Spirit of Truth/The Bible on Trial

POD~ Have you ever paid a bill? If you are an adult, and actually live (mostly) in reality then you have certainly paid a bill. In the past bills came in the mail. You would open the bill from you utility, credit card, mortgage, or gasoline company and at the top of the bill is a notice that says 'Due By Date'. If you don't pay the bill by that date your are in 'arrears', and your bill is subject to a penalty. In the case of a mortgage or utility if you don't pay after a specific amount of time (30, 60, 90 days) then you become subject to disconnect or foreclosure. That 'due by' notice is also known by the term Pay On Demand. This means that you have used goods or services ahead of the payment for same, and the entity that supplied the goods or services now, as in immediately, wants their money. When you go to a 'brick and mortar' store this POD happens when you go to the cashier and enter a transaction in which you present what you have chosen from their stock and present a 'bill' (currency) in exchange for that item. When the transaction is completed to the satisfaction of both parties you can take the item with you out the door. If the transaction is not completed, as with a declined credit card, you must leave the item on the counter and go your way. If you decide to take the item anyway (as happens on a regular basis where I work) then you become a thief, and are subject to legal action. Salvation works the same way. You have been sent a Pay On Demand notice by the God of Creation that says that you must pay for the sin of breaking of the Laws of God, and that the only acceptable payment is your eternal death. To live, you can have this penatly paid by the King of the Kingdom of Heaven IF you become a member of that Kingdom by "keeping the commandments of God, and holding to the words of Jesus" (Rev. 12:17).

Headache~ All of us get them, from time to time. You know what I am talking about-THAT headache; the one that makes your head feel like it is going to explode. All sorts of things can cause THAT headache; food, a bad conversation, a blow to the head, even low blood sugar. There is one thing, though, that can change the dynamic of a headache from the occasional 'two Excedrin' kind, to the 'I better take some Percocet or I'm going to die' kind. These kinds of headaches most often as caused by a chronic situation overwhich you have no control, and to which there is no end in sight. These situations are not always caused by physical issues, for the most part; because when you are ill there is almost always an end in sight, one way or another. (Except maybe for migranes.) When I was under treatment for malignant melanoma and taking high dose Interferon-A for a year, I had regular and debilitating headaches, along with a fever on 102 for that entire year. Yet I knew it would end when I was either cured, or not. Being in a situation where you can see no reasonable end can cause tension and stress that pills just can't cure. This kind of pain can lead to depression that is difficult ot overcome. There is a type of stress endemic to the study and understanding of truth. When you are living in lies but don't know it, you can easily allow yourself to believe those lies as if they are the truth. You don't know any better, so 'no harm, no foul'! But when you are exposed to the truth and you don't accept it, you then KNOW you are living a lie, and this sets up a cognitive dissonance that can be as debilitating as the worse headache known to mankind. There is only one cure for this kind of headache, and that is to apply self-honesty, and accept that you have been fooled. You finally hold yourself accountable for believing lies. The relief from doing this is AMAZING. Try it, you will love it!

Fire Insurance~ We had a scare yesterday, where I live in Southern California. It was been quite windy yesterday (more wind for today, also). A trash truck was collecting across fhr freeway from our little town, near a mobile home park and a bruchy area that extends for miles to the East and South. The operator of the truck noticed that the fire alarm for his truck whet off, and he decided to dump the load of trash in the middle of a street, to avoid losing the truck. Unfortunately, there was dry brush nearby that he apparently did not notice. The brush quickly caught fire and rushed away with the wind. Several mobile homes were damged and destroyed, but Cal Fire aircraft, fire teams and local fire department hit the fire hard, and stopped it in short order. This cannot be said for the Saddleback fire in Northern LA County. It is raging, with no containment in sight. Many homes have been destroyed, with more to come. Being prepared for a fire means having foresight to understand the damage that can be done by a wildfire, and take precautions. We do this for out homes and businesses, but not ao muxh in our thinking about our eternal existence. Unfortunately, many Christians believe that all they have to do to prepare for eternity is to go to church, pay their tithes and offerings, and believe what the preacher says from the pulpit, and your have bought your fire insurance for eternity. They believe that this is the same as paying your insurance company to cover your home against loss; pay the bill and all will be well. There is a universal belief in the Christian church that as long as you 'believe in Jesus Christ in any capacity, you will be saved'. They believe that what Paul says about salvation is the truth, and by the time they find out that this is not true it will be too late. True 'fire insurance' come through the words of Jesus Christ alone.

Oh, My Heart~ My wife and I just came home from the Rehearsal for my son's wedding. After the rehearsal we took the wedding party to the Rehearsal Dinner at a wonderful Thai restaurant. My son's tomorrow wife, Erica, is 1/2 Thai (her mother is full Thai, and her father was Irish Catholic) and they specifically requested to go to this restaurant; we were delighted to oblige. Seeing how Zach and Erica relate to one another, and how much their friends and family love to be with them, does my heart good. Everyone that is coming to their wedding has recieved an invitation, and everyone participating in the ceremony has recieved instructions as to what to wear.  Matthew 22 begins with the parable prophecy of a King that gave a wedding feast to His son. Each attendee recieved an invitation that told the person what to wear in order to be accepted into the marriage feast. However, there was a person who recieved an invitation, but did not wear the prescribed wedding garment. The King found this person to be unacceptable to be there, and had him thrown out, and was not allowed into the marriage feast of the Son of the King, How we are dressed says a lot about who we are, and whether we will be accepted among those that enter the Kingdom of God, and attend the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Without the pure, clean, robe of righteousness you will not be admitted. You must have this robe of righteousness already on when you enter the Kingdom. The King does not give you this robe as a free gift at the door to the feast, and then tells you to come on in. Also, you cannot 'come as you are' and expect entry, you must wear what the King demands. "Many shall purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined; but the wicked shall do wickedly; and none of the wicked shall understand; but they that are wise shall understand." Dan 12:10.

Wedding day~ Tomorrow afternoon my son and his bride will be married. It is an auspicious day, and one that we will enjoy to the full, and remember for eternity. The metaphor of the 'marriage' is all through the Bible, and especially in the parable/prophecies of Jesus in Matthew, John, and Revelation. The description therein touch my heart because as a father that has already prepared my daughter for her marriage to her wonderful husband, it is my great pleasure to have prepared my son for his marriage to the love of his life, and to be able to see the wedding come to pass. God is in the process right now of preparing His attendents so that they can prepare the attendents of the Bride, so the Bride can be fully prepared in her pure white linen wedding dress to meet her bride. This is going to be a moment that none of us that witness this event will ever forget, throughout eternity. To participate in thest things we must be fully prepared in righteousness to fultill the roles that Jesus has established for us from the foundation of the world. Don't miss it-learn the TRUTH!

The Best Laid Plans~ Sometimes no matter how hard you work, how well you plan, or how much is your desire to serve your friends, family, and the Kingdom of the Heavens, the situation dictates the result, and you end up not being able to complete the task. This is what happened to us yesterday, when just before the program The Bible on Trial was about to start Blog Talk Radio informed us that our ability to electronically get the "Show on the Road" was not going to happen. Both our access to Skype and to the Direct Connect feature on our studio page were not working, and we would not be able to go 'on air'. BTR assured us that their engineers were working to fix the presenting issues, but that would take some time, and we (STM) were out of time. Well, it looks like Blog Talk Radio has resolved the issues and as a result of a short test show, it looks like we will be 'on air' at our usual 10 AM Pacific time slot. Halleluia! This is all well and good, but the net result is that for the first time in a long time we were no able to present our program The Bible on Trial. We wanted too, to were not able too.  Sometimes no matter how much is our desire, how much we try, or how much we pray circumstance conspires to not allow us our fondes dreams to come true. When this happens we are told by our close associates that this is "just the way things are", so "suck it up buttercup" and move on. What we are experiencing in all of this is the 'D' word, Disappointment. And while no one said life would be easy, if our desire is for the love of God, then we only need do two things to have eternal life: "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. Those two things can turn disappointment into Joy!

TEST

Clean Up~ Life can be messy, really messy! This is especially true when you have either kids or dogs, or both. Both of my kids are well established adults, so I am no longer responsible for cleaning us their messes. This is not true, however, for my animals. Yesterday, my big GSD (German Shepher Dog) Charlie came down with an upset stomach. I was abruptly made aware of this after our radio program yesterday when I was on my way in the car taking Charlie to the groomers for a much needed bath. Thankfully I was not far from home. I first noticed the smell, then I was rudely surprised when Charlie jumped from the back seat to the front seat. Not to put too fine a point on it, but when I glanced in the back I could see why he wanted to get away from there. I turned right around and headed for home, and at the same time used Siri to call the groomer and cancel the appointment. Poor Charlie! Poor me, because the clean up took about 2 hours, and a trip to the self serve car wash where there is an upholsery brush and a wet/dry vacuum. That would have been enough for one day, except later that night Charlie had another accident, this time in the house, which required a water bucket and lots of paper towels to remidy. Poor Charlie! Poor me, because while my wife was reluctant, she managed to be able to hand me the paper towels as I cleaned up the mess. Charlie sayed outside last night. Charlie couldn't help getting sick, and since he is my responsibility I was required to clean up. This is also true for the spiritual messes that we make every day. As adults that are responsible for our actions we are required by Gods Law to clean up our own messes. God puts no demand on us to clean up after anyone else, just ourselves.   Many shall purify themselves, and make themselves white, and be refined; and none of the wicked shall understand; but they that are wise shall understand. Dan. 12:10.

Law Under Attack~ Today in America, and indeed in the rest of the world, LAW is under attack. We see it daily in the idea that Identity Politics overshadows individual rights, We see it in the number of murders in some States and big cities that have chosen to institute policies that promote homelessness, illegal immigration, and gun violence, to such and extent that the laws that are already in place that should have prevented these issue are no longer enforced, ignored, or done away with in total People don't feel save in their living environments, because they are afraid of that very environment. It is not that there are not enough laws that would prevent these issues from becoming the rampant problems that seemingly endemic in our society, it is that these LAWS are not being utilized to accomplish their designed purpose. ALL laws are based in part or in total on Common Law. This is particularly true for the Constitution and Bill of Rights of the USA. This week marked the 232rd anniversary of the adoption of that compendium of LAW in 1791. It is under attack today as never before, and our society is the worse for it.  Our good friend Rich Humpal, J.D., just a week before he died April 5, 2013, made the excited declaration in our show prep time before The Bible on Trial that day that he KNEW why it was the Jesus came to earth. This sounds a little strange to a Christian, who has been taught that Jesus came to die for our sins, What Rich said was profound. He had been thinking where Jesus' statement that He came to earth to "testify to the truth" (John 18:36), and also that HIS Kingdom would "Keep the Commandments, and hold to the testimony of Jesus" (Rev. 12:17).  Rich said that TRUTH was to return the Kingdom of Heaven to the COMMON LAW, and it was defined in the 10 Commandments.  Holding to the Common Law of God is the only hope for mankind.

That's not Fair~ The most common phrase in any household in which there are more than one child is, "That's not fair"! At least it was in our house when I was growing up. Any percieved slight, or observed inequity in anything nearly always elicited this ubiquitous comment. Even my youngest sister, Debbie, when she was still to young to string words into complete sentences would say, "Momma Dennis, momma Dennis" (or add name of another sibling), when she didn't get her way. She might even swat at you with her little cowgirl hat, if the situation was not corrected with sufficient allacrity. Assuring fairness is a full time job for children that have not yet learn the most important moral life lesson; that life is not fair. This seems to have carried over into the body politic throughout the world, not just in the USA, through the concept of Identity Politics. It manifests itself primarily in those that believe that government should be in charge of making life 'fair' for everyone, and especially for the group that feels that they are the most oppressed. Sometomes (as with Debbie) this 'feeling of unfairness' manifests in physical violents and hard invective, as happens more and more often when a conservative speaker tries to give a speech on a college campus. These students, and other groups that feel slighted in the least way, are still children, who unlike my sister, have not yet outgrown the idea that what they want is the only thing that counts in this world. In the parable of the wedding feast in Matt. 22, Jesus  spoke of the guest that came to the wedding without already having the proper wedding clothes, and is at the end said, "throw him into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." This teeth gnashing is frustration at the 'unfairness' of his sentence. The truth is always fair!