Thursday, March 27, 2014

Anything Goes. NOT! - Now Think On This by Steve Martin


Anything Goes. NOT!
Now Think On This
by Steve Martin


“And this know thou, that in the last days there shall come perilous times, for men shall be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, evil-speakers, to parents disobedient, unthankful, unkind, without natural affection, implacable, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, not lovers of those who are good, traitors, heady, lofty, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, having a form of piety, and its power having denied; and from these be turning away…”
2 Tim 3:1-5 (Young’s Literal Translation YLT) 


There used to be good, well-established standards in life. It used to be where everything was “black and white”, and you could count on grounded “Do this. Don’t do that” principles to help guide you in day to day decisions each are called to make.

In the past, if a law was in place, you didn’t break it. If the item wasn’t yours, you didn’t take it. If the photograph was not good to look at, well, you just didn’t look at it.

Not so anymore. Or so it would seem in this American and other worldly cultures that are so prevalent now. Anything goes, or so we would be led to believe. Many now think that you can do what you want to do and live with whom you want to live with. You can say whatever you want to say, and never have to own up to the fact that it was just simply wrong. “Must have been the previous guy’s fault, or the way my parents raised me” is an acceptable excuse.

You would think that all is OK, that you won’t be held accountable. If you are caught, you can just say, “I made a mistake,” give a press conference, and keep the job you had. Or if you are asked to step down from a position of authority, whether in the government, both national and local, or in the sports spotlight, or Lord forbid, even in some church settings – you will still get full pay, as others around you, that you yourself have put in place, will soften the sin and lengthen the lie. They will report to the public that you have been placed “on a leave of absence until it is all worked out”, acting as if it never happened in the first place.

You can even assume that because that guy is doing it, they won’t tell on you, because most likely they are doing it too. “You do your thing. Let me do mine, and we will all get along just fine.”

Is that the way it is? Is that the way it was meant to be? Is there not a God in heaven who established a righteous way of living, and will hold us accountable for it, based on His goodness and not our own unrighteousness, or on our warped mindset that “whatever will be will be?”

There certainly is! There certainly is a righteous way of life, of living, of having moral guidelines set in place, which is to our benefit if we walk in them. There certainly is the eternal God, whom the Bible declares is absolutely true; the heavens above declaring that which is absolutely true of His glory; the history of Israel, which absolutely declares and proves His promises fulfilled – there certainly is the God of Glory and Righteousness, Who will judge and hold each responsible for his life lived on this planet!

Those who have known the commands of the Lord, which still remain in solid stone, even if the ungodly judge sitting on the court glibly says otherwise…we need to be the ones who stand up and proclaim His Name. We need to be the ones who say to our children, “This is the way, walk in it.” We need to be the ones who don’t just sit by the well and watch the world go to hell.

The Holy Spirit in me compels me to speak up. The holy commandments, given to keep us living with peace, joy and righteousness, need to be kept established in our hearts, and then lived out for the world around us to see.

I for one am not going to trust in some wrong teaching that some rapture will take me out of here and let the nations perish without the knowledge of the Living God, the Creator of All. We have been called to be the light on the hill, the proclaimer of His Good News, the ones who are the hands and feet of our Lord, to take and make a clear and sound message in all the areas of life we inhabit and have been providentially placed in.


Let us rise up, empowered by the Ruach HaKodesh (Holy Spirit), and sound the alarm that death and destruction are not the way it has to be. We have the Truth. We have the Life. We have the Way. It is Jesus, Yeshua Himself, giving us all that pertains to eternal life. It is meant to start in this life too.

And if we get martyred in the process, as least we will have died with our boots on, and didn’t shrivel up watching some wasted TV program to pass the hours away.

We serve the Living God of Israel. We serve the King of kings and the Lord of lords. Through His grace, mercy, and love for all, let us be the ones we have been called to be, and let the world know it too.

Now think on this,

Steve Martin
Founder
Love For His People. Inc.

   
Love For His People, Inc. is a charitable, not-for-profit USA humanitarian organization started in 2010 to share the love of the Father in the nations.

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Now Think On This #135  - Anything Goes. NOT! by Steve Martin 
Date: In the year of our Lord 2014 (03.27.14) Thursday at 5:00 am in Charlotte, NC.

All previous editions of Now Think On This can be found on this Blog, and on our newest website: Now Think On This


Wednesday, March 26, 2014

Jerusalem's Kids...and a little kitty.

A few kids living in Jerusalem.
And a kitty too.

Photos by Steve Martin
Love For His People
Nov. 2010


Walking home after school
in the Jewish Quarter 
of Jerusalem's Old City.


Ethiopian Jew

Shopping in the shuk (marketplace)

Ready for a nap!




Nice kitty!

School is out.


Daycare - outside color time.


Jerusalem Photos - from Love For His People's Ahava Adventure

A few of the 2000+ photos I took in Jerusalem on our 2010 Ahava Adventure trip.

Steve Martin
Love For His People



Jerusalem Park


Pine tree near Kidron Valley
- it forms the Hebrew letter "shin"

Zion Gate into the Old City near Jewish Quarter

Church in the Armenian Quarter

King David stature near his tomb, which is close by
the Last Supper location.

Jewish Quarter's older men...

...and young kids.


Gathering in plaza near the Cardo (Jewish Quarter)

A few sheep and camels

Shwarma!

The Western Wall (Kotel)


Meat (lamb, turkey, beef) cooking 
in preparation for shwarma sandwiches.

Pomegranates and lemons

Walking home from school outside the Old City

A look back up the road to the 
Lion's (St. Stephen's) Gate
- Old City, Jerusalem

Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog - Israeli Strike on Iran in 2014?

Joel Rosenberg



Joel C. Rosenberg's Blog - Israeli Strike on Iran in 2014?


With rumors of Israeli strike on Iran in 2014 rising, Santorum & Rosenberg write oped for CNN: Could there be a “Second Holocaust”? Lessons from Nazi Germany & modern Iran.

by joelcrosenberg
CNN-logo(Netanya, Israel) -- Greetings from Israel. I'm here doing media interviews for The Auschwitz Escape, having various meetings, and trying to get a better sense of how Israeli citizens and leaders are viewing the crisis in Ukraine and the rising Iranian nuclear threat.
Rumors are swirling in the media here about a possible Israeli preemptive strike on Iran this year. Israeli officials at the highest level -- including the Defense Minister -- are reportedly coming to the reluctant belief that they cannot count on President Obama to take decisive action to neutralize the Iranian threat before it is too late.
Here are several recent headlines worth noting:
In this context, CNN.com has just published an op-ed that former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum and I have written. It examines parallels he and I find sobering between the history of Adolf Hitler and the current regime in Tehran. In the column, we also cite the exclusive new poll showing 80% of Americans fear a "Second Holocaust" if Iran is allowed to build nuclear warheads.
I hope you'll take a moment to read the full column. Then please post your comments on the "Epicenter Team" page on Facebook, and share this column with friends and get their reaction, as well.
--------------------
Lessons of history: Americans fear 'second Holocaust' if Iran gets the bomb
By Rick Santorum and Joel C. Rosenberg
(CNN) -- Hillary Clinton raised eyebrows this month when she compared Vladimir Putin's tactics in Ukraine to those of the Nazis.
She was right, but there is an even more ominous similarity between the actions of Iran and those of pre-war Germany.
On May 21, 1935, Adolf Hitler delivered his infamous "peace" speech. In his masterful history of Nazi Germany, "The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich," William L. Shirer quotes the Fuhrer's remarks at length:
  • "Germany needs peace and desires peace."
  • "Germany has solemnly recognized and guaranteed France her frontiers."
  • "Germany has concluded a non-aggression pact with Poland."
Shirer, a CBS Radio correspondent, called the address "one of the cleverest and most misleading of his Reichstag orations this writer, who sat through most of them, ever heard him make." He observed the West seemed beguiled by the speech, noting the Times of London welcomed Hitler's words "with almost hysterical joy."
"The speech turns out to be reasonable, straightforward, and comprehensive," stated the Times editorial. "No one who reads it with an impartial mind can doubt that the points of policy laid down by Herr Hitler may fairly constitute the basis of a complete settlement with Germany."
Yet Hitler was lying to buy time. He would not bring peace, but a horrific war, annexing Austria, invading France and Poland, and ordering the extermination of six million Jews.
Indeed, Hitler's lies were apparent less than a year after the speech. On March 7, 1936, the Nazis marched into the Rhineland, the demilitarized zone between Germany and France, in violation of the Treaty of Versailles.
If the West had confronted Hitler then, it could have forced him out of the Rhineland with a limited application of military force.
Such history is worth noting in today's showdown with Iran. Many in the West seem beguiled by the Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani. But are they....
————————
joelcrosenberg | March 25, 2014 at 7:48 pm | Categories: Uncategorized | URL:http://wp.me/piWZ7-2W7

Graham on World Vision: Sin Can't Unite Church - CBN NEWS


Church leaders are denouncing a decision by World Vision, one of the country's top Christian charities, to hire applicants in same-sex marriages.
The organization's president, Richard Stearns, announced the new policy in a letter to staff on Monday.
He said the move was not "symbolic not of compromise but of [Christian] unity," adding that the new policy defers to the authority of local churches on the issue.
"This is not an endorsement of same-sex marriage," Newsmax quoted Stearns. "We have decided we are not going to get into that debate. Nor is this a rejection of traditional marriage, which we affirm and support."
But faith leaders like Franklin Graham, president and CEO of Samaritan's Purse and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, dismissed Stearn's claims.
"World Vision maintains their decision is based on unifying the church -- which I find offensive -- as if supporting sin and sinful behavior can unite the Church," Franklin wrote on his Facebook page.
In addition, the Assemblies of God is calling for its members to shift their support to other charities.
Even so, Stearns said the board of the non-profit had been praying about the decision for years, and they hoped the change would keep the focus on their outreach to the poor and avoid controversy.
A fifth of the World Vision funding comes from the federal government.

Passover Nears. Time to Recall that a Biblical-Scale Plague Struck the Holy Land 99 Years Ago

Israel's History - a Picture a Day (Beta)


Posted: 26 Mar 2014 12:42 AM PDT
The American Colony photographers  took
hundreds of pictures of the  locust plague
and the insects' metamorphosis from larvae to adult
A version of this posting appeared in January 2012.

World War I brought widespread devastation to the Middle East as German and Turkish armies fought British, Australian and New Zealand troops in battlefields from the Suez Canal in the south to Damascus in the north.  

The war also meant a cut-off of aid and relief to the Jews of Palestine from Jewish philanthropists in Europe and the United States.






As many as 10,000 Jews were expelled from Jaffa-Tel Aviv in April 1917 by the Turks, and many perished from disease and hunger.

But the famine that struck the residents of Palestine was also caused by a massive plague of locusts that swarmed into Eretz Yisrael in March 1915 and lasted until October.  Accounts of the locusts and the subsequent starvation and pestilence recalled the plagues of Bible.

New York Times account from April 1915 described deaths from starvation.  By November 1915, theTimes detailed a cable from the American Counsel General in Jerusalem in which he described "fields covered by the locusts as far as the eye could reach."  The diplomat reported on efforts made by the Turkish leader of Palestine to combat the locusts.  A Jewish agronomist, "Dr. Aaron Aaronsohn, who is well known to the Department of Agriculture at Washington, was appointed High Commissioner" to the "Central Commission to Fight the Locusts." 

tree before the locusts arrived
The same tree after the locusts finished














[Aaronsohn would go on to establish the anti-Turkish NILI spy ring in 1917.  His sister Sarah was captured by the Turks for her involvement in the spy ring, and after torture, she committed suicide.]

American funds and food were essential for keeping the Jewish community in Palestine alive, and aid was delivered by U.S. Navy vessels.

The American Colony in Jerusalem established soup kitchens to feed starving residents in Jerusalem.  The colony's photographers documented more than 200 pictures of the locusts' devastation, efforts to combat them and the locusts' life cycle.  An album of color (hand tinted) photographs is stored in the Library of Congress collection.


"Locusts stealing in like thieves through
the window"
The Times reported, "Few crops or orchards escaped devastation.  This was especially true on the Plain of Sharon, where the Jewish and German colonies, with their beautiful orange gardens, vineyards, and orchards, suffered most severely... In the lowlands there was a complete destruction of crops such as garden vegetables, melons, apricots and grapes ... upon whose supply the Jerusalem markets depend... few vegetables or fruits [were] to be had in the markets."

Click on photos to enlarge. 
Click on captions to view the original pictures.

Team waving flags tries to push a swarm of locusts into a
trap dug into the ground.  The Turkish governor demanded
that every man deliver 20 kilo (44 pounds) of locusts









"In Jerusalem and Hebron," the report continued, "the heaviest loss from the onslaught of the locusts has been in connection with the olive groves and vineyards.  Olive oil is a staple of food among the peasants and poorer classes....The grape, too, is a similar staple among all classes."

Garden of Gethsemane, Jerusalem,  before the locusts
Garden of  Gethsemane, Jerusalem, after the locusts














"When the larvae appeared near Jerusalem," the Times related, residents were mobilized "for immediate organized resistance....Tin-lined boxes were sunk in the earth in the direction in which the locusts were advancing." Men, women and children were given flags and "the flaggers would drive the locusts together in a dense column toward the trap..."

Both the forces of war and nature combined to take a terrible toll on the residents of Palestine during World War I.

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USA Dentists Make Aliyah To Israel



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Where is Armageddon? - (Hint - not where you have been told...) ISRAEL TODAY

It is not in the Jezreel Valley, near Tel Megiddo and Nazareth, as many have been led to believe. 

It is Jerusalem.

Where is Armageddon?

Wednesday, March 26, 2014 |  Gershon Nerel  ISRAEL TODAY
Most Evangelical Christian pilgrims visiting the Land of the Bible identify Tel Megiddo in the Jezreel Valley with the apocalyptic Armageddon mentioned in the Book of Revelation. This common opinion is also disseminated by many Israeli tour guides and is often advertised by the Ministry of Tourism. However, we must ask, is this conventional "recognition" really beyond any doubt?
The full article appears in the April 2014 issue of Israel Today Magazine.
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