PARKS BROWN

When our oldest child learned to speak he would quizzically look around and ask, ‘Heard that sound?’ He was fascinated by sounds and curious where they came from. Children want to understand what is being said and where a sound comes from. When we learn to identify what we hear, we classify the origin and determine if it is worthy of further attention or a noise to ignore. The sense of hearing is a gift from God.

As we have wandered away from reading books and classical literature, few remember the famous line uttered by Shakespeare’s character, Macbeth. Macbeth summarized life as “It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.” Although these words reflect great despair and nihilism, I wonder if we are a nation who epitomize this quote.

Shakespeare captured this bleak attitude of life in 1600. The same degree of melancholy has been around since creation and prospers today. As leaders, corporations, churches and individuals live by the mantra, ‘It is what it is’, we live in silos and become deaf to hearing what is being said by anyone outside our own echo chamber.

In the book of Matthew, Jesus told his disciples the ability to hear was given by GOD according to our hearts and relationship to the Creator, the God of the Old Testament and His son, Jesus…not an ultra-terrestrial or inter-dimensional being. As we submit to God’s will and way given in the Bible, listen and obey the voice of the Holy Spirit, our sense of hearing and understanding increases. As we wander from Him, our ears hear less, our hearts become unresponsive and our lives are not good and fertile soil.

Before you only hear this as Christianese, unwanted advice or simply words from an old book, evaluate YOUR willingness to listen and understand what is being said in the world today. Do you ignore white evangelical males, black females, Republicans or Democrats simple because of their sex or color and affiliation? Christ said the heart of such a person ‘has grown callous: their ears are hard of hearing and they have shut their eyes; otherwise they might see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their hearts, and turn back-and I would heal them.’

WE need healing. Our nation and world needs healing. Jesus made a simple agrarian analogy. Life is either good soil from which we can grow and prosper..or it is full of rocks and weeds. There is much we hear that can choke out and obfuscate what God says. There is much to worry about at home and abroad. Deceit may come in the form of financial wealth or worries. Lies are spread by people who speak half truths or change positions from one day to the next.

Many have concluded it is best to shut out the conflicting sounds we hear. This may happen with good intentions but the practice may result in becoming deafened to THE truth. James, the brother of Jesus, did not believe in Jesus for 33 years…until he rose from the dead. James did not listen and understand what he heard from the brother who grew up in the same house with him. If James’ ears were deafened by his unbelief, we should all be put on notice.

The end of all things is near. Your job…relationships…life…maybe even what you have thought to be truth. Become like a child again. Reignite your desire to hear what is being said and by whom. Open your ears to the Holy Spirit, be healed and make sure you can say… ‘HEARD THAT SOUND!!’

Wander: To stray, to move without direction.
Astray: Wandering, lost, on the wrong path.

I’ve been trying to finish this blog for almost 3 months but I keep wandering away and never complete it.

Devices plunge us into an ecosystem of interruption technologies that can make our knowledge base a mile wide but only a few inches deep. Studies show the internet and cell phones decrease our attention span and increase our proclivity to wander from a task. I believe there is a deeper reason behind all of our wandering.

Wandering is so ubiquitous it’s become a form of entertainment and national past-time known as scrolling. We’ve wandered from reading books to texts. Letters have been replaced by e-mails. Conversations have given way to voice messaging. We are wandering from the people and nation we were. Politicians, governments, institutions and churches have wandered so far from their original course can they be trusted to lead us back?

Buckle up. The point I want to make is that as a human race, we have wandered so far we border on being astray. To keep from wandering farther and farther, we need to remember how far we’ve come…and where we started.

Let’s begin with…The Bible. The Word and the fear of God was historically the path to knowledge and wisdom. Now, we have Grok and ChatGPT as the sources consulted. At one time everyone believed in intelligent design until some wandered towards evolution. Now, many of those evolutionists are wandering towards aliens as our Creator. The United States Department of War recently declared there have been 4 alien species recovered from crash sites. Grays, Nordics, Insectoids and Reptillians. That’s a far piece from God creating man and woman in His image.

When I was young there was cussing and bad language on the playground but NEVER on TV. Now, the F-bomb and GD litter almost every program. Its not just civil language we have wandered from, we’ve strayed from the value of life. Yes, abortion is the low hanging fruit, but watch a movie or Netflix production and notice the men and women killed as collateral damage in every scene. Try putting a number to the body count of good and bad guys. No more Clint Eastwood gets the ONE raging psycho killer or bad cowboy.

Once heralded as the bastion of amateur athletics, the NCAA now pays student athletes with millions raised by NIL. Academic students lean on artificial intelligence to write their papers. The educational system is turning out graduates who are technologically adept but not educated. Parents send their children to these institutions of higher learning with the encouragement to follow their own truths. When parents wander from teaching their children to know THE truth and there are only two sexes, we can’t be surprised a Supreme Court Justice won’t define what a woman is.

Politicians and parties on both sides of the aisle have wandered from anti-war to pro-war, from protecting free speech to defining hate speech. Gone are the statesmen who used inspiration and words to write the Declaration of Independence or the first Proclamation of Thanksgiving. Statesmen have been replaced by politicians using polls, speech writers and AI for whatever the masses want to hear. The political elite have wandered from statesmanship to whoever has or can raise the most money.

The Bible is replete with accounts of wandering before technology was invented. The first book in the Bible records the story of Cain being under a curse and driven to be a ‘restless wanderer.’ The exodus of the enslaved Jewish people from Egypt was less than a two week journey but lasted 40 years while wandering around the dessert. The Biblical reason why people and nations wander is a lack of faith IN or obedience TO, God. Wandering from the fear of God to apathy of Him doesn’t lead anywhere good.

The Bible teaches, wandering is either allowed or orchestrated by God. The devil’s greatest trick is not to convince people he doesn’t exist, it is to manipulate and control our wandering with the intent of defining or changing our eternal destination. This partially explains why the mark of the beast in Revelation 13 is an economic mark. When you can’t buy or sell unless you have the mark, it’s the ultimate way to manipulate and control. Speaking of which….

Central Bank Digital Currencies are centralized programmable entries. Wandering from physical money allows someone else to control when and where you spend your dollars. This control may be under the guise of ‘monetary policy’ needed to reign in inflation or spur growth. The reason may be controlling what books you can purchase or institutions you can support. Regardless, CBDC’s need enormous amounts of storage for controlling and keeping track of all the data they generate. Do you really think we’re building thousands of more data centers to store your wife’s pictures of the kids and grand-kids??

The two men who grew up in the same house with Jesus spoke to wandering. James said Christians should look out for those who wander. ‘If anyone wanders from the truth and someone brings them back on course, whoever does it will save the person from death AND cover a multitude of sins (James 5:19). Jude called out those who lead others to wander. He said they were the same as fallen angels that were led astray by Lucifer in rebelling and falling from Heaven. The culprit behind wandering is not always a device…or flesh and blood.

If you’re aiming for heaven, it’s dangerous to wander far because the ‘road is narrow and the gate is small.’ Fellowship with like minded Christ followers and a good church body is essential. It is critical to be in a Bible based church that preaches Jesus and not the benefits of AI in finding our way to God.

2026 is just getting started. We are all prone to wander. Tether yourself to the Word so you don’t go astray.

This time of year trees begin to bud and the grass begins to turn green and grow. The difference is noticeable but it’s far from magic. The changes in appearance and substance is solely attributable to the change in soil temperatures.

Nature is a stark reminder growth and change is based on warmer soil temps. The same is true in our lives. If you aren’t changing and growing, odds favor you’re stuck in the winter of your life.

Farmers and fishermen are usually the first to recognize it takes warmer temps for ANYTHING to move around, grow and produce. Life jumps into a higher gear when soil temps rise in plants, animals…and people.

One of the best known parables in the Bible is found in Matthew 13. This parable draws the analogy between our lives and the soil of the earth. Jesus said the fruit derived from the soil in our lives varies depending on the condition of our hearts, our soil temps. Elementary schools teach (or they used to and still should) the heart is responsible for pumping blood to regulate and maintain heat/temps in our bodies. The question is, ‘What’s YOUR soil temp?’

Your soil temp is measured and SEEN by the passion you exhibit for any given person, activity or thing. Do you get jacked up for the Masters golf tournament next month, the start of Major League Baseball, fish starting to bite, college and high school spring football practice? Weigh your intensity for any activity to determine the temperature of your soil and life.

A lot of things can make the soil temp of your life rise and fall. When this happens, the soil you are made of is also revealed. Jesus uses soil quality and temps to reveal your heart and show what you’re made of…and what you serve. The Bible speaks directly to the issues of the day it was written AND the issues in 2026.

Now, I’m going to make it more personal, relevant and pertinent to our lives. Does your soil temp rise when you’re given the chance to share what God HAS done or IS doing in your life? Do 65 million aborted babies get a rise in your blood/soil temp? How about the high school or college you attended teaching your children there are 7 genders in addition to a man and a woman? What about being made to attend DEI training to keep a job and provide for your family? Does the temp of your life’s soil rise at all with these questions?

Take the few examples I used to discover what your soil type and temp is today. Are you apathetic about any of the topics I mentioned. Are you concerned about losing your job or being cancelled? Are you are anxious about discussing such things and think it’s political, not fundamental to your daily life AND eternity. Maybe such things concerned you at one time but not now. The Bible calls this rocky and shallow soil. The soil you are can vary day to day, week to week and year to year. Your soil TEMPERATURE is the key to allowing God to grow and mature whatever soil condition you have right now.

If you claim to be a Christian it is essential to live and love with a high soil temp. When quizzed about the greatest commandment, ‘Jesus replied: “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.”‘ This kind of zeal and passion doesn’t grow in soil that is lukewarm or apathetic about your faith. In the Message translation, more words in red speak directly to the soil temps of our lives. “‘You’re not cold, you’re not hot-far better to be either cold or hot! You’re stale. You’re stagnant. You make me want to vomit.'”

God can use all types of soil to plant His seed but it’s incumbent on each of us to determine the temperature of our soil in order for it to grow. In addition, it’s on us to have friends and a fellowship that will continue to plant the seed so we can hear and understand the message about God. Regretfully, too often the seed gets planted when we are poor soil with low temps and nothing takes root. Maybe we were living one lifestyle when we were young and although that is in the past, we haven’t had the seed planted in us again.

If you care about someone, BE a person who sows the seed in every conversation and each relationship. Speak and act with a high enough soil temp that it warms the ground all around your life. You never know when a friend (or a stranger) has perfect conditions for growth and “‘…the one who received the seed that fell on good soil is the man who hears the word and understands it. He produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.'”

The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to have low soil temps. Low soil temps don’t grow anything. Christ reminded us to be alert and awake for His return. Nothing and no one is alert and awake when the soil temps are low. Nothing grows.

Zeal is defined as intense, passionate, eager devotion in pursuit of an objective. In other words, a high soil temp. God wants us to be zealous for Him. ‘…Hate what is evil: cling to what is good…Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord.’ Romans 12 9-11.

Keep your passion and zeal for the Kingdom high. Maintain a high soil temp in your life

We need more often to be reminded than informed.

“It is not events that disturb people, it is their judgement concerning them.” Marcus Aurelius 175 A.D.

Current events can be disturbing but without correct judgement, what do they teach us? Data requires understanding and interpretation. The headlines are useless unless you have wisdom and discernment to judge them. Some things are systemically broken and need to be reformed before a revolution takes place.

This fact is no more apparent than in the financial markets where the foundations that were, are no more. Financial markets in the United States were founded on the principle of settlement, receiving and owning what you actually purchase. In 2026 this principle no longer exists, it is a thing of the past. In a single day, many stocks trade multiples of the number of shares outstanding, much less the shares in the public float/circulation. Commodities are the canary in the coal mine revealing the foundations of the American free enterprise system have been compromised by the manipulation of price.

Nothing quite affects our judgement like the perceived value of a thing. Price influences perceived value. Therefore, you can control judgement by manipulating the price. Price, and how we judge the underlying value of a particular thing effects our ability to own, use and control said thing. This truth is apparent in how we judge everything from labor to professional services, gold, silver, oil and cryptocurrencies.

The most glaring example is the silver market. Back in the day, commodities were bought and sold with a contract. You could always exercise this proof of ownership and take possession of what the underlying contract represented. For whatever reason (to control and manipulate price, love of money…you be the judge) Wall Street invented a way to buy and sell ‘paper’ promises of ‘future’ ownership.

This ‘promise’ is the ETF you bought for diversification representing a basket of stocks…or the price of silver you see quoted on the AMERICAN exchanges. These ‘promises’ are not guarantees but a mechanism for gambling, greed, control….and fraud. If you don’t agree or understand, compare the price of a silver contract here and anywhere else in the world. The difference you see in America is the discount for gambling as opposed to actual ownership. In other words, for buying a lie that manipulates your judgement.

Two months ago, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics revealed gambling is now the second fastest growing industry measured by GDP growth. We have become a nation willing to buy anything, if we believe there can be a profit. The lies floating around financial markets merely express the degree of control and lack of judgement in the average American investor. The mantra of ‘your’ truth and ‘my’ truth is coming home to roost in your finances and the dollar bill itself.

Here’s where I offend and lose a great deal of any interest you have shown so far. The same control and brokenness in stocks and commodities applies to Bitcoin. The cryptocurrency speculative frenzy will be remembered as another promise that never quite settled but led to the introduction of digital currencies and CBDC’s. This blockchain of events on Wall Street will be remembered as another event similar to the speculative frenzy of the great Tulip Mania in the 17th century (if you don’t know this one, take a minute to look it up). Our addiction to gambling and relative truth has a new face.

Bitcoin was developed by someone or something referred to by a PSEUDONYM (fictitious, not real)…Satoshi. ‘Satoshi’ developed bitcoin, authored the bitcoin white paper, and created and deployed bitcoin’s original reference implementation. As part of the implementation, Satoshi also devised the first blockchain database. If this sounds like a concocted event, a conspiracy theory, or just another promise of secrecy, wealth and riches, well…I’ll let you and history exercise judgement.

Cicero, the Roman statesman who lived before the time of Christ opined… “To be ignorant of what occurred before you were born is to remain always a child. For what is the worth of human life, unless it is woven into the life of our ancestors by the records of history?” Children believe in Santa Claus. Adults believe in relative truth. Some people believe the United States was founded 50 years before history records it in 1776. All kinda the same thing, depending on your judgement.

According to the Southern California Earthquake Data Center there were 321 earthquakes in the San Francisco area in a 7 day period at the end of January. As Marcus Aurelius said, it’s your judgement of these events that makes it disturbing or not. If you didn’t know this or don’t live in San Fran do you judge this to be disturbing?

What disturbs YOU in February 2026? Anything? Everything?

There is only Truth and it is only found in God, the Creator, his record of history in the Bible and in his son, Jesus the Christ. Don’t be disturbed or anxious by the events happening. Be reminded…and be wise, so your judgement is clear. Your finances and future depend on it.

Keeping up. The mere thought of taking time and effort to keep up with things and people can make your blood pressure rise. Keeping up is an art, a skill and a discipline. NOT a reflection of how well you multi-task. Keeping up (family, friends, sports teams, markets, current events) is more of a reflection of your ability to slow down. It is mystical, spiritual and supernatural.

Everyone and everything in the world is changing so rapidly and drastically it requires us to keep up or be left behind. This is why keeping up is not just a good idea, it is essential and a deep rooted spiritual principle taught in the Bible. If you are being led to people, places and things, keeping up is an expression of your faith, Christ’s love for others…and your obedience.

Your favorite sports team may wear the same uniform the last 20 years but the personnel and the game has changed. The friend you haven’t talked to in 20 years, or 20 days, may exhibit some of the characteristics and personality you remember but I can promise you, he or she is NOT the same. From a distance, the pace of change may appear slow but don’t be fooled. Up close, the radical change is impossible to miss…IF you’re keeping up.

The world doesn’t want you to keep up, but God does.

Jesus told us the way to keep with others is to keep up with the Holy Spirit. “‘But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own, he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.'” Listening to the source of ‘all truth’ and learning ‘what is yet to come’ directs us to who and where to keep up.

Christians profess to believe the Bible and it’s teaching that we are spiritual beings living a temporary physical life on earth. While describing the differences between life in the flesh and the spirit, the book of Galatians reminds us. ‘Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit.’ Galatians 5:25. In other words, keep up with the Spirit.

Do you consider the Holy Spirit someone to keep up with?

The decline in church attendance reveals a lack of teaching on many aspects of the faith. The most glaring deficiency of teaching in the modern church involves the spiritual and supernatural aspects of our faith. The result is a weak understanding of and relationship with the Holy Spirit. Many Christians don’t KNOW the Holy Spirit therefore they don’t keep up with Him. Being saved for eternity is one thing. Living daily by the Spirit to be an active part of the Kingdom on earth requires the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

For a quick refresher, read John 15 and 16 to be reminded of who and what the Holy Spirit actually is and does. Our God is physical and spiritual. He was here at creation, came again in the form of the man Jesus and remains here as the Holy Spirit. The same person not restricted by space and time has had boots on the ground since the get go. He is dynamic and the one actively changing this world.

The Bible teaches a beginning and an end to what God is doing in creation. There’s a lot changing that we need to keep up with. The book of Isaiah puts it bluntly. “‘Forget the former things: do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.'” If we don’t keep up with what God is doing in people’s lives, odds highly favor we will not perceive the new things He is doing.

What does keeping up with the Holy Spirit look like in everyday life?

One Christ follower said he didn’t have it all figured out yet, “But ONE thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining towards what is ahead…’ Practically speaking, don’t live in the past but keep up with what the Creator is doing and has in store for you.

HOW do we do this? Prayer.

Prayer reduces the amount of time and effort it takes to keep up in life. Ask God to reveal who and what He wants you to keep up with. Keeping up with all the changes in people’s lives and the world doesn’t require more from you but it does require a helper telling you where to make the effort. If we keep up with the Holy Spirit by talking to and listening to Him the same as we breathe and eat, HE will guide and direct us.

If we want the advice of where to keep up, James reminds us to just ask. ‘But when you ask, you must believe and not doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. That person should not expect to receive anything form the Lord. Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.’ James 1:6-7.

In practicality, when you ask God to tell you who and what to keep up with the risk does go up. If you doubt when He tells you…to call the person you haven’t spoken to in 6 months, the sibling you always argue with or that person you’d rather not engage with ever again; be careful. Don’t ignore what you hear. Don’t ask yourself, ‘WHY is the Holy Spirit telling me to do this??’ Instead, ask yourself, ‘If I’m not obedient this time how I am damaging my faith and relationship with God?’

Don’t be afraid of reaching out and keeping up with people and their lives. If you are directed by the Spirit I promise it won’t be a burden. Keeping up as God leads will free you and them. The Bible promises this freedom. ‘Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.’ 2 Corinthians 3:17. No guilt, regret or condemnation. You will find freedom!! And then…God knows He can trust you with greater things.

Don’t be content with the past. Be an active participant in life and the lives of others. KEEP UP!