The Only Road to Peace is to Establish a Terrorist State, by President Barack Obama

In an AP article today entitled, "Arabs Cheer Obama Speech to Muslim World," we get a look at President Obama's idea of what it takes to bring peace to the middle east, all the while alienating and further infuriating our closest mid-east ally Israel.

In President Obama's Ankara Address in Turkey, according to the AP story we are told that the only means of reconciliation is to create a terrorist state.

[Obama] said, "the sole bridge toward reconciliation is a Palestinian state."

Now what exactly is a Palestinian state? A better question might be, what is a Palestinian? Oh, how quickly we forget our history. After World War II and the atrocity of the Nazi Holocaust was uncovered in all it's hideousness - in 1948 - the modern Nation of Israel was created. What was a British owned territory at the time was designated to be this new nation. Jews began to come to this barren land and till the desert. What had been barren wasteland of nomads would soon become a flourishing green oasis in a seemingly God-forsaken desert. Another territory was formed. For all the Arabs who lived in the region they were given the area formally known as Trans-Jordan. We now know this nation as Jordan, which would swallow up Israel in land size many times over.

There really is no such people called Palestinian. But, you say, "wait... there are two land portions inside Israel where the "Palestinians" live." Well, yes and no. We call them that, but they are really Arabs from various regions and nationalities who have settled in the Jewish state. And being the mean bully's they are, Israel allowed them to stay and grow families and communities. In Sergev Trifkovic's book, "The Sword of the Prophet," he says that one of the Muslim tactics is to take residence in an area and breed that area out. People born in that area prior to 1948 were all deemed Palestinian because it referred to a land mass and not a particular people. Christians born there were dubbed Palestinian Christians. There were also Jewish Palestinians and Muslim Palestinians.

Let's also not forget that "Palestine" is run by Hamas. A known terrorist group responsible for hurling rockets into civilian populated areas of Israel. "Palestine" is run by the same group, yes Hamas, that launched it's rockets from their own school houses and hospitals where civilians were being educated and treated. They launched from these areas to use the civilians as human shields.

So, when our president says that the only course of reconciliation is a Palestinian state, we should take notice that we are signing our own death certificates prematurely in the region. A legitimized state for terrorists who are bent on - and won't be satisfied until - Israel ceases to exist altogether.

America can keep capitulating to the whims of terrorism in the hopes of restoring order and peace, but all we are doing is further legitimizing their existence and furthering their cause.

Although our president insists we are not at war with Islam, that statement could best be restated to say we are not at war with moderate and secularized Islam. What's the difference? I'm glad you asked...

Moderate and secularized Islam are really liberal Muslims. Think of it in terms of liberal Christianity. Liberal Christianity will observe some of the holy days, but in varying forms deny the tenants of Christianity altogether. Some liberal Christians believe that Christ perhaps wasn't born of a virgin because we know that to scientifically impossible. Or, that no literal Hell really exists, or that the Bible isn't the inspired Word of God and on an on. These types of things we Bible believing Christians know cancel those liberal Christians from really being Christian despite the title they give themselves.

Moderate Muslims are the same. They observe the holidays but not the laws. They allow women to work and have jobs and basically status. No, I wouldn't say we are at war with those Muslims. However, I would also say that fundamentalist Muslims would also say that those Muslims aren't real Muslims. Just as fundamentalist Christians say the same of liberal Christians who deny the deity of Christ.

True Muslims who believe in the Quaran would have to believe it's staple belief that all the world must be Muslim. They have no basis of belief for co-existence. I am no scholar on Islam nor am I a historian, but no two nation state will ever bring peace. America's foreign policy will one day be seen, if we go down this road of legitimizing these nations, as the nail in it's coffin.

The only Hope we have is in Christ Jesus. The only Change worth anything is in Christ.

Not My World...

Eugene Peterson has a gift. The guy is a poet. He has a way with words that spill passion onto the pages of his writings. Nothing about what he writes is cliche or common. Descriptions to him seem to be opportunities to wield a pen as though it were a scalpel surgically dissecting his depictions of a phrase.

Peterson is the author of various books but none more recognizable than The Message. Yes, the paraphrase version of the Bible. You know the one that is issued to every youth pastor in America... We get a copy of it right before we are issued our designer-messed-up-holey-jeans, t-shirt and leather flip flops... Yes, the outfit we preach in even on Sunday mornings.

I've been, however stuck on a particular phrase that Peterson word-smithed in Romans ch.12. He said, "Don't wake up and fit in to the culture around your without even thinking about it." (Okay, I'm now paraphrasing Eugene Peterson... At what point do we no longer even use words?) But, the phrasing has gripped me. We are most used to hearing this said like so, "Be not conformed to this world... ." What Christian can escape this indictment? We all effortlessly fit into the culture around us - and without thinking about it. Insomuch that the true Biblical normal becomes abnormal to how we exist.

Normal is back in a long forgotten garden where humanity was created to sup with God... Face-to-face supping. The kind of supping where God politely asks you to pass the sugar to Him for more coffee.

This is the normal we've forgotten. God isn't near humanity any longer. We're too close to time to start church. We have a schedule to keep man. Humanity has left the garden. God still sits and sups, but often alone.

Normal is a kingdom. A kingdom we can have in this life, and no it's not normal. It's kingdom where we sit again with Him, Kingdom that doesn't push its own way. Its not this anti-kingdom we know so well today that has become our new normal.

Are we capable of waking up and fitting into His kingdom in a way that requires little thought because we've been citizens for sooo long? Can we fit into His kingdom and rediscover new normal?

We will find Him again in the garden of His original intent... supping with humanity, but only when we become less concerned about the culture around and consumed with the Kingdom of His design.

Making Americans Look Ridiculous...

The world loves America... right?

Oh, wait... I'm sorry! I forgot. We are the country that has been notorious for helping the world in times of dire crisis.

We are the country that has been the most forgiving to our enemies.

We are the country that will decimate our enemies in war, then turn around and rebuild them making them stronger and turn them into an ally. Japan anyone?

But we are hated abroad. European countries, whom we are allies with, think we are indulgent, whiney, buffoons. And, it really boils down to jealousy. People will float for miles on a barrel to get here... and we'll let them. When's the last time you heard of someone trying to escape into China, Russia or North Korea?

But, come on! Can't the current administration get anything right? Do I care if the world hates us? Sort of. I wish the world appreciated what America has meant to the world at large. We aren't perfect and have screwed many a thing up, but we get it right most of the time. We open up our purse to the world and help out with man power and aid when its needed most.

The Bush bashers would have had a field day if W. would have given the Queen of England an iPod. But, wait... I'm sorry it was an engraved iPod. Ooohhh, that makes it better.

"Hey, here's a DVD set of American classics, Mr. Brown!" I hope the Wizard of Oz doesn't scare him as much as it does me...

I hear the Obamas are going to give President Nicholas Sarkozy of France a Mr. Coffee coffee maker. This is ridiculous. We look like the idiots the world already thinks we are.

Give me a break! Please? I don't mind if the budget deficit is going to be close to 10 Trillion dollars, just please don't give away any more crappy gifts to foreign heads of state! Give our dignity back... at least what's left of it!

Beautiful Expression...

Eight years ago today my little Caleb was born! Hard to believe it's been that long ago. Nothing has been the same ever since. This little guy has taught me what it's like to love from God's point of view. That's right, I said from God's point of view.

What I mean is that Caleb brings nothing to the table - he has no job, pays nor room or board, for many years he couldn't even go to the bathroom by himself, clean himself, he makes messes of everything, eats my food, breaks our things, spills his glass and the list could go on and on - yet in an instant and without hesitation I would lay my life down for him. I love this little guy! I would fight off a 200lbs chimp on Xanax and alcohol to try to save his life. (Please Caleb don't give any chimps Xanax or alcohol... in fact stay away from 200lbs chimps!) But, I think you get the picture... love from God's perspective.

I remember when he was only a few weeks old, one night I was laying on our bed holding him. We were watching television and I kept making "daddy" noises at him, playing with him and just staring at him amazed at it all. All of a sudden I had this surreal moment that this is exactly how God loves me! Think of it. God goes "dada" over me... funny noises and all, right? Probably. But, I remember being so overwhelmed at the notion that God loves me simply because I'm His and created in His image.

The family is actually a perfect expression of our relationship with God. The love holds no conditional pre-agreement. It just is. Fathers would gladly trade the heart in their chests if it would save their children's lives. Dad's protect daughters at all costs... dads fight their fights. Sound familiar? Children trust and cling to parents for safety and provision. Parents provide correction and teach discipline. See the expressions of the relationship?

Husbands and wives take the expression even further. God created humanity in a garden... naked... and no one was ashamed. Only in marriage is this rightly able to be restored. In the shared naked intimacy we see a bit of the expression of intimacy God wants with us. He wants to see us naked, exposed without hiding anything from Him nor wanting to. The image of two becoming one is an expression of our souls being lost in Christ and becoming one in Him, with Him. What a picture He paints right before our eyes and one that we are daily confronted with to some degree or another.

Brothers and sisters are an expression of loyal love that is supposed to exist in the Spirit between us and Christ, and us and each other.

Of course, we can look at these expressions of family and see all the human perversions that the world has polluted this beautiful picture with. But in the family's purposed existence, we see a perfect mirror image of how we could exist in Him, how we should exist in Him.

An eight year old taught, no teaches, me this...

Beyond the Stuff...

Stuff consumes our attention so severely that the thought of losing our stuff simply terrifies humanity.

What is stuff, though? Houses? Cars? Clothes? Boats? These things are really an extension of an image we want to uphold. We really want others to see our material things and think, "Man, that guy is successful!" Or, "Wow, they really have it together!" We place tremendous value on peoples' perception of who they think we are that we work slave and worship at the feet of the god Mammon. We forget completely the One true God that created the universe by breath. A little more impressive than a house...

There is a prayer that consumes my journal. Actually, there are two. I find myself often saturated in these prayers and I go to them very often. I found myself here again this morning.

First, and in no particular order of importance, is that I walk uprightly before the Lord. I'm consumed with this prayer and most of the time, looking at my life, this prayer seems to bounce off the ceiling. I prayed this morning that if God answers any of my prayers let it be this one. I asked Him to answer this prayer in such a way that a cosmic conversation happens. That God would take notice and say to those beings that worship around His throne, "Now there's one who 'gets it'! There's one who has forsaken this life even though he is surrounded by Mammon worshipers... he only bows his knee to Me." I want that conversation to take place ever before I hear Christ say, "Well done faithful servant! Enter!"

Beyond the stuff... this is all that matters. Beyond the stuff - that we are so consumed to pray to preserve - let us pray for an upright walk! We have a bit of responsibility in this prayer, however. We have to determine our walk to be such. We have to turn our worship from Mammon, repent and be God-worshipers. He gives us the power to be obedient, but we must obey.

The second prayer is for my children. I pray that they be saturated with the power of God's Spirit from today until forever when they stand bathed in His presence. This is a prayer beyond the stuff. If I'm requited to two requests to be granted in all my life, then these are it. Nothing is more important. Earning enough money to purchase Mammon's trinkets and losing time to teach my children the way of worship to God alone is the lost way... the way leading to destruction.

I don't think they allow boats on the lake of fire, do they? Then why work our life at the cost of stuff and lose that which is most dear?

The question has to be asked, "Are things (stuff) wrong?" No, of course not. But the pursuit of happiness can be when happiness is rooted in this world's system and they go from tools to sacrifices made to Mammon. We are appalled and our stomachs are turned when we read how Israel reduced itself to offering their own infant children in the fires to the god Moleck. But, we perhaps burn our children to Mammon every day in our pursuit of this life and it's stuff. We become too busy teaching them the importance of travel ball, vacations and the good life and do not instill in them the proper importance of worshiping in community where we are united by God's Spirit. We burn our children to Mammon, so go easy on the Israelites of pre-Babylon. We are the "Christians" of pre-judged America.

Find life beyond the stuff...

"If it's hard for a rich person to enter Heaven, then why do we work so hard to be rich?" - Todd Agnew

Bittersweet Symphony... The Inevitability of Judgment

I was praying this morning and I asked God this question, "Is Your coming judgment inevitable?"

As of late our church has entered a season of prayer for the coming judgment that God is outlining for America. I've written about this in the last few weeks of what God has been revealing. It doesn't seem to be a pretty picture at all in the onset. The messages are saturate with judgment and calamity. There are dreams of decimated cities and fire and chaos. Rioting because of our selfish society is coming and a full out economic collapse is on our horizon. So, our prayers are the prayers of Habakkuk, "Remember mercy in judgment."

My prayers have been turned to pray for mercy more than anything. And in praying for mercy my heart went naturally to this question, "Is Your judgment inevitable?" God has answered my prayer. His answer is "Yes." His judgment is inevitable. It is coming and it will happen just as He has revealed. His answer came with an explanation, which is something we don't always get. Does God need to explain Himself? Certainly not. But, in this He wants to. He wants to explain why this judgment is upon us. Have you ever jerked a child up and punished them without explaining to them why they are being punished? If you have, the punishment was wasted. The punishment serves the purpose of teaching and often it is a result of lessons we chose not to learn. We force the corrective hand out of continually "not listening" to the teaching.

The coming judgment of God is bittersweet.

It is sweet because God is the One doing the judging. If ever I'm to be judged let it be by an all knowing judge who can rightly discern the evidence against me. Let it be a judge also who loves me and won't sacrifice mercy for emotion, but One who is able to judge perfectly. Most likely the only fair trial anyone will ever receive.

It is sweet because humility and holiness is His desired outcome for us. If this is His desire for us, and we become more intimate with Him and we are corrected to His path and are "right-ed" then what can be more sweet than being so close to such a Deity? The outcome is then sweet. There is nothing more desirable in this world's existence than to walk closely with Him and to be a friend of our cosmic Creator.

However, the judgment is also bitter. It is bitter because God takes no delight in judging sinners. We are forcing God's hand into something that is not delightful to Him. This judgment would be avoidable if we just repent and turn from the ways of this wicked world. He would spare us the judgment if we would repent. Think of Nineveh. The judgment is inevitable because America will not repent. We are too comfortable in the warm bed of Mammon. We won't leave this god's bed of pleasure.

I remember in 1990 as a small boy at an international church meeting of our denomination that there was of course a squabble going on in the church that had the church divided down the middle. The Holy Spirit issued a strong ardent warning to repent and turn to Him. The warning was so final and severe that it shut the meeting of 10,000 up completely and there was silence all across the place. The sense quickly became that God was referring not to "us" but to "them". God wanted "them" to repent. That was the sense on both sides of the issue. It stroked each sides righteous indignation with the other half of the argument. The attitude was "See! God wants 'them' to repent." As a much older boy, I see that God was referring to "both" sides of the argument. His attention was far from the issue at hand and was fixed upon the rebellious heart of the church at large. He had a lot more on His table of important issues that we were completely segregated from. Business as usual for us...

America will not repent and change her ways. She must be humbled by God's compulsion. He has been trying to get us to repent for decades and we've completely ignored Him. Repenting to us has always been for the "other guy", never ourselves. We are so blinded by the worship of our gods - as my pastor put it yesterday, we are so comfortable with them that they have become the new normal - that we can't see that we are the ones polishing the idol for our Sunday morning worship service.

The judgment is inevitable because our refusal to repent is unwavering. God please temper wrath with mercy since it's on its way.

iWorship...

I recently took the $12.99 plunge into the world of Rhapsody. For the past three days, I've had two songs in my Mixer... "Open Up the Skies" by Deluge and "From the Inside Out" by Hillsong. I have these two songs on perpetual repeat. Three days into this saturation I'm now able to listen to these songs without losing my composure and openly weeping in my office. Did I mention that my office has two large windows for the corner walls over looking my coworkers? Yeah, it's fun to openly cry at work... :) They've not committed me yet. I think there's still hope, though...

Anyway, these songs scream the cry of my heart. One in particular, "Open Up the Skies" opens with these inspired lines:

"Father, loving Father, please come down and meet us / we are longing for Your great touch / open up the heavens shower down your presence / we respond to your great love / we won't be satisfied with anything ordinary / we won't be satisfied at all"

What gets me most is the near desperation that come across in just the lyrics. The cry of the church has been for so long "Give me! Give me! Give me!" The chorus goes like this:

"Open up the sky / fall down like rain / we don't want blessings we want You"

Of all the cries that the church can make, this is the ONE! If you've never listened to this song, then either make the $13 plunge on Rhapsody or buy the CD or something. Just hear this song!

It wrecks me! It says:

"Here we go, lets go to throne / the place that we belong / right into His arms"

These lyrics are fantastic! This is where we belong... right into His arms and the fascinating thing is that God wants us there too! He longs for us. But, we are too busy with anything and everything. I know I am. We run and run and run and all that ever matters is being near to God who is present.

It reminds me of Jacob in Genesis when he crosses over the river and lies down to sleep. He then has the dream of the ladder that stretched from Heaven to Earth and he sees angels ascending and descending. He sees God. When he wakes up on that ordinary piece of ground, with an ordinary stone for his pillow, he says something remarkable... something that marks our everyone of our lives "God was in this place and I was unaware of it."

What scares me isn't whether or not I'll make it to Heaven in the after life. That's already been determined. What unnerves me is that when I stand before Him, will I see all the mundane things in my life, all the times I sat outside with starry skies screaming at me that God was there and I was unaware? I'm crying even now as I type this. This should unnerve us all, that we will see God in the after life and we will become aware of how close He was to us all along and how unaware we all constantly are.

My life's journal written from the vantage point of the afterlife will surely say, "God was in that place and I was completely unaware." That place will be wherever I happen to be looking back at that moment. My challenge: Live life aware...