SOAP 6/26/2009 (Reciprocity)

Scripture:
Luke 6:37-42 KJV Judge not, and ye shall not be judged: condemn not, and ye shall not be condemned: forgive, and ye shall be forgiven: (38) Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again. (39) And he spake a parable unto them, Can the blind lead the blind? shall they not both fall into the ditch? (40) The disciple is not above his master: but every one that is perfect shall be as his master. (41) And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother's eye, but perceivest not the beam that is in thine own eye? (42) Either how canst thou say to thy brother, Brother, let me pull out the mote that is in thine eye, when thou thyself beholdest not the beam that is in thine own eye? Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to pull out the mote that is in thy brother's eye.


(S) 37 As you judge, you will be judged; as you condemn, you will be condemned; as you forgive, you will be forgiven;

(O) Jesus lays out one of the great rules of the Kingdom, the law of reciprocity. G-d will judge us by our own standard. The good news is we get to pick our judge, the bad news is we are the judge.

(A) This is an important concept to grasp. Every time we act hastily, harshly, or unjustly, we heap up coals on our own head.

(P) Father, help me to teach this truth, first to myself, then to others around me.

Surrender

I just posted this as an answer to a question on iMonk's blog. http://www.internetmonk.com/archive/what-did-jesus-mean-when-he-said-we-must-hate-our-family#comment-468562

Our success as Christians is in proportion to our ability to surrender. We teach baptism as an identification with the death of Jesus on the cross. As an example:

For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous. Moreover the law entered, that the offence might abound. But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound: That as sin hath reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord.

What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein? Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection: Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed from sin. Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him: Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over him. For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.
(Rom 5:19-6:11 KJV)

If we are in fact dead, we have no family, and being persecuted, shunned or killed for family honor should not influence our decision for Christ.

A 20th Christian Martyr once said: “That man is no fool who gives up what he can not keep, to gain that which he can not lose.”

We have a sure promise from God - Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. I and my Father are one.
(Joh 10:25-30 KJV)

I Surender All

Judson W. VanDeventer

1896

All to Jesus, I surrender;
All to Him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In His presence daily live.

Refrain

I surrender all, I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessèd Savior,
I surrender all.

All to Jesus I surrender;
Humbly at His feet I bow,
Worldly pleasures all forsaken;
Take me, Jesus, take me now.

Refrain

All to Jesus, I surrender;
Make me, Savior, wholly Thine;
Let me feel the Holy Spirit,
Truly know that Thou art mine.

Refrain

All to Jesus, I surrender;
Lord, I give myself to Thee;
Fill me with Thy love and power;
Let Thy blessing fall on me.

Refrain

All to Jesus I surrender;
Now I feel the sacred flame.
O the joy of full salvation!
Glory, glory, to His Name!

Refrain

Cyberhymnal

Calling the Ball or the Decline of the English Speaking Peoples

Two meanings occur to me for the phrase calling the ball:

1. The act of a baseball player playing a ball that several are running toward -- Preventing confusion, accident, and hopefully errors.
2. A call made by a Naval Aviator on final approach as the glide slope indicator is spotted.

I thought it appropriate in this context as Kipling called changes in the British Empire, long before the symptoms of the decay became threatening.

Recessional

Rudyard Kipling

1897

God of our fathers, known of old--
Lord of our far-flung battle line--
Beneath whose awful hand we hold
Dominion over palm and pine--
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget--lest we forget!

The tumult and the shouting dies--
The Captains and the Kings depart--
Still stands Thine ancient sacrifice,
An humble and a contrite heart.
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget--lest we forget!

Far-called our navies melt away--
On dune and headland sinks the fire--
Lo, all our pomp of yesterday
Is one with Nineveh and Tyre!
Judge of the Nations, spare us yet,
Lest we forget--lest we forget!

If, drunk with sight of power, we loose
Wild tongues that have not Thee in awe--
Such boastings as the Gentiles use,
Or lesser breeds without the Law--
Lord God of Hosts, be with us yet,
Lest we forget--lest we forget!

For heathen heart that puts her trust
In reeking tube and iron shard--
All valiant dust that builds on dust,
And guarding calls not Thee to guard.
For frantic boast and foolish word,
Thy Mercy on Thy People, Lord!
Amen.

Old Things Coming 'Round Again -- Kipling

Rudyard Kippling (1865 - 1936)

on Ransom, Extortion and Payoffs

Dane-Geld

A.D. 980-1016

It is always a temptation to an armed and agile nation
 To call upon a neighbour and to say: --
"We invaded you last night--we are quite prepared to fight,
 Unless you pay us cash to go away."

And that is called asking for Dane-geld,
 And the people who ask it explain
That you've only to pay 'em the Dane-geld
 And then  you'll get rid of the Dane!

It is always a temptation for a rich and lazy nation,
 To puff and look important and to say: --
"Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you.
 We will therefore pay you cash to go away."

And that is called paying the Dane-geld;
 But we've  proved it again and  again,
That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld
 You never get rid of the Dane.

It is wrong to put temptation in the path of any nation,
 For fear they should succumb and go astray;
So when you are requested to pay up or be molested,
 You will find it better policy to say: --

"We never pay any-one Dane-geld,
 No matter how trifling the cost;
For the end of that game is oppression and shame,
 And the nation that pays it is lost!"

A Short History of Group Think

I started looking at the phenomenon of group think today. One of the sparks was a post by my good buddy Ultra Guy on his blog new wineskins. It seemed to me that a salient point in his argument was the decimation of the German Theoretical physics community during the 1920's and early 1930's as the tide of antisemitism drove some of the leading physicists out of Germany.
The term groupthink was coined in the early by William H. Whyte:

Groupthink being a coinage—and, admittedly, a loaded one—a working definition is in order. We are not talking about mere instinctive conformity—it is, after all, a perennial failing of mankind. What we are talking about is a rationalized conformity—an open, articulate philosophy which holds that group values are not only expedient but right and good as well.

Ultimately group think is about defending unexamined assumptions about things. As Galileo discovered with his Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, Challenging the reigning world view can be hazardous to your life. In 2008 the Church completed the rehabilitation of Galileo Galilei a process begun some 300 years after declaring him a heretic.

In our own era state sponsored and organized group think rose to new levels in Germany and the USSR. The German version, Gleichschaltung was particularly invidious and the name in German calls forth images of a system like a Gyro compass with, repeaters dutifully following the master compass. The Soviet flavor, Lysenkoism, had devastating effects throughout Soviet Society and Science. The essential core of Lysenkoism was the doctrine that acquired traits were inheritable. While the concept was not new to Lysenko, having been epressed by such worthies as Buffon, Lamarck, and giving it a patina of respectability Aristotle.

The current manifestation of group think trumping the scientific method are the conjoined triplets of liberal elitism - The Population Bomb, The Coming Ice Age, and Anthropogenic Global Warming. In each case the operating principle is the same. All research that supports the group position is loudly proclaimed, contrary research is suppressed. In the next phase research funding is filtered through a combination of peer reviewed publications ensuring that reports match the desired outcome. Funding from all sources is then based on previous publication and probability of the research being publishable in a peer reviewed publication. In the last phase, to show even handedness, contrarian research is requested and then heavily redacted to ensure that even the dissenters support the core thesis.

The final nail in the coffin and the result that proves "Mark Twain, was right when he said; "It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." The recently released Index of Environmental Indicators, you owe it to yourself to see just how much we know about our environment that isn't so. The 70 page report also shows the progression towards impotence of most attempts to actually do something about a problem degenerate into. That one fact alone should give hope to all the AGW deniers around the globe.

An Idea as Old as the Hills .... of Rome (Athens) ....

Some days it seems like certain ideas rather than being relegated to the scrap heap of history to be destroyed for ever are instead plucked from the heap and recycled without modification. Price controls are one of them. I found while browsing Google Books, several interesting volumes on the history of price controls.
The earliest citations are for Imperial Rome, under Diocletian, and an earlier version during one or another of the wars of Greek history. Price controls seem to have some constant features:

1. The price of some commodity, usually but not always a staple grain begins to rise.
2. As the price increase pinches more people, and pinches harder, our ever alert Politicians seek to curry favor from the populace.

After some head scratching they usually come up with some variation on - our core constituency is being adversely affected by the increasing cost of X.

Posted in honor of the Punitive Tariff imposed on Chinese steel.

Second Verse, Same as the First

It looks like Mr. Peabody has set the Wayback Machine for the year 2000. At New Years of 2000, a hand picked team of Al Qaeda Operatives attempted a multi-site attack was planned for Seattle, Los Angeles and Aden Yemen. For reasons that had nothing to to with the basic plan, or a real effort on the part of the US Government all three attempts faile. The Seattle and LA teams were caught crossing the Canadian Border. The Yemenese team had what can only be called an equipment failure, as the bomb boat sank while being launched.
Nine months later, the same Yemenese team scored a success with the bombing of the USS Cole at the same fueling pier that USS Sulivan's avoided. In the aftermath of the Cole attack, the US government brought its full law enforcement weight to bear on the situation. With the FBI in the lead and assisted by NCIS, BATF and other agencies a full court case was made against those members of the team who survived the attack. At the end of a a very obstructed investigation the evidence was turned over to the Yemeni government, which to its credit did act on the information. The prosecution was successful and the bomb plotters were imprisoned in Yemen. In April of 2003 and again in 2006 a group of the plotters escaped from prison. The first time while they were awaiting trial, the second after conviction.
We've seen the results of US investigation of "crimes." Now a new administration is bent on rediscovering ancient truths as old if not older than the Romans. Alcoholics Anonymous teaches that Insanity is doing the same thing the same way and hoping for a different result.


http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/04/023304.php