Spirit of Truth/The Bible on Trial

Metamorphosis~  In perusing Facebook this morning I was accosted by a meme that was stunning in its implications: "The metamorphosis of Jesus from a humble servant of the abject poor to a symbol that stands for gun rights, prosperity theology, anti-science, limited government (that neglect the destitute), and fierce nationalism is truly the strangest tranformation in human history." There is so much wrong with this statement, beginning with the initial premis that Jesus came to be a servant of the abject poor. The initial statement that Jesus came to be a servant of the abject poor does not fit with His own words seen in John 18:37. Jesus never inserted Himself or His message into the government or it's function. Jesus never insisted that the Roman government take care of the poor and needy. Jesus DID say that His servants were to do that. Jesus never conflated the role of government with what He said or did, or insisted that governments should function as an arm of the Kingdom of God. The Kingdom of the Heavens is a kingdom of the Spirit (John 3) NOT a kingdom of this world. Not yet! And this is where those that consider themselves in the Kingdom of God today have a problem of identity that prevents them from seeing the truth.  Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." John 3:5. One person in responce to this meme said categorically declared that if Jesus was alive today on earth He would be a Democratic Socialist. But everything Jesus taught shows that this is not only not true but it borders on blaspheme. This is how far down the spiritual identity of the world has fallen that there are those that insist that if Jesus was here right now He would be just like them, instead of them becoming just like Him. Spirit os everything, the physical means nothing.

The Checklist for Truth~ Truth can be amorphous, sometimes indistinct and slippery. You might hear a political candidate say something and claiming it is true, but it just doesn't feel right. A friend posts something on social media that piques your curiosity, and you know this person would never purposely lie to you, but you just aren't sure of his source, so you check it and find that it cannot be verified. So how do you KNOW what is true, or not? There is a checklist for truth, a proceedure and process that allows you to know for certain that what you believe is the truth. Information-Knowledge-Wisdom-Truth!  Truth is Singular and Absoliute! Truth contains NO lies, falsehoods, obfuscations, or deceptions. God says this about the people that have truth in them, "And no lie was found in their mouth; they are blameless." (Rev.14:5). To find and define truth a person needs wisdom. Wisdom is the assessment of knowledge. Wisdom comes through the understanding and colating of the disparate elements of a topic and finding the underlaying connections. Wisdom is the gatekeeper of Truth! Knowledge comes through the learning of and sifting of copious amounts of data and deciding what is verifiable and what is unreliable.  Information is the data from which the basis of all knowledge is formed. GIGO-garbage IN, garbage OUT is the term that is used to describe the idea that poor quality input will always produce faulty output. If the source of the information that you use to develope your knowledge of a subject is faulty the knowledge itself will be useless. At every stage of the development and discovery of truth there must be basic elements that are wholly reliable and uncorrupted by lies. Only Jesus speaks these words. He IS Truth!

Life and Prosperity~ "I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live." Deut. 30:19. The distinction between the  political Left and the Right has never been more clear than it has become in the past few months. It truly seems that "It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World" (Comedy/Adventure movie-1963), when mayors and Governors have given their cities and states over to the wild mob, who are rioting and looting under the guise of 'peaceful protest'. And when the President of the United States say that he would be happy to send officers into these places to quell the situation he is rejected out of hand and called a racist by these same leaders who will not stop the protests on their own. The founding principles of the Republic of the USA are being erroded by people that do not believe that they should be held accountable for their actions in breaking the laws of the land in order to get their way. Since the beginning of this year over 5 million people in the United States have become NEW gun owners, because they are scared that these riots my come to their towns, and they want to be prepared.  "But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth;" John 4:23. This distinction between the Left and Right also is shown in end time prophecy as well, in that there are both Life Road and Death Road prophecies that will affect what happens at the end of time based upon what the people of the world choose. If the world follows the rioters and looters, we will head into the abyss of death and destructon where the prophecies of Revelation 13 and the 7 Trumpets and 7 Bowls of Wrath will play out. BUT IF we choose LIFE we will see a time on earth of prosperity and peace. That Choice is near, even at the door.

Things change~ One of the axioms of life is that 'nothing stays the same'. No one likes change, especially in the realm of ideas. Older people don't like change any more than do younger people, they just have had their noses rubbed in it more often and for a longer time, and have become used to the idea that 'nothing stays the same'. The young rail at change; the older people just thumb their nose at it and move on. But WHAT IF the change that you see coming is SO radical, so uncomfortable, so unusual, that the result would be both awful and beautiful at the same time. This change would turn your whole life upside down, by challenging how you view God, Salvation, the Bible, and End Time Prophecy so much so that you are terrified and excited at the same time. This is the type of change that we here at Spirit of Truth Ministry are proposing as a new reality.  What IF the prophecies of the end where we see Death and Destruction turn to Life and Prosperity; where a single choice that we as humanity will make will change Darkness to Light, spiritual and physical poverty into prosperity, where the ultimate outcome will not include the horror of Satan ruling this world in fact even for a short time, but where the majority of humanity choose the God of Creation over the God of Destruction, and see a completely new set of prophecies being fulfilled right before our eyes? Would you be interested in finding out if this could be true? If so, then listen today to our program The Revelation of Jesus with Rick Sterling. You will be amazed at what you hear, that has been hidden in the Bible in plain sight for hundreds of years, and will CHANGE EVERYTHING!

Left and Right~ There is a question that is ubiquitous in the collective consciousnes of people that are confused about why they see so much violence and mayhem assiciated with society today. That question goes right to the heart of why some people believe that they have no only the right to protest certain actions that have taken place that they feel are irresponsible (which they do, as long as it is peaceful), and also to change those protests into riots, as long as it is for their 'good' cause (which they don't). When viewed in the larger sense the people that riot are claiming they have the right to harm others, and even kill people that they disagree with, because in their minds they FEEL they have been violated emotionally, and the people that did this to them deserve to be punished, even though the violation took place hundreds of years ago. This issue can be summed up in a statement made by Rick Sterling years ago, that was made in relation to the issue that we must "Live by Faith" to be saved, and is seemingly not related to what is going on in the body politic today. Here it is: "Faith allows a person to BELIEVE as LIE as if it is the TRUTH, without ACCOUNTABILITY." This statement sounds simplistic, but it is profound in it's application, not just in our spiritual/religious lives (which was it's initial purpose), but also in every aspect of our daily lives, including politics.  The Left 'lives by faith', the Right 'lives by FACT'. And based upon the above quote it is simply true. Those that base their paradigms on the idea of emotional victimhood are claiming that everything that is wrong with their lives in the fault of someone else are on the Left.. Those claim responsiblility for their own actions, and don't blame others for their problems and are accountable for those actions are both  on and IN the Right.

Censorship~ Our country today is seeing something today that has never been seen before to this great an extent, and that is the open censorship of opposing ideas. This is happening in public discourse on social-media platforms such as Twitter, Youtube and Facebook, and even in the Main Stream News. People will express an opposing point of view to the established and validated version, and their posts, pod-casts, or videos will be pulled off of that platform. Some of the notable selections in this is Praeger U, Candice Owens, or anyone that tellls the truth when faced with blatant lies. Jesus said that this will happen to anyone that decides for the Truth.  "Blessed are you when people insult you and persecute you, and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of Me." Matt. 5:11. Jesus came to testify to the truth, ALL truth. (John 18: 36-37). Jesus also said that He would send the Holy Spirit to lead us into ALL truth. (John 14:26).  Whenever or where ever Truth is told the evil ones will seek to cause it to appear to be a lie. This is why KNOWING the truth and being able to recognise the lie because of it is so important. The  Truth cannot be censored, because while it is up to us to find and know the truth, it is up to God to see to it that it is made known in the world. Truth that God will deliver the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth to a truth starved world.

Acting~ Have you thought about what it would be like to be an actor? Now I know what we mostly see in public about famous actors is their fabulous life styles; the money, cars, houses, and 'hanging' with the A listers. This is the reward for being a successful actor, but it is NOT acting, except in the loosest sense. Having been a child actor (playing roles under age 18) I, as with most actors, have never experience this kind of reward. The reward for good acting is often being associated with a role you have played, where in the public eye you are not yourself, but the personality you created from the script. Actors PLAY a role, they are NOT that role. As a working actor/craftsman if you play a role long enough it often becomes difficult to differenciate between the Character and yourself in reality. It can become very easy, and often more satisfying, to transfer that character to real life, and live the lie! The Greek word for actor is the word Hypocrite, and a hypocrite is a liar. Actors also play to a script - a story written in excuisite detail, where every spoken word, action, look, makeup, costume, stage set, lighting, and movement (blocking) is defined in written form, in order to create the illusion of reality, the reality of the absurd. Today we humans are living in that absurd reality, but be think it is real, because it appears to be real. Humanity has been brainwashed into  a mind-controlled, mind-numbed robotic lifestyle that mimics realty, but is not. We are actors in a play not of our own creation. Jesus came to earth to "testify to the truth", that is in the process of bringing us out of this moribund drunken stupor of 'acting' as if we are alive, thatwill set us free from the shackles of automatically choosing Death, Destruction and Curses, and bring us into a world of Light, Life, Blessings and Prosperity. Listen to His words, and choose LIFE!

I read a short article this morning on Facebook that decried the lack of reseach of people that believe whatever is posted on Facebook. I agree wholeheartedly with this concept. Facebook is NOT a valid source for truth. That is not to say that there is no truth promoted on FB, but truth is not the primar reason that people post there. One of the respondents to this article was an associate pastor at the church where I used to attend. He is a brilliant man that has aquired a Ph.D. in religion from a very prestegious seminary, and is considered by his parishoners and friends to be a steady source for truth. He agreed that if you have not done research for yourself, and vetted each and every segment of the truth you are seeing, then you should not believe it to be true until you have done so. He makes a distinction between belief and fact, in that you can believe without facts to back up that believe, and you must view facts without belief until those facts are proven. I agree with him. Yet this is the same man (knowing him as I do) that believes fully that Paul was a called apostle of Jesus, and that since he appears in the Bible Paul MUST needs be trustworthy and true in what he says about whatever it is that he has written. This pastor uses Paul as a reliable source in his sermons and written material, in order to prove the points that this pastor wants to convey regarding salvation and eternal life. I was saddened to see that this double standard exists in his mind, and that it and cannot be acknowledged as a problem with regard to defining the truth of salvation, or even in his views as to how Christians must view their relationship to political issues.  We live in a time when even in researching and understanding truth can be plagued with the double standard of pre-existing paradigms, that give people a sense of smug satisfaction and self-assurance that they cannot be fooled, even though they are.

Defunding Truth~ There is a lot of talk today in the news about certain mayors and Governors wanting to 'defund' the poiice. They are doing this at the behest of another group of people that are angry that they cannot achieve a social goal of proving that slavery in one form or another still exists in the modern society of the USA, so they 'protest' and riot in order to advance their particular form of Marxism. Part of this brand of Marxism states that all police are racist by nature, otherwise they would not become police in the first place. This, even though there are lots of police that represent a variety of skin colors, and when injured they all bleed 'blue'. The real reason that this group (that will here remain nameless) wants to defund police is that it is easier to riot and loot, and take things that do not belong to you when the police are not around to stop you. The job of the police is to see to it that people uphold the LAW. So without the police these groups feel that there will also be no Law. And where there is "no Law there is no violation" of the Law. Where have we heard this before; I wonder: Rom 4:15  for the Law brings about wrath, but where there is no law, there also is no violation. Paul is an original protestor against LAW. He has brought violence against God into the picture of salvation by declaring that the Law no longer matters as long as you believe that it no longer matters. What we are seeing in 'civil' discourse today is an offshoot of this very idea that the Law is no longer needed in order to keep the wolves from the door. And yet the very people that declare this to be true have become the wolves. All Law Matters! Defunding the Law brings death!

Except as a Child~ "Truly I say to you, unless you are converted and become like children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven". Matt. 18:3. There are two, and only two states of being in the being of a Human Being. These two states have nothing to do with biology, i.e. the gender of that human being, or the biological processes that sustain life, whether male or female. It has nothing to do with the fact that females are said to process information differently than do males; the information still gets processed and used. Jesus understood the identity of this state of being, which is why He made the statement above.  The states of being a human are only two; you are either an adult or you are a child. This is dramatically demonstrated as played out in Portland and Seatle and seen in the difference between a protestor and a rioter. A protestor is someone that has taken a stand either for or against something, and PEACEFULLY gathers with other like minded people to express their views (this is guaranteed in the Constitution of the USA). These people are adults, in that they have a conviction that they wish to make know, and they do so in a way that does no harm to anyone else. They have self-control and accountability.  Then there is a rioter, that can also be either an adult of a child. If they are a child they will lash out physically as an emotional reaction to not getting their way in life, and throw a tantrum that harms others, for which hey don't believe they will be held accountable, and are surprised and get mad when they are arrested. The worst cast is when a rioter is an adult that knows what the are doing, having made the choice to destroy poperty and harm others, either for money or for sheer spite.  Jesus said we must first be converted to the truth, then become as a child to begin to learn it, and become an Adult.