Our neck of the woods is experiencing some sunshine, but still cooler weather.  No wind today, which is always nice.  Looking at the forecast for the next week it appears we will be slowly warming up.  Hope so, not ready for Josh and his tractor and all that we will be trying to accomplish this month.

Still concerned about the moisture on the mountains, one source says it is about 75% of normal – need more than that – however, looking at Timberline’s site and the graphs provided there it appears we are on track to be normal if not above normal moisture --- we shall see.

Steven, Celinda and CeeCee are back home after a couple of weeks in the United Kingdom.  They enjoyed their time, even though there were a few health concerns.  Always something.

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Isaiah 59:8-9    KJV  “ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

As a child I would hear my parents tell me things, some I understood and obeyed their words, other times I thought – and sometimes didn’t think just acted – I am okay, I know enough to get by and I will be fine.  Only to discover I didn’t know as much as I thought I did.

Through the years I learned that certain people actually did know more about something than I do – as a matter of fact a LOT of them.  We learn to depend on their knowledge, training and experience to help us live a better life.

Doctors, people with certain skill sets they have developed through the years, people who have studied and learned more on a certain subject than I ever could; most of these people can advise and assist me with making me a better human being.

Yes, there are several we run into all the time that ‘think’ they know it all, they may even know quite a bit, but their application of that knowledge is flawed and they insist that since they are the ‘educated’ one we should listen and obey them without question.

In today’s world we have so many places to turn to in gaining information – however, a lot of it can be deliberately misleading and, unfortunately, there are people who take advantage of our limited knowledge, or trust, to feed us false information.  Information that will benefit them in one way or another.

It is difficulty to know who is actually telling the truth, whether it be the news media, who spin their own bias’s or the “all-knowing” people that post on social media. 

It is best that we really are skeptical, don’t take these at face value and do what we can to ascertain the truth – as hard as that may be.

When we investigate crimes one of the first questions we ask ourselves is ‘who benefits from this crime?”  It helps us to make a suspect list and allows us to get information from them and others as to why they should stay on the list.  Most crimes have motives and when that is determined it is easier to solve.

We can ask ourselves the same question when we receive questionable information from the news media and social media.  There is an agenda and, in this day and age, we find that many of the news medias’ ethics are questionable at best and downright non-existence many times.

We are learning that even the top ‘law enforcement’ service in the nation is so biased that they actually have deliberately covered things up and instead of doing their job, they use their authority to undermine justice.

While all of us have biases, and often times do not realize how that affects our ability to discern the truth, we still have the obligation to set those aside and do our job.  It is almost more important to use those biases to hammer people than to try and find out what the truth really is.

Who can we trust? 

Through the centuries many people have tried to destroy the Bible by misreading or misquoting passages.  They downplay the historical correctness, they downplay not only who Jesus said He was, but many of His teachings and just being a man who was a great teacher – never did understand that since a great “teacher” doesn’t lie about things that are as important as eternal salvation.

Many movies ‘portray’ bible stories, but put their own spin on the Word and much of it is garbage.  One actor accused Noah of being a terrible person because he didn’t open up the ark and let people in when the floods came.

Not only had Noah warned people for around one hundred years, but he couldn’t open the door, it was sealed shut by God; Genesis 7:16  KJV  “And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in.

It is easy for us to think that we know it all, or at least enough to survive this world; and that may be true to a large degree since we do have resources to help us.

But we don’t know it all, as a matter of fact, we don’t know much at all as to how to live our life in a holy manner.  Without God’s direction and our constant vigilance and interaction with Him and His Word, we slowly slip away and we find ourselves withering on the vine because we are no longer attached to the roots.

God doesn’t mind us questioning Him.  He doesn’t mind us delving into the scriptures to see if what we hear is correct or not.  I can remember questioning my first Pastor over several weeks about God and His Son, he used passages from the Bible as well as personal experience to help me understand who God is.

I remember someone telling me that in talking to him about me he said, boy did he ask questions.

But we find that after we have accepted the Word as truth and His Son as our Savior, the Bible has new meaning, some of what we understand is done by faith, and when we look to His Word we find a reinforcement to our faith.

It isn’t just an historical document, it is the basis of life itself, both here on earth and for all eternity.

We just have to trust Him, even when we feel we are going through the most difficult of times.

“ For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.

⁹ For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”

Later, Art (-: