A christian blog with a decidedly biblical perspective on the world and events around us. Look around, read, enjoy and feel free to comment. Interesting story, send us the info via our contact page. Subscribe by clicking here.
Subscribe to RSS
John 4:23
But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth, for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.
God is seeking worshippers. The one thing above all else that He desires of men is worship.
God desires obedience from men; He desires service; He desires prayer; He desires thanks-giving; He desires praise. But his supreme desire from men is worship.
It is said, “We are saved that we may serve.” It is true, but it is still more profoundly true that we are saved that we may worship.
The whole work of redemption finds its culmination and completion in a body of men and women being found fitted to worship God. – Cf. Rev. 7:9-15, and Phil. 3:3, R.V. – R A. Torrey
We may pray much without worshipping God, but prayer will find its freest access to the throne of grace, and will be accompanied by the fullest assurance and joy when it is preceded by a time of true worship of God.
We need to spend more time in pure and simple worship, in bowing before God in silent and adoring contemplation of Himself.
- Daily Meditations for Prayer.
1 Timothy 2:8
I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and doubting.
James 4:3
Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss.
1 John 3:21
Beloved, if our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.
Do you want to have your prayers answered? Walk so that your own heart condemns you not. The obedient child that lives in complacent affection with its parent has no fear in coming up to ask for favors. It knows it will get them. Its own heart does not condemn it. “If our heart condemn us not, then have we confidence toward God.”
I defy any man to separate confidence from obedience. If you will not be obedient, you cannot have confidence.
I challenge any Christian to tell me that he can go up to the throne of God in faith for any blessing when his own heart condemns him. He knows he cannot. He has first to get that state of condemnation taken away before he can exercise faith for any blessing.
Walk in the light, and then you shall have fellowship with Him, and His blood will cleanse you from all sin. The Spirit will teach you how to pray, and what to pray for, which the great mass of professors know nothing about. – Catherine Booth.
“Why, why is heaven silent still
When I have prayed so long?
Ah! Answerless the silence speaks,
And tells me that the heart that seeks,
The heart, the heart is wrong. – Paget Wilkes.
The prayer-hour is left standing before God till the other hours come and stand beside it; then, if they are found to be a harmonious sisterhood the prayer is granted. – George Bowen.
- The Christian’s Daily Challenge: E.F. & L. Harvey
Monday, September 27, 2010
Earth, The Final Frontier: What Happens When UN Officials Meet the Aliens
Please be subscriber 17,487. Put your email address in the upper right-hand box of the page at http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com/
We depend on your contributions. Tax-deductible donation through PayPal or credit card: click Donate button, upper-right hand corner of this page: http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com/. By check: “American Friends of IDC.” “For GLORIA Center” on memo line. Mail: American Friends of IDC, 116 East 16th St., 11th Floor, NY, NY 10003.
By Barry Rubin
News story: The UN has created a special envoy for alien life forms so if humans come into contact with extraterrestrials (ETs to Hollywood) the entire planet Earth will speak with a single voice. And who is this official? A Malaysian astrophysicist, Mazlan Othman who currently heads the UN’s Vienna-based Office for Outer Space Affairs, where one of the leading members is an Iranian government official named Ahmad Talebzadeh. Othman worked a number of years for the Malaysian Islamist government.
What happens when there are Jihad Knights instead of Jeddi Knights? Take me to your Imam?
Does this demand satire, or what?
Greetings, beings from Betelgeuse-5! I am the official Earth spokesperson, representing the entire Human Race, who will give you a briefing on life on our planet.
Earth people have different religions, that is, a set of beliefs about the Supreme Being, who we call Allah, and nations, of which there are almost 200. Let me start with religion.
Although there are many religions on Earth, there is only one true religion which is called Islam. The other religions are either deficient in worshipping many false gods or they have deviated for the true word of Allah (Peace be Upon Him) as revealed in the Holy Quran, which should govern the Earth.
There are also a number of countries, though there is one, named Israel, which is evil and criminal and should be wiped off the map. Naturally, with your advanced fusion weapons, you could literally wipe it off the map. However, we are prepared to discuss other methods with you in order to leave that land suitable for Muslims to live in.
We don’t want to say that our planet is otherwise perfect. Far from it! There is also a country named the United States that has seized hegemony of the Earth for purposes of propagating injustice. Naturally, it should be removed from that position in the name of social justice so that power can be shared equally among the Earth’s peoples. Our colleague from a city called Tehran has a detailed plan to propose to you to help achieve this goal.
I want to stress that we believe in Multicultural Diversity, so the fact that you eat the intelligent creatures of several neighboring planets doesn’t bother us in the least.
Alien: $%^&$#@^!@ %^&**!
Why, thank you for that complement, if our translation is correct! I assume saying that I look very tasty means something very nice in your culture, which of course we fully respect!
Certainly we look forward to close cooperation between Human Beings and the Qwaki543^&*$roxiputan race of Betelgeuse-5. We respect your advanced technology including Fusion Bombs, Death Rays, and other items for which we are happy to trade our handmade carpets, oil, natural gas, and pistachios. Mr. Muhammad Khorasan of our Trade Agency is ready to discuss the details.
Any questions?
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). The website of the GLORIA Center is at http://www.gloria-center.org and of his blog, Rubin Reports, http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Abbas Looks For A Way to End Peace Talks–With A Smile On His Face
Please be subscriber 17,491. Put your email address in the upper right-hand box of the page at http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com/
We depend on your contributions. Tax-deductible donation through PayPal or credit card: click Donate button, upper-right hand corner of this page: http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com/. By check: “American Friends of IDC.” “For GLORIA Center” on memo line. Mail: American Friends of IDC, 116 East 16th St., 11th Floor, NY, NY 10003.
By Barry Rubin
It never ceases to amaze me how hysteria and mystification so clouds peoples’ minds over the Arab-Israeli (or Israeli-Palestinian) conflict. Consider this simple point of logic which you may not see explained anywhere else. And see the point at the end about President Barack Obama.
Palestinian Authority (PA) leader Mahmoud Abbas claims that he can’t negotiate with Israel if Israel once again begins to construct buildings on existing settlements after a nine-month freeze on construction.
Let’s evaluate this statement.
First, Abbas knew that the freeze would last nine months and might not be renewed when it ended in September. If he wanted to give Israel an incentive to continue it–by showing that this Israeli concession, brought progress toward peace and some advantage for Israel–Abbas could have acted. Instead, he stalled until the very last moment. For weeks, the United States begged and pressed him to return to talks.
Second, if the Palestinians negotiate a two-state solution they will get–worst-case analysis–almost all of the West Bank. There will be no Jewish settlements in that territory. The settlements will be gone. All the roads and buildings Israel built (unless dismantled in the days before the agreement’s implementation) will go to the Palestinians.
So if Abbas and the Palestinians are horrified by Israeli construction, wouldn’t it have made sense for them to negotiate real fast? But, on the contrary, they stretch out the process year after year after year, continually finding excuses for doing so.
Remember that the PA refused to negotiate for well over a year after January 2009. All that time Israel was building on settlements. Then for the last nine months when Israel wasn’t building in the West Bank, the PA still refused to negotiate.
Let’s now provide a full timeline:
Phase One: From 1992 until late in 2000, the PLO, and later the PA negotiated with Israel at a time when there were no limits on construction within settlements. They were, however, in no hurry to make a deal and, in fact, killed the talks in 2000. Incidentally, Israel made a huge concession from its previous positions to begin the process in 1993: No new settlements or territorial expansion of existing ones. It keept that commitment. The PLO and PA also made some “concessions”: They would fight against terrorism. They didn’t. They never raised as a bargaining point the idea of a freeze on construction in existing settlements.
Phase Two: Then from 2000 to 2009–a decade–the PA refused direct any sustained peace negotiations at a time when there were no limits on construction within settlements. They never raised as a bargaining point the idea that they would end the violence (2000-2005) or that they would negotiate in exchange for a freeze on construction in existing settlements. That was President Obama’s idea in mid-2009 and they rejected it.
Phase Three: After Israel did freeze construction, the PA wasted nine months–knowing the clock was ticking on the temporary freeze–without making any moves to accelerate, or even hold, negotiations.
Thus, the PA has wasted almost 20 years, during which thousands of buildings have been added to Israeli settlements.
Here is a fundamental flaw in the assumption that the Palestinians are desperately eager to get a state and end their suffering. They don’t seem so eager at all. Why? Because the Palestinian leadership has long argued that it is more important to conquer all of Israel–or reach an agreement that didn’t get in the way of pursuing that goal–than to make compromises and get a two-state solution.
What does the PA want? An independent Palestinian state given as a gift by the world rather than requiring mutual compromise with Israel. That doesn’t require negotiations, it requires a lack of negotiations.
If Abbas walks away from talks he will not be crying that creation of a Palestinian state has been delayed. On the contrary, he will be smiling that he escaped from what most PA leaders–though not Prime Minister Salam Fayad–view as the peace trap.
Incidentally, note that when President Barack Obama made his upbeat interpretation of the “peace process” one of the main themes in his September 23 UN speech, he was totally aware that the negotiations were probably on the verge of collapse due to the termination of the freeze. It could be argued that by playing up the issue he was trying to encourage everyone to keep going, but how can you stake your diplomatic reputation on a card that is about to bring down a house of cards? That’s somewhere between being irresponsible and suicidal.
But perhaps Obama has reason to think he can get away with such things. After all, people have forgotten what happened with his speech to the UN last year! He predicted high-level, intensive Israel-Palestinian talks within three months and it took him a year to get low-level, fragile, limited talks. His policy was a total failure yet try to find anyone in the mass media reporting that point.
Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley), and The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan). The website of the GLORIA Center is at http://www.gloria-center.org and of his blog, Rubin Reports, http://www.rubinreports.blogspot.com.
Proverbs 26:2
2 As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.
Here is,
1. The folly of passion. It makes men scatter causeless curses, wishing ill to others upon presumption that they are bad and have done ill, when either they mistake the person or misunderstand the fact, or they call evil good and good evil. Give honour to a fool, and he thunders out his anathemas against all that he is disgusted with, right or wrong. Great men, when wicked, think they have a privilege to keep those about them in awe, by cursing them, and swearing at them, which yet is an expression of the most impotent malice and shows their weakness as much as their wickedness.
2. The safety of innocency. He that is cursed without cause, whether by furious imprecations or solemn anathemas, the curse shall do him no more harm than the bird that flies over his head, than Goliath’s curses did to David, 1 Sam. 17:43. It will fly away like the sparrow or the wild dove, which go nobody knows where, till they return to their proper place, as the curse will at length return upon the head of him that uttered it.
- Matthew Henry Commentary
Psalm 15:5
He who does not put out his money for interest [to one of his own people], and who will not take a bribe against the innocent. He who does these things shall never be moved. [Exodus 22:25-26].
“Israel was originally not a mercantile people, and the law aimed at an equal diffusion of wealth, not at enriching some while others were poor.
The spirit of the law is still obligatory, not to take advantage of a brother’s distress to lend at interest ruinous to him; but the letter of the law is abrogated, and a loan at moderate interest is often of great service to the poor.
Hence, it is referred to by our Lord in parables, apparently as a lawful as well as recognized usage. [Matthew 25:27; Luke 19:23].” – Fausset’s Bible Encyclopedia and Dictionary.
Proverbs 26:3
3 A whip for the horse, a bridle for the ass, and a rod for the fool’s back.
Here, 1. Wicked men are compared to the horse and the ass, so brutish are they, so unreasonable, so unruly, and not to be governed but by force or fear, so low has sin sunk men, so much below themselves. Man indeed is born like the wild ass’s colt, but as some by the grace of God are changed, and become rational, so others by custom in sin are hardened, and become more and more sottish, as the horse and the mule, Ps. 32:9.
2. Direction is given to use them accordingly. Princes, instead of giving honour to a fool (v. 1), must put disgrace upon him–instead of putting power into his hand, must exercise power over him. A horse unbroken needs a whip for correction, and an ass a bridle for direction and to check him when he would turn out of the way; so a vicious man, who will not be under the guidance and restraint of religion and reason, ought to be whipped and bridled, to be rebuked severely, and made to smart for what he has done amiss, and to be restrained from offending any more.
-Matthew Henry Commentary
Proverbs 26:4-5
4 Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him. 5 Answer a fool according to his folly, lest he be wise in his own conceit.
See here the noble security of the scripture-style, which seems to contradict itself, but really does not. Wise men have need to be directed how to deal with fools; and they have never more need of wisdom than in dealing with such, to know when to keep silence and when to speak, for there may be a time for both.
1. In some cases a wise man will not set his wit to that of a fool so far as to answer him according to his folly “If he boast of himself, do not answer him by boasting of thyself. If he rail and talk passionately, do not thou rail and talk passionately too. If he tell one great lie, do not thou tell another to match it. If he calumniate thy friends, do not thou calumniate his. If he banter, do not answer him in his own language, lest thou be like him, even thou, who knowest better things, who hast more sense, and hast been better taught.”
2. Yet, in other cases, a wise man will use his wisdom for the conviction of a fool, when, by taking notice of what he says, there may be hopes of doing good, or at least preventing further, mischief, either to himself or others. “If thou have reason to think that thy silence will be deemed an evidence of the weakness of thy cause, or of thy own weakness, in such a case answer him, and let it be an answer ad hominem–to the man, beat him at his own weapons, and that will be answer ad rem–to the point, or as good as one. If he offer any thing that looks like an argument, an answer that, and suit thy answer to his case. If he think, because thou dost not answer him, that what he says is unanswerable, then give him an answer, lest he be wise in his own conceit and boast of a victory.” For (Luke 7:35) Wisdom’s children must justify her.
- Matthew Henry Commentary
2 Kings 4:9
I perceive that this is an holy man of God, which passeth by us continually.
Daniel 5:11
There is a man in thy kingdom, in whom is the spirit of the holy gods.
Brethren, we should live so as to be missed – missed both in the church and in the world – when we are removed. Oh, how rapidly is the time hastening on!
We should live in such a manner as that, if we were called hence, our dear brethren and sisters might feel our loss, and from their innermost souls exclaim, “Oh, that such a one were in our midst again!”
We ought to be missed even by the world. Worldly persons should be constrained to say of us, “If ever there was a Christian upon earth, that man was one.” – George Muller.
“There is no glory halo round his devoted head,
No luster marks the sacred path in which his footsteps tread.
Yet holiness is graven upon his thoughtful brow
And all his steps are ordered in the light of heaven e’en now.
He often is peculiar and seldom understood,
And yet his power is felt by both the evil and the good
For he lives in touch with heaven, a life of faith and prayer,
His sympathies, his hopes, his joys, his all is centered there.
His body is God’s temple, his heart the Master’s shrine.
He lives, and thinks, and speaks, and acts, as moved by power divine.
His is the calm of heaven, the faith that can be still,
For God revealeth unto such the secrets of His will.
He is a chosen servant among God’s many sons;
He bears His sayings on his lips and on his errands runs.
No human frown he feareth, no earthly praise he seeks
But in the dignity of heaven his burning message speaks.
I’ve found him in the workshop and in the busy street,
The plainest, simplest, humblest man, that one could wish to meet.
I’ve treasured up his sayings and marked his faithful ways
And oft to follow in his steps my longing spirit prays.”
- The Christian’s Daily Challenge: E.F. & L. Harvey
Proverbs 26:6-9
6 He that sendeth a message by the hand of a fool cutteth off the feet, and drinketh damage. 7 The legs of the lame are not equal: so is a parable in the mouth of fools. 8 As he that bindeth a stone in a sling, so is he that giveth honour to a fool. 9 As a thorn goeth up into the hand of a drunkard, so is a parable in the mouth of fools.
To recommend wisdom to us, and to quicken us to the diligent use of all the means for the getting of wisdom, Solomon here shows that fools are fit for nothing; they are either sottish men, who will never think and design at all, or vicious men, who will never think and design well.
1. They are not fit to be entrusted with any business, not fit to go on an errand (v. 6): He that does but send a message by the hand of a fool, of a careless heedless person, one who is so full of his jests and so given to his pleasures that he cannot apply his mind to any thing that is serious, will find his message misunderstood, the one half of it forgotten, the rest awkwardly delivered, and so many blunders made about it that he might as well have cut off his legs, that is, never have sent him. Nay, he will drink damage; it will be very much to his prejudice to have employed such a one, who, instead of bringing him a good account of his affairs, will abuse him and put a trick upon him; for, in Solomon’s language, a knave and a fool are of the same signification. It will turn much to a man’s disgrace to make use of the service of a fool, for people will be apt to judge of the master by his messenger.
2. They are not fit to have any honour put upon them. He had said (v. 1), Honour is not seemly for a fool; here he shows that it is lost and thrown away upon him, as if a man should throw a precious stone, or a stone fit to be used in weighing, into a heap of common stones, where it would be buried and of no use; it is as absurd as if a man should dress up a stone in purple (so others); nay, it is dangerous, it is like a stone bound in a sling, with which a man will be likely to do hurt. To give honour to a fool is to put a sword in a madman’s hand, with which we know not what mischief he may do, even to those that put it into his hand.
3. They are not fit to deliver wise sayings, nor should they undertake to handle any matter of weight, though they should be instructed concerning it, and be able to say something to it. Wise sayings, as a foolish man delivers them and applies them (in such a manner that one may know he does not rightly understand them), lose their excellency and usefulness: A parable in the mouth of fools ceases to be a parable, and becomes a jest. If a man who lives a wicked life, yet speaks religiously and takes God’s covenant into his mouth,
(1.) He does but shame himself and his profession: As the legs of the lame are not equal, by reason of which their going is unseemly, so unseemly is it for a fool to pretend to speak apophthegms, and give advice, and for a man to talk devoutly whose conversation is a constant contradiction to his talk and gives him the lie. His good words raise him up, but then his bad life takes him down, and so his legs are not equal. “A wise saying,” (says bishop Patrick) “doth as ill become a fool as dancing doth a cripple; for, as his lameness never so much appears as when he would seem nimble, so the other’s folly is never so ridiculous as when he would seem wise.” As therefore it is best for a lame man to keep his seat, so it is best for a silly man, or a bad man, to hold his tongue.
(2.) He does but do mischief with it to himself and others, as a drunkard does with a thorn, or any other sharp thing which he takes in his hand, with which he tears himself and those about him, because he knows not how to manage it. Those that talk well and do not live well, their good words will aggravate their own condemnation and others will be hardened by their inconsistency with themselves. Some give this sense of it: The sharpest saying, by which a sinner, one would think, should be pricked to the heart, makes no more impression upon a fool, no, though it come out of his own mouth, than the scratch of a thorn does upon the hand of a man when he is drunk, who then feels it not nor complains of it, ch. 23:35.
- Matthew Henry Commentary
viagra and hearing loss Ed Treatment Natural Female use of viagra female version of viagra 761.
erectile dysfunction vacuums Cialis Dysfunction Erectile Levitra how to get viagra
herbal remedy for erectile dysfunction; Erectile Dysfunction Psychological Zocor erectile dysfunction zoloft erectile dysfunction 147.
robin williams viagra Viagra Spray "explore advances in male impotence treatments"
viagra perscription online Natural Remedy Erectile Dysfunction male hormone dhea impotence levels
will ferrell erectile dysfunction Viagra Perscription Online ed treatment with ginko
erectile dysfunction pills evaluated; On Viagra "non prescription viagra"
cialis viagra How To Buy Viagramale impotence age
Cigarette smoking and erectile dysfunction cigarette smoking causing male impotence 395. Impotence Viagra The latest treatment for ed topical ed treatment 237.
most effective ed treatment! Viagra 50 Mg actos erectile dysfunction
l dopa for male impotence! Buy Cheap Viagra erectile dysfunction and pravastatin;
male impotence pumps vacu Holistic Ed Treatment cost of viagra
female forcing male sexual impotence; Male Impotence Brochure actos erectile dysfunction
accounting treatment for sr ed Water Ed Treatment Male impotence due to surgery male impotence enema 629.
lamictal erectile dysfunction! Accounting Treatment Sr Ed Ias "buy viagra online"
problems with viagra, Viagra Cheap erectile dysfunction link suggest
"non prescription viagra" Viagra Uk viagra times;
viagra soft tabs? Ed Treatments erectile dysfunction ed treatment
u 3312 viagra cialis Male Impotence Advice yohimbie bark and male impotence
facts male impotence psychological effects
lexapro erectile dysfunction,
erectile dysfunction paypal, Zetia And Erectile Dysfunction straighttalk net erectile dysfunction review
male impotence and solutions? Make Your Own Viagra newest transdermal treatment for ed
tricor erectile dysfunction Hebal Ed Treatmenterectile dysfunction exercise
Viagra and alternatives viagra and blood pressure 767. How To Make Viagra how to take viagra
cialis medication erectile dysfunction Erectile Dysfunction Pills accupril and erectile dysfunction
Subscribe to RSS
