• Here Comes the Bride—Michael English

• I’m Gonna Make it Through—Sisters

• There’s A Miracle in Me—The Greens

“Miracle In Me” by The Greenes

• Revelation Song—Charlotte Richie

Dean “Splains” Truth to himself

Since the Trump-Harris “debate” I have been distressed and harassed. Several have said they discerned witchcraft in the interaction—avoidance, misinformation, non-answers. If witch crafting with curses and evil entities were active, then it would explain that my discernment switch was “on.”

In my soul-examination this morning, I heard the inner voice the words of Jesus:

“I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6).

I don’t think Jesus’ use of the word TRUTH is limited to facts—It is true that 2 & 2 = 4. But that does not define truth as used in John 14:6. Nor does it mean that correct doctrine or beliefs limit what Jesus was talking about. It is not just about what He preached or taught or displayed—although that is true. If Jesus is the truth, it is inevitable that no one could connect with God without Jesus.

That verse popped into my mind as we were talking about Trump and Harris and Swift. I also think that God will not participate in events, conversations and agendas when truth is absent or buried.

Oh, and we were talking about the Haitians in Ohio who allegedly are eating ducks, geese caught in the park and harvested for eating. Some evidence that the Haitians are eating pet dogs and cats. How timely that today’s Southern Magazine’s breakfast recipe is Catshead bisquits “just like Grandma made.”

Just like your conversations, we drew word pictures of how stupid of the government to think they could transfer—flew them in—Haitians into Ohio. I tend to doubt native Buckeyes butcher Cocker Spaniels for lunch, but Haitians may do that in their culture. What could the bureaucracy have been thinking when they dropped 20,000 Haitians into Springfield (Pop-60,000) given their native culture—religious rituals, food preferences and how to drive? Ohio governor DeWine, says no one had a plan for assimilation or even minimum guidelines. What could go wrong?

https://www.glennbeck.com/radio/springfield-ohio-residents-haitian-migrants?utm_source=glenn-dailyPM&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=GlennDailyPM%202024-09-12&utm_term=ACTIVE%20-%20Glenn%20Beck%20Daily%20PM

Truth?

Words from my sister-in-law:

“Just read the term ‘augmented reality’. Sounds innocuous and in most cases it may be. But makes me uneasy to think about it subtly invading life and potential abuse.”

Jesus’ words stuck in my soul as related to Haitians. Some of our closest friends went on a mission trip—two groups of them—to tell the Good News, build things and pray deliverance from the darkness of Haiti. Our friends have stories to tell! We commissioned those folks to go to preach the gospel and tell their stories of grace and freedom.

Holy Spirit remind us about TRUTH.

A citizen of Springfield, Ohio talked about a driver of the van picking up and delivering illegals. The Haitian driver would pull up in front of the residence and lay on the horn for up to five minutes to get the attention of riders. Finally, the small businessman went to the van and told the driver (with an angry tone) that the proper thing would be to park, walk to the house, knock on the door. Thereafter, the van driver did exactly that. Somebody had to explain to him vehicle manners. Truth may be something we just don’t know yet.

Then Holy Spirit reminded us of another truth about The Truth: We anointed and sent our friends to declare the Gospel to Haiti. Some of the audience not only heard but said yes to Jesus. It could be that in those planes full of illegals several, or many legals or illegals, are Followers of Jesus who will become missionaries to the Ohio, USA. It may be that God has a Truth plan He didn’t advertise.

I keep wondering why politicians continue to stress things that have been proved a lie?? Because it works! There are two groups of people using lies to sell their line: There are those who are so deep in their agenda, they believe what they are saying—they have been deluded and their minds are locked tight against anything contrary to their “truth.”

(A preacher once answered how he got so many in Sunday school. He said, “I just round it off to the next highest number.” That is an untruth.)

The second group is made of people who are comfortable with lying—they have bargained with the devil. I heard ten lies, listed one right after another, which have been refuted with solid evidence. Why? Because telling a low-information population can easily be convinced. Ultimately the answer is IT WORKS!

“…the god of this age has blinded the minds of the unbelievers to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel” 2 Corinthians 4:4.  {The god of this age is the ‘father of lies.’ John 8:44}

A post from a friend:

“Eve found the serpent more trustworthy than God, not because of its credentials, but because the serpent said what Eve wanted to hear.”

Ooh! That nails it. In the midst of lies, untruths and such, it seems everyone got what they were looking and listening for in the Trump-Harris debate.

The media is in overdrive as they attempt to refute those dogs, cats, geese are being eaten. One news source states that Trump-Vance started that rumor about Haitians. It is murky, but I have heard first & second-generation Haitians saying it happens, cats are a luxury during specific holidays for use in religious rituals. Like most of us, I have not personally witnessed this

I’m wondering what I’m believing that sounds so solid because the speaker or writer is saying what I want to hear? Or verifying my thinking? How am I going to determine?

• Discerning of spirits
• Critical thinking ability and intention to use it.
• Understanding Jesus and The Kingdom’s Truth as taught in the Bible and Holy Spirit’s voice.

“You shall know the truth and it will….”

Accountability and consequences. Two behaviors—worldviews and mindsets follow truth/Truth.

In my opinion, the media is using this as a distraction for the airborne invasion by 20,000 illegal people into Ohio with no preparation, no warning, no conversation via news releases and interaction with locals and NO PLAN! This blaming of everyone else is typical it is part of the syndrome—“He is the cause of people attempting to assassinate him.”

Goebbels said, if you tell “a lie big enough” and regularly repeat it, “people will eventually come to believe it.”

A Texas friend responded to my sarcastic words about being a “deplorable” with, “You can be, if you choose.” I choose not to be and I’m choosing to hold everyone accountable for their charges and slanderous statements. I like to overstate some ridiculous things with exaggeration. “I’ve told you 11,000,000 times,” so if Mr. Trump exaggerates crowd sizes, I am bright enough to catch the sarcasm or self-applauding. I assume he is speaking for his whole team when he talks about what was accomplished or is planned. I intend to think critically and gracefully when I hear Ms. Harris over-state or exaggerate. However, I also ask God for the grace and courage to hold people accountable for a lie. For example:

“When you say, ‘He is a threat to our democracy exactly what are you saying? Give me an example.  When you use the word “EVIL” please be specific in defining evil—example how you are tying evil activities or consequences of evil activity to a person!’”

There are many biblical statements that lying and deceit is unacceptable to God and there are consequences.

“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone: which is the second death” (Revelation. 21:8).

Holy Spirit, I give you permission to keep me from augmenting the truth. Thanks.

©2024 D. Dean Benton

Just look at what is going on in the nations and our own culture. There are plenty of indicators. Nearly all the end time prophecies have been fulfilled. Have you heard this: “If Jesus doesn’t return or God doesn’t send a surgical nuke strike soon, He’ll have to apologize to Sodom & Gomorrah.” As I have archived the prophet’s warnings, I have calculated whether the Earth’s nations have witnessed such barbarism, immorality, disrespect, hate, greed, ad infinitum earlier. Yes. And there was no Rapture. Jesus did not come back. Could there be other things going on—like activity in the Heavens? Or crazy behavior by mankind that is an outlier to God’s eternal plan?

2026 will be the 250^th anniversary of America as a nation. I’m not sure if we will make it through 2024 or even have an election in November. Rabbi Daniel Lepin appears on TV occasionally. I have a couple of his books. He is a mystery to me. He conducted research on history and found that nations, Empires last about 250 years—approximately.

• Babylonian Empire (1780 BC to 1530 BC): 250 years
• Assyrian Empire (860 BC to 612 BC): 246 years.
• Pax Romana of the Roman Empire (27 BC to 213 AD): 240 years.
• Spanish Empire (1492 to 1742 AD): 250 years.
• Pre-Communist Russia Empire (1682 to 1916):234 years.
• British Empire (1700 to 1950):250 years.

Pastor Phil Hotenspiller (Influence Church—California) It’s Midnight in America, Charisma House, ©2024, Quotes Rabbi Lepin:

“…In Genesis we see “ten generations” as repeated blocks of time, specifically, the ten generations from Adam to Noah (Gen. 5:1-29) and then from Noah to Abraham (Gen 11:10-26). More than seeing generations merely as specific time spans, he observes the significance of Hebrew names provided and discerns a pattern of how empires grow and then decline.” (Page 122):

First Generation: bold breakout and conquest

Second Generation: commercial expansion

Third Generation: splendid buildings

Fourth Generation: widespread affluence

Fifth Generation: zenith and the best of days

Sixth Generation: extending influence beyond borders with money instead of military

Seventh Generation: rising political power of women & of the intellectual & academic elite.

Eighth Generation: influx of foreigners

Ninth Generation: eat, drink and be merry

Tenth Generation: internal political and civic fracture

“Each generation has a little less character strength than its preceding generation. Each generation’s parents want their children to “have it better that we did.” Invariably they mean materially, not spiritually. Additionally, each generation views the previous generation’s luxuries as its necessities. Eventually, this seems to lead inevitably to a generation incapable of sustaining its own verity. The sad process typically takes about ten generations.”

“If we are talking about democracies, Rabbi Lapin’s estimate of 250 years may be a little optimistic.” (Page 123—Midnight;  &  Only Six More Years?—Lapin

Day after tomorrow my cardiologist is going to shock my heart back into rhythm. I didn’t know it was out until a doctor said after looking at me “You’re in A-Fib right now.” When I read the above quotes, I felt like I had been shocked or shaken into a clearer, focused vision of what may be going on.

“If My people who are called by my Name will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.”

It must have been 2020 when serious Jesus followers started quoting 2 Chronicles 7:14:

After a few weeks or months, I began to ask questions. I had turned from all the wicked ways I could dig up. I questioned my humility, my prayer habit and if I really was seeking. I wondered if not only did my family have to pray, but the people who depend on MSNBC and CNN for their news would also have to turn, humble, seek, pray. And if they would not or did not, would the promised healing be withdrawn?

Dean, don’t forget that some of the Old Testament covenants were God-given to the Hebrews and not necessarily to the people of the New Covenant. Is “heal their land” referring to The Promised Land? I think any nation, any land, any people that practices the requirements of 2 Chronicles 7:14 meet God’s requirements and the healing is on the way. Am I responsible for humbling others? How about seeking, turning, praying as a proxy? God doesn’t accept mail-in repentance. Am I to conclude I did not humble myself adequately?

There must be something else going on!

Around the turn of the nineteenth century a Scottish lawyer/ historian (Alexander Fraser Tytler) made this observation:

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greats civilizations from the beginning of history has been 200 years. During those 200 years these nations always progressed through the following sequence:

• from bondage to spiritual faith:

• from spiritual faith to great courage;

• from courage to liberty;

• from liberty to abundance;

• from abundance to selfishness;

• from selfishness to complacency;

• from complacency to apathy;

• from apathy to dependence;

• from dependence back into bondage.”

(Adam Drakos, “Tytler’s Circle of Civilizations” ThinkingWest, November 16, 2022, https://thinkingwest.com/2022/11/16/tytlers-cycle-of-civilizations.)

Dean, let me ‘splain’ a possibility:

Someone posted an explanation for the decline of faith and/or church attendance. “Christianity has outlived its ‘use by date.’” Could the nations of this world have faced the “end times” before and some other country became “owners” of the land? Is that what is happening to USA now? Splain to me why scholars I trust say we are butting up against the Second Coming of Jesus?

I am (most of the time) a pre-millenialist—which means I believe Jesus will rapture His People before the Tribulation. I have been wondering why Jesus did not return around the time of WWII—and the attempt to extinguish the Jews. God knows we have some historical anti-Christs.

I’m also wondering if we could be facing “the end times” of Western Civilization that is distinct from Jesus’ Rapture. Something very thought provoking about this evaluation of God:

“God isn’t late with his promise as some measure lateness. He is restraining himself on account of you, holding back the End because he doesn’t want anyone lost. He’s giving everyone space and time to change” (2 Peter  3:9Msg.).

Mystery is everywhere in God’s economy of time and global plans. There are clues we are wise to sort. I’m not claiming Revelation or wisdom, just questions and maybe some wondering.

Shouldn’t the biblical prophets and the traditional secular futurists be examining the repetitive causes, behaviors, worldviews, sins that dominate reasons nations and empires self-destructing at 200-250 years? Should not the most evangelistic local churches be busy proclaiming hope, healing and deliverance?

“Look among the nations and watch—be utterly astounded! For I will work a work in your days which you would not believe though it were told you” (Habakkuk 1:5).

Don’t want to be predictable here. 200-250 years—I don’t know how much time we have. This blog is not complete without the words of these two songs.

Redemption Draws Night (Written by Gordon Jensen)     Performed by Mylon Hayes Family

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfE_TDyG9DY

“In A Little While,”   (Written by Alvin Love III–CeCe’s son) Performed by  CeCe Winans, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xI70E6SVmBQ 

Copyright (c) D. Dean Benton

Are there basic mindsets or commitments that can set us on an accomplishment track? I have settled on six and one is resourcefulness.

“Dr. Tim Elmore, is the Founder and CEO of Growing Leaders. He is a world-renowned expert on Generation Y and Generation Z. He uses his knowledge to equip educators, coaches, leaders, parents, and other adults to impart practical life and leadership skills to young adults.”

That bio is from the cover of Elmore’s book The Pandemic Population. He shares his study of The Silent Generation (Depression era) and Gen Z.

“When the Silent Generation faced hardship, they were encouraged to be resilient, resourceful, and respectful. When Gen Z faced similar hardships, they were encouraged to be savvy, cynical and stoic. If we want to change the outcome, we’ve got to change how we lead Gen Z through the challenges they face.” (Page 28-9)

Whatever roots (assumptions, worldviews, mindsets, beliefs) you water, fruit (outcomes) will grow. Silent Generation adults taught their youngers “…to be self-sufficient yet interdependent, frugal yet charitable—an interesting mix that seems to be missing today.” (Elmore, page 19)

I’m a loyal YouTube watcher of Red Poppy Ranch. Heath & Cedar and family live in Idaho on a mountain. This program is about building and maintaining by Heath. His building experience is his former occupation of plumbing. We watched him build a house, shop, and multiple out-buildings. We’ve watched rebuild vehicles and fix several others. By himself Heath has built roads. This week he is cutting a road/trail to the top of his mountain property. I am fascinated by how many skills he uses and how he learned them. He shares stories of his heritage. For me, he is resourceful.

https://www.cabinpreneur.com/red-poppy-ranch/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=reUPgc1IuHM

Resourcefulness. The week of April 7, Heath talks about teaching children life-skills. Worth taking notes! I know I didn’t learn /don’t know how to weld. That would have helped in some of the jobs like—being a singer with a bus or pickup truck needing repair.

©2024 D. Dean Benton

Ideas from my ebook in progress: Water the Roots the companion book to Carafe Conspiracy, available from Smashwords, Com or wherever you buy your ebooks.

I like Commentary online magazine. It speaks to issues in ways I don’t usually encounter. From the current edition, the article “The New Rednecks” talks about the middle class.

“Rather than be catered to by the elites who seek to make their living off their tastes and wants, the middle class is more likely to hear the elite talk about it as a problem: Middle-class Americans are racist, they complain too much about how expensive everything has become, and they won’t get on board either with the left’s social-engineering schemes or the populist right’s rage-driven apocalypticism.” (Seth Mandel, https://www.commentary.org/seth-mandel/the-new-rednecks/)

A friend sent me a paragraph from theologian Jurgen Moltmann whom I haven’t read much since seminary days. He says,

“Resurrection is not a consoling opium, soothing us with the promise of a better world in the hereafter. It is the energy for a rebirth of this life. The hope doesn’t point to another world. It is…on the redemption of this one.”

The Evangelical Right (not necessarily the “populist right) wraps its apocalypticism around the Second Coming of Jesus and Jesus’ comments on conditions preceding that event. (Luke 21:5ff & Matthew 24.)

Response to Moltmann’s thought: We don’t have to choose between a “promise of a better world in the hereafter” and “on the redemption of this one.” When Jesus does return, we—today’s Followers—may be referred to as “the early church.”

I believe in the imminent return of Jesus. Imminent meaning He may return to rapture His people at any moment. We are to so live that we will be ready. But Jesus also reminded us to be about the Father’s business. My personal most respected prophets speak of Jesus return but speak also of a coming awakening/revival/personal evangelism and the power of the unleashed, revealed and declared Kingdom, Gospel, Good News.

A beloved brother responded to a message on what God is calling us to and what He is planning to do.

“That is a powerful, scary, sobering, hopeful message from Dutch Sheets! In light of shaking, and changes, what am I to do differently than I am now? Purpose? Actively wait on God? How does that manifest itself in my station in life right now?  It makes me wonder, evaluate, contemplate”.

Keeping Gary’s questions before us put us on God’s time-line and in His employ whether He returns day after tomorrow or in 1000 years.

©2024 D. Dean Benton

My ebook, “Carafe Conspiracy” is now available from Smashwords or where you get your ebooks;

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1537105

Unidentified Objects

One of my meds is stimulating my dreams. Each of the people in last night’s dream came through a YouTube clip or encounter. We watched the construction of a motor home out of a big Blue Bird school bus. Even the tire size was explained. Even some of the conversations.

In the dream, our group was on the road in our bus. We had a guest. I told my people I had driven as far as I could. Our guest said she could drive, so I took over the passenger seat. At one point our tour took on unfamiliar territory. I awoke from my nap in the shotgun seat to tell the driver, “You probably shouldn’t have turned left.” We were in a sub-division and then the bus was inside someone’s living room. (In dreams, magic things like re-sizing buses to get them through entrance doors can happen.)

“How did we get in here?” The driver asked. Since I had no answer, we just sat there. Apparently, the home housed kids. There were toys everywhere, but the bus had weaved between them all and no toy was broken. The house was full of huge, bright, color, flowers. Not one was struck nor squashed.

“What do we do, now?”

I told our guest driver to just back up exactly like she had entered. In the dream, I observed the meticulous trek between flowers, toys, dining room tables. Amazing!

“And now what?”

“We will get back on the Interstate and leave the bus tire tracks on the carpet. The resident family will figure out the mystery—maybe they will conclude a UFO landed for lunch.”

If you found tire tracks on your living room floor this morning….

©2024 D. Dean Benton

My brand new novel:  Carafe Conspiracy—follow the link.  (No tire tracks or guest drivers. )

https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1537105