Author: Valerie Cullers

Delusion

Valerie Cullers 6 Comments

Delusion – 1. a false belief or judgment about external reality, held despite incontrovertible evidence to the contrary, occurring especially in mental conditions. 2. the action of deluding or the state of being deluded. Oxford Languages

I have had a deep concern lately about deception, especially about the deception that will be coming on the world in the near future. I have already talked about AI. The advancements it has made in the past year are staggering. I have recently seen videos that have been produced by AI that are realistic and almost impossible to tell they were computer generated. For a point of reference, think about the movies you have seen in recent years with their computer generated images. Didn’t the dinosaurs in Jurassic Park seem real? What about the scenes in Star Wars? Those movies were made decades ago and think about the advancement that has been made since then. Now with AI, soon you could watch a person on a newscast with a computer generated image give you the “news,” and you will not be able to tell if it is real or not. Sound too futuristic? Believe me, it’s coming.

Yes, yes, yes, you may say to me…so what? I would say to you that that is just one level of deception that is on the horizon. There is even a deeper level of deception, i.e., delusion, that will affect the people of the world. As many have rejected God and His word, they will be open to the delusion that God Himself will send upon them. As they have rejected the real Savior, they will readily accept the false Christ that is coming to “save the world.” As we read in 2 Thessalonians verses 9-12, “The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”

How scary is that…that a holy and righteous God will actually send people strong delusion to believe the lie? And what lie is this, you might ask? Well, there will be one coming who will look like a man of peace, a man who can solve all the world’s problems, and people will believe him. At one point, he will declare himself to be the God and Savior of the world, and he will be satanically energized and show the world all power, signs, and lying wonders with all unrighteous deception. Sounds pretty far out, doesn’t it? But just think about it.

Already we have people searching for someone who can bring peace to the world; one who can solve all the world’s problems. At the moment, they are thinking in political terms. Where is the person who can bring peace to the Middle East, stop the war in Ukraine, solve the food shortages, put an end to the violence, and have a solution to the economic problems? I know people who are looking at certain political figures and believe their guy is the one who can do it.

When we are looking for a human to provide the world’s answers, we are only a step away from accepting the man who will come on the world scene, one who looks and acts the part. It is not too far out to think that people will fall at his feet. Think about what Paul-Henri Spaak, former Belgian Prime Minister and Secretary General of NATO said, “We do not want another committee, we have too many already. What we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the allegiance of all people, and to lift us out of the economic morass into which we are sinking. Send us such a man, and be he god or devil, we will receive him.” He made this statement decades ago before the world was in the state it is in right now.

This man is coming on the scene, the world is looking for him. The Bible says he will come, and I believe he is alive today, waiting in the wings to fulfill his role in the end times. It is important that we know these things ahead of time so that we can make the right choices now while we still have the chance.

Photo by Gerd Altman, courtesy of Pixabay.

Discernment ~ the Antidote for Deception

Valerie Cullers 29 Comments

Deception – 1. the action of deceiving someone, 2. a thing that deceives. The Oxford Language Dictionary

We live in a world cloaked in deception. In every area of society, lies are told as truth and then expected to be believed. Whether it is in the political, educational, social, or spiritual arena, we are fed lies daily. How do we sort through the fog and get to the truth? Well, for sure, we are going to have to do some digging to find the truth. However, sometimes the lies are so egregious that we wonder how those telling them can say them with a straight face. What we really need is discernment as we make our way through this miasma. What is called for is discernment.

Discernment – 1. the ability to judge well 2. (in Christian contexts) perception in the absence of judgment with a view to obtaining spiritual guidance and understanding. The Oxford Language Dictionary

Some of the lies we are being told are so obvious we can reject them outright. Others are presented by the media in a way that is portrayed as positive when, in reality, it is just the opposite. Have you ever seen a movie where people are hooking up with one another? It is just a bunch of fun and portrayed as normal. What could be wrong with a simple one-night stand? No one ever mentions pregnancy, STDs, or the emotional wreckage that can go along with the negative consequences of this type of behavior. A person needs discernment, i.e., the ability to judge well, before engaging in this kind of behavior.

What about the lies that are told daily in the political arena? “Age doesn’t matter,” The border is secure,” and “We care about crime,” are just a few we hear spouted daily and are obviously untrue. One doesn’t need much discernment to know they are lies; we just need to open our eyes and see what is going on around us to discover the truth.

Soon, we will need more than human discernment to pierce through the deception that is coming in the spiritual arena. We will need the discernment that only the Holy Spirit can give to be able to sort out the truth. Jesus warns us over and over in Matthew 24 to watch out for deception. It will be the hallmark of the end of the age. Many will be sucked into and fall for the spiritual deception that is coming. As they look for a savior to bring the world peace, they will fall for those who pretend to have the answers to the world’s problems. Jesus said in Matthew 24:24: “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive if possible, even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand.”

For your own sake, don’t wait until these things come upon the world, seek the Lord now while He may be found. Get in His word and discover the truth for yourself. Pray for the discernment that only the Holy Spirit can give so you will not get sucked into the lies that are coming just over the horizon.

Photo by Stefan Keller. Courtesy of Pixabay.

Deepfakes

Valerie Cullers 19 Comments

When I was growing up, my father would often quote Edgar Allan Poe, “Believe nothing you hear and only half of what you see.” When he would say that to me, I would think to myself that my father was a bit of a cynic. He wasn’t one for believing every story that went around our small town.

Three decades later, after the movie Forrest Gump was released, my brother would say to me, “That movie ought to teach you not to believe everything you see on television.” Yes, I could see his point, but I thought he was a bit of a cynic also.

Fast forward three more decades, and we are dealing with deepfakes. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines deepfakes, as “an image or recording that has been convincingly altered or manipulated to misrepresent someone as doing or saying something that was actually not done or said.” Last week I was listening to John Haller as he was sharing a video of the President of Argentina at The World Economic Forum meeting in Davos. The man originally spoke in Spanish with a translator, but the next day someone had created a video of him (with his own voice) speaking in English. His lips were in sync with the English and the video looked real. This particular video had a disclaimer in front of it that said it had been generated by AI. If I hadn’t known it was generated by AI, I would have thought it was convincingly real.

Why do AI generated deepfakes concern most of the thinking public? There are several reasons. First, think about the harm they can do. This week, sexually explicit photos of Taylor Swift were sent out that had her face on another person’s body. These photos were up for nine hours on Twitter before they were taken down and had 45 million views. Last week, robocalls went out in New Hampshire with Joe Biden’s voice that told people NOT to go to the polls and write in his name. How many people believed that?

From here on out, political campaigns can rise or fall depending on deepfakes and how believable they are. You can bet that no matter who you are aligned with, there will be deepfakes put out disparaging your candidate and it could affect the political outcome of an election.

What about medical information? Deepfakes will come out sharing misinformation about several conditions. There was plenty of misinformation swirling around the internet related to the last pandemic. Can you imagine what will happen when the next pandemic sweeps the globe?

Jesus warned us that deception will be rampant at the end of the age. Over and over He warned us not to be deceived, “And Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Take heed that no one deceives you.” Matt: 24:4 Two more times in Matthew 24, He warns us about deception. This is not a game. It will take true discernment on our part to not be deceived by what we see.

As we move forward, AI-generated videos will be everywhere. It will not be enough to listen to one and think that it is true. We must not take what we see at face value but search out the truth. We would be wise to take Mr. Poe’s recommendation seriously. Reality is no longer “seeing is believing.” We must not believe everything we see, or we will be like the billions who will be duped on this planet.

Photo by Geralt. Courtesy of Pixabay

The Silent Crime of Usury

Valerie Cullers 16 Comments

The other day, I received an offer for a credit card from one of the airline companies. Usually, I shred credit card offers, but in this case, I thought I would see what they were offering. Turns out, the APR (annual percentage rate) was between 20.24 % and 28.24%. I thought to myself, this is usury!

Surprisingly, most people have never heard the term used. Usury, defined by The American Heritage Dictionary, is “The act or practice of lending money at an exorbitant or illegal rate of interest.” In our society, we use the term “predatory lending.” Today, usury is just an accepted practice, but did you know that for millennia it was considered immoral and illegal? Let me share some historical context of laws and societal mores against usury.

This information is from James M. Ackerman, “Interest Rates and the Law: A History of Usury,” 1981. Taken from the blog “Americans for Fairness in Lending.”

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Old Testament – The prophet Ezekiel includes usury in a list of “abominable things,” along with rape, murder and idolatry.

1750 B.C. The Code of Hammurabi regulates the interest that can be charged on a loan.

800 – 600 B.C. Both Plato and Aristotle believed usury was immoral and unjust. The Greeks at first regulate interest and then deregulate it. After deregulation, there was so much unregulated debt that Athenians were sold into slavery and threatened revolt.

443 B.C. The Romans adopt the “Twelve Tables” and cap interest at 8 1/3%.

88 B.C. The Roman usury rate is raised to 12%.

533 A.D. The Roman “Code of Justinian” sets a graduated maximum interest rate that did not go over 8 1/3%. This law lasted until 1543 A.D.

800 A.D. Charlemagne outlaws interest.

Medieval Roman Law: Usurers are fined 4X the amount taken, while robbery is penalized at twice the amount taken.

1306 – 1321 Dante pens “The Inferno,” in which he places usurers at the lowest ledge in the seventh circle of hell – lower than murderers.

1553 – 1558 During the reign of Queen Mary, English Parliament again disallows the collection of interest.

1570 During the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, interest rates in England are limited to under 10%. This law lasts until 1854.

Early 18th Century – American Colonies adopt usury laws, setting the interest cap at 8%.

Early 1900’s – A move to deregulation causes 11 states to eliminate usury laws. Nine more states raise the usury cap to 10% or 12%. Banks are not making personal loans. “Salary Lenders” fill the need by “purchasing” a worker’s future wages in exchange for a high fee – equal to a lending rate of 10% – 33%.

1916 A Uniform Small Loan Law allows specially-licensed lenders to charge higher interest rates – up to 36% – in return for adhering to strict standards of lending.

1945 – 1979 All states adopt special loan laws that cap interest at higher than the general usury rate – at 36%.

1978 The US Supreme Court decides that national banks may export the state interest rate law of their home state into any state where they do business. In response, South Dakota eliminates its interest caps. Several credit card issuing banks moved to South Dakota and operate nationally with no interest rate cap.

1980 Congress preempts state interest rate controls on all first lien mortgages. This enables predatory mortgage lenders to make seemingly affordable loans, like adjustable-rate and interest-only loans, that lead to foreclosure for many.

1994 Congress adopts the Home Ownership and Equity Protection Act of 1994, which provides some substantive protections to home mortgage borrowers with interest rates or points that are extraordinarily expensive, but sets no limits on what can be charged for these loans.

1994 – 2005 Many states and cities try to protect their citizens by adopting state statutes and local ordinances to curb predatory lending, but preemption claims by the federal government impede their efforts. Numerous bills are introduced in Congress to protect consumers in a wide range of transactions, including rent-to-own, credit cards, payday lending, and predatory mortgage lending, but none of these bills makes it to a hearing.

2001 – 2007 Predatory and mainly subprime lenders make home loans to people who cannot afford them, boosting their own profits in the short term. Many of these loans are packaged and sold to Wall Street.

2005 After extensive pressure from the industry, the federal government changes bankruptcy laws, making it harder for consumers to discharge debts and get a clean start in bankruptcy.

2006 Congress passes the “Talent Amendment” which caps interest on loans to active military personnel and their families to 36%, reacting to findings that high-cost payday lenders had been targeting the military.

2007 Foreclosure rates begin to increase dramatically as a result of predatory mortgage lending.

2008 Unpaid mortgages caused mortgage-backed securities on Wall Street continue to “go bad,” triggering widespread downturn in both the United States and around the world. Some commercial and investment banks go bankrupt, and some are the object of government “bailouts.”

2009 The passage of the Credit CARD Act, which greatly curtails abusive credit card lending.

2010 The passage of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, which creates a Consumer Financial Protection Bureau to rein in predatory lending (though it cannot pass usury caps). The bill also reforms some of Wall Street’s greedy and excessive practices.

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I do not purport to be an expert in finance or economics, but I do know that usury or predatory lending is taking place today. Can we, as consumers, do anything about it? Since interest is regulated at the state level, we can put pressure on our local representatives to enact legislation that will protect consumers in our state from usury. According to USA Today, as of 12/13/2023, banks were paying 5 to 5.25 % for their Cost of Fund Rate. Any interest they charge on top of that is profit. It seems to me that legislation capping the interest that can be charged on loans or credit cards on top of their Cost of Fund Rate to 10% is fair. That would cap the interest they could charge on 12/13/2023 between 15 and 15.25%.

Let’s try to stop the silent crime of usury that is being perpetrated on unwitting consumers. It will certainly help gain financial freedom for the many and will lower the rate of bankruptcy for more than a few. This will put our economy on a more sure footing.

Photo by kalhh, Courtesy of Pixabay.

Apophis Revisited

Valerie Cullers 17 Comments

A couple of weeks ago, I finished reading “The Wormwood Prophecy” by Dr. Thomas Horn. In the book, he talks about the asteroid Apophis, named after the Egyptian God of Chaos, that is heading towards Earth and will make a very near flyby on April 13, 2029. NASA‘s website says that it will be so close to the Earth that it will “put some of our orbiting satellites in peril” and even be visible in the daytime sky.

Dr. Horn began investigating this asteroid in 2019, and his book is filled with interesting quotes from several scientists who believe that Apophis could possibly strike the Earth with a potential risk to life on our planet. The asteroid is 370 meters across and weighs an estimated twenty million metric tons. It is traveling at 28,000 miles per hour, and Dr. Horn states that it has “a mind-bending mass and potential inertia velocity encounter that most people cannot begin to fathom.”

Some scientists (including some who work at NASA) are of the mind that NASA is not telling the entire truth about this asteroid. Some are also concerned that their calculations are not accurate as they are not using the correct numerical quotient for pi. Unless the asteroid gets knocked out of its trajectory as it passes through the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter, Apophis most certainly could constitute a significant risk to life on Earth.

Why am I sharing this information with you? I believe that it is important to be aware of and to do your own research. Dr. Horn believes that Apophis could possibly be the biblical asteroid Wormwood that strikes the earth and destroys one-third of the living creatures in the sea (Revelation 8:8). You can look up information about it on the NASA website and find what other scientists are saying about it on the internet. If you don’t want to do your own research, then I would certainly recommend the book, which has been thoroughly researched and annotated.

Just a cursory glance at the news informs us that we are living in interesting times. Many, myself included, believe we are living at the end of the age. We all have decisions to make about our lives and how we are living them. I would be remiss if I didn’t let you know what possibly may be coming upon the earth in 2029.

Since this is in the news this week, I am republishing this post!

Putting Christmas on Credit

Valerie Cullers 16 Comments

Several years ago, my husband and I were in a retail store. We came down an aisle and met an acquaintance of ours shopping with his girlfriend. His shopping cart was full of toys, and he leaned close to us and quietly said, “I’ll be putting this on my credit card and will be paying for this all next year.” My husband and I looked at each other, and I thought, “Yikes!”

We had set a budget and were buying the last of whatever we needed, and when that money was spent, we were finished. We knew that on the 26th of December, when we woke up, we might not have a bunch of money, but we were not going to get slammed with bills from the credit card company for our purchases.

This may seem a little late in the season to be writing this but did you know that it was always the week before Christmas when I was tempted to put purchases on the card? We had spent our Christmas budget and had other bills to pay after Christmas, so I couldn’t dip into that money. But there were other things I would like to get, nothing necessary but things that would have added to our holiday celebrations. I resisted those temptations but they were there every year nonetheless.

If any of you are feeling those temptations, I want to say, “Don’t do it!” You don’t want to pay for it later, especially now when credit card rates are through the roof. Did you know that when we use credit cards for purchases, we are more likely to pay between 25 and 100 percent more for what we are buying? (Thank you, NerdWallet.) Add on the interest we will be shelling out, and that’s a pretty hefty price to pay for anything.

I know that there are times when we have to use our cards. Perhaps an extra family is coming to our celebrations that we have not planned for. Perhaps the neighbor next door just lost his job and they will not be having any Christmas whatsoever. Perhaps we have lost our job and our family will not have any presents or dinner if we don’t use our card. We still need to set a budget and stick to it and forget about Madison Avenue’s idea of the perfect Christmas. Sometimes smaller is better when we can’t afford more.

Three things I have learned about Christmas that I want to pass on. First, try to put something away each month so that Christmas doesn’t catch you flatfooted. Second, purchase a couple gifts for your kids. One that they want and one that will help them explore their giftedness. Third, the best Christmas gift is the gift of time. Give those you love the gift of your time this year. Plan a few outings you can experience together and it will make this Christmas so much more meaningful for you and them.

Hope you have a Merry Christmas with the ones you love! (And put that credit card away if you don’t absolutely have to use it!)

Finding Christ at Christmas

Valerie Cullers 13 Comments

Have you ever felt overwhelmed during the Christmas season? There’s so much to do besides the normal list of activities. Decorate the tree and house, buy presents and wrap them, attend school plays and church productions, shop, shop, shop, cook, bake, and keep juggling all of the normal balls. I remember many Christmases when I was thinking, “Where is Christ in all of this?”

Was I alone in my thoughts? I don’t think so. It is pretty hard to find time for anything spiritual when your activity level is at a ten plus. Can you relate? Is it possible to take a few steps back from the activity and seek the Savior’s presence? It is, but we must be Very Intentional about it.

Last December, when my husband was in the hospital, Christmas came to a screeching halt for me. There were no decorations put up in my home, no Christmas cards sent, and no parties attended. It was a month of hospital visits and sleep when I could find it. Funny thing though, I may have been closer to Christ than I had been most Decembers.

I could see Him in the doctors and nurses as they ministered to my husband. I could feel His presence in the halls of the hospital as I heard families weeping about their loved ones’ conditions. He was there with the hurting and those doing their best to alleviate the suffering.

If you’re missing Christ this Christmas and can’t find Him at the malls or the office parties, take part of a day and find someplace where people are hurting. Buy a fruit or snack basket and take it to a hospital, nursing home, or homeless shelter. Take a bag of toys to a migrant shelter or soup kitchen. The people there represent those who will not be spending a “traditional Christmas.” They will either be the ones receiving care or the ones giving it. Offer your time and resources to those who need it most. There you will find the Spirit of Christ. He is there among the brokenhearted. You will be enriched and your heart will be affected by those who are suffering and the kindness of others.

“Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me. Matthew 25:40.

An Unfinished Life

Valerie Cullers 21 Comments

About a month before Thanksgiving, my husband and I bought a puzzle from the local library. It was a used 500-piece puzzle, and we decided to put it together over Thanksgiving week. True to form, my husband (the expert), separated all of the pieces by color and put the edges together. He then began to work on the center. Myself (the novice), took all of it in and waited for it to resemble the picture on the box. As I walked by, I would occasionally pick up a piece and set it in place. The funny thing about this puzzle though, several pieces were cut in the exact same shape. You had to choose the one that best fit the picture. On and on we went until there was just a small hole in the upper right of the puzzle. There were about fifteen pieces left, and neither he nor I could make the last pieces fit. I blamed it on the puzzle (of course, it could not be user error), and when neither of us could finish it, I boxed it up and threw it into the garbage…and good riddance. It was frustrating to not finish the puzzle. I didn’t like having left it undone, but there was nothing we could do about it. The picture of it stayed in my mind for a long time. It reminded me of an unfinished life.

How many times have people passed, especially when they are younger, and we feel that they left an unfinished life. “If only,” we think, “They could have done so much more.” I remember those who passed in Junior High and High School, and I feel that sentiment when I think of them. I know that I am not the only one who feels this way.

So what is an unfinished life? We all have our own definition but primarily it is a life that was not able to experience the usual milestones we pass as time goes on. If the person is talented and gifted, we think of all the good they could have done in the world. I remember thinking that of a few doctors I knew who passed relatively early. Oh, how the world would miss them, and I was right. They left a hole in our small community when they were gone.

After I became a believer in Jesus Christ, I thought that way about Him for several years. Why did He have to die at the age of 33? Think of all the people he could have healed, raised from the dead, and the many demons he could have cast out. It was only later that I realized His life was not unfinished. He accomplished what He came to earth to do. He laid down His life as a payment for the sins of the world. His life fulfilled everything it was meant to.

So the question becomes, how do we live so that when we leave we haven’t left an unfinished life? Do we need to have all of our projects done at work? What about things that need to be done around the house? Is it about dotting every i and crossing every t on our list of things to do? I don’t think so.

No matter when we are called to go, there will always be something left undone…a bed unmade, a project not signed off, or that right person not hired. But those things can be remedied by others. There are things that we do not want to leave unfinished, things that only we can do. Have we called our relative that we need to reconcile with? Have we forgiven someone who hurt us? Have we reached out to the hurting in our community in a way that will make a significant difference, or have we only lived for ourselves?

As we approach the beginning of another year, let’s make an effort to not leave the important things unfinished. As we take our last breath on this earth and wake up in the rarified atmosphere of eternity, let us make sure we have not left the most important thing unfinished: that of our relationship with the Lord. If nothing else, let’s get that right before we pass. If you haven’t taken care of it, don’t let another day go by before you do. You never know when it will be your time to leave this world, and you don’t want to live in eternity regretting that you left it unfinished in this life.

“And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment, so Christ was offered once to bear the sins of many.” Hebrews 9:27

So Very Thankful

Valerie Cullers 27 Comments

This year, our family has so much to be thankful for. We have gotten a bonus year with my husband, Mike. Almost a year ago, Mike suffered a hemorrhagic stroke from the Plavix he was on. After nine days in the hospital, he could only walk about three steps side to side. holding onto a walker. After another three weeks in a rehab hospital, he came home. He was still very weak and had little, if any, feeling on his right side. Three months of physical, occupational and speech therapy gave him his life back. He continued to work on his rehabilitation, and by the end of May, he was driving. We were very thankful but knew at any moment our lives could be thrown back into the same routine.

On July 26, he suffered another hemorrhagic stroke caused by the aspirin he was on. Another brush with the Grim Reaper, but not so serious. He spent seven days in the hospital and two weeks in a rehab facility, followed by two months of physical therapy. This stroke left him with constant vertigo and nausea. We carried his little blue bags everywhere in case he got sick.

Fast forward to today. His vertigo is only intermittent and he walks about a mile and a half several times a week. He still has a great attitude and continues to work on his exercises for balance. His attitude is pretty good most of the time and when he gets the vertigo, he says, “It’s good for me, it builds character.”

We are so grateful for all of the prayers, support and love we have received from our family and friends both near and far. The Lord has been gracious to us and we do not take it for granted. We are grateful for our bonus year and any bonus days we get. If you have been part of our journey, a big THANK YOU to all. May the Lord Richly Bless You!

Mike at The Village in Meridian in September 2023.