PM and President Trump to meet Thursday

The Australian reports today about the meeting this week on the USS Intrepid in New York City. Read the whole article here. In short there is a retelling of the testy telephone conversation in late January and the iconoclastic diplomatic behaviour of the neo-president, and some recommendations by Alan Dupont, staff writer.

He says, "Turnbull should pursue three objectives in his meeting with the US President: he should add his voice to those of other US allies urging Trump to play a constructive leadership role internationally; he should try to imbue the President with a deeper ­appreciation of the value of alliances in general and the Australia-US alliance in particular; and he should support a US accommodation with China that minimises the possibility of a full-blown conflict in Asia but pushes back against Chinese adventurism in the South China Sea."

On the ABC-TV Breakfast show this morning, the 'testy' call was described as "rocky' and "robust.' The presenters interviewed Professor James Curran. His bio reads like an academic champion. "Curran is a Nonresident Fellow at the Lowy Institute and Professor of History at the University of Sydney and a Research Associate at the United States Studies Centre. His most recent book is Unholy Fury: Whitlam and Nixon at War (2015). A former analyst with the Office of National Assessments, Curran was a Fulbright Scholar at Georgetown University and in 2013 held the Chair of Australian History at University College Dublin."

I liked his evaluation of the meeting to come. He mentioned the site on the Intrepid as iconic, a warship in NYC, not a meeting in the White House nor at Mar-a-Lago, which he says is "a step down in protocol terms." His take on the meeting is one which will "showcase a defense relationship" from the past. He doesn't anticipate any grand announcements. Curran mentioned the last time a sitting Prime Minister and US president met on a watercraft was President Lyndon Baines Johnson meeting in May, 1968 with Prime Minister John Gorton. Aboard the Sequoia, the two men couldn't hear each other over the sounds of the engine on the yacht as it chugged up the Potomac River in DC. Curran says it's "altogether fitting and proper" for allies to remember the past, shared struggles and sacrifices. But his assessment is that this alliance is "anchored in memory, moored to memory" with "rhetoric and imagery that is awash in sentimentality" but not doing the "hard thinking about what China's rise" means for us, and appears to be an alliance which is "cruising in its own sea of complacency and nostalgia."

What about the TPP? We shall see. Is it only the past we honour, or will there be a consideration as Curran says, of "the broader US/ Asian regional posture." We in Australia are hopeful.

I liked the whole conversation and thought to share it with our followers. The meeting itself is worth considering, but beyond that one, what is the purpose of your meeting with those with whom you will meet this week, or even today? Is it merely a photo op? Is it for the purpose of history and sentimentality? Is it to produce something worthwhile and ongoing?

So, when you go to work this week, as I've already started on our Sunday yesterday, will your going be productive? Will your meet-ups with folks at the trivia night at the local pub be nostalgic or future-looking? Will there be significance to much of what you do today and this week? That's a consideration that is well worth your evaluation. To that, we call you.

Let's make the best of life today. 14 times in the Gospels, 7 times in the book of Acts and 8 times in the rest of the Newer Testament, the word "today" is used. Overall in the entire Bible, it's 190 times! Let's make the best of today. Let's hear Him today and do His will. Let's not let church be a 'photo op' of us with the Almighty.

"For He is our God, And we are the people of His pasture and the sheep of His hand.
Today, if you would hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts, as at Meribah, As in the day of Massah in the wilderness, When your fathers tested Me,
They tried Me, though they had seen My work. For forty years I loathed that generation, And said they are a people who err in their heart,
And they do not know My ways. Therefore I swore in My anger, Truly they shall not enter into My rest.” (Psa. 95.7-11)

Today. Seems a good day to make right with God. And your fellows. Are we good?

World Trade Centre and seeing forever

Last week I ascended 102 stories of the new One World Trade Center in downtown New York City. The elevator took 47 seconds, and thus traveled 22 miles per hour to get me there. I was not alone. The queue outside was not too long on that Tuesday, and I was happy to exit the lift at the top. The view was blocked by a video screen which quickly ran a history of the development of the area and of the building itself. Then the screen lifted and voila there was the world outside From above as the sun set across the City.

I was delighted with the views. As I walked forward, the path took us past the restaurant/ cafe and then we paraded onto the 100th floor where the expanses were visible in all 360 degrees. I remembered the Twin Towers had a similar view, but this one was clearer on this day. No clouds; just New Jersey in the distant background as the sun kept setting.

The theme of the show was 'see forever' and the company that sells photographs of you superimposed on the scenery (which of course I had to buy, you know, just had to) is named See Forever .com or such. Here's my photo in the sunset But it's not the same sun and it's not the same day and it's not the same location and ... but otherwise it's all true.

So I got to thinking about seeing forever. Could I really see forever from the top of the WTC? In one way the phrase means that I have unlimited viewing. Nothing got in the way of my seeing into the far distance. The only limitation I had was my own optics. In other words if I had a big enough telescope or binoculars, I could have seen Argentina or at least Miami. Even so, that would have only allowed me viewing of places on earth, so my telescope would have needed to point further up and I could have seen Alpha Centauri or the Southern Cross or such. But hey, I can do that from anywhere... no need to see from the top of a building in NYC, you know?

So what else might 'see forever' mean? It could mean that I can see into forever, that is, look into the future (and I suppose the past as well, although rarely is that the intended meaning.) The prophets of the Jewish Bible (nicknamed by some the Old Testament) were those who could see into the future and make predictions and tell forth the justice and mercy of the Almighty. Perhaps this is the 'see forever' understanding to take away from the WTC that day. To be fair, the Jewish prophets like Isaiah, Joel, Micah.. never claimed to see everything, only to teach/ preach what they did see, but they understood their limitations. A wise man knows his.

So let me recommend the third way to see this phrase. That is to see that there really is a forever. If you understand that life on earth is not all there is or will be, and I'm not speaking cosmologically, but rather that your life of its 30 years, 70 years, 91 years and 214 days, however long, is not all there is to your existence, then you are 'getting' it. We were born to live forever. (Deuteronomy 29.29, John 6.51) And that's because God lives in eternity and lives forever. (Ex. 3.15, Dt. 32.40, Ps 10.16) And He desires us to have a relationship with Him which is real and good. We have sinned, long ago and even yesterday, and God doesn't blink at that and at those. (Ecc.7.20, Ps.51.5, James 1.15) However, He has satisfied His own justice by sending Yeshua, the Jewish messiah, to die for us in Jerusalem and to be raised from the dead on the 3rd day. Sin, the great prevention of our spending eternity with Him, has been eradicated and thus we can not only see forever, we can live forever with the Lord. That's better than Argentina or Alpha Centauri.

Want to read more? Check out the Bible verses above, and have a quick word with the Lord. That's what they call prayer. Ask Him if this is all true. Ask Him who Yeshua is. Ask Him.. you will have plenty of time to ask Him lots of other things, too, if eternity is real. You don't have to spend the $32 to ascend the World Trade Center. You can talk to God right in your home or on the train. You can meet Him just now. No need to wait until Tuesday. Want to do that?