Thursday, December 31, 2009




Thirteen state AG's are threatening to take the Senate to court for granting kickbacks to certain states and forcing the tax paying citizens from other states to pay their kickbacks... to get illegal legislation passed...

OK.... this is going to be priceless to observe in the days ahead.

Yahoo news article
13 state AGs threaten suit over health care deal

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Republican attorneys general in 13 states say congressional leaders must remove Nebraska's political deal from the federal health care reform bill or face legal action, according to a letter provided to The Associated Press Wednesday.

"We believe this provision is constitutionally flawed," South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster and the 12 other attorneys general wrote in the letter to be sent Wednesday night to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

"As chief legal officers of our states we are contemplating a legal challenge to this provision and we ask you to take action to render this challenge unnecessary by striking that provision," they wrote.....

It's about time to pop the popcorn into the microwave... break out the ice cold Pepsi... and enjoy the show.

xtnyoda, shalomed

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The newest research from Science Daily is that the level of CO2 in the earth's atmosphere has not risen in 160 years.... HUMMM....

... at least we would suspect that they are being honest because it is obvious that they would like to believe that there is in fact human induced global warming because of the use of carbon fuels...

A little scientific integrity is nice to see... even when it doesn't fall in line with science's preconceived beliefs.


Science Daily
No Rise of Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Fraction in Past 160 Years, New Research Finds

ScienceDaily (Dec. 31, 2009) — Most of the carbon dioxide emitted by human activity does not remain in the atmosphere, but is instead absorbed by the oceans and terrestrial ecosystems......

... To assess whether the airborne fraction is indeed increasing, Wolfgang Knorr of the Department of Earth Sciences at the University of Bristol reanalyzed available atmospheric carbon dioxide and emissions data since 1850 and considers the uncertainties in the data.

In contradiction to some recent studies, he finds that the airborne fraction of carbon dioxide has not increased either during the past 150 years or during the most recent five decades.

Three cheers for Science Daily!!!

xtnyoda, shalomed

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Thursday, December 31st. Today's cherished Nugget from guest blogger Pastor Bill.

"It isn’t what you know that counts; it’s what you can think of in time."
(unknown)

I pray that you remember what you can do to complete the year. For what you don’t or can’t remember in time, may

God give you another day or another year to finish strong. Remember what the apostle Paul told us in Philippians 2:16:
“Holding forth the word of life; that I may rejoice in the day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in vain.”

"God, bring to my remembrance those things that are important to me and to You.
Amen."


We are blessed and highly favored.

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Wednesday, December 30, 2009



Anonymous asks about the tribulation... therefore I will speak to it.

Acknowledged first that the tribulation is a topic that has caused wide confusion... much of which is caused by confusing translations of our sacred text.

Perhaps a good starting point would be to one passage that has caused a great deal of the confusion...

1Thess 5:9 "For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ..." (HCSB)
What many have done is to equate the idea of wrath with the idea of tribulation... yet... scripturally they are anything but the same.

I tremble as I recall hearing a very prominent, nationally recognized pastor, thunder...
"God would be immoral to allow even one of His children to go through tribulation!" ... and quoting this text as his defense. (Yahweh... have mercy!)

Many have failed to realize that the wrath of Yahweh and tribulation are two distinct realities... two very different things... for... indeed God's children will not go through God's wrath... yet scripture clearly teaches that God's children will indeed go through and endure tribulation. We must know the difference.

The wrath (Greek is "orge" used 45 times in the NT) and tribulation (Greek is "thlipsis" used 43 times in the NT) are two very distinct words and two very distinct realities.

The trouble is that each word is often translated using different English words causing much of the confusion... for example we see the use of tribulation in the following 3 verses to list a few...

1Thess. 3:3 "So that no one will be shaken by these persecutions(thlipsis). For you yourselves know that we are appointed to this. (HCSB)

Acts 14:22 "Strengthening the hearts of the disciples by encouraging them to continue in the faith, and by telling them, "It is necessary to pass through many troubles(thlipsis) on our way into the kingdom of God." (HCSB)

Revelation 7:14 "These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation.(thlipsis)" (HCSB)

... and then this statement from the lips of our Lord stressing the same point with the root word for thlipsis... thlibo... meaning to "narrow" or to put under great pressure...
Matthew 7:13-14 "Enter through the narrow(thlibo) gate. For the gate is wide and the road is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who go through it. How narrow(thlibo) is the gate and difficult the road that leads to life, and few find it." (HCSB)

However... God's children will not endure... but have been delivered from the wrath of God.
1Thess 1:9-10 "You turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God, and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead-Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath(orge). (HCSB)

The result is this... God's children do in fact endure tribulation but our tribulation is not God's wrath. As the scripture said, we are in fact appointed to endure tribulation. Even the Revelation 7:14 tribulation is a tribulation that Christians do in fact endure as the text does not say that they are prevented from enduring... but in fact it says that Christians are in and come through the said Great Tribulation if one understands the Greek grammar... for them to come "out of" the tribulation means in fact that they were right in the midst of it all along.

One can read about the reality of Christians in great tribulation during just our last century, the 20th century, as I wrote about it here... for a partial understanding.

Now... concerning the end... when the last child of God is removed from the earth... tribulation will cease... and the Holy Wrath of Yahweh will begin... such as has not been before... nor will ever be again... on the earth.

Maranatha.

xtnyoda, shalomed

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Sooner or later the constitutionality of the "Health Care" mandate being shoved through congress and down the throats of the American People is going to get challenged...

... and when you have a minute you should go to the Freedom Post and read the entire article and look at the juvenile logic of our esteemed liberal elected officials... and their grasp of the constitution they have sworn to defend.
WHERE IN THE CONSTITUTION DOES GOVERNMENT HAVE POWER TO MANDATE PURCHASE OF HEALTH CARE INSURANCE?

ONLY CONGRESS KNOWS FOR SURE...CONGRESS SCOFFS, SHRUGS, AND SPINS, WHEN ASKED ABOUT OBAMACARE'S CONSTITUTIONALITY


How depressing it is to hear the contorted logic, from our leaders in Congress, when asked to site the portion of the Constitution that gives the federal government authority to force a citizen to purchase a health insurance policy.

Even more discouraging are their pitiful answers (see below), considering that each has taken the oath, upon taking office, to "support and defend the Constitution of the United States". How can they fulfill this oath when they aren't even considering a bill's constitutionality when passing legislation? Their oath of office is becoming a national joke, and the joke is on us.

The proper answer is that there is no provision in the Constitution for anything even close to resembling the granting of power to force a citizen buy any product or service. It is a complete bastardization of the "General Welfare" clause, the Constitution as a whole, and everything this country was founded upon, to define that section as giving Congress a blank check to do anything they want. And believe me, if the government starts forcing you to buy things, there are no limits to what they can do.

The "General Welfare" clause is very clear in that "general" applies to the "whole" rather than to particular parts or special interests. Obviously, Congress has been abusing this for quite some time, but as my Dad used to say, "two wrongs don't make a right". The Founding Fathers are rolling over in their graves at our country, intended as "one country, indivisible", into one controlled by special interest groups.

James Madison, who is considered the main author of the Constitution, should know what the words, "General Welfare", meant. He wrote them! He explained the intended meaning of the phrase,"General Welfare", as:
"With respect to the words, 'general welfare,' I have always regarded them as qualified by the details of power connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution…[that] was not contemplated by the creators."
Yet, some, "legal experts", arrogantly and shamefully define the clause to match whatever happens to further their freedom killing political agenda. The powers in Article I, Section 8, are very specific and the Tenth Amendment clarifies that any contrived powers politicians invent, that are not granted in the Constitution, are reserved to the States or to the people.

The Constitution is very clear in that it's intention is to LIMIT GOVERNMENT! Liberals or "Progressives" interpretation results in UNLIMITED GOVERNMENT! Unlimited government eventually to complete loss of freedom. History has proven this over and over again. No one being genuine can make the case that the Founding Fathers fought and died for a government of unlimited powers over us.

ObamaCare is clearly unconstitutional. It's passage will result in a loss of individual rights and freedom, as well as mashing the gas pedal down further on the financial road to disaster....

Take time while reading the entire article to look at the quotes... then...

consider and ponder.

xtnyoda, shalomed

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American's... one and all... are getting nervous about terrorists attacks on our homeland.... feeling rather vulnerable and in danger...

Nasdaq building evacuated in New York:

The NYPD has closed down part of Manhattan's Times Square as its bomb squad investigates a "suspicious" vehicle.

President under fire on national security

'Catastrophic Breach' Led to Bomb Plot

Hundreds of al-Qaeda militants planning attacks from Yemen

UPDATED LINK FROM BRUTALLY HONEST: uh-oh-obama-has-lost-maureen-dowd

The above links... just a few examples from... today's news.

Washington... are you paying attention?

You should be... it is your number one responsibility... number one.

xtnyoda, shalomed

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Our friend, Anonymous, asks a question as follows... as a result of the Desert Rat's prompting...

Anonymous asks:

I would like to direct a comment to XtnYoda concerning the apostasy in 2 Thessalonians 2:3-7. That verse 3 lines up with verses 6-7 is most likely. Verse 3, the apostasy meaning a "departure" of the HS so the man of lawlessness is revealed. This is somewhat expanded on or re-stated in verse 6-7. The HS restrains him now, so that in his time or he will be revealed when the HS is taken out of the way or departs. Apostasy defined as simply a departure from a position formally held as in this case of the HS, and not the falling away of the church as frequently is portrayed. I hope you see the implications of a pretrib rapture here but if you disagree I mean no offense. Ah yes, the glorious church and Holy Spirit have moved over a little for the next big DAY to come. Maranatha indeed.

Thank you Anonymous, and may I say that I am hungry... with you.

Paul goes further with his inspired depiction of that day...

2 Thessalonians 2: 9 The coming [of the lawless one] is based on Satan's working, with all kinds of false miracles, signs, and wonders, 10 and with every unrighteous deception among those who are perishing. [They perish] because they did not accept the love of the truth in order to be saved. 11 For this reason God sends them a strong delusion so that they will believe what is false, 12 so that all will be condemned-those who did not believe the truth but enjoyed unrighteousness. (HCSB)

Rule #1 concerning the dread task of interpreting prophetic words of Yahweh...
Yahweh's fulfillment of prophecy is always far greater than man's expectation.

... therefore I respond with great fear and trembling... lest I should add to... or take away one iota...

The inspired Apostle says that the lawless one will perform great deceptive miracles, signs, and wonders.

We see this not in our day... rather we see the opposite... the TRUTH of Yahweh is being vindicated on every hand... the prodigious lies of the lawless "wannabees" are being exposed for the frivolous pandering of ego manic humans desiring control and power... and they are despised and revolting to the great lawless one... in fact... the great lawless one is embarrassed by them and ready to destroy them himself! They are giving him a very bad reputation.

Friend, there is no doubt that the day will come when The Glorious YahShua will descend from heaven with a shout, with the trump of Yahweh, and the justified dead in YahShua... and those alive remaining... will be gloriously removed from this world... for all to behold! Maranatha!

Yet... concerning the time... Second Thessalonians 2 is no where near present... not even close. There are no signs... there are no miracles... there are no wonders... only pathetic lies and manipulations of the feeble minded... certainly... the Church of the Living God is under no delusion... matter of fact... she... is waking from a long slumber... and I rejoice with joy unspeakable!

It is not time to "lift up our heads" but rather it is time to put our hands to the plow and not look back.

Now... concerning the end... and the great lawless one's revealing... keep your eyes on the Palestinian nation called Israel... when you see her accepting one as Messiah... joined in league with other Arab nations accepting the same one as Messiah... it will be time to begin lifting one's head...

We are no where near that in this day... quite the contrary... and that day's reality will be far greater than our expectation... as was the Messiah's first coming... far greater than what man expected... therefore those most expecting what they believed the Messiah was to be... actually not only did not receive Him... they rejected Him... fought against Him... hated Him.

Take off your shoes friend... we tread sacred ground.

xtnyoda, shalomed

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Wednesday, December 30th. Today's cherished Nugget from guest blogger Pastor Bill.

A man was watching his eighty-year-old neighbor planting a small peach tree. He inquired of him as follows: “You don’t expect to eat peaches from that tree, do you?” The old man rested on his spade. He said, “No, at my age I know I won’t. But all my life I’ve enjoyed peaches—never from a tree I planted myself. I’m just trying to pay the other fellows who planted the trees for me.”

Hopefully what we have done this year translates into something with lasting benefits for the ones who come behind us.

Plant seeds today for our grandchildren to enjoy tomorrow. The writer of Psalm 78:4-7 give us these words,
“We must not hide them from their children, but must tell a future generation the praises of the LORD, His might, and the wonderful works He has performed. He established a testimony in Jacob and set up a law in Israel, which He commanded our fathers to teach to their children so that a future generation—children yet to be born—might know. They were to rise and tell their children so that they might put their confidence in God and not forget God’s works, but keep His commandments.”

"God, Give me wisdom to plan and plant for the future.
Amen."


We are blessed and highly favored.

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Tuesday, December 29, 2009


Day 24
Yahweh... a Warrior defending... TRUTH


We saw yesterday that Yahweh is a warrior that defends truth, humility, and justice.

The first use in scripture of "truth" is found in Genesis 24:27 where Abraham's faithful servant is sent to find a wife for his son from Abraham's kinsmen. The servant desires to know what to do if the lass would not be willing to leave her homeland... and Abraham responds that Yahweh had made a vow that his decedents would be from his own tribe... his own seed.

When the servant finds the willing Rebekah, he worships Yahweh for the truthfulness of the word sworn to his master, Abraham.

The unique blessing here... the Hebrew word for truth and the Hebrew word for swear or to make a vow... are both from the same word... the Hebrew word seven. The Hebrew word picture in this is of one repeating a vow seven times... as a sign of ultimate reliance that the one swearing will do what the one has said... seven... the number of completion.

Yahweh stands by His Word... Yahweh will do what Yahweh says... His very character depends on it... therefore... Yahweh will go to war over the veracity of His Word... TRUTH.

Genesis 24:7
"The LORD, the God of heaven, who took me from my father's house and from my native land, who spoke to me and swore to me, 'I will give this land to your offspring'"
(Holman Christian Standard Bible)

Abraham knew that when Yahweh made a vow... it was truth... seven times over.

We must know this. Yahweh is a warrior.

xtnyoda, shalomed

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Brian's Blast...
Tuesday, December 29th.


Recent Terror Attack fits the mold of staged event for more control.

Yes, this is a false flag attack to turn the public attention away from heath care debate and other legislation. The other side is to get you and I to give up our freedom's and liberty to the globalists in exchange for hard core liberty....

Ron Paul smells a rat and it's not pretty.

.... Ron Paul Says Agenda Behind Bombing Incident Is More War, More Attacks On Liberty

Congressman Ron Paul fears that the agenda behind the Flight 253 bombing incident is to expand the war on terror into Yemen while stripping Americans of more liberties, warning that it’s time people woke up and realized that the government cannot guarantee their safety.

The Congressman highlighted how the bombing attempt followed geopolitical turmoil in Yemen in the form of attacks in the country launched by the Saudis with the endorsement of the U.S. – and how sectors of the media and politicians were now calling for Yemen to be a new front in the war on terror as a consequence of the Christmas Day incident....
Follow the links...

Consider and ponder.

xtnyoda, shalomed

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Good ol' Ray Stevens' newest song and video... "We The People!"

Now... when you get the country music fans all over this... it spells trouble for those in power!

xtnyoda, shalomed

H/T to Roger Dodger!

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Tuesday, December 29th. Today's cherished Nugget from guest blogger Pastor Bill.

Harry Houdini, the famed escape artist from a few years back, issued a challenge wherever he went. He could be locked in any jail cell in the country, he claimed, and set himself free in short order. Always he kept his promise, but one time something went wrong. Houdini entered the jail in his street clothes; the heavy, metal doors clanged shut behind him. He took from his belt a concealed piece of metal, strong and flexible. He set to work immediately, but something seemed to be unusual about this lock. For thirty minutes he worked and got nowhere. An hour passed, and still he had not opened the door. By now he was bathed in sweat and panting in exasperation, but he still could not pick the lock. Finally, after laboring for two hours, Harry Houdini collapsed in frustration and failure against the door he could not unlock. But when he fell against the door, it swung open! It had never been locked at all! In his mind it was locked, and that was all it took to keep him from opening the door and walking out of the jail cell.
(Zig Ziglar)

As the last days of 2009 slip away, what thoughts have kept us captive? How can we change these thought so we are free as we begin 2010? Remember what the apostle Paul advises us in 2 Corinthinians 10:5:
“Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”



"God, thank You that You allow us to be free indeed.
Amen."


Give Him glory daily.

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Monday, December 28, 2009

Clockwise, top left: US Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) addresses senate health care legislation at the US Capitol in Washington; a US chopper in Iraq's Green Zone; Holiday travelers wait in line to go through security at Los Angeles International Airport in Los Angeles, Saturday, Dec. 26; Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner.

An agonizing yet fun read by Michael Lind, a liberal... groaning over the ineptness of big government...

... and he asks a pretty good question... "Why do we pay these guys?

Read the entire article... and enjoy... as you consider big government wanting to take over... well... just about everything.

Salon opinion... bumbling
Can't our government get anything right?
Whichever party's in charge fumbles the basics -- security, health, infrastructure. Why are we paying these people?

By Michael Lind

I have a confession to make. I have been suffering from painful flashbacks lately. Memories of the 1970s force themselves, unbidden, into my mind. Memories of the high school assembly where we students were handed WIN (Whip Inflation Now) buttons.

Grownups who were unable or unwilling to take the policy measures necessary to reduce inflation told us children that price inflation was our personal responsibility, just as similar cowards and charlatans today tell us that addressing global warming is a moral responsibility of ordinary people, not a technological issue to be resolved by governments and utilities. I remember the U.S. retreat under fire from Indochina under President Gerald Ford and the debacle of the Desert One mission to rescue the American hostages in Iran under President Jimmy Carter....

.... Money can be found by Democratic and Republican administrations alike to bail out campaign contributors on Wall Street, but not to repair our crumbling infrastructure.

The U.S. fought and won World War II in less time than it took to adequately protect U.S. soldiers against primitive weapons in Iraq....

...And now the narrowly averted Christmas massacre in the skies above Detroit. I don't think I'm overreacting when I say that if ever overreaction on the part of a citizenry has been justified, it is now. We the people deserve to be angry. It's not as though Abdulmutallab came up with a clever new tactic while our national security agencies were focused on the last tactic. He used more or less the same tactic as the "shoe bomber," Richard Reid, and nevertheless got through every layer of international and national security....

.... The reality as well as the perception of government incapacity threatens liberalism more than conservatism....

...America's modest and inadequate system of social democracy rests on economic growth made possible by effective government provision of basic public goods. Economic growth in turn rests on physical security — the protection of citizens against criminals in their midst and hostile or law-breaking foreigners. Libertarians to the contrary, the indispensable preconditions for the free society are effective armed forces and police forces, be they citizen militias or professionals....

...it does mean that the party of activist government is doomed unless it is first and foremost the party of functioning, competent, basic government — national defense, law enforcement and functioning public utilities, including utility banking.

Not all Democrats are progressive, but in our two-party system, the Democrats are the more progressive party. At the moment the relatively progressive party owns the national government, and the national government's first job is to control its own borders, keeping out enemies like Abdulmutallab. National defense requires striving to eliminate illegal immigration and punishing those who break our immigration laws because the same lax law enforcement that permits the "good" illegal immigrant nanny to cross the border and the "good" foreign student to overstay her visa inevitably empowers terrorists and criminals.

Democrats shouldn't see this as an irksome task that is necessary to win the credibility they need for their social insurance reforms. Like the progressives and New Dealers, they should take it for granted. Physical security comes before economic security.

It wasn't my personal duty back in the '70s when I was a high school student to "whip inflation," and it is not my personal duty now to be vigilant in the airport or to be prepared on airplane flights to overpower a would-be mass murderer on a terrorist watch list who has brought easily detected explosives onto the plane. We hire politicians and pay public servants to do these tasks — not to try their best to do them, not to come up with procedures to make it likely they will be done, but to actually do them.

If our officials can't provide the basic goods of an advanced society — secure borders, safe streets, a functioning economic infrastructure — then we need to keep firing them until we find somebody who can do the job.

Hey Michael... you're sounding a lot like a conservative! At least you realize that a "progressive social" society must have security, industry, and personal responsibility... before it can play provider for all it's desired "social" programs.

I hope Washington reads your article! I've shared it.

xtnyoda, shalomed

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A sign appears in the looming health care battle... and the loser will be the public...

Heart Doctors are suing Sebelius over what will eventually become health care rationing in the detection and treatment of heart disease... make no mistake about it.

This will be an interesting law suit to follow.


USA Today
Cardiologists sue Sebelius over Medicare fee cuts

Heart specialists on Monday filed suit against Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius in an effort to stave off steep Medicare fee cuts for routine office-based procedures such as nuclear stress tests and echocardiograms.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Florida, charges that the government's planned cutbacks will deal a major blow to medical care in the USA, forcing thousands of cardiologists to shutter their offices, sell diagnostic equipment and work for hospitals, which charge more for the same procedures.

CARDIAC REHAB: More is better for Medicare patients

"What they've done is basically killed the private practice of cardiology," says Jack Lewin, CEO of the American College of Cardiology (ACC), which represents 90% of the roughly 40,000 heart specialists in the USA.....

This is only the beginning as bureaucracy continues it's efforts to take over health care...

Consider and ponder.

xtnyoda, shalomed

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Kathleen McKinley quoting from ABC News that the would-be terrorist on Christmas was trained in Yemen by two former Gitmo prisoners that we released to be rehabilitated!

Yup... let's close Gitmo and make the radicals love and appreciate the good ol' US... OH... and bring them to American soil to stand trial in one of our civilian courts...

Our leadership is deranged... the mounting evidence speaks for itself.


ABC News finally doing it's job
Two al Qaeda Leaders Behind Northwest Flight 253 Terror Plot Were Released by U.S.... Former Guantanamo Prisoners Believed Behind Northwest Airlines Bomb Plot; Sent to Saudi Arabia in 2007
By BRIAN ROSS, ANNA SCHECTER and JOSEPH RHEE, Dec. 28, 2009

Two of the four leaders allegedly behind the al Qaeda plot to blow up a Northwest Airlines passenger jet over Detroit were released by the U.S. from the Guantanamo prison in November, 2007, according to American officials and Department of Defense documents. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the Northwest bombing in a Monday statement that vowed more attacks on Americans.

American officials agreed to send the two terrorists from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they entered into an "art therapy rehabilitation program" and were set free, according to U.S. and Saudi officials.

Guantanamo prisoner #333, Muhamad Attik al-Harbi, and prisoner #372, Said Ali Shari, were sent to Saudi Arabia on Nov. 9, 2007, according to the Defense Department log of detainees who were released from American custody. Al-Harbi has since changed his name to Muhamad al-Awfi.

Both Saudi nationals have since emerged in leadership roles in Yemen, according to U.S. officials and the men's own statements on al Qaeda propaganda tapes.

Both of the former Guantanamo detainees are described as military commanders and appear on a January, 2009 video along with the man described as the top leader of al Qaeda in Yemen, Abu Basir Naser al-Wahishi, formerly Osama bin Laden's personal secretary.....

There needs to be a little true global warming in Washington... the heat of a scrutinizing American public fed up with Washington's miserably failed attempt at the appeasement of radicals.

Washington needs to learn that radicals... are radicals... as a rabid dog is... rabid.

Now... how does one deal with a rabid dog...

xtnyoda, shalomed

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The Borg Conspiracy is weighing in on the Janet's botched attempt to cover up her tracks on Homeland Securities failed efforts to protect America...

... and the promise of the terrorist that more attacks are actively in the works...
'More Like Me'

FAILED plane bomber Umar Abdulmutallab has bragged to FBI agents that there are more young men plotting to launch attacks on the West.
The 23-year-old Nigerian has told security chiefs of a sinister network in Yemen who are ready and waiting to strike.

No worry. Big sis (AKA Janet Napolitano) our director of Homeland Security, has told us that all is well and that the system worked. Well not exactly. It seems that after she declare that the system worked?

She had to retract and qualify that statement by saying, "it worked after the fact." Which is a comforting thought, seeing as the billions we are spending to supposedly detect and thwart these attacks.

But then how do you thwart or prevent anything, when you have an apologist weakling as a president, who is backed up by a gaggle of myrmidon idiots making statements like Napaolitano?

The sad reality is, that we have an administration in power, that is completely incapable of recognizing threats and could care less to begin with. Protecting America simply doesn't jibe with this administrations socialist goals and strategy of appeasement.

Meanwhile as is once again obvious, our enemies plan and smile as they watch their paths being eased and greased for them to accomplish that which they will soon be able to pull off compliments of willful neglect and intentional refusal to protect this nation.

All I can say is this. When the mushroom cloud rises over America? I sincerely hope that ti is parked right over those most responsible for allowing it to happen.

Sleep tight America... Janet is at the helm.

xtnyoda, shalomed

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Here's a little southern wisdom from Gary and Lee Ann....

IF YOU CROSS THE NORTH KOREAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET 12 YEARS HARD LABOR.

IF YOU CROSS THE IRANIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU ARE DETAINED INDEFINITELY.

IF YOU CROSS THE AFGHAN BORDER ILLEGALLY, YOU GET SHOT..

IF YOU CROSS THE SAUDI ARABIAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE JAILED.

IF YOU CROSS THE CHINESE BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU MAY NEVER BE HEARD FROM AGAIN.

IF YOU CROSS THE VENEZUELAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE BRANDED A SPY AND YOUR FATE WILL BE SEALED.

IF YOU CROSS THE CUBAN BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU WILL BE THROWN INTO POLITICAL PRISON TO ROT.

IF YOU CROSS THE U.S. BORDER ILLEGALLY YOU GET
• A JOB ,
• A DRIVERS LICENSE,
• SOCIAL SECURITY CARD ,
• WELFARE,
• FOOD STAMPS,
• CREDIT CARDS,
• SUBSIDIZED RENT OR A LOAN TO BUY A HOUSE,
• FREE EDUCATION,
• FREE HEALTH CARE ,
• A LOBBYIST IN WASHINGTON
• BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF PUBLIC DOCUMENTS PRINTED IN YOUR LANGUAGE
• THE RIGHT TO CARRY YOUR COUNTRY’S FLAG WHILE YOU PROTEST THAT YOU DON’T GET ENOUGH
RESPECT

I JUST WANTED TO MAKE SURE I HAD A FIRM GRASP ON THE SITUATION…

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The Desert Rat has responded to a brother from the other side of the dispensational fence...

UPDATED


Said brother challenged the Rat's idea of the Church being a replacement for some prophecies in the OT concerning the Temple reconstruction and the Zadok priestly line...

Doing what rats do.

Well, I scurried out to watch the sunrise in the glory of all lands this morning, and lo! I had cactus mail, delivered from the mysterious ether.

"What of Ezekiel chapters 40-48 and the temple? Different in several ways to any other temple, no mercy seat, no ark, no high priest, etc. In your replacement theology, how do you 'figure' these truths away? What of the eternal promise to the sons of Zadok? And what part of the church is in the house of Israel and what part is in the house of Judah?"

Well, I've got to be honest. I had no idea anyone ever read these sermons to the rocks and cacti, mountains and sky. And a fellow believer, no less, just as put off and offended by my holistic view of the Bible (including eschatology and ecclesiology) as I am of his/hers. Sarcasm is a really bizarre phenomenon...but while it is the lowest form of wit, it is the funniest (while being the lowest form of wit, it is the highest form of intelligence!). I'll try to keep it to just the barest of answers (though there is no frivolity in that!). Oh, and I'm a lousy debater, so I'll answer the question, cast it carelessly to the ether, and end it here. That way you, dearest fellow disciple, can claim a victory in defeating any challenge to the reigning eschatology in pop-Church America.

I love Ezekiel, and have for a long, long time. One of these days I'll lead a group through a study of it, which in my mind will be akin to group bungy-cording with collected shoelaces. It'll be great! At that time I'll do a verse-by-verse exposition of Ezekiel 40-48, and maybe I'll put some of it online. I've always thought it very interesting that Ezekiel dates the vision as "fourteen years after the city was taken" (40:1), and then describes the visionary Temple as "a structure like a city" (40:2). He's also told to "see with [his] eyes, hear with [his] ears" (40:4), while giving a prophecy to a people who probably won't believe him - the prophecy itself is to be a sign to them of their own disobedience (2:1-3:11). What makes us think 40-48 must be built? Perhaps it's a monument to the way things could've been if obedience had been present, but instead 40-48 is a sign of their disobedience.

The futurists' (this includes you Dispensationalists) last stand is Temple Mount. Every aspect of your eschatology must have a fourth Temple (after the Temples of Solomon, Cyrus, and Herod). Without it, you're on indefinite hold. Sigh. I wish this would shut up the speculators, the endless parade of experts saying the end is just around the corner. What edition are we in with the "Late Great Planet Earth"? Oh well. To throw Matthew 24/Mark 13/Luke 17 & 21 into the future rather than the A.D. first century you have to have a Temple, so anti-Christ can desecrate it. We'll ignore the fact that it happened almost 1,940 years ago. No worries. I have no doubt there are a lot of Dispensationalists financially supporting those fringe loony Jews in Israel (a very small minority with no political power in that secular State) who are breeding red heifers and drawing up schematics based exactly on Ezekiel 40-48.

I call the second Temple Cyrus' since he claims it by decree, mandates its construction, and provides the finances (2 Chronicles 36:23; Ezra 1:2-4).

The plans to the Temple are conditional (I'm trying to speak your language!). In 43:11, Yahweh tells the great prophet, "If they are ashamed of all that they have done, make known to them the design of the house, its structure, its exists, its entrances, all its designs, all its statutes, and all its laws. And write it in their sight, so that they may observe its whole design and all its statutes to do them." Remember in Cinderella when the evil step-mother says, "if"? That's how I typed it. They had two chances to build this very Temple, didn't they (Cyrus' and Herod's)? Ezekiel writes out these plans in their presence, three or four decades before they'll have a chance to build them. They don't. There is no ark mentioned in Ezekiel's plans because the ark disappeared with the destruction of Solomon's Temple, never to be seen again (unless you can break into that warehouse in Area 51). Don't ever forget that the heart of Cyrus' Temple and Herod's Temple was empty.

I would suggest to you, fellow disciple, that the plans in Ezekiel 40-48 are conditioned on the people's shame. Apparently there was not enough shame! OR Ezra-Nehemiah, in building Cyrus' Temple, did try to build Ezekiel's Temple, but the people's concern with resettling the land proved more important (they are constantly tearing clothing in leading the people to repent, and a few decades later in Malachi we see things have degraded already). Zechariah-Haggai did, after all, have to twist their arms to get them to even finish the thing.

The presence of God leaves Solomon's Temple in Ezekiel 10. The last verse of Ezekiel promises that the Temple of 40-48 will have God's presence. When does it return? Not for Cyrus' Temple, or Herod's. When does God's presence return in a way similar to the event at the dedication of Solomon's Temple? Pentecost, when God returns to His Temple, so much more than a building. His glorious and beloved Church. Stephen, in the most incredible God-perspective giving of Jewish history, quotes the O.T. as they're picking up stones, reminding them (with their own Scriptures) that God can't be contained in a building (Acts 7:46-50). Are we really going to argue, given the trajectory of the N.T., that God's plan is for another building? Do we wink knowingly at each other over Jesus' naivety in insisting that the Father wasn't looking for worshipers in Jerusalem, but worshipers in Spirit and in truth (John 4:21-24)?

I don't see the "eternal promise to the sons of Zadok" in the Bible. The post-exilic priesthood was certainly to be led by the Zadokites, but "eternal" doesn't enter into the discussion. Zadok was high priest under David. Zechariah and Haggai's emphasis on Zerubbabel (the governor) and Josiah (the high priest, a descendant of Zadok) certainly point to a restoration of a Davidic ruler and Zadokite priesthood. So at least that part fits pretty good with Ezekiel's instructions to the Exiles. There were high priests from the Zadokite line at least until the Maccabean period. By the way, great resource book: "From Joshua to Caiaphas: High Priests After the Exile," by James C. VanderKam (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2004). It's scholarly, and not written from the viewpoint of either of our eschatological camps, so it's actually worth reading (yes, there are topics aside from eschatology that are important).

There was no "mercy seat" or "ark" in either Cyrus' Temple or Herod's Temple, since the ark of the covenant disappeared with the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 B.C. So I don't think we can say Ezekiel's visionary Temple is "different in several ways from any other temple." With this criteria, Solomon's Temple was the oddball.

Just because Ezekiel doesn't mention a high priest doesn't mean one wasn't intended for this Temple. Besides, what was the role of the high priest? Isn't the primary role entry into the Holy of holies on the Day of Atonement to pour blood on the mercy seat? With no mercy seat/ark, this became a largely political/symbolic role in the post-Exilic period.

This is not "replacement" theology. Jesus, the perfect Israel, contains the people of God in Him (read Galatians some time). He became the remnant. In Him all the promises and blessings of Abraham are fulfilled. I'd mention Galatians 3:28; Ephesians 2:11-22; Colossians 3:11, but I know the counter-arguments of Dispensationalists very well. Sophistry.

And I know the last question of yours wasn't serious. But in case it accidentally was serious, the goal of God is a restoration of His people in Ezekiel 37.
I used to be a Dispensationalist. I had the Clarence Larkin book with all the charts, the Walvoord compendium, the Left Behind series. I loved it. Dispensationalism cuts up the Bible in a scrapbooking theology that re-arranges events separated by centuries, throws 90% of them into the future (the Church is just a place-holder in the middle of the really cool story, Yahweh and Israel), and creates a fantasy world with all the drama and narrative of Narnia (without - sigh - the talking animals). Then the rat heard his pastor one night after Bible Study mention Acts 2:16, where Peter applies Joel to the events of Pentecost, not with double-meaning, not with a gap of millennia, but to his day. I quietly starting re-reading the Bible after that, throwing away (in some cases burning) my Dispensationalist stuff, leaving the safety of the charts and the psychotic excitement of imminent eschatology. I left behind (haha) the double-covenant and the insistence on imposing hyper-literalness on Hebrew poetry and thought. Most of all, I stopped believing this current day and time are the most important in all of the history of the world, things can't get much worse, and the anti-Christ (what a sham) is about to take over the United Nations with his charisma...of course, anti-Christ is not mentioned in Revelation or any "prophetic" material, so he is only a ridiculous straw-man for the end-times experts.

You can insist on two returns of Jesus (the rapture and then the end, separated by the seven-year Tribulation), but if I suggest a coming in A.D. 70 to judge God's enemies (so-called "Second Temple" Judaism of the A.D. first century) and an unknown coming the future, I'm unorthodox. I remember an issue of "The National Liberty Journal" (which I used to read) about five years ago that declared a person heretical if they didn't believe the modern State of Israel played a role in God's eschatological/soteriological plan ("The New Last Days Scoffers," by Dr. Edward Hindson, May 2005). I embraced heresy proudly at that point (at least heresy as defined by Dispensationalists). We can both point to different Church Fathers who seem to support our views. We aren't going to convince each other. So I suggest we both just walk away at this point...not stopping in 10 paces for a duel, but just keep walking.
Well, back to the quiet (and cold) desert. I'm harmless out here, so don't worry about it, okay? Do say a prayer for those small congregations who must endure the rat's teaching...

"Dear, damned, distracting town, farewell!
Thy fools no more I'll tease:
This year in peace, ye critics, dwell,
Ye harlots, sleep at ease!"

"A Farewell to London," 1715
Alexander Pope

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Janet Napolitano... is an imbecile... and anyone with a first grade education can see it immediately.

Don't worry... I know that Napolitano Now Says Terror Prevention System ‘Failed Miserably’... and if you can stomach it... she tries to say that only the "response" to the failed terrorists assault worked... not the part about "preventing" a terrorist attack.

Well... Madam Secretary... how is booking the terrorist as a common "criminal" an appropriate "response" to an admitted terrorist attempt?... and as the Wall Street Journal points out... there have now been MORE terrorist attacks and attempts at terrorist attacks in the POTUS's first year in the White House than any other year since 9/11.

Madam Secretary... you are a dismal failure and you and this administration are going to get a lot of people in the United States killed.

With thanks to Rick for the heads up to the WSJ article.


Wall Street Journal
The Terror This Time
Janet Napolitano says the system worked. No, we were brave and lucky.


A U.S. government that has barred the phrase "war on terror" has nonetheless acknowledged that a failed Christmas day bomb attack on an airliner was a terrorist attempt. Can we all now drop the pretense that we stopped fighting a war once Dick Cheney and George W. Bush left the White House?

The attempt by 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab follows the alleged murders in Ft. Hood, Texas by Islamist-inspired Major Nidal Hasan in November. Brian Jenkins, who studies terrorism for the Rand Corporation, says there were more terror incidents (12), including thwarted plots, on U.S. soil in 2009 than in any year since 2001. The jihadists don't seem to like Americans any better because we're closing down Guantanamo.

This increasing terror tempo makes the Obama Administration's reflexive impulse to treat terrorists like routine criminal suspects all the more worrisome. It immediately indicted Mr. Abdulmutallab on criminal charges of trying to destroy an aircraft, despite reports that he told officials he had ties to al Qaeda and had picked up his PETN explosive in Yemen. The charges mean the Nigerian can only be interrogated like any other defendant in a criminal case, subject to having a lawyer present and his Miranda rights read.

Yet he is precisely the kind of illegal enemy combatant who should be interrogated first with the goal of preventing future attacks and learning more about terror networks rather than gaining a single conviction. We now have to hope he cooperates voluntarily.

Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, told CNN yesterday that "one thing I'd like to point out is that the system worked." Yet the terrorist screening system seems to have failed in at least two crucial ways: first, in failing to revoke a visa to the U.S. that Mr. Abdulmutallab had obtained last June despite a later warning to U.S. consular officials from his own father that he was becoming radicalized and might have terror network ties; and second, in not adding him to a no-fly list from a lower-level watch list.....

Gosh Janet... it is really embarrassing to have the head of US Homeland Security act like a kindergarten child caught with her hand in the cookie jar... and trying to excuse her way out of it.

We have a dismal rookie in charge of protecting our homeland... that can't even lie well... (Well... she is only following orders from above...)

Consider and ponder.

xtnyoda, shalomed

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Monday, December 28th. Today's cherished Nugget from guest blogger Pastor Bill.

“The pearl-diver lives at the bottom of the ocean by means of the pure air conveyed to him from above. His life is entirely dependent on the life-giving Spirit. We are down here, like the diver, to gather pearls for our Master’s crown. The source of our life comes from above.”
(Henry Drummond)

Let us live with the knowledge of how important our relationship is with the Heavenly Father. Because He has given us our very breath, let us join the psalmist in Psalms 150:6:
“Let every thing that hath breath praise the Lord, Praise ye the Lord.”

"God, You are awesome. Thank You for loving me.
Amen."


Give Him glory daily.

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Sunday, December 27, 2009



The American Thinker poster Miguel A. Guanip, has a really fun comparison between the Global Warming Believers and the Matrix movie.

Unfortunately... I think that Miguel is right on about how much the "believers" believe... and how difficult it is to "free" them from the deception that is the Matrix.

The American Thinker
The Global Warming Matrix
By Miguel A. Guanipa
Unfortunately, no one can be told what the Matrix is. You have to see it for yourself.
-Morpheus (The Matrix)


The public posting of e-mails from among the University of Anglia's Climate Research Unit -- also known by members of the irrepressible right wing conspiracy contingent as Climategate -- bears some amusing yet somewhat disturbing similarities to the popular Sci-Fi movie The Matrix. The movie's script -- particularly that of a character named Morpheus -- yields an arresting parallel to the largely unanticipated and equally devastating charges of unethical conduct, fraud, manipulation, and plain distortion of the facts leveled at the rather vociferous cadre of so-called scientists originally anointed to preach the gospel of Anthropogenic Global Warming.
Welcome to the desert of the real.
-Morpheus

In the motion picture, destiny has decreed that a computer hacker named Neo begin the unraveling of a most intricate virtual construct called the Matrix. Morpheus, the pioneer of the insurrection who has learned to successfully bypass the program's complex circuitry, invades its nerve center, as it were, and rescues Neo from the virtual human farm where he lies dormant, cocooned in a shell with myriad other unsuspecting human specimens, while their bodies' energy is being harvested to sustain the very system that enslaves them. Armed with the truth, Neo then begins his mission of opening the minds of the rest of the oblivious human race.
"Many of them are so inured, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it."
-Morpheus

Much like Neo and the agents who are trying to thwart his mission, the nameless miscreant who hacked into the University of East Anglia's e-mail database uncovered the stunning level of deceit in which even the most erudite proponents of AGW routinely engage -- and the great pains they've taken to rationalize that which evidently was meant only to be parsed behind closed doors: the scarcity of reliable data to support their own case.

Some of the more strident communiqués reveal a peculiar code of behavior one would think rather unbecoming of serious men of science. These messages expose a culture that openly sanctions reprisal against those who dared to oppose the official AGW party line, in which more than a few reminders exist to delete any private missives which could expose the Research Unit's unnerving pattern of deception.

You have to understand: Most of these people are not ready to be unplugged.
-Morpheus

In the movie, Morpheus reminds Neo that removing the wool from people's eyes can be a precarious ordeal, since most people are simply not ready to be "unplugged." Moreover, this elaborate illusion in which they are held captive is fiercely guarded by the "Agents" assigned to protect the Matrix's intricate network from any foreign intrusion.

Correspondingly in the real world, if you were to speak to most people who watch the news, you would find that they are largely unaware of a serious breach into the crafty machinations of climate change hucksters. Those who openly peddle this second-rate theory with an air of academic certainty have hurriedly tried to mitigate the damage by presenting the public with a sanitized and better-choreographed version of a much uglier story, which by many accounts ranks as a major embarrassment to the scientific community.
Human beings are a disease, a cancer of this planet. You're a plague, and we are the cure.
-Agent Smith, speaking to Morpheus

In a rare moment of weakness, "Agent Smith" confesses to a harbored contempt for the trappings of what he well knows is nothing more than a very elaborate illusion. This makes him a particularly heinous villain, not to mention a rather accomplished hypocrite. This worldview espoused by the movie's ubiquitous villain bears a poignant affinity to that of real-life purveyors of global warming hysteria, as both tend to view humanity as the problem. Consider, for example, the modus operandi of our disingenuous Green Movement delegates, who travel thousands of miles in their own private jets to raise awareness of the negative effects that pollution and a ballooning world population have on the climate. Their intentions presumably justify their austere and genocidal proposals meant to curb this imaginary crisis -- all in the name of making the earth a greener place, at least for those who show a genuine concern for its preservation.
Remember: All I'm offering is the truth. Nothing more.
-Morpheus

The global warming Matrix will endure for possibly an extended season because most of us have a natural inclination to rest our faith upon those with "professional" credentials. We are the necessary bondsmen of these information experts who command our allegiance because of the authority automatically vested in their pronouncements. This is also the reason why they are so annoyed when some of their own peers, who may possess equal or greater authority, challenge their claims of inerrancy. Though "inerrancy" may seem too harsh, such is the immunity they affect when they declare that the debate concerning a matter of emerging scientific inquiry is officially over. Personally, I believe that scientists, of all people, should spearhead efforts to address the unanswered inconsistencies of their allegedly indisputable facts, rather than ignore the discord within their own ranks and allow the rest of their audience to remain ensnared in what has been aptly described as an "invincible ignorance." Of course, that would mean being complicit in the overthrow of the Matrix -- hence the Red Pill, proverbially manifested in what is yet to be proclaimed from the rooftops concerning the University of East Anglia's e-mail hacking revelations.
This is your last chance. After this, there is no turning back. You take the blue pill -- the story ends, you wake up in your bed, and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the red pill -- you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
-Morpheus

As in the movie... even after some come to understand the deception... and even after they are set free... there is often a longing to reenter the Matrix... sometimes it is easier to believe... the Matrix.

Consider and ponder.

xtnyoda, shalomed


H/T The Desert Rat of Morgan

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A very good question is being asked over at Brutally Honest in light of the take down of the Nigerian terrorist... if the Navy Seals are being court-martialed for taking down a terrorist... why not this guy who took down the plane blower-upper-wanna-be?


Here's the way Rick posts it:

If the Navy Seals, why not Schuringa?

Seems completely plausible and logical wouldn't you say?

The hero of Northwest Airlines Flight 253, lauded by passengers as the man who first reached would-be bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, will be arraigned this week under federal charges, the US Justice Department announced today.

Dutch citizen Jasper Schuringa was sitting a few seats away from Abdulmutallab when he heard popping and saw smoke and a glow coming from Abdulmutallab's seat. Schuringa was the first passenger to understand that Abdulmutallab was endangering the aircraft. He leapt over intervening seats to tackle and subdue Abdulmutallab, joined very quickly by other passengers.

Abdulmutallab has already been charged with attempting to destroy the airliner.

In announcing the pending charges against Schuringa the Justice Department spokesman said that after being treated for his burns, Abdulmutallab told a federal agent that Schuringa had slugged him in the mouth. Abdulmutallab pointed to his swollen lip as evidence of the assault.

"It's now well established in anti-terrorism operations that you cannot just go around slugging murderous terrorists in the mouth," said the spokesman. "What's fair for Navy SEALs will be fair for Mr. Schuringa. The law is the law." He added that Attorney General Eric Holder had approved charging Mr. Schuringa with assault.

That's satire... but the Navy Seal charges obviously is not.

Why not?

They should set the Seals free today... and court-martial those responsible for charging them with a crime.

xtnyoda, shalomed

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Sunday, December 27th. Today's cherished Nugget from guest blogger Pastor Bill.

John Wesley was walking one day with a troubled man who expressed his doubt of God’s goodness. “I don’t know what I shall do with all this worry and trouble,” he said. At that moment Wesley noticed a cow looking over a stone wall. “Do you know,” asked Wesley, “why that cow is looking over that wall?” “No,” replied his troubled companion. “I will tell you,” said Wesley—“because she cannot see through it. That is what you must do with your wall of trouble—look over it and above it.”

Faith enables us to look over and above every trouble, to God, who is our help.

When we can’t see how everything is going to work out let us pray as the apostles; recorded by the writer of Luke 17:5,
“Lord increase our faith.”

"God, You are able to handle my every situation. Help me to trust You more.
Amen."


The just shall live by faith.
(Romans 1:17)

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Saturday, December 26, 2009



Following is the first of a two part article concerning the Church...

... and this coming from The Desert Rat of Morgan.

The Glorious Church, Part 1

What's heaven going to be like? Gold streets, celestial buffet lines, mansions on hilltops? Who told you these things? Where in the Bible are these things promised or described for you? Maybe not where you've always thought...

Prophetic books like Revelation very often gives us the keys we need to make correct interpretations (so we don't have to rely on the imagination of specialty teachers or today's newspapers). In the case of the New Jerusalem of Revelation 21-22, the keys help us understand not a future heaven, but a present reality for Christians: "And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, made ready as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne, saying, 'Behold, the tabernacle of God is among men, and He will dwell among them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes; and there will no longer be any death; there will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain; the first things have passed away'" (Revelation 21:2-4). What do these verses tell us?

* The New Jerusalem is not heaven, but comes down from heaven.

* It is compared to a bride adorned for her husband.

* It fulfills the promise of God's presence with His people.

There are elements in these verses that sum up everything God has ever promised in all of Scripture.

A few verses later the apostle John says, "one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, 'Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb'" (Revelation 21:9). He's going to show us "the bride, the wife of the Lamb." Who is called the bride throughout the New Testament? The Church (2 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 5:22-33; Revelation 19:7,8)! So, as we go to the next verse, we are told we are going to see "the bride, the wife of the Lamb." What do we see? "And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, having the glory of God" (Revelation 21:10,11). The "holy city, Jerusalem," is the Church, which has the glory of God and is given from heaven (not created or built by men). In all the descriptions that follow, we are not being given a picture of heaven, but a highly figurative picture of "the Church of God which He purchased with His own blood" (Acts 20:28).

So why the architecture and all the physical details (Revelation 21:11-22:5)? Remember the original recipients of Revelation (it wasn't written primarily for us). A.D. 1st-century Christians faces incredible opposition from the religious establishment of Jerusalem, which spread its desire to eradicate Christianity all over the Roman Empire (read the book of Acts). In addition to this, the Roman Empire got in on the action in the years leading up to the destruction of the Jerusalem Temple and the descent of the Empire into chaos in A.D. 70. The Church is described in such glorious terms of unmatched architecture to show them who had the real Temple of God: the Church. If you think the New Jerusalem is a literal cube with 1,500 miles per side (21:16), you've been watching too much Star Trek (most of it would extend into the vacuum of space and need to be pressurized; no problem for God, but do we seriously think He would communicate this to comfort persecuted A.D. 1st-century Christians?). By the way - it's literally "12,000 stadia." 12 x 1,000. Every number in Revelation is symbolic. All of this figurative architectural detail is to assure the Christians that no matter what is built on Temple Mount in Jerusalem or on the various hills throughout the Roman Empire, there was one Temple of God, and it was them.

* The Church has both the authority of the apostles (Revelation 21:14; cf. Ephesians 2:19-22) and the blessings promised to the patriarchs of Israel (Revelation 21:12; cf. Galatians 3:14,29).

* There is no need for a Temple cult: the only sacrifice ever needed has been made (Hebrews 7:27; 9:12; 10:10; 1 Peter 3:18).

* There is no need for the lights of heaven to signal feasts and rituals (Revelation 21:23; cf. Genesis 1:14): it is all accomplished in the work of Jesus Christ, and the only sign we need is His glory.

* We have all the light we will ever need, "for the glory of God has illumined it, and its lamp is the Lamb" (Revelation 21:23). This glory, this lamp we were given out of heaven on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Spirit descended on the Church, never to depart (Acts 2:1-4,16-21). This Spirit is the Spirit of truth, Who teaches us, reminds us of Christ's words, and guides us (John 4:23,24; 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; 1 John 4:6; 5:6). We have no need of other light that the Spirit and truth (the Bible).

The apostle Paul gives us another witness to this assertion of Revelation. Paul never uses the term "Temple of God" or "House of God" unless he is referring to the Church (1 Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Ephesians 2:21). Even his warning of a "man of lawlessness" in God's Temple makes more sense in the original context of the letter if we realize he is warning that Church of an apostasy that will arise within it, not of the violation of a distant Temple that has no personal significance for his largely Gentile audience (2 Thessalonians 2:3-9). Jesus Himself refers to His own body as the Temple (John 2:14-22). Not to add another metaphor, but...the Church is that body (1 Corinthians 12:27; Ephesians 1:22,23; 4:12).

The bride's job is to clothe herself in the works of God (Ephesians 1:10; Philippians 2:12,13; Hebrews 13:20,21). "Let us rejoice and be glad and give glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready. It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints" (Revelation 19:7,8). How has she made herself ready? By clothing herself in that which was given to her. She doesn't create her own righteous acts, inventing them out of her own creativity, marketing plan, morality, or business model. They are given to her (clearly in the letters of the apostles). By the way, the marriage feast is the destruction of God's enemies at the hand of Christ, the bridegroom - not a the Church (Revelation 19:11-21)...I'm sure there's an unimaginable celestial buffet, but that's not what Revelation speaks of here!

Consider: "And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him as head over all things to the Church, which is His body, the fullness of Him Who fills all in all" (Ephesians 1:22,23). Jesus is head over all things, and head over the Church. The Church is Christ's body, and Christ fills everything. These verses are stunning to me. Twice Paul calls the Church "all things." What does that mean? Maybe I should digress a moment. In other places Paul says that all things belong to believers, even things we may not want, like death (Romans 8:32; 1 Corinthians 3:21-23). This means that even the unbelievers have a purpose in God's plan for believers (Proverbs 16:4; Romans 9:22,23). All of reality exists for one purpose, to bring about God's purpose for the Church. What is God's purpose for the Church? Conformity to Christ (Romans 8:28-30). God loves His Son more than anything in the entire universe. I would even say that God loves only His Son, and we experience God's love solely by our place in the Son (Romans 8:38,39; Ephesians 1:4-6). The apex of this creation is the Church, because it is being made into the image of Christ by the work of God the Holy Spirit. Even the things outside the Church exist as contrast to what the Church is and the character of her Lord.

Get this scriptural teaching firmly in your mind, and it will radically change your view of the Church and how gullible you are to the "end-times experts," i.e., snake-oil salesman (I think reading Revelation 21:9-11 as it demands to be read requires that we re-visit our interpretations of all of Revelation...and the New Testament...and the Old Testament!). God's presence is here, now, and real in the Church with His people. Instead of trying to re-create the "good old days" or investing all our hopes in tomorrow, we have God Himself here and now - maybe we should stop insulting Him by wishing for so much more. Maybe we should stop ignoring Him by staying away from the entity where He has promised His presence. Maybe we should stop treating the Church like it belongs to us or our denomination, or like it is something we have built for ourselves with our own ingenuity and efforts.

Thank God for His glorious Church!

Consider and Ponder

xtnyoda, shalomed

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Saturday, December 26th. Today's cherished Nugget from guest blogger Pastor Bill.

“Christmas is not a date. It is a state of mind.”
(Mary Ellen Chase, 1887–1973)

This is December 26 and most of, if not all, the presents have been unwrapped, and the paper and ribbons have been thrown away. For some even the decorations have been put away for at least 10-and-a-half months. We may put away the trimmings, but we should never put aside The Christ of CHRISTmas.

In keeping with the writer of the book of Luke, let us hold close the attitude the angels brought when they proclaimed,
“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth, peace, good will toward men.”
(Luke 2:14)

"God, thank You for the relationship we have with You that was made possible by Your gift to us at Christmas.
Amen."


Give Him glory daily.

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Friday, December 25, 2009



It would be significant that Mary and Joseph get the child's name right, seeing that Yahweh sent a delegation from Heaven to reveal the name.

Luke 2:21 “He was named JESUS-the name given by the angel before He was conceived.”
(Holman Christian Standard Bible)

Our Savior's Hebrew name... the name the angel pressed upon Mary and Joseph, was the name Yahshua... or the English form of the Hebrew is actually Joshua. Most believers do not know this... nor do most believers have any clue as to what the significance of Yahshua is in meaning.

I will try to help... or I will try to allow scripture to help... if you are interested in knowing why Yahshua is the name above every name, and at the name Yahshua every knee will bow and every tongue confess that Yahshua Messiah is Lord.

Yahshua/Joshua is made up from two words: Yah... is for Yahweh, God's personal name.
The 'shua' ending is from the Hebrew word for 'saves' or 'salvation'. Therefore the name Yahshua/Joshua means... Yahweh Saves. (Incidentally... this is why the New Testament says that there is salvation in no other name.)

We will take the name Yahshua/Joshua, and find the first, middle, and last use of the word in the sacred text of the Old Testament... with the understanding that in each instance the use of the word will carry some important characteristic for our overall understanding. Joshua/Yahshua is recorded 107 times in the Old Testament, the first time being in the book of Exodus:


The first time we meet Yahshua/Joshua in the text he is presented as a mighty Warrior.
Exodus 17:9 Moses said to Joshua, "Select some men for us, and go fight against Amalek. Tomorrow I will stand on the hilltop with God's staff in my hand."

This is the celebrated text where Moses extends the rod of God as Hur and Aaron assisted him in holding up the staff when Moses' strength began to falter... and all the while, Yahshua, is leading the battle in the valley.

Our Lord Yahshua is a... warrior... this is our introduction to the meaning of the name.

Next... we go to the median/middle use of the name to find the powerful insight that Yahshua is THE unique Mediator between Yahweh and humanity:

Joshua 10:12-14 Joshua spoke to the Lord in the presence of Israel: "Sun, stand still over Gibeon, and moon, over the valley of Aijalon." And the sun stood still and the moon stopped... There has been no day like it before or since, when the Lord listened to the voice of a man, because the Lord fought for Israel.

We find this great reality fulfilled in Yahshua, it says in 1Timothy 2:5 that Yahshua is the ONLY mediator between Yahweh and humanity, and again in Hebrews 7:25 it is stated that
"He is always able to save those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them."
(Notice the link between Yahshua's purpose of intercession and the fact that he is "able to save" those who come to Yahweh through Him... remember, Yahshua means, 'Yahweh Saves'.)

Just as there was no intercessor like Yahshua/Joshua in the Old Testament, there is no intercessor like Yahshua... nor ever shall be.

Now... for our exciting last revealing of the meaning of THE name... we find in it's last use in Zechariah...

Joshua: Priest and King
Zechariah 6:11 “Take silver and gold, make crowns and place them on the head of Joshua son of Jehozadak, the high priest.”

This Old Testament Yahshua/Joshua, was a priest... who then was crowned as King... the joining of the two offices of priest and king... a first... matter of fact Yahweh had demanded the separation of the two offices before on threat of death!

And the purpose of the combining of the two offices? It was to build the temple of Yahweh. Yahshua is now building the true temple of Yahweh... a house not made with hands... of which you and I are a part of it's members...

We see the New Testament fulfilling of this aspect in Yahshua Messiah as in Hebrews 5:6 we see Yahshua presented as a superior priest to the fabled Melchizedek, and in Hebrews 7:1 Yahshua is presented as a King far superior to Melchizedek.

Yahshua... Warrior, Intercessor, Priest/King... it is all in THE name.

Yahshua... Yahweh Saves.

Yahshua... THE name above every name, there is salvation in no other name, at the name every knee shall bow... those who call on the name shall be saved...

How can one call on a name that one knows not?

Now at least you know something of THE name.

To God be the Glory.

xtnyoda, shalomed

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