The Problem With Peace

The angels declared "Peace On Earth Good will To Man" when Jesus's birth was heralded. Later, Jesus said, "I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." So, you say, there he goes again with the contradictions!

Peace on earth is still a prophetic word that will come to pass. Why is peace so far from us? Because satan and his cohorts roam and dominate the earth.

Jesus said,"I came to destroy the works of the devil" That is a prophetic word. However we participate in the fulfilling of that promise. Jesus said he gave US all authority over the power of the enemy. We must seize that power in order to fulfill the prophecies. We die for lack of knowledge. We must learn to see the works of the enemy.

Jesus said that people will be enemies in their own households. How much more then, enemies between nations.

We are not able to attain to peace because we have a fight ahead of us: a fight against the devil and his "seed."

The antichrist, the world leader we have heard about, is supposed to be appeal to our desire for peace and promise peace. It is important to recognize that peace can be a deceptive concept employed by the devil to gain control. Peace will come, but not until there are some battles.

America has sinned much against the Lord, yet America is loved by the Lord, and still promotes the concept of freedom of choice, which has been abused. And now we also see freedom being threatened in America. But those who attack America visciously truly hate the idea of freedom. There is no easy solution to deal with that problem, but saying that you want to back down when you have been attacked because you want peace is not a solution.

If you and your family were attacked by someone who entered your home, raped the women and children, then killed them and ransacked all your possessions - you would in turn want to come against that enemy to destroy his power. What happened to America was exactly the same sort of thing, only it was our brothers, our sisters, our mothers and our fathers who were attacked and even destroyed. Our Uncle Sam is going after that enemy to try to paralyze his power, so he cannot repeat what happened on 9/11/2001. To say that we are not at war for that purpose, that our leaders care so little for us, is absurd. To say that they would expend lives for something other than that purpose is ludicrous.

I believe that any man, including Bill Clinton, or for that matter, John Kerry, is carefully scrutinized by a large number of significant people as to whether or not he is genuinely concerned for the welfare of his country, before he is even allowed to be considered as a candidate for the presidency. How can Americans be so cynical as to assume that our president today is not equally concerned for the welfare of his country? There is a disease of cynicism that pervades our culture. Much of that comes from trusting the wrong people, making the wrong choices, and having the usual results: disappointment. Much of the fault lies with each individual's wrong choices.

Yet, individuals turn and blame their president, the way they blame God, as if he is God. It is time to take responsibility for our own mistakes and stop placing the blame on leadership and stand behind the leader who was fully qualified to be in that position.

I have knockdown, drag out battles with Satan, the enemy of our souls. Used to be that I got knocked out like Rocky. He was on the floor, bleeding, the count was on, and he didn't know if he'd make it up. He managed to get up and keep fighting until he won. I lost. I lost many battles until I learned who I am in christ and the power of the Word of God.I had to learn because I was being destroyed. Then, the last time I was "down on the floor bleeding" I got up and fought until I won.

Satan is a cold, calculating, viscious enemy, partly embodied by the killers of 9/11. He wants nothing more than to kill, to steal and to destroy. I wake up in the morning, particularly when I am in large cities, and particularly certain large cities in America or Canada, and am aware that the devil has been plotting all night how to destroy me, but is worried now that I'm awake and conscious so I can speak the word of God. Always I am aware he is on my heels and I feel his hot suffocating breath on me at times.

We are hard pressed on every side, yet not crushed, we are perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not forsaken, struck down but not destroyed. I thank God for the timeless words of our Apostle Paul.

We are going to fight, and we are going to win.

Anti-War (Pacifist) Capitalist With a Champagne Glass

The anti-war (pacifist) capitalist sits back, tips his glass and condemns the war and criticizes those who fight, while soldiers are standing ready to sacrifice their very lives (their LIVES) to defend that person's life and his right to criticize.

When was the last time you sacrificed your life?

This is not a dress rehearsal. No one got to rehearse 9/11. No one got to rehearse Katrina.

I think about the guy on 9/11 on the plane heading for the white house, theoretically. He helped to attack the terrorists and crash the plane early. He and the other men who carried this off had to make a split second decision, thinking, "well, let's see, we're all going to die, so let's die right."

One minute you're flying on a beautiful morning, just leaving the coast, the next minute you're rushing some terrorists and the plane is headed for the ground. It all happened that fast.

We're all in a plane that's about to crash. Life is this one short blinking of an eye. Are you ready?

Let's die right.

Is America the Greatest Country?

Feel free to begin a forum telling me what you prefer about America or why you prefer another country, either the one you live in or one you would like to live in.

For me, America feels like home, and so when I traveled in Europe it felt cold and unpromising, though I enjoyed the culture, loved the architecture and had many positive experiences with the people.

It seems America has been more of an explosion of talent and a place to get something started.

Economy: now America is experiencing trouble, but I've been appalled, overwhelmed by the economic state of England and Canada, where I have spent the most time in the last ten years. Coming home from Canada couldn't be a happier experience. I have, however, found awesome people in Canada. I have not yet visited outside the Western world, and look forward to: China, Africa, South America, particularly Columbia, and Argentina, Israel, and look forward to being again in France and England. Truly the world outside America has been experiencing an explosion of faith in Jesus, an explosion of love for God and miracles that we in America are cut off from to some degree. It is for these wonderful things that I long to travel and visit people.

India would be interesting as well. For obvious reasons the Middle East is not a good idea right now, but I have had very good friends, though perhaps passing through my life, but friends from the Arab world as well.

Things French

Please tell me if I've forgotten any.

French Toast
French Bread
French Waiter
French Kissing
French Fries
French Press
French Language
French Speaking
French Accent
French People
French Silk Pie
French Riviera
French Cuffs
French Dressing
French Revolution
French Impressionists
French Vanilla! (or Vanille)
French Poodle

Survivor Scam in Minnesota

Two Minneapolis papers, the Pioneer Press and the Star Tribune from Sept 16 and 17 respectively, reported a story that ultimately had me laughing hysterically.

A local woman, Derya Goral, was excited to offer her home to a hurricane victim, a woman of 22 named Rachelle Bruneau, not knowing that the young woman was a fraud - a freeloader posing as a Katrina victim. This part is not funny, of course, since using people's kindness in the aftermath of this tragedy is terrible, but read on.

The Minnesota woman figured out that Bruneau wasn't legitimate, but only after letting the stranger into her home and after a lot of effort to get her there and provide for her. Goral sent Bruneau packing, not realizing the "victim" was not only a fake but a fugitive from the law for supposed fraud, grand theft and probation violation. Once Bruneau had been sent away on a bus, the police came to Goral's door the next day looking for her. Can you almost hear Ms. Goral falling through the floor?

Bruneau had originally gone to a Christian shelter in Nashville, Tenn. claiming to be a survivor, but in fact is from Tampa, Florida - on the run. Goral found out about her by posting her home on MN responds, a Yahoo! group organized for the relief effort.

Rachelle Bruneau gave Goral some clues earlier on. One was when Goral arranged for Bruneau to pick up a bus ticket to get her from Louisiana to Minnesota that was being provided for by an agency, and Bruneau was told that the code word for her to pick it up with is "Katrina." Bruneau laughed and said, "that's such a funny name, why did you pick that? Are you Russian?"

At that point, I totally lost it and could hardly finish the story. All I know is that she hadn't been caught by September 16, so beware! Just keep a lookout for a woman who's never heard of the name of the worst natural disaster in US history but knows her languages!

HERO

The person who is lambasted with criticism, though he/she is kind, generous, loving, considerate, and gives, and though he/she is intelligent, funny, brave, and creative, with no recognition. When that person is able to forgive and go on, to survive without bitterness, to come up off the floor time and time again, laughing and loving - that person is brave and a hero.

Hair in the 1980's - WOW!

Dynasty cast

Don Juans and Donna Juans, part 2

Go here for part 1. Would you be loved, or would you be great? Love is in contest with our pride. This was first played out in the garden with Adam and Eve. They had to choose between sweet love and security in God and actually being God. That they could be God was a lie, offered by Satan who himself believed that he could be God. God created Satan, though we still don't know why. God is God - eternal, infinite - beyond our comprehension. How could we be God? If we didn't drink water for over three days, we'd die. If we drink too much water, recent studies show that we'd also die. The idea, even the idea that we could be God is absurd. Satan said we could be like God, which is also ridiculous since God made us in His image. We didn't need to be like God because we already are. It was all a big deception.

But Satan said we would be like God in knowing good and evil. He really meant be like him and be an enemy of God, committing evil and learning to destroy, because God would have shown us the truth about good and evil.

Adam and Eve chose Satan's lie - something we do time and time again. We always have that choice to make between love and pride, which often means love over power. (Dire Straits would add: Love Over Gold.)

If you know that someone loves you, you have two choices. You can gloat over it - it's your victory, you now have power over someone because of their love. Or, you can choose to receive love and let it change you.

Billy Graham can think of himself and how great he is or he can be humbled that he is no better than anyone else yet was offered the opportunity to touch so many lives. Bill Gates can think himself a god and can use his genius to the exclusion of others, or he can be glad that he, along with other geniuses has made my writing, our writing so much easier because of the upside of technology.

Doctors can try to rob and manipulate people, or they can take advantage of their great opportunity to bring healing.

We always have two choices before us. The afore mentioned souls have had to make those choices. The powers of darkness stand by every minute to apply pressure to take the pride route, and sometimes the pressure is overwhelming.

When people are not raised on love they do not know how good it feels and they do not know how to receive it. They learn the patterns of pride, and the way of love becomes foreign and frightening to them. Pride is developed in the absence of love. What happens when a culture is full of such people?

The culture we are in has taken great strides away from love. The bible predicted a day would come when "most men's love would grow cold." That is this day! The good new is that God never changes, and God is LOVE.

But self love has taken a fall along with all the other love that has been drained from a society that centers on gaining property, proving the genius of man, and having power.

When you are satisfied with the love in your childhood, it lasts for a lifetime. In fact, celibacy can be achieved with surprisingly little effort, if one aspires to it, because emotional satisfaction has been achieved early. Emotional maturity, developed early, sets the tone. So says psychologist and author Gabrielle Brown,PhD, author of "The New Celibacy" - now out of print.

She compared the nuns and monks of today with yesterday, pointing out that it has become too difficult today for most to maintain a celibate lifestyle. In the past, before industrialization, our agrarian society stuck to simple family bonding and people found emotional satisfaction.

Isn't that amazing? Love is warmth. Warmth is physical. Simply feeling loved warms your body as well as your soul. Notice how The Passion of The Christ shows Jesus having a close bond with his mother? See, Jesus did not achieve celibacy in a vaccuum just because He was God in the flesh. God was subjecting himself to human weakness when he came. The truth is, even God in the flesh could not have been as healthy a soul at 30 as Jesus was without a healthy mom, dad, siblings and religious community. His mom, who we observe in the film - the warmth of her simple motherly love warmed his soul and his body - so He could more easily achieve a celibate lifestyle. God had to ensure that Jesus came to earth in the "love bubble" that he did.

Do you realize that being love starved makes you sex starved? Gabrielle Brown wrote her book in 1980! It was a time when lots of people living in Los Angeles were reacting against the sexual revolution and deciding to go "cold turkey" as far as sex. They were the neo-celibates. I met one while traveling in Europe in 1983. He was burned. He couldn't move himself to touch another woman and receive in his soul the impact of yet another involvement. He was from Los Angeles. I had just come from Los Angeles, but had managed not to let its control smother me. I left before it did. I did feel an impact but not like this man I met. We traveled briefly together and stayed in the same hotel room in southern France just to save money. I can assure you - he was a neo-celibate.

If this was true in 1980, what is true today?

Why is it painful to go back to the same person that Don or Donna has slept with instead of finding a new one? First of all there is shame. Both partners feel shame and don't want to face each other with the reality. Secondly, it is the pain of intimacy. We have to love ourselves and be OK with ourselves to be able to be intimate with someone else, and then it needs to be someone who is also OK with themselves. What "being OK" is would require more words, but you can just take a universal meaning from that. Avoiding intimacy is a way of avoiding knowing yourself or having someone else know you.

I respect John Bradshaw to some degree, another author of the past, yet he falls short. He tries to patch things up by saying, "let's just get smart here. Let's just raise better families and have better people." That was about as smart as just saying "no." We are beyond that, hello. Too late for "let's just........."

Let's just get something straight. We cannot do it. Whatever it is - we cannot do it. Every good and perfect gift comes down from the father of lights. Not one good thing can we procure from within. It's all a work of God's infinite grace, which becomes more infinite the more I know who He is. "Don't try, surrender," was what one Messianic Jewish friend I know heard the day he decided to believe in Jesus.

We need to stop trying, oh work ethic driven, performance oriented, workaholic folks. This can be far less popular, surrendering to "the cross." Ugh! You mean, just surrender myself to the death, the unbearable death of being lord of my own life? Clue: after death comes resurrection!

Families may have gotten sicker, but many have been sick for generations. There is only one way out - look up!

Gotcha!

What the young ones are saying today. For the older ones to rehearse and thus become more on the cutting edge!




"Gotcha!"
"Right on" (borrowed from my generation, but now used in a light, matter of fact way as agreement instead of as an exclamation)
"Cool" (also borrowed)
"No worries!"
"Rock on!" (probably also borrowed)
"It's all good!"
"Righteous dude"
"Righteous" (borrowed)
"Sweet"
"Dude!" (also borrowed)
"Shut Up!" similar to "you have got to be kidding!"
"like" You need to know, young ones that this "LIKE" thing goes all the way back to the late 70's in Southern California. It was used by young American girls, especially in the mall, and was immortalized by Frank Zappa in 1982 in a humorous single called "Valley Girl" referring to the San Fernando Valley on the other side of a hill from Los Anglee, California. That's why by now we all can hardly resist talking this way.

here is my own adjective, if only it could be injected into the mainstream:
"COLOSSAL!"

I'm tryin', I'm tryin' - to say "Gotcha" instead of "I see," or "I get it." And I'm trying to say, "right on," instead of, whatever, but it's hard because there was a time when I was trying to stop saying "right on" cuz it went out of style. Weird. He youngins! Be sure to remind me of any that are not listed.

Please be sure to remind me of any others!

Katrina Sept 2, 2005

My heart is broken for the suffering in Louisiana right now.

God directed me to several scriptures. Waking me from a sound sleep. I went to The Word. (Incidentally, night before last, I also woke from a sound sleep at the very hour Katrina was hitting, not knowing why, but I felt so restless and disturbed. Yow!)

Psalm 46: God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in time of trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, though the mountains tremble in its tumult. God is our refuge and strength.

Psalm 107: Oh that men would give thanks to the Lord for His goodness and for His wonderful works to the children of men.

They go up to the heavens. They go down again in the depths. Their soul melts because of trouble. They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits end. Then they cry out to the Lord in their trouble and He brings them out of their distresses. He calms the storm, so that its waves are still. Then they are glad because they are quiet. So He guides them to their desired haven.

When they are diminished and brought low through oppression affliction and sorrow, He pours contempt on Princes and causes them to wander in the wilderness where there is no way. Yet he sets the poor on high, far from affliction, and makes their families like a flock. The righteous see it and rejoice, and all iniquity stops its mouth.

Psalm 18: He sent from above, He took me, He drew me out of many waters. He also brought me out into a broad place. he delivered me because He delighted in me.

Zechariah 9: 12 Return to the stronghold, you prisoners of hope. Even today I declare that I will restore double to you.

Isaiah 41: 10 Fear not for I am with you. Be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand.

Isaiah 31: Words to Americans who rely on man and not God. These are hard words and only for some.

Woe to those who go down to Egypt for help, and rely on horses, who trust in chariots, because they are many, and in horsemen because they are very strong, but who do not look to the Holy One of Israel, nor seek the Lord. Yet He also is wise and will bring disaster and will not call back His words.

Katrina is not God's judgment. It is a natural result of abuse of the environment. God has built natural consequences into the earth and unfortunately, we have foolishly challenged the limits. After all our polluting and now China's pollution, who knows where this leads? I admit - it's absolutely terrifying.

Our sin is that we are arrogant to the point of being abusive and careless and thinking God will miraculously wave a wand so that there are no consequences. People! God cannot keep on protecting us from all our foolishness. Sooner or later, consequences will come! Terrorism, if it is also a consequence, cuts much deeper than a natural disaster because it's people full of hate seeking to destroy us.

Yet, the sheer numbers in this disaster are staggering. I wish that all who are now safe from Katrina would mourn for those who are not, instead of trying to go on as if nothing happened, adding insult to injury.