I had two friends/associates who turned out to be beating their wives behind the scenes (for years). I had the hardest time wrapping my head around how a man could do that. Then, when one of their sons was fixing our house he said that his dad never sent anyone to the hospital – he always held back a little. That struck me as odd because if a man hit a child or woman out of anger or rage they would definitely end up in the hospital – that meant that the act was thought out – there was a thought process happening there in how hard to hit and where to hit (so there would be no visible marks)…

I was disgusted and totally at a loss and I knew that both men believed that they could never lose their Salvation – they both believed that once they had it they could never lose it. This drew me into conversations with EVERYONE – pastors, assistant pastors, men from various groups – I must have talked to 100 people about this…

I wanted to get this “right” because they had several kids between them and those kids had friends who hung out with and around the family and both of these men were looked up to by these young people… They both knew what to say and when to say it when it came to responding to, and helping, youth questions… One was a High School Counselor. They had everyone “fooled”…

Then, within the timeframe I had been studying this issue and now, it was brought to light that a few women we knew had been committing adultery.  So, I added this discussion to the previous discussion while trying to understand what the hell was going on…

The conclusion of everyone I spoke to (EVERY ONE) was that the biggest problem in Christianity is that people think they can be forgiven anything, but if they know the truth yet set out with the intention of sinning – such as hitting your wife/kid or committing adultery – and they continue in this sin, there is eventually no way to forgiveness for them… They are knowingly committing an intentional act of sin/transgression against God’s word and the Holy Spirit – and eventually the Holy Spirit will leave them.

That is, if the Holy Spirit was ever with them in the first place…

Many people grow up in the faith and assume the Holly Spirit is within them – they assume they know more than they know, or understand more than they understand, simply through osmosis (mostly parroting people they looked up to or respected when they were young) – many people can quote what they need to, when they need to, at an attempt to justify themselves when speaking to others about their own personal wants and needs – many can can fake it – and they can do it convincingly – even fooling themselves.

Rom 8:9  You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him

How can you tell if the spirit is in someone? It’s not about me me me…. What I don’t have…. What I should have done…. What “you” should have done for me… If only I’d have…. It’s about how they can serve God. That’s it. It’s that simple.

We’re all going to screw up – we’ll do it daily. But the Spirit will catch us, give us a firm talking to, we’ll repent and ask forgiveness and move on to the next slip up. Hopefully not to repeat the same thing that led to any previous infraction. Each day, day by day, it will get easier and easier as we become more and more like the Holy Spirit inside of us…

Now, assuming they had the Holy Spirit at some point, I will continue.

Mat 12:31  Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven.

How do you blaspheme the Holy Spirit…?

1Th 5:19  Do not quench the Spirit.

How do you know you have quenched the Spirit?

You know you have quenched the Spirit when you have no guilt for living/continuing in your sin – there is no voice inside you saying “Dude, you better knock this crap off and ask forgiveness immediately!” You have become numb to your sin, to the word of God and to the Holy Spirit. You have somehow left the door open for someone/something which will both block your understanding of the word and conjure justifications that will make sense to very few (usually those who are doing the same thing as you as they seek to perpetuate their existing prejudice to justify their sins to the rest of the world)…

If you have taken an oath to God, this is even easier to explain. When you actually find yourself praying against your oath to God you are praying to quench the Spirit. As you move into your sin, you attempt to justify going against your oath to God – further quenching the Spirit. After living in your sin long enough to no longer feel the guilt of it, the Spirit leaves you – you no longer feel the need to repent nor ask forgiveness for it – you have quenched the Spirit…

Heb 6:4 For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, and have shared in the Holy Spirit, Heb 6:5 and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the age to come, Heb 6:6 and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their own harm and holding him up to contempt. 1Jn 2:15 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. 1Jn 2:16 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. 1Jn 3:4 Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. 1Jn 3:5 You know that he appeared in order to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. 1Jn 3:6 No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.

If you are in fact a believer, to resist the Holy Spirits conviction to not hit your wife/children, or to commit adultery, and willfully remain unrepentant is blasphemy to the Holy Spirit. To continue in any sin, to “live in” the sin, without repenting or asking forgiveness is blasphemy. There is no pardon for a person who rejects/quenches/blasphemes the Holy Spirit…

So,what does the spouse do?

1Co 7:10  To the married I give this charge (not I, but the Lord): the wife should not separate from her husband 1Co 7:11  (but if she does, she should remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband), and the husband should not divorce his wife. Mrk 10:11  “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her, Mrk 10:12  and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.” Luk 16:18  “Everyone who divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery, and he who marries a woman divorced from her husband commits adultery.” Heb 13:4 Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually immoral and adulterous. Eph 5:5 For you may be sure of this, that everyone who is sexually immoral or impure, or who is covetous (that is, an idolater), has no inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. Lev 20:10  “If a man commits adultery with the wife of his neighbor, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall surely be put to death.” 1Th 4:3 For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you abstain from sexual immorality; 1Th 4:4 that each one of you know how to control his own body in holiness and honor, 1Th 4:5 not in the passion of lust like the Gentiles who do not know God; 1Th 4:6 that no one transgress and wrong his brother in this matter, because the Lord is an avenger in all these things, as we told you beforehand and solemnly warned you. 1Th 4:7 For God has not called us for impurity, but in holiness. 1Th 4:8 Therefore whoever disregards this, disregards not man but God, who gives his Holy Spirit to you.

You don’t want to give in to sin just because your spouse did – you don’t want to become wrath to combat wrath – that’s God’s job. So, settle – pray – get yourself distance from the situation and talk to someone (not just those you know but people who have absolutely nothing to do with the situation – to assure there is no prejudice nor motive in any direction). Fellowship is key – Iron sharpens Iron!

Mat 18:15  “If your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. Mat 18:16  But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. Mat 18:17  If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. 1Ti 5:20 As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.

…and, as you are stepping through a “hopeful” reconciliation, it is important to note that God will never give you more than you can handle!

1Co 10:13  No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.

Here’s the cool thing that comes out of it… The “Way Of Escape” mentioned above:  You either get your spouse back or you get to serve God with all your heart, soul and mind. In a perfect world you would get both! But, in any case, you win!

Simply knowing this “way of escape” will enable you to endure “it”.

Gal 5:16  walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. Gal 5:17  For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do.

Don’t fall into the sin of adultery (or any other sin) just because the one you love will not repent of their sin. Their sin is on them – they will answer for it/them one day. Your sin is on you – you will answer for it/them one day. The one you will answer to not only knows what you did, but why you did it – He knows the heart – He knows every thought you have ever had – so don’t even consider it.

Heb 4:12 For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Heb 4:13 And no creature is hidden from his sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must give account.

Here’s the thing: you never know if you’re going to get hit by a bus or get in a serious car accident today; you never know if you’ll be diagnosed tomorrow; you never know when you will end. On that day, you will answer for everything you have done. So, don’t begin in the sin in the first place. If you have, repent and ask forgiveness right now. There’s no time to waste.

As for the rest, who have not given in to sin, simply pray for your fallen spouse every moment you can and serve God with all that you have…

and may you end every prayer with:

Psa 51:11  Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me.

Amen!

These are all old, but they are “the latest and greatest” – sad if you think about it – the county is suppose to have open meetings on ALL of this AND these are all suppose to be updated every 5-10 years. Forgive me for the highlighting – I have studied these through the years and made notes at the time. I have no idea what the notes were at this point, but the yellow highlights are still there…

DISASTER PREPAREDNESS FOR MAUI COUNTY- A CITIZEN’S GUIDE
The Maui County Hazard Mitigation Plan

County of Maui 2030 General Plan – County Wide Policy Plan
County of Maui Department of Planning COMMUNITY PLANNING PROCESS HANDBOOK August 2017
Maui Island Plan General Plan 2030

WEST MAUI COMMUNITY PLAN (1996)

A lot of people are going to be litigation happy for the next few years – and, as American citizens, it is their right to be. The only way anything gets changed in this country is through the law…

You have to consider the above plans and weigh them against the thinking of the time. As tourism took off in the 90’s, not only did the idea of “controlling it” fall away, we were all happy to put these plans aside and pretend they didn’t exist (or they no longer applied because the economy had changed). We were all on the train – and as long as the train was rolling, we were all happy and fat…

We really wanted to do something with the deserts on the south side (Kihei/Wailea) and the west side (Lahaina/Kaanapali) of the island – so we created a few Urban Heat Islands (without updating any of the old infrastructure) and created the (WUI) Wilderness-Urban Interface without REALLY considered the consequences. No one cared as long as the money was flowing as we crept more and more into the WUI with our modern technologies (which are all, at some temperature and/or pressure, ignition sources)…

It’s very ironic that this happened when it did because I spent most of the year studying Urban Heat Islands and WUI’s and their effect on the local watersheds/environments and “Global Warming” – I didn’t post for more than 6 months because I wanted the second half of the years posts to be ALL ABOUT these topics. My first post this year (July 29th) has tons of articles and data to read through if you’d like:
Urban Heat Islands

Even after the Lahaina fires a few years ago – the money was flowing and no one wanted to spend it on infrastructure – so we ALL ignored it. Hell, I was there cleaning ash out of the carpets the next day – we all went back to work and just ignored it…
2023/08/22 – A Maui wildfire nearly took Lahaina 5 years ago. Its warning was ignored

In June of 2020, I Wrote this:
No Blame – Just Solutions – this was a response to Victorino asking for solutions during one of his press conferences while everyone was locked down. At the time, there was no way of getting any information to him or anyone who worked for him – so I posted my response. It highlights some of the events that have, and have not, occured on the island over the years and how we could potentially “fix” them.

The fear now is that “they” can start from scratch. There’s one thing I’ve learned over the years and that is that the government is bad at just about everything they do – the market is what works. The best job the government does is to support anything that keeps the market open (so consumers have their choice of the best products and services, for the best pricing) – in other words, the governments only job should be to stay out of the way and to assure that large companies stay out of the way so no choices are limited, withheld or blocked from consideration.

Here… Today… How we rebuild the areas of Maui that need to be rebuilt is up to us. We can not let “them” do what they do…

Thank You EVERYONE for the starlinks – so many people donated that I don’t know who to thank individually…

We’re still having flareups upcountry (the fire no one is paying attention to) – they are meeting up at Kula Lodge daily to get work teams together to create fire breaks and clearing any loose debri that may be flammable. The wind knocked down many trees so they are clearing those as well… It is being run by civilians who live up there. At the moment they have plenty of gloves, hard hats, shovels and such – what they need is water and meals for those working up there. We’ve been running stuff up there as needed…

The displaced from the upcountry fires are getting their supplies from the Pukalani Station – it’s right across the pool at the park there – red cross is running it (there’s a lot of supplies there – mostly because no one trusts the government right now and they are not going to the supply depots for much of anything). There are folks upcountry who will not leave their homes – if you are one of these folks, please contact Anna or myself and we will get you supplies…

Our two oldest have went to the mainland for college this last weekend (they were a huge help and enabled us to be in several places at once) so Anna and I are stretched kind of thin right now – so please let us know future needs as well so we can get them to you BEFORE you need them.

The folks out at Camp Moluhia are making shaker boxes and prepping for cleanup. They got a huge order of Personal Protective Gear yesterday so those cleaning up will be protected from the environment – don’t want to breath the air out there right now…

There are a few folks collecting school supplies and backpacks for the mobile schools which have popped up here and there – if you’d like to be part of that contact us and we can hook you up with the right folks…

Someone has donated some really nice, portable, pop-up tiny houses which are being set up over at King’s Cathedral – many “refugees” ended up there and can house there as events continue to unravel…

I’m not going to talk about “the crap” that created these events or “the response” which made them worse – I’ll let everyone else vent on social media for now and just keep helping as needed…

Fix the problem, not the blame – once the problem is fixed, then…

…I’ll vent when I’m done…

Heads up locals – the air and ocean are not your friend right now – don’t eat anything from the ocean and stay upwind of the disaster area – people are getting sick – don’t be one of them… You have to stay healthy to help others…

Also, use the bottled water for cooking and boiling right now… If you don’t trust the source you got it from, contact us, we’ll get you as much as you need…

So, we have folks going neighborhood to neighborhood and parking lot to parking lot getting needs from folks who will not leave their “area”. They are then driving back to this side with their lists and we all run around to find the stuff on the lists – they are not letting any supply vehicles in unless they are visibly full (so there’s a caveat to overcome). We usually load up any “not-full” truck with full gas cans, water, toilet paper, dry wipes and such…

If someone on the island could donate their Mobile Starlink for a few weeks or so they could let us know what they need as they are driving toward us and we can have it waiting for them when they arrive…

It would cut the resupply time from a day to a few hours…

Everyone is where they are going to be for a while (at this point). Those who made it to this side of the island are going to stay where they are and those who stayed on that side are going to stay where they are – so, for now, we just have to deal with “what is”…

It would be great if we could possibly setup a few “Starlink Centers” (with security of course) if we get more than a few donations – so the folks out there can have COMMS and call loved ones…

I made a list a few days ago of a few helpful items which can be used in case of emergency. If anyone thinks of something else can go on this list, let me know. These people are not survivalist – and many are not thinking straight – so the list needs to be “easy to use” items.
I’m not going to put anything on the list that can start a fire or potentially be a weapon (nothing that has a blade or shoots any projectile), and
I won’t put anything I haven’t used and had a good experience with on the list.

I added Starlink to it (but there’s a monthly bill for Starlink so I don’t expect that to go anywhere):

Rainman Desalination Kits – I would still run the water that came out of this through one or two of the filters below due to what is in the sea water right now – I’d run it through as many filters as possible (they all filter out more of this or that specific microscopic “blah-blah” that can make you sick)

Berkey Water Filters
The Water Machine
Sawyer Water Filtration Systems
LifeStraw Peak Series Water Filters

Advanced Elements Summer Showers – Mobile Shower
RinseKits – Mobile Shower

Go Sun Fusions – Mobile Baking – Solar
All American Sun Ovens – Mobile BBQ & Baking – Solar

Ready Wise – MRE’s
Patriot Supply – MRE’s
Sun Kettle® Solar Cooker – Solar water boiler for the MRE’s – I use them for coffee as well

Inergytek – Solar Panels w/ Solar Generator/Batteries
RockPals – Solar Panels w/ Solar Generator/Batteries
EcoFlow – Solar Panels w/ Solar Generator/Batteries

The PUC Expandable Lantern / Charger – best flashlight ever – I love these things!

Mobile Starlink

The distribution places on the Lahaina Side are full – if you have a plan with someone on that side to go house to house, neighborhood to neighborhood, parking lot to parking lot and car to car distributing things directly to people (who will not leave their “areas” or houses) then you may have a productive day. The distribution places will turn you away – so don’t waste the resources to go out there unless you have a plan (with someone on the Lahaina Side).

A lot of folks are just loading up and going over there and coming back with full trucks – have a plan before you waste time and resources. There’s still another 150,000 people on this side of the island who require those resources – stop raiding the stores!

Basically, Lower Honoapiilani is the road to find people to help (or to find someone who can point you in the right direction – it changes day to day). There are a lot of culdesacs and small streets running off Lower Honoapiilani that also may need attention… Do not go down without a convoy or large group of people – stay safe! Talk to people – ask them what they need…

Today, the immediate needs are Ice, Gas and Toilet Paper. I’m thinking they’re using the gas for their generators (because those who are there are not looking to drive anywhere at this point).

Soon, they will need Meds and more Generators to run the fridges to keep the meds (such as insulin) cold…

Of course, if they have bottled water, a freezer and a generator they can make ice for their neighbors all day long – but no one is thinking straight right now… That may be the combo to look for in the coming weeks – the freezer and geni don’t have to be large…

Anyway, trying to figure out the plan for tomorrow so I’m gonna sign off now…