Is change completely necessary?

Do you know how many stressed--out mothers it takes to change a light bulb?

One. ONE!!   And do you know WHY it only takes ONE? Because no one else in this house knows how to change a light bulb. They don't even know the bulb is burned out. They would sit in this house in the dark for three days before they figured it out. And once they figured it out they wouldn't be able to find the light bulbs despite the fact that they've been in the same cabinet for the past 17 years. But if they did, by some miracle, find the light bulbs, two days later, the chair that they dragged from two rooms over to stand on to change the stupid light bulb would still be in the same spot! AND underneath it would be the crumpled light bulb package. WHY???   Because no one in this house carries out the garbage. It's a wonder we haven't all suffocated from the piles of garbage 12 feet deep in this house... this house! It would take an army to clean this house...

How often do we recognize what others need to change in their lives before we recognize what changes we need to make? So many of us make New Year’s resolutions that seem to vanish after the first month, or sometimes we keep those resolutions alive for several months before they bite the dust: Lose weight, quit smoking, less temper and more patience, better with money management, start saving for retirement. Most of our resolutions can be reduced down to having more self-control, which is part of the fruit of the Spirit.

Gal 5:22  But the fruit of the Spirit is: love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faith, 23  meekness, self-control. Against such things there is not a law.

Wait… what was that last part again? Against such things there is not a law. Being led by the Spirit we are not under Law, Paul says it in verse 18. It isn’t too much of a leap to conclude that we cannot exhibit these things such as love, joy peace, self-control, kindness, goodness, faith, meekness, long-suffering, by our selves. Only through the strength of the Holy Spirit and by His gift of the Fruit can we exhibit these things which are a testimony to God’s work of changing our hearts and minds: in short sanctification.

Change is a scary thing.

We resist change almost to death because we love the familiar and hold that close. We go to the same Bible verses because we know them, we study the same passages because we love them. Yet, there is so much more to behold in God’s love letter.

My church has started a Read The Bible in a Year, this year... again. We're starting in Genesis and  some verses were given to go along with Genesis 3&4. James 4:7 was one of them. I almost did not look them up because I didn't want to take the time, then I decided right then that God was more important than time and He would bless me. I would receive, if nothing else, He would at least give me peace for checking the verses. Then I decided that one verse wasn't enough, but I should read the background chapter as well as the verse. For quite a long time now, God has been working on me about reading bits and pieces and filling in with my own understanding rather than studying the whole using His guidance and understanding.

Even though I have studied my Bible deeply for more than -- cough -- for a long time, He has reminded me that I lose so much because of familiarity. I think I know, so I skip it and move on hunting a "new truth" or "new insight". I'm ashamed to say, I've missed so much in the past few years because of familiarity.

Thank you, my Father, for reminding me to keep on trying, which led to the desire to get outside the box of familiarity and to ask You for familiar truths with new light to share. I think that my resolution this year is to lean more upon You and less upon me. My expectations this year will be to read the Bible through using Your understanding which is a free gift of the Holy Spirit. Thank You for helping me realize there is no place like peace.

Fast & Furious Case Study

An analysis of what happened during the Fast and Furious gun running operation.
     
     
     
     

Fast and Furious: The Perfect Storm of Idiocy
Regina Burgess
Spring Arbor University




Case Study: Fast and Furious: The Perfect Storm of Idiocy
Situation
      On December 15, 2010 Brian Terry, a U. S. Border Patrol agent, was killed in the line of duty, and weapons sold to Jamie Avila, Jr. January, 2010 were found at the scene. Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) officials lit the fuse in 2006 to this tragedy when they enacted a tactical operation called Gunrunner to allow arms to be sold to alleged weapons runners and smugglers in Arizona with the purpose of interdiction to halt gunrunning activities. Guns were sold to suspected straw purchasers and allowed to walk across the border so that the gunrunners could be prosecuted. When approached with the plan, one gun dealer expressed concern saying it was “outside of the standard way he did business” (Levine, 2012, para. 6). The case is complicated in so many different facets; I will only discuss the aspect of withholding crucial information from Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) officials in Mexico.  Ultimately, the gunwalking and the withholding of this vital information from ATF personnel in Mexico jeopardized the safety of the personnel and United States’ relations with Mexico.
      According to findings of the congressional committee investigating Operation Fast and Furious, in the fall of 2009 ATF officials headed by Attaché Darren Gil, noticed a marked increase in guns recovered from crime scenes in Mexico which traced back to the ATF Phoenix field division. Entirely unaware of the operation, Deputy Attaché Carlos Canino was stunned at the number of Phoenix guns appearing at Mexican violent crime scenes. Gil called the Phoenix office numerous times and was never briefed on the operation by ATF in Phoenix nor from ATF headquarters in Washington, D.C.
      The congressional investigation committee found that ATF and Department of Justice (DOJ) senior officials kept not only their own personnel in Mexico, but also Mexican government officials in the dark about the operation. Information from three fronts was deliberately withheld: the tracing process, in the field, and the executive level. ATF has a suspect gun database in which they enter serial numbers of purchased guns to give agents a quick notice of guns in the system. In the tracing process, the Phoenix case agent Hope MacAllister entered more than 1,900 guns into the suspect gun database, and asked the National Tracing Center to delay the traces for guns recovered in Mexico after Gil began notifying the Phoenix office of the spike in recoveries. These holds on traces kept the ATF office and police in Mexico unaware of the origin of recovered guns. 
      ATF's Office of Strategic Information and Intelligence (OSII) in Washington, D.C. attempted to gather the fragments of information and make sense of the abundance of recovered guns in order to report up the chain of command. OSII held the first briefing on Fast and Furious on December 8, 2009 with all senior ATF officials attending. In testimony, ATF Deputy Assistant Director of OSII Steve Martin told the congressional investigation committee he tossed out several ways to track the guns with GPS or surveillance in Mexico with no response from executive staff.
      ATF Mexico Attaché Darren Gil testified he believed after 500 guns seized the field teams should have collected enough information to make some arrests. Testimony revealed DOJ was holding out for more information. Gil was deeply frustrated to be told they were afraid he and his staff would tell government officials of Mexico about the operation and then it would be leaked to the cartels. The more Gil and Dan Kumor, Gil’s boss, complained the more the ATF and DOJ senior executives praised the investigation, and the more Gil and Kumor were assured the operation would be shut down "soon" (The Department of Justice’s operation fast and furious: Fueling cartel violence, 2012, p. 32).
      Gil and his staff received complaints from the Mexican government about the Spanish E-Trace returning no information or results delayed responses; Mexico's government officials were not receiving trace information on recovered guns. This put a lot of pressure on the Mexico ATF officials by the Government of Mexico. The tracing procedures were supposed to help the interdiction process, but the Mexican officials were losing faith in the system and ATF was losing credibility. Operation Fast and Furious kept guns flowing into Mexico and arguably, unknown to Gil’s staff, was a contributor to violence in Mexico.
      Gil did not know the operation’s name until January, 2011, and he retired from the ATF never knowing the guns were being walked across the Mexican border. Deputy Attaché Carlos Canino did not find out until April, 2011; he thought the operation was going to result in numerous arrests and would be shut down in the fall of 2010, long before Brian Terry's murder according to testimony to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee  (The Department of Justice’s operation fast and furious: Fueling cartel violence, 2012).
      Gil told congressional investigators he could not believe the ATF would let guns walk, “it was inconceivable. I didn’t want to believe it. It just – it would never happen. Everybody knows the consequences on the other end….The term ‘guns walking’ didn't exist in my vocabulary” (The Department of Justice’s operation fast and furious: Fueling cartel violence, 2012, p. 50). Deputy Attaché Carlos Canino had the same feelings. When asked if this was a normal way to conduct an investigation he said, “No. That was… in 21 years as an ATF agent… teach[ing] surveillance techniques…teach[ing] agents how to conduct field operations, never in my wildest dreams ever would I have thought that this was a technique…. It just, it is inconceivable to me…what these guys did was basically grab the ATF rule book on trafficking and threw it out the window. This is indefensible…. The ATF does not do this….it is just the perfect storm of idiocy” (The Department of Justice’s operation fast and furious: Fueling cartel violence, 2012, p. 49-50).
Analysis
Values
    This analysis is from the aspect of withholding vital information. Senior leadership believed allowing guns into Mexico’s drug cartels would facilitate proof of illegal activity and result in numerous arrests and convictions. Their values in this belief set aside the values of human life and society’s safety. The two departments’ senior leadership vacillated between interdiction of gunrunning at all costs and fear of the cartel learning of the operation Fast and Furious. Value of human life, after examining testimony, seemed inconsequential. Moral duty of never allowing a gun of any caliber out of sight or out of tracking distance was ingrained in all ATF agents through training, but senior leadership set this obligation aside in favor of catching gunrunners through straw purchases of guns which walked into Mexico fueling drug trafficking violence in cartel wars, and at least one assassination of a Mexican attorney, the brother of Mexico’s attorney general (Murphy, 2011)
      All ATF officials from the case agent including the acting director along with DOJ officials chose to set aside their duty to fellow ATF agents and officials, to the Government of Mexico and Mexican society in general by allowing the operation to continue long after more than 500 guns were recovered in Mexico.
Principle
    The guiding principle of these officials was a white-knuckled grip on their success of secrets without any regard toward fellow agents’ safety, therefore Aristotle would cry foul because there was no golden mean considered between catching bad guys and what those bad guys were doing with the guns. Kant would pound his gavel at the injustice of disloyalty to fellow ATF personnel and using them as means to an end (keeping secrets) rather than considering them as fragile lives within the crosshairs of cartel guns (The Department of Justice’s operation fast and furious: Fueling cartel violence, 2012). This was ultimately a violation of other care in the Agape model. Only after Border Patrol Brian Terry was murdered did Attorney General Eric Holder order a halt to the operation admitting it was a mistake.
Loyalties
     The congressional committee who investigated this case was stonewalled by not receiving all the information requested from the DOJ, namely Eric Holder the attorney general, and he was held in contempt on June 20, 2012 for failing to cooperate with the congressional investigation citing executive privilege as reason not to release the requested papers (Horowitz & O’Keefe, 2012). Therefore, loyalties lay with protecting senior leadership of both the ATF and the DOJ decisions. This is a conflict in duties. Self-interest overrode duty to the well being of professional colleagues and human life.
Judgment and Ramifications
    The decision to allow the operation to continue past the initial spike in numbers of recovered guns, and the selling of AK47s and Barrett 50 caliber guns to known straw purchasers without tracing or GPS devices led to the murder of Mexico’s attorney general’s brother (Murphy, 2011) and border patrolman Brian Terry. ATF whistleblowers have been shunned by their agency and their bosses (La Jeunesse, 2012). The total number of deaths and injuries may never be known (The Department of Justice’s operation fast and furious: Fueling cartel violence, 2012). The congressional committee found ATF allowed guns to walk. By withholding this critical information from its own personnel in Mexico, ATF jeopardized the lives of its agents, and relations between the U.S. and Mexico.
Conclusion
      There is no best solution to buffer the effects of this travesty. Total transparency concerning interdiction operations would not earn trust back. Not only did this decision result in an unchecked “river of iron” (The Department of Justice’s operation fast and furious: Fueling cartel violence, 2012, p. 28) across the border, but a flood of tears in both countries. Loss of life directly attributed to Fast and Furious leaves executive privilege a limp excuse to save senior leadership jobs. The ramifications of harm to relations with our neighbor, Mexico, are still unknown. As Carlos Canino stated in his testimony, “That is, I mean, this is the perfect storm of idiocy. That is the only way I could put it. This is, I mean, this is inconceivable to me. This is group think gone awry” (The Department of Justice’s operation fast and furious: Fueling cartel violence, 2012, p. 51). The loyalty and moral duty foundation violations toward fellow ATF agents who were unknowingly at great risk of being killed by cartel agents as well as the Mexican media reports that ATF officials were corrupt, exhibit a thought process of ethical violations which deeply stained the integrity of ATF. These violations inhibit trust for ATF leadership, and have spoiled the Mexican government’s trust for the workings of the U.S. Embassy in Mexico.

     
     


References
Horowitz, S., & O’Keefe, E. (2012, June 20). Fast and Furious: Eric Holder held in contempt. Washington Post. Retrieved from http://www.washingtonpost.com
Issa, D. E., & Grassley, C. E. (2012, July 26). The Department of Justice’s operation fast and furious: Fueling cartel violence. Joint staff report, 112th Congress. Retrieved from http://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/FINAL_FINAL.pdf
La Jeunesse, W. (2012). Fast and furious whistleblower says he’s disappointed one year later. FoxNews.com Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/18/fast-and-furious-whistleblower-says-disappointed-one-year-later/
Levine, M. (2012, June 25). Fast and furious documents: What do they show? Fox News.com Retrieved from http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/06/25/fast-and-furious-documents-what-do-show/
Murphy, K. (2011, June 23). U.S. AK-47s Linked to Mexican attorney’s slaying. L.A. Times.  Retrieved from http://articles.latimes.com/2011/jun/23/nation/la-na-gunrunner-20110623

       FAST AND FURIOUS: THE PERFECT STORM OF IDIOCY
   2
     
     

The Shofar blast...last trump

Are you ready Church? The study in Amos this Sunday reminded me of my post on the Shofar which is the most viewed of any column I have written on LiveAsIf.org. I decided to research what is available now and found such a wealth of examples of the Shofar. I found this one most intriguing so I had to share!

Travel with God

In my LinkedIn group for Christian authors, a young man was asking about a how to make a living by blogging because he is so passionate about God and His creation. I find that so admirable because I prayed and prayed for God to make it possible for me to make a living by studying His word and sharing the insights that He gave me.

Well, this blog where I am typing words at least once a week is the result of that stack of prayers, but no money has come in from my unflagging, faithful writing. I even have a book that Westbow Press considered worthy to publish, but still no real income. But, there is the caveat. Income does not equal a living in God's eyes. He provides for us, but we live abundantly because of what Jesus has done and is doing even now. Needs are met. What more did God promise?

To live life abundantly means different things to different people. That is a sermon unto itself.

I wanted to share what I told this young man in part...

I completely understand. I've been praying about making a living doing what I'm so very passionate about for about 20 years now. God has slowly opened up things for me, and has made me understand that His way and His timing is best.

Probably the best thing to do would be to put on your wide-angle lens and take stock of all your skills. Just remember that Jesus adjured His disciples "as you go, make disciples...teaching them My commands..." That "as you go" means in your daily routine, as you make a living, as you meet people in your daily life.

It is crucial that you don't step out in faith without knowing which direction God would have you step out :)

Viya con Dios, my friend. Travel with God rather than asking God to travel with you! A man I admire very much said he always wanted to find out where God was working and then jump in that pool. I think I want to jump in that pool, but I also want to be sure I'm in the pool where all my gifts and talents that God has given me will be utilized, too. If not, it is a wasted effort.

It's a God thing

I pulled this from my archives because I needed this reminder that God is in complete control. I needed reminding that God intensely cares about our most mundane problems and that He will go out of His way to reassure His child that He does care.

Numerous times God has spoken to me or given me a delight for encouragement. Oh, not out loud, but in such a way I knew it was Him talking to me.

I was on my teeth-grinding drive home from Arizona after my second husband decided he didn't want to be married anymore. I was devastated and I kept wanting to turn back. God kept nudging me forward. Finally, the whole western sky was a brilliant orange and I heard plain as day, "I've got your back." That night as I lay in a hard, motel bed, I was sobbing my eyes out and crying out to God, "Why?" "What is so terribly wrong with me?" I felt Him press me into the matress, covering me with His hands, and I heard, "You are acceptable to me, beloved. You need only worry about what I say." The next day, my heart was lighter but I was still angry.

Along about Albuquerque, I was enjoying the sun on the snow. I'm a Southern Magnolia and we don't see snow much. Only often enough to know what it is when we see it. For miles and miles the pristine snow stretched out on both sides of the interstate highway. So I got a thought in my head about bringing some of that snow back to sweltering Louisiana. I didn't have a thing to put it in except a plastic bag. But, I decided to stop.

Photobucket http://s6.beta.photobucket.com/user/Oliviamonteith/profile I had no idea how rare rabbit and deer tracks on top of each other are until I started looking for an example. I found zero examples!

At the next exit, I drove down the ramp and pulled to the side of the road. Right where I stopped, there were some deer tracks angling from the north, across the road through the ditch and around the maintenance building then off into the distance. A jack rabbit had hopped directly from the east right over those tracks. What a find! I scooped up those deer tracks and rabbit tracks, putting them in the bag and tossed it into the seat next to me. Back on the road, I chuckled and then laughed out loud. God is so funny. Only God could have directed the timing of those animals and the timing of my arrival to the exact point of intersection on that day at that hour. All I had to do was glance in the seat beside me at that melted snow and I would grin. The lighter mood lasted the rest of the way home.

I stopped in Amarillo for the night. It was freezing cold and it must have snowed after I laid my head down because I had to scrape a goodly portion of ice and snow from the windshield. There's wasn't a cloud in the sky when I set out. The first flush of dawn was just a thought in the back of God's mind. 
He had done a spectacular job on the stars.

When I hit Wichita Falls and turned south, the sky was crystal and I remembered something about a green flash that happened right at the second the sun touched the horizon; the atmosphere acts like a prism for about a half-second. You can read about it here. Not many people get to see this because conditions must be exactly right so I decided to watch for it.

I saw the first rays streak across that crystal sky and it was so beautiful it took my breath away. Amazingly, there were no contrails of airplanes, just the wide sky with all kinds of blues stretching across the expanse. In the space of about a second, I glanced back at the road with a sigh because the green flash had not happened for me that morning, sipped my coffee and thanked God for the morning.

Then right at the horizon, the sky turned this brilliant emerald green, and the color flashed across the sky from east to west. I was stunned. It was one of the most spectacular things I had ever seen and it happened so quickly I could have missed it with the blink of my eyes. The sky was just like an emerald winking in bright light.

I pondered the wonder of that through Dallas and then home. God reaching down to me to give me a delight to lift my sore heart. That road trip was best thing I could have done to start the painful process of healing. It was just me and God on the road. I learned a lot about myself and about God. He absolutely does care deeply about each of us and what happens to us. He's right there every second, in total control.. like with the deer and rabbit tracks.

There in the seat was that bag of melted snow. I brought those deer tracks home to my Daddy. What a hoot that was!

"What's this?" Dad cleared his throat as he peered through the water in the bag.

"Deer tracks and rabbit tracks," I tossed at him dragging my suitcase from the back seat.

"Whaaaa--deer tracks!"

I told him what I'd done and where I'd scooped up the snow. He started laughing then and chuckled every little while then he told Mom, "I'm bringing that to church tomorrow." She just laughed, fully aware of the "Top this!" game that he and someone at church were constantly playing. They would each bring something back from a trip... some gag gift or novelty toy and give it to the other just to watch the grins and hear the chuckles from everyone. Whatever it was, it would cause a stir in folks as they tried to figure out what it was or would laugh over the saying on the thing.

On Sunday, after I got my coffee at church, I passed a clump of people peering into that bag of water and one fellow was saying, "Yeah... I think I see it. What was it again?"

It's a God thing.

Blessed are ye who weep now, for ye shall laugh Luke 6:21b

Recommended reading... what I found interesting

Best reads of 2012

Non-fiction –

Escaping the Cauldron by Kristine McGuire

Angels, Miracles, and Heavenly Encounters compiled by James Stuart Bell

Taking your small group off life support by Brad House

Fiction –

The 13th Tribe by Robert Liparulo

Nothing to Hide by Mark Bertrand

Rare Earth by Davis Bunn

I've included links to my reviews on my other blog. 

Believing... Faithing... Trusting

Believing...
There are three letters that make us know that an action is in progress, that it is continnual. ING... running... jumping... swimming... believing...

Believing God is an action that must and always be continuous for the action to be effective. Once we stop believing God, all the lions and tigers and bears start crowding our thoughts, which leads to fear.

Fear is of Satan.


Gen 22:5 And Abraham said to his young men, You stay here with the ass. I and the boy will go over there that we may worship and may return to you.

Fascinating passage. God had just asked Abraham to sacrifice his son by his beloved wife Sarah, to put him on the altar as a burnt offering.

Fear could so easily have engulfed Abraham. So often we tell God "Your will, not mine, LORD." Then when God asks us to do something, we say... "Um, I know I didn't hear You correctly, LORD. I think you actually meant this and such." Or we tell God that we've decided to do something else altogether. Sometimes it may take a month, or a year, but those who really love the LORD will come to the realization that God literally meant what He said and we must do what He says.

What we so often forget is that God can do what He says He can do. He is the Creator after all. He is in control, if we let Him be in control. Things actually do turn out a lot better when He's director of our feet rather than an observer of our path.

Abraham did not say, "Uh... wait a second God. You just gave me this boy 15 years ago. He's the promised one to me and now you want me to do what???"

No. Abraham knew beyond any doubt that God would provide the sacrifice. He would follow through with the sacrifice exactly as God asked. He had the knife in his hand to slay his son and suddenly an angel cries out for him to stop.

Can you imagine Isaac's relief? Can you imagine the burgeoning joy that floods Abraham at the realization that he would not have to follow through with the sacrifice of his son. I do not know if Abraham thought that God would bring the boy back to life, of if Abraham thought that God would give him another son, or if he knew that God would stay his hand at the last minute. I do know, though, beyond any shadow of doubt that Abraham knew he and Isaac would return down off Mount Moriah, back to his men and the donkeys, for this is what he said before they ascended the mount.

That is Believing.

But, that is not the end of the story. Because of Abraham's believing and because of his unquestioning obedience both in deed and in thought, God blessed him.


Gen 22:16 And He said, I have sworn by Myself, declares Jehovah, that on account of this thing you have done, and have not withheld your son, your only son, 17 that blessing I will bless you, and multiplying I will multiply your seed as the stars of the heavens, and as the sand which is on the shore of the sea. And your Seed shall possess the gate of His enemies.

Blessing follows obedience. It always has. Perhaps God asks the impossible of us, but He never fails to provide what He asks. Time, talent, money, children, family... God requires many precious things from us, and He is fully trustworthy with them. He never fails. He always prevails. Have faith in God... Have faith in God.

Faithing...
 
Is there a power greater than that which raised Jesus from the dead?

Revelation 4:11 tells us that the LORD is worthy to recieve all honor, glory and praise. No other was found to be worthy. The Lamb who was slain was found worthy. All things were created by Him and for His great pleasure.

Hebrews 11:6 tells us that our faith (belief) brings Him pleasure, without no one can please Him. It is a simple thing, yet so hard.

It is easy to believe there is God. He created the heavens and the earth in all their glory. The universe is vast beyond our wildest imaginings, but the Bible tells us that it can be measured by his hand's breadth. A newborn's cry is a testimony to God's presence for He created life. His signature is in the stars for He named each one of the billions of billions of stars. Just look at some of the photos that the Hubble Telescope takes. The dogwood's flower gives testimony.

But to believe God. That is harder to do. When you don't "feel" the presence of God, how do you know He's there?

That is when we must go with what we know rather than our feelings. I love to remember the times we have had together and to draw my comfort from those things He has done for me, from the fact He has never failed me, ever. I know He will fulfill His promises because of all the promises He has already fulfilled. He made the sun stand still. He made the wet bottom of the sea dry as toast. He cause it to rain, and He caused the rain to dry up. He raised Jesus from the dead.

That kind of power flows through Him and yet, He is mindful of me. He knows my name and how many hairs are on my head and the number which are gray and the number which are brown. It matters not to Him how many wrinkles I have, for He has taken me Just As I Am.

Is there a power greater than raising Someone from the dead? Perhaps it is the power of changing lives, the power of forgiveness, the power of mercy, the power of grace. Without those, Jesus would not have needed to be raised for He wouldn't have given Himself as sacrifice.

Trusting...
Psalm 5:11 But let all who put their trust in You rejoice; let them shout for joy forever, because You cover them. And let those who love Your name be joyful in You

Such simple words and yet they hold all the comfort of a snuggly quilt and a warm, cozy fire complete with hot cocoa and a purring cat on the lap.

God's asks a lot of us. We can't see Him. We can't touch Him. Why should we believe Him, trust Him, have faith in Him?

Because He said so.

If that isn't enough, then there is plenty of evidence that He is real, that He does exactly what He says He'll do, and that He answers our prayers, that He loved us enough to die for us. There is no greater love than that, except He also loved us enough to rise from the dead. He is alive, back from the dead and that, my friends, is a feat great enough to silence the most scornful voice.

Prophecies point directly to Jesus as Messiah

I was hunting down promises fulfilled by God and ran across this interesting article. What I found is a treasure trove of concise prophecy that Jesus fulfilled that He could not possibly had control over unless He was truly the Son of God, and was absolutely the Messiah! Check this out...

The Messiah must...	Prophecy	Fulfillment by Jesus
Be born in Bethlehem	Micah 5:2	Matthew 2:1; Luke 2:4-7
Be adored by great persons	Psalms 72:10-11	Matthew 2:1-11
Be annointed with the Spirit of God	Isaiah 11:2, 61:1	Matthew 3:16; John 3:34; Acts 10:38
Be hated without cause	Isaiah 49:7; Psalms 69:4	John 15:24-25
Be undesired and rejected by His own people	Isaiah 53:2, 63:3; Psalms 69:8	Mark 6:3; Luke 9:58; John 1:11,
Be plotted against by Jews and Gentiles together	Psalms 2:1-2	Acts 4:27
Be betrayed by a friend	Psalms 41:9, 55:12-24	Matthew 26:21-25, 47-50; John 13:18-21; Acts 1:16-18
Be betrayed for 30 pieces of silver	Zechariah 11:12	Matthew 26:16
Have his price given for a potter’s field	Zechariah 11:13	Matthew 27:7
Be forsaken by His disciples	Zechariah 13:7	Matthew 26:31, 56
Be struck on the cheek	Micah 5:1	Matthew 27:30
Be spat on	Isaiah 50:6	Matthew 26:67, 27:30
Be mocked	Psalms 22:7-8	Matthew 27:31, 39-44
Be beaten	Isaiah 50:6	Matthew 26:67, 27:26, 30
Be thirsty during His execution	Psalms 22:15	John 19:28
Be given vinegar to quench that thirst	Psalms 69:21	Matthew 27:34
Be considered a transgressor	Isaiah 53:12	Matthew 27:38
Be buried with the rich when dead	Isaiah 53:9	Matthew 27:57-60
Be sought after by Gentiles as well as Jews	Isaiah 11:10, 42:1	Acts 10:45
Be accepted by the Gentiles	Isaiah 11:10, 42:1-4, 49:1-12	Matthew 12:21; Acts 10:45; Romans 15:9-12

Now that you have seen this comparison, you must answer this question, “What will you do about Jesus?”

Thank you Biblical Prophecy Resource Center for fleshing this out so succinctly!

God woos His wife Israel

I was reading about and comparing the New Jerusalem with the Millennium Jerusalem something quite startling occurred to me. There is a distinction and very definite distinction between the Wife of Jehovah and the Wife of the Lamb.

It goes back to Israel committing adultery with other gods. This broke the marriage contract Israel had with God which is found in Deuteronomy. This adultery which broke the covenant wasn't just a one time, fling... It was a constant thing. It was extremely degrading and embarrassing to the One True God, because it declared to the surrounding nations that He was a cuckold.  And Israel was different, she "paid her lovers". Ezekiel describes this extensively in 16:15-34. Isaiah tells us that God didn't divorce Israel right away, he separated from her as a punishment to bring her back. He withdrew the blessings and rain didn't fall etc. But Israel continued to embrace other gods and Hosea tells us that this produced illegitimate children "children of whoredom" Hosea 2. Then in Jeremiah 3, we see the bill of divorcement. Actually, the book of Jeremiah shows the unrepentant Israel and why the bill of divorcement was necessary. Ezekiel and Hosea also describe the punishment. The punishment was to stop Israel from sinning with idols. The punishment was necessary because Israel broke the marriage contract 16:58-59, and showed no signs of repentance. In fact the book of Hosea is the surface story of God and Israel. Please note when you read Hosea’s story that the adulterous wife forgot her Husband, God said He would allure her. He also would betroth her in faithfulness.

Therefore, despite the punishment, there is hope for Israel... there is a call to repentance Jeremiah 3. But to no avail. God didn't divorce Judah... to do so would have made Jesus illegitimate. He suffered Judah's harlotry until she rejected Jesus, her own Son. So now we have a situation that continues today. Israel and Judah are still in punishment. What makes it exceedingly worse for them today is the clear evidence that Jesus is God's Son and is the Messiah. They continually reject this evidence which heaps more punishment upon them. God promised to give them back their land, which He did. Yet, they still reject.

In Jesus day, they had the opportunity to become sanctified but rejected it as a nation. Individuals believed and were saved and entered into a new marriage contract as the Bride of the Lamb. But the nation rejected thus the Woe curse and the scattering and the destruction of 70AD.

Hosea tells us of how God will woo back His wife. V 14, He will "allure her into the desert and speak tenderly to her". Several places, one being Matt 24, Israel is told when you see these signs "flee into the mountains". All their needs will be provided for... food, water etc. and this is basically when Israel finally turns back fully and wholly to God and calls him "my husband", not "my master" Hosea 2.

Now, compare Gomer a soiled wife with the Bride of the Lamb in 2 Corinthians 11:2, being presented as a "pure virgin to Christ" and in Ephesians 5 "the washing of water with the Word, that He might present the church to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing...holy and without blemish." To me, this describes the sanctification process; a continual process of emersion in the Word of God, being conformed by it and cleansed by it. It is the actual maturing of the Bride. She was betrothed as a baby and had to grow in her understanding as a whole as well as in numbers "until the fullness of the Gentiles is in..."

Now, here is another distinction. In John 3, John the Baptist called himself "a friend of the bridegroom". I had always wondered about that. Then Jesus says John the Baptist was the greatest of all, but the least of these is greater than him. How can that be? The only way that could be is if John the Baptist was the last of the OT prophets and not a member of the Bride herself. And the only way this could be is that John the Baptist died before Christ rose from the dead. This draws a clear distinction down between the OT saints and the NT saints or rather the church, the Bride of Christ.

So why the sacrifices? Because before the Millennium, the marriage between the Messiah and His Bride takes place. Revelation 19. This does not mean that the blood of Jesus does not cover the Millennial saints. It does. But ONLY after they receive their glorified bodies. They have to go through the sanctification process, just like the church did. They are human and subject to sin. Everyone will live at least 100 years (Isaiah 65). The unbelievers dying at that age and the believers will continue to live until the 1000 years is finished. God is holy and for Him to reside in the Temple amongst flesh and blood with sinful natures, these humans must be sanctified. God accepts His wife back with a deep love and tenderness, however, it is in her human state, she must be sanctified to live with Him...In His presence. We don't have God as an earthly presence now in the same manner that He will reside in the Temple during the Millennium. The blood of Jesus sanctifies and justifies us before God, but as a human I cannot stand in front of God (1 Corinthians 15). Once my physical body has passed on and I am renewed, refurbished in the spiritual realm, washed clean with the only perfect and acceptable sacrifice that will satisfy the holy law of God, only then may I stand in front of God. This is why the OT saints had to wait in the "holding tank of Paradise". The blood of Jesus was needed to make them "righteous in spirit" to enter heaven and the presence of God.

What would you do?

Today, I'm frantically working on my research proposal (studying motivations of Christian bloggers)  that is a major portion of my grade this semester, and I'm checking out some Christian blogs from a 2007 survey to see if they are still in existence. I click on Mark Kelly's blog Kainos and find this piece of news

Today, a federal court denied a request to halt enforcement of the abortion pill mandate which forces the Christian-owned-and-operated Hobby Lobby Stores, Inc., to provide the “morning after pill” and “week after pill” in their health insurance plan, or face crippling fines up to $1.3 million dollars per day…

Hobby Lobby is the largest and first non-Catholic-owned business to file a lawsuit against the HHS mandate. The Green family has no moral objection to the use of preventive contraceptives and will continue covering preventive contraceptives for its employees. However, the Green family’s religious convictions prohibit them from providing or paying for the abortion-inducing drugs, the “morning after” and “week after” pills, which would violate their most deeply held religious belief that life begins at conception. Retrieved from the Beckett Fund website.

There is something horribly wrong about this that just sticks like a boulder in my craw. I cannot imagine our forefathers ever dreaming this could happen in their beloved land that they gave heart, soul and shed blood to build. That isn't even close to what Jesus must be feeling right about now.

What so many do not realize, including Christians, is that God hates it when you mess with His children and that includes the brand new lives He has created in their mother's wombs. That He knits them together, and He knows their every twitch and move before their eyes even see the light of day.

I ache in my heart over this. Please God, forgive this country for this disrespect for human life. Forgive us Lord for not raising hands and voices in protest over the shedding of innocent blood. Help us Lord to get this mandate rescinded and help our country to move back from this insane precipice. 

Mark Kelly advises: You can take a stand for your faith freedom by learning more from the ERLC or the Manhattan Declaration website, signing a petition, donating to a religious liberty organization like The Becket Fund, and contacting the White House, Health and Human Services, and your Congressman.

SEO killers

I subscribe to SiteProNews that gives me excellent advice on a lot of things Internet related such as SEO (Search Engine Optimization - helps other people find your blog or website through search engines like Google), web design, blogs, social media and other stuff.

I found something today that made my heart sing! Jill Whalen has studied websites for more than a year to discover whether SEO is actually dead or on life support. What she found is very encouraging and that is this little tidbit from her article:

Have a Real Content / Social Media Marketing Strategy
Forget about old-fashioned link building. Google now really does consider it to be web spam. (Yay!) If you can add a link to your own site just by submitting it somewhere, you can assume that it won’t count for much (or anything) by Google. In other words, forget about useless directory submissions, article directories, link wheels, forum signatures and comment spam. That’s all done, kaput, a useless waste of time. Read more...

 Hooray! That means all you people who are posting SPAM as comments on my site can pretty much use that time for something more useful because spam comments, and footer links just don't work anymore to drive traffic to your site. Besides the fact that I weed out all those by hand anyway.

Here's some more things that dilute your web presence to the back of the search, and as Whalen says, they are in no particular order.

1. Duplicate content
2. Keyword stuffing
3. Doorways
4. Footer links
5. Auto anchor text
6. Spammy comments
7. Low-quality pages
8. Poor presentation
9. Content below fold
10. Technical problems
11. Poor writing
12. No content
13. Splitting link pop
14. Merry-go-rounds
15. Unnatural links
16. Semi-hidden text
17. Rich snippet abuse
18. Trustworthiness (I'm sure she means lack of, here)

This applies to all web content, not just professional, company sites, but blogs and personal journals, too.

Engraved in His palm,
Gina

Great as an elephant, least as an ant...

Continuing from yesterday

Here are two creatures side by side: one of the world’s largest creatures and one of the world’s smallest. The elephant, even in all his great size and mighty strength is still meek in the hands of man doing his bidding and serving his master. The ant serves his whole life never stopping to think if his own life is more important than his brothers’ lives, he gives it freely to protect them and his queen. The ant, unlike most creatures of the earth, can carry up to 50 times its own weight. So many things we can learn from the elephant and the ant one being that serving others is a noble way of life.
One of the motivational spiritual gifts Paul talks about in Romans 12 is the administrator or organizer. Jesus was the greatest of these and exhibited a tremendous ability to organize and lead through all these characteristics delineated by Greenleaf. It is through Jesus’ teaching that we understand how great it is to be a servant leader. Last week we talked about Greenleaf’s first five characteristics of servant leadership. Today, we’ll consider the other five characteristics from the biblical perspective.

6. Conceptualization: Being able to see the big picture is a gift. People who can back up and see what a huge project should look like when it is finished has this gift, much like Nehemiah had when handing King Artaxerxes his wine cup. Artaxerxes asked him, “What are you so sad-faced, Nehemiah?” The king’s servant had prayed hard before speaking then told him about Jerusalem’s walls in ruins and the crouching enemies. Nehemiah was 700 miles away, but he could see the result of rebuilt walls with the authority of the reigning king who financed the whole project. Read more…

7. Foresight: Spears (2004) points out “Foresight is a characteristic that enables the servant-leader to understand the lessons from the past, the realities of the present, and the likely consequence of a decision for the future. It is also deeply rooted within the intuitive mind” (p. 9). We can see how Jesus exhibits this attribute so many times in his teachings one being from the Sermon on the Mount: Matthew 7:18 A good tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a bad tree bear good fruit. 19 Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 Therefore by their fruits you will know them..

8. Stewardship: This attribute has been defined as holding something in trust for another. Jesus taught about it in several parables both from a financial perspective (the servants being given one talent, two talents, and five talents), and from a people perspective with His continued dictum to love one another. What we do with what we are given by God determines how well we serve Him. Jesus reminded His disciples, “What you do for the least of these, you are doing to Me.” Treating employees, co-workers, and bosses with respect and love is crucial whether or not they are believers. “Others will see Me through your love for one another,” Jesus said. (John 13:35).

9. Commitment to the growth of people: How much this is like Jesus. He chose His disciples, and He taught them for three and a half years so they might receive the Holy Spirit and spread the Good News by following the Great Commission. Spears (2004) points out “Servant-leaders believe that people have an intrinsic value beyond their tangible contributions as workers” (p. 9). This directly relates to stewardship, but also is an attribute intrinsic to the good leader. The goal of a parent is to train up her child in the way of the Lord and when he is old he will not depart from it. Good leaders train more good leaders, and guide workers to do great things.

10. Building community: The sense of community has been defined as “part of readily available, mutually supportive network of relationships on which one can depend … characterized by feelings of belongingness, interdependence, being needed, and identification with some common overarching values; and it counters loneliness and social isolation; and it is determined by shared emotional connections, integration and fulfillment of needs.” It is also characterized by a sense of contribution which Jesus has instilled within each Christian, just as He did in His disciples. “On this Rock I will build My church!” The declarative statement shows how Jesus is working to build the community. “We are joint heirs with Christ.” Our sense of belonging is depicted as not only God’s children, but as joint heirs of Heaven’s great riches. The servant leader will make sure each person feels connected through a sense of purpose and the mutually supportive network of relationships. The more healthy the network, the least likely a demonic or satanic attack will puncture through to the heart of the community and destroy it.

Servant leadership is a growing concept in the business world. While the arrogant would deem servant leader an oxy-moron, the wise see it as the only way to lead effectively. We are not like ants that are genetically programmed to perform one task; we are more like elephants in that we can be trained for different tasks. How much more wonderful it is that we have a Servant Leader in Christ Jesus who bestowed upon us the Holy Spirit who gives us our motivations to serve God without burnout and with great love for one another.

Spears, Larry C. "Practicing Servant-Leadership" Leader to Leader. 34 (Fall 2004)7-11.

Servant Leader

At LiveAsIf.org I wrote a column on Jesus as the servant washing Peter’s feet in an act of servantship as well as cleansing and forgiveness. What of the servant as leader?

In the 1990s Robert K. Greenleaf “discovered” the truth that “a leader is best experienced first as a servant” (Spears, 2004, p. 9). Jesus exhibited this axiom better than any other leader before or since He rose from the dead. While Spears does not bring out this biblical truth, he does point out ten of Greenleaf’s ideas about the characteristics of a good servant-leader, but he says nothing about the scriptural basis for these ten attributes. To explore each one, we’ll study half this week and the rest next week.

I point out here the biblical foundations for the attributes Greenleaf “discovered”.

1. Listening: A good leader is a good communicator. This means active listening. I wrote about the Art of Listening several years ago. There are two verses that stand out starkly: Luke 2:46 Now so it was that after three days they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers, both listening to them and asking them questions. This does not necessarily mean Jesus was asking questions to learn. Jews taught by asking questions. Teaching and listening, asking questions to get the mind cogs whirling was the way they taught. The fact that all who heard Him were astonished at His understanding and His answers means He had an uncanny grasp of Scripture even at 12 years old. Proverbs 19:27 Cease listening to instruction, my son, And you will stray from the words of knowledge.

2. Empathy: This attribute is not sympathy which implies pity. Understanding a person’s situation and identifying with it in a compassionate way is illustrated in James when he points out it really does no good when a Christian sees a person hungry and cold and says, “Be warm and be full!” without doing something to better that situation. From a leadership standpoint, Jesus was talking to a rich, young ruler (the story told in Mark 10:17-22). The young man asked what he could do to be saved. Jesus mentioned the six commands dealing on a horizontal level—human to human—and the man said he had kept all these commands. Jesus looked at him and loved him. This is the height of empathy and compassion: Despite the arrogance of the man and his assertion he had never broken even one of those commands Jesus loved him anyway. Jesus loved us while we were yet sinners. He put aside all the riches of Heaven to become lower than the angels so we might know Him, understand Him, and trust Him.

3. Healing: The ability to heal is crucial to a servant-leader. God gave us a body that miraculously heals itself given time and proper treatment. The lesson is that humans suffer tumultuous hurts both from self-infliction by deliberate sin, and from other-infliction from those who brutally use us for their own purposes mostly because they hate Jesus therefore they strike out at those in His image. The empathy attribute shines a light on emotional hurts, and the healing attribute in a servant-leader exerts to help make whole that which is broken. There are so many examples of Jesus healing, but one stands out that illustrates both empathy and healing. Luke 7:11-17 tells of when Jesus and His disciples went to the city of Nain. A funeral was happening and Jesus saw the plight of a lonely widow whose only son had died. He stopped and commanded, “Young man, I say to you arise!” The dead man sat up and Jesus gave him to his mother. Greenleaf writes: "There is something subtle communicated to one who is being served and led if implicit in the compact between servant-leader and led is the understanding that the search for wholeness is something they share."

4. Awareness: Greenleaf is focused here on general awareness and even self-awareness. The attribute lends very well to knowing the true situation of each person involved. He notes, “Able leaders are usually sharply awake and reasonably disturbed.” For instance when Jesus is overlooking Jerusalem, He breaks into weeping declaring, “Oh, Jerusalem, Jerusalem, how I wanted to gather you under my wings like a mother hen gathers her chicks. But, you would not allow me to; and you would have none of Me.” Awareness doesn’t mean that a problem will be solved, rather that the first step to solving a problem will be completed, and that is to recognize there is a problem.

5. Persuasion: Relying upon positional authority to make someone do their job or to give something to a task is not good leadership. It is bullying. The art of persuasion has been the topic of teaching since the first wheel was sold. The servant-leader seeks to convince others into an avenue of action rather than coerce into action. It is the very reason why Jesus said, “Come to Me ye who are weary and heavy laden. I will give you rest.” There is no coercion with Jesus. Agrippa told Paul, “Almost you persuade me to become a Christian.” How awful to come right to the brink of decision, and then like King Agrippa prefer this world over the treasures of Heaven; or like the young ruler go away disheartened because there is too much in this world that has you locked in its grip, like riches or power or foolish desires.

Proverbs 4:26 Study the track of your feet, then all your ways will be established.

Continued tomorrow.

Spears, L. C. (2004). Practicing servant-leadership. Leader to Leader, 34, 7-11.