NO REVERSE NO NEUTRAL 2016 Election

THE 2016 ELECTION

NO REVERSE NO NEUTRAL

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No matter which side you are on, the 2016 USA election takes us to a less than desirable end.  We cannot stop the present political momentum.  However, bracing ourselves for the inevitable impact is a fruitless recourse.  

I am a sailor, not a politician, nor the son of a politician, but in my line of work, catastrophes are the norm.  A principle, I never admit to the passengers aboard a chartered cruise, but a principle I always include in my sailing classes is, 

“If nothing goes wrong, you’re not sailing.”

In that respect, sailing a boat is no different than piloting our ship of State.  Expecting calamities is an unavoidable part of the exciting experiment that is democracy.

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The excitement on a charter usually includes seeing historic  boats, impressive yachts, military vessels and aircraft, and sightings of marine life.  Add to those elements a good wind, sunshine, and in the case of one mishap, a bachelorette party of fun loving young-ladies something going wrong is inevitable.  

I was able to keep a particular bachelorette party from what seemed an unavoidable dockside disaster caused by dockhands falling all over themselves to assist the lovely ladies at the launch.  However the departure was boring compared to the way the excursion ended.

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 Returning to the assigned  berth tucked away at the back of the marina required that I power the thirty-two foot Catalina into a dead-end corridor, terminated by a riprap retaining wall of large jagged boulders.  Normally, my main concern is avoiding the expensive vessels lining the narrow approach leading to the empty slip at the far end of the dock.  

Entering the corridor under power one stops a vessel's forward momentum my putting the propeller in reverse, and hit the accelerator so the vessel can be backed into the slip.  So with the rocks a mere thirty feet ahead of us, and the dock only fifteen feet astern off our port beam, I simply put the engine in reverse and revved her up to stop the vessel so I can back it into place.  However, this time when I shifted into revers and hit the throttle, instead of stopping, the vessel surged recklessly forward towards the rocks. 

Something in the shift linkage had snapped and there was no revers or neutral, only forward!  Without reverse to stop us our forward momentum would crash us on the rocks ahead.  A starboard was blocked by a huge yacht laying on that side.  Turning to port at our present speed would create a turning radius so wide that we would smash into the dock, sink the boat, and conclude my sailing career.  

If I was going to crash into the rocks, the yacht, or the dock I would rather it be the dock.  At least the enthusiastic dockhands could rescue the women.    

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In order to give us some room for a portside turn, I allowed the 32-footer to motor as far away from the dock as possible, without striking the rocks ahead, while at the same time maneuvering within an arms length of the yacht on our right.  When we could go no further, I spun the wheel hard to port and opened the throttle full bore.  The increased propeller speed caused a surge of water it be discharged putting additional pressure against the rudder set at a exaggerated angle when I spin the helm hard to port.  The resulting phenomenon is called “prop walk”…the increased clockwise spin of the prop enhances a vessel left turn.  With the prop at full speed, I hoped the 32footer would pinwheel on its keel, and fling the stern 180° around.  If  it worked, I could just miss the dock…if not I would ram the dock at full speed.

From the wheel, some 30 feet behind the tip of the bow, I could only hold my breath as I watched the dock disappear under the boat’s lofty bow.  An eternity passed as held throttle wide open, the helm hard to port, and watched.  

At last the dock reappeared on the other side of the bow, unscathed.  I had saved the dock, the boat, and my career…not to mention the young women.  Now I had to get us out of the marina and make different approach.

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Breathing once again, I spoke to the party in the reassuring tone of one who experiences this kind if thing every day.  

"Please excuse the delay, but stay seated until we got the boat secured to the dock."

Because there was no neutral or reverse, I brought the crippled boat alongside another berth by turning the engine off and on, then calmly handed the amazed dockhand my stern line.  In an “all in a day’s sailing” manner, I thanked the women for their patience and helped them each off the boat.  

My farewell came close to expressing my sincerest sentiment, “It has been a real thrill to serve as your captain today.”  I guess they felt the same, because they each got in line and one by one gave their old skipper a big heartfelt thank you hug.  The tip they gave wasn't bad either.     

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Our national problems are far more complex than salvaging a bachelorette charter and far less serious than sinking a nation.  However, as a nation, we really have no reverse, no neutral, no safe turn either left or right, and at our present uncontrolled pace we can not avoid the rocks ahead. 

Nevertheless, if we keep our wits about us, and not panic, there is a way out of this mess.  We must remain calm so we are open to the possibility of a solution.  Remember, “If nothing goes wrong, you’re not sailing.”

        

AN ARMED SAVIOR

AN ARMED SAVIOR

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Chubasco

Suddenly thundering pulses of sound vibrated everything; Chubasco’s sails, the hull, my chest cavity, and the very atmosphere as well.  The concussive pulsations opened the clouds overhead, exposing the whirling blades of a descending Navy helicopter.  Then beneath the clouds, the chopper cut its way through the mist to North Island Navy Base, off our starboard beam.  Off our portside, yawned the luxury of Shelter Island and its neighbor, Harbor Island, where sightseers on a sunny day peer at the war machines crouching on the opposing shore of Coronado Island.  The bay of San Diego is a fitting buffer between those two incongruent zones…splitting serene extravagance from destructive sentinel potency.  Figuratively, mixing the two is a nation under tyranny.

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 The separation is reminiscent of another divide, “church and state.”  The mission of God in Christ is uniquely different from the purposes of a nation’s legal authority.  God’s love appeals to the heart of a person to fulfill Holy ends within, while civil authority appeals to the order of the masses to fulfill political ends, communally.  Mixing the two, distorts the image of them both.  When there is no clear buffer zone between spiritual and civil authority, the perception of God becomes tangled with political ideologies and the legalized force of law.  It is the same inaccurate political/religious lens used to justify the crucifixion.  

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The misperception is so pervasive that pointing to the “church” as proof of God’s existence weakens, rather than strengthens any claim for spiritual reality.  While grasping at more political-power, the church has mingled its goals with its secular coalition allies.  Tragically, the resulting belief-system betrayal has been so gradual that it remains undetected by many of the beloved today.

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American church attendance echoes that assessment.  I am not suggesting attendance has dropped…it has remained constant.  Nonetheless, growth has leveled off over in recent years, as those leaving are nearly equal to those joining.  However, the reality is, the churches have been conducting a public ferryboat from their spiritual island to the political mainline, pick some up and dropping others off.  The net stability belies the fact that as the church became more politically focused, it unconsciously became less spiritually focused. 

One source of evidence for that claim was reported in a USA Pew Forum study, called, “Conversion & Deconversion,” It indicated a major cause for the “deconversion” trend is the declining spirituality factor:

·  Two thirds of those unaffiliated have some belief or spirituality, just no affiliation with any defined religion, and only one third are true unbelievers (Pew Forum).

·  The study also probed reasons for changes in belief.  The main reasons for deconverting were not based on truth (e.g. the perceived conflict between science and religion was not a major factor) but on factors such as believers being hypocritical and judgmental, too many rules and too little spirituality in the church, the perceived focus of religious leaders on money and power, and a reaction against the exclusiveness of religion.  Many who leave remain ‘spiritual’ and are open to returning to active faith.  (underlining added)

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After a decade of mingling the two (God’s power with political power), Christians have unwittingly exchange the church’s former spiritual power for its present political entanglements.  As a sailor, I find the mixture not only emotionally and intellectually unsettling but spiritually nauseating…a kind of spiritual/political-seasickness.  In my view, presenting Christ in this political, social, financial, militaristic, and cultural storm drowns our Christian message in waves of political dogmas.

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There is a very good reason for retaining a gap between “the law of sin and death” and “the law of the Spirit of life” as chronicled in Romans 8:2.  It allows a space for the cross of Christ to carve a much-needed peaceful Bay between those two shores through which the current of the Holy Spirit can freely flow.  A place unhindered by a politically affiliation church.

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Unfortunately, when the guardians of spiritual power, conspire to solve America’s problems politically, they reveal their lack of trust in God’s spiritual power.  In so doing, they in effect, strip Christ of His spiritual power and robe Him in political authority, in open view of a spiritually starved nation.  Empowering the Prince of Peace with legal authority makes Him look less like a heavenly savior and more like the pilot of a helicopter armed for war.  Christians remember, as you long for a Him to come dressed for war,  “judgment must begin at the house of God.”  (1 Peter 4:7)                                

America, What's Been Going On?

AMERICA,

WHAT’S BEEN GOING ON?

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After 9/11, 2001 the big question in the United States was, “Why do they hate us?”  How could anyone see the United States as an enemy?  They must be crazy, thinking we are the bad guys?  After all, we are the ones bring the whole world into a new era of peace and prosperity.  Is it something we do not realize we have done?

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The national majority, convinced liberty was under attack, consented to violent retaliation…WAR.  It never crossed the mind of the electorate that those doing the convincing were poised to reap enormous profits from the venture.   

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Back then, for the most part, our masses were fed, housed, clothed, and either unconcerned or actually unaware of what our corporate, financial, and political leaders were doing around the world.  It made little difference to us, as long as our leaders were taking care of our interest at home and abroad.  However, rather than our interests they were busy taking care of their interests…Maximizing profits regardless of environmental or social costs.

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I hate, and I mean hate, to back a point of view that I do not have personally acquired evidence to verify my claim.  Nonetheless, some claims reflect a reality so obviously correct, that based on nothing but a meager understanding of extended markets and human nature, its accuracy is undeniable.  That is why, if it is nothing more than a naked hypothesis, I am comfortable sharing this old video produced in 2012.

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DON'T VOTE OFFENDED

VOTER GULLIBILITY about RUBIO

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MY VOTER GULLIBILITY CONFESSION

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RUBIO: PREACHING VS.  POLICY

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I really like Rubio and would vote for him in a heartbeat if I had not already been burned.  Sixteen years ago, I voted for a “compassionate conservative” presidential candidate, simply because he was a born again Christian.  I was unpleasantly surprised with what I received for my vote…unnecessary war, a recession, and political blindness in the areas of diversity and environmental concerns.

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I am at heart a compassionate conservative.  Yet, I have come to the realization, if God could not change the human heart by the force of law, neither can we.  The more we try to do what only the Holy Spirit can, the worse our society and we become.  Our only hope is faith in the life, death, burial, and resurrection of God's Son, who alone can to transform individuals and their societies.  Unfortunately, when the church insists on its politically conservative social agenda, as it does, it accentuates the force of law rather than the power of the Redeemer.

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Jesus could have come, insisting on the institutionalization of the moral law.  Instead, He came none violently, healing the sick, feeding the hungry, comforting the poor, and did not even resist those who put Him to death.  In so doing, He displayed the character of His Father in Heaven saying, "But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men, to myself.”  When the church puts its faith in political forces, it automatically diminishes its reliance on God’s power, and the world knows it…even if we don’t.

Rubio Preaching in Iowa, Nov, 30, 2015

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A faithful preacher lifts up the cross of Christ.  Rubio, in front of the Christian Broadcasting Network cameras, preached the gospel as well as a professional preacher.  The problem is Rubio is not running for preacher.  He is running for president.  As a Christian voter, I must judge political candidates according to the policies they promote rather than their faith.  I must look for the effect their policies will have on the outcast, the sick, the needy, as well as the general well-being of the nation and its diverse population.  After voting years ago, for a Christian who preached the right stuff, I cannot in good conscience cast my ballet for the same old “Christian” political agenda that caused an inexcusable war, a massive fiscal collapse, and hastened our planet’s continuing ecological degradation, all done at the expense of the poor, while benefiting the rich.  Saddest of all is our nation’s moral decay, which we love to blame on our national institutions, but is the direct result of our faith-transfer from God’s supernatural power (love) to the power of the political coalition with another agenda of its own.

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In the words of an often misquoted cliché, “Fool me once shame on you.  Fool me twice, shame on me,” Nevertheless; if any Republican candidate could reactivate my former gullibility, it would be Rubio.  Who knows, if he plays me, as well as that other Republican right-winger, I might even think about it.  After all, “He preached it real good.”  …Here is the video to prove it:
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www.youtube.com/watch?v   Marco Rubio Presents Gospel to Pastors in Iowa    Nov. 30, 2015 

Revelations 18:2 Misdirected

Revelations 18:2 Misdirected
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God has doubtlessly placed in the heart of this video producer His desire to free His people from falsehood.  However, this approach is a classic example of hearing a spiritual truth and drawing natural conclusions regarding its intent. 
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God's visions and desires are faithful and true, yet when perceived as if the specific physical symbol, type, or shadow represented are the actual institutions, leaders, animals, places, things, and so forth they produces carnal understandings and misguided responses. 
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 "Blessed is the one who reads the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear it and take to heart what is written in it, because the time is near."                Revelation 1:3

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 I am not a Catholic and think a light show on St Peter's Cathedral is in questionable if not outright poor taste.  However, the Revelation 18:4 statement, “Come out of her, my people.” is a spiritual warning, not specifically directed at natural entities of this world.  These words deliver a spiritual warning against yielding to the spirits of this world which are unlike God's Spirit..."God is love."  1John 4:8+16  They demand a spiritual response of a heart yielded by faith to God.  A spiritual response is described in 1John 4:19-21. 
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Read, hear, and take to heart spiritual words and then respond, consistent with the intent and leading of the Spirit of God.  My challenge to you is, ask the Lord if a light show is the fulfillment of the scripture as the online video claims.  Are they hearing a spiritual truth and drawing a natural conclusion?  
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Leave a response by clicking on the pencil icon.

To view the video got to Google and find;
Alert: Revelation 18:2 Just Happened 
www.youyube.com/watch