Much has
been made about how much hasn’t changed since President Obama took office, but
it has been brought to the attention of this intrepid reporter that at least one thing
has changed. For one of the parts to the
bank bail-out deal was that the Federal government would become the holder of a great
many mortgages that were set to be foreclosed upon, and the following is
footage caught by a cell-phone video camera of an effort to recover some of the
money owed. You can decide for yourself
if this is a change for the good or not, and then cast for vote accordingly,
come November.
At first,
I didn’t know what to think, but then it started getting clearer to me that
this just might be about as brilliant of a marketing campaign as we have ever
seen. For with millions upon millions of
baby-boomers practicing for their second-childhoods for several years now, they
should be more than ready to embrace scarfing down [gummy bear vitamins] by the
handfuls to help insure being around long enough to motivate younger
generations to legalize mercy-killings.
Of course, mercy for whom will have to be worked out in congressional
committee meetings, but as long as it cuts spending on social welfare programs,
the Tea-Partiers should be all for it.
Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of
God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to
God—this is your true and proper worship.
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s
will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of
yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober
judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.[Romans 12:1-3 NIV]
It has
been widely taught that the passage above is talking about resisting former bad
habits, which is as it should be, but it has been personally revealed unto me
by our Heavenly Father that it is also referring to thinking of what is
generally considered to be spiritual matters in the eyes of this world as we
naturally do. For it is also written: We do, however,
speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or
of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that
has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it,
for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written: “What no eye has
seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”—the things
God has prepared for those who love him—these are the things God has revealed
to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches
all things, even the deep things of God.
For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them?
In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of
the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God
has freely given us. This is what we
speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit,
explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept
the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness, and
cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit. The person with the Spirit makes judgments
about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments,
for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ. [1 Corinthians 2:6-16 NIV]
Alas,
cannot that other part to worldliness be heard from many a pulpit far and
wide? For far too many have been led to
believe that the Bible is a book of instruction that only those who have
devoted their life in the study of it can be pleasing unto our Heavenly Father.
Again,
this is not to say that our Heavenly Father’s Holy Bible is of no
significance. For it does indeed contain
the sum-total of His Holy Scriptures, which were given to serve as written
confirmation of what He wants to personally reveal to each individual, in
accordance to what He wants to accomplish in and through them.
Oh, but
that last part is generally ignored. For
on the rare occasion when something is said about the role of our Heavenly
Father’s Holy Spirit in the day-to-day life of a believer, it is almost always
just in support of what is contained in the Bible, which is the way of this
world—not our Heavenly Father’s.
Yes,
others have all sorts of things to say about what His Holy Spirit has
personally revealed unto them—things that often smell (so to speak) much more
like smoke than a sweet-smelling offering, and this is why it is so important
to become as familiar with our Heavenly Father’s Holy Scriptures as He will
allow and enable you to be. For the
devil and his demons are masters at making even the most wicked of things sound
righteous and true.
Nonetheless,
woe be it unto all who place His Holy Scriptures ahead of Him. For they are cheating both themselves and our
Heavenly Father out of the very close and personal relationship that He so very
much desires to truly have with us while we are still a part of this
world. In fact, that is the only reason
why He created it, and have things go as they have.
“If you love me, keep my commands. And I will ask the Father, and he will give
you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth.
The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you
know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come
to you. Before long, the world will not
see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. On that day you will realize that I am in my
Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one
who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show
myself to them.” Then Judas (not Judas
Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to
the world?” Jesus replied, “Anyone who
loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to
them and make our home with them. Anyone
who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my
own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
“All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the
Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of
everything I have said to you. [John 14:15-26 NIV]
Is there
something about that offer that you find troubling? There is to me. For selling a $50 coin for less than $10 certainly sounds too good to be true—especially with the price of gold
reaching astronomical heights these days.
Of
course, there is no way to tell for sure without doing the math, which is
usually problematic for me. For I am
always forgetting to carry something, and with the untimely death of my trusty
old solar-powered Casio calculator, I am forced to use either a rusty old
slide-rule or a dusty old abacus.
Anyway, I
endeavored to persevere, and I came up with some amazing figures. For it turns out that there is 74 cents worth
of gold in one of those $50 coins.
Yep, you
read that right.
74 CENTS!!!
Meaning,
that the price of gold will have to reach over $22,000.00 per troy ounce before
you can recoup your investment.
Oh, but
wait—there’s more! For when you add in
the shipping and handling, the price of gold will have to reach over $33,000.00
just to get back what you have spent to purchase one of the coins.
How
so? Well, as disclosed in the
commercial, there are 14 milligrams of gold in those coins, and that equals
.000450 troy ounces. So, with the price
of gold being $1,652.80 per troy ounce at this very moment, you get 74 cents
worth of gold per coin.
Alas, I
wonder how many of those coins [they] have actually sold.
One would think that they would have to be selling quite a few just to
pay for the advertising.
No, I
wouldn’t recommend investing in these coins.
Of course, you could always hope to find another chump needing some
change.
Be
assured that we should not be quick to throw the baby out with the bathwater
(so to speak). For the teaching of
doctrine that truly is of our Heavenly Father helps to define what He wants us
to know and understand about Himself and the righteousness of all of His most
awesome ways. On the other hand, without
truly having a very close and personal relationship with Him, which most
certainly includes actually hearing His voice, we get the mess we are now
wallowing in.
P.S.: I would like to thank Dabuckna for calling attention to this.
The first
thing that I would like to make clear is that this is not meant as a
condemnation of [Katy Perry’s] parents.
For it has been made all too painfully clear to me that parents can try
to do everything they know to do to put their children on the right path, only
to watch them head off in the opposite direction, which happens a lot to [preacher's kids].
Ah, but
there is some debate on just how to do that—isn’t there? Although, I don’t think that neither [RN],
nor [Lavender Darwin], would disapprove of their efforts. That is, unless it isn’t true that she wasn’t
allowed to watch television, as reported in at least [this] article.
The
following videos provide some more insights, as does [this] article. I tried to procure the video of her dad
preaching at [Church on the Rise], which is the one that helped to prompt this
piece, but it was evidently taken down from the church’s site before I could.
Curiously,
the video was there at first, and then it was not.
Furthermore, it seems to have been taken down from [other places], as
well.
Now the Berean Jews were of more noble
character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great
eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was
true. [Acts 17:11 NIV]
Trust, but verify was a favorite
saying of [President Reagan] while dealing with the Soviets in the 1980’s. In fact, it formed the basis for his foreign
policy.
Be
assured that it would do us all well to do the same when it comes to trying to
discern between what is truly of our Heavenly Father and what is not. For it is written: Dear friends, do not believe every spirit,
but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false
prophets have gone out into the world. This
is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that does not
acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which
you have heard is coming and even now is already in the world. You, dear children, are from God and have
overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in
the world. They are from the world and
therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God, and whoever knows God
listens to us; but whoever is not from God does not listen to us. This is how
we recognize the Spirit of truth and the spirit of falsehood.[1 John 4:1-6 NIV]
No,
He really doesn’t mind at all. For it
was for this reason that He provided us with His Holy Scriptures to serve as
written confirmation of what He wants to personally reveal unto us all [2 Timothy 3:15-17 NIV].
On
the other hand, woe be it unto those who refuse to accept what our Heavenly
Father actually says is absolutely true.
For it is also written: If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives
generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you. But when you ask, you must believe and not
doubt, because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed
by the wind. That person should not
expect to receive anything from the Lord.
Such a person is double-minded and unstable in all they do.[James 1:5-8 NIV]
No,
it does not make it any easier that much of what our Heavenly Father actually says
is absolutely true is quite contrary to what has been so widely taught in His
name for far too long. Compounding the
problem is that far too many have been led to believe that He no longer seeks
to communicate with us directly, which leaves them to conclude that wisdom must
be gleaned from their own understanding of what His Holy Scriptures are really
saying.
It is
said that college football is a religion down in the deep south, which made the
comment about Alabama and Auburn fans being like the Israelis and Palestinians
all the more poignant. After seeing this
film, you might have a better understanding, but even after experiencing it all
too up-close and personally, it still hard to believe.
After
hours of careful (agonizing, actually) consideration, I do hereby resolve to
follow Mr. Rundgren’s example for the following year. Needless to say, it was a no-brainer.
This site is meant to present as many views as possible of what we may want to believe is the truth about a number of subjects. For the more closely we seek to examine such, the closer we can come to accepting what our Heavenly Father actually says is absolutely true. For He will be there to counter what is not right, and He truly is interested in every aspect of our daily lives. Ah, but who is so deaf as the one who does not want to hear?
No, this is not for just articles about the possibility of us truly being in the end times. For it has been personally revealed to me that every day in this world is one of tribulation. In fact, even what we would naturally consider to be the best of lives is absolutely miserable in comparison to the worst of lives in our Heavenly Father’s Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, be assured that this is a place for articles on politics (both secular and religious), business practices, social issues, environmental concerns, as well as spiritual matters—not all from a strictly “Christian” perspective, neither.
If you would like to be a contributor, please drop me an email at FishHawk7@gmail.com. Reposting of articles that you have published elsewhere is permitted, and all rights to your own material will be retained by you. If you would like to publish something while remaining anonymous, just email it to me, and I will assign you an alias. For a small fee, I can even promise to keep your true identity a secret. (LOL?)
On the other hand, you could contribute just as much by leaving comments that will encourage further discussion, but please try to be civil. For a challenge can be made without getting ugly about it. Well, at least that is what I have heard.
