Trickle Down Kindness

Oh, to be rich. So rich that you can walk away from royalty. And still make plenty of moola.

So rich that you can escape to anywhere in the world you wish and leave the problems of others behind. So rich that you can avoid prison time or serious fines because of the influence your wealth affords. So rich that your children can attend the finest of schools and are taught by the world’s best educators. So rich that you can afford to be rude to others and they still must treat you like the king or queen you pretend to be.

What???

We would all benefit by having our eyes opened a bit more to the reality of working with the wealthy. A recent Huffington Post article articulates the pathetic nature of this well. It’s titled, “I Work in a Ritzy Restaurant and I've Seen Some Unbelievable Behavior During COVID.”

What we learn from the writer is exactly what we expect. She lives in a wealthy ski community, but not in any extravagance. Her place is a simple studio apartment. She works in a restaurant helping create “a luxurious dining experience for the guests who walk through our door.” And make no mistake, these guests are among the super-wealthy of our world.

The patrons where she’s employed have frequently asked for more than they should. But the pandemic made things worse. One middle-aged woman was seated in an outdoor tent created so the establishment could stay open amidst restrictions. Apparently, the disgruntled customer said she didn’t care “for the ambience” where she was seated. Our server found her an inside corner table. The diamond bearing “queen” instead asked for something unattainable – a center area placement. When told that was not possible because of restricted seating, she and her mate walked out the door.

Our “always try to please” server said many of her guests fail to make eye contact as they make their demands. Some drop names of celebrities they know to get favors. Or they’ll ask for “the best table in the house,” presumably because they deserve it! She notes one customer threatened to get her fired. The poor man’s drinks weren’t strong enough and he knew the resort owner, a fact he used to try and intimidate her.

When serving at private functions, the host and guests often failed to do the basics to keep the virus away. Obeying the county, state, or federal mandates didn’t seem to apply to them. After all, they’re rich! As one couple dined outside, one fur-coat-draped woman got cold, prompting her husband to offer a bribe to the server to seat them inside–against all policies.

There were plenty of other examples. But to be fair, our oft-mistreated server explained that she had an ample share of gracious and concerned well-to-dos. And during the worst of times, several left extravagant tips and asked how she was faring in life. Wealth does not need to come with arrogance or lack of caring.

A few of her concluding observations:

• “I’d like to think this pandemic might teach us all something about humility; that we might be humbled by the unpredictable way this virus has shaken our lives.”
• “I’m thankful to have had a job during the pandemic ― I know many people did and still do not.”
• “I’m choosing instead to focus on the generosity and empathy I’ve witnessed some of our other guests offer. They’ve inspired me to make my own much smaller acts of giving when I can. Maybe that will set off a kind of trickle-down kindness.”

Wealth and power can breed some bad habits. Perhaps why Proverbs 30:8 makes this bold request, “Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.” (NIV)

Oswald Chambers said, "The most exacting test of all to survive is prosperity."

I think we need more biblical wisdom to trickle down. 

That’s Forward Thinking. Click on the link to the right to connect via Facebook.

You can find a number of YouTube episodes and podcasts of Mark’s program, Moving People Forward at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCosyuBzdSh1mXIas_kGY2Aw?

For more information on the Elfstrand Group, please visit www.elfstrandgroup.com

Articles of interest:

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/restaurant-indoor-outdoor-dining-wealthy_n_606878ddc5b6c00165c1a398 

The Slow Death of Commitment

Here we go again.

The good people of Gallup have determined that church membership continues to decline. According to their researchers, the number of committed faithful members has dropped below 50 percent. This is noteworthy as it the first time that low number has happened since Gallup first asked the question in 1937. Back in those golden-olden days, church membership was 73 percent.

Specifically, those who report belonging to a church, synagogue, or mosque is now at 47%. We might say that the news gets worse! Those claiming that “religion” was very important to them dropped to 48%! That also is a new low.

What is the breakdown by ages? The Gallup report reveals 66 percent of American adults born before 1946 belong to a church, compared with 58 percent of baby boomers. Then it drops to 50 percent of Generation X, and 36 percent of millennials. One observer suggests that church membership is perceived as a “relic of an older generation.”

I think it’s a deeper issue. And I say that in sensing a correlation to marriage. Consider another Gallup report from December of last year. Their study was featured in an article titled, “Is Marriage Becoming Irrelevant?” Yikes!

Notable from the research: “Fewer U.S. adults now than in past years believe it is ‘very important’ for couples who have children together to be married. Currently, 29% say it is very important that such a couple legally marry, down from 38% who held this view in 2013 and 49% in 2006.”

And now it gets really serious. Gallup tells us, “Sixty-six percent now believe it is morally acceptable to have a baby outside of marriage, an increase from 53% the first year the question was asked in 2001. Moreover, 72% percent—up from 53% in 2001, consider sex between an unmarried man and woman morally acceptable.”

The numbers continue… “Another 31% of U.S. adults currently say it is ‘somewhat important’ for couples with children to be married, bringing the total to 60% who consider it important to some degree. Meanwhile, four in 10 say it is not too (18%) or not at all (22%) important.”

Do you see what is happening? One of the core, fundamental building blocks of a healthy society is families. Statistics about children raised in two parent families leans indisputably toward better lives for all. Less crime, less divorce, more well adjusted kids…just about any cultural stability category you can find.

This mindset shift on the importance of marriage is tragic. The price is an increased risk to a stable society. Warning signs are literally everywhere.

What is the common denominator I see between the decline of marriage and church attendance? Commitment. Or better said, the lack of same.

Without committing in marriage, you have the freedom to walk away. Without making the decision to belong to and be involved in a church, you have no attachment or sense of obligation. In both cases, “freedom” is your principal value. The freedom to abandon.

Try telling this to your kids. “We birthed you. But we’re not obligated to care for you or about you.” Or say to your church brethren…”I may come here but I want no commitments to help or serve. I only do what works for me.”

Succinctly stated, this mindset says, “It’s all about me and my convenience.” That is a sure way to make a sick world. And that is where we are heading.

God, on the other hand, offers a different path. Hebrews 13:5 reads, “Don’t love money; be satisfied with what you have. For God has said, ‘I will never fail you. I will never abandon you.’” (NLT)

Stories of true love are built on sacrifice and commitment. It’s what marriage vows are all about. It’s what membership means in a church.

Pitiful are the people who mainly take—offering little of substance in return. And noting the Gallup statistics, we are witnessing the slow death of commitment.

That’s Forward Thinking. Click on the link to the right to connect via Facebook.

You can find a number of YouTube episodes and podcasts of Mark’s program, Moving People Forward at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCosyuBzdSh1mXIas_kGY2Aw?

For more information on the Elfstrand Group, please visit www.elfstrandgroup.com

Articles of interest:

https://www.usnews.com/news/healthiest-communities/articles/2020-04-29/us-marriage-rate-drops-to-record-low 

https://news.gallup.com/poll/316223/fewer-say-important-parents-married.aspx

https://www.washingtonpost.com/religion/2021/03/29/church-membership-fallen-below-majority/

Opinion or Persecution?

In my late teens, I remember reading a joke about a man who was on his deathbed. A chaplain came to the hospital room to pray with the man. Seeking to ensure safe passage to heaven for this gent he asked him, “Do you renounce the devil and all his works?” To which the dying man replied, “At this time, I prefer not to make any enemies.”

It seemed funny at the time and I’ve repeated the joke on several occasions. But I’m finding it less humorous in the age in which we now live. Especially when I consider what Christ followers may be asked to renounce in life and work in America.

This was crystalized even more clearly for me in a recent editorial that was published in the USA Today. The opinion piece was titled, “Oral Roberts University ORU) isn't the feel good March Madness story we need.” The author is a woman named Hemal Jhaveri.

Ms. Jhaveri’s beef with the Oklahoma based school should clearly and properly be defined as anti-biblical bias. She argued that ORU didn’t belong in the NCAA Basketball Tournament because of their spiritual perspective on human behavior, specifically human sexuality.

In her words, “That Oral Roberts wants to keep its students tied to toxic notions of fundamentalism that fetishize chastity, abstinence and absurd hemlines is a larger cultural issue that can be debated. What is not up for debate however is their anti-LGBTQ+ stance, which is nothing short of discriminatory and should expressly be condemned by the NCAA.”

Rather than simply recognizing that we do not all agree on many moral issues of our day, she lobbied to have voices she didn’t like banned from the tournament! Again, in her words, “The fact is, any and all anti-LGBTQ+ language in any school’s policies should ban them from NCAA competition.” And she added that ORU is a “hotbed of institutional transphobia, homophobia with regressive, sexist policies.”

Talk about bitter. One sided. Control driven. Spiteful. (I could keep going.)

As one person who responded to her editorial property noted, “And are you so naive to think that there are not other young men and young women playing on the other teams in these tournaments that believe the very same way because they too identify with Christ and were raised in a Godly home?”

Of course there are. And on top of that, plenty of parents, who sent their kids to schools also competing, hold the same views. And very likely a handsome number of professors, administrators, and other employees within secular schools hold those views.

But now here’s the rub. Are all those voices allowed the freedom to express those views without being sentenced to exclusion? Or as we prefer to say in this age, being “cancelled?”

The devil’s gameplan in this is sinister, as is his style. Most dedicated Christ followers if asked to deny their Lord would absolutely refuse. Likely the devil knows that. BUT…will these same followers be willing to stand up in defense of biblical truth on morality if it costs them worldly gain? Or rejection? Even being mocked for their faith?

If people like Jhaveri have their way, exactly what will churches face as a result? No zoning permits to worship? No right to raise children and disciple them as we choose? No private or home school curriculum that teaches biblical values unapproved by the state?

Shall anti-biblical bias be given the privilege to destroy the dreams of our young?

Jesus gave His followers advice on this. It applies to all who claim His name. He said, “If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.” (John 15:19)

Persecution has a truly ugly face. And we’re staring at it in commentaries like Ms. Jhaveri’s, which the USA Today should have readily rejected. Opinions to deny freedom of thought are simply not worth hearing.

That’s Forward Thinking. Click on the link to the right to connect via Facebook.

You can find a number of YouTube episodes and podcasts of Mark’s program, Moving People Forward at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCosyuBzdSh1mXIas_kGY2Aw?

For more information on the Elfstrand Group, please visit www.elfstrandgroup.com

Articles of interest:

https://ftw.usatoday.com/2021/03/oral-roberts-ncaa-anti-lgbtq-code-of-conduct

https://www.christianheadlines.com/contributors/michael-foust/ncaa-should-boot-oral-roberts-due-to-biblical-beliefs-on-lgbt-issues-usa-today-columnist-says.html?utm_source=ChristianHeadlines%20Daily&utm_campaign=Trending%20Now%20-%20ChristianHeadlines.com&utm_medium=email&utm_content=4536176&recip=528672413

Getting Chippy

On March 27th, I joined the league of immunized Americans who have received the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. You can research what exactly the vaccine contains. Frankly, I’m not able to discern whether it should concern me or not. For now, I’m thankful for some protection from the nasty virus.

My cardiologist and my primary care doctor both advised getting immunized. Both my wife and I had some reservations. There has hardly been enough time to determine both the effectiveness and the possible consequences of getting the vaccine. But now, we’re both covered.

One thing of which I am quite confident. no one injected a microchip into my body. I know, many find that idea absurd. But not everybody.

In June of 2020, the one-time-possibly-then-crazy-minded candidate for US President—Kanye West—declared he had contracted the coronavirus. Here is what he said: “It’s so many of our children that are being vaccinated and paralyzed. So when they say the way we’re going to fix Covid is with a vaccine, I’m extremely cautious. That’s the mark of the beast. They want to put chips inside of us, they want to do all kinds of things, to make it where we can’t cross the gates of heaven.”

Hmmm. Kanye, please, lie down here on my couch.

Where would he get such an idea? From those who fear Bill Gates! Bill has all kinds of ideas on how to best save the planet. One of those involves tracking our health. So rumors began to spread that Bill supported the idea of having that done through implants under the skin. 

Maybe Bill does like that idea. But Reuters news service apparently got from “the horse’s mouth” something different. They reported, “Bill Gates foresees the use of ‘digital certificates’ with health records, but did not say these would be in the form of microchip implants. There are no plans to use this future technology during the coronavirus outbreak.” Whew.

This is not to say we’re not heading that direction. In fact, the countrymen of my Swedish ancestry are already feeling “chippy.” In that country, some 4000 Swedes have adopted the technology with microchips inserted into their hands.

According to an NPR story, “The chips are designed to speed up users' daily routines and make their lives more convenient—accessing their homes, offices, and gyms is as easy as swiping their hands against digital readers…They also can be used to store emergency contact details, social media profiles, or e-tickets for events and rail journeys within Sweden.”

Call me a technophobe, but that sounds creepy. Invasive. None-of-your business kind of invasive. My dog doesn’t seem to care if you implant a chip in him, but Pepito isn’t concerned with identity theft.

And get this. Erik Frisk, who is a web developer and designer, uses the chip he had implanted in 2014 to unlock his office door. And when he moved into the house he began sharing with other roomies in 2018, Frisk organized a “chipping party” for the housemates. Yes, a chipping party! Perhaps one day you’ll be invited to a Pampered Chipper gathering!

I also admit to keeping a watchful eye on something I strongly believe to be true: the end game of that worrisome “mark of the beast.” In Revelation 13:16-17 we read. “It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.” (NIV)

This Scripture may sound wacky, but you know a new national ID card was going to be required (or a passport) for air travel. And concerns over Covid-19 may also see airlines requiring you show your immunization card to fly. And what’s next? Just sayin’!

What…me worry? I’ve now received my two doses of the Covid vaccine. And I’ve not had any issues yet. Except for bizarre impulses to buy Microsoft products.

That’s Forward Thinking. Click on the link to the right to connect via Facebook.

You can find a number of YouTube episodes and podcasts of Mark’s program, Moving People Forward at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCosyuBzdSh1mXIas_kGY2Aw?

For more information on the Elfstrand Group, please visit www.elfstrandgroup.com

Articles of interest:

https://www.npr.org/2018/10/22/658808705/thousands-of-swedes-are-inserting-microchips-under-their-skin

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/nov/08/the-rise-of-microchipping-are-we-ready-for-technology-to-get-under-the-skin

Yellow Journalism

Among my first college classes (apart from my Bible college days) was a course in journalism. The definition hasn’t changed: the activity or profession of writing for newspapers, magazines, or news websites, or preparing news to be broadcast. Notice that the descriptor here relates to news.

Taking it a step further, I was taught that true news reporting involves objectivity. The site masscommunicationstalk.com spells it out right: “News is the factual report of an event. What the reporter sees is supposed to be reported. Objectivity means to report the facts exactly the same way as they occurred. It goes against objectivity if the reporter adds something from his own imagination. Comment, suggestion, or proposal is not the task of a news reporter…It will not be an objective reporting if the reporter wants to angle, slant, or shade the news.”

To be sure, many stories are reported every day that attempt to follow this definition. Yet there are a several ways in which those reporters or writers can find a way to “angle, slant, or shade the news.” The media world is increasingly misrepresenting the profession of news reporting with bias. Tragically.

Thus, a whole new genre of supposed journalism has fallen under the title of “fake news.” Blame Trump for hyping the term. But don’t deny it happens. A 2019 article in The Guardian stated, “We live in a time of political fury and hardening cultural divides. But if there is one thing on which virtually everyone is agreed, it is that the news and information we receive is biased.”

Social media hardly constitutes any form of true journalism. But it can seem like it to many. Instead, it moves to a more classic definition of yellow journalism: “journalism that is based upon sensationalism and crude exaggeration.” Truth be damned.

Adding to this are the media personalities (including late night talk hosts and others) who preach rather than entertain. A recent example of this is Bill Maher. On February 7th of this year, The Daily Wire reported that the atheist Maher made a claim that the January attack in Washington DC, at the Capitol, was a “faith-based initiative.” He laid blame on Christians who supported Donald Trump.

He wasn’t finished. “It’s fun to laugh at QAnon, with the baby-eating lizard people and the pedophile pizza parlors, but have you ever read the Book of [Revelation]? That’s the Bible,” said Maher. “That’s your holy book, Christians.”

The QAnon group deserves no space to espouse their views on media. Yet HBO and others have no problem with hosts like Maher making outrageous claims “based upon sensationalism and crude exaggeration.”

Maher obviously takes great delight in mocking those in the Christian faith. It’s one thing to disagree. It’s quite another to seek to align American opinion in bitterly opposing those of a beautiful faith who contribute greatly to the Republic.

Another gimmick of the brazen efforts to block the truth recently showed up in the mighty god of the marketplace, Amazon. In the past few weeks, the behemoth blocked anyone from purchasing the book, When Harry Became Sally: Responding to the Transgender Moment. The author, Ryan Anderson, is a highly credible researcher and was recently named president of the Ethics and Public Policy Center.

Anderson made his case saying, “The best biology, psychology, and philosophy all support an understanding of sex as a bodily reality, and an understanding of gender as a social manifestation of bodily sex.”

In a Breakpoint commentary on this, John Stonestreet wrote, “The case is so clear, in fact, that supporters of transgender ideology have to rely on coercion, power (think the Equality Act), and name-calling to end the debate and advance their cause. Enlisting corporations like Amazon, Facebook, and Twitter has proven particularly effective.”

David, writing in the Psalms, writes of these types. His plea is, “Let ruin come on him unexpectedly, and let the net that he hid ensnare him; let him fall into it—to his ruin.” Psalm 35:8 (CSB)

It’s time to stand up to yellow journalists and their marketing partners. 

That’s Forward Thinking. Click on the link to the right to connect via Facebook.

You can find a number of YouTube episodes and podcasts of Mark’s program, Moving People Forward at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCosyuBzdSh1mXIas_kGY2Aw?

For more information on the Elfstrand Group, please visit www.elfstrandgroup.com

Articles of interest:

https://www.masscommunicationtalk.com/definition-of-news.html

Wake Up, Woke!

Many who have been around since the 1960s can remember the classic television commercial for Ken-L-Ration dog food, “My Dog’s Better Than Your Dog.” For those whose long term memory might miss a beat, here are the lyrics:

My dog's faster than your dog,
My dog's bigger than yours.
My dog's better 'cause he gets Ken-L Ration,
My dog's better than yours.

Three children happily sang this cute tune modified from original lyrics written by Tom Paxton. It made sense. Ken-L-Ration sponsored a television program in the Big Apple wherein a pooch was featured as a contest prize. Viewers would write in to explain why they should win the dog. Best response won the dog. (My letter is better than yours!)

We like being better than others. Moreover, we like believing we are better than other people – even when we aren’t. The “woke” culture breeds this.

One of the more recent examples of this sentiment is the number educational groups across America making the choice to rename schools that honor many of America’s founding fathers. These men did not ask for this tribute. It was bestowed on them.

In Illinois, we are known as the Land of Lincoln. Or at least we have been. According to the New York Times, Lincoln has been “criticized for his response to the so-called Minnesota Uprising, in which more than 300 Native Americans were sentenced to death by a military court after being accused of attacking white settlers in 1862.”

With contrary evidence, Lincoln reduced the number of condemned to 38. Those were then hanged. It was thought to be the largest mass execution in U.S. history.

Today’s “better than Abe” enlightened ones readily overlook any great achievements by the former president, choosing these executions as the disparaging disqualifier. The group targeted some 43 other historical figures as well. All these men were viewed as inferior souls to the “woke” minds of our new age.

In Chicago, one of our tallest skyscapers long bore the name of John Hancock. Despite the name change on February 12, 2018, to 875 North Michigan Avenue, people continue to make reference to “the Hancock building.” Just as they continue to call our tallest building, “the Sears Tower.”

But another Hancock-named building recently made the news. The Chicago Tribune shared a photo of some students outside of what has been known as John Hancock College Prep. This bold new cadre of students are attempting to cleanse our past with the righteous indignation of today. They want the school name changed!

Hancock’s sin was that he probably had two or three slaves. This was revealed in a 1980 biography, The Baron of Beacon Hill. I’m sure Sir Hancock had other sins as well.

This may come as quite a shock to you and most of America, but these students are no more righteous than Hancock. They think they are. But they are wrong. Oh, yes, the idea of keeping slaves is a nasty one. Around the world, however, it’s more prevalent than we like to think. 

The self-righteous of our times fail to understand a deep spiritual truth. Not only are ALL of us sinners, but we have quite a depraved heritage! The truly enlightened appreciate a church doctrine known as “total depravity.” It says “that all persons, as a consequence of the Fall (in Genesis), are born morally corrupt, enslaved to sin, at enmity with God, and unable to please Him or even of themselves to turn to Christ for salvation.”

Without God’s Divine and perfect intervention by the sacrifice of His only Son–Jesus the Messiah—we’re stuck in that depraved condition. Look deep enough and you’ll see the sin virus in your own life. Most of us refuse such self-examination or admission.

Sadly, 21st century Americans conclude that our seasoned wisdom has made us “better people.” We may not hold slaves. But we are instead enslaved to the moral depravity of our age. As the Scriptures say, “No one is righteous—not even one.” (Romans 3:10, NLT)

The woke…should wake up!

 That’s Forward Thinking. Click on the link to the right to connect via Facebook.

You can find a number of YouTube episodes and podcasts of Mark’s program, Moving People Forward at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCosyuBzdSh1mXIas_kGY2Aw?

For more information on the Elfstrand Group, please visit www.elfstrandgroup.com

Articles of interest:

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/02/learning/should-we-rename-schools-named-for-historical-figures-with-ties-to-racism-sexism-or-slavery.html

https://www.chicagotribune.com/lifestyles/ct-life-john-hancock-college-prep-slavery-renaming-controversy-tt-20210302-pkq42itfufcijeksfiiofamyq4-story.html#nws=true

https://www.chicagotribune.com/politics/ct-chicago-monuments-controversy-lincoln-20210305-gkqw3jupzrdy5aa2gedts43kpi-htmlstory.html#nws=true

A Rush to Judgment

The “most dangerous man in America” is dead. Rush Limbaugh.

A lot of people absolutely loved the incredibly popular broadcaster. A lot of people hated him. So what was he…a good guy? A bad guy? We all make our own judgments.

Given a choice between the highest paid radio personality (Howard Stern) or the second highest paid (Rush Limbaugh) I’d take Rush. Both have been patently offensive on many an occasion.

Stern made his mark by making anything and everything sexual his morning banter. One of his more significant controversies brought up again recently was a blackface routine of his and, on a separate occasion, a hugely insulting comment about Aunt Jemima Pancake Mix. I refuse to share details of either—but they’re out there. Stern now says he “regrets” his former behavior. Conveniently.

Rush found humor by making political parody his top act. His distaste for aggressive feminism generated his term “feminazis,” and the generalized reference to progressives as “commie libs.” Name calling is a good way to make enemies.

I first started listening to Rush in the summer of 1990. My political views mostly aligned with his. He was boisterous, often irreverent, but witty and clever.

I stopped listening for lengthy periods for several reasons, but not likely the ones that others did. I tired of incessant commercialism. His ad breaks were often followed by a live commercial read as if it were content. Plus, his choice of callers were often given to self adulation. Feeding your own ego is always a challenge for media talent.

He won and lost a number of advertisers over the years. On a few occasions, his satire went too far. Opposition groups would hammer his advertisers until they said “uncle.” (I.e., in 2012, Rush called a law student a “slut” on the air.)

He solved part of that problem by creating his own products and pitching them, again, as “content.” His Rush Revere book series for kids was one example. Another was his “Two if by Tea” six packs. Patriotism was Limbaugh’s unofficial middle name. And then, of course, he had his own store where you could buy Rush in countless ways. Similar to Graceland where stores have everything Elvis.

I had the occasion to meet Rush—very briefly. It was at the private home of one of his early Sacramento radio advertisers before he jumped ship and became a national celebrity. In the back yard of this advertiser’s home, Rush had taken a seat and two or three chairs were left open to one side of him. I went and sat down next to Rush. It was a short chat—and then a devoted fan captured his attention.

Another of his trademark lines was to make fun of a small community north of Sacramento named Rio Linda. Even on his national show he continued to tease this location by implying the residents were in need of mental clarity on the simplest of topics. Should I confess? I actually LIVED in Rio Linda for a few months!

Well, Rush has gone on to his day of judgment. What kind of reception do you suppose he received? Will all of his sins be recounted and held against him for eternity? One headline following his departure read, “Remembering Rush Limbaugh: ‘Heaven’s Gain’ to Some, New ‘Radio Show in Hell’ to Others.”

Within the last year, Rush made an open profession of faith in Jesus Christ publicly on his radio program. His deteriorating health had given him a much deeper appreciation for each day of life that he’d been given. If that was truly the case, then regardless of what the Grand Accuser says about Rush before God, the Limbaugh slate of sin was wiped clean.

The Bible is clear on this: “If you declare with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:9, NIV) That promise is offered to anyone!

For many, that kind of forgiveness is a hard spiritual pill to swallow. Regardless, best avoid making a “rush to judgment.”

Your turn is coming.

That’s Forward Thinking. Click on the link to the right to connect via Facebook.

You can find a number of YouTube episodes and podcasts of Mark’s program, Moving People Forward at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCosyuBzdSh1mXIas_kGY2Aw?

For more information on the Elfstrand Group, please visit www.elfstrandgroup.com

Articles of interest:

https://www.baptistpress.com/resource-library/news/rush-limbaugh-radio-pioneer-who-shaped-american-conservatism-dies/