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An interesting editorial by someone surprising…

August 4th, 2008 By: webdad3

Jay Leno wrote this; it’s the Jay Leno we don’t often see…

As most of you know I am not a President Bush fan, nor have I ever been, but
this is not about Bush, it is about us, as Americans, and it seems to hit the
mark.

The other day I was reading Newsweek magazine and came across some Poll data I
found rather hard to believe. It must be true given the source, right?

The Newsweek poll alleges that 67 percent of Americans are unhappy with the
direction the country is headed and 69 percent of the country is unhappy with
the performance of the President.

In essence 2/3 of the citizenry just ain’t happy and want a change. So
being the knuckle dragger I am, I started thinking, ‘What are we so unhappy
about?”

A.. Is it that we have electricity and running water 24 hours a day, 7 Days a
week?

B.. Is our unhappiness the result of having air conditioning in the summer and
heating in the winter?

C.. Could it be that 95.4 percent of these unhappy folks have a job?

D. Maybe it is the ability to walk into a grocery store at any time and see
more food in moments than Darfur has seen in the last year?

E.. Maybe it is the ability to drive our cars and trucks from the Pacific Ocean
to the Atlantic Ocean without having to present identification papers as we
move through each state?

F.. Or possibly the hundreds of clean and safe motels we would find along the
way that can provide temporary shelter?

G.. I guess having thousands of restaurants with varying cuisine from around
the world is just not good enough either.

H. Or could it be that when we wreck our car, emergency workers show up and
provide services to help all and even send a helicopter to take you to the
hospital.

I.. Perhaps you are one of the 70 percent of Americans who own a home.

J. You may be upset with knowing that in the unfortunate case of a fire, a
group of trained firefighters will appear in moments and use top notch equipment to
extinguish the flames, thus saving you, your family, and your belongings.

K.. Or if, while at home watching one of your many flat screen TVs, a burglar
or prowler intrudes, an officer equipped with a gun and a bullet-proof vest will
come to defend you and your family against attack or loss.

L.. This all in the backdrop of a neighborhood free of bombs or militias raping
and pillaging the residents. Neighborhoods where 90% of teenagers own cell
phones and computers.

M.. How about the complete religious, social and political freedoms we enjoy
that are the envy of everyone in the world?

Maybe that is what has 67% of you folks unhappy.

Fact is, we are the largest group of ungrateful, spoiled brats the world has
ever seen. No wonder the world loves the U.S. , yet has a great disdain for its
citizens. They see us for what we are. The most blessed people in the world who
do nothing but complain about what we don’t have, and what we hate about
the country instead of thanking the good Lord we live here.

I know, I know. What about the president who took us into war and has no plan
to get us out? The president who has a measly 31 percent approval rating? Is this
the same president who guided the nation in the dark days after 9/11? The
president that cut taxes to bring an economy out of recession?

Could this be the same guy who has been called every name in the book for
succeeding in keeping all the spoiled ungrateful brats safe from terrorist
attacks? The commander in chief of an all-volunteer army that is out there
defending you and me?

Did you hear how bad the President is on the news or talk show? Did this news
affect you so much, make you so unhappy you couldn’t take a look around for
yourself and see all the good things and be glad? Think about it……are you
upset at the President because he actually caused you personal pain OR is it
because the ‘Media’ told you he was failing to kiss your sorry
ungrateful behind every day.

Make no mistake about it. The troops in Iraq and Afghanistan have volunteered
to serve, and in many cases may have died for your freedom. There is currently no
draft in this country. They didn’t have to go. They are able to refuse to
go and end up with either a ”general” discharge, an ‘other
than honorable” discharge or, worst case scenario, a ”dishonorable” discharge
after a few days in the brig.

So why then the flat-out discontentment in the minds of 69 percent of
Americans?

Say what you want but I blame it on the media. If it bleeds, it leads and they
specialize in bad news. Everybody will watch a car crash with blood and guts.
How many will watch kids selling lemonade at the corner? The media knows this
and media outlets are for-profit corporations. They offer what sells, and when
criticized, try to defend their actions by ‘justifying’ them in one way
or another. Just ask why they tried to allow a murderer like O.J. Simpson to write
a book about how he didn’t kill his wife, but if he did he would have done
it this way……Insane!

Turn off the TV, burn Newsweek, and use the New York Times for the bottom of
your bird cage. Then start being grateful for all we have as country. There is
exponentially more good than bad. We are among the most blessed people on Earth
and should thank God several times a day, or at least be thankful and
appreciative.’ ‘With hurricanes, tornados, fires out of control, mud
slides, flooding, severe thunderstorms tearing up the country from one end to another,
and with the threat of bird flu and terrorist attacks, ‘Are we sure this is
a good time to take God out of the Pledge of Allegiance?’

Jay Leno

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The Rapture

July 24th, 2008 By: webdad3

Whether you belive in post tribulation or pre-trib or anything in between, I’ve been thinking alot about Rapture lately, and someone just sent me this video…

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A different perspective

July 12th, 2008 By: webdad3

This week several articles were written about a stone tablet that pre-dates Jesus that mentions a
person rising from the dead after 3 days. I guess there are still some questions about the exact interpretation of the text because of some badly damaged areas, but all of the reports I read say the same thing and they accept the interpretation given.

OK, well that is an interesting find, I agree. Here is one perspective. The mainstream media went with the interpretation of Israel Knohl, a biblical studies professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. His perspective is that the writers of the Bible had knowledge of this text and they basically applied it to Jesus.

Professor Knohl contends that the tablet proves that messianic followers possessed the paradigm of their leader rising from the grave before Jesus was born. He said that the text “could be the missing link between Judaism and Christianity in so far as it roots the Christian belief in the resurrection of the Messiah in Jewish tradition”.

All of the headlines were almost joyous in proclaiming a doubt of Jesus death.

The Times Online stated: Dead Sea tablet ‘casts doubt on death and resurrection of Jesus’

FoxNex.com: Pre-Christian Stone Tablet Foretells Resurrection

CNN.com: New Biblical Controversy

As a new Christian or someone wondering about God this would seem like bad news. It seems to me that another force maybe at work here…

1 Peter:8 says:
Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.

But then 1 Peter: 9 says:
Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.

Which leads me into a different perspective. I received an e-mail from Joel Rosenberg who was just in Jerusalem and the Middle East. He had this to say:

The Israeli archaeological community, meanwhile, is currently abuzz over the discovery of an ancient stone tablet dated not long before the birth of Jesus that strongly suggests that religious Jews of the day were expecting the coming of a Messiah who would suffer, die, and be resurrected three days later. Most Rabbis and other Jewish scholars have long argued that the death and resurrection of a Jewish Messiah was a “Christian” invention, not part of long-established Jewish thought or Biblical teaching. But a front-page story in Haaretz, a leading Israeli newspaper, just a few days ago has a lot of people asking: Are Jews really supposed to believe their Messiah will actually die and rise again, and was this really Orthodox religious thinking before the time of Jesus?…

Israeli Professor Israel Knohl of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem finds himself in the spotlight for a presentation he is giving this week at a major conference on the 60th anniversary of discovering the Dead Sea Scrolls. His lecture is entitled, “The Gabriel Revelation and the Birth of Christianity,” and it is creating a whole lot of buzz.

“The first part [of the ancient tablet that he has been studying] describes an eschatological war,” Knohl explains. “The nations of the world besiege Jerusalem, and the residents are expelled from the city in groups. This description is followed by a passage in which God sends “my servant David” to ask…the Messiah Son of Joseph to deliver a ’sign.’ From the context, it appears that this sign heralds the coming redemption.The second part of the Gabriel Revelation focuses on death and resurrection - and the blood of the slain. The last paragraph cites the words of the Archangel Gabriel who commands a person to return to life after three days: ‘By three days, live.’ In my lecture I will deal with the possible connection between the figure of Ephraim, the Messiah Son of Joseph, and the image of Jesus in the New Testament. I will also explore the possible link between the resurrection ‘by three days’ commanded by Gabriel in the Gabriel Revelation and the resurrection of Jesus ‘on the third day.’”

“Moshe Idel, a professor of Jewish thought at Hebrew University, said that given the way every tiny fragment from that era yielded scores of articles and books, ‘Gabriel’s Revelation’ and Mr. Knohl’s analysis deserved serious attention,” reports the New York Times. “Here we have a real stone with a real text,” he said. “This is truly significant.”

What Knohl finds most significant is “the fact that [the writings on the stone tablet] strongly suggested that a savior who died and rose after three days was an established concept at the time of Jesus. He notes that in the Gospels, Jesus makes numerous predictions of his suffering and New Testament scholars say such predictions must have been written in by later followers because there was no such idea present in his day. But there was, he said, and ‘Gabriel’s Revelation’ shows it.”

“His mission is that he has to be put to death by the Romans to suffer so his blood will be the sign for redemption to come,” Mr. Knohl said. “This is the sign of the son of Joseph. This is the conscious view of Jesus himself….To shed blood…to bring redemption to Israel.”

So there is a totally different perspective on the tablet and what it said. The mainstream media and in general people who want to debunk Christianity say, see the story was made up because it was written prior to Jesus. It was a myth, folklore and they just applied it to Jesus.

Whereas Joel Rosenburg offer a different perspective of, this was what the Jews thought of at the time and this [the resurrection] was not a Christian invention.

I know that when I read this story originally on CNN that I was going to have to write an article about it. I’m not sure why I felt the need to but I really didn’t know what I wanted to add. On Friday I got the e-mail from Joel Rosenburg and I knew I had what was intended for me to write about. I think we all need to start paying attention because things are heating up in the world (I’m not referring to Global Warming either).

God Bless you all,

Jeff
http://www.godsurfer.com

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Guest Poster - Never Quit on God

July 2nd, 2008 By: webdad3

Guest Poster: Jeff Paschall

Pastor of Impact Church

Title: Never Quit on God

The pull to quit is very natural. Everyone of us has had to learn not to give up when the task before us becomes difficult or dangerous or just plain pointless. We’d rather just walk away and just do something else more productive… or maybe just pain-free! It’s parents… teachers… coaches… and mentors… that stick their nose in our faces… and tell us… “DON’T quit!” “DON’T give up!” “KEEP going!”.

This December… in the throws of the hardest, most intensely painful parts of full-blown labor… my wife locked eyes just inches from my face and confessed… “Jeff, I just can’t DO this anymore!” At that point… it’s hard to find the words to say… “Honey, despite everything in you WANTING to quit… You just can’t!”

And still… we all do quit. We measure the cost and risk against the benefits and conclude – right or wrong – that continuing on is just not worth it. All of us have done it. We’ve dropped out of a class… we’ve resigned from a job… we’ve quit working out… …some of us… have quit our marriage… we’ve given up on our kids… or on our parents… or a close friend…

AND I’m not saying that all quitting is BAD! In fact, there are times WE OUGHT to quit! If drinking alcohol shapes your life… YOU OUGHT TO QUIT! If smoking or shopping or foul language or overeating takes over your life… QUITTING IS A REALLY GOOD IDEA! But if you tend to quit every time anything becomes difficult… then you ought to QUIT QUITTING! (It can get complex and confusing at this point). Not all quitting is bad, but some quitting… is horrible!

Like… what happens… when we quit God? Don’t tell me that it doesn’t happen. Often times when a person walks out on God, especially in the church, we label them. We say, “Oh, I know, they quit God and it just indicates that they never did get it! THEY QUIT! They just never really were there!” We all know people who for one reason or another who has walked away! They were angry. They were disillusioned. Moral erosion wore away at their convictions unbeknownst to us until at some point they just imploded and they vanished and we wonder… “What ever happened to so-and-so?”

Some disguise quitting by saying they are going to attend at another church! But… they just never get around to doing it! They just… fall off the face of the earth. Some whisper to themselves, “Well, you know I really haven’t given up on GOD! I’ve only given up on… Christians!” or “on… church!” or “on… those hypocritical people WHO GO TO CHURCH!” I’ve heard people say, “You know I was a Christian, but now no longer!” “I once believed in God, but I was wrong!”

THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT THE BOOK OF HEBREWS IS ABOUT! It’s a message about quitting! About quitting OBEYING! About quitting BELIEVING! About quitting the FELLOWSHIP OF CHRISTIANS! About quitting PRAYING! About… for all intents and purposes… about quitting GOD! The summary question… the question that pervades almost every page is this. “How can I be sure that I won’t give up on God?” I don’t have any problem in the world about answering the question, “How can I be sure God won’t give up on me?” That one is easy! …The question that I’m worried about… and if you’re thinking… you’re worried about too… “How do I make sure I don’t give up on Him?”

1) by understanding who Jesus is. The answer to that question… Is spelled out in Hebrews… by introducing you to… by far… the best description of who Jesus is… what He has done… what He represents… and what it all means to you… than you could possibly find anywhere else in Scripture. The writer understands that you’ll more likely give up on your faith… if your convictions aren’t solid… and you have no clue… who Jesus really is. If you’re mushy in your picture of Jesus… you’ll be soft when your convictions come under assault.
And it’s more than just KNOWING the right things… and HAVING the right convictions…

The second answer in Hebrews to the question… “How can I be sure I won’t give up on God?” …has to do… with 2) being diligent to grow in Christ spiritually… Chances are… if you settle for superficial… if you’re a lazy learner… and you take on the loafer’s version of the Christian life… if you think spiritual growth happens by osmosis… YOU WON’T GROW! And chances are… when your faith comes under fire… you’ll be VERY TEMPTED… to quit God.

The last answer to the question, has to do with with 3) connecting with other believers… or how closely we determine to shoulder the coming trials… and carry them… together. A person who WALKS AWAY from the fellowship of believers… and no longer receives encouragement through relationships with other believers… is likely… to walk away from their faith! I’m not just saying… go to church… I’m saying… you MUST FOSTER DEEP, MEANINGFUL, POWERFUL relationships with people who will encourage you to face the trials that are coming… And throughout this book you’ll hear the writer… deeply passionate and overwhelmed with concern… kneel down and look you in the eye… and tell you… “Don’t give up!” “Don’t quit!” “We’ll do this together!”

So, will I ever give up on God? The answer… is this. “If you have a clear picture of Jesus… and you allow Him to work in your life… if you embrace growth in Him and act out what you know… and you connect deeply with other people… YOU WILL NEVER GIVE UP ON GOD!” It just won’t happen. Hebrews will teach you… what it takes… to NEVER quit on God.

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Message - Build your house upon the rock

June 26th, 2008 By: webdad3

Hello.  I hope you are all doing wonderful and staying cool today!

This past Sunday, my son decided that he wanted all of us to go the beach.  At first we weren’t that excited because we thought about the packing of ice chest, chairs, food and towels and on and on. But once we got going we began to get really excited and looked forward to some time away from home and the prospect of cooling off!

We finally got everything and packed in the car and were on our way to Oceanside.  If it had been solely up to me, I would have wanted to head south to Rosarito Beach instead.  Since it was hot and we were were traveling with 2 kids, we headed to the nearest beach.

On the way to the beach, there were several vendors selling fruits and vegetables along the way.  I have always liked driving along back roads because it reminds me so much of where I grew up in Tijuana and our visits to nearby Rosarito.  When I was growing up there, we would take the back roads for all the shortcuts into town and to visit friends and there were always vendors selling goodies along the way and we would stop and enjoy some of the fresh delicious treats. YUM!

When we got finally got to the beach, we found a great parking spot and soon settled into a nice spot along the sandy beach.  It really wasn’t as crowded as we expected it might be–that was a pleasant surprise!  We lathered up with sun block and headed to the beautiful crystal blue water in front of us.   It seemed like forever before I got could feel  the cold water splashing on my feet and legs and it was wonderful!

I was trying to get my granddaughter Emma to join me but she recoiled in fear as I held in my arms and stood in the thrashing waves beneath me.  I decided to take her to the sand and we filled plastic buckets with wet sand.  Once they were filled, we turned them upside  down and the compacted sand formed little “pyramids”.  Lizzie found rocks, pebbles and sea shells in different sizes and colors so we began to cover the little piles we had built with the sand. Every once in a while, the waves that were near us, would bring a splash of water and the areas we had dug into the sand would fill with water.  Emma began to relax with each splash of water that reached us and was soon enjoying our little projects in the sand.

As I was holding her on my lap, I looked around and saw people preparing food, playing badminton, tossing Frisbees or just laying around taking in the sun and cool breeze.  I felt good being there and I was glad to see other families having fun and doing things together.  I thought about how wonderful it was to be there.  I felt like a kid–happy, relaxed and safe.  My eyes caught the image of my son splashing around in the waves that were welling up in the middle of the crashing waves and I was so happy to see him acting so freely and with such playful abandon!  He was being knocked down with every wave and he gladly dived and swam right back to be tossed about again and again! He was so much the kid I remembered from the past.  Seeing him this way gave me such joy and I wanted to play too so I joined him for a bit and we laughed and laughed as we were slammed down with each crashing wave.

Later when I rejoined Emma on the sand and the tide got higher and waters were reaching Emma and me, the sand castles and our art work were being washed away and all that remained was the rocks we had gathered earlier and had added to our little “pyramids”

I thought about what God’s word says about building our houses upon the rock so that when the winds blow, they will not be shaken and will stand.  (Matthew 7:24-27)  God is speaking of himself as the “rock”, a fortress and a solid foundation.  If we plan our lives and lay down our foundation upon His strength and His ways, we can be sure that He will sustain us and keep us in His care.  If we have faith that is rooted in the solid truth of His promises, no matter what violent storms or heavy rains of troubles and tribulations come our way, we will now lose our footing and we can depend on Him for protection and shelter.  God may allow the rains to drench us and we may experience icy cold moments and shivering winds heavy with troubles and grief,  but His hand of mercy will always sustain us lift us from the raging rivers as we are placed on higher and safer ground according to His will and purpose for our lives. It is not a trouble free life that we are being promised in His word, but He promises to lead us and guide our steps so that our plans and labor are not in vain.  He always has a plan and is always in control of all things.

The raging waves kept hitting up against us as we jumped and swam in the water and we laughed and giggled every time we were knocked down on our behinds.  I was in such bliss that the moment took me back to when I was a little girl and my dad would take me to beach and we would sit and watch the waves come and go and tease us into going in and enjoying its refreshing embrace.  As the big waves broke into white foamy suds before me, I thought of God and all the beauty that He has created for us to enjoy.  When the waves rushed beneath and lifted me up with their incredible power,  it was as if  God himself was carrying me in His loving arms arms and holding me so very close to His heart. I was flying over white clouds and feeling so carefree.

I have always felt close to God, but on this day,  His presence was as loud, in my heart and soul, as the sound of the waves crashing around me.  The warm sand on my feet reminded me of His sweet and comforting spirit that leads me every day.

As we packed our belonging to head back home,  we were spent but so relaxed and submissive to the sweet abandon of such a gift from God of family time and laughter.  As we headed to our parked car, I looked back at the ocean and caught a beautiful sunset casting its glistening light upon the waters.  I knew God had washed away the burdens  of the day so that our family could spend it in His vast and soothing swimming pool.

As I laid my head on my pillow that night, I could not keep from smiling and thanking God for being so incredibly good to me.

.

“The Lord will  guide you always, He will satisfy your needs in a sun scorched land and will strengthen your frame, You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail”  (Isaiah 58:11)

Jesus is my rock–
Olivya

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