Holiness for the World to See

OK OK OK I am NOT depressed about having to go get the dog...I actually like this dog!  I had a great time seeing my friends, seeing the scenery of Colorado and enjoying the trip! 

This past couple of weeks have been tragic for our nation and for the Amish community.  I have reflected quite a bit on the image that we have of them...and the reality of who they are...and how well they represented Christianity to the world in the past 10 days.

Did you know... The Amish have no electricty...and so, no TV, no computer, no Xanga, no microwave, no radios, no iPods, no CD players, no lights in their homes but lamps and candles, and no doorbells?

Every Amish child is SUNG TO at least 2 hours daily by one parent or the other from the time they are born until they are old enough to leave the house?

Amish families gather in the family room each night to talk and share stories about their family, their community, the Bible, heroes of the past and present?

The Amish are totally committed to spreading a message of non-violence in the world?

The little white cap Amish women and girls wear is a prayer cap?

At an Amish wedding there are no kisses, rings, florists, fashion consultants or caterers?

At an Amish funeral hymns are spoken, not sung?

Amish men wear beards, but not moustaches for two reasons:  One...they want to imitate Christ, who had both a beard and a moustache, but they do not feel that they are as perfect as Christ and so leave off the moustache.. Second...in Europe in the 1700's military men wore mustaches and the Amish chose not to grow them and be identified in any way with violence or war?

Though the Amish came from Switzerland, there are no Amish in Europe today?

Amish people never miss church unless they are physically unable to go?

Amish students never study science...and their teens are not taught where babies come from until shortly before their wedding.  Pre-marital pregnancy is non-existant among the Amish?

It can take twenty to thirty minutes to sing a SINGLE Amish hymn!?

Amish men may begin growing a beard once they are married or baptized, whichever comes first?

Amish people are not required to swear an oath in court because they have a theological stance against swearing oaths, and are known to almost never lie?

Telephones are not allowed in Amish homes because they would undermine the family structure?

Each Amish school day begins with prayer and singing?

Amish children are not allowed to read fairytales or fanciful fiction?

When a minister is ordained in the Amish church, he is kissed by all the men of authority and other ministers in attendance.  His wife is kissed by all the women in attendance with a "holy kiss," as a show of sisterhood.

This simple, honest, hard-working group of people has done more to witness to the love and forgiveness of Christ in the past 10 days than most of our churches do in 100 years.  We could learn a great deal about humility, love, community and forgiveness from them...

I wonder how I'd look in one of those beards!?!?

Annie...the dog...or....I can't believe I'm actually going to do this

OK...I'm going this week to Colorado for the SOLE purpose of reclaiming the family DOG, Annie, whom (do you say "whom" for a dog?) we left in Sterling when we moved to Oklahoma.  She killed some chickens and has been interred at the humane society shelter where the girls have put her on hold until I get there to rescue her. I can't even believe I am doing this...spending hundreds of dollars and three days of my time...for a dog.

Such it is for those we love....

Currently Listening Stand Fast Armageddon Justice Fighter OK I've never heard this...it was a funny title for the topic! see related

Could This Be Armageddon? (Or, why it's not)

OK here's a response to VOICE from my last posting.  It includes so much information that I thought maybe you guys who were insomniacs could use the discussion to make you TIRED! But here goes...FIRST, a point in consideration of Voice's post and the a few points that must be considered in trying to harmonize what is now happening in the Middle East with the Book of Revelation (Yes, it is Revelation and NOT RevelationS):

First....you say...the Euphrates river is in Iraq...true enough. Then you jump to Meggido without saying anything more about the Euphrates or Iraq.  The Euphrates is not listed in the Bible as a site of many battles...it is one of the rivers that scripture says flowed "through" the Garden of Eden.  It is the river along with the great Babylonian Empire existed and the river by which the Hanging Gardens of Babylon became one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.  Truly, Iraq (Babylon, Ur, etc.) is a key area in Biblical history, but not necessarily in prophecy.

Let us then turn to dicusssion concerning Megiddo.  I'm sure you're aware that Meggido is a "tel" or a hill...built up by layer upon layer of settlement after settlement over centuries. It was (and is) a good place to settle because it was defesible - it overlooks the Valley of Jezreel and a narrow pass to the west through which was the BEST north-south corridor from Asia Minor to Africa in ancient times. It was indeed the site of many great battles between factions seeking to conquer the north from the south or vice versa.  The Egyptians, the Hebrews, the Assyrians - all did battle with each other through the pass at Megiddo because it was the natural passage from north to south.  The romans built a road through the pass called the Via Marin.  You can still see the Roman road construction in many places today. For the author of the Book of Revelation, it becomes a natural point for the setting of the pentultimate battle between forces of good and evil.  PLEASE note...that in Revelation, the battle at "Armageddon," it is the "Kings of the world," who are gathered for battle...NOT any GODLY force!!!! The battle of "Armageddon," is not detailed, we don't know the outcome and it is NOT a battle between good and evil, but a battle between the kings of the world who have always fought and argued over Israel and used Israel as a territorial pawn.  By their own greed will they be destroyed...but the outcome of the battle is NEVER detailed in Revelation!  PLEASE PLEASE note that the battle in Chapter 19 of The Book of Revelation is between the hosts of Heaven and the beast and the false prophet.  When they are defeated, they are "thrown alive into the fiery lake of burning sulphur." WAIT WAIT!!!

The fiery lake of burning sulphur is a SPIRITUAL place!!! This is a SPIRITUAL story...not a literal earthly battle!  It has NOTHING to do with the geo-political "wars and rumors of wars," that Jesus said there would always be, and that are going on in the Mid-East right now!  Chapter 19 doesn't even SAY that the battle in 19 IS the battle of "Armageddon," where the kings were massed in Chapter 16 - though it's not a big step to set it there.  But please, please heed this point of advice...

The Book of Revelation is not simply prophecy.  It is Apocalyptic literature. The role of Apocalyptic lit. is to speak of the end of the world and final spiritual issues in HIGHLY symbolic and allegorical "pictures."  The Book of Revelation is about the spiritual state of men's souls...not the physical history of the world. It is about the end...as it will be for ALL men...not just those who happen to be alive during one battle or another.  Come on...the Bible must not contradict itself.  DO NOT BE DECEIVED!  Jesus said, "Watch out that no one deceives you. ...You will hear of wars and rumors of wars, BUT SEE TO IT THAT YOU ARE NOT ALARMED. Such things must happen, but the end is yet to come." Matt. 24:4-8 (emphasis added) 

It is, in fact, the church who holds in her hands the determining factor of when the end comes, "And this Gospel of the Kingdom will be preached to the whole world as a testimony, and then the end will come." Matt. 24:14  These are the words of JESUS!  I think we can believe Him! : )

The political nation of Israel is NOT the Biblical nation of Israel. Israelis are NOT Israelites.  What will you do with your CHRISTIAN faith, if God in His wisdom allows the political nation of Israel to go down in defeat to Islamic Extremists?  Think it thru...it could happen!!  Build your faith on Christ.  Build it on His Word.  Do not be blown about by every breeze of teaching or doctrinal fad.  Do not build your faith on political systems - ours or anyone else's.  Build your faith on Christ alone...and then whatever happens as this world ages and dies will not shake your faith.  Both Christ and John say, "And he who stands firm to the END will be saved."  John 24:13 (Cf. Rev. 2:7; 2:11; 2:26 and others.)

Terror and Religious Fanatacism...

Tonight I had a thought...and you're not going to like it...which is ok because I don't know if I like (or even believe it) yet, or not.  But here goes.  I can see clearly that our world is at war.  The root cause of the war is pretty easily discerned - Islamic fanaticism. I can further define Islamic fanaticism as, "the warping of a basically peaceful set of teachings in order to claim the ability and authority to control others for selfish purposes." I think that's a fair defnition...maybe of ALL religious fanaticism. 

Then, realizing my definition could apply to ALL religious fanatics...I asked myself, "Does it apply to fanatical Christians?"  Hmmm...ok here we go...OFF THE DEEP END!!! READY!?!?! JUMP!

Think of this:  In 1948 the United Nations officially recognized the POLITICAL state of Israel.  It was formed by a bunch of EUROPEAN refugees who had fled persecution and annhialation at the hands of the Nazis and Communists. They took Palestine by military force from the Palestinians who had inhabited it for centuries. Read the historical accounts. In many instances, these well-funded Europeans took Palestinian homes by military force, imprisoned the Palestinians and simply moved right into their homes!!!  They claimed...and a large part of the Christian world backed them up...that it was their RIGHT to live in Palestine because it had been, before 64AD, the Biblical nation of Israel.

Understanding that relationships are COMPLICATED things (whether between people, races, or nations), think about this.  A group of religious fanatics....oh, let's call them "Zionists," move into an inhabited country, kick it's inhabitants out by force, imprison them, withhold basic necessities and opportunities from them - for DECADES, and having control of the borders on every side of these occupied lands, control where the displaced people can go or when they can move about and with what amount of freedom.

Now, suppose the interred people, let's call them....Palestinians, shall we? Suppose they had relatives, friends and ...maybe fellow "believers" in their own religious system OUTSIDE the confines of this new country.  Their fellow "believers," friends, and relatives thought that they had been as mistreated as the Zionists were in the countries from which they came.  Now the outcry is not to give the formerly-persecuted Zionists a place to live. The outcry is now against the Zionists for treating Palestinians in PRECISELY the way they had been treated themselves before they came and took the Palestinians homes by force. The offense is so great that the friends, relatives, and fellow "believers," vow not to rest until the land-stealing Zionists are irradicated from the homes and land they "stole" from the Palestinians.  Clear so far?? (Thank you for sticking with this, if you have.) One more step...

Suppose, on the other side of the world, there were people who were neither Zionists nor Palestinians.  Suppose those people worshipped the exact same God that BOTH the Palestinians AND the Zionists worship...oh...let's call HIM the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, shall we?  Those people would then have to make a choice about whom they would support in the conflict over the land and homes...the Zionists or the Palestinians.  Now IMAGINE...that the people on the other side of the world had been fed a line of poor theological teaching (not upheld in their own holy texts) that the LAND was HOLY instead of it being hearts that are holy or not.  IMAGINE, that out of a kind of ....oh....religious fanaticism...that the people on the other side of the world actually BELIEVED that ... one set of the children of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were more VALUABLE to that God than the other - that ONE set of HIS children had more of  a right to ANY piece of land ANYWHERE than others of HIS children.  Odd thoughts aren't they?  Wouldn't you come to see, were you objective, that all three groups had lapsed into one form or another of RELIGIOUS FANATICISM?  Each believing THEY were the TRUE sons of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.  Each believing the others were, in some way, infidels.  All at war. All at odds.  Each killing their own brothers in the name of the SAME God.  All wrong.  All in error.  All in sin. All selfish. All judgmental.  All misrepresenting the broken-hearted God who would even die for them all, that they might be saved.

How very sad.  How very fanatical.  How very wrong of them all. 

God save us from our own forms of fanaticism....

Currently Listening Hiding Place By Selah Part the Waters/I Need Thee Ev'ry Hour see related

Bible School Faith...

I'm at an impasse...or a sticking point...or...one of those questioning moments when I want to believe but don't know if I can? I feel like...I believe, but I'm scared...but I believe, but I have doubts...but I believe, but I don't see my belief in material terms...but I DO believe, it's just hard...but I believe, but does it make a difference to believe...because I really do believe, I just don't know what to do next.  I look at situations outside of my control... a friend in the hospital in a very non-responsive state, a friend with mysterious blood-clots which formed in his lungs, a friend in need of seemingly unavoidable surgery, a friend struggling almost single-handedly to try and keep their marriage together...where is God?  Does he care?  What should I do? What should I say? Is it going to be alright???

"...late at night as they were half-way across the lake, a huge storm came up suddenly and the boat was tossed and nearly swamped, but Jesus slept in the front of the boat - seemingly oblivious to the raging storm. His disciples awakened him, 'Master, do you not care that we are all about to die?' they screamed. 

Jesus stood and rebuked the storm, 'Peace,' he said, 'be still' And immediately the wind was gone and the sea like glass and they arrived at their destination."

God, remind me that Jesus is in the front of the boat.  Remind that your Spirit does not die. Remind me that those who are in you do not die. Remind me that what I see is not the ultimate reality of how things ARE.. Remind me that nothing and noone gets the last word...except YOU.  Remind me that the last words are not heard on earth...but from the mouth of my Savior.  The storm is loud, Lord...remind me now.  The waves are high Lord...help me hear.  The lightning is bright, Lord...help it light the night...that I might see you...so content in the midst of this chaos...that you can still take your Sabbath while it rages all around you...oh Lord...

When I think I'm going under, part the waters, Lord.
When I feel the waves around me, calm the sea.

When I cry for help, oh hear me, Lord and hold out your hand~
Touch my life, still the raging storm in me.                                                           Touch my life, still the raging storm in me.