Steven Garofalo
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THE SECRET OF LIFE: GOD’S WORDS OF WISDOM
By Steven Garofalo, October 21, 2024 (Copyright 2024)
October 21, 2024

What is the secret of life? The longer you live, the more you will ask that question. A good start place in answering that question is through God’s Word which tells us through King Solomon: "that the words of the wise are like goads"-meaning they are designed to annoy the reader.

Today, I am going to show you through Solomon WHY God’s wisdom was given to ANNOY us. King Solomon writes, “The words of the wise are like goads, and like nails firmly fixed are the collected sayings they are given by one Shepherd” (Ecclesiastes 12:11).

WHAT IS SOLOMON SAYING AND WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT?
Solomon uses words such as “GOADS” to PROD us and “NAILS” to ANCHOR us. “DRIVEN NAILS” means, the nails, or pegs referred to in 2nd Chronicles: These would have been pegs or hooks in tents where family members hung the cloths and pots needed for everyday living life. Here, Solomon uses this analogy of “mental hooks giving stability and perspective to life itself".

The bottom line is that Solomon wrote this as inspired by God, for the simple reason that He expects His Word to STIMULATE some form of action or reaction through our reading  the Bible. Let’s get started. This is not from man but from God.

THIS IS OF GOD AND NOT MAN 

Fast forwarding, Solomon closes by giving credit and authority to the “ONE SHEPHERD.” This makes clear to the reader that the these words, the teaching of Solomon, are God given. Solomon states outright that the source of his ideas here and through the entire Book of Ecclesiastes are from God, the one true Shepherd of Israel (Psalm 80:1).

SO WHAT DOES THAT MEAN FOR US TODAY IN OUR MODERN AGE?

It means that God is nudging us, meaning you and I TODAY are to put ACTION into our FAITH. We used to call this putting legs to our words.

Just as an ox goad prods an animal (meaning to nudge gently or poke or jab or more aggressively) in the RIGHT DIRECTION, so will the WORDS written in the Book of Ecclesiastes when they are properly understood and applied to our lives. I find it fascinating that Solomon jumps to warn the reader about reading too much non-biblical literature. While it may seem out of place to the reader, it fits perfectly into what Solomon is saying, as God prods and nudges us through His Word, not secular literature.

WISDOM WARNS OF EXCESSIVE CONSUMPTION OF SECULAR LITERATURE

Now, I find this one very interesting. Ecclesiastes 12:12 says, “My son, beware of anything beyond these (WORDS). Of making many books there is no end and much study is an earnings of the flesh”.

In other words, many other BOOKS (and I would submit YouTube) may “weary” their readers. Careful study of Ecclesiastes will have the opposite effect of secular literature, as it instructs, warns and admonishes its readers. Secular literature tells affirms to make us feel good according to worldly values while God’s Word properly leads us to a better life according to God’s leading. In other words, God makes it deep, simple, good, true and eternal, while we make our knowledge expansive, shallow and temporal.

GAINING PERSPECTIVE
Solomon is writing Ecclesiastes at the end of his life which gives us a whole new perspective. He didn’t write it as a young, inexperienced man, but at the tail end of his life, before going to be with the Lord. This means that he had lived out his life, experienced most everything wealth and power can offer, and gave a God inspired lesson to us as God inspired him to write Ecclesiastes.

TAKING GOD SERIOUSLY AND HAVING A HEALTHY FEAR OF GOD

Solomon makes clear at the end of the entire Book of Ecclesiastes that the end game of God’s Word and wisdom is taking God seriously. Verse 13 says this.

“The END of the matter ALL HAS BEEN HEARD, “FEAR GOD AND KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS, for this is the WHOLE DUTY OF MAN” (Ecclesiastes 12:13).

To “FEAR GOD” is one of the main themes of the book of Ecclesiastes, wisdom literature in whole, and throughout the entire Old Testament. 

To FEAR GOD is to RESPOND to Him in AWE, REVERENCE, and WONDER, to SERVE Him in purity of action, and to SHUN EVIL. This includes shunning the worship of anything else in His created universe. 

The command to “FEAR GOD” goes hand in hand with the command to KEEP HIS COMMANDMENTS. This indicates that true “REVERENCE” toward and of God is to be manifested through obedience to Him. In today’s rebellious society, this command is at the center of most all the sin and evil we see and experience in our lives. It is our DUTY.

SOLOMON WRITES: “THIS IS THE WHOLE DUTY OF MAN,” literally meaning that this is the whole of man "i.e. for this is what man is all about." We as men and women should be all about this command. It’s not something we apply but who we literally are and how we are to think at our core. by “Core”, I mean our MIND, HEART, STRENGTH and SOUL (Luke 10:27; Matthew 22:37; Mark 12:30-31). In other words, “Our ALL”. As we close out today’s entry, I would like to zoom in on Solomon’s LAST words. WHY? Because these are God’s last words through Ecclesiastes in the last chapter of the Book, through Solomon in the last chapter of his life. In the Bible, God will more often emphasize His point at the end of His inspired word. Let’s take a look.

SOLOMON’S LAST WORDS TO US IN ECCLESIASTES 

Solomon ends this passage and the entire Book of Ecclesiastes making very clear that with all God has blessed us with, we are to enjoy all of it-but within the context of God’s COMMANDMENTS. As such we must enjoy all God has blessed us with with an UNDERSTANDING that we will be held accountable to the mission calling God has given each of us. In other words, we will be held ACCOUNTABLE as to how we used what God has given us: Both material wealth, our time, personal and spiritual gifts, and the opportunities God provided or allowed to use all these things. Verse 14 says: 

“FOR GOD WILL BRING EVERY DEED INTO JUDGEMENT, WITH EVERY SECRET THING WHETHER GOOD OR EVIL” (v.14).

This idea of accountability and judgement is the same teaching echoed by the apostle Paul in 2 COR. 5:10 in that death is not the end. All of life will be reviewed by our righteous Lord (3:17). For us, the bottom line is that life must be lived through faith with the virtues of the eternal God.

With that in mind, God has not told man how to comprehend all the frustrating futilities of life, but He has instructed man to enjoy life as His gift (2:24). As such, we are to make the most of every opportunity God leads us to (9:10), and to live life with a real REVERENCE toward Him (God) (12:13). 

IN CLOSING
We are made WHOLE and COMPLETE ONLY when we fear God and obey His commandments. What profit otherwise is there in living? If we follow what this book has said, we will have an authentic relationship with God and find life in and through Him. I find it fascinating that Solomon learned to live with life’s paradoxes by MAINTAINING A PROPER ATTITUDE TOWARD LIFE AND GOD. My personal take away is: So should we (starting with me). And this is the secret of life.

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1) God IS Light. “5 This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all” (John 1:5).

2) God Created Physical Light and called It GOOD. WHY? Because the light we see reflects God’s Goodness, Love, Warmth, and Provision. Hos essence.

“3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 And God saw that the light was good. And God separated the light from the darkness.” (Genesis 1:3-4)

Welcome to the start of a short new week. God is reflecting His Light upon you this fresh new morning as His mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:22-23). And great is His faithfulness! I pray these beautiful words of God encourage you today!-Steven

UPCOMNG ADDITIONAL AUDIO COMING TO THE COMMINITY!

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Not Serpents of Skin, but From The Falsehood Of Sin: Uncoiling The Ending of Mark’s Gospel
By Del Potter, M.A.A. (Copyright 2025)

Not Serpents of Skin, but From The Falsehood Of Sin: Uncoiling The Ending of Mark’s Gospel

By Del Potter, M.A.A. August 27, 2025

Opening Remarks

From the outset, this article is NOT contending whether or not the ending of Mark 16 should be included. Although, it is in my humble opinion that some of the strange language in the ending of Mark actually affirms the truthfulness of the events inserted into the ending of Mark. There are several striking words in Mark's longer ending (Mark 16:17–18):

“These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up serpents with their hands; and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them...”

As a first impression, the imagery suggests a miraculous ability to resist snakes and poison. It is nevertheless important to note that serpents and poison consistently function within Jewish, Biblical, and early Christian thought as symbols of false teaching and spiritual corruption, not simply physical danger.


Serpents in Scripture: Symbols of Deception

From the beginning of Genesis through Revelation, the serpent is never merely zoological—it is the archetype of deceit. In Genesis 3, the serpent slithers into the Garden not to bite with fangs, but to inject Eve with poisonous doubt about God’s word. Later Jewish wisdom literature follows this thread:

  • Ecclesiasticus (Sirach) 21:2: “Flee from sin as from the face of a serpent: for if thou comest too near it, it will bite thee.”
  • Psalm 140:3: “They make their tongue sharp as a serpent’s, and under their lips is the venom of vipers.”

This same imagery flows into the New Testament:

  • Matthew 23:33: Jesus calls the Pharisees a “brood of vipers,” not because of biology, but because of false teaching.
  • 2 Corinthians 11:3: Paul warns that, just as the serpent deceived Eve, so false teachers corrupt the simplicity of Christ.
  • Revelation 12:9: John describes Satan as a serpent “And the great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.”

Therefore, when Mark refers to "serpents" and "deadly poison," his Jewish-Christian readers would have recognized the metaphor: heresy slithering into the church among the people with its false doctrine poisoning the entire church (2 Peter 2:1).


The Poison Of Heresy: A Dangerous Drink

The early Church frequently described heretical teaching as venom or poison. Ignatius of Antioch warned the Trallians:

“I therefore, yet not I, but the love of Jesus Christ, entreat you that ye use Christian nourishment only, and abstain from herbage of a different kind; I mean heresy. For those [that are given to this] mix up Jesus Christ with their own poison, speaking things which are unworthy of credit, like those who administer a deadly drug in sweet wine, which he who is ignorant of does greedily take, with a fatal pleasure leading to his own death.” (Letter to the Trallians 107 A.D.).

This language reflects the very pattern of Mark 16—poisonous teaching disguised as nourishment. The faithful, however, are promised preservation: “it will not harm them.” The believer, rooted in Christ, can discern and resist corruption.

No early Christian expressed this more vividly than Tertullian of Carthage (c. 200 AD). In his treatise Scorpiace, he likens heresy to venomous creatures:

  • Heresy “creeps into the church like a scorpion,” injecting spiritual poison.
  • The faithful must resist with the antidote of Scripture, wielded like the staff of Moses against the serpents of Egypt.

Tertullian believed that the danger was not from reptiles in the marketplace, but rather from false teachers within the church. Similarly, heresy pierces the souls of believers in a quiet and lethal manner, just as the scorpion stings unseen. As a result, he viewed Christ's promise in Mark not as a test of reckless physical stunts, but as a promise that the faithful will not suffer from the venom of falsehood if armed with the truth. As Paul rightly reminds his audience:

 "Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil (i.e. snakes & poisons)." - Ephesians 6:11


Mark’s Ending and the beginning of the Early Church

NT writers wrote within a culture steeped in metaphor. The early church never staged snake-handling rituals to “prove” faith. Instead, they testified by enduring persecution, refuting heresy, and preserving sound doctrine.

The apologetic force of Mark 16 is not spectacle—it is survival. The church would face vipers in pulpits, scorpions in councils, and poison in doctrine. Yet Christ promises: “These things will not harm you.”

Just as in the first century, serpents and scorpions creep into the church today—not in the form of reptiles, but in the form of false witnesses, compromised truth, and distorted gospels. The call of Mark 16 is not to chase miracles, but to guard against lies.

In a world full of theological poison, the believer’s protection is not daredevil faith, but faithful discernment: Scripture, the Spirit, and the witness of the saints.

“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will also be false teachers [i.e. snakes] among you, who will secretly introduce destructive [i.e. poison] heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing swift destruction upon themselves.” - 2 Peter 2:1


Closing Remarks

The ending of Mark’s Gospel, far from a literal dare, is a prophetic warning and promise:

  • Serpents = false teachers.
  • Poison = heretical doctrines.
  • The promise = Christ’s people, if grounded in truth, will not be overcome.

Tertullian’s scorpions, Ignatius’ poison, Paul’s vipers, and Jesus’ own words unite: the greatest danger to the church is not fangs and venom in the field, but lies and venom in the pulpit.

In Christ, the Church endures—immune not to biology, but to blasphemy.

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MAN'S PROBLEM-"HIDDENESS"
By Del Potter, M.A.A., August 16, 2025

The Problem Is With Man's Hiddenness Toward God, Not Vice-Versa

Why Doesn’t God Make His Existence Unmistakably Clear to Everyone?

One of the most common objections to faith is: “If God is real, why doesn’t He just show Himself beyond all doubt?” Skeptics ask why God doesn’t write His name in the sky or make His presence undeniable. But Scripture, reason, and the earliest witnesses of the Church tell us a different story: God has already made Himself known, yet it is humanity that hides.

God’s Self-Revelation in Creation

Scripture consistently teaches that God’s fingerprints are everywhere. The Apostle Paul writes:

“For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—His eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” (Romans 1:20)

Psalm 19:1 echoes this truth: “The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.”

Job reminds us that creation itself—beasts, birds, earth, and sea—all testify to the Creator:

“But ask the beasts, and they will teach you; the birds of the heavens, and they will tell you; or the bushes of the earth, and they will teach you; and the fish of the sea will declare to you. Who among all these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In His hand is the life of every living thing and the breath of all mankind.” (Job 12:7–10)

God’s existence, then, is not hidden. It is written into the very structure of reality. As St. Athanasius later argued, creation itself acts as a universal witness, speaking of God’s power to every culture and language without need for words.

Why Does God Seem Hidden?

The real issue is not divine silence but human resistance. Moses records God saying:

“I will surely hide My face in that day, because of all the evil which they shall have wrought, in that they are turned unto other gods.” (Deuteronomy 31:18)

This is not a statement about God being unknowable but about mankind turning its back to Him. God’s “hiddenness” is a moral and relational reality, not an intellectual one. As Isaiah wrote:

“Your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God.” (Isa. 59:2)

Early Christians echoed this. Justin Martyr argued that those who live according to reason (logos) recognize the true God through creation and conscience. Clement of Alexandria explained that ignorance of God is not due to His absence, but due to the blindness of the soul enslaved to passions.

The Attributes of God are Revealed According To His Nature.

If God were to force belief by overwhelming proof, He would violate the very nature of faith and love. Love cannot be compelled; it requires freedom. Blaise Pascal later captured this well: “There is enough light for those who desire to see, and enough darkness for those who do not.”

The early Church understood that God provides evidence sufficient for faith, but not coercion. Origen taught that God “gives signs to those who are willing to see, but hides from those who shut their eyes.” This allows space for genuine seeking, humility, and love—rather than forced acknowledgment.

God Is Not Hidden—We Are

When people ask, “Why doesn’t God make Himself clear?” the biblical answer is: He already has. The problem is not with God’s silence but with our ears. The witness of creation, conscience, Scripture, and Christ Himself leaves us without excuse.

It is not God who hides, but man who hides from God—just as Adam and Eve once hid in the Garden. And yet, even then, God sought them, calling out: “Where are you?” (Gen. 3:9).

The same God still calls today through the beauty of creation, the testimony of Scripture, and the living Christ. The question is not whether God is clear enough but whether we are willing to see Him more clearly!

"For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known." - 1 Corinthians 13:12

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INFALLIBILITY IS GREATER THAN INERRANCY
By Del Potter M.A.A.
 
God's truth (Infallibility) is greater than man's inability to write down or transmit His word (Inerrancy) perfectly. God's truth remains true regardless if man regards or disregards it to be true.
 
Allow me to explain more in-depth. Inerrancy, is defined as the belief that Scripture contains no errors in its original manuscripts, so obviously inerrancy struggles with textual variants like John 8:1–11. The story is missing from the oldest Greek manuscripts (e.g., Codex Sinaiticus, Vaticanus) and its stylistic differences raise red flags for many textual critics. But if our faith rests solely on inerrant transmission, what happens when that transmission wavers? Are such passages now less inspired? We are warned from scripture itself that errant transmission could and can occur. God through Moses warns the Israelites that "You shall not add to the word which I am commanding you, nor take away from it, so that you may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I am commanding you" (Deuteronomy 4:2).
 
Jesus seems to place an exclamation point on this line of thinking and says “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments" (John 14:15) clarifying further that if you love God you will not tamper with His word. God places a capstone on this discussion by warning His readers at the close of Revelation "and if anyone takes away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God will take away his part from the tree of life and from the holy city, which are written in this book" (22:19). My point? We are warned through scripture itself there is and would be a problem with those that would add or even take away from God's infallible word thus making it errant and not inerrant. This is where the strength of infallibility steps in.
 
Infallible simply means “incapable of error.” The difference is God is incapable of error and is against His nature to error. "As for God, his way is perfect; the word of the Lord is flawless" (Psalm 18:30:). Inerrancy is like a flawless earthly mirror. Crack it, and it’s compromised. However, Infallibility is like the sun: Even if seen through a foggy lens, it still gives light and heat because its origin is not of the earth.
 
Psalm 119:89 reminds us that truth originates not in human manuscripts, but in the eternal counsel of God. Combined with John 21:25 - "Jesus did many other things... if all of them had been written down, the world itself would be unable to contain the volumes" We are confronted with a key theological insight: not all truth has been written, but all truth is known. In Scripture, it is clarified that omission from man's history does not imply absence from God's history. So, even when the earthly record is incomplete, the heavenly record has been completed.
 
Again, it is true that manuscripts such as Codex Sinaiticus omit stories like the Pericope Adulterae (John 7:53–8:11), leading some to question its authenticity. Yet, early Christians like Didymus the Blind (pre-Nicene era) affirmed the passage’s existence in "certain Gospels." Augustine later wrote that some scribes intentionally excluded the story out of fear it could be misused to justify sin using the story of the Pericope Adulterae.
 
“Certain persons of little faith... removed from their manuscripts the Lord's act of forgiveness toward the adulteress.” (Augustine 'De Adulterinis Coniugiis' - 419 A.D.)
 
This demonstrates that the story may have been removed due to fear, politics, or human discretion, but not by divine silence. In light of Psalm 119:89, we must remember that God's word is "SETTLED" [Greek: Natsab = stationed/established] in heaven before it’s written on earth.
 
This challenges an empirical view of truth. If divine revelation is only accepted when it aligns with surviving manuscripts, the church’s oral tradition, apostolic memory, and lived theology are undermined. The early church did not rely solely on manuscripts, but on witnesses, oral, and Spirit-led preservation. As Tertullian wrote in the 2nd century:
 
“We do not need curiosity after Christ Jesus, nor inquiry after the gospel. When we believe, we desire to believe nothing more. For this we believe, that there is nothing else which we ought to believe.” - Prescription Against Heretics, Ch. 7–8.
 
Scripture acknowledges its own incompleteness—yet affirms the completeness of God's eternal counsel.
 
The failure to accept any truth that has not been recorded in early papyri amounts to ignoring the 'heavenly library' where truth is established. There is a consensus among Scripture, tradition, and theology that the absence of paper does not imply the absence of preservation. Despite the fact that earth has not penned it, that does not mean heaven has not done so. As Christians, we believe that the eternal Word, who is Jesus Christ, the Logos (John 1:1-14), has embodied and preserved all truth, some written, some spoken, and some remembered in the heart of the Church. The Word of God cannot fail - even if manuscripts do. That is the beauty and greatness of infallibility over inerrancy.
 
"And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written." (John 21:25).
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