Spirit of Truth/The Bible on Trial

Be Well, Stay Safe~ There is a greeting for our current Covid-19 world situation that reflects the mind set of the population, it is "Stay Safe"! I hear it at the hardware store where I work part time, i hear it from the cashier at Stater's Market as I leave with my groceries, or when I am at George's German Market buying some great German coffee, or a cabinosi. It has become a ubiquitous farewell that says that we care about each other, and want the other person to 'live through it'! I have even gone so far as to add the phrase "Be Well" in front of "Be Safe", which accounts for my concern for their mental and emotional well being, as well as their physical being. But I have been thinking about the ramifications of what "Be Well, Be Safe" actually implies, and I have decided to just say "Be Well" and no longer say "Be Safe". That is because the expression of "Be Safe" means that safety of our physical being takes precedence over everything else in our lives, including our hard won freedoms that are innumerated in the Constitution and Bill of Rights of the USA.  It is becoming more clear by the day that the people of the United States (and of the world) are tired of their rights being abrogated simply to satisfy some 'guidelines' that may or may not be working. Safety comes at a deep cost, and that cost is often more expensive than it is worth. Salvation also comes with a deep cost. Christians believe that 'cost' has already been paid by Jesus on the cross for their personal sins. Christians feel 'safe' in this knowledge, but that safety is an illusion. Gaining safety through 'salvation by grace' comes the loss of the freedom of Salvation that Jesus taught His own disciples. To gain salvation you must learn and practice obedience to the Covenant of the Kingdom.

Inconvenience~ The most annoying issue involving COVID-19 and my personal perspective is the inconvenience generated by all of the protocols that have been issued by the various levels of civil governments, and the petit-demagoguery of certain Governors and Mayors that are excersizing an inordinate over reach of power by taking political advantage of the situation. Our rights as guaranteed by the Constitution and Bill of Rights have been supplanted by the fear of an illness that has been portrayed in the media as 'evil', and if we don't defeat it it will kill us all. This, even though when viewed from a purely statisical and medical viewpoint is no worse, or even less deadly for the vast majority of the population than the yearly flu. No matter, we are now in a vast pandemic the likes of which have not been seen since the Dark Ages (according to the MSM), and has shut down the economies of the world, putting millions of people out of work, and destroying countless lives and fortunes.  And yes, I do take this personally. I resent the intrusion into my private life by a system that allows this to happen, simply because those 'in the know' don't want to allow the truth of how all of this works to be broadcast to the masses. If they did allow the truth to come out panic would subside, and people would be able to get on with their lives, unabated by fear of the unknown. In the same way our rights under the Covenant/Constitution of the Kingdom of Heaven have been supplanted by the lies of the Prince of this World, causing Christians to panic when they are told that they must DO something as individuals in order to guarantee their salvation under that Covenant. This is way too inconvenient for them to believe, preferring the idea of Grace to the idea of accountability for their actions. Truth IS inconvenient, and is not popular.

Paranoid~ "Just because people THINK you are paranoid does NOT mean that someone is NOT out to get you." This statement is a 'truism'. And in today's Covid-19 climate this statement applies to many people, more often than not. What is true and what is not is lost in the clutter of conflicting 'facts' about the WHAT, WHERE, WHY AND HOW of the pandemic. People are posting all sorts of weirdness on Facebook about how much of what the governments of the world are saying is actually true, and how we should react to to, adjust to, and deal with the virus in our daily lives. Is all of this real, or is it a HOAX? And WHY and for what purpose would people in power deliberately give out false information to people that just want to live and be well? Many people can't believe that anyone, or any country, would be so callous and heartless as to perpetrate a wide spread virus on the world in order to take down an entire economy and infrastructure as we have in the modern world in such a way as to make fear the order of the day. The idea of a Grand Hoax is that the identity of it is so implausable as to be absurd, but the underlying facts ARE true.  And if you broach the idea of this grand hoax in public YOU are deemed to be paranoid, and are then written off as a nutcase. This is true in the world of religion as well. Who would possibly believe that one of the worlds great religions, Christianity, was founded on a Grand Hoax by the respected 'apostle' Paul, and was set up in such a subtle way by Satan as to mute and disrupt the flow of information about how salvation really functions, that Jesus brought to earth from His Father, making that information seem harsh and heartless, and something a loving God would never do? Pointing out this hoax makes a person a paranoid fool in the eyes of the sincere believer.

Lizards~ About a year ago my wife and I were adopted by a neighbor cat named Sparky. We already had three cats and two dogs, and frankly didn't need another feline mouth to feed. But this was immaterial to this absolutely cute and adorable cat. A modification of Shakespeare's immortal words in the play Julius Caesar, "She came, She saw, She conquered." So now she is a member in good standing (excluding our black and white cat Boo) of our family, and has even been accepted by Maggie our Min-Pin. There were, however a few things we did not know about Sparky until she took up permanent residence in our household, the most annoying of which (according to my lovely and gracious wife) is that she loves to hunt for lizards in our yard, and then bring them in through the cat door that allows entry into Becky's bathroom, and hence into the house. So far they have nearly always been alive when this happens, and this REALLY upsets Becky, especially if I am at work and not able to capture the creature and deposit it back outside. We can't be mad at Sparky, because she is only doing what 'comes naturally'. Cats are hunters by nature and are programmed by that nature to share their 'kills' with their 'family'. This is always inconvenient when it involves either dead or (especially) live prey. In a similar way to cats humans are also programmed by their natures and time-modified genetics toward sinning. Yet unlike animals we humans have the ability to change our natures and the genetic tendencies of our intellects to be able to "practice truth in order to come to the Light" (John 3:19-21) so that we may have eternal life. To DO this we MUST know what is the truth. It is crucial to have a standard of Truth that is reliable and Singular and Absolute. This Truth is found in the Words of Jesus that He gave to His disciples.

Freedom or Safety~ "Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety". - Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) So Jesus was saying to those Jews who had believed Him, "If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free." (John 8:31-32) The message is simple, yet profound in both civil and spiritual life: becoming and staying free always comes at a cost. The world is seeing this play out right before our eyes every day. More and more freedom is being taken away from the people of America and the world because our governments are saying that by doing this we will be more safe from the COVID-19 pandemic. Nearly every aspect of our lives are being controlled by 'executive orders', that have no strength of actual law behind them, and in fact abrogate existing laws, and even our (USA) Constitution. We are told that this is "for our own good". In the USA 26 million people have been put out of work because keeping the community 'safe' from this virus is more important than keeping out economy up and running. And herein lays the 'law of unintended consequenses'; that in order to keep safe from one thing we are told we must give up another. And now these out-of-workers must begin to rely on the government for their livelyhoods. Freedom is gone and replaced by safety. Jesus said that if we wish to know truth we must first become His disciples. But in doing this we will most certainly put ourselves in great physical and spiritual jeopardy. Satan HATES truth, and when we decide FOR truth Satan will come down on us 'like a ton of bricks', and try to prevent us from finding it. Satan knows that if we find the truth that Jesus brought from the Father then he will die forever. Truth is not safe, but it is LIFE!

Join Spirit of Truth Ministry today at 10AM PT for our flagship program The Bible On Trial. Rick, Dennis, Don and Larry will be continuing to discuss issues involving a new concept of the prophecy of the end of time, and also how the 'apostle' Paul has changed the Gospel of the Kingdom as taught by Jesus to His own eyewitness disicples, into his private 'gospel of God'. This program tests what is said by Paul and others in the New Testament with the very words of God in the Old Testament, and the words of Jesus in the New Testament, to see whether there are conflicts. This is a fascinating study, and you will be glad you joined the discussion.

Thy Will Be Done~ Years ago I had a massive heart attack. I was 58 years old, and the day before my heart attack I was at the gym on the Stair Master going like gang-busters. I did not know that at any moment I could have had a heart attack right then and died on the spot. One of the most poigniant memories i have of that day was that whan I was laying on my lawn with an elephant sitting on my chest, with my head on my daughter's lap, waiting for the ambulance to arrive, and listening to her voice telling me to not close my eyes, while she was on the cel-phone with the 911 dispatcher. It was a LONG 10 minute wait for fire/rescue to show up. In the midst of the pain, and all that was going on around me I remember saying only one very short prayer; Father, thy will be done! That was it. At that moment I was too busy listening and consentrating on the voice of my daughter, then listening to the voices of the emergency personel as they prepared my for transport, to go into a lengthy discourse with God as to why He should save my life. I didn't even think about trying to 'reason' with God as to my need to stay alive in order to see my daughter be graduated from high school, or my son from University. I didn't go into why my wife needed me to mow the lawn and cook dinner, or how much my friends would miss me. Nope! I was busy trying not to die, and all I had time for was one short, heartfelt prayer. And that was enough. As we have all now been made aware with this COVID-19 issue life can turn from being 'normal' into something that we have never had to deal with before. When we are not in our comfort zones, and in a world we don't recognize and don't want anything to do with. we need to already prepared in the truth, because then all we will have to fall back on is the knowledge, understanding and wisdon where we can  just say, "Thy will be done".

Re-opening~ The world has been closed down by COVID-19. The economic and social disaster generatied by this virus is incalculable. Everything has changed, and nothing will be the same. We will be living under a new set of rules that will affect every aspect of our lives, as the governments of the world begin the process of reopening their economies. As a result of these economic and social changes there are many people that are looking to lay the blame on China for the death and economic destruction caused by this virus, that even if not released on purpose as a bio-weapon was the epicenter of the start of the virus going out into the world, and that China should be held responsible and be made to pay reparations. How this would work I have no clue. I do know that the truth of this will eventually be made plain, just as I know that the truth of who is ultimately responsible for sin entering the world will also be made clear. Truth Will Out! I also know that this pandemic has caused many of my friends and co-workers to begin to think seriously about their spiritual lives, seeing how fragile life can be. I have also seen that those people that believe that they have a strong understanding of the truth of how salvation works are more at peace that those that don't. Even if they are wrong about salvation, they don't know they are wrong, and are therefore less likely to worry. Reopening the country/countries is necessary in order to put people back to work, and renew economic growth. But reopening the intellect to see and understand what IS truth, and what is not the truth about how salvation works is even more important. While there are temporary economic consequenses for one, there are massive eternal consequences for the other. Right now we are being given a unique opportunity to share the Truth about God with our world. Let's not waste it!

Essential Services~ The COVID-19 'Pandemic' has shut down most of the business in the world (except for China-don't get me started). In the USA the President and Congress have passed a 'rescue' package for the country that will hopefully tide over individuals and businesses long enough such that we can get past this problem and get back to a semblence of normal (whatever that will look like).  In the midst of this situation there are certain buisnesses that have been deemed 'essential', and are staying open in order to keep society operating; groceries, gas stations, pharmacies and the like. I work at a local hardware store (my retirement job) that is 'essential', because we supply nearly everything that is needed to keep a household running. And we are subject to all of the new laws that require face masks, gloves, hand washing and sanitizing, and cleaning of surfaces that will keep both the employees and customers safe when the shop at our store. Not only is the store 'essential', but so are the laws that we must obey in order to stay open.  The Kingdom of the Heavens is essential to salvation; you must be INSIDE this Kingdom in order to be saved into eternal life. In order to gain entry into this Kingdom (the sheepfold) you must come in through the door, which is obedience to the Covenant or Laws of that Kingdom, the 10 Commandments (Deut.4:13). If you try to gain entry by coming over the wall, a would a thief, you are trying to get in without that obedience, and you will be through out (Matt. 22).  Obedience to the Covenant is the 'essential service' that you must provide to the Kingdom of the Heavens and its King in order for you to be where you need to be to be saved.  "If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father's commandments and abide in His love". John 15:10.

Cabin Fever~ For many of us during this time of COVID-19 staying at home and away from people can be a very difficult proposition. We are "stuck" with our family members and unable to move about our lives unencumbered by 'social' distancing (it is actually anti-social, if you aske me). The stress and strain can be mind boggeling, and can lead to uncharacteristic interactons that when viewed later are regretable. This is the result of being cloistered, that is "being kept away from the outside world". Often in our modern world this can lead to the emotional reaction listed above, which can be defined as 'Cabin Fever'! A 'Cloister' is actually defined as a monastary or nunnery, and for the religious separatist this is a  good thing. A nun or a Friar spends their life in solitary isolation, praying, meditating and for the most part working silence. For most of us this would be an intollerable life, but for some people that are heavily introverted this can be heaven. Humans are not designed by God to be solitary. At the very least we are designed to live in partnership with our spouse, and develop relationships inside and outside of marriage that allow us to gain a picture of God that is defined by unity, as seen in John 17, the Pastoral Prayer of Jesus. It is very difficult to develope unity of spirit when you have no physical contact or close interaction with those you love. Take heart in the fact that our current solitary life will eventually give way to a more dynamic interaction, both human and heavenly. We can now see how important having other people in our lives is, and we will never again take our family, friends and even strangers for granted.  As we cherish these current moments of solitude, as did Jesus when He went off by Himself to pray, let us also cherish the unity that the Holy Spirit brings in the fellowship of the discovery of Truth.