Transatlantic Turmoil Escalates. Which Commandments Do Christians Have to Obey? Update.

 

For “Scripture Sunday”

Transatlantic Turmoil Escalates

“For 70 years now the military and economic partnership between the United States and Western Europe has produced unparalleled peace and prosperity. Now a growing rift threatens that alliance, and many question whether it can or should survive. Where will this divide lead?

When German Chancellor Angela Merkel visited Donald Trump shortly after he took office, the new U.S. president, according to officials, immediately stirred the pot, brashly declaring, “Angela, you owe me a trillion dollars.”

That was his estimate of what Germany agreed to contribute to its own defense under a North Atlantic Treaty Organization arrangement versus what it actually spent over the past 14 years.

Since then, Mrs. Merkel has issued her own barbs that Europe can no longer count on the United States and must take matters into its own hands.

The divide between these two leaders has often been painfully visible, as Mr. Trump has made the German chancellor one of his favorite rhetorical targets, often assailing Germany’s anemic defense, trade and migrant policies.

At the NATO summit in July the president raised the level of contention, shellacking Germany for being “totally controlled by Russia” because of its dependence on the Kremlin’s monopoly on energy.

Labeling the EU “a foe” on trade

“Since the Soviet collapse,” according to The Economist, “the sense of threat has receded and the barriers to working together have risen.” Because of this, “the Western alliance is in trouble. That should worry Europe, America and the world.”

Foreign Policy went even further, announcing, “RIP [Rest in Peace] the Trans-Atlantic Alliance, 1945-2018.”

Differing priorities, divergent beliefs and clashing political cultures have fueled a dangerous escalation in the war of words. President Trump lashed out at the European Union for allegedly ripping off the U.S. on trade and freeloading on security. He even stated that the EU is “a foe” on trade, “set up to take advantage of the United States, to attack our piggy bank.”

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker—whom Mr. Trump has also sharply disparaged—voiced Europe’s need “to replace the United States, which as an international actor has lost vigor, and because of it, in the long term, influence.”

Donald Tusk, president of the European Council, echoed that blast, chastising the American president by saying:

• “With friends like that [President Trump], who needs enemies?”
• “He is on a mission against what we stand for.”
• “Dear America, appreciate your allies. After all, you don’t have that many.”

Economic giants across the Atlantic

Because nearly one-third of the global trade in goods occurs between the EU and the United States, a transatlantic rift morphing into a trade war would have enormous impact. U.S.-EU trade totaled nearly $1.1 trillion in 2016, with the U.S. running a trade deficit with the EU of $92 billion that year.

The EU’s 500 million consumers make it America’s largest export market. It buys nearly $270 billion in goods from the U.S.—more than twice the total U.S. exports to China—and over $230 billion in services. With over 70 percent of all foreign direct investment into the U.S. coming from the EU (a figure that has doubled in the last 15 years), Europe is also the largest investor in the American economy. (Though the numbers for the EU will change with Brexit, the percentages for all of Europe remain the same.)

Quarrels between friends

Continued at: https://lifehopeandtruth.com/discern/september-october-2018/transatlantic-turmoil-escalates/?

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Which Commandments Do Christians Have to Obey?

“Many believe Jesus taught that Old Testament laws were canceled or replaced.

YouTube: https://youtu.be/QUqMSPQ8jS8

Transcript:

[Steve Myers] “If you’re like me you love a discount. I love a deal. You never know what might be waiting on the often overlooked shelves and corners of a thrift store. It’s always interesting, sometimes entertaining and occasionally an educational experience.

A while ago I stopped by a local thrift shop and began my search. I was looking through all kinds of oddities hoping I might find something valuable.

Then it caught my eye. It wasn’t a useless trinket, a broken gadget or an old knickknack. It wasn’t just any old junk item. There it was on a shelf amid the clutter of discarded decorations and cast-off curios. It seemed to me to be a priceless possession, but it was marked with a blue sticker that read only one dollar!

It was a charming plaque inscribed with the Ten Commandments, the law of God, certainly worth more. After all they are God’s guidelines to a successful life, yet marked for only a buck.

This brought a question to my mind, “How much is God’s law worth to me?” What price do you place on God’s law?

The decoration reminded me that the most widespread controversy about the teachings of Jesus concerns God’s law. Do you think that Jesus’ instructions in the New Testament discounted or replaced the teachings of the Old Testament?

Most churches and denominations believe Jesus brought new doctrine that was very different from the instructions of the Old Testament. Many believe that Christ did away with the teachings of the Old Testament, in a sense casting them off to the thrift shop.

So, what exactly does Jesus have to say about the law? Has he relegated it to a quaint plaque? You need to know the surprising answer, “Which Commandments Do Christians Have to Obey?””

Continued at: https://www.ucg.org/beyond-today/beyond-today-television-program/which-commandments-do-christians-have-to-obey

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Update.

Zack, my neighbor, and I managed to clean off and move the yard sale tables back into the 10 x 20’ storage tent. The company settled about sending the wrong size top for it, and I will just have to make do with it. But this time we didn’t put the end flaps down, so the breeze is blowing through there all the time.  It is so much easier to just walk in it than having to put down whatever, and unzip the front panel to get in.  The carport looks so much better, as we took down all the plastic sheeting walls, too.  We used some of the plastic to cover the items on the tables in there so they wouldn’t get dusty.

We also cemented the Formica back splashes in the mini-house kitchen.  I am getting so tired of working on that place, now I need to put in a whole new breakerbox, as the old one is really outdated, but better safe than sorry.  I have had one house burn down, and I sure don’t want to go through that again.

Most of the last two weeks have been taken up with learning more about nutrition in ten 2-hour webinars each week.  Now that two hours cuts out quite a bit of the day, so I became really behind with my online jobs, or even getting stuff listed for sale.   Taking Lauri places until she can go for her TX driving test on the 30th. takes up time too.

On the 11th, as I had planned to go to two Willis churches, I made zucchini and yellow squash for the first church’s potluck, and egg salad for the afternoon church.  At the morning church, the Bible readings were Num. 33:1-36:13, Jer. 2:4-28, 3:4, and James 4:1-12.  The Teaching was about “Our Father”.   I gobbled down a few veggies at the potluck, and then went on to the afternoon church.  The Teaching there was “Do You Not Know?”  We have such easier access to the Bible, but are we more spiritual?  You know about God, but do you know God?

On the 18th, to the morning church, I took long strips of roasted yellow squash done in the air fryer with only 1/2 teaspoon of avocado oil and some seasonings.  I made more egg salad, but this time there wasn’t any minced onion or red bell pepper in it as some folks don’t like them.

The Bible readings were Deut. 1:1-3:22, Isa. 1:1-27. and Acts 9:1-21 and 1 Tim 3:1-7, and the Teaching was “Common or Unclean” about when Peter said he had not eaten anything common or unclean. Then it tells that the Jews were eating with the Gentiles, which was unheard of, and God made all men clean, no matter who they are.  In other words, do not a racist be!  I didn’t make it to the afternoon church.

Thank you all!  On the 17th, my FaceBook page came alive with greetings for yet another birthday.