Spirit of Truth/The Bible on Trial

Lies Become Truth?~ The President of the United States has been accused of Impeachable Offenses by his political opponents. These opponents have stated over and over that Donald J. Trump has used the office of the President to try to get the government of the Ukraine to investigate one of his (the President) political opponents. These opponents have repeated that he did this hundreds of times over the past months, hoping that repeating these lies will make them true in the minds of the American people. Right now in the Senate chambers the Republican Council to the President has clearly laid out that these accusations have no actual basis in fact, and that by revealed testimony of four major witnesses there was NO Quid Pro Quo spoken of in the call to the Ukrainian President of July 25. The Democrats have tried to turn lies into truth by repeating the lie countless times over the past months; this has failed. Just as with ALL lies, when truth is revealed the lie is exposed. It is for this reason that the leadership of the Jews during Jesus' ministry here on earth HATED what Jesus was teaching the people of Israel and His own disciples. The Jews had been teaching lies to the people about how salvation worked for centuries, and had gained massive amounts of wealth and power from those incidious words, so much so that when their purfidy was revealed by the Son of God they became insensed and angry, and tried to 'take him out', and stop him from removing them from power. Time and repetition does not make a lie into truth. The play book of liars is still the same today as yesterday. When faced with the Truth lies become untenible, and believing a lie as if it is the Truth only happens by faith, not by evidence. Jesus came to earth to bring the EVIDENCE of the words of the Father to this earth so that ALL mankind would be able to see the difference between Truth and Lies. John 17:17.

Confusion and Fatigue~ One of the principles of developing a physical skill is based on the idea that you first must realize that there is something you don't know how to do, and after you have been taught the HOW of doing it correctly you practice until you have done it enough to become tired. This is called the principle of Confusion and Fatigue.  For instance, in golf (still one of my favorite games even though I don't play) the first time you attempt to make a swing on the driving range NOTHING works. You swing, the ball skulls along the ground, or you miss it altogether, or you jam the club into the turf. You have no idea what you are doing. All you know is that you know is a deep sense of confusion, because you now KNOW that you don't know how to make a good swing. Then, with proper instruction by a compitent player/teacher you gradually begin the process of understanding the HOW of making a proper swing, but now you have gotten tired after just a few miniutes in the practice of the movement needed to accomplish the new physical process. This confusion and fatigue is also present when dealing with intellectual and emotional learning. We here at Spirit of Truth Ministry see this all the time when telling the truth about salvation to people that have learned a process that is counter to what is truth through the words of Jesus. At first, when you have been exposed to the process of sanctification as defined by Jesus to His own disciples there isa massive amount of confusion; most Christians have never heard any of this 'alternate' method from the pulpit at their church. so when they here it from us is sets up a radical cognitive dissonance, which is the very definition of confusion. Amd when they begin to practice this new process, they tire easily both emotionally and spiritually, and feel like they want to go back. Yet in learning the new reality the more they see truth. Rev. 3:10.

27th Anniversary~ Today is the 27th Anniversary of Spirit of Truth Ministry. We never thought that we would still be here after 10 years, but here we are still waiting for the King to appear.  Join us today as we rememger from where we came, and more importantly where we are going.

Get a Gtip~ When beginning to learn to play golf the most critical thing that a person must learn is to place your hands on the club in such a way as to be able to make a solid an productive swing. If your hands are not comfortably place on the grip with just the right pressure you can not hope to have the golf ball land in the fairway or on the green. Getting a good grip is so important it is the very first thing every golf instructor works on with their students in order to insure a secure foundation for the swing. We have all had friends (certainly not us) that have succumed to a sense of panic when they were faced with a stressful situation. At that critical moment when a decision MUST be made when faced with DIRE consequenses you might say to them, "Get a Grip!" This means that just as with golf that person needs to go back to the basics and reassess the situation without the debilitating emotion of fear of the result. When a psrson is faced with a 'new' truth for the first time, a truth that is diametrcally different from what they already 'know' to be true, their first reaction may be to lash out in fear against the person that revealed that truth to them. This is especially true when it comes to religious and spiritual identity, as in the case when they are first told about the problems with salvation model of the Apostle Paul. It is at this point that you must GENTLY tell them to 'Get a Grip' on the words of Jesus that He gave to His own eyewitness disciples. It is ONLY through those words that a person can realize that there is nothing actually to fear from learning the truth about salvation, because perfect truth casts out all fear.  Jesus brought the truth from the Father to this earth in LOVE, for it is the Love of the Father for His Kingdom that caused Him to send His only Son to testify to the truth (John18:36-37).  This is how we 'get a grip' on Truth!

Trusting Trust~ Trust is a difficult proposition. One one hand most of us want to truth something or someone. Yet, we hae all been bitten by trust that has been abused. This has set up a cognititive dissonance situation in our minds where when we are put into a situation that demands trust we often act by faith instead, and say we will try this 'one more time'. Confusing faith for trust has gotten all of us in trouble. Trust is something that is learned over time, it is not learn in the spur of the moment. Getting through those first tenuous years of marriage is difficult, because in every marriage there are times when you wonder if you can actually trust your partner. Getting beyone these moments is what makes a marriage work. Giving the other person the 'benefit of doubt' allows for the time it take to turn faith into that much more satisfying place that is whole hearted and unadulterated trust. It appears that this is why Jesus used the identity of the marriage covenant as a metaphor for His relationship with His Kingdom. God never waivers in His commitment, but His Kingdom still has a difficult time believing that God will accomplish what He said in developing a RIGHTEOUS Kingdom on the earth, and as a member of that Kingdom believing that it is actually possible for you to become righteous in fact, or indeed need to do that in the first place. Jesus said in John 3:19-21 that we must learn by doing Truth, and trust that in doing so we will gain the goal He sets before us. Trust is a two edged sword: no one likes to be in situations where one must 'trust' in the Lord in order to get through, because those are always tough situations. Yet without those very situations we would not be able to develop the trust that it takes to accept the blessings that the Lord has in store for us found in those situations. Hmm! Maybe that is where we get all of our battle scars?

Fire, Fire~ Australia is burning! It is now estimated that more than 1.5 million acres have been burned, several fire fighters have lost their lives, millions of animals have been killed or displaces, and hundreds of millions of dollars spent in trying to put out these blazes. It was originally thought that the cause of these fires that have set the continent ablaze was caused by 'global warming', but this conjecture by the media and proponents of this hoax have been proven wrong, because of the arrest of over 200 arsonists that have purposely set these fires. Motive has not yet been established.  Fire plays a pivotal role in end time prophecy. Rev. 8:7 speaks of a warning that a third of the earth, trees, and grass will be burned up. Later is seen burning hail, and a burning mountain cast into the sea. All this to let the people of the earth know that something well out of the ordinary is happening, and that they need to get ready for the judgment of the earth.  This is one type of fire. Another type is depicted in the motet that Thomas Morely composed in 1595 called "Fire, Fire", which speaks of the fire that burns in the heart of one lover for his beloved. The fire of the heart! There is another fire that also burns in the heart, and it can come from two different sources. This has been described as the "fire of the spirit", that makes people yearn for God. Many mistake being 'slain in the spirit' as being given my the One True God, but this spirit is actually the spirit of the evil one, who is masquerading as the Holy Spirit, and makes feelings become more important than finding truth. The True Holy Spirit reveals Herself through the Words of the ONE that sent Her to those that LOVE the truth, The Words of Jesus that He gave to His own disciples. These words turn the intellect/heart to the discovery of Truth that brings Eternal Life.

Under Weigh~ The New Year is now firmly "Under Weigh". This is a nautical term that means to WEIGH anchor an put a vessel in motion.  When I was a freshman in college I was very interested in a number of things other than the forced interest of 'hard' classwork, notably learning to pilot an airplane and sailing.  The school I attended actually (at the time, and no longer) had a Small Boat Handling and Piloting class, along with a sailing class. As a result of taking these classes I gained a Coast Guard Inland Waterways ticket, and learned to sail boats with single sail and sloop rigs. As part of the class we went to Newport Ca. four times in the semester to learn coastal sailing, and the boats were just tied up to the dock. We did, however, have to learn how to set an anchor in a near shore situation such that the boat would not be carried onto the shore and damaged, and also how to 'weigh' and stow the anchor so that we could put the boat under sail. It is literally impossible to put a boat (or ship) under sail without knowing how to 'un-set' the anchor from the sea bed. In fact, if you set the sail into the wind without weighing anchor you can actually capsize a boat that does not have a weighted keel. Bad news. If we start to seach for truth in this new year without having first removed the anchors of predetermined paradigms that weighs down our Intellect it will be impossible for us to find the truth we are searching for, and set our 'boat' of truth in motion.  The paradigm that is most difficult to pull up is the idea that we have NOT been fooled into believing lies as if they are the truth. This concept is so heavy that it is nearly impossible for us to 'weigh', and we must 'slip' the cable and let the anchor go.  Resolve that in this new year you will let go of those things that prevent knowing truth!

Renewal and Reunion! This morning I posted a picture on my FB account showing me with my wife Becky, our daughter Emily, our big GSD Charlie, our small Min-Pin mix and Emily's dog Luna out on a walk together. Em's husband (fiance at the time) Arin took the picture. Sadly, Charlie is no longer with us, as we had to put him down about 5 weeks ago due to a sudden and in-operable illness. Taking these walk with the FAM always brings me a sense of renewal; I feel so much better after the walk than I do before, and especially when I don't actually feel like taking a walk in the first place. And as sad as it was to loose Charlie, we still go out with the family (dogs and all) from time to time, and I still receive as a reward that sense of renewal that makes me want to be with this group even when I am not feeling 'chipper' at the start. This reminds me that even though we live in a world where there will be bittersweet partings from time to time (both human and pets) the love generated by these experiences, as simple as they are, renew my spirit to such an extent that I desire that these 'good times' go on forever. Each time our family has the opportunity to get together this way (or any other way for that matter) the inevitable partings at the end make the prospect of a future reunion that more desirable, and inevitable. What would really make these gentle meetings with loved ones truly awful would be if there was no hope of ever being with them again in any future. So knowing that God has provided a way for our families and friends of living together forever permanently in that Gentle Future gives me the desire to learn the way to the Kingdom of God, and show them that way once I have found it. If you don't know the way, you can't show the way. We can only learn that truth of salvation through the words of Jesus that He gave to His own eyewitness disciples.

Pants Before Shoes~ There are certain things that when put on order just seem to make sense; letter A before B, number 1 before 2, takeoff before landing, pants before shoes. If we try these things in any other order they don't work, or if they do not nearly as well. Yesterday I wrote that before a beginning there must first come and ending, and in this case the reverse seems more applicable to our spiritual lives that a beginning before and end. When we consider the existance of God, the Creator of the Universe, who is a being that has no beginning and no end, we can see that ORDER is critical to Their very existance, and hence ours.  The order of creation is delineated in Genesis Chapter 1 and 2. We see LIGHT created after dark, FORM after void, animals after the plants that sustain them, and TIME CLOCKS after chaos. The existance of God is seen in the order in which everything is processed and made. And this is also true for the nature of our own individual and unique spirits-our souls. Humans beings as a species were all created on the 6th Day of Creation. Each had a unique 'soul' that began existance the moment consiousness awareness made its presence felt. Seeing this amazing creative power of God Satan decided that he wanted a piece of that action, and "deceived the nations" (Isa. 14:12) into believeing that he was creator. This reversed the order of things to such and extent that everything we now hold to be true is backward to what is actually true. Jesus came to earth with the words of the Father to reestablish the order of ORDER. When our minds connect with THIS concept we accomplish what Jesus said in John 17, UNITY with the Father, through the Son, by the Holy Spirit, through the WORD that will bring Truth and order to our spirits/souls, such that we can enter the Kingdom of God as full members of Their family.

Endings and Beginnings~ So many things to remember from this Christmas season. Our daughter and her husband went to North Carolina to visit his parents for Christmas, and before they left they invited my wife and me, and my son and his wife to dinner the night before I took them to the airport. We had gift giving after dinner, and the final present was a small package given to my wife by my daughter. Becky opened it, and took out a small 'onezy' that looked like it belonged to an elf. Becky held it up and looked a Em, and then realization came to all of us-Em and Arin are going to have a baby. Sometime in August my wife and I will be 'Gramma' and 'Grampa'!  Three weeks ago my son defended his dissertaion and was granted a Ph.D. in Music Composition from UCLA! The amount of work that this takes is astronomical, but he persisted and finally won through after a difficult three year writing process. I can now say, "My Son the Doctor"! In October, he and his fiance were married in the church where he works as the church organist. Very special times indeed! Most of us move (in our minds) from the front to the back, from a beginning to an end. All of the good things that I experienced this Christmas season started when something ended. Before there can be a new beginning something must come to an end. This is especially true in our spiritual lives. Lies must be brought to an end before we can hope to find Truth. Lies and Truth cannot exist in the same mind. We must all decide what must be brought to an endin order find truth, things such as believing that Jesus came to save sinners IN their sin; that just because someone says they are sent from God does not mean that they are; that the 'apostle' Paul was who he said he was. This New Year resolve to make room for the Truth From Above, brought byJesus, who Is the Way, the Truth, and the Life!