Celebrate   

   The Coming Ruler    

  We're not just remembering the birth of our Savior.  

We celebrate the promise of a Leader from out of this world.

He will judge between the nations...  Isaiah 2:4

The government will be on his shoulders.  Isaiah 9:6

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him...  Isaiah 11:2

I will put my Spirit on him and he

will bring justice to the nations.  Isaiah 42:1

Bethlehem's story is wonderful, especially for youngsters.

That was then.

He is coming again.

Wise men still seek him, and men would be wise to get their hearts in order. 

The Spirit informed Isaiah 700 years before the birth,

and we're still waiting for the thousand-year reign of the Lord

on earth, leading to final judgment.

What's taking so long?

A thousand years is like a day, with God.

~ ~ ~

Note: We're having some difficulty with a wrinkle our "blogspot" friends introduced recently. So, we decided to have a Merry Christmas - and return in the Happy New Year, after we solve our technical issue. 

  Come January, look for Views By the Sea on Facebook, or search jxdonut.blogspot.com. We don't post all blogs on Facebook. 

   Lastly, we are working on a special series for January that should be more significant than anything we've published in four-plus years. Make a note. 

I appreciate you, and God bless you.     

         Jimmy

  

We the Tribal People    
    
   We aren't born with nuance.     

   My first years coincided with World War II. All Americans were good guys; all Germans and "Japs" were bad...with some justification.

   At the Saturday movies, all cowboys and cavalry were good guys; all "Injuns" (except Tonto) were bad. In sports, everyone on our team was good; all opponents were enemies. 

   When we became an adult, not much changed. If we knew about the Lord's command to "love your enemies," would we have heeded?

   Other people draw sharp lines between races and ethnicity. In Dad's house, Republicans were all good; all Democrats wrong. 

   In time, we've learned that in worldly terms good and not-good exist on all sides. If we personally knew the athletes, we might like some opponents better than some of "our guys." 

   Unfortunately, tribal Americans see no nuance in politics. Some liberals have nothing nice to say about the late President Bush. Some on the right see nothing good in former President Obama. He seems to be a faithful husband and devoted father, like former President Carter. 

   Many judged the judge - Brett Kavanaugh - before his hearing even began. Others deplore President Trump's immigration stance, without admitting that border security is a legitimate concern.

   Absent Biblical knowledge, we may not recognize that virtue and vice resides in most of us, including our leaders.
 

"We like our villains without redemption

and our heroes without blemish,

and we frequently assign those roles

in overly strict alignment with our ideology."

   Little Jimmy Donut understood this long before Frank Bruni wrote the above quote in the New York Times. 

   

   Singing to the Lord   

Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth.

Worship the Lord with gladness;

come before him with joyful songs.

Know that the Lord is God.

It is He who made us, and we are his;

we are his people, the sheep of his pasture.

Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise;

give thanks to him and praise his name.

For the Lord is good and his love endures forever;

his faithfulness continues through all generations.

Psalm 100

   

Just Doing It Right     

       Lock in. Stare straight. Heal first. Breathe only through the nose. Hut!   
  

   Just part of the job of a military body bearer. We watched them in lockstep this week: to and from the Capitol rotunda, national cathedral, Joint Base Andrews, St. Martin's church in Houston, special train 4141, and finally the grounds of the George Bush Library in College Station, Texas. 

   That's a lot of in and out, up and down for one funeral. Standing motionless for long minutes.   

   A humbling opportunity? An honor? A service? Yes. And physical pain.

   One of the Marines in the Washington, DC unit is from our county here in Florida, Cpl. Kevin Harris. His unit serves senior statesmen, heads of state and former presidents. Bearers from the Army, Navy and Air Force joined Marines for the various Bush ceremonies and services. 

   Cpl. Harris, 24, told the Tampa Bay Times he never thought he would be put in that situation. He knew he had to focus on his job, not on people like the Bush family and dignitaries.

   He and fellow Marines often participate in several funerals a day. "It's not about pain," he said. "You're doing service for members of the family. It's the least we can do to honor them in the best way possible...to give them a sense of dignity."

   Caskets typically weigh between 400 and 800 pounds, each man gripping with one arm. They train hard and practice carrying every kind of casket.

   "We're the last representation of something their family member was part of," Cpl. Harris said. "Just doing it right...just making sure I execute it perfectly."

   In and out of hearses, Air Force One and a special train. Hut! 

      Jimmy

Can We Emulate a U.S. President?    

   Not Abraham Lincoln: Four score and seven years ago...
   Not Franklin Roosevelt: December 7, 1941, is a date that will live in infamy.
   Not Ronald Reagan: Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.  

   We cannot be a Washington, Jefferson or any other commander in chief. These men all had special abilities, for better or worse, and they faced challenges that we the little people will never experience. 

   The same goes for the late George H.W. Bush.

   But we can. We can emulate our 41st president in certain respects.

   He followed Jesus' command: Love God and love your neighbor. We can do that. 

   He knew that of all ships, friendships are most important. We can do that.

   He learned from his mother, who learned it from the Holy Bible, don't brag on yourself. Let others praise you, if they choose. We can do that.

   He had time for common people, hurting people, discouraged people. We can do that.

   He hand-wrote letters of thanks and encouragement. We can do that.

   He was strong, yet kind and loving. We can do that. 

   He shared credit and accepted blame. We can do that. 

   He was loyal. We can do that. 
   
   He looked for good in people; he did not hate. We can do that.

   He was devoted to family, but not dictatorial. We can do that.

   When he alone survived the attack on his warplane, he wondered, "Why me?" 
What did God want him to do with his life? We can ask that also.
     Let presidents be presidents. And let God be God.  

      Jimmy

God's Man for Man's Time       

   We hope you followed the coverage of late President George H.W. Bush this week. We were moved by the music, scenes and heart-felt words Monday at the Capitol and again yesterday at the national cathedral. Excuse me while I wipe a few tears. 

   Singers, musicians and the military reminded us something is still right in the USA. This week they honored an honorable president. Inaugurations are special; memorial services touch heaven. 

   Nobody's perfect, but President Bush 41 deserved his long list of accolades. Our favorite description is his humility. This man knew the office was greater than himself, and his God is still greater.

   Of several things he accomplished (with a Democratic Congress during his term, 1989-1993), many of us remember how he rallied to force Iraq out of Kuwait. After 100 days of war, Hussein's famed army was in full retreat. The president could have changed the regime, but he chose to stop the killing. Oil fields were safe again.

   Later that year, finishing President Reagan's work, Bush quietly managed the end of the Cold War. Soviet hardliners could have gone "scorched earth" like Hitler, only with nukes. He also convinced Western Europeans to allow Germany - bitter enemy twice over - to reunite. 

   That June, in 1991, I took an office job at a Department of Energy nuclear site in South Carolina. They were restarting a nuclear reactor to resume production of weapons-grade uranium. 

   In September, they shut it down. There was no speech in Washington, no rally, no parade, no bragging, no fireworks, no surrender ceremony, no end-of-war date for history books. 

   Credit President Bush. I believe God provided the right man for the times. A year later, "the times" ended. Credit 19 percent of voters swayed by rogue candidate Ross Perot. How quickly some chase the next shiny object. 

   Bush was the last president from our "greatest generation." A terrible depression followed by terrible world war produced strong people who valued freedom, the flag and human initiative. 

   Tomorrow: reflections   

      Jimmy

Am I Still With It?     
My Dementia Test      

   Rather than endure a tedious, expensive medical exam, I designed my own mental check up. 

   As we all know the names of our 50 U.S. states, it should be revealing to list them from memory, alphabetically, and score the results for our self. So, here goes:

Alabama, Alaska, California, Canada, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Guam, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine, Mexico, Michigan, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New England...

   How am I doing?

Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Toronto, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington DC, West Virginia, Wisconsin, Arizona.

   Ut oh. I count 38. I remember only 76 percent of the 48 states. Well, at least I didn't waste any money on a professional exam.

Twinkle, Twinkle Trillions of Stars 

   Stargazers say the universe offers light from a billion trillion stars. Astrophysicists used a satellite to sum up all this light, measured in particles called photons. 

   By their estimate, over history, stars have emitted 4 times 10-to-the-84th-power photons into the visible universe.  

   Let's make this simple for you. 

   That's 4,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, 000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 photons. 

   You're welcome.

       Jimmy

Swim Free

   Okay, my fellow sea creatures, let's not swallow hook, line and sinker. 

   Saturday we wrote about some people in a town of 10,000 believing an April Fools' article about plans for a 35,000 seat baseball stadium.

   Monday we wrote about a blogger who makes good money on a Facebook website with made-up cultural and political stories that millions of readers swallow whole.

   Many consumers of news, commentary and supermarket tabloids aren't real adept at discerning truth. 

   Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

   Would you believe, man never landed on the moon? The 9/11 attack was an inside job? We evolved from monkeys? The man is guilty because the woman says so? 

   How do we know anything for sure? Here are a few thoughts from Views By the Sea:

1. Question what you read or hear, especially things you want to believe. 

2. Consider more than one newspaper, one TV channel, one radio personality or one friend. And more than one member of the clergy. 

3. Every speaker/writer has a point of view. He or she may have your best interests in mind. Or your vote. Or your money. Consider what was not said. 

4. Grasping the truth, if that's possible, requires background. We can't fit a piece into a puzzle unless one or more surrounding pieces already are in place. 

5. It's healthy to admit that what we don't know far exceeds what we do.

6. If you know yourself well, congratulations.

7. There is one source we've learned to fully trust: the Holy Bible. Jesus said that He is the truth. He expects faith, but He also provides ample evidence of what is not seen by that which is.  

      Jimmy

     

   Praise and Thanksgiving   

It is good to praise the Lord

and make music to your name, O Most High,

to proclaim your love in the morning

and your faithfulness at night.

For you make me glad by your deeds, O Lord;

I sing for joy at the works of your hands. 

How great are your works, O Lord,

how profound your thoughts.

Psalm 92:1-5 

   We thank the Lord for salvation, for his love and grace and his faithful guidance and care. We are grateful for the Word of God and for his spiritual gifts.

You Can Fool Some 
People All the Time      

   Eight years before Christopher Blair was born, yours truly, a small-town sports editor, slipped an April Fools article into our daily paper.

   The story: Town fathers secretly planned to build a baseball stadium in hopes of attracting a major league team. We blogged about this in detail some time ago, if you happened to see it. 

   My readers knew all the streets by name. They should have known our imaginary stadium footprint would obliterate downtown. 

   Surely they knew that politicians can't tax churches to raise funds. Most of them should have recognized that my "sketch" of the proposed stadium was really a real photo of old Forbes Field in Pittsburgh. 

   All else failing, they might have noticed my last line, The stadium is expected to be finished by next APRIL FOOLS DAY.

   This sports editor was perhaps the most fooled of all. It never occurred to me that anyone would miss my obvious curve balls. Even Mom believed it. That was April 1, 1964.  

   Journalism professors never told us that some readers believe whatever we write - truth, falsehood or satire.

   So, who is Christopher Blair? Just for fun he takes the art of fake news to a new level - daily on Facebook - reaching millions of biased readers who get suckered and keep coming back for more.

   Lincoln was right: You can fool some people all the time. We'll pick up Blair's story next week, probably Monday. 

        Jimmy



   

We the People   

   Go ahead. Make fun of Florida's election foibles. 

   But while you're laughing about hanging chads and misplaced ballots, we the people are running rings around our legislature and special interests. We just pass amendments to the state constitution.

   This November, there were 12 proposals on the ballot, including: phasing out greyhound racing, restoring voting rights to most felons who did their time, voter control of gambling, and crime victim rights. We exceeded the required bar of 60 percent approval on all but one proposal, and 58 percent supported that one "failure."  

   This blogger is not qualified to judge all the merits, and we don't particularly like messing with any constitution. But, if the tortoises don't get anywhere, we'll be the hares. Yea!

   Maybe in 2020 we'll clean up the algae mess in South Florida. Sorry, Big Sugar. 

   Get ready. Ban Assault Weapons Now is collecting hundreds of thousands of voter signatures required to make the next ballot. The Miami group has to convince us this is not about disarming law-abiding gun owners.

   For starters, those who already own assault weapons would be exempt, just required to register. If Floridians don't want the ban, it won't pass. We the people, not politicians or special interests, will make the call. A win either way.

   Would this be a slippery slope to banning all guns? This year, some argued that banning greyhound racing could lead to the end of our fishing and hunting rights. Fact or scare tactic?

   After Parkland, 62 percent of Florida voters favored a ban on the sale of assault weapons. We can assume some of those polled believe in the Second Amendment. Many must be Republicans. 

   But, caution: Frequent amendments may work for awhile, but it's a dangerous departure from (honest) representative government. This approach on a national level would be a disaster. Hello, failed government.  

      Jimmy




    

Man Goes Shopping   

   Let me tell you a story about a normal man in his humble home on a routine day.

   It occurred to him, their anniversary was around the corner - figuratively speaking, of course. Being a normal husband - not too dimwitted, nor too wonderful - he backed out of the driveway and headed toward the mean streets of life. 

   Along the way, this normally self-centered man groused about his aging, aching back. About the sad state of politics. About tax cheaters. Spouse cheaters. Drunken drivers. Domestic violence. Kids with guns. About leaky plumbing and attic mice. About his own faults.

   That was only the first mile.

   At a normal store, Mr. frowny-face selected an appropriate card. Then he beheld a noble bunch. For the love of money, he checked the price. Not too little; not too much. 

   On the appropriate morning, his Mrs saw the card and the lovely dozen on her breakfast table. The fallen world was outside and out of mind. 

   This is truth for the heart, beauty by design - for the spirit.  



   The One and Only had provided the ingredients. He assigned normal men to plant, grow, cut, buy and present his gift to others. By this and other means He reminds us that despite all the tension and conflict, He is still on the throne. 

   Our normal man received above-normal approval. The dozen continued to praise God a week later, for Thanksgiving guests to enjoy as well. 

The End

   

The Smaller the Better?   

   Analysts and policymakers have debated for decades whether smaller classes are best for teaching and learning. 

   Parents and teachers are settled on the subject. Parents want their kids to have more one-on-one time with teachers. They in turn have an easier time managing fewer students.

   A few years ago in Florida they mandated class sizes be not larger than 30. Imagine the costs necessary to comply. Was it based on opinions, or evidence?

   A new worldwide study indicates lower student-teacher ratios have few benefits. With 127 studies in 41 different countries there was some improvement in a few cases, while others produced no effect. 

   Students benefited most from small class sizes in reading. In other subjects, those in small classes showed no appreciable advantage.

   Researchers suggest that school systems reconsider their emphasis on more construction and staffing. "Class size reduction is costly," they wrote. "The available evidence points to no or only very small effect. Moreover...small classes may be counterproductive in some subjects."

   Along with Florida, some 24 other states have implemented reductions in student-teacher ratios. Most of them have seen very little improvement in student achievement. 

   Researchers didn't advocate abandoning all class-size reductions, but urged educators to consider where their efforts might do the most good - special cases in individual schools. 

WORLD online

Fire: Fact or Fiction       

   A week ago we wrote of California's destructive wildfires, one in particular which killed more than 80 and destroyed more than 13,000 homes. All this - leading up to what should have been a pleasant 
Thanksgiving season out there. 

   You've probably heard that climate change is responsible for this and other (extraordinary) destruction, such as Hurricane Michael. 

   "Things like this will be part of our future," said California Gov. Jerry Brown. 

   Not so fast, says Gregory Wrightstone, author of Inconvenient Facts: The Science that Al Gore Doesn't Want You to Know. 

   He said the number of wildfires in the Western Hemisphere is on the decline. California in particular has seen a decrease of about 50 percent. Cliff Mass of the U. of Washington agrees that in past decades the frequency of California wildfires has declined. 

   What has increased is the risk to humans. In 1940, there were 607,000 homes in high risk areas. By 2017, that number was 6.7 million. 

   President Trump was criticized for blaming forest management for some of the loss of human life and property. 

   Wrightstone backs him up. By limiting logging and suppressing lower-intensity fires, the U.S. Government gives fire more fuel to burn. "Californians are suffering not from Gov. Brown's 'new normal' but from ill-conceived policies of radical environmental activists who planted a time bomb that is now exploding," he adds. 

WORLD online

The Largest City     

   Underground. 
  
   Bigger than Minnesota. 
  
   Excavation volume equal to 4,000 pyramids of Giza. 
  
   About 200 million structures. 
      This "city" was not built brick by brick, but grain by grain. By termites. 
Over some 3,800 years.

   The only visible structures are conical mounds, each about 8 feet tall and 30 feet wide. They are spaced about 60 feet from each other. 

   How do generations of termites do that? Like, how do honey bees make perfect combs, working from the perimeter toward the center? 

   If you wish to visit 88,000 square miles of termite city, this is in Brazil. 
But, don't come back with any of its inhabitants as souvenirs!!!

Study published in Current Biology 

   

An Arrow for You; One for Me   

   Disregarding the honest prophet's warning, wicked King Ahab went to war. 
He wore armor, and further protected himself by going in disguise.  

   But someone drew his bow at random and hit the king of Israel between the sections of armor. He died that evening. - I Kings 22:34  

   One of our local pastors said, "The devil has an arrow with your name on it. 
Troubles are not random."

   So, we put on the armor of Ephesians chapter 6, making certain there are no exposures between sections:

truth-righteousness-peace-faith-salvation-Word of God

   



   

Wisdom    

   "Fragile as reason is and limited as law is as the medium of reason, that's all we have standing between us and the tyranny of mere will and the cruelty of unbridled, undisciplined feeling."

- Justice Felix Frankfurter

   "Let the human mind loose. It must be loosed. It will be loose. Superstition and despotism cannot confine it." 

- John Adams

   "The sacred rights of mankind ... are written, as with a sunbeam, in the whole volume of human nature, by the hand of the Divinity itself, and can never be erased or obscured by mortal power." 

- Alexander Hamilton

   "Our Constitution is in actual operation. Everything appears to promise that it will last. But in this world, nothing is certain but death and taxes."

- Ben Franklin

   "Government is not reason, it is not eloquence - it is a force! Like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master; never for a moment should it be left to irresponsible action." 

- George Washington

And decipher this:

   "There is an upside to ignorance and a downside to knowledge. Knowledge makes life messier."

- Author Michael Lewis

Time is Running Out     

   It may be too late for peace, but those who challenge the conventional wisdom of conflict hold out hope, against all odds.

   For the past 365 days, peacemakers have focused on border security, statistical methodology and quantitative methods while studying the playbooks of war. While others point to a decline in visible public support, they find optimism about war and violence troubling.

   They explore data, hoping to discover evidence that suppression of conflict is reality. "The data simply doesn't support the 'decline of war thesis,'" they lament. 

   Mere hours remain. 

   Conflict initiation leads to collision, and there is no significant change in the intensity of this particular warfare. One kick is all it takes to ignite the battle.

   Academic cooperation doesn't imply a decrease in warlike behavior, they say. Nor is there evidence that improvements in young men's behavior have altered their passion for victory. 

   To understand the dilemma, one must understand the nature of order. The goal of antagonists is paramount. In fact, there are two goals, where lines are drawn in the sand, or more accurately, grass. 

   Quick, get the kids safely inside. 

   The human race has the capacity to reject violence, but finding common ground is difficult. In this case, there is no common ground.

   Each foe is intent on doing what's right, and will resort to force to achieve short-term gains. 

   Unless mature officials somehow prevent certain mayhem, war will break out Saturday at noon between combatants of Ohio State and Michigan, on a battlefield known as the "Shoe." 

      Jimmy




   

Today

Hope

         Atonement

         Neighbors

        Kindness

         Salvation

     Grace

                   Independence

         Virtues

                  Intercession

          Nature

           Gospel

Deception by Design    

   Just who are the real fascists and racists?

If you are a Democrat, we value you and your opinions.

We think this is interesting, not that we can vouch for it.

   Here is a short look at a documentary by Dinesh D'Souza, Death of a Nation.  

   In 1915 there was a silent, racist drama, The Birth of a Nation, that D'Souza claims revitalized the Ku Klux Klan. President Woodrow Wilson, a Democrat, watched it in the White House. (What did he think?)

   D'Souza says the political left's labels for Donald Trump - "fascist" & "racist" - are better applied to the left itself. Using historical records, interviews with academics, and other material, he says that racism existed at the Democratic Party's founding (true), and remains entrenched in progressive politics today (we would like more details; the existence of a black caucus doesn't automatically mean the party wants to improve the inner cities). 

   Nazi's, D'Souza says, modeled their exclusionary Nuremberg Laws on southern Democrats' segregation policies.

   In fascism, the state controls industry and commerce, and is the arbiter of individual rights. (Cuba, etc.) The Democratic Party and its influential allies, including the late Margaret Sanger and George Soros, have voiced similar principles. (Sanger didn't promote abortion in the name of women's rights. There are other Dems who want capitalism eliminated.) 

   We guess that many politicians and their voters don't know what the movers and shakers, and academics, have in mind for the party, and therefore, for the country. 

   What is the antidote to the tyranny of the left? Donald Trump? No. D'Souza's documentary ends with The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

"Christ ... died to make men holy,

Let us live to make men free."

   

   

   

Social Justice    
Math & Engineering Give Way   

   Has it been eight months already? A 950-ton footbridge with a "reinvented I-beam" design was being assembled over a seven-lane boulevard in the Miami area. Down it came on traffic, killing seven and injuring nine. 

   This wasn't the first bridge or tunnel collapse in history. Science and technical lessons sometimes are learned the hard way. Until recently, math and engineering knowledge was priority in the business of math and engineering. 

   Today, inclusiveness and diversity rule in many university science departments, whites Janie B. Cheaney in WORLD magazine. A professor at Michigan State in August published an essay. Social justice warriors "have sought the soft underbelly of engineering, where 'diversity' and 'different perspectives' and 'racial gaps' and 'unfairness' and 'unequal outcomes' are daily vocabulary." 

   A soft underbelly in the realm of steel and concrete?

   The prof claims that equations, ratios and aerodynamics are giving way to "group representation, hurt feelings and microaggressions." 

   Cheaney writes, "...the hard sciences were mostly immune. The push to get more women in STEM fields directs grant money into gender-specific programs. Many women are proficient, even brilliant in math and science, but the goal of equal representation skews objectives." 

   "Science is becoming an agent of change rather than discovery," she adds.

   Cheaney doesn't infer that social-justice goals had anything to do with the footbridge collapse. Who knows? 

   I was a white male in arts & sciences - majoring in journalism. You wouldn't trust your life near any bridge, tunnel or building I might design. Neither should you trust your life with the work of any engineer, white or color, male or female - unless - he or she is 100 percent proficient.

       Jimmy

A Sober Thanksgiving?    

   No, we don't mean an alcohol-free holiday.

   Thanksgiving week. Thawing the turkey. Bought the stuffing, and the yams.

   Over the baggage drop and through the metal detector, to grandmother's house they will come.

   Thank you Lord. 

   And please touch the survivors of Michael the wicked hurricane, and those 8,800 Californians whose homes are incinerated. Amen.

   Mother Nature can be nasty for people used to many conveniences, and she is no respecter of persons. Michael came and went quickly, but historic in power.  

   Wind driven fires are so different, yet so alike in pain. What does one do when not only your home but your community, businesses, utilities, medical and other services, gas stations, cell towers - everything - is gone? A taste of Hiroshima?     
   So we thank God for our blessings, and we pray for comfort for survivors, and strength for first responders, fire fighters, National Guardsmen and chaplains. At least 71 have perished in the fires, and some 1,000 are unaccounted for.  

   We feel odd. We pray. Glad it's not us. We sympathize. Pass the casserole please. It's Thanksgiving. 

   There's a lesson here. Always be ready to meet your Maker.

      Jimmy 

A Place Called Moriah       

   Earlier this week we noted that buildings, ceremonies, persons and places are no substitute for worship of the One and only, the sacrificial Lamb of God. 

   However, God had a certain place in mind as he began unfolding his plan for redemption. To Abraham, he said:

   Take your son to the region of Moriah. Sacrifice a burnt offering there. Sacrifice him there.

   Where is the lamb? Isaac asked. God will provide, his father promised. 

Genesis 22:1-18

   King David had disobeyed God. He saw a terrifying angel wielding a sword. An angel sent word to David to build an altar on the threshing floor of Araunah, on Moriah.  

   David approached Araunah. Let me have the site ... and he offered to pay full price. He sacrificed burnt offerings, and fire fell from heaven. 

   The angel stood down. David declared, The house of the Lord God will be here, and he made preparations for the temple.

1 Chronicles 21: 14-30

   David's son Solomon began to build the temple of the Lord in Jerusalem, on Mount Moriah, where the Lord had appeared to his father, David. It was on the threshing floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the place provided by David. 

2 Chronicles 3:1-2

   Eventually, Babylonians destroyed Solomon's temple, and Romans destroyed its replacement. Today, Moriah is a Muslim holy place. God's story is not finished. Can you find the "holy mountain" in Isaiah 66? 

A History of Welfare      

   Early American compassion flowed from churches and synagogues, close to the action. They offered personal and spiritual help to immigrants, writes Marvin Olasky in WORLD magazine.

   By the 1960s, a federal welfare system with rules and regulations replaced personal help. The system offered uniformity: Income x and number of children y results in welfare check z, he says, regardless of values or willingness to work. 

   Republican welfare reform in 1996 supposedly improved the system. No, we now have about 80 different federal welfare programs, one of which is Aid to Families with Dependent Children (now called Temporary Assistance for Needy Families). 

   Here's the problem, Olasky writes: We know every person has a unique set of circumstances, needs and values. But we prefer uniformity (fairness). 

   When "experts" propose changes, politicians usually strangle their proposals, claiming they won't work because society has changed so much. 

   The biggest changes, he says, involve beliefs, values, family formation or non-formation, and education. Marriage rates are down.

   More kids grow up without a sense of right and wrong. Schools pretend that most everyone should go to college, so millions end up without work skills. 

   Old virtues might work with new opportunities, if we give them a chance.

      Jimmy 

PS. Today is someone's anniversary.