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
Fear can bring out some rather unpredictable behavior, even among those who seem fearless. If you are human and care anything at all for your well-being, you will be prone to fear.
As an emotion, fear can be helpful. It’s fear that shouts, “Stop!” when you’re about to do something reckless or dangerous. But fear is never good when it is associated with Jesus. When the disciples fled the unfolding scene, they did so ignorantly. It wasn’t until later that they realized the tortuous acts the angry mob would inflict against the Son of God.
Yes, the disciples fled, just as we would have had we been there. And yes, they forsook Him just as you and I would have forsaken Him then. But thankfully, God never held that against them, nor does He hold it against us. Sadly, but honestly, we all have succumbed to the same panic, and it has caused us to say and do things we never would have considered otherwise.
God ordains every moment and tailors it for us individually, yet fear may be robbing you of what God wants you to experience. Perhaps you’ve fled from His requests to go deeper and grow stronger in Him, or you’ve forsaken and refused His invitations to serve His people. All because of anxiety about what may come. Why not join me in agreeing to make fear a defeated foe? Let us resolve to fear nothing that God wills.
Awaiting His Return,
– Pastor Jack
Have you been blessed by Pastor Jack’s Devotions? Email us now: CLICK HERE
Do you ever wonder if you’re “useful” to God? Listen as Alistair Begg talks to college students about what he describes as “the surprising secret to being useful to God.” It’s another listener-favorite message from Truth For Life with Alistair Begg.
“I hope in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you soon, so that I too may be cheered by news of you. For I have no one like him … I have thought it necessary to send to you Epaphroditus my brother and fellow worker and fellow soldier, and your messenger and minister to my need.”
Do you have someone you would call in a moment of crisis? What qualities make him or her suited for such a responsibility? More than likely, the person you’d decide to call is someone whom you trust, and someone who you know would drop whatever he or she was doing to come to your aid. Such men and women are true friends.
When Paul found himself in need of help, stuck in a Roman jail cell, he knew what friends he could call: Timothy and Epaphroditus. He mentions them by name in Philippians 2 and describes them as beloved co-laborers in Christ. Yet what is most helpful for us to see is not merely that Paul had such trustworthy companions but why they were so.
First, these were men of action. Paul had “no one like” Timothy and said that his “proven worth” was known to all because “he has served with me in the gospel” (Philippians 2:22). Likewise, Epaphroditus was a “fellow worker and fellow soldier,” a man who “nearly died for the work of Christ, risking his life” in ministry (v 30). These men embodied Christian action. They weren’t merely names on a membership list or numbers on a chart. They were putting their faith to work and showing their worth to the faith. When Paul needed to send someone to Philippi, he knew they would act.
They were also men of availability—not in the sense that they simply kept their calendars clear but in that they were ready to do what was needed, when it was needed. These were not small commitments that Paul asked them to make! But he knew that their dedication to Christ was such that when he called, they would be available.
Could you be described in these ways? When there are ministry needs around you, are you known to be a man or woman of action and availability? It doesn’t necessarily, or often, look like signing up for something so dramatic as that which Paul sent his friends to do. The point isn’t to serve in grand ways. The Lord doesn’t need your labors. But when you commit to acting in His name and being available for His causes, He may be pleased to use you for the good of His people.
Simple, small acts can be significant. What if you determined to pick up the phone twice a week to call a fellow church member and encourage them? What if you regularly visited someone to pray with them? There is no better friend than the one who points others to Jesus. Be sure to surround yourself with those kinds of friends, and work to be such a friend yourself.
Job 1:21 — I have a friend that has gone through the loss of his family (Job 1:15, Job 1:19), the loss of financial provisions (Job 1:17), and also the loss of good health (Job 2:7). Today, you may be facing these same challenges, or you may know someone who is. If you aren’t being challenged right now, thank God for this season of blessing. If you are, this is the book to read!
Job 2:13 — Sometimes the best thing you can do for your friends is to sit silently by. Job’s friends did well until they opened their mouths.
1 Corinthians 14:5 — It would be exciting to have a cool spiritual gift to be seen by many (or even just your friends), or to be admired or even envied. But as we read in 1 Corinthians 14:12, your value is not in how impressive your gift is, but in how it edifies the church. From Preaching Today:
Edward Kimball is probably not known to you. He lived over a hundred years ago. He was a Sunday school teacher in Boston, where a young teenager became part of his class. The young man was a country boy. He didn’t know the ways of the city or of the church. But he came to Kimball’s Sunday school class.
When the teen first came to his class, Edward Kimball handed him a Bible. When Mr. Kimball said, “Turn to the Gospel of John,” the country boy didn’t know how to find the Gospel of John. Edward Kimball recognized what was happening, and while the other boys were snickering, he opened the Bible to the Gospel of John and handed it back. When he asked the boys to read, the country boy fumbled as he read.
But Edward Kimball had a big perspective, and he saw possibilities in the boy. Kimball worked with him, and after some months he went down to the store where the boy was working, went into the back room where he was stacking boxes, and led Dwight to Jesus Christ. That was the beginning of the ministry of Dwight L. Moody, this continent’s greatest evangelist during the last century.
Psalm 37:16 — Contentment … whether it’s with your spiritual gift or with your financial state. For at the end, you will be satisfied in the days of famine (Psalm 37:19)! You will not be begging bread (Psalm 37:25). You will not be forsaken by the LORD (Psalm 37:28).
Not another one. As I have repeatedly warned my readers, leaders all over the globe seem to have come down with a really bad case of war fever. Instead of sitting down and attempting to find solutions through diplomacy, many of our leaders seem quite eager to use military force to settle matters these days. There is no peaceful end to the war in Ukraine on the horizon, China is making preparations to invade Taiwan, and the “shadow war” in the Middle East could easily erupt into a full-blown regional conflict. But in this article I am going to focus on the next war that is reportedly about to begin. A group of nations in western Africa known as ECOWAS is preparing to invade Niger with the approval of the EU and the Biden administration, and CNN is reporting that “D-Day” has already been chosen…
The West African regional bloc ECOWAS says it has chosen an undisclosed “D-Day” for a possible military intervention to restore Niger’s democratically elected president following last month’s coup.
Abdel-Fatau Musah, the Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace & Security of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) bloc, said that military forces are “ready to go anytime the order is given” for military intervention in Niger.
“The D-day is also decided, which we are not going to disclose,” Musah told journalists after the two-day meeting of West African defense chiefs in the Ghanaian capital of Accra.
Musah went on to ominously declare that his alliance will not put up with any more coups in Niger and that they are “putting a stop to it at this time”…
The commissioner said the bloc had decided that the “coup in Niger is one coup too many,” for the region, adding that there will be no further meetings of ECOWAS defense chiefs on the issue.
“We are putting a stop to it at this time,” Musah said in his concluding remarks.
But what most people in the western world don’t realize is that there is a lot more to this story than we are being told.
For decades, puppet politicians have allowed wealthy western nations to greatly exploit Niger. It has vast quantities of gold and uranium, but the vast majority of the population of Niger continues to live in complete and utter poverty.
This is why the coup is so popular in Niger. The population is sick and tired of being raped by France, and now the French are deeply concerned that they may no longer be able to exploit their former colony…
A powerful undercurrent of the military coup in Niger is anti-French sentiment emerging from a sense that Niger has been exploited by its former colonial master France. Supporters of the coup have protested at the French embassy and otherwise attacked French interests in Niger.
One particularly prominent complaint has to do with French use of Niger’s rich resources, especially gold and uranium, while Niger remains one of the poorest nations in the world. France’s President Emmanuel Macron, who is fresh off the heels of riots and an uprising in Paris largely perpetrated by immigrants from France’s former colonies, has warned Niger against any attack on France’s interests.
Of course you won’t hear any of this on the corporate news networks.
They will just tell you that the coup leaders are bad and the upcoming invasion is good.
The United States has 1,100 troops in Niger, where it has spent hundreds of millions of dollars training security forces to battle terrorist organizations. Niger is a critical part of America’s overall counter-terrorism strategy, especially given the rise of Islamist extremist groups in Africa.
Why did we need to have so many troops there?
Sadly, it seems like we have troops almost everywhere.
Ultimately, the U.S. military is used to keep “order” all over the world, and that often means protecting western economic interests.
Meanwhile, we have just learned that the Netherlands and Denmark have agreed to provide Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets…
The Netherlands and Denmark will provide Ukraine with much sought-after F-16 aircraft in an agreement hailed by President Volodymyr Zelensky as “historic.”
Kyiv has urgently been calling on its Western allies to provide F-16 jets, as its slow-moving counteroffensive is hampered by Russian air superiority.
Speaking at a joint press conference with Zelensky at Eindhoven airport, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said his country would “commit to delivering F-16 aircraft to Ukraine” once “the conditions for such a transfer have been met.”
Zelensky has wanted F-16s for a long time.
Now he is going to get them.
Both sides just continue to escalate the conflict in Ukraine, and this is going to be such a huge story in the months ahead.
On the other side of the world, it appears that the Chinese military has been systematically practicing for an invasion of Taiwan…
The Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Eastern Theatre Command has released a provocative video showing troops practicing a coastal invasion of Taiwan. The video first appeared on the social media site WeChat Thursday, and features waves of PLA soldiers storming beaches, including armored vehicles and tanks driving into attack positions.
The clip didn’t specifically name Taiwan, but given the Eastern Theatre Command oversees the Taiwan Strait area, it’s being widely interpreted as a warning and threat aimed at the self-ruled island which is backed by the West.
The moment that China launches such an invasion, the U.S. and China will be at war.
We are living at a time of wars and rumors of wars, but most people in the western world don’t understand any of the things that I just shared with you.
In fact, most of our young people would have a really difficult time even finding Niger, Ukraine or Taiwan on a blank map of the world.
But eventually conflict will arrive on our doorstep too, and then everyone will be paying attention…
Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.
About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “End Times” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written six other books that are available on Amazon.com including “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending copies as gifts to family and friends. Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible. I have also started a brand new Substack newsletter, and I encourage you to subscribe so that you won’t miss any of my articles. I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is definitely a great help. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, I strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.
It is just one thing after another. When times were normal in this country, there would be a major disaster every once in a while, but now we have reached a stage where there is literally no pause between them. Authorities are still trying to assess the damage from the historic wildfires that we just witnessed in Hawaii. We are being told that they were the deadliest wildfires in the entire history of our country, and now suddenly more wildfires are burning tens of thousands of acres in western portions of the state of Washington. At the same time, the state of California is bracing for an extremely rare disaster. According to AccuWeather, the impact that Hilary is going to have on the state “has the potential to be an extraordinary event”…
AccuWeather meteorologists say that a life-threatening flooding disaster is unfolding in some of the desert areas and mountains in Southern California to southern Nevada, where more than a year’s worth of rain could fall.
“The impact from Hilary has the potential to be an extraordinary event, one that is rare and unprecedented,” AccuWeather Director of Forecasting Operations Dan DePodwin said.
This is not something that happens every day.
In fact, if Hilary is still considered to be a tropical storm when it hits California, it will be the first time this century that something like this has happened…
If Hilary is still categorized as a tropical storm over California, that would be the first time that happened in almost 26 years, since the former Hurricane Nora tracked near the Colorado River in California as a tropical storm in Sept. 1997.
Norman and Kathleen, in 1978 and 1976, respectively, brought impacts to Southern California, but neither officially made landfall as a tropical storm.
There were only two times landfalls happened prior to 1950, including a Sept. 1939 tropical storm in the L.A. Basin and an Oct. 2, 1858 hurricane, which tracked from San Diego to Long Beach.
But no matter how it is categorized, everyone agrees that that there is going to be an extremely unusual amount of rain.
Historic Hilary − downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm but still carrying the potential for “dangerous to catastrophic” flooding − made landfall in the Mexican peninsula of Baja California on Sunday while churning north toward the U.S.
Hilary was 115 miles south-southeast of San Diego when the National Hurricane Center released its latest update at 2 p.m. Pacific Time, warning of “catastrophic and life-threatening flooding likely over Baja California and portions of the Southwestern U.S. through Monday.”
The flooding has already begun in some areas of California as I write this article.
Authorities are warning that extremely heavy rainfall will trigger landslides and mudslides, and this is especially true in areas that have recently experienced wildfires.
High winds will be an issue as well. San Diego County has already seen gusts of up to 84 mph, and Yuma, Arizona has already seen gusts of up to 62 mph.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has officially declared a state of emergency, and Nevada Governor Joe Lombardo has done the same.
This crisis is going to play out over several days, and it is going to hit a population that is largely unprepared for such a storm.
Once residents of southern California began to realize what was about to hit them, thousands upon thousands of people descended upon local grocery stores to stock up on needed supplies…
But panic buying has set in and some supermarket shelves in San Diego and Los Angeles were stripped bare of essentials such as water and tinned food.
Videos of people panic buying at grocery stores started emerge from California, with one tweet making jest of the ‘essentials’ being bought by people in Los Angeles.
‘A sign you’re in LA and not the southeast US during hurricane / tropical storm preparation: WHITE BREAD is left at Trader Joe’s!!! Focaccia – all gone!!! But even during storm prep, Angelenos ain’t bringing home the white bread!’ the post read with a picture of empty shelves and around seven loaves of white bread.
Of course those that had prepared ahead of time didn’t need to battle the crowds.
Something else just happened that is very important for me to mention.
As Southern California braced for a highly unusual summer storm Sunday afternoon, residents were struck by a much more familiar phenomenon: a magnitude 5.1 earthquake, according to the US Geological Survey.
The epicenter of the quake was in Ojai, between Santa Barbara and Ventura, and it occurred along the Sisar fault, USGS data showed.
Studies have shown that large amounts of water can stir up fault lines.
Personally, I believe that we have now reached a point where the people of California should be extremely concerned about the possibility of the arrival of “the Big One”, and this is something that I discussed on my Substack a few days ago.
Speaking of major disasters, authorities are still recovering dead bodies that were killed during the recent wildfires in Hawaii.
The official death toll currently stands at 111, but local residents are saying that the real death toll is at least four times higher…
Maui authorities are dramatically underplaying the number of people known to have died in the inferno that ripped through Lahaina last week – with locals telling DailyMail.com that the actual death toll is at least 480 and that morgues had run out of body bags.
The figure is quadruple that of the official number of 111 – and some of the relatives of the victims have been left to uncover the remains of their loved ones themselves due to the glacial progress of the search and recovery operation.
I don’t think that any of us will soon forget the images of the destruction in Hawaii.
But now brand new headlines about devastating wildfires are crying for our attention.
Terrifying wildfires which have so-far killed one person are continuing to tear across Washington state with more than 20,000 acres burned this weekend.
The entire North Western state remains under an alert, while the largest parkland area – Mount Spokane State Park – has been closed off to the public as firefighters battle to contain the inferno.
In Spokane County, east Washington, the largest wildfire has razed 10,892 acres of land, destroying nearly 200 buildings and killing at least one person in its wake as thousands evacuated the danger zone.
Sadly, this is how it is going to be now.
There is just going to be one thing after another, and most people will have absolutely no idea why any of this is happening.
Michael’s new book entitled “End Times” is now available in paperback and for the Kindle on Amazon.com, and you can check out his new Substack newsletter right here.
About the Author: My name is Michael and my brand new book entitled “End Times” is now available on Amazon.com. In addition to my new book I have written six other books that are available on Amazon.com including “7 Year Apocalypse”, “Lost Prophecies Of The Future Of America”, “The Beginning Of The End”, and “Living A Life That Really Matters”. (#CommissionsEarned) When you purchase any of these books you help to support the work that I am doing, and one way that you can really help is by sending copies as gifts to family and friends. Time is short, and I need help getting these warnings into the hands of as many people as possible. I have also started a brand new Substack newsletter, and I encourage you to subscribe so that you won’t miss any of the latest updates. I have published thousands of articles on The Economic Collapse Blog, End Of The American Dream and The Most Important News, and the articles that I publish on those sites are republished on dozens of other prominent websites all over the globe. I always freely and happily allow others to republish my articles on their own websites, but I also ask that they include this “About the Author” section with each article. The material contained in this article is for general information purposes only, and readers should consult licensed professionals before making any legal, business, financial or health decisions. I encourage you to follow me on social media on Facebook and Twitter, and any way that you can share these articles with others is definitely a great help. These are such troubled times, and people need hope. John 3:16 tells us about the hope that God has given us through Jesus Christ: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” If you have not already done so, I strongly urge you to invite Jesus Christ to be your Lord and Savior today.
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