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PART ELEVEN – The Issues of Life to Troublous Times (cont.)
I haven’t pondered the truth of “that prophet” of Deuteronomy 18 that came to me years ago, likely because I haven’t believed it, or because it wasn’t time, but again it surfaces that I am that prophet spoken of by Moses.
I expect another reason I haven’t believed it is because nominal Christians insist Jesus Christ is that prophet, which is what I have believed, being subjected to their doctrinal influence. However, I haven’t been able to shake the thought, which many would call delusion.
In considering the matter, I began to discern many things in our lives that would give not a little strength to the idea.
Particle – James Sorochan Writes
—– Original Message —–
From: James Sorochan
To: Harvest Haven Market Farm
Sent: Sunday, August 12, 2007 9:05 PM
Subject: Last friday,s supper
First of all I would like to thank everyone for having me as your guest on friday. I really enjoyed the food; companionship, and enlightening conversation. I have a food question for Lois before I go any farther. I made home-made mayonaise and I can,t imagine how I ever ate store bought mayo . It seems a little runny. Does this mean my technique is off or will it thicken up overnight in the fridge ?
Now for the good stuff. Not that food isn,t good stuff ! I can,t beleive that in such a short period of time my heart could be filled with such joy . I can hardly contain it ! You and that means everyone at Harvest Haven are a conduit to God. I have being searching for my whole life for the very answer that was right in front of me the whole time ! , but I couldn,t see . This is perhaps the first time in my life that I feel a true sense of wonder and amazement plus humbleness to the extreeme. I thank you for this. Don,t worry I have being thanking God all day. I,m probably getting on his nerves by now. Greenhorn,s . What do you do with them? I thought I was blessed with a pretty good sense of humor untill Dena kicked my butt with her counter one liners every time I thought I tried to be smart.( Alick) . That,s when It hit me . There must be a God ! Just joking Dena. Touche. You can only blame God for creating me. Back to more serious stuff are should I say more heartfelt stuff. I now understand what it is too have a ” stiff neck ” but that know longer holds true with me anymore. I guess it was my time for an adjustment from God and I am greatfull for that ! I takes a lot of energy ( spiritual; emotional ) to search for the truth . I,m on the right path. ( Major punn intended ). All of you have become good freinds to me and I bless God for that . I hope it continues. I didn,t know I had this much in me to write this much ! It has to be God ! This medium of writting is great ! I can only hope I can get more proficiant at it and can anyone show me how to use the spelling check. Know really ! I don,t want to loose this by pressing the wrong button.
Thank You
James
Editor’s Note, August 5, 2016: I note the kernel of faith, reality, and joy of the Lord in James’ letter that I confess I didn’t discern at the time he sent it.
Particle – A Strawberry Field Wasted?
On August 13th, 2007, I was struggling with having plowed under a strawberry field of June berries last year, now thinking it a mad thing to have done so, throwing away thousands of dollars of perfectly good fruit.
Editor’s Note, April 2017: At the time of the decision, I knew in my spirit the Bensons didn’t want to work the strawberry field they had permitted to be overgrown with weeds. Because of their attitude, I wondered if I wasn’t caving to their sloth. Regardless of them, I concluded I needed to sacrifice the field by faith in obedience to God Who would give us something better. END
The Lord has reminded me that He governs all times and events and that I had to wait until a realization of losses (nearly a year later), deal with that realization, and overcome the torment by faith before entering that which was promised to replace the strawberries. I slept soundly from there.
The next day, August 14th, Mark sold a Scenar Dove over the phone – an amazingly effective health product we discovered this year. Mariko remarked on the contrast between that sale and the labor and return on strawberries. She didn’t know the struggle and thoughts I had on the strawberry matter only the day before.
Mark informed me of Mariko’s comment after I told him of the Lord’s reminder. I concluded his report to be a confirmation from the Lord of what I heard from Him the day before.
And what about James coming and rejoicing in the Lord, even writing us about it only yesterday, which is confessedly against his grain to do?
Who says there is no God?
Particle – Vision – Woman with Breast Cancer
On August 19, 2007, I was reading a letter from Paul about a woman. Here is the correspondence. Paul wrote:
Norm Mullins, Steve Hartman’s Jewish friend…told me that Steve’s good friend, Tim Stepp…has had his own issues to deal with as his partner, Kathy, has had breast cancer. Kathy was very cold towards me a couple years ago, when I saw her and Tim at Real Food on a couple occasions. I tried to say hello but they wanted to have nothing to do with me. I felt like she was influencing Tim against me, although I consider that he is completely responsible for himself. I knew them both from before I met Steve, and there was no problem then. I do not know precisely what was going on the last couple times I saw them, but when I heard she had breast cancer I immediately could see why, with the kind of spirit she was manifesting when I last saw her.
I replied:
Good morning! Is the Lord not finished winking? You mentioned how you could see Kathy getting cancer from her attitude. Just before I red what you said, while I was on the third line or so of that paragraph, I was seeing cancer going downward into her breasts from the direction of her shoulders.
“No instrument of war which is formed against you will be of any use; and every tongue which says evil against you will be judged false. This is the heritage of the servants of the Lord, and their righteousness comes from Me, says the Lord” (Isaiah 54:17 BBE).
“And the LORD said to Abram, Go out of your country, and from your kindred, and from your father’s house into a land that I will show you. And I will make you a great nation. And I will bless you and make your name great. And you shall be a blessing. And I will bless those that bless you and curse the one who curses you. And in you shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3 MKJV).
“And if anyone will hurt them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies. And if anyone will hurt them, so it is right for him to be killed” (Revelation 11:5 MKJV).
There will be more, much more, not that we want or ask for it – God forbid, yet I want to see the Lord stop mouths – both literal and oral swords against Him and us. Frankly, I must say I am so thankful He is finished winking.
I need to clarify something – the cancer going down into her breasts was coming from her attitude, why from the shoulder area, I don’t know. You might think that it would come from her head area, and it may have – from the head, spreading out to the shoulders and down.
Paul responds:
The shoulder seems to represent the power to do good, or evil if not employed in good.
“But they refused to hearken, and pulled away the shoulder, and stopped their ears, that they should not hear” (Zechariah 7:11 KJV).
“…if I have lifted up my hand against the fatherless when I watched over my help in the gate; then let my arm fall from the shoulder blade, and let my arm be broken from the elbow.” (Job 31:21-22 MKJV)
I responded:
“And the shoulder represents responsibility…‘shouldering responsibility’? She is directly responsible for her state, unlike ingesting chemicals as with using carcinogenic deodorants, where one is indirectly responsible.”
Particle – Dream – Leading Man by the Hand
In the night of August 24th, 2007, I dreamt of meeting a young man who seemed in his twenties. I was talking to him and we went for a very short, 50-yard walk to a building, holding hands. I said to him, “Church is interference with God.” In the dream, I recall wanting to remember it so that I could write it down as a proverb. There was more in the dream I didn’t recall.
We drove to the farm to meet James and have supper. It was a good visit, for about 4 hours. He told us what he was experiencing and that he “saw God” and was converted at our Friday get-together two weeks previously. I was reminded of how God opened Lydia’s heart with faith in Acts 16.
Marilyn says the dream last night of the young man applies to James. I agree. I didn’t want to say anything to him about staying away from church but I had to do so. We shared the 3 major “come out” verses and Proverbs 7, wherein it explicitly warns the young man to stay away from the harlot. James agreed.
We will see where it goes because James has friends who are taking him to church. An Art Dueck took him to River of Life. James was quite taken by the senior pastor, Todd Atkinson.
Particle – Our Enemies’ Words Our Friends
A customer, Nicole Baker and her husband Shayne, condemned us in her blog for articles we wrote in the Harvest Haven Herald concerning Muslims and Trevor and Ingrid. They declared they would no longer be doing business with us.
I wasn’t in the least sorry to see them turned away. They were in it strictly for themselves and we are not here to save the flesh. God must do the sifting, opening and closing doors. I was wondering about this situation with her public condemnation and suddenly the Lord said, “Be thankful; she is helping spread what you want others to read.”
Particle – James’ Dream: No Smooth Road
On August 26th, James came to shop for groceries and again described his pleasure at having been our guest and hearing the things he heard. He had a dream in the night wherein he saw a very smooth road. He knew it could not be traveled unless it was roughed up. He knew that the only way for that to happen was by fire.
Then he saw that as he and Mark were on a road, a vehicle was fast approaching them. Mark warned him to jump to his right under a vehicle, which he did, and the danger was avoided.
Editor’s Note: I wonder about the significance of Mark instructing James to jump under a vehicle. Lord?
On the Sabbath, September 1, 2007, while attending a Lethbridge Ninjutsu meet of people from North America, the 55-year old Wayne Sommerville, one of Jonathan’s instructors, withdrew during workouts, suffering chest pains, shortness of breath, and paleness of face. His eyes were bloodshot – he looked like he was headed for or having a heart attack.
I recalled the story of how Dr. Shizuo Inoue, the inventor of the Chi Machine, manually saved someone who had collapsed on a railroad station platform from a heart attack by a therapy now incorporated in the Chi Machine. I asked the Lord if it would be okay to treat Wayne and got the go ahead.
I had tried earlier to get Wayne on the Chi, but he would have none of it. I talked to Jim Kambeitz, the Fifth Dan black belt (he received the fifth that day from Sensei Jorge Sosa Sr.) to try the Chi and then perhaps talk to Wayne.
Jim tried it, loved it, told Wayne about it and Wayne listened to him. In two minutes on the Chi, Wayne stopped groaning and gasping, started to relax while the Chi was still going, color came back to his face and then he rested for perhaps 10 to 15 minutes. When he opened his eyes, they were normal.
Minutes later, Wayne could receive his black belt award as though nothing had happened. He then told us he lost 3 men in his family to stroke.
Wayne might have died but for the Chi treatment. “How much is one of those?” he asked. He never did buy one.
The day would come when I seriously wondered if I should have helped him.
Particle – No Gluttons Permitted
Lois called asking what to do with Sean about his eating. He is a compulsive eater, pigging out all the time. Now, Lois will regulate what he gets. She criticized nearly everyone and complained about many things, but what about her own sons whom she raised and who continued as gluttons before her and all present?
Particle – Guilty or Not Guilty
As I’ve often done, I wondered about fairness in addressing people as I’ve done. I wondered about what I said concerning Eric Van de Merwe in my letter to Moon River residents, (See Letter to Harry and Alice Koppert). I received that he was among the several guilty as described in the letter.
Editor’s Note, August 9, 2016: In that letter to several in the Moon River community, I predicted God’s judgment on the perpetrators of evil against me. The portion of my letter:
“Nevertheless, in all of this, I forgive and hold not a wisp of evil intent or desire for anyone, not you, your family, John Rienstra, Valerie Berns, Eric, Kendra or anyone else. God has marvelous ways of dealing out justice, and it will be perfect. I’m only thankful to have discovered these vile matters as they circulate and to have the opportunity to rebuke wickedness.
God is finished winking at all the crap coming forth from people, especially from those who name His Name and continue in all sorts of evils, especially secret ones, including lying, character assassination, murmuring, whispering, malicious gossip, sexual perversion, theft, and slander.
It is an evil day indeed, and the Lord is finished winking. I know; He has told me so, I’ve seen His judgment over and over, and I speak every bit as much on His behalf as, and more so than, mine. He is mine, and I am His. Otherwise, I would not and could not speak.” END OF QUOTE
Within weeks, Valerie Berns was diagnosed with lung cancer (though not being a smoker) and died within a couple of years or so. Harry Koppert was diagnosed with MS, his condition deteriorating ever since. Eric Van de Merwe was caught embezzling funds from the Moon River Fire Dept., his wife left him and he moved out of the community. John Rienstra was discovered to be an incorrigible liar.
Who says there is no God…of Judgment?
Particle – Deliverance from Fear of Rising Early
On September 2, 2007, I received another HEALING! I awoke early this morning realizing I had a dread of having to get up early while tired and having to face the world. I don’t know why or where it started. I’ve had that problem for as long as I can remember…perhaps it started at MIT (college) or The Bay, my first career employer. At the time, I was in the habit of drinking and partying the night before and having to get up and face the public in a horrible, tired, hungover state.
I had lived with that fear for so many decades, not realizing I had the problem or how it started. Suddenly, as I write, I see that the MIT and The Bay were where it began, which realization is a token of victory over the problem – we’ve learned that one suddenly realizes the source or origin of the problem after a healing comes.
I have my healing, September 2, 2007, 34+ years after my conversion.
Strange. “Why all this time?” I asked – and received an answer: I had to pay every penny before being released from my prison. There I was, living a selfish, reckless life, yet unwilling to change. Therefore, the consequences remained for decades. What torment! What a price to pay! But it’s gone now, praise God!
Jonathan received his Ninjutsu name today from Jorge Sosa Sr.; it is Yuki Neko, “Snow Cat” (likely Snow Leopard). Hanshi favored Jonathan with a chart of pressure or energy points in the body, a chart he didn’t give to others.
Particle – Multiple Encounters with Adversaries
On the way home from Ninjutsu on September 2, Marilyn and I encountered Stephen Koppert and Eric Van de Merwe at the Moon River turn off. As firefighters, they had been putting out a grass fire. I asked them what happened. Stephen explained while Eric stood by with an expressionless look.
It appeared Eric realized he wasn’t dealing with some village clown, peeping Tom, or cowardly religious freak. Whereas he once had only contempt, now it was more of a loss for what to say, think or do. It was as though he was speechless or confounded, not that there was any repentance.
My eyes told him I was not giving him any benefit of the doubt, I wasn’t the least pacified by time or circumstance, I would take no crap from him, and that it was up to him to make the move to make amends, which I didn’t in the least expect he would do.
Stephen bid me have a good day and I returned his blessing. Then we passed Rienstras, whose vehicle tossed a stone and gave our windshield a severe chip. I wondered why we encountered three Dutch Reform, evangelical, self-righteous, tongue-wagging families all at once and suffered damage. Perhaps it was my attitude toward them. Could I have been more gracious and forgiving? This was on the one-month anniversary, 30 days from the time I wrote the first letter to them all on August 2.
Particle – Satan Continues to Destroy
Sean continued to break things. He wiped out two sprinkler heads while mowing; he didn’t report and didn’t care. He also skinned a spruce tree, debarking it halfway around the stock. He scraped a building after told not to park near it. He disobeyed, thinking to know better. Nearly every day he did something else. The fellow was a disaster looking for opportunities to happen.
Particle – An Injury for a Ninja Pupil – His First but Not Last
On September 10th, while sparring with bamboo swords, Jonathan suffered an eye injury from Christian Tran, who was reckless and anything but respectful to others. Jim Kambeitz strongly suggested we go to emergency, but I received that Jonathan would be okay.
Consequently, Jonathan had a whopper headache and nausea with vomiting. His vision narrowed for a while and then returned to normal. His eyes were tearing. We used ice and later the Far Infrared Dome, which seemed to help. After vomiting, his headache greatly subsided.
Particle – Respect in Dojo a Sham
I received on the night of September 10/11 that while the Ninja instructors are instituting the custom and form of respect and honor, with removing shoes and bowing to one another, there was not the attitude and spirit, the true essence of respect. How could there be? Such can only come from the Lord Jesus Christ by a regenerated heart.
I decided to write a letter on the subject for their sakes. Tom Hovan and Jim Kambeitz had no problem with it but Wayne Sommerville, upon seeing one of my proverbs, thought it was from the Bible and immediately expressed strong disagreement. “No religion here, I say!” His objection was not accepted, Tom left copies to be handed out and nothing more was said.
Particle – Unfinished Business
I discovered a forgotten handwritten letter to Harry and Alice Koppert dated December 23, 1999, which I had never delivered, fearing I was too strong. I now looked at it and realized they needed to hear the things I was saying.
Was it a case of hindsight being 20/20 or was I getting harder in heart? Harry was dying of MS, 8 years later. Had I neglected my responsibility to them and to the Lord? I believed I should have given the letter to them, so I decided to email it. They didn’t reply, as I expected.
Particle – James’ Spiritual Beginnings
James Sorochan had a talk with his father, who had requested to meet for dinner to find out what was going on with him and his newfound faith. James also met with his mother, to talk to her about finding God and to encourage her in the same direction. While his twin sister Jannette professed faith and said she was glad for James, they hadn’t spoken much. She and her husband Russell, who live near Warner, shopped at Harvest Haven until she couldn’t accept my doctrine and obvious rejection of mainstream orthodox Christianity.
James’ brother, Don Sorochan, who attended church for twenty years under Pastor Bill Calderwood, didn’t talk to James about his new faith. James was a bit perplexed that though Don was a church-goer, he took no interest in his brother’s new faith.
It was apparent Don didn’t have faith himself. His spiritual history would bear that out. According to James, their church membership was not of faith, but of desperation to save a child. Don’s wife had experienced life-threatening conditions when giving birth to their son, David (who is 20 in 2007), which provoked them to go to “Reverend” Bill Calderwood of the United Church in Lethbridge for spiritual counsel.
Bill had ceremonially married Don and his wife. When the homosexual controversy came up in the United Church in the late ’70’s and early ‘80’s, Bill left with part of the congregation, Don and his wife included, to begin the First Congregational Church in Lethbridge. Don, as of 2007, served on the staff of the same congregation, now called the River of Life Church, where Todd Atkinson was Senior Pastor. Bill Calderwood was still present but retired.
Particle – The Calderwood Influence
I had tasted Mr. Calderwood’s influence and example by his congregation through Ric and Sharon Swihart, Andy McCallum, and now I saw it with the Sorochans. It was not a healthy one. Rather, it was a leaven that deceives and misleads. But how can anything good be expected from organized religion, from the harlot who is not there to worship God in spirit and truth, but to flatter, entertain, and provide social benefit?
Particle – Is Feeling Bad, Bad?
On Monday, September 17, 2007, I awoke feeling depressed, as is often the case in the early hours of the morning, feeling guilt or being bothered about things not apparently working out. I then felt bad for making Paul feel bad about spending money on Hebrew lessons.
I then thought of my autobiography, wondering why, if I hate feeling so badly, would I write things to make others feel that way. I thought of Lois, who is brutishly eager to “tell it all,” if it’s about others and not her. Does she not realize she feels bad when rebuked, and thus, by experience, she should care how others feel?
But as I write, it occurs to me that there are both justified and unjustified reasons for causing sorrow; there’s good rebuke and bad. People will know their sins and wish the rocks to fall on them to hide them from the Face of the Great Judge when He appears.
Revelation 6:15-17 MKJV
(15) And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains.
(16) And they said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him sitting on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;
(17) for the great day of His wrath has come, and who will be able to stand?
The Lord is in full control and a purpose for good is being served in everything, including what appears to be evil. The Lord has used my food problem, neck and leg injuries of 1959 and 1971, and early morning troubling to humble and discipline me, and others by me. Marilyn, for example, along with others, has had to put up with my troubling. Surely, the Lord has determined these things for their good as well; otherwise, He is unjust or not in control.
If He isn’t in control, how can He possibly execute justice and mercy? He can only do so because He is just and in full control.
Particle – Reasoning with Religious Rocks
On September 21st, 2007, Kurt MacPherson came by, dropped off materials he had bought for the rock work, a Tibetan Eye Chart I had given him, and a frozen (ruined) $170 Grander Penergizer I had lent him. He also picked up his wheelbarrow.
He admitted he wanted to prepare for his Day of Atonement celebration with his Worldwide Church of God splinter group. I confronted him on the issues and delivered the message I had for him for perhaps a couple of years, that if he kept his commitment with me as unto the Lord, keeping his word to his hurt, he’d receive a reward beyond what he would have bargained for.
I told him he was a hypocrite, trying to put the onus on me for not doing the work. Grudgingly, he had to acknowledge the truth of what I was saying. Kurt promised to come back but I didn’t trust him. At the time, I said to the Lord:
“I believe You, Lord, will bring him back at the appointed time, which, if I heard You correctly, is next year, 2008. You told me this in 2006, saying, ‘He will be here to do the job – not this year, not next, but the year after.’”
My right leg is healing, several days after Paul and Sara agreed to pray for me.
Particle – Correcting Jonathan
Something that often disturbs me is Jonathan’s hardness and apparent lack of ability or willingness to admit error or weakness. There is a pride there that seldom says, “That’s good! You are better at that than I am!” Instead, it’s “I can do that; watch me!”
Last night, he asked me to tie him up to see if he could escape. While struggling, unable to free himself, and while I went to the bathroom, he quickly got Marilyn to untie a knot, and didn’t tell me when loosed. What disturbed me is that he cheated and that Marilyn helped him. At least she told him he needed to confess that he didn’t free himself.
Confronting him on it, he said it was just a game or a joke and that he had intended to tell me what he had done. I told him that wrong may begin with games and jokes and grow from there if one isn’t careful. I also pointed out that Marilyn beat him to telling me, and advised him to admit what he did. I said that if he was slow in these matters, he could be held in suspicion of not wanting to confess.
Editor’s Note, August 10, 2016. I see now that I could have misunderstood. It could well be Jonathan intended to tell me, but furthermore, didn’t he get out of his knots, even if by persuading someone else to free him? What’s so wrong with that unless he promised to not enlist someone else’s services, which he didn’t promise?
We have talked about doing our own translation of the Bible, for several reasons. Today, on September 27th, 2007, Paul and I determined a name for our planned translation, or rather an interpretation of the Bible, as Paul calls it. I had suggested, “CHAT” for “Cohen/Hafichuk Authoritative Translation” but then Paul wrote:
“CHAT?” Can we call it a translation or is it an Interpretation?
“CHAI?” “Chai” is the Hebrew word for “life.”
So I replied:
“I would like that too, except that “CHAI” is Anglicized Hebrew, which may not be a problem. It is Hebrew, and one needs the circumcised heart to interpret the Scriptures (Romans 2:29). The first name on the acronym is Hebrew (Cohen), a name representing priesthood, no less, which is the office of interpretation of God’s Law and will. It is the representation of His authority, and it is very life! I like that, Paul.”
Cohen/Hafichuk Authoritative Interpretation?
LE CHAIM TO “CHAI”!
Now we wait for the time we will do the job, Lord willing, after this Theo-autobiography is completed. As of June 2017, we’re still waiting.
COMING NEXT: PART TWELVE – TROUBLOUS TIMES TO THE PRESENT AND CONTINUING
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