Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Showing posts with label Americans. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Americans. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 27, 2014
Harming Americans???
Galatians 6:7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Thursday, January 13, 2011
The Word “Pen” is Mightier than the Sword
Proverbs 18:21
21 The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
This verse does not say that death and life and a lot of nonproductive words are in the power of our tongues. There are only two options. Every word we speak, or hear spoken, produces only death or life. Jesus said in Mt 12:36-37, "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."
Many people who don't realize the power of their own words are talking themselves to death. They speak forth whatever negative thing they feel or have been told, and don't realize they are signing their own death warrants and because of their leadership they sign it for others also. One of the things in life has taught us is that everything roles downhill, from the leaders on down. We have been as a nation for the last four decades been taken granted for the words that we speak and how it teaches others through the years how to act. If the leaders do it, it must be okay for us to do it.
The bible teaches us that there are consequences for the words that we speak. The world says that “sticks and stones will break your bones and names will never hurt you. “ They are wrong on that account, many people have been wounded by the words someone spoke and the numbers are astronomical. We are now finding out that sticks and stones will break our bones for the words that we have spoken.
Matthew 12:37
37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."
The Lord will use our words on the Day of Judgment to administer His justice. Our words are the true revelation of what's in our hearts (Mt 12:34 For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks).
God will not accept the excuse "Oh, I didn't mean anything by that" when we stand before Him. We will be held accountable for our words. If we think about that, we will change our conversations.
As I heard our President of these United States on Wednesday January 12, 2011 speak one of the more powerful addresses that Mr. Obama has delivered as president, harnessing the emotion generated by the shock and loss from Saturday’s shootings in Arizona to urge Americans “to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully” and to “remind ourselves of all the ways that our hopes and dreams are bound together.”
The President mentions our words “At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized, at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do,” he said, “it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.”
The bible teaches us to do the same, let us be leaders by leading by example.
21 The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
This verse does not say that death and life and a lot of nonproductive words are in the power of our tongues. There are only two options. Every word we speak, or hear spoken, produces only death or life. Jesus said in Mt 12:36-37, "But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned."
Many people who don't realize the power of their own words are talking themselves to death. They speak forth whatever negative thing they feel or have been told, and don't realize they are signing their own death warrants and because of their leadership they sign it for others also. One of the things in life has taught us is that everything roles downhill, from the leaders on down. We have been as a nation for the last four decades been taken granted for the words that we speak and how it teaches others through the years how to act. If the leaders do it, it must be okay for us to do it.
The bible teaches us that there are consequences for the words that we speak. The world says that “sticks and stones will break your bones and names will never hurt you. “ They are wrong on that account, many people have been wounded by the words someone spoke and the numbers are astronomical. We are now finding out that sticks and stones will break our bones for the words that we have spoken.
Matthew 12:37
37 For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned."
The Lord will use our words on the Day of Judgment to administer His justice. Our words are the true revelation of what's in our hearts (Mt 12:34 For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks).
God will not accept the excuse "Oh, I didn't mean anything by that" when we stand before Him. We will be held accountable for our words. If we think about that, we will change our conversations.
As I heard our President of these United States on Wednesday January 12, 2011 speak one of the more powerful addresses that Mr. Obama has delivered as president, harnessing the emotion generated by the shock and loss from Saturday’s shootings in Arizona to urge Americans “to expand our moral imaginations, to listen to each other more carefully” and to “remind ourselves of all the ways that our hopes and dreams are bound together.”
The President mentions our words “At a time when our discourse has become so sharply polarized, at a time when we are far too eager to lay the blame for all that ails the world at the feet of those who think differently than we do,” he said, “it’s important for us to pause for a moment and make sure that we are talking with each other in a way that heals, not a way that wounds.”
The bible teaches us to do the same, let us be leaders by leading by example.
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Muslims, Americans, and Christianity
The early Christians prevailed over Rome because they opted for eternal rewards instead of mere physical survival. They refused to renounce their faith, and the blood of the martyrs became the seed of the church. Nowadays you hear very little talk in the West about eternal rewards and much talk about techniques to keep death at bay.
Young Arabs who study here come away impressed with how much energy we invest in the physical life. Scout the magazine racks at a local drug or grocery store and count the titles devoted to body-building, diet, fashion, and naked women. These are all emblems of the prominence we give to materiality.
Martyrdom and puritanical are words incorporated into Islamic societies. While fighting in the two gulf wars, for the first time in recent history U.S. soldiers had to get by without alcohol and Playboy, in deference to the strict Islamic code in the staging nations. Few of them realized, however, that the difference in moral standards between Islam and the West is philosophical, not just cultural.
In determining morality, American society tends to apply the bottom-line principle, “Does it hurt anyone else?” This pornography is legal, but not if it involves explicit violence or child molestation. You can get legally drunk as long as you do not break a neighbor’s window or drive a car, endangering others. Violence on television is okay because everyone knows the characters are just acting.
This yardstick of morality betrays our implicit materialism. Whereas we define “hurt” in the most physical terms, Islamic societies see it in more spiritual terms. In that deeper sense, what could be more harmful than pornography, or violence as entertainment, or even the cynical depiction of banal evil on television soap operas? It is from this vantage point that the U.S. has gained its reputation as “The Great Satan”.
At the same time, Christians in Africa and Asia are confronting a newly resurgent and sometimes militant Islam. Repulsed by the decadence and rampant secularism of the West, Muslims have their own evangelism agenda.
Christians and Muslims face opposite challenges. We in the West have something to learn from cultures that do not push religion to the margins, that see faith as affecting all of life, that look to religious leaders for guidance on societal and ethical issues.
Meanwhile, Islamic nations have something to learn from the Christian West, which has found liberal democracy to the best way to protect minorities’ rights in a world that is becoming increasingly multicultural.
Not to learn those lessons leads to disaster, as is playing out in our world today. What is being played out in New York City and Gainesville Florida is a prime example on how we need to put on love and see deeper than our own agenda. We need to see our own façade and step up to be more in what we truly believe and determine who our neighbors really are, as depicted in the parable of the Good Samaritan when the expert in the law asked “And who is my neighbor?”
Young Arabs who study here come away impressed with how much energy we invest in the physical life. Scout the magazine racks at a local drug or grocery store and count the titles devoted to body-building, diet, fashion, and naked women. These are all emblems of the prominence we give to materiality.
Martyrdom and puritanical are words incorporated into Islamic societies. While fighting in the two gulf wars, for the first time in recent history U.S. soldiers had to get by without alcohol and Playboy, in deference to the strict Islamic code in the staging nations. Few of them realized, however, that the difference in moral standards between Islam and the West is philosophical, not just cultural.
In determining morality, American society tends to apply the bottom-line principle, “Does it hurt anyone else?” This pornography is legal, but not if it involves explicit violence or child molestation. You can get legally drunk as long as you do not break a neighbor’s window or drive a car, endangering others. Violence on television is okay because everyone knows the characters are just acting.
This yardstick of morality betrays our implicit materialism. Whereas we define “hurt” in the most physical terms, Islamic societies see it in more spiritual terms. In that deeper sense, what could be more harmful than pornography, or violence as entertainment, or even the cynical depiction of banal evil on television soap operas? It is from this vantage point that the U.S. has gained its reputation as “The Great Satan”.
At the same time, Christians in Africa and Asia are confronting a newly resurgent and sometimes militant Islam. Repulsed by the decadence and rampant secularism of the West, Muslims have their own evangelism agenda.
Christians and Muslims face opposite challenges. We in the West have something to learn from cultures that do not push religion to the margins, that see faith as affecting all of life, that look to religious leaders for guidance on societal and ethical issues.
Meanwhile, Islamic nations have something to learn from the Christian West, which has found liberal democracy to the best way to protect minorities’ rights in a world that is becoming increasingly multicultural.
Not to learn those lessons leads to disaster, as is playing out in our world today. What is being played out in New York City and Gainesville Florida is a prime example on how we need to put on love and see deeper than our own agenda. We need to see our own façade and step up to be more in what we truly believe and determine who our neighbors really are, as depicted in the parable of the Good Samaritan when the expert in the law asked “And who is my neighbor?”
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
Dr. Strangelove and Pastor Terry Jones
Are Pastor Terry Jones and Dr. Strangelove one in the same person? On September 11, 2010 Pastor Terry Jones wants to burn copies of the Quran in a fire-breathing judgmental act that remotely looks like Dr. Strangelove. They both want to nuke Islam and burn their very existence back to the Stone Age. Is this what Jesus would do? No.
This pastor does not represent Christianity or Jesus Christ in any form or fashion. In Luke chapter nine we have the following passage:
Luke 9:51-56
51 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.
52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him;
53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem.
54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?"
55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and said “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of:
56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” and they went to another village.
Jesus in no way would tolerate any violence, and just as Jesus rebuked His disciples, Pastor Terry Jones needs to be rebuked and stopped. James and John wanted to fight fire with fire, Jesus contradicted them to show that non-violence, being patient, full of compassion and forgiveness was the way we should go.
Matt 26:51-52
51 And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest's, and smote off his ear.
52 Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
Peaceful means produce peaceful events, violence begets violence. Which has Pastor Terry Jones chosen; it looks like he has allied himself with Dr. Strangelove.
This pastor does not represent Christianity or Jesus Christ in any form or fashion. In Luke chapter nine we have the following passage:
Luke 9:51-56
51 As the time approached for him to be taken up to heaven, Jesus resolutely set out for Jerusalem.
52 And he sent messengers on ahead, who went into a Samaritan village to get things ready for him;
53 but the people there did not welcome him, because he was heading for Jerusalem.
54 When the disciples James and John saw this, they asked, "Lord, do you want us to call fire down from heaven to destroy them?"
55 But Jesus turned and rebuked them, and said “You do not know what kind of spirit you are of:
56 for the Son of Man did not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” and they went to another village.
Jesus in no way would tolerate any violence, and just as Jesus rebuked His disciples, Pastor Terry Jones needs to be rebuked and stopped. James and John wanted to fight fire with fire, Jesus contradicted them to show that non-violence, being patient, full of compassion and forgiveness was the way we should go.
Matt 26:51-52
51 And, behold, one of them which were with Jesus stretched out his hand, and drew his sword, and struck a servant of the high priest's, and smote off his ear.
52 Then said Jesus unto him, Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish with the sword.
Peaceful means produce peaceful events, violence begets violence. Which has Pastor Terry Jones chosen; it looks like he has allied himself with Dr. Strangelove.
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