Ignore This Political Blather

Truly, if you have no particular interest in politics you should ignore this post. It’s just a hobby and God gives me some interesting insights that make sense, perhaps only to me, and I can’t just shut up about it. Humor me.

First, a few reminders of how I look at this. We have the government everyone sees, the leaders who have to use their charisma and charm to remain in power. They really aren’t that much in power, but they do have a little leverage and some hope of getting rich and protecting their interests. The real power is the bureaucracy with it’s paranoid national security mind set. But among those who pretend to be leaders is a bunch of competing teams that agree to certain basic rules, but don’t actually get along that well. They are partisan in ways our mainstream press never discusses. Republicans and Democrats, along with minor parties that come and go, mean nothing in reality.

Second, there is no such thing as good politics. We can probably point out certain elements that we like. Sometimes we like them because they do make room for heart-led holiness, or simply reflect a somewhat better moral choice. However, the same politician can represent three kinds of good and ten kinds of bad, all on different levels or angles of consideration. The same political choice can be multiples of moral good and bad simply because such choices are never simple. Everything has repercussions in multiple threads. We are nobody’s cheering squad because nobody wants to know what God says about human politics.

Now, something has changed in the presidential campaign. I previously felt that Trump would have a tough time with the bureaucratic shadow government. No longer. Partly it’s because he has courted the bureaucrats behind the scenes, but partly because the alternative — supporting Clinton — has become entirely untenable. The recent investigation into her email server opened a lot of other avenues of investigation that turned into broad highways. The Clinton Foundation is like a massive nuke floating over our heads.

If you have read my blather about The Cult, you recall that a primary aim is to make government so bad that the masses would be willing to accept any global leader offering a plausible hope for relief. Some of the folks who serve The Cult are willing to rip at the fabric of national identity even before it gets that far. So we have folks like George Soros ideologically committed to a borderless world. And he’s not just a wishful thinker; he has wormed his way into Western government structures. He’s the one who funded the massive Muslim migration into Europe. Truly, this invasion would not have happened without his efforts to promote it.

Hillary is his gal. She is all for this Open Society stuff simply because Soros pays her. Whatever the Clinton Foundation does is mostly the work of Soros. And it touches virtually every part of the US government. To open this up to prosecution would end the US government, one way or another. The leaders are scared; the bureaucracy is in panic — neither exists without the other. They have to block Clinton, never mind whether she is prosecuted. But they really need to be careful and not blow open the whole story, because it means the system comes apart. So they have to find some way to let this stuff leak into the open in little tiny bits that don’t hurt much of anyone but her and Obama and company.

And Obama and company know it. So this is why the current administration is trying to provoke martial law. Soros wants it. He has become a threat to the system. You see, the bureaucrats and some of the leaders know something important. Having studied this in detail for some years, the shadow government knows that provoking a revolt, as martial law would do, would end the system forever. There is a long list of whys, but what it amounts to is that the system is terribly unstable and wholly exposed in ways they don’t tell us. For example, the hive-mind is convinced that most of the US military would refuse to obey any orders to fight a revolt. And the bulk of the FBI is already turning against Obama and company. Oh, and you know there are predators outside the US just waiting to support a revolt against the US government, and they have the resources to make it happen. A revolt or civil war in the US would be long and bloody.

The hive-mind would rather face whatever Trump might do to them than to risk letting Clinton destroy everything. So they have to fight off the Soros-sponsored activities without starting a civil war. Their propagandists are already at work spreading the word to ignore the business of her stupid mail server and focus on the Clinton Foundation. They say everything we need to know is already out there on the Net, so they want the activists to just start digging. For example, check out the Tavistock Institute, owned by Soros. The hive-mind pins its hopes on the nationalism of the main population, and the leadership’s survival instincts to sever ties with Tavistock and the Clinton Foundation.

Thus, we come to that right-wing backlash I figured was coming a long time ago. At almost any price, the hive-mind is willing to crush the BLM (Black Lives Matter) to squelch the kind of general uprising that Soros would love to see. And it has nothing to do with being liberal versus conservative. Did you notice the BLM stupidly provoked the LGBT folks in Canda? They just blew off a natural ally. Look for the LGBT to become orphaned darlings of the right.

Never mind whether you believe the BLM complaints are justified; things are not going to go well for them. And all those migrants crowding into the US who lack conservative middle-class values? They are about to face that same backlash. In terms of worldly wisdom, this is a good time to keep a low profile. I’m betting against Soros and I don’t expect a civil war, but there will be some nasty politics up near the top.

Posted in globalism | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Ignore This Political Blather

Simple Goal

Keep in mind that spiritual birth and heart-led are not the same. There is a correlation, but they are not the same thing. People can most certainly have one without the other.

We would love for everyone to enjoy spiritual birth. However, Scripture tells us flatly that God alone handles this and we cannot comprehend how it works. The best we can do is become aware of our own spiritual birth.

We have a lot better chance of helping folks by awakening the heart-mind connection. We still cannot do it for them, but we at least can grasp something of the process and work with it on our level here. And we have the blessed assurance that once awakened, it will virtually ensure fulfillment of all the promises in God’s Laws. That is, the heart-mind opens the door to the whole meaning of divine revelation. If we can just get across the message of living by the heart, we can afford to back off and see what comes of it.

It’s not foolproof, but it works so well that it is sufficient as our all-encompassing emphasis. It’s our evangelism. God speaks so eloquently from Creation that we can simply let go at that point, and trust Him for the results of anyone making that connection inside themselves. It’s the gateway for escaping the Curse of the Fall. Best of all, it correlates with spiritual birth.

If spreading the Life of heart-led is all we do, His glory shines.

Posted in teaching | Tagged , , , , | Comments Off on Simple Goal

Reprise: Jay’s Contribution to the Booklet Project

Here we are again with Jay’s entry for our Radix Fidem booklet. It’s been edited a bit and he added a final paragraph that ties it all up nicely. Now if I could just get a few more of you to take up a part of this…

———–

2. Fundamentally super-rational, not cerebral (working above the intellect)

Faith, and how humans “come to” faith lies, ultimately, beyond human comprehension. The workings of the metaphysical domain are conducted on a level humanity is not able to fully understand — though, obviously, we are able to experience it in some manner while living in our fallen condition, in our current, physical, domain. Much like how we react to an object of beauty or wonder, it’s perhaps best described as an experience (a continuum of experiences, really) and not a series of objects apprehended with our material reasoning toolkit.

With all of the technological advances in the last hundred years or so, it may seem that the idea that, eventually, we will arrive at a comprehensive view of the universe is a recent one. This idea was around long before modern times, in many different forms and degrees. Nowadays it has taken the form of “scientism,” where one places an undue burden on the process of scientific discovery as a means of discovering all things that are knowable. If so inclined, you can trace and find bits of the idea all throughout the various trends of thought in history, from the ancient Greeks, to the medieval era through Francis Bacon and the Enlightenment, and into the modern technological age. Whatever form it takes, it involves a very important assumption: that all knowable things are within the reach of human intellect. This idea is incompatible with the internal workings of faith, since only God can implant faith, hence it doesn’t arrive to us, or is sensed, by material means. Scientism, since it fails to acknowledge God as a possibility through it’s very framework, falls under the rubric of “idolatry,” effectively removing God from the throne and putting something else in His place. In this case, it’s placing the scientific process as the ultimate source of something — knowledge — instead of God.

Logic and reasoning are limited tools, for sure, but this idea isn’t limited to spiritually-minded folks — common sense bears it out. Humans operate mostly through non-logical means, being guided through most of our days via a mix of the senses, memory and routine, heuristics, reliable authority, and instinct, with limited instances of the two logic forms (inductive and deductive) to tackle things like unfamiliar situations. Pure reasoning is notoriously ineffective when dealing with things that aren’t immediately contextual and “bite-sized.” Take something that demands mountains of logic to accomplish, like any kind of large-scale engineering project. It requires lots of engineers, of differing expertise and strengths, to work on individual components of the device, plus another layer of lead engineers, quality assurance folks, and managers to make sure all those small parts work together. One man alone, even the smartest of us, would require a whole lifetime (or more) of calculating, building, and testing to come up with something of equal complexity. How, then, could one come to “know” a being infinitely more vast, such as God, if this were the case?

Forgetting the coldness of logic for a minute here… if we consider God to be a person, which He is, then material reasoning will come up wanting for the kind of knowledge God requires of us. We speak of “knowing” another person in ways that go well beyond a list of understanding some facts about them. We come to know and love, for instance, our friends or spouses through a incomprehensible webwork of epistemological inputs and a good dose of time and reflection. If we were to use this as an analog for approaching how we could understand God, as a personal being, our “sense” of God would be more properly aligned.

If one reads through enough writings of the faithful through the centuries, not to mention scripture itself, one could glean a bare-bones idea of genuine faith and the knowledge of God, and the way it works. In many ways, it could be a basic form of knowledge: faith doesn’t rest on something else — like others’ perceptions, material facts of the universe, or the sentiments of a culture — in order for it to work as intended. Faith is its own creature, an incomprehensible gift from the Creator. The “head knowledge” of how faith works comes to us a skeleton; it’s up to us to flesh it out by putting faith into actual practice.

Jay DiNitto

Posted in meta | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Reprise: Jay’s Contribution to the Booklet Project

Psalm 108

Echoes of Psalms 57 and 60, this combines praise and lament. Likely David used common worship phrases to lift up a battle song, not so much preparing for a literal fight, but to stir both confidence and humility before God.

David proclaims that his heart is standing tall and on the firm footing of God’s glory. From before the dawn, his heart awakens him in worship, so that his hands will awaken the musical instruments. It hardly matters where David finds himself at any moment, for there is a proper place to sing the glory of Jehovah, Creator of all things. The greatness of His mercy and truth stand above the brightness of the sun. So should all of Creation see His glory.

David’s call on God is not merely for Himself, nor so much for any particular people, but for the glory of His mission given to Israel. It is His own revelation living within the nation that He loves most. This is the only justification for calling on His limitless power.

And what does God say? He will exult in the triumph of His truth revealed among men. He knows the intimate details of such landmarks as Shechem between the mountains of Ebal and Gerizim, or the Valley of Succoth. He owns the vast grasslands of Gilead and the Tribe of Manasseh that resides there. He keeps the Tribe of Ephraim powerful and safe in the fortress of His mind, and the power of His Law is exercised through the Tribe of Judah. Moab is just a place to wash His feet, while He drops His sandals on Edom. Philistia will tremble with the echo of His triumph.

David asks who could possibly give him the military prowess to invade Edom. Perhaps this was one of those times when Edom was a problem for Israel. David asks rhetorically if God has not tossed Israel aside already, a standard protocol of prayer and supplication to one’s sovereign. It’s best to wait on God for dealing with such trouble, because mere man cannot solve anything that matters. Indeed, it is with the hand of God that all human trouble is put down.

Posted in bible | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Psalm 108

It’s Not the Same

Let’s assume for a moment the best prognosis for my knee. When the City finally pays out and I get my bike back, I still can’t afford to go off on long rides. This thing with my heart means I have to stay close in travel time to medical help. I can ride, but not all that far out into the boonies. I could go out there if I could drive, or maybe ride a scooter or something, but long bike rides are out for a while, if not altogether.

The workouts I do at home are probably good enough as far as exercise goes, but sitting on a chair in the breezeway outside my door is a poor replacement for standing out in the wind-swept countryside. This all requires some mental adjustment. And I still have to find the inspiration that used to come so easily out on those long rides. I most certainly do intend to be back out there once the knee gets better, but I still have lots of time here.

So I’ve decided to fill some of the time with turning that Answering series from this past April into a book. It requires some rewrite, and I’m pasting in that article I wrote for “Trending” as the intro. I’m still waiting for help on the Radix Fidem booklet, too. But this Answering book will be a longer piece and might serve to introduce our religion more specifically.

Pray with me about these things.

Posted in meta | Tagged , , , , , | Comments Off on It’s Not the Same

Storms from the Ground

I feel a little chagrined that I didn’t post this sooner. I was aware of it a couple of days ago, but wasn’t sure how to approach it at the time. What good is a prophetic calling if you keep your mouth closed?

I spotted this a few days ago. In essence, someone hacked a Twitter account and found some private messages indicating that our US Attorney General Lynch is working directly with some BLM (Black Lives Matter) leaders to provoke an excuse for martial law. This is the sort of thing many commentators suggested would happen back when Obama was first elected. While they suggested it would be racial conflict, nobody guessed the concrete details correctly. The plan revealed by the hack was to bus in rioters to both Republican and Democratic national conventions this summer. It’s just the tip of the iceberg.

This morning it’s all over the news about the Dallas police officers shot by snipers at the end of an otherwise peaceful protest against policemen shooting civilians for no good reason. I noted in the past how the servants of The Cult have been working to provoke this war. I saw back in the 1980s a shift in police training to make them more brutal, and that fruit is coming ripe today. Meanwhile, serious money is pouring into the BLM activities.

So we are left with seeing a serious effort to provoke martial law in the US. It’s moving faster than I expected, and I predict this will spillover into other countries.

You and I need not panic, just see it for what it is. Trust your heart to tell you how to exploit this for God’s glory. He is most certainly at work here and His wrath on sin is at the same time our blessing. Don’t fret; watch for opportunities.

Posted in prophecy | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on Storms from the Ground

Gospel Perception

We don’t preach orthodoxy and action; our gospel is essentially awareness.

The heart is far stronger and wiser than the mind. Lots of people already struggle with knowing; despite what their reason tells them, the power to do what they know is missing. There is something inside us that resists what is rational. But when you move your sense of consciousness into your heart-mind, the power to do is frankly hard to resist. Teaching about mercy and what kinds of action might fulfill our convictions is just a matter of shaking people loose from their old patterns.

When I go outside to pick up trash, it’s not as if some new sense of factual knowledge fills my head on finding the hidden pollutants. It’s much more subtle. It catches me out of the corner of my eye. There is no guilt if I happen to miss something and see it later. But the truth of God living in your soul calls to you from the center of your being. You don’t perform the mission; you become the mission. All you really have to do is fix those things inside of yourself; the world takes care of itself. Just conform to your own convictions.

But we also know that what we propose to the world is such a dramatic shift in human consciousness that we have no words. Truly, I don’t see how you can say your are heart-led when you end up with visions of uniformity. The sea change we seek is under the surface, not confined to mere human response. We want folks to lose themselves in the truth. Changes in the observable context must come as a result, but they are not the objective. Changed behavior is a symptom. You can’t teach symptoms; they manifest on their own. We have no vested interest in the literal outcomes.

Our vision should be an awakening of the sensory heart and the heart-mind awareness that cannot be seen with eyes.

Posted in teaching | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments Off on Gospel Perception

Fear Is a Prison

So perhaps you’ve read today’s post over at the parish parlor blog and you know that I’m being treated for a potentially deadly problem with my heart.

In the words of Lenny LeBlanc in “O God, You Are My God” from the album Pure Heart

So I will bless Thee
as long as I live I will lift up my hands to Thy name
So I will bless Thee
as long as I live
and in the shadow of Thy wings I sing for joy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcplJ5ud3VE

As long as I’m still alive, I will continue to seek His glory. This is not the time to be afraid of what might happen; I’ll follow the best advice I can find, but only God can make it work. And if God is ready for me to report in person, no one and nothing can keep me here. I don’t care for this medication so far, but the doctors insisted I should be able to live as before. And probably far longer than any of us could guess.

So, let’s get to work and make the most of what time we have together, long or short. We are in a time of tribulation and miracles will be tossed out to His adoring children generously. Aside from the blog itself, everything we do as an online parish should continue fine with or without me. You are all still the same wonderful brothers and sisters walking in heart-led conviction of the truth.

Posted in personal | Tagged , | Comments Off on Fear Is a Prison

Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome

My heart is healthy, but the wiring around it is faulty, so to speak. The title above is the name for this problem, as I understand it. This thing is capricious. There are aggravating factors, but the thing itself can just go downhill without any useful warnings.

As some of you know, the trauma of my bike crash, and perhaps a side effect of the anesthesia, changed a bunch of things in my body. Among those things was a new intolerance to caffeine. It triggered tachycardia, but it was bearable. Most episodes lasted 30 minutes or less and symptoms were quite mild. Once I got past the initial recovery period, I began taking Hawthorne Berry extract and Curcumin. Those are known to strengthen the heart, among other things, and they seem to have worked well.

I had a couple of episodes starting Saturday that I couldn’t explain. Today not a single aggravating factor was present, but it kicked off right in the middle of walking back from the apartment management office. And it didn’t stop.

So after an hour I had my beloved take me to the VA Emergency Room. They were concerned this time, because if it keeps up long enough, the heart stops from exhaustion. So in consultation with the Cardiology Clinic upstairs, they decided it was the wiring problem. I was hooked up with some interesting equipment and two IVs. One was for input, the other for flushing. They injected a single dose of something with a name I can’t remember (it sounded like they said “adenosine”) which made me dizzy and breathing was difficult, but it also stopped the racing of my heart. I was told later that it usually isn’t that easy, requiring up to three cycles of injection followed by a flush, and even some electro-shock efforts to regulate it down. So mine was easy.

While they still want to do an echo test later, the doctors decided that the shortest path for now was to treat it with metoprolol tartrate, which slows the heart rate and lowers blood pressure. This is a lot less invasive and risky than some kind of surgery to “burn out” the wiring issue with my heart. Once I’ve had the echo test, the doctors should be in a better position to decide long term treatment.

It’s one heck of a way to waste a day.

Posted in personal | Tagged , | Comments Off on Wolff-Parkinson-White Syndrome

The New Camera

SimpleTest01So it arrived yesterday and I spent some time reading the user’s manual. It’s pretty simple and most of the settings can be automated for reasonable results. This first shot was just to test shooting in overcast conditions. I’m standing in the middle of Pratt Drive facing eastward near our apartment complex.

TelephotoTest01This second image is just a simple test of telephoto shooting from across the street, again in overcast conditions.

While this camera suffers the same weakness of all the digital cameras I’ve ever used, with images a little bright and color faintly washed out, I think this one was well worth the money and you can expect to see better shots than I’ve posted in the past. Those minor issues are easy to tweak in GIMP.

Now for the tough part: I keep getting the sense that my photography in the future won’t have that much to do with cycling. I still plan to ride and shoot, but my heart tells me that will no longer be a major feature here. I can’t tell you what this is about — I don’t know — only that the winds of change are blowing through my heart. The crash was a turning point, and I’m likely to be discovering what it’s all about for a long time to come.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , | Comments Off on The New Camera