House

Then you, together with the Levites and the aliens who reside among you, shall celebrate with all the bounty that the Lord your God has given to you and to your house. 

 - From Deuteronomy 26

Thanksgiving Weekend is upon us, here in 2022. It is Wednesday afternoon. I have had a leisurely day, so far, of taking my time on emails and overall relaxing. I will take a jog shortly. The weather is beautiful. 

For the first time in years, I have a holiday that feels like a holiday. I have just completed seven days in a classroom, as an actual, real teacher. Granted, my job is not permanent yet. But my day off today is a real one. It was preceded by a full day of work: eight hours framed  by a one-hour commute, both ways. I leave in the morning, when it's dark. Shortly after I arrive home in the evening, it's dark. This is more like the normal day experienced  by most people. 

Holidays, or "Holy Days" should be consciously realized as a taste of eternity. We should be mindful of this. Your reflections on a holiday should be: God's eternal kingdom is like this. 

But, only the good parts. Those moments that we wish will last forever, will, one day (one eternal day). And if we think that would be boring, after a while, there are still countless other moments in our lives, that we would like to relive over and over and over again; that we would like to last forever. And we will have forever to re-experience as many of them as we want. 

Or perhaps we will want to make some new adventures for ourselves, in Eternal Eden.

There is a lot to unpack in today's verse. I've danced around all of it, with my whimsical ponderings. Suffice to say: Holidays are a big deal, way more than we know. They should be thought of as a taste of eternity. We are supposed to celebrate. We are supposed to have already provide from our blessings, assistance to the truly needy. We should particularly remember those that serve us, while receiving little pay (teachers, pastors, artists, non-profit professionals). We should open our homes to strangers in our midst, including aliens from other lands. And it should occur within the confines of our house (that's another topic, for another day).

HAPPY THANKSGIVING

Reconcile

. . . God was pleased to reconcile to himself all things . . . 

 - From Colossians 1

If God can reconcile humanity to Himself, then all things are reconcilable. The word "reconcile" refers to a bringing together of people that had been in dispute. It also has a financial application. We talk about reconciling bank accounts with other records, like journal entries are sales receipts. 

At any rate . . . when something is reconciled it means there is a happy ending to what had not been so happy, before. 

What a great illustration of God's love, and His plan! Things are pretty bad right now, in 2022. They're out of balance. In the world today, two people can be looking at exactly the same thing. One person sees devastation and pain; the other sees a necessary means to a better end, that could not be realized without the pain. (This is how a person can imagine that high inflation, that causes people to draw deep from their savings, is actually not that bad).

The legal justification for a divorce is probably most commonly: irreconcilable differences. I've always felt like this is why Christians should not get divorced. If you believe that God can reconcile anything, even humanity to Himself, then you have to have some faith that your measly little irreconcilable difference is worth resolving. Life is short. Eternity is never-ending. There comes a time when we are living forever, in an eternal moment. We will look back, surely, and conclude "It wasn't that bad. Why didn't we just stay together?"

Look at the world today. All of our troubles, and all of our evils, all boil down to our resistance to reconciliation, with each other, and with God. This is because we are children in adult bodies. 

It will please God when all things are reconciled. 

People that love strife and turmoil are not going to like Eternity. It's a pretty happy place, where there is no such thing as a politician that calls his opponents "Nazis," "racists," "fill-in-the-blank-phobes," and "fascists." 

That is what it means, to reconcile. 

Ring Out

. . . let the hills ring out with joy before the Lord, when he comes to judge the earth. 

 - From Psalm 98

We have to get out of these jitters so many of us have, about Judgment Day. 

Here's the Psalmist, David, I think, writing many lines of text declaring the joy that he feels, just contemplating God taking charge of things, one day; He will make it all right. He will put us on a solid, secure path, for eternity.

He will make sure we're safe.

Except, in this case, the word "safe" is not just a clever tactical maneuver to get people emotionally inclined to vote a certain way. When God makes us "safe," he makes us Safe. And it has nothing to do with some dopey human politician wanting us to feel good. 

He will bring us joy. We will be elated. The good feelings that we will feel, on the day God makes it all right, are not the same as the "shiver down the leg" that should characterize almost all of our good feelings in this age. God's Good Feelings are permanent. They are not emotional. They are logical and totally confident. You're feeling "good," but that's because you have been made Good. 

And in the Psalm, it is all wrapped up with a reference to Judgment Day. More often than not, my image of Judgment Day has veered toward the fearful and frightening aspect of it. When it is preached, it's always done so with dread and fire.

Are you ready?

But, as we look at the world today, on November 9, the day after "the most important election in American history," an election that would bring an apocalyptic tidal wave of change to our society . . . and see that it is all a disappointing dud, perhaps that's a good thing. The newscasts and politicians had been playing up Election Day 2022, as if it were the Second Coming of Christ.

It's not. But as we contemplate God's final judgment upon humanity, let's keep it positive. All the nonsense swirling about; the ridiculous antics by children in adult bodies that we call our "leaders." All the fear-mongering and divisive rhetoric. All the relentless daily developments of a narrative that has nothing to do with God's establishment of peace, safety, security, equity, and justice - but that claims to be all that and more . . . 

It's all tossed in the flaming incinerator of History, never to be heard from again. And that is something to rejoice over. 

Arrogant?

See, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all evildoers will be stubble.

 - From Malachi 4

Now, I know a lot of arrogant people. I might be a little arrogant, myself. I've probably caught everyone I know in an arrogant moment, or two. And so have you, the reader. 

Maybe we're all arrogant from time to time. But just like telling a lie, once, does not make you a liar (or does it?) we may be able to make the claim stick - you may stumble and say or do something arrogant, once in a while. But that does not make you an arrogant person, especially you people known to be quite humble and gentle!

We get our fill of arrogance after a while. When someone is called "arrogant," it is never meant as a compliment. It's an insult. We don't want to be thought of as "arrogant."

• I tell it like it is.
• I am who I am and I'll never change.
• I don't suffer fools.
• I get what I want.
• I get results.
• I don't care what people think of me.

Famous last words of a fool. 

But Malachi writes, inspired by Holy Spirit, that all the arrogant will be stubble, i.e., burned up.

Does one act of arrogance make you arrogant? Perhaps we should reconsider that. And perhaps we should reflect every now and then, on whether or not we could easily be caught making any of the statements in the bullet list above. 

The arrogant are placed in the same context as evildoers. The notion that we are to become as children, humble, servants, weak in the world (but strong in Christ) merits that we constantly hold ourselves up to God's standard. Perhaps we have not fully arrived yet . . . but we can make progress. 

Equity

In righteousness shall he judge the world and the peoples with equity.

 - From Psalm 98

Long before Early 21st Century mockers started using the word "equity," as the ultimate virtue-signal, God had long ago established its relevance to The Plan for the Ages. 

Equality wasn't enough for the Age of Cynics. They never did like it (acting as children), when people that they love to oppose ended up using their words. For a time, they believed that equality was their word, and no one else could claim it. Their opposition would counter with such phrases as "Free men are not equal. Equal men are not free." And, when logic and honest reflection prevail, such statements are, in fact, true. The Equality crowd has always believed that freedom is the best method to gain the best outcomes for the most people. 

But finally, all people came around to a generalized understanding and agreement of the value and necessity of equality. The Left no longer had sole claim on the equality movement. It meant that we were all on the same page, using the same vocabulary. We were headed toward consensus. The Left had won that battle. In the 1990s, we were poised for rapid forward movement. 

But that was not acceptable to a splinter group on the Left, which later dominated our politics and authored the narrative. In fact, they do not like persuading others to their own side - they seem, actually, to hate agreement. They want so much to be different, and will do anything (it seems) to make of themselves the new Greatest Generation. But that requires they have some epic evil to vanquish. And where Hitlers do not exist, Hitlers must be created. 

They rediscovered the ancient word from the Lord: equity, and ran with it. Equity means that the outcomes are equal. And if outcomes can not be had via organic means, then artificial (fake) means must be created. Where the Right always desired that very thing: Equity in outcomes, they insisted that their methods were the fastest, most legitimate, and most sustainable way to attain it. But for the moment, the Left set themselves as virtue superiors, in their exclusive appropriation of the word equity.

But the problem for them, is . . . when God uses the word "equity," He also uses the word "righteousness." You cannot have one without the other. 

The Generation of Malcontents will always fall short of its goals. For, it will seek equity without righteousness. It will attempt national holiness, via unethical, Machiavellian, cynical means. It will always say one good-sounding thing, while actually doing what gets them noticed, what gets them celebrity . . . what gets them power. 

And that's not equitable at all.