The Things to Come

Greetings from the front. Not the cold front, the beach front.

It seems like everyone today is looking earthward at a ‘big event’ taking place on this planet, sounds of self are reaching a fever pitch. I am taking a break from the news today, on purpose – I prefer to look up. What did I get in return for my decision? Riches untold: I saw the sun come up over the Atlantic this morning from my balcony. Shooting stars, constellations I can name since grade school, the Milky Way, birds singing….I am so unworthy.

One thing that did catch my attention yesterday was an interview with a gentleman I believe has done more to trash our culture than any other in the last 40 years. He was on MSNBC yesterday, talking about being ‘born again’. I admit he had my attention because I wanted to see if he was real or counterfeit, but I also knew that MSNBC wasn’t going to be giving a time slot for “testimonies” in their Obama worship hour and so I was highly skeptical. His name wasn’t on the screen, so I guessed his identity, and I was right. It was Norman Lear, of “All in the Family”, “Maude”, and “One Day At a Time” producing fame. Feminism, political correctness, race issues – he brought it all the small screen, in technicolor, much to my parents’ dismay and disgust. I remember my Dad wondering out loud “how they can talk about stuff like that on TV”. So I wondered out loud, 40 years later, could it be possible nonetheless that this man had an encounter with the living God, having repented of his liberal godless spin and joined the land of the eternally fruitful? I have learned over time that all things are possible with my God. So, I visited the website they were promoting: www.bornagainamerican.org.

After a very short perusal I saw things for what they really were, and it was disturbing from a spiritual point of view. He believes that with the ordination – ooops, I mean ‘inauguration’ – of Obama, that we are new creatures, “born in Liberty” (sic). Check out the mission statement, and worse yet, the I AM statements. How does he even know enough about Christianity to counterfeit it so closely? Must be the work of the one with the pitch-fork.

Now, I didn’t know we could be ‘born again Americans’, I guess that’s what happens when you put all your trust in politics with no thought for the next life. Norman Lear, you will be disappointed and disillusioned eventually, bringing out even more angst and discontentment that made you who you are in the first place. I promise. Trust me, what you espouse has nothing to do with being born again by the Spirit of God, and everything to do with making a home here and putting your trust in a flawed man who can never get you from this life to the next or forgive your sins. See how this phase works for you, and if you still come up empty, drop me a line.

Or shall I say, “The Vitamin Detour” ? You know, highway construction and all.

Even with a Garmin GPS unit affixed to the dashboard – which makes me eminently trackable via satellite – if you take a wrong turn, the emotionally neutral “Jill’ that is built into the unit almost seems to acquire an edge to her…”re-calculating”, she says a bit impatiently, as we prepare ourselves for an anticipated, “told you so” that of course never comes. I love how technology can veer so close to an attitude and yet manage to get it’s way with us so easily. But additionally, this portable wundermap, which tells me where every single Starbucks is and much more, does present a spiritual application. At one point, we were perplexed as to why it recommended a route through Chicago quite far removed from the ‘traditional’ Wisconsinite path through the Windy City. So we defiantly decided lean on our own understanding and took the way that was right in our own eyes. The way we have always gone. We asked ourselves, “Is Jill the only authority here, is she trustworthy? There are many paths through Chicago.” Something told us that the satellite above was the way to go, but we were defiant and skeptical. And lo and behold, we got traffic, trouble, and, well, lost. Down the wrong path we went. The application is obvious: if we don’t use our Bible like a GPS, trusting the One who watches over us and wants only what is best for us, we end up where we shouldn’t have gone, having to ‘re-calculate’ our course and maybe even time of arrival, and at the very least, enduring the potholes and perils of the path we chose which were not in the original plan.
GPS: “God’s Plan of Sanctification”.

The snow line? Kentucky, no kidding. Even Indiana could not escape winter with a ‘capital W’ this year. And so we have submitted ourselves to the all-seeing GPS, to pursue some Vitamin D, the sunshine vitamin. And there have been so many stories lately that kids today have vitamin D deficiencies. How can that be? Are things really that different than when we used to play outside 12 months of the year and only come inside to eat? When there was no such thing as SPF 5000? Yes. Stay tuned for more…

Author: Janet Porter

World Net Daily www.wnd.com

Posted: January 13, 2009
1:00 am Eastern

© 2009
England’s Prince Harry used the slang “Paki” in a private video to refer to a Middle Eastern friend, and the world is outraged. He is forced to publicly apologize and is reprimanded by his military superiors. But when pro-Hamas demonstrators rally in the streets of Fort Lauderdale a few weeks ago calling for Jews to “go back to the ovens,” there isn’t even a blip on the screen. A pro-Hamas rally in Copenhagen, Denmark, this weekend chanted: “We want to kill all the Jews,” “All the Jews should be slain,” “They have no right to exist.” Where is the outrage?
While the Sun Sentinel never even mentioned the chant in the article that covered the Fort Lauderdale event, they did quote one pro-Israel protester, Allyn Kanowsky of Coral Springs, who summarized what is going on very well: “If the Palestinians laid down their arms, there would be no war. If the Israelis laid down their arms, there would be no Israel.”
That’s what it’s all about. Israel’s right to exist.
Two little Jewish boys came to my door a few days ago selling chocolate. I ordered some not because I need more chocolate but, as I told them, because I want to bless Israel. Those who bless Israel are blessed and those who curse Israel are cursed. As Christians reading their One-Year Bible beginning in Genesis are reminded, this is the promise God made to Abraham and it wasn’t a “limited time offer.” I’ve not seen anything in the Bible to suggest that it expired at the coming of the Messiah.
I was shocked by how the propaganda about what was happening in the Middle East had permeated even these Jewish children who were raising money for their Hebrew school. One of the boys said, “Everyone is mad at Israel because they blew up a Hamas school.” As I explained to them, this may be what’s being reported, but the truth looks quite different.
The fact is: In 2005, thousands of Jews were pulled out of their homes and communities in Gaza. They tore down temples, dug up cemeteries and gave up land on the premise that it would somehow bring peace. Since that time, the terrorist group Hamas has launched 6,500 rockets into Israel, including 300 in a period of six days before the Israeli offensive started. Civilian areas were deliberately targeted in these attacks against the Jews.
It’s all about self-defense.
But most of the media has given the false impression that Israel made an unprovoked attack on poor Palestinians who live in the Gaza Strip. The truth is that from 1993 through 2005, Hamas sent 113 suicide bombers into Israel to kill innocent civilians on buses, at malls, restaurants and hotels. Thousands of Hamas terror attacks killed 425 Israelis and wounded 2,233 in the last eight years.
My friend Don Feder writes, “If you’re curious about what a Palestinian state would look like, consider Mumbai. Among 174 dead were a rabbi and his pregnant wife, who endured unbelievable torture (the wife was also sexually assaulted) before they were killed.”
Around the globe, Jews are being assaulted and are the subject of protests. There have been arson attacks against Jewish congregations in England, France and Sweden. Feder said what’s happening in Europe is “the worst anti-Semitic violence since Kristallnacht.”
Former PLO terrorist Walid Shoebat – now a pro-Israel Christian – was a guest on my Faith2Action radio program last week. He committed a capital offense in Muslim law by converting to Christianity when he spent six-months studying the Bible in an effort to discredit it and to convert his wife to his Muslim faith.
I learned something in that interview. In a response to a caller’s question, Shoebat gave some of the “names for Allah,” which are nothing like the description of the Judeo-Christian God. Our God is referred to with names such as, Father, Savior, Prince of Peace, and Comforter, just to name a few. But the names of Allah he listed are: “the most proud one,” “the creator of all deceivers,” the one who causes death,” and “the afflicter.” Quite a contrast.
No, Islam is a “religion of peace” – suggest otherwise in, say, a cartoon, and you can count the dead bodies to find out just how peaceful they are.
Now, not surprisingly, President-elect Obama is reaching out to meet with the Hamas terrorists. What did you expect? They endorsed him, after all.
We in America may be getting what we deserve, but our greatest ally, Israel, I’m afraid, will also suffer greatly. Just another reason for the U.S. Supreme Court to verify this guy’s citizenship in the second case by Philip J. Berg before the Court this Friday, and the case brought by attorney Orly Taitz, which the Court has agreed to consider taking a week from Friday.
Christians, when you pray for the peace of Jerusalem – as we’ve been commanded to do – pray also for the Supreme Court to take these cases to verify Obama’s citizenship and uphold our Constitution.

Wow people – this in our lifetime. Things are happening fast, and not necessarily for good for those who dwell on the earth – but praise God, His will will be done regardless…
Go to www.ynetnews.com for the latest headlines including this one…mary

The Times quotes Jewish community leaders in Italian capital as saying trades union proposal to ‘identify and boycott’ Jewish-owned shops was reminiscent of anti-Semitic racial laws adopted by Mussolini

Ynet
Published: 01.08.09, 18:49 / Israel News

Jewish community leaders in Rome expressed outrage over a trades union proposal to “identify and boycott” Jewish-owned shops in the Italian capital in protest of Israel’s operation in Gaza, The Times reported Thursday.

Muslim Consumer Boycott
UK company boycotts Israeli consumers / Tani Goldstein
Israeli computer engineer discovers he cannot order scarf online from London-based Pashmina company because it has joined Muslim consumer boycott against IDF operation in Gaza
The proposal was put forward by Giancarlo Desiderati, leader of the Flaica-Uniti-Cub union, which represents 8000 shop assistants in Rome, the report said.
According to the London-based newspaper, Gianni Alemanno, the mayor of Rome, condemned the boycott call, and Jewish leaders said it was reminiscent of the anti-Semitic racial laws adopted seventy years ago by the Fascist dictatorship of Benito Mussolini in imitation of Nazi Germany, under which only “Aryan” shops were allowed to open.

Asked if he was aware of the comparison, Desiderati was quoted by The Times as saying “we know we will have everyone against us, but we cannot pass over in silence what is happening in Gaza”.

He said his union had already urged its members to boycott Israeli products, and boycotting Jewish-owned or Jewish-run stores was a logical next step, according to The Times.

Muslim leaders apologize

Desiderati added that he and his supporters were drawing up a list of Jewish shops, “though it might be better to publish a list of streets in which a majority of the shops are Jewish and ask people to avoid those streets when shopping”.

“For fifty years we have been concerned for the Jews because of what they suffered in the Holocaust, but now it is time to be concerned for the Palestinians, who are the Jews of today”, he was quoted as saying by the newspaper.

The Times further reported that Muslim leaders in Milan said they had apologized to Cardinal Dionigi Tettamanzi, the archbishop of Milan, for an incident last weekend in which Muslim demonstrators burned Israeli flags during a mass protest against Israeli actions in Gaza which ended in unauthorized Islamic prayers in front of Milan cathedral.
The protesters broke through a police cordon to reach the square, the report said. The Times said Asfa Mahmoud, head of the Islamic Cultural Centre in Milan said he and other Muslim spokesmen had asked for a meeting with the cardinal to “clarify” what had happened and express regret.