Monday, April 20, 2015

Help the Environment. Turn Off Paper Statements

While using online banking recently, I read “Help the Environment. Turn off paper statements,” Well that’s a no-brainer. Why not!

Sounds like a large company that is concerned about the environment. While they probably are, we all suspect that profit-loss is the larger concern in there altruism.

If the bank sends a paper statement to their 3.5 million retail customers it will take roughly 200+ trees to produce that paper. Someone has calculated there are nearly 247 billion trees of a diameter of more than one inch in the United States.[1] The difference on the environment is microscopic.

The point is, they are saying something that seems valid at face value. But it’s more complicated than that. It is debatable at the very least, and may not even be true.

Another common refrain in the US is the call to buy now and save! If you don’t buy it now, you won’t save. It’s never about spending, it’s always about saving. So we spend more than we want to at the moment, because we know we’re saving.

On the day of the crucifixion the Roman Governor asked Jesus, “What is truth?”[2]

Someone I know who is facing a legal proceeding was told privately by his lawyer, “The truth doesn’t matter in this issue. It’s really not about the truth.”

Really? No law firm would ever advertize that.

Every culture I’ve been in has blind spots. Things they believe that are not true.

Here in the United States many people more intelligent than I believe the oceans are here as the result of meteor hits. (Picture)

We believe that individual rights trump broad society-wide freedoms.

We believe we’re smarter than past generations.

Not everything we believe is true.

The Roman Governor's question had been triggered by something Jesus said. "… the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.[3]







[1] http://www.savatree.com/tree-facts.html, “interesting Facts About Trees”
[2] John 18:38
[3] John 18:37

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Quotes of Note ... The Invisible World

“Spiritual warfare is learning to recognize the strategies, refusing to cooperate with them, and aggressively cutting off the schemes of the devil in Jesus’ name.” Dean Sherman

“those who protest that God cannot exist because there is too much evil evident in life… Evil exists; therefore, the Creator does not. That is categorically stated… If evil exists, one must assume that good exists in order to know the difference. If good exists, one must assume that a moral law exists by which to measure good and evil. But if a moral law exists, must not one posit an ultimate source of moral law, or at least an objective basis for a moral law? By an objective basis, I mean something that is transcendingly true at all times, regardless of whether I believed it or not.” Ravi Zacharias

“But the Devil is no big threat to God’s purposes; he is not even remotely comparable in power. He has been given a limited time before his final judgment to try to prove his case, just as all other moral beings who have chosen to live in rebellion against heaven.” W.A. Pratney

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I've served since 1975 in missions. I lived overseas for about 30 years. I have a great wife and three lovely daughters. I hope you enjoy some of the thoughts. Let me know what you think.

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