The Rules

"The game is played, not to protect the rules; rather, the rules are made to protect the game." - Ravi Zacharias in Recapture the Wonder

Often when people are confronted with rules, especially rules that do not make sense, they rebel against them in some fashion or another. It is also a nearly universal problem that if one does not understand something, it must be stupid or useless. Because of this, when we disobey a rule that doesn't make sense it doesn't really feel like we are rebelling when in fact we are.

How a person relates to rules tells a lot about them and is most likely an indicator of a lot of things that he would never tell you to your face.

The longest game in history is life and everyone is playing.

The sheer stupidity of mankind shaking its collective fist at its creator can only be explained by the nefarious evil known as the "great lie" that was told to Eve. She was told that knowledge would make her a god. Mankind still believes this today and is in the process of testing all of the rules that were handed to them by preceding generations. We believe that if we "figure it out" we can make our own rules and thus be gods. This makes sense if you are believing a lie.

A false rule.

The only absolute being that there are no absolutes. Thought experiments filter down to action that result in mass destruction, chaos, pain and misery and are blamed on the personal evil of one person or another. Confusion stems from the results of the experiment because the facts are looked at through the filter of “the great lie.” We hate truth. We think it limits us so we bash at it, bloodying our hands and hurting ourselves but never budging the wall.

There is a God.

And we are not Him. He gave us enough rope to hang ourselves or help ourselves. If you believe that Christ is the Son of God and that He can forgive you of your sin you are suddenly winning the game. There is nothing you can do to win, except to believe. And when you do this, the rules no longer apply because the only reason the rules exist is to make everyone who believes "the great lie" lose. When you enter the Kingdom of Heaven you Honor the King and by doing so you renounce the "great lie" and you are justified - pardoned from the guilt that is heaped on you by the rules. The crazy thing about Honoring the King is that you end up obeying the rules because that is who He is and that is how you honor Him because the rules are a revelation of truth. It is the nature of the beast. If you are not Honoring the King and you are trying to win the game by yourself, you are still believing "the great lie."

"Love the Lord thy God" is the greatest rule or the rule that all the other rules are bullet points of. "The most irresistible force in the world is love and the most vulnerable." - Ravi Zacharias in Cries of the Heart

So the rules protect you from the "great lie" and allow you to play the game of life for real.

Rewards Cards are thieves

There is a nearly criminal racket that is very active and pervasive. Chances are, even you have taken part in it. The racket is called Rewards Cards. Have you ever wondered where the "rewards" that you get from your Rewards Card come from?  Straight from the vendor where you bought your stuff. To pay for your rewards, the credit card companies take an extra percentage right off the top of the transaction. So by using the rewards card, you steal from the store you bought from and by extension if you steal, you are a thief. Sure, you get part of your money back which is cool, but the major beneficiary of this vile scheme is the credit card industry. You see, they don't pass all of the "rewards" on to you, they keep a chunk of them for themselves.

In the last few months, the rewards cards have been skimming an extra 2.5% right off the top of the transactions that I submitted here at work and there is absolutely no way to recover the money or to keep it from happening again. It is illegal for us to refuse credit card payment, to refuse rewards cards or even put a cap on how much people can pay with cards. So, if you want to steal from us, we are open for business. The only way we can avoid the racket is to stop offering credit card payment options or by charging an extra processing fee.

Do your merchant a favor and stop using your rewards cards. I'm sure places like Wal-Mart and Target have it figured out so they don't have to pay it but for the small businesses, it just hurts.

Arbor Day Foundation

I just joined the National Arbor Day Foundation. The registration costs $10 for a year and with that I get 10 trees. I wanted a Weeping Willow tree too, so I bought one for $8 and got a free Red Maple with that. All said and done I got 12 trees for $23. You need to order soon to get your trees in time for spring planting. Go join up already, unless of course you are deprived of the blessing of land.

I think trees are awesome. What better way is there to dress up God's green earth?