Sunday, September 11, 2011

Putting no confidence in the flesh

One of the gifts of the Spirit is seeing things as they really are, the truth in other words.  It really is central to the faith and a yardstick of true faith.  If one is caught up in something that is not permanent, of the world, like sports for example, they have a sight problem.  They don't see things as they really are therefore they have not grown in the knowledge of the Spirit.  I'm not saying in and of itself sports is evil, it's just the preoccupation with it, the mixing of it's competitive ideals with scripture that is a problem.

As we enter this season of sport and it's distractions from reality remember the poor instead of the champions, the meek rather than the proud, the quiet rather than the raucous.  Also remember the human body will not be present in heaven, it will have been destroyed along with all the memory of it.

For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 
(1 John 2:16)

Sunday, September 4, 2011

Kimjongilia

Dark North Korea
I often find myself in these depressed economic times worrying about my family's and friends futures.  I got that from my mother I think, she was a consummate worrier.  The reality is we really are in perilous times, the whole world is increasingly in upheaval.  Some fantastic things along with the terrifying are in the headlines continually it seems.  I remember growing up in the Cold War, how permanent it all seemed.  Never in my wildest dreams would I have imagined the world we have today with an open Russia, a unified Europe and a crippled United States.  And China, a communist country outpacing the west in capitalism?  What?

Well, like the old adage says "If you think you've got it bad....", I just watched Kimjongilia on Netflix.
If your like me and have even a cursory knowledge of North Korea you know all about the oppression, hunger and pain of the people there.  But when things are out of mind because of all the other noise of daily life around us, we forget.  Next news headlines that shake the world will be from North Korea.

"It was the best of times.. it was the worst of times."

NetFlix
http://movies.netflix.com/WiMovie/Kimjongilia/70113934?trkid=438403

YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6JOMvOwECo

Watch House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee Hearing on Human Rights in North Korea

from 9/20/11!  Things are moving.