SelahV Today by hariette petersen

Beyond Comprehension: Persecution of Christians

I know Jesus told us it would happen.  But when I see the photos of a little 5 year-old girl in a sweet little ruffled dress, being held up without a head because ISIS barbarians severed it from her little body... well, it's more than my brain can grasp.  When I see a photo of a 7-year-old boy dangling from a noose with his pants pulled down, my brain explodes with horror.  My heart screams for God's intervention. When a priest gives the account of a child being cut in half by these sadistic monsters, my mind cries out in anger.

"Stop the madness."

But it continues.

It's reported that countless Iraqi women are being raped, little 7 year-old girls being married off to madmen.  Reports that ISIS buried alive over 500 women and children.  Thousands upon thousands have already been slaughtered, maimed and mutilated.  It's horrendous.  It's a nightmare.

Meanwhile, we take selfies, and watch the exhibition football games.  We swim. We eat bountiful meals. We waste water with squirt guns and water balloons as babies and women and children dehydrate on a mountaintop and die of thirst after fleeing death sentences from ISIS.

Then, in Gaza, their Hamas brethren lob over 3,400 rockets at Israel from hospitals and schools, all the while using children and Palestinians as human shields. There is no condemnation for their actions.  But Israel is lambasted by the press, the President, and protestors because Israel defends herself and tries to take out the rocket launchers.  And many Muslims in America support these people who claim to want all Jews, Christians, and non-Muslims dead.

Evil. Hatred. Atrocities. When ISIS comes here (and many say they're already here), will the U.N. condemn us for protecting our own, like they condemn us for wanting to protect our borders from invaders?

A seven-year-old boy holds up a severed head like it's a trophy and we ask "what do we do about it?"

We ban Bibles in Navy hospitality hotels. We ban prayer in malls and public places. We ban the name of God and His Son Jesus from speeches, and restrict faith conversations in every arena.  We condone more and more sin and accept it as norm. We let our own government tell us we cannot put up crosses or place nativity scenes on public spaces because it may offend a tiny percentage of people.

And we wonder why evil thrives?

Evil exists.  ISIS didn't invent it, nor did Hamas.  It began when Satan tried to elevate himself above God.  It entered this world when man chose to listen to Satan and disobey God-- to value his own desires more than the Lord's commands. It multiplied when the world followed after its own way and rejected God, forgot God, eliminated God from life.

So, I am crying on the inside...mourning the atrocities of man...the slaughter and the plight of the Iraqi Christians, as well as the perpetual war upon Israel. Evil abounds and my heart is twisted in knots. But, I read God's Word and am reminded:

"Commit your way to the Lord;
trust in Him, and He will act,

making your righteousness shine like the dawn,
your justice like the noonday.

Be silent before the Lord and wait expectantly for Him;
do not be agitated by one who prospers in his way,
by the man who carries out evil plans.

Refrain from anger and give up your rage;
do not be agitated—it can only bring harm.
For evildoers will be destroyed,
but those who put their hope in the Lord
will inherit the land." Psalm 37:5-9

Jesus is my hope and refuge. His blood was shed for my sin, and replaced it with His righteousness. I'm grateful the LORD holds these blessed persecuted Christians in His arms of love.  I'm smiling on the outside...grateful for the blessings of God, but still, I can't help crying on the inside. In life, spiritual battles rage on, but the war has been won.  For Jesus said, "I have told you these things so that in Me you may have peace. You will have suffering in this world. Be courageous! I have conquered the world." John 16:33

May God calm the storm within the hearts of those being persecuted around the world.  May He calm the storms within our hearts as we sit so far away praying and feeling so helpless. May He draw more unto Himself. Come, Lord Jesus, come. Fill us with Your peace.

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Twitter's 140 Character Mindset Won't Fix This Mess in America

But there is a message that can.

Millions upon millions tweet everything from surly snarks to amiable epithets, all in hopes of gaining something in life.  Not sure what folks are truly seeking. Following? Notoriety?  Status? It may be as simple as an audience to support their own thoughts.

It may reach farther into the human psyche than this simple blogger can discern, but...

I think it illustrates the depth of our loneliness-- the desperate abyss of our souls.  Such need there is to connect to life beyond ourselves, don't you think? 

Truly touching are some tweets that parade across the Twitter feeds each day.

The tweet encourages soldiers in foreign countries and lets them know they aren't forgotten by their countrymen. To worn spirits, a well-chosen phrase is like apples of gold for their hearts.  To embattled citizens who seek strength when the world seems against them like the Romeike family, the Seattle bakers, the mother who lost a son in Benghazi and receives no answers.  Tweeters take up the cause.

Twitter's fascinating.  It's an explosion of genius to say something brilliant in 140 characters and have dozens or more people retweet the profundity of our hearts, minds, and yes-- egos. 

Opinions abound.  Check in on anyone's Twitter feed and you'll soon see how to solve the situation with Putin in the Ukraine, fix the American Educational System, defund Obamacare and get rid or Piers Morgan.  You'll meet Patriots and Traitors, Trolls and Moles-- you'll find hatred, camaraderie, enemies and alliances. 

This, my friends, is our world.  Follow me!

Twitter is a snapshot of all that's good and evil in our world.  There are encouragers and discouragers, slayers and naysayers, critics and judges.  There are wits and whiners and powerful designers.  There are framers and founders and wisdom expounders.  And it's absolutely scary to think so much influence can be given in reading the tweet which is not even considered a coherent sentence.

But there it is.

Communication in nano-seconds.  From Bejing to Podunk Hollow, Tennessee. From D.C. to Vegas.  From Wasillah, Alaska to Moscow.  Links upon links, connections and reflections.  Extractions and retractions.  Diversions and perversions. The stream is boundless-- the ripples ever-changing, as the simple confound the wise.

Can we ever rise above such miniscule thinking--away from the sound-bite evaluations? Can we find our way back to a world of contemplation, understanding, and personal introspection?  Or are we beyond grasping the art of comprehension and communication?  Are we ruined?  Spoiled?  Can we not see ourselves?

Sometimes I wonder what a world like this will be ten years down the road.  Will we cease to speak at all?  Will we be one long continuum of letters, numbers dots and symbols?

Will we lump ourselves inside a #hashtag and forever brand ourselves by labels?  It's collected, you know?  Our words and conversations-- if you can call them that-- are stored forevermore in posterity. 

It reminds me of a Scripture verse wherein the Lord warns of judgment day-- a day of accounting.  In that day we will answer for every idle word we've uttered and every mindless thing we've done.  What will my portion be at that moment? 

I have but one thing worth saying at all.  God came to earth one day; He lived among man to show mankind how the Father loved us and how the Father wanted us to love one another.  Then He died on a cross to pay the penalty for all our devious, deceitful, prideful, debaucherous, licentious, perverse, hateful and rebellious schemes against His holiness.  He knew we couldn't live up to His holiness. He knew.  So He gave the sacrifice of His only begotten Son to pay the fine for our sin. Our get-out-of-jail-free card. Jesus died, then rose again to life and conquered the grave.  He did that for you. 

Eternity will be spent with Him or without Him.  Surely we'd rather spend eternity in peace than in everlasting hell, wouldn't we?

Won't you trust in Him today?  Before it's too late to believe?  He promises that all who come to Him in faith believing, He is faithful and just to forgive you of all unrighteousness.  All.  As in every single thing you've ever done against the Holy Creator.  Now that's worth tweeting, any day of the week.

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Dr. Paige Patterson Addresses SBC Name Change

Some will take a deep breath and sigh with relief.  Some will gasp. Others will simply sigh.  Even though several Baptist state papers relayed the news of a task force being formed by SBC President Bryant Wright, many are unaware of the business coming before the Executive Committee of the SBC tomorrow in Nashville, Tennessee.

Perhaps it will help some to read in full, what Dr. Paige Patterson, President of SWBTS, had to say on the proposal to consider a name change for the Southern Baptist Convention:

(Used by permission)

Address to the Executive Committee of the SBC

February 20, 2012

When President Bryant Wright telephoned late last year asking me to serve on a committee to provide counsel to the president about a change in name for our beloved Convention, my initial thought was, "Mr. President, why do you hate me?" My life has been spent, too much of it, in controversy, which contrary to popular wisdom, I thoroughly despise.  In fact, my life verse has become Jeremiah 15:10.

Woe is me, my mother, that you have borne me, a man of strife and a man of contention to the whole earth!  I have neither lent for interest, nor have men lent to me for interest. Every one of them curses me.

My love for and devotion to this fellowship that we call a Convention and to its churches and mission causes is by now, I hope, apparent.  Soon, if God wills, I will attend my 60th annual meeting without a miss.  While I seek neither sympathy nor applause, my family has paid a high price for faithfulness as we understood it to Christ, the Bible, and to the faith of our Baptist Fathers.  For thirty- six years, I have led three different institutions to train your missionaries, pastors and evangelists.  For fifty-five years I have faithfully preached the unsearchable riches of Christ mostly in Southern Baptist churches and mission points. Haltingly and often poorly, I have sought to be a personal witness to the saving grace of our Lord.

So what is your point, oh hoary with years?  Just that in the pedestrian words that I am about to utter, I sincerely hope that my motive and intentions are pure even should you find my logic flawed.  From my vantage point in the forced march to the summit of Nebo, the twin concerns that rivet my heart are seven billion lost people on this globe and the care of the churches that serve as the launch pads for the dissemination of the gospel.

Since I was a boy-preacher somewhere back in the Pre-Cambrian era, I have been concerned that Southern Baptists needed to change our name.  Every time the issue arose, I cast a losing vote contrary to that of some of my dearest friends.  The logic that appealed to me then was as simple as the mind that assessed it.  (1) We were no longer regional and (2) If the regional moniker were an offense, a barrier to some, used in turn by the Enemy to keep them from Christ, then we should remove the barrier.

Please note what I did not say.  While I recognize that some of our own are offended by our Southern Baptist history of sometimes fierce clashes, of our moral stands against abortion, gender confusion, the dissolution of the family, the devastating effects of gambling and alcohol on our families and the social order, and even belatedly the more politically correct, but in this case biblically correct stand against racism, while I regret that any are offended, I view all of this as noble, even if in our flesh we were sometimes ignoble in our approaches to these issues.

Neither do I think that the name on the shingle has much to do with evangelistic success.  History is replete with the objections of the establishment to the evangelization of the lost.  When God's people seek His face for His mighty hand to move and then when they witness as though they were in the fourth quarter, I know for a fact that the baptismal waters will be stirred far more frequently than Bethesda.

Consequently, I am not ashamed of the Southern Baptist name.  Indeed, I love and treasure it for what it represents in terms of doctrine, ethics, shared mission, response to human need, and world mission endeavor.  But my brothers and sisters, if at least a descriptor could be found which focused on the nature of our mission, how could that be a bad omen?

The recommendation which our distinguished Baptist statesman, Dr. Draper, will now bring is one that satisfies my conscience on all levels to a degree I never thought possible.  I support it enthusiastically.  I have just two requests of you my brethren.  First, let us seek God's face with ardent supplication to see if the committee's report is an amazing solution given by the Spirit of God.  Second, if at the end of the process, you do not agree, that is fine.  This is why you are a Baptist, a dissenter, and why I am not your bishop, cardinal or pope.  But may we agree that we will debate and decide the issue without recourse to a discussion of motives and intentions of the heart which only God can see and know.

Whatever the outcome, I remain confident for the future.  The gates of hell will not conquer the church of Jesus the Christ.  The Spirit and the Bride say come.  Southern Baptists say come.  Let whosoever wills come and slake his thirst with the water of life.  Such remains the mission of Southern Baptists until Jesus comes." Dr. Paige Patterson

As a blogger who is known better by my moniker ("descriptor") than my legal name, I wonder how long it will take for folks to understand just what "Great Commission Baptists" are all about.  It's more than sharing the old, old story of Southern Baptists marching to Zion or singing Stand Up, Stand Up For Jesus, just as we are--warts and all.  It is sharing Jesus with hearts filled with love and mercy.  It is spirits yielded to the Holy Spirit's guidance and convicting presence.  It is minds focused upon the mission to cooperate with other Believers in the Southern Baptist Convention.

In days ahead, it should be interesting to hear what others have to say. The task force thinks it is a Win-Win.  A compromise.  For those determined to rid us of "Southern", of "Baptist", of "Convention", it may not suffice. Others may not like the "descriptor" at all.  I do not doubt we'll have a few jovial remarks, and perhaps more than a few satirical jabs in the discussions.  C'est la vie.  That's life as usual as a Baptist, I suppose.  selahV

[Special thanks to Dr. Patterson for permission to post his address tonite.]

The Most Disgusting Thing In The World

Never in my dreams did I believe it could really happen.  When I was in high school I read the fiction book, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley.  It was a horrific futuristic book about a world where people were programmed to have no feelings for one another and to view life as all about oneself.  There were castes of people and yet each person within a caste were sleep-programmed that they were superior to anyone else.  It was sick.

I also saw a movie (or maybe I dreamed it after that book), about that same time. It depicted the world near its end when starvation was normal for the entire world.  People who went into the doctor would never leave the hospitals.  Instead they were loaded into huge dumptrucks and taken to a factory, murdered, then ground up to make food tablets for the healthier people.  Survival of the fittest?  Sick.

Now, according to Bapist Press News /link), "Chinese pharmaceutical companies are grinding up dead babies into stamina-enhancing pills, according to a South Korean television network."  Seriously...?  the total disregard of human life is actually digressed to this level?  This gives new meaning to the word depravity.

Oh, merciful God, let Your people rise up and cry out.  Let us realize that our society is not far behind when we find no reason why we shouldn't abort babies and use their stem cells for scientific research.  God in Heaven, please remove the blinders from the eyes of the world to the barbaric and despicable practice in China and who knows where else.  Will they, next, be taking eggs and sperm and producing test-tube babies and placing them in hot-houses in order to harvest organs for transplants?  I would not be surprised anymore.  Would you?  selahV

FOR HOPE... But Lord, I Need You (/link)

1,300 YOUTH CELEBRATE JESUS IN BUDAPEST HUNGARY

CHECK OUT THIS RESURRECTION SUNDAY DANCE by 1,300-hundred youth in Hungary.  May America's Youth catch the spirit surging through the souls of these young people. 

A Message From God

BAPTISTS DETAINED IN HAITI CHARGED WITH KIDNAPPING

Morris Chapman, SBC Executive Committee President, wrote an article requesting prayer for the Baptist detainees in Haiti.  It breaks my heart that this Christian group who wanted to help these children are being slapped with charges of child kidnapping by the Haitian government.  As I read through Dr. Chapman's article in the Baptist Press, I couldn't help but wonder if this terrible situation could have been avoided if the International Mission Board had been involved in their ministry--if only in an advisory capacity--from the beginning.  The SBC has so many people who know the ins and outs of regulations and laws with our Disaster Relief teams and boards, that surely, they could have helped this ministry group from facing such a situation.  See Chapman's article HERE.

May God intervene and have these volunteers released soon.  May His comforting spirit be with them and their families in the United States.  May the children of Haiti find someone to help them through this experience.  selahV

RESPOND TO HAITI

Some missionaries have gone and returned from Haiti.  People are still going, giving, and praying.  While millions upon millions of people donated to the Hollywood Celebrity telethon, all the millions of dollars are tied up in some bank in the U.S.A. awaiting some future date to release help.  Meanwhile, Southern Baptists are working there.  The Commission has released a wonderful video worth taking about 5 minutes of your time to view.  Go HERE.  Below the video is inspiring written commentary.

Texas Baptists are there or going there. Read a Baptist Standard report.

Florida Baptists are there or going there. Read a Florida Baptist Witness report.

As we pray for the people in Haiti to recover from this devastation, remember the workers and the thousands of people who will return again and again to help rebuild their lives.  Pray for safety.  Pray for Haitian hearts to be open to the gospel.  Pray for missionaries to help educate and lead them to Jesus.  Pray that the stranglehold of injustice is broken and that good supercedes evil.  Pray that our workers not grow weary in their efforts.  God is at work in Haiti.  Our prayers can go where our feet cannot take us.

For a place to give with confidence that your money will be going to help in the relief of Haitian people NOW, go here:  selahV

Devotion for Today, and "IF God is in Control..."

Last week I wrote a devotional for Devotional Christian entitled: When Life Falls Apart, Jesus Holds It Together.  It is published today at their site.  I am compelled to link it here for my readers in light of some of my posts of late.

It is not my intention to create more fear in our lives as I write about combustible gases on tankers, trials of terrorists in New York, and the injustice of health-care reform in America.  It's also not a weakness in my faith that nudges me to write prayer requests for my brother's situation with emphysema or the safety of his daughter as she lives in New York city.  My faith is strengthened by my dependence on the Lord.  My posts are meant to show our complete reliance upon Him as we do what He leads us to do in the scheme of things as we walk in this world.  I was reminded by a dear friend today that nothing and no one can do anything "unless it is given to him of the Lord".  In other words, God is in control.

We might ask, as a reader recently wrote me via email, "If God is in control, does that mean He is controlling us?"  Whew!  That's some  heavy stuff to lift above our finite minds, isn't it?  To believe otherwise would make us seem to question the sovereignty of God.  But to dissect the entirety of this question, one must also remember God's sovereignty is big enough to allow us choices in life.  With every choice comes a consequence.  And the blessing within God's protective grace is that He is, indeed, in control of the consequences, too.  Who are we to challenge His decisions?  Who are we to tell Him when to pour forth rain, withhold it, or grant us sunshine?  Who are we to decide which calamity will bring greater peace? Who are we to tell him that our illness is not the best part of His plan for us? if we trust with all our heart that He rules upon this earth as He sees fit for His glory?

Maybe the question we should ask is, If God is not in control, do I want to be?  Really?

UPDATE on LIQUEFIED GAS DELIVERY FROM YEMEN TO USA

You may remember a few days ago I wrote a post (LINK) about volatile liquefied gas coming into Boston on tankers from Yemen.  Massachusetts' moms are asking folks to call the U.S. Coast Guard to block it.  The Mayor is now fighting to block that vessel from unloading.

"Coast Guard officials are reviewing the plan and said yesterday they have not yet decided whether the shipments will be allowed to enter the harbor and dock at the LNG terminal in Everett."  Go HERE for more information on that perilous situation.

Listen, friends.  This is a serious matter for these perilous times in America.  While this particular shipment could come in and have absolutely nothing wrong with it, Yemen cannot guarantee that subsequent shipments will be safe.  This ship needs to dock off shore...just like the terrorists that the U.S. Attorney General, Eric Holder, is foolishly going to try for their admitted involvement bombing of New York, need to be tried offshore so the residents in New York City do not have to be paralyzed for who knows how long while Holder's circus goes on in their town.

It may be silly, but, to me, it just makes sense that our President do all he can to keep the American citizens safe.  Didn't he swear something like that about a year ago when he laid his hand on the Holy Bible and became President of the U.S.A.?

Why should we care about Boston and New York?  Uh, because they are our fellow citizens?  I'm one little voice in Oklahoma.  I'm far away from those places.  When Osama bin Laden's terrorist group flew fully-fueled jets into the The Twin Towers on September 11, 2001, I sat watching in horror from my safe little home in Kentucky.  Today I'm not as naive, nor am I as trustful.  And after the Fort Hood, Texas massacre a few months ago, I don't feel I'm all that safe.  Do you?  Seriously?  Why does this concern me?  Well, I have a niece who works in New York City.  I don't want her in more jeopardy than she already is.  Just saying. 

Pray for the efforts of our officials as they try to keep us safe.  Pray for the patriotic Christian ladies in Massachusetts who stand in the gap for Americans and report situations that could harm us.  Pray for our President to have the wisdom of God and act upon it in a wise way.  selahV

EXPLOSIVE COMPANIONS, COMBUSTIBLE LIQUID, YEMENI AND BOSTON

How can Americans trust ships from Yemeni to enter the ports of Boston?

"How vulnerable are the tankers? It’s safe to assume that the Coast Guard and police throughout the Port of Boston will step up security on tankers originating in Yemen. Also give some credit to the liquefied natural gas industry. Their double-hulled tankers boast an excellent safety record. But how good will security be on the Yemeni end? Could terrorists with explosives gain access to a tanker that requires more than a day at the dock to load?

Distrigas president Frank Katulak says that protection at the French-owned facility in Yemen will meet US standards and remain under the control of European security personnel." Larry Harmon, The Boston Globe, boston.com

"Meet U.S. standards"??????

In light of the Fort Hood Massacre of soldiers by the hand of a fellow soldier who was a terrorist confiding with the Yemeni terrorist guru, and bent on destroying the "infidels"?

Considering the Christmas terrorist who trained in Yemen, and avoided all kinds of security breaches, and came very close to blowing up a plane en route to America?  And instead of whisking this man away to be interrogated by the FBI and military, he is mirandized and given a public defender?

Wouldn't you think it behooves the United States businesses to be a bit wary of the security of any ship coming from Yemen?  Nah. The President of the company purchasing this volatile liquefied gas says they can trust the security of America's system.

Uh...sorry, folks.  I don't trust the system lately.  Congress is holding hearings this very week on the inability of our national security system and delving into the absolute failure of our security system.  And until the system is fixed, I am more than concerned that these ships are going to be floating on waters in Massachusetts.  I don't think the money this company makes is nearly as important as the people who live and work in the Boston area. 

For more information on this explosive companionship, read HERE.  In the meantime...someone call Curt Shilling.

WE'RE HAVING A HEAT WAVE

After several days of frigid teens and twenties--with windchills of below freezing nipping our noses each time we poked them out our doors--we are having a heat wave.  It's 33 degrees today in Lawton.  As I shiver, shake, and hold my breath each time I go to the mailbox, I can't help but be grateful for the Global Warming of our planet.  Can you imagine how cold we would be if not for this man-made blanket of Al Gore's personal jet stream around the earth?  Brrrr.

Never in all my days here in southern Oklahoma have I counted the days for snow to melt.  It's amazing.  We still have snow leftover from the 2009 Christmas Eve Blizzard.  It's January 9th! 

Hubby talked to his mother yesterday.  She lives in Florida, ten minutes from Tampa.  Global warming delivered 28 degrees to her and the surrounding strawberry farms.  Don't think I'm going to plan any strawberry shortcake parties this year.  Wonder if the oranges and grapefruit will survive.  Frozen orange juice is usually made after the fruit has been picked, not before.  And this is the season for oranges on trees.

Oh well, there's hope.  Spring is coming.  And while we are all stocking our woodpiles, lighting candles and eating steaming soup, maybe a few politicians will rethink Cap and Trade legislation.  Don't hold your breath, though, your lungs might freeze.  selahV

THIS OUGHT TO GO VIRAL

PERSUASIONS OF MAN, WOULD YOU BECOME AS I AM?

What persuades you?  Is there something in your life today that so energizes you that it cannot be turned off?  Is there something so critical that you feel demoralized?  Who do you trust?  To whom do you turn for advice and counsel?

The last few months our world has been so infected and indoctrinated with political ideologies, that light has all but gone out on what is truly important in life.  People say they no longer have any trust.  People say they are frightened, angry, enraged, depressed.  The gloom and doom of the present crisis in life is taking a toll on people.  One man in California killed his mother-in-law, wife and children, and then killed himself because he felt his financial crisis was insurmountable; he could see no other way.  An 90 year-old lady shot herself because her home was scheduled for foreclosure.  She had no hope.

What does it say about our focus on life when all we are is what we have?  What does our politics, economics and ideology say about us as children of God?

"In politics, it is difficult to steer a course, there is a complication of forces to be dealt with which most of us know nothing about.  We have no affinity for this kind of thing, and it is easy to ignore the condition of the men who have to live there, and to pass condemnation on them." Oswald Chambers, Shade of His Hand, 1936.

In the midst of America's economic downturn, political campaigns for president, and the pursuit of dreams and change--another war rages on:  4,015 homes in 300 villages were burned displacing more than 50,000 people.  "Two pastors were killed, six priests severely injured, one nun was gang raped, two ladies burned alive, 24 other Christians were killed and many injured."  A young pastor of a church was brutally killed and the mob dragged his dead body and threw it in a field by the roadside.  His wife and 2 year-old daughter are missing.  A pastor was asked to deny Jesus.  When he refused, his throat was cut.  His house and church were destroyed.

While we worry about our 403b's, and 401K's, and whether or not the government will fulfill their promises to seniors collecting Social Security and paying for Medicare, Christians in India are dying for their faith.  Ah, Eastern religion at its worst.  As people continue to laugh at Christians in the theaters showing "Religiousity"--the blasphemous parody on faith--India's Christians are dying for Jesus.  Ah, Eastern religion influence at its best.  As Louis Farrakhan endorses Obama and proclaims he is the Messiah, India's Christian's are being burned alive.

Friends, we have so very much more than our bank accounts, annuities, and stock portfolios.  We own more than our houses, our Chevy Malibus and closets filled with clothes we do not wear.  We have Jesus.  We have, for now, the right to proclaim Him in our land.  We have, for now, the freedom to worship Him every day of the week if we choose.  We do not face, for now, the threat of being raped, murdered and maimed for daring to proclaim Him as our Lord.  We have hope where others have none.  We have victory where others have defeat.  We have grace where others have condemnation.  We must take a page out of Paul's bold proclamations before Porcius Festus and King Agrippa. [see Acts 25-26] 

This crisis in America is an opportunity to offer the best plan for anyone's future.  Jesus Christ and His salvation.  We must not take for granted the privileges God has bestowed upon us in a free society.  We must use our every resource to help one another and thereby show the love we have for Christ by the love we have for each other.  We must give more generously than we've ever given to missions around the world.  We must invest more of ourselves into the lives of our children and families.  We must fret less about ourselves, and encourage a world in turmoil.

We have a Message worth sharing.  We have a Message worth blogging about.  Jesus.  Jesus.  Jesus.  Can we join Paul in saying, "whether short or long, I would to God that not only you, but also all who are listening to me today, might become as I am..."?  selahV

[© SelahV Today, hariette petersen, 2008]

[For the full story on India's horror, see Oct. 9th edition of the Baptist Messenger, Editorial, India Burning.]

WINDS OF CHANGE ARE IN THE AIR

OIL PRICES DROP!!  GASOLINE PRICES FALL!!  DRILL BABY, DRILL!

If you ask me, and no one is, they oughta take that 700-billion dollars and pass a massivie energy bill.  Begin drilling offshore and in Alaska.  Erect new nuclear plants, build new refineries, construct more windmills, dig more natural gas pipelines, make more biofuel stations, help automakers design more fuel-efficient cars, invest in more algae-oil production ponds.

Yeah.  Then the whole wide world will be dumping their money into our ingenuity and the American workers who gain from jobs and a robust economy that is NOT dependent on 700-billion dollars a year going to overseas countries who hate our guts for our capitalistic democracy!  selahV

[© SelahV Today, hariette petersen, 2008]

BAILOUT BUCKET SPRINGS A LEAK

Well, well, well.  Seems the bucket had a hole in it.  I am a bit weary of Pelosi blaming everything from my hangnail to the rising of the sun on George Bush and every other Republican since the beginning of time.  Sorry, sweetheart, but if you'd simply took Barney Frank and Chris Dodd and sent them on a trip to Guantanamo and assigned someone with bipartisan brains to oversee this deal, you might not be searching for a new bucket.  But nooooooo.  You're right back out in front of the cameras blaming us again.

Americans are not stupid.  What in the world are they thinking?  The very people who put us squarely in the middle of all this are still pretending to protect the taxpayer.  If the Democrats want this to be bi-partisan, then I'd say she needs to turn down her partisan rhetoric and apologize for her hormonal attack of the brain today.

Yeah, yeah.  I know.  Republicans want the economy to tank.  Republicans don't care about the little guy.  Excuse me.  I am a little guy.  My husband's "to-date" earnings is 6,700.00 right now and here it is only three more months to go.  We get a paltry 14,000 from his well-earned Social Security and has to pay 1,200 dollars a year back to the Medicare Insurance that everyone seems to think is free.  We did hope to be able to start drawing on our measly annuity next April when my husband turned 66.  But here we go with the Wall Street spectators and billionaires and government mishandling of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and over one third of our money is gone.  GONE.  We have no clue if we'll draw enough now to pay the grocery bill for two.  Forget yachts, homes, gasoline and medicine.  I am a little guy.

Right as I sit here typing, Ms. Pelosi is speaking in such soft tones of being bi-partisan.  Barney Frank is mocking deeply offended Republicans.  Well, Barney.  There you go again.  Democrats could have passed this stupid, ludicrous bill all by yourself.  Why didn't you pass it yourself if we Republicans are so hurt?  You are simply the worst Congress we ever had.  A 12% approval rating.  I figure the only reason you have that good a rating is because of the Republicans who are dissing this bill.  If we lose every dime we have, I wouldn't vote for this bill.  We don't need a bill that is wrong.  We need a bill that gets it right.  American voters have spoken.  We're calling our Congressmen and women by all-time records.  Change your attitude.  Get out of the way.  Get a new bucket.  The one you have is full of holes.

BTW...Thanks, Ms. Pelosi for such an inspiring speech today.  You warmed my heart. (Yeah...I'm being facetious!) selahV

[© SelahV Today, hariette petersen, 2008]

DIRE TIMES

Friends I do believe our country's financial crisis is much greater than we can even imagine.  The last time I saw President Bush clench his jaw and take a deep breath like he did yesterday was when he came to the podium to speak to the nation about the destruction of the Twin Towers.  These are dire times.

Think of a world wherein we waken to much of what Galveston Island has now.  No water.  No electricity.  The stench of rotting animals.  Consider that mankind in our greed for more, more, more reaches the bottom of the proverbial pot of soup.  If there is no money, there is no services.  If there is no services, there is no gas to move the food.  Life is no longer as we know it.  When a family goes bankrupt, most times they still have a house for a while.  But when a family loses their income, they soon find themselves without a home.

I believe we are living on borrowed time, my friends.   

"Come, my people, enter your chambers, and shut your doors behind you; Hide yourself, as it were, for a little moment, until the indignation is past.  For behold, the Lord comes out of His place to punish the inhabitants of the earth for their iniquity; the earth will also disclose her blood, and will no more cover her slain." Isaiah 26:20,21.

I sit in my comfortable home.  I have a refrigerator with a bit of frozen food.  I have canned goods in the cabinets.  I have flour, oats and rice.  I can turn on the faucet and out comes water distributed by my municipalities.  But what if.  What if none of these things were available tomorrow?  What if all communication were shut down?  What if this were my last post?

Friends, our government is scrambling for answers.  Our leaders need our prayers for wisdom and discernment.  We may very well be temporarily diverting a castastrophic calamity in our country and throughout the world this weekend.  You do not know.  I do not know.

I sat in my recliner last night railing at the talking heads.  Wondering if they were lying?  Stupid?  Insane?  Why were they laughing?  Why are we pointing fingers of blame?  Why aren't we holding hands and bowing our heads in consternation?  Do we really think our "Gimme, gimme" attitudes can last forever without consequence?  Instead of seriously considering how it will be on folks if they get kicked out of their homes, we wonder if we are going to have to hand them our loaf of bread as they move to the streets.

My heart is heavy.  Truly heavy.  Iran, Russia, Venezuela, Cuba.  Do you think for a moment that the governments of these nations care one whit that we are in this state of panic?  This coming week, that nut-case from Iran, Ahmadinejad, will come to our country and speak in the United Nations building in New York.  He will spew his hatred for us and Israel.  Make no mistake; he seeks to wipe Israel off the face of this earth and you and I are infidels who deserve no better in his mind.   Are we praying for God to move in the hearts of the world leaders?

We are living in dire times.  People are getting married.  People are living in sin without one shred of shame.  People are scoffing at the heart of someone who would dare have a child with Down's Syndrome and praise God for the privilege.  Mockers are laughing at all the voices who dare to lift the name of Jesus as the true King.  Today may be the last day you have to share your King's promise.  Will you?  selahV

 

AFTER THE STORM SURGE--TO WHOM CAN WE TURN?

She'd had to leave quickly when Hurricane Ike barreled ashore in Highlands, Texas. When Ike left the area, she returned to find her house drowning in four to five feet of water from the storm surge.  Just before the storm, she'd washed clothes and placed them on her bed.  After the surge, her bed was upside down in the water.  Now she has four to six inches of muddy gunk covering everything with strange things slithering around in the muck.  She never thought the water would get that far up in her house.  She may salvage a few things, but much is lost.  FEMA may eventually help, but of course there are things you lose that can't be replaced.  As she surveyed her losses, a jewelry box floated into her yard.  It wasn't hers.   

Yesterday, a church family was trying to help her find a place to wash the clothes she'd managed to grab.  When they found a place which had electricity and a washer and dryer, she was thrilled to have five days of clean clothes to wear.

I wonder.

Today, do I dare grumble because there's too much laundry?  The carpet needs vacuuming?  The lawn needs mowing?  The bed needs to be made?  Today the stores are closed in Highlands, Texas.  But I can go shopping and murmur about the high cost of coffee and gripe because the strawberries are not fresh.  Today thousands of homes are destroyed or ruined in Galveston, Highlands, Port Arthur, New Orleans, and more. But I can turn on my lights, fill my tub with water and take a hot bath.  I can sleep in my bed without the smell of mold, mud and sewage permeating the air.

The Wednesday night before Ike roared into the Texas, Louisiana coastline and demolished homes, David Brumbelow, pastor of Northside Baptist in Highlands, led his folks in prayer for those already affected in Cuba and Haiti.  He led them to pray for a weakened storm, and for God's protection on those who would be affected in Texas.  He led his church to give an offering to the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief (NAMB & IMB).  Perhaps we should all do that in light of all the disasters our country has faced in the last few months.

David has shared with me a series of his thoughts about Ike--before and after.  Some of the posts below do not tell about an elderly man who fell off his roof yesterday while trying to remove a limb.  They do not share that he died and that people are mourning that loss.  But these thoughts do give us an idea of specific things for which we can pray for those in these storm-ravaged areas.  I've decided to post those thoughts on separate pages so you can get an up-close and personal peek into what they are experiencing in the Gulf of Mexico into his area of Texas.  Please feel free to come back here and comment on any of the four posts you read.  selahV

HURRICANE IKE, 2008~~Part 1 of 4.

HURRICANE IKE, 2008~~Part 2 of 4.

HURRICANE IKE, 2008~~Part 3 of 4.

HURRICANE IKE, 2008~~Part 4 of 4.

To donate to Southern Baptist Disaster Relief efforts, phone toll-free 866-407-6262 or visit www.namb.net.

MY PICK FOR MCCAIN'S VEEP

ME.

I'd straighten out this mess in a skinny minute.

Stay tuned for how I'd do it.  selahV 

ME, YOU, MISSIONARIES and OTHER REAL PEOPLE

Perhaps we all should adopt our very own missionary.  I had been praying for a while for the Lord to send me a missionary for whom I could begin praying for...cry with, rejoice with.  When I first met Kerri Hamilton, she didn't even leave her name on the blog I commented on.  She was just a Missionary-In-Waiting.  I can't really remember the conversation of the post at the time, I just remember reading her plea for understanding, her position on a matter close to her heart, and that she was a "missionary in waiting".  I didn't even know what that meant when I saw it.  But it intrigued me.  The Lord led me to pray for her.  I wrote the prayer out on the comment stream, posted it and went on my merry way back to my blogsite and my blog-writing.I can't recall exactly how long it was before I got an email from her thanking me for praying for her--one day or three.  Really, it doesn't matter.  We began corresponding. At the time she was pretty much unable to share much about her call to missions because she wasn't sure where she was going.  That's all in the post you can find [HERE]. I'm not going to write verbatim her blog profile because you can now read it for yourself as her blog is no longer a security issue and is public.  HooRay for us!  TAH DAH! for the Hamilton's...read that post [HERE].

Kerri and Robert are so excited about God's new call upon their lives.  They'll be missionaries in Brazil.  For anyone interested in participating in praying for these new missionaries as they walk through each step of the process, Kerri's blog will be a great place to view from afar and learn.  She has four darling children whom she homeschools and teaches lessons of life in wonderful ways.  They are going to need all the prayers we can utter as they learn a new language and sever emotional ties here in America.  They will experience joy, separation anxieties, adapting struggles and tests upon their faith as none we've ever encountered.  They will need to adjust to new government regulations, traffic guidelines, diet changes and a multitude of other things we take for granted in our prosperous America.

They need us, folks.  And the following post found HERE kind of sums up the one side of this missionary's heart.  Go over and examine her heart.  Share a part of yours.  And then take hers into yours and pray for her daily.  I'm glad God led me to her and her to me.  I know you'll be glad too when you get to know her.   selahV    

TARRY AWHILE AMONGST THE TARES

"O beautiful, blue spacious skies, for amber waves of grain..."

Pictured in the photos below are wheat fields near my house.  The fields are overgrown by thistles, darnels, yellow daisies and other weeds. 

I see America as a wheat field. The tares have been allowed to grow up for so long that the field is overcome with them. You can hardly see the wheat.

  Nevertheless, if God can find but one righteous man, He may not destroy our Sodom.

The "fields are white unto harvest".  Yet, we tarry.  There are so few laborers; pray that more will come.

Until the end of time we will have tares among us.  "Let the tares grow up amongst the wheat".  In His time, the heavenly Reaper will sort it all out.  The hay and stubble will be burned away. Thistles and daisies will wither.

The wheat will be sifted and the chaff will be blown away.  And all that remains will be grain.  That grain will be crushed and pounded and readied for use.  And when it is ready, the Lord will add heavenly ingredients to it.  And He will knead it, roll it and form it into a loaf of His choosing.  Because the loaf must be fit for a King.    

"Pray ye, the Lord of the harvest..."

sincerely yours, selahV

[copyrighted, SelahV Today, 2007]