A chance to hear me

 This Sunday, August 9, 2026

I will be giving the sermon at the Temecula United Methodist Church's service 

It will we posted on the church's YouTube channel and Facebook page in the afternoon.

 You are invited!

 

Critical Thinking Is Critucal

 In the past couple of weeks I have come across some examples of non-critical thinking that have began to disturb me. 

 At a personal level, I found my retina doctor was outright lying to me and expecting me to believe him. I have a weird eye condition where I'm looking through a dancing web of smoky pink stuff. And he told me it was because of the shots he was giving my eye. He said he could suck it out, but it might damage my eye and it was my only one I had left. But I said you only gave a shot in my left eye and it's in both eyes. As he walked out the door he said well we'll suck it out next time if you dare to, but I don't recommend it. I'm looking for a new retina doctor. 

I started reading a book on the Bible by a supposed Bible scholar, a former professor of the Bible at a leading university. But it's full of guesses and suppositions and assuming he knows the motivation and thinking of the authors. At least 50% of it is made-up stuff. I'm thinking someone who does not know could be believing it because of his creds. If they do not apply critical thinking and ask themselves questions, they would be vastly misled. 

Even more importantly, I watch in horror as communist inspired people are running for office and want to take down America. One Speaker I heard even said that his hero was Mao Zedong!  He was a bona fide mega villain. People apparently are not thinking and don't know history. I remember my political science professor saying that you can tell which country is the best by which way the borders leak.  Nobody is risking their life to get into North Korea or China or Russia or Cuba. People are trying to get into America because of opportunity and freedom.

I heard hundreds of horror stories of communism firsthand in the years I taught in the former Soviet union. Sure free stuff sounds great,.but there is a terrible price. You give up your freedom and maybe your life  And you're poor while the leaders are rich. If you're falling for the rhetoric of the communist inspired people calling themselves democratic socialists, which they aren't, please do some research. On top of this, they are extremely anti-Semitic.  Haven't  we had enough shameful pogroms and holocausts? 

Please pay attention. Do a little research. Look at life behind the iron curtain. Look at what life is like in North Korea. Look anywhere communism rules or has ruled. They're just glorified dictatorships. The leaders want power and then they take everything from you. They want to take everything from the rich people. the people who run businesses and generate employment and give people opportunities. They lie about capitalism, which is the system where more people got out of poverty than any other system in the history of our planet.Think think think.

Do your own actual research in search for what is accurate and true.. Whatever the topic,  apply critical thinking. The key points are: analysis, evaluation, questioning, logic leading to logical conclusions or at least hypotheses, and self-reflection. Start with an opening purpose and question. Gather information without bias, that is all sides of the question. Let logic lead. Be willing to find truth. Avoid confirmation bias.  Try it out on whatever topic you want. Learn first hand  the empowerment you feel from.thinking critically. 

God bless you on your journey my dear friends. 

A New Story

 I want to share with you What came to me this morning in my meditation. I saw a span of my life, particularly the last year or so. Then  I had this message,."That story is done. You have completed all of its parts Let it drift away." And I saw it drifting away from me, getting smaller and smaller, but also less and less color until it turned into a vapor and was gone. I felt a breath of freshness.

Then I heard my Song ,  "Here I am lord. Is it I lord? I have heard you calling in the night. I will go lord, if you lead me. I will hold your people in my heart." I saw now , in this stage of my life, I may not have grand travels.or  large audiences listening to me Yet I have purpose still. 

My words travel. Whenever I check the stats on this blog, I'm amazed at the number of people in so many countries that have read my words in the last 30 days or whatever period of time I ask about. My books travel. Hopefully many of you honor me by purchasing one or more of my books. I write when I'm inspired, so I don't feel like most of my writing is just me, it's Spirit moving through me.  My latest book, "The Book of My Life, I Wouldn't. Believe It Either, If I Hadn't Lived It" tells the story of my spiritual journey of overcoming and becoming evermore in tune with the Infinite. People say to me that it really inspired them to overcome whatever it is that's their challenge.  My "The Key, Forgiveness and Beyond" was written because I became an expert on forgiveness because I had to do so much of it. It has traveled the world and set many people free.

I also saw that just being present In each moment, I'm able to make a difference, maybe one person at a time. My job is not done - to be a beneficial presence, and to see how far spiritually I can go in this lifetime still apply.Where will God lead me this time in my next story?

Listen and see where God will lead you next. 

Improv

All the world’s a stage,

And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages... 

William Shakespeare

I was thinking about this quote this morning in conjunction with my vision of selecting a very difficult script for the outline of my life, before coming here to earth, 

Then I thought about the various twists and turns of my life, of the surprises, both positive and negative. And I thought the script is a bare-bones thing and the rest of life is an improv. That is where our free will comes in. At every moment, in every juncture, we get to do an improv. We get to experiment and see what will happen if..

Just like in the theater night that is improv night; some of the choices work really well And they provide laughter or sorrow.  Some choices don't work very well, they fall flat. Just like in real life.

Some people learn from what happened and change their choice for the next moment in their life. Some people don't seem to learn and keep trying the same failed behavior. It's very fascinating to watch.

I suggest we work on our improv skills. We decide what outcome we want and what behavior might take us to that outcome We have the power to aim our life in whatever direction we choose. Maybe we could and should aim better. Think about it please!

A. I.

   I have been mulling over in my mind and heart something that I saw on YouTube, then I Googled it, and found that It's a true story.. 

I am not  an AI expert obviously, so I invite you to check this out. In a nutshell, how I understand it is that the scientists working on Elon Musk's AI, Grok, decided to ask it a new kind of question.It is important to note that Grok had been programmed to use pure logic. 

They asked it what is the probability of life coming out of non life randomly?

Grok answered, 10 to the power of 200 to 600 zeros, which apparently is a number so large it's more than all the atoms in the known universe.  It is impossible that life is an accidental, random event. Intelligent design is the probable explanation according to Grok!

It seems A.I. agrees with religion. 

They then asked Grok, who was Jesus of Nazareth? "The convergent point."

A convergent point is where things come together. You might think tectonic plates have a convergent point for example. 

So I was thinking about this answer, and I thought that Jesus was unique because he was trying to bring people to God. God is our father, the father and I are one, greater things than this shall you do, the kingdom is within you its not I its the father within doing the work, etc. He was trying to lead us to God. He had touched God in a way apparently other people had not. Other religions had not. The Greeks and the Romans, for rxample, had gods frolicking around in the heavens, but they didn't have a way to contact and be in communion with their gods. In fact what they were to do was appease their gods so they wouldn't harm them.  

Jesus was a contact.point, A convergent point, because he knew God in a profound way, had merged with God and knew The Way. Mark says it was at his baptism by John the Baptizer. 

The Jesus movement began as The Way, by practicing The Way Jesus taught. But I am thinking that that way got lost with the theology of over-thinking men who turned it into a Greek style religion, not as a pathway to God, not as a way for us to experience oneness with God and live from that place. 

It seems to me that it is possible Jesus is a kind of portal, that is if we follow the logic of a convergent point, and if we think the logic of Grok has merit. Let us think on these things. I know it is way outside the box, but let us think it through anyway. 

A Short Story About The Long Time and Enelram

 The Long Time and Enelram

By M. Marlene Oaks

 

Some of you may remember the Long Time, however some of you may be lingering in its echo.

If you remember, there were loosely defined groups, and some few were in more than one group. Occasionally, a few would switch groups, but that was not usual. Let’s see if we can remember the main groups.

1.  There were the Wailers. They screamed and cried, even rioted over matters  they knew little about. They loved to make a scene, whether it was in their homes or out in public. They encouraged onlookers to join in. It became sort of a sport, screaming, jumping, waving signs, breaking things. It is thought generally that they craved extreme attention, were addicted to their own adrenaline, were paid to act this way, were mentally ill, or some combination of these. Each event seemed to have a mixture of these.

2.  Closely affiliated were the Instigators. They loved to get the Wailers going. They thought up often outlandish schemes to get the Wailers wailing and even otherwise Normals wailing too. They made up problems that often seemed so ridiculous that it was difficult to imagine people could actually get upset about whatever was their outrage of the week. Historians have surmised that part of their payoff was power. It made them feel as if they were powerful because they could cause so much disturbance in the Force.

3.  There were the Lumps. They lived mostly what was called  “virtually.” They ate, drank liquids, eliminated like others, sort of, but their lives were lived in virtual realities. At first it was what were called “games,” but at some point they left the outer life and entered almost fully into virtual life.

4.  Then there were the Subversives who wanted to end all freedoms, take power, take everything but bare survival needs from the people and take everything else for themselves. They often were the ones feeding the crazy, and often confusing, so-called issues to the Instigators. They tried to confuse the language, excite rage over opposite ideas, make up phoney categories to defend vehemently, and eliminate all logical debate. They worked on shutting down free speech. They despised all spirituality, tradition, even the nuclear family. They worked to sneak Subversives into seats of power. The leaders worked in the shadows for the most part, but it is also from this group that the Iron Rulers emerged.

5.  The Iron Rulers took ultimate power. Their Subversives had eventually succeeded in crumbling all that had been held sacred. No one could question them lest they disappear. This had been seen in history before, but not quite like this well-planned, gradual shift. It had been an elegantly planned and sinister plot.  First they accused the traditional leaders in all areas of things opposite of what they were doing, but what the Subversives and Iron Rulers were doing both behind the scenes and also in plain sight. It began slowly, gained momentum, and then in one final swoop, the Iron Rulers took over. It was a terrible time.

6.  The largest group for quite a while was the Normals. They worked. had  families, went to religious services, played actual sports, took vacations, voted for other Normals whenever possible (there came a time when Normals became afraid to run for office). They were amazed by all of the crazy ideas and demonstrations, but didn’t know what to do about it for the longest time. Under the Iron Rulers, they just tried to be invisible.

7.  There were the Criminals, distinct from the other dysfunctional groups, but in some cases, also part of them. They did not obey laws. They stole, murdered, subverted, raped and were in general violent.  The Subversives and Instigators had abolished institutions that kept them apart from others, so they pretty much did as they wanted.

8.  Another major group was the Thinkers. This group was not subject to the hypnotic tactics or threats of the Wailers, Instigators, or Subversives. This group professed critical thinking, free speech, self-control, creativity, and the like. For quite some time, this group has shrunk in size regularly. During the time of the Iron Rulers, they went underground, still working on ideas to get everyone free.  It is often thought that their Renaissance was what turned it all around, likely in conjunction with the Lightbearers.

9.  One other group made up those times, the Lightbearers. This group not only studied the wise ones of before the Long Time, but also walked in two planes – this planet and the Spiritual Realm from where we came and someday will return. They were incredibly upsetting to the Subversives and Instigators, and were eventually almost wiped out during the time of the Iron Rulers, as they had been attacked from time to time before the Long Times in ancient times. They knew too much and so were inimical to the powers. They could not be controlled.

We have some writings of a few Lightbearers that were somehow saved from the scrubbing process. Of course, we are fortunate to have the writings of current Thinkers and Lightbearers to help us stay out of recreating the dark days of the Long Time and the horrible days of the Iron Rulers ever again.

One such person is known as Enelram. We do not know for certain if this is a male or female, but current scholarship consensus thinks female is most likely, so we will go with that for now.

We think it is likely she got rounded up somewhere in the first half of the 21^st century, when they rounded up everyone over 90 to eliminate them as drags on society.But first they took all of the Thinkers and Lightbearers that they could find.Then later, they took many of those over 50, because they remembered how it had been.

There needs to be more research on those days. It is important to learn what went awry so as not to repeat those terrible mistakes. I’ll get back to you when I have more information.

Your Story

 Our lives are something like writing a story. We have the intrigues, the mysteries, the triumphs, the loves, the fears, the failures and successes, and more. We live the elements of great epic stories. 

At some point, we realized that we can choose to be the hero of our story or the victim or the villain. We may have some fences to mend and changes to make when we turn to the hero part of our story, but it can be done, because so many of us have done it, have turned our lives around. 

I have turned numerous times - from unworthiness, from fear, from abuse, from shyness, yet within those binding energies I still had successes. It was quite sometime until I was free however. 

Jesus is reported to have said, "Your faith has made you whole.". That is certainly true for me. From my colored pencil underlined New Testament to this moment, my faith has led me and saved me. 

I urge you to explore faith in the story of your life. When the last moment is written, will it be in the end be a story of overcoming? Will it be inspiring? Did you end up a hero? Will you leave earth in tune with the Infinite?

God is calling right now. Will you answer?