Link back to the Ten Sister Sites Home Page:
WWW.OARINGINTHERIVER.COM Master Directory
| CHRISTIAN NEWS: |
| CHRISTIAN NEWS: |
"A wise man scales the city of the mighty, and brings down the trusted stronghold."--Proverbs 21:22
He reads me when we meet;
Today he reads me in my home.
Tomorrow in the street.
He may be relative or friend,
He may be strange to me;
He may not even know my name,
Yet, he is reading ME.
"You've Got the Time" Audio NEW TESTAMENT (NIV Version) on MP3 Discs is available free from:
You are lonely or fearful, Read Psalm 23
You are in sorrow, Read John 14:1-6
You are grateful, Read Psalm 103
Others fail you, Read Psalm 27
God seems far away, Read Psalm 139
You need courage, Read Joshua 1
You are discouraged, Read Isaiah 40
You are in danger, Read Psalm 91
You have sinned, Read Psalm 51
You have failed, Read Psalm 38
God has rescued you, Read Psalm 34
You want to praise God, Read Psalm 100
You want to be like Jesus, Read John 15
Responsibility overwhelms, Read Matt. 11:28-30--No. 201, The Tract League, Grand Rapids, MI 49534-1329, or go to:
"Indignation has taken hold of me bcause of the wicked, who forsake Your law."
THE WHITE HOUSE
WASHINGTON
January 25, 1941
To the Armed Forces:
As Commander-in-Chief I take pleasure in recommending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the armed forces of the United States. Through the centuries men of many faiths and diverse origins have found the Sacred Book words of wisdom, counsel and inspiration. It is a fountain of strength and now, as always, an aid in attaining the highest aspiration of the human soul.
Very sincerely yours, Franklin D. Roosevelt
Ever since I was five years old, I struggled to understand why God took my father and left us a poor family struggling for its existence, and split too, with two of my brothers going to live with my Grandfather and Grandmother in South Dakota, leaving the rest of us in a draughty, rat-infested cabin on the hillside of a semi-rural, rhubarb, daffodil and berry-growing town of 10,000 or so (at that time it was small, but it has since grown into a city of over 100,000 with very little agriculture preserved). Why? I was constantly wondering. And I grew bitter and resentful, withdrawn and not very sociable. That continued through grade school and up into junior high. Then I made the wonderful "mistake" of leaving this environment and entering a Lutheran high school with dormitories, and it was Christian, in a true sense. I was in an entirely new world there, and it was so affirming and positive, I was drawn toward the God I was blaming indirectly through my questions for my dad's death. It was at this school I was saved and born-again, asking for God's forgiveness of my sins alone in my dorm room one evening. That clinched it. I was truly saved from that moment on. I was given a new heart, of flesh, to replace the hard, bitter, resentful heart I had brought with me. It made all the difference, being saved. I was so blessed at this school, and despite the problems every teen-ager goes through in his developing years, I grew in ways I could never have back in Washington State, where the society was already pagan and unchurched and getting all the more secular and materialistic as each year passed.
Yes, God had something better than ashes from a dead man's charred wallet for a widow's son. I am what I am today, still a heaven-bound Christian, because of that fact. Don't tell me that God can't change a hell-bent human soul, because he changed mine--twice, at least! I was changed when I was born-again at age 15, away at Christian school at a little town in eastern South Dakota, and fifteen years later, after having abandoned God to live a wild, pagan life like everybody else in the service and at colleges, when God came and picked me up and restored me, his prodigal son! Twice a prodigal, it was a lesson to me. I have walked his narrow road ever since, and fully intend not to wander off it again. I can tell you one thing for sure, friend, it isn't worth it, going one's own way rather than God's way. Doing our own thing, we destroy ourselves sooner or later (I know this by experience!), but going God's way we experience God's grace and mercy and reach the destiny for which God designed us. I am not there yet, but I am pressing on--I won't give up and get off the path. As the song goes at the Pentecostal church I attended for eight years, to paraphrase it, "I've gone too far to turn back now."
God gives grace, I find, just when I feel like giving up and everything seems to go against me. He did it today, in fact, after some very difficult hours spent hassling with family members, most of whom I see as real enemies who want nothing to do with what I value most in life. After so much betrayal and rejection, as I see it, I was pretty upset, but then, in incident after incident, God seemed to be showing me things I needed most to hear at that time: and I was encouraged and strengthened, so I didn't end the day as I was about to, in defeat and discouragement, but actually am ending it in faith and renewed commitment to God's way, not mine.
God will do this for you too, friend and Emmaus Road Walker. He plays no favorites--he is the same loving God for every person on Earth, if allowed to be. If he can be loving and full of grace toward a wretch like me--when I am snapping at everyone around me for not coming alongside me in a cause that I believe truly is beneficial to the entire family--then he can be loving to anyone else who is sinking beneath discouragement and even resentment toward others for letting you down. Well, others let Christ down too (his own family resented and resisted and misunderstood him, did they not?), and his disciple Judas betrayed him to his enemies for arrest, but Christ kept on loving these people regardless of how badly they treated and abused him and let him down. His disciples all fled, it is written, but Jesus didn't hold that against them, he forgave them. This is the kind of God he is. He understands how we feel, when others malign us and wipe their shoes on us, attributing all sorts of wrong motives to us to destroy our dreams and make us give up what God has promised, but God will come alongside us--if given the chance. He did this again for me today. That is why I have to tell you about it, so you can get in on His blessing of encouragement too.
That is something I am thankful for--aren't you too?
1. Christian Education
2. Prayer
3. Holy Spirit
4. Biblical Science
5. Foundational Principles
6. Witnessing (includes Apologetics) and Discipleship
7. Types of Christ (OT)
8. Bible Covenants/Israel/Bible Atlas
9. Christian Hope and Character
10. The Prophetic Calling
1. and 2. Christology (based on Christology book offered on this page)
3. Intro. to Hebrew (Zola Levitt book, information how to order it offered on this page)
3. Intro. to Greek
4. "Messianic Prophecy" Course by Zola Levitt (information on it and how to order it on this page)
5. History of the Cradle of Judaism and Christianity, the Middle East, as well as the history of Islam and some of the other anti-Christ cults and atheistic philosophies and environment, secularist, and animal activist movements (including the Evolutionist theory of Darwinism) affecting Christianity significantly.
Billy Graham believes as his wife did, and he has come out with a book we all should read, called "Storm Warning." Franklin Graham explained it as a telling how God will judge sin soon in this nation. That judgment sounds like a terrible one, described as a "storm." I have information that the largest tornado in the U.S. was around two and a half miles wide. It happened in Nebraska in 2004. Well, God's wrath is larger than that, and will encompass the entire nation coast to coast when it hits us with all the ferocity of a super-tornado, or worse. Imagine that! With the nuclear weapons that are now in the hands of the terrorists and the fanatic Muslim regimes such as Iran, Syria, etc., we can be hit with nuclear explosions from one coast to the other simultaneously. We can be destroyed in an hour, there will be mushroom clouds over major cities everywhere our Flag flies on this continential U.S. We can't even handle a hurricane, how about handling this kind of attack? Of course, that would be impossible. We will be destroyed as a nation, and the pieces (if there are any pieces) won't be worth living in or gathering together in a makeshift post-holocaust America. Why not here? They have it in their power to wipe us off the map (as Iran has promised to do to Israel), so what would keep them from doing it? Only God--that is the inescapable fact. Only God! But God may have a deadline for our repentance, and the deadline may already have passed by, and we are now facing extermination. Sorry, but the Bible records the utter destruction of other nations that abandoned God and committed gross abominations and immoralities--and so there is no real hope that God will overlook our gross dereliction. We outrage God daily in this nation, from the apostate pulpit, from the apostate, atheist Congress, from the atheist judiciary, from the godless, anti-Christian White House, from the godless Evolution and immorality-teaching educational establishment. We are worse than pagan, depraved, violent old Rome ever was--as we have the perfect, Bible-based Gospel in greater degree spread throughout our society, far more than the Romans ever had, thanks to the Internet, Television, radio, books, videos, films, and other mass communications, and yet we defy it more than Rome in its ignorance and gross idolatry ever dared. Rome did not use tax monies to support so-called "art" exhibits that mixed urine with crosses (crucifixes) in a bottle, but that is what we have done with the National Endowment of the Arts funds drawn from our public tax taxes. Name anything Rome did, we have done worse and to a greater extent. You might claim we haven't killed thousands of Christians yet in arenas for sheer sadistic entertainment--but yet we use tax money even from Christians to kill tens of millions of innocent unborn children and even seek to fund abortion in countries round the world (as if they needed our help to commit such a crime against humanity!). Surely, all these millions of those unborn children are God's children, even if most parents or mothers were not Christian. No, I doubt very much Rome was worse than we are today. We just do things in a more sophisticated way, that's all, with a higher degree of technology to spread the evil around more efficiently. God is not fooled, or misled by us in the least. He sees clearly how much we have sinned against him in thought, word, and deed, and though he offered us forgiveness, we have so far spurned his gracious offers of mercy and grace in his Son, and then done everything possible to slap God's face and defame him before the whole watching world ("America is not a Christian nation," President Obama braggingly told the Muslim world from the university auditorium in Cairo. America, he said at another time and place, "has many different faiths--Hindu, Muslim, Christian, etc.--which means he contradicted himself in Cairo. When asked by the Muslim's what faith America followed, he said America's religious faith is "shared common values," while naming none of them.). None of Obama's explanations will wash with Almighty God. They certainly did not wash with his Muslim friends either, who all know America is a Christian nation (that is why they consider us the enemy of Islam, call us "The Great Satan" and a prime target for their Jehadists!). God does not share Obama's secularist values, whatever they are. God is God, and Obama is a mere walking and talking clot of proud, arrogant clay claiming to be master of his own destiny. God will be God over a defiant, secularist-run America too, whether we are ready or not. Isn't it high time to repent? We may not have a nation much longer, but we still have souls to be responsible for--namely, our own! Isn't it time to cry out to God for forgiveness?
This is excellent, just what the Emmaus Walk is all about: adventuring through the Life of Christ, in the Gospels and the Book of Acts. A study book with pages for notes, by Ray C. Stedman, who was a great Bible expositor. More about it later. I am enjoying it immensely.
"Spokesman Emeal Zwayne said that few Christians in the U.S. are even aware"that so many Christians are losing their lives for their faith. It's as though we in the U.S. live in a different world from the rest of the Body of Christ.
"Zwayne said Open Doors has beenworking 'to try and draw attention tot he plight of the Persecuted Church, because Scripture tells us to remember those who are persecuted for the sake of Christ.
In 2010 World Watch List cited North Korea, which rep;ortedly uses Christians as guinea pigs to test chemical and biological weapons, as the world's worst persecutor of Christians. Iran, which may be using Christians as scapegoats for internal opposition to its president, is #2. Iranis among eight nations in the top 10 of the 50 worst persecutors of Christiansin which Sharia (Islamic) law is dominant. A total of 35 nations on the listare under some form of Sharia. 'We canclassify that as a growing trend,' Jerry Dykstra, a spokesman for the ministry said. 'We've seen more countries (on the list) from the Muslim world.'"
Would you like to know what the dark myths undergirding the Shrine of the Dome of the Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque are? Would you like to know how those shrines got there, and there isn't a Jewish Temple there instead? This is no theme park, like one put up by a developer of Disneyland or Disneyworld. Blood, sweat, tears, and more blood and tears, enough to fill a river, were poured out on the stone platform of that big square patch of marble or stone pavement called the Temple Mount. Savage wars were fought there for hundreds and thousands of years, armies clashed, conquering generals, emperors, caliphs, and army commanders all had their day on this Mount. Oh, there were periods of relative peace on it, but those periods all came to an end, producing slaughter, pillage, conquest, glory, defeat and misery. All these combatants came and made a terrific mess of the Mount, and what you see today is but one stage of that mess of the ages. But Christ the Ruler of All will come soon and clear away the mess and make everything beautiful, glorious, and pure on that Mount of Zion. It's going to happen. But first the Rapture, then the Tribulation/Great Tribulation Period of 7 years, then the Millennial Reign of Christ. A Third, then a Fourth Temple that is everlasting will stand on the Temple Mount. Are you looking forward to it, Emmaus Walker? You should be if you're not! Everything you are fond on now outside Jerusalem and the Temple Mount is going to be destroyed and vanish, and yet that Temple Mount will remain, to be restored beyond what we can imagine to become the very pinacle of beauty and glory and excellence--truly the Joy of the whole earth! There the saints of God will congregate to worship and adore and serve the Great King, Jesus (Y'shua), forever. I truly hate what I see now on the Temple Mount. It is grossly ugly, impure, hateful. It is not of God, it is anti-God, anti-Christ in fact. Sin and rebellion and satanic deception has created the awful scene we see on that Mount today, where riots take place, stones are thrown at Jews at the Wailing Wall nearby, gunshots ring out from time to time, and blasphemies are inscribed against God's Son on the insides of the buildings. But God will come, in the Person of His Son Jesus, and purify and cleanse the Mount, and seat His glory there. Maranatha!
You would have to look far to find more loving people than those who serve in Jews for Jesus. They are not flaming fanatics, they are loving people who want other Jews to know the joy and salvation of knowing Jesus the Messiah too. It is that basic and simple a ministry. "Behold Your God" is the Jews for Jesus program to reach the Jews of the major cities across the world. They have a CD showing you their ministry. You may have it sent to you free.
And finally that Thou wilt most graciously be pleased to dispose us all to do justice, to love mercy, and to demean ourselves with that charity, humility and pacific temper of mind which were the characteristics of the Divine Author of our blessed religion, and without a humble imitation of whose example in these things we can never hope to be a happy nation. Grant our supplication, we beseech Thee, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen."
TRANSFORMING
OUR NATION
ONE PRAYER
AT A TIME
"In 1952 the U.S. Congress set aside the National Day of Prayer as a time to intercede for our nation and its leaders. The Bible commands us to regularly and fervently pray 'for kings and all thsoe in authority' (2 Timothy 2:2; NIV). It also informs us that the initiative for national spiritual healing and renewal lies with followers of Christ (see 2 Chronicles 7;14).
"I believe our nation is in a perilous spiritual state. We must pray. We must call on God to heal our land, forgive our sins, and leade us in the path of righteousness. Please join with believers across this great nation on Thursday, May 6, and the days following as we cry out to the Lord for His mercy and help.
"I will be on my knees. I hope you will be on yours. Thank you and God bless you."
Charles Spurgeon was a great British preacher during the 1800s. One Sunday evening five college students were in town decided to visit Spurgeon's church to hear him preach. They had arrived early in order to secure their seats. As they were waiting for the services to begin, a man approached them. He said, "Gentlemen, let me show you around. Would you like to see the heating plant of this church?" The students did not want to spend time in a furnace room since it was a hot summer day, but they obliged the kind stranger.
"The students followed the man down the stairs to the basement level. The man pointed to a door and told them, "This is our heating plant." As he opened the door, the students saw 700 people bowed in prayer, seeking God's blessing on that evening's service. As the man closed the door, he introduced himself as Charles Spurgeon.
"One of the things that made Charles Spurgeon such a successful preacher was his dependence upon God in prayer. What is the 'heating plant" of your life like? Is it strong and persistent prayer, or is it a cold room with just a flickering flame?"--Joshua and Michael Youssef. You can contact MY JOURNAL at:
We ought to see, "READ YOUR BIBLE: EVE WAS DEFINITELY NOT FRAMED!" on a bumper. That is the truth. But put a companion sticker there too, AND ADAM WAS NOT DECEIVED AS SHE WAS, HE SINNED WITH EYES WIDE OPEN! Is there a bumper big enough for those two stickers? Yes! on trucks and also the bigger SUVs!
But you need not take my account, go to Genesis, read and find out yourself who is telling the truth, the Bible or the ignorant sticker maker who framed this lie for people to show around town to other gullible souls.
Go to Jan Brewer's webpage or the Arizona State webpage and encourage her and tell her how much you appreciate her and her brave stand against the Federal Government's utter failure to enforce Federal laws on the border. You certainly cannot go and congratulate Obama for enforcing such laws! He has done just the opposite, and has just had the Mexican president to a White House dinner, with Mexican foods featured, at which he no doubt apologized again for the Arizona bill while assuring the Mexican president that he will do all he can to squelch Arizona and its brave attempt to stem the flood of illegals, drug runners, prostitute rings, and even terrorists into that border state. What he said publicly about the statements he made, I take no stock in, for he said what he thought we might believe, not what he actually said. Whenever he says anything, he usually has an ulterior motive quite the opposite of his statement, and if you take the opposite meaning, you probably have the truth with this man. That is what a sad case he is as a man--no integrity! He will not get away with one lie, one deception of his, for it is all being recorded by the books in heaven. The Bible says so! That is not my own idea. One day these books will be opened, and everything he really said with the Mexican president will be exposed along with all his other lies to the American people and the world. He needs to repent before that terrible day breaks upon his head! Grace is not unlimited. It will run out one day for him or you or me, if we do not repent while we still have grace extended to us. Lastly, check out the Personal Update Magazine in the Recommended List below, which deals with Brewer's "audacity" in factual ways that will inform you beyond what the papers and liberal media will do for you.
Anna (Luke 2:36), Bernice (Acts 25:13), Chloe (I Cor. 1:11), Claudia (2 Tim. 4:21), Damaris (Acts 17:"34), Elizabeth (Luke 1:5), Eunice (2Tim. 1:5), Euodia (Phil. 4:2), Herodias (Mark 6:17), Joanna (Luke 8:3), Julia (Romans 16:15), Lois (2 Tim. 1:5), Lydia (Acts 16:14), Martha and Mary (John 11:1), Mary (Matt. 1:18), Mary (Mark 15:40), Mary Magdalene (Matt. 27:56), Persis (Romans 16:12), Phoebe (Romans 16:1), Priscilla (Acts 12:13), Rhoda (Acts 12:13), Salome (Mark 15:40), Sapphira (Acts 5:1), Susanna (Luke 8:3), Syntyche (Phil. 4:2), Tabitha (Acts 9:36).--list prepared by Nina Detting, Warrensburg, Missouri.
Now I will proceed to check that list against the scriptures soon as I can. But myy "Bad Apples" are: Bernice, Euodia, Herodias, Salome, Sapphira, Syntyche. How does this compare with your lists? Each of us can grade ourselves, as to how good or bad we did on this fun test of our Bible knowledge of famous women in the Bible. Now if I, a man should do a lot better than you, if you are a woman, that should tell you something--you need to get into the Bible more concerning these women, as they were important enough to get into the scriptures, which last forever. Shouldn't we know about them?
Vashti, however, was driven away from her palace and all her privileges, having lost her crown and the king's favor and her position as queen and wife of the king. She "lost all," apparently. But not quite all, according to Billy Graham: she stood on her moral rights as a woman in that society, knowing perfectly well the king had overreached his own rights even as a husband, and went away from court with her sense of dignity and integrity intact. The king, however, could not claim as much--for he had treated Vashti most unfairly, though as a king he could not be reprimanded for his outrage against his wife.
I hadn't the courage before to come out in defense of Vashti. Most men won't, because she refused to do what her husband demanded, even though they must admit that he was treating her unfairly, if they know Eastern cultures and customs to any extent. So Billy Graham, hats go off to him for citing Vashti as a good moral example for women, and men too. She did what was right, and refused to compromise, regardless of the consequences. To cross a king in that day could well mean the loss of your head, not just your crown and position in court! She knew that, yet she did the only thing she could do to preserve her dignity and integrity, she refused to do the evil thing her king-husband demanded of her. She is, therefore, an exemplar to us, every bit as much as Esther, for another reason, is an exemplar of courage.
For not having an abortion
Thanks for bearing me
Inside you with love
And care
And anticipation
My life may be troubled
Perhaps I will cry more than I will laugh
But no matter what
I thank you
For that greatest gift of all
Life!
That elder may have expressed what he did to me, but none of the others in the church did, so he was an exception. We also rued the fact that few black leaders were calling attention to this, and alerting their people. But now more and more are doing so, even taking commanding roles in the Tea Party movement, to stop the juggernaut of the socialist government presently in charge and to try to regain our Constitutional freedoms at the next two elections--God permitting. We salute these black leaders, who are often pastors and evangelists.
The dictionary is the only place success comes before work.--Arthur Brisbane.
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do...nothing.
Christianity is not a religion, it is a relationship.
Life with Christ is an endless hope; without Him it is a hopeless end.
Many hands rocking today's cradles are merely hired hands.
Success comes in cans; failure in can'ts.
A New Year's thought: Faith makes the uplook good, the inlook favorable and the outlook glorious.
Ont he whole, God's love for us is a much safer subject to think about than our love for Him--C.S. Lewis
There is in the world far more hunger for love and appreciation than there is for bread.
Dr. Smith states that before the transformation into the fiery Black Islamicist, Walcott was "Calypso Gene," a nightclub entertainer. Malcom X was one of the men associated with him in earlier days, at least until someone murdered him. He assisted Malcom X (originally Malcom Little) at the Harlem mosque before going to the Boston mosque. You have to remember Farrakan (Walcott), however, as he is in the news frequently, being quoted or cited in some way. He represented the "Nation of Islam," and was its chief representative. But how did this false religion get started here in America. Please return for the excerpt soon from a great booklet by an authority on this subject called "Nation of Islam."
And, yes, democracy will vote this monster of Satan's kingdom into power! Christians, already deceived by Obama, will help vote him in, just as German protestants and evangelicals voted Hitler into power. Just wait. It is going to happen. The anti-christ spirit is alive and well in America and the West and across the globe. We have evidence of that everywhere you look. Islam is an anti-christ religion as well, and very aggressive too, taking up the sword against all who resist or defy Islam's invasions. But we have aggressive Secularism too, which is also powerful, and has engulfed whole nations such as America, Canada, and the EU. That Secularism is increasingly anti-Christian, anti-Christ, and anti-morality, and it is seeking to stamp out historic Christianity and the Bible too. Satan is clearly behind these anti-christ forces in the world today. Are your eyes open? Do you see what is going on? Read John's epistles, for he warned in the early church, in the 1st century, that anti-christs were prowling about, and the spirit of anti-christ was prevgalent. Jesus warned us that there would be many false christs, seeking to deceive the people of God in the latter days. Well, we are in the Latter Days. If it was bad in the first century, it is a hundred fold worse in the 21st century! And we Christians are the targets of this anti-christ spirit! Yes, we are the targets--and are we already deceived and duped by Satan, and will vote for the Anti-Christ? We better check ourselves out, whether we be truly in the faith or not, before we end up with the mark of the beast on us. The mark is first spiritually imprinted before any coded chip is ever implanted, if that is what the mark will be. Do we have the spiritual imprint of the Beast already in our hearts and souls? Check yourself with the Bible--and your behavior with the Bible's standard. If you square up with the Bible, and its standard, you are probably okay, but if not, if you conform to the godless, anti-christ world and its satanic system, if there is really no difference between you and your worldly neighbors who care nothing for God, then you are already bearing the mark of the beast spiritually. Better get rid of it now while you still can. Anyone who later takes the mark physically in his body will be doomed, as the Bible says. Let us repent, if we are already tainted with the anti-christ spirit. We can be washed of it, forgiven by God. His mercy and grace are sufficient. But if we continue to fall under the sway of the Beast in this satantic system of the world, well, sooner or later we will be beyond recall, and we will be going with the flow, with the tide, down the superhighway of Perdition, on which there is no turning around.
There is that wonderful old Negro spiritual, "O Children, Keep in the Middle of the Road," that my cousins in a quartet sang so well in their college concerts in 1959 and 1960 I couldn't ever forget it. But even their top-notch singing and ability couldn't remove the question about the spiritual problem that the lyrics pose. It seems to bear an ambivalent message, you might take in two different ways or more. Whether this song is responsible or not (you be the judge), the popular "Keep in the Middle of the Road" has taken over in the lives of millions--it has become an unspoken but powerful, pervasive mantra guiding millions of people, the mantra of mediocrity, or "playing it safe" by following the line they suppose represents the middle between two extremes. That kind of mediocrity is not godly, it isn't even particularly safe to cultivate. Who warns these people the middle of the road could be a dangerous place to travel--don't you agree? Yet millions, perhaps the majority, both Christian and on-Christian, travel down the centerline, do they not? Do you? Do I? It is a most convenient and reasonable-sounding philosophy of life, that is enormously popular, especially with people who, by exercizing this mediocre principle, put off any substantive, life-transforming, fundamental decision about God in their lives, particularly a personal God, such you have in Jesus Christ the Savior and Lord of all. Jesus, they keep at arm's length. God remains impersonal, the fatherly, benign but essentially unknown "Man Upstairs." WHAT MAN UPSTAIRS? WOULD ANY OF YOU MEDIAN-LINE- FOCUSED FOLKS PLEASE IDENTIFY THE MAN UPSTAIRS? Who is he? What is his name? What does he really care about you? Why should you care about him? What significance, possibly, could he have for human beings living down here on the messy mudflats of human life? Will these folks ever know? Will you? I doubt it! I doubt it very much! The reason is these folks don't ever come out fair and square on any important life issue relating to God, nor do they ever flatly deny God, they just pigeon-hole or shelve him or "put him off for a more convenient time," or hit PAUSE button on their spiritual remote. In the meantime, while they put God off, they continue on their merry, sinful, self-centered way, intending to "get it right with the Man Upstairs" later at a time they choose. Ha! It won't happen! That is not true repentance, that is you trying to manage God and save yourself on your own terms, and it will never work with God. Sorry, folks, He makes the rules, not you. You go to ballgames probably. You don't make the rules. They were drawn up by the folks who first organized the game, and it is subscribed to by the various leagues. You enjoy the game on its terms, not yours. You can demand it be changed to your liking before you attend and enjoy it. So with life and salvation and sin and death--God makes the rules. Only God! Only the Holy Spirit can give you the gift of repentance and draw you, for all have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God, and as wandering sheep we don't naturally come to God of our own volition, our whole propensity is to wander away in the opposite direction. So chances are (and the statistics prove) the longer God is put off by an individual by any individual, the less likely he ever will come to God in any saving way. So it is dangerous to play that game with God. Millions do, but they will be very, very sorry some day soon, and it will be TOO LATE, and they will not be able to change a thing when judgment and death knocks at their door. Repentance is, again, the pure, utterly unmerited gift of God. You can't pop it up out of your hat like a magician pops a rabbit. And God is not at your beck and call either, that is, He is not going to save you at YOUR convenience. You are his creature, he is not yours to manipulate. If you keep putting him off, well, guess what? He may just quit calling, and then what? Try calling him then! Your frantic call won't get through. What about all the tears shed by the remorseful Judas after betraying the Lord into the hands of the Temple authorities? He committed suicide, whether or not God could still forgive and save him. We just know he didn't seek God's forgiveness and hung himself instead, and his own act probably slammed the door of grace shut against him. That is what remorse and tears can bring--no repentance, just overwhelming despair and suicide. That will probably be your frame of mind and response to God when the roll is called right down yonder where you are. It says in Genesis that Esau cried bitterly too, but he couldn't change the terrible thing he had done, he had sold and dispised his birthright and by consequence lost his father's patriarchal blessing to boot. His many tears did him no good then! Imagine, a big, rough, touch hunter like Esau bawling like a baby. But the more he bawled, it did no good whatsoever. Many tears won't save you or me either. We must respond when God calls and knocks on our heart's door. God isn't asking for your tears. He wants you to just answer, "Here I am." There may never come another knock.
So is it such a good idea to travel the centerline in life? Try it on any road you find in your neighborhood, and you will end up either dead or in the hospital--so much for avoiding "extremes" in real life. To keep from "extremes" of having to make a decision one way or the other concerning your standing with God? Hardly! Just look what may well lie ahead for you or any person who likes to "keep in the middle of the road," as that beautiful but poorly conceived old Negro spiritual advises.
"In every life there comes times when a right decision means success and victory and a wrong one means defeat and failure. The most important decision that you and I can make is that which leads us to surrender our lives to God and to the obedience of His word.
Almost everyone has a desire to be saved eventually in the kingdom of God. Most of those who come to the end of life without having made the necessary preparation to meet God do so through indecision or procrastination.
"Jump, father, jump!" cried a young man as his father-in-law stood hesitatingly on the edge of an ice floe which was slowly but steadily drifting from the shore line, and carrying him out into the night on one of our Great Lakes. The young man and his father-in-law had been skirting the frozen shore of the lake when suddenly, with a loud report, a crack appeared, and a large portion of the ice on which they were standing separated from the shore line, and began drifting away. The young man immediately leaped across the widening crack, while his father-in-law hesitated. He was urged to leap across and save himself, but he lingered. The crevice grew wider as the wind graduated drifted the ice floe from the shore. The young man called insistently, urging that his companion even yet plunge into the water and swim ashore. The water was cold, and darkness was coming on. The man stood as if paralyzed by fear until the distance was too great to swim. The last that was ever seen of him was his form standing helplessly waving his arms and shouting messages of farewell for his wife and children. He was borne out and out into the freezing cold of that winter night never to return.
Not that BP is guiltless! As a human organization, it isn't going to be innocent. Neither is Britain innocent as a party to this. Liberal, Labor Party-run and ruined Britain owes us something, after the BBC's angry, condescending lecturing of us and its poisonous, virulent bashing of us in their press for so many years, as an embarrassment to the Globalized world community because we dared to act like a sovereign nation with our own foreign policy, not taking dictates from the United Nations like Britain was so inclined to do (even though Tony Blair opted for joining Bush in the unpopular Gulf Wars in Iraq and even committed to Afghanistan).
That USA-bashing, so popular with the British government and the media for so long, is now returning to haunt them no doubt, as British Petroleum fouls some of our nation's most pristine beaches and wildlife habitats in the Gulf of Mexico. Thanks a lot, you liberals of Britain! What did we do to deserve this from you? We buy your products, your oil too, enriching you with billions of dollars for year after year, and then you turn and gum up our beaches and islands and kill the wildlife and fish too with your horrible messes from that blown-out well! Thanks a lot, liberals of Britain! And shame on you, for your own malfeasance that led in some way to this ecological and economic disaster we are saddled with. You were always ranting and raving about the U.S.'s carbon emissions, well, what about yours in the Gulf of Mexico right at this moment? It is far worse what you are doing than whatever you imagined America had done to pollute the world! I am certain your pride and arrogance is now slapping your own face for a change for all the slander and lies and bad mouthing you have done over the last ten to fifteen years during the Bush Administrations primarily.
Carbon dioxide is a trace gas and by itself will produce little warming. Also, as CO2 increases, the incremental warming is less, as the effect is logarithmic, so the more CO2, the less warming it produces.
Temperatures have been cooling since 2002, even as carbon dioxide has continued to rise.
The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara falls froze completely solid!
Are you still terrified by CO2? I'm not! I think it is a very good thing! Rising levels actually bring a greening of the earth--which is happening all across formerly arrid Central Asia and eastern China, it is already reported. If it is happening there, and it is, that means the arrid regions have been greening up increasingly across the world, with consequent increases in wildlife and agriculture. Why? CO2 is like fertilizer to the plants. So more CO2 is good for the earth, not less! "Calling Al Gore, calling Al Gore--are you listening? Apparently not! You are never confused by the facts, are you! You simply deny them!" Only in politics is it toxic, something to use to stampede the masses of voters into Cap and Trade madness and all sorts of hybrid cars and "green" energy sources-- all based on nonsense, which will only put dollars into the insatiable pockets of politicians. The world will be impoverished, and we will join Bangladesh in its rock-bottom economy of subsistence, if we let the politicians have their way. They will remain super-rich, while we will lose everything we have, and become utterly dependent on a dictatorial government. Want that? Vote for it in the next election, that is, vote for those candidates who have been profiteering off the CO2 reduction agenda championed by the now infamous Al Gore. Don't expect such politicians to give up this agenda. It is the best thing for them imaginable, for them to increase their power and money exponentially.
His hoax over the weather, from which he has earned himself tens of millions of dollars, that too is rebounding against him. He may lose his entire fortune in lawsuits that may well be levied against him. The rape trial itself, if it runs against him, may cost him millions. If he escapes these instances of divine justice, I will be sure I am not living in the real world. For God is still King over this world, despite what the Al Gores of this corrupt society, and all his liberal friends and cronies, like to think. Justice takes a while to come, but it will come to the wrong-doer, if not in this life, than in the next. Why not pray for him. Surely, he is an ignorant soul, sold out to lust and greed and deception from the devil, who desperately needs a Savior who can save him from his sin. Surely, his true need is being exposed to all the world now.
From Introduction, by Canno Malgo
"Where Jerusalem is concerned, it is all or nothing. The fate of the nations is decided by Jerusalem; the nations will cut themselves on her (Zechariah 12:3). Jerusalem is the future world capital from where the Messiah will reign. Jerusalem is the city of truth. The abysmal untruthfulness of the world of nations will be revealed in this city (cf. Isaiah 2, Micah 4, Zechariah 14:12). Jerusalem is, according to the Bible, the sole capital of Israel. There has never been a Palestinian state. This already shows how the facts have been twisted.
In the following article ["The Myth of the Al-Aqsa Mosque: Part I," by Herbert Novitsky], we will do away with two stubborn myths that concern on the one hand Gaza,and on the other hand the Temple Mount. For friends of Israel, these facts are extremely significant.
If only the world would acknowledge objectively what Israel has done toward peace! But as we know, they prefer to listen to the lies of the Palestinian side. This is not surprising; Jesus said of the prince of this world that he is the father of lies."
July 11--Believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory. (Peter 1:8).
July 18--In Thy Name shall they rejoice all day. (Psalm 89:16).
July 25--The Lord reigneth, let the earth rejoice. (Psalm 97:1).
August's theme is Renewal, follow by September's theme, Reaping, each with its own special verses.
There is also the article of a Jewish writer cited, that tells of Lincoln's love for Jerusalem, and his desire to travel there, expressed to his wife. David R. Barnhart's blog features the Lincoln article and the link to it.
By the way, there is good evidence now that Jews actually resided in Pompeii. The article in BAR tells of the fish sauce industry that thrived there, and a special kosher brand was also produced that obviously catered to Jewish customers. It was called "garum". This next piece of evidence was found a long time ago and is literary, but very telling. A schoolboy's scrawl, copying a line from a classical author, described the city as "silent"--which certainly was the case after the city became a desolate ghosttown, motly all buried in ash, the rest standing in dismal ruins that would never again be inhabited. This schoolboy scrawl was found in the 19th century. A second piece of evidence newly turned up, pointing toward the good possibility that Jewish people resided in Pompeii or at least had acquaintance with the city, consisting of the scrawl found in the ruins on one of the walls: "Sodom and Gomorrah". Surely, that was Pompeii and neighboring communities! They were known for wealth and luxury and immorality, as well as debased mystery religions from the East. Jews, particularly those following orthodox Judaism, would have hated the free-wheeling, polytheistic pagan culture surrounding them, as the city was obviously so given to unbridled sensuality and lust and pagan gods and all kinds of depraved pagan ceremonies performed in the many prestigious, well-endowed temples. If they didn't view Pompeii as a City of Destruction of the Pilgrim's Progress mode, they certainly viewed it in that way in the aftermath of the city's total destruction.
Yet, as long as we are still alive, we can repent and turn back, to the road that Abraham, father of all who have faith in Christ, first took when he parted company with his foolish nephew Lot.
Our poor little anemic U.S. greenback is just as pathetic, robbed of nearly all value by our government's lunatic over-spending. They are borrowing from China and Japan, to finance programs we can never pay for! Soon we will be so deep in debt we shall not be able to repay the loans, not ever! We are impoverishing the next generation to pad the bank accounts of our big spenders in Congress today. These horrible Senators and Representatives, who have no regard for our nation's solvency, and do everything they can to drive us into bankruptcy for generations to come, must be ejected from their seats--with all possible speed. Send them all to Mars, in the next rocket, if need be! They ought to enjoy it, as then they will escape the firing squad that is the reward for all tyrants that overreach and overspend to the point where they destroy their nations. Shame, shame, shame on them. Shame also on the voters who put these miscreants in power and gave them the means to destroy us like this.
Joel Osteen may have tried to change his stripes (or spots?) with a public apology after a fatal interview with Larry King on "Larry King Live," but, sorry, I can't buy it, as for him to disavow the primary Christian doctrine and truth that Jesus in only way to be saved tells us that this is no mere stumble, it is a plunge off the cliff, theologically:
Dear G.K.: This is a complex question in our society, and I would not pretend to be able to speak about the legal issues it raises. However, let me make two comments.
First, most societies have rtealized that unrestrained freedom inevitably hurts others and hurts society as a whole. One reason is because a person who is concerned only with pursuing his own freedom is really very self-centered, and a society full of self-centered people eventually falls apart because no one is really concerned about anyone else, including those who are in need. In addition, it is impossible to avoid influencing others by our actions, even if we don't intend to do so.
Second, most societies realize that total, unrestrained freedom hurts the individual. I realize you will not agree with that right now, but the person who is being hurt the most by your behavior is you. In fact, you have become a slave, a slave to your own desires and habits. The Bible talks about being enslaved to "ever-increasing wickedness," and says "Those things result in death!" (Romans 6:19-21). The real issue you face is this: Will you continue to turn your back on God? My prayer is that you won't, but that you will turn to Christ and discover the perfect freedom He offers, the freedom from sin and its consequences.
Dear Dr. Graham: I know I have a problem with my weight, but I can't seem to do anything about it. When I run into a problem or something else that causes me anxiety I head for the refridgerator--although I know it isn't good for me and I don't know like what I have become. Could God help me to deal with this, do you think, or is He really concerned about such trivial things?"--Mrs. T.R.E.
Dear Mrs. T.R.E.: God is concerned about everything that concerns us, because He loves us--and yes, He is concerned about your problems with overeating. More than that, He wants to help you overcome this.
No problem is too trivial for God--and in reality, this is not a trivial problem. It is one which cold affect your health, both physically and emotionally. Yews, food is a gift from God, and He gave us the ability to enjoy it. But like almost anything else--food can be used in a wrong way, and the bible warns about those "who drink too much wine or gorge ourselves on meat"--Proverbs 23:20.
The key is to get at the root of your problems. Why is food so important to you? One reason, I suspect, is because that has become an escape from your problems. Problems make you anxious or unhappy--and food counteracts those feelings by making you happy, at least temporarily. But this means you have not learned to face your problems and discipline is important, and you need to take practical steps to avoid overeating. But youy also need to face your problems honestly, for only then will you really conquer your addiction to food.
Ask Christ to come into your heart and then ask Him to help you turn your problems over to Him. "Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you" (I Peter 5:7). Christ can replace your unhappiness and anxiety with joy and peace, and that will make the difference.
DEAR MRS. S.P.:
No, it isn't too late for you to turn back to God and discover the peace and purpose He has for you. The only time it's too late is when a person turns from God so often that he or she no longer can hear His voice. I pray this will not be true of you, but that you will heed God and turn back to Him. The Bible warns, "A man who remains stiff-necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed--without remedy" (Proverbs 29:1).
Why, after all, do you have this inner feeling that you are missing something, and why are your thoughts now turning toward God? I believe it's because God is at work in your heart, convicting you of your sins, showing you how hempty life is without Him, and pointing you to the only lasting answer--Jesus Christ. And God is at work in your life because He has not rejected you. He loves you and wants you to become part of His family forever.
No matter what your past has been, Christ invites you to turn to Him for forgiveness and new life. His promise is absolutely trustworthy: "If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (I John 1:9). Don't delay a single day longer, but turn your life over to Jesus Christ. Then get in a church where Christ is preached and you will have the teaching and encouragement you need to stay on the right path in life."
This rosy, unrealistic, reality-warping prism filters out any intelligence and common sense Obama may have, and he and we are left with a blind ideologue, intent on his own advancement as leader of the socialistic elite, all born and bred on the toxic pabulum of Karl Marx or Engels or even Lenin--their philosophies are now directing the affairs of the White House through the chief executive of the U.S. government, our soi-called Presidente Obama. Obama is exactly like what he fed on during his formative years and at the universities he attended. Karl Marx could not have cared less about the Gulf oil spill ideologically (except as a means to embarrass Capitalists and the free market system and force them if he could under state control), so neither does Obama. He has been forced, politically, to make various "caring," "angry", "compassionate" gestures and overtures and "sympathetic" speechifying (crank it up, baby, once again for the American people and the citizens bordering the Gulf of Mexico!) They are lame speeches indeed, purely cosmetic, designed to make himself look good at the expense of BP, whereas he deliberately did nothing, sat on his thumbs in the White House in the first critical days and weeks of the disaster. He created a governmental fiasco, again deliberately, by sending Eric Holder the Attorney General Clewless to the Gulf with a raft of lawyers instead of spill cleanup experts. He has sat on the frantic requests of the Louisianian governor for permits to do the cleanup on the state level. He deliberately let the crisis become catastrophic. Yes, he has no experience, he has no knowledge of how to be a genuine chief executive of anything but ACORN, but he could have turned over the responsibilties to people who do know what they need to do in such emergencies-- which he steadfastly refused to do, preferring to slather on cosmetic rhetoric over his inaction, evasion, and outright obstructionism. He has acted criminally, not just incompetently. It is criminal what he has allowed to happen to Gulf States and their economies. Then when he acted, what did he do for these people who have not yet recovered from Katrina and Rita? He cancelled the leases for offshore drilling, put a moratorium on them, though still authorizing even deeper drilling at the same time than the site that is presently causing so much trouble. No near-shore drilling which could be easily fixed, no, it has to be so deep and far off the shore, that we are setting up for more such spills that are so difficult to access and fix! That is how Obama handles the problem--you fix a bad cold with an injection of pneumonia virus! After all, that is exactly his game--make crises all the worse so you can capitalize on them and grab more power that the public is eager to grant so you will do something. It works wonderfully. He has used this tactic and been able to get control of two major auto makers, get control of major banks, get control of the health care system, and is moving on to get control of the energy sector. It is all part of his Marxist agenda of nationalizing the whole economy and ridding us of the free enterprise system which he, as a Marxist, hates so much. The public seems to fall for his ruse every time. So he will continue to work it for all it is worth. That is exactly what communists did in the Soviet Union and in their various satellite puppet states in Eastern Europe-- they created crisis, nationalized everything, grabbed supreme power, and then installed themselves as the governing elite forever, living in luxury while the masses, robbed of their freedom and livelihoods, were reduced to serfs and slaves, impoverished and terrorized into powerlessness. Wonderful! Obama is well on his way to achieving the same for us here in America. The aim, of course, is a hidden on, it is Satanic. The true aim is to reduce all Christians to powerlessness and poverty so the Gospel can no longer go forth with vigor to all the world. He is also attacking every Amendment having to do with free speech and free exercise of Christian faith at the same time. This agenda is ruining the country, naturally, and the American people are waking up to the fact there is a Marxist dunce at the helm--but he intends to do as much damage as he can while he still can, whether he is reduced to one term or not. He never dreamed he would achieve so much as he has already--so everything he achieves from now on is pure frosting on the cake. His kingmaking backers--Warren Buffett, George Soros, the Middle Eastern oil monarchs, Oprah, and the whole liberal establishment--see blood in the water and are in a feeding frenzy--they are closing in for the killing of a once prosperous, free America that is right now thrashing about in oil-polluted Gulf waters.
This is the sort of hyprocrisy that is rife in liberal circles. They hate America, but they don't leave, they remain to tear America down. They won't like what they are creating, however. They will be the first ones to be lined up for the firing squads in the police states they are helping to create. That is why she belongs in this Dunce center, not that she is deficient in intelligence, but that she has chosen to ignore reason to further her irrational politics.
This unAmerican low-life isn't worth mentioning, except that he needs to be stopped and thrown out of office as soon as possible. Minnesota is liberal, but it can vote in true conservatives on occasion, and so there must remain some people there who love this country and its freedoms, its Constitutional liberties and its God-given rights. Such people can dump this guy in a trash basket in Mecca, if they get the votes out by awakening fellow Minnesotans to what a bad apple Ellison is.
Nice kettle of fish--the tribal days of North America! Don't let the artists romanticize them too much, they weren't all that much fun for the tribes themselves who were the weaker ones. Stronger tribes could hold their own, such as the Lakota, often called Sioux, but even they had to do a lot of fighting to hold their territories, and they had been dwelling in Canadian forests, but found the open prairies with their vast herds of bison much more to their liking. Too bad for them, that the invading Europeans (Americanized) wanted the same lands for their farms and towns and railroads, etc. The Lakota, once supreme, had to deal with this extremely numerous, tenacious, invading "white tribe" from the East, and we know that though they fought bravely under some excellent military chiefs, it was a losing proposition, as they were outgunned, outmanned, and out-provisoned almost from the start.
So tribes had their day, and it was over with the coming of the Europeans (Americans by virtue of their new nation-state). Peace was established for the first time, peace unknown during the long ages of tribalism.
Peace came at a stiff price to the Indian tribes, for many tribesmen could not or would not adjust to the strange new pattern of civilized life introduced and planted over the North American landscape in this new "United States of America". Most Indians today of the various tribes have not adjusted well, as we know from the statistics. This is the greatest tragedy, the loss to the whole nation of these wonderful abilities and contributions they could have made to advance themselves and also this country and nation-state that had encompassed them. For the tribes, peace (the imposed "Pax Americana") was not a boon, it came as a bust. And bust it has remained for them.
Speaking about the whole world, though, nations have been a boon, not a bust. I thank God for nation-states. Who would want what is going on in Pakistan to spill over from its borders to us here? Nobody in his right mind would! Who would want Russia's autocracy here to oppress us as it does the Russian citizenry? Who would want the corruption of South American banana republics and all that bribery that goes on to get the least advantage from some aristocratic government official? Who would want the inefficiency of regimes that barely keep even the most essential public services going for their peoples? Would you want what Sudan has to deal with from that genocidal president of theirs? Or the fanaticism of the rioting Middle Eastern Muslims in our own neighborhoods?
Without nation-states and defined borders, we would all be in the same hobo stew, and equally wretched. Thank God for borders and nations! God ordained it so, until the end of time, and He is all-wise and compassionate, knowing that the best way to maintain security and welfare and a stable way of life is within a bordered nation that is willing to defend its borders too against all comers. When we give up nationality and borders, look out for trouble! Look out for aggressors, for they will be pouncing on you and me! Mr. Obama wants to give up our nation's nationality and blend us into some kind of socialistic North American region with Canada and Mexico, I take it. But that would be hell for us, since we would then be dealing with all the problems of south of the border--down Mexicali way! Want those problems? The drug lords, the drug wars, the corruption, the mis-government, the elitist ruling class, the masses of poor and disenfranchised, the predation on the weakest and poorest and darkest? Mr. Obama does! He thinks that would be paradise, evidently. But thank God, God has a better idea. He blessed this United States of America, after covenanting with our forefathers to establish a nation that would honor and propagate godly values and the Christian faith and spread the Gospel to allt he world. But our leaders are abandoning God, our nation is depraved, our society is sinking into the depths of socialism-- yes, that is true. But our wonderful, glorious God is still a Covenanting God--He has a long memory when ours grows short and we can't remember where we set our pen down or put the car keys. He can remember what exactly he agreed to when he first blessed our forefathers, the Pilgrims and Puritans, the early days of our nation when they gathered and prayed most earnestly to him, while signing solemn agreements in His Name and with their own signatures to form a civil union for the glory of God and the establishment of a godly society. God doesn't forget such things--not ever! Oh, we may have forgotten them--which I don't think is the case with all of us. With God there is still hope for this nation of America, including the Indian tribes who have been so terribly left out and pushed to the sidelines. God has a wonderful plan for them too--which goes beyond the man-made prisons called Reservations and the B.I.A. We can hope for these plans to become reality, if not now, then certainly in the coming Millennium, the 1,000 Reign of Christ, which may start in a matter of 7 years, if the Anti-Christ pops up in the next day or so, that is.
Women of this kind and character are every bit as good as men in the same offices, if not better. It takes even more conviction and integrity for a woman today to stand agains.t the secularists and feminists who have too long controlled and defined the discussion of the vital public issues.
Jesus Christ first, and all the rest, starting with ourselves, will fall into line.
