Dear Friends,

As we move along further into the 21st century it strikes me that we need to be increasingly aware that we have entered a sort of warfare that exceeds anything that humanity has so far experienced. I am not only thinking of the Russia-Ukraine war, though one may perhaps look at this as somewhat symbolic of the wider war we are all increasingly engaged in.

We are engaged in a war of manipulation: we have to admit that the truth about things is rarely what we are being presented with, and especially not by what our media sources might refer to as the “big voices”. 

Indeed I remember from way back how surprised I was about how a respected British newspaper was presenting a situation in which I was marginally involved. What I was reading in the respected newspaper was very different to the way I would have described the matter, The report seemed to have slanted it in a way that I could not recognise as truthful. It set me thinking about how much of any newspaper story could be relied upon. And that was then.

With the electronic media now in their current state, and the “regulatory capture” that has clearly gone through the roof, we need to observe very carefully the Pauline biblical truth in full flow: that “the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil.” We have entered an age in which the story that brings in the money is editorially preferred over what is actually the true account, in a measure that any honest person finds difficult to conceive. Indeed, it is so difficult that we are tempted just to “give in” and accept the accounts offered to us on face value. 

Please …. don’t do that. Because the truth is too precious to discard. Any truth always relates to the Kingdom of Christ itself. And that Kingdom will prevail over every lie, which will most often be uncovered when we “follow the money”, even if we find the lie being generated in those we are inclined to consider to be the most immediately believable of the world’s authorities - starting with the most centralised.

The Collect for the Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity is

Lord, we beseech thee, grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow thee the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

The two petitions in this Collect: “grant thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh and the devil”; and “[grant thy people grace] with pure hearts to follow thee the only God” are like the reverse and the obverse of a single coin. In the terms of the earlier theme of this letter, the temptations being referred to are the army of lies and deception that we are being very solemnly called seriously to withstand; while the following of the only God “through Jesus Christ our Lord” must include the active participation, by the grace of God, in the Kingdom of Truth that Jesus Himself referred to as “my Kingdom”.

As the current “war” becomes ever plainer, we are being challenged to get ourselves positioned on the godly side of the ultimate battle.

For directions about the services this Sunday the 16th October 2022, the 18th Sunday after Trinity, please see the website www.TruthWithLanguage.com .

In faith in the holy Name of our Lord Jesus, who will continue to provide guidance and joy by the Holy Spirit to all His people.

+ Nicholas