Why Wash Your Hands With ANY Soap For 20 Seconds?

SHORT, SWEET, IMPORTANT.   Let's get this thing handled. VIA My Bad Influence

Dr. David Jeremiah: Is the Coronvirus A Sign of the End Times? What Does It Mean?

VERY THOUGHT PROVOKING SERMON FOR OUR CURRENT TURBULENT TIMES FROM A BIBLICAL WORLDVIEW. I am not a big rapture believer but I think this is nevertheless a precious teaching. I do not think anything stands in the way of Christ's Second Coming at this point. What I do know is Christ has come to bring salvation to everyone who repents and believes and Christ will come again to judge our world in truth and righteousness at the End of the Age whenever that is. Still there is a sense of urgency...

Joe Carter: Nine Things You Should Know About the 1918 Pandemic

I'D READ MUCH OF THIS BEFORE, YET THINK IT BEARS REPEATING.  Joe Carter @ The Gospel Coalition  says it  with clarity and succinctness....In spite of the extremely contagious and lethal 1918 pandemic and catastrophic predictions for Covid19,  I personally do not think this virus will come close to the severity of the one a hundred years ago for many reasons though our fear is probably greater.  I don't mean to be cavalier however.  Read on---including Joe's important Addendum---and decide for yourself: 

THE DISCOVERY AND SPREAD OF A NOVEL CORONAVIRUS disease in 2019 and 2020 (COVID-19) has led to a plethora of comparisons to the deadly pandemic that occurred a century earlier—the 1918 influenza pandemic, known colloquially as the “Spanish flu.”

Here is what you should know about the 1918 pandemic that became one of the largest public health crises in modern history.

1. This 1918 influenza pandemic, caused by the Influenza A virus subtype H1N1, produced the greatest influenza (flu) death toll in recorded history. The number of deaths was estimated to be at least 50 million worldwide with about 675,000 occurring in the United States (in comparison, the total number of deaths of World War I was around 20 million). From 1917 to 1920, the virus infected one-third of the Earth’s population, which at the time was about 500 million people. If the same ratio of infections were to happen today, it would be the equivalent of 2.5 billion. That would roughly be the equivalent today of every man, woman, and child in Africa, Europe, and North America becoming infected.

2. The pandemic was commonly known in the United States and Europe as the “Spanish Flu” or the “Spanish Lady.” This was a misnomer, though, as the disease is unlikely to have originated in Spain. The nickname was the result of a widespread misunderstanding caused by wartime news blackouts. To avoid affecting morale, both Allied and Central Powers nations suppressed news about the flu. But because Spain remained neutral during World War I, the Spanish media was free to cover the story. “Since nations undergoing a media blackout could only read in depth accounts from Spanish news sources, they naturally assumed that the country was the pandemic’s ground zero,” says Evan Andrews of History.com. “The Spanish, meanwhile, believed the virus had spread to them from France, so they took to calling it the ‘French Flu.’”

3. While the sources of the flu is still unknown (avian and swine origins have been proposed), the first outbreaks appeared in the United States. On March 4, 1918, a U.S. Army private reported to the hospital at Fort Riley, Kansas, complaining of sore throat, fever, and headache. By noon, more than 100 of his fellow soldiers had reported similar symptoms. Other outbreaks soon appeared in Army camps and prisons in various regions of the country. The disease soon spread to Europe with the American soldiers traveling to the battlefields of France. (In the two months after the outbreak at Fort Riley, 202,000 U.S. troops traveled by ship to Europe.)

4. The pandemic occurred in several waves that spread across the globe. The first wave occurred in North America from March through May 1918, and from May through July 1918 in Europe. The second wave—which caused the greatest number of deaths—began in August 1918 and spread across the globe over the next five months. By the end of summer 1918, numerous cases had been reported in China, India, New Zealand, Japan, North Africa, the Philippines, and Russia. A third pandemic wave began in early 1919, just 10 months after the first wave. Some historians also claim that a fourth wave occurred in early 1920.

5. The pandemic was exacerbated by poor sanitation, overcrowding, and limited health services during World War I. Many U.S. soldiers with immune systems that has never been exposed to the flu were crowded into hastily built camps and ships. Each day in summer 1918, an average of 10,000 U.S. soldiers crammed onto ships bound for France, and 45,000 soldiers were corralled into camps built to accommodate 36,000. As a result, in 1918 more American troops died from flu than they did on the battlefield
.
6. According to the Centers for Disease Control, an unusual characteristic of this virus was the high death rate it caused among healthy adults 15 to 34 years of age. The pandemic lowered the average life expectancy in the United States by more than 12 years. The estimated case fatality rate was 1.7 percent. A comparable death rate has not been observed during any of the known flu seasons or pandemics that have occurred either prior to or following the 1918 pandemic. (The death rate from seasonal flu is typically around 0.1 percent in the United States.) The rate of death was likely higher because, at the time, there were no flu vaccines, antiviral drugs, antibiotics, or mechanical ventilators. About one-third of doctors and nurses from the United States were also serving in the war, making treatment in the United States less available.

7. Because there was no coordinated effort by the U.S. government to implement mitigation efforts, local communities implemented their own measures. For instance, the health commission of New York City attempted to slow the transmission of the flu by ordering businesses to open and close on staggered shifts to avoid overcrowding on the subways. At the time, 43 U.S. cities had a population of more than 100,000. Cities that implemented measures such as school closures, bans on public gatherings, and isolation or quarantine orders experienced delayed and reduced peak death rates compared with cities that implemented interventions later.

8. During the pandemic, restrictions on public gatherings affected churches. In Washington, D.C., a group of Protestant ministers “voted unanimously to accede to the request of the District Commissioners that churches be closed in the city.” Churches were also closed in cities such as Dallas, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, and Seattle, yet remained open in Chicago and San Francisco. But, much like today, such measures weren’t always popular. A Baptist pastor in Murray, Kentucky, held services on January 26, 1919 in violation of the state’s ban and was arrested in his pulpit at the evening service. A Catholic priest in St. Louis was allegedly turned in to police after 200 parishioners were seen at the church. The priest told police the people snuck in through the church’s side windows ,and he didn’t see them. No charges were pressed.

9. Since 1918, there have been several other influenza pandemics. A flu pandemic from 1957 to 1958 killed around 2 million people worldwide, including some 70,000 people in the United States, and a pandemic from 1968 to 1969 killed approximately 1 million people, including some 34,000 Americans. More than 12,000 Americans perished during the H1N1 (or “swine flu”) pandemic that occurred from 2009 to 2010. 

But the 1918 influenza pandemic has remained not only the deadliest flu of the modern age, but also one of the most lethal virus-borne diseases, killing more people than all subsequent flu pandemics, yellow fever (late 1800s), the Cholera 6 outbreak (1817-1923), SARS (2002-2003), Ebola (2014-2016), and HIV/AIDS (1981–present) combined.

---

Addendum: While there are several similarities between the 1918 flu pandemic and COVID-19 (short for novel coronavirus 2019), they are different in numerous and significant ways. COVID-19 is not a strain of flu, but rather a disease caused by a strain of coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). What we call “flu” is several different types and strains of influenza viruses. Coronaviruses are a different and distinct type of virus.

The key reason COVID-19 is currently more dangerous than common strains of flu is because we have no protection against it (NB: the 1918 flu was an uncommon strain). For all of us alive today, strains of the flu have existed our entire life. Almost everyone gets the flu at some stage of life and are therefore able to build up immunity. We also have vaccines created each year that protect people from new strains. Despite these immunities, we still have 291,000 to 646,000 deaths worldwide from the flu each year.

SARS-CoV-2 is a new strain of coronavirus for which we haven’t built up an immunity. Also, unlike many influenza strains, we have no vaccines to protect us against the virus. Additionally, SARS-CoV-2 is believed to be about seven- to ten-times more lethal than the average strain of influenza. Because of these factors, COVID-19 has the potential to kill many more times as many people as are killed by the annual strains of flu. The COVID-19 infections also have to be treated in addition to the hospitalizations and deaths that occur from influenza. Our health-care system already becomes strained each year during flu season, so adding tens or hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 cases at one time will stretch our system to the breaking point (as it has already done in Italy).

Joe Carter is an editor for The Gospel Coalition, author of The Life and Faith Field Guide for Parents, the editor of the NIV Lifehacks Bible, and the co-author of How to Argue Like Jesus: Learning Persuasion from History’s Greatest Communicator. He also serves as an executive pastor at the McLean Bible Church Arlington campus in Arlington, Virginia. You can follow him on Twitter.

Trump Should Ditch Arrogant Fauci to the Coichi

How To Survive A Life Like Yours: Why Self-Help is Never Enough For Permanently Solving Our Life Problems

Article by

Samuel James

Guest Contributor, Desiring God

IT MADE FOR A SENSATIONAL VIRAL VIDEO. Jordan Peterson, the bestselling psychology professor and life guru, sat on a panel during convocation at Liberty University. Suddenly, someone in the large audience, apparently a student, rushed the stage. In the seconds before the security team closed in around him, the student cried out through tears, “I need help! I just wanted to meet you. I need help.”

Though the event would continue after an impromptu prayer and escorting of the student off stage, the words “I need help” seemed to linger like a specter in the building.

The truth is that every year millions of Americans admit they need help, and many do so by running to self-help gurus. The self-help genre is one of the most reliable, most lucrative genres in publishing. Peterson’s 12 Rules for Life is merely one of the latest phenomena: over three million copies have sold since 2018. Meanwhile, self-help literature colonizes the bestseller lists year after year, decade after decade, from newer authors such as Jen Sincero, Rachel Hollis, and Eckhart Tolle, to old standbys Dale Carenegie, Tony Robbins, and Norman Vincent Peale.

Though these authors are diverse in their language, method, and perspective, one thing unites them all: they want to fix your problems, and they’ve each discovered the best way to do it.

The Craving for Wisdom

It’s easy for evangelicals to sneer at the self-help genre. That’s been the dominant attitude I’ve encountered in gospel-centered Christian circles toward the books. In many ways, the cynicism is warranted. There’s something deeply deceptive in the majority of self-help lit: a middle-class prosperity gospel of expressive individualism.
Yet we err if we only go so far as to critique. It’s better to ask whether we as Christians can learn anything about ourselves or our world from the success of the self-help genre.

Self-help lit flourishes because human beings crave wisdom. Without a conscious recognition that life is hard and confusing and we need more help than is within ourselves, self-help and motivational lit would sell nothing. For believers, the question is not whether we should be trying to gain wisdom for life. The question is what kind of wisdom we need.

The majority of self-help lit answers that question with overtly middle-class appeals to new methods, inspirational mantras, and (most importantly) buying as much of the guru’s product as possible. It also tends to pit the complex realities of life against one another, as if doggedly holding on to one’s sense of self-esteem in the face of hardship or criticism can make the facts of failure and brokenness disappear.
While some self-help writing really does offer helpful habits or bring us back to common sense, it almost always does so with a blind eye toward the many areas of life where the guru’s wisdom cannot go.

Inspired Wisdom Literature

There is an alternative. Rather than, on one hand, mocking readers eager for self-improvement or, on the other, conceding the arena of truth to secular soothsayers, we can turn elsewhere for an inexhaustible fountain of real-life insight, whole-person help, and ever-present grace: biblical wisdom literature.

Unfortunately, many evangelicals would likely struggle to even identify which books of the Bible classify as “wisdom.” The scope and significance of biblical wisdom is often lost on us. We may mine Proverbs for Tweetable nuggets. We mutter at Job’s sufferings something about God’s being absolutely sovereign. We avoid Ecclesiastes altogether! No wonder secular gurus flood the cavity left by our missing the richness of the Creator’s wisdom.

Biblical wisdom literature is more than punchy insights into trusting God or poetic flourishes on the meaning (or lack thereof) in life. It’s also more than a hurdle for preachers to leap over in their beeline to the gospel. Rather, biblical wisdom is a coherent and illuminated rule of life that reveals the true nature of everything: God, humans, the universe itself.

The Soft Glow of Self-Help

The best self-help books are the ones that, perhaps despite themselves, really do help us see reality as it is. Amid the wreckage of misguided inspirationalism, effective self-help lit brings to mind something obvious that we tend to miss: attitude matters; people respond to kindness far better than harshness; clean your room.
But even the best, most natural-law-cognizant self-help lit is like a glowstick in a dark room. It can cast a light, but not far and not for long. Biblical wisdom, on the other hand, is like a brilliant chandelier, majestically illuminating everything from high above.

Because secular self-help lit starts with me — my felt needs, my sense of self — it is fatally limited. Biblical wisdom, on the other hand, starts with God. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10). Biblical wisdom has a cosmic perspective, not merely an individual one.

The Fresh Air of Revelation

The book of Job, a masterpiece of literature even by secular standards, is an astonishing illustration of this. Like much self-help lit, Job is focused on suffering. But unlike all self-help lit, Job gives a heavenly perspective, a point of view that sees the spiritual warfare and divine providence over earthly existence.
We learn from Job that suffering tends to exceed our understanding; we cannot fully “get” cancer, or the death of children, or a fiery helicopter crash. There’s no amount of therapeutic work that can help us make sense of a universe that is “red in tooth and claw.” Instead, there is the reality of God — his presence, his right to reign, and his care over his creation. This awareness enables far more than mere positivity. It enables the worship that will both unleash the peace that passes all understanding, and ultimately result in our resurrection and redemption from all death.

Biblical wisdom also illuminates the world as it really is. Every generation tends to have a skewed vision of reality. We turn our attention to cultural gurus who either affirm the spirit of the age (self-actualization at all costs) or make waves for standing against it (make sacrifices; lose yourself in commitment to something). The wisdom in Scripture corrects both of our errors.

True wisdom reveals that hard work is often rewarded, but not every time (Proverbs 13:23). It pushes us toward making the most of life, while making sure we never forget about our imminent death (Ecclesiastes 3:19). Biblical wisdom reminds us that it is good to earn, but also that earning will never satisfy (Ecclesiastes 2:11).

If you’re looking for myopic perspectives or simplistic clichés, pass on by. If you’re looking for divine realism that enables you to receive and live in the world as it truly is, come and see.

We Need More Than Motivation

But the highest point at which biblical wisdom differs from self-help is its offer of grace. Neither the most rah-rah motivational alpha male nor the most spirited “you go girl” cheerleader can compete with the grace that God’s wisdom offers.
Why? Because this wisdom calls out to the simple. Biblical wisdom is utterly unique: It is for the foolish, not the wise. It is for the needy, not the clever. Hear the call of wisdom:

Wisdom cries aloud in the street, in the markets she raises her voice; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out; at the entrance of the city gates she speaks: “How long, O simple ones, will you love being simple? How long will scoffers delight in their scoffing and fools hate knowledge? If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you; I will make my words known to you.” (Proverbs 1:20–23)

Biblical wisdom can make the foolish wise. That is good news for weak-willed people like me who need more than motivation. We need forgiveness. It’s not enough to be assured that I can do it. I have to know that I’m safe and secure even at the end of the days where I didn’t do it. That’s the promise of Wisdom incarnate: Jesus, “who became to us wisdom from God, righteousness and sanctification and redemption” (1 Corinthians 1:30).
It’s not too late for us to commit to putting ourselves in the way of God’s wisdom, meditating on it day and night as we grow strong and nourished like a tree in a riverbank (Psalm 1:1–3). Find the help you need to see clearly in a dark world, and the grace you need to get back up when you stumble, in the pages of God’s perfect, gracious, all-sufficient wisdom.

Samuel James serves as associate acquisitions editor at Crossway Books and managing editor of Letter & Liturgy. He lives in Wheaton, Illinois, with his wife Emily and son Charlie.

Short Sermon of Day from Desiring God: True Honesty Minimizes Misunderstanding

THIS IS ABOUT SPIRITUAL MATURITY IN CHRIST. BTW, I will post some thoughts on this pandemic crisis later today. Some of them are not conventional wisdom.

After Almost Three Years Living In France, G-Boy Comes Back to USA Three Months Early, Today!

AND BRINGS HIS WONDERFUL FAMILY WITH HIM FROM PARIS.....Hip, hip hooray!

And why not?  Schools in France have closed,  his daddy was working from home.

USA! USA! USA! I give God great thanks for this blessing!

Sunday---Film: American Gospel: Christ Alone (By Faith Alone)

SO MANY PEOPLE---EVEN SO CALLED CHRISTIANS--- DON'T KNOW THE TRUE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST BECAUSE THEY DON'T KNOW---OR ARE UNWILLING TO LOOK AT--THE BAD NEWS ABOUT THEMSELVES AND THEIR SIN NATURE. 

The prosperity gospel and many other teachings are false, based on idolatry.

This film is continuing to change lives forever.

Psalm 16, of David

miktam[a] of David.

1 Keep me safe, my God,
    for in you I take refuge.

2 I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
    apart from you I have no good thing.”
3 I say of the holy people who are in the land,
    “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.”
4 Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.
    I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods
    or take up their names on my lips.

5 Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup;
    you make my lot secure.
6 The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
    surely I have a delightful inheritance.
7 I will praise the Lord, who counsels me;
    even at night my heart instructs me.
8 I keep my eyes always on the Lord.
    With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

9 Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
    my body also will rest secure,
10 because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,
    nor will you let your faithful[b] one see decay.
11 You make known to me the path of life;
    you will fill me with joy in your presence,
    with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Political Correctness At A Trendy New Art Museum

 

 VIRTUE SIGNALLING EVERYWHERE. Yawn.

Superbowl Ads, Winners and Losers

WHADDA THINK?  I'll comment on anything that interests me.  Here's a good link@ NYPOST.  Getting to computer a bit late....

NO to  Avocados from Mexico....and meh! J Lo's action hotel ad....Tide and Chrissy and John Legend.  Nothing is moving me much;; at this point, but I'm open.  Score 10-10, late second quarter

Yes to Turbo tax..

Half time with that Latino woman, JLo and Latino girls symbolized by the sign of Venus bumping and grinding as if all  their lives depended on it was loud, way overly-sexualized and completely inappropriate.  It was a soft porn spectacle with fireworks.
In the end,  it was embarrassing for the Super Bowl and everyone who watched.  Not a family affair. Shameful.

JLo is the biggest, tawdriest exhibitionist in
American.  Enough already.....

Walmart ad was inspirational and well worth watching.  KIA also pretty inspirational.  Bud Lite Seltzer is a bust in my opinion but  maybe carbonated water is a new big seller for Bud.

Nevertheless,  one ad stood out and was inspirational too.  And the winners are:  The Kansas City Chiefs and Patrick Mahones!  Congratulations! And this, Typical Americans:

Sunday, Psalm 16

PSALM 16, KJV

PRESERVE ME, O God: for in thee do I put my trust. ² O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee;
³ But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.
⁴ Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.
⁵ The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.
⁶ The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.
⁷ I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.
⁸ I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.
⁹ Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.
¹⁰ For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.
¹¹ Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.

King James Version (KJV)

Sunday Weekly---Beware the god of Open Options

SOLID JOYS AUDIO:  Pastor John Piper on How to Repent
 

BY BARRY COOPER @ The Gospel Coalition

AS AN ENGLISHMAN, one of the biggest challenges I’ve faced in America is automated call centers. You miss a package delivery from FedEx, and you have to call them to arrange a new delivery time. The problem is that when you call, you aren’t connected to a human being. You’re connected to a talking robot programmed to recognize what you are saying in English.

Or should I say, it’s programmed to recognize what you’re saying in American English.

Every time I call FedEx, I end up conducting the entire conversation in an accent that can only be described as the unholy offspring of John Wayne and Judi Dench. The talking robot, surely trying hard not to laugh, keeps asking me to repeat myself. For a Brit, it’s absolutely humiliating. It’s as if someone has implemented the whole system as payback for nearly two centuries of colonial rule.

The last time it happened, it occurred to me that this nightmarish limbo is a familiar place for many of us. Making choices and moving on with our lives seems increasingly difficult. We feel paralyzed: unable to make choices about relationships, dating, marriage, money, family, and career. I want to suggest that if we feel unable to make these choices, it’s not because we have the wrong accent. It may be because we’re worshiping a false god.

God of Open Options

In 1 Kings 18:21, we encounter a crucial moment of decision. It’s the final showdown between the God of Israel and a false god called Baal. Elijah calls God’s people to choose once and for all between the living God who delivered them, and this false god who has captured their affections: “‘How long will you waver between two opinions? If the LORD is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.’ But the people said nothing.”

They seem unable, or unwilling, to make a choice. They want to hedge their bets, sit on the fence, keep their options open.

How different are we in the 21st century? Would you prefer to make an ironclad, no-turning-back choice, or one you could back out of if need be? Do you ever find that you’re afraid to commit? Do you reply to party invitations with a “maybe” rather than a “yes” or “no”? Do you like to keep your smartphone switched on at all times, even in meetings, so that you’re never fully present at any given moment? Will you focus on the person you’re talking to after a church service, or will you look over her shoulder for a better conversation partner?

If so, you may be worshiping the god of open options.

Paradox of Open Options

People wait years before declaring a college major; others only go to stores with a guaranteed return policy; and it’s not unusual for a person to date someone for years before getting married—if they ever do get married. From sex to spirituality, we reserve the right to keep our options open in every department of our lives....

Read the whole article @ The Gospel Coalition

Good Read Worth Repeating: Windsors Blackmailed By Their Daughter-In-Law

UPDATE: SAMANTHA MARKLE WEIGHS IN

By Deborah C. Tyler
 

Over the last one hundred years, the British Royal Family has generously provided the world with a parade of scandals more colorful and louder than the socks they wear with their kilts.  But the Meghan and Harry rupture is fundamentally different from any previous crisis to befall the British monarchy.  Prior to now, royal scandals have been cut from the same petticoats as any other public ignominies — i.e., the chin-wagging that follows uncovering some form of immoral conduct.  All the throngs of poorly hidden mistresses, caddish boyfriends, toe-sucking on yachts, assignations in the deer park while the horses wait patiently, even consorting with extremes of evildoing, such as found in the company of the late J. Epstein, arose from ordinary human weakness set against an extraordinary backdrop.  They have constituted straightforward disgraces that can unfold only among people with a shared religious heritage and moral code.

Those days are gone.

The roadside bomb in the royal family named Meghan Markle exploded not because of immoral conduct in the conventional sense.  Markle is the first duchess who hails from the American left-wing, post-Christian, anti-moral belief system that worships the journey of self-directed personal actualization.  Her justification after only a few months of marriage for urging hubby away from his family?  "It is not enough to survive, you have to thrive." 

Apparently, Harry's fulfilling his role as prince prevents her thriving.  For Meghan, thriving entails doing what you want, no matter if it hurts others or depreciates the generosity that has been heaped upon you.

Meghan Markle's psychology is affected by well managed narcissistic rage.  Narcissists seek power in relationships as a substitute for the terrifying experience of offering self-sacrificing love.  Markle has two sources of power over the royal family and the millions of people who love them.  She has the ordinary power of a disgruntled daughter-in-law to hurt her in-laws by controlling access to their brother, son, and grandchildren.  She also has the extraordinary power to blackmail the royal family with the indictment of racism!  It is widely reported that Markle has been acceding to the idea that she has been mistreated due to racism and that the royals fear being called racist in a "tell-all" interview.

The melodramatic flight of Meghan and Harry is being compared to the shattering abdication of King Edward VIII in 1937.  The two cases bear no resemblance.  King Edward VIII faced a moral dilemma that arose from a conflict with a religiously based code of behavior.  He wanted to marry his mistress.  That was not acceptable to the royal family and the Church of England, so he chose to abdicate, and that was the end of it.  Meghan Markle moves in a world where "organized" religion (the kind that comes with a moral code at no extra charge) is disrespected.  Markle may spend a Christianish day at a baptism, but she is not guided by the teachings of any church, save perhaps the church of Oprah, whose liturgy is "What works for me?"

Meghan has followed the career of all power-seeking, disruptive daughters-in-law.  She could have begun her campaign of alienating her husband from his family with vague and irremediable complaints about her dissatisfactions as soon as she joined the Firm.  "They don't respect you.  They don't appreciate me."  Wobbly Prince Harry is only too happy to be led away from his family.

Meghan and Harry possess a potent psychobiological weapon: the cry of racism. Harry drops hints of the dread allegation.  Meghan, just as she has no loyalty to her own family, discreetly ignores that ludicrous speculation against the family she chose to join.  Markle is the kind of self-promoter who frames her stratospheric privilege and luxuries into a stand upon conscience, proclaiming she will not live in the U.S. while the current president is in office.  Much noise, no sacrifice.

Meghan carries narcissistic rage against the father she perceives abandoned her and against her family of origin, whom she seems to despise.  Harry carries the abiding trauma of helplessness to protect his mother.  Meghan married an enormously rich global celebrity who is a vulnerable, emotionally unstable man, who, despite the tragic history, lived a highly protected life and whom she could control.  Harry married the opposite of his mother: an older, divorced, hardened TV actress — How brave she is,  overcoming all she has suffered! — who he unconsciously senses can protect herself, thereby saving him from re-experiencing traumatic helplessness.

Thus, her weaponization against his family works psychologically for them both.  But not as well for Harry.
Meghan is an actress, part of a business that virtually requires self-serving narcissism.  Harry was not expected to develop a career independent of his royal duties.  Furthermore, he appears to be a "serve or suffer" person like his mother.  He draws energy from directly serving others.  It is sad to see a prince shilling for his wife to Disney.  It is said that when two people marry they become as one.  Harry may not know it, but that one is Meghan.
It has been said that Harry is "stepping away" from royal duties because he has PTSD and is protecting his family from the tragedy that befell his mother.  If so, there would have been no need for the couple to behave badly.

Harry may discover that a fear-driven life is a thwarted existence.  They ambushed and distressed a frail 97-year-old man and his 93-year-old wife as a power tactic.  They could have quietly created another home in Canada.  They could have skipped the public self-congratulatory remarks about financial independence, as if hustling recently bestowed royal titles constitutes independence.  Meghan did not need to complain that nobody cared about her, or that the duchess gig wasn't working for her.  Above all, they did not have to promote the unjustified slander against queen and country that Meghan has been mistreated due to racism.

Meghan Markle enjoys absolute melanin immunity from criticism.  Any challenge, however gentle, is racist!  The duchess of York was publicly pulverized for her appearance for years on end, but she's white so it was OK.  A critique of Meghan's nail polish is racism!

Racism! is a justification for the elite globalist kleptocracy to loot their nation state, because that is where the money is.  The E.U. didn't fix up Frogmore "Cottage" for Meghan and Harry; the British people did.  Such super-rich transnational lifestylers cling to a patina of virtue in their lack of loyalty to homeland, because the British, like all white people, are racist!

This hoax, the rebuff of royal duties, and alienation from his royal family are being baked into Archie's life narrative.  Concerned about carbon footprints, Meghan announced that Archie will be an only child.  (Enforcing this one-child-to-jet conviction means that she will have to buy another jet if she becomes pregnant again.)  It seems that everything is being done to diminish Archie's one-in-a-billion birthright.  But  he will not be able to escape it for an hour of his life once he is old enough to know who he is
.
So let's plan a glorious adolescent rebellion for Archie.  He announces to Mom and Dad, "You people are not working for me.  I am not thriving."  He finally goes home to stay.  The king restores Archie's titles and then some.  He "Etons up," plays polo, and gets the funny socks to wear with his kilt.

Sunday, The Remedy for Pride

LISTEN, LISTEN AGAIN 

Devotional by John Piper

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit” — 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. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil. (James 4:13–16)

James is talking about pride and arrogance and how they show up in subtle ways. “You boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.”

When you take three categories of temptation to self-reliance — wisdom, power, and riches — they form a powerful inducement toward the ultimate form of pride; namely, atheism. The safest way for us to stay supreme in our own estimation is to deny anything above us.

This is why the proud preoccupy themselves with looking down on others. C.S. Lewis said, “A proud man is always looking down on things and people: and, of course, as long as you are looking down, you cannot see something that is above you” (Mere Christianity).

But to preserve pride, it may be simpler to just proclaim that there is nothing above to look at. “In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him; all his thoughts are, ‘There is no God’” (Psalm 10:4). Ultimately, the proud must persuade themselves that there is no God. One reason for this is that God’s reality is overwhelmingly intrusive in all the details of life. Pride cannot tolerate the intimate involvement of God in running the universe, let alone the detailed, ordinary affairs of life.

Pride does not like the sovereignty of God. Therefore, pride does not like the existence of God, because God is sovereign. It might express this by saying, “There is no God.” Or it might express it by saying, “I am driving to Atlanta for Christmas.” James says, “Don’t be so sure.” Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live, and we will get to Atlanta for Christmas.”

James’s point is that God rules over whether you get to Atlanta, and whether you live to the end of this devotional. This is extremely offensive to the self-sufficiency of pride — not even to have control over whether you get to the end of the devotional without having a stroke! The way to battle this arrogance is to yield to the sovereignty of God in all the details of life, and rest in his infallible promises to show himself mighty on our behalf (2 Chronicles 16:9), to pursue us with goodness and mercy every day (Psalm 23:6), to work for those who wait for him (Isaiah 64:4), and to equip us with all we need to live for his glory (Hebrews 13:21).

 In other words, the remedy for pride is unwavering faith in God’s sovereign future grace.

Amen and amen.

The Bible Never Goes Out of Style or Veers from Truth

SINCE THE BRITISH ROYAL FAMILY HAS BEEN IN THE NEWS WITH ITS LATEST DRAMATIC CRISIS and 24-hour news coverage,  a poignant Scripture verse comes to mind which is true for them, and for all of us.

Numbers 14:18

The Lord is long suffering and of abundant mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgressions; but he by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.

Pastor John Piper explains how God is accomplishing this truth.

A Favorite Psalm For the New Year

THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH'S FRUITS OF HERESY

PSALM 1

Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
² But his delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
³ And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
⁴ The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
⁵ Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
⁶ For the Lord knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.

THE NOURISHING WORD (Commentary and prayer below by Tim Keller)

PSALM 1 is the gateway to the rest of the psalms.  The 'law' is all scripture, to 'meditate' on is to think out its implications for all life, and to 'delight' in it means not merely to comply, but to love what God commands.  Christian have their attitude towards God changed from one to duty to free loving self-giving because of what Jesus did for us on the cross.  So to know how to meditate on and delight in the Bible is the secret to a relationship with God and to life itself. Views contrary to God's Word are no anchor in time of need. God's Word gives us the resilience of a tree with a source of living water that will never dry up.

Prayer:  Lord of the Word, don't let me be seduced by the world---either naively going with the crowd or becoming a hardened cynic.  Help me meditate on your Word to the point of delight.  Give me stability and contentment regardless of the circumstances.  How I need that!  Amen

Matt Drudge, Drama Queen of Online News

I've followed Drudge for over a decade and a half.  But in the last year,  I find him a giant bore who wants to hook me.  Yawn. 

World War 3?  The beginning of the end? Oh please.  It's all for hits and popularity.

Simply getting to be a predictable bore.  He may not even still be in the building,   but whatever,  Drudge is going downhill for me.

Stuart Schneiderman Puts the Iranian Crisis Into Historical Perspective and More

STARTING OUT WITH A WALK DOWN MEMORY LANE,  SS tells it like it's been, it now is and how it's going to be with Trump, the new sheriff in town.

 Schneiderman writes

In case you hadn’t noticed, there’s a new sheriff in town. Gone are the days when American presidents would cower under their desks. Gone are the days when American presidents would react to attacks against our soldiers and citizens with empty threats. Gone are the days when attacks on American embassies and consulates would produce more rhetoric and less action.

When Hezbollah attacked a marine barracks in Beirut, killing nearly 300 troops, Ronald Reagan pulled our troops out of Lebanon. He threatened harsh reprisals and did nothing.

When the Iranian regime invaded the American embassy in Tehran and took our citizens hostage, Jimmy Carter sent a helicopter to rescue them, only to see it crash and burn in the Iranian desert.

When American pilots caught sight of a convoy of Taliban officials escaping the American invasion in the early days of the Afghanistan War, American commanders consulted with lawyers-- who told them not to attack the convoy, because someone might get hurt. 

And, when terrorists attacked the American ambassador in Benghazi, Libya the Obama administration refused to send help, but denounced and jailed a man who had made a video.

When Iranians captured and humiliated American sailors in the Persian Gulf, Secretary of State John Kerry eventually thanked them for releasing the sailors unharmed.

As for the last, the Obama policy in the Middle East involved cozying up with Iran and betraying Sunni Arabs and Israel. Now, with President Trump’s swift and decisive retaliation for the Iran-instigated attack on the American embassy in Baghdad, Democratic chickenshits are cowering in the corner, fearful of the righteous might of Iran.

If you want to know why the nation is divided against itself, look at the Democratic presidential candidates, trembling in fear, having long since abandoned even the pretense of patriotism. Nothing can stop their will to surrender to terrorism.

Qasem Soleimani had the blood of hundreds, if not thousands of Americans on his hands. The Democrats are horrified that President Trump just reduced him to ashes. I probably don't need to mention it, but if Obama had done exactly the same thing, these same Democrats would have praised him as the most courageous military leader since Alexander the Great.

Eric Nagourney got it right in the New York Times:

In July 2018, after President Trump warned Iran’s president not to threaten the United States, a rejoinder came not from the Iranian leader but from a military figure perhaps even more powerful.

“It is beneath the dignity of our president to respond to you,” Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani declared in a speech in western Iran. “I, as a soldier, respond to you.”

On Friday, General Suleimani was reported killed in an airstrike in Baghdad.

As for who he was, this man whose death strikes such fear in the hearts of cowardly Democrats, the Daily Mail summarizes:

Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, who was killed Friday in a US strike, was one of Iran's most prominent figures and a deadly adversary to America and its allies.

As the head of the Quds - or Jersualem - Force of Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, Soleimani was officially charged with protecting the Islamic revolution, and in practice was used to enforce the regime's will across the Middle East. 

Commonly known as the second most powerful man in Iran, wielding more influence than the president, he was seen by many as a future leader.

His CV included helping Shia militias to kill hundreds of American troops during the US invasion of Iraq,  backing Assad as he slaughtered civilians by the thousands during the Syrian civil war, and most recently overseeing the slaughter of hundreds of anti-Iran protesters in Iraq. 

READ THE WHOLE PIECE AND GET A GRIP.