#wisdommatters

🕉️ Happy Guru Purnima 🙏

Today, we bow down to the guiding lights of our lives – our Gurus. The ones who shape our thoughts, elevate our values, and lead us from darkness to light. 💫

At Grantham Life, we honor every Guru who inspires, empowers, and enriches lives with wisdom.

PERSPECTIVE MATTERS...

1 "At that time shall arise Michael, the great prince who has charge of your people. And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book. 2 And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt. 3 And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. 4 But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase." ~ Daniel 12:1-4

It is hard to deny the obvious truth... God prophesied through Daniel, some time between 536 and 530 B.C. the coming of the Information Age of the 21st Century that we currently live in. Of that time - our time - God told Daniel that “Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase.” This prophecy not only intimates the increase of knowledge but also the increase in travel. Our world has been made infinitely smaller thanks to travel and technology that has spawned the Information Age God prophesied was coming as a sure and indisputable sign of the “Time of the End.”

The Time of the End, according to God’s report to Daniel, of which we are privileged to eavesdrop on, thanks to Daniel’s written account, would include an unprecedented increase in worldly knowledge coupled with a precipitous decline in godly wisdom. This decline in wisdom is highlighted in verse 3 of the above-captioned scriptural passage: “And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above.” In other words, those few who are godly wise will stand out and stand apart like light in contrast to the darkness inherent in the vast majority of people on earth who will have a preponderance of worldly knowledge but lack biblical and thus spiritual wisdom.

Are we not witnessing this very thing today? In recent debates I have found myself engaged in defending the wisdom of faith and the gospel of Jesus Christ against the attack of those who claim the knowledge of the world with respect to matters like investing, especially in bitcoin and cryptocurrency given its unfathomable growth. Funny how every amateur likens him or herself as something of an investment expert and financial guru during the bubble-producing euphoria of bull market runs. The “we can’t lose” arrogance of those whose ignorance is only temporarily hidden behind the veil of a run-up in the value of their pet asset class will ultimately be betrayed when the bubble bursts and their hope of acquiring a fortune is betrayed along with the inevitable market crash. If I’ve seen it once, I’ve seen it a thousand times in my 30 years of experience as a former investment professional and wealth manager.

Those who comprise the wise of today know implicitly that history always repeats itself, as does human behavior that remains as undisciplined as those who are victimized by the repetitious habits of history. Seasoned investment professionals know by experience how to determine when an asset bubble has emerged. Everybody is either doing it, thinking about doing it or talking about doing it. The market in that particular asset class is recording record highs on what seems like a long and continuous basis with no abetting in sight. Expectations are through the roof and everyone and their momma is getting into the game or planning to. Regardless of the education level or economic status of a public gathering, whether at a backyard bbq or an alumni cocktail reception, the topic of investing in that particular asset class will inevitably come up. It’s popularity will criss-cross nearly all cultural lines. Everybody gets it and nearly everybody wants it. Even fools can sound like geniuses during bull markets. But faithfully they are exposed as fools during market corrections and crashes.

I recall back in the spring of 2005 when my youngest daughter, Briana was competing on the youth track & field circuit for the venerable youth track club the Los Angeles Jets. Every weekend we spent hours on end at track meets on the west coast with often hundreds and sometimes thousands of parents and fans in the stands watching these talented kids, many with Olympic aspirations and a few with Olympic ability compete. I could not help but notice whether at track meets or track practice the sheer number of adults with study materials in their laps preparing to take their California real estate license examination. The real estate market had been on a bull run in recent years turning average people into wannabe real estate speculators and house flippers. If people were not aiming to be real estate agents, they were coming into the mortgage business in droves. Everyone wanted to be real estate investors and get a piece of the action. It was the sure classic sign of a real estate asset bubble.

Well, true to form, that asset bubble inevitably burst during what was famously called the “Subprime Mortgage Crisis of 2006.” They had to blame the $8 trillion crash in the real estate market on someone right? Right or not, probably not, the narrative that the market analysts spun on the crisis conveniently blamed the victims: low-income homeowners, rather than on the perpetrators: greedy mortgage bankers and realtors who put people in homes and mortgages that they could not legitimately afford. This crisis led to record home foreclosures, a catastrophic drop in real estate values and the Great Recession of 2007-2009, the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression of 1929-1942. All told, between 2008 and 2009, the U.S. labor market lost 8.4 million jobs or 6.1% of all payroll employment. U.S. household wealth fell by about $16.4 trillion of net worth from its peak in spring 2007, about six months before the start of the recession, to when things hit bottom in the first quarter of 2009, according to figures from the Federal Reserve. Decisions, especially speculative investment decisions, have consequences.

The market crash that occurred between 2007 and 2009 exposed the fools from the wise. The fools ultimately got shook out of both the real estate and stock markets when they went south for a protracted period of time. Just as people came into the real estate industry in droves with hope, they left in droves broke.

I believe we are witnessing a similar but more chilling phenomenon today. This time the asset bubble coupled with a preponderance of knowledge and absence of wisdom is in an unproven and totally unreliable asset class without the benefit of the kind of historical data and trends that allow true investment experts to sort out strategies to apply to the asset class in various market conditions. The asset class to which I am referring is bitcoin and cryptocurrency. I have been giving this a lot of coverage in my social media posts lately for good reason. The wise have avoided this asset class altogether for what I believe are largely good technical investment reasons rather than moral and spiritual ones. You have not heard of the worldly wealthy wise including Warren Buffett or currency king, George Soros investing in bitcoin or cryptocurrency no matter its recent run up in price and gain in popularity among investment novices. Wisdom simply knows what’s better in the long run. It is more wise to imitate the wisdom of the wealthy wise than the foolishness of poor fools. Follow the wisdom of the wealthy and you will likely achieve the same result. Follow the poor to find yourself impoverished. The choice is yours.

Just as, if not more importantly, there are moral and spiritual reasons that I have for avoiding certain investment asset classes. Bitcoin and cryptocurrency is a relatively new asset class, created in 2009 by a person or persons of unknown origin that is used to transact a plethora of the world’s illegal, immoral and illegitimate business transactions that require secrecy and untraceability. Sexual slavery, human trafficking, drug smuggling and the arming of terrorist organizations are just a few of the underground business transactions that bitcoin and your investment in it as an asset class supports. Your investment in bitcoin supports the proliferation of these dark industries and evil enterprises. For a follower of Christ - a Christian - to support this economic means of perpetuating evil is to betray your citizenship in the Kingdom of God. To profit from the perspective of the King and His Kingdom is to obey the prophetic Word of God without compromise. Remember, not all profit is profitable. “For what does it profit a man to gain the whole world and forfeit his soul?” (Mark 8:36).

I believe that, along with the political upheaval that is now engulfing our land and exposing so-called “Christians” as worshippers of a cultural christ steeped in institutionalized religion instead of Jesus Christ of Nazareth steeped in the Scriptures, our investment decisions as to whether we will run with the world and support evil by investing in bitcoin and cryptocurrency, is being used by God to separate apostates from apostles, weeds from wheat, goats from sheep and hirelings from true, good shepherds. We are witnessing this exposure exponentially in our day today. Don’t get exposed as a double-exposure: a double-sided, double-minded image of a fake follower of Christ.

“Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn” (Matthew 13:30).

“His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire” (Luke 3:17).

Jesus taught us that before His return He would separate the pretenders from the promised people of God. What grew up in His church together almost indistinguishable from the other to the undiscerning spirit He would sift and purge. What would remain from this sifting and shaking would be the remnant church Christ is coming back for. “...And there shall be a time of trouble, such as never has been since there was a nation till that time. But at that time your people shall be delivered, everyone whose name shall be found written in the book” (Daniel 12:1).

Jesus is preparing for His return and He is faithfully preparing His promised people in advance of His return just as He prophetically promised to Daniel in Daniel’s Old Testament account and prophetically taught Himself in His own New Testament gospel. The winnowing fork of Christ is now at hand. He is using it to separate His apostles from apostates through our politics and our economics. Our true allegiances and character whether to the culture of Christ or the culture of this world is being revealed by our political positions and economic decisions. Whether you will awake to everlasting life or to shame and everlasting contempt (see Daniel 12:2) will depend on the culture revealed by your political positions and economic decisions. Are you embracing the culture of Christ or the culture of this world? “You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God” (James 4:4).  

Do not be deceived. You cannot have one foot firmly planted in the ways of the world and have the other foot planted in the Kingdom of God. There are no fence riders in the Kingdom. Either you are with God or you are against God; you cannot have it both ways and be secure in your salvation. You are encouraged by the Scriptures to “make your calling and election sure” (see 2 Peter 1:10). Remember my believing brothers and sisters, you can’t defeat a devil you play with. Don’t play with the devil or his money. Bitcoin is the devil’s currency and is being used to finance his evil exploits on the earth. We are called to resist the devil and expose the works of darkness, not to participate or invest our time, talent or treasure in them. I don’t want to debate another “Christian” on this topic, because if you are indeed an authentic follower of Christ, then the fruit of your decisions shaped by the divine wisdom of God which He makes readily available to you should be evident, and there then should be no debate among people given the same mind of Christ. 

God instructed Daniel to “shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end” (Daniel 12:4). Godly wisdom is hidden in the Word of God and revealed only by the Holy Spirit whose job description includes leading you to “all the truth” (see John 16:13). The uncommon knowledge of the Word of God gives us uncommon wisdom unavailable and unintelligible to the world. Even in the midst of this Information Age, the world cannot possibly know what we as followers of Christ and bearers of the Holy Spirit know or have the wisdom that He reveals only to our spirit. When we know better, God gives us the wisdom to do better. If Christ is truly the Lord of your life, He will be the Lord of your financial decisions and political positions, period. You will be informed not by your limp opinions but by the unadulterated truth and unparalleled wisdom of the Word of God. Because you know intimately well that only God’s Perspective Matters...

Be encouraged, enlightened and enriched daily. Visit us online at https://PerspectiveMatters.org/devotional-matters.html