The Contrast

When I was a kid a long time ago, I remember the color TV we had back then had to two dials, one went from 1 to 13, had a uhf setting that you then used the other dial went for higher channels. You also had three more dials which one controlled volume, another for tint and then another for contrast. I could never figure out what the contrast did so never played with it.

Now adays we find the “contrast” on everything from your tv, computers, your phone camera that you can use to adjust pictures you have taken.

Contrast, websters dictionary; a: juxtaposition of dissimilar elements (such as color, tone, or emotion) in a work of art b: degree of difference between the lightest and darkest parts of a picture

I want to look contrast as it pertains to wisdom, you have man’s or worldly wisdom and Gods wisdom and there is huge difference in them even though we apply the word “wisdom” to each.

1Corinthians 3:19-22, “For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. And again, The Lord knoweth the thoughts of the wise, that they are vain. Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours; Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;”

Nothing to me is more apparent of the contrast in mans wisdom to Gods as when it comes to the evolution theory versus the account given in Genesis 1-9. Scientists like Richard Dawkins, Stephen Hawkings, Carl Sagan, Neil DeGrasse Tyson look at the world and see no God in it and come to the conclusion that since there is no God so man evolved from an event that happened billion years ago. We have no one to answer to, so we make the decision on what is right or wrong. Bill Nye when questioned from Ken Ham on who decides what is right or wrong, he stated that it was up to society to decide so without a God to answer to there becomes no moral absolutes and if society decides something that was once considered immoral is now ok then it becomes acceptable. I don’t care if its 99.99% of this society saying something that is blatantly against this book is ok, it is wrong!!!

Man’s or worldly wisdom according to AI is a persons experience in the world that makes them difficult to deceive or shock, if that’s true it really is a scary thought.

James 3:13-18, “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. This wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.”

Did you see the drag queen mockery of the last supper at the 2024 Olympics in Paris? Sensual and devilish are the least of the comments I can think of. If Genesis 6:5, “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” If that does not describe this generation it blows my mind that it will become eviler in that. The thing that bothers me the most is that this stuff no longer shocks people!

This sensual and devilish wisdom has even permeated the church as a see more and more so-called leaders of churches even mega churches needing to step down because of sin and many of those of the sexual nature. Some of us remember Jimmy Swagart but now you have leaders of Gateway, Hillsong, LexCity a Kentucky mega church that just closed its doors because of sexual misconduct.

Why?

Proverbs 1:7, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction.”

But what about Godly wisdom?

Psalms 111:10, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.”

Fear, reverence for our lord and Savior Jesus Christ is the key to begin to gain wisdom.

We also need to acknowledge that our God is sovereign.

Isaiah 55:6-9, “Seek ye the LORD while he may be found, call ye upon him while he is near: Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the LORD, and he will have mercy upon him; and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon. For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Those with worldly wisdom can’t acknowledge this and its why many will blame God for the troubles that is in this world. They cannot see any good in any suffering that happens to them or others.

Romans 8:28, “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose.” The word “purpose” here means “shewbread” and literally “bread of the face” the bread through which God is seen.

So, to those who of us who understand the wisdom of God we find that even in those horrible things that happen in our lives to us or those around us we can see God in it and find peace in it.

James 1:2-6, “My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing. 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. But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.”

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The Spirit of Fear

2Timothy 1:1-7, “Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus, To Timothy, my dearly beloved son: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. I thank God, whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience, that without ceasing I have remembrance of thee in my prayers night and day; Greatly desiring to see thee, being mindful of thy tears, that I may be filled with joy; When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also. Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

Fear: “an unpleasant often strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger”

According to Clifford Nass, a professor of communication at Stanford University, “We get scared because of what we imagine could happen. Some neuroscientists claim that humans are the most fearful creatures on the planet because of our ability to learn, think, and create fear in our minds.” Once you have become frightened, everything seems scarier, and your fear response becomes amplified. It’s called potentiation when your fear becomes intensified and you react more powerfully. For example, if you are already afraid of snakes, and you see one, you might jump back and scream – even if it’s a harmless garter snake.

Fear does have two positive outputs according to the word of God, Proverbs 9:10, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. For by me thy days shall be multiplied, and the years of thy life shall be increased.”

Fear, “reverence”

Jude 1:21-23, “Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference: And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.”

Fear today is being wielded as a powerful weapon to control us and to conform our minds to be totally dependent on those who have become our masters.

Just think in the past couple decades how we have surrendered freedoms one after another whether you feel that makes you safer or not.

We can go back to the disaster at the twin towers and easily see how things changed for the way we travel by air. You can’t take liquids over a certain amount, you have to empty your pockets, take your shoes and belt off, go through an x-ray machine and if deemed necessary may be put in a room to be examined further.

We also have an ever-increasing number of restrictions put on our right to bear arms.

Your right to speech has also been limited against certain cultural beliefs that at one time wouldn’t be acceptable in most places which can get you banned, arrested, or even worse!

Look how a small virus has completely changed our country starting over 4 years ago.

Luk 21:26, “Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” Fear!

They are trying to use fear to control us in every facet of our lives, has anybody heard of climate change?

How about our coming election, if we don’t vote the way they tell us our democracy is over, we will be in WW3, interestingly those making that claim are the ones who have those intentions.

You ever heard of Disease X?

In 2018 he WHO announced a shortlist of priority diseases, disease X represents the knowledge that a serious international epidemic could be cause by a pathogen currently unknown to cause human disease, January 28^th 2024 the symptoms were announced, symptoms appear suddenly and may consist of fever, cramps in the muscles, fainting, neck pian, back pain, headaches, swollen eyes, and light sensitivity.

A few paragraphs later it says additional signs and symptoms include fast heartbeat, swelling of lymph nodes, and petechial blisters on the skin and inside surfaces like the mouth and throat.

After the fourth- or fifth-day patients can get organ failure, in the second week of the illness most patients pass away. It is expected to kill 50 million people so are you fearful now?

The good news that after the ninth or tenth day of sickness most survivors get better.

H.R.3832 Disease X Act of 2023 introduced 6/5/2023 gives (BARDA) more power to develop a program for developing medical countermeasures for any viral threats with pandemic potential.

1Jn 4:17-19, “Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment: because as he is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love. We love him, because he first loved us.”

Hebrews 13:5-6, “Let your conversation be without covetousness; and be content with such things as ye have: for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.”

This World is seeking total control over mankind and to do that it needs to silence the church.

What should we do?

Keep speaking the truth anyway

Combat the lies of the enemy with the Word of God

To expose sin

To tell the world of the coming consequences of the sin

To share the rescue that came through Jesus Christ.

I will not live in fear!

2 Timothy 1:7, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

Don’t Be a Bystander

By Pastor Jeff,

Have you ever been a situation in which you know you should of stepped in to help someone in a dire situation? This is called “The Bystander Affect” which is defined as the following according to Britannica, “The inhibiting influence of the presence of others on a person’s willingness to help someone in need. Research has shown that, even in an emergency, a bystander is less likely to extend help when he or she is in the real or imagined presence of others than when he or she is alone. Moreover, the number of others is important, such that more bystanders leads to less assistance, although the impact of each additional bystander has a diminishing impact on helping.”

Probably the most common reason is more likely fear that keeps us from stepping in or stepping out.

We can witness this in several events in the word of God from the building of Noah’s Ark in which countless bystanders heard Noah’s warning of a coming flood but only Noah’s family and the the animals God brought entered this Ark. Elijah on Mt Carmel, 1Kings 18:21, “And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered him not a word.” We see Elijah was not alone when he challenged Ahab and all the false prophets but no one would say a word until after the victory, 1Kings 18:39, “And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces: and they said, The LORD, he is the God; the LORD, he is the God.”

Jesus many times in His ministry spoke in front of many thousands of people yet when He needed someone to speak up for Him in front of His accusers, all He has were bystanders. At the crucifixion of our Lord and Savior there was no doubt a very large group of bystanders in the crowd as we recall this was the, “Passover” so you had many thousands of Israelites in Jerusalem.

I think one of the greatest examples of the “Bystander Affect” is found in 1Samuel 17:1-4, “Now the Philistines gathered together their armies to battle, and were gathered together at Shochoh, which belongeth to Judah, and pitched between Shochoh and Azekah, in Ephesdammim. And Saul and the men of Israel were gathered together, and pitched by the valley of Elah, and set the battle in array against the Philistines. And the Philistines stood on a mountain on the one side, and Israel stood on a mountain on the other side: and there was a valley between them. And there went out a champion out of the camp of the Philistines, named Goliath, of Gath, whose height was six cubits and a span.” I don’t know how many men were with Saul but it was way more the a couple, lets read on, 1Samuel 17:8-11, “And he stood and cried unto the armies of Israel, and said unto them, Why are ye come out to set your battle in array? am not I a Philistine, and ye servants to Saul? choose you a man for you, and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.
And the Philistine said, I defy the armies of Israel this day; give me a man, that we may fight together. When Saul and all Israel heard those words of the Philistine, they were dismayed, and greatly afraid.” All bystanders, no one would stand up to this Philistine until the anointed King David showed up. Now many stories of David and Goliath picture David as just a boy but that really doesn’t seem to be the case, young yes, but probably in his early 20’s, and full grown as the reason that he didn’t wear Saul’s armor was not because it didn’t fit but because he didn’t feel worthy to wear it. David was not going to be a bystander and defeated the giant Goliath for the God and the nation of Israel.

As believers in Jesus Christ I believe it’s time for us to stop being bystanders and get into the Frey, it could be making your voice be heard in the political arena, which many think Christians shouldn’t get involved with. I of course disagree as we are seeing in our country what happens when we don’t make our voice known. The most important area to stop being a bystander of course is letting others know of what Jesus Christ has done for them. Not everyone will listen and accept the call but that doesn’t excuse us to avoid telling them, the world is becoming increasingly anti God as you can easily see everyday, but remember, it’s not God’s will for any to perish, but all come to repentance. We are given the great commission and have been given the power to share it, Acts 1:8, “But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.” Stop being a bystander friends, Jesus is coming, and coming ver soon!

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