Where do I put my confidence?

Fellow Christians: I think I'm doing pretty good. Then I read the apostle Paul's humble letter to the Philippians, chapter 3, verses 7-14. 

     "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.

     "I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 

     "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering, becoming like him in his death, and to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Romans 6:3-5; 8:17). 

     "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 

     "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." 

😌

Musk Goes to Washington    

     Andrew Carnegie went to Pittsburgh and New York City (see Monday's blog). Elon Musk, the current wealthiest person in the world, has gone to Washington. 

     A private businessman himself, like President Trump, Musk is praised by Republicans and hated by Democrats. He is appointed, without pay we understand, to clean up fraud and waste in government. 

     Musk leads the new Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE. Classified as a "special government employee," he works in the White House complex, where DOGE teams branch out to federal agencies, to gain information and recommend whatever.

     One agency that Musk calls a radical-left, political "psy op" (military psychological operation) is the U.S. Agency for International Development. He blames USAID for a "crazy waste of money." President Trump wants to freeze funding and essentially shut down the $43 billion agency. 

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NEWS FLASH: The Supreme Court on Wednesday voted 5-4 to agree with a judge who ruled the administration cannot do what the president might decide about USAID. We don't know the facts. But how can a judge rule over an administration agency when no laws have been broken?  

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     Democrats despise anything Trump and his appointees do. If the administration miraculously provided peace, good health and prosperity to every soul in the world, Dems would find something to criticize. Rep. Raskin, D-Md. said, "we don't have a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk." Silly. But his voters will buy it. 

     Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Musk is, "working around the clock to root this out and end it. And it's exactly what President Trump was elected to do."  

     Dems and some Republicans went to Washington for themselves. President Trump went there for all Americans, including Democrats. 

            Jimmy

 

World's Wealthiest Man 

     He was born in Scotland, where his family had basically a one room house. No wonder they immigrated to America in 1848. He was 12. He worked in a Pennsylvania cotton mill, 12 hours a day. That's not how he became wealthy. His pay was $1.20...a week! 

     Next as a messenger boy, spending his Saturdays at the library. From there, he became a telegraph operator, and eventually, superintendent of Pennsylvania Railroad. 

     By age 30 he was a rich investor, a major player in steel production. He invested in railroads, bridges and oil during the Civil War.  In 1901 he sold Carnegie Steel to J.P. Morgan and retired as the wealthiest man in the world. In retirement he gave 90 percent of his wealth to charities. 

Hunger for knowledge led Andrew Carnegie to fund 2,800 libraries in the U.S. and seven other nations. He believed in opportunities for education among common people. His Pittsburgh property on the river is now the site of Heinz Field, Pittsburgh Steelers. 

     Pittsburgh has a Carnegie Science Center, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and a Carnegie Mansion. My dad parked and we walked past Carnegie Library to attend Pirates baseball on Forbes Ave. You see where our interest was. 

     Carnegie funded famous Carnegie Hall in New York City, where he lived for a time, and spent summers in Scotland. He delayed marriage to care for his aging mother, later married at age 51, and died in 1919. His wealth was estimated to be $372 billion.  

     Elon Musk's net worth is only $357.54 billion.  

        Jimmy  

Apocalyptic Calamity? 

     Your blogger remembers the new Cold War in the 1950s, when the threat of Russian atomic bombing had Americans conducting drills and building shelters. Some of us teens went to the USO to call in any airplanes flying over our small town. Ho hum. There weren't many. I do recall being somewhat afraid.  

     In the early 1960's JFK called for public fallout shelters. Interest in survival skills and such grew to a multibillion-dollar industry.

     Today, Cold War heritage, some 23 million U.S. adults are stockpiling and working on survival skills. Billions are spent annually on portable generators, gas masks and windup radios. Some preppers are motivated by common sense. Others have apocalyptic fear. Then there are those of us who question the desire to preserve life here when something much better awaits.

     The terrorist attacks of 9/11 prompted new safety measures. By 2010, half of all Americans had preparedness on the brain. Prepping isn't cheap. Americans spent some $11 billion to be prepared in 2022. Today it is as much personal choice as it is emergency prep. Conservatives feel strongly about gun ownership. 

     Preparedness is wise. We were educated a few years ago when there was a rush on toilet paper...trucker strike, I think. You never know. And we don't trust the mainstream media's every word.

         Jimmy

 

Abraham Believed God 

     And Jesus his descendant, his offspring, more or less, also obeyed God, his Father, allowing himself to be nailed to a cross, suffering the penalty we all - including Moses, Jacob, Joseph, Abraham and Washington, Lincoln and Trump - deserve. 

     Miraculously, Abraham and Sarah bore a child (Isaac) after they were way beyond the possible age. Jesus, miraculously born to a virgin, miraculously rose from the dead, revealing his wounds to his disciples. 

     He later became a curse for us, that the blessing given to Abraham might come also to Gentiles. And not just a blessing, but supernatural strength by the indwelling Holy Spirit. God.

     The law came centuries after Abraham. Not as a road map to heaven, but a prison of sorts, until the risen Christ won over his incredulous disciples and others. World history thereby burst in all directions...the invitation to accept Jesus' as Savior and Lord, sins forgiven, eternal life offered.

     Missionaries and other believers who spread the good news to Jews and Gentiles are still at work, the world often hostile to those who speak of miracles. 

     We say it again: Neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female. We can be (spiritually) heirs of Abraham, forgiven souls who trust and obey the One who experienced human life, without sin, shedding his blood that we might respond to his heavenly love.

😇

     

How Can Anyone Be Saved?

     Obey the law? Be a descendent of Abraham? Human effort?

     In Galatians chapter 3...relying on the law leaves people "cursed." If we obey it perfectly, welcome to heaven. But none of us can do that. Neither can any of us be holy enough to pass through the "pearly gates." 

      If we're "children" of Abraham - that is, like him in faith and obedience, no matter what - we are blessed, closer to the promise. Not home yet (as a home run doesn't count until the batter crosses home plate). There was considerable disobedience and disbelief during the centuries of Jacob/Israel's descendants. God allowed - or led? - the Romans to scatter "his" people. 

     Today, there are still Abraham descendants who are not believers. Maybe the Holocaust resulted in unbelief. Understandable. Then again, the horrible Holocaust led survivors to reestablish the nation of Israel ... believers or not ... three years after the war.  

      What did God say to Abraham? Translated from Hebrew into English, through your offspring, all nations on earth (or, believers in all nations) will be blessed (eventually) because you have obeyed me. - Moses, in Genesis 22:18.  

     God didn't say the "descendants." He said "offspring" (as translated). (Offspring could be plural. In this case...?)     

     In the New Testament, Galatians 3, Paul wrote, "The Scripture foresaw that God would justify the Gentiles by faith and announced the gospel (good news) in advance to Abraham - verse 6.    

     In verse 16: The promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed (One version of ancient Hebrew has a word translated offspring or seed). The Scripture does not say "and to his seeds," meaning many people, but "and to your seed, meaning one person, who is Christ. 

 To be continued Wednesday

Faith or Works? 

     So many particulars: Belief. Obedience. Promises. Obligations. Commitment. Human effort........? 

     The lives of men. What about women? From Canaan to Israel. What about America? 

     For answers we will turn to Galatians chapter 3, tying the Old and New Testaments together. Remember Saul, 100 percent Jewish, who persecuted Christians that were leading Jews into a mistaken faith, or so he believed. Jesus spoke to him from heaven, gave Saul the name Paul, and the rest is history. 

     But first, let's go to Genesis chapter 3. The clever devil posed as a serpent, duping Adam and Eve into disobeying God (the world's first sin; eating forbidden fruit). God told the serpent he would put "enmity (hostility) between him and the woman" (all humanity). The serpent "will strike the heal of the enmity (Christ on the cross) and he (Christ) will crush your head" (yet to occur).

     We are living in that warfare today. Now, to Galatians 3. 

     Paul told Galatians to remember Abraham (father of Isaac, father of Jacob - renamed Israel). This was centuries before Moses and the law. When God told Abraham to sacrifice his only son, he prepared to do so, until the Lord told him to put down his knife. 

     God declared, "Because you have done this and have not withheld your only son, I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars...and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed because you have obeyed me." 

***Offspring? Monday's blog will be the most important in my 11 years***