Loneliness. Don't We Know? 

     Hillary Clinton blames the "vast right-wing conspiracy" for "stirring division and alienation." Don't we know? That conspiracy is responsible for everything from hurricanes to making the pandemic a "political wedge issue?"  

     Don't we know? Loneliness is an issue in the United Kingdom, and it exists in Venezuela, Japan and everywhere people live. 

     Here, with over 300 million people, there are singles, phone-addicted youth, widows, shy people, poor people, orphans, recent immigrants, addicts, runaways and others. 

     Politicians latch onto any issue. It's what they do. At last. Loneliness can be cured! 

     A Democratic senator proposed a "National Strategy for Social Connection Act." There would be an executive office to "develop a government-wide strategy to integrate social connection policy across federal departments and agencies" ...and provide funding for the CDC for research. 

     Doesn't he know the CDC was largely responsible for the greatest breakdown of social connection in living memory? 

     Alert! The purpose for a new government office becomes secondary to sustaining the office itself. And if it began nonpolitical, it becomes politicized and weaponized. Lord, help us!  

     He could, when families, churches and community bind us together again. Don't we know?

           Jimmy

based on column in WORLD magazine

       

All In the Family 

     Not that family. 

     Isn't it (fill in the word) that denominations find ways to be a little different than others? Who's to say they don't have reasons?

     But "there is one Lord, one faith and one (spiritual) baptism." We all answer to the King of kings, Lord of lords. We better be wearing wedding clothes when invited to the wedding banquet, or we will not be "chosen" Matthew 22:11-14. 

     There is one Jesus. With love, He purchased our unity. He wants us committed to each other. One body. One hope.

     We share the life. United in belief. We share in the "Lord's supper." (Some weekly. Some monthly. Some quarterly.) Whatever! 

     We gather to worship and to serve. 

     The church is the Father's family. The Son's bride. The home of the Holy Spirit (the helper; do we want his help ... or go it alone?). 

     Before He ascended, Jesus told his disciples they would receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on them. And they would be his witnesses in Jerusalem, in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8).

     Some claim that miraculous power ceased after the first century, in the middle east. If that's so, how do missionaries continue witnessing to the ends of the earth? 

     Pastor Irwin Lutzer says, "He gave for us. What do we do for Him?

Why Do Christians Differ?

     All humans have limitations. All have attitudes and preferences. All of us have carnality to some degree. We are imperfect, maybe hypocrites. 

     With that introduction, you either feel defeated, or angry with your blogger who doesn't know the real you. 

     In God's creation, the real you and the real me need forgiveness. And if we believe in life after death (and the second death), one or the other, there must be hope. We cannot achieve life by our own means. 

     Long ago we knew of a woman who said she had never sinned. Maybe she never committed any of the usual no-noes. Not likely. But unless her thoughts all her life were 100 percent in line with Holy God, she needed forgiveness. 

     There is the invisible church, universal. Then there are local churches, imperfect. Every church, because none of its members are perfect. 

     Hallelujah! 

     If left up to me, I would cancel the division, Old and New testaments. God through Moses and the prophets recorded what He was going to do. Centuries later, He did it! Then he gave men like Paul and John a mental view of things still to come. 

     God himself - surprise! - came to us as a child and one night years later turned himself into the authorities for execution. All to take upon himself the penalty for all our sins. 

     Let us never ever say we don't need his forgiveness! He arose from the dead; the Creator can do anything. Our response is to trust and obey. Every church. Every member. 

   To be continued

How Time Flies 

Seems like yesterday we dragged ourselves into Best Buy with our

diseased computer. A week has passed, and all is restored. 

     "We are so little reconciled to time," wrote C.S. Lewis. 

     "God has made everything beautiful in his time. He has put eternity into man's heart, yet he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end"(Ecclesiastes 3:11). 

     "Beauty has its time before fading and dying, but eternity haunts us," wrote Janie B. Cheaney. "Perhaps we can understand time (and space) as the canvas on which God paints creation. If that's the case, we will someday, in heaven, experience it from the outside.

     "Maybe eternity will be our opportunity to see the whole cloth of time as God has woven each of us into it, marveling at the intricate patterns and mysterious providences and connections. Finding out what God has done from beginning to end will be a glory far better than Christmas.

     "Every moment weaves into the final cloth. As R.C. Sproul used to say, 'Right now counts forever.'"

     We may be diseased from time to time, even deceased, but if we allow the Savior to have his way with us, we will be restored forever, world without end.

                  Jimmy

We No Longer Believe 

#5

     "I think what we've done as an industry is create a crisis of confidence in our institutions. By refusing to cover things fairly and accurately, the people tend to not believe anything. Whether it's covering Black Lives Matter, the Dept. of Justice, prosecuting some crimes, not others, elections...government...there's just a crisis in confidence.

     "You look at coronavirus, there's a lack of confidence in our health institution. And they cause it. It's funny when the propagandists say, 'You're crazy to suspect X or Y' when they created suspicion in the first place. You were unpatriotic to wear a mask until you were unpatriotic if you don't.

     "I think this is all very dangerous. It's created by the powers that be, who try to dictate the narratives and then look at the public and say, 'What's wrong with you?' 

     "When I see something happening without the spin...it is different than what I read in a news story...which scares me. I try to go to the source, and I try to read alternate views. If I see everybody reporting something one way, I become suspicious. 

     "If everybody's reporting it using the same language, immediately I am skeptical. Who wants me to believe that and why? 

     "There is something (people) can do, and there is some hope in my book (Slanted:) And some sources you can turn to that I list. But don't give up. There are tens of millions of people who understand what's going on, and not be silent. I think we can pull out of this."

Sharyl Attkisson

Host of "Full Measure" on TV

If We Were Neutral?

#4

     Sharyl Attkisson - on reporters during national elections:

     "If we were a neutral news media, I think we would have gone in with a rational skepticism of things on the ground, watching for fraud, whether committed by foreign interests or politicians. In 2016 we were told Russia interfered. In 2020, we were told it would happen again. 

     "There are domestic actors, some still working in our government, who were accused, or found to have interfered politically with President Trump. An FBI official allegedly doctoring a document and improper wiretap. 

     "We saw the press, and it looked like Joe Biden was winning, they were telling the public in a very uncurious sense, 'Nothing to see. Nothing to examine.' Journalists didn't want to look. They were saying, 'There's no evidence,' as if evidence walks up to the door and asks to enter. 

     "There was a time when journalists would have looked for this evidence and would have viewed suspiciously attempts to block observation. Instead, we saw the media saying, 'Well, none of this matters.' 

     "First, when fraud was uncovered, 'Well there was no widespread fraud.' Then when there's quite a bit of perhaps fraud and abuse, we're told, 'Well, it wouldn't have made any difference. It doesn't involve enough votes.'

     "Many polls are used by news organizations, that determine whether they're released, that determine the questions and the headlines that come. Two elections in a row, (are) so wildly wrong."

To be continued 

Fake Fact-Checking 

Attkisson #3

     "Obama's instruction to the media - fake fact checks - was something unheard of. The public now accepts, if not welcomes, the notion that third parties who know nothing oftentimes about what they're fact-checking - that they should keep you from seeing certain things or make sure you don't think certain things. 

     "I think social media is just another tool or avenue to control thoughts and opinion and information. The first time I noticed it, it was with the pharmaceutical industry - able to manipulate and shape reporting on pharmaceutical dangers. Advertising prescription drugs on TV used to be illegal. We're beholden to the tune of billions of dollars to this industry. 

     "And I saw that the same PR firms and global law firms that were trying to stop news stories for them were taking on other corporate clients and bragging and advertising they could stop or shape new stories by bullying news reporters...the tactics we see the smear industry use on a daily basis now. 

Media in Trump era

     "A Time false report on Donald Trump's Inauguration Day claimed he had removed the bust statue of Martin Luther King from the Oval Office. The reporter hadn't even checked whether that was true. It was behind a door. 

     "That went around the world before he corrected it. The press was trying to paint Trump as a racist. With all the mistakes going in one direction, there was never a mistake that benefited Donald Trump. 

     "You start to understand there's a pattern, and willfulness, and there's an agenda on the part of The New York Times, Washington Post, some of the formerly well-respected news organizations on the planet making the kind of mistakes that journalism students know not to make, in ways sloppy and irresponsible." 

To be continued

False Reporting

#2

     "Attkisson says people disguised as reporters want to keep us from getting certain accurate information, viewpoints, or scientific studies that could harm their interests. 

     "Not everybody who goes into journalism intends to report facts and truth. Increasingly, people working at news organizations are those kinds of people. 

     "Even journalism groups, news organizations and journalism professors have changed what we through of as the news. They are proud to say that they have disregarded objectivity and neutrality, which they claim was overrated. That's like saying a good diet and exercise are overrated.

     "Journalism professors are teaching some of their kids that objectivity, neutrality and lack of bias are actually old-fashioned notions. So those getting into journalism are being taught to push narratives and convince people to think a certain way. 

     "Social media became another tool used by the same players in what I call the smear industry, to manipulate and influence public opinion. The same figures try to control what we see on social media, Google searches and the internet. 

     "I think this started with President Obama announcing in 2016, that somebody 'needed to step in and start curating information in this wild, Wild West media environment on the internet.'" 

To be continued, though Friday

Fact-Based Reporting  

     What happened to it? Sharyl Attkisson's book, "Slanted, How the News Media Taught Us to Love Censorship and Hate Journalism."  

First of 5 

     In an interview, the five-time Emmy Award winner said, "Over time, I saw what I call the smear industry and the narrative industry. I'm talking about corporations, PR firms, crisis management firms, nonprofits, and political people. I saw them become part of the newsrooms.

     "There's a trend...to make stories come out a certain way regardless of the facts. One of the unique things is that so many executives and journalists spoke candidly about what I call the death of the news as we once knew it and were equally as critical. These executives and reporters and producers are from ABC, NBC, CNN, MSNBC, The New York Times, all kinds of places. 

     "If they see some of the same issues we do, why is it happening? Good journalism is being drowned out by special interests, corporate interests and political interests. 

     "There are an increasing number of people at news organizations who may not say to themselves - 'I want to pedal a lie' - but they are simply propagandists who put forth a certain view. If that requires half-truth or a lie, they're perfectly happy to do that.

     "A lot of people doing what they call reporting are really no more than political operatives or corporate interests disguised as reporters who have no intention of providing accurate information." 

To be continued

A Greater Hope

     The World Evangelical Alliance is a network of churches and international organizations in over 140 nations. It aims to give a global voice and platform to evangelical Christians, many of whom face rising persecution. 

     According to Open Doors World Watch, 2022 was the worst year on record, with 360 million Christians worldwide suffering high levels of persecution or discrimination. 

     While many American Christians view the UN with skepticism, its structure provides the only global venue for evangelicals to be heard.

     The Human Rights Council holds sessions for organizations that advocate for religious minority groups, including Muslims, Quakers and atheists. 

     Alliance Defending Freedom represents 600 million evangelical Christians worldwide. The United Nations is not their hope. 

     They have a greater hope.

Expiration Date

     "We are all here for a purpose, until we aren't. Grim headstones on old Puritan graveyards stand as a warning: As I am now, so you will be.

     "From the moment of birth, life in us is so strong it's hard to imagine an expiration date, but that too is stamped from birth. 

     "'Teach us to number our days,' wrote Moses, as he drew near his end. 

     "Paul advised Thessalonians not to grieve as unbelievers do, 'For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep' (1Thessalonians 4:14).

     "I am struck by the comparison: Jesus died so that we might fall asleep. He descended to depths unknown and experienced wrath unimaginable to draw the sting of death from us. 

     "Imagine the pain as Christ entered a darker night and hit the wall harder than any man could - before breaking through. When that day finally comes for me, whether hard or peaceful, calm or violent, so will I."

Jamie Cheaney, WORLD magazine

When evil is made to look like love  

             "For such men are false apostles, deceitful workmen, masquerading as apostles of Christ. 

And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light." - 2 Cor. 11:13-14

     The library drag queen is appealing as she reads to toddlers. Abortion proponents only want it "legal, safe and rare." Then they encourage "Shout your abortion." Sexual deviators only want to "coexist," a strange word for squatters who would evict you from your house.

     Next comes assisted dying, gentle and reasonable. They "care." Why should the aged cancer patient suffer?

     Nazi genocide had its beginnings in a public health initiative. 

     Now it's not just octogenarians, the 2016 "medical assistance in dying" (MAID) extends to teenagers with mental illness. Soon, permission to die will become responsibility to die.

     People reach these conclusions with considerable help - patient indoctrination in how beautiful death is, and now noble to end your own life for the greater good of society. Women praise young adults for their socially conscious decision to forgo childbearing because of climate change. 

     The tyranny of evil looks like love until you mount resistance. Underneath the velvet glove there lurks the iron fist. 

Andree Seu Peterson, WORLD magazine

     The Left wants fewer people in America. And they know best who deserves to die. Reminds us of Japan, which used to send undesirables out to sea, never to return.

Maybe we should go back to the beginning and start over. 

     In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty; darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

                                          Genesis 1:1

 How Do We Know? 

     God created us in His image.

     Scripture tells us that God has a plan for each of us and gives us hope and a future.

     God has called you by name. 

     Nothing can separate you from God's love.

 So...

     How do we know if we are enough? 

     We are not enough - on our own. 

     God sent Jesus to pay our debt and call us into his work. We aren't enough, but through Jesus we are accepted. 

     We may doubt our worth. God knows us better than we know ourselves because He created us. When we yield to him, He says we are enough. 

     Ask Him to help you trust his Word, believe and follow Him. 

YouVersion

 Picture the scene...

Covered wagons pulled by donkeys have circled.

The wagons are named The New York Times, 

The Washington Post, Democratic Party,

CNN, MSMBC, Dept. of Justice, FBI and Secret Service.

Inside the circle are...

President Biden smiling at the podium,

with Barack Obama grinning over his shoulder. 

 

Old and New Right 

conclusion, by Daniel Suhr

     "The 'old' and 'new' right agree on 90 percent of issues. The 'new' is less enthusiastic for military entanglements and more enthusiastic for government entanglement in markets at home (Big Tech, etc.). 

     "Both still share the same vision: strong families, vibrant communities, peace through strength, patriotism, prosperity and revitalized state and local governments. Some believe the left will do whatever it takes to win, and conservatives will keep losing if we aren't willing to fight fire with fire. 

     "An admonition, 'Love of America not hatred of the left, is our North Star.' 

     "The conversation within conservatism: What agenda advances our principles and can win the consistent support of the American people? And what are the right tone and tactics by which to advance that agenda?

     "Never forget: Winning ideas must be championed by the right messenger." 

    

Do We Need a New Right?  

From the book, UP from Conservatism

Revue by Daniel Suhr 

     "The Left rules every consequential sector of society, from education to the media, corporate America, Big Tech, and the federal administration. The Left even seems to own the top military brass. The courts and the Church are two exceptions. 

     "Several successes: welfare reform and school choice. America has made it 20-plus years without a terrorist attack. The Supreme Court has hit home runs on the Second Amendment and religious liberty. Things are not all bad. 

     "Arthur Milikh blames the loss of American culture on the Right's single-minded focus on economics, relegating moral and political questions to the status of 'social issues' and treating them as largely insignificant. 

     "Again, this ignores the impeachment of Bill Clinton, 'compassionate conservatism,' partial-birth abortion ban, and state constitutional amendments to defend traditional marriage.

     "Republicans did more than just cut taxes, ultimately winning on reversing Roe, but losing on defining marriage."

Conclusion on Monday