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Imagine that you are the embodiment of Christ: you see with His eyes and feel with His soul. What is your impression of the world, of humanity, and of those around you?

Would you find the fruitlessness of Caesar's insatiable desires for satanic power and control amusing or sad?

Amusing, in that absurd maniacs who wallow in the mud and muck of some grandiose delusion of perfection and ultimate power seek to coerce others into doing the same?

Or would you find it sad that abusers become trapped in perverse power trips involving harm, crimes against humanity, and sins against the Lord, knowing that everything and everyone belongs to the Lord?

Or would you feel sadness at the senselessness of their losing their souls to insatiable desires, wasting away in front of their self-imposed Mirror of Erised, accomplishing nothing but harm and crimes against humanity?

What would you see when you looked deep inside their souls, beyond their masks of deceit?

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We are called to be humble priests (intercessors), prophets (witnesses), and kings (stewards).

Priest: To offer spiritual sacrifices, pray as an intercessor, and sanctify everyday life by bringing people to the Lord.*

Prophet: To speak the Lord's truth, witness to the Gospel, and guide others in living faithfully.*

King: To exercise moral leadership, serve with humility, fight against sin, and help advance the Lord's kingdom of justice and love.*

The New Testament states that the "universal priesthood" describes all believers, not the sinners, as a royal priesthood called to offer spiritual sacrifices (1 Peter 2:9).

Though only ordained priests are considered the embodiment of Christ (John 20:21-23; 2 Corinthians 5:20), believers must serve in the light of Christ.

Therefore, we have a duty to carry out Jesus Christ’s highest commandment: to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind, and to love your neighbor as yourself (Matthew 22: 37–40; Matthew 7:12), on which all the Law and the Prophets rely.

When we fail to respect the Lord's children and honor the Lord, and cannot imagine ourselves in others’ shoes (as witnesses to the Gospel), we break fellowship and cause harm.

When we violate the Lord’s highest commandments, we will no longer be shepherds or kings (moral leaders), but wolves and demented animals devoid of love, peace, decency, and honor; we will no longer be part of the holy covenant, but unholy and damned.

As kings, we must lead with truth, defend the holy, fight against sin, and help advance the Lord's kingdom of justice and love.

How strong must our defense and fight against sin and the unholy be?

According to Scripture, “whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea” (Matthew 18:6, Luke 17:2, Mark 9:2).

As prophets, we must proclaim the Lord's truth, bear witness with the Holy Spirit, and guide others to live faithfully through the Holy Spirit.

As priests, we must sanctify life with purity of heart, honor the Lord with our faith and devotion, offer spiritual sacrifices, act as mediators between the Lord and the people, call forth the Holy Spirit in love, and teach peace—the kind of peace that can come only from purity of heart, the calmness of the Holy Spirit, and holiness of mind.

Imagine you're Christ; knowing your duty to the Lord and calling upon the Holy Spirit, what do you see?

*Referenced from a Google AI search:  Called to be priests, prophets, and kings.”

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Go Figure

 

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The pilot ordered all the passengers to the back of the plane, as demanded by the VIP acting like a king, and requested that they take their luggage aft with them.  Soon after takeoff, the plane went into an unrecoverable spin due to the extreme imbalance of its center of gravity.

No matter how much baggage and how many people the pilot and copilot tossed out of the plane, it still crashed.  Go figure.

The lumberjack proceeded to cut down all the trees in the forest.  Now it's just barren, arid land, devoid of life.  Go figure.

The store owner, fearing robbery, brought a shotgun and, to demonstrate how unafraid he was, pointed it at every person entering the store.  Eventually, he scared away everyone, including his customers and workers.  He promptly went bankrupt.  Go figure.

The idiot went against sage advice.  Then everything went wrong.  Go figure.

A man spent his days sowing hate and his nights planting fear.  Nothing good sprouted.  Go figure.

It didn't work, so he did it again. And again, it didn't work.  He doubled down and tried again, even though it didn't work. And again, it didn't work.  Go figure.

A man stumbled and fell in complete darkness after destroying all the light bulbs.  Go figure.

A high priest, jealous of another rabbi's rising popularity, wanted to dash the hopes of the rabbi's followers, so he manipulated the authorities into having him killed.  And he created the greatest martyr of all time: Jesus Christ.  Go figure.

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What Is Hope?

What Is Hope?

Hope is the glimmer of light, the sense of possibility that comes from finding a way forward and reaching goals, however improbable, and the motivation (transcendental inspiration) and ability (talent) to achieve them.

Even in the darkest night and deepest sorrow, hope remains alive and certain when grounded in the faith that, through Christ, all things are possible (Philippians 4:13, Matthew 19:26, Mark 10:27).

Hope is why some brainy, spiritual people laugh in the face of horrors, abuse, and harm.

Look at how history inevitably plays out and how humanity remembers the supposed winners and losers through the lens of epochal time.

True winners and losers are not always decided in the immediate aftermath or by circumstance, but much later, in the annals of history—in the legacy of time.

The irony is that those who believe in the invincibility of pyrrhic wins, or even supreme wins achieved by inciting fear, hatred, chaos, and aggression, fail to realize that the harm and destruction caused by crimes against humanity will never transcend time.

Instead, they will live in infamy. Those who are power-tripping on abuse, weighed down by a dirge of lies and sins, and trapped in mirages of false realities and delusions of grandeur will face inevitable destruction, economic and societal ruination, and unholy damnation.

We know with certainty that inevitable outcomes arise in accordance with empirical laws, such as the laws of economics, physics, and metaphysics.

For example, you cannot operate a business contrary to economic laws and hope to thrive or survive (there is no hope that things will work out when operating outside the laws of how things work). You can scheme through lies and fraud, as in Ponzi schemes and subprime mortgages, but the greater the schemes, the greater the inevitable collapse and wipeout.

As with any investment, including AI, investors sooner or later expect profits and returns on their investments. Once profits are made or potential returns are shown, investors will return to sustainable investments.

You also cannot go against humanity, commit crimes against humanity, and expect to be remembered as a saint.

Neither can you go against what is holy and the will of the Lord and expect salvation.

The same is true of archaic concepts of war and first strikes of aggression: the aggressor will always be held accountable in the annals of history. Only the foolish believe aggressors will not go down in infamy.

For we do not live in a vacuum; we are part of humanity.  When a smaller group is attacked without provocation, how would the rest of the world react to such aggression?

And would destroying and cutting down other trees in the forest stop the rot within them or help them recover from an uncontrollable economic tailspin (by destroying others)?

During such dark times, hope is knowing that, against all odds, there will be a way through the valley, especially with the brainy and talented, who have the wisdom, intelligence, and strategic know-how to navigate the challenging waters.

Hope is an anchor of the soul, grounded in faith (Hebrews 6:19, 13–20). And “faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see (Hebrews 11:1).

What we do not see, Jesus has seen. Therefore, hope is also realizing that Jesus is the hope seen in the hope and promise of salvation.

In other words, the hope and promise of salvation are possible through the know-how and clear guidance of Christ's teachings of the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

Hope is in the know-how of how to receive grace and salvation and walk in the ways of the Lord—not in the hopeless forsaking of Christ and Christ's teachings through unholy sins, especially the unforgivable sins of blasphemy and the desecration of the temple of the Holy Spirit.

Ultimately, hope is in the ability—the know-how—of the intelligent and wise to rise from the ashes of any circumstance, innovate in the wake of economic devastation, and find positive solutions that give everyone hope for a brighter future.  

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When is a win not a win?

When the victory is flawed and pyrrhic. It is not considered a win because the conflict was so costly, protracted, and devastating in its costs and loss of life that it amounts to a defeat.

Sun Tzu rated this type of win as the worst-case outcome. His best-case win is “to subdue the enemy without fighting is the acme of skill," by attacking strategy and alliances. However, is his best strategy a supreme victory or the opening salvo of a pyrrhic win and devastating loss?

How do you know from the beginning which kind of win or loss it will be, or how it will end?

Though Sun Tzu's book, The Art of War, is famous for its war strategies and assumption of victories, victory—no matter the kind—is not guaranteed, especially not in his time of never-ending wars, the Warring States period.

What's my point?

Sun Tzu was a general from ancient China, not a diplomat. During his time, everyone was constantly at war, engaged in never-ending conflicts.

However, in times of peace, any kind of attack against strategies and alliances is aggression and opens the door to war.

Even if you win by destabilizing your chosen enemy because you decided to attack, there is no guarantee that what rises in its place will be better, especially if peace is replaced by aggressors who are ruthless in their determination to win at any cost.

Furthermore, if human history is any indication, the aggressor must bear the consequences of the conflict as the one who started the aggression.

For example, during World War II, Imperial Japan was the aggressor, and its attacks on China and neighboring territories made it responsible for the consequences of those attacks, including harm and crimes against humanity.

Ask China today if all is forgiven and the Imperial Japanese are no longer infamous for their atrocities. See what happens.

My point is that the consequences of war do not end with the signing of concessions; the scars linger for the victims, while the aggressors remain infamous.

So, what was won? Honor? Prosperity? Peace?

Aggressors, no matter what kind of victory they achieve, will always live in infamy, and any victory they claim will always be pyrrhic and flawed.

No matter what happens, the aggressor will lose more than honor and face. What is truly lost is their humanity, through harm, atrocities, and callous disregard for life. Thus, the aggressors will lose the respect and standing of the world and be remembered with horror and disgrace.

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Note: Any wins in unsustainable systems will be apocalyptic, especially when the system inevitably implodes.

At best, such wins are temporarily pyrrhic victories; and in the end, the pyrrhic wins will lead unavoidably to catastrophic outcomes and dystopian nightmares.  

Believe it or not, the more pyrrhic wins in unsustainable systems will inevitably cause greater catastrophic losses.

For example, Ponzi schemes are not sustainable. The bigger it gets, the more idiots you need to maintain the mirage. Much like subprime mortgages, the bigger the bubble, the greater the wipeout.

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What's that gambler's song again?  The Gambler, popularized by Kenny Rogers.  How does it go?

“On a warm summer's evening

On a train bound for nowhere….

(The gambler) Said, "If you're going to play the game, boy

You gotta learn to play it right.

You've got to know when to hold 'em

Know when to fold them

Know when to walk away

And know when to run.

Every gambler knows

That the secret to survivin'

Is knowin' what to throw away

And knowin' what to keep. 

'Cause every hand's a winner

And every hand's a loser….”

Because every hand’s a winner and every hand’s a loser, if you're sore after every loss and graceless after every win, you'll never learn how to play it right.

And in the end, you'll never truly survive intact, because only true losers feel sore after every loss and graceless after every win. Losers never learn what to throw away and what to keep.

Nor will you learn, in the game of life, that what really matters isn't transient wins and losses, because winning or losing a hand doesn't dictate eternal outcomes, which are based on how you play the game.

In other words, let's say you win the hand by cheating. The win becomes a sham—a hollow victory, since it's illegitimate—and you become a cheater: dishonorable, disgraceful, and untrustworthy, with lasting effects on your character.

So, do you think you can cheat your way into heaven?

Or cheat your way into someone's heart?

No, because guilty feelings have no rhythm and untruths have no soul, making future close relationships with everyone and the Lord improbable.

What matters are the eternal wins and losses: passing or failing tests of character that lead to either salvation or damnation.

It's the character wins and losses that dictate how the hands are ultimately played and determine the outcomes: sustainable or unsustainable prosperity, near utopias or total dystopian nightmares, and salvation in heaven or damnation in hell.

When you understand that every hand's a winner and every hand's a loser, you'll know how to play it right with truth, honor, decency, and good character, and you'll understand the secret to survivin is to know what to throw away and what to keep.

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