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“And He answered and said to them, ‘Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning ‘made them male and female,’ and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God has joined together, let no man separate” (Matthew 19:4-6).

Reminds me of a nuptial; the above-mentioned would almost certainly not be missed out in the proceedings of such an event that seals a holy matrimony. Excuse me; I would stay away from weddings; the worldly facet seemingly overshadows the Godly significance of this happening with the soppy element, which is entirely manmade! The bridal train as the couple walks down the aisle, the bridesmaid, best man, flower girls, and even page boy – something classic crooners could sing about. Anathema for a rock and roll guy who savors the twangy tunes from a Gretsch, if not a Fender Stratocaster!

Only recently, one rock and roll piece simply took on a significant meaning to the point that it stuck in the back of my brain. “Lola” by the Kinks had its debut in the early 1970s; the powerfully driven guitar intro plus rhythm often felt like an adrenaline shot. Lately, a portion of the lyrics would more than cause me to scratch my head. Boys could be girls and girls could be boys in a mixed-up world – right before many eyes as we speak! That hot potato has more than stirred up strife in numerous school board meetings. That somewhat nonsensical washroom controversy was never easy for a lot of parents to stomach – especially if ulterior motives came into play!

The degeneration continued with what I would term as gender gobbledygook. There are radical voices that call for a sweeping redefinition of gender terminology, probably taking away the pleasure of reading and writing. Their heart’s desire sees the rewriting of dictionaries based on the removal of the masculine and feminine differential. Nutty from the way it sounds. Only recently again, there is a call for the deletion of this delineation in the morgue, no more a criteria in human remains identification!

Then it became no longer fiction that everything spelled out in the Living Word was under a fierce, frontal assault by minions of the evil one. Pastors that preached the truth were heavily castigated by the law of their land; speaking in support of God-ordained marriage was deemed as an affront to the LGBT club – a hate crime!

Things have indeed gotten to a menacing overdrive, particularly when it concerns the very young and vulnerable. Like some segment of soft porn, schools are sweeping aside baseball practice for lessons in dressing in opposite-gender outfits. Then there are all the heinous grooming courses and those drag queen sessions. It goes on despite protests from concerned parents and well-meaning professionals.

It did not take very long for me to fathom the implications of all these lunacies. Kids would be rough-handled by the powers that be as their parents watched helplessly. This beats the violations relating to prisoners of war under the Geneva Convention. The abuse begins at a tender age, and it is continuous and wickedly structured. The natural developmental process is severely impaired as a confused worldview is internalized through childhood. Much worse than foster homes and institutions, the products of these setups know very little about happy endings. Quite a commonplace sad story involving law enforcement, the courts, and ultimately the penitentiaries, if not mental health facilities!

So I get the picture; whatever is in malevolent motion, with more in the pipeline of perdition, is the artwork of the evil one. By dismantling God-instituted marriage and family, the dark forces aim to reimagine society, much to its detriment.

Married folks produce offspring that, more often than not, become functional individuals. They can be a delight to be with and an inspiration for living a life of godliness. So what if you are single, divorced, widowed, or married? There is a harmonious coexistence, much like a beautifully woven tapestry! Take that all away, and life becomes chaotic and meaningless.

So I have learned to put up with some of these married ones trying to find a partner for me. Having gotten the true nature of the last days, I could appreciate their well-meaning stance or their good-natured leg-pulling. I am assured by the words of the Lord Jesus Christ in Matthew 19:11-12.

“But He said to them, ‘All cannot accept this saying, but only to those whom it has been given: For there are eunuchs who were born thus from their mother’s womb, and there are eunuchs who were made eunuchs by men, and there are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven’s sake. He who is able to accept it, let him accept it.'”

I joyfully go about doing the will of the Heavenly Father in my single status which He has blessed me with. I firmly believe that we are assigned a station in this world according to His plan for us. Let us rejoice in this. “But I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the things of the Lord – how he may please the Lord” (1 Corinthians 7:32).

The time is indeed very short; no time for anything with the likes of Barbara Cartland and Danielle Steele. Just girding my loins and keeping the lamps burning until the day of that one wedding I must not miss!

Maranatha

Edwin

Contact me at edwinuk13@gmail.com

Redefining the Meaning of Recession to Avoid Reality

The Biden administration has done a terrible job of handling the economy. Not only has it been blind to the dangers that are headed our way, but it also took steps that made them worse. President Biden ignored inflation warning cries over the trillions we were spending on covid stimulus packages. The Treasury increased the money supply by 40% in less than two years. The Fed bought $5 trillion in mortgage-backed securities.

When all this debt creation caused inflation to rise higher, Biden said it was only a temporary problem. When inflation kept on rising, the American people started noticing the financial pain. Figures that the Fed follows closely show that we now have the highest levels of inflation since January 1982. The president’s nose-diving poll numbers finally forced some action. Interest rates have increased by 1.75% over the past two months. Washington is so far behind on inflation, that rates would need to go up by another 7% to generate real yields on bond investments.

The U.S. economy is facing another financial problem – recession. Last week it was learned that the gross domestic product (GDP) had declined for the past two quarters. The U.S. economy shrank at an annual pace of 1.6% in the first quarter and declined by 0.9 percent in the second quarter of 2022.

Shortly before the new GDP numbers came out, a post was made to government financial sites that stated two back-to-back declines in GDP do not mean we are in a recession. When asked if the Biden administration was trying to change the definition, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said the strength of the labor market and other indicators are “not what we generally see as we talk about recession or even pre-recession.”

Biden addressed the debate, predicting the U.S. will dodge a downturn and similarly highlighting the labor market’s rebound as a sign of good economic health.

“We’re not going to be in a recession, in my view. The [un]employment rate is still one of the lowest we’ve had in history,” he said. “My hope is we go from this rapid growth to steady growth.”

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said an organization called the National Bureau of Economic Research that looks at a broad range of data is what decides whether or not there is a recession. And most of the data that they look at right now continues to be strong.

The truth-seeking Snopes.com was once a helpful site. Because it is run by leftists, it agreed with Biden’s adjusted meaning of recession. Snopes tried to have things both ways in saying it didn’t want to “give readers the misleading impression that the Biden administration literally tried to revise the criteria economists use to determine when a recession has occurred. But that was not the case.”

Wikipedia has been criticized after the website changed the definition of the term recession and locked the page to prevent editing by the public. Wikipedia said it locked the page to require proper citation and avoid political bias. When you’re editing your content based on the word of the 21st century’s great economist, Joes Biden, no other source is needed.

It is very dangerous to change something that has been the standard way of measuring the economy for over 50 years. Because the NBER doesn’t declare that a recession has occurred until it’s in the past, we will never live through another one.

A bear market is when a market experiences prolonged price declines. It typically describes a condition in which securities prices fall 20% or more from a recent high. An official depression occurs when GDP declines by more than 10% and an unemployment rate that at one point reached 25%.

If we run into a bear market, the Biden administration may declare it to be a bargain market, where investors can buy stocks at a good discount. If we run into a depression, Washington would likely talk it up as just a correction. Biden would say stocks came down so they can go much higher.

The greatest danger we face here is mankind’s arrogance in thinking we have full control of the economy. If something goes wrong, we’ll just rename it. If inflation spikes higher, we’ll raise interest rates. If the economy starts to stall, we’ll print more money.

There have been several times in American history when a financial calamity occurred and people were powerless to fix the situation. The Great Depression and the inflation of the 1970s are two examples. Our political leader tried several plans to restore our nation to a sound economy but failed.

The stock market has remained steady not because our nation is run by geniuses. These people have no idea what they are doing. The financial stability is likely the result of God getting the world ready for judgment. What seems like a blessing is just the calm before the storm.

“Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD; and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance” (Psalm 33:120).

–Todd

Love Your Enemies?

This will be a tough one—for me, at least. The enemies faced each and every hour of each and every day are prolific in dispensing their wickedness. We have looked at their perpetration of evil many times. We have no choice, because it never ends, and we are commissioned from on high to “watch” (Mark 13:37).

This incessant raging against our sense of truth–of what is biblically righteous—evokes human anger, no matter the devotion to trying to be Christ-like in our attitude and comportment.

Now, to get into this just a bit–and I don’t want to go too deeply into the weeds—I’ll just begin by telling, obliquely, a little about conversations I have occasionally with family members. I say “obliquely” because I don’t want them mad at me, so I won’t say who.

The conversations sometimes are as early as 4 am. Yes, I’m an early riser, and sometimes, when family members happen to be around at that hour, we discuss things going on in culture, politics, religion, etc. The more adamant among the conversationalists are quite angry at the injustice, the tyranny, the wickedness taking place as we look at the things being reported. To be frank, they often cook up what they would like to see happen to those engaged in perpetrating the injustice, the tyranny, the wickedness. The punitive creativity is not something I would be comfortable relaying in this forum.

My response to one or the other telling just how they would like this evil to be handled is that that isn’t the way a Christian should think. They say things like “I know, Pops, but it makes me so mad I can’t help it.”

In response to the expressed actions, I say things like, “Do you think Jesus would react that way, even to this level of evil, were He here in the flesh today?”

That usually brings down their heated temperaments, to some extent. They then might retort with something like, “Yes. But He’s God and I’m not.”

At any rate, the whole matter, I believe, is a valuable exercise in evaluating ourselves in regard to our own dealing with this injustice, tyranny, and wickedness we as Christians endure each day.

We all know about the outrageous acts, issues, and events that afflict us that challenge our temperaments. We’ve covered all of them so many times in these commentaries.

Those who inflict these evil upon our lives, while we only want to live peaceably, are enemies. We can say this, because they are the tools of the archenemy of God, thus enemies of each of us within God’s family who are living on planet earth.

Those who want to break into our lives and steal our tranquility, our peace, and even our children, not even to mention our welfare financially through unfair-to-absurd confiscatory taxation, can be compared to the “thief” in the following:

“When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace: But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils” (Luke 11: 21–22).

Jesus, although in the context of prophecy involving watching for the suddenness of the Rapture, further gave, through analogy, warning about being watchful for evil break-ins:

“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up” (Matthew 24:42–43).

So, it is clear that the Bible instructs believers to be aware of enemies wanting to do us harm. We are told even to be armed in order to protect our households–defend ourselves against harm. But nowhere are we told to hate our enemies. On the contrary, we are told the following through a quite lengthy instruction for how to deal with our enemies. It comes from the Lord, Himself:

“But I say unto you which hear, Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you, Bless them that curse you, and pray for them which despitefully use you. And unto him that smiteth thee on the one cheek offer also the other; and him that taketh away thy cloke forbid not to take thy coat also. Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again. And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise. For if ye love them which love you, what thank have ye? for sinners also love those that love them.And if ye do good to them which do good to you, what thank have ye? for sinners also do even the same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to receive, what thank have ye? for sinners also lend to sinners, to receive as much again. But love ye your enemies, and do good, and lend, hoping for nothing again; and your reward shall be great, and ye shall be the children of the Highest: for he is kind unto the unthankful and to the evil. Be ye therefore merciful, as your Father also is merciful. Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again” (Luke 6: 27–38).

Now I must admit that I find loving the enemies today who murder babies by the millions, who more and more draw this culture into the cesspool of pedophilia–a thing that has been prevalent in most every civilization at its end—all but impossible. But that doesn’t alter the truth that we are told by our Lord that this is what we should do.

He showed that love Himself, we remember, while hanging on that cross on which He died for us. The martyr Stephen did so while being stoned, and the Lord stood from the right hand of God’s throne to applaud him.

Apart from the love of Christ–of God the Father—ours would be fate much worse than the punitive actions sometimes concocted in those early-morning sessions to which I referred.

I guess the answer to how to begin to appropriate such love–and we cannot do it apart from the Holy Spirit who indwells—might be found in my friend, the late Dr. Tim LaHaye’s, book–The Spirit Controlled Temperament. That book, of course, was filled with God’s Word in coming to its conclusions.

I should probably pick up that book and read it again.

—Terry

A Bachelor’s Stand :: By Edwin Tan

8 Aug 2022