Admiral James Stockdale, after being shot down over Vietnam and spending 7 years in the infamous Vietnamese POW camp known as “The Hanoi Hilton”, was asked how he had persevered while incarcerated by the enemy. He replied:

“I never lost faith in the end of the story. I never doubted not only that I would get out, but also that I would prevail in the end and turn the experience into the defining event of my life, which in retrospect, I would not trade.”

He was then asked who the people were who didn’t make it out of the famous prison:

“The optimists. Oh, they were the ones who said, ‘We’re going to be out by Christmas.’ And Christmas would come, and Christmas would go. Then they’d say, ‘We’re going to be out by Easter.’ And Easter would come, and Easter would go. And then Thanksgiving, and then it would be Christmas again. And they died of a broken heart.”

Adding to that, he said:

“This is a very important lesson. You must never confuse faith that you will prevail in the end - which you can never afford to lose - with the discipline to confront the most brutal facts of your current reality, whatever they might be.”

In the 1999 Sci-Fi / Action film “The Matrix”, the main character is given a choice: to have his eyes opened to the reality of what the world really is and what is going on around him (symbolized by taking the “red pill”), or stay in his current state of life and deny what he knows to be true by refusing to look at it for what it is (symbolized by taking the “blue pill”). He hesitates, but in the end takes the red pill, after which he is “unplugged” from The Matrix, and suddenly sees the world for what it really is. He sees that the world he’s been living in has all been a facade, and he has been willfully ignorant of it his whole life.

These days are tough for Christians, because we know that what we see happening to our world and especially our nation is evil, and there is no other explanation for it other than supernatural warfare. There are many times when Amber and I have said to each other that we wished we could go back to living in oblivion - not facing the brutal realities of the world we’re in every day - because it seems like it would be easier to just not know. Of course, we know that’s a lie, but it’s endemic of the fear and confusion that we all feel every day.

Taking the “Red Pill” is a catch phrase that can mean many things, but today more than ever it seems to symbolize the deliberate act of unplugging from the evil influences and distractions of the world. Social Media, TV News, Television, Online Distractions. Why do we continue to allow ourselves to be trapped by these meaningless things of the world? Christ told us to be in the world, but not of the world. Being of the world means being entrapped by it and being indistinguishable from those around us who do not have Christ.

Take the challenge of unplugging from the world for 30 days, and see what it does for your spiritual walk with the Lord. Turn off social media and television. Every minute that you would have spent on those distractions, spend it reading the Word. Watch what it does for your relationship with Christ, and you will never go back to your life in the world.

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MENTIONS ON THE SHOW

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CRIMES OF THE EDUCATORS: How Utopians Are Using Government Schools to Destroy America's Children Paperback – January 21, 2021

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1637580568/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_DZQTG4K7HE68NE172R6P

ARK ENCOUNTER in Williamstown, Kentucky

www.arkencounter.com

TWITTER SUSPENDS MAJOR CHRISTIAN GROUP ON MIND-BOGGLING GROUNDS

www.wnd.com/2021/01/twitter-suspends-major-christian-group-mind-boggling-grounds/

STORY OF KING NEBUCHADNEZZAR

Daniel 4:28-37

www.bible.com/bible/111/DAN.4.NIV

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