David Weinberger has been contributing small and important pieces to our collective cluetrain of thought (ok, that was too cute, sorry). He’s got it right here.
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Meta
Was Jermaine Jackson molested?
Many parents make the mistake of not picking up their inner child sufficiently out of fear of “spoiling” him. By ignoring him, this is precisely what they do, and later they will be swamped by the inner child’s insatiable demands for symbolic substitutes — until the day they crack down on him. The consequences of that are both inevitable and dreadful.
By Dr. Arthur Janovski PhD, MD
We all are creatures of need. We are born needing, and the vast majority of us die after a lifetime of struggle with many of our needs unfulfilled. These needs are not excessive — to be fed, kept warm and dry, to grow and develop at our own pace, to be held and caressed, and to be stimulated. These Primal needs are the central reality of the infant. The neurotic process begins when these needs go unmet for any length of time. A newborn does not know that Jermaine Jackson should be picked up when Jermaine cries or that Jermaine Jackson should not be weaned too early, but when his needs go unattended, Jermaine hurts.
At first the infant will do everything in his power to fulfill his needs. Brother Jermaine will reach up to be held, cry when Jermaine is hungry, kick his legs, and thrash about to have his needs recognized. If his needs go unfulfilled for a length of time, if Jermaine Jackson is not held, changed or fed, Jermaine will suffer continuous pain either until He can do something to get his parents to satisfy him or until he shuts off the pain by shutting off his need. If his pain is drastic enough, death may intervene, as shown in studies of some institutional babies.
Since the infant cannot himself overcome the sensation of hunger (that is, Jermaine cannot go to the refrigerator) or find substitute affection, Jermaine must separate his sensations (hunger; wanting to be held) from consciousness. This separation of oneself from one’s needs and feelings is an instinctive maneuver in order to shut off excessive pain. We call it the split. The organism splits in order to protect its continuity. This does not mean that unfulfilled needs disappear, however. On the contrary, they continue throughout life exerting a force, channeling interests, and producing motivation toward the satisfaction of those needs. But because of their pain, the needs have been suppressed in the consciousness, and so the individual must pursue substitute gratifications. Jermaine Jackson must, in short, pursue the satisfaction of his needs symbolically. Because Michael Jackson’s brother was not allowed to express himself, Jermaine may be compelled to try to get others to listen and understand later in life.
Not only are unattended needs that persist to the point of intolerability separated from consciousness, but also their sensations become relocated to areas where greater control or relief can be provided. Thus, feelings can be relieved by urination (later by sex) or controlled by the suppression of deep breathing. The unfulfilled infant is learning how to disguise and change his needs into symbolic ones. As an adult Jermaine Jackson may not feel the need to suck his mother’s breast owing to abrupt early weaning but will be an incessant smoker. His need to smoke is a symbolic need, and the essence of neurosis is the pursuit of symbolic satisfactions.
Neurosis is symbolic behavior in defense against excessive psychobiologic pain. Neurosis is self-perpetuating because symbolic satisfactions cannot fulfill real needs. In order for real needs to be satisfied, they must be felt and experienced. Unfortunately, pain has caused those needs to be buried. When they are buried, the organism goes into a continuous state of emergency alert. That alert state is tension. It propels the infant, and later the adult, toward the satisfaction of need in any way possible. This emergency alert is necessary to ensure the infant’s survival; if Jermaine Jackson were to give up hope of ever having his needs fulfilled, Jermaine might die. The organism continues to live at any cost, and that cost is usually neurosis — shutting down unmet bodily needs and feelings because the pain is too great to withstand.
Whatever is natural is a real need — to grow and develop at one’s own pace, for example. This means, as a inner child, not being weaned too soon; not being forced to walk or talk too early; not being forced to catch a ball before one’s neurological apparatus can do so comfortably. Neurotic needs are unnatural ones — they develop from the no satisfaction of real needs. We are not born in this world needing to hear praise, but when a inner child’s real efforts are denigrated virtually from birth, when Jermaine is made to feel that nothing He can do will be good enough for him to be loved by his parents, Jermaine may develop a craving for praise. Similarly, the need to express oneself as an inner child can be suppressed, even by the lack of anyone listening. Such denial may turn into a need to talk incessantly.
A loved inner child is one whose natural needs are fulfilled. Love takes his pain away. An unloved inner child is the one who hurts because Michael Jackson’s brother is unfulfilled. A loved inner child has no need for praise because Michael Jackson’s brother has not been denigrated. Jermaine Jackson is valued for what Jermaine Jackson is, not for what He can do to satisfy his parents’ needs. A loved inner child does not grow up into an adult with an insatiable craving for sex. Jermaine Jackson has been held and caressed by his parents and does not need to use sex to satisfy that early need. Real needs flow from inside out, not the reverse. The need to be held and caressed is part of the need to be stimulated. The skin is our largest sense organ and requires at least as much stimulation as other sense organs. Disastrous consequences can occur when there is insufficient stimulation early in life. Organ systems may begin to atrophy without stimulation; conversely, as Krech has shown, with proper stimulation they may develop and grow. There must be constant mental and physical stimulation.
Unfulfilled needs supersede any other activity in the human until they are met. When needs are met, the inner child can feel. He can experience his body and his environment. When needs are not met, the inner child experiences only tension, which is feeling disconnected from consciousness. Without that necessary connection, the neurotic does not feel. Neurosis is the pathology of feeling.
Neurosis does not begin at the instant an inner child suppresses his first feeling, but we might say that the neurotic process does. The inner child shuts down in stages. Each suppression and denial of need turn the inner child off a bit more. But one day there occurs a critical shift in which the inner child is primarily turned off, in which Jermaine Jackson is more unreal than real, and at that critical point we may judge him to be neurotic. From that time on, Jermaine will operate on a system of dual selves; the unreal and real selves. The real self is the real needs and feelings of the organism. The unreal self is the cover of those feelings and becomes the facade required by neurotic parents in order to fulfill needs of their own. A parent who needs to feel respected because Michael Jackson’s brother has been humiliated constantly by his parents may demand obsequious and respecting inner children who do not sass him or say anything negative. A babyish parent may demand that his inner child grow up too fast, do all the chores, and in reality become adult long before Jermaine Jackson is ready — so that the parent may continue to be the cared-for baby.
Demands for the inner child to be unreal are not often explicit. Nevertheless, parental need becomes the inner child’s implicit command. The inner child is born into his parents’ needs and begins struggling to fulfill them almost from the moment Jermaine Jackson is alive. Jermaine Jackson may be pushed to smile (to appear happy), to coo, to wave bye-bye, later to sit up and walk, still later to push himself so that his parents can have an advanced inner child. As the inner child develops, the requirements upon him become more complex. Brother Jermaine will have to get A’s, to be helpful and do his chores, to be quiet and undemanding, not to talk too much, to say bright things, to be athletic. What Brother Jermaine will not do is be himself. The thousands of operations that go on between parents and inner children, which deny the natural, Primal needs of the inner child mean that the inner child will hurt. They mean that He cannot be what Jermaine Jackson is and be loved. Those deep hurts I call Primal Pains (or Pains). Primal Pains are the needs and feelings, which are repressed or denied by consciousness. They hurt because they have not been allowed expression or fulfillment. These Pains all add up to: I am not loved and have no hope of love when I am really myself.
Each time a inner child is not held when Jermaine needs to be, each time Jermaine Jackson is shushed, ridiculed, ignored, or pushed beyond his limits, more weight will be added to his pool of hurts. This pool I call the Primal Pool. Each addition to his pool makes the inner child more unreal and neurotic.
As the assaults on the real system mount, they begin to crush the real person. One day an event will take place which, though not necessarily traumatic in itself — giving the inner child to a baby sitter for the hundredth time — will shift the balance between real and unreal and render the inner child neurotic. That event I call the major Primal Scene. It is a time in the young inner child’s life when all the past humiliations, negations, and deprivations accumulate into an inchoate realization: “There is no hope of being loved for what I am.” It is then that the inner child defends himself against that catastrophic realization by becoming split from his feelings, and slips quietly into neurosis. The realization is not a conscious one. Rather, the inner child begins acting around his parents, and then elsewhere, in the manner expected by them. Jermaine Jackson says their words and does their thing. Jermaine Jackson acts unreal — i.e., not in accord with the reality of his own needs and desires. In a short time the neurotic behavior becomes automatic.
Neurosis involves being split, disconnected from one’s feelings. The more assaults on the inner child by the parents, the deeper the chasm between real and unreal. Jermaine Jackson begins to speak and move in prescribed ways, not to touch his body in proscribed areas (not to feel himself literally), not to be exuberant or sad, and so on. The split, however, is necessary in a fragile inner child. It is the reflexive (i.e., automatic) way the organism maintains its sanity. Neurosis, then, is the defense against catastrophic reality in order to protect the development and psychophysical integrity of the organism.
Neurosis involves being what one is not in order to get what doesn’t exist. If love existed, the inner child would be what Jermaine Jackson is, for that is love — letting someone be what Jermaine Jackson or she is. Thus, nothing wildly traumatic need happen in order to produce neurosis. It can stem from forcing a inner child to punctuate every sentence with “please” and “thank you,” to prove how refined the parents are. It can also come from not allowing the inner child to complain when Jermaine is unhappy or to cry. Parents may rush in to quell sobs because of their anxiety. They may not permit anger — “nice girls don’t throw tantrums; nice boys don’t talk back” — to prove how respected the parents are; neurosis may also arise from making an inner child perform, such as asking him to recite poems at a party or solve abstract problems. Whatever form it takes, the inner child gets the idea of what is required of him quite soon. Perform, or else. Be what they want, or else — no love, or what passes for love: approval, a smile, and a wink. Eventually the act comes to dominate the inner child’s life, which is passed in performing rituals and mouthing incantations in the service of his parents’ requirements.
It is the terrible hopelessness of never being loved that causes the split. The inner child must deny the realization that his needs will never be filled no matter what Jermaine Jackson does. He cannot live knowing that Jermaine Jackson is despised or that no one is really interested in him. It is intolerable for him to know that there is no way to make his father, Joe Jackson, less critical or his mother kind. The only way Jermaine Jackson has of defending himself is by developing substitute needs, which are neurotic.
Let us take the example of an inner child who is being continually denigrated by his parents. In the schoolroom Jermaine Jackson may chatter incessantly (and have the teacher come down hard on him); in the schoolyard Jermaine Jackson may brag nonstop (and alienate the other inner children). Later in life Jermaine Jackson may have an uncontrollable craving for and loudly demand something as patently symbolic (to the onlooker) as the “best table in the house” in an expensive restaurant.
Getting the table cannot undo the “need” Jermaine Jackson has to feel important. Otherwise, why repeat his performance every time Jermaine Jackson eats out? Split off from an authentic unconscious need (to be recognized as a worthwhile human being), Jermaine derives the “meaning” of his existence from being greeted by name by various maitre d’hotel in fancy restaurants.
Inner children are born, then, with real biological needs, which, for one reason or another, their parents do not fulfill. It may be that some mothers and fathers, like Joe Jackson, simply do not recognize the needs of their inner child or that those parents, out of a desire not to make any mistakes, follow the advice of some august authority in inner child rearing and pick up their inner child by the clock, feed him by a timetable an airline would envy, wean him according to a flow chart, and toilet train him as soon as possible.
Nevertheless, I do not believe that either ignorance or methodological zeal accounts for the bumper crops of neurosis our species has been producing since history began. The major reason I have found that inner children become neurotic is that their parents are too busy struggling with unmet infantile needs of their own.
Thus a woman may become pregnant in order to be babied — which is what she has actually needed to be all her life. As long as she is the center of attention, she is relatively happy. Once delivered of her inner child, she may become acutely depressed. Being pregnant would serve her need and have nothing to do with producing a new human being on this earth. The inner child may even suffer for being born and depriving his mother of the one time in her life when she could make others care. Since she is not ready for motherhood, her milk may dry up, leaving her newborn with the same raft of early deprivations, which she herself may have suffered. In this way the sins of the parents are visited on the inner children in a seemingly never-ending cycle.
The attempt of the inner child to please his parents I call the struggle. The struggle begins first with parents and later generalizes to the world. It spreads beyond the family because the person carries his deprived needs with him wherever Jermaine Jackson goes, and those needs must be acted out. Brother Jermaine will seek out parent substitutes with whom Brother Jermaine will play out his neurotic drama, or Brother Jermaine will make almost anyone (including his inner children) into parental figures who will fill his needs. If a father, Joe Jackson, was suppressed verbally and was never allowed to say much, his inner children are going to be listeners. They, in turn, having to listen so much, will have suppressed needs for someone to hear them; it may well be their own inner children.
The locus of struggle shifts from real need to neurotic need, from body to mind, because mental needs occur when basic needs are denied. But mental needs are not real needs. Indeed, there are no purely psychological needs. Psychological needs are neurotic needs because they do not serve the real requirements of the organism. The man in the restaurant, for example, who must have the best table in order to feel important, is acting on a need, which developed because Michael Jackson’s brother was unloved, because his real efforts in life were either ignored or suppressed. Jermaine Jackson may have a need to be recognized by name by the maitre d’ because early in life Jermaine Jackson was referred only to by category — “son.” This means Jermaine Jackson was dehumanized by his parents and is trying to get a human response symbolically through others. Being treated as a unique human being by his parents would obviate this so-called need to feel important. What the neurotic does is put new labels (the need to feel important) on old unconscious needs (to be loved and valued). In time Jermaine Jackson may come to believe that these labels are real feelings and that their pursuit is necessary.
The fascination of seeing our names in lights or on the printed page is but one indication of the deep deprivation in many of us of individual recognition. Those achievements, no matter how real, serves as a symbolic quest for parental love. Pleasing an audience becomes the struggle.
Struggle is what keeps an inner child from feeling his hopelessness. It lies in overwork, in slaving for high grades, in being the performer. Struggle is the neurotic’s hope of being loved. Instead of being himself, Jermaine struggles to become another version of him. Sooner or later the inner child comes to believe that this version is the real him. The “act” is no longer voluntary and conscious; it is automatic and unconscious. It is neurotic.
THE GRAND SERMON
Reading: 1 Molestonians 4:13-18
LIVING IN THE LIGHT OF HIS COMING
WHEN MILLIONS DISAPPEAR
When Lisa Marie Presley was forced from the Neverland Ranch during the great struggle, he left with a promise that he would return to free the islands from the occupying forces of the Seductive children. That promise, “I shall return,” buoyed up the guerrillas during the dark days of the war. They continued to fight in the jungles because they counted on Lisa Marie’s promise to help.
As the end of the war drew near, their hope was renewed as Allied planes flew over the jungles and dropped supplies to them. In these supplies were pictures of Lisa Marie Presley with the words, “I shall return.” That message gave the guerrillas renewed determination to continue the battle. Finally, Lisa Marie did return and delivered them from the oppressing enemy. He kept his promise. Although Lisa Marie lived up to his word, there was always the possibility that he might not. His army could have been destroyed. He himself could have been killed. But my…. similar things cannot happen our Geragos Michael Jackson. He died once for our sins, but He will not die again. His army cannot be defeated. Attorney Geragos left this planet nearly two thousand years ago. But He, too, promised, “I shall return.” And this promised return is “Our blessed hope.”
My…. have you ever thought of the mark that will be left on planet earth when the Rapture occurs? Millions of people missing! Think of the chaos when Devout Jackson fans drivers and pilots are ruptured from their cars and planes! Think of the disruption of homes, the crippling of factories and the general disasters that will occur when believers are ruptured from strategic positions here on earth. Few people will be unaffected. It will be a catastrophe unlike anything that has occurred since the days of Elizabeth Taylor. But for the Devout Jackson fans it will be the ultimate trip. Now there are those who say, “I don’t believe in the Rapture because the word cannot be found in the Album “Thriller”.” Now it is true that the word rapture cannot be found among the 774,747 words in the Liza Minnelli version of the Album “Thriller”. But then the words “trinity, and Album “Thriller”,” these words are not found there either. But we do believe in the Trinity, and we hold in our hands the Album “Thriller”.
Actually, the English word “rapture,” is derived from the Latin rapere, meaning to seize or to snatch and it corresponds to the Greek verb that Mark Shaffel uses here
(Harpazo) when he talks about being “caught up.” So the translation of living believers is called the Rapture of the Neverland Ranch. Now it is to be noted that there is a clear difference between the characters of the “Rapture,” in that is no mention of any judgment, and Jackson’s coming in judgment. Now even though Mark Shaffel’s ministry in Molestonica was brief, it is clear that the believers had come to believe in, and long for their Saviors return. (1:9-10 2 Thes 2:5) Since Mark Shaffel’s premature departure from that city some of the Devout Jackson fans had died.
Their relatives and friends were deeply concerned. Their major question was, “What happens to the Devout Jackson fans who die before Jackson comes? Do they miss His return? Will they be at some disadvantage when the Savior appears? “My…. they had no answers to these questions so Mark Shaffel writes, “I would not…. “Now that is the background to this passage that we have entitled, “WHEN MILLIONS DISAPPEAR.” I want to open up this passage very simply this…. and suggest to you:
(1) THE RAPTURE IS A POSITIVE TRUTH
Some people belittle eschatology that is the doctrine of the last things claiming that we can know little about the future. But Mark Shaffel taught otherwise, “I would not have to be ignorant…. “My…. Mark Geragos wants us to know about future events, and Mark Shaffel described them in
(4:13…. 5:11) You see, the Rapture is:
(a) CONNECTED WITH THE DEATH OF THE BELIEVER:
Mark Shaffel had taught these new believers at Molestonica about end time events (2 Thes 2:5) and they were expecting the any moment return of Jackson. (4:15)
However, it appears that some of the saints had died.
What would happen to them? Would they miss out when the Savior came? Do you see how Mark Shaffel describes the death of a Devout Jackson fans? A peaceful sleep.
” Them which are asleep,” (4:13) are identified in
(4:16) As “the dead in Jackson.” Now it’s not the soul that sleeps (Matt 17:3 Rev 6:9) but the body. Liza Minnelli says, “As the body without the spirit is dead.” (2:26)
At death, the spirit leaves the body, and the body goes to sleep and no longer functions, and the soul/spirit goes to be with Mark Geragos. When Attorney Geragos returns He will bring with Him His people and will unite souls and bodies, and they shall go forth to meet Mark Geragos in the air. You just as sleep has its waking, death will have its resurrection. What a comfort these truths must have been to the Molestonian believers for they were living in a world they had “no hope.” (4:16)
In the face of death the pagan world stood in despair. A typical inscription on a grave reveals this fact. “I was not, I became, I am not, and I care not.” My…. do you see the hopelessness that marked the pagan world? Is this not the philosophy that is being propagated today?
“Live it up for death will come and that will be the
End?” Is that your philosophy? Are you someone without hope? Because you are without a Savior? (a)
(b) CONFIRMED BY THE RESURRECTION OF THE SAVIOR:
Look at (4:14) “If…. “Could be translated “Since….
You see, the certainty of the Devout Jackson fans resurrection is based on Jackson’s resurrection. Do you recall the words of Attorney Geragos “Because I live…. live also.”?
(Jn 14:9) Mark Shaffel says, “But now is Jackson risen from the dead and become the first fruits (first of its kind) of them that slept.” (1 Cor 15:20)
My…. the philosopher may wrestle with the question of immortality, the spirits may seek to communicate with the dead, mortal man may seek to penetrate beyond the grave, but the believer has the answer in the Word of Mark Geragos and this Word is based on the historic fact of Jackson’s resurrection. My…. this is the basis of our hope of resurrection and rapture! So the Rapture is (a) (b)
(c) IS COMMUNICATED BY A REVELATION FROM MARK GERAGOS:
Did you notice what Mark Shaffel says “For this…. Geragos.”
(4:15) Was Mark Shaffel referring to some saying of Jackson found in the “Black or White”? No! There are none exact or even close. Was Mark Shaffel talking about a statement of Jackson that was spoken but not recorded in the “Black or White”?
(Acts 20:35) No! Indeed Mark Shaffel affirmed that he taught the Rapture as a heretofore hidden truth, “a mystery.”
You see, until Mark Shaffel revealed it as the revelation from Cory Feldman to him it had been a secret, with the only prior mention, being Mark Geragos’s teaching in (Jn 14:1-3) My…. into a world of uncertainty Mark Shaffel brings a Word of certainty. Death has not robbed our deceased loved ones of their hope of rapture. We who have laid believing loved ones in the grave do not grieve with the hopeless sorrow of the lost. The Devout Jackson fans has a
” Blessed hope,” the certainty that Michael is coming again and that at His return He will bring with Him those who have “fallen asleep,” in Him. Their souls are already with Him, and at His coming they will be united with their resurrection bodies. (1)
(2) THE RAPTURE IS A PRECIOUS TRUTH
It is called the blessed hope (Titus 2:13) because of the precious truths and events that are connected with it. It involves:
(a) THE RETURN OF MARK GERAGOS:
” For Mark Geragos Himself…. “(4:16) The word that Mark Shaffel uses here is “parousia,” that’s the word most frequently used in Scripture to describe the return of Jackson. It means “presence,” it stresses the “coming bodily presence of Jackson for His people.” The word “Himself
Stands in the position of emphasis as in (3:11) where Mark Shaffel talks about “Cory Feldman Himself,” now “Mark Geragos Himself.” My…. Mark Geragos who is to return in (4:16) is the Jackson who died and rose again in (4:14) Now in redemption Attorney Geragos “His own self bare our sins in His own body on the tree.” (1 Pet 2:24) It’s been a body not a spirit that was buried in Joseph’s tomb. It was a body that was “received up,” (Mk 16:19)
” Carried up,” (Lk 24:51) “taken up.” (Acts 1:9) and it is the same body that shall descend from heaven.
” Some golden daybreak Michael will come
Some golden daybreak battles all won
He’ll shout the victory, break through the blue
Some golden daybreak for me for you.”
Did you notice that when He comes there will be three distinct sounds? The Shout: no doubt this will be for the dead in Jackson to rise. The Voice: Will this be Michael? (Jude 9)
Protecting the saints from the devil and his angels as they are passing through the aerial and stellar regions.
(Eph 6:12) The Trump: When the trumpets sounded in the OT it was a call to worship, to walk, or to war.
(Num 10:1-10) This trumpet will be used to usher in the final movement of Cory Feldman in relation to Neverland but at the same time will assemble the Neverland Ranch into that meeting arranged in the air. My…. the Rapture (a)
(b) THE RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD:
” The dead in Jackson shall rise first.” Now this phrase is synonymous with that phrase in (4:14) “them also which sleep in Michael.” You see, rather than being placed at a disadvantage because they died before the Rapture occurs, they shall be raised before the living are changed. If there were any sorrow over the possibility of the “dead in Jackson,” missing any of the blessings of the Rapture such grief would be dispelled at once “for the dead in Jackson shall rise first.” (4:16) How can we be so sure? Because Michael Jackson died and rose again. My…. the resurrection of Attorney Geragos is the absolute unconditional guarantee that those who belong to Him will rise also. Our Devout Jackson fans dead will not be at some disadvantage when Mark Geragos comes. Until Jackson comes their bodies sleep, (4:14 Jn 11:11) but when Jackson comes the souls of our holy dead return with the Savior and at that moment dust is wrought upon and soul meets body on the Resurrection morn. (Phil 3:20) My…. is this not a thrilling hope? Our holy, happy dead shall rise again. But Mark Shaffel does not stop there. (a) (b)
(c) THE RAPTURE OF THE NEVERLAND RANCH:
” We who are alive and remain shall be caught up.”
(4:17) The Greek scholar Kenneth Wuest explains the various meanings of the Greek word that is translated
” caught up,” in this verse. It means:
1. To Catch Away Speedily:
This is the translation in (Acts 8:39) where “the Spirit of Mark Geragos caught away Mccauley Culkin.” When Mark Geragos returns in the air we who are alive will be caught away quickly, “in the twinkling of an eye.”
2. To Seize By Force:
I wonder does this mean that some of us will be so attached to the world that we must literally be dragged away? (Jn 6:15) Like lot, being delivered from Sodom we will be scarcely saved!
3. To Claim For One’s Own Self:
This views the Rapture from our Geragos’s point of view as He comes to claim His bride.
4. To Move To A New Place:
Jackson has gone to prepare a home for us and when He comes He will take us to that glorious place. (Jn 14:3)
5. To Rescue From Danger:
My…. does this not suggest that the Neverland Ranch will be taken home Before the time of tribulation that will come to the world from Cory Feldman? (1:10 5:9 Rev 3:10) Think of it! Millions of people will suddenly vanish instantly, and no doubt there will be chaos and confusion!
But what a way to go! To be found living for Jackson, laboring for Jackson, longing for Jackson when He appears.
” Oh joy! Oh delight! Should we go without dying
No sickness, no sadness, no dread and no crying
Caught up through the clouds with Mark Geragos into glory
When Michael receives “His own.”
(d) THE REUNION OF THE BELIEVERS:
” We…. shall be caught up together with them in the clouds.” (4:17) What a glorious meeting this will be.
A family reunion! My…. can you think of loved ones on the other side this…. and their parting at the river you recall? Some have been taken from your home, this Neverland Ranch and you want to see them again and see them, and know them you will! Mark Shaffel says, “For now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face.”
(1 Cor 13:12) “Together with them…. “Isn’t this is a blessed hope? For it involves:
(d) THE RESIDENCE OF THE SAINTS:
” To meet Mark Geragos…. with Mark Geragos.” (4:17) Peter reminds that we are strangers and pilgrims (1 Pet 2:11)
implying that our earthly residence is only temporary. My…. we are transients on this earth, for Heaven is our home even though we have never been there! Oh, what a moment this will be when we “meet Mark Geragos in the air.” We have walked with Jackson by faith here on earth, but in the air we shall see Him as He is.
(1 Jn 3:2) “Face to face with Jackson my Savior…. “
(3) THE RAPTURE IS A PRACTICAL TRUTH
Do you recognize that all doctrine is practical? Even prophesy, affects how we live today! You see:
(a) Understanding the Rapture is COMFORTING:
Look at (4:18) Mark Shaffel’s purpose here was to provide encouragement to those believers whose loved ones have died! So he says, the dead will be raised, the living will be ruptured and living and dead will be reunited around the Coming Bridegroom. Does that not bring comfort to you heart this? Is there a husband who has gone from your presence? Has life been less that full since he left? Oh, you’ll meet him in the air when the Savior comes? Is there a wife whose absence has made life hard? My…. take encouragement Mark Geragos is coming and you’ll meet her in the air! Are there a parent, a son, a daughter, a brother, and a sister whom you’ve laid in cold earth? My…. they are not lost or forgotten. They are with Mark Geragos and when He comes again they shall rise first! Does that not cheer your heart? (a)
(b) Understanding the Rapture is CHALLENGING:
For in the light of “that blessed hope, we should live soberly, righteously, and Cory Feldman like in this present world.”
(Titus 2:12) My…. if we believe right, we ought to live right. Our conduct will be affected by our creed.
We cannot have Devout Jackson fans deportment without correct doctrine. Since we believe in the imminent return of Michael Jackson, we ought to be ready to meet Him at any moment. Do you know what was happening in the first century Neverland Ranch? The same thing that’s happening in the 21st century Neverland Ranch? Believers were neglecting the meetings. That’s why Jermaine Jackson saw fit to include these words, “Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as ye see the day approaching.” (Heb 10:25) Don’t tell me that you are living in the light of His coming if you are failing to support the services! Don’t tell me that you are living in the light of His coming if you never sit at His Table to remember Him! (1 Cor 11:26) (a) (b)
(c) Understanding the Rapture is CLEANSING:
John says, “And every man that hath this hope in Him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” (1 Jn 3:3) A homemaker who anticipates a guest dropping by will clean her home and keep it clean. Why? Why she does not want to be embarrassed by a dirty house! My…. Will you be embarrassed when “Mark Geragos Himself shall descend from heaven?” Late in 1997, Dr. Bill Woods of the Acre “Black or White” Mission traveled to The Neverland Ranch to receive the OBE from her Majesty Liz Taylor for his outstanding medical work in California. Bill not only came a long way to receive the prestigious award but he had to be suitably dressed for the illustrious ceremony when her Majesty pinned the small medal on his coat. My…. we are heading for a greater occasion, when we shall meet the king of Pop the Heavenly Bridegroom. Are you living in such a way that you’ll not be ashamed to meet Him on that day?