Osama Bin Laden

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Steve Picray

Last night President Obama informed the world that we had finally found and killed Osama Bin Laden.  I will admit that my first reaction was gladness that he is dead. I felt relief that our national enemy is finally defeated, and that there is nothing else he can ever do to us.  There are people in Times Square shouting and rejoicing that this man is dead.  I saw video footage of people singing and dancing in front of the White House, chanting “USA! USA!” and singing “naa naa naa naa, hey hey hey, goodbye!”  I asked myself, is this the correct reaction to the death of Osama Bin Laden?

I am currently teaching a Sunday School class on “Thinking Biblically.”  It is a study regarding helping others (and myself) reshape our thinking so that we look at ethical and moral decisions through the filter of the Bible, rather than looking at the Bible through the filter of the world.  I tell people that I live my life according to the Bible.  I had a vague feeling that perhaps joy at Bin Laden’s death was not quite right.   A friend on FB reminded me of this by quoting Ezekiel 18:23:

“Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked,” declares the Lord GOD, “rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?

She also quoted Proverbs 24:17-18:

Do not rejoice when your enemy falls,
And do not let your heart be glad when he stumbles;
Or the LORD will see it and be displeased,
And turn His anger away from him.

You see, in God’s eyes, Osama Bin Laden was two things: 1. No more or less a sinner than any other human being (and therefore no more or less deserving of forgiveness than any of us), and 2. a person whom God loved very much and for whom Christ died on the cross. Jesus said in Matthew 5:44:

But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you,

And Romans 12:20:

BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM, AND IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.

Paul was quoting Proverbs 25:21.  You can look it up. I’ll wait.

You see, all we humans are in the same boat:  we are sinners doomed to an eternity of punishment in hell.  God knew this, and so He sent His Son Jesus Christ to pay the penalty so we could be saved.  All we have to do is trust in the death of Christ for forgiveness, and we are saved from Hell!  In God’s eyes sin is sin, and no human is any more or less deserving of hell than anybody else.   That is why God commands us to be witnesses of Jesus Christ, telling others the good news of salvation so that they too can be rescued from Hell.  God’s wish from Ezekiel 24 is that we all would turn away from our sin and live eternally with him.

Our strategy here on earth is not to defeat our enemies, but to bring them over to God’s side.  If we are unsuccessful, we have failed.   So what is the proper view on the death of Osama Bin Laden?  We lost one forever.

I am glad that he is no longer able to hurt people, and I firmly believe in protecting your family because the Bible teaches that one who does not care for his own family is worse than an unbeliever. Does he deserve to spend eternity in Hell for his sins?  Yes.  But so do we all.

Posted in politics, religion | 2 Comments

Faith

Posted on May 2, 2011 by Steve Picray

I have been waiting for God to miraculously pay off my debt.  He hasn’t done it yet.  And that’s a big yet, because I look on this the same way that I view the return of Christ:  just because it hasn’t happened YET doesn’t mean that it won’t. It will.  Christ will return.  My debt will be paid off.  The only question is when.

As far as my financial situation goes, I now have something in common with the federal government:  I have a debt AND a deficit.  We had caught up on our bills in February (due to selling my car), but we are now in exactly the same spot (due to me being very sick in March).   We need God to provide.

When people ask God to provide, we expect Him to answer our specific prayers, exactly the way we want. But, as I heard a preacher say recently, “If we had all the information that God has, we would realize that what He is doing is the best thing.”  I don’t have that information though, so that’s where faith comes in.  Does God love me?  Yes He does.  Does God lie?  No He doesn’t.  He said in Romans 8:28 that he is working all things for the good of those who love him.  Do I believe this? Yes.  I am currently praying that God will provide the money we need to get through until payday.

Tonight was hard.  Kim informed me that our son is going on a field trip Tuesday, and that he needs to hand in $9.50 today (Monday) in order to go.  We had to write a note to his teachers asking them to allow him to go, even though we won’t be able to pay the money until Friday.  That’s humbling.  We currently don’t have enough money for gas for the rest of the week.  We have no credit cards, we have no fall back.  We have a few things we can return to the store for gas money, but that’s about it.  We are simply waiting to see what God does.

We haven’t really told anybody about our financial difficulties other than God.  Yes, I’m putting this information on my blog, but I’m pretty sure that there are about five people who read it, and none of them have extra money to send, so this isn’t a request for money.  This is me putting my thoughts out there, so that WHEN God intervenes, I can look back and say, “Thank you, God, that even in the tough times, we didn’t starve.  We didn’t go naked or homeless.  We survived, even if our credit scores didn’t.

With the recent earthquakes in Japan (they’ve had FOUR major earthquakes in March and April), the tornadoes ripping through the south, the multiple wars and unrest in the world, and all the other stuff that’s going on, I wonder if Christ is returning very soon (see Matthew 24).

I believe the return of Christ is imminent.  Does that mean I think He’s coming next week?  No, that means I think that He could come at any moment.  Even before I finish typing this sentence.  Ok, so He didn’t come then, but He IS returning, and it seems that the signs are pointing to soon.

There are certain people (I’m looking at you, Harold Camping) who keep predicting when Christ will return.  They keep getting it wrong.  There’s a group of people who say Christ is returning on May 21st. If you’re counting, that’s 19 days away.

One of these people emailed me a few months ago warning me of the 05/21/11 return of Christ.  I emailed him back, explaining what I believe the Bible says (no man knows the hour of Christ’s return).  I closed by saying this:

” Does this mean Christ will NOT return on May 21st?  I believe He could return today, or He could wait another thousand years.  The Bible is not specific. I will pray for you that, as May 22nd rolls around (if Christ does not return between now and then), that you will not lose your faith in GOD, but that you will lose your faith in Harold Camping and the false doctrines of Family Radio. “

Getting back to work, I have picked up enough overtime so that I will be working 63 hours a week this month.  I even picked up OT on my birthday.  I’m making this sacrifice so that we can get rid of our deficit, and hopefully start working on our debt. I hope my Lord returns soon. That would definitely solve my debt problem.

Even so Lord Jesus, come quickly.

Posted in Uncategorized | 4 Comments

Cost of Gas

Posted on April 26, 2011 by Steve Picray

It's coming to this.

I like to crunch numbers.  I don’t enjoy math, but I like to see how things work out in real life.  Yeah, I don’t understand either.

I am looking for a cheap, economical car to buy.  Right now it seems like these are few and far between, so I have been looking at a Buick that is pretty cheap, that gets mileage of 19/27 (city/hwy).  This got me thinking….how much more am I actually paying for gas each month for a change in MPG?

Break out the spreadsheet.  I made a spreadsheet that shows how much I will pay per month for a car that gets an avg MPG of 20, all the way up to 35MPG, at different gasoline prices.   For instance, if I use the current price of $4 a gallon, I will pay $114.40 per month in gas (since I drive about 1000 miles a month) in a car that gets 35MPG.  If I drive the same amount in a car that only gets 20MPG, I will spend $200 in gas (an extra $85.60 for you math challenged).

As gas prices go up (and they are sure to do so with our current Genius in Chief), I will pay an extra $28.6 per month for every dollar it goes up (at 35 mpg).  At 20mpg, that is an extra $50 per month.

When Obama took office, gasoline cost about $1.87 per gallon. In our minivan (which averages 20mpg) we paid $93.50 a month to drive 1000 miles. Right now we are paying about $200 to drive the same distance.

The question I’m considering right now is this:  which is better: to buy a more economical car for more money, or to buy a less economical car for less money? If I bought a 35MPG car at $5000, the gas for the three years I owned it would cost me $5148 (at an avg gas price of $5), so the total cost would be $10148 over 3 years.  If I bought a 20MPG car at $3000, the gas over 3 years would cost me $9000, so my total cost would be $12000 over the same amount of time.

I’m thinking I shouldn’t buy the Buick. I need to find a car that averages over 30mpg.  Anybody know where I can find one for less than $5000?

Posted in Money | 1 Comment

My son on the piano

Posted on April 25, 2011 by Steve Picray

This is a video of my son playing “Thine Be The Glory” for the offertory at church a few weeks ago.  For those of you who choose to not use Facebook, the link says Facebook, but you don’t need a Facebook account to watch it.

http://www.facebook.com/v/1897305025631

And no, he didn’t arrange this one.

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments