Author: eejoseph

Turn off the apathy gene

eejoseph,

What is one thing you would change about yourself?

The world is in decay.  Silos of self-interest dominate the public conversation.  “I care” can be understood as “you matter”, and both should transcend talk and tasks assigned.  Apathy is now hiding as sectarian zeal waiting to convert the unsuspecting to become warriors for religious or political preferences.  People matter so much that Solomon concluded that all – everything – is vanity.  I absolutely reject every appearance of human apathy and the self-aggrandizement of the heroes of the twenty-first century.  I want to care more about others, and not as a dreamer or fantasizer.

Busted, convicted, and dumped in the field of grungy heroes

eejoseph, , ,

Analyze the data until our sun goes supernova and the deluded hordes of religious fanatics and idolatrous Israel-lovers will not subject themselves to justice.  They have for so long looked the other way when their actions have been called into question that they no longer know what justice looks like.  We, the wide awake public, have reason to believe that governance in Israel has been a criminal enterprise from antiquity, and the evidence is far from scant, if one counts the Bible as a reliable source. It is heartening to see that the evidence of Israel’s traditional crimes has impressed the International Criminal Court. Never mind my premature conclusion in the title, one would have to be blind and deaf not to have the lasting impression that Israel and its latest quarry are bent on passing off criminal ventures as noble responses to life’s changes.

Regret and remorse

If one listens to the spiel coming from Israeli politicians speaking for the government one hears a steady stream of defiance of international law, and an absolute trampling on human decency, in the continuation of settlements, and the repeated displacement of Palestinian people, but one only needs to listen to the videos coming from people in the occupied territories to see the level of malice and cruelty that comes out in the words and actions of Israeli settlers. One wonders if they think that they are still in the thirteenth century BC when God gave them the green light to annihilate people that we would call innocent in Canaan. No, they can’t. They would have to skip the longstanding relations with Midian, Syria, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, and Great Britan. The latest warrants from the International Criminal Court are for individuals who told everyone that their goals are the total annihilation of their sworn enemy. Hamas’ dastardly massacre on Israeli citizens in October 2023 and Israel’s decades-long oppression of the Palestinian people will doubtless be prime evidence in the ICC’s indictment. These merchants of death and violence have nothing to say that can move the international authorities towards believing that Hamas and Israel can muster any thing that resembles regret and remorse. We would be naive to read pronouncements from these indicted criminals as sincere human emotions.

Shielded from arrest

We know who will stand with Israel and Hamas, no matter what. Where the indicted officials can travel is no secret. The jail cells for them are a divine appointment, equal to the depressing and withering remainder of their days alive. Of course their days are numbered and the vigilantee vengeance which can seem like just deserts, but unsatisfying. No-one in Hamas’s domain and in Israel can be expected to hand the accused over to the ICC. Human vengeance is never justice. Israel especially should recall the long hand of justice mixed with mercy that destroyed the temple twice. The only reliable shield Hamas and Israel can turn to is the simple intersection of humility and love of justice.

Wisdom, where have you gone?

We all will need a conscience that is free from tampering. If you want to see how public opinion pans out and how the accused might benefit from the output of publishing organizations, see the varying lengths of news videos: CNN, 9 minutes; Al Jazeera English, 5 minutes; and CBC, less than 90 seconds. My title stands as my hope, solidly against the expectations of the accused.  Canada may be counted on to deny indicted criminals like 45 and Netanyahu from violating Canadian sovereign dignity.  Maybe the  Canadian government will arrest them both. Canadians are pledged to respect international law and are not interested in being sycophants of either Israel or the United States.  The combined wisdom of ancient and modern juggernauts is in the ditch due to inhumane policy commitments.  Authoritarianism is a dead donkey and the proponents of a great revival in Israel and the United States have long drifted from accountability to their populations. Poor Israel and Uncle Sam. Do they think people do not see what is happening?

Been an omnivore, vegan, vegetarian

eejoseph,

What are your feelings about eating meat?

Rum and raisin ice cream on a grass-fed steak gives me a thrill that may be denied if some extremists have their way.  However I’ll be damned if I’ll become a vegetable, having feelings about what people – me included – have for dinner.  Let the people of Nunavut and Equatorial Africa enjoy their food without emotional input from anyone who does not live in the Arctic or on the equator. 

COP29

eejoseph, ,

Falling short of the target 🎯

Thank God, news correspondents and the passion of disrupter nations are not guiding the planet’s response to climate change.  Consensus reached will always be better than states perpetually on the brink of implosion dictating the way forward. Those who are bent on exploiting labour and acquiring power broker status have been sent packing. Science and justice have not vanished and the hearts of a new generation will stand up to defend both.  Perhaps it is too late to criminalize the exploitation of resources that damages the planet.

We are living in an era of criminal enterprise passing as patriotic heroism.  Israel’s government is a fraudulent silo with some of the most righteous talk about real estate and the righting of wrongs.  Despots in Europe, Asia and the Middle East are discovering Hitler’s hypnotic recruiting and incitement strategy.  Any crooked and misinformed person with even a facade of wealth can gain public office.  Arrows that do not even reach the target can be reported to have hit bull’s eye.  Laugh at the tyrants because three young boys have blazed a path to exposing the inhumanity and depravity of the mighty.  Two stones have risen from the dead to continue to give seismic testimony about the chaos in which dictators, oligarchs, supreme leaders, and religious prelates thrive for their allotted short terms. 

“And the nations were enraged, and Your wrath came, and the time came for the dead to be judged, and the time to reward Your bond-servants the prophets and the saints and those who fear Your name, the small and the great, and to destroy those who destroy the earth.” (Revelation of John 11:18, NASB)

Not taking care of the planet has direct consequence.  A man who destroys his house lives under a  cloud of extreme downward judgment, reaping what they have sown.

Able Beyond Comprehension

eejoseph, , ,

Able-ness, Ability, Can-doitition

Divine Able-ness: DEFINED

There should be no surprise that Infinity properly defines God. Raw and infinite power defines God. This is the significance of the MYSTERY OF GODLINESS, that God gives life to the dead.  Even in the incarnation where the majesty of the Godhead is somewhat veiled, raw power and ability are on display. The Word becoming flesh  is called a humiliation and an emptying (Phil. 2:7-8) and even then God’s ability to have his way plays out with amazing outcomes.  The entire experience of the believer is a down payment on the coming glory, and that future remains our hope.  The Spirit of God at work in us is a measured enterprise.  Only of Christ can it be said that his endowments are without or beyond measure. God’s ability does not define us, it saved us; it gave life to the dead. Our new status and our lifestyle are the outcome of extreme – great – love, and think we can agree that it is the greatest thing. In any galaxy and forever people will be singing the praises of the Lamb, and that praise and joyful recognition begin with our conversion. Paul calls us God’s poiema, a finished work started and guaranteed (Ephesians 2:10).

34. “For He whom God has sent speaks the words of God; for He gives the Spirit without measure. 35. “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand. (John 3:34-35, NASB)

It is exciting that discussions of God’s power and of the life of believers in the Holy Spirit typically revolves around faith’s victory.  Believing in Christ made us new children of God, and that faith works by love, in service  into triumphalism; that idea that people can do all things because Christ is strengthening them. Triumphalism denies the fact that God allows some things  to come into being only when faith is present, and in the vast majority of cases, the fantastic things, such as a man receiving an amputated arm or leg back or funerals interrupted with any regularity have not been observed, even when the minutest amount of vape is required to move the mountain.

Divine Ableness: UNDERSTOOD

Believers are endowed with many things that were on display in the incarnation, however our finite understanding does not allow us to predict, decree and execute the divine will with CHRIST’s unique integrity.  One mistake, or one misspeak, or one speculation shows our understanding to fall short. In the wider view, if our understanding of DA does not align with or fit into the redemptive scheme of the now revealed things of the Godhead then all we have is the witness of the heavens and the firmament. 

Faith itself provides our understanding of divine being and power

When we say “… can do …” or ask “Could you?” we are addressing power.  It is important to separate fact from fiction. God’s not about to be shown as a false witness or a failure at any level. The Testimony we bring must include gratitude for divine ability and for the pattern of Yeshua’s life, not in the life he has  in glory, but the life he showed in preparation for the cross, and the life at the cross.  All authority and power end at Christ’s throne and his distribution of gifts, whether by interventions or permanent endowments, prospers us.  But we never acquire all power or authority. Salvation does not place us beyond in permanent aseity.  Christ is the Only-Begotten.  We will never be. Christ had life in himself and we do not. In all the circumstances of life we found ourselves supremely conquering.   We do not get to Zion by checking off a list of victories.

A. The act of salvation in the Exodus did not trickle down into the journey to Canaan

B. The act of confirming popular desire did not trickle down into an empire

📜 Because God is able does not mean he acts

📜 God’s spiritual blessings are non-consumable and beyond the mundane needs

📜 His view most always exceeds and supercedes our view. 

Our security is not to be measured by blessing. Food, drink, and shelter, all common blessings, are God’s gifts to all humanity. Christians are not saved from hunger, thirst, and homelessness.

Unbelief, Testimony, Reporting Progress

God turns unbelief  into faith to declare his righteousness.  Wand People Posting Progress are the iconic images of power abuse, because miracles and all kinds of signs and wonders are not the means of saving people, and if there is one unforgettable and lasting exercise of power it is the righteousness of God declared in the cross. On the other hand God’s power is so distinct from our helplessness that wanting to have divine attributes becomes sinful. Under no circumstance or promise do humans become the Eternal God: we partake of divine nature, that is the Spirit, acquire immortal bodies, but we do not ever become omniscient, omnipresent, ineffable, infinite and sovereign potentate. Humility ought to sober us up and heal us of a kind of can-do-all-things aspiration. No-one has ever seen a human grow an amputated limb, but the salamander does several times. Birds have no middle man when they need a house or a meal, but we do.

Gifts from God’s able-ness and great gain

Healing the whole body still leaves the person who prays for it and the one who gets it in need of something more to enter God’s kingdom.  The growth in grace is Exhibit A when God’s able-ness is the foundation of life.   Able-ness – power and ability ≠ intervention.  At its most satisfying level, divine able-ness makes us godly and content, with a river inside of us springing up into eternal Life.