit while on your walk, you have no fear of him getting lost or wasting your time, and so you actually take pleasure in watching his enthusiastic exploration for a spell.
When you are ready to move on, you call, and instantly you see his little head pop up out of the brush, you call again and he comes running instantly forgetting the rabbit that so recently held his attention.
Does the dog know why it is important that he respond immediately even when his attention is so diligently on chasing a harmless rabbit? No. and he doesn’t need to, as long as he is obedient.
But as the caring master, you know his instant response is important so that on the occasion he begins to chase a porcupine, you can call him up short at a moments notice before he really gets hurt!
So we see this obedient dog remains “under your shadow” though he explores the entire field, while the undisciplined dog “left your shadow” the second he deviated from “heel”.

Now we begin to see that God’s shadow indeed includes everywhere at once because he is omnipresent, but our dwelling under his shadow is proportional to our relationships with him and sin (unrighteousness). I John 5:17
Here we have the understanding of what the Apostle Paul was saying;
“All things are lawful unto me, but all things are not expedient: all things are lawful for me, but I will not be brought under the power of any.” I Corinthians 6:12

Like you, God’s argument is not so much the trail that the dog finds himself exploring, but his responsive relationship to his Master. If the dog is not well trained to respond, He can get himself into a lot of trouble before he learns to be obedient.
You can correct that with discipline and time, and God does too with hardships and trials over time.
The unspeakable joy is not related to the degree or frequency of reproofs, the unspeakable joy is because of the relationship with the Master. (I Peter 1:8-10)
The hardships and trials (reproofs of life) are not punishment per-Se, but lessons of discipline. That’s it. God does not hate you, he is not beating you as punishment for what you have done, he is simply teaching you how to receive favorable results from right attitudes of perspective.
Some of us are thick headed as a Chesapeake Retriever and take a lot of reproofs while others figure it out much sooner. That is just life.

But if your dog follows the call of another master, NOW you have a real problem!

* * *

Two Masters:
Picture you and your dog now on a walk at the edge of a wooded park.
Your dog hears a rabbit and bolts off through the brush into the woods.
After a short time, you hear a voice from the other side of the woods that calls your dog’s name and you see your dog pop up his head and look to the origin of the call.
You now call too but your dog is confused.
He looks both ways, then makes a beeline… to the other side of the woods. He has made a selection of masters, though likely in utter ignorance, because he did not know the voice of his master well enough to distinguish it from the call of another.
As long as there was only one master calling, the dog in happy ignorance thought he knew his master’s voice.

Who is the actual master of the dog? The one whose name is on the collar.
Who is the practical master of the dog? Whichever voice the dog responds to.

* * *

Why is prophecy so important?
Because when there is more than one voice calling, they can sound very much the same, just as the two lights in the previous post.
The Prophecy of Scripture is the sure tool of recognizing the right master’s voice if you are familiar with the prophecy.
but if you find the scripture distasteful, you seek only knowledge but have no means of knowing if your collected knowledge is good or evil. You are left with only your feelings to guide you, and frankly they make a lousy guide:
"Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:" Psalm 95:10 (also Psalm 101:4)
Prophecy of scripture is the incorruptibly Authoritative ID card of the right God.

"Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:" I Peter 1:10

“And this voice (God’s) which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him (Jesus) in the holy mount. We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed…” II Peter 1:18-19a

Peter is saying that the word of prophecy is even more sure than actually hearing God’s personal voice from heaven!
Why?
Because 5 seconds after we hear the voice of God, we can doubt what we thought we heard; Was that just my imagination? Was that really God? Was that the Devil deceiving me? How do I know?

Prophecy of scripture was first written down permanently recorded at the beginning of the Jewish story thousands of years ago. We now have the successful fulfillment of hundreds of past prophecies that give us tangible proof that these are not just wild ideas from some guy's mind, but actually foreknew and recorded by the creator himself, who spoke it all into existence in the first place which he would then prophecy of.
With the confidence of all the past prophecies we can be sure that those of scripture yet to come to pass, will indeed come to pass.
Scriptural prophecy is the sure door through which your God and Master will come:

"Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber." John 10:1
"Then said Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door of the sheep." John 10:7
"...Worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy." Revelation 19:10
"I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture.
The thief cometh not, but for to steal and to kill, and to destroy:
I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." John 10:9-10
This is a great section that I must leave out for space, but should really be read in this light.

In essence scriptural prophecy says; there will come a voice calling your name that is a wicked master who steels dogs. If you go to him, he will not treat you with the love that I do. He does not care about the dog, he only uses the dogs to his evil purposes. And his purpose by nature results in the horrible death of dogs.
He is the master of a dog-fighting ring and only wants to enter you into his fights until you are used up and die.
This master actually and intentionally by violence, trains his dogs to bite and devour one another with the greatest ferocity, because this fulfills his purpose.
One purpose is to have his trained dogs kill those who refuse his call, and when he runs out of stolen dogs, he will turn his own against each other.
The personal profit from the violence is his only desire. And this is why the more violent dogs are his favorite. (John 10:10)

Do you really think you can "dialog" a peaceful negotiation with one of his trained dog killers who has been diligently convinced by experience that the kill is the goal of success?
These dogs greatly rejoice at the suicidal death of their own offspring if it means the death of others. But you think we can negotiate peace through intellectual reason?

In the last post the conduct of the followers was not what DEFINED evil, though the acts may or may not be evil in themselves.
Here in this post we begin to see that EVIL is defined by the source and intent of the command behind the act.
One master is a Master of love and concern, while the other is a master of violence and destruction.
Good or Evil is sourced from the heart of the Master controlling the dog. The dog is just a tool that has been trained by an ideal.
A nine-year-old Muslim girl that now hates her Jewish neighbor for reasons she might not yet know, becomes evil by what has been programmed into her young mind. But even that can be corrected by a change of influence over time.
But when the evil is driven into her soul, now it is rooted as a part of her.

When on the rare occasion that God directed his people to kill women and children, it was because there own people carefully filled their very soul to overflowing with an evil that could not be removed by any means. Using the dog owner analogy; the dogs have been specially bred to be great killers, therefore the newborn pup has a wicked disposition that cannot be generically altered.
This determination was not open to opinion of man; God himself made the judgment and the command when that time came to the full.
This by no means is the same as instructing your followers to constantly kill everyone everywhere that disagrees with you as Allah has done.
(Qur'an 2:191,4:104,8:39,9:5,39,25:52,48:29,etc.etc. *1)

America and the world is only now just beginning to see what the fullness of iniquity might look like as Islam fills up her soul with hate and violence.
Yet as a nation we are slow of heart and dull of the comprehension needed to properly resist in time.

* * *

Masterless Dogs:
In today’s Democratic minded world, we have this innate determination to throw off all gods, dethrone all rulers, and run free.
We have an empathy for the poor wild mustang who is captured by man and forced to do his will. The movie “Hidalgo” provides yet more twisting of this already twisted concept as the kind but conflicted “owner” of the pony eventually overcomes his own needs and releases the pony back into the wild.
How romantic… and utterly foolish.
(don’t throw stones yet, let me finish so you can collect all the rocks you need first.)

Getting back to the dog analogy, this Democratic mind of determined independence is represented by the plethora of dogs running free in the wooded meadow between the two masters.
In our empathetic association we picture one dog among them regularly stop and poke up his head to listen. The other dogs mock him and say; “Why do you need the crutch of a master to tell you what to do? Throw off your God and lets run free, able to do as we like with no restrictions!” and the foolish dog thinks; “Yah, that’s right. This is fun. I don’t need a master!” and off they romp happily ever after. (cue the uplifting music and the credits)

Uh…Right.
“Has anybody thought about what we're going to eat when we get hungry in about an hour?”

History shows that when dogs are left to themselves they tend to pack up.
History also shows that after a pack of dogs reaches about 12-15, they begin to become aggressive. And not long after, they begin to attack other animals not only for food but just for the sake of the violence. Left unchecked they will even begin to attack children.

And suddenly we have two very good reasons why they should not throw off a good master. And there are many more good reasons.
A domestic dog under a good master has no need to become violent because he has every need cared for. The domestic dog gets protective shots, gets fed regularly, is kept from harmful places, has a home and those who love him.
This healthy environment promotes a natural non-violent temperament. But better than all these, the domestic dog has a wonderful purpose; He brings pleasure to the one who cares for him and in return is fulfilled.
What a great relationship.

Now the simpleton has a personal understanding of the wonderful nature of domestic dogs that have masters, but then projects that nature to the wild pack wolves who have no such master.
The wolf trapper is constantly seen as a hateful murderer because the accuser through ignorance has projected to the wolf an imagined nature. Then to add insanity to ignorance they go further by adding human emotions to the wolf because they think of their own pets as children.
It is this same heart of ignorance that bleeds for the release of the wild mustang who had a purpose and good life with his caring master but has been championed by a domestic but rebellious mind that never considered the harsh winters without shelter or food or medication or purpose. Which animal is really better off? But I digress: Better off is not actually the justification, simply an argument of reason.
But as long as the music plays triumphantly we can weep with a heart full of joy that the animal now runs free.
Then after we turn off the TV, we never think of the pony again.

Keep your eye on Egypt.
They have just thrown off their “master” because they had some legitimate complaints. But a free pack of dogs cannot remain happy without a purpose.
I think I hear them being called from the other side of the woods.

The additional problem of dogs running free in the woods, is the Evil master has stepped up his recruiting tactics.
He has trained his dogs to enter the woods under the cover of like ignorant innocence, and convince other dogs to throw off their masters; “There is a wonderful spring 63 miles in that direction into the desert... (where there are no shade trees.)”

Yes America broke free from her English master.
But the intent and purpose was not the foolish heart of Democratic masterless freedom, it was because they had found a new master they desired to follow; The God that created and loved them.
America was not founded a Democracy, America was founded a republic under God. (hence the pledge of allegiance wording)
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States Of America, and to the Republic for which it stands; One nation, Under God, Indivisible with liberty and justice for all."

America has only recently (48 years or so) decided we no longer need a God, and so has begun a push for Democracy.
We have not replaced our God with another, we just don’t want a god at all… or so we think.
But in the casting off, we have made a god of ourselves, and everyone knows that a self made man has hired the cheapest labor.
America now worships our own minds, our own efforts, our own emotions and the stuff we can buy.
She is running recently free from her God, but already she is beginning to get hungry. The pack-dog mentality of violence and fear is beginning to show its nature as it is with other nations around the world so recently democratically freed.

The problem with the wild dogs of socialism, is they have a need to fill but no one to fill it, and in selfish self-provision they steal the food from the dishes of the domestic dogs, and then kill them for resisting.
and the master of the dog-fight ring laughs in glee as he just made profit from the unscheduled fight!

But as bad as all that is,
Have you ever tried to walk a cat?

* * * * * * *

*1 Commands of the Qur'an:
2:191 "Kill the disbelievers wherever we find them."
4:104 "Relent not in the pursuit of the enemy."
8:39 "And he ordered us to fight them [on] until there is no more tumult and the faith in Allah is practiced everywhere."
9:5 "Fight and slay the pagans, seize them, beleaguer them, and lie in wait for them in every stratagem."
9:39 "Unless we go forth, (for Jihad) he (Allah) will punish us with a grievous penalty, and put others in our place."
25:52 be "disobedient towards the unbelievers and their governments and strive against the unbelievers with great endeavor."
48:29 "Be harsh with unbelievers."
*