THANKSGIVING 2013

Give thanks with a grateful heart.
Give thanks to the Holy One
Give thanks because He's given Jesus Christ His Son.....

That's #1 on the 'thanks' list, but there is soooooo much to be thankful for - in spite of difficult and unpleasant circumstances in life.

This morning in our Thanksgiving morning worship service our pastor challenged each of us to think about  something unusual that we are thankful for - - something beyond the norm of family, friends, a home, food, etc.

I'm grateful for the Holy Spirit speaking, nudging, guiding, reminding....  God promised me several years ago "No weapon fashioned against you will stand."  And - He reiterated that to me recently in the midst of disappointing developments that would try to deter me.   I'm grateful for that today.

I learned years ago that it is impossible to defend oneself against untruths and innuendos, so there is no value in trying.  I am commanded to 'pray for those who despitefully use you' so I will.  God is big enough to work things out.  To change hearts.  To bring clarity.  And if He doesn't, He is big enough to walk with me through the fire without my even smelling like smoke.  

...And now, let the weak say "I am strong"
Let the poor say "I am rich because of what the Lord has done for us"
Give Thanks!

Thank you, Lord....

I don't always appreciate the circumstances, but I appreciate knowing You walk with me through them.

Love

Lola

Singing Psalms

All summer I have been reading from the book of Psalms for my devotions.  They are yet another proof that God speaks to us through His Word - - that what was penned by the various Psalmists ca. 1000 years before Jesus was born is relevant today and made real to us through the power of the Holy Spirit.  Insights that invite us to His feet to worship.  Insights that resonate for where we are.  I love God's written Word.  It is alive with truth and the opportunity to discover who we are in God's kingdom.

One of the songs in my children's musical is 'You Got Ta Read Da Word'.  The repeated message of the song is "You got ta read da Word if you want to grow."  It is foundational.  I want to keep growing!

CREATION - 5774 YEARS AND COUNTING....

The Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah is a visible reminder of the span of time as recorded since time began being recorded following creation.

Sunday I had the joy of telling the story of Creation and The Fall as recorded in the Bible in Genesis chapters 1, 2 & 3 to the Kindergarten through 5th Grade Kids at my church.  It was a lot of territory to cover in 15 - 20 minutes so I didn't go into eras of time that could have been spanned in each 'day' of creation.  I believe God's Word  -  that God created the heavens and the earth, and I don't care if He chose to do it over eons or spoke creation into being eons-old in a single day.  The account in Genesis could easily be just face value that God spoke and whatever He spoke came to be.  I prefer to think of it precisely that way - - but, as I said, it doesn't matter.  What matters is that He did it!

The current focus of the story for me is the difference in how He created all other facets of creation but man.  Light from dark.  He spoke and it was done.  Waters divided.  He spoke and it was done.  Sun & Moon.  Planets.  Galaxies.  Dry land.  Seas.  Fish.  Sea life.  Earth. Plants/trees/vegetation of all sorts.  Animals.  He spoke and it was done.  But He got His hands dirty with man.

Our triune God said, "Let us make man in our image...."  Then he took the dust of the earth and formed it into the shape of the very first male.  I used to make mud pies.   It's dirty business....creative...and very personal.  When God had everything shaped just the way He wanted, He blew His breath into the man and man came alive.   Adam had a while to name all the animals and have a little 'cave' time; and then God performed the very first surgery.  He put Adam to sleep, removed one of his ribs, and used it as the beginning piece for His most beautiful creation:  Eve.  And God saw that it was very good!

Prepping for that lesson was the first time that the difference in creation between everything else and people struck me so indelibly.  I'm glad God got dirty to create us.  He can still handle our dirt - - and He sent His Son to prove it!

Rosh Hashanah 5774

Sundown tonight is when Rosh Hashanah begins.  Evening at sundown is the beginning of each new day for the Jewish faithful.  It was always so, but I didn't pay attention until my first visit to Israel.  Their day goes from sundown to sundown - - and any part of a day is considered a day.

This is a little aside - - but knowing that helped me sooooooo much.  When preachers talked about Jesus being dead for 3 days, it didn't track.  Friday afternoon at 3 p m to Sunday morning before dawn was not 3 days.  If the Bible writers couldn't even get that right what else were they wrong about?  I knew what God said was always right - - but perhaps man in the middle had muddled it up....  Then I learned that any part of a day was considered a day.  I don't know why that one single clarification made such a difference to me - - but it did!  Part of Friday  + All of Saturday +  Part of Sunday  = 3 days the way Jews reckoned time.

Of course, learning about the Jewish calendar has also helped me understand things I didn't previously understand.  There is so much to discover.  Even paying attention to the account of creation in Genesis is clarified....the evening and the morning were the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, etc., day

When we were in Israel in 2011our guide told us that the Messiah would come at Rosh Hashanah - - and that if Jesus is the Messiah, that is when He will return.   It makes each Rosh Hashanah a time of anticipation!  Even so, Come, Lord Jesus.

DAVID HAD ABSALOM

I don't know how I so successfully manage to place Biblical 'heroes' on a pedestal - - but I do.  Specifically at this moment I am thinking of King David.  A couple of days ago in a 'discouraging' moment over a fragile relationship God reminded me that David had Absalom.  His own son tried to kill him, and took over David's rightful place as King.  What is truly remarkable is how David reacted.  He loved his son, in spite of Absalom's behavior.  That is agape love - - loving when doing so doesn't make sense - - when vindication would be warranted....   I want David's heart in difficult circumstances!

ANOTHER HEIR TO THE THRONE

A new 'ROYAL' has been born in England.  So much anticipation!  So much hoopla!  So many paparazzi!  A little prince, 3rd in line to the throne!

I couldn't help comparing it to another birth ca. 2007 years ago.  The Lord of lords and King of kings came into this world not as a conspicuous 'royal' but as a baby born to non-royals...born in a cave that housed animals, laid in a cattle manger 'cradle'.  However, no one has had a more prestigious birth announcement!  A myriad of angels appeared to a few lowly shepherds keeping watch over the flocks by night on the hillsides just outside Bethlehem, and announced the birth of the Messiah with unparalleled fanfare.  And (possibly as much as 2 years later) Astrologers from the East came bearing gifts to honor Him, for the stars proclaimed His birth!

My prayer is that the little prince grows up to know the King who is King of kings!

Can Islam Coexist?

I want to offer a disclaimer before you read what I believe is a very important piece to pay attention to.   I have very precious Muslim friends who are peace-loving and I have always defended them when anyone references the beliefs and behaviors of Muslims radicals.  But, there is a foundational issue of the beliefs of Islam that needs to be paid attention to.  I believe this commentator addresses that very well.  So - with some trepidation, I am posting Bill Warner's comments as food for thought.  

Lola

April 24, 2013

Islam Coexists?

By Bill Warner

There is an enormous irony contained in the Boston Marathon bombing. When the jihadi Tsarnaev brothers carjacked a Mercedes, it had a Coexist bumper sticker.

The Coexist bumper sticker is the religious symbol of the multicultural crowd -- you know -- all religions are the same. Well, the leading symbol of those who want to Coexist is the star and crescent Islam. And exactly how well has Islam coexisted with all the others? What kind of neighbor has Islam been over history?

Start with Mohammed. We know an enormous amount about Mohammed as a neighbor to Kafirs (non-Muslims), pagans, Jews, and Christians.

When Mohammed was in Mecca before he became a Muslim, he was a good neighbor who was prosperous and helped to settle disputes. But, that all changed when he became the prophet of Allah. Once he became a public preacher of Islam, he became an irritant to his neighbors. You see, not only did Mohammed know what was right, he demanded that everybody do everything his way, Allah's way. He was a neighbor who was always right and you were always wrong. Not only were you wrong, but your parents and grandparents were wrong. Mohammed no longer settled arguments; he created arguments. After 13 years of this, the Meccans told Mohammed to leave Mecca.

So he went to the town of Medina, which was half Jewish. And what kind of neighbor was Mohammed to the Jews? Put briefly, two years later, Medina was Judenrein (cleansed of Jews). When he arrived, there were three tribes of Jews. In rapid order, the first tribe was driven out of town, bereft of its goods. Then the second tribe of Jews was exiled. They were lucky. The last of the Jewish tribes suffered the most. The women were enslaved and sold wholesale for money to purchase horses and arms for jihad. For the rest of his life, Mohammed used slavery to help finance his jihad. The children were kidnapped and adopted into Muslim families to be raised as Muslims. Then the 800 male Jews were all beheaded.

But wait. Mohammed was not through coexisting with the Jews. Later he left Medina and went to Khaybar and attacked them. Mohammed crushed them, took their wealth and put them to work under the Sharia s dhimmis and give him half of what they earned.

That was how Mohammed coexisted with the Jews.

But Mohammed was not through with coexisting with the Arabians. He attacked the Meccan caravans. His jihadists killed, kidnapped, stole, assassinated and fought the pagan Arabs at every turn. Mohammed's coexistence policy with the Arabs was jihad. This went on until every Arab became a Muslim.

After Mohammed made every soul in Arabia convert to Islam, he turned his coexistence policy to the Christians north of Arabia in Syria. He attacked the Christians, with the losers becoming dhimmis just like the Jews.

Dhimmis are the way that the Sharia allows Kafirs to coexist within a Muslim society. The dhimmi is a third-class non-citizen who pays special taxes and has no real civil rights. A dhimmi cannot testify against a Muslim in court, for instance.

Look at how Islam coexisted with Africa. A clue as to the nature of that coexistence is that Arabic has one word, "abd", that means both black slave and African. Context must supply which meaning is used. Islam ran the slave trade on the West coast, East coast and Mediterranean coasts of Africa. Islam sold every slave that was brought to the Americas. Conservative estimates are that 120 million Africans were killed in the jihad that produced all of the slaves in Africa.

How did Islam coexist with the Buddhists in what is now Afghanistan? Jihad annihilated every single Buddhist and their libraries and monasteries.

There is a massive database of the coexistence between Islam and the rest of the world at thereligionofpeace.com. It catalogs more than 20,000 jihad attacks around the world since 9/11 2001. Here is a chart of the data of the top 4 nations as victims of jihad:

(The original document from the internet has a graph showing the number of attacks between 2002 and 2012 against 4 countries.  Please go to the internet article to review.  It would not paste.)

Put another way, this is how Islam coexists today with Jews, Buddhists, Christians and Hindus. It practices jihad against all non-Muslims -- Kafirs.

The idea of "coexist" has a social ring to it: we're all one big happy family. But how do we talk about all religions and not get into which one is right or best? Well, there is an easy way to do it. If you are not a member of a religion, the only thing you care about is how you are treated by those who belong to that religion. In short, you only care about the ethics and character of the adherent.

All of the world's (other) religions have an ethical code that is rooted in the Golden Rule. Islam does not have a Golden Rule. Mohammed's life is the perfect example of how not to be a good neighbor. How do you coexist with a neighbor who has the ethical choice of jihad -- of murder and deceit?

What do religious leaders in American think about coexisting with Islam? They love it. "Coexist" is the mental mush that fills the heads of the useful idiots that go to the Family of Abraham religious dialogues. The ministers and rabbis who go to these dialogs know as much about Islam as can be found on the Coexist bumper sticker. Their ignorance is astounding. They are there to coexist and the imam is there to dominate. Dhimmi Christians and Jews want to tie, the Muslim wants to win.

But the mental mush of coexistence is not just in the heads of the dhimmi religious leaders, it also fills the heads of law enforcement and military. Under Bush and Obama, all of those who actually know something about Islam inside the military and law enforcement have been eliminated. FBI and military training files have been purged to satisfy the Muslim Brotherhood. So our protectors are forbidden to study the war doctrine of political Islam. They are prevented from naming the enemy and studying them.

There is only one way to coexist with Islam over time. Islam must submit to Kafir civilization and we must never submit to Islam, not even in the smallest detail. This means we must all know the smallest details of Islam and that begins with the knowledge of Mohammed and his wars against all Kafirs.

Bill Warner is the director of the Center for the Study of Political Islam

Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/04/islam_coexists.html#ixzz2W1GtgS6l

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