Month: April 2018

What is different about this News Article?


What is different about this News Article?

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/22/us/california-steakhouse-stabbing/index.html

What type of bias is this?  If a homeowner stabs another does it read HOMEOWNER STABS MAN ?  this is nonsense.

Were they a high school graduate?  Perhaps they drank milk for breakfast or were an Army vet or any other number of things.  What does this have to do with anything?

I’m complaining here as the implicit bias is to draw an unfavorable view toward the homeless when his living situation had nothing to do with the crime. Material facts are important, but his homelessness was not germane to the report. All I ask is for fair and objective reporting.  If the man had been a democrat or republican this would not have been important either:  this would be to include religion unless a connection existed between his religion and criminal act. Come on now>  Report what is fair to all.

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Man’s Programming of Gloom & Doom


Anyone who turns on any news channel is immediately thrust into a world of despair by news generated by our news teams around the world.

While I’m not attempting to paint a rosy picture that all is well, yet the media seems to go out of its way to illustrate every event in its most woeful description.

Climate Change, for example is a topic advanced as if our entire globe were going to disintegrate in the nearby future at the hands of greedy capitalist.  The Population Bomb {1995} by Paul R. Ehrlich is really a redraft of his original book of the 1960s.  In that book we were told how the entire world would be led to starvation within a few short years.  As we all know this did not happen as technological advances in food production were not foreseen.  This seems to be the case often as the doomsayers never consider any alternative to circumstances other than their own.

But here my attention isn’t really about the news.  My attention is on society focusing negative information to a society that integrates that information into a lifestyle.  Thus we have an entire generation that believes in nothing good about their lives, only in the bad.

Somehow many Americans feel degraded and slighted when they enjoy the highest standard of living in the world—EVER.

The real positive news—The GOOD NEWS OF THE GOSPEL is hidden from this upcoming generation as its message is hidden, away from the mainstream crowd.

Churches as a whole no longer proclaim it and the masses refuse to attend to it, but it is ever present nonetheless.

The Good news of the Gospel teaches that where no hope exists with man, all hope lies at the helm of God through His son, Jesus.

Where lack, war and disease is the offshoot of the control of man, a happy, fulfilled life is offered with Jesus.

And in the absence of Jesus, no wonder people are caught up in trepidation; God leads to Hope and Promise.

Yet, man will not turn to God.  Man is content in his Programming of Gloom & Doom.  Where on one hand we are hand fed a copious series of lies, man fails to enter into the realm of TRUTH offered by God through His son, Christ Jesus.  With Jesus there is only the absence of fear and no Gloom or Doom:  His promise is eternal life.

Accepting People for Who They Are


Anyone who reads my blogs knows I place a tremendous emphasis on the value of people. I do this as I also believe our creator values us greatly.

A tip on accepting people:

Insomuch people are flawed and imperfect, we as Christians cannot wait until a ‘perfect’ person arrives in order for us to engage a relationship.  This means we must accept people for who they are knowing there are built in limitations to the relationship.

This doesn’t mean people are phony per se, but it does mean restrictions are pretty much built in to people. That is why our full trust must go to God and God alone through Jesus Christ for with Him there are no restrictions and we are to trust Him fully.

It doesn’t mean we don’t trust others at all. It means we must be guarded and grounded in our focus on Jesus and not on others.  Yet, through others we are to illuminate the character of Jesus. In order to fully engage ourselves as image bearers, we must be with other people.  This should be no secret for a person alone and at home bears nothing except to their own self and this is not discipleship at all. This all brings us back to people and when around people our object is NOT to CHANGE them, but desiring change to occur as a result of them being around us and with us reflecting the truth through example.  It’s a simple process and all it means is that we should truly live what we save we believe. And to accomplish all of this we first must accept people for who they are and judge only the limitations built into our own spirit and flawed character.

Cashing in on defective Warranties


Our litigant society is willing to sue people today for almost anything. Sure enough, if a product somehow doesn’t live up to the user’s expectation, one can expect a lawsuit.

I suppose one of the most ludicrous ideas of all would be to sue God.  For those of us who have a bad back, this would seem in order to a suit happy people.  The same could be said about male pattern baldness or for those of us with bad teeth or eyes.

Then when speaking and listing of other ailments, we would have to address diabetes, heart disease, and of certainly, cancer.  God designed us with inherent flaws and should be held responsible.

While my proposals are clearly nothing but on the edge of absurdity, we see though where God has a mechanism to cash in on what he declares as being defective and that is on our souls.

God counts us guilty to be condemned for our defective nature that pursues after sin.  This sin quality contaminates the flesh in man and creates a restrictive barrier in assessing God.  As mortal defects, we are condemned to eternal DEATH.

God being God: has provided a remedy under His law to satisfy the defect. This remedy is free of charge and only requires our acceptance in order to receive this extended warranty. Rather than a financial remedy, we see the panacea comes in the form of a man named Jesus.

So then we see a fundamental difference in approach.  Man seeks financial gain as a result of deficiencies and God provides a full gift of Grace of eternal life.  What a huge difference for defects. What a wonderful gift from God from God’s heavenly Supreme Court to solve such complicated issues.  In the end, God is the ultimate provider of a warranty that never ends.

The High Price of Loyalty and Addiction


If only we were as loyal to Jesus as we were to our:

Cigarettes and other tobacco products

Coffee

Alcohol

Good food and pastries

Colas

Ice Cream

Drugs

Sports programs and hobbies

Our pursuit for sex

Our desire for money and good times

For much of that above, the average American has not gone a single day without full attention to one of the addictions listed above.  We should be so loyal.

Truthfully speaking we are extremely loyal to our addictions.  Our addictions have contributed to obesity and other health problems that do absolutely nothing for the positive aspects of our society. This is true for all our addictions.

Our first loyalty is to be with our Lord, Jesus.  However, the sad truth speaks that this is simply not true for among the best of us leave something to be desired.

We love our love for crap and excess.  We love our possessions and our foodstuffs no matter how harmful they are to us.

We are never sate, never satisfied while Jesus promises the true manna, the everlasting water that never thirsts again.

The fleshly aspirations of our addictions are costly.  Death is the eventual result but even with this high cost we remain loyal.

It is clear we cannot serve both our fleshly desires and God.  True as well is that we can see which one generally wins out.  In counting the cost of our addictions and loyalty:  how do we stand as Christians?  How many of these addictions are we actually serving?  In the end, we are only to serve one.  My guess when it comes to that, we all fall short in the end and always, to pay a costly price for our ills.

Nothing more than a Paycheck


Today’s toxic society is often mixed with a blend of bad values and a lack of morals.  Popular is the idea that we can ‘fish’ for friends in accordance to the thickness of their wallet.

Where women complain of being seen as nothing more than as a sex object, men note they are used for nothing more than a paycheck.

The aftermath of all of this is horrible.  Both men and women get stuck with proverbial child support payments where men strongly suggest is the price for having sex.  They see women as the beneficiary and the man with long term debt.  The debt, often insurmountable, is more than a source of frustration; it can be a major contributor to a man’s poverty.

Thus we see where many marriages have conformed to nothing more than a legal form of prostitution.  We see this as women marry into money and ‘rape’ the man in divorce—a win-win situation for the woman, but devastating to the man.

A vicious cycle ensues where the woman uses the man and the man uses the woman—this is so much so we have now entered the ME 2 Generation where mistrust explodes.

Simply said, none of this is godly.  None of this is of God’s design.  This interpersonal toxic environment has escalated so badly that in Japan scores of men avoid women altogether for they do not wish to enter into bad relationships.

From all of this we see a battle and mistrust.  We see man against woman, and woman against man and then the children:  enter the lesbian and gay arena and the complications compound.

Finally we see generations of confused people.  We discover many are now ‘identifying’ outside of their biological gender and really where people have no idea who or what they really are.  Michael Jackson comes to mind: the poor soul.

All of this brings us back to God for with God the plan is simple and easy.  We have no promiscuity, no incest, no divorce and instead, we have love and responsibility. Here we don’t see the self-serving aspect of money or endowments, but one of commitment.  At this junction and it doesn’t exist: is simply using someone for nothing more than a paycheck.

Keep the Change


Small pocket coins such as pennies are an annoyance as such many now days are instructing the cashier to simply keep the change but are far more reluctant to do so upon the request from beggars.

What is it about beggars we don’t like?

Please note that colleges, schools, politicians, churches and many non-profit institutions request money all the time and we don’t seem to make a big stink about it.  In fact, a common street beggar will generally only ask for your nickels and dimes while a local pastor may DEMAND a full 10% off your NET.  Not so with beggars.

As we all know our pal, the IRS wants far more than a mere lowly 10%, but desires to encroach much, much more upon penalty of prison.  Like everyone says, nothing is certain but death and taxes.

With a simple look-see any American can discover discarded pennies, even nickels strewn around on our streets as people throw away what they see as useless change.

Think about it.  What can you buy anymore for a penny?  What about a nickel, dime or quarter even.  You’d be hard press to find anything for less than a dollar and even then you’d have to add tax.

You see, economically, it’s hard times to be a bum.  It’s hard times for you when you’re working and struggling to make a living, but for those down and out, it is even harder.

And here comes the kicker.

So you don’t want your money going to others for beer, smokes or drugs.  Yeah, we’ll raise cane about that.  We’ll raise cane about it, but think nothing of spending ten bucks for a movie ticket that promotes sex, violence, drugs and worse.  Nor do we think anything much of spending billions for what we call health care that again promotes every drug known to man and many that can be reduced to nothing more than a common poison.

Simply assess our opium problem.  Our lowly beggar or bum didn’t cause that to happen.  It came from doctors and our friends at the pharmacy.   And while looking at beer or other liquors, we would never dare let something as wholesome as American Football sponsor anything that would contribute to those vile products.  NEVER.

Which brings us back to the beggar.  And what I’m advocating is in bringing a little joy to a person who is down and out.  For these abject lost souls I’m asking that the crumbs from the table that have fallen on the floor be given to those who ask.  Give these people your leftover change.  And in doing this you should be doing it for the least of them for in doing,  we are simply ascertaining our following to Jesus.  Jesus asked us to give not to determine what our giving was going toward, but to give all the same.  And in all of this I’m asking that we all tell them to keep the change

Conforming to Sermons {Now don’t get all kinds of bent out of shape over this}


Interesting enough if the congregants were to actually change due to the preacher’s sermon, then it seems the congregants would be constantly changing, morphing into different species of Christians every week.

We do hear every now and then of people who have reversed their lives due to Church, but this is rare.  Not only is it rare, but that same identical person fails to change from week to week. Yes, I know we are taught that we have this regeneration process and the renewal of our mind, and I believe this is literal, but nonetheless what we observe is not so transformational.

Think about it a moment if you will.  If the sum total effect of sermons were to actually change people, then the people would not really even be able to adapt or change often enough to keep up with the called transformation.

Something is wrong with this equation.  For one, what is wrong is that it simply doesn’t’ actually happen. And since it doesn’t happen why do we persist in approaching our instruction as such?

One reason it doesn’t happen is that our preaching approach really isn’t all that grounded in scripture.  More or less, we’ve adopted our church styles more to tradition than how instructed in the Bible.  In adaptation evolution, we’ve integrated the physical church building, professional and Paid Christians to lead us and a slew of traditions not found in the early church.

So then, if we are pounded by sermons that really aren’t going to change us what are we really doing?

I think at least part of this is not only wishful thinking on the congregant’s behalf but also the congregant participating as a whipping boy.

The wishful thinking aspect is that somehow or someway we wish that if we were to adopt what the preacher said as attributes, we’d be better people. However, we know this doesn’t work and that’s why it’s wishful thinking.  We become whipping boys as once scolded for all the things we aren’t as people and as a people aren’t doing, feel better once committed this to prayer for constant redemption.

THE SOLUTION?

The solution is not all that difficult for we don’t need as much preaching as we do actual, personal leading.  If our church ‘leaders’ were to switch from verbal mode to physical mode and perform with us what we should be doing, then the church would progress in the matter prescribed by Jesus as He told us to serve and to announce the message of the Gospel. The end result is that we don’t conform to the words of a sermon, but are induced by example to be all of the characteristics of the fruit of the spirit as illuminated by our leaders.  That is real change.

The Great Equalizer {Hear me Roar} or call in the Calvary


Not once in my lifetime have I ever heard a single former serviceman brag about how much of a badass he was when landing on the beaches of Normandy in 1944.  With .50 MM machine guns blasting away from nearby pillboxes, all men quivered with fear in approaching the white sandy beach towards the Germans.

The same is true for those fighting ISIS and related terrorists who desire to remove your head from the rest of your body.  No one brags about what a badass they are in fighting these lowlife’s who have a total disregard for either God or morals.

Thus in listening to the early 70s song of I Am Woman by Helen Reddy, or Roar sung by Katy Perry, I pick up a sense of disingenuous truth whenever the thunderous words land on my ears.

Aside from the merits of women such as the ex-navy pilot of SouthWest Airlines, we find this type of heroism is rare, but fortunate for those  who flew under her command.

As we all know, a man named Samuel Colt invented what was known as the great EQUALIZER in the early to mid 1800s. Once the .45 caliber pistol arrived on the scene the differences between the weak and the strong almost entirely disappeared. And so too with technological advances, we see even less differences among people than with the era of Samuel Colt.

However, feminism aside, I contend that most women who now protest with fists in the air, and those who demand and would have us believe they are a herd of bad-asses can be heard among gunshots into crowds, whimpers, cries and those who long for the intervention of the police.

And while at times, we hear this from men as well, the idea of such a badass is a notion that should be abandoned.

As much as we would like to socially engineer and insist there are no gender differences, our own experiences demonstrates how this is a fallacious argument.

Yes, we can all see at the siege of Stalingrad where mostly women almost singlehandedly fought off Germans upon the invasion of that city. These brave woman fought bravely and savagely against an unjust intruder of Germans.

But none of this means there are no gender difference.  The Bible teaches that God made man and female.  And too, differences are spelled out in the Bible, yet we have today’s social engineers proclaim there are no differences.

And then too, we see the offspring of such stupid ideas:  we see same sex marriages, homosexually, and other variances of such that people would like us to see as perfectly normal.

No, no one, not even a foolish man should roar at the world. And where our weapons more or less equalize our differences in fighting, mortal man is absolutely NOTHING in the great scheme of things where God is EVERYTHING.

Earthly power may rest mostly on men, but real powers lies with God.

Women everywhere can show disdain to their maker and claim over and over again what a badass they think they are.  In the end, just as men, they will face their maker on their knees.  The question will be:  where are all  the bad-asses then?