Playing Dumb
The Verge Reports:
TV networks have figured out how to game the Nielsen ratings system. It’s as easy as playing dumb, literally. On days when programmers know their viewership will drop, like on holiday weekends or during sporting events, they “accidentally” misspell their show’s name on the nightly Nielsen lineup, according to The Wall Street Journal.
Over the Friday of Memorial Day weekend, for example, NBC aired NBC Nitely News instead of its usual NBC Nightly News so the holiday drop in viewership didn’t affect its ratings standing. Nielsen’s automated system counted that misspelled show as an entirely different program. By doing this, NBC managed to actually gain ratings against its main competitor: ABC World News Tonight.
NBC apparently misspelled its shows 14 times since the start of the 2016 to 2017 TV season, and it’s not the only network to pull this tactic. This season, ABC did so seven times with its Wrld New Tonite, while CBS replaced The CBS Evening News with CBS Evening Nws 12 times.
Playing dumb is one way to get around the rules—a pretty effective one if you’re attempting to get around the Nielsen ratings system. But it’s not so effective if you’re attempting to get around God’s rating system!
“For there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open” (Luke 8:17).
God knows us. He knows our name. Misspelling it won’t help!
Woman Faces Court For Parking Two Seconds Too Early
Richard Hartley-Parkinson reports:
Known only as Sarah, she ended up in court after it emerged that she had broken parking rules by arriving at a bay two seconds too soon.
... Judge Frank Caprio from the Providence Municipal Court, read details of the case which stated that she had parked in a bay at 9.59am and 58 seconds.
Parking was not allowed in the area between 8am and 10am.
He told her in mock anger: ‘You violated the city ordinances.’ He added: ‘Our parking enforcement offices are second to none in the country.’
She explained her actions by saying her car clock said 10am.
Judge Caprio laughed the charge out of court in Rhode Island after hearing details of the case.
He said: ‘I think 9.59am is close enough to 10am, matter is dismissed.
Is this what you imagine will happen when you stand before God? Are you hoping that He will, likewise, release you from the finer details of His moral will?
That’s not how it will work. You will either stand before God to be judged by the minutest details of your non-compliance, including the thoughts and intents of your heart, or you will stand before Him having been credited with the minutest details of Christ’s compliance. There is no middle-ground. There is no third option. It's either law or grace. You decide!
“Yet we know that a person is made right with God by faith in Jesus Christ, not by obeying the law. And we have believed in Christ Jesus, so that we might be made right with God because of our faith in Christ, not because we have obeyed the law. For no one will ever be made right with God by obeying the law” (Galatians 2:16).
"Therefore no one will be declared righteous in God's sight by the works of the law; rather, through the law we become conscious of our sin" (Romans 3:20).
The Rule of Love
Elizabeth Shim, with UPI.COM, reports:
SEOUL, April 29 (UPI) -- North Korea is investigating its "first" bank robbery after a break-in at a branch of the country's central bank. A source in North Hamgyong Province who spoke to Radio Free Asia on the condition of anonymity said the robbery occurred April 4, in the Shinam district of Chongjin, a city near the China border.
"Because this is the first time the bank has been robbed since the founding of the country, many people are fixated on the incident," the source said.
… The bank robbers … took off with a total of 70 million North Korean won, a currency for which there is no official exchange rate.
Perhaps more than in any other country on earth, the rule of law is unyielding and unforgiving in Jong-un's North Korea. As a result, in a country where even the smallest infractions of the law are severely punished, bank robberies and other such crimes are nearly unthinkable and virtually non-existent.
But the near perfect compliance of the citizenry has not created the utopia one might expect. Instead, the iron fisted rule of Kim Jong-un has created a fearful, hellish existence for most of the over 24 million who populate the country.
Herein lies an important lesson: While strictly enforced laws bring order to a society, they cannot bring joy and happiness to that society. That's because the law, even the law of God revealed through Moses, was never intended to be the principle by which man was to be ruled. Rather than the rule of law, what the world needs, and what God promises to provide, is the rule of love. This is promised in the coming reign of Christ. At His return, Jesus will bring in a Kingdom of both love and order--something dictators like Kim Jong-un have never been able to do.
“For the law was given through Moses, but God's unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ” (John 1:17, NLT).
"There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love" (1 John 4:18).