There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true. —Soren Kierkegaard. "…truth is true even if nobody believes it, and falsehood is false even if everybody believes it. That is why truth does not yield to opinion, fashion, numbers, office, or sincerity–it is simply true and that is the end of it" – Os Guinness, Time for Truth, pg.39. “He that takes truth for his guide, and duty for his end, may safely trust to God’s providence to lead him aright.” – Blaise Pascal. "There is but one straight course, and that is to seek truth and pursue it steadily" – George Washington letter to Edmund Randolph — 1795. We live in a “post-truth” world. According to the dictionary, “post-truth” means, “relating to or denoting circumstances in which objective facts are less influential in shaping public opinion than appeals to emotion and personal belief.” Simply put, we now live in a culture that seems to value experience and emotion more than truth. Truth will never go away no matter how hard one might wish. Going beyond the MSM idealogical opinion/bias and their low information tabloid reality show news with a distractional superficial focus on entertainment, sensationalism, emotionalism and activist reporting – this blogs goal is to, in some small way, put a plug in the broken dam of truth and save as many as possible from the consequences—temporal and eternal. "The further a society drifts from truth, the more it will hate those who speak it." – George Orwell “There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn’t true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” ― Soren Kierkegaard
MIAMI, FL—While on his way to a summer sociology course at the University of Miami, local college freshman Eddard Pollyton noticed a Cuban American man sitting on a bench. He took the time to lecture the man, who had escaped socialism on a raft when he was young, on why socialism is actually good and how he knows a lot more about socialism than people from socialist countries.
“Greetings!” Pollyton said. “I’m Eddard, he/him. I see from your skin color—which is the most important thing about you—that you are Cuban. Pretty sad how those Cubans aren’t appreciating the great social programs they have right now, am I right?”
The man stared dumbfounded as the student went on and on about private ownership of the means of production, the plight of the proletariat, and the need for the workers to unite and work for the common good. He explained to the man who had nearly starved to death as a child and only survived because his parents had put him on a raft and dared a dangerous sea voyage across the Gulf of Mexico that Cubans have some of the best healthcare, free food and medicine, and literacy programs in the world.
Finally, the man had heard enough. “Get out of here. You young people have no idea what socialism is like, man.”
“We know that children are 50 times more likely to die from the vaccine than they are from COVID. This is criminal action by the CDC to support Big Pharma. That’s the only possible reason for it. It is not for the health or the welfare of the children that, as you said, being humiliated and degraded by this prospect. It’s not the CDC anymore. It’s the Criminal Disinformation Center.” – Sidney Powell
“We need to hire at least seven more lawyers right now to deal with all the cases that we are identifying. We are looking for COVID related cases because these masks should not be required on children. We’ve got to get back to a society that recognizes individual rights. They can not force the vaccine on us. Heck, they can’t ask if a women is pregnant but they can ask if you’ve had the vaccine? That’s absolutely outrageous. It violates all kinds of federal laws that are existing. And the universities are trying to mandate it. We’ve identified some college students that are willing to file suit. So we are getting ready to make a difference in that area. We’re going to have to rain lawsuits on these universities and schools. And maybe even the CDC.” – Sidney Powell
(Robert Kraychik – Breitbart) Peter Schweizer, president of the Government Accountability Institute (GAI), said on Monday that his organization had confirmed that President Joe Biden “was a direct beneficiary” of Hunter Biden’s financialdeals with foreign interests.
“We do have a copy, by the way, here at GAI of [Hunter Biden’s] laptop and all the files,” Schweizer said on the Sean Hannity Show. “It confirms that Joe Biden was a direct beneficiary.”
Schweizer explained how GAI cross-referenced Secret Service travel logs during Joe Biden’s tenure as vice president to corroborate the authenticity of Hunter Biden’s emails.
He remarked:
GAI asked, “How can we demonstrate whether the emails are real?” … We already have, for example, Hunter Biden’s Secret Service travel records. They were released by Senator [Ron] Johnson’s committee. These are the official records that say the Secret Service traveled with Hunter to this location, to that location, etcetera. View article →
The world’s favourite atheist Richard Dawkins has said that faith is the great cop-out, the great excuse not to think or evaluate evidence. He has also likened religion to a mental illness.
Atheism likes the spotlight. It has had a pop-culture resurgence in the last decade, driven by bombastic books like The God Delusion and God is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. And today, an atheistic worldview rules the media and western universities.
As Christians, we’re sometimes known for our fear of other ideas. But what if we got over ourselves and asked what we can learn from atheism — and how it might point people to Jesus?
Origin and Influence
There were scattered pockets of atheism long before the time of Jesus, but it began as a serious movement in 1700s Europe. Two intellectuals called Voltaire and Hume bravely criticised the institutional church. They questioned miracles, faith and God — shaking Europe to its foundations.
Their ideas spread from the cafes of Paris to the halls of power, and soon atheism had replaced Christianity in government, launching the French Revolution.
“They questioned miracles, faith and God — shaking Europe to its foundations.”
Later, two Germans took up the mantle and wrote many important books. Karl Marx, the founder of communism, famously called religion the opiate of the masses — and Friedrich Nietzsche declared the death of God.
In the 20th century, atheism peaked when dictators like Lenin and Stalin of Russia, Chairman Mao in China, and Cambodia’s Pol Pot applied it to modern politics, leading to the loss of 100 million lives. (There were other causes for these genocides too, but it would be dishonest to deny atheism’s influence on them.)
It’s no surprise then that atheism has declined in popularity since last century. It now accounts for about 3% of the world’s population, mostly in Europe, Scandinavia, China, and North America. Including agnostics — those who are unsure if God exists — that number is about 7%.
The Case For God’s Existence
Simply, atheism is a lack of belief in the existence of God.There are good arguments both for and against this position. Let’s look at three of each, beginning with the case for God’s existence.
1. The Cause Argument / The universe had a cause, therefore God must exist.
Things don’t just happen. Everything has a cause, from the weather, to buildings, to your choice of outfit today. If it’s true of small things, it must be true for something vast and complex like our universe. God is a good explanation for how it all began.
But then who created God? The God of the Bible calls himself I AM — He’s the great uncaused cause. He’s always existed, and He sits outside of time.
“God is a good explanation for how it all began.”
So why don’t we just say that the universe is the great uncaused cause, that it has always existed? Actually, science says this is impossible.
According to the second law of thermodynamics, we’re running out of heat energy. Soon every corner of the cosmos will be the same temperature, and no more energy will be exchanged. If you’re still breathing, that hasn’t happened yet — which means the universe had a beginning.
2. The Design Argument / Evidence of design is everywhere, therefore God must exist.
If you found a watch in the forest, you wouldn’t assume it came together by accident. The design of a watch makes it obvious that there was a watchmaker. In the same way, whether we look through microscopes or telescopes, the creation around us shouts that there is a Creator.
“Evidence of design is everywhere.”
Think about DNA. One pinhead of it has enough information to fill 500 stacks of books that reach the moon. DNA proteins even slightly out of order cause serious deformity or death. So in the past, could the right proteins have arranged themselves to form the first simple life? Honestly, it would be more likely for a tornado to assemble a functioning aircraft.
3. The Morality Argument / Objective morals exist, therefore God must exist.
We’d all agree that things like racism, child abuse and terrorism are evil. But to say this, we need something outside of ourselves to measure them against. According to the Bible, God is love—which makes himthe transcendent measure of right and wrong.
“You know deep inside when something is evil or immoral.”
Without God, the worst we could say about injustice in the world is I don’t like it or it’s bad for society. But when you’ve been wronged, is that what you shout? You know deep inside when something is evil or immoral. In order for you to call it that, God must exist.
The Case Against God’s Existence
So a good case can be made for God’s existence. But how would atheists respond? What are the best arguments against the existence of God?
1. The Evolution Argument / Design in the universe is due to natural processes.
Charles Darwin’s book On the Origin of Species was a game-changer for atheism. Darwin had returned from the Galapagos Islands, where he’d seen unfit species die, but the fit survive to pass on their genes and create new species. If this had been happening from the start, he realised it might explain the origin of all life without a Creator.
“A creative force is needed.”
Darwin called this process natural selection, and he was right about its mechanics. But what evolutionists have missed is that natural selection is a destructive force: it removes bad genes from the gene pool, but it doesn’t create new ones. In other words, it can explain the survivalof the fittest, but not the arrival of the fittest.
A creative force is needed. Evolutionists point to mutations, which rearrange existing DNA information. But it’s still a great mystery where all the information came from to turn fish into philosophers. The origin of reproduction, language and eyesight still seems very miraculous, even in an evolutionary worldview.
But miracles are exactly what atheism was trying to avoid.
2. The Multiverse Argument / Our universe is one of many that justhappens to be designed for life.
If you roll a dice enough times, you’ll eventually get the number you want. The same logic is behind the multiverse argument: if an infinite number of universes exist, then it was inevitable that a beautifully intricate one like this would exist. And so here we are.
This is an excellent argument — it solves every scientific problem imaginable. But there’s one small problem with the multiverse theory: there’s not a scrap of evidence for it.
“If an infinite number of universes exist, then it was inevitable that one like this would exist.”
Australian scientist Paul Davies wrote,
“Invoking an infinity of unseen universes to explain the unusual features of the one we do see is just as ad hoc as invoking an unseen Creator. The multiverse theory may be dressed up in scientific language, but in essence it requires the same leap of faith.”
But faith is exactly what atheism was trying to avoid.
3. The Evil Argument / God can’t exist because evil does.
How can a good God exist when there’s so much evil and suffering? This is without doubt the biggest challenge for Christianity. Disease and natural disasters are unspeakably horrible, and they give clear evidence that something is broken in the world.
“This is the biggest challenge for Christianity.”
But are they evidence that God doesn’t exist? If you stumbled upon a broken watch in the forest, would you assume there was no watchmaker? Of course not — you’d just know that something had gone wrong since he made it. That’s what Scripture says: all creation was subjected to God’s curse and has been groaning right up to the present time.
What about evil — the actions of terrorists and child abusers? This takes us back to the morality argument: if these things aren’t just preference — if evil really does exist — there has to be a God.
But God is exactly what atheism was trying to avoid.
Atheism Points to Jesus
So not only do some of the best arguments for God’s existence point to God. Some of the best arguments for atheism do too. This shouldn’t be a surprise.
Scripture says,
“People know the truth about God because He’s made it obvious to them. Through everything God has made, people can clearly see His eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.”
“Some of the best arguments for atheism actually point to God.”
In other words, God doesn’t believe in atheists. But He does love them incredibly. And through our conscience and His creation, He is continually calling every person back to Himself.
This is good news. It means there’s more to life than shopping at Ikea, being tolerant, having a few lattes and then dying somewhere quietly. There’s more than just static and darkness to follow.
“God is with us even in our darkest times.”
Sometimes it’s hard to make sense of this world’s mess, and it’s easier to give up on God. But at the very centre of history there is God, hanging on a cross, carrying the world’s evil and suffering.
Jesus’ death makes sense of our own pain and cynicism. It reminds us that God is with us even in our darkest times, and that He has defeated evil forever.
And that there is true and ultimate hope for us in this life — and in the next.
Last week on Crosstalk, Jim asked the question, “Have we been given over?” On that program, Jim read from Romans 1, while also reviewing some of the events that had occurred during so-called, Pride Month.
Within 24 hours of the airing of that program, a disgusting video went viral from the San Francisco Gay Men’s Chorus. (According to the Western Journal, some members appear to be convicted pedophiles.) Although alleging to be tongue-in-cheek, the video boasted that the LGBTQ community would convert children of conservative parents and they are coming for them.
The men’s chorus received immediate backlash. As a result, the group removed the music video from its channel. Then they released a statement attacking far-right conservative media for reporting the lyrics to the song.
As this broadcast moved along, Jim presented the following:
Audio from 2018 when a self-proclaimed drag queen named Dylan Pontiff testified concerning drag queen story hours.
Homosexual related news from Wisconsin.
2 homosexual authors and their desire to see a conversion of the emotion, minds and will of the average American on the issue of homosexuality via a planned psychological attack.
How queer creators pushed the LGBT agenda in kids cartoons.
A gay activist group has convinced Hollywood to increase LGBT representations in TV shows.
A reading from the Congressional Record in 1987 that includes a published essay from gay revolutionary Michael Swift.
Listeners from across America presented their comments to round out this broadcast.
More Information
To read the “Gay” Declaration as recorded in the Congressional Record, follow this link and scroll down to pages 21194-21195.
Dr. Francis A. Schaeffer (1912-1984) may very well be one of the most important Christian thinkers of the twentieth century. Schaeffer attended Westminster Theological Seminary and was heavily influenced by J. Gresham Machen, Cornelius Van Til, and the Dutch theologian Abraham Kuyper.
In 1948, after a ten year pastorate in the United States, he moved his family to Switzerland to engage in missionary work. In 1955, Dr. and Mrs. Schaeffer founded L’Abri in a small mountain village in Switzerland. French for “shelter,” L’Abri became a refuge for people in need of spiritual help. The Schaeffers were especially interested in people who sought answers to basic philosophical and metaphysical problems. He writes, “To the best of my ability I gave the Bible’s answers. But all the time I tried to listen and learn the thought forms of these people. I think that my knowledge, whatever it is, is formed from two factors: 1) Forty years of hard study, and 2) Trying to listen to the twentieth-century man as he talked” (Eternity, March 1973). Schaeffer’s keen ability to listen carefully and engage the intellect of these people became a primary factor that contributed to his success.
Students came to L’Abri from varied backgrounds – philosophy, medicine, architecture, science, and theology. The Schaeffers ministered to college professors, students, pastors, engineers, and lawyers to name a few. The common thread among all L’Abri visitors was a thirst for truth. These people sought answers to the basic questions of life: Who am I? Where am I going? What is my purpose in life? How does God fit in the scheme of things?
The stated purpose of L’Abri is “to show forth by demonstration, in our life and work, the existence of God” (L’Abri, 16). L’Abri continues to operate and fulfill the vision of Francis Schaeffer even over twenty-five years after his death. The ministry of L’Abri may also be found in Holland, Australia, England, Sweden, India, South Korea and Massachusetts.
Francis Schaeffer published his first book, The God Who Is There in 1968. He subsequently wrote twenty-two books which have been translated into more than twenty-five different languages. A common unifying theme runs throughout Schaeffer’s books, namely, “the Lordship of Christ in the totality of life” (The Great Evangelical Disaster, 303).
In the days to come, my goal is to expose readers to Francis Schaeffer and pay particular attention to his views on apologetics and the nature of the church.
How does it feel to live in a country with double-digit inflation? On Tuesday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics told us that the consumer price index has risen 5.4 percent over the past 12 months, and such a high number shocked a lot of people. But in order to make a fair comparison to the past, we have to account for the fact that the way inflation is calculated has been changed literally dozens of times over the past several decades. According to John Williams of shadowstats.com, if inflation was still calculated the way that it was back in 1990, the official rate of inflation over the past 12 months would be about 9 percent. And if inflation was still calculated the way that it was back in 1980, the official rate of inflation over the past 12 months would be well into double-digits.
Everyone that has been warning that we could soon see inflation rise to levels that we haven’t witnessed since the the Jimmy Carter years can stop, because we are already there.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics is committing fraud, because the numbers that they give us are almost meaningless. For example, U.S. home prices have risen 20 percent over the past year, but the “shelter component of inflation” makes up only a tiny fraction of the overall consumer price index…
We’ll get the latest read on inflation Tuesday, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics puts out its consumer price index for the month of June. As you may recall, the May report showed the biggest annual increase in consumer prices, 5%, in 13 years. But if you’re looking for the recent jump in home prices to show up in that number, you’re likely to be disappointed. The shelter component of inflation, as measured by the CPI, has stayed pretty steady, from around 2% to 3.5%, for the past decade. And some economists have a problem with that.
Wouldn’t it be wonderful if your mortgage payment accounted for only 3.5 percent of your overall budget each month?
Needless to say, such a figure is completely and totally unrealistic.
For most of us, housing is the single biggest expense that we face on a regular basis. And as I have documented in many previous articles, housing costs have been soaring into the stratosphere in recent months.
Car prices are also rising at an extremely alarming pace. According to CNN, the average price of a new car has shot up 12 percent over the past year…
In May, the average new car price hit a record $38,255, according to JD Power, up 12% from the same period a year ago. About two-thirds of car buyers paid within 5% of the sticker price in May, with some paying even more.
Instead of buying a new vehicle, you could purchase a used one instead, but used car prices increased 10.5 percent in just the last month…
Last month alone, average used car prices soared 10.5 percent – the largest such monthly increase since record-keeping began in January 1953. That spike accounted for about one-third of the monthly increase for the third straight month.
Renting vehicles has gotten a lot more expensive as well.
In fact, average rental rates are up a whopping 86 percentsince this point in 2020…
Daily car rental rates have increased 86% compared to this time last year and 140% more than 2019, according to Julie Hall, a spokesperson for AAA.
The “5.4 percent inflation” fairly tale that the Labor Department is trying to sell us is absolutely laughable.
And as long as they keep putting out such doctored numbers, they are going to have zero credibility.
Everyone can see that prices are skyrocketing all around us. In such an environment, a restaurant in New York can charge 200 dollars for French fries and some people will actually pay that price…
Serendipity3, the iconic Upper East Side restaurant, set a Guinness World Records title for making the “Most Expensive French Fries” — just in time to celebrate National French Fry Day Tuesday!
Serendipity3’s Creative Director and Chef Joe Calderone and Corporate Executive Chef Frederick Schoen-Kiewert are the masterminds behind the “Creme de la Creme Pommes Frites,” which cost a whopping $200.
Our leaders thought that they could pump trillions upon trillions of fresh dollars into the system without any serious consequences.
Desmond Lachman, an economist and senior fellow with the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), told Breitbart News on Sunday that the U.S. is beginning to resemble a Latin American country given its inflation, government spending, and printing of money.
“[The U.S. is] in [a]very bad position from a long-term point of view. I don’t see how this can end well when we’re running — now — budget deficits something like 15 percent of GDP,” Lachman said on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Sunday with host Joel Pollak. “This is beginning to look a little bit like a Latin American country.”
It is actually much worse than that.
The truth is that we are in the terminal phase of the greatest debt bubble in the history of the world, and at such a critical moment U.S. officials have decided to systematically destroy the value of the reserve currency of the planet.
Prior to the pandemic, the U.S. government was stealing more than a hundred million dollars an hour from future generations of Americans, but now our politicians have upped that rate to more than 300 million dollars an hour.
And when the next major crisis comes along, they will pass even more “emergency packages”, because spending money is the only solution they have.
Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve continues to pump giant mountains of money into the financial system. Since September 2019, the size of the Fed balance sheet has more than doubled, and that should be considered a crime against humanity.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of Americans don’t even know what the Federal Reserve is, and only a small fraction of the population actually understands what they are currently doing to our financial system.
Facing no significant resistance, our politicians will continue to get us into staggering amounts of debt, and the Fed will continue to transform the U.S. dollar into toilet paper.
Sadly, what they are doing is setting the stage for the collapse of the late, great U.S. economy, and the economic pain that is ahead will affect every single man, woman and child on the entire planet.
One good way to get comfort is to plead the promise to God in prayer.… Show him his handwriting; God is tender of his word. These arguings in prayer are not to work upon God, but ourselves.
THOMAS MANTON
Ritzema, E., & Vince, E. (Eds.). (2013). 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Cut Off Attachments Immediately Proverbs 23:1–3; Matthew 5:30; 18:8; Mark 9:43–45
However small an attachment may be, do not be too confident that you can cut it off at any time, but cut it off at once: for if you do not have the courage to destroy it when it is but beginning, how can you presume upon success when it has taken root and grown?
JOHN OF THE CROSS
Ritzema, E. (2013). 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Reformation. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
And it shall be at that day, saith the Lord, that thou shalt call me Ishi; and shalt call me no more Baali; for I will take away the names of Baalim out of her mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. (Hosea 2:16-17)
That day has come. We view our God no more as Baal, our tyrant lord and mighty master, for we are not under law but under grace. We now think of Jehovah, our God, as our Ishi, our beloved husband, our lord in love, our next-of-kin in bonds of sacred relationship. We do not serve Him less obediently, but we serve Him for a higher and more endearing reason. We no longer tremble under His lash but rejoice in His love. The slave is changed into a child and the task into a pleasure.
Is it so with thee, dear reader? Has grace cast out slavish fear and implanted filial love? How happy are we in such an experience! Now we call the Lord’s day a delight, and worship is never a weariness. Prayer is now a privilege, and praise is a holiday. To obey is heaven; to give to the cause of God is a banquet. Thus have all things become new. Our mouth is filled with singing and our heart with music. Blessed be our heavenly Ishi forever and ever.
1 Chronicles 16:41 – This is the equivalent of today’s Americans reading the Federalist papers – reading about how our nation was established. The Israelites, hundreds of years after David would read the Chronicler’s account as he told what happened back at the founding of Israel. This verse echoes Psalm 136:1 (which is echoed in every verse of the Psalm), that the mercy of the LORD wasn’t just way back with the founding fathers – it endureth for ever – therefore it endures today!
David telling his plans to build a house for the LORD
1 Chronicles 17:12 – 22 times in 1 Chronicles is the term “for ever” used. The Davidic Covenant was forever, and it humbled David (1 Chronicles 17:16).
1 Chronicles 18:4 – This verse repeats almost verbatim 2 Samuel 8:4, because this points back to the Torah (Deuteronomy 17:16), and is an echo of what Joshua did (Joshua 11:9) at the battle of the waters of Merom.
And what of King Taita, now emerged from obscurity as a powerful monarch of the Early Iron Age, possibly even descended from the great Hittite kings of the Empire? If such a king ruled over a large territory, is there mention of him elsewhere in ancient documents? So far the answer appears to be in the negative, at least not yet, unless you include the Old Testament, which brings us back to the city of Hama. Taita may have well been a contemporary—a friend and ally—to King David himself. The author of 2 Samuel knew him as Toi, King of Hamath (2 Sam 8:9-10; Tou in 1 Chron 18-9-10). David’s military victories over Hadadezer, King of Zobah and his Aramaean allies prompted Toi to send his son Joram as an envoy bearing gifts to the Israelite conqueror. For Hadadezer was warring against Toi, so forging an alliance with David made strategic sense. But how does Taita become Toi6 (Hebrew תּﬠיּ)?
Romans 2:15 – Everyone has the law of God written in their hearts – their conscience tells them that some things are right and some things are wrong. Now consciences are not all agreed (1 Corinthians 8:7), and can be seared (1 Timothy 4:2), defiled (Titus 1:15), and evil (Hebrews 10:22), but we are all aware that there is a moral law.
Romans 2:21-23 – Paul reiterates that knowledge of the explicit revealed law (The Torah in general, and even just the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20) in particular) is not enough. Hearers are not justified, only doers are justified (Romans 2:13). Those who know the law and warn against stealing, adultery, idolatry – still commit these sins. Why? Paul, having shown the universality of the knowledge of right and wrong, will show that no matter our best attempts, we are all sinners.
Psalm 10:16 – We read earlier today about the Davidic Covenant of a king of Israel forever. Yet the LORD is King for ever. A thousand years after David – we will see these two declarations merge – the LORD becomes the son of David – to be King forever.
Proverbs 19:9 – This verse fits in with Paul’s warning that even those who preach against lying still lie. And Paul will show us that lying leads to death (Romans 6:23).
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But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. – 1 Peter 2:9
Scripture reading: 1 Peter 2:4-10
You are special! And don’t you ever forget it.
Have you ever been encouraged by being told you are special? How about knowing that is what God thinks about you? Building on rich Old Testament language from when God called His old covenant people into existence (Exodus 19:5,6), Peter is saying all those things about believers! You are a holy nation, a royal priesthood. You are God’s own special people. You are chosen and precious! It’s not flattery; it’s not empty talk. It’s not just saying something to make you feel good, like the kind of meaningless gestures we see today when everyone gets a ribbon at the race. This is who you are, in Christ, the chosen and precious One!
And it’s all by grace. By the same powerful Word by which the Lord spoke and called light into existence from nothing, He has called us out of darkness into His marvelous light. The life we come to know in Christ is just as powerful, amazing and miraculous. Remember where we came from. Once we were not a people, now we are the people of God. Once we had not known mercy and now God has shown us mercy! We brought nothing to the table, yet this is what God has done for us, His own special people. Don’t ever forget it!
Doesn’t that make you want to shout His praises! In fact, as these verses tell us, that is exactly what it’s all about. That is our great task and privilege now as sojourners – proclaim His praises!
Suggestions for prayer
Thank God for calling you out of darkness. Ask God to help you always remember that in Christ you are chosen and precious. Ask Him to help you to shout His praises so others can know this blessing too.
Rev. John A. Bouwers is pastor of the Hope Reformed Church (URCNA) in Brampton, ON, where he has served since December 2017. He is married to Julie and they have been blessed with six children and twelve grandchildren. This daily devotional is also available in a print edition you can buy at Nearer to God Devotional.
I read a devotional the other day on trusting God through the fog, the writer recounting a difficult drive down a foggy mountain road and trusting God to take her safely home.
I have not had that experience of driving down a foggy mountain road. And yet, recently…I created my own fog on a bright sunny day.
Nothing had changed. A blinding fog did not roll in and obscure my view. I just took my eyes off what God can do and let circumstances overwhelm me with doubt and fear. I was not a friend to myself. I was a saboteur of my own journey.
For a while I let a thick fog swirl around me and swallow up my hope and faith and pull me into a dark place where discouragement filled my heart.
We all have those days when praying, waiting, and working toward something are met with discouragement. We often find we derail our confidence in the Lord with our own weakness and wrong thinking because for a while we take our eyes off of Him and instead let a fog of doubt and worry surround us. The fog comes rolling in when I take my eyes off of the Lord.
It is a miserable place to be when we feel like we have lost our way and can’t find a clear solution.
There are multiple possibilities for our discouragement. Here are just a few:
– We become impatient because we have already waited a very long time for answers. – We might convince ourselves we have asked for too much or too big and back down from our asking. – We don’t see any signs of change in our difficult situation and hopelessness leads to great frustration. – Our task looks too complicated to complete and we feel like giving up.
We will all go through discouragement when faced with the above type scenarios. But will we let discouragement rule our lives, or will we place our trust in God to work those things that we can’t comprehend? Will we remind ourselves how He has worked for our good in other difficult times?
When I realized that all the negativity I was experiencing was a product of my own doing and that my reasons for discouragement were based on feelings and emotions run amuck, the fog began to lift and clear thinking prevailed. I stood my ground with faith and trust and let the sun break through all the fog.
When my self-imposed fog lifted and I experienced the fresh air of hope and faith once more, I truly felt a wave of energy surge through my body, heart and soul. God’s indwelling spirit renewed me and I welcomed His faithfulness to me as His strength overcame my weakness and I felt strong and whole. The sky was blue again, the sun was shining and all fog had lifted away.
“But those who wait on the Lord shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31
Jesus’ values are nothing like the world’s, so grasping who we are as God’s children can be hard
“The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him so that we may also be glorified with Him”. Romans 8:16-17.
Since the culture’s way of thinking is powerful and at times intoxicating, it’s easy to lose our way while pursuing the abundant life God promises. If that happens, the freedom we expected to experience in Christ can feel weighed down by sinful behaviours and thought patterns—not least of which is worry.
Anxiety comes readily when things go awry, and we think the responsible course of action is to take matters into our own hands, strategizing for every negative possibility. That might seem like the path to peace, but it will never liberate us from our fears. Eventually, we’ll realize we can’t do it on our own.
Jesus sets His followers free from worry (Matthew. 6:25-34). But we must continually submit ourselves to His care. Then we can rest assured, knowing that no matter what our circumstances are, He’ll always come through for us—perhaps not in the manner we expect, but in ways that help us grow closer to Him, the only true source of peace.
Think about it:
What do you gain from worrying about circumstances?
Truths that Seem to Contradict Proverbs 26:4–5; Ecclesiastes 3:1–8
Faith embraces many truths which seem to contradict each other.
BLAISE PASCAL*
Ritzema, E. (Ed.). (2012). 300 Quotations for Preachers. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Distractions Only Come When Engrossed in Externals John 8:15
He whose disposition is well ordered cares nothing about the strange, perverse behavior of others, for a man is upset and distracted only in proportion as he engrosses himself in externals.
THOMAS À KEMPIS*
Ritzema, E., & Brant, R. (Eds.). (2013). 300 quotations for preachers from the Medieval church. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
“Far from being rivals or enemies, religion and law are twin sisters, friends, and mutual assistants. Indeed, these two sciences run into each other. The divine law, as discovered by reason and the moral sense, forms an essential part of both.” —James Wilson
His solution for the exodus of police officers is to throw more COVID money at them.
Thomas Gallatin
With violent crime and murder rates spiking across America’s big cities, Joe Biden on Monday held a meeting with state and local leaders in an obvious bid to distance himself from the Democrats’ indisputable embrace and promotion of the “defund the police” movement following the death of George Floyd last May.
Biden and his administration have sought to spin the spike in violent crime on two disingenuous causes: guns and lack of police funding.
In his meeting with law enforcement officials, Biden pointed to the $350 billion allocated to states in COVID relief funding, contending that this money should instead be used to hire more police — as if the root problem were lack of funding. This first pivot was Biden’s attempt to, again, divert from the reality that Democrats were (and remain) the protagonists of the disastrous and deadly “defund”“ movement nationwide.
This was a more subtle attempt at forwarding the same lie put forth by White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki, who last week blamed Republicans for defunding the police, a claim so blatantly false that even the leftist Washington Post gave it ”three Pinocchios.“
Biden’s other pivot was, as always, to blame “gun violence.” As Mark Alexander observes: “Anyone who blames ‘gun violence’ as the cause of violent crime across the nation has nothing to offer but failed political rhetoric. Violence is not a ‘gun problem.’ It is a cultural problem — the result of generations of failed Democrat Party urban social policies.”
As former congressman and federal prosecutor Trey Gowdy keenly points out: “Gun prosecutions went down when [Obama and Biden] were in office. So, what we know is ‘defunding the police’ doesn’t work, ‘bond reform’ doesn’t work, these so-called ‘progressive prosecutors’ don’t work. I got a really crazy novel idea. How about actually enforce … all the gun laws we currently have.”
The root cause of the 20% increase over last year in the number of officers leaving the force is tied directly to tanking morale. The Democrats’ anti-police rhetoric — insisting without evidence, and often with evidence to the contrary, that law enforcement across the country are “systemically racist” and calling for the defunding of police — has served to severely erode police morale, and has served as the catalyst for a steady exodus of officers from the force.
The truth is, these longtime Democrat-run cities are now reaping the consequences of their poor policy decisions — decisions that have served to erode the nuclear family and sound moral values in favor of leftist social engineering ideology, which seeks to promote the state as the savior of society. As these bankrupt policies fail, Democrat leaders scapegoat the police, as if their enforcement of the law were the cause of people breaking the law.
No amount of money shoveled by Joe Biden toward beleaguered police departments will do anything to boost police morale or address the root causes behind the nationwide spike in violent crime. Nor will their continued vilification of law enforcement as “racist” and their disingenuous targeting of Americans’ Second Amendment rights.
The shameful silence of the communist-sympathizing Democrats is beyond disgraceful.
Douglas Andrews
Yesterday, Joe Biden finally put forth a statement about the unrest in Cuba. And at first glance, it seemed to hit the proper themes: “Freedom” was in there, as was “decades of repression and suffering,” and so were mentions of “authoritarianism” and “fundamental and universal rights” and “the Cuban regime.”
But, still, something was missing: The “C” word was missing.
One would think that somewhere within a 94-word statement, we’d find a mention of the “root cause” of all this anger, this unrest, this human misery. After all, Democrats seem really interested in root causes these days. But no. Joe Biden and his handlers just couldn’t bring themselves to utter the word “communism.” Heck, they couldn’t even say “socialism.”
The initial Biden administration response to the mass rallies for freedom that took place across Cuba on Sunday was a disgrace.
As Cubans took to the streets defying the Communist regime’s totalitarian police, a senior State Department official tweeted that the administration viewed the protests as merely a result of unhappiness “about rising COVID cases/deaths” in the island country.
That’s pure bunk. The slogans shouted by thousands who risked imprisonment or worse were about an end to the Communist dictatorship installed in the 1950s. “Freedom!” “Enough!” they cried.
Worse yet was the far-left flank of Joe Biden’s party. Bernie Sanders doesn’t consider himself a Democrat, of course, but he nonetheless led a resounding chorus of deep-space silence. Said Fox News’s Sean Hannity: “America’s top radical socialists, they are, well, predictably yet eerily silent. Lifelong communist, you know, the guy that honeymooned in the former Soviet Union, Bolshevik Bernie Sanders, praised Castro’s literacy programs and frequently attacks Republicans. He’s been completely silent about the ongoing demonstrations in Cuba.”
What we’ve got here, then, is a failure to communicate. Some commie symps just can’t be made to denounce the evil in their midst.
That evil now takes its form in the shape of the regime’s state police, which, as Fox News reports, “are now out in force on the country’s streets as President Miguel Díaz-Canel is accusing Cuban Americans of using social media to fuel the protests.”
Tennessee Congressman Mark Green, a former Army surgeon, a friend of The Patriot Post, and the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee for the Western Hemisphere, blasted Democrat lawmakers. “The Communist dictatorship in Cuba has been oppressing the Cuban people for decades,” he said. “It’s absurd to think that any sitting U.S. lawmaker, who enjoys the freedoms of our country, would ever support a communist dictatorship in another country — especially one as corrupt as the Cuban dictatorship.”
Yesterday, we noted the remarks of Texas Senator Ted Cruz, the son of a Cuban immigrant father. Today, we’ll share the words of another son of Cuban expats, Marco Rubio. Here’s his impassioned speech from the Senate floor yesterday.
There’s still time for the Left to find its way to the right side of history, but we don’t see it happening. Doing so would amount to the admission of a grievous and decades-long misjudgment of massive proportions. As National Review’s Rich Lowry puts it: “There is a revolutionary movement afoot in Cuba, one that is courageous, inspiring, and — one hopes — truly democratic. It is the ordinary people of Cuba attempting to vindicate their rights against the Left’s favorite dictatorship.”
The clock is ticking. And the hard Left is still silent about that evil dictatorship.
In what amounts to a fitting metaphor for the Biden/Harris regime’s “diversity, equity, and inclusion” façade comes a new report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI).
The report cover, prepared by the ODNI’s Office of Intelligence Community Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion — yes, there is one — includes a stock commercial photo labeled “Portrait Of Multi-Cultural Office Staff Standing In Lobby,” which was then badly altered to include a woman in a wheelchair and a blind guy with his dog. When I note “badly altered,” I mean it’s in the running for the most ill-conceived photo alteration failure in CIA history. The old Soviet KGB’s photo alterations of 50 years ago were far superior.
Just as pretentious, on the inside of the report, Biden’s director of National Intelligence, Avril Haines, declared, “The Intelligence Community should reflect the diverse makeup of America and demonstrate that we are fostering an environment where every professional can succeed.” She added: “Promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion is fundamental to our democratic values and critical to meeting the IC’s mission.”
That is a load of bull pucky. “Diversity, equity, and inclusion” is “fundamental” only to promoting the Democrat Party’s race-hustling agenda.
The photo fail was an instant hit on social media, with one observer noting, “Things like this make you pray there actually is a shadow government running things.” Another said, “No one in this super-diverse office appears to be over 35.”
The former president drew plenty of sharp contrasts between his administration and the current one.
Douglas Andrews
There’s no denying it, no getting around it: Donald Trump is still the undisputed leader and the animating force behind the Republican Party. There are a number of bright young stars in the wings, such as Florida Governor Ron DeSantis and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, but the party still belongs to Trump.
This reality couldn’t have been any clearer at the Conservative Political Action Conference’s summer gathering in Dallas this past weekend, where he spoke at length on Sunday about the many miserable failures of Joe Biden, the illegal immigration catastrophe at our southern border, the Democrats’ obsession with force-feeding Critical Race Theory to our children, the nationwide surge in violent crime, and the 2020 election, which he and a majority of Republicansbelieve was rigged and stolen.
As Fox News reports: “Trump’s remarks lasted about 90 minutes after a delay of at least a half hour from his scheduled starting time. He was greeted by ‘USA’ chants as he walked on stage, and lauded the CPAC attendees as strong supporters of his movement.”
CPAC, which had for 47 years been held in the Beltway, has moved elsewhere this year — first to Orlando in February, and this weekend to Dallas. The move was precipitated by the COVID-related shutdown of the event’s usual location in National Harbor, Maryland, but the event’s organizers thought it was time for a change anyway. Said Matt Schlapp, chairman of the American Conservative Union, which sponsors the event, “Maybe we need a new model … the center of gravity in this country is changing.”
Schlapp is certainly right about that — at least insofar as conservatives are concerned. It’d be hard to find an area less hospitable to the Right than Washington, DC. “I think CPAC’s story this year is much like America’s story,” he told The Washington Times. “This terrible year-and-a-half we’ve all been through has us all rethinking a lot of things about our life, and what I’ve come to realize is it’s not red states versus blue states, it’s failed blue states that people are fleeing, and mega-red states that people are flocking to.”
The conference theme was “America UnCanceled,” and Trump addressed this in his remarks. “With the help of everyone here today,” he said, “we will defeat the radical left, the socialists, Marxists, and the critical race theorists. We will secure our borders, we will stop left wing cancel culture, we will restore free speech and free elections, and we will make America great again.”
Trump blasted his successor’s failure to secure our borders, noting: “We deported criminal aliens by the thousands … and we built almost 500 miles of the border wall. Now the Biden administration has turned the border into the single greatest disaster in American history.”
Trump also noted his class action lawsuit against Big Tech, and he lamented the steady encroachment of the radical Left, which he said “has been methodically taking over every giant centralized institution in American life. The school systems, the universities, the bar associations, Hollywood, journalism, the big banks, big tech, and even the Supreme Court, where we’re getting some unexpected rulings because the nine justices do not want to be packed.”
He also vowed that the Republican Party will take back the House in 2022 and reclaim the White House in 2024.
Throughout his address, Trump seemed to be on his game — perhaps more so than at any appearance since he left office. His delivery was sharp and forceful, his asides were interesting, and he seemed genuinely energized by the audience. To no one’s surprise, he easily took the CPAC 2024 GOP presidential nomination straw poll, but his winning ballot total — 70% — was a significant bump from the 55% he earned in Orlando in February. (Ron DeSantis finished second with 21% of the ballots, and no other candidate topped 1%.)
Perhaps it was fitting, then, that the longest, most sustained applause of his speech took place at the 1:06:00 mark, when Trump said: “I’m also leading in the polls against [Kamala] Harris, because not a lot of people think that Joe’s going to be running. But you never know. It’s a strange world. … The Democrats want me out, and they want me out as fast as possible. And here I am. I could have a nice, beautiful life, and here I am on a Sunday in Texas.” At that point, a variety of scattered chants coalesced into a single loud voice: “Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!”
The former president soaked it up, thanked the crowd, and gave no guarantees about what his political future holds — an omission that will no doubt keep folks on the Right scratching their heads, and folks on the Left gnashing their teeth.
At the last minute, city leaders surreptitiously removed a third noble statue unrelated to the Confederacy.
Thomas Gallatin
Four years after the infamous Charlottesville riot, provoked by that city’s shortsighted decision to remove the statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee, workers this weekend took down the statues of Lee and General Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson. Then, without public notice, city workers also removed a third statue, this one depicting famed American explorers Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, as well as the party’s Shoshone guide and interpreter, Sacagawea. This removal followed a 20-minute “emergency” meeting of the city council.
Unsurprisingly, the council voted unanimously to cancel another piece of public art targeted by left-wing activists. Almost as if it had been planned well ahead of time, within minutes after the council’s vote, a city work crew — the same group that earlier had dismantled equestrian statues of Generals Lee and Jackson — arrived with ropes, a crane, and pry bars to wrench the artwork off the plinth where it had stood on Charlottesville’s West Main Street.
Lewis was of particular significance to the history of Charlottesville, as he was born in Albemarle County, wherein the independent city of Charlottesville is located. He was commissioned by Charlottesville’s most famous resident and the founder of the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson.
This quick and stealthy removal of the Lewis and Clark statue likely runs in violation of sunshine laws, as it would appear that the general public had no opportunity to weigh in on the decision. This was the council bowing to and promoting the nefarious narrative of leftist activists and their woke iconoclastic demands, as one of the excuses given for the removal of Lewis and Clark was that it depicted Sacagawea in a crouched position, nearer to the ground than the upright explorers. The bogus narrative offered by the Left is that she was being depicted in a subservient state when in fact this is precisely the position one would expect of a guide or a tracker.
No decision has been made as to what will become of the Lewis and Clark statue, but one thing’s for certain: This event will go down as a shameful chapter in the history of Charlottesville, a chapter wherein city leaders caved to the infantile demands and the rank historical ignorance of the woke Left.
Four state attorneys general are targeting the platform for simply operating like its leftist counterpart, ActBlue.
Harold Hutchison
Your Patriot Post team hates being right sometimes. When it comes to the long list of abuses and usurpations that the Left has inflicted on grassroots Patriots, we wanted to be wrong about the burgeoning pattern. Instead, that long list just keeps getting longer.
One of most dangerous of those abuses is the situation involving WinRed, an online fundraising platform for Republican candidates and causes. Four state attorneys general, including New York’s hard-left Letitia James, who is trying to dissolve the NRA, have targeted the platform for using similar tactics as ActBlue, the Left’s massive, integrated fundraising organization. WinRed is suing these AGs in federal court to halt their abusive investigation.
Whether the tactic at issue in this case — requiring people to uncheck a box if they don’t want to make a recurring donation — should or shouldn’t be used can be debated. That being said, when it comes to acting against those who use this fundraising tactic, one principle should be beyond debate: There needs to be a single set of rules that applies equally to all fundraisers — not one set of rules for those who back Republicans and another for those who back Democrats.
At this point, there isn’t just one set of rules — at least not that we can see. Only WinRed is being targeted for its approach. Democrat campaigns that use this same tactic get a pass from those AGs. We can only reiterate what we’ve said on multiple occasions: Double standards are a deadly toxin to the Rule of Law and should be called out wherever they exist.
It goes without saying what would happen if WinRed, like the NRA before it, has to devote resources to deal with such harassment, but that may be the actual plan of James and her fellow stooges.
This is not the only such abuse, though. The railroading of Rudy Giuliani in New York and DC by courts acting as partisan operatives, and Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel’s planned inquisition against those who questioned that state’s handling of the 2020 election are but two examples at the state and local level that didn’t get the headlines of, say, the NSA’s spying — and subsequent leaking — involving Fox News’s Tucker Carlson.
Much attention may be focused on a recent viral Twitter thread that was discussed by Carlson that touches on the thought process many grassroots Patriots are taking with the latest actions from the Biden administration. But that thread and Tucker’s seven-minute, 16-second video only tells part of the story. A quick review of the rhetoric and lies that have been aimed at Grassroots Patriots going back to the Contract With America shows that abuses and lies were going on long before Trump rode down the escalator to announce his 2016 bid for the presidency.
Given that track record, many grassroots Patriots rightly fear how far the Left will go. For all its talk about the dangers of rhetoric, the portrayal of Republicans as Nazis, Klansmen, ISIS, al-Qaeda, and other icons of evil gets dismissed by the establishment, even though there is credible evidence that such smears motivated violence against Republicans at the very least, and it’s an open question what else it might have motivated people to do.
The Left famously has claimed that words and actions have consequences. But while the leftist establishment wields that phrase against Trump, they forget that their own actions have consequences, too. This includes the growing suspicion about their move against WinRed — a move for which accountability is already long overdue.
A blind squirrel finds a nut: Biden upholds Trump rejection of the ChiComs’ South China Sea claim (AP)
Senate confirms Jen Easterly as head of Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Politico)
Florida suspect in Haiti president killing deepens mystery (Fox News)
Around the Nation
Obstructionist Democrats leave Texas in bid to stonewall GOP voting integrity bills (Washington Examiner) | Governor Greg Abbott says the Dems will be arrested upon return (Fox News)
Chicago police retirements this year already top all of 2018, could end up among highest ever (Sun-Times) | Chicago gangsters outnumber cops 10 to 1 (Fox News) | Rapper shot 64 times moments after leaving Chicago jail (Fox News)
Good riddance: Critical Race Theory battles are driving out woke educators (NBC News)
Annals of the “Social Justice” Caliphate
Activist group hangs “God Bless Abortion” banner on Christ of the Ozarks statue (Not the Bee)
Irony Award
Governor Gavin Newsom suspends environmental rules to expand fossil fuel energy in heat wave (Breitbart)
Other Notables
Conservative pundit Larry Elder enters California recall election (AP)
FDA adds new warning on Johnson & Johnson vaccine related to rare autoimmune disorder (Washington Post)
G20 finance ministers sign off on economically harmful global minimum tax deal (Politico)
Closing Arguments
Policy: A truly progressive student loan policy (AEI)
Policy: Cuba is crying out. Will we listen? (National Review)
Humor: Bernie Sanders heads to Cuba to tell protesters to be more grateful for their excellent social programs (Babylon Bee)
For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit Headline Report.
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Editor’s Note: Each week we receive hundreds of comments and correspondences — and we read every one of them. Click here for a few thought-provoking comments about specific articles. The views expressed therein don’t necessarily reflect those of The Patriot Post.
‘Absolutely the Government’s Business’ — Sounding like a government authoritarian, HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra defends door knocking for your vaccination papers.
Satire: Facebook’s New Extremism Warning! — Learn all about Mark Zuckerberg’s new warning to save you from hate groups on the far right while pushing you into hate groups on the far left.
Insight: “No man’s life, liberty or property are safe while the Legislature is in session.” —Gideon J. Tucker (1826-1899)
Friendly fire: “I think millions upon millions of moderates, and people who think of themselves as left of center, feel the same way: Wokeism and leftism are not the same thing as classic liberalism. They need to be called to account. They need to be opposed, even if some of it is what we might agree with.” —Bob Costas
Non compos mentis: “I don’t think that we should underestimate what [voter ID compromise] could mean. Because in some people’s mind, that means you’re going to have to Xerox or photocopy your ID to send it in to prove who you are. Well, there are a whole lot of people, especially people who live in rural communities, who don’t — there’s no Kinko’s, there’s no OfficeMax near them.” —Kamala Harris
Non sequitur: “It’s ideological rigidity. I think there’s no reason not to get vaccinated. Why are we having red states and places in the South that are very highly ideological in one way not wanting to get vaccinations? Vaccinations have nothing to do with politics.” —Dr. Anthony Fauci
From the Department of Deflection: “Gas prices do historically rise in the summer and that’s particularly true even in moments like this where there’s a spike in people traveling and even more people are hitting the road now because of our success in defeating the pandemic.” —White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki regarding inflation
Dezinformatsiya, part I: “Peaceful protests are growing in #Cuba as the Cuban people exercise their right to peaceful assembly to express concern about rising COVID cases/deaths & medicine shortages. We commend the numerous efforts of the Cuban people mobilizing donations to help neighbors in need.” —Acting Assistant Secretary for U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs Julie Chung (“What is it with the Biden administration? The Cuban people are fighting for freedom against an illegitimate tyrannical regime that is willing to torture and kill to stay in power. ” —Senator Ted Cruz)
Dezinformatsiya, part II: “Shouting ‘Freedom’ and other anti-government slogans, hundreds of Cubans took to the streets in cities around the country on Sunday to protest food and medicine shortages, in a remarkable eruption of discontent not seen in nearly 30 years.” —The New York Times
The BIG Lie: “Don’t fall for what you’re being told. … What Critical Race Theory is really about is just choosing which stories matter in the teaching of the history of America. … This is fake outrage.” —CNN’s Chris Cuomo
And last… “If government is willing to provide you with an identification card, free of charge, and all you have to do is show that identification so we can make sure you are who you purport to be, how can that possibly be motivated by racial animus? And what a difference a month makes. Now some of those same voices on the left claim they never really opposed voter ID. Some of those same Democrats now really don’t have any problem with showing an ID to vote. Turns out it wasn’t racist after all. Turns out it’s only racist when we suggest it. But not when they suggest it.” —Trey Gowdy
Is the US Postal Service Tracking Americans’ Social Media Posts? Judicial Watch Sues for Info “Did the Biden administration weaponize the United States Postal Service to improperly spy on Americans?” Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the US Postal Service (USPS) for information relating to the tracking and collecting of Americans’ social media posts through its Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP) (Judicial Watch, Inc. v. US Postal Service. The FOIA request was prompted by an April 21, 2021, Yahoo! News report that the law enforcement arm of the US Postal Service has been “running a program that tracks and collects Americans’ social media posts, including those about planned protests.” According to a document obtained by Yahoo! News, this surveillance effort is known as the Internet Covert Operations Program (iCOP):
Capitol Police to use Army surveillance gear to monitor Americans and ‘identify emerging threats’ U.S. Capitol Police will start using Army surveillance equipment to monitor Americans as part of a larger effort to improve security and turn the force into “an intelligence-based protective agency” in the wake of the storming of the U.S. Capitol on January 6. “This technology will be integrated with existing USCP camera infrastructure, These latest efforts by the Capitol Police have raised some concerns relating to Americans’ privacy rights. Last month, a federal appeals court found similar surveillance technology used by the Baltimore Police Department (BPD) violated the constitution’s Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable search and seizure.
Tomb of Olympias, Alexander The Great’s Mother, Found! The lost tomb of Olympias, the mother of Alexander the Great, has finally been discovered. Recent excavations in the Tomb of Korinos in northern Greece have resulted in what amounts to a massive historical discovery. Pontos News reported exclusively yesterday that Professor Athanasios Bidas recently presented a suite of hard evidence at a scientific conference suggesting this latest Korinos’ tomb was that of Olympias, wife of King Philip of Macedonia and mother of Alexander the Great.
Mainstream Media Is Wrong: Vaccine Hesitancy Is Not Highest Among Republican Men And Trump Isn’t To Blame The media elite has been telling us for months that the vaccine hesitancy rate is highest among Republicans, in particular, the men. The press alleges that the MAGA-hat-wearing-uneducated-conspiracy-theorists GOP are to blame for the continuing pandemic. But, guess what? The media lied. It’s young, healthy people who don’t want to get vaccinated. The official data shows that, from March to May, one quarter of these young adults said they were unsure about getting vaccinated and another quarter said they will not get it.
Pentagon Official: China Is Developing Space Weapons The Asian hegemon is investing substantially into weapons that have the ability to jam and destroy satellites, according to the report. Such weapons can pose an immediate threat to U.S. national security and was one of the reasons provided to establish the U.S. Space Force under the Trump administration,
100 Giant Sinkholes Are Mysteriously Appearing in This Croatian Village Just before the new year in 2021, the earth in a quiet area of Croatia began to act oddly. A near-perfectly round hole sprang out of nowhere in a garden in Meenani, a hamlet 40 kilometers (24 miles) from Croatia’s capital city of Zagreb, measuring 30 meters (98 feet) broad and 15 meters (49 feet) deep. More and more of these huge holes appeared in Meenani and its adjacent village Borojevii during the next few weeks. According to the Croatian Geological Institute, at least 54 totally collapsed sinkholes of various sizes had been documented by the end of January. According to an AFP report from March, there may have been as many as 100 sinkholes in and around the two communities.
Famous disinformation commissioners exposed for spreading disinformation Top figures on the Aspen Institute’s recently-formed Commission on Information Disorder have themselves previously spread inaccurate information and pushed misinformation, a Daily Caller News Foundation review has found. Some of the most recognizable names on the commission include Prince Harry, who recently criticized the First Amendment, and frequently sues the media, Katie Couric, who has broadcast misleading content, as well as Kathryn Murdoch, who supports left-leaning causes.
Former U.S. drug agency informant arrested in Haiti assassination, source says One of the Haitian American men arrested on suspicion of taking part in the assassination of Haiti’s president last week had been an informant to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, a DEA official said on Monday. Haitian authorities last week arrested two Haitian American men, Joseph Vincent, 55, and James Solages, 35, and charged them with joining 26 Colombians in the fatal attack on Haitian President Jovenel Moise.
Drone swarms are coming to the Middle East and Israel is leading the way Israel used drone-swarm technology in the recent Gaza war. Much of that technology and how it was used has not been revealed, but what is important is the wider context. Drone swarms are a new concept and are linked to the development of artificial intelligence and networked military units, a futuristic battlefield application that uses the latest advances in technology.
A first: Rare inscription discovered dating from time of Judges,bears name ‘Jerubbaal’ For the first time: an inscription from the time of the biblical Judges and relating to the Book of Judges has been recovered from excavations at Khirbat er-Ra‘i, near Qiryat Gat. The rare inscription bears the name ‘Jerubbaal’ in alphabetic script and dates from around 1,100 BCE. It was written in ink on a pottery vessel and found inside a storage pit that was dug into the ground and lined with stones. “The name Jerubbaal is familiar from biblical tradition in the Book of Judges as an alternative name for the judge Gideon ben Yoash.
Right-wing activists discuss replacing Jewish entrance to Temple Mount Right-wing Israeli Temple Mount activist Yehudah Etzion brought a plan Tuesday to build a new passageway to replace the deteriorating Mughrahi Bridge which Jews and non-Muslims currently use to enter the Temple Mount… Etzion suggested reviving an ancient passageway under the women’s section of the Western Wall called Barclay’s Gate, located 10 meters underneath the side room in the section.
Israel wants voucher system for foreign aid to Gaza Israel wants foreign aid to Gaza disbursed through a voucher system, as a safeguard against donations being diverted to bolster the Palestinian enclave’s Hamas rulers and their arsenal, a government minister said on Tuesday. Humanitarian agencies put the latest reconstruction costs for the impoverished Gaza Strip at $500 million following 11 days of cross-border fighting in May.
Iranian networks at risk of more cyberattacks, officials warn A number of vulnerabilities, including a failure to implement proper security policies and a lack of timely updates, are putting Iranian networks at risk of cyberattacks, the Iranian Students News Agency (ISNA) reported on Monday, after a string of recent cyberattacks targeted transportation in Iran.
Texas Democrats leave state in bid to stonewall GOP voting bills A group of nearly 60 Texas Democrats left the Lone Star State in a bid to stonewall a pair of Republican-backed voting reform bills. At least 58 legislators in the state’s House of Representatives were projected to flee Austin on Monday to paralyze the chamber until they return to the Texas Capitol, according to NBC News, which cited a source familiar with the matter.
Flash floods cause travel chaos in parts of London Heavy rain has caused flash floods in various parts of London. Cars have been submerged as roads filled with water while train services have also been cancelled. Photos on social media showed parts of south-west London including Barnes, Raynes Park and Richmond had been affected, as had areas of north London including Golders Green and Highgate.
OPEC+ impasse risks price war as demand surges, says IEA Stalled talks by top oil producers over releasing more supply could deteriorate into a price war just as COVID-19 vaccines are sending demand for oil surging, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said… The…agency’s concern over scarce oil supply comes less than two months after it issued a landmark report warning that investors should not fund new oil, gas or coal…if the world wants to reach net zero emissions by mid-century.
Japan warns of crisis over Taiwan, growing risks from U.S.-China rivalry Growing military tension around Taiwan as well as economic and technological rivalry between China and the United States raises the prospect of crisis in the region as the power balance shifts in China’s favour, Japan said in its annual defence white paper. China rejected Japan’s conclusions about what it said was normal military activity, calling them irresponsible.
Lapid declares support for two-state solution before EU counterparts Foreign Minister Yair Lapid addressed his 26 European counterparts during a speech to the EU Foreign Affairs Council, the first Israeli cabinet member to do so since Tzipi Livni in 2008. In his remarks, Lapid said it is “no secret” that he supports a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians, but he noted that the conditions are not currently in place for a peace agreement.
Shandong hit by largest tornado outbreak in more than a decade, China Eastern China’s Shandong Province was hit by its largest tornado outbreak in more than 10 years on July 11, 2021. At least 10 tornadoes were reported, with at least 3 of them were violent. The reports are still coming in and the number of reported tornadoes is rising.
Major Escalation – Biden Allies and DNC Instructing Cell Phone Carriers to Filter and Censor Text Message Content Buried in a Politico article about the White House and Biden Regime planning to aggressively confront anyone who attempts to counter their demands of vaccination, including direct confrontation toward any media outlet that would distribute any counter message conflicting the regime narrative, there is this little alarming notation (emphasis mine):
Pandemic-Driven Hunger Hits 15-Year High As Global Crisis Unfolds The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World 2021 (SOFI 2021) report warns food insecurity and malnutrition have hit 15-year highs and are likely to worsen. Well before the COVID-19 pandemic, the world was on track to minimize hunger and malnutrition by 2030. But the virus pandemic disrupted economic flows around the globe, unleashing supply chain hell, compounded by disruptive weather, along with overstimulation by central banks and governments, helping to induce inflation, which has put the world at a critical juncture.
How to HEAL yourself and the world by embracing God’s most precious gifts …In other words, you were granted the gift of life by the same Creator who made the stars and galaxies as well as all the laws of physics that govern cause and effect in the universe. Your existence here is, by definition, important and intelligently designed. Discard any beliefs that attempt to lead you astray from this profound principle.
Sidney Powell: CDC = Criminal Disinformation Center, Committed Criminal Action to Support Big Pharma Sidney Powell joined Steve Bannon in the War Room to discuss the CDC’s new school guidance, says the CDC has lost all credibility. Mentions Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) incident report that just came out. Over 440,000 adverse incidents. They call it strokes, heart attacks, deaths, you name it resulting from the vaccine…
China Mega Investment Deal With Iran Blows U.S. Out of the Picture China has just announced that it will invest 400 bn dollars in Iran over a period of 25 years in exchange for a great deal on Iran’s oil – in the latest move of absolute defiance against the U.S. and its secondary sanctions. Where’s this all heading?
Lightning strikes kill 76 people in IndiaPosted: 13 Jul 2021 07:34 AM PDTSeveral people reportedly taking selfies near a historical fort in northern India were among 76 killed by lightning strikes during the early stages of the annual monsoon season, officials said Monday.Deadly lightning strikes are common in the vast Asian nation during the June-September deluge, which bring respite from the summer heat across the northern Indian plains. Of the 76 killed, at least 23 people died in the mostly desert state of Rajasthan, including a dozen who were watching the storm cross Jaipur city from watchtowers near the famous 12th-century Amer Fort late Sunday, a state disaster department official told AFP.Continue reading Lightning strikes kill 76 people in India at End Time Headlines.
Did Amy Grant Affirm the LGBTQ Community on Apple Music’s Proud Radio?Posted: 13 Jul 2021 07:03 AM PDTSix-time Grammy-Award-winning artist and contemporary Christian music icon Amy Grant was a recent guest on Apple Music’s Country LGTBQ-themed Proud Radio hosted by Hunter Kelly. Kelly, a veteran journalist, and broadcaster who came out near the beginning of his career, has been hosting the country radio show since it debuted in August 2020.Grant appeared on his show Sunday, July 11, 2021, to promote the 30th anniversary of her first mainstream album “Heart in Motion.” The album that gave the world “Baby Baby,” “Every Heartbeat,” “That’s What Love Is For,” “I Will Remember You,” and “Good For Me,” sold more than 5 million copies and was number one on the Christian albums chart for 32 weeks.Continue reading Did Amy Grant Affirm the LGBTQ Community on Apple Music’s Proud Radio? at End Time Headlines.
Amazon granted federal permission to create device capable of monitoring your sleepPosted: 13 Jul 2021 06:52 AM PDTAmazon has been granted federal permission to create a device that monitors people’s sleep. Last month, Amazon requested permission from the Federal Communications Commission to market “non-mobile devices” that use “Radar Sensors” and “would operate at higher power levels than currently allowed.”On Friday, the FCC issued approval for the touchless device, which would use radar sensors to track sleep. In its request, Amazon said the device “could help improve consumers’ awareness and management of sleep hygiene.”In its approval document, the FCC said Google made a similar request in 2018 for its Pixel smartphone.Continue reading Amazon granted federal permission to create device capable of monitoring your sleep at End Time Headlines.
Biden administration now wants to monitor vaccine misinformation in our text messagesPosted: 13 Jul 2021 06:38 AM PDTA recent report revealed the Biden administration has plans to work with tech companies and SMS carriers to monitor and combat misinformation, which was immediately met with skepticism and criticism by Republican lawmakers On Monday, Politico reported plans from the Biden administration to battle misinformation in regards to the COVID-19 vaccine.“The White House has decided to hit back harder on misinformation and scare tactics after Republican lawmakers and conservative activists pledged to fight the administration’s stated plans to go ‘door-to-door’ to increase vaccination rates,” Politico wrote.Continue reading Biden administration now wants to monitor vaccine misinformation in our text messages at End Time Headlines.
U.S. warns China against attack on Philippine forcesPosted: 12 Jul 2021 07:49 PM PDTThe United States on Sunday repeated a warning to China that an attack on Philippine armed forces in the South China Sea would trigger a 1951 U.S.-Philippines mutual defense treaty.Secretary of State Antony Blinken made the comment in a written statement marking the fifth anniversary of a ruling by an arbitration tribunal repudiating China’s vast territorial claims in the South China Sea.China – which lays claim to most of the waters within a so-called Nine-Dash Line, which is also contested by Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan, and Vietnam – reiterated on Friday that Beijing did not accept the ruling.Continue reading U.S. warns China against attack on Philippine forces at End Time Headlines.
10 Reasons Why Bible Prophecy ExistsPosted: 12 Jul 2021 07:42 PM PDT(OPINION) – Did you know that a whopping 31% of the Bible is God revealing how events will unfold before they happen? Our Heavenly Father wants His children to know what the future holds! God’s prophetic Word has excited us here at Lamb & Lion Ministries for over 40 years now.And, that excitement will never abate in the years ahead, for the Good News and hope-filled message about our Savior’s return is what energizes our passion for evangelizing.Continue reading 10 Reasons Why Bible Prophecy Exists at End Time Headlines.
Israel calls on the Nations of the world to mobilize against IranPosted: 11 Jul 2021 06:12 PM PDTIsaac Herzog, Israel’s newly appointed president, responded to congratulations from world leaders by calling on them to join in a universal effort to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons.“Iran’s efforts to acquire nuclear capability constitute a threat to our security and regional stability. I know that together we can prevent its attempts,” Herzog said, quoted by his office. The leaders included in this dialogue were British Queen Elizabeth II, King of Jordan Abdullah II, King of Bahrain Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.Continue reading Israel calls on the Nations of the world to mobilize against Iran at End Time Headlines.
Pentagon warns that China is developing “Space Weapons”Posted: 11 Jul 2021 05:59 PM PDTChina is making sizable, long-term investments in weapons designed to jam or destroy satellites as the nation seeks to rapidly narrow the gap in space technology with the U.S., according to the top intelligence official for the Pentagon’s Indo-Pacific command.China is pushing to develop antisatellite weapons with capabilities from “dazzling to jamming, to kinetic kill-from-the-ground, from space — all that, they’re on the march,” Rear Admiral Michael Studeman said this week during an intelligence-security trade group’s webinar.Continue reading Pentagon warns that China is developing “Space Weapons” at End Time Headlines.
July 12, 2021 – On this new episode of Faith vs. Culture on the CBN News Channel, guest host Sean McDowell joins Faithwire Managing Editor Dan Andros to discuss his new book and why it’s important to be cautious of culture’s definition of love.
On Newswatch AM July 13th: Cubans take to the streets to protest against their Communist government, and President Biden says the US supports the protestors; Biden to give speech on voting today; concerns that Christians and other religious … …
I’m grateful for God’s emphasis on both sound doctrine and sound living for Christian leaders. That’s why Paul commanded Timothy to watch his life and doctrine closely (1 Timothy 4:16)—a Christian leader needs to live a holy life to back up the message of God’s holy Word.
Unfortunately, many leaders have sound doctrine on paper, but fail to live it out—to the peril of their church and their church’s gospel witness. In the oft-neglected letter of 3 John, we hear about Diotrephes, a leader causing great harm for the church he serves. John writes to Gaius in 3 John 9–10:
I have written something to the church, but Diotrephes, who likes to put himself first, does not acknowledge our authority. So if I come, I will bring up what he is doing, talking wicked nonsense against us. And not content with that, he refuses to welcome the brothers, and also stops those who want to and puts them out of the church.
From John’s description of Diotrephes, we see at least five marks of a spiritually abusive leader.
1. A spiritually abusive leader displays selfish ambition.
Diotrephes “likes to put himself first.” May that never be said of us! Selfish leaders who crave attention and adulation are fleshly leaders, for our calling isn’t to exalt ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord and we as His servants (2 Corinthians 4:5). We are to “do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than ourselves” (Philippians 2:4). When we push ourselves to the front of the line, we cut in front of Jesus and rob Him of His glory. Godly leaders are humble servants who humbly shepherd the flock, knowing God will hold them accountable and reward them (1 Peter 5:1–4).
2. A spiritually abusive leader does not respect authority.
Diotrephes did not acknowledge the apostolic authority of John or other leaders in the church. Rejecting the authority of God’s apostles is tantamount to rejecting God’s authority and trying to exert our own. These days many reject the apostolic authority by rejecting Scripture. Others reject God-given leaders of the church due to pride and selfishness. If you or anyone you know brushes off clear commands of Scripture for church life, the qualities of leadership found in 1 Timothy 3 or Titus 1, or directly undermines the words of another leader without Scriptural warrant, beware. You may have a Diotrephes on your hands.
3. A spiritually abusive leader spews unjust accusations.
Talking wicked nonsense is a serious charge as it reveals the lies and malicious intent of Diotrephes’ actions. Spouting unjust accusations can work like poison in the life of a congregation, turning friends against each other and causing them to choose sides and attack each other. Instead of letting harmful words do such damage, Jesus gave clear instructions in Matthew 18:15–20 of what to do if we have a problem with our brother or sister in church. This is especially crucial for leaders who serve as examples to the flock.
4. A spiritually abusive leader lacks hospitality for those who differ.
We don’t know why Diotrephes refused to welcome the traveling itinerant missionaries, but the letter makes it clear that he should have welcomed them. His selfish ambition and desire for power kept him from practicing Christian hospitality to his fellow laborers in Christ. There is clearly an issue between Diotrephes and John and the itinerant brothers. Instead of working to resolve conflict, Diotrephes digs his heels in and lets his “enemies” know the battle is on.
The “one anothers” in Scripture aren’t void if we have a disagreement (assuming it’s not a major theological difference), they exist to help us remember our identity as the one body of Christ by exhorting us to serve one another. If there are people you don’t welcome in your church, don’t play into the devil’s hands, but rather make every effort to reconcile and welcome them as Christ has welcomed you (Romans 15:7).
5. A spiritually abusive leader creates division.
Diotrephes not only refused to welcome the brothers, he makes sure others didn’t either. He also excommunicated those who disagree with him! This “my way or the highway mentality” may work in the business world, but it has no place in the leadership of a church. A church and her leaders are to work hard to “maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3).
A Better Example
In writing 3 John, John wants Gaius to understand God’s desire for leaders which is to model the truth and grace of the gospel in every action. The negative example of Diotrephes flies in the face of this. There is no room for selfish ambition, stirring division, and power grabs in the church. Following his description of Diotrephes, John points to a positive example:
Beloved, do not imitate evil but imitate good. Whoever does good is from God; whoever does evil has not seen God. Demetrius has received a good testimony from everyone, and from the truth itself. We also add our testimony, and you know that our testimony is true. (11–12)
When abusive leaders like Diotrephes discourage you, don’t think there aren’t any good examples. There are also many Demetriuses out there, each characterized by humility, godly discernment, and love. Follow them as they follow Christ.
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