Lindsey Williams 2012- The Beginning of the End!
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Dr. Georgia Purdom-Commencemnet Talk
Published on May 29, 2012 in Education and Ministry.
This past weekend it was my privilege to be the commencement speaker for the graduation ceremony at North Cobb Christian School in Kennesaw, Georgia. I challenged the graduates with the actions of Mary pouring costly oil on Jesus and wiping his feet with her hair (found in John 12:1–8 with parallel passages in Matthew and Mark).
Mary showed her total devotion and glorified Christ by giving Him her best—very costly oil (worth a year’s wages) and wiping his feet with her hair, her crowning glory, which Jewish women did not let down in public. Mary went against the expected, the norm, and the popular. The disciples were very vocal about their displeasure with her. They wanted to sell the oil and feed the poor. Their focus was on the temporal. Jesus turned their attention, as He had done many times before, to the eternal—Himself and His glory. He praised Mary for her actions and stated that wherever the gospel was preached, what she had done would be told in memory of her.
I challenged the graduates to remember Mary’s devotion and sacrifice to bring glory to Christ and to do the same. I told them that what they believe about God and His Word meant that many times what they thought, said and did would go against the norm, the majority, and the popular. The secular world and even some of the Christian world would try to convince them that their time, effort, talent, and intellect would be wasted if they stood on God’s Word as truth. I exhorted them to focus on the eternal, the heavenly reward (Matthew 5:11–12) and the commendation by Jesus one day in heaven when He says to us, “Well done, good and faithful servant. … Enter into the joy of your lord.” (Matthew 25:21). From the comments I received afterwards, I could see that the Lord was able to use these words to encourage the teachers, graduates, and their families.
Treasures of Darkness
By Jesus, speaking in prophecy
Download Audio (6.75MB)
Here it comes—the black cloud. Sometimes it’s triggered by an unpleasant event; sometimes it descends when the drudgery of life seems unbearable; sometimes it looms suddenly for no apparent reason. Despair. Hopelessness. Depression. It rolls in and out like a fog, sometimes lifting, sometimes settling; sometimes misty, foggy, and gray; other times dense, dark, and black. Sometimes it churns and swirls and you feel you’re being sucked under into a deep, dark well, and may never be able to come up for air.
When you feel overwhelmed, defeated, and like there’s no point in even hoping or trying; when it seems that no amount of faith or prayer or positiveness is going to do you any good, think of the sun setting for the night behind the clouds. Though you can’t see the sun, and will not see it for some time, it’s still there. It still warms the earth. It still gives life. It will rise again. Hope is similar. There is always hope. At times it is hidden behind the clouds of despair, but it need never be lost.
Faith in Me is the only substantial source of hope, which is the secret of the human spirit’s ability to find happiness. There is no space too small for the soul to grow, nor any cell too dark for the spirit to flourish. For you, My child, there is always a ray of light, a ray of love, a ray of hope, reaching out, shining down upon you. Sometimes you can’t see it because you’re looking down. Other times you can’t see it because the dark, black clouds are descending and hiding it from you. But it is always there. You can always rest assured you will see it again.
You can also learn to discern the coming of the dark clouds, and you can learn through My Spirit and power to hold them back. They will always pass over you, casting their shadow, but they need not engulf and encircle you. If you cry out to Me for help—for comfort, for hope, for faith—then you can drive away the black clouds of depression and despair. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.1
Hold on to Me. Hold on to faith. Hold on to hope. Don’t let go, or you will be overwhelmed by the darkness. Yet even when you are, remember that the sun rises again every morning and hope will always return to the heart that seeks it.2
+
There is a power to lift you up, to encourage you, to give you a brighter outlook on life that is stronger than all of the powers that try to pull you down.
Despair is a deep, dark pit that threatens to swallow up your joy of life. Negativity is like a magnet that pulls you into that pit. But I am stronger than any power of man, of the mind, of the heart, or of your surroundings. I am joy when all is sadness. I am light when all is darkness. I am hope when all is despair. I am peace when there is fear all around.
Always think on the positive. If you find yourself thinking a negative thought, try to turn it into something positive. It won’t be easy at first, because when negativity surrounds you, it’s difficult to find anything good in life, in your situation, or even in your future. But think of yourself as living in a deep, dark mine. Life seems hopeless, it seems that there are no perks, but deep in the walls of this cavern are jewels of great price. There are diamonds and opals and gems of inestimable value.
When you’re overwhelmed with the dark dankness of your situation, think of yourself as a miner. Dig deep into the rocky walls and find that sparkling treasure—the positive. In the Bible I talked about the treasures of darkness: “I will give you the treasures of darkness and hidden riches of secret places, that you may know that I, the Lord, Who call you by your name, am the God of Israel.”3
You will find that your determination to discover joy in sorrow, happiness in pain, and your will to turn negative thoughts into positive thoughts will be the keys to your sanity. Positive thoughts are your “treasures of darkness” and your “hidden riches in secret places.”
It’s easy enough to be happy and cheery when everything is going well. When you’re healthy, have your loved ones beside you, and are in a good situation, it’s not a triumph to keep your chin up and stay positive. But when you can look on the bright side of things when everything around you seems dark and gloomy, when you can find those diamonds and jewels in the dark rocks of your “mine,” that shows great strength of character.
You are the victor when you learn to turn bad into good, sorrow into joy, despair into hope, through the power of positive thoughts, faith, and dependence on Me. And you won’t have to do it alone, because I will help you.4
Originally published 2006. Updated and republished May 2012.
Read by Simon Peterson. Copyright@thefamilyinternational
1 John 14:18.
2 This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil.—Hebrews 6:19 NKJV.
3 Isaiah 45:3 NKJV.
4 For You will light my lamp; the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness.—Psalm 18:28 NKJV.
Monday, May 28, 2012
Afghanistan--We Forgot History and Repeated It!
Eric Margolis, May 26, 2012
Santayana’s famous dictum about those who forget history being condemned to relieve it is nowhere better observed than in the mountains of Afghanistan.
One of my favorite artists was the superb Victorian painter Lady Jane Butler who captured in oil the military triumphs and tragedies of the British Empire.
Her haunting painting, “The Retreat from Kabul, (also known as “Remnants of an Army,”) shows the sole survivor of a British army of 16,500 during the first Anglo-Afghan War in 1842, Dr. William Brydon, struggling out of Afghanistan. All the rest of the British occupation force were killed by Afghan tribesmen after a futile attempt to garrison Kabul.
This gripping painting should have hung over the NATO summit meeting last week in Chicago to remind the US and its allies that Afghanistan remains “the graveyard of empires.”
The western forces that occupied Afghanistan in 2001 have failed to achieve their military or political objectives and are now sounding the retreat.
All the empty oratory in Chicago about “transition,” Afghan self-reliance, and growing security could not conceal the truth that the mighty US and its dragooned western allies have been bested in Afghanistan by a bunch of mountain warriors from the 12th Century.
The objective of war is to achieve political goals, not kill people. The US goal was to turn Afghanistan into a protectorate providing bases close to Caspian Basin oil, and to block China on a strategy level. After an eleven-year war costing $1 trillion, this effort failed as dismally as the much ballyhooed “liberation” of Iraq.
The US dragged its NATO allies into a war in which they had no business and lacked any popular support. The result has been a serious weakening of the NATO alliance, raising questions about whose interests it really serves. The defeat in Afghanistan will undermine US geopolitical influence over Western Europe.
Claims made in Chicago that the US-installed Afghan regime will stand on its own with $4 billion of aid from the west were pie in the sky. Once US support ends, the Karzai regime is unlikely to survive much longer than did Najibullah’s Afghan Communist regime in Kabul after its Soviet sponsor withdrew in 1989. Or the US-run South Vietnamese regime that fell in 1975.
The current 350,000-man Afghan government army and police are mercenaries fighting for money supplied by the US and NATO. Many are ethnic Uzbeks and Tajiks, blood foes of the majority Pashtun. Taliban and its allies are fighting for nationalism and faith. History tells us who will prevail.
All Afghans know the western powers have been defeated. Those with sense are already making deals with Taliban. Vengeance being a cherished Afghan custom, those who collaborated closely with the foreign forces can expect little mercy.
Air power is the key to US control of Afghanistan. Warplanes and helicopter gunships circle constantly overhead to defend western bases and supply routes. Reduce this hugely expensive deployment of air power, as will likely happen after 2014, and remaining US troops will be in peril. Pakistan’s temporary closure of NATO land supply routes to Kabul and Kandahar provides a foretoken of what may occur. Currently, the US must rely on Russia for much of its heavy supplies.
Already there are worries about getting most US and NATO troops out of Afghanistan by the end of 2014. The US pullout from Iraq was deftly executed. But Afghanistan will be a greater challenge. Much will depend on the good or ill will of the angry mountain tribesmen who comprise Taliban and its nationalist allies.
France’s new president, Francoise Hollande, wisely reaffirmed his pledge to withdraw all French troops this year. French had become fed up with former President Nicholas Sarkozy’s neoconservative ambitions and eagerness to please Washington. Other NATO members are wishing they could do the same.
No one wants to have their soldiers be the last to die in a futile war that everyone knows is lost.
To wage and sustain the Afghan War, the US has been forced to virtually occupy Pakistan, bribe its high officials, and force Islamabad to follow policies hated by 95% of its people, generating virulent anti-Americanism.
Washington intends to leave garrisons in Afghanistan after the 2014 announced pullout date, rebranding them “trainers” instead of combat troops. Their mission will be to keep the pro-US Afghan regime in power. But neither the US nor NATO will come up with the $4 billion promised in Chicago.
The retreat from Kabul will not be easy, but hopefully not as fraught and bloody as that of the British in their Afghan wars.
Not All Israeli Citizens Are Equal!
By Yousef Munayyer, NY Times, May 23, 2012
I’M a Palestinian who was born in the Israeli town of Lod, and thus I am an Israeli citizen. My wife is not; she is a Palestinian from Nablus in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Despite our towns being just 30 miles apart, we met almost 6,000 miles away in Massachusetts, where we attended neighboring colleges.
A series of walls, checkpoints, settlements and soldiers fill the 30-mile gap between our hometowns, making it more likely for us to have met on the other side of the planet than in our own backyard.
Never is this reality more profound than on our trips home from our current residence outside Washington.
Tel Aviv’s Ben-Gurion International Airport is on the outskirts of Lod (Lydda in Arabic), but because my wife has a Palestinian ID, she cannot fly there; she is relegated to flying to Amman, Jordan. If we plan a trip together—an enjoyable task for most couples—we must prepare for a logistical nightmare that reminds us of our profound inequality before the law at every turn.
Even if we fly together to Amman, we are forced to take different bridges, two hours apart, and endure often humiliating waiting and questioning just to cross into Israel and the West Bank. The laws conspire to separate us.
If we lived in the region, I would have to forgo my residency, since Israeli law prevents my wife from living with me in Israel. This is to prevent what Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu once referred to as “demographic spillover.” Additional Palestinian babies in Israel are considered “demographic threats” by a state constantly battling to keep a Jewish majority. (Of course, Israelis who marry Americans or any non-Palestinian foreigners are not subjected to this treatment.)
Last week marked Israel’s 64th year of independence; it is also when Palestinians commemorate the Nakba, or “catastrophe,” during which many of Palestine’s native inhabitants were turned into refugees.
In 1948, the Israeli brigade commander Yitzhak Rabin helped expel Lydda’s Palestinian population. Some 19,000 of the town’s 20,000 native Palestinian inhabitants were forced out. My grandparents were among the 1,000 to remain.
They were fortunate to become only internally displaced and not refugees. Years later my grandfather was able to buy back his own home—a cruel absurdity, but a better fate than that imposed on most of his neighbors, who were never permitted to re-establish their lives in their hometowns.
Three decades later, in October 1979, this newspaper reported that Israel barred Rabin from detailing in his memoir what he conceded was the “expulsion” of the “civilian population of Lod and Ramle, numbering some 50,000.” Rabin, who by then had served as prime minister, sought to describe how “it was essential to drive the inhabitants out.”
Two generations after the Nakba, the effect of discriminatory Israeli policies still reverberates. Israel still seeks to safeguard its image by claiming to be a bastion of democracy that treats its Palestinian citizens well, all the while continuing illiberal policies that target this very population. There is a long history of such discrimination.
In the 1950s new laws permitted the state to take control over Palestinians’ land by classifying them “absentees.” Of course, it was the state that made them absentees by either preventing refugees from returning to Israel or barring internally displaced Palestinians from having access to their land. This last group was ironically termed “present absentees”—able to see their land but not to reach it because of military restrictions that ultimately resulted in their watching the state confiscate it. Until 1966, Palestinian citizens were governed under martial law.
Today, a Jew from any country can move to Israel, while a Palestinian refugee, with a valid claim to property in Israel, cannot. And although Palestinians make up about 20 percent of Israel’s population, the 2012 budget allocates less than 7 percent for Palestinian citizens.
Tragically for Palestinians, Zionism requires the state to empower and maintain a Jewish majority even at the expense of its non-Jewish citizens, and the occupation of the West Bank is only one part of it. What exists today between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea is therefore essentially one state, under Israeli control, where Palestinians have varying degrees of limited rights: 1.5 million are second-class citizens, and four million more are not citizens at all. If this is not apartheid, then whatever it is, it’s certainly not democracy.
The failure of Israeli and American leaders to grapple with this nondemocratic reality is not helping. Even if a two-state solution were achieved, which seems fanciful at this point, a fundamental contradiction would remain: more than 35 laws in ostensibly democratic Israel discriminate against Palestinians who are Israeli citizens.
For all the talk about shared values between Israel and the United States, democracy is sadly not one of them right now, and it will not be until Israel’s leaders are willing to recognize Palestinians as equals, not just in name, but in law.
Jewish Aspirations for the Temple Mount Include Rebuilt Temple!
By Jeremy Sharon, Jerusalem Post, May 17, 2012
As points of religious contention go, the current status of the Temple Mount is one of the most potentially explosive issues for competing faiths anywhere in the world.
For Jews, it is the holiest place on Earth, from where the world was created, the site of the Binding of Isaac and the location of the First and Second Temples.
For Muslims too, al-Haram al-Sharif (noble sanctuary), has become a crucial place of worship and pilgrimage, where there stands a monumental shrine—the Dome of the Rock—and the al-Aqsa Mosque, a site of great importance in Islam.
This reality, combined with the Temple Mount’s physical location at the heart of contested territory, has given it a unique geopolitical combustibility not to be found anywhere else on the planet.
Ariel Sharon’s visit to the site in September 2000 prompted large-scale riots that eventually escalated into what became the second Palestinian intifada.
In 1969, a fire started in the al-Aqsa mosque by a mentally unstable Christian evangelical from Australia caused extensive damage and led to mass demonstrations in east Jerusalem and the West Bank. The event was also one of the motivating factors in the creation in 1969 of the Organization of the Islamic Conference, an international body devoted to safeguarding Muslim interests.
But inter-religious and political concerns aside, there is another, less prominent but nevertheless bitter dispute currently being waged, this one between different Orthodox Jewish groups regarding the permissibility of going up to Judaism’s holiest site.
The divisions among different rabbinic leaders are sharp; some outlaw ascent to the Temple Mount in absolute terms on pain of spiritual excommunication; others see the refusal to go up and insist on the Jewish right to pray at the site as a deviation from Torah law.
And although access for Jewish Israelis (and foreign tourists) is currently subject to tightly restricted, time-limited slots, this has not impeded the prosecution of a tough war of words and a struggle over the contested battleground of what is and is not permitted according to Jewish law.
OUTSIDE of a religious desire to visit and pray on the Temple Mount is another driving factor for those who are so insistent on Jewish access to the site.
There is also something Messianic in the efforts of those who ardently seek to restore a Jewish presence on the Temple Mount. The Temple Institute has devoted huge sums of money into constructing and producing the vessels, implements and garments required for the Temple, using the exact instructions set out in the Torah. Among the vessels constructed is a fully working golden menorah, which cost $2 million and is ready for use in the Temple.
Yisrael Ariel, the founder and director of the Temple Institute, who was among the soldiers who conquered the Old City of Jerusalem in 1967, certainly felt at the time that the re-establishment of Jewish sovereignty over the Temple Mount was a harbinger of the very imminent arrival of the Messiah.
Dr. Motti Inbari, an expert in Jewish fundamentalism at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke, cites an interview with Ariel in his book, Jewish Fundamentalism and the Temple Mount. In the interview, conducted in the Or Hozer journal of yeshiva high schools, Ariel vividly describes his emotions and experiences upon the capture of the Temple Mount and states that he thought that “these are the days of the Messiah.”
Rabbi Richman and the institute insist that the Temple will not “descend from the heavens,” as some believe, but will have to be constructed by men here on earth, as evidenced by their efforts to reconstruct the Temple vessels.
Asked if it is time to re-build the Temple, he responds “We’re 2,000 years late in doing so.” He insists, however, that it is not the intention of the institute to start rolling out the tape measure on the Temple Mount and start building.
Other groups, such as the Temple Mount Faithful, led by Gershon Salomon, are clearer about their ultimate goals. This organization says unabashedly that its goals include “the building of the Third Temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem in our lifetime in accordance with the Word of God and all the Hebrew prophets” as well as “the liberation of the Temple Mount from Arab (Islamic) occupation.”
The homepage of the Temple Institute website currently bears a line from the well-known movie Field of Dreams: “if you build it, he will come.” The long-term goal, as stated on the website, is to do “all in our limited power to bring about the building of the Holy Temple in our time.”
Journalist and author Gershom Gorenberg, who wrote The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount, sees a strong nexus between Jewish messianism and aspirations for the Temple Mount.
“The place has always elicited strong messianic symbolism and exerted a magnetic attraction for anyone awaiting the Messiah,” he told the Post. “For those who find it unbearable that we haven’t rebuilt the temple, there is an urge to bring about a redemption by human means, forcing God’s hand, as it were.”
For those opposed to increased Jewish activity at the Temple Mount, Gorenberg continues, although it’s generally wrapped in technical objections of a political or halachic nature, the subtext is that rebuilding the Temple is beyond the ability of human hands and effort and must await the arrival of the Messiah.
“In Jewish history, people who were certain they knew how to bring the Messiah ended up being disastrous for the Jewish people,” he concludes.
Regardless of the longer-term aspirations of the various groups, the current debate surrounding whether or not Jews can and should visit and pray at the Temple Mount will continue because of the activities of organizations like the Temple Institute.
According to the Chief Rabbinate, the reason they have recently re-iterated their ban on Jews going to the site is because of increased organized visitations, a growing phenomenon that it would like to stamp out.
But the political and spiritual desire among some who want to insist on their right to pray at Judaism’s holiest site is still very much alive. The nature of that desire highlights both the very deep-seated Jewish attachment to this revered place and the huge potential it has to spark intra-religious dispute along with political conflict.
