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A Mary T. Hoffman Commentary from All-Creatures.org

 

"Joyful Curmudgeon" An oxymoron?
No! I see all the beauty of God's creation and I'm joyful.  At the same time, I see all the suffering and corruption going on in the world, and feel called to help expose and end it so that we may have true peace and compassion.

 


Trivializing the Truth – 22 June 2007
By Mary T. Hoffman

Picture this: An old-fashioned balance with two weighing pans. Piled up on one side are all the lies that people believe and on the other side, the things that they believe that happen to be true. Which side do you think would be heavier?

From what I’ve been able to observe, the lies would far outweigh the truth. Why? Because people want it so. People can deny it all they want, but God has given everyone free will, and humans seem to choose the lie.

Once our “eyes have been opened” by the Holy Spirit, we begin to realize that the world is indeed fallen and corrupt as the Bible says it is, and that Satan, the “father of lies” (John 8:43-47) holds sway. (In John 14:30, Jesus refers to Satan as “the ruler of the world.”)

A day doesn’t go by when we don’t see or hear something that proves the truth of these scriptures – even after thousands of years. Over and over again the public is bombarded with ads featuring happy cows, smiling pigs, fish who can’t wait to be caught and eaten, ad nauseam. It seems like the more abused and exploited the animals are, the more the absurdities the flesh and dairy industries come up with in their attempt to hide their horrible abuses and to keep the public “feeling good” with lies.

Here are a few appropriate scriptures from the Hebrew Bible as well as the New Testament:

Jeremiah 5:21
21 'Hear this, O foolish and senseless people,
Who have eyes, but see not;
Who have ears, but hear not.'

Isaiah 5:20
20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who substitute darkness for light and light for darkness;
Who substitute bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Psalm 52:3
3 You love evil more than good,
Falsehood more than speaking what is right.

Ecclesiastes 9:3
3 This is an evil in all that is done under the sun, that there is one fate for all men. Furthermore, the hearts of the sons of men are full of evil, and insanity is in their hearts throughout their lives. Afterwards they go to the dead.

1 John 2:16-17
16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

In John 3:19, Jesus says:
19 "And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their deeds were evil."

Every one of these verses was put in the Bible so that we would learn not to be caught up in the ways of the world; but that we would do everything in our power to be loving, compassionate, peacemaking people, just as Jesus taught us to be.

We should recognize the lies and no longer support them with our money or with our indifference. We should turn away from the lies and live in the truth.

See:
www.all-creatures.org/anex/

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