Conspiracy theories abound in this world.

Even sitcoms have their own conspiracy theories:

Some of these conspiracy theories border on the absurd and I’m astonished that anyone believes them. I do, however, know of one that is deeply woven into our culture, is 100% true, and no one of the world wants to believe it.

You see, the truth is that there is an enemy that is doing everything he can to keep you believing the lie.

There is also a collection of writings that details this conspiracy. These writings are freely available to the world, but few read it — passing it off as the ramblings of a madman or two, or letting someone else tell them what it says.

By now I’m sure you know what I’m talking about. It’s a somewhat silly concept, but if you think about it, it’s a fairly accurate portrayal of our current situation.

Satan’s sole desire is to do anything he can to lead you astray. If keeping you from believing in God isn’t working, he’ll convince you that merely belief, good works, a good feeling, or any religion is all you need. There are a thousand lies and half truths that he tells to make certain we do not follow God.

However, as I mentioned before, we have a collection of documents that shows us the Truth. (John 14:6) It was inspired (breathed to us) by the Divine Creator (2 Timothy 3:16) to men of faith who wrote in the form of letters and historical accounts. These documents were collected over time and formed into what we now know of as the Bible.

The Bible took over 2000 years and 40 different men to write, and yet contains no discrepancies that can’t be easily explained. (For more information, see Apologetics Press Alleged Discrepancies.) It truly is an amazing product of God’s providence and ability to work among men with or without miraculous intervention.

The world of conspiracy has a few constants. No matter which conspiracy you’re looking at, you’ll find you have the same roles filled:

• The Mastermind – usually the one who has the most to lose and/or started the conspiracy, knows the truth, and will at all costs hide it from everyone else.
• The Pawn – Follows The Mastermind either by trickery or choice, may or may not know the Mastermind’s true identity.
• The Loose Cannon – Someone that knows some or all of the truth, and is attempting to share it with the world at some difficulty, often provided by The Mastermind.
• The Cigarette Smoking Man – Knows the truth, has a big picture view of it, and an in depth knowledge of The Mastermind. Has revealed themselves and chosen to help The Loose Cannon.

I’m sure you can draw the parallels yourself.

What I’d like for us to watch out for is becoming an unwitting Pawn. The Bible warns time after time of false teachers. Wolves wearing sheep’s skin. The scary part is that unless we test the teachings of others against the Scriptures, we can end up working for the very people we thought we were fighting against.

That’s right, we are in a fight. Despite what TV and movies want you to believe, the fight is not for control of the world, God has already won that fight. Instead it’s more insidious, this fight determines the destination of our souls. You’re fighting a Mastermind determined to steal you from God, half-truths, and cover-ups and it will all ultimately lead to peace or destruction.

The Truth is out there Mulder.

Are you determined enough to find it?

We spent yesterday traveling back from my parents with two sick little ones. What was supposed to be a 3 hour trip ended up taking about 5 hours due to stops for crying, wet diapers, and vomiting children. By the time we got home, I was so exhausted that I figured I would re-post something I wrote for the website I made for my wife. Unfortunately I couldn’t find the original database. I faintly remember deleting a bunch of “old files” from my web server and realized that one of those files was the database I was seeking.

I just now found (and backed up) a copy of the database buried in a folder on another website.

Finally, here is the post “His Story…” I wrote almost six years ago. Here’s my story of how I met my children’s mother (and no, it won’t take 9 or so years to read through):

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While I could start when Christina first messaged me on the church of Christ singles website, I believe my story begins quite a few months before — almost a year or more before.

It started really when my dad was attending the Freed-Hardeman Lectureships. He came across a young lady that he thought would be a nice match for me. He described her to me and informed me that she was from Canada and traveled quite a bit. I asked him to give her my number if she was interested and promptly forgot (for the most part) about the whole thing.

Meanwhile, another friend of mine was seeking different opportunities to meet new people and had come across the church of Christ singles website. She could get a free month for referring someone else, so begged me to sign up and create a profile. Being the Nice Guy that I am, I signed up for it and posted a quick profile with a picture, and again, promptly forgot about the whole ordeal.

Months later, in a random fit of boredom, I logged onto the site and started looking at the potentials listed there. I came across a profile of a pretty young lady whose location showed “Alabama Canada.” This immediately set off several questions: “Is there really an Alabama Canada?” My geography skills are poor, and google had no information on this, if that was the case, question # 2 “Could this possibly be the young lady my dad had been talking to at Freed?” Information in her profile certainly leaned that way.

I had to make a decision. I could either ignore the possibility, or pay up and ask the question.

My curiosity won out. Thirty dollars later I was sending a quick note across the internet. A few days later I received a response. No, there is no Alabama, Canada. She put both as her location because she lives between the two places, and yes, she was the young lady that my dad had spoken with. And no, she wasn’t interested, thank you very much.

I’d paid the price for my curiosity, and now I had a year’s subscription to churchofchristsingles.com. As is my nature, I want to get the full benefit of my thirty dollars, so over the next few months I kept my profile up to date. This included an update that I had attended a renaissance faire in Texas.

Not too long after that, I received a note from Christina asking me which Ren-faire I had attended. She then told me that she was going on an 11 hour trip out of town. I waited in agony and curiosity for her to return and reply to my response, but once she did, it began a wonderful flurry of emails, IMs, and phone calls.

It was well worth the wait.

Two months later after hurricane Ivan ripped the roof from where I was employed, Christina drove the 20 hours and visited me in my time of need. That was it. I was smitten. Well, I already was smitten, but this set it in stone. Not just confirmed, but reinforced the bond that was already well formed.

At the end of October of that year, Christina moved away from her family and friends in Minnesota and moved in with some friends of mine. Marriage was the topic on our minds, in our hearts, and pouring from our lips.

I proposed on Christmas Eve while driving through the Cinderella Christmas light display at the Botanical Gardens in Huntsville, Alabama. We were wed on July 9th, 2005 at noon in the Grandview Pines church of Christ building.

It’s been two wonderful years so far, and I pray to God for many more. But every minute I get is a blessing from God. A little sappy I know, but I get like this around my anniversary.

Growing up we are told that we should use our talents when thinking of gifts. As such, this website is part of my gift to Christina for our second anniversary. My intention is to have a place where our friends and family can come and get an update on us, view some photos, and read our stories.

Enjoy.

-Trey
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I’ll be posting her side of the story at some point.