New Covenant Psalm 15









For the one seeking to discover the Heart of God

Dearest One,

How do I learn the truth of your presence...
to be consciously aware?
How do I shut down the self-slander,
and allow myself to simply bask in your acceptance?

I want to ache for the flaws in others
like a parent hurting for their injured child...
not scolding, but feeling the hurt of their child.

Oh Dear One, could I bear some of the agony
of those adrift in the sea of self-seeking?
Could I appeal to you...for them?

Could I see the drifting ones through your eyes?
Could my words be like money in the bank?
Could I be strong for the weak?

Could I?

XtnYoda Shalomed

In response to RevLurch's question about whether or not the church is just a little slow in dealing with things like racial prejudice and such. He asked if we are not just a little behind the curve?

Behind the curve?

Yes. We just seem to gravitate to that which is familiar and comfortable. Jesus said "go"...we say, "Ya'll come."

The church should be militant evangelists and fishers of "men" not keepers of the aquarium. We should confront our culture with the truth of the gospel, not accommodate every whim and fancy.

We should lead the way in tearing down every wall that divides us, not building walls to separate.

We should recognize no other King than Jesus, know no other Kingdom than God's, and be each one committed to our lives being lived to the glory of God alone.

We should be committed to being movers and shakers not slumbering in the shadow of polls and popularity.

We should be leaders of "men" not followers of fads.

We should see ourselves as spokesmen to humanity on the brink of doom, filled with dread for the coming Day of the Lord's judgment, and speak as dying prophets to dying people.

We should be consumed with a passion for the lost, and a devotion to the redeemed.

We should be fearless, restless, and dissatisfied with every achievement...always looking forward and never satisfied with any slight victory of yesterday.

We should never have our noses in the air but our faces buried in the earth in abject prayer and supplication.

We should see ourselves as destitute, desperate, and needy...with a razor sharp awareness that if it is not God we will fail.

We should never allow ourselves to attempt the explainable but stretch out in the deep waters, the roaring winds and waves, our only hope in Christ.

We should be vulnerable, weak, and trusting...ready to bear the weight of sorrow for broken people.

We should be...as Christ.

As Romans eight says,
Rom 8:19 All creation is eagerly waiting for God to reveal who his children are.
20 Creation was subjected to frustration but not by its own choice. The one who subjected it to frustration did so in the hope
21 that it would also be set free from slavery to decay in order to share the glorious freedom that the children of God will have.
22 We know that all creation has been groaning with the pains of childbirth up to the present time. (God's Word Translation)

XtnYoda Shalomed

New Covenant Song 14





For the one seeking to discover the Heart of God

I was so lost apart from the Dear One,
so adrift in my self-seeking.

But...God came looking...
and when the Dear One found me...
Finally...I saw.
I had embraced the maggot as my equal
delighting in the stench of decay...
as life.

And yet the decay calls us.
Like a sailor drowning at sea it cries out,
"Don't leave me!
Don't desert me!"

There comes the time when
We must abandon the maggot...
to live.

XtnYoda Shalomed

New Covenant Song 12

For the Worship Leader.






Heard these before?

"The sky is falling, the sky is falling!"
"It's all over but the crying!"
"Might as well cash in your chips!"
"You just can't trust a soul anymore!"
"What the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve!"
"God helps those that help themselves!"

Does any of the above sound...familiar?
Actually, God helps those who can't help themselves.

As surely as God is God,
our Dear One will keep His word.
When all else looks hopeless...
God will.

XtnYoda Shalomed

I actually did check this out on snopes and they report it as true. The principle's statement does speak to many peoples deep concerns about our religious liberty's that have been stripped from us in the USA.

This is a statement that was read over the PA system at the football game at Roane County High School, Kingston, Tennessee, by school Principal, Jody McLeod.

It has always been the custom at Roane County High School football games, to say a prayer and play the National Anthem, to honor God and Country.

Due to a recent ruling by the Supreme Court, I am told that saying a Prayer is a violation of Federal Case Law. As I understand the law at this time, I can use this public facility to approve of sexual perversion and call it 'an alternate lifestyle,' and if someone is offended, that's OK.

I can use it to condone sexual promiscuity, by dispensing condoms and calling it, 'safe sex.' If someone is offended, that's OK.

I can even use this public facility to present the merits of killing an unborn baby as a 'viable means of birth control!' If someone is offended, no problem...

I can designate a school day as 'Earth Day' and involve students in activities to worship religiously and praise the goddess 'Mother Earth' and call it 'ecology.'

I can use literature, videos and presentations in the classroom that depicts people with strong, traditional Christian convictions as 'simple minded' and 'ignorant' and call it 'enlightenment.'

However, if anyone uses this facility to honor GOD and to ask HIM to Bless this event with safety and good sportsmanship, then Federal Case Law is violated.

This appears to be inconsistent at best, and at worst, diabolical. Apparently, we are to be tolerant of everything and anyone, except GOD and HIS Commandments.

Nevertheless, as a school principal, I frequently ask staff and students to abide by rules with which they do not necessarily agree. For me to do otherwise would be inconsistent at best, and at worst, hypocritical... I suffer from that affliction enough unintentionally. I certainly do not need to add an intentional transgression.

For this reason, I shall 'Render unto Caesar that which is Caesar's,' and refrain from praying at this time.

However, if you feel inspired to honor, praise and thank GOD and ask HIM,in the name of JESUS, to Bless this event, please feel free to do so. As far as I know, that's not against the law----yet.

One by one, the people in the stands bowed their heads, held hands with one another and began to pray.

They prayed in the stands. They prayed in the team huddles. They prayed at the concession stand and they prayed in the Announcer's Box!

snopes article

XtnYoda Shalomed

New Covenant Song 13

For those whose hearts love to worship.

Oh Dear One!
How I grieve over my heart...
Often struggling with my thoughts.
Voices of loneliness, sorrow,
Self-pity, and guilt.

I often feel like...
A wrestler pinned beneath
A smothering, sweating, mass of
Brawn and rage...
Drooling into my heart,
Curses and mockery.

Then...I remember.

You are so merciful,
Patient,

Caring.

I remember...
You really care.

Oh, Dear One,
I am wide eyed...
In wonder.

Thank You.

XtnYoda Shalomed

Finally there is a MD group that is trying to take the truth about STD's and the current epidemic in America to our young people! The Center for Disease Control (CDC) has reported that 1 in 4 girls between 14 and 19 has at least one STD.

So, so very sad.

http://www.medinstitute.org/index.php

UPDATE:
I responded over at Brutally Honest with the following to Rick's post.

Talked with an OBGYN Dr. today about these stats. He assured me that in his practice they were right on. He also said that on some college campuses the STI rate is as high as 80% among the ladies!

He then added that it is now to the point that almost 50% of mothers carrying a child will deliver a child into a home with no father.

I just can't imagine that this should not cause great alarm among liberals as well as conservatives. Great alarm...if we truly care about people. The word epidemic ought to elicit some response?

Insanity...doing the same thing over and over and hoping to get different results.

Both sides of the isle should be sounding the clarion call that the fabricated, politically correct label of "safe-sex" outside of marriage is a myth of devastating proportions...if we really care about people's health and well being.

XtnYoda Shalomed

One...who never made it home.

The March 2003 image became one of the most iconic of the U.S. invasion of Iraq: that of a bespectacled American soldier carrying an Iraqi child to safety. The photograph of Army Pfc. Joseph Dwyer, who was raised in Mount Sinai, was used by news outlets around the world.

After being lionized by many as the human face of the U.S. effort to rebuild a troubled Iraq, Dwyer brought the battlefield home with him, often grappling violently with delusions that he was being hunted by Iraqi killers.

His internal terror got so bad that, in 2005, he shot up his El Paso, Texas, apartment and held police at bay for three hours with a 9-mm handgun, believing Iraqis were trying to get in.

Last month, on June 28, police in Pinehurst, N.C., who responded to Dwyer's home, said the 31-year-old collapsed and died after abusing a computer cleaner aerosol. Dwyer had moved to North Carolina after living in Texas.

Dwyer, who joined the Army two days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and who was assigned to a unit of the 3rd Infantry Division that one officer called "the tip of the tip of the spear" in the first days of the U.S. invasion, had since then battled depression, sleeplessness and other anxieties that military doctors eventually attributed to post-traumatic stress disorder.

http://www.newsday.com/news/local/ny-lisold0706,0,814136,print.story
My prayers to the family of Joseph Dwyer. I've know many.

XtnYoda Shalomed

Another day to celebrate! In a top secret action the US has successfully removed 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" from Iraq! You know, the radioactive stuff Sadam denied having anything to do with.

AP Exclusive: U.S. Removes Uranium From Iraq

The last major remnant of Saddam Hussein's nuclear program - a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium - reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans.

The removal of 550 metric tons of "yellowcake" - the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment - was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions.

What's now left is the final and complicated push to clean up the remaining radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 12 miles south of Baghdad - using teams that include Iraqi experts recently trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in Ukraine.

"Everyone is very happy to have this safely out of Iraq," said a senior U.S. official who outlined the nearly three-month operation to The Associated Press. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.

While yellowcake alone is not considered potent enough for a so-called "dirty bomb" - a conventional explosive that disperses radioactive material - it could stir widespread panic if incorporated in a blast. Yellowcake also can be enriched for use in reactors and, at higher levels, nuclear weapons using sophisticated equipment...

cbs news
And this is from CBS news. I'll be looing forward to see all the coverage this is going to receive?

xtnyoda shalomed

This is a song written by xtnyoda.
In response to the nay-sayers, skeptics, and our nations critics.

Prayer for America

They tell me that our country here
is on the verge of death.
They tell me that our great land
is breathing her last breath.
Like a child that's been brought down
by a crazy man,
They tell me that our country here
isn't going to stand.

They tell me that the Freedom Bell
is cracked and broke in two.
They tell me that living here's
like living in a zoo.
Like animals trapped in a cage
they tell me that we're through,
But I asked God, and He told me
that was just not true!

He said, "Ol' Glory will not fall
until all Glory comes.
Until God's Glory comes
Ol' Glory will stand.
Ol' Glory, will fly the sky
until we all go home,
until God's church goes home
Ol' Glory will stand!"

They tell me that our boys don't have
the courage now to fight.
They tell me that they're all afraid
to stand up for what's right.
Like a dog that's whipped and running
tail between his legs,
they tell me that there's nothing left
but a cowards grave.

But, I knew Bob and Ted and Al,
and Frank and Mike and Fred,
and Billy Ray, and Tommy Joe,
and many more that are dead.
I felt their blood run through my hands,
I held them as they died.
They paid the highest price of all
to keep Glory alive!

Now this great land
She still holds all that in me
is a dream.
And, our flag is still the best
this world has ever seen!
And long after the skeptics die
and rot beneath the ground,
Ol' Glory still will fly the sky,
to the swell of Freedom's sound!

Mine eyes have seen the Glory
of the coming of the Lord!
He is trampling out the vintage where
the grapes of wrath are stored.
He hath loosed the fateful lightening
of His terrible swift sword!
Our God is marching on!

"Ol' Glory will not fall
until all Glory comes.
Until God's Glory comes
Ol' Glory will stand.
Ol' Glory, will fly the sky
until we all go home,
until God's church goes home
Ol' Glory will stand!"

xtnyoda shalomed