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
A Grateful Mind: Indebted and Discharged Luke 7:42; Romans 13:8
A grateful mind By owing owes not, but still pays, at once Indebted and discharged.
JOHN MILTON
Ritzema, E., & Vince, E. (Eds.). (2013). 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Puritans. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
God’s Faithfulness Does Not Depend On Our Emotions 2 Thessalonians 3:13
It is very foolish, when spiritual sweetness and delight fail, to imagine that God has failed us also; and to imagine that because we have such sweetness, that we have God also.
JOHN OF THE CROSS
Ritzema, E. (2013). 300 Quotations for Preachers from the Reformation. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
23:1to the shepherds who destroy and scatter A metaphor for the rulers of Judah. Their poor leadership resulted in judgment and scattering of the people. Compare Isa 56:11 and Ezek 34:2.[1]
23:1 The false shepherds contrast with Jesus the true shepherd (John 10:11, 14).[2]
Ver. 1.—Woe be unto the pastors, etc.! This “woe” is a pendant to the “woe” upon Jehoiakim in ch. 22:13. The original form of the verse shows the strong feeling with which the prophet both wrote and spoke: “Woe! shepherds who destroy,” etc. By “shepherds” Jeremiah means rather the civil than the spiritual, authorities, especially the kings—ποιμένες λαῶν, as Homer calls them. This is, in fact, the general Old Testament application of the term (see note on ch. 2:8). That destroy. If it is true of all sin that no one can calculate its issues, this is specially true of the sins of rulers. Delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi; or, as an inspired teacher puts it, “The leaders of this people became false guides, and those whom they led were lost men” (Isa. 9:16). How these evil shepherds “destroyed” the people we are not here told; but from ch. 22:3, 13, it is clear that sins of injustice, ranging from oppressive exaction to murder, are specially intended. Scatter; the captivities of the Jews being directly owing to the want of good government and teaching. How could the prophets stem the tide of popular corruption, when the ruling classes opposed their efforts? The sheep of my pasture; or, the sheep of my pasturing—the “pastors” are Jehovah’s—under-shepherds. The figure is a favourite one, especially with the psalmists of the school of Asaph (see Ps. 74:1; 77:20; 78:52 (comp. 70–72); 79:13; 80:1).[3]
23:1 Woe. As mentioned above on 22:13, the word translated as “woe” is an interjection, similar to “Ah!” or even “Argh!” in English. It conveys a lamenting tone of sorrow or sadness due to something terrible and tragic, such as death. In this verse it implies that something terrible and tragic is going to happen to the ones addressed (i.e., the “shepherds”).
the shepherds. In 23:1, 4 the Hebrew word that means “shepherding, pasturing, caring for sheep and goats” is used four times in various forms. The participle (“the one who shepherds”) is translated as “shepherds” (23:1, 4). The “place of shepherding” is translated as “pasture” (23:1), and the verb “to shepherd” is translated as “tend” (23:4).[4]
1. The message begins with a general announcement of doom on the shepherds. ‘Woe to the shepherds who are destroying and scattering the sheep of my pasture!’ declares the Lord. ‘Woe’ (hôy, 22:13) points to the judgment that the Lord is going to bring on the shepherds (2:8). The metaphor of shepherd is frequently used of the king in Israel as the one whose duty it was to guide, protect and provide for the people and to set them an example to follow. We do not know of any king of Israel or Judah who used this as an official title, but ancient Near Eastern records show that many rulers did designate themselves in this way. As the context focuses on the administration of justice and public policy in the land, the term shepherds here does not include religious leaders, either the priests or the prophets. It probably also excludes those officials who were the chief administrators in the kingdom. Though they had leadership roles in the community, it was the king who was ultimately responsible for the conduct and character of the affairs of the nation. The plural term ‘shepherds’ probably encompasses the final four final kings of Judah whose mismanagement and misgovernment disqualified them from being worthy holders of the office.
‘Destroying’ (<√ ʾābad) may also mean ‘to lose, allow to go astray’, ‘let … be lost’ (REB). A participle is used in the expression to bring out the fact that it was characteristic of these kings that they did not provide the leadership that would have kept the people together as a flock dedicated to the service of the Lord. Instead the nation was left without the political and spiritual guidance it required. In this way the shepherds also kept on ‘scattering’ the people. ‘Scatter’ (<pûṣ hiphil, 9:16) views the sheep not as gradually straying apart as they graze, but as spreading panic-stricken before some external threat from which the shepherd has made no attempt to protect them. ‘The sheep of my pasture’ (marʿît, 10:21) were those the Lord had committed to their care, and regarding whose welfare he himself was concerned (Pss. 74:1; 79:13; 100:3). The phrase makes clear the role of the kings as under-shepherds and the Lord himself as the true Shepherd. It was the failure of the under-shepherds that led to their own downfall and that of the people.[5]
1 The word Woe introduces an oracle of judgment. The shepherds are Judah’s rulers, including King Zedekiah and the nobles who seem to have dominated him. But the term may be wider still and gather up a long list of inept, careless, and neglectful rulers for many years past. Certainly the last four kings of Judah were bad shepherds who caused the scattering of the sheep and brought about their dispersal. So the blame is attached to the rulers themselves.[6]
[1] Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., … Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Je 23:1). Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
[2] Crossway Bibles. (2008). The ESV Study Bible (p. 1415). Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles.
[3] Spence-Jones, H. D. M. (Ed.). (1909). Jeremiah (Vol. 1, p. 512). London; New York: Funk & Wagnalls Company.
[4] Hays, J. D. (2016). Jeremiah and Lamentations. (M. L. Strauss & J. H. Walton, Eds.) (p. 164). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books: A Division of Baker Publishing Group.
“Now on the last day, the great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.’” By this He spoke of the Spirit.” John 7:37-39a (NASB)
I drove through an arid and dry landscape marked with sagebrush. A large and swift river ran through it. All that water! But the land remained parched. Then, in the distance I could see blocks of green like the squares of a giant patchwork quilt. As I got closer it became clear that irrigation lines were giving life to otherwise barren fields.
What a vivid picture of our lives! Every person has a deep thirst for health, purpose, and meaning. Yet there is a void, a dryness that touches the remote regions of each person. Just as the spring rain brings some level of relief, a project or a goal might bring life for a season. But a shower of self-effort will only bring temporary results. The dryness and thirst return. The cry of the heart resurfaces: There must be more to life than this.
Only when we are connected to God, the ultimate source, is our deep thirst satisfied and rich fruitfulness the result.
God’s Spirit in the believer brings “rivers of living water” that are unlimited and give abundant and eternal life. Just as the river runs through a dry and thirsty land with little noticeable impact, in the same way, the Spirit in our lives can have limited impact without our daily yielding to His power and influence. The rich fruitfulness of God’s Spirit in someone who yields to Jesus daily is in stark contrast to the barrenness of the Christian who lives a dry and self-reliant existence.
Lord Jesus, I yield each area of my life to You and confess my self-effort as pride. Direct and empower my actions today. May your Spirit create a profound transformation in my life resulting in the fruit of Your Spirit being displayed in my life. Amen.
“You still the hunger of those you cherish … when I awake, I will be satisfied with seeing your likeness” Psalm 17:14b,15b
Ever believed in something so completely to be from God?
I did. Over a decade ago, I fully trusted I was face-to-face with my future. Armed with tenacious determination, I wholeheartedly pursued the object of my libido.
All my time and energy went into the construction of my future kingdom, in spite of red flags springing up around me. My heart had become deceptive and I didn’t recognize it in time.
The hunger to be loved was so blindingly strong, I failed to notice cracks in my palatial brick walls. Slowly, yet methodically, my castle was reduced to rubble and I, a crumpled mess face down on a cold laminate floor. It was a while before my seething misery broke the silence, yelling, “Are you satisfied?”, and sobbing ensued.
I wasn’t at all — and for the entirety of my divinely false chase that spanned more than ten years. Even as a devoted Christian, my misplaced dissatisfaction had resulted in fanciful delusions.
Today, I’m happy that not only did I take away valuable revelations from my devastating heartbreak, but it also drove me back into the arms of God. The main thing is the main thing again. I no longer hunger for pursuits outside of God’s reach and, in him, I am fully satisfied.
As Christians, we can become unappeasable in life, especially when we hunger for anything greater than the Lord. Let us keep the main thing front-and-centre, allowing God to be the only one to satisfy us.
Heavenly Father, it’s taken me a long time to finally get to you. Even though I thought I was doing things right all along. It’s incomprehensible how long suffering you have been with me, all in an effort that I would appreciate my relationship with you even more. I am truly grateful to have you as the center of my life again. Keep me on this straight, narrow path that holds the best outcome in your hands. I love and praise your mighty name. Amen.
Ask the Lord to protect you from all temptation and to keep you wholly satisfied in him.
John Legend, Keith Urban, and Angélique Kidjo led a version of John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s utopian anthem “Imagine” at the Tokyo Olympics, which featured Legend, whose net worth is an estimated $75 million, belting out the line “imagine no possessions.”
This is the dream of all God-rejecting Liberals everywhere, to live in a world unencumbered by the perfect, righteous and holy God who will hold them accountable, and instead invite you to ‘imagine’ a a place where there is no hope of Heaven. That place is called Hell in the Bible, and you better pray that the imagination portrayed in that song does not come true for you. So after 17 months of a global pandemic, the whole world is coming together to imagine living without God.
“And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart.” Jeremiah 18:12 (KJB)
In your King James Bible, the word ‘imagination’ appears 14 times, and in every one of those times it points to the wickedness and evil of the unregenerate human heart. I wonder if John Lennon knew that when he wrote the anti-God atheist national anthem ‘Imagine’? Fun fact, your Not Inspired Version NIV bible removes all 14 instances of the word ‘imagination’, providing only 2 spots with the word ‘imagination’, not matching the King James, and floundering in watered-down meaninglessness.“Imagine there’s no heaven It’s easy if you try No hell below us Above us, only skyImagine all the people Livin’ for todayI hope someday you’ll join us And the world will live as one”
John Legend, Keith Urban Lead Singing of ‘Imagine’ at Olympics Opening Ceremony
FROM BREITBART NEWS: The Opening Ceremony kicked off on Friday with several artists participating in a rendition of “Imagine” — which asks listeners to, ironically, imagine there are “no countries.” The Suginami Junior Chorus and Spanish musician Alejandro Sanz were also featured in the number.
Legend, an overtly leftist Hollywood activist, belted out the lyrics, “Imagine no possessions/I wonder if you can/No need for greed or hunger/A brotherhood of man/ Imagine all the people/ Sharing all the world. The multi-millionaire “All of Me” singer, who considered fleeing the U.S. because of former President Trump, is no stranger to the hypocrisy.
Last year, he teamed up with failed Democrat gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams for a “Rock the Runoff” get-out-the-vote concert, which featured tickets costing up to $25,000. The climate change hardliner, along with his wife Chrissy Teigen, also took a private jet to perform for Joe Biden’s inaugural event in January. That was not the first time the millionaires took such action.
In February 2020, Legend and Teigen flew 500 miles just for a Valentine’s Day date — an action that would be impossible if Legend lived up to the utopian lyrics he performed in his Olympic rendition of “Imagine.” READ MORE
Praying and sinning will never live together in the same heart. Prayer will consume sin, or sin will choke prayer.
J. C. RYLE*
Ritzema, E. (Ed.). (2012). 300 Quotations for Preachers. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
How Frail Is Human Nature! Romans 3:27; 1 Corinthians 4:7; 2 Corinthians 3:5
How great is the frailty of human nature which is ever prone to evil! Today you confess your sins and tomorrow you again commit the sins which you confessed. One moment you resolve to be careful, and yet after an hour you act as though you had made no resolution. We have cause, therefore, because of our frailty and feebleness, to humble ourselves and never think anything great of ourselves.
THOMAS À KEMPIS*
Ritzema, E., & Brant, R. (Eds.). (2013). 300 quotations for preachers from the Medieval church. Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press.
Klobuchar’s Plan for Redlining Speech THOMAS GALLATIN Under the guise of preventing COVID “misinformation,” her bill would limit liability protection for social media companies.
Fleeing Texas Dems Are COVID Super-Spreaders THOMAS GALLATIN Thus far, six of the lawmakers have contracted the virus and spread it to both Pelosi’s office and the White House.
Judge Stops Biden’s DACA Expansion THOMAS GALLATIN Meanwhile, the administration plans to open the border even wider by ending Trump’s COVID migrant restrictions.
Good News About American Families THOMAS GALLATIN After decades of decline, the percentage of children living in two-parent homes is on the rise.
TODAY’S MEME For more of today’s memes, visit the Memesters Union.
TODAY’S CARTOON For more of today’s cartoons, visit the Cartoons archive.
QUOTE OF THE WEEK “Remember when the Democrat sales pitch for Biden a year ago was that he would unite America, calm things down, and help the middle class afford stuff like gas, housing and groceries? Hilarious.” —Buck Sexton
Typhoon “In-Fa” moving over Okinawa, landfall expected south of Shanghai, China Typhoon “In-Fa” — the 7th named storm of the 2021 Pacific typhoon season — is slowly moving over Okinawa, southern Japan on July 23, 2021. After passing over Okinawa, In-Fa is expected to move north of Taiwan before making landfall south of Shanghai, China on July 25, with maximum sustained winds up to 140 km/h (87 mph).
Jen Psaki Refuses To Say How Many Breakthrough COVID Cases There Are In White House After Fully Vaccinated Texas Fleebaggers Superspreader Oh, the intellectual agony of being a Democrat! Having to pretend you have the moral high ground while in reality you are a lying, cheating and conniving bottom feeder who would sell your own mother for kale salad served with sustainable cutlery. Here we have the very people who tell us we have a “pandemic of the unvaccinated” while at the same time refusing to say how many fully vaccinated White House staffers got COVID from the Texas Fleebaggers. Wait, I thought Biden said you can’t get COVID if you’re vaccinated…what??
Dubai Makes Artificial Rain With Drones That Shock Clouds The United Arab Emirates (UAE) uses drones that fly into clouds and deliver an electric shock to “cajole them” into producing precipitation amid dangerous heat waves regularly surpassing triple digits.
Covid vaccine: Pfizer begins trial on infants and young kids Pfizer said it has started a clinical trial testing its Covid-19 vaccine on healthy 6-month to 11-year old children, a crucial step in obtaining federal regulatory clearance to start vaccinating young kids and controlling the pandemic.
Yale doctor calls out CDC for committing large scale medical fraud and hiding covid cases among the vaccinated The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is engaged in one of the greatest medical frauds of our time, using disparate PCR cycle thresholds to artificially inflate covid-19 cases in the unvaccinated, while hiding covid cases in the fully vaccinated. This covid-19 testing fraud continues to obfuscate the American medical response, as the original aerosolized bioweapon evades detection, as the ongoing release of that spike protein continues through the “savior” vaccines.
Report: Monsanto forced science journal to RETRACT study of Roundup dangers Monsanto pressured a scientific journal to retract a study about its flagship herbicide Roundup. This is according to a new report that alleges that the company launched a concerted effort against the author of a study that found that rats exposed to the glyphosate-based herbicide over an extended period of time developed tumors.
Philippines rocked by powerful magnitude 6.6 earthquakePosted: 23 Jul 2021 04:20 PM PDTAn earthquake of magnitude 6.7 struck south of the Philippine capital early on Saturday, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology said.The agency said aftershocks were expected from the tectonic earthquake, which had a depth of 116 kilometers (72.08 miles). Some residents in the capital region were awakened by the quake that lasted nearly a minute.“The quake was deep so there is no tsunami,” Renato Solidum, director of the Seismology agency, told DZRH radio station.Continue reading Philippines rocked by powerful magnitude 6.6 earthquake at End Time Headlines.
It’s so hot in Dubai that the government is artificially creating rainstormsPosted: 23 Jul 2021 12:21 PM PDTWith temperatures in Dubai regularly surpassing 115 degrees Fahrenheit, the government has decided to take control of the scorching weather. Scientists in the United Arab Emirates are making it rain — artificially — using electrical charges from drones to manipulate the weather and force rainfall across the desert nation.Meteorological officials released video footage this week showing a downpour over Ras al Khaimah, as well as several other regions. The new method of cloud seeding shows promise in helping to mitigate drought conditions worldwide, without as many environmental concerns as previous methods involving salt flares.Continue reading It’s so hot in Dubai that the government is artificially creating rainstorms at End Time Headlines.
It’s simple really. Your free speech is killing people.
It is clear that the Democrats are now completely done with free speech as an American institution.
Those days are over.
The US Constitution no longer applies. And why should it? When you know you don’t have to worry about elections anymore. You can hide your dementia-suffering candidate in the basement for months and still win an election by stealing the ballots. And Democrats can do this against the most popular presidential candidate in history.
So why worry?
On Friday Psaki took it to another level and said Americans who post “misinformation” should be completely un-personed and should have no access to online platforms.
Then also on Friday Surgeon General Vivek Murthy stood in front of his liberal peers in the White House press room and labeled free speech a severe national “health risk.” The Surgeon General is killing free speech.
Of course, the ‘disinformation” is selected by the regime and can be altered or updated at any time.
And they know they can because the demons in the old media and big tech are on their side.
While urging Americans to get the vaccine, Joe Biden falsely claimed that “If you’re vaccinated, you’re not going to be hospitalized, you’re not going to be in the ICU unit and you’re not going to die.”
(Revolver) Did you happen to catch CNN’s town hall on Wednesday?
The broadcast was hosted by Don Lemon, and featured a predictably confused and stammering Joe Biden, haplessly trying to muck his way through an array of topics ranging from gun-gabbing to January 6th to Covid.
Joe experienced a lot of fumbles along the way- including one jaw-dropping moment where he lost his faculties for 25 seconds while trying to answer a simple question about the vaccine.
Eventually, Don Lemon jumped in and helped guide Joe out of the weeds.
The night was such a disaster that Sky News host Rita Panahi called Joe’s town hall “incoherent gibberish even by his very low standards.” View article →
War over Wuhan as Senator Rand Paul battles it out with Anthony Fauci leading one late night host to fantasize about the senator’s death. Joe Biden has a town hall on CNN and let’s say it wasn’t his best performance. Steve Malzberg has more of what the media won’t show you. #QuestionMore #RTAmerica #EatThePress
The bill would require everyone in France to have a special virus pass to enter restaurants and other venues and make. Covid-19 vaccinations mandatory for all health care workers.
And this was up from 9,125 reported deaths from the COVID-19 vaccinations total from the previous week.
The number of deaths linked to the CDC promoted vaccines this year has absolutely skyrocketed. According to the CDC’s own data.
The VAERS database contains information on unverified reports of adverse events (illnesses, health problems and/or symptoms) following immunization with US-licensed vaccines. The CDC government website links to VAERS platform.
Three weeks ago VAERS reported 6,985 deaths due to the COVID vaccines. Two weeks ago that number jumped to 9,048.
Then it jumped to 11,140.
But this week it only jumped a couple hundred. That’s weird huh?
“The Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) database contains information on unverified reports of adverse events (illnesses, health problems and/or symptoms) following immunization with US-licensed vaccines. Reports are accepted from anyone and can be submitted electronically at www.vaers.hhs.gov.”
WORLD—After a century of hard-fought battles for equal rights, the feminist movement has finally achieved its ultimate goal of obliterating women’s sports, relabeling mothers “birthing persons,” and getting women drafted into the military.
“We are so proud of what we have achieved,” said Mandy Chandrilla, a biological man who now identifies as a female feminist. “Women were so oppressed, and we realized there was really no way around it, so we just rendered the term ‘woman’ meaningless and effectively eliminated women as a meaningful category of human altogether. Hooray for feminism!”
Chandrilla then shotgunned a beer and crushed the can on her head in celebration.
According to experts, women can now enjoy soul-crushing corporate jobs, lose in sports to transgender heroes, get shot in battle, grow a mustache, and act as gender-neutral spawning bags for biologically male partners.
Women all over the world are thanking feminism for its tremendous achievement in eliminating inequality by turning them into men. “This is just what we wanted,” said all the women everywhere. “Great job everyone!”
Wokeness has infiltrated every industry, from the military to media to philanthropy. It has succeeded in spite of a lack of public support. But according to Hoover Institution Senior Fellow Victor Davis Hanson, there is a way to stop it.
In the old days, Democrats had predictable agendas, supposedly focused on individual rights, the “little guy” and distrust of the military-industrial complex.
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