On Folly and Hardening of Hearts - Conquering Life's Absurdities
This is a morning message from Witness 2 on "folly" and "hardening of hearts" and how to overcome the absurdities of life. There are also some reader contributions, and may God bless those who contribute in Jesus's name. This post is dedicated to R.A. and K for their generous contributions to our ministry. We couldn't do this without you!
Introduction - Mark 16 and 200
I dreamt many dreams last night, but I only remember one major aspect: 200. I woke up and thought, "I need to remember 200." When I looked up its meaning in Hebrew and Greek, I knew what God wanted me to write on this morning: folly and locusts. How do they connect? Well, first, we need to understand the word "folly."
There are several definitions of folly: unwise, silly, absurd, foolish, imprudent, etc., so I will narrow it down.
Folly is characterized by foolishness, silliness, and absurdity, and it is what most people in the world are participating in today.
Life's absurdities are now at its peak in Babylon. As in the days of Noah, right? While readers could probably offer their own examples of folly, I will add some that struck me when I was thinking about the term this morning. Sure, we could highlight men dressing as women or things like that, but I just want to recognize absurdities I have seen in my life.
I remember going to a birthday party for a 3-year-old, and the parents seemed to have spent thousands of dollars on this party. It was absurd to me. Sure, it is wonderful to celebrate, but there was something off about it, yet that is what Babylonians do. What ideas were they raising their daughter with, and why is this accepted in our society?
Then, I remember, growing up, the importance of people's lawns - how they had to be perfectly green, cut, and presentable. In my teens, this seemed like "folly" to me. Though I'm not against nice lawns, how many hours a day to people spend on mowing their lawns versus contemplating the meaning of life? Maybe they contemplate life's meaning during the lawn-mowing, but I do not see evidence of that... : )
Then there is the folly of social media, and scrolling through it on Mother's Day yesterday, it was interesting - to say the least. All of the sudden, everyone was loving and kind, and they were all enjoying showing off how much they loved their mothers. They needed to make sure people knew they had a mother, and they were special. It seemed a little foolish. Again, I'm not against celebrating mothers, but something seemed "off" about it all. I'm a woman, so social media may be different for me than men.
Then, we have the folly of people treating pets better than humans, and we have the folly of people going to jobs of drudgery, working their whole lives, then dying shortly after they retire. Again, I'm not against having pets, but some people actually treat animals better than humans. I'm not against work, but some people make it life's meaning, and that is foolish.
What are your examples of folly? I'd love to hear them. Life is folly, and it is absurd. I could probably write examples of folly all morning, but we need to get to the point of this post.
One thing that started to change when I became Christian is that I began to eliminate folly. Now, this isn't about eliminating fun. Witness 1 and I just had a fun weekend, and it was not meaningless. It was probably one of our most meaningful memories we have both had in a while.
Readers may be wondering, at times, "How is Witness 2 producing all of this content, when she works, has a family, etc.?" Well, it became possible when I removed folly. There are no screens in our house, and I never watch TV, so that removes some folly. I stopped drinking or partying, so that definitely removed folly. I started fasting, and I do not eat until the late afternoon or evening, so that removed some folly. Some may be thinking, "You are saying eating is folly?"
Some of it is! Some people are eating and they do not even have to - they don't even know why they are eating. I no longer need to eat anymore in the day time, and I probably never will again. That frees up a lot of time! So does not sinning. My former pastor once said he keeps as busy as possible so does not engage in sin. He is right. I keep myself very busy, and I have little to no time to sin anymore.
There are other examples. While I still have social media, I removed the folly of scrolling through it. I check it about once a week now. While I still view the news and world events, I removed the folly of spending hours in rabbit holes.
In replace of folly, I started dedicating my time to God, gardening, spending quality time with my family, taking care of myself, running, and really, I feel absolutely fantastic.
You might be thinking, "She's always bragging." But I'm not. I'm giving you all my testimony of how Jesus Christ transformed my life. If you would have seen me several years ago, you would see an image of me passed out on my bed after drinking many shots of vodka. Now, that was folly, and I have come a long way.
I started this website to show everyone that before I truly made Jesus Christ the master of my life, my life was just mostly folly. Let us remind ourselves of these classic verses from Ecclesiastes:
- 2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher. “Utterly meaningless! Everything is meaningless.”
- 3 What do people gain from all their labors at which they toil under the sun?
- 4 Generations come and generations go, but the earth remains forever.
So, if everything is meaningless, then what brings meaning? Only Jesus Christ. If you tinge everything with Him - from your morning routine to how you interact with people to the way you spend your time, your life is no longer full of folly - it is meaningful.
Instead of gossiping about people, I started helping them. Instead of complaining, I started thanking God. Instead of drinking, I started reading the Bible. Instead of eating constantly, I started fasting and running. Instead of writing on forums where shills terrorized me, we created our own website to share the truths of life. Instead of worrying about things that will fade, I started worrying about one thing that will not fade - my soul - the most important thing of all.
Eliminating folly is about changing perspective. Before I explain how to do that, let's talk about some folly in Mark 16.
The Great Commission
14 Afterward he appeared to the eleven themselves as they were reclining at table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.
We are going back to this "unbelief" and the "hardening of hearts." This is folly. Let me explain why.
Again, there was no reason not to believe Jesus Christ had risen. Not only did the disciples see and witness His miracles and His real life before He died, He told them exactly what would happen after He died. As I have written before, there was no reason to doubt Him, especially during this time. There was no technology available to trick people like there is today, and supernatural events were more largely recorded and accepted. Their unbelief, then, was associated with a hardness of heart, which is folly.
I believe a hardness of heart produces folly or foolishness. When our hearts our hard, then, we have lost that childlikeness that I have written so much about.
To become like children again, we must humble ourselves. We must stop thinking we know better than God, and we must stop obsessing over folly.
While I know the world does everything it can to corrupt children, most children are truly pleasant and sweet to be around. They are the closest to God one can get. They exemplify a soft, light heart, and what we should be like.
Most adults lose this childlike quality, and they become hardened. They become obsessed with the triviality of life - from paying bills to keeping up appearances for people who do not like them anyway. It's all folly.
Now, I'm not saying anyone needs to go quit their job or stop paying their bills. However, I am saying that we need to change our perspectives. In order to be more childlike, or humble, let's start with my favorite word: gratitude.
I saw this fact on a Facebook link last night, but I do not think I need to cite it. About 100 years ago, most people took cold showers - even many of the most privileged of society.
How many of you appreciate a hot shower? I surely do! Yet, how many of you have ever thanked God for simply having hot water?
It's such a small thing, isn't it, but think about it for a moment. What if, right now, you had to transition to a cold shower each day?
Think about this in other regards - what if the internet stopped working today? What would you do with your time? What if you lost your job? What if someone you loved that was closest to you died today?
These are hard questions, aren't they? However, I think that we need to start our day with them so that we can start eliminating folly.
When we can focus on what really matters in our day to day routines, we eliminate foolishness.
When it comes down to it, true meaning can always be tied back to Jesus Christ.
We need to shift our perspectives to become full of gratitude. When we do this, the folly goes away. We start to focus on the meaningful things, and we become thankful for everything.
I am thankful, right now, that I am alive. I am thankful for my family, and I am thankful my corn is sprouting outside. I am thankful I took a hot shower last night, and I am thankful that I can directly access God through prayer at anytime. I am thankful for the memories I created this weekend. I am thankful for all I have.
You see, to eliminate folly, we first need gratitude. When we are not grateful, that is when we engage in the follies of the world. Then, we need to soften our hearts, and we need to put our full faith in Jesus Christ.
True folly, you see, is unbelief, and honestly, it is what most readers struggle with today. They may read this blog, but they don't really believe it. They say something like, "I'll believe it all when the economy starts to crash." Or, "I'll believe it when the next pandemic starts."
Maybe you don't have to believe me, but you should believe in Jesus Christ, and if I am truly operating under His power, well then, it would be folly not to believe me.
Still, I'm not here to convince anyone to believe me. I put that work to the Holy Spirit, otherwise, that would be folly for me. I cannot force anyone to believe my words, but I can tell readers one thing:
When I started living how the Bible told me to live, my life has become almost perfect. Seriously.
When I eliminated the folly of the world and replaced it with the only meaningful thing - Jesus Christ - my life has become almost perfect.
I put Jesus first, and now He touches every part of my life. Everything in my life is somehow tied to Him, and I now love my life. I no longer worship the foolishness of the world.
I have my suffering, and I have times I am down, but I recover quickly.
To simplify this all, if you are still in the world, you are engaging in folly. However, when you have truly handed your life over to Jesus Christ, everything changes.
However, most "Christians" have not yet done that. They claim they do, but then, they are still worried about the absurdities of the world - so then, who do they really worship?
1 John 2:15-18 ESV
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. Children, it is the last hour, and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come. Therefore we know that it is the last hour.
To put it simply, the world is folly. It is absurd, it is foolish, and it is not worth your time.
This morning - start your day with Jesus Christ and ask Him to remove the folly in your life.
On a final note, the only way to remove folly [in some] is discipline, and perhaps that is where God's wrath comes in - such as coming locusts. If people cannot see the foolishness of the lives they created for the world, then may have to be disciplined. I believe God's wrath is coming upon this world very soon, and that is because of its folly.
So, let us not be part of God's wrath. Please, if you have not read my message from yesterday, check it out, as it will give you helpful advice on how to be measured worthy in the coming times.
I pray this message helps someone in Jesus's name! As always, there are probably errors. Please be gracious with me.
- Witness 2
Reader Contributions
Note: We do not censor reader contributions. Pray and discern on all information provided here. We like to offer a platform of free thought that contradicts the folly of this world.
Anon's Dreams
Hey guys I hope all is well, I just had two weird dreams.
1. My mother randomly talked to me about Planet X/Nibiru and was saying it’s real and that it was coming soon, note that my mom to my knowledge has no idea of it and is Hispanic and told me that in English, I just laughed/scoffed at what she said and told her “yeah it’s coming in 3-5 months”. As I said that in the dream, I thought about Apokolips from DC where darkseid lives and his planet is full of demons that eventually invade the earth but they still end up losing in the end to Superman and other heroes but a lot of chaos unfolded and it looked like the end of the world.
[Could this be related to "X" and the 144,000?]
2. I was walking around a town when a lady randomly started to talk to me and told me that God was about to judge the earth, and told me scripture but I don’t remember it. I’ll try me best to say what she told me, “The Lord will judge the righteous and wicked, pray so that he may spare you in the times that are to come." I immediately started to pray and this is what I remember saying, “God please spare me and find me worthy to survive your judgement so that I can possibly become a greater use to you and accomplish the purpose you made me for, I want to become like Moses or other of the great prophets after your judgment, but let not my will be done but yours. In the name of Jesus Christ I pray Amen."
I also saw blue/purple lightning and the world was dark like it had a huge storm - it wasn’t pitch black just dark.
This is something I found that I found interesting it may or may not be anything - I don’t know if you been following the Drake vs Kendrick drama, but it doesn’t matter it’s just a distraction. [Yes, folly!] Anyway Drake posted this and people assume it’s him moving on from the drama. [See image below].
I found this picture interesting for some reason. It obviously looks like an army and it looks like war is about to happen, and he said - “Summer vibes up next”
Drake is obviously up there with the you know who so I think some of the stuff they post is because they know what’s coming.
So basically in summer war is going to break out.
The looks of it they have samurai armor, which the Japanese first used.
Again I’m probably reaching too hard and this means nothing but hey lol just pointing stuff out.
[Great work. There will be no peace in June!]
Jake's Dream
Hey,
I had another dream. Jesus told me to send it to you. Unfortunately, this one is more of an impression because I forgot the details of the dream. But basically our friends and family will betray us in these end times.
Thank you. I hope you're having a blessed morning in the name of Jesus Christ.
Jake
Update from Jesse from Finland
Then a little news update, it seem like there is something noteworthy almost every day now.
https://yle.fi/a/74-20088298 Poll: Majority of nurses in Finland would legalise euthanasia - A legal reform to allow the practice of euthanasia or doctor-assisted suicide was supported by three in five of the nursing staff who responded to the survey.
Article is on English, so you can read it yourself. The poll found that 60 percent of responding nurses said they were in favour of reforming the current legislation on the practice. A citizens' initiative calling for the legalisation of euthanasia in Finland received the required 50,000 signatures in March and will now proceed to parliament to be debated by MPs. A previous attempt to legalise the practice via a citizens' initiative was rejected by parliament in 2018. This is really disturbing. I got this feeling that they are really trying to push this trough this time.
https://www.iltalehti.fi/kotimaa/a/acddc885-10c1-4561-875a-0a5dd60de4c4 This article delves even deeper to the poll results, It's on Finnish so I'll translate it:
" 76 percent were of the opinion that euthanasia should be legalized in Finland. Almost nine percent partially agreed with legalization. "
" 75 percent of the respondents were in favor of accepting euthanasia as part of Finnish healthcare. Almost ten percent of them expressed their partial agreement. 62 percent of those who took part in the survey completely agreed that a doctor should be able to assist a patient in committing suicide. 20 percent of the respondents partially agreed with this. "
" 62 percent of the nurses completely agreed that euthanasia should be legalized in Finland. Almost 18 percent partially agreed with the matter. 38 percent of nurses completely agreed with the possibility of a doctor helping a patient with suicide. 35 percent of the nurses partially agreed with the statement. "
" The majority of nurses feel that their views should be taken into account in euthanasia decision-making. In addition, 46 percent completely agreed that they would be willing to participate in the euthanasia process. A minority of nurses fully or partially agreed that a nurse can be obliged to participate in the euthanasia process. "
I wonder how many choose to kill themselves over complete folly? Seriously. I do not mean that in a cruel way, but we will talk about suicide and euthanasia another time. Unfortunately, I have a testimony about that, too.
There's so much more to say. But I am out of time.
Would you all say a prayer for me today?
Love,
Witness 2