Our city imposed a 25 cent per
month surcharge on each resident’s sewer bill to help citizens cover the cost
of cleanup if they have a sewer backup. On the surface some people bought into
the reasoning put forth. However, in six months the fund has accumulated almost
$13,000 and to date no money has been paid out, even though there are a couple of claims
pending. I’m reminded of Judas Iscariot objecting to Mary pouring expensive
perfume on the feet of Jesus. Judas suggested the perfume should have been sold
and the money given to the poor. “He did not say this because he cared about
the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to
help himself to what was put into it” (John 12:6 NIV).
1 comment:
Gail;
-----Glenn Beck began his radio program this morning by proclaiming what happened in San Bernardino yesterday was unAmerican. He assured his audience that he was not speaking about the shooting, as horrific as it was. He then directed the unAmerican reference at the media, who for six hours avoided reporting what they knew within the first hour of the attack: the shooters were Muslim. Even when the media became privy to these people’s names, they sat on them, keeping mum, maybe hoping that their earlier proclamation of the shooters’ whiteness, somehow “known” through masks they wore, would sink into the public’s minds deep enough that the names and true identity of the shooter’s would palm off for as angry, white Christians making a statement against the Planned Parenthood clinic a mile-and-a-half down the road. I irreverently laughed and taunted the media for half an hour after one witness gingerly, as if warned against it, when asked if the shooters wore masks offered that he could detect beards and mustaches. Well! I have one each of those! But I don’t have on a mask. I’m not spraying bullets around a roomful of Christmas partiers. Dots have a way of sorting themselves together.
-----I think it was the media bellyaching first about someone not connecting the dots shortly after 9-11. Yet they ran from the Ft. Hood dots. They ran as far as they could from the San Bernardino dots. And it looks like they are being mum about these dots in our own, still a little bit innocent city. I think we can rightfully say with David about the true despoilers of our well-being: “Help, LORD; for there is no longer any that is godly; for the faithful have vanished from among the sons of men. Every one utters lies to his neighbor; with flattering lips and a double heart they speak. May the LORD cut off all flattering lips, the tongue that makes great boasts, those who say, ‘With our tongue we will prevail, our lips are with us; who is our master?’” (Ps 12:1-4)
-----I’ve often advocated rioting in the street of each media headquarters, demanding with bricks and Molotov cocktails their attention to reality’s dots. With a little adjustment, I yet contend my idea is right. Replace the “riot” with some non-destructive civil disobedience, and replace the bricks and Molotov cocktails with persistent, publicly spoken truths delivered with the sincerity of love, and hopefully, such behavior would catch fire across the land for the spoiling of the media’s ability to brainwash your neighbor whom Jesus said you must love (do you want someone you love to be brainwashed?) Such spoilage by speaking the truth in love the Lord put into our hands. Such spoilage we quickly sequestered into our backroom closets, out of public sight, maybe because we are cowards. God gave us life by operation of John 3:16. The least we could have done would have been to maintain the less polluted spiritual atmosphere our grandparents sacrificed for so we might enjoy life by doing a lot more of Malachi 3:16, “Then those who feared the LORD spoke with one another; the LORD heeded and heard them, and a book of remembrance was written before Him of those who feared the LORD and thought on His name.” But no. We were long ago convinced that it is bad etiquette to talk publicly about controversial issues. “Leave that up to the experts,” we’ve been brainwashed. It is now long overdue that we fill the air with the noise of sincerely expressed biblical truths, “Therefore, putting away falsehood, let every one speak the truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another.” (Eph 4:25)
-----What is the truth about the twenty-five cents and the cleanup? Connect the dots. They speak the truth. Then go be vocal. Things will change. Or be what Glenn Beck noted.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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