Spirit of Truth/The Bible on Trial

Hot Times~ It is going to be HOT today where I live. We are experiencing a mini-heat wave in SoCal, that will see temperatures in the 103 to 107 deg. range today and tomorrow, and in the high 90's through Tuesday, then cooling slightly. Palm Springs Ca., a town in the desert about 40 minutes to the east of us, will be 116 deg. today, and in the 100's for all of next week. This weather report is brought to you because it is not just the environmental temperature that is on the rise; the temperature of our Culture, politics and religion is also increasing dramatically.  American cities are being burned and looted by people that want to make a statement about their view of the state of our culture here in America, and indeed around the world. Peaceful protests have been co-opted by radical groups with an underlaying agenda that wants to bring down the Constitution of the USA and replace it with the the anarchy of Marxism. Destroying both personal and public property is just the start for these people, who believe that chaos is needed to 'wake up' the world to whom it is that need to be in charge. This is truly a battle between Good and Evil, God and Satan.  An important decision point is on the horizon. Soon 'We The People" must choose whom we will serve. No one is exempt from this choice, because this choice is not just for the soul of our Nation and our world, it is for our very souls, and whether we want to have eternal life, or eternal death. Of course, the rioters don't see it this way. To them there is no choice, just as there is no choice for those in govenment and the private sector that have already chosen to FORCE this world to choose their way, or else. God does not work this way. THEY want us to be able to make our choice during a time of peace. which is why you can know who is behind the violence and mayhem. We are now in a fight for our very souls. Choose Peace!

Politics and Religion~ My parents taught me that when in a social situation there are two subjects that are forbidden, politics and religion. The reason is that there is no one that doesn't have a heart felt opinion about either one or the other, and you will almost always alienate someone no matter what you say about either. It used be be that you could escape this conundrum by sticking to sports or music, but even these two modes of entertainment are no longer innocuous as they once were. That is because there are now political and PC overtones in both of those subjects that make it nearly impossible to express an opinion about either without causing another person to take umbrage at your position. An example in sports of members of football and baseball teams taking a knee during the National Anthem, or pop musicians making either positive or negative public statements about how the President is running the country. It used to be that sports was an escape from the harsh reality of the world, now it is just another avenue toward that harshness. We see this also in the world of religion. Instead of the unity of which Jesus spoke in John 17, we see strident opinion about how a person should be 'saved', and if you don't agree you are going to hell. Religion is even more divisive than sports because of the parochial mind set that "my religion is better than your religion!" When Jesus was here on earth He had to deal with both politics and religion, because then as now both of these imposters are linked together by one overarching identity-they are both 'man-made'. All Truth, in all its forms, comes directly from God. Truth is singular and absolute, and is not subject to the whim of opinion. Fact = Truth, Emotion = opinion. Mankind did not create truth, we can only discover what already exists. Unity with God comes through the words of Jesus which is Truth.

Plum Galette~ Have you ever noticed that the first time you try to make a recipe it does not look like the picture of the recipe in the cook book? This happens to me every time I try something new, as was my experience this week when I made a Plum Galette for the first time. It is not really a complex recipe if you have already learned how to make a single crust pie. The most difficult thing for me was cutting the plums to look as uniform as the picture on the web site where I found the recipe. The plums I was given were wonderful, but not as firm as the ones in the picture, so the end product was more of a plum slurry than individually place pieces. The other thing was that the picture showed the Galette with a beautiful and manicured scalloped top that had a lovely 2 inch edge over the filling. Mine was sort of hodge-podge. Still goood flavor, but nothing to write home about. Today is my second attempt, and I have two Plum Galettes in the oven as I write, getting them ready for the radio program. These turned out much better than my first attempt. Experience and practice makes all the difference. Learning righteousness is just like making a recipe for the first time, not the best result. But as you learn more and keep practicing the Truth, learning righteousness gets easier, and you become more competent at doing it. Jesus told Nicodemus: Joh 3:21  "But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." In order to become Righteous IN FACT we must first understand that it is not only possible to accomplish, but necessary to salvations and eternal life. We must get into the kitchen and learn how to do the recipe. Only then will righteousness become real.

Impersonations~ Rick Little and Jonathan Winters were two of the best impersonators of my era. I remember Rich Little being on the Jonny Carson Show (late night comedy of the 1970's) and acting and sounding more like Jonny than Carson himself. It was amazing, accurate, and hilarious all at the same time. When I closed my eyes I really couldn't tell the difference. Impersonations can be funny,  but they can also denigrate the person being impersonated in a very mean spirited way, such as Alec Baldwin on SNL. To me (given my world view) his impersonation  of President Trump is not funny, because it reflects a reality that SNL believes to be true, but isn't. Being mean and nasty just for it's own sake is not funny, it is sad and disgraceful. Another phrase that describes this situation is, "If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and walks like a duck, it probably is a duck"! 'Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me. Rev.3:20. How do we KNOW for sure that the person that is standing at the door in this verse is actually Jesus? After all, Satan is able to masquerade as an angel of light, or even Jesus Himself. Paul was fooled on the road to Damascus because he apparently thought that the being that blinded him was in fact the same Jesus that was here on earth who died on the cross. How do we know the truth of this? The reason the sheep know the Shepherd is by His voice, and what He says. Paul never saw Jesus on the road to Damascus, he only heard the voice and assumed the being was who he said he was. We do the same thing when we listen to words that someone said came from Jesus, but we don't know for sure because we haven't learn His words. If we KNOW His words given to His eyewitness disciples we cannot be decieved by an imposter.

The Right Way~  There is a way which seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death. Prov. 14:12. God gives everyone a choice of two roads that they will follow, the Life Road, or the Death Road. No one is exempt from this choice. Ancient Israel was given this choice two times, and both times they chose the Death Road. The result of their first choice was that they went into captivity in Babylon. The second choice culminated in Jesus removing the trusteeship of the Covenant from them, permanently removing the opportunity for them to be the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt. 21:43). We are currently inside the window of opportunity for the USA, and indeed the world, to make a choice as to which prophetic outcome we will recieve. One outcome is the prophetic fulfillments that are seen in Revelation, especially Revelation 13, where Satan is allowed free reign to afflict the world with the horrors that lead to a one-world brutal and overbearing government, that commands complete fealty from the world that is seen in the Mark of the Beast. Yes, God wins, but the pain and suffering is incredible for those that resist, and stay true to God. The other outcome is seen in the revealing of the Seven Thunders in Rev. 10, where John was shown the meaning, but then told to NOT write that meaning down. The Thunders are NEW prophecies that reflect the LIFE Road where God reveals His truth during a time of Peace and Prosperity, instead of Death and Adversity.   "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, you and your descendants. Deut.30:19. Just as God told Israel to "Choose Life", so too will God give us the opportunity to choose a way that will reveal the Truth of God in a totally unlooked for way, a way that will not lead to death. Choose wisely

DYI Repair~ Well, it's fixed. If you read my note yesterday you know that I was in the process of fixing my dishwasher. Rather that paying for a professional repair person to come to the house and fix it I used the knowledge and skill developed over the years to learn how to fix it myself. So I went to the appliance parts house and asked for the thermal fuse I needed in order to affect the repair. I was told by the parts person that there had been a recall/repair notice on my machine years ago regarding this fuse, and I would not only need the fuse but also a new wiritng harness, which I bought. The written directions for making the repair were clear, but until I went to the parts house I didn't know it was necessary. It took under 15 minutes for me to install the new electrical harness and fuse, and when I applied power to the system (always shut off the power then working with electricity) the old control board lite up like a Christmas tree. It works perfectly. Now I am still going to replace the contol panel when I can get it, to make it like new, but until then I have a working dishwasher. Yay! Salvation is exactly the same. The method of how Salvation really works has been broken, and Christians have been told that they cannot repair their salvation by themselves. They have been told that salvation is way to complex, and that they need a professional savior to do the work for them. Yet Jesus came to earth with the instructions as to how they must make these repairs themselves, and this is called the Process of Sanctification, i.e. the Gospel of the Kingdom. They don't understand that Jesus cannot affect the repairs that will turn sin into righteousness by Himself, for those that simply believe. A person that wants eternal life must take the time to learn DYI Salvation through the words of the Master Teacher (Jesus), who gave these repair instruction to His own eyewitness disciples.

Dishwashing~ Our dishwasher stopped working last Sunday. It just quit. Now I am not one to call a repair man the instant an appliance stops working. My natural reaction is to want to figure out what went wrong and fix it myself.  There are two reasons for this; 1) I just love the challeng of the 'hunt' for the solution, and 2) the cost of an in home repair by a certified technician is prohibitive ($150 for the call, credited to the repair). This becomes problematic the more complex the appliance, and dishwashers are notoriously complex, second only to refridgerators. So the next Monday after work I dug into it and discovered that the fasteners for the touch pad control were broken. So even if the control panel was OK I was going to have to replace it. One down. Next, I got out my multi-tester  to do continuity checks on the latch switch and also check for input power, and I discovered that it's battery was dead. Oh joy! No worries, I would get one on Tuesday when I went to work. So I ordered a panel from the appliance parts store I use, and was told that it wound be in in 2 weeks. Great. I just LOVE doing dished by hand. Yesterday I replace the battery in the tester and started the continuity checks. The latch was OK. Power was OK. So what else could the problem be? Oops. I forgot to check the thermal fuse in the dishwasher. Sure enough, it was bad. No fuse, no power. So after our program today I will go get one at the parts store, and put the dishwasher back together with the old panel until the new one arrives. Yay! Nothing that is electric works without power. Spiritual truth cannot work without power. If the sourse for your spiritual power is disabled, if your spiritual thermal fuse is blown, then you will be left without the power you need to find truth. The multi-tester for truth is the words of Jesus, the power (battery) for truth is the Holy Spirit. Check your battery!

Protest~ There is only ONE country in the world that has the RIGHT innumerated (not granted) under it's Constitution to PEACEFULLY protest, and petition their government for Redress of Grievances, and that country is the U.S.A. Included in the First Amendment is this RIGHT, but that also includes that in order for a protest to be peaceful the protesters cannot bring weapons, otherwise it is not peacful. For the past weeks here in the 'good old US of A' we have seen protests that started out with peaceful intent, but soon turned in rioting, that includes use of weapons, looting, burning buildings, damaging property, and pulling down statues of historic figures. These protests are no longer peaceful.  Reaosn plays no part in riots, or in the starting of war. A long time ago there were begun in Heaven protests against the Ruler of the Universe, lead by a being created by that very Ruler who decided on his own that in order for God to be the 'God of Laws and Order' there should also be a 'god of dis-order without law' to balance out this rule of law, and give other created being the opportunity to choose by whom they would prefer to be ruled.  God allow this protest, because all of Their created being have the power of Choice. God tried to reason with this Dark Angel and the others that followed him, and explain that there did not have to be EVIL in the universe in order for God to demonstrate 'Good'. One-third of the Angels followed this Arch-angel, and there was Protest and WAR in the Heavens. Satan and his angels were cast off of the Heavens to this earth. Two-thirds of the Angels chose to follow their Creator.  Now we too are at a crossroad, where our choice is to follow the way of LIFE, peace and prosperity, or choose DEATH and destruction. If two-thirds of the people choose one way we will have LIFE, even though one-third chooses Death.

Progress~ America, and indeed the world, is having a crisis of perfection. We see this crisis manifested in riots and protests that have caused death, destruction, mayhem, and anarchy, because a small faction of 'citizens' have declared that since their countries are not perfect that we must 'burn it all down' and start over in order to achieve equality of result for everyone. What these people are really saying is that must adhere to their idea of perfecton of they will destroy society and remake it in their image. And on the other side of this argument, and to a lesser degree, we have all heard that even though perfection is an admirable goal "no one can ever be perfect" so we really should not even try to achieve it. It seems that seeking perfection in any endeavor is moot and counter productive because perfection in this world is unattainable. Is perfection in the physical world is really not possible? Is so, then how was America able to send astronauts to the moon and bring them back? Do your really want to be operated on by a surgeon that is just 'good enough'?  Perfection is an image of reality in the physical world, and it is not possible for humanity to every reach perfection, because entropy plays a big role in how everything turns out. Yet humaity does remarkable things, like going to the moon and back with engineering that is 'just good enough'. Even in the spiritual realm perfection seems impossible. The Faithful and Sensible Bondservant of Matt. 24:42 is named by Jesus as "good enough" to accomplish his assigned task of "feeding His fellow servants their food at the proper time."  Spiritual perfection must be the goal because Jesus said that we must be perfect in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Yet this perfection is a process through which we learn to become righteous in fact in keeping the Covenant.

Do Not Be Afraid~ In 1776 Thomas Paine gave a speech that encouraged the people of the Colonies to through off the shackles of Britain that started with the iconic phrase, "These are the times that try men's souls." It seems that this is still true today, although if he were alive today he would certainly have said 'the souls of men and women'. In Matthew 24:6 Jesus said, "You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end."  And this sentiment has been in this world since Satan took over management even before the incident in the Garden of Eden. Tdday we have worries such as Covid-19, and riots and social unrest that can be nerve-wracking to say the least, and have put the people of the world in a seemingly untenable position of having to choose sides in a conflict that has taken over the news cycle, and won't leave them in peace.  'Times like these' have been with us since the beginning, one way or the other. Everyone is experiencing undertainty and nervousness, which makes living a normal life less and less likely. Even Jesus said, "You will be hearing of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not frightened, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end." Matt. 24:6. But Jesus also said, "It is I; do not be afraid." John 6:20 We do not have to be afraid of the future knowing that Jesus has  brought comfort and safety to His people in the past. The world right now is in the process of making a decision that can put us on an alternate path that is seen in  the prophecies of Revelation 13. We can choose the 'Life Road' alternative to these 'Death road prophecies by choosing Life through Jesus Christ. God always give us a choice. Choose wisely!