Becoming Like Jesus

My dear children, I am writing this to you so that you will not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate who pleads our case before the Father. He is Jesus Christ, the one who is truly righteous.  He himself is the sacrifice that atones for our sins—and not only our sins but the sins of all the world. 

And we can be sure that we know him if we obey his commandments.  If someone claims, “I know God,” but doesn’t obey God’s commandments, that person is a liar and is not living in the truth.  But those who obey God’s word truly show how completely they love him. That is how we know we are living in him.  Those who say they live in God should live their lives as Jesus did. 

 

Do not love this world nor the things it offers you, for when you love the world, you do not have the love of the Father in you.  For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions. These are not from the Father, but are from this world.  And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever. 

 

But you are not like that, for the Holy One has given you his Spirit, and all of you know the truth.  So I am writing to you not because you don’t know the truth but because you know the difference between truth and lies.  And who is a liar? Anyone who says that Jesus is not the Christ. Anyone who denies the Father and the Son is an antichrist. Anyone who denies the Son doesn’t have the Father, either. But anyone who acknowledges the Son has the Father also. 

So you must remain faithful to what you have been taught from the beginning. If you do, you will remain in fellowship with the Son and with the Father.  And in this fellowship we enjoy the eternal life he promised us. 

I am writing these things to warn you about those who want to lead you astray.  But you have received the Holy Spirit, and he lives within you, so you don’t need anyone to teach you what is true. For the Spirit teaches you everything you need to know, and what he teaches is true—it is not a lie. So just as he has taught you, remain in fellowship with Christ. 

(1John 2: 1-6, 15-17, 20-27 NLT) *

 

* https://biblehub.com/nlt/1_john/2.htm

 

Making Ends Meet

Although words may have multiple meanings in Statistics, we will stick to the basics here; rather than bore you too much.  In Statistics, the word mean is most often used to describe an arithmetic average.  The word median indicates the midpoint in a distribution (list) of numbers.  The mode is the most commonly occurring number in a list of “data points.” 

The mean, median, and mode are measures of central tendency.  They help us to identify a number that represents the center of a distribution of data.  In the case of household income, these values can show us how we are doing financially, as compared to others in our society. 

To use a mean, median, or mode to draw “iron clad” conclusions without further statistical analysis is simplistic.  They can, however, give us a “thumbnail sketch.”  So, let us plod on. 

The household income category that government reports tend to concentrate on is the portion of the population that is below the poverty level.  Of course, we acknowledge the importance of recognizing the poor among us.  We also need to take note, however, that in today’s economy a great many others are having financial difficulty, too. 

The latest figures I was able to locate from the US Census Bureau indicate that in 2021, the US median household income was $70,784. [1] The median 2021 household income in the state where I live was $69,021.[2] Those of us who are retired often have to live on less than that.  I do, and the competing demands on my finances are making me scramble to make ends meet. 

Retirees are not the only ones hurting.  To name a few, families with children, the disabled, small businesspeople, and especially the working poor are often finding that they are running out of money before they run out of month. 

The problem is that the cost of living is rising faster than our incomes.  The primary cause is excessive government spending.  Those most responsible are the Biden Administration and the Democrats and RINO Republicans in Congress. 

Today, the US House of Representatives passed a Republican backed bill raising the debt ceiling to $31.4 trillion.  However, the bill also contains major spending cuts.  The bill offers the Democrats the ability to increase the debt by about $1.5 trillion, but the Democrats in the Senate are expected to vote it down.[3]  Apparently, the $1.5 trillion debt increase is not enough for them, and they consider the spending cuts to be “draconian.”  That is where We the People come in. 

The pundits are warning of a major economic recession if the USA defaults on its financial obligations, which they say will happen if Washington is not allowed to continue to spend more money than they take in.  Perhaps they are correct.  Maybe not.  I don’t know. 

I am sure of this – that the current level of debt creation has already caused ordinary Americans to be unable to afford transportation, shelter, medicine, food, household utilities, clothing, and other necessities.  There are no easy choices, but I submit to you that continuing to allow our government to incur trillions of dollars in debt is far more destructive in the long-term. 

Therefore, I am urging my fellow citizens to write, call, and email their Senators and President Biden, urging them to pass this legislation and sign it into law without delay.  Our future, and the future of our progeny depend on it.

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[1] https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2022/demo/p60-276.html

[2] https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/ID,US/HSG860221

[3] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/mccarthys-debt-ceiling-bill-tests-unity-us-house-republicans-2023-04-26/

 

An Eyewitness Account

We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life.  This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us.  We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ.  We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy. 

This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.  So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.  But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.

If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.  But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.  If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts. (1John, Chapter 1 NLT) *

 

* https://biblehub.com/nlt/1_john/1.htm