Sixteen year old Greta Thunberg has recently been named Time Magazine's person of the year. Greta is a climate change activist who has been a subject of hundreds of memes making fun of her "HOW DARE YOU!" speak at the United Nations as well as for the mural of her recently painted on the side of a San Francisco building which (unintentionally) bears an eerie resemblance to Vladimir Putin. Now how you may wonder does such a young girl from Sweden whom no one knew about a year or two ago get named Time's person of the year?
The simple explanation is as follows. We are living in a time where the main stream media now acts as a propaganda tool for a small but rich and powerful group of people who have a globalist world view and an organized agenda and timeline to achieve that. Part of their agenda involves climate alarmism, which is the claim that the world is being threatened by carbon emissions produced by man which will result in a very short time with the world heating up and ending life as we know it.
The solution presented to avoid the catastrophe they predict has very little to do with creating a cleaner environment and having purer air to breath. The climate scare at its most basic is actually a means to achieve one of the main goals of globalism, which is income redistribution. I've written a number of posts examining man made global warming and am not going to make any of my counter arguments here. My purpose here is to look at how Greta became famous.
At the beginning of this year a group of about 250 leftest/progressive media organizations met at Columbia School of Journalism to discuss what they as news and opinion outlets could do to advance this climate alarmism. Someone suggested Greta, a young girl with Aspergers who had, being convinced that the planet was indeed dying, dropped out of school to be an activist on climate change. Greta soon became funded, hyped and suddenly all sorts of doors were opened for her.
She (like a lot of passionate 16 year old girls) was invited to speak to the United Nations (which funds the main group which comes up with all the alarming computer climate models) and to get there she (bravely) boards a low carbon fingerprint yacht (her crew of 2 take a jet liner home once the boat arrives in NY and another crew of 2 fly there in order to sail the vessel back to Europe). By a strange coincidence when she is there the public schools in NY declare a climate skip school and protest day. Greta then goes on the rest of her trip in the US (also organized, planned and funded by her Soros funded NGO) and becomes so gosh darn famous and important that Time magazine just has to choose her as their iconic Person of the Year.
Or - in a space of a year the MSM chooses someone to be famous, organizes events, gets the funding and hypes the adoring heck about a 16 year old girl and then awards her for all the hype they bestowed upon her. This would be a THE case study in the creation of fake news (if there were not so many other obvious examples going on at the same time).
So let me admit here a couple of things. Although I've read some online pieces about Greta I did not read the Time article. Thirty years ago I subscribed to Time until it became so overly liberal that I switched to Newsweek. For awhile they were a lot more balanced but after a few years they too in my opinion went over the edge. A couple of years ago I saw Time in a waiting room at a tire dealer. It was now a thin little rag devoted to some liberal cause, a minor blip that still has an annual person of the year cover which now lacks any relevance.
I also did not realize until recently that Greta had a form of Autism known as Aspergers. People that have this can be very intelligent and very high functioning. They tend to put a laser focus on things that interest them, are prone to depression (and suicide) and understand most things as black and white issues without seeing the shades of gray. It would be easy to understand then how Greta could read all of the blah blah being pushed her way, decide that the world was indeed coming to an end and that she had to do something about it.
The downside here, and this makes me really mad, is that it is now obvious that the United Nations "HOW DARE YOU!" speech was a reflection both in her voice and in her facial features of her Aspergers. It also explains the video of her at a UN panel discussion where she seemed lost, confused and inarticulate. Instead of a hero I actually see her as a poor girl being exploited for political gain by adults with an agenda who are using her age and Autism as a hammer to silence any critics or objections to what they (through Greta) are presenting.
The funny thing about the moral outrage directed to any who criticize Greta is that those people are blind to how easily they are being morally manipulated by forces that are totally devoid of morals. The main stream media has become a tool of those forces as are platforms like Twitter and the rest to advance an agenda while at the same time presenting it as a moral argument. And when your have morals not etched in stone, inscribed on your heart and based on the Word of God and are instead swimming in the ever changing tides of modern society one can easily be manipulated.
Facts matter, but you can't argue facts with people who make emotional arguments and are offended by anyone even attempting to disagree with their worldview built on shifting sand. I can still love them just like I will love Greta and pray that she will experience the deep love of God and the peace that passes understanding. At the same time I will pray that all those who are abusing her will be exposed and justly dealt with.
Sunday, December 15, 2019
Thursday, December 12, 2019
Falling Into The Pit
You would think that the opposition would at least be logical in how they appraise a situation or in what they are trying to do. Instead there has been insanity from the Left and from the Main Stream Media for the entirety of last three years. They have consistently lied, presented everything Trump has done in a negative light, twisted and then persisted in their hate for the President. And then to top it off they accuse him of doing everything they are doing or have actually done themselves.
Each time the truth comes out they react by doubling down on their lies and then lashing out at whoever is looking into their dirty deeds. Gathering from the Horowitz hearings which I watched Tuesday it is obvious that their next step will be an attempt to discredit Attorney General Barr and the Durham Report which will be even more devastating than the Horowitz Report. By the way, at the hearings today not one single Democrat asked any questions about any of the serious and illegal abuses associated with the FBI investigation. It was all spin, spin, spin.
The Russia investigation was first predicated when an undercover CIA agent set up a young Trump staffer by passing along a rumor that the Russians had the missing Clinton emails. When the staffer mentioned this to an Australian diplomat (who worked for the CIA and is now missing) in a bar overseas the CIA had inserted their first hook. They then passed that hook off to the FBI. (This is not mentioned in the Horowitz Report but it will come out in the Durham Report), The FBI then used the Steele Dossier (a totally false report created by Fusion GPS and paid for by the Clinton campaign) as the second hook. Interestingly the wife of FBI agent Bruce Orr who would be involved in the investigation worked for Fusion GPS.
The third hook was a report that the FBI or CIA leaked to a media outlet disinformation that was mentioned in the Steele Dossier, making it look as though there was independent confirmation of its contents. In order to begin a secret investigation on the Trump campaign the FBI needed to use the FISA courts. In order to get FISA court approval they used those 3 pieces of information to justify it, even though it became clear to certain agents in the FBI very early on that the Steele information was bogus.
A sad side note to this is that Robert Mueller (or his team) should have been aware of this by at least the second month of his investigation. Since there was never any "there" there the investigation should have ended then instead of going on for two more years. It was not ended because the FBI's Andrew Wiseman, who was actually running the case and who hired the 12 lawyers (all Democrats) for figurehead Mueller, had an obvious anti-Trump agenda.
So here we are. Impeachment without a crime. If you actually think so you need a lesson in history, government, common sense and really have to stop watching outlets who employ guys like ex CIA and FBI guys Brennan, Clapper and McCabe, who are all up to their necks dirty in this affair. The real crimes re the Ukraine were efforts by the Obama administration and the DNC, which influenced Ukraine to make anti-Trump statements during the 2016 election, and by Adam Shift and his staff who, in partnership with people in the CIA, set up the whole whistle blower episode. But just so no one gets too surprised, be aware that the hammer will be coming down, the truth will come out and people will be going to jail.
I want to paraphrase a few verses from Psalm 7 for you. I personally believe that God is letting the craziness continue in order to display what are the true plans and motivations of many on the Left in order to expose what is really a clear and present danger to our country.
They conceive mischief and bring forth falsehood. They have dug a pit and hollowed it out, and have fallen into the hole which they themselves have made. Their mischief will return upon their own head.
Each time the truth comes out they react by doubling down on their lies and then lashing out at whoever is looking into their dirty deeds. Gathering from the Horowitz hearings which I watched Tuesday it is obvious that their next step will be an attempt to discredit Attorney General Barr and the Durham Report which will be even more devastating than the Horowitz Report. By the way, at the hearings today not one single Democrat asked any questions about any of the serious and illegal abuses associated with the FBI investigation. It was all spin, spin, spin.
The Russia investigation was first predicated when an undercover CIA agent set up a young Trump staffer by passing along a rumor that the Russians had the missing Clinton emails. When the staffer mentioned this to an Australian diplomat (who worked for the CIA and is now missing) in a bar overseas the CIA had inserted their first hook. They then passed that hook off to the FBI. (This is not mentioned in the Horowitz Report but it will come out in the Durham Report), The FBI then used the Steele Dossier (a totally false report created by Fusion GPS and paid for by the Clinton campaign) as the second hook. Interestingly the wife of FBI agent Bruce Orr who would be involved in the investigation worked for Fusion GPS.
The third hook was a report that the FBI or CIA leaked to a media outlet disinformation that was mentioned in the Steele Dossier, making it look as though there was independent confirmation of its contents. In order to begin a secret investigation on the Trump campaign the FBI needed to use the FISA courts. In order to get FISA court approval they used those 3 pieces of information to justify it, even though it became clear to certain agents in the FBI very early on that the Steele information was bogus.
A sad side note to this is that Robert Mueller (or his team) should have been aware of this by at least the second month of his investigation. Since there was never any "there" there the investigation should have ended then instead of going on for two more years. It was not ended because the FBI's Andrew Wiseman, who was actually running the case and who hired the 12 lawyers (all Democrats) for figurehead Mueller, had an obvious anti-Trump agenda.
So here we are. Impeachment without a crime. If you actually think so you need a lesson in history, government, common sense and really have to stop watching outlets who employ guys like ex CIA and FBI guys Brennan, Clapper and McCabe, who are all up to their necks dirty in this affair. The real crimes re the Ukraine were efforts by the Obama administration and the DNC, which influenced Ukraine to make anti-Trump statements during the 2016 election, and by Adam Shift and his staff who, in partnership with people in the CIA, set up the whole whistle blower episode. But just so no one gets too surprised, be aware that the hammer will be coming down, the truth will come out and people will be going to jail.
I want to paraphrase a few verses from Psalm 7 for you. I personally believe that God is letting the craziness continue in order to display what are the true plans and motivations of many on the Left in order to expose what is really a clear and present danger to our country.
They conceive mischief and bring forth falsehood. They have dug a pit and hollowed it out, and have fallen into the hole which they themselves have made. Their mischief will return upon their own head.
Monday, November 25, 2019
All To Jesus, I Surrender
It was around this time in the month of November, 47 years ago, that I knelt down on the living room floor of our little apartment in Kalamazoo to confess my sins and asked Jesus to come into my life as Savior and as Lord and to fill me with the Holy Spirit. I had been born and raised a Catholic but was then an atheist. Earlier that year I had married a Spirit-filled Catholic woman, and there I was, now speaking in an unknown tongue and experiencing the overwhelming presence and peace that Jesus had indeed come in. He revealed Himself in such a way that I could never deny what had just happened.
I recognized even then, without any theological training, that I had surrendered the lordship of my life to Jesus and that my life was no longer mine. Obviously I knew that I would often fall far short of what His will would be for me but sensed, as I would learn later, that having died in Christ I was indeed a new creation, now part of God's family. And as a bonus, by surrendering to the move of the Holy Spirit in me, I had also surrendered and opened up many areas of my soul that might put up barriers to my relationship with God.
Here is a point that I want to make clear when we talk about how we go about obeying the will of the Father. Salvation is to the spirit. Baptism of the Holy Spirit is to the soul.
When we are born again it is our spirit man that is changed from death to new life in Christ. In our spirit we are now perfect, holy and redeemed in the Father's sight and that is now a place where the Holy Spirit can reside. The Father's will from the beginning was to give us revelation of His will from the Holy Spirit, through our spirit, to minister to our soul and from there to our body.
At death the spirit/soul is separated from the body and for the believer the spirit/soul goes to be with the Father. The rebirth of the spirit affects the soul as well. The difference is that although the reborn spirit is now perfect we have a soul that, although redeemed, still needs to be conformed to the image of Christ.
The fall was the result of man desiring the knowledge of good and evil apart from the direction of the Father through the Holy Spirit. And the result of the fall was that the spirit of man in effect died and became separated from God and the soul of man took charge, subject to it's own weakness and to the weakness of the desires of the body.
The answer of the world to the fall is religion, or, we do things or act a certain way to earn something and thus justify ourselves before God. In all religion it is the soul of man that stays in charge.
And sadly, although the believing Church talks about redemption through the free gift of what Jesus did on the cross, our walking out our salvation can sometimes look an awful lot like religion. The emphasis in many places is completely backward. People are taught that they can come into a deeper relationship with God by striving toward obedience and holiness. And that striving is often a struggle because the soul, apart from the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is trying to overcome its own weaknesses as well as the desires of the flesh.
I contend instead that obedience and holiness should be a natural out working of a deep and mature relationship with God. We seek Him. We become sensitive to the Father's will and develop a deeper relationship with Him through prayer, through the faithful reading of His Word and through the influence of the Holy Spirit. Thus the desire to be obedient to the will of God comes from and through that relationship. The Holy Spirit moves through our spirit to influence our soul. This makes obedience so much easier. We will now be acting out of a desire born of love and the desire to honor that love.
Now the Holy Spirit does move to one degree or another in the soul's of all who become born again. Many old desires are changed and the soul often surrenders certain aspects of control to the Spirit of God. Old sinful ways are set aside. Godly fruit is demonstrated. Christian growth becomes evident and various ministry abilities spring forth. However the soul is very complex. It contains our personality, our memories, the effects of our past experiences, our desires and so much more. In many of those areas the soul has barriers (probably because of fear) where it does not allow the Holy Spirit to freely move or maybe even to enter.
From observation I would say that most born again believers actually desire a closer relationship with God and the ability to live a life submitted to His will. They just don't know how to go about it. They don't know how to remove the barriers still set up in the soul. When the Church, in it's desire to create better disciples, presents a list of things that a person should avoid or must strive to accomplish, it may actually result in producing guilt or frustration. Sound spiritual advice must be partnered with the spiritual means to achieve the goal.
That same sense of guilt or frustration can come about for people involved in groups with a strong spiritual authority figure where there is an emphasis on instilling "holiness" or an "overcomer" lifestyle. This usually goes to a place where people lose all the freedom and joy they should be having in the Spirit. What was begun in the Spirit cannot be completed in the flesh, no matter how spiritual it sounds.
Would it not be so much better instead to show people that perfect love overcomes all fear and to demonstrate how we can experience that love by surrendering to the move and power of the Holy Spirit? We open up the door to a more excellent way but we must allow the Holy Spirit to walk the person through it. At salvation I surrendered my life to Jesus. I also surrendered as an act of faith my tongue to a language the Spirit gave me, which opened my door to a much greater infilling of the Holy Spirit.
So much happened in those beginning months. Behavior changed, friends changed and I counted it all joy. It was a process and it still is a process. The Holy Spirit fills us but we need to keep emptying Him out (by responding to the direction of the Spirit) so that He can refill us a fresh.
And that is a key. The Holy Spirit is never stale. He will always move in fresh and more amazing ways. The gifts, fruits and the power of the Spirit as demonstrated in the Bible are for all of us today. There is joy and faith, a peace that passes understanding and a closer relationship with God where we can actually say and feel, every day, Abba, Father. But even more important there comes with the Spirit an ability to live a life holy and pleasing to the Lord.
Take some of your precious time and devote it to seeking His presence. Take a risk and surrender your tongue and your whole being to the infilling of the Holy Spirit. He is a gentleman and will only bring you as far as you are willing to go. That said, surrender the fear that is holding you back and receive in turn what your Loving Father has designed especially for you from before you were even born. It is much more than you could ever imagine!
Come to Me all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (Matthew 11: 28 - 30)
I recognized even then, without any theological training, that I had surrendered the lordship of my life to Jesus and that my life was no longer mine. Obviously I knew that I would often fall far short of what His will would be for me but sensed, as I would learn later, that having died in Christ I was indeed a new creation, now part of God's family. And as a bonus, by surrendering to the move of the Holy Spirit in me, I had also surrendered and opened up many areas of my soul that might put up barriers to my relationship with God.
Here is a point that I want to make clear when we talk about how we go about obeying the will of the Father. Salvation is to the spirit. Baptism of the Holy Spirit is to the soul.
When we are born again it is our spirit man that is changed from death to new life in Christ. In our spirit we are now perfect, holy and redeemed in the Father's sight and that is now a place where the Holy Spirit can reside. The Father's will from the beginning was to give us revelation of His will from the Holy Spirit, through our spirit, to minister to our soul and from there to our body.
At death the spirit/soul is separated from the body and for the believer the spirit/soul goes to be with the Father. The rebirth of the spirit affects the soul as well. The difference is that although the reborn spirit is now perfect we have a soul that, although redeemed, still needs to be conformed to the image of Christ.
The fall was the result of man desiring the knowledge of good and evil apart from the direction of the Father through the Holy Spirit. And the result of the fall was that the spirit of man in effect died and became separated from God and the soul of man took charge, subject to it's own weakness and to the weakness of the desires of the body.
The answer of the world to the fall is religion, or, we do things or act a certain way to earn something and thus justify ourselves before God. In all religion it is the soul of man that stays in charge.
And sadly, although the believing Church talks about redemption through the free gift of what Jesus did on the cross, our walking out our salvation can sometimes look an awful lot like religion. The emphasis in many places is completely backward. People are taught that they can come into a deeper relationship with God by striving toward obedience and holiness. And that striving is often a struggle because the soul, apart from the guidance of the Holy Spirit, is trying to overcome its own weaknesses as well as the desires of the flesh.
I contend instead that obedience and holiness should be a natural out working of a deep and mature relationship with God. We seek Him. We become sensitive to the Father's will and develop a deeper relationship with Him through prayer, through the faithful reading of His Word and through the influence of the Holy Spirit. Thus the desire to be obedient to the will of God comes from and through that relationship. The Holy Spirit moves through our spirit to influence our soul. This makes obedience so much easier. We will now be acting out of a desire born of love and the desire to honor that love.
Now the Holy Spirit does move to one degree or another in the soul's of all who become born again. Many old desires are changed and the soul often surrenders certain aspects of control to the Spirit of God. Old sinful ways are set aside. Godly fruit is demonstrated. Christian growth becomes evident and various ministry abilities spring forth. However the soul is very complex. It contains our personality, our memories, the effects of our past experiences, our desires and so much more. In many of those areas the soul has barriers (probably because of fear) where it does not allow the Holy Spirit to freely move or maybe even to enter.
From observation I would say that most born again believers actually desire a closer relationship with God and the ability to live a life submitted to His will. They just don't know how to go about it. They don't know how to remove the barriers still set up in the soul. When the Church, in it's desire to create better disciples, presents a list of things that a person should avoid or must strive to accomplish, it may actually result in producing guilt or frustration. Sound spiritual advice must be partnered with the spiritual means to achieve the goal.
That same sense of guilt or frustration can come about for people involved in groups with a strong spiritual authority figure where there is an emphasis on instilling "holiness" or an "overcomer" lifestyle. This usually goes to a place where people lose all the freedom and joy they should be having in the Spirit. What was begun in the Spirit cannot be completed in the flesh, no matter how spiritual it sounds.
Would it not be so much better instead to show people that perfect love overcomes all fear and to demonstrate how we can experience that love by surrendering to the move and power of the Holy Spirit? We open up the door to a more excellent way but we must allow the Holy Spirit to walk the person through it. At salvation I surrendered my life to Jesus. I also surrendered as an act of faith my tongue to a language the Spirit gave me, which opened my door to a much greater infilling of the Holy Spirit.
So much happened in those beginning months. Behavior changed, friends changed and I counted it all joy. It was a process and it still is a process. The Holy Spirit fills us but we need to keep emptying Him out (by responding to the direction of the Spirit) so that He can refill us a fresh.
And that is a key. The Holy Spirit is never stale. He will always move in fresh and more amazing ways. The gifts, fruits and the power of the Spirit as demonstrated in the Bible are for all of us today. There is joy and faith, a peace that passes understanding and a closer relationship with God where we can actually say and feel, every day, Abba, Father. But even more important there comes with the Spirit an ability to live a life holy and pleasing to the Lord.
Take some of your precious time and devote it to seeking His presence. Take a risk and surrender your tongue and your whole being to the infilling of the Holy Spirit. He is a gentleman and will only bring you as far as you are willing to go. That said, surrender the fear that is holding you back and receive in turn what your Loving Father has designed especially for you from before you were even born. It is much more than you could ever imagine!
Come to Me all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light. (Matthew 11: 28 - 30)
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Key Words
The 2020 elections are now just a bit less than a year away. With that in mind I thought I would come up with a list of a dozen keys words for Conservatives to remember when we head to the voting booth next November. Problem was, I got up to 12 and then others kept popping into my mind. So for your enjoyment (or maybe enlightenment), here they are (read slowly for best effect).
.
Abortion
Resist
TDS
Pussy hats
Border Security
Supreme Court
Federal Court appointments
Kavanaugh hearings
Covington Kids defamation
US Embassy to Jerusalem
Impeachment
Clinton paid Steele Dossier
Adam Shift lies
Read the Mueller Report
Confused Robert Muller
Adam Shift secret hearings
Read the transcript
Antifa
Twitter mob
Algorithm censorship
YouTube demonetization
MSM 24/7 bias
Hollywood hate
"Good people" distortion
"Racism, racism, racism"
Identity politics
Men and Women are different?
The Swamp
Comey
Brennen
Clapper
McCabe
Struk
Socialism
Marxism
Anti-Semitism
The Squad
1st Amendment
2nd Amendment
The Constitution
America's Founders
American pride
Religious liberty
Arlene's Florist
Masterpiece Cake Shop
No Mexico City Accord
No money for Planned Parenthood
No Paris Climate Accord
No crazy Iran deal
Hostage's released
Less Federal regulations
Dismantled Obamacare
Destroyed Isis Caliphate
Dead Al Baghbadi
Domestic manufacturing growth
Do nothing Dems
USMCA Trade Deal
Middle class tax break
6 million new jobs
3.5 % unemployment
Real wage growth
Low inflation
Lower drug prices
Record Dow
Rebuilt military
Better care for Vets
U.S. world's largest energy producer
Project Veritas
Chuck and Nancy as American Gothic
China
Air Force 2
Hunter
Burisma
DNC deals with Ukraine
Slow slow Sleepy Joe
Crazy Bernie
Pocahontas
50 TRILLION government health care
70 TRILLION Green New Deal
Obama election interference
Harvey Weinstein
Pedophiles
Private island flights for Bill
Mega bucks for Hill
- and of course -
Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself
.
Abortion
Resist
TDS
Pussy hats
Border Security
Supreme Court
Federal Court appointments
Kavanaugh hearings
Covington Kids defamation
US Embassy to Jerusalem
Impeachment
Clinton paid Steele Dossier
Adam Shift lies
Read the Mueller Report
Confused Robert Muller
Adam Shift secret hearings
Read the transcript
Antifa
Twitter mob
Algorithm censorship
YouTube demonetization
MSM 24/7 bias
Hollywood hate
"Good people" distortion
"Racism, racism, racism"
Identity politics
Men and Women are different?
The Swamp
Comey
Brennen
Clapper
McCabe
Struk
Socialism
Marxism
Anti-Semitism
The Squad
1st Amendment
2nd Amendment
The Constitution
America's Founders
American pride
Religious liberty
Arlene's Florist
Masterpiece Cake Shop
No Mexico City Accord
No money for Planned Parenthood
No Paris Climate Accord
No crazy Iran deal
Hostage's released
Less Federal regulations
Dismantled Obamacare
Destroyed Isis Caliphate
Dead Al Baghbadi
Domestic manufacturing growth
Do nothing Dems
USMCA Trade Deal
Middle class tax break
6 million new jobs
3.5 % unemployment
Real wage growth
Low inflation
Lower drug prices
Record Dow
Rebuilt military
Better care for Vets
U.S. world's largest energy producer
Project Veritas
Chuck and Nancy as American Gothic
China
Air Force 2
Hunter
Burisma
DNC deals with Ukraine
Slow slow Sleepy Joe
Crazy Bernie
Pocahontas
50 TRILLION government health care
70 TRILLION Green New Deal
Obama election interference
Harvey Weinstein
Pedophiles
Private island flights for Bill
Mega bucks for Hill
- and of course -
Jeffrey Epstein didn't kill himself
Sunday, November 3, 2019
I Will Teach You The Fear Of The Lord
It says many times throughout Scripture that fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. This is in such great contrast to the society we live in today where even in many areas of the Church there is a laissez-faire attitude toward what God's perfect will is for us. I think for most people we mistake God's grace for God's permission.
Paul makes the argument in Romans that as believers we are no longer under The Law. The Law did not come to justify anyone but it came instead to demonstrate that all men fall short of what God's will for us is. The law actually made man's transgressions against God increase,
When Jesus came His death made right for us all of the requirements of The Law. Although man's sins are many and great the grace that God provides through the death and resurrection of Jesus are even greater. Paul then says in Roman's 6:1-2.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be!
By our confession that we have sinned against God, and our desire that what Jesus did on the cross for the forgiveness of sins He did for us personally, we join ourselves into the death of Jesus.
Paul then says;
If we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin, for he who has died is free from sin. v 5-7
Well, praise the Lord! Every believer needs to know that they do not need to fear death (wondering if they have done enough to please God) because when we have joined into Christ's death we also have joined into His resurrection. Death no longer has a hold on us. We can rejoice that even when we fall short of God's perfect will for us He is always there like a loving Father, willing to forgive and anxious that we do better.
Yet even so, God is awesome beyond our comprehension and righteous and holy in all things. The Father's desire is that even as we have become like Christ in His death we also become like Him in His life.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your body so you obey its lusts and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness . . . for sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. v 11-14
I do not have a fear of losing my salvation and I daily rejoice in all that God is doing and has done in my life. Worshiping Him is wonderful and prayer and reading the Bible help show me His will and connect me with Him on a personal level, always challenging me to do better.
There are things though that make me tremble. I do not want to dishonor God in any way. I do not want to take His grace for granted. I try to avoid going outside the safe boundaries He has set for me, such as what I read, watch or listen to, where I go, what I drink, where my mind wanders and what I do.
I recognize that we are in a battle with an enemy who constantly seeks to steal, dishonor, corrupt, kill and destroy all that has been given by God to declare His glory, and it would crush me to think that I have partaken in the enemy's plans.
A major deception of the enemy is to prevent us from knowing what God's will is and what His boundaries are. The Bible is attacked, ignored or distorted and the tugs in man's conscious are overcome by false doctrines teaching that there are no moral constants and that God's main desire is that we find and do the things that make us happy.
I believe there is coming a time when a great fear of the Lord will sweep through the Church and then spread through society. Even believers will put aside all that has been petty and look into their own hearts and cry out for mercy. God's presence will be more manifest and we will approach it in fear and trembling.
Until then let us continue to open up the Word and to take seriously all that the Holy Spirit is showing us.
Psalm 34: 4-11.
.
I sought the Lord and He answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
They looked to Him and were radiant
and their faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor man cried and the Lord delivered him
and saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord (Jesus) encamps around
those who fear Him, and rescues them.
O taste and see that the Lord is good,
how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
O fear the Lord you His saints
for to those who fear Him there is no want.
The young lions do lack and suffer hunger
but they who seek the Lord shall not be in want
of any good thing.
Come you children, listen to me.
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
Paul makes the argument in Romans that as believers we are no longer under The Law. The Law did not come to justify anyone but it came instead to demonstrate that all men fall short of what God's will for us is. The law actually made man's transgressions against God increase,
When Jesus came His death made right for us all of the requirements of The Law. Although man's sins are many and great the grace that God provides through the death and resurrection of Jesus are even greater. Paul then says in Roman's 6:1-2.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be!
By our confession that we have sinned against God, and our desire that what Jesus did on the cross for the forgiveness of sins He did for us personally, we join ourselves into the death of Jesus.
Paul then says;
If we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin, for he who has died is free from sin. v 5-7
Well, praise the Lord! Every believer needs to know that they do not need to fear death (wondering if they have done enough to please God) because when we have joined into Christ's death we also have joined into His resurrection. Death no longer has a hold on us. We can rejoice that even when we fall short of God's perfect will for us He is always there like a loving Father, willing to forgive and anxious that we do better.
Yet even so, God is awesome beyond our comprehension and righteous and holy in all things. The Father's desire is that even as we have become like Christ in His death we also become like Him in His life.
Therefore do not let sin reign in your body so you obey its lusts and do not go on presenting the members of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness . . . for sin shall not be master over you, for you are not under law but under grace. v 11-14
I do not have a fear of losing my salvation and I daily rejoice in all that God is doing and has done in my life. Worshiping Him is wonderful and prayer and reading the Bible help show me His will and connect me with Him on a personal level, always challenging me to do better.
There are things though that make me tremble. I do not want to dishonor God in any way. I do not want to take His grace for granted. I try to avoid going outside the safe boundaries He has set for me, such as what I read, watch or listen to, where I go, what I drink, where my mind wanders and what I do.
I recognize that we are in a battle with an enemy who constantly seeks to steal, dishonor, corrupt, kill and destroy all that has been given by God to declare His glory, and it would crush me to think that I have partaken in the enemy's plans.
A major deception of the enemy is to prevent us from knowing what God's will is and what His boundaries are. The Bible is attacked, ignored or distorted and the tugs in man's conscious are overcome by false doctrines teaching that there are no moral constants and that God's main desire is that we find and do the things that make us happy.
I believe there is coming a time when a great fear of the Lord will sweep through the Church and then spread through society. Even believers will put aside all that has been petty and look into their own hearts and cry out for mercy. God's presence will be more manifest and we will approach it in fear and trembling.
Until then let us continue to open up the Word and to take seriously all that the Holy Spirit is showing us.
Psalm 34: 4-11.
.
I sought the Lord and He answered me
and delivered me from all my fears.
They looked to Him and were radiant
and their faces shall never be ashamed.
This poor man cried and the Lord delivered him
and saved him out of all his troubles.
The angel of the Lord (Jesus) encamps around
those who fear Him, and rescues them.
O taste and see that the Lord is good,
how blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him!
O fear the Lord you His saints
for to those who fear Him there is no want.
The young lions do lack and suffer hunger
but they who seek the Lord shall not be in want
of any good thing.
Come you children, listen to me.
I will teach you the fear of the Lord.
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Seeing Red
A lot of people I am related to are dyed in the wool liberals. Some of them are even radical progressives. They are wonderful and generous people who would give an arm or a leg to anyone in need. They loved President Obama, could not believe that any sane person would vote for President Trump and thought that Hillary Clinton would continue to implement their progressive vision to fundamentally change who and what America is. They believe the world and America was in the midst of a historic and inevitable metamorphose where enlightened leaders would ensure equality and fairness for all.
November 8, 2016 was thus a tremendous shock to their mental and emotional state. Like what was expressed by liberals and the main stream media throughout the country, there was never for a moment a wait and see attitude as to how things would play out. It was hate Trump from the very first moment and that Trump hate was openly expressed against any who dared to express any kind of support for the new President.
For the last 3 years they have been convinced that orange man bad would be removed, that Republicans would regret ever voting for him and that the next election would return sanity to themselves as well as to the country.
In an effort then to help them avoid any further mental breakdowns when the results are announced early in the evening of November 3, 2020 and instead ease into a grudging acceptance earlier, I thought it would be a loving thing to provide some statistics and information they may not normally be exposed to.
The first thing to mention is that the trend in the Western world today is away from Internationalism and Progressiveism and toward National Populism. This is demonstrated in Great Britain by the Brerxit movement, where the ruling class in Westminster and the liberal press wanted and still want to stay in the EU but 60% of the population voted to leave. You can see it in Canada where just yesterday in their national elections Trudeau's Liberal party, although his collation still retains power, lost a fairly large number of seats and now holds less than the Conservative party. You can see the same trends happening in France, Poland, Austria, Italy, Netherlands, Germany and Brazil. Check out Dr. Steve Turley's YouTube videos for commentaries on these trends.
The second thing to mention is that Moody Analytics, which has been right about every election since 1980 (except for Trump's in 2016, due to large swings in previous voting patterns) foresee a Trump victory in the Electoral College in all 3 of the categories they measure. In 2016 Trump beat Clinton 304 to 226. Now Moody's Jobs metrics predicts Trump will increase his electoral seats to 326 and the Pocketbook metrics predicts an increase to 351 seats. If the economy tanks between now and the election they may have some hope but Moody has already factored some of that possibility into their calculations.
The third thing they should know is that unlike what they may be hearing from the main stream media (MSM) and the Internet sites they frequent, there is not any significant defection away from President Trump. He currently has a 95% approval rating from his base and his base of support has been rapidly growing.
Here is a statistic that is very interesting. A few weeks ago President Trump held a rally in New Mexico. There were 45,000 people who came. Fifteen thousand were able to be inside the auditorium and thirty thousand outside. Here are statistics that were compiled from those 45,000. Forty per cent of them were Hispanic. Thirty per cent had previously voted Democrat. Twenty per cent were people who had not voted in the last 4 presidential elections.
Those numbers reinforce trends that are being recorded nationwide. In 2016 Trump drew in large numbers of people who had not voted before because they believed their vote never counted. That is one reason Congress went Republican in 2016 but lost seats in 2018 because Trump was not on the ballot. I believe it is reasonable to expect that they and many more like them will show up to vote in 2020.
Hispanic support for President Trump has already jumped 10 points since he was elected and continues to trend higher.
For many decades eighty-seven per cent of Blacks on average have voted Democrat and that is about what Trump received in 2016. Several things have happened since that time. The first is the availability and popularity of many outside sources of information which have started to erode the illusion that Blacks have to vote Democrat. I'll mention just two of them.
The first is a movement to leave the Democrat Party, started by young and charismatic Candace Owens, which is also known as Blexit (think Black Exit). The second is the #Walk Away campaign (walk away from the Democrat Party) which shows thousands of homemade testimonials which combined have many millions of views where people (I would say at least half of them either Blacks or Hispanic) tell about their "red pill" moment. Go to YouTube and check out #Walk Away.
Those type of influences, combined with a strong economy, rising wages, historically low Black unemployment and much more are indications that President Trump's support from Blacks may be much higher than the 15% currently predicted for 2020. A Rasmussen poll done in August this year showed a 32% job approval rating from Blacks for the President.
Another factor to consider is the Ecumenical vote. In 2016 we had a situation where there were 3 things about Trump that they had concerns about. Those were his past behaviors including sexual infidelities, his lack of Christian character that he portrayed publicly, and a nagging feeling that he was actually a liberal in sheep clothing. The votes President Trump got from the Ecumenical community were received because those that did vote recognized that there was no chance that Clinton would support any policy that was deeply important to them but there was at least somewhat of a chance that they would be under a Trump Presidency.
But here is the deal you should be aware of. A heck of a lot of Ecumenicals did not vote for president or they voted for a write-in candidate. Today any behavior by Trump that we know about before he got elected is no longer a concern to that group. His brash manner still is but in large part is discounted because of a number of factors. And because President Trump has followed through on all of his conservative promises and has championed religious freedom and pro life positions there will be a huge increase of Ecumenical votes cast for Trump in 2020.
There has also been a sea change of where and how people receive their information. Cable news has been on a long decline but viewership for outlets like CNN and MSNBC have been dropping like a stone. A recent poll showed that only 6% of the population has any trust that the MSM is unbiased. There are now numerous Conservative sites such as The Daily Wire that have razor sharp commentators and millions of more views than an outlet like CNN. The MSM's 95% negative coverage from day one of Trump has greatly contributed to their soon coming death.
One way we can gauge this is by noticing that although impeachment has been a political strategy for the Left since the day of Trump's election, that after 2 1/2 years of their made up Russian accusations and now a month of their Ukraine gambit, impeachment is near the bottom of the average American's concerns. Almost everybody in the fly over states know what the deal is not and many actually suspect that in the end the Left and the DNC are going to end up holding the bag.
Which leads to my last point. Progressives are the loud and vocal part of the Democrat party. My guess is they comprise less than a third of this countries voting electric but that means they have a majority of the influence in their party. It has been noted that the concerns of a large section of traditional Democrat voters, such as those in the traditional manufacturing blue states, has been ignored by the radical Left. A good number switched and voted Republican in 2016 and I would bet that they were just the tip of the iceberg of the switch we will see in 2020.
The lack of any moderate voices in the MSM, or from the leaders of the Democratic Party, or from any of the current crop of Presidential candidates has exposed their true Progressive agenda which I believe in the end will result in either a split or an implosion of the Democrat Party from which it may take them decades to recover.
So get yourselves ready for a visit to a nice relaxing spa. We are not just talking Trump 2020. Get ready for a President Pence 2024.
November 8, 2016 was thus a tremendous shock to their mental and emotional state. Like what was expressed by liberals and the main stream media throughout the country, there was never for a moment a wait and see attitude as to how things would play out. It was hate Trump from the very first moment and that Trump hate was openly expressed against any who dared to express any kind of support for the new President.
For the last 3 years they have been convinced that orange man bad would be removed, that Republicans would regret ever voting for him and that the next election would return sanity to themselves as well as to the country.
In an effort then to help them avoid any further mental breakdowns when the results are announced early in the evening of November 3, 2020 and instead ease into a grudging acceptance earlier, I thought it would be a loving thing to provide some statistics and information they may not normally be exposed to.
The first thing to mention is that the trend in the Western world today is away from Internationalism and Progressiveism and toward National Populism. This is demonstrated in Great Britain by the Brerxit movement, where the ruling class in Westminster and the liberal press wanted and still want to stay in the EU but 60% of the population voted to leave. You can see it in Canada where just yesterday in their national elections Trudeau's Liberal party, although his collation still retains power, lost a fairly large number of seats and now holds less than the Conservative party. You can see the same trends happening in France, Poland, Austria, Italy, Netherlands, Germany and Brazil. Check out Dr. Steve Turley's YouTube videos for commentaries on these trends.
The second thing to mention is that Moody Analytics, which has been right about every election since 1980 (except for Trump's in 2016, due to large swings in previous voting patterns) foresee a Trump victory in the Electoral College in all 3 of the categories they measure. In 2016 Trump beat Clinton 304 to 226. Now Moody's Jobs metrics predicts Trump will increase his electoral seats to 326 and the Pocketbook metrics predicts an increase to 351 seats. If the economy tanks between now and the election they may have some hope but Moody has already factored some of that possibility into their calculations.
The third thing they should know is that unlike what they may be hearing from the main stream media (MSM) and the Internet sites they frequent, there is not any significant defection away from President Trump. He currently has a 95% approval rating from his base and his base of support has been rapidly growing.
Here is a statistic that is very interesting. A few weeks ago President Trump held a rally in New Mexico. There were 45,000 people who came. Fifteen thousand were able to be inside the auditorium and thirty thousand outside. Here are statistics that were compiled from those 45,000. Forty per cent of them were Hispanic. Thirty per cent had previously voted Democrat. Twenty per cent were people who had not voted in the last 4 presidential elections.
Those numbers reinforce trends that are being recorded nationwide. In 2016 Trump drew in large numbers of people who had not voted before because they believed their vote never counted. That is one reason Congress went Republican in 2016 but lost seats in 2018 because Trump was not on the ballot. I believe it is reasonable to expect that they and many more like them will show up to vote in 2020.
Hispanic support for President Trump has already jumped 10 points since he was elected and continues to trend higher.
For many decades eighty-seven per cent of Blacks on average have voted Democrat and that is about what Trump received in 2016. Several things have happened since that time. The first is the availability and popularity of many outside sources of information which have started to erode the illusion that Blacks have to vote Democrat. I'll mention just two of them.
The first is a movement to leave the Democrat Party, started by young and charismatic Candace Owens, which is also known as Blexit (think Black Exit). The second is the #Walk Away campaign (walk away from the Democrat Party) which shows thousands of homemade testimonials which combined have many millions of views where people (I would say at least half of them either Blacks or Hispanic) tell about their "red pill" moment. Go to YouTube and check out #Walk Away.
Those type of influences, combined with a strong economy, rising wages, historically low Black unemployment and much more are indications that President Trump's support from Blacks may be much higher than the 15% currently predicted for 2020. A Rasmussen poll done in August this year showed a 32% job approval rating from Blacks for the President.
Another factor to consider is the Ecumenical vote. In 2016 we had a situation where there were 3 things about Trump that they had concerns about. Those were his past behaviors including sexual infidelities, his lack of Christian character that he portrayed publicly, and a nagging feeling that he was actually a liberal in sheep clothing. The votes President Trump got from the Ecumenical community were received because those that did vote recognized that there was no chance that Clinton would support any policy that was deeply important to them but there was at least somewhat of a chance that they would be under a Trump Presidency.
But here is the deal you should be aware of. A heck of a lot of Ecumenicals did not vote for president or they voted for a write-in candidate. Today any behavior by Trump that we know about before he got elected is no longer a concern to that group. His brash manner still is but in large part is discounted because of a number of factors. And because President Trump has followed through on all of his conservative promises and has championed religious freedom and pro life positions there will be a huge increase of Ecumenical votes cast for Trump in 2020.
There has also been a sea change of where and how people receive their information. Cable news has been on a long decline but viewership for outlets like CNN and MSNBC have been dropping like a stone. A recent poll showed that only 6% of the population has any trust that the MSM is unbiased. There are now numerous Conservative sites such as The Daily Wire that have razor sharp commentators and millions of more views than an outlet like CNN. The MSM's 95% negative coverage from day one of Trump has greatly contributed to their soon coming death.
One way we can gauge this is by noticing that although impeachment has been a political strategy for the Left since the day of Trump's election, that after 2 1/2 years of their made up Russian accusations and now a month of their Ukraine gambit, impeachment is near the bottom of the average American's concerns. Almost everybody in the fly over states know what the deal is not and many actually suspect that in the end the Left and the DNC are going to end up holding the bag.
Which leads to my last point. Progressives are the loud and vocal part of the Democrat party. My guess is they comprise less than a third of this countries voting electric but that means they have a majority of the influence in their party. It has been noted that the concerns of a large section of traditional Democrat voters, such as those in the traditional manufacturing blue states, has been ignored by the radical Left. A good number switched and voted Republican in 2016 and I would bet that they were just the tip of the iceberg of the switch we will see in 2020.
The lack of any moderate voices in the MSM, or from the leaders of the Democratic Party, or from any of the current crop of Presidential candidates has exposed their true Progressive agenda which I believe in the end will result in either a split or an implosion of the Democrat Party from which it may take them decades to recover.
So get yourselves ready for a visit to a nice relaxing spa. We are not just talking Trump 2020. Get ready for a President Pence 2024.
Monday, October 14, 2019
Does Solar Power Make Sense For Me?
Today I read an article talking about California's wildfires and their effect on California's energy grid. When the terrible fires happened last year many people believed that a number of those fires were caused by sparks that came from power lines. This led to law suits which led to the main electric provide in Northern California turning off the power grid this year during certain high fire risk periods. Today there are wide areas in Northern California without electric power.
One of the surprises that came from this is that many people who were equipped with solar panels found out that their solar systems would not provide any electricity to their homes during a power outage. That is because the typical solar system does not store the electricity it produces into a battery system from which the house then draws upon but rather transfers produced electricity into the electrical grid of the power company. Thus without an electrical storage system and without the house being wired to directly utilize solar power there will not be electricity for the home to use.
When a home system is producing electricity under the typical system the home's electric meter slows down accordingly and the home owner is only charged for any excess current they use. If the power company accepts what is known as Net Metering and the home system produces more current that what the home uses for a month then the power company will credit that amount to the home owner's electric bill. The one catch to that is that while the electric company charges it's customer a retail rate they often only credit them for excess production at a wholesale rate which is substantially lower.
But finding that out did get me thinking about what would be my cost here in West Michigan to install a roof solar panel system and how long would the actual payback be. I have not talked to any solar provider companies or any actual people who currently have roof top solar panels but I have done a little research and here is what I have discovered.
Checking my electric bill from the local Board of Public Works I found that during the last 12 months I used in my 1300 sq. ft. house 7115 kW hours of electricity. The overall BPW charge for our electric figures out to be .127 per kW hr. My annual electric usage equaled $904. Michigan prices for electric are usually a bit higher than the national average. A little over a year ago our BPW finished building a new power plant and converted from coal to natural gas which is supposed to be much cleaner and less expensive.
According to what I was able to find out on line the average solar customer installs a 6200 kW system which would seem about right if my annual usage is 7115 kW's. In Michigan the average cost for roof top solar panels is $4.11 per kW. That means a 6200 kW installation would cost me if I paid in cash $25,482. I don't know if that is before or after taxes.
For some reason the government has offered pretty big incentives for people to install solar power. This seems pretty much a crock to me for a whole lot of reasons, about which I could write from here to the end of next week. However, let's get back to what my cost would be to install solar.
Until the end of 2019 the Federal Government will, if you install a solar system this year, reduce what you would owe in taxes this year up to 30% of what it costs you to install a solar system. In 2020 that amount reduces to 26%, in 2021 I'm not sure but I think it's something like 20% and the incentive program expires at the end of 2021. Maybe something else will come up but if I am thinking about solar I either need to do something soon or hope that a breakthrough in technology would make an investment practical.
There also may be local incentives offered by my city or even by the BPW to become more energy efficient. I'm not sure if or what those are but perhaps they can add up to another $4 - 6 thousand dollars. I'm not going to include those numbers below but you are welcome to do the math yourselves later on.
So let's say I decide on installing a $25,482 6200 kW system next year. I would need to pay the full amount, and then to qualify for the 26%, $6000 plus government money, make sure to withhold that much from my 2020 tax estimates which will then reduce my tax owed by April 15 of 2021 by that amount. Thus after a year if I install in the Spring the actual cost for the system would be $19,366.
To figure the length of pay back I multiply 6200 kW hrs per year X my BPW rate of .129 kW hr. which equals an annual savings on my electric bill of $787. And at $787 per year it would take me 25 years to break even. Solar systems are supposed to be good for 25 years so in theory every year after that my electric bill would be only $117 per year.
There are however a few things to consider with solar. On the plus side, what I pay for electric may very well go up during those 25 years which would increase the amount I would be saving and thus reduce the actual payback period.
On the other hand there are a few negatives to consider. Apart from possible maintenance costs, like equipment breakdowns, cleaning, snow and tree branch removal, and the need to spend $10 -12 thousand dollars on new roof shingles before solar installation, there are solar energy efficiency questions when living in West Michigan and where I live in particular. A 6200 kW system might possibly produce 6200 kW's per year in a place like Arizona. But where I live we get a lot of clouds, a fair amount of snow, there are woods west of us across the street which block direct sunlight for the last hour of the day, and the trees near us produce a fair amount of pollen. I don't know how to actually calculate all of this but if my panels produce only 60% of capacity then my annual payback then becomes $472 which would equal a 41 year pay back.
Since I will turn 70 next year solar does not seem to be something that I will get too excited about.
Most of the information I could find on line whether solar is a good investment comes one way or another from companies that want to sell and install their solar panels. Each one assures me how wonderful a system would be. After watching U Tube videos of people who have installed systems I have come to the conclusion that the actual reason, apart from those that live off grid and need solar, or perhaps those who live in very sunny areas where the costs might be much different, is that installing solar makes them fell good about themselves.
They ignore the fact that Chinese miners earning slave wages dig out the dirty materials currently needed for solar panel production. They buy into the claim that man made CO2 is somehow any different than naturally produced CO2 (CO2 being the food that all plants eat) and buy into a claim, despite historic evidence showing the opposite, that any warming of the planet will be a disaster and must have been caused by the actions of man and can likewise be reduced by the actions of man.
But like I said, I'm almost 70. If I could invest now for something that would have a decent return much earlier and reduce what I would need to pay for utilities when I finally stop working it would be worth it. Hmm, maybe I'll check out wind.
One of the surprises that came from this is that many people who were equipped with solar panels found out that their solar systems would not provide any electricity to their homes during a power outage. That is because the typical solar system does not store the electricity it produces into a battery system from which the house then draws upon but rather transfers produced electricity into the electrical grid of the power company. Thus without an electrical storage system and without the house being wired to directly utilize solar power there will not be electricity for the home to use.
When a home system is producing electricity under the typical system the home's electric meter slows down accordingly and the home owner is only charged for any excess current they use. If the power company accepts what is known as Net Metering and the home system produces more current that what the home uses for a month then the power company will credit that amount to the home owner's electric bill. The one catch to that is that while the electric company charges it's customer a retail rate they often only credit them for excess production at a wholesale rate which is substantially lower.
But finding that out did get me thinking about what would be my cost here in West Michigan to install a roof solar panel system and how long would the actual payback be. I have not talked to any solar provider companies or any actual people who currently have roof top solar panels but I have done a little research and here is what I have discovered.
Checking my electric bill from the local Board of Public Works I found that during the last 12 months I used in my 1300 sq. ft. house 7115 kW hours of electricity. The overall BPW charge for our electric figures out to be .127 per kW hr. My annual electric usage equaled $904. Michigan prices for electric are usually a bit higher than the national average. A little over a year ago our BPW finished building a new power plant and converted from coal to natural gas which is supposed to be much cleaner and less expensive.
According to what I was able to find out on line the average solar customer installs a 6200 kW system which would seem about right if my annual usage is 7115 kW's. In Michigan the average cost for roof top solar panels is $4.11 per kW. That means a 6200 kW installation would cost me if I paid in cash $25,482. I don't know if that is before or after taxes.
For some reason the government has offered pretty big incentives for people to install solar power. This seems pretty much a crock to me for a whole lot of reasons, about which I could write from here to the end of next week. However, let's get back to what my cost would be to install solar.
Until the end of 2019 the Federal Government will, if you install a solar system this year, reduce what you would owe in taxes this year up to 30% of what it costs you to install a solar system. In 2020 that amount reduces to 26%, in 2021 I'm not sure but I think it's something like 20% and the incentive program expires at the end of 2021. Maybe something else will come up but if I am thinking about solar I either need to do something soon or hope that a breakthrough in technology would make an investment practical.
There also may be local incentives offered by my city or even by the BPW to become more energy efficient. I'm not sure if or what those are but perhaps they can add up to another $4 - 6 thousand dollars. I'm not going to include those numbers below but you are welcome to do the math yourselves later on.
So let's say I decide on installing a $25,482 6200 kW system next year. I would need to pay the full amount, and then to qualify for the 26%, $6000 plus government money, make sure to withhold that much from my 2020 tax estimates which will then reduce my tax owed by April 15 of 2021 by that amount. Thus after a year if I install in the Spring the actual cost for the system would be $19,366.
To figure the length of pay back I multiply 6200 kW hrs per year X my BPW rate of .129 kW hr. which equals an annual savings on my electric bill of $787. And at $787 per year it would take me 25 years to break even. Solar systems are supposed to be good for 25 years so in theory every year after that my electric bill would be only $117 per year.
There are however a few things to consider with solar. On the plus side, what I pay for electric may very well go up during those 25 years which would increase the amount I would be saving and thus reduce the actual payback period.
On the other hand there are a few negatives to consider. Apart from possible maintenance costs, like equipment breakdowns, cleaning, snow and tree branch removal, and the need to spend $10 -12 thousand dollars on new roof shingles before solar installation, there are solar energy efficiency questions when living in West Michigan and where I live in particular. A 6200 kW system might possibly produce 6200 kW's per year in a place like Arizona. But where I live we get a lot of clouds, a fair amount of snow, there are woods west of us across the street which block direct sunlight for the last hour of the day, and the trees near us produce a fair amount of pollen. I don't know how to actually calculate all of this but if my panels produce only 60% of capacity then my annual payback then becomes $472 which would equal a 41 year pay back.
Since I will turn 70 next year solar does not seem to be something that I will get too excited about.
Most of the information I could find on line whether solar is a good investment comes one way or another from companies that want to sell and install their solar panels. Each one assures me how wonderful a system would be. After watching U Tube videos of people who have installed systems I have come to the conclusion that the actual reason, apart from those that live off grid and need solar, or perhaps those who live in very sunny areas where the costs might be much different, is that installing solar makes them fell good about themselves.
They ignore the fact that Chinese miners earning slave wages dig out the dirty materials currently needed for solar panel production. They buy into the claim that man made CO2 is somehow any different than naturally produced CO2 (CO2 being the food that all plants eat) and buy into a claim, despite historic evidence showing the opposite, that any warming of the planet will be a disaster and must have been caused by the actions of man and can likewise be reduced by the actions of man.
But like I said, I'm almost 70. If I could invest now for something that would have a decent return much earlier and reduce what I would need to pay for utilities when I finally stop working it would be worth it. Hmm, maybe I'll check out wind.
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