Societal Flirtations With Extinction

A society known for the distinction, 

That there should be no distinction, 

Unwittingly flirts with extinction.

To establish distinction properly, is not the same as constituting the gradation of value, but rather the essential and vital articulation of complementary roles and responsibility. 

We Need a More a Than Live, We Need Christ!

The Beatles were not only wrong, but also naively heretical in their lyrical mantra "all we need is love." There are few things that shock and betray more devastatingly, and function in a more utterly dark and sinister fashion than when a truly great thing, is wrongly practiced... 

For example, "love" independently implemented apart from Christ and decontextualized from His other important attributes inevitably leads to the idolization of humanity... 

Clearly, the Bible informs us, that what we REALLY need is Christ, but not merely and singularly a scaled back version of Christ.  - often described exclusively as His "love," as humans understand the word "love." 

If all we need is Christ (and we do!), then it necessarily means needing ALL of Christ - everything that can be known and therefore, intentionally accommodated into our own human nature as well...  Indispensable things like: Christ's  Truth, His Servant-Nature, Grace, Holiness, Justice, Wisdom, Reason and Passion. In escapably, these other attributes, inform and shape the quality of Christ's Love.

When it comes to the whole nature of Christ, His love is but one of many interdependent facets (that He usually leads with), a balanced prism of attributes that make up the whole, pure and vibrant Light of Christ. 

If we seek to imitate those facets of Christ, then His Light , becomes our Light, His attributes become our attributes, and through His nature, ours becomes healed and restored... 

However, to delude ourselves by leading ONLY with our own relative perception of Christ 's Love, no matter how Noble the cause and Just the effort, we the servants, inexorably end up making ourselves little god's, and God becomes our servant.

The Beginning of Anarchy

We unwittingly flirt 

With imperceptible visages of anarchy

When voyeuristic fascination for personal Angst

Becomes more compelling 

Than the passion and pursuit

For the whole of Truth 

Or when the meta-narrative is always suspect

But the micro-narrative is regarded as infallible

When subjectivism is affirmed as Reality

And Objective Truth lauded as Myth

The Dognatist

There are two kinds of people in the world, 
the conscious dogmatists 
and the unconscious dogmatists. 
I have always found myself 
that the unconscious dogmatists 
were by far the most dogmatic.

G.K. Chesterton

Silence In The Face of Evil

"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: 
God will not hold us guiltless. 
Not to speak is to speak. 
Not to act is to act."


Dietrich Bonhoeffer

If you falter in times of trouble,

how small is your strength!

Rescue those being led away to death;

Hold back those staggering toward slaughter.

If you say, "But we knew nothing about this,"

Does not He who weighs the heart perceive it?

Does not He who guards your life know it?

Will He not repay each person according to what He has done?

Proverbs 24:10-12 (NIV)

The Media, Racism and Law Enforcement

When it comes to law enforcement, EVERY death associated with it is tragic...

Almost equally tragic is the manner by which many in the Media shape the perception of those deaths...

Having had an uncle, a brother and a son; as well as numerous friends and acquaintances involved in law enforcement, allow me to offer the following stats (on behalf of those in law enforcement) provided by the DOJ. 

There are on average 12,000,000 arrests made annually in our country.

Last year, of those arrests, there were 420 people/perpetrators who were killed by police officers.

The DOJ, however, does not provide what percentage of those deaths were done by police officers, who were later indicted for murder etc.. Arguably, a relatively (albeit still tragic) small percentage...

Interestingly, if you take those 420 deaths attributed to police officers (for whatever reason - justified or unjustified), divided by 12,000,000 arrests annually, demonstrates that just 0.000035% (of one percent), of all arrests result in some kind of alleged perpetrator fatality.

Moreover, if you were to take just one quarter of the 420 fatalities attributed to law enforcement officers, say 105 of them (the number could be much smaller), who were eventually indicted and found guilty for first, second or third degree murder, the percentage from among all of those arrests would be 0.000000875% (of one percent). Notably, and importantly, the percentage of the minority and racially motivated fatalities (e.g. African American, Hispanic, Muslim, Oriental etc.) by law enforcement officers would be smaller yet...

Now consider how the Media habitually portrays much of the Law Enforcement culture, as well as the image of police officers in our country today... Entire industries have emerged on this phenomena... And other people, innocent ones, who have died unnecessarily, and just as tragic; because of the Media's drive and desire in their oft misrepresentation...

One other irony? Many of the good cops are leaving law enforcement in droves...

Prosecute dirty cops to the full extent of the law... But keep it all in proper perspective...

Check the stats out for yourself, then draw your own conclusions

The Media is the single most powerful institution in our society with the least amount of accountability... And no other institution in this country shapes perception, through the use of image, words and insinuation; and thereby creating emerging and corrupt forms of various realities, goaded by their preferred narrative and ideology, more than they do...

The Greatest Christian Heresy

Perhaps the greatest Christian heresy of all time,
Is the sincere desire and work,
To restore the magnificence of Shalom,
While at the same time selectively ignoring "the whole counsel of God."

Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. 

Psalm 19:14

Human (De) Evolution

There are few phrases, in the linguistic sociology of humankind, that are in more error and/or in denial than than the overly optimistic statement:

"We are evolving..."

The relatively recent emergence 

of new sociopolitical philosophies, scientific discoveries and technological powers,*** 

rooted in, and confidently exercised in our humanism, 

provide only a fragilic shadow of what we assume to be evidence of almost god-like capabilities; 

but in reality, 

when they are not willfully unfettered 

and forcibly detached 

from our human depravity, 

They can only tragically possess 

the very purpose and possibilities of Satan himself. 

1 But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. 2 People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, 4 treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-- 5 having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them... 7 always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth. 8 Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these men oppose the truth--men of depraved minds, who, as far as the faith is concerned, are rejected. 9 But they will not get very far because, as in the case of those men, their folly will be clear to everyone...  12Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived. 14You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them... 15 and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 

2 Tim 3:1-15

*** The Enlightenment which began in the 1600s rediscovered not only reason and logic, which led to new political theories, science and technology; but also the pre-first century Hellenistic (Greek) philosophical belief that "Man is the measure of all things," the praxis of which can never ultimately be good...

Grace and Living With Sin

Basking in the Grace of God,
Is not synonymous with,
Living as if sin does not matter...

8 For you were once darkness, 
but now you are light in the Lord. 
Live as children of light 
9 (for the fruit of the light consists in all goodness, righteousness and truth) 
10 and find out what pleases the Lord. 

11 Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them.

12 It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret.
13 But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—
and everything that is illuminated
becomes a light.

14 This is why it is said:
"Wake up, sleeper,
rise from the dead,
and Christ will shine on you.”

15 Be very careful, then, how you live—
not as unwise but as wise,
16 making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil.

Ephesians 5:8-16

Loving Unconditionally vs. Loving Blindly

Loving another person unconditionally, 
is one of the best possible examples of Christ-likeness, 
for all the world to see...

However...

Loving another person blindly, 
can be one of the worst possible forms of narcissism, 
for anyone in the world to be...

No amount of progressive education, reduction of poverty and/or discussions related to equality will stop this kind of evil... Why? Because evil cannot always be shamed into submission, nor can insanity be reasoned into complicity... These kinds of actions make up the composite, of what is the Face of Evil; and as a movement, outside the bounds of what it means to "love your enemies..." To love them as an entity, necessarily means to hate those who would be their victims...




http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2719991/Horrific-new-photographs-ISIS-atrocities-prompted-Obama-act.html?ito=social-facebook

The Holy Spirit and Us...

Habitual resistance in our surrender to the Holy Spirit

Alleviates conviction associated with personal sin

Leading to boredom and paralysis in one's faith

Morphing eventually into functional irrelevance for the existence of God

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you Draw near to God, and he will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded (James 4:7-8)

Evil Seeks The Young

One of the hallmarks of evil is that it always seeks to perpetuate itself in the young and impressionable... Can you even begin to imagine the horror is this was your son? 

"Silence in the face of evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act."


Dietrich Bonhoeffer


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