Monday, October 5, 2020
Moral Compass
In my studies as a public administrator I am struck with the philosophy behind organization and its premises. One thing that crops up in my reading is morality and the common good.
Since my textbooks are all about administration on the global scale I am always amazed to find reference to the morality of governance and the "common good."
We are asked to navigate situational ethics, the best of the situation, the greater good.
How fascinating.
When humans try to mimic God's moral absolutes with their superior manifestos ("I'm better!") there is bound to be failure.
And that is also acknowledged by the authors of my textbooks. Failure seems to be an acknowledged given.
When we criticize God and His mandates we are putting ourselves above Him. Many think that they have a higher moral ground than God Himself. The moral compass that is seated in the conscience by the Creator.
How do we know that Creator?
We must accept Him at His word: the Bible.
When I finally accepted that the Bible was indeed truth my worldview shifted. Before I just believed God was wishy-washy on lots of things. He's just a nice guy. I loved Jesus. I loved "good." I liked everyone to be saved, everyone to be happy, I wanted everyone to have a Coca-cola.
Actually, the current Age of Re-enchantment, (See Carl Teichrib's book, "Game of Gods") really touched on that worldview. I was a product of post-modernism, and the next philosophical age is the age of re-enchantment.
I believed more philosophically in line with this current age.
That moral compass is a shifting organism that never finds Truth.
The only moral compass that has any validity is the one held in God's hands.
The only moral compass that describes God's ways is the Bible. None other.
Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by Me." Here Jesus is claiming to be God (I am) and the exclusive path to Truth.
It is interesting to see the current artwork that features "I am" in it. The pagans like to chant it. Many recognize it from Moses' encounter at the burning bush, but it has become a thumbing in the nose of God.
God is "I am." We are not "I am." We are other. We are not God.
God is the rule setter, the provider, the one who defines. Satan will trip us up daily on this, helping us to question God, but ultimately we are simply creation, not Creator. Who are we to argue?
Does the clay argue with the potter?
Let God set the moral compass, and follow His ways, His truth, His mandates. God commands. When we break His commands we seek to justify our bad behavior and set up our new moral compasses.
They don't work, and they lead to idolatry and despair.
God is pro-life. God is pro-marriage (as Jesus defines it in Matthew). God is against theft and lying. He is against evil. God is love. That is how he defines Himself.
Throw out your moral compasses and get the one that is from the Creator.
Let's stop putting ourselves above God.
List
Here is a list of COVID things:
Lab created
mutation
Covid-19 (for 2019?)
November
China
Wuhan
Frightening video clips Dec through February
Herd immunity
Sweden
death
SARS
flu
nursing homes
New York
Seattle
Choirs
corona virus
masks:effective against spreading body fluids
masks: ineffective in filtering the virus particle
Covid 19 cases in the USA: December through present
Positive cases
Active cases
Antibodies
testing negative
False positives
vaccines
cures
Hydroxychloroquine + Zinc
Tonic water
Vitamins C and D
Sunshine
Warmth
friends testing positive, getting sick
friends testing positive, no symptoms
Friends afraid to interact with others
school policies
antibiotics
ventilators
blood
coughing
toes
sense of smell
pains up and down the legs
bad cold symptoms
organs shutting down
quarantines for 14 days
six feet (not five, not seven)
old people susceptible, dying
celebrities getting positive test results
celebrities dying (Herman Cain)
Trump admin getting it
Economic fall-out, shut down, lock down, election year, voting
Democrat Party hatred, fear
Republican wonder----what is going on?
Media hype, fear mongering
UNKNOWN OUTCOME
statistics
Global repercussions, statistics
Sweden
Death statistics: troughs and peaks (Irish doctor YouTube)
Fear.
Fear and trembling
Ridiculous fear and trembling
funerals, gatherings
policy implementation, state government versus federal
Minnesota/Michigan/California
South Dakota/Iowa
Contrasts
Church
Casinos
Abortion Centers
Doctor appointments
Intensive Care Units
Morgues
Amazon/Ebay/Online shopping
small business disaster
door to door testing
sports
comparison to the Bubonic Plague and the Spanish Flu
Quarantine rules
Constitutional rights
Freedom of religion
Numbers
Figures
Stats
Testimonies
Epidemiologists, Medical Doctors, Virus Experts, Nanotechnology
99.8% recovery rate
10,000 deaths (alone) from Covid-19 (alone)
Is this not enough of a list of the subjects we have all become familiar with and wonder about? I have concluded that Covid 19 has mutated to a much less virulent strain here in the USA and although cases are on the rise there is much more knowledge and experience in treating the disease. It appears many, many people actually recover from the disease.
In the days of the Spanish Flu, which had a much higher death rate, the world did not shut down. Sick people were quarantined. Healthy people kept living. This pattern was repeated with any disease outbreak. Semmelweiss is one of my heroes. He actually asked doctors to wash their hands after being with sick patients (an unheard of practice up until then!) The rates of infection plummeted. Good hygiene and reasonable health practices go far in eliminating disease.
Either we all die of Covid-19 or we, as a human race, overcome it and go on with further Genetic Entropy.
We do not live in fear. We understand that political powers are waging war and the disease of fear is very effective as a political weapon. Covid -19 is a convenient ruse.
I have come to my own conclusions about Covid-19. My faith dictates that if I am to die of it that is in God's hands alone. He is the one who appoints our times. Nothing can shorten that appointment, nor lengthen it-----no exceptions.
Take it up with God.
Masks are ineffective, and we've all come into contact with the virus if we walked into a grocery store. To live with a "rule" of social distancing is nothing but posturing for the political hacks of our day.
Give your fear to God. Don't use it as an excuse to eliminate people from your life. (Although I admit it is very convenient!!)
Your true friends will show their true colors. This "pandemic" has been the great divider.
I know mine, and I thank the LORD for this revelation. God has blessed me with some excellent and true friends who were willing to be there for me in my life crisis. Fear of Covid-19 was minimal for these stalwarts. The consensus among us is that GOD IS IN CONTROL, death or life.
No one has learned that more than I have this devastating year of 2020.
For Us, a Big Week
Closure is an interesting word. I think it means different things for each person.
There is closure of a day, a week, a month or year---an era.
Closure of a life.
I cannot close something in my mind, at least I am trying to figure out a new type of outlook with the past at the forefront. The past is just a part of me, and my husband is still that, daily. I do not forget. I do not see a future without him.
I am so thankful for the hope of the Rapture. Blessed hope. I look around as a prophecy watchman and I see that our time on earth is inevitably short. Jesus is coming for the church, and soon.
Israel has been a nation (fulfilling prophecy) since 1948. The generation that sees this nation will not pass away before SOMETHING happens.
Are God's words true?
Oh, yes.
So, I do not grieve as those without hope. I will see my dear husband very soon.
And yet closure--(not the crazy COVID-19 pro-forma that was dictated in June)--is a part of life and death on earth.
I still needed to pause and reflect, you know, like a funeral?
So we are having a celebration of Brian's life on Saturday. This is a type of closure ---for me, and I hope, for our children who can be present in spirit.
Those who would like to be a part (and are not terrified of getting Covid-19) are welcome to attend.
I would like to remind you that our days are appointed, as Brian's were, and we are all living the days appointed by God. Nothing will snuff out a life before God's appointment. Nothing will keep a life on earth after God's appointment. His sovereign times are set in the meta-timeline and there is absolutely nothing we can do to change that----cancer, disease, accidents, heart attacks.
These are God's appointments.
It is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment.
I do pray and request everyday to be raptured. I can bring my requests before the Most High. That is His will to answer my wish, yes or no, but I can bring my desires before Him. He knows them already, but I affirm them.
Prayer changes things: specifically my own attitudes and heart cries.
For I know the plans I have for you: plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans for a hope and a future.
Brian is rejoicing with Jesus and our two children who are already with the Lord, Sera and Jean. Brian is having fellowship with all the believers who have passed from this earthly tent and are now in the dimension of spirit and TRUTH.
He is whole, perfect, and truly rewarded.
I celebrate his life. I celebrate that God gave us 30 years together. I celebrate that God gave us seven children, five of whom are still with us.
So celebrate his life with me on Saturday, October 10. Park across the road in the hay field. We are going to sit around the fire (temps are predicted in the 70's for Saturday) and roast hot dogs and s'mores. We will share memories and thoughts and think of how Brian loved life.
We are dressing up as characters from history, celebrating the past with Corgi Hollows History day. We will make a timeline of history photograph, with everyone standing in chronological order. I'm dressing as a character from the 1100's (AD), which is an interesting era for me.
We will encourage each other to watch for the Rapture of the church.
I have many assignments this week for my schoolwork, so I will be busy. When you come there will be general mayhem and leaves on the ground from this season. But come if you can. At 2:00 to 2:45 we will have a gathering to share a few thoughts. The event is from 12 to 5. Come at any time from 12 to 5.
No, this isn't a funeral. COVID dictated that. This is celebration of life for those who want a type of closure----
For me, at least.
Life isn't fair. God never said it would be. Life is hard. Life is precious.
Isn't is wonderful to have perfection to anticipate with the One who paid the price for our sin?
See you Saturday.
Thursday, October 1, 2020
Current Cults
I didn't watch the debate. Ed and I went to a pipe organ concert that evening. We went to Northrup Auditorium to hear Katelyn Emerson play the big Skinner organ.
It was a very nice concert, and the first time Northrup had an event in 213 days. Covid.
Ed and I enjoyed the evening, remarked at the strangeness of only about a dozen people in our balcony, the emptiness and eeriness of a performer playing to a massive hall with only a few in the audience.
These are strange times.
The concert hostess began the program with an acknowledgement to the Dakota people, on whose land we were sitting. That set the tone of the concert for us. "Random" was the word that came to mind.
If you have known me for any time you know that Native Americans have always been close to my heart. I may be the stock of Scandinavia, but I just LOVE the native peoples of North America. I don't know where that love and interest began, but it's been there from my childhood.
White supremacy is a concept that I cannot understand and I loathe.
With all this talk of systemic racism I am appalled that such a view even still exists, and I assert that only in Jesus Christ is that racism defeated.
If you are a racist you must confess that sin before Jesus Christ and ask forgiveness, then, if it is a habitual sin for you, you must bring it before the cross daily.
On the other hand, if you think everyone is guilty of racism (systemically) you had better be sure of your salvation in Jesus Christ, work it out with fear and trembling, because you are creating a New Gospel that demands a work of perpetual subjection.
The Gospel of Jesus Christ is this: God saves sinners. Salvation is the gift of God, not of works.
You cannot do ANYTHING to earn or merit your salvation. It is a gift.
Your guilt is before God alone, and HE paid the price for it. You are whole in Jesus Christ alone.
In Christ alone, our hope is found.
So there is an insidious movement within the entity known as the church which is seeking to add guilt and works to salvation. The Gospel Coalition is one of the organizations associated with this heresy. Be wise. Don't get sucked into the new "evangelical cult" of racist ideologies.
Racism is sin. Adding to the Gospel of Jesus Christ is heresy, and also wrong. This is the age of apostasy, and we need to be aware of it on every level.
Be wise, be correctable, be aware, be humble, be forgiving.
Be a Berean, and check everything with Scripture. Don't let the elite set of authors, radio preachers, denominational administrators, christian celebrities sway your faith. You are accountable to God and Him alone, and the ONLY way you can know God is to read His Word.
Your experiences are yours, and you can share them. You can listen to others and their experiences, but take it to the WORD, and check it out. That is the only way to know truth.
God does not contradict Himself. If one thinks He does, he must go deeper into studies of the Word. There are also great books out there explaining apparent contradictions. Find one and work out your doubts on your own.
One truth: the Gospel is not of works, lest any man should boast. That is from Scripture.
Since the Critical Theory age began the church has fallen. Only those that cling to God's Word have the absolute truth. God works in every generation, in a "remnant," which most of the time is quite small. God chose to reveal Himself in the Word, and that was His choice.
It's God's way, His rules, His paradigm------or yours.
You have a choice, and it is before you.
Repent. God's Word commands it. Humble yourself. God's Word commands it.
Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. When you seek to define God in your own comfortable framework you are guilty of idolatry----rebellion----and you are not a follower of Jesus Christ.
Time is short, dear ones. Get right with God. Get the victory in Jesus.
Don't miss the Rapture of the Bride.