#if Jews are so rich and control everything why do I have so much debt huh

[challahbeloved]

I really want to go to the used bookstore near my work because when I went a couple years ago, I found a siddur at the bottom of a small Jewish book stack… but I’ve got 🎶thooouuusaands🎶 of dollars in medical debt, so probably not a wise financial decision to go.

[raisingsupergirl]

I Told You So: The Art of Proving Myself Wrong

My wife and I were able to make my final student loan payment last week. The full amount of the loan was what I'd call average these days, maybe a little more. So it could have been worse, but it was more than what we paid for my house. So, as anyone who has lived under this burden knows, it was a huge weight off of our shoulders when we finally closed that account. As I've said a few times since then, it feels as if I finally own my brain again. Maybe everyone doesn't see it this way, but I hate debt. We have one credit card left, and—God willing—we'll have it paid off by the end of the summer. And then… I'm throwing a party. Not because I'll be rich or because I'll never incur debt again, but because I will have done what so many people have told me was impossible.

It's strange. I'm not a competitive person. Never was. Not in sports. Not in my career. So this overwhelming desire to work all the harder when someone tells me I can't do something must come from a different place. But where? In fact, it comes from a much deeper part of my soul. The one thing that gives life to all of my other motivations—the desire for freedom and independence. I want to do what I want to do. You don't have to do it with me. You don't even have to understand why I want to do it. All you have to do is step back and let me do it. Offer advice if you must, especially if you have actual knowledge to give, but then get out of the way. And because of that virtue (an optimistic word choice, I'm sure), I can recall several points in my past when I would set my sights on something, a person would tell me that I couldn't do it, and their words would shake me to my core. And I would know right then that I would do it—not to prove them wrong, but to prove myself right.

The first time I remember someone trying to stifle my future, I was in high school. I'd started taking some upper-level classes, and one of them explored world religions, which was the first time I'd really considered the idea that it was okay to think freely (instead of blindly) about my faith. It was as if a dormant ember had flickered into a tiny flame, and I actually became excited about the limitless potential of my faith. But when I asked someone close to me if they ever wondered if, hypothetically, Jews could still get to heaven by making animal sacrifices, their response was, "No, and if you believe that, I think you're going to hell." The response floored me. It nearly broke me. It almost smothered that fledgling flame before it ever really ignited. In fact, it may have been the most pivotal moment of my life. I know now that if I had accepted that closed-door outlook, my straw faith would have eventually crumbled, and it would have left me bitter, at best. Thankfully, I didn't accept it. I leaned in on that core value—that desire for freedom—and I kept searching. I am still searching, and my trust in God and Jesus Christ is deeper than ever.

My second memory of this nature was in college, and it came from Sybill Trelawney, Harry Potter's professor of divination. Okay, it actually came from one of my physical therapy professors, but she looked and acted exactly like Trelawney, so that's whom I always affectionately referred to her as. In fact, she even seemed to have a supernatural insight into things. It was creepy. Especially one day when she was using me as an example in front of the class, because she took one look at my spine and told me that I would need low back surgery by the time I turned thirty. Mind you, I had no history low back trauma or pain at that point. And not only did it freak me out at the time (because of her aforementioned propensity to be right about strange things), but it really crushed me when I turned twenty-nine and sustained an L4-5 disc herniation while lifting weights. I would not have surgery, even after that injury resulted in another herniation in my neck less than a year later. And now that I'm thirty-four years old, I still will not have surgery, even when those neck and low back pains return after sitting with poor posture or moving incorrectly. Instead, I keep my core muscles strong, I remain diligent with my posture, and I don't give up. Maybe I will have to have surgery one day, but it is not this day.

In fact, that resolution (along with my wife's good examples/persistence) is what led me to another one of these instances in question. A little over a year ago, I started exercising daily. About two months later, my brother said it wouldn't last. He said that he'd gotten into great shape when he was my age, and then he lost it. And he would bet that the same would happen to me. His words stirred deep inside me, and I knew then that I would never get out of shape again unless some injury or other unforeseen circumstance forced it (I see you, Trelawney!).

I've had people tell me that I would get addicted to tobacco because I smoke a pipe once a week, but guess what? I've been doing it for years, and it's still just once a week (or less). I've had people tell me that there was no way that I would finish writing a book. I've finished six now. But there are still some curses that I've not yet overcome. I've heard countless times that it's nearly impossible for a new author to traditionally publish a novel these days (especially in adult science fiction), and that I should just self-publish instead. I have not yet proven them wrong, but every day I get a little closer, and I'll not stop until I reach that goal (or die. I guess that's always a possibility…).

And given everything I've said, you'd think that I would look back on those pivotal moments with anger or frustration toward the doom speakers, or even pride over those whom I proved wrong. But it's not like that. It never was, not even at the time. I said earlier that each time someone tried to control my future, I had to prove to myself that I was still free from their imposed fate. But that wasn't completely correct. The words that I heard in those moments weren't important because someone else said them, but because I was already thinking them, and to hear them out loud threatened to make them come true. So, I didn't have to prove myself right. I had to prove myself wrong. I had to silence that dark voice in my head. Not because of stubbornness or arrogance, but because I didn't want to lose my freedom. I have plenty of doubt on a daily basis to imprison my spirit for all eternity, but I worship the one God. No one and nothing else—doubt, fear, and ill-fated prophecies the least of all.

So no, I don't hold ill feelings toward the people in my life who have spoken my worst fears back to me. Why? Because they did so as good-willed warnings, as challenges that they knew I had the potential to overcome, and I appreciate them for it. If their "predictions" ever came to pass, I'd feel like I let those people down. And when I overcome them, I feel a connection to those who have done their part in getting me to where I am today. I may still have a little financial debt. I may still be chasing publication. I may still have dark days of doubt, but I haven't given up. And I haven't let that doubt put out the flame within me—that flame that began as an ember. That flame that grows a little brighter each and every time I put my faith in a God that is greater than my doubt. 

What, you think I'm wrong? Challenge accepted.

[johnlharrisr-blog]

(RNS) — It started in 2004 as a little Bible study looking at the political implications of Jesus’ teaching and the social dimensions of the gospel. Four years later, during the 2008 presidential election, I published a book with Chris Haw called “Jesus for President” and took the movement out on a national tour, traveling through nearly every U.S. state in a bus that ran on waste vegetable oil, hosting packed-out rallies in different cities each night.

We had some solid ideas for serious change in America back then. Like putting the Amish in charge of Homeland Security and melting all of our weapons into garden tools and enacting the biblical year of Jubilee, where property is redistributed and financial debts are forgiven. We were dead serious about some of those ideas (and still are).

A lot has changed since 2008. A lot has changed since 2016. Heck, a lot has changed since last month, and week and day.

One thing that has not changed is that Christians still have a hard time knowing how to engage with politics, especially during an election year.

RELATED: Voting my conscience in this election may mean staying home

Some Christians ignore politics altogether, preferring to focus on matters like saving souls and getting people into heaven. They often quote Scripture about how our “citizenship is in heaven” and insist that this world is not our home. Politics don’t belong in the pulpit, they say (unless it’s abortion or marriage equality). Jesus didn’t come to overthrow Caesar and take over Rome, but to establish an altogether new kingdom that is not of this world. So it goes.

Another group of Christians has totally bought into partisan politics and married itself to these Christians’ favorite candidate or party. If they are evangelicals, that usually means the Republican Party. As my friend the Rev. Tony Campolo says: “Mixing our faith with a political party is sort of like mixing ice cream with cow manure. It doesn’t mess up the manure, but it sure messes up the ice cream.”

More recently, I have become familiar with the progressive version of the savior complex; it still messes up the ice cream.

As people of faith, we are desperately in need of a better political imagination — one not confined by party or candidate or the culture wars at all, but one wholly rooted in our faith. We need to be as peculiar as we are political. Jesus was both — political and peculiar.

Nearly every time Jesus opened his mouth, he talked about the “kingdom of God.” The word he used for “kingdom” was the same word as “empire.” But his empire is upside down. The first are last, and the last are first. The mighty are cast from their thrones, and the rich are sent away empty. The poor are blessed, and the peacemakers are “the children of God.” Literally, Jesus blesses the people this world has cursed and rebukes the people this world has idolized.

According to Jesus, the kingdom of God is not just something we hope for when we die. It is something we are to make “on earth as it is in heaven,” apparently while we’re alive, now. It is an invitation to join a revolution that transforms the world from what it is into what God wants it to be.

We know because he talked about the real stuff and real people — unjust judges, day laborers, widows and orphans: political stuff. The golden rule — love your neighbors as yourselves — can’t be followed if we ignoring the policies and powers that are crushing the lives of our neighbors. Jesus was political in the sense that the word “politics” derives from “citizens” — meaning our neighbors.

As much as Jesus’ vocation was political, it was also peculiar. His entire life (and death) is a parody of power, political satire on a whole new level, a political photobomb that took attention off of the centers of power and put the spotlight on the margins.

Jesus came straight out of Nazareth: a brown-skinned, Palestinian, Jewish refugee from a town out of which people said, “Nothing good could come.” This was what determined his view of power. When confronted by tax collectors about whether he paid his taxes, he pulled money out of the mouth of a fish, questioning what really is Caesar’s and what is God’s.

He called Herod a fox and flipped tables in the Temple. He included the excluded and challenged the chosen. Entering Jerusalem, he did not ride a warhorse with a military entourage like Caesar, but a borrowed donkey. Political satire. Street theater of the holiest kind. Instead of the iron fist of tyrants, Jesus ruled with a towel washing his disciples’ feet. He was accused of insurrection, arrested, beaten, tortured by the state and finally executed.

His execution, directed by the Romans, was also political parody of the highest order. His throne was an old rugged cross. His crown was not made from olive branches like Caesar’s, but thorns. Nailed to the cross read a sign, “King of the Jews.”

Jesus outdid the Romans’ attempt to join in his parody by rising from the dead — the greatest act of protest in history.

The word “savior” was not just used for Jesus. It was also used for Caesar. On the imperial walls in Asia Minor, nearly a decade before the birth of Christ, these words were written: “emperor Augustus … who being sent to us and our descendants as Savior, has put an end to war and has set all things in order, having become god manifest… the birthday of the god Augustus has been for the whole world the beginning of the good news…”

Sound familiar?

The words attributed to Jesus in the Gospels — Lord, savior, Incarnation — were already attributed to Caesar. The imperial calendar revolved around the birthday of Caesar, not Christ. You start to see why the politics of Jesus are so radical, so revolutionary and so controversial. Every time the early Christians declared “Jesus is Lord,” they were also declaring, “Caesar is not.”

That confession was deeply and subversively political. It was just as strange to say “Jesus is my Lord” 2,000 years ago as it would be to declare him commander in chief today. It was an invitation to a new political imagination centered on the person, teaching and peculiar politics of Christ.

One of the greatest temptations during election year is to misplace our hope. We are tempted to put our hope in a party or a candidate who we think will save us from the chaos we are in. But as the old hymn goes, “My hope is built on nothing less than Jesus’ blood and righteousness. … On Christ the solid rock I stand; all other ground is sinking sand.” There is a lot of sinking sand these days. Lots of big promises and empty words. We are bound to be disappointed if we put too much hope in a person or a party.

Joining the politics of Jesus is about joining God’s redemptive plan to save the world. It is about allegiance, hope and a new kingdom. So I am indeed hopeful in 2020 — not because I have found a candidate who fulfills my deepest hopes, but because I have learned how to hope differently. My hope does not lie in Donald Trump or Joe Biden, or even America. My hope is in Christ alone.

Now that we’ve established that — let me be clear. I will be voting on Nov. 3. But I will not be looking for a political savior. I will be looking to do damage control. I’ll be trying to harness the principalities and powers of darkness that are hurting so many children of God. I’ll be voting for the politicians who I believe will do the least amount of damage to the world, and alleviate the most suffering for the most people. Though that may sound cynical, I think that’s an appropriate theological posture to have.

There are those who will opt out because they don’t want to “hold their noses” and vote, and still others who refuse to choose between the “lesser of two evils.”

But opting out also has consequences. Privilege is being able to choose which issues matter and which ones do not. Privilege is being able to opt out of decisions that have life and death consequences for other people. I believe this election is a referendum, and we have power that we can steward on Nov. 3. I want to look back and say I did everything I could to stand against fear, and racism and violence… including vote. We need to use every tool in our toolbox.

If you have a hard time voting for a particular candidate this year, perhaps consider what it means to vote for the people Jesus blessed. Vote for the poor. Vote for immigrants. Vote for families separated at our border and for the kids in cages. Vote for those without health care. Vote for those who are incarcerated and those who aren’t allowed to vote. Vote for the victims of violence. Vote for Breonna Taylor.

Vote for love. When we vote for love over fear, we can rest confidently that we voted our faith and put flesh on our prayers.

So, I will vote on Nov. 3. I will vote against hatred, and fear, and misogyny. I will vote against Trump and those who have enabled his hurtful policies and hateful rhetoric. And I will do it because I have pledged my ultimate allegiance to Christ.

Surely, Election Day is not the only day we make a difference. I will also vote every day before Nov. 3 and every day after Nov. 3. Change is not confined to one day every four years. Change happens every day. We vote with our lives. Social change doesn’t come from the top down. It comes from the bottom up — just like water boils.

The holy work of “seeking first the kingdom of God” is not confined to a ballot box. No matter who gets elected in November, we will need to be in the streets in January holding them accountable.

[eliminativism]

If you don't mind, I'd like to ask for your opinion on this: takimag(.)com/article/top_10_trump_myths_gavin_mcinnes#axzz4WT8GdY44

McInnes is a partisan provocateur, like Milo Yannopoulos. I wouldn’t take what he writes too seriously.

We are already beyond McCarthyism - the alt-rightists and neo-nationalists on tumblr are so far gone that they cannot read a single thing in the press they don’t like without mocking it as fake news. They are worse than feminists - and I say that as someone who has an anti-feminist with very radical anti-feminist stances for three years. You basically cannot get more anti-feminist than I am.

And I consider feminists more redeemable than people like McInnes lately.

The truth is that while the press has problems, you cannot throw everything out of the window without checking. But the “parallel media”, aka right-wing news blogs, have established themselves among their audience to provide any kind of lazy copy-pasting to show “the left media” is wrong, regardless of whether it’s accurate, as long as it reeinforces the biases of their audience. You can find whole networks right-wing blogs for anything, with vast databases of sources they built up - for the world being flat, for chemtrails being used to poison the population, that the world is cooling down and global warming is a hoax, that Noah’s flood was real, that Trump is a reasonable individual.

I have spoken against such falsehoods repeatedly, and always I have found people to be more stubborn and hostile than even a rabbid SJW could be - often from people who would love to point out how ridiculous SJWs are.

Simple fallacy: Just because one other position is wrong does not allow you to conclude your position is right.

Feminism and the new right follows the same human tendencies: The tendencies to see patterns, to see themselves as victims and deserving of more than they have etc.

The “left-wing media” is basically the right-wing’s patriarchy. Lot’s of plausible sounding platitudes with some enacdotal evidence here and there, but nothing overarching.

But maybe back to your link.

What McInnes does here is that he specifically picks a few things he can challenge to some degree and then makes the blatant statement that he is always right and the “left” is always wrong. Let’s break it down.

1) This statement by Trump has been blown out of proportion by the media, but it is also not what is really important about Trump’s assumed sexual crimes.

He has been accused of rape by three different women - a business partner, his ex-wife and a thriteen year old.

The case of the thirteen year old occurred in the 90s in connection with a party of Jeffrey Epstein, who is a good friend of Trump - a convicted sex criminal who has an investment company which is offering financial product specifically for billionaires.

Trump was never convicted - he did donate a large sum of money to the persecutor who was supposed to handle the case of the 13 year old and the case was abbandoned - so one cannot say that he is guilty.

But considering that the neo-nationalists have been going crazy over Pizza-Gate, I wonder why the story about Epstein’s parties, in which the candidates for an underage model agency of his attended, and who, according to the organiser, had to give blowjobs to Epstein’s friends, including Trump, to get “a better chance” at a modeling career, would not spark the same interest. Hmmmmmmmmmm....

https://de.scribd.com/doc/316341058/Donald-Trump-Jeffrey-Epstein-Rape-Lawsuit-and-Affidavits

The case had a hearing on 16th of decembre. Maybe it is just a story of someone who hopes to get money, maybe there’s more to it. We’ll have to see what comes of it.

2) Maybe, maybe not. It would fit to Trump’s personality to mock someone for that, but I wouldn’t say that it shows a disdain for the disabled. He might have just considered it some strange antics of the reporter, without even thinking about a disability. But Trump’s dedicated enemies interpreted it in the most unflattering way possible.

3) “ I’ve been an entrepreneur my whole life. You’re pretty much looking at 12 failures for every successful venture“

This is ridiculous and shows that McInness is out of touch or lying.

Maybe such ventures with many bancruptcies is typical for a very small group of millionaire investors who are working in an American business climate where money is fast and loose.

But that has nothing to do with the normal economy. I have relatives who are entrepreneurs and business-owners, but all middle class, not upper class. Not one of them has ever grown bankrupt once. And those who do grow bankrupt in this field never recuperate - they have their debts to pay off for their whole life and hope their children don’t inherit the debts. And even if they recover, people are skeptical of making business with them further on.

Trump belongs to a financial class which is called “locusts”. They don't lose money from going bankrupt, they profit from going bankrupt. They never pay their debts - you know who stays with the debts? The small businesses Trump had contracts with, which he never payed and which he will get away with for never paying, because he can delay the court cases longer than small-businesses who barely have enough to continue to exist.

4) Everyone outsorces production to other countries when it makes sense.

That Trump does it is not the deal, the ridiculousness comes from Trump’s claim that he will bring the jobs back to America.

Yeah, he can... if the Americans are paid e.g. Chinese wages. Which will be an interesting enterprise with the costs of living in the US.

There is no system of encouragement behind outsourcing - with the additional cost of transport and the difficulty of running a business at a country you don’t speak the language of, and the often unstable legal situation in these low-wage countries, everything already speaks against producing there - but companies still do it because it makes economic sense. And it has been going on for so long that it shows it works.

Trump is not a hypocrit, he’s just a retard, like everyone else who believes that one can reverse that trend.

I mean, either that, or a Stalinist.

You would have to bring so much government control into businesses that you would basically disable capitalism if you wanted to dictate where a company can produce how much of what - and sell it for what price, if you want to keep it affordable.

I didn’t know Trump’s supporters would love to live on a kolchos, but surprises with them never end.

5) I never heard this, and I cannot say anything. Basically, if you are rich, it is easy for you to find ways to get richer. There are various ways to do that - legal and moral, or the Trump way. Both happens among that elite class.

6) This is Trump toeing the line to dehumanisation of immigrants just like the European neo-nationalists do with Muslims - they are all rapists, all criminals, it would be a better world if we would get rid of them etc. Oh, not “literally” all of them, but you know, you have to break some eggs to make an omelette...

This is just typical right-wing populism which is as old as modern politics itself. It’s not even something specific to Trump, it’s something every right-wing party does to some degree and it has been a beloved point of the Tea-Party movement, which considted of the most embarrasing American country hicks the world was ever displeased to witness on the news. McInness’ apologetics for it are laughable.

7) Well, Roe vs Wade is being attacked by many Trump fans.

I don’t really think Trump himself cares much. Trump just wants to make money - that’s what his presidency is about. He doesnt want you to bring the truth, he wants you to buy the newspapers his best friends own instead of those his friends don’t own.

If he could open a restaurant with dead fetus burgers, he would. The thing is that Trump is in bed with people who have ties to conservatism who would be interested in anti-abortion legislation. That ties in to the Republican senate keeping the surpeme court seat open for months without considering any candidate Obama suggested. Trump will suggest someone the rich American conservative establishment likes, so he lick their assholes and they can lick his.

8) Ties in to 7). If we look at Trump’s staff, he personally doesn't care about black vs brown vs white. He will just bring in anyone who will help him make money. He would appoint Göbbels for his talent of speaking to the press and he would butter up Malcolm X’s asshole if it would give him more support from the black vote.

Trump does not care about politics, he cares about $$$. He is completely amoral in that regard. And that’s how people who do care about polirics will be able to rise to political positions which would never be considered in any way fit for politics in a Western democracy. And Trump does not care what they will suggest in terms of social policies. That’s not his thing. If someone wants to build concentration camps with gas chambers on American soil, Trump would just ask “How does that sell? Do the approval numbers look good for that?” If the answer is positive, he would not care about the action itself.

That’s one of the big points about the campaign and the press coverage - people try to pin things like being against Jews of LGBT people on Trump, but it’s not true. Trump does not care. The thing is, Trump would also not care about the reverse. That is what Trump can be attacked about. He himself may not support bigotry, but if bigots would make him successful, they will be his best friends in the White House. That is the danger of Trump - not his personal views, but that he simply does not care. His lack of personal views is the danger.

9) Basically see 8). Trump will bend and break existing laws if he thinks it’s a thing that saying makes him popular. Immigration, right of assylum for the prosecuted - doesn’t matter, if it makes his voter base uncomfortable.

That’s exactly the same with Europe, Europe’s new right and England’s Brexit.

People have a “feeling” that something is wrong, they find some structure they pin their nebulous feelings to and then get agitated. Is there causality behind it? Doesn’t matter. Someone, somewhere is conspiring against me, and in my feeling of powerlessness I have to ruin it for everyone else. As I said, it’s why feminism is attractive to people with low self-esteem and a short-sighted view of society. The EU is the European right’s patriarchy or the post-marxist’s burgeouisie - people I have never met with some planned agenda against me that keeps me down, and though I cannot point to evidence or causality, enough people are talking about it that there must be something to it.

10) I have no idea what point McInness is trying to make here. If Trump wants to build a wall, he can. He cannot make the governent of Mexico pay for it. If America makes budget cuts to pay for the wall, then America makes budget cuts to pay for the wall. Has nothing to do with the government of Mexico. McInness is just rambling about a red herring.

[moments777]

Five Lessons Hurricane Harvey Teaches Us By Dr. Erwin W. Lutzer Five Lessons Hurricane Harvey Teaches Us Did God have anything to do with the monstrous storm that wreaked havoc in Texas for several days? Some will argue that God was simply an interested observer; after all, the laws of nature rule in this fallen world. But intuitively people know that God was in charge. I’m sure that even those who had not prayed in years called on God in their distress, asking Him to control their circumstances. And, of course, as believers we know that God was not just an interested bystander. The book of Job is instructive here. God gave Satan permission to send wind and lightning to kill Job’s children but Satan could not act without God’s express approval. To be sure, nature is fallen and so earthquakes, hurricanes, and tsunamis occur, but Job knew that whatever the secondary causes might be, his calamity was traceable to God. “The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away; blessed be the name of the LORD” (Job 1:21, italics mine). Who sent the flood during the days of Noah? Who sent the plagues that ravaged Egypt? Who sent the storm that caused the pagan sailors to throw Jonah overboard? In these and dozens of other passages, the Bible traces the ultimate cause of these disasters to God. He does not usually do them directly, of course, but the secondary causes of nature are also under His command. Jesus could have spoken the word and Hurricane Harvey would have become as calm as the waters of Galilee. God has His own reasons for these events which are unknown to us. But from Scripture we can glean what our response should be and the lessons to be learned. First: We Grieve, We Do Not Judge Jeremiah grieved alone. He was dismayed that others were so calloused that they could walk past the destroyed city of Jerusalem with dry eyes. “Is it nothing to you, all you who pass by? Look and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow, which was brought upon me, which the Lord inflicted on the day of his fierce anger” (Lamentations 1:12). The destruction of Jerusalem did not just affect the wicked; the righteous suffered equally. Jeremiah grieved for both. Jesus, when speaking about a disaster in Jerusalem, asked, “Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them: do you think that they were worse offenders than all the others who lived in Jerusalem? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:4-5). Here was a tragedy known and talked about in the city of Jerusalem. It is quite possible that this tower was an aqueduct built by Romans who were employing Jews in its construction. Of course the Jewish zealots would have disapproved of Jewish workers helping with a project that would benefit their despised oppressors. We can hear it already, “Those men deserved to die…they were victims of God’s judgment!” The self-righteous pointed fingers in those days too! Jesus affirmed that those who died when the tower collapsed were not greater sinners than others in Jerusalem. It was both morally wrong and self-righteous to sit in judgment on those who were killed so unexpectedly. From God’s standpoint, disasters might be meticulously planned, but from our perspective they occur haphazardly, randomly. Let our tears be translated into action, helping with our prayers, with our giving to organizations that help the distressed and, if possible, join others who are physically responding to those in need. We grieve for the people in places like Corpus Christi and Houston; we grieve we do not judge. Second: Values Are Clarified When that tower in Siloam fell, no one mourned the loss of the bricks, but eighteen families mourned the loss of a husband, father, or brother. As Max Lucado said back when Katrina hit New Orleans, “No one laments a lost plasma television or submerged SUV. No one runs through the streets yelling, ‘My cordless drill is missing’ or ‘My golf clubs have washed away.’ If they mourn it is for people who are lost. If they rejoice it is for people who have been found.” (1) He goes on to say that raging hurricanes and broken levees have a way of prying our fingers off the stuff we love. One day you have everything; the next day you have nothing. “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” (Matthew 16:26). Disasters help us separate the trivial from the weighty, the temporal from the eternal. Suddenly what is most important becomes most important. Third: Life Is Uncertain Natural disasters confirm the words of James, “Yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes” (James 4:14). The people who lose their lives in a natural disaster do not wake that morning telling themselves, “This could be my last day on Earth.” Collapsing towers, accidents, and floods happen without warning. When you read the obituaries of those who have died in sudden calamities, you should visualize your own name in the column. All of us know someone who has been unexpectedly killed in an accident, perhaps in a car wreck, at work, or by drowning, not to mention a heart attack. When we grieve with the families, we should remind ourselves that our own death could be just around the next corner. We are born with an expiration date. Tragedies rid us of the overconfidence we have that we are in control of our destiny. Disasters, in the words of David Miller, remind us that “Human existence on Earth was not intended to be permanent. Rather, the Creator intended life on Earth to serve as a temporary period in which people are given the opportunity to attend to their spiritual condition as it relates to God’s will for living. Natural disasters provide people with conclusive evidence that life on Earth is brief and uncertain.” (2) In one of his most popular books, C.S. Lewis imagines a lead demon, Screwtape, telling his underlings that war can be dangerous to their demonic agenda because it causes humans to think about eternity. If the demons are not careful “they might see thousands turning to the enemy [God] during this tribulation. In fact, it just might cause thousands to divert their attention to values and causes that are higher then they themselves…Thus, in wartime men prepare for death in ways they do not when things are going smoothly.” (3) Then the demon continues: “How much better for us if all humans died in costly nursing homes amid doctors who lie, nurses who lie, friends who lie, as we have trained them, promising life to the dying, encouraging the belief that sickness excuses every kind of indulgence, and even, if our workers know their job, withholding all suggestions of a priest lest it should betray to the sick man his true condition!” (4) Lewis believes—and I concur—that “contented worldliness” is one of the demons’ best weapons at times of peace. But when disasters come, this weapon is rendered worthless. He writes, “In wartime not even a human can believe that he is going to live forever.” This is one of the reasons why we will never know all of God’s purposes in natural disasters—we simply do not know the thousands, or perhaps millions, of spiritually careless people who were forced to take God seriously in a time of crisis. Even those of us who watch these calamities from a safe distance, hear God saying, “Prepare for your own death…it may be soon.” Fourth: We See a Preview of Coming World-Wide Judgments Let’s return to the words of Jesus as He speaks about the collapsed tower of Siloam, “But unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:3). We’ve all seen a movie preview that gives us a glimpse of what is yet to come. Natural disasters remind us that severe judgment is coming. Depending on how you classify them, at least three or four natural disasters will accompany the return of Jesus to Earth: “For as the lightning comes from the east and shines as far as the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather. Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. Then will appear in heaven the sign of the Son of Man, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn…” (Matthew 24:27–30). Convulsions of nature will eventually be a part of God’s sovereign judgment. Here is a future ‘natural disaster’ which is the real movie after the preview. “When he opened the sixth seal, I looked, and behold, there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth, the full moon became like blood, and the stars of the sky fell to the earth as the fig tree sheds its winter fruit when shaken by a gale. The sky vanished like a scroll that is being rolled up, and every mountain and island was removed from its place. Then the kings of the earth and the great ones and the generals and the rich and the powerful, and everyone, slave and free, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains, calling to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?’” (Revelation 6:12–17). We owe a great debt to those affected by Hurricane Harvey. What happened to them is a warning to us all. If we don’t repent we “shall likewise perish.” Fifth: While There Is Time, We Must Find Firm Ground Jesus likened a future judgment to a natural disaster. He ended the Sermon on the Mount by telling the story of two men: one who built his house on the sand, and the other on the rock. On a beautiful sunny afternoon they looked identical; perhaps the house built on the sand was even more beautiful than the one built on the rock. But a natural disaster revealed the difference between the two. “And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock” (Matthew 7:25). The other house could not endure the storm, “and great was the fall of it” (Matthew 7:27). Recall that the Titanic went under with 1,522 people knowingly going to a watery grave. At the White Star office in Liverpool, England, a huge board was set up; on one side was a sign titled: Known To Be Saved, and on the other, the words: Known To Be Lost. Hundreds of people gathered to watch the signs. When a messenger brought new information, the question was: to which side would he go? Although the travelers on the Titanic were either first, second, or third class upon boarding, after the ship went down, there were only two categories: the saved and the drowned. Just so, in the final Day of Judgment, there will be only two classes: the saved and the lost. There is only heaven and hell. God shouts from heaven, “Unless you repent, you will likewise perish.” 🙏🇺🇸💔