DEATH OF SELF RESTRAINT

Yes, Oprah had a rousing speech at  the Golden Globes.  Why was it rousing?  She spoke against wrongs.

But may we speak frankly?  In order to know "wrong", we must know "right".

"Right and wrong" have been missing from the national discourse, replaced by whatever looked right in each man's eyes.  That led to many ills, including the death of self-restraint.

Dan Menninger wrote a great piece in the Wall Street Journal about the death of self-restraint.  LINK

At the Golden Globes, the CONTRIBUTORS TO THE COARSENING OF THE CULTURE sought high ground as they roared their assent to Oprah's call for truth, for being empowered,  for hope on the horizon, and...never again would there be "me, too".

Well...sure.  Who's not for that?  So what's the problem?  It's only rhetoric if there's no power to accomplish it.  "Wretched man that I am; I do not practice what I wish, but do the very thing that I loathe."

Can we move past the fluffy words of the moment to think how moral restraint might actually be accomplished?

Oprah spoke of the media in the quest for "coarse" correction.  The media has the power to expose  someone, but not the power to help someone employ self-restraint.

Surely the fear of being outed might work for some, but most people pursing the love of self aren't swayed by the threat of exposure because they think they'll get away with it...or they'll pay for silence.

Of course moral restraint is found by moving toward THE Source of power.  But do any in that room full of influencers help others by using their work to do such a thing?

THEY'VE SPENT THE LAST HUNDRED YEARS TRYING TO CONVINCE US MORAL RESTRAINTS ARE RIDICULOUS...AND EVERYTHING'S KOSHER UNDER THE SUN.  And if you disagree?  You're the problem.  And you're weird.

Want proof of that assertion?  Know what was awarded BEST TELEVISION SERIES?  The award went to a vicious attack on Christianity called "The Handmaid's Tale".

Dovetailing with the popular theme  "women are stripped of their rights", the Golden Globes lifted high a show about a post-nuclear America run by evangelicals.

Scripture is read while a mean woman in charge zaps an uncooperative handmaid in the face with a cattle prod.  They sing a precious hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers" while impregnating handmaidens to "allow the women to experience God's plan for all women, the bearing of children".

That is unbelievable that it would even be on the air, much less be honored! Wouldn't it be unthinkable to write such a show about Islamic scripture or songs?
   
Bottom line, what would you say was the message from the Globes?  Speak truth to power?  Oprah said there would be no more turning a blind eye to injustice because the abusers' "time is up".   But as long as the entertainment industry honors what is evil, the industry's boat is not headed for the right harbor.

I was thinking about Harvey Weinstein's judgment and how lickety split the timing was.  For years he was boss hog...and the next minute, he's a bum.  That's how the timing of Jesus' return will seem to those who aren't expecting Him.

It would be nice to think that we could get rid of Weinsteinism, and right now the pendulum has swung toward that direction with abusers dropping off like fleas off a dog with a new flea collar.  But it won't last.  Why?  Human nature.

Self love will remain until a heart circumcision is performed and the individual begins to love God more than self.  Even after that, the love of self keeps popping up like that maniac Glenn Close played in "Fatal Attraction".

Sanctification begins when Christ enters a life, but then our part in the process is to cooperate daily to die to self.  We would be lost in that process without the power that God the Father sends us in the person of God the Holy Spirit.

As appealing as Oprah's words were, without a source of power her words are just wishful thinking.  God is the only real source of Empowerment, Truth, and of Hope.

WARM THE GLOBE, PLEASE

Is there global warming?  The climate is always changing, but has man caused it?  Will it be  catastrophic?

I've found my resting place in the book of Genesis, where a Trinitarian creation is set into motion.  Later we read that the Lord's hand continually holds the universe together by the power of His Word.

But not everyone sees the order of things with God at the top.  If God is not in charge, then who?  Some think man is able to cause disorder in the universe by his lifestyle.

Global warming folks say human activities such as human expansion, cutting the rain forest, the use of fossil fuels, car emissions, etc....combined with bovine flatulence...are the causes of the "greenhouse effect" (where trapped radiant heat causes Earth's temperatures to rise).

Former Vice President Al Gore says "the Earth has a fever" and man is to  blame.

Man-made global warming is one theory, but it certainly isn't "settled science" as it is sold to be.  Not all scientists agree and there is a lack of intellectual honesty when one side shames the other with name calling...and then displays no scientific intellectual curiosity.

What proof is offered as evidence that man has caused it?

The man-based model has been supported by 1,300 climatologists world-wide in conjunction with the United Nations.  Now enter the monetary angle.  These scientists' jobs and findings are symbiotic.  And when they put certain numbers into the computer model, the outcome can be skewed toward their assumption.

Normally we wait 30-40 years for a climate "trend" to show up, but this week we've come to immediate conclusions about our 2017-2018 winter.  It's global warming.  Wait, what?  If it's hot it's global warming and if it's cold it's global warming?  Tripe!

That brings us to the anointed spokesperson for global warming, former Vice President Al Gore.

Over and over the former VP's dire predictions are contradicted.  He predicted in his first book that a Greenland ice melt would put NYC under water.

He had to come off that one in his sequel book.

At the same time VP Gore would direct YOUR carbon footprint, he gorges his own footprint with homes and jets...and hypocritically sells his TV network to oil-producing Al Jazeera.

What a curious choice for a spokesperson!  He profits from something that he preaches against...something that he says puts us in "peril".

Other global warming warriors  made the news in July, 2016 when scientists were sent to the Arctic to study the disappearing Arctic ice...and got stuck in the ice.

Then there was this headline from 2000 which said "SNOWFALLS ARE NOW A THING OF THE PAST!  CHILDREN AREN'T GONG TO KNOW WHAT SNOW IS!"

Wouldn't you say this winter's snowfall has caused that hysterical prediction to bite the dust?  Surely global warming alarmists took a step back.  No.  Doubling down, they have said this week it was "natural" to assume global warming would cause an increase in snowfall.  Really?  Can't have it both ways, Fellas.

Listen.  Saving the planet is above our pay grade.  We are here to point PEOPLE to salvation.  What could be more important than that?  But isn't it easy to see how others might view global warming as a type of "religion"?  They even sell "indulgences" that they call carbon offsets.

Let's don't get our books confused.  Which book do YOU think has credibility?  I think I'll go with the Book that has proven accuracy.  #seetheBible'sfulfilledprophecies

My money is on the One who says the world moves ON HIS TIMELINE AND ACCORDING TO HIS PLAN.

Remember the old Mom warning "I brought you into this world and I can take you out"?  God brought the universe into existence and He has the keeping power to hold it fast until the right time.

On that Last Day, He will roll the sky up like a scroll, fire will destroy the Earth with intense heat, and THAT will be global warming.

The Earth and her future belong to the Lord Almighty.


P.S.  If you like videos, this one is helpful as it simply lays out the global warming issues.  It has had a million/half viewings!   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwqIy8Ikv-c

STARTING 2018

Albert Einstein was right when he said time is an illusion.  One minute you have kids, and the next minute they're having kids.

As 2017 is done and in the books, nostalgia has caused time to lurch backward for me.  Why?

I've been watching old reruns of "Brooklyn Bridge" on YouTube.  It's my favorite Gary David Goldberg sitcom, written about his childhood recollections while growing up in Brooklyn.

Brooklyn Bridge pictures a "time" of innocence that 2017 wouldn't recognize.

Just think about our pockmarked old year.  Besides all the vitriol on the airwaves, there was devastation from triple hurricanes Harvey, Irma, and Maria, and awful fires out West that may lead to mudslides.

There were senseless killings by domestic terrorists in a TX church and at a NV concert...plus masked and hooded antifa thugs dressed in black and carrying clubs into the streets.

Then there were the men who behaved like brutes.

How we hurt the ones we love!  You only need look at this wife's face to know the humiliation that her husband brought upon her.  Imagine  Matt Lauer having to hurry to his teenaged son to explain the charges against him before they were made public. It is painful when your sins find you out.

Faithful men are to be prized.

Events like that are beyond our control, so Mike and I have been talking about the year-end review of OUR business.  We wanted to remember what God has taught us this year so that we will "get it" the first time through.  No one wants to go to summer school to have to relearn our lessons.

So this picture was us in 2017.  Even as our outer man is decaying, our inner man is CONTENTED, confident in God's sufficiency, and grateful for where He has us.  We love Butterfield and count it a real blessing.  

At ages 75 and 70, our dependence on the Lord is not just blah blah blah.  We actually believe the words that we've espoused for years. As we get closer to seeing Him, the truth that He loved us first propels us to go tell.

Besides, the Cruses can't complain.  We've felt our mortality this year, but what's a goozle-stretch or bone spur removal compared to what some friends are going through?  Getting older helps you focus on what is really important.

The Lord has sharpened our minds through Bible studies (Mike is teaching Genesis here at Butterfield and my BSF study is in Romans)....and undergirded our rocky places.  Our old year probably was like yours.  We loved our answered prayers, and we keep praying for things not yet resolved.

As we've gotten older, we have a better sense about what we can do and what we cannot do.  Some things only God can do.

A Romans 5 verse lit up that truth last month.  There are some unsavory characters that are described as the ones Christ came to save...the sinner, the ungodly, and the helpless.  That described Mike and I once, so that's why we're so grateful for His intervention in our lives.  We're all helpless without God's intervention.

Jesus is the only thing that doesn't change in life.  He stands true when all else moves...His kingdom is unshakeable and He promises to be with us forever.

Mike and I get up each morning and look to see if the other is well.  That's not macabre...it's just life.  We say daily that we are thankful for each other and thankful for the Lord's sovereign hand on our lives.

You know, some might think Gary David Goldberg wrote "Brooklyn Bridge" with more fondness than accuracy.  Maybe you think such innocence never existed.  Perhaps.  But we know FOR CERTAIN that there is such a place up ahead.  Mike and I hope to see each of you there one day.

Meantime, we wish you God's blessings in 2018...with our love.