Raoul’s 2 Cents
You’ve Got Mail! … Not!
I don’t know if I should be mad or be flattered (for someone to think I was that important) because this TGIF email is being cancelled.
Oops! there goes your Twitter account!
Ooops! There goes your Youtube channel.
Sorry but your Facebook account is influencing too many of your kind!
Big Tech — ha! If you don’t agree with their world view, they cancel you out.
One of my loyal readers received my TGIF email last week but on top of the email, there was a message saying she had been successfully removed from my list.
She never initiated that request and neither do I cancel anyone’s email. If this ever happens to you, please let me know. This is not the first time this happened. I started receiving strange requests like this right after my joke about “snowflakes.” Maybe I need sensitivity training, maybe I should watch the news more often or maybe I was just sleepy; but the thought about attacking anyone’s political belief or lifestyle was unintentional. It was a silly joke!
I didn’t know “snowflake” meant something other than that fluffy white frozen water droplet. I believe I’ve been on someone’s radar ever since. Wish I knew — was I being cancelled because of my political or religious beliefs?
I searched for “Mailchimp censor” and I read articles saying Mailchimp was now filtering emails. CLICK HERE.
How sad that this email company which I had supported since its inception has joined the ranks of the other “Big Brother” tech companies.
How could anyone do this? To you who say you would never censor anyone’s freedom of speech, let me ask you a few questions.
- Do you believe the end justifies the means? ie. would you commit a crime if you thought it was for the better good? Yes or No?
- Do you catch yourself saying “you have the facts?” or “scientific data backs me up”? Yes or No?
- Do you refuse to listen to other people’s opinions? Yes or No?
If you answered YES to any of the questions, watch out! You may have the mindset of the Cancel Culture.
TGIF people!
Raoul
“It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name.”
— Revelations 13:16 – 17
Joke of the Week
Thanks to Mike of New York for sharing this joke.
Video: Forest Gump Goes to Heaven
Thanks to Tom of Pasadena, CA
Video: Line Animation of Beethoven’s 5th
Thanks to Don of Kelowna, B.C.
Parting Shots
Thanks to Jackie of Whittier, CA
Thanks to Ed of Studio City, CA
Thanks to Naomi of North Hollywood, CA
Thanks to Peter Paul of South Pasadena, CA
People from all over the world send him jokes and Raoul sends those jokes back with his original sketches. 
Regie
April 5, 2021 at 11:22 am
Just read the news. No matter how much you want to feel american, our skin color will forever define you. Ingat kayo dyan. (Let’s all be careful)
Regie from Manila
April
April 5, 2021 at 11:50 am
Raoul,
I sure am glad you used the word “may” instead of “are” when you said “you may have the mindset of the cancel culture”. Why? Because my answer to the first item on the list was a definite “yes!”
And here’s why. Breaking the law IS, in fact, necessary in some circumstances, at least IMHO. Every person, for instance, who helped rescue the Jews during the Holocaust was breaking the law. We have to remember that man’s laws and God’s laws are two totally different and separate things.
I’ve thought a LOT about this, especially for the last year. I saw at the outset of the “pandemic” that so much of this has been all about government control and the powers and principalities – as well as the headlong rush toward the one world government as foretold in scripture characterizing the end times. I believe you know it, too. I actually went on record at the beginning saying it was time for believers to really get serious about deciding in advance what they would be willing to do (or not), and what they would be willing to accept (or not). I do not believe that necessity has or will lessen in the coming days even though it may appear on the surface that conditions are or will be easing soon. Like the tribe of Issachar, we have to know the times.
Hoping you don’t run into any more problems with the emails.
Stand strong!
April
Raoul
April 5, 2021 at 11:52 am
Hi April.
What a great response. I see your point that there are times that God will use us like Esther “for such a time as this.” Of course if we do break the law of the land we should be prepared to face the consequences. I agree with you there.
My point in asking that question is before anyone can be part of the Cancel Culture, he/she would need to be convinced that the law is unjust and therefore necessitate their justified actions. This conviction can lead to either good or bad.
I believe the anti-Christ is already alive and we will see the events of Revelation during our lifetime.
So how should we live? With the expectations demanded of the “bridesmaids” because the “groom” may come any moment. I want my whole family and everyone I meet to know the love of Jesus Christ. Blessings to you!
TGIF!
Raoul
April
April 5, 2021 at 11:53 am
Thanks, Raoul. We are in great agreement, about all of this, e.g. if we do break the law we need to be prepared to face the consequences, the a/c if already alive and the Bible is unfolding right in front our faces, and the most important thing (as it has ever been!) is for people to come to know Christ.
Just as it is so easy to see all the wickedness and evil and so many signposts in our times, I’ve spent the last year being more and more amazed at what God is doing in my life and the lives of people around me, especially surrounding a simple grass roots food and delivery ministry I started at the beginning of all of this. I’m currently working with close to 80 households and it’s more than a full time job just with the sourcing, packing and deliveries each week, and very hard on my rickety, 73-year old body with some pretty serious health challenges. But it’s much more than about food, and more and more I’m connecting with people about what’s going on in their lives, sitting down over coffee, hearing their struggles, letting them watch God work after much prayer, and just sharing. When there are just not enough hours in the day just to do the food logistics, how I can squeeze in the hours here and there to sit down with people is something of a miracle itself (although I will say I’m also sometimes up much later than is good for me because I’m communicating via text or Messenger with someone having some difficulty). Makes me understand and appreciate all the more the demands on people who are in full-time professional ministries, especially those who are real shepherds not just skilled expositors of scripture on Sunday mornings.
I’ve also seen many brothers and sisters who were shy about their faith standing up and reaching out to help others. Entire networks are forming and I think God is orchestrating those as well. In fact, I have a fairly strong sense that He may be establishing the underground networks that will be needed in the future, not just about what is currently going on.
Interestingly, it seems to me He’s also illustrating differences in world views between believers and people who think that they are “spiritual” but really don’t know Jesus.
We recently went through the book of Daniel in church, about how to live in captivity in an alien culture. So glad this world is not our home, which is, of course, a main lesson. But another was to be like Daniel, and “seek the good of the city.” Or more to the point, to do our part to fulfill the Great Commission. By that I mean, like not sitting at home isolated. The Great Commission says we are to “GO!” (into all the world), not huddle at home in fear. The minute the authorities started clamping down over a year ago now I knew I had to consider what I would or would not do. Granted, I made sure to find the right exceptions to the stay home orders that my ministry could fall under and into, but even if I hadn’t I knew immediately that I had to do something to serve people. When, after the first stay home orders came down, and yet I was going out every single day, I was actually watched by authorities for a while. A little easier to detect here in Spokane than in a big urban area like SoCal, but still…
God is ALL about relationships, and He means for us to live in relationship with Him and with others. Isolation is generally not His way. Oh yes, there are times. But, even when the Israelites wandered in the dessert they had each other, and in most cases when an individual is isolated it is only for a specific season and lesson. And He is still there, whether cloud by day or fire by night.
As the saying goes, until we see each other again, “either here, there or in the air!”.
Keep up your ministry, and “do not be discouraged”. I don’t think you really know your impact, but God does!
April
Raoul
April 5, 2021 at 11:54 am
May God continue to bless you and your ministry. At 73, you seem to be doing more work than a platoon of armchair believers. I hope the people you reach will see beyond the “manna” you provide and see that the force behind your love and care for them is Jesus Christ.
I have a friend who was a director in a non-profit org to help the homeless and she confessed that after so many years with them that there is no real solution to the problem. Of course she is a non-believer and she never factored in that the solution is Christ.
This Covid situation has saved several souls. Online church attendance has multiplied. It’s true that difficulties remind people that they need a savior. Let’s pray for each other. I have severl zoom meetings and my real hope is that God will use me to bring them to Christ. Even this TGIF email I send out has reached several who are suffering. I have Protestants, Evangelicals, Catholics, Muslims, Jews and Mormons who read this stuff. There are nights I am dead tired but I pray God will help me think of something that would bring joy during their Fridays and a better understanding that Christians aren’t weirdos that are brainwashed. We are real people with real problems and infinite blessings.
April
April 5, 2021 at 11:55 am
What you are doing is so important. You have a wonderfully understandable way of expressing things and without generating unnecessary controversy, yet sticking to the Truth. I am quite sure you’re having an impact on unbelievers. Nothing that is done for His sake ever goes to waste. Muslims and Mormons and New Agers and all others who are given a chance to hear actual truth are going to have things you say stuck in their brains and try to work out why it’s different. I love that you pray, and that you still put out the email even when you’re dead tired. Prayer is such an important part of a believer’s walk, and the results show. May He grant you “MUCH fruit!”
As to the homeless, and your friend who thinks there are no solutions, our Union Gospel Mission here in Spokane has been regularly launching men and women back into wholesome, productive lives. They come in addicted in most cases, and usually very broken regardless of their circumstances. UGM’s programs run about three years and they have a very well-developed process that people go through, while surrounded by believers (both staff and volunteers). The participants are also connected with mentors before they leave and supported by those mentors until at least the 5th year, and most go beyond that. The programs also work on the inner healing required and which is often behind the addictions and other harmful behaviors. I’ve found through past volunteering with homeless or economically fragile people, and it seems UGM has also found, that so many who are homeless have suffered terrible abuse as children. Time, work, Chapel and Bible studies, job practicums, learning, goal-setting, and much more – everything is designed and intended, along with all this practical stuff, to introduce them to Jesus, and to create conditions in which people can really open up during their time there, and be touched by the Holy Spirit.
To enter a program in one of the UGM shelters, the person must not be under the influence at time of entry. The city has other shelters that are considered “low barrier” shelters and anyone can come in any condition, and there are all kinds of problems with those as you can imagine, and very little success with improving anything or anyone. In contrast, UGM also will not take government money ever. So no compromises on being a Christ-centered mission. I’ve taught at the Women’s and Children’s Crisis Center, and do other things from time to time to support their programs. The annual graduation ceremonies are amazing. They do video clips of each person’s story and testimony and it just wants to make your heart explode with joy.
One thing that’s very different for the homeless here than in SoCal is the very cold winter and snow and ice. This was a real person under the snow:
A picture containing snow, outdoor, nature Description automatically generatedAll of the temporary warming centers were full. When I saw this I went into action. Even though this was time and effort on top of the food ministry, in not much more than a week’s time I organized and funded a project, and put together simple winter survival kits utilizing the very effective emergency blankets as one of the key items. I found groups to distribute them and we got a little more than 125 of the kits out on the street. I’m set up now to work with another group next winter so that they have the kits ready to go at first snowfall or freeze. I just utilized my former manufacturer/distributor in order to get the lowest wholesale pricing and bought everything else retail, at the best prices I could find, so the kits were still under $5.00 each. They also contained a scripture printed on a piece of spring-like art contributed by one of my sisters in Christ here.
Bringing a smile to people’s faces is important in all seasons, but I’m sure especially appreciated during covid. For a while I was trying to post at least one pun a day on my Facebook and people were eating them up. I just ran out of time and energy to keep it up, which is one of the reasons I admire you so much. Like clockwork, I know what day it is when I get your email, and I always look forward to it. I like what you write at the top each time, and it’s usually more important to me than the jokes. You are operating in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and it is a tremendous thing you’re doing. Blessings to you and yours!
April