Spirit of Truth/The Bible on Trial

Today is what the mercantile world has termed 'Black Friday'. This is a day where people of a certain 'religion' flock to their places of worship to honor thier 'god', by sacrificing printed paper to the priests of these places of worship, for the purpose of finding happiness of a certain type. This is a convoluted way of saying the people with more money than sense crowd into stores that have through clever marketing convinced people that they will get a better deal on certain 'lost leader' items by shopping today than they would normally get by just going in on any other day. This works like magic.  There are those of us, however, that see through this 'ploy' (in the immortal words of Inspector Clouseau), and stay far away from the crowds and the madness this situation carries with it. We prefer the quiet solitude of a good book, or walking the dog, and the peace that comes when we realize that life is much more than getting a 'good' deal. Given this perspective, we here at Spirit of Truth Ministry will be taking today off to be with our families, and extend the blessings of Thanksgiving another day. We hope you will enjoy the 'Best Of' program from a Thanksgiving program past (11/26/2011) that we have provided for your listening enjoyment, and we will see you tomorrow (Sabbath, Nov. 30, 2019) at 10 AM PDT for our regular live broadcast of The Revelation of Jesus, with Rick Sterling.

Thanksgiving~ We are coming to my favorite holiday of the year, Thanksgiving. Family, good food, wonderful conversations and interactions with loved ones, and remembering good times and Thanksgivings past. When I think about it, there is a kind of emotional sappiness about Thanksgiving which I love. But the most important thing about the Thanksgiving holiday here in America for me is that there are NO gifts and presents required for admission. All that is required is that you get together with friends and family, and enjoy each others company.  That is not to say that I don't like Christmas, I do. But for a musician Christmas is a LOT of work to prepare for the concerts and church music commitments that require hours of rehearsal, and sometimes travel. I DO LOVE IT. The thing I don't like about the Christmas season is that it starts so early these days; the store where I work part time already has all of our Christmas merchandise on display for sale way before Thanksgiving, and this is just wrong. All this is well and good, but what we do forget to be Thankful for this time of year, and should be thankful every day of the year is that Jesus took time out of his busy schedule running the universe to come to this earth and bring the TRUTH from God about salvation to a truth starved world that had been co-pted by lies. These lies are so insideous that people have become thankful for those very lies, believing that what they have been taught about salvation is true.  Yes, we should be thankful for the 'good news' of salvation, but if you believe what the church has taught about how salvation works you are thanking the God of the Universe for those lies, and this will end up killing you. We must LEARN the Truth in order to be thankful for it. Beware the deception and you will be able to be truly thankful for Salvation of God through the words and teachings of Jesus! Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Truth hurts~ This past Monday we had to put our old dog to sleep.  Previous to this sad event Charlie, our 12 year old German Shepherd/Malamute/Wolf had for a week basically stopped eating his normal amount, and was progressively less each day. So a week ago this Friday I took him to the vet, where after an abdominal exam the vet said that we needed to do x-rays and an ultra sound to confirm a tumor. The results were conclusive; Charlie had a large tumor near his spleen-a hemangiosarcoma. The vet told us that there was a surgery that she could perform to remove the tumor, and that we would not know for sure if it was a cancer until the lab results came back; but that given his age, and the fact that in 85% of male GDS's this type of tumor is cancer, the best option would be to put him to sleep. The vet said we needed to make the decision by the following Monday, due to the critical nature of the size of the mass, and that even though Charlie was not in pain this could change in a heartbeat if the spleen ruptured. This news was devastating to our family. On Saturday we made the hard decision. We called the vet and made and appointment to put Charlie to sleep the following Monday. We gave Charlie a delightful two days of 'bucket list' events, including taking him to George's German Market for Brats and Beer (which he loved), for a walk in his favorite park, and our children came over on Sunday and we celebrated his life by making him the center of attention, thoroughly loving him up. He died a happy and content dog, with no pain, with his family surrounding him. This truth hurt, but we did the right thing for Charlie! The truth hurts of salvation hurts everytime it goes counter to what you want to believe. When you discover the tumor of lies in your life you have a difficult choice, to die withi it, or cut the lies out and live eternally.

Completely Innocent~ Yesterday my wife and I got some very bad news from our vet. Our big Charlie, a ten year old galomphy GSD (German Shepherd Dog) has a large tumor on or near his spleen. We don't know  whether the tumor is benign or malignant without doing a major abdominal surgery, and sending the tumor to the pathologist for assessment. If the tumor is malignant it means that there is a good chance of metastatis. Then treatment is paliiative, or we simply putting him to sleep. If is benign, the Doctor says she doesn't believe it until the dog lives to 6 months post surgery. The whole issue  now boils down to quality of  his life. Recovery from a major surgery for a dog his age will be uncomfortable for two to three weeks at the very least, and we must decide if putting Charlie through that given the tenuous potential of the outcome is worth it. We are not considering the huge expense involved in our decision. Charlie is ill due to now fault of his own, but right now he does not know this; he is completely innocent. He did nothing to warrent this fate. He is a good dog, he is! And yet he is suffering from a devastating illness due to the affects of sin in this world. God loves Charlie, and as his caretakers we must to what is right by him, no matter the cost to ourselve, even if this mean being the cause of his death. We are different than Charlie. We have CHOSEN to withdraw from the presence of God through our disobedience. Yes, I know what you are thinking; we didin't choose to be born into this world anymore than did Charlie, and because of this we should be considered 'completely innocent' as well. But this is simply not true. WE have a choice to make, and because of that choice we ARE NOT completely innocent. Our choices have made us responsible for our own destiny based upon our choosing Truth or Lies, Righteousness or unrighteousness, LIFE or DEATH. Choose Life!

"See to it that no one deceives you!" In observing the circus act and theatrics taking place in Washington the last few days in the 'impeachment' hearings reminds me that this same kind of thing has been going on throughout history. It is not new, nor has it changed in application, all-be-it intensity, as used by those that have no scruples as to how they get their way in the world.  Subterfuge (deceipt used in order to achieve one's goals) has been the hallmark of Satan's operating system since before the incident in the Garden of Eden. You would think that after having spent almost a year with their Master the disciples would have understood the concept of looking below the surface of the issues and players in the Religious and Political issues of their day, such that they would be able to exptrapolate the concepts of truth and justice that Jesus had taught them into a method that would allow them to clearly tell when someone was telling truth or lies. Apparently not; at least not yet in the instance cited in Matt. 24: 1-5. Jesus had been telling the Disciples about the signs of the end of time. Being naturally curious (the hallmark of a seeker of truth) they asked Jesus to tell them how to recognize when they were at the end of the age. Rather than give a laundry list of prophetic events, Jesus answered them with a somewhat cryptic sentence, designed to get them to think about the overarching methodology of the world at the time of the end.  Jesus put the onus of responsibilty for NOT being decieved (fooled) squarely upon His Disciples, those that would seek to recognize where they were 'IN TIME', and WHY! Deception is now rampant in this world, and is seen at every junction between where that deception ends and truth begins. Just as with the Disciples, Jesus calls us to be able to descern between "What is Truth" and what is not. This is the Key to Truth!

Mystery~ There are all sorts of stories in book, on TV, and in the movies that are based in the concept that  the main character(s), and thus the audience, don't know something at the beginning of the show that they find out just before the show ends. The best plots delay the 'payoff' until the very end, and it is almost always in a place or person that you would not have guessed at the beginning. Misdirection is the key to a good 'Who Done It"! The victim(s) don't realize they have been fooled, and some victims don't realize their peril until it's too late to save themselves. The best mystery writers also include either imminent danger or threat to life or an important relationship to enhance the tention, which places an undue stress on the 'hero' to find the solution to the main plot problem before someone else is hurt or killed, or a wider threat to a population is realized.  It is my experience that everyone loves a good, well written mystery! The Bible is one of the greatestt mystery stories ever written, that started at the very beginning at Creation and in Eden, and doesn't get resolved until the very end by the Faithful and Wise Bonderservant, his fellow servant, and the Kingdom of the Heavens.  The Christian church (and hense the world) believes that the mystery has already been solved, and that there is nothing anyone can do to NOT understand how salvation works. But in the true story of Salvation this is a ruse, designed by the 'Great Perpetrator' to misdirect the victims of this evil ruse to believe that they are safe from harm, when in reality, they are walking into an unknown and unrealized peril that will kill them. This story does not end well for those that are unaware of the peril of their beliefs, when the resolution of the mystery is right before their eyes in the Words of Jesus that He gave to HIs Bondservants.

Remodel~ One of the most intimidating things that wife recently said to me was, "I want to REMODEL the bathroom".  Mind you, it wasn't that her bathroom didn't need remodeling, because after 20 years in this house it did. It was that, given my background in construction, I assumed that much of the remodel would fall on my shoulders. My first thought when she broached the subject was, "I'm too old to do this stuff"! So the first thing I suggested after hearing her decision was to suggest that we call our good friend Don who is a contractor and cabinet maker, and ask his 'opinion' as to possibilitites. Becky was all for it. It's one thing to have ideas, it's another to be able to make them a reality within a budget. The most important consideration for Becky was getting rid of the old 'pink' bathtub, and replacing it with at new tub and surround. Easier said than done. After the assessmet Don made some suggestions, one of which was that if I could get the old surround out, that he would come over and help me take the old metal tub out. He also suggested using an experienced sub-contractors to plumb the new tub and shower faucet fixtures, and install the tub, and a wall board and plaster contractor to get the tub area prepared for the new surround. Now it's not that I would not be willing to do all of these things myself, but my relationship with my wife is more important to me than my ego. So when Becky said that she liked the idea that experts would come in and to these jobs I was releaved, and excited at the same time.  Salvation is not what most Christians believe it is. Remodeling the concept or how the process of salvation works is essential to gaining eternal life. Doing that remodel takes expertise, and the 'contractor' that has that level of experience is Jesus Christ, and His words.

Join us for our program The Revelation of Jesus, today at 10AM Pacific time.

Nov. 1, 2019 part 2 Fire Fighters~ Wild fires are consuming California at an alarming rate, stretching the fire fighting resources to the limit, and causing massive destruction and misery for people that are not only directly affected by these fires, but are being told that in order to combat the root causes fo these fires we must suffer the loss of electricty durning high wind events that will help prevent more fires being sparked by downed power lines. The California State Legislature has bought into the idea that climate change is the cause of these horrific fires, and that cutting back brush and clear cutting DEAD trees is a bad thing, even though property owners must provide a 200 foot defensible space around their property, under penalty of law. This undergrowth is what is fueling these massive fires that are stretching our fire fighters and fire fighting capability to the limit. All of this is based upon a lie. We must all become firefighters in the battle of truth vs. lies. The church was founded upon the lie that what Jesus said about salvation was changed at the 'cross', and became something totally new and different. This lie was a construct of Satan, and given to the world by the 'apostle' Paul. Spirit of Truth Ministry is at the forefront of fighting this fire of lies by exposing the spirit behind those lies as the great Counterfeit that it is. Join us in the fire fight. Read The Spirit of the Church by Rick Sterling and Dennis Neufeld at: spiritoftruthministry.net.   Join us for our program The Bible on Trial at 10AM Pacific time on: blogtalkradio.com/sot.

Fire Fighters~ Wild fires are consuming California at an alarming rate, stretching the fire fighting resources to the limit, and causing massive destruction and misery for people that are not only directly affected by these fires, but are being told that in order to combat the root causes fo these fires we must suffer the loss of electricty durning high wind events that will help prevent more fires being sparked by downed power lines. The California State Legislature has bought into the idea that climate change is the cause of these horrific fires, and that cutting back brush and clear cutting DEAD trees is a bad thing, even though property owners must provide a 200 foot defensible space around their property, under penalty of law. This undergrowth is what is fueling these massive fires that are stretching our fire fighters and fire fighting capability to the limit. All of this is based upon a lie. We must all become firefighters in the battle of truth vs. lies. The church was founded upon the lie that what Jesus said about salvation was changed at the 'cross', and became something totally new and different. This lie was a construct of Satan, and given to the world by the 'apostle' Paul. Spirit of Truth Ministry is at the forefront of fighting this fire of lies by exposing the spirit behind those lies as the great Counterfeit that it is. Join us in the fire fight. Read The Spirit of the Church by Rick Sterling and Dennis Neufeld at: spiritoftruthministry.net.