Spirit of Truth/The Bible on Trial

I am going to take a slightly different tack in my comments today, because of a rather pessimistic article I read that details why the author thinks that Unity in the USA and in the world can and will never happen.  He laments the loss of our central identities as Americans that have traditionally united us, even though we are the most dirvers country in the world. You can find the article Walsh on Daily Wire. I will link it below. My response to this article was the following: I do not take such a pessimistic viewpoint as does this author, for one reason; Donald J. Trump! If HRC had won the 2016 election we would not only be in the situation as described by Walsh, but we would be right in the middle of the horror described in Revelation 13-nearing a one world totalitarian government, where all freedoms are removed, and the Central world government controls all aspects of life. As it is, by his election Pres. Trump has derailed the Death Road scenario in the prophecies not only in Revelation but in Daniel 2, 10 and 11, and we are in the process of realizing the Life Road scenario that God has always given in prophecy, where if we make the right choices we will achieve Prosperity and Peace. Seeing this situation, the Left in this country and the world is participating in a 'last gasp' effort to bring about and manufacture the fulfillment of the Death Road prophecies by any and all nefarious means at their considerable disposal. This is tragic, but it won't work IF we as a people recognize the value of acknowledging the God of Creation in continuing down the Life Road by electing and supporting the people that are acting on behalf of the King of the Kingdom of the Heavens, even if they don't know it. We the People have this choice between Life and Death, Blessings and curses, Prosperity and Adversity. Choose wisely! We can change the outcome of prophecy IF we make the right choice!

Never Never Land~ We are now living in Never Never Land. Whether you live in America, or anywhere else in the world, it appears that the worst of fiction writing has come to pass in real life. You can't make this up! Those of us that have lived  in the 50's, 60's, and 70's would never have believed it if someone told us that we would live in a time when every cultural norm in which we grew up (for good or ill) would be turned upside-down. It is my belief that this all started when the idea of mothers and fathers rearing children together in a household where dad went to work and was able to provide for the family so that mom could stay home and take care of the household. The movie "The Christmas Story" reminds me of how this used to work. Today, mothers and fathers (in whatever configuration that applies) both work full time jobs just to make ends meet, and the day-care facility rears your children for you. Never Never Land. No one thought to not call the police when you needed them; and they came quickly, and dealt with the situation efficiently, effectively, and with respect for all parites. Today, for many in our society this perspective has changed dramatically, even though for the most part most policing is that same as the past. Now cities are 'defunding' the police, and are willing to let their citizens police themselves. Never Never Land. Jesus came to this earth to teach the truth about how to live in a world gone mad, and maintain our perspective on what it means to be both human and divine.  "It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing; the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and are life". John 6:63. If we live in this world we will always live in "Never never land". Never knowing peace, Never knowing truth, Never knowing God. His words bring truth and peace.

D-day~ Seventy-six years ago today thousands of young men of the Allied Expeditionary forces climbed into open top landing craft from troop transport ships , and moved toward the beaches along the French coast at Normandie. Well trained and prepared German troops were ready to defend against this invasion, and when these LCP's (Landing Craft Personel) hit the beach thousand of these young men took their last steps and last breaths as the steel ramps dropped and machine guns and artillery from the German gun emplacements decimated these young men, killing and wounding thousands. This did not stop them. Along the beaches designated Utah, Omaha, Gold, Juno and Sword, fierce fighting on both sides occurred, with the determined invasion force finally overcoming the stiff defenses of the Germans, and the invasion of the European Continent commenced. Six months later my mother's first husband, Maj. Thomas Harris (324th Infantry Regiment, 44th Division), was killed on the border of France and Germany near Hottviller on Dec. 13, 1944.  All of us have been touched by the horror and sadness of war, in one way or another. And yet, we all recognize the pride and commitment that these young men that fought in War II (and other conflicts through the ages) had in giving of themselves the "last full measure of devotion" (re: Lincoln) to an idea and ideal that was greater than themslves. We are facing the same things today, but with different issues that contend in our souls. The battle between Truth and Lies is still present not only in society and culture, but in our minds and hearts, our intellect. No other time in history has this been more apparent than now, but not in the way you think. Jesus knew there would be a time at the end such as this, where physical battle would mask an intense spiritual battle between Truth and Lies. Jesus came "to testify to the Truth". Will you listen?

Join us today for our program The Bible on Trial at 10 AM PST.

Surprise Ending~ All of us have read a book or watched a movie that had a surprisingly sad twist to the ending that we didn't see coming. Murder mysteries where the butler didn't do it. Movies such as La La Land where at the end the boy didn't get the girl. Where the person that you thought would end up the hero became the goat. Sad endings often are more poigniant than happy endings that are predictable and cliched, and often hold our interest long enough to want to see what happens at the end of the story, rather than putting to book down early and going to bed. For me, being an incurable optimist, I love story lines that lead me to believe that the protaganists will not end up 'happily ever after', yet at the end there is a 'twist of fate' that allows at least one of the main characters to end up in that 'happily ever after' state of being, even though another main character had to sacrifice their own life to allow that to happen. (A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickins comes to mind). Not surpisingly, recently our studies here at Spirit of Truth Ministry are now leading me to believe that the events listed in the prophecies of Revelation that involve the sadness and horror of the Seven Trumpets and Seven Bowls of Wrath that have humans dying by the millions, with blood flowing up to the height of the bridle of a horse, and creatures coming up out of the abyss with tails like stingers tormenting those that take the Mark of the Beast, and The Angel of the Abyss mudering the Two Witnesses in the Street of the Great City, may NOT have to occur. But how can this possibly happen? Don't all prophecies of the end have to be fulfilled before Jesus can come in the clouds? Well, maybe not. Maybe there is a prophecy in Revelation 10 that gives humanity an 'out', if they decide to choose the Life Road instead of death? Can the ending change?

RIOT~ The death of a man in Minnesota due to how police officers conducted the arrest, and the fallout from that death is tragic, and shows how close is the distance between civilization and anarchy. It appears that the police officers making the arrest went outside of the law in suppressing the person being arrested, resulting in his death, and the reaction of certain members of the populaion of Minnesota (and other states) in breaking the law by rioting, demonstrates the importance of obedience to Laws designed to protect the public from looters and unconstitutional activity that can cost both additional lives and property damage. When Law becomes less important than emotions and feelings society can break down with tragic results. Emotions are tricky things. Decisions made while in a highly emotionsl state can cause unintended consequenses that reverberate through a community for a long time, and can change the outcomes for eternity. Allowing emotions to dictate decisions have cause untold damage not only to property, but to friendships, business partnerships, and marriages. When a person gets 'worked up' over a situation that has gotten out of control any decision that they make will have a component of insecurity that can cause the mind to spiral into chaos. Adam and Eve experienced this in the Garden, when Satan created an emotional environment where they began to doubt the motives of God. Both Eve and then Adam seccumbed the emotion of the moment, and look what that produced. Laws must be recognized and administered outside of emotion or there can be no safe result for either society or for the Kingdom of the Heavens. We are secure in Salvation when we recognize the value of obedience to the Covenant of the Kingdom. The Laws underwhich God wants us to operate free us from the tyrrany of sin, and set us free to do and be the people that will advance the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

Blinding Light~ Lets say that you are a professional house thief, a good one! You are very careful as to the areas in which you work, and the types of houses you burgle. You 'case' the joint thoroughly, and do a recon of the property, making sure there are no dogs or alarms to deal with, and know if the residents will be home or away when you break in and enter the house. After you are inside the house you have your routine as to what you are looking to steal, and where it is. You want to spend as little time as possible inside the house and on the property as possible, in order to minimize the chance of something going wrong and being caught. You have disabled the alarm by cutting the power; your eyes had adapted to the darkness as you have made your way silently through the house in the pitch dark, filling your list, and have taken a variety of expensive and important objects by using a dimmed flash light, and placed them in your satchel. You have moved silently upstairs onto a landing, listening for the slightest sound that is out of place as you move down the dark hall way. Suddenly, you hear the soft squeek of a floorboard, and you freeze in place, eyes wide looking intently down the hall. Then, out of the dark comes the clack/click of a gun slide, and a piercingly painful bright light hits your eyes, blinding you. A quiet, calm voice says, "Please, don't move, or I WILL shoot you!" You don't know who this person is, you don't know the kind of gun he is holding, and you don't care.  All you know is that you believe him. You don't move because you are terrified, and you wait. This is like what Saul/Paul experienced on the road to Damascus. He was blinded by the light of a being that he didn't see, didn't know. He heard a name and believed because he felt threatened and terrified. How would Paul know who it was? He didn't!

Masks~ One of the things that tells us that life is no longer the same is the fact that with the Covid-19 situation comes the idea that to be safe when we go into publc spaces wes need to wear a mask. A few weeks ago the CDC issued a directive that anyone working in an essential business, and everyone that goes to and essential business MUST wear a mask in order to 'flatten the curve'. This is so that the number of people that get gravely ill from the virus will not overwhelm the hospital systems to the extent that there would not be enough beds, respirtators, and PPE to support their care. Well, we did flatten the curve to such an extent that, with a few exceptions, no one that actually died from Covid-19 did so without having recieved adequate care. And now it has come out from both the head of the CDC and the Surgeon General that healthy adults that are not sick with any virus or infection should not wear masks because doing so can actually harm lung function.  So should we wear a mask in public in order to not make other people uncomfortable, or not wear a mask so we as individuals can stay healthy. A conundrum for sure. The other thing masks do is hide faces from view. Interestingly, the number of shoplifting incidents at the hardware store where I work has risen precipitously, simply because theives feel safe taking things without paying because they KNOW they can get away with it, and there is nothing the store can do to stop them. There is a mask that is used by Christians to try to steal salvation from God. That mask is called "Salvation by Grace through Faith". It causes a person to be able to 'believe a lie as if it is the truth, without accountability'! What these 'believers' don't realize is that God can see through their masks, and see the unforgiven sin these people still carry. God will hold them accountable unless they remove the mask.

"Next"~ At one point in my life I was in marketing/sales of life insurance. As with all jobs, and even though I ended up NOT making this my lifetime career, the experience was valuable in several ways. One way that it was valuable was that I learned that I was not cut our to be in such a 'cut-throat' business. Another was that I learned that I could actually succeed in something I in which I had no natural interest, as I was rather good at it. But the most important thing I learned in the approximately 4 years I spent doing life/health insurance (including getting my license, and getting a section 6 and 66 investments license) was that the most important thing anyone in direct personal sales can learn is the word "Next". Most everyone at some point in their lives needs life insurance, just as everyone needs a car. And just as with car sales, insurance sales comes with a ubiquitous stigma that is attached to the person doing it. The success rate is very low for both of these endeavors, which necessitates a thick skin, and the ability to accept rejection on a massive scale. The more rejection, the more success. This is where the word "Next" come in. As soon as you recieve a rejection you must say to yourself - "Next", and search for another client. 'Truth' is also a commodity that everone needs, but not everyone is ready to confront head on when you make your 'approach'. Being rejected in the desemination of Truth is not a stigma, it is simply a fact of life. As a Bondservant of Jesus, it IS your job to present the truth of Salvation to everyone that  expresses an interest. It is NOT your job to try to force them to hear what you say, that is the job of the Holy Spirit. If they recoil when you preseht the truth your job is to let them go, trust the Holy Spirit will lead them to it, and say to yourself, Next!

Truth in the Age of Corona Virus~ All Truth is valid information, but all information is not true! And this has been proven time and again in the dissemination of information coming out of the mouths of those that are supposed to know the truth about Covid-19 and how to deal with the pandemic. Conflicting information is the order of the day, and it is very difficult for a layman to know what is true and what isn't, even though lives depend on this information. Various 'experts' have differing 'takes' on the What, Where, How and Why of dealing with things like face masks, (anti-) social distancing, mitigation, vaccines, respirators, treatments, quarantines, opening the economy, and lots of other information that we need to know to define our response, Where do we find truth in the age of the Corona Virus? No one to whom I have spoken is saying that Truth in this regard does not matter; NO ONE! As important as the truth of this situation is to define, this 'truth' is only applicable to our temporal and finite form in our time in the here and now. After all (to put it bluntly) we all want to live a happy, productive and LONG life here on earth, but if we live long enough we will all die one day. No one gets out of this earthly life alive.  If the Truth about the here and now is important,  then what about Eternal Truth? We most often don't think about the importance of this truth as often as we do the more worrisome truth of our daily lives. Yet eternity is a much longer time frame (should time even matter) than 'now', and deserves at least a passing consideration, yet we get caught up in daily life so thoroughly that it most often 'slips our minds'. God knows what we need to live both here, and there. "But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you." Matt. 6:28