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Getting somewhere requires effort, it takes
faith to push on, it's easy to screw up,
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Friday, August 30, 2013
How far does love of God take us? “Persecution is not an original feature in any religion; but it is always the strongly marked feature of all religions
established by law” ~ Thomas Paine
Most of us in first world countries roll out of soft warm bed’s to have a hot water shower, before having
a cup of steaming coffee or tea, and then a warm breakfast.
We probably then climb onto sophisticated transportation and make our way to offices and workplaces which are clean,
with good hygiene factors and comfortable working conditions.
Consider that millions of people don’t have this luxury.
Most people in this world strain for a living every day, forgo pleasures and try and piece together aspects of life
so that existence is just bearable.
They have
it tough!
Yet,
whether we are in a first world environment or not, is of no consequence to our spiritual growth, strength and capacity.
This supersedes these human conditions
and empowers us in the supernatural in ways that cannot even be described in natural terms other than perhaps by the
odd miracle.
Miracles that are extraordinary are also not that plentiful and so the austere skeptic often stands to the side and says
there is no evidence that God’s love has power. They are wrong however!
God’s love is so powerful it changes lives completely.
People give up safety and self determination to
love those who would hurt or kill them.
This month Christian Persecution - Middle East, Iran has an article
by Joseph DeCaro, Worthy News Correspondent in which he explains...
A convert from Islam has been sentenced to ten
years in jail for distributing 12,000 pocket-sized Gospels in the Islamic Republic of Iran, according to BarnabasAid.
Why? Why risk ones freedom and
life?
For love!
How willing was this person to do this?
Court documents referred to Bordbar's baptism and leadership of house church gatherings,
his translation and dubbing of Christian films into Farsi and the discovery of thousands of Gospels and other Christian books
and CDs in his home.
He had a love for people and wanted them to hear about Jesus. He is living on the forefront of Christian spiritual activity. He
would know with great insight the advice Paul gives in Ephesians 6...
10 Finally, let the Lord make you strong.
Depend on his mighty power. 11 Put on all of God’s armor. Then you can stand firm against the devil’s
evil plans. 12 Our fight is not against human beings. It is against the rulers, the authorities and the powers
of this dark world. It is against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly world.
13 So put on all of God’s armor. Evil days
will come. But you will be able to stand up to anything. And after you have done everything you can, you will still be standing.
14 So stand firm. Put the belt
of truth around your waist. Put the armor of godliness on your chest. 15 Wear on your feet what will prepare
you to tell the good news of peace. 16 Also, pick up the shield of faith. With it you can put out all of the
flaming arrows of the evil one. 17 Put on the helmet of salvation. And take the sword of the Holy Spirit.
The sword is God’s word.
18 At all times, pray by the power of the Spirit. Pray all kinds of prayers. Be watchful, so that
you can pray. Always keep on praying for all of God’s people.
He knows how to “let the Lord make him strong”.
Notice the words do not say how we make ourselves strong, rather it says how the LORD makes us strong!
Our work is far simpler.
We
need to know our fight is not against people but spirits.
The writer advises we stand firm with truth, godliness, news of peace, faith, and knowledge
of our being saved by Jesus.
These things protect us.
Whether we drive a car to work, take a subway, bus, ride a bicycle
or walk, we all have the same ability to spiritual embrace truth, godliness, news of peace, faith, and knowledge of our being saved
by Jesus.
These are what grow us.
These are our actions that give us ability to grow strong in Jesus.
Then, there is an ability to influence
others and the world.
It
is not a physical force type activity. It is one that comes out of love. We take God’s word as revealed to us in the
bible and show others how it is used in our lives. We are ready to tell those that want to know about Jesus about what he
did and said when he lived.
We take what appears to be a silly story of a man who died and came alive and show it has merit, we point to historical facts showing
that it’s no story but factual.
We let Holy Spirit work through us enabling the supernatural to confirm this for others. They we live fully
even if in some of our lives it means persecution.
What persecution have we experienced recently for being disciples of Jesus?
If the answer is none,
let’s ask ourselves how effective our work actually is.
Some of us cannot get into the forefront of Christian witness, but
we can sure pray for those that do.
Prayer is effective even from a hospital bed. Let’s bend our minds to empowering God’s
love so that we support those brave men like “Mohammad-Hadi Bordbar:” who “was convicted of membership in an ‘anti-security organization’ and of having
the intent to commit crimes against Iranian national security” while following God’s design for his life.
Today, we can let love enable us to be disciples
and prayer warriors for those in need, independent of where our work transportation is taking us, or which place we choose
to send our time and evenings.
God be with you, bless you, empower your prayers , and may Holy spirit mold your life’s
work into a glorious beautiful gift to our loving Lord!
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Being forever in God’s debt is a wonderful experience “Wonder
is the foundation of all philosophy, inquiry the progress, ignorance the end” ~ Michel de Montaigne
“what do I know?” were words Michel was known to have remarked.
Michel was a French statesman born in 1533 and who is considered to have been the father of essays as a writing genre.
Maybe we consider that
less than important, and perhaps, having been subjected to essays as a means of punishment or a form of examination tool,
we wish he hadn’t done so. Yet, essays have opened up a way of communicating that has changed the world in many ways.
Without essays we would know less, right?
“What do I know?”
These words cause introspection and if we are honest turn us to considering more than ourselves.
They push us to examine the world with honesty. How can we possible know enough to make a difference in this life and how
could we ever move to eternity with the little we can offer to the hugeness of everlasting thought?
Big question but sometimes when we distill
answers down to their essence, we find a different and strange truth that changes the way we view life.
“What do I know?”
We know ourselves! we know that no matter
how much we try to perfect and improve ourselves we always seem to fall short of our targets. In fact we know if we are
striving for perfection in anything we fail more than we succeed.
An athlete works for years at perfecting their skills, but rarely is the Olympic
champion. Does that stop the effort?
A writer may write all their life and still not get that best seller? Does that stop the effort?
A painter can paint beautifully,
but not be recognised and rewarded. Does it make their paintings less important?
If we are true to ourselves we also know our worth is not
in the goal of activity, but in the way we do what we do. This is a deep unwavering truth that we do know, isn’t
it?
Our value is not
in the achievement only, but in how the path is walked to the that end goal.
“What do I know?”
We want to walk to our life’s goal
well! We want to do it with the support and love of others.
Maybe that’s why God loves us so much. Not because of what we do, but because
of what we want to do!
Do we want to strive to bring love, care, hope, joy, peace and happiness to those that our lives touch as we move towards
eternity.
If we do,
God has a gift to help us!
Jesus died to take our inability to hit the mark and to make up for that difference. God takes us past failure into
powerful, Holy Spirit driven success.
“What do I know?”
That God makes the difference to our eternity, to our now, and to how our lives are blessed on
the path to our everlasting goal. Let's remember that today!
I do so hope that what I know, you know as well!
Have a wonderful God blessed,
Holy Spirit driven day!
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Hell, a place God created, why? “Hell is
a place, a time, a consciousness, in which there is no love.” ~ Richard Bach
Have you ever heard someone in anger say “Go to Hell”?
The powerful anxiety those words create in my heart would be scary to see if that anxiety could
be seen by the person who was carelessly letting fly with those words.
A person who loosely makes this type of
statement has no idea of what hell would be. Nobody, no matter how horrible they are, should go there. My life is dedicated to explaining that there
is a far better place to go to and encouraging others to avoid Hell.
If this is such a horrible place, why would our loving God
have created it? It
seems to be the opposite of everything God stands for.
While I am no philosopher, or debater or even much of a scholar of this subject, I have thought about this
a fair amount and have an opinion.
God wants us to have an eternity of love and peace.
Look around at how people on this earth react.
Do we see much eternal love and
peace around us? No!
Why not?
Is there not a power of evil that subverts good, and twists men’s hearts away from absolute good?
With
free will comes many things we cannot avoid. One is the fact that in order to choose love, we must be exposed to non-love. Our exposure to non-love
means that some of the time of our life we choose hate, fear, anger and other unlovely attributes which often turn us into
doing unloving actions.
Now some of us even major our lives in these selfish, ignorant and nasty ways! We often think of Hitler as an example, but there are many more. Some people who in their own way are far more evil! We've
just had people kill others with chemical weapons. Innocent non-military others! What type of person did that?
Now let’s consider eternity…
Have you ever taken a
very long car trip, where you are forced to be with the same bunch of people for 10 or more hours at a time, on multiple days.
Have you noticed how
niggles and slight problems grow into things that really start to bubble up into annoyances and angers, as the time wears
on?
Time amplifies experiences and makes small things develop into much larger and perhaps more aggravating circumstances.
Consider
eternity! That’s time that goes on and never ends. A car trip, which due to time not ending, will serve to amplify any small issues
into large ones.
Would we like to have this time, eternity, spent with the Hitler’s of this world.
How peaceful
and loving would that be?
I wouldn’t! I would want them away from me so I could focus on God and loose my selfish, ignorant and
nasty parts of my life, moving towards holiness, peace and joy as time goes on.
I would want God to have removed the world’s
evil from existence!
Perhaps you would want the same?
Where do you put these people? Anywhere they are would get more horrible as time extends towards eternity. They would have to be kept in
a place where the evil could not overflow into the good.
That’s Hell folk! The place where for the good of those that love God, the ungodly are put to spend
eternity.
Not a nice
place. A place of torment.
Why did God make such a place?
Because there is no option but to have such a place!.
We are all eternal beings(although sometimes
it doesn’t feel that way).
When we die we enter eternity.
The quality of that eternity depends on keeping evil separated from good.
I chose good, and I trust you will to!
Jesus came to make a
way for us to have the eternity in heaven. He loves us dearly. God sent him, because he loves us dearly. Holy Spirit came
to live with us and guide us, because he loves us dearly.
Let us love and trust God, knowing he has setup eternity for us to experience that love.
Have a great day!
Tuesday, August 27, 2013
Parti Quebecois, APARTHEID lovers and religious HATERS, should we tolerate them? “A media
report Tuesday with leaked details of the Parti Quebecois government’s Charter of Quebec Values said
the proposed policy will prohibit public employees from donning Sikh, Jewish and Muslim headwear or visible crucifixes in
the workplace.” ~ Canadian Press National Pots 13/08/25 Last Updated: 13/08/25 11:38 PM ET
Really? I have said before that
the policies of the PQ party in Quebec are those of APARTHEID and I should know.
I was in South Africa when those policies were law.
Parti Quebecois promotes separatism.
That is EXACTLY what apartheid was. APARTHEIT means “separate
development”. It is a despicable means of putting into law one’s own perceived superiority and suppressing others.
Now
I see that this group of people, French separatists, want to add PERSECUTION to their list of selfish, nasty and ignorant
behaviours.
They want to legalise
anti-religious attitudes and focus on making a group of law abiding, mostly loving people, into criminals.
It seems to me they are taking a leaf out of Hitler’s book.
Pauline Marois you are a racist and bigot!
Yet you are worse, you seek to legalize bigotry.
As a Christian you may think I
am being very un-Christian. Yet truth is truth. While I do not agree Sikh’s follow Jesus and God correctly, I will fight for their right
to their religious views provided they stand by the humane laws of Canada. I will respect them! Similarly with Muslims. They
have a right to their beliefs, no matter how much we differ and have different opinions, it is their right to believe what
they will and my right to believe what I will, provided we treat each other with respect and love.
Picking on a physical attribute to alienate
a person is despicable!
Pauline
Marois you have shown your true nature and it’s despicable.
I guess when you have finished with these and picked on the Catholics
and Jews, the next target will be all those who have religious beliefs. Perhaps you would like to name anyone who has religious
beliefs as enemies of society?
What is
wrong with that?
Rarely am I willing to speak out against another, but this is such an occasion. Why?
Because as
a Christian ,I believe Jesus came to teach us to love others despite what they do that we think is wrong. He
asked us to be willing to die for our enemies. In this instance, I would believe he would want us to die to protect the rights
of others to freedom of choice.
While I dearly want people to be saved from the wrath of Hell, while I dearly want people to see our loving Father who
sent his son to die for us, I also want people to have free choice as given by God.
Yet, Pauline Marois, know this... God loves
you too! Jesus died for you too! Maybe being French is a gift of God, but it’s not a reason to whip others, is it?
Perhaps instead of working
people up with rhetoric, it would be better to show others the beauty of the French language and culture, to promote the distinctive
flavour of Quebec that we do love. Perhaps instead you should promote the joy of living that is in each Quebecers heart. Perhaps
you should make the rest of Canada proud that we have our French heritage. Maybe you should remember the sins of the Catholic
church against the French many years ago and determine not to do the same to others today.
Let’s forgive each other!
Let’s respect each other! Let’s enjoy each other’s diversity and let’s love each other. That’s
the Christian way!
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If you want to see a short blog describing a perspective on what I believe click here
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Rift in Evil
By Ken
X Briggs - Published: September, 2010
- Format: Perfect Bound Softcover(B/W)
- Pages: 208
Size:
6x9 - ISBN: 9781450250894
Available from Barnes and Noble, Amazon, iUniverse. |
Credit cards are acceptable on sites having Ken's books: 
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| Ken's book covers are displayed below. . . | |  This
suspense thriller centers on Kiara, a beautiful young woman pursued by a murderous group of people, who relentlessly and ruthlessly
hunt her and her sisters. Kiara has no idea why she is being targeted! When Kiara and her family turn to the law for help,
this fails. Her pursuers’ powers reach deeply into the political and law enforcement world. Family support for her dwindles
when they too have to flee her pursuers. Can Kiara escape the clutches of both the law and dishonest big business? With the
media broadcasting that Kiara and friends are dangerous and subversive, can Kiara clear her name and bring her pursuers to
justice?
| | | | | To purchase Kiara's Pursuer ebook
@ $1.99 kindle version click here, To contact the author contact Author@KenXBriggs.com | | | | | | | | The town of Zinaville is dropped into a spiral of evil causing a young man and a beautiful but abused woman
to launch into an investigation that unveils an evil conspiracy. A horrific mining accident results in Joshua
Robyn's father being killed. Joshua struggles both with himself and his townsfolk as he tries to make sense of an incomprehensible
situation. Is it an accident or a murder? Why is there a seeming link to evil? Why is his work environment suddenly threatening?
What is the conspiracy about and what are they trying to do? As action moves dramatically from exotic African grasslands to
the heart of North America's cities, the plot unfolds and the pace quickens. Will there be time? Why is a beautiful abused
young woman in the center of this plot? Evil tendrils tighten on their lives and the interplay between the visible
and invisible world shows opposing forces at work. Will there be a rift in evil? Will they be able to stop the
evil in time? | | - Published: September, 2010
- Format: Perfect
Bound Softcover(B/W)
- Pages: 208
Size: 6x9 - ISBN: 9781450250894
Available
from Barnes and Noble, Amazon, iUniverse. Chapters | | | | |
| Frugal Eating Advice |
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| Good advice for students living on limited $'s. Click on the image! |
May you be blessed today!
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