Place Your Trust in God, Pt. 2

Ronald Weinland

February 11, 2023

Although it was asked a little differently last Sabbath, the question I’m going to begin with today is related to all this: How deeply committed are you in placing your trust in God? Because we are in a time right now where that’s going to be needed more than you have ever had to exercise in all your life. Truly. Obviously, that’s the subject of this new series Place Your Trust in God, this being Part 2.

There are things speeding our way that will require that we, again, practice this far more zealously. Because we haven’t had to. There might have been certain occasions in your life where things come up in your own life where you have to apply this type of thing, especially as physical things happen to us in the world, whatever that might be. People have done that since the time they have come into the Church, but nothing compared to what’s coming. That’s said with a little bit of soberness, in that respect, and that’s how we need to receive it.

So, last week we first focused upon a song that’s familiar to most, a psalm that comes from Psalm 9, I Will Praise You, O Eternal, because it touches upon this subject somewhat then. Then we went on to Psalm 25 and we also ended the sermon with the first couple of verses of Psalm 25 because I had so many papers shuffled up here that I got mixed up and I went right back to it. But it was apropos.

We’re actually going to read some of that again here today in the beginning of this particular sermon. As a reminder, Psalm 25:1—Unto You, O Eternal, do I lift up my life. Now, there’s a lot said here in that respect because it’s a matter of how we focus upon a relationship with God, what we understand that God gives to us and offers us, but it’s literally what we give to God at baptism. Our life belongs to God. We know that.

Then there is another aspect of that that comes along in time as you’re tried in different ways, as you go through various things in human life where you have to practice this because of things that come your way, this matter of, in essence, putting your trust, your hope, your strength, your life in God’s hand. It’s a matter of knowing. It’s a matter of a confidence. It’s a matter of a trust. And so, that’s what’s being said here.

Unto You, O Eternal, do I lift up my life. O my God, I trust in You. Because that’s what it’s all about. Do not let me be, as the word is, confounded. There are those things we look to God in where we want to have a right thinking and a right mind and not to be distracted from what’s happening to us at a moment in time because those things have happened and can happen.

Again, it’s a different thing sometimes having to practice this than just thinking about it or talking about it or believing that’s what we’re doing. There are things sometimes we don’t grasp fully in a particular subject matter until we’re in the midst of something where it’s required on a far greater scale than ever before in our life.

So, we covered more in this particular chapter, but I want to focus once again upon a couple of verses in the chapter. Verse 20-22—O keep my life… Now, this is the word that’s used in the beginning in Genesis “to dress and keep,” and God giving that charge to mankind over His creation and over life, and over the things that God gives to them/to us. But now it’s a request toward God, “O keep,” which is “to watch over; preserve as to maintain; to strengthen, as the word means, “My life.” We desire that, but it becomes more real when it’s necessary because of what we’re going through. We have a desire for that.

Now, this is a two-part thing because first and foremost we want that on a spiritual plane, obviously, as we understand we’re God’s begotten children. But we want to be born into His Family, we want that life to continue on until we’ve come to that point where God can say, “Now I know you,” to where we’re sealed and then later born, literally, into His Family.

But it’s also on a physical plane as well because there is that which we need in order to continue on so we can grow, so we can experience various things in life and have this mind transformed. So, these go together. They are our physical life with that spirit essence in us and begotten of God. We have a physical life we have to live and there is that which is spiritual.

So again, it says here, O keep my life, and deliver me; do not let me be confounded, for I have put my trust in You. So it ends on this, asking God, talking to God about this, “I trust in You. I put my trust in You. I lift up my life to You. I give my life to You,” and then coming down here and reiterating it again in the sense of this same desire, that you want to be able to continue on, you want to be able to continue to grow, you want to be preserved in life physically and spiritually, obviously, until your physical part is finished, that job, that responsibility.

…for I put my trust in You. Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait on You. So, we look to God for everything about our lives. We look to God as far as Sabbath to Sabbath, Holy Day to Holy Day, and what those things picture as far as God’s plan and God’s purpose for us. And so, we wait upon God. Especially at this time period because we look forward to the time certain things are going to be fulfilled and accomplished because we’ve been called at the end of an age and the dawning of a new age.

Let integrity and uprightness preserve me, for I wait on You. Redeem Israel, O God, out of all its troubles! So, we always need help, and we need to understand that spiritually in our lives. We are to comprehend that on a spiritual plane and cry out to God regularly, daily, and ask for help because we’re convicted we know we need God’s help every day of our life, we need His spirit living within us. We want that help. We want that strength. But also, when certain troubles come even on a physical plane there are things where we need God’s help, and we cry out to Him. But nothing compared to what’s coming, and that’s what we need to grasp.

So again, last week we focused on two weeks of news and this subject of putting our trust in God is going to become far more important as we enter some of the worst times of all human history. Right now watching the aftermath of the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria kind of brings a little bit of this to the forefront. It’s a little bit of a taste.

Because if we can’t put ourselves in that kind of environment and think, what is that like, what are they going through, what do I feel as you see certain ones that have been spared, certain ones after they’ve suffered a long period of time in freezing temperatures and are able to be pulled out of a structure, it should prick the heart, it should get to us. It should help us to think about what’s coming and to realize this is very mild. This is very mild to what’s coming.

Because that’s in a specific region, it doesn’t affect us directly. But what’s coming is going to affect everyone on earth. We’re going to experience it.

Unlike what the Church used to believe in a sense of not having to be concerned about it at that time, but at a time when because of what God hadn’t yet revealed and about protection and so forth, and about Petra, there is a belief then that everyone would be taken and go to Petra for 3½ years and be protected from what’s going to come on this earth.

Well and good, in one respect, but that isn’t the way God’s working with us. It isn’t the way He works with the world. He lets us experience things and He lets us go through various things, but He’s there for us to bring us through them. What trust is there when you’re in Petra to worry about anything if you’re actually in a place like that?

It’s kind of like some who believe in a rapture, that they’re going to be taken up and everybody else is going to go through the troubles. But if you’re taken up there, wherever that is, then you’re going to be taken care of and spared from all the trouble and all the toil and all the hurt and pain and suffering of human beings. What do you glean from all that except ease of going through something and not being touched by it?

Well, God wants us to be touched by it. There are things to be learned from what we’re going to go through. No one has ever gone through anything like this, but we’re going to. A part of this has to do with what God is molding and fashioning in us that’s different from other ages. We are unique in what God is building, in what God is creating. That’s wonderful. That’s exciting.

Because we’re not all the same through the ages in what God is molding and fashioning and what we have to go through to be where we’re going to be in the future. You gave your life to God, you trust in God, and God is revealing to us then, has been revealing to us for some time, that every age is unique. Different ones are unique for what they have been created for. We don’t know what that is until that Kingdom comes to this earth, and then later on for this Body of what’s going to happen on into the Millennium and those who continue on.

But it’s going to be incredible. Whatever God molds and fashions in us, our trust in God for what He tells us, we know it’s going to be beyond what we can comprehend, and awesome and beautiful and wonderful and exciting, and inspiring, and the things we’re going to be able to be a part of because we have been molded into that to be able to deal with whatever it is that we’re going to be given.

What value can you place on something so incredibly great? Awesome!

So again, it’s this matter of trusting in God, that our lives are in His hands to mold and fashion, but to understand this is something really quite incredible because of where we are in time, what we’ve been blessed to experience because of where we are. We just happen to be in this age. God is going to plug in and fulfill certain things because of those who live in this age, and we’re exceedingly blessed to be a part of that, a small group, remnant, which in itself is very exciting, in one respect, and quite incredible. God will reveal more to us about that in time.

So again, watching some of the aftermath of this and seeing some of the confusion in the world. I was watching one segment on BBC. I tried to find it on some of the other channels and it’s like they’ve got people discussing a balloon. But not something that’s horrific in the world, not something that should be keeping people abreast of the suffering that human beings are going through.

Anyway, we live in such a sick world. And so, while they’re discussing a stupid balloon and it got shot down quickly, and how exciting this is that we’re, you know, finally we’re doing it quickly. I mean, it’s a balloon. Was there anything on it? Well, they haven’t found anything yet and they haven’t found anything. I don’t even think they’ve even found that one.

It takes away from what’s really happening. It gets your mind on other things out here, and hearing them talk about China – where one individual was talking to a military leader, and they all took it in stride, “We’re going to be at war with China very soon,” or “There is going to be war with China.” That’s how they said it, “There is going to be war with China soon.”

It’s like, okay, you’re just discussing it as a panel and nonchalantly, like ho-hum. Don’t you know what that means? Don’t you understand? Aren’t you shaken by that? Are you stirred up and telling people about what’s going to happen because you know, you believe there is going to be a war with China? You think this is going to be something that is going to be simple and easy? Don’t you understand there are going to be nuclear bombs, of warheads used that are going to decimate parts of the earth? And if it’s a world war, what does that mean?

I mean, this world is sick, the minds of people. Who knows? Well, we know. God’s given it to us to know.

The one individual standing on the side of Syria and he says, “Just over this hill over here, this mountain right here,” he said, “we hear sirens, we hear machines running. We don’t have any of that.” Why? Because they’re in an occupied area. They’re in an area that’s not receiving help. People are probably afraid to go in there because of the fighting and the military, things that have been going on there for ages now. And so, yeah, they’re not receiving help. But across the border at least there is some help. Not in the way they would like it to be but there is at least some help. Then you think, how sad that is.  Touching things.

You’re going to see — every one of you will see things like this that are going to rip you apart inside. Can you take it? Can you see it as a part of God’s plan? Can you deal with it? Because we have to. That’s what God has been preparing us for. It’s a reality. We live with that reality, and we strive to see it in the midst of God’s purpose and God’s plan.

God allows mankind to do things like this for a purpose and for a reason. It’s the only way we can learn. We have to experience things like this. The world has to experience things like this. Every age has had to experience man’s government, wars, evil.

I think of one baby that was born in the rubble. Mind-boggling. In that kind of environment, in freezing temperatures and a baby survives. Different children are surviving more than it seems like adults because a smaller body oftentimes escapes because of not being crushed by certain things around it, where adults are larger, and things happen to them. It hurts if you see what they’re going through and if you feel for other human beings. And you think, what a horrifying thing, buildings flattened. Looks like giant bombs went off.

But can you live in it? Can you be there for them? Because a lot of us, it’s a matter of being there for people. What can you do? How can you help?

We experience it with the world, but we experience it in a different way, with the impregnation of God’s spirit and God working with the mind of creating something in us that’s going to make us even different from what we are right now because of the experience. We’re going to mature. We’re going to be able to grasp and see things on a plane because of God’s spirit that will help us in a future in ways we can’t really grasp yet until we go through the experience.

It's like being told, “The apostasy is going to take place.” But you can’t grasp it. You can’t comprehend it. You could be told, we could have been told, more about the things we’re going to experience and what’s going to happen to us, but God didn’t do that because we just had to experience it full-on without understanding it until it was there, and we grew from that. Horrifying, gut-wrenching, tore us apart, but there are things that were molded in us because of what we experienced. That experience can’t be given to anyone unless you’ve done it.

How can that be used? Well, it’s been used a lot already. But it’s going to be used more in the future, and so will this experience, the end of 6,000 years, finally, of all the lying, all the deception, all the hatred, all the cruelty, all the jealousy, all the envy. If people can’t learn to hate those things in life; if we can’t learn to hate those things in our human lives and see them in our lives…

That’s why I, candidly, get riled up inside when I think of people in God’s Church who don’t get along, who can’t get along. If someone can’t get along in a marriage you think, “Do you not grasp the most basic things that we are to learn and understand and be convicted of with all of our being, that we have work to do first on self and then on any relationship around us?” We have to learn to be peacemakers. We have to learn how to do that. We have to experience bad things so we can learn how to do the right things, through conviction that only God’s way works.

So, watching some of this on TV I can’t help, you can’t help but think, at least I couldn’t—what we’re getting ready to go through. So, we see a little bit to realize this is going to be everywhere, city after city after city, far more massively, far more destructive, and no one is going to escape it.

So how we do, what we do, is about what things we see in the mind, because a lot of it’s going to do with our minds and how we think about God, how we think about God’s plan and God’s purpose and what we wait for and what we hold on to. It’s what’s coming that’s finally going to begin to help clean up this world after 6,000 years. There is no other way to learn it for mankind, to actually become more convicted of it on a larger scale. But even then some will never change, some will never want it. What a horrible thing.

So, I’m going to start today before we go into other scriptures, the news. One week.

“Russia prepares large-scale offensive in next 10 days.”[1] Now, this is all over out there in the news in different areas because they know what’s on the border. They know what’s on the border. They already know it’s coming. It’s not a secret. One year after, preparing for another assault.

“Russia plans to launch a new large-scale offensive within the next 10 days. … The Financial Times writes that Kyiv has obtained ‘very solid intelligence of intent’ by Russia to launch a new attack.”

Well, where do you think they got all this? Well, there happen to be satellites that are up there and there happen to be other secret agencies in the world that know exactly what they’re doing. They know exactly what’s out there and they’re pumping the information to them right and left.

So, yeah, let it come out of Kyiv. Don’t let it come out of the United States government. Don’t let it come out of Great Britain. Don’t let it come out of the European Union. Let them do it all. We’ll just give them the stuff to do it with and stand back and watch this war. Well, one day that all changes.

“The Russian offensive will likely aim to capture the entire Donbas region and may begin in the west of Luhansk Oblast… … The Financial Times also notes that Russia is building up its troops in the south of Donetsk Oblast, with additional forces being deployed to villages around occupied Mariupol. According to the Financial Times, Russia’s goal is to launch the offensive before Ukraine receives Western tanks and weapons.” Or they already had it planned and the tanks just happen to be in the news. So, anyway…whatever.

Another article here: “At the Pentagon, push to send F-16s to Ukraine picks up steam.”[2] “A contingent of military officials is quietly pushing the Pentagon to approve sending F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine to help the country defend itself from Russian missile and drone attacks, according to three people with knowledge of the discussions.” Nobody wants to give their names.

“As Ukraine prepares to launch a new offensive to retake territory in the spring, the campaign inside the Defense Department for fighter jets is gaining momentum, according to a DoD official and two other people involved in the discussions. … Spurred in part by the rapid approval of tanks and Patriot air defense systems — which not long ago were off-limits for export to Ukraine…” Yes, yes, yes. So, they see a type here and they know what’s going to happen. In time, they’re going to send the jets…if they have the time. “— there is renewed optimism in Kyiv that U.S. jets could be next up.”

Another one here: “Poland ‘open to sending fighter jets to Kyiv,’ says PM.”[3] Well, they were in the forefront of sending tanks. Now they’re in the forefront of sending jets, pushing Europe. “Poland’s prime minister, Mateusz Morawiecki, has said he is open to supplying Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets if the decision were taken together with NATO allies.”

“In an interview with the German newspaper Bild, published today, he said: ‘If this was a decision of the whole of NATO, I would be for sending these fighter jets.’” So, they’re putting it out there in front, “We’re ready.” Wanting to stress trying to get the others to move in that direction. “He stressed that his assessment ‘is based on what NATO countries decide together’ and that the decision required the ‘strategic consideration of the whole’ alliance.”

“Western allies should coordinate any supply of fighter jets ‘because this is a very serious war and Poland is not participating in this war, NATO is not participating,’ he added.” You know, we think the games that people play, it’s just like give me a break. Anyway, “The US, Britain and Germany have ruled out sending fighter jets in the past days. France, which makes its own combat jets, appears to have a more open mind. President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday their supply was not taboo as long it could not be deemed escalatory…”

You think, “Well, of course, it’s not escalating anything if we send our jets. How could you take it that way?” The games people play. It makes you want to pull your hair out. I don’t have any hair to pull out, but anyway. “…and they were not used to target ‘Russian soil.’” Well, they already know they’re liars because they already know that Crimea is open now as far as some of the governments have openly said, back channels, “Yeah, you can have your chunk at them. Go ahead and launch them over there to Crimea.”

Another one here, “Russia is planning a major offensive to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the war in Ukraine on 24 February, according to Ukraine’s defence minister, Oleksii Reznikov. Speaking to French media, Reznikov warned that Russia would call on a large contingent of mobilised troops. Referring to Russia’s general mobilisation of 300,000 conscripted soldiers in September last year, he claimed that numbers at the border suggest the true size could be closer to 500,000.” [4] Speaking of Russia.

Another one here: “World Is Walking Into WW3 With ‘Eyes Wide Open’ - UN Chief Tells General Assembly.”[5] NATO. Yep, that’s what they’re doing. That’s what we’re doing. That’s what’s happening. “Can you all see it?” “Can you all admit it?” “Can you all acknowledge it?”

“‘The prospects for peace keep diminishing,’ Guterres said. ‘The chances of further escalation and bloodshed keep growing.’ He then sounded the alarm that ‘I fear the world is not sleepwalking into a wider war. I fear it is doing so with its eyes wide open.’" But stupid.

It’s like what does all this mean? Now, some know what it means. How can you keep going like this and say there isn’t someone or different ones out here that are pushing very hard at both Russia and China for war? They’re pushing exceedingly hard. But if they keep pushing in the channels that they are and they do something that then gives you excuse to retaliate then it’s all justified. We play such sick games in this world. You think a war isn’t coming? There are a lot of people already talking about how WW III has already started. I believe it has too, with all my being. What do you believe?

I think of that article last week that talked about a period of time, ‘37 – maybe it’s later – when Germany was doing some of the things it was doing. WW II really had already begun, looking back. We have to look forward. Where are we?

Another one here: “UK Pledges Fighter Pilot Training for Ukraine during Zelensky’s Surprise Visit.”[6] Why would you do that unless you are committed somewhere up the line to making sure they have something to fly? That’s a toughie, isn’t it? People just play these games. A little closer to all-out war, meaning nuclear war.

Another one here: “German politicians and military chiefs suggest return of conscription.”[7] Oh, that’s good news for Europe, isn’t it? Germany? Shouldn’t be a surprise.

“The German parliamentary commissioner for the armed forces, Eva Högl of the centre-left SPD, on Wednesday urged the government to ask itself whether some form of obligatory civic service was required to address staff shortages in the German army’s ranks. … The chief of the German navy, Jan Christian Kaack, also recently proposed a return of mandatory military service along the Norwegian model…”

Going on in saying here in essence, “A return of obligatory military service would require the state to spend millions of euros to rebuild and upgrade barracks and buy in weapons and equipment for training, not least because the number of eligible conscripts would be higher than in the past: as in Norway, a modern version of military conscription would probably have to apply to women as well as men. Since modern armies require staff trained in increasingly complex military hardware, conscripts serving for only a few months would be of little use.” So, there are different ones pushing for serving longer and more.

Another article here: “VLADIMIR Putin is feared to be readying the launch of the catastrophic Satan-2 nuke missile in a chilling message to the West.” [8] “The major new test launch is set to coincide with the Kremlin's massive offensive planned in days.” It’s just common news right now, this week, to speak of the offensive that is there. They’re getting ready to do it. It’s all on the border. It’s going to happen. What day? Well, probably the 24th. But who knows?

“Hundreds of thousands of soldiers are gearing up for the push, which will mark the one-year anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24. … But it is the carnage of the 208-ton hypersonic Satan-2 rocket that is the most feared. It measures 116 feet in length and can be loaded with 15 light nuclear warheads at once. The weapon has the potential to obliterate the United Kingdom 1,600 miles away in just six minutes.”

Now, they’re talking about the ability to destroy an entire nation with one – one missile. “And with an operational range of up to 11,180 miles, the deadly missile is reported to have no equivalent in the West in terms of the terror it could unleash. …The Satan-2 missile has a top speed of 15,880 mph”

“However, military insiders expect the staging to be a test launch.” [9] Someone keeps testing, and one day it’s not a test, it’s already off the ground, its already going up. How much time do you have? Four more minutes. That’s insanity. “However, military insiders expect the staging to be a test launch, following unexplained delays in the development and deployment of Putin’s ‘big beast’ weapon.”

“Officials in remote districts of Kamchatka, Russia, have been warned to be ready for a test launch of a nuclear-capable strategic missile between February 15 and February 25. It will be launched at Kura test range, with restrictions on movements for local residents to be put in place in three districts.” So, yes, they’re told in advance, so they prepare for it knowing what they have to do. Don’t wander out.

Anyway, another one here: “Ukraine ready to use British long-range missiles to strike annexed Crimea, say reports.”[10] “Discussions are reportedly taking place within Downing Street over whether or not to provide Ukraine with the lethal munitions, which would drastically escalate western involvement. Ukraine is reportedly prepared to launch British long-range missiles at Russian positions in annexed Crimea…” Now, the last, in weeks before this, they were already talking that word, basically, has come out of the U.S. that it’s okay to go ahead if you’re able to. So, it’s like you’ve got to get permission?

“…which would signal a significant escalation of western involvement in the conflict. The announcement comes as Ukrainian forces prepare for the threat of a large-scale offensive from Russian troops over the coming days. A Ukrainian military official has warned that Putin's forces have amassed 1,800 tanks…” making what they’re supposed to be getting anyway, which they’re not going to have for a long time yet, look pretty puny. “…3,950 armoured vehicles, 2,700 artillery systems…”

They already know it because they’ve counted them. It’s already there. They know exactly what they have out there stationed and ready to go. Russia is not trying to hide it. “…810 Soviet-era multiple-rocket-launch systems, 400 fighter jets and 300 helicopters in preparation for ‘a new wave of attacks,’ according to Foreign Policy.”

So, when they do this what will be the response? It’s going to put people in a pretty bad pickle here as to what to decide to do and how to do it because Ukraine really can’t stop that. They maybe have gained some territory, but they don’t have the kind of arms like this coming up against them now. So, why wait a year? They’re not stupid. They’ve drained supplies of Europe, the U.S., and other nations already. This will drain them a whole lot more. Think there’s a planned scale here already for a war?

“It is believed that discussions are taking place within Downing Street over providing the Ukrainian forces with Harpoon anti-ship missiles or surface-to-air Storm Shadows.” Missiles. A day late and a dollar short when this starts. How long is it going to take for them to get it? So, when this starts in a very short time, if it does (probably will), what do they have to stop it? They don’t have any of these yet.

“Ukrainian defence sources told The Times that their forces would be prepared to strike Crimea,” if they had the missiles, and some have been sent up there, but not this type, “which has been under Russian occupation. … As the UK government deliberates on whether or not to provide British fighter jets to the Ukrainian military,” it goes on to say here, “Downing Street has reiterated its commitment to training the country's pilots ‘as quickly as humanly possible.’”

They don’t have jets but they’re going to start training. And you think, how much time do they have? How much time do we have?

The British Prime Minister “Rishi Sunak, who promised further support for Ukraine during the British leg of Mr. Zelensky’s visit, said the offer of pilot training was the ‘first step’ which could lead to the eventual supply of fighter planes. … ‘The important first step of that journey is to make sure that we provide the training for Ukrainian pilots to be able to use that very sophisticated equipment.’ The UK is ‘exploring how quickly this can be done,’ No 10 said in a briefing.”

So, all the while Russia knows exactly the timing involved in some of these things and what they’re doing. They’ve been playing this for a long time. To think that all of a sudden he’s just now going to pull these forces up there and he wouldn’t do it some time back? Now he’s going to do it?

“Nord Stream Sabotage Was CIA, US Navy Covert Op: Seymour Hersh Bombshell Prompts White House Response.”[11] So, here is just a bit of this article. There’s been debate back and forth who really did this (this thing that took place around Feast time here last year), and who actually orchestrated it, because it was a definite explosion on the pipeline. They showed pictures of it on TV, and then who did this, who’s behind it? Then the scuttlebutt for a time that it was the British under the auspices of the CIA.

These things go back and forth and now this comes out. Again, no small thing. Because how do countries react to this? They just keep ratcheting up for war knowing that’s where they’re headed.

If this country finally can see that the world is headed toward war do you think that those who have already been planning it aren’t way out ahead in the chess game? How far back do you think China is on their plans and letting this go out just a little bit more and then they come to their involvement one day? Well, they’re fully ready for it. They have a lot of patience. They’ve been waiting for this for a long time.

Scriptures talk to us about the reality that there are those things that have been planned very specifically to the number of days that some of these things have actually been planned. One day we’ll understand exactly what it was.

“Famed journalist and Pulitzer prize winner Seymour Hersh, who for decades was a star reporter writing for The New York Times and New Yorker, on Wednesday published a new bombshell as his first Substack post, prompting a quick White House response. After conducting his own investigation into who sabotaged the Nord Stream pipelines via a series of underwater blasts on Sept. 26, Hersh has concluded the United States blew up the Russia-to-Germany natural gas pipeline as part of a covert operation under the guise of the BALTOPS 22 NATO exercise.”

There is a lot more to this article and a lot more that’s out there about how they believe that this was accomplished and what they did way a long time ago, and then finally how they set it off and so forth.

Anyway, “Given that it was Hersh - who broke such well-known stories as the My Lai massacre and Abu Ghraib scandal and has long been known for impeccable insider sources - behind the new bombshell 'whodunnit' report, mainstream media couldn't ignore it this time. …The allegations were quickly picked up by The Times (UK), Reuters, and others - including Russian state media, prompting the White House to swiftly issue a rebuttal: The White House said on Wednesday that a blog post by a U.S. investigative journalist alleging the United States was behind explosions of the Nord Stream pipelines ‘is utterly false and complete fiction.’”

So, how do you think that makes them feel? They already know who did it, Russia does. They just wait until some of these things come out in the open more and it justifies them more for what they’re doing and what they’re going to do, and for their own people, too. It’s not just propaganda in the sense of false things that are going out there. You know, people like to throw that out there and say, “Well, it’s just all propaganda.”

You know, there is truth in various things that are being said about what’s happening and how, in their perspective on their homeland, it’s being threatened. Well, yeah, it is. All these nations that are together now with NATO and supplying arms. Yes, it’s being fought in Ukraine, but who’s kidding themselves? And so, they have fear, and their fear is growing over there. What does that mean? More control. More power to do what he wants to do in the first place. They’re not stupid.

We’re stupid sometimes, but they’re not really being totally stupid. But that’s how they want to treat them, like one article goes on, talking about “Mad Vlad.” Think, you may think he’s mad, and he might have a little madness to him, and he had a purpose and a desire and a design, but he’s not stupid.

“Russia's Foreign Ministry says the Hersh report…” And finally, on TV, some are talking about it and saying, “Well, it looks like we blew it up.”

“Russia's Foreign Ministry says the Hersh report reveals new facts that must be answered to, however, with spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressing, "We have repeatedly stated Russia's position on the involvement of the United States and NATO, noting that they did not hide it, bragging to the whole world about their intention to destroy the civilian infrastructure through which Europe received Russian energy resources.”

“She added: ‘We have also regularly underscored the reluctance of Denmark, Germany, and Sweden to conduct an open investigation and the opposition to Russia's participation in it. And this is despite the fact that our country has suffered huge costs. Now, the White House should comment on all these facts.’”

And so their comment? “It’s utterly false and completely fictitious,” or fiction. Anyway, the games governments play. Are you sick of governments and how this world is being ruled by people? These things have gone on generation after generation after generation, the lying, the deception, the evil in men’s hearts to do the things they’ve done that come to wars – war after war after war. It’s just this is the greatest one yet.

Then, of course, the earthquake in Türkiye and Syria. The death toll now tops 25,000. That’s mild compared to what’s really there yet because they’ve just started in Syria in numbers. How long is that going to take to get numbers out? In some of these buildings, how huge they were. The world is not too touched by it. Just a little bit of a foretaste.

Can you feel it? Do you recognize where you will be in time? Your vision, what you’re going to experience? Not to dwell upon, but it’s to understand there are certain things we just need to be prepared for mentally. That’s a blessing. Yes, it’s going to be horrifying, more than we can grasp and know. We’ll deal with it when it comes but to know we put our trust, our confidence in God Almighty. We wait on Him because He’s bringing the answer to all this. After all this time, after 6,000 years, He’s finally going to bring it all to an end. It isn’t a pleasant thing, but it’s the only way, in that respect, that the most can be brought through this in the sense of saving the mind.

So, going on, let’s focus more intently about this matter, again, of placing our trust in the Eternal, our Father, the Great God.

Jeremiah 17. Basic scriptures but things to hold on to and putting them in the context of where we are in time. Jeremiah 17:5—This is what the Eternal says, Cursed is the person who trusts in mankind, in other words, in self or in others, and makes flesh his arm, in other words, physical things or the physical world or people or whatever it might be, but not looking to God. They’re going to suffer. We’re going to suffer but for different reasons and for what, something, again, that is being molded and fashioned within us that’s unique to us. But what do they have?

…and whose heart departs from the Eternal. So again, I think of all those who once were a part, and their heart literally departing from God and not seeing what’s coming, not seeing what’s on the horizon, not understanding things about the seals and where we are. For if they believe certain things they’ve got to believe that we’re still waiting way back there for the First Seal. We know we’re way past that. We’re at the last. To understand there is just one event of the First Trumpet that’s in front of us, and when that hits it’s going to do something to them.

But that’s the means that God is going to use to begin a process of awakening some who can be awakened, to give to some who will eventually receive it. But it’s not going to be simple because we’ve already read recently then how now we understand that it’s going to be up to the very end, as a whole, before they will be of a humble enough spirit to receive the truth. Because this is very hated and looked down upon, like one individual making comment, “Even if he is who he says (in essence), I would never go there. I would never be a part.” Well, where does that hatred come from? Sad.

One can’t humble themselves until they’ve gone through a hideous nuclear war, suffered a lot of loss themselves, and seeing people around them, loved ones, and others who die, and still will not humble themselves before the Great God and come to acknowledge, “I was wrong! I did not understand the seals. I didn’t understand anything in Revelation, because now it’s upon us.”

It’s just like the Apostasy. When it finally came it was there and we didn’t know until it was there and the aftermath of it.

Verse 6—For he shall be like a barren shrub in the desert, in the wastelands, in other words, and will not see when good comes, but shall inhabit, or continue to dwell in, the parched places of the wilderness, the desert, in a salt land not inhabited.

So again, reading these verses I can’t help but think of the scattered Church. It’s not about the world because they’ve never known God to depart from God. But you think how deeply entrenched people are, and if people who have been given knowledge of things of the past and still have a concept of Germany, of Europe, rising, which they’ve carried with them, but not able to humble themselves to the point until it’s nearly over, to come to that point finally where they can be shaken to acknowledge what is true in front of them. That’s the only way they can be saved spiritually, is if they will do that. Sad. Sad.

And if a scattered Church is like that what about the world? How hard is it to shake this world? That’s the giant toughie in that respect. That’s why it has to go through everything that it does, to see everything destroyed, every economy in the world, every country in the world having no government or coming to a point where there is no government anywhere. That mankind has to come to that point where two-thirds of mankind, literally, in that respect, has to be destroyed so that others have a potential – not even knowing the numbers there of who can humble themselves enough to want God’s government to come to this earth.

It's astounding, the human mind and how much it resists, hates God, doesn’t want it. I think of Noah when he got on the ark, and his family. His family – not a one, not a one of them loved God for saving them. Not a one. Did they love God more because they were saved? Or did they hate God, hate what had happened?

It’s just the world is much bigger now and the minds are still there. God will be blamed for what takes place. “How can a loving God let this happen?” People in the scattered Church will ask that: “How could a loving God…?” Because they’ve lost their focus. They’ve lost the vision of what this is all about.

Mankind has done this to themselves. God in His mercy is going to save mankind out of it. He’s not going to let us destroy ourselves. Because without God we would literally annihilate everything! We wouldn’t be here on earth if God didn’t have a purpose and a plan. Thank God He has a purpose and a plan that’s greater than human life. We should be so thankful that we understand, and we see those things, that we lift up our life and put it in God’s hands in full trust and confidence, looking forward to His Kingdom finally, knowing there is going to be a lot of suffering to get there. Because it hasn’t been easy for 6,000 years and it’s not going to be easy at this end-time.

Blessed is the person who trusts in the Eternal, and whose hope is the Eternal. We are blessed mightily, far more than we can comprehend, truly. We can strive to appreciate what we see, what we grasp, but it’s far greater than what we can grasp. It truly is.

Verse 8—For they shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spread out her roots in the river, And will not see when heat comes, and her leaf shall be green and will not be careful or afraid or worried in the time of drought, and shall not cease from yielding fruit.

So, whether it be something spiritual like an apostasy or something physical like the end of this age, we fit here. God’s going to bless us. He’s going to give us what we need. Our lives are in His hands. Where else would you want it? Where else would you want it? Whether it even be for the Millennium or the Great White Throne, to know that your life is in God’s hands is so awesome.

The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. It shouldn’t be hard to see that in the world. It shouldn’t be hard to see that in our own nature, to see that there is a nature here that God has let us experience so we can learn to loathe it, to hate it, to reject it because it’s the nature of Satan that that can never be allowed in God’s Family and so we’re blessed to have our minds transformed to become a new creation, to think differently. Beautiful.

Who can know it? Well, God reveals it to us, and thank God for that, that He helps us to see things that we have to learn to hate and loathe within our human nature.

I, the Eternal, search the heart, I try the reins. He lets us go through different things because as His holy spirit works with us it’s very powerful, to teach us things that we could not otherwise learn.

I learned so much going through the Apostasy. I grew so much in certain things that I would never have been able to see nor comprehend to that level if it hadn’t been for what I experienced, and it was horrifying. On a spiritual plane, it was a horrifying experience, gut-wrenching, mind-torturing. Truly.

I, the Eternal, search the heart, I try the reins. Even to give every one according to their ways, according to the fruit of their doing. We have the blessing of being able to make choices that are right, if we will make them, of striving to follow God as the Body is being cleansed and has been going through that process now for a few years. The temple being cleansed in a very powerful way, God is doing that and has been doing it, and we’re almost to a point now where it’s done. Awesome.

Psalm 18:1—I will love You, O Eternal, my strength. Something we need to think about, need to pray about from time to time, understanding how merciful and how patient God has been with us individually, and to understand that because of that that we see it and we thank God and let Him know. “Because of those things, I love You.” Because He’s blessed us to make those kinds of decisions and choices in our life and be exceedingly blessed above all people, indeed.

The Eternal is my rock… It’s not somewhere out in the desert. He’s our rock. “Selah, Selah.” It corresponds with the same word as Petra. …my fortress, my deliverer. So, that’s in our thinking as to whether He is or isn’t or to what degree He is. That’s up to each one of us individually. We’ve grown a lot and we see that more than ever before in God’s Church.

“My deliverer.” That’s how we’re going to look to God for ever how long that period of time is going to be. I believe it will be and hope and pray that it will be exceedingly short. Because if it weren’t, once those kinds of things happen on the earth how can anything survive except God intervene quickly and soon once it begins?

My fortress, my deliverer, my God. How blessed are we to be able to say that? …and my strength, in whom I will trust. Well, we’re going to have opportunity to apply that and focus on this more than ever before in our lives, and it’s a good thing because it’ll mold and fashion something inside of us that is unique to you and to your response to God, to your thinking, to your mind that is the most precious thing. Because that’s what God is working with, it’s the mind. The body, eventually it’ll go out. It goes. It’s physical; it was temporary. We look far beyond that.

My buckler and the horn of my salvation, and my high tower. I will call upon the Eternal. We’re going to have that opportunity in ways that we have never experienced. …who is worthy to be praised. It’s always understanding God’s plan and God’s purpose and understanding the reasons for it, that God is just, that God is righteous, that God is merciful, that God is patient, and that God loves us. God loves all of His creation, it’s just that His creation hasn’t wanted to respond to Him properly or well.

But He’s blessed us to have that ability and opportunity after going through a lot of refining. We have gone through a lot of refining from the time of the Apostasy on. Tons of refining. Very blessed in the process.

…worthy to be praised, and so shall I be saved from my enemies. Whatever that might be, saved. Physical, spiritual, they both apply. It’s a trust. It’s a confidence. It’s a boldness. It’s a hope. It’s a strength.

The sorrows of death compass me. It’s going to mean a lot more to us later on. We’ve never really had anything like that. Now, maybe individually at different times, we have various things happen. I’ve had it happen a few times. It’s like, yeah, and you’re blessed to go on, you’re blessed to go on, and if it’s over, it’s over. But you’re in God’s hands.

The sorrows of death compass me, and the floods of ungodly men, generally translated as the “sons of Belial.” It’s an expression that’s used. That’s the world around us today. We are blessed to see this world for what it is, and it is so exceedingly ugly and evil. They don’t understand that. They don’t grasp that. We’re blessed to see it and understand it.

You shouldn’t tell them. It’ll just make it worse for yourself. They’re not going to say, “Oh, I’m glad you told me. Thanks for sharing.”

The sorrows of hell compass me about. The grave. All around us that’s what it’s going to be like. All around us.

…the snares of death prevented me. In my distress, I called upon the Eternal and cried unto my God. He heard my voice out of His temple. God wants us to understand this. He’s there! Any time we pray, and every time we pray, He’s there. He’s called us, He’s brought us to this point, He’s worked with us, He’s molded and fashioned us. He hasn’t been molding and fashioning the world and the minds of those in the world, but He has with us. How blessed are we to have that confidence and that knowing that God is there, and your life is in His hands? Again, to understand what that means.

He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry came before Him, even into His ears. There’s a boldness and a confidence in that that we carry that is unique. We know this is true.

Then the earth shook and trembled; the foundations also of the hills moved and were shaken, because He of His wrath, the execution of judgment, which is about the execution of judgment. It’s the only word. Certain words that are used like this in the Old Testament in different places it’s like this wrathful, vengeful God that just seeks to destroy mankind when he disobeys.

God is not like that at all. But when judgment is necessary to be meted out it will be executed because it’s righteous, done for the right reasons. Sometimes that has been a test upon God’s people. Shouldn’t be. We should have a confidence God is right, God is just, God is filled with love for His creation and it’s all there. For those as well who suffer.

Psalm 18:30 jumping on down a little bit. As for God, His way is perfect. What He allows is perfect. You talk about the greatest way, the most excellent way to bring people out of this enslavement of the human mind if we’ll receive it, into His Family, it’s a most perfect way. The end of this age is going to amplify that more than any other period of time. Those in the thousand years and the Millennium are going to have that history to look at and to be reminded of over and over and over again, “Look what happened.”

First, and the most important at all, was an apostasy in God’s own Church, that even with God’s holy spirit you can reject God Almighty, you can fight against God and turn from God. So even when you’re impregnated with God’s spirit you’ve got to make the right choices if that’s really what you want. You’ve got to learn what obedience means and what it means to seek to be at one with God, to understand God’s righteousness. If you want to hold on to your way, God will let you, but you’ll not come through it. Things to be learned.

That’s one of the most important things that are going to be taught throughout the Millennium and the Great White Throne. Just because you’ve been impregnated with God’s spirit doesn’t mean anything is owed to you. Because there was that feeling during Philadelphia that if you have God’s spirit it’s like it’s owed to you. Like that young man who was killed in a car wreck two weeks after he was baptized, and people were going around and talking about how he had it made and we’re going to see him in the first resurrection.

It didn’t fit! It didn’t fit. He hadn’t gone through anything yet! He hadn’t learned anything yet in the sense of change and the change of the mind that has to take place, that has to be transformed. Was his mind transformed in two weeks? No, it’s the old protestant feeling like that if you’re baptized you’re saved, if you have water sprinkled on your head you’re saved, and you have it made. No, you don’t. You’ve got choices to make, and you have to be faithful to God, loyal to God, crying out for God’s spirit and help to be delivered from self and from this world out here.

Choices. Choices. Choices. How many have come through and done that? Not very many when it’s all said and done. So how blessed are we to understand these things? Awesomely blessed.

The word of the Eternal is tried. I like this word and how it’s used, “refined as silver and gold,” because that’s how it’s used in scripture. It’s there. It’s up to us to receive it for the riches that it is. It’s the only thing that works. It’s the only thing that’s true.

He is a buckler, a shield to those who trust in Him. Physically and spiritually. For who is God, except the Eternal? To think there was a time when we couldn’t understand that fully. One Eternal God, the Eternal.

Or who is a rock — this time a different word because it means a rock wall as in a type of fortress. Or who is a fortress, if you will, a rock, except our God? It is God who encompasses me with strength and makes my way sound (complete). We look at this world and we see today more than ever before it’s so unsound. People are so incomplete in their thinking. Their minds, you think, it’s getting worse and worse and worse. The things that come out of the human mind today are so unsound.

When we had less technology there was more soundness of mind in the world around us. Today people have become enslaved by it to a point that they can’t use it right, they can’t control it, it’s beyond their ability because there is something spiritual involved here that has to be addressed, and will be in the Millennium, the behavior of human beings and understanding the dangers of various things and how to properly use things.

And candidly, we can’t use those things right in this world. We don’t use them properly in this world as a whole and they’re destroying the minds of human beings, willingly so. The zombies have already struck. They’re already here. They just look a little different than what they were called on TV. Sad.

Psalm 146:5—Happy is the one who has the God of Jacob. Boy, are we. Our lives have meaning. I think of our fellowship, how full, how rich that is, that we are a family, a uniqueness there that we grow in more and more as we recognize that in one another and how blessed we are that we have the God we do and His Son Joshua.

Happy is the one who has the God of Jacob for his help, and whose hope is in the Eternal his God. Because it’s not in the world, it’s not in the ways of the world, it’s not in the ways of mankind. Not this kind of completeness, if you will, of the mind and peace that goes with it.

Who made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is therein. The Great Creator God. …who keeps, again, this word “to watch over; to preserve as to maintain; strengthens.” …who keeps truth forever. I think of how much He’s given to us to see more, to understand more, to understand Him more. Beautiful.

Psalm 33. Over and over and over again throughout the Psalms, it touches upon these things about trust and how we think toward God. Because that’s what it boils down to, it’s how we think toward God and act toward God, and to the degree we put these things into practice in our lives. On a daily basis, yes, and at heightened times of need, yes.

But we’re entering into some of the most heightened times of all human history and we’re going to be able to exercise something and do something that no one ever has to that level and to that degree.

Again, I marvel because of what it’s going to put into the mind that you could not receive any other way. To be thankful to God to go through that, to know that He’s there, that your life is in His hands. He seeks to bring you through the kinds of things that are ahead and to put things into this mind through your experience mingled with the power of His holy spirit that which will be forever. Unique in the Body for whatever purpose that is.

Psalm 33:18—Behold, the eye of the Eternal is upon those who fear Him. That’s us. We all, I believe, fear in the sense of going against God, of breaking God’s law. That’s why we repent, we’re moved and motivated to repent. We ask God to help us to see things we don’t even see and to fight against things that come into the mind that we know are wrong. We ask God for help to fight against it because it’s wrong, because we seek to be at one with Him.

The eye of the Eternal is upon those who fear Him, upon those who hope in His mercy. We do, obviously, and especially when we’ve sinned we hope in His mercy we have that hope that God has strengthened within us, that’s grown within us over time. That’s why we love God more because we understand He’s merciful, He’s patient, He forgives us of our sins as we repent. Absolute.

To deliver their life from death, and to keep them alive in famine. Physical or spiritual until a work is completed in you.

Our lives wait for/upon the Eternal. He is our help and our shield. That’s where we look.

For our hearts shall rejoice in Him because we have trusted in His holy name. So, God gives us this again and again and again to help us to have the confidence, to help us understand how He thinks toward us, what He wants us to see and to understand and be convicted of in our own minds, in our own being.

For our hearts shall rejoice in Him because we have trusted in His holy name. That’s the fruit that comes from that. Let Your mercy, O Eternal, be upon us, according as we hope in You. The reality is that’s exactly how it works, according as we hope in Him.

So, it’s an individual thing with each one of us, but God’s brought us a long way to this point. He’s brought us to this point to fulfill the name Preparing For the Kingdom of God. There’s never been a group exactly like this that’s being prepared for something like this and for what’s coming. What an incredible thing!

Psalm 91. We will move on to a new scripture. Psalm 91:1—He who dwells, it says, “in the secret place,” and the word doesn’t even mean that. But it’s he who dwells in the shelter or under the protection of the Most High. “Secret place?” Well. It’s about God’s protection. It’s about “under His protection,” in the shelter that He gives to us in our lives. He watches over us. He cares for us. He brings us through all kinds of things. There are times that God has intervened in your life you don’t even know it. Many a time you don’t even know it. Someday you will.

He who dwells in the protection/under the protection of the Most High shall abide or live under the shadow of the Almighty. So, it’s like this protection, this shadow of God Almighty.

I’m reminded of just like Passover season that’s coming up and think of the Israelites being taken out of Egypt and you think of the fire by night and the pillar, and the cloud of protection by night, and just the fact that it even gave protection from the sunlight and so forth, but also as a protection that was between the Israelites and the Egyptians.

Anyway, going on here. Something very physical for us to learn from on a spiritual plane, to thank God, to be appreciative of, to understand. I mean, who wouldn’t want to be in that shadow?

I will say of the Eternal, my refuge and my fortress; my God, in Him will I trust. So, we need to look to God more in that respect, in that vein – a shelter, a protection, a fortress, a high tower.

Surely He will deliver you from the snare of the fowler (the trap), and from the destruction. It says “noisome” but it’s from the destructive pestilence. Having to do with the words of something that’s spoken, again here. Sometimes they translate things in weird ways because they don’t understand.

He shall cover you with His feathers. I think of what it says in Revelation 12. I think about the eagle or the bird, the great bird, whatever, and some of these things that are used to show when you’re under the wings. It’s used as a matter of, symbolically of protection from God.

He shall cover you with His feathers, and under His wings, shall you trust. So, we’re under that protection and that’s what we trust in. We know this. We understand this. God’s given us the ability, like the Sabbath and the Holy Days and everything else, to know this.

…under His wings shall you trust; His truth shall be your shield/armor and protection. What an incredible thing to understand, that the truth that God has given to us, of all the truths we have, that is a powerful strength that sometimes has not been seen for what it should have been. To grasp what we have been given, to understand what we are to keep, in that respect.

You shall not be afraid of the terror by night, nor of the arrow that flies by day. So day or night God is there. It’s a matter of what we feel inside and what we know inside. …nor for the pestilence that walks in darkness, nor for the destruction that wastes at noonday.

I’m going to go ahead and stop there. I’ve got some other stuff I’m going to be going into a little more than that, so good stopping point.

So again, things to pray about, things to thank God for, things to understand what’s coming and where our minds need to be.

[1] https://news.yahoo.com/russia-prepares-large-scale-offensive-033424903.html

[2] https://www.politico.com/news/2023/01/28/pentagon-send-f-16s-ukraine-00080045

[3] https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2023/feb/02/russia-ukraine-war-live-kyiv-warns-of-russian-mobilisation-on-eastern-border-kramatorsk-apartment-block-attack-kills-threeupi

[4] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/02/russia-major-new-offensive-to-mark-one-year-anniversary-ukraine-war#:~:text=Russia%20is%20planning%20a%20major,large%20contingent%20of%20mobilised%20troops.

[5] https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/world-walking-ww3-eyes-wide-open-un-chief-tells-general-assembly

[6] https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/uk-pledges-fighter-pilot-training-ukraine-zelensky-surprise-visit?commentId=63e3e591e96034001c1f40a8

[7] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/09/german-politicians-and-military-chiefs-suggest-return-of-conscription

[8] https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/21327830/putin-satan-two-nuke-missile-launch-ukraine/

[9] https://www.ash.org.au/uk-news/fears-putin-is-readying-major-satan-2-nuke-missile-launch-on-exact-date-to-get-the-worlds-attention-over-ukraine/

[10] https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/ukraine-ready-use-british-long-29179826

[11] https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/nord-stream-sabotage-was-cia-us-navy-covert-op-seymour-hersh-bombshell-prompts-white

1. Chapter 1