The Rest Stop

2012-02-12T01:05:00.001-06:00

The Conversion of Abraham Lincoln

by Rev. James F. Jacquess

"Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again." (John 3:7)

"I believe I am an humble servant in the hands of our Heavenly Father;

I desire that all my words and acts may be according to His will."

-- Abraham Lincoln

"There is written evidence that Abraham Lincoln became a Christian in 1839 in Springfield, Illinois during revival services at the Methodist Episcopal Church, under the ministry of James F. Jacquess. In a fascinating narrative Rev. Jacquess described Mr. Lincoln's conversion:

The church was filled that morning. It was a good sized church, but on that day all the seats were filled. I had chosen for my text the words 'Ye must be born again' , and during the course of my sermon I laid particular stress on 'must'. Mr. Lincoln came into the church after the services had commenced, and there being no vacant seats, chairs were put in the altar in front of the pulpit, and Mr. Lincoln and Governor French and his wife sat in the altar during the entire service, Mr. Lincoln on my left and Governor French on my right, and I noticed that Mr. Lincoln appeared to be deeply interested in the sermon. A few days after that Sunday, Mr. Lincoln called on me and informed me that he had been greatly impressed with my remarks on Sunday and that he had come to talk with me further on the matter. I invited him in, and my wife and I talked and prayed with him for hours. Now, I have seen many persons converted; I have seen hundreds brought to Christ, and if ever a person was converted, Abraham Lincoln was converted that night in my house."
--from Abraham Lincoln's Daily Devotional, Special Edition

"In regards to this great Book (the Bible),

I have but to say it is the best gift God has given to man.

All the good Saviour gave to the world was communicated through this Book.

But for it we could not know right from wrong.

All things most desirable for man's welfare, here and hereafter, are found portrayed in it."

-- Abraham Lincoln

2012-02-04T01:05:00.001-06:00

Things To Do:

1. Fight the good fight

2. Run the race

3. Keep the faith

2 Timothy 4: 7

2012-02-02T01:05:00.002-06:00

2012-01-31T01:05:00.000-06:00

The Dead Sea...........Amazing Facts

Sharing an interesting article from Israel Update, Love Without Borders

Though the Dead Sea did not win as one of the 'New Seven Wonders of the World', it still deserves recognition for its qualities, which only the Lord could have supplied!

The Dead Sea is the lowest place on earth, 422 meters below sea level. Oxygen is found here at the highest concentrations on the planet.

The Dead Sea has naturally occurring Magnesium and Bromine which hovers over the surface of the water and serves as a natural tranquilizer and lowers stress levels.

The salt content is 8 times higher than the ocean. The Dead Sea got its name because it was considered inhospitable to sea life, but scientists have recently found microorganisms that thrive on the sea's unique condition.

It's a mineral rich sea with natural sulfur hot springs and dark mud is renowned for its healing properties and cosmetic purposes. Health Insurance companies approve skin patients in Europe for treatment at the Dead Sea one month each year.

Recently it has been discovered that the Dead Sea will help with Diabetes. It takes the sugar level down.

Visitors seeking a health boost have come to the Sea since antiquity, even Cleopatra soaked in the Dead Sea. To me, this is a wonder of the World!

Love Without Borders

PO Box 1084
Arroyo Grande
CA
93421

2012-01-28T09:55:00.002-06:00

You Are the Tabernacle

Listen and be blessed

http://www.shanewillardministries.org/main/index.cfm?fxn=stream&subfxn=video

This series examines the different aspects of the Tabernacle from a Hebrew perspective. With special attention given to the furniture in each court, you will learn the different aspects of the Tabernacle and how it applies to your whole being - spirit, soul, and body.
Runtime: 42:55

2012-01-27T10:08:00.002-06:00

Holocaust Remembrance Day

2012-01-26T01:05:00.003-06:00

Prayer for Our (My) Tongue

Blessed are You Lord God, Creator of heaven and earth;

You have created me with a tongue,

One to speak good but it often speaks evil.

We are tempted to gossip, backbite and speak mischief.

Forgive us dear God for allowing our tongues

To bless You and then curse those made in Your image.

We find it hard to control our tongues;

Sometimes we do not want to control our tongues;

Yet Your grace is sufficient to control our tongues;

We surrender our tongues to You; set a guard over our mouths.

We ask You to forgive our sins of speech

And cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Let us be slow to speak and quick to listen;

Let us work twice as much as we talk.

Let our mouths praise You, Bless You and

Comfort and exhort our brethren.

In Your Name we pray,

Amen
(author unknown)

2012-01-23T13:39:00.000-06:00

Take Action -- Defend Life

2012-01-21T07:51:00.000-06:00

LEGALLY KILLING BABIES BEGAN IN DALLAS, TX

LET IT END IN DALLAS

McCorvey will speak Saturday at the Dallas March for Life rally, where the theme is: “It began in Dallas. Let’s end it in Dallas.” This means marchers conclude their annual protest at the Earle Cabell Federal Courthouse, which houses the district court where ambitious pro-abortion attorneys first filed the Roe case in 1970, while McCorvey was homeless, unwed, drug-addicted and pregnant with her third child.

“By casting Norma in the film, we hope to highlight the ambivalence Americans have had towards the subject of abortion,” Mike Mackenzie said. “Norma spent half her life being pro-choice, found Christ and became pro-life, and now she’s a fervent activist.”

Starting Feb. 17, “Doonby” launches with a limited release in four Mississippi towns, then opens in Dallas movie theaters on February 24. In the spring, theater distribution will expand and WND readers will be able to find theater locations at Doonby.com.

“I just hope everybody comes out and sees ‘Doonby,’” said McCorvey. “I don’t say that because I’m in it, I say it because it’s a great flick – a great psychological thriller.”

*portion of an article written for worldnetdaily -free press for a free people- by Anita Crane

2012-01-18T21:54:00.001-06:00

Townhall Columnists Terry Jeffrey

Missing From Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial: God

by: Terry Jeffrey

Four days after police arrested Rosa Parks for refusing to surrender her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., bus, the young Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. explained the Christian foundation of the civil rights movement he was about to lead.

"I want to say that we are not here advocating violence," King said in a Dec. 5, 1955, speech at the Holt Street Baptist Church.

"I want it to be known throughout Montgomery and throughout this nation that we are Christian people," King said. "We believe in the Christian religion. We believe in the teachings of Jesus. The only weapon that we have in our hands this evening is the weapon of protest."

King, a Baptist minister and American patriot whose organization would be called the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, wanted the nation to know that the civil rights movement was rooted in fidelity to Judeo-Christian morality and to America's founding documents.

"And we are determined here in Montgomery," King said that day in 1955, "to work and fight until justice 'runs down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.'"

In these last words, King was quoting from the Bible -- Amos 5:24.

A visitor to the new Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington, D.C., will find 16 statements from King carved in granite there. One is from his 1955 Montgomery speech. In its entirety, it reads: "We are determined here in Montgomery to work and fight until justice runs 'down like water, and righteousness like a mighty stream.'"

This is as close as the memorial gets to acknowledging that King was a Christian clergyman who passionately argued that discrimination was wrong because it violated God's law.

The words "God," "Jesus" and "Lord" -- ever-present in King's speeches and sermons -- are carved nowhere in the stones of the memorial dedicated in his name.

King's name is repeatedly carved into the memorial. But none of these carvings refer to him as the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. In all cases, he is called simply "Martin Luther King Jr."

How important was King's Christian ministry to him? When he was thrown in the Birmingham jail for marching without a permit on Good Friday 1963, King wrote an open letter expressing disappointment with fellow clergymen who criticized the nonviolent movement to desegregate that city.

"I say it as a minister of the gospel, who loves the church; who was nurtured in its bosom; who has been sustained by its spiritual blessings and who will remain true to it as long as the cord of life shall lengthen," said King.

In the same letter, King explained again how the civil rights movement was rooted in traditional Christian morality.

"A just law is a manmade code that squares with the moral law or the law of God," King said. "An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law."

In this letter, King also again argued that the God-given moral law that demanded equal rights for African Americans was the same God-given moral law on which America was founded.

"We will win our freedom because the sacred heritage of our nation and the eternal will of God are embodied in our echoing demands," said King.

"One day the South will know that when these disinherited children of God sat down at lunch counters they were in reality standing up for the best in the American dream and the most sacred values in our Judeo-Christian heritage, and thus carrying our whole nation back to great wells of democracy which were dug deep by the Founding Fathers in the formulation of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence," said King.

The granite slabs at the memorial do quote from this famous letter. But they steer clear of King's invocation of God's law, the Declaration and the Constitution. Instead they use these words: "Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever effects one directly, affects all indirectly."

Near the close of his "I Have a Dream" speech" -- delivered at the Lincoln Memorial on Aug. 28, 1963 -- King cites Isaiah 40:4-5.

"I have a dream," said King, "that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight 'and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.'

"This is our hope, and this is the faith that I go back to the South with," King said. "With this faith, we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope"

On the right side of the granite statue of King at the memorial, the last half of this last sentence is carved in stone: "Out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope." The first half of the sentence -- "With this faith, we will be able to hew" -- is missing.

Yes, the "faith" is missing.

Just a few feet from this statue of King where the word "faith" has been edited from the passage of his "I Have a Dream" speech, there is a similarly secular quote from a sermon reprinted in King's book, "Strength to Love."

At the end of that sermon, King said: "Jesus is eternally right. History is replete with the bleached bones of nations that refused to listen to him."

The Rev. Martin Luther King was a Christian clergyman who became an American hero by standing up for the God-given rights our nation was founded to protect. It is a shame the name of God cannot be found at his memorial.

2012-01-15T01:05:00.002-06:00

RACHEM--COMPASSION

Compassion is warfare! It is active resistance to evil in a world. Compassion is me taking the place of you. It is personal action identification. It is Yeshua on the cross, enduring brutality, horror and torture for my sake because God is compassionate.

IF WE ONLY KNEW… ♥

Exodus 34:6 is God’s self-definition. The very first word God uses to describe Himself is “compassionate.”

Though He was God, He embraced the leper, associated with the outcast, and loved the wicked.

Many miss the heart of Yeshua behind it all. Jesus was/is a Friend of sinners.

Enjoy the song of compassion, get to know God at a new level, never forget the heart of GOD

2012-01-14T11:54:00.002-06:00

Lost in the political shuffle in New Hampshire was an epic U.S. Supreme Court decision this week in Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

By an astounding, unanimous 9-0 margin, the usually ideologically divided Supreme Court slapped down President Obama's radical doctrine that the federal government can tell a church who it must employ as a minister if the church violates anti-discrimination employment provisions.

The Obama administration's claim that there is no special protection for clergy in our Constitution, the majority ruled, "is hard to square with the text of the First Amendment itself, which gives special solicitude to the rights of religious organizations. We cannot accept the remarkable view that the Religion Clauses have nothing to say about a religious organization's freedom to select its own ministers."

Professor Douglas Laycock argued the case for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which defended the little Michigan church in court. Laycock is a longtime advisory board member of the organization (becketfund.org), which defends the religious liberty of all religions.

"This is a huge win for religious liberty," he said via a press release. "The Court has unanimously confirmed the right of churches to select their own ministers and religious leaders."

Didn't know this before reading it here...? You need to be reaidn Townhall.com
For the rest of the article by: Maggie Gallagher, see Townhall articles and many more

2012-01-10T12:04:00.001-06:00

AMEN amen AMEN amen AMEN amen AMEN!!!

A TIME FOR CHOOSING

by joelcrosenberg

Are you praying (even fasting) today for America, for Israel and for the nations of the epicenter? Are you praying for the Lord to raise up leaders who will get American back on the right track economically, spiritually and morally? Are you praying for a massive spiritual revival -- a Third Great Awakening -- that will turn hearts of millions back to the Lord Jesus Christ and once again make America the "shining city on a hill" it was for so long? We are in deep trouble. We face decline, perhaps even an implosion. We certainly need strong, principled leaders who will return us to Biblical principles and the Constitution. But we need so much more -- we need the Lord to rescue us, before it's too late.

2012-01-07T16:38:00.000-06:00

God’s Résume

Author: Skip Moen

But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth. Psalm 86:15 NASB

Lovingkindness – Take a moment and ask yourself if you could provide God’s résumé in a single word. We could come very close with the Hebrew word hesed. Since we have looked at this word many times, perhaps all we need now is a summary of its characteristics and implications. Katherine Sakenfeld provides just what we need. From her study, she discovers that hesed:

1. denotes action, not a psychological state.
2. usually denotes unilateral help for the helpless without compensation or condition.
3. denotes essential assistance, not mere privilege.
4. is essentially distinct from judicial or legal action.
5. may or may not be confirmed by promissory oath or covenant.
6. possesses certain marvelous characteristics: all-pervading initiative, irresistible power, never-failing constancy.
7. is worthy of highest praise, and is to be rewarded not by reciprocal hesed but by love and obedience. (1)

It’s worth reading that list a few times. Did you notice that hesed is not about how God feels about you? Did you recognize that hesed is an action word? Did you realize that it describes unmerited help? Did you see that it is independent of any legal obligation? Did you note that it is a miraculous act? Does this change your view of God?

Christians generally have a rather weak view of God. I don’t mean that they don’t see God as all-powerful and all-knowing. Those Greek ideas are well entrenched in Christian theology. What I mean is that the Christian view of God tends to be transcendental – a God who is in charge but not really immersed in the daily business of life. Yes, He showed up at the resurrection to forgive us, but in general we often act as if He is the heavenly overseer, not really in the ditches and mud where we struggle. Hesed destroys that false divinity. God acts with righteousness toward His enemies (us) without premeditated expectation of return. He shows Himself unwaveringly constant in His commitment to restore our relationship to Him. Hesed is God’s character!

Are you cheering? Are you singing praises? Offering thanksgiving? Yes, all those actions and more. But consider just a few implications. If hesed is the foundation of God’s action, then He doesn’t save those whom He foreknows will respond. Hesed is without compensation or condition. If hesed is true of YHWH, then grace is independent of legal consideration but presupposes future obedience. To be worthy of hesed is to respond to hesed after the fact. Finally, hesed is the basis of the resurrection event. The resurrection is action toward others without regard for conditions or consequence. The resurrection is the validation of a life of hesed.

This leaves us with just one pressing question. If we are His disciples, followers of YHWH, then do we exhibit hesed? Are those seven characteristics true of our lives?

Are we letting hesed govern our actions?

Topical Index: hesed, lovingkindness, Psalm 86:15, Sakenfeld
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] Katherine Doob Sakenfeld, The Meaning of Hesed in the Hebrew Bible: A New Inquiry, p. 11.

2012-01-04T12:12:00.000-06:00

"The Watered Lilies"

The Master stood in His garden,

Among the lilies fair,

Which His own right hand had planted,

And trained with tend'rest care.

He looked at their snowy blossoms,

And marked with observant eye

That the flowers were sadly drooping,

For their leaves were parched and dry.

"My lilies need to be watered,"

The Heavenly Master said;

"Wherein shall I draw it for them,

And raise each drooping head?"

Close to His feet on the pathway,

Empty, and frail, and small,

An earthen vessel was lying,

Which seemed no use at all;

But the Master saw, and raised it

From the dust in which it lay,

And smiled, as He gently whispered,

This shall do My work today."

"It is but an 'earthen' vessel,

But it lay so close to Me;

It is small, but it is empty-

That is all it needs to be."

So to the fountain He took it,

And filled it full to the brim;

How glad was the earthen vessel

To be of some use to Him!

He poured forth the living water

Over His lilies fair,

Until the vessel was empty,

And again He filled it there.

He watered the drooping lilies

Until they revived again;

And the Master saw with pleasure.

That His labor had not been vain.

His own hand had drawn the water

Which refreshed the thirsty flowers;

But He used the earthen vessel

To convey the living showers.

And to itself it whispered,

As He laid it aside once more,

"Still will I lie in His pathway,

Just where I did before.

"Close would I keep to the Master,

Empty would I remain,

And perhaps some day He may use me

To water His flowers again."

by: Annon.

"God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise;

and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen,

yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:

That no flesh should glory in His presence.

But of Him are ye in Christ Jesus,

Who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption:

That, according as it is written,

He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord"

(1 Corinthians 1:27-31)

2012-01-01T13:20:00.000-06:00

Happy 2012

Rev.4:11 “You are worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and by Your will they exist and were created.” “ALL things” is a consistent phrase used and attributed to God, to the Son. God speaking in Isa. 45:12: “I have made the earth, and created man on it. I-- My hands -- stretched out the heavens, and all their host I have commanded.”

2011-12-25T10:58:00.000-06:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS

2011-12-21T09:54:00.000-06:00

Visit to Earth, A Christmas Tale

Once, long ago, in a far-away wonderful kingdom, the Prince was about to embark upon a journey.

Excitement permeated the air, and every corner of the great kingdom was abuzz with a flurry of discussion. All the servants wished to know more about this unusual trip, because the Prince had never been away before.

Meanwhile, the Prince spent much time shut away alone with his Father, the King, seemingly storing up hours against the time homesickness would occur. They had arranged a way for the Prince to be in constant contact, but both knew how hard this separation would be. They knew of the loneliness they would endure before the purpose was accomplished.

Out of the vast estate of riches and treasure unimaginable to you and me, no one had yet mentioned what should be packed for the Prince’s expected lengthy stay. To the servants it remained a mystery. The Prince was intent only upon basking in his Father’s love. Often he and his Father could be seen walking together along the outer edges of the majestic palace grounds and staring thoughtfully out in the same direction into the deep, starry universe.

Suddenly the time of departure was announced, but nothing had been packed. It was obvious the Prince was taking nothing more than himself. His absence would be deeply felt; the fair and delightful land wouldn’t be quite the same without sight of his radiant face. When the Prince strode purposefully to the edge of the peaceful kingdom and embraced his Father tenderly, the servants dared to speak unbidden, expressing love and regrets. They asked to be allowed to accompany him for part of the journey.

Touched by this, the kind Prince graciously consented. Such an entourage had never been seen before. Luminous thousands, all hushed, with wondering eyes upon the Prince’s face: together they sped past marvelous sights and spinning universes. Then the Prince raised his hand in the air, and bid them go no further. They were standing just outside a poor, small dwelling place. He instructed them to return to his Kingdom and await his Father’s orders. Then the Prince raised his hand in blessing and farewell, and stepped inside the humble abode. The Mystery deepened. Months of silence wore on.

Then, at last, orders came from the grand throne room: Go and attend the Prince! Today was that day toward which all the procession of eternity had swept. The Prince of Glory had been born in Bethlehem on the small blue-green planet called Earth. He would be found in a stable beneath the brightest star in the heavens. What joy leapt in their hearts in anticipation of seeing him again. How joyfully they sang at his birth!

I have called this a Christmas Tale, for it might not have happened exactly like this. But my story is based on the most important story the world ever heard. It did happen. Jesus did leave heaven and come to live among us for awhile, and brought the Father’s Love. This Christmas, let the remembrance of His coming touch you with renewed awe and wonder.

Copyright 1999-2011 by: D. Michaels

“But you, O God, are my king from the old; You bring salvation upon the earth…” Psalm 74: 12

Though Christ a thousand times
In Bethlehem be born,
If He’s not born in you.
Your soul is till forlorn.
Ah, would your heart but be
A manger for His birth,
Once more would God now come
With peace upon the Earth.
--anonymous

2011-12-15T10:31:00.004-06:00

This is worth watching. It’s not often that you hear an Israeli Prime Minister mention the name of Jesus. But Netanyahu has recorded a warm Christmas greeting for all the Christian citizens of Israel,
as well as to Christians around the world.

Let the name of Jesus — Yeshua — be lifted up among all this Christmas season.

The Christmas Story: Luke 2: 8-14

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vRm0NV88bbA

2011-12-12T01:05:00.011-06:00

CONDITIONS OF PREVAILING PRAYER

1. Contrite humility before God and forsaking of sin -- II Chronicles 7:14. ["If My people, which are called by My name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land" (2Chronicles 7:14).]

2. Seeking God with the whole heart -- Jeremiah 29:12, 13. ["12 Then shall ye call upon Me, and ye shall go and pray unto Me, and I will hearken unto you. 13 And ye shall seek Me, and find Me, when ye shall search for Me with all your heart" (Jeremiah 29:12, 13).

3. Faith in God -- Mark 11:23, 24. ["23 For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he saith shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he saith. 24 Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them" (Mark 11:23, 24).]

4. Obedience -- I John 3:22. ["And whatsoever we ask, we receive of Him, because we keep His commandments, and do those things that are pleasing in His sight" (1John 3:22).]

5. Dependence on the Holy Spirit -- Romans 8:26. ["Likewise the Spirit also helpeth our infirmities: for we know not what we should pray for as we ought: but the Spirit Itself maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered" (Romans 8:26).]

6. Importunity -- Mark 7:24-30; Luke 11:5-10. ["24 And from thence He arose, and went into the borders of Tyre and Sidon, and entered into an house, and would have no man know it: but He could not be hid. 25 For a certain woman, whose young daughter had an unclean spirit, heard of Him, and came and fell at His feet: 26 The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought Him that He would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. 27 But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. 28 And she answered and said unto Him, Yes, LORD: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children's crumbs. 29 And He said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. 30 And when she was come to her house, she found the devil gone out, and her daughter laid upon the bed" (Mark 7:24-30). "5 And He said unto them, Which of you shall have a friend, and shall go unto him at midnight, and say unto him, Friend, lend me three loaves; 6 For a friend of mine in his journey is come to me, and I have nothing to set before him? 7 And he from within shall answer and say, Trouble me not: the door is now shut, and my children are with me in bed; I cannot rise and give thee. 8 I say unto you, Though he will not rise and give him, because he is his friend, yet because of his importunity he will rise and give him as many as he needeth. 9 And I say unto you, Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you. 10 For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened" (Luke 11:5-10).]

7. Must ask in accordance with God's will -- I John 5:14. ["And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us" (1John 5:14).]

8. In Christ's name -- John 14:13, 14, and many other passages. ["13 And whatsoever ye shall ask in My name, that will I do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If ye shall ask any thing in My name, I will do it" (John 14:13, 14).]

9. Must be willing to make amends for wrongs to others -- Matthew 5:23, 24. ["23 Therefore if thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath ought against thee; 24 Leave there thy gift before the altar, and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer thy gift" (Matthew 5:23, 24).]

a Bible study on prayer (Chapter 9), Rosalind Goforth (1864-1942)

2011-12-10T08:53:00.004-06:00

The people will finally wake up, I hope, before it is too late. Some of our own elected representatives have subverted the Constitution, & launched a war of misinformation, constructing its own reality, to suit its own agenda. With Europe's financial trouble and U.S. unemployment, we are fast approaching a one world bank and one world government. Pray for our nation, and vote to protect your own freedom, and future of your children. How will we explain to them if we let freedom slip away??

2011-12-08T01:05:00.000-06:00

I have found a study site so wonderful I must share it with you. For a few days I'm going to put up some of Skip Moen's Hebrew teachings and at the same time, encourage you, in the strongest way I can, to get to his site & dig in to see all that he has. You will re-learn the Bible word by word and it is a fantastic study! If you get so involved that you never return to my blog again, hey -- its alright. I will know you are growing in the LORD and that is all I ever set out to do, show you, help some, whereever I can, whatever way I can. My desire is that you learn to love your Creator with all your heart!

" . . . . and man became a living being." Genesis 2:7

Praying Dirt

(by SkipMoen.com/hebrew)

A Living Being - God fashioned from the dust the body that He animated with His breath - man manifested as nephesh. There is a bit more here than we might think. The Mishnah (specific teachings of the rabbis usually transmitted by oral memorization) uses a synonym for nephesh. The word is mav'eh, derived from the root ba'ah, a verb that means, "to ask, to seek, to request - as in prayer." Rabbi Scherman comments, "In other words, the Talmud defines man as 'the creature that prays.' Furthermore, the Talmud teaches that even nephesh, the life-sustaining soul, is synonymous with prayer." What would happen to our thinking if we translated this verse about the creation of Man as "and man was manifested as a praying being?" Would we suddenly realize that we are human only insofar as we are engaged in relationship with the Creator? What is prayer if it is not the essential me in contact with Him?

If I am going to become human, I must move in the direction of the divine design in me. That does not happen by random chance or automatic pilot. I must decide to become human. That is essentially what it means to have free will, to be able to choose. I can move toward God's design innately implanted in me, or I can move away from His design, forging a self-made creature fashioned by lesser purposes. I am equipped to manifest God's design. He has insured that I lack nothing necessary for this project. But accomplishing the task of becoming human requires a continual connection to the Maker. My humanity depends entirely on how His life is manifest in my nephesh. Therefore, prayer (in all of its wider Hebrew meaning) is the absolutely necessary ingredient for being what God intended. The man who does not pray will soon not be a man.

Prayer existed before the Fall. The earth-formed communicated with the Creator and in the process received life-enhancing purpose, balance and instruction. In a fallen world, prayer is even more important, not because we now approach God with requests but because the world itself in under the power and influence of the inhuman. The systems of this world are designed to remove your humanity because they are designed to remove you from a relationship with your Creator. Whatever is self-driven leads to inhuman behavior. True humanity is found in humble submission to the Creator. The closer I get to selfless obedience, the more human I become. How do I know this? Because God manifested Himself in His Son and demonstrated what truly human being actually looks like. It looks exactly like Jesus, absolutely devoted to the will of the Father.

There is only one living model for being human. That model is Jesus. If I want to be human, I need only look as far as Him to see what humanness means. Now you know why Jesus spent hours in prayer. He knew that being human means being connected to the source of Life. He wasn't on His knees begging the Father for blessings, power or instructions. He was in the company of the Father enjoying being fully human. Don't you long for that too?

- Skip Moen, D. Phil.

You can find out more about this email series, "Thirty Days of The Hebrew Worldview", on this page of his website: skipmoen.com/hebrew

2011-12-05T01:05:00.014-06:00

Question: "Why should I read the Old Testament?"

Answer: The Bible is a progressive revelation. If you skip the first half of any good book and try to finish it; you will have a hard time understanding the characters, the plot, and the ending. In the same way, the New Testament is only completely understood when it is seen as being built upon the foundation of the events, characters, laws, sacrificial system, covenants, and promises of the Old Testament. If we only had the New Testament, we would come to the gospels and not know why the Jews were looking for a Messiah (a Savior King). Without the Old Testament, we would not understand why this Messiah was coming (see Isaiah 53); we would not have been able to identify Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah through the many detailed prophecies that were given concerning Him (e.g., His birth place (Micah 5:2); His manner of death (Psalm 22, especially vv. 1,7-8, 14-18; Psalm 69:21, etc.), His resurrection (Psalm 16:10), and many more details of His ministry (Isaiah 52:13.; 9:2, etc.).

Without the Old Testament, we would not understand the Jewish customs that are mentioned in passing in the New Testament. We would not understand the perversions the Pharisees had made to God's law as they added their traditions to it. We would not understand why Jesus was so upset as He cleansed the temple courtyard. We would not understand that we can make use of the same wisdom that Christ used in His many replies to His adversaries (both human and demonic).

Without the Old Testament we would miss out on numerous detailed prophecies that could only have come true if the Bible is God's word, not man's (see the major and minor prophets) (e.g., Daniel 7 and following chapters). These prophecies give specific details about the rise and fall of nations, how they will fall, if they will rise again, which powers would be next to emerge, who the major players would be (Cyrus, Alexander the Great, etc.), and what would happen to their kingdoms when those players died. These detailed prophecies are so accurate that skeptics charge they had to have been written after the fact.

The Old Testament also contains numerous lessons for us through the lives of its many fallible characters. By observing their lives we can be encouraged to trust God no matter what (Daniel 3), and to not compromise in the little things (Daniel 1) so that we will be faithful later in the big things (Daniel 6). We can learn that it is best to confess sin early and sincerely instead of blame-shifting (1 Samuel 15). We can learn not to play with sin, because it will find us out and its bite is deadly (See Judges 13-16). We can learn that we need to trust (and obey) God if we expect to experience His promised-land living in this life and His paradise in the next (Numbers 13). We learn that if we contemplate sin, we are only setting ourselves up for committing it (Genesis 3; Joshua 6-7). We learn that our sin has consequences not only for ourselves but for our loved ones around us and conversely that our good behavior has rewards not only for us but for those who are around us as well (Genesis 3; Exodus 20:5-6).

The Old Testament also contains vast quantities of wisdom that the New Testament does not share. Many of these are contained in the Psalms and Proverbs. These bits of wisdom reveal how I can be wiser than my teachers, what various sins will lead to (it helps us to see the hook that the bait is hiding), and what accomplishments in this world hold for us (nothing!). How can I recognize whether I am a fool (moral fool, that is)? How can I inadvertently turn people off without trying? How can I open doors to lasting success? How can I find meaning in life? Again, there is so much there that is just waiting to be found by one who truly wants to learn.

Without the Old Testament, we would not have a basis for standing against the error of the politically correct perversions of our society in which evolution is seen to be the creator of all of the species over millions of years (instead of them being the result of special creation by God in a literal six days). We would buy the lie that marriages and the family unit are an evolving structure that should continue to change as society changes, instead of being seen as a design by God for the purpose of raising up godly children and for the protection of those who would otherwise be used and abused (most often women and children).

Without the Old Testament, we would not understand the promises God will yet fulfill to the Jewish nation. As a result, we would not properly see that the Tribulation period is a seven-year period in which He will specifically be working with the Jewish nation who rejected His first coming but who will receive Him at His second coming. We would not understand how Christ's future 1,000-year reign fits in with His promises to the Jews, nor how the Gentiles will fit in. Nor would we see how the end of the Bible ties up the loose ends that were unraveled in the beginning of the Bible, how God will restore the paradise He originally created this world to be, and how we will enjoy close companionship with Him on a personal basis as in the Garden of Eden.

In summary, the Old Testament is a mirror that allows us to see ourselves in the lives of Old Testament characters and helps us learn vicariously from their lives. It sheds so much light on who God is and the wonders He has made and the salvation He has wrought. It shares so much comfort to those in persecution or trouble (see Psalms especially). It reveals through repeatedly fulfilled prophecy why the Bible is unique among holy books—it alone is able to demonstrate that it is what it claims to be: the inspired Word of God. It reveals volumes about Christ in page after page of its writings. It contains so much wisdom that goes beyond what is alluded to or quoted in the New Testament. In short, if you have not yet ventured in depth into its pages, you are missing much that God has available for you. As you read it, there will be much you do not understand right away, but there will be much you will understand and learn from. And as you continue to study it, asking God to teach you further, your mining will pay off in brighter treasures still.

from http://www.gotquestions.org/
Recommended Resource: A Survey of the Old Testament by Paul Benware.

2011-12-03T01:00:00.001-06:00

2011-11-29T01:08:00.004-06:00

Stand with Israel in Turning Terror into Light

Hand sculpted roses, candlesticks and menorahs crafted from actual Kassam Rockets -- over 12,000 fired into Israel in the last 8 years -- symbolize the perseverance of the people of Israel. Living symbols of Israel's endurance in the face of Hamas and Islamic terror. Yaron Bob, an Israeli artist, who understands what it means to live in the shadow of terror, has found his way of transforming objects of war into expressions of peace. He creates metal art sculptures that blossom with hope: A magnificent rose with a mission.

Nearly one million residents of Israel are within striking range of rockets from Gaza. With only 15 seconds to find cover, lives are in jeopardy. Israel desperately needs more bomb shelters to protect its citizens. From each item purchased on our website, a portion of the proceeds will be donated to Operation Lifeshield to build more bomb shelters in Israel and save lives.

Sales from the rockets go into building bomb shelters.

http://www.rocketsintoroses.com/

2011-11-27T01:05:00.000-06:00

Boy Wanted

Frank Crane

This "want ad" appeared in the early part of this century.

Wanted -- A boy that stands straight, sits straight, acts straight, and talks straight;

A boy whose fingernails are not in mourning, whose ears are clean, whose shoes are polished, whose clothes are brushed, whose hair is combed, and whose teeth are well cared for;

A boy who listens carefully when he is spoken to, who asks questions when he does not understand, and does not ask questions about things that are none of his business;

A boy that moves quickly and makes as little noise about it as possible;

A boy who whistles in the street, but does not whistle where he ought to keep still;

A boy who looks cheerful, has a ready smile for everybody, and never sulks;

A boy who is polite to every man and respectful to every woman and girl;

A boy who does not smoke cigarettes and has no desire to learn how;

A boy who is more eager to know how to speak good English than to talk slang;

A boy that never bullies other boys nor allows other boys to bully him;

A boy who, when he does not know a thing, says, "I don't know," and when he has made a mistake says, "I'm sorry," and when he is asked to do a thing says, "I'll try";

A boy who looks you right in the eye and tells the truth every time;

A boy who is eager to read good books;

A boy who would rather put in his spare time at the YMCA gymnasium than to gamble for pennies in a back room;

A boy who does not want to be "smart" nor in any wise to attract attention;

A boy who would rather lose his job or be expelled from school than to tell a lie or be a cad;

A boy whom other boys like;

A boy who is at ease in the company of girls;

A boy who is not sorry for himself, and not forever thinking and talking about himself;

A boy who is friendly with his mother, and more intimate with her than anyone else;

A boy who makes you feel good when he is around;

A boy who is not goody-goody, a prig, or a little pharisee, but just healthy, happy, and full of life.

This boy is wanted everywhere. The family wants him, the school wants him, the office wants him, the boys want him, the girls want him, all creation wants him.

2011-11-22T18:04:00.002-06:00

GOOD THANKSGIVING READING,
be sure you read it to your children and grandchildren

From the book: Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford 1590-1657

If you have time for nothing else, read the 4th chapter.
It is in this chapter that we learn about the true reasons why these homeschooling Pilgrims debated over whether or not they should risk their lives to go to America, the ultimate reasons for their departure (including concern over bad peer influences with their children), and their tremendous confidence in God. Most importantly, it is here that you read of Bradford’s multi-generational vision of victory.
If you want to read the entire book, go here:
http://mith.umd.edu//eada/html/display.php?docs=bradford_history.xml
Remember it was written in an earlier time & spellling is different from now.
Webster's Dictionary had not yet been written!

Chapter 4
Showing the reasons and causes of their remomall

AFTER they had lived in this citie about some 11 or 12 years, (which is the more observable being the whole time of that famose trucel between that state and the Spaniards,) and sundrie of them were taken away by death, and many others begane to be well striken in years, the grave mistris Experience haveing taught them many things, those prudent governours with sundrie of the sagest members begane both deeply to apprehend their present dangers, and wisely to foresee the future, and thinke of timly remedy. In the agitation of their thoughts, and much discours of things hear aboute, at length they began to incline to this conclusion, of remoovall to some other place. Not out of any newfanglednes, or other such like giddie humor, by which men are oftentimes transported to their great hurt and danger, but for sundrie weightie and solid reasons; some of the cheefe of which I will hear breefly touch. And first, they saw and found by experience the hardnes of the place and countrie to be such, as few in comparison would come to them, and fewer that would bide it out, and continew with them. For many that carne to them, and many more that desired to be with them, could not endure that great labor and hard fare, with other inconvenientes which they underwent and were contented with. But though they loved their persons, approved their cause, and honoured their sufferings, yet they left them as it weer weeping, as Orpah did her mother in law Naomie, or as those Romans did Cato in Utica, who desired to be excused and borne with, though they could not all be Catoes. For many, though they desired to injove the ordinances of God in their puritie, and the libertie of the gospell with them, yet, alass, they admitted of bondage, with danger of consciente, rather than to indure these hardships; yea, some preferred and chose the persons in England, rather then this libertie in Holland, with these afflictions. But it was thought that if a better and easier place of living could be had, it would draw many, and take away these discouragments. Yea, their pastor would often say, that many of those who both wrote and preached now against them, if they were in a place wher they might have libertie and live comfortably, they would then practise as they did.26.

2ly. They saw that though the people generally bore all these difficulties very cherfully, and with a resolute courage, being in the best and strength of their years, yet old age began to steale on many of them, (and their great and continuall labours, with other crosses and sorrows, hastened it before the time,) so as it was not only probably thought, but apparently seen, that within a few years more they would be in danger to scatter, by necessities pressing them, or sinke under their burdens, or both. And therfore according to the devine proverb, that a wise man seeth the plague when it cometh, and hideth him selfe, Pro. 22. 3., so they like skillfull and beaten souldiers were fearfull either to be intrapped or surrounded by their enimies, so as they should neither be able to fight nor flie; and therfor thought it better to dislodge betimes to some place of better advantage and less danger, if any such could be found. Thirdly; as necessitie was a taskrnaster over them, so they were forced to be such, not only to their servants, but in a sorte, to their dearest children; the which as it did not a litle wound the tender harts of niany a loving father and mother, so it produced likwise sundrie sad and sorowful effects. For many of their children, that were of best dispositions and gracious inclinations, haveing lernde to bear the yoake in their youth, and willing to bear parte of their parents burden, were, often times, so oppressed with their hevie labours, that though their minds were free and willing, yet their bodies bowed under the weight of the same, and became decreped in their early youth; the vigor of nature being consumed in the very budd as it were. But that which was more lamentable, and of all sorowes most heavie to be borne, was that many of their children, by these occasions, and the great licentiousness of youth in that countrie, and the manifold temptations of the place, were drawne away by evill examples to extravagante and dangerous courses, getting the raines off their neks, and departing from their parents. Some became souldiers, others tooke upon them farr viages by sea, and other some worse courses, tending to dissolutnes and the danger of their soules, to the great greefe of their parents and dishonour of God. So that they saw their posteritie would be in danger to degenerate and be corrupted. 27.

Lastly, (and which was not least), a great hope and inward zeall they had of laying some good foundation, or at least to make some way therunto, for the propagating and advancing the gospell of the kingdom of Christ in those remote parts of the world; yea, though they should be but even as stepping-stones unto others for the performing of so great a work.28.

These, and some other like reasons, moved them to undertake this resolution of their removall; the which they afterward prosecuted with so great difficulties, as by the sequell will appeare.29.

The place they had thoughts on was some of those vast and unpeopled countries of America, which are frutfull and fitt for habitation, being devoyd of all civill inhabitants, wherther are only salvage and brutish men, which range up and downe, litle otherwise then the wild beasts of the same. This proposition being made publike and coming to the scaning of all, it raised many variable opinions amongst men, and caused many fears and doubts amongst them selves. Some, from their reasons and hops conceived, laboured to stirr up and incourage the rest to undertake and prosecute the same; others, againe, out of their fears, objected against it, and sought to diverte from it, aledging many things, and those neither unreasonable nor unprobable; as that it was a great designe, and subjecte to many unconceivable perills and dangers; as, besids the casulties of the seas (which none can be freed from) the length of the vioage was such, as the weake bodys of women and other persons worne out with age and traville (as many of them were) could never be able to endure. And yet if they should, the miseries of the land which they should be exposed unto, would be to hard to be borne; and lickly, some or all of them togeither, to consume and utterly to ruinate them. For ther they should be liable to famine, and nakednes, and the wante, in a maner, of all things. The chang of aire, diate, and drinking of water, would infecte their bodies with sore sickneses, and greevous diseases. And also those which should escape or overcome these difficulties, should yett be in continuall danger of the salvage people, who are cruell, barbarous, and most trecherous, being most furious in their rage, and merciles wher they overcome; not being contente only to kill, and take away life, but delight to tormente men in the most bloodie manner that may be; fleaingsome alive with the shells of fishes, cutting of the members and joynts of others by peesmeale, and broiling on the coles, eate the collops of their flesh in their sight whilst they live; with other cruelties horrible to be related. And surely it could not be thought but the very hearing of these things could not but move the very bowels of men to greae within them, and make the weaketo quake and tremble. It was furder objected, that it would require greater summes of money to furnish such a voiage, and to fitt them with necessaries, then their consumad estats would amounte too; and yett they must as well looke to be seconded with supplies,as presently to be transported. Also many presidents of ill success, and lamentable misseries befalne others in the like designes, were easie to be found, and not forgotten to be aledged; besids their owne experience, in their former troubles and hardships in their removall into Holand, and how hard a thing it was for them to live in that strange place, though it was a neighbour countrie, and a civill and rich comone wealth.30.

It was answered, that all great and honourable actions are accompanied with great difficulties, and must be both enterprised and overcome with answerable courages. It was granted the dangers were great, but not desperate; the difficulties were many, but not invincible. For though their were many of them Ekly, yet they were not cartaine; it might be sundrie of the things feared might never befale; others by providente cara and the use of good means, might in a great measure be prevented; and all of them, through the help of God, by fortitude and patience, might either be borne, or overcome. True it was, that such atempts were not to be made and undertaken without good ground and reason; not rashly or lightly as many have done for curiositie or hope of gaine, etc. But their condition was not ordinarie; their ends were good and-honourable; their calling lawfull, and urgente; and therfore they might expecte the blessing of God in their proceding. Yea, though they should loose their lives in this action, yet might they have comforte in the same, and their endeavors would be honourable. They lived hear but as man in exile, and in a poore condition; and as great miseries might possibly befale them in this place, for the 12. years of truca were now out, and ther was nothing but beating of drumes, and preparing for warr, the events wherof are allway uncertaine. The Spaniard might prove as cruell as the salvages of America, and the famine and pestelence as sore hear as ther, and their libertie less to looke out for remedie. After many other perticuler things answered and aledged on both sids, it was fully concluded by the major parte, to put this designe in execution, and to prosecute it by the best means they could.31.

2011-11-18T16:37:00.000-06:00

Israel, what's right with the middle East

Helping get the truth out.

2011-11-13T01:10:00.000-06:00

Ray Comfort is making a HUGE difference a little step at a time!
Everyone owes it to themsleves to give this the time it takes to watch.

2011-11-09T01:05:00.017-06:00

Hidden Persuaders

The unheralded gains of the pro-life movement
by Fred Barnes
November 7, 2011Opponents of abortion are rarely interviewed on television these days. “It’s much harder to get on TV than it used to be,” says Charmaine Yoest, who heads Americans United for Life. Bookers of guests for news shows tell her, “We don’t want to talk about abortion. We’re tired of it.”

Perhaps the mainstream media are simply incapable of covering more than one social issue at a time. For the moment, the conflict over gay marriage and gays in the military is monopolizing media coverage, TV and print alike. Abortion is barely an afterthought.

There’s an upside to this for the pro-life movement, a benefit of benign neglect. Foes of gay rights are now seen by the press as fighting the bad war, roughly analogous to Vietnam. Pro-lifers are waging the good war, like World War II. “You get much less grief fighting against abortion than you do fighting to preserve traditional marriage,” says Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of the Susan B. Anthony List.

If only the media knew. They have missed the most important breakthrough in the struggle over abortion in years: the resurgence of the pro-life crusade. The press elite was beaten on the story by publications such as Christianity Today (“The New Pro-Life Surge”) and Baptist Press (“5 Reasons the Pro-Life Movement is Winning”).

That the pro-life movement is bigger is a given. It’s also younger, increasingly entrepreneurial, more strategic in its thinking, better organized, tougher in dealing with allies and enemies alike, almost wildly ambitious, and more relentless than ever.

All that is dwarfed by an even bigger change. Pro-lifers have captured the high moral ground, chiefly thanks to advances in the quality of sonograms. Once fuzzy, sonograms now provide a high-resolution picture of the unborn child in the womb. Fetuses have become babies.

Abortion advocates were among the first to understand how this would alter the debate. Two pro-choice leaders, Kate Michelman and Frances Kissling, acknowledged three years ago that “antiabortionists” had gained a significant advantage. Supporters of abortion, they wrote in the Los Angeles Times, “have had a hard time dealing with the increased visibility of the fetus.” To “regain the moral high ground,” they must deal with “a world that is radically changed from 1973,” when the Roe v. Wade decision legalized abortion nationwide.

Pro-life groups, unlike advocates of easy access to abortion, have proved adept in accommodating to this new world. They’ve begun piling up successes. In 2011 alone, 24 states have enacted 52 new restrictions on abortion. Five now require an ultrasound before an abortion, two insisting that the screen be viewable by the mother. Four bar abortions after the baby is able to feel pain (at approximately 20 weeks). Eight have opted out of Obamacare. Five ban abortions by webcam (in which a doctor, not in person but videoconferencing with the mother, prescribes pills to induce abortion). Six trimmed or eliminated funds for Planned Parenthood, the nation’s largest abortion provider. Texas led with a $64 million cut.

The wave of state action shouldn’t be all that surprising. Republicans gained control of 26 legislatures in the 2010 election. Once advised to drop the abortion issue or suffer a certain decline, the GOP is now the nation’s pro-life party—and isn’t declining. In Congress, the House has passed two pro-life bills this year, one outlawing abortion subsidies in Obamacare, the other imposing a blanket ban on taxpayer-funded abortions. Both measures were deep-sixed in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Three pro-life trends have spiked in 2011. The first is the rise in opposition to abortion among young people. The under-30 cohort was the most pro-choice in the 1970s, second most in the 1980s and 1990s. Now they’re “markedly less pro-choice” than any other age group, scholars Clyde Wilcox and Patrick Carr have written. “Clearly, something is distinctive about the abortion attitudes of the Millennial Generation of Americans.”

Indeed there is. Millennials haven’t grown more religious, politically conservative, or queasy about gay rights. Nor do they go out of their way to vote for pro-life candidates. But they tend to see abortion as a human rights violation. Thus their resistance to abortion is gradually increasing.

You can see a manifestation of this generational shift at the March on Washington each January 22, the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling. For years, the marchers were geezers, initially Catholics, then aging Protestants too. In the past few years, the march has been dominated by teenagers and people in their 20s, often carrying infants.

The second trend is the explosive growth of refuges for pregnant but unmarried women. These safe houses go by a multitude of names: Crisis Pregnancy Center, Pregnancy Resource Center, Pregnancy Health Center, Pregnancy Care Center, or simply Pregnancy Center. In Northern Virginia, Jim Wright, formerly in the commercial real estate business, calls the center he started Birthmothers.

They all do the same thing, nurturing single women during their pregnancy and recommending against abortion. The results are one-sided: 80 to 90 percent of the women who have sonograms at pregnancy centers choose to have their baby.

Today there are nearly three times as many of these centers (2,300) as abortion facilities (800 to 850). One reason for the disparity is that women stay for months in pro-life centers, but only briefly in abortion clinics. The Care Net network reflects the growth: 550 centers in 1999, 1,130 today.

Trend number three: the rejuvenation of old pro-life groups and the sprouting of new ones. Kristan Hawkins was a political appointee at the Department of Health and Human Services in 2006 when she responded to an ad for the newly created job of executive director of Students for Life. The group had been around for two decades, operating with a minimal staff and fewer than 300 chapters. Now Students for Life has 637 chapters, a full-time staff of 10, and a dozen regional coordinators. “We’re almost everywhere,” assistant director Tina Whittington says.

Students for Life has branched out. There are Black Students for Life, Medical Students for Life, Business Students for Life, and so on. The goal for its field coordinators is to start 10 new pro-life groups per semester and 20 a year. Students for Life has been revitalized.

David Bereit was a pharmaceutical sales rep when Planned Parenthood built a clinic in his hometown of Bryan/College Station, Texas. He organized a protest. That was just the beginning. In 2004, he created 40 Days for Life, which promotes prayer vigils outside abortion -clinics. He began with a single vigil in downtown College Station. Bereit says the number of abortions in his county fell 28 percent that year. By his count, his group has recruited 400,000 people who participate in hundreds of vigils in nearly 400 cities.

When he started 40 Days, “a lot of wind had left the sails of the pro-life groups,” he told me. “Now I see enthusiasm and hope I haven’t seen in years. The tide is turning against Planned Parenthood and abortion providers.”

In the case of Planned Parenthood (PP), that’s true. Killing the federal government’s subsidy of PP has long been a top priority for pro-life groups. In 2009, there were 1.2 million abortions in the United States. PP was responsible for 332,278 of them. About one-third of PP’s $1 billion budget comes from government grants and contracts.

But until Lila Rose came along, PP had proved to be an elusive target. The group said that none of the federal money subsidized abortions, an implausible claim. No one in the pro-life movement believes it. Money, after all, is fungible.

Rose, 23, is the newest pro-life star, the exception to the rule that the abortion issue attracts no media attention. (Since Faye Wattleton left PP in 1992, the abortion side has had no stars.) One of eight children of a Catholic family in San Jose, California, Rose became an antiabortion activist at age 14 and continued as a student at UCLA. At 15, she formed Live Action, which produces hidden camera videos exposing PP’s willingness to offer abortions to underage girls while avoiding their obligation to report cases where the pregnancies came from statutory rape.

“Lila created the moment,” Dannenfelser says. Rose did so by posing as a teenage prostitute impregnated by her much older pimp at a PP clinic in New Jersey. The clinic’s manager explained how she could get an abortion by lying about her age. The video became a sensation on the Internet. More important, it was viewed by Republican representative Cliff Stearns of Florida, chairman of a House subcommittee on oversight and investigations.

Stearns was appalled at PP’s “manipulating this young 15-year-old girl to get an abortion.” He was also impressed by a report on PP by Americans United for Life (AUL). It cited eight areas of “scandal and abuse,” including misuse of federal funds, “failure to report criminal child sexual abuse,” and aiding people involved in prostitution and sexual trafficking.

On September 15, Stearns launched the first-ever congressional probe of Planned Parenthood. In a letter to Cecile Richards, the embattled PP president, he said his panel has “questions about the policies in place and actions undertaken” by PP and its affiliates, the handling of federal funds, and compliance with “restrictions on the funding of abortion.” He asked for an extensive collection of audits and documents.

Though Democrats were furious at Stearns, he’s treated the PP issue cautiously. He sought the approval of Fred Upton of Michigan, the energy and commerce committee chairman, before sending the letter. And public hearings will be held only if House speaker John Boehner agrees, Stearns told me.

As you might expect, Rose is excited by the impact of her incriminating videos at PP clinics. “You cannot argue with the videos,” she says. “They speak the truth, and they are indisputable.” Young people “are getting the truth about abortion in ways they couldn’t before. This is a movement that is just beginning and can’t be stopped.”

Look across the alley from the fifth floor office of the Susan B. Anthony List (SBA) in downtown Washington and you’ll see two placards. They’ve been posted on the window of the office of a labor union in the adjacent building—for the SBA crowd to see. One says “Stop the War on Women,” the other, “Don’t Take Away My Cancer Screenings.”

These are the response of Planned Parenthood and its allies to attacks on what PP and the abortion industry actually do. Abortion? Forget it. (PP says it mostly does medical tests, and abortions are a sideline.) The “A” word is almost never uttered now by anyone connected to the abortion industry, which claims merely to support “a woman’s right to choose.” Choose what? They don’t say. Their opponents aren’t “pro-lifers,” but anyone who is “anti-choice.”

The language gymnastics and euphemisms reflect the forlorn condition of the pro-choice flock. They’re worn out. Many are in despair. Nancy Keenan, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, told Newsweek of her anguish as she watched last year’s March on Washington. “I just thought, my gosh, they are so young,” she said. “There are so many of them, and they are so young.” Today, zeal and confidence and perseverance in the abortion battle are all on the antiabortion side. “There are more pro-lifers now, and they’re more determined,” says Carol Tobias, president of National Right to Life.

The abortion lobby has found its own target, the pregnancy centers. The aim is to compel centers to post large signs disclosing they don’t offer abortions or make referrals to places like PP that do. The assumption behind the effort is that many women go to the centers for an abortion, then get talked out of it.

This offensive has gotten off to a rocky start, partly because lawyers for the centers have mostly succeeded in blocking the posting requirement. Austin, Texas, is one of the few jurisdictions with a mandate in effect. In the state of Washington, abortion supporters sought an extreme version of a posting law. It would require the no-abortions-here message to be posted in at least five languages. “It didn’t pass, but it was a battle,” says Jeanneane Maxon of Care Net.

The pro-choicers also have pursued a quibble with the Susan B. Anthony List. They argue that Anthony, the leading 19th-century suffragette, was not opposed to abortion and that the SBA “cherry picked” a few quotes as evidence she was. True, Anthony concentrated on winning the right to vote for women. But SBA cites this forthright statement in an Anthony editorial:

Guilty? Yes. No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death; but oh, thrice guilty is he who . . . drove her to the desperation which impelled her to the crime.

Challenging SBA and pregnancy centers shows a bit of resourcefulness by pro-choicers, but those are essentially rear guard actions. They can’t match the right-to-life movement’s imagination and entrepreneurship. Michael New, a soft-spoken political science professor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn, is a leading pro-life thinker. He has studied the effect of state-enacted restrictions on abortion over the past decade and found they reduce the number of abortions. New (Dartmouth B.A., Stanford Ph.D.) hasn’t promoted his evidence through normal pro-life channels. Instead, he followed academic practice and submitted them for peer review.

That took three years, plus another year before his conclusions were published. He tested the impact of three restrictions: no public funding, parental involvement, and informed consent. He determined that all three reduced the abortion rate, particularly parental participation in the case of a minor. His article, “Analyzing the Effect of Anti-Abortion U.S. State Legislation in the Post-Casey Era,” was published in the March issue of State Politics and Policy Quarterly.

New’s article is hardly a page-turner. But his findings have been known to state legislators for several years, encouraging them to pursue limitations on abortion. He’s now studying whether involvement of two parents is more effective than one and which pro-life restrictions are the most effective. As unlikely as it sounds, New has become a star of the movement. The abortion side lacks a Michael New.

Fetal pain is another issue that has invigorated the pro-life movement in recent years. Improved ultrasound revealed to doctors that at around 20 weeks an unborn child reacts visibly to pain. “All the neurological equipment is present at 20 weeks,” according to Teresa Collett, a professor at the University of St. Thomas Law School in Minnesota and an expert on fetal pain. Fetal pain was recognized, Collett says, as an “independent basis for a state to protect the life of a child.” In Nebraska last year, the first law was passed barring abortions after an unborn baby begins to sense pain. Mary Balch of National Right to Life (NRL) played a key role in drafting the Nebraska statute. Fetal pain laws won’t have a dramatic lifesaving effect. Still, they’re significant. The incremental strategy pursued by most pro-life groups is based on the idea that antiabortion laws, even if narrow, build on one another. Fetal pain laws focus on the suffering of the baby, an asset in opposing a woman’s right to choose. And who in the pro-choice lobby is eager to gainsay the pain experienced by an unborn child? Dispute it and you’ll come across as cruel.

The ultimate goal of pro-lifers remains what it’s always been: overturning Roe v. Wade. They’re reconciled to jumping through as many hoops as necessary to get there. Americans United for Life specializes in creating model antiabortion laws for states. It also has a strategic plan for “reversing Roe” or “rendering it obsolete.” It starts with “saving babies now” and preparing states for the “day after Roe.”

AUL isn’t kidding about vitiating Roe without overturning it. The key is to burden the abortion industry with intrusive regulations. This amounts to using liberal means to produce a conservative result. “When you regulate something, you get less of it,” a pro-life leader reminds me. So precise conditions at abortion clinics would be imposed, as Virginia did this year. New requirements for safety, bookkeeping, record-keeping, and reporting would be applied. That’s not all. More laws limiting abortions would be needed, as would cultural efforts to shrink the demand for abortions.

The informal division of labor among pro-life groups leaves SBA with the conventional mission of electing candidates who are pro-life to Congress and defeating those who aren’t. The group had a sterling record in 2010, unseating 15 of the 20 Democrats who claimed to oppose abortion but voted for Obamacare. Dannenfelser intends to raise the bar on what’s expected from candidates SBA supports: no more toleration of candidates who are “rhetorically pro-life but not operationally pro-life.”

In the tradition of its namesake, SBA promises in its campaign for next year to “defend the wave of pro-life women elected in 2010, add to their ranks, and defeat pro-abortion women running for office.” By the way, four of the most enterprising and energetic pro-life groups—SBA, AUL, NRL, Live Action—are headed by women.

The big question today among pro-lifers is whether the movement has reached a turning point, with victory over abortion now inevitable. I’m dubious. AUL’s Yoest isn’t so sure either. She says pro-lifers have yet to win the argument that abortion, rather than empowering women, is harmful to them. New says America’s permissive culture is a huge impediment to closing off any right to an abortion. And Roe v. Wade stands erect nearly 39 years after it was decided. Who can be sure of its fate?

But real gains have been achieved by the pro-life movement and many, many lives have been saved—in 2011 alone. And bigger gains are bound to come as more babies are spared the abortionist’s knife.

Fred Barnes is executive editor of The Weekly Standard.

2011-11-06T01:05:00.000-05:00

So beautiful a story, I must share it with YOU!

When John Todd, a nineteenth-century clergyman, was six years old, both his parents died. A kind-hearted aunt raised him until he left home to study for the ministry. Later, this aunt became seriously ill, and in distress she wrote Todd a letter. Would death mean the end of everything, or could she hope for something beyond? Here, condensed from The Autobiography of John Todd, is the letter he sent in reply: "It is now thirty-five years since I, as a boy of six, was left quite alone in the world. You sent me word you would give me a home and be a kind mother to me. I have never forgotten the day I made the long journey to your house. I can still recall my disappointment when, instead of coming for me yourself, you sent your servant, Caesar, to fetch me.

"I remember my tears and anxiety as, perched high on your horse and clinging tight to Caesar, I rode off to my new home. Night fell before we finished the journey, and I became lonely and afraid. 'Do you think she'll go to bed before we get there?' I asked Caesar. 'Oh no!' he said reassuringly, 'She'll stay up for you. When we get out o' these here woods, you'll see her candle shinin' in the window.'

"Presently we did ride out into the clearing, and there, sure enough, was your candle. I remember you were waiting at the door, that you put your arms close about me--a tired and bewildered little boy. You had a fire burning on the hearth, a hot supper waiting on the stove. After supper you took me to my new room, heard me say my prayers, and then sat beside me till I fell asleep.

"Some day soon God will send for you, to take you to a new home. Don't fear the summons, the strange journey, or the messenger of death. God can be trusted to do as much for you as you were kind enough to do for me so many years ago. At the end of the road you will find love and a welcome awaiting, and you will be safe in God's care."

Vernon Grounds
http://www.bigrigtravels.com/photos/i-qdPk5nf/0/S/i-qdPk5nf-S.gif

2011-11-01T01:05:00.040-05:00

“Occupy the Womb” (not wallstreet)

The ONE thing that all mankind, of every race and nationality, or place on the planet, has in common -- is the time we spent in the womb of our mother.

Today a mother’s womb is one of the most dangerous places in the world.

Each day in our country, 4,000 unborn children have their lives violently ended in the womb. The loss of innocent lives is an afront to God who gives life.

Repentance is needed if God is to ever bless America again.

Pray to end abortion.

Abortion stops a beating heart.

2011-10-29T15:02:00.004-05:00

Issues & Events Newsletter

The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. (Proverbs 8:13)

By Doug Phillips

Our country is in the grip of a fear crisis. The tension because of this fear is almost palpable. There is fear over elections, fear over the economy, and fear over hundreds of other issues ranging from the environment to terrorism.

The one fear that America is missing is a fear of the Lord. As a people, we no longer fear God. Because we do not fear God, we no longer hate evil (Proverbs 8:13).

Instead of hating evil, Americans toy with it. We toy with holidays like Halloween that were conceived in evil and that promote the “cute-ification” of evil, whether that evil takes the form of witchcraft, sorcery, ghoulishness, or some other form of malevolent imagery paraded before our children. We laugh at the very things that the Lord describes as “abominations,” and we find ourselves obsessively fascinated by, and attracted to, all things dark.

Yet we do not fear the Lord.

Those who “hate evil” are very scary to a secular society that fears man more than God. They are scary because they dare to declare that there are absolute standards by which society must be governed. They are scary because, if they are successful, industries like Hollywood that make billions of dollars by promoting ungodly fear will lose their influence. They are scary because such people will not be swayed by political candidates who use fear as a tool for manipulation.

With this in mind, I offer you the five “scariest” things you can do this Halloween:

1. The scariest thing you can do this Halloween is to not make light of evil. Halloween was conceived in evil and has remained a celebration that uses children to promote a fascination with darkness and superstitious fear. Simultaneously, it makes light of things that the Bible describes as evil. Stand against such things, and the world will find you very scary indeed. The fear of the Lord makes men turn from evil (Proverbs 16:6).

2. The scariest thing you can do this Halloween is to not be fearful. The media wants you to be afraid of everything from overpopulation to global warming. The politicians want you to be afraid of the economy and political instability. God wants you to do what is morally right, trust Him completely, and never be gripped by an ungodly spirit of fear. You can place your trust and hope for this nation in the King of Kings. Jesus said: “And I say unto you my friends, Be not afraid of them that kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do. But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him” (Luke 12:4–5). Believe this, and you will be light to the world.

3. The scariest thing you can do this Halloween is to completely skip Halloween and remember Reformation Day. It was 494 years ago that Martin Luther nailed his world-changing 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenberg church. These theses included rebukes to ungodly fear and superstition. 502 years ago, sometime near October 31, a baby named John Calvin was conceived who would dedicate his life to eradicating an ungodly fear of superstitious beliefs and proclaiming the gospel of grace. His emphasis on reformation, revival, and the sufficiency of Scripture had such far-reaching implications for nations like the United States that he has been described by Christian and secular scholars alike as the true founding father of America. The Reformers did something that was very scary to the world of their day. They stood against all forms of dark superstitions which grip the minds and souls of men. It was their emphasis on the fear of the Lord and the wisdom of Holy Scripture that was used by God to liberate untold numbers of men and women. But to remember the Reformers instead of Halloween is very scary to the world. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Proverbs 9:10).

4. The scariest thing you can do this Halloween is to refuse to watch or allow your children to watch any of the toxic Halloween and horror films emerging from Hollywood. America’s fascination with ungodly fear has made horror the most popular and fastest-growing film genre among youth. When parents allow their children to toy with this genre, they promote ungodly fear, and they contribute to the fear-factories in Hollywood that prey upon the youth of our culture. Say “no” to Hollywood horror and you will be dangerously scary to the media elite. “Fear ye not me? saith the Lord: will ye not tremble at my presence....?” (Jeremiah 5:22).

5. The scariest thing you can do this Halloween is to get on your knees as a mother and father and pray that the Lord will send you many children who will fear God, not man — children who will especially shun the glorification of witchcraft, the bondage of ungodly fear, and the “cute-ification” of evil that is promoted through holidays like Halloween. Cultures that toy with evil end up being cultures of death. The Christian response is to be a people of life. That means babies. It means fearing God by honoring His command to “be fruitful and multiply.” It means remembering that the Scripture describes children as a “blessing” and a “reward.” Raise children that fear God more than man, and that will be answer enough to our Halloween-and darkness-obsessed culture; for if you trust God over your womb and commit your children to a holy education, you will be very scary to the modern world. “Come, my children, listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord” (Psalm 34:11).

Persevero,
Doug Phillips, President, Vision Forum Ministries

2011-10-27T01:01:00.014-05:00

A VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION

WHICH MITT WILL WE GET IF HE'S PRESIDENT???

2011-10-25T01:05:00.000-05:00

Get to know this thing named PRIDE

My name is Pride. I am a cheater.

I cheat you of your God-given destiny...because you demand your own way.

I cheat you of contentment...because you "deserve better than this."

I cheat you of knowledge...because you already know it all.

I cheat you of healing...because you're too full of me to forgive.

I cheat you of holiness...because you refuse to admit when you're wrong.

I cheat you of vision...because you'd rather look in the mirror than out a window.

I cheat you of genuine friendship...because nobody's going to know the real you.

I cheat you of love...because real romance demands sacrifice.

I cheat you of greatness in heaven...because you refuse to wash another's feet on earth.

I cheat you of God's glory...because I convince you to seek your own.

My name is Pride. I am a cheater.

You like me because you think I'm always looking out for you. Untrue.

God has so much for you, I admit.

But don't worry...

If you stick with me, you'll never know.

-from Beth Moore's Praying God's Word

2011-10-21T01:01:00.002-05:00

Bamboo's Message to the World

Judges 13:18
"And the angel of the LORD said unto him, Why askest thou thus after my name, seeing it [is] secret?"

Many plants reproduce simply by cloning. The most obvious example of cloning that comes to mind is the dandelion. Unless you get all of the main dandelion root out of the ground, each piece of the root can sprout another dandelion, identical to the parent.

The walking fern reproduces by cloning too. It moves across the countryside, albeit slowly, by Bamboo's Messageproducing new plants. A new plant is generated wherever the tips of its leaves touch the ground. Each new plant is identical to the parent.

The bamboo reproduces through underground stems. The different species of bamboo live anywhere from 20 to 120 years. During their life spans, they produce only by cloning. Then they flower – once. When it's time for a particular species to flower, every member of that species, no matter where in the world it grows, flowers gloriously. Each flower can have as many as 100 pollen-producing stamens. Once the seeds are ripe and scattered, every member of that species in the world dies. At this point, the entire species exists only in the scattered seeds.

This is brilliant testimony to a recent creation of all bamboos at the same time. If evolution produced them and the forces of change worked on them for millions of years, one would think that all members of the same species would no longer be in perfect synchronization. Bamboo makes a strong testimony for the recent creation reported in Genesis!
Prayer:
Dear Father in heaven, I am continually amazed at the wonderful variety of life You have created. Help me to see more clearly how the creation witnesses to You and then voice that witness to those around me. In Jesus' Name. Amen.
Notes:
Batten, Mary. 1983. "Sex & plants." Science Digest, Oct. p. 61.

View/Print/Share This on CreationMoments.com

2011-10-18T01:05:00.001-05:00

FORCED ABORTION IN CHINA

Vice President Biden says he fully understands China's one child policy.

("http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=45690)

Note: This testimony is excerpted from a statement by a Chinese woman, Wujian (an alias), before the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the U.S. House of Representatives on Nov. 10, 2009. This excerpt originally appeared on the Minnessota Concerned Citizens for Life blog.

My name is Wujian. I was born in a small village in northern China.
It was the spring of 2004 when I found out that I was pregnant. It was beautiful to sense this life growing inside of me: what a miracle! Meanwhile, I was also very fearful since I did not have the permit for pregnancy or the birth permit, which means, according to Chinese law, this baby was not allowed to be born into this world. During that time in my hometown, this was the law decided by the Chinese family planning policy.

Pretty soon, my lower stomach began to bulge. In order to protect my baby, I had to hide myself in a very old, shabby house in a remote area. There was no electricity at all in the room … Fear and loneliness filled me every day, but as long as I could have my baby, I could stand anything. …

Eventually, the family planning government officials found out about my pregnancy. So they searched all over trying to arrest me, and while they could not find me, then they caught my father instead. They put my father into the detention center and beat him every day. On the fourth day after they caught my father, one neighbor came and told me that my father was dying: they would continue beating my father — even to death — until I went to the local hospital to get abortion. …

Very soon after this, the worst thing happened: when several family planning government officials broke into the house where I was hiding, and without any words, they drug me into their van.

As soon as I got into the van, I found that another mom was already inside the van. She told me she was carrying her first baby, and that she was 28 years old. She did not have the permit of pregnancy or the birth permit, and she was 7 months pregnant. She was so eager to keep this baby that she was fighting with the government officers in the van. Suddenly, one government official in his 20′s slapped her on the face and immediately her mouth began to bleed. Being thus insulted, she screamed like a lion and fought with the family planning government officials.

About one hour later, the van stopped in the hospital. As soon as I was drug out of the van, I saw hundreds of pregnant moms there — all of them just like pigs in the slaughterhouse. Immediately I was drug into a special room, and without any preliminary medical examination, one nurse did an oxytocin injection intravenously. Then I was put into a room with several other moms.

The room was full of moms who had just gone through a forced abortion. Some moms were crying, some moms were mourning, some moms were screaming, and one mom was rolling on the floor with unbearable pain. …

I was pulled into another small room. One nurse pulled out one big, 8-inch long needle for the intramuscular injection. …

At that moment, I was the only mom in the room. I began begging the nurse while I cried, “I have already had the oxytocin injection, please let me go; I will go as far away as possible and I will not tell anyone else what you had done for me and I will be grateful for you for the rest of me life.” The nurse did not respond to my begging — she looked like wood.

Then I kept saying to her, “You are an angel, as a nurse or a doctor who is helping people and saving people’s life; how could you become a killer by killing people every day?” … Soon she became very angry at what I said, and told me that I talked too much. She also told me that there was nothing serious about this whole thing for her. She did these all year. She also told me that there were over 10,000 forced abortions in our county [county, not country] just for that year, and I was having just one of them. I was astonished by her words and I realized that my baby and I were just like a lamb on the cutting board. Finally, she put the big, long needle into the head of my baby in the womb. At the moment, it was the end of the world for me and I felt even time had stopped. …

After the injection, my baby became very quiet for a whole day. I was so naive that I thought I could leave the hospital because I had finished the forced injection. I wondered if perhaps my baby was lucky enough that she could survive.

To my great surprise, the next evening I was drug into a surgical room. … While I was lying down on the surgical table I found that there was bloody fingerprints on the wall, left by other moms during their surgery of a forced abortion.

One doctor told me that I brought too much trouble to them already because my baby was supposed to flow out by itself after the injection. Since it did not come out as expected, they decided to cut my baby into pieces in my womb with scissors, and then suck it out with a special machine.

What had I done in my life that made me deserve this kind of punishment? What evil thing was this all about? Even a wild animal like a tiger will give her life to save her own baby tiger. As a mom and a human being, could I not even protect the life of my baby? …

I could hear the sound of the scissors cutting the body of my baby in my womb. … I preferred to die together with my baby at that moment. …

Eventually the journey in hell, the surgery was finished, and one nurse showed me part of a bloody foot with tweezers. Through my tears, the picture of the bloody foot was engraved into my eyes and into my heart, and so clearly I could see the five small bloody toes. Immediately the baby was thrown into a trash can. …

Finally, I was allowed to go home from the hospital. I did not eat anything, or even drink any water, for several days. I barely talked with anyone. From time to time at home, I could hear the mourning of my father. He was released after I was caught, but he had been beaten terribly; it took him over a month to recover physically. Looking at my father, thinking of my dead baby, I cried day and night, and frequently the picture of the little bloody foot came up in my mind. Physically I recovered after about one month, but psychologically and spiritually — never! …

I know that there are millions of Chinese sisters who are suffering and will suffer the same thing that I suffered. Who can help them? Who can save them? The one-child policy and forced abortion policy have killed millions of innocent lives in China. HOW can this inhumane crime be stopped? WHEN can this inhumane crime be stopped?

When can WE elect some officials, at least in this country, with some human compassion?
Prayer is always a door open to us, let us be in prayer for the unborn, everywhere.

2011-10-11T01:04:00.000-05:00

The Love of Jesus surpasses anything you can ever imagine

2011-10-09T11:15:00.001-05:00

OCTOBER RAIN IN TEXAS

MANY THANKS TO OUR LORD GOD FOR REMEMBERING US

2011-10-07T01:05:00.004-05:00

Steve the Race Horse

My Yoke is Easy

A Parable of Grace

By Joan Rappleyea

This was the day I’d dreamed of for so long. Today God had answered my prayer and given me a horse of my own. But he wasn’t what I’d expected.

The horse standing in front of me was 1,100 lbs. of sheer nervous energy. As they loaded this huge strawberry roan into the trailer, the trainer told me, “Don’t ever turn your back on him. He’s not mean, but he’s all horse.”

Little did I know God would use this strange animal to teach me a powerful lesson about myself and about His amazing grace.

A Little Girl’s Dream
Growing up during the 1950’s in upper New York, I wasn’t like other little girls. While they dreamed of marriage and children, my childhood fantasy was something quite different. I wanted a horse of my own.
A severe thyroid condition at the age of ten put my life on an emotional roller coaster, and for a few years all I could do was cry. My parents didn’t know Jesus, so they had a hard time dealing with me during the illness. Friends disappeared, and there was no light of Christ to brighten the sadness of my existence. Yet I was convinced a horse would solve all my problems.

Kids would look at me differently if I had a horse! They’d see me galloping across an open field instead of trudging sadly along the sidewalk to school. Each year I dreamed there would be a horse in the garage when I woke up Christmas morning. But it never happened.

The Kindness of God
When I was 26 years old, working in a pharmaceutical lab in Albany and living on my own, I finally saved enough money to buy a beautiful chestnut mare. When she died of an illness three years later, I immediately assumed God didn’t want me to have a horse. I’d become a Christian at 21, but my childhood had left many scars.

The Bible said God was intimately acquainted with the desires of my heart, but I found that hard to believe. No one had ever really cared about me -- why should God be any different? So I prayed, “Lord, I’m going to leave it in Your hands. I’ll never buy another horse.” That day an entire chapter of my life closed as I surrendered my childhood dream to God.

But only nine months later a friend happened to tell me about a 15 year old racehorse being retired because of a shoulder injury. Something in my spirit quickened when I heard about this horse. His name was Steve. That night I prayed: “God, if You want me to have this horse, I’ll give him the best home I can and keep him until death.”

The next morning my friend and I visited the racetrack stable. Some Amish farmers were there looking for retiring horses to use behind the plow, and they were standing right next to Steve. My heart sank as they offered to buy him. Only God could understand why I couldn’t make a counteroffer. But as the bidding progressed, my friend took the owner aside an told him about me. He assured him I would give Steve a good life -- not put him to work for the rest of his days. That didn’t seem like a very convincing argument to offer a businessman, but then the impossible happened. The owner gave the me the horse. Absolutely free.

“You open Your hand, and satisfy the desire of every living thing.” Psalm 145: 16

An Honest Horse
Steve was what racetrack people call an “honest” horse. Even though years of racing had sapped his strength, he gave his whole heart to win. Just before his final race, the track vet had to draw fluid out of his knee and soak his legs in ice water to keep the swelling down. Steve should have never been entered in that race, yet he went on to win first place. As they led him from the winner’s circle, he was so lame he could hardly stand. Steve never lost that lifelong desire to be “up in front.”

After winning his first race, Steve had been doomed to a life of being bought and sold. He was fed, watered, groomed, and kept in a clean stall, but he never knew friendship could exist between a man and a horse.

There was only one purpose for Steve’s existence, and that was to perform. Even on his day off he was strapped to a cart and paced five miles. He didn’t know the sheer joy of being a horse. He’d never been allowed to canter in a summer pasture or drink from a free flowing stream. He’d never eaten an apple from the hand of someone who loved him.

God created horses to run, but Steve was trained to be a pacer. Whenever he broke into a run, he was beaten for disobeying. So when he was nervous, Steve would start to pace. Pleasing his master through performance had been stamped into his very being, and sometimes he forgot he’d been given a new life. Sometimes he forgot he belonged to a new master.

“For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons . . .” Romans 8: 15

More Than Survival
One of the first things I noticed about Steve was his fear of being touched. He was used to being fed, groomed, and disciplined -- but when I tried to pet him, he’d tremble like a leaf. He didn’t know a human hand could be used for anything but pulling on reins and swatting his backside.

Steve was a lot like me. Neither one of us understood what it meant to be loved. My parents had tried their best, but they knew little about giving or receiving love. Steve and I had learned to survive by doing whatever was expected of us. We just pointed our noses towards the finish line and kept on running no matter what. We didn’t know there was any other way to live.

God must have smiled as He devised such a unique way to pour love into two such lonely creatures. As I learned to be patient with Steve, I began to understand how incredibly patient God is with me. And as I was gentle with him, I learned about the amazing gentleness of my Creator.

I never expected perfection from Steve, but committed myself to loving him through his fear and striving. Trainers used whips to make Steve into a pacer, but love tuned him back into a horse. And as I continually assured my fine-tuned horse that I didn’t expect a perfect performance from him, I began to realize God wasn’t demanding that from me either. Just as my love was transforming Steve, God’s love was transforming me.

“And thy gentleness makes me great . . .” Psalm 18: 35

Striving For First Place
His trainers had done a thorough job. Steve was competitive in everything. He couldn’t even go out for a trail ride without trying to beat another horse back to the barn. When it was time to eat, he’d go to war with the horses in adjoining stalls. He’d leap from side to side trying to protect his food, but would usually end up spilling most of it on the stable floor.

Although he’d probably been punished in the past for this behavior, the Lord showed ma a “more excellent” way to work with him. Each evening I’d lead him out into the pasture and, while he ate his grain, I would stroke his neck and sing to him. He was particularly fond of “The Rhinestone Cow Horse.”

As I took him far from the other horses, he lost his spirit of striving and self-protection. He began to relax, and within a few weeks he was able to eat in peace. Little by little he began to understand that my kindness was being offered to him as a gift. He didn’t have to earn it by moving faster. This was an entirely new concept for Steve.

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her, bring her into the wilderness, and speak kindly to her.” Hosea 2: 14

Binding Up Our Wounds
After I’d owned Steve a few months, he came in from the pasture one day with a puncture wound in his left side. It looked pretty deep, so I applied ice to the wound. As Steve felt the first cold touch, he wheeled his head around and came at me with teeth bared. Then, just as quickly, he turned his head away.

When the vet arrived, it was a different story. Every time he came near, Steve tried to kick him. He just didn’t trust human beings.

“Don’t let him hurt you,” warned the vet. “I have to go back to my truck for a minute.”

But when he left the barn, an amazing thing happened. Steve walked over to me, gently laid his head on my shoulder, and closed his eyes. I knew then something powerful had changed between us. He was never the same after that day. It was as if he finally decided, “I can trust this person.”

I can only imagine the joy God must have felt the day I trusted Him enough to lay my head upon His breast.

“Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?” Romans 2: 4

Love Never Fails
Steve was really “too much horse” for my limited riding skill, so I made plans to move him to a stable where I could take lessons. On the morning he was to be moved, I helped the stable hand load him onto a van bound for his new home. After watching them drive off into the distance, I hopped in my car to do a few errands before going to the stable.

When I arrived later and walked into Steve’s stall, I found him standing forlornly with his head down. His water bucket and hay not been touched, and I could see immediately something was wrong. Assuming he’d been hurt in the move, I rushed into the stall, got down on my knees and started running my hands up and down his legs to feel for injuries.

Then I felt his gentle breath as he lovingly nosed my hair and greeted me with his familiar “nicker.” As I stroked his neck and spoke kindly to him, he began to relax and eat his hay. As his depression turned to peace, I realized what had happened.

All his life he’d been moved from stall to stall, never being owned by one master for very long. He’d dared to let me get “close” and now he thought I’d sold him back into a life of racing. I wish those who think human beings are the only creatures capable of emotion could have seen Steve that day. His grief wasn’t human -- but it was very real. He’d refused to eat or drink because he was in mourning for me. With great joy I realized how deeply he had come to love me.

It took several years, but Steve finally did learn that I had no intention of selling him back into the slavery of the racetrack. I was committed to him. An if I was that committed to a horse -- how much more was God committed to me? I began at last to understand what it meant to belong to God. I was His forever, and He would never sell me back into the slavery of my former life.

“Can a woman forget her nursing child, and have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you.” Isaiah 49: 15

The Mystery of Grace
People at the riding stable said I’d never be able to train Steve. He was a “pacing machine” and when I’d ask him to canter, he would wring his tail and buck -- pacing harder and faster. He was afraid to try.

But he wanted so much to please me. Although he didn’t really understand the concept of reward, he certainly understood punishment. After nine years of racing, Steve knew the wrong moves would probably earn him the whip. So he kept trying to figure out what I wanted from him.

To calm his fear, I would speak softly to him. I never used a whip, but would gently stroke his neck and tell him it was okay. It took a few years, but he finally did learn to trot and canter with joy and freedom.

Although Steve changed in many ways, he was never able to break the habit of striving to please. He knew my love for him was not based on performance, but old habits sometimes follow us into a new life. He found it hard to believe he wouldn’t be punished for some wrong move. I guess horses are a lot like people. They have a hard time believing in grace. It seems too good to be true.

“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God . .” Eph. 2: 8

Entering Eternity
As the years went by, my hard-to-handle horse turned into a gentle and trusting friend. Someone once told me Steve probably thought he‘d died and gone to heaven -- that’s how happy he was with me. I eventually moved him to a farm where he could stroll out in the pasture all day with the young ponies. He seemed to love it there.

One late summer evening, I felt God prompting me to go to the farm. When I arrived, I was told Steve hadn’t been seen all day. The stable hands thought he might have gotten out through a broken fence, but I knew that couldn’t be true. Steve could have never crossed a downed fence. He was in trouble.

A friend walked out with me into the darkening fields, we called for him -- but he was nowhere to be found. I prayed and just as I’d said “amen”, I heard a dog barking nearby.

Following the sound of that bark led me right to Steve. I found him fallen in a ditch, straining and struggling to get up. He’d slipped on wet clay and somehow gotten his head lodged under the roots of a tree growing on the embankment. Although he wasn’t hurt, his constant heaving to get up had taken its toll. He was suffering from hypothermia and exhaustion.

I felt helpless as I leapt into the ditch next to him. Steve was near death, yet when he heard my voice he lifted his head and greeted me with that old familiar “nicker.” He couldn’t stand up, so I waited there while my friend went for help. When the vet arrived, he confirmed what I already knew. Steve wouldn’t live through the night, so we mercifully put him to sleep. But God graciously allowed me to be there so he wouldn’t die alone and frightened. So I with Steve until the end, and he knew it.

People may think I am crazy, but I know the Lord used that horse to change my heart. In the words of Job 12: 7 “But now ask the beasts, and let them teach you; and the birds of the heavens, and let them tell you.” I was too wounded to receive God’s love, so He used one of His precious creatures to communicate that love to me. And in the ten wonderful years we had together, Steve and I both learned to trust in the faithful love of our new Master.

“For I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from His love. Death can’t, and life can’t . . . all the powers of hell itself cannot keep God’s love away.” Rom. 8: 38-39

2011-10-03T14:35:00.001-05:00

Don't let your civilized mind keep you from hearing the real truth.
God Bless America

My Jesus I love Thee

2011-09-30T20:54:00.000-05:00

Great speech by Pakistani muslim on danger of Islamism

ideacity on livestream.com. Broadcast Live Free

2011-09-28T01:05:00.007-05:00

Doug Giles
Praying for This Nation Like Our Butts Depended on It

For the Christian who has been paying even minimal attention to the state of our union and its current crappy condition, it’s easy to see that our nation is in deep weeds from a God blessed standpoint.

We’re pretty much past the point of no return. We’re in trouble, folks—and on every front. Our kids will be particularly screwed.

Yep, from an economic, political, cultural and spiritual perspective, if something is not done to reverse this nation’s course (and muy pronto) then my advice to you is to start taking yoga because one has to be fairly limber, I hear, to kiss one’s own butt good-bye. Oh, and another “suggestion” would be to teach your kids Chinese, TexMex and Farsi because those’ll be the main languages of the conquered on our continent.

If things do not change both dramatically and quickly (and to be specific, amended back to our God-honoring intent and constitutional infrastructure) then this country will cease to be the greatest experiment in self governance this planet has ever seen and will morph into a godless tourist spot driven by socialists wet nursing entitlement freaks. Greece is the word.

-No civilization has lasted long when there was:
-This kind of insane debt and spending,
-A bizarre notion of entitlement,
-A death of faith,
-A degeneration of morals,
-A collapse of civility,
-A paralysis of the will,
-A decline in native born population,
-And unopposed foreign invasion.

Google it if you don’t believe me, as the aforementioned is well known 411 regarding formerly great nations that have devolved into tacky travel destinations.

Hey, America: We’re not invincible. I know it looks like it, but believe it or not, there have been powerful civilizations that are now a cartoon of what they used to be, and it would be the height of hubris to think that this party will never end no matter what we do.

So, what’s a Christian to do? Well, there’s a lot the brethren can do, but to keep this column short I’m going to focus on the power of prayer for the USA. And when I say “prayer” I mean praying for our nation like you’d pray if you were wearing Lady Gaga’s meat dress and had to pass through a pride of lions.

With the Bible as a guide I say we pull out the prayer of Jabez found in 1 Chronicles 4:9-10 and shout it up to heaven for God to rain His favor back down on the States.

Basically, Jabez, whose name means “pain,” didn’t let the bad hand he was dealt keep him from calling out to God for great things. And y’know what, patriots? Neither should we.

Just because we’re in real pain as a nation doesn’t mean we roll up in the fetal position and wet our red, white and blue Pampers. Oh, heck no. Instead, we must go back to our roots, become a vocal and voting threat to all politicians, bolster our commitment to God and country, and pray what old Jabez prayed—namely, to be blessed, to have increased opportunities, to have His hand be with us and to be kept from evil.

Take the next 30 days or 30 years and put your personal prayers on the back burner and do this:

1. Pray to God that He would reverse this curse we’re under and leave a blessing instead.

2. Pray this land of opportunity we’ve inherited would continue to be a land of opportunity.

3. Pray that His mighty hand would be with us instead of against us.

4. And pray that the evil which is en vogue would cease to be that which characterizes our culture and would be replaced with that which is holy, just and good.

And maybe, just maybe, God will stay our execution and shed His grace on us again.

Please check out this music video that puts the above to song. And pray.

God help us.

2011-09-25T17:35:00.003-05:00

2011-09-24T01:05:00.000-05:00

By: Star Parker WorldNetDaily

Presidential debates are a farce (excerpts)

The presidential debates are looking more and more like symptoms of the problems we've got than part of the process of solving them.

These events are supposed to be about quality information, raising the bar and producing a thoughtful, informed electorate. But they are being produced to provide entertainment, and we are barely getting that.

Can it really be that Rick Perry, in this third debate in which he has appeared, was not pushed, after all the heat being thrown out on Social Security, on specifically how he would reform it?

Can it be, as health-care expert after health-care expert has laid out the long list of failures of Romneycare in Massachusetts, and its unquestionable similarities to Obamacare, that Mitt Romney was not grilled thoroughly on this and called on his sidestepping and denials?

Can it be that, on a day where the stock market in our country dropped 3 ½ percent and in China 5 percent, that candidates were not asked what they think is wrong with the global economy?

Can it be that, when many experts agree that government meddling in housing and mortgages – particularly through mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac – was central to the recent financial collapse, there has not been a single question on why Fannie and Freddie are still standing, propped up by government and untouched?

Why, when everyone knows that Rick Santorum is a social conservative, would the question on Don't Ask Don't Tell policy in the military be directed to him? His answer was a surprise to no one. Why wasn't Romney the one questioned on this?

Why, instead of time being wasted with stupid questions like "Who on this stage would you choose as your vice president?" would the question not be asked: "Who is your favorite justice on the Supreme Court"?

Both Romney and Michele Bachmann have said they will repeal Obamacare on Day 1.

Wouldn't you think someone would ask what happens on Day 2? What would they do with our health-care system, which clearly has problems?

With all the focus on Social Security, policy experts generally agree that the problems of Medicare are much bigger and more complex.

Yet, there has not been a single question about Medicare and what, if anything, should be done to reform it.

But perhaps even more fundamentally, the cable sponsors of these events have failed grotesquely to bring out the fault lines that divide these Republican candidates and the Republican Party.

Where are these candidates on Roe v. Wade and the role of law in protecting unborn lives?

Where are these candidates on preservation of the integrity of traditional marriage?

With all the talk about states' rights, why are there no questions about the appropriateness of a federal court overturning a popular vote in the state of California – Proposition 8 – to preserve the traditional definition of marriage in their state?

Or the denial of the District of Columbia government even to allow a vote of its residents on this issue before declaring same-sex marriage legal?

Does the collapse of the traditional family in America – something undeniably happening as we rapidly approach almost half our children being born to unwed mothers – even matter? Should not these candidates be forced to weigh in on this?

Allowing this to become an exclusively technocratic discussion about the economy – like we're all laboratory mice in a box with politicians pushing the buttons – obfuscates key differences between these Republican candidates and the two parties.

It is a symptom of the big problems of our country that we appear incapable of having presidential debates with serious questions.

2011-09-23T09:46:00.000-05:00

This article from Townhall Columnists Suzanne Fields

Nations United in Annual Israel Mugging

It's gang-up time on Israel again. Right on schedule, here come the huffers, puffers and pipsqueaks. Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, arrives in New York to demand a seat at the United Nations. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, right on cue, arrives from Iran in a cloud of bluster and bombast.

It's all for show, of course, irritating in the way a noisy neighbor's drunken fight with his wife at 3 in the morning can be irritating. But the show, such as it is, makes a convenient backdrop for what looks like an authentic hope for change in American presidential politics.

Here come the Republicans in several Christian varieties riding rhetoric to the rescue of the Jews. The Democrats mostly squeak at a safe distance in the high weeds, their ranks divided by cheers for both sides. What's different this time is that Jewish voters, the reliable yellow-dog Democrats, are suddenly showing a streak of unaccustomed independence.

If Anthony Weiner's Brooklyn/Queens congressional district can go red after being the deepest navy blue since 1923, there's Republican hope for turning Florida and Pennsylvania reliably red. That includes both the congressional and presidential races.

Jewish voters have been reliably partisan Democrats since they arrived on waves of immigration in the early decades of the 20th century. Most American Jews have never been to Israel and identify with the New Deal that defined the modern Democratic Party. "Many Jews can only vote with their left hands," Jay Lefkowitz, who was an adviser to President George W. Bush. "It's almost as if they think if they vote with their right hand it will fall off."

But altered circumstances invite Republican presidential candidates to rush into neighborhoods where in the past even fools would not go. Mitt Romney calls the Palestinian ploy for statehood the direct result of "Obama's repeated efforts over three years to throw Israel under the bus and undermine its negotiating position."

Rick Perry, the governor of Texas who wears his evangelical Christian witness on his sleeve, calls the Romney rhetoric and raises. He reminds an audience of Jews in New York that he stands firmly in Judeo-Christian tradition, because "as a Christian (I) have a clear directive to support Israel."

He assails Obama's Middle East policy as "naive, arrogant, misguided and dangerous." He offers the ultimate milk and honey as a sweetener: In a Perry administration, the United States embassy would be relocated to Jerusalem, something several presidents have blocked for years lest it intrude on something the diplomats insist on calling a "peace process."

Perry's critique of the president's naivete echoes Hillary Clinton's rhetoric in the presidential primaries of 2008, but as the president's mouthpiece she can't say that unless she resigns and runs against him. She has to be sorely tempted.

Romney and Perry both display a "gut instinct" to protect Israel, something a growing number of Jewish voters think President Obama doesn't have. They think it required considerable chutzpah for Obama to suggest, as he did in speeches to audiences of Jewish and Israeli leaders, to engage in "serious self-reflection," to "search your souls" to renew their attitudes toward peace. The only implication here is that Jewish "attitudes" toward peace need renewal.

The timing seems right for Republicans to act on what the polls tell them, that 75 percent of conservative Republicans sympathize with Israel, not the Palestinians. This is the highest number for all partisan groups, according to Pew Research Centers. Only 32 percent of liberal Democrats favor Israel in the poll, with 21 percent favoring the Palestinians. Among the coveted independents, 50 percent favor Israel and 12 percent favor the Palestinians.

More disturbing for the president as he heads toward 2012 is a poll by Secure America Now showing that only 43 percent of the Jews who voted for Obama in 2008 say they will vote for him next year. His poorest showing is among Jews under 40. If it holds, this suggests a radical change in Jewish loyalties.

The historian Paul Johnson observes how timing has been crucial to the birth and survival of Israel, from the original decision by the United Nations to declare a Jewish state in 1948. President Harry Truman (a Southern Baptist), equipped with that "gut instinct," recognized Israel within minutes.

An Israeli reporter asked Rick Perry whether relations between the United States and Israel are at crisis point.

"The American people are for Israel," the governor replied. "We may have an administration that feels differently. I hope you will tell the people of Israel that hope is on the way."

2011-09-20T01:05:00.001-05:00

Interesting and Ceative Video. Israel wants a friend.
I will be their friend and pray for the USA to be also.
I never wanted to see my country "riding with the bad guys"

2011-09-14T20:55:00.002-05:00

Straight From God's Lips

You may not know Me, but I know everything about you. Ps. 139: 1

I know when you sit down and when you rise up. Ps. 139: 2

I am familiar with all your ways. Ps. 139: 3

Even the hairs on your head are numbered. Matthew 10: 29-31

For you were made in My image. Genesis 1: 27

In Me you live and move and have your being. Acts 17: 28

For you are My offspring. Acts 17: 28

I knew you even before you were conceived. Jeremiah 1: 4-5

I chose you when I planned Creation. Ephesians 1: 11-12

You were not a mistake, for all your days are written in My book. Ps. 139: 15-16

I determined the exact time of your birth and where you would live. Acts 17: 26

You are fearfully and wonderfully made. Ps. 139: 14

I knit you together in your mother’s womb. Ps. 139: 13

And brought you forth on the day you were born. Ps. 71: 6

I have been misrepresented by those who don’t know Me. John 8: 41-44

I am not distant and angry, but am the complete expression of love. I John 4: 16

And it is my desire to lavish My love on you. I John 3: 1

Simply because you are My child and I am your Father. I John 3: 1

I offer you more than your earthly Father ever could. Matthew 7: 11

I am the perfect Father. Matthew 5: 48

Every good gift that you receive comes from My hand. James 1: 17

I am your Provider and I meet all your needs. Matthew 6: 31-33

My plan for your future has always been filled with hope. Jeremiah 31: 3

Because I love you with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31: 3

My thoughts towards you are countless as the sand on the sea shore. Ps. 139: 17-18

And I rejoice over you with singing. Zephaniah 3: 17

I will never stop doing good to you. Jeremiah 32: 40

For you are My treasured possession. Exodus 19: 5

For I am your greatest encourager. 2 Thessalonians 2: 16-17

I am the Father who comforts you in all your troubles. 2 Corinthians 1: 3-4

When you are broken hearted, I am close to you. Ps. 34: 18

One day I will wipe every tear from your eyes. Revelation 21: 3-4

I will take away all the pain you have suffered on this earth. Revelation 21: 3-4

I am your Father and I love you even as I love My Son, Jesus. John 17: 23

He is the exact representation of My being. Hebrew 1: 3

He came to demonstrate that I am for you, not against you. Romans 8: 31

And to tell you I am not counting your sins. 2 Corinthians 5: 18-19

I gave up everything that I loved to gain your love. Romans 8: 31-32

If you receive the gift of my son, Jesus, you receive me. 1 John 2: 23

And nothing will ever separate you from My love again. Romans 8: 38-39

Come home and I’ll throw the biggest party heaven has ever seen. Luke 15: 7

I have always been Father and will always be Father. Ephesians 3: 14-15

I am waiting for you. Luke 15: 11-32

-- Almighty God

2011-09-11T11:00:00.008-05:00

They are dead; but they live in each Patriot's breast,

And their names are engraved on honors bright crest.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A 9/11 Message from Jerusalem

Last week, Israel dedicated a monument to the victims of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the U.S. — the only monument outside of New York to recognize the names of every victim of the attack. Standing in front of the memorial in Jerusalem, Yael Eckstein sends a message of support and love to the U.S. on behalf of America's greatest ally, Israel.

watch the video: (sorry I don't know how to embed it) http://www.ifcj.org/site/PageNavigator/eng/rabbi/yael_archived_videos?s_src=EN&s_subsrc=EN21109XXEXXX

2011-09-08T01:05:00.005-05:00

The funny thing is

What "everybody knows" just isn't true!
Here's some truth.
(I apologize for the commercial in front)

2011-09-07T08:35:00.004-05:00

UNREACHED PEOPLE OF THE DAY . . . please pray

Tibetan, Deqen, Khampa of Myanmar (Burma)
Population: 1,000
Language: Tibetan, Khams
Religion: Buddhism
Evangelical: 0.10%
Status: Unreached (1.2 )

2011-09-03T21:00:00.003-05:00

God Made the World Complete

Robin D. Fish

The Concept of evolution contains within itself the idea that the world is progressing, getting better and becoming more what it can or should be. If the world evolved from cosmic dust, and life spontaneously arose and developed into ever higher and more complex forms, then that idea would fit. But the world was, we believe and confess, created by our God only a few millennia ago.
Scripture leads us to understand that God planned the world, created it in all of its fullness and variety, and finished the work. Here again, as at nearly every single point, creation and evolution are at odds. This study will look at the Bible and discover how clearly it tells us that when God created, the world was perfect and complete.

1. For a change, we will not begin with Genesis. We will begin with John 1:1-4. Turn to this passage in your Bible. This speaks of Christ (v. 14) as our Creator. Notice the time frame given for this creating activity. This gospel starts precisely the same as the book of Genesis, except in Greek instead of Hebrew. "In the beginning" is when the narrative begins. What was in the beginning? Make a list, then compare it to the following.

2. In the beginning was God, the Word of God, and at this "beginning" all things were created through the Word, and nothing which has been created was created without Him. All of this was "in the beginning." The double mention that He was in the beginning with God serves to tell us that all of this is talking about the very beginning of time and creation. How do we know this for sure?
Find the answer to that question in Hebrews 11: 3.

3. Now we can turn to Genesis 1. It begins with the same words. First skim through verse 31 and take note of how God assesses each day's work. God calls each day's work "Good." Knowing the exact standards of God, how good is "good"?
Then notice the change in verse 31. How is the whole of creation viewed? What must that word mean in the vocabulary of God?
Now, carefully read verses 28 through 30. Notice the word "every" as it is used each time.

4. Discuss: Could God give man dominion or the right to use as food that which did not exist? Yet every type of life is mentioned as under the dominion of man, and every plant yielding seed and plant with fruit yielding seed is given as food. They were all there. Not every individual was present, but every kind was.

5. Now carefully read Genesis 2:1-3. "Thus the heavens and the earth were completed, and all their host." Notice that the heavens and the earth were finished. There was nothing left that needed improvement. "And all their host" is meant to include all that they contain. They were all completed and perfect, for God had found them "very good."
So what did God do? He rested. From what? From all the work which he had done. There is no idea of progressive creation here. God planned, and did what He had planned, and all was finished and completed. Everything was created and made.

6. Is this taking a lot out of a very few words? Consider that this is the Word of God. Then consider how carefully and redundantly these facts are stated. God repeated these ideas in quick succession so man would not mistake them for an incautious turn of phrase. Consider, too, that this evidence from Scripture is far more data within this realm to make these reasoned judgments than scientists have within their realm to concoct the "theory" of evolution ("theory" is in quotes because this is not a scientific theory, but a dogmatic article of an atheistic faith).

7. Naturally, then, the question arises, "What about the changes in the world since the creation?" If the world was created complete and perfect, why have changes occurred? How would we account for them? Look at Romans 8:20-22. Note that the world was subjected to "futility" (NASB) and is now in "slavery to corruption." Why is this so?

8. It is subjected to death and corruption under which it "groans" due to the sin of man. The world was created ready for use, perfect and complete. Then man sinned. So God subjected the whole of creation to futility and corruption for the sake of man. When the Scriptures here say that it was not subjected to such corruption "of its own will," it means that creation had done nothing to deserve it. Only man had sinned. That explains why creation groans in hope of being once again set free, and why creation waits eagerly with us for the revealing of the adoption of sons (which is the image, here, of the judgment day).

9. Sit back and think for a moment: What sort of changes do we see in the world around us? Don't consider the fanciful, fictitious ramblings of those who devise evolutionary scenarios, but the changes we actually observe. What are they? We see erosion, extinction of species, mutations, decay and corruption. These are changes for the worse, not the better. These are the corrupting effects of sin, not "progress" toward a better and brighter day. We use things up. They are gone, and we do not know how to replace them.

10. The changes we see are a falling down from perfection and completion. The second law of thermodynamics works to the destruction of order and energy we see around us. The world is not progressing, except to its end and death (if the Lord were not returning before that day).

11. We do see engineered changes: buildings built, new breeds selectively bred for, new plants and hybrids cultured. But these changes are designed from what already is, and by man who retains the creative urge given to him by God when He created us in His own image. We see little to hope in, little (if any) true progress in the natural order of things. No, God made the world complete and perfect, and the changes we see are the damaging effects of sin.

Author invites us to use this for a small Biblestudy, & these are his closing recommendation.
Close this study with a prayer for God's preservation of our world, and of repentance for our sin contributing to the destruction of His perfect creation.
End with a hymn of confession, such as "Alas, My God, My Sins Are Great."

Footnotes:
Copyright Â© 1989 Bible Science Newsletter, Pastor Robin D. Fish. Creation Moments, Inc. PO Box 839, Foley, MN 56329

2011-09-01T01:05:00.000-05:00

"Four Loves of our lives"

Once upon a time there was a girl who had four lovers.

She loved the fourth lover the most and adorned him with rich robes and treated him to the finest of delicacies. She gave him nothing but the best.

She was very proud of her third lover and was always showing him off to neighboring kingdoms. However, she feared that one day he would leave her for another.

She cherished her second lover. He was her confidant and was always kind, considerate and patient with her. Whenever this girl faced a problem, she could confide in him, and he would help her get through the difficult times.

The girl's first lover was a very loyal partner and had made great contributions in maintaining her wealth and kingdom. However, she did not love him as much. Although he loved her deeply, she hardly took notice of him!

One day, the girl fell ill and she knew her time was short. She thought of her luxurious life and wondered, 'Even though I have four lovers, when I die, I wonder if I will be alone.'

She began to question the faithfulness of each.
To the one she loved the most she implored, 'I loved you the most, endowed you with the finest clothing and showered great care over you. Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me company?
'No way!', he briskly replied, and he walked away without another word or a backwards look.
His answer cut like a sharp knife right into her heart.

The sad girl then sought the third lover, 'I loved you all my life. Now that I'm dying, will you follow me and keep me company?'
'No!', he curtly replied. 'Life is too good! When you die, I'm going to marry someone else!'
Her heart began to shrivel with coldness ....

With fading hope, she asked her second lover, 'I have always turned to you for help and you've always been there for me. When I die, will you follow me and keep me company?'

'I'm sorry, I can't help you out this time!', replied the second lover, with more symphathy than the others. 'The most I can do is walk with you to your grave.'
His answer stung her heart & caused fresh tears to flow.......

Then a voice called out: 'I'll go with you. I'll follow you no matter where you go.'
The girl looked up, and there was her first lover. He was very skinny and he suffered from outright neglect.
Greatly grieved, the girl said, 'I should have taken better care of you when I had the chance!'

In truth, YOU have four lovers in your life:

Your fourth lover is your body!
No matter how much time and effort you lavish in making it look good, it will leave you when you die.

Your third lover is your possessions, status and wealth.
When you die, it will all go away to others.

Your second lover is your family and friends. No matter how much they have been there for you, the furthest they can stay by you is up to the grave.

And your first lover is your soul.
Most often neglected in pursuit of wealth, power and pleasures of the world.

However, your soul is the only thing that will go with you forever. Cultivate & strengthen it now, for it is the only part of you that is real, it will stand in the throne room of God.
It's the REAL you.....

2011-08-25T01:05:00.001-05:00

I WANT TO INTRODUCE YOU TO AN EXCELLENT TEACHER.
This is just a part of one of his many long lessons.

2011-08-19T01:05:00.000-05:00

The next time you think God can’t use you, just remember:

Noah drank
Abraham was too old
Isaac was a daydreamer
Leah was ugly
Joseph was abused & hated
Moses stuttered
Gideon was afraid
Samson was a long-hair womanizer
Jeremiah & Timothy were too young
David was an adulterer & murderer
Elijah was suicidal
Isaiah preached naked
Jonah was a run-a-way
Naomi was a widow
Job went bankrupt
Peter denied Christ
Matthew was a worrier
The Samaritan woman was divorced
The disciples fell asleep praying
Thomas was a doubter
Zaccheus was too small
Paul was too religious &
Lazarus was dead!

2011-08-17T01:02:00.001-05:00

Mayor to rioters: 'Stop acting like idiots and fools!'

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2011-08-15T01:05:00.002-05:00

Information Alert:

Nation's Blood Supply in Danger:

http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen/11c/blood_donor_ban/index.html

2011-08-09T01:05:00.001-05:00

JESUS is YHWH

I love the whole Bible, but over time I have heard several people express dismay at my excitement of Old Testament study. Claiming for them its “dry”, or God seems wrathful & they love the warmth of the compassionate Jesus of the New Testament more.

The name “Jesus” does not appear in the Old Test., but “Yeshuwah” does.

Jesus is a Greek transliteration of a Hebrew name.
The Angel Gabriel said, “Behold, thou shall conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shall call his name JESUS.”
Would the angel speak in Greek to this Hebrew maiden? Of Course Not! Gabriel would have spoken Hebrew to Mary. His name is YESHUWAH

Here is the easiest way to come to understand. Jesus is Lord. (You've heard it many times, but do you know it?)
Read all these verses below putting the name “Jesus” in the places where it says “Lord”
You will see Jesus clearly in the Old Test.

Gen. 49: 18 I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.
*I have waited for thy salvation, JESUS.

Ex. 14: 13 And Moses said unto the people, fear ye not & stand still & see the salvation of the LORD, which he will show to you today …
*And Moses said unto the people, fear ye not & stand still & see the salvation of JESUS, which he will show to you today …

I Samuel 2: 1 And Hannah prayed, and said my heart rejoices in the LORD, my horn is exalted in the LORD, my mouth is enlarged over my enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation.
*And Hannah prayed, and said my heart rejoices in JESUS, my horn is exalted in JESUS, my mouth is enlarged over my enemies, because I rejoice in thy salvation.

Psalm 14: 7 O, that the salvation of Israel were to come out of Zion, when the LORD brings back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, Israel shall be glad.
*O, that the salvation of Israel were to come out of Zion, when JESUS brings back the captivity of his people, Jacob shall rejoice, Israel shall be glad.

Psalm 20: 5 We will rejoice in thy salvation and in the name of our God we will set up our banners, and the LORD will fulfill all your petitions.
*We will rejoice in thy salvation and in the name of our God we will set up our banners, and JESUS will fulfill all your petitions.

Jonah 2: 9 But I will sacrifice unto you with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed, salvation is of the LORD
*But I will sacrifice unto you with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay what I have vowed, salvation is of JESUS

There are many, many more, just read it aloud as JESUS when you encounter LORD, & GOD, & MIGHT Y GOD, too.

The prophet Isaiah in the O.T. says:
The voice of one crying in the wilderness: Prepare the way of the LORD; Make straight in the desert a highway for our God (Isa. 40:3).
(Isaiah called him YHWH here)

Then the N.T. says John came preaching in the Desert of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.”
John is that voice foretold by Isaiah, & John came preparing the way for JESUS.

Who is Lord of Lords? Are there two? By definition there can only be one Lord of Lords.
The Old Testament says God is the Lord of Lords
For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes (Deut. 10:17).

The New Test. Says Jesus is the Lord of Lords
They will make war against the Lamb, but the Lamb will overcome them because he is Lord of lords and King of kings--and with him will be his called, chosen and faithful followers (Rev. 17:14).

Furthermore, the NT reveals that the King of kings and Lord of lords is God:
“--God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of kings and Lord of lords (1 Tim. 6:15).

The O.T. God was pierced: (notice He is speaking in O.T. scripture in the first person, He uses ‘me‘ while speaking here)
“And I will pour out on the house of David and the inhabitants of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication. They will look on me, the one they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only child, and grieve bitterly for him as one grieves for a firstborn son” Zech 12:10.

Then John referred to the same Scripture (Zech 12:10) and says that it was fulfilled when Jesus was pierced on the cross by the Roman soldier’s spear! Who was pierced, YHWH or Jesus? Yes. Both. The same person.

Old Test speaks:
Listen to me, O Jacob, Israel, whom I have called: I am he; I am the first and I am the last (Isa. 48:12).
Jesus called himself the same in the New Test:
“…..Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last” Rev. 1:17.

Who is the Savior? Read this O.T. verse:
"Declare what is to be, present it--let them take counsel together. Who foretold this long ago, who declared it from the distant past? Was it not I, the LORD? And there is no God apart from me, a righteous God and a Savior; there is none but me (Isa. 45:21).

YHWH, the righteous God, is the Savior, according to Isaiah. But the NT reveals the Savior to be Jesus, for He alone has the name in which salvation is found:
".... Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved (Acts 4:11,12).

Credit for partial help from: www.evangelicaloutreach.org/yhwh.htm

2011-08-04T01:05:00.002-05:00

Some Cool Facts about the Bible:

The Psalms are grouped according to the use of God’s Name.
1 - 41 are Jehovah Psalms
42 - 83 are Elohim Psalms
84 - 150 are Jehovah Psalms

The ten commandments are 5 and 5. The first 5 tell us how to relate to God & the last 5 how to relate to each other.

Would you ever look at the Jews & think that they were God’s chosen people & the nation Israel as being under God’s special care & protection? Ask a Jewish person if they feel they have been singled out of all the earth to be an object of God’s favor. Probably they would say with all their troubles & all their afflictions it doesn’t feel like that at all.
Yet, the Bible makes it very clear that they are the apple of His eye, that His purposes for them & His faithfulness to them is above question. From one end of the Bible to the other.
The lesson for us here is “Lean not to your own understanding” Pro. 3: 5

Joshua & Daniel are two people in the Bible that no sin is recorded against
(it doesn’t mean they didn’t sin)

Noah went into the ark a minority and came out a majority!

Do you have time to read the Bible? The Bible contains about 773, 692 words! It would take you approximately 70 hours to read the whole Bible out loud.

"Do not be afraid" appears 365 times in the Bible. Hmm, same amount of days in a year!

The longest intercontinental telegram ever sent was the text of the New International Version of the Bible, from Geneva to New York (it was translated in Geneva and printed in New York).

A Bible in the University of Gottingen is written on over 2400 palm leaves.

An army of 185,000 destroyed in one night . . . . Isaiah 37:36 (do not worry about how many stand against you)

After Moses was given the Ten Commandments, he wore a veil over his face because he glowed. Exodus 34:33-35 (How glorious it will be to be in the presence of the mighty 'I AM!')

Animals have to answer to God, too! Genesis 9:5
(Ever had this thought before? They're not free to go around acting like...well, humans :)

The three magi were never actually at the traditional manger scene. They saw Jesus a little later at Joseph and Mary's house. Matthew 2:11. Christmas scenes are an artist’s rendition to best get the events in one picture. The artist wasn’t trying to deceive anyone, but it makes for a great example that nothing takes the place of
reading the Word for yourself.

Most of the plagues in Egypt were brought on with the staff God gave Moses.
(God can use the simplest tool to perform the most terrifying plagues) Work with what’s in your hand, it isn’t you that brings it about anyway.

Ezekiel was sitting in his house when a big hand picked him up by the hair of his head & took him somewhere between heaven and earth. Ezekiel 8:3
(Wow! Imagine experiencing this. )

We know the names of only three angels in the Bible: Gabriel, Michael, & Lucifer

A guy named Dodo is listed in the Bible (Judges 10:1)

One day God made iron float. 2 Kings 6: 1-7
(don’t ever imagine anything is too hard for God to do)

God used his dead prophet Elisha to return life to a man & stood him on his feet.
2 Kings 13:20-21 (all great works & amazing things is of the power of God who
Is behind it all)

Who says the Bible isn’t funny?
Would you believe Jesus was asked to leave town for killing all the pigs?
Matthew 8:28-34
Did you know Alabama is mentioned in the book of Ezekiel?
Ezekiel 20:29
People will always be people, problems are the same throughout history.
There were bad drivers in Bible days, too.....! 2 Kings 9:20
(We can relate toJob's utterance below, can’t we?)
"If only you would be altogether silent! For you, that would be wisdom." Job 13:5

Doesn't this next one make you laugh out loud? It did me…
"Do not eat anything you find already dead. You may give it to an alien living in any of your towns and he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner......" Deut. 14:21

2011-07-31T01:05:00.006-05:00

"Things Aren't Always What They May Seem"

Two traveling angels stopped to spend the night in the
home of a wealthy family. The family was rude and
refused to let the angels stay in the mansion's guest room.
Instead the angels were given a space in the cold basement.

As they made their bed on the hard floor, the older angel
saw a hole in the wall and repaired it. When the younger angel asked why, the older angel replied... "Things aren't always what they seem".

The next night the pair came to rest at the house of a very poor, but very hospitable farmer and his wife. After sharing what little food they had, the couple let the angels sleep in their bed where they could have a good night's rest. When the sun came up the next morning the angels found the farmer and his wife in tears. Their only cow, whose milk had been their sole income, lay dead in the field.

The younger angel was infuriated and asked the older angel "how could you have let this happen!? The first man had everything, yet you helped him," she accused. "The second family had little but was willing to share everything, and you let their cow die." "Things aren't always what they seem," the older angel replied.

"When we stayed in the basement of the mansion, I noticed there
was gold stored in that hole in the wall. Since the owner was so
obsessed with greed and unwilling to share his good fortune,
I sealed the wall so he wouldn't find it.

Then last night as we slept in the farmers bed, the angel of death came for his wife.

I gave him the cow instead.

Sometimes this is exactly what happens when things don't turn out the way they should. If you have faith in God, just trust that every outcome is always to your advantage. You might not realize it until much later.

-- Unknown author

** This story makes a point, but uses imagination liberally. For example: Angels are all the same age. The main point being: we are unable to understand what we have excaped & how our interactions among others are rewarded or not. Our sight is too dim to know if some things are a blessing or a curse. In our lives we are unable to judge. If we knew God's entire plan for our life, then what He chooses for us is exactly what we would choose for ourselves.

2011-07-29T01:05:00.001-05:00

Solution to the 29 Books of the Bible Puzzle

There are 29 books of the Bible in this paragraph. Can you find them? This is a most remarkable puzzle. It was found by a gentleman in an airplane seat pocket, on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping him occupied for hours. He enjoyed it so much, he passed it on to some friends. Another friend studied it while playing his banjo, Elaine Taylor, a columnist friend, was so intrigued by it she mentioned it in her weekly newspaper column. Another friend judges the job of solving this puzzle so involving, she brews a cup of tea to help her nerves. There will be some names that are really easy to spot. That's a fact. Some people, however, will soon find themselves in a jam, especially since the book names are not necessarily capitalized. Truthfully, from answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a minister or a scholar to see some of them at the worst. Research has shown that something in our genes is responsible for the difficulty we have in seeing the books in this paragraph. During a recent fund raising event, which featured this puzzle, the Alpha Delta Phi lemonade booth set a new record. The local paper, The Chronicle, surveyed over 200 patrons who reported that this puzzle was one of the most difficult they had ever seen. As Daniel Humana humbly puts it, "The books are all right here in plain view hidden from sight." Those able to find all of them will hear great lamentations from those who have to be shown. One revelation that may help is that books like Timothy and Samuel may occur without their numbers. Also, keep in mind, that punctuation and spaces in the middle are normal. A chipper attitude will help you compete really well against those who claim to know the answers. Remember, there is no need for a mad exodus, there really are 29 books of the Bible lurking somewhere in this paragraph waiting to be found. God Bless.

2011-07-27T01:05:00.006-05:00

The LORD is Shaking this old world!

. . . . . . . .Look up, your redemption draws nigh. Luke 21: 28

. . . . sharing with you from Joel C. Rosenburg's blog http://flashtrafficblog.wordpress.com/ from Jerusalem, Israel

* Norway has been shaken this week by sheer evil unleashed against innocent children.
* Japan has been shaken this year by huge earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown.
* The people of Egypt, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen have been shaken this year by revolutions underway there and throughout the Arab world.
* Iran has been shaken by the enormous pro-democracy movement that took to the streets but was then nearly crushed by the tyrannical government in Tehran.
* The people of Israel are being shaken by fears that Iran is rapidly closing in on building nuclear weapons and the world is not doing nearly enough to stop them in time.
* Greece has been shaken by its debt crisis and resultant riots and social unrest.

* America, too, is shaken. We face the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Most Americans believe we are heading towards another Great Depression. Unemployment is over 9%. Housing foreclosures are skyhigh. People have lost enormous sums of money due to depressed housing prices and stock market volatility. The federal government is trying to spend our way to prosperity but is making things worse. Our annual federal budget deficit topped $1.3 trillion last year. This year, it looks like the feds will spend more than $1.5 trillion beyond what they are taking in in revenue. Our debt is skyrocketing. The U.S. is now on the verge of financial default, and hampered further by political ineptitude in Washington that threatens to compound an already precarious situation.

What if these events are not all random? What if the God of the Bible is allowing these to happen to shake us, to wake us, to get our attention, that we might turn to Him and ask Him to have mercy on us and help us?

The Lord said through Haggai that the nations would be shaken in the future. "For thus says the Lord of hosts, 'Once more in a little while, I am going to shake the heavens and the earth, the sea also and the dry land. I will shake all the nations....I am going to shake the heavens and the earth. I will overthrow the thrones of kingdoms and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations." (Haggai 2:6, 7, 21, 22)

In the New Testament, the Lord reinforced that theme. "See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking. For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, 'Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven'....Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire." (Hebrews 12:25-29)

Bible prophecy is clear: the Lord shakes individuals and nations that we might let go of all of the flawed political, philosophical, intellectual and religions notions that we cling to that won't give us true peace, that don't give us real hope, that can't bring us any security, that can't provide forgiveness from our sins much less eternal life for our souls. The God of the Bible wants to shake us loose of such things that we might turn to Him, and to the life He offers through faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. The Lord isn't letting us be shaken because He hates us.
He loves us and wants us to repent and turn to Him and call out to Him, as individuals, as families, and as nations.

Jesus said, "I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die. Do you believe this?" (John 11:25-26)

2011-07-20T01:05:00.003-05:00

29 Books Bible Puzzle

I have included one example or hint for what you might expect to see.

Print this out & have fun, print extra copies to stun your friends!

There are 29 books of the Bible in this paragraph. Can you find them? This is a most remarkable puzzle. It was found by a gentleman in an airplane seat pocket, on a flight from Los Angeles to Honolulu, keeping him occupied for hours. He enjoyed it so much, he passed it on to some friends. Another friend studied it while playing his banjo. Elaine Taylor, a columnist friend, was so intrigued by it, she mentioned it in her weekly newspaper column. Another friend judges the job of solving this puzzle so involving, she brews a cup of tea to help her nerves. There will be some names that are really easy to spot. That's a fact. Some people, however, will soon find themselves in a jam, especially since the book names are not necessarily capitalized. Truthfully, from answers we get, we are forced to admit it usually takes a minister or a scholar to see some of them at the worst. Research has shown that something in our genes is responsible for the difficulty we have in seeing the books in this paragraph. During a recent fund raising event, which featured this puzzle, the Alpha Delta Phi lemonade booth set a new record. The local paper, The Chronicle, surveyed over 200 patrons who reported that this puzzle was one of the most difficult they had ever seen. As Daniel Humana humbly puts it, "The books are all right here in plain view hidden from sight. Those able to find all of them will hear great lamentations from those who have to be shown. One revelation that may help is that books like Timothy and Samuel may occur without their numbers. Also, keep in mind, that punctuation and spaces in the middle are normal. A chipper attitude will help you compete really well against those who claim to know the answers. Remember, there is no need for a mad exodus; there really are 29 books of the Bible lurking somewhere in this paragraph waiting to be found. God Bless.

credits to Creation Moments

2011-07-10T13:05:00.003-05:00

History shows that civilizations arise & last about 200 years.
They all follow the same pattern.
A people in bondage turn to God & have great Spiritual faith
Spiritual faith takes them to great courage
Great courage wins liberty for them
Liberty sweeps them into abundance
Close on the heels of abundance arrives leisure
Leisure leads to selfishness
Selfishness to complancy
Complancy gives way to apathy
Apathy is the wide road to dependence,
Dependence leads to weakness,
Weakness leaves them open to being captive & so they'd returned to bondage.

America is 235 years old.
Where do you see her in this progression?

Nothing says we have to wait for the cycle to spin us all the way to the bottom.
There is repentance.

"If My people who are called by My Name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." 2 Chronicles 7: 14

God said, IF we humble ourselves, IF we pray, IF we seek (diligently & purposefully pursue knowledge & relationship with) Him & IF we turn from sin! THEN He would heal the land!

Pray on your own, or go here & sign up for a block. I did NOT sign up, but I
found helpful guidance on their page "What do I pray for?"
You can print it out. Its more than I might have thought to specifically ask for.
http://iichronicles7-14.com/home.do

If you aren't in the USA, your country can use your prayers, too. Prayer changes things. But only if we do it & not just talk about it or intend to get to it, but never do.
Lets remember God invites us to come boldly to His throne.

2011-07-06T01:05:00.001-05:00

THE THRONE IS NEVER EMPTY

Studying Revelation is the most wonderful thing. It has consumed me. Tuesdays when I go my head is reeling, then all the homework keeps it reeling, with the wonders of discovery.

Yesterday we discussed the throne. Rev. gives a beautiful description of the throne, but no description of God, (Who is spirit).
It's like coming upon a mansion or a fortress deep in the wilderness, and you see the magnitude and magnificence of the dwelling place, but you don't catch sight of the one who lives there -- no sight at all. But you know without being told that who ever does occupy that place is mighty important just because of his dwelling place!

And the wheels within wheels, they bear the throne up. Its a movable throne. When God goes somewhere, the throne moves with Him, the throne is never EMPTY! That is a mighty important thing to know to be true, even if we didn't know it. God is forever & always occupying the throne in the center of the universe. This speaks of power for the ageless eons, no begining, no end.
Ex. 24: 9-10, here we see a description of the floor of the throne, that is what they are seeing. Ex. 19, "the Lord descended" & its accompanied by the same thunderings & lightnings as goes on around the Throne room description in Revelation.

Yesterday we discussed the sea of glass before the Throne. Perfect calmness at His feet. If its an actual sea, it doesn't dare raise up in the presence of one who told it before to "stop it" ( Matt. 8: 23-27) and it is handy place for God to throw all the confessed sins into. Micah 7: 19. All day long He's grabbing the sin & tossing, arms reaching, never missing, (and that's just mine) and He's right there to make sure no one dredges them up. They nevermore cause any trouble, they don't dare rise in His presence to present themselves.

The scene implicates the entire universe as utterly, un-apologetically Theo-centric. Every element & creature is described in direct relationship to the Throne, how far away or how near you are to it. (Heb.4: 16)
When you pray, you are accepted in this awesome place, arched with of the rainbow of mercy,(a promise not to kill everyone again).
The Throne room amid the angelic host & thundering & lightening, is where you are encouraged to bring your petitions.
Oh, let us enter according to the model prayer in Matthew 6:9-13, first asking for pardon, with simplicity, honesty, & respect.
When you pray, say . . . "Father", He's not your friend, He's your Father & He is not a reluctant Father.
But pray according to His mission on earth, "Thy will be done" --for it is, Oh!-- thousands & thousand of times better than our own plans & what we think we need. But He will give us our needs. (but I don't really want to get off into even as much as I understand about prayer here)

The scroll of Rev. 5: 4, (might be) the Title Deed to earth. Adam never took it and did what he was supposed to do, and because of sin, the earth has been in chaos ever since, no one has been found worthy to take it, except Jesus. And the purpose for unrolling it may not be so it can be read, but so the foreordained destiny of the earth can begin to take place......the rest of the story, so to speak.

The reason the Lamb appears as slain in this scene is to depict the singular means of victory and to tie the Passover Lamb to the coming plagues.

2011-07-02T01:05:00.003-05:00

Four years ago, Dennis Prager (http://www.prageruniversity.com/) wrote a column titled "America Needs a July Fourth Seder." In it, he explained that "national memory dies without national ritual. And without a national memory, a nation dies." Many readers & listeners to his radio show responded by creating their own rituals to make the day far more meaningful than watching fireworks and eating hot dogs.

He presented us with a simple 10-minute ceremony that every American can easily use on July Fourth. It is a product of the Internet-based Prager University that he founded nearly two years ago. They call it the Fourth of July Declaration, and here it is. It begins with a note to the individual leading the ritual, the "host."

If family bbq & fun is all the Fourth of July is about, the day has lost its meaning and we lose a vital connection to our American past.

Welcome to our Fourth of July Declaration!

We have modeled this Declaration on the best-known commemoration of a historical event in the world -- the Jewish Passover meal. It has successfully kept the memory of the Israelites' exodus from Egypt alive for over 3,000 years.
As Americans, we need to reconnect with our Founding. We need to rediscover the meaning of our country's creation. And we need to do it every year. That is the reason for ritual -- to enable us to remember. Without ritual, the memory fades. And without memory, life -- whether of the individual or of a nation -- loses its meaning.

That's where this Fourth of July Declaration comes in.

In keeping with the philosophy of Prager University (http://www.prageruniversity.com/) that profound concepts can be taught in five minutes, this Declaration is brief.

If you follow this simple ceremony, this holiday will not just be another barbecue. It will be the meaningful day it was meant to be: a celebration of the birth of our exceptional country, the United States of America.
You are encouraged to add more to your Fourth of July Declaration. This ceremony is only a starting point. But even doing this minimum will mean a lot -- to you, to your family and friends, and to the nation.

MATERIALS AND FOOD NEEDED FOR THE CEREMONY
-- Iced Tea

-- Salty pretzels

-- Strawberries and blueberries and whipped cream. (But any goodie colored red, white and blue will do.)

-- A small bell

The ringer on your cell phone will do in a pinch

-- An American coin

The bigger, the better. A half-dollar is ideal, but a quarter will do.

-- A printed (unsigned) Declaration of Independence.

-- Lyrics to "God Bless America" for all your guests. Download the lyrics. (www.scoutsongs.com/lyrics/godblessamerica.html)

THE CEREMONY BEGINS

DIRECTION: Everyone gathers around the table.

HOST SPEAKS: Today, we take a few minutes to remember what the Fourth of July is about and to remind ourselves how fortunate we are to be Americans.

Before America was a nation, it was a dream -- a dream shared by many people, from many nations, over many generations.

It began with the Pilgrims in 1620, who fled Europe so that they could be free to practice their religion. It continued through the 17th century, as more and more people arrived in a place that came to be known as the New World. In this new world, where you were from didn't matter; what mattered was where you were headed.

As more and more people settled, they started to see themselves as new people -- Americans.

They felt blessed: The land was spacious. The opportunities limitless.

By 1776, a century and a half after the first Pilgrims landed, this new liberty-loving people was ready to create a new nation.

And on July 4 of that year, they did just that. They pronounced themselves to be free of the rule of the English king. We know this statement as the Declaration of Independence.

DIRECTION: Host invites the young people (generally ages 7 and older) present to read and to answer the following:

YOUNG READERS:

Q: Why do we celebrate the Fourth of July?

A: Because the Fourth of July is the birthday of the American people -- the day we chose to become the United States of America, a free nation.

Q: Why was America different from all other countries?

A: Because in 1776, all countries were based on nationality, religion, ethnicity or geography. But America was created on the basis of a set of ideas. This is still true today.

Q: What are those ideas?

A: Three ideas summarize what America is all about. They are engraved on every American coin. They are "Liberty," "In God We Trust" and "E Pluribus Unum."

DIRECTION: Host passes around an American coin and chooses readers from the group to read the following:

READER No. 1: "Liberty" means that we are free to pursue our dreams and to go as far in life as hard work and good luck will take us.

READER No. 2: "In God We Trust" means that America was founded on the belief that our rights and liberties have been granted to us by the Creator. Therefore they cannot be taken away by people.

READER No. 3: "E Pluribus Unum" is a Latin phrase meaning "From Many, One." Unlike other countries, America is composed of people of every religious, racial, ethnic, cultural and national origin -- and regards every one of them as equally American. Therefore, "out of many (people we become) one" -- Americans.

HOST: We have on our table items that symbolize the Declaration of Independence and the Revolutionary War that won our freedom.

DIRECTION: Host holds up each symbolic item as he explains its symbolic meaning.

-- We drink iced tea to remember the Boston Tea Party. "No taxation without representation" was the patriots' chant as they dumped British tea into the Boston Harbor.

-- We eat a salty pretzel to remember the tears shed by the families who lost loved ones in the struggle for freedom in The Revolutionary War and all the wars of freedom that followed.

-- We ring a bell to recall the Liberty Bell, which was rung to announce the surrender of the King's army. On the bell are inscribed these words from the Book of Leviticus: "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof."

-- We eat strawberries and blueberries dipped in whipped cream to celebrate the red, white and blue of our flag.

HOST: We celebrate America's greatness without denying its flaws. There are no perfect individuals, so there can certainly be no perfect country. Our national history has its share of shame. The greatest of these is the shame of slavery, which existed at our founding, as it existed throughout the world at that time.

But let it never be forgotten that we fought a terrible civil war in which hundreds of thousands of American died. And the reason for that war was slavery.

Let it also not be forgotten that America has fought in more wars for the freedom of other peoples than any nation in history.

America's history is one that we can be proud of.

DIRECTION: Host holds up a copy of the Declaration of Independence.

We now close with one more ritual. Let each of us sign our names to the Declaration of Independence. While it is a replica of the one our founders signed, the words and sentiments are eternal.

DIRECTION: Everyone present signs their name to the Declaration of Independence. As each one signs, the host hands each person the lyrics to "God Bless America."

HOST: Everyone sing with me.

DIRECTION: Everyone sings (hopefully)

HOST: Happy Birthday, America. Happy Fourth of July. Now let's eat.

2011-06-30T01:05:00.004-05:00

THE PERFECTION OF THE FATHER by Watchman Nee
Since the day that Adam took the fruit of the tree of knowledge, man has been engaged in deciding what is good and what is evil। The natural man has worked out his own standards of right and wrong, justice and injustice, and striven to live by them। Of course as Christians we are different. Yes, but in what way are we different? Since we were converted a new sense of righteousness has been developed in us, with the result that we, too, are, quite rightly, occupied with the question of good and evil. But have we realized that for us the starting point is a different one? Christ is for us the Tree of Life. We do not begin from the matter of ethical right and wrong. We do not start from that other tree. We begin from Him; and the whole question for us is one of Life.

Nothing has done greater damage to our Christian testimony than our trying to be right and demanding right of others. We become preoccupied with what is and what is not right. We ask ourselves, have we been justly or unjustly treated? And we think thus to vindicate our actions. But that is not our standard. The whole question for us is one of cross-bearing. You ask me, “Is it right for someone to strike my cheek?” I reply, “Of course not! But the question is, do you only want to be right?”
As Christians our standard of living can never be “right or wrong”, but the Cross. The principle of the Cross is our principle of conduct. Praise God that He makes his sun to shine on the evil and the good. With Him it is a question of His grace and not of right or wrong. But that is to be our standard also: “Forgiving each other, even as God also in Christ forgave you (Eph 4: 32). “right or wrong” is the principle of gentiles and tax gatherers. My life is to be governed by the principle of the Cross and of the perfection of the Father; “You therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.”
A brother in south China has a rice field in the middle of the hill. In time of drought he used a waterwheel, worked by a treadmill, to lift water from the irrigation stream into his field. His neighbor had two fields below his, and, one night, made a breach in the dividing bank and drained off all his water. When the brother repaired the breach in the dividing bank and pumped in more water his neighbor did the same thing again, and this was repeated three or four times.
So he consulted his brethren. “I have tried to be patient and not to retaliate,” he said, “but is it right?” After they had prayed together about it, one of them replied, “If we only try to do the right thing, surely we're very poor Christians. We have to do something more that what is right.” The brother was much impressed. Next morning he pumped water for the two fields below, and in the afternoon pumped water for his own field. His neighbor was so amazed at his action that he began to inquire the reason, and in course of time he, too, became a Christian.
So, my brethren, don’t stand on your right. Don’t feel that because you have gone the second mile you have done what is just. The second mile is only typical of the third and the fourth. The principle is that of conformity to Christ. We have nothing to stand for, nothing to ask or demand. We have only to give. When the Lord Jesus died on the Cross, He did not do it so to defend our “rights”; it was grace that took him there. Now, as His children, we try always to give others what is their due and more.
We have to remind ourselves that we are often not right. We fail, and it is always good to learn from our failures -- to be ready to confess and willing to go beyond what is necessary in doing so. The Lord wants this. Why? “That you may be sons of your Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 5: 45). The question is one of practical sonship. True, God has “foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ.” (Eph. 1: 5), but we make the mistake of thinking that we have already “come of age” -- that we are already mature sons. The Sermon on the Mount teaches us that the children attain to the responsibility of sons in the measure which they manifest kinship of spirit and attitude with their Father. We are called to the “perfect” in love, showing forth his grace. So Paul also writes: “Be you therefore imitators of God, a beloved children; and walk in love, even as Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for you.” (Eph. 5: 1, 2)

2011-06-26T01:05:00.003-05:00

A Most Interesting Thing

“Then the Lord said to Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, you, & Shear-jashub your son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller’s field.” Isaiah 7: 3

There are several things to look at in this verse. First of all, Isaiah is to meet Ahaz “at the end of the conduit of the upper pool”. Its from the conduit that the life-giving waters pour for thirsty Jerusalem. Its here that the people can quench their thirst. You can’t get any satisfaction from a pipe filled with water -- you must have a spigot in it somewhere. You must go to the place the water comes out of the pipe.

This is symbolic of the fact that you are not going to get any blessing out of that house of David, but way down at the end of his line One is coming as the “Water of Life.” That One being the Lord Jesus Christ. He came in the line of David to bring the water of life.

Isaiah is to meet the king at the upper “pool.” The word for “pool” is berakah from the root word meaning “blessing.” I can assure you that in that land a pool of water is a blessing. This same word is used in Psalm 84: 6, “….the rain also fills the pools (berakah), everywhere else is rendered “blessing.” This is a very interesting thing.

Notice also that this is the “upper pool.” Upper is the world used over thirty times for the Most High. You may recall that it was said of the one who came out to minister to Abraham that he was the priest of the Most High God. (Genesis 14: 18). Now the blessing of the Most High God was given “at the end of the conduit” when Jesus came into the world.

Praise You, Father, Son, & Holy Spirit.

Thank You for your Holy Word & teachers of The Word
. . . And if you want to be blessed like this for hours of reading, get Vernon McGee’s commentaries: Thru the Bible

2011-06-22T01:05:00.003-05:00

How Does Creation Operate?
I stepped out into my side yard & saw an ugly black slug, the kind that I know eats my plants. Just the appearance of him made me shudder & my hand trembled just a bit as I took a torn peice of a paper bag, scooped him onto it, opened the trash can lid & dropped him in. I clamped the top down. I didn't take one step away before I remembered the verse about all creation groans & waits for God's appearing. Was he suffering? Ought I to have mashed him before throwing him away? Yet I didn't want to do that either. It isn't important to add what I did do concerning the slug, but I left the trash can area with my mind filling with what I wanted to share with you.
Just how involved is God in His Creation?
If I design a beautiful house & decorated it, does that mean I can go away, never touch it, & it will remain as lovely & as comfortable as the day I had finished it & went away? How about your lawn, resodded, fertilized, trimmed & watered, go away for an extend trip & see how well it continues on without your direct hand upon it.
Through the years I have observed God repopulates the earth with new people as the old ones fade away (carried into His house, or whereever they booked a reservation for). He replaces faded flowers with new ones, installs new baby lambs & butterflies & puppies all over the earth. Repaints the skies incessantly, rearanges the clouds, changes the color scheme of the hills, trees, & grasses.
Who sends the rain? Who sends the storms? Who holds the rain clouds back? "mother nature"? a mindless figment of someones imagination? Or is it all running like a wound clock, mechanical, with no decisions to be made for eons, much less minute by minute?
If you are somewhere between here & there and uncertain in exactly what you do think, then read on & enjoy finding the truth.
The study for today was first published in a 1988 Bible Science Newsletter, AUTHOR UNKNOWN, it was made available to me from Creation Moments, reprintable, downloadable, Biblestudy to be reproduced for groups.

When the Bible talks about the design of the creation, many Christians think that this means that God designed the universe with certain principles so that it could operate on its own without His attention to every detail. The Bible itself, however never says this. This idea is a result naturalism, which is assumed in our educational materials about the world around us. The source of this idea is naturalistic evolution. The purpose of study is to look at what Scripture actually does say about how the creation operates.
Psalm 19:1 Creation that He made responds to Him. What we want to see is that this response of the designed creation is not the result of God's action in the past as much as it is the result of God's loving interaction with His creation.
Genesis 3:14-19 begins to help us see why God is continually involved with His creation. We see here that sin is shown to have its physical and material effects on the creation. This is substantiated by Paul in Romans 8:19-23. Our loving God not only laments the effect of sin on humans, the crown of His creation, but the effect of sin on all of the creation.
While we may consider that a device that we make and use has no feelings - that it just operates according to certain principles without feelings or need of love - God Himself does not view His creation in this way. The fact that He talks about its groaning and suffering tells us this. Therefore we should not view His creation as the same kind of a mechanical device as, say, our automobiles, which operate unfeelingly according to the principles and capabilities that were designed into them at the factory.
Read Job 36:26-30. Many people are used to reading these verses in a mechanistic way that God may be said to be doing these things because He so designed them in the beginning that they would do these things. But let's let Scripture interpret Scripture. The text says that God is actually doing these things. Verse 26 must be understood before the following verses here. God is said to be unknown to us, and ageless in years. This points out the limitations of our perspective on God. Though Scripture reveals more to us about God than we can understand, such as the Trinity, God is still largely unknown to us. How, for example? Hebrew parallelism explains an example in the next line, "The number of His years is unsearchable." In other words, God is much bigger than we understand - much greater in all that He can do. For example, we can only pay limited attention to one thing at a time. God, who is unlimited, can pay unlimited attention to unlimited details all at the same time! Therefore He has no need to create the universe with laws and principles so that it can operate without His exhausting Himself with every detail constantly.
More than this, Scripture points out that He is aware of even the least important (to us) details of the creation. Here we see how He designs the rain for various purposes. Read Psalm 148:8. There we see how even the wind has a "word," or instructions from God as to what to do.
Now look at Luke 12:6-7. God is even aware of every sparrow that dies, and how many hairs are on the head of every human being at any given time. The point is that Scripture repeatedly talks about God as intimately involved with every detail of the creation at all times, leaving no room for a mechanistic view of the creation. Such a view is a good example of how evolutionary ideas rub off even on faithful Christians.
What of the physical laws of the creation upon which modern science is built? We may conclude, very simply, that these laws describe the way in which God usually chooses to do things in any given situation. Water, just sitting around in clay jugs or any other container, usually just sits and exchanges gases with the atmosphere, evaporates, and stores or releases heat, depending on the relationship of the water's temperature with the surrounding air. We have seen it happen thousands of times. This is what God usually does when we leave water setting around. But that's not always what He chooses to do. We know of one situation in which He chose, instead, to turn the water into wine. Iron usually sinks in water, unless it is specially designed to have sufficient displacement. No one would question that this is how God usually operates when iron encounters water. But we know of one specific instance when God choose instead to make the iron float. And so it goes today. Even with our limited knowledge of how things will turn out, every Christian knows examples of situations in which the Lord did not do things according to the usual, but He chose another outcome.
We have come to call the usual way in which God chooses to act, natural law, once we figure out that a certain outcome is predictable. We have come to call outcomes which are different than we expect, miracles. Our mistake has been to think that God is less involved with natural law than with miracles. When we do this we have begun to define the world and order our thinking according to evolution's naturalism. God's Word teaches us, as we see in our sampling of Scripture from above, that God is intimately involved in every detail of His creation -and this makes His intimate concern in our lives through His forgiving love in the Gospel all the more powerful and wonderful on a day-to-day basis!

2011-06-18T01:05:00.005-05:00

Compound Names in the Bible

The word El in the Bible is often a reference to deity as opposed to the particular historical revelation associated with the name "Yahweh" (see below)। More often than not, however, it is used interchangeably as a synonym for Yahweh, the God of Israel, and translated God. One of the most interesting uses of El is its alliance with other terms to reveal the character of God. Some of these combinations are: El-Shaddai "God of the Mountains" or "The Almighty God." This term is more closely associated with the patriarchal period and can be found most frequently in the Books of Genesis and Job. Exodus 6:3 underlines El-Shaddai as the name revealed to the patriarchs. God used it to make His Covenant with Abraham (Gen. 17:1-2). El-Elyon "The Most High God" or "The Exalted One" (Num. 24:16; 2 Sam. 22:14; Ps. 18:13). Melchizadek was a priest of El-Elyon and blessed Abraham in this name (Gen. 14:19-20), refering to El-Elyon as "Maker of heaven and earth." Canaanites at Ugarit also worshiped God as El-Elyon. El-Elyon seems to have had close ties to Jerusalem. El-Olam "God of Eternity" or "God the Everlasting One" (Gen. 21:33; Isa. 26:4; Ps. 90:2). God's sovereignty extends through the passing of time and beyond our ability to see or understand. El-Berith "God of the Covenant" (Judg. 9:46) transforms the Canaanite Baal Berith (8:33) to show God alone makes and keeps covenant. El-Roi "God who Sees me" or "God of Vision" (Gen. 16:13). God sees needs of His people and responds. The Covenant Name for God was "Yahweh." Israel's faith was a new response to God based on His disclosure. This name was so unique and powerful that God formed a covenant with His people based upon his self-revelation. Yahweh Titles appear in English translations as Jehovah. Yahweh-Jireh "The Lord will Provide" (Gen. 22:14). This was the name given to the location where God provided a ram for Abraham to sacrifice in the place of Isaac. This name is a testimony to God's deliverance. Yahweh-Nissi "The Lord is my Banner" (Ex. 17:15). Moses acribed this name to God after a victory over the Amalekites. The name of God was considered a banner under which Israel could rally for victory. The Lord's name was the battle cry. Yahweh-Mekaddesh "The Lord Sanctifies" (Ex. 31:13). Holiness is the central revelation of God's character. God calls for a people who are set apart. Yahweh-Shalom "The Lord is Peace" (Judg. 6:24). This was the name of the altar that Gideon built at Ophrah signifying that God brings well-being not death to His people. Yahweh-Sabaoth "The Lord of Hosts" (1 Sam. 1:3; Jer. 11:20; compare 1 Sam. 17:45). This can also be rendered, "The Lord Almighty." It represents God's power over the nations and was closely tied to Shiloh, to the ark of the covenant, and to prophecy. The title designates God as King and ruler of Israel, its armies, its Temple, and of all the universe. Yahweh-Rohi "The Lord is my Shepherd" (Ps. 23:1). God is the One who provides loving care for His people. Yahweh-Tsidkenu "The Lord is Our Righteousness" (Jer. 23:5-6; 33:16). This was the name Jeremiah gave to God, the Righteous King, who would rule over Israel after the return from captivity. He would establish a new kingdom of justice. Yahweh-Shammah "The Lord is There" (Ezk. 48:35) This is the name of God associated with the restoration of Jerusalem, God's dwelling place.

www.bibletruthsyoudidnotsee.com

2011-06-12T01:05:00.000-05:00

That's Strange.. rather funny

As you open your pockets for the next natural disaster, please keep these facts in mind:

The American Red Cross President and CEO Marsha J. Evans salary for the year was $651,957 plus expenses.

The United Way President Brian Gallagher receives a $375,000 base salary along with numerous expense benefits. They give to illegals I will not give to them.

UNICEF CEO Caryl M. Stern receives $1,200,000 per year (100k per month) plus all expenses including a ROLLS ROYCE.
Less than 5 cents of your donated dollar goes to the cause.

The Salvation Army's Commissioner Todd Bassett receives a salary of only $13,000 per year (plus housing) for managing this $2 billion dollar organization.
96 percent of donated dollars go to the cause.

The American Legion National Commander receives a $0.00 zero salary. Your donations go to help Veterans and their families and youth!

No further comment is necessary. Please share this with everyone you can.

2011-06-08T09:00:00.001-05:00

An excerpt from

The Loneliness of the Christian

by A. W. Tozer

The loneliness of the Christian results from his walk with God in an ungodly world, a walk that must often take him away from the fellowship of good Christians as well as from that of the unregenerate world. His God-given instincts cry out for companionship with others of his kind, others who can understand his longings, his aspirations, his absorption in the love of Christ; and because within his circle of friends there are so few who share his inner experiences he is forced to walk alone.

The unsatisfied longings of the prophets for human understanding caused them to cry out in their complaint, and even our Lord Himself suffered in the same way.

The man [or woman] who has passed on into the divine Presence in actual inner experience will not find many who understand him. He finds few who care to talk about that which is the supreme object of his interest, so he is often silent and preoccupied in the midst of noisy religious shoptalk. For this he earns the reputation of being dull and over-serious, so he is avoided and the gulf between him and society widens.

He searches for friends upon whose garments he can detect the smell of myrrh and aloes and cassia out of the ivory palaces, and finding few or none he, like Mary of old, keeps these things in his heart.

It is this very loneliness that throws him back upon God. His inability to find human companionship drives him to seek in God what he can find nowhere else."

From Man - The Dwelling Place of God, Chapter 39: "The Saint Must Walk Alone"

2011-06-04T13:02:00.002-05:00

David Livingstone’s Lion

Philippians 4:6-7

Be careful for nothing … And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.

Here, medical missionary Dr. David Livingstone speaks to us from his diary, written in 1872. He tells about God’s mercy as he experienced being the intended victim of a lion, “red in tooth and claw.”

“I heard a shout. Starting and looking half around, I saw the lion just in the act of springing upon me. I was on a little height; he caught my shoulder as he sprang and we both came to the ground below together. Growling horribly close to my ear, he shook me as a terrier does a rat. The shock produced a stupor similar to that which seems to be felt by a mouse after the first shake by a cat. It caused a sort of dreaminess in which there was no sense of pain or feeling of terror, though quite conscious of all that was happening. It was like what patients partially under the influence of chloroform describe, who see all the operation but feel not the knife. This singular condition was not the result of any mental process. The shake annihilated fear, and allowed no sense of horror in looking around at the beast. The peculiar state is probably produced in all animals killed by carnivora; and if so, is a merciful provision by our benevolent Creator for lessening the pain of death.”

Prayer: Dear Lord, We know that the general rule in nature is to be eaten alive and we are reminded that many of Your people suffered horrible deaths as martyrs. While all this is the result of man’s sin, we thank You for this insight of Your mercy, revealed to us through your servant, David Livingstone.

Amen.

2011-05-29T01:05:00.000-05:00

Call to WAKE UP ! from Joseph Farrah's commentary
WND.com

Once again, we've seen the U.S. hit with a series of deadly superstorms following Barack Obama's pledge to return Israel to pre-1967 borders.

Just days after Obama insisted Israel must give up lands it won through military victory with its enemies, some 200 people were killed by a tornado in Joplin, Mo.

There's a pattern here.

We saw it in Katrina, when George Bush forced Israel's withdrawal from Gaza. In fact, as everyone from Israeli rabbis to U.S. senators have noted, it seems to happen every single time the U.S. pressures Israel to divide the land.

In his book, "Eye to Eye: Facing the Consequences of Dividing Israel" ,
Bill Koenig points out that 9 of the 10 costliest insurance events in U.S. history followed dramatic calls by U.S. officials for Israel to make land concessions in bids for peace with its neighbors. He points out with startling detail how 6 of the 7 costliest hurricanes in U.S. history followed such events. He points out how 3 of the 4 largest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history followed such developments.

Earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, even terrorist attacks have hit America often within 24 hours of calls by U.S. officials for Israel to withdraw from Jewish land.

What does this have to do with prophecy?

It goes right back to Genesis and God's pledge to bless those who bless the children of Israel and curse those who curse them.

That is a prophecy that has seen every empire of the world come and go – yet Israel remains. It may be chastened by God. It may be dispersed. It may be divided according to HIS will. But God has punished every nation that has come against Israel. Each one has been judged. The US will not be spared.

You can choose to believe it or not. It won't make any difference.

Those who dare to touch the apple of God's eye will pay a price: "For thus saith the LORD of hosts; After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you: for he that toucheth you toucheth the apple of his eye." – Zechariah 2:8
"apple of the eye" is the pupil, the direct center of ones eyeball. It is like sticking your finger in God's eye! Look out!

If you want to understand prophecy – keep your eye on Israel and study your Bible.

In God's method, there is Israel and then there are the other nations.

Why? It was through Israel He chose to reveal Himself to the world – eventually through the birth, life, death and resurrection of His own Son.

And His Son is coming back to reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. It's no surprise where He will return and where He will reign – in Jerusalem.

His ways are not our ways, and our ways are not His ways.

We can only understand Him through His Word.

No one knows exactly what date He will be coming back.

No one knows when the rapture (calling out His children) will happen.

But we can know it's near.

Israel had her 63rd birthday this May. 63 years she was rebirthed as a nation – a prerequisite that simply wasn't in place until 63 years ago. the generation that sees this is the terminal generation.

The Bible predicts all kind of turbulence and chaos surrounding Israel in the latter days. It will nearly be destroyed. But Israel's long-awaited Messiah will save it. He will destroy Israel's enemies. He will reign for 1,000 years.

As Zechariah 12:8-10 reveals: "In that day shall the LORD defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and he that is feeble among them at that day shall be as David; and the house of David shall be as God, as the angel of the LORD before them.

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. (God is going to step in & it will take Israel 7 months to bury the enemy dead)

"And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the spirit of grace and of supplications: and they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his firstborn."

And one shall ask Him, "What are these wounds in thine hands? Then he shall answer, Those with which I was wounded in the house of my friends" (Zechariah 13:6)

Even so, come Lord Jesus. Come.

2011-05-27T01:03:00.003-05:00

BOYCOTT PEPSI

You will be sick when you read what they are doing:

http://www.lifenews.com/2011/05/25/pro-life-groups-boycott-pepsi-for-using-aborted-fetal-cell-lines/

2011-05-24T09:31:00.005-05:00

Hey, friends, this conference was held last week in Jerusalem. I urge you to listen to the messages. For those who don't know, Anne Graham Lotz is Billy Graham's daughter.
To watch just click on

www.epicenterconference.com

Other speakers include Pastors Ray Bentley, Skip Heitzig and Joel Rosenberg. We are urging our fellowship to watch. Used in my ladies prayer last nite and God used it to bring a brokenness and fresh awareness of how close we are……..to the real return of the LORD.

Please do not let the recent 'nuts' out there (like Harold Camping) make you skeptical of the real truth. The devil uses such men as Camping to cause scoffing when the truth is presented.
Don't fall for his lies.

I WANT YOU TO BE READY. I urge you to lay aside 66 minutes to listen.

2011-05-23T01:05:00.000-05:00

A group of graduates, well established in their careers, were talking at a reunion and decided to go visit their old university professor, now retired. During their conversation it turned to complaints about stress in their work and lives. Offering his guests hot chocolate, the professor went into the kitchen and returned with a large pot of hot chocolate and an assortment of cups -porcelain, glass, crystal, some plain looking, some expensive, some exquisite - telling them to help themselves to the hot chocolate.

When they all had a cup of hot chocolate in hand, the professor said: "Notice that all the nice looking, expensive cups were taken, leaving behind the plain and cheap ones. While it is normal for you to want only the best for yourselves, that is the source of your problems and stress. The cup that you're drinking from adds nothing to the quality of the hot chocolate. In most cases it is just more expensive and in some cases even hides what we drink. What all of you really wanted was hot chocolate, not the cup; but you consciously went for the best cups... And then you began eyeing each other's cups.

Now consider this: Life is the hot chocolate; your job, money and position in society are the cups. They are just tools to hold and contain life. The cup you have does not define, nor change the quality of life you have. Sometimes, by concentrating only on the cup, we fail to enjoy the hot chocolate. The happiest people don't have the best of everything. They just make the best of everything that they have. Live simply. Love generously. Care deeply. Speak kindly. And enjoy your hot chocolate.

2011-05-17T01:05:00.000-05:00

2011-05-10T01:05:00.003-05:00

Adapted from MaryBeth Whalen's talk

“Bring them here to me.” Matthew 14:18

“Mo-om,” my six year old son called from the den where he was working on math, “I can’t do this!”

I was in the kitchen washing dishes. “If you can’t do it,” I called back, “Just bring it to me.”

In a whoosh, I heard God’s still small voice, coming in on the heels of what I have just spoken aloud. “Isn’t that what I say to you?” He gently reminded me.

If you are overwhelmed, angry, hurting, confused, tired; hear His call:
“If you can’t do it, just bring it to Me.”

Whatever it is, know this: you are right. You can’t do it. So bring whatever it is to Him.

2011-05-08T01:05:00.001-05:00

Happy Mothers Day to all mothers everywhere!

Mothers Day Clipart by Mothers Day Central

2011-05-05T15:30:00.005-05:00

Can Christians celebrate bin Laden’s Death?
By Jordan Sekulow

In the aftermath of the successful U.S. military raid that ended in the killing of the most wanted terrorist in the world, we saw thousands of Americans take to the streets and gather at Ground Zero to celebrate, wave flags, recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and sing “God Bless America.” However, some Christians have struggled with how to deal with Osama bin Laden’s death. I have set aside time on my daily radio show to address this very issue because it is a very real debate happening within the evangelical community.

This outcome was the natural consequence of a war that bin Laden began waging against the United States long before the 9/11 attacks. Recall the just war theory that has been discussed here at “On Faith.” Killing bin Laden is like winning a major battle in a just war. His organization attacked the United States; we hunted him for nearly ten years and removed him from the battlefield. It is swift act of justice in an unquestionably just war against al Qaeda.

As Christians, we believe that God has specifically ordained government to rule over a fallen world – to bring security to the law-abiding and inflict swift justice against evildoers. As the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans, “If you do wrong, be afraid, for rulers do not bear the sword for no reason. They are God’s servants, agents of wrath to bring punishment on the wrongdoer.”

As such, when the United States military exercised its right to defend the people of American and bring the most heinous terrorist this nation has ever known to justice, it should be celebrated. As the Psalmist David wrote, “The righteous will be glad when they are avenged, when they dip their feet in the blood of the wicked. Then people will say, ‘Surely the righteous still are rewarded; surely there is a God who judges the earth.’”

This is exactly what President Obama meant when he declared late on Sunday night that, “Justice has been done.”

We celebrate the victory of the righteous over those who seek to do evil. Osama bin Laden, a man with the blood of thousands of innocents on his hand, was the definition of evil. Christians should rejoice in the fall of evil. We are doing the right thing when we praise the brave men and women who fight to protect American from evil every day.

By Jordan Sekulow 03:20 PM ET, 05/04/2011

2011-05-02T01:05:00.000-05:00

Altogether Lovely

The beauty of Jesus’ holiness is like a rose or a bank of violets. Captivating, warm, humble, human, attractive.

Jesus came near so we could see the Father. He receives sinners & eats with them--all kinds of sinners. Nicodemus, the moral, self-righteous sinner, and Mary of Magdala “Out of whom went 7 devils” The shocking kind of sinners. He comes into sinful lives as a bright, clear stream enters a stagnant pool. The stream is not afraid of contamination of itself, but its sweet, pure energy cleanses the pool.

His sympathy is great & is altogether lovely. He is always being touched with compassion. For the multitudes without a shepherd, for the sorrowing widow of Nain, for the little dead child of the ruler, the demon possessed man of Gadara, the hungry 5,000. Anything that suffers touches Jesus. Whenever Scripture records Jesus angry or pouring out wrath in the final judgment of the world, it is but an expression of His excess of sympathy for those who suffer under the hardship of oppression & the hard laws the self-righteous made them try to follow.

Jesus never went around searching out the “deserving poor”. He “healed all their sick.”
And with great grace! He could have leaded the leper by a word, but Jesus touched him. Why? For years the wretch had been an outcast, cut off from human contact & kin. He had lost the sense of being a man. But the touch of Jesus brought healing of the disease & made him fully human again. The leper is not unapproachable to God.

There was a Christian woman, laboring among street prostitutes & drunkards, the moral lepers, in London. She found a poor street girl desperately ill in a bare, cold room. With her own hands she ministered to her, changing her bed linen, procuring medicines & nourishing foods, a fire, & making the place as clean & cherry as she was able. Then she asked, “May I pray with you?”

“No,” said the girl, “you don’t care for me; you are doing all this to get into heaven.”

Many days passed with the Christian woman unwearyingly kind, the sinful girl hard & bitter. At last the day came to say: “My dear, you are nearly well now, and I shall not come again, but as it is my last visit, I want you to let me kiss you.” She enfolded the girl in her arms, and placed her pure lips, that had only known kind words & ceaseless prayer upon the girl, upon the one who had only known defiled oaths & unholy caresses -- it was then that the cold, hard heart of the girl broke.

Song of Solomon 1: 2: “Let him kiss me with the kisses of his mouth; for Thy love is better than wine.” He wants to bestow His pure love & affection, His care, & grace & mercy upon us today, but we are as hard as that poor sinning girl.

Such meekness, such lowliness Jesus displays! “I am among you as one that serves.”
He washed the disciples’ feet.
“When He was reviled he reviled not again.”

When He spoke to the silent despairing woman caught in adultery, after her accusers had gone, He used the world for “woman” that He used the same word as He used to call His mother “woman“. How gentle, how considerate He is.

Even in the agonies of a cruel death His ears were open to the cry of despairing faith of the thief beside Him. He reached out to that cry & bestowed eternal life.

There is a true story of the custom of conquerors returning from far distant wars in strange lands to bring back their chiefest captive as a trophy. Christ took back the soul of the nearest thief. All are ‘chiefest’ to Him.

He lived sinless, He died never having sinned, but somehow He has stolen my heart.

He is altogether lovely.

**Credits to liberally making use of the notes in the Scofield Bible & McGee commentary on Song of Solomon

2011-05-01T01:05:00.011-05:00

May 1st, Holocaust Remembrance Day:

Sunday May 1st beginning at Sundown, Israel will remember the 6 million Jews who were killed during the Holocaust.

On May 2nd at 10:00 a siren will sound and everyone in Israel will stop and remember the ones they lost. It's a time that pulls the Nation together to remember their past.

May 14th is Israel's 63rd birthday.

The Colors of Israel's Flag

The first person to voice the idea that blue and white should be the colors of the Jewish people was an Austrian poet named Ludwig August Frankl (1810-1894). In 1864 he expressed his idea in a poem titled, "Judah's Colors."

"When sublime feelings his heart fill,
He is mantled in the colors of his country.
He stands in prayer, wrapped
In a sparkling robe of white.
The hems of the white robe
Are crowned with broad stripes of blue;
Like the robe of the High Priest
Adorned with bands of blue threads.
These are the colors of the beloved country.
Blue and white are the borders of Judah.
White is the radiance of the priesthood,
And blue, the splendors of the firmament."

The design of the flag of Israel was prophesied by Isaiah over 2,700 years ago:

"Then it will come about in that day
That the nations will resort to the root of Jesse,
Who will stand as a signal for the peoples;
And His resting place will be glorious." Isaiah 11: 11-12

This passage goes on to say that at this time, the Lord will regather the Jewish people a "second time" (the first being the regathering from Babylon) from "the four corners of the earth" (Isaiah 11:11-12).

Look again at the verse quoted above. Isaiah says that "in that day" (his consistent term for the end times) a "signal" will be raised that will feature "the root of Jesse." The Hebrew word for signal, nec, is a word that can be translated as signal, standard, banner, or ensign. So this verse is saying that in the end times a banner will be raised that will feature "the root of Jesse." Jesse is, of course, the father of David. So, Isaiah is saying that the flag will carry the symbol of David and that it will act like a magnet to draw the Jewish people back to their homeland. The symbol of David is, of course, the Star of David, so the modern day flag of Israel represents a fulfillment of Bible prophecy.

Credits: Flag info from the Lamb and Lion Ministries who proclaim the soon return of Jesus Christ @ lamblion.com

2011-04-27T01:05:00.006-05:00

Overcoming Death

What we celebrated this past week, Jesus’ triumphal Resurrection is not all there is.
The huge sweeping impact on , & in fact, complete victory over, death’s hold was accomplished & demonstrated. His ability to lay down His life as our payment for sin & power to take it up again. He stepped out of the sealed tomb on that Resurrection morning. A new kind of body, a new kind of life, a new day of the week to worship.
And that is wonderful, but have you ever thought of what else, & what it means to you personally as you live life here on this earth?

We experience many kinds of deaths while we live. Divorce & relationships we value with our kids or friends & neighbors sometimes, for whatever reason, break off. And it is painful. You may not even know why.
This is when you need to remember the One who is victorious over death, hell, & the grave. Ask the Lord of Resurrection to revive that relationship, to turn that death into a morning with joy someday. Resurrection is restoring, even better than it was. Just as His Resurrection was the same body, but made totally new.

When disease & illness touches us or a loved one, a kind of Resurrection occurs too, as we process it.
First we receive the bad news and its like death. Screech, halt; life as we know it comes to a stop. We’re not so sure of the tomorrow we always took for granted.
Then the wrestling begins. Your mind rearranges & rehearses things in a thousand ways. Generally this goes on for about 3 hard days & nights.
Then, we admit defeat, we cannot wish it away, we cannot change it, and we must live in the world as it is. So, want to or not, we finally accept what we cannot change. And we began to form our outlook & whatever plans we have around this new reality.
But in acceptance comes peace, we begin to look again to the future days & arrange all our steps toward whatever needs to be done. Sometimes it’s a long illness with hope for recovery, sometimes its going to be terminal. But even then, we make new decisions to cherish whatever left.
So now a resurrection has occurred! How?
Bad news, death; 3 days of struggle in the darkness, the grave; then a new day of going forward. So we rejoin the living. With a new outlook.

God has mysterious ways of bringing newness to everything, reviving, overcoming.
Whatever your thing is; a stagnant marriage? A strained relationship with your grown up children? Have you suffered the death of a dream or a hope you have long since given up on ever seeing come to pass? Whatever your thing is, dare to hope in the God of Resurrection! He has demonstrated His power, and the cross demonstrated His great love for you. Whatever else dies, don’t let hope die, too. For we have good reason for the hope found in Jesus.

2011-04-23T01:05:00.006-05:00

Even if you've heard it before, I just want to pass along this story. Have a blessed Resurrection Sunday.

He is Risen!

THE STORY OF EDITH BURNS...

Happy Easter!

Edith Burns was a wonderful Christian who lived in San Antonio, Texas.
She was the patient of a doctor by the name of Will Phillips. Dr.
Phillips was a gentle doctor who saw patients as people. His favorite
patient was Edith Burns.

One morning he went to his office with a heavy heart and it was because
of Edith Burns. When he walked into that waiting room, there sat Edith
with her big black Bible in her lap earnestly talking to a young mother
sitting beside her.

Edith Burns had a habit of introducing herself in this way: "Hello, my
name is Edith Burns. Do you believe in Easter?" Then she would explain
the meaning of Easter, and many times people would be saved.

Dr. Phillips walked into that office and there he saw the head nurse,
Beverly. Beverly had first met Edith when she was taking her blood
pressure. Edith began by saying,"My name is Edith Burns. Do you believe
in Easter?"

Beverly said, "Why yes I do."

Edith said, "Well, what do you believe about Easter?"

Beverly said, "Well, it's all about egg hunts, going to church, and
dressing up." Edith kept pressing her about the real meaning of Easter,
and finally led her to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Dr. Phillips said, "Beverly, don't call Edith into the office quite
yet. I believe there is another delivery taking place in the waiting
room.

After being called back in the doctor's office, Edith sat down and when
she took a look at the doctor she said, "Dr. Will, why are you so sad?
Are you reading your Bible? Are you praying?"

Dr. Phillips said gently, "Edith, I'm the doctor and you're the
patient." With a heavy heart he said, "Your lab report came back and it
says you have cancer, and Edith, you're not going to live very long."

Edith said, "Why Will Phillips, shame on you. Why are you so sad? Do
you think God makes mistakes? You have just told me I'm going to see my
precious Lord Jesus, my husband, and my friends. You have just told me
that I am going to celebrate Easter forever, and here you are having
difficulty giving me my ticket!"

Dr. Phillips thought to himself, "What a magnificent woman this Edith
Burns is!"

Edith continued coming to Dr. Phillips. Christmas came and the office
was closed through January 3rd. On the day the office opened, Edith did
not show up. Later that afternoon, Edith called Dr. Phillips and said
she would have to be moving her story to the hospital and said, "Will,
I'm very near home, so would you make sure that they put women in here
next to me in my room who need to know about Easter."

Well, they did just that and women began to come in and share that room
with Edith. Many women were saved. Everybody on that floor from staff
to patients were so excited about Edith, that they started calling her
Edith Easter; that is everyone except Phyllis Cross, the head nurse.

Phyllis made it plain that she wanted nothing to do with Edith because
she was a "religious nut". She had been a nurse in an army hospital. She
had seen it all and heard it all. She was the original G.I. Jane. She
had been married three times, she was hard, cold, and did everything by
the book.

One morning the two nurses who were to attend to Edith were sick. Edith
had the flu and Phyllis Cross had to go in and give her a shot. When she
walked in, Edith had a big smile on her face and said, "Phyllis, God
loves you and I love you, and I have been praying for you."

Phyllis Cross said, "Well, you can quit praying for me, it won't work.
I'm not interested."

Edith said, "Well, I will pray and I have asked God not to let me go
home until you come into the family."

Phyllis Cross said, "Then you will never die because that will never
happen," and curtly walked out of the room.

Every day Phyllis Cross would walk into the room and Edith would say,
"God loves you Phyllis and I love you, and I'm praying for you."

One day Phyllis Cross said she was literally drawn to Edith's room like
a magnet would draw iron. She sat down on the bed and Edith said, "I'm
so glad you have come, because God told me that today is your special
day."

Phyllis Cross said, "Edith, you have asked everybody here the question,
"Do you believe in Easter but you have never asked me."

Edith said, "Phyllis, I wanted to many times, but God told me to wait
until you asked, and now that you have asked."
Edith Burns took her Bible and shared with Phyllis Cross the Easter
Story of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Edith said,
"Phyllis, do you believe in Easter? Do you believe that Jesus Christ is
alive and that He wants to live in your heart?"

Phyllis Cross said, "Oh I want to believe that with all of my heart,
and I do want Jesus in my life. "Right there, Phyllis Cross prayed and
invited Jesus Christ into her heart. For the first time Phyllis Cross
did not walk out of a hospital room, she was carried out on the wings of
angels.

Two days later, Phyllis Cross came in and Edith said, "Do you know what
day it is?" Phyllis Cross said, "Why Edith, it's Good Friday."

Edith said, "Oh, no, for you every day is Easter. Happy Easter
Phyllis!"

Two days later, on Easter Sunday, Phyllis Cross came into work, did
some of her duties and then went down to the flower shop and got some
Easter lilies because she wanted to go up to see Edith and give her some
Easter lilies and wish her a Happy Easter.

When she walked into Edith's room, Edith was in bed. That big black
Bible was on her lap. Her hands were in that Bible. There was a sweet
smile on her face. When Phyllis Cross went to pick up Edith's hand, she
realized Edith was dead. Her left hand was on John 14: "In my Father's
house are many mansions. I go to prepare a place for you, I will come
again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be
also." Her right hand was on Revelation 21:4, "And God will wipe away
every tear from their eyes, there shall be no more death nor sorrow, nor
crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have
passed away."

Phyllis Cross took one look at that dead body, and then lifted her face
toward heaven, and with tears streaming down here cheeks, said, "Happy
Easter, Edith - Happy Easter!"

Phyllis Cross left Edith's body, walked out of the room, and over to a
table where two student nurses were sitting. She said, "My name is
Phyllis Cross. Do you believe in Easter?"

If you believe in Easter, forward this on. God works in wonderful ways,
and to believe in his power is to truly be free. If Jesus had e-mail,
he'd do the same for you.

(Actually, maybe He just did)

2011-04-21T15:23:00.002-05:00

Click image to make larger

2011-04-17T01:05:00.004-05:00

Here's a list of names from the Bible and their meanings. Hebrew.........................................English Adam............................................man Seth..............................................appointed Enosh...........................................mortal Kenan...........................................sorrow Mahalalel.....................................the blessed God Jared............................................shall come down Enoch..........................................teaching Methuselah..................................his death shall bring Lamech........................................the despairing Noah............................................rest or comfort Now read the message delivered with the babies over the years between Adam & Noah: Man is appointed mortal sorrow. The blessed God shall come down teaching, His death shall bring the despairing rest/comfort. There were 950 years between the birth of Adam and the birth of Noah. Adam was not BORN he was CREATED (Genesis 1:27) Adam-Seth 130 years Seth-Enosh 105 Years Enosh-Kenan 90 Years Kenan-Mahalalel 70 Years Mahalalel-Jared 65 Years Jared-Enoch 162 Years Enoch-Methuselah 65 Years Methuselah-Lamech 187 Years Lamech-Noah 182 Years That's 1056 years between the creation of Adam and the birth of Noah. So Noah actually was born 126 years after Adam died

2011-04-02T01:05:00.005-05:00

He Cares for you

The universe contains over 125,000,000,000 galaxies

one hundred and twenty five billion

Shining in the heavens are 70,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 stars

70 million trillion stars

Our sun is a ball of fire 864,300 miles wide

eight hundred and sixty four thousand and three hundred

Earth is home to 6,600,000,000 people

six billion six hundred million

And he cares for you personally, knows your name and all your hopes and fears,

and wants to have fellowship with you.

That is good news!

short videos you may like to view: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=104165&EmbedC=64215dab-4458-4757-a00e-6157f3b908c1&davidrives

2011-03-30T09:00:00.000-05:00

They may not need me, Yet they might; I'll let my heart be Just in sight-- A smile so small As mine might be Precisely their Necessity.

--Unknown.

2011-03-22T01:05:00.000-05:00

Beauty as a Tool

Esther got to the throne of Persia because she won a beauty contest. Yes, I believe parading women around & focusing on their looks is a pagan thing. But God, who directs things from behind the scenes, used it.

God who knows all things decides our features. (He is NOT unfair, so I hope you didn't just have that thought!)

In London, about 1904, a girl child was born. Gladys was short with straight black hair and in her youth she often prayed to be taller, or blonde and blue eyed like her friends. Each time she opened her eyes and looked in the mirror again after praying, she was disappointed that she still looked just like she had before prayer. She couldn't understand why God made her like He did. At 26 years of age, Gladys was sure God was calling her to be a missionary to China. When she stepped off the train in China and saw she fit right in -- she was surrounded by people of short statue, with black hair. And she rejoiced that she had been made-to-order to serve her Lord Jesus Christ!

Hadassah, Esther's Jewish name, comes from the word for 'myrtle', a tree whose leaves only release their fragrance when they are crushed. Esther's true heroism only appeared when she and her people were in terrible danger.

The name 'Esther' means 'hidden': Esther's real identity as a Jewess was hidden for many years.

Esther was sweet tempered as well as beautiful to behold, obedient to her guardian, and mindful of his advice. When she was chosen and brought to the palace, a ONE YEAR beauty regime was begun! Oils were used to soften, perfume, smooth, and make her even more pleasing to the king.

It is a picture of an intense beautification process that is carried out in the believer's life.
We are chosen, out of common people, as the bride for Jesus.
And after being chosen, a beautifying process begins. In the Bible the oil represents The Holy Spirit. He works us, smooths us out, takes our pitifully inadequate words of prayer & intercedes before the throne for us with groaning and utterances that are deeper than we will be able to understand for a long, long time.
The Holy Spirit is God Himself, so He knows the plans the Father has for us. He soaks us in trials to cause our hearts to be tender to the plight of others.
And His applications in our life smooths us, though the treatment for a time can seem unplesant.
The Holy Spirit keeps looking at the perfect image before Him, the image of Jesus, & He works all things in that direction. We will be presented without spot or blemish & beautiful to the bridegroom.
So submit to the beauty treatment, you will like the result!

2011-03-20T01:05:00.002-05:00

Please pray for Japan

2011-03-19T01:05:00.003-05:00

I heard the testimony yesterday of a 30 year old Marine (I think).
He was strong & used to look down on those who weren't as strong as he was.

In battle he got hurt & fell in a hole.
His unit moved away from him, they couldn't hear him over the noise.
He hung on desperately & was weakening, knowing if he let go he would go to the bottom of the hole & die there.
He'd never spent any time thinking about God.

But, of course, now he began to wonder.

The tune & lines of an old drinking song
bubbled up in his mind & began to play in his head.:

"where do we go from here, boys, where do we go from here? . . ."
And he began to agonize on where he would go if today he died.
He called out to God, "If you are God, if you are real, you can hear me.

Please help me."
And shortly after, two men appeared over the hole.

They couldn't see him but had been passing by & heard his cry to God.

He called to them & they scrabbled down to lift him from the hole.

Once on level ground, the firing picked back up & the men had to run
for cover (but not before they pointed him which way to go

for the medical unit located a half mile away.)
He watched the whole line of new troops disappear from sight.

Aircraft overhead were strafing a solid line, but stopped just before
it reached him! He dug in his elbows & began the half mile of dragging

his body toward the med-unit. But he passed out after just
a couple of feet & awoke in a clean hospital bed.
He immediately asked for a Bible & read everyday.
He is living the rest of his life for the glory of God His Personal Savior.

Don't you agree this belongs in the MARCH, the Beauty Month stories?
It is certainly beautiful!

2011-03-17T04:38:00.004-05:00

Patricius: The True Story of St. Patrick
By David Kithcart
700 Club Producer

Reporter David Kithcart reveals the inspiring true story behind this courageous and fervent Irishman we all know as Saint Patrick.

It was an act of defiance that changed the course of a nation. Patrick lit a fire in pagan 5th century Ireland, ushering Christianity into the country. Who was this man who became the patron saint of Ireland?

Ireland was a beautiful island shrouded in terrible darkness. Warlords and druids ruled the land. But across the sea in Britain, a teen-ager was poised to bring this nation to God.

"Patrick was born into a Christian family," says Philip Freeman, author of St. Patrick of Ireland. "His father was a deacon; his grandfather a priest. But Patrick says that from a n early age, he didn't have any serious interest in religion and that he was pratically an atheist when he was a teenager."

Around 400 A.D., Patrick was abducted from his village and thrown onto a slave ship headed for Ireland.

"He saw that as God chastising him, first of all," says Rev. Sean Brady. "That was the first view. He says we deserved what we got. We're carried at 16 years of age over to this foreign land."

Patrick was sold to a chieftain named Milchu. He spent six years tending his master's flocks on the slopes of the Slemish Mountain. Patrick recounts his time as a slave in his memoir entitled The Confession.

"He says, 'I prayed a hundred times in the day and almost as many at night,' " says Rev. Brady, the Roman Catholic Archbiship of Armagh and Primate of All of Ireland. "Through that experience of prayer and trial, he came to know another God -- God the Father, who was his protector. He came to know Jesus Christ in those sufferings, and he came to be united with Christ and he came to identify with Christ, and then of course, also the Holy Spirit."

One night during a time of prayer and fasting, Patrick wrote: "I heard in my sleep a voice saying to me: 'It is well that you fast. Soon you will go to your own country.' And again, after a short while, I heard a voice saying to me: 'See, your ship is ready.' "

Patrick escaped and traveled 200 miles cross country to the west coast. He found a ship ready to sail, but was refused passage. After a desperate prayer, he was allowed aboard.

Patrick eventually returned to his home and family. His experience of God's grace and provision solidified his faith. He began to study for the ministry.

Freeman says, "One night, he had a dream. Thee was a man who came from Ireland with a whole bunch of letters. And he opened up one of the letters and it said 'The Voice of the Irish.' And then he heard a voice coming out of this letter that said, 'Holy boy, please return to us. We need you.'"

Patrick struggled in his soul. Could he return to Ireland and minister to the same people who had enslaved him? Once again, he turned to God in prayer. He received the answer in a dream.

"He talks about how he, in this dream, is trying to pray and yet he can't," says Freeman. "So he hears a voice coming from inside of him which he realizes is the voice of God praying for him."

Patrick knew he had to go and convince his church that he was called to be a missionary to Ireland. He set sail in a small ship.

Patrick landed at the mouth of the Slaney River. When Patrick set foot on this shore, a new era dawned on this island.

"The Ireland of his day really wasn't much different from the Ireland of a few years ago here where we are sitting here at this moment," notes Most Reverend Dr. Robert Eames, Church of England Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland. "It was an Ireland of tribalism, an Ireland of war, an Ireland of suspicion, an Ireland of violence and death. Here he came as a virtual stranger to this country of warring factions."

"They worshipped multiple gods of the sky and the earth and the water," says Freeman. "And so that was his first challenge: to convince the Irish that there was only one God and that his God really did love them."

Patrick came face to face with the chieftains and their druid priests. The showdown came on the morning of his first Easter in Ireland.

Monsignor Raymond Murray, parish priest of Cookstown in Northern Ireland explains further: "Part of the pagan worship of fall to spring, from the beginning of the summer, was that a fire was lit, and first of all, the fire on the hill of Tara and no other lights at all in Ireland."

This monastery on the hill of Slane is where Patrick -- in direct defiance of the high king of Tara -- lit a forbidden fire.

Notes Rev. Brady, "He was summoned before the king, and he explained that he wasn't a threat, because he was bringing the new light, the light of Christ, the Savior of the world, the Light of the world."

"The first light of Easter day was dawning. Patrick brought the hope of Easter day to Ireland," says Rev. Eames.

The weather can be absolutely brutal here in Ireland. But just imagine how it must've been for Patrick in the 5th century as he trekked across the countryside bringing the Gospel to the pagan Celts.

"People sometimes made fun of him because he said that God often gave him a message there was danger ahead," says Freeman. "But, he said, 'Laugh at me if you will. This is something that has protected me in Ireland.'"

Listen to Patrick's poem of faith and trust in God, "The Breastplate":

"Christ be within me, Christ behind me, Christ before me, Christ beside me, Christ to win me, Christ to comfort and restore me, Christ beneath me, Christ above me, Christ inquired, Christ in danger, Christ in hearts of all that love me, Christ in mouth of friend and stranger."

Myths and legends have grown up around this hero of Ireland.

As Monsignor Murray explains, it is sometimes difficult to describe the triune aspect of God. So, according to the story, to better illustrate the central teaching of the trinity, Patrick took a shamrock and pointed out the three leaves on it. Interestingly, it is only in Ireland that you find this shamrock. Therefore, the people believed.

"One of the famous legends, of course, is that Patrick drove all the snakes out of Ireland," says Irish historian Harold Calvert.

In fact, any snakes in Ireland had disappeared during the Ice Age.

"The legend about the driving of the snakes may, in fact, really symbolize the driving out of evil," says Calvert.

In 432 A.D., Patrick built a church on the site of the present day St. Patrick's Memorial Church in Saul -- the first ever Christian church in all of Ireland. It's considered the cradle of Irish Christianity.

"Preaching the Gospel, of course, baptizing converts, confirming them, appointing clergy," continues Calvert.

Patrick's ministry lasted 29 years. He baptized over 120,000 Irishmen and planted 300 churches.

"What Patrick did was really lay the groundwork for Christianity," says Freeman.

To this day, no one knows where Patrick is buried, but many believe that it is somewhere beneath the church on the hill at Down Cathedral.

Rev. Sean Brady concludes, "He was a man who came to face and help his former enemies who had enslaved him. He came back to help them and to do them a great favor -- the greatest favor he possibly could."

Rev. Earnes concurs, "I honestly feel that what Patrick taught Ireland was that there is a cost to discipleship, but it's a cost worth paying. And I believe, to bring this right up to date, the church of St. Patrick must be constantly saying to people, 'Discipleship demands of you, but it's a cost that Christ will help you to pay.'"

2011-03-16T05:00:00.002-05:00

A few days ago I posted this,

I made a "time" mistake and it was only up about 5 hours.

So I want to give it a chance to be up a couple of days before I go forward to the next post.

Sorry to be "repeating" for those who did see it. I'll try to be more accurate in future.

Cowardly, wayward, and weak
I change with the changing sky.
Today so eager and strong
tomorrow not caring to try
But He never gives in
and we two shall win,
Jesus and I.