“I’m hearing a lot of anger and frustration frankly,” Memphis Tea Party founder and chairman Mark Skoda, who is also a conservative talk-radio host, tells Newsmax. “Yesterday on the radio I had a number of folks call in, primarily [saying] that [House Speaker John] Boehner needs to fire his staff, that the deal that was cut is a terrible deal. I don’t think people are throwing in the towel for Republicans … but they got rolled.”
Sal Russo, the founder of Tea Party Express, says movement conservatives are “profoundly disappointed” by the 2011 budget deal. He tells Newsmax the arrangement marks “another failure to address excessive federal government spending and our skyrocketing national debt.”
Tea Party Express Chairman Amy Kremer, similarly, tells Newsmax that the deal struck by House Republicans was an “embarrassment.”
Friday, April 15, 2011
Obama ia a Vindictive Little Guy
Rush Limbaugh blasted President Barack Obama on Thursday, calling him a “vindictive little guy” and saying there was “nothing presidential” about his budget speech.
Limbaugh said he was offended that Obama had invited GOP Rep.
Paul Ryan, who has offered his own budget plan, and other Republicans to sit in the front row at Wednesday’s address, “and then he proceeds to insult them.”
“It was a disgusting display. It was in no way presidential,” Limbaugh said on his talk show Thursday.
He said the incident revealed Obama’s real character.
Limbaugh said he was offended that Obama had invited GOP Rep.
Paul Ryan, who has offered his own budget plan, and other Republicans to sit in the front row at Wednesday’s address, “and then he proceeds to insult them.”“It was a disgusting display. It was in no way presidential,” Limbaugh said on his talk show Thursday.
He said the incident revealed Obama’s real character.
The Present Seismic Shift of the Evangelical Church
This is one of the most accurate analysis of where the church is and where it is heading that I have read.
I am living this right now.
The Present Seismic Shift of the Evangelical Church
I am living this right now.
The Present Seismic Shift of the Evangelical Church
Thursday, April 14, 2011
Paul Ryan | Obama Deficit Speech | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment
Reacting to Obama’s Wednesday speech on deficit reduction, Ryan said that he was first “excited,” then “naively optimistic,” then “disappointed,” then “sad” and finally, in the end, “sincerely disappointed.”
“I was excited when we got invited to attend his speech today,” Ryan, who authored the Republican budget proposal unveiled last week, said just hours after returning from George Washington University where he was given a front row seat for Obama’s address. “I thought the president’s invitation…was an olive branch. Instead, what we got was a speech that was excessively partisan, dramatically inaccurate, and hopelessly inadequate to address our countries fiscal challenges.”
Obama’s speech ripped into Ryan’s proposal, arguing that it would take health care opportunities away from senior citizens, and “ends Medicare as we know it.” His 43-minute talk may have put the vice president to sleep, but it energized the traditionally wonky Ryan.
“What we heard today was a political broadside from our campaigner in chief,” Ryan said.”This is very sad and very unfortunate. Rather than building bridges, he’s poisoning wells.”
Krauthammer | Obama's budget address | 'I thought it was a disgrace' | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment
“I’m going to give you one example of how dishonest it was – he went on and on how the Republicans want to steal from your grandma to lower taxes on the rich,” Krauthammer continued. “And he talked about the Bush tax cuts and how much he is going to stand on the bridge and oppose any extension which is what he knows how to do. He has done it over and over for the last six years. The Ryan plan is not about the Bush tax cuts. It transcends them. It’s what the deficit — what Obama’s own commission recommended, strip out loopholes and lower rates for everyone. It’s not about whether it’s the Bush rates or Clinton rates. It’s a whole new approach by which the Simpson-Bowles Commission recommended itself. In fact, Bowles had recommended in one of its scenarios of a high rate of 23 percent. Ryan is at 25 percent. Obama did this knowing that this is a way to play to his base. It was a speech that was quite remarkable in how demagogic it was and I say that with all due respect.”
Obama: America Not Great Until Embrace of Socialism
CNS News reports that in President Barack Obama’s speech today, he claimed we would not be a great country without our unconstitutional social programs.
“‘There but for the grace of God go I,’ we say to ourselves, and so we contribute to programs like Medicare and Social Security, which guarantee us health care and a measure of basic income after a lifetime of hard work; unemployment insurance, which protects us against unexpected job loss; and Medicaid, which provides care for millions of seniors in nursing homes, poor children, and those with disabilities,” Obama said. “We are a better country because of these commitments. I’ll go further – we would not be a great country without those commitments.”
This should gall any red-blooded American. To claim that we were not a great nation until at least 1935 (when Social Security was created) and maybe only as late as 1965 (when Medicare was created), when we gave the U.S. Constitution and its limits on government the middle finger is outrageous. To claim that we were not a great nation until we began to abandon the freedom and free market that made us the envy of the world, in favor of socialism, is nauseating.
Meanwhile, the only thing our Marxist president wants to cut is national defense–the armament that keeps us free and safe from our enemies.
Incidentally, it is these unconstitutional social programs that are drowning our country in red ink. We could cut out 100% of defense spending–and everything else–with only entitlements left, and we would still have a $20 billion deficit. National defense has never taken more than 20% of our budget, while social programs make up more than 50% of our budget. Unconstitutional entitlements are literally eating us alive–and this president champions the disease!
Sadly, it seems there are a lot of “Republicans” who don’t get it, either. Despite initial misgivings, I was beginning to develop high hopes for Speaker of the House John Boehner and some of the Republican leadership. Now I’m finding out that the $38 billion in cuts supposedly secured in negotiations over the weekend (that I could only grudgingly celebrate in the first place, as this is such a paltry amount in comparison to our $1.6 TRILLION deficit) is actually only about $353 MILLION? Looks like Rush Limbaugh was right to pooh-pooh the deal right out of the gate, as he made the claim on his radio show that this deal “borrowed” $12 billion a pop from three previous Continuing Resolutions (CRs).
We the American people need to send a loud-and-clear message to Washington and stand behind the freshmen Republicans and others like Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) who are serious about making the cuts to government we need to make in order for our nation to survive. This weekend is a perfect time to send that message, my fellow Americans!
As the deadline to pay our federal income taxes approaches on April 18, Tea Party patriots across the country will be holding Tax Day Tea Parties in communities across our nation this weekend. Find one and take part!
Make sure President Obama and all the other big-spending socialists in Washington D.C. know you demand fiscal responsibility and constitutional government for our nation, and that you have their number come Election Day in 2012!
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
When not IF?
“Madness is rare in individuals – but in groups, parties, nations, and ages it is the rule.” — Friedrich Nietzsche Does it seem too strong to call the way America deals with its debt “madness?” If not madness, then what? Denial? An addiction? However you phrase it, we’re a country that’s in deep tro
US Inflation Rate: Inflation Using Volcker-Era Methodology Nearing 10% - CNBC
After former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker was appointed in 1979, the consumer price index surged into the double digits, causing the now revered Fed Chief to double the benchmark interest rate in order to break the back of inflation. Using the methodology in place at that time puts the CPI back near those levels.
Inflation, using the reporting methodologies in place before 1980, hit an annual rate of 9.6 percent in February, according to the Shadow Government Statistics newsletter.
US Inflation Rate: Inflation Using Volcker-Era Methodology Nearing 10% - CNBC
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Getty Images |
Since 1980, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has changed the way it calculates the CPI in order to account for the substitution of products, improvements in quality (i.e. iPad 2 costing the same as original iPad) and other things. Backing out more methods implemented in 1990 by the BLS still puts inflation at a 5.5 percent rate and getting worse, according to the calculations by the newsletter’s web site, Shadowstats.com.
US Inflation Rate: Inflation Using Volcker-Era Methodology Nearing 10% - CNBC
Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Taking the High Places in Haiti
Historic Presidential Election in Haiti brings about a Peaceful Result
Aimee Herd/Terry Snow (April 12, 2011)
"We all know that it will be God that brings true transformation." -Terry Snow
Based out of St. Marc, YWAM Haiti has had "boots on the ground" there long before the earthquake, which enabled them to be a valuable source of aid to the Haitians after its devastation.
YWAM Haiti continues to be a "city on a hill," making an impact for the Lord in that region. The following is a report on the recent elections there from YWAM Director for Haiti, Terry Snow.
The US Embassy and a host of other nations had chosen Martelly as their favorite. Most people see Martelly as a breath of fresh air and an opportunity for change. His opponent Madem Manigat was a part of the old politics of Haiti. I noted just a week prior to the election that she began to support things that were not positive for ongoing change and reform. It would appear the people of Haiti agree!
Michel Martelly a former entertainer known for his stage presence, had campaigned on a forceful promise to change the status quo, pledging to break with decades of past corruption and bring a better life to Haitians struggling to recover from the devastating 2010 earthquake. "Martelly's victory implies a rejection of the political class that has both governed and been in the opposition," said Robert Fatton, a Haiti expert and politics professor at the University of Virginia.
We all know that it will be God that brings true transformation. Let’s pray for the new elect president that he would be used of God and be sensitive to His will.
OK I'm Becoming a Fan
If you listen to too much NPR it will destroy your brain. And you will hate Michelle Bachmann. YET she is out stumping in IOWA. I like what I hear. She may never make progress but she makes sense.
"In 5,000 years of recorded human history... neither in the east or in the west... has any society ever defined marriage as anything other than between men and women," Bachmann said during the latest installment of the Iowa Family Leader's presidential lecture series. "Not one in 5000 years of recorded human history. That's an astounding fact and it isn't until the last 12 years or so that we have seen for the first time in recorded human history marriage defined as anything other than between men and between women."
Bachmann delivered a scathing critique against the Department of Education, "along with a few other agencies, by the way, that I think we can live without." Those include the Department of Energy and the Department of Commerce. She said Planned Parenthood should lose its tax-exempt status — it's a nonprofit — and that Congress should use its power to limit the subjects that district courts can rule on.
That's because judges are "black-robed masters," she said, echoing a line she used during another recent trip to Iowa to lambaste the state Supreme Court justices whose ruling effectively legalized same-sex marriage in the state.
"That's what you had here in Iowa: black-robed masters," Bachmann said. "They are not our masters. They are not our morality. They are not put there to make the decisions."
She labeled Planned Parenthood the "LensCrafters of big abortion"
Yellowstone’s electrical conductivity hints volcano plume is bigger than thought
The supervolcano has erupted three times over the past 2 million years – 2 million, 1.3 million, and 642,000 years ago. While researchers don't expect another eruption any time soon, it could eventually explode, destroying life for hundreds of miles around it and blanketing North America in ash.
In recent years, scientists have detected an unprecedented rate of rising for the caldera and increases in seismic activity, including a peculiar swarm of earthquakes.
The U.S. Geological Survey has ranked the Yellowstone caldera as a high threat for volcanic eruption, calling it the 21st most dangerous of 169 volcano centers in the U.S.
While the new measurements don't raise the threat level, scientists are keen to gain a deeper understanding of the plume beneath the national park renowned today for geysers and hot springs.
"We are just getting more and more understanding of what is going on," Michael Zhdanov, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah and lead author of the study, told me today.
Yellowstone’s electrical conductivity hints volcano plume is bigger than thought
In recent years, scientists have detected an unprecedented rate of rising for the caldera and increases in seismic activity, including a peculiar swarm of earthquakes.
The U.S. Geological Survey has ranked the Yellowstone caldera as a high threat for volcanic eruption, calling it the 21st most dangerous of 169 volcano centers in the U.S.
While the new measurements don't raise the threat level, scientists are keen to gain a deeper understanding of the plume beneath the national park renowned today for geysers and hot springs.
"We are just getting more and more understanding of what is going on," Michael Zhdanov, a professor of geophysics at the University of Utah and lead author of the study, told me today.
Yellowstone’s electrical conductivity hints volcano plume is bigger than thought
Chinese Defense Minister: We Must Kill 100 or 200 Million Americans with Biological Weapons
I posted this because I thought there might be some truth in it...It turns out to be absolute hogwash and is why so many on the right are demeaned. But it is true that China is not necessarily our friend.
That is because, after all, we are Chinese and members of the CCP. Since the day we joined the CCP, the Party’s life has always been above all else!”
The Conservative Monster.com: Chinese Defense Minister: We Must Kill 100 or 200 Million Americans with Biological Weapons
1) “We must prepare ourselves for two scenarios. If our biological weapons succeed in the surprise attack [on the US], the Chinese people will be able to keep their losses at a minimum in the fight against the U.S. If, however, the attack fails and triggers a nuclear retaliation from the U.S., China would perhaps suffer a catastrophe in which more than half of its population would perish.
That is why we need to be ready with air defense systems for our big and medium-sized cities. Whatever the case may be, we can only move forward fearlessly for the sake of our Party and state and our nation’s future, regardless of the hardships we have to face and the sacrifices we have to make. The population, even if more than half dies, can be reproduced. But if the Party falls, everything is gone, and forever gone!”
3) “It is indeed brutal to kill one or two hundred million Americans. But that is the only path that will secure a Chinese century, a century in which the CCP leads the world. We, as revolutionary humanitarians, do not want deaths. But if history confronts us with a choice between deaths of Chinese and those of Americans, we’d have to pick the latter, as, for us, it is more important to safeguard the lives of the Chinese people and the life of our Party.That is because, after all, we are Chinese and members of the CCP. Since the day we joined the CCP, the Party’s life has always been above all else!”
The Conservative Monster.com: Chinese Defense Minister: We Must Kill 100 or 200 Million Americans with Biological Weapons
Monday, April 11, 2011
Chicago school bans some lunches brought from home
Fernando Dominguez cut the figure of a young revolutionary leader during a recent lunch period at his elementary school.
"Who thinks the lunch is not good enough?" the seventh-grader shouted to his lunch mates in Spanish and English.
Dozens of hands flew in the air and fellow students shouted along: "We should bring our own lunch! We should bring our own lunch! We should bring our own lunch!"
Fernando waved his hand over the crowd and asked a visiting reporter: "Do you see the situation?"
At his public school, Little Village Academy on Chicago's West Side, students are not allowed to pack lunches from home. Unless they have a medical excuse, they must eat the food served in the cafeteria.
Principal Elsa Carmona said her intention is to protect students from their own unhealthful food choices.
"Nutrition wise, it is better for the children to eat at the school," Carmona said. "It's about the nutrition and the excellent quality food that they are able to serve (in the lunchroom). It's milk versus a Coke. But with allergies and any medical issue, of course, we would make an exception."
Chicago school bans some lunches brought from home
"Who thinks the lunch is not good enough?" the seventh-grader shouted to his lunch mates in Spanish and English.
Dozens of hands flew in the air and fellow students shouted along: "We should bring our own lunch! We should bring our own lunch! We should bring our own lunch!"
Fernando waved his hand over the crowd and asked a visiting reporter: "Do you see the situation?"
At his public school, Little Village Academy on Chicago's West Side, students are not allowed to pack lunches from home. Unless they have a medical excuse, they must eat the food served in the cafeteria.
Principal Elsa Carmona said her intention is to protect students from their own unhealthful food choices.
"Nutrition wise, it is better for the children to eat at the school," Carmona said. "It's about the nutrition and the excellent quality food that they are able to serve (in the lunchroom). It's milk versus a Coke. But with allergies and any medical issue, of course, we would make an exception."
Chicago school bans some lunches brought from home
the Separation Begins By Thurmond Duke
I saw this today. It's a long read...but worth the effort:
The most dangerous and the most destructive voice(s) in your life are those that make you doubt yourself and wither and kill the dream within you. Been there, lived through that. it isn't a platitude, it is reality. As R. Carpenter has said, not everyone is meant to be in your life permanently; some are like scaffolding – they are meant to be there for a season, but when that time of building is completed, there is no longer any need for the scaffolding and it is removed.
As I talk to people and as I read and watch, it is becoming more and more apparent to me (as well as others) that there is a division taking place. If you’re not looking for it, it’s very subtle. On the other hand, well, do you remember back in the middle 90’s those images they had in the Sunday cartoons, the ones where if you held it close to your eyes and let them unfocus and then drew the picture away this amazing 3D image became apparent, appearing almost like magic? The similarity is that if you’re looking and can perceive it you can see the dividing that is going on. What we see now is just the beginning of what is going to take place. It’s a little like the proverbial snowball on top of the mountain. It isn’t all that big now, but as it continues downhill it’s going to get bigger and it will move faster.
Why the division? Simply put, it is part of the will of God and the plan of God. In 1984 while at seminary, I had to do a paper and presentation for a class. While doing the research for the paper, I came across some information that the Lord led me to, and I did dual research for a while, and continued researching it while I was there and had the resources available. It had to do with Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood. Some people at a think tank had researched her thoroughly and documented her travels to Nazi Germany, her talks with leading Nazi thinkers, movers, and shakers, and the fact that they weren’t just similar in thought and ideology, they were virtually identical. They then translated articles on eugenics, birth control, abortion, and that whole program of Nazi thought from leading German publications, and set them side by side with articles Sanger and her followers published in the US, and showed that in some instances they were so similar they were close to being thought for thought, word for word. It was my introduction to the parallels between Germany and the USA . The Nazis hated Poles, Gypsies, homosexuals, and most people think they thought the Jews were the lowest of the low. Not so. There was one subset of humanity they thought was lower than the Jews – black people. And what better way to practice eugenics and deplete an undesirable subset of humanity than to make their ethnic cleansing a right and have them demand the right to do so? [Don’t believe me? Do some research on your own. Research the total number of abortions that have been performed and what percentage of those are of African heritage.] It is a diabolically brilliant plan, brilliantly executed. And dumb butt ignorant preachers want to stand in front of me and tell me the devil is stupid...?
I had to explain that so you’ll know how the Lord alerted me to something twenty seven years ago, which is how this country is being manipulated. I don’t name groups and I could care less about conspiracy theories. It’s just that the Lord asked me twenty years ago “Do you think the Antichrist is just going to spring up out of nowhere with no support group or support system?” I have lived through these frenetic end time ‘states of heightened awareness’ before. When I was young, everyone thought the end times were right on top of us. Every conservative Bible teacher out there was teaching that Jesus said “when the fig tree buds” referred to the reestablishment of Israel as a nation and that was the generation of the tribulation and Christ’s return. And since “everyone” knew that the fig tree represented Israel, and Israel, which had not literally existed since Titus burned Jerusalem in AD70, had been reestablished in 1948, and “everyone” knew that a Biblical generation was 40 years, “everyone” could look at 1988 as the year of Christ’s return and 1981 as the beginning of the tribulation. Oh yes, friends, I was there. I was teaching it. There are many now who will not admit it, but they did too. We had the sure word of scripture as our authority. I got married in 1977, and I remember telling my new wife, “You know, if we’re right about this it will be a short marriage.” But then 1981 came, and no sign of any tribulation. No rapture. 1988 came. No rapture, no Antichrist, no end times. So then a Biblical generation became maybe fifty years, then sixty years; now some people are saying maybe a Biblical generation is seventy, eighty, maybe even a hundred years. Hogwash and horse apples!!! We Americans are so bloody arrogant. We have to be on top of everything, know everything, and have the answer to everything. We will not admit it when we are wrong, we will not admit we got it wrong.
We cannot humble ourselves under the scripture that with regard to that day, no man can know when it is , it is reserved for the Father alone . Having said that, knowing that the day is twenty three years closer than it was in 1988, it isn’t what people around me are saying that makes me feel that we are dangerously close to the day of the Lord, it’s what I feel in my heart. It is that whisper of the Holy Spirit. For thirty four years I have continually served the Lord. I have paid attention to prophecy. I have studied scripture and commentaries. I have read books. I have prayed. I have listened to teachings. I have watched our society degenerate. In less than the space of a lifetime I have seen the culture deteriorate to something I don’t even recognize. My high school years were 1965 to 1969. In those years yes, there was sex, but the girls having it kept it as quiet as humanly possible. Now we have friends with benefits, abortion on demand, and girls routinely get pregnant and have babies in high school without benefit of marriage. And it’s just as much a problem within the church as it is outside of it. When is the church going to wake up and admit that it has lost the battle with the culture? When is the church going to admit it has been an abject failure with its youth?
I’ve never had much of a voice that anyone ever cared to listen to, but thirty years ago I saw churches, from conservative non-Spirit filled to Spirit filled adopting this strategy of making the church as much like the world as it could, the idea being “See? We’re not so different… You don’t have to be like those fanatics who believe in separation and holiness to be a good Christian.” I said then that strategy would destroy the church, and I was right. The church compromised, and it lost its young people. Think I’m wrong? Talk to them. Ask them what they think about abortion. Ask them what they think about homosexuality. Ask them if they thing “Jesus is THE way, THE, truth, THE life, and that no one comes to the Father but through HIM.” Ask them if they know astrology/(horoscopes) were called an abomination by God in the Old Testament. Ask them what they think about Wicca, or the “old religions,” the “earth” religions. Ask them if they believe in absolutes. If you talk to them long enough, you will find out most are terribly uncomfortable with the idea of sharing their faith with someone else, especially with a mind to asking them to accept Jesus as their Savior. In other words, they don’t accept evangelism, because they are “uncomfortable” with the idea of “imposing” their faith and value system on someone else. In other words, the multiculturalists have won the ideological war that all faiths are equally valid and attempting to convert someone is imposing their value system on someone else, which is not tolerant. [Of course, that notion doesn’t apply to Muslims who are converting others.]
I have watched. I have studied. I have seen the culture degenerate. I have noted, as the Lord wished me to, how our decline and the ideas now being promoted bear a remarkable resemblance to Germany from the Weimar Republic to the rise Of the Nazis. America is being deliberately polarized. I’m not the only person who’s figured out our society has precipitously fallen an incredible way in an inordinately short amount of time. I am, after all, a little fish in a huge pond… My country is being polarized. The principalities and powers in the heavenlies and their pawns here on our plane are driving us like we’re game in a hunt. The polarization is deliberate so when the engineered crisis occurs and bedlam is let loose upon this country the people will cry out for a leader to bring peace, order, stability, and a return to the old values. We will vote him in just the same as the Germans voted for Hitler. If this engineered crisis comes on the heels a catastrophic natural disaster, like the California quake and the releasing of the Northwest volcanoes, there will be pure hell to pay. All this is reality to me. I’m just waiting for it to unfold.
As far as people are concerned, I take my stand with Amos. I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet. I’m a little fish in a big ocean. But the Lord has spoken, who can but prophecy? But I do know this, because the Lord just “spoke” it to me – do not be deceived by any time, any season, by anything that happens, or by any situation you find yourself in or by anything you must face. The dragon will fall.
Now, in the last few months, and what ties all of this together, is the answer to the question “Why?” As I read the Old Testament, the Lord has been drawing me away from the comparison of the USA to Germany. Instead He keeps impressing upon me, deeply impressing in my spirit, the similarity of Jerusalem/ Judah with America. I love reading, studying, and teaching from the Old Testament, but it’s becoming almost painful to do so. I read daily the messages of the prophets to Judah, and it’s as if they were speaking not to them but to us. God is telling me to notice the parallels only between Judah and America, and it’s as if the Spirit within me were “standing” over every passage, passages like this:
The Spirit is standing over the passage and He’s pointing at them and He’s like a totally frustrated tutor and He’s asking “Don’t you get it? Don’t you see it? Do you not understand? I am the Lord, and I do not change. My word never goes out of my mouth void! It will never return to me void! It never has in the past, and it never will today, or ever!”
The parallel about which we should have fear and trembling is between America and Judah. We should rediscover a true fear of God and tremble at His word. (A quick aside about the fear of the Lord. The notion that it is just a reverential fear and awe is a nice enough notion and it preaches well and it doesn’t upset the donation plate. But go back and read Exodus 19:1 through 20:21. Brothers and sisters, these people had a real life, space-time encounter with the true and living God, and it scared the boogers out of them. Then read about people’s encounters with the resurrected Jesus. They all fell at His feet as if dead. Then figure out that Hebrews isn’t kidding when it says “it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” which is exactly what is going to happen to this world, to this society, and all of us in it...only the children of God will not see God's wrath.) There must be repentance, and it must begin with us. Because of all of this, there is a separation beginning. The Lord is beginning to cull people out of our lives.
There are people who will read this and it will mean nothing to them. They are what I call the 167 Club. That’s the ones who say they are Christians but for 167 out of 168 hours a week they live as the world lives. Remember that snappy little witticism that used to show up on church signs “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” These are the one who, if they judged themselves and examined their own lives would have to say, “NO. There isn’t enough to convince anyone I believe in Jesus.” Your words alone are not enough. Your life must reflect Jesus. Yes, I believe in salvation by grace through faith alone, but if your confession of faith is real, if it truly meant anything, it will result in a changed life and a different life. If you have but one hour a week for God, if you have no real prayer life, if you never spend time in the Word of God (eg, you have no fellowship with God), if your friends are all nonbelievers, if your talk is about anything but the faith and your words are not those you would use in church, ask yourself, do you really have anything? If you’d rather go to a bar than meet with believers, you have a problem. If you talk like one of those bleeped out people on Jersey Shore, you have a problem. Or did you go down the aisle of a church to mumble some words to get yourself a “get out of hell free” card and then leave to live your life just the same as before and no one would otherwise know that you are supposedly a Christian? Brothers and sisters, people like that have no use for words like these and they are an offense to them. No, I do not judge you or anyone else.
Who am I to judge? I’m just a little fish in a big ocean. But I will not be guilty of your blood, and I will not stand in front of my Savior and have Him ask me why I didn’t love you/them enough to give you fair warning. us. will begin to separate themselves OF Such people - who are among us - In the days to come, this may hit some, as it did me, terribly close to home. In Corinthians Paul told his readers that even if an unbelieving spouse wanted to leave, not to stop them. The unbelievers among us are going to be made manifest, even those who call themselves believers now. They will walk away from the faith and true believers because they are not of us. They spoke some words, but their hearts were untouched. I did not say unmoved, I said untouched. Their tears are Saul’s tears. They will leave believers and churches where they are challenged to leave the commonplace and the compromise behind. Those believers and churches that challenge them to step out boldly into the life of faith will be an offense to them. Any believer who says “I will follow God anywhere, any time, at any cost – come with me” will be an offense and a rock of stumbling to them. They may continue to live a charade of a Christian life, but they are not the Lord’s, they are their own. Therefore, they will separate themselves from those who choose to follow God with singleness of heart and seek out their own; they will walk in their own paths and keep company with those who will not disturb their carefully arranged illusions.
Of course we should entreat them, implore them, speak encouragement to them, witness to them, pray for them, but if they choose to go, let them go. Do not attempt to retain yesterday’s manna – it just turns into worms. Let them go. Bless them as they go. Mourn the loss if you must, but let them go. You must strengthen yourself in the faith for today’s battles, not mope over yesterday. God has people for you to meet, people with whom you can fellowship, people who can strengthen you and add to you, not just take from you. People to whom you must witness, and people you must disciple. Pruning is not pleasant, but it is necessary if we are to be fruitful. The separating is beginning. Judgment begins at the house of God. Pray without ceasing, because if our world is rocked, what will it be like when the judgment hits the world with full force, like the earthquake hit Japan. It is a time for consecrating, for setting apart, and for prayer.
The most dangerous and the most destructive voice(s) in your life are those that make you doubt yourself and wither and kill the dream within you. Been there, lived through that. it isn't a platitude, it is reality. As R. Carpenter has said, not everyone is meant to be in your life permanently; some are like scaffolding – they are meant to be there for a season, but when that time of building is completed, there is no longer any need for the scaffolding and it is removed.
As I talk to people and as I read and watch, it is becoming more and more apparent to me (as well as others) that there is a division taking place. If you’re not looking for it, it’s very subtle. On the other hand, well, do you remember back in the middle 90’s those images they had in the Sunday cartoons, the ones where if you held it close to your eyes and let them unfocus and then drew the picture away this amazing 3D image became apparent, appearing almost like magic? The similarity is that if you’re looking and can perceive it you can see the dividing that is going on. What we see now is just the beginning of what is going to take place. It’s a little like the proverbial snowball on top of the mountain. It isn’t all that big now, but as it continues downhill it’s going to get bigger and it will move faster.
Why the division? Simply put, it is part of the will of God and the plan of God. In 1984 while at seminary, I had to do a paper and presentation for a class. While doing the research for the paper, I came across some information that the Lord led me to, and I did dual research for a while, and continued researching it while I was there and had the resources available. It had to do with Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood. Some people at a think tank had researched her thoroughly and documented her travels to Nazi Germany, her talks with leading Nazi thinkers, movers, and shakers, and the fact that they weren’t just similar in thought and ideology, they were virtually identical. They then translated articles on eugenics, birth control, abortion, and that whole program of Nazi thought from leading German publications, and set them side by side with articles Sanger and her followers published in the US, and showed that in some instances they were so similar they were close to being thought for thought, word for word. It was my introduction to the parallels between Germany and the USA . The Nazis hated Poles, Gypsies, homosexuals, and most people think they thought the Jews were the lowest of the low. Not so. There was one subset of humanity they thought was lower than the Jews – black people. And what better way to practice eugenics and deplete an undesirable subset of humanity than to make their ethnic cleansing a right and have them demand the right to do so? [Don’t believe me? Do some research on your own. Research the total number of abortions that have been performed and what percentage of those are of African heritage.] It is a diabolically brilliant plan, brilliantly executed. And dumb butt ignorant preachers want to stand in front of me and tell me the devil is stupid...?
I had to explain that so you’ll know how the Lord alerted me to something twenty seven years ago, which is how this country is being manipulated. I don’t name groups and I could care less about conspiracy theories. It’s just that the Lord asked me twenty years ago “Do you think the Antichrist is just going to spring up out of nowhere with no support group or support system?” I have lived through these frenetic end time ‘states of heightened awareness’ before. When I was young, everyone thought the end times were right on top of us. Every conservative Bible teacher out there was teaching that Jesus said “when the fig tree buds” referred to the reestablishment of Israel as a nation and that was the generation of the tribulation and Christ’s return. And since “everyone” knew that the fig tree represented Israel, and Israel, which had not literally existed since Titus burned Jerusalem in AD70, had been reestablished in 1948, and “everyone” knew that a Biblical generation was 40 years, “everyone” could look at 1988 as the year of Christ’s return and 1981 as the beginning of the tribulation. Oh yes, friends, I was there. I was teaching it. There are many now who will not admit it, but they did too. We had the sure word of scripture as our authority. I got married in 1977, and I remember telling my new wife, “You know, if we’re right about this it will be a short marriage.” But then 1981 came, and no sign of any tribulation. No rapture. 1988 came. No rapture, no Antichrist, no end times. So then a Biblical generation became maybe fifty years, then sixty years; now some people are saying maybe a Biblical generation is seventy, eighty, maybe even a hundred years. Hogwash and horse apples!!! We Americans are so bloody arrogant. We have to be on top of everything, know everything, and have the answer to everything. We will not admit it when we are wrong, we will not admit we got it wrong.
We cannot humble ourselves under the scripture that with regard to that day, no man can know when it is , it is reserved for the Father alone . Having said that, knowing that the day is twenty three years closer than it was in 1988, it isn’t what people around me are saying that makes me feel that we are dangerously close to the day of the Lord, it’s what I feel in my heart. It is that whisper of the Holy Spirit. For thirty four years I have continually served the Lord. I have paid attention to prophecy. I have studied scripture and commentaries. I have read books. I have prayed. I have listened to teachings. I have watched our society degenerate. In less than the space of a lifetime I have seen the culture deteriorate to something I don’t even recognize. My high school years were 1965 to 1969. In those years yes, there was sex, but the girls having it kept it as quiet as humanly possible. Now we have friends with benefits, abortion on demand, and girls routinely get pregnant and have babies in high school without benefit of marriage. And it’s just as much a problem within the church as it is outside of it. When is the church going to wake up and admit that it has lost the battle with the culture? When is the church going to admit it has been an abject failure with its youth?
I’ve never had much of a voice that anyone ever cared to listen to, but thirty years ago I saw churches, from conservative non-Spirit filled to Spirit filled adopting this strategy of making the church as much like the world as it could, the idea being “See? We’re not so different… You don’t have to be like those fanatics who believe in separation and holiness to be a good Christian.” I said then that strategy would destroy the church, and I was right. The church compromised, and it lost its young people. Think I’m wrong? Talk to them. Ask them what they think about abortion. Ask them what they think about homosexuality. Ask them if they thing “Jesus is THE way, THE, truth, THE life, and that no one comes to the Father but through HIM.” Ask them if they know astrology/(horoscopes) were called an abomination by God in the Old Testament. Ask them what they think about Wicca, or the “old religions,” the “earth” religions. Ask them if they believe in absolutes. If you talk to them long enough, you will find out most are terribly uncomfortable with the idea of sharing their faith with someone else, especially with a mind to asking them to accept Jesus as their Savior. In other words, they don’t accept evangelism, because they are “uncomfortable” with the idea of “imposing” their faith and value system on someone else. In other words, the multiculturalists have won the ideological war that all faiths are equally valid and attempting to convert someone is imposing their value system on someone else, which is not tolerant. [Of course, that notion doesn’t apply to Muslims who are converting others.]
I have watched. I have studied. I have seen the culture degenerate. I have noted, as the Lord wished me to, how our decline and the ideas now being promoted bear a remarkable resemblance to Germany from the Weimar Republic to the rise Of the Nazis. America is being deliberately polarized. I’m not the only person who’s figured out our society has precipitously fallen an incredible way in an inordinately short amount of time. I am, after all, a little fish in a huge pond… My country is being polarized. The principalities and powers in the heavenlies and their pawns here on our plane are driving us like we’re game in a hunt. The polarization is deliberate so when the engineered crisis occurs and bedlam is let loose upon this country the people will cry out for a leader to bring peace, order, stability, and a return to the old values. We will vote him in just the same as the Germans voted for Hitler. If this engineered crisis comes on the heels a catastrophic natural disaster, like the California quake and the releasing of the Northwest volcanoes, there will be pure hell to pay. All this is reality to me. I’m just waiting for it to unfold.
As far as people are concerned, I take my stand with Amos. I am not a prophet nor the son of a prophet. I’m a little fish in a big ocean. But the Lord has spoken, who can but prophecy? But I do know this, because the Lord just “spoke” it to me – do not be deceived by any time, any season, by anything that happens, or by any situation you find yourself in or by anything you must face. The dragon will fall.
Now, in the last few months, and what ties all of this together, is the answer to the question “Why?” As I read the Old Testament, the Lord has been drawing me away from the comparison of the USA to Germany. Instead He keeps impressing upon me, deeply impressing in my spirit, the similarity of Jerusalem/ Judah with America. I love reading, studying, and teaching from the Old Testament, but it’s becoming almost painful to do so. I read daily the messages of the prophets to Judah, and it’s as if they were speaking not to them but to us. God is telling me to notice the parallels only between Judah and America, and it’s as if the Spirit within me were “standing” over every passage, passages like this:
…But your wrongdoing has upset nature’s order, and your sins have kept you from her kindly gifts, For among my people there are wicked men, who lay snares like a fowler’s net, and set deadly traps to catch men. Their houses are full of fraud, as a cage is full of birds. They grow rich and grand, bloated and rancorous, Their thoughts are all full of evil, and they refuse to do justice, The claims of the orphan they do not put right Nor do they grant justice to the poor. ‘Shall I not punish them for this?’ Says the Lord; Shall I not take vengeance on such a people? An appalling thing, an outrage, has appeared in this land: Prophets prophecy lies and priests go hand in hand with them, And My people love to have it so. How will you fare at the end of it all? (Jer: 5:25-31, NEB)
The Spirit is standing over the passage and He’s pointing at them and He’s like a totally frustrated tutor and He’s asking “Don’t you get it? Don’t you see it? Do you not understand? I am the Lord, and I do not change. My word never goes out of my mouth void! It will never return to me void! It never has in the past, and it never will today, or ever!”
The parallel about which we should have fear and trembling is between America and Judah. We should rediscover a true fear of God and tremble at His word. (A quick aside about the fear of the Lord. The notion that it is just a reverential fear and awe is a nice enough notion and it preaches well and it doesn’t upset the donation plate. But go back and read Exodus 19:1 through 20:21. Brothers and sisters, these people had a real life, space-time encounter with the true and living God, and it scared the boogers out of them. Then read about people’s encounters with the resurrected Jesus. They all fell at His feet as if dead. Then figure out that Hebrews isn’t kidding when it says “it is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” which is exactly what is going to happen to this world, to this society, and all of us in it...only the children of God will not see God's wrath.) There must be repentance, and it must begin with us. Because of all of this, there is a separation beginning. The Lord is beginning to cull people out of our lives.
There are people who will read this and it will mean nothing to them. They are what I call the 167 Club. That’s the ones who say they are Christians but for 167 out of 168 hours a week they live as the world lives. Remember that snappy little witticism that used to show up on church signs “If you were arrested for being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict you?” These are the one who, if they judged themselves and examined their own lives would have to say, “NO. There isn’t enough to convince anyone I believe in Jesus.” Your words alone are not enough. Your life must reflect Jesus. Yes, I believe in salvation by grace through faith alone, but if your confession of faith is real, if it truly meant anything, it will result in a changed life and a different life. If you have but one hour a week for God, if you have no real prayer life, if you never spend time in the Word of God (eg, you have no fellowship with God), if your friends are all nonbelievers, if your talk is about anything but the faith and your words are not those you would use in church, ask yourself, do you really have anything? If you’d rather go to a bar than meet with believers, you have a problem. If you talk like one of those bleeped out people on Jersey Shore, you have a problem. Or did you go down the aisle of a church to mumble some words to get yourself a “get out of hell free” card and then leave to live your life just the same as before and no one would otherwise know that you are supposedly a Christian? Brothers and sisters, people like that have no use for words like these and they are an offense to them. No, I do not judge you or anyone else.
Who am I to judge? I’m just a little fish in a big ocean. But I will not be guilty of your blood, and I will not stand in front of my Savior and have Him ask me why I didn’t love you/them enough to give you fair warning. us. will begin to separate themselves OF Such people - who are among us - In the days to come, this may hit some, as it did me, terribly close to home. In Corinthians Paul told his readers that even if an unbelieving spouse wanted to leave, not to stop them. The unbelievers among us are going to be made manifest, even those who call themselves believers now. They will walk away from the faith and true believers because they are not of us. They spoke some words, but their hearts were untouched. I did not say unmoved, I said untouched. Their tears are Saul’s tears. They will leave believers and churches where they are challenged to leave the commonplace and the compromise behind. Those believers and churches that challenge them to step out boldly into the life of faith will be an offense to them. Any believer who says “I will follow God anywhere, any time, at any cost – come with me” will be an offense and a rock of stumbling to them. They may continue to live a charade of a Christian life, but they are not the Lord’s, they are their own. Therefore, they will separate themselves from those who choose to follow God with singleness of heart and seek out their own; they will walk in their own paths and keep company with those who will not disturb their carefully arranged illusions.
Of course we should entreat them, implore them, speak encouragement to them, witness to them, pray for them, but if they choose to go, let them go. Do not attempt to retain yesterday’s manna – it just turns into worms. Let them go. Bless them as they go. Mourn the loss if you must, but let them go. You must strengthen yourself in the faith for today’s battles, not mope over yesterday. God has people for you to meet, people with whom you can fellowship, people who can strengthen you and add to you, not just take from you. People to whom you must witness, and people you must disciple. Pruning is not pleasant, but it is necessary if we are to be fruitful. The separating is beginning. Judgment begins at the house of God. Pray without ceasing, because if our world is rocked, what will it be like when the judgment hits the world with full force, like the earthquake hit Japan. It is a time for consecrating, for setting apart, and for prayer.
An interesting comparison between Japan and Haiti in response to disaster
A subsistence economy like Haiti, one might conclude, is more resilient than Japan. Or, by the same logic, the rich America of today is more vulnerable to economic depression than the rural America of 1930. Neither is true, of course. Another obvious benefit of trade is that help can come from outside.
Here we get a hint of the survivalist instinct's fundamental error. In focusing on extreme situations, it forgets about the capacities built up during less-stressful times. Self-sufficiency limits knowledge and productive skills to whatever a single individual or locality can comprehend. Specialization and trade allow the system to expand those capabilities almost without limit. What looks like ignorance permits the growth of knowledge.
Read the whole thingHow does the evil Tea Party keep kicking our butts when our ideas are so wildly popular and clearly superior? A Progressive Whines
It's amazing to me how Progressives, Liberals, Leftys can be soooooo deluded.
But they are.
But they are.
If you’d like a look into the rather morbid thoughts of a pro-spending progressive on the sad decline of his movement, check out the entire article. And try not to smirk. Grace in victory is an honorable trait.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Scientific Daffynitions
1. Ratio of an igloo's circumference to its diameter = Eskimo Pi
2. 2000 pounds of Chinese soup = Won ton
3. 1 millionth of a mouthwash = 1 microscope
4. Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement = 1 bananosecond
5. Weight an evangelist carries with God = 1 billigram
6. Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour = Knotfurlong
7. 16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone = 1 Rod Serling
8. Half of a large intestine = 1 semicolon
9. 1,000,000 aches = 1 megahurtz
10. Basic unit of laryngitis = 1 hoarsepower
11. Shortest distance between two jokes = A straight line
12. 453.6 graham crackers = 1 pound cake
13. 1 million-million microphones = 1 megaphone
14. 2 million bicycles = 2 megacycles
15. 365.25 days = 1 unicycle
16. 2000 mockingbirds = 2 kilomockingbirds
17. 52 cards = 1 decacards
18. 1 kilogram of falling figs = 1 FigNewton
19. 1000 milliliters of wet socks = 1 literhosen
20. 1 millionth of a fish = 1 microfiche
21. 1 trillion pins = 1 terrapin
22. 10 rations = 1 decoration
23. 100 rations = 1 C-ration
24. 2 monograms = 1 diagram
25. 4 nickels = 2 paradigms
26. 2.4 statute miles of intravenous surgical tubing at
Yale University H ospital = 1 IV League
27. 100 Senators = Not 1 decision
2. 2000 pounds of Chinese soup = Won ton
3. 1 millionth of a mouthwash = 1 microscope
4. Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement = 1 bananosecond
5. Weight an evangelist carries with God = 1 billigram
6. Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour = Knotfurlong
7. 16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone = 1 Rod Serling
8. Half of a large intestine = 1 semicolon
9. 1,000,000 aches = 1 megahurtz
10. Basic unit of laryngitis = 1 hoarsepower
11. Shortest distance between two jokes = A straight line
12. 453.6 graham crackers = 1 pound cake
13. 1 million-million microphones = 1 megaphone
14. 2 million bicycles = 2 megacycles
15. 365.25 days = 1 unicycle
16. 2000 mockingbirds = 2 kilomockingbirds
17. 52 cards = 1 decacards
18. 1 kilogram of falling figs = 1 FigNewton
19. 1000 milliliters of wet socks = 1 literhosen
20. 1 millionth of a fish = 1 microfiche
21. 1 trillion pins = 1 terrapin
22. 10 rations = 1 decoration
23. 100 rations = 1 C-ration
24. 2 monograms = 1 diagram
25. 4 nickels = 2 paradigms
26. 2.4 statute miles of intravenous surgical tubing at
Yale University H ospital = 1 IV League
27. 100 Senators = Not 1 decision
Recalling the Wild Praise of 2008
“Mr. Obama is a man of supple intelligence, with a nuanced grasp of complex issues and evident skill at conciliation and consensus-building. At home, we believe, he would respond to the economic crisis with a healthy respect for markets tempered by justified dismay over rising inequality and an understanding of the need for focused regulation. Abroad, the best evidence suggests that he would seek to maintain U.S. leadership and engagement, continue the fight against terrorists, and wage vigorous diplomacy on behalf of U.S. values and interests. Mr. Obama has the potential to become a great president. Given the enormous problems he would confront from his first day in office, and the damage wrought over the past eight years, we would settle for very good.”
OK, I can’t resist asking a question:
What would you settle for now?
Rubin Reports » Barack Obama: Recalling the Wild Praise of 2008
The Humiliation of the Christian Life
I did not write this... a Pastor Friend of mine did. It's pretty good:
Matt 18 might be the most significant scripture chapter in the whole bible.
It pretty much has all the main stuff - and is probably the least understood of any chapter I know.
In Matt. 18 it talks about becoming small - that unless we become small, like a child,
then by no means can we enter the kingdom of heaven.
It actually is talking about being humiliated, which as a man is our greatest fear.
It goes on to say that scandalizations will follow - and that we should forgive these,
not just 7 times, but 70 x 7 times.
We talk a lot about being broken from our sin, but this isn't really what Matt. 18 is speaking of, for being broken by our sin ends up highlighting our sin and crucifying Christ over and over again while we confess to the world that we really aren't that serious about doing what he says. In this case - the world wins rather than is overcome.
Matthew however is speaking of being broken because we dared to stand up against the world. Being broken because we remained true rather than because we were false.
I would offer that there is a huge difference here - like between night and day, heaven and hell, slavery and freedom, Christ and the world.
This has everything to do with submission - and the game is to have us, as men, who are purposed to be the representation of God's image, and holders of God's hope - ultimately submit to the world - so that God's hope is ultimately dashed or diminished by our fear while the world wins, and Christ looses.
Humiliation is the principle tool the evil one uses for this - it has been throughout history, it was with Christ, and it will be with us as men when God has made us ready.
It is the means always used to get the man to cave - Peter had to see his wife humiliated and killed the day before he was - which was the ultimate shame he could be given in every way.
Humiliation is what we as guys do our best to avoid - and it is what we are most likely to yield to, get confused by and submit to in the end, especially if it concerns our personal life, our finances or our purpose. For we are really proud - and driven by our own sense of self-worth.
But I would like to suggest that it is precisely in the face of humiliation that God purposes for his substance in us to be tried and tested, and that it is here that we have the greatest possibility in life of knowing Christ - and the power of his resurrection - because of sharing in knowing what it means to suffer and die - so we can live no longer afraid.
At any time we can escape humiliation by copping a plea - false humility that allow others, especially those who might trying to knock us down, to feel at ease with us because we have succumbed to their use of force, but nothing is gained by this - except delay.
In humiliation we feel alone, isolated and confused - but it is here that we share the cold stone prison floor with Jesus of knowing what it means to be abandoned and tossed aside as we wait to be destroyed.
It is here that we learn really who Christ is - for we really can't know him in any other place.
It is here that we learn about the key that unlocks the door - and sets us free.
I just wanted to write to you - to encourage you that when the day comes for you to be tested, that you would be encouraged to embrace humiliation as the friend of Jesus - and means by which we are saved, for we cannot enter the kingdom of heaven except that we are willing to become - small.
And so that you might greet humiliation as a friend and be encouraged to share its pain, and in humility, allow it to liberate you and set you free from all that might seek to entangle you or draw you into despair.
An Atheist Confronts Christian Hypocrisy
I am accepting this at face value, the young man seems to be clear on what he knows, is well educated, probably grew up in Church...yet is now an Atheist. This is worth watching.
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