Glorious Truth

Welcome to Glorious Truth. This site is all about the search for truth, the truth about God, the truth about the universe and the world that we live in; the truth about ourselves, about life as we know it. It is my firm belief that finding and embracing the truth about the way life really is, makes all the difference when it comes to happiness, fulfillment and long life. Let’s share with one another about our search for truth.

Come on in and kick off your shoes. Put on a pair of slippers, serve yourself a warm drink, relax with me and and let’s muse together about glorious truth and how embracing it can change our lives.

Within my faith tradition, and based on a study of the Scriptures is the belief that the “beast” of Revelation will hook up with a religious / political power called the “image of the beast” to make an attempt to rule the world just before Jesus comes again.

While I won’t take time to go into it here, it can be easily established that the “beast” is the resurrected Holy Roman Empire that we know today as the Papacy, located in Vatican City in Rome. The beast’s counterpart or “image” can be easily identified in Scripture as a deteriorated phase of Protestant America. The uniting and cooperation of these two global powers will eventually result in the imposition of what the Bible calls “the mark of the beast”.

The thing that has been skipping around in my mind recently however, is just how this will develop and come to fruition. Many have felt strongly that this union will come about when the religious right in our country (the USA) will ascend to power and then join hands with the Papacy to form a religious political alliance. With this thought then, we tend to keep our eyes on the religious right. But in doing this have we played into a trap? Has the devil made an end run around us?

As I noted in my previous blog, “The Right is Left”, most people view the political landscape with a very narrow focus. The landscape, as they see it, stretches from the far right to the far left. What we noted there however, is that when using the American constitution as the anchor point, both left and right find themselves far left of the center.

The Papacy, being a child of the Roman Caesars, is a good example of an oligarchy. It’s not a democracy or a republic. It is the form of government that rules by a ruling, dictatorial class.

Over the decades the two main political parties that have made up our government’s elected leaders have been the Republicans and the Democrats. As noted before, both of these parties have been marching left, across the landscape, away from the constitutional republic given to us by our founding fathers.

It is this “leftward” march that is leading the USA down the road to becoming an “image” to the “beast”. While religious harmonies will be a part of this union, political harmonies will be in play as well. In the words of one of the founders of my faith tradition. “When Protestantism shall stretch her hand across the gulf to grasp the hand of the Roman power . . . our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government.” (Last Day Events 131)

The real problem with the right, in this country, is that it is too far left. Most people live within the paradigm that the political choices we have in our society is between the right and left, the conservative and the liberal, the Republicans and the Democrats. But while we are looking at those two options on the political map, let us try, in a Google-like fashion, zooming out on the landscape. When we do this we discover on the right side of the map another landmark called the Constitutional Republic appears. what dawns on us then is that what we call the “right” is really left of the constitution, it is just that the “left” is a little bit farther left of the constitution than what we call the “right”.

When the founders came up with the American constitutional experiment it was out of a very careful study of the history of national politics. One thing was clear to the founders, “democracy” was anathema. “Democracy”, someone once said “is like two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for lunch”. Democracy, or majority rule, always ends up in an oligarchy where the majority takes power, the leaders of that majority take that power to themselves and the populace is forced to submit.

The founders with the American constitution, created a very unique nation where law is the rule not the majority. This assures that the sheep does not become lunch for the wolves. This form of government is called a Republic. This is what the Roman Empire was until they transformed through the stages of democracy which then quickly slipped into the ruling class headed by the Caesars.

This is why the word “democracy” is not found in the constitution nor is it found in any of the state constitutions. But have you noticed how much we hear it all the time from politicians on both Democratic and Republican sides. Everything is about “democracy.” It sounds so virtuous and fair, but it leads to tyranny. Democracy opens the way for the wolves to have their way and eat the sheep for lunch. Both the “left” and the “right” in our country are so far left of the Constitutional Republic that they do not see the danger of a democracy and how important it is that we get back to the principles of the republic that our founders invisioned.

I’ve been thinking recently about how temporary everything in this world is. We could talk about cars. I sat down the other day and listed out all the cars I have owned and I came up with about fifteen. They come and go. Think of all the trivial things that you have owned that are gone now. Cameras, clothing, furniture, pets; you could go on and on. Everything is temporary.

My recent musings on things temporary however were not regarding things as trivial as those I have just mentioned. Though some might not consider pets trivial, I have had seven dogs in my life and even those weren’t as significant as some other very temporary things in our lives and that’s family members.

Some of you may know that for over two and a half years my wife has been struggling in a fight with cancer. Things have been up and down but through it all we are constantly reminded how temporary life is, in this world. Many of you have probably faced this as well.

I’m reminded of the words of Jesus when, after he had miraculously fed 5000 people, He said, “Do not labor for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life.” Then He added, “I am the bread of life.” (John 6:27 , 35)

Jesus is trying to get us to understand that we too often seek out and place our hopes in things that are temporal. I’m convinced that much of the disappointment we experience in life comes from placing all of our bets for happiness on things that are transient. Then when those things suddenly disappear we are left bankrupt.

The key to enduring peace and joy is to make sure that our hopes for happiness are placed in that which is eternal. The Apostle Peter said, “The Word of the Lord endures forever.” (1 Peter 1:25) That’s one thing that will not disappoint us. Jesus said, “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; but lay up for yourselves, treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys.” (Matthew 6:19, 20) The bank of heaven is the only bank that will never go under. His kingdom is the one kingdom that will never end.

We may find some pleasure in cars, cameras, clothing and pets. We might even cling to precious family members but we need to remember that these too, in this world, can be very transient.

As Jesus said, “Whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” (John 4:14)

In the process of trying to eliminate the anxiety that has contributed to my physical breakdown, I have discovered that fear is the basis. This fear, I now see, began at an early age when I was afraid that my parent’s frequent fighting might lead to divorce. This put me on high alert and I adapted my behavior, in a childish way, to ensure the least amount of stress in our home as possible.

Any money I got was spent on little gifts for my mom, thinking this would make her happy. I tried to keep my little sister in line to prevent her from causing stress in the household as well. In the fourth grade I even called a formal meeting of the “bad boys” in my mother’s classroom, to beg them to be nicer because they made her cry sometimes. When my mother was stressed, things were more difficult at home.

This early adaptation had become part of the very fabric of my character and affected every significant relationship beyond childhood. I have spent my life “pleasing” some and “fixing” others so I could stay “safe”.

This behavior came to be something that people counted on. I could be counted on to “please” by never rocking their boat. I could even be counted on to take mistreatment without complaint because people just seemed to know that my main focus was to “please” by putting their happiness ahead of my own.

In addition to all of this, people could even count on me to “fix” things for them that weren’t my job to fix (like the bad boys) so I would not feel threatened. The worse thing was, this “fixing” behavior was often meted out upon people who weren’t even wanting or expecting it.

I am learning to recognize when my urge to “please” or “fix” occurs and to stop myself in my tracks. Then, I analyze what it is that’s making me unnecessarily afraid and simply dismiss it. Goodbye Anxiety.

Have you noticed the term “credit market” being used in the government bailout for the failing banks?  The “credit market” simply put, is a market where people buy and sell debts.  There is big money to be made in the credit market but it is money that comes from people who are paying interest on these debts.  The more debt people have the more interest they pay, and the more money there is to be made in the credit market.

Much of the “growth” of the economy in recent decades has been because people have borrowed to buy things, and thus it is a false sense of “growth”. Because of greed, lenders as well as borrowers have entered into loans that are not able to be paid back.  Loans have been defaulted on and the flow of money has almost stopped.  The government now wants to “infuse” hundreds of billions of borrowed dollars into the credit market to entice people to borrow for cars, homes etc. so the economy will start expanding again and the flow of interest can continue.

We have 976 billion dollars just in credit card debt.  Can you imagine the interest paid on this debt alone?  A lot of other people are making a lot of money just because we can’t wait to pay cash for the things we want.  It’s like a big government approved corporate pyramid scheme in which over 60 million American citizens are enslaved.

I remember when I was a young boy and the first credit cards came out from gas companies. My parents started using one to buy their gas.  My grandfather, a common working man who never took out a loan for anything, not even a house, said, “I would never have a credit card.”  My little brother said “But grandpa how do you buy gas?”  We were already being programmed to join the scheme.

The truth is, even though the politicians want us to go out and borrow more money to get the economy going again, the best thing for us to do is to avoid debt like a plague, because, like the Bible says,  “the borrower is slave to the lender” (Proverbs 22:7)

One of the most foundational truths in the Bible about the universe, is that we humans are caught in the crossfire of a great conflict between good and evil.  Not just caught passively in the crossfire but we have been sucked into the drama of the great battle and the battle has found it’s ground zero right here on this planet.  “And war broke out in heaven; Michael and His angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.” (Revelation 12:7-9)

Most of us live our lives completely unaware of what’s going on around us.  I remember when the reality of this first dawned on me.  It had quite an impact on my life.  All of a sudden things that were confusing to me began to make sense.  In my youthful search for meaning in this chaotic world this was like a great light coming on.  The apostle Paul touches on this golden thread of the Bible when he says, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

The important thing about this truth is not that it is a dogmatic proposition that we can cling to but it is a universal truth that provides a context for meaning in our personal lives.  This truth helps me begin to understand what is going on, not just in the broader chaotic events of the world but in the troublesome events of my own personal lfe.

Learning how to look at yourself or your life while having cancer is a real challenge.  There is an experience that keeps coming back to my mind along the way that keeps reminding me of this.

While spending time at a local spa in my home town the spring of 2007 (trying to get my chemo-racked body in good enough shape for a long-awaited European tour), I struck up a conversation with the only other person in the pool. Actually, she initiated it, as I was still trying to hide the fact that I’d lost all my hair, feeling self-conscious in my terry cloth hat.

Out of the blue she challenged me to see my disease “as a gift” and elaborated as to her reasoning.  Not that you wouldn’t wish to be well, she concluded, but that many ahead of me on this road “wouldn’t give up what they have achieved because of their illness”.  I was stunned with her boldness but took it as food for thought as I showered and dried off.  Since then, I’ve had ample reason in my own journey thus far to see the validity of her point.

So, my goal is to choose better reactions in the future to any given situation.  Isn’t it amazing to think how much power we allow events to have over us?  Take the example of the odd sock, for instance.  Do we feel frustrated when the washing machine appears to have eaten its mate or can we take a great delight, as one woman I heard about, in telling her husband that she now had several “extra” socks!

I”m often amused at the thought that my husband, trying to make a point about this frustrating phenomena, actually boxed all our “extra” socks up one time and sent them to Andy Rooney of Sixty Minutes to investigate the the reason for this un-explainable mystery of missing socks.  Someone later told us that he had a program on it but we had missed it.  The point is, we really do have a choice of how we decide to think about what’s happening in our lives!

My personality type tends to over-react to stressors, so I fall into a category of being “highly sensitive”.  I’ve had to work hard, for instance to break the habit of gasping while my husband is driving the car when I’m suddenly aware of what seems to be to be a potentially dangerous scenario, (which could make matters even worse as he reacts to my outburst).  I’m learning to relax and trust.  I remember as a child when my five-years younger sister and I accidentally started a fire in the skillet on the stove.  I was frozen in a panic while she simply reached up and put the fire out.  As a nurse, I’ve always carefully chosen my work settings, compensating for this tendency - and for good reason, stayed out of the emergency room!

Learning to relax under pressure, instead of grabbing at the oars in a desperate attempt to save ourselves, has a real payoff.  If a merry heart does good “like a medicine”, that merry heart needs to hang in there in the bad times, as well as the good times, and maybe especially then for the benefit of our overall health and well-being.

There were seven nurses at the Hufeland Clinic which I watched with interest.  All of them, though varying greatly in personality, seem to have mastered the art!  As soon as something would go amiss in the infusion room, they would begin lightening the mood with their cheerful and efficient ways until everyone was chuckling, including me.  Though I was not always able to catch on to the nuances of the humor because of the language barrier just the sheer laughter lifted me.

Laughter produces endorphins and improves immune function.  On the other hand an over reaction to stressors can hinder immune function.  There is a spontaneous kind of childlike laughter many of us abandoned somewhere along the road of life when we allowed its stressors to trick us into believing that life has too many dangers to let your guard down.

The thought of being contented, no matter the circumstance really appeals to me!  I remember coming back to my room in the Hufeland Clinic in Germany after sharing some tea with my only friend and confidant there, a fellow patient.  We had the same language in common so for that reason we were seated together in the dining room for meals.  Our conversation that night held special significance because my precious new friend had just found out that her mother passed away that day.  I wanted to reach out to her and comfort her.  I soon realized, however, that she has been through enough challenges in life to be able to quickly put this new loss with its fresh pain, into perspective.  While she accepted my sympathy as we talked about her family and the plans they were making on the other side of the world in her absence, my heart was calmed by her demeanor.  The thought of death had become more loaded for me.

The scriptural challenge that “Godliness with contentment is great gain - for we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it . . .” (1 Timothy 6:6) came to mind.  Though she lost a child as a young mother, then her husband after only 30 “wonderful” years of marriage and at that point she had been battling cancer for a few years, I sensed my friend was already accepting this newest loss.  Most people would feel a bit ripped off, but not she!  Contentment has just become a way of life for her.  I want to become less rattled by the daily upsets in life and learn to be at peace, regardless of the circumstances.  If we believe that God is the “Master of circumstances” anyway, why should we be so very concerned when our boat starts rocking in the stormier times of our lives?  “When life gives you lemons  . . .”