"The leaders of Judah, and their priests, and the people became ever more unfaithful, imitating all the shameful practices of the world, defiling the temple of the Lord which he himself had consecrated. The Lord, God of their ancestors, repeatedly sent them word through his messengers because he had compassion on his people and on his dwelling place. However, they continued to ridicule the messengers of God, despising his words and scoffing at his prophets, until the wrath of the Lord against his people became so fierce that there was no remedy."
2 Chronicles 36:14-16
"They live out their days in prosperity, and slide peacefully down into hell."
Job 21:13
"There is a subtle temptation that encourages Christians to be 'practical.' That is, they try to do God’s work in man’s way. Getting results becomes the primary focus. It almost seems that we believe that the end justifies the means. Don’t be led away by the world’s reasoning. The world tries to convince you that as long as you can accomplish something for the kingdom of God, that’s all that matters. God’s ways are not like man’s ways. It is never wise to attempt to do God’s work in man’s way. It is an age-old temptation that seems to make sense on the surface but often is at variance with the purposes of God."
Henry Blackaby,
God's Thinking is not Man's Thinking
"See to it that no one takes you captive you with worldly philosophy and empty deceits, according to the tradition of men, according to the elemental powers of the world, and not according to Christ."
Colossians 2:8
"Those among the rich who are not, in the rigorous sense, damned, can understand poverty, because they are poor themselves, after a fashion; but they cannot understand destitution. Capable of giving alms, perhaps, but incapable of stripping themselves bare, they will be moved, to the sound of beautiful music, at Jesus’s sufferings, but His Cross, the reality of His Cross, will horrify them. They want it all out of gold, bathed in light, costly and of little weight; pleasant to see, hanging from a woman’s beautiful throat."
Léon Bloy,
Exégèse des Lieux Communs
“What is hell? I maintain that it is the suffering of being unable to love.”
Fyodor Dostoyevsky,
The Brothers Karamazov
"There is probably no greater threat to the faithful than that of the sanctifying of success with worldly measures. Invariably, when a principled belief aligns itself with the state, and the wealthy, and the powerful, it ends up as lost as if it was suffering persecution."
Jesse,
Sanctifying Greed, 6 June 2023
"For pride is spiritual cancer: it eats up the very possibility of love, or contentment, or even common sense."
C. S. Lewis
Pride is the first sin, the very negation of the humility and devotion and sacrifice of the Cross.
Greed and indifference to others, lawlessness and betrayal, are the daughters of Pride, the father of all sin. Pride and its sins are the chains that imprison Satan and the damned in their hell.
Stocks were wobbly today, awaiting the CPI data tomorrow.
Why is this particular data so important?
Because financial assets are in a bubble, and the market is in the hands of the Fed, the father of bubbles.
Gold and silver pretty much also marched in place, along with the Dollar.
VIX rose, as did the yields on US debt.
Stock option expiration at the end of this week.
The unsustainable will not be sustained. God's wrath grows fierce. Nemesis awaits.
Have a pleasant evening.
