Ford’s Fizzling Fantasy

eejoseph

Ontario’s Premier Ford’s legacy has come down to building pipelines!  He was off to Washington to make a deal with the American felon when the tariff terror began! Buck-a-beer – beer for one dollar must be the greatest secret in Ontario history! Homes in Ontario’s Green Belt is the scandalous rejection of environmental stewardship and accountability! Opting out of the Federal Constitution twice shows at least a little desperation! He sheltered behind secrecy from giving evidence at the inquiry into the Freedom Convoy! This is Premier Ford of Ontario’s legacy. “Business makes people free and successful” must be his motto, while poverty still stalks Ontario’s streets. Ford was willing to privatize Health Care and impose fees for services. Can we say he likes the USA’s version of oppressive health care services on the basis of all the moves he has made to whittle away the equity of Canada’s Health Care Law? It is a certainty that entrepreneurs and corporation with sizeable US dollar accounts are his friends and favourite partners. His pops are well-timed, occuring just when people are looking at political options to counter the conservative robot. Non-progressive politicians are fizzling like candles in a light drizzle. Maybe a new generation of the great Sir John A will save Ontario from American domnation only to lose it to ruthless exploitation of the environment. The pops are few, the cracks even fewer, and the fizzle of all the Fords of the world is all too obvious.

Ontarians have lost their way just like the people of the United States and have voted for a man who was essentially a shopkeeper with a penchant for rosy handouts to everyone, tax breaks for the corporate world, and massive projects without the protection of the environment. Remember Ford’s “Ontario is open for business”? That what a province is now. A shop. No wonder. The greatest surprise is in store for Canadians when they learn the extent to which American investment and American residency in Canada have affected their education, health, personal safety, and wealth as a result of provincial premiers bending over like loyal servants of the USA and lovers of the Yankee dollar. The amber waves of grain are sending a fetid aroma across the border and Canadians may have to endure it for a little while. I hear no crack, a few pops, but mostly fizzle.

What’s a positive without a little negative?

eejoseph,

Describe a random encounter with a stranger that stuck out positively to you.

I am pleased to relate my encounter with someone who I can now call a very well-dressed, well-spoken, and open panhandler.  This individual greeted me most warmly and gave me what I thought was a Christian kind of blessing, and then told me that a job was elusive, even though the job sought was part-time, and that hard times were knocking at the door.

Can you help me? 
What do you need? 
$x for lunch
Follow me to the store and wait, please (wanting to conceal my stash of cash, and determining to give half of what was asked for)

After buying my items at the store I came out with my cash ready and there was the dignified panhandler, waiting.  I turned over the amount, wished the panhandler well, and said goodbye.

This encounter is memorable because as I left the scene I felt that I had failed, not delivering what was requested, a simple meal, one meal, instead giving half.

How often does a panhandler say exactly what they want and not get it? Gee! I gotta get better at giving!

Good Grief Gone

eejoseph, ,

You can stop thinking that Good Friday is a holy season that comes with the authority of Scripture or even has the accuracy of an annual festival.  Picking the Friday before or after Passover is another convenient avoidance of the facts.  Since no truth or spiritual value exceeds the passion, and no act of Christ outranks his death it is time to consider good grief gone to ground an established fact.

Good grief assured Abram

God said to Abram, “Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years. (Genesis 15:13)

This was in answer to Abram seeking assurance that the land of Canaan was going to be his home and his descendants’.

7. And He said to him, “I am the Lord who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess it.” 8. He said, “O Lord God, how may I know that I will possess it?” (Genesis 15:7-8)

It is not that we need holy days, weeks, months.  They are all juvenile toys.

9. But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? 10. Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. 11. I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain. (Galatians 4:9-11)

Truth gone to ground with Good Friday

Is it not a deadly myth that God saved eight people and all the animals, clean and unclean from the flood, and saved the people from Egypt only to kill all of them except two in the wilderness?

This holiest of moments that we can pin almost to the hour is not subject to sectarian opinion or manipulation. 

Harvest time triad

eejoseph, , , , ,

In two of the four Gospels we find a saying about harvest time conditions with reference to gathering people to Christ. The saying in Matthew 9 and Luke 10 and defies our habits of saying yes and meaning no.  This saying is not one to dicker with.  The popular evangelism pep talk does not work. Those soul winners who have reengineered conversion routines will find no socket in the harvest time proclamation for plugging in their membership drives. 

Then He said to His disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. (Matthew 9:37) “Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” (Matthew 9:38)

And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest. (Luke 10:2)

Unmistakable interpretation clues

Men … de (μεν . . .  δε) is a construction in New Testament Greek that identifies a contrasting pair of propositions or conditions.  In English it corresponds precisely with “On the one hand… on the other”.  Men is seldom translated and de comes out in translation as “but’.  So in our example from Luke chapter 10 and Matthew chapter 9 the contrasting conditions are plentiful harvest and few workers.

Here are two examples of the full translation of men . . . de as “on the one … hand but on the other”.

The gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for ON THE ONE HAND the judgment arose from one transgression resulting in condemnation, BUT ON THE OTHER hand the free gift arose from many transgressions resulting in justification. (Romans 5:16)

23. The former priests, ON THE ONE HAND, existed in greater numbers because they were prevented by death from continuing, 24. but Jesus, ON THE OTHER HAND, because He continues forever, holds His priesthood permanently. (Hebrews 7:23-24)

The harvest triad verse and men … de sentence.

The triad designation is my own effort to insist that the appearance of the word for harvest – θερισμός – three times means that this saying should be treated as harvest doctrine.

ἔλεγεν ⸀δὲ πρὸς αὐτούς· Ὁ μὲν θερισμὸς πολύς, οἱ δὲ ἐργάται ὀλίγοι· δεήθητε οὖν τοῦ κυρίου τοῦ θερισμοῦ ὅπως ⸂ἐργάτας ἐκβάλῃ⸃ εἰς τὸν θερισμὸν αὐτοῦ. (Luke 10:2)

There are two clauses [thought blocks] in the verse making up one sentence.  The first clause addresses the situation,  namely plentiful harvest and few workers.  Separating the plentiful harvest from the few workers destroys the men . . . de construction.  That is an example of doing violence to the text.

Try separating Christ dying in the flesh from his  being made alive in the spirit as another men … de construction framed the Lord’s reconciling death.  If Christ and all humans are spirit beings this saying by Peter is pure hogwash.

Problem and solution

For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; (1 Peter 3:18)

This harvest time saying does not leave a lot of room for people to deny the problem or find workarounds for the solution. Even with that kind of clarity – big harvest, few workers, pray – there is the problem of ignoring what harvest means.  Do not keep saying that harvesting is evangelism, is whatever we do to proselytize.  You cannot turn working with ripe fruit or grain into plowing, planting seeds, watering the plants, or pruning.  It is sheer madness to do so.

What does a plentiful harvest look like?

Finally, let us examine the dimensions of the problem and the solution. If the Lord was saying 2,000 years ago that fields were ripe for harvest, we can conclude that Christians have spent the last 2,000 years acting as if our task is divided into planting seeds, watering crops and do some weeding and applying fertilizer? Does not harvest mean gather the ready produce? The first example of harvest in the church was on the day of Pentecost when Peter’s preaching resulted in 3,000 souls added to the body of Christ.  The plentiful harvest, the Lord of the harvest and the unfinished harvest are beckoning.

S P E W F like “truth”

eejoseph,

What are 5 everyday things that bring you happiness?

Sleeping
Productivity
Eating
Waking 
Fasting

CURIOSITY for me is not a spoof, because it attends each bringer of happiness. Sunlight makes me happy even at night when someone else is getting it.  Finished and unfinished business are also the main sources of happiness because that’s all she wrote. Ones and zeroes. My truth, my “spewf”.

Getting the point when it is not David or Messiah

eejoseph

Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name. (Psalms 91:14)“

Parsing the persons in this verse, we get eight pronouns.

  • He = the human
  • Me = the deity
  • I = the deity
  • Him = the human
  • I = the deity
  • Him = the human
  • He = the human
  • My = the deity

Persons in this verse seem awkward, so try inserting yourself opposite Yahweh.

Because I love HIM, therefore HE will deliver me,  HE will set me  securely on high, because I know HIS name. (Psalms 91:14)

Significantly, the deliverance rolls out on terms wholly unlike most religious doctrine about exaltation and revelation of the divine name.  Love (chashaq, חשק) sets the scene, not belief or obedience.

My name is plant

eejoseph,

What is one word that describes you?

For most of my life I have thought that my names have shaped my life, but more recently I have realized how much I have in common with members of my family, schoolmates, workmates, girlfriends, teachers and mentors.

Plant

I have to admit that I have been aware of my status as an acorn, even a mustard seed, for a long time, and the consideration has also accompanied me equally as long that the potential of seeds is tree. As for the usual end of human life, the earth itself beckons as the place where I will be planted, regardless of oak tree or mustard tree.

Do not make us scoff

eejoseph

It is enough that God is laughing at the pitiful attempts of rulers and their allies to unseat the reliable order that he established in Zion.  Protestants and Roman Catholics just united to bring an end to the quest for mercy, justice and humility.  There is little chance of the great American experiment succeeding.  We do not want to laugh, but it would be a good thing if commentators terminated their alarms about the demise of the church and Christianity.

1) Why are the nations in an uproar and the peoples devising a vain thing? 2) The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers take counsel together against the Lord and against His Anointed, saying, 3)  “Let us tear their fetters apart and cast away their cords from us!” 4) He who sits in the heavens laughs, The Lord scoffs at them. (Psalms 2:1-4)

The people of God are not in crisis

Even though most Christians today seem to be always complaining about their aches and pains and their feet problems in society, it is absolutely clear that the church is triumphing and not in any crisis. The gates of hell are not prevailing.  Just because a few outspoken ignoramuses are on TV spouting all kinds of doctrines and making themselves look like the Holy Grail there is no reformation taking place, and the church is wrinkle free and unspotted.  If not Yeshua of Nazareth is a liar.  The liars are the racist and xenophobic modern religious movements that have arisen in the United States and Europe.  They contort themselves into various entities so they can impress people with their innovations mixed with ancient practices.

The warriors of American greatness are blind

There are numerous signs that western civilization is terminally ill.  The worst conditions are only now being recognized by the masses.  The state of politics does not prescribe the destiny of believers.  Whether you are Christian Jewish or Muslim you will find that governments will never honestly dictate how people construct their lives as responsible citizens.  The last thing they want is for people to think independently. I can’t imagine what the rod of iron will do to the high and mighty but it is clearly our greatest need.  Hopefully, it is a rod that offers a remake and benefits.

and he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces, as I also have received authority from My Father; (Revelation of John 2:27)