Harming Americans???

Justice and accountability, does this include the 54 million baby's that have been aborted since January 22, 1973? Our Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Branch of our Government and the country's people have had an extended vacation for a very long time. It is time to hold all of us accountable. Not only is the loss of life that our country is experiencing and is devastating our souls, but also the loss of income to the economy and our Government (Local, State, & Federal) including the Social Security Shortfall. The people who were aborted would have provided for the future, not only financially but the leadership, direction, and moral compass that we so desperately need. Our financial, moral, and spiritual problems all started by the seed that was planted in Roe vs. Wade and now has culminated in the full blown tree of destruction that is now tearing down the very fabric that our country was built on. Dr. Martin Luther King has said "Ultimately, you can't reach good ends through evil means, because the means represent the seed and the end represents the tree."
Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 

Indifference

Holocaust survivor Eliezer “Elie” Wiesel once said, “The opposite of love is not hate; it’s indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy; it’s indifference. The opposite of life is not death; it’s indifference.”

In Luke 10:25-37 is the wonderful story of the Good Samaritan. It is the story that is being played out time and time again in our society in the last few decades. In this passage Jesus tells a story to a lawyer who was trying to justify his own existence of indifference. This lawyer was trying to look important to those in his sphere of influence by trying to cozy up to the great teacher. He was debating, or better yet discussing his way by showing how good his knowledge of the word of God was. Of course Jesus saw right through it and went right to the heart of the issue of indifference.

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?”"What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind' ; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'"You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live." But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" 

Jesus said this man had answered correctly. Indeed, he gave the exact answer that Jesus later gave in response to the same question (Mt 22:36-40). This was very unusual among the Jewish religious leaders and shows that this lawyer had some great truths revealed to him by God. However, Lu 10:29 shows that he did not yield himself to this revelation but sought to justify his own actions before God.

Just as with this lawyer, pride causes many people to resist the truth of justification by faith in the grace of God (Eph 2:8, Lu 10:29). This lawyer loved himself and the public recognition his "holy acts" gave him. He was not willing to love God first and his fellow man ahead of himself. This was not a sincere question on the lawyer's part but rather an evasive question seeking to shun responsibility. This man was seeking to be justified in the sight of God through his actions. 

He knew he had not loved everyone as he loved himself, so he was trying to interpret the scripture (Le 19:18) in a way that would conform to his actions. He wanted to define "neighbor" as just his close friends whom he had treated well. Jesus, through this parable, however, defined a neighbor as any fellow human being that crosses our path and is in need of our assistance. It is always wrong to try to interpret God's Word in a way that will match our experiences. We should instead make our experiences match God's Word.

Jesus taught repentance and faith as the means of justification with God (Mt 4:17 with John 6:28-29, and Luke 18:9-14). This lawyer was seeking to be right with God on the basis of his own actions. Self-justification always produces excuses, while repentance and faith toward God produces obedience.

This question of "Who is my neighbor?" can be used by Satan to deceive us in more than one way. Not only can he deceive us into thinking we have fulfilled the command to "love thy neighbor as thyself" when we haven't, but he will also try to apply this command in a way that condemns those of us who are seeking to fulfill it by making us think we are not doing enough. We cannot meet the needs of every single person in the world. Jesus wasn't teaching that. This wounded man was directly in the path of these three men. The priest and the Levite had to walk around him. The priest and the Levite were indifferent to the needs of someone who they only saw. We see people and their needs all the time, but we see past them and do not really look. We become hard hearted because people don’t fit into the category of how we want to help. So we just pass on by seeing but not really seeing. Our hearts are closed off or just hard. Jesus was simply teaching that we should take advantage of the opportunities we have. The fact that we can't help everyone is no excuse not to help anyone. When we develop the excuse is when we are indifferent.

Indifference is the great sin of our time. In Revelation chapter three John the beloved apostle describes seven churches and the seventh one is the church of Laodicea, neither hot, nor cold, but lukewarm. Lukewarm is indifference. Jesus replies “You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see. “

We need to see, indifference has blinded us to the needs of people around us. Indifference is the sign of the Laodicean church, the church of the last days.

I Have a Dream

Tuesday, 18 October 2011 11:51 AM EDT Robert Ricciardelli Newsletters - Prophetic Insight


The last few days I have been waking up thinking about Martin Luther King Jr. I kept hearing his "I Have a Dream" speech as I awoke each of the last few mornings. He is one of my heroes of the faith; a difference-maker, and a catalyst for good and for the generations. I asked the Lord if there was some further meaning to my thoughts about him. He said, "I gave him a dream, and I have given you a dream."

I decided to write out my dream in honor of one of my hero's dreams. Thank you, Lord, for Dr. King, who stood for You, stood for freedom and gave his life for the cause of that freedom. I write this in honor of him and the legacy he left for us all:

“I have a dream that one day the kingdom nation of God will rise up and live out the true meaning of Christ’s all-consuming creed that fulfills all laws and prophecies with these words: 'The Lord our God is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength, and also love your neighbor as yourself.

“I have a dream that one day the children of God will truly answer the Lord’s prayer in becoming one as He and the Father are one; that they would move as one 'body of Christ' through the power of the love of God within them.

"I have a dream that one day the walls of culture and preference that have divided our communities will come crashing down so we may truly love and honor each other's uniqueness and our strength in diversity.

"I have a dream for freedom from the grip of false religion and anything that gets in the way of the agape love of God and His perfect will for humanity.

"I have a dream that our children will see an example of life that is not based on what one may have on the outside, including race or financial status, but on what matters most—the integrity and character of what is on the inside of a person.

"I have a dream today.

"I have a dream that one day the hierarchical deception and distortion of community through the systems of man will give way to authentic relationships and communities that are not based on performance or hidden agendas.

"I have a dream today.

"I have a dream that the systems of man that have controlled and manipulated the people of God will give way to the freedom and power of the kingdom of God. I have a dream that there is neither male nor female, Greek nor Jew, or any other caste system getting in the way of the freedom that can only be realized through Christ Jesus our Lord.

"I have a dream today.

"I have a dream of revolutionary authentic servant leaders all over the world who do not usurp their authority and mandates but lead through humility while coaching and assisting others toward the way, the truth and the life.

"I have a dream today.

"I have a dream that one day the last shall be first and the first shall be last, and for the day when the highest esteem is reserved for those who are humble, for those who are motivated by love and for those who desire to serve others in their journey.

"I have a dream today.

"I have a dream that the manifest sons and daughters of the living God will be realized on the earth, supernaturally presenting Christ as the only answer to the groaning within all of creation."

I can see it now, the glory of the Lord filling the earth like the waters cover the sea; all people united as one, every knee bowing and every tongue confessing that Jesus Christ is Lord. This will be the day that both the mystery and the majesty of the Most High God is fully known throughout the universe with the whole world singing, “For the kingdom, the power and the glory are Yours now and forever.”

About the Author: Robert Ricciardelli is a prophetic minister, an entrepreneur and the founder of Converging Zone Network, a social-networking site developed to spread the kingdom of God on a global level through the exchange of products, services, training and ideas.

Forgiveness to the Banks but no Forgiveness to Their Customers

The many banks who were helped through the financial crisis are failing their own customers. It seems that our Government, and the people forgave the Banks their debts. The Banks were helped by loans and given time to repay those loans. But the banks have forgotten what reciprocity means. We have gone out of our way to help in this economic crisis and the climate that we now live in. But enough is enough, apparently there has been no lessons learned when it comes to the morality of the many issues that we now face.

With the foreclosure problems, people being locked out of their homes when it is not necessary reminds me of a parable that Jesus taught.

Matt 18:23-35
23 "Therefore, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants.
24 As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand talents was brought to him.
25 Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt.
26 "The servant fell on his knees before him. 'Be patient with me,' he begged, 'and I will pay back everything.'
27 The servant's master took pity on him, canceled the debt and let him go.
28 "But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii. He grabbed him and began to choke him. 'Pay back what you owe me!' he demanded.
29 "His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, 'Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.'
30 "But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt.
31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were greatly distressed and went and told their master everything that had happened.
32 "Then the master called the servant in. 'You wicked servant,' he said, 'I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to.
33 Shouldn't you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?'
34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.
35 "This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother from your heart."

Should the banks be now thrown in jail for their neglect of the people who were their customers? The Banks have been forgiven, will they now forgive in return. But that would be Altruism and that is not the current moral endeavor in this present economic climate.

There has been an impassioned plea for morality in recent weeks, but they are not calling for a return to biblical ethics. Instead, they explicitly reject Christian and Religious morality in favor of a code that exudes selfishness and living in the light of Randian and Libertarian ways.

Though Ayn Rand has been dead for three decades, her philosophy is still embedded in the American way of life. It also has embedded it’s way into our churches by using quasi-biblical principles to obtain wealth but disposing of God’s principles. The big emphasis lately is on homosexuality and promiscuity which have replaced greed as the root of all evil. Gordon Gecko (movie “Wall Street”) is now rolling over in laughter, because greed is good, everything else is bad. So the battle cry for the libertarian worldview, as it is with Ayn Rand in Atlas Shrugged, is replacing the cross with the dollar sign and making that a good thing.

But Altruism is the opposite of Randism/Libertarianism. Though it might seem obvious that altruism is central to the teachings of Jesus, one important and influential strand of Christianity would qualify this. St Thomas Aquinas in the Summa Theologica, I:II Quaestio 26, Article 4 states that we should love ourselves more than our neighbor. His interpretation of the Pauline phrase is that we should seek the common good more than the private good but this is because the common good is a more desirable good for the individual. The Apostle Paul in First Corithians 13 says "love seeks not its own interests." We need to shed light on tensions by contrasting the impostors of authentic self-affirmation and altruism such as Randism and Libertarianism. By analysis of other-regard within creative individuation of the self, and by contrasting love for the few with love for the many. Love confirms others in their freedom, shuns propagandas and masks, assures others of its presence, and is ultimately confirmed not by mere declarations from others, but by each person's experience and practice from within. As in practical arts, the presence and meaning of love becomes validated and grasped not by words and reflections alone, but in the making of the connection.

In saying all this, America is in trouble and headed down a path that reflects the good of the corporation over the good of the people. In the Constitution of the United States it says “we the people” and it is heading towards “we the corporations”. The rest of the preamble of the US Constitution reads “in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

With Altruism out and Randism/Libertarianism in, that part of the Constitution should read “in order to form a more perfect union, establish greed as good, insure selfishness, provide domestic breakdown, provide corporations with profits by any means, promote the dollar by the dollar, for the dollar for posterity for all corporate holders.

I’m sad as I look out at this once great nation to see it has not learned from history. Everyone thinks this way of Libertarianism is new, it’s not, it’s only new to you. It’s old and it’s called greed at any cost.

Lord forgive us of this root of all evil?