Spirit of Truth/The Bible on Trial

Masters~ The most imortant golf tourmanemt in the world is The Open Championship in England; the most important tournament in the USA is The Masters, that is played a the Augusta National Golf Club, in Augusta, Georga. The reason that it is the most important tournament is that like The Open in order for a player to win The Masters you cannot play your own game, and try to fit the course to your style of golf. To win the Masters a player must humble himself and learn to fit their game to what the course is asking. If you try to overpower the course by trying to force course to fit your game you will find yourself on the short end of the stick.  Just as with all golf the 'Rules of Golf' always apply, and are the framework that allows all players to have a chance to win. But the Rules don't dictate whether you do win, as it is up to you to understand what shots need to be played, and when, and what shot is required in any and every situation. Whether you actually are able to take what the course is giving you on any particular day is up to your level of practiced skill in making the shots necessary to shoot a low score. Jesus did not come to earth to reiterated and how to keep the rules of the game of salvation. Those 'rules' were establishe a Sinai when God gave Moses the 10 Commandments, and those rules always apply in everything that has anything to do with salvation and eternal life. But just as with golf, simply knowing the rules does not make you a winner; you must Practice the truth of the words of Jesus in order to become righteous in fact. It is doing this that gives you the opportunity to access the payment for the penalty for sin that Jesus by His death offers His Kingdom. We must MASTER the words of God that Jesus brought from the Father in Heaven and gave to His own eyewitness disciples in order to win through to salvation.

Are we there yet? ~ Anyone that has become a parent, and has a child that is 3 years or older has heard from your child the expression while traveling in a car, "Are we there yet?" Whatever you answer, it is never the correct one for a bored child. This was particularly true in my time as a child, and ever for my own children, because there were no iphones, or video screens in automobiles at the time, so there were no movies to keep us busy on long road trips in the car. Parents had to plan ahead by having coloring books, puzzles, word games, and the like, ready to go the moment their children figured out that traveling by car with brothers and sisters is both boring and frustrating. Children have no concept of time as a factor in the trading of time for distance while traveling in a car. 400 miles at an agrigate of 60 miles per hour (including rest stops) is an eternity for a child, and even longer for the parent that has to ride with them over that distance. This is even true for people that have taken an interest in Biblical Prophecy, and want to know where they are in time with respect to End-Time events. The expression "Jesus is coming soon" gets pretty old after 200 years of unfulfilled expectation that we are actually living at the end of time. It is particularly frustrating when your grandparents told your parents, and your parents told you that Jesus could come at any time without notice, so you better be 'good', and you better be 'ready', or you could miss out on eternal life. Will there come a time when the 'signs' line up, and the timing is perfect such that we will actually KNOW when and where we are in time, with repect to End-Time prophecy. Actually, yes. This is why knowing what the Life Road and Death Road prophecies are and how they work is so important.

Backstory~ With all of the issues presenting themselves constantly in the news today, it is sometimes easy to get so caught up in the minutia that our 'reason for being' (raison d'etre) gets lost in the clutter. Even when we do keep perspective and don't give in to worrying over the little thngs, the temptation is still there to lose consentration and let our thoughts wander hither and yon, taking 'main force' to bring us back to what is important, that 'thing' that keeps us on track and functioning at a high level. There is a peace that comes from 'knowing' that the thing that you worship is actually and unequivocably the truth, undiluted with lies that act as truth in our intellect, and keep us from accomplishing the process that will end with that very 'knowingness' that brings the peace of salvation via sanctification. This describes the 'backstory' of salvation, and is the 'thing' that Jesus brought from His Father in Heaven to earth, and taught His own eyewitness disciples, who wrote that 'thing' down, and that God preserved for millenia, that makes it possible for those of us that now live in this modern and confusing world with all it's distractions to use as a filter that allows us to de-clutter our intellect in order to not just know truth, but to actually become the TRUTH by placing that 'thing' in our very being, such that there is no recognizable difference between us and the bringer of that 'light to the world'. So what is that 'backstory', that 'thing' that Jesus brought to earth over 2,000 years ago, so that we could "have life, and have it more abundantly"? What is that 'thing', described as "the Light of the world", a dwelling place wherein we live. That 'thing' is the WORDS of God, brought to earth by Jesus His Son.

Think and Grow Rich~ 'Because you say, "I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing," and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked.' Rev.3:17. In 1937 Napoleon Hill published on of the greatest personal growth books ever written - Think and Grow Rich! The title belies the content, because on the surface one would think this book was only about making money, but it isn't. The author was a great friend of Andrew Carnagie, who was a business magnate in the early part of the 20th century, and later became a recognized philanthropist. The author condensed years of research into the habits of success into 14 principles that became his "Philosophy of Achievemnt", that when diligently applied will suppress negative thoughts, and allow a person to become successful in all areas of life. And although there are a few dated ideas that are no longer acceptable by modern standards, this is an important 'read', and well worth the time. There is a correlation between these princlples defined in this book and what Jesus taught about becoming 'rich' in the spiritual sense. The idea that 'faith' should be a guiding principle for success is outmoded from the standpoint that "Faith allows a person to believe a lie as if it is the truth, without accountability." We all start our journey to truth using faith as the basis. But if we stay 'in' faith, then we will never be able to tell whether something is actually true or not, and that decision is made moot by believing something is true, when it's not. Just believing that what you know about salvation must be true because others believe it is not sufficient to actually achieve salvation. We must KNOW the God in whom we believe by knowing and understanding the Words of God that Jesus brought to earth from the Father through His eyewitness disciples.

Learning truth heals~ Those of you that have had to go to the hospital for a proceedure or a medical issue you know how uncomfortable it is. For the price of a night in the hospital you could stay at the Burj Hotel in Dubai in one of their better rooms, and still have money left over for a nice dinner. Yet the reason we go to the hospital is not for a vacation, it is because we have a serious medical condition that cannot be dealt with any other way. In my case I had a condition in my left hand called Cellulitis, which is a bacterial infection of skin and underlaying tissue, that causes swelling, redness, is hot to the touch, and quite painful. I came down with Cellulitis. I was prescribed antibiotics, but this was too little too late. On Thursday I was meeting with Rick, and he told me that this condition was now severe, and that I should go immediately to get it dealt with. I did. That is why i missed helping out with last weeks program. A fairly short stay in the hospital, good Doctors, heavy antibiotics, and two sleepless nights and I was home again, with the Cellulitis under control. We will go in hospital for a medical condition that is life threatening, but where do we go when we have a spiritual 'life-threatening' condition? There are churches, but these are not spiritual hospitals, they are more like 'play grounds' where people go to be entertained, coming away feeling good, but no closer to being healed spiritually than when they went in. The place where you must go to become spiritually healed is not a physical place, because healing the spirit is not a physical issue. We must recognise that the disease we are fighting is one where we believe a lie to be the truth, and when we are shown the truth we believe it to be a lie. The Words of Jesus are the antibiotics that will heal us from the disease of lies we believe to be true. We must innoculate ourselves from lies, by learning His truth.

God told the prophet Jeremiah that He would make a covenant with the Israelites when they were restored to the land of Israel after the captivity. Jeremiah 31:34 (JB) There will be no further need for neighbor to teach neighbor, or brother to say to brother, 'learn to know Yahweh!' No, they will all know me, the least no less than the greatest... The Son of God speaking to the religeous leaders of the Jews said: "You do not know Me, nor do you know my Father; if you did know Me, you would know My Father as well" John 8:19 (JD) To the woman at the well The Son of Man said; You worship what you do not know... But a time will come-in fact it is here already-when true worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth: that is the kind of worshipper the Father wants. God is spirit, and those who worship must worship in spirit and truth. John 4:21-24 (JD) Philip said, 'Lord, let us see the Father and then we shall be satisfied. 'Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and you still do not know Me?'  To know about the Father, is not the same as "knowing" the Father. To know the Father we must know come to know His Son. The only way this can be, is to learn the truth. To learn the truth is the way to the Father and the Son. The Spirit of Truth will teach you, but you must be willing to learn. The only way this will happen is by setting aside everything you have learned that is not 100% consistant with the testimony of God's Son.

When I would ask the question; why would God tolerate rebellion and insurrection to continue, the answer was usually; because God is putting "wickedness" on trial for all the world to see. Many people are asking the same question now, except not only about God, but about what is being allowed to continue in the United States. The answer is, people need to see the depths of wickedness in order to admit or acknowledge that it is truly taking place. Wickedness happens behind a facade of "philanthropy", people need to see what is behind the facade before they will acknowledge that it is true. God is exposing all the wickedness that has been going on for centuries so the people of earth will want Him to punish the wicked. We are about to enter into a time of peace and prosperity the likes of which the world has never experienced, but there is something else on the horizon, God will let us know what that is soon..

Stronger than death~ "Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as death." Song of Soloman 8:6. One of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written is set to the words of this Scripture. It was written by a composer named Rene' Clauson, and it is in the regular repertoire of choirs and Choral Societies all over the world. The words "Love is strong as death" have true and heartfelt meaning for anyone that has lost someone they love, because after someone dies that love now become unrequited, that is, not able to be returned. Unrequited love almost always turns into grief. This is true for humans, it is also true for God. This is why God offers salvation to everyone, but the love that is connected to salvation can never be unrequited, i.e., given and not recieved; there is a cost to the "love that is strong as death". But you say that you have heard that God offers unconditional love to all who simply 'claim the name of Jesus'.  It this was true then why did Jesus (who came to earth to testify to the truth-John 18:36) tell His own disciples, "If you love me, you will keep my Commandments." (John 14:15). This statement implies that if you don't "keep MY Commandments" you don't love Jesus. Simply making a statement of undying love for God does not prove that you do.  "So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus." (Rev. 12:17) There are two things that prove you are a child of God - you must keep His Commandments, and believe and practice the words that Jesus brought to earth from His Father. This is the SEAL of God, and it is this seal that must be on your heart (intellect), and on your arm (your doing), This is the true love of and for God.

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