How to Behave: Part XI
Romans 15:5-6
God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we'll be a choir—not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!
I don’t tend to read The Message version of the Bible alone, nor do I tend to use it when quoting scripture, but today, I really liked how these verses are worded, please feel free to go to http://www.biblegateway.com/ if you want to find a different version to read.
The reason I like this version today is that a relationship with God is put into human terms. He is warm and personal… how often do we forget that God wants us to know Him as well as we know our parents, siblings, spouses, children and friends? But he calls us to himself, reminding us that He wants that same closeness, that same relationship with Him. Just as our relationships with our friends and families gradually mold our personalities, He wants our relationship with Him to mold us so that His character is seen through us. He is dependable, He is always there, and He is personally invested in our lives, even when those around us seem to push us aside for their own agenda, He is right there, 24/7 and He wants us to grow a closer and more personal relationship with Him that will allow us to better be examples of Jesus and able to shine His light through this world.
Paul goes on to say that when we achieve this we will praise Him in one voice… but this version is so beautiful and calls to the musician in me… “Then we’ll be a choir – not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus!” When I think about all of God’s children as a choir, I think of a HUGE choral production with so many talented voices that each part is clearly heard and resounding so clearly through the air that no one needs amplification, and I imagine an audience of One, smiling, clapping, and thanking us for the worship filled sounds we are singing to Him… but this says it’s not just our voices, but our very lives that will praise Him. Every word, every action, our interactions with each other, how we show love to each other every day… when we are in fellowship with God, our lives will reflect it, our hearts won’t be able to help passing the love He gives us on to others around us, and we will live harmoniously with those around us, even when it doesn’t seem like it should be possible.
Sounds a bit like a utopia doesn’t it? Yet it is promised to us, right after being told that hope is ours through Christ. Wow, I get to hope for a utopia! Is there any doubt that God loves us if He wants this for each of us?
Hugs & Love
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Bible Blog: Romans 15:1-4 - August 28, 2007
How to Behave: Part X
Romans 15:1-4
1. If our faith is strong, we should be patient with the Lord's followers whose faith is weak. We should try to please them instead of ourselves. 2. We should think of their good and try to help them by doing what pleases them. 3. Even Christ did not try to please himself. But as the Scriptures say, "The people who insulted you also insulted me." 4. And the Scriptures were written to teach and encourage us by giving us hope.
I had to stop reading at verse 4. “And the Scriptures were written to teach and encourage us by giving us hope.” The blunt way the CEV version puts it is why I chose to use it today. Sometimes we just need something to flat out remind us that hope exists, and then to say, “…here it is, in your hands, keep reading!” I’m holding on to my Bible, God’s promises, what better source of hope for my life? Yet so often I look to what my heart desires and allow despair to creep into my mind instead of allowing the hope God offers to permeate my existence.
I often struggle with the word hope… the best definition I found for it is, “to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence.” Well, why wouldn’t we look forward to being with Christ with desire and confidence? It is extremely reasonable to have confidence in His promises for us isn’t it? So why do I struggle with feeling hopeless so often? Because I’m weak, it is a stronghold of mine (ladies in my Bible study, I need to break this stronghold!). I’ve had two friends visit China recently, both went to see different areas of the Great Wall, but both areas are examples of the type of stronghold Paul used to illustrate what a stronghold is… they are high places, easy to defend, difficult to attack. They are build with sturdy materials, house weapons and armor, offer protection. This doesn’t sound too bad though does it? Well, not when used as a defense against the enemy it doesn’t, but when the stronghold is created to keep the enemy IN, the results would be disastrous. A wall built around things that destroy you, keeping it with you, impenetrable, inescapable… hopelessness is this type of stronghold, it holds on to sorrows, negativity, and disbelief, it gives Satan an entrance into your life where he can grab hold and pull you farther and farther away from the hope you can have in God… and all it takes is one moment of hopelessness… and here we have the perfect weapon for that, the Bible! It was written to give us hope! All I need to do is read His word to refresh and renew my hope in Him and that stronghold will eventually disappear, but when I neglect God’s word, that foothold returns, the fortress of doom starts to build around me, and I once again find myself being lured into a state of hopelessness.
I have confidence that God has provided me a way to live in hope. Now that I know how to do this, I am going to go pray some more and ask God to help me to live in His hope every day.
Hugs & Love
Romans 15:1-4
1. If our faith is strong, we should be patient with the Lord's followers whose faith is weak. We should try to please them instead of ourselves. 2. We should think of their good and try to help them by doing what pleases them. 3. Even Christ did not try to please himself. But as the Scriptures say, "The people who insulted you also insulted me." 4. And the Scriptures were written to teach and encourage us by giving us hope.
I had to stop reading at verse 4. “And the Scriptures were written to teach and encourage us by giving us hope.” The blunt way the CEV version puts it is why I chose to use it today. Sometimes we just need something to flat out remind us that hope exists, and then to say, “…here it is, in your hands, keep reading!” I’m holding on to my Bible, God’s promises, what better source of hope for my life? Yet so often I look to what my heart desires and allow despair to creep into my mind instead of allowing the hope God offers to permeate my existence.
I often struggle with the word hope… the best definition I found for it is, “to look forward to with desire and reasonable confidence.” Well, why wouldn’t we look forward to being with Christ with desire and confidence? It is extremely reasonable to have confidence in His promises for us isn’t it? So why do I struggle with feeling hopeless so often? Because I’m weak, it is a stronghold of mine (ladies in my Bible study, I need to break this stronghold!). I’ve had two friends visit China recently, both went to see different areas of the Great Wall, but both areas are examples of the type of stronghold Paul used to illustrate what a stronghold is… they are high places, easy to defend, difficult to attack. They are build with sturdy materials, house weapons and armor, offer protection. This doesn’t sound too bad though does it? Well, not when used as a defense against the enemy it doesn’t, but when the stronghold is created to keep the enemy IN, the results would be disastrous. A wall built around things that destroy you, keeping it with you, impenetrable, inescapable… hopelessness is this type of stronghold, it holds on to sorrows, negativity, and disbelief, it gives Satan an entrance into your life where he can grab hold and pull you farther and farther away from the hope you can have in God… and all it takes is one moment of hopelessness… and here we have the perfect weapon for that, the Bible! It was written to give us hope! All I need to do is read His word to refresh and renew my hope in Him and that stronghold will eventually disappear, but when I neglect God’s word, that foothold returns, the fortress of doom starts to build around me, and I once again find myself being lured into a state of hopelessness.
I have confidence that God has provided me a way to live in hope. Now that I know how to do this, I am going to go pray some more and ask God to help me to live in His hope every day.
Hugs & Love
Friday, August 24, 2007
Today
Today I had a new experience. Today, I WROTE an update to the subdivision regulations for one of the towns I work with. Not only did I write the update, it is a completely new section of the regulations, I got to choose where to put it. My boss agreed with my placement. She agreed with the design guidelines I had concluded were the best for this particular component of residential roadway design. Sure, we went through several rounds of rewording, rearranging, etc... but the information was mine, the guidelines that developers in this town are going to be required to follow for the next 20+ years are ones that I wrote. It's a bit intimidating! Think about it, if this design criteria, when put into practice, turns out to be less effective than anticipated or more of a bother than it is worth it ultimately will reflect on me and my engineering capabilities.
I think too much. I'm really quite happy about this. It is a new undertaking I had not yet experienced, and I really enjoyed doing it. I had to do quite a bit of research for it, and I love doing research. I had to work with someone to get the final wording and arrangement figured out, and I like working with someone instead of it being alone. What's better is that because I had done the research for it, I was confident that I knew my designs criteria were appropriate and was able to make recommendations and feel like I was a peer to my boss instead of a peon that serves as an over glorified secretary at times. We actually discussed the merits and drawbacks of certain components, she took my advice on several things, but had experience that lent to some changes on others, and I was grateful for that. It felt so good to feel as though I was competent and that I did a good job on this. Too bad Monday will bring the same old grind back.
Thanks for letting me share my day with you!
Hugs & Love
I think too much. I'm really quite happy about this. It is a new undertaking I had not yet experienced, and I really enjoyed doing it. I had to do quite a bit of research for it, and I love doing research. I had to work with someone to get the final wording and arrangement figured out, and I like working with someone instead of it being alone. What's better is that because I had done the research for it, I was confident that I knew my designs criteria were appropriate and was able to make recommendations and feel like I was a peer to my boss instead of a peon that serves as an over glorified secretary at times. We actually discussed the merits and drawbacks of certain components, she took my advice on several things, but had experience that lent to some changes on others, and I was grateful for that. It felt so good to feel as though I was competent and that I did a good job on this. Too bad Monday will bring the same old grind back.
Thanks for letting me share my day with you!
Hugs & Love
Bible Blog: Romans 14:5-23 - August 24, 2007
How to Behave: Part IX
Romans 14:5-23
5. One person decides that one day is better than another, while another person decides that all days are the same. Each one must be fully convinced in his own mind. 6. The one who observes a special day, observes it to honor the Lord. The one who eats, eats to honor the Lord, since he gives thanks to God. And the one who does not eat, refrains from eating to honor the Lord; yet he, too, gives thanks to God. 7. For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. 8. If we live, we live to honor the Lord; and if we die, we die to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9. For this reason Christ died and returned to life, so that he might become the Lord of both the dead and the living. 10. Why, then, do you criticize your brother? Or why do you despise your brother? For all of us will stand before the judgment seat of God. 11. For it is written, "As certainly as I live, declares the Lord, every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will praise God." 12. Consequently, each of us will give an account of himself to God. 13. Therefore, let us no longer criticize each other. Instead, make up your mind not to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. 14. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in and of itself. But it is unclean to a person who thinks it is unclean. 15. For if your brother is being hurt by what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not destroy the person for whom Christ died by what you eat. 16. Do not allow your good to be spoken of as evil. 17. For God's kingdom does not consist of food and drink, but of righteousness, peace, and joy produced by the Holy Spirit. 18. For the person who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by people. 19. Therefore, let us keep on pursuing those things that bring peace and that lead to building one another up. 20. Do not destroy God's work for the sake of food. Everything is clean, but it is wrong to make another person fall because of what you eat. 21. The right thing to do is to avoid eating meat, drinking wine, or doing anything else that makes your brother stumble or become upset or weak. 22. As for the faith you do have, have it as your own conviction before God. How blessed is the person who has no reason to condemn himself because of what he approves! 23. But the person who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not act in faith; and anything that is not done in faith is sin.
This is really an expansion on yesterday’s topic… more of how to avoid conflict and what is right. It also confirms one of my long held beliefs as being something God wants me to do… I had a teacher in high school tell us that our rights end where someone else’s begin. What he meant by that was simple, if a person’s health was in jeopardy because of your actions, your actions are wrong… if someone’s well being would be at risk because of your decisions, you have a responsibility to protect the other person’s interests before your own. I like the GNB version of verse 13 the best “So then, let us stop judging one another. Instead, you should decide never to do anything that would make others stumble or fall into sin.” It is the same thing my teacher had been telling us, but with a spiritual emphasis. If you know a friend has trouble with lusting after women, don’t go around swimming pools where women are wearing bikinis… if you know a friend has trouble with overeating, don’t take him to an all you can eat buffet… the practical application of this is endless.
The verse that REALLY caught my eye in all of this was verse 23b, “and anything that is not done in faith is sin.” Anything not done in faith is sin. The Greek word used for faith here is “pistis” which means moral conviction or religious truth. So anything we don’t do because we are convicted that it is what God wants us to do is sin. That’s a lot to digest right there… I’m going to go selah on that one and see if I can’t figure out how to make it mine.
Hugs & Love
Romans 14:5-23
5. One person decides that one day is better than another, while another person decides that all days are the same. Each one must be fully convinced in his own mind. 6. The one who observes a special day, observes it to honor the Lord. The one who eats, eats to honor the Lord, since he gives thanks to God. And the one who does not eat, refrains from eating to honor the Lord; yet he, too, gives thanks to God. 7. For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself. 8. If we live, we live to honor the Lord; and if we die, we die to honor the Lord. So whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9. For this reason Christ died and returned to life, so that he might become the Lord of both the dead and the living. 10. Why, then, do you criticize your brother? Or why do you despise your brother? For all of us will stand before the judgment seat of God. 11. For it is written, "As certainly as I live, declares the Lord, every knee will bow to me, and every tongue will praise God." 12. Consequently, each of us will give an account of himself to God. 13. Therefore, let us no longer criticize each other. Instead, make up your mind not to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of a brother. 14. I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in and of itself. But it is unclean to a person who thinks it is unclean. 15. For if your brother is being hurt by what you eat, you are no longer acting in love. Do not destroy the person for whom Christ died by what you eat. 16. Do not allow your good to be spoken of as evil. 17. For God's kingdom does not consist of food and drink, but of righteousness, peace, and joy produced by the Holy Spirit. 18. For the person who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by people. 19. Therefore, let us keep on pursuing those things that bring peace and that lead to building one another up. 20. Do not destroy God's work for the sake of food. Everything is clean, but it is wrong to make another person fall because of what you eat. 21. The right thing to do is to avoid eating meat, drinking wine, or doing anything else that makes your brother stumble or become upset or weak. 22. As for the faith you do have, have it as your own conviction before God. How blessed is the person who has no reason to condemn himself because of what he approves! 23. But the person who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not act in faith; and anything that is not done in faith is sin.
This is really an expansion on yesterday’s topic… more of how to avoid conflict and what is right. It also confirms one of my long held beliefs as being something God wants me to do… I had a teacher in high school tell us that our rights end where someone else’s begin. What he meant by that was simple, if a person’s health was in jeopardy because of your actions, your actions are wrong… if someone’s well being would be at risk because of your decisions, you have a responsibility to protect the other person’s interests before your own. I like the GNB version of verse 13 the best “So then, let us stop judging one another. Instead, you should decide never to do anything that would make others stumble or fall into sin.” It is the same thing my teacher had been telling us, but with a spiritual emphasis. If you know a friend has trouble with lusting after women, don’t go around swimming pools where women are wearing bikinis… if you know a friend has trouble with overeating, don’t take him to an all you can eat buffet… the practical application of this is endless.
The verse that REALLY caught my eye in all of this was verse 23b, “and anything that is not done in faith is sin.” Anything not done in faith is sin. The Greek word used for faith here is “pistis” which means moral conviction or religious truth. So anything we don’t do because we are convicted that it is what God wants us to do is sin. That’s a lot to digest right there… I’m going to go selah on that one and see if I can’t figure out how to make it mine.
Hugs & Love
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Bible Blog: Romans 14:1-4 - August 23, 2007
How to Behave: Part VIII
Romans 14:1-4
Accept the person who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of arguing over differences of opinion. 2. One person believes that he can eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3. The person who eats must not despise the person who does not eat, and the person who does not eat must not criticize the person who eats, for God has accepted him. 4. Who are you to criticize someone else's servant? His own Lord will determine whether he stands or falls. And stand he will, because God is able to make him stand.”
Differences of opinion among believers… who would have imagined it was possible? Yet here Paul is writing about division among believers 2000 years ago, and it’s as applicable today as it was then. In the past month or so, I’ve had debates, some heated, some friendly, with people I don’t doubt are my brothers and sisters in Christ about the issue of dating. Some feel it is frivolous of me to want to date, that I should find the “right” person and jump into that relationship and no other while others think that restricting me to only dating one person at a time isn’t really getting the full effect of dating. Strangely enough, of the views I’ve heard, I’m middle of the road in what I thought was a very conservative outlook on dating… the point is that everyone I spoke with about this has been a Christian, someone who professes to know God. No, dating isn’t an issue of salvation and is a minor issue in the grand scheme of things… but it’s an example of this passage in modern context. How timely God is to put this passage on the day that I return to reading His word and writing about it… I had probably one of the most heated responses to someone’s much more liberal viewpoint on dating than mine about 2 hours ago and when I’m done here will probably seek that person out to make sure that we are on good ground and that I wasn’t offensive with my tone.
Our differences in opinion, our differences in personality, they give us character, they challenge us to grow. We aren’t to look down on anyone because they have a different opinion than ours, nor are we to think ourselves better if they are different; we are to lovingly accept that person, their thoughts, etc… If it is something that can be clearly corrected through the Bible, such as sexual promiscuity or murder, then yes, we need to hold fast and show the person what is right and correct them. But when it comes to the small stuff, if you eat meat or not, if you date or not, if you believe in courtship, if you think women should always wear dresses and heels, whatever it might be, as long as it doesn’t create strife between believers or obviously oppose the Bible there is no problem with holding those beliefs.
I think the real challenge here is how we react to those who hold beliefs different than our own. In a heated debate over a topic are you still being loving or are you being pompous and arrogant? It is possible to do both, you can have a spirited conversation with someone and have diametrically opposed standings and still love each other when it’s done (I do that often with a friend who regularly posts on here for me…) or do you allow the passion you feel for a topic to leave another person feeling belittled, angry, defensive… if it’s the latter, we’re not grasping the point of these verses. God is the judge of what we do. He alone will give us the strength we need to stand. Our job as brothers and sisters in Christ is to support each other in love, encourage each other… debate when necessary of course, but not for the sake of fighting, but for the sake of understanding and loving each other better. As a way of growth and a way to learn about each other, other viewpoints, and possibly even come to a compromise that will benefit everyone involved.
I want to leave you with a quote that is in my Bible on this topic because it is so powerful and true. “Our principle should be: In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in everything, love.” I hope you will be loving towards others if you disagree with them. I hope I will be also!
Hugs & Love
Romans 14:1-4
Accept the person who is weak in faith, but not for the purpose of arguing over differences of opinion. 2. One person believes that he can eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables. 3. The person who eats must not despise the person who does not eat, and the person who does not eat must not criticize the person who eats, for God has accepted him. 4. Who are you to criticize someone else's servant? His own Lord will determine whether he stands or falls. And stand he will, because God is able to make him stand.”
Differences of opinion among believers… who would have imagined it was possible? Yet here Paul is writing about division among believers 2000 years ago, and it’s as applicable today as it was then. In the past month or so, I’ve had debates, some heated, some friendly, with people I don’t doubt are my brothers and sisters in Christ about the issue of dating. Some feel it is frivolous of me to want to date, that I should find the “right” person and jump into that relationship and no other while others think that restricting me to only dating one person at a time isn’t really getting the full effect of dating. Strangely enough, of the views I’ve heard, I’m middle of the road in what I thought was a very conservative outlook on dating… the point is that everyone I spoke with about this has been a Christian, someone who professes to know God. No, dating isn’t an issue of salvation and is a minor issue in the grand scheme of things… but it’s an example of this passage in modern context. How timely God is to put this passage on the day that I return to reading His word and writing about it… I had probably one of the most heated responses to someone’s much more liberal viewpoint on dating than mine about 2 hours ago and when I’m done here will probably seek that person out to make sure that we are on good ground and that I wasn’t offensive with my tone.
Our differences in opinion, our differences in personality, they give us character, they challenge us to grow. We aren’t to look down on anyone because they have a different opinion than ours, nor are we to think ourselves better if they are different; we are to lovingly accept that person, their thoughts, etc… If it is something that can be clearly corrected through the Bible, such as sexual promiscuity or murder, then yes, we need to hold fast and show the person what is right and correct them. But when it comes to the small stuff, if you eat meat or not, if you date or not, if you believe in courtship, if you think women should always wear dresses and heels, whatever it might be, as long as it doesn’t create strife between believers or obviously oppose the Bible there is no problem with holding those beliefs.
I think the real challenge here is how we react to those who hold beliefs different than our own. In a heated debate over a topic are you still being loving or are you being pompous and arrogant? It is possible to do both, you can have a spirited conversation with someone and have diametrically opposed standings and still love each other when it’s done (I do that often with a friend who regularly posts on here for me…) or do you allow the passion you feel for a topic to leave another person feeling belittled, angry, defensive… if it’s the latter, we’re not grasping the point of these verses. God is the judge of what we do. He alone will give us the strength we need to stand. Our job as brothers and sisters in Christ is to support each other in love, encourage each other… debate when necessary of course, but not for the sake of fighting, but for the sake of understanding and loving each other better. As a way of growth and a way to learn about each other, other viewpoints, and possibly even come to a compromise that will benefit everyone involved.
I want to leave you with a quote that is in my Bible on this topic because it is so powerful and true. “Our principle should be: In essentials, unity; in nonessentials, liberty; in everything, love.” I hope you will be loving towards others if you disagree with them. I hope I will be also!
Hugs & Love
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Guilty...
I've been allowing myself to be too busy to read my Bible.
I've allowed myself to become too self-confident to feel a need to pray.
And I've allowed myself to grow distant from the One I need most and it has impacted me in every area of my life these past 2-3 weeks.
This blog, feeling the need to do it, devote time to it, etc... is a wonderful tool for keeping me in touch with God, because unless I feel HE is behind what I'm writing about the Bible, it doesn't get written, it forces me to be in communication with HIM and I need HIM so desperately.
I'm sorry if I let you down. I'm going to try to get back to it and jump back into "how to behave" when I get back from practice tonight.
Hugs & Love
I've allowed myself to become too self-confident to feel a need to pray.
And I've allowed myself to grow distant from the One I need most and it has impacted me in every area of my life these past 2-3 weeks.
This blog, feeling the need to do it, devote time to it, etc... is a wonderful tool for keeping me in touch with God, because unless I feel HE is behind what I'm writing about the Bible, it doesn't get written, it forces me to be in communication with HIM and I need HIM so desperately.
I'm sorry if I let you down. I'm going to try to get back to it and jump back into "how to behave" when I get back from practice tonight.
Hugs & Love
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
OUCH!!!
I cut up a hot pepper a few minutes ago...
I didn't get all the oils from the pepper off my hands...
I blew my nose and apparently, touched my nose in the process...
My nose is now painfully stinging and in some places numb...
I didn't care for the pepper either...
I don't want to ever experience this again!
I didn't get all the oils from the pepper off my hands...
I blew my nose and apparently, touched my nose in the process...
My nose is now painfully stinging and in some places numb...
I didn't care for the pepper either...
I don't want to ever experience this again!
I'm really alive... promise...
I'm not sure why exactly but this week has been crazy busy everywhere except at work where it's been slow and dragging... guess that's what happens when half the people are out on vacation or have left the company... but that's a different issue.
Anyway, I'm for the first time posting because I have been reading other things in the Bible, not doing my "how to behave" reading/thinking/musing/pondering/reflecting... okay putting the thesaurus away now. My kids have been making me go up a wall, I'm getting back into the swing of things now that I'm off the steroids, and I'm still kinda sluggish from them, but doing MUCH better than even 3 days ago.
Just wanted to say hi, let you all know I'm alive and let you all know I'm praying for you and love you.
HUGS!
Anyway, I'm for the first time posting because I have been reading other things in the Bible, not doing my "how to behave" reading/thinking/musing/pondering/reflecting... okay putting the thesaurus away now. My kids have been making me go up a wall, I'm getting back into the swing of things now that I'm off the steroids, and I'm still kinda sluggish from them, but doing MUCH better than even 3 days ago.
Just wanted to say hi, let you all know I'm alive and let you all know I'm praying for you and love you.
HUGS!
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Bible Blog: Romans 13:11-14 – August 9, 2007
How to Behave: Part VII
Romans 13:11-14 (NLT)
11 This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living. 13 Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.
A few things really struck me as I read this (and I read it in a few different versions before deciding to post this one). The first was that Paul used night and day as illustrations of good and evil. When I thought about it, I realized how many of the temptations and sinful things of life are done under the cover of darkness. Often sexual sins and behaviors take place in the dark, when we are tired our mind is weakened and less likely to fight off evil desires, darkness hides the reality of a sinful situation because it can’t be clearly seen. But when we live in the light, in the day, we can clearly see what it is we are supposed to do, how we are supposed to behave, and how we are to function. The light illuminates our paths, showing us what it is we are about to get involved in, allowing us to make more intelligent decisions, and most importantly, if we give our bodies proper rest at night, during the day our minds are sharper, prepared for thought and action, ready to evaluate the obstacles we face.
The second thing is that we are warned against quarreling and jealousy in the same way we are warned about wild parties, drunkenness, sexual promiscuity, and immorality. On the surface, quarreling and jealousy don’t seem nearly as harmful as the others to our spiritual state, but the reality is, they are probably the most harmful. I’m not saying that the others are good in comparison, because they definitely are not good, but why is it that jealousy and quarreling are important enough to mention? Our attitudes are what others see; our attitudes shape our personalities, our behaviors towards others, and even our actions. If we are jealous because a friend has something we want and know we will never have, we are likely to be less friendly to that person, or worse. If we are lusting after a friend’s spouse, girlfriend, etc… or even if we have genuine feelings for the person, but refuse to keep our jealousy and our attitudes in check, it will put a damper on the relationships involved, no matter how pure those relationships are. The same is true for quarreling. If we allow ourselves to be argumentative, if we always disagree… we aren’t going to be showing love to those around us, and earlier we learned that loving others is the best way to fulfill the law. Our attitudes are who we are. If our attitudes are filled with negativity and sin, we are going to be filled with negativity and sin.
Which brings me to the last point… we are to clothe ourselves with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. What does it look like to put on God? To be His hands, His feet, His arms? We aren’t God. We will never be God. But we are His ambassadors to a world who needs Him desperately. It is against our nature to be like Christ, yet we are to do exactly that. One person once told me that I had to “fake it until I make it”, I needed to go through the motions until it became real to me, until it was really part of me. That has always stuck with me because in a way that’s what this is telling us to do. We’re to show love to those around us when we don’t want to… we’re faking it because it’s what God wants and expects from us. Eventually, if we practice right living, it will become a way of life to us and God will be pleased that we are no longer faking it.
There’s a lot to digest tonight. I hope you find this as interesting as I do!
Hugs & Love
Romans 13:11-14 (NLT)
11 This is all the more urgent, for you know how late it is; time is running out. Wake up, for our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living. 13 Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see. Don’t participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness, or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living, or in quarreling and jealousy. 14 Instead, clothe yourself with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. And don’t let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.
A few things really struck me as I read this (and I read it in a few different versions before deciding to post this one). The first was that Paul used night and day as illustrations of good and evil. When I thought about it, I realized how many of the temptations and sinful things of life are done under the cover of darkness. Often sexual sins and behaviors take place in the dark, when we are tired our mind is weakened and less likely to fight off evil desires, darkness hides the reality of a sinful situation because it can’t be clearly seen. But when we live in the light, in the day, we can clearly see what it is we are supposed to do, how we are supposed to behave, and how we are to function. The light illuminates our paths, showing us what it is we are about to get involved in, allowing us to make more intelligent decisions, and most importantly, if we give our bodies proper rest at night, during the day our minds are sharper, prepared for thought and action, ready to evaluate the obstacles we face.
The second thing is that we are warned against quarreling and jealousy in the same way we are warned about wild parties, drunkenness, sexual promiscuity, and immorality. On the surface, quarreling and jealousy don’t seem nearly as harmful as the others to our spiritual state, but the reality is, they are probably the most harmful. I’m not saying that the others are good in comparison, because they definitely are not good, but why is it that jealousy and quarreling are important enough to mention? Our attitudes are what others see; our attitudes shape our personalities, our behaviors towards others, and even our actions. If we are jealous because a friend has something we want and know we will never have, we are likely to be less friendly to that person, or worse. If we are lusting after a friend’s spouse, girlfriend, etc… or even if we have genuine feelings for the person, but refuse to keep our jealousy and our attitudes in check, it will put a damper on the relationships involved, no matter how pure those relationships are. The same is true for quarreling. If we allow ourselves to be argumentative, if we always disagree… we aren’t going to be showing love to those around us, and earlier we learned that loving others is the best way to fulfill the law. Our attitudes are who we are. If our attitudes are filled with negativity and sin, we are going to be filled with negativity and sin.
Which brings me to the last point… we are to clothe ourselves with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. What does it look like to put on God? To be His hands, His feet, His arms? We aren’t God. We will never be God. But we are His ambassadors to a world who needs Him desperately. It is against our nature to be like Christ, yet we are to do exactly that. One person once told me that I had to “fake it until I make it”, I needed to go through the motions until it became real to me, until it was really part of me. That has always stuck with me because in a way that’s what this is telling us to do. We’re to show love to those around us when we don’t want to… we’re faking it because it’s what God wants and expects from us. Eventually, if we practice right living, it will become a way of life to us and God will be pleased that we are no longer faking it.
There’s a lot to digest tonight. I hope you find this as interesting as I do!
Hugs & Love
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
I love my children... really, I mean that!
Okay, that doesn't sound all that great, but it's true. Right now I am going through ANOTHER war against bad behavior, temper tantrums, disobedience, foul language, inappropriate slang... not to mention the blatant disrespect and the over-developed attitudes of my children who are 7½, 6, and 4½. They are picking up some horrible habits and behaviors at daycare, but I'm not wealthy enough to be able to afford to send them to a daycare that isn't an inner-city low income daycare. The staff does care about the children, yet there are so many times I find my kids coming home feeling as though they're picked on for being "pale", hearing my child called a "cracker" by another child's parents is also annoying. When I've mentioned this to the staff it has always been addressed, but the parents will walk by and say "how do you like it?" Like what? When have I EVER, in my entire life, treated someone differently because of how they look? Look at my dating history if you want to see how important looks are to me, I have a thing for geeks, glasses, balding, usually computer related geeks... and typically they look the part also. Then take it a step farther and look at the fact that the men I've dated have included a black man, an Indian man, Chinese... you get the idea... race and appearance do not make the man, woman, or child the person that God wants them to be, so why on earth do people want to make such an issue out of it? What's worse is that these same people are going to complain when they start hearing someone calling their children an unsavory name even though they are calling mine "cracker"!
All this because these attitudes, behaviors, etc... are seeping into my home as a result of the way people around my children act. I now have to try to find a new daycare, one I can afford, where my children will be treated fairly and hopefully learn something too. My kids are already looking forward to the start of the school year because they want to get away from the way they're being treated by other students. My oldest won the "Christian Character" award last year, in 2 short months she's transformed into a little monster! My other two are following her lead.
Pray for me. Pray for them. I don't know how long I can keep up our strict discipline routine that I put into effect tonight, but I know without it they're not going to get out of these bad habits. Thank you for reading this, I'm frustrated, obviously.
Hugs & Love
All this because these attitudes, behaviors, etc... are seeping into my home as a result of the way people around my children act. I now have to try to find a new daycare, one I can afford, where my children will be treated fairly and hopefully learn something too. My kids are already looking forward to the start of the school year because they want to get away from the way they're being treated by other students. My oldest won the "Christian Character" award last year, in 2 short months she's transformed into a little monster! My other two are following her lead.
Pray for me. Pray for them. I don't know how long I can keep up our strict discipline routine that I put into effect tonight, but I know without it they're not going to get out of these bad habits. Thank you for reading this, I'm frustrated, obviously.
Hugs & Love
Copy Cat Post
I'm taking David's question and making it my own... who out there is reading my posts but not replying to them? I'm curious. I know I have David and Joanne, they aren't afraid to tell me anything about how they feel or think... but I don't really hear too much from anyone else. So, if you read this, let me know, I'd love to know you're there and what you think!
Hugs & Love
Hugs & Love
Monday, August 6, 2007
Bible Blog: Romans 13:8-10 - August 6, 2007
How to Behave: Part VI
Romans 13:8-10 (BBE)
"8. Be in debt for nothing, but to have love for one another: for he who has love for his neighbour has kept all the law. 9. And this, Do not be untrue in married life, Do not put to death, Do not take what is another's, Do not have desire for what is another's, and if there is any other order, it is covered by this word, Have love for your neighbour as for yourself. 10. Love does no wrong to his neighbour, so love makes the law complete."
Loving each other is a debt we owe? Did you know this? The only debt we're to have is to love each other. But why would love be called a debt? I know we owe God more love than we're capable of giving because of the love He has given to us through Christ and His death, perhaps this debt of loving others is a way to act out our repayment of this love we owe to God. I have to admit, I do enjoy loving other people when I know them, but I'm not so good at knowing how to love people I don't know. So what does this type of love we're suppose to show to those around us look like?
The description in the Bible is the typical "good Christian values" scenario. Helping to meet the basic needs of others, food, clothing, shelter... they're all practical things necessary for life and ways to love others in tangible and practical ways. Add to it trying to safeguard others from pain and suffering, marital issues of any nature, and of course offering comfort to someone in distress are other practical ways to show love. When we know someone, we can extend this love to endless limits, meals for a family in a state of hardship of some variety, a comforting embrace for someone who needs to feel loved, is in pain, or even holding the hand of someone who is scared for a first performance or leaving home for the first time.
God has given each of us unique ways to love those around us just as He's giving us each unique talents. I can only imagine what things would be like if everyone took the time to love the people who live on their block, who work in their offices, or even the person who just started coming to church and is feeling like an outsider, cant' you?
Hugs & Love
Romans 13:8-10 (BBE)
"8. Be in debt for nothing, but to have love for one another: for he who has love for his neighbour has kept all the law. 9. And this, Do not be untrue in married life, Do not put to death, Do not take what is another's, Do not have desire for what is another's, and if there is any other order, it is covered by this word, Have love for your neighbour as for yourself. 10. Love does no wrong to his neighbour, so love makes the law complete."
Loving each other is a debt we owe? Did you know this? The only debt we're to have is to love each other. But why would love be called a debt? I know we owe God more love than we're capable of giving because of the love He has given to us through Christ and His death, perhaps this debt of loving others is a way to act out our repayment of this love we owe to God. I have to admit, I do enjoy loving other people when I know them, but I'm not so good at knowing how to love people I don't know. So what does this type of love we're suppose to show to those around us look like?
The description in the Bible is the typical "good Christian values" scenario. Helping to meet the basic needs of others, food, clothing, shelter... they're all practical things necessary for life and ways to love others in tangible and practical ways. Add to it trying to safeguard others from pain and suffering, marital issues of any nature, and of course offering comfort to someone in distress are other practical ways to show love. When we know someone, we can extend this love to endless limits, meals for a family in a state of hardship of some variety, a comforting embrace for someone who needs to feel loved, is in pain, or even holding the hand of someone who is scared for a first performance or leaving home for the first time.
God has given each of us unique ways to love those around us just as He's giving us each unique talents. I can only imagine what things would be like if everyone took the time to love the people who live on their block, who work in their offices, or even the person who just started coming to church and is feeling like an outsider, cant' you?
Hugs & Love
Historical Significance in Iraq
I'm posting this essay (I don't know the author but am willing to give credit if someone tells me who wrote it) knowing the risk of involving myself in a political discussion... read my Bible Blog on Romans 13:1-7 for the significance of this! Hugs & Love
Some of you may not be old enough to remember that nearly every family in America was grossly affected by WW-II. Most of you may not remember the rationing of meat, shoes, butter, gasoline, and sugar. No tires for our automobiles and a speed limit of 35 miles an hour on the road, not to mention, no new automobiles. Read this and think about how we would react to being taken over by foreigners in 2008 or 2009.
This is an excellent essay; well thought out and presented by Raymond S. Kraft, a writer living in Northern California who has studied the Middle Eastern culture and religion.
Historical Significance
Sixty-three years ago, Nazi Germany had overrun almost all of Europe and hammered England to the verge of bankruptcy and defeat. The Nazis had sunk more than 400 British ships in their convoys between England and America taking food and war materials. At that time the US was in an isolationist, pacifist mood, and most Americans wanted nothing to do with the European or the Asian war.
Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and in outrage Congress unanimously declared war on Japan, and the following day on Germany, who had not yet attacked us. It was a dicey thing. We had few allies.
France was not an ally, as the Vichy government of France quickly aligned itself with its German occupiers. Germany was certainly not an ally, as Hitler was intent on setting up a Thousand Year Reich in Europe. Japan was not an ally, as it was well on its way to owning and controlling all of Asia. Together, Japan and Germany had long-range plans of invading Canada and Mexico, as launching pads to get into the United States over our northern and southern borders, after they finished gaining control of Asia and Europe.
America's only allies then were England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Australia, and Russia. That was about it. All of Europe, from Norway to Italy (except Russia in the East) was already under the Nazi heel.
The US was certainly not prepared for war. The US had drastically downgraded most of its military forces after WW I because of the depression, so that at the outbreak of WW-II, Army units were training with broomsticks because they didn't have guns, and cars with "tank" painted on the doors because they didn't have real tanks. A huge chunk of our Navy had just been sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor.
Britain had already gone bankrupt, saved only by the donation of $60 0 million in gold bullion in the Bank of England (that was actually the property of Belgium) given by Belgium to England to carry on the war when Belgium was overrun by Hitler (a little known fact).
Actually, Belgium surrendered in one day, because it was unable to oppose the German invasion, and the Germans bombed Brussels into rubble the next day just to prove they could.
Britain had already been holding out for two years in the face of staggering losses and the near decimation of its Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain, and was saved from being overrun by Germany only because Hitler made the mistake of thinking the Brits were a relatively minor threat that could be dealt with later. Hitler, first turned his attention to Russia, in the late summer of 1940 at a time when England was on the verge of collapse.
Ironically, Russia saved America's butt by putting up a desperate fight for two years, until the US got geared up to begin hammering away at Germany.
Russia lost something like 24,000,000 people in the sieges of Stalingrad and Moscow alone . . . 90% of them from cold and starvation, mostly civilians, but also more than a 1,000,000 soldiers.
Had Russia surrendered, Hitler would have been able to focus his entire war effort against the Brits, then America. If that had happened, the Nazis could possibly have won the war.
All of this has been brought out to illustrate that turning points in history are often dicey things. Now, we find ourselves at another one of those key moments in history.
There is a very dangerous minority in Islam that either has, or wants, and may soon have, the ability to deliver small nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, almost anywhere in the world.
The Jihadis, the militant Muslims, are basically Nazis in Kaffiyahs. They believe that Islam, a radically conservative form of Wahhabi Islam, should own and control the Middle East first, then Europe, then the world. To them, all who do not bow to their will of thinking should be killed, enslaved, or subjugated. They want to finish the Holocaust, destroy Israel, and purge the world of Jews. This is their mantra (goal).
There is also a civil war raging in the Middle East. For the most part it is not a hot war, but a war of ideas. Islam is having its Inquisition and its Reformation, but it is not yet known which side will win, the Inquisitors, or the Reformationists.
If the Inquisition wins, then the Wahhabis, the Jihadis, will control the Middle East, the OPEC oil, and the US, European, and Asian economies.
The techno-industrial economies will be at the mercy of OPEC. Not an OPEC dominated by the educated, rational Saudis of today, but an OPEC dominated by the Jihadis. Do you want gas in your car? Do you want heating oil next winter? Do you want the dollar to be worth anything? You had better hope the Jihad, the Muslim Inquisition, loses, and the Islamic Reformation wins.
If the Reformation movement wins, that is, the moderate Muslims who believe that Islam can respect and tolerate other religions, live in peace with the rest of the world, and move out of the 10th century into the 21st, then the troubles in the Middle East will eventually fade away. A moderate and prosperous Middle East will emerge.
We have to help the Reformation win, and to do that we have to fight the Inquisition, i.e., the Wahhabi movement, the Jihad, Al Qaeda and the Islamic terrorist movements. We have to do it somewhere. We can't do it everywhere at once. We have created a focal point for the battle at a
Time and place of our choosing . . . . in Iraq. Not in New York, not in London, or Paris or Berlin, but in Iraq, where we are doing two important things:
(1) We deposed Saddam Hussein. Whether Saddam Hussein was directly involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack or not, it is undisputed that Saddam has been actively supporting the terrorist movement for decades; Saddam was a terrorist! Saddam was a weapon of mass destruction, responsible for the deaths of probably more than a 1,000,000 Iraqis and 2,000,000 Iranians.
(2) We created a battle, a confrontation, a flash point, with Islamic terrorism in Iraq. We have focused the battle. We are killing bad people, and the ones we get there we won't have to be killed here. We also have a good shot at creating a democratic, peaceful Iraq, which will be a
Catalyst for democratic change in the rest of the Middle East, and an outpost for a stabilizing American military presence in the Middle East for as long as it is needed.
WW-II, the war with the Japanese and German Nazis, really began with a "whimper" in 1928. It did not begin with Pearl Harbor. It began with the Japanese invasion of China. It was a war for fourteen years before the US joined it. It officially ended in 1945,a 17-year war, and was followed by another decade of US occupation in Germany and Japan to get those countries reconstructed and running on their own again . . . a 27 year war.
WW-II cost the United States an amount equal to approximately a full year's GDP, adjusted for inflation, equal to about $12 trillion dollars. WW-II cost America more than 400,000 soldiers killed in action and nearly 100,000 still missing in action.
The Iraq war has, so far, cost the United States about $160,000,000,000, which is roughly what the 9/11 terrorist attack cost New York. It has also cost about 3,000 American lives, which is roughly equivalent to lives that the Jihad killed (within the United States) in the 9/11 terrorist attack.
The cost of not fighting and winning WW-II would have been unimaginably greater - a world dominated by Japanese Imperialism and German Nazism.
This is not a 60-Minutes TV show, or a 2-hour movie in which everything comes out okay. The real world is not like that. It is messy, uncertain, and sometimes bloody and ugly. It always has been, and probably always will be.
The bottom line is that we will have to deal with Islamic terrorism until we defeat it, whenever that is. It will not go away if we ignore it.
If the US can create a reasonably democratic and stable Iraq, then we have an ally, like England, in the Middle East, a platform, from which we can work to help modernize and moderate the Middle East. The history of the world is the clash between the forces of relative civility and civilization, and the barbarians clamoring at the gates to conquer the world.
The Iraq War is merely another battle in this ancient and never ending war. Now, for the first time ever, the barbarians are about to get nuclear weapons, unless somebody prevents them from getting them.
We have four options:
1. We can defeat the Jihad now, before it gets nuclear weapons.
2. We can fight the Jihad later, after it gets nuclear weapons (which may be as early as next year, if Iran's progress on nuclear weapons is what Iran claims it is).
3. We can surrender to the Jihad and accept its dominance in the Middle East now; in Europe in the next few years or decades, and ultimately in America.
or
4. We can stand down now, and pick up the fight later when the Jihad is more widespread and better armed, perhaps after the Jihad has dominated France and Germany and possibly most of the rest of Europe. It will, of course, be more dangerous, more expensive, and much bloodier.
If you oppose this war, I hope you like the idea that your children, or grandchildren, may live in an Islamic America under the Mullahs and the Sharia, an America that resembles Iran today.
The history of the world is the history of civilization clashes, cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas, ideas about what society and civilization should be like, and the most determined always win.
Those who are willing to be the most ruthless always win. The pacifists always lose, because the anti-pacifists kill them.
Remember, perspective is every thing, and America's schools teach too little history for perspective to be clear, especially in the young American mind.
The Cold War lasted from about 1947 at least until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989; forty-two years!
Europe spent the first half of the 19th century fighting Napoleon, and from 1870 to 1945 fighting Germany!
World War II began in 1928, lasted 17 years, plus a ten year occupation and the US still has troops in Germany and Japan. World War II resulted in the death of more than 50,000,000 people, maybe more than 100,000,000 people, depending on which estimates you accept.
The US has taken more than 3,000 killed in action in Iraq. The US took more than 4,000 killed in action on the morning of June 6, 1944, the first day of the Normandy Invasion to rid Europe of Nazi Imperialism.
In WW-II the US averaged 2,000 KIA a week for four years. Most of the individual battles of WW-II lost more Americans than the entire Iraq war has done so far.
The stakes are at least as high. . a world dominated by representative governments with civil rights, human rights, and personal freedoms . . . or a world dominated by a radical Islamic Wahhabi movement, by the Jihad, under the Mullahs and the Sharia (Islamic law).
It's difficult to understand why the average American does not grasp this. They favor human rights, civil rights, liberty and freedom, but evidently not for Iraqis.
"Peace Activists" always seem to demonstrate here in America, where it's safe. Why don't we see Peace Activist demonstrating in Iran, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, North Korea, in the places that really need peace activism the most? I'll tell you why! They would be killed!
The liberal mentality is supposed to favor human rights, civil rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc., but if the Jihad wins, wherever the Jihad wins, it is the end of civil rights, human rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc.
Americans who oppose the liberation of Iraq are coming down on the side of their own worst enemy!
Some of you may not be old enough to remember that nearly every family in America was grossly affected by WW-II. Most of you may not remember the rationing of meat, shoes, butter, gasoline, and sugar. No tires for our automobiles and a speed limit of 35 miles an hour on the road, not to mention, no new automobiles. Read this and think about how we would react to being taken over by foreigners in 2008 or 2009.
This is an excellent essay; well thought out and presented by Raymond S. Kraft, a writer living in Northern California who has studied the Middle Eastern culture and religion.
Historical Significance
Sixty-three years ago, Nazi Germany had overrun almost all of Europe and hammered England to the verge of bankruptcy and defeat. The Nazis had sunk more than 400 British ships in their convoys between England and America taking food and war materials. At that time the US was in an isolationist, pacifist mood, and most Americans wanted nothing to do with the European or the Asian war.
Then along came Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, and in outrage Congress unanimously declared war on Japan, and the following day on Germany, who had not yet attacked us. It was a dicey thing. We had few allies.
France was not an ally, as the Vichy government of France quickly aligned itself with its German occupiers. Germany was certainly not an ally, as Hitler was intent on setting up a Thousand Year Reich in Europe. Japan was not an ally, as it was well on its way to owning and controlling all of Asia. Together, Japan and Germany had long-range plans of invading Canada and Mexico, as launching pads to get into the United States over our northern and southern borders, after they finished gaining control of Asia and Europe.
America's only allies then were England, Ireland, Scotland, Canada, Australia, and Russia. That was about it. All of Europe, from Norway to Italy (except Russia in the East) was already under the Nazi heel.
The US was certainly not prepared for war. The US had drastically downgraded most of its military forces after WW I because of the depression, so that at the outbreak of WW-II, Army units were training with broomsticks because they didn't have guns, and cars with "tank" painted on the doors because they didn't have real tanks. A huge chunk of our Navy had just been sunk or damaged at Pearl Harbor.
Britain had already gone bankrupt, saved only by the donation of $60 0 million in gold bullion in the Bank of England (that was actually the property of Belgium) given by Belgium to England to carry on the war when Belgium was overrun by Hitler (a little known fact).
Actually, Belgium surrendered in one day, because it was unable to oppose the German invasion, and the Germans bombed Brussels into rubble the next day just to prove they could.
Britain had already been holding out for two years in the face of staggering losses and the near decimation of its Royal Air Force in the Battle of Britain, and was saved from being overrun by Germany only because Hitler made the mistake of thinking the Brits were a relatively minor threat that could be dealt with later. Hitler, first turned his attention to Russia, in the late summer of 1940 at a time when England was on the verge of collapse.
Ironically, Russia saved America's butt by putting up a desperate fight for two years, until the US got geared up to begin hammering away at Germany.
Russia lost something like 24,000,000 people in the sieges of Stalingrad and Moscow alone . . . 90% of them from cold and starvation, mostly civilians, but also more than a 1,000,000 soldiers.
Had Russia surrendered, Hitler would have been able to focus his entire war effort against the Brits, then America. If that had happened, the Nazis could possibly have won the war.
All of this has been brought out to illustrate that turning points in history are often dicey things. Now, we find ourselves at another one of those key moments in history.
There is a very dangerous minority in Islam that either has, or wants, and may soon have, the ability to deliver small nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons, almost anywhere in the world.
The Jihadis, the militant Muslims, are basically Nazis in Kaffiyahs. They believe that Islam, a radically conservative form of Wahhabi Islam, should own and control the Middle East first, then Europe, then the world. To them, all who do not bow to their will of thinking should be killed, enslaved, or subjugated. They want to finish the Holocaust, destroy Israel, and purge the world of Jews. This is their mantra (goal).
There is also a civil war raging in the Middle East. For the most part it is not a hot war, but a war of ideas. Islam is having its Inquisition and its Reformation, but it is not yet known which side will win, the Inquisitors, or the Reformationists.
If the Inquisition wins, then the Wahhabis, the Jihadis, will control the Middle East, the OPEC oil, and the US, European, and Asian economies.
The techno-industrial economies will be at the mercy of OPEC. Not an OPEC dominated by the educated, rational Saudis of today, but an OPEC dominated by the Jihadis. Do you want gas in your car? Do you want heating oil next winter? Do you want the dollar to be worth anything? You had better hope the Jihad, the Muslim Inquisition, loses, and the Islamic Reformation wins.
If the Reformation movement wins, that is, the moderate Muslims who believe that Islam can respect and tolerate other religions, live in peace with the rest of the world, and move out of the 10th century into the 21st, then the troubles in the Middle East will eventually fade away. A moderate and prosperous Middle East will emerge.
We have to help the Reformation win, and to do that we have to fight the Inquisition, i.e., the Wahhabi movement, the Jihad, Al Qaeda and the Islamic terrorist movements. We have to do it somewhere. We can't do it everywhere at once. We have created a focal point for the battle at a
Time and place of our choosing . . . . in Iraq. Not in New York, not in London, or Paris or Berlin, but in Iraq, where we are doing two important things:
(1) We deposed Saddam Hussein. Whether Saddam Hussein was directly involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack or not, it is undisputed that Saddam has been actively supporting the terrorist movement for decades; Saddam was a terrorist! Saddam was a weapon of mass destruction, responsible for the deaths of probably more than a 1,000,000 Iraqis and 2,000,000 Iranians.
(2) We created a battle, a confrontation, a flash point, with Islamic terrorism in Iraq. We have focused the battle. We are killing bad people, and the ones we get there we won't have to be killed here. We also have a good shot at creating a democratic, peaceful Iraq, which will be a
Catalyst for democratic change in the rest of the Middle East, and an outpost for a stabilizing American military presence in the Middle East for as long as it is needed.
WW-II, the war with the Japanese and German Nazis, really began with a "whimper" in 1928. It did not begin with Pearl Harbor. It began with the Japanese invasion of China. It was a war for fourteen years before the US joined it. It officially ended in 1945,a 17-year war, and was followed by another decade of US occupation in Germany and Japan to get those countries reconstructed and running on their own again . . . a 27 year war.
WW-II cost the United States an amount equal to approximately a full year's GDP, adjusted for inflation, equal to about $12 trillion dollars. WW-II cost America more than 400,000 soldiers killed in action and nearly 100,000 still missing in action.
The Iraq war has, so far, cost the United States about $160,000,000,000, which is roughly what the 9/11 terrorist attack cost New York. It has also cost about 3,000 American lives, which is roughly equivalent to lives that the Jihad killed (within the United States) in the 9/11 terrorist attack.
The cost of not fighting and winning WW-II would have been unimaginably greater - a world dominated by Japanese Imperialism and German Nazism.
This is not a 60-Minutes TV show, or a 2-hour movie in which everything comes out okay. The real world is not like that. It is messy, uncertain, and sometimes bloody and ugly. It always has been, and probably always will be.
The bottom line is that we will have to deal with Islamic terrorism until we defeat it, whenever that is. It will not go away if we ignore it.
If the US can create a reasonably democratic and stable Iraq, then we have an ally, like England, in the Middle East, a platform, from which we can work to help modernize and moderate the Middle East. The history of the world is the clash between the forces of relative civility and civilization, and the barbarians clamoring at the gates to conquer the world.
The Iraq War is merely another battle in this ancient and never ending war. Now, for the first time ever, the barbarians are about to get nuclear weapons, unless somebody prevents them from getting them.
We have four options:
1. We can defeat the Jihad now, before it gets nuclear weapons.
2. We can fight the Jihad later, after it gets nuclear weapons (which may be as early as next year, if Iran's progress on nuclear weapons is what Iran claims it is).
3. We can surrender to the Jihad and accept its dominance in the Middle East now; in Europe in the next few years or decades, and ultimately in America.
or
4. We can stand down now, and pick up the fight later when the Jihad is more widespread and better armed, perhaps after the Jihad has dominated France and Germany and possibly most of the rest of Europe. It will, of course, be more dangerous, more expensive, and much bloodier.
If you oppose this war, I hope you like the idea that your children, or grandchildren, may live in an Islamic America under the Mullahs and the Sharia, an America that resembles Iran today.
The history of the world is the history of civilization clashes, cultural clashes. All wars are about ideas, ideas about what society and civilization should be like, and the most determined always win.
Those who are willing to be the most ruthless always win. The pacifists always lose, because the anti-pacifists kill them.
Remember, perspective is every thing, and America's schools teach too little history for perspective to be clear, especially in the young American mind.
The Cold War lasted from about 1947 at least until the Berlin Wall came down in 1989; forty-two years!
Europe spent the first half of the 19th century fighting Napoleon, and from 1870 to 1945 fighting Germany!
World War II began in 1928, lasted 17 years, plus a ten year occupation and the US still has troops in Germany and Japan. World War II resulted in the death of more than 50,000,000 people, maybe more than 100,000,000 people, depending on which estimates you accept.
The US has taken more than 3,000 killed in action in Iraq. The US took more than 4,000 killed in action on the morning of June 6, 1944, the first day of the Normandy Invasion to rid Europe of Nazi Imperialism.
In WW-II the US averaged 2,000 KIA a week for four years. Most of the individual battles of WW-II lost more Americans than the entire Iraq war has done so far.
The stakes are at least as high. . a world dominated by representative governments with civil rights, human rights, and personal freedoms . . . or a world dominated by a radical Islamic Wahhabi movement, by the Jihad, under the Mullahs and the Sharia (Islamic law).
It's difficult to understand why the average American does not grasp this. They favor human rights, civil rights, liberty and freedom, but evidently not for Iraqis.
"Peace Activists" always seem to demonstrate here in America, where it's safe. Why don't we see Peace Activist demonstrating in Iran, Syria, Iraq, Sudan, North Korea, in the places that really need peace activism the most? I'll tell you why! They would be killed!
The liberal mentality is supposed to favor human rights, civil rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc., but if the Jihad wins, wherever the Jihad wins, it is the end of civil rights, human rights, democracy, multiculturalism, diversity, etc.
Americans who oppose the liberation of Iraq are coming down on the side of their own worst enemy!
Bible Blog: Romans 13:1-7 - August 2, 2007
How to Behave: Part V
Okay, here I am to try to write this out again. Since a friend has requested a passage summary with each entry and I don't really feel like writing a summary each time in addition to my thoughts, I'm going to include the passage or a link to the passage each time for reference. If I forget, remind me please.
Romans 13:1-7 (ISV)
"1. Every person must be subject to the governing authorities, for no authority exists except by God's permission. The existing authorities have been established by God, 2. so that whoever resists the authorities opposes what God has established, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. 3. For the authorities are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you like to live without being afraid of the authorities? Then do what is right, and you will receive their approval. 4. For they are God's servants working for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for it is not without reason that they bear the sword. Indeed, they are God's servants to execute wrath on anyone who does wrong. 5.Therefore, it is necessary for you to be subject, not only because of God's wrath but also because of your own conscience. 6. This is also why you pay taxes. For rulers are God's servants faithfully devoting themselves to their work. 7. Pay everyone whatever you owe them-taxes to whom taxes are due, tolls to whom tolls are due, fear to whom fear is due, honor to whom honor is due."
My basic thoughts on this were that it was very straight forward. Government is meant as a tool of God, pay taxes, etc... so long as it isn't in direct opposition of God's will of course.
What I got from this passage has nothing to do with giving to the government, nothing at all to do with the actual message of this passage, but it's important for me to know and try to apply to my life, so I'm sharing it.
My general attitude towards anything of a political nature is avoidance. I often form strong opinions on things, but won't speak about them because I don't want a heated debate with someone who believes differently than I do because when I'm in those situations my ADHD will pop up, thoughts fly everywhere, and I end up unable to make my point either because my mind is racing or because I can't remember supporting facts. As a single mom with a fairly conservative viewpoint, anytime I talk about politics I'm assured opposition because as a woman I should be "liberal" and want more freedoms...
The point of this is I'm not prepared. I didn't even want to admit my political avoidance here, but felt it was the right thing to do. Political discussions have a way of opening up doors for theological discussions. When you give your reasons for your beliefs about something, God should be behind it if you are a Christian. Taking the time to know how to have a political conversation and learning how to open up the doors for speaking God's word is always important. I'm not saying every discussion needs to be a cover for a Bible thumping session, just that we're supposed to be prepared with an answer for the hope we have, and ready to justify why we believe how we believe (I Peter 3:15)... if our political views are a reflection of our faith and spiritual convictions it should be evident and we should be prepared to defend what we believe... politically and spiritually.
Like I said, not what this passage would evoke in most people, but it is the message God wanted me to have right now. I'm still trying to figure out how to put this into practice, I suppose getting myself up to date on current events and figuring out how I feel about them is a good way to start, I'm also going to post here an essay that I read and appreciate for you to read... and hopefully won't falter if I need to get into a debate about it!
Hugs & Love
Okay, here I am to try to write this out again. Since a friend has requested a passage summary with each entry and I don't really feel like writing a summary each time in addition to my thoughts, I'm going to include the passage or a link to the passage each time for reference. If I forget, remind me please.
Romans 13:1-7 (ISV)
"1. Every person must be subject to the governing authorities, for no authority exists except by God's permission. The existing authorities have been established by God, 2. so that whoever resists the authorities opposes what God has established, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. 3. For the authorities are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad. Would you like to live without being afraid of the authorities? Then do what is right, and you will receive their approval. 4. For they are God's servants working for your good. But if you do what is wrong, you should be afraid, for it is not without reason that they bear the sword. Indeed, they are God's servants to execute wrath on anyone who does wrong. 5.Therefore, it is necessary for you to be subject, not only because of God's wrath but also because of your own conscience. 6. This is also why you pay taxes. For rulers are God's servants faithfully devoting themselves to their work. 7. Pay everyone whatever you owe them-taxes to whom taxes are due, tolls to whom tolls are due, fear to whom fear is due, honor to whom honor is due."
My basic thoughts on this were that it was very straight forward. Government is meant as a tool of God, pay taxes, etc... so long as it isn't in direct opposition of God's will of course.
What I got from this passage has nothing to do with giving to the government, nothing at all to do with the actual message of this passage, but it's important for me to know and try to apply to my life, so I'm sharing it.
My general attitude towards anything of a political nature is avoidance. I often form strong opinions on things, but won't speak about them because I don't want a heated debate with someone who believes differently than I do because when I'm in those situations my ADHD will pop up, thoughts fly everywhere, and I end up unable to make my point either because my mind is racing or because I can't remember supporting facts. As a single mom with a fairly conservative viewpoint, anytime I talk about politics I'm assured opposition because as a woman I should be "liberal" and want more freedoms...
The point of this is I'm not prepared. I didn't even want to admit my political avoidance here, but felt it was the right thing to do. Political discussions have a way of opening up doors for theological discussions. When you give your reasons for your beliefs about something, God should be behind it if you are a Christian. Taking the time to know how to have a political conversation and learning how to open up the doors for speaking God's word is always important. I'm not saying every discussion needs to be a cover for a Bible thumping session, just that we're supposed to be prepared with an answer for the hope we have, and ready to justify why we believe how we believe (I Peter 3:15)... if our political views are a reflection of our faith and spiritual convictions it should be evident and we should be prepared to defend what we believe... politically and spiritually.
Like I said, not what this passage would evoke in most people, but it is the message God wanted me to have right now. I'm still trying to figure out how to put this into practice, I suppose getting myself up to date on current events and figuring out how I feel about them is a good way to start, I'm also going to post here an essay that I read and appreciate for you to read... and hopefully won't falter if I need to get into a debate about it!
Hugs & Love
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Frustration
The one night (tonight) I didn't write out my notes before typing in an attempt to save time and things go haywire and I lose what I wrote. I'm exhausted now, and not up to writing it out again, but I will attempt to remember what I wanted to say and write it out and post it tomorrow if I get a chance.
Hugs & Love
Hugs & Love
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