Editor: Richard (Dick) Innes
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Vol. 13 – No. 1911 May 07, 2011
Thought for the week: "A different world cannot be built by indifferent people." – Peter Marshall
To All Hunters. The following is reported to have been in a San Francisco newspaper:
"To all you hunters who kill animals for food, shame on you; you ought to go to the store and buy the meat that was made there, where no animals were harmed."
I like what a Buddhist monk once said, "To know and not to do is not yet to know." To translate that into our Christian terminology it could be, "To believe and not to act is not yet to believe." In other words, if I say that I believe that without Christ people are eternally lost, and never do anything to point or even to help point others to Christ, do I really believe that people without Christ are lost? And if I say that I believe that Jesus is coming again and that the lost will be left behind, and I never do anything to help point them to Christ, do I really believe that Jesus is coming again and that the non-Christians will be left behind?
So I agree with the monk who said: "To know and not to do is not yet to know."
There is a doctrine today called "Replacement Theology" that states that the nation of Israel is no longer God's chosen people; that Israel has been replaced by the Christian Church. If this is true, how do you explain the miraculous re-birth of the nation of Israel after some 1,900 years—and it's survival against overwhelming odds?
As the Apostle Paul wrote in the New Testament, "I ask then, 'Did God reject his people [Israel]? By no means! I am an Israelite myself, a descendant of Abraham ... God did not reject his people.... [for] God's gifts and his call are irrevocable'" (Romans 11:1-2; 29 NIV).
While the nation of Israel rejected Jesus Christ as their Messiah, God has not done away with his chosen people. As God's Word also says, "Israel has experienced a hardening in part until the full number of Gentiles [non-Jews] has come in. And so all Israel will be saved." Romans 11:25-26 (NIV).
God also promised the nation of Israel: "I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse..."
Genesis 12:3 (NIV).
May this be a warning to all who oppose God's chosen people, the Israelites—including some of America's leaders.
1. Nationhood and Jerusalem: Israel became a nation in 1312 BC, two thousand (2,000) years before the rise of Islam.
2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel.
3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BC, the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand (1,000) years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.
4. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 lasted no more than 22 years.
5. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital. Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit.
6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy Scriptures. Jerusalem is not mentioned even once in the Koran.
7. King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to Jerusalem.
8. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem.
9. Arab and Jewish Refugees: in 1948 the Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. Sixty-eight percent left (many in fear of retaliation by their own brethren, the Arabs), without ever seeing an Israeli soldier. The ones who stayed were afforded the same peace, civility, and citizenship rights as everyone else.
10. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution and pogroms.
11. The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated to be around 630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be the same.
12. Arab refugees were INTENTIONALLY not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own people's lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey.
13. The Arab-Israeli Conflict: the Arabs are represented by eight separate nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won.
14. The PLO's Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. Israel has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them.
15. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and the Jews were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths.
16. The UN Record on Israel and the Arabs: Of the 175 Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel.
17. Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel.
18. The UN was silent while 58 Jerusalem synagogues were destroyed by the Jordanians.
19. The UN was silent while the Jordanians systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.
20. The UN was silent while the Jordanians enforced an apartheid-like policy of preventing Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.
– Reported having been written by a Christian
professor. Submitted by Al Rowley.
NOTE: I doubt if there will ever be a lasting peace in this part of the world until the "Prince of Peace," Jesus Christ, comes again.
There are five birds on a telephone wire. Two decide to fly south. How many are left?
No, it's not three; it's five. Deciding to fly south and actually flying south are two different things. The life lesson is that you'll never get where you want to go until you point yourself in the right direction, jump off the wire, and start flapping your wings.
To justify my unseemly size, I often tell people, "I'd like to be thin—especially when I'm not hungry. The problem is, when I'm hungry or tempted by a donut, I make excuses or rationalize by drinking a Diet Coke to offset the donut."
Actually, I've been pretty good lately and have lost 30 pounds—but it's never easy. Every single day I have to point myself in the direction I want to go and jump off that wire.
In the end, it's not my goals that determine the quality of my life; it's my actions. When there's a conflict between what I want now and what I want for the future, the word "later" seems so much more attractive than "now"—but it's not a good life strategy.
I love donuts, but I've never had one that was so good that the pleasure lasted for more than a few moments.
The key to a happy and healthy life is to resist urges and impulses for momentary pleasures that sabotage long-term goals. Lots of things that feel good aren't good for us, and lots of things that are fun won't make us happy.
Giving up the good "now" for the better "later" shouldn't be seen as a sacrifice; it's an investment.
This is Michael Josephson reminding you that character counts.
Ed. Note: "Don't sacrifice your future on the altar of the immediate." – Unknown
"He [the leper that Jesus healed] threw himself at Jesus' feet and thanked him—and he was a Samaritan. Jesus asked, 'Were not all ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?'"1
"It seems to be human nature to forget to say, 'Thank you.' Samuel Leibowitz, a brilliant criminal lawyer, saved 78 people from the electric chair; not one thanked him. Art King had the radio program, 'Job Center of the Air.' He supposedly found jobs for 2500 people, of whom, only ten ever thanked him. An official of the post office, in charge of the Dead Letter Box in Washington, D.C., reported, one year, that he had received hundreds of thousands of letters addressed to 'Santa Claus' asking him to bring many things, but after Christmas, only one letter came to the box thanking Santa Claus for bringing the toys asked for."2
How do I appreciate thee? Let me count the ways!
Whoever the "thees" are in your life and mine, let us take stock and name the ways we have been blessed through their love, their friendship, their support, their encouragement, their help and so on.
And let us not fail to express gratitude when such is due. As William Arthur Ward said, "Feeling gratitude and not expressing it is like wrapping a present and not giving it." Furthermore, let us be givers, just not takers.
Suggested prayer: "Dear God, please give me a grateful heart and may I never ever fail to thank you for the innumerable blessings I continually receive from your hand. Most of all I am and will be forever grateful for your 'so great salvation' with the gift of sins forgiven and eternal life through the sacrifice of your Son, Jesus. Thank you for hearing and answering my prayer. Gratefully, in Jesus' name, amen."
1. Luke 17:16-18 (NIV).
2. Tony Bland. Cited on www.sermons.com.
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