Beauty from human perspective and God's panorama

FROM DIVINE CONSPIRACY, by Dallas Willard - While I was teaching in South Africa…Matthew Dickason took me out to see the beaches near his home in Port Elizabeth I stood in stunned silence and then slowly walked toward the waves. Words cannot capture the view that confronted me. I saw space and light and texture and color and power.that seemed hardly of this earth God sees this all the time Great tidal waves of joy must constantly wash through his being. 

We pay a lot of money to get a tank with a few tropical fish in it and never tire of looking at their brilliant iridescence and marvelous forms and movements. But God has seas full of them, which he constantly enjoys. Human beings can lose themselves in card games or electric trains and think they are fortunate. 

But to God there is available, “towering clouds of gases trillions of miles high, backlit by nuclear fires in newly forming stars, galaxies cartwheeling into collision and sending explosive shock waves boiling through millions of light-years of time and space.” These things are all before him, along with numberless unfolding rosebuds, souls, and songs—and immeasurably more of which we know nothing.

Cited in Dave Harris' Treasure Trove in Passing Vessels: Ordinary people leading intriguing lives. iUniverse. Kindle Edition. 

Holidays erased and replaced

 Just read an article by Jason Rantz in mynorthwest.com

The King County Office of Equity and Social Justice (OESJ) spent taxpayer dollars on a calendar that erases the names of America’s traditional holidays, which included religious holidays. Actually, it erases most holidays, replacing them with heritage celebration months to better reflect the office’s commitment to diversity and inclusion, so long as it doesn’t represent the traditional American celebrations, or those of Christians or Jews.

Seattle, Wa is part of King County, which has numerous other cities in it as well.  If you’ve followed the news in the past 8 months you know that Seattle has its share of Anarchists protesting and setting things on fire.  In fact, we had a 6 block part of downtown Seattle taken over by Antifa and BLM and the mayor and city council did zero to discourage this.  Businesses lost, rapes, murder….nothing done.  The mayor described all of this as a “summer of love”.  Still continuing by the way.

But King County did come out with a 2021 calendar, somewhat similar to one published in 2019…..at taxpayer expense….that eliminated Mother’s Day (Because it showed gender intolerance), Father’s Day (Because it showed gender intolerance), Independence Day (Because it supports a country that is embedded in racism), Memorial Day (Because it supports those who participated in nation building), Labor Day (Token day of worker oppression), Easter (Because it shows a religion of intolerance, hate, racism, discrimination), Thanksgiving (Because it celebrates how white's destroyed Native Americans), Christmas (Same as Easter).

The good news is that these holidays are represented by a ‘circle’ on the date, so that the day stands out, but no annotation of why the ‘circle’ is there.

However, there were ‘holidays’ inserted with notable descriptions. Black History Holiday, Asian Love Holiday, Indian/Native Holiday, BIPOC Support Holiday, Gay/Lesbian Month, Transgender Awareness Month.  There is not one month that doesn’t have some social justice DAY or MONTH celebrated for these “causes.”  

When asked how “inclusion” means removing all of the holiday labels they don’t agree with or oppose, (which by the way is exclusion), the people asking were accused of being hostile, racist and white supremacists, yes even black callers. Thanksgiving is omitted from the calendar, replaced with Native American Heritage Month. Christmas isn’t mentioned on the calendar, either. Instead, the calendar celebrates International Human Rights Day on Dec. 10.

Hanukkah most definitely doesn’t get a mention. As far as Jews go, they stopped being progressive around the start of the anti-Semitic Boycott-Divest-Sanction movement. Of course, no mention of Jewish American Heritage Month in May.  No worries, in April, the calendar celebrates Arab American Heritage Month.

If I receive a 2021 calendar from OESJ, I better have another calendar close at hand.

Why utopia fails

WOW! $2000 a month from Uncle Sugar sounds great! Free medical care sounds fabulous! Free college and canceled student loans sounds fantastic! Free food & housing? Who wouldn't want that?!!! Oops!

Here's why it can't happen for long: Who pays? AHA!!!!!! Of course!!!! Tax the rich!!!! Oops! Problem: The rich, who already pay the lion's share of taxes, MOVE! They've left California and New York for Florida and Texas (no state income tax). So? Up their federal tax!!! Problem: They'll move offshore. Years ago Congress placed luxury taxes on yachts. Problem: Workers who worked building yachts in the U.S. lost their jobs because the rich bought yachts in other countries.

The Laffer Curve (Google it) shows that with both a zero and 100% tax rate, NO tax revenue results. Find the sweet spot in between?

UPSHOT: The rich move overseas to avoid sky-high taxes. No one left who can afford to pay for utopia. U.S. Treasury prints unlimited money. Interest on U.S. debt skyrockets. U.S. dollar collapses. China declares U.S. dollar is no longer recognized in the world economy and declares the Chinese yuan as the world's standard currency. Utopia crashes and burns and Venezuela adopts us as one of their colonies. NOTE: Venezuelans are now eating their pets for food. Take action now to buy a St. Bernard!   

 

Why incredibly unbelievable?

I heard it again today from an Indianapolis pastor online. He was excited about the Gospel and called it "unbelievable." Incredible. No! It's believable! Credible! Instead, let's use Awesome! Awe-inspiring! Phenomenal! 
                                                                                                                                                         

breathtaking, magnificent, wonderful, amazing, stunning, staggering, imposing, stirring, impressive; formidable,  mind-boggling, mind-blowing, jaw-dropping,  excellent, marvelous;  literarywondrous;  "the Grand Canyon is as awesome as they say it is"

I have an accessible second brain!

Evernote.com expanded my brain. Everything I see or read and want to keep I can easily send to Evernote - websites, emails, book passages, photos, audio, video. When I want to recall something I search by key word or any tag I assigned. Recall designated notebooks offline. Free for low volume, but I found Premium to be well worth it. Thanks to Tom Duchemin for this tip! 

My epitaph

A favorite etching on Christian gravestones: "The Lord hath need of him," words originally spoken about an ass." --Jesus: A Theography by Leonard Sweet & Frank Viola

No such thing as gift of discernment

You won't find the "gift of discernment" in the Bible - only the discerning of spirits. If you say you have the gift of discernment, discern whether it's actually criticism. --Robert Morris