Opus 2022-283: Some Days

Just as a reminder let me share again that each morning I read the chapter of Proverbs matching the day of the month, a chapter in Psalms which takes me through every five months and an undetermined amount as I read through the Bible in a constant cycle.  

I have noticed that there are a good number of chapters that I could probably skip and not feel I had missed anything.  I expect that in the book of Numbers but I have also noticed it in the Psalms.  There are other places where the lessons are important but not burning issues for me.  Usually in the three places I am reading something will reach out and say, “Hey, listen up!”

In spite of that, my point is don’t get too worried if reading a lament of David in Psalms does not set your heart on fire or reading some of the trick questions that the Pharisees through at Jesus doesn’t ring you bell.  It happens.  It doesn’t mean that there nothing worth reading.  It could be that you are in a section that most people skip.  It could be that your brain is like a day old coke, lost its fizz.  Keep at it.

There is a benefit in getting the big picture of what is in the Bible.  Read with your mind engaged and you will see connections and find that you don’t need a fancy commentary to understand.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-282: The Non-Buck Starts Here

I keep seeing headlines and click bait about how much inflation and deficit spending has reduced my net worth and/or income.  I accept it as true but I also know it is nothing new.  This has been going on all my life.  Whoever is in office keeps trying to buy me off so they can continue skimming into their portfolio.  It works.  

Since I don’t see a source listed on any of the posters I am going to assume that Benjamin Franklin’s quote is apocryphal,

“When people find that they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.”

Franklin or not, it still is a great truth.  People still seem to believe that money from the government is free.  It isn’t.  It is either printed, thus reducing the value of the paper it is printed on, or it is taken from others who have earned it.  When you start using the coercive power of the state to take from others to reward yourself, the end is beginning.

Notice I said, “It works.”  I did not say, “Shame on you.”  That is because I can find areas of my life where I have been bought off.  I got the GI bill.  Sure, I served in Vietnam but does that justify years of subsidy?  For three years in college I received what was called the California State Scholarship.  Sure, I qualified but the money had to come from somewhere.  There are probably more places where I took the man’s bribe and should be ashamed.

I am a Trump supporter.  I think he was a great president.  That does not mean he was perfect but we are not comparing him to Jesus, just other presidents.  One bone I would pick with him was his willingness to spend money that we did not have.

If we are serious about recovering our liberties then we may need to stop taking liberties.  We need to stop the handouts.  It must start with us each saying “No” and trying to get the politicians to go along.  No I don’t also believe in the tooth faerie but I still put my tooth under the pillow.

It has to start somewhere.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-281: The Priority of Love

What does it mean to love God?  I claim it all the time.  Today I am wondering what it means.

The Greek agape doesn’t do it.  

The Hebrew chesed does not express it.

God’s love for us fits both those words.  Our love for each other also works.  Those are the expressions of mercy, lovingkindness, patience, etc, toward people on our level and below but it doesn’t work going up.  There is no way I can have mercy on God.  I might express them toward a parent when I am a child but as Paul said, “When I became a man I did away with childish things.”

Yet we are told to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength.

This has to be more than the “love” a dog expresses toward almost anything that moves.

I am remembering some teacher at one point in my mind saying that agape love means expressing preference for the other person.  Here I go to the second chapter of Philippians.  After including agape in the opening verses, he comes to verse 3,

(Php 2:3-4 KJV)  Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.  Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others.  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:

So loving God means putting Him and His desires before myself.  He has priority.  We exist for Him and His glory.  To accept that and live that means I am loving God.  

And remember that Biblical love is always a choice, not an emotion.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-280: Headlines: Numbers? What Numbers?

Lew Rockwell runs a libertarian site that publishes a variety of articles from the libertarian perspective.  You might check it out to see some different views on issues.  I don’t read everything.  I don’t even come close, but I check it out periodically.  

Recently I saw a headline that got my attention.  It referenced an article suggesting that 20 million people have died so far from the vaccine from Hell that is supposed to protect us from the monster virus.  It is worth a read.  These kind of estimates need to be read with a skeptical but open mind.  The number does not include a large number of categories that should also be tied to the total.

Several things I find disturbing about the reports I keep seeing.  First is the aggregate of deaths and serious physical destruction that seems to be strangely linked to people taking the cure.  Every day I see a new headline about some young, fit person dropping dead or collapsing.   Second, the authorities, be they government, media or your next door neighbor keep lying about what we can see with our own eyes.  They think up new conditions.  By now you have heard of Sudden Adult Death Syndrome and you are aware that children can have strokes.  Third, when they are not lying about the situation the powers that be are ignoring it.

Most of what we as citizens can know is anecdotal.  The pastor at our church remarked on how unusual it was for two people in a small group to come down with the same unusual cancer.  He did not mention the vaccine but I could almost guarantee that both had taken the jab.  Coincidence or cause?  Always keep in mind that correlation does not mean causation.  

Until we can get facts and accurate reports the best thing we can each do is what we feel right about.  For me that is based on a trust in God and His providential provision of an active immune system, super-enhanced by years of teaching middle school and being around two grandchildren.  Add to that all the things your mother should have taught you about washing your hands, flushing and covering your mouth and you are a long way toward being worry free.

But that is up to you.  If you feel that a CDC approved shot is the answer then go for it.  Please make sure it is a reasoned choice and not knee jerk fear.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-279: Ode to Old: Fat and Sappy

Which is better, a Sabbath or retirement?

Both are types of rest.

I got off on this tangent because of God threatening to withhold the hardhearted from His rest.   

(Psa 95:10-11 KJV)  Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways:   Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

After a bit of thought I decided this referred to eternity.  Eternal life was being referred to as “rest”.  It is a synonym for what people think of as heaven.

The original reference to rest is at the end of creation.  God used that as a reminder that He would provide for us, and you will find that the Sabbath rest is the reward for a week of work.  I am thinking that eternity might be an alternating series of work and rest.  What will be different from now is that the work will be fulfilling and filled with joy and the rest will always be refreshing.

Sabbath is restoring break because it is followed by more productivity.  Retirement is different.  It can fool us into becoming despondent.  It can be destructive if it makes you feel you are not longer useful.  This is a common feeling among older men.  

If you believe what the Bible has to say then you know you don’t have to rust away.  Notice that the KJV and NASB have one difference in the English.  One says “full of sap” and the other says fat.

(Psa 92:14 NAS77) They will still yield fruit in old age; They shall be full of sap and very green,

(Psa 92:14 KJV)  They shall still bring forth fruit in old age; they shall be fat and flourishing;

Maybe we could do a take off on “fat and sassy” to “fat and sappy”.  No?  Okay.

Retirement does not need to be a time of stagnation.  I am looking for ways to continue to yield fruit.  Join me.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-278: Mind Dancing

Yesterday when I went shopping I was whistling and grinning at the world at large.  I must have looked like a fool.  I don’t really care.

It is a good thing not to consider the difference between what we think we look like and what actually is seen.  I have times when alone that I put on some moves that would make Michael Jackson jealous if he were still alive.  I would make a video and it would go viral if I could tape what is happening in my imagination.  I am awesome.

In the light of day, not so much.

Until you learn to read my mind you will just have to take my word for it.

homo unius libri

Opus 2022-277: Beyond the Tube

I am going to expand my understanding of the term “Boob Tube”.  I have habitually thought of it as TV but since the old format of TV is rapidly withering it needs to be expanded to anything that comes across on a screen.

Maybe I can change the spelling to reflect the variety, The Boooob Tube.  This would still include the residue of broadcast TV but would expand to include what people watch on their phones, pads and laptops.  I am amazed at all the startling information that people share with me.  What disappoints me is that they seem to have no more discernment about what they hear on You Tube than they did with CNN.  For a time I took notes on what they were telling me but eventually realized they did not want to be reminded.

People absorb what they watch.  People are like computers in the sense of GIGO, for the uninitiated that’s Garbage in, Garbage out.  It makes me wonder about what I have stored away in my own mind.

Never stop thinking.  Question everything.  Remember what was said yesterday.  

One of the examples of this has to do with the conspiracy to manage the weather being developed by the big players.  Did you know that the latest hurricane was directed and manipulated by these players.  What I find amazing is that these same worry warts used to be telling me that the world was too big for mankind’s carbon footprint to change the climate.  You can’t have it both ways.  Either our cars and farting cows are heating up the planet or you can’t micro-manage hurricanes.

Since I believe God designed the planet knowing cows pass gas, we don’t need to worry about either problem.

homo unius libri