IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE:
TARDIS!*
HOW TO LOSE AND LOVE IT
TODAY’S TEN-NATION CONFEDERACY PLUS ONE
THE ESTABLISHMENT CLAWS
UP THE DOWNS, MATE
POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GOES FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH
1: TARDIS!*
Did you ever dream of having your very own time machine?
(L8M8 “Flo3r5”)
Having recently viewed the last few series of Dr. Who, and having generally enjoyed it rather a lot (keep it up BBC), my sons and I inevitably engaged in several discussions on what we would do with a Tardis, had we one on hand for our own personal use.
As we travel forward in time, we can all conjure up in our minds the things we would go back to fix, to avoid, to do properly, to appreciate fully, or to enjoy all over again. But perhaps in a way we do have the equivalent of a Tardis at our disposal, thanks to our Creator-it just happens to be named differently. It’s called “wisdom”; it’s called “living in the present”; it’s called “seizing the moment”; it’s called “appreciating what you have”; and it’s called “wake up and smell the bacon”
2: HOW TO LOSE, AND LOVE IT
I used to play a variant of a card game called Hearts, in which if you are dealt a terrible hand you can announce your intention to lose every “trick”. By losing every single trick, according to the rules you win the game.
Sometimes life can seem to be like that. It almost seems like having made so many mistakes it’s tempting to intentionally get everything else wrong so as not to break the pattern, and so in some strange upside-down way to ultimately “win” the game of life.
Losing, or apparently losing, is one of the many appealing aspects of the gospel of Christ, to my mind. In the eyes of the world, Jesus Christ was the ultimate “loser”. He tried hard to gain a following and “start a new religion”, but he failed to win over the respect and support of those in influential positions, and he failed to get elected, and he failed to get the “religious right” behind him, and he failed to impress the leaders, the movers and the shakers who may otherwise have given him a helping hand up the ladder of success, and he failed to get some real heavyweight talent on his team, settling instead for poor, uneducated and unsubstantial fishermen. Finally, the efforts of the man came to nothing when he was shamefully humiliated and crucified.
Ah, but that’s the view of the unbeliever: the distorted, sad, miopic and unenlightened view. The truth is that because “he humbled himself and became obedient to death-even death on a cross,” what followed was not defeat but victory:
“Therefore God exalted him to the highest place, and gave him a name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow…” (Philippians 2:8-11).
It’s our association with him, and with his death and resurrection, which assures our ultimate victory too, in the grand “game” of life and eternity, in which if you lose, you win:
“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it” (Luke 9:23-24).
3: TODAY’S TEN NATION CONFEDERACY, PLUS ONE…
Studiers of Bible prophecy often talk of a “ten-nation confederacy”, as represented by toes (Daniel 2) and horns (Revelation 17:12-14), which speak of nations and their leaders. Interestingly, the current NATO summit has created just such a force to deal with Islamic State. It’s being called a “core” group, and the leading leader of this coalition is, no doubt, President Obama. The possible “plus one” is Iran, one of Israel’s arch-enemies.
The 10 nations IS will be confronting are the US, Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Australia, Turkey, Italy, Poland and Denmark. However, if the U.S. decides to accept Iran’s willingness to help with the Iranian Ayatollah Khamenei and his Quds force, IS will be fighting 11 nations.
No, I’m not saying that this is it-I’m sure it’s not and the time is not quite right yet. But gosh, it does get the back-chills going a little. It also demonstrates one of the central points in my recent post on the kingdom of the Beast, which was that when the time comes, the West will be working alongside at least a part of the Islamic world to subdue the rest of it, and Israel.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-29085248
4: THE ESTABLISHMENT CLAWS
Yes the US government is helping to establish a religion…
The U.S. government is suing the city of St. Anthony, Minn., for alleged religious discrimination for rejecting a proposed Islamic center in 2012, U.S. Attorney Andrew Luger said. St. Anthony’s City Council voted 4-1 in 2012 to reject the proposed Abu Huraira Islamic Center, saying a religious and cultural center wasn’t compatible with the site’s light-industrial zoning. http://www.foxnews.com/us/2014/08/28/federal-government-sues-minnesota-city-for-rejecting-proposed-islamic-center/
No doubt taxpayers’ money will be used to fund the lawsuit.
Atheists and their legal organizations, normally whining about what they see as constitutional obligations in favor of “the separation of church and state”, or waging war to stop anyone displaying a cross in a public place, or up in arms when some Christian group attempts to use government-run buildings after hours for their services, are curiously quiet…
5: UP THE DOWNS, MATE
I haven’t personally known a lot of “Downs Syndrome” people in my time-perhaps a half dozen. But without hesitation I can say that they were all beautiful people: humble, gentle, smiling and uncomplicated. And I believe firmly that when Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3) he was encompassing such people. God’s love is as near to them as to anyone.
But Mr. Richard Dawkins gave this advice to mothers having babies with Down Syndrome:
‘Abort it and try again – it would be immoral to bring it into the world’ (1).
“It”?
“It”?
What right has Dawkins to comment on what is moral or immoral? If there is no God, there is no such thing as morality, except what man devises for his own satisfaction. One man’s morality may be another man’s immorality, and who has the right to push his morality onto the rest of us-isn’t that religion? Isn’t that hypocrisy?
Evolutionism is all about death: we evolve because we suffer and die. So why not just suffer and die? The weak should die and let the strong get stronger. But this is not the way of God, it’s the way of the enemy of life and liberty-Satan himself.
6: POLITICAL CORRECTNESS GOES FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH
If only this were a one-off, unique sort of story, we could all rest in our beds and say to ourselves, “it’s alright, Joseph Stalin has not been resurrected”:
A high-school student in Tennessee was sent to the principal’s office because she said “God bless you” to another student who sneezed (2)
NOTES
*TARDIS IMAGE COURTESY OF © zir.com
Fuel for Faith 