"We did not tape anything because if (sic) was a courtesy call, like I do in every country..."
Just moments after receiving this reply, Farah found the YouTube video and asked Warren about it. Moments later, the video was removed from YouTube by Saddleback Church.(WND)
The article went on to say that some Saddleback members were "disturbed" by Warrens actions.
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Syria's "moderate" belief system, of course, involves destroying Israel, murdering innocent Jewish civilians, fueling Hezbollah, and walking lockstep with Iran.
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...add this to the pope's recent caressing of the crescent, and you would think that Christians and Muslims were all just a bunch of lovable, cuddly friends.
"The Pope's dreaded visit was concluded with a wonderful surprise," wrote daily Aksam on its front page.
"In Sultan Ahmet Mosque, he turned toward Mecca and prayed like Muslims," popular daily Hurriyet said, using the building's official name.
His gestures, including support for Ankara's bid to join the European Union and praise for Islam as a peaceful faith, seem to have persuaded the Turks to move beyond the tension following his speech quoting a Byzantine emperor as calling Islam violent.
Now, where would he get that idea?
Mango has been puking all over the floor this week (among other places), and as you can see, he just plain doesn't feel good.I have learned a few things about blogging along the way, and the most obvious to me at this point is that it is impossible to blog "full time" when you have a full time job; try as I might; I can not devote the time that it takes to have a truly successful blog... for now.
Allow me to use this time to share with you an article from Messiah magazine (FFOZ).
I have mentioned before that my family is currently in a transition from “normal” Christianity to “Torah Observant” Christianity.
I was telling my pastor the other day (no, we don’t call him “Rabbi”) that entering into a Hebraic Roots mindset has lead us on a “long strange trip”. My kids get ridiculed at school for not eating pork, they get called “Jew-boy” in the hallways, and their extended families tell them that we are dead wrong. My wife’s family thinks that we are wannabe Jew ’s, and I have am called a “Zionist Pig” at work.
The people in our lives that have the hardest time with our beliefs (?) are other Christians. Sometimes I wonder how people can love Jesus so intently, and at the same time be so opposed to His Father’s teachings and rules. After all, that’s what the Torah is: The Father’s teachings and rules. Who would expect to be invited into a family, and not obey the rules of the one who owns the house? I know Christians that would never enter their own parent’s house with their hat on because it was always a rule growing up – a sign of respect that you take it off when entering; yet we have been adopted into God’s family – his house, and we think that we can ignore his statutes and the five books in His Word that lay the foundation for the faith that we profess. Imagine a child being adopted into a Jewish family. What would the adoptive father think if that child grew up disregarding all of the things the Jewish family did as part of their religion, completely ignoring the rules that have been layed down long before he/she arrived? Imagine the disappointment of the father when the child grows up in his household, having never made an attempt at knowing why his adopted family does what they do. How much more of an interest should we have in God's teachings and rules, as believers in His only Son?
Before I go further, I want to stress that I do not think that we should cling to every Jewish tradition. My wife and I disregard many Jewish traditions that are not scripturally based (my wife doesn’t wave the smoke above the two Sabbath candles, nor do we sing a Sabbath song, etc.). Please notice, however, that she does light the two Sabbath candles. I have yet to find a scripture that tells her to do this, and we regard it as tradition - not commandment. We do it for a couple of reasons; the first being that it is a visual example for my kids; a tangible picture of “The light of the world”. There are two candles - she lights the second from the first, representing the fact that our light comes from Him; the one true Light. The candles also set that day (and dinner) aside from all the other days of the week; it makes it special, which is what He told His people to do from the beginning, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy (Exd 20:8). Holy means “sanctified” or set apart. Lighting the candles, for us, sort of alerts us to the importance of the day we are entering; it also makes Sabbath dinner stand out in our kid’s minds as well; special food, special glasses with grape juice in them, two loaves of homemade special bread and so on.
I almost forgot about the magazine article I started this post with! It is titled:
“Shabbat (Sabbath) Gateway to HaShem” by Tikvah Michael.
We have had a difficult time with the transition from regular old Saturday to Sabbath Observance – namely, “What can we do and not do?” How do we meet God, rest, refrain from work, chase a three year old around the house, tend to two pre-teens and a seven year old, all at the same time? Not to mention the fact that I have to work on four Saturdays in a row every other month. Tikvah explains in the article that when you start to observe Sabbath, you should treat it as a transformation process - allow God to meet you there slowly but surely. Don’t bite off more than you can chew.
You wouldn't believe what a comfort this article was to me! To hear a believer in Jesus that has been observing Sabbath for almost two decades talk about the transition process with so much grace is unbelievably encouraging. I often wonder if we are just spinning our wheels - we never feel like we did it all correctly. It is an ongoing process, with things changing from week to week.
Hopefully, I will have the chance some day to thank her – I have struggled with some of this stuff ever since we started trying! She also pointed me toward a scripture that gives me a lot of comfort on this “strange trip”; one that I had read, but forgotten about:
Blessed is the man that does this, and the son of man that lays hold of it; that keeps the Sabbath from polluting it, and keeps his hand from doing any evil.
Neither let the son of the stranger, that hath joined himself to the LORD, speak, saying, The LORD hath utterly separated me from his people: neither let the eunuch say, Behold, I am a dry tree.
For thus saith the LORD unto the eunuchs that keep my Sabbaths, and choose the things that please me, and take hold of my covenant;
Even unto them will I give in mine house and within my walls a place and a name better than of sons and of daughters: I will give them an everlasting name, that shall not be cut off.
Also the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him, and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keeps the Sabbath from polluting it, and takes hold of my covenant;
Even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of
prayer: their burnt offerings and their sacrifices [shall be] accepted upon mine altar; for
mine house shall be called an house of prayer for all people. Isa 56:2-7
Notice how it starts; "Blessed is the man that does this..." not "Blessed is the Jew" or "Blessed
is the person that lives before Messiah is born", but "Blessed is the man that does this..." My favorite part of is “the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to the LORD, to serve him,
and to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, every one that keeps the Sabbath from polluting it, and takes hold of my covenant; even them will I bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer...” That tells me that I am included in this blessing – praise the LORD! That says that I am included in this Sabbath business, and I don’t know why any Christian would be opposed to receiving those promises. I’ll take “joyful in His house of prayer” any time.
If you have never considered trying out the seventh day Sabbath, I would encourage you to start now. I can tell you from experience that it is a little intimidating at times (besause it is new), but it is a fun learning experience that is full of His grace.
I am amazed at how He loves me so much that He is willing to lead me by the hand – knowing what I am; knowing what I’ve done, and knowing all of my faults on a day to day basis. He promises to meet me in that rest, and for that, I am willing to be
called names – by the world, or other Christians – because what ever they throw at me can never compare to the joy that He has promised me when I just simply obey Him, and remember His Sabbath.
In a recent post, I called on Greg Laurie to go back and look at who the Ten Commandments were given to. Today, I want to look at who the rest of the commandments were given to.
The “Commandments of God” are considered by the Jewish population to be the 613 commandments of the Torah (Genesis through Deuteronomy). It should be noted that no Jew could follow all of the 613. Aside from the fact that we “have all fallen short of the Glory of God” (Rom 3:23), the common Jew has additional reasons for not obeying all of them.
For starters, there is no existing
Secondly, a male Jew could not, for obvious reasons, adhere to the female cleanliness Laws, simply because he is a man. This means that there are certain Laws that he will never be able to obey. Also in this category (Laws that he can not obey) are the Laws that instruct him redeem his firstborn child (provided he has no children and there is still no Temple); the Laws of leprosy (considering he never contracts leprosy, and there is still no Temple); the Laws of farming (providing he is not a farmer and there is still no Temple); and the list goes on.
For logical reasons, coupled with spiritual reasons, no man can observe the Law in its entirety.
But who is supposed to be doing this Law to begin with? I should start by saying that we are not justified by doing the law. Paul makes that very clear in Romans 3:20, that “by the deeds of the Law no flesh is justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” We are justified just like Abraham was – through faith.
Is Paul saying that the law is not valid then? No; Paul asks in Rom 3:31, “Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.”
We establish the law.
I believe that these laws are for Christians as well. The scriptures that back this claim are too numerous to list in this post, but I will list the most compelling evidence that I have found so far.
If you will turn to Rev 12:17 which states, “And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.” Do you see it? These people, the “remnant of her seed” keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus the Messiah. This is seen seven times in Revelation (Rev 1:2, Rev 1:9, Rev 6:9, etc).
Also, look at 1 John, 2:3. This verse declares that you can know if you know Him (God). How do you know if you know Him? 1Jo 2:3 “And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments”. Notice that John doesn’t claim that we are justified by the commandments, but if we know Him, we will obey them.
I don’t know about you, but I want to know that I know Him. 1Jo 2:4 says that, “He that says, I know him, and keeps not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.”
If you are wondering if this is referring to the “two commandments given by Jesus”, you will have to come back tomorrow. In the meantime, I can tell you for now that these “two” are the same at those 613 I wrote about earlier. If you don’t believe me, check back later; we’ll talk about it.
I am on the night shift. I go in at
Greg went on to tell his audience why they should obey the rest of the Ten Commandments; why they are still valid in the life of modern Christians, and how they are a good moral framework for us today.
I could not help but think of the ignorance displayed in his comments. Who did he think the other nine Commandments were given to? Where does the Word of God differentiate in the dialogue of the Ten Commandments which ones are for the Jews, and which are for everybody? It doesn’t. Greg Laurie made the statement that a Christian does not have to obey the Saturday Sabbath because it is for the Jews. God’s Word says nothing of the sort. In fact, it says the opposite. Jesus states that The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath (Mar 2:27). Notice that Jesus didn’t say that Sabbath was made for the Jew, but for man.
If we are to follow Greg Laurie’s method of disregarding the things that were “given to the Jews” then we have a huge problem. To start with, the book of James in the New Testament was (as stated in the first sentence) “...to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad...” (Jam 1:1). See the problem? Maybe Greg would have us throw the entire book out. After all, it was given to the Jews, wasn’t it? I don’t think there is any other way to interpret the “twelve tribes”. They are clearly the twelve tribes of
Greg doesn’t actually follow this rule though. He taught a (prerecorded) message two days later on “Thou Shall not Steel”, in which he stated that we are steeling from God by not tithing a tenth of our earnings to the church. Can you guess which scripture he used to make the claim? Mal 3:8 “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.” A simple study on these “tithes and offerings” will show even the most unlearned Bible scholar that they were commanded to the Jews, in order to provide for the Levites in the
Num 18:26 “Thus speak unto the Levites, and say unto them, When ye take of the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then ye shall offer up an heave offering of it for the LORD, [even] a tenth [part] of the tithe.”
Did you notice what “offerings” means? Is Greg telling us that we should offer up heave offerings too? I doubt it. I think he has merely transposed out 21st century meaning of “offering” into the mix. Greg is telling his audience that we are robbing from the Lord by not paying 10% via the offering plate in church every Sunday morning.
I find it absurd that Christians can listen to comments like the ones Greg Laurie is making, and never even think to search them out in the scripture. We are called to make sure our teachers are teaching sound doctrine. I believe that Greg Laurie has fallen short of that goal when it comes to his separating Jew and Gentile commandments. They are all God’s Commandments. As servants of the Almighty, should we be allowing Greg to choose which of God's Laws we are to follow?
And about the "moral law" business. I heard a teacher say once that since Jesus said the greatest commandment is, "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind." If the greatest commandment relies on our love for God, wouldn't all of his commandments be "moral commandments"?
Just something to chew on.
Some highlights from Ann Coulter’s latest master piece:
...the only reason McCain is demanding that prisoners like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, the beheading of journalist Daniel Pearl and other atrocities -- be treated like Martha Stewart facing an insider trading charge is this: "It's all about the United 
States of America and what is going to happen to Americans who are taken prisoner in future wars."
McCain, along with Sen. Lindsey Graham and Sen. John Warner -- or, as the Times now calls him, the "courtly Virginian" -- want terrorists treated like Americans accused of crimes, with full access to classified information against them and a list of the undercover agents involved in their capture. Liberals' interest in protecting classified
information started and ended with Valerie Plame.
... There hasn't been this much railing about the mistreatment of a hostage since Monica Lewinsky was served canapes at the Pentagon City Ritz-Carlton Hotel while being detained by the FBI.
... But being nice to enemies is an idea that has never worked, no matter how many times liberals make us do it. It didn't work with the
... Fortunately, history always begins this morning for liberals, so they can keep flogging the same idiotic idea that has never, ever worked...
...As McCain might put it, I hold no brief for al Qaeda, but what would better protect Americans they take prisoner than if 
If you have already had your morning coffee, and still feel like something is missing, read the whole thing here.
I am back!
Before I get started, I want to say that I am going to change the format a little around here. The news is really getting on my nerves, and when I allow myself, I become consumed with it. There are only so many things I can say about the communistic, left-wing, terrorist supporting, Bush hating, Mama Sheehan supporting, Gorbachev worshiping, Clinton praising, 9-11 conspiracy mongering, holocaust denying morons before I start to lose my focus.
Things are spiraling out of control in our world, and the Democratic Party is so convinced that the world’s problems are the product of George W. Bush, that they are wiling to blame even the weather on him; then claim that the conservatives are irrational. I have had it.
People like this can not be reasoned with. They are not worth the trouble.
So, while I will not reject the news entirely, I am going to get back to my original vision, and do more Torah studies, more of my art work, more cello posts, and the like. I am open to any and all suggestions; however – if you do not agree with the opinions on this blog, leave. Better yet, go study up and present a logical argument based on fact and rational thought. This may keep you away from the abortion clinic, or from taking the 10 Commandments off of court house lawns for a little while, but trust me; it will do you some good to use your brain for a few minutes. The ACLU can do without you for the time it takes you to study up on some factual history. Don’t be a coward, leaving comments that spew hatred and foul language, without ever conveying an intelligible idea. As members of the Left wing Democratic Party, you know who you are, and you know what I am talking about; your illiteracy and vile remarks reveal you.
...back to business...
All of this talk of vile, disgusting creeps makes for the perfect intro to something that happened to my wife tonight. She had just taken our weiner dog outside to do her business, and when she came back into the house, she had one of these on her arm:
...yes, on her arm; touching her skin, crawling up her arm. After she brushed it off (thinking it was just part of a cobweb that she walked through) she jumped back and said, "Oh my gosh!! That's the biggest spider I have ever seen in my life!"
I continued reading, unconcerned, because I know for a fact that we have seen some pretty large spiders at the
I nonchalantly got up and started over toward the door; then I saw it. After shuddering about fifteen times, I managed to get it into in a Mason jar (where it sits, safely by my right hand as I type). Its rear end is the size of a small grape, and its legs spread out bigger than an old silver dollar.
Man! Maaaaaaaaan! I will not sleep tonight.
It's title is: "Neoscona crucifera" of the Araneidae family. Supposedly it is "not known to cause serious effects to humans". Personally, I don't care if it was wearing an "I love Ronald Reagan" T-shirt, it still gave me the willies; and it wasn't even on my arm.
She is asleep now. I am going to bed soon, but not without a lot of contemplation, I'm sure.
Where are the rest of them? These things could be hiding anywhere; under the bed, beneath the toilet seat, in my boots, or my sock drawer, even taking refuge in my extremely manly, robust beard while I am sleeping... for all I know, one could be on my back right now, seeking revenge for the imprisonment of his mate...
...or on her arm.
