“We elected you as our representatives. Our taxes pay your salaries. That means—like postal employees—you work for us. Every last one of you: president on down.
You wanted these positions, thankless though they may be. You actually ran for them. Don’t complain if it is troublesome to do them right. Try working in a coal mine sometime, or standing in an unemployment line.
Somewhere along the way, you decided we could be lied to at will…Don’t imagine we’re not aware of your contempt. It’s just that we’ve had so few choices among you. Hope is engineered into our genes. Elections are far enough apart that a glimmer of it resurfaces and, a few of us at least, head to the polls again.
Try and imagine your jobs actually matter. In point of fact, they do. We don’t need your ‘spin doctors’ to tell us what to think. Just do your jobs, and we can manage all on our own to figure out if you’ve done them right.”
– Excerpt from An Evangelical on the Left, Partisan Politics
READERS CAN FIND MY VIEWS ON ABUSE AND ABUSE-RELATED ISSUES AT ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse
https://avoicereclaimed.com
Image of Roman Emperor Diocletian, Photo by Sailko (CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported, GFDL 1.2 or later)
“So they brought Him [Jesus] a denarius. And He said to them, ‘Whose image and inscription is this?’ They said to Him, ‘Caesar’s.’ And He said to them, ‘Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and to God the things that are God’s’ ” (Matt. 22: 19-21).
We grab breakfast at the kitchen table, and wrestle with bills there at the end of the month. Sunday mornings, we read the paper at the kitchen table, coffee mug nearby. We sit up late at the kitchen table, waiting for a spouse on the night shift to get home.
And we argue politics at the kitchen table.
The practical application of our beliefs, politics matter because they impact so many aspects of daily life, issues discussed at kitchen tables across the country.
Politics determine the conditions under which men and women live and work; the safety of foods, drugs, and cosmetics; the availability of education; the affordability of health care; the existence of a safety net, and a thousand other things. Read more…
Drought can last for months or years. It has led to mass migrations, and has contributed to the collapse of advanced societies like the Maya and Anasazi.
Deforestation, excess irrigation, over-farming, and soil erosion can all impair the capacity of land to capture and retain water. The effect is to decrease crop production, eventually resulting in famine. During the drought of the 1930s, the rich topsoil of the Great Plains dried out and blew away. Immense dust storms reached as far as the East Coast. Hundreds of thousands left their homes behind to try elsewhere.
These were the conditions Joseph foretold Pharaoh (Gen. 41: 29-30); the conditions under which Joseph’s brothers went down to Egypt to purchase grain (Gen. 42: 3), and the Israelites relocated to Egypt (Gen. 47: 11). Read more…
Ashalim Stream, Judean Desert, Israel, Photo by Yuvalr (CC BY-SA 3.0 Unported)
This Bible Study will focus on Scriptural passages with bearing on the present day. Some are prophetic. Others are not, but speak to our circumstances, as if penned yesterday. All offer us assurance and encouragement, in God’s own words.
These are the days of Elijah [1]
“ ‘But I tell you truly, many widows were in Israel in the days of Elijah, when the heaven was shut up three years and six months, and there was a great famine throughout all the land…’ ” (Luke 4: 25).
Jesus, Himself, spoke of the “days of Elijah,” a time of drought lasting over three years with severe famine the result. We are not living in the days of the prophet, Elijah, literally speaking. For many, however, ours is a time of hardship and testing.
Christianity is often ridiculed, and persecution not far off.
Though there is widespread drought in our nation as of this writing, the drought for us is as much spiritual as physical. We are bombarded by information, while the concept of truth has been virtually lost. Though few realize it, we are famished for the Word of God.
Ultimately, Elijah brought rain and revival. Christians long for the quickening of the Holy Spirit, a downpour turning this beloved nation of ours once again toward God.
Declaring the word of the Lord
“…[T]he word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision, saying, ‘Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward’ ” (Gen. 15: 1).
The “word of the Lord” is a phrase used consistently throughout Scripture to designate communication from God. Patriarchs and prophets received their instruction in this way, then conveyed God’s message to His people.
As Christians in this modern day and age, we, too, have a responsibility to declare the word of the Lord, the Gospel message. This is the Great Commission (Mark 16: 15). Our audience is the world which is in desperate need of Salvation.
And these are the days of Your servant, Moses
“Then Moses said to the Lord, ‘O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue’ ” (Ex. 4: 10).
Despite our inadequacies, we stand on the verge of great things. This is not greatness as the world esteems it. Rather, this is the greatness of the Lord. His power is beyond measure, His love beyond imagining. And we have the enormous privilege of being His servants, His adopted children, and making Him known to the world. Read more…
“But Jesus looked at them and said…‘With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible’ ” (Matt. 19: 26).
“We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.”
Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Christians live in a world of miracles. We fight for impossible causes, endure impossible trials, forgive impossible wrongs, knowing that all things are possible with God.
This is not wishful thinking, not a matter of crossing our fingers, and hoping for the best. It is the warp and woof of our lives, the very fabric of our existence.
We experience the same pain and grief, the same injustice, non-believers do, yet see God’s hand in the beauty all around us. How can this be anything but miraculous? It certainly does not originate with us. Read more…
The so-called Great Recession has left a great many people unable to afford legal representation, while generating increased bankruptcies, debt collection cases, and foreclosures.
The number of Americans with incomes at or below 125% of the federal poverty level is expected to climb to a high of 66 million in 2012.
A family of four earning that amount (the income limit required to qualify for legal aid) makes only about $28,800 a year.
Meanwhile, federal funding for Legal Services Corp. has been reduced by 17 percent to $348 million, as compared with $420 million in 2010. Legal Services Corp. — which funds 135 legal aid groups across the country, serving about 900,000 clients a year — will turn away approximately as many potential clients by reason of staffing shortages.
Large firms, which typically require pro bono work from their associates, have downsized reducing the hours available to impoverished clients.
The result of all this is a deluge of pro bono cases backing up court calendars. Laura Bellows, President of the American Bar Association, has said, “The need is extraordinary. You not only have the poverty level community, but also the middle class community.”
READERS CAN FIND MY VIEWS ON ABUSE AND ABUSE-RELATED ISSUES AT ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse
https://avoicereclaimed.com
1250 Sedgwick Ave., Bronx, NY – Birthplace of Hip Hop, Photo by Stephanie Morillo, Source http://www.flickr.com/photos/bixodococo/2956735624/ (CC BY-SA 2.0 Generic)
“And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart” (Jer. 29: 13).
The South Bronx has been a symbol of urban decay since the 1960s.
Located in a long forsaken borough of New York City, the South Bronx includes such neighborhoods as Mott Haven, Tremont, Morrisania, and Hunts Point. Once upon a time, these were home to German and Irish, then Jewish immigrants – working class families, proud to own their small piece of the American dream.
The 1950s saw a demographic shift toward African American and Hispanic residents with lower incomes. Widespread abandonment by landlords of their property, so called “white flight” (relocation to the suburbs by white residents anxious over racial integration and decreasing property values), and construction of the infamous Cross Bronx Expressway accelerated the decay. The Cross Bronx literally cut the Bronx in two – displacing thousands from their homes, and decimating once lively and functional neighborhoods. Read more…
A Raspberry, Photo by Vassil
We are in the final “dog days” of summer. These summer days are the Lord’s gift to us – along with peaches, plums, blackberries, watermelon, and sweet corn.
Surely, the Lord at least once trailed His fingers lazily in the cool waters of the Sea of Galilee. Surely, He at least once savored the taste of a ripe peach, as the juice ran down His chin. We know He enjoyed the shared laughter of friends.
It cannot be a sacrilege to consider such things. The Bible is filled with detailed descriptions of flora and fauna. The Lord loved His creation then as He does now. He knows our lives – our flaws – intimately, and loves us despite them.
The question is whether we love Him.
“Though the fig tree may not blossom, Nor fruit be on the vines;
Though the labor of the olive may fail, And the fields yield no food;
Though the flock may be cut off from the fold, And there be no herd in the stalls –
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Habakkuk 3: 17-18).
Lord Jesus, we thank You for the lushness of this season, as we do for all good things. May this time of plenty strengthen us for whatever hardships may be in store. May our abundance not blind us to those in need. In all seasons of our lives, Your love remains constant.
Amen
READERS CAN FIND MY VIEWS ON ABUSE AND ABUSE-RELATED ISSUES AT ANNA WALDHERR A Voice Reclaimed, Surviving Child Abuse
https://avoicereclaimed.com
“He shall cover you with His feathers,
And under His wings you shall take refuge;
His truth shall be your shield and buckler.
You shall not be afraid of the terror by night,
Nor of the arrow that flies by day,
Nor of the pestilence that walks in darkness,
Nor of the destruction that lays waste at noonday” (Ps. 91: 4-6).
An intended repeat of the recent movie theater shootings was, thankfully, thwarted today. There seems to be violence on every hand. We hardly know which way to turn.
We grieve for the victims and their families, yet long for assurances of safety for ourselves and our own loved ones. Read more…
There has been another mass shooting. This one took place in Wisconsin; the last in Colorado, just over two weeks ago. During the interim, two dead bodies were found abandoned in Michigan.
Death Toll
The headlines include only deaths considered newsworthy – not the majority of deaths by violent means occurring daily in cities across our nation. As an illustration, at least a dozen corpses have been unceremoniously discarded on the streets of inner city Detroit, over the past twelve months.
Drug dealers and addicts, prostitutes and exotic dancers, gang members, teenage boys with basketball dreams, teenage girls trying to escape abuse, elderly men and women relying on Social Security checks, single mothers working two jobs, children not yet in the third grade. Retail cashiers, teachers, students, subway token clerks, cab drivers. Fathers, mothers, grandparents, sisters, brothers, daughters, sons.
This is ugly arithmetic. Surely we can do better. Read more…
A Lawyer's Prayers 