As long as he keeps the yard looking like that, I wont mind this other "lady"...HAHAHA

I had to ask him, if he dreamed of the tool last night. He got up early today just to use the tool! Unbelievable!!!

!!!

Sometimes when I go to the Christian bookstore I get overwhelmed. So many books, opinions, bibles, and stuff. Stuff to hang on our walls, or prop up on a nightstand, or... even hang around our necks. Sometimes it almost bothers me for some reason and I'm not really sure why. Maybe it reminds me too much of the world's materialism. Like I said, I don't know, it's just a feeling I get when I enter through those pearly gates, oops, I mean pearly doors, and then aimlessly start to wander around. Maybe it's a feeling like, "does anyone really need all this stuff?" And then I have to remind myself, "yes, there are times in all our lives that yes, we do." We need the book that points us to God, or a message on a plaque to hang by our front door, or a cd and a song to remind us of... "remind us of what?" Of God, because the flesh all too easily can and will forget Him. Just read the story of Exodus and you'll see what I mean.

But anyway, I quickly pass by the crosses, nothing that catches my eye or (trying to think like my daughter now) nothing that I think would appeal to her either. She's then there by my side and points to one that's silver, not too big, and yes, very very plain, "what about that one?" she says. I feign half enthusiastically, "it's alright," I shrug. Boy, that was a big mistake and I quickly try to patch it up with "I'm sorry. It's just... not my style. But... it would look great on you." Cheezy smile. Oh well. She's moves on to look at other things and again I notice the plethora (isn't that a cool word?) of stuff stuffed into this what seems, too tiny of a space.

I look around and I don't even now where to begin, quickly reminding myself the whole reason for the visit was to find a cross for my daughter so, I don't really need anything anyway. That is until a book down on a lower shelf for some reason grabs my attention. I pick it up, examining the cover and then it dawns on me, "OMG, I remember Michael English! I used to have his cd back in 19...." Well, never mind the year and for those of you who may not remember Michael English he was and still is a Christian Music Artist and apparently now too an author; the title of his book, "The Prodigal Comes Home." I turn the book over, scanning the back cover and then for some reason, "I need to read this," I tell myself and I pay the cashier.

Have I ever mentioned how much I love stories with happy endings? I do. I love stories about redemption and stories about how frogs turn into princes and about how the boy gets the girl, well, you get my drift, and I especially love stories about how God never gives up on us, no matter how far we may stray. If you like stories likes these too then Michael's new book, "The Prodigal Comes Home" is the book for you because literally, his story has every element in it that I just listed above. His book made me cry and at the same realize how frail we are as human beings. How easy, even when someone appears to be at the top of their game it is to fall and how far a fall it is.

Anyway, all I can say is how glad I am that God brought this man through all that He did. Not only because his story had a happy ending but mostly because of how God is now using his story to point to Him. Michael English... God bless you!

Still looking for silver crosses even though I've already found the silver lining in every cloud.

Over the following days though, God began to really work on me and challenge me to continuously consider my motives regarding reading that book and learning about Him in general. He was prompting me to begin asking myself "am I just looking to increase my knowledge and pump up my ego?" or "am I really looking to grow closer to Him, be more like Christ and to see Him be glorified?". It was very sobering and I began to think, "God you're really bringing me down here".

In God's unbelievable timing, I began reading the book "The Imitation of Christ" by Thomas a' Kempis during my daily quiet time. Immediately God confronted me with statements like "What good does it do to speak learnedly about the Trinity if, lacking humility, you displease the Trinity?" OUCH!!!, that hurt. God doesn't waste any time, huh? The very next sentence was the second punch that said "it's not learning that makes a man holy and just, but a virtuous life makes him pleasing to God.". At that point I was flat on the mat. I knew that God was telling me to check my heart, check my motives and check my ego at the door. He wanted me to make sure and approach my desire to learn with the proper attitude, a spirit of humility, the desire for my love for Him to grow, and for His glory, not mine.

John 8:12 says:

"He who follows Me, walks not in darkness", says the Lord.

True wisdom and knowledge are found in Christ.

So, are you after more knowledge? Or, are you after true wisdom that is found only in Christ. What are your motives? Do you get caught up in the learning in and of itself? Does it make you feel good about yourself? Do you have a spirit of humility? Are you seeking to grow closer to God?

Dobson among 2008 National Hall of Fame inductees

Christian psychologist James Dobson, who has been telling parents how to apply biblical principles to lead their families, raise their children and affect society for more than 30 years, is being honored by the National Radio Hall of Fame.

Dobson's "Focus on the Family" radio broadcast, which is heard on more than 4,000 radio stations worldwide, is among the members of the 2008 class of inductees, officials have announced.

"I've made a living putting thoughts into words throughout my adult life, but it is difficult to express how I feel about this honor," Dobson said today at a staff assembly. "I am especially pleased because the wonderful people at Focus on the Family deserve it. Our radio program has not been a solo effort. It has been a symphony performed by more than 10,000 people over the past 32 years. I am indebted to them all."

"To have 'Focus on the Family' honored in this manner means we've made a difference in families all over the world," said Jim Daly, the president of the organization. "That Dr. Dobson's listeners recognized the excellence and relevance of the content of the daily broadcast and voted to give him a much-deserved win shows Dr. Dobson's influence is as strong as ever in the hearts of his fans, as well as in the culture."

The Hall of Fame's 2008 steering committee had nominated Dobson in the "national active" category, alongside Bob Costas, Dr. Laura Schlessinger and the notorious Howard Stern, officials said. To qualify, a broadcaster must have contributed to the radio industry on a national level for at least 10 years.

Dobson's program then was chosen in the Hall's first-ever online voting competition.

As host of the daily broadcast, Dobson is being added to a field of radio luminaries such as Orson Wells, Paul Harvey, Gene Autry, Bing Crosby, Kate Smith, Jack Benny, Walter Winchell, Dick Clark and Rush Limbaugh, while the "Focus on the Family" program is recognized along with hit shows as "The Shadow" and "Your Hit Parade."

Dobson started his program in 1977 and today it is heard on more than 3,000 radio stations across North America plus hundreds more in nearly 160 other nations where his broadcasts are heard in 27 languages.

The Hall of Fame said others in the Class of 2008 are Art Bell, whose program "Coast to Coast AM" was syndicated on more than 500 stations; the late Jess Cain, the long-time morning host on WHDH/Boston who died in February; Howie Carr, who also is an award-winning columnist for the "Boston Herald;" the late Bob Collins, a popular talk show host in Chicago until his death in 2000; Michael Luckoff, president and general manager of KGO-AM in San Francisco; Charlie Tuna, a veteran of 40 years on the air in Oklahoma, Kansas, Boston and Los Angeles; and the late Dick Whittinghill, a southern California personality who once sang with Tommy Dorsey and his big band.

Ceremonies to honor the individuals and programs will be Nov. 8.

Del.icio.us : Christianity, Howard Stern, James Dobson, Life, Ministry, News, PoliticsReligion
Zooomr : Christianity, Howard Stern, James Dobson, Life, Ministry, News, PoliticsReligion
Technorati : Christianity, Howard Stern, James Dobson, Life, Ministry, News, PoliticsReligion
Flickr : Christianity, Howard Stern, James Dobson, Life, Ministry, News, PoliticsReligion

--

Discuss how far any of Eliot's other poems [i.e. not 'Ash Wednesday'] are best considered in terms of religious search rather than belief.

Elberry

Graduate Society

March 2001

 There is often something indecent about belief: I do not refer to the rabid bigotry of the incurable fundamentalist, who would likely be as rotten a human being whether religious or otherwise; but belief is often arrived at by short circuiting reason, and so carries that primal dishonesty through every cell of its imagining. Of course, only an idiot would deny the trans-rationality of significant experience, and the atheists who denounce religions for their "irrationality" are usually as loathsome as the aforementioned fundamentalists, and ultimately as irrational. It is certain that nothing can be "proved": no matter how convincing the proof, it could so easily be a hallucination, and so often is. This does not obviate religion: but a spiritual imagining that is to be honestly centred within human understanding - and any other stance is worthless dishonesty - must carry that primal uncertainty through every stage of its evolution. Belief is not weakened by the avowal of its origins: as the introduction of a tiny quantity of carbon into the lattice of iron, disturbing its perfection, will radically increase its ultimate tensile strength, so the doubt in Eliot's poetry enhances the plausibility of his final convictions.

 Although there are marked shifts throughout Eliot's long poetic career, the continuities are such that an understanding of the stresses of Four Quartets facilitates a closer reading of the pre-Christian poetry. By 'Burnt Norton', he has arrived at a fairly steady religious conviction, but still there remains the difficulty of understanding the flux of our apparently meaningless lives in the light of credal fixities. In this sense, Eliot's poetry is always searching, and it is appropriate that after the compelling resolution of 'Little Gidding' he should have ceased to write poetry, or at least good poetry. The restless energy of Eliot's poetry derives from the terrible gap between the desire for spiritual fulfilment, and the sordid, boring actuality of our existence. Although in his later years Eliot became increasingly respectable and donnish, it is well to bear in mind that the author of 'Little Gidding' was also the creator of Sweeney: this does not traduce the former; rather, it explains its necessity. In one of his letters, I think, Eliot writes of the hole in his life that only God could fill: in different ways, and with increasingly religious intonations, his pre-Christian poetry delineates the contours of this Beckettian void.

 It is integral to Eliot's spiritual honesty that he does not make unjustified claims for either spiritual fulfilment or abandonment: as with Dostoevsky, he acknowledges that the absence of God is not a pit of fire, but rather a kind of spiritual confusion, a miasma of contradictory impulses and corrupt nobility, amidst which the most one can hope for is to intensify the pain - as with Raskalnikov - to a point at which a knowledge of true evil will necessarily involve its obverse; and may of course lead to insanity, as with Ivan Karamazov. The truly modern hell is not that of Milton's Satan on a lake of fire: it is tedium, spiritual apathy, sporadic, feeble desire. So with Prufrock, the absence of spirit is not experienced in agonizing pain, but in suffocating inadequacy, rather in the way a pair of lungs will depressingly continue to respire air from which the oxygen has been removed. The horror of Prufrock's life is its gentility:

  For I have known them all already, known them all -

Have known the evenings, mornings, afternoons,

I have measured out my life with coffee spoons  (Eliot, 14)

 Prufrock grasps for "objective correlatives" for his despair, but the particular affliction of his life is that he does not suffer enough, he does not exist enough. Coffee spoons are ludicrous in this context: yet there is nothing else. When he says:

   Shall I say, I have gone at dusk through narrow streets

 And watched the smoke that rises from the pipes

 Of lonely men in shirt-sleeves, leaning out of windows?...  (Eliot, 15)

 the trailing dots amply indicate the inadequacy of these images, these "butt-ends of my days and ways". The condition of his spiritual vacuity is that his suffering is silent even to himself. It is not that, like Guido de Montefeltro, his agony is a secret he can only divulge to those he imagines as dead: there is no agony, only imagery redolent of aimless melancholy, and futile politeness; but culminating in a kind of eerie, unsentient automatism:

  I should have been a pair of ragged claws

Scuttling across the floors of silent seas. (ibid)

 These lines convey some of the horror of Prufrock's spirit, by suggesting the terrible, silent dereliction of his triviality. At least in pushing the polite banality of his life to this stark recognition, Prufrock implies his void. This emptiness is more nearly approached in 'Gerontion' and 'The Hollow Men', and in more explicitly Christian terms.

 One could say that Prufrock cannot bring himself to even begin the search for religious truth, that "overwhelming question". But Gerontion is haunted by energizing memories of loss, and if he will not actively contemplate an escape from his void, he is at least aware of what he has lost:

 Signs are taken for wonders. 'We would see a sign!'

 The word within a word, unable to speak a word,

 Swaddled with darkness. In the juvescence of the year

 Came Christ the tiger  (Eliot, 39)

 The crucial difference is between "sign", the word used in John's Gospel for the Synoptics' "miracle", and "wonder". The revelation transpired, and was mistaken, in the same way the crowds demanded party magician miracles from Christ. The irruption of spirit into the world was not experienced as revelation, but as a kind of mute, haunting corruption, almost a black mass:

 Came Christ the Tiger

 In depraved May, dogwood and chestnut, flowering judas,

 To be eaten, to be divided, to be drunk

 Among whispers; by Mr Silvero

 With caressing hands, at Limoges

 Who walked all night in the next room;

 By Hakagawa, bowing among the Titians;

 By Madame de Tornquist, in the dark room

 Shifting the candles; Fraulein von Kulp

 Who turned in the hall, one hand on the door. Vacant shuttles

 Weave the wind.  (Eliot 39/40)

 The collocation of "depraved", "judas", "whispers", "caressing hands", and the images of restlessness, occult ceremonies, and erotic temptation, induce a suffocating sense of degeneracy, a corruption into which the moment of spirit, the Tiger, was expended. Years later, bereft of the implied passion, Gerontion is aware of this betrayed moment as a terrifying regret:

 After such knowledge, what forgiveness?  (Eliot, 40)

 Unlike Prufrock, Gerontion can articulate spiritual realities in their uncompromising ferocity. It is because he is aware of the squandered moment that he suffers. The Tiger becomes vengeful:

 The tiger springs in the new year. Us he devours. (ibid)

 Or perhaps this is not a simple "you can have Justice or you can have Mercy" eschatology: perhaps Gerontion fears the resurgence of spiritual possibility because, comfortably trapped in his regrets and rhetoric, salvation would be too stark a transfiguration; it would be like being eaten alive, as Eliot later presents it in 'Ash Wednesday'. Gerontion may be in a state of abject spiritual poverty without this revelation; but, after all, he always has his rhetoric to console him.

 The situation is bleaker in 'The Hollow Men'; but bleaker so as to be brighter, inasmuch as this harrowing landscape more nearly resembles the dark night of the soul, the precursor to enlightenment. The way up is the way down: so this stark vision is a religious search by implication. Without God, we exist in a twilight half-existence, neither one thing nor another:

 Shape without form, shade without colour,

 Paralyzed thought, gesture without motion. (Eliot, 89)

 In this particularly Beckettian poem, Eliot sketches a state of being so reduced as to barely qualify as human:

 We are the hollow men,

 We are the stuffed men

 Leaning together

 Headpiece filled with straw. Alas!

 Our dried voices, when

 We whisper together

 Are quiet and meaningless

 As wind in dry grass

 Or rat's feet over broken glass

 In our dry cellar  (ibid)

 The Waste Land imagery of dry grass, rats and broken glass aptly evokes the shattered dereliction of man without God. Individual identity has disintegrated, as it repeatedly did in 'Gerontion', but has resolved into a terrible dessication of utterance, numb and imperturbable, the "Alas!" but a faint sussuration. Salvation is present, and as in 'Gerontion' is regarded with some ambivalence, though the traumatised concision of this poem precludes Gerontion's evasive rhetoric:

 Eyes I dare not meet in dreams

 In death's dream kingdom

 These do not appear:

 There, the eyes are

 Sunlight on a broken column

 There, is a tree swinging

 And voices are

 In the wind's singing

 More distant and more solemn

 Than a fading star.  (Eliot, 89/90)

 As with the rose garden of 'Burnt Norton', Eliot begins with the impossibility of desire, and subtly shifts from speculation to presence. The transition from "There, the eyes are sunlight on a broken column", indicating the veiling of the eyes in dream, to the more vividly present "There, is a tree singing", enacts a tentative movement to this dangerous beauty. The terrain is considerably bleaker than in 'Gerontion', but the hope of salvation is conversely clearer. Although the poem denies the eyes:

 Not that final meeting

 In the twilight kingdom  (Eliot, 90)

 the very clarity of this unrhetorical denial is in some way more hopeful than is the poetic verve of Gerontion's:

 I that was near your heart was removed therefrom

 To lose beauty in terror, terror in inquisition.

 I have lost my passion: why should I need to keep it

 Since what is kept must be adulterated?

 I have lost my sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch:

 How should I use them for your closer contact?  (Eliot, 41)

 Although the later poem denies the salvation of the eyes, of spiritual sight, it nevertheless counters itself in the passage I have discussed above, and in the bare recognition of the hollow men as:

 Sightless, unless

 The eyes reappear

 As the perpetual star

 Multifoliate rose

 Of death's twilight kingdom

 The hope only

 Of empty men.  (Eliot, 91)

 The "unless" hanging off the first line encapsulates the religious search of the hollow men: lucid nihilism, unless - the hope of salvation an unaccountable possibility intruding from without the circle of despair. The Dantean echoes of the Virgin are obvious enough: her status in the Middle Ages as something like the symbol of Mercy and Grace is appropriately evoked herein. Because this hope is of an external agency, it is the hope "of empty men": only those vacuous enough, foolish enough, could hope; conversely, only those who have been purgatorially emptied can dare to hope. In this duality lies a spiritual search: if emptiness can be construed as nihilism and as purgation, then the way up is the way down, and this clairvoyant despair is the movement towards God. To then resolve this horror by inversion would be, as Camus might say, to ignore one of the terms of the equation: although hope persists, it must honestly persist. So it is that the poem closes with a simultaneous positioning of desire and despair, with the Shadow as the supervening absurdity of our existence:

 Between the idea

 And the reality

 Between the motion

 And the act

 Falls the Shadow  (Eliot 91/2)

 Recalling the ontological solipsism of the Bradley citation in The Waste Land, the Shadow severs the ideality of consciousness from reality. The tension between subjective ideality and bloody-minded reality is the generative agony of Eliot's poetics, as I have mentioned previously. The poem then moves to an oblique Christology:

 Between the essence

 And the descent

 Falls the Shadow  (Eliot, 92)

 "Essence" cannot but recall the lengthy disputes about the ontology of Christ within the Trinity. Christ as the Incarnation of God, the physical deliverance of redemption to Fallen man, echoes the previous evocation of the Virgin. And "descent" can be fruitfully read as either the Incarnation or, more appropriately for this poem, the Harrowing of Hell. Although the Shadow is inevitably in place, the oblique approach to religious salvation is indication of the poem's submerged spiritual striving.

 The Ariel poems stand as scupulously honest accounts of the near approach to religious salvation. They are more clearly Christian than the preceding poems, not only in overt imagery, but in spiritual positioning. These poems of the late twenties, along with 'Ash Wednesday', are principally concerned with the striving for an acknowledged and ambiguously desired religious truth. In different ways, they are about the painful but necessary transition from the old life to the new.

 'The Journey of the Magi' uses the story of the "three wise men" as a figure for the difficulty of religious search. The beautifully concrete details are testament to the gruelling, unheroic act of spiritual transition:

 And the camels galled, sore-footed, refractory.

 Lying down in the melting snow.

 There were times we regretted

 The summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,

 And the silken girls bringing sherbet.

 Then the camel men cursing and grumbling

 And running away, and wanting their liquor and women  (Eliot, 109)

 I have an image of camels as the most stubbornly unhandsome of quadrupedal luggage-bearers. It is this unglamorous work which Eliot construes as the real labour of spiritual trial. And yet the Magus is not an unadulterated authority: though not as wholly as Gerontion, he is locked into his limitations. The regret for their summer palaces - either a retreat from the spiritual trial, a wish to return, or, less likely, the lucid renunciation of this former, heathen luxury - is neatly juxtaposed against the more obviously base impulses of the camel men. The Magus obviously privileges - if only aesthetically - the "summer palaces on slopes, the terraces,/ And the silken girls bringing sherbet" over the lowly camel men "wanting their liquor and women". And yet, spiritually speaking, what is the difference between the two? The taste and opulence of the one is of no account in terms of an ultimate truth. The Magus, by dwelling over these lost pleasures with the rapture of Nick in The Great Gatsby, betrays his imperfect detachment from the merely secular.

 The subtlety of this poem's spiritual positioning is only fully evident in a close reading of the fine tonal distinctions at work throughout, by which the Magus inadvertently provides a telling commentary upon his pretensions and spiritual incomprehension. In his reading, Eliot very skilfully elicits the grumbling - again, surely comparable to the "cursing and grumbling" of the camel men? - of the Magus in his grumpy mutterings:

 And the night-fires going out, and the lack of shelters,

 And the cities hostile and the towns unfriendly

 And the villages dirty and charging high prices:

 A hard time we had of it.  (ibid)

 It is hard not to smile at the increasing rancour with which Eliot reads this catalogue of diminishingly dangerous trials, culminating in the spectacularly unthreatening dirty, expensive villages. Of course one can read these trials as symbols of the hostility of the world to Christians, but for a king to moan about "high prices" on his way to acknowledge the Incarnation is a detail of incomparable observation. The voices

 singing in our ears, saying

That this was all folly  (ibid)

 are clearly their own.

 Eliot's genius is apparent in the ease with which he juggles the spiritual seriousness of religious search with the comical pretensions of the Magus. After the cascade of Biblical imagery, the Magus comments obtusely: "But there was no information". The concatenation of imagery acts as a bewildering collage of fragmentary significance:

 And three trees on the low sky.

 And an old white horse galloped away in the meadow.

 Then we came to a tavern with vine-leaves over the lintel,

 Six hands at an open door dicing for pieces of silver,

 And feet kicking the empty wine-skins.

 But there was no information, and so we continued"  (Eliot, 110)

 I would guess this unexplained compression of imagery - while clearly prefiguring the crucifixion, and the white horse of Revelations, among other things - is positioned without commentary other than "But there was no information" to suggest the incomprehension of the Magus before symbols of such theological resonance. His vision is predominantly secular, and his account of the birth of Christ is accordingly amusing:

 But there was no information, and so we continued

 And arrived at evening, not a moment too soon

 Finding the place; it was (you may say) satisfactory.  (ibid)

 This reads like a bank manager's report upon a paper given at a conference. But Eliot's insight lies in the fusion of comic inadequacy and genuinely bitter spiritual transition:

 were we led all that way for

 Birth or Death? There was a Birth, certainly,

 We had evidence and no doubt. I had seen birth and death,

 But had thought they were different; this Birth was

 Hard and bitter agony for us, like Death, our death.

 We returned to our places, these Kingdoms,

 But no longer at ease here, in the old dispensation,

 With an alien people clutching their gods.

 I should be glad of another death. (ibid)

 The comedy of "We had evidence and no doubt" accedes to the "hard and bitter agony" of spiritual transfiguration, the Tiger. The religious search is the slow, painful extinction of the previous self; it is a kind of death. Even in the lovely 'Marina', the transformation is rendered as shipwreck:

   What seas what shores what granite islands towards my

    Timbers  (Eliot 116)

 In one of his letters, Eliot noted that his conversion to Christianity had by no means made his life easier, despite the inevitable accusations of cowardice. The Magus returns to his kingdom and his own people are now "an alien people clutching their gods": faith, as Kierkegaard, said, is plunging into water 70,000 fathoms deep; the step into religious faith makes one an uneasy citizen of the City of God, a stranger to the City of Men, to use Augustine's terminology. The difficulty of the manoeuvre springs from the ambivalence of our condition as an inextricable balancing between the Divine and the worldly. Religious belief is not a static truth by means of which one enters the Kingdom of God; it is a continual search for truth within imperfect temporality.

  Similarly, Simeon's trial is the acceptance of an unglorious, non-political redemption, a Messiah differing radically from his expectations. And in coming before the Roman persecution, Simeon shares the belatedness of modern Christians, who are denied that epiphanic clarity:

 Not for me the martyrdom, the ecstasy of thought and prayer,

 Not for me the ultimate vision.  (Eliot, 112)

 Eliot construes religious search as the gruelling ordeal of daily sacrifice, not the martyr's incandescence. It is a process of alienation from that which one has previously cherished, although in Four Quartets Eliot envisages a way of folding the rose garden of personal memory and desire within the fire of God's destructive love. The Four Quartets proceed from the standpoint of belief, but this is a continual dialectic with reality, and thus for Eliot even the final stance of 'Little Gidding' is a belief searching for its own expression in time. Belief, in this sense, is still searching.

Word Count: 3251.

Works Cited

Eliot, T.S.  Collected Poems 1909-1962.  London: Faber, 1963.

Islam-Orthodox-Dialogue
The Sixth Islam-Orthodox Dialogue wrapped up here Friday after two days.

A delegation from Religions Dialogue Center at Iran's Culture and Islamic Communications Organization and representatives of Russian Orthodox Church were present in the two-day talks in Moscow.

Chancellor of Iran's Islamic Culture and Thought Research Center and a member of the country's Supreme Cultural Revolution Council Hojjatoleslam Sadeqi Rashad headed Iran's five-member team to the talks.

The dialogue focused on man and God from the view point of Islam and Orthodox Christianity and the participants issued a final statement at the end.

The statement said talks between Russian Orthodox Church and Iran's clergies, dating back more than 10 years ago, go on successfully.

It condemned disrespect to religious sanctities, which constitute major part of human beings' life, and urged the world to counter such sacrilegious moves.

It also stressed continuation of such talks because they will help the two sides have more engagement and get more acquainted with each other.

The Seventh Islam-Orthodox Dialogue will be held in Tehran in 2010 to focus on mutual agreements.

Yes. Let me tell you. YES!

Prayer is mysterious.  We are told an earnest prayer is powerful.  We are told God will hear the prayers of the righteous.  We are told our prayers will move God's hand.  There is power in prayer we do not understand, yet we are to be obedient and persevere in it, even if our puny minds cannot conceive why.

The LORD is far from the wicked, But He hears the prayer of the righteous.  ~Proverbs 15:29

Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and wonderful results.  ~James 5:16

Finally, all of you be harmonious, sympathetic, affectionate, compassionate, and humble.  Do not return evil for evil or insult for insult, but instead bless others because you were called to inherit a blessing.  For the one who wants to love life and see good days must keep  his tongue from evil and his lips from uttering deceit.  And he must turn away from evil and do good; he must seek peace and pursue it.  For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous and his ears are open to their prayer. But the Lord’s face is against those who do evil.  ~1 Peter 3:8-18 

Now He (Jesus) was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart...  ~Luke 18:1

By awesome deeds You answer us with deliverance, O God of our salvation; you are the hope of all the ends of the earth and of the farthest seas.  ~Psalms 65:5

From Max Lucado, The Great House of God:

You and I live in a loud world.  To get someone's attention is no easy task.  He must be willing to set everything aside to listen: turn down the radio, turn away from the monitor [ouch!], turn the corner of the page and set down the book.  When someone is willing to silence everything else so he can hear us clearly, it is a  privilege.  A rare privilege, indeed.

[Your] prayers are honored [in heaven] as precious jewels.  Purified and empoweed, the words rise in a delightful fragrance to our Lord. . . . Your words do not stop until they reach the very throne of God. . . .

Your prayer on earth activates God's power in heaven, and "God's will is done on earth as it is in heaven." . . .

Your prayers move God to change the world.  You may not undersand the mystery of prayer.  You don't need to.  But this much is clear:  Actions in heaven begin when someone prays on earth.

Please remember to continue praying for Gchyayles and NorEaster at this time.

“When Planned Parenthood brings in over a billion dollars in revenues, pays no taxes, and sits at the end of the year fat and happy with $115 million in the bank and brazenly works to go after affluent women rather than helping out poor women, as their original mission statement said, I agree with the executive director of Illinois Planned Parenthood, who said 'Planned Parenthood wants to be the LensCrafters of family planning,'" said Bachmann. "In other words," she notes, "they want to be the big-box retailer." OneNewsNow

As Christians, we can not even pray that God will have mercy on America. For our government to expend such money for such atrocity is both vile and inexcusable, and will most certainly be judged for the innocent blood upon our nations hands.

Bachmann was one of several Republican lawmakers who denounced the abortion provider during a recent one-hour pro-life Special Order on the House floor called by Congressman Chris Smith (R-New Jersey). "We didn't have one Democrat come to the floor and call on Planned Parenthood to either live up to their non-profit status or renounce that status, be truthful with the American people, and start paying taxes and not be eligible for any more taxpayer subsidies," she argues. "As a matter of fact, in Houston, Planned Parenthood announced that they will be building a 75,000-square-foot building. How could that be possible -- a 75,000-square-foot building?" Bachmann questions.

Where are the Democrats that give the appearance of being so concerned about 'human rights'? Those so concerned with how many men and women have been killed in the war in Iraq? Statistic show that over 6,000,000 babies have been murdered through the hands of the abortionist since the Iraq war began. Where is the out-cry for these innocent souls that have entrusted their very livelihood to a sin sick nation?

Please pray that we would have more leaders like Senators Bachmann and Smith; it is our nations only hope of stemming such grievous acts of murder. As a responsible voting American, do you know where the presidential candidates stand? Do you even care, or are there more important issues pressing our society? The war? The economy? The sea turtle or the whale?

In Leviticus 18:21 God instructed His people "not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech, neither shalt thou profane the name of thy God. I am the LORD"

This was based on the pagan tradition of the inhabitants of the 'promised land'; they would offer their children (kill their babies) on the altars of fire to the god Molech. God commanded them that they were not to do it for it would most certainly result in their cursing.... and it did, because they did. God's word is true.

Today the names have changed, but the practice is the same. Every time a doctor reaches in and takes hold of an innocent child in his/her mother's womb he/she is offering that child to the god Molech. The only thing that is left is God's cursing, and it is here my friends. It will only intensify with time, unless we repent and turn from our wicked ways.

Whose hands?

• Planned Parenthood?
• America?
• Those who are parents by their actions but never planned on being a parent?
• We who allow it?

Does not really matter... "Cursed be he that taketh reward to slay an innocent person. And all the people shall say, Amen." Deut 27:25... for we all are guilty!

malachi

First, Father provided a lot of healing from hurts that have started since childhood.  He exposed many of the lies I fell into believing, even when I knew they were lies.  He is teaching me to continue to battle those and to replace them with truths.

One of the lies I believed was that I was a mess up, that I was careless and that people definitely couldn't trust me with tasks or possessions.  So, while there, my video camera gets stolen.  Someone had broken the padlock to my room and took the one valuable thing that me and my roommate had left, my video camera.  Quite honestly, I missed the tape more than the camera.  I actually was completely at peace about the whole incident.  It didn't bother me that the expensive piece of equipment was gone.  I just don't get attached to material possessions.

But then, I started feeling guilty.  I felt guilty that I was at peace.  And that in turn led to condemnation, believing that the reason it was stolen because I was careless.  I became grateful that it wasn't anyone else's camera because I would have been the cause of its absence.  I felt guilty that I didn't care more that it was gone.

In my past, I have misplaced or left other of MY possessions before.  And I have been chided for it, as a child and even as recently as about a year ago.  And their comments just kept running across my memory.  I started condemning myself, and for what you may ask?  For being at PEACE.  How silly is that.

People are human.  People make mistakes.  I cannot blame the people who have chided me for the lies I believe.  One thing Father had to reteach me is that it is okay to be at peace.  It doesn't mean I'm careless or that I can't be trusted.  It is a beautiful thing to be able to let things go really easily.  Granted, I would not have been okay if it had been someone else's camera, but as far as my things go, I was really okay.  I was not at a loss for anything.  A camera is something that isn't necessary to life, and I can live without it.

Plus, the situation was not my fault.  I was not careless.  I locked the door.  I was gone for maybe 45 minutes.  It is just one of those things that happen.  And Satan took that as an opportunity to bring back past accusations, past chastisements, past lies.  But Jesus is bigger.  And Jesus took that as an opportunity to squash past accusations, past chastisements, past lies.  He is good.  And I am fearfully and wonderfully made.

And so we must take this one step at a time.  It is easy to believe the lie knowingly, because our emotions and memories get in the way.  And Satan is the father of lies.  But the Lord is faithful to assist us when we ask.  We don't fight this battle alone.

And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah: And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters: And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years: And Enoch walked with God: and he [was] not; for God took him.

Enoch walked with God, and one day while they were walking together I can imagine them coming to the point where God would leave and Enoch return home and God said no, not today, come with me and he walked right into Glory with God. The thought of walking with God brings a thought to mind:

Can two walk together, except they be agreed? -Amos3:3

If two are going to walk or spend time together in their lives, they need to agree. But what does the Bible mean by agreed?

Agreed: to concur in (as an opinion): admit, concede <agrees that he is right> b: to consent to as a course of action <agreed to sell him the house>[i]

Agreed: ya`ad (Strongs H3259) to fix, appoint, assemble, meet, set, betroth; to meet by appointment; to gather, assemble by appointment; to cause to meet.[ii]

You can see some difference between the 21^st century English definition and the ancient Hebrew definition. The Hebrew means to come together at an appointed time and place. If you cannot agree to meet, you cannot get anywhere. If I want to have lunch with my pastor, we have to agree to a time & place to meet to have it. This implicitly implies that I desire to be with the person and want to be with them. If I have no desire for the Lord and do not want a relationship with Him I most likely will avoid anything that will bring me in close proximity to him. No church, no prayer, no Bible study (are you being convicted yet, I know I am as I write this!)

So if I want to walk with God, doing things to foster a strong relationship is a good thing, maybe even a very good thing. (To put it another way, if you treated your spouse like you do God, how would he or she feel, or am I starting to meddle again?)  Just a few thoughts about walking to get us started:

• Walk honestly (Romans 3:13): No deception or dishonesty should have any place in our lives.
• Walk in good works (Ephesians 2:10): We are saved by grace through faith to do good works.
• Walk in love (Ephesians 5:2) The love of God should fill us and flow out of us to others.
• Walk to please God (1 Thes. 4:1): And we please God by obeying God. This is how we show our love of God to God.

Finally:
He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.-1 John 4:6

What a goal to strive for this week.  

Supposedly, these people are affiliated with Todd Bently, but I could not find him anywhere in the video. Does anyone else see any similarities or are some Christians becoming too critical of other Christian groups? This is a fair question since pents were often ridiculed by the more traditional Christian denominations.

Video courtesy of CultFree

So have at it!  The forum is yours.

This phrase was given to me in prayer and
meditation one morning and it has gripped my heart, mind
and soul since. When God speaks to our hearts/souls, it is not idle
words, nor is it always meant just for us; he speaks to one in his
kingdom for all to hear as well. We are one in Christ! Please feel the
unity of his word as I give what has been given to proclaim
before a people that need to align themselves to a time that
has not yet been, except, in a plan 'before the world was'.
As mere humans, we have limited ability at best to see into
the future. We, as a people, lost that ability in the garden,
but there was a time it was restored unto us, it is called
'born again' [John 3:3]. A restoring to our dominion status with God as
our provider and creator. EVERYTHING is given by God to
those that live 'in' him and he lives 'in' us [1John 5:20]. He is sole provider, [true God, and eternal life]
of the little things as well as the great things that make us
capable of prenotions such as this subject. I am simply saying
God LEADS his chosen as he provides us insight so that we
may prepare for an event beyond our comprehension. Our
inertial guidance can only be the Holy Ghost within; he is
sole [2] proprietor of his church [kingdom] and we are 'free
servants'.

Lets look at a time Jesus prayed an intercessory prayer and
take our liberty to re-understand some of its elements that
is not common among religious factions today. John 17 records:
"These words spake Jesus, and lifted up his eyes to heaven, and
said, Father, the hour is come; glorify thy Son, that thy Son also
may glorify thee; An thou hast given him power over all flesh,
that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given
him. And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only
true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou has sent. I have glorified
thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest
me to do. And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own
self with the glory which I had with thee before the world was."
Skip to verse 8: "For I have given unto them [Apostles] the words which
thou gavest me; and they have recieved them, and have known
surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that
thou didst send me. [10] And all mine are thine, and thine
are mine; and I am glorified in them. " The re-sounding theme
in this prayer is glorification. It is the one thing desired, and
explained in detail how and why it is needed. Lets view it as
a scepter, because that is exactly what it is. Scepter: 'imperial
authority, sovereignty invested by royalty.' Glory: 'the condition
of highest achievement; circle of light.' I now have a totally
new perception of omnipresence, omnipitence and the meaning of dispensations. Can you see with
me how God has passed Himself down thru his diety and not
one time lost his idenity? Can you see He 'was', 'is' and 'is to
come'? Can you see with me the totality of God's presence, not
only in and thru Jesus Christ, but to the Apostles and they passed it to mankind in Acts 1&2 ? [those of us that took
on Christ in name and Spirit !] When the glory
came to Jesus, he said [11] "And now I am no more in the world,
but these are in the world, and I come to thee. Holy Father,
keep through thine OWN NAME [JESUS CHRIST]those whom thou has given me,
that they may be one, as we are." The Greek/English Lexicon
reads: "And no longer I am in the, 'world', and these in the
world are, and I to thee come. Father Holy, keep them in thy
name whom thou hast given me, that they may be one, as
we." Jesus is speaking of an event to take place as if it HAD
been done, glorification. Lets pay close attention in Acts 1:21
" Wherefore of these men which have companied with us all
the time that the LORD JESUS went in and out among us,"
Acts 2:36 " Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly
that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified,
both Lord and Christ." Just as Jesus was glorified, we can't
know he is 'Lord' until we have been glorified with the infilling
of his Spirit. We are then glorified, and hold the scepter of
glory until his return. God bore himself a body to pass thru the
blood, death, burial, [supreme sacrifice]
that he could reside 'in' us. "INTRINSIC PERSONA OF GOD IN
CHRIST"

Intrinsic: [as in Anatomy] 'located within, or, exclusively of.
Persona: [psychol] 'the outer personality, or, facade [fa-saad]
presented to others by an individual.' God born himself an
anatomy and his persona was 'visioned' in his personality: "..no
greater love than this.." "I will not leave you comfortless: I will
come to you.." " But the comforter, which is the Holy Ghost.." "
Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me...
but the Father dwelleth in me, he doeth the works." " And I
knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the
same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit
descending, and REMAINING ON HIM, the same is he which
baptizeth with the Holy Ghost." " But God be thanked,
that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have obeyed from the
heart that 'form of doctrine' which was delivered you." "For
the wages of sin is death; but the GIFT of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord." " And they were all filled with
the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the
Spirit gave them utterance." INTRINSIC PERSONA OF GOD IN
CHRIST PASSED ON TO THOSE THAT WERE GIVEN TO HIM...

It is imperitive we drop the debate issues of Christianity
and focus on our souls salvation. There is no other doctrine/
salvation other than that Christ taught and delivered. One can
can use various scripture for 'another' form of salvation, but
until they submit to Jesus Christ, they are a tinkling symbol.

Hells location

The thieves are now putting a record of their crimes on YouTube! The anoymous poster writes: "Guy in the striped shirt takes a cracker hostage in the Brompton Oratory, London, on 13th July 2008. The Catholic Church forfeits all rights to respect for its ludicrous beliefs, including 'transubstantiation', while its anti-condom campaign in Africa results in tens of thousands of deaths. The cracker will be kept wrapped in a condom until the Catholic Church recognises the legitimacy of the Golden Rule."

WE WILL HAVE TO MAKE MANY PRAYERS OF REPARATION FOR THIS ECCLESIASTICAL TERRORISM!

He started playing and recording cassettes, firstly with "lighter" metal music, but gradually he realized that what really moved him was the hard core.

Read the full story

The should get this guy for the next SBL conference!

---------------------------------------

My brother has long contended that many lyrics from a typical hymnal would make great fodder for any Christian metal/death/speed metal band. Maybe Brother Bonizzi could cover this old hymn on his next album; it would make a brilliant metal song:

Cross of Jesus, Cross of Sorrow

By William J.S. Simpson

Cross of Jesus, cross of sorrow,
Where the blood of Christ was shed,
Perfect Man on you did suffer,
Perfect God on you has bled!

Here the King of all the ages,
Throned in light before worlds could be,
Robed in mortal flesh is dying,
Crucified by sin for me.

O mysterious condescending!
O abandonment sublime!
Very God Himself is bearing
All the sufferings of time!

Evermore for human failure
By His passion we can plead;
God has born all mortal anguish,
Surely He will know our need.

This—all human thought surpassing—
This is earth’s most awful hour,
God has taken mortal weakness!
God has laid aside His Power!

Once the Lord of brilliant seraphs,
Winged with love to do His will,
Now the scorn of all His creatures,
And the aim of every ill.

Up in Heaven, sublimest glory
Circled round Him from the first;
But the earth finds none to serve Him,
None to quench His raging thirst.

Who shall fathom that descending,
From the rainbow circled throne,
Down to earth’s most base profaning,
Dying desolate alone.

From the “Holy, Holy, Holy,
We adore Thee, O most High,”
Down to earth’s blaspheming voices
And the shout of “Crucify.”

Cross of Jesus, cross of sorrow,
Where the blood of Christ was shed,
Perfect Man on thee did suffer,
Perfect God on thee has bled!

Recently at the Madame Tussaud's Waxwork Museum in Berlin, Germany, a man ripped off the wax head of Adolph Hitler's effigy. He calmly stood in line, and when it was his turn to view the wax figure and vignette, representing Hitler in his office during World War II, he pressed through two guards and ripped of Hitler's head, shouting, "No more war!"

Click here for the story.

Much controversy surrounded the inclusion of the wax figure of Hitler in the waxworks museum. The figure is being repaired now and will be returned.

A generation removed, this is just a small example of how much Israel, Germany, and Europe still need to heal. I believe God has a special calling between Germany and Israel, as a sign to the world of the power of forgiveness and redemption.

And many have dedicated their lives to seeing reconciliation between Germany and Israel. They have made much progress. One such group is the Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary, an order of Protestant nuns in Darmstadt, Germany, and Gateways Beyond International, in Cyprus, a Messianic Jewish discipleship school with a strong calling to both Israel and Germany.

Log on here, Evangelical Sisterhood of Mary and here Gateways Beyond International to see how God is healing hearts and reconciling peoples.

Say what you want about the man. He quotes more scriptures than a Pentecostal preacher during a revival meeting and puts on a facade that he thinks about God more than Mother Teresa's devoutees in Calcutta.

Even though he has a trunk load full of issues with his faith, and a halfwit theologian can make swiss cheese out of some of his plans to include the Church, it's working.

Christians love him. The media adores him. And he is several percentages points ahead of John McCain in the polls - namely when it comes to what evangelicals think. So, where are the flowers and chocolates addressed to the Church from McCain's camp? According to this story from the AP, they dunno.

"George Bush has a very compelling personal story, a very compelling religious experience and in their hearts they believed he was a man who loved the same Lord they did," said Zylstra [some dude quoted for this story]. "They might not agree with all his policies, but they trusted him that when the chips were down, he would do the right thing. McCain is not a man who incites the same passion."

However, the honeymoon is over for Christians in this election. Many members of the Church want McCain to be the man because he supposedly supports more conservative and biblical-friendly views, but may not have a choice. Oh wait, they do have a choice - don't choose at all:

In the ongoing AP-Yahoo News Poll, only 10 percent of white evangelical Christians say they are excited by this election, compared with 20 percent of Americans overall. A third of these evangelicals said they were interested in the election, but half said they were frustrated by it.

Frustration is not a great thing to have in your political camp, Johnny boy. You see, in this country of seemingly uneducated armchair pundits who believe more paraphernalia than the actual issues and voting records of candidates, frustration can be better defined as apathy. That is what keeps folk's blessed @$$urance on the couch come Election Day.

MEMO to McCainiacs: Figure out how to get this cat to give a testimony without the help of a teleprompter. Otherwise the "Straight-talk Express" may have to shut up permanently. IJS.

"The leader of the Italian Democratic Party, Walter Veltroni, today proposed the creation of an 'Organization of Religions Nations' Rome-based, and said that the idea' liked 'by both the secretary of the UN, Ban Ki-moon, and Pope Benedict XVI.

Veltroni explained that his idea is the creation of a 'palace of religions' in Rome, like the United Nations in New York, where representatives of all faiths of the world can' meet and talk among themselves.

The political leader said that it has already proposed his initiative, which he called 'United Religions' (Religions Nations), both Pope Benedict XVI and the secretary of the UN, who' liked the idea.

Veltroni announced today that proposal during an appearance before reporters in Rome as a farewell, after it yesterday submit his resignation as mayor of the city to begin his campaign as a candidate for president of the Government in the upcoming April elections.

Rome is the headquarters for three of the United Nations agencies that deal with food: the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the Organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO) and the Global Agenda Food (WFP)." 

Defending Contending has tons of stuff like this. I couldn't help it.

My husband, Frank, had an important birthday yesterday.  A few days before the actual day, we had a some friends over and gave him a birthday party.  He was surprised and honored that so many people would come to celebrate his day.  He was grateful for all the effort put into making this birthday a special time.

My dilemma with birthdays is the people who abhor any kind of recognition.  Birthdays and anniversaries are painful events for them.  Yet, on the other hand, it's important that we recognize those who work among us.  My wonderful Melbourne supervisor, JoAnne, will have a birthday in a couple of days.  The problem is that she needs and wants nothing.  Her greatest desire is to do her job without any kind of fanfare or show.  Usually, she is able to accomplish that easily.  There is a big problem with the JoAnne's of the world.  It is that the rest of us are so indebted to them that we have a legitimate need to thank them in a tangible way.

Therefore, next Saturday at our Vero Special Gathering where she is a volunteer and then again at our Melbourne Special Gathering on Sunday where she is a paid staff, we will have a small celebration with a card and a cake.  She will be angry and unhappy about the attention.  In reality, understanding her level of discomfort, I have to admit that we are going to be doing this for our members in both programs, not for JoAnne. 

Special Gathering is a ministry within the mentally challenged community.  We work with people who are developmentally delayed.  While we do classic ministry, evangelism and discipleship, our members love to celebrate birthdays.  We are greatly endebted to many people who work and volunteer with us.  Seldom do we get to say a hardy, "Thank you."  JoAnne is a small sampling of the professional community that labors to make our lives possible.  While I know that some of the people working with our members in a dozen different capacities may not be the cream of the batch.  However, most of them give and give and then give some more.

Who are the people who give more than you could ever repay?  What are some of the ways you have found to repay them?

July 17, 2008

816,000 Dead Black Babies Since Obama Announced Candidacy