Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Rise and Fall of Nations
Rise and Fall of Nations
By Richard F. Ames
History shows us that great nations rise and fall. Babylon and Greece have fallen. The Roman Empire has come and gone, and will rise once more. Is it possible that the United States, like so many superpowers of years past, could be turned to ashes? What lessons can we learn from history, and from Scripture?
Where are the great empires of the past? Where is the Assyrian Empire? The Babylonian Empire? The Roman Empire? You can find what is left of them in museums, in ruins and in a few ancient stone buildings frequented only by modern tourists. Great nations rise and fall! Is it possible that the United States could be returned to ashes, like so many great nations that have gone before?
http://www.tomorrowsworld.org/cgi-bin/tw/tw-mag.cgi?category=Magazine19&item=1104108822
By Richard F. Ames
History shows us that great nations rise and fall. Babylon and Greece have fallen. The Roman Empire has come and gone, and will rise once more. Is it possible that the United States, like so many superpowers of years past, could be turned to ashes? What lessons can we learn from history, and from Scripture?
Where are the great empires of the past? Where is the Assyrian Empire? The Babylonian Empire? The Roman Empire? You can find what is left of them in museums, in ruins and in a few ancient stone buildings frequented only by modern tourists. Great nations rise and fall! Is it possible that the United States could be returned to ashes, like so many great nations that have gone before?
http://www.tomorrowsworld.org/cgi-bin/tw/tw-mag.cgi?category=Magazine19&item=1104108822
Monday, November 10, 2008
Opinion: Baptists, bigotry, and Barack Obama
Opinion: Baptists, bigotry, and Barack Obama
By Benjamin Cole
Thursday, 06 November 2008
WASHINGTON (ABP) -- The election of 2008 was historic, and now it is history. A tough-fought campaign has ended with a number of firsts for the country, the most notable of which is the highest number of votes -- and the election -- going to an African American. Among the other firsts is the Republican Party’s nomination of a woman to share a place on the national ticket. Also, as of Nov. 6, it looks like a convicted felon has been elected to the United States Senate for the first time.
Obviously, some noteworthy firsts are better than others.
The streets of Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Washington were wild on election night with celebration over the election of Barack Obama to serve as the 44th president of the United States. Across from the White House, cheering, singing, crying and shouting pierced the unseasonably mild November night.
For most of the final weeks of the campaign, I was working day and night in a battleground state to help re-elect a vulnerable incumbent senator. On election night, the room where I sat with friends and fellow campaign workers was starkly different from the celebrations we watched on the flat screens. There were tears, confusion, dismay and, at times, a sense of relief.
Nevertheless, I had to reflect on the fact that the man elected to lead the nation was the first Illinois politician since Abraham Lincoln elevated to the presidency. I thought about how divided the nation was in 1860, and how painful the process of healing was. I thought about the division of North and South, and of Red and Blue.
Then, as now, the president needed wisdom, courage, and calm. The record reflects the leadership of Lincoln, and the nation is watching to see whether Obama will transform soaring rhetoric into successful policy.
Throughout election night and into the next day, my e-mail inbox was filled with woeful warnings about what America will look like with Barack Obama in the White House. Some of the messages were silly, like the one that questioned whether or not President-elect Obama would appoint the notorious William Ayers -- a former domestic radical whose association with Obama became the subject of Republican attack ads -– to serve as education secretary. Some of the e-mails were downright offensive, like the one that resurrected old images of sharecroppers and slave-traders.
The silliest and most offensive of them, I should add, came from Baptist pastors.
At Baylor University, the largest Baptist school in the world and my alma mater, campus police had to break up a heated argument between white and black students. According to reports, a noose was suspended from a tree on the Waco, Texas campus. Baylor's interim president, Dr. David Garland, has rightly condemned those actions and has made it clear that the university will countenance no form of racial intolerance.
And while Barack Obama has professed a Christian faith, many of my Baptist friends have rumored about a hidden Muslim faith. That a man's faith would matter to Baptists seems to me an odd twist for a people who fought to eliminate any religious test for office from the nation's founding documents.
Old biases, however, never die easily, as evidenced by the aforementioned e-mails I received. That these biases remain strongest among those Americans who consider themselves Christian is both troubling and contemptible. But the fact remains that many Baptists still have some lessons to learn about tolerance. It should unsettle us that a people once known for their commitment to tolerance would continue to struggle with practicing consistently what our earliest forbears so faithfully preached.
During the course of the past year, I too have been forced to wrestle with my own prejudices. At times, I’ve joined the bigoted banter and helped to scratch the old wounds of racism. Yet on a quick flight back to Washington Nov. 5, I was able to get past my own persuasion about the political consequence of Barack Obama’s election and be thankful that America has become a place where a man with dark skin and an African surname can become president.
The Democratic Party now holds both houses of Congress by substantial margins, and on January 20, 2009, it will hold the White House. While vote totals are not yet certain in Minnesota, Georgia, and Alaska, it is clear that the Democrats have their first chance since the 103rd Congress to promote an agenda unimpeded by counter-balancing Republican majorities. I’m reminded of the old story about the dog that caught the car he was chasing and wasn’t sure what to do with it when he got it. These are no easy days to govern the country and lead the world, and I almost pity those who are entrusted with the task.
The Democrats will have to show that they can rein in federal spending, and Republicans will have to show that they value the need for regulations and oversight within a free market. Barack Obama is going to have to demonstrate that he can be decisive as well as reflective, and John McCain is going to have to work more closely with his party rather than run against it. All Americans are going to have to learn the virtues of patience and frugality.
And Baptists are going to have to reacquaint themselves with the virtues of religious and racial tolerance if, indeed, this government of the people, by the people, and for the people is not to perish from the earth.
-30-
-- Benjamin Cole is a former Southern Baptist pastor who now works on public-policy issues in the nation’s capital.
http://www.abpnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3624&Itemid=9
By Benjamin Cole
Thursday, 06 November 2008
WASHINGTON (ABP) -- The election of 2008 was historic, and now it is history. A tough-fought campaign has ended with a number of firsts for the country, the most notable of which is the highest number of votes -- and the election -- going to an African American. Among the other firsts is the Republican Party’s nomination of a woman to share a place on the national ticket. Also, as of Nov. 6, it looks like a convicted felon has been elected to the United States Senate for the first time.
Obviously, some noteworthy firsts are better than others.
The streets of Chicago, New York, Los Angeles and Washington were wild on election night with celebration over the election of Barack Obama to serve as the 44th president of the United States. Across from the White House, cheering, singing, crying and shouting pierced the unseasonably mild November night.
For most of the final weeks of the campaign, I was working day and night in a battleground state to help re-elect a vulnerable incumbent senator. On election night, the room where I sat with friends and fellow campaign workers was starkly different from the celebrations we watched on the flat screens. There were tears, confusion, dismay and, at times, a sense of relief.
Nevertheless, I had to reflect on the fact that the man elected to lead the nation was the first Illinois politician since Abraham Lincoln elevated to the presidency. I thought about how divided the nation was in 1860, and how painful the process of healing was. I thought about the division of North and South, and of Red and Blue.
Then, as now, the president needed wisdom, courage, and calm. The record reflects the leadership of Lincoln, and the nation is watching to see whether Obama will transform soaring rhetoric into successful policy.
Throughout election night and into the next day, my e-mail inbox was filled with woeful warnings about what America will look like with Barack Obama in the White House. Some of the messages were silly, like the one that questioned whether or not President-elect Obama would appoint the notorious William Ayers -- a former domestic radical whose association with Obama became the subject of Republican attack ads -– to serve as education secretary. Some of the e-mails were downright offensive, like the one that resurrected old images of sharecroppers and slave-traders.
The silliest and most offensive of them, I should add, came from Baptist pastors.
At Baylor University, the largest Baptist school in the world and my alma mater, campus police had to break up a heated argument between white and black students. According to reports, a noose was suspended from a tree on the Waco, Texas campus. Baylor's interim president, Dr. David Garland, has rightly condemned those actions and has made it clear that the university will countenance no form of racial intolerance.
And while Barack Obama has professed a Christian faith, many of my Baptist friends have rumored about a hidden Muslim faith. That a man's faith would matter to Baptists seems to me an odd twist for a people who fought to eliminate any religious test for office from the nation's founding documents.
Old biases, however, never die easily, as evidenced by the aforementioned e-mails I received. That these biases remain strongest among those Americans who consider themselves Christian is both troubling and contemptible. But the fact remains that many Baptists still have some lessons to learn about tolerance. It should unsettle us that a people once known for their commitment to tolerance would continue to struggle with practicing consistently what our earliest forbears so faithfully preached.
During the course of the past year, I too have been forced to wrestle with my own prejudices. At times, I’ve joined the bigoted banter and helped to scratch the old wounds of racism. Yet on a quick flight back to Washington Nov. 5, I was able to get past my own persuasion about the political consequence of Barack Obama’s election and be thankful that America has become a place where a man with dark skin and an African surname can become president.
The Democratic Party now holds both houses of Congress by substantial margins, and on January 20, 2009, it will hold the White House. While vote totals are not yet certain in Minnesota, Georgia, and Alaska, it is clear that the Democrats have their first chance since the 103rd Congress to promote an agenda unimpeded by counter-balancing Republican majorities. I’m reminded of the old story about the dog that caught the car he was chasing and wasn’t sure what to do with it when he got it. These are no easy days to govern the country and lead the world, and I almost pity those who are entrusted with the task.
The Democrats will have to show that they can rein in federal spending, and Republicans will have to show that they value the need for regulations and oversight within a free market. Barack Obama is going to have to demonstrate that he can be decisive as well as reflective, and John McCain is going to have to work more closely with his party rather than run against it. All Americans are going to have to learn the virtues of patience and frugality.
And Baptists are going to have to reacquaint themselves with the virtues of religious and racial tolerance if, indeed, this government of the people, by the people, and for the people is not to perish from the earth.
-30-
-- Benjamin Cole is a former Southern Baptist pastor who now works on public-policy issues in the nation’s capital.
http://www.abpnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=3624&Itemid=9
Friday, November 7, 2008
Obama election shows deep racial divide in church
Obama election shows deep racial divide in church
November 6, 2008 ·
The barrier-crossing election of Barack Obama did little to bridge the deep racial divide in American churches. In fact, some clergy say it has only served to underscore their differences.
While nonwhite Christians voted overwhelmingly for Obama, most white Christians backed John McCain, according to exit polls. Several black clergy said that criticism of Obama by some white Christians over his religious beliefs and support for abortion rights crossed the line, hurting longtime efforts to reconcile their communities.
Read here:
http://blackpoliticsontheweb.com/2008/11/06/obama-election-shows-deep-racial-divide-in-church/
November 6, 2008 ·
The barrier-crossing election of Barack Obama did little to bridge the deep racial divide in American churches. In fact, some clergy say it has only served to underscore their differences.
While nonwhite Christians voted overwhelmingly for Obama, most white Christians backed John McCain, according to exit polls. Several black clergy said that criticism of Obama by some white Christians over his religious beliefs and support for abortion rights crossed the line, hurting longtime efforts to reconcile their communities.
Read here:
http://blackpoliticsontheweb.com/2008/11/06/obama-election-shows-deep-racial-divide-in-church/
Thursday, November 6, 2008
Washington Post-U.S. Again Hailed as 'Country of Dreams'
washingtonpost.com > World
U.S. Again Hailed as 'Country of Dreams'
Around the World, Obama's Victory Is Seen as a Renewal of American Ideals and Aspirations
By Kevin SullivanWashington Post Foreign Service Thursday, November 6, 2008; Page A26
LONDON, Nov. 5 --
Through tears and whoops of joy, in celebrations that spilled onto the streets, people around the globe called Barack Obama's election Tuesday a victory for the world and a renewal of America's ability to inspire.
Read full article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/05/AR2008110502053.html
U.S. Again Hailed as 'Country of Dreams'
Around the World, Obama's Victory Is Seen as a Renewal of American Ideals and Aspirations
By Kevin SullivanWashington Post Foreign Service Thursday, November 6, 2008; Page A26
LONDON, Nov. 5 --
Through tears and whoops of joy, in celebrations that spilled onto the streets, people around the globe called Barack Obama's election Tuesday a victory for the world and a renewal of America's ability to inspire.
Read full article here:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/05/AR2008110502053.html
New York Times Editorial-3rd November 2008-So Little Time, So Much Damage
Editorial
So Little Time, So Much Damage
Published: November 3, 2008
While Americans eagerly vote for the next president, here’s a sobering reminder: As of Tuesday, George W. Bush still has 77 days left in the White House — and he’s not wasting a minute.
President Bush’s aides have been scrambling to change rules and regulations on the environment, civil liberties and abortion rights, among others — few for the good. Most presidents put on a last-minute policy stamp, but in Mr. Bush’s case it is more like a wrecking ball. We fear it could take months, or years, for the next president to identify and then undo all of the damage.
Here is a look — by no means comprehensive — at some of Mr. Bush’s recent parting gifts and those we fear are yet to come.
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/opinion/04tue1.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=george%20bush%20damage&st=cse&oref=slogin
So Little Time, So Much Damage
Published: November 3, 2008
While Americans eagerly vote for the next president, here’s a sobering reminder: As of Tuesday, George W. Bush still has 77 days left in the White House — and he’s not wasting a minute.
President Bush’s aides have been scrambling to change rules and regulations on the environment, civil liberties and abortion rights, among others — few for the good. Most presidents put on a last-minute policy stamp, but in Mr. Bush’s case it is more like a wrecking ball. We fear it could take months, or years, for the next president to identify and then undo all of the damage.
Here is a look — by no means comprehensive — at some of Mr. Bush’s recent parting gifts and those we fear are yet to come.
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/04/opinion/04tue1.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=george%20bush%20damage&st=cse&oref=slogin
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
YOU DECIDE: Why Did McCain Lose?
YOU DECIDE: Why Did McCain Lose?
It’s official. Republican presidential candidate John McCain has failed to win the White House.
http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/11/04/youdecide_11042/
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/05/mccain.anatomy.loss/index.html?eref=rss_politics&iref=polticker
It’s official. Republican presidential candidate John McCain has failed to win the White House.
http://foxforum.blogs.foxnews.com/2008/11/04/youdecide_11042/
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/05/mccain.anatomy.loss/index.html?eref=rss_politics&iref=polticker
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Acute economic crisis may cure the nation's chronic materialism
Acute economic crisis may cure the nation's chronic materialism
David Lazarus, Consumer Confidential October 26, 2008
EXCERPT
"Our whole economy is designed to convince people that they want more," said David Colander, an economics professor at Middlebury College in Vermont. "Nobody is asking the big question: How much of a consumer society do we really want to be?"
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus26-2008oct26,0,1269281.column
David Lazarus, Consumer Confidential October 26, 2008
EXCERPT
"Our whole economy is designed to convince people that they want more," said David Colander, an economics professor at Middlebury College in Vermont. "Nobody is asking the big question: How much of a consumer society do we really want to be?"
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE:
http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-lazarus26-2008oct26,0,1269281.column
Sunday, October 26, 2008
Pair of quakes strike off Northern Calif. coast
The Associated Press - 45 minutes agoEUREKA, Calif. (AP) - A pair of minor-to-moderate offshore earthquakes have struck the northern California coast, but there are no reports of any damage or injury.
One moderate quake, one light quake hit California Reuters
Second small earthquake strikes near Morgan Hill San Jose Mercury News
The Associated Press - 45 minutes agoEUREKA, Calif. (AP) - A pair of minor-to-moderate offshore earthquakes have struck the northern California coast, but there are no reports of any damage or injury.
One moderate quake, one light quake hit California Reuters
Second small earthquake strikes near Morgan Hill San Jose Mercury News
And now the Manchurian microchip
Email from Joe D. Long
U.S.A.
Looks like the Chinese have finally broken out of their their walls and into ours... So much for political relations with China... Just a matter of time before they make their move on America, and really take her over...
It's coming folks, in some form or fashion, just a matter of time...
joe~
_________________________
And now the Manchurian microchip
Robert Eringer
http://cryptome.org/manchu-chip.htm
October 18, 2008 7:13 AM
The geniuses at Homeland Security who brought you hare-brained procedures at airports (which inconvenience travelers without snagging terrorists) have decreed that October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. This means The Investigator -- at the risk of
compromising national insecurities -- would be remiss not to make you aware of the hottest topic in U.S. counterintelligence circles: rogue microchips. This threat emanates from China (PRC) -- and it is hugely significant.
The myth: Chinese intelligence services have concealed a microchip in every computer everywhere, programmed to "call home" if and when activated.
The reality: It may actually be true.
All computers on the market today -- be they Dell, Toshiba, Sony, Apple or especially IBM -- are assembled with components manufactured inside the PRC. Each component produced by the Chinese, according to a reliable source within the intelligence community, is secretly equipped with a hidden microchip that can be activated any time by China's military intelligence services, the PLA.
"It is there, deep inside your computer, if they decide to call it up," the security chief of a multinational corporation told The Investigator. "It is capable of providing Chinese intelligence with everything stored on your system -- on everyone's system -- from e-mail to documents. I call it Call Home Technology. It doesn't mean to say they're sucking data from everyone's computer today, it means the Chinese think ahead -- and they now have the potential to do it
when it suits their purposes."
Discussed theoretically in high-tech security circles as "Trojan Horse on a Chip" or "The Manchurian Chip," Call Home Technology came to light after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched a security program in December 2007 called Trust in
Integrated Circuits. DARPA awarded almost $25 million in contracts to six companies and university research labs to test foreign-made microchips for hardware Trojans, back doors and kill switches -- techie-speak for bugs and gremlins -- with a view toward microchip verification.
Raytheon, a defense contractor, was granted almost half of these funds for hardware and software testing.
Its findings, which are classified, have apparently sent shockwaves through the counter intelligence community.
"It is the hottest topic concerning the FBI and the Pentagon," a retired intelligence official told The Investigator. "They don't know quite what to do about it. The Chinese have even been able to hack into the computer system that handles our Intercontinental Ballistic Missile system."
Another senior intelligence source told The Investigator, "Our military is aware of this and has had to take some protective measures. The problem includes defective chips that don't reach
military specs -- as well as probable Trojans."
A little context: In 2005 the Lenovo Group in China paid $1.75 billion for IBM's PC unit, even though that unit had lost $965 million the previous four years. Three congressmen, including the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, tried to block this sale because of national security concerns, to no avail. (The PRC embassy in Washington, D.C., maintains a large lobbying presence to influence congressmen and their staffs through direct contact.)
In June 2007, a Pentagon computer network utilized by the U.S. defense secretary's office was hacked into -- and traced directly back to the Chinese PLA.
A report presented to Congress late last year characterized PRC espionage as "the single greatest risk to the security of American technologies." Almost simultaneously, Jonathan Evans, director-general of MI5, Britain's domestic security and counterintelligence service, sent a confidential letter to CEOs and security chiefs at 300 UK companies to warn that they were under attack by "Chinese state organizations" whose purpose, said Mr. Evans, was to defeat their computer security systems and steal confidential commercial information.
The Chinese had specifically targeted Rolls-Royce and Shell Oil.
The key to unlocking computer secrets through rogue microchips is uncovering (or stealing) source codes, without which such microchips would be useless. This is why Chinese espionage is so heavily focused upon the U.S. computer industry.
Four main computer operating systems exist. Two of them, Unix and Linux, utilize open-source codes. Apple's operating system is Unix-based.
Which leaves only Microsoft as the source code worth cracking. But in early 2004, Microsoft announced that its security had been breached and that its source code was "lost or stolen."
"As technology evolves, each new program has a new source code," a computer forensics expert told The Investigator. "So the Chinese would need ongoing access to new Microsoft source codes for maintaining their ability to activate any microchips they may have installed, along with the expertise to utilize new hardware technology."
No surprise then that the FBI expends much of its counterintelligence resources these days on Chinese high-tech espionage within the United States. Timothy Bereznay, while still serving as assistant director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division, told USA Today, "Foreign collectors don't wait until something is classified -- they're targeting it at the research and development stage." Mr. Bereznay now heads Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems division.
The PRC's intelligence services use tourists, exchange students and trade show attendees to gather strategic data, mostly from open sources. They have also created over 3,500 front companies in the United States -- including several based in Palo Alto to focus on computer technology.
Back in 2005, when the Chinese espionage problem was thought to be focused on military technology, then-FBI counterintelligence operations chief Dave Szady said, "I think the problem is huge, and it's something we're just getting our arms around." Little did he know just how huge, as it currently applies to computer network security.
The FBI is reported to have arrested more than 25 Chinese nationals and Chinese-Americans on suspicion of conspiracy to commit espionage between 2004 and 2006. The Investigator endeavored to update this figure, but was told by FBI spokesman William Carter, "We do not track cases by ethnicity."
Excuse us for asking. We may be losing secrets, but at least the dignity of our political correctness remains intact.
Oh, and Homeland Security snagged comic icon Jerry Lewis, 82, trying to board a plane in Las Vegas with a gun -- no joke.
If you have a story idea for The Investigator, contact him at reringer@.... State if your query is confidential.
--
_____________________________
YAHSHUAH is the sole expression of the glory of Elohim, the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine, and HE is the perfect imprint and very image of Elohim's nature. Heb 1:3a
Joe D. Long
U.S.A.
Looks like the Chinese have finally broken out of their their walls and into ours... So much for political relations with China... Just a matter of time before they make their move on America, and really take her over...
It's coming folks, in some form or fashion, just a matter of time...
joe~
_________________________
And now the Manchurian microchip
Robert Eringer
http://cryptome.org/manchu-chip.htm
October 18, 2008 7:13 AM
The geniuses at Homeland Security who brought you hare-brained procedures at airports (which inconvenience travelers without snagging terrorists) have decreed that October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month. This means The Investigator -- at the risk of
compromising national insecurities -- would be remiss not to make you aware of the hottest topic in U.S. counterintelligence circles: rogue microchips. This threat emanates from China (PRC) -- and it is hugely significant.
The myth: Chinese intelligence services have concealed a microchip in every computer everywhere, programmed to "call home" if and when activated.
The reality: It may actually be true.
All computers on the market today -- be they Dell, Toshiba, Sony, Apple or especially IBM -- are assembled with components manufactured inside the PRC. Each component produced by the Chinese, according to a reliable source within the intelligence community, is secretly equipped with a hidden microchip that can be activated any time by China's military intelligence services, the PLA.
"It is there, deep inside your computer, if they decide to call it up," the security chief of a multinational corporation told The Investigator. "It is capable of providing Chinese intelligence with everything stored on your system -- on everyone's system -- from e-mail to documents. I call it Call Home Technology. It doesn't mean to say they're sucking data from everyone's computer today, it means the Chinese think ahead -- and they now have the potential to do it
when it suits their purposes."
Discussed theoretically in high-tech security circles as "Trojan Horse on a Chip" or "The Manchurian Chip," Call Home Technology came to light after the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) launched a security program in December 2007 called Trust in
Integrated Circuits. DARPA awarded almost $25 million in contracts to six companies and university research labs to test foreign-made microchips for hardware Trojans, back doors and kill switches -- techie-speak for bugs and gremlins -- with a view toward microchip verification.
Raytheon, a defense contractor, was granted almost half of these funds for hardware and software testing.
Its findings, which are classified, have apparently sent shockwaves through the counter intelligence community.
"It is the hottest topic concerning the FBI and the Pentagon," a retired intelligence official told The Investigator. "They don't know quite what to do about it. The Chinese have even been able to hack into the computer system that handles our Intercontinental Ballistic Missile system."
Another senior intelligence source told The Investigator, "Our military is aware of this and has had to take some protective measures. The problem includes defective chips that don't reach
military specs -- as well as probable Trojans."
A little context: In 2005 the Lenovo Group in China paid $1.75 billion for IBM's PC unit, even though that unit had lost $965 million the previous four years. Three congressmen, including the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, tried to block this sale because of national security concerns, to no avail. (The PRC embassy in Washington, D.C., maintains a large lobbying presence to influence congressmen and their staffs through direct contact.)
In June 2007, a Pentagon computer network utilized by the U.S. defense secretary's office was hacked into -- and traced directly back to the Chinese PLA.
A report presented to Congress late last year characterized PRC espionage as "the single greatest risk to the security of American technologies." Almost simultaneously, Jonathan Evans, director-general of MI5, Britain's domestic security and counterintelligence service, sent a confidential letter to CEOs and security chiefs at 300 UK companies to warn that they were under attack by "Chinese state organizations" whose purpose, said Mr. Evans, was to defeat their computer security systems and steal confidential commercial information.
The Chinese had specifically targeted Rolls-Royce and Shell Oil.
The key to unlocking computer secrets through rogue microchips is uncovering (or stealing) source codes, without which such microchips would be useless. This is why Chinese espionage is so heavily focused upon the U.S. computer industry.
Four main computer operating systems exist. Two of them, Unix and Linux, utilize open-source codes. Apple's operating system is Unix-based.
Which leaves only Microsoft as the source code worth cracking. But in early 2004, Microsoft announced that its security had been breached and that its source code was "lost or stolen."
"As technology evolves, each new program has a new source code," a computer forensics expert told The Investigator. "So the Chinese would need ongoing access to new Microsoft source codes for maintaining their ability to activate any microchips they may have installed, along with the expertise to utilize new hardware technology."
No surprise then that the FBI expends much of its counterintelligence resources these days on Chinese high-tech espionage within the United States. Timothy Bereznay, while still serving as assistant director of the FBI's Counterintelligence Division, told USA Today, "Foreign collectors don't wait until something is classified -- they're targeting it at the research and development stage." Mr. Bereznay now heads Raytheon's Intelligence and Information Systems division.
The PRC's intelligence services use tourists, exchange students and trade show attendees to gather strategic data, mostly from open sources. They have also created over 3,500 front companies in the United States -- including several based in Palo Alto to focus on computer technology.
Back in 2005, when the Chinese espionage problem was thought to be focused on military technology, then-FBI counterintelligence operations chief Dave Szady said, "I think the problem is huge, and it's something we're just getting our arms around." Little did he know just how huge, as it currently applies to computer network security.
The FBI is reported to have arrested more than 25 Chinese nationals and Chinese-Americans on suspicion of conspiracy to commit espionage between 2004 and 2006. The Investigator endeavored to update this figure, but was told by FBI spokesman William Carter, "We do not track cases by ethnicity."
Excuse us for asking. We may be losing secrets, but at least the dignity of our political correctness remains intact.
Oh, and Homeland Security snagged comic icon Jerry Lewis, 82, trying to board a plane in Las Vegas with a gun -- no joke.
If you have a story idea for The Investigator, contact him at reringer@.... State if your query is confidential.
--
_____________________________
YAHSHUAH is the sole expression of the glory of Elohim, the Light-being, the out-raying or radiance of the divine, and HE is the perfect imprint and very image of Elohim's nature. Heb 1:3a
Joe D. Long
As US economy sours, some migrants return south
As US economy sours, some migrants return south
By ELLIOT SPAGAT
Associated Press Writer
SAN DIEGO -- After struggling just to pay his $300 monthly rent and send money to his wife and two children back in Honduras, Dionisio Urbina has given up. The day laborer is saving for a one-way plane ticket home.
"I lost hope about finding work," the 54-year-old illegal immigrant said outside a Home Depot store as he entered his fourth straight week without a job. "I'm homesick. It's best to leave."
Thousands of Latin American immigrants both legal and illegal are going back home as the economic crisis in the U.S. causes jobs to dry up in the construction, landscaping and restaurant industries.
Read here:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/AP/story/740218.html
__________________
Related:
Polish immigrants returning from U.S. - International Herald Tribune
By ELLIOT SPAGAT
Associated Press Writer
SAN DIEGO -- After struggling just to pay his $300 monthly rent and send money to his wife and two children back in Honduras, Dionisio Urbina has given up. The day laborer is saving for a one-way plane ticket home.
"I lost hope about finding work," the 54-year-old illegal immigrant said outside a Home Depot store as he entered his fourth straight week without a job. "I'm homesick. It's best to leave."
Thousands of Latin American immigrants both legal and illegal are going back home as the economic crisis in the U.S. causes jobs to dry up in the construction, landscaping and restaurant industries.
Read here:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation/AP/story/740218.html
__________________
Related:
Polish immigrants returning from U.S. - International Herald Tribune
Saturday, October 25, 2008
Isaiah 46:9-11 (King James Version)
9Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
10Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
11Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.
9Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
10Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:
11Calling a ravenous bird from the east, the man that executeth my counsel from a far country: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Vision: The Flight Of Wisdom
Vision: Voice Of America
VISION: WISE LEADERS SIT OUT THE DANCE
VISION: 5 UNEXPLODED BOMBS IN AMERICA
Transcript OF Audio-Vision: America O America
Vision: The Giant Hideous Bird In America
Vision: White Dove Over America
Vision: Mad Britain: Insane America
VISION: THE SPIKED BALL AND CHAIN
Vision: Men Lose Their Shirts
VISION: AMERICA- CAN YOU HEAR THE SCHEMES
Vision: A New Thing In China
Vision: America Watch The Back Door
VISION: RAIDERS OF THE AIRWAYS
VISION: ROMAN CENTURIONS IN D.C.
VISION: SCHOOLING IN AMERICA
CROSSING THE RUBICON-BY STEPHEN SMITH
Vision: The Three Trains
Vision: Voice Of America
VISION: WISE LEADERS SIT OUT THE DANCE
VISION: 5 UNEXPLODED BOMBS IN AMERICA
Transcript OF Audio-Vision: America O America
Vision: The Giant Hideous Bird In America
Vision: White Dove Over America
Vision: Mad Britain: Insane America
VISION: THE SPIKED BALL AND CHAIN
Vision: Men Lose Their Shirts
VISION: AMERICA- CAN YOU HEAR THE SCHEMES
Vision: A New Thing In China
Vision: America Watch The Back Door
VISION: RAIDERS OF THE AIRWAYS
VISION: ROMAN CENTURIONS IN D.C.
VISION: SCHOOLING IN AMERICA
CROSSING THE RUBICON-BY STEPHEN SMITH
Vision: The Three Trains
Jeremiah 28 (King James Version)
Jeremiah 28
1And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,
2Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
3Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the LORD's house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon:
4And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the LORD: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.
5Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the LORD,
6Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the LORD do so: the LORD perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD's house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place.
7Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people;
8The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.
9The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him.
Jeremiah 28
1And it came to pass the same year, in the beginning of the reign of Zedekiah king of Judah, in the fourth year, and in the fifth month, that Hananiah the son of Azur the prophet, which was of Gibeon, spake unto me in the house of the LORD, in the presence of the priests and of all the people, saying,
2Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saying, I have broken the yoke of the king of Babylon.
3Within two full years will I bring again into this place all the vessels of the LORD's house, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon took away from this place, and carried them to Babylon:
4And I will bring again to this place Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah, with all the captives of Judah, that went into Babylon, saith the LORD: for I will break the yoke of the king of Babylon.
5Then the prophet Jeremiah said unto the prophet Hananiah in the presence of the priests, and in the presence of all the people that stood in the house of the LORD,
6Even the prophet Jeremiah said, Amen: the LORD do so: the LORD perform thy words which thou hast prophesied, to bring again the vessels of the LORD's house, and all that is carried away captive, from Babylon into this place.
7Nevertheless hear thou now this word that I speak in thine ears, and in the ears of all the people;
8The prophets that have been before me and before thee of old prophesied both against many countries, and against great kingdoms, of war, and of evil, and of pestilence.
9The prophet which prophesieth of peace, when the word of the prophet shall come to pass, then shall the prophet be known, that the LORD hath truly sent him.
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
The End of America?
The End of America?
Consumerism, expansionism undermine democratic way of life, Bacevich says
EXCERPT
One week after the September 11 terrorist attacks, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was quoted as saying, “We have a choice. Either to change the way we live, which is unacceptable, or change the way they live. We chose the latter.”
During his lecture last night before a packed audience at the Metcalf Ballroom in the George Sherman Union, Andrew Bacevich, a College of Arts and Sciences professor of international relations and history, argued that it was time for Americans to abandon that thinking and instead look inward. We must change the way we live before it’s too late, the retired U.S. Army colonel urged.
“These are precarious times, even frightening times,” he said. “The United States really does seem to be teetering on the brink of an abyss, and worse, our political system seems ill-prepared and desperately ill-equipped to respond effectively.”
Read full article here:
http://www.bu.edu/today/campus-life/2008/10/07/end-america/
Consumerism, expansionism undermine democratic way of life, Bacevich says
EXCERPT
One week after the September 11 terrorist attacks, former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld was quoted as saying, “We have a choice. Either to change the way we live, which is unacceptable, or change the way they live. We chose the latter.”
During his lecture last night before a packed audience at the Metcalf Ballroom in the George Sherman Union, Andrew Bacevich, a College of Arts and Sciences professor of international relations and history, argued that it was time for Americans to abandon that thinking and instead look inward. We must change the way we live before it’s too late, the retired U.S. Army colonel urged.
“These are precarious times, even frightening times,” he said. “The United States really does seem to be teetering on the brink of an abyss, and worse, our political system seems ill-prepared and desperately ill-equipped to respond effectively.”
Read full article here:
http://www.bu.edu/today/campus-life/2008/10/07/end-america/
Economy-Humor
Zombie Banker
http://www.dun.org/sulan/video/zombiebanker.html
http://www.dun.org/sulan/video/zombiebanker.html
ECONOMY HUMOR
http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.jsp?articleId=281474977469244
Economy Bailout Song: AIG, Freddie Mac, Lehman Bros
Married Cambodian couple saw home in half after separation
Married Cambodian couple saw home in half after separation
A married couple in Cambodia who had "finally had enough" of each other have gone their separate ways by literally cutting their home in half.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3159189/Married-Cambodian-couple-saw-home-in-half-after-separation.html
A married couple in Cambodia who had "finally had enough" of each other have gone their separate ways by literally cutting their home in half.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/3159189/Married-Cambodian-couple-saw-home-in-half-after-separation.html
Japanese Banking Crisis-Humour
October 08, 2008
Japanese Banking Crisis!
Posted by Karen DeCoster at October 8, 2008 09:08 PM
I guess have to start off by saying it's a joke, otherwise I'll get into trouble. From Manuel Klausner:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/023413.html
Japanese Banking Crisis!
Posted by Karen DeCoster at October 8, 2008 09:08 PM
I guess have to start off by saying it's a joke, otherwise I'll get into trouble. From Manuel Klausner:
http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/023413.html
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Friday, October 3, 2008
Two 1990's Visions of the Crash-Revival List
(1) VISION - ECONOMY on LIFE SUPPORT
- by Bryan Hupperts. (Nov 3, 1997)
I wanted to write and share a vision I had several years ago...
The Lord showed me a body laying on a bed in a hospital setting.
The patient was named The Economy. His chart was at the foot of his bed and the lines on the graphs seemed to be marked by sharp up and down turns.
He was breathing "falsely". He was surrounded by many specialists who were doing many things to keep him alive. He was totally on artificial life support. Just then, the Chief Physician came in, looked at the patient, and declared, "This patient is dead. Let that which is dead die." With his own finger, he threw the switch to cut off the life support.
The Economy heaved, gasped, and died horribly.
End.
I believe that we are headed for a global meltdown of the world economy. This will bring chaos and ruin but will strip people of their false god of money and many souls will be brought to Christ.
If we are walking in obedience to the Lord, we have nothing to fear. Ask the Lord for wisdom to get your economic house in order.
Seek first the kingdom of God, And his righteousness, and all these things (materials needs) will be added unto you.
[~ http://www.sheeptrax.com/ ]
--------------------------------------
(2) VISION:- Two BLACK MONDAYS
- by Harold Eatmon. (1997).
"...In my last article I mentioned a vision of the Stock Market's 'Big Board' having serious upcoming problems. I saw the Stock Market soar and then crash. After the crash, many big business corporations and private parties bought up stocks because of the low cost to buy in. Then I saw the market begin to climb again in a short period of time. Then it crashed again bringing tremendous loss, ruin, and devastation to all who bought in the first time.
This is what I have labeled "Two Black Mondays." The time period between the Two Black Mondays was very close together. I could not tell exactly how close. It could be a couple of days to a couple of months. There are some tell-tale signs indicating the season and the setting. *I saw the season to be when 'the leaves fall to the ground' then the first crash would occur.* I also saw the Yen and Mark fall dramatically just before this sudden and inexplicable crash. Like Joseph in Genesis, I believe America will have fat years of financial blessing. I also believe there are coming lean years of financial difficulty for America.
I do not believe God is showing this so people can beat the game financially. I rather believe He is saying keep your eyes on eternal things. Store up treasures in Heaven."
~The Trumpeter Journal, mid-1997.
Harold Eatmon Ministries, Int'l
PO Box 48402
Minneapolis, MN 55448, USA.
--
YES! - You have permission to post these emails
to friends or other groups, blogs, boards, etc. Go for it!
See our website and discussion board-
http://www.revivalschool.com
Saturday, September 27, 2008
The Justice of God by Arthur W. Pink
The Justice of God
by Arthur W. Pink
EXCERPT
It is scarcely surprising that far less has been written upon the justice of God than upon some of the other Divine perfections. We are accustomed to turn our thoughts unto those objects and subjects which afford us the most pleasure, and to avoid those which render us uneasy. But no servant of the Lord should be guilty of pandering to this tendency. Rather must he endeavour with all his might to declare “all the counsel of God” and to portray the Divine character just as it is set forth in Holy Writ. He must not conceal a single feature thereof, no matter how awe-inspiring it is or how repellent to the fallen creature. It is impossible for us to entertain right conceptions of God unless we have before us a full-orbed sight of His varied excellencies. To view Him only as “Love”; to refuse to contemplate Him as “Light”—will necessarily result in our manufacturing a false God in our imaginations, a caricature of the true and living God.
http://www.eternallifeministries.org/awp_justice.htm
by Arthur W. Pink
EXCERPT
It is scarcely surprising that far less has been written upon the justice of God than upon some of the other Divine perfections. We are accustomed to turn our thoughts unto those objects and subjects which afford us the most pleasure, and to avoid those which render us uneasy. But no servant of the Lord should be guilty of pandering to this tendency. Rather must he endeavour with all his might to declare “all the counsel of God” and to portray the Divine character just as it is set forth in Holy Writ. He must not conceal a single feature thereof, no matter how awe-inspiring it is or how repellent to the fallen creature. It is impossible for us to entertain right conceptions of God unless we have before us a full-orbed sight of His varied excellencies. To view Him only as “Love”; to refuse to contemplate Him as “Light”—will necessarily result in our manufacturing a false God in our imaginations, a caricature of the true and living God.
http://www.eternallifeministries.org/awp_justice.htm
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Polish immigrants returning from U.S. - International Herald Tribune
Polish immigrants returning from U.S. - International Herald Tribune:
"NEW YORK: For 19 years, Elizabeth Baumgartner, a Polish-American from the New York borough of Queens, has been publishing a series of how-to books aimed at newly arrived Polish immigrants trying to find their way in the United States. The books cover topics like buying a house, investing in mutual funds and starting your own business.
These days, however, her best sellers are guides to a once-familiar place, Poland, with titles like 'Returning to Poland' and 'Retirement of a Re-Immigrant in Poland.'
'This is a sad trend for me,' Baumgartner said.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/21/america/poles.php
New York's Polish community is shrinking, as waves of immigrants and their families are being lured back to Poland by a vibrant economy there."
_____________________
East European workers quit UK to head home
FromThe Observer By Toby Helm British employers are hit by labour shortages as Romania and Poland start to win back migrants Romania to launch a campaign to lure tens of thousands of its key workers and students back from Britain by ...
Sofia News Agency (novinite.com) - http://www.novinite.com/
Eye on Poland: Country at the crossroads
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/09/01/poland.preview/
"NEW YORK: For 19 years, Elizabeth Baumgartner, a Polish-American from the New York borough of Queens, has been publishing a series of how-to books aimed at newly arrived Polish immigrants trying to find their way in the United States. The books cover topics like buying a house, investing in mutual funds and starting your own business.
These days, however, her best sellers are guides to a once-familiar place, Poland, with titles like 'Returning to Poland' and 'Retirement of a Re-Immigrant in Poland.'
'This is a sad trend for me,' Baumgartner said.
http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/09/21/america/poles.php
New York's Polish community is shrinking, as waves of immigrants and their families are being lured back to Poland by a vibrant economy there."
_____________________
East European workers quit UK to head home
FromThe Observer By Toby Helm British employers are hit by labour shortages as Romania and Poland start to win back migrants Romania to launch a campaign to lure tens of thousands of its key workers and students back from Britain by ...
Sofia News Agency (novinite.com) - http://www.novinite.com/
Eye on Poland: Country at the crossroads
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/europe/09/01/poland.preview/
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Ike-News-Views-Photos-Videos-Galveston Bay: Blogs
Galveston Bay Blogs
Blogs that have published Ike-Galveston news
http://www.localcolorart.com/Galveston_Bay/blogs.htm
_____________Related:
IKE'S AFTERMATH-GALVESTON-HOUSTON DAMAGE-PHOTOS-UPDATE 3
Galveston-Texas News
Texas a grim tableau nearly a week after Ike (AP)
Blogs that have published Ike-Galveston news
http://www.localcolorart.com/Galveston_Bay/blogs.htm
_____________Related:
IKE'S AFTERMATH-GALVESTON-HOUSTON DAMAGE-PHOTOS-UPDATE 3
Galveston-Texas News
Texas a grim tableau nearly a week after Ike (AP)
Ike-Photos-Texas-Galveston Bay-Crystal Beach-Surfside Beach-High Island-Gilchrist-Bridge City-Houston-Orange-Sabine Pass-Delcambre-Chase Tower-Cuba
Photos-Cuba-Haiti
Some photos take by crew of International Space Station.
Several noteworthy comments, on the site.
IKE- A HOUSTON RESIDENT: "I just had power and internet restored a few hours ago, and these were among the first pictures I have seen of my own area"
Are Bush And Perry Hiding A Catastrophe In South Texas?
Some photos take by crew of International Space Station.
Several noteworthy comments, on the site.
IKE- A HOUSTON RESIDENT: "I just had power and internet restored a few hours ago, and these were among the first pictures I have seen of my own area"
Are Bush And Perry Hiding A Catastrophe In South Texas?
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
HURRICANE IKE-RAW VIDEO-AERIAL VIEW-TEXAS-LOUISIANA-HOMES DAMAGED
Raw Video: Homes Destroyed by Ike
http://usnews.feedroom.com/?fr_story=d3ac5e78b843b01ffb2c74dec2315c9f4e964f4c&rf=rss
http://usnews.feedroom.com/?fr_story=d3ac5e78b843b01ffb2c74dec2315c9f4e964f4c&rf=rss
Marshall Lawless-By Bryan Hupperts
September 13, 2008
By Bryan Hupperts
bryanhupperts@hotmail.com
Marshall Lawless
Unheeded cries for "Mercy!" punctuated the moaning drift of prairie wind. An approaching thunder of hoof beats shook the ground. Riders on sweltering horses ridden nigh unto exhaustion had gathered under the unblinking, fiery eye of the sun to witness another exacting judgment executed by Marshall Lawless.
Marshall Lawless; the very name inspired fear. Lawless had erected a gallows to lynch yet another man tried by night. How do you appeal to a judge, jury, and executioner who himself is the embodiment of the Law?
Dressed like a grave preacher clutching the black law book that no one had seen him open in many years, he stood at the gallows near the gate of Haman's graveyard an unmovable messenger, a lone sentinel, the prophet of a loveless god who showed neither mercy nor pity. Lawless was a shepherd of Death.
It is said that in his early years he carried two guns but lost one when he went off-trail, gunning in bloodlust, avenging a crime of passion. A different man returned from that ride. Some whisper that his heart had gone as cold as the steel of his gun. Inscribed on its black barrel were the enigmatic words: Exacting Justice.
"Mercy! Please, please, mercy!"
Writhing on the ground in the shadow of the gallows, his head covered in a coarse granary sack, his bloodless hands cross-lashed together by leather cord, wept the accused. Hombre Honrado's muffled cries for "Mercy!" fell on ears that refused to hear as he vainly struggled against the cords and accusations that bound him for slaughter.
Honrado had been taking his flock to market when a few stray sheep bearing another man's brand were found mixed with his flock, a common occurrence among shepherds who free graze. Still, a complaint was lodged and Lawless quickly arrested and tried him for rustling. The verdict, as always: guilty. The punishment, as always: death.
Surrounded by a dusty cloud of witnesses, the accused was forced to his feet, the suffocating hood suddenly removed leaving him momentarily dazed, squinting in the fiery light. He staggered and stumbled, falling to the ground. At the Marshall's command, the condemned man was lifted up by his hands and feet, though he kicked and thrashed about, they obediently dropped him on the gallows platform in the shadow of the silent, swaying noose.
Lawless motioned to the excited crowd, raising his book-holding hand to bring all to order. The other hand rested lightly on his gun. He called out, almost singing, "A thief has walked among us. What is the penalty for this crime in Haman?"
"Death," came back the solemn cadence.
Pointing at the accused with a lone, boney finger of accusation, the Marshall demanded, "What do you have to say for yourself before this crowd of witnesses?"
His voice parched from thirst, his spirit jangled by fear, Hombre Honrado coughed the strained reply, "I am innocent. Those few sheep, they were strays, nothing more – and you know it! Surely God will judge between us."
Lawless flashed a shark-like smile that never quite reached his eyes as he thrust up his black law book high above his head and, like a lawyer seducing a reluctant jury, cried, "God has already judged!" Twisting, he set his dead eyes on Honrado, and said with his solemn smile, "You have sown to the wind. Now reap the whirlwind. Prepare to die."
Though his hands were still bound, the accused struggled back to his feet finding support from the gallows crossbeams. He looked up to the distant mountains for a brief moment, and then turned to the spectators to state his case, a courtesy granted to the condemned.
He stared into their eyes not blinking. Clearing his throat, drawing his breath, he finally spoke. "There were a few strays in my flock. Has this never happened to you? I am no thief. And exactly what law in the Marshall's book am I guilty of?" He paused as a lion's boldness flooded his soul and turned confrontationally to face Lawless, the accused now the accuser, demanding, "Open your book, Marshall Lawless, and tell me exactly which law I broke. I wanna know. I want them to know!"
No one in living memory dared defy Lawless and certainly no one ever questioned what might be in his black law book. His eyes narrowed to steely slits as the stunned crowd began to murmur, finally asking in herd just exactly what written was in the black law book that demanded Honrados' death. Certainly, he was guilty, no doubt. But guilty of exactly what?
Marshall Lawless stepped up and stood defiant on the death gate door beneath the waiting noose. He was about to upbraid the questioning crowd when the still bound but desperate Honrado suddenly lurched forward, knocking the law book out of his accuser's hand. The book split at the spine, its pages suddenly opened to the light, and they descended spiraling down to the waiting crowd below.
What happened next is debated still. Somehow, like a winning ace drawn to a losing hand, Honrado fell backwards just exactly right, his body hitting the noose which arced it about in a circle. In an instant of perfect justice, Lawless tried to jump to retrieve his black book while the noose swung just exactly right, lassoing the Marshall's neck like a lost sheep exactly as the trap door snapped open. By unseen hand, Marshall Lawless was snared as prey, lynched on his own gallows, his stiff neck snapping as he fell, the demands of justice fully satisfied.
His lone gun fell to the dust.
The crowd of witnesses, stunned by the turn of events, stood transfixed as Lawless dangled broken and lifeless before them amid the silent swirling of the pages of his emancipated black book.
Though shaken, emboldened hands reached for the pages dancing in the prairie whirlwind, anxious to know exactly what was written in the black law book that terrorized both the innocent and guilty. They began reading aloud to each other the startling, sacred words:
Go and learn this, "I desire mercy…"
By the standard you judge, you shall be judged…
Do not go beyond what is written…
Where are your accusers? Go, and sin no more…
Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
A weeping Hombre Honrado was declared Innocent by common consent, his bonds cut, and he continues to shepherd his flock, and he remains watchful for strays.
In time, as the people relearned the precious truths of the Book, it was surmised that somewhere, Lawless had stumbled off-trail, and finally went so far beyond, "It is written," that he stopped reading the Book all together. The distance between the man and the Book had become vast, like a chasm no one could cross.
What is known for certain is that for reasons unknown, Marshall Lawless erected a gallows to murder an innocent man blind to the unsleeping eye of his own Judge, Jury, and Executioner.
His epitaph in Haman's graveyard reads:
Marshall Lawless
Justice Exacted.
http://www.sheeptrax.com/
Bryan Hupperts © 2008
By Bryan Hupperts
bryanhupperts@hotmail.com
Marshall Lawless
Unheeded cries for "Mercy!" punctuated the moaning drift of prairie wind. An approaching thunder of hoof beats shook the ground. Riders on sweltering horses ridden nigh unto exhaustion had gathered under the unblinking, fiery eye of the sun to witness another exacting judgment executed by Marshall Lawless.
Marshall Lawless; the very name inspired fear. Lawless had erected a gallows to lynch yet another man tried by night. How do you appeal to a judge, jury, and executioner who himself is the embodiment of the Law?
Dressed like a grave preacher clutching the black law book that no one had seen him open in many years, he stood at the gallows near the gate of Haman's graveyard an unmovable messenger, a lone sentinel, the prophet of a loveless god who showed neither mercy nor pity. Lawless was a shepherd of Death.
It is said that in his early years he carried two guns but lost one when he went off-trail, gunning in bloodlust, avenging a crime of passion. A different man returned from that ride. Some whisper that his heart had gone as cold as the steel of his gun. Inscribed on its black barrel were the enigmatic words: Exacting Justice.
"Mercy! Please, please, mercy!"
Writhing on the ground in the shadow of the gallows, his head covered in a coarse granary sack, his bloodless hands cross-lashed together by leather cord, wept the accused. Hombre Honrado's muffled cries for "Mercy!" fell on ears that refused to hear as he vainly struggled against the cords and accusations that bound him for slaughter.
Honrado had been taking his flock to market when a few stray sheep bearing another man's brand were found mixed with his flock, a common occurrence among shepherds who free graze. Still, a complaint was lodged and Lawless quickly arrested and tried him for rustling. The verdict, as always: guilty. The punishment, as always: death.
Surrounded by a dusty cloud of witnesses, the accused was forced to his feet, the suffocating hood suddenly removed leaving him momentarily dazed, squinting in the fiery light. He staggered and stumbled, falling to the ground. At the Marshall's command, the condemned man was lifted up by his hands and feet, though he kicked and thrashed about, they obediently dropped him on the gallows platform in the shadow of the silent, swaying noose.
Lawless motioned to the excited crowd, raising his book-holding hand to bring all to order. The other hand rested lightly on his gun. He called out, almost singing, "A thief has walked among us. What is the penalty for this crime in Haman?"
"Death," came back the solemn cadence.
Pointing at the accused with a lone, boney finger of accusation, the Marshall demanded, "What do you have to say for yourself before this crowd of witnesses?"
His voice parched from thirst, his spirit jangled by fear, Hombre Honrado coughed the strained reply, "I am innocent. Those few sheep, they were strays, nothing more – and you know it! Surely God will judge between us."
Lawless flashed a shark-like smile that never quite reached his eyes as he thrust up his black law book high above his head and, like a lawyer seducing a reluctant jury, cried, "God has already judged!" Twisting, he set his dead eyes on Honrado, and said with his solemn smile, "You have sown to the wind. Now reap the whirlwind. Prepare to die."
Though his hands were still bound, the accused struggled back to his feet finding support from the gallows crossbeams. He looked up to the distant mountains for a brief moment, and then turned to the spectators to state his case, a courtesy granted to the condemned.
He stared into their eyes not blinking. Clearing his throat, drawing his breath, he finally spoke. "There were a few strays in my flock. Has this never happened to you? I am no thief. And exactly what law in the Marshall's book am I guilty of?" He paused as a lion's boldness flooded his soul and turned confrontationally to face Lawless, the accused now the accuser, demanding, "Open your book, Marshall Lawless, and tell me exactly which law I broke. I wanna know. I want them to know!"
No one in living memory dared defy Lawless and certainly no one ever questioned what might be in his black law book. His eyes narrowed to steely slits as the stunned crowd began to murmur, finally asking in herd just exactly what written was in the black law book that demanded Honrados' death. Certainly, he was guilty, no doubt. But guilty of exactly what?
Marshall Lawless stepped up and stood defiant on the death gate door beneath the waiting noose. He was about to upbraid the questioning crowd when the still bound but desperate Honrado suddenly lurched forward, knocking the law book out of his accuser's hand. The book split at the spine, its pages suddenly opened to the light, and they descended spiraling down to the waiting crowd below.
What happened next is debated still. Somehow, like a winning ace drawn to a losing hand, Honrado fell backwards just exactly right, his body hitting the noose which arced it about in a circle. In an instant of perfect justice, Lawless tried to jump to retrieve his black book while the noose swung just exactly right, lassoing the Marshall's neck like a lost sheep exactly as the trap door snapped open. By unseen hand, Marshall Lawless was snared as prey, lynched on his own gallows, his stiff neck snapping as he fell, the demands of justice fully satisfied.
His lone gun fell to the dust.
The crowd of witnesses, stunned by the turn of events, stood transfixed as Lawless dangled broken and lifeless before them amid the silent swirling of the pages of his emancipated black book.
Though shaken, emboldened hands reached for the pages dancing in the prairie whirlwind, anxious to know exactly what was written in the black law book that terrorized both the innocent and guilty. They began reading aloud to each other the startling, sacred words:
Go and learn this, "I desire mercy…"
By the standard you judge, you shall be judged…
Do not go beyond what is written…
Where are your accusers? Go, and sin no more…
Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free.
A weeping Hombre Honrado was declared Innocent by common consent, his bonds cut, and he continues to shepherd his flock, and he remains watchful for strays.
In time, as the people relearned the precious truths of the Book, it was surmised that somewhere, Lawless had stumbled off-trail, and finally went so far beyond, "It is written," that he stopped reading the Book all together. The distance between the man and the Book had become vast, like a chasm no one could cross.
What is known for certain is that for reasons unknown, Marshall Lawless erected a gallows to murder an innocent man blind to the unsleeping eye of his own Judge, Jury, and Executioner.
His epitaph in Haman's graveyard reads:
Marshall Lawless
Justice Exacted.
http://www.sheeptrax.com/
Bryan Hupperts © 2008
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Monday, September 8, 2008
The Abiding of the Spirit the Glory of the Church-C.H. Spurgeon
The Abiding of the Spirit the Glory of the Church September 5th, 1886
by
C. H. SPURGEON
(1834-1892)
EXCERPT
"The best comfort of all remained: 'The desire of all nations shall come.'
This was in a measure fulfilled when Jesus came into that latter house and caused all holy hearts to sing for gladness; but it was not wholly
fulfilled in that way; for if you notice, in the ninth verse it is written, 'The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former; and in this place will I give peace,' which the Lord did not fully do to the second temple, since that was destroyed by the Romans. But there is another advent, when 'the desire of all nations shall come' in power and glory; and this is our highest hope. Though truth may be driven back, and error may prevail, Jesus comes, and He is the great Lord and patron of truth: He shall judge the world in righteousness, and the people in equity. Here is our last resource; here are God's reserves. He whom we serve liveth and reigneth for ever and ever; and He saith, 'Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.'
'Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.'"
READ HERE:
http://www.biblebb.com/files/spurgeon/abspirit.txt
by
C. H. SPURGEON
(1834-1892)
EXCERPT
"The best comfort of all remained: 'The desire of all nations shall come.'
This was in a measure fulfilled when Jesus came into that latter house and caused all holy hearts to sing for gladness; but it was not wholly
fulfilled in that way; for if you notice, in the ninth verse it is written, 'The glory of this latter house shall be greater than of the former; and in this place will I give peace,' which the Lord did not fully do to the second temple, since that was destroyed by the Romans. But there is another advent, when 'the desire of all nations shall come' in power and glory; and this is our highest hope. Though truth may be driven back, and error may prevail, Jesus comes, and He is the great Lord and patron of truth: He shall judge the world in righteousness, and the people in equity. Here is our last resource; here are God's reserves. He whom we serve liveth and reigneth for ever and ever; and He saith, 'Behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be.'
'Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.'"
READ HERE:
http://www.biblebb.com/files/spurgeon/abspirit.txt
Friday, September 5, 2008
QUOTE
"When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross." - Sinclair Lewis, 1935
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Vision from 1997-By Bryan Hupperts
[ from 1997. This post will seem strange. I was praying in the Spirit about 3 am when this came. I was wide awake yet had a very real dream. What I received I pass on to you for prayer and reflection. - Bryan Hupperts]
www.sheeptrax.com
bryanhupperts@hotmail.com
To My American cousins in Christ,
It's frigidly cold here this morning. My cell is unheated and I cannot feel my legs. This is a blessing. Today I will be beaten and tortured before breakfast and I will not feel the pain as much. Numbness from the cold makes the tortures bearable. I will have to remember to scream on cue so as not to upset the guards. I wonder if they are as bored with my cries as I am with their beatings? In prison, everything becomes routine, even torture.
I prayed for you again. I have much time on my hands here and thankfully no blood. I once heard a rumor that the churches in America each had a complete Bible of their very own. Could such a thing be true? Once at a house church meeting, just before my last arrest - how many years has it been? - I actually held a page of Scripture in my own hands and was allowed to read it to the church. I myself was holding the Word of God. I knew then that I was favored of the Lord. Such a great honor.
In my dream today I went to Heaven again and one of the Splendid Ones spoke with me about you. He showed me the great Russian bear - not at all dead as you have supposed - hibernating, rejuvenating, readying to attack you. Her sharp paws were unsheathed ready to slice and maul you into submission.
"Why do they disarm? " I asked.
The Splendid One replied, "They are at ease in Zion but soon will be at ease no more."
"I do not understand," I replied a bit confused.
"Many saints of the West have become wealthy and do not know that they are really wretched and poor and miserable and blind and naked. They usually equate the blessing of God with having money. They do not know of His true riches," said the glorious being.
Then Jesus Himself entered the place where we were talking. All bowed low and worshipped but I wept bitterly. Though He knew the answer, he asked me why I wept so. "Lord," I said, "Your sufferings only lasted a few days and mine have gone on for years. I have suffered much more than you. Why?"
With a great compassion, He seemed to look right through me (I felt him do this). He said, "Son, I have allowed you to sip suffering in small swallows so that your faith would not fail. I swallowed the dregs of the poison of sin whole. It was a torture you could never understand and it would have undone you. You have drank of my cup. Be patient a while longer."
I begged his forgiveness. His hand raised only to wipe my tears away and he held me close in understanding. I breathed in the perfume of His grace which seemed to fill me with new Life.
I awoke.
My dear cousins, you are not prepared for the sufferings to come. Lose this world now and let its claims on you fall away. If you gain Christ you will lose nothing important.
Not long ago I saw my reflection for the first time in years from a medicine chest in the infirmary. My teeth have rotted and I look decayed. My once handsome face is etched with pain. I look like a corpse straining to draw breath. The doctor gave me hot water to drink for my illness - we have no medicines here. It helped a little.
I felt so sad for myself and was glad my mother was dead. My condition would have killed her. As I headed back to my cell, the Holy Spirit said, "Don't despair. I will show you as you look to me."
I suddenly saw my image reflected in the ice. The bumps of the icicles took the lines away and I looked young and alive again. The best part was the snow. It gave the impression that I was dressed in a white robe of righteousness like the saints in heaven wear. It was delightful!
My smiles shock the guards. I can only explain that He is with me.
Dear American cousins, we are praying for you so that when night crashes on your land, and it soon will, your faith will not fail. Put the Cross back in your Gospel preaching and prepare your people to carry it or they will fall away.
It is very cold here. I am praying for a blanket or some rags to keep warm with.
He is with me.
Signed,
A nameless prisoner
His ambassador in chains
Bryan Hupperts
www.SheepTrax.com
(c) 1997
www.sheeptrax.com
bryanhupperts@hotmail.com
To My American cousins in Christ,
It's frigidly cold here this morning. My cell is unheated and I cannot feel my legs. This is a blessing. Today I will be beaten and tortured before breakfast and I will not feel the pain as much. Numbness from the cold makes the tortures bearable. I will have to remember to scream on cue so as not to upset the guards. I wonder if they are as bored with my cries as I am with their beatings? In prison, everything becomes routine, even torture.
I prayed for you again. I have much time on my hands here and thankfully no blood. I once heard a rumor that the churches in America each had a complete Bible of their very own. Could such a thing be true? Once at a house church meeting, just before my last arrest - how many years has it been? - I actually held a page of Scripture in my own hands and was allowed to read it to the church. I myself was holding the Word of God. I knew then that I was favored of the Lord. Such a great honor.
In my dream today I went to Heaven again and one of the Splendid Ones spoke with me about you. He showed me the great Russian bear - not at all dead as you have supposed - hibernating, rejuvenating, readying to attack you. Her sharp paws were unsheathed ready to slice and maul you into submission.
"Why do they disarm? " I asked.
The Splendid One replied, "They are at ease in Zion but soon will be at ease no more."
"I do not understand," I replied a bit confused.
"Many saints of the West have become wealthy and do not know that they are really wretched and poor and miserable and blind and naked. They usually equate the blessing of God with having money. They do not know of His true riches," said the glorious being.
Then Jesus Himself entered the place where we were talking. All bowed low and worshipped but I wept bitterly. Though He knew the answer, he asked me why I wept so. "Lord," I said, "Your sufferings only lasted a few days and mine have gone on for years. I have suffered much more than you. Why?"
With a great compassion, He seemed to look right through me (I felt him do this). He said, "Son, I have allowed you to sip suffering in small swallows so that your faith would not fail. I swallowed the dregs of the poison of sin whole. It was a torture you could never understand and it would have undone you. You have drank of my cup. Be patient a while longer."
I begged his forgiveness. His hand raised only to wipe my tears away and he held me close in understanding. I breathed in the perfume of His grace which seemed to fill me with new Life.
I awoke.
My dear cousins, you are not prepared for the sufferings to come. Lose this world now and let its claims on you fall away. If you gain Christ you will lose nothing important.
Not long ago I saw my reflection for the first time in years from a medicine chest in the infirmary. My teeth have rotted and I look decayed. My once handsome face is etched with pain. I look like a corpse straining to draw breath. The doctor gave me hot water to drink for my illness - we have no medicines here. It helped a little.
I felt so sad for myself and was glad my mother was dead. My condition would have killed her. As I headed back to my cell, the Holy Spirit said, "Don't despair. I will show you as you look to me."
I suddenly saw my image reflected in the ice. The bumps of the icicles took the lines away and I looked young and alive again. The best part was the snow. It gave the impression that I was dressed in a white robe of righteousness like the saints in heaven wear. It was delightful!
My smiles shock the guards. I can only explain that He is with me.
Dear American cousins, we are praying for you so that when night crashes on your land, and it soon will, your faith will not fail. Put the Cross back in your Gospel preaching and prepare your people to carry it or they will fall away.
It is very cold here. I am praying for a blanket or some rags to keep warm with.
He is with me.
Signed,
A nameless prisoner
His ambassador in chains
Bryan Hupperts
www.SheepTrax.com
(c) 1997
Saturday, August 23, 2008
The SAINT MUST WALK ALONE-by A.W Tozer.
The SAINT MUST WALK ALONE
-by A.W Tozer.
Most of the world's great souls have been lonely. Loneliness
seems to be one price the saint must pay for his saintliness.
In the morning of the world (or should we say, in that strange
darkness that came soon after the dawn of man's creation), that
pious soul, Enoch, walked with God and was not, for God took
him; and while it is not stated in so many words, a fair inference
is that Enoch walked a path quite apart from his contemporaries.
Another lonely man was Noah who, of all the antediluvians, found
grace in the sight of God; and every shred of evidence points to
the aloneness of his life even while surrounded by his people.
Again, Abraham had Sarah and Lot, as well as many servants and
herdsmen, but who can read his story and the apostolic comment
upon it without sensing instantly that he was a man "whose soul
was alike a star and dwelt apart"? As far as we know not one word
did God ever speak to him in the company of men. Face down he
communed with his God, and the innate dignity of the man forbade
that he assume this posture in the presence of others. How sweet
and solemn was the scene that night of the sacrifice when he saw
the lamps of fire moving between the pieces of offering. There,
alone with a horror of great darkness upon him, he heard the voice
of God and knew that he was a man marked for divine favor.
Moses also was a man apart. While yet attached to the court of
Pharaoh he took long walks alone, and during one of these walks
while far removed from the crowds he saw an Egyptian and a
Hebrew fighting and came to the rescue of his countryman. After
the resultant break with Egypt he dwelt in almost complete
seclusion in the desert. There, while he watched his sheep alone,
the wonder of the burning bush appeared to him, and later on the
peak of Sinai he crouched alone to gaze in fascinated awe at the
Presence, partly hidden, partly disclosed, within the cloud and fire.
The prophets of pre-Christian times differed widely from each other,
but one mark they bore in common was their enforced loneliness.
They loved their people and gloried in the religion of the fathers, but
their loyalty to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their
zeal for the welfare of the nation of Israel drove them away from the
crowd and into long periods of heaviness. "I am become a stranger
unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children," cried
one and unwittingly spoke for all the rest.
Most revealing of all is the sight of that One of whom Moses and
all the prophets did write, treading His lonely way to the cross. His
deep loneliness was unrelieved by the presence of the multitudes.
'Tis midnight, and on Olive's brow
The star is dimmed that lately shone;
'Tis midnight; in the garden now,
The suffering Savior prays alone.
'Tis midnight, and from all removed
The Savior wrestles lone with fears;
E'en the disciple whom He loved
Heeds not his Master's grief and tears.
- William B. Tappan
He died alone in the darkness hidden from the sight of mortal man
and no one saw Him when He arose triumphant and walked out of
the tomb, though many saw Him afterward and bore witness to
what they saw. There are some things too sacred for any eye but
God's to look upon. The curiosity, the clamor, the well-meant but
blundering effort to help can only hinder the waiting soul and make
unlikely if not impossible the communication of the secret
message of God to the worshiping heart.
Sometimes we react by a kind of religious reflex and repeat
dutifully the proper words and phrases even though they fail to
express our real feelings and lack the authenticity of personal
experience. Right now is such a time. A certain conventional
loyalty may lead some who hear this unfamiliar truth expressed for
the first time to say brightly, "Oh, I am never lonely. Christ said, 'I
will never leave you nor forsake you,' and 'Lo, I am with you always.'
How can I be lonely when Jesus is with me?"
Now I do not want to reflect on the sincerity of any Christian soul,
but this stock testimony is too neat to be real. It is obviously what
the speaker thinks should be true rather than what he has proved
to be true by the test of experience. This cheerful denial of
loneliness proves only that the speaker has never walked with God
without the support and encouragement afforded him by society.
The sense of companionship which he mistakenly attributes to the
presence of Christ may and probably does arise from the presence
of friendly people. Always remember: you cannot carry a cross in
company. Though a man were surrounded by a vast crowd, his
cross is his alone and his carrying of it marks him as a man apart.
Society has turned against him; otherwise he would have no cross.
No one is a friend to the man with a cross. "They all forsook Him,
and fled."
The pain of loneliness arises from the constitution of our nature.
God made us for each other. The desire for human companionship
is completely natural and right. 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 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 who has passed on into the divine Presence in actual
inner experience will not find many who understand him. A certain
amount of social fellowship will of course be his as he mingles
with religious persons in the regular activities of the church, but
true spiritual fellowship will be hard to find. But he should not
expect things to be otherwise. After all he is a stranger and a
pilgrim, and the journey he takes is not on his feet but in his heart.
He walks with God in the garden of his own soul - and who but
God can walk there with him? He is of another spirit from the
multitudes that tread the courts of the Lord's house. He has seen
that of which they have only heard, and he walks among them
somewhat as Zacharias walked after his return from the altar when
the people whispered, "He has seen a vision."
The truly spiritual man is indeed something of an oddity. He lives
not for himself but to promote the interests of Another. He seeks
to persuade people to give all to his Lord and asks no portion or
share for himself. He delights not to be honored but to see his
Savior glorified in the eyes of men. His joy is to see his Lord
promoted and himself neglected. 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
overserious, 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. "When
my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me
up." His inability to find human companionship drives him to seek
in God what he can find nowhere else. He learns in inner solitude
what he could not have learned in the crowd - that Christ is All in
All, that He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification
and redemption, that in Him we have and possess life's summum
bonum.
Two things remain to be said. One, that the lonely man of whom
we speak is not a haughty man, nor is he the holier-than-thou,
austere saint so bitterly satirized in popular literature. He is likely
to feel that he is the least of all men and is sure to blame himself
for his very loneliness. He wants to share his feelings with others
and to open his heart to some like-minded soul who will
understand him, but the spiritual climate around him does not
encourage it, so he remains silent and tells his griefs to God alone.
The second thing is that the lonely saint is not the withdrawn man
who hardens himself against human suffering and spends his days
contemplating the heavens. Just the opposite is true. His
loneliness makes him sympathetic to the approach of the
brokenhearted and the fallen and the sin-bruised. Because he is
detached from the world, he is all the more able to help it. Meister
Eckhart taught his followers that if they should find themselves in
prayer and happen to remember that a poor widow needed food,
they should break off the prayer instantly and go care for the
widow. "God will not suffer you to lose anything by it," he told
them. "You can take up again in prayer where you left off and the
Lord will make it up to you." This is typical of the great mystics
and masters of the interior life from Paul to the present day.
The weakness of so many modern Christians is that they feel too
much at home in the world. In their effort to achieve restful
"adjustment" to unregenerate society they have lost their pilgrim
character and become an essential part of the very moral order
against which they are sent to protest. The world recognizes them
and accepts them for what they are. And this is the saddest thing
that can be said about them. They are not lonely, but neither are
they saints.
--
~(Tozer extract from his book: 'The Dwelling Place of God').
-by A.W Tozer.
Most of the world's great souls have been lonely. Loneliness
seems to be one price the saint must pay for his saintliness.
In the morning of the world (or should we say, in that strange
darkness that came soon after the dawn of man's creation), that
pious soul, Enoch, walked with God and was not, for God took
him; and while it is not stated in so many words, a fair inference
is that Enoch walked a path quite apart from his contemporaries.
Another lonely man was Noah who, of all the antediluvians, found
grace in the sight of God; and every shred of evidence points to
the aloneness of his life even while surrounded by his people.
Again, Abraham had Sarah and Lot, as well as many servants and
herdsmen, but who can read his story and the apostolic comment
upon it without sensing instantly that he was a man "whose soul
was alike a star and dwelt apart"? As far as we know not one word
did God ever speak to him in the company of men. Face down he
communed with his God, and the innate dignity of the man forbade
that he assume this posture in the presence of others. How sweet
and solemn was the scene that night of the sacrifice when he saw
the lamps of fire moving between the pieces of offering. There,
alone with a horror of great darkness upon him, he heard the voice
of God and knew that he was a man marked for divine favor.
Moses also was a man apart. While yet attached to the court of
Pharaoh he took long walks alone, and during one of these walks
while far removed from the crowds he saw an Egyptian and a
Hebrew fighting and came to the rescue of his countryman. After
the resultant break with Egypt he dwelt in almost complete
seclusion in the desert. There, while he watched his sheep alone,
the wonder of the burning bush appeared to him, and later on the
peak of Sinai he crouched alone to gaze in fascinated awe at the
Presence, partly hidden, partly disclosed, within the cloud and fire.
The prophets of pre-Christian times differed widely from each other,
but one mark they bore in common was their enforced loneliness.
They loved their people and gloried in the religion of the fathers, but
their loyalty to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and their
zeal for the welfare of the nation of Israel drove them away from the
crowd and into long periods of heaviness. "I am become a stranger
unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children," cried
one and unwittingly spoke for all the rest.
Most revealing of all is the sight of that One of whom Moses and
all the prophets did write, treading His lonely way to the cross. His
deep loneliness was unrelieved by the presence of the multitudes.
'Tis midnight, and on Olive's brow
The star is dimmed that lately shone;
'Tis midnight; in the garden now,
The suffering Savior prays alone.
'Tis midnight, and from all removed
The Savior wrestles lone with fears;
E'en the disciple whom He loved
Heeds not his Master's grief and tears.
- William B. Tappan
He died alone in the darkness hidden from the sight of mortal man
and no one saw Him when He arose triumphant and walked out of
the tomb, though many saw Him afterward and bore witness to
what they saw. There are some things too sacred for any eye but
God's to look upon. The curiosity, the clamor, the well-meant but
blundering effort to help can only hinder the waiting soul and make
unlikely if not impossible the communication of the secret
message of God to the worshiping heart.
Sometimes we react by a kind of religious reflex and repeat
dutifully the proper words and phrases even though they fail to
express our real feelings and lack the authenticity of personal
experience. Right now is such a time. A certain conventional
loyalty may lead some who hear this unfamiliar truth expressed for
the first time to say brightly, "Oh, I am never lonely. Christ said, 'I
will never leave you nor forsake you,' and 'Lo, I am with you always.'
How can I be lonely when Jesus is with me?"
Now I do not want to reflect on the sincerity of any Christian soul,
but this stock testimony is too neat to be real. It is obviously what
the speaker thinks should be true rather than what he has proved
to be true by the test of experience. This cheerful denial of
loneliness proves only that the speaker has never walked with God
without the support and encouragement afforded him by society.
The sense of companionship which he mistakenly attributes to the
presence of Christ may and probably does arise from the presence
of friendly people. Always remember: you cannot carry a cross in
company. Though a man were surrounded by a vast crowd, his
cross is his alone and his carrying of it marks him as a man apart.
Society has turned against him; otherwise he would have no cross.
No one is a friend to the man with a cross. "They all forsook Him,
and fled."
The pain of loneliness arises from the constitution of our nature.
God made us for each other. The desire for human companionship
is completely natural and right. 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 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 who has passed on into the divine Presence in actual
inner experience will not find many who understand him. A certain
amount of social fellowship will of course be his as he mingles
with religious persons in the regular activities of the church, but
true spiritual fellowship will be hard to find. But he should not
expect things to be otherwise. After all he is a stranger and a
pilgrim, and the journey he takes is not on his feet but in his heart.
He walks with God in the garden of his own soul - and who but
God can walk there with him? He is of another spirit from the
multitudes that tread the courts of the Lord's house. He has seen
that of which they have only heard, and he walks among them
somewhat as Zacharias walked after his return from the altar when
the people whispered, "He has seen a vision."
The truly spiritual man is indeed something of an oddity. He lives
not for himself but to promote the interests of Another. He seeks
to persuade people to give all to his Lord and asks no portion or
share for himself. He delights not to be honored but to see his
Savior glorified in the eyes of men. His joy is to see his Lord
promoted and himself neglected. 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
overserious, 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. "When
my father and my mother forsake me, then the Lord will take me
up." His inability to find human companionship drives him to seek
in God what he can find nowhere else. He learns in inner solitude
what he could not have learned in the crowd - that Christ is All in
All, that He is made unto us wisdom, righteousness, sanctification
and redemption, that in Him we have and possess life's summum
bonum.
Two things remain to be said. One, that the lonely man of whom
we speak is not a haughty man, nor is he the holier-than-thou,
austere saint so bitterly satirized in popular literature. He is likely
to feel that he is the least of all men and is sure to blame himself
for his very loneliness. He wants to share his feelings with others
and to open his heart to some like-minded soul who will
understand him, but the spiritual climate around him does not
encourage it, so he remains silent and tells his griefs to God alone.
The second thing is that the lonely saint is not the withdrawn man
who hardens himself against human suffering and spends his days
contemplating the heavens. Just the opposite is true. His
loneliness makes him sympathetic to the approach of the
brokenhearted and the fallen and the sin-bruised. Because he is
detached from the world, he is all the more able to help it. Meister
Eckhart taught his followers that if they should find themselves in
prayer and happen to remember that a poor widow needed food,
they should break off the prayer instantly and go care for the
widow. "God will not suffer you to lose anything by it," he told
them. "You can take up again in prayer where you left off and the
Lord will make it up to you." This is typical of the great mystics
and masters of the interior life from Paul to the present day.
The weakness of so many modern Christians is that they feel too
much at home in the world. In their effort to achieve restful
"adjustment" to unregenerate society they have lost their pilgrim
character and become an essential part of the very moral order
against which they are sent to protest. The world recognizes them
and accepts them for what they are. And this is the saddest thing
that can be said about them. They are not lonely, but neither are
they saints.
--
~(Tozer extract from his book: 'The Dwelling Place of God').
1 Peter 4 (King James Version)
1 Peter 4
1Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;
2That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
3For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:
4Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:
5Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.
6For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
7But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.
8And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.
9Use hospitality one to another without grudging.
10As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
11If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
12Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
13But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
14If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
15But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters.
16Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
17For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
18And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
19Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.
1 Peter 4
1Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin;
2That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God.
3For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries:
4Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you:
5Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.
6For for this cause was the gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit.
7But the end of all things is at hand: be ye therefore sober, and watch unto prayer.
8And above all things have fervent charity among yourselves: for charity shall cover the multitude of sins.
9Use hospitality one to another without grudging.
10As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.
11If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God; if any man minister, let him do it as of the ability which God giveth: that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom be praise and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.
12Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:
13But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ's sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy.
14If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are ye; for the spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you: on their part he is evil spoken of, but on your part he is glorified.
15But let none of you suffer as a murderer, or as a thief, or as an evildoer, or as a busybody in other men's matters.
16Yet if any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed; but let him glorify God on this behalf.
17For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?
18And if the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?
19Wherefore let them that suffer according to the will of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.
Friday, August 22, 2008
Word for the Church
CHURCHWARNINGS 01
WORD FOR THE CHURCH
22.3.06
Many fraudsters and scamsters have entered the Body of Christ.
America is under confusion. Until the fraudsters and scamsters are dealt with by the law and the Body of Believers, there will be no respite.
Americans are waiting for God to do it; God is waiting for the church to judge its own. Here is a classic spiritual impasse.
Americans and all Christians the world over can wait till the cows come home, but it is us, who are to take the drastic action as did Phineas and kill that spirit that is mocking God.
The gentile world has their own system of justice, but the poor, poor Christians, are so helpless to deal with deceivers. There has to be, and will be a great and almighty confrontation. God will raise up the Phineas-spirited believers, who will be unafraid to take the necessary action, without the fear of man.
Those who think that waiting is the answer will fall asleep like Rip Van Winkle and grow beards whilst the land is covered with briers and thorns.
Should you wake up later, you won’t have the tools to clear for yourself a way out of the overgrowth.
Arise and be doing.
Church, you have allowed injustice and lies through your portals. You are being robbed in the name of God, spiritually raped and pillaged, what more must happen to you before you act?
ADVOCATE SWARNA JHA
Bombay –India
CHURCHWARNINGS 01, fraudsters, Phineas, spiritual impasse
WORD FOR THE CHURCH
22.3.06
Many fraudsters and scamsters have entered the Body of Christ.
America is under confusion. Until the fraudsters and scamsters are dealt with by the law and the Body of Believers, there will be no respite.
Americans are waiting for God to do it; God is waiting for the church to judge its own. Here is a classic spiritual impasse.
Americans and all Christians the world over can wait till the cows come home, but it is us, who are to take the drastic action as did Phineas and kill that spirit that is mocking God.
The gentile world has their own system of justice, but the poor, poor Christians, are so helpless to deal with deceivers. There has to be, and will be a great and almighty confrontation. God will raise up the Phineas-spirited believers, who will be unafraid to take the necessary action, without the fear of man.
Those who think that waiting is the answer will fall asleep like Rip Van Winkle and grow beards whilst the land is covered with briers and thorns.
Should you wake up later, you won’t have the tools to clear for yourself a way out of the overgrowth.
Arise and be doing.
Church, you have allowed injustice and lies through your portals. You are being robbed in the name of God, spiritually raped and pillaged, what more must happen to you before you act?
ADVOCATE SWARNA JHA
Bombay –India
CHURCHWARNINGS 01, fraudsters, Phineas, spiritual impasse
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Harold Camping: 1994 and 2011
Harold Camping: 1994 and 2011:
"Harold Camping is at it again. He is predicting that an eschatological “end” will take place in 2011.[1] After Edgar Whisenant’s 88 Reason Why the Rapture is in 1988 failed to deliver on its promise to predict the week of Jesus’ return, I thought that date setting had pretty much fallen out of favor with Christians. This is why I only mentioned Harold Camping’s 1994? in Last Days Madness as just another misguided attempt at date setting. Who in his right mind would take Camping seriously? What a miscalculation on my part. Never again will I underestimate the gullibility and ignorance of Christians when it comes to interpreting prophetic issues. Camping sold tens of thousands of copies of 1994? He appeared on “Larry King Live.” A two-day debate was held between Camping and two professors from Westminster Theological Seminary. I even debated Mr. Camping on a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, radio station. The media have given Camping’s view front-page coverage because of his calculated prediction that Jesus will return before October 1, 1994."
Read more:
http://74.255.56.30/blog/?p=18
"Harold Camping is at it again. He is predicting that an eschatological “end” will take place in 2011.[1] After Edgar Whisenant’s 88 Reason Why the Rapture is in 1988 failed to deliver on its promise to predict the week of Jesus’ return, I thought that date setting had pretty much fallen out of favor with Christians. This is why I only mentioned Harold Camping’s 1994? in Last Days Madness as just another misguided attempt at date setting. Who in his right mind would take Camping seriously? What a miscalculation on my part. Never again will I underestimate the gullibility and ignorance of Christians when it comes to interpreting prophetic issues. Camping sold tens of thousands of copies of 1994? He appeared on “Larry King Live.” A two-day debate was held between Camping and two professors from Westminster Theological Seminary. I even debated Mr. Camping on a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, radio station. The media have given Camping’s view front-page coverage because of his calculated prediction that Jesus will return before October 1, 1994."
Read more:
http://74.255.56.30/blog/?p=18
The Courts of Heaven have released an awesome judgment-Email from Joe D. Long
The Courts of Heaven have released an awesome judgment.
Saturday, August 2, 2008 7:58 P.M
Shalom,
This is the latest from Dr. Bohler... Just click on "New Prophetic Word" at the top of the page on his site... As the old preacher said, "something is a-fixin to happen.." May all of Elohim's people be ready...???
Blessings, joe~
http://www.propheticwatchman.com/
Dr. Daniel E. Bohler
August 1, 2008
The Los Angeles quake is on our website from some time back. Type in my name and goggle it and you will see this in the archives of Prophetic Watchman. The Los Angeles quake is a precursor to the big one over “The Bay Areas and Northern Shores of California.” It could be this year. The ten quakes on the New Madrid Fault Line all the way to Chicago is the precursor to the big one. As you know, it occurred early in the year. St. Louis could be the tragedy also Memphis, Tennessee when the Midwest cracks open.Cry out to God that He would grant mercy in judgment and that God’s people would come through it in safety, as they walk out their righteousness inChrist Jesus.Google it up, if you would like to know.
July 25, 2008
Dr. Daniel E. Bohler
What I have said about The New Madrid Fault Line and the Northern California Coastal area, has been on my website for many years. As a matter of fact, I made a video about the New Madrid Fault Line over ten years ago about what God showed me. You can order the DVD, America’s Next Great Earthquake. For all the other prophecies and warnings, you can go to Google and type in my name, if you want to read them.But now, we know the angel of death has come to the San Francisco Bay area and the northern coast of California and upwards all the way north. Thousands are about to meet their Maker. Houston, Texas is headed for great water damage. Pray for Mercy in Judgment. The Courts of Heaven have released an awesome judgment.Luke 18:1b…“men always ought to pray and not lose heart…”
Saturday, August 2, 2008 7:58 P.M
Shalom,
This is the latest from Dr. Bohler... Just click on "New Prophetic Word" at the top of the page on his site... As the old preacher said, "something is a-fixin to happen.." May all of Elohim's people be ready...???
Blessings, joe~
http://www.propheticwatchman.com/
Dr. Daniel E. Bohler
August 1, 2008
The Los Angeles quake is on our website from some time back. Type in my name and goggle it and you will see this in the archives of Prophetic Watchman. The Los Angeles quake is a precursor to the big one over “The Bay Areas and Northern Shores of California.” It could be this year. The ten quakes on the New Madrid Fault Line all the way to Chicago is the precursor to the big one. As you know, it occurred early in the year. St. Louis could be the tragedy also Memphis, Tennessee when the Midwest cracks open.Cry out to God that He would grant mercy in judgment and that God’s people would come through it in safety, as they walk out their righteousness inChrist Jesus.Google it up, if you would like to know.
July 25, 2008
Dr. Daniel E. Bohler
What I have said about The New Madrid Fault Line and the Northern California Coastal area, has been on my website for many years. As a matter of fact, I made a video about the New Madrid Fault Line over ten years ago about what God showed me. You can order the DVD, America’s Next Great Earthquake. For all the other prophecies and warnings, you can go to Google and type in my name, if you want to read them.But now, we know the angel of death has come to the San Francisco Bay area and the northern coast of California and upwards all the way north. Thousands are about to meet their Maker. Houston, Texas is headed for great water damage. Pray for Mercy in Judgment. The Courts of Heaven have released an awesome judgment.Luke 18:1b…“men always ought to pray and not lose heart…”
"Excuse Me, Are You Jesus?" -Author Unknown
Posted by CHAJA on http://www.revivalschool.com/
"Excuse Me, Are You Jesus?" -Author Unknown
"A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner.
In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding.
ALL BUT ONE !!! He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.
He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor.
He was glad he did.
The 16 year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.
The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.
When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?" She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly."
As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister...." He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, "Are you Jesus?"
He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: "Are you Jesus?" Do people mistake you for Jesus? That's our destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace.
If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It's actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.
You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked you and me up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit."
~ ~ ~
For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness,"
made His Light shine in our hearts
to give us the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
2 Cor. 4:6
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive
mercy." Matthew 5:7
"Excuse Me, Are You Jesus?" -Author Unknown
"A few years ago a group of salesmen went to a regional sales convention in Chicago. They had assured their wives that they would be home in plenty of time for Friday night's dinner.
In their rush, with tickets and briefcases, one of these salesmen inadvertently kicked over a table which held a display of apples. Apples flew everywhere. Without stopping or looking back, they all managed to reach the plane in time for their nearly missed boarding.
ALL BUT ONE !!! He paused, took a deep breath, got in touch with his feelings, and experienced a twinge of compassion for the girl whose apple stand had been overturned.
He told his buddies to go on without him, waved good-bye, told one of them to call his wife when they arrived at their home destination and explain his taking a later flight. Then he returned to the terminal where the apples were all over the terminal floor.
He was glad he did.
The 16 year old girl was totally blind! She was softly crying, tears running down her cheeks in frustration, and at the same time helplessly groping for her spilled produce as the crowd swirled about her, no one stopping and no one to care for her plight.
The salesman knelt on the floor with her, gathered up the apples, put them back on the table and helped organize her display. As he did this, he noticed that many of them had become battered and bruised; these he set aside in another basket.
When he had finished, he pulled out his wallet and said to the girl, "Here, please take this $40 for the damage we did. Are you okay?" She nodded through her tears. He continued on with, "I hope we didn't spoil your day too badly."
As the salesman started to walk away, the bewildered blind girl called out to him, "Mister...." He paused and turned to look back into those blind eyes. She continued, "Are you Jesus?"
He stopped in mid-stride, and he wondered. Then slowly he made his way to catch the later flight with that question burning and bouncing about in his soul: "Are you Jesus?" Do people mistake you for Jesus? That's our destiny, is it not? To be so much like Jesus that people cannot tell the difference as we live and interact with a world that is blind to His love, life and grace.
If we claim to know Him, we should live, walk and act as He would. Knowing Him is more than simply quoting Scripture and going to church. It's actually living the Word as life unfolds day to day.
You are the apple of His eye even though we, too, have been bruised by a fall. He stopped what He was doing and picked you and me up on a hill called Calvary and paid in full for our damaged fruit."
~ ~ ~
For God, who said, "Let light shine out of darkness,"
made His Light shine in our hearts
to give us the light of the knowledge
of the glory of God in the face of Christ.
2 Cor. 4:6
"Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive
mercy." Matthew 5:7
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Psalm 1
Psalm 1 (King James Version)
1Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.
2But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law doth he meditate day and night.
3And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.
4The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind driveth away.
5Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6For the LORD knoweth the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish.
Monday, July 21, 2008
No Place to Call Home
No Place to Call Home:
"NO PLACE TO CALL HOME "
by Mae Shurow
I don't fit. Is there anybody else out there who feels the same way? Every time I talk to the Father about this, He tells me, 'Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head' (Luke 9:58).
It took me a while to understand what this passage is saying. Jesus, in addressing a man who said to him 'Lord, I will follow thee withersoever thou goest,' reveals what following Him will entail - those who choose to follow Him will have no place to call home! Jesus is telling this man there will be no longer be ANY PLACE where he can feel at home; no place where he can lay his head; no place that he can rest; no place where he will feel accepted in this world. THIS is the cost of following Christ!
I DON'T FIT ANYWHERE."
http://awildernessvoice.com/NoPlace2CallHome.html
"NO PLACE TO CALL HOME "
by Mae Shurow
I don't fit. Is there anybody else out there who feels the same way? Every time I talk to the Father about this, He tells me, 'Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head' (Luke 9:58).
It took me a while to understand what this passage is saying. Jesus, in addressing a man who said to him 'Lord, I will follow thee withersoever thou goest,' reveals what following Him will entail - those who choose to follow Him will have no place to call home! Jesus is telling this man there will be no longer be ANY PLACE where he can feel at home; no place where he can lay his head; no place that he can rest; no place where he will feel accepted in this world. THIS is the cost of following Christ!
I DON'T FIT ANYWHERE."
http://awildernessvoice.com/NoPlace2CallHome.html
Jonathan and Zadok By Bill Britton
Jonathan and Zadok By Bill Britton:
"Jonathan and Zadok "
by Bill Britton
_____________________________
Herein lies one the of the strangest, and saddest, stories of the Bible. The story of a fine young man who saw the coming of a new order, actually prophesied of the coming Kingdom, who knew and loved the coming King dearly, yet missed being in that glorious Kingdom simply because he never got around to coming out of the old order! And with this story comes a solemn warning to those who are seeing the coming of a new order to the Church, who know what it is to feel the anointing of that new Move of the Spirit, who have every reason to be included in that glorious new Kingdom, yet who are in great danger of missing the ascent to the Throne simply because, like Jonathan, they will not separate themselves from the old order and come out of her, my people. They continue to hang around the edges of what God is doing in these last days, content to keep in touch with the anointed people in the wilderness, but not willing to bear the reproach of being one of that motley crew in Adullam. Now read on, if you dare."
Read full article here:
http://awildernessvoice.com/J-Z.html
"Jonathan and Zadok "
by Bill Britton
_____________________________
Herein lies one the of the strangest, and saddest, stories of the Bible. The story of a fine young man who saw the coming of a new order, actually prophesied of the coming Kingdom, who knew and loved the coming King dearly, yet missed being in that glorious Kingdom simply because he never got around to coming out of the old order! And with this story comes a solemn warning to those who are seeing the coming of a new order to the Church, who know what it is to feel the anointing of that new Move of the Spirit, who have every reason to be included in that glorious new Kingdom, yet who are in great danger of missing the ascent to the Throne simply because, like Jonathan, they will not separate themselves from the old order and come out of her, my people. They continue to hang around the edges of what God is doing in these last days, content to keep in touch with the anointed people in the wilderness, but not willing to bear the reproach of being one of that motley crew in Adullam. Now read on, if you dare."
Read full article here:
http://awildernessvoice.com/J-Z.html
Conformity
Conformity
Conformity
by Michael Clark and George Davis
Our sincere thanks to Doug Clark who put this movie together for us. He made our idea come to life.
Play Movie
http://awildernessvoice.com/Conformity.html
Conformity
by Michael Clark and George Davis
Our sincere thanks to Doug Clark who put this movie together for us. He made our idea come to life.
Play Movie
http://awildernessvoice.com/Conformity.html
Sunday, July 20, 2008
Encouragements and Promises for Harder Times-By Ken
( From http://www.revivalschool.com-forums/)
Encouragements and Promises for Harder Times!
From the "Keeping an eye on the financial collapse" thread-
harvestisripe wrote:
Perhaps one might like to start a thread concerning these things.
God bless all of you - Lynn
I'm starting this thread in response to Lynn's suggestion. This is in hopes that anyone will post their testimony of how God has sustained them, or scriptures where God has promised to remain faithful to His children in the midst of turmoil or calamity. I'll start with mine.
In 1998 my wife and I pulled up roots, I resigned from my government job of 9 years and we moved our family, including 4 kids to a different state over 700 miles away to attend ministry school. We believed the Lord was putting it on our hearts to do so.
When we arrived, another student who left his practice as a doctor prophesied that God had brought us there to prepare us for ministering to others during the economic collapse that was coming. This wasn't a really "edifying" word for me at the time. We'd left all the security and comfort that we'd known for years, but we were sure that God was going to give us a velvet pillow to land on because of our obedience in moving there. It wasn't hard to imagine, after all, as it was a fairly booming time economically speaking back then. The stock market was in the middle of a huge rally, it was also the beginning of the "dot-com" boom, jobs were plentiful and everyone seemed to be prospering, and the prophecy from the good doc really didn't make sense in the midst of it all.
Well, the Lord did provide for us. I met someone who offered me a job working for a Christian television station paying $8 an hour. Remember I have 4 kids. I had a payment on a van (we'd gotten before we moved) of over $200 a month. Our rent was $600. If you do the math, after taxes we had roughly $250 per month left over to meet all of our other expenses. Two hundred and fifty bucks might be the amount of a monthly electric bill in the summertime. And we haven't talked about food yet.
Through the whole time I held on to this passage from God's word:
Quote:
For about one year we were place on what I called "God's economy", where you nearly literally depend on the ravens to bring you your sustenance. We went from day to day not knowing what the next day was going to bring, and it caused us to trust in Him for our everyday needs, to the point where my head would hit the pillow at night with the rent due the next day and not a dollar in the bank and I knew that God was going to provide.
Did we lose some conveniences? Yep. And the Lord has this funny way of showing you the difference between a "necessity" and a "convenience". When a "day's wage" is nearly literally what it costs to buy your family's bread, you find out that the telephone and car insurance (or any kind of insurance for that matter) are "conveniences". But then again, God Himself becomes your "insurance". Sounds pretty biblical, actually, don't it?
On the other side of it I can tell you that myself and my family were never without food, never without shelter, and never without clothes, and yes, He provided transportation and necessary utilities like electricity and running water (at least those are a necessity for now ). Yes, bill collectors came knocking (and so did the landlord once or twice). We thought it was humorous that the Lord allowed our phone to be cut off because, miraculously- that's when the bill collectors stopped calling!
Anyway, we have many testimonies of God's provision through that time- every experience is like GOLD to us now, because we'll never have fear of having "lack" again. And yeah, we do feel qualified to encourage others who are going and who will be going through the coming harder times.
And the most important thing we learned? Get OIL! Seek the Kingdom and everything you need will be provided to you. Put aside fear, it's useless and a waste of time. When you're confronted with a major need and you see no way for its provision, BE GLAD! God is about to show you something that you really need to know. After you've confronted that "giant" and you find that the Lord is on your side the next one won't seem so fierce.
These are just a few gems I've picked up on the journey. I'll leave the thread open for others' testimonies/encouragements.
Be blessed, (and UN-afraid!)
ken
Encouragements and Promises for Harder Times!
From the "Keeping an eye on the financial collapse" thread-
harvestisripe wrote:
Actually I think it is good for us to talk about these things and to allow
others to speak out and to rationalize these things - and not to judge anyone
and to try to encourage each other and to pray for one another - to have peace
in the coming storms - we can not make this go away but we can sure encourage
one another in the Lord - in the word - and we really need to love on one
another - perhaps even with comforting scriptures and also scriptures of what
the word does says reguarding the times we live in and the days ahead.
Perhaps one might like to start a thread concerning these things.
God bless all of you - Lynn
I'm starting this thread in response to Lynn's suggestion. This is in hopes that anyone will post their testimony of how God has sustained them, or scriptures where God has promised to remain faithful to His children in the midst of turmoil or calamity. I'll start with mine.
In 1998 my wife and I pulled up roots, I resigned from my government job of 9 years and we moved our family, including 4 kids to a different state over 700 miles away to attend ministry school. We believed the Lord was putting it on our hearts to do so.
When we arrived, another student who left his practice as a doctor prophesied that God had brought us there to prepare us for ministering to others during the economic collapse that was coming. This wasn't a really "edifying" word for me at the time. We'd left all the security and comfort that we'd known for years, but we were sure that God was going to give us a velvet pillow to land on because of our obedience in moving there. It wasn't hard to imagine, after all, as it was a fairly booming time economically speaking back then. The stock market was in the middle of a huge rally, it was also the beginning of the "dot-com" boom, jobs were plentiful and everyone seemed to be prospering, and the prophecy from the good doc really didn't make sense in the midst of it all.
Well, the Lord did provide for us. I met someone who offered me a job working for a Christian television station paying $8 an hour. Remember I have 4 kids. I had a payment on a van (we'd gotten before we moved) of over $200 a month. Our rent was $600. If you do the math, after taxes we had roughly $250 per month left over to meet all of our other expenses. Two hundred and fifty bucks might be the amount of a monthly electric bill in the summertime. And we haven't talked about food yet.
Through the whole time I held on to this passage from God's word:
Quote:
Do Not Worry
Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your
life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his life?
"And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?' For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. But seek first his
kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own. Matthew 6:25-34And this one, too;
Quote:
I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or
their children begging bread. Psalm 35:25
For about one year we were place on what I called "God's economy", where you nearly literally depend on the ravens to bring you your sustenance. We went from day to day not knowing what the next day was going to bring, and it caused us to trust in Him for our everyday needs, to the point where my head would hit the pillow at night with the rent due the next day and not a dollar in the bank and I knew that God was going to provide.
Did we lose some conveniences? Yep. And the Lord has this funny way of showing you the difference between a "necessity" and a "convenience". When a "day's wage" is nearly literally what it costs to buy your family's bread, you find out that the telephone and car insurance (or any kind of insurance for that matter) are "conveniences". But then again, God Himself becomes your "insurance". Sounds pretty biblical, actually, don't it?
On the other side of it I can tell you that myself and my family were never without food, never without shelter, and never without clothes, and yes, He provided transportation and necessary utilities like electricity and running water (at least those are a necessity for now ). Yes, bill collectors came knocking (and so did the landlord once or twice). We thought it was humorous that the Lord allowed our phone to be cut off because, miraculously- that's when the bill collectors stopped calling!
Anyway, we have many testimonies of God's provision through that time- every experience is like GOLD to us now, because we'll never have fear of having "lack" again. And yeah, we do feel qualified to encourage others who are going and who will be going through the coming harder times.
And the most important thing we learned? Get OIL! Seek the Kingdom and everything you need will be provided to you. Put aside fear, it's useless and a waste of time. When you're confronted with a major need and you see no way for its provision, BE GLAD! God is about to show you something that you really need to know. After you've confronted that "giant" and you find that the Lord is on your side the next one won't seem so fierce.
These are just a few gems I've picked up on the journey. I'll leave the thread open for others' testimonies/encouragements.
Be blessed, (and UN-afraid!)
ken
Saturday, July 19, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Errors in Thinking-By A.W. Tozer
Errors in Thinking
By A.W. Tozer
GOD IN HIS CONDESCENDING LOVE and kindness often sends a Moses, or maybe a Joshua or an Isaiah, or in latter times a Luther or Wesley to show us that the work of the Lord is not progressing. Times are bad in the kingdom and getting worse. The tendency is to settle into a rut, and we must get out of it. The time has come to arise and go on from here because Gods will is as broad as the land He gave to the Israelites "in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates" (Deuteronomy 1:7).
When God sends some preacher to say this to a congregation and the congregation is even half ready to listen to him, they say to themselves, "I think the pastor is right about this. We are in a rut, aren't we? No use fighting it. I think we ought to do something about this." Then 99.99 percent of the time the remedy prescribed will be, "Let's come together and eat something. I know we are in a rut. We don't see each other often enough. We ought to get to know each other better, so let's come together and eat something." I have no objection to fellowship, but it is not the answer to what is wrong with us.
Instead of eating, someone may suggest, "Let's make plans to go somewhere." This is another way we Protestants have of curing all the sores of Job, all the leprosy and everything that is wrong with us. We either get together to eat our way out or else we travel and get out of it.
Another person might say, "Let's come together and do something religious. The church is in pretty bad shape. Morale is low, and things are not the way they should be. We are running pretty much in a circle. Let's get together and do something." This is activism.
Someone else says, "Let's form a committee to consider it." The Baptist preacher Dr. Vance Havner says, "A committee is a company of the incompetent chosen by the unwilling to do the unnecessary." Perhaps he stated that a little too radically. There are some things committees can do, and then there are some things committees cannot do.
I am quite sure that when the man of God thundered, "You have stayed long enough in this place. You are going around in circles. Get you out and take what is given to you by the hand of your God," nobody got up and said, "Mr. Chairman, let's eat something." Eating probably would not have helped. I am quite certain that they did not get up and say, "Let's take a trip," or "Let's start another club." Starting a club is another reaction we have when we find ourselves in a rut and realize we are no taller than we were five years ago; we are no farther along than we were five years ago; we don't know any more than we did five years ago; we are no holier than we were five years ago. We simply met ourselves coming around.
If a song could be worn out, we have worn out the same old song: "Revive us again, fill each heart with Thy love." We have sung that one and nobody means it nobody will pay the price. But we go around and around, and all we see is the other fellow's heels just ahead of us. All the fellow behind us sees is our heels. We go around and around the circle, and somebody says, "Let's start a club now."
Misunderstood the problem...
Fellowship, committees and clubs are all right under the right circumstances, but this kind of an answer to that kind of a problem presupposes that those who give the answer have misunderstood the problem. There are three things they misunderstand.
First, they misunderstand the nature of Christian faith. Christian faith is inward, not outward. It is of the spirit and not of the flesh. The kingdom of God is within you, Christ dwells in your heart, and "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27) is the burning core of the Christian faith. So Christianity, the true Christian faith, is inward in nature we are to be inwardly Christians. It is inside, somewhere in the spirit, soul and heart the inner person that we get into the rut. Because the problem is inward, it is ridiculous to say, "All right. The inner person, the spirit of me, the inner shrine of me, is in a rut. It isn't where it ought to be, so let's eat something."
The nature of the church...
Second, they misunderstand the nature of the church. You see, the church is a body of individuals united in Christ but having separate individual responsibilities. Thus the body is improved only as we improve the individuals that compose the body. The Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost on approximately 120 people. But it fell on them individually, and if any had hardened themselves they would have been passed over.
Each person is born individually even if he or she is one of a set of triplets. We are born one at a time, and we die one at a time; we face judgment one at a time and, if we as Christians are sick, we will be cured one at a time. The body is composed of individuals, and to say, "All right, let's form committees to look into it," is trying to do by a dozen people what God cannot do for one person fix the problem by external means. It does not work, and it will never work. Because we misunderstand the nature of the church, we misunderstand how to solve the problem.
What is wrong with them...
Third, they misunderstand what is wrong with them. You cannot cure a weak member by prescribing a certain diet. You can eat caviar and hummingbird tongue until the sun goes down, but it will not help you, because that is not what is wrong with you. Somebody else says, "Let's take a trip." Take your trip it is all right. Try not to get killed on the way. But remember, that is not what is wrong with you. Somebody else says, "Let's start a committee to handle it." The lack of a committee is not what is wrong with you, either. You are missing the nature of true Christian faith, for true Christianity is inward, and what is wrong cannot be reached by these external means.
Now suppose we are ready to admit that we are in a rut. You say, "Well, what is the church doing?" I don't know, because it is the individual that matters. You see, the church is composed of this fellow that lives out here a little way and those two people who live out there in Scarboro and the five who live in Rexdale and the seven who live up in Willowdale and the fourteen who live out east. That is the church. What the church does is what the individuals do. How well or how sick the church is depends on how well or how sick the individuals are. In other words, it depends upon how you are.
We must come to the Lord and say, "Oh Lord, what do I still lack? I have some things, Lord, but what do I lack? Or what is it that I ought to get rid of? How do I compare with what I should be? How do I know what I should be?"
In Matthew 5:3-10 we read:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
That is what we ought to be. This passage tells us what a true Christian should be like. Go on to the epistles and see what the man of God has to say there.
In Ephesians 4:26 5:2 he says, "In your anger do not sin:" Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
This is what we ought to be. This is the way we ought to be living. When we say, "Lord, what do I still lack?" the Holy Spirit answers, "This is what you lack."
Remember, we are compared with what we could be, not just what we should be. God being who He is, and Jesus Christ being His risen and all-powerful Son, anything we ought to be we can be. Anything that God has declared that we should be we can be.
In the wonderful book of Romans, perhaps the greatest and most profound book in the Bible, chapter seven tells us of a man who is struggling and wanting to be something that he feels he cannot be. Finally he gives up and says, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (vs. 24). Immediately, Paul says, "Thanks be to God! because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death" (25; 8:2 ).
In Galatians 5:22-23 we read, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." That is what we ought to be and what we can be. Now compare that with what we are. If we compare what we ought to be and could be with what we are, and we don't see that we are in a rut and we are not concerned, then one of three things may be wrong.
We may not be converted...
First, we may not be converted at all. I am convinced that many evangelicals are not truly and soundly converted. Among the evangelicals it is entirely possible to come into membership, to ooze in by osmosis, to leak through the cells of the church and never know what it means to be born of the Spirit and washed in the blood. A great deal that passes for the deeper life is nothing more or less than basic Christianity. There is nothing deeper about it, and it is where we should have been from the start. We should have been happy, joyous, victorious Christians walking in the Holy Spirit and not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. Instead we have been chasing each other around the perpetual mountain.
What we need is what the old Methodists called a sound conversion. There is a difference between conversion and a sound conversion. People who have never been soundly converted do not have the Spirit to enlighten them. When they read the Sermon on the Mount or the teaching passages of the epistles that tell them how to live or the doctrinal passages that tell how they can live, they are unaffected. The Spirit who wrote them is not witnessing in their hearts because they have not been born of the Spirit. That often happens.
People clean up, throw away their pipes, start to pay their bills and live right and then say, "I want to join the church." So we question them, "
Do you believe that Christ is the Son of God?"
"Yes," they reply. " Do you believe He rose from the dead?"
" Yes."
" Do you believe He is coming again?"
" Yes, I do."
Well, so does the devil and he trembles.
People get into the church who are not converted at all. We are so tenderhearted, sentimental and eager that we get them on any grounds at all, if they just say the right words for us. But maybe some of these people have never been converted in the first place.
Second, people may not be concerned about the rut because of sin they have committed. Perhaps they have been regenerated but have sinned against light too often, so the light has become darkness. That often happens.
I don"t say these people are lost, but I do say that they are in a terrible state. Only the power and grace of God working within them can help. I think there are lots of people like that. They have been regenerated, but they have become busy with their real estate office or their store. Many have said, "Well, I'd like to come to your church, Reverend, but I have to keep my store open seven days a week."
They cannot serve God because they do not have time to serve Him. They will have time to die, but they do not have time to serve God.
Third, some people are so self-righteous that they are impervious to any work of the Holy Spirit. They cannot be cured of their blindness because they think they see. The Pharisees never got under conviction. They crucified Christ, they hated the Son of God, but they never got under conviction. They had ordered their religious life so as to be impervious to the arrows of the Holy Spirit. The adulterous woman could fall at the feet of Jesus, the tax collector who knew he had been crooked could run to the feet of Jesus to ask for help, and the poor came from everywhere to say, "What must I do?" They could come, but the Pharisees never did. They never got under conviction, and in hell I suppose they are still fighting and saying they are right.
If people judge what they could be and ought to be with what they are and can still go home and have a good night's rest, shrugging it off, perhaps they have never been converted. Maybe they have sinned against light until they are temporarily under a terrible cloud of God's judgment. Or maybe they are so self-righteous that they cannot get under conviction.
There is hope...
But if they are concerned, wounded by the Spirit's sword and are deeply dissatisfied with the religious rut, there is hope. Remember, complacency is a deadly foe. Complacency is as great a foe as any other carnal malady, any other fleshly manifestation. To be complacent is to have no desire to get anywhere.
There was a celebrated Englishman who sat with a friend once, watching and listening to a philharmonic orchestra. As they listened, the Englishman watched a man playing second violin. He was playing it well, but he was second violin. The Englishman said to his friend, "See that man there playing second violin? If I were playing second violin in that orchestra, do you know what I would do? I would never rest day or night until I was playing first violin. And then I would never give myself rest day or night until I was directing that orchestra. When I got to be director I would never rest until I had become a composer. And when I got to composing music for the orchestra I would never give myself rest until I was the best composer in England."
Children of the world are wiser...
The children of the world are sometimes wiser than the children of light. We have been offered not the directorship of a great orchestra, but glory and truth unsearchable. We have been offered the face of God and the glory of Christ. We have been offered holiness and righteousness and indwelling by the Spirit. We can have our prayers answered and have hell fear us because we have a hold on God who invites us to draw on His omnipotence. We are offered all this, and yet we sit and play second violin without ambition.
Israel was once in that condition, and an old prophet with
shining eyes came to them and said,
Woe to you who are complacent in Zion,
and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, . . .
You put off the evil day
and bring near a reign of terror.
You lie on beds inlaid with ivory
and lounge on your couches.
You dine on choice lambs
and fattened calves.
You strum away on your harps like David
and improvise on musical instruments.
You drink wine by the bowlful
and use the finest lotions,
but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.
Therefore you will be among the first
to go into exile. . . (Amos 6:1,7)
Israel was in a rut, and they did not want anybody disturbing their calm. They liked music and food and beds of ivory, and they anointed themselves with ointment. They had everything that we call sumptuous living. But they were not grieved at the affliction of Israel. They didn't care.
Let us not rest upon beds of ivory. By the grace of God let us begin to grieve a bit for the affliction of Joseph and be anxious and bothered in the Holy Spirit for the state the church is in.
[Chapter 2 Taken from "Rut, Rot or Revival"
published by Christian Publications, Inc. 1992.
The entire book
should be required reading,
you can find it at
http://www.christianpublications.com/
.]
By A.W. Tozer
GOD IN HIS CONDESCENDING LOVE and kindness often sends a Moses, or maybe a Joshua or an Isaiah, or in latter times a Luther or Wesley to show us that the work of the Lord is not progressing. Times are bad in the kingdom and getting worse. The tendency is to settle into a rut, and we must get out of it. The time has come to arise and go on from here because Gods will is as broad as the land He gave to the Israelites "in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates" (Deuteronomy 1:7).
When God sends some preacher to say this to a congregation and the congregation is even half ready to listen to him, they say to themselves, "I think the pastor is right about this. We are in a rut, aren't we? No use fighting it. I think we ought to do something about this." Then 99.99 percent of the time the remedy prescribed will be, "Let's come together and eat something. I know we are in a rut. We don't see each other often enough. We ought to get to know each other better, so let's come together and eat something." I have no objection to fellowship, but it is not the answer to what is wrong with us.
Instead of eating, someone may suggest, "Let's make plans to go somewhere." This is another way we Protestants have of curing all the sores of Job, all the leprosy and everything that is wrong with us. We either get together to eat our way out or else we travel and get out of it.
Another person might say, "Let's come together and do something religious. The church is in pretty bad shape. Morale is low, and things are not the way they should be. We are running pretty much in a circle. Let's get together and do something." This is activism.
Someone else says, "Let's form a committee to consider it." The Baptist preacher Dr. Vance Havner says, "A committee is a company of the incompetent chosen by the unwilling to do the unnecessary." Perhaps he stated that a little too radically. There are some things committees can do, and then there are some things committees cannot do.
I am quite sure that when the man of God thundered, "You have stayed long enough in this place. You are going around in circles. Get you out and take what is given to you by the hand of your God," nobody got up and said, "Mr. Chairman, let's eat something." Eating probably would not have helped. I am quite certain that they did not get up and say, "Let's take a trip," or "Let's start another club." Starting a club is another reaction we have when we find ourselves in a rut and realize we are no taller than we were five years ago; we are no farther along than we were five years ago; we don't know any more than we did five years ago; we are no holier than we were five years ago. We simply met ourselves coming around.
If a song could be worn out, we have worn out the same old song: "Revive us again, fill each heart with Thy love." We have sung that one and nobody means it nobody will pay the price. But we go around and around, and all we see is the other fellow's heels just ahead of us. All the fellow behind us sees is our heels. We go around and around the circle, and somebody says, "Let's start a club now."
Misunderstood the problem...
Fellowship, committees and clubs are all right under the right circumstances, but this kind of an answer to that kind of a problem presupposes that those who give the answer have misunderstood the problem. There are three things they misunderstand.
First, they misunderstand the nature of Christian faith. Christian faith is inward, not outward. It is of the spirit and not of the flesh. The kingdom of God is within you, Christ dwells in your heart, and "Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Colossians 1:27) is the burning core of the Christian faith. So Christianity, the true Christian faith, is inward in nature we are to be inwardly Christians. It is inside, somewhere in the spirit, soul and heart the inner person that we get into the rut. Because the problem is inward, it is ridiculous to say, "All right. The inner person, the spirit of me, the inner shrine of me, is in a rut. It isn't where it ought to be, so let's eat something."
The nature of the church...
Second, they misunderstand the nature of the church. You see, the church is a body of individuals united in Christ but having separate individual responsibilities. Thus the body is improved only as we improve the individuals that compose the body. The Holy Spirit fell at Pentecost on approximately 120 people. But it fell on them individually, and if any had hardened themselves they would have been passed over.
Each person is born individually even if he or she is one of a set of triplets. We are born one at a time, and we die one at a time; we face judgment one at a time and, if we as Christians are sick, we will be cured one at a time. The body is composed of individuals, and to say, "All right, let's form committees to look into it," is trying to do by a dozen people what God cannot do for one person fix the problem by external means. It does not work, and it will never work. Because we misunderstand the nature of the church, we misunderstand how to solve the problem.
What is wrong with them...
Third, they misunderstand what is wrong with them. You cannot cure a weak member by prescribing a certain diet. You can eat caviar and hummingbird tongue until the sun goes down, but it will not help you, because that is not what is wrong with you. Somebody else says, "Let's take a trip." Take your trip it is all right. Try not to get killed on the way. But remember, that is not what is wrong with you. Somebody else says, "Let's start a committee to handle it." The lack of a committee is not what is wrong with you, either. You are missing the nature of true Christian faith, for true Christianity is inward, and what is wrong cannot be reached by these external means.
Now suppose we are ready to admit that we are in a rut. You say, "Well, what is the church doing?" I don't know, because it is the individual that matters. You see, the church is composed of this fellow that lives out here a little way and those two people who live out there in Scarboro and the five who live in Rexdale and the seven who live up in Willowdale and the fourteen who live out east. That is the church. What the church does is what the individuals do. How well or how sick the church is depends on how well or how sick the individuals are. In other words, it depends upon how you are.
We must come to the Lord and say, "Oh Lord, what do I still lack? I have some things, Lord, but what do I lack? Or what is it that I ought to get rid of? How do I compare with what I should be? How do I know what I should be?"
In Matthew 5:3-10 we read:
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God.
Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
That is what we ought to be. This passage tells us what a true Christian should be like. Go on to the epistles and see what the man of God has to say there.
In Ephesians 4:26 5:2 he says, "In your anger do not sin:" Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold. He who has been stealing must steal no longer, but must work, doing something useful with his own hands, that he may have something to share with those in need.
Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice. Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you. Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
This is what we ought to be. This is the way we ought to be living. When we say, "Lord, what do I still lack?" the Holy Spirit answers, "This is what you lack."
Remember, we are compared with what we could be, not just what we should be. God being who He is, and Jesus Christ being His risen and all-powerful Son, anything we ought to be we can be. Anything that God has declared that we should be we can be.
In the wonderful book of Romans, perhaps the greatest and most profound book in the Bible, chapter seven tells us of a man who is struggling and wanting to be something that he feels he cannot be. Finally he gives up and says, "What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" (vs. 24). Immediately, Paul says, "Thanks be to God! because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life set me free from the law of sin and death" (25; 8:2 ).
In Galatians 5:22-23 we read, "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law." That is what we ought to be and what we can be. Now compare that with what we are. If we compare what we ought to be and could be with what we are, and we don't see that we are in a rut and we are not concerned, then one of three things may be wrong.
We may not be converted...
First, we may not be converted at all. I am convinced that many evangelicals are not truly and soundly converted. Among the evangelicals it is entirely possible to come into membership, to ooze in by osmosis, to leak through the cells of the church and never know what it means to be born of the Spirit and washed in the blood. A great deal that passes for the deeper life is nothing more or less than basic Christianity. There is nothing deeper about it, and it is where we should have been from the start. We should have been happy, joyous, victorious Christians walking in the Holy Spirit and not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh. Instead we have been chasing each other around the perpetual mountain.
What we need is what the old Methodists called a sound conversion. There is a difference between conversion and a sound conversion. People who have never been soundly converted do not have the Spirit to enlighten them. When they read the Sermon on the Mount or the teaching passages of the epistles that tell them how to live or the doctrinal passages that tell how they can live, they are unaffected. The Spirit who wrote them is not witnessing in their hearts because they have not been born of the Spirit. That often happens.
People clean up, throw away their pipes, start to pay their bills and live right and then say, "I want to join the church." So we question them, "
Do you believe that Christ is the Son of God?"
"Yes," they reply. " Do you believe He rose from the dead?"
" Yes."
" Do you believe He is coming again?"
" Yes, I do."
Well, so does the devil and he trembles.
People get into the church who are not converted at all. We are so tenderhearted, sentimental and eager that we get them on any grounds at all, if they just say the right words for us. But maybe some of these people have never been converted in the first place.
Second, people may not be concerned about the rut because of sin they have committed. Perhaps they have been regenerated but have sinned against light too often, so the light has become darkness. That often happens.
I don"t say these people are lost, but I do say that they are in a terrible state. Only the power and grace of God working within them can help. I think there are lots of people like that. They have been regenerated, but they have become busy with their real estate office or their store. Many have said, "Well, I'd like to come to your church, Reverend, but I have to keep my store open seven days a week."
They cannot serve God because they do not have time to serve Him. They will have time to die, but they do not have time to serve God.
Third, some people are so self-righteous that they are impervious to any work of the Holy Spirit. They cannot be cured of their blindness because they think they see. The Pharisees never got under conviction. They crucified Christ, they hated the Son of God, but they never got under conviction. They had ordered their religious life so as to be impervious to the arrows of the Holy Spirit. The adulterous woman could fall at the feet of Jesus, the tax collector who knew he had been crooked could run to the feet of Jesus to ask for help, and the poor came from everywhere to say, "What must I do?" They could come, but the Pharisees never did. They never got under conviction, and in hell I suppose they are still fighting and saying they are right.
If people judge what they could be and ought to be with what they are and can still go home and have a good night's rest, shrugging it off, perhaps they have never been converted. Maybe they have sinned against light until they are temporarily under a terrible cloud of God's judgment. Or maybe they are so self-righteous that they cannot get under conviction.
There is hope...
But if they are concerned, wounded by the Spirit's sword and are deeply dissatisfied with the religious rut, there is hope. Remember, complacency is a deadly foe. Complacency is as great a foe as any other carnal malady, any other fleshly manifestation. To be complacent is to have no desire to get anywhere.
There was a celebrated Englishman who sat with a friend once, watching and listening to a philharmonic orchestra. As they listened, the Englishman watched a man playing second violin. He was playing it well, but he was second violin. The Englishman said to his friend, "See that man there playing second violin? If I were playing second violin in that orchestra, do you know what I would do? I would never rest day or night until I was playing first violin. And then I would never give myself rest day or night until I was directing that orchestra. When I got to be director I would never rest until I had become a composer. And when I got to composing music for the orchestra I would never give myself rest until I was the best composer in England."
Children of the world are wiser...
The children of the world are sometimes wiser than the children of light. We have been offered not the directorship of a great orchestra, but glory and truth unsearchable. We have been offered the face of God and the glory of Christ. We have been offered holiness and righteousness and indwelling by the Spirit. We can have our prayers answered and have hell fear us because we have a hold on God who invites us to draw on His omnipotence. We are offered all this, and yet we sit and play second violin without ambition.
Israel was once in that condition, and an old prophet with
shining eyes came to them and said,
Woe to you who are complacent in Zion,
and to you who feel secure on Mount Samaria, . . .
You put off the evil day
and bring near a reign of terror.
You lie on beds inlaid with ivory
and lounge on your couches.
You dine on choice lambs
and fattened calves.
You strum away on your harps like David
and improvise on musical instruments.
You drink wine by the bowlful
and use the finest lotions,
but you do not grieve over the ruin of Joseph.
Therefore you will be among the first
to go into exile. . . (Amos 6:1,7)
Israel was in a rut, and they did not want anybody disturbing their calm. They liked music and food and beds of ivory, and they anointed themselves with ointment. They had everything that we call sumptuous living. But they were not grieved at the affliction of Israel. They didn't care.
Let us not rest upon beds of ivory. By the grace of God let us begin to grieve a bit for the affliction of Joseph and be anxious and bothered in the Holy Spirit for the state the church is in.
[Chapter 2 Taken from "Rut, Rot or Revival"
published by Christian Publications, Inc. 1992.
The entire book
should be required reading,
you can find it at
http://www.christianpublications.com/
.]
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)