Presenting ideas and thoughts about matters of importance
Michael Snyder 
But it’s a binary solution set. You can also demotivate. Annihilate productivity. Repel others. Whip up a toxic environment.
As the author of one of the standard works on influence once wrote, ““Men, it has been well said, think in herds; it will be seen that they go mad in herds, while they only recover their senses slowly, one by one.”
The ominous point, according to the Journal? “Mr. Xi and his allies aspire to dethrone the U.S. as the world’s premier power. What will President Trump do about it?”
As the vast technological array of bristling military power passed before the likes of Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin, China’s special friend, Kim Jong Un, the North Korean dictator, and 20-some other leaders, a singular message was clear – the world’s largest army is deliberately preparing to do battle with the world’s most powerful military. The highly symbolic military spectacle, China’s first in six years, was presaged by comments from Xi noting that humanity now faced a choice between peace and war, with China now “unstoppable.”
It was also no small irony that the massive, uber-precision military assemblage rolled through the infamous Tiananmen Square where young Chinese unsuccessfully struggled for 51 days to embrace democracy 36 years ago.
President Trump’s response? As the Economist magazine reported, the President took to his Truth Social media, messaging Xi to “give my warmest regards to Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong Un, as you conspire against the United States.”
The tiny and close group of original disciples – all of whom had seen, heard, and been taught by Jesus Himself (including the human mother of Jesus and family members) – had swollen to form many small groups and congregations across the Roman Empire, stretching far beyond the tiny conclaves in Judea to modern-day Europe, Africa, and Asia.
Everywhere the Gospel was carried, so were miraculous acts muscularly boosting the credibility of the message. Some opponents were struck blind, speechless, and in some cases divinely put to death, while adherents were miraculously healed, saved from disaster, granted divine favor in front of high-level government officials, and much more. Disciples were powerfully “turning the world upside down”.
At one time, the growing assembly of disciples – led by 12 men to all corners of the Roman Empire and beyond (plus a special appointment from a previous adversary) seemed unstoppable.
But now, a different kind of “growth” was occurring. Serious issues of contamination were seeping in.
Alarmingly, a new and potentially devastating fiscal abyss unexpectedly cracked open, sending fresh shock waves surging across borders. The stability of formerly rock-solid U.S. equities – particularly U.S. Treasury notes – suddenly came into question.
As discussed earlier in this series, the first 100 days of the Trump administration rocked critical international relationships in a way previously unseen. From a biblical perspective, America has been over many decades a true safe haven for promoting world stability and also for ensuring extraordinary levels of religious freedom. But as chronicled further below, that trusted reputation was seriously damaged during a 10-day period in early April.
Why does this matter?
![Fiscal holocaust - If economic sanctions are used recklessly, they [economic sanction tools] could be broken forever or trigger unforeseen economic and political repercussions that could come back to haunt America.](https://i0.wp.com/www.seekingtheway.net/wp-content/uploads/2025/03/The-coming-Fiscal-holocaust.png?fit=2372%2C1388&ssl=1)
In the first 100 days of the second Trump Presidency, the President whipsawed threats and implementation of massive tariffs on friend and foe alike, possibly inching toward a foundation for a fiscal holocaust. In a thinly veiled effort to force the re-shoring or relocation of manufacturing to “make America great again,” President Trump tapped the … Read more
A planned staged show of unity collapsed disastrously into chaos, with diplomatic and economic shock waves rolling out of D.C. and across the globe. After a brief pause and no possibility of a signed agreement for Ukrainian minerals, Zelenskyy was asked to leave by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, once an advocate for the Ukrainian President.
How bad was the reaction from long-time allies? “Today, it became clear that the free world needs a new leader,” said Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat, quoted in Bloomberg. “It’s up to us, Europeans, to take this challenge.”
In central Europe, screeching missiles shatter infrastructure and tranquility and innocents suffer brutally. In the Middle East, destructive military rockets crisscross multiple countries, as cell phones explode in the hands of militants, triggering panic and elevating already-high misery. A very real threat of superpower conflict smolders in the 81-mile-wide strait between mainline China and Taiwan, the latter a hyper-critical global economic linchpin.
As a new Presidential administration appears to foment chaos, upending order in the name of progress, Foreign Affairs magazine leads with coverage detailing “The Strange Triumph of a Broken America.”
What is the hope – at the least the short-term hope – of the world?
“Juror Number Eight, are you a good judge of character?”
How would you have answered?
I was sitting in the jury box in a courtroom high up in the gleaming new Community Justice Campus in Indianapolis. It was not a place where I would have chosen to be, except that I had received the yellow Summons for Jury Service postcard a few weeks earlier, ordering me to appear as a prospective juror.
When conflicting forces compromise a PC, the operating system freezes and generates a “blue screen of death.” A question presented in a spirit of humility – are we here nationally?
What does “abide” have to do with living successfully in an anxiety-saturated, hope-sapped world? What’s the pathway – what should be our focus?
Here’s a vital directive that can help us. It was given to us some 2,000 years ago on possibly the darkest night of the physical universe. Just hours before His gruesome death and ultimate sacrifice, our Savior and Elder Brother, Jesus Christ the Messiah, provided this deeply personal and powerful imperative command.
His directive is heightened by the fact that he was in full possession of the facts. He knew full well what was about to happen to Him, and, as the Bible records, it troubled Him. But His focus was elsewhere, like ours needs to be.
While Jesus knew he would soon experience searing pain, humiliation and death, he had been given a remarkably special gift.
In Hebrews 1, verse nine, we read something that sometimes gets read right over. Quoting Psalm 45:6-7, we read from the New Living Translation, “You [referring to Jesus Christ] love justice and hate evil.
Therefore…your God has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else”
We may not think of Jesus Christ being a joy-filled person while on earth, but the Bible confirms that He had a special anointing of joy from God Himself. The spiritually driven positive outlook was part of Jesus’ ministry. What did that gift reflect?