Criminal insurrectionists and their confessors attacking the symbols and substance of life as we know it are in the same boring bag. Regrettably, they suck the oxygen out of too many rooms.
What bores you?
Author: eejoseph
Bakers, cooks, inmates, indigents, singers and dancers
Fleas and other pests are a real risk with human company as they are with animal company. If my choices result in flea discomfort, so be it. the baker the cook will certainly delight with their creations, and the inmates and indigents will always be saying facts. The singers and dancers always have a place of honor in the citadel of great foundations, so their company is bound to b a source of joy, happiness and peace.
Who are your favorite people to be around?
No exit strategy. Fight to victory
The slaughter of millions of humans in the pursuit of power, territory, and treasure might pass as necessary moves by any authority protecting its people’s future. The regional fights for values have seen the planet descend into the abyss of cultural priorities and, frankly, politico-religious garbage. We cannot make idols of military prowess, or make a moral standard of ethnic insularity superiority, or make the fear of resident foreigners a reason to unleash mass murder, destruction of property, uprooting of communities, and the imprisonment of entire populations, and think that such treachery escapes the eyes that do not sleep. Three months ago Forbes Breaking News was citing surveys that show half of the GOP were telling anyone who would listen that the US was doing too much for Ukraine. Their aversion to what they call endless wars. American wisdom in the area of war-making is supposed to include an exit strategy, aimed at ensuring no repeat of the conflicts in Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan. One assumes that the reluctance to put American boots on the ground in Syria and a host of hot spots is the offspring of that policy. In February 2023 Republicans are on air standing with President Biden on conducting support for Ukraine for as long as it takes. When a dog tells you he’s going to eat his vomit, do not cringe when he does. When a weather vane rotates in a dead calm something sinister and demonic is on tap, and reading “until Ukraine wins” as fuzzy exit strategy is right on the money.
Why else do people declare war and prosecute them if not to win? The GOP is a satanic beast, and this is not to say that Republicans are demoniacs. The idea that parties who lose elections are duly authorized to oppose the government and the winning party is as outhouse as Popeye and spinach. In the British empire and its colonies we have seen Her Majesty’s loyal opposition show themselves desolate of decency and nobility by their mindless attempts to overthrow the party in power by outrageous and nice-sounding slogans. No family, corporation, or civic entity can claim to be stable with even one member acting as avowed opposition. Forget the notion that opposition parties have as their priority offering sound advice and recommendations to the party in power. Forget the notion that any of household will tolerate a spouse or child acting as critics with a goal of ending the appropriate bonds and functions of any stakeholder.
Devilish deals
It is diabolic operational priority to slander, oppose, and destroy. A professor who advocates burning of books is a fool on an errand. The Christian who champions law and order, from any source, is like the ox who does not know his owner, is like the ass who does not know his master’s crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider.” (Isaiah 1:3) No-one needs to be actually possessed by an evil spirit (a fallen angel) or the leader of the fallen angels himself to be found slandering, committing murder, stealing, or destroying. In one of the truly eye-opening predictions about demonic influence we find a people in the latter days who are clearly being influenced, but not identified as demoniac. Their activities include:
- Speaking lies in hypocrisy
- having their conscience seared with a hot iron; (read “messed-up conscience“)
- Forbidding to marry (ethnic discrimination and tribalism)
- commanding to abstain from meats (dietary nonsense)
“Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;” “Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth.” (1 Timothy 4:1-3)
Flip flop, hawk-dove
Every day eyes are being opened to view the follies of human heroes, people putting their lives on the line for inconsiderate theories and policies. There will always be poor people, naive and gullible people. Exactly how childish the conservative aligned people are will appear again when the GOP starts pushing for an exit strategy from support for Ukraine against Russian aggression and for the United States to withdraw from the Asia-Pacific arena to let China have its draconian way.
Is it not dreadful?
[2013 revisited. This is an essay that sat around for ten years]. Listening to some people talk can be a serious challenge to serenity. One can actually peer through the gloom of their repetitions, overlook the jarring tones of some voices, look past their vulgarities, see through their technical language, salvage their broken sentences, ignore the many toes in their mouths, to see the play-acting that sometimes passes for more than a few of the 21st century’s profundities. Is it not dreadful though that both professional and non-professional people expect to be heard without delivering reliable information to the waiting audience? Listening can provide a sense of how deep a thought process is and, if you haven’t noticed, it can be a journey into incredible and dreadful contradictions.
A lot of people in the marketplace of ideas and social life find themselves either dancing to the popular or common tunes or playing the music. Whoever does not dance is not normal. If you start singing and dancing people assume that you aspire to be rich, powerful, and privileged, and oppressive. Upward mobility seems to have become the main criteria for evaluation. Is it not dreadful that the poor and the vulnerable are exploited by almost everyone with a sceptre?
Is it not even more dreadful that in the smaller audiences – the schools, the churches, the synagogues, the corporate boardrooms – that a whole lot of corrupt and perverted opinions pass for truth? There seems to be a collective blindness about the standards that have lasted for millennia. If the trend continues unchecked we can expect the worst to happen. The worst could very well be that the values we cherish become the trash we’ve always secretly dreaded.
Is it not dreadful that the news is dominated by bombs in ancient nations? No bombs, no headlines. You have to be in an ancient culture to make it, make disgusting attacks on children and women, deny human rights to those in your care, and have a steady stream of violent deaths. People say they appreciate the core values of the US and the UK, but amid the democratic and security arrangements by the twin-sisters of pride and folly the path to a nuclear winter in Asia is being paved with nuclear bombs in the hands of misogynist and xenophobic regimes.
Is it not dreadful that the US people are supposedly supporting India’s hungry, while India is pushing the limits of discrimination with its millennia of caste exclusions, in addition to building its nuclear weapon capabilities? Is it not dreadful that the only bombs in Canada are the mountains of verbal barbs in a cross-border tussle, which the southern neighbour sees as mole-hills. Competing with Aboriginals in North and South America is a losing proposition. There is no chance of modern religious or national upstarts (e.g. Islam, various Christian-isms, Canada, the United States, Pakistan) ever finding a productive role on the stage of being any more frighteningly dreadful.
“Shields up” against the customary stream of blah, blah, and blah. Dreadfully boring politics and religion and yes, scientific cooperation among deadly enemies. How deadly can the gods of science be? How alluring are the spoils of scientific exploration of the micro world!
How incredibly daft does one need to be to believe that sworn enemies, like Jews and Iranians, allies like Britons and Americans, can cooperate over the building of a scientific tool, but have failed to agree on where their people should live and worship.
Is it not dreadful that people all over the globe are playing the tolerance game while the beneficiaries outnumber the benefits. Is it not dreadful that a new nationalism and patriotism will take the place of magnanimity and hospitality? What we say today is just as dreadful as what we are about to become: animals that say nothing except mindless cliches and empty slogans.
Alpha, Beta, Gimel, Next
If there was a biography about you, what would the title be?
Lies from the Dead
Has anyone noticed a rise in the number of TV shows featuring a peek into other-worldly scenarios. We are learning as a result a great deal about people who can see the future, people who cannot die, and people who straddle the world of being alive and dead. This trend is not merely entertainment. While we are accustomed to blurring the lines of creativity and reality the lines of human existence do not have that much room. Merging the poles of human existence is far more disturbing than one sees at first. If you have never thought about some of the realities of life and death now is a good time to begin, because an unprecedented campaign of deception is underway, and it is no less damaging than the onslaught in the Garden of Eden. The proposition was that humans can disobey God, because humans are not really going to die as God had threatened. Today the lie is that God cannot put humans to death, because humans are immortal. Even if we thought that God was our respect for the stability of what our ancestors passed on to us as “get a grip and hang on” we have to admit that an immortal that cannot hang on traditions is neither immortal nor wise.
Same lie, different perspective. Death and life are opposites; they do not meet. God made man a living being (a nephesh hayyah), an earthy entity, not spiritual, and confirmed mortal. At best humans keep in tow the vision that we have the capacity to emulate soaring eagles. And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit. 1 Cor. 15:45
Man is not a spiritual being, and he will not be anything different from what he was made in Eden until the day when Christ transforms the mortal and corruptible. Perhaps we do not see a certain crumbling foothold in believing that immortals were deceived and died in consequence.
47 The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven. 48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. 49 And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. 1 Corinthians 15:47-49
There are different types of bodies: celestial, terrestrial, stellar, lunar, etc. Difference can be discerned in the resurrection.
42 So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 43 It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: 44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body. 1 Corinthians 15:42-44
Hear what Paul says about this trail of our present into the future. It even rebukes the “born-again” propaganda, for we see here that adoption is achieved when the body is redeemed, at the time when the creature is delivered from the bondage of corruption
For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us. (Romans 8:18) or the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. (Romans 8:19) or the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, (Romans 8:20) Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. (Romans 8:21) For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. (Romans 8:22) And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of ourbody. (Romans 8:23)
Games we play with reality
Who is it that has died, that is, was declared lifeless? Who was not gathered to his ancestors, and who was not buried in the ground or the ancestral or traditional place and manner? Even our Lord was confirmed dead and was buried so that his generation would have no sign but the sign of his resurrection.
Chasing miracles to go mega
But we have to ask “Which part of from the dead do people not get? When we realize that healing a few sick, exorcising demons, and prophesying are not big deals all that is left is the resurrection. Any story we can come up with to show the measure of our fellowship with God is likely to be eclipsed by the resurrection of the dead.
All the people who have died are in their graves.
The dead await resurrection. Did someone hold a pistol to the heads of Christians and tell them that they have to believe that the dead fly off either to be with Christ or start burning forever? Well you might not realize it but it is a cardinal belief of evangelical Christianity that believers die-and-go-to-heaven. They drill it into the convert as part of of the life-giving gospel. A person is not likely to be baptized if they do not subscribe to that belief. Is it not setting a poor example for God to conduct his greatest act by overriding the elements of procreation, pinning salvation to an act of stepping outside of his personal attributes? The Lord vindicates himself by taking those steps to make our transformation attractive and possible.
Gone for broke, death from life
Exactly what is being transformed in the present age? Minds and attitudes
Exactly what will be transformed at the end of age? Bodies.
They’re not all the same, and neither in heaven nor hell
5:28 Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, John 5:28
And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. John 5:29
Once they come back from the dead, run. We should expect a person who has seen the two pages of human experience to be in possession of the ripest discernment of the meaning of our journey. There is not, in any reputable journal, a single ancient Israelite hero who has seen Sheol and has given Israel a transforming commandment, statute, or judgment. It seems that seeking clarity from the dead, clarity about the dead, and life without death is a doomed venture.
New generation of hypocrites
Former governor George Bush was a thunderous old boy. Former governor Haley will be a thunderous old girl. Sharing the stage with John Hagee should send shivers up the spine of everyone who discerns what is good, does justice, loves kindness, and walks humbly with God. (Micah 6:8, NASB)
Invertebrate leadership
Where was the light of this new GOP star when 45 and the Congressional Republicans plotted and executed an insurrection? Where was Nikki Haley’s voice as the MAGA Republicans gut and demolish democracy did nothing to end – yes, end – the racist banking and real estate industries’ terrorism of Black and Brown people? Her record is a fireman’s record: reporting for duty at the station. Her association with John Hagee leads to the long overdue exposure of the popular support by Christians for the state of Israel as a flawed supremacist last hurrah. Some people have no spine and inserting the rebar of fine speeches of national pride will not prevail as the present truth. No-one gets away with nice talk and miracles to cover an abomination.
Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.’
Matthew 7:22-23
Let all the nations currently crumbling under the rubble of their religious and cultural pride be a warning against the new brood of vipers.
Leaves are not inconsequential
Now in the morning, when He was returning to the city, He became hungry. Seeing a lone fig tree by the road, He came to it and found nothing on it except leaves only; and He said to it, “No longer shall there ever be any fruit from you.” And at once the fig tree withered.
Matthew 21:18-19
We may want to conclude on the basis of the Matthew 21 episode with the fig tree that leaves are inconsequential, that they do not matter to God, but they do.
God’s trees are known by both fruit and leaves
“He will be like a tree firmly planted by streams of water, Which yields its fruit in its season And its leaf does not wither; And in whatever he does, he prospers.” (Psalms 1:3, NASB)
The disciples of Yahweh are plants, incessantly in touch with lifegiving water. When will we be a tree in this arrangement? Is there anyone in this position? First, let us admit that the following five characteristics define the happy or blessed person.
- He does not walk in the counsel of the wicked,
- He does not stand in the path of sinners,
- He does not sit in the seat of scoffers!
- He delights is in the law of the Lord
- He meditates in Yahweh’s law day and night.
Surely the tree description must apply. The prophetic literature uses the vineyard and tree analogy effectively. From Jeremiah we receive “For he will be like a tree planted by the water, That extends its roots by a stream And will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, And it will not be anxious in a year of drought Nor cease to yield fruit.” (17:8). Isaiah’s 5th chapter describes God’s people, the house of Israel and the men of Judah, as a failed vineyard,
“For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel And the men of Judah His delightful plant. Thus He looked for justice, but behold, bloodshed; For righteousness, but behold, a cry of distress.”
Isaiah 5:7
The withered fig tree is a parable of untimely fruitless ness. Leaves are great but fruit are better, and the movie is about Judah, out of time and out of divine favour. Yeshua’s church never becomes a withered tree. Her faith assures her of victory.
Life is Fun, But Not a Joke 