Are You In a Fake Relationship?
One of the most interesting words that have emerged in our culture in the last year or so has been the use of the word "fake." The word came out of the last Presidential campaign. The word was used to describe the chaos that was created by the media, in which few seemed to really know what was genuine or fake news. This movement away from reality and truth to the counterfeit and fake is at the heart of a growing spiritual climate going on today. This emergence of the "fake" has begun to transform everything in our world from Presidential elections to our relationships with others and even the Lord Himself.A generation or so ago, most people had some idea of what was meant by a friend. Back then, when people used the term "friend" they meant something by it. It normally meant you knew someone, spent time with them and had developed a relationship with them that you valued and was worth something to you. Back in the "good old days," friendships were often connected to people you could count on to do something for you or even would be willing to make a sacrifice for you when the going got tough. Real friends tended to stick together and defend one another through the ups and downs of life.
One of the most incredible things to watch today is the changing role of Donald Trump as President. When Donald Trump first announced his desire to be President, it was considered a "bad joke" by many people. More recently the laughter has died down. Not only did Donald Trump become President against impossible odds, but his first address to a joint session of Congress this past Tuesday surprised many. Some people simply could not believe that President Trump's speech sounded "Presidential." In slightly over an hour, President Trump delivered one of the more powerful, substantive and effective speeches to the Nation in recent memory. People from all political persuasions were shocked at how well the speech came across. Simply put, something is underway now that is surprising almost everyone, except the Lord of glory that planned it all for His purposes and our good.
One of the most deadly and destructive forms of public discourse today is rooted and grounded in accusation. Accusation is the idea that someone has done something wrong, sinned or broken the rules without any clear and verifiable evidence, facts or truth to establish it. In a way, accusation has become the new public courtroom in America where everyone is on trial for something that goes against what the cultural agenda has established by the media and those in power. If someone dares to stand up for anything these days they are often torn apart under a torrent of media attacks, fake news and accusations by nameless sources with unproven facts. These personal attacks have changed the world as we know it, and the worst is yet to come.
Happy Valentine's Day! If you go to a store today you will see a frenzy of people buying cards, flowers and candy for the people in their lives. Valentine's Day is the third biggest day in the floral industry, following Christmas and Mother's Day. Valentine's Day is the second largest greeting card holiday after Christmas. Valentine's Day is the fourth largest candy day following Halloween, Easter and Christmas. So, Valentine's Day and the love connected to it is BIG business. The holiday has its roots in the early history of the Church. According to Wikipedia,
There is no question that this past Sunday's Super Bowl game between the New England Patriots and the Atlanta Falcons was one of the greatest football games ever played, some are saying THE greatest. But the reason the game was so amazing and memorable was because of what the superstar of the game, Patriot quarterback Tom Brady, did in rallying his team back to a comeback victory from a 25 point deficit in the 3rd quarter to win in overtime. Nothing like it had ever happened in Super Bowl history. People will be talking about this game for a long time. It was the kind of game that no one could forget. Some sports writers are calling it a, "Game for the ages." It was a game that seemed for a moment to move from a sporting event to mythology and legend.
Ever since Donald Trump was sworn into the office of President of the United States on Friday, January 20, 2017, the world has somehow changed. Do you feel it? Never in our lifetime has a President been more controversial, colorful or courageous. Things are happening so fast in just his first week in office that the press and world at large is dumbfounded. Whatever is under way now with President Trump, it will surely have a major role in shaping prophetic events and our Lord's return. Hang on everybody; this is NOT going to be boring.
We are surely living in exciting days as we watch the Lord's purposes for Israel unfold before our eyes. Some of the most prophetically important moments for Israel in her history are under way right now. In the past, the United States has been a stalwart friend to Israel from her beginning as a nation in 1948. However, recent actions by the outgoing Obama Administration and Secretary of State John Kerry reflect a deep enmity against Israel that has seemingly been hidden and building for the past eight years.
One of the great mysteries of life is time. Nobody really knows much about it, other than it passes by and people get older and die. But outside of the obvious, the real meaning of time is hidden from us right now. One day there won't be any more time because we will be living in the eternal now forever. You see the Lord doesn't wear a wrist watch and there aren't any wall clocks in Heaven. The Lord operates outside of time as we know it, and as His people that will be our experience of time one day as well.
As Christmas approaches this year, one must wonder what most people are really thinking about this holiday based on what we see going on in our society and even the Church. For many, Christmas does commemorate Christ's birth, but beyond that one is not really sure who they think is in that Manger. For some, it is a dusty throwback to a time gone by when people used to believe in traditional "religious stuff." All of that seems to be increasingly less important today in an age of tolerance and multiculturalism. For others, about all the holiday symbolizes is shopping, busyness and a season of parties and families getting together.
As the dust finally begins to settle from our recent Presidential election, a fairly scary phenomenon has emerged.....Fake News. This is a term that we are just beginning to hear about more and more every day. While campaigning in the recent election for Hillary Clinton here in Michigan, President Obama said,
The original Thanksgiving holiday we are celebrating this Thursday had its roots with 90 Indians and 53 Pilgrims at a meal in the fall of 1621 on the Plymouth Plantation in Massachusetts. This thanking of the Lord for His many blessings was continued by Presidents Washington and Lincoln in national proclamations after great battles that helped to keep the Nation free. Eventually, the idea of a national thanksgiving was fixed on the calendar to the last Thursday of November by President Lincoln on October 3, 1863.
Every election, including this coming one, is ultimately about a choice that people make regarding the rule of law over their lives. So when America goes to vote this coming Tuesday in the presidential election, people will NOT just be voting for a candidate. In the end, people will be voting for whether or not the rule of law will be upheld. This is true because the next President will be deciding what happens to the Supreme Court through their nomination of a judge to replace Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. America's entire Supreme Court and the rule of law hangs in the balance.
With so much attention focused on the next President and the coming new administration in January 2017, it might be a good time to look at what is going to happen in the future. A thousand years from tonight there won't be any more partisan politics. The media and self-seeking politicians won't have any power or influence. Christians tend to get lost in politics and fail to see the key lessons that politics teach us about the Lord Jesus Christ and His Coming Kingdom. Perhaps this Biblical perspective can help us weather the coming election results and new administration and give us real hope for the future. If the Christian Church talked more about the coming new Administration, we might have fewer problems with the current ones.
If there is one spiritual principle in play during this year's Presidential election cycle it is the power of the media to corrupt the truth. Simply put, the media and the press are now defining the "truth" and creating reality for most people. They have the ability to make anyone into a sinner or a saint and to get the public to believe just about anything, whether it is true or not. What everyone needs to understand in this hour is that the patterns we are seeing rapidly emerging in our nation have a prophetic fulfillment in the Bible.
In what has to be one of the most astonishing cases of moral hypocrisy in political history, Democratic Candidate for President, Hillary Clinton has asked the voters of America to abandon Republican candidate Donald Trump over a recently released video/audio tape. The tape in question shows Mr. Trump engaging in a sexually explicit and degrading conversation about women with a reporter that was recorded over 10 years ago while he was a private citizen.
Well, the countdown has begun. In a few weeks another President will be elected. The nation has been obsessed with this election, perhaps more than at any other time in recent memory. The stakes are large for all of us and the world. And yet, whoever is elected President they will fail on some level. It always turns out that way. Anytime people are placed in elected office it seems that many of us end up disappointed. Has there ever been a President that always did the right thing? We vote people in with high hopes for great things and often sit back 4 years or so later with sadness and regret over what went wrong. Such is the state of politics in America and the world.
Do you like surprises? Most people might say "Yes," but then again, it might depend on what kind of "surprise" you are talking about. Now when it comes to our Lord, all of us should be asking ourselves if we think the Lord has any "surprises" left for us. The answer to that question is the foundation of the Bible, our Faith and the future of the world.
If there is ONE issue that seems to be troubling our nation in this hour, it is the loss of the truth from public discourse. There is not a single day that goes by that we are not deluged with bold lies from political candidates, the media, our universities, foreign governments and a host of other sources. Once these lies get into the thinking of the public it is almost impossible to find the real truth. This clearly applies to this coming national election in November, but it extends to every aspect of life and every decision we will ever make. No one can make a good decision when the information used for that decision is based on lies. As an example, if you think Washington D.C. is north of New York City, you will never find it. If you go north looking for it you will end up at the North Pole and die of hypothermia. One lie wrongly believed and acted upon can have a disasterous effect on our lives.
Our great nation seems hopelessly divided as we get ready to vote in this year's election in November. And yet, this great divide happened before in 1857. Understanding what happened 159 years ago is the KEY to discerning the current spiritual issues surrounding the coming election that will significantly affect America and the world until our Lord Jesus Christ returns.
Whether we fully understand it or not, America stands at a crossroads like no other time since 1776. Perhaps that crossroads is best seen in the current political battle underway as the Presidential elections draw near this fall. Both candidates offer a radically different view of reality and the future that will forever change America and the world. 
While Americans are living in a brave new world of political correctness, almost no one understands what is going on or why. Our society is being totally transformed by a group of "PC Police" that want to control everything in life from where we go to the bathroom to how we refer to God. Universities, once a haven for the First Amendment, are being transformed into havens for fragile students and faculty that need to create "safe zones" on campus where no one will be offended by a different idea. Even America's pulpits are being shaped by politically correct Bible translations and sermons that might find it hostile to use non inclusive gender language or refer to the Lord as a "Him" or "He."
The greatness of any society or people rests on their ability to remember their past and what was sacrificed to create and defend it. Surely this is true for our Nation on this Memorial Day Weekend. No nation has sacrificed so much for the cause of freedom and justice as the United States. America has sent more of her youth to die on foreign battle fields than any other nation in human history. If you wonder about this, simply watch this video on American military cemeteries outside of this county at 
What would you do today if your government told you that you needed to wear an orange shirt or you would have to pay a large fine? And upon further investigation, you found that the reason you were asked to wear that orange shirt was simply because a politician in Washington liked orange shirts. You might think this was some sort of bad movie. After all, this is America, the land of the free and home of the brave. Right?