2006 is Over, Republicans Retain House and Senate

For every mean spirited venomous writer on the left there is a sweet gentle counterpart on the right. Sometimes they are bearers of good news.

Peggy Noonan is just one such.

She writes this yesterdsy:

They say the election is all about Iraq. It's not. It's about George W. Bush. He dominates the discussion, or rather obsesses the discussers.

I think that Americans have pretty much stopped listening to him. One reason is that you don't have to listen to get a sense of what's going on. He does not appear to rethink things based on new data. You don't have to tune in to see how he's shifting emphasis to address a trend, or tacking to accommodate new winds. For him there is no new data, only determination.

You know he means it when he says he is trying to protect America. You know his heart is in it. You know he means it when he says there are bad guys and we will stop them. And that has meaning.

With all this polarity, this drama, this added layer Mr. Bush brings to a nation already worn by the daily demands of modern individual life, the political alternative, the Democrats, should roar in six weeks from now, right? And return us to normalcy?

Well, that's not what I sense.

The Democrats' mistake--ironically, in a year all about Mr. Bush--is obsessing on Mr. Bush. They've been sucker-punched by their own animosity.

"The Democrats now are incapable of answering a question on policy without mentioning Bush six times," says pollster Kellyanne Conway. " 'What is your vision on Iraq?' 'Bush lied us into war.' 'Health care? 'Bush hasn't a clue.' They're so obsessed with Bush it impedes them from crafting and communicating a vision all their own." They heighten Bush by hating him.

One of the oldest clichés in politics is, "You can't beat something with nothing." It's a cliché because it's true. You have to have belief, and a program. You have to look away from the big foe and focus instead on the world and philosophy and programs you imagine.

Mr. Bush's White House loves what the Democrats are doing. They want the focus on him. That's why he's out there talking, saying Look at me.

Which leaves them unlikely to win leadership. And unworthy of it, too.

And that my Friends is why 2006 is now in the bag for the Republicans. Not because they deserve to win or that they did such a good job. But because the Democrats fought the wrong fight. When you hate Bush that much it blinds you to anything else. Place foot directly under gun barrel. Pull Trigger. It's over.

Whew..........

Tent Torn Down

Today the tent is being torn down in a cornfield near Asheville North Carolina. There has been a revival meeting going on there for the last few months. 4000 people have been saved and/or baptized in the nearby river since this revival meeting began in July. The tent meeting was only scheduled for a couple weeks. It just didn’t stop.

I have seen this before. It is a wonderful thing. Even the newspapers reported it. Do it again Lord, do it again.

Friday the President of the United States was asked at a press conference about statements he had made about a third great awakening:

Bush told reporters he has noticed far more people approaching him at public events lately and telling him "Mr. President, I'm praying for you."

The president said he considered the prayer offerings a sign of a "third awakening" of religious devotion similar to the great spiritual revivals that transformed America prior to the nation's independence in the 18th century, and again before the Civil War in the 19th century.

"It seems like to me that something is happening in the religious life of America," Bush said. "I'm able to see a lot of people, and from my perspective, people are coming to say, 'I'm praying for you.' And it's an uplifting part of being the president. It inspires me."

I see it too. Something is up. Dead religion is being set aside for a true spiritual focus on Jesus. Creative new ideas are being implemented by men and women of God to build bridges to the lost. To create an atmosphere for revival. This one intrigued me. Jesus in a beer glass. I wasn't offeneded, I was impressed.

Of course religious people hate revival. Always have, always will. Never support it, never engage it. Persecute it. Jesus was crucified. The Pharisees are still crucifying Jesus.

And, the non-Christian doesn’t have a clue. Deer in the headlights. Look at what Maureen Dowd said about the President’s remarks. She uses a sincere comment by Bush to bash him. They are pitiful and pitiless. The comments on this person's blog show you the "depth" of their hatred for Bush. Blinded by rage they lurch headlong into a hell of their own design.

No matter what you believe, only one is true. Heaven or Hell is the ultimate destination. Religions have different ways of teaching who will end up where. I think it is the ultimate bad gamble to hope things will work out and not explore deeply what it means in God’s economy regarding our eternal soul.

The tent is being torn down today near Ashville. That doesn't mean God is done, it means he is doing a new thing. But, everyone's tent will be torn down. Then what?

Toxic Personalities

When I taught the Dale Carnegie Courses for so many years in the Dakotas sometimes there were people who came to the course as a result of the boss "Sending" them.  They were always difficult.

 

They didn't want to learn to "Win Friends and Influence People".

 

So, they were determined to be obstinate no matter how much  I and the graduate assistants would try to help them.

 

In most cases these were people who were in jobs that required them to have some interactions with others.  They weren't good at it.

 

I have the full list of all of the "Golden Rules" about how we can become the person we wish we could be, how to have more and better friends, how to keep friends, how to get over worry, how to become a more focused confident person, how to cultivate long term relationships and mostly how to be well liked and happy.

 

The original list is long, but, over time I have boiled it down to a few on being better with people:

 

To have more real Friends

    Be genuinely interested in what others are, it's not about you.

    Listen, stop talking, smile, listen, It's not about you.

    Don't argue, they aren't going to change their minds

    Ask questions, encourage for others to talk, It's not about you

    Tell people what you think of them ABOVE where they are, give people         a reputation to live up to.

    Don't Criticize, Condemn or Complain to or about people to others

   

To be happier:

    Learn to say Thank You.

    Most people don't think good or bad of you, they don't think of you at all,     It's not about you

    Be yourself, don't imitate others,be transparent, admit mistakes

    Lincoln said, Most people are about as happy as they make up their mind     to be.     

    Hamlet said, Things are neither good nor bad, but thinking makes it so

    Fill your thoughts with peace, courage, health and hope.

 

Last, It's not about you.  Unhappiness and a self absorbed personality pushes people away instead of attracting them to you.  Worrying all the time about what others do or don't think of you or what their motives are is borderline insanity.

 

It's also a toxic personality.

 

The Truth is Out There - or not

I love a good conspiracy theory as much as the next guy, you know, Hitler and Elvis are still alive and that guy that invented the 200MPG carburetor sold it for $50,000,000. I know it’s not true but its fun.

But in today’s world there are many really whacky theories promulgated mostly from the left. They have little concreteness lof any real ideas to offer the American voter so they manifest and propagate these inane ideas like:

• The Government (CIA Probably) blew up the Twin Towers
• NO WAIT The Jews blew up the Twin Towers
• Bush's people blew holes in the dikes in New Orleans (Spike Lee)
• And Oil Prices are dropping due to the Fall Elections

I wish the government (Bush) had the absolute power people insist it does. It does not. In fact, it's kind of anemic.

When bad things happen, these people MUST blame someone. And if good things happen, be sure to give no credit to anyone right of center and certainly not that anti-christ Bush. National Review Online has a great article you should read on these wacky conspirator revelators. Here's a bit of it:

“Conspiracy theorist” isn’t quite right either. These are priests of the Church of Conspiracy, a heresy of Gnostic heresy which holds that man is the ruler of history, the demiurge of all events that befall us. Powerful and unseen forces lurk in the shadows. The conspiracy theorists know they’re out there, even as the enemy’s name changes almost daily: Big Oil, capitalists, Republicans, or perhaps those eternal pullers of mankind’s puppet strings, the Jews.

The masons of dementia build upon a bedrock of one absolute truth: Bad things happen, and someone must be responsible. Upon this bedrock they pile convenient and selective facts like bricks. Contradictory facts are clever lies. When Popular Mechanics debunked 9/11 hokum, the immediate response from conspiratorialists was “cover-up!” and “CIA front!” because in this perverted faith, denying the ultimate truth must be proof of a lie.

This rough beast slouches toward sedition because it assumes not that our leaders are knaves or even mere criminals, but that they are murderous Supermen with no loyalty to nation, decency or law. Our Constitution is a fraud, a charade for the rubes some of us naively call citizens. If you disagree, you’re either fool or “in on it.” In his 1964 essay, “The Paranoid Style in American Politics,” Richard Hofstadter demonstrated that this fever of the mind is as old as America itself and its outbreaks flare up across the ideological landscape. What is so sad and frightening is that this diseased thinking is reaching epidemic proportions. More than a third of Americans believe the U.S. government was likely to have been involved in 9/11.

Oliver Stone and Michael Moore have done their best to inflame an ignorant unthinking portion of our country. I guess when what you believe in is every day shown more and more to be false, you will believe anything no matter how weird to desperately hang on to your warped view of the world.

I Investigate Nancy Grace on CNN Headline News

I am not a fan of Nancy Grace. She is a shrew. She has a yelling and screaming show on CNN Headline News. The only thing that allows me to know that she is still there is that she is on right after Glen Beck. I can't stand to watch her. I have tried. She's sickening.

After what I would describe as a Salem Witch trial by Ms Grace on Video the persecuted mother of a missing child who MS Grace accused of murder killed herself. No Judge, No Trial, Just an Executioner. Ms Grace. Salem.

MS Grace pleads innocent. Yea right.

It reminded me of a reporter who got the snot kicked out of him the other day in California. I had no pity for this idiot. The bad guy he was dogging was a bad guy. But in typical journalist style he dogged him anyway. Clue Video boy. You don't lean into the punch. You don't spit into the wind. If you jump off a high ladder you break a leg.

He got his nose busted instead. The guy he was invesegating beat him up. Bad. I have no pity.

Now he's crying the blues. When did news reporting become sacred? If he were a law enforcement officer I would be sympathetic. But he was a hack reporter who placed himself in harms way and suffered the consequence.

So Ms Grace - shame on you. Wheather that woman was guilty or not, her blood is on your hands. You are not Judge and Jury even if you act like one.

And to Mr. Brokennose. Tough Cookies. Wise up.

I'll bet you don't pull that kind of stupid manuver again.

Sentiment from the Front

I have been accused of being just a little harsh, just a little critical, just a little direct by some readers in ministry who email me and say, Gene, "For a  Christian you...........".  To which I say, "you don't know what you are talking about.  You know nothing at all about the battle for the souls of men".

 

They are reading the WWJD version of the Bible and fail to read the real version.   It's all kisses and candycane to them.  No blood no whip no cross.

 

So, for a perspective from someone on the field on the frontlines of missions work fighting the battle for real I offer this (Emphasis Mine) excerpt from a missionary newsletter:

 

Hey! Spud killed a rat, actually in the last 4 days we killed seven rats. The neighbors decided to remodel their house. Guess who decided to move?  The rats! The moral of this story is that nothing reinvigorates Spud like a good ‘rat fight’, kind of like his owner. I’d decided to park the ‘Soap Box’ for 2006, I upset too many people! And, I am familiar with the proverb: “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger, the tongue of the wise uses knowledge rightly, but the mouth of fools pours forth foolishness.” And, “Even a fool is counted wise when he holds his peace…” So, I decided to shut up, but then…, Spud killed that big rat….

So, “Drag out that box Spud!” Up I go… Now, I have a proverb of my own, “Never trust a friend who is afraid to make an enemy.” Why? They won’t tell you the truth. I know I have a big mouth, considered by some to be a ‘Smart (Biblical word for donkey)’, but I don’t lie. Do you know what got Stephen (the early church deacon in Acts) killed? It was his big mouth. He told the truth. If he had just left the verses in Acts 7:51-53 unsaid, he’d probably have lived a lot longer. But then God used that event to turn Saul around, and scatter the church to build the kingdom of God. Not a bad exchange.

So, why not just be a nice guy; promote world peace, etc.?? I’d probably retain more donors. We’ll, what about your favorite camp bracelet, “WWJD” (What would Jesus do?). I know, He said, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the sons of God”, so, there is hope for the wimps of the world, but what did he DO?? Hmmm?? He stood outside the temple weaving a whip (don’t tell me this wasn’t pre-meditated) as he watched the merchants inside making a fortune off God’s people, then He went inside and drove them out. (Jn 2:15) he called the Pharisees “Vipers” and “Whitewashed tombs”, not exactly terms of endearment, because they were taking widow’s, and even their parent’s money, and claiming it for God’s use.

Why do I stir up so much controversy? Because, the same thing is happening today with a lot of “Rip off Christian” organizations taking money from God’s churches and doing no ‘Kingdom good’ with it. They talk ‘Christ’ to the churches, and then never mention His name in the field; they love to talk about good works and “pre-evangelism”. They tell heart wringing stories about building schools, orphans, or rescuing prostitutes (and manage to get them beaten or killed), while raising millions of dollars in the name of Jesus, but are so afraid of loosing their secular funding, they won’t mention His name to those who most need to hear it.

Are you mad at me yet? If not, this should really stir things up. I have a suggestion, before you write another check, due to the emotional tug of these hucksters, find out how many souls are entering the Kingdom of God. What good are you doing, in an eternal sense, if you take a hungry, desperate, person and turn them into an educated, self satisfied, contented person, if in the process they never come to Christ? Good works, coupled with the Gospel, are powerful. That is precisely why Paul told Titus (3-14): “And let our people also learn to maintain good works, to meet urgent needs, that they may not be unfruitful” Make no mistake, the fruit Paul was talking about was souls.

The truth is that good works alone may do more eternal harm than good, if they eliminate the spiritual hunger that could lead people to Christ.

“Spud! Why are you growling at me? You got your rat, let me have mine!

Back boy! Bad dog!” 

There are ministries, even high profile ministries I will not support.  Some even some run by friends of mine.  I would like to tell them the truth but I may not have earned the right for them to hear me yet.  If I am going to put my life on the line to raise a half million dollars for some ministry it better be demonstrating the ability to get results for the kingdom or don't come knocking.

I offend a lot of people, but as the old saying goes, if something offends you then it must have revealed something in your heart.  We are never offended by non issues to us.

I was appreciative of Barry Kolb taking the initiative to support some schools in Liberia instead of certain high profile ministries with limited success, or of Don Lyon who is in the middle of an expensive building program setting it back by raising nearly $50,000 in one Sunday for a Ugandan Orphans of Aids Mission.

That's meat and potatoes front line missions work.  Watch out little eyes what you see, be careful little ears what you hear.  There are seducing spirits everywhere.  Even in the Church.

 

 

 

The dangers of Blogging While Angry.

I wrote a nasty mean piece of villification which I don't repent of as much as repent of the lack of literate tone.

So, I rewrote it. It's almost readable now.

I would ask you to read it again. It bears repeating. Thank you for your indulgence and now re-run Turning Evil into Good again.

Your humble rewrite servant.

The Road to Oblivion is Paved With Bad Intentions

I don't like to just cut and past whole articles and usually won't UNLESS they are so good that simply linking to them won't get them read. Gates of Vienna (the blog) is one of my "Favorites". Level headed, european in scope. You can read it in it's origional form with all the hyperlinks.

The Road to Oblivion is Paved With Bad Intentions
by Dymphna

Larry Kudlow warned the MSM about their hubris, using The Washington Post’s front page report from Tuesday on President Bush’s 9/11 anniversary speech:

Keep misunderestimating President George W. Bush as The Washington Post did this morning on its front page when it trashed Bush’s 9/11 speech to the nation.

Curious, I wandered over to Wapo’s front page "news" (subscription required) for 9/12 to see what they had to say. Kudlow was right: it was not a straightforward news report, it was analysis veneered with a thin layer of events, and larded with snarky asides. Here is one such passage:

The president’s painstakingly choreographed day was intended by the White House to recapture — at least for a moment — the sense of shared purpose that prevailed in the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attacks.

But Bush faced a tall order. Although he urged Americans last night to “put aside our differences,” Democrats have been attacking the administration over Iraq and Bush’s national security record, hoping these issues will help them reclaim one or both chambers of Congress in November. Polls suggest the public does not accept Bush’s contention that the war in Iraq is a “central front” in the campaign against terrorists.

Last night, Democrats said Bush politicized the Sept. 11 anniversary. “The president should be ashamed of using a national day of mourning to commandeer the airwaves to give a speech that was designed not to unite the country and commemorate the fallen, but to seek support for a war in Iraq that he has admitted had ‘nothing’ to do with 9/11,” said Sen Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.).

Bush has sought to shift public opinion in the past two weeks with speeches aimed at explaining the nature and goals of radical Islamists and putting the war in Iraq in a broader — and, he hopes, more popular — context.

And as Kudlow reports, while the MSM continues on this road (the one to oblivion, not the one paved with good intentions), in the real world — the one where people put their money where their mouth is — things are looking good for the Republicans. Tradesports.com is showing gains for the Republicans in the November elections:

The Senate GOP ‘06 contract is up to 84 from 78 just a few days ago. And most important, the House GOP contract is up to an unbelievable 46 today, compared to 38 just a few days ago. Especially for the House race, this is big news.

Kudlow also chortled over the strong gains in the stock market today, following the events of the 9/11 memorial and speech. Traders love tax cutters, despite the foils and curses of the economically illiterate MSM.

Dow 11,498.09 +101.25
Nasdaq 2,215.82 +42.57
S&P 500 1,313.11 +13.57
NYSE 8,348.32 +86.15

The learning curve for journalists seems to be infinite. Somehow I don’t think they’ll ever get over the fact that Woodward and Bernstein are your father's journalists, and Vietnam is so 20th century that as a meme it's road kill -- very flat, not much left of it. Certainly not enough to dine out on anymore.

Along with their Dem pals, the MSM continues to wander the halls, hoping that things will change. But "things" have changed; it's the Dems and the MSM who are stuck in a time warp where doom and gloom cloud the atmosphere with threats of scarcity and chaos.

Blinders and wishful thinking don’t make for a sane foreign policy or for prosperity at home, guys. Bad science, bad economic theory, and ignorance of history lead you to the dustbin. Oh, well -- you'll have lots of company as the unions jump in with you. Perhaps being wrong — dead wrong — is less painful when you have lots of company.


All I could say was AMEN, they said it so much better.

Oil at ~ $45 as predicted and Gas at $2

I have much faith in the spoken word of God to my spirit. I know that freaks many people out. It shouldn’t. It’s available to all who will just be still, are full of the Holy Spirit, know what his voice sounds like (it sounds like you), and know how to discern.

Jesus said my sheep will hear my voice and know me. I hear it and I’m a sheep.

Last December as I waited for the Lord to give me whatever he wanted me to share with you all he gave me a word regarding gas prices. I have been confident in that word but have wondered when it would happen. I’m confident in all his word, spoken and written.

He said to me:

Oil prices will begin the year at $60 crude. Thru an attempt to manipulate the market some time in 2006 crude will breach $100. This manipulation will fail and the price will fall to $45. Your security isn’t in cheap oil. I can and I will provide all you need. In 2006 a new energy source will be revealed. In 2005 my prophets told you of this impending discovery. When you see it you will not recognize it. But I will provide. I am Jehovah Jira.

Now oil prices are $64 today and dropping. Gasoline is $2.00 in parts of Iowa and that price is spreading fast across the nation. It’s still $2.50 in our area.

Of course alarmists are saying it won’t last, this is an illusion. I’ll check with the expert of the ages on what he says. I’m not panicky.

But what about the price thing? Last fall the price of Gold was $448 per ounce. Today it is $583 per ounce. This also means that in real dollars as per the time of the prediction the price is about where He said it would be. That makes the current $64 price in real last fall dollars at the time of the prediction $48 per barrel in last fall money. The real proof of the pudding is $2 gasoline. A price everything inside me said was a real price. I even said it earlier.

So could it happen exactly as predicted yet? Perhaps. I just know our security isn’t in cheap oil. There are new things coming on. When the creative heart of God is released in man’s spirit supernatural breakthroughs will take place. They already are.

I haven’t heard the news media talk about his much; I haven’t seen those pictures of high gas price signs. Sigh. I guess it doesn’t matter when prices go down and people settle down.

Turning the Bad of 9-11 into Good

I’m not happy 9-11 happened. I am happy with some of the net results of 9-11. It wiped the mush off our goggles and have allowed the country I love to begin to think and see clearly again.

Things I’m glad have happened as a result of 9-11:

1. Air Base Baghdad and Air Base Kabul. They aren’t perfect yet but they provide a visible restraint on the nutcases who want to kill us all. I wish we were further along in securing them but we will. I hope our men and women stay there for a hundred years. We still have work to do. We also will win the hearts and minds of Arabs as we do what we must to stabilize the Middle East.

You also see others who criticize the American response to the attack calling it "savage" or "brutal" which are words commonly used by the Arab media that at the same time ignores the savage brutality of the attack in the first place.

2. Saddam is in jail. His boys are gone. He is and was an evil man who unabashedly hated the USA and Israel. He was the centerpiece for a culture and movement that rubbed our noses in our incompetence and timidity before 9-11. Guess what spiderhole boy, we ain’t timid no more.

3. Our REAL Enemies have revealed themselves. We now know exactly who they are and every day we kill some. Sometimes we let them live in captivity. They hate us and we must crush them every chance we get. You don’t negotiate with a snake, you kill it.

4. Syria and Iran have been revealed as state terror sponsors. No more Mr. Nice guy with those thugs. Oh, and Nukes, you get one, it will blow up in your house, not ours. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad wants to kill every American man woman and child if he gets the chance. He won’t if I keep my gun cabinet full of deadly weapons loaded.

5. Russia and China have been revealed for who they really are. They are not our friends allies. All the nicey nice talk is stifled by the lack of support for what needs to be done.

6. Europe (except for Britain) has been shown up for the paper tiger it really is. This will get some legitimate governments off their behinds and cause them to defend themselves. I only wish it wasn’t the French working in Lebanon. My hope is Europe will wake up and learn to fight again. NATO is a joke.

7. The Taliban are gone, yes they try to come back, and we kill them again. We must. They're like ants in an anthill. You can’t kill them all until they congregate. Let’s have a Taliban convention and ……….. There’s a Toby Keith song to that effect.

8. All this disaster has focused our country on the real menace facing us. We are arguing less and less about if there is danger. We know there is a real enemy and he really wants to kill us.

9. Left Wing Delusions have been exposed. There are still a few deluded people who don’t think we have to take the battle to the enemy. An equally deluded media encourages the confusion they feel. One benefit of 9-11 is the deluded masses are exposed for what they are. Those on the left do not understand what it will mean to them specifically if this war is lost. Everything they hold dear is over when the Taliban comes:

……..precisely the values that modern liberalism had done so much to promote and protect for the past 40 years: civil rights, gay rights, feminism, privacy rights, reproductive choice, sexual freedom, the right to worship as one chooses, the right not to worship at all. And so they bid an unsentimental good-bye to their one-time comrades and institutions: the peace movement, the pages of the Nation and the New York Review of Books, "the deluded and pathetic sophistry of postmodernists of the left, who believe their unreadable, jargon-clotted theory somehow helps liberate the wretched of the earth," as Mr. Rosenbaum wrote in the New York Observer in 2002.

10. 9-11 and the Iraq war have exposed the anti-American media in our country. All the leaks, treasonous reports and un-American things the press has engaged in has done two things. Caused people like me to doubt most of what I read in newspapers. And to look for the bias in what I do read. They are exposed for the traitors they really are.

11. The weak, ineffective and unpatriotic behavior of some of our elected officials is disgraceful and has taken the mask off of who they really are. They are exposed as people of bad faith. They have given comfort to the enemies of America over and over again. I hope that people now see them for the weasels they really are.

12. I am thankful that we have learned to fight again as a country. Yes there are a great number of pantywaists in our country, but there is a brave noble cadre who make up the new greatest generation ready to fight the most dire threat this country (and Western Civilization) has ever faced. That is not only my opinion. It’s the opinion of many. You my friends are part of the greatest generation. Opposition to courageous action is nothing new. Most of the citizens of the USA didn’t want to go to war with Hitler in 1940. That is not until Pearl Harbor. 9-11 was a greater travesty than Pearl Harbor. Even after Pearl Harbor there was nearly a majority who didn’t want to go to war. That’s why we have leaders. That’s why we trust them to do what needs to be done.

When we survive as a country it will be in spite of the opposition from within and without. From without I understand the battle, from within I do not. Dissent does not include putting my loved ones in harms way be your words and actions. That's sedition.

It’s time to decide what side you are on. There are only two. You must choose. This is a pretty black and white choice. As President Bush said to international governments after 9-11, you are either with us or you are against us. Neutrality is no longer an option.

We are at war, either here or there, we are under attack, either here or there, we will take casualties either here or there. The choice is ours. I choose there.

If we take this battle to them, they take casualties too. And in the long run I’m betting on our war capabilities and the goodness of the American spirit. Oh, they can run and hide, they can shoot from the caves, drive the car bombs. But with every bombing we get better, with every attack we get smarter, with every incursion we get more savvy. They do too, but we have the right stuff to beat them if our elected officials will let them do what they are designed to do as an armed force. Kill the enemy and destroy his things.

This is going to be brutal, it’s going to be bloody, and it’s really only just begun. We must be ready for decades of this war. We must win. If the traitors and cowards among us don’t defeat us from within we will win. Winning means we are no longer faced with an organized enemy who launches mass attacks against innocents in the USA. That will be victory. But it will never be as it ever was. That was a fantasy world we pretended to live in. The price of peace is eternal vigilance.

Peace and victory is our only option or we will live in submission to an occupying power and ideology that hates everything about us.

I choose Victory first and then Peace.

How about you, what side are you on? There are only two.

Thou Art The Man

You know the story. Nathan comes to David, David has commited terrible sin. Nathan tells David a story. David becomes enraged at the protagonist in the story. He says, who is this guy?

Nathan says, You da man.

Usually You da man is a good thing. We say that in a golf game. We say that as a masculine comment. But, sometimes when things go wrong in life and we wonder why what we really need is a mirror. A mirror that can tell us, You da man.

David didn’t like what he heard. He didn’t love the fact that Nathan became his spiritual mirror. Nathan didn’t like it either. David could have had his head for saying what he did and that would have been that. But David feared God more than he feared the worldly consequence of his sin. When we have someone in our life who is a God Agent sent to be a spiritual mirror it can be painful but if we fear God it is essential. We must look ourselves in the face directly and deal with the issues God puts up before us.

This comes up because of a corporation my wife used to work for had a conflict resolution consultant come in and work with the corporation as to why there is so much muss and fuss among the people. After a time the expert went in and sat down with the CEO and said, You da man.

That wasn’t what the CEO wanted to hear. He wanted to find out who was causing all the trouble OTHER THAN HIM. No, the expert told him, it all starts at the top. Whatever problems exist, whatever assumptions your people have, whatever conflicts exist they exist substantially because of you. Your people reflect who you are. If you want change in your organization you must change yourself.

I don’t know if he will. I kind of doubt it. It’s a smaller company. He may not have to. But if the company does or if it wants to grow it will outgrow its CEO quickly. HE is the single limiting factor in the organization. It is ever thus.

I have had this experience in my own life. When I lived in Fargo my combined workforce in the companies I ran at that time was about 80 people. They unfortunately reflected the culture I provided. Our success (creative and aggressive) and our failure (organizational and asset management) flowed from me. Oh, we did OK. We were successful to a point. But to move up took another person. They outgrew me. I began to realize I needed other people’s strengths to help me move ahead.

Same thing happened when I became CEO of a large corporation in Chicago in the mid 80’s. We made bold and fast changes. Heads rolled. Things happened. Results came. But there came a point where the lean sleek aggressive nature had to be moderated with structure. It worked because the naysayers were gone. We never did it that way before was no longer in the corporate culture. We didn’t ask if or how we were going to do thus and so, we asked how soon. The only regrets I have from that experience is not taking action when the time presented itself. If fired too late, stayed with old programs too long, left old systems in place beyond their lifespan. I would have done better by taking action, demanding the system work and putting up with the complainers who said, “I’m not happy about the changes going on around here”. I had a few of those. They didn’t last.

When I left that company, some of the dogged determination and “get things done” spirit left. More meetings. More strategy sessions. More wonkyness. Not bad, it just didn’t flow from me.

This is true in Churches and Ministries. I have several friends in ministry who are tremendous leaders up to a point. Then they hit a spiritual ceiling that sits on top of them that if they don’t’ break thru will condemn the ministry they lead to stagnation in the same place they are today. A year from now they will be fighting the same battles with the same people with the same issues with the same frustrations because they left things the same. Not all change is improvement BUT there is never any improvement without change. Be of good cheer little flock, Change for the most part is reverseable. Unringing some bells can be positive change. It can be a unifier.

I know a pastor (who doesn’t read this blog) who was a tremendous leader. Prophetic gifting. Charismatic. But, the answer person. If an idea didn’t come from Pastor it wasn’t going to happen. When people came to Pastor with ideas or even potential course corrections nothing happened unless Pastor could construe it as coming from the Pastor’s vision. Ego driven Pastorate. This comes from a lack of confidence. That Church is about to close. The building will go up for sale. It lasted 6 years. Grew to 150 people and now is dribbling away to nothing.

The opposite of that is Doctor Owen Weston. When he was the Pastor sometimes ministries would spring up in the building without his knowledge, they would prosper and only after a couple months would he hear of it. People would say, "Wow, that ministry to Mom’s you have at your church is something". He would say thank you and then go back to the church and ask, “Do we have a ministry to Moms?” His churches grew organically because his people were enabled to move with confidence in ministry with confidence. Doc O has written several books on how to do it right. I have always admired him and his vision for allowing the Body to be the Body without the Pastor’s intervention. Most Pastors aren't as courageous or as confident as Doc O.

If you wonder why your ministry is like it is, find a mirror. It can be just a looking glass if you can tell yourself the truth or better still find a person who is a mirror for you who has the right and ability to say, You da man.

Otherwise, be prepared to live in mediocrity and far less than the potential God had prepared for you. It’s about you setting the tone. Whatever is important to you will be important to your people.

Since I have a couple dozen people who read this in ministry I’ll be nice and say, this isn’t about you. Unless it is.

Name the top frustrations you have in your ministry regarding:

• Giving
• Evangelism
• Love for one another
• Willingness to Change
• Volunteers
• Excitement
• People inviting others
• People not capturing the vision
• Passion
  

Anything that frustrates you about the people you are the leader of as Pastor or Minister in large part flows from you. It trickles down from the top. You know it’s true of all the pastors you know in all the other churches or ministries you know. You are not exempt. It’s you.

You be da man.

Things I Learned this Weekend

I was busy ministry-wise all weekend. Friday night in Bolingbrook, Saturday Morning Men’s fellowship, Sunday Morning Church, Sunday Night Church, Movie on Channel 7 re 9-11.

Sometimes it’s just good to reflect, did I learn anything? I did:

People need to be let out of Spiritual Jail. Sometimes we just need to have someone speak words of release over us. God created the universe with a word. We can cause things to happen with a word of faith spoken over a person in need of a miracle.

People’s troubles are like Hurricanes. Every hurricane starts with a tropical depression. A tropical depression is only neutralized by meeting up with a high-pressure system. Our lives storms start with depression and are only corrected by meeting up with the most high. If you stop the depression, you stop many storms.

Most people let circumstance dictate truth to them. Even when the circumstances they face aren’t the truth of God they are controlled by circumstance.

Most people don’t understand what God’s plan is for the life they are leading. If they did they would walk with more confidence. People are immortal until they have reached the destination they were created for. It’s people who live aimlessly that are subject to being derailed by Satan.

Women are a mystery to Men. That’s good and that’s bad. There are answers. The Song of Solomon reveals the heart of a woman and a man. Get that and you will get it. God wants us to live in fullness in our marriage more than we do. And he has a wonderful way to do it. Dr. Phil doesn’t have a clue to much of this. Most “Christian” books on marriage are pop psychology set to the beat of a few Bible verses and “What a Friend we have in Jesus”. Ignore them at all costs.

When tough times come like 9-11 or Katrina people flee. They become refugees. When tough times come in life, many Christians become refugees from faith. They need to be nurtured and nourished by words of Faith. The must be helped back from being faith evacuees.

Seducing spirits are all around. They are harmless until we pay attention to them. Kent Hunter said this Sunday Morning. He is a good guy and a great grower of Black Walnut. I have seen lots of supposed Black Walnut plantations and never heard of anyone who had it together like Kent did. I look forward to continuing conversations with him.

If we depart from having faith, there is only one place we will live, the state of fear. There is no middle ground in the realm of believing God. A little disbelief can stop a train of faith.

God wants to show off thru us. Let’s let him. We have to find out what that looks like.

I heard the best altar call presentation I ever heard: “If you know you are in spiritual trouble and want to come back to Jesus come up here”. Powerful.

People who are unsure of themselves spiritually, talk too much. I call it the habbada habbbada habbada of spiritual leadership. It can be embarrassing. Once a person gets full of God and overflows in it they use far fewer but far more powerful words. Wordiness is a sign of spiritual immaturity.

Some people, well meaning people, even people who pray in tongues, pray in fear. It’s sometimes called, worrying our prayers. You’ve done it. “Oh, Lord, You see the big trouble we are in, this is a mess, etc”. Whatever is not of faith is sin. So, I don’t know where that stands. I do know this, sometimes praying the “Lord’s Will” is praying in fear. I don’t see anywhere in the word where Jesus rebuked the disciples by saying, “you have too much faith”. His only rebukes in this area were acting in fear, doubt and unbelief.

If someone is going to pray for me, I want them to pray in faith believing. Jesus said that unless you do this, “Let him not expect much from God”. I want to expect a lot from God. So, if it’s OK with you, I’ll pray in faith believing.

I saw the 9-11 film on ABC. This must be a two-headed attack to win this war. First we must crush those who want to kill us. That is war.

Then we must persuade the ones who don’t know of the truth who Jesus really is. This is the single greatest Challenge of the Global Church today. Unfortunately as anemic as the Church in America is I have no hope we can do much other then get out of the way. In fact, most of our missions programs are a waste of time. Only men and women of God from those Countries who can reach them and the converts in their midst can do this. If we support them there may be hope.

And, that’s what I learned this weekend.

What Really Matters

I watched the Path to 9-11 (at least the part left after I got back from Church).

It was an extraordinary piece of work. I'm very impressed with everything about the film.

I just don't know why we have to be "Treated" to the Nightline people to "Balance".

So, what tomorrow night will bring? I don't know.

I'll watch. Only the truth matters. I want the truth.

George Bush Doubles Down

That was the headline from the top of the Saturday Wall Street Journal. It's a reference to a blackjack hand that is a winner and you want to go for the whole thing. Played right it's not a risky bet. But it is Gutsy.

That's what I love about our President. He is of more courage than anyone in recent history.

Paul Gigot who wrote the article says as a president he is more Truman than LBJ. My opinon is he is superior to both. George W Bush is without comparisom.

If you have the time and the courage to read the whole thing you will see a president in full charge of the situation, in full command of the strategy, in full understanding of the situation and without wavering ready to double down.

Here are a few key lines from the article posted on Opinion Journal today:

"Now, my view of the country is this: Most people want us to win. There are a good number who say, get out now. But most Americans are united in the concept--of the idea of winning."

Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni. Mr. Bush says partition would be "a mistake," though he does add that "the Iraqi people are going to have to make that decision." But he says Iraqis didn't vote for partition when they approved their new constitution or new government, and "this government has been in place since June; 90 days is a long time for some, but it's really not all that long to help a nation that was brutalized under a tyrant to get going."

Iraq is the first real test of the nation's commitment to this ideological struggle. . . . I believe it strongly. One way for the American people to understand the stakes is to envision what happens if America withdraws." He has been hitting that last point hard in his recent speeches, and it is the linchpin of the argument Mr. Bush will make through November against the Democrats who insist on pulling out immediately.

Intriguingly, the president broke a little news on the subject of Iran, acknowledging that he personally signed off on the U.S. visit this week by former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami. The trip has angered many conservatives because Mr. Khatami presided over the nuclear weapons development and cheating that Mr. Bush has pledged to stop. Why let him visit?

"I was interested to hear what he had to say," Mr. Bush responds without hesitation. "I'm interested in learning more about the Iranian government, how they think, what people think within the government. My hope is that diplomacy will work in convincing the Iranians to give up their nuclear weapons ambitions. And in order for diplomacy to work, it's important to hear voices other than [current President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad's."

've interviewed Mr. Bush at length in the last eight years, going back to his time as Texas governor. One of the notable things about him is how similar he seems. He has always been supremely confident in his decisions and focused above all else on pushing forward, not looking back. If he is tortured by doubt, he doesn't show it to journalists. Some see this as obstinance, but he sees it as firmness of conviction.

Whether or not he's right about the elections this fall, you have to respect his willingness to put that conviction on the line. "I said in my Inaugural Address, we should end tyranny in the 21st century," he says. "And I meant that."

He's quite a man, my kind of man, my kind of President. I'm prepared to make my prediciton now. House and Senate stay as they are. In fact, it's possible the republican's pick up an additional seat in the Senate.

I'm always thankful for the Liberals in our country. They have a bullseye painted on their feet and never miss in crunch time like elections. Oops they did it again.

I am NOT Pro Choice (in some areas)

When Peggy and I lived in Germany one of the things we were impressed with was the grocery stores. They weren’t large, the selection was limited but the quality of the goods was excellent. Shopping was a pleasure.

When we came back to the USA after a couple years in the early 90's we had to be reacclimatized to the cereal isle.

There were too many things to choose from. Too many choices. Too many options.

It's like the Medicare thing Pres Bush came up with. No one can figure it out because there are too many choices.

I don't love a one size fits all program, I do want some choice but too much is too much.

When I bought my last cell phone, I went in and said, "I want a simple phone that I can make and receive calls on".

They kept trying to sell me on phones that danced, sang, had 500 ring tones, did games, took pictures and scratched my back. I just wanted a phone that made and received phone calls. They thought I had arrived from mars.

I got the simplest phone they had, it still works, it still makes and receives phone calls. I still don't want my picture taken.

Same when I bought the digital camera I did. I wanted to take pictures and load them onto my computer. Nope. It had to do movies, features and who knows what. I am confident that it does more than I am doing with it. I don't care. I just want to take pictures.

Same with software. Some years ago I told a software engineer friend of mine that I was convinced that a simple software package that allowed me to write letters and didn't try to help me with that stupid assistant I constantly try to assassinate helping me.

I mostly use word pad now, then I load it into word and let the spelling correction take place. I just hate all the features word has. This is from an op ed piece I read in the Tribune today:

It's counterintuitive, but marketing researchers have discovered what I (and many simple-minded people) have known for years: Too many choices can suppress sales.

In the book "Blink," Malcolm Gladwell describes a very simple study in which shoppers at a grocery store were offered the chance to buy one of six specialty jams. Thirty percent bought a jar. When the choices were increased to 24 varieties of jam, only 3 percent bought.

So all you folks who dreamt up all these options, Cell Phone Plans and 100 other complicated things, simple is better. It really is.

Somehow I think this applies to all of life.

French and Muslim humor

This is a Humor Check. In our out of control Politically Correct World any joking about France and their Military that is now going to monitor the UN Peace in Lebanon requires some level of perspective.

My favorite French Military Joke (Other then Themselves) is

"Why do the French plant Sycamore trees along the roads in France? So the Germans won't have to march in the Sun."

Some Others of note.

1
"I would rather have a German division in front of me than a French one behind me."
--General George S. Patton

2
"Going to war without France is like going deer hunting without your accordion."
--Norman Schwartzkopf

3
"As far as I'm concerned, war always means failure."
--Jacques Chirac, President of France
"As far as France is concerned, you're right."
--Rush Limbaugh

4
"The only time France wants us to go to war is when the German Army is sitting in Paris sipping coffee."
--Regis Philbin

5
The AP and UPI reported that the French Government announced after the London bombings that it has raised its terror alert level from Run to Hide. The only two higher levels in France are Surrender and Collaborate. The rise in the alert level was precipitated by a recent fire which destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively disabling their military.

6
"I don't know why people are surprised that France won't help us get Saddam out of Iraq. After all, France wouldn't help us get Hitler out of France either."
--Jay Leno

7
"The last time the French asked for 'more proof' it came marching into Paris under a German flag."
--David Letterman

8
"War without France would be like World War II."
--Unknown

9
"Raise your right hand if you like the French, raise both hands if you are French."
--Unknown

10
"It is important to remember that the French have always been there when they needed us."
--Alan Kent

11
"They've taken their own precautions against al-Qa'ida. To prepare for an attack, each Frenchman is urged to keep duct tape, a white flag, and a three-day supply of mistresses in the house."
--Argus Hamilton

12
"Somebody was telling me about the French Army rifle that was being advertised on eBay the other day -- the description was, 'Never shot. Dropped once.'"
--Rep. Roy Blunt, MO

13
French Ban Fireworks at Euro Disney (AP), Paris, March 5, 2003. The French Government announced today that it is imposing a ban on the use of fireworks at Euro Disney. The decision comes the day after a nightly fireworks display at the park, located just 30 miles outside of Paris, caused the soldiers at a nearby French Army garrison to surrender to a group of Czech tourists

Doesn't all this make you feel so much better about having the frogs in the middle east to keep peace. Who thought this up? Oh yea, the UN. That explains everything.


And the Muslims:

So that no one feels left out, here are Some Jokes about Muslims. OOOOOOO
You can't say that. I mean it might offend someone. REALLY? I only wish I had more. When did we start fearing our mortal enemies so much they shouldn't be made just a bit fun of? Remember the fun we all had at Hitlers Expense in WWII?

Time to roll out the barrel again.

How many Palestinians does it take to change a light bulb?

None! They sit in the dark forever and blame the Jews for it!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

What do you call a first-time offender in Saudi Arabia?

Lefty!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Did you hear about the Muslim strip club?

It features full facial nudity!

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

What does the sign say above the nursery in a Palestinian maternity ward?

“Live ammunition.”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A man goes into an adult entertainment shop and asks the assistant for an inflatable doll.

“Would you like male or female?”

“Female, please.”

“Would you like Black or White?”

“White, please.”

“Would you like Christian or Muslim?”

This question confused the man, so he asked,”What has the religion got to do with it? It’s an inflatable doll!”

“Well,” explained the assistant,”The Muslim one blows itself up!”

How deep does that Rabbit Hole actually GO?

In the movie The Matrix Morpheus tells Neo that if he took the red pill he would see how deep the rabbit hole really is. Neo takes the pill and discovers he's living in a dream world of a structured controlled environment where everything seems OK and normal. In fact it is filled with control and evil intentions of THE MATRIX.

The Church of Jesus is living in just such a Matrix. We who minister have believed that if we just do things a certain way, read each others books, listen to each others counsel and just hope harder things will get better somehow it'll all work out. Our intentions are right, our outcomes are wrong. We are failing. We have bought the lie and the devil laughs.

Only when men and women of God get sick and tired of being beaten down by circumstance and stand up to the enemy's attack will things change. We believe that by incrementalism and moderate tweaking of the system that things will get better. That's exactly what the devil wants us to believe. The Matrix.

In describing the Matrix Morpheus says, "It's everywhere, when you go to work, when you go to sleep, when you go to church, when you pay your taxes, you think you are living your life when in fact you are being manipulated and controlled living a lie".

What caused me to think of this was a Post from this morning on John Armstrong's blog. John is a good man, I am softly critical of him often because of his moderation driven by a pastor's heart and his attempts to intellectually comprehend thru study and teaching the deep truths of God. He depends on the soulish part of his being to try to apprehend spiritual truth. If you read the book of Second Corinthians you will see that is a failed strategy.

What he says today however in this post is sobering and should be a wakeup call for all Church leadership. Most of these are statistics we knew of in the past, none are really new, but compiled together they frame a Church in America (and in the Fox Valley Area) that is desperately sick. Maybe sick unto death. In his Post he says:

1. In proportion to population there are less than half as many churches in the U.S. Today as there were in 1900. Since 1950, there are thirty percent fewer churches for today's population.

2. Approximately 4,000 churches are begun every year, while 7,000 close!

3. North America and Europe are the only continents in the world where Christianity is not growing.

4. In 1991, 21 percent of all adults were unchurched, and in 2002 the number reached 34 percent.

5. Amazingly, giving per person in the church is less today than it was during the Great Depression.

6. The U. S. is the number two missionary receiving country in the world behind only Brazil. Christians outside of North America increasingly view us as a mission field filled with churches that are spiritually asleep.

7. The Association of Church Mission Committees (ACMC) says 250,000 of 300,000 U. S. congregations are stagnant or dying.

8. Both Catholic and Protestant (both evangelical and mainline) churches face the crisis of declining numbers.

9. The percentage of those church members who profess to an experience of the new birth who will be involved in a divorce is higher than that of non-born-again adults, 27 percent to 24 percent.

10. The average attendance at a Protestant church is 90. This is down by ten percent from 1997 and by 12 percent from 1992.

These institutional numbers are a reflection of a deeper and more serious problem, spiritual malaise and sleepiness. How can anyone seriously doubt the need for a general spiritual awakening in the land of Great Awakenings?

SO, what will bring that great awakening? Not more preaching, you can't talk people into revival; not more programs, you can't structure revival into do these three things and you will have revival; not more buildings, kind of the build it an they will come mentality (you need buildings but form follows function); not more structure and organization, not more tradition, even Jesus said we make his word of no account when we live in tradition; the one thing that can and does bring true revival is hearts of passion in Love with Jesus and desperate for more of him.

Read a hundred books on revival and they will all say, The Key to Revival is Prayer. That is the truth but it is also a trap. We think that by saying words on our knees we cause things to happen. There is a time to prepare our hearts for action by prayer. That's why Jesus went aside early and often. Intimacy with God created in prayer is the key to power in action. The Church loves to pray but then doesn't do what he asks us to do in the quiet times. We don't because we have a fear of man. The Matrix wins again.

The key of prayer in revival is that you are part of the answer to every prayer you pray. You must follow thru on what God tells you to do. If you do he will release more and more truth in action for you to follow. Your obedience will propagate more action. You must be completly submitted to his purposes. Your passion for him must outweigh the fear of failure and the fear of man that holds you back.

One you have captured this passion, the next step will be even more exciting and challenging. Bringing those who see you as a spiritual leader into a greater passion for Jesus.

SO, HOW, you ask? What causes passion? How does that happen? When does that take place? What does it look like?

There is an answer. You can't cause it. You can only release it. You can't program it. You can only create an environment where it can be expressed without restraint. Anything less than being totally sold to this out will fail.

And, reading John's compilation of statistics we already know how to fail.

It's time for a change.

What True Revival Must Look Like to be True Revival

There is much concern in the Church today regarding the need for true revival. There are books, conferences and sermons spoken on the topic. Time for some straight talk.

I have distilled these pronouncements, this is precisely what true revival must look like to be genuine:

• People return to church who used to but don’t any more
• We must sing at least 2 old hymns every Sunday to be spiritual
• The people must listen in rapt attention as the pastor reads his sermon to them (It should contain a joke or two)
• People must give 10% of their net income after taxes to be members
• It must look and feel like it did 50 years ago when I was a kid growing up. That was revival.

If you know much about me you know I am kidding.

Here’s the problem with people trying to tell God how to bring the next revival they will accept:

1. God Laughs
2. They (Church Leadership) get frustrated

It is the epitome of arrogance to try to define what revival might look like in the next wave. Oh, I believe Revival is come, has come and will come. I just don’t think it will look anything like what the church at large thinks it will. For that reason when the visitation of God comes they will miss it complexly, try to explain it away, wait too long, and lose their congregation to Churches that embrace revival as it flows thru and close to become a disco when the new buyers buy that old building.

I have been reading with some interest and amusement this blog linked above on the topic of revival. I don’t mean to pick on this nice man but his take on what revival might or should look like is a human framed reference point God is far from.

We have had revival break out in various places around the world and even in America. I have seen and experienced them. They were never conventional. They changed me. Some died after several years. That’s what happens in revivals, they take us from Glory to Glory according to the scriptures and we begin to see Jesus. They never stay the same. You can’t put God in a box and tell him to stay there.

When we have had these true revivals in the past many people in evangelical traditional religion have rejected, questioned, poo pooed, visited and pronounced judgment, or ignored them and hoped these revivals would go away. When they did these critics remained in their deadness and said, "see, that didn't last". Never mind that it changed in a small way the face of Christianity that 100 years of tradition never could have.

The net result is Jesus showed up and they didn’t see him. Exactly as happend to the Jews in the first century. Eventually what God was doing changed and he began a new thing. These evangelical traditionalists continue to try reviving revival in the mode of what happened 150 years ago in Wales.
When God says, "Behold I do a new thing, if it's new to God it's new to you".

What about what happened in the 80’s with the laughter outbreak (discounted as ungodly), Pensacola (lots of repentance but too emotional), Toronto (too much weirdness) or with the prayer movement (too inward) has always been critisized. Every revival has its persecutors and critics. Luther did. The early reformists were burned at the stake. Every move of God has been missed by the established church, critisized by church leaders, and not recognized until well after it had run it's course. Look at Azusa Street. Only in the last 20 years is it become accepted. They just missed Jesus showing up.

It still goes on today because it doesn’t fit the man crafted idea of revival. What in the world makes us think we can tell God how to do anything?

Until man repents of keeping God in a box, revival can’t come. We as Christians must be prepared to say, “God, whatever you want to do or change in this Church you called me to, I’m ready to go”. Further we must be willing to say, “I will not touch or criticize your anointed. If you are doing a new thing, I will reach for you in it and see if I can find you there”.

This means nearly every sacred cow in the church must be subject to becoming hamburger. It’s big talk to say that, it's another thing to do it. God can only move as he wants to if we are prepared to kill off the revered bovines wandering around in our theologies.

Every single thing sacred in every Church Service must be subject to change. It’s all man-made anyway. Only that which is activated by the Spirit of God is real. The rest is all temporal. Worse, the idea that PEOPLE might object if we did or didn’t do this or that is so bogus spiritually that it needs to be called what it is, BAD RELIGION.

Arrogance is telling God what to do and being offended if he doesn’t do it your way. I have lived most of my life as a born again spirit filled Christian. I have instructed God several times on how to do thus and so in my life. He has always been quite amused. He never does it the way I tell Him to. He always does it right however. In fact, in the areas I defined how He was supposed to do it, if He had been foolish enough to do it my way it would have been a disaster. I have learned not to tell Him how to do things. I have learned to trust Him.

Why do we think it’s any different in our Churches? We somehow don’t think it arrogance to tell God how we believe Church should look to be "real" Church or to tell him how revival should look to be "real" revival. God is still amused. We frame our reference paridigm by being traditional, according to our denomination, Biblical, or classical. The problem is, all of these are interpretations and manmade. I know of Churches in Tennessee where to them being Biblical is not having any musical instruments in the Church. They have Bible verses to prove this. Or a church I’m very familiar with where the women NEVER cut their hair. They point to 1 Corinth 11.

Biblical?

Dumb!

Man Made!!

What if the next revival to break out was Rap Music? All the service, sermon, and sacrament was to the beat of a rap given by a guy dressed in black and an earring? What if Eminem and Fifty Cent got saved and became the next mass evangelists. What if thousands of rap fans came to Jesus at rap concerts and expect to be rapped to about Jesus in our Churches because that’s how they came to Jesus. What will the Church do with them? Start a Saturday evening service for rappers because the dying generation of old people can’t accept the rap revival in regular services? We would lose these people because they were marginalized. People who are new believers passionate for God, turned on, fired up, ready to act, full of energy, and then marginalized. Oh, God would find them a place, then as conventional Churches died they would try to have a Rap Service for those who wanted it. It would be watered down, anemic and empty. The fire went out on the altar.

So, the true new revival generated believers are abandoned because of tradition. God is not mocked. He will judge a Church that doesn't tend his sheep. Even if they love rap music.

Right now, according to John Armstrong, 8000 people per day are deciding to quit going to Church. That’s 56,000 per week. That’s nearly 10% of the population of the USA who no longer go to Church. I don’t know of the veracity of this statistic but I do know that the number is high. Why? Something no longer connects.

What ameliorates this somewhat is some people actually get saved and begin going to Church.

I narrowed this down into bite sized pieces. In the geography of the Fox Valley where I have received the Vision of what God wants to do, there are about 180,000 current residents. That means that 50 people within 15 miles of where I live decided to stop going to Church Today. This last week 400 stopped going to Church in the Fox Valley areas I live in. I’m confident that with all the churches together, we didn’t add 400 people. They just quit. The church in the Fox Valley I attend has about 500 attendees. That means that one person this last week in our Church decided not to come back to church this again and stay home permanently on Sunday. That means we lose about 4 people per month. That means that to keep just even we must add 4. This explains a great deal. By the way, that's about the statistics. Treading water.

Something is wrong and must be fixed. The fix isn’t in the hands of man, The fix is in the hand of God. But we must be ready and willing to go with him where he goes. You lead I’ll follow we sing, but we may be holding our fingers crossed behind our backs.

What we really mean is, Lord, you lead and if it doesn’t violate our image or traditions too much and if our people accept it I’ll follow. God smiles a wry smile and says, "If I have to let you all die and come to heaven to destroy what you have worked for so I can rebuild it as I wanted to, I will do it". God is not mocked.

I submit it would be better if we let him lead and we follow.

Oh, and I am not predicting a rap revival. It's just a way of testing your ability to think a little outside the box you placed God in. I have heard real rap music worship and thought it was OK. If that’s where he wanted us to go, I’m ok with it.

Let's let God arise and his Enemies be Scattered.

…………Said the Porpoise to the Tiger

Yesterday I had one of those times. I was at the Fox Valley Folk Fest. I don’t normally go to those things but a friend of mine, Art was there so I stopped out to see him.

While shooting the breeze and talking politics a long time acquaintance from a previous church stopped by. Charlie. Charlie and I had a great talk not about OLD DAYS but about what God was doing right now in the Church of Jesus. We talked about our hopes and beliefs in his purposes. It went on for a half hour or so it seemed to Art.

For clarity Art knows about Spiritual Things, actually is reasonably well versed in one way. Like a lot of people who grew up in church, are well read, probably read the Bible but have no understanding of who Jesus is. He can talk the language in fact. I think he was raised catholic.

We have talked, I have been open but he has always been dismissive of the whole thing. I don’t get my Bible out and pound it. I care about his soul but I learned long ago I am not the Holy Spirit. I am just Gene. He has to be attracted by the Spirit of God and not of Gene.

Our (Charlie and my) discussion intrigued him. He started asking questions. Not about salvation. Not about who Jesus is; but about Pentecost. He focused right in on speaking in tongues. What is so tragic is that is a stumbling block for so many who know just a little bit that it keeps them away from entering in. This is true even of those who know Jesus. They are fearful of going deeper. They have put God in a box and tell him to stay in his place; they’ll just take a little, dabble around the edges and hope it’s enough. The problem is it’s not for them about salvation. It’s about experiencing all there is to know of God, Hs Gory and Grace.

I have a good pastor friend who writes a newsletter by email. He mails one every week. Many times they are scholarly. But, they are always careful, analytical, distant and keeping of God in his place. I got just one such today. He tried and failed to differentiate the Mystical (Pentecost) in the spiritual realm. Talk about the Kitty Cat on the edge of the pool trying to describe what swimming is like even though he has never been in the water.

Art called this morning. He was upset that I didn’t explain all the nuance of Pentecost to him. I only said to him, this is not something that can be explained, it never was explained in the book of Acts as many times as people experienced it over the many years portrayed in the book, it could only be ministered and experienced. His response was, if it can’t be explained then it’s not real. Poppycock.

If it could be explained it wouldn’t be supernatural now would it?

I have struggled to give a metaphor for why this can’t be explained. I think I get it. If I were a porpoise who swam at great speed thru the sea, leapt from the water, twirled, dove, did that wonderful tail thing they do, and laughed all the time as they seem to I would have a very hard time explaining to a Tiger on the seashore what it is like, how it works, what it feels like, how to do it. Unless he becomes a porpoise himself, gets in the water and lets it all fly he can’t read enough books, listen to enough tapes or hear enough explanation as to what it’s like to be a porpoise. He will be a Tiger, probably a good tiger. But without getting in the water and being born of the water and spirit of a porpoise he will be a tiger now and forever.

Unless you experience it you can never understand it, and here’s the truth, once you experience it you will never want to leave the water. Being a porpoise is like that. It’s so freeing, it’s so safe, it’s so joyful.

A tiger in water is never going to be a porpoise.

I'm Still Reeling

Sunday Night we attended the church we often do on Sunday nights.  It’s a great church and I have a hope and a promise for a church of equal quality in our area.  God said he would do it so I stand on the promise.

 

Something happened Sunday night that set me back a bit.  There was a guest speaker.  He was a pastor from one of the larger churches in Uganda.  His name is Jackson Senyonga.  He came to visit and speak. He was trying to raise money for an orphanage they built in Uganda.  His congregation runs about 16,000 in Sunday attendance.  A typical offering is less than $2000 total for a Sunday.  They are poor people.

  

The government was about to shut down this orphanage that house several hundred AIDS orphaned children.  They needed to put in a sewage system shut down.  Fear of disease.  A valid fear.

 

The orphanage needed $200,000 immediately to do this work.   He contacted 4 churches in our part of the country and asked to come make an appeal.  That’s why he was in Rockford last Sunday.

 

Sunday night was the 3^rd service he spoke at in the church we were attending.  Pastor Lyon got up, made a simple announcement, he said, “I know we need a new building, but I promised the Lord that in building and paying for these things I would never abandon our commitment to supporting the work he calls on us to support.  We will cut our own expenses and postpone our own desires to do the work God puts in our hearts”.   With that the plate was passed.

 

By the end of the night, with fewer than 500 in attendance and with about 1200 attending the morning services, the total cash contributions for the day were $35,000.  There were pledges of another $11,000.   Pastor Lyon felt bad that the Church could “only” contribute $46,000.  I’m sure the other $4000 will come in.  That orphanage offering was the second offering in addition to the regular tithes and offerings of the night.

 

What astonished me was the ease and passion with which a simple offering became overflow.  No pressure.  No pain.  No emotionalism.  To be honest I haven’t decided what I will give so whatever I decide to do isn’t even in the total yet.  I know I am not alone in that decision to pray over the offering I might make.  Pastor Senyonga will get all the money he needs.

 

What astounded me as well was the relative wealth of the people in attendance.  Most of those who attend this Rockford Church are not wealthy, high placed, big earners, or elegant.   Compared to where I live they are actually kind of poor.  They are regular Joes and Janes of all colors, shapes and sizes.  They just do what God tells them to do.

 

I have always felt that lovers of God make better givers then those who are passive or nominal about Jesus.  I remember about a year ago attending a missions meeting with about a hundred people and raising $50,000 in an hour for missions.  I was blown away.  The people were so happy to be part of this.  I'll never forget that night.

 

That’s what I love so much about Pentecostals.  You don’t need to beat people up, just lay it before them and they will give and give and give.  They are willing to kick in time and treasure without pressure.  They see it as a privilege to be partnered with the work of God.

 

That’s the reason I have such a desire to see this kind of Body of Christ in the Fox Valley.  If God could get hold of the hearts of the people in the Fox Valley the world could be changed.  This is a serious challenge and is on the heart of God.  I know it like I know anything.  Nothing less than totally sold out is satisfactory.

 

Close circuit to some of my readers.  

Olfunso, this is the partnership that is possible, don’t lose hope.  I know you are a key to this.  Steve, yes, this is the church you attended it’s so much more than you ever saw they’ve had a breakthrough.

Charlie, I thought about you.  You have dreamed with me for this.  It’s time.

Cass, spirit filled believers staying home Sunday in our area need a home.

Mike G, Rod H, and Curt F.  There is true revival in our area.  We just need to move it 50 miles southeast to the Fox Valley.

Todd - Breakthrough is on the way, wait till Friday night.

 

There is release when the Spirit of God is at work.

100 Days of Summer - Legends of the Fall

Labor Day; The last day of unofficial summer. Stop wearing white.

Labor day is Day 247 on the calendar.

Memorial Day is the first day of unofficial summer. The Saturday before Memorial Day was day 147 on the calendar. That means we have experienced the 100 days of summer.

Reflections:
Yellow Jackets have been ferocious
It was warm for 10 days otherwise it has been a cool summer.
Memorial Day weekend is downright cold and wet.
Things grew well at first, stopped but the fall flush is great.
It got dry but it’s funny what a few inches of rain will do.

I’ll miss summer but I really enjoy the 80 days of fall. From Labor Day till Thanksgiving is unofficial fall. 80 days.

Then begins that long “cold” Illinois winter (It can go below zero two or three times a year for up to a whole day and we can get up to 8" of snow at one time). 117 days will come and go From Thanksgiving to the first day of spring, about March 20.

Then, at last spring begins.

We always have vernal witchhazel blooming then, some crocuses, and a few brave tulips poke their head up. Spring starts to spring. 70 days of Spring goes by too quickly, blooms too fast and moves relentlessly to summer. Spring and fall are like diamonds, rare and beautiful. Winter is like Coal (dark) and Summer like Granite (hard and too much).

Bring on the fall.

Good Cop Bad Cop

In my "spare" time I blog on Say Anything. I like it because it's North Dakota Based, Rob Port is a decent man, and he has more readers for me to rant and rave at. So I do. Sometimes I hit a nerve. This was just one such a day. I postulated that like vouchers for education, perhaps our legal system and police force should be totally privatised and held accountable. Well, I drew fire. A cop from down south somewhere took me on. It wasn't pretty. I imagine that under other circumstatnces we might have got along fine. But, I guess he's just one of those fellows who can't imagine paridigms different from his own. See all the fireworks here.

Here's the post anyway.


I have from time to time expressed a personal opinion that is becoming more and more persistent in my thinking. Not a good conservative value. Probably more a libertarian one in nature than anything.

I am convinced that our police forces in America have been completely Barney Fifed. You remember Barney. Andy of Mayberry and all that. He was always arresting the wrong people, a stickler for absurd detail and ready to use force at any time (which is why Andy only gave him one bullet).

Andy is no longer on the force in America. Our police force in America has become a bunch of bullies, in my opinion.

And not only in my opinion, either. Joseph Farah wrote a piece on police incompetence worth reading.

He says inhis piece:

But, like it or not, at the end of the day, police are just not serving the people. Maybe their job has become a mission impossible. I'm willing to acknowledge that. But, from my vantage point, our experience as law-abiding citizens with police officers is getting worse all the time.

The rule of law is breaking down in America. It can hardly all be blamed on cops. But policemen and policewomen are on the front lines. They are the people who are most likely to have direct, face-to-face contact with we the people. And, whereas that contact in the past has often been a positive experience, it is becoming increasingly negative for many of us.

We had such an event in Chicago in the last few weeks. A young woman, a student, who was on medication caused a ruckus at O’Hare airport. The police were called. She told them she was on medication. They locked her up. She became disoriented. She began to throw herself against the jail bars. After a few hours of this, they decided they couldn’t hold her any more and at 3:00am in one of the most dangerous parts of town she was turned lose without escort by the cops. She was disoriented. A black man picks her up, rapes her repeatedly and then to hide the evidence takes her up a 4 story building and throws her off. She survives but now is in a permanent vegetative state.

Her parents from California were in touch with the cops when they had her in custody and plead with them to hold her until they got there or release her into the custody of someone as a protector. This was a horrid situation and now a lovely 20 year old girl will spend the rest of her life, whatever life she has, unconscious because the police did not serve or protect her.

Chicago Cops are tough. In one way I like it. Chicago is a very safe place (except for certain neighborhoods). But they have conducted torture, they recently beat up a diabetic man having an insulin reaction and if certain Chicago cops arrest you as a drug dealer, your money will be taken and your drugs will be stolen and resold by the crooked cops.

This is a system badly broken. In Chicago for sure, but I know this kind of excess goes on all over America. Barney Fifes set loose with extra bullets.

Take a look at an article reprinted in the Wall Street Journal today from the BBC. It talks about the excessive use of SWAT teams. We have militarized the police to the point where the mission of protecting and serving is no longer part of the purpose of these para-militaristic thugs.

From the article:

Professor Peter Kraska, an expert on police militarisation from Eastern Kentucky University, says that in the 1980s there were about 3,000 Swat team deployments annually across the US, but says now there are at least 40,000 per year. "I have no problem with using these paramilitary style squads to go after known violent, armed criminals, but it is an extreme tactic to use against other sorts of suspects," he said.

Dr Kraska believes there has been an explosion of units in smaller towns and cities, where training and operational standards may not be as high as large cities - a growth he attributes to "the hysteria" of the country's war on drugs.

So, what is the answer? Some are starting to ask the question whether or not the police should be part of our government at all. They're asking if maybe it shouldn't be privatized. Currently there is no incentive for police to solve crimes as they get paid regardless, and it’s hard to hold bad cops accountable because it’s hard to sue the government.

Here is a typical argument in favor of privatizing the police in this article:

In To Serve and Protect: Privatization and Community in Criminal Justice, Bruce Benson argues for privatizing the American legal system (including police, courts, and prisons) and adopting a revised version of the old Anglo-Saxon system under which crime victims have a right to restitution from criminals. Benson describes the pros and cons of some measures that would reform the American legal system to allow more privatization. He also explains the fully privatized legal system that he advocates, which would require changes in the law to allow individuals to sell some or all of their right to restitution and to allow private ownership, management, and policing of roads and all other "public" property. Benson’s restitution-based legal system fits well with the system promoted by Randy Barnett in The Structure of Liberty.

Compared to the current legal system in America, which imposes the costs of investigations, trials, and prisons on innocent taxpayers and does little to compensate victims of crime, Benson’s victim-restitution system is more fair and more libertarian because: (1) it eliminates all victimless-crime laws, (2) it helps victims of crime to recover from the losses inflicted on them, and (3) it makes criminals bear most of the costs of crime investigation, court proceedings, restitution, and incarceration. With regard to preventing and negating crime, Benson’s privatized justice system is more efficient than the current legal system because: (1) victims can receive compensation quickly by selling all or some of their right to restitution to agents who are in a better position to capture criminals and extract restitution from them, (2) competition and the profit motive made possible by the markets for these services will lead to improved methods of crime prevention, crime investigation, court proceedings, restitution, and incarceration, and (3) the prospect of compensation gives victims more incentive to report crimes and to cooperate with the private police and courts.

I don’t know if I buy his whole argument, but we have drifted badly from the original mission of our police departments. I’m tired of the Barney Fifes. I know they aren’t all like that, but far too many are. Too many are corrupt. Too many don’t care enough to protect. Too many are para-military wackos. It’s time to revisit the Hill Street Blues. Remember what they did with the nutcase cops? The balance of power seems to have gone to the bullies. It’s time for a change in my humble opinion.

I may not have the conclusive answer to these problems, but I can say that the police no longer serve or protect.