My favorite Peanuts comic of all time had Linus running up to Charlie Brown and describing the big win in the game.....and how everyone on the team was jumping around and yelling and so excited. Charlie looks at him when he is finished and asks...."And how did the other team feel?"
I had been posting on the threat of communism and communist tactics in America for years....all the while wondering why few on our side would dare mention the word. There was one post only three or four years ago where I applauded Rush for actually using the word....but today all these folks act like they have been warning about communism all along.
Without law and order you have chaos.....and you give opportunity for groups such as the Bolsheviks to come to power.....and you give opportunity for groups such as the Nazis to push aside all the other political parties to take power. I've posted often on this also....but if we just go out and condemn the other side without any introspection at all on why these destructive forces are able to get a foothold.....then we not only do not help the situation.....we make matters worse.
The middle class is disappearing today. There is only us with the money and 401s.....and the others with a few thousand bucks.....where we just want them to stay in their communities and not cause trouble....and be satisfied with their iPhones and hundreds of cable channels....(we'll come in for a ballet or a stage play....once in a while.....and of course we'll show up regularly at the stadiums....as we pass quickly through their communities to get there.)
We don't understand what their life is like....and we don't really want to......we just want these problems to go away. I remember what it was like to have the electricity or the phone turned off...but we didn't live in a two-class society back then. The middle class had nice homes and a nice automobile but they lived on the street right next to us. They didn't have any expensive toys. What they had over us was a house over an apartment.....and a bank account.
Socialism is not the answer....no one knows that more than I do.....but capitalism as it exists today.....Donald Trump's capitalism.....is ugly and greedy and uncaring and at times criminal. We have 401s with hundreds of thousands in the bank....bare minimum....and no mortgage....on a home that we own.....or if we are younger we are certainly on our way there....and they have a couple of thousand in the bank at best....and we cannot understand why they are not happy....and don't make wise decisions.
Our side works hard.....they earned the money.....but that's not the only issue. One can pay a thousand a month for cable and Internet and phones....and then struggle to have the rent money.....and we condemn them for this.....as if we played no part in structuring such a society.....but we did....as we looked only after ourselves as people like Donald Trump became billionaires on our weaknesses. We criticize their playing the Lotto to get rich quick but we play the same Lotto on Wall Street.
The problem is not in what we have.....but in what we value. I would much rather live in a row house....with good neighbors.....in a community of love.....than a million dollar home right on the beach....where my safety and happiness depended upon the stock market and keeping the lower class in their cities. The only answer to our problems is in Jesus Christ.
I'll include with this post an older post titled 'Annie Get Your Crown.' A society that honors Jesus Christ could not have come to the point where we are at. Bolshevism and fascism and anarchy would find few if any takers....and you could probably count the number of billionaires on your fingers and toes. We might invest in someone's company or even a corporation but we wouldn't be investing in spreadsheets.....dropping some stock symbols while picking up others at the drop of a hat because the some artificial intelligence tells us that the odds are better.
None of the past is coming back....and it was far from perfect to begin with. We are living in the culmination of history. When Jeremiah gives us the LORD's admonition....."Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls"....we were not told to find a golden age....a making America great again.....but we were given the same admonition as in Matthew 6:33.....Jesus speaking....."But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Our response then.....in Jeremiah....was "But they said, 'We will not walk in it'." And that is also our response today.
ANNIE GET YOUR CROWN.....April of 2017:
Consider two women if you would. I'll call one Anne....and the other Annie. They are both 70 years old. Anne was born into money....private schools....a debutante ball.....Sarah Lawrence College....all of that. Her net worth has been in the billions....or today's equivalent of it....all of her life. Anne was physically beautiful...and still is as she had all that money could buy for various expensive cosmetic surgeries and beauty products to keep her skin soft and wrinkle free. She also is very healthy....as every sign of illness was addressed immediately by the best doctors in the world.
Annie was born in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, not far from the steel mills. She started smoking at fourteen because she didn't know any better. She began working as a cleaning woman at the historic Westinghouse Air Brake when she graduated from high school at 18 years of age. She has never had a thousand dollars to spare in her entire life. She still cleans banks and schools at 70 years old. There is no discernible shape or style whatsoever to her hair. Her skin is wrinkled and pasty....and she is not well although she really has no personal doctor to diagnose anything.....rather she will go to the emergency room when necessary.....which had been two or three times in her life. There doesn't appear to be a whole lot of fairness to life as it concerns Anne and Annie.
God had humbled Annie early in life as she made a mess of it with men....and never married. There was a large yellow brick church on a hill that Annie would always admire when she was on that hill. One particular Sunday while in her thirties, she bundled up on a cold winter day, walked through the red doors, and sat in the last pew. It was as if God dragged her out of bed that day and pulled her up that hill. She heard something from that old man in the pulpit that she had never heard before. It was like water that starts to boil and then one has to hurry and turn the heat down on the stove to keep the water from boiling over the top of the pot.....as if Annie reached out that morning to grab the robe of Jesus....and been raised to life from the spiritually dead.....and has ever since echoed praises to her Savior and her Lord off of those cold bank marble and tiled cafeteria floors. Her body may often ache but her soul is comforted in the pure joy of grace bestowed....and of knowing that a crown awaits her!
Anne married the perfect man....handsome and richer than her. Her children are all highly successful and have provided a dozen beautiful grandchildren. Anne attends a majestic glass and steel church but she has never once heard the words that changed Annie's life. They were similar words that she heard but sterile....lacking power....and she has no idea that something is even missing. Anne gives more money to the church every Sunday than Annie makes in a whole year....but knows only a name....and not a reigning King. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of fairness here either....for God had humbled Annie....but never Anne.
Granted, there have been many examples that are the exact opposite where the poor woman had a chip on her shoulder against God her whole life....while the rich woman's sole purpose was in using her wealth to help others and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My point here as it concerns riches and a life of ease....or poverty....is that both are temporary.....with an eternity to follow! Surely there is someone within fifty yards of where I sit right now who is an Annie......and who has been blessed so as to make all the wealth of the richest man in the world appear as nothing but a gilded dung hill.
What is of everlasting importance is whether Anne or Annie.....who having been born either in riches or poverty....had also since been born anew.....born from above.....or as we hear most often.....born again.....adopted into God's family.....forgiven.....made heirs of an eternal inheritance.....and given God's Holy Spirit to know all these things.....and to rejoice in them.....and to have faith in that which cannot be seen....and strength to persevere.....and if it applies.....to discern the dangers that lurk within riches. This highlighting here of the temporal in no way lessens our concern for the Annies of the world....it rather does the opposite.....for whether one is born into money or not....they are both born into a spiritual deadness......and to be raised from this to life.....makes one almost immediately reach for the one not yet raised.....as if to pull them up also.....whether it be an Annie....or an Anne.
I had been posting on the threat of communism and communist tactics in America for years....all the while wondering why few on our side would dare mention the word. There was one post only three or four years ago where I applauded Rush for actually using the word....but today all these folks act like they have been warning about communism all along.
Without law and order you have chaos.....and you give opportunity for groups such as the Bolsheviks to come to power.....and you give opportunity for groups such as the Nazis to push aside all the other political parties to take power. I've posted often on this also....but if we just go out and condemn the other side without any introspection at all on why these destructive forces are able to get a foothold.....then we not only do not help the situation.....we make matters worse.
The middle class is disappearing today. There is only us with the money and 401s.....and the others with a few thousand bucks.....where we just want them to stay in their communities and not cause trouble....and be satisfied with their iPhones and hundreds of cable channels....(we'll come in for a ballet or a stage play....once in a while.....and of course we'll show up regularly at the stadiums....as we pass quickly through their communities to get there.)
We don't understand what their life is like....and we don't really want to......we just want these problems to go away. I remember what it was like to have the electricity or the phone turned off...but we didn't live in a two-class society back then. The middle class had nice homes and a nice automobile but they lived on the street right next to us. They didn't have any expensive toys. What they had over us was a house over an apartment.....and a bank account.
Socialism is not the answer....no one knows that more than I do.....but capitalism as it exists today.....Donald Trump's capitalism.....is ugly and greedy and uncaring and at times criminal. We have 401s with hundreds of thousands in the bank....bare minimum....and no mortgage....on a home that we own.....or if we are younger we are certainly on our way there....and they have a couple of thousand in the bank at best....and we cannot understand why they are not happy....and don't make wise decisions.
Our side works hard.....they earned the money.....but that's not the only issue. One can pay a thousand a month for cable and Internet and phones....and then struggle to have the rent money.....and we condemn them for this.....as if we played no part in structuring such a society.....but we did....as we looked only after ourselves as people like Donald Trump became billionaires on our weaknesses. We criticize their playing the Lotto to get rich quick but we play the same Lotto on Wall Street.
The problem is not in what we have.....but in what we value. I would much rather live in a row house....with good neighbors.....in a community of love.....than a million dollar home right on the beach....where my safety and happiness depended upon the stock market and keeping the lower class in their cities. The only answer to our problems is in Jesus Christ.
I'll include with this post an older post titled 'Annie Get Your Crown.' A society that honors Jesus Christ could not have come to the point where we are at. Bolshevism and fascism and anarchy would find few if any takers....and you could probably count the number of billionaires on your fingers and toes. We might invest in someone's company or even a corporation but we wouldn't be investing in spreadsheets.....dropping some stock symbols while picking up others at the drop of a hat because the some artificial intelligence tells us that the odds are better.
None of the past is coming back....and it was far from perfect to begin with. We are living in the culmination of history. When Jeremiah gives us the LORD's admonition....."Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls"....we were not told to find a golden age....a making America great again.....but we were given the same admonition as in Matthew 6:33.....Jesus speaking....."But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Our response then.....in Jeremiah....was "But they said, 'We will not walk in it'." And that is also our response today.
ANNIE GET YOUR CROWN.....April of 2017:
Consider two women if you would. I'll call one Anne....and the other Annie. They are both 70 years old. Anne was born into money....private schools....a debutante ball.....Sarah Lawrence College....all of that. Her net worth has been in the billions....or today's equivalent of it....all of her life. Anne was physically beautiful...and still is as she had all that money could buy for various expensive cosmetic surgeries and beauty products to keep her skin soft and wrinkle free. She also is very healthy....as every sign of illness was addressed immediately by the best doctors in the world.
Annie was born in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, not far from the steel mills. She started smoking at fourteen because she didn't know any better. She began working as a cleaning woman at the historic Westinghouse Air Brake when she graduated from high school at 18 years of age. She has never had a thousand dollars to spare in her entire life. She still cleans banks and schools at 70 years old. There is no discernible shape or style whatsoever to her hair. Her skin is wrinkled and pasty....and she is not well although she really has no personal doctor to diagnose anything.....rather she will go to the emergency room when necessary.....which had been two or three times in her life. There doesn't appear to be a whole lot of fairness to life as it concerns Anne and Annie.
God had humbled Annie early in life as she made a mess of it with men....and never married. There was a large yellow brick church on a hill that Annie would always admire when she was on that hill. One particular Sunday while in her thirties, she bundled up on a cold winter day, walked through the red doors, and sat in the last pew. It was as if God dragged her out of bed that day and pulled her up that hill. She heard something from that old man in the pulpit that she had never heard before. It was like water that starts to boil and then one has to hurry and turn the heat down on the stove to keep the water from boiling over the top of the pot.....as if Annie reached out that morning to grab the robe of Jesus....and been raised to life from the spiritually dead.....and has ever since echoed praises to her Savior and her Lord off of those cold bank marble and tiled cafeteria floors. Her body may often ache but her soul is comforted in the pure joy of grace bestowed....and of knowing that a crown awaits her!
Anne married the perfect man....handsome and richer than her. Her children are all highly successful and have provided a dozen beautiful grandchildren. Anne attends a majestic glass and steel church but she has never once heard the words that changed Annie's life. They were similar words that she heard but sterile....lacking power....and she has no idea that something is even missing. Anne gives more money to the church every Sunday than Annie makes in a whole year....but knows only a name....and not a reigning King. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of fairness here either....for God had humbled Annie....but never Anne.
Granted, there have been many examples that are the exact opposite where the poor woman had a chip on her shoulder against God her whole life....while the rich woman's sole purpose was in using her wealth to help others and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My point here as it concerns riches and a life of ease....or poverty....is that both are temporary.....with an eternity to follow! Surely there is someone within fifty yards of where I sit right now who is an Annie......and who has been blessed so as to make all the wealth of the richest man in the world appear as nothing but a gilded dung hill.
What is of everlasting importance is whether Anne or Annie.....who having been born either in riches or poverty....had also since been born anew.....born from above.....or as we hear most often.....born again.....adopted into God's family.....forgiven.....made heirs of an eternal inheritance.....and given God's Holy Spirit to know all these things.....and to rejoice in them.....and to have faith in that which cannot be seen....and strength to persevere.....and if it applies.....to discern the dangers that lurk within riches. This highlighting here of the temporal in no way lessens our concern for the Annies of the world....it rather does the opposite.....for whether one is born into money or not....they are both born into a spiritual deadness......and to be raised from this to life.....makes one almost immediately reach for the one not yet raised.....as if to pull them up also.....whether it be an Annie....or an Anne.
