Governor Sarah Palin has often spoken of her faith in God as her source of strength in the many challenges she has faced in life. In the video below (h/tp Martha at @JoinTeamSarah), she refers to her faith in God, her family, and her freedom in America as the most important things in her life. It is her faith that has set the moral compass that has guided her life and her career.

Governor Palin met with Billy Graham and his family at Reverend Graham’s mountaintop home in Montreat, North Carolina last Sunday evening. While she was there, she recorded a video segment in which she talked about her faith in Christ. Here is the first clip from that session:

According to the BGEA website, additional video clips will be posted on their website on November 30 and December 4. More details about their visit can be found here and here.

See also:

Sarah Palin Talks With BGEA About Faith
http://www.billygraham.org/News_Article.asp?ArticleID=730

Franklin & Billy Graham Meet with Sarah Palin
http://www.billygraham.org/News_Article.asp?ArticleID=727

Sarah Palin dines with Billy Graham
http://blogs.usatoday.com/onpolitics/2009/11/sarah-palin-dines-with-billy-graham.html

YouTube Video:
Sarah Palin Talks With BGEA About Faith
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUOhFPLpwnQ

YouTube Video:
Sarah Palin comes to Asheville NC to have Dinner with Billy Graham & Family http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADWQlRZlPag

For many years now, I’ve been a huge fan of Franklin Graham’s Operation Christmas Child project.   To see the look of ecstasy on the faces of the children in the promotional videos is to really know the joy that comes with giving even something small.

To critique the program would be unthinkable.   It would be like criticizing motherhood or apple pie or little kittens.   But I have some concerns about this that I haven’t seen heretofore in print or online.   So I thought I’d wade out deep into dangerous waters:

1. A lot of people fill their shoeboxes with trinkets from the dollar store.   When these items break — which they will — how will third world children deal with the disappointment that Western kids are accustomed to?   Especially if they don’t own much else.
2. Which begs the question, how are such items disposed of — sooner or later — in countries that don’t have an active recycling program?   What happens to all those boxes?   As barren and arid as some of those places are,  dotting the landscape with red and green boxes seems a bit irresponsible.   Maybe they can use the boxes for something.
3. What’s the mileage on some of the trinkets and toys?    Check out the country of origin, factor in the purchase point in the U.S. as an example, and then plot the destination point.   We’re talking major carbon footprints.   And not the Margaret Fishback Powers kind of footprints.
4. What about the inequities of what the kids receive?   One kid gets a cuddly Gund-type plush animal, while another gets socks.   I would be the kid getting the toothpaste and cheap sunglasses, while my friend would get some kind of awesome musical instrument toy.   Socks don’t make noise.  I would learn jealousy and covetousness all in a single day.
   
5. Which begs the question, is there ever theft?   World wars have started over lesser things.    Do kids in faraway places take the inequities into their own hands?    Do they revere the licensed pencil case more than the one with geometric shapes and colors?   Is there trading?   If so, who sets the rules?
   
6. Maybe not.   Maybe they share better than kids in the West do.   But somewhere along the line, it’s got to create a situation of personal private property.    I live on a street with ten houses where everybody owns a lawnmower.   We all could probably get by with one or two.   What I really need is access to a lawnmower.   But human nature being what it is, it rarely works that way unless you’re Shane Claiborne, or you live on an Operation Mobilization ship, or you’re one of the aging hippies living in the Jesus People project in inner-city Chicago.   (Apologies to Glenn Kaiser.)
   
7. What about expectations?   If my kids don’t get what they’re hoping for there is always a great disappointment, and trust me, this year they aren’t getting what they’re hoping for.   Reminds of me that old song, “Is That All There Is?”   Some people get downright depressed after Christmas.   BTW, anyone remember who the artist was on that song?
   
8. What’s the follow-up for the giver?   None.   Unlike sponsored children — which is another discussion entirely — the gift is really a shot in the dark, unless in next year’s video you happen to see a kid opening a box containing a rather unique action figure and a pair of furry dice which you know could only have come from your attic storage the year before.   (But furry dice?  What were you thinking?   The kid’s expression is going to be somewhat quizzical…)
   

Okay, so maybe the good outweighs any potential downside.   But it’s philosophy that I majored in, so somebody’s got to view things from outside the box — the shoebox in this case — once in awhile.    That’s why I call it thinking out loud.

BTW ~ Why is Trig Palin not wearing a jacket, socks, shoes or even a blanket on a cold winter day in North Carolina when everyone else is bundled up?

It is time once again to pack shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. Operation Christmas Child is a project of Franklin Graham’s organization Samaritan’s Purse that seeks to provide the neediest children with a simple gift. For many this may be the only gift they have ever received.

How You Can Get Involved:

1. Pack a shoe box.
2. Take box to your church or other drop off location.
3. Pray.
4. Find out about ways you can volunteer.
5. Give a donation of $7 to cover shipping and other expenses related to getting the shoe boxes to the children. You may either include a check with your box or donate on-line. A new feature with on-line donation is the ability to track your box(s). It gives you a tracking number to include with the box.

NC Pastor to Burn Bibles

The title says it all…or does it?

Holding a “sin-burning” (as some would call it) is nothing new.  However a Bible is the last thing you would expect to see thrown in the fire!  Nevertheless, as crazy as it sounds that is exactly what one North Carolina church is doing.

The church also plans to burn religious books by such eminent authors as Billy Graham, Rick Warren, John McArthur, James Dobson, Charles Swindoll, John Piper, Chuck Colson, Tony Evans, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swagart, Franklin Graham , Bill Bright, Tim Lahaye, T.D. Jakes, Benny Hinn, Joyce Myers, Robert Schuller, Mother Teresa , and The Pope!

Tapes and CDs which contain what the pastor considers ungodly music are also on the list.

Needless to say it has sparked a firestorm of controversy.  In fact the church’s website was down for some time, perhaps after being overwhelmed by visitors. But can it really be as bad as it sounds?  After all, they don’t plan to burn every kind of Bible… just everything that is not the King James. Versions like the NIV, ASV, NASB,  etc.

Don’t get me wrong, I don’t burn Bibles of any kind.  But I kind of feel bad for the poor old boy… He is trying to draw attention to the issue of Bible versions… a fact that the media glosses over with ease.

What if, next Sunday morning you attended a church where the preacher stood up and, reading from “the Bible” said, “You SON OF A BITCH?“  Well that’s exactly what he would say if he was reading from one of the first editions of the Living Bible.

In 1Samuel 20:30 the King James Version reads: “Thou son of the perverse rebellious woman…” But Kenneth Taylor’s Living Bible says, “…You son of a bitch…”

Being a Christian, I hate to even type that out but that’s exactly what it says.  The editors of that version have since changed the wording because of complaints, but I kid you not, that is exactly what the Living Bible says.

Knowing that, would you still fault him for burning a Living Bible?

I’m not trying to defend Mr. Grizzard’s publicity stunt (which is all this amounts to).  If I was the host of such an event I certainly wouldn’t give an interview to a reporter in my overalls like this Pastor did! I do wish he would have spell checked his flier at least before he sent it out, its littered with misspelled words.

Nevertheless, Christians should be alerted to the issue of Bible versions.

Take the NIV for instance, if you’re an avid reader, you must have noticed that it removes entire verses in some places.

Also in John 1:1 the King James Bible says, “…the Word was God.”  Those of you familiar with the Bible know that “the Word” is a reference to Jesus.

The deity of Christ (Jesus being God in the flesh) is one of the most basic Bible doctrines. But the New World Translation says,”…the Word was a God.”  Thus the NWT, a ‘translation’ put out by the Jehovah Witnesses, denies the deity of Christ.

There are many other examples I could list but time fails me.  I simply want to say that this man who has been slaughtered by the media, might have his heart in the right place even if his methods are questionable.

WWJD?

Again, I wouldn’t do it myself; but when we ask WWJD, let’s not forget we’re talking about the same Jesus who, when He saw the commercialism in the Temple, “…made a scourge of small cords…” and then “…drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables; And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father’s house an house of merchandise.” (John 2:15-16)

Leave your thoughts and comments.

We do not celebrate Halloween at our home.  The bible says to give the devil no place and he cannot have a place in our home!  That’s a fact.  On Halloween, I’ll be sitting somewhere confessing scriptures out of one of my  favorite books:   Prayers That  Rout Demons by Jon Eckhardt.  I already told you that I’m a radical.  I make no apologies for that.

Is it that serious?  OH YEAH!!!!

Okay, okay, I concede that after all that you read here you (liberal soul) still want to let your sweet little children celebrate the darkness…go ahead…but know this:  There is a harvest off of what you do …You create your harvest…the bible says so.  You reap what you sow.

You’ve had dealings with the devil; but you may not realize it.   Most people don’t.  But there’s a powerful group out here who knows that satan is real and they WILL NOT celebrate Halloween as a day of darkness!    I won’t either…nor will I pretend it’s harmless…that’s stupidity!

Would a Muslim celebrate a day whose purpose is to honor a pig?

Would a descendent of the slaves celebrate The Confederacy?

Would any decent citizen celebrate a serial killer?

Would anyone who realizes that something is dangerous celebrate it?

What if you don’t see or feel that there is danger?

Well, then I’d like you to read this:

Father, I ask you right now to give any person who does not perceive the danger of celebrating Halloween in it’s current tradition; enlightenment in the name of Jesus.  Please send worthy laborers to cross their path th give them wisdom and revelation knowledge and show them your Glory.  I Thank You.

If I’m being honest; Halloween is an ordinary day.  However, it is one of the main Holidays of Satanists and witches.   Most people think it’s harmless, but Satanists proclaim that they take it very seriously.  Halloween was founded on the fear that dead spirits could occupy people who are alive.  It is the eve before November 1, 2009 a day that celebrates the Lord of the Dead.  (Satan)

There is an argument that prevails by many who misunderstand.  Apparently, Christians in years past celebrated it to counter the celebration of the darkness.  Some  have used this information to argue that Halloween was a Christian holiday.  This is done to confuse people and cause contention.  Many Christians don’t want to lose the tradition; they like it; but it is not of God.    Many think that rejection of  celebrating Halloween  as a day of fear;  is carrying things a tad too far.

Children love Halloween because it’s a chance to get free candy,  have a little freedom as they chase from house to house to get the freebies and they get to dress up in wierd costumes.   They don’t know any better. It is an inherited tradition for most of mainstream Americans.  It has just been recent years that protests against Halloween have begun to arise  decibels  above a whisper.

Now, many Christian churches have created their own type of celebration  .

The Bible says :

1Thess 5: 21-22:  (“Test everything. Hold on to the good. Avoid every kind of evil.”)

Deuteronomy 18: 9-14: (do not learn to imitate detestable ways, including spiritists, sorcerers and witchcraft)

_______________________________________________________________________________

One of the most ridiculous things I’ve heard is about the Baptist church in  Canton, North Carolina that is going to be burning bibles that aren’t The King James version.    I’m not making it up; read this:

“We are burning Satan’s bibles like the NIV, RSV, NKJV, TLB, NASB, NEV, NRSV, ASV, NWT, Good News for Modern Man, The Evidence Bible, The Message Bible, The Green Bible, ect. These are perversions of God’s Word the King James Bible.

We will also be burning Satan’s music such as country , rap , rock , pop, heavy metal, western, soft and easy, southern gospel , contempory Christian , jazz, soul, oldies but goldies, etc.

We will also be burning Satan’s popular books written by heretics like Westcott & Hort , Bruce Metzger, Billy Graham , Rick Warren , Bill Hybels , John McArthur, James Dobson, Charles Swindoll , John Piper, Chuck Colson, Tony Evans, Oral Roberts, Jimmy Swagart, Mark Driskol, Franklin Graham , Bill Bright, Tim Lahaye, Paula White, T.D. Jakes, Benny Hinn , Joyce Myers, Brian McLaren, Robert Schuller, Mother Teresa , The Pope , Rob Bell, Erwin McManus, Donald Miller, Shane Claiborne, Brennan Manning, William Young, etc.”

Now, I operate in love, but I am SERIOUSLY asking you to pray for these misguided people.  (that’s my opinion)    It saddens me greatly to see Christians calling other Christians heretics!  The devil must love that.  I’m not Catholic, but I won’t be slammin on the Pope.  C’mon  now.  Pray for that church people.  Pray for them…

_______________________________________________________________________________

I’m gonna be totally honest here, and it’s not pretty.   Our family doesn’t do the child sponsorship thing.   I know that in Christian circles it’s spiritually incorrect to say that, but it’s true.   We’ve talked about it.   We can do the monthly payment.   We can do the praying.   But when it comes to committing to write the letters and getting emotionally involved, we feel somewhat spent.    And some days, I write dozens of letters, articles and blog posts.

Last year, we felt that all our charitable giving was too focused on North America, and concerns even closer to where we live.   So we cut back on Christmas presents — at least I’m told we cut back — and donated some money to a project my wife’s uncle is involved in, which is providing well restoration to parts of Africa.    It was, pardon the pun, a drop in the bucket in a much larger project.

Two weeks ago someone told me about a project that Samaritan’s Purse is promoting called “Turn On The Tap.”   You don’t adopt a cute kid who sends you letters and a fresh picture every year, but for $100 you finance a well that services a whole family, using the technology found in BioSand water filters.

The BioSand Water Filter is an award-winning Canadian water filtration technology developed by Dr. David Manz, a former University of Calgary professor. BioSand Water Filters are an adaptation of slow-sand filtration, designed for use at the household level. The filter removes water-borne bacteria, viruses, protozoa, and other organisms that cause diseases such as cholera, typhoid fever, and amoebic dysentery. The filter also strains out the particles and organic matter that cause cloudiness, unpleasant taste, color, and odor.

Filters can be built on location with local materials. The exterior is made of concrete, with gravel and sand layered inside. Rain, surface, or ground water is poured through the top and filtered as it passes through the layers of sand and gravel. The sand filters 1 litre of water per minute, enough to provide an entire family with sufficient water for their daily drinking, cooking, cleaning, and hygiene needs.

To service one family takes $100.   That’s it.   Not a monthly gift.   Not an obligation to write letters and send them your picture.  You just reach into your pocket and give, and a family has clear, clean water.

To learn more about the Canadian project, Canadian link here.  In the UK, Turn on The Tap is promoted through the Global Walk for Water;  UK link here.  In the U.S., Turn on the Tap didn’t get started until April of this year and operates differently; U.S. link here.

If you’ve always been cynical about child sponsorships, or, like us, you were just too stretched to get involved, here’s something you can do.   There are a variety of similar programs available for individuals or your entire church.   And you don’t have to wait for Christmas.

Gain a better perspective on this from someone who’s been there:

Anne Jackson makes the case far better than I can in an excellent blogpost at FlowerDust; click here to read it.

Next week is going to be awesome. There are 2 brand new Christian Leadership Conferences happening online and best of all they’re all FREE !!! Yep.  I mean FREE as in FREE.

The first conference is next Wednesday, September 9, 2009, aptly entitled “The Nines”  (d’you get it? ‘The Nines’ comes from the date- 9th day, 9th month, the year 2009).

It starts right here online at 10 a.m. Eastern and 9 a.m. Central.  Here’s how the organizers described this event :

“Leadership Network asked some of the church’s greatest communicators: “If you had nine minutes to talk one-on-one with thousands of church leaders, what is the one thing that you would tell them? The result is a series of passionate and personal messages that will help you and your church navigate into the future.

THE NINES is a free one-day event that will take place totally online. It is designed for all church staff members who want to be motivated and stretched in their leadership.”

I think there are between 50 and 100 speakers total.  Some of the more well-known names include:

Mark Driscoll (Mars Hill Church)
Reggie McNeal (Author and Missional Specialist)
Perry Noble (NewSpring Church)
John Ortberg (Menlo Park Presbyterian)
Steven Furtick (Elevation Church)
Nancy Beach (Willow Creek Church)
Leonard Sweet (Author/Speaker
Ed Stetzer (Lifeway Research)

Margaret Feinberg

Mark Batterson (National Community Church)

Anne Jackson

and a host of others

Even though the event is FREE you must pre-register for the event.  So I would suggest you go here and register now.

The last time I heard there were more than 6,000 people registered already and counting.

The other FREE Christian Leadership Conference happening online is a two-day event starting Thurdsay morning, September 10-11, 2009, the following day, right after the Wednesday that “The Nines” is taking place.

It’s called “The National Leadership Forum” a free webcast on September 10-11 featuring Jack Welch, TD Jakes, Patrick Lencioni, Erwin McManus, Craig Groeschel, Dave Ramsey, Tim Sanders, Henry Cloud and more.  A total of 12 gifted speakers.

The Leadership Forum does have limited space so you must go here and register immediately to secure your place.

So go ahead and mark your calendar for next Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  It should be an incredible three days.

//

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On Tuesday of this past week, the President had  a couple of conference calls. No big deal, surely it happens frequently. These might have been a bit different from the norm. Both  dealt with health care reform, still no shocker. But this next is what really caught my eye. The first one went to 1,000 (Jewish) rabbis from across the country. The second was to some 140,000 ministers of presumably all denominations. Before I pursue the real issue, I had to think, wonder whose names are included. Anybody i know personally or by reputation? How were these names chosen, etc.

My limited research indicated that there are about 450,000 churches and around  4,000 synagogues in the United States. If those figures are reasonably accurate, then the referenced conference calls  covered a rather high percentage of the clergy.

So. what was the gist of these calls? Support his health care reform, ignore the”false witness” that is being spread(good religious term there) “knock on doors”, “spread the truth” and so on. I read on CBN  about the groups sponsoring the conference call. They include Faith in Public Life, PICO National Network, Sojourners, and Catholics in Aliance for the Common Good. They all tend to be(sorry for the label) on the more liberal side of the religious spectrum. In fact, Beliefnet ’s Michele McGintycalled it a  conference call with lefty evangelicals. So, we can presume no Franklin Graham, Charles Stanley, Gary Bauer , Charles Colson etc.

Sure, he can call he wants, it is his phone call, along with his Domestic Policy Director Melody Barnes. This entire thing struck me , I think, in two ways. It seems like a campaign event. Knock on doors, etc. Seems that the health care reform has become sort of like a political campaign. Danger, every major issue or program cannot become  a call to arms for the faithful. Hit the bricks, spread the word, mobilize the vote. Secondly, no word of separation of church and state. Paging Barry Lynn. Perhaps I am missing something but there was lots of biblical phraseology in his calls and the listeners are religious leaders and he is the President. Just a thought. And finally, does the composition of his audience subtly hint that  lefty evangelicals care about health care and thus  more about people  than their counterparts on the other end of the spectrum?

Perhaps he was just “preaching” to the choir. Hah!

Ohjelma alkoi kello 18.20 musiikilla. Loistava jamaikalainen pianisti Huntley Brown säesti Festivaalia varten perustettua yli viidensadan hengen kuoroa. Suomen ylpeys Exit lauloi illan aikana yhteensä kolme laulua. Guinnesin ennätysten kirjaan itsensä maailman nopeimpana kitaristina soittanut (näin ainakin väitettiin) Dennis Agajanian ilahdutti meitä soittotaidoillaan. Eugene Gudukhin lauloi venäjäksi kaksi laulua; näin tarjottiin myös venäjänkieliselle väestölle jotain lavalta heidän äidinkielellään. Muuten puheita sai kuunnella venäjäksi korvakuulokkeiden kautta.

“Varsinainen ohjelma” alkoi kaikkina iltoina kello 19, kun Festivaalin kuoro lauloi laulun “Kristus on kuningas”. Aivan mahtava esitys!

Erityisen ylpeä olen “omasta” kuorostani Viron ev.lut. kirkon lähetyskeskuksen Lähetyskuorosta, jotka lauloivat kaksi ihanaa laulua. Kiitos teille!

Viron parhaan juoksijan Tiidrek Nurmen todistuspuheenvuoro oli erityisen koskettava. Ensimmäistä kertaa Virossa kuulin julkisuuden henkilön kertovan niin selvällä ja koskettavalla tavalla siitä, miten hän löysi tien Jumalan luokse. Tässä Tiidrek näytti esimerkkiä muillekin!

Michael W. Smith oli aivan huippuluokkaa. Sääli, että kaikkina kolmena iltana jouduin/sain istua lavalla, ja siellä äänentoisto ei ollut huippuluokkaa. Mutta oli kiva nähdä ihan vierestä “Mikko Sepän” “esiintymistä” (voiko Jumalan ylistystä ja laulamista Jumalan kunniaksi sanoa esiintymiseksi?).

Franklin Graham saarnasi Nikodeemuksesta (Joh 3). Saarnan ydin oli, että kaikkien pitää syntyä uudesti. Graham sanoi, että Nikodeemus kuului fariseusten joukkoon, eli ryhmään, jotka halusivat palvella Jumalaa. Nikodeemus olisi ollut varmasti sitä mieltä, että suurten syntisten pitää tehdä parannus ja syntyä uudelleen Jumalan valtakuntaan. Nyt Jeesus sanoi tälle ihmisten silmissä uskonnolliselle ja hurskaalle: SINUN pitää syntyä uudestaan ylhäältä!

Ilta loppui siihen, että Graham kutsui niitä ihmisiä eteen jotka halusivat seurata Jeesusta. Kuoro lauloi: “Tulen sellaisena kuin olen…”

Ja ihmisiä tuli taas satoja! Erityisesti nuoria! Puheet siitä, että Jeesuksen seuraaminen ei kiinnosta, joutavat roskakoriin. Puheet siitä, että virolaiset ovat varovaisia ilmaisemaan mielipiteitä uskonasioista, ei näkemäni perusteella pidä paikaansa! Meidän tehtävämme ei ole annettu analysoida ihmisten valmiutta vaan kertoa heille Kristuksesta ja esittää kutsu. Ainakin Festivaalin aikana ihmiset olivat vastaanottavaisempia kuin luulimme.

Entä jos me selitämme omaa laiskuuttamme ja passiivisuuttamme tukeutuen siihen valheeseen, että Jumalan meille antama sanoma ei muka kiinnosta ihmisiä.

Entäpä jos ihmiset ovatkin paljon avoimempia uskolle kuin me uskovat olemme avoimia näkemään ihmisten hengellisiä tarpeita – ja vastaamaan niihin.

Tämä toisi asennemuutoksen elämäämme. Ja kristityille suuren ilon jakaa hyvää uutista eteenpäin, sillä se on sanoma joka tuo rikkaan elämän kaikille, jotka ottavat sen vastaan. Uskoa ei enää pihdattaisi vaan sen annettaisiin ilahduttaa kaikkia ihmisiä. Ilosanomasta tulisi Ilosanoma!

Ilta alkoi taas musiikkipitoisella ohjelmalla (mm. Crux, Tallinnan Gospelkoor, Toivon Festivaalin kuoro). Franklin Graham saarnasi Tuhjaajapojasta (Luuk. 15).  Tämän illan ja eilisen saarnat olivat tehty samaan muottiin. Ihmettelin, että Graham käytti muutamaan otteeseen jopa samoja lauseita kuin edellisenä iltana.

Saarnan tulos oli sama kuin eilen: sadat ihmiset tulivat eteen, kun kutsutiin antamaan oma elämä Jumalalle. Upeaa.

*

Tästä kaikesta tuli mieleeni kahden papin välinen keskustelu. Oli pappi, jonka saarnojen kautta ihmisiä tuli jatkuvasti uskoon. Toisen papin kautta tällaista ei tapahtunut. Siksi hän lähti vierailulle tuon menestyksekkään saarnaajan luokse.

- “Kun minä saarnaan, ihmisiä ei  tule uskoon. Kun sinä saarnaat, heitä tulee uskoon. Mikä minun saarnoissani on vialla?”

Menestyksekäs pappi kysyi kolleegaltaan: “Et kai sinä ajattele, että kun SINÄ saarnaat, ihmisiä tulisi uskoon. Voisiko SINUN saarnojen kautta, joku pelastua. Et kai sinä sitä ihmettä odota”. Pappi vastasi kysymykseen punastellen. Hän sopersi vaitonaisesti: “No en kai minä sitä OMISTA saarnoistani odota.” Menestynyt pappi vastasi: “Ehkä siinä onkin sinun ongelmasi.”

Grahamista näki, että hän odotti tuloksia. Aiemmin hän sanoi, että ihmisiä ei tule uskoon siksi,  että hänessä on jotain  erikoista vaan koska hän julistaa “Jumalan evankeliumia Jeesuksesta Kristuksesta.”  Evankeliumi saa aikaan tuloksia. Ja evankeliumiahan meidät on kutsuttu julistamaan. Jos tuloksia ei tule, kannattaa ensin pohtia julistanko todella evankeliumia. Sitten vasta pohtia muita syitä.

*
Mutta kyllä oli hienoa taas katsoa kuinka sadat ihmiset tulivat alttarille kun heitä kutsuttiin uskomaan Jeesukseen. Eipä uskoisi, sillä virolaisia on tavallisesti pidetty uskoon kielteisesti suhautuvina, maailman maallistuneimman maan ihmisinä, jotka eivät juurikaan näytä uskontoon liittyviä (ainakaan positiivisia) tunteita. Mutta kaikkien ihmisen sydän janoaa ennen kaikkea Jumalan tuntemista. Jospa tämä kaikki olisi hengellisen herätyksen alkua Virossa.

Tällaisia tapahtumia kannattaa järjestää!

Writer Maya Angelou famously said : “If someone tells you who he is, believe him.”

This  common sense observation is  usually ignored in the arenas of  love and politics. It applies to no one more  than political chameleon and all-around love god, Barack Obama.

We should believe Barack Obama because he has resoundingly  informed us  of what he is: bully, cheater, liar, misogynist, homophobe, manipulator, deceiver, opportunist, cynic, torturer, war-monger, corporatist, globalist.

He also has shouted  through a bullhorn what he is not: progressive, inclusive, liberal, committed, decent, principled, honest, christian, muslim, socialist, feminist, LGBT friendly, environmental activist.

Obama and the democratic party want to break up the social issues constituencies of the fragmented 1960s and settle them into a homogenized, vaguely moderate, hopey-dopey sing-a-long chorus concerned with main stream economic issues and suburban consumerism.  Ain’t gonna happen.

No on Prop 8 protest

Since the California Supreme Court upheld the marriage rights busting constitutional amendment, Proposition 8, Obama’s Obamachatter propaganda site, The Huffington Post, has rushed to defend Dear Leader from his critics, repeating the false meme that Obama and Co. are interested in championing their constituents’ rights or fulfilling their campaign promises.

Lincoln Mitchell has hurried to place the blame for Proposition 8 squarely where it doesn’t belong, on 6 of 7 of the court’s Republican gubernatorial appointees. On its face this apologia is absurd as the same court, by a simple majority, recently overturned the marriage equality restrictions of Proposition 22.  The difference in the two outcomes probably has more to do with the religious right’s vocal threat to oust the jurists if they overturned the proposition, than any ideological stand on the issue.

This week, California showed us the judicial past where courts dominated by conservatives, unrepresentative of the people for whom they are determining laws, restrict constitutional rights. Judge Sotomayor and President Obama showed us the future. The Republicans must be aware of this too, but their desperation to try to stop this progress is already showing.

Oy!

BH fundraiser

However, in the same issue, an article by Jason Linkins, revealed in New York Times coverage, the real Obama, at a Beverly Hills fundraiser, last night:

a gaggle of sign-waving protesters milled around outside The Beverly Hilton, the sprawling hotel on Wilshire Boulevard. They must have caught the president’s eye when he arrived at the hotel from an earlier stop in Las Vegas because he relayed one of their messages to the crowd.

The Obareporter seemed here to titter along with Dear Leader,

“One of them said, “Obama keep your promise,’ ” the president said. “I thought that’s fair. I don’t know which promise he was talking about.“

Hehehe.  Yeah, all politicians are cynical and two-faced but the calculation and public nature of Obama’s falsehoods must be unprecedented in modern politics.

The people in the audience (“gay friendly” fauxgressives?) – who paid $30,400 per couple to attend – laughed as they ate a dinner of roasted tenderloin, grilled organic chicken and sun choke rosemary mashed potatoes.

It’s easy to forget that as recently as June 28, 2008, while campaigning for candidate Obama, his wife Michelle said this in front of a large group of enthusiastic and well off gays:

….she used the phrase, “from Selma to Stonewall,” to connect the gay and civil rights movements.

Oy! Oy! OY!

continuing with the article:

….and his call as a U.S. Senator for a complete repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits federal recognition of same-sex marriages and relieves states of any obligation to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states.

If elected, Obama said that her husband would reverse laws such as DOMA, end the prohibition against gays and lesbians serving openly in the military, advance stalled legislation to protect the LGBT community against hate crimes and workplace discrimination, and work to achieve equal rights for gay and lesbian families.

“Barack has made crystal clear his commitment to ensuring full equality for LGBT couples,” she said. “That’s why he supports robust civil unions. That is why he has said that the federal government should not stand in the way of the states that want to decide for themselves how best to pursue equality for gay and lesbian couples, whether that means domestic partnerships, civil unions or civil marriage.” She noted his opposition to the November ballot initiative in California that would overturn the recent court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage in the state.

No applause now.  No need here to go into the depravity of Obama’s painfully “nuanced” sell-out  positions on choice, (abortion), women’s rights, LGBT rights, but evidently, the desire to be in Obie’s inner circle obviates all rational assessment of of his no position positions and cynical duplicity.

One must be vigilent 24/7 to keep up with the Obie cynicism machine.

It’s no secret that Obama made deals with the right wing Christian oligarchy to get elected.  It’s also no secret that he courted the same groups and placed them in positions of power and influence, appointing, James Dobson (Focus on the Family) follower Joshua DuBois to head a revitalized Bush era religious council with his new Council for Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.  He also hired John DiIulio, as second in command, and a top professional in Bush’s religious outreach.  But this ugly scheme was way worse than it seemed although the Obie religious spokesmen were gushing

“In President Obama, you have somebody who is not only religiously knowledgeable, thoughtful, open and sensitive himself,” said Rabbi David Saperstein, head of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism and a critic of the Bush faith-based office. “You also have somebody who understands constitutional law….”

OK.  He knows about constitutional law, he just doesn’t care about it.

Obama and Warren

The really interesting insight into Obama’s unprincipled nature comes from Max Blumenthal (the same Blumenthal who outed Rick Warren’s Africa HIV/AIDS scam in The Daily Beast) writing July 8, 2008, this time for The Nation:

Obama has made a major effort to woo evangelicals, but at what cost to church-state separation?

On June 10, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. Barack Obama convened a meeting in a law office in downtown Chicago with a wide array of about thirty evangelical leaders, in an unprecedented effort to win their support. Obama insisted that the meeting remain entirely off the record, forbidding participants from disclosing his statements to the press. His campaign has kept the names of attendees a closely guarded secret. But through interviews with participants and overlooked statements in obscure publications of the Christian press, a first-hand picture of the meeting emerges, starkly at odds with the news reports that accepted the formal version at face value.

Where was the MSM on this coverage?  From the article:

Franklin Graham, son of the evangelical icon Billy Graham and head of the international Christian aid organization Samaritan’s Purse, was seated next to Obama at the meeting. He peppered Obama with pointed questions, repeatedly demanding to know if the senator believed that “Jesus was the way to God or merely a way.” Graham, who once incited an international controversy by calling Islam a “very evil and wicked religion,” proceeded to inquire about the Muslim faith of Obama’s father, suggesting that Obama himself may be a Muslim.

“They focused on abortion, gay marriage, and then Franklin Graham tried to get Senator Obama saved,” said Rev. Eugene Rivers, an African-American pastor from Boston who attended the meeting. Rivers told the Religion News Service that Graham pointedly questioned Obama’s “father’s connections to Islam.” Obama reportedly said of his father, “The least of things he was was Islamic.

“Stephen Strang, a right-wing Pentecostal, was among those invited to Obama’s meeting. He is the multimillionaire publisher of Charisma, an evangelical magazine, and a signatory of the World Evangelical Alliance statement urging evangelization of Jews. In naming him one of the twenty-five “most influential evangelicals in America,” Time called Strang “a Bush favorite ever since his homegrown Christian publishing house, Strang Communications, released The Faith of George W. Bush, the first spiritual biography of the President, in 2003.” “We didn’t write it to help Bush, but it no doubt helped elect him,” declares Strang. He is also a close associate of controversial End Times theology proponent Pastor John Hagee….

T.D. Jakes Church

Obama also moved to convince T.D. Jakes to get the African-American fauxchristians on board.  From the article:

Besides Strang, Graham and Rivers, attendees at the meeting included conservative Christianity Today editor David Neff, Evangelical Lutheran Church President Mark Hanson, conservative legal scholar and Reagan Justice Department official Doug Kmiec — who has been denied communion for his support for Obama — and T.D. Jakes, the Dallas-based African-American Pentecostal mega-church pastor who has supplanted the black church’s traditional social justice teachings with “prosperity gospel” theology, preaching faith as the way to the promised land of wealth and status.

Billy and Franklin Graham

Another influential African-American prosperity gospel pastor, Kirbyjon Caldwell, attended the June 10 meeting with Obama…. Caldwell, a former bond dealer who founded the country’s largest Methodist congregation, the Houston-based Windsor Village, has been among George W. Bush’s most vocal and visible black backers. He introduced Bush at the 2000 Republican National Convention, delivered the benedictions at his 2001 and 2005 inaugural ceremonies and presided over the wedding ceremony of Jenna Bush. Bush has rewarded Caldwell’s good works by lavishing his missions with federal faith-based grants….

But almost as soon as Obama declared his campaign for the presidency, Caldwell broke from the GOP, delivering a roaring endorsement for the Democrat from Illinois, hailing him for his “character, confidence and courage.” …Just days after Obama delivered a speech criticizing homophobia in the black church, some gay bloggers revealed that Caldwell’s own Windsor Village church hosted a ministry that, according to its website, was “created to provide Christ centered instruction for those seeking freedom from homosexuality.”

Caldwell’s congregation scrubbed all mention of it from its website.

Mara Vanderslice has been called the “faith guru” by The Hill in Washington, DC. Her consulting firm, Common Good Strategies, recently formed a political action committee, the Matthew 25 Network, to advocate on Obama’s behalf. In the past, Vanderslice has advised her clients not only to downplay their support for abortion rights and gay rights but also never to use the phrase “separation of church and state.” Hired by Sen. John Kerry’s presidential campaign in 2004, she ultimately found herself sidelined.

J. Dobson Focus on the Family

James Dobson stepped up to say that Obama was dragging Biblical teaching through the mud. He didn’t like McCain, either.  Here’s a snippet.

Even Charles Colson, and Watergate burglar in chief, G. Gordon Liddy have gotten in on the gay hate act with their Prison Ministries.  Murphy at Pumapac.org. outed him on his issues.

Meanwhile, candidate McCain got busy flogging the chiristian imperium for votes.

Washington Post/ABC News poll taken in June is any indication, McCain has cause for confidence; he trounced Obama among white evangelical voters by a margin of 68 to 22 percent. But there remains a question of turnout for McCain .

Of course, we know now that the Christian turnout for McCain was unusually tepid and Obama was able to make great and continuing inroads into the religious community.  The question is, how far can he go in that direction before he’s of no further use to the other constituencies that elected him?

“McCain won’t have any trouble convincing evangelicals he’s on their side,” Warren Smith, the editor of Evangelical Press News Service, says. “The only reason they’re holding back their support is to see how much they can get out of him.”

We know how it turned out.  Obama must have been a better sugar daddy.

Tänä torstai-iltana ohjelmassa oli työntekijöille ja kristityille tarkoitettu rukousilta. Festivaali kuoro lauloi upeasti, jamaikalainen pianisti Huntley Brown hurmasi yleisön aivan käsittämättömän hienolla soitollaan, valkovenäjän kansallisoopperan solisti Ekaterina Kroshchuk, Kenno Leier ja Con Forte pistivät omaa parasta osaamistaan ohjelmaan. Helluntaikirkon piispa Ago Lilleorg saarnasi siitä muun muassa siitä, miten meidän tulee pitää toisia parempana kuin itseämme. Minun osakseni jäi rukous niiden ihmisten puolesta, jotka olivat tulleet lavan eteen antaakseen oman elämänsä Jumalalle. Upea ilta oli!

Puoleltapäivin olin lehdistökonferensissa, josta muodostui myös evankelioimistilaisuus,  sillä Franklin kertoi lehdistölle itse asiassa samat asiat, joita hän saarnoissaan kertoo: vain Jumalan puoleen kääntyminen Jeesuksen kautta voi ratkaista ihmiskunnan talous- yms ongelmat. Ja Jeesuksen kautta löydämme ainutlaatuisen yhteyden Jumalaan.

Jaoin ajatuksiani muutaman suomalaisen median ja amerikkalaisen kristillisen lehden kanssa. Ehkä jotkut ajatukset löytävät kohta puoliin päivänvalon jossain.

Tämä oli vasta ensimmäinen “lämmittelyilta”, rukousilta, “pyhittymisen” ilta uskoville. Vaikka festivaali ei ole vielä alkanut, kotiin tullessa oli jo surullinen mieli, että kohta tämä on ohi. Onneksi niillä, jotka löytävät tämän Festivaalin kautta ikuisen elämän, elämä jatkuu ikuisesti!

IN JESUS’ NAME

John Chuckman

My subject is Franklin Graham, one of President Bush’s very-public religious confidants. Franklin’s father, Billy, served President Nixon in a similar capacity. Billy’s efforts were crowned with a kind of earthly immortality: he’s on those White House tapes in the National Archives sharing anti-Semitic remarks with Nixon and never flinching or clearing his throat over the idea of using atomic bombs in Vietnam.

Franklin has pretty well replaced his ailing father in leading the huge Billy Graham organization. You may wonder about religious ministries being handed down like fifteenth-century dukedoms, but the practice is fairly common in America, and several of the nation’s big ministries – the type of outfits that might be characterized as Las Vegas Showstoppers for Jesus – have been handed down in this fashion. This happens in American politics, too. After all, a hand-me-down evangelist serves a hand-me-down President who ran against (and lost the popular vote to) a hand-me-down politician from Tennessee.

It’s not that Americans accept aristocracy, but in a nation of insanely-frenzied consumers, an established brand name always still has some juice worth squeezing.

The youthful Franklin seems to have been a bit of a trial for his mom and dad, reportedly exhibiting more interest in sowing oats than saving souls. He had an obsession with guns one could interpret as slightly at odds with the message of the Prince of Peace. He may just have been reflecting the quaint traditions of America’s Appalachian subculture – his home is the mountains of North Carolina – when he once cut down a tree by blasting away at it with an automatic weapon (I did not make this up). Apparently, he used to be fond of giving automatic pistols as gifts.

Well, at some point, I guess the lad realized he was burning out and going nowhere, and automatic weapons are expensive when you like to give the very best, so Franklin had something like the President’s road-to-Damascus experience. I doubt he recalled Henry the Fourth’s saying Paris was worth a mass (Henry of Navarre became King of France by adopting Catholicism). It would have weighed heavily that dad’s ready-made, super-slick organization offered a handsome, steady income, all expenses paid, especially if Franklin had come to recognize that his next-best career option might be itinerant bingo caller.

Redemption is one of America’s great ongoing themes. It’s the spiritual extension of all the plastic surgery, injections, drugs, youth-inducing potions, diets, and tales of lives changed by lotteries or get-rich-quick schemes, but it does have to be the right kind of redemption. None of your consolations of philosophy, peace of the Buddha, wisdom of the Great Spirit, or following the Prophet will do. Lives lived decently and peacefully from beginning to end are not admired because they don’t make juicy entertainment.

The approved American redemption-story template includes years of inflicting hell on others, often by abusing whisky or drugs, finally being overcome by frightful (drug-induced or otherwise) visions of going to hell yourself, and then spending the rest of your life annoying every person who crosses your path with the opinion that he or she does not know the truth. About 85% of the nation’s country-and Western singers and about 95% of its evangelists spend their declining years sharing such tales in magazines, tapes, interviews, and sermons. It’s a major industry.

This is all by way of background to Franklin’s words about his new mission. I suppose it’s possible Franklin thinks Nazareth is a trailer park somewhere in North Carolina or Texas which would account for his thinking that the people in the Middle East haven’t heard about Jesus, but, in any event, Franklin is now going to tell them about Jesus, at least his gun-totting Appalachian version. Well, almost, but Franklin has probably been advised that proselytizing for conversion from Judaism is against the law in modern Israel. With a Bush-appointed Proconsul, that kind of law shouldn’t get in the way of bringing the good word to Iraqis, although he’ll be a bit late to save the souls of those smashed and broken by American bombs.

Franklin’s organization, Samaritan’s Purse, claims that it intends only to bring relief services and not evangelism to Iraq, but how valid can this claim be? The Billy Graham organization for decades has worked only to convert people to its narrow notion of Christianity. It has been criticized even by other Christians for the nature of its work – cranking out converts like sausages in a vast Midwestern meat-packing plant. Perhaps when Franklin created his offshoot relief organization, Samaritan’s Purse, it was in part a response to this kind of criticism.

Franklin’s own words on Islam over the last year hardly resemble a second Albert Schweitzer yearning to help fellow beings. His tone is militaristic and has the same nasty, parochial feel as the President’s “us and them.” One looks in vain for any generosity of spirit associated with the words of Jesus.

“We’re not attacking Islam but Islam has attacked us. The God of Islam is not the same God. He’s not the son of God of the Christian or Judeo-Christian faith. It’s a different God, and I believe it is a very evil and wicked religion.”

Franklin here makes no distinction between the nineteen individuals responsible for 9/11 and the world’s hundreds of millions of Muslims, yet he seems never to have made the same kind of connections between criminals of other religious backgrounds and the religions themselves. Did the IRA’s outrages elicit such comments about Catholicism?

“…the persecution or elimination of non-Muslims has been a cornerstone of Islam conquests and rule for centuries.”

I suppose it would be foolish to expect any sensible perspective on history from a man of Franklin’s limited learning. The work of people calling themselves Christians in countless wars, religious persecutions, and exterminations just since the Renaissance dwarfs the volume of spilled blood in all the rest of human history. The Holocaust, the African slave trade, and the extermination of many aboriginal peoples were the work of people calling themselves Christians.

“I believe it is my responsibility to speak out against the terrible deeds that are committed as a result of Islamic teaching.”

Why should it be his responsibility to speak against these particular deeds and no others? Franklin certainly is not known as an advocate for the world’s abused and downtrodden. One does not find him shouldering this responsibility over other terrible deeds, a number of them the dirty work of his own government. No, his time goes to “crusades,” the word used for decades by the Billy Graham organization to describe its assembly-line salvation gatherings.

The denomination with which the Graham family generally has been associated, the Southern Baptists, has an ugly history in the United States. Extreme segregationists founded this denomination to keep blacks out of their churches and a century later, through the Civil Rights revolution of the 1950s and 1960s, Southern Baptists were better known for opposing Dr. King’s work than supporting it. The denomination’s official view on a woman’s role in marriage is among the most parochial in the United States. Incidentally, the Southern Baptists’ Mission Board also aims at providing aid in Iraq. Jerry Vines, former president of the Southern Baptists, described the Prophet Muhammad not very long ago as a “demon-possessed pedophile.”

“There is no escaping the unfortunate fact that Muslim government employees in law enforcement, the military and the diplomatic corps need to be watched for connections to terrorism.”

These are the words of a man teaching suspicion and fear rather than understanding and brotherhood. One has to ask what such comments have to do with evangelism or Christianity, but American fundamentalists often ignore Jesus’ clear teaching on the matter and put their visions of government and secular affairs at the heart of sermons and pronouncements. This suggests that politics, and a particularly nasty kind of politics, is at least as much a driving force here as religion.

Franklin recently gave a Good Friday service at the Pentagon. Reading that, I had the absurd image of an early Christian preacher praying for Rome’s Tenth Legion. True, there were probably no Christian legionaries at the time, but the fact remains that the purpose of the Pentagon is exactly the same as that of the legions, professional killing for the state and its policies, a purpose totally incompatible with any words of Jesus.

But of course, the more apt comparison would be a few centuries later when the legions did their bloody work for a so-called Christian empire.

One of the biggest complaints I often hear from leaders and people who want to be more successful is, “I need to improve my time-management skills, I spend way too much time on things that waste my time.”  Or “I need to be more productive, I’m really not being productive enough with my time.”

But what I’ve come to discover is that time-management is never the real problem; it’s only a symptom (a consequence) of a larger root problem. The larger root problem of poor time-management is lack or a clear and compelling vision.  You see, without a strong vision, poor time-management is inevitable. It is INEVITABLE.

Nothing will motivate you to manage your time more effectively than a strong vision.  Nothing.  And by ‘a strong vision’ I mean a captivating, almost tangible belief in the promise of a future reward, or a crystal clear picture of where you want to be, at a specific time, in the future.  In fact, I would go so far as to say the strength of your vision will determine the effectiveness of your time-management.  After-all, what is successful time-management, but making the most of your present. Nothing will motivate you to make the most of your present more, than a powerful vision.

Do you struggle with with watching too much TV? Do you struggle with bad eating habits? Do you struggle with procrastination?  These are the inevitable results of a person who doesn’t have a compelling dream for their life.  They may claim to have a dream or a vision for their life, but the truth is -as is evident by their daily actions- that that dream or vision they claim to have , is not strong enough; they can’t feel it, see it, and taste it – their blood is not stirred, their senses are not engaged, and their hearts aren’t set on fire by their dream.

Making sense of effective time-management to me, really comes down to what the purpose of your time is, in the first place?  What is it given to you for? Either time is the space you are given to work toward your goals, to make them a reality,  or time is meaningless – void of any real purpose.  When time is meaningless, and void of any real purpose, then it starts to become a source of discomfort and displeasure – even frustration- because I’m stuck in a moment and I don’t know what to do with it. When that happens our only solution is to find something to pass the time, something to distract us.  To find some source of entertainment or activity that would distract me from the inescapable moment I find myself trapped in, and somehow make me forget the dilemma I’m in (even if it’s only for a little while).   So when my time is void of any real purpose – that’s when I reach for a an activity, a job, a person, a magazine, a TV show, a movie, a youtube video, a restaurant etc. to keep me busy – so that I don’t have to confront the real void in my life – the void of not having a dream I’m striving toward, the void of not  having a compelling dream or an inspiring vision to give every moment for.

So when you don’t have a vision that makes your heart jump out of your chest, you will have no reason to manage your time, but rather you’ll waste your time or you’ll become a prostitute with your schedule, letting everybody sleep with your time.  Because when there is no future goal, there is no need for any kind of management or stewarding of your present.   But, on the other hand, if you do get a great vision for your life, a dream that makes you want to leap off the couch – then successful time-management will be a natural result. And your time will not be something to escape, but something to make the most of while it lasts, because you have an incredible goal that you’re working toward, and you only have a moments to accomplish it.  That way your time – your present- is infused with meaning, and brims with purpose and promise.  And your present begins to serve your future.  When Stephen King was a young husband and father in 1984 he had a compelling dream to be a writer- but there was only one problem: he was a high school teacher struggling to make ends meet, and living in a one-bedroom trailer. But his vision was so strong, so compelling, so real, that every evening he would go into this cramped, little furnace closet  they had in the trailer, and he would there sit for hours with a type-writer on his lap, in the blistering heat,writing novel after novel-because there was one dream that had captured his imagination: being a successful novelist.  Today more than 25 years later, Stephen King has sold more than 250 million copies of his books worldwide. King’s powerful vision made him manage his time effectively.  What’s the vision you need to revisit?  What’s that spark that you need to be reminded of that just makes you come alive?  Because that’s the source of your successful time-management.  Because ultimately nothing else will determine where you end up in life, than how you manage your time.  Remember, John Maxwell was right when he said, “the secret of your success is determined by your daily agenda.”

So what is your dream?  Does it make you do this?

— BREAK THE VISION DOWN —

Unleashing The Power of Personal Vision In Your Life One Step At A Time 

“All men dream: but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes to make it possible.”  — T.E. Lawrence

“Dream lofty dreams, and as you dream, so shall you become.  Your Vision is the promise of what you shall one day be.”

— James Allen

If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s this: nothing will scare you more in life than the potential of your own life.  Nothing will overwhelm you more than the experience of peeking behind the incessant pursuit and activity of daily life, and casting your eyes forward and beholding, with breath-taking clarity, the possible future that lies before you.  To see with fresh eyes the expanse on which you could write the measure of your life.  That moment when the voice of God comes to you and says, “you are this, but that is what you can be.” There are few things in life that will scare you more than the experience of coming face to face with all that you can be in life.

This is exactly what happened to the famous Biblical character, Moses, one day.  Moses had a life-changing encounter with God, when one day God invited him to glimpse the future that he could have, based on the potential inside of him.  The Bible tells us:

“Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of God.  There the angel of the LORD appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up. So Moses thought, “I will go over and see this strange sight—why the bush does not burn up.”

When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called to him from within the bush, “Moses! Moses!” 
And Moses said, “Here I am.”" Exodus 3: 1-4 (NIV)

In this story we find Moses, an 80-year old man- married, with children, a job – settled.  And one day Moses is leisurely strolling along, as his sheep graze on the side of the mountain.  Then out of the blue, God shows up and confronts him with what his future could be.  The Bible continues:

“[Then] the LORD said [to Moses], “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.  So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land . . .  So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring my people the Israelites out of Egypt.” Exodus 3: 7,8,10 (NIV)

In one moment God reveals to Moses all that he can be in this life, before he takes his final breath.  God tells him that he can be the deliverer of the children of Israel.  It’s like God was saying, “Moses, you’ve been a shepherd now for the past few years – but that’s not all you can be, it’s not all I want you to be- it’s not all I created you to be.”  In an instant Moses gets to peek behind the veil of the incessant pursuit and daily activity of life, and stretch his eyes forward and behold, with breath-taking clarity, the possible future that lays before him.  The expanse on which he could write the measure of his life.

And this is where it all goes downhill- fast. This is where we are gripped with fear, anxiety, feelings of inadequacy and insecurity.  ’Why does this happen’ you ask? Because nothing will scare you more in life than the potential of your own life.  It is in this moment that we experience what Helmut Khun referred to as “the true arrest [of life],” and we experience, “[a] total paralysis.”

Just like we each feel in that moment, we see this same angst in Moses’ response to God:

“But Moses said to God, “Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?”" Exodus 3:11

“God are you sure I am the one you want for this?”

“Moses answered, “What if they do not believe me or listen to me and say, ‘The LORD did not appear to you’?”" Ex. 4:1

“God what if I fail, and none of it works out?”

 “Moses said to the LORD, “O Lord, I have never been eloquent, neither in the past nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow of speech and tongue.”" Ex. 4:10

“God I don’t have what it takes.  I’m not gifted enough for this”

“But Moses said, “O Lord, please send someone else to do it.”" Ex 4:13

“God, . . . . please not me God, I’ll do anything else you ask, but please send someone else to do this.”

(By the way, I’ve always found it incredible that right at this moment – when Moses is giving God all these excuses – that the Bible says, “Then the LORD’s anger burned against Moses . . .” Ex. 4:14 (NIV)  Why, right at this moment would God get angry with Moses?  Because what God wants to do through you, is not about you – it’s about those many precious people that God wants to save.)

But the mistake we make here – in this moment when God gives us a glimpse of what He has called us to – is that we fixate on the size of the (entire) vision before us.  We are standing looking at the vast expanse – the total vision – and are overwhelmed by the size dream, and our obvious smallness.  That is why the key to being all that God wants you to be -to lay hold of the incredible future that can be yours- is to break the vision down.  You must break the big vision down into smaller goals. So that as you achieve your goals bit by bit, it will bring you closer to your overall vision.  

So how do you break down your vision? There are 5 steps that have helped me  to unleash the power of personal vision in my life one step at a time.  And I’m sure they will do the same for you:

1. Forget The Vision.  First you must forget the vision -not completely, but keep the big picture- the end goal – in the back of your mind, but out of sight.  Now many reading this will say “that’s wrong – you’ve got to always keep the entire vision, the big picture, before you.”  Well that way everyday you will be confronted and overcome with feelings of fear, anxiety, feelings of inadequacy and insecurity.  The key is to break your big vision into smaller goals that don’t overwhelm you with feelings of being adequate for your vision.

2.  Small Goals, Small Steps.  Small goals make you feel up to the task.  And most of all, it inspires confidence and longevity.  It will help you to keep going, and to stay the course.  So instead of thinking “Oh man, I have to deliver more than a million Israelites from Pharaoh himself, and lead them into the Promised Land.” Take it one step at a time.  Small steps like: 1. Go tell my family that I’m going to have to leave to go back to Egypt (for a while).  2. Work on speech I have to give Pharaoh.  3.  Pack and prepare to make the journey to Egypt.  4. Work on speech I have to make to the Israelites in Egypt.  All these baby steps will bring you closer to your  overall vision systematically.

3. No Great Things, Only Small Things Everyday.  You have to do small things everyday.  The key word here is ‘consistency.’  You must be consistent. It means doing a little bit everyday. Every. Day. Small things everyday.  You must ask yourself at the start of each day, “what small thing, am I going to today that will bring me closer to my larger vision?”

4.  You Will Make Mistakes. On your path toward the vision that God has called you, you will make mistakes.  That is the one part of this journey that you can count on.  Things won’t always go as you thought or planned or hoped.  Sometimes you’ll misjudge things, you’ll make missteps, you’ll wish you could go back and do things differently after miscalculating things.  Sometime you will be plagued with feelings of self-doubt in your own ability, long after you thought you laid that demon to rest, other times you may even feel discouraged, plagued with the fear that your efforts won’t pay off.  Moses struggled with these things all the way through his journey.  When Moses went to Pharaoh the first time, it never went as he had expected.  The Bible tells us:

“Afterward Moses and Aaron went to Pharaoh and said, “This is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: ‘Let my people go,” Pharaoh said, “Who is the LORD, that I should obey him and let Israel go? I do not know the LORD and I will not let Israel go.”  That same day Pharaoh gave this order to the slave drivers and foremen in charge of the people: “Make the work harder for the men.”  [When the Israelites heard this] they said [to Moses], “May the LORD look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”  Moses returned to the LORD and said, “O Lord, why have you brought trouble upon this people? Is this why you sent me? Ever since I went to Pharaoh to speak in your name, he has brought trouble upon this people, and you have not rescued your people at all.”"  Ex. 5:1 -23 (NIV)

But the good news is that if God has given you the vision, then all you have to be care about is this: that God has called you.  After all, it’s the only thing that matters.  So with this knowledge, be bold, fail early, and fail often. Because there is no such thing as failure, only giving up.

5.  If God Has Called You To Your Vision, You Can Be Assured That He Will Be With You.  I never for a moment want you to think that you could achieve all that God has called you to be, in your own strength.  That it is somehow all up to you and your own ability.  You need the power of the Holy Spirit.  But if God has given you the vision for your future, then celebrate the fact that the God of heaven and earth is with you. God was even more specific than that when he called Moses, God told him, “go, and I will be with your mouth.” Ex. 4;11 (NKJV)

Remember Billy Graham, never became Billy Graham by focusing on the bigness of the task before him.  He became Billy Graham one night at a time, one crusade at a time.  One prayer, one shower, one sermon at a time.  And at the end of it all, years later, he was able to look up and say “wow, we actually did all that – for the glory of God?” It’s at that moment that God will look at you and smile “it’s because you broke the vision down.”

The Billy Graham Training Center At the Cove is located in Asheville, North Carolina, about an hour from my home. Yesterday the Center put on a free breakfast for the pastors of this area. I fired up the Dodge Caravan, met three of my fellow pastors from the county, and off we went.

The breakfast buffet was an impressive spread. As we ate, a few speakers took turns standing at a podium and telling us some nice things about The Cove. The last speaker was Will Graham (Franklin’s son, Billy grandson), who also gave us a personal report on how Billy is doing these days.

For most people, that was the end of the breakfast. But my friends and I had an “inside man.” Even though this fellow works at The Cove, he lives in our county and attends the church where two of my friends serve on staff. After the breakfast, he took us on an extensive tour of the whole facility. He drove us around Camp Cedar Cliff, the youth camp that is located at The Cove. He walked us through the Visitor’s Center and the Chapel. He took us into one of the rooms of The Cove’s two inns. He even let us go inside a couple of the cabins where the famous speakers who come to teach at The Cove stay while they are there. Billy’s daughter, Anne Graham Lotz, had recently spent about a month in one of the cabins we toured.

Rest assured that The Cove is quite a place. Wherever we went I couldn’t help but marvel at the simple beauty of the design and construction. Millions of dollars have been spent, but the place is far from ostentatious. It strikes that difficult balance between the time-honored and the contemporay. I don’t impress all that easily, and I was impressed.

We all know about the praise and laud Billy Graham has long received. But do you know about the criticisms he has also long received? There are three of them. As I say a few things about each, I want you to do me a favor: Take an unbiased look at each case and see what you think. When I get to the end of this post, I’ll sum up what I think.

The first criticism involves the close relationships that Billy Graham has enjoyed with many of our Presidents. In particular, he and Richard Nixon were very dear friends. The critics say that Graham always went too soft on the Presidents. They say, “Here was a man who had the ear of the most powerful men on earth, but what did he do with it other than keep himself in the celebrity spotlight?” The contention is that Graham was more concerned about remaining in good standing with the Presidents than truly playing the role of sin-renouncing, fear-of-God-evoking prophet. The critics feel that he should be have been more like Nathan (who boldly looked at King David and said, “You are the man”: 2 Samuel 12:15) or Daniel (who defied Darius’ decree and openly prayed to God: Daniel 6:1-10). 

The second criticism stems from Billy Graham’s breaking down of denominational lines. It was back in the ’50s when he started letting ministers other than Baptists sit on stage with him. Over the years he continued down this path of religious inclusiveness. Bringing a Graham crusade to an area meant all of the local churches working together. Baptists got on the same team with Lutherans. Methodists came alongside Episcopalians. Presbyterians joined up with Catholics. When an individual responded to a Graham invitation, the person was asked to give a denominational preference. His or her name was then handed over to a local church from that denomination. Critics have always contended that Graham’s practices violated Bible passages concerning separation over doctrinal error, passages such as: Matthew 15:9; 1 Timothy 1:3; Titus 2:1; Hebrews 13:9; Ephesians 4:14; 2 Peter 2:1; 1 Timothy 4:1; Romans 16:17; 2 Thessalonians 3:6; 1 Timothy 6:3-5; 2 John 9-11; and 2 Corinthians 6:14-15.

The third criticism has to do with Ruth Graham, Billy’s wife. She was left at home to raise the children while Billy traveled around the world holding his crusades. Billy himself has even admitted that this criticism holds some merit. He loved Ruth and his family immensely and couldn’t help but feel some remorse that his schedule took him from them so much. Of course, it should be noted that Ruth never complained about Billy’s constant traveling. Marrying him had ended her hopes of becoming a missionary, and she believed that, by raising the children while he was off preaching the gospel, she was doing her part to see people won to Christ.

So, what is my opinion of Billy Graham? I think he is like most of us in that he is not as wonderful as some perceive him but not as bad as others perceive him. The truth is somewhere in the middle. I do know there will never be another like him. At The Cove, I saw pictures of him with celebrities such as Bob Hope and Johnny Cash. I saw a picture of him sitting on his front porch with Muhammad Ali. I saw other pictures of vast crowds gathered in stadiums to hear him present the gospel. I saw sermon outlines that had been given to him, handwritten outlines from Charles Spurgeon and D.L. Moody. I saw a priceless pocket watch that had been given to him by the head of the Russian Orthodox Church. I saw old posters for the legendary Los Angeles crusade that made him a household name. For reasons that are still debated, news mogul William Randolph Hurst, who never met Graham, ordered all his newspapers to play up that crusade and make it headline news. I saw a Dallas Cowboys jersey that Cowboys owner Jerry Jones had given to him. It had the name “Graham” on the back.

What do you make of such a preacher? It’s kind of hard to say. I can understand the points of both the praising and the criticizing. What I’m going to do is let God sort it all out. And, from what I know about Billy, he would be just fine with that answer.

Found this parody video of Craig Groeschel taking questions from the audience at Catalyst One Day, on Ben Arment’s blog. I cracked up watching it. Hilarious!!!! You’ll love it.

Just by the way, it’s funniest when you watch it in full-screen mode.  

One of my favorite worship leaders around is Phil Wickham.  I saw him perform live a few months ago, and was just blown away by this guy’s talent both as a songwriter and live performer.  He’s out of San Deigo. Best of all, Phil is the kind of artist whose music gets better and better the more you listen to it.  I have no doubt that he could be the next Chris Tomlin if he maintains his current momentum.  If you haven’t checked him out – you’ll be so happy you found out about him. You’ll see.

But the good news is that I was on his website a few days ago and noticed that he’s offering a free download of his live worship album called “Sing Along” that was recorded with a live audience of 3,000 worshippers.  The album got 8,000 downloads the first week it became available.

Here’s what Phil had to say about this album:

“This record has been something that I have wanted to do for a long time and finally on May 9th this year, I was able to do a show in Portland, Oregon with just me and a guitar and record it. The album artwork is simply the faces that were sent in to my blog from people that either attended the show or watched the show as it was broadcast on my blog. Thank you all for being a part of it.”

I’ve been listening to this album non-stop since I downloaded it last week. I have no doubt you’ll love it.

The album is available for FREE at his website.  You can download it here.

In case you’ve never heard of Phil or heard any of his songs before, here’s a video of his song “The Day That True Love Died.” One of my favorites.

Enjoy.

Here’s a great link for Christian TV. You can check out many Bible teachers on demand, or watch what’s on live.

There’s stuff from Bob Coy, Greg Laurie, Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and much more.

Check it out!

I’ve been sharing updates about the situation with Al-Bashir in Sudan with various friends and family but haven’t posted anything here . . . until now. Having recently learned that there are still some relief agencies allowed on the ground, I thought I’d give a quick summary . . .

After the indictment of Sudan’s President Omar Al-Bashir, over a dozen international aid organizations were expelled from the country, leaving hundreds of thousands of refugee victims of Al-Bashir’s crimes without support. The organizations that have been allowed to stay are now trying to step up their efforts to meet the deficit left by those who were expelled.

One such organization is Samaritan’s Purse. Every year, we collect shoe-boxes full of little gifts for children around the world through their Operation Christmas Child project, and now Samaritan’s Purse is struggling in a complicated and politically volatile place to serve the basic needs of food, water, medical care, and other emergency assistance, to fight for justice for those who have had it violently seized from them, simply to be Christ’s hands in action there (there are some videos and other information about Darfur on their website if you’re interested in learning more).

If you have anything that your heart is telling you to give to Samaritan’s Purse on behalf of this work, please do so without delay, and above all, pray for the people of Sudan, for Samaritan’s Purse and other organizations like them who are working so dilligently, and for us as Westerners to never think these problems are too far away for us to touch or too impossible for God to heal.