The San Diego City Council—you elected it, citizens—has decided that their police department must SEEK and RECEIVE permission from anyone they stop and question BEFORE they can SEARCH them! Of course, suspects will say, "You certainly CAN search me".
Not! Gorillas will start wearing pants before that happens. The Taliban and Isis will start loving humanity before that happens. The northern and southern hemispheres will change their seasonal patterns before that happens. The North and South Poles will change positions before that happens. Leave it up to a senseless council of liberals to shackle a dangerous workplace into an impossible "run by the inmates" society. They have already taken the next step: they will work with the police to determine what weapons they need. How can the politicians possibly KNOW what weapons the police need? They aren't with the officers on the streets, and in the bars, confronting drunken, drugged suspects—life in the raw, with bad guys at their worst. The final step the council takes will be to demand the police let the bad guys arrest themselves! Of course, that, to the criminals, is the perfect way to empty the jails and prisons and turn all those anti-social predators loose in society. May they first of all plunder the houses of those voting to free them!
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In a move that will make Bernie Sanders happy, despite it being a shortsighted, delusional decision, the U.S. Department of Education will forgive—a euphemism for wipe out, dismiss¸ act as if you never borrowed it $1.1 Billion in student loans.
The action targeted ITT Technical Institute, the now bankrupt educational chain. Officials say the school used fraudulent claims of salaries and career opportunities to lure students. All borrowers who didn't enroll elsewhere are flat-out relieved of responsibility. Those who did enroll elsewhere—we might consider them more persistent than those who didn't—will have to apply again for debt relief. Given the liberal's willingness to share our tax money, they won't have to fear rejection. San Diego U-T, 8/27/21 Here's what I wonder: is the Department of Education now educating America's youth that it's good to borrow money they'll not have to repay? Of the 43% who didn't repay their loans, and didn't complete their degrees, why should taxpayers reinforce their failure? And if they completed their degree, and hold jobs, why should taxpayers use their taxes to repay debt the debtors should repay out of their own incomes? Why are taxpayers responsible for bailing out those who continue borrowing to get something they want, knowing they won't have to pay back what they borrow—but get to keep what they don't pay for? That makes sense only to misty-eyed liberals who love "warm feelings." Just wondering...what will all Americans do when Federal Mints STOP printing paper money because BIG, "trust us to take care of you" government has no Money by seeing runaway inflation deflating our currency? When Henry Ford began building cars, the market said, "build heavy luxury" vehicles. As the Sam Walton of his time, Ford instead built the:
And introduced his Model T--Tin Lizzie:
The reverse is true in today's church. Preachers think that people want simple, light, entertaining, always-amiable, never-controversial, feel good, emotionally-driven messages. Let music carry worship service with preaching as a hand-maiden. What shall the preacher do who aims to stir his own "little grey cells" in order to stir those of his people? And, never forget, people who like to think worship every Sunday in every church. It's certainly worth remembering that no preacher has Christ's depth. Yet common people in his day loved to hear him, listened as he spoke, understood what he said when scholars didn't—because they opened their mind to the Holy Spirit, not filled it with traditions. Read Matthew 21:46, 22:33, Mark 11:18, 12:12, 37, Luke 19:48, 21:38 as a few examples. This writer suggests a solution: preachers devote themselves to studying scripture, not just reading it. That will immediately deepen their thoughts, which will reveal themselves in more THOUGHT FULL messages. And that will TRUST the Holy Spirit to make the meaning clear to the listeners. Jesus trusted the Holy Spirit to do so. Can't we follow his example? Shouldn't we? Every Biblical truth has significant practical results. Cultivating a consistently stronger faith in God is but one example. It gives us freedom from a sin we often find shackling us. That sin is Holding Grudges. The wicked servant of Matthew 18:21-35 possessed that horrible trait. Once having his own multi-million-dollar debt cancelled, he immediately had a debtor jailed over a few dollars debt.
Therefore, when someone gets in our way; makes a thoughtless mistake; says an unkind word; engages in an irritating dispute....HOW does God want us to respond? Ephesians 5:32 tells us, "Forgive each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." The same directions come from Colossians 3:13. How did God forgive us? First, with Adam and Eve the example, God initiated forgiveness. At a time when they didn't understand the catastrophic nature of sin. When they both likely wondered why God's sacrifice of an animal was necessary over ONE sin. God's prompt forgiveness models what he demands we imitate, whether the offender understands and accepts his guilt, says he's sorry or shows any regret. Second, God's sacrifice of the animal that clothed the offending pair in a cured, tanned covering symbolized its continued protection while worn. It also expressed God's willingness to continue fellowship once he had forgiven them. An important point. We often want no further contact with the offender. God continues to want us, minus our sin. That means we're free to renew friendship with those offending us, not eliminate further contact. That also puts an end to the self-justifying excuse for not forgiving: he hasn't apologized. Thinking that way makes us an accomplice with the offender in the alienation, not God's agent in reconciliation. Do we want to be an irritant continuing trouble or an anodyne soothing it? Truly, then, the one mentally and emotionally extending forgiveness FREES himself. Because it eliminates the blame game we otherwise play with each other, extending conflict, division and revenge, not forgiveness. Third, being like God offers the ultimate reason faith in God frees us to forgive others. No greater opportunity comes to us than to do something godly! And no greater compliment will be paid us than to BE godly! In conclusion, if we have trouble forgiving others, let us: increase our faith in God. The very increase will help us offer offenders forgiveness. For, it's inevitable, as we draw nearer to God, and experience his mercy to us, the more patiently we respond to those needing mercy from us. Only by drawing nearer to God do we discover the grace of forgiveness. But once finding, and appreciating the freedom it gives us, we'll treasure it:
American industry muscled military production to colossal levels once President Wilson declared war on Germany in 1917. All belligerents knew that the GAME CHANGER had chosen sides. The only question in world capitals involved TIMING. The Allies wanted to hang on till American doughboys arrived. The Central Powers hoped to land a knock-out blow before they arrived.
The usual confusion in America when transitioning from peace to war seemed to favor Germany. For while they lacked guns, ammunition and uniforms, American training camps bulged with willing recruits. As a result, enthusiasm waned as delays continued. A Christian evangelist in the camps had posted a sign for the men that read, "Where will you spend eternity?" A waggish recruit scribbled under the quote, "At Camp McClellan". Life History U.S., Vol. 10, p. 14 The problem badgering Christians in the 21st century isn't a lack of spiritual ammunition to shoot at the enemy, or a lack of disciples willing to engage the Enemy. It IS a lack of personal lifestyle evangelism in Christians and planned programs of evangelism in churches. Lifestyle evangelism occurs when Christians naturally embody Christ I Peter 3:15. Planned programs occur when churches sponsor efforts directed at opening conversations with the unsaved. Maybe, as Erwin W. Lutzer wrote in We Will Not Be Silenced, we can't eliminate all the damage Christian lethargy has allowed into society. But we can stop further deterioration by returning to personal evangelism. Where we at least say with Philip to a skeptical Nathaniel, "Come and see" Jesus John 1:46. And, if at all possible, convince a sinner to accept Jesus, so we can say with Jesus of Zacchaeus, "Today salvation has come to this house" Luke 19:9. We cannot "strengthen what remains" by continuing to hold entertainment-centered, music-filled worship services, with fun-filled sermons. Or Bible studies which are often anything but. Surely even the least-aware Christian can understand the folly of the models being used. Since as churches got bigger audiences on Sunday, daily morality plummeted in culture. Back to personal evangelism, Christians! With new approaches that make it pleasant, not onerous, lifestyle oriented, not plagued by memory verses and sales-like pressure. THAT return, exposes spiritually darkened minds to the LIGHT of the WORLD, John 9:5, 11, 15, 17, 19, 21, 25, 26-27, 30, 39-41, and enlightens them spiritually as it removes their sins in forgiveness. The National Park Service began a restoration of the Lincoln Home in Springfield, Illinois in 1986. They published the project February 24, 2016 on You Tube: The Lincolns of Springfield, Illinois.
A single purpose guided the restoration: only what existed in the house, or on the grounds, when the Lincolns' lived there in 1860 would remain after the Park Service finished. That included removal of whatever existed in or around the house after 1860. The project surfaces a spiritual point that Jesus made in Matthew 15:13-14. His immediate reference focused on Jewish tradition. The ultimate spiritual principle refers to any man-made addition to God's word—or, for that matter, any human subtraction from God's word. Whatever the Lincoln house or grounds included in 1860 remained in the Park Service restoration. Spiritually, however, no one and nothing pre-dates God. That's why God very carefully and repeatedly revealed himself as the GOD who IS, WAS and IS TO BE, the Only One. We can't go beyond him to someone else, because HE IS BEFORE all and everyone else. The very basics of Christianity, therefore, remain intact and can never be negotiated, compromised or eliminated. Such is the Eternal Triune God, the Virgin-born Son of God, his perfect life, ministry and sacrifice leading to his bodily resurrection, his ascension into Heaven to serve as eternal High Priest of God's people and his eventual return to earth to conclude history and begin the occupation of God's Eternal city, the New Jerusalem. Sacrificing any of the above attacks the foundation of Christianity. An associate pastor of a local mega church recently lost his wife to suicide. Financial outpouring from world populations ballooned well-beyond $500,000 at last report. Obviously, the family's forthcoming information about the wife's emotional and mental problems elicited sympathy and empathy world-wide.
This blog critiques only two factors in the family's loss. First, that from the Senior Pastor of the church. He said the Bible nowhere condemns suicide as a sin. He knows better, or he shouldn't be a Senior Pastor. Exodus 20:13, which condemns murder, not war or killing, but the callous taking of one person's life by another, condemns murder, whether by self—suicide, or by one against another—homicide. Murder is wrong. What the Pastor needed to say, but didn't, is that degrees of suicide determine the fate of the person. Recently a man killed several people, then himself. By taking other people's lives first, his self-murder—as if he paid of his crime by killing the murderer—stands under judgment. We view from another perspective a person with ongoing mental problems, exacerbated by life experiences, committing suicide. God knows all the circumstances in that person's life and will be merciful, not judgmental. The second critique. The secular center for Mental Illness applauded the Senior Pastor's views. Obviously they don't judge human behavior by God-ordained scripture. Which means, and Christians are becoming increasingly guilty of this sin, we must STOP denying Bible teaching JUST because secularists disagree with it; or someone we know has an experience that seems to DENY it. God's WORD on any subject is ETERNAL, not VARIABLE, and not subject to change in any age. Christians, if we think educated humanists have equal ability with us in interpreting God's word, we contribute to humanity's problems. Secularists have no capacity to understand God's eternal verities, being devoid of the Holy Spirit's Presence. And individuals can't be trusted to deal honestly with God's eternal verities by being so personally involved in the crisis. The angelic host proclaimed God's peace from Christ's birth:
Jesus boldly taught the discriminating nature of his Gospel:
SOLE Factors that distinguish Christianity from other world religions:
The inevitable result for Christians:
We must be evangelistic, fulfilling our ROLE as Christ's witnesses: opening conversations; taking the initiative to confront the unsaved of every kind, skeptic, ego-driven, worldly, humanist. If they give an opening, we enter it. If they don't, we create one, accepting rejection with equanimity. We don't like being at odds with our friends, but...we'll:
And this will be our appeal, whatever words used:
God beckons:
To summarize Christianity as the Final Revelation of God to humanity, consider that Jesus saw himself as:
With such a pedigree, and this only a smattering of much more, we understand why Biblical Christianity has universal impact. It's a Faith of leaven:
A FAITH of a mustard seed:
And a FAITH of universal and eternal significance:
Like our Founder, Christians:
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