God's Final Reply

Getting Off on the Right Foot

Pope Francis continued the long tradition of the Pope washing the feet of others on Maundy Thursday, emulating Christ's own actions before the Last Supper. Normally this is done with retired priests, but the new Pope chose to do it for prisoners in jail instead and has taken some flack for it. Nonsense - his actions speak louder than words and visiting the poor in prison is precisely where Christ would have him be. This Pope is getting off on the right foot!

Mankind's Response

What God Offered

Today is Maundy Thursday or the remembrance of the Last Supper. What God offered was His friendship: 

I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.  John 15:15

The Eternal Cycle

Palm Sunday starts a week-long story that illustrates why we humans have so much trouble understanding God and each other. The Jews had a desire to be free of their Roman oppressors. That was not unreasonable since the Romans were brutal in their treatment of occupied countries. This desire became superimposed on Jewish prophecies that for centuries had predicted a coming Messiah who would set them free. The desire was now an expectation or demand that God do it their way with the Messiah. Hence the hopefulness of Palm Sunday and the royal treatment that Jesus received when He entered Jerusalem. In fairly short order, however, it became clear that Jesus did not meet the peoples' expectation of the Messiah. This led to judgment in front of Pilate (who did what the Jewish crowd requested) and ultimately punishment on Golgotha. The problem in all of this is a me-centric universe rather than a God-centric universe. 

If life is all about others meeting my desires, then God and other people simply become objects or obstacles. If they meet my desires they are no longer human - they are objects to service me. When they do not meet my desires, they become obstacles to that goal. Initially we ramp things up to the level of a demand and if that is not met, it is quickly on to judgment and punishment. If we do this, we choose alienation from God and others and then complain about our angst and loneliness. It is not accidental that God's First Commandment was that we shall have no other gods before Him. 

Think about this framework as we go through Holy Week. Think about it too in your own relationship with God and others. Who is at the center of our own universe is a question that we need to ask daily if we want to know what being human really means. 

Yessiree the Economy is Booming!

• Coke lays off 750 of its U.S. workers - 1% of its workforce.

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/22/Coca-Cola-to-lay-off-750-workers-in-US

• Boeing to lay off 2,000 employees.

articles.chicagotribune.com/2013-03-22/business/chi-boeing-plans-about-2000-layoffs-by-yearend-20130322_1_marc-birtel-impact-workers-workforce

• Sea Ray boats - 205.
• Freight Car America - 254
• Hanford Nuclear Reservation - 243; 2,600 furloughed.
• J.C. Penney - 300.

uscorplayoffs.blogspot.com/

Etc., etc., etc. I don't think we can take too much more of this good news. BTW - the reduction in the unemployment numbers is primarily due to even more people permanently giving up the search for a jobs.

Fearless and Great Leader

The U.S. Department of Education posted a quote of the day this week from Chairman Mao, that great Chinese educator:

“Our attitude towards ourselves should be ‘to be satiable in learning’ and towards others ‘to be tireless in teaching.’”

Of course DOE missed the subscript to this quote - "or you will be shot!"

www.breitbart.com/Big-Government/2013/03/22/National-Center-Education-Statistics

Where Are the Benghazi Survivors?

The debacle in Benghazi was survived by 36 people. Where are they? How come we haven't heard in-depth interviews with them giving first-person accounts of that horrible night? Patch enough stories together and a narrative of what happened will begin to emerge. Of course, that's exactly the problem. We have a stonewalling Administration and a press totally in the tank for Obama. Maybe now that Jake Tapper is at CNN he will run with the story. We - and the survivors - deserve to hear what really happened.  

A Tree Grows in Tillamook

A small victory in the U.S. Supreme Court yesterday for the flickering timber industry in Oregon. In 2006 a local environmental group sued the Federal EPA claiming that logging roads had to have clean water discharge permits for all logging roads built. Federal law requires that a new factory or cattle feedlot, for example, get a permit showing that the project will not discharge polluted water into nearby streams. The law had never been applied to logging roads, however, and now this group wanted to extend the law, effectively shutting down any new log road building. This was aimed at state lands, which are still fairly productive, because these same environmental groups had already convinced the U.S. Forest service and the courts that you can't do anything with Federal forests.

The Supremes reversed the 9th Circuit (again) and ruled that these permits do not apply to logging roads, preserving the last few timber jobs in the state. I am sure the Greenies will be back with another equally specious argument. If I were another country wanting to conduct economic warfare against the United States I think one of my key weapons would be secretly funding lawsuits by these nut burgers.


www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2013/03/timber_industry_celebrates_sup.html#incart_more_business

Par-tay! Fiesta!

Here's one I missed - did you know that President Obama's 13-year old daughter Malia and 13 of her friends enjoyed Spring Break 2012 in Mexico at taxpayer expense? Me neither. Total cost: $115,501 not including the 25 Secret Service agents accompanying the group. Remember this when you hear that we can't possibly scale back spending - no, no, no, no, no! 

www.thegatewaypundit.com/2012/12/like-mother-like-daughter-malia-obamas-spring-break-vacation-cost-u-s-taxpayers-115500/

Can an Old Dog Learn New Tricks?

I posted today on Bill Maher perhaps having second thoughts on his traditional doctrinaire liberalism. Take a look at some further Maher quotes noted in today's Best of the Web and see what you think:

"Maher: Bloomberg's Ban on Sodas 'Makes Liberals Look Bad' "--headline,RealClearPolitics.com, March 16
"Bill Maher Defends Iraq War, Bush: 'It's a Country That's Standing, I Thought It Wouldn't Be' "--headline, Mediaite.com, March 15
"Bill Maher on California Income Taxes: 'Liberals--You Could Actually Lose Me' "--headline,NewsBusters.org, March 16

online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424127887323869604578368353424655998.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLETopOpinion

As Bill O'Reilly says, what say you?

Charlie Brown Speaks

Speaker John Boehner said yesterday on ABC's This Week that he thinks President Obama is honest and he can trust him. He also said that he and the President are agreed that there is no immediate debt crisis. Where do you even start with this? Never mind - Lucy, cue the football.

townhall.com/news/politics-elections/2013/03/17/boehner-says-he-absolutely-trusts-obama-n1536617

Another Sign the Apocalypse is Upon Us

Uber-Liberal Bill Maher is actually starting to squeak because income taxes in California are too high. He exclaimed on a show last week that "liberals could lose me" if taxes kept going higher and higher. Similarly, Will Smith was asked in France last Fall about raising income taxes, which he pronounced a fine idea until a reporter mentioned that they were going up to 75% in France. He literally choked and said that he was already paying enough thank you very much. Could it be that some light is finally penetrating the dense Hollywood mind?

conservativebyte.com/2013/03/bill-maher-on-california-income-taxes-liberals-you-could-actually-lose-me/

U.S. Announces Response to North Korean Nuclear Threats

You have probably read that North Korea has disavowed the Korean Armistice signed in 1953 and it feels free to recommence hostilities at any time. They have also threatened to (again) immolate the United States with the Nork's array of terrifying nuclear missiles that sometimes leave the launching pad and occasionally fly in the general direction they are supposed to. It is time that the U.S. make a formal response. I would suggest that the Presidential press secretary, when asked about the U.S. response to this nonsense, place the object pictured to the right on the lectern and then ask for the next question. No diplomatic gobbledy-gook here. 

Welcome to the New Pope

A hearty welcome to the new leader of the world's 1.2 billion Roman Catholics, Argentine Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, nka Pope Francis. May all that you do honor our Lord Jesus.

Whose Homeland Security?

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is buying 1.6 billion rounds of ammunition. When the Iraq War was at its hottest, our troops were expending 6 million rounds per month. At that rate DHS could handle a hot war (in the U.S.) for more than 20 years. Hmmm...

Now DHS is also buying Marine surplus MRAPs that are designed to protect troops from mines and heavy caliber machine guns. Again, hmmm...

When asked why in the world they needed all this the agency said they got a good buy and use it for target practice. Hmmm... And they are planning to go to war against whom and when? 

finance.townhall.com/columnists/ralphbenko/2013/03/13/16-billion-rounds-of-ammo-homeland-security-time-for-a-national-conversation-n1531584

What's My Position?

Let's start the week with some theology. Okay, before your eyes start to glaze over, stay with me and I'll keep it short. It is useful for understanding something that Christians often have trouble keeping straight: positional vs. relational forgiveness. 

If you are a Christ-follower you had positional forgiveness from the moment that you decided to follow Him. He died for all the sins that you have committed, are presently committing, and will ever commit. You are forgiven once and for all and you are a member of the family of God. 

Even if you are in the family, can family relationships still get bent out of shape? You betcha and hence the importance of confession and asking for forgiveness - keeping short accounts as it were. This is relational forgiveness. The Biblical story of the Prodigal Son is a great illustration of this. The son who took his inheritance and went out to lead the wild life always remained the father's son, but their relationship was broken. When the son returned in humility and repentance, the father met him with open arms because his son was back. God is no different, which of course is the moral of the story. He desires relationship with us (amazing if you think about it)  and rejoices when that relationship is restored. 

In short, can you as a Christ-follower lose your membership in the family of God if you sin? Nope. Can you on the other hand lose your relationship with God if you sin? Yup, but only if you insist on walking away and doing things your way. Keep your accounts short with God and with others in your life - relationships are everything.

(A tip of the hat to Brian Condello, Assoc. Pastor, Salem Alliance Church, for whom the above was just an aside in a terrific sermon yesterday. It will be available as a podcast on the SAC website this week at http://salemalliance.org/ )





 

The Jellyfish in the Senate

So Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham are dumping on Rand Paul for pulling a "publicity stunt"? I am not particularly a Rand Paul fan, but at least he was exposing John Brennan for the danger that he would be as head of the CIA and having the courage to force an answer from the King's counsel that His Majesty won't drone U.S. citizens on U.S. soil. What were Messrs. McCain and Graham doing while this was happening? Why eating lamb chops with His Imperial Majesty. That strategy has certainly worked well over the last 4 years to make the Senate a bastion for robust discussion of the enormous problems facing America. Democrat Ron Wyden showed more guts by spelling Rand Paul during the filibuster than the majority of the Republican senators. The House is at least trying to lead, if only in fits and starts. A Republican in the Senate tries it and gets brickbats from many his own brethren. If these guys played on a team it would be the Manila Folders! It is definitely time for a change in the Republican members of the Senate. 

Construction Defect

As I have noted a couple of times, the U.S. has stopped production of the F-22 Raptor, the most lethal fighter in the world and replaced it - sort of - with the F-35. The F-35 is being designed as a flying version of the Swiss army knife - there is an Air Force version, a Navy version, and a VTOL Marine version. Trying to make it please all 3 services, and a host of allies who have ordered it, however, has made it impossible for the F-35 to do its best for any one service. Test pilot reports are now coming in and they are not good.

One of the biggies reported by the pilots is very limited rear visibility. A fighter pilot is taught to "always check your 6!" which is the 6 o'clock position directly behind the aircraft because when you get shot down it's normally from that position. The ability to do this in an F-35 is almost non-existent because the fuselage slopes up behind the canopy. It was designed this way to allow for a common ejection seat mechanism between the different service variants. The problem was supposed to be solved by optical sensors showing a 360 degree view around the aircraft. The problem: the sensors don't work. Well, I hope the ejection seats do as there may be a lot of pilots having to use them after getting shot down from behind. How about we re-open the F-22 line and do it right?
www.wired.com/dangerroom/2013/03/f-35-blind-spot/

More Power!

Continuing the reasons for optimism for the future, how about a fusion reactor in beta stage operating in 2017 and producing commercial power by 2022? That what the Lockheed Skunk Works says and they have a proven track record for delivering high performance aircraft like the U-2 and SR-71 Blackbird to  back it up. The reactor would be small enough to be loaded on a truck and taken where needed. It would produce enough power to supply a town of 50,000 and because it would use radio waves on deuterium gas to create a plasma, there would be no radioactivity or hazardous by products at all. Science fiction? Maybe. But when a company like Lockheed Martin and its famous Skunk Works sticks its neck out so publicly, I would not bet against them. 

www.examiner.com/article/cheap-fusion-energy-a-few-years-away-accoding-to-lockheed-skunk-works

We Have Met the Enemy and He is Us

The famous line from Walt Kelly's comic strip Pogo aptly describes the current situation in the United States. I have been a Chuck Colson fan for a long time - not the man who was President Nixon's political hatchetman, but the broken man who went to prison after becoming a Christian and lived out his faith for the rest of his years after his release. 

Colson's last address was to the Wilberforce Weekend. He collapsed at the end of his address and died a few days later. His last public words speak to our situation and should stand as a call to all of us to be part of the solution, not part of the problem. His friend and now successor Eric Metaxas reports what he said:

"... as a result of relativism and the denial of truth, “our culture has been decaying from the inside” for the last 40 years. Politics won’t save us, he said, because “politics is nothing but an expression of the culture. So how do you fix the culture?”

Chuck explained it this way: “Culture is actually formed by the belief system of the people, by the cult, which is us, the Church.” So if the culture is sick, don’t think the problem is “going to be solved by an election. When you have a healthy cult you have a healthy culture. When you have a healthy culture you have healthy politics.

“So it comes right back to us. Look in the mirror. That’s where the problem is.”

www.breakpoint.org/bpcommentaries/entry/13/21637

I have come to believe that you are either building God's Kingdom or you are not. It is not something that you can dabble at or do a hurry-up job when it is convenient and you have a little time. It is a lifelong pursuit of God and God's Kingdom that takes qualities like mercy and justice and righteousness seriously, which man's kingdoms do not. The more a culture reflects this with millions of people taking God's Kingdom seriously, the more stable and functional the political system will be. I am not talking a theocracy. St. Paul reminds us that now we see through a glass darkly and there will always be an imperfect translation of the spiritual into the political. It is a balance that America's Founding Fathers recognized and in fact counted on in forming the American Republic. I pray that each of us will take our part in restoring a healthy culture, rejecting the jaded and cynical relativism that is the current ethic du jour and instead living our lives in a way that consistently reflects the qualities of God's Kingdom. That is the way back to a healthy political system.

Technological Breakthrough

Graphene. Get used to that name - it's going to change everything. It is pure carbon arranged in a hexagonal atomic pattern just one atom thick. Like a capacitor it recharges quickly. Like a battery it holds a charge. How about recharging your cell phone in 3-4 seconds? How about recharging an electric car in 2 minutes? It is light, bio-degradable and scientists all over the world are working on manufacturing processes to bring the cost down. Watch this one - in the next decade it is going to revolutionize our society.  

sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/01/130116102018.htm

(Tip o' the hat to PJTV)

Iran/al Qaeda Up U.S. Threat Level.

Iran just lost one of its major nuclear facilities and a number of its nuclear scientists and engineers and it's not happy. If the U.S. and Europe don't back off the pressure on its nuclear program, al Qaeda hit squads could be paying us a visit. www.wnd.com/2013/02/u-s-warned-al-qaida-hit-squads-coming/  Small terror squads would allegedly target U.S. politicians, power transmission sites, water reservoirs, and tourist magnets like Washington National Cathedral, the Lincoln Memorial, and the MET in New York. 

Smoke? Maybe, but the Director of National Intelligence said that such attacks are more likely, citing the attack on the Saudi ambassador in Washington, DC in 2011 as a harbinger. 
www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/01/31/intel-chief-al-qaeda-core-hurting-but-iran-more-willing-to-launch-attacks-in-us/

Time will tell, but it is definitely not a time to let down our guard. We seem to be involved in a national game of Trivial Pursuit with no one minding the store. That may not be the case, but perception is everything and we are most likely to be hit when we appear confused and distracted and very unserious. Is anyone minding the store?