All posts filed under: z33

Who made you judge? Photo: ssalonso/Flickr

Everybody needs somebody, Everybody needs somebody to judge

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I have always struggled with being judgmental. I know I should not judge and understand “as you judge others so shall you be judged,” yet, at times I find myself being critical of others and often for no real reason. I needed to find a way not to judge people. Clearly, simply deciding not to judge wasn’t working. I needed something, a word, that would change my perception of people and my instinct to judge. The word “honor” began to present itself.  As I took a closer look at “honor,” I knew this was a word that could deliver me from my judgmental attitude and help change my perception of people. The Apostle Paul said: “Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another”  (Romans 12:10) An acquaintance recently shared her experience as a foster parent. Megan and her husband Justin decided to become foster parents three years ago.  They determined to build a relationship with the parents of their foster kids as they had opportunity. Megan knew …

From “Tora, Tora, Tora” to preaching the Gospel, the story of Mitsuo Fuchida

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When the Japanese launched their attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Mitsuo Fuchida who led the first of two waves ordered his navigator to send those famous words, “Tora, Tora, Tora” back to their flag-ship, the carrier Akagi. It was the code used to relay to the Japanese fleet that their attack had not been detected. As leader of the air strike, Fuchida stayed in the air over Pearl Harbor as the second wave of Japanese planes came in for their bombing runs. This unprovoked assault by the Japanese air force numbering 353 fighters, bombers and torpedo planes resulted in the deaths of over 2,500 Americans. Though sixteen American ships were damaged or sunk, most were repaired and returned to service. The attack resulted in the Americans declaring war on Japan the next day. Fuchida continued on as a pilot in the Imperial Japanese Navy Air Service. When he was injured in the battle of Midway, and no longer able to fly, he trained pilots in Japan. Many people are unaware that Fuchida …

Cross and Muslim crescent in Cairo, Egypt. Photo Michael Swam/Flickr

Are hundreds of Muslim migrants converting to Christ?

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Reports are coming in of hundreds of Muslim migrants converting to Christianity in Germany. Most are Afghanistan or Iranian refugees. They are converting because they believe this decision would improve their chances of gaining asylum because having converted their life would be in danger if they were sent back. It is difficult to know if the conversions are legitimate. But during a baptismal service at the evangelical Trinity Church in Berlin, pastor Gottfried Martens asked an Iranian man, Mohammed Ali Zonoobi, if he was willing to: “break away from Satan and his evil deeds? Will you break away from Islam.” Without hesitation, Zonoobi, a former carpenter, who had fled to Germany along with his wife and two children answered, “yes.” Zonoobi stated in the interview that while in Iran he and his wife had secretly attended Bible classes and it was the arrest of fellow believers that resulted in him fleeing Iran. We have reported before that God is moving among Iranians and many are becoming Christians. The Daily Mail noted: “Several candidates for baptisms …

The traditional site on the Jordan River where John the Baptist baptized Jesus. Photo: Jan Smith/Flickr

The Key is the Word and the Word was the Key

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“Now when all the people were baptized, it came to pass that Jesus also was baptized; and while He prayed, the heaven was opened. And the Holy Spirit descended in bodily form like a dove upon Him, and a voice came from heaven which said, “You are my beloved Son; in You I am well pleased.” (Luke 3:21-22 NKJV) Insomnia is never fun. Not long ago on a Wednesday night after struggling to fall asleep, I woke up again after two or three hours. As well as being frustrated with the pressure of having to work the next day on little sleep, the demonic darts started pushing all the wrong buttons (“You’re too old,” “God is finished with you,” “people have forgotten about you,” “you’re nothing,” etc.) I felt like I was being flushed down a large black toilet. A black demonic cloud was descending over my mind. Then I heard a still small voice: “the baptism of Jesus”. This phrase may not send the demonic hordes running in everyone’s life, but it did for …

Impalas in a Dutch Zoo. Photo: Peter Maas/Wikipedia

Kept captive by their lack of faith

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Commonly called the impala, the reddish-brown African antelope is renowned for its speed and jumping ability. They can jump over obstacles as high as 3 meters high (9′ 8″) and can make leaps of 10 meters (33′) at a time. They are not a very large animal. The horned male impala only reaches a maximum height of 36 inches at its shoulder. Even with this amazing ability, the impalas’ preferred method of avoiding predators is hiding in the tall Savannah grass. Despite this incredible leaping and jumping ability, zoos are able to pen Impalas with a relatively small fence, some as low as four or five feet. As long as its solid and the Impalas are unable to see where their feet will land on the other side, they will not risk the jump. So they remain captive. If impalas are mixed with other animals that are not affected in the same way by a solid fence, then zoos need to build an extremely tall wire fence to keep the impalas captive — because they …

Sleeping on paper and pavement in 40 degrees. Photo Graf Spee/Foter/CC BY

What is the biggest cause of homelessness?

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It seems we regularly hear calls by activists and politicians to end homelessness and frankly governments have been trying to do it for years, without success. To effectively deal with homelessness, you have to find its cause and cut it off at the root. I was surprised, and then I wasn’t, when I read Emma Woolley’s article on her thoughts on the reasons for homelessness. Woolley writes for the Canadian arm of Homeless Hub that looks for solutions for homelessness. Many people point to the obvious — job loss, drug and alcohol addictions and mental illness as key reasons for homelessness — and though these are major contributors, oddly those who specialize in the care of homeless people do not consider them as the number one reason for homelessness. In her article What are the statistics on homelessness due to divorce?, Woolley pointed to two organizations Homeless Link and Crisis who both stated divorce or relationship breakdown was the number one cause homelessness. This can be between spouses or children and the family resulting in …

Becky Klein (Left) and her husband Ron on one of their many biking trips.

Biopsy Cancelled

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[by Becky Klein] This past year God implanted in my mind and heart His faithfulness to the generations. I come from a godly heritage and a set of parents who placed their lives and the lives of their children in the Lord’s hands daily. I was keenly aware of their prayers over us with the expectation that God’s hand would extend to their children and even grandchildren. My parents experienced many supernatural healings. In May of 2014, I had a routine physical including a chest x-ray. A few days later I received a call to return to the doctor’s office.  The x-ray showed a black spot on my right lung. The next weeks were filled with appointments.  A visit to the specialist, CT scan and a biopsy were scheduled for the first week of July. I shared my situation with several close friends whom I knew would help me stay strong, pray and support me through this trial. I was a teacher at a Christian School and for the school’s awards night one of the …

Is the key to revival in Denmark bringing down the strongman in Christiania?

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Though the name almost sounds Christian, Christiania is anything but. The quaint, strange village with over 1,000 residents exists only minutes away from downtown Copenhagen, the capital city of Denmark. Started in 1971 at the height of the hippie movement, it is almost a country within a country. It has its own flag and currency and minimalist rules. Basically it started as hippie squatters took over an abandoned Danish army base and despite several skirmishes with the government, it has grown to become a self-governing village. Today the town’s inhabitants, who refer to themselves as Christianites, are made up of hippie pensioners, left-wing extremists and anarchists, environmental activists, many new age and occultist practitioners, alternative rock bands and kids just passing through. The village is inundated with eastern religious influences including a Buddhist temple and meditation center. It also has an occult center and even a New Age pyramid. Cars are not allowed in Christiania and for a time it was even illegal for community members to own one as members frowned on private property. …

Don't pass your children through the fire. Photo Jasonyurgelevic/Flickr

As food for them?

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The prophet Ezekiel uttered a strange prophetic word condemning Israel’s practice of sacrificing their children: 37 for they have committed adultery and blood is on their hands. They committed adultery with their idols; they even sacrificed their children, whom they bore to me, as food for them. (Ezekiel 23:37 NIV) Ezekiel was referring to the worship of Molech, a god found among the Canaanites and Phoenicians. It went by different names — Molech, Kronos and Chemosh are a few. King Solomon in his downward spiral even set up an idol to these gods in a high place in Israel (1 Kings 11:7). Leviticus 18:21 condemned the practice and gave more information:  “and thou shalt not let any of thy seed pass through the fire to Molech.” Diodorus Siculus, an ancient Greek historian, reported it as an idol with arms sticking out in front at a bit of an angle. The families would place their child on the arms and the baby or infant would roll down into a fire inside the idol. The historian adds the …

What is the gift of faith? Photo: Len Matthews/Flickr

God gave me a Gift of Faith for $6,895

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A couple decades back, my wife and I had moved out of the city we had lived in most of our life due to a work transfer.  We were there about a year and a half, when I received a phone call from my boss asking if we wanted to return home. A lot of good things happened while we were gone, but both of us felt it was time to go back. Of course, we had bought a house and needed to sell it before we could move. As we pondered the sale, we considered the possibility of selling it ourselves instead of using a real estate agency that would charge us a few thousand dollars for their service. While in the throes of making the decision, a brother, who knew we were moving, called. The Lord impressed on him that we should consider selling the house on our own rather than using a real estate agency. The phone call confirmed what we had been feeling and we decided to try selling the house ourselves. …

Can you share your emotional burden? Photo: Tian Yake/Flickr

A woman’s perspective: Are you willing to share your burden?

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Fear gripped me.  Attending this seminar meant I would be honest with myself  and others about the circumstances that created the emotional upheaval in my life. I had chosen to forgive or so I thought, but continued to live with  anger and bitterness. I desperately needed relief from the emotional torment. The  seminar, designed for people like myself, taught principles to  help those struggling with unresolved issues in their life.   I had suppressed them and tried to deny their existence for a long time. On the first day, I met the small group with whom I would share my darkest secrets. They were apprehensive just like me. We stood in a circle and one by one shared one thing that had crushed and wounded us. My turn came.   Guilt, shame, anger and bitterness flooded in.   It took all the strength  and courage I could muster to get through it. “I cannot change or heal what I don’t acknowledge, was the principle we were applying. I took my first steps towards  healing  my damaged …

How forgiveness stopped a riot. Photo: Flickr/scottmontreal

The Compassionate Widow

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1968 was a troubled year for race relations in the United States – in particular, April of 1968, when Martin Luther King Jr.’s life was cut short by an assassin’s bullet. In the two weeks following King’s murder, race riots broke out in Washington, DC, Chicago, Baltimore, Kansas City, Detroit, and Wilmington, Delaware. Rioters reached within two blocks of the White House, and President Johnston ordered thousands of federal troops into the streets to restore order. The day of the King funeral, a white bus driver in San Francisco named Martin Whitted picked up four young men in a black ghetto called Hunters Point. Whitted had taken the run for a co-worker who wanted to take the day off to honour King’s memory. He was nearing the end of his run when he was robbed and shot by the youth. Sniper fire prevented the police from getting to Whitted in time, and he was dead by the time he reached the hospital. Hunters Point, a black-dominated ghetto that had gone through riots just two years …

Three Sadhus in Kathmandu, Nepal. The author notes they were not the strictist observers. Photo Markus Koljonen/Wikipedia

The Apostle of the bleeding feet

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Sundar Singh (1889-1929?) was born into a Sikh family in Rampur, Ktaania, Ludhiana (Punjab state), Northern India. Common in this part of India, Sikhs differ from Hindus in that they believe there is only one God and they don’t accept Hindu’s caste system. The fifth largest religion in the world, Sikhs are often confused with Muslims because the men traditionally wear turbans. Though Sundar’s mother desired her son to be a Sadhu or Sikh holy man and sent her son to a guru to be trained as a Sadhu, she also wanted her son to learn English and sent him to a Christian school. After his mother died, Sundar, then 14, became very angry and began to take out his frustration on Christians. He not only mocked them but once in a fit of anger burnt a Bible page by page in front of his friends. His anger and frustration boiled over and he contemplated suicide by throwing himself in front of a train. After praying that the “true God” would reveal Himself, Jesus appeared …

A time for solitude. Photo: Martijn Roos/Flickr

A Woman’s Perspective: Solitude

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There are times when I enjoy solitude. With no distractions, I can get lost in whatever I am doing and time just flies. Simply defined, solitude is the state of being alone. I always feel more refreshed and peaceful after such times. But I believe there are benefits to solitude other than just having ‘alone time.’  Author, Sue Monk Kidd has been writing books since 1990. In her early years of writing on contemplative prayer, she wrote ‘God’s Joyful Surprise.’ In it she says: ‘Solitude is a time for ‘God and God alone’. Who knows what can happen when we focus only on God. In solitude we sense our deep oneness with God and keep company with him. Solitude is breaking through my isolation into sharing and being in touch with my Creator. In fact we can begin to heal our loneliness by transforming it into solitude.’ Even Jesus practiced solitude during his life and invited his closest friends to do the same: Now in the morning, having risen a long while before daylight, He …

Photo: jbdodane/Flickr

Impact of divorce on teens

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I was reading an article about a young teen, William Cornick, 15, from England who stabbed his teacher to death in front of his classmates in 2014. The incident shocked people across England. William was doing exceptionally well academically. He seemed like a normal, well-adjusted boy. Police found the family to be loving, caring and involved in William’s life. They could find no reason that would explain the murder of a teacher. I had to read several articles before I discovered a single line, buried at the bottom of an article that said his parents had divorced. Is it possible, this one fact hidden in dozens of pages written on this horrific attack was the reason for this violent murder? In a previous article, Studies reveal the negative impact of divorce on children, I looked at the impact of divorce on children from a report written by Rebecca O’Neill in 2001 for England’s Institute for the Study of Civil Society based in London. O’Neill looked at the vast amount of research on the profound impact absent fathers …

The Cult of the Victim

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A few days ago I saw something that shocked me. I was walking near a large supermarket, when I saw a distraught young woman. She was very drunk and holding the remains of a beer six pack, and she kept shouting at people and falling down. I saw my neighbors passing her as they went for groceries, some with children, and I immediately took out my phone and called police 911. The police dispatcher promised to send a car and I waited for a while, but that never happened. Thinking back, the woman became less drunk when she saw me on the phone. She walked in a straight line off the property and onto a public space. I stayed shocked and appalled until the next day, when I realized that I and my neighbors had been scammed. The police weren’t interested, because they knew. The young woman was just acting out in a public place, we may never know why, but she was not seriously drunk. My question now is, why did we believe her, …

The Creation of Adam is a fresco painted by Mich3langelo between 1511 and 1512 on the ceiling of the Sistene Chapel in Rome.

DNA research confirms Adam and Eve

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In a newly released documentary, The Genetics of Adam and Eve, Dr Georgia Purdom of Answers in Genesis (AIG) says there is compelling genetic evidence showing that humans are direct descendants of one man and one woman as the Bible records. Before joining AIG, Purdom, who has a PhD in genetics from Ohio State University, was a biology professor and wrote a number of published papers in scientific journals including Journal of Neuroscience, and the Journal of Leukocyte Biology. Purdom says those who believe in millions of years of evolution dismiss the story of Adam and Eve as little more than a myth. They believe that humans can not have descended from a single man and woman as the Bible states insisting instead humans have multiple contributors to our genetic code. In her documentary, Purdom looks at the findings of geneticist Dr. Nathaniel Jeanson. Also a Christian, Jeanson, who has a PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard University, has used his expertise in the field of genetics to prove Adam and Eve’s existence. Jeanson …