Mandy's Mercurial Monologue

  I've been so consumed by the events in Ukraine for the past week that I haven't had time to blog. Far too much time and attention has gone into comment threads all over the internet and contending with people from various nations who are ignorant and apathetic.   There are some who would call themselves 'conservatives' or 'libertarians' who see Putin as the "good guy" because of his stance against homosexual and Muslim pressure groups in Russia . They also claim that he has limited abortion. I don't have information on that, but the good he may do in some areas does not constitute a pass on others. To give him a pass where he is wrong is not consistent with a conservative worldview and we must not do it lest we find ourselves promoting a villain.   These opinionated ignoramuses refuse to see that Putin is out of line for interfering with, undermining and threatening a separate and sovereign nation. They are content to see Ukrain...

While reading Jeremiah this morning I came across a familiar refrain: Jeremiah 43: 10-12 (NASB)* and say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, “Behold, I am going to send and get Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant, and I am going to set his throne right over these stones that I have hidden; and he will spread his canopy over them. 11  He will also come and strike the land of Egypt ; those who are meant for death will be given over to death, and those for captivity to captivity, and those for the sword to the sword. I had read it earlier in the year, in Jeremiah 15:1-3 (NASB)* Then the Lord said to me, “Even though Moses and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with this people; send them away from My presence and let them go! And it shall be that when they say to you, ‘Where should we go?’ then you are to tell them, ‘Thus says the Lord : "Those destined for death, to death; And those destined for the s...

Revisiting a post from 5 years ago, trimmed down to the needs of the moment. Jude was written to a church which was dealing with leaders who were rejecting the authority of Jesus Christ and who were bringing in teachings of license. They were advocating continuing in sin that grace may abound, an idea which Paul condemned saying, "May God forbid that we who are dead to sin should continue in it any further." The passage makes clear that the behavior they were licensing was homosexual activity: ...just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, since they in the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh, are exhibited as an example in undergoing the punishment of eternal fire. Yet in the same way these men, also by dreaming, defile the flesh, and reject authority, and revile angelic majesties. Jude 1:7-8 (NASB) "In the same way as these indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh" makes clear that there we...

This morning I came by to visit this long-neglected blog. I saw the title of a draft post, "Can you afford $100 a month more?" This post was from 02/23/2013:  -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- While looking for the blog of a well-known neighbor... I came across this headline:  "Rising prices may cost you $100 a month" I've got to pay at least $100 more a month to survive when we've only got part time employment to live on? Thus, I made cheese last week when the milk went off. Then we set ourselves a goal of holding off on groceries until the end of the month, buying only what we need for the week ahead in the meantime. Today we used the last of the coffee and eggs and are out of milk. I've been coming across things which must be tossed and others that are questionable. Apricot and prune filling a year past expiration date. Theoretically they should be fine, bu...

John 18:10 (NASB) 10  Simon Peter then,  having a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s slave, and cut off his right ear; and the slave’s name was Malchus.   I once saw a documentary on the Hutterite Brethren. A family among them lost both parents and began to explore life outside their sect. Lo and behold, they went to a tent meeting and got saved. A “people group movement” began when they returned home. Folks who saw the difference between their own law-bound lives and the vibrant joy of these new Christians wanted to hear the gospel, liberated, as such, from Martin Luther’s  old German translation of the Bible. Amazingly, the secular documentarians recorded the preaching of the eldest brother. He was urging those who were sharing their faith to learn from the Apostle Peter’s mistake in the garden of Gethsemane . When Peter went on the attack, he cut off a man’s ear. How apt; when we share as if on offense, we cut off the ability of our liste...

8/14/2011  As I read the headlines this morning that foretell a likely downgrade of America's credit rating, I could see that image of the cartoon people from airline instruction cards, bracing themselves for impact. We all need to prepare for a bumpy, economic, emergency landing. So, what do we do? I've lived through more than one economic downturn in my life, the most extreme of which were overseas. I had the cushion of hard currency as an exchange student and as an international worker; the people around me had the cushion of having prepared, put by (horded), and using their means frugally. Let me say here that I really don't expect some post-apocalyptic nightmare scenario to materialize with people starving in their basements, having eaten their family pets, and killing their neighbors over stale croutons. What I do expect we could see is more unemployment, more uncertainty, inflation and possibly shortages of foods and durable goods. It is possible we could see...