"Why is God landing in this enemy-occupied world in disguise and starting a sort of secret society to undermine the devil? Why is He not landing in force, invading it? Is it that He is not strong enough? Well, Christians think He is going to land in force; we do not know when. But we can guess why He is delaying. He wants to give us the chance of joining His side freely.
God will invade. But I wonder whether people who ask God to interfere openly and directly in our world quite realise what it will be like when He does. When that happens, it is the end of the world. When the author walks on to the stage the play is over. God is going to invade, all right: but what is the good of saying you are on His side then, when you see the whole natural universe melting away like a dream and something else - something it never entered your head to conceive - comes crashing in; something so beautiful to some of us and so terrible to others that none of us will have any choice left?
For this time it will be God without disguise; something so overwhelming that it will strike either irresistible love or irresistible horror into every creature. It will be too late then to choose your side. There is no use saying you choose to lie down when it has become impossible to stand up. That will not be the time for choosing: it will be the time when we discover which side we really have chosen, whether we realised it before or not. Now, today, this moment, is our chance to choose the right side. God is holding back to give us that chance. It will not last for ever."
C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, 1944
"This is how we know who are the children of God and who are the children of Satan: anyone who does not do what is good is not God’s child, nor is anyone who does not love their neighbor."
1 John 3:10
‘When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and the host of angels with him, he will sit on his righteous throne. All the nations will be gathered before him, and he will separate the people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right, and the goats on his left.
‘Then the Lord will say to those on his right, “Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was ill and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.”
‘Then the righteous will answer him, “Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? When did we see you ill or in prison and go to visit you?” and the Lord will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.”
‘Then he will say to those on his left, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the torments prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was ill and in prison and you did not look after me.”
‘They also will answer, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or ill or in prison, and did not help you?” He will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”
‘Then they will go away to their chastisement, but the righteous will enter into eternal life.’
Matthew 25:31-46
The Fed sat on its hands, as expected.
Powell gave a fairly dovish press conference, dismissing the notion of rate hikes, and also of stagflation.
And the markets took off like a moonshot.
But wonder of wonders, we were treated to an afternoon wash and rinse.
Stocks lost their moonshot in the last hour and dumped back all the way to unchanged with a vengeance.
Gold and silver managed to hold on to some of their gains, but well off their highs.
The Dollar lost some ground.
Bitcoin is wallowing below the 60k level.
Now on to the Non-Farm Payrolls report on Friday.
I can't believe the utter repression being self-righteously leveled at university campuses and the thought police actions of the cancel culture.
This reminds me very much of the McCarthy era. It is hard for anyone who did not live through it to know how intense the recriminations, name-calling, and hysteria had become.
"Are you now, or have you ever been, a member of the Communist Party of the United States?"This is America today.
Left or right, these pin-headed ideologues have no shame, or respect for the law and the Constitution.
Ever. None.
It's all about money and power— from the US to the UK, from Germany to France.
These are the household gods of the Western elite.
What are we becoming.
Have a pleasant evening.
