C.A.P.A.I. – Christians Against Proselytizing Among Israel November 9, 2008
Posted in : Religion Center , comments closedC.A.P.A.I. is founded by Moshe-Mordechai van Zuiden, as reported by the Jerusalem-based Root and Branch Association, to whom I’ve responded:
Shalom Mr. Moshe-Mordechai van Zuiden,
I am opposed to anybody – Jew, Israelite or Gentile – becoming a convert to the counterfeit Christianity of “traditional Churchianity.” Such popular error misrepresents true Christianity with its Babylonian mystery religion dressed up in the drag of “Christianity.”
True Christianity, as taught by Herbert W. Armstrong, merely announces the soon coming Kingdom of God to be established by King Messiah, Yashua. We don’t seek converts or believe it’s our responsibility to “save” the world. If God wants to save the world, it will be saved. There’s no contest between God and the devil, contrary to traditional myths.
I encourage you to call upon Jews not to be hypocrites against “Christian” proselytzing while remaining in a self-imposed exile, far away from the Jewish homeland, and having the chutzpah to preach against Jesus in such professing countries, as I’ve seen on too many forums. Mind you, these forums I refer to were not legitimate Jewish responses to efforts to convert them.
Most sincerely,
David Ben-Ariel
Jews Should Follow Judaism to Israel!
Such a great influx of American Jews into Eretz Israel could help sweep away the suicidal peace process and restore Israel to its right mind!
A Jewish Homeland
Weren’t the Jews prophesied to return to Israel? Are the Jews ethnic Jews or merely converts? How should Israel treat their resident Arabs? Why does the world focus on Jerusalem?
God Helps Those Who Help Themselves November 8, 2008
Posted in : Religion Center , comments closedGod Helps Those Who Help Themselves
I don’t know about you, but I often don’t know whether I should act on something or just surrender it to God and let it show up in my life.
Reviewing my experience with both these approaches, I find that both have worked and both have failed.
Sometimes when I surrender, things do show up. Sometimes nothing happens until I act. And sometimes I do the wrong things, too, and it still doesn’t show up.
Last Sunday, I got lost on my way to a new location. I decided to surrender. Intuitively, I knew when to turn left or right on each crossroad. Suddenly, remarkably, I found myself upon familiar ground and was able to complete my journey to my intended destination.
Last night, for example, no amount of praying helped me ease my hacking cough. Since I had not been able to sleep for three days because of coughing every time I dozed off, I was in a highly agitated state. Finally, out of desperation, I jumped out of bed, wrapped myself up in multiple layers of clothes, stumbled out into the freezing night, climbed into my car and drove around until I could find a pharmacy that was open past midnight. I found one; purchased a coughing-sneezing-aching-let-you-sleep at night medication.
For the first, in what seemed like a very long time, I slept very deeply and woke up completely refreshed.
I know that these are small and perhaps trivial examples, but they do point to a much larger theme. God helps those who help themselves.
Basically, you have to act in this world to get things done. Rarely do things just show up by themselves. This does happen, but not at a statistically significant level to count on it. However, after you act, you have to let it go. You can’t predict the outcome, and you definitely can’t control it. Thus, I have come to the conclusion that our best recourse is to do what we can and then let go the results. Basically, we act and then we surrender.
Here is a small fable to illustrate my point:
In a time long ago, there was a clever merchant who bought some camels from a distant town and had to transport them to his home through the desert. On his first night in the desert with his new herd of camels, he did not know whether to take the time to tie them all up before he went to sleep that night in his tent. Should he just trust God and hope that he would be able to see them still flocked around in the morning? Should he make the effort of spending several hours tying up each camel to a stake in the ground?
Mysteriously, a monk showed up. He was passing through and asked the merchant for some food and shelter.
After dining the monk, the merchant asked him what to do about his camels.
“Tie up the camels,” said the sage, “and trust God to keep them there until morning.”
And here is a true story that illustrates it:
I once worked with an MLM person. I joined his team when he was making direct sales and doing $10,000 a month. He was a wizard at the cold call. He could charm the fleas off a dog with his words. He was also highly religious. What he did was make the effort and surrender the result. Avalanches of abundance flowed to him.
Then he became enamored with the surrender texts in his Bible and shirked the doing part. Within four months, everything that he had built up collapsed.
In conclusion, God is the ultimate mystery. Sometimes our life lessons are to be proactive and change the world. Sometimes it is to be passive and let the invisible powers make all the necessary contacts and experiences. As human beings, we seldom recognize the lesson until later on. From our limited perspective, we don’t know what things mean and what to do. Thus, I think action and surrender is the best way to play the game of life.
Keywords: God, surrender
TGN – God is Powerful – E=MCsquared
Posted in : Religion Center , comments closedGod is Powerful – E=MCsquared ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
On August 6, 1945 the world became aware of the awesome energy stored in each atom. On that date, the United States dropped an atomic bomb on the Japanese city of Hiroshima. The result was complete devastation of the city.
Amazingly, this incredible destruction of produced by the energy contained in less than a gram of matter. During the explosion, about 670 grams of Uranium 235 underwent a fission reaction. About 0.1 percent of that was converted directly into energy.
When you think about it, in order to make a gram of matter, God had to put the same amount of energy into it that came out of it.
The sun convertes about 4 million tons of matter directly into energy every second through the process of fusion. No wonder it puts out so much heat!
In 1996 the Hubble telescope was focused on a minute patch of sky. The magnification was so high that in order to cover the whole sky would take another 27 million patches that size. In that tiny patch of sky over 3000 galaxies were found. Multiply 27 million by 3000 and you get an idea of how many galaxies are really out there!
The Milky Way Galaxy, that we are a part of, has about 200 billion stars (200 thousand million!). The Milky Way is an average Galaxy. So, you can multiply the number you got in the last paragraph to get a fair estimate of the number of stars that are close enough for us to see. Who knows how many are beyond our vision.
And yet the Bible says that the Heavens were made “By the word of the Lord”. Imagine that!
When you speak a word do you get exhausted? Do you even think about expending any energy at all? Or is it effortless? To think that we serve a God who could speak the entire universe into existence without even getting short of breath is impossible to comprehend.
Couple that power with the gentle personal and sacrificial love that He gives each one of us and that should really blow your mind!
Until next time, May God Bless! Ron McCluskey http://www.trackinggod.com
copyright 2003 Ron McCluskey You may reproduce this newsletter in part or in whole providing that you include the website, contact information and resource links.
Christians in Peril November 7, 2008
Posted in : Religion Center , comments closedChristians in Peril
Romans 7:8-7:25
Christians in Peril The Christian today has become a people without a vision. The Lord has said that, with out a vision my people perish. We work and cannot obtain, we save and spend more, we fight and loose ground, we obtain and have less, we learn and understand little, we pray and little is accomplished. I wish to share with you a letter some friends of mine sent to me from India. “Dear Reverend Smith. I can’t forget the story I heard a few months ago from one of our missionaries serving the Lord in North India. With scars on his face and back, his body literally bore the marks of persecution. “They asked me to deny Christ,” he told me. “They said they would kill me and cut my tongue out if I didn’t deny Him.” “Stop preaching the Gospel,” they demanded, “or we will take away your bicycle and burn you alive.” This sermon is offered as a lesson to all of us in Humility. Mat 5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. 1Co 1:19 For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. {Ref, Isa_29:14} 1Co 8:2 And if any man think that he knoweth any thing, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know. 1Co 13:2 And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries, and all knowledge; and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, and have not charity, I am nothing. Contrary to popular belief, a Christian’s duty is not to become involved in politics nor the rhetoric that comes with it, for as I have said before, The Powers that be are ordained by God. Politics has no business in the House of God, but a Christian’s duty is to, 1. Love God. 2. Seek out the Lost and 3. Preach the Gospel, to be instant in season and out of Season. Lets look at, 1 Corinthians 1:19 for a moment. For it is written, I will destroy the wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. “I will destroy” Who will destroy? [God] What will He do? [Destroy,] What will He Destroy? [The wisdom of the wise] Why will He destroy? [Men's words and actions and wisdom are foolish] 1Co 1:20 Where is the wise? where is the scribe? where is the disputer of this world? hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world? [Destroy,] In general, to put an end to; to annihilate a thing or the form in which it exists. To ruin; to bring to naught; to annihilate; as, to destroy a theory or scheme; to destroy a government; to destroy influence.
Man has disputed with God from the beginning and will continue to do so until the end. Wisdom only comes from God. The lost or sinners are always looking at the Christian to see if we are who we say we are and anything that they find wrong is always at the top of their conversation. Paul warns us about this very fact in, 2Co 6:3 Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed: Article after article have come forth from many of the news papers, condemning the Christian faith because of politics, because of Christian remarks and even condemning the Scripture itself for giving the Christian his belief. The damage has been done but the question is now, “How do we repair the damage and return to the service that we were commissioned for, the preaching of the acceptable year of the Lord?” My answer, As Paul stated in 2Co 6:3, Giving no offence in any thing, that the ministry be not blamed: by putting the blame where it belongs, with us. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is pure and without error. Assuring the lost that the Gospel had no part in the past mistakes of man. Letting them know what was said in, Mat 5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men. 1John 2:1 My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: “My little children” We are little Children of the Father and we tend to make mistakes. We will not sin willfully, for it is no longer in our nature to sin. For we are of the seed of our Father in Heaven. But we, as Paul stated, still flawed by the very fact that we are still in the flesh and the flesh is weak. I feel in my spirit that I must include the following verses. Rom 7:8-25 But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me. Wherefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Was then that which is good made death unto me? God forbid. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death in me by that which is good; that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not. For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Many a Christian around the world, are being persecuted for their belief in Jesus Christ. We must renew ourselves in the Spirit and be ready to suffer with those who suffer, as we are, One in the Body with Christ. We as Christians are not an island unto ourselves but we are a guiding light to the world, we are in the world but not of the world. In the world to guide the world to Christ the Righteous. Remember what I stated at the beginning of this sermon? Lets look again. We work and cannot obtain, we save and spend more, we fight and loose ground, we obtain and have less, we learn and understand little, we pray and little is accomplished. 1Co 15:2 By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. Tit 3:1 put them in mind to be subject to principalities and powers, to obey magistrates, to be ready to every good work, 2Ti 2:14 Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting of the hearers. 1Ti 4:6 If thou put the brethren in remembrance of these things, thou shalt be a good minister of Jesus Christ, nourished up in the words of faith and of good doctrine, whereunto thou hast attained.I pray that this sermon has helped all of us understand our mission for Christ.