FEBRUARY 2007   In this issue... Religion: A Dangerous Freedom Previous Newsletters    (Archives)  Website Home Page  (Trailheads) * Contact  Hiking the Trail of Truth,  PO Box 1443, Crestline, CA, 92325-1443 Mark's Trail Phone # 707-477-2460, or e-mail   hikemark@hotmail.com Page 2 From The Editor... Hello, and Welcome to the February 2007 Newsletter!  We here at Hiking the Trail of Truth sincerely hope this day you have allowed the Spirit of God to be active within your heart, and that you are perhaps able to get out for a hike and consider many of the wonders He has made. We are uniquely drawn to these wonders because we were formed from the very dust of the earth, and, because of that relationship, we have the ability to develop the understanding that will allow us to discover our unique balance with nature. Come along with us this year on a great adventure of learning... Knowing God is first seeing Him through the things He has made. Hiking the Trail of Truth is here to help you along in your journey of discovery and sharing. If you have been or are presently unable to get out this season for a physical hike, just visit our website's feature trail for this month; The High Sierra. Your mental trek there can take you where you may be unable to journey physically. The eye-opening education, inspiration and lasting encouragement which you can find along the High Sierra Trail will be well worth your time... Just click on the High Sierra Trail link on the bottom of this newsletter, or click on that trailmarker on the left side of the website's Home page, or you can locate the marker on the website's Hiking Maps and Trailheads page as well.— We sincerely hope that you will hike all of our devotional and educational trails at the website this year. Again, we are here to help you in any way we can and, as always, look forward to hearing from you. Hiking the Trail of Truth is currently the most truthfully informative Christian site on the web. Please, be our guest; explore and discover! WEBSITE NEWS: Our latest trail addition to the website is the Discovery Trail.  Along this trail, you can immediately add to your knowledge of truth through some most profound discoveries... The Discovery Trail is an eye-opening place for you to begin the adventure of exploring Hiking the Trail of Truth, a most informative and unique website. The most important way to begin your day is with a short reading from the Bible. Today is indeed a good time to begin that resolve. For this purpose, the Mountain and Valley Trail was built. There you will find daily Bible readings for the entire year, with accompanying photos, created especially for you. To locate this picture/Scripture calendar, simply click on the Mountain and Valley Trail. You will find a compass there that will lead you to the calendar of months, and you can then choose a month to begin your day-by-day readings. Your daily journey through life is sure to begin in the right direction!  After all, we live only one day at a time, right?— Why don't you then take opportunity this year and begin a one-year hike along the Mountain and Valley Trail. You will not be disappointed, in fact, your journey will be full of enlightening, life-changing insights! Don't forget that HTTOT offers FREE COUNSELING to anyone who wants it (Lord knows we all need it). Your varied questions are also important, and are given the utmost consideration in answering them. For you to be aware of the truth, in a world where falsehood abounds, is very important to us. Your spiritual struggles are of our utmost concern—we can help!  So just write, e-mail, or phone any time. Contact information is listed at the bottom of the cover page of this Newsletter, or you can visit Questions and Answers Trail Camp at the website, where a ''submit a question" link is provided... February Letter From the Editor:   Religion: A Dangerous Freedom Truly there is only One God. The Scriptures teach us that nature itself reveals Him, and that the only way to approach Him is through His Son, Jesus Christ. This is a universal truth, not a religion. The term freedom of religion is an affront to this teaching. Freedoms that allow people to believe anything but the truth are indeed dangerous freedoms. False religions have caused turmoil in the world since the beginning of the world. False religions have produced the present day turmoil in the middle east, and continue to divide peoples of our country, the United States. Toleration of any world religion is not freedom, it is ignorance. Religions separate the peoples of the world and keep them in the dark. Only the light of truth can bring people together, out of the darkness, and give them hope. Freedom of religion is a deceitful term which allows people to believe and practice anything they so desire. In truth, we should all be of one mind. We should all worship God in spirit 24 hours a day. Early native Americans woke up each morning to greet the creation. They honored animals, birds, rocks and trees. They considered the Creator in all of their daily routines and activities. This is the purpose for mankind and always has been. Beliefs which teach anything else are false and destructive. All of the religious practices of Jesus' time were for the most part far from the truth. Even those who worshipped His Father for the most part worshipped Him in ignorance of the truth that surrounds Him. Why do religious people today think their ideas and practices are any different from their forefathers?  Ignorance of and failure to practice the truth are the root cause of all the world's problems to this day. 2000 years ago this same ignorance put to death the Savior of the world. It continues today to put Him to death in the minds of the majority of the earth's peoples. So called freedom of religion has been and will continue to be their undoing. We in this country boast about our freedoms, religion being the main freedom. Unfortunately this freedom allows people of various faiths which are not in accordance with truth to permeate our society. With so much impurity it does not take long to corrupt that which is pure. Christianity is the only truly pure faith on the earth, as God ordained it to be. Therefore, anything that disagrees with it is false. The Bible teaches us to avoid the impurities; to separate ourselves from impure people who advocate teachings that are foreign to the truth which God has so clearly revealed. Unfortunately we do not do this in our country and we have suffered and continue to suffer the consequences. The amount of people who do not know the truth grows every day. Teachers of truth are becoming hard to find. When we do find them, we usually reject them because they are not like other folks... They are not like other folks because they have a knowledge that far surpasses what we commonly call knowledge. They are strangers to us for the most part because they are alone in their thinking and do not waiver from it. Their senses and sensitivities are much different than ours. They also believe in every word of the One, true God, and so, our love of the world and what it has taught us through the ages and continues to teach us causes us to be skeptical of them. The teachings of modern education are not on their lips; they hold to the foundations established by the One, true teacher; God Himself. Teachers of truth do indeed feel like strangers among us. Can you blame them?  Note: We may also claim to want to be true believers in God and teachers of His truth, but we don't really want to accept the odd-ball status that it would give us, nor do we want to change our thinking in accordance with God's will... It just might disrupt our "freedom". Page 3 Encouraging Gods' Children Here is this months' list of those who need encouragement through your prayers and letters. I hope you will take the time to encourage them... Some of their problems are personal and we will respect their privacy; leaving it up to those individuals to share at their discretion. Please pray for them and write to them (I can provide addresses for you. Please call, E-mail or write to me for that information). Encouragement is a noble thing and a profound way to honor God through lifting up His children... Please inform me if you would like to add anyone to our prayer list. Also, please check Newsletter Archives for folks and their situations previously on the prayer list. Let us this month encourage and pray for... Update 1/15/07 on Baby Max Hogan:  Mark, below is the email I got from my friend. It is her grandson that was born with Downs syndrome and now has this infantile spasms. He sure needs our prayers. You mentioned him in the April/May Newsletter, 2006. Thank you, Mark. I know the site will get him more prayers than they could ever hope for. Sarah and Jason Hogan are Max parents. He was in your April/May letter last year when they found out about the Downs Syndrome.  Love, Cheryl... Hi Cheryl, I just wanted to give you an update on Max. He has developed a seizure disorder called, infantile spasms. It is a rare and very aggressive form of epilepsy, and it can cause lots of neurological damage. It was just diagnosed last week... Sarah and Jason spent last week at Evanston Hospital with him. The good news is that there is good chance of arresting or even curing it with an aggressive form of drugs. So, for the next 6 wk's he is on ACTH and a separate seizure medicine. The side effects are pretty scary, his immune system will be very comprised and also issues with blood pressure. Sarah gives him his shot every day and a visiting nurse comes to check him and he goes to the neurologist every week and has an EEG. We are very hopeful that this drug regime will do the trick. So keep the little guy in your prayers. We want his smiles to come back... Mary Lynn Herschel Taylor of Wrightwood CA... Hersch has been fighting cancer for over seven years now. His body is deteriorating and not allowing him the strength to continue this brave fight. Time is running out for him as his liver is shutting down. Please pray for him and his wife, Kim, who cares for him faithfully, and has to sit by and watch him fade away from this life. In spite of God's unwavering promises, this is an extremely difficult task.  Please, your prayers will indeed help... Update, January 10th...Herschel passed away this night, peacefully. Please continue to pray for his family. Please remember all of the homeless and the poor of the world during this special time of year. Try to locate a homeless person and help them in any way that you can, encouraging the spirit of Christmas... Continue to pray for all of those in need of daily bread, and please pray earnestly for all the people of the world in which we live, in every country, that men and women will desire to find wisdom, that they will turn and seek God's face in this world full of spiritual blindness, rebellion and increasing depravity. The Lord's coming will not be delayed much longer. Endeavor to encourage others to seek Him, in truth, while there is still time. Father, grant us the humility to seek Your face for the well being of others. Help us to reach out to them, with kindness, in word and in deed. May our actions reflect Your character. We are, each one of us, in need of Your guidance in the use of possessions, our prosperity, our tongues and our talents. Though we are quite unworthy, we ask you to bless our efforts... In the name of your glorious Son, Jesus, we pray. Thank you so much for hiking with us through the February issue of the Hiking the Trail of Truth Newsletter. Until March then, may the grace of our Lord Jesus be upon you... Sincerely, Mark S Taylor END Back to Top [Home] [Hiking Maps & Trailheads] [Discovery Trail] [Bible Map] [Trail of Time] [New Birth Trail] [Mountain & Valley Trail] [Desert Trail] [Lake Trail] [High Sierra Trail] [Wilderness Trail] [A Hawk's Trail] [False Trail] [Monthly Newsletter] [Newsletter Archives] [Questions & Answers] HIKING THE TRAIL OF TRUTH Mark S. Taylor (707) 477-2460