Keep your heart with all diligence, For out of it spring the issues of life.

Proverbs 4:23

As in water face reflects face, So a man’s heart reveals the man.

Proverbs 27:19

About 20 minutes ago the Thursday morning Bible study I have weekly in my home with a brother in Christ, a pastor, and a friend ended and he left on his way to his earthly home. We’re praying, studying, and discussing prophecy. These end times. And we’ve been in 1 Thessalonians for a while.

This morning we discussed, among many other things, how we are our greatest idols and obstacles to God. From receiving all that we could receive from God Who loves us beyond our comprehension and wants more than anything — other than for the lost and unbelieving to be found and believing in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ — for us to receive as much wonderful spiritual treasures, gifts, rewards, mercies and blessings as possible.

We are the reason, the sole reason, we do not reap what we can. And that we reap what we sow. Sow better seed in better ground within our own hearts and reap a crop beyond imagination! We’re too busy sowing self every day all day long, every evening all evening long. Self. This life. It’s foolishness we make so important. What’s happening to us NOW and the binding powerful focus on SELF. It’s why Adam and Eve went to that beautiful tree in the center of the Garden and did what they did. We’re now here doing what we’re doing, and why God had to come to earth and have Himself mocked, spit on, discredited, one week treated as the Messiah to the very next week being illegally tried, beaten beyond being recognized as a human being, lashed having his back ripped open, bleeding out continually — not only when the Roman spikes were driven into His flesh nailing Him to that cross — THEE CROSS TO BE CONSIDERED BY US DAILY, NIGHTLY, ALWAYS — no, the Lord God dripped His precious sinless blood in the courts of man, on the paths man and woman trod upon daily on His way to that hill for all the world to see, hear, feel and experience that most impactful day when the sky was blackened during the day, an earthquake split the earth, everything shook and rumpled and moved, and the veil was rent, torn from top to bottom. God said, “It is finished.”

To have His body removed by a Pharisee, Nicodemus who had come to believe, along with others close to the Lord, and Joseph of Arimathea, of the mighty Sanhedrin, and a secret disciple of Jesus, gave up his tomb for the Messiah to be buried in, for our Lord to walk out of, very much alive, the firstfruits, the first resurrection assuring those who faithfully believe and obey of that which is to come for them.

And where are we presently?

At a time in world history like no other. I don’t care what anyone may attempt to say or write to refute this — we live in the last of the last Biblical times of this world as it was originally created. And it’s all coming to a swift end.

The worship of self. The technologies available. The worship of self. The inward escape. Denying reality. Refusing reality. Denying the truth. Refusing the truth. The worship of self.

Let not mercy and truth forsake you;
Bind them around your neck,
Write them on the tablet of your heart,
And so find favor and high esteem
In the sight of God and man.

Proverbs 3:3-4

The decay, rot, and abandonment of thinking of others. Manners. Courtesy. Respect. Honor. Virtue. Fearing God. The fear of God. The love of God. The Word of God and so much more of the foundational bedrock of mankind, societies, and cultures through the ages are all being cast aside, or altered, corrupted, and perverted to a degree they either no longer exist or have been changed to mean the opposite of what they once were.

The lust for, the seduction of, and the worship of technologies are tied directly to the self. Self worship. Abandonment of truth, abandonment of actual THINKING, pondering peacefully, quietly. It’s all constant input. Telling. Directing. Commanding the gospel, the doctrines of the world which are all under the power of the prince of the air for a season — the devil. Satan. Whether you want to acknowledge that fact and believe it and understand that anything — ANYTHING — that is not of God and His righteousness is then outside of Him and is of the world, of our own will and doing and our being influenced by sin, by Satan, by the endless bits and pieces and noise and things, temptations, distractions, annoyances, you name it that daily life and the world bring. Constantly.

And now?

So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom.

Psalm 90:12

Now self imagining vainly and foolishly not in need of God and being their own god along with technology now — let alone what technology tomorrow will be capable of — the escape, the hiding, the pretending, the delusion grows by the hour just as the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, Yeshua Who walked out from that tomb and promised to return is closer to doing.

What will I do about this? What are you doing about this?

Remaining mired and sucked into the world’s daily dung, delusions, and distractions? Daily life recking havoc with keeping our eyes, hearts, minds, spirits, souls, and very life on Jesus and His living Word.

And I’m not just talking about temptations here. It’s things like getting too wrapped up and obsessed with who to contract to put a new roof on your house, where to go eat, what to order from the menu, and all the pure dung of daily life that only stops when that last breath, that last heartbeat occurs in this fleshly body that is dust and will return to dust.

Am I, are you putting more faith in the Lord as our forefathers and foresisters in the faith did? Like Moses did? Like Abraham? Like Paul? Like Job? Like Joseph? Like Esther? Like Ruth? Like Hannah?Like every example we’re given in God’s Word and every example we’re given in our present day by those we know or are aware of.

Trust in the Lord with all your heart,
And lean not on your own understanding;
In all your ways acknowledge Him,
And He shall direct your paths.

Proverbs 3:5-6

We all need to truly love the Lord above all things. To truly have faith. To do what is necessary for that faith to increase. Never growing static, complacent, or arrogant, or tired.

Love the Lord more than anything else.

Jesus said to him, ‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’

Matthew 22:37

Think of others more than we think of ourselves. It’s actually easy to do. Just DO IT! Really. It’s THAT SIMPLE. Replace self with others. Pause, know what that means? Do you understand pausing to think? To acknowledge and stop, cease from the pace taken. Pause and instead of thinking of self and focusing on anything pertaining to ourselves take the time to learn, to know about others, and think about them instead.

Do this DAILY. Do this many times DAILY. A bit before retiring for the night and going to God in prayer before sleeping.

I’ll finish for now with this recent example I heard. I really like Brooke Ligertwood and how gifted by the Lord she is, how humble and focused within the Holy Spirit she is, and hers and the people she has around her and their ministry for the Lord in the songs and music she and they do. For the Lord. Worship of the Lord and what He has done and continues to do for us.

I recently saw Brooked interviewed and she mentioned an example of the point of all of this. In the course of being questioned about herself, she kept directing the responses, as best she could without being rude, away from herself and to what is important and how to learn and grow closer to the Lord in doing so.

She said, and I paraphrase  —  how instead of getting annoyed because the coffee shop put almond milk in her coffee when she wanted whole milk to think about such things as this — her and the people around her, with one of the benefits of technology, could witness — track online using available technology how the worship song “What A Beautiful Name” was being listened to in Iraq by Christians as ISIS was going village to village, town to town and exterminating — beheading, raping, slaughtering EVERY CHRISTIAN THEY FOUND, and Brooke said they could see how the number of places getting online would greatly spike and increase as ISIS was moving through the country. As the song “What A Beautiful Name” — that particular song was activated and being heard would greatly spike in a village, and then it would end. As every Christian had been murdered. And the next village could be seen increasing in number who was listening to that song — to then be silenced — and on to the next village, and the next the same pattern.

Witnessing the extermination of every Christian in Iraq. And that they turned to a particular worship song as they knew what was coming and that they were going to meet their Lord that very day.

And she was then going to complain because she got almond milk in her coffee rather than whole milk? Witnessing this. Knowing what was really going on in this world the times in which we live and what our focus and priorities ought to be.

Can you imagine witnessing a village of Christians listening to a song of praise and worship to our Lord spike in how many are tuned into that song to then be silenced? Knowing their fate. To then witness the next village increasing in listening…to be silenced. On it went until every Christian in Iraq had been slaughtered.

We all need to take this example rather than what is the habits taken. Pay attention. Even when it hurts. Even when it causes us to gasp. Keeping our eyes, hearts, and minds on Jesus, on heaven. And living and working here accordingly. Not hiding, not pretending, not being so busy and self-occupied.

Too many are hiding from what is going on in this world. They don’t want to know about it, think about it, and prefer living their lives of distraction, occupation in busyness, and self-absorption. Claiming they are “good people” and doing so much good, and blah, blah, blah the babel fills the air.

Our government is this.

Our people are like this.

Our fellow professed believers are like this.

Are you?

Yes, the atrocities, the pain, the suffering, the turmoil, all the noise, all the words, all the things to distract, to attend to in order to get through a day — and the mess that men and women have made of our world can be very irritating and tiring to pay attention to — but paying attention to it, being faithful, dedicated continuing watchmen and watchwomen on the walls is our duty. We must look, pray about, learn, and understand the signs of our times. To truly better equip and prepare us. To deliver the sound gospel of the whole Holy Bible. To be a light unto the world and the people within our little or slightly larger sphere.

Always, always, always placing God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the Word of God above anyone else, everything else. No matter who. No matter what.

And God will bless and provide.

Be faithful. Remain faithful. Not static, complacent, or in place. Be of an ever-increasing faith and an ever-increasing spiritual wisdom, discernment, knowledge, awareness, and living of one’s transformed and renewed heart and mind in Christ. No longer in the world.

So let’s stop allowing the world to take up so much of our inner space and time and move that dung out and remodel within with the Lord and His ways, His Word, His truth…

The wise of heart will receive commandments, but a babbling fool will come to ruin.

Proverbs 10:8

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. 

Jeremiah 29:11-13

Read on…and these things are here to only show the signs of how corrupted, lost, and powerful Satan and his delusions and evil have become and how the people have turned, are turning from God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Word of God…from truth, from reality.

These are the days in which we live. Awaiting the return of our Lord and Saviour.

looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,

Titus 2:13

Ken Pullen, Thursday, August 15th, 2024

Meta’s ‘Imagine Me’ AI lets users reinvent themselves across all apps

About 3 weeks ago

Reprinted from Android Central

What you need to know

Meta has a fun feature on the way for its array of platforms that’ll transform users into new versions of themselves thanks to AI.

Meta AI continues to advance and the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg took to Instagram to show off “Imagine Me.” When messaging Meta AI on the platform, users can turn themselves into whatever they want by starting their prompt with “Imagine me” followed by a gladiator, football player, or whatever.

The short video shows that users can initiate an “Imagine Me” session but the AI will prompt them to take a few selfies. Users need to take three: one straight on, one from the right, and one from the left.

After, they can re-ask the AI to imagine them as a fictional or non-fictional person and see what it returns.

In a blog post, Meta explained that users will have some creative agency when asking the AI to imagine them as a DJ. The company states that if something isn’t right after delivering a prompt, users can type “change” followed by the object or items they’d like to be different.

Meta states that “next month,” users will gain an “Edit with AI” button when texting with its software. The post doesn’t explain what all the edit section will entail, but hopefully, filters, cropping, and more will be involved.

Users eager to get their hands on “Imagine Me” can begin doing so this week as Meta starts rolling it out. The company adds that folks can create an image of themselves directly in their feed, stories, comments, and Messages found on Instagram, WhatsApp, Facebook, and Messenger.

It was first discovered that WhatsApp would be receiving this feature earlier this month, with the ability to pull up the feature in other chats. The app’s code highlighted the user’s ability to type “@Meta imagine me” in another chat with a fellow user to show yourself off walking on the moon thanks to AI. What’s more, it seems that more companies are getting in on the idea of reimagination such as YouTube.

It seems Google is experimenting with an AI feature for YouTube Shorts that would let users simulate an AI-based green screen behind them while recording. “Dream Screen” would enable creators to make it seem like they’re on top of a mountain or in the depths of the most beautiful ocean.