4 May 2012
News – May 4, 2012
This is an excellent and very thoughtful review of the movie Courageous. I highly recommend reading it, whether you’ve seen the film or not. I was hoping that the movie would be better than the appalling film Fireproof, but sadly that is not the case. (By the way, you can find his review of Fireproof here. It’s also worth reading.)
The Fastest Growing Religion In America Is Islam
So just how much has Islam grown in America between 2000 and 2010? By 66.7%. What about Mormonism? By 45.5%. Mainline Protestants? They have actually SHRANK by 12.8%.
One of the things I have noticed is that as nations turn themselves over to homosexuality, God turns them over to Islam – which detests homosexuality. The European nations that have done the most to advance “gay rights” also happen to be the same European nations that have the biggest problems with Muslims. As America turns itself over to homosexuality, God is turning the nation over to Islam. Shariah law has made huge inroads in Europe; it is now coming here. It will not be a pretty thing.
Ultimately God will judge Islam. That religion has done a tremendous amount to oppress and murder both Christians and Jews. I suspect that the coming Middle East war that is discussed in Psalm 83 will break the power of Islam; when that war is over Israel is at peace and is never again threatened for religious reasons (in Ezekiel 38 Russia invades because they want Israel’s weath, not because of religious disagreements). However, that war is still some years away. In the meantime Islam will continue to do terrible things.
There is a precedent for this. In Habakkuk the prophet cries out because of all the wickedness that he sees. God responds in Habakkuk 1:6 by saying that He is going to raise up the Chaldeans – a “bitter and hasty nation” that is “terrible and dreadful” to execute God’s judgment. Habakkuk is shocked, because the Chaledans were far worse than Israel. But that was how it was going to go down.
We see the same thing going on today. God is using “terrible and dreadful” Islam to destroy the corrupt Western nations. In the end God will deal with Islam as well. That day is coming, and it may well happen in our lifetime. When it happens, God will make it clear that He was the one who did it – and people will marvel at the power of the
God of Israel.
The key quote is this:
Once you have “enough” money to satisfy the basic items at the foot of the Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs pyramid – that is, you no longer have to worry about food, shelter, security, and perhaps having a bit of extra discretionary money for the unknown – stacking even more money up doesn’t do much, if anything, to help you scale the top of the pyramid.
I suppose that is true, to some extent. If you are poor and have a lot of money-related problems that are causing stress (can’t pay bills, etc.) then having more money would certainly relieve that stress. There is something to be said for being able to afford things. Once you get to the point where you can pay your bills and buy whatever you want, though, making more money doesn’t really do very much for you. (The article suggests that this magical point is around $75k for our culture; the amount probably varies based on family size, area of the country, and so forth.)
But it seems to me that there’s a larger issue. Very simply, people who look to circumstances and material goods to make themselves happy seem to be unhappy almost all the time. If something else has to happen in order to make you happy, then you’re not going to be happy for very long – if you’re ever happy at all. These people tend to spend their entire lives griping about how Things Are Not Exactly The Way They Want Them, and it is All Other People’s Fault.
I know there are all kinds of tragic things that can happen that are devastating; I’d like to set those aside from now. The people I am talking about are people whose lives are pretty good: no big tragedies, no big problems, no major health issues, etc. But they are deeply unhappy. Why? Because they want more. In fact, they always want more. It doesn’t matter how much they have; they won’t be happy until they have even more. They are unhappy people, and they are convinced that if they just have a little more they will finally be happy.
Only happiness doesn’t work that way. If you cannot be content with little, then you won’t
be content with much.
If you are empty and lonely and depressed, filling your life with stuff won’t make you any less empty or lonely or depressed. The problem is that we have a God-shaped void in our life, and we’re desperately trying to fill it with stuff. That will never work. God is the only one who can fill us, and satisfy us, and take away that emptiness. When our passions and drives and energies are focused on God, instead of on whatever things TV commercials are selling these days, life changes. If you want to drive out the darkness then you need to bring in the light. Bringing in a new toaster oven isn’t going to help.
Windows 8 will not play DVD discs anymore, unless you pay for the Media Center pack
Yet another reason not to buy Windows 8!
Quick question: can Linux play DVDs right out of the box, without paying for anything? Why yes, yes it can. And how much does Linux cost? Absolutely nothing. So the free operating system supports this, but the paid operating system makes you pay even more to get this feature! How can anyone pass up a deal like that?