Sorry for my unexpected absence-I was having problems with my computer.  Tuesday and Wednesday it was running poorly and posting was an exercise in futility.  Thursday we had no internet connection at all and this continued through to late Sunday afternoon when it was finally restored.

Moving on…I learned more about why our former tam leader left.  She feels that our congregation is not moving in a biblical direction and she is now visiting other churches to find her new home.  She has not attended the congregation that split from us.  I do not know what she found that is unbiblical-our worship and liturgy has not changed and we plan to minister to the community at large-don’t see anything unbiblical about that.

I am now the tambourine leader.

Technorati Tags: congregational life, leadership, relationships, worship, tambourine

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While the Olympics are touting themselves as harbingers of unity, Russia rolled into and is right now rolling over Georgia.

I found some information form Pravda that was interesting as long as you can get past their “Russia has and will be the bearers of peace and unity” nonsense, they had this little tidbit:

“…Also noteworthy is the fact that Georgian tanks and infantry were being aided by Israeli advisors, a true indicator that this conflict was instigated by outside forces.”

The implication being that if Israel was involved, and we have no idea if that is true or not, Russia can’t control themselves and must attack. Not very confidence inspiring is it?

What I have not heard mentioned in any news reports is the fact that South Ossetia as a region are Orthodox Christians. I don’t believe this is a coincidence. Under Putin, the iron curtain is coming down again and religion will again be on the way out.

Technorati Tags: unity, war, conflict, religion

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This is my second post about this week’s topic, Satan. My first post (right below this one) showed how Satan has worked through time to bring destruction to Israel and the Jewish people.

This post will focus on how I have seen Satan hard at work in my own life. My congregation endured a split earlier this year. I wrote about it here, here, here, here and here.

It was painful and I can see that Satan got a hold of the elders and encouraged them to cause confusion and division. Even now, eight months later they are still speaking ill of us to other congregations in the area.

Satan is using them to spread falsehoods and lies about us, which fits right in his position as the “father of lies.” Lately someone in our own congregation seems to be affected by this as well. She stayed with us through the split, said she was hurt and disappointed by what the elders had done, yet now she seems to be pulling away from us.

She is good friends with one of the families who left and over the past few months there has been a change in her. She is (was?) our tambourine leader but even that has lost its appeal for her. We have some events coming up besides the Autumn Feast Days which she was asked to lead and her answer was quite telling, I think. She said she did not feel comfortable doing that.

It’s odd since she was the one that introduced tambourine to us. She was not asked to come up with any new routines either-just lead dances we already know. Why is she uncomfortable with that?

I was asked if I could lead tambourine for these two events, and I replied that I could. And neither I nor the person who asked me to lead want to see tambourine go by the wayside.

Her best friend (different from the other couple I mentioned before) heard that I was asked to lead and she said that she had thought about leading it, but did not feel comfortable with it. Obviously the tam leader had spoken with her before being approached by the committee. Then she said something else that leads me to believe that our (former?) leader is either stepping down or leaving us for good-she said that once you do something once, it’s yours. Now why would she say that if our tam leader is going to continue with tambourine?

The same committee person that asked me to lead told me to keep our leader informed about our practices because she still wants to participate. That is not true since we had our practice for this week’s event and the tam leader not only never showed up, but never informed she would not be there. In contrast, her best friend did tell me she would not be doing the tambourine dance.

I am disappointed that her best friend won’t be doing the dances and I’m not sure why she does not want to participate. I could understand if she felt that our tam leader was being ousted from her position, the way the elders wanted to oust our rabbi. That is not what happened here. The facts are that our leader was asked first to lead tambourine. She chose, voluntarily, not to do it. It was only after her refusal to lead that I was asked if I could do it. I did not suddenly run into the breach to fill the position-I was asked before I knew what was going on. After I was asked, my first thought was why wasn’t our regular leader doing it, but before I asked the question, the committee person told me why I was being asked.

I was asked at our practice if I was indeed the leader now. I told them I was informed that it was only for these two events coming up. I was asked if the original leader was stepping down. I replied truthfully that I don’t know. My personal feeling is that she is leaving us, but since no one knows that for sure, I could not say anything.

Do you see Satan at work here? I sure do. We have a lot of confusion right now as to why the leader is not leading, if she is staying, etc.. I also wonder about her best friend-will she stay if our tam leader goes?

I think one of the best prayers we can pray at this time in our lives is for protection from deception. I know someone who prays every day “Adonai, please don’t let me be deceived.”

Amein.

As an aside, do you know what amein really means? It means “so be it”, or “let it be so”. When it comes to deception protection, I can think of no better way than to end in agreement that Adonai will keep me from being deceived.

Technorati Tags: chaos, father of lies, destroyer, congregational life

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This week’s STLS topic is Satan. If you are wondering what the topic has to do with my title, I’ll explain.

Tisha B’Av means the ninth day in the month of Av on the Jewish calendar-the month we are in now and today is Tisha B’av. Many things have happened on this day in Israeli and Jewish history, none of them good. The Jewish people mark this day as a day of fasting and they read the book of Lamentations in their synagogues.

Here is a list of what has happened on this day throughout history:

This is the day the majority of the spies came back saying that the people would not be able to overtake the land. The result was HaShem (literally means The Name-stands for G-d) commanding the Israelites to wander forty years in the wilderness. (Numbers 13-14).

The first temple was destroyed

The second temple was destroyed

Betar was the last fortress to hold out against the Romans during the Bar Kochba revolt in 135 B.C. On Tisha B’Av, the Romans prevailed sealing the fate of Israel.

In 1492, Spain issued the decree that all Jews needed to leave the country by…Tisha B’Av. Any Jew found after that would be killed.

World War 1 began on Tisha B’Av.

What does this have to do with Satan, you ask? Everything. In the first example we see that the people and the spies were given a spirit of fear and unbelief. Caleb and Joshua told the people that since HaShem had told them to take possession of the land, they would be able to defeat the people currently residing in the land. But the people gave in to the fear and deception of Satan and believed the ten other spies instead of believing what HaShem had told them. We know that Adonai (another name for G-d) does not give us a spirit of fear or of unbelief.

In the other examples, we see that the end result of all that happened was to destroy the Jewish people and the land of Israel. Who else but Satan, the father of lies and destroyer of souls, would want to destroy Adonai’s people and home?

It is not coincidence that these all happened on the same date either. In the occult, numbers are very important and have meanings. From the occult perspective:

“The number 9 representing man and everything to do with the physical and material plane, is the number of force, energy, destruction and war in its most dominant quality. In its relation to ordinary life it denotes energy, ambition, leadership, domination. It represents iron, the metal from which the weapons of warfare are made, and the Planet Mars which it stands for in Astrology…”

It is the number of destruction and war. Both temples were destroyed on this day. The Romans were able to defeat the last holdouts in Jerusalem on this day. The year after that fall, they literally plowed the Temple undergound. And WW1 began that day.

Lots of force, destruction and war going on. And in case some people don’t know, Mars is the god and planet of war.

We have seen how Satan has worked in the past. In part 2, I will examine how he is working now.

Technorati Tags: Tisha B’Av, destruction, war

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I have been writing about thought crimes for a while now, and now we see just how far this has gone. I do not make this stuff up folks-it is really happening. Now we have the Center of Excellence to study thought criminals in the United States at the University of Maryland.

This center is a provision of the …“Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act of 2007 otherwise known as the thought crimes bill. This is despite the fact that the legislation has not been signed into law. The House version of the bill HR 1955 was passed by a margin of 404-6 where as the Senate version of the bill S 1959 is still awaiting action.”

Let’s look at this carefully-this bill has not yet been passed as law, but the Center is already set up at the University of Maryland. Not only does the government have no right to set up thought police in the first place, but they do not have the authority to set up a provision of a bill that is not even law yet. As I’ve said before, people do not want to be confused by the facts of the matter.

The Center will have numerous social scientists and so called behavioral experts at their disposal to figure out ways to get people to come around to their way of thinking. The article does not say what methods will be used, but I can come up with a few already-threatening family members, sleep deprivation, constant interrogation and let’s not forget the government favorite-torture.

The Stasi and thought police are already here.

Technorati Tags: center of excellence, studying terror, thought police, university

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The Department of Homeland Security has put together a DVD to help people spot terror. According to the DVD, there are seven signs of terror:

“1. Surveillance — watch out for people standing around surveying or taking video or pictures.

2. Information gathering — be on the lookout for people requesting maps of blue prints of buildings.

3. Testing security — terrorists may watch to see how long it takes emergency responders to get to a scene.

4. Planning

5. Suspicious behavior

6. Rehearsal — terrorists may rehearse for the attack over and over so look out for that and

7. watch for people getting into positions that may not seem normal.”

Most of these are things that normal tourists do every day. Tourists should be prepared to be under suspicion and I guess, be arrested for terrorist activity.

The article also says that if this program had been in place before 9/11, maybe the attacks would have been prevented. That is the crux of the matter-they have no idea if this program works or not. That won’t stop them from promoting it. Who knows how many people will disappear into the system as a result of all this “terror” activity?”

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In Las Vegas, police shot a man whose arms were already bound.

“When she opened the door, she found a police officer on top of the man, whose arms were bound, she said.
…

“The way they had him, he couldn’t move,” she said. “He never said anything or moved. That’s why I don’t know why they shot.”

Police are saying that he reached for a gun and they had to struggle with him so he would release it. They also say he shot the gun once. With his arms bound? How is that possible?

I can’t tell the difference between what happens here and what happens in China. Take out the locations of the story and there are chillingly the same.

Technorati Tags: police state, civil liberties, murder, tyranny

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The latest news from China-the folks that want us to believe that they really do allow freedom of the press- has once again proven that they are lying.

“According to an NTV spokesman, a 37-year-old reporter, a TV camera operator and a Chinese assistant were working near a paramilitary border patrol facility, when a group of border patrol policemen detained the reporter at the facility at about 10:50 p.m., on Monday. The reporter was punched in the face several times, the spokesman said.”

The photographer had his two cameras seized and was kicked in the side and face. Both men were released a couple of hours later. These men were Japanese and their embassy filed a formal protest demanding that similar events will not happen in the future.

Since that is not going to happen, they are just spinning their wheels.

Why were they in that particular city of Kashgar? It seems that the Uighur ethnic group, tired of their city being in lockdown, killed 16 police officers. Besides what China did to the reporters, they also cut off inter net access in the city.

“The authorities, counting Xinjiang’s East Turkistan Islamic Movement as China’s largest terror threat, have clamped down on the region’s security and detained Uighur suspects ahead of Beijing’s Aug. 8 Olympic Games.”

Apparently this group has been causing trouble for China for some time now and they do not look like ethnic Chinese, which I am sure causes them trouble in the larger society. They want to be independent, but China refuses to do that, preferring to constantly fight with them, and have their officers slain than give up control of that region.

And there is some concern that the Uighurs are being framed for terror attacks:

“She urged caution in evaluating the Chinese government’s reports of terrorist attacks by the group because the government routinely fails to provide evidence to back such reports, the AFP said.”

That sounds about right, given their previous tactics.

Think about those reporters that were detained and about the Ugihurs while watching the Olympics and being told what a wonderful place China is to live, in their free and open society.

Technorati Tags: free press, China, Olympics, security

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A British energy company is running ads encouraging seven to eleven year olds to police their family for global warming crimes. The ads offer diaries for the kids to keep a running log of their family’s crimes.

“Equally important, the campaign seeks to attract kids to its controversial Web site, Climate Cops, which encourages children to monitor and report on their domestic energy crimes to their classrooms.”

The company says it’s not promoting anything sinister, it just wants to give children the feeling of empowerment. Uh huh. The site also encourages them to report on their friends and relatives eco-crimes too. Yet the company still wants us to believe that:

“It’s not about reporting on your parents,” said Clare McDougall, NPower’s education project director. “It’s how the accumulation of small differences add up to one big difference.”

“Ms. McDougall added that contrary to some critics’ impressions, children do not report on the parents to people in position of authority, such as teachers. Instead, she stressed, it is merely a light-hearted awareness exercise, and the information does not go any farther than the child’s family.”

How does this statement reconcile with the earlier one quoted above about reporting “crimes” to their classrooms? And notice that they keep using the word “crimes” for these things that are not crimes-yet.

See where this is going? Get the children used to reporting on their families and once they are used to it, codify these so-called eco-crimes into law so the parents can be prosecuted.

And how is it possible for these things to be reported to the classroom and not have the teacher know about it? Even if you only report it to other children, then that information has already gone farther than that child’s family.

How stupid do they think their fellow Britons are?

Technorati Tags: global warming, eco crimes, classroom, indoctrination

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In Connecticut, police can take guns from people on the suspicion that they might harm themselves or others. They have been doing this since October of 1999. The people that were for this law say there has been no abuse and are concerned that the law has not been utilized enough.

One attorney disagrees with that assessment saying every case he’s seen has been an abuse. And what about those numbers that the supporters of the law say are so small?

“Robert T. Crook, the executive director of the Connecticut Coalition of Sportsmen, questioned whether police have seized more guns than the number reported to the legislature. Crook said the law doesn’t require police departments or the courts to compile or report information on gun seizures. The Office of Legislative Research acknowledged that its report may have underreported seizures.”

The state has now admitted they have no idea how many guns have been seized. I agree with Crook here-I bet the numbers are much higher than the “official” ones given in this article. And the supporters of this law want it used more.

How do the police decide whether to issue a seizure warrant for a gun?

“Spouses and live-in partners were the most common source of complaints that led to warrant applications.”

In other words, anyone that is upset with you can go to the police and state that they are concerned about your behavior and that you have a gun.

“The state’s gun seizure law is considered the first and only law in the country that allows the confiscation of a gun before the owner commits an act of violence. Police and state prosecutors can obtain seizure warrants based on concerns about someone’s intentions.”

The Stasi is already here.

Technorati Tags: guns, seizure, civil liberties, stasi, thought police

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