BAITING THE HOOK

No, this is not another survivalist piece on how to catch fish.

So, we live in a telestial and fallen world where we are surrounded by jackals, sharks and maleficients.  To put it in the vernacular of today; those who do not have your back.

In Jesus' day, He was surrounded in the extreme.  Everywhere He turned, the Sadduccees and Pharisees were attempting to "dig a pit" and catch Him in it.  In the end, the very pit that they digged for Him, they were caught in.  In most instances, the very pit of hell.  Even one of the Twelve, previously chosen for that role, did the ultimate in back-stabbing. 

And, I suppose, from their very limited and time-constrained perspective, they thought they had won.  After all - they had taken down the threat to their very existence.  They had lied and gotten Him strung up for offenses against the state and the official religion of the day.  Same with Abinadi, Joseph Smith and many other greats whose role it was to play the martyr and condemn an untoward generation to their deserved hell, while propelling the actual cause upwards as those who lost their leader to violence were galvanized in the rigorous path they had chosen to follow.  Indeed, the path of most resistance.  The path with the greatest reward due to delayed gratification....

I am always amazed by the "fair weather friends" that I find myself surrounded by.  Those whose loyalty is only skin deep or non-existent.  Those, who find offense for a word or for a principle.  Maybe the principle of agency and freedom of thought.  Those who find offense over those who stick to "outmoded" and "less-progressive" principles such as the sanctity of marriage between one man and one woman.  Some who find offense in the idea of waiting until marriage to consummate the union.  Some who find offense in a belief in God.  Some who find offense in the personal choice to adhere to the Word of Wisdom - not only because it is a commandment, but because it is logical and because they choose not to participate in the social and moral carnage that attends addictive behaviors and practices.

So, in order to weed those out I usually put out the lightning rod to see where the strikes come from.  Almost always - it exposes those who are my friends, and those who are not.  I do it with purpose, and on purpose.  Not to trap anyone - just to expose them for what they are.

The best case study I have up to this point was a brother-in-law.  I am not sure exactly what was going on that caused him to engage in the behavior - but I suspected that he was saying one thing to my face - and had an entirely different demeanor behind closed doors.  I have the gift of discernment - but always give folks enough rope to hang themselves with.  So, I said something inflammatory online that pulled him out.  He is not active - and was on an exMo site discussing how he could bring me down.  The comments on the blog led me to the site and I trolled it for a while, enjoying the show as they got increasingly paranoid that their anonymity had been compromised.  They finally shut the thread down when they realized they had been had.  True fun for me - and screen shotting the whole thread and throwing it on the blog; priceless.  As I was trolling the site, my BIL was carrying on with his "nice to the face" charade (lots of hugs and telling me how much he liked me - while he was either drunk or high, or both).

So, we have much of this two-faced behavior going on in the Church.  Folks who feign activity, while supporting Women and the Priesthood movements, #metoo movements over less than perfect leadership, Denver Snuffer movements and so much else including energy healing, etc.  It is far worse today than it was in the days of Joseph Smith where the splintering was almost catastrophic.  It will get much worse over the course of the next decade until the Savior comes to call out those who "never knew" Him.

I love getting sucked into the inner workings of these things - seeing what is out there and then blowing it wide open, where possible.  I have many supposed friends who hope to take me down in the hopes of giving some level of legitimacy to their twisted departures from the truth.  Folks in each one of those movements.  When I find one, I just run with it.  The closest to home was the Tal Bachman movement.  He took many down with him - and I will be there sadly, to levy my testimony against him and the damage he participated in against good principle and truth.

As with a recent convo I had with someone, there was feigning that he was struggling with some principles.  The appeal to friendship or some hot-button issue that I might have a leaning towards.  In the case of this friend, I already knew he was off the deep end - and he did not know that I knew it.  So, I let him work on me, observing his "Koriwhore" methods.  In the end, I let him know I was no friend of his cause.  Of course, there was the gnashing of teeth and the "reveal" of his true intentions and character at the end - much as it was when Moses had his fun with the adversary.  And so, admittedly, as a fan of the human condition, I also troll the dark side to see which methods they are using to advance their cause.  Folks, we are in the final heated battle of the War in Heaven.  In most cases, it is epic.  I have a friend who sees what is going on in the battle on this side of the veil and what is going on with the other side.  Epic does not begin to describe it.  We only experience the tip of the iceberg on this side.

So, what to do with these types?

In a telestial and fallen world, it would be an eye for an eye.

But we seek for much more than this - so we largely endure railings by the false accusers (of the Order of Satan) in order to secure a more perfect reward.  This is the principle of terrestrial living.  Occasionally, the very fiends of hell incarnate need to be dispatched with in order to continue on with the work you are called to do.  Only people made Just and Holy know where that line is - when a person needs to be dispatched.  Knowledge of it's existence is only obtained through study of God's word to see where past precedents have put the line at, by the gift of discernment and Perfect Judgment (Godly judgment) and through the Holy Spirit.

Then, through the prayer of faith, the case is made to the Judge of All.  Each time I have gotten in a bind, it has been in a work situation where someone has taken exception to what I am about (usually over the Law of Chastity or WoW) and has sought to get me fired or to meddle in my marriage.  When it is clear they might succeed, and I know that it is not "my time", I present my case including the Law of Tithing, etc and ask the Lord to weigh each of us in the balance and to execute Perfect Judgment in order to provide relief.  There is danger in that - in that, if the petition is made with any sort of guile, it will be returned upon the head of the petitioner ten-fold.

Usually, I ask that their "folly be made manifest" in my petition.  In other words - that they be exposed for what they are and that their true motives are shouted from the roof-tops for all to see, that the glory of God may be made manifest.  This is the prayer of faith and the prayer of redemption.

When these remedies are sought out, it short-changes reward system of the abused.  In other words, the delayed gratification is not delayed.  Usually, the best course of action is to just keep sucking it up and praying for those who spitefully use you.  This instant gratification - the short circuiting of the higher delayed gratification of "an eye for an eye" - is typically of the last resort.  And it should be.  As I have pointed out in past blog pieces, in each instance where I felt I was in a corner and I had to pray the prayer of faith, the hammer was dropped and there was a death of the abuser or someone associated with the abuser.  In the end, their folly was made manifest and God's cause prevailed.

In discussing the situation of a co-worker who is unanimously seen as an arse by those who have to endure him, one of my favorite peeps said that he would engage in a tit for tat, eye for an eye with this fellow.  So, tomorrow, I get to explain the higher way.  He is a thinker and a philosopher - he will get it.

We all have to move that direction - or we have no hope of becoming part of the solution in the Millennial model.  Once we have mastered that higher way of thinking/being, then we have to move into Celestial thinking/being.  In achieving a mode of perfect living, God does not ask us to leap over the dam that separates us from the more lofty pool, but one fish ladder at a time until we arrive there.  God invites and incentivates, the adversary compels and forces.  God gently coaxes, relying on us to follow our consciences - while the adversary compels and uses guilt to drive us like a dumb ass before the whip.