I do pencil drawings and i always had to have the TV on, usually I’d find a movie or if i couldn’t I’d watch some news while i draw. But as my walk with the Lord became stronger, certain things i always did started to get to me. I was sitting drawing one day and had the TV on and i stopped and just looked at the TV and in my mind i heard “turn it off”. It was like one of those aha moments. I turned it off and haven’t turned it back on since. Now, my husband watches tv and i can’t avoid it sometimes but it no longer bothers me. Watching the fake news alot can give you anxiety, or it did me. Another moment was i loved heavy metal music, but if i listened to it while driving i would tend to speed lol. Or if someone would cut me off etc I’d get mad and speed up to catch up with them so i could tail them like they did me. I’d also spray my washer if someone followed too close behind me. Yep i had road rage. And i had a moment so clear where God told me “that music is causing you anger and you’re acting out on it, you need to get rid of it”, so i did. I think distractions can lead to stumbling blocks.
I too am like Martha. I am a constantly busy person and it has always been a struggle to slow down and listen.
One of my mottos is
Be still and know,
Then get up and go!
I believe there’s not a single person that’s not a Martha lol
I want to be like Mary with my full attention on Jesus and the Word of God.
A little about our Texas ranter. You have to realize Alex got his start in radio and followed closely, well as closely as he could on the tail of Rush Limbaugh. In the late 80s talk show radio was just becoming a thing. Part of it believe it or not was the rise of FM radio. AM radio was getting hammered by FM and many old AM were too deeply invested in AM to make the change. So they started up call in shows where host talked about current events and allowed people to call in and speak their piece. That gave rise to the likes of Rush Limbaugh who was a bit of a narcissist but became popular anyway as he found his niche in conservative talk radio. He connected with a lot of older more conservative minded folks who were starting to see changes in the nation they did not care for and Rush caught on and played that.
But ultimately whether it was rock and roll or country FM or AM radio the concept was still the same. Put out content that people would willingly listen to so you could sell ad time which is where income was made for all forms of media from print to TV to radio. They mover viewers or readers you have the more money could be made on the ads people were willing to pay to have run through your medium.
So Alex at first went part conservative and part P.T. Barnum with conspiracy theories of all kinds. The more outlandish the better because people in general have a desire to listen to tall tales of all kinds.
In the 90s at the height of Rush’s run politics was becoming the center focus of talk radio, conservatives on the right and the likes of Howard Stern on the left along with others. Then with the advent of the internet and advances in technology to do what we now call podcast the cost of setting up and running a talk radio show was considerably reduces and was better in that it could reach not just your local area, but the whole nation. This opened up the market for not just radio stations but for the advertisers as well.
It has been human nature to one gossip, two sit around and chat with each other. We first saw it on late night TV shows and others like the Tonight Show or Late Night where guest were brought in several in a night. Alex was a mix product of all of that including the outlandish conspiracy side of things from the likes of Art Bell on his syndicated over night program Coast to Coast AM show. Alex took his conspiracy ideas from the Art Bell show and his conservatism from Rush Limbaugh and mixed them into broadcast radio over he internet. But there was a back lash to the strength of Rush Limbaugh and liberals started rising up and in their MO started attacking the man and not the arguments hence Alex kind of hit a wall when he went after Sandy Hook or ran a long expose on the Jade Helm operation.
Funny part was a lot of what Alex was putting out was more accurated than many realized at the time but the way he put it out made it hard for even some of his followers to accept. But still the wildness of his many claims on his shows was enough to keep a fairly strong following for a time.
It was during that time that we started to see a rise in liberal media as the politics of the nation was headed to what we see it to be today, basically a verbal civil war where daily battles are fought over the airwaves and thorugh the cyber lines daily. But in the end it is not so much the battles that count but how many people will listen to your public side so you can sell ad time at premium prices. You see it now in many of the self promoted content providers who often push current followers to share or if on YT start out by asking you to like and subscribe but never really tell you why. Well the why is a formula that YT has for using your particular content for advertising and sharing a percentage of the income they get with you the provider. The more likes and followers they more you make as a content provider. There are people now making a living off just being content providers.
Then like actual talk radio of old, modern day content providers have to constantly come up with ways to make their material interesting enough, addicting enough, to keep their numbers up. In the end it is a numbers game that follows the money.
And it is not just Alex but people like the Health Ranger and others find niches and run more independent vlogs, blogs, and podcast. They also will often times sell product directly to supplement the income from advertising and you see a lot of that.
So the fact that Alex jumped on board with the QAnon crowd was an expected move as it was necessary or lose a lot of his following. We need to remember that in Alex’s case like so many other his outlandish public displays on what ever medium or platform they chose or fall into is their livelihood. It is how they make a living and like P.T. Barnum the wilder you get the more likely you will play to people’s baser instincts and fork over hard earned cash to see what they got.
Just think of how many ads you have seen but never realized they were ads promising say to lose weight without exercise or diet but with some pill. You click on the ad and are taken to a half hour long video that like so many others like it has this long drawn out story about how great their product is, run a number of so called good reviews which were scripted as well, and a lot of “but wait there is more” segments. Then in the end you finally get to where you can actually buy the product and it says quantities are limited and sometimes has a countdown clock on how long their special offer will last. These are all selling tactics. Things to get you to for go common sense and make a rash purchase because suddenly you might miss out. It is no different when an advertisement pits one neighbor against the other say one buys a new car the one they are trying to sell and has the other neighbor see it and fall so madly in love with it that he just has to run out and make a purchase before all the stock is gone. This is no different than independent content providers use to get you to follow them so they get more money per content hour the produce. It is the biggest scam that so few know about, how to separate people from their cash.
Lastly and I think I am done there is a whole new genre of so called subject matter experts. You have seen them Dutchsense, Monkeywerx, as well as more genarlized folks like Marfoogle who scour the internet for news bits and then present it often like breaking news and something extraordinary. That is what has grown in the past decade or so. Yet in almost all cases they are pretenders. They speak on things like an expert but often don’t have a clue what they are talking about. But they gather followers hungry for their every word, generally people ignorant of things they speak about, or because it feeds the followers desire to feed on the incredible things they say. And now we see it almost every where, on Twitter, Twitch, TikTok, content providers who are now being called influencers those that have large followings but it still goes back to the old days where magazines like People, Time, Life evolved. It is now just using a modern media for presentation. In the end the old adage of follow the money still works here. If you see a content provider putting stuff out, don’t take what they say at face value as they will mix in with what little truth they may actually have a lot of wild and crazy stuff as well and that is simply for the money. It all goes back to the days of just news papers when they competed with each other for subscribers. They had a saying back then that is still there today but harder to see and it went like this, " If it bleeds it leads." Simply put the bloodier and horrifying the news story the better to put on the headlines to get more people to buy the paper. That is what we now see across so called alternative media, those individuals trying to be the next P.T. Barnum making money off people’s desire for something new, something exciting that has never been seen before.
In the end who really benefits from all this insane knowledge over load filled with lies, half truths, conspiracies? The enemy does. Distraction is nearly as deadly as lies and often time more effective. All the Alex’s, Rush’s and the more current internet version of content providers and influencers are the very distraction that Pastor JD is talking about. It is the circus side of bread and circuses and there is a lot of it out there.
Ok, Michael, I will get off my soap box and put my ranting to rest. Sorry to get so long winded but, the spider web spun by the enemy is complex and often times hard to see much less follow.
A canadian called Mark Buchanan preached here once. He said hed rather be like Lazarus his very existence proved Jesus was Messiah so much so the pharisees wanted to kill him as well
There is hope for us Marthas though. Look at the difference in her response to Jesus after Lazarus was buried. She dropped whatever she was doing and went to meet him before he even entered the town.
John 11:20-30
20 Then Martha, as soon as she heard that Jesus was coming, went and met Him, but Mary was sitting in the house. 21 Now Martha said to Jesus, “Lord, if You had been here, my brother would not have died. 22 But even now I know that whatever You ask of God, God will give You.”
23 Jesus said to her, “Your brother will rise again.”
24 Martha said to Him, “I know that he will rise again in the resurrection at the last day.”
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
27 She said to Him, “Yes, Lord, I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who is to come into the world.”
28 And when she had said these things, she went her way and secretly called Mary her sister, saying, “The Teacher has come and is calling for you.” 29 As soon as she heard that, she arose quickly and came to Him. 30 Now Jesus had not yet come into the town, but [a]was in the place where Martha met Him.
I thought JD’s sermon was good. I got the point he was getting across too. But, i always felt bad for Martha. She probably knew the disciples were going to be hungrey and just wanted help getting the food ready. It also made me think about roles in the church. I tend to compare my spiritual walk/gifts with others, but everyone has there location in the body.
Hi Paula 
so good to see you around sharing your thoughts in here.
So much prophetic news happening and watchmen keeping us updated that I can’t keep up! 
I guess that’s a good thing though.
Maranatha!
Hi Paula,
Martha and Mary (and Lazarus) have been on my mind a lot since JDs sermon,
To me this is a reminder how oftentimes many come to pray when things get bad and the delay in Jesus’ attendance an opportunity to mourn and reflect? Perhaps Mary’s decision to stay at home reflected her love and faith.
I too have been more Martha in the past, juggling care for others, work, a wee bit of perfectionism? Thanks be to God, my circumstances have (of course) changed (kids grown up, elderly parents passed, retired early) enabling me to draw closer to the Lord and spend more time in His company, but given Martha’s situation and what I know I’m like, I would have welcomed him excitedly with open arms and checked if it was ok to prepare a lovely meal and if so, perhaps suggest everyone gather to talk in the kitchen? I can multi-task……all part of one body as @Photofr said?
Edit: It’s so very hard to know how to do the right thing when there are legitimate distractions that in this life we must do……cooking, cleaning, working etc. I guess we are made more acutely aware of our priorities through the message of Martha and Mary.
Amen @Photofr
27 Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually. 28 And God has appointed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, varieties of tongues.
1 Cor 12
Any sense of hierarchy (as we understand it from a human perspective) is nullified by the context of the chapter, especially v14 - 26.
I think the primary point of the event is simply to highlight the issue of priority and focus on Christ.
And to always have a joint of meat on the go in a slow cooker just in case…
I believe E511 lumps Smith in with the others he sites because he perceives Smith as appealing to the Jehu typology in the same manner as many in the false light movement.
E511’s statement on Spencer Smith on his Facebook:
Smith is clearly linking Jehu with godliness, holiness, and righteousness, in the very same way that false NAR teachers like Sean Feucht are doing. Smith scolds others for not reading their Bibles, but he himself leaves out that Jehu was an idolater, erroneously propping him up as a godly role model for today’s Christian men.
WOW WOW WOW. this was such an incredible sermon. i’m still trying to digest what came out of it.
God is so good and wise beyond our understanding. Our time grows so near. Nothing in this world matters except the preparation for the next.
God holds us in his hand. We have nothing to fear. Ain’t that cool 
Hold on loosely my friends…
Thank you !
That better explains it.
So I’m posting this because I can understand why Spencer would reference Jehu. But I also understand E511 ‘s response.
I liken this to what we see with many men in the Bible used by God that while on the one hand were obedient to God , on the other they didn’t always live up to what they should’ve having fallen at times in to sin ie David and Noah.
If I had to call Spencer out on anything it’s his misrepresentation of one being truly saved because of their “ fruit”. I’ve listened to many of his videos and he consistently advocates that doing works prices one is saved. The verse he quotes to substantiate this is referring to how to discern FALSE TEACHINGS ( their false teachings) not to prove one is saved. I
get the “ we’re not sinless but we should sin less “ mentality but that is still not indicative of a person’s eternal security. They are secure by belief and any sin struggle is not indicative that they’re not saved.
Tbh, I’ve been torn on watching him because of his stance on this.
I’d appreciate other’s thoughts on Spencer regarding this but not if it causes the forum to implode by ruffling too many feathers 
PS I watched E511 video on him referencing Jehu and I find some irony in his condoning of Jehu yet also says fruits indicate a saved life. 
Please wait till I post his Part 2 this week. His “Mystery Babylon” interpretation is strange to me. He tends to allegoricalize some parts of bible.
From Part 1 video:
-
E511 failed to mention Christians/Churches siding with the Left Wing stuff like wokeness, LBGT, BLM, CRT, Marxism, Globalism, Climate Change, Eat No Meat, Forbidding to Marry (Soon)… A good example is Pope Francis of RCC.
-
I found no support from bible that leftist and/or rightist wing create or contribute to the future beast system. It is still reasoning from left vs right mentality.
-
Becos he is not pre-trib, he lumps “Right-Wing” Christians as the most possible groups to destroy the Whore. Take note of his view on Rev 17 and 18.
-
E511 is using Typology when he refers to Jehu-Jezebel conflict. We need to study the life of Jehu and what he did from 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles in literal and contextual method. We need to ask is that a good Typology or not.
(1Ki 19:16) And Jehu the son of Nimshi shalt thou anoint to be king over Israel: and Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room.
There are 2 Jehu’s in 1 Kings.