Words Matter

            Words have the power of life and death.  Words reveal wisdom and foolishness.  Words we say can either help or hinder.   As the Proverb says, "The tongue of the wise makes knowledge acceptable, But the mouth of fools spouts folly" (Proverbs15:2).

            As Kevin Hall explains in his book, Aspire: Discovering Your Purpose Through the Power of Words, words are the basic material for communication.  Stephen R. Covey says in his foreword to Hall's book, "words have an inherent power, a force capable of lighting one′s paths and horizons. Used correctly and positively, words are the first building blocks for success and inner peace. Used incorrectly and negatively, they are capable of undermining even the best of intentions. This is true in business, in personal relationships, and every other walk of life."   Words create thoughts ... thoughts create ideas ... ideas linked with feelings create actions ..., and actions produce results (good or bad results).  Words paint mental pictures of reality, and set the forces into action to bring the picture alive. 

            This becomes very important because a person's reality is determined by what he believes to be true.  A person's beliefs may be based on truth, or beliefs may be based on falsehood.  Beliefs based on truth produce constructive actions.  Beliefs based on  falsehood yield destructive results.  Every lie contains enough truth to make it believable.  Discerning truth from falsehood is not always easy, especially when words are incorrectly used to intentionally confuse or mislead the hearer.  

            Euphemism is a common technique used to hide the truth.  The dictionary definition of the word "euphemism" is, "the substitution of an agreeable or inoffensive expression for one that may offend or suggest something unpleasant."  Because of the human innate bent toward the negative, the truth is often disagreeable with our natural inclinations.  But whether we agree or not, the truth is the truth.  If the truth survives our self-made test of "agreeableness," then it faces our emotional condition also bent toward judgmentalism and taking offense.  Many times the truth hurts.  But trying to hide the truth in order to avoid disagreement and pain undermines (destroys) accuracy and trust in communication. 

            Euphemism is commonly used by people trying to engineer social change.  Socially acceptable terminology is crafted to sensitize acceptance of otherwise unacceptable practices.  Words become the weapons for the battleground of debate.  Over time, the meaning of some words are intentionally (and unintentionally) altered in attempt to shift a "new normal."  One such example in my lifetime has been the word "choice."

            Americans place a high value on choice.  Options are a good thing.  But options have no value without life itself.  The truth is that life trumps choice.  Any falsehood trying to discredit this truth would exalt choice to a higher value than life itself. 

            Thus, the word "choice" has become the key to the debate for or against abortion.  But the real issue is life vs. death, not pro-choice vs. anti-choice.  Abortion does not give a choice to the baby whatsoever, but it claims to be "pro-choice."  This is a lie made believable by denying the life of a baby.  So, never should a person who supports the rights of a baby's life use the term "pro-choice" to identify abortion advocates.  In reality, abortion means babies have no choice.  In reality abortion is pro-death, and makes mockery of the word "choice."   The pro-abortion movement uses the "pro-choice" label in an effort to hide their true pro-death actions.  Hence the word "choice" is used to twist the truth by hiding an unfavorable action to highlight a more acceptable idea.  

            For pro-lifers to use the term "pro-choice" is speaking agreement with destruction of  life.  The debate is defined by the words used to describe the ideas.  Use the correct words (to describe the truth), and the debate can be won.  Use the wrong words (in agreement with the  opponent), and the debate is lost before it begins.  

            The recent presidential election demonstrated more than ever that the establishment media is one-sided on matters relating to politics and social issues. In my opinion, the establishment media has become mostly propaganda at the hands of skilled deceivers.  I believe this because words are used over and over again to manipulate the truth and influence people's minds with falsehood.  When lies are used to hide, ignore, or twist the truth, you have deception.  When deception is used to hide, ignore, or twist the facts, you have propaganda.  As someone has said, "Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but no one is entitled to the wrong facts." 

            The major so-called news outlets have often abandoned factual reporting for sensational scoring.  They have proven themselves inaccurate and untrustworthy communicators.  Their misuse of words and ideas to negatively influence their hearers' thinking and behavior  is very destructive.  A number of books have appeared recently written by journalists and others who have been stonewalled in bringing the truth to the public.  One such book is by Sheryl Attkisson called The Smear: How Shady Political Operatives and Fake News Control What You See, What You Think, and How You Vote.  Attkisson goes into much greater details than I can here. 

            My point is not to bash the media, but to raise our awareness that words matter.  "Political correctness" (PC) ranks high on the list of enemies of the ideals our nation was founded upon.   PC is a favorite media technique.  PC devalues words and the imagination of the hearer.  PC devalues free speech and communication.  PC devalues individual thinking and expression.  PC must be recognized and eliminated from our conversation.   Another Proverb says, "Using the speech of a fool makes you one too. Do not answer a fool according to his folly, Or you will also be like him" (Proverbs  26:4).

            My hope is that those reading this will make a choice for truth over falsehood.  Euphemisms like casual sex, affair, and gay are replacements for the truth of fornication, adultery, and homosexuality (respectively).  "Fake news" is deceptive propaganda.  "Gender identity" is a term often used for gender confusion.  The phrase "separation of church and state" was crafted to limit religious speech and faith practices in the public square.  The phrase has no origin in the US Constitution and no legitimacy for preventing people to practice their faith.  The list goes on ....   What terminology can we think of right now that would be another example of word manipulation to hide, ignore, or misrepresent the truth? 

            Words matter.  After we discover the incorrect use of words, the next step is to re-program our minds to use the correct words in our speech.  Make a choice to buck the trends of "political" correctness, and simply speak correctness.   Whenever we hear words put together in a way we haven't heard before, we should stop and ask ourselves, "What is the REAL meaning behind these words?" 

            Will we pay attention to words and language we use to communicate, or will we let others dictate our thinking, speech, and behavior in a negative direction?  Let us make our choice of words ring truth and life!
by Ed Hersh, Blue Rock BnB Healing Ministry

Birthday Robbery

             A Presidential election is upon us once again.  Political issues come and go, but some issues go far beyond the realm of politics, into existential realities of life itself.  

            One such issue is the gruesome practice of partial-birth abortion.  The procedure is carried out on late-term unborn children who are in most cases able to survive outside the womb.  After the combined decision of a mother not wanting the child and a medical professional who executes the procedure, the baby is killed in the birth canal.  After labor is induced and the baby's head has already appeared in the world, an abortion practitioner uses an instrument to crush the skull.  Then the remaining body of the baby is removed from  its mothers body.   To add to the cruelty, groups like Planned Parenthood (PP) have been caught selling the slaughtered baby's body parts.  PP uses these funds for aborting more babies,  propaganda campaigns disguised as "sex education," and further degrading of women.  This kind of treatment of human beings is barbaric.  It is birthday robbery for thousands of children in the US each year. 

            The debate last week between the two top candidates for President addressed this topic.   Can you believe the activities described above are proudly endorsed by one of the candidates?   The democratic party candidate (with the initials HRC) claims to have a history of advocacy for children.  But her party platform states in writing, and HRC strongly verbalizes her support for partial-birth abortion and PP.  Advocating for children by wishing them dead  is a double standard.   Framing PP as a health-care provider and ignoring their activities of extortion and cover-up is fraud.  This is also called deception.

Franklin Graham has called HRC out on this by saying, "You can't say you've spent your life standing up for children, when you support killing them in the womb." 
            Robbing children of their birthday is only one type of thievery HRC actively participates in.  The corruption of her thirty year political history is too great to list here.  Like never before in the history of Presidential election campaigns, HRC has been in collusion with  national press to influence public opinion in her favor.  The mainstream media has one-sidedly promoted HRC in her defense of PP and partial-birth abortion (and many other issues).  That is a specific type of deception.  It is called propaganda. 

            This powerful lobby doesn't have the final say.  The voters have the final say.  Your vote is your voice on this matter.  If you are  a person who cares about justice for all, I hope your voice will be heard.  Please do not turn your back on the voiceless children, but make sure your vote is counted to support life whenever you have an opportunity to vote.   A Proverb says,

"Rescue those being led away to death;
    hold back those staggering toward slaughter.
 If you say, “But we knew nothing about this,”
    does not he who weighs the heart perceive it?
Does not he who guards your life know it?
    Will he not repay everyone according to what they have done?"

Proverbs 24:11-12

            To NOT vote is a vote.  Not voting is a vote for death.  If you are one of those people who says they don't like any of the candidates, then vote WITH the one who has the strongest stand for life (if you feel you cannot vote FOR them).  Voting AGAINST the greatest evil, is better than not voting at all.  Besides, the names on the ballot aren't as important as the party platforms they represent (see my previous blog May God Be Made Great in America, Again).   When a candidate (and platform) confuses a barbaric practice of partial-birth abortion with "reproductive health," that must be called evil.  The ancient Israeli prophet spoke these words, "Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness ...  Therefore ...  their roots will decay and their flowers blow away like dust; for they have rejected the law of the Lord Almighty and spurned the word of the Holy One of Israel."  (Isaiah 5:20,24).  Simply put, rejecting God's created design for human life and natural order, creates chaos and irreversible disorder.  

            If you care about America, there are some additional things you can do about this.  First, you can pray.  Humble yourself and seek the face of God Almighty and turn from whatever ways are displeasing to Him.  He responses with healing and forgiveness when hearts are surrendered to Him (see 2 Chronicles 7:14).   Another thing you can do is turn off your TV and refuse to subject your mind to the propaganda campaign.  Abstaining especially from what they call "news," will clear your mind to receive truth in better places (particularly the Bible).  Then, encourage your friends and family to resist the temptation for propaganda as well, and vote for candidates who truly have a record of supporting life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  

            Oh yes, and one more thing.  That same candidate that equated infanticide with advocacy for children also called everyone who disagreed "deplorable" and "irredeemable."  So, am I deplorable if I choose to think about how to avoid doing evil for good and good for evil?  I think not.  I think you are not either.  As Edmund Burke said, "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing."   If fighting evil is called deplorable, I'd rather be labeled as such than to do nothing.   

            Irredeemable?   If there would be such a thing as an "irredeemable person," who would decide how to define it?    No person should be declared irredeemable.  Even people who align themselves with a gruesome practice like partial-birth abortion are redeemable.  If one person is declared unworthy of redemption, then the entire human race is equally irredeemable because we are all made of the same stuff.   Thus, when HRC condemned people as irredeemable in her speech, she declared herself, and her own supporters as irredeemable. 

            Do the Democratic party leaders believe in a kind of government that needs to control people in order to  "purify" the population from people they deem as deplorable and irredeemable?  Yes, we heard it directly from the mouth of their candidate running for President and their platform is full of such language.  This is called fascism (belief in a purified superior race).  We need only to look back in history as far as Nazi Germany to see what kind of horrific robbery this imposes on peoples lives.  By the way, PP's founder Margaret Sanger had strong ties to the Nazi leaders and comes from the same philosophy. 

            Politicians may use words to spin people's thinking in a particular direction, but the final authority lies with a higher power.  There is always hope in the Redemption of God's amazing grace.  God's mercy and justice are perfect.  God's actions do not have to satisfy political correctness because they exemplify absolute correctness.  God's vote is the final vote. 

            The One who came into the world to redeem the world (see John 3:16-17) has the final say on this.  True redemption is spiritual.  It is a supernatural event and process.  The primary goal of evil is to steal our redemption.  Jesus himself said, "The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10).  The true nature of the battle against evil is in the spiritual realm.  Jesus came and won  that battle.  The spiritual world has a mirror image in the physical world.  Jesus uses imagery of a thief  seeking to rob a person of life in contrast to the fullness of life he offers as a free gift to all who believe in him.  The thief is the enemy of our soul.  The thief  tries to make people believe they are irredeemable.  The thief tries to rob people of re-birth into an eternal life with God. 

            "For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him ..." (John 3:16) is not irredeemably condemned to hell, but will have eternal life.  Surrendering your heart to him washes away guilt and shame.  Even the shame caused by birthday robbery has been taken care of  by the death of Jesus on the cross.   Christ's death resurrection gives each person the chance to be redeemed.  My hope is that you will receive that redeeming power today.   You may disagree, but you are never irredeemable.  by Ed & Stephanie Hersh, Blue Rock BnB Healing Ministry

May God Be Made Great, in America, Again!

         For decades some history writers have been trying to minimize the religious heritage of the founders of the United States of America. The truth is, America's success (or failure) is directly connected to it's citizens' view of God, and their actions based on relationship with (or without) God.

         An individual doesn't have to be a God-follower to reap the benefit from freedoms guaranteed by the founders' intent in the Constitution. The privileges we enjoy as a "free society" are evident in all areas of life including family, commerce, church, education, entertainment, and government.

         The founders based their view of government on principles found in the Bible. When these principles are honored, things go well. When God is dishonored by not granting supremacy to his ways over human ingenuity, things fall apart. "Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord" (Psalm 33:12). It doesn't take long to make a huge list of problems in America today. Each problem on our list can somehow be traced to a further distance from the original design (although not perfect) for our government. We are paying huge consequences for forsaking godly principles.

         The solution to America's problems is not in finding a "perfect" political leader. America could be made stronger by shrinking the size of bureaucracy, wiping out our national debt, and re-empowering our military to accurately identify and fight our enemies, Putting our hopes in one person to achieve even the most noblest of goals is futility. America can only become great again if the hearts of its people honor God's greatness. John Adams (2nd President of the USA) once said, "We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion . . . Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other."

         If you are a person of moral and/or religious conviction, it is imperative you participate in our system of government wherever possible. At the very least, make sure you vote in the upcoming election. There is absolutely no reason not to vote. "I don't like any of the candidates," "They're all corrupt," "Both parties are equally at fault for our problems," and other similar comments are all lame excuses. There maybe some elements of truth these statements, but our system is designed to work, one vote at a time. America needs your vote.

         You're not just voting for one person. Yes, the "office" of President is held by one person. But, our system of electing that person includes that person belonging to a larger organization of like-minded individuals called a party. The candidate who wins the office of President selects a "cabinet" of key persons who also hold offices of top leadership in the government. This cabinet also selects key persons to serve in leadership to carry out the mission of its respective function of government. Generally all these top positions of the government are filled by people from the same political party as the top office of President. A vote for a presidential candidate therefore, is a vote for what is called the party platform.

         The party platform is the formal statement of values and beliefs held by the members of the organization. The two main parties in the US (Democratic and Republican), have each adopted a platform at their respective conventions last month. These two platforms have never been more divergent in our history as a nation. Since all the top leaders of our government will come from one of these two parties, it becomes very important to understand the contents of each platform in order to make an intelligent vote in the election. A vote in the Presidential election coming in November, is more a vote for a set of values in the platform than it is about voting for one person whose name happens to represent their party on the ballot.

         The platforms are quite different on social issues, friendliness towards Israel, free enterprise, religious liberties, and morality. The people helping the President to select the next few Supreme Court justices will be representing one of these two platforms as well. The choice is very clear, although watching the “mainstream media” you would never obtain enough truth to make a good decision.

         So for at least three months, turn off the television. TV has become a propaganda tool promoting ideologies very destructive to Americans.  Even so-called "news" broadcasts,

often defy standards of common sense.  The aim of propaganda is to distract you from thinking for yourself. Don't fall for it. You can think. You can make good choices. And if you allow God (who designed your personhood) to influence your decisions, you can make “God” honoring (godly) choices. That's really how God can be made great in America, again!

         If you like living in America, whether you believe in God or not, your best hope for America to thrive is for God to be made great in America, again.

Note: A book I authored Escaping the Pain of Offense: Empowered to Forgive from the Heart discusses truth for dealing with disappointments, offense and finding freedom through forgiveness (from a Christian perspective). See more about the book by clicking here: http://bluerockbnb.com/healing/book_main.htm .

 by Ed Hersh, Blue Rock BnB Healing Ministry