Christ as King

In ancient times, kings, priests, and prophets were often anointed with oil to signify God’s choice for a special role. The word Christ means ‘the anointed one’ and for Jesus it is a title signifying his divine anointing to redeem humanity, fulfill prophecy, and establish God’s kingdom.* During Jesus’ time you can understand why the King of Rome and Herod, the Roman Jewish king of Judea, were concerned about being overthrown. But God had other plans.

Power over people seems to be infusing our world today with horrific displays of violence spurred on by unrelenting activism. This power grab is intentionally driven by terrorists. And, too often it is the leadership of Western governments who don’t understand the folly of their policies which select winners and losers for their social experiments thereby inflicting pain in other ways.

I’m done with the violence and these experiments! When Jesus was preaching the gospel to his apostles and disciples he was saying this, that God is done with the powerful who actively work to make you surrender your soul to their will. It’s God’s will be done, not an emperor’s will and not a terrorist’s will. Jesus Christ was born to affirm God’s love for all people. The power hungry always ignore this message because it undermines their control.

There is hard terrorism that uses guns and other weapons of violence against unsuspecting people. But there is also a soft terrorism that uses government policies and court systems to unleash inconsistencies that destabilize peaceful environments. Both are used to adopt a message of fear. God would never envision this for his creation. Jesus knew this.

Consider the prayer that Jesus taught his disciples:

The Prayer (Matthew 6:9-13 / Luke 11:2-4)

“Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.”: (Praise & God’s Sovereignty)
“Give us today our daily bread.”: (Provision & Daily Dependence)
“And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors.”: (Forgiveness & Mercy)
“And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.”: (Guidance & Protection)

Key Themes for Disciples

God-Centered Focus: Start with God’s glory, not just your own needs.
Trust & Dependence: Rely on God daily for everything, like needing “daily bread”.
Forgiveness: Acknowledge your need for forgiveness and extend it to others.
Surrender: Pray for God’s will to be done, showing surrender to His plan.
Spiritual Warfare: Ask for strength to overcome temptation and evil.*

No king of Rome or of the Jewish state needed to be concerned about Jesus assuming their power. Jesus understood that his power was the Word. The only control Jesus had was the ability to ease mankind’s souls. His teachings did this. God anointed him as Jesus Christ. We bow only to God. Is Jesus a king? Perhaps. I would much rather consider him as God’s disciple. This means that each of us can be God’s disciple too.

Happy birthday Jesus. May we understand your love for us all.

*found with the help of Google 🙂

Thankful

It’s time to assess your blessings. They might not be as apparent as you think. Many blessings are so common to living that you could take them for granted. These are the blessings to be considered most of all, for it’s in the common spaces that you find grace.

Will you say grace at your table this Thanksgiving? As you gather among others around a bountiful dinner or simply sit alone with a morsel of sustenance remember one important fact: you are here on this earth by God’s will to live humbly and do good works for your fellow humankind. You are not on earth to resist or to impress.

The ability to resist is the furthest action from grace. You might ask how can this be? Why wouldn’t you resist a tyrant? This perspective is incorrect. Resistance is trouble to your own soul. The correct approach is to acknowledge the presence of the perceived tyrant, assess their actual control over you and to make changes in your life to free yourself from those feelings that prevent you from making divinely inspired gains in your own self. This pursuit of happiness is unique to each individual and can only be taken from you if your soul is burdened by resistance. Sounds like Yoda speak! Well, it is. It’s a circle meant to bring you wholeness. And in that wholeness you will find grace.

The ability to impress offers a similar trouble to your soul. Your desire to make another person admire and respect you is in itself a tyrannical act. Admiration and respect is earned by your own good works regardless of the views of others. Our communities offer countless ways to showcase your time and talents. You don’t have to say ‘Yes’ to everything and everyone, you simply need to understand your own strengths and weaknesses to apply yourself effectively and with confidence…This humble light of good works will shine brightly for all to see and bring peace to your soul.

The serenity prayer comes to mind as a way to live with grace: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.”

Be thankful. God’s blessings are bountiful.

The “Liberation” Generation

In its truest sense liberation means the setting free of someone or something. We can understand that animals raised in captivity are often unprepared for their liberation when they are released back into the wild. Treating an animal in this way would be cruel. Captivity has given the animal food without it fighting for food and a home without searching for its appropriate hiding/nesting place. The animal’s instincts for survival have been deteriorated.

In a political context liberation can be referred to activities connected with removing the disadvantages experienced by particular groups in a society or removing a tyrannical government. I don’t think the current generation truly understands what a disadvantage is these days.

Those who seek liberation related to a political context are often called activists. They are acting on behalf of a particular cause so as to make the “world” a better place. Think of climate change or voting rights. But is making the world a better place a form of liberation? Who determines what is “better”? This is why we have democratic process. If we don’t have democratic process then activists would be imposing tyranny by mob rule or worse.

It’s okay in the United States to organize a group to bring awareness to a problem or cause. It’s against the law to bring that awareness by implementing force or destruction. But perhaps thwarting the law is an act of “liberation”? It is NOT!

States or cities declaring sanctuary, penalty systems removing bail bonds, employers hiring low wage “workers” and foreigners remaining in the country after a visa has expired are all methods of thwarting the law. What I find interesting is that all of these methods have few ways for the ordinary citizen to combat them because it is often the elected officials who have implemented them. The only way to hold them accountable is to elect new officials who demand that these actions stop and that existing laws are followed. Few states or cities that thwart existing laws seem to care about the unintended consequences of their actions. Though their actions “liberate” some people, these actions can create victims of other people. This is the real disadvantage.

Our society must get back to the work of recognizing the actual victims of violence and crime by giving them sincere justice. Liberation cannot mean that perpetrators have more opportunity to commit violence and crime by being given lax punishments which effectively turn them into wild animals trying to survive in civil society. Perpetrators need a form of captivity to be rehabilitated, and sometimes they should remain in captivity.

As I process the horrible assassination of Charlie Kirk, I can’t help but think that all of what I just wrote in the above paragraphs is connected to this incident. The killer was literally living in their own cage of mental anguish and fear of the “other”. Liberating themselves from their cage meant ridding the world of differing beliefs and the open expression of them. Charlie did not fear other beliefs and opinions. He was open to them and debated them head on…Charlie did not hate or use violence. Instead he used the liberal ideals of individual civil rights and liberties expressed and guaranteed in our Founding Principles.

The demons of Socialist/Marxist ideology have been uncaged. This type of “liberation” must end. As the prominent Christian minister and civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King once said, “Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.” This quote reflects biblical principles found in verses like Matthew 5:44 and Romans 12:21. These verses encourage loving your enemies and overcoming evil with good, which aligns with the core message that only love can counter hate. How sad that he was assassinated too.

Speaking your mind with compassion is true liberation. We must act wisely to preserve this fundamental right.

Sadly, We Forgot

The Homeland Security Act of 2002 established the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and consolidated several agencies, including the U.S. Customs Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service, into the newly formed ICE. This is Federal law. Can Congress change this law? Of course it can…but it won’t. Just like it won’t change immigration laws. The Homeland Security Act of 2002 and our current immigration laws go hand in hand. The Act tightened immigration policies in order to never repeat what happened on 9/11.

We forgot that the people who overstayed their visa twenty-four years ago were able to manipulate our systems in order to carry out the worst terror attack ever on our own soil. Twenty-four years is enough time for a whole generation of Americans to not understand the horror of that day.

Our federal government is responsible for our homeland security. It had egg on its face when security systems before 9/11 were so lax that the communication between the agencies failed to identify abuse by a terrorist threat. Foreign individuals conspired and organized the attack on 9/11 by accessing the means necessary to infiltrate airport security, flight training, and flight crew access…The tight measures we now experience to travel by plane continue to this day because of it. The Aviation and Transportation Security Act, passed by the 107th Congress and signed on November 19, 2001, established the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

In 2021 the new Administration under President Biden redirected Border Patrol duties to handle the influx of immigrants that were crossing the border into the United States from every possible unsecured access point. It doesn’t matter how the news media spins the narrative…The border was porous and the number of crossers were extremely high to the point where Border Patrol were acting as processors and not enforcers. Catch and release had to be used because there was no way to build enough containment facilities for the large numbers crossing each day. And while Border Patrol was acting as an intake agent it is certainly clear that they were not acting to find those illegal migrants who were crossing undetected.

The undetected illegal immigrants who crossed our border are the problem and there are many!! They could be the worst of the worst and DHS would not even know that they are in our country. These worst of the worst can conspire to commit another terrorist attack. Thankfully the current Administration has not forgotten what took place on 9/11. Our State Department will use every lever within their authority to find and control any threat to the American people.

Yet many in the Democratic leadership announce wholeheartedly that our ICE agents are out of control and must be stopped. Stopped by whom? Ideological radicals and anarchists roaming wildly wherever federal agents are doing their work? We have already seen guns being used against our ICE agents. This behavior is what is out of control, and it could get worse. We must not forget how radical ideologies beget terror. Never again is now!

Damn Lies

When will they stop? Probably never. And they know it too.

Main stream corporate news media believe that as long as they tell a story then they will be judged by consumers as credible. The Shrew is crying “BULL$HIT”! Notice I said that they tell a story instead of report a story. They gave up on reporting the facts years ago. Today it’s about narratives not facts, appealing to emotions not minds, coddling the vulnerable and not ensuring the trust of each individual.

But the narratives don’t compute to those who critically think about a reported story. Information is glossed over or not enough. And what about the sources? Who are they and what makes them reliable? And what ever happened to world news reported by American media? It seems to the Shrew that their only focus is on current disasters…I’d like to know more about world governments and current affairs. Record numbers of migration are happening all over Europe…How are those countries coping? I suppose that if these stories aren’t reported by American mainstream media then it doesn’t really matter. Excuse me, but no information IS a form of lying. Trust not the lier.

Telling the truth after the fact is no better, it just means more spinning of yet another narrative. How infantile! We all did this as children at one point and it makes one look and feel foolish. This is what is happening in our corporate news media today. It doesn’t matter if it’s CNN, MSNBC or FOX. When the goal is to simply entertain the masses, then they lose to the critical thinkers. Their own politics stink.

We are at the point where the average American must let go and let God. The rioters in the streets might have the headlines, but God is judging them. He knows subversion when it is happening and He will help to guide the rest of us to sanity. It’s the only way at this point in time. Amen

The Shrew View: Careless Social Justice

Activism is being waged with manic fervor. Is globalism the new secular religion for our country? Perhaps. It is certainly worth a deeper look.

In my June 6, 2021 blog post, “Critical Theory Can’t Compete With Our Diversity”, I point out how it is disabling to our society to form people into groups. The BIG LIE is CRT (Critical Race Theory). The BIG TRUTH is to love your neighbor, stay Liberty minded and keep the next generation FREE.

To be diverse is to show a great deal of variety and difference. When people are separated into groups, whole identities are actually removed to form a collective mindset. It is the collective mindset that chains a person to the collective action. Why would a Liberty minded country put groups ahead of individuals? Politics and power is why…Grouping people into categories is the easiest way to highlight differences and allow people seeking power to energize a base. However, differences are what make individuals interesting to know. Without differences our country and our world would be a very uninteresting place. Whole cultures would be turned into one big global culture where individuals would either divide off into dictated categories or be left behind to never assimilate thus remaining as outcasts in society.

As I look at what is happening in America today, I believe the divisions I witness among people are becoming increasingly careless and nonsensical. These divisions are happening in only one political party though, the Democratic Party. To be with this party you must ally yourself with groups that are claiming to be oppressed, but these groups cannot seem to find ONE individual to represent them or their political party! This is proof to me that sadly they cannot exist as individuals because these people thrive in collective chaos. What then is the goal of the Democratic Party? Perhaps you can say that the goal is world peace through having all humanitarian needs met, but how can this be done without clear leadership? It can’t.

This is where the religion comes in. A religion typically requires belief in an omniscient and omnipresent System. But today’s activists don’t want to be oppressed by clear beliefs or systems. They would rather obliterate them. What is then left? A vacuum. And what will this vacuum be filled with? A type of secular system that will generate new beliefs…But it’s a circular route! No one group or person for that matter will ever be happy with the results, because humans require certainty to flourish in the physical world.

Secularism requires no religious or spiritual basis, therefore the human soul cannot thrive within its boundaries and will wither without the Truth of God’s Love. Secularism as a basis for global power makes no sense…Humans are not empty vessels to be numbed and manipulated, yet that is what it will take to turn the human race into good globalists.

The activists on our college campuses and in our town squares have been numbed. Their causes are not socially accepting and their minds are not critical. The justice they seek is nonexistent because it has no leader to give it meaning. Will a leader appear? If one does we can be sure that he or she will be very tyrannical in their scope of action. It will be a secular worshiping of Satan.

Activists lack introspection because they will have you believe that Make America Great Again is the cult to be feared. In reality, today’s activists are the cult of American and Judeo-Christian destruction.

Throwing Stones

Violent acts should never be an option. This is as true now as it was at the dawn of human existence. The trouble is that we humans never learn our lessons. Why is this? Not even Buddha, Moses or Jesus could rid us of this scourge. To be human is to suffer. God needs us to understand the relationship of ignorance and insecurity in order to reduce any and all societal brutality.

Consumerism has contributed to our misunderstanding of this relationship. While it’s true that money and stuff cannot create happiness, it is also true that money and stuff build walls between us. Clearly defining our needs and wants can release our society from the suffering that leads us to violence. But should it be the individual or the collective that defines these needs and wants?

During Covid-19 we saw what happened to the supply chain. The unintended consequences of “shutting down” to reduce virus spread limited certain industries from doing business as usual. Needs for personal protective equipment, medicine and paper products were limited. Certain in-patient and out-patient services were postponed or cancelled. Many events and ceremonies were postponed or cancelled too. During this time we were all stuck in our homes consuming all sorts of things: food, alcohol, drugs, social media, news and online goods. Where was the happiness?

In the above example we can see that individual needs were determined by the collective…Everyone had to go along to get along. If you didn’t follow the rules that were set by politicians then you were considered an outcast. It didn’t matter if you needed to run your in-person business, visit a dying relative or have an outpatient health screening because these normal needs were now considered selfish wants set by a narrative of fear. A collective ignorance associated with denying these individual needs was allowed to develop. A person could be shamed and even shunned based upon many unreasonable factors. I believe that the Covid 19 experience also damaged our emotional maturity resulting in a collective insecurity.

Insecurity arises when ignorance is allowed to grow. Effective communication and information help to dissipate ignorance. When one party will not converse with another other party, the insecurity of that non-communicative party develops into activism which can lead to violent acts. This is true when the ignorance and insecurity is between two individuals, between an individual and a group or between groups.

But the worst violence that occurs is within an individual’s own heart and mind…When this happens, no person or community is spared from the consequences. It takes a deeply disciplined Godly approach to solve one’s own ignorance and insecurity. Emotional maturity depends on this discipline. The true sin is to never understand or comprehend one’s own shortcomings.

Activism that exhibits violence is an injustice to all. We need to look inward before wanting to cast that stone. This is true for all things happening in our liberty minded society today. Oppression is a collectivist scapegoat used to mask ignorance and insecurity. God does not want us to fall pray to it!

Changes

Remember when everything and everyone stayed the same? Of course not! Every day and every hour of every day generates newness…some good, some bad and some you won’t understand until much later.

Change can be based upon decisions made or chance. Always constant yet never consistent.

Take the scourge of a chance cancer diagnosis. Something changed in my body and it simply wasn’t wanted, yet I have zero personal control (I think) over its existence. For me, the intrusion affected my right eye orbit. For almost a year I knew that something wasn’t feeling right because I would develop more fluid excretion in my right eye area than in my left eye area. It was manageable, but noticeably not normal. Even my annual optometrist appointment hadn’t noticed anything out of the ordinary affecting my vision. I’ve been nearsighted since around age nine.

Enter COVID-19…How the world changed with this novel viral invasion! But what made this change even more dramatic was the creation of a vaccine to combat its spread. This “cancer” on society was among us and was threatening to kill us! To this day we still haven’t wrestled with the facts of how it occurred. Nonetheless, we all had to choose our own course of action to deal with it. I chose to take the vaccine.

Imagine my surprise when about a month after taking the vaccine my lower right eyelid started to protrude outwards! My PCP referred me to a local ophthalmologist who I wouldn’t get to see for almost three months. Meanwhile I was working my typical busy season at my bridal sewing business, trying not to skip a beat because it was extra, extra busy from all the postponed weddings from the year before due to COVID…a good example of how change is never consistent!

By September I had the biopsy and the diagnosis, and by December I was done with the radiation treatments. Over the next year my eyelashes fell out from my right eyelid (two times), but the treatment worked! Now more than three years later thankfully I am cancer free but have developed a cataract in my right eye, a probable condition from radiation treatment. At least my eyelashes have come back.

Changes…I’ve retired from my sewing business. This cataract has made working more difficult until I can correct it. This will take a few more months. Always constant and never consistent.

I’m still unsure about how my cancer developed. I’ve never smoked, I’m not on any medication, I’m active and not overweight. Is there a change I can make in my lifestyle to prevent another diagnosis of cancer? Maybe. I’ve decided to make some changes to my food choices: more organics, less seed oils, more olive oil, and green tea instead of coffee. There is a chance that my gut health contributed to the cancer in that specific location. How crazy is that? And if food choices can contribute to health changes, can the medicine we consume do the same, good and bad?

Cheers to life and all the changes there in. May God watch over us and keep us in his mercy.

Chaos is Powerless

The Shrew thinks that liberals, especially progressive liberals, are the most optimistic when they see their change agenda advancing quickly. They aggressively force their agenda along and sideline any questions from those who seek to understand more about their changes. Today’s liberals know that they must cause chaos to bring about the changes they see fit. Labeling the observations by those who question the left’s actions as “misinformation” and “disinformation” is the best way for today’s liberals to hide their agenda and cause chaos. Division is constant on their perceived road to utopia.

Conservatives on the other hand see the world the way it is and plan a more pragmatic approach to changes. This involves some give and take with the political opposition which seems like it takes forever to implement a change, however any change that is made has a more lasting effect.

But what is the “change” being sought?

We the people must understand that as individuals we hold the most power for our country’s needed changes. When things look bleak in life, does more chaos help or harm progress toward betterment? Are opposing positions part of chaos? Yes and no.

Yes, opposing positions naturally seem chaotic. Each side strongly believes their argument should win. When one side won’t allow the other side to be heard then forward progress to solutions is hampered. We have seen this on many college campuses, at city halls and in DC. How very sad in a country where free speech and transparency has always held tremendous value.

Measured debate is the healthy way to process all viewpoints of an argument and arrive at solutions. In this way the chaos of opposing viewpoints can be eliminated. Winning an argument takes skill. Facts and reason are used to remove hearsay and emotion. “Utopia” can best be achieved with measured debate.

The next time a progressive liberal makes an emotional appeal to you, ask them what positive results they want. Positive results require actions that can be considered effective. But today’s liberals don’t like facts, data, or scientific methods that can be tracked. They prefer emotional outreach and manipulation of facts, data, and science. If you are a conservative then you understand that emotions and manipulation result in stagnation which helps no one. This is why pragmatism works towards real betterment.

You don’t have to be a democrat or a republican to use a pragmatic approach to policy changes. What you have to be is a representative for ALL the people in your district, sensitive to ALL points of view and open to compromise. It’s true that when one political party is in “power” then they hold all the cards. But as Uncle Ben said to Peter Parker, “With great power comes great responsibility.” So when an administration has all the cards they are also accountable for how they deal them.

As for those of us who are watching and having to live with how the deck is dealt, our power requires us to know our responsibilities. Those responsibilities are to be skeptical of all government, ask pertinent questions, seek answers from many sources and vote our conscience.

No chaos needed.

Birth

The process of birth is transformative. Three elements must be involved: (1) conception, (2) delivery, (3) animation. Humans can birth an idea, birth a product or (with the help of the opposite sex) birth another human. Because humans can create in this way, we are said to be created in God’s image. No other mammal, insect, fish or bird can create in all of these ways.

The critical point for us is always at conception. Without this there can be no resulting idea, product or human. Conception is the spark, the Big Bang, the beginning of creation. All of nature is this way, even to the smallest atom. But is there always intention? Think about it!

Intention implies commitment. All of the natural world acts in this way because there is no other way of being. Humans on the other hand may have intention yet can lack commitment and hence give up on their plan after conception.

Our human nature separates us from all of nature. Or does it? Could this be why Christ was born? This birth is a powerful example of God’s commitment to humanity. From John 3:16…King James Bible
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

Jesus immortalized God’s plan for us. His birth and message remains our great hope that no matter who you think you are, God can deliver you (birth you) to an eternity of great Love for all that is, all that will be, and all that can be. Are you open to this Love? Commit to the humility and you can deliver this Love too by animating the grace of forgiveness to yourself and others that is now and forever found in your heart and soul. God’s gift to you. May it be so this CHIST-MAS.

The Shrew

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Author: The Shrew