Today is March 29th, the day there was to be a hard British exit from the European Union if the Parliament couldn’t agree to flawed arrangement Prime Minister May brought up again. This was the third time she’d tried to get the deal passed.   But it failed, again. Most voted against it because it favored ongoing interference with Britain’s sovereignty and would have been hugely expensive.

Prime Minister’s Theresa May’s tenure is in doubt.   She’d offered to resign if they were to agree to the terms offered.   But that didn’t happen. Now there will apparently be another year of delay, and the UK will remain stuck in the through upcoming EU parliament elections, and representatives will hold their seats in the EU governing body and try to represent British interests. Unless, that is, the EU itself forces a “hard Brexit,” however unlikely.   According to a prominent headline in the UK, “Brexit now faces death, or a delay of years.”

Venezuela continues in the death throes of socialist catastrophe.   The dictator Maduro hangs on with the support of most of the military.   He’s also backed by Russia, China and Iran, all of whom have considerable financial (or military) interests tied to Maduro’s survival. According to reports, Russia sent a plane-load of a couple hundred troops this week, presumably to help prop up Maduro. U. S. military experts say that Russia wants a military base in Venezuela.

The Associated Press ran a story just today, illustrating how daily life there is like a flashback to the Middle Ages.   There is no electrical power. Even tap water has dried up, and the water people find to carry home is not sanitary.

 The wealthy have checked into luxury hotels, where large generators supply power and food is available at in-house restaurants. But the masses scour garbage and go out to find a source of foul water.   Just another day in socialist Utopia.

The Vatican is issuing new guidelines for dealing with the unspeakable criminal acts of its priesthood. They’re getting it all figured out so as to be blameless, to the point of creating an atmosphere where children are safe from the kind of abuse they’ve suffered by the unknown thousands over decades. Maybe they shouldn’t have hired a bunch of limp-wristed weirdos as priests.   This stuff is too sick for discussion here.   You can find it all if you need additional details.

Everyone should know there are more than temporal legal consequences for breaking any one of the Ten Commandments. One that has been trampled routinely is the one that says, “Thou shalt not bear false witness.”   Some want to make it broad enough to include any and all departures from the truth. But it’s more specific than that. Bearing false witness indicates claims of having seen something happen, or not.  For over two years we’ve been drowning in a sea of claims made by (formerly) esteemed people who’ve held some of the highest offices in the land.   They’ve pounded the narrative, egged on with prissy sobriety by several mainstream newsmen. They’ve either contributed to or actually written articles and op/eds accusing the current President of being an “agent of the Kremlin.”   He’s been called “Putin’s puppet,” and declared obviously guilty of treason by a cadre of former intelligence and law enforcement officials.

And then the dam broke. Now the purveyors of these ominous claims spend all their time trying to justify their accusations, suspicions and the vast deception they’ve caused.   But maybe, they hope, just maybe they’ll turn out to have been right all along! They’ll continue investigating with vigor and get back to us as soon as they find the elusive proof not turned up by one of the most compromised group of lawyers and prosecutors ever assembled.   Admitting defeat and dealing with reality is not the strong suit of those bound and determined to produce an outcome to which they’ve dedicated their entire identities.

Now it’s time for a Proverb or two.   Chapter 24, verse 15 says, “Do not lie in wait, O wicked man, against the dwelling of the righteous; do not plunder his resting place; For a righteous man may fall seven times, and rise again.   But the wicked shall fall by calamity.”

Then there’s the one we must heed right now in verse 17, “Do not rejoice when your enemy falls. And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles.”   But then there is this a little later in the same chapter, verse 25, “But those who rebuke the wicked will have delight, and a good blessing will come upon them.”

We’ll all do our best to walk that fine line as we watch the information pour forth against those who have deceived many of earth’s inhabitants, and try not to enjoy it overmuch. Have a great Sabbath.

Mark

Source: http://www.intercontinentalcog.org/fridayupdates.php

The post Weekly Update by Mark Armstrong – 29 March 2019 first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.