what is NPC?

...derived from non-player character, is an Internet meme that represents people who do not think for themselves or do not make their own decisions...

I don't know when Chesterton said this but he died in 1936. So, presumbaly about 100 years later, we are living it...

“We shall soon be in a world in which a man may be howled down for saying that two and two make four, in which furious party cries will be raised against anybody who says that cows have horns, in which people will persecute the heresy of calling a triangle a three-sided figure, and hang a man for maddening mob with the news that grass is green.”

- GK Chesterton -
source: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/10542315-we...

The nearer we draw to the heart of God the less taste we will have for controversy. The peace we know in God's bosom is so sweet that it is but natural that we want to keep it unbroken to enjoy as fully and as long as possible. The Spirit-filled Christian is never a good fighter. He is at too many disadvantages. The enemy is always better at invective than he will allow himself to be. The devil has all the picturesque epithets, and his followers have no conscience about using them. The Christian is always more at home, blessing than he is opposing. He is, moreover, much thinner-skinned than his adversaries. He shrinks from an angry countenance and draws back from bitter words. They are symbols of a world he has long ago forsaken for the quiet of the kingdom of God where love and good will prevail. All this is in his favor, for it marks him out as a man in whom there is no hate and who earnestly desires to live at peace with all men. In spite of his sincere longing for peace, however, there will be times when he dare not allow himself to enjoy it. There are times when it is a sin to be at peace. There are circumstances when there is nothing to do but to stand up and vigorously oppose. To wink at iniquity for the sake of peace is not a proof of superior spirituality; it is rather a sign of a reprehensible timidity which dare not oppose sin for fear of the consequences. For it will cost us heavily to stand for the right when the wrong is in the majority, which is 100 percent of the time.

- AW Tozer -
source: https://www.facebook.com/AWTozeramanofGod/...

Great line from a Not The Bee article referring to a story titled "Black woman in Douglasville accused of pretending to be white man, threatening neighbors" :

This is just the latest piece of evidence that when it comes to racism in America, the demand exceeds the supply.

- Jesse James @ Not The Bee -
source: https://www.notthebee.com/article/...

But Paul's trials yield for us more than this negative kind of blessing. They also teach us positive lessons to help us to endure affliction by that well-known psychological law by which we are able to identify ourselves with others and "halve our griefs while we double our joys." It is always easier to bear what we know someone has borne successfully before us.

From the trials and triumphs of Paul, we gather, too, that happiness is really not indispensable to a Christian. There are many ills worse than heartaches. It is scarcely too much to say that prolonged happiness may actually weaken us, especially if we insist upon being happy as the Jews insisted upon flesh in the wilderness. In so doing, we may try to avoid those spiritual responsibilities which would in the nature of them bring a certain measure of heaviness and affliction to the soul.

The best thing is neither to seek nor seek to avoid troubles but to follow Christ and take the bitter with the sweet as it may come. Whether we are happy or unhappy at any given time is not important. That we be in the will of God is all that matters. We may safely leave with Him the incident of heartache or happiness. He will know how much we need of either or both.

- AW Tozer -
source: https://www.facebook.com/AWTozeramanofGod/...

in an article basically about what Paul exhorts us to do in 2 Corinthians 13:5, ala “Examine yourselves, to see whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves”, Greg Morse said this:

Disciples, even while they were saved, still suffered from religious dreams. Up until the day of Jesus’s arrest, the disciples, having debated which was the greatest along the way, imagined great things of themselves. On that fateful Good Friday, they each, to a man, presumed that they were ready to die for Christ, despite their Master’s explicit word to the contrary:

“You will all fall away because of me this night. For it is written, ‘I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock will be scattered. . . .’”

Peter answered him, “Though they all fall away because of you, I will never fall away.” Jesus said to him, “Truly, I tell you, this very night, before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” Peter said to him, “Even if I must die with you, I will not deny you!” And all the disciples said the same.
- Matthew 26:31–35

Peter spoke as the champion of their shared delusion. Here, finally, they found a flaw in their Lord’s teaching: Although Jesus told them so, they would not fall away, even if they had to die. They boasted in an imagined maturity. And each would have fallen fully away like Judas, had Jesus not kept them. The men who walked with Christ for three years imagined a faithfulness unto death that wasn’t real. Do we?

- Greg Morse -
source: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/...

This is a good gut check...the arrogance of the apostles never struck me quite the way it did when I read the way Morse put it.

Not to make anyone live in doubt but, do you (I) have "imagined marturity" in Christ? Are we in the faith?

excerpt from an article titled I Tried My Best To Warn You This Was Going To Happen, by Andrew Torba, the CEO of Gab.

The people in power don’t care about Covid. They don’t care about the vaccines. They care about control. This entire situation is one giant demoralization campaign designed to grind us all down spiritually, emotionally, physically, and financially. If they can get us all to submit once, they can get us all to submit fully and forever.

We can’t let that happen. Do not let them get in your head with the fear mongering, the lies, and the shapeshifting narratives. They are exposing themselves like never before in human history and we are living through a period of immense spiritual warfare.

We must remember that we are human beings, made in the image of God. We always have choices. We always have hope. Darkness cannot and never will consume the light of Christ.

Do not look to political leaders for help. There is no political solution to a spiritual problem. Look to Jesus Christ. Open your Bible. Pray. Put on the full armor of God and get to work building something new. They have left us no choice. We can and must rebuild from scratch and it starts in your own heart and in your own local community.

- Andrew Torba -
source: https://news.gab.com/2021/08/02/...

I concure...

When a son is out of control, this is because the parents have often made the mistake of slipping into an adversarial role, instead of what they ought to be occupying, which is a watchful and parental role.

The first unfortunate step in becoming an adversary to your child is that of taking it personally. When a two-year-old is defiant, you certainly have a problem to solve. But what you don’t have is an enemy. If you slip into an adversarial role, what you are doing is creating an adversary within the home. The collisions that occur when a child is small are often the means that parents unwittingly use to name their child as trouble, thus teaching him that this is his role, this is his name, this is his destiny. “Why can’t you be more like your brother?” is offered as an exasperated question, while it is often heard by the child as a statement that if he is to retain his own name, he must continue to do what he is doing.

There is something counterintuitive here, something that fathers with problem children must embrace as the first step out. However much your child’s behavior is displeasing you, you have to come to grips with the fact that the behavior is something which, at some level, you have required of him. This is another way of saying that the first step out is confession, not accusation. If your child is your adversary, then make your accusations. But if your child is still your child, then the place to begin is confession. You don’t have to confess how you required this of him (because you don’t know that yet), but you should confess to God as sin the fact that you did require this of him.

- Doug Wilson -
source: https://www.dougwils.com/the-church/...

Not the quantity of zeal matters to God, but the quality. The significant question is not how zealous is the Christian but why is he zealous and to what does his zeal lead? To the church at Laodicea our Lord said, "Be zealous, therefore, and repent" (Revelation 3:19, KJV). The zeal that leads to penitence, restitution and amendment of life is surely dear to God. The ardor that drives a man to his knees in intercession for others was found in men like Moses, Daniel and Ezra; but there is a kind of zeal that gives to the world such misshapen religious examples as Joseph Smith and Mary Baker Eddy.

That many Christians in our day are lukewarm and somnolent will not be denied by anyone with an anointed eye, but the cure is not to stir them up to a frenzy of activity. That would be but to take them out of one error and into another. What we need is a zealous hunger for God, an avid thirst after righteousness, a pain-filled longing to be Christlike and holy. We need a zeal that is loving, self-effacing and lowly. No other kind will do.

That pure love for God and men which expresses itself in a burning desire to advance God's glory and leads to poured-out devotion to the temporal and eternal welfare of our fellow men is certainly approved of God; but the nervous, squirrel-cage activity of self-centered and ambitious religious leaders is just as certainly offensive to Him and will prove at last to have been injurious to the souls of countless millions of human beings.

Sermon: Spiritual Fervor of Frenzied Activity

- AW Tozer -
source: https://www.facebook.com/permalink...

Great quote from the Sheriff.

In Brevard County, Florida there was a traffic stop made by two deputies. One passenger in the car attacked the deputies and one of them utimately shot and killed him. Sheriff Wayne Ivey, while holding a press conference about the incident, answered a likely question.

The Sheriff prefaced the line with this: "And to those out there who might be foolish enough to ask why we shot him so many times, that answer is simple"...

Because evil can never be dead enough.

- Sheriff Wayne Ivey -
source: https://www.youtube.com/photo/...

- AW Tozer -
source: https://www.facebook.com/photo/...

Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience. They may be more likely to go to Heaven yet at the same time likelier to make a Hell of earth. This very kindness stings with intolerable insult. To be "cured" against one's will and cured of states which we may not regard as disease is to be put on a level of those who have not yet reached the age of reason or those who never will; to be classed with infants, imbeciles, and domestic animals.

- CS Lewis -
source: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/...

So the final test of love is obedience. Not sweet emotions, not willingness to sacrifice, not zeal, but obedience to the commandments of Christ.

- AW Tozer -
source: https://www.facebook.com/AWTozeramanofGod/...

The complainer is further embarrassed by the moral company in which he finds himself. His is a spiritual affinity with some pretty shady characters: Cain, Korah, the sulky elder brother, the petulant Jews of the Book of Malachi who answered every fatherly admonition of God with an ill-humored "Wherefore have we? Wherein have we?" These are but a few faces that stand out in the picture of the disgruntled followers of the religious way. And the complaining Christian, if he but looks closely, will see his own face peering out at him from the background. Lastly, the believer who complains against the difficulties of the way proves that he has never felt or known the sorrows which broke over the head of Christ when He was here among men. After one look at Gethsemane or Calvary, the Christian can never again believe that his own path is a hard one. We dare not compare our trifling pains with the sublime passion endured for our salvation. Any comparison would itself be the supreme argument against our complaints, for what sorrow is like unto His? After saying all this we are yet sure that no one can be reasoned out of the habit of complaining. That habit is more than a habit--it is a disease of the soul, and as such, it will never yield to mere logic. The only cure is cleansing in the blood of the Lamb.

- AW Tozer -
source: https://www.facebook.com/AWTozeramanofGod/...

Perhaps they have committed sins of the mind. . . . To think God's thoughts requires much prayer. If you do not pray much, you are not thinking God's thoughts. If you do not read your Bible much and often and reverently, you are not thinking God's thoughts. Those thoughts you are having--and your head buzzes with them all day long and into the night--are earthly thoughts--thoughts of a fallen race. They are the thoughts of a lost society. They should not be our thoughts. Paul said, "Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus " (Philippians 2:5 KJV). There also has to be a lot of meditation. We ought to learn to live in our Bible. Get one with print big enough to read so it does not punish your eyes. Look around until you find a good one, and then learn to love it. Begin with the Gospel of John, then read the Psalms. Isaiah is another great book to help you and lift you. When you feel you want to do it, go on to Romans and Hebrews and some of the deeper theological books. But get into the Bible. Do not just read the little passages you like, but in the course a a year or two see that you read it through. Your thoughts will one day come up before God's judgment. We are responsible for our premeditative thoughts. They make our mind a temple where God can dwell with pleasure, or they make our mind a stable where Christ is angry, ties a rope and drives out the cattle. It is up to us. What should you then do? Examine yourself. Have you found yourself in that awful circular grave, not making any spiritual progress? Have you found that the passing of time upon which you have leaned so heavily has become a broken reed and is not helping you at all?

- AW Tozer -
source: https://www.facebook.com/AWTozeramanofGod/...

My friend's husband won’t let her visit any friends or family. He has made her stop all contact with them unless it’s on the phone or computer. He reads and censors her comments on social media.

He makes her feel like she's going crazy for thinking he’s controlling, and that she is being ungrateful. (After all, he’s only doing this because of how much he cares about her.)

He doesn’t want her going to the gym anymore, so she doesn’t go. He also doesn’t let her go to work anymore (he told her to only rely on him for income and that he will take care of her).

She's not really allowed to go out anymore, unless it’s for necessities, and when she does, he makes sure to have people guilt trip her about it and shame her for it.

He wants her to have this medical procedure done and tells her that if she does it, he will allow her more freedoms.

He constantly says he's only doing all of this because he cares... he is just doing it for her own good.

Oh wait....did I say husband? I meant the government.

My bad.

You have been conditioned to be outraged if another person did this to their spouse, but be passive & compliant when it comes to our government.

Wake up!

- Unknown -

"Someone once said that a fool can put on his coat better than a wise man can put it on for him. The implications of that undermine most of the agenda of the political left."

- Thomas Sowell -
source: https://twitter.com/ThomasSowell/...

quite apropos for today...

"When the whole world is running toward a cliff, he who is running in the opposite direction appears to have lost his mind."

- C.S. Lewis -
source: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/...

on this one, particularly the first part got me...

"Our frantic and futile effort to harmonize the truth of Christ with psychology, philosophy and science is proof enough of a deep incertitude among us concerning the sufficiency of Christ. It is a tragicomic sight to see our modern apostles licking the palm of any man of learning who will condescend to say something complimentary about Jesus Christ. How eagerly we rush into print with any quotation from the lips of the Great Man of the world that can be tortured into an admission that he believes that Jesus is the Son of God. The New Testament points to Christ and says God now commands all men everywhere to repent: because He has appointed a day, in which He will judge the world in righteousness by that Man whom He has ordained; whereof He has given assurance unto all men, in that He has raised Him from the dead. God validated forever the claims of Christ. He is who He said He was and what He said He was. Christ stands before no man to be judged, but every man stands before Him. Any uncertainty about Him was swept away forever when He arose from the dead, ascended into heaven and sent down the Holy Spirit as His final witness among men. Now it may be said that Christ as the Second person of the Godhead is self-validating. He needs no supplementary witness from the world of nature or from the race of men. He is His own witness."

- AW Tozer -
source: https://www.facebook.com/AWTozeramanofGod/...

and this one *really* struck me...wow...

"Wherever Christianity becomes popular, it is not on its way to die—it has already died. Popular Judaism slew the prophets and crucified Christ. Popular Christianity killed the Reformers, jailed the Quakers and drove John Wesley into the streets. When it comes to religion, the crowds are always wrong."

- AW Tozer -
source: https://www.facebook.com/AWTozeramanofGod/...

excellent tweet here:
https://twitter.com/NickRickles/status/1374585036566007809

for when it disappears into the cyber-blackhole, it is the video below with the caption:

People online vs Reality

I've seen several articles describing how Boeing went from being engineering driven until the merger with McDonnell Douglas in 1997, and how since then they have become accounting driven. Saw this comment below an article entitled "Opinion: Will Boeing Become The Next McDonnell Douglas?":

Every American manufacturing industry which has decided to prioritize financial returns over innovation has either died or limps on as a shadow of its former self. Boeing will be no different.

- gwroble -
source: https://aviationweek.com/aerospace/...

Interesting comment from John Doyle, a kid who's way smarter than an old man like me will ever be...here is the text with the video clip below.

The whole video is, as usual, interesting but this stood out to me. If you are interested in watching the full 40 minute video, as of this writing, you'll find it at How We Let America Die ...

...the reason you're losing freedom isn't because the governament is getting bigger, but rather, the reason the government is getting bigger is because you're losing freedom, because the society is losing it's traditional standards of morality and vitrue to be replaced by the divine will of the individual, which has destabilized the sociey and allowed for big government to be ushered in democratically...

...

the reason people used to be freer in this country wasn't because the government was small, but rather, the reason the governmet was small was that the people weren't totally free. They were bound by the standards of the church and the culture, but as that disappeared, so did liberty and big government came to take it's place.

- John Doyle -
source: https://youtu.be/uKjVBsqX7LU?t=1269

- Doug Wilson -

source: Blog & Mablog 7 October 2020