So this is what the Sovereign LORD says: “See, I lay a stone in Zion, a tested stone, a precious cornerstone for a sure foundation." "I will extend peace to her like a river..." more>
In child's novel "A Christmas Carol", we see that the miser's heart was softened only after visitations by the three Spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Future. Seeing what his life had been, how the people around him were currently affected and what was to follow from his current choices brought him to his knees in repentance. He had learnt that the past can not be changed, and the future is not inevitable, so that what we do in the present can change that which is yet to come. Humanity has many reasons to regret its past suffering caused by wars, greed and oppression. Our present tells us that if we do not repent we face an appalling future filled with violence, starvation, illness ecological and economic disasters. Yet the choices we make in the present can improve our future prospects, and in making positive choices we help lay to rest the guilty ghosts of past mistakes. It is a time for making New Years Resolutions. more>
Teachers or doctors could tell you that there are times where students or patients will not cooperate with the study and treatment unless they understand why it is necessary. A soul can remain in denial that they have to go through the discomfort of mastering a paradigm or the consequent side effects of treatment. Sometimes they will rant and rave against the whole point of the topic in question or blame the side effects on the treatment rather than realising that the cause is the source of discomfort. This is also a spiritual and emotional truism too. Some souls seem determined to "go it alone" and reject the other or blame the other for their own problems.
It is probably pointless to try and convince such souls that their hate and misogymy is a reflection of internal unwellness. What we can do is take those students and patients who are prepared to learn and grow and give them mental models to understand why there is both man and woman, and why there is tension both between and within ourselves. more>
There are ways that humanity is speeding towards the reckoning of the oil age and global warming. One of those is excessive consumption of resources in fruitless endeavours, such as wars. Huge amounts of resources and oil are consumed in running military machines.
One of the challenges is that we have come to romanticise power and ascendancy. We glorify consumption and destruction. For example, block buster movies rely on spectacular visual effects to draw in audiences. Many of those movies also combine the thrills of visual effects with hedonistic themes such as sex, fear and violence.
more>
