Building on the Foundation

  Why Is Truth? Truth is a subjective moral construct based on your own personal experiences and ideas and is therefore different and changing for everyone, giving rise to the term “my truth.” This is a sound idea with no possible room for error or confusion based on someone else’s definition of what the truth is or not. Is it true, though, this idea? Well, what is truth? I might say it’s true, but you might disagree; because both of us can have our own truth, we are both right! Except, wait. What if only one of us can be correct such as in a trivia competition? Hmm. Well, I’m sure it will be fine. This modern and progressive idea allows us such liberties as gender fluidity, abortion that’s not murder, and homosexuality. It allows for our government and anyone else to redefine the truth as is convenient for them. Who am I to say what their truth is, after all? Since we can “change” the truth just by wishing it to be so, what is truth? Observing the very definition of it becomes imp...

Jesus Christ famously predicted that Peter would deny him three times before the cock crowed (Mat. 26:34; KJV). What did He mean by this expression? The answer reveals itself once we learn the Bible’s methods of keeping time. In fact, a few other mysteries may resolve themselves as well. Let’s back up a bit to get the whole picture. In Bible days, centuries before the widespread use of mechanical clocks, people told time by the sun and other heavenly bodies, for God had set them up at Creation as a giant clock (Gen. 1:14). Over the centuries, the ancients built various devices to help, especially sundials, one of which the Bible mentions in the days of King Hezekiah (2 Kings 20:11). Although it’s certainly possible that the Israelites always divided the day into hours, the Old Testament doesn’t mention it. Instead, it mentions three distinct periods of daylight: morning (mentioned frequently), the heat of the day (Gen. 18:1, 1 Sam. 11:11, 2 Sam. 4:5), and evening or afternoon (Jer. 6:4...

Hebrews 11, "the faith chapter," reminds us about some of the many faithful acts done by our forefathers in the Old Testament. It also, in league with other Scriptures, reminds us again that the righteous do not go to heaven when they die, but are asleep in their graves awaiting the resurrection. At the end of Heb. 11, in verses 39-40, we are told, "And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us." The promise and being made perfect are linked together: the promise of perfection. What is this promise of perfection? Heb. 5:9 tells us: "And having been perfected, He [Jesus] became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him." It's the promise of salvation, of eternal life, to all who choose to obey God and walk in His ways! If the faithful from past generations do not inherit eternal life apart from us, then ...

There's an interesting passage in 2 Peter 2 that jumped out at me the other day. It relates to the Second Resurrection, though I didn't notice it when writing my original post on the topic (see The Truth About the Second Resurrection ). In 2 Pet. 2:20-21, we find the following: "For if, after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the latter end is worse for them than the beginning. For it would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than having known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered to them." If all who fail to accept Jesus Christ in this lifetime are condemned to hellfire, then how could it be better for someone not to have known the way of righteousness? Wouldn't that person's fate be the same as the one who turned away? No, apparently not. Just as we saw in the original post, those who don't rece...

For longer than anyone can remember, the Tarahumara (pronounced Tara-mara) Indians in northwestern Mexico have been running. Not just any running, either — 200- and 300-mile foot races without stopping, taking 40, 50, or more hours to finish! They run in sandals or bare feet, taking with them only a small bag of beans or corn for food. The longest recorded run by a Tarahumara was 435 miles in just over 48 hours! That’s more than 16.5 marathons in two days. Running is life for the Tarahumara. They start running almost from the time they can walk, and don’t stop even in old age. Men and women in their 70s and 80s run, too. Even their method of hunting revolves around running: they hunt deer and turkeys simply by chasing them to exhaustion, and even capture wild horses the same way. There are several lessons we can learn from the Tarahumara. For those called by God, the race that we run is long — an entire lifetime! The Apostle Paul wrote, “Do you not know that those who run in a race all...

 Today is July 4th, 2022 on the Gregorian calendar — 246 years since America's 13 colonies declared independence from Great Britain. When the Declaration of Independence was read publicly 4 days later on July 8th, 1776, bells rang out all over the colonies in celebration. The most famous of these bells, the Liberty Bell, bears this inscription: "Proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof." The bell was cast with its famous inscription in 1751 — 25 years before American independence!  The inscription quotes part of Lev. 25:10: "And you shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee for you; and each of you shall return to his possession, and each of you shall return to his family." In AD 27, when Jesus Christ began His ministry/service, He quoted Isa 61:1-2, which itself referenced back to this passage in Leviticus. We read in Luke 4:16-21: "So He c...

Tough Love and Bear Food We all know from the Bible that God loves a cheerful giver (II Corinthians 9:7 NKJV). Christ also said that “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).  Since there is an additional plethora of scriptures telling us similar things, why then am I advocating for the deliberate starvation of real-life teddy bears? Strangely, I am not alone in this. No, it is not a cult thing; it is none other than the esteemed National Park Service and Parks and Wildlife officers who are the protagonists of this hateful agenda. They have been known to spread propaganda leaflets and put up signs with shameful slogans such as, “DON’T FEED THE BEARS!”   So that’s where I come in. My goal is to bridge the gap between the kind–hearted people out there and the stone–hearted bear–hating thinkers. The best way to accomplish this is to present their perspective, so here goes! Though it seems an atrocity on the surface, there is actually a good reason for demand...

  Welcome To The Fight!!! You did it! You made the decision to be baptized! You rejected the magic of Satan and accepted God’s Holy Spirit. Something doesn’t feel right, though. This whole following God thing is harder than you thought it would be. Satan has been attacking you constantly, whether you realize it or not. He doesn’t handle rejection very well, and like a jealous ex, he desperately wants you to take him back. Now comes the bewildering part. You chose to follow God and dedicate your life to Him, but now what? Where do you go from here? It’s easy to become complacent and feel like we have achieved everything we needed to do with baptism. We get bogged down by the world's cares and begin to lose sight of the passion for God that made us choose Him in the first place. We lose sight of our mission. Post-baptism bogging down is extremely common, not just post-baptism, but at every stage of our walk with God. It’s easy to lose sight of our mission in the whirlwind that life i...