From or Unto Evil? (Poem)

See the Prayer and Praying Series here

‘From evil, deliver us’, The Lord taught us to pray,

Thus, many of us do, but like me, have you noticed,

Evil is increasing, and …it ain’t going away?!

So in our prayers, should we stop, or must we persist??

Across the world, many protests have raged,

Citizens aggravated by folks who’re guiding

their ‘ships of state’.

By evil policies, the masses caged,

Behind nepotism’s, cronyism’s and despotism’s gates!

Yet Paul once stated, ‘Rulers are a terror to evil,

But they’re not a terror to good works’.

They’re God’s ministers for good, avengers against evil.’ ¹

Yet today, they’re in it …for the perks!

As an authority for good, God desired government,

Lest anarchy overtakes a land.

But now, with evil, most governments are in alignment!

Thus, the world sinks in evil’s quicksand.

So what happened? What made governments flip??

In each aspect of life, we now find ourselves,

On the opposite end of God’s design script,

And this is exactly what His Word foretells.

Without restraints, we’re lovers of pleasure and self,

Greedy for gain, at anybody’s expense.

When empowered, we infect government itself,

Till the plot thickens, and there’s …no more pretense.

In truth and in essence, governments can only mirror,

Societies from which those who govern, are drawn.

Thus, of societies, governments are …just their picture.

To expect more is simply …an oxymoron!!!

‘But for conscience sake,’ Paul further encouraged,

That we be subject to governing authority. ²

But when, by evil, our conscience is ravaged,

Why be shocked when governments act …un-conscionably?!

Dare we ask more of governments than of ourselves,

Forgetting that governments are… ‘the we whom we serve’?!

Thus, here’s one thing the righteous and just Lord assures:

Any people will get …the government they deserve.

Friends,

In The Lord’s calculus, it’s your own personal evil,

That serves as your own personal avenue,

To much b-r-o-a-d-e-r evil, whose nature is collateral.

Your evil attracts other folks' evil to you! ³

Only when you repent, and turn from your evil, personal,

Is God authorized to deliver you from evil’s ‘virus’.

His plan is to deliver you from its tight grip, powerful,

But not necessarily from its presence, ubiquitous.

Refusing to repent and turn from your evil, personal,

You cease being a citizen, and become a ‘shitizen’, ⁴

Spewing sin seeds that will grow fruits,

with impacts, collateral,

Impacts that may, one day, touch those

to whom power is given.

With this insight, search deeply in crevices of your heart,

And find your very personal answer to these key questions:

—Would it be just, righteous or smart for God to do His part,

While you continue holding onto your own evil gremlins?

—How can He answer our ‘Deliver us from evil’ prayer,

When unto evil, we deliver ourselves?!

Before protesting other folks’ evil that us all ensnare,

Best we FIRST deal with our own …evil affairs!

Agree?

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¹ See: Romans 13

² For the well-being of our conscience

³ See: Why? (Q&A)

⁴ See: Shitizen. Thought I had created a new term, but was surprised to see this! ;o)

Good Works (Q&A)

See the Q&A Series here

Q: The Bible says faith by itself, if not accompanied by deeds/good works is dead. (James 2:14, 17)  What role do work and effort play in a person’s life, what he/she achieves, and becomes?

A: Thanks for this pivotal question, touching on areas that are critical to both our spiritual and carnal life on Earth. This question deserves a reply with no short-cuts. ;o)

There are lots of good works in the world, and folks who do such might understandably conclude they, themselves, are/must be ‘good’, and those who do not, are ‘not good, or are bad’. This is the fruit of our carnal human nature and thinking. Trust me, it has nothing at all to do with what God refers to when He says through Paul, ‘For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.’ (Ephesians 2:10)

Any Bible concept must/must be interpreted and understood in context of (not outside of) God’s much broader, ultimate strategy and objectives, which are:

(a) recognition and repentance of our sins and sinful nature,

(b) acceptance of His FREE gift of eternal salvation in and through Jesus as Savior and Lord, and

(c) development of our spirit into one that walks with and pleases Him.

Thus, His perspective and concern about good works derive from this strategy and objectives, which correspond to building The Kingdom of God in our personal lives, and on Earth, in general. Good works that are not a derivative of this are, therefore, irrelevant, null and void in His calculus, as underscored in these examples:

1. Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,’ then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets.’ But He will say, ‘I tell you I do not know you [through relationship], where you are from. Depart from Me, all you workers of iniquity.’ There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, and yourselves thrust out. (Luke 13:24-28)

2. Not everyone who says to Me [Jesus], ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven [which starts with being re-born of His Spirit]. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not [done good works] prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders [good works] in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’ Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall. (Matthew 7:21- 27)

One of His sayings is, ‘You must be born again to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven.’ This is the foundation of ‘knowing God’, and apart from this, we are simply DEAD to Him. (See: 21 Verses About Spiritually Dead) He says it is a foolish man who ignores this, and thinks he will inherit eternal life in Heaven because he did some so-called good works during his life. That notion nullifies the principal points in God’s multi-millennial strategy and objectives in His dealings with humans. It also nullifies Grace and insults God because it signals pride in human good works. This is one of the major deceptive tactics satan uses against us, to get us to DENY the sufficiency of God’s Grace through salvation in Christ’s sacrificial work on our behalf.

Good works from God’s perspective are those His Spirit inspires and enables us to do, that build upon the foundation of His Kingdom in Earth. Apart from the born-again experience, we are spiritually DEAD to God, and dead people can do none of His good works because God’s Spirit has not yet made them ‘spiritually alive’ to Him. He does not ‘know’ or have an intimate relationship with them through Jesus as Christ. Think of salvation through faith in Jesus’ works as the equivalent of the ‘spiritual birth canal’ to being born into God’s Kingdom. Only citizens of His Kingdom can do works of His Kingdom.

Saul (who later became Paul) was one of the brightest legal minds in Israel in his day, and he used his deep knowledge of The Torah to persecute the early church. In order to get through his ardent mind and to his spirit, God had to knock him off his ass (donkey), and onto his ass (derriere). God later changed his name to Paul, and greatly used him to build the Kingdom of God on Earth.

Today, folks all over the world still sit pridefully high on the equivalent of their ‘asses’, ignoring or denying what God has repeatedly said to them in many ways, many voices. It’s simply their devilish pride, which God HATES, that keeps them so seated. 'Asses' today on which folks sit include: their education, degrees, jobs, titles, wealth, intellect, knowledge, cars, travels, families, followers, professional and social achievements, etc., etc.

God’s will is for all people to come to the knowledge of, and embrace His gracious offer of salvation through faith in Jesus as Christ’s substitutionary death, resurrection and His current work as our Lord, Master and Intercessor. It is only through Him can we be born into His Kingdom, then allow His Spirit to inspire, lead, empower and bless what He calls ‘good works’. This is His prime objective, His Seed and Tap Root, from which derive all other things He deems as good. If good works being done in a person’s life, and across a land are not the fruits of this specific seed and root, they are of NO effective spiritual value to The Kingdom of God, because they are not spawned by Him. When we think of doing good works, keep in mind doing good works does not make us good. Jesus said no man is good. Period. Apart from the re-birth experience, our human nature is inherently sinful and evil, and we are hopelessly lost.

Here is a handy way to think of good works from God’s perspective laid out in The Bible. G-O-O-D:

G --> Godly, i.e., God-inspired and motivated in His saints, not the ain’ts

O --> Others-focused mostly, not driven by selfish, prideful, feel good motives

O --> Only works His Spirit inspires through our relationship with Jesus, and knowledge of His Word, i.e., works that build His Kingdom on Earth in the minds, hearts and lives of people, and that glorify Him, not self

D --> Delivering deeds/works that help to free people from satan’s exceedingly tight grips of ignorance and deception, from the impacts of their sin, and from their ignorance about God’s will in life, which is eternal salvation in Christ and an increasingly righteous walk with/in Him; walking in good works He empowers.

Jesus taught us to pray, Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on Earth. This happens when His good works are accomplished in accordance with His strategy and objectives, not outside of them. Paul told Timothy, ‘Study to show yourself approved unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the Word of Truth. (2 Timothy 2:15) God’s ‘workmen’ who perform His good works, first and foremost work at intimately learning His Word, The Bible. Only through an intimate relationship with His Word can we learn to ‘hear His voice’. With no relationship to/with His Word, we have no means by which to learn His voice, then hear and, in faith, perform His good works.

Why? (Q&A)

See the Q&A Series here

Q: Why does an all-powerful, omnipotent God play games with the little human microbes He created? Why bother warning and begging humans to stop doing bad things that He knows in advance they will do? Why create such a flawed creature in the first place? Instead of all the games and warnings, why not just eliminate the human flaws and behaviors that He does not like. Why does an all-powerful God allow and tolerate evil and injustice? The questions suggest perhaps God is not Who and what we think He is.

A: Friend, we will always/always have truckloads of questions about God and the realm in which He dwells, questions that will never be satisfactorily answered in this life. As ants may wonder about us humans, we are incapable of comprehending all there is about Him and His strategic ways. But we can rest assured He has given us a wealth of requisite insights in His Bible. Apart from this, we cannot begin to know, let alone understand anything about Him. For anyone who is a true seeker in his/her heart, diligent study and prayer about what He has already revealed to us will result in answers to our most basic questions. In fact, He pretty much guarantees this across the pages and ages of Scripture. ¹  

In His awesome and loving wisdom, God created both angels and humans with a free will, the ability to make decisions and experience their consequences, good, bad and ugly. He also created the law or principle of ‘seed, time and harvest’. I understand this law governs everything in both the physical and spiritual worlds, possibly except miracles. This includes our thoughts, words and actions. These are effectively various forms of seeds, each encasing spiritual DNA, akin to physical DNA, i.e., strategic code that governs the conditions and timeframe for these seeds to ‘produce their fruits after their kind’. Since God expresses great concern about ‘the thoughts/imaginations of our heart (our spirit)’, I imagine our heart’s motives may be critical aspects of this spiritual DNA. ²

We humans are inherently sinful. An understatement! Yet, in His Grace and Mercy, God has repeatedly warned us that sin has built-in consequences. Expressing (pushing out) the spiritual DNA of sin seeds activates the process of developing their particular fruits, just as planting and nourishing an agricultural seed activate development of that seed’s fruits.

In addition to His warnings, God has structured life so we can escape the final, full impact of our sins, namely, eternal separation from Him in a real, inescapaable lake of firel He has also provided a way for us to minimize, and at times escape some of the impacts of sins during this life. It’s call REPENTANCE through His born-again experience, and commitment to discipleship in Jesus as Lord and Savior. Apart from this, we all are subject to experiencing the fullest impacts of our sins, both in this life, and also in the hereafter. Moreover (and this is important!), in this life, we are also subject to the collateral effects of other people’s sins. From this, we see just how critically important the sin factor is in life, yet it is something we tend to ignore and avoid talking about across every human society!

With so many atheist and unrepentant, sinful people in the world, and with sinfulness becoming increasingly gross, imagine the seeds being strewn all over the planet, each with its specific spiritual DNA (conditions under which they will develop their fruits), and the likely collateral effects. While devils add to this mix by prompting us to sin, they are not 100% responsible for all sinfulness on Earth! ³

Further, add to this mix the fact that God, as Sovereign and the ultimate Judge Potentate, reserves His sovereign prerogative to judge sin in any manner and timing He deems appropriate. While His heart’s desire is for us to apply our free will to seeking after, and walking in what He calls righteousness, He has the options:

  (a) to allow us to experience built-in, natural consequences of our sins, or 

  (b) to direct specific punishments/judgments in response, or 

  (c) both. 

He’s the ultimate Boss! Ergo, it is merely a loud, resounding testimony of GROSS PRIDE for a created being to try and 'bring the ALMIGHTY down' to our puny levels of thought and imagination. I imagine that might be what ants do as they observe, and are severely impacted by the ways of humans! 

Here’s the problem: When the fruits of sin seeds show up like weeds in our lives, communities, nations and all over the world, we tend to blame and ask questions about God, the loving Creator Whose advice and warnings we totally ignored for the longest time. How wise is that?! But we who are wise (who are alive to God through His born-again experience in Christ, and who have His Holy Spirit to guide us in practicing our righteous walk) react quite differently. We seek and inquire of The Lord about the SEED and ROOT - the sin infraction(s) that effectively planted spiritual DNA in the unseen world in which spiritual seeds (good or evil) are germinated, incubated and developed into consequential fruits. ⁴ Unfortunately, to this kind of response, people who are not yet alive to God through Jesus Christ are effectively blind, deaf and dumb. They typically cannot or are unwilling to see, to hear, and are thus incapable of speaking about this more appropriate response pattern. Their questions reveal their status in God's framework. 

I trust this reply to your questions will give you much to ponder, and to decide about.

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¹ ‘But if ...you seek The Lord your God, you will find Him, if you seek Him with all your heart and with all your soul.’ (Deuteronomy 4:29)

‘I love those who love Me, and those who seek Me, find Me.’ (Proverbs 8:17)

‘You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.’(Jeremiah 9:13)

‘Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.’ (Matthew 7:7)

‘From one man He made all the nations, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and He marked out their appointed times in history and the boundaries of their lands. God did this so that they [we] would seek Him and perhaps reach out for Him and find Him, though He is not far from any one of us. (Acts 17:24-28)

² In Genesis 1:12, God effectively establishes the law of seed, time and harvest. His concern about the imagination thoughts of our heart is revealed in Genesis 6:5 and 8:21, and Luke 1:51

³ See: Zechariah 14:16-19. Even with satan and his host of devils and demons locked away for 1,000 years, these verses hint that mortal humans who will survive the tribulation, will still be able to disobey Christ’s direct commands, i.e., to sin. It is very insightful for God to take 4 verses in His Bible to signal this to us.

⁴ 2 Samuel 21:1-9 is an insightful account of David inquiring The Lord about a long famine in the land. God’s response pointed to a particularly gross sin seed. David was wise in finding a way to dig up and destroy its root. Check it out.

Hup, 2, 3, 4! Hup, 2, 3, 4! (Poem)

God, through Jesus, is organizing a massive,

diverse army of committed, well-trained soldiers.

Here’s how and why.

Hup! 2, 3, 4! Hup! 2, 3, 4!

Hear the global cadence,

Of armies preparing for war,

Readying their ordnance,

For many battles near and far,

In their way, no hindrance!

Across our world today,

Military prowess is being honed,

For some pending foray:

--Some political intent to jawbone,

--A people to subjugate,

--A leader to dethrone!

Ponder with me if you will,

How armed forces organize and deploy,

And the ranks-and-files they fill,

The strategies and tactics they employ,

How diverse are soldiers’ skills,

And organization of their convoys.

Now let’s take a peek at the start-up source,

To see how militaries begin,

And morph into a mighty fighting force,

With an exceptional discipline.

Then in a split-screen view let’s reinforce,

How with this, God’s army will fit in.

The real core of all armed forces,

Is a soldier, grown from just a recruit.

Grilled through weeks of basic courses,

He learns to obey, a skill, and to shoot.

Then to active duty he switches,

Where he becomes skillfully resolute!

God’s also building a force well-armed,

And with just a recruit He begins,

With each new recruit, satan’s alarmed!

Training starts with forgiveness for sins,

By God’s Word this recruit is transformed,

By God’s Spirit Who underpins.

His daily Christian practices,

Is basic training for this recruit,

Learning well The Lord’s promises.

With righteousness as his prime pursuit,

It permeates all purposes.

He’ll slip and fall, yet remains astute.

When basic training one day will be stalled,

Of what comes next, he is quite prescient,

Away from this life he then will be called.

Before The Lord, his spirit is present,

As to his grave his body will be hauled.

Into reserve status he’s then patient.

But one day, not so far in the future,

To active duty he will be ordered.

With Jesus, Earth’s atmosphere he’ll puncture,

The post-tribulation world thus captured.

This soldier will serve as a glowing figure, ^*

Guardian of righteousness, re-cultured.

Hup! 2, 3, 4! Hup! 2, 3, 4! Hup…

The cadence of righteousness on the march,

God’s army’s basic training warm-up,

Preparing for Christ’s Millennial watch.

Though we die, from our graves we’ll all rise-up,

Serving a thousand years, as His ‘top-notch!’

As just a recruit all of this started,

And ends with a glorious promotion!

Trained for service before we departed,

Then raised in time for Christ’s Earth invasion!

This point’s for you in what I’ve imparted:

Embrace Christ’s military induction.

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^* And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, some to shame and everlasting contempt. Those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the firmament, and those who turn many to righteousness Like the stars forever and ever. (Daniel 12:2-3)

--Now after six days Jesus took Peter, James, and John his brother, led them up on a high mountain by themselves; and He was transfigured before them. As He prayed, the appearance of His face was altered, and His robe became white and glistening. His face shone like the sun, and His clothes became as white as the light. His clothes became shining, exceedingly white, like snow, such as no launderer on earth can whiten them. (Matthew 17:1-2, Luke 9:28-29, Mark 9:2-3)
--Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we (the righteous in Christ) shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is. (1 John 3:2)

The Curse on Canaan (Q&A)

See the Q&A Series here

Q: What was the curse God put on Canaan? Was it related to him becoming a black person, and if so, did all black peoples descend from him?

A: Thanks for your questions. I believe it is always good to ponder any Bible-related topic, but this pondering should first start with understanding exactly what is written in The Bible about the topic, and then researching what is written about related topics. Otherwise, we would simply be ‘shooting from the hip’, or going on hearsay, which is always ill advised.

God did not curse Canaan, the grandson of Noah. Noah, himself, cursed his grandson. Also, the curse had nothing to do with skin pigmentation. Skin pigmentation is closely related to the geographical location of people and their descendants. See: Tropics

This story of this curse is found in Genesis 9. After the global flood, God blessed Noah and his 3 sons.(verse 9:1) From these 4 men and their wives, all post-flood humans would descend. Noah became a farmer, planted a vineyard and drank the wine therefrom. One day, Ham discovered his father drunk and naked in his (Noah’s) tent, and he looked upon his father’s nakedness, then told his brothers about the ordeal. The brothers honored their father by going into the tent backwards, covering their father, and refusing to look upon his nakedness. When Noah sobered up and learned of what happened, he cursed Canaan, Ham’s youngest son, saying:

Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants he shall be to his brethren. Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem; and may Canaan be his servant.

The curse was expressly on Canaan, to debase him in the lowest of servanthood terms (servant of servants), with no clear or implied mention of his descendants. The notion that this curse applies to relationships between the descendants of Noah’s sons is not expressly indicated in the wording of the curse. Nevertheless, the unsubstantiated, popular notion is that this curse on Canaan implicitly sets the stage for conflicts between his descendants and the descendants of his uncles, including between the descendants of Jacob, Esau and Ishmael. The Bible does not support such a link. Rather, history in general reveals this ole familiar poetic pattern among people groups:

Millennia of history bespeak,
Of ebbing flows of the strong and the weak.
Victors’ conquests over the vanquished.
Lives that in hopelessness are languished.

This dance of oppressors and the oppressed,
Turns when the oppressed grow, and then protest.
As they grow in strength, their future successors,
Eventually become ...the oppressors!

So over protracted periods of time, various peoples groups have typically exchanged roles regarding who is strong versus weak, who are the victors versus the vanquished, and who are the oppressors versus the oppressed. This will likely continue to unfold until the end.

That said, it is both interesting and curious how The Bible describes Noah’s grandsons. (Genesis 10) It names the sons of Shem, Ham and Japheth, but it takes an interesting turn or unique approach in describing the sons of Ham by their Canaanite descendant sub-groups: the Jebusite, the Amorite, and the Girgashite; the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite; the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. (Genesis 11:10-32) This may well have been Moses’ (and God’s) way of signaling to readers of Genesis to ‘keep an eye on these highlighted people groups as stories across The Bible unfold!’ Some of these Canaanites (their collective group name) settled in lands that God later promised to Abraham and his descendants through Jacob. This promise of a major land transfer helped to set the stage for the troubled history between these groups, including conflicts that continue today.

It is also noteworthy that: 

o The Lord affirms, ‘In that day (The Millennial Reign) there shall no longer be a Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts.’ (Zechariah 14:21) Some versions of The Bible interpret the word, Canaanite, in this verse as a merchant, trader, or spiritually unclean person, Jew or Gentile.

o Ancient Jews mixed with Canaanites, including Judah (Jesus’ ancestor, not by blood) who married and had children by a Canaanite woman. (1 Chronicles 2:3)

Warnings Unheeded (Poem)

Wear a mask, wash hands often, and socially distance!

We have all heard this a thousand times by now,

Because the Covid-19 virus remains potent.

Basic warnings so many still ignore. wOw!

Seeming to believe a virus will distinguish,

Which states are politically red and which are blue,

So red states’ folk could minimize lock-down anguish.

Voila! More infections and deaths from this now ensue!

Shut down the economy, stay at home, quarantine!

For months, the whole world struggled to follow

this sage advice,

Till folks went stir crazy with their stay at home routines.

Money scarce, bills piling up, lengthy shut downs

won’t suffice!

Many folks across the world resisted.

Crying, ‘The cure is worse than the problem!’,

Many took to the streets and rioted,

Some even with weapons. Oh how gruesome!

Thus folks in red states pushed to return to normality,

Thinking ‘the virus targets denser, blue populations.’

We ponder from whence comes such public health mythology,

As the virus now fulfills all experts’ predications!

Ahhhh! The price we pay for not heeding sound warnings,

When we only rely on what’s in front of our eyes.

Consequences of decisions we’ll be mourning,

Because in response to sage advice, we were unwise.

In many areas of life, warnings go unheeded,

Because of our independent, rebellious streak.

In our spiritual DNA, pride is deep-seated.

Thus, facing its many temptations, we are so weak.

Repent of your sins, shun evil, live righteously, for…

The day of The Lord’s reckoning is at hand!

But since worse judgments have yet to wash up on our shore,

‘Unheeded!' That is how we stamp this command.

In His Grace The Lord ramps up judgments 'portentive',

With blows that are like ‘shots across the bow’.

But to gradual ascents, we’re not attentive.

Thus, deeper into sinfulness we plough.

We are all inclined to not account,

Untoward things in our lives, as those God allows,

When righteous principles we discount.

Oh, to be more vigilant to things He employs.

With warnings unheeded, are you content to live,

Head buried deep in the sands of life, spiritual?

C’mon~

Let’s imagine in life, to these we’re attentive,

Side-stepping avoidable judgments, subsequential.

Blindspot, lane departure, flat tire, forward collision,

Airbag, battery, key, check engine, and traction control.

Just a few of today’s faithful driving companions,

Warning sensors on your car’s dashboard and center console.

Today, the sheer number of sensors may seem excessive.

When they are flashing, ignore them at our own peril.

Minor problems can become major repairs – expensive!

Respond wisely, we drive confidently, not fearful.

Think…

What’re the dashboard and center console of your life, so rare?

And what are the key sensors thereon displayed?

If to God’s Bible, they are not connected, this I share:

By the world’s faulty sensors ...you will be swayed!