Spirit of Truth/The Bible on Trial

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!

Truth, or Consequences~ When I was 16 years old, one of the most popular show on TV was a game show called "Truth, or Consequences!" I think is aired on NBC. As an outing with the family, we went to a filming of a show, and as a lark I decided to see if I could get on the show. Wouldn't you know it, I actually made the cut, and was entered as a contestant on the show. I didn't win. And although it was a  little nerve-wracking, it was really fun being 'on camera'. Looking back on it 44 years later I realize that on that show, as in life, Truth was in short supply. The questions that were asked were deliberately vague and deceptive, and were not so much a test of your knowledge on a subject, but as test of alternate word usage and meaning. In other words, you had to be able to decipher a pun. I think this was a turning point in my life, and aided by my Dad I actually fell in love with puns after this experience (much to the chagrin of my family and friends). Words mean things, and sometimes they mean more than one thing. This was what the 'apostle' Paul was counting on when he penned his 'Epistles'. Paul has a 'way with words' that allows him to obfuscate and disguise meanings such that you can pretty much take anything you want away from what he says. As Peter (supposedly) said, 'Paul is hard to understand'. It is for THIS reason that in order to find truth in the Bible, or anywhere else for that matter, we need to find a Gold Standard of truth, whereby we can KNOW that what we are seeing, hearing and reading is, in fact, the actual 'God's Honest' Truth. And this is where the words of Jesus that He gave to His own eyewitness disciples comes in. This is why Jesus said; "I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word", John 17:20.

Gut Check~ We have all from time to time felt that something was 'just not right'. This feeling comes when there has been a 'cognative dissonance' set up by circumstances that are outside our comfort zone, where your heart says go one direction but your intellect tells you to go another. We experience the results of this 'identity crisis' as a 'feeling of doom', especially when what we are planning to do goes against a well established paradigm. In these kinds of circumstance there is often a feeling of uncertanty or dread, that what we are about to do will in some way harm us or others irreparably. This can be called a 'leap of faith'. This is especially poigniant when we consider spiritual truth in relation to what we have been taught from our parents or from the pulpit. When you discover that certain elements of salvation are not what you have learned throughout your live, but seem to be something entirely different, this sets up a 'cognitive-dissonace' that can truly set your teeth on edge. This is what it feels like to  even begin to consider that the apostle Paul may not be who and what you have been taught. Jesus words are what set up this 'gut check' situation, when you see that what Jesus said is materially different than what Paul taught in his writings. It is at this point where you intellect must overcome your tripidation of the unknown, and allow you to move from the realization that you have believed lies rather than the truth of the words of God. But when you realize that what you know now is not enough to gain eternal life, you can know that the words of Jesus that He gave to his own eyewitness disciples will 'save the day', and you will find peace.

Race Wars~ I occasionally respond to friends on Face Book when they post memes that attract my attention. Today, one of these memes spoke of being tired of the race wars going on in our culture; all of us know what this means. My friend ended the meme with this; "Start acting like civilized people. We are better than that!" My first thought was the question-Are We? Are we truly 'better than that?' My second thought was my response - "There is no such thing as separate human races; we are all ONE race, because God created ALL of the races at exactly the same time on the Sixth day of Creation (Gen 1:26). Adam and Eve came along much later. Therefore, no one of any 'race' can claim superiority over any other 'race. We Are All ONE under God. Now, if you don't believe in the Creator God then all bets are off." That last sentence that responds to my first thought. If you don't know and understand who is the true Creator God then you can "Worship a lie as if it is the Truth, believing that lie to be Truth". It is THIS that started the race wars at the beginning of humanities time on this earth. One race believing that they as a group were superior to any other race on the planet, and using force of arms to enslave another group of people, was one of Satans first idea for the subjugation of mankind under his rule, the rule of sin. Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. John 8:34. The concept that there are separate human races on the earth is SIN. The idea that we can never be without sin, and should therefore never try to eliminate sin from our lives is ITSELF a sin-because that kind of thought process give you the excuse to keep sinning and then claim that God does not care.   "If you love Me, you will keep My commandments." John 14:15.

Reparations~ There has been a lot of talk lately in the USA about having one group of people pay another group of people reparations for a perceived social infraction in the distant past, for somethng that neither group was personally involved with. This money transfer is demanded solely based on skin color, and not based in any actual physical restraint. No one alive today was either harmed by the other group, or inflicted harm to the other group; yet the one group demands payment none-the-less. In broad terms, this speaks of slavery. And while slavery still exists in the world, there is no institutional slavery in the USA today that pertains to skin color, race, ethnicity, or gender. So finding who should be held accountable for the slavery of the past becomse problematic. Jesus spoke of slavery when He was here on earth, but not the physical kind:  Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin. The slave does not remain in the house forever; the son does remain forever. So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." John 8:34-36. As evil as physical slavery is/was, what is much worse is  held captive by sin, that you have control over. Satan is the father of sin. If you decide to let him, he will keep you in sin forever, even to eternal death. But you have a choice. You can choose to overcome sin, and become righteous IN FACT. The choice you make happens when you recognize that you, in fact, are a slave to sin, and decide to do something about it.  Deciding for righteousness also means you do not need to seek reparations from Satan for your time as a slave to sin. Jesus has that covered: "He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne." Rev.3:21. This will be reward enough

Short Shelf life~ There are some things that just don't get better over time. We have all experienced looking in the refridgerator and seeing a container of 'something' that we forgot, and is now unrecognizable - reference George Carlin's "What is it?"  Certain skills are 'perishable'; playing any instrument well requires constant (perfect) practice to maintain; pistol or rifle shooting; cooking and baking; safe driving; flying an airplane or sailplane. These things, like left-overs in the fridge, or outdated milk, have a short shelf-life. The only thing you can do with outdated food is throw it away. The only thing you can do with unused skills is to relearn them, or just let them go. The longer you don't use something the more difficult it is to 'get back'. This is especially true when dealing with TRUTH. Most of us have gotten used to living from day to day and not questioning WHY we do certain things in specific ways. We get into routines that help us not forget what we need to take when we leave the house for the day; and when we do forget it is often because our routine was distubed by an unsusual situation. And this is often how we deal with our understanding of truth. We simply assume that what we know IS the truth; and we don't question it because we have become comfortable with that understanding. But this can be dangerous, because Truth itself has a short shelf-life. What we think we see as truth has become 'not truth' over time, but we have not recognized that fact. Truth must be reassessed from time to time, simply to confirm it's veracity and validity. Questioning is the key to understanding, and when we THINK we understand truth is the moment we need to rethink it. Join Spirit of Truth Ministry in learning HOW to learn to understand TRUTH, as we put THE BIBLE ON TRIAL!

Not a game~ The PGA Tour Championship is being played this weekend. The 30 top golfers for the year are competing not only for the FedEx Cup, but for an amazing prize that includes around $2M for the win in this final tournament win,  but more importantly $15M for the overall win. As much as they would like to believe it, for these golfers this IS NOT a game. If a player wins both the tournament and the Cup he will win $17 million, plus exemptions for 5 years on the PGA tour, including the major tournaments. They also become elegible for membeship in the Golf Hall of Fame. This represents the biggest individual prize package of any sport played in the world. It IS NOT a game.  These players are the best of the best, and the most consistent players of the year. They have worked the hardest, and the longest to achieve a goal of which only a few people in the world are capable. The difference between being in this field and missing the 'cut' was a matter of only a few points over an entire year. The disappointment felt by the player that came the 31st position was palpable. The feeling of the player that wins the ultimate prize is indescribable. There is only ONE winner. And even though all of the players that made the final 30 that were elligable to play in this big event have a lot to be proud of, only ONE wins the prize. This IS NOT a game. The biggest prize in the universe is not this FedEx cup, not by orders of magnitude. Everyone that "loves and practices" the truth can win a prize infinitely more valuable than a paltry $15 million dollars; The prize for winning through, for overcoming, is eternal life; and THAT is a prize worth fighting for. THIS is not a game, it is a matter of life and death. 'He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.' Rev. 3:21.

When I was studying chemistry in college in preparation for going to medical school (my mom's wish for me), In lab one day i learned about solvents uin a dramatic way. A solvent is a fluid compound that is used to desolve other compounds. One such solvent is toluene, which when heated in the presence of nitrogen at a specific temperature and duration can generate a highly explosive compound called tri-nitrotoluene; that is, TNT. When I was studying organic chemistry during a summer school, the class was tasked with creating a solvent called di-nitrotoluene to use to formulate another type of organic compound. We were doing this with lab partners because the professor wanted at least one person monitoring the distillation process to make sure the temperatures did not exceed the guidlines for creating the desired solvent. Near me in the lab were two chatty girls that were more interested in talking about going to the mall after class than they were of paying attention to the chemical process taking place in front of them. I happened to glance at the thermometer that was in the earlenmeyer flask into which the distillate was dripping, and was horrified to see the temperature well above the limits set by the guidlines. I carefully walked over to the professor and mentioned the temperature situation and he immediately, and in a very calm voice, told everyone in the class to shut down their Bunsen burners, and very slowly and carefully walk out of the lab. He then got on the phone and told the lab assistent to have the building evacuated. These girls had made enought TNT to blow the whole Chemistry building sky high, simply because they were not paying attention to what they were doing. Fortunately, nothing bad happened, and when the temp in their rig cooled down we were all allowed back insidel We cannot expect to get the results of learning salvation if we don't pay attention to the formula, and practice it carefully.