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
The climate change boondoggle acts as a mechanism for all kinds of social, economic and political changes that could greatly diminish the freedom and financial survival of the average person.
As the world witnessed with the covid pandemic, global institutions working with governments and corporations are happy to hype up false threats and inspire public hysteria if they think they can use that rising fear to whittle away our individual rights. The hype over “greenhouse emissions” is no exception.
The vast majority of climate and carbon policies appear to be aimed at the west,and this is one of the reasons why we know the claims behind them are fake. China alone accounts for around 32% of all global carbon emissions, with the US accounting for only 14% and the EU accounting for around 8%. Yet, think-tanks like the World Economic Forum and globalist havens like the UN are hyperfocused on the US and Europe while China does as it pleases.
Why? Perhaps because the Chinese population is already well under control and there is no need to use climate fear as a weapon to subdue them? In any case, the greenhouse gas issue is superfluous because there is zero evidence of a causation relationship between carbon emissions and global warming. Even the evidence of correlation is highly suspect. And, if you ask any climate alarmist where there is proof of the “climate crisis” they always rant about, they will predictably point to normal weather events (or wildfires) which have been common since human records started.
We have been hearing a lot lately about efforts to diminish or ban natural gas stoves in the US, to throttle agricultural production in Europe and to restrict meat in the public diet, but the most pervasive carbon restrictions are planned for cars and private transportation. The WEF has recently published a blueprint for reducing individual car ownership by 75% by the year 2050.
The white paper, titled ‘Benchmarking the Transition to Sustainable Urban Mobility’ establishes various guidelines for shifting the majority of the human population over to mass transportation within compact “smart cities.” The WEF also suggests that over 70% of all people will have to live in these smart cities by 2050 – Currently, 45% of the world lives in rural areas, requiring another 15% of the population to be forced into cities in the next couple decades. Not only that, but 2nd and 3rd tier cities would have to be combined into single homogenized networks. In other words, megacities.
The WEF transportation agenda demands that out of over 2 billion car owners, 1.5 billion people will lose the option of personal transportation. That would leave only 500 million people in the world with the “privilege” of owning a vehicle.
Also keep in mind that the UN also wants net zero carbon emissions by 2050, which means no more gas powered vehicles in the next 25 years.
The WEF paper is awash in meaningless buzzwords covering “equity and inclusion” rhetoric as well as “sustainable development goals” and “stakeholder capitalism” terminology. Reading between the lines is necessary to understand the implications.
To summarize, transportation reduction is an extension of something called Shared, Electric and Automated Mobility (SEAM) Governance Framework, as well as net zero urban planning initiatives. By taking away people’s cars, this forces the populace into smaller and smaller areas where mass transportation is available. These extremely concentrated population regions will be digitally connected and monitored by AI, with unprecedented surveillance measures and the government ability to centralize and dictate public movements, public power usage, public access to food and even public behavior.
All of this is sold as a trade off for Utopian convenience and security, when in reality it means the end of freedom as we know it. China has been acting as a beta test country for these measures, with the some of the largest smart city designs and surveillance grids in the world.
We know that the goal of deconstructing private transport is to herd people into increasingly more compact and oppressive cities, but how would a reduction of car ownership of this scale be accomplished?
Through a series of carbon regulations and inflation in prices. Carbon taxes will be used to make purchasing and maintaining a gas vehicle untenable, and inflation in prices of electric vehicles will mean only the wealthy class will be able to buy them. In this way, the establishment can argue that they “never banned cars,” they just created the economic conditions that forced most of the population to abandon personal ownership.
Once we examine net zero projects as a whole entity instead of just the pieces and parts, it becomes clear that these plans have nothing to do with saving the environment and the planet and everything to do with centralization of power.
Bill Gates met with Chinese leader Xi Jinping this week.
Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) was on with Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures earlier today.
Senator Paul went off on Bill Gates and his controversial funding of bat coronavirus.
Senator Rand Paul: Bill Gates has been over there recently. Bill Gates is the largest funder of trying to find these viruses in remote caves and bring them to big cities. So what happened in China is they went eight to 10 hours south of Wuhan, two to 300ft deep into a cave, found viruses, and took them back to a city of 15 million. There are many, many scientists who think that Bill Gates is wrong in funding this.
Bill Gates and Tony Fauci sure caused a lot of suffering and death with their pet experiments!
There’s a reason that “Oh, come on, it’s just who he is” has never, ever worked as an argument in a court of law.
And yet, that largely appears to be the line of excuse-making that Axios employed in a startling puff piece that largely tried to excuse the incumbent president’s countless gaffes as little more than an insignificant behavioral tic.
In doing so, Axios actually may have done more harm than good for Biden, as they plainly laid out: There is no explanation or excuse for Biden’s alphabet soup spelling and grammar.
The piece, simply titled “Biden’s weird words,” came out Sunday and largely appeared to be some sort of response to Biden’s inexplicable “God save the queen” remark while speaking about gun violence in Connecticut on Friday.
Axios reporter Alex Thompson characterized that nonsensical phrase away as just something that happens.
“President Biden often uses old-timey expressions that confound even his own staff,” Thompson wrote. “That happened again Friday when he ended a speech on gun violence with ‘God save the queen, man.’”
Thompson noted that Olivia Dalton, the White House’s principal deputy press secretary, couldn’t even explain why Biden used a phrase of British patriotism (for a deceased monarch, no less) while halfway across the world from England.
“Biden’s quirky aphorisms are sometimes weaponized by Republicans to insinuate the 80-year-old president is in mental decline,” Thompson noted. “But Biden has been using unique phrases for years — but even some of his aides aren’t exactly sure what he means by them.”
Again… that’s not an excuse, as the blistering comments under the accompanying Axios tweet demonstrated:
President Biden often uses old-timey expressions that confound even his own staff.
That happened again Friday when he ended a speech on gun violence with “God save the queen, man.” https://t.co/vWw9ROVvlY
Dismissing signs of mental decline as little more than a built-in personality trait is an incredibly dangerous disservice to everyone — Americans, international allies, heck, the president himself.
There really isn’t any way to justify or write off Biden’s countless gaffes as little more than “whoopsies,” but that didn’t stop Axios from trying.
But even in its “defense” of the president, the piece did largely feel like the old adage of “damning with faint praise.”
“During this year’s State of the Union, he told Republican lawmakers, ‘Lots of luck in your senior year,’” Thompson wrote.
The best answer Axios could muster: “Some Biden allies believe that’s his way of saying, ‘Good luck with that.’”
Axios also brought up the infamous 2020 “lying, dog-faced pony soldier” incident, where he bizarrely called a female student that.
“He’s claimed in the past that line was from John Wayne, but film aficionados haven’t been able to find the movie (there is a 1952 film called ‘Pony Soldier’ but Wayne’s not in it),” Thompson wrote.
That line might be the most egregious one written by Thompson in this piece because it acknowledges that the president is either lying or making things up in his head (neither of which is a good sign) — and yet the writer dismisses it as much ado about nothing.
“Bottom line: There are legitimate questions about Biden’s age and stamina as he runs for a second term — but his off-beat proverbs are just Biden being Biden,” Thompson concluded.
Look, can this writer admit that there is just a smidgen of mean-spiritedness when some conservatives deride the incumbent president and his follies?
Of course.
But there are also a number of conservatives and Republicans who are genuinely concerned about a man who may or may not be cognitively impaired having access to the nuclear football — and they would feel the same if it were a conservative, Republican president in office showing similar decline.
Biden’s issues, however overblown they may or may not be, should not be dismissed so handily as nothing more than a conservative attack point.
Not everything in politics is rooted in partisan hackery.
Much still is, however, as this Axios article demonstrates.
Billionaire businessman and Twitter owner Elon Musk challenged President Joe Biden’s social media team to give the 80-year-old the password to his Twitter account Saturday in a tweet thread overflowing with humorous jabs and cold, hard fact.
“It’s about time the super-wealthy start paying their fair share,” President Biden tweeted from his personal account Saturday afternoon.
\u201cIt\u2019s about time the super-wealthy start paying their fair share.\u201d
About two hours later, Musk responded with an unusual challenge.
He requested that Biden be given the keys to his social media account, not-so-subtly suggesting the gaffe-prone octogenarian doesn’t come up with tweets on his own.
“Please give him the password so he can do his own tweets. Please, I’m begging you!” Musk wrote, responding to Biden’s tweet.
\u201c@JoeBiden Please give him the password, so he can do his own tweets. Please, I\u2019m begging you!\u201d
Musk’s challenge spurred a number of responses ranging from Dr. Jordan B. Peterson’s quip about the definition of “super-wealthy” being “those who have more money than @JoeBiden” to screenshots of the national debt clock.
After the joking remark about Biden writing (or not) his own tweets, Musk took on a more sober tone. He slammed excess government spending, saying that the burden is carried by those who can least afford it. Musk also included a prediction that the status quo would win the day.
“In all seriousness, I agree that we should make elaborate tax-avoidance schemes illegal, but acting upon that would upset a lot of donors, so we will see words, but no action,” Musk wrote.
“Those who will actually be forced to carry the burden of excess government spending are lower to middle income wage earners, as they cannot escape payroll tax.”
\u201c@JoeBiden In all seriousness, I agree that we should make elaborate tax-avoidance schemes illegal, but acting upon that would upset a lot of donors, so we will see words, but no action. \n\nThose who will actually be forced to carry the burden of excess government spending are lower to\u2026\u201d
March 18, President Biden tweeted that the average tax billionaires pay is 3%, including the same “pay your fair share” verbiage as Saturday’s tweet. That tweet earned a “Community Note,” which is Twitter’s crowd-sourced version of a fact-checking service.
\u201cLook, I think you should be able to be a billionaire if you can earn it, but just pay your fair share.\n \nI think you ought to pay a minimum tax of 25%.\n \nIt\u2019s about basic fairness.\u201d
“I paid more income tax than anyone ever in the history of Earth for 2021 and will do that again in 2022,” Musk tweeted in response, adding that he also said he paid 53% taxes on his Tesla stock options, which “must be lifting the average.”
\u201c@POTUS I paid 53% taxes on my Tesla stock options (40% Federal & 13% state), so I must be lifting the average!\n\nI also paid more income tax than anyone ever in the history of Earth for 2021 and will do that again in 2022.\n\n@CommunityNotes, is the 3% number cited above accurate?\u201d
Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) joined Maria Bartiromo on Sunday Morning Futures this morning.
The Republican representatives gave updates on the ongoing investigations into the Biden Crime Family.
At one point, Maria Bartiromo pointed out the obvious, “Of course, it is the biggest political scandal any of us have ever seen.”
Republicans continue to discover more concrete evidence of the multi-million dollar Biden family bribery scandal with foreign governments including Ukraine and China.
Rep. Biggs added that more evidence is coming. The Ukrainian oligarch who recorded Hunter Biden and Joe Biden discussing their illicit business dealings also has MORE EVIDENCE to produce according to Biggs.
The two US lawmakers also pointed out Chris Wray’s role in hiding evidence from Congress on the Biden family’s illegal activity.
President Trump is still the most popular political figure in the country today with a 45 percent favorability rating along with Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. who is also at 45 percent approval. Elon Musk joins them at 45 percent. Socialist Bernie Sanders is beating Old Joe Biden.
President Trump is beating Joe Biden by six points in a 2024 matchup. Americans still remember when the economy was on fire and inflation was less than 2%.
And a clear majority of Americans (55%) can see the indictment of President Trump is a political hatchet job.
The demons and their lapdog media are fooling no one who is paying attention.
It’s a good thing the tyrants have the lapdog media in their pocket or they would be polling around 20% on every issue. The left depends on the lies of the mainstream outlets to fuel their radical agenda.
Mormons believe Jesus died for sins and rose again from the dead. The atonement is the central event in history and essential to their theology. And yet, Mormons do not have a precise doctrine of the atonement. They do not emphasize Christ as a wrath-bearing substitute, but emphasize simply that Christ somehow mysteriously remits our sins through his suffering.
The aim of this article is to provide a brief overview of Mormon history and theology. My purpose is not to debunk Mormonism or to prove Christianity. But I hope this quick survey will demonstrate that the two are not the same.
A quick note on secondary sources: Christian materials do not always treat Mormonism fairly or go the extra mile to present Mormon ideas as a Mormon would recognize them. One book that does is Andrew Jackson’s Mormonism Explained: What Latter-day Saints Teach and Practice. I also recommend A Different Jesus? The Christ of the Latter-Day Saints by BYU professor Robert Millet. Richard Mouw concedes too much in his Foreword and Afterword, but it is still helpful to get Mormon Christology from a Mormon himself.
Mormon History
Joseph Smith was born in rural Vermont in 1805, the fourth of nine children. With little success farming in Vermont, the Smith family moved west to Palmyra, New York. There Joseph Smith was exposed to different revival movements, and most of his family became Presbyterians, though Smith later said he leaned toward Methodism.
The presence of so many variations of Christianity bothered Smith. Which one was right? How could he choose? At one revival meeting, a preacher quoted from James 1:5 “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him” (KJV). Smith, 14 years old at the time, went home, reflected on these words, and went into the woods to pray.
According to Mormon tradition, this is when Joseph Smith had his first vision. In this vision, which is foundational to the Mormon faith, Smith claimed to see two “personages.” The one—God the Father—pointed to the other and said, “This is My Beloved Son. Hear Him!” Smith asked them what sect he should join. They answered that he should join none of them. They were all wrong. All their creeds were an abomination, and all their believers were corrupt.
Three years later, Mormons believe Smith received another vision. In this vision the angel Moroni told Smith of golden plates buried under a hill near Palmyra. The plates were revealed in 1827 when Smith was provided with two reading crystals—Urim and Thummim—by which he could translate the writing (Smith claimed the plates were written in hieroglyphics). In 1830 Smith published The Book of Mormon, which contains the story of the lost Israelites who migrated to America in the sixth century BC but were killed in battle in AD 428. Smith later received another vision from John the Baptist giving him the Aaronic Priesthood.
That same year (1830) Smith founded the “Church of Christ.” In 1838 he changed the name to “The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.”
Smith continued to receive revelations telling him to move from New York to Ohio to Missouri and eventually to Illinois where he and his followers built a town called Nauvoo. There Smith and his followers tried to live out a utopian vision of society. They also instituted polygyny as early Mormon leaders argued that Jesus had had many wives. Smith and his brother were arrested in 1844. Later a mob stormed the jail and killed them both. Mormons consider Smith a martyr. Others say he died in a violent shoot-out.
Following Smith’s death there was a schism. A small group called the Josephites became the Reorganized Church with headquarters in Missouri. Most followed Brigham Young, who became their First President and prophet. In 1847, Young took the followers to Utah and built Salt Lake City.
Today, according to LDS figures, there are nearly 17 million Mormons worldwide—with about 7 million living in the United States. Mormonism is the largest new religious movement from the West since Christianity (which can be said, more accurately, to have come from the Near East). Mormonism is also the first homegrown American religion. Mormonism continues to grow (though at a slower rate) because of its missionary impulse, its relatively high birthrate, and its commitment to doctrinal and ethical distinctives.
Mormon Theology
Let me highlight seven areas of Mormon doctrine. I won’t try to refute the Mormon position, but I hope you will see the explicit (and often intentional) deviation from historic Christianity.
View of history. In Mormon thinking, the rise of Mormonism was not merely a reformation or renewal of the church. It was a complete restoration. Following the death of Christ’s apostles, the church fell into complete apostasy. The church lost divine authority and true doctrine. There is no unbroken continuity from the early church to the present. Christianity, for almost all of its history, was false and without the truth—until Joseph Smith and his revelation. Mormonism not only rejects historic orthodox Christianity, the entire religion is based on the need for such repudiation.
Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets is one of the latest shows to gain notoriety recently for its criticisms of Christianity. Though the show carries itself as a documentary meant to shed light on the inner workings of the Duggar family, made famous by the reality TV show 19 Kids and Counting, it is much more than its simple subtitle would suggest. By the end, it comes across more as a carefully constructed hit piece, meant to throw dirt on both Christian and conservative practices alike. The Duggars become almost an afterthought at multiple points, as attention is focused on conflating the cultish activities experienced by some former followers of Bill Gothard, works-based religion, and genuinely biblical Christianity. With a sensationalist bent on storytelling, by the end, the show writers almost seem to accomplish their task of persuading the less knowledgeable and easily persuaded that Christianity itself is bad.
This is not a review of Shiny Happy People. Others can review it far better than I can. This is not another piece written about the Duggars—my knowledge of them is very limited to begin with. This is, instead, an attempt to separate what the documentary has conflated. This is an attempt to examine the beliefs of the Duggars, which is focused almost exclusively upon the teachings of Bill Gothard and the Institute in Basic Life Principles (IBLP). This is an attempt to show that biblical Christianity is still good, true, and beautiful, despite the fact that many have tried to twist and distort it for their own means.
Is Christianity a Cult of Religious Fundamentalism?
One of the things that the documentary tries to do is introduce multiple voices to comment on things like the Duggars, the IBLP, and men like Bill Gothard. The majority of these interviews come from either Duggar family members or former members of the IBLP.
Now, it must be pointed out that the connection of the Duggar family, and especially its patriarch Jim Bob, to Bill Gothard and the IBLP, is admittedly interesting fodder for a documentary. It makes for compelling drama, which seems to be the sort of thing that documentaries based on a reality show family would be after. Many of the short comings of the IBLP as well as the reported moral failures of some of the leadership, make for a documentary that is able to continually up the stakes as it details horrifying cruelties endured by previous members. And, most importantly, this allows for interviews that have been constructed in such a way to make the viewer believe the faults lie within Christianity itself, rather than the systems that are actually responsible.
Let’s consider Bill Gothard and the IBLP. The documentary clearly takes a very biased position regarding its teachings and practices, insisting that the IBLP is a representative of all Christianity, and is a backwoods, antiquated, repressive, and misogynistic organization. But, before we deal with the latter claims, let’s first ask the following question: Does Bill Gothard, or the IBLP actually represent all of Christianity?
Of course not! Bill Gothard and the IBLP do not represent historic, biblical Christianity even if some of the teachings may overlap with the real deal. The old saying that a broken clock is right twice a day is appropriate here. Just because Bill Gothard occasionally said or taught things that every Christian would agree with does not mean he or his institution are actually part of the historic Christian tradition. Instead, Gothard and the IBLP are like a fusion of the teachings of the prosperity gospel and moral therapeutic deism. Gothard and the IBLP famously promised God’s blessings over the lives and families of those who put his teachings into practice. Two major problems exist here, though: 1) Not all of his teachings came from the Bible, for he errantly believed that he heard directly from God; and 2) adherence to the moral teachings of man do not bring God’s blessings.
Yet, the documentary continues trying to conflate Gothard’s teachings with the Bible’s teachings. At one point, a former IBLP member is interviewed who was part of a group called the Joshua Generation. This group was evidently concerned primarily with raising up future senators, United States presidents, and Supreme Court justices. Young people were instructed in morality and given the tools to become leaders of the nation. For what its worth, nothing here really seemed all that radical. Shouldn’t all people have the right to try and serve in the public sphere and influence policy? Shouldn’t Christians have the right, like every other group (religious or otherwise), to shape government? Apparently not, according to Shiny Happy People. And while differences surely exist between the two, the documentary again conflates all of the values of the Joshua Generation with biblical Christianity, casting both in the worst possible light, as though Christianity as a whole is a cult machine, pumping out robotic Shiny Happy People all over.
Perhaps the IBLP is run like a religious fundamentalist cult. Maybe Gothard is a wolf in sheep’s clothing, or a very misguided individual. But neither the IBLP nor Gothard represent Christianity. They may fall under the umbrella of Christianity in the same way that Mormons or Jehovah’s Witnesses do, but in the same way that we view these groups as heretical and not true Christianity, so we view Gothard and the IBLP as heterodox at best, and mostly heretical.
How the Show Tries to Pull the Wool Over Your Eyes
To suggest that Gothard or the IBLP actually represent all of Christian teaching and doctrine is like saying that Starbucks represents every coffee house or cup of coffee you could ever possibly drink, or that Burger King represents every fast food joint you can possibly visit. It simply is not true, and common sense dictates that there will be different flavors and recipes to be found elsewhere.
Nevertheless, the show runners have tried to spin their tale in such a way to suggest that Gothard was a religious fundamentalist (and also hypocritical, according to multiple interviews and reports), and so too are all other Christians. While it is true that Gothard attempted to create an institution in which strict adherence to his teachings would secure good standing amongst others, simultaneously promising God’s blessings, that is not what true, biblical Christianity teaches.
True biblical Christianity believes and teaches that sinners are always saved through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ, apart from our own filthy works. True biblical Christianity believes and teaches that because we are saved by God’s grace through faith, our own good works flow out from the salvation we have in Christ. They are not a requirement of salvation. Salvation does not hinge on our doing enough good to merit God’s favor. While we believe God blesses and rewards faithfulness to his Word and Law, we believe faithfulness flows out from God’s grace.
Shiny Happy People ignores all of these distinctions. Instead, it tries to paint the picture that Christianity is a religion of works, wherein one tries to climb a moral ladder to earn their salvation. The documentary often makes appeals to something Gothard taught, shows how the same principle is basically taught in the Bible, and then constructs a narrative through the interviews to create a picture of Christianity as a cult of religious, fundamentalist nutcases.
Take, as an example, Gothard’s teaching on “purity.” The documentary makes a very big deal that both he and the IBLP made much about remaining a virgin until marriage, for sex is to be shared only between a husband and a wife. This, of course, is a good principle to follow, for it is biblical. The documentary, however, proceeds to try and paint this in the most disturbing light possible. Though the following isn’t an exact example, the documentary basically starts to throw as much information at the viewer as possible, without allowing time to process which information comes from the Bible and which comes from Gothard and which was only the unfortunate experience of the ones being interviewed:
The IBLP taught that Fathers are to have control over their daughters until they are married, even having a strong say in who they marry.
Kissing before marriage is frowned upon.
Bill Gothard never married and may have molested multiple girls.
Space is to be kept between members of the opposite sex.
One woman was raped multiple times on her wedding night.
Once married, the couple should have as many children as possible.
Sexual abuse was frequent in the IBLP.
Virginity is a gift that can only be given once.
To remain pure and undefiled from the world is good.
Bible verses repress sexuality.
The examples above, though not exact, act as a picture of what the documentary tries to do. By bombarding the viewer with new bits of information in quick succession, the audience is made to feel as though the problem does not lie with Gothard, the IBLP, or even the ones being interviewed; instead, the implication is that the problem is Christianity. There is no time to discern which information is good and which is bad; the documentary wants the viewer to see all of it as bad.
But, out of the 10 examples listed above, only a few are actually biblical: Christians ought to remain virgins until they are married, fathers ought to lead their sons and daughters in appropriate ways until they leave the home, and remaining pure is good. Some of those examples aren’t necessarily biblical, but they still make logical sense, even if they come from a broken clock (i.e., kissing can be a serious temptation for some to lead to great sin.). And, some of the examples are things that were peculiar to the experiences of the interviewees. While I am thankful that the interviewees were able to speak out, and while I have no desire to discount their experiences, it must again be noted that their experiences simply do not represent all of Christianity.
Of course, that doesn’t mean that the showrunners would like Christianity anymore if they understood the differences between the genuine article and the Gothard counterfeit. Clearly, they had an axe to grind and it was easy to use the popularity of the Duggars and their connection to the IBLP to create a hit piece against Christianity as a whole.
The Enslavement of the Lost to Sin and the Freedom of the Saved to Obey the Law
Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets is trying to make a statement with its title: Beneath the surface of this evidently happy, Christian family are dark secrets that will change the way viewers think about Christians as a whole.
Again, it must be reiterated that Bill Gothard does not speak for historical Christianity, nor does the IBLP, nor does the Duggar family. I am genuinely thankful that some of the Duggar family has shed some of the baggage of works-based religion, and that some (like Jinger Vuolo) have spoken about these things in greater detail and biblical clarity. But historic, true, and biblical Christianity is found solely in Scripture, and then taught within the creeds and confessions. So, let’s finally consider what Christians actually believe about God’s Law and why it makes us genuinely happy people, both inside and out.
The Scriptures are themselves quite clear that the reason sinners hate Christianity and God’s Word is because they are enslaved to their sin. This is why Jesus said in John 8:34, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” Yet, those who come to Jesus in faith are set free. In John 8:36, Jesus promises, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”
What Jesus is describing is true, biblical freedom. It is not freedom from God’s Law, but instead freedom from slavery to sin and freedom to obey God’s Law in a way that simply was not possible before. As Galatians 5:1 explains, “For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.”
True, biblical freedom is, simply put, having the opportunity, desire, and ability to do that which glorifies God and brings the greatest fulfilment to the Christian life. Only Christians possess such freedom, and it is a genuinely joy-filled freedom in Christ to live righteously.
The Christian is free from sin and empowered by God to live righteously. It is obedience to God and living in righteousness that brings profound joy to the believer in Christ.
To those who watch Shiny Happy People, I would merely say this: Christianity, as taught in Scripture, is far, far greater and better than anything you can possibly imagine. The IBLP does not represent the whole of Christianity.
To those who created Shiny Happy People or were involved in its filming, who have either abandoned the Christian faith, or never followed Christ to begin with, I would simply implore them in this way: You must see there are clear distinctions between what the IBLP taught and practiced and what the Bible actually states.
Maybe Bill Gothard and the IBLP manufactured Fake Shiny Happy People with their rules and hypocrisy. Biblical and historical Christianity transforms sinners into saints through grace and, in doing so, creates free people who are genuinely joyful to obey God and his Word.
Are you deeply struggling right now? If so, I want you to know that you are not alone. The things that I am about to share with you are not meant to be depressing. Rather, I hope that you will be encouraged to see that there are countless others in the exact same boat. Over the past few years, the cost of living has been rising much faster than paychecks have, and this has put enormous financial pressure on millions of American families. In some cases, families are dealing with extreme financial stress even though both parents are working good jobs. Virtually everything has become substantially more expensive, and so our money is not going nearly as far as it once did.
Unfortunately, the mainstream media keeps telling us that everything is just fine.
They keep telling us that we should stop our whining because we haven’t “officially” entered a recession yet.
But Deutsche Bank says that one is coming. In fact, analysts at the bank are now warning that there is a 100% chance that the U.S. is heading into one…
Odds of a U.S. recession have been hotly debated with the labor market and consumer spending showing resiliency even after some of the most aggressive interest rate hikes in history. But Deutsche Bank sees a 100% probability the U.S. will have one.
If you want someone to blame, Deutsche Bank says that we should blame our policy makers, because they created the “boom-bust cycle” that we are currently experiencing…
“The U.S. is heading for its first genuine policy-led boom-bust cycle in at least four decades,” he writes. “The inflation we see was induced largely by expansive fiscal and monetary policy, and the aggressive rate hikes needed to tame that have now materialized. Avoiding a hard landing would be historically unprecedented.”
Sadly, many families don’t even want to imagine what harder times might look like, because they are already deeply, deeply suffering right now.
Recently, a very touching Facebook discussion was brought to my attention. In this discussion, people were sharing their financial struggles. I think that giving people an opportunity to vent and read the struggles of others helped them to realize that they are not alone.
So if you are also struggling, I hope that the examples that I pulled out of that discussion will encourage you.
You are not alone, because there are millions of others out there that are just like you…
-“We’re feeling it. It’s embarrassing to admit we’re struggling so much with what we make combined…. but we aren’t spenders, I broke down everything our money is going to & they’re genuinely all necessity things. Maybe I can penny pinch more with groceries and stuff but I’m just completely overwhelmed with the fact that we’re struggling so much for what our incomes are. Definitely feels like another Depression!”
-“We make about 60k a year and with inflation we are falling behind on our bills. We can’t afford mortgage, utilities and car payment AND food. We don’t qualify for any kind of assistance whatsoever. I just got a second job so hopefully that helps but it’s so hard right now”
-“Yes. 5 years ago we could put money aside every month. Now we are pulling from savings every month and we make 20k more now than we did then. We do have a slightly higher mortgage now though and 2 more kids than we did then. It’s rough”
-“I lost my job last year and I had to budget sooo much. I switched to cricket so the phone bill for two phones is $60 compared to like $220-$300 for Verizon. For food, I cook all the time. But I freeze our meat and I try to make multiple meals from that, frozen veggies, freeze the bread so it doesn’t go bad. I buy the Michaelina tv dinners that are like $1.30 for Mac n cheese and fettuccine Alfredo for my two boys(6 and 1). I buy 6 and those last for most of the week.”
-“So happy for summer to not have our school payment. And less laundry. It’s like idk how we are going to survive every month. And then I needed to go to the dentist. And now it’s like I wanna cry”
-“Yes when my husband first got his new job at what the pay he deserved finally for all the experience he has had nearly 15 years in the same field of work and we were like finally we will be able to save money and we were then this insane inflation hit and it’s like we are right back to where we were especially this month because we had to switch insurance plans and that took money out of his pay check and at the same time I was making some money to help out before but I had a surgery and was down for a few weeks and just now able to get back to fully helpful again. Budgeting is keeping us getting by but we also have used the credit cards this past month to get by so now it’s a catch up game and I will be looking to work in some way again.”
-“It’s not just you. Sometimes I have to choose what bill takes priority over another. I live paycheck to paycheck and every penny is for a bill. There’s never anything leftover. I am a single mom BUT I’ve been a single mom on my own for years! I used to have money leftover for my hair and fun things like jump time with the kiddos. But now all our “fun” activities fare free activities. Like nature walks, swimming in ponds, hikes, etc. Cause this momma is broke
Waiting patiently for inflation to go down…”
-“More just to vent…. but is anyone else struggling financially hard right now?! Between my husband & I, we make $100k after taxes… so not bad, not amazing either. We both have pretty good jobs though… and we’re struggling. Hard. We own a house & outside of paying for mortgage, bills, food, the necessities etc, it’s like we have nothing left at the end of our paycheck.
is anyone else in a similar boat?”
I could have included countless more examples, but I will stop right there.
As you can see, even those that are making 100k a year are really struggling.
When I was growing up, I considered anyone that was making 100k a year to be extremely wealthy.
Times sure have changed since then.
Sadly, this is just the beginning.
All of the major economic trends are pointing in the wrong direction, and even the normally optimistic World Bank is warning that much rougher times are ahead…
“Nearly all the economic forces that powered progress and prosperity over the last three decades are fading,” the World Bank warned in a recent analysis. “The result could be a lost decade in the making — not just for some countries or regions as has occurred in the past — but for the whole world.”
A lot has happened between then and now: A global pandemic hit; war erupted in Europe; tensions between the United States and China boiled. And inflation, thought to be safely stored away with disco album collections, returned with a vengeance.
But as the dust has settled, it has suddenly seemed as if almost everything we thought we knew about the world economy was wrong.
Ultimately, we are all in the same boat.
We are all going to have to endure the exceedingly harsh economic environment that is in front of us.
But hopefully you are encouraged by the fact that you are not alone.
Millions of other families are also deeply struggling, and at times like these we are going to need one another more than ever before.
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.
The offensive has stalled after running into well-prepared Russian defensive lines, with even Kiev’s Western backers expressing concerns about Ukraine’s heavy losses.
Ukraine has failed to reach any strategic objectives amid its ongoing counteroffensive, losing 186 tanks and 418 armored vehicles to date as losses continue to mount, Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.
Signed letter from President Trump on Jan 19, 2021, the day before he left office, declassifying “Crossfire Hurricane” docs showing Obama, Biden, the CIA, DOJ, and FBI spied on him
Signed letter from President Trump on Jan 19, 2021, the day before he left office, declassifying “Crossfire Hurricane” docs showing Obama, Biden, the CIA, DOJ, and FBI spied on him
5:16Father Jesus commonly refers to God by this designation, which indicates their relationship of father and son. The concept of Yahweh as a father was common throughout Israel’s history (e.g., 2 Sam 7:14; 1 Chr 22:9–10; Psa 2:7). Here, Jesus extends this metaphor to members of the kingdom (see Matt 5:45).[1]
5:16 The world will see the light of the kingdom through the good works done by Jesus’ disciples (and believers today), with the result that the Father who is in heaven will be glorified.[2]
5:16 light shine. A godly life gives convincing testimony of the saving power of God. That brings Him glory. Cf. 1Pe 2:12.[3]
5:16 — “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”
Does anyone know that you are a light burning with the fire of heaven? What “good works” do they see you doing that reflect well on your heavenly Father? How does your faith cause you to behave differently from anyone else?[4]
5:16Let your light so shine: Whereas salt passively affects its environment for good, light must be properly placed so as to best glorify the Father. As Jesus was “the light of the world” … “As long as I am in the world” (John 9:5), the believer now takes that place as the only “light of the world” to glorify the Father. The believer does not have inherent light; we have reflective light. As we behold the glory of the Lord, we reflect it. Therefore, we need to make sure that nothing comes between us and the Lord’s light (2 Cor. 3:18; Phil. 2:14–16).[5]
5:16 Believers’ lifestyles must bring glory and honor to God (cf. Eph. 2:8–10). It is possible that the thrust of this verse related to the exclusivism and cloistering of groups like the Essenes. Believers must stay engaged with an evil society but not become part of it (cf. Jn. 17:15–18).[6]
16. Let your light shine before men. After having taught the apostles that, in consequence of the rank in which they are placed, both their vices and their virtues are better known for a good or bad example, he now enjoins them so to regulate their life, as to excite all to glorify God. That they may see your good works: for, as Paul tells us, believers must “provide for honest things, not only in the sight of God, but also in the sight of men,” (2 Cor. 8:21.) The command, which he gives shortly afterwards, to seek concealment and a retired situation for their good works, (Matth. 6:4,) is intended only to forbid ostentation. In the present instance, he has quite a different object in view, to recommend to them the glory of God alone. Now, if the glory of good works cannot be properly ascribed to God, unless they are traced to him, and unless he is acknowledged to be their only Author, it is evident, that we cannot, without offering an open and gross insult to God, extol free will, as if good works proceeded wholly, or in part, from its power. Again, we must observe, how graciously God deals with us, when he calls the good works ours, the entire praise of which would justly be ascribed to himself.[7]
Ver. 16.—Matthew only. Let your light so shine; even so let your light shine (Revised Version); οὕτως λαμψάτω τὸ φῶς ὑμῶν. The Revised Version (cf.Rheims) does away with the misinterpretation suggested by the Authorized Version, “so that;” for οὕτως refers solely to the method of shining spoken of in ver. 15, “like a burning lamp upon its stand” (Meyer). Our Lord has here no thought of effort in shining, such as may improve the brightness of the light given, or of illuminating others, but of not concealing what light the disciples have. (For a similar οὕτως, cf. 1 Cor. 9:24). Yet remember, “A lamp for one is a lamp for a hundred” (Talm. Bab., ‘Sabb.,’ 122a) and “Adam was the lamp of the world” (Talm. Jer., ‘Sabb.,’ ii. 4—a play on Prov. 20:27). Your light. Either genitive of opposition, the light which you are (Achelis), cf. ver. 14; or genitive of possession, the light of which you are the trusted possessors (Meyer, Weiss). The latter is preferable, as the disciples have, in ver. 15, been compared to the lamp, i.e. the light-bearer. Before men (ἔμπροσθεν τῶν ἀνθρώπων). More than ἐνώπιον, “in presence of,” for the position of the lamp “in front of” the people is what our Lord is here emphasizing (cf. John 12:37). That they may see your good works (ὑμῶν τὰ καλὰ ἔργα). Your. Three times in this verse. Our Lord lays stress on personal possession of light, personal action, personal relationship and origin. Good works; i.e. of your lives generally (Weiss-Meyer), not ministerially (Meyer). “Noble works, works which by their generous and attractive character win the natural admiration of men” (Bishop Westcott, on Heb. 10:24). And glorify. This is actually done in ch. 9:8; 15:31. St. Peter’s language (1 Pet. 2:12) is probably due to a reminiscence of our Lord’s words. Your Father which is in heaven. The Fatherhood of God is here predicated in a special sense of the disciples, in the same way as the Fatherhood of God is, in the Old Testament, always connected with his covenant relation to his people as a nation (cf. Isa. 63:16; 64:8; Jer. 3:4; Deut. 32:6). Our Lord here is not thinking of “the original relation of God to being and especially to humanity, in virtue of man’s creation in the Divine image” (ὁ πατήρ), but of the relation into which the disciples have entered through the revelation of God in Christ; cf. further Bishop Westcott, on John 4:21 (Add. Note) and on 1 John 1:2 (Add. Note); also Weiss, ‘Life,’ ii. 348. The phrase, which occurs here for the first time in St. Matthew (but cf. ver. 9, note), henceforth occurs frequently, becoming of great importance for this Gospel (cf. vers. 45, 48; ch. 6:1, 9, etc.).[8]
Shining for God
Matthew 5:16
‘Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.’
There are two most important things here.
(1) People are to see our good deeds. In Greek, there are two words for good. There is the word agathos, which simply defines a thing as good in quality; and there is kalos, which means that a thing is not only good but that it is also captivating and beautiful and attractive. The word which is used here is kalos.
The good deeds of the Christian must be not only good; they must be also attractive. There must be a certain charm in Christian goodness. The tragedy of so much so-called goodness is that in it there is an element of hardness and coldness and austerity. There is a goodness which attracts and a goodness which repels. There is a charm in true Christian goodness which makes it a lovely thing.
(2) It is further to be noted that our good deeds ought to draw attention not to ourselves but to God. This saying of Jesus is a total prohibition of what someone has called ‘theatrical goodness’.
At a conference at which the American evangelist D. L. Moody was present, there were also present some young people who took their Christian faith very seriously. One night, they held an all-night prayer meeting. As they were leaving it in the morning, they met Moody, and he asked them what they had been doing. They told him; and then they went on: ‘Mr Moody, see how our faces shine.’ Moody answered very gently: ‘Moses wist not [did not know] that his face shone.’ That goodness which is conscious, which draws attention to itself, is not the Christian goodness.
One of the old historians wrote of Henry V after the Battle of Agincourt: ‘Neither would he suffer any ditties to be made and sung by the minstrels of his glorious victory, for that he would wholly have the praise and thanks altogether given to God.’ Christians never think of what they have done, but of what God has enabled them to do. They never seek to draw the eyes of others to themselves, but always to direct them to God. As long as people are thinking of the praise, the thanks and the prestige which they will get for what they have done, they have not really even begun on the Christian way.[9]
16 The metaphor of v. 15 is now explained more prosaically, with the “light” shed by disciples interpreted as the good that they do. The phrase “good deeds” conveys the qualities set out in the beatitudes, and especially the “righteousness” of life which is to be characteristic of disciples (cf. vv. 6, 10, 20); the phrase and the concept are echoed in 1 Pet 2:11–12. It is only as this distinctive lifestyle is visible to others that it can have its desired effect. But that effect is also now spelled out not as the improvement and enlightenment of society as such, but rather as the glorifying of God by those outside the disciple community. The subject of this discourse, and the aim of the discipleship which it promotes, is not so much the betterment of life on earth as the implementation of the reign of God. The goal of disciples’ witness is not that others emulate their way of life, or applaud their probity, but that they recognize the source of their distinctive lifestyle in “your Father in heaven.” This phrase, which is distinctive of Matthew’s gospel and will be repeated throughout the discourse (5:45, 48; 6:1, 9, 14, 26, 32; 7:11; cf. “your Father” also in 6:4, 6, 8, 15, 18), reflects not a universal concept of the fatherhood of God towards all his human creatures but the distinctive relationship which exists between God and those who, through their response to Jesus’ message, have become subjects of his kingdom. The metaphor of father, superimposed on that of king, imparts a new depth and richness to the concept of discipleship already set out in the beatitudes of 5:3–10.
There is a prima facie discrepancy between this verse and the principle of 6:1, amplified in 6:2–6, 16–18, that religious observance should not be undertaken “in front of other people so that they will notice you.” But the discrepancy is only on the surface: the ostentatious performance of religious acts in order to win approbation is not at all the same thing as a life of conspicuous goodness lived in the public arena so that people cannot help being impressed. The effect (and the intention) of the former is a reputation for piety; the result of the latter is the glory of God. See further on 6:1.[10]
16 Jesus drives the metaphor home. What his disciples must show is their “good works,” i.e., all righteousness, everything they are and do that reflects the mind and will of God. And people must see this light. It may provoke persecution (vv. 10–12), but that is no reason for hiding the light others may see and by which they may come to glorify the Father—the disciples’ only motive (cf. 2 Co 4:6; 1 Pe 2:12). Witness includes not just words but deeds; as Stier (Words of the Lord Jesus) remarks, “The good word without the good walk is of no avail.”
Thus the kingdom norms (vv. 3–12) so work out in the lives of the kingdom’s heirs as to produce the kingdom witness (vv. 13–16). If salt (v. 13) exercises the negative function of delaying decay and warns disciples of the danger of compromise and conformity to the world, then light (vv. 14–16) speaks positively of illuminating a sin-darkened world and warns against a withdrawal from the world that does not lead others to glorify the Father in heaven. “Flight into the invisible is a denial of the call. A community of Jesus which seeks to hide itself has ceased to follow him” (Bonhoeffer, Cost of Discipleship, 106).[11]
The Purpose: to Glorify God
Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven. (5:16)
The word (kalos) for good that Jesus uses here does not so much emphasize quality—though that obviously is important—as it does attractiveness, beautiful appearance. Letting our light shine before men allows them to see our good works, the beauty the Lord has worked in us. To see good works by us is to see Christ in us. That is why Jesus says, let your light shine. It is not something we create or make up, but something we allow the Lord to do through us. It is God’s light; our choice is whether to hide it or let it shine.
The purpose of letting our light shine and reveal our good works is not to bring attention or praise to ourselves but to God. Our intent should be that, in what we are and in what we do, others may see God in order that they may glorify [our] Father who is in heaven. Jesus’ speaking of the Father emphasizes God’s tenderness and intimacy, and speaking of His being in heaven emphasizes His majesty and holiness, as He is pictured dwelling in the splendor of His eternal holy home. Our good works are to magnify God’s grace and power. This is the supreme calling of life: glorifying God. Everything we do is to cause others to give praise to the God who is the source of all that is good. The way we live should lead those around us to glorify (doxazō, from which we get doxology) the heavenly Father.
When what we do causes people to be attracted to us rather than to God, to see our human character rather than His divine character, we can be sure that what they see is not His light.
It is said of Robert Murray McCheyne, a godly Scottish minister of the last century, that his face carried such a hallowed expression that people were known to fall on their knees and accept Jesus Christ as Savior when they looked at him. Others were so attracted by the self-giving beauty and holiness of his life that they found his Master irresistible.
It was also said of the French pietist Francois Fenelon that his communion with God was such that his face shined with divine radiance. A religious skeptic who was compelled to spend the night in an inn with Fenelon, hurried away the next morning, saying, “If I spend another night with that man I’ll be a Christian in spite of myself.”
That is the kind of salt and light God wants His kingdom people to be.[12]
[1] Barry, J. D., Mangum, D., Brown, D. R., Heiser, M. S., Custis, M., Ritzema, E., Whitehead, M. M., Grigoni, M. R., & Bomar, D. (2012, 2016). Faithlife Study Bible (Mt 5:16). Lexham Press.
[11] Carson, D. A. (2010). Matthew. In T. Longman III & D. E. Garland (Eds.), The Expositor’s Bible Commentary: Matthew–Mark (Revised Edition) (Vol. 9, p. 170). Zondervan.
[12] MacArthur, J. F., Jr. (1985). Matthew (Vol. 1, pp. 246–247). Moody Press.
He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment. (Revelation 3:5)
Warrior of the cross, fight on! Never rest till thy victory is complete, for thine eternal reward will prove worthy of a life of warfare.
See, here is perfect purity for thee! A few in Sardis kept their garments undefiled, and their recompense is to be spotless. Perfect holiness is the prize of our high calling; let us not miss it.
See, here is joy! Thou shalt wear holiday robes, such as men put on at wedding feasts; thou shalt be clothed with gladness and be made bright with rejoicing. Painful struggles shall end in peace of conscience and joy in the Lord.
See, here is victory! Thou shalt have thy triumph. Palm, and crown, and white robe shall be thy guerdon; thou shalt be treated as a conqueror and owned as such by the Lord Himself.
See, here is priestly array! Thou shalt stand before the Lord in such raiment as the sons of Aaron wore; thou shalt offer the sacrifices of thanksgiving and draw near unto the Lord with the incense of praise.
Who would not fight for a Lord who gives such large honors to the very least of His faithful servants? Who would not be clothed in a fool’s coat for Christ’s sake, seeing He will robe us with glory?
Imagine being in prison and being content. The Apostle Paul knew all about suffering. In perhaps the greatest statement in all the Scriptures on contentment, Paul wrote about it from a Roman prison. For we read: “I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. I can do all this through him who gives me strength. (Philippians 4:11-13).
As I was doing some research on contentment I came across a very wonderful quote by Brother Lawrence that really blessed me. He said: “The most important discovery of my whole life is that one can take a little rough cabin and transform it into a palace just by flooding it with God.”1
My friends when we flood our thoughts and actions with Jesus life becomes one exciting adventure where great peace, joy, and meaning saturate our hearts even when trials come our way. I believe that the secret to contentment in our Christian walk is understanding that life is training grounds for eternity, that trials and tribulations are often the tools used by the Lord to grow our faith, and that when we keep our minds on Jesus we can’t help but experience total contentment.
I pray that the following quotes will help you see that contentment is definitely possible no matter what your state in life is, and if you let Jesus flood your soul, get ready for the journey of a lifetime!2
“You say, ‘If I had a little more, I should be very satisfied.’ You make a mistake. If you are not content with what you have, you would not be satisfied if it were doubled.” – C. H. Spurgeon
“Deep, contended joy comes from a place of complete security and confidence [in God] – even in the midst of trial.” – Chuck Swindoll
“I would rather be what God chose to make me than the most glorious creature that I could think of; for to have been thought about, born in God’s thought, and then made by God, is the dearest, grandest, and most precious thing in all thinking.” – George MacDonald
“Oh, the fullness, pleasure, sheer excitement of knowing God on earth!” – Jim Elliot
“The remarkable thing is, we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day.” – Chuck Swindoll
“Spread out your petition before God, and then say, ‘Thy will, not mine, be done.’ The sweetest lesson I have learned in God’s school is to let the Lord choose for me.” – D. L. Moody
“True contentment is the power of getting out of any situation all that there is in it.” – G. K. Chesterton
“The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things.” – Henry Ward Beecher
“There’s a difference between knowing God and knowing about God. When you truly know God, you have energy to serve him, boldness to share him, and contentment in him.” – J. I. Packer
“A cheerful spirit is one of the most valuable gifts ever bestowed upon humanity by a kind Creator. It is the sweetest and most fragrant flower of the Spirit, that constantly sends out its beauty and fragrance, and blesses everything within its reach. It will sustain the soul in the darkest and most dreary places of this world. It will hold in check the demons of despair, and stifle the power of discouragement and hopelessness. It is the brightest star that ever cast its radiance over the darkened soul, and one that seldom sets in the gloom of morbid fancies and foreboding imaginations.” – James H. Aughey
“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.” – John Piper
“Consider Jesus. Know Jesus. Learn what kind of Person it is you say you trust and love and worship. Soak in the shadow of Jesus. Saturate your soul with the ways of Jesus. Watch Him. Listen to Him. Stand in awe of Him. Let Him overwhelm you with the way He is.” – John Piper
“Next to faith this is the highest art – to be content with the calling in which God has placed you.” – Martin Luther
“Every year of my life I grow more convinced that it is wisest and best to fix our attention on the beautiful and the good, and dwell as little as possible on the evil and the false.” – Richard Cecil
“Real contentment must come from within. You and I cannot change or control the world around us, but we can change and control the world within us.” – Warren Wiersbe
“And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and strike the land with a decree of utter destruction.” Malachi 4:6(ESV).
A friend of mine was preaching yesterday. His text was on John the Baptist. He made the connection between the verse in Luke 1:17 and the corresponding verse reference in Malachi given above. What struck me was something quite simple within this verse in Malachi.
I had never noticed before this aspect of Fatherhood. Something within said that there is a danger, where parents are too busy for their children, that it can have effects on the family and on the society both present and future. The sins of the parents will be visited on the children, a self-fulfilling prophecy for the people, with a curse as consequence for the land.
I talked to my wife about this thought and in reply, she mentioned an article in her magazine entitled something akin to: “How to be a mother in 60 minutes a day“. It raised the question in my heart “Why are we so keen to have families and yet not give them the priorities given in scripture?” Yes, we need money to live but at what a cost?
Jesus was keen to receive the small children, wants us to come to Him with the uncluttered and wholehearted faith of children. They are important to Him because they are just the same in spirit as those of us who are older, in a more capacious container. Why then is the bus-I-ness (ie. being too busy for too long) of work creating an acceptability of absenteeism that is in danger of consuming the society we hoped to grow and be a part of, where there is no space for more.
I think about my own parenthood. How has this been influenced by my history? How, in turn, am I influencing, have influenced, my children? How will this influence my children’s children?
Matthew 18:3 (ESV):- and said, “Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.”
PRAYER: LORD, I thank You that You do not treat us as our sins deserve because we come to You in the name of Jesus the Christ. Hallelujah! LORD today, deliver us from this evil: being too busy for our loved ones. Thank You that You are never too busy for us. Grant that we may live a good example of what may be a right balance between worship, work and play in our lives. LORD, You love the childlike simplicity of the Young. Heal those of us who have hurts and burdens that we carry with us which make us too busy to be able to care. Amen.
Western official claims the emerging Iran deal is meant to prevent an Israeli military attack ‘Our stance is clear: No agreement with Iran will oblige Israel,’ vows Netanyahu. One key objective of Washington’s emerging new nuclear agreement with Iran is reportedly to block a potential Israeli military strike against Tehran’s nuclear program facilities, according to an unnamed Western official. “If [the] Iranians miscalculate, the potential for a strong Israeli response is something that we want to avoid,” told Reuters news agency.
The Government Keeps Lying To Us About Ukraine; Where Is The Outrage? On June 4, a group referring to itself as the “Polish Volunteer Corps” issued a boastful announcement confirming its participation in a series of cross-border ground offensives into Russia. News of these audacious raids was jarring enough, given the many prior assurances of U.S. and Ukrainian war planners, who insisted no attacks would be carried out inside Russian territory. It was all the more conspicuous that the incursion units were apparently comprised of Polish soldiers. Poland, of course, is … a NATO member state, …
Pfizer To Run Out Of Penicillin Solutions In Next Few Months Amid a shortage of amoxicillin and penicillin — the two main antibiotics for strep infections, which rose in early 2023 — Pfizer said it has “limited supply and [an] impending stock out situation” for some of its penicillin prefilled syringe products. The product, penicillin G benzathine, is used to treat syphilis and went into shortage in April. Pfizer originally expected resupply in September.
Girl Sues Hospital For Removing Her Breasts At Age 13 The defendants carried out “ideological and profit-driven medical abuse” when they prescribed her puberty blockers and hormones and, later, performed a double mastectomy, Charles LiMandri, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiff, Layla Jane, said in a statement. Jane, now 18, was influenced by people online when she was just 11 and told her parents that she was a boy, prompting them to ask for guidance from doctors.
Suicide & Homicide Rates Among Young Americans At Decade High Suicide and homicide rates among young people in the U.S. have reached levels not seen in decades, new numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show. Among those 10 to 24 years old, 11 suicides and 10.7 homicides per 100,000 people occurred in 2021.
Biden Baffles US Audience, Closing Speech With ‘God Save The Queen’ Joe Biden dumbfounded an audience in Connecticut and observers everywhere when he closed a speech on Friday by declaring, “God save the queen, man.” “God save the queen” is an expression of British patriotism. Perhaps the next edition of Biden’s presidential daily briefing should include a refresher on the fact that Americans declared independence from British royals almost 247 years ago.
Orcas have sunk 3 boats in Europe and appear to be teaching others to do the same. Orcas have attacked and sunk a third boat off the Iberian coast of Europe, and experts now believe the behavior is being copied by the rest of the population. Three orcas (Orcinus orca), also known as killer whales, struck the yacht on the night of May 4 in the Strait of Gibraltar, off the coast of Spain, and pierced the rudder. “There were two smaller and one larger orca,” skipper Werner Schaufelberger told the German publication Yacht. “The little ones shook the rudder at the back while the big one repeatedly backed up and rammed the ship with full force from the side.” The spike in aggression towards boats is a recent phenomenon,
NHS Rules Claim To Protect Children; Christian Legal Group: ‘Don’t Believe The Hype… The Devil Is In The Details’ The NHS has published its new interim service specification for specialist gender services for children and adolescents. It is aimed at the two new gender hubs that are to open in England. It is the outcome of its consultation on the matter last autumn, to which we encouraged supporters to respond. This has been reported in the press as a positive development, mainly because puberty blockers will no longer be given routinely. However, they will still be given as part of a research project.
Crashed UFOs and U.S. government secrets: Extraterrestrial frenzy reaches U.S. Congress House of Representatives plans to hold a hearing following allegations by a former intelligence officer who hinted that the U.S. government possesses wreckage and bodies of extraterrestrials; ‘Certainly it would be quite a conspiracy for this to be maintained,’ intelligence chairman rebutted.
US, Iran in Talks to Cool Tensions with a Mutual ‘Understanding’ These steps would be cast as an “understanding” rather than an agreement requiring review by the US Congress, where many lawmakers oppose giving Iran benefits because of its military aid to Russia, its domestic repression and its support for proxies that have attacked US interests in the region.
What to expect the day after a new US-Iran deal The agreement taking shape between Washington and Tehran will bolster Iran’s hegemonic ambitions, bringing closer a clash with Israel, … While the precise details of the emerging deal are not yet known, it will reportedly limit Iran’s uranium enrichment to its current production level of 60%. Washington would agree … .
Shallow M6.2 earthquake hits Tonga region A shallow earthquake registered by the USGS as M6.2 hit the Tonga region at 19:10 UTC on June 16, 2023. The agency is reporting a depth of 20.5 km (12.7 miles). EMSC is reporting M6.3 at a depth of 60 km (37.3 miles).
Planned Parenthood Abortion Biz Will Fire 15% of Its Staff Nationwide Pro-Life Americans will have another reason to celebrate the first anniversary of the Dobbs decision this month. That’s because the Planned Parenthood abortion business is laying off 15% of its staff nationwide as more states pass laws protecting babies from abortion.
Canadian gov’t efforts to expand euthanasia to the mentally ill face a number of obstacles On this week’s episode of The Van Maren Show, Jonathon is once again joined by Alex Schadenberg of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition (EPC), who discusses updates regarding Canada’s Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) program and a Conservative bill that would limit its application to the mentally ill.
Robot “companions” is a betrayal of the elderly …Japan wanted robots to help care for the elderly. The country has been developing robots to care for older people for over two decades but fortunately, so far, they haven’t taken off. It seems these robots are too expensive to buy or lease and a growing body of evidence is finding that robots tend to end up creating more work for caregivers. Nothing can replace the respectful loving care of one human for another.
U.S. Is Set Up To Send Depleted Uranium Rounds To Ukraine The United States is poised to send depleted uranium round to Kyiv in a move that has been highly criticized by Moscow. So far, only the United Kingdom has armed Ukraine with such munitions.
Drug And Food Shortages Are Here, And They Will Get A Lot Worse… A lot of the experts didn’t think that this would happen. Once the pandemic subsided, global supply chains were supposed to return to normal. But now “hundreds of drugs” are in short supply in the United States, and even CNN is admitting that we are in the midst of “the worst food crisis in modern history”.
Amazon Thinks Every Kid’s Room Needs A Penis Sign …All of the signs are under the “Cowboy Frog” brand, a Chinese firm that offers a large variety of signs, but whose staple is frogs in cowboy hats and cowboy gear.
Why Is French President Emmanuel Macron Trying So Hard To Get An Invitation To The BRICS Summit In South Africa This Summer? We Know Why. Here’s a good question: why would the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, want to be invited to the summit of BRICS nations when they meet this summer in South Africa? A pretty good answer might be because those nations – Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa – are working to unseat the United States as the world’s source of global leadership and reserve currency. Macron desperately wants to be a part of the group that is able to pull that off.
Yuri Bezmenov: The four stages of Marxist ideological subversion In an interview with G. Edward Griffin in 1984, former KGB informant and Soviet journalist Yuri Bezmenov discussed the four stages of “ideological subversion” created by radical Marxists to indoctrinate and weaken nations from within.
Kiev forces have lost over 1,000 soldiers and 20 tanks in a single day across the frontlines, the Russian Defense Ministry says
Ukrainian military forces have sustained heavy casualties across frontlines during the past 24-hour period, the Russian Defense Ministry has said. Russia’s Zaporozhye and Donetsk regions have seen the most intense fighting, with Kiev losing more than 800 soldiers there alone.
“Over the past day, enemy losses in the Southern Donetsk and Zaporozhye directions amounted to more than 800 Ukrainian servicemen, 20 tanks, four infantry fighting vehicles, [and] 15 armored fighting vehicles,” the military said on Sunday during a daily media briefing, without elaborating on whether its figures for casualties includes those killed and injured or related just to deaths.
As well as these setbacks in personnel and equipment, Ukrainian troops also lost two US-made M777 howitzers and several Soviet-made artillery systems, the military added.
The immediate vicinity of Donetsk city has seen intense fighting as well, with Ukrainian forces losing over 200 soldiers on this axis, according to the ministry. The Russian military has destroyed multiple soft and armored vehicles on the outskirts of Donetsk, it also said, as well as two major ammunition stockpiles to the northwest of the city.
The ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine has intensified after Kiev launched its long-heralded counteroffensive in early June. Thus far, the Ukrainian military has failed to make any major gains, sustaining heavy losses in the process and losing large amounts of Western-supplied hardware. According to the estimates of Moscow’s military, some 7,500 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed or wounded amid the counteroffensive effort.
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