A BRIGHT FUTURE?

 

A Bright Future?

^“And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten…” (Joel 2:25).

“For who has despised the day of small things?” (Zech. 4:10a).

As I saw the news that the President of the USA’s election had been certified and that Canada’s Prime Minister had announced he was resigning, I thought, “What a great day!” Then I thought of that old song from back in 1986 put out by the one-hit wonder, Timbuk 3: “The Future’s So Bright, I Gotta Wear Shades”! I admit that another old song did come into my head, the power ballad by The Scorpions from 1999, which is usually associated with the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989, “The Wind of Change.” Okay, January 6, 2025, is a “day of small things” not the end of the Soviet Empire! So, back to wearing shades…

The nations of USA, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are known as the “Five Eyes” nations. They look out for each other. However, it is mainly the military might of the USA that acts as a deterrent for our enemies, mainly Chinese intrusions. Each of the “Eyes”, to a greater or lesser extent, has been in the debilitating grip of Leftist Wokeism. The militaries of the Five Eyes nations were being hogtied by this Political Correctness movement inculcated by the Left of politics, e.g., open borders, mass migration, indoctrination at schools, colleges, and universities, false media, lawfare, stifled speech. Trudeau locked protestors out of their bank accounts and access to their credit cards etc.

The USA, shortly, will be releasing its military from its PC bonds, and hopefully, if Pierre Poilievre replaces Justin Trudeau, the same will happen with Canada. But that leaves three of the “Five Eyes” still pending.

The Australian pro-Wokeism Prime Minister looks as if he is on the road out after his spectacular failure with his, what the majority of Australians viewed as racist, “Voice” referendum. Sir Keith Starmer, the pro-Wokeism UK Prime Minister, seems to be dying a death by a thousand cuts, especially now with the migrant rapist gangs coverup being exposed. The rapist gangs are mainly foreign nationals from, or associated with, Islamic nations, preying mainly on young white females. Hence, the PC fear of the authorities to confront these maniacs. One only has to watch the British news to hear the Leftists hurl their ludicrous cries of “racist” at anyone who is brave enough to speak of this godless barbarism!

New Zealand? You better put on your Foster Grants for this one! NZ’s Prime Minister is Christopher Luxon, and evangelical who professes to be “centre-right” in his political leanings. He’s been PM since November 2023.

So, so far the future is looking brighter for New Zealand, and now the USA, and, God-willing, Canada in her next election. The UK PM, Starmer is obviously on the way out, but who will be their next PM? Hopefully, Elon Musk calling Nigel Farage names only strengthens Farage in the polls. The UK needs him or someone like him to stand up to all the PC bullies, yeah, the Left. (The terms Left and Right in politics comes from the mother of Communism, the French Revolution.)

Monday January 6 was a great day for the world, beginning with the “Five Eyes” nations. Yes, it is a day of small things, but hopefully now God will restore to us the years the locust has eaten as we remove the PC hobbles and begin to feel free enough to talk about the issues with each other openly and  intelligently, without being shouted down and called names by the Left, without the fear of being arrested by the “thought Police” for posting something on Social Media, or for praying outside of an abattoir for babies etc.

The future’s so bright, the “Five Eyes” gotta wear shades. Thank You Lord Jesus! We don’t deserve Your grace.   

(YouTube The Future's So Bright):  https://youtu.be/8qrriKcwvlY?si=AYhtGBldebCrigCk   

PURIFICATION & POLLUTION

 Purification & Pollution

Image from Net

‘Now a river went out of Eden to water the garden’ (Gen. 2:10a). Imagine how pristine both the river out of Eden and Adam in the garden were until he disobeyed and thereby declared humankind’s war on the Creator; after which the LORD God said to him, ‘Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life’ (Gen. 3:17b). 

How many rivers and lakes have been polluted ‘in the sweat of your face’ (Gen. 3:19a) by industrial man, down through the ages? Whether a river or humanity, that which is polluted needs to be purified. For, ‘Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? … no spring yields both salt water and fresh’ (James 3:11-12), and ‘Man decays like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth eaten’ (Prov. 13:28). So the question is: ‘Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? No one!’ (Prov. 14:4). Yes, no one but God!

Image from Web

How does God purify that which has been polluted by mankind? He passes it through His ‘Filter’, i.e., His Son, Jesus Christ. The end result being that that which had been polluted is being and shall be purified. ‘Then the angel showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb… And there shall be no more curse’ (Rev. 22:1, 3a). So, we see that God cursing the ground was part of His plan to thwart ‘the best-laid schemes o’ mice an’ men’ (Burns). ‘For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the One who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the freedom and glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time’ (Rom. 8:20-22).

Perhaps you’ve never thought of Jesus as being God’s ‘Filter’ for purifying the polluted? ‘For there is one God and one Mediator between God and men, the Man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time’ (1 Tim. 2:5-6). A mediator, as you know, is a go-between. Jesus said, ‘No one come to the Father except through Me’ (John 14:6b). Therefore, if you or your religion, including your so-called non-religion, are not going through Jesus, you are swimming in polluted waters and will be drowned therein – unless Jesus is your ‘Filter’ of purification. ‘And we all have become like the unclean, and all our deeds of justice like a menstrual cloth’ (Isa. 64:6a, LEB). ‘But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin’ (1 John 1:7).

Humanity is descended from disobedient Adam. He was our representative before God, and it’s our collective sin and our personal sins that pollutes us and the creation in which we live. However, God has graciously revealed a new Representative, a new Adam, an eternally obedient replacement, the Man Christ Jesus. He lived the perfect life that Adam failed to live, and He died to save believers from hellfire. ‘For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Rom. 6:23). It is because of our pollution that we have so much trouble seeing our dire need for God’s gift of His Son. We tend to think that we are not as polluted as others. We may be heard to say, ‘No one is perfect’ or ‘To err is human’ or refer to ‘a white lie’ as opposed to a ‘black lie’ to help diminish how polluted we really are as we try to justify why we do not need Jesus. However, only Jesus is the purification for your pollution. Trust only in Him.     

ZEN AND THE ART OF MOTORCYCLE MAINTENANCE (Review)

I read this book on philosophy a couple of times years ago and I'm still getting great milage from it for explaining God to people.

In it Pirsig attempts to resolve the tension between what he describes as the two main worldviews in the West, Classical and Romantic, by using the term of Quality.

Pirsig does mention the Trinity, and gets close, very close, but misses the fact that the One and the Many, Diversity in Unity, the General and the Particular etc., yes, his Classical and Romantic views, are resolved only through understanding the Triune God, the Creator Whose whole creation points to Him everywhere we look. Being Triune, God, as described in the doctrine of the ontological Trinity, is the original One and Many et al.

Regardless, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is well worth taking the time to read.