bittersweet
I am not usually an emotionally unstable person, but this has been a rollercoaster week.
- A lot of Americans care about Haiti right now, but Canada’s military beat ours to Jacmel.
- The world ignored Jacmel until yesterday, but the church was there all along.
- My home away from home is mostly destroyed, but my friends there are all OK.
- Bureaucracy makes things – like helping victims (earthquake survivors, sex slaves, orphans) or shipping food to desperate areas – way more difficult than it should be.
- Haiti’s adoption policies are very restrictive (we apparently are too young to adopt), but they relaxed the laws for already-matched families.
- I broke my toe. God healed my toe!
- Prostitutes are slaves, they are in my city, and their vile rapists include executives and clergy.
- God made a way where there was no way, and His sovereign provision is amazing!
Bittersweet.
Dr. King quotes
I’ve seen a lot of quotes from Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. today, so I thought I’d share a few lesser-known favorites. It’s popular to quote the politically-correct statements of a man universally regarded as a civil rights hero, but I think it’s more important to remember what he really stood for.
- I submit to you that if a man has not discovered something that he will die for, he isn’t fit to live.
- Let us develop a kind of dangerous unselfishness.
- The church was not merely a thermometer that recorded the ideas and principles of popular opinion; it was a thermostat that transformed the mores of society.
- Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men.
- Softmindedness often invades religion. … Softminded persons have revised the Beautitudes to read “Blessed are the pure in ignorance: for they shall see God.” This has led to a widespread belief that there is a conflict between science and religion. But this is not true. There may be a conflict between softminded religionists and toughminded scientists, but not between science and religion. … Science investigates; religion interprets. Science gives man knowledge which is power; religion gives man wisdom which is control. Science deals mainly with facts; religion deals mainly with values. The two are not rivals. They are complementary.
Some explorers get lost at sea, and you’ve just got to let them go.
Every web site should have a similar landing page for IE (but add a link for Chrome as well). If every dev stops supporting it, maybe people will get the message and stop using it. Other browsers are FREE, people. Using Internet Explorer is like riding a tricycle when you can have a free Ferrari. Or, as CS Lewis said, “like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at the sea.” I think he’d forgive me for taking that out of context in this case.
Job’s wish.
Job 16:21: “I wish that someone might arbitrate between a man and God just as a man pleads for his friend.”
Aren’t you glad Job’s wish was granted through Jesus?
1 Timothy 2:5-6: “For there is one God and one mediator between God and man, a man, Christ Jesus, who gave Himself – a ransom for all, a testimony at the proper time.”
2 Peter 1:3-4: “For His divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness. By these He has given us very great and precious promises, so that through them you may share in the divine nature, escaping the corruption that is in the world because of evil desires.”
I don’t really have any commentary to add to that – there are too many thoughts spinning in my head regarding how profound that would be to Job; a righteous man burdened by the effects of sin and man’s wickedness, and unshakable in his recognition of God’s goodness despite the bad things which happened to him. That, and the Scripture just speaks for itself!
I know some kids who couldn’t care less about Zhu Zhu Pets; they just want to live.
Well, the Christmas season is upon us; a wonderful season of thankfulness and generosity. May I propose a target for a bit of your generosity?
As you may know, some of my friends and I work with a ministry in Jacmel, Haiti (Restoration Ministries) to help empower them to reach out to their community. We support them via mission trips, prayer, and finances through our ragtag Bible study/nonprofit, The Conduit. We’ve been blessed to be able to start a sponsorship-based feeding program which provides meals to about 80 kids 3 times per week. Right now it’s hosted at the pastor’s rented home, and his lease is up this month. However, we’ve been working on a building for a few years now which will serve as that pastor’s new home (the rent is ridiculously expensive for a rural village in the poorest nation in the Western Hemisphere, and we know our money can go to better things). It will also be a storage space, a shelter for battered women, and the new feeding center — which will enable us to feed many more children!
We’ve faced multiple struggles in the mission to finish this building – some financial, some bureaucratic, some spiritual – but the time has come to get it done. We only have $1,700 to go before we can do that! Will you consider helping? Not only would this building serve the purposes I mentioned, but in a place where the majority of construction projects are left unfinished, it would stand as a testimony to our God who is a Finisher.
You can find more information (and a PayPal donation button) at http://restorehaiti.com/RestoreHaiti.com/Get_Involved.html. I’ll also be glad to answer any questions you have
What better gift is there to give this Christmas than shelter, clothing, food, and life?
✡ Shalom ✝
Zombie Dream
A small group of friends and I (including my wife) were walking through a town a bit before dark. We were going through abandoned houses looking for something (not sure what – perhaps people, or supplies?). Somehow I knew there would be a zombie outbreak at twilight. Eventually we went outside to make our way to the center of town. I noticed I had my S&W .38 Special in a left ankle holster. In the dream, I remember thinking that was weird, but that’s where I always keep it. As we walked further, I realized I also had a Taurus Judge in my pocket [a huge revolver which fires both .45 rounds and .410 shotgun shells - totally wicked. I really do want one in real life, if you feel so generous this holiday season]. Though it would be the perfect sidearm for a zombie scenario, I realized it was not mine, so in that conviction I threw it on the ground into a patch of sand. Eventually we made it to our destination; the back steps of a building (seemed like the capital of the town), where we waited for sunset. When darkness fell, zombies started emerging from the water, the forest, and the ground. I began to pick them off one by one until some made their way up the stairs, attacking people in their path. One got very close to me and was about to bite someone when I pointed my gun at it. The zombie took off its mask – it was a dear friend of mine. The dream ended.
The Heart of the King
2 Samuel 4:5-12:
Rechab and Baanah, the sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, set out and arrived at Ish-bosheth’s house during the heat of the day while the king was taking his midday nap. They entered the interior of the house as if to get wheat and stabbed him in the stomach. Then Rechab and his brother Baanah escaped. They had entered the house while Ish-bosheth was lying on his bed in his bedroom and stabbed and killed him. Then they beheaded him, took his head, and traveled by way of the Arabah all night. They brought Ish-bosheth’s head to David at Hebron and said to the king, “Here’s the head of Ish-bosheth son of Saul, your enemy who intended to take your life. Today the Lord has granted vengeance to my lord the king against Saul and his offspring.”
But David answered Rechab and his brother Baanah, sons of Rimmon the Beerothite, “As surely as the Lord lives, the One who has redeemed my life from every distress,when the person told me, ‘Look, Saul is dead,’ he thought he was a bearer of good news, but I seized him and put him to death at Ziklag. That was my reward to him for his news! How much more when wicked men kill a righteous man in his own house on his own bed! So now, should I not require his blood from your hands and wipe you off the earth?”
So David gave orders to the young men, and they killed Rechab and Baanah. They cut off their hands and feet and hung their bodies by the pool in Hebron, but they took Ish-bosheth’s head and buried it in Abner’s tomb in Hebron.
First, a little background. King Saul, David’s longtime enemy, had died and his son Ish-bosheth had been improperly named king. In that day, once a new dynasty took power it was customary to annihilate the descendants of the former king.
Rechab and Baanah thought they were doing something that would please the true king of Israel. I’m pretty sure they were shocked by his reaction. Beyond the fact that their motive was likely reward, their main failure was not knowing the heart of the king. Logic would lead them to believe that David would appreciate such an act of vengeance against his long-time enemy. To them, it seemed like the right thing to do. What they did not take to heart, however, was that Ish-bosheth was the brother of David’s best friend Jonathan. To David, he was family.
How often do we act on logic or with these same motives without knowing the heart of our King? I’m reminded of Matthew 7:20-23:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord!’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of My Father in heaven. On that day many will say to Me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in Your name, drive out demons in Your name, and do many miracles in Your name?’ Then I will announce to them, ‘I never knew you! Depart from Me, you lawbreakers! ’’
Religion about God but without God is futile, and sometimes even counterproductive. King Yeshua wants to share His heart with you; once you get it, you’ll act on it naturally. He was moved to action not by compulsion, loyalty, or the promise of reward, but by compassion.
Quit trying so hard, and just know Him.
Who Said It? You might be surprised.
“… I could tell as many as a dozen similar cases in which I pointed at somebody in the hall without having the slightest knowledge of the person, or any idea that what I said was right, except that I believed I was moved by the Spirit to say it; and so striking has been my description that the persons have gone away, and said to their friends, `Come, see a man that told me all things that ever I did; beyond a doubt, he must have been sent of God to my soul, or else he could not have described me so exactly.’ And not only so, but I have known many instances in which the thoughts of men have been revealed from the pulpit. I have sometimes seen persons nudge their neighbours with their elbow, because they had got a smart hit, and they have been heard to say, when they were going out, `The preacher told us just what we said to one another when we went in at the door.’”
Answer: Charles Spurgeon, who is apparently speaking to the validity of modern prophetic revelation. Interesting, coming from a man widely-regarded as a cessationist.
Fight Obama’s Social Healthcare
Barack Obama is urging Congress to pass his socialist healthcare reform plan (I would conversely urge them to take their time; look what happened last time they rushed a bill without reading it through). While we definitely need some sort of reform, I do not believe a government-run social healthcare model is right for America. I charge any American who thinks he or she wants government healthcare to visit a V.A. hospital and see for themselves what they could look forward to.
As South Carolina Senator Jim DeMint stated, “Americans aren’t being fooled and are discovering the truth about his plan which includes rationed care, trillions in new costs, high taxes and penalties that will destroy jobs, and even government-funded abortions.”
Please be one of those Americans and find out what is being proposed for our future, then write your Senators and Representatives.
For the sake of all that’s decent and holy, do not support “Brüno”.
After reading about Brüno, all I can say is: “SICK”. I couldn’t even make it through half of this content description. I’d encourage you to read the review at Plugged In Online.
I can’t express how distraught and disgusted I am that such perversion (sexual, cultural, religious, etc) is considered mainstream entertainment. How did this happen to our society? I know it crept in little by little because of our mass compromise and tolerance – but how can we sanction or extol such shame?
Please, for the sake of all that is decent and holy – I mean that literally – do not support this film.
I agree with Jody Trautwein in saying, “I pray God has mercy on Sacha Baron Cohen.”
