These ain't the plains of God no more, They're only real estate.

Yet it's squeak! squeak! squeak!

Far and farther crawls the wire.

To crowd and pinch another inch

Is all their heart's desire.

The world is overstocked with men

And some will see the day

When each must keep his little pen,

But I'll be far away.

The Old Cow Man written by Badger Clark

Driving east on along Highway 1 from Ely today, I felt a sadness on the land.  The area has survived two periods of intense resource extraction, the fur trade of the late 18th century and the mining and logging boom of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  It appears that the land is once more heading into another period, possible final, of intense resource extraction.

I am not writing about the  many potential dangers of sulfide mining, but our relationship with God's creation.

Reading Hosea 4:1-3
 

Listen to the word of the Lord, you Israelites. The Lord has brought these charges against those who live in the land:
 
“There is no faith, no love, and no knowledge of God in the land. There is cursing, lying, murdering, stealing, and adultery. People break my laws, and there is one murder after another.  That is why the land is drying up, and everyone who lives in it is passing away. Wild animals, birds, and fish are dying.

This isn't a condemnation of the United States, or the More Developed Countries, although it very well could be because as Americans we constitute 5% of the worlds population and consume 25% of the worlds energy supplies, eat enough food each day to feed an additional 80 million people, and throw out 200,000 tons of edible food daily, no this is a condemntation of all of humanity.

As human civilisation moved from nomadic herders of Abraham's day to urban dwellers of Sodom, Gomorrah, Jerusalem, Rome and on into the industrial age of London, New York, Tokyo, Beijing; we have lost touch with God.  We have continued to exacerbate the sins of Adam by continuing to believe that we are gods, that we are in control.

We, like the Hebrews, have given up the Jubilee.  We have to wring the last bit of profit from the land, leaving none for the widow, orphan or stranger.  We do not let the land rest, because it might cost us a dollar.

What land we don't physically extract wealth from we treat as our personal playground, places where we can do as we please, and enjoy the hedonistic pleasures of pagan gods upon the land.

Badger Clark (1883 - 1957), a cowboy from South Dakota, wrote The Old Cow Man sometime before 1910.  How well he saw what lay in store for God's Creation that he did so lovingly respect and care for.

What are They Afraid of?

I prefer to avoid the divisive topic of American Politics, as I do not subscribe to the notion of allegiance to the empires of man.


We received another one of those emails today, this one claiming that Barack Obama has a fake Social Security Number.  The email is from an individual who is strongly invested in the belief of the nearness of the Second Coming of Jesus, as well as a supporter of the idea that Mr. Obama is going to be a servant of the anti-christ.


My question for all those politically right-wing evangelicals who believe this is:

What are you afraid of ?   

Really now, if Barack Obama is a servant of the anti-christ, wouldn't this be the culmination of your dreams and aspirations?  Having the "apocalypse" occur during your lifetime?

Or are you afraid of the coming judgement that you so loudly proclaim on the rest of the world that is not a member of your church?

There is one of those urban myth emails floating around the credit Albert Einstein with embarrassing a college professor with a proof of God that shows, correctly, that cold is not a state of matter but an absence of heat.  This is a popular myth among evangelicals, but they don't seem to understand the actual meaning of the proof.  Many read this as nothing more than the slap down of an atheist. Most do not see that the evils of the world exist because of an absence of God in our lives.

Sam Charles Norton writes in his book Let Us Be Human that wrath is brought about by the consequences of our actions.  Meaning to me that the "wrath of God" is more along the lines of the absence of the Love of God.  The wrath of humans is a judgement of humans, by humans, in direct violation of the teachings of Christ Jesus ( Matthew 7:1, Luke 6:37, John 12:47 ).

I will admit that I am in a minority because I do not follow the catastrophic apocalyptic vision of evangelical America.  Eschatology, as I understand it, is about becoming and healing, not punishment and vengeance.

So again I must ask: What are you afraid of ?

Look like a duck, Walk like a duck ...

I'm sure that you have heard the old saying, "If it walks like a duck, swims like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's a duck".  I've run into a lot of people lately who profess to be Christians, but their Look, Walk and Talk seem to label them as something else.

In Matthew 16:24  Jesus tells us that "If any man will follow me, let him forsake himself: and take up his cross, and follow me."

The Amplified Bible goes into a bit more detail of what is meant, Matthew 16:24 says "Then Jesus said to His disciples, If anyone desires to be My disciple, let him deny himself [disregard, lose sight of, and forget himself and his own interests] and take up his cross and follow Me [^[a]cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying, also]."

In Mark 8:34, the call from Jesus is more inclusive: "And he called the people unto him with his disciples, and said unto them, Whosoever will follow me, let him forsake himself, and take up his cross, and follow me."  In doing this Jesus called all who would hear to a life of discipleship.


So why do so many people say "Thank you Jesus" and walk like the world, swim like the world, talk like the world, and think that they are not of the world?

Matthew 24:43-50 warns:
"Of this be sure, that if the good man of the house knew at what watch the thief would come, he would surely watch, and not suffer his house to be digged through. Therefore be ye also ready: for in the hour that ye think not, will the Son of man come. Who then is a faithful servant and wise, whom his master hath made ruler over his household, to give then meat in season? Blessed is that servant, whom his master when he cometh, shall find so doing. Verily I say unto you, he shall make him ruler ouer all his goods.
 
But if that evil servant shall say in his heart, My master doth defer his coming, And begin to smite his fellows, and to eat, and to drink with the drunken, That servants master will come in a day, when he looketh not for him, and in an hour that he is not ware of,".

So where does your look, walk and talk say you belong?  Will you be among the choosen, or among those whom Christ Jesus didn't know?