Dream of Control

I had to do a podcast last night on black writers. Supposed to start 7:30 but noooo Obama had to do a speech and all the black folks in the (speculative and otherwise) universe had to look at it. So then it was scheduled for 8:30. But then the lady had trouble with her computer. Upshot? I was on the phone from 8:30 to 11:15. And Because of that I didn't sleep at all last night. That caused a great deal of painful attacks in my chest and a headache. In the past, if I don't get into bed by 7:30 or so I am in a bit of danger of not sleeping. But it would have been rude to leave the conference.

Anyways, I had the most wonderful dream about control. I dreamt a woman producer was in charge of a film and in charge of a film production company. An actor and his wife were helping her in creating the film. I think the actor was the director. Except that they had gotten so used to being in charge that they wouldn't listen to her. She decided to take her power back. She asked them, "who pays your check? who owns this company?" They kept ignoring her. She kept her ground but they weren't paying her any mind. . . as if she was unimportant. They were silently mocking her. And the actress said something like, "you think my husband is so gorgeous, he has you under his thumb. you won't do anything to upset him." The producer said, "oh, you think I won't ruin his face" and she took a razor and cut the guy across the face." And she cut the actress over the eye or in the eye. Then she took a large bird out of the sky a great white dove or albatross or whatever....and she pulled it from the sky and threw it tumbling into the actor;s apartment.

When I got up I instinctively knew what the dream was about. There's a line in the Bible about the kingdom of heaven: The kingdom of heaven endures violence and the violent take it by force. The upshot is that to bring the kingdom of heaven into one's life one must be all out pushy for it.

I had been attacked by sleeplessness last night and all night I was up. So it's like about 40 hours so far without sleep and I decided to defy the tiredness -- which i always do cause I'm strong like that-- and I was being attacked by such a headache and such pain and such despair. That I decided to sing songs about the power of Jesus blood and to pray and to tell my body that Jesus healed it on the cross. I told my body it had better behave and it had better sleep because God had given it sleep. And told Gabe's body that it had better be healed. I was just supremely angry with sickness and the way it treats our family. And then I fell asleep and got this dream. So it was as if my body was saying, I will not be your servant and listen to you. But I was saying, "Who owns you? My spirit owns my body and my mind! Jesus said the body is a servant to the spirit, not the other way around! So you had better damn well listen to me! So I told my body all kinds of Bible verses and promises about the power of God's word in our life. And the word of God is compared to a spiritual sword which destroys the enemy (sickness, demonic entity, poverty, etc.) Hence the knife. Then the large white bird represents the holy spirit, i guess.

Anyways, upshot: I feel as if I have found my inner anger against sickness. I am fighting against it even though it tries to ignore me. That's the way it works sometimes but I WILL be heard. And this sickness will leave, and my body will have to come in line with God's word.

So am doing well. I know how to fight now.

God's Friend

What do the following folks have in common?
Enoch, Abraham, Moses, David? They were God's friends. Others who might fall into this category: Daniel (who was called "a man greatly beloved.") Joshua (who was called "a mighty man of God.") Elijah (who wasn't allowed to die normally but had a chariot take him away.)

What do the following folks have in common?
John, Lazarus, Peter, James (Jacob)? They were Jesus' friends. Others who might fall into this category: John the Baptist, Judas Iscariot. (Yeah, I know. But Jesus called Judas a friend and who am I to disagree with Jesus?)

Let's ponder what being a friend of God means:
Obviously it doesn't mean life is easy. It also doesn't mean stuff happens instantly. Oh, God was aware of them. But maturity was necessary. And it didn't help matters that John said that he and his brother could drink the same cup that Jesus drank. These guys endured. God's friends learn to endure.

But something else: What does it mean to be anyone's friends? Isn't a friend someone who loveth at all times? Isn't there a friend who sticks closer than a brother? Oh, yessss! Jesus is our friend? What a friend we have in Jesus and all that! But are we God's friend? Are we Jesus' friend?

Do we love God at all times? Are we fairweather friends? Are we users? Do we come to God to force him to listen to our whining? Do we come to make him hear about all our sorrows? Do we ever ask to hear his sorrows? Do we ever say, "God, what are you sad about in the world? What would you want me to do?" Do we love God all the time? Do we allow God to be himself with us? Do we allow ourselves to be ourselves with God? Do we treat God as a personal friend or as a collection of dutiful behaviors? Do we make long phone calls to God just to chatter? Do we make short little phone calls to say nothing at all, but just because we want to hear God's voice?

Okay, back to that bitter cup John said he could drink. Can we drink the bitter cup? What if our friend wants us to do something very important to him? Will we do it? -C

Sins Jesus Hated

Hypocrisy, selfishness, greediness, unforgiveness, indifference to god, wasting of resources, worrying about one's life, not trusting God, divorcing your wife to get a new one, doing only the basics of religious duty, not loving God with all one's heart and one's mind, self-rigtheousness, love of power, love of being honored by humans, prejudice against the poor and against foreigners, and against those we consider unholy, spiritual sloth, anger, disregard for the poor, committing adultery in your heart.

The ten commandments doesn't mention any of these sins. But these are the sins Jesus talked about over and over and over. Sins of the heart.

Many Christians say Jesus freed us from the curse of the law and they think of the ten commandments. (and the Law) and so they continue to indulge in hypocrisy, etc. By doing this, they end up with cheap grace. God says, "you will seek me and find me when you search for me with all your heart." Jesus said, "we must stay in the vine."

How can we be angry with God for not doing what we want or answering our prayers when we are still sinning the sins Jesus so hates?

Jesus came to bring joy and peace and truth to our spirit. He does this by the holy spirit. The holy spirit was not able to go into the hearts of everyone in such a way in the old testament. But now the holy spirit is being poured out on all men. And yet, do Christians love God every day of the week? Do those who rejoice in the spirit on weekends rejoice in the spirit all week?

One day is as a thousand years

Peter tells us that one day with God is as a thousand years. And a thousand years is as a day. A lot of pastors use this phrase to mean "one day IS a thousand years." Those are the ones who are usually trying to show people that God is using some sort of clock and that there are 6000 years of time to be fulfilled, yadda yadda. (They do this even though we aren't supposed to be adding numbers and trying to pinpoint the time of Christ's coming.)

It's a grammatical twist used to push a spiritual idea. But grammatical twist aside I don't think Peter meant it the way it's often used by modern pastors.

Think of it: one day to God is like a thousand years. This reminds me of Psalm 139 The thought God has about us in a single day is more than the sands. Can you imagine the thoughts God has about every single person on earth?

And a thousand years is as a day. God is eternal. He seems our lives in Time sequences and con-sequences that we can never dream of. He sees our forefathers and descendants in a single glimpse. He lasts forever.

That would be a thing to really sit down and ponder, as opposed to forcing an equation that really isn't there...in order to force an interpretation that isn't there either. -C

Bible Word Study: Esteem

I was listening to a minister talking about the parable of the talents. The one talent, the two, the five. And, because we christians can be soooo works-oriented, he went on to talk about the lowly folks who have one talent (like church babysitters) and those great ones who have five talents (like Pastors who have PhD's etc.) Of course I wanted to shriek, "You officious, over-bearing smug a**hole!" But I didn't. We esteem and judge so differently than God does.

The Lord tells us to esteem others more highly than ourselves. This means that when it comes to contemplating the worth and work of others (if we are ever foolish to even do that) we should not judge things the way man judges, by appearance. Or when someone is in pain, we shouldn't say things such as "get over it" or "you know what your problem is: you're a blamer" or "Oh come on, it's not so bad!" Nor should we go to prayer asking God -- and insulting His intelligence-- by telling Him in a judgemental manner to change someone else's life or outlook or heart. We have to withold judgement. We have to forbear because as the Bible says the heart knows its own bitterness and a stranger doesn't intermeddle. As the Bible says, Who are you, oh man, to judge God's servant?

I'm always amazed at how highly people prize themselves and their opinions. I remember reading a magazine where a Christian woman talked about what she did when her friend left an abusive marriage and went off into an affair. The abusive husband had been beating up her friend, verbally and physically and the new man in her life was good, kind, rich. This woman stated she started to pray that her friend would leave this evil relationship. And she said she prayed very hard and hard for it until she started to see the effects of this prayer. Okay, am I being a wuss here? But shouldn't this woman have minded her business and prayed something like, "Heal my friend of her wounds." And ONLY pray that. Doesn't it seem a bit pushy and very like witchcraft for her to set her heart to destroy a new relationship, adultery or now? Am I just being a wuss here? And I totally believe there are such things as negative prayers that get answered. The devil answers them, or human ESP answers them. So we really have to stop esteeming our opinions of others lives better than their opinions of their own lives. Once we start believing that people have "a blind spot" about their own lives, then we get so caught up with showing them their blind spot that we don't ponder our own blind spots. Anyways, for your perusal: the Bible word: esteem

Deuteronomy 32:15 "But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation."

"for them that honour me I will honour, and they that despise me shall be lightly esteemed." 1 Samuel 2:29-31

"Neither have I gone back from the commandment of his lips; I have esteemed the words of his mouth more than my necessary food." Job 23:11-13

Job 36:19 "Will he esteem thy riches? no, not gold, nor all the forces of strength."

Job 41:27 "He esteemeth iron as straw, and brass as rotten wood."

Psalm 119:128 "Therefore I esteem all thy precepts concerning all things to be right; and I hate every false way."

Isaiah 29:16 "Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding?"

Isaiah 53:3 "He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not."

Isaiah 53:4 "Surely he hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted."

Luke 16:15 "And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God."

Romans 14:5 "One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind."

Romans 14:14"I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean."

1 Corinthians 6:4 "If then ye have judgments of things pertaining to this life, set them to judge who are least esteemed in the church."

Philippians 2:3 "Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves."

1 Thessalonians 5:13 "And to esteem them very highly in love for their work's sake. And be at peace among yourselves."
Hebrews 11:26 "Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompence of the reward."

Scattered Thoughts -- almost believing

Okay, a couple of weeks ago, I wrote that I would think of almost believing.

Acts 18:25 "This man was instructed in the way of the Lord; and being fervent in the spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing only the baptism of John." Acts 18:24-26

As I said, most Christian churches nowadays know only the baptism of John. They believe in the holy spirit and some of them speak great sermons and are fervent in spirit but the only baptism they tell people to have is the baptism of repentance.

Luke 3:16 "John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire." Luke 3:15-17

But Pentecostals believe in the full gospel and in doing everything Jesus told us in the great commission. Healing, raising the dead, cleansing the lepers, preaching the gospel, baptising in water, baptising in the holy spirit.

Then there is what is written in Hebrews:

Hebrews 6:1 "Therefore leaving the principles of the doctrine of Christ, let us go on unto perfection; not laying again the foundation of repentance from dead works, and of faith toward God" Hebrews 6:1-3

Hebrews 5:12 "For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk, and not of strong meat. For every one that useth milk is unskilful in the word of righteousness: for he is a babe. Hebrews 5:11-14

And even Peter says that the milk of the word is for newborn spiritual babes. 1 Peter 2:2 "As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby."

Jesus told us to preach about the kingdom of God. Most evangelical churches teach that we are prophets of God who help to reveal God's will to those who don't know. OR they teach about the priesthood of believers, that we can make intercession and stand in the gap for others. But they don't really preach the kingdom of God. They keep teaching us about the foundations. Those foundations are good but they aren't the entire building. After all, Jesus rebuked a storm twice. And in both instance it's clear that he was annoyed that he had to do it when the disciples could have done it. In one instance, he was going to walk past them. In the other instance, he was sleeping. Heck, he rebuked the storm. So it's obvious God hadn't produced the storm. He wouldn't have rebuked it otherwise. But churches nowadays behave as if God sends the storm and we should accept it. Hey, Jesus has given us authority over sin, sickness, storms, spiritual evil! Why can't we move onward to greater works that Jesus told us we would do?

In Job we are told to decree a thing. In the gospel we are told to be kings and priests on the earth!

True Forgiveness

Often I hear Church people using forgiveness the wrong way and mis-applying basic Bible principles to force forgiveness upon those who have been wronged. For instance they might tell an abused woman, "You have to forgive. He's sorry for his sin." When they do this they are bullying the victim with their spirituality, using Scripture badly, and might be causing further grief. But they think they are merely telling the victim of the abuser to take the higher spiritual road.

Let us be clear about what the Bible says and stop falling into flaky church tradition. Nowhere in the Bible does Jesus "heal a relationship." He restores souls, he heals bodies, he casts out demons. But it is up to humans to do the work of healing a relationship.

True forgiveness is accountable.
Why? Because repentance is often incremental. For instance, the Bible tells us that the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked; who can know it? Cruel people don't know themselves. Abusing people can't see their own hearts. Not all at once. Heck, they might feel they ought to apologize and they might be sorry for their sins. But they have not yet learned the skills of being a kind human, or the skills of anger management. To ask an abused person to re-enter back into a relationship with such a person is abusive.

True forgiveness can never be demanded.
Why? Because if an abusive person comes to you and says, "You have to forgive me. I'm sorry now," that person is not really humbled enough. Nowhere is it written that someone should demand forgiveness of another. They can ask, and we can forgive. But that doesn't mean we have to enter into a relationship with such a person. Again, repentance and self-knowledge is incremental.

True forgiveness means the person who has sinned against another must confess.
Why? Because there is a difference between admission and confession. Abusive folks are often great at admitting a fault. They are also manipulative. They will wound someone quite badly, then they will go to the pastor or the elders or the family and admit their fault. Then, after admitting their fault they will say something like, "Pastor, Brother, Sister, Mom-in-law, could you call my wife (or my husband) and ask her to forgive me and to live with me again?" This is all very good-appearing, but it's not really confession of sin. It's playing the spiritual game. It's the old "I'm converted now, so you have to accept me" slick game. Again, conversion takes a while. We can say, "Well, praise God! You have seen the error of your way. But you don't have the skills yet. Conversion takes time. So keep away from the person you are abusing until you truly understand how bad you have been."

True forgiveness does not mean the scale is wiped clean.
Why? Because pain, woundedness, griefs, are still in effect. It's like being stabbed with a knife. One may forgive the blow but the wound is still deep. Repentance means paying for one's sins. Oh, Christians will say, "but we don't have to pay for our sins. Jesus paid for our sins!" But that's not true. Jesus paid for our sins, but we also have to reap what we sow...in our lives, and what we have sown in other lives. Consider a man who leaves his wife for another woman? His wife becomes sickly, loses her insurance because she is no longer married to a wage-earner, is living with the kids in poverty while the adulterer and his new wife are fairly well off. if the man says he's sorry, he was in love...and he couldn't help himself, we may forgive him. (Although, the Bible tells us that emotions are our servants and we are not theirs...and the man should not have fallen into the lie of "I couldn't help falling in love" the fact is the Christian church is so wimpy about the power of the will (especially when it comes to love, attraction, and sex) that we'll forgive the guy? But shouldn't this man remember to take care of his wife? Shouldn't he try to heal her heart now that she has gotten hill because of the hurt he caused her?

Or consider the man who has stolen --not a spouse but money-- and says how sorry he is. Shouldn't he return the money? And if he doesn't, the scale is not wiped clean.

Peter was crucified. Jesus forgave him but I suspect his rejection of Jesus had a lot to do with how he died. He still had to prove his love, to reap what he had sowed. David kicked out his wife Michal from his bed and later killed his friend Uriah in order to protect the adultery with Bathsheba, Uriah's wife. God forgave David through Nathan the prophet but nevertheless God declared that the sword would be against David's house FOREVER. FOREVER!!! And then David ended up losing ALL his concubines from his bed, just as Michal was cast out. That's not just old testament. In the New testament, we are repeatedly told that we should not deceive ourselves, we reap what we sow.

So it is kindness to remind the sinner who continues sinning what true forgiveness is. For our sanity, and for his salvation. Perhaps we should always link true forgiveness with true repentance. In that way we don't further wound and burden the person who is already in pain. -C

Prisoner Alert:Nguyen Van Dai

In May 2008, Nguyen Van Dai, a Vietnamese Protestant church leader and lawyer, was sentenced to five years in prison and followed by four years of house arrest. Nguyen was accused of a wide range of crimes, including "conspiring with terrorists, in their efforts to promote human rights efforts, including religious rights and democracy." He was also accused of compiling "evidence of Vietnam's suppression of the Protestant religion and providing it to the U.S.-based Committee for Religious Freedom in Vietnam and the U.S. embassy."

Go to the Prisoner Alert website to see how you can write Nguyen and encourage him that you're praying for him.

Pray also for the Iraqi Christians. Since the US invasion, they have been persecuted, their women raped and forced to convert, beheaded, and their lands and houses taken away.



Go to Voice of the Martyrs to read up more about persecuted Christians.

Go to persecution.com to find out about other Persecuted Christians all over the world.

-C

He broke the bread

I remember listening to a Messianic Rabbi tell us about what Jesus did with the bread that was so different and unusual at that Passover Seder. Because we are disconnected from Jewish theology, we often hear ministers make up very strange explanations for things. So the general idea here is that something strangely weird happened as the Disciples Jesus met on the road to Emmaus saw Jesus breaking the bread.

A made-up mind

How does one get joy and peace in believing? How does one get rest in faith?
To simply decide to believe God, to have a made up mind.

Am working on that. Lots of peace today. Because I've got a made-up mind. Whenever something tries to disturb my faith that God is working, I hold to the word. I've got a made-up mind.

SPIRITUAL WARFARE: Defeating the Forces of Darkness

SPIRITUAL WARFARE: Defeating the Forces of Darkness
by Dr Preston Bailey
388 pages
Xulon Press
May 20, 2008
ISBN-10: 1604778962
ISBN-13: 978-1604778960

Wow!!! What a book! Definitely one to get if one lives near haunted houses or haunted people!

Here's the blurb:

SPIRITUAL WARFARE: Defeating the Forces of Darkness is a theological and practical book on overcoming the attacks of the Devil. Christians need to use the many spiritual resources that the Lord of Hosts, the Commander in Chief of the heavenly army, has provided for us to defeat the attacks of the Wicked One. Dr. Bailey describes the nine different types of attacks by demons along with how to respond to each type of attack in order to have victory. He also describes Satan's organizational structure of demons and how they scheme to attack people. Dr. Bailey has appeared on numerous television shows and was the producer and host of a weekly series called "The Christian Counselor." He has trained police departments about Satanic Ritual activities and been a consultant with law enforcement on occult related crime. He was appointed by the Governor as Chairman of the Task Force on Child Abuse and later appointed on the Juvenile Anti-crime Task Force that helped reduce juvenile crime in Florida. Since he has many years of experience in dealing with most types of occult and satanic related groups, he has done numerous seminars in churches and Christian organizations on the subject. Dr. Bailey also has counseled thousands of demonized people and hundreds of people who were ritually abused. Since he has led many Satanists, witches, warlocks, and those involved in the occult to Christ, his insight into the occult has helped him train thousands of Christian counselors in Europe, Canada, and throughout the United States and minister to those who have been demonized. God has given him many unique experiences that he has shared in this book which will enrich your life and reveal startling truths about spiritual warfare and how to have victory over the attacks of Satan.

His website is really a great site and you can download documents on how to pray for demonized folks and houses. It's a great site. Check it out.

Here is the amazon site

Behold

Sometimes I find myself pondering the put-on piety of some folks I know. Yeah, Im judging. But honestly, by their walking around behaving in an holier than thou manner they are subtly judging me. And other folks. We humans are always looking for ways to be better than other folks. I remember an Orthodox Jewish woman who always felt very holy when she went to get her ritual bath. She said when she walked through the street she felt contaminated if anyone touched her. But honestly, what is external holiness when we are beholding the speck in another person's eye when we have a beam in our own eye.

I know of another woman who used to pray to God using "thees" and "thous." She didn't like it when I said "you" to God cause "thee and thou" are holy words. No, they aren't! But it was hard to describe to her that thou and thee are no-longer-used familiar forms of "you." And that although she was thinking she was distancing herself from God's great holiness by saying "Thou" she was actually being quite intimate with him.

Often we simply cannot behold even the smallest truth because we are so caught up with our own perceptions. When used in the Bible, the word "behold" often translates Greek words that mean, "Carefully think on this, ponder it, look into this, examine this, really, really, really look at this."

Behold, All things have become new!

Let us really really consider that. All things. All definitions of holiness, all definitions of what love is, all definitions of what righteousness is, all definitions of what God is like, all definitions of what illness supposedly does to the body, all definitions of what normal life is supposed to be. Study the Bible and see what Jesus wanted the world to be.

Revival Conference

The conference in Atlanta, Georgia will be webcasted live for all its sessions. I am excited about the potential web audience from all across that world that will tune in. Spread the word about the event. These are dire times in North America and what a good and acceptable time to seek God that He may be found.

You can watch the entire conference at: http://www.revivalconference.com

And also at: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/sermonindex.net-live-webcast-events

The first session starts at 2pm EST on Tues, Oct 21st. And the webcast will be live for the next whole 2 days 8am-10pm EST. More information on the speakers and the schedule go
here: http://revivalconference.eventbrite.com/

Building Jairus' Faith

Luke 8:41 "Then a man named Jairus, a ruler of the synagogue, came and fell at Jesus' feet, pleading with him to come to his house." Luke 8:40-50

When Jairus came to Jesus to get his daughter healed, he was interrupted because a woman --who had been sick for about the same amount of years as his own daughter was alive-- approached and got healed. Of course Jairus could have had her severely punished for touching Jesus in her "condition" but he didn't. The entire incident probably helped his faith and helped him to believe strongly enough to get his daughter healed. Isn't God good the way he sets things up to help build our faith?

Weird Prayer One and Two

Okay, so this morning I get up and tossed up two weird prayers to God.

First:
I'm in the throes of admiration for testosterone. I love men. I love lovely men. So I'm thinking, "Lord, no sex in heaven! What about all this admiration I have for men with lovely bodies?" Yep, we have to discuss everything with God.

C S Lewis gave an example. I'll paraphrase: When you tell a small boy that being in love is wonderful, he says so it's like chocolate? That's cause the highest joy a little kid knows is the joy of candy. (Or Nintendos or PSP's) He can't conceive of anything higher. And that's how we humans are when we try to understand what Jesus said about heaven and there not being marriage in heaven. The first thing we feel is a sense of loss. Oh, okay, there are these super-spiritual folks who can live without sex or that wonderful sense of admiring another. And hey, I can understand the joy of loving everyone as my brother and sister.

But there is something wonderful about the sex drive. There is something wonderful about men's body's. If God takes it away, he is sure to give something better. I can only tell God that I HOPE so. Come on, now, Solomon wrote an opera to love: The Song of Solomon. So there's something there to hope for. So, that's weird prayer one.

Then there's weird prayer two:

I got up off the bed this morning and said, "Lord, my ego! Do something to make me not look so nutty in the eyes of certain people!" Yep, I was asking God to sure up my pride, not to destroy it.

Okay, so do I have any precedent to ask such a snooty proud selfish prayer. Well, yeah, Psalm 25: 2

To you, O LORD, I lift up my soul;
2 in you I trust, O my God.
Do not let me be put to shame,
nor let my enemies triumph over me.

Okay, okay, enemies can be sickness and sin and demonic forces. But sometimes it's plain old people. And God understands the way we feel when humans triumph over us. There's a lot in the Bible about the proud, the scornful, the mocking, the derisive. Often when I think of Jesus and his triumph over the suffering of the cross, I sometimes think "The pain was bad enough but to be subject to scorn and mockery and to be able to do something about it...and yet...to NOT come down from the cross and "show those a**holes"!!! Well.... that's the love of Jesus for us, that's the need for us to be freed from the depth of sin. Anyways, I'm kinda hoping to be a super-millionaire and to have my son's healing manifest. For happiness sake, but also to shut the mouths of those who have triumphed over me.

causing others to stumble

Was pondering this:

Romans 14:21 "It is good neither to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor any thing whereby thy brother stumbleth, or is offended, or is made weak." Romans 14:20-22

Actually, for the most part meat doesn't cause most Christian folks to stumble. Unless they're seventh-day adventist. But I'm evangelical and pentecostal, or as the Russian's call it "fifty-day Christians." Which means that we are in the day of jubilee, past the 7th day and into the New Day that God has made.

So yeah, this meat thing. Gotta update it for today. What are the things I might accidentally do to make my brother stumble? I suspect that telling a new Christian not to gamble then them seeing me buying a lotto ticket ...well, that might fall into this category. Or speaking about keeping the eyes pure and the mind holy and be caught renting a porno flick. That kinda thing could make folks stumble. Anything else?

Habakkuk: a prophet for historical perplexities

The Bible always presents us with perplexities.

Consider Psalm 73. A good person is perplexed at what he sees happening in his life and in the lives of others. Nevertheless, he holds his course. He finds something to hold onto.

Well, Habakkuk is a short prophetic book which talks about bad stuff happening. In it Habbakuk tells us that when troubles occur, we shouldn't compare our goodness with the goodness of those who are oppressing us. Have faith. Remember that God is the only sinless one. Trust God and live by faith. God uses even the evil person ...and even those who think they are good arn't as innocent as all that. Check it out.

NCAI Native Prayer Breakfast

The first ever National Congress of American Indians National Convention Prayer Breakfast is due to take place next Thursday, October 23rd in Phoenix. It will be hosted by Richard Twiss of Wiconi International. It's the first time the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) has allowed a prayer breakfast. Bill Miller is coming to share his music, Lael Echo-hawk, Wendell Berkland, Larry Anderson and others will be sharing during our one hour breakfast.If you live in the Phoenix area and want to attend the prayer breakfast you can call our office for registration details ($25.00 cost). Please be praying for this historic first ever, ANNUAL, NCAI Prayer Breakfast!!!

And I mean definitely pray! Native American believers and Messianic Jews often have a lot of struggles within their communities because, well, let's not forget what white Christian folks have historically done.

He states in his monthly newsletter, Smoke Signals,

My new favorite poet, Hafiz, writes, “Everyone is God speaking. Why not be polite and Listen to Him?”

Then he goes on to say:

"You know, at a fundamental level it is God who initiates communication with people. Johannes Henrici says, “Communication is deeply rooted in God’s nature and it is this nature he imparted to humanity when he created us in his own image.” To paraphrase Viggo Søgaard, communication is an ability God gave to us little images and “is the only way to be fully human.”

Before Europeans arrived here, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, the God of the Bible…Jesus – was communicating to the Lakota, Pawnee, Apache, Navajo, Cherokee, Mohawk and hundreds of other tribal people here in Turtle Island – North America. The scripture says in Romans 1:19 "since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them.(NIV)" And in the NKJV "because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them." (NKJV)

So then, God was communicating with us Injuns through Creation, revealing his divine nature/attributes to us, while we were still in darkness, savagery, paganism and lostness. Holy cow!

So what does the voice of God sound like to you? What expression of his divine nature is God communicating to you in the midst of bad news headlines? Does he sound like a conservative republican or liberal democrat? Is he white, black, brown or earth tone? Is he a socialist, capitalist or environmentalist? Is he speaking English, Spanish, German, Chinese or Lakota? Or maybe he is just “speaking in tongues” all the time? Holy smokes! Maybe Hafiz is right, “Everyone is God speaking. Why not be polite and Listen to Him?

Now what do we do when Jesus does not appear to prefer to speak to humanity through one language, political ideology, economic policy, musical form or liturgical style? Holy cow! Maybe God “does not show favoritism, but accepts all people equally…” (Acts 10:34). But hey, we all embrace a favored “biblical” political platform, social agenda and church preference ….. and of course Jesus in on our side. So how do we befriend, and love our neighbor when they hold opposing views from ourselves.

NATIVE LEADERS SUMMIT IN VANCOUVER

Sixteen First Nations men and women who give leadership to networks are meeting for 2 ½ days to begin exploring new possibilities for the next generation. They covet your prayers for God-inspired outcomes!

Who God wants us to vote for

I'm always amazed when I hear Christians talk about God wanting to bless America. First of all, we really don't know that. The United States is responsible for so much heart-ache and corruption in this world. Our government, movie industry, and wealthy corporations have overturned so many countries, killed financial growth in other countries, propagated racism, poisoned our food supply etc, etc, etc. So why should God want to bless us?

Am thinking of all this cause I had a dream about John McCain a few months back. Yeah, imagine my surprise. And actually, he was kinda nice. Now, let's assume the dream was not born from my brain but was actually sent there by God. Or maybe I "picked up" something in the ether. Some would say God might be telling me who to vote for. Others might say God is telling me who will win. A vast difference there.

The weird thing is that before Bill Clinton became president I had a dream about Hillary Clinton. She was quite nasty to me. And from that moment I totally disliked her. Yeah, I live in a weird reality where dreams matter to me.

But this is me and my dream. Many other Christians are saying they feel God wants them to vote for John McCain or Barack Obama. Generally, the white ones want McCain, the non-whites, and generally the Blacks, want Barack. These folks are utterly convinced that God wants them to vote for these people.

Question, though, when some Christians get a hint from God as to who to vote for, why do they assume that the reason God hints at voting for a certain person is because the person is good for the country. Is it possible that God wants us to vote for the person who will destroy the country? Hey, the Almighty is subtle. In the book of Kings and Chronicles, God often arranged for the wrong person to become king so that the kingdom could be punished. Will see.

Right now, I pretty much trust that God knows human nature. He knows, for instance, how spiteful Hillary Clinton's supporters are. He knows how many blacks want to vote for Barack simply because he's black, and how many whites don't want to vote for Barack because he's black. He knows how it'll all come out in the mix. Will see. -C

Levites

So there I was reading Exodus and I see where God says he wants the tribe of Levi to be his special heritage because Levi's heart was tied to God's. So I start looking backward to where this great scene of Levi connecting to God is shown. NADA!!!! Just before God says how blessed the Levites are, the only other mention of Levi is the curse Jacob gives to him when he's on his deathbed.

Genesis 49:5 "Simeon and Levi are brothers— their swords are weapons of violence. Genesis 49:4-6

Genesis 34:25 Three days later, while all of them were still in pain, two of Jacob's sons, Simeon and Levi, Dinah's brothers, took their swords and attacked the unsuspecting city, killing every male. Genesis 34:24-26

Numbers 1:47 The families of the tribe of Levi, however, were not counted along with the others. Numbers 1:46-48

Numbers 1:49 "You must not count the tribe of Levi or include them in the census of the other Israelites." Numbers 1:48-50

Numbers 3:6 "Bring the tribe of Levi and present them to Aaron the priest to assist him." Numbers 3:5-7

Numbers 3:9 Give the Levites to Aaron and his sons; they are the Israelites who are to be given wholly to him. Numbers 3:8-10

Numbers 3:12 "I have taken the Levites from among the Israelites in place of the first male offspring of every Israelite woman. The Levites are mine," Numbers 3:11-13

"Take the Levites from among the other Israelites and make them ceremonially clean. Numbers 8:5-7

Interesting. I mean there is no place in the Bible that shows how this special relationship between Levi and God. Generally, we see everything. The interesting thing is that Levi is so cursed by his father, and yet his descendants are blessed. And we don't know why. At least not from the Bible. Moses gives us no record. Maybe there is some incident where Levi felt guilty about his sins. Who knows?